High School Tag

1. DID YOU DATE SOMEONE FROM YOUR SCHOOL? nope never. I was only allowed to date mormons. And the majority of them were my cousins. I really had to branch out in order to date anyone.

2.WHAT KIND OF CAR DID YOU DRIVE? I was an EXCELLENT passenger in lindsey's honda civic and Shawna's honda accord :) I didn't get my license until a month before going to BYU.

3. DID YOU PASS YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE TEST YOUR FIRST TRY? yep

4. WERE YOU A PARTY ANIMAL? ha. I like to think I was fun to be around at the parties I was allowed to go to. But no, I didn't attend "parties" if you know what I mean.

5. WERE YOU CONSIDERED A FLIRT? ya

6. WERE YOU IN BAND, ORCHESTRA, OR CHOIR? yep

7. WERE YOU A NERD? I hope not. If you knew me then and I was, don't tell me.

8. WERE YOU ON ANY VARSITY TEAMS? haha-we got a varsity letter for our show choir

9. DID YOU EVER GET SUSPENDED/EXPELLED? No

10. CAN YOU STILL SING THE FIGHT SONG? I think I only ever knew the last line "Lancers hail to you!"

11. WHO WERE YOUR FAVORITE TEACHERS? probably Mr. Pool, Mr. Miller and Mrs. Elliott. Mr. Pool was an old short bald man who wore a huge cowboy hat-totally funny. Mr. Miller was an old surfer dude-he taught my dad! And Mrs. Elliott just was a fun teacher.

12. WHERE DID YOU SIT FOR LUNCH? In a car, in Carls Jr., at Lindsey/Shawna/or my house. LOVE off campus lunch!

13. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S FULL NAME? Carlsbad High School

14. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S MASCOT AND COLORS? Lancers, purple and gold

15. WHO WAS HOMECOMING ROYALTY? Albert and Yolanda.

16. IF YOU COULD GO BACK AND DO IT AGAIN WOULD YOU? I think if I went back I'd like to be a less judgemental person

17. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT GRADUATION? Shawna giving me a lei, hugging everyone after, my family all smiles and happy, Uncle Mark giving me my diploma, grad night

18. WHERE DID YOU GO SENIOR SKIP DAY? I don't remember. I know that I DIDN'T go to Magic Mountain where everyone else went. But I remember having a lot of "senior skip days" ;)

19. WERE YOU IN ANY CLUBS? I might have been-guess I wasn't too involved in them if I don't remember which ones!

20. HAVE YOU GAINED SOME WEIGHT SINCE THEN? do we really need to talk about this? YES, okay???? I'm working on it.

21. WHO WAS YOUR PROM DATE? Cory Williams

22. ARE YOU PLANNING ON GOING TO YOUR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION? It was last year. And I didn't go.

23. DID YOU HAVE A JOB IN HIGH SCHOOL? oh ya. I started out at the California Yogurt Company, then went to a data entry job, and I worked at Gap Outlet and In-N-Out. I think that's all of them.

24. WERE YOU AN HONOR STUDENT? yes

25. DID YOU TAKE SEMINARY? yes, at the CRACK OF DAWN. I am totally not responsible for sleeping through the majority of my high school academics.

26. WHAT WOULD YOU CONSIDER YOUR MOST FUN TIME? Just being with my friends-mostly Shawna and Lindsey. We had fun with the day to day things. Sure there was drama, but such is the life of teenage girls :)

27. WERE YOU CONSIDERED SHY OR OUTGOING? I think outgoing.

28. ANY LAST MEMORIES YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE? ummm, nope.

k-I tag EVERYONE who hasn't done this-I know SOME things about most of my friends, but certainly not everything!

So sad when...

...37 degrees feels SO SO SO WARM! I threw off my coat and wanted to go frolicking around outside! My car's temperature gauge ended up at 53 when I was done with my errands. WOOHOO!

Just the other day I was shoveling another foot of snow. During my "shoveling snow musings" I was somewhat angry at said snow. Honestly, you can only lift snow so high. And the piles in our driveway were about my height. I was wondering what big joke Heavenly Father thought He was playing on us, giving us so much snow that there wasn't any more space to put it. You know how one thought leads to another? Well, at that point I really had no hope that the snow would ever stop coming and was planning out how I would use my food storage during that time that we would be snowed in because THERE WASN'T ANY MORE SPACE TO SHOVEL THE SNOW. Heavenly Father must have felt my hopelessness and gave us a little warm-up here. Now the piles are only FOUR feet high. Our sidewalk in the front and the walkway up to the front door still aren't shovelable, though. Those are solid ice-it'll take a while before we see that concrete again. Not such a good thing for having open houses. We shoveled a path from the driveway across the grass to the front steps-hopefully people are down with that.

But I'll take 53 degrees!!! Now, if only it was 53 degrees AND sunshine...

EVERYONE should read this book!!

I'm a member of the Goodreads website, and when a "friend" updates what they've read and rated, it sends an email letting you know. So my friend Debbie had updated and I took a look at the books she read. There was one that caught my eye, and she gave it a high rating, so I thought I'd check it out from the library.

Holy cow, am I glad I did!! Folks, I introduce you to...

If you can't read what it says, it's "The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work" by John Gottman.

Now, just so you understand, I wasn't interested in this because I thought mine and Dave's marriage was in trouble. I'm just always interested in how to make things better. And with Dave's history in human development and stuff, this intrigued me.

As members of the Church, we're taught to seek out the best books. I've read books that were great, good, and downright horrible. I've noticed when authors have a gift for writing. I really believe that Heavenly Father gives people different gifts and talents for the greater good. I really believe that He wants us to enjoy life and so He blesses people with talents to entertain us. Sorry if that sounds weird. But what I mean is that there are fictional books out there that are great and uplifting or teach us lessons or bring us happiness, and I feel like those authors were blessed with the gift of writing. I don't think it's just happenstance that authors, entertainers, and musicians are so incredibly talented. They were blessed with those gifts by Heavenly Father, and then they were given agency to choose how they use those gifts. Some have chosen to use them for good, and some not.


So, back to the reason for my post. I love it when I'm reading a book and I FEEL that the author was inspired with the topic. I love feeling uplifted and knowing that what I'm reading would receive God's approval 100%. And that is what happened with this book. This book is for EVERYONE. It's for the couple who is happy with their marriage, the couple who is struggling, the couple who doesn't know that they're struggling, the couple that just wants a little revitalization. The principles taught in this book are applicable. He gives guidance and exercises that, though they are hard and take time, are WORTH IT.


People crowd their lives with so many unnecessaries. We waste a LOT of time. Some spend their time on worthwhile things, but not on the things that are of the MOST WORTH. Your marriage is of the most worth. If you take the time necessary to read this book and do the exercises, you will have made one of the most important investments of time in your life. I haven't even finished the book and I am already so much more aware of how I contribute to the happiness AND the unhappiness of our marriage, and I know how to make things better. I don't feel hopeless about the things I'm failing in because I'm given tools to fix them. This book can give a lot of hope to a couple who really might be on the road to divorce or who are experiencing severe problems and issues. It cleared up a lot of misconceptions about what a "successful" marriage is. A lot of times we (women in particular!) have this idea of what marriage (or even romance) should be. And when our relationships aren't that way, we think there's something wrong. This book helps you see what you are doing right and helps you feel better about the successes in your marriage. I just really love what I've been reading.


So, there's my plug. And if sometime in your life you receive this book as a gift from me, it's not because I think your marriage is failing :) I just think everyone should own a copy of this book!

Paso Robles, CA?

Does anyone know someone from or someone that lives in Paso Robles, CA? (or Templeton, Atascadero and San Luis Obispo)

Let us know if you do :)

Mia Mia!

The other day Bree and I were home alone so I broke out the Mamma Mia soundtrack and we danced and sang to the song Mamma Mia. Bree was having a blast. Starting the next day I am no longer "mommy", I am "mommia" and Dave is "dadia" and snack is "snackia." She pronounces hungry "honky" and now it's "honkia." It's pretty hilarious. Right now she's saying "it's yuckia!" But when she sings the song, it's "mia mia...uh uh...again, my my..uh...."

And a couple nights ago Emma was staring in the mirror with her mouth wide open, then exclaims "Mommy! I don't have any cabinets!" Cabinets??????? "Ya mom, cabinets are holes in your teeth." I love Sid the Science kid. She informed me yesterday that she made sure to eat her hard carrots with her back teeth and not her pointy teeth.

And since I haven't taken any pictures of the girls in about a month, here's one from a year ago. This is SO indicative of their relationship. Bree beating up Emma and saying "no TOUCHIE!" while Emma isn't doing a thing to provoke it. Nice.

snow fun

January was pretty uneventful, wasn't it? Here's a little clip for the grandparents to get their "fill" of the girls :)

Girls Night Out-Tonight! (Friday)

Meeting at Anna's house around 8-ish. Bring treats and games! Let me know if you need an address or directions. Hope to see you there!

Seriously...

...if anyone wants to donate to the cause of getting me out of here, I'll gladly accept skymiles, southwest rapid rewards points, and cash will even work. I've shoveled TWICE today.

Let me reiterate...

as per my last post. I will be fine if I never see snow again.

Catching up

Or at least, trying. Everyone else seems to be doing it. I stopped the Gratitude Days, only b/c it was really hard to blog every day, not because I ran out of things to be grateful for. Man, those people who are able to blog everyday are my heroes. They must be the ones that used to be able to write in their journals everyday before blogging was invented.

We had a GREAT break. We spent quite a bit of time trying to finish up house stuff in preparation for putting it on the market. That wasn't the great part. We had a FUN New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I'm still waiting for Kiley to post pics from New Year's Eve-I'm waiting, in particular, for a sexy New Year's kiss picture of Dave and I :) We played games, ate lots of good food, and laughed a lot. Then the next day we went bowling and afterwards headed to the church to let the kids go wild with the nursery toys while we played more games. It's amazing how long your kids can be entertained with other people's toys.

But, for posterity's sake, we need to post this picture of Dave's bowling game. WHAT A MAN! He's the 3rd row down. Notice, if you will, the 2 strikes, an 8, a spare, then FOUR STRIKES IN A ROW. I messed him up the next frame b/c I was bowling next to him and was trying to be funny. It ended up not being funny when he didn't get another strike. But I got one! His final score was 208 (I think). He had it printed out.

We also had a fun night playing Wii with the Hatch's. I hadn't ever tried playing before, just because I don't know why. But, MAN, that was a blast. We played Ultimate Band and let me just say that Brian was hilarious being the front man. That was so funny to watch. Can we please set up a video camera next time? So now I know what all the Wii hype was for.

Monday, the 5th, was our EIGHT YEAR ANNIVERSARY! We made it through the 7 year itch. Kyla was awesome and baby-sat for us and Dave endured watching Twilight with me (yes, I just now finally saw it-topic for another day). What a great guy. I only had to punch him a few times as he rolled his eyes in exasperation.

Doesn't my man look SMOKIN' in a tux? Ya, he's hot.

Proof that there ARE fall colored leaves in San Diego-some don't believe it...

Hawaii-Seven Sacred Pools

Bear Lake

Old Faithful

Yellowstone

Kayaking with manatees!

Blessed graduation day. One more to come then we're DONE!

That's all BC-Before Children.

Now we're back into the daily grind of school and stuff. I actually kind of like it. While Dave was home and around all the time Bree hated me. I couldn't touch her, get her out of her bed in the morning, feed her, get her in and out of her carseat, put her to bed-you name it, she hated me for it. Every time Dave left she had a meltdown. When he went back to school on Monday she was totally fine and we figured it out-the scrubs are a SIGN! He's allowed to leave the house if he's wearing those. And she loves me again.

So Bree loves me and Emma hates me. Yep, I didn't think it would happen this early, but Emma has already pulled the "I hate you!" and "I'm going to go live with Grandma!" When she told me she was leaving to live with Grandma I said okay, to which she "huffily" replied-I can't drive, you have to take me. That was a rough day. But now that she's back in school and not bored all day long she's happier. She likes going to the gym and playing with the kids there. And she always wants to watch PBS-anyone else have a kid addicted to PBS? Oh ya, and she GREW! This is a BIG DEAL in our house. I knew her pants (that I JUST bought-grrr) were looking too short, but with her track record I just thought they shrunk too much. But no-TWO whole inches in the last 6 months. There might be hope for her! She keeps talking about when she's taller than me and we just laugh and say IF she's taller than me (and I'm barely 5'2"). And Bree is so cute and funny. She had her 2 year check up and she grew too! I'm really not used to this whole "buying clothes that last only a month" thing. I've been a little concerned about her speech and the doctor thought she should have an analysis done. Apparently a stranger should be able to understand half of what a 2 yr old says. And let's just say he heard daddy and that's about it. We haven't started yet, but just in the last 2 weeks her speech has really taken off. She says the funniest things, which are made even funnier with her cute lisp. And now that she loves me again everything she does is that much cuter. She takes such good care of her babies, and she loves to pretend sleep and wake up with us. And she loves to make a mess with everything. Food, water, toys. She's the tasmanian devil. She leaves a path of destruction in her wake.And she's always going going going. Before, all that stuff drove me crazy. But now that she's understanding things a little better and speaking better, all that stuff isn't as bad. I just love these little girls.

We also got some snow this week, and this was the VERY FIRST TIME Bree has played in it. Two years ago, a newborn, last year, not walking. She loved it. I shoveled the driveway (ya, I know. I rock.) while they played. What's weird is Emma handles the cold really well-her face never gets red and her hands and feet aren't ever cold. But Bree's face was totally red and when I pulled off her gloves her hands were like ice. Kind of makes me worried to send her out to play. But the more I think about it, Dave totally is fine in the cold-he never needs more than a long sleeved shirt and a jacket, while I have to be bundled up in a million layers. So maybe the girls are just like us. Do I need to be worried about Bree? Any snow thoughts? Although I lived in Utah for 7 years I never "lived" in the snow. I was 12 before I saw snow for the first time. And let's just say I was totally fine with that. And I'll be fine if I never have to see snow again. I told Dave a few days ago-Hawaii, Southern California, or Florida. Those are his options. I think I was REALLY spoiled to have grown up in the mild climate of San Diego. Never too hot, never too cold. Just PERFECT.

And on to other news. Dave and I are flying to Kansas for an interview with a clinic. It's so nice that someone PAID for us to fly. Dave lived a good chunk of his life in Kansas, so it's not totally random. It's a year contract, and it's something we feel good about. If we knew where we wanted to eventually end up, then we wouldn't be doing this. But we're still unsure of where we want to be, so this is a good place to start. The clinic offers 26 vacation days a year, so that'll give us plenty of time to travel to different places and see where we want to go. And hopefully by then the economy will have picked up a little more to the point where dentists are doing more work and need associates.

So that's us in a nutshell. All updated. The end.