KOLD13's News Story

Here is part of what was actually shown on the 27th's 10 p.m. news. Mindy Blake did an amazing job putting the story together! Enjoy!



For those of you who may have missed the story, you can view another part of it here. Click here to read the entire story!

Miracle of The Bible

I love this little clip on the miracle of the Bible! It's a short clip, but worth watching! What a great reminder!

Remembering My Grandma Who Just Passed Away

My Grandma and Spencer in Indiana.
She was such a beautiful woman.

This is the last time we were able to see my Grandma
when we went back to Indiana 3 years ago to visit.

This 4 generation shot was taken the Christmas
Devan (now almost 11) was a baby.

This is probably more for me than anyone else, but I wanted to share some of my favorite memories of my Grandma.

1. My favorite memories of my grandma center around food! She loved to cook and was excellent at doing it. Nothing beats her homemade chicken noodle soup or dumplings. As a young child, I loved to watch her at work in the kitchen. She passed that love onto me, and I will be forever grateful!

2. When my mom would go visit her parents and leave a few of us older ones at home with Dad, Grandma would always come to the rescue. She'd come cook for us and bring us lots of goodies and junk food that my mom would never allow in the house.

3. I remember playing in the basement at her house in Frankfort. She and grandpa had the coolest work room down there. My Grandpa worked for Peter Paul, a candy factory in Frankfort. They made all the Cadbury products- the eggs, the caramelos, Almond Joys, etc... Grandpa and grandma always had a bag of candy at their house for us to sample whenever we stopped by to visit.

4. Grandma was always the first to brag about her grandchildren. I gave her lots of mileage when I was valedictorian and while I was serving as a missionary (though she would never tell them for which church). :-)

5. Grandma loved to serve in the community and in whichever church she attended at the time. She was always trying to help others and visit those who needed it. She was a great example of service.

Grandma loved her family, and we loved her! We are so grateful that she was able to pass away peacefully. Her last words to my aunt were "I need to go." I'm sure she was happy to see all those who had gone before her.

The Verdict Is...

Today I met with the Police Chief and the Marana Police Citizens Advisory Commission with hopes that I could get onto the commission as an alternate. I gave them my top 10 list. I was nervous to see the other 2 applicants, but neither of them showed up for the meeting.

I opted to sit in as they discussed me. Every member of the commission was in favor of adding me to their team! Yeah! The head of the commission commented how they had been able to already see me in action for good. Councilman Clanagan was there as well and basically endorsed me as someone who would bring the perspective of a generation that is hard to reach.

So, what happens next? Next month, the town council will have the opportunity to vote on my appointment as an alternate to the commission. I'll keep you all posted!

Let me know if you have any concerns about our community that you would like to see addressed by the police citizens advisory commission.

Top 10 Reasons To Have Me As An Alternate on the Police Citizen Advisory Commission

Tomorrow I meet with the Commission and the Police Chief of Marana. I'm one of 3 applicants who get 3 minutes to express why they need me as an alternate on the commission. Here are my top 10 reasons:

1. The mayor and Councilman Clanagan encouraged me to apply. They felt I would be a good representative for a generation of citizens that is currently not represented on the commission.

2. I love Marana and want it to be the best community for families to live in Southern Arizona.

3. My bachelor’s degree was in Family Science and Human Development, another unique perspective to bring to the table. As a mother of 4 children, I represent the parents of young children who live and work in our community.

4. I believe in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. I grew up in the military, and I have a deep love for this great nation in which we live.

5. I believe there is a fine line between laws that work to preserve our freedom and laws that take away our freedoms. I will work hard to insure that evil men are held accountable and that good men can remain free.

6. I have experience working on councils, running organizations, and working with people. I would love to be a member of this great team.

7. I am technology savvy. I have three websites that I am currently running- one for my business, one for our community where I list the deals available for our area, and one for our family happenings. I could assist the commission and police department in getting information to the public in innovative and creative ways.

8. I have 9 years of television experience. If there is an issue that we would like to get in the media, I can make it happen. I am currently working on two stories with KVOA and KOLD13 that will both air in May.

9. I’m a hard worker. I’ve worked since I was 13. As a teenager I did everything from busing tables to detastling corn. I graduated valedictorian and worked my way through college. After graduating from college, I self-published a book which became a New York Times Best Seller and landed me in the Self Publishing Hall of Fame. We printed over 7000 books in our bedroom and assembled them in our living room. I’m not afraid of work!

10. You’ll never know what I could do to help this commission without giving me the opportunity to serve in this great community. Please give me a chance to prove to you what I can do to aid our great police department here in Marana.

Do you think I have a chance?

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! I love this clip from Elder Holland's talk that he gave at conference! What a great reminder of the true reason for celebrating Easter!

KVOA News Story

I turned in my book Monday. I knew I had a camera man and reporter coming to my home on Thursday, so I spent Tuesday and Wednesday playing catch up on laundry and house cleaning that I had allowed to pile up over the last few weeks.

On Tuesday, I spent 3 hours cleaning all the tile in our home upstairs and down. By Wednesday, our house was looking like it was ready for the television shoot except we needed to move the old couch to the garage and move the food storage out of the living room that I hadn't put away from our last trip. So, I told Ivan that I needed his help moving things when I got home from teaching the young women at church.

On the way home, I was hoping that Ivan had the kids in pajamas and almost ready to go to bed. At 8:30 p.m., I arrive home to the following sight. Buckets and buckets of our food storage all over the front room with floor and kid covered from head to toe in insulation! Yes, insulation!!! I had to laugh. I knew crying would give me a headache! My dear husband had decided to cut out the wall in the closet under the stairs. This had been on our list to do since we moved into our home 3 years ago! And my husband decides to do it with a little over 12 hours before a television shoot! :-) So, we stayed up until 1 a.m. getting all the insulation up, putting everything in it's place, and recleaning the floors.

It made me think of a story about Gordon B. Hinckley told by his wife Marjorie. They were having a wedding reception at their home and right before he decided to rip down a wall to make more room. He finished the finishing touches barely before guests started to arrive. I think that would have scared me more than a camera crew!

So, this morning at 10 a.m. I shot a story with KVOA's Sandy Rathbun on tips to get the best price. We had a great visit. She's quite the bargain hunter as well. We had a fun interview that will air in May on KVOA.

I have survived!

Well, I survived another book deadline! I look frazzled and have probably gained about 10 pounds in the last month from all these desserts. I wouldn't have had this problem if I hadn't procrastinated working on this book for several months.

I won't tell you how high the dirty laundry is piled in my laundry room or how high clean unfolded laundry is piled on my guest bed. I won't admit to how black the water was when I finally got down on my hands and knees to scrub my downstairs tile. I hate to admit that I have 579 unopened email messages in just one of my email accounts. And you should see my stack of unopened mail.

There are times that I would just love to be able to hire a maid, but I've done it in the past and know how much it costs. So, here I go playing catch up!

The worst part is that I asked my editor how long I had to finalize the book before it heads to the printer. The Answer: TWO WEEKS!!!

So, tomorrow I'm back to work finalizing the last16 recipes! And teaching the 16 and 17 year old girls how to manage money tomorrow night at church! I'm sure there are others more qualified than I to teach this than I, but I'll do my best! I'll bring some treats to make up for my deficiency! :-)

I Love General Conference

I always love General Conference weekend. The only thing that could have made it better would be seeing it in the Conference Center in person! There were so many good talks given. Elder Scott made me cry when he talked about his wife and two young children who had passed away. How I wish we had a temple here in Tucson. Before I had kids and lived in Provo, I went once a week. It made such a huge difference in my life. I need to get up to Mesa more often.

I also loved what Elder Hales said on personal finance. It made him seem so real to me. I felt a little guilty for our buying the new living room set this week. It really wasn't a necessity, and even though we didn't go into debt for it, the $1,000 could have gone to pay off a little extra on the house. We are trying so hard to pay off our house in a total of 12 years verses the average 30 years that it takes. We really want to be able to go on lots of missions when we get older. We figure we can start saving for that once the house is paid off.

The best part of conference is feeling the spirit that it brings into our home. I love it. I'm excited to hear the talks tomorrow!