Thankful to be alive!

Max and I had a very eventful Christmas Eve!!! We woke up at 4am and loaded the truck up with our luggage and Christmas Presents for family and friend we were going to visit in Utah. I took the first driving shift, Max has a harder time waking up than I do. After about an hour and a half we were on NM-550, the roads were a little icy but there were ruts in the ice from the other cars. As I was driving I had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude come over me, so I began to say a prayer, expressing thanks for all of the loved one I have in my life. I gave thanks for my wonderful husband and his family and for my family. As soon as I was done saying my prayer Max woke up. I told him the roads were pretty icy, he asked me if I wanted to pull over so he could drive. I told him I was fine, we then started talking about how to drive on icy roads (not to put of the brakes ect.) Then I felt like I should slow down, so I took my foot of the gas we slowed down to about 40 mph. The road began to turn, as a turned the truck started to fish tail, I thought I was getting it back under control when we slid 180 degrees facing on coming traffic then slid off the road. From what we could tell from the path we made in the snow it looked like the front left tire popped and dug into the snow causing us to roll. then the truck landed on my side on some bushes causing us the roll another 180 degrees landing right side up.


This is the view from the road. It's kind of hard to tell but you can see the front tire tracks staring on the left of this picture, in the middle of the picture you can see some dirt snow mix, that is were the we first rolled, the dark bushes is were we hit up-side-down and all the presents landed.
You can see all the windows on myside and the rear shattered. I'm suprised my face didn't get cut.
It might be hard to see but the roof were I was sitting was smashed in. If Max had been sitting there I think we would be looking at more serious injury
Here you can see the front tire is popped and large cunchs of the rims were gone.A side from a lot of stiff muscles and a few cuts Max and I are okay! I'm really sorry that we couldn't make it up to Utah for Christmas. I can't help but feel a little frustuated or confused as to why this happened when we were trying to be with family for Christmas and for our newest little niece Madelaine's Blessing. But I don't know that if I hadn't slowed down or if Max was drive(he probably would have been going much faster than me) than things could have been much different. Even though it totally stinks that we couldn't be in Utah this Christmas and several presents got distroyed, We are alive and for the most part healthy!

Max says: I know that I would have been driving faster than Maureen was just because that is how I am. One funny thing was when the tow truck driver came he told me that he hates showing up to accidents that have a guys truck involved because he knows how men get all sentimental about the truck.

Andersen Family Christmas!

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Tyler Hansen Family

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Hansen Family getting in the Holiday Spirit

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Why are people mean?!?

An Angry Post!!!! Okay here's the deal... I don't get it! Why are people mean? Why is it that people have the desire hurt or upset other? Why do they get pleasure or joy out of this? And is it really joy they feel?

What is it that brings on these questions, you may ask. Well I'll tell you. Wednesday I came home from school around 4:30 to discover that between 12pm and 4:30 someone (probably a hobo we made mad by not giving money) picked up a rather large rock and threw it at the windshield of our truck.

I just don't get it. We haven't done anything to anyone to deserve this. I don't really understand how anyone could do this and be happy about it. They didn't try to break in, just smash the window. Max and I are actually laughing at whoever did this' face because we had a large crack in it already and were planning on replacing it the next day. So the insurance covered it because it was vandalism instead of us paying for it to get replaced. So it turns out to be a blessing... perhaps paying tithing does pay off!

Blog Tag!!!

Jackie Tagged me, sorry I've been slow to respond. Here's how it works, go to your pictures, select the fourth folder and the fourth picture. Post it and then Tag four friends!That would be Kenna Sayama bowling, at Fitzgerald's or Spare Time Family Fun Center, Feb 2007. Sorry Kenna I'm sure the last thing you want is to have be post a picture of you bowling! But it does look like strike material. Actually this night was a good night for me because it was the one and ONLY time I've gotten a Turkey! Proof below!!! I'll tag: SHEENA, STEPH, MOM, LOBECCA. Now I'll know who reads my blog the most!

On a more spiritual note!

To make up for our last NON spiritual post my friend Margeurite Henry sent me this video. I tried posting it in a blog but it messed up the whole page. For all you LDS folk I would suggest watching this one. It's a compilation of quotes given by church leaders on preparation for the second coming. I'm not sure if it's because Max and I had just gone to the temple but this video touched me especially strong!!! Check it out!

LDS Church Leaders preparing us for the 2nd Coming of Christ

Max Andersen is at it again!!!

Check out what Max has done!!!! What at Mother F*****!






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Fun in Albquerque

It's hard to find fun in Albuquerque when you are a poor married couple!!! Between watching almost every movie my parent owe, and playing The Incredibles on the gamecube, or playing battleship, Max and I decided to get out and do something fun requiring little money! So we bought some bullets and drove out to the west mesa to shoot at stuff. We drove west on Southern Blvd forever to a right at a burnt old abandoned truck, drove past an old dishwasher and left at a toren couch. (if you're from New Mexico this is pretty funny because this could be anywhere in the west mesa) We brought a moving box and some rodent tagets(all of which brought home with use---"toss no mass") silly because there were plenty of broken bottles, dresseres, kitchen sink ect. to shoot at. We had a lot of fun it had been a while since I had shoot a gun. Max showed off his rifle shooting abilities.

I'm pretty proud of my little rodent target... he's not going to be running around anymore!!!

The Balloon Fiesta

By best friends Kenna and my sister-in-law Jessica flew down from Utah to visit Max and I and for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta! They flew in on a Friday I pick them up at the airport at 10:30 but I had a physics test( which I got an A-) so they had to hangout on campus for a little bit. Fortunately, Becca didn’t have a class so she was able to entertain them. After we went back to our house and did a little hobo watching. I think Jessica was a little worried about sleeping here that night after seeing all the strange hobos walking around our house.

The next Morning we went to the Mass Ascension. This is about an hour or two were tons of balloon blow up and take off. This was my first time and I have to say it is pretty awesome!!!! I think Kenna and Jessica thought the same!

We did a little Geocaching in between conference sessions

The next afternoon we went to the Balloon Glow, here they have balloons lined up in row with space in between for people to walk. At dusk the announcer counts down from ten and on one all the balloonist first fire their balloons for an “all glow”. Its really need to see all the colors from the balloons.

Victoria's Secret Balloon

Max convinced Jess to split a turkey leg with him!

The girls were really lucky they came when they did. I kept trying to get them to come the following weekend but it didn’t work out with their schedules. The following weekend was really windy and most of the balloon events were canceled.

The House

Max and I have moved into a house in downtown Albuquerque. We are two buildings north of a rescue mission around meal times there is a mass migration of hobos in front of our house. It gives us a lot of entertainment. Hobos with squeaky wheeled shopping carts or holding canes they don’t need walking around talking quite loudly to themselves, it’s a lot of fun!!! Yes all the windows are barred! We have a total of five locks to get through before we can get into your house!

Our front room, with our $10 Love seat my Mom got us from someone in her ward! THANKS MOM!!! Otherwise we would be sitting on our kitchen table chairs trying to watch movies!!! Ohh Max looks kind of silly because he was getting up to see what I was doing outside, when I walked in and snapped this picture!


Lighting and Thunder like having a whole backward to pee and poo in. They love barking at Hobos almost as much as we like to watch them! One drawback, Thunder likes to howl when she hears police sirens, which I always thought was kind of cute, but now that we live downtown there are sirens going off all the time, 3 in the morining :(

Eating our first meal in our house, beanie weenies, and yes we are eating out of the same bowl!!! Scary looking I know keep in mind we had been movie and unpacking ALL DAY!!!

September 8^th our one month anniversary, when ever I complain that Max doesn’t ever buy me flowers he always says you never buy me the eatable bouquets. So I thought I would be cute and get him one for our anniversary… I know it’s kind of lame, but I thought it would be a good surprise. Max got home late from a movie he went to with my brother so when he got home I was in bed. I asked him to get me a drink of water, when he came back in he said, “Was I supposed to get you something?”

Max had nothing to add!

The Move!

The night before we left we went out to TGIF with some of Max and my’s friends.

Afterward Ian, Alison, and Telina came over to say bye. Don’t we have a cute niece and nephew.

The morning we left for New Mexico we had breakfast with Jessica and Kenna at Doug and Emmys Café. When we were ordering Jess asked “How big are the scones”? I replied “As big as your face.” She thought I was joking.

Our drive from Utah to New Mexico was pretty uneventful except for a man driving wrecklessly in front of us. We call 911 to report him but they were taking too long to get there so we helped to pull him over. We found out that the man was a diabetic and his blood sugar was low so I gave him some gum and Max called for an ambulance.

Oh... and when we were about 40 minutes from my parents house Max got pulled over for speeding. It was pretty funny because about 10 secs before he saw the cop's lights I said, "WOW Max, we are making pretty good time for pulling a trailer and having the dogs."

And now a word from Max... I agree

The Wedding

Honeymoon

Max and I had a slightly disappointing honeymoon due to a staled cold front hanging out over Florida. We stayed at a Marriott timeshare in Orlando provided by Max's sister and brother-in-law Jen and Brandon (THANK YOU). Our room was really nice it had a full kitchen, washer and dryer, HUGE jacuzzi tub, and a king size memory foam bed(which I now want!!!). Our first night there after we got unpacked an settled in, Max and I went and a little adventure trying to find a Wal-Mart to buy groceries. After a 25 minute drive and accidentally taking a toll road we finally found it, and it was PACKED, busier than the Layton Wal-Mart at 11:50 Saturday night!

The next day we decide to try to relax and recover from the wedding. Later that afternoon we went to Cyprus Gardens, Florida's first amusement park. It was about Lagoon quality rides, I remembered it being much more fun as a kid! They have some roller coasters, water skiing show, a southern plantation and gardens, and a water park. One of my favorite things as a little girl were the "Southern Belles" around the park dressed up.















Our Third day we went to Disney World!!! The first stop was to get Just Married buttons and the hat shop to buy the bride and groom Mickey ears. After a little protest Max put on his button (he thought is was lame). But Max refused to wear the ears, we had a little argument. So our day started off not so great, but once Max stopped being stubborn we had fun!!! We started off in Tomorrow Land after going to the Buzz Lightyear, Laugh Floor, and the Stitch rides we got in line for The Transportation of Tomorrow ride. The guy at the beginning of the ride stopped Max and I because we were wear the Just Married buttons and asked use where we were from, how long we had been married, gave us some words of advise and two fast passes to be used on any ride it was pretty sweet.
Every where we went the workers told us "congratulations", I liked all the attention. A few hours later we made our way to It's a Small World, a women pulled Max and I a side and asked us where we were from, it turned out she lived in Layton for a while and her kids went to Northridge. Then she asked us if we want to be honorary cruise directors or something like that. So they made a slightly embarrassing announcement for everyone in line to hear and we got to stand in the tower and wave to everyone as their boat left. It was pretty fun, again I don't mind getting attention. Then when we were done sending off the boat the women gave us four more fast passes, which made all that worth it to Max. The rest of the day went well, we had fun. Max smoozed a worker into giving us free ice cream. Max's favorite ride was space mountain, I have too many to say a favorite!!!














The fourth day was slept in, had breakfast/lunch at the Waffle House. I had Max try grits but he didn't like them which meant more for me! Then we went to Gatorland!!! It was fun to see the gators all over the place. A large section of the park was closed off so that was stinky, we watched a show. Max got to hold a gator and I had a boa constrictor around my neck. unfortunately I don't have that picture. We didn't spend too much time at Gatorland because we were still pooped from the lack of sleep from the few nights prior so we went back to the hotel and I took a three hour nap!!! I don't think I've ever napped that long. Then we went to the pool area and swam for a while. For dinner we went out for sushi it was really good, they messed up on our order so they gave us some extra rolls we were STUFFED!!!!












The fifth day we drove to Plant City to get some beach stuff from my Paw Paw and Granny, when we got there they took us out to lunch at a sea food restaurant right next to Tampa Bay. For an appetizer we got fried gator, it was pretty darn good. It tasted like chew chicken. After we went to the Fort De Soda Beach on the Gulf of Mexico. It was a disaster, it had rained all day it stopped when we got there. I was so excited to take Max to the beach for the first time, but because of the stationary front over Florida there was an unusual rip tide which brought in a bunch of crap from the ocean floor. As soon as we set down our stuff Max grabbed the boggie board and walked into the ocean. He got freaked out by these round squishy prune shaped ocean creatures that covered the ocean floor. We swam for about an hours but another storm blew in. As we were running back to the car because it started raining on us my favorite flip flops I had since 12th grade broke while I was chasing after Max's hat that blew off his head. It was a big ordeal.

The sixth day we got up early to go to the Orlando Temple, we got there late to do a session but we were able to do some sealings. The sealer could seal in six different languages, a couple we did work for were from Italy so he did the sealing in Italian. that was really neat. After we drove back to Plant City to stay the night there. My Paw Paw and Granny took us on a tour of the cubian city, Ybor City. Supposedy the cubian mafia used to run the city. After we went back for some of Granny's southern home cooking!!!

The seventh day we woke up early to go caneoing down the Hillsborgough River!!! Oh did I mention it was infested with ALLIGATORS!!! Unfortuantely we went so early in the morning that it was too cold for the gators to come out of the water, so we only saw 5 gators. My dad and I had done that trip before and saw over 30 gators. After the caneo trip we had breakfast at IHOP and then it was off to the airport. Our honeymoon was definately one we won't forget!

Now a word from Max: It was really great exept for the rain....