December 27, 2009

The End Of A Legend

It's been 3 months in the making and now it's over. We had a great time, my beard and I...taking quiet walks in the park, knitting doilies, tipping back on a glass of chocolate milk. It was time to call it quits but it wouldn't die quietly! For you viewing pleasure...the evolution of the beard!


The Grizzly Adams: 2 parts grizzly, 1 part adams, and 1 part love.



The Friendly Muttons: Notice the precise hand shake over the lip. You can't buy that kind of friendship!



The Fu-Man-Chu: The Chinese had that nailed!



The Creepy Uncle: Don't worry...your kids are safe around me.


The Clean Shave: Mom...you can stop shunning me now!

What was I thinking?!

Major props go out to my pal Hyrum Candland for convincing a slow chubby kid that he could run a half marathon the day after Christmas. I did complete my goal of running the entire thing coming in at about 2 hours 44 minutes. So what if I got beat by a 5 months pregnant lady and her sister that had no intentions of doing the full half marathon when we first started! Lay off me... I'm starving!





 

December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas to all



Thanks to James and his creative genius. Merry Christmas to all of you, you'll get a card from us someday; it will probably not be before tomorrow though. Wishing you all a year of happiness and all the things that bring you joy. I'm so grateful for our Savior and the blessing he is in my life.

December 18, 2009

Temple light night




We've decided to make Temple lights a tradition, it's good fun and free fun. We've also decided that the Kizzy and Billy family need to be part of our tradition. We eat dinner, take in the lights, kids go wild; end up crying, hot chocolate afterward. The night always starts out happy enough, but Gus inevitably ends up in tears as we try to keep him from plunging head first into the fountains. On a side note, did anyone see the tree that had a laser projection on it?? It was amazing, I dream of such a tree at my own house.

December 2, 2009

Personal History: Summer 2005 II

After my lame attempt at perpetuating our first date, I was unsure if I would be getting another call from James. I was really excited when he called the next week asking if I wanted to go to institute. Institute was an interesting event, loved the class but felt like a total creep out being in a class with kids I had literally babysat. The next week when James called to ask me to institute I told him I didn't want to go, I felt bad but I was so out of my element. He promptly called back with another option of going to the temple. I was smitten, who does that?
We were pretty much inseparable at that point, we went on so many great dates:
-Lolo's chicken and waffles with Summer and Shawn
-Joined choir to be together
-Endowment sessions at the temple
-Thatcher for Pioneer day with Ben's family (We spent the whole day together, this was also the night of our first kiss. He kissed me when he dropped me off at home, it was so sweet)
-Sunday dinner with the Bowles family, watching family movies and eating cookies
-So many other great dates
Things happened fast and at some point I remember that we started talking about marriage, and then the conversations got more serious. We both decided to give it some real prayer and fasting and see how we felt. The answers came at different times for both of us, but we both felt confidently that we wanted to be married. As soon as we established that, we started planning and plotting our dream wedding.

November 29, 2009

The busy season

I keep hearing everyone refer to their "busy season" doing this and that for Christmas time. I don't have a job and we finished shopping months ago, but can I still claim a busy season? I swear in my church calling, Thanksgiving/Christmas is the "busy season." If you wonder what I'm doing all the time I can almost guarantee it's something for Relief Society. I love the opportunity to serve, but I don't want anyone (outside of my ward) to feel I'm being neglectful or anti-social. I love all of you!!

November 19, 2009

Pianos and cheesecake

Remember when James bought cheesecake instead of cheese sticks?? Well we made the cheesecake and everyone loved it.We also got a piano, Gus is pretty much a prodigy.I joined the gym, (ps, Costco has a ridiculous deal) and I go. This is a huge accomplishment for me, I haven't worked out in years (If you can't tell by my big butt and gut.) Wish me luck, and ask me if I'm still going; it will keep me in check. Gus is really proud of me.

November 12, 2009

4 years

Four years of wedded bliss. Well not always bliss, but we always come back to the good stuff. I love James more every year, I couldn't ask for a more honest, generous, selfless man to spend my life with. He is exactly what I always needed in my life.

PS, he is a FOX with his beard. Just kidding, that's not James beard. Just trust me, his looks super handsome.

November 9, 2009

Excellent

Some of you may remember this post NEIGHBORS. Guess what? I got a surprise visit today from that special neighbor, just letting me know they were back in the neighborhood and she would love to stop by and say hello now and again. Awesome, is that a warning? Do they really think the neighborhood is going to roll out the red carpet for their return? Bold, they are bold thinking they can roll back and we would be cool with that. I guess I can quit carrying cash, I'm sure she'll be asking for money soon enough. Or maybe she'll just break in and take it.

Watch Out

You will see from time to time some PERSONAL HISTORY blogs popping up on here. I think they are fascinating, but very wordy and really intended for my posterity to have. Just so your not caught off guard.

Personal History: Summer 2005


The summer of 2005 was a strange one. I had just finished my first year of teaching in Gilbert and had decided after a hard year and much thought and prayer to take a summer off and go back to Glacier National Park. I was certain I was going to find my future husband because I had been so positive this is what I was supposed to do. Summer drove with me to Montana, after a brief stop in Idaho to see Ty and 4 weeks later I made the trek back to Arizona on my own. Montana was beautiful and the job driving the tour boat was so much fun, but my heart wasn't in it. One day while hiking a trail I got a phone call from a company I had sent a resume to in Washington DC, they said they wanted me to come out and interview. This was the dream job for a single girl, I prayed and knew I was supposed to come home. I now knew that that coming to Montana had been a test of my faith, and now DC would be my new reality. Once I got home I called the DC company only to find out they had gone with another candidate, I was shocked. Now I was home, jobless and not knowing what my next step was going to be. I looked for jobs that would help me use some of my interests and settled on working at an organizing store. I got several calls from the school district asking me to come back and work, but I didn't want to go back and feel that same stress I had felt my first year. I then got a great job offer from Fulton homes that was comparable to what I had been making as a teacher, and the hours were perfect.
When I came back from Montana I called up the guy I had been dating before I left, and after one date knew that he was not someone I wanted to waste the rest of my summer with. I thought to the cute boy at church that was so much younger than me, but had always been so nice. I put on my best moves, casual seating arrangements that led me to sitting with him at church, arm touches, you know. After a couple of weeks he asked me out for the 4th of July. It was great, my whole family was there to critique my outfit and James as he came to pick me up. We went to a backyard BBQ/concert that was all together so funny, and we were gone about 1 1/2 hours. When he dropped me off I wanted to do something else, but I didn't know him well enough to suggest anything like that. After some persuasion from my family I called him and asked him to go see fireworks with me, then a couple hours later I called and canceled. I felt so bold and I was sure he would think I was crazy. After that first date I knew I had found someone special, he made me feel awesome. I was determined to go on at least one more date to see how things panned out.

Watch it grow


One week, and almost 2 feet tall. I'm seriously obsessed.

November 5, 2009

Watch it grow


I always loved doing this project with my school class during our plants and growth curriculum. They always thought I was pretty impressive growing something in water and such a fast growing plant at that. I'm hoping it works on Gus and the rest of you. I hope you are super impressed with our sweet potato plant. Try this, it's fun; your family will be amazed.

Even Mr.Owl is impressed.

October 31, 2009

Healthy Marital Debate


If you were to see a jacket made with this fabric, what would be the color you would use to describe it? This has been a debate for the past few days and we've decided to turn the decision over to you.

PS, if you don't agree with me, we can't be friends anymore.

October 27, 2009

Utah




















After having our conference trip to Utah canceled, we decided to make a more leisurely visit to Utah. It was a chill trip and it was so much fun to see people and enjoy a little bit of real fall weather. I have to say, I really love Utah I don't know if I would love snowy driving Utah but I think it's pretty great there.

Highlights:
-Traxx (we never got back in our car while in Salt Lake, Gus was happy about that)
-The Temple
-Beef Jerky
-Breakfast buffet
-Sister missionaries (they loved Gus, we got stopped at every turn)
-Conference center
-Fall leaves
-Rain
-Ty (what trip would be complete with out T-bone)
-Portable DVD player (we watched Cars at least 4 times)
-Aunt Jan and Jessy
-Safe driving
-The tunnel through the mountain in Zion
-Accidentally driving through Zion National Park
-Road tripping (one of my favorite things)
-All the jewelry stands that were never open (rude)
-Going to breakfast in our pajamas

October 20, 2009

Ward Conference

We had our ward conference on Sunday, and I always walk away feeling good and wanting to do better than I am. Some thoughts the stuck out to me:

-Gain a greater testimony of Joseph Smith (our testimony will be tested and if we are not prepared we will fall) Bishop Richardson

-We are better than we think we are President Jones

-Raising kids is like planting a tree Brother Wheatley

I like the idea of being better than I think I am, that's always nice to hear. I do need to work on improving my testimony, I have a hard time sharing spiritual thoughts without crying so I avoid public speaking as much as possible. I'm sure my relief society can attest to that. I want to be one of those people who is able to share my testimony with such confidence that people will know that I'm being sincere and that it really is what I know to be true.

October 19, 2009

Is it wrong?

I totally love this song. I think it is super cute and catchy.

October 16, 2009

Come on Ride the Train

Or Light Rail... It's fall break, and to keep school kids happy we grouped and rode the light rail into town. We totally dominated one of the cars, the look on peoples faces was priceless as they would peak in and turn right back around and go to another car. It was hilarious! My friends are the best; I love them and all their rascals. Thanks Grandma Ford for coming along and helping with all the runts.



October 13, 2009

Halloween costume spoiler

Dude, he's cute

Funny things that Gus says:

Huuuuge tiny
I'm not a fan of that
Oh my gracious
I'm not huge, I'm tiny
Sooky tree
Shark it (vacuum)
I dooooooo
I want to hit him (not funny)
You're huge (also not funny)
You do it, you do it
Is this my tail?



When James goes shopping

I love that James will go shopping, it's always such a relief to not have to go myself. One thing I really love is he buys the good stuff, not always the cheapest option like I would choose. Last night though he brought back a box of cheesecake. I was confused until I looked at the list, I do have terrible handwriting.



Cheese sticks, cheesecake. It's an honest mistake. I guess we'll have some dessert this week.