7 Things About Me

I was tagged by Keeley over at Wanderer in a Strange Land and Jen over at Lords of the Manor. I'm supposed to write seven things about me, and I assume they are supposed to be interesting.

Hmmmm. I'm not sure I really have anything interesting, but I'll give it a shot.

1. I'm a serious chocoholic. I mean really, if I could have a hot fudge (really, really, really LOVE hot fudge) brownie sundae, with moosetracks ice cream and drowning in hot fudge and caramel, every single day of my life . . . it's possible I'd be a fulfilled woman. Well yeah, I'd weigh 600 pounds and be unable to do anything but eat hot fudge brownie sundaes which is a sad statement in and of itself, come to think of it. See, that's my idea of heaven. A hot fudge brownie sundae every day of eternity and not a single health problem in sight! Slim, trim and a hot fudge brownie sundae every day and toss in a good sirloin . . . yeah, that's heaven.

2. My great-great-great-great grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. He is reputed to have been one of George Washington's bodyguards, although I don't know if we can verify that. One day, he and a friend decided they'd had enough of the Revolution and decided to head home. Just a mile or two into the journey, Grandpa decided it wasn't an honorable thing to do and turned around and headed back. Later, he learned that his friend had been struck by lightning. Had Grandpa not turned back . . . my ancestry might have been very different. It is possible this fierce love I have of my country comes from my ancestors who have fought in every war since the beginning of the founding of this country. I actually do take it as a personal affront when people try to destroy what my ancestors shed their blood to provide for their posterity, me.

3. I had my 15 minutes on the world stage when I appeared on The Phil Donahue Show in defense of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the priesthood and the righteous men of the Church.

A woman named Deborah Laake had written a book called Secret Ceremonies: Diary of a Mormon Woman. It was a betrayal of all things good and righteous. I had nothing but disgust for her until I read the book and then I pitied her beyond all imagination.

It was a serious of events that took me to the Donahue stage in 1993. But once I arrived I knew that I'd placed myself in somewhat of a precarious position. It suddenly occurred to me that although I considered myself Candace Sluyter (maiden name) Mormon woman, the world would consider me Candace Sluyter Mormon Church. I suddenly realized I hadn't even told my bishop I was doing this. I think panic might be too mild of a word for what coursed through my body.

High in a room in the Drake Hotel in downtown Manhattan, I knelt next to my bed and began to pray. I prayed more fervently than I have ever prayed, begging and pleading with my Father in Heaven to forgive my arrogance and grant me peace and the knowledge that that someone, anyone from heaven, would be with me. I begged Him to not let me lose my temper. I begged Him for my brain to not go blank.

A peace, warm and light pervaded my soul that touched me to the center of my being. I knew, more than at any other time in my life, that there was a God, I felt Him that day in that hotel room in New York City. This changed me, for I became more focused on the gospel and on sharing it with as many people as I possibly could. I began doing firesides, speaking anywhere I was invited and I continue to do so today.

It was a unique experience that bolstered my testimony to monumental proportions. Many more miracles occurred that day, from the desert sands of New Mexico, to a corporation in the beautiful Utah Valley . . . people prayed for my efforts and were touched in unspeakably beautiful ways. It was a blessing and an honor to play a part in something that touched so many lives, including my own.

4. I know this will come as a shock, but I like to read. I'd love to have a library like this one day, except . . .

- without the old people sitting around pontificating.

- warmer surroundings with one of those great ladders I've seen in old British movies.

- room for long tables which will hold all my research without me having to put it away or stack it every night.

- warm, beautiful tones that compliment the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of books I will own.

- warm comfortable couches surrounding the fireplace in this incredible library.

Big sigh . . . instead, I have my cramped little office with the shelves my husband lovingly built me covered with my paperbacks. But I actually have the blueprints for the type of library I want, including a source to buy one of those cool ladders that are anchored to rail that allows it to slide around the library. Then I can have shelves to the very top of the vaulted ceilings I plan on having.

5. When I was a little girl we moved every six months until I was almost thirteen years old. My mother began raising goats when she found out we were all allergic to cows milk. When I was seven-years-old my best friend was a French Alpine kid goat, named Buffy. I don't have a picture of her, but this is very similar to what she looked like, except she was a doe.

Every day, when I came home from school, Buffy would come racing around the corner of the house to greet me. She was the cutest little goat and I adored her. We'd jump and run and play all over the property.

There are many aspects of farm living I really miss, the animals being the largest part.

6. Everyone knows that I'm the author of three books and two booklets. But did you know that I have also written five screenplays? I actually wrote screenplays before I ever wrote a book.

The interesting part? Well, after a short stint of trying to sell my scripts to Hollywood I've had to walk away from three potential investors because of the following:

a) turned out the investors' funds were extremely suspect, as in Soprano suspect.

b) turned out the film production company interested in making one of my screenplays into a movie was a producer of porn films!

c) turned out the monies my investor was controlling were Saudi Arabian funds. Probably don't need to go into anymore details on that one.

I still have hopes that I'll be able to have my scripts made into movies one day. I may give up on the owning of my own production company and turn the whole headache over to someone else. Of course, when I was doing that a porn company almost got one of my scripts! I don't really want to know what changes they were going to make. Ugh!

7. I think I'm going to skip Number 7 and just give an update on Alvin. He's still in IMC, they are having some difficulty getting his calcium stabilized. Of course, my husband is unnaturally strong and so we roam the halls of the 2nd floor, pop on out to the balcony and catch some fall sun and generally do everything we can to keep Alvin occupied. His sick enough to be here, but still strong enough to be ancy about the continued confinement. So we have Quiddler, which is the coolest game ever. Sete stops by every night, of course he'll be on lockdown Friday night because of the game, but Alvin and I so much enjoy his visits. Heather and Aaron brought the kids by to let us see them in their costumes and we spent a half hour visiting with them in waiting room. So all in all, we're hanging in there and trying do everything we can to get Alvin stabilized.

That's it for today, their just finishing up Alvin's dialysis session and we're going for another walk.

Everyone have an absolutely fantastic day.

I'm going to tag: Mike over at Happy Gilmores, Ali at Girl in a Whirl, Karlene at Inksplasher, Rosehaven Cottage and Kat over at JustaBeachKat.

Written at LDSBlogs.com in the last few days:

Remember
Our Bodies as Temples
Faith: The Evidence of Things Hoped For
Answers to Questions
Lion of the Lord
Becoming Who I Am Meant To Be