Primary Pajama Party

Last night was our ward Primary Pajama Party and because we are teachers we were lucky enough to attend. It was so much fun watching the innocence of the little kids. They drew pictures of their families, decorated cookies, made ornaments and Christmas cards. We are blessed to be in such a wonderful ward!

Christmas at Disney

Andy and I decided that we would use our passes and head up to Disney for our day off to see all of the Christmas decorations. It was incredible! It was so much fun looking at all of the decorations. I realized that as many times as I have been to Disney I have not been during the holiday season for a VERY long time, I was always "too busy". It's amazing the things we take for granted when we have all the time in the world and then you get older and things become more and more important.

Utah

We were lucky to head to Utah last week and visit my family. We had a little Thanksgiving/Birthday/Christmas get together. We got there Sunday morning at about 5 am and Pepper was kind enough to let us have her bed for the week, so we went and fell asleep. Then we got up and said hello to the family. My grandparents came down to visit...YAY!!! Grandpa started radiation the next tuesday so they couldn't come down any other time. So we gave them their gifts. Hand picked Avacados and a robe. Dad also had a wonderful surprise for us. He has worked really hard to finish his play room outside. IT LOOKS INCREDIBLE!!! He hasn't finished it all the way, but wow! I am so proud of him.
Pepper set up a surprise early birthday get together for me. So some friends came over and we had cake and saw each other again. Tuesday my cousins came down to see me! It was so awesome to see all of them. It's incredible how much you miss family when you are gone. Wed we had our family Christmas party and opened some presents. Andy, Trevor, Eric and I also went shooting that morning. It was super fun!

It was a wonderful trip. A little crammed and I didn't get to spend as much time with my family or friends as I would have liked to, but I am so blessed to have so many people that love me that I can't spend enough time with them. :) It is going to be weird not being home for Christmas this year. I miss my family like crazy, but I am so lucky to have a wonderful husband and in laws that love me. All in all it was a great trip!

Missing the snow...

Everybody dreams of retiring to Southern California and now I know why. There is absolutely NO change in weather aside from nice and extremely hot. It is gorgeous all year round and you don't have to deal with all of the idiot drivers in the snow. Well I MISS THE SNOW dang it!!! The weather out here is gorgeous, two days ago it was 95 outside, but it's the beginning of winter people! Don't you know there is supposed to be snow on the ground?!? Two weeks and I will be back in Utah for a couple days...hopefully there will be snow out there. If not, at least I get to see the snow covered mountains!!! :)

8 means Hate?

That is what most of the "No on Prop 8" signs read. I have a problem with this claim. They say that people for 8 are the ones that "HATE" others and are taking away their rights, and yet the only thing that I have seen from them is destruction, vandalism, theft, and violence.
During the entire election period I never once saw a No on 8 sign that was taken or destroyed. The most that I saw it move was from one street corner to the next. Yes on 8 signs, however, we spray painted with No across it, stolen, or in my sister in laws case kicked so it was ripped in two (while on her personal property).
As for peaceful protesting and expressing your first amendment rights, it's all fine and dandy when they do it. Nobody complains, the most that happens from the Yes on 8 side is protesting on opposite corners of the street. They don't think we should have the right to go out and support 8 without repercussion.
As my sister in law was out with a whole bunch of Yes on 8 supporters she was approached by a 19 or 20 year old girl who asked if she was voting for Obama. When she said she wasn't there to talk about that the girl became irate asking everyone in her group the same question. Eventually Jeanette again in a stronger tone said nobody was going to talk about that. They were here to talk about 8, so the chick decided to take a swing at her. When she missed, she kicked her in the upper front thigh.
Of course everyone stepped in and made it impossible for her to get to Jeanette so she ran to the middle of the median, spoke with a car that had been trying to hit Yes on 8 supporters all day, then seeing Jeanette wide open ran at her and kicked her again in the other upper front thigh! They finally called the cops and it took them 40 minutes to drag her out of her hotel room kicking and screaming, spitting on the cops! What happened to our freedom of speech without being assaulted for it?
They have a problem against the church because we are willing to donate time and money to help support the family, but it's not just the LDS church that donated. Every Christian based religion in California did the same thing, including the Catholics! Yet we are the ones who are ostracized because of it. They vandalize our bishops home with spray paint. They make commercials directly against the church.
8 means hate? Yes, it does! It means all of those that do not support 8 HATE people that support 8, while those that support 8 still love and respect them for their decisions. It means supporters are now hated and will feel the wrath of those that don't agree and their first amendment rights will be taken away by force. Now please, tell me what is ok with this???

6 Quirks...

1. I hate doing the dishes! I don't mind doing any other chores but I HATE dishes with a passion. It doesn't matter if I have a dishwasher or not.

2. I can't stand to eat breakfast. I know it's the most important meal out of the day but I just can't seem to eat when I wake up in the morning.

3. I actually like my husband to play video games. LOL! Most women hate that, but I really don't mind at all.

4. I am obsessed with text messaging. I love it.

5. I always order Chicken enchiladas when I go to a Mexican restaurant. It doesn't matter where I go that is what I order if it's Mexican.

6. I would rather sleep anywhere then in my own bed. It doesn't matter what bed is mine, since I was 17 I started sleeping on couches and anywhere that wasn't my actual bed. I am doing better since I have been married but I have required a lot of traveling because of this little quirk.

Most of my friends have already done this so those who haven't and have some extra time. I would love to read about you!

Complete Nerds...

So, Andy and I now play the Yugioh card game and as dorky as it sounds it is so much fun! There are endless possibilities to what you can do. You can have a million decks and none of them are the same. To top it off the cards are CHEAP! We got about 300 cards for $17 and that was because I bought two of the brand new decks! In the beginning it is a little complicated but the more you learn the more fun it is. You get to blow stuff up, steal peoples cards, block them from hitting you and make them hit yourself, build your decks around cute cards, if there is something you are interested in I'm sure they have a card that is based around it. My friend built an entire deck around cards that look just like the cars from the Chevron with Techron commercials. They are so cute!!!
Anyway, I just figured I hadn't posted in a while and that is really the only new thing that has gone on with us. Sorry we are so boring! :) LOL! We love you guys!

Snorkeling...

Andy and I finally had a day where we both got off early and decided to go to La Jolla Cove and try snorkeling. We bought the stuff to do it a while ago and I have been slowly getting used the the water and the goggles in the pool (water at the ocean). We walked up to the shore about 4:45 last night looking down and I did not want to get in. The waves looked like they were hitting harder because we were in the cove. The seaweed was all over the place and disgusting. After a while of debating whether or not to get in I decided I would have to face my fear eventually, why not right now?

As I step into the ocean it is freezing!!! (It's always freezing...lol) I had to coax myself into getting in. Andy was so great. He just stood there, holding my hand waiting until I was ready to get in. Slowly but surely I made it in. Now for the googles. Creepy. It just doesn't feel right to have my eyes open under water, not being able to breathe. I decided that I did need the snorkel so we added that to the mixture. At least now I could breathe...not well, but I could breathe. We slowly headed out a little further....then the fish started to appear....

It was INCREDIBLE!!! It was just like in the movies. Watching the seaweed move with the ocean, the fish are just right there. Even though you are just floating on top of the water you feel like you are in the middle of all of it. I had no depth perception at all! I couldn't tell how far away anything was so I just kept reaching for things. Silly me... Then we hit the rocks and there was a huge drop off...It scared the crap out of me so I decided it was time to come back in. It was probably one of the most incredible experiences in my life.

No matter what your fear, if you have a desire to over come it you will do it. :) Of course it will still be just as scary the next time, but I can't wait!!! We are going to take frozen peas and apparently the fish just swarm around you. YAY!!!

Pics from Mexico

Skip over the weekend....

So, we are just going to skip this weekend and pretend nothing ever happened. As for today, Andy and I went to Disneyland to see the Pirates Lair on Tom Sawyer Island. It was awesome! They have a whole bunch of little caves to go in and out of, treasures everywhere, just fun random things. It was great spending a day with my wonderful husband. Oh, and he bought me a lucky Bamboo :) They say you can't over water them, hopefully I won't be able to kill this one. Sorry so scatterbrained. Love you guys!

Labor Day Weekend...a little late

The weekend started off with me working until 8 Saturday night. When I got off Andy and I headed down to La Mesa (like we always do to see Andy's dad). This time we decided to go out with Matt, Andy's best friend. They hadn't been to Norma Jeans (a karoke bar) in a long time so that is where we went. All of the sudden Matt comes and tells me that he signed the two of us (Matt and I) up for singing Love Shack! I guess there is no backing out once you are already signed up. So, Matt and I went up and Sang Love Shack. I never knew I had it in me. Andy says I did a pretty good job (although all he had to compare me to were drunk people...besides he has to tell me that, right?). I didn't know some of the words in the song, even though they were on the screen I didn't know the tune in that part so Matt had to sing it to me while I had to sing in the Mic. LOL! That was an experiance :) We made it home around 2 am.

Sunday I decided I wanted to go to the Mexican border. Since everybody out here (including my mexican friends) tells me that going to TJ is too dangerous and don't do it, Andy, Jeanette and I went out to the desert where Andy used to cross the border all the time growing up. He said there was a big post that showed where the border was so of course I wanted to take a SAW us on the other side of the fence but if you admit guilt do they have to do something? We just sat there and let him lecture us for a few minutes. Telling us it's a BIG NO NO! And it's illegal and all that fun stuff. So then Andy says "well, in that case we didn't go over there, thanks for letting us know" and we drove off. We had to go through two border patrol checks and let me tell you....it was a little nerve racking knowing that they knew we had gone over there. It was exciting at the same time...But I got my pictures and that is all that matters :) Jeanette has them right now but I will post them as soon as I get them!

Monday wasn't quite as exciting. Andy and I were going to go to the Zoo but when we got there of course it was really busy. It is right next to Balboa Park so we walked around the park instead. We went to the San Diego Natural History Museum and learned about water and erosion, dinasours and other exciting things :) Walked around a little more and then headed home. It was a wonderful weekend! Here are some pictures from the park.

Military...

Update to bee sting...

This is my arm after two days of the bee sting. :( It itches!!! And keeps getting bigger.

Church in California

Not yesterday but the sunday before I had a really interesting experiance in Church. It was something I never thought I would experiance. Saturday I got a call from the primary presidency telling me that we wouldn't be having sharing time on Sunday (Andy and I teach the Valiant 10,11, and 12 year old boys) instead we will be having a meeting with everybody in the chapel again. So like 2 sacraments.

We go to Church and teach our lesson then head to this meeting. The bishop stands up and conducts the meeting. It is all about how we need to do everything in our power to stop gay marriages. We had had discussions on it in Sacrament before however they were not getting the response they wanted I guess. We were asked to donate our time and means (aka Money). This request was straight from the Prophet. The thursday before our entire stake leaders met with the stake president who had spoken to the higher Church authorities and told everyone to have this meeting. That is a lot to ask a Bishop to do in my opinion. Ask everybody in their wards to donate money. WOW! Our bishop is probably one of the most polite, calm people in the world and his wife is one of the most outspoken people in the world. As he was up there talking about it she just couldn't keep her mouth shut!

It was a great thing too, in my opinion. She said when he came home and told her what was going on she got kind of upset and wondered why it was such a big deal. We discuss it and remind everybody in Sacrament, we don't need to have a huge meeting about it telling everyone they have to give up their hard earned money. Then her husband explained how it doesn't matter if the bill doesn't pass, it doesn't matter if it gets overturned AGAIN, the main thing is our Prophet asked us to and more or less in his opinion this is a matter of faith and following the prophet. Very well said!

Obviously there are reasons that the church doesn't want gay marriages to happen. The biggest being marraige is ordained of God between a man and a women. If women were meant to be with other women they would be able to procreate together, the same with men. It's like sticking an American plug into a european outlet, it just isn't what is supposed to happen.

I don't have any problem with homosexuals, I grew up around them. They are wonderful people! The problem is if they get the right to marry it opens up a whole new can of worms. This world is already going the wrong direction, the least we can do is try to slow down the process. America is only the promised land if we are a land that fears God. For some reason, I think we are failing to do that at this point in time.

Anyway, I just thought it was kind of strange to have the church asking us to donate not to the church, but to a coalition of churches to try to stop the insanity. All I could think about was "This is how it must have felt to be in one of those old meetings where Joseph Smith was telling everyone how they had to help by giving of their time and money." I was thrown back into the olden days. So there's my story. I will probably write more about my feelings to come.

If you want to see the website it is www.Protectmarriage.com

Poor little Bee....

After church today Andy and I decided that we were going to go for a little drive in the Jeep. We thought we might head to Lake Henshaw or the Desert, we weren't sure which but we got in the car and headed out. Of course it wouldn't be that easy. My always prepared husband had to stop by work and grab his bag of tools. We wouldn't want to get stranded without tools. That would be ridiculous!!!

So, as we are getting back onto the freeway I feel something that hurts REALLY bad on my right shoulder that happens to be hanging out the window. Maybe it's a stupid spider! I go to flick it off when I realize it's not a spider or any other living thing....it's the sticker from a bee! I pull it out, then me (being the brilliant person that I am) try to look at it.... WITH THE SAME HAND I AM HOLDING THE STICKER IN!!! Needless to say, I get poked AGAIN! This time I do it to myself. OWW!

Andy starts laughing at me as I am laughing at myself and pulls off the next exit. We take the proper precautions and call my mom to see if I am allergic to bees. We don't know so we head to the store to buy some benedryl, just in case! After leaving the store we decide not to go far away from civilization since we don't know what is to come. We head up to Rainbow, CA to see one of the houses Andy grew up in. On the way we come to a few different conclusions on why I got stung....

1. We weren't supposed to go out in the middle of nowhere.

2. Somebody else that was deathly allergic was going to be stung by that be, so it's better me than that person.

3. I just really shouldn't leave the windows down and my arm hanging out while on the freeway!

Personally, I like to go with option #2!

One more thing crosses my mind....The poor little Bee....

I mean, all he is doing is just flying trying to keep up with traffic when BAM, he gets sucked into my car, butt first I might add, and loses his poor little life. What a way to die! Poor little guy. I name him STICKER!

What luck...

(The bottom red spot is the original sting....the top one is where I stung myself.)

Picture Perfect

Last night Andy and I went on a date. We decided to head to the harbor in Oceanside since we always head down south instead of staying up here. We went to all the little shops on the harbor then we got hungry so we took a drive down the 101 looking for a taco bell or something stupid. I saw a little place called "101 Cafe" and asked Andy if we could stop there. We had a great dinner in a place that had been there since 1928. So cute! Kinda slow service but that what you get when you go to one of those places they make the food right then. LOL! Then after that we headed to Tamarack Beach and had a nice walk along the beach.

As we were driving home I made the comment to Andy "ya know, these things look much more exciting in the movies." He replied with the comment "That's why you need to just have fun and not think about how picture perfect everything has to be." It's so true, I have always tried to make everything picture perfect when it already is!!!! Life is great! I love my husband. Now to tackle the finances :)

A year full of goodbyes

As I'm sitting here at 1 in the morning all I can think about is the many goodbyes I have had to say this year. A few a lot more permanent then others.

The year started off by having to say goodbye to a Mother of a best friend. This goodbye was expected to come, however not nearly as soon as it came and we all prayed that it wouldn't actually come the way it did. I remember walking to my bedroom with Andy heading for bed around 11 pm when the phone rang. I looked down at it, about to hit the silence button realizing that something was not right. Cara would not be calling me so late, she just wouldn't. Hearing her crying on the other end, not comprehending what was really going on, feeling so desperate to help but knowing that there was nothing I could do at that point, couldn't go help the kids, nothing. Can't I just go hug her? I just want to be there with her!!! I know that is Matts job so I just lay in bed waiting for the call back to tell me what to do. Andy is halfway asleep and doesn't even realize what has just happened. Aside from Andy I didn't know if I could tell anyone, would that be out of line? So I sat there, crying in my bed wishing there was something I could do.

Luckily the chance came. Without stepping on anyones toes I received the wonderful opportunity to go with Cara to help say her goodbye. As we walked into the Mortuary I didn't know what to do, all I knew was I needed to be strong for her. We walked down to see her mother peacefully, happily laying on the table ready for her daughter to take care of her. Get her all dressed up one last time. She looked so happy, so wonderfully peaceful! I just knew she was in a better place. I was blessed to be able to paint her nails and enjoy the company of her wonderful spirit. When it came time to leave Cara put it best "I just don't want to go" I felt the exact same way. I'm sorry Cara, I'm sorry I didn't go and let you and your mother have your personal time. I didn't know what you needed me to do. All I wanted to do was be there...with you, with her. The funeral came and she looked incredible! Cara did an amazing job at making her mother look perfect! I was so blessed to have the opportunity to see her and say my goodbye.

Next came the call that Andys dad had cancer. That was the sign we had been looking/waiting for. We were to move to California. Saying goodbye to all our (my) family and friends. It's ok, it won't be forever, right? Thankfully we have the technology we do today and I can still talk to all of you, however it's just not the same. It's like a goodbye to me, to who I am because you all make me the person I am. We did all of our hugs and I pray everyday that those will not be the last hugs I give all of you.

The most recent goodbye was completely unexpected and the reason I do pray that our hugs will not be our last. July 7th I am sitting at Andys work as my phone rings. It's Diane....I wonder what she could want. As I say hi and ask her how she is doing I hear her voice change. You could tell how hard she was trying to stay calm. "I'm not doing very well." I've never heard those words come out of her mouth before, it was something bad. "My dad killed himself Bran" I could hear the pain and tears in her voice. All I do is cry. Trying so hard to make it sound like I am not crying just wanting to be strong for her. I can't even ask how it happened, I can't do that to her.

We are on the phone about 5-10 minutes then we hang up and all I can do is cry. Andy came out of the restroom to me crying. At this point all I want to do is be in Utah. Why did we have to move to California?? Does she want me out there? Is that going to cause too much stress? As I am looking up flights with our non-existant money I get the guts to ask her if she wants me out there. My heart feels a LITTLE better when I get the text "I would love that" back. Good, cause I need you Diane. I don't know what to do.

I hop on the next flight out to Utah and Cara picks me up. After a little delay at the airport we are on our way to Dianes. I think that was honestly the longest day of my life. Waiting for Andy to get off work to take me to the airport, waiting for the plane, trying to find the parking ticket and then the drive down there. I wanted to be happy and have a good time with Cara but I couldn't. It just didn't feel right. Finally we pull up to Dianes moms, I get to hug her. We spend the night together and all I want to do is hold her, but I don't. I just don't know what to do.

The rest of the week all I can do is say "I'm here for you Diane, if you want me to be there I will be there. If you need time alone I don't want to push you" All I want is to be with her. To be able to cry with her. I just don't believe it. How could he be that selfish? He had the two greatest kids in the world, why would he do such a thing? Why can't I be there? I am blessed to be able to spend "family time" with the Porters and go to Park City with them. It was wonderful but there is still no goodbye for me. I have to come back to Cali before the funeral. Things still don't feel right. I don't think anything will ever be the same. I came home to my sister in law complaining about having to write a report on suicide and all I can think of is 'you don't even know'. Trying to somewhat explain any type of feeling that is going through my head without screaming at her or bawling my eyes out. All my views and opinions changed within a few hours of the phone call and then to have someone not understand or even care. Why? How?

I never got my goodbye and I suppose I never will so Goodbye Davey! I love you and I am glad that you are happier now and not in pain anymore.

No more goodbyes seem signifigant. I don't want to say goodbye anymore. I just want to be there, always.

I am so sorry Cara and Diane if at anytime during these hard times in your life I was not there. I didn't know what to say, what to do. I stood there like a fool trying to make you smile during the hardest time in your lives. I'm sorry. I just wanted to be there. I know you are both still hurting so bad and I still want to be with you. Why this year? Why did I have to move to California this year? Thank you so much for letting me be a part of your lives. I can't even imagine what you are going through. I know how much pain I am still in and I didn't know either of them as much as you guys did. I love you both! Please let me know if there is anything more I can do.

Andy always wonders why I always want to be at his dads house, I just realized it. I am so afraid of having to say another goodbye. It doesn't matter how well his Chemo is going, I can't say goodbye. I just can't. Not this year.

I made my two friends at work and I get to say goodbye to both of them in the next month because they get to move.

I pray that all of our hugs will not be our last. Thank you so much for all of your love and support! Please keep in touch! I love all of you! No Goodbyes!

Disneyland

Tuesday I had the chance to go to Disneyland with my family again, but this time I got to experiance it with Diane AND Kyle...and of course my wonderful husband. It was a blast! We got there and it was just Andy, Kyle, Di and I and we headed to Pirates. We got on the ride and halfway through it got all backed up...kinda annoying. So, we are sitting there waiting for it to start again when they say they are going to have to escort us off, FINALLY someone shows up and explains there was an earthquake (which of course we didn't feel because we were on the water) and the rides were going to be shut down for a while. BORING!

Diane and I headed to Downtown Disney while the rest went and ate stuff. Finally we headed back and all the rides were up and going again...well, except all the cool ones like Indiana Jones and Space Mountain. Anyway, it was a great day! I am glad I got to spend some time with my family and Di and Ky. I am so lucky to have friends that go out of their way to see me while they are on a family vacation! I love you guys!

Going to lose weight!

So, I know that I have gained a lot of weight since I got married and I have been meaning to start working on that but now I really have to do it. The other day a friend that I made at work said she found me on myspace, and that I look nothing like I do in my pictures. I said to her that I told her I gained a lot of weight, guess what her reply was... Go ahead just guess. "Well, I know but I thought you meant like 10 lbs or something."

Now, I know she didn't mean that to be rude or anything, but it really put things into perspective for me. I need to get off my butt and start doing something about it. Be healthier, live healthier, work out more, have a better image about myself. All that stuff. So, I need all your support and encouragement (as well as any tips you would like to throw my way on how to lose weight ;).

Well, here I am procrastinating some more by sitting here writing this. Wish me luck!

We made it through a whole year!

So, yesterday was our one year anniversary. I can't believe time has gone by so fast! It's incredible to think that we have been married for a whole year! It seems like just yesterday I was the girl on the couch and he was the guy headed to the mountains, yet now here we are three years later in Sunny San Diego in a cute little apartment with our two babies (the cats of course).

In order to celebrate our anniversary we spent the day at the Wild Animal Park. It was awesome seeing the animals up close. I got to pet a bunch of deer like creatures and feed a bird (that could bite :O ). There were also like 7 lions right near the glass window. I could almost touch them. I just wanted to go give them a big hug...for some reason Andy didn't think that would be a very good idea. Ok...So I am easy to please.

After the Wild Animal Park we came home and rested for a little while. Then went to Shogun for dinner. I was quite disappointed. It is supposedly exactly like Benny Hannas (or however you spell that), I was thinking it would be more like Tepanyaki in Provo. NOTHING like it. Yeah they cook the food right in front of you but it tasted nothing like the japanese food I thought I was going to be eating. :( What a waste of $60. O-well....now I know and poor Andy put up with it.

We decided not to give each other gifts over $5 since we bought annual passes to the zoo and Wild Animal Park. I was a HORRIBLE wife and didn't get Andy anything. :( He on the other hand got me some cute scrapbooking stuff. I don't think I will ever live that one down. Being poor really isn't the funnest thing in the world.

Oh yeah, that reminds me, while we rested for that while we went to the Laundromat because I didn't get money put on the laundry card for our complex in time. Sure made me feel like a newlywed couple! Scary and boring. I'm glad Andy went with me. I don't think I will be forgetting to put money on the card anymore.

All in all it was a great Anniversary!