Christmas things and Phantom Sings

So this weekend was a fairly eventful one. My sister-in-law Natalia had her bridal shower and it was so fun to see all the cousins, aunts, and new babies that everyone had. Congratulations Natalia!

We also went with David's brother and his wife Sarah along with his parents to the Texas Roadhouse (steakhouse) for dinner before the play. I haven't been to Texas Roadhouse since I was in 9th or 10th grade with my friend Sharianna.....and my goodness, i have been missing out! They had so many things to choose from on their menu and the food was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately the restaurant took so long to bring out our meal that we had to inhale it and leave half of it with Ryan and Sarah to take home.

David's dad surprised his mom about going to texas roadhouse and she also had no idea that she was going to see Phantom. The play was fairly good, just not as good as i had expected, especially compared to Wicked. The music was so quiet that you couldn't feel the power behind the singers voices. Towards the end of the play, my legs decided to uncontrollably spasm...for like the last 20 minutes of the play. David said 'stop doing that' and i told him i couldn't stop....it was really weird as my legs have never done that before. Hopefully i don't have a clot or something in my leg (the thing thats making my bloodpressure spike)....my legs have been completely numb also one other night this week as i was watching t.v., and again, that has never happened before. Anyways...on to more fun stuff.

I have spent way more this week than i should have, but I was so excited to get my christmas decorations up to enjoy the spirit of christmas a little longer (plus i need a place to put all the presents i have gotten already). Here are a few pictures of the decorations i bought at Hobby Lobby (kind of like a Michaels craft store, but half of the store is just seasonal decorations that are Adorable). I can't wait for Christmas this year, and I know of so many who are in need financially this year. I know my own family has and continues to struggle financially. I am looking forward to finding a way to spread a little christmas magic to them and hopefully another family who i know does not have a job. I am so grateful right now for all that we have. We still live in our tiny apartment, but we have jobs and we are still able to put food on the table and have a little fun by going out to play and getting fun decorations. I hope and pray that there will be many this season who are extra willing to give, as so many people have nothing. I know there have been angels in my family's life, so many times when people have left christmas presents and christmas trees with money on it, and many other miracles on our doorstep when we had so little. I think the Savior himself would want us to reach out to these families and show them his love by doing service.

Nothing too exciting happened during these very quick week. I found out that I should be able to graduate at the end of this upcoming June (although technically I was supposed to graduate a year after that). I am taking several extra courses so that I will not have to pay more tuition (as they are raising the rates again), more 300$ parking spaces, and mostly so that I can have time to be more of a wife and concentrate on starting a family and putting together a home. Yes, David and I have decided to start trying to have a family next year, along with trying to purchase a home and graduate. I may not be home for the first six months of the year, but after that I will be a little more available.

We are very excited to go see Phantom of the Opera next weekend and it will also be my sister-in-laws bridal shower...and lots and lots of shopping :)

Halloween of Course ;)

So here is a picture of all the haunted house crew who helped design, set up, or simply were actors (like myself :)). I am the one on the front row kneeling in a nurses suit. I know its a pretty tiny picture.For Halloween this year we went to David's paren'ts ward party where they had hot dogs, nachos, and ice cream cones...plus we got to see all of our cute nieces and yes, nephews with a plural /s/. Two of the boys were born about a month ago. Later in the evening we got to watch young Frankenstein while David's sweet mom roasted some chicken, made salad, and rice-a-roni, even as tired as she was! Here are some pictures from the evening:

Camping

Two weekends ago, my family had the chance to go up to an area around Christopher Creek AZ to go enjoy some fresh air and camping. Yes, this was an unusual suggestion of mine as I typically despise camping (I don't like waking up to no showers and sleeping on lumpy beds, even with air mattresses). The boys got to do some fishing and David was the only one that caught one fish the entire camping trip. The rest of us enjoyed hiking and catching crawdads which David, my brother, and sister-in-law happily ate (yuck). Here are some pictures from the fun weekend:

This last Saturday David and I got to play active roles in a family/friend haunted house that was well attended. David made me dress up as a nurse with bloody (cornsyrup) bandages, facemask...the whole speal...while he was a vampire working the guillotine. I hid behind part of the passageway, jumped out when people least suspected it and screamed at them.....it was pretty fun and I got a lot of scares.

Costume help

So we have run out of time again this year, and all the costumes at the stores are aroun 50$, frayed, and very very cheaply maid. I wanted to have a giselle costume but both mother-in-laws are unable to make anything for me this year....therefore, i was wondering if anyone had a costume that I could borrow, just for this Saturday, next Friday and next Saturday.

David is going as a Knight (as in princess/king knight)...so it'd be cool to go as something to goes with that theme, but at this point i'm game for pretty much anything. Please let me know ASAP, i promise it'll be treated like gold!

Visiting Teachers

Let me again brag on how wonderful my visiting teachers are. If only I could be a quarter diligent as they are. They come rain or shine everymonth and without fail bring me something yummy to eat. One of my visiting teachers I met for the first time tonight and she cross-stitched this cute jar and filled it with yummy pumpkin candies. Makes me ashamed that I am not doing better. Thank you ladies!

Conference this weekend was wonderful. One talk that was so powerful to me was the one on the Book of Mormon by Elder Holland. No one could have listened to that talk and deny that power in his words. He said that Moroni died shortly after writing "Come unto Christ and live". Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith knew their wives would be left widows, thousands of followers would cross the plains, their feet bleeding and loved ones dying on the way. Persecutions would rage, and yet....they never denied the Book of Mormon once. If it had been false and they were unsure of its truthfulness, they would not have gone through so much to defend the book and the gospel. I have some family members that I pray will eventually return to the church and understand Elder Holland's talk (or the gist of it).

And lately I have thought so much of dear Elder Wirthlin's talk a conference or two ago...and his quote "Come what may and Love it". Lately, while having so much go on in this world, and experience a variety of trials, this quote has reminded me that even though we go through trials, love them, and know that they are refining you and making you into the person Heavenly Father wants and expects you to be. How blessed we are to have the gospel in our lives and to have leaders filled with inspiration, to give us hope in these Latter Days...amidst everything chaotic going on in this world, the gospel is our constant.

Wedding and things

This last weekend we got to go to my wonderful friend Heather's wedding. I had never been to a civil wedding ceremony so this was quite the experience. Luckily, the ceremony was short and sweet (it was like 110 degrees outside and ants were all over the ground) :). It was followed by a full course meal and some yummy appetizers. I was SO grateful to just enjoy some relaxation and time with my hubby and close friends. The wedding was held at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Congratulations Heather and Chris, Heather, I will miss you!

This week has been really difficult as far as schooling goes. I had a killer hard exam last week in Neuro communications which I landed the lowest grade I have ever gotten in grad school on a test. I had a full blown 4 essay question exam with multiple parts to write this last weekend, and I have an Aphasia exam tomorrow. Let me just say my one relief is that I get to go clothes shopping with David (he's getting new tennis shoes) after I am done, and I haven't been shopping in a LONG LONG time. If you know me, I used to go clothes shopping a couple times a month back when I could afford it and had the time :)

I am so excited for Halloween this year. Last year I made a last minute t-shirt that said "Go Edward" for my costume...lame i know. Seeing everyone else dress up made me realize how much more fun I would have if I did that too. I was thinking about having my mom make me the blue dress off of Disney's "Enchanted" and being Giselle....Any other thoughts as to what I should be? I find it so difficult to find any costumes in stores that weren't made specifically for hookers so time is of the essence. And....we got to decorate my speech room with Halloween-y things today, it is SO cute! Here are pictures of the wedding!

These pictures are all courtesy of Kimberly Jarman, Heather's Photographer...I can find her information for you if you are interested.

And these are my pictures, not nearly as good.....

Some random thoughts:

1. This week has gone much better. I think that last week when I put up my post about friends, I honestly was having a difficult week. ALL week people, including my sweet hubby were just grouchy and stressed. I'm thankful for fresh starts!

2. We purchased tickets to see the Phantom of the Opera at Gammage (ASU) in November and are SO excited! We loved seeing Wicked and how amazing the music is.

3. I am thinking more and more about doing foster care once David and I start having our own children. At one of the places I work, I saw one of my kiddies sitting outside the school office. Mind you this little one is in first grade and it was close to thirty minutes after school had gotten out...he was waiting for his bus that never came. This little boy was just transferred to "his new family" this week, away from his little 3rd grade foster brother (who just got adopted a few days ago) who so tenderly made sure he was taken care of. Working in my field I have seen and heard of so many children going through the system who have just had HORRIBLE lives and they still survive and keep pushing forward. My heart goes out to these little ones and I want to badly to take care of them and let them know they are safe and loved.

4. My ward had their supersaturday this past weekend and I made some 12*12 wooden square with the word BE in the middle and the word prayerful, humble, grateful, etc. around the edges. If I weren't lazy i'd post a picture, but they tured out really good. I learned not to press down wet modge podge scrapbook paper and then pull your fingers up, it will tear the paper!

5. My mom and I ordered a basket from bountifulbaskets.org and we got 3/4 full of a laundry basket full of fresh fruit and veggies for only 15$. You should try it!

A new season

This week has been an odd emotional week for both David and I. We are learning new things about each other and trying to figure out how to meet each other's needs and wants along with our new schedule. We are stressed. We are tired. We are having fun with old friends. And we are still trying to figure out the married thing.

In my last post I mentioned that I went to a really good friends bridal shower last Friday...and it REALLY made me realize just how much I miss being with friends who share my interests, friends I can talk to about our husbands, our dreams, our sorrows...and know that I won't be judged. I miss friends that I can just be downright silly with, because they are downright silly too. And I think its because once I got married, my perspectives on life and who I associated with changed...drastically. Many of my friends are still single, and while that is fine....we are on different wavelengths. I don't find myself talking about the cute boy in institute, or joking about immature little things. I have had to grow up in a certain way (this is a good thing...I love my husband to death). However, this has distanced me from some of my best friends. I am in a ward that I love and I've made some good friends in, but none I feel i can just invite over to scrapbook or watch movies with or share my feelings. David is wonderful, girls just need good girlfriends.

As I have said in the past, we are heavily considering buying a house when are lease ends in february/march. And while I love my ward, perhaps this will be the start of a new season. Perhaps David and I will be able to move into a ward where there are people like us...similiar in age with similiar interests. I think this is something we both really need, because we have a small gap in our lives as most of our friends are either out of stayed or single and have lost common ground.

The girls and two boys in year 2 of my masters program all drink....and so while they have built friendships over drinking at bars and being drunk, I have been left behind because I don't attend those functions.

I used to despise change, and part of me is still afraid of change because of its uncertainty. But I know it gives growth and opportunity. I really like this quote: "If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living."-Gail Sheehy

The birthday cake that my visiting teacher made me full of brownies!!
This last Thursday was my birthday and I turned 23! Everyone asks me what my age is and I always have to think awhile.....I don't have alzheimers, its just that many of my peers are either just older or just younger than me and it seems like I should be their age. David's cousin Michael also shares my same birthday he is just a year older than me. So below are some pictures of us at Michaels house on our birthday. Michael's little sister and I got eaten alive by ants when we stepped on the edge of the grass and cement so we quickly jumped into the cooler of water balloons to save ourselves. I told Jen to give me her most painful looking face but it ended up looking like a smile!



My birthday present from David was a bike rack that attaches to the car....no more walking a mile plus to get to my car in the middle of summer at ASU!! Wohoo!
Friday was one of my really really good friend's-Heather-bridal showers. A bunch of us girls got together at Macayo's for some yummy food, games and opening presents. I was working diligently to win one of the games which was to come up with as many words as possible with the words "Christopher & Heather".....I even gave up some of my eating time and was sure I would win. However, Heathers sister had 120 words....I guess I wasn't working as diligent as I should have been. It was SO nice to hang out with a group of girls, some of which I haven't seen since I graduated high school 6 years ago!

Goofy Golfing and Friend Goodbyes

As usual, we had another very busy weekend. Last weekend, I had to do my defensive driving class which went well and was fairly quick and then rushed to my parents to do laundry and by 4p.m. we were on our way out to Canyon Lake to go fishing with my brother, his wife and kids, and then my husbands brother and his wife. I had forgotten just how nice and relaxing it is to be away from the city. The temperatures by the lake were very nice and cool suprisingly. I think we've decided that we need to go fishing more since it is so close and its a nice little retreat. My brother and Sarah (sister in law) caught one tiny blue gill each and then released them. Hope we have better luck next time :)

This weekend I got to buy some piano and vocal duet sheet music from Milano's. I have been wanting for quite some time to get new piano music and the duet book is something that David and I can sing in harmony to while I play the piano---we just have to practice....but shhhh don't tell anyone in the ward we are doing this (I have been successful so far in letting very few people know of my piano abilities---and I Love the calling I have so...)

David and I also went to see the Joseph Smith movie at the visitors center and if we didn't have friends with us I would have cried. This movie with its accompanying music just really brings to light all the things the early saints, most especially Joseph and Emma Smith went through to bring for the gospel, and even through the tarring and feathering, being driven from their homes, hundreds of family deaths...they still had the faith to cross the plains! We also said goodbye to the friends that went with us as they are moving back home to Missouri on Tuesday. Below is a picture of us with them at the visitors center.

Right after that, we went goofy golfing with some of David's high school friends, and outside of the terrible humidity, what a BLAST we had! Some of us lowered our numbers a little :/ because...well...on some holes we just didn't do so well. It was funny because by the end of the night, everyones numbers were just about the same :) I have had a really good time with David's friends. As time has passed, the majority (not all) of my high school friends have slipped into their routines and I have found more and more that we lack common ground. Shar, you are not one of those :)....So I am very thankful for the good friends David has. They have such strong morals, values, and drive to finish a college education. Below are some pictures of the fun evening!

Haircut and Primary

For a long time, I have desperately been needing to get my haircut. My dilemma was that my hairdresser's husband joined the military at the beginning of the year and so it was time back in May for him to transfer to a more stable area and his wife left to join him. I am not fond of hair cutting stores because I've never had a good experience. After searching for awhile, I remembered my friend Shaunna from high school cuts hair and I know several of my friends go to her. She did a GREAT job. I took some before and after shots and I am sorry my hair isn't down all the way in the after shots to show you just how great of a job she did......

BEFORE:

AFTER:

As mentioned before, David got called to be a primary teacher and here are the cute kids he gets to teach every Sunday!

On another note, school starts back this week which also means I begin working as a SLP-A in the gilbert school district. I am not sure I am ready to start back yet as I have been working 40+ hours the last month or so, so I really haven't had any summer....There is always so much to learn and classes at ASU will start up shortly. And so it is with life....

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

–Walt Disney

Birthdays

This month and last month have been FULL of birthdays...in the month of July was my brother, sisters, and father in laws. Tomorrow will be my oldest sister Stacey's birthday, the 19th is my moms birthday, and my birthday is the 27th!

For my Father in laws birthday, we went to organ stop pizza and celebrated. My littelest nieces were absolutely thrilled with the little kitten puppets that came out during the Alley Cat song, and were perplexed as to where they ran away to when the curtains went down :) Below are some pictures of the fun evening.

We have decided to hold off on looking for a house until december/january which will give us a little more time to save some money. We are just hoping and praying that the government extends the tax credit for first time homebuyers into the next year, or at least that interest rates stay down. If anyone has housing advice we'd be happy to hear it.

On another note, David started teaching primary today for the first time and it was so cute how hard he tried. I think he was pretty nervous as he seemed so serious the whole time. I tried to elaborate on what he was saying and get the kids excited with just my tone of voice. HOpefully they get David a co-teacher soon so that I can get back to relief society. I love the kids and they are so cute, but relief society is the only time I get to spend with the women and actually feel part of the ward as I teach sunday school to the 13-14 year olds.

Nieces and Nephew

Fawn, Aunt Jill, Uncle Loren

The birthday boy is in the center(gray/purple shirt)

The little girls dancing away to the organ's music

Fishing!

Well, I believe it was Monday or Tuesday night when the gigantic thunderstorm rolled through Mesa. The thunder was so loud that it shook our apartment around 4a.m. I told David that even though it kept us up for what felt like the entire night, its not something we get to hear and see often so its worth it! David woke up around 5 and I said, you need to tell Ryan you are NOT going fishing in this weather...there is lightening everywhere and thunder like crazy. Needless to say David, Ryan (his brother) and Ryan's three girls went anyways and for the most part had clear skies. They were not able to catch much but tiny little fish which they ended up just throwing back into Canyon Lake.

David begged me when we went to the grocery store, if he could buy some fish since he didn't get to eat any of what he caught. I told him that he'd half to wait until the next week to get some (I don't care for fish anyways lol)....So I wish have to live up to my promise this week. Hope it turns out well-we are not much fish cookers!

On another note, I have had some pretty crazy dreams this week, some of which were very urgent and very realistic. The one I had earlier this week, I dreamed that the world was being destroyed and my family was trying to grab as much food as we had in our house and get to a safer place. Well, there wasn't any food, or enough to sustain us for more than a day. In my dream I was crying and I just kept saying to myself "If I had only gotten our seventy two hour kits put together, we would have been ok, and because I am not prepared, my family is going to suffer". Our bishop has asked us for the last two years to get a food storage going and to get our 72 hour kit going. I finally got as much food storage together as our little apartment will hold but we need to work on the 72 hour kits. I don't know why I have the urgency to get this done, but I had the same feeling right before I started packing away on the food storage.

I forgot to mention on my last post that I got a speeding ticket from one of the lovely photo radar vans in Mesa and now have to find a defensive driving course to get rid of the ticket and points with it. Suprisingly they now have online classes and you just have to take the final exam in the presence of a notary!

Lastly, one of the supervisors at my work backed into my corolla and then sped off. He left a few scratch marks and that was it. But i was told I really should take the chance to use the cash he is offering and just get the minor scratches fixed as our car is a 2007 but is only a year old to us. My time is very limited so we'll see what happens! :)

David and I enjoyed watching the play Wicked at Gammage a week and a half ago. The music and the acting were phenomenal. The play is a spin off of the Wizard of Oz, going back before the movies time to describe what happened to the witches Glenda and Elphaba (the green witch). Glenda is a total blonde in every way and Elphaba is shunned because she's green and a witch and was born to non-witch parents. Apparently her mother had a fling with the Wizard of Oz, and thus Elphaba was created. Anyways, the play made me truly sympathize with Elphaba who really was a great witch and tried hard to use magic for the good, but when she would not do as the Wizard asked, he turned all of Emerald City against her and told them she was "wicked".....



This past friday we also went to Hale Theater in Gilbert to watch Beauty and the Beast. Compared to Wicked it wasn't that great at all....the performers had great voices but the acting was very poor and the actual instrument music was pre-recorded. We were a little disappointed...then again we saw Wicked first and nothing compares to that.



My sweet sister in law Fawn also bought me one of her stakes cook books and suprised me with that. I absolutely love cooking and now I have a book full of recipes women have actually tried out before. Thank you Thank you Fawn!

Saturday morning I got to go out to Ihop with some band friends from high school and it felt SO good to see them and get caught since none of us have really been out together since High School. One friend, Krystal Dickensen is moving to Las Vegas and so this was like her farewell breakfast.


I am about to start another 46 hour work week with working as a secretary, childrcare worker, and babysitting......Sometimes I wonder what the heck I am doing and then I say to myself, its just for another year and a half, and i'm doing this for my family...so we can get through school and get a house and start our family. I must be crazy tho..... :)