I interrupt my regularly scheduled blog post.....

To say Happy Birthday Brother!

So 35 years ago the first chosen one of the Ken Bryant family came into the world. As the oldest he has set some pretty high standards for his younger siblings to follow. After all, he is the "glue" that holds our family together. Here are some of the lessons I have learned from him.

• The best advice I ever received, just after graduating high school. Cade told me to really load up my first semester of college and take as many credits as I could. That way, anything less would seem like a piece of cake. I took his advice and although I didn't graduate in 3 years like him, I still apply this same principle to other aspects of my life.
• When I first started getting into running, Cade was always encouraging me and motivating me to push myself. The night before I ran a marathon he called me to remind me that it would be hard but that was what would make it so great. He loves to quote Tom Hanks from "A League of Their Own" and say that if it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. I still hear Cade's voice telling me this whenever I want to give up on something.
• Cade can be pretty generous. When I was a "starving college student" the football team at my school was set to play in the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona. I happened to be going down there for a friend's wedding the same weekend they were supposed to play. Tickets were pretty expensive and even though I really wanted to go, I couldn't justify the cost. Cade told me that it killed him that I wasn't taking advantage of the opportunity to go to the game, even though it was a team he really disliked. So he gave me money to buy a ticket to the game. I don't know if I've ever been so surprised or more touched by this gesture.

Thanks for the memories bro, and I hope you have a very Feliz Cumpleanos!!!

They Say Good Things Happen in 3's

Or is it bad things? Well, this week 3 good things will definitely happen (or have happened as the case may be). If anyone has anything less than ideal going on in their lives, I hereby give them 3 good reasons to keep their chin up and a smile on their face! I call it the Pleasure Trifecta:

1. *HSM3. Don't try to pretend that you haven't gotten caught up in all of the fanfare. We finally get to find out what will happen with Troy and Gabriella, the next "Brad and Angelina" of Hollywood. Also, it's senior year so new cast members are being introduced so we will be able to look forward to HSM4, 5, 6, etc, etc, etc. Also, the music is louder, the choreography is saucier, and the plot....well, it's the same but what would HSM be if it wasn't consistent? If you haven't seen it yet, don't wait for the DVD release, this one HAS to be seen on the big screen!

2. Halloween. If anyone hasn't figured out by now, I heart holidays. Halloween is no different and I have a feeling this year is going to really rock my (and your) world. If anyone isn't a Halloween fan then you can at least look at it as a kick-off for all of the other very important holidays ahead. All I can say about Halloween that I haven't already said in years past is, free candy. Okay, so that's exactly what I said about Halloween last year but I just can't hear it enough, say it with me now, FREE CANDY!

3. The second best holiday of the year (next to Christmas of course). My birthday. The time has come, yet again, for the world to celebrate the year of my birth. I learned from an early age that my birthday was special. I think it stemmed from my mom referring to it as her "favorite day of the year." Go out and do something special for yourself on this day, in my honor, and I think that you too will come to appreciate it as much as I do. This will be the last year in my 20's and I have a feeling that great things are in store for me!!!

*If anyone doesn't agree with item #1 of the Pleasure Trifecta, you can go and check out my sister's new blog here. (or go to http://www.bunchofbns.blogspot.com/). All of the Bryant siblings are now online and that in itself is reason enough to celebrate!

Political Declarations

It's unusual for me to post on a serious topic but desperate times call for desperate measures. With the 2008 presidential elections soon upon us I thought it would be an appropriate time to officially declare my political intentions come November 4th. I want to preface this by saying that I've spent a lot of time scrutinizing platforms, listening to the debates and analyzing accusations made on both sides. With that said, I will be voting for......drum roll please......

Tina Fey for Vice President.

Conference at the Bryant House

It has become an unofficial Bryant tradition to get the whole fam damily together on the Sunday morning session of conference to eat breakfast and watch conference together. I use the word "watch" loosely here because with eight grandchildren ages eight years and younger you can imagine how much of conference everyone really get to "watch." I thought I would share with all of you what a conference session "in the life of the Bryant's" is like:

Start time is 9:30 am. It is 9:45 and I am just pulling into the driveway of the Homestead. It's okay that I'm late though because Jake's family isn't there yet so my mom can't be too mad at me. Plus, I'm pretty sure that she already figured I'd be late so she told me 9:30 so I'd really get there by 10. Great! I'm early!

I walk in the house and smells of bacon, eggs, hash browns, pancakes and french toast envelope me. My mom had to make french toast AND pancakes because the night before she asked me and Shanel what we wanted for breakfast. I said french toast. Shanel said pancakes. In order to make ME happy (because I know my mom secretly wanted pancakes) she prepares both.

Jake's family arrives just as we start dishing out the food (in his defense, he does have to travel the farthest). I realize that everyone in my family is dressed nicely, their hair is combed and all of the women are wearing make-up. Apparently I am the only one who thought 9:30 was early enough to justify rolling out of bed, throwing on jeans and a hoodie and heading on my way. Hey, at least I put in my contacts and left the glasses at home. And I brushed my teeth. I'm feeling pretty good that I could at least accomplish THAT much.

So we all eat breakfast. The french toast is a hit (don't worry mom, I won't say, "I told you so.") and we get conference started. After about 15 minutes I look around. Dad is starting to snore in his recliner. Cade is massaging Jill's neck while he is simultaneously checking something out on his phone. Brian is reading the newspaper and Shanel is dead asleep on one of the couches. Mom is in the toy room with some of the grand kids, talking to Becky while the little ones are literally pulling out every single toy in the toy room. I don't see Jake but I assume he is downstairs on the computer working or trying to get his blog started up (that's right, another Bryant has started blogging. You can check it out here). Jill, setting the example for all of us, is intently listening to the speaker. I hope she took notes so she can fill me in on what was said, I was too busy watching everyone else!!