Brett and Chesca Day

30 Things: 2012 List

2012-01-30T22:26:00.000-07:00

Inspiration. Usually I associate the word with things of a more spiritual nature. But, today I looked up the word for a more official perspective on its meaning. According to my computers dictionary, inspiration means the following: the process of being mentally stimulated, especially to do something creative. Mental creativity. I can do that.

Last year I made a list of a few things I wanted to accomplish. I thought them up. Wrote them down (because that means you'll actually do them). And... that was it. Last year, along with other specific goals, I really wanted to focus on just doing my best. Which I feel I did okay with. But as I wrote 2012 down for the first time, I realized that I thought the previous year was 2010. My brain obviously skipped a year. I was slightly panicked, wondering if I wrote 2010 down on my son's birth certificate. Needless to say I need to get my brain in gear this year.

So, I have this friend from a few wards back. I stalk her blog. She made a list last year too. She did much better with her list than I did mine. I liked her list. I liked her goals. I liked how she made it all happen with a plan. So I am going to copy her.

Thanks go out to Katie Harris for inspiring me to be mentally creative.

I made two lists of things to do this year, gulp. One is for Brett and I to work on together and the other is for just me. My list ranges from things I have been meaning to get around to doing, to things that I should do but don't, and things that I want to do to be a better human being. The plan here is accomplish as many of the things on my list as I can. Each month I'll sit down and decide what needs to be done, and how I want to go about doing them. Hopefully, do them. Then, bore you with a monthly report.

Anyways, enough with me putting random sentences together.

Chesca's Thirty

Involved Projects

1. Make a chalk board menu for the kitchen

2. Make a furniture piece for my family room

3. Finish decorating the nursery

4. Make laundry soap

5. Do one Pintrest inspired project per month

6. Fix the finish on my office desk

7. Refinish/find furniture for master bedroom

8. Paint the hallway upstairs

9. Put up a cork bulletin board/wall in the office

10. Paint the wall I missed in the family room

11. Put together a memory box for Isaac

Spiritual Things

12. Read the Book of Mormon, twice

13. Attend Enrichment Night, at least four times

14. Read every conference talk for the year

15. Put up a picture of the temple and of the Savior in every room

Organizational Happiness

16. Make a keep a cleaning schedule

17. Relocate dog kennels

Things Concerning Taste Buds

18. Cook a turkey

19. Try a new recipe once a month

20. Poach an egg

Things for Me and My Well Being

21. Read four new books

22. Get in really good shape

23. Learn a new piano song

24. Go to the dentist

25. Go to the optometrist

Miscellaneous

26. Hang Brett's Diploma

27. Document my cousin's mission

28. Find a use for a vintage light bulb

29. Get a pedicure

30. Make my herb garden look pretty

Bresca's Thirty

Involved Projects

1. Finish the laundry room makeover

2. Attempt to refinish the piano

3. Finish the carpet in the master bedroom

4. Glue down the vinyl in the master bedroom

5. Fix the pavers in the front yard

6. Install a fan in the spare bedroom

7. Finish the carpet downstairs

Spiritual Things

8. Really try go to the temple once a month

9. For one month, go to the temple once a week

10. Invite a non-member to a church function

11. Have family scripture study and prayer, daily, for one month

12. Read the Book of Mormon together from beginning to end

13. Study Preach My Gospel

14. Hold FHE regularly

Organizational Happiness

15. Stick to a meal plan

16. Do not overspend our budget

17. Pay something off

18. Keep the garage clean

Things Concerning Taste Buds

19. Cook Ukrainian food

Things for Us and Our Well Being

20. No TV/media for a week

21. Go to the beach

22. Go camping

23. Hike an Arizona mountain

24. Have date night once a month

Miscellaneous

25. Watch the three best movies of all time

26. Watch the three worst movies of all time

27. Give away the black couch

28. Replace the outlet in the office

29. Plant a tree

30. Get CPR cetrified

So there you go. We better get moving.

Dear 2011

2012-01-02T17:52:00.000-07:00

I like to recap what Brett and I accomplished the previous year, cause let's be honest, the year usually goes by in a massive blur. I also have a less than perfect memory and I don't want to feel like a complete bum who watching several TV shows a weeks.

But before I get into that, let me just briefly tell you how we celebrated to the New Year. We played XBox all night. With Casey. Modern Warfare Three. I know we are lame. We didn't even countdown or anything. Oh well.

2011...

We visited Utah and Washington DC.

Brett turned 25.

I turned 23.

Krista and the kids came to visit.

I spray painted my car.

Isaac was born.

Isaac learned to crawl.

We all got really sick.

Brett a promotion.

Brett graduated from college.

We installed new floors in out bedroom.

I refinished some office furniture.

We installed on pavers in the backyard.

We gardened, kind of.
Casey came to visit.

Well. It seems like a small list, but adding Isaac to the family was so wonderful and it really kept us busy enjoying him. Can't wait for everything to do this year!

Crazy Christmas

2011-12-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

My goodness. We had another crazy, all go, non-stop, up past our bedtimes Christmas. Wow, it really wore me out this year. Between Brett having to work and having family in town we were hardly home.

Brett's grandparents and Casey came to visit this year. We had lots of lunches and spent a lot of time playing on Brett's new XBox with Casey and Brooke.

Brett and I had our Christmas dinner the Wednesday before. We got everything ready during the day, then I went to work for a few appointments and raced home. Because the day was so crazy, we served soup instead of the usual ham and giant sides. Alec came with Troy and Christina this year. It is always so hard to find a day that works for everyone.

On Christmas Eve, we had the usual Day Family dinner. We ate out at Bucca Di Beppo. It's this fabulous Italian restaurant that serves giant plates of food. Brett had to work after dinner so I spent time with my dad's family. They are always good for the jokes and the teasing.

Christmas day was busy as well. We spent our morning opening presents. Isaac enjoyed eating the wrapping paper. We had a light breakfast at my mom's house and opened presents with them too. We crashed for an hour before heading over to Brett's parent's house. We opened presents. Which always takes a long time. I ate lots of M&Ms during this time. When lunch/dinner rolled around, I ended up getting sick from to OD of chocolate. Seriously I ate most of the three pound bag. I am sure I have brought shame to the chocolate eating Day family.

Later in the evening Brett left for work and went back to spend some more time with my parents and eventually we all made it to bed.

So people, who else has a crazy Christmas? I decided that next Christmas, I will be out of town. Yeah.

Seven Months

2011-12-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

Age: 7 months

Height: 28 1/2 inches (unofficially)

Weight: 19 pounds 16 ounces (unofficially)

Isaac is doing pretty good. He is so happy with crawling. He is very good at it now. He can get pretty much anywhere. He is pulling himself up on his feet now too. He will stand there and play, then get down and move on to the next interesting thing. His sitting is perfect. He can usually get himself from laying down to sitting without rolling over.

He is finally up to drinking eight ounces at a time. We wasted so much formula thinking he wanted more to drink, but he would just shake the bottle around for something to do. He loves eating though.

Isaac and the dogs are getting along now that he is crawling. They let him "pet" him as long as they get a lick or two in. I find this disgusting and try to prevent the lickage as often as possible. But the dogs like him which is good. I still watch them carefully though, I can't completely trust them to be nice to each other.

Isaac is in 9-12 months baby clothes. I am just blown away by that.

He knows a few games with help for the hand motions. He likes to chew on strings and cords, actually everything. Isaac is also got a haircut, yes he is adorable.

Halloween, Almost a Month Ago...

2011-11-27T23:13:00.001-07:00

I have very fond memories of Halloween as a child. I owe this to my mother. This holiday was her favorite. She enjoyed making us our costumes. I remember some of my favorites, the Wicked Witch of the West and Glenda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz, Ezma from Emperor's New Groove, Curella from 101 Dalmations, a Hawaiian hula dancer, a scarecrow... She is a pro when it comes to costumes.

Since I am kinda an adult now, I can't really get away with the super cute Glenda the Good Witch, which did win me a prize at the Fiesta Mall when I was very little.

Moving on from that small tangent, I was so excited when my mom agreed to make Isaac's costume. He was a hotdog. She did a fantastic job. She crocheted the hotdog parts, tying both ends of to look like a fat sausage. She even added ketchup and mustard across his belly and garnished his neck with a relish bow tie. She made his bun by sanding and painting foam.

Isaac wore it all night long. He was a champ to put up with it. Since he won't remember any of this torture I am happy he was happy, since this whole ordeal was mostly for my pleasure.

Anyways, here are a few pictures. We found so ketchup and mustard trick-o-treaters that agreed to picture. Isaac was passed around all night while we were at a neighborhood party. Eventually we called it a night after finding out that he wiggled his socks off. It was a wonderful first Halloween.

Six Months

2011-11-16T22:43:00.000-07:00

Age: 6 months
Height: 28 inches
Weight: 19 pounds 11 ounces

Six months! Holy cow...

Well, let me start by saying that this little boy is getting around everywhere now. He started crawling right at six months, right after we got back from visiting Krista and her family. He gets around quickly too, especially if there is something he wants. I have had to start moving things around and unplugging things like the lamp on the end table, so it doesn't end up on his head. Just the other day he made it though the entire family room and around the kitchen island several times. I love it, for now. When he gets better I will probably be wishing he would stay in one place. He is sitting up too, he doesn't perform this function as well as he crawls, but I figure that he would rather crawl than sit.

Since Isaac is crawling around, he obviously needs his own things to get into. He has a small collection of baby toys. Small things that make noise or have bright colors. I like watching him touch these things. He likes to find other things that have different textures too. He pats them to see what noise they make, then of course he likes to find out how they taste.

He is eating so well too. I often give him a taste of whatever we are eating. He mashes it around then makes this piggy noise when he really likes something. I recently found the pouch baby food products, the ones that you either squeeze or suck on. They are great for on the go and he seems to like those too. And did you know that they make something similar to Cheetos for babies... They are fabulous. He likes to feed himself those, as well as puffs and the freeze dried yogurt things.

He is a smart baby. He definitely knows who mom and dad are now. It makes me happy to see him want me when he is in someone else's arms. I love him so much and am so excited to see him to continue to grow.

Life in the Shoes of Krista: Conclusion

2011-11-13T19:44:00.001-07:00

9:43 PM - Started blogging.

This is my conclusion and I am going to start with an introduction. Which is totally backwards, but the whole world didn't need to know that I left my husband at home, defenseless, with two giant dogs. The world also didn't need to know that Andy, Krista, and Addy were in Germany while I was also defenseless in Virginia with four kids. When I say world, I really mean the crazy people that stalk you. However, I am sure those crazy people would find out what was going on if they really wanted to know, stalkers.

Anyways. When Brett and I came to visit Krista back in September, she asked me to come back to watch her kids while her, Andy, and Addy were gone. Andy had military orders to play his trumpet in Germany. Of course instantly I said yes. The whole Allphin family is awesome and so much fun. So all the arrangements were made for me and Isaac to come back.

I knew that this whole experience was going to be crazy and difficult and overwhelming, but I knew we would have fun and we would be just fine. Prior to getting here, my biggest concern was just making sure that the kids didn't literally kill themselves. These children are accident prone. I mean Parker once landed in the dishwasher with the rack stuck in his eye. These children are also rough and tend to fight. I just didn't want to take a bleeding child to the emergency room. I would have, but who wants that to happen to them... So I just kind of expected it to be a lot of work and tried to prepare myself for complete chaos.

Seriously, it was a lot of work and in my head, it was complete chaos. Having the sick kids was the real kicker. It was the one thing that I wasn't expecting to happen. I was thankful that Andy was able to take Clark to the doctor before he left, but the first day I was stressing big time with the germs. I was trying so hard to keep everyone else from getting sick too. But the end of the second day, when Isaac went to bed with a runny nose, I cried. I was tired, overwhelmed, grumpy... And having a sick baby is hard enough. At that point I kind of lost it. I seriously got online and looked up airline tickets to get my mom out here. But, last minute tickets from Phoenix to DC and back were over $600.

After Sunday, I think I had everything under control. I started to figure out how to make schedules work. I got the kids to listen to me. I had caught up with the time zones. I was feeling better from my version of being sick. After Sunday we had fun. It was usually conditional and always accompanied with threats, but I made it work. And I also realized when life is super crazy and you need to meltdown with the kids, it's okay. Maybe not every five minutes, but it is okay. And who cares if the kids did nothing all day but watch TV, tomorrow we will try to be better. It's okay if they fight, just give them a chance to work it out. And it is okay to just sit and drink a Dr. Pepper (except once I get back in Phoenix it is cold turkey for me).

I did my best to fill Krista's shoes for ten days. She is an amazing mother and does so much more than take care of her kids. She is a wife. She fulfills her church callings. She runs a preschool. She keeps a nice home. She does so much.

So for my conclusion. I made it. If there is ever a next time, I will probably have someone else tag along for the chaos. Also, this was a learning experience. As a first time mom with Isaac, I am totally just winging every day and everything I do. So I learned a thing or two with Krista's kids for when Isaac is older. The bad news, this trip made me dislike DC/Virginia just a little. I hate being cold. The good news is, I still want more kids.

10:32 PM - Stopped blogging and went to bed.

Life in the Shoes of Krista: Day 10

2011-11-12T19:40:00.001-07:00

6:44 AM - Isaac woke up screaming, again. I seriously wish those teeth would just come. I got him a bottle hoping that we wasn't loud enough to wake the boys.

6:52 AM - I heard Clark talking. I get him back to sleep.

7:00 AM - The boys were up.

7:02 AM - I decided that I wasn't even going to fight with them. Parker went straight into my bed and Clark got locked in his room. We went back to sleep.

8:02 AM - Clark is kicking the wall. Me and boys got up.

8:15 AM - Clark's diaper was half on. His pajamas were wet too. I checked the bed and it was dry. Got a diaper and ate breakfast.

8:23 AM - The boys got dressed.

9:01 AM - Isaac and Carly were up. Carly went down for breakfast.

9:05 AM - I got dressed while Isaac attempted more crawling. Then Isaac got dressed.

9:32 AM - The kids and I worked on putting the house back in order. We washed sheets, cleaned toys, moved rooms... I collected all my things that I have littered the house with.

10:12 AM - We finished laundry.

10:40 AM - We made beds, for the first time in a week and a half.

11:34 AM - I got everyone's hair done, and had time to actually make Carly's look cute.

12:31 PM - Ate lunch.

12:45 PM - Got socks and shoes on.

12:54 PM - Got in the car and went to Chick-Fil-A for drinks.

2:31 PM - Got to the airport to get Krista, Andy, and Addy.

3:00 PM - Parker had to go to the bathroom. Well there is no where to go when you are at an airport. You have to go in. That wasn't really possible for us and I didn't want him peeing on the airport in Washington DC. The President might see and then we'd be in trouble. I tried having him hold it, but that didn't work. So he peed in a cup and I dumped in on the grass. Yellow spot.

After this the rest of the night was crazy.

3:30 PM-ish - Andy and Krista finally made it through the airport and we loaded up. The kid were so happy to see mom and dad. We had to pick up Andy's car and eventually he made it home with half of the kids.

5:34 PM - Krista, Carly, Isaac, and me made it home. Andy had waffles for dinner ready and waiting. They were so sleepy.

6:15 PM-ish - The kiddos got into their bed time routine while I did dishes. In the middle of Addy crying and Clark pooping all over the bathroom, I went up stairs to help out.

Sometime after we had scripture study. Andy was falling asleep, he was so beat.

7:58 PM - I left to the store to pick some baby food and snacks up for Isaac at Target. Then I went to the grocery store to get dinner for the next day.

9:15 PM - Stopped to get some gas. Running on E.

9:22 PM - Back home. The boys were still up.

9:41 PM - The boys were acting up. Andy was asleep on the couch attempting to catch some of the BYU game and Krista was passed out in bed. I went upstairs to threaten the boys. Krista came in shortly after since Parker now knew that mom was around and she had final say. Their toys got taken away. Eventually we had more crying and screaming. Clark got removed from the room and everyone went to bed.

9:54 PM - Started blogging.

10:06 PM - I stopped blogging.

Life in the Shoes of Krista: Day 9

2011-11-11T19:28:00.001-07:00

6:45 AM - Isaac woke up screaming. He was very mad. So I tried to get him back to sleep. I didn't want him to wake the boys up. I was surprised they were still sleeping. Eventually I gave up comforting him and got him a bottle. Soon after, we fell back asleep.

7:15 AM - And... they boy are up. Throwing toys downstairs. Me and Isaac get out of bed.

7:35 AM - Breakfast.

8:11 AM - I woke Carly up. The boys got in the bath tub. This was obviously confusing since this isn't normal routine. We all got ready.

8:37 AM - Carly got in the shower. I told boys we had another surprise for today, but we couldn't leave until the toy room was cleaned. It had been a mess for almost two days, I didn't have the energy to fight with them to get it clean. Now I had a bride. Parker had a minor melt down. I told him he had to be good or he wouldn't get to go. And, since we were starting the day off with something fun, he has to be good all day. He had one shot, after that we would be looking at some timeouts.

10:10 AM - After cleaning socks and trash out of the minivan, we packed everyone up. Carly and I moved some car seats around so we could go pick Andy and Krista up the next day. We also put in the extra seat into the car. This took awhile. I backed out of the drive way and gave my no crying, kicking, screaming, or whining or we are going home pep talk and we left the house.

10:32 AM - We arrive at Chuck-E-Cheese's. This was my best idea yet! Seriously, a jungle gym, games, food... Not to mention keeping an eye on all the kids was way easy. You can't really lose a kid there either. They stamp you and the kids you are with to make sure no one else leaves with your kid, and there is an employee checking stamps at the door the entire time. It was fun. I helped the kids get tickets. Which I really enjoyed. We ate pizza that wasn't bad at all. I also brought in my Dr. Pepper. There was a giant sign that said not outside food or drink. I think that means I am an addict. There were no melt downs. Great idea.

12:49 PM - We got home and Clark went straight to his bed for a nap. He was very sleepy.

1:00 PM - I decided that since we are getting Krista and Andy tomorrow that chores needed to be moved to Friday. The kids got to work. They got a few extra chores like cleaning poop off the downstairs toilet and putting shoes and jackets away. I cleaned the floors and the bathroom I had been using all week. I also helped with some vacuuming.

2:47 PM - We had no melt downs still for the day. Carly and Parker even helped each other with their chores without fighting. So we sat down to be lazy and watch TV.

4:01 PM - Clark woke up. Super grumpy. I stared dinner. It took me forever to decided if Jiffy Muffin mix was corn meal or not. Then I decided to cook my version of taco soup. I had to improvise a bit. While dinner was cooking, Carly helped me do the dishes and set the table.

5:05 PM - We ate. These kids love corn bread. I had a hard time getting Clark to eat more than corn bread. Carly did fine and Parker ate and ate and ate. Usually he is the one I am talking into eating by counting how many bites he has to eat for more juice, or more chips, or more whatever.

6:27 PM - Melt downs begin. Parker and Clark start to fight. Parker gets his final warning. Brett and I Skyped so he could see my fay baby Isaac. Parker jumped on Clark. Parker starts a series of time outs.

6:32 PM - Bath time.

7:00 PM - Scripture, stories, etc.

7:32 PM - Bed time. Eventually I had to separate the boys. They stared take the blinds apart.

7:52 PM - Did some laundry. Carly got in the shower and went to bed.

8:14 PM - Got in the shower. Isaac had a melt down and scream for like twenty minutes. Eventually I got him calmed down and he fell asleep. Teething? I think so.

9:23 PM - Blog and Dr. Pepper.

9:55 PM - Decided that since I have to be in Krista's shoes for only half of the next day, I would stay up late for some TV.

9:56 PM - Ended blogged. Eventually, bed.

Life in the Shoes of Krista: Day 8

2011-11-10T20:11:00.001-07:00

6:22 AM - The boys were up playing. I heard them talking about the costumes in the closet. I get out of bed to stop this. I didn't like putting those away two days ago.

7:06 AM - Carly and I finally got up and out of bed because of the noise. Everyone went downstairs for breakfast.

7:15 AM - Carly worked on getting ready. Very very very slowly. For getting up thirty minutes early she was running behind. Ten minutes before she needed to be out the door her hair wasn't done, she had no socks or shoes on, and her bags weren't packed. By now, I was on her case about what she had been doing all morning to be rushing the last ten minutes. Oh yeah, watching TV and stressing about a bag for her bagged gift for an after school party. I'm not the kind of girl that drags her feet or dottles (which may or may not be a word) when something needs to get done. Apparently this will be an issue for me when I have older children.

8:38 AM - Carly left. Without brushing her teeth. Isaac woke up. I left the boys downstairs to finish their movie while I got dressed. Eventually it ended. They started playing in the toy room. The noise got louder as then ran around, but there wasn't any crying or screaming so I left them alone. When I was ready enough I went down stairs with Isaac to get the boys. I was standing at the top of the stairs when I noticed why they were so happy. They were naked. Running around naked. In circles. I quietly walked down the stairs and stood at the bottom waiting for them to come back through their circle. I stood there and once they saw me they stopped in their tracks. Naked, with this face that said, the fun was worth the trouble I am sure we are in. It was funny.

8:55 AM - The boys put clothes on.

9:36 AM - Dr. Pepper for me and Puffs for Isaac.

9:40 AM - I started to make some fun plans for the next two days. Movies and Five Guys today, Chuck-e-Cheese tomorrow.

11:42 AM - Isaac took a nap. Pintrest.

12:05 PM - I made some grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch with lots of butter. Parker requested two different kind of cheeses.

12:56 PM - Clark started crying for no apparent reason. So he went down for a nap. Isaac woke up.

2:40 PM - Isaac has another snack and fell asleep in the high chair.

2:50 PM - I told Parker that we were going to leave soon to go have some fun. He kept asking if we were going to go to Target. I told him it was a surprise. It got him moving. He helped Clark get his socks and shoes on. Jackets. He picked up some of his afternoon snack too.

3:07 PM - Krista and Andy Skyped the boys.

3:54 PM - Left the house.

3:57 PM - Arrived at Five Guys for dinner. I was craving a cheeseburger. I boys eat so well there!

4:27 PM - Got in the car to head to the movies and realized that the address I had wasn't pulling up on the GPS. I had a pretty good idea of were I was going but I wasn't 100% positive. So I went back home to figure it out.

5:08 PM - Arrived at the movies. I told Clark we were going to see a movie and he was really excited. I woke Parker up since he fell asleep on the way. He was very grumpy. I paid for the movie tickets. I must look desperate when I am out with the kids. I always get favors. I should have bought one adult ticket and one kid ticket. I only paid for my ticket. Had everyone use the bathroom before the movies. Isaac got mad because the flushing sound scared him. A lot.

5:45 PM - Movie started. Parker started to freak out because the beginning was a bit scary. Clark wasn't phased at all. I wasn't about to leave. So I started to hand out snacks. I brought things from the house. Isaac started wigging because apparently he knows when we are eating and didn't want to be left out. Eventually Parker kept says, "Let's get outta here." Over and over and over and over again. Then Clark kept talking about having to pee. Over and over and over and over again. Once I finally gave in to haul everyone out of the theaters no one wanted to leave. Then Clark really wanted to pee. So we left for the bathroom. Parker tripped right in the middle of the hallway and started crying. Still crying, we got in the bath room. I helped Clark get his shoes and pants off. Then he started to completely undress, which I wasn't going to have. He got mad and started crying. Then he noticed that the last person didn't flush, so he flushed it. Isaac started crying. All three boys crying in the family bathroom. It echos in there.

7:16 PM - The movie ended and we left to pick Carly from the party. Somewhere along the way the GPS told me to turn left. So I did, down an over grown road completely covered in leaves. When I first got on it I thought it was dirt. I got to the end of it and it was closed. I had a gate and a pad lock. So I knew I was going to have to turn around. Which there wasn't much room for. So I tried backing out. Which I suck at. Then I looked around and noticed that the forest around me was very creepy. Then, previews to scary movies I have never seen only heard about came to mind. I started to freak out a bit and did a fifty point turn in the middle of the forest while some crazy witch lady watched from afar and plotted on what to do with our bones if we drove off the road into the Potomac. I am pretty sure that a road was moved and the GPS didn't know. Eventually we made it to the right house.

8:17 PM - We made it home. I decided that it was too late for the normal bed time stuff. So the kids didn't take baths. I decided we will get it done tomorrow.

8:45 PM - Bed time.

9:01 PM - Shower.

10:09 PM - Started blogging.

10:49 PM - Stopped blogging and went to bed.

Life in the Shoes of Krista: Day 7

2011-11-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

5:30 AM - I heard the boys in their room playing... Loudly... And it was early. I sent them back to their beds three times.

5:45 AM - The boys were now yelling and squealing. I sent Parker into bed with me and left Clark in his bunk. Clark keeps getting out of bed. So I closed and locked the door. Eventually all this ruckus woke up Isaac.

5:50 AM - Back to bed.

7:35 AM - Everyone got up and we had breakfast.

7:38 AM - Carly reminded me that she had chorus at eight and that her ride would be her in seven minutes. She got dressed in two minutes while I quickly made her lunch. Signed her agenda. She ate breakfast quickly. All of this usually taken an hour to get done.

7:48 AM - Carly left.

8:22 AM - Me and all the boys went upstairs to get dressed.

8:47 AM - We left to take Parker to preschool.

9:15 AM - We got back home and I had breakfast. Strawberry flavored cream cheese...Eh.

9:23 AM - I picked up the kitchen and turned on last nights movie for Clark to finish. Then I caught up on my cousins mission blog.

11:47 AM - We left the house to go get Parker.

12:12 PM - We arrived back home.

12:57 PM - Nap time and some light kitchen cleaning from lunch.

1:21 PM - Lunch for me.

3:44 PM - Woke Clark up and had the boys clean the play room.

4:12 PM - French toast for dinner. Carly did her home work while I was getting food ready. She stresses about her homework the same way I used to. She needed help and asked what the assignment wanted. Then when I start to explain how it works she starts saying she gets it and doesn't need my help. Independent.

5:15 PM - Cleaned up from dinner.

6:03 PM - Carly finished Rio.

6:52 PM - Left the house to take Carly to church.

7:58 PM - Started blogging.

8:02 PM - Eric called to talk.

8:14 PM - Got the kids in the car to get Carly. On the way home Isaac was mad and Parker didn't like the noise. So naturally, he was reaching across the middle seat to beat on Isaac's car seat and said words he isn't supposed to say. There goes the mini van with its brakes slammed on at a stop sign. And Carly eats ice cream.

8:32 PM - Bed routine is over and boy are in bed. Carly

8:58 PM - Shower.

9:35 PM - Isaac is finally asleep. It has been a long few days with him. I am 99% positive I will be seeing teeth here in the next few days.

9:59 PM - Done blogging and headed to bed. It was a long day and I was out of patience by about dinner time. I'm pretty sure today I was mean Aunt Chesca. I guess that is what happens when life is crazy and your morning starts at 5:30 AM.

Life in the Shoes of Krista: Day 6

2011-11-08T20:16:00.001-07:00

2:57 AM - Carly had a bad dream. She tried to crawl in bed with me but Isaac was already there. Instead she crawled up like a cat at the bottom of the bed for five minutes and decided that she was okay enough to go to her own bed. I think this is how this happened. I was so wiped out this morning.

6:05 AM - Boys were up playing quietly.

6:35 AM - I got breakfast ready for the boys.

6:45 AM - Isaac woke up super happy.

7:55 AM - I woke Carly up and she got breakfast.

8:15 AM - Everyone got dressed.

8:52 AM - We got in the car and I gave the kids a pep talk. I bribed them with treats and a movie, lasts night FHE that didn't happened, for good behavior and big helpers. We left for Target. I also performed a quick mental test on myself to see if I was crazy for not. I mean four kids to Target... Yep, crazy.

9:01 AM - We shopped at Target. We were quick. We got soda, a birthday present, Puffs for Isaac, and carpet cleaner. After I got all our things I walked the kids down the toy aisle. This was a conditional promise I made upon entering Target.

10:02 AM - Arrived at the mall. Yep still crazy. We had a minor melt down in the parking lot because Clark didn't want to be strapped into the stroller. As soon as the melt down started I told him we were packing up and going home. Carly and Parker didn't want to go home, so immediately they calmed Clark down. I was only half serious, but it worked. I'm the mean aunt. We walked around and went into a few stores. The kids ran around the play area and sat in some of the quarter rides. I got tired of walking so I declared and early lunch.

11:10 AM - Arrived at Noodles & Company. I love their Wisconsin Mac and Cheese. Lunch was good until Clark decided he was done eating and it was time to go. He was ready to leave that minutes. After a few nos, I got hit and we went outside for a talk and a two minute time out. Not sure how well this works consistently for a two year old, but he stopped crying and fussing.

12:12 PM - Home from our trips around town.

12:25 PM - I did some laundry, the boys had play time, Clark had some medicine, and Carly colored.

1:10 PM - Clark had a nap.

1:12 PM - Parker, Carly, and I worked on our hats.

2:41 PM - Isaac took a nap.

3:42 PM - Andy and Krista Skyped the kids.

4:10 PM - Dinner. Everyone ate their food but Clark. Which was a problem because after dinner we were all getting our movie and treats. Clark wasn't going to get any since he didn't take one bite of food.

4:50: PM - We started our movie. Everyone had treats but Clark. He quickly figured this our. Cried for a bit, but eventually him and I settled on a bagel and grapes for dinner. It was the best I could get out of him.

5:50 PM - Baths for the boys.

6:05 PM - Left the house to take Carly to dance. The boys fought in the car while Isaac slept. Parker got in trouble for biting and pulling hair. I finished my hat.

7:56 PM - Home from dance.

8:00 PM - Read a book to the boys, while Carly showered.

8:26 PM - Isaac and I showered.

9:23 PM - Brett called.

10:07 PM - Started blog.

10:15 PM - Ended blog.

Life in the Shoes of Krista: Day 5

2011-11-07T20:32:00.001-07:00

3:53 AM - Parker woke up from a bad dream, he then crawled in bed with me. He fell asleep within two minutes. Five minutes later I moved him back into his bed. I like having the bed to myself. Although Isaac has ended up in bed with me almost every night. He has been waking up in the middle of the night a bit stuffy. I can't figure it out. Maybe it is the weather, most likely a cold, now I am thinking those baby teeth are playing a role in his issues too.

4:03 AM - Isaac started crying.

4:30 AM - Clark is mad that Parker got moved into his bed. I couldn't carry a sleeping kid to the top bunk. I drug Parker to his bunk.

4:53 AM - Back to sleeping.

6:45 AM - I heard to boys playing in their room.

6:54 AM - Out of bed and downstairs feeding the boys.

7:12 AM - Folded last night's laundry.

7:25 AM - Got the boys dressed for the day. Got Parker ready for school. Got their hair done. It stuck straight up. It's getting long.

7:30 AM - Woke Carly up and got her moving.

7:45 AM - Carly and Isaac got dressed. I got dressed.

8:23 AM - Found cereal dumped on floor.

8:33 AM - Carly walked out the door for school.

8:42 AM - Packed everyone else up and went off to take Parker to preschool.

9:02 AM - Headed to the grocery store. I ended up making only one wrong turn. Bloom was closer to home than I thought it would be. Isaac was sleeping and Bloom has funny shopping carts. Instead of sitting on the cart handle area, Isaac went in the basket. Clark did not like this. He asked to get in the folded out part of the cart where your kid is supposed to sit. I couldn't open it with Isaac in the basket. Que screaming as Clark walks slowly behind me. I let him voice his opinion. Walked across the length of the store to find the candy aisle. Did not see it on any signs. Screaming continues. So I had to walk up and down a few aisles where you would possibly find candy: soda aisle, cracker aisle, baking aisle, the random food aisle. No candy. A man offered me some comfort. He told me to not worry, and that my kids would grow up soon and it would get easier. So he smiled at Clark. Screaming got louder. I had a mental moment of silence for Krista. She somehow does this on a regular basis. I finally gave up looking and asked a clerk for the candy aisle. It didn't have an aisle. It had a section in front of the meat and dairy. So dumb. I grabbed a box of cake mix so I don't look like a crazy person who shops for one thing with a screaming kid. I decided to make an apple pie cobbler thing when Krista and Andy get back. I leave Bloom. Not feeling too bad. I didn't give in to the screaming right. Is the correct parenting? I then used Redbox for a movie for the kids. FHE would be popcorn, candy, and a family flick.

9:50 AM - Back from Bloom. The crying stopped in the car. Cleaned up cereal from floor. I had two cookies for breakfast, and sat down to watch Meet the Robinsons with Clark and Isaac.

11:42 AM - Left to get Parker.

12:14 PM - Got back from short trip to preschool. First Dr. Pepper for the day. I took a mental note to get another case. Ate lunch with the kiddos.

1:05 PM - Clark down for a nap. Parker and I worked on our hats.

3:45 PM - Isaac went down for a nap and Clark woke up.

3:59 PM - Carly got home from school.

4:12 PM - Found yogurt on floor.

4:20 PM - Started dinner.

4:30 PM - Sent Carly to practice piano. Then I asked myself what night piano lessons were. I guessed Thursday. Carly read my mind and came in saying that she thought we missed piano. I looked at the schedule. We had to leave in less than twenty minutes. Stopped dinner. Packed everyone up.

4:50 PM - Left for piano. Obvious crisis in car with the boys. Proper threats we dispersed.

6:07 PM - Home. Sent Carly to the shower. Had the boys clean up their toys. Finished dinner.

6:56 PM - Boys in bath.

7:18 PM - Pajamas, scriptures. On the way back up stairs Clark slaps Parker. Parker punches Clark. Both end up in time out. Que screaming.

7:45 PM - Crying stops and books are read separately.

8:07 PM - Me and Isaac got in the shower. Carly worked on her hat.

9:15 PM - Downstairs to hangout with Carly.

9:45 PM - Started blogging.

9:50 PM - Carly started forcing a cough. I reminded her that sick kids can't go to birthday parties.

10:03 PM - Called my mom back.

10:30 PM - Stopped blogging and decided to clean the kitchen, rotate laundry, then get some sleep.

Life in the Shoes of Krista: Day 4

2011-11-06T20:31:00.001-07:00

6:22 AM - The boys woke up a little too early. They played quietly in their rooms.

6:37 AM - Took Isaac's temperature. He still had a fever so I decided to keep everyone home from church.

7:00 AM - Clark had a really bad poopy diaper.

7:22 AM - For breakfast the boys had cereal and toast. Clark had medicine too.

7:45 AM - Carly got up and had breakfast.

7:53 AM - Isaac woke up.

8:12 AM - I had breakfast.

9:15 AM - The kids made a fort. Parker fell off a chair.

11:00 AM - I started making cookies.

11:05 AM - Then followed a series of major munchies. While I was making cookies, that had a lot of sugar in them, the kids kept wanting sugary snacks. Clark kept asking for Fruit Rolls Ups, then Gold Fishies, Graham Crackers, Vanilla Waffers. I tried to offer fruit, and Wheat Thins, and milk. Eventually he just cried. Parker wanted Little Debbies, juice, and more Gold Fishies. I realized that I let them get away with way too many sweets. Carly then asked why I was limiting the sweets. Well I had failed to give them vegetables. Which is why Clark has been having stuck poop.

11:30 AM - I finally gave up on crying and snack time. I made lunch a little early.

11:45 AM - Quiet movie time. Gotta love The Emperor's New Groove, twice.

12:50 PM - Clark took a nap.

12:55 PM - I had a Dr. Pepper.

1:06 PM - Isaac went down for a nap too. Carly, Parker, and me decided to crochet hats using looms. This was actually fun. I even got Parker to work on one of his own. I would wrap the yarn for him and he would pull the loops over the pegs. Then he would push the new section down the peg so we could start the process over again. Carly and I guarded the crochet hook form Parker just in case he decided to carve his name into the table.

1:50 PM - Isaac woke up from his nap.

3:45 PM - Clark woke up very grumpy from his nap.

4:00 PM - Started dinner.

4:11 PM - Krista called.

4:22 PM - Krista Skyped the kiddos.

4:30 PM - Dinner time with a quick kitchen clean up.

5:40 PM - Chatted online with Krista.

6:21 PM - Bath time.

6:25 PM - Carly practiced piano.

7:00 PM - I checked Parker's backpack just in case he had any homework. He had to find pictures of things that started with the letter D. So we printed some dinosaurs, a drum, a duck, and a dog. Then we all colored while Parker and I finished his homework. Carly took a quick shower.

7:39 PM - My mom called to check up on the craziness and the sick persons.

7:47 PM - Sent the boys upstairs for books and bed time. Sent Carly to her room to read.

8:00 PM - Got in the shower.

8:58 PM - Lights went out for Carly. Isaac got his pajamas on and had a bottle. I dried my hair.

9:40 PM - Put a load of laundry in. I had to start the washer three times because I don't know how to work Krista's space machine.

9:42 PM - Brett called.

10:02 PM - Started blogging.

10:15 PM - Ate a delicious cookie that I plan to blog about because it is so good and I finally figured out the perfect cooking time for a convention not convection oven.

Yes, you were supposed to read that in one breath. These cookies are exciting.

10:30 PM - Decided to go to bed.

10:31 PM - Stopped blogging.

Life in the Shoes of Krista: Day 3

2011-11-05T18:51:00.002-07:00

7:35 AM - The boys woke up. Time for good old Saturday morning cartoons. The boys started breakfast with yogurt, then cereal and toast. Clark got his medicine.

8:00 AM - Carly woke up.

8:15 AM - Isaac woke up with fever.

8:23 AM - Called Krista's friend Melissa to see if she could take Parker to a birthday party at the mall. She said yes.

8:25 AM - Found Clark's diaper at the bottom of his pajamas.

8:32 AM - Emailed Krista about everyone but Carly, including me, being sick.

8:47 AM - Decided to try Clark's favorite breakfast meal. Peanut butter toast. Verdict. Decent. Could use some OJ.

9:00 AM - Sent everyone up stairs to get dressed for the day.

10:06 AM - Parker's ride for the party showed up.

10:15 AM - Isaac went down for a nap.

10:40 AM - Isaac woke up.

11:00 AM - Left the house to go to Target with Issac, Carly, and Clark. We bought me some medicine. Stopped at Panera Bread for lunch. It was delicious. Took my medicine.

12:23 PM - Accidently got on the freeway and worried about getting lost and ending up in New York.

12:40 PM - Finally made it home.

12:46 PM - Decided to try and mix Clark's medicine in his yogurt. Total failure. Instead I added it to some super sugared up juice. He drank it quickly.

1:00 PM - Clark took a nap.

3:00 PM - Parker walks in the door from his party at Build a Bear. "Ronny" was wearing Lightening McQueen pajamas and slippers. Got the right phone number for Stacie.

3:22 PM - Clark woke up. Carly helped the boys get their shoes on while I fed Isaac some apple sauce. Then we headed outside for some bike riding. Carly is getting better on her skates, like old school skates.

4:06 PM - Started Saturday chores. Isaac took another nap. I finally washed some of Isaac's bottles. Parker was a fantastic helper and did all of his chores quickly. I might have bribed him.

4:30 PM - Drank a Dr. Pepper.

5:00 PM - Started dinner and eventually sat down to eat it. Clark got more medicine.

5:46 PM - Finished watching Cars for the millionth time. It is still a fantastic movie.

6:00 PM - Bath time. At which point Clark decided to pee in the water. It was a short bath time. Accompanied with some forced teeth brushing for Clark.

6:43 PM - Scriptures. This is where Clark had a melt down and hit me for asking him to wait for a drink and sit down reverently. Scripture reading was loud. Carly was nice enough to help keep Isaac happy.

7:15 PM - Book time. We read a Cars book.

7:25 PM - Boys in bed. Carly in shower. I had to help scrub her hair to get some greasy out.

7:42 PM - Isaac fell asleep in my arms when I discovered Pintrest.

8:00 PM - The boys got out of bed and were found playing in the bathroom.

8:05 PM - Started blogging. Carly started to trace some coloring pages.

8:10 PM - Isaac woke up.

8:25 PM - Shower.

9:19 PM - Sent Carly to bed.

9:49 PM - Finished blogging.

10:00 PM - Went to bed.

Life in the Shoes of Krista: Day 2

2011-11-04T18:40:00.001-07:00

12:06 AM - Clark's cough was getting very active. When I went to check on him he was sleeping though all of it. I woke him and got some books to read in the bathroom while the shower ran some hot water. This only lasted like ten minutes because I couldn't take the heavy air anymore.

12:20 AM - I went back to sleep.

7:16 AM - Parker and Clark woke up. So it was time for me to get out of bed as well. The boys started to read book together.

7:23 AM - I got dressed.

7:35 AM - It was time for Carly to wake up.

7:45 AM - We all went down stairs for breakfast. Clark had oatmeal while everyone else had cereal. Clark had a dose of medicine.

8:07 AM - Carly finished getting dressed and I packed her lunch.

8:15 AM - The boys got dressed as well and the rest of us.

8:28 AM - Isaac was up and I got him dressed very quickly.

8:35 AM - Carly left for school.

8:42 AM - Forgot to do the kiddos hair. Which is not acceptable for a hairstylist.

8:47 AM - I packed all the boys, including Isaac, into the car to head off for preschool.

9:01 AM - Dropped Parker off at preschool.

9:23 AM - Back in the house after taking Parker to preschool. I decided to rearrange the car seats to keep Clark from germ-ing the other kids up.

9:27 AM - Cleaned up the kitchen from breakfast and emptied the dishwasher.

9:37 AM - Chugged my first Dr. Pepper.

9:45 AM - Researched the layout of the area so that I could run some errands.

10:10 AM - Clark, Isaac, and myself left the house to go to Target and Michaels.

11:20 AM - Clark trips at Target and hits his brow bone on a clothing rack and give his cheek a rug burn.

11:35 AM - Realized my errands didn't take long enough. So. I drove around Stafford Market Place.

11:47 AM - Headed to Parker's preschool.

12:06 PM - Preschool let out.

12:30 PM - Macaroni and Cheese for lunch. Clark gots more medicine and didn't really finish it.

1:05 PM - Clark and Isaac got a nap and Parker did some learning workbooks.

3:00 PM - Nap time was officially over and the house gets turned upside down.

3:15 PM - Parker bites Clark and goes to time out.

3:56 PM - Carly got home from school.

4:00 PM - Carly attempted roller skating again.

4:32 PM - Started dinner.

4:50 PM - Krista called.

5:26 PM - Ate dinner. I ate dinner. Everyone else just stared at it. I had to bribe the kids with grapes and juice. Which didn't really work. Then I remember that my grandpa used to tell me that if I didn't eat my food he would put it in my ears. So I tried it and it worked.

6:25 PM - Cleaned up the kitchen from dinner and picked up the toys. Somehow Clark got pushed out the door to the garage and fell down a few stairs. He did lots of crying and hating on Carly.

6:45: PM - Bath time.

7:04 PM - Scriptures and prayer. Followed by crying.

7:45 PM - We had a ten minutes dance party.

8:01 PM - The boys got sent to bed.

8:20 PM - Blogging began.

8:30 PM - I got in the shower and sent Carly to bed.

9:40 PM - Isaac has a runny nose.

9:41 PM - Bed.

Life in the Shoes of Krista: Day 1

2011-11-03T20:08:00.001-07:00

3:15 AM - I heard coughing downstairs. Clark has been hacking his head off for the past few hours and I figured he made it out of bed for some reason. I make it down stairs to find Andy dressed and ready to go to the ER, since it is the only place open at this time for medical attention. Clark's coughing was getting pretty bad. Soon after I get back to bed.

7:00 AM - My first of three alarms goes off.

7:07 AM - Alarm two.

7:16 AM - I got out of bed because Carly needed to be woken up soon, but instead I heard Andy and Krista talking downstairs. So naturally I went down there to see what was going on. Earlier that morning Clark had been diagnosed with croup and Andy had just gotten back from that whole ordeal. He was explaining all of the medicine that Clark would be on for the next several days.

7:24 AM - I woke Carly up. Shortly after, Krista got Carly going for school and moved on to the things she needed to be doing.

7:48 AM - I packed Carly's lunch.

8:02 AM - I got showered and dressed. I decided that it was going to be my one and only chance the entire day to get clean. Baby Isaac was still sleeping and I was expecting him to be awake at anytime. So I was quick.

8:35 AM - Krista gave Carly hugs and kisses and sent her off to school.

Then things got a little crazy with kiddos waking up.

9:30 AMish - Clark, Parker, and Baby Isaac got dressed.

10:00 AMish - Clark took his medicine.

11:00 AMish - Krista and Andy left.

11:32 AM - Clark took half of his other medicine.

11:37 AM - I put Isaac down for nap number one and Clark finished the rest of his medicine which ended up all over his face. And on my hands. And maybe on the floor too.

11:45 AM - I made chicken noodle soup for Clark, Parker and myself. Clark and Parker ate from super hero bowls.

12:12 PM - Parker hit Clark for standing in front of the TV and ended up in time out.

12:14 PM - We started Sherk... number... four... and Isaac woke up from his nap

12:45 PM - Clark told me he was sleepy and went upstairs for a nap.

2:32 PM - Clark woke up from his nap. Clark got more medicine.

3:55 PM - Parker hit Clark on the head with a stick and ended up in time out. Then... Clark cried because his head hurt. Then he cried some more because the poor kid got all worked up and started coughing out of control.

4:05 PM - Carly came home from school.

4:07 PM - Carly went out to play.

4:42 PM - Carly came inside and did her homework. I tried to get dinner going at this point but there was a lot of screaming involved.

4:08 PM - Carly and Parker emptied the dish washer.

5:10 PM - Dinner was cooking. Carly practiced piano.

5:25 PM - Carly set the table and we ate dinner. It was a delicious recipe that Krista left for me.

5:52 PM - The kids picked up their toys while I fed Isaac and did the dishes. Carly dried some dished and started the dish washer.

6:30 PM - Carly and Isaac read books while I gave the boys a bath. I added bubbles cause they are fun. Clark didn't seem to think so. Parker made a beard with the soap bubbles. Clark splashed water on Parker to wash it off. Parker got mad.

6:47 PM - The boys started jumping in the tub and bath time was over. Carly played more piano.

7:15 PM - The boys dumped the toys out again. Played for awhile then cleaned them back up.

7:35 PM - We read scriptures.

7:47 PM - We said prayers.

7:49 PM - The kiddos brushed their teeth. Clark washed off all of his tooth paste. Parker ran away with the tooth brush then spit in the tub.

7:55 PM - We read stories.

8:07 PM - The boys went to bed.

8:11 PM - Carly did some reading and Isaac and I got in the shower.

8:37 PM - Carly went off to bed to read some more.

9:02 PM - Made my bed for sleeping.

9:10 PM - I called my mom back.

9:30 PM - Isaac went to bed in a pink room.

9:32 PM - I called Sherri.

9:41 PM - I called Brett and ate a second dinner.

10:02 PM - I started to blog.

10:03 PM - Isaac woke up screaming, but went right back to sleep.

10:30 PM - I had my second can of Dr. Pepper for the day.

11:04 PM - Thought about watching some TV shows but decided otherwise.

11:05 PM - Decided to stop blogging and get some sleep.

*Please note that only half of these times are accurate. The half that aren't happened within ten minutes of recorded time.

Office Furniture

2011-11-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

Here is the before look. Check out my project blog for details on my game plan.

Project: Refinish Office Furniture

Furniture Source: In Laws

Supplies: Stain, Poly Coat, Brushes, Electric Sander, Sand Paper, Knobs, Drill, Nail Gun

Estimated Time for Refinish: 1.5 Weeks

Check back for the finished look.

P.S. Ignore my messy garage, I cleaned it up after I took this picture.

Experiences in Farming 101

2011-10-31T10:15:00.000-07:00

I would like to say that I come from a long line of farmers, but I don't. If I had a farming history, and as far as I know I don't, I would like to think that I would have grown up on a farm. Or at that least grew up on farmish property. I wouldn't be scared of the size of a horse or I would be eating brown chicken eggs. Maybe I would have some crops.

So I am not a farmers. Obviously.

But... my grandpa gardens. He loves to garden. I remember being little and there was always something growing in his dark Arizona soil. He grew a beautiful, big, plentiful garden.

And... my mom gardens. She loves to garden. I remember being little and there was usually something growing in our brown Arizona soil. She grew a beautiful, big, plentiful garden.

So here is my experiences in farming 101. I learned a thing or two about growing vegetables from my mom and grandpa. I've helped grow corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini etc. So when Brett and I got around to landscaping our backyard we decided to grow a garden.

So... we try to garden. We love to garden. Isaac will someday remember being little and there being one thing growing in our hard Arizona soil. We grow a unsightly, small, scarce garden.

Last winter was our first garden. We got broccoli. This past summer we got zucchini. This winter will be our third garden.

Every season we plant six or seven different things. We usually buy starter plans and plant them in random but organized rows. Our experiences have resulted in death. We only get one type of produce. Expensive and wasteful. So this year we planted seeds in rows, the way farmers do. I also decided to try a few potted vegetables. I work with a girl who has had great results with this.

My last attempt this year will be an herb garden. I took a well shaded part of the yard and decided to try a few herbs. This will be my second herb garden. This summer I tried a few things and ended up with a beautiful basil plant. It is still alive and growing in so full.

Let's cross our fingers and hope that third time is a charm. Cause I am not up for failing farming 101 again.

Mom of the Year

2011-10-28T10:18:00.000-07:00

I decided to apply for mom of the year. Here is my photo submission. While I was gardening I let my kid eat dirt. Oops. Any votes would be greatly appreciated.

Five Months

2011-10-27T00:50:00.001-07:00

Age: 5 months
Height: 26 inches (unofficially)
Weight: 19 pounds 8 ounces (unofficially)

I am amazed each month when I sit down to ~~brag~~ blog about what Isaac has been doing the past month. He is learning so quickly. I'm going to wake up one day and out of nowhere he will be all grown up.

Isaac can roll over now. He is semi-mobile. He rolls around over and over and over... I laugh a little when I come back to find him six feet from where I left him. I won't be laughing soon when he is getting into things and terrorizing the dogs. Which will be very soon. Isaac recently got up on his hands and knees. At first he would just roll back over. But now he gets up on his hands and knees and starts to rock back and forth. He can't sit up yet though. So maybe soon.

Sleeping is 100% back to normal, just in time for the eastern time zone to mess it up again (Isaac and are headed back to visit the kiddos).

He can hold his own bottle! This makes life a bit easier. It takes him forever to finish a bottle though. He likes to play with it. Pop it in, pop it out. He tries to see if he can drink it on his side. Or maybe on his stomach. Maybe I should try some sippy cups. When are you supposed to start doing that?

He is a champ at solids! Loves everything I give him. Especially peas!

Isaac likes things now. Anything. His hands and mouth act like positive and negative magnets. He takes a quick peak at what he has found and then he decides to see how it tastes. He loves his Sophie Giraffe. He likes to make her squeak now. Then there is Mr. Froggy. I often find poor Mr. Froggy depantsed. And... if you decide that Isaac has something he shouldn't, he gets very mad when you take it away.

I can already tell that he is going to be a stubborn child. Which should be no surprise to anyone.

His eyes seem to have stopped changing. When he was born they were a dark slate blue kind of color. Now they are a lighter brown with a bit of a green undertone. His hair is a different story though. It was dark like mine when he was born. And everyday, I swear, it is getting lighter. Ever seen a naturally blonde mexican? I've seen one... But he doesn't look mexican.

So. Shall we take bets for next month? Who thinks he'll be sitting up and who thinks he will be crawling?

I Could Love Washington DC/Virginia

2011-10-13T02:16:00.000-07:00

I decided that there is room in my heart for Washington DC/Virginia. The weather in September is so nice. Unless of course there is a tropical storm blowing through. Then your hair curls with the humidity and all major freeways start to flood.

I can make some room for all the cute front doors Virginia residents have. I can make room for all the nostalgic downtown wherevers. There is room for the wonderfully green crabgrass lawns and the colorful roadsides. There is room in my heart for the east coast, not much, but some.

It has been a month since Brett, Isaac, I got back from visiting Krista and her family. I miss them so much. It was a nice low key vacation where we never had to be anywhere. We woke up when we wanted and went to bed way past our bed times. We went wherever, ate whatever, did whatever.

We took a red eye flight out to Baltimore. I was seriously stressing about this vacation from the moment we booked our flight. I was taking a baby on an airplane. If flying isn't complicated enough, I was going to have a lap child. I asked over and over for the best tips for flying with an infant. I packed as many carryon items for Isaac as I could. I mean a million things could go wrong. Blown out diaper, screaming child, running out of formula... Of course I stressed for nothing. Isaac slept the whole way there and was just as easy on the way back. Only once was I not able to get a seat for him.

Like I said we pretty much did whatever while we were there. With five kids, four of which belong to Krista, anywhere we went was a bit chaotic, but we managed to get around. Since we did the touristy thing the last time we were in DC, we only went to the National Mall once. We parked right in front of the National Archives building and saw the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution. It was quick and cool.

We went to Georgetown Cupcake. Twice. Don't judge, we like to eat. Our first time was in the rain with four kids. Isaac barfed on their floor like three times. I felt so bad. Then while we were waiting for our cupcakes the rest of the kiddos had a melt down. Which is normal, but crazy. If you ever go to DC just visit Georgetown Cupcake. The cupcakes are a bit expensive, but they are so good. After eating sweets we ran to Chipotle in the rain. Where Isaac lost his only binky. I had a melt down of my own and made Brett go back and find it. Life without a binky is not something I would like to experience.

Of course we had to have a night out without the kids. Thanks go out to Krista's babysitters. Because of them we were able to make it to the Washington DC Temple. When I was little I always thought that this temple looked like a hospital. The thing is huge and so pretty. I love how each temple is so different. Even inside, they are so similar yet so individual too. It was fantastic. We also enjoyed a yummy Cheesecake Factory meal following a session. And then more Georgetown Cupcake for dessert.

Krista found some baseball tickets on Groupon. We took the metro to a National's game. I don't know who was playing. I just like to go so I can people watch. It was actually my third baseball park. Each park is so cool. We took all the kids and fed them popcorn and cotton candy. Then got back on the metro and headed home. Getting on and off the metro with five kids is crazy. I can't wait for teleportation.

(The image is small cause my hair looked bad)

(I love his t-shirt)

(We love Aunt Krista)

Poor Andy missed out on some of our trips around town. He had to work while we were there. But, we did get to see him play his trumpet. He participated in the Spirit of America show. It was pretty cool. Lots of music and some US history. At the beginning of the show they fired off a canon. Then they kept doing it throughout the show. The kids didn't like that so much. Lots of crying involved.

Krista forced me to paint Addy's bedroom. Okay, I pretty much begged her to let me paint it. She had some ideas for a cute little girl nursery and I was all for it. We got Andy on board with the plans and I made Brett help me spend his vacation with a paint brush and power tools. Check out my project blog for the details on that. It came out so good. It was time well spent.

(Just a sample of the finished look)

The rest of our time we spent eating. Brett and I went to Noodles and Company three times. They have fantastic macaroni and cheese. We had lots of chocolate. Lots of soda. I had lots and lots of soda.

Isaac got to spend time with is cousins. I can't wait for him to get big enough to play with Addy and the boys. We were so exhausted each day but we had so much fun.

(Isaac beating up Addy)

(One)

(Two)

(Three)

It was a fantastic vacation. So good that when we left I told Brett. I could handle being in the DC area if I had do. I could even handle it if I had to be there forever. Maybe. I'm not saying anything big like we are moving. I am just saying I could love Washington DC/Virginia.

I Painted While on Vacation

2011-10-12T01:25:00.000-07:00

I'm going to send you to my project blog to read a post about the bedroom Krista, Andy, Brett, and I worked on. It was one on my favorite projects. But here is a sneak peak of baby Addy's new nursery.

I'm a Project Do-er

2011-10-11T22:10:00.000-07:00

Kay. I finally did it.

I have been wanting for so long to make a project blog and I always have a project or two going on to talk about.

I started the blog with a project I did for a family member, but I need to add a few projects that we have going on right now at home. But I am so one of those people that just needs to get something started or else it stays an idea forever. Which totally torments me.

Anyways. It is boring right now because it only has one post, but it's a good post. So go check it out.

Four Months

2011-09-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

Age: 4 months

Height: 25 1/2 inches (unofficially)

Weight: 18 pounds (unofficially)

My child is huge. According to most men, after hearing his weight and height percentiles, Isaac will be a linebacker someday.

Isaac is sleeping normally, kind of. We visited Krista and her family in Washington DC and it messed up his sleeping schedule. So as of late, he has been a little grumpy.

My baby boy is eating solids now! Yippe! I think I was more excited about this than I should be. He has liked everything we have given him so far except for carrots and rice cereal. But they were gross anyways. I can't wait for the good stuff like pizza and Chipotle.

Isaac has discovered his own spit. So on top of being a drool bucket to begin with, he makes spit bubbles. It makes for very wet kisses. He giggles now too. Constantly. All day long. It has to be the best sound in the world. I love making him laugh. I love seeing him happy. He is such a happy baby.

Acute Bronchitis, Accute Laryngitis, and a Minor Cold

2011-08-28T23:13:00.003-07:00

According to their last quarterly report, Intel currently employs 96,500 employees. That doesn't include the tens of thousands of contracted workers they also have. One of which is my husband.

Where am I going with this? Well, one of Intel's employees, got my family of three sick. That is all it takes to send a household to the doctor. One person who didn't wash their hands, or didn't cover their mouth while sneezing or coughing. One person breathing a little too close. Maybe they were a nail bitter and got their germs all over Intel. All over my husbands desk, lobby, work truck. Come on!

Three trips to the doctor. Three payments to the doctor. Three trips to the pharmacy. I am so not a happy wife and mother about this one. I'll tell you what. After this mess I am so getting my flu shot this year for the first time in forever.

Brett dealt with his sickness for a few days, thinking it was only a cold. By Tuesday, Isaac and I had left Brett at home to quarantine him. My mother in law, Sheri, and I spent the whole day calling Brett, trying convincing him, a man, to go to the freakin doctor. Seriously, I know it isn't fun, but what is it with men and doctors!

Finally Brett agreed to go. I left Isaac at my mom's to take Brett to urgent care. By the time I made it home, my poor husband was absolutely miserable. The kind of sick where you might as well be dying. As we had suspected he had bronchitis. He was given a shot for his massive headache, which didn't work and only made him dizzy, some cough medicine, and a Z-Pack. I ended up leaving Brett in his mom's basement to keep Isaac and myself from getting sick... and as you can guess we got the bug anyways.

That same night, out of nowhere I began to show symptoms. The next morning I made an appointment to see the doctor and get a Z-Pack for myself. After telling the doctor my concerns with this illness, baby, husband, upcoming vacation, I was diagnosed with laryngitis and sent away with my antibiotics. I was quarantined for the next 24 hours and had one miserable day that involved some barfing, but was lucky enough to get to the doctor quickly.

Through all of this, we were crossing our fingers hoping that we had done enough to keep Isaac out of this little club we had formed. Friday morning, I pulled Bubba out of his crib and heard a cough and some congestion. We were at the doctor's office a few hours later. Luckily, we were done passing the bacteria along and were only passing around a cold. We were sent home with a prescription to help Isaac's lungs stay open when he did start to cough too much. And we were told to rinse his nose often. The doctor made me feel much better when he said this will only be a few days.

Well. We are still alive. No thanks to some random Intel employee. I am sure we will be fighting this cough for a few weeks, and we will keep a box of tissue around the house for a few more days. For the most part we are functional again. But, wash your hands people. Please.

Three Months

2011-08-16T22:02:00.002-07:00

Age: 3 months

Height: 25 inches (unofficially)

Weight: 16 pounds (unofficially)

Babies are so little. It is crazy because they learn and grow so fast. Of course like any mom, I love to watch my baby learn new things. However, according to my husband, I am teaching my baby Isaac bad manners. Apparently teaching Isaac to stick his tongue out is considered rude. Oh well.

He is learning others things too though. When I walk into his room at 7:00 AM, I am usually saying something along the lines of good morning, and he turns his heard towards my voice. It makes me feel all tingly inside. He also loves to have conversations. The baby talk lasts forever now. It used to happen every now and then, but if he wants your attention he knows to start with the "a goos" and the "moos." The smiles come regularly now too.

He is an excellent sitter in your lap. He can sit on his own with some support and his newest endeavor is trying to pull himself up into sitting position. This is usually associated with a few toots.

The last biggest development is his control of those crazy spaztastic arms and hands. He has always loved to munch on his hands in attempt to find his thumb and now he can find it almost instantly. However, he prefers his binky. He can also bring his hands together, intertwine his fingers, and then tap his fingers against eachother. My brother referred to it as the evil mad scientist grip.

I am seriously blessed to have such an easy baby. He is now sleeping through the night, which means I am back to decent sleeping habits and that makes for a happy mommy. He is still barfing a bit after taking a bottle. Actually, I think we go through every burp rag and receiving blanket we have in two days. Lots of laundry.

With him getting so big I have been packing away all the newborn sizes and dressing him in three month clothes for a few weeks now. Did I mention I have a fantastic client from work named Heather? I do. She is amazing. She recently passed on to me ten boxes of baby boy clothes. Thanks Heather.

Anyways. We are looking forward to next month. Isaac will have his first plane ride, meet his cousins, and move on to baby food.

Family = Happiness

2011-08-10T23:37:00.003-07:00

Enough said.

Two Months

2011-07-21T18:43:00.002-07:00

Age: 2 months
Height: 23 inches
Weight: 12 pounds 9 ounces

My baby is so squishy! His cheeks and his thighs. I love to munch on them, especially when it makes him smile. Isaac is sleeping very well now. He is still getting up once for a quick bottle, but he goes right back to sleep.

He is in this funky spit up stage. Almost after every bottle he is letting something back up. At first we thought it was cause we were feeding him too much each time, but I think it is just more of a chugging thing. The doctor suggested feeding him more often, but we were getting the same results. Kinda lost on on that one.

Isaac is so strong. At his last appointment his doctor said he was holding his head up like a four month old! I was very impressed with my kid. He has great control of that giant head. He loves sitting up and watching what is going on, and even loves to try standing in your lap.

And finally, Isaac smiles and talks now. Well, baby talks, but it is so stinkin' cute. He loves listening to songs we sing to him, especially the Hockey Pockey, and he loves when you make the chugga chugga choo choo train sounds.

That's it for two months.

Isaac Marciano Day

2011-07-07T13:19:00.003-07:00

My baby boy is almost two months old and even though two months is nothing compared to my 23 years of life, I can't imagine life without Isaac.

We had Isaac blessed at church this past Sunday. I am so thankful for the family and friends that showed up to this occasion to support our little family. You have no idea how much that means to me. Knowing that you guys are behind us makes me confident that Brett and I can be good parents. And, when we make mistakes and need help we have so many people to turn to.

Since I am busy thinking about how wonderful my little family is, I think it is about time to tell you the story of baby Isaac. Having a baby at a hospital is kinda gross, and I spared the gross details, but if you don't want the regular details of my delivery either, feel free to stop reading now. I had Isaac ten days early. Which was fantastic for me. I pretty much worked myself into labor and with some help of Aunt Lenor, had Isaac on May 16th.

Sunday night, on the 15th, we had family home evening over at Lenor's house. Brett and I arrived a bit early so that Lenor could work some reflexology on my feet to help with the whole being pregnant thing. About an hour after Lenor had worked on my feet, I was sitting on the couch and my water started to leak, not on the couch though. At the time I wasn't entirely sure that is was my water though. My fluid wasn't the right color. After we got home from family night we called the doctor to make sure coming in for a possibly broken water was the right thing to do or not. The doctors said to come in and get evaluated. I decided to take my time, get in the shower, grab a few things. Well, right before I got in the shower, my water broke, it wasn't leaking, it was definitely broken.

We got to the hospital, Ironwood, at about 10:30 PM, Sunday night. They checked me in and got me ready for an evaluation. The concern at the time was the color of my amniotic fluid, it was pink. The hospital tested the fluid to make sure it was actually my water that broke, and strangely enough the test they ran said that my water hadn't broken. So they tested me again only to find the same results. So they checked my cervix, which two people could not get to. After obtaining a urine sample, they were sure that is was my water that had broken, despite the previously ran tests. I would be staying at the hospital to have my baby.

I got sent to my delivery room, which was huge and fantastic, and got hooked up to a few machines. Then I was left there so that my contractions, that were not regular, could be monitored. Eventually they decided that my contractions needed some help and they put me on pitocin. At this point it was maybe two or three in the morning, I was very hungry and sleepy. I had had very small snacks over the previous twenty-four hours and only a two hour nap after church. By the time my excitement had worn down and I wanted to sleep, my contractions were too present for any real sleep. I dealt with them. At about six in the morning I asked for some pain medication. I wasn't ready for the epidural because I was worried it wouldn't last since I was only dilated to a three. However, they recommended that I take the epidural and get some sleep. It was fantastic sleep.

I woke up at about three hours later. At this point I was dilated to a nine and they were going to get me ready to have my baby. At 9:30 AM, I was fully dilated and I started pushing... over and over again. At some point Isaac got stuck cause his hand was in the way. I was so sleepy that I tried to sleep between my contractions. This went on for what seemed to be forever. I asked for ice chips over and over again. I wanted toast and apple juice, which I obviously couldn't have. Eventually, it seemed like I was feeling more and more of this delivery, which made me started to panic a bit. There was a bit of crying involved, some barfing, an episiotomy, and finally at 12:48 PM, Isaac Marciano Day was born. He weighed 7 pounds and 13 ounces, and was 20 1/2 inches long.

Seeing him for the first time was absolutely amazing and I fell instantly in love. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a mother. It is the best job in the world. Looking at him makes me so happy. Loving Isaac is indescribable.

Anticipated Updates

2011-06-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

This time I have a legitimate excuse for my absence in the blogging world. Not that my posts are in high demand for your reading entertainment or anything. However, I know my sister in-law, Krista, checks up on our family blog, so we have at least one fan.

Did you hear we had our baby? Yep, hence my blogging absence. Anyways, I finally got around to the blog update, but I kinda cheated. I adjusted the dates on my posts so that they would be in chronological order (scroll down the page for the real news). Someday I might print the blog into a book, since I have failed miserably at journal keeping, and I want accurate dates associated with my posts.

Time for the real posts.

One Month

2011-06-16T13:21:00.002-07:00

Age: 1 month

Height: 21 inches

Weight: 10 pounds 2 ounces

Isaac is a month old. I've been doing this mom thing for a month now. Right now Isaac sleeps most of the time and sleeps at night too. Which is great cause I get sleep and have time to get things done around the house. He eats every two the three hours and puts down three to four ounces each time. I have opted to nurse and bottle feed him. I am also pumping which I do prefer. When he gets hungry and is too impatient for us to get him a bottle or for me to get ready for a feeding, he makes this funny munchy sound with his binky. He loves car rides, his boppy, and cuddling. He hates getting his diaper changed and often pees on something or someone. And sometimes if we are lucky, we get a spontaneous smile out of him, which means he is probably pooping.

On Memorial Day, May 30th, Isaac made it to his first Diamondbacks Baseball game.

White Spray Paint

2011-05-12T21:28:00.001-07:00

I am only putting this story on the blog because it is funny now. It wasn't funny when it happened.

There is this armoire that my mom gave me when I got married. It started out as a regular unpainted wooden armoire. After I got it, I painted it black. Then I decided it belonged in the baby's room and it needed to be green. The armoire came out so cute green.

Once I got it in the nursery I decided that since it only had two drawers and three shelves, it would need baskets to help organize the baby's clothes. Surprisingly enough, finding the perfect baskets was a hard task, but I did find some bare baskets. They would need to be painted.

I added "Spray Paint Baskets" to Brett's pre-baby to do list. With school being so crazy and him working so many hours, eventually it made its way over to my to do list. So one afternoon, I went into the garage and spray painted my baskets white.

Well, my only concern at the time was to make sure I left the garage door open while I painted the baskets, so it never did cross my mind that everything else in the garage would get my own special touch of white paint too. That included the car...

After I did one coat on the baskets, I left the house to run some errands. Came back for a second final coat. Left the house again, and upon returning I noticed the car. The first thing that crossed my mind was, WOW, the car got really dusty. I then tried to wipe the dust off, and then realized my giant oops. Long story short...

I panicked, tried to wash the car, called Brett, cleaned what I could off (the windows).

Brett came home... He realized that it was much more involved than he thought. I cried, Brett did some research. Eventually we got the car looking good again with some nail polish remover, and a very heavy coat of wax.

No pictures of this. I was too upset at the time.

Oops.

Chickens With Their Heads Cut Off...

2011-05-11T22:20:00.007-07:00

Graphic title. I know. I hope whatever mental image you just got was not too horrible. I have actually seen a chicken without a head though. My grandparents had chickens years back, and eventually the chickens became a meal. My cousins and I kinda helped prepare the chickens...

That is so not what this post is about though. Well not directly at least. I have felt like a chicken with its head cut off though. This last week has been absolutely crazy. Like ridiculously busy and stressful.

Brett and I finally finished school for the semester. Brett loaded like 18 some odd credits for his criminology major this semester. Finishing with the ugliest finals I have ever heard of. I think he said he had a research paper due in every single one of his classes. Like giant research papers, ones that I would never even attempt to complete. The kinda that I cry in front of the computer over.

I took some photography and photo editing classes this semester. I took classes that I knew I would enjoy, because when you are pregnant and in school, you don't want to be in school. I figured that if the classes were happy classes I might not hate life so much. The hardest thing I had to do was find time for homework. At least finals weren't too bad. I had a big shooting final that was nearly impossible to find a suitable subject to photograph. However, neither of us failed any classes, two thumbs up.

Then, there has been all this baby preparing going on around here. Like baby gear and stuff. However, I don't think anyone is ever truly ready for a baby. While Krista was here in April she helped Brett and I finish up some baby shopping, but there was still the nursery to put together. I recently finished the armoire for baby's room, attached bedding, washed some baby outfits, packed diaper and hospital bags. It's all so exciting.

Finally, the straw on the camels back. Work. Brett has been working a lot, like he always is. This is my last week of work before I go out on maternity leave. The last six weeks of work have been so busy. I have been trying to get all my clients in so that as few people as possible have to come in while I am out. I have squeezed clients into my books where I didn't even think they could fit. My last day of work is supposed to be the 21st if May, but at the beginning of the month I decided that I was done with it all. Done with being pregnant and done with working while pregnant, and on the 14th I clock out of work for at least six weeks. Maybe longer.

So now we are on the countdown. Waiting to meet our baby and crazy thing is life is about to even more busy than it is now.

Allphin, Party of Six

2011-05-01T13:45:00.047-07:00

Whoever decided to make Washington DC so far from Phoenix is one of my least favorite people. They obviously don't know how much we love Krista and her family. And... apparently they don't know how cute her kids are.

I was really bad at not taking pictures of their visit here, so you can check out Krista's blog for pictures. Click. Anyways, we had fun with them like always.

Clark turned two while he was here. So we celebrated like any two year old would. We partied with hamburgers and hotdogs at the park. Again, click for photos.

We also enjoyed a sunny Easter afternoon. We colored eggs the night before with the kiddos, including Jenny's two beautiful children.

Krista took us baby gear shopping, we had a slumber party with Carly and Parker, and we laughed a lot a Brooke. Here is why.

And a bunch of others things happened while they were around. The usual fun, Andy's lemonade, the crying, the diaper explosions, the games, and the food. Did you know Clark eats more food than all his sibling combined? I know, I was impressed too. We love the Allphins.

Sooo Busy

2011-04-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

Kay people. At some point with in the next week I promise I will get some sort of update going. Between work, school, the house, and getting ready for this baby, I have had literally no time.

Like no time as in, it takes me a week to get through one of my DVR-ed tv showed cause I only watch an episode five minutes at a time.

But things are slowly coming together, Krista is coming to visit soon, and I am totally on the countdown of this pregnancy.

Updates coming soon.

One-Quarter of a Century Old

2011-03-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

You would think that after getting married, owning a home, and preparing for parenthood you would finally grow up some. And, you would think that being one-quarter of a century old, twenty-five years, would mean more than lower car insurance for my wonderful husband.

Well, this as adult as birthdays will ever get for him, twenty-five is the year of daddy status.

Brett got an early birthday present this year. His iPod died over a year ago, and he has been uncool ever since. In January, I decided that I would find away to get him one for his birthday. I had figured that stashing away twenty-five dollars a week would eventually add up to an iPod. So, I often stashed wads of money in my wallet to keep him from noticing that the tip envelope looked a bit low.

While we were venturing to Utah a few weeks ago, this lack of iPod-age really took a toll on my poor husband. On the way there he used his laptop for an iPod, his dad's phone for an iPod, Brooke's iPod for an iPod. I had decided that the trip home would be much more comfortable and enjoyable for him if I gave him his gift a bit early. I had just about enough money stashed in my wallet to buy the iPod. So our traveling team drove to the only Apple Store in Utah. I put all of the iPod money in an envelope marked "Happy Early Birthday" and took Brett to the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake, blindfolded, which he did not like, and handed him the envelope. After I took off the blindfold he didn't quite understand why he had a lots of small bills in an overstuffed envelope at the mall. Eventually he realized he was standing in front of the Apple Store, and the world finally made sense again. After an added birthday contribution from his parents, Brett finally felt cool again with his iTouch and has been playing some game called "Crazy/Angry Birds" ever since.

Last Friday, March 18th, we officially celebrated Brett's twenty-fifth birthday. We had family and our closest friends over, Riley who we teach in primary and his super cool younger brothers. I made a cake that was supposed to look fantastic, but being pregnant and tried led to frustration, which led to a kind of cool cake which I didn't take pictures of. But it was cut into the number twenty-five. We had a fun night though. I grilled for the second time in my life and we played some Wii with the boys.

Best twenty-fifth party I had ever been to.

Anyways. Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband who was seen a quarter century.

The Title is Utah, it is As Much Spotlight As I Am Willing to Give

2011-03-02T22:55:00.001-07:00

I love it when I have my mind made up about a thing, anything for that matter. I can be a very indecisive and confused person from time to time. But, when you are sure about a thing, you feel like you have made a step toward becoming more of a defined person.

My new opinion, actually just a confirmed opinion.

Ready.

Arizona is the best state in the USA.

When I was little I set one life goal that I was actually serious about. I promise, I have had more than one goal in life, but don't be disappointed when I tell you. When I was about eight I decided that I wanted to visit all fifty states. So far I have been to fifteen of them. Each one has something exciting to offer, but my most recent to visit to Utah for the fourth time is what I would like to briefly talk about.

This past weekend Brett and I, and his family, all took a drive, through Las Vegas, to Provo to visit some family and watch Andy, our brother in law, perform on the trumpet at BYU. Andy is fantastic. He plays in the US Army band, works at Arlington Cemetery, tours the world... He is very talented, a super dad, makes fantastic lemonade, and is just really nice. It was my first time seeing him play, aside from mini Christmas programs in Sheri's living room, so that was cool. That was the main reason for our trip to Utah. We also got to see his kids and Krista, which is always fantastic. They have a new baby girl we got to see and we got to watch Clark wear the Jordan's we bought for him forever ago. And... we got to laugh with Casey.

That was the good part of the trip, not the good part of Utah.

I will give my two sentences on the bad part of the trip and that is it. The car ride was horribly uncomfortable. It was also stinky.

Now. Arizona is the best state in the USA, Utah doesn't come anywhere close to being the best.

Hello people, I don't know why you live in Utah! Three out of my four visits to Utah have been wet, cold, and snowing! According to my calculations, Utah is miserable seventy five percent of the time. It looks dirty, everyone's car is trashed and their license plate is bent halfway up. Last I heard you still can't get caffeinated soda on campus. The freeways are about as nice as the ones in Los Angeles and there is only one Apple Store in the entire state. Which by the way, is difficult to get assistance at when you want to make a purchase. I had to raise my hand, to get an associate from across the store, but he was very nice.

Utah residences, I hope I haven't entirely offended you. There are some wonderful things about Utah, but for the sake of this post, I can't go into those details cause it would contradict my current opinions. Please just know that you guys are still good people, you just need to relocate to maybe Arizona.

So, Arizona is simply fantastic and the best, but I already knew that and so did you.

A Post From the Organ Located Somewhere in My Abdomen Called My Stomach

2011-02-19T23:20:00.005-07:00

Let's briefly talk about TV commercials real quick. The Super Bowl commercials this year were kinda lame. Eminem appeared in a car commercial that was advertising Detroit not Chrysler and Doritos had like fifty commercials, none of which were funny. Commercials are supposed to have an audience, basic marketing, right. Some are scooters for old people others are toys for kids. All commercials do is advertise stuff and hopefully, after their thirty seconds are up, you want it enough to buy it. Have you ever noticed how many commercials are targeted right at your stomach? There are so many food commercials. Guess what? Food commercials are made for pregnant women!

I want Air Heads sooo bad right now. I haven't had them since probably middle school and they have never been a favorite candy or anything. I have to have them. Same with Dove Chocolate and Taco Bell.

The food cravings don't end there though. When I was first pregnant I ate a lot of Wheat Thins with salsa and cream cheese. I moved on to eggs next. Eggs for breakfast was always on the menu, but then I would have it for a snack during the day too. Those craving are the ones I have gotten over.

I have this slushy I get at QT. You fill the bottom of the cup with Sprite, fill up to the middle of the cup with sour green apple slushy about an inch more of Sprite, then to the top with more slushy. My number one meal that I will take any time, any day, any style... BURRITOS! I'll have one from Chipotle, Los Favoritos, Rhino Caffe, Baja Fresh... I love burritos.

The last two days I have been craving orange juice. I even had a dream about it, no lie. I think, however, that this craving is due to the fact that I have to do the pregnancy glucose test and I had that nasty orange soda stuff they give you. I also really want a s'more. Much like commercials you see it and want it. I was in the salon today and one of the stylists was talking about this place by our house where you can have a camp fire with s'mores, we also talked about peach cobbler.

You would think that I have gained way more than the recommended 25 to 30 pounds. Yeah, not even close. But I still have a few months left to go. I'll get back to you when I am trying to loose some weight at the gym. For now... I am going to the grocery store hungry.

We laugh. We cry. Then we pee our pants.

2011-02-12T18:10:00.003-07:00

Okay, so maybe we didn't literally pee our pants. But, according to my book, you are so not considered a human being if you haven't laughed so hard, you cried.

I remember when I was little we would go over on Sunday afternoons to visit my Nana. My family would usually swing by in the evening, after an early dinner, so as to not interrupt her novellas. Doing this just kinda seemed wrong. It was her TV time. I could never understand why she watched those shows so religiously and why she had to watch them in Spanish.

As a kid you are usually glued to the TV Saturday mornings with a helping of Lucky Charms. As a kid, this made sense to me. A day off from school with cartoons and a language I could understand. However, towards the end of high school CBS got me hooked on How I Met Your Mother and suddenly I had my own novella to watch. As I had the freedom to do homework while watching TV, my list of TV shows grew and I didn't like to be interrupted while they were on.

Two apartments and a basement later, I lived in a home with a husband, two dogs, and DVR box. Best invention ever! I can totally watch TV way faster now. I get to skip all the crummy parts, commercials, and I never miss a show. But, I am not here to promote a DVR box in every home or anything. All I am saying is it makes having novella watching as a hobby much more convenient. And I am just like my Nana.

Now, here comes the part where I divulge my list of TV shows I watch on a regular basis. Although I already leaked the name of one of my favorite shows, which I now have converted three BFFs into watching, you are not allowed to judge me for the content of the shows I watch. I am well aware that there are shows on my list that can be considered slightly trashy.

How I Met Your Mother - CBS

Biggest Loser - NBC

The Office - NBC

Glee - FOX

Top Gear - BBC

So, I am sure that you have heard of all of these shows, with the exception of the one found on the BBC channel. I know, the BBC channel. British humor is supposed to be so off for us Americans.

Brett has a friend at work named Andrew who is British and he recommended Top Gear to Brett and I. Well, we love it! I highly recommend it to everyone. The show is all about cars, but not in a dude way where the lingo is all about what is under the hood/bonnet, although, when they showcase a car they do mention vehicle specifications. It is hosted by three men who are often put through automotive challenges throughout the world. It is usually a contest that consists of defeating each other by any and all means possible. To fully understand this show, just watch one, please. Try the episode where they cross the African desert or where they drive muscle cars in America.

Earlier this week, Brett and I watch the episode where the three men go semi-truck driving, or lorry driving. I swear we did not pee our pants, but we were laughing and crying so hard, I was a bit concerned with going into premature labor over this ridiculous show. If you ever get around to watching a full episode, please let me know if you pee your pants. I promise to upgrade your status to a higher form of human being in my book. I promise you won't be disappointed.

There's a Baby in There

2011-01-31T20:17:00.002-07:00

I haven't mentioned much about being pregnant aside from the fact that I am pregnant. Uh.

I have a baby growing inside me. It moves, it makes me gassy. Instead of sleeping all over the bed in fifty different positions, I am down to two. I pee three times as much as I used to, and eat every two to three hours. But my hair is growing in nice and healthy, and my hormones feel more balanced now than ever before.

I can't tell you how many women I have talked to, while at the salon, who tell me that they loved being pregnant. They go on and on about how they felt the healthiest ever. Not one sick day the entire nine months. Everything was perfect and they have had like fifty kids or something.

I'm not going to lie, from my perspective, being pregnant is really uncomfortable and not so glamorous. I started getting the whole morning sickness thing at about five weeks and didn't get over it till about fifteen weeks. Following that, I dealt with some massive headaches for two to three weeks. And now, I am just getting over a cold. I am totally a fan of ibuprofen, caffeine loaded migraine pills, cold syrups, and inhalers. However, my medicine cabinet is reduced to Tylenol and Benedryl. And apparently my hips are widening now. My rear end often feels like I have been sitting on a giant rock and after a long day at work I have a slight limp and screaming heels.

I can still wear regular clothes. Although, for comfort purposes, I occasionally wear the maternity pants or attach a Belly Band to my waist. I can't seem to find any cute maternity tops though.

I know. I am a whiner.

But, there's a baby in there.

So here we are. Almost six months pregnant. Baby boy. No name for now. Just baby. And in love. The other half of the pregnant story goes like this.

I am pregnant and that fact is absolutely amazing. Starting a family has been a subject for discussion between Brett and I since we got married. I wanted kids but I wasn't sure when that would be. I literally woke up one morning in our last apartment and had to have a family of my own. Now that the opportunity is here I can not explain how grateful I am for this opportunity to be a family of three.

I wake up everyday and look down at my belly, thankful that I am getting bigger. I am thankful for the little frog hopping feeling inside that let's me know my baby boy is strong. I can't wait to see his little eyes and munch on his baby toes. To give him a cute little mohawk and watch him walk in his first pair of Jordans. I want to listen to him jabber on in baby code, teach him all about my favorite scripture heroes, tell him about the family he comes from, and tell him I love him.

Baby...

He's in there and I will gladly take nine gas infested months for him. So until the end of May, keep a few air fresheners on hand. I can't help or trade my bodily functions.

This Year...

2011-01-24T18:54:00.001-07:00

I've been dealing with a bit of a cold these past few days, which really stinks when you are pregnant. There isn't much you can take to get it out of your system.

Anyways, since I was feeling miserable Sunday morning, I ditched church to get some much needed rest. Any sleep past 9AM these days results in a massive headache, which is also hard to cure being pregnant, so I didn't sleep in as much as I would have liked. After I got up, I looked up some New Year's resolution articles on LDS.org. I came across a talk by Elder Jeffery R. Holland, titled "The Best is Yet to Be." It really didn't cover resolutions, but more looking forward into the New Year and not dwelling on the past but learning from it. There is one quote that I would like to focus my year around.

As a new year begins and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives.

I love how he defines faith. As members of the church, I think that each day we set a goal to be a better person, so that we may be worthy of specific blessings and those blessing come through faith.

Elder Hollard's talk wasn't quite specific to resolutions, nonetheless it did inspire me to add to my list of things to do this year. That being said, I have always been bad a making resolutions. I think of them and that's about it. I came up with something things I wanted to accomplish this year about twenty four days ago, and that's about it. However this year, I thought it would effective to make them goals, to write them down, and maybe take advantage of the inspiration I received from Elder Holland.

This year...

I want to read the Book of Mormon at least twice. I am hoping for three, but two is the minimum. I'd like to have round one done before baby boy arrives

I want to spend more time studying my primary lessons. The lessons leave so much room for more studying and I honestly love the stories.

I want to keep a weekly journal. I used to be so good at this in high school. Reading back on old embarrassing entries actually offered some really amazing personal insights.

I need to blog weekly too.

Keep my kitchen clean. Brett and I are the worst at letting dishes pile up. The kitchen doesn't even have to be spotless, there can be a dish or two in the sink. Or even a box of cereal on the counter. I just want it it take three minutes to clean when it gets messy, not thirty.

Hang pictures up. I am horrible at hanging a frame without a picture. I have tons of picture on my computer and like three on the wall.

Start a food storage. I have been meaning to do this for the past three years, and this time it is getting done.

Three things I can do by myself and three things Brett and I can work on together. Since we are twenty four days into the year we have just started some of these, but others, like the kitchen thing, have been amazingly successful. So, this time next year I will report back and see how I did. Wish me luck.

Dear 2010

2011-01-19T11:25:00.001-07:00

Last year I wrote to your brother, 2009, about how I almost zoned out that year. I reminisced on fourteen things for 2009 that seemed eventful enough to blog about. Now even though 2009 had forty blog posts and 2010 has only twelve, I am positive this past year has been more eventful than the last.

As a matter of fact, this year has been more than eventful. I have so many wonderful things to report about. We have had so much fun growing up this past year and are so excited for the events to come this year. Hopefully I can come up with more than fourteen things to reminisce about this year, many which probably didn't receive a blog post. Here's to 2010!

I got a job as a stylist at Ulta

I quit working at PostedProperties.com

We got a puppy named Deagan

Brett turned 24

We bought a house

We got called to be primary teachers

We got a puppy named Emma

Vacationed to California

Had lots of sleepovers with Brooke

I turned 22

Went to a Jack Johnson concert

Vacationed to Washington DC to visit the Allphins

Ate at DC Cupcakes and paid too much

Worked way too much on yard work

Installed wood floors, painted, and decorated our home

Celebrated our first Christmas in our home and hosted some parties

Found out we going to have a baby

Found out it was a boy

And more to come this year

Three Years Ago... and Today...

2010-11-24T14:42:00.002-07:00

Three years ago, on November 24th, 2007,

this boy...

and this girl...

walked out of this Temple...

married and sealed for time and all eternity!

Today they look like this.

And this.

And by the end of May 2011,

they will have one of these.

Baby.

May 2nd, 2010: Emma

2010-07-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

Do you remember Amare? No? Well we got Amare in March of 2008. He has spent the majority of our ownership at my parents. After we got Deagan, we expected the two dogs to be best friends. So. Not. The. Case. He didn't want anything to do with Deagan. He hated him. Amare never ate, never did anything, just was grumpy all the time. So we went back to be my parents dog.

Boxer lab mixed puppies are very social dogs. So naturally Deagan was going to need a friend. A coworker of mine had a litter of boxer puppies, and we ended up purchasing a female from her named Emma.

I love Emma. She is so funny. She is definitely the top dog in the house. She eats the most, she gets the most privileges, she is so stinkin' cute too.

Emma and Deagan are in love. It is so funny. When one get in trouble and ends up outside, the other waits by the door until the other dog gets to come in.

Anyways. Emma and Deagan have lots of fun together. They eat a ton of food, go on walks to the park, and occupy us with sneak attack play time and cardboard box eating.

April 22nd, 2010: Work

2010-07-19T19:45:00.000-07:00

I quit PostedProperties.com and am now a full time stylist at Ulta!

The end.

April 15th, 2010: Closing

2010-07-19T19:41:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of April, I had posted about our home being built. We were super excited and super annoyed with the whole house process. Buying a home was a complete headache. I had also previously mentioned that we were expecting to move into our home at the end on April. Well the day after I had posted the original home buying blog, we were told that were would be closing on April 15th. Trying to pack two years of junk so quickly was not fun.

We closed on our home, moved our stuff in, and started the projects. I'm not going to lie, there are still some unpacked boxes, mostly random decorations and unused books. For the sake of this post I will give you a sample tour of our home. I am planning on posting some pictures that actually have furniture and paint, so you can get a better tour then.

This is our front door and half of our living room, which is still empty aside from my piano.

Past the living room is our family room and kitchen. I will get updated photos soon.

Top of the stairs and to your left is the master bedroom. To the right and down the hall there is a full bath, and three rooms.

Inside the master bedroom. Behind is the master bath, huge.

Bathroom upstairs.

After reviewing my little tour I just realized it was very uninformative. But empty home are kinda boring. Anyways, our house is four bedrooms, two and a half baths, and 2198 square feet. I've been having so much fun decorating it.

For as far as we live from Phoenix, Brett and I really do love it. We purchased in Queen Creek, but it isn't too deep into the town. We live across the street from everything we need. More to come...

March 24th, 2010: Deagan

2010-07-19T19:03:00.007-07:00

I'm doing some major back tracking. Today is not March 24th, but I need to tell you about that Wednesday evening nearly four months ago. Now I would totally just cheat and change the posting date to March. However, I don't think it is fair to cheat when it is four months past due. So the title for the next few blogs will reflect past events. Thanks for understanding.

Now, back to March 24th.

Earlier in March I had been doing some research on buying a dog. A bigger dog. Brett and I wanted a female chocolate lab. But, as Brett and I got deeper into puppy research, we kept finding out that lab puppies were puppies forever. So we moved our ideas on from buying labs to adopting... something else. Well, when you adopt a dog it is usually hard to find a) pure breed dogs b) not ugly dogs c) specific genders and d) puppies. So we started doing research on different breeds that we would be happy with and decided we wanted something that was at least a boxer.

So on March 24th, while I was diligently working at my desk compiling property information, I came across adoptapet.com, which had a fresh batch of boxer mixed puppies. I contacted the adoption clinic to make sure that our drive to the far side of Scottsdale would not be in vain.

After a good forty minute drive, we saw bouncing dark puppies with gorgeous giant eyes. Seriously after seeing these things, you can't just not buy one. So 175 dollars later, we went home with a way super cute poop smelling puppy.

So meet Deagan.

So here is a bit about Deagan's doggie pedigree. His mom was a pregnant boxer that was found in Blythe. She was found by a different shelter than the one we had contact with. The original shelter was going to euthanize her. However, the Cocker Spaniel shelter we were in contact with ending up coming across Deagan's mom and delivered all 13 of her puppies. Three didn't make it, but Deagan did. So, when talked to the shelter they had determined that Deagan was part chocolate lab.

We don't have an exact date for his birthday, but we got him at about 6 weeks old. So as of right now, I declare his birthday to be February 10th, 2010.

And today... Deagan looks more like a lab than a boxer. He still has his white paws and white chest. But he totally has the face of a lab.

He is completely awesome. We completely love him. He loves swimming. He loves running. He loves other dogs. He loves other people. And he loves his rope.

More to come on doggies...

Yeah, I know. It's been awhile.

2010-06-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

It's been several weeks since I blogged.

Oops.

So I decided that since Krista (my sister in law) was moving around the same time I was moving, I'd get back to blogging when she did. Well, she started blogging like a week ago, and moved into her new house a month ago, couple weeks after Brett and I moved. And she has three kids... And she is pregnant... And that makes me a slacker.

So. I guess this means I'll just get to blogging at some point. I've already procrastinated this much, so I will put it off till tomorrow. One more time.

Ha.

Announcements, Stories, and Shreds of Unimportant Information

2010-04-02T10:37:00.006-07:00

Apparently it's been awhile since I sat down to type a blog. Ironic as it may be, I have hours of free time in front of a computer; I choose to watch The Biggest Loser and The Office. Because of my lack of blogging, I will soon be flooding my computer screen with meaningless words in an effort to document the first quarter of 2010.

Get ready for our announcements, stories, and shreds of unimportant information. I promise that it will be mostly boring, but you will find at least one sentence that will bring a bit of excitement/happiness to your heart.

Announcement.

When Brett and I purchased our Costco Membership for the first time, we took a step towards growing up. Costco is kinda a big thing. It was a little scary having to be responsible for the $100 minimum purchases we would be making for the rest of our lives, but we have acclimated to shopping in a giant warehouse. But, at the end of April, we really have to start calling ourselves adults. Real grownups. Homeowners.

And I'm excited.

We are in the process of purchasing our first home and are set to be in it by mid April. As for the location, I choose not to disclose any more of my not so personal life on the internet than necessary. You know how to reach me if you really want to know. For now, I'll just say for most people, it's far.

We decided to build our home, which is a process that takes forever. Lucky for you, I'll be posting boring pictures of my framed house, followed by carpet-less floors, and finally some finished walls.

If you are wondering why you didn't hear about this news sooner, Brett and I had a mess of paperwork to sort through and didn't want to announce anything until we were 100% positive we really wanted to do some growing up. If you heard from someone other than us, I am sorry I didn't get to tell you the exciting news and we can talk later. If you are just as excited as I am, then come over and help me paint, lay tile, and landscape a backyard.

And if you ever meet President Obama, tell him things for the eight grand for me.

Story.

Like most people, we spend the majority of our money on food. So we decided to really focus on making a dinner menu and try our best to stick to it. Brett has been the most wonderful husband and cooks dinner as much as I do, if not more. However, as much as I would love to continue to praise him in all his awesomeness, I can't help but drench this blog entry with the worst dinner he has ever made.

The recipe is called Hunter's Style Chicken. It's something that my mom got from an aunt of mine, and it came along into our little family of two. It ends up being this sort of tomato "slop" on top of rice. This recipe is as follows:

Cooked rice

2 large chicken breasts cooked and cut into bite size pieces

1/2 pound of bacon

1 large onion

28 oz diced canned tomatoes

1 bottle Heinz 57 steak sauce

1/4 cup sugar

Cook bacon, drain and set aside. Using 1 tablespoon of bacon grease, cook onions until tender. Add chicken, cooked bacon, tomatoes, 57 sauce, and sugar. Stir and let simmer on low until warm. Serve over cooked rice.

One evening brett gets home from work. The kitchen is a complete mess and dinner isn't made (I was probably being lazy that day). So, I offer Brett the privilege of dishes or dinner. He chooses to cook dinner since the dishes are bad, really bad. He pulls out the recipe card and starts to make dinner as I clean the kitchen. Brett gets out a cutting board and a knife, and in his best Julia Child voice gives instructions on how to properly cut an onion. I laugh.

Twenty minutes or so go by, the dish washer is running and I'm drying and putting away the remaining dishes. Pans go under the cookie making canisters, cookie sheets go under the spice jars. Brett is almost done with the "slop" part of the meal and is about to move on to cooking the rice. I bend down to put a pan away and as I come back up I notice that he left the lid to one of the canisters open (he always does that). Right and I am silently complaining in my head, I realize that the canister he left open was the once that holds the salt. I close my eyes and say to him, "You didn't just put salt in the dinner, did you?" Brett says with confused confidence, "No... oh crap!" Instead of following the directions for 1/4 cup of sugar, he added 1/4 cup of salt. I don't think we even go through that much salt in a year!

Brett leaves the kitchen crushed with hunger and falls to the ground. He just ruined dinner. My Julia Child husband ruined dinner. I get the guts to taste it, thinking it wasn't too bad. Nope, it was bad. Brett was on the ground still talking about how much that meal just cost and we aren't eating any of it.

So I did some thinking.

I poured our dinner into a colander and rinsed it off in the sink. One by one, I taste each remaining ingredient. Chicken, still good. Bacon salty but acceptable. Tomatoes, not bad. Onions horrible. So I needed to replace the onion, not a problem.

But I just dumped $3.50 of steak sauce and tomato juice down the drain. I go to the panty, tomato soup should replace the juice just fine, but dinner should have been done already and I hate going to the grocery store and I don't even have time to go to the grocery store.

Well, little does half the world know, but the internet has everything on it including a recipe for Heinz 57 steak sauce. Brett found a recipe and we were one step close to eating dinner. A little bit of ranch, chili powder, apple juice, ketchup, pepper, and Italian seasoning makes Heinz 57 Sauce.

Dinner was served and tasted just fine.

Bon Appetite.

Unimportant Information.

I'm currently an Ulta Stylist.

I recently got a position as a stylist at an East Valley Ulta. I spent $17,000 on a cosmetology education and was doing nothing with it.

The salon is great, the girls are great, the clientele is great. The tips are wonderful. My discount is awesome. It's close to my new home. But... I still have my full-time job with Posted Properties and am still enrolled in school full-time. I work weekends, and I occasionally clean the bathroom.

So, come see me and get your hair done!

Sunday in the Wrong Ward

2010-02-21T18:21:00.000-07:00

I've reached a point in my life where I will find any excuse to not do homework. I have been so busy these days that any free time should be homework time, but that would make my life "all encompassingly" boring. So, as of right now, I should be doing homework. Blogging about Church today sounds so much better.

Brett and I stayed out late last night, late for us. And since our friends are all single, we live rather exciting weekends which land us home past midnight. And, like all single kids our age, church is scheduled past noon on purpose. Otherwise the young adults would become entirely inactive because it's hard to get up for 8 AM church.

So when we woke extremely late for church, we decided to just go to a later meeting that started around noon. I looked up meeting times in our area and mentioned to Brett that there was a ward that started sacrament at 1:30 PM, perfect. He got on the computer looked at some other times and agreed that we would go to sacrament at 1:30 PM.

We got dressed and went to church.

We had this awesome plan. Sneak in the back, sit in the overflow, sit through sacrament meeting, sneak our after the hour was over. This was going to be perfect. We were going to avoid that conversation where we were noticed to be new, but really we just slept in late and are visiting.

We walked into the chapel, no over flow.

Then, this twenty something year old guy comes up to us and asks if we are new. At which point I realize that there are no children in this ward. Not one child. Not one old person. Just young adults. Brett, seems to be five steps ahead of me and answers to the "kid" that we are just visiting. And suddenly church starts and we are standing like dummies at the back of the room, drawing attention no doubt.

I look at Brett and panic slightly cause we are totally in a single's ward and we never liked single's ward.

We sit down, at which point Brett starts to make fun of me. "You really know how to pick 'em." The internet said this was a family ward. Great, I am in a single's ward and married. WERID. People go to the single's ward to get married and I am so in the wrong place. Brett says, "if anyone asks we are here to see Jason speak." I look up and infront of me is a girl I totally know, who also totally knows that I am married. Crap.

And we sit there.

For an hour.

In single's ward.

Where we don't belong.

And where we never even belonged when we were single.

To make Sunday all the more awkward we were completely trapped after sacrament meeting. In order to keep the "kids" at church for all three meetings, Sunday School starts immediately after the closing prayer. Like right after, no visiting, no chit chatting, no bathroom break. So sneaking out the back in nearly impossible. Brett claims to need to use the bathroom. And our get away was a success.

Needless to say the speakers, including Jason, did a great job. They shard some funny stories. And a small part of me is no longer scared of the single's ward.

Now, back to homework.

Caffeine

2010-02-18T23:06:00.001-07:00

I'm up. I'm wide awake. It is 10:45 PM and I am not sleepy!

This is going to be a problem come tomorrow morning as I sit at my desk and pour over the endless rectangles that make up my Excel database.

The last time I was wide awake at night was when I was nocturnal and jobless. Tonight we can blame caffeine and my self-diagnosed almost brain aneurysm. Don't panic, I said self-diagnosed not actual.

Yesterday at about five o'clock, as I was watching The Biggest Loser via hulu.com, I started to feel a headache come on and within about fifteen minutes it was in full force. So I stumbled to my bed to take a quick nap hoping it would help. About and hour later Brett came home, gave me the magical migraine pills and I was function again. However, the magical migraine pill only lasted like three hours which totally isn't how it normally works. I gave up and went to bed.

Sleep did not come.

Those magical migraine pills are loaded, I mean loaded, with caffeine.

So I spent the night with my head throbbing, and sleeping every thirty minutes or so. When it came time to wake up for work, I got in the shower, got dress, and then spent thirty minutes bent over the toilet contemplating how this would effect my work performance. I eventually called my boss about to cry in pain and explained to him that work was out of the question.

I then text Brett and told him to call me in two hours to make sure I was still alive. I was convinced I was going to lay down and have a brain aneurysm right there on my pillow. I took a caffeine migraine pill and some how went to sleep.

I woke up 1:00 PM shut all the blinds and did some light reading. I totally felt fine till about 6:30 PM when the slight throbbing in my head returned.

I took another migraine pill drank 32oz of Dr. Pepper and now I am screwed cause I'm never going to get any sleep for work tomorrow.

And I promised I am not a drug addict. I hate taking pills, I gag on them.

Renting Via Red Box

2010-02-17T21:30:00.001-07:00

Let's just start by saying that Red Box and Netflix are the two greatest inventions ever. Kay, not ever, but they come pretty close to it.

We watch a lot of movies. One, it's cheap and two, it usually calls for chocolate. I promise that this story isn't going anywhere. So please don't expect some life changing moment to form onto the screen. I just wanted to share a story.

Remember when you were a little kid and Circle K was on every corner. Fine, not every corer, just on two out of the four given corners at an intersection, plus one Circle K less than a quarter mile away. You remember that? I guess it wasn't when you were just a little kid, it has pretty much always been that way. Store that mental picture of your favorite Circle K convenience store to the side in your brain somewhere.

Now. A few days ago Brett and I rented a movie online from Red Box. If you didn't already know, you can rent online and pick up your movie later, we do this for the popular movies. So after renting online, we got in the car and drove to the Circle K behind our apartment to pick up our movie (this is our normal Red Box location and it is literally right behind our apartment).

Brett gets out of the car, walks up to Red Box, swipes his card, swipes his card again, and walks back to the car without a DVD. He then proceeds to explain how retarded he is for going to the wrong Circle K. He rented our movie from the Circle K of off Williams Field, and we were at the Circle K off of Pecos.

Okay. Williams Field it is.

We drive to the Circle K off of Williams Field. He gets out of the car, walks up to Red Box, swipes his card, swipes his card again, then walks back to the car without a DVD. Again, he tells me that he is retarded, and since we are on the west side of the intersection we are now in Chandler and Williams Field becomes Chandler Boulevard. So we still haven't made it to the correct Red Box of off Williams Field.

We soon realized which Circle K we needed to be at. For reals this time.

As we drive to the correct Circle K off of Williams Field we drive past a unnamed gas station that has a Red Box. And you would not believe this, but one parking lot over, at Sonic, there is another Red Box. You can totally stand at one Red Box and see another. Meanwhile I am thinking about how dumb it is that we have to drive to three different Red Box locations when there are probably six Red Box machines within walking distance of my apartment.

Here is the moral of the story.

Actually, I don't have one. I just remembered this wasn't a life changing story.

Someday, you are going to forget all about Circle K. They'll no longer be the dominating feature overpopulating our streets. The only association Circle K will have with your brain is the fact that Red Box is most likely located there. And at your local grocery store. Most likely at Walgreens. Sonic too. Red Box has taken over, and there is probably going to be one assigned for every neighborhood by 2012.

We eventually got our movie.

The end.

PostedProperties.com

2010-01-09T16:39:00.000-07:00

I figured that since I finally know all my responsibilities at my new job, that I'd quickly blog about it. A few weeks ago I had posted that I had just gotten offered the job. At that time I was a bit confused as to who I was working for. I thought it was RedBrick Reality, it's not.

I work for a company called PostedProperties.com. They are a bidding service for clients who want to purchase foreclosed homes at auction. We do the majority of the research for our clients. Then, they offer a bid for a property and we take it down to the trustee sales and place their bids. There is a lot more that goes on than just that, but I gave you the condensed version.

Now about this job.

I had my first day of work the week of Christmas. It turns out that December is the slowest time of year for foreclosures. As a result, my first two weeks of work were extremely boring. But let's not move too fast.

Week one at work was extremely confusing. Everything they showed me to do on the computer was easy. Research sales dates and times, and check for IRS liens. But it's never easy trying to catch up on the lingo your job uses. Your coworkers get so used to using acronyms, nicknames, industry specific terms, and inside jokes that you are always fives steps behind. But the work it self was simple. I was pretty bored after about three hours of work though.

Week two was completely different. See I have like three bosses. Well maybe four or five, I'm not sure. There is Doug who owns RedBrick Reality and PostedProperties.com, then there is "Laser" who does all the operations and office stuff, Damon who deals with the clients and makes everyone laugh. Steve, he is a bit intimidating, he is the bidding manager and is usually out of the office when I am in, but he's cool too. Everyone I work with is cool. There are few other employees but they aren't current to this story right now. So for the duration of week one Laser wasn't there. He was away for the holidays and he know what my job is. So when he decided to finally show back up to work I wasn't so bored anymore. He made my job a little more clear and gave me more things to do. So I guess if anyone is my manager, Laser is.

And now weeks three is over and I think we are back to being fully functional. Apparently January is the busiest month, or so I hear. So you bet that when Monday came, I actually had to work. As a matter of fact I put in over 40 hours of work this week. It's been a long time since that has happened.

I like my job, a lot actually. I saw an old friend this weekend and we talked about my new job. She called me a nerd and said I would be one to like a desk job with lots of computer time. It's true. I really am a nerd. I even enjoy my video games and wear glasses, sometimes.

The end.

Dear 2009.

2010-01-02T16:37:00.002-07:00

I wrote the date earlier today and at the moment the New Year finally sunk in. I guess it took a day and a half to hit me cause as December 31st became January 1st, I was at home on the couch with my husband laughing at the New York City broadcast. Two minutes into the New Year... we went to bed.

There was no big celebration for us this year. To be honest, it's just another transition. We spent the end of 2009 together and started 2010 together. I guess that is all that really matters. But after I wrote 1/2/2010 today, I wondered where the year had gone. I was having a hard time remembering anything at all that had transpired the last twelve months. And like I always do in such a confusing moment, I panicked and felt like I wasn't living enough of my life.

So 2009.

I would hate for 2009 to be the year I zoned out on, so I will take some time to reminisce. Here are a few of the accomplishments, events, and moments of 2009.

We moved into our second apartment.

Brett turned 23.

We got a super cute nephew.

Brett got a new job.

I turned 21.

We bought a new car.

We lost a faithful car.

I graduated from hair school hell.

We got a 105 year old piano for free.

We took our car on a road trip.

Brett got employee of the month.

I refinished a kitchen table and bed bench.

We dressed as nerds for Halloween.

I got a new job.

As you can see it was so incredibly eventful that nothing will ever top it. Happy New Year.

Love.

The Days.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-25T15:54:00.001-07:00

Aside from the New Year's countdown, I look forward to the Christmas countdown. Now, not the 12 Days of Christmas count down, but just waiting till Christmas morning. It's the crowning event of the year, the milestone for another 365 days.

This Christmas has become one of my favorites. I'd like to think my genius 12 Days of Christmas was the reason behind it, but regardless, I love the 12 activities that got me all Christmas-ish. I'm so happy that I have a wonderful husband to spend this wonderful season with he helped to make this year special.

Now. Down to the presents for the day.

I'm not going to name them all, just a few. Brett and I got each other shoes, this seems to be a standard for gift giving between us. We love shoes. Brett got a fancy basketball, a drill, and a bunch of gift cards for his favorite food places that I don't seem to like. I got some clothes for Christmas, new makeup brushes, a few gift cards, a Coach purse, and some books.

We also get some Bresca gifts. We got a new dining table, it's actually a small pub table, but it's super cute. We got an air mattress for camping, Rockband Beatles, and some cash.

So thank you everyone for all the gifts. Hope you all had a wonderful day.

And the 12th day of Christmas...

2009-12-24T23:27:00.000-07:00

And the 12th day of Christmas... was the busiest Christmas Eve I have ever experienced.

I love this time of year so much, but today made me slightly consider going on a cruise next year. I'm not joking. Between my family gatherings and Brett's family gatherings, we end up at at least different ten different parties over the holidays. By the time Christmas Eve is here all I want to do is relax and enjoy the holiday.

Enough whining though.

After a slight break down on my part Christmas Eve was wonderful. Nothing super crazy happened it was just a good evening spent with family. We visited with Brett's family over dinner and some Christmas stories and visited with my Dad's family. We got some good laughs with the yearly gift exchange, opened presents and headed home for the night.

Now... Bed time cause Santa is on his way.

Eleven

2009-12-23T23:16:00.001-07:00

Christmas is almost here. I am so excited. I really need Brett to open his presents. I'll tell you why later. He reads this blog sometimes.

Tonight we stole a tradition from some random person on the internet. I found this forum where people shared all their family Christmas traditions. I feel a bit bad for not sharing some of mine, but I was too lazy and didn't want to register.

So there is this couple that plays Santa for each other. They go to a store together, split up, and buy stocking stuffers for each other. So that is exactly what Brett and I did. We had a $15 dollar limit on our purchase for each stocking. Buying stocking stuffers for my Brett was hard. I mean the stuffers are fun random things, but there are more fun random things for girls then there are for boys. I was worried about not filling his stocking, but I went home and packed it just fine. Actually I really had to stuff that stocking.

We also made some homemade chocolate and wrapped a few remaining gifts. I enjoyed the hot chocolate, Brett wasn't too impressed but he picked out the recipe so I didn't feel too bad.

And that is all.

One more day left till Christmas.

Santa is coming to town people.

"SANTAAA! I KNOW HIM!" -Buddy the Elf

10: The Villalobos Family Christmas Dinner

2009-12-22T22:33:00.011-07:00

Every year about a week before Christmas my mom's side of the family has a giant Christmas party. A Christmas party that is probably way too involved for most families. The party is a bit complicated. There's a hidden set of rules for the party, it usually stresses way too many people out, and sometimes when it comes to the white elephant gift exchange people get mad. But... this party is an ongoing tradition, one that has been going on since I was born. It has evolved since its forst year, but as much as some of us hate the stress and weird themed foods, we can't call it quits.

I have a bad memory about being little. But one of my strongest Christmas memories was the year it was my turn to help the cousins serve food at the family Christmas dinner. Back then we didn't have themed parties. It was a normal Christmas dinner. Everyone dressed up. Grandma and Grandpa did most of the cooking.

After Grandma died we decided to continue the Christmas dinner tradtion. The first year, we had this giant luau party complete with a cooked pig, Hawaiian dancers, fire dancers, and grass skirts. We may never top that first year, It had been by far the best party. i'm sure that my Grandma has a lot to do with that.

But for this year we celebrated Christmas in the Hold Land: Israel.

So the food coordinated with the theme, as did the gift exchange. Popular gifts were dates, figs, and a tree of life necklace. Nick contributed an Israeli newspaper, it was free. Brett gave a book titled 1003 Things About the Jewish Religion and I gave a travel and culture book of Israel. We scored with a $5 dradle shaped Target gift card, a box of plant smelling gum, and some sort of orange soda.

And that pretty much sums up the tenth day of Christmas.

PS, my family is way too loud to even yell over. Love you guys.

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

2009-12-21T22:50:00.002-07:00

... a drive by of the Temple lights.

We kinda skimped on the 12 Days of Christmas today. I after cooking all day yesterday and starting a new job today I was 100% tired. We already made it to the Temple lights earlier this month. So we drove down to the Temple and attempted to walk the grounds, but we couldn't find a parking spot, I was cold, whining, and didn't feel like walking. So we drove around the entire temple and called it good.

Maybe I ruined the 12 Days of Christmas, but you don't understand how I am when I get overly tired. I had to come home and take a 15 minute nap just so we could run to Target and eat diner.

Tomorrow is a bigger project, the annual Villalobos family Christmas dinner. It's sort of a big thing and it tends to be a bit stressful, but it is always way fun.

Four days till Christmas.

No. 8

2009-12-20T22:24:00.002-07:00

There are a number things I learned today.

1. Hosting a holiday dinner is expensive.

2. If you are having a full on meal, you will be cooking all day.

3. A spring form pan results in a baked good without sides.

4. My mom makes cooking look easy.

5. One oven isn't enough, but it is feasible.

6. Scalding milk is almost boiling milk.

7. You need a cooking game plan.

8. Don't bake a dessert if you haven't already tried it. Duh.

9. I no longer aspire to become a chef.

I wasn't expecting to learn any of these things.

Even though our desserts sucked, I think our dinner came out good. I love cooking in the kitchen with Brett. He is so good at it. He's efficient, he catches my mistakes when I try to double recipes, and he makes it a million times less stressful.

We had six guests. Josh and Nikki (sorry if I spelled that wrong), Eric and Lauren, and then Jordan and Jaymus were each others dates.

On the menu.

Salad

Ham

Mashed Potatoes

Stuffing

Yams

Jello

Green Beans & Mushrooms

Corn

Cheesy Peppered Rice

Rolls

Rice Crispies

Chocolate Cheesecake

Dr. Pepper

Water

Sprite

Sparkling Cider

This took eight hours to cook and we still have left overs. So I'm packing lunch all week long. Feel free to come over.

Merry Christmas

Seven

2009-12-19T17:26:00.001-07:00

This is our masterpiece. I believe it is a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath graham cracker house with a garage. It was built with homemade frosting which contains one pound of powdered sugar. It has a wonderful fence dividing the front and back yards and the snowman is falling over.

By the time we finished this thing we were sick to our stomaches. I can't remember the last time I ate frosting in such large quantities. Probably never.

We had a lot of fun making this. I personally was super excited. I haven't made a gingerbread house since elementary school. When you make one at school they are tiny and made out of a milk carton and they come out really ugly. So I was very please with how ours came out.

Anyways, that is all.

On the sixth day of Christmas...

2009-12-18T23:24:00.001-07:00

I can't believe that my favorite Christmas movie came from the decade of shoulder pads, frizzy hair, and acid washed jeans. How does this happen?

A Christmas Story is a 1983 Christmas movie set in 1940, narrated by a much older Ralph Parker as he recalls his most memorable Christmas. In this particular year Ralph is nine years old and wants an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200 shot range model BB rifle with a compass in the stock for Christmas. The story is about his quest to get his BB rifle as he tells about all the events that transpired that Christmas: the Scut Farkus Affair, Chinese Christmas dinner, and the ultimate triple dog dare.

I absolutely love this movie.

Brett had never seen it, so it was a must for our countdown this year. On Sunday, Brett went ahead and requested it from Netflix so that we would have it for sure by our sixth day. It came in the mail on Wednesday, I set it on top of the dvd player and left it there for Friday, today.

After dinner Brett put the movie in the dvd player as we got candy and pillows out to watch the movie. I'm heading back to the couch and notice that the TV is playing pretty music. I look at the dvd menu and see the title Christmas Story. I watch a few random scenes that are playing on the dvd menu and see a little boy ice skating. Then a close up of a little boy. Then something close to a winter wonderland. By now I am trying to remember what part of Ralph Parker's story had a winter wonderland in it.

I get on my Netflix account to see exactly what movie Brett ordered. It was called Christmas Story and it had no Scut Farkus Affair in the movie. It was about Santa as a kid....

Meanwhile.

Brett is in the other room and I start shouting, "You ruined the 12 days of Christmas! This is the wrong movie." He comes in to see the Netflix account and starts laughing as he realizes the mistake he made. Lucky for him our 12 days of Christmas were not completely ruined. A Christmas Story was available for instant viewing from Netflix.

We hooked the laptop up to the TV and started day six.

RedBrick Realty

2009-12-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report that I found a job and I start Monday.

Yay! I will have a regular schedule, with regular hours, and I won't have to be sitting at home anymore. I'll be working as an administrative assistant for RedBrick Realty and hopefully I'll be super busy. Let's face it I love being busy.

As for hair, well I need to figure that out. As soon as I get settled into this new job I'll get around to making that work. I am thinking about working Saturdays and maybe one night, somewhere. Like I said, I need to figure it out at some point.

Anyways, I am super excited.

Five Gold Rings...

2009-12-17T22:12:00.001-07:00

I think sometimes all of us get wrapped up in the retail version of Christmas. We make a list of things we'd like to get for Christmas and make a list of what to buy others for Christmas. And a good number of us might stress about all the parties we have to host or be in attendance at.

We have to remember that this isn't exactly about giving and receiving colorfully wrapped presents. To be honest, it isn't even about spending time with friends and family at Christmas parties. However, these things certainly do make Christmas, the season of love, more enjoyable.

Tonight we watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas. It's a 1980 short movie starting Jimmy Stewart. I have pulled a clip from the movie. If you'd like to see the whole thirty minutes of it, it is available on YouTube.

I hope as the rest of us countdown to Christmas day we will remember why we celebrate the season of love.

Merry Christmas.

Day Four

2009-12-16T20:51:00.004-07:00

Let's start by saying that I am just a bit confused on the definition of a needy child. Now I don't want to sound like an insensitive jerk and I am going to apologize right now if I offend anyone, cause I might.

We decided that it would be fun to purchase gifts for a toy drive of sorts. We participated in Jam the Bus for 101.5 two years ago and had fun picking out little kid toys. This year, no Jam the Bus. So we decided to go with the ever popular Christmas Angels program.

We got down to the mall, found the trees, and started flipping tags over. Bicycle, Ripstick, cologne, MP3 player, MP4 player, Wii system, paintball gun, basketball hoop with ball, PSP games, PS3 system, PS3 games, Wii games, digital camera, God of War I or God of War III for PS3 (not God of War II, already owns it). After reading about five different tags my eyes got wide and I started to wonder what happened to kids wanting Barbies, a football, Legos, a skate board, an art set, Hot Wheels.... This is the part where I got confused.

Brett comes to me and asks who these gifts are supposed to be for. We both thought it was a program for kids who might not get a Christmas. Kids who were from low income families, kids in foster homes maybe. But what I don't get is if a family is needy and can't afford Christmas presents, why is their kid asking for me or anyone else to buy them God of War I or God of War III for PS3 (not God of War II, already owns it). If they want the game they obviously already have the system. Are you following me?

So I have officially questioned the Christmas Angels program. I have a friend who used to work for the Salvation Army and I hear that she quit because of shady business. I guess employees were putting their kids names up on the tree. I dunno. I feel bad for judging the kid who wants PS3 games. Hopefully my husband and I won't be punished for dipping out on the Christmas Angels program.

We ended up at Target and purchased Candyland. Tomorrow I plan to take it to a donation center for the Phoenix Children's Hospital.

On the third day of Christmas...

2009-12-15T22:30:00.003-07:00

Our little family of two experienced a tragedy this last summer. One we still have not quite recovered from. It was a bittersweet marker in our lives together. In the end, it was just the right time. And life goes on.

We sold out.

We took a government bribe of $3500.

We replaced yellow and red for dark silver paint.

We made a decision.

We said goodbye to our faithful Trans Am, Red Dragon.

And we never stopped loving him.

To honor him this year we gave him our third day of Christmas. On today's agenda we purchased our yearly Christmas ornaments. This is a tradition my mom started that I have carried through to my new family.

To honor Red Dragon we purchased Hot Wheels cars and turned them into ornaments.

Red Dragon. We miss you and love you. We know you rumble on in race car heaven. Here's to you. May your memory live on with Christmas Spirit.

Assignment No. 2

2009-12-14T23:01:00.001-07:00

"Buddy the Elf. What's your favorite color?"

Today's countdown activity was watching Elf.

If you are reading this and haven't seen the movie Elf then I invite you to just pretty much stop reading. I can't be friends with you if you haven't seen Elf.

But, if you are still reading and don't know what I am talking about... then go rent the wonderful movie starting Will Ferrell and get your Christmas Spirit on. This movie is awesome. The first thirty minutes are just randomly funny and Will Ferrell looks absolutely ridiculous wearing yellow tights. It's about an elf named Buddy that doesn't realize he is a human in an elf world, aka North Pole. Once he gets the clue, he ventures to New York City to find his biological father and save Christmas. I won't elaborate anymore cause obviously you haven't seen it and we can't be friends until you have.

Now to my friends (those of you, if any, who read my blog). Please feel free to share your favorite one liners and full scenes from the movie Elf.

This concludes the second day of Christmas report.

Merry Christmas to all.

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me...

2009-12-13T11:21:00.002-07:00

Chocolate and cookies!

I couldn't have asked for a better first day of Christmas. Brett and I started our advent calender today.

I have the best personal baker ever. When it comes to treats in the kitchen Brett is practically a pro. This has to be a result of all the treats his family makes. It is also a result of all the cookie favors I ask for.

Today we made snicker doodle cookies and two batches of fudge, regular fudge and toffee fudge. Baking in the kitchen with my husband was fun. We didn't make too much of a mess and we had fun laughing about Mariah Carey's Joy to the World song.

After baking we went to our stake's Christmas concert. This was the perfect kick off for our Twelve Day of Christmas. Brett had to be a professional usher, so I sat through most the concert by myself. It was AMAZING.

This wasn't like a little performance. They were dead serious about it. They auditioned their performers, had a mixing board, giant speakers, and a full orchestra. They did prelude music with a children's choir. The kids harmonized. HARMONIZED. I've never seen kids do that. A number of Christmas songs were performed including Let It Snow, Feliz Navidad, Jingle Bells, We Three Kings, and three parts of Handel's Messiah. These people could sing. Wow. My favorite performance was I Believe in Christ. It was so strong and powerful. They could pass for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It was so good.

To end our day, we shared our baked treats with our parents and siblings. My brother showed some impressive self control with the treats we brought. He definitely wanted some and watched as everyone else got multiple helpings. He asked me to put a tiny piece of fudge on plate and he later added half a cookie. Then he told me that he wasn't going to eat till after I left cause if I was gone with the treats he couldn't have a second helping. He did great.

Anyways. Happy third night of Hanukah.

Christmas No. 3

2009-12-12T23:29:00.003-07:00

Christmas is the best. It's by far my favorite time of year. People are so nice. Everyone seems to love everyone else. The weather is nice and cold, for the most part. It's the season of love.

This is our third Christmas together. The first Christmas was a bit hectic. We shopped together for our own Christmas presents, and spent way too much money on each other. We weren't sure how to make Christmas function as a married couple. Our second Christmas we were living with Brett's parents, and at the time his sister Krista was visiting with her husband Andy and their kids. That year was blurry. Kids keep you busy. We played lots of Rockband that year.

So this year.

Christmas No. 3.

I wanted to start a few traditions. Do something to really get us in the Christmas Spirit. My family is big on traditions. We watch It's a Wonderful Life while decorating the tree, we always buy a real tree, we have a yearly giant themed dinner party. But trying to start Christmas traditions with a party of two isn't so easy. I imagine having kids simplifies this, but I don't have any.

So Brett and I started with decorations, shopping, and Mariah Carey Christmas.

Then we added our own version of the twelve days of Christmas. I will now introduce you to the Day Family Advent Calender. Let's hope it's around for years to come.

So here is how it works. Obviously each day you open one and eat a candy. But our calender has a Christmas-ish activity for each day. Finding 12 things to do each day for two people took some serious brain storming. So I plan to report for the next 12 days on the what we did. I figured this would be the best way to get us in the spirit and help us create traditions at the same time. Feel free to steal some of our ideas, I had to use ideas from other people too.

I want this Christmas this year to mean a bit more than Rockband and presents. I love Christmas because of all the time I get to spend with my family. I love Christmas because I love Jesus. This year I am determined to have Christmas be a happy, wonderful, family packed, Jesus loving Christmas.

Dear Saturday

2009-12-12T10:24:00.001-07:00

Dear Saturday.

We have got some issues that need to be solved.

First, don't be so cold in the morning, this is probably more of a weather issue than a Saturday issue, it makes it nearly impossible to get out of bed when my apartment is somewhere in the 40s. Second, please try to hold all my calls, text messages, and alarms till I am actually out of bed. If you don't, I'll lay in bed for an hour trying to ignore these forms of communication while simultaneously trying to sleep. However, sleep won't come, refer to issue one. Third, I totally expect you to have breakfast ready for me when I do finally get out of bed. Let's face it Saturday, your day is usually pretty busy and I need a good meal to get me though it. Finally, please and have my chores done the day before, it makes my day much more bearable.

Thanks for your time Saturday. I would love it we could come to some sort of solution to these problems, I'll compromise.

Thanks.

Chesca.

Unexpected Situations, New Obsessions, and Good Deals

2009-12-10T15:29:00.003-07:00

I guess I am a liar. I promised a post weeks ago. Better late then never. Ooops.

Yesterday, when I was thinking about the promise I made to post, I realized that I'm bad at posting because life right now is just kinda slow. I don't have a ton to report on. I have three minor categories of life to expound on. That's pretty much all you are going to get.

Unexpected situations. This category is pretty much an all encompassing title for the events in my life.

No one expects to get sick: unless you are sharing a lollipop with a sick person. Brett and I got sick. Not due to a lollipop. Brett decided to go help out in 5th grade where his sister teaches. Apparently all but nine of the kids were out at once due to illness. Brett has his own personal version of the swine flu, again, which included massive headaches, a vicious cough, a sniffly nose, and a few body aches. Several days later I got sick. Just a basic cold followed by five days of having no voice.

Meanwhile, I have been working at the salon. It's slow, I'm enjoying it though. After working in this particular salon/studio for about three weeks, the lady I rented from called and asked if I wanted to take over her lease. Now, I knew that she eventually wanted someone to take it over, but I was thinking at least six months from now. Unexpected. Anyways, Brett and I are looking into taking her up on her offer. I'll keep you updated on that. Next.

This category is probably my favorite. New Obsessions.

About three years ago my supervisor from Best Buy tried to get me onto the whole TV shows bandwagon. I had already committed my Monday TV time to How I Met Your Mother and Heroes and he wanted me to try getting into The Office. So I tried. I started with season one, watched two episodes, and had about had it with the rudeness of Michael Scott, I handed seasons one and two back to him and said yeah right. Well these days I still find time where I am bored out of my mind, so I put my Netflix account to good use. I had a The Office marathon. I started with season one at 1AM Sunday morning and got caught up with about five episodes of season six Wednesday afternoon. I didn't get much done around the house for a few days. Needless to say Brett is also hooked on the shows, but is taking his time getting through the five seasons we have missed. We often find ourselves talking about Jim and Pam and sometimes find instances to quote Michael with a "that's what she said" joke.

Obsession number two is all mine. I love decorating my apartment and can't wait to have a home to decorate. So as part of decorating my home I love fixing furniture, art, and making pillows for my home. My mom had acquired a bench that had a broken leg, everything else was in good shape, but the color didn't go with what I had going on. So my mom and I reupholstered it. It came out so good! So if anyone had furniture you are thinking about getting rid of, don't.

And finally good deals. These always make me smile.

My aunt had called one Friday morning, waking me up to a Nyquil hangover and no voice, to tell about some great furniture that was at the Mesa Auction. I drug my butt out of bed and my mom and I met her down at the auction house to see what they had. So much freakin cute furniture. So we planned out what furniture we wanted to try to get and how much we were willing to pay. Seriously, I feel like I stole the furniture, I got such a good deal.

I picked up some nice filing cabinets that go for $100 a piece at Ikea. I got three for $25 each. I also fell in love with a funky lamp for $35. So here is how the story goes. I had to work the night of the auction. I had sent my mom and my deal expert aunt to go get these filling cabinets and lamp for me. After I had finished doing hair for the night, Brett and I hurried our butts down to the auction to pick up our filling cabinets and to check out the rest of the auction. Brett was shocked at how nice some of the furniture was and how cheap it was going for. My mom was eyeing this curio cabinet/china hutch. She had decided though that she wasn't going to bid on it. After this beautiful cabinet has sold for $265 the auctioneer had said that there were two more available new in box to anyone else who wanted them. My aunt and I were very bad influences and panicked my mom with the amazing deal and she bought it. We later found out that this curio cabinet sold for $2200 at retail. We saw a Pioneer Elite TV go for $900. The bidding started at $500 and no one was taking it. I wanted to bid on it so bad. These deals we just so crazy.

I also got a peak at my Christmas present. Well, it wasn't a peak. I had also been eyeing this pub table. So freakin' cute. But, I didn't want to spend any more money and decided that if it went over $150 I wasn't going to bid on it. It started too high for me. So there goes my aunt bidding on it. It was sad. Then she won the bid. Being the brat that I am, I pretty much asked for her to leave it to me in her will. My mom then looks at my aunt and says, "Should I tell her?" which totally made me curious. My aunt was upset and stuck her tongue out at me. And then my mom tells me that she just bought my Christmas present. I was so excited! I apologized to my aunt, she really wanted to table too. Unfortunately, Christmas is still weeks away, so my table isn't in my home right now. It was fun though. A bit of an adrenaline rush.

That is all I have to report. We have family in town for Thanksgiving, so maybe I'll post some pictures of my niece and nephews.

Guess What?

2009-11-25T03:50:00.001-07:00

I'm still up. It's 3:30 AM.

Guess what? I realize that I promised a post. It's totally written, I just haven't gotten around to taking pictures to go with it.

My brain won't shut down. I've been ready for bed since before my TV shows even started, but once I finally got into bed, sleep didn't come. I hate it. I want to sleep but all I can think about is the weird dream I had last night and if I'm going to get a continuation of it tonight. Then I start to think about how badly I want to get my Christmas shopping done, what to get everyone, and if I'm going to even bother with Black Friday sales. Does this ever happen to anyone else?

Well somehow I ended up here. Realizing that I need to add take pictures for blog to my to do list. By the way, my to do list sucks right now. I have five or six calls to make, a bunch of salon stuff to do, a desk to clean off, finances to organize, people to visit, three stores to pick stuff up from. Once I get to this point, thinking of everything I could be doing instead of sleeping/blogging, I get overwhelmed enough to actually shut down and go to sleep. Stupid brain. Add on Christmas shop.

This is a regular thing for me. Maybe I should self diagnose myself with insomnia, along with the other three or four Dr. Chesca conclusions.

Add on make an appointment with licensed doctor.

New Post Coming Soon

2009-11-13T11:51:00.001-07:00

I promise, within the next three days, maybe four.

To prove to you that it is coming soon, I have even already thought of the title for the post.

"Unexpected Situations, New Obsessions, and Good Deals"

I promise.

Growing Up

2009-10-11T21:26:00.004-07:00

I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this. Well, growing up in general I'm totally against. But the growing up I'm talking about involves a big girl job.

Translation. I'm working in a salon now. Official stylist status.

It's called Bourgeois Salon, www.bourgeoishair.com, and it's this studio salon. It's super cute. So tell all your friends that are looking for a stylist to come and see me.

Welcome to the real world.

I still don't think it is fixed.

2009-10-01T21:42:00.002-07:00

After 17 days of having this stupid car in the shop I am not convinced that it is fixed. In order to fix issue six the dealership had to switch the fuel injectors from to old broken engine, didn't know they kept it, over to the new engine.

And here is why I am not convinced that the problem is solved. Our car gets an estimated 22 miles to the gallon on city streets and 33 miles to the gallon on the highways. That is supposed to result in an combined 27 miles to the gallon. When we first bought the car our average milage was 22 miles per gallon. After they replaced the engine our average milage jumped to 33. Now, that the fuel injectors has been changed we average 20 miles to the gallon.

I'm just saying... it is still broken.

I went to the dealership...

2009-09-30T22:32:00.002-07:00

I went to the dealership today, ya know to be finished with issue five. I was handed the keys to my car, got in turned it on, "Bing" and there goes the check engine light. Here is issue six, that's right issue six immediately follows issue five.

I went back into the service center to let my service rep know that the check engine light was still on. You should have heard her. At first she question my judgement, "It's not on, I checked to make sure it was off before I washed it." I stared at her, cause after five issues, I believe five hundred issues are possible. A check engine light is no surprise. I reiterate to her that it is definitely still on. We walk over to the car, she gets in, turns it on, "Bing" and there goes the check engine light.

At this point she starts to get that this car is a piece of crap and drives it back to run a diagnostic.

The problem:

Who the crap knows... It's still running "rich" so we really don't have a clue.

I didn't even get the car home.

Tomorrow, is day 17.

Issue Five

2009-09-29T18:36:00.004-07:00

Just so you know, today is still issue five. We were supposed to get the car back today, but we didn't. Darn, 16 days in service.

Remember Red Dragon...

2009-09-25T15:13:00.002-07:00

So that 1987 Pontiac TranAm I had, the one with the yellow flames coming up the red hood... Yeah that one. His name was Red Dragon and I miss him. I bet you are asking yourself why the crap I would miss that ugly car that didn't have AC and smelled of gasoline. I'll tell you why: He was reliable.

R.E.L.I.A.B.L.E.

We purchased a new car in the beginning of July-ish. Ish because we did the cash for clunkers program, and turning that paperwork in was a pain in butt. I was at the dealership at least 1.5 times a week for a month. Yes, 1.5 times a week. But even though I made way too many visits to sign papers, the dealership is literally across the street. Good thing for them, I'd be much more upset if it was in the West Valley or something. End of issue one.

I'm a hard and late breaker. But I knew I wasn't bad enough to make the breaks vibrate and grind. And after multiple events of breaking, the sounds got worse. I should have framed my first visit to the dealership service department. I was told the wait would be about an hour. I ended up being there for almost three. Breaks fixed, end of issue two.

Since paper work took forever to finalize, eventually my temporary plate expired without ever getting a real live plate. I guess it got lost in the mail or something. So I drove around with an expired temporary plate for 14 days or so. Then the dealership just got me a new plate all together. End of issue three.

Now here is where the whole R.E.L.I.A.B.L.E things comes in. Welcome to issue four. I was sitting in the $5 car wash, not even a month ago, when my low coolant light came on. So naturally I looked at the car temperate. Red line! I thought to myself, "Seriously! A red line temperate reading and I am being drug through this automatic car wash!" After being dried by the airplane like wind force, I pull in to the vacuum station to let the car cool off. I call Brett and tell him something is wrong. After getting off the phone I proceed to vacuum my car out while it cools down a bit. After I'm done I turn the car on, vent the air into the car and pull out of the car wash. I need to call a tow truck and there is no way a tow truck is going to be able to do its job in that parking lot. I drive down the street into a neighborhood and pull over just as the temperate starts to move up from its normal reading. It's hot. I'm sweating. I hate car problems.

I call OnStar and they send me a tow truck, but it's not going to be here for an hour. Now I am very mad. I look under the hood, which won't do me much good cause I don't know a whole lot about cars, except how to fix Red Dragon. I find that the coolant overflow is completely empty. I decided that I'll just get some coolant and drive down there myself. But that plan did not work out. Eventually the tow truck shows up and drags my car to dealership. I explain to them what had happened. Obviously they keep it. I get this stripped Colbalt to drive around and I was not happy. It looked like something has peed on the back seat and smelled of body odor.

We get a call back from the dealership the next day. Here is their list of problems:

The radiator flushed its coolant into the engine.

Milky engine oil.

And after running some tests here was the conclusion:

Congratulations, your engine was cast with a flaw. Because of this flaw water decided to get out through the flaw because water cannot be compressed. We broke your engine.

And here is how they are going to fix it:

We are having an brand new engine sent to us from Michigan. So hold on to that Cobalt for about a week.

So. I was mad and laughing. There is absolutely nothing I can do about this broken engine. A few phone calls were made to some higher up GM people, then I decided to throw a bit of a fit. There was something I could fix. I wanted out of the crappy rental car. So I got a new one. About six days later they called and had everything fixed. Yay and end of issue four. Yes that was all issue four.

Currently I am living in issue five which started on Thursday. And right now I am driving a rental car till about Tuesday. Here is issue five. Brett and I are driving along to freeway and the check engine light comes on. Yay! The message center on the car says that the traction control needs to be services. Kay, not that big of an issue, we are busy and can take it in tomorrow. So I take the car in. By now I have become best friends with my service representative Hedi we talk about the problem. She runs a diagnostic on the car and it is misfiring at 79 mph. They won't be able to look at the car till the next day. So I get a rental car, smile and leave.

The following day I get a phone call and here is the problem:

We think you had a broken spark plug.

You have a sensor in your car that thinks it's only 40 degrees outside.

And here is how they are going to fix the problem:

We replaced all your spark plugs.

We have order your a new sensor from Michigan and it will be here Tuesday. So hold on to that rental till then.

And issue five still isn't over.

But I bet you want to know what issue six is, cause after we have this car in the shop for 30 cumulative days it becomes a lemon. When Tuesday comes around, we'll be sitting on 15 days.

Projects

2009-09-16T00:04:00.004-07:00

In the past two and a half months since I have been out of school I haven't gotten much done. To be completely honest, most of my free time has consisted of sleeping. I find myself going to bed at about 2AM and getting up at about 1PM. Then at about 4PM, just before Brett gets home from work, I take a nap for about an hour and half.

But, that's not all I have done in the past two months.

Aside from looking for a job, which is a pain in the butt, I spent my first two weeks of life outside of school reading. I finished the whole Twilight series for the millionth time in about a week. Then I moved on to some Jane Austen. Following books, I moved on to studying for my cosmetology exam, however, studying lasted only a couple of days. I jumped over to movies. First watching the entire Harry Potter series in two days, including the newest movie, followed by enrolling in the greatest idea ever. I absolutely love Netflix.

But, I'm not a complete jobless bum.

I spent a good couple of days planning dinner meals and reorganizing my apartment. I cleaned out the laundry room, the closest, and moved furniture in the bedroom and living room to make room for the free piano.

But, I was starting to go crazy.

I was running out of things to do. It started with my dogs bad breath. So I baked some puppy treats, which makes me feel like a good dog owner. And finally it lead to me writing a letter to my mom's dogs Corkey and Luci. I wrote as if I were my dog Amare, I made him sign it with his paw print, I bagged up some fresh baked puppy treats and delivered them to my mom. I was going crazy.

And then I lost it.

I refinished my kitchen table. Sanded it. Stained it. Sealed it.

I started painting. I taped squares on the wall, and painted them. Then I added more.

I fixed 105 year old piano keys with tweezers and a bit of Elmer's Glue (Don't be mad I used Elmer's Glue. I wanted to play a few songs using F#).

And now.

I'm back to sleeping in.

The Free Section on Craigslist

2009-08-15T23:26:00.001-07:00

Brett and I recently acquired the coolest thing on Craigslist, for FREE!

If you haven't looked around Craiglist.org you need to get around to doing that. I have heard of people getting some great things through the website, but this better. If you go through the free section you'll usually find strange things or gross nasty dirty sofas, but none the less it's all free.

Brett got on the free section and found a piano that was listed as free. There was a picture of the piano on the page and it look wonderful, old, but wonderful. I was so excited and had to have it! It had only been posted for about six hours so it was likely it was still available. I immediately called the guy, named Darren, and he still had it. So him and I set up a time for the following day to come and pick it up.

In.

Litchfield.

Park.

That means way West Phoenix.

He proceeded to tell me how big and heavy this piano was and made suggestions like, "Bring a truck. Better yet a trailer. And you'll also need a few big guys to move it." Kay no big deal, it's free right.

So Brett and I talked a few friends into coming along for the ride to get this piano, that according to Darren was about 50 years old.

We easily got the piano into Brett's little S10 and drove away. I was so happy and so excited.

We got home and called a few more friends, about seven people to help us get the piano in the apartment.

Upstairs.

I have no clue how it actually made it up into my little apartment and through the narrow stairway, so I can't explain any of that. But it did happen.

Later that night I found a serial number on the piano and did a bit of research. I was extremely curious as to how old the thing really was. I eventually found an antique piano restorer, took a few photos, told him about the research I did, and sent him my serial number.

I got an email the next morning.

"Let me start by saying that 'The Concord Piano Company' built exceptionally well made instruments... According to the serial number you provided, your piano was built in 1904, a prime era for piano building in America... I can tell from your photos that your piano is made of quarter sawn oak wood which has been painted black by a previous owner. Your piano is made in the 'Mission' or 'Craftsman' style, a style which is in huge demand today... I can tell from your photos that your piano has the original worn strings and felts. The piano is a large, full size 'upright grand' which would have the sound of a grand piano if it was restored... We routinely sell these restored upright pianos for $9,000-$12,000 in our shop after restoration. This is not an inflated figure, but an actual figure that these pianos really are selling for after restoration..."

Um, my jaw dropped.

I got a 105 year old piano that is worth up to $12,00 for FREE!

Um.

Anyways. I love it! It sounds so beautiful! It is beautiful and I LOVE it!

California with Brett

2009-08-05T01:15:00.000-07:00

In cosmetology school there is no such thing as Spring Break, nor is there any such thing as a break. You go eleven months of straight school, Monday through Friday 9AM to 4:30 PM. Occasionally you get a Friday off and occasionally a nation holiday rolls around. So if you don't want to be at school, well, you end up behind in hours. I have a story about being behind 170 hours, but I'll share that some other day.

After eleven months of school Brett and I decided that we needed a trip out of town before he started school. Honestly, I could never get sick of California.

Have you even gone on vacation with out a set plan? Like, you know what you want to do, but you don't really care when you get around to doing it?

We didn't care when we left and we weren't too concerned with coming home.

We had absolutely no schedule, and for someone who runs on one, I loved it!

We visited parts of Los Angeles. Looked at fancy cars driving by. We cruised through Beverly Hills, might I add we also listened to the Green Day song while cruising. We stopped by Malibu. We went to Six Flags, the new Terminator ride was a disappointment. On the flip side, Goliath is my favorite ride and became so after riding in the front seat. After visiting the greater Los Angeles area we drove down to San Diego. Have you been to Coronado Island? I love it!

I totally found a sand dollar on the beach. It was still living so I wasn't allowed to keep it. So I took a picture of it. Following my pictures I tossed it back into the water. However, I am horrible at softball, and so am horrible at throwing and almost hit a little girl in the face with it. So I went over to her and decided to show her what I threw. So I found the little sand dollar and showed it to her. She thought it was cool and wanted to show her mom, so I explained to her that she had to put it back in the water when she was done. The little punk kept him and killed it! No I am an accomplice to sand dollar murder. Anyways, there is a picture of the sand dollar still alive below.

Seriously vacations with out schedules are the best.

California With Sonya

2009-07-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

Destination: Los Angles

Transportation: New Car

Time of Departure: 4 AM

Lodging: Uncle Marciano's House

Points of Interest: Hollywood, Los Angeles Temple, Santa Monica Beach

Food: Snacks and Jack in the Box Tacos

The trip was last minute.

So that means is was unorganized.

But the trip was well past due.

Our food.

Poor Michael Jackson.

Gotta love Sesame Street.

Interesting.

I love to see the temple.

The end.

I'm Licensed

2009-07-24T12:27:00.002-07:00

I passed my theory exam. I passed my practical. That means I am officially a cosmetologist.

I Finished Hair School Hell

2009-07-06T19:00:00.005-07:00

Late last summer I handed Empire Beauty College $15,000, in loans, to go to "hair school" and smiled as I walked out of the front door. Ladies and Gentlemen, I walked out the front door for the last time today, and I cried, because hair school is one of the worst things I have ever had to do.

But, I'm done. I complete 1,600 hours of training in cosmetology, and probably then some. I endured 1,600 hours of smiling at insecure, mean, selfish girls. I put up with 1,600 hours of unorganized Empire Beauty School administration. But, I'm done.

And I'm never going back.

Pontiac G6 - Daughter (Possibly Grand Daughter) of Red Dragon

2009-07-03T00:15:00.003-07:00

This is a bittersweet picture.

I remember the day I looked at Red and claimed him unwillingly. He was my car cause I killed my green Elantra. He was ratty, smelled like gasoline, didn't have a stereo, and the paint... well I eventually loved the paint. It took Red and I some warming up before we learned to love each other. Sure we had rough patches (AC, water pump, fuel pump, fuel filter, gasoline tank, belt eating, power steering) but he was the best.

Then Brett met him. He fell in love as most do. The flames you get over, but the power behind the steering wheel is what usually wins you over.

Parker loved him at first sight. A true Red Dragon fan at heart. He understood what Red really was: a race car.

This is my official goodbye to Red Dragon. I love you, forever and always.

Dear Empire

2009-06-23T01:16:00.003-07:00

I think that letters are good. It's seems to be an effective way of getting someone's attention. Like on the movie White Chicks, when the girls are trying to get into their hotel room and the front desk won't let them. The two girls threaten to write a letter, and as soon as they start to write it, they get what they want (I hope you've seen that movie, otherwise this probably doesn't make sense).

Dear Empire,

I hate you.

A lot actually.

Love,

Chesca

Chapter 21

2009-06-15T01:15:00.002-07:00

I recently came to the conclusion that everyone needs to carry a book around. A book? Yes, a book. Work with me people.

There are few things I remember about being little, not sure why. When I was about eight I begged my mom for this book with a baseball mitt and ballerina shoes on it titled All About Me. As you can imagine, eventually I got. And if I were a smart little kid, I would have kept that book and would have updated it regularly. But seeing that I can't even remember being little, I must have been a bit slow.

This is the book we all need to carry around. I don't think every other little kid was as good of a brat as me, so I'm going to assume you didn't have an All About Me book. With that in mind I'm declaring myself the official All About Me Chapter Assigner. So now everyone can make their own book with wonderful chapter titles, organized by me. Chapter 1, as you can imagine, is all about your original birthday. Titled, Original Birthday. Followed by chapter 2, Growing Up Fast: Teeth Toddler and Tantrum. Next you find titles such as The Playground, Freshman Year through Prom, and Hello Legal Adult, and then chapter 21, which is titled Chapter 21.

Chapter 21:

As you can imagine this chapter of my life is quite rambunctious. Haha, just kidding. Most people my age, 21, would celebrate this birthday at a bar. But instead my husband gave me a much needed mini vacation. I drug myself to school that morning, but we'll just pretend I didn't do that. After school, I had lunch at Olive Garden. If you haven't had their chocolate cake thingy yet, you need to get on that. Then, Brett drove me north on Loop 101, not telling me exactly where we were going. Eventually, we reached Scottsdale and I came to the conclusion that I would be enjoying a StayCation. Kind of like vacation, but not va... It was wonderful. And nice resort that came with 100 dollars in food credit. We went to the movies that night walked the mall together and spent some time enjoying each others company. I got a new pair of shoes too. I. LOVE. SHOES. The next morning we attempted to use our 100 dollar food credit by eating a 67 dollar breakfast. Wonderful, followed by swimming and catching some sun. End of Chapter 21.

So, everyone get your books going. I'm expecting to see a wedding chapter out of some of you, maybe a graduation chapter. But get to work. It's late and I'm off.