Harry Potter

In the last week I've watched the first two movies from the Harry Potter series and I must admit that I like the movies better now, since I haven't read the books recently, that I've enjoyed it quite a bit! I've started to read the first book just the other day and am happy to get back into the Harry Potter world!
"Harry Potter! Harry Potter! Harry Potter! Born on Christmas Day!"
On my mission, my companion Sister Dillender and me had a Christmas CD in our apartment, a mix CD that was pretty old. One of the songs was "Mary's Boy Child" and the rendition was really funny, and to us it sounded like it was saying "Harry Potter" instead of "Mary's Boy Child." It's much more funny if you could hear it. So anyway, whenever we sing it we said Harry Potter.

Keshia's Crappy Car Karma strikes again!

For the first time since being home I had car trouble!

So I drove down to Logan this weekend. This is the second time since I've been home that I've gone down there so I was hoping that maybe I wouldn't have any troubles with cars again, like the first time. And going down there was no problem at all. And then coming back I stopped at a gas station and saw that one of the tires was low. I had taken the red car, by the way. So the front right tire was low. And I thought well, I should probably fill it up but I don't know how to do that, but Dad can probably help if I call and we can sort this out. When the car was done filling with gas I drove around the parking lot and there wasn't an air station thing, so I said, I guess I'll be ok, there's nothing I can do about it. Hopefully there's no trouble. Well that was a build-up just for suspense, I made it home just fine. No problems with the car.

So this morning I am going to church, I'm in a little bit of a hurry because I gave a talk today, and I've got the truck. And I'm maybe 5 blocks away or something when the truck like, crunches and I know basically right away that I have a flat tire. But I keep going because I'm not too far away and I have to be on time because I'm giving a talk, like I said. And I can hear the air leaking out and I'm praying I can make it to the parking lot. And then I hit a red light, the wait empties the air out of the tire, but I'm right there so I go the rest of the way and park.

The luckiest part of this story is that BECAUSE I was giving a talk Mom and Dad came to my sacrament meeting, it didn't conflict with their meetings, and so I wasn't stranded clear across town. They were there to give me a ride home and then Michael and Dad went back and changed the tire not in their Sunday clothes and drove the truck back home.

So they bring me outside when they get home and show me the tire, and there's this silver thing in the tire and Dad says, it's ok that you kept driving it because the tire's already shot. That's a relief. And then they decide to pull this thing out. It took 3 different pliers, Michael and Dad taking turns pulling on it, and finally with a great jerk Dad yanks out this:

Can you believe how HUGE it is? That's my finger. I ran over that thing and somehow lodged it completely in the tire. Not sure how that happened. The last lucky thing about this is that Dad was planning on putting snow tires on the truck anyway, so it's ok that I got a flat tire. Yay!

The best movies

Since being home I've watched a lot of cartoons, disney movies, and pixar. And I've been very happy to find a lot of good movies! Yay! So far I've seen:
Tangled - best part is the "Mother Knows Best" song and the part after Rapunzel leaves the tower and is torn between being overjoyed and distraught. Very funny.
How to Train Your Dragon - just watched it again last night, it's really funny, too. All of THAT was good. And the plot was great. In a strange way I like that Hiccup loses a leg, because that's definitely realistic, and they all want a good scar or burn when they start training.
Toy Story 3 - I like number 1 and 2 and the third one did not disappoint! I thought it was a good story and I enjoyed it.
The Princess and the Frog - It was good. The message was good. The villain was really creepy. Like really.
Despicable Me - Really good. The little girls are cute and the main guy is cool.
Up - Another good one. I have a mission buddy who looks just like Russell. It's funny. And I liked the old people.

Those are all the ones I can think of. I've also spent time catching up on Doctor Who and re-watching old favorites like Pride and Prejudice and Penelope. Right now I'm watching Titanic. Oh television! Movies! Entertainment!

the healer's keep

This is a book by Viktoria Hanley, who is the author of one of my all-time favorite books "the Seer and the Sword." The Healer's Keep is a companion novel to the seer and the sword and I first read it ... in ninth or tenth grade. Something like that. And I didn't like it then. But one of my sister's said that of the three of these books by Viktoria Hanley (Seer and the Sword, Healer's Keep, Light of the Oracle) that she liked Healer's Keep best. This was before I left for my mission, but I remembered because I was surprised. So I reread it this last week. I definitely liked it better this time than before. The only thing I didn't like was how abruptly it ended. But as for the characters, Jasper is my favorite. He's cool. And I like the others, too, and I like the story overall. Good stuff.