Black Friday? No Thanks.

Derek's turn today. I might make some enemies with this post, but I'm not a big fan of black Friday. There might be some good deals out there, but most of it is stuff I don't need or want. Below is another reason that I was in bed at 5am this morning and not freezing my butt off in front of Wal-Mart or Best Buy.


Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede

A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said.

The 34-year-old worker, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.

Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.

"He was bum-rushed by 200 people," said Jimmy Overby, 43, a co-worker. "They took the doors off the hinges. He was trampled and killed in front of me. They took me down too...I literally had to fight people off my back."

The unidentified victim was rushed to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:03 a.m., police said.

The cause of death was pending.

A 28-year-old pregnant woman was knocked to the floor during the mad rush. She was hospitalized for observation, police said.

Three other shoppers suffered minor injuries, cops said.

Before police shut down the store, eager shoppers streamed past emergency crews as they worked furiously to save the store clerk's life.

"They were working on him, but you could see he was dead, said Halcyon Alexander, 29. "People were still coming through."

Only a few stopped.

"They're savages," said shopper Kimberly Cribbs, 27. "It's sad. It's terrible."

Source: NY Daily News

Tribute to Dr. Gregory Gordon

This is Mandy speaking. Minutes ago I just heard the sad news of the passing away of a dear family friend of many years and wonderful doctor who delivered our sweet baby Emma. I am still in quite a bit of shock over it even though I knew he has been sick for some time. Then I just think to myself, he wouldn't want us to be down. Anyone who may have known Dr. Gordon knows that he was just a ray of sunshine and lit up any room he walked into. He was my Sunday school teacher when I was a young teenager and he always had an awesome way of teaching. His wonderful wife Kris was also an amazing leader of mine in young women's and we have remained dear friends since. I remember when Derek and I were married, Dr. Gordon and his wife Kris came to our wedding reception. They mentioned to us as they were congratulating us that they drove all the way down from Aspen Grove from Youth Conference just so they could attend our reception. I remember just feeling that that meant the world to me. That's just the kind of people they are. I came across one of Dr. Gordon's sweet daughter's blog and these were her sweet words to her father,

"The most selfless, kind, loving, Christlike person I have ever known.
He has touched the lives of everyone he has ever met.
I miss you, but I will see you again.

I Love You Dad!!!!!!"

We will miss you Dr. Gordon. You have definitely touched our lives immensley and you will always have a place in our hearts. Our prayers are with the Gordon family at this time. May God be with you.
You can see Dr. Gordon's obituary here


It's Thanksgiving today. It's times like these that help me to meditate and see more of an eternal perspective on life. In celebration of thanksgiving I express my gratitude for family and friends who are and have been in my life. I am so grateful for the love of our Father in Heaven. He loves us SO much that He provided a way for us to ALL be together again even after this life. What an amazing blessing it is to have this knowledge.
Happy Thanks giving to all.

Twilight!!!!!

(Ok, so I just found this collage of pictures of Twilight from my friend Ashlee's blog, kind of funny)
Finally I have a chance to write about my FUN FUN night last night. My dear friend Lara ended up having an extra ticket last minute and invited me to go see the premier of 'Twilight.' It was SUCH an awesome movie. The movie showed at 6pm last night and the theater was FULL of ladies. It was kind of crazy getting into the actual theater, they wouldn't let us bring cell phones or cameras (which I understand about the camera) and they metal detected everyone. It was so funny listening to the girls scream and go goo goo ga ga when THE Edward Cullen came on the screen. I won't lie, he was a dish. Anyways, what a great movie!! I'm almost done reading the book, I only have like 90 pages left so it was cool to be able to follow the majority of it. But fun to see the ending in action. It made me want to finish as quick as possible. Afterwards, we enjoyed some yummy food at 'Red Robin....oooooooooo'. Thank you again Lara and you girls, it was a BLAST!!

pretty much the best concert EVER.............

So, my friend Cammi from my old work at Dentrix called me up on Friday and said she got some tickets to the NKOTB concert on Saturday night and invited me to go. I nearly peed my pants I was SO excited!! It was always my dream as a young girl to see them in concert and hear I was last night, living the dream. It was INCREDIBLY awesome. They sang all their hit songs from back in the 80's early 90's (step by step, hangin' tough, cover girl, the right stuff, love you forever, etc.....) as well as some of their newer songs. I was screaming SO loud (you'll hear it in the video) my throat hurts. I found this old album cover and had to post it. Ah..the good ole' days. Still love Jordan and Joey, they still got it. Don't worry Derek doesn't get too jealous, he's just glad he didn't have to go!! :) I was so bummed that I couldn't find my old NKOTB shirt from 1988 that I swear I had but couldn't find it anywhere. Oh well, pictures and video was enough. hahahhahha, it was SO much fun. Thank you thank you again Cammi for the invite, it was a concert night to remember!!

Lady Gaga was the first opening performer. In a word, YIKES!! She was kind of freaky weird. Wasn't much of a fan.
Natasha Bedingfield was the second and she was GREAT! I like her style. Their is video of her on the bottom.

(picture of Lady Gaga)

Oh yeah, don't you worry we were on the 14th row on the main level. Pretty much the best seats ever...I think I lost some hearing. It was so loud my hair was bouncing from all the surround sound. Oh, and we made it onto the dancing screen that Jonny was video taping during the performance. Our group of ladies were on the big screen for about a good 10 seconds. sigh, wonderful!

Me and Cammi

Our group of HUGE NKOTB fans. They were so fun!

Did I mention our seats were awesome? Just checking!! hahaha

I DID IT!!!

Well ladies, I have FINALLY done it. I whacked my hair. I've been contemplating of whether I should cut my hair for the last year or so and I finally got the guts this week. I just needed some change in my life, and simplification with my hair. I am happy with the change. We'll see if I can keep up with the new do. I did an a-line cut, so it wouldn't do the triangle do that I had the last two times I've cut my hair short in the last 28 years. But back then there weren't flat irons either. Thank goodness for them flat irons. :) Anyways TADA!!

Our AMAZING Seattle trip!!!

We had the most amazing time visiting my brother Mike and Jen and the kids in SEATTLE last week! We didn't want to come home. (I'm writing this post pretty late so please bare with me in my writing) We took A HUGE LOAD of pictures from our amazing trip and that's why they are all in the slide show. Many of you know that my brother Mike recently got a coaching job with the Seattle Seahawks in July and moved his wonderful family out there. Mike was previously one of sea hawks scouts but was promoted to a coaching job, the assistant linebacker coach. Mike works the craziest hours, we only got to see him a few hours out of the whole week we were there but that's just how it goes. It was great seeing him when we could. He's working hard and is doing AWESOME! My sister in law Jen was so wonderful to us. She took SUCH good care of us and we had a BLAST with her and all the kids. Emma was in heaven with her cousins, especially little Ava. She also couldn't get enough of their sweet dog Roxy. They live in Issaquah, LOVE THAT PLACE! I could live there.

We want to give another thank you thank you thank you to the Phairs for all the fun and taking such great care of us during our visit. We miss the heck out of you guys. Emma misses all the fun and excitement as do all of us :) We love you guys!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

yams......

Today I was just assigned to bring yams for wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Umm..I've never made yams before. Please, if you have any good recipes, please feel free to share.

oh.... my gosh!!!!

Ok so my friend Shiloh introduced me to this movie 'Teen Witch" about 13 years ago and I have never been the same since. The movie came out in the 80's as you can tell. We are with my nephews and sister in law tonight and I started singing this rap song "top that" and they all just started staring at me and there was silence for a minute. They looked at me and asked what the heck I was singing. Well folks this is it!! Good times, good times. The first little bit is just the girls talking, but you have to watch the whole thing. Trust me, you'll never be the same. I showed my nephews and sister in law Jen what the heck I was singing and we were all laughing so hard, seriously my stomach hurts!!

p.s good gosh what the HECK ARE THEY WEARING??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think I know what I want Derek and I to be for halloween next year. He'll be the main rapper dude. mmm....blue crop top. Love it! hahahhahaha!!!