The world isn't completely hopeless

Danny and I have had many conversations about how difficult it is going to be to raise children in this crazy world and what kind of approach we are going to take. Mostly we are worried about the school years when peers are sharing ideas and pressures regarding what is right and moral. Some things we see around us are so discouraging, so we are really excited when we find reminders that there are still good, wholesome things going on in the world. This week there have been quite a few:

• The movie "Blind Side". If you haven't seen it, you must. We loved it so, so much. It's so great when people make movies that aren't sleazy, that uplift you and make you feel better about yourself and the world and motivate you to be good.
• Sissel- she's a singer from Norway and she is adorable. I haven't done a lot of research on her, I just know she's a pop singer from Norway who was invited to sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for Christmas a while ago. I do know that while she could have every excuse to be sleazy, she's just a sweet little mom who was really touched by being with the members of the Church in Utah. It you get a chance, watch the interview with her and listen what she has to say about the experience.
• Last night when we got home we found a beautiful hand crafted bookcase in our living room with a note from our landlord that said, "Merry Christmas! I'll come install this when we're both home". We love him and we love our house.
• Our car has been very persnickety lately. It's always annoying to spend money fixing cars, they are such money suckers. This an orange light saying we needed maintenance changed to red, so we figured we'd better take it in. We took it to the funny little place south of BYU campus, we'd had them fix a few things before and they were very kind and reasonably priced. This time they called us the next day and said that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the car other than the light had come on, and said we didn't even owe them for their time. Merry Christmas to us! We were so happy, especially considering they could have fabricated any number of things and charged us for it.
• We have been really impressed with the care Danny's brother has been getting since he's been ill. All of his nurses and doctors have been so attentive and kind. They are truly dedicated to their work and really go the extra mile to make him comfortable. They also have a branch presidency at the hospital who come around to give blessings and the sacrament. He is being very well taken care of.

We're grateful for this beautiful season and for the many good things that people do, and for the blessings of the gospel and family.

We've decided to keep him forever

Don't tell Laura

Feliz Navidad

I was going to send out Christmas cards similar to this, but it's not going to happen. I was also going to use them as an excuse to finish up wedding thank you's- also not going to happen. If you haven't been officially thanked by me, consider yourself sincerely so. If it weren't for all the generous gifts, we'd still be sitting on the floor eating with plastic utensils. So thank you! We are the happiest 3-month-marrieds there are:)

p.s. I get to take care of Danny's nephew for the next little while, so if you want to stop by and see him, feel free. He's happy and chubby and adorable. Danny's brother has been moved to the hospital in Murray and is doing worse, so we're taking the baby for a day or maybe more while Laura stays with Rusty.

We found this gem the other day

So I may have overreacted a little

Apparently blog "spam" comments are normal. I figured out how to monitor all the comments before they are published (duh) and hopefully that will prevent future problems. I'm still ticked about it though. Sickos.

Anyway, I don't suppose I will be making the blog private now. I appreciate those of you who emailed me, it was very interesting. I always assumed that those who read my blog were those whose blog I read. Namely, my cousins. However, if the emails I received were an accurate representation of readers, that's not true at all. And I found out about all kinds of people I didn't even know were a part of the blogging world. Please, if I don't have you on my list, send me your link! I'd love to check them out.

My husband has been stressed to the max lately. He's taken on another job, (I can't seem to find a real one, so he added another. Poor guy.) so now he teaches Spanish at the MTC, and does translation work for a company called BEA Global as well, mostly in Portuguese and soon to be Italian when he learns it all the way. He's been doing that a lot, and trying to get ready for finals when he's been trying to catch up this whole semester since we got married during school (smart one, Al), and we just found out his big brother and hero is in the hospital in a very bad condition and they don't know what's wrong with him still. Needless to say, he has been a very sad boy. That being the case, I was very surprised to find the following in my inbox yesterday:

Дорогая Алла,

я решил, что я должен написать вам немного сегодня письмо. Я решил, что вы должны написать на русском языке, поскольку оно более романтические таким образом. Я был так счастлив, так как мы были женаты. Я люблю каждый день. Ты мой лучший друг. Ты свет моей жизни. Я рад провести Рождество с вами в этом году. Я надеюсь, у вас есть прекрасная Рождества и счастливого Нового Года.

With Love,

Your Husband

It is cute. And it is sweet. And I love it.

Whether it was Google translator or a friend who gets his tenses mixed up, I care not. (He likes to insist that he secretly speaks Russian, but his pronunciation of the language as 'Rushkie' is a dead giveaway.)

Danny Jensen- I love you for being the kind of person who takes time to write letters to me in Russian even when you're stressed. Consider yourself very very very loved.

News news news

First and foremost- thanks to Utah mom blogs, we have discovered how to perfectly recreate the Cafe Rio pork salad- at home! It takes a lot of cilantro and a lot of time, but you can eat Cafe Rio at least 4 times with it. Happy. I'll see if I can figure out how to scan the ghetto recipe/map I used.

Also, I turned 24! According to my sisters, I am "old stuff". I got so many lovely presents, I'm so spoiled. Honorable mention to the red "onesie" from Ness and Jo. When I put it on, they made me dance around and chanted "Danny's little elf!" There will be no picture of that, thank you very much. Here's the official party up in Cedar Hills:

We've discovered this is what happens when you leave Danny alone in the kitchen. Either that or fires (ok ok, that only happened once).


Christmas is coming! Here's my favorite Christmas cartoon. You can go ahead and learn (is it Danish?) while you're at it.

That's it

I think I'm going to have to go private with the blog. Super annoying, I know, but I've had some strange/creepy/inappropriate comments from who knows where recently and it must be done. I'll probably change the web address too. So, if you want to be invited, shoot me an email at allihawkins@yahoo.com within the next day or so. Thanks:)