1/2 Birthday

I couldn't be happier with my sweet husband, he makes me so happy!  It's mine own fault for mentioning that the next day I would be exactly 26 and 1/2.  I woke up to half a donut and this cake.  We had a fun day and we love and kind of reason to celebrate.  I can't wait til my full birthday!

Thanksgiving (at our own place)

We kicked off the season by helping put together the Ward Thanksgiving Dinner.  It was a success.  It was a good opportunity serving everybody food, despite how hungry I was.  We decided to have a pie eating contest, the winner's table got to get in line first.  I guess some of our predetermined contestants declined, so I got called out of the serving line by Bishop to be a good sport and do it.  It would've been nice if I liked pumpkin pie or whipped cream!  The competitive side of me went for it and I came in a close 2nd.

(Dave affectionately captions this photo "The Conquistador" and loves my white facial hair)

 The next day my family flew in to visit us for the whole week!  Our new place is right across the street from a big shopping center with a nice hotel, all within a 5 minute walk.  My parents stayed there and my little sisters bunked in our living room (as tradition has it)

Our week was filled with beautiful weather, tennis, racquetball, board games, and shopping to decorate our new apartment. We also showed them our new office, went on a temple date with my parents, played TP dodgeball with some fun familes, decorated the walls of our apartment, took my family to their first horse race, brought them to our amazing race party with our group of friends.

Thank goodness our new place has a much bigger kitchen!  Thanksgiving dinner was delicious and it was so nice having my mom there to help with the cooking.  We all were in charge of a dish.  We have soooo many leftovers to eat now.

My dad was doing his best to contribute.  It's so fun having my family in town, oh how I wish they lived closer!

We've Moved!

We did not realize the apartment process before we moved down here with all of our belongings in the back of our 2 pickup trucks.  There were so many preparations, applications and fees.  Luckily we found a place that could get us in that day.  Sunset Canyon sounds luxurious, but it's not.  It was cheap, quiet and we had plenty of parking... but it was old and run down.

After 2 years of putting up with the big stains in the carpet and an AC that didn't work, we decided it was time for a change.  We decided to call in one day and just give our 60-day notice, then I started a crazy hunt for a new place.  We moved in during a tropical storm, so of course the day we move out there was also a rainstorm.  Luckily, we had lots of friends that were still very willing to help!

We found an awesome place, income based housing down the street that was new and nice!  And the coolest part is that we were in our own stand alone building and did not share a single wall with a neighbor, just 3 garages underneath us.  So many windows, meaning lots of fresh air and natural light!  The current tenant was being evicted, but they assured us that they would be repainting, recarpeting, redoing the counter tops and anything else it needed.  The new carpet really sold me!

So we thought it was the perfect place...  It smelled very strong like paint and glue when we moved in and after a couple days that faded and I just smelt smoke.  They came in and agreed to clean out our air ducts and also replace all of our appliances, getting rid of any possible thing where smoke could be lingering.  It didn't work.  I'm very sensitive to smells, so I was not happy!

They moved us into another apartment for a week while they repainted again with a special sealant and redid the carpet again.  We camped in the living room, Dave on the floor and me on couch cushions. We just brought the essentials, but went back often to check on the progress.

After all that, the smell just came right back.  I was miserable and even our clothes smelled like smoke.  It had been a tough month!  They offered us to moved into a bigger apartment and threw in a garage at the same price, but that would be available in 3 more weeks.  Management had been great and I really wanted to stay, but I couldn't wait that long.  They let us out of our contract and I found another great place a couple miles away.  It smells great which is all I really wanted.  I'm hoping we won't be moving again for a while!

Hair Cuts

 Just for the record, I think Dave is the most handsome man on the planet.  

However, I'm not the hugest fan of the fresh hair cut look (on anybody really) Dave used to cut his hair himself, and he would just use the buzzer.  When we got married I felt like I could say something by offering to do it for him, using scissors.  I think I'm getting better and better, at least he's always smiling afterwards.






Sometimes, if he really likes his hair cut, I get a special surprise message afterwards :)

Halloween

 I'm not one for dressing up.  I usually rummage through my closet and usually end up wrapping on a lavalava and a few leis.  This year the youth put on a church trunk-or-treat and after an hour of watching little kids run by with overflowing bags of candy, I grabbed a 14-year old and  we shamelessly joined in, asking for any leftover contributions.  I mentioned trading and before I knew it I was surrounded by 4 or 5 kids (ages 7-14) trading like crazy!  I was so happy, it's been years since I've done that!  I came home with a kleenex box full of only candy that I love!

We did go to a friends party. One of our friends was flying solo while his wife was out of town for work, so naturally he came over with everything we'd need to be the 3 amigos








My favorite part about Halloween...              the day-after candy sales

Texas State Fair

Texas has a lot to offer, so this past weekend we decided to try out the Fair.  We were also wanting to go visit Dave's parents and I was looking for an excuse to get up there because one of my best friends/roommates from college just moved to Dallas.  We went on an adventure and took the Dart (Dallas public train) and didn't have to worry about traffic or parking which was awesome!  We were greeted by the famous, talking "Big Tex as we walked in.

Whenever I mentioned the fair, people always bring up the fried food. There were fried twinkies, fried coca-cola, fried bubble gum, fried cheesecake and brownies.  You name it, it was probably there and fried.  We weren't too brave, we ended up getting fried corndogs and french fries :)

It was extremely crowded, so we walked around and saw all the free shows including pig racing, amazing Chinese acrobats, performing dogs and BMX biking.  There were also car shows and tons of vendors.  Someday we'll try out the ferris wheel, it sure looked fun!

I only wanted one thing from the fair...cotton candy.  I seriously love sugar and cotton candy is always a huge temptation for me at any public event I go to.  I picked out the biggest bag possible and I couldn't have been happier!  It was the best cotton candy I've ever had, it was so smooth and did not get all crystally, despite the crazy humidity.  It was a long and late 4 hour drive home but luckily I had that cotton candy to savor the whole way home.

We had such a fun weekend and I can't believe Cari Sue is here in Texas with me! Also, we're glad we finally got the Texas fair experience, it should last us for quite a while.

Sister Weekend

My older sister and I have always been quite different.  She's always been very petite (even after having 4 kids), she has blue eyes and used to have blonde hair.  She likes vanilla, I prefer chocolate, she only ate dry white meat while I love juicy dark meat. For her birthday dinner she would always want vegetable plate (just a gigantic platter of seasoned vegetables) and I always asked to go to Tony Roma's for a big plate of ribs. I could go on all day it seems...

She went off to school and got married at 19 while I took a longer route and waited til I was almost 24. She was 27 with 4 kids and I'm 26 with none. I know I don't have kids, but it seems that every mother deserves a break every once in a while.  When I asked my sister if she had ever spent a night away from her little family she said "No, never...well wait, I actually have, when I was in the hospital giving birth." as serious as can be.  That definitely does not count so for her birthday we convinced her to come out and visit.

She was so excited to be here we went straight downtown for a boat tour and Mexican food.

On Friday morning I got to show her a lot of the scrapbooks I've done from my senior year of sports, my study abroad in Mexico and my mission.  These were all such huge events in my life and since she was married and in school with children while I was away from home, I've never gotten to sit down and tell her about any of them.  It was fun to share those years of my life with her.

Then I took her up to the river and we went floating.  I'll never forget turning around after I went down the chute to see her coming down towards the rapids with her eyes all big and her mouth wide open in scared anticipation.  She definitely got a mouthful of gross river water to start the day off.  I wish I had taken my camera on the river, it was such a relaxing and beautiful float.  I had so much fun just having sister time talking and laughing in our comfy tubes without a care in the world.

Saturday morning we made her our famous Texas-shaped waffles and showed her where San Antonio is.  Then we took her to see our beautiful temple.  I loved showing her around inside since it's a place that we've become so familiar with over the past 2 years.

That afternoon we went out and shopped til we dropped!  Our loving mom sent us both a gift card so we went a little crazy.  I learned we have very similar shopping habits which is awesome!  We went through tons of stores and found some really cute stuff.  It was so fun shopping with my sister and having that girl time (although I love shopping with my husband, but he just has a biased opinion.  Even if I try on the ugliest thing in the store he will still say I look smokin' in it).  Since we're moving this next weekend, Carrie really wanted to help get us ready so she helped us pack and do some cleaning.  It was so fun cleaning my apartment and having my sister there helping, I've never enjoyed cleaning so much.  It made me sad that we couldn't do this more often!  She helped a ton, and I'm grateful for a sister who was so eager to stay inside and help us clean on her vacation.  She's so wonderful!

I enjoyed hearing her have little realizations like when she got up in the morning saying, "I can't believe I slept through the whole night without anybody waking me up!" or her being able to go into the bathroom without any little ones following her in there.  Although I could tell that she was missing her little family like crazy, I think this weekend was just what she needed!

I know it sounds weird, but since we haven't had one on one time since we shared a room ten years ago, I was a little nervous about not having too much in common to talk about for 3 full days.  But we were laughing and talking like best friends the entire weekend. I loved it and I love that we're so much closer now!

So sad to see you go!!!

Utah Trip

Living far away from family can be tough for many different reasons.  Every time I see one of them calling on my caller ID, I can't keep from smiling.  I'm always excited to hear from them.  It may sound weird, but I always feel like I need to answer the phone...I mean you just never know if it's an emergency.

The other day I got some horrible news that my Uncle had passed away suddenly.  All of my uncles are a lot of fun, but Rick was the crazy one always wanting to play, stay up late with us kids and loved telling jokes and pulling pranks.  He was full of love for his family and friends.  Eventhough I only saw him once or twice a year, he was always quick to bring up an inside joke we had or a funny/embarrassing memory we shared to break the ice.  At a reunion many years ago he actually bribed me into riding The Colossal at Lagoon (something that my parents could never get me to do) by offering me cotton candy and $5.  After my mission he loved talking about other people in Spanish with me, he never said anything mean, he just loved to tease.  Everything was more fun when Uncle Rick was around.

I made a quick trip up to Utah for the funeral, missing most of the 2nd annual Roderick Roundup.  So many of my cousins were there including most of my family.  It was 2 days of crying because we missed him being there with us and laughing because of all the fun memories we have of him.  We all just loved him so much and you could feel that every time we gathered together to talk about him.  It was a very spiritual funeral, and another witness to me of the importance of the Gospel in my life.

Something I learned with this experience is that I never got to accept or realize my Grandpa's death 4 years ago.  I was on my mission and it was quite unexpected.  Since I was far from home and family and didn't know how to deal with it on my own, I just brushed it off as though it didn't happen.  This trip was great because for the first time I brought it up to my dad and got to hear all the details.  My Uncle was buried right next to my Grandpa so I got to see his grave site and I feel so much more at peace with it all.  I'm sure my Grandpa and Rick are having a great time together right now and I can't wait to see both of them again someday!

To finish the trip I got to see my beautiful cousin Robin (from my mom's side) who's living in Salt Lake right now and her cute little boy.  She showed me around the new mall there downtown and it was so nice to catch up with her and reminisce about childhood memories.  Also, I got to meet up with my two best roommates there to do some shopping.  After living with these two for 4 years, I miss that girl time!

After that, my dad and I rushed off to the airport and said our goodbyes. (our flights left at the same time)  It was an amazing 2 days and I'm so glad I got to go.  It's nice to know that even though I'm far away, I'm still a part of the family.