I need to get something off my chest...

What is it with hotel room blow dryers?  I could just twist my head back and forth and dry my hair faster.  I fall for it every single trip.  I look at my suitcase and my bulky blow dryer and think...."I'm sure this nice 5-star hotel will have a nice blow dryer" "Look at all the spacious room it will leave for my shopping treasures if I leave my own blow dryer home"

UGH....It's been an hour and I still have a wet mop on my head.

Where's the comment card?

Speaking without words.

Jakes letter this week brought the usual newsy banter that I have come to love each Monday.  Updates on his work, his adventures, his companions, his day to day activities.  I breathe in each word like I've been holding my breath for a week.  I try to read between the lines to see if there is anything I have missed or any mishaps or sadness being hidden.  (I don't know who started the whole "let's keep moms in the dark while we're missionaries" thing, but I'd like to whack them in the head about 100 times!)  But usually my "mommy-dar" alerts me to anything amiss.  Usually.

This weeks letter brought an experience that Jake had that I have pondered all week.  I am going to post it exactly as he wrote it.  All bad grammer and misspelled words included.  I'll cut him some slack.  I'm not the best speller so he comes by it honestly and he is also thinking in one language and typing in another.

"The coolest thing happened last night though. We got done teaching this family that lives about 10 minutes outside of El Triunfo. We were waiting for the bus. When we noticed a man, walking his bike. He had a bag of rice wrapped around the handle bars, and we noticed a hole in the bag. He stopped and tried to stop the rice from falling. But he only has two hands and one hand had to stable the bike, while the other kept the rice from falling. Me and my comp go and help him, and we get close and realize this guy is not in good shape. He was bleeding from his mouth, nose and arms. It looks like he got beat up pretty bad. We tried talking to him, but he looked completely disoriented, and wouldnt respond. We tried clogging the hole in the bag, but nothing. He takes off his shirt, and we put the bag in the shirt and tie it to his bike and everything, but he still hasn't said a word. We see him start heading down the road, and he gets about 20 feet, and me and my comp think. This guy looks like he is about to fall over. We walk over to him, and try to convince him to let us buy him a bus to get home, but he refused by using hand motions. He could see we were confused by the fact he never talked, and then he pulled a bandana down from his neck, where lo and behold. A huge hole in throat. He had no voice box. We helped, and made sure he would be careful. As we left and got on our bus, the song "poor wayfaring man of grief" came to mind. Especially the 7th verse. Now, I beseech thee family. to go and read this the next time you get your hands on a hymn book!"

I am so grateful that Heavenly Father, with all his wisdom, is teaching these young men to not only learn to listen with their ears.  But to listen with their eyes, their hearts and to listen to the spirit of the holy ghost.  To not think twice before turning in their tracks to serve.  I'm grateful that Jake walked away and pondered the experience enough to compare it to a hymn (which I like to think of as a form of scripture).  Then also share and teach us here at home.

I'm just grateful.

The Mooshy-Gooshy day is over. Boy-was it a good one!

King Keith-

You outdid yourself this year!

I love you.

I'm feeling like I need a little umph..

I'm feeling  little blah. 

 I just can't quite put my finger on it.  

So I'm trying to stay ahead of full fledged doll-drums.  

Maybe some good ole retail therapy. 

 Hmmm no.   

Holiday poundage still hanging around 

(of course it's still hanging around from 1988 ....

How about a new haircut....

Naaaw...

I'm good with the hair.  

The bang grow out is almost long enough to reach the pony tail.  

I'm thinking I need something more drastic.

  I'm thinking of going big.  

I have a few ideas.

Stay Tuned.

My quote of the week.....something to think about

It's a little wierd that King Keith and I both quoted Mother Teresa in our blogs tonite...

is it a full moon?

"If you judge people, 

you have no time to love them"

 (Mother Teresa)

A mothers ray of sunshine!

You'll just have to indulge me.

It's been a few months since I  forced you to look at my family vacation pics or cute pet photos

 (Don't fret, those are in a post here in a couple days)

But I'm in need of a little sunshine called Stinkerbelle! 

(Oh he would die if he knew I wrote that teehee)

He is now on month 13 WOOHOO!

He is adorable and funny and cute

He has even gotten witty in Spanish (or so he humbly tells us)

His Christmas call was nummy.

As of today we only have 326 more days.

Yeah!  Better than the 745 we started this journey on.

He is stronger.  He is humble.

He is cute.  He's my jake!

Put Donnie Osmond in a headlock. Check.

A great evening of fun was had in January when Angie and I headed out for an evening with Donnie and Marie at the Flamingo. Keith and I gave her a VIP package for Christmas. She was SO excited! She is so much fun to give presents to.



Angies dress could be a topic for its very own blog. We call it her "Neil Diamond" dress. In her own words it took super glue, shoe laces and a wench to get that sucker on her! Close your eyes and imagine floor length, black sequined cocktail dress. Add a lime green pashmina and you are ready for a night out on the town!! Me. Not so much. I don't like dress up. I can hardly stand to wear a dress for the three hour church on Sunday. Jeans it is!

We had front row seats! YeeHaw. I have to say that I have never seen Angie quite so star struck. Either that or she couldn't breathe sitting down. I'm not totally sure. The show was great. I highly recommend it. I was taken back to my Jr High and High School days. Donnie is still quite a looker. Although he is quite shorter than I pictured. All the celebrities are a bit disappointing in real life it seems. If it wasn't rude I'd love to recommend Botox to him. Not for wrinkles but for the SERIOUS sweating problem he has. Gross. He had towels in his hand the whole show. Dude. Use them. Really.

Marie is a pistol. I'm pretty sure she has more energy than anyone I've ever met. We made eye contact alot and after our encounter after the show I am pretty sure she really wants to get to know me better and hang out on her days off and stuff. I'm pretty sure. She has great legs, probably from the whole Dancing with the Stars gig. Both she and Donnie are great dancers. She also had some really hot shoes. See! We have alot of the same taste. We could shop together. (Wait does that mean I have tacky Vegas showgirl taste in shoes????) She still has a great set of pipes. She is into opera now. She does a whole opera deal. Okay. She can sing. But I really want to hear Paper Roses. I know all the words to Paper Roses. She only sang a little of the chorus of that. I tried to sing along to the opera but Angie kicked me.

Part of the VIP treatment is the personal meet and greet after the show. F.U.N. If you know me (and I hope if you are reading this you do and aren't a weird stalker person)(If you are a weird stalker person "hi" "welcome")(Marie? Is that you?)I could not bear the whole fan-stand in line-shake hand-smile-pose-move on routine. Angie was in heaven and mortified at the same time. She knows me too well. She knew I was not going to stand there like a mannequin. Suffice it to say. Donnie might not like me. I didn't really want an autograph headshot of him. When he told me to "spit it out" while I was trying to think of a polite way to tell him I had to put him in a headlock and give him a noogie. Okay I didn't give him a noogie. But we comprimised and I convinced him to write a very funny suggestive note to Angie on hers. I think she blushes everytime she looks at it. It might actually be framed sitting next to her bed. I'm going to check next time I'm up at her house. I know he was cracking up while he wrote it.


Their handlers tried to pose us in the boring military (everyone stand in a row) formation. NO NO NO NO Marie and I had a grand time setting up new poses. Unfortunately as much fun as we had I didn't get to keep very many. They took over 40 shots of us hamming it up. (I told you Marie and I are soulmates) When it came time to collect the photos they gave us a few complimentary and then wanted to charge $29.00 a pop. Ahem Sorry Marie, my sister, I know you got like 58 kids to feed but come on now. We are just going to have to take a bunch of self portraits with our phone cameras while we are hanging out at Cafe Rio in our sweats, or at your sweet pad, whatev! ....you were all dressed up and I was in jeans....you would have felt awkward and all......Hello $29.00 each I don't think so.


The photo session was fun.....I'm not sure how she knew (intuition, good sense, that soulmate thing?) but as Angie and I were leaving, thankfully not escorted by security, Marie came running up and grabbed my arm. She handed me her head shot with the following written on it. "Elder Runyon, Your mom rocks!!! Love, Sister Osmond" AAAHHHHHH See....sisters... I looked on the back...she forget to leave me her phone number. Hey Marie...if you see this...leave a comment we'll do lunch!

Ok. It's time. I"m ready to blog again.

I'm ready to blog.  

I have so much to say.

Many, Many photos to post.

Lots of thank you's to send.

But.......

I HAVE to get rid of the Thanksgiving background....it just gives me writers block.  So bear with me just a couple more days.