Bridal Showers and Zoo lights

This month has been full of wonderful holiday parties, bridal parties, movies, and Christmas lights. I offered to do a bridal shower for my sister in law who is getting married in one week (she got engaged around the first week of November). I thank my lucky stars for two wonderful sister in laws and a mother in law who helped me pull it all off. The only unfortunate part about the whole thing was that I had started coming down with a nasty bug and my throat hurt so bad that it killed to swallow. We had a chocolate fountain with bananas, pretzels, wafers, and marshmellows to dip, salsa, seven layer bean dip, rolls, oriental slaw salad, red velvet cupcakes, oreos, and twizzlers pull and peels. We played "guess the bridal phrase" where there was one word given and we all filled out the second part of the phrase...we then compared our answers to the bride-to-be's. Then it was present opening time! Here are some pictures from the party.

Rose got a nice black velvet blanket

Then, on Wednesday, my sister Stacey went to perform with her flute choir at the Phoenix Zoo where they were having Zoolights. We had a buy one get one free pass with our SRP bill so most of my family went as well. There is a section of the zoo where there is a talking giraffe and there must be a hidden camera because he makes comments based off of what the children around it were saying. My favorite part was section of the zoo that had trees and light boards whose lights all danced to the music that was being played (like the Transiberian Orchestra). It was amazing!



(Under the "love" tree, or so I call it!)
And...of course, we made our traditional journey down to the Mesa Temple Lights. We went with my brother and his family as well as my parents and other siblings. My wonderful sister law brought yummy hot chocolate and creamers. Mmmm!

(Us with our nephew Dallin)

Bones and Children

I posted something on facebook a week and a half ago about the bones in our backyard. For those who have no clue, here's the story. David came in from the backyard on Veteran's Day and asked me if I had killed anyone recently. I said "no, not recently" (jokingly) "why"? He said he was out in the yard and kicked what he thought was a "rock" and for some reason decided to look at it. It turned out it was a bone! So he started looking around, and in the middle of our yard found another bone, this one looking like a leg bone. I went outside and together we uncovered several bones that totally looked like rocks (due to decay) scattered all over various parts of our yard. Still not sure what kind of bones they are and how they got there. Here are some pictures of most, not all, of the bones.

Veteran's Day weekend, David and I had the pleasure of watching two of our many cute nieces and nephews. I have never watched children over night, other than my own siblings, so there are many things David and I learned.

1. At the end of a long day, it's going to be dad (David) who fixes us dinner. David was so sweet and fixed me and Hailey and Dylan Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwhiches with Bananas for dinner. I was so tired I could hardly see straight.

2. Campfires are only cool to little kids for 5 minutes.

3. After having children, we will never get sleep again. The kids must have woken up ten times during the night (understandably as they were in an unfamiliar setting), so by the time Sunday rolled around, we felt like zombies.

4. Reading stories around naptime will make the little ones fall right to sleep

Can you tell how tired we all were around 12:30?

Here are some pictures of the munchkins. Hailey was so good about helping me make lunch on Sunday!

Halloween 2010

Originally David and I weren't going to dress up this year-lame, I know. But we never go to any parties other than the ones put on by our ward. David mentioned a week ago that he needed to dress up as a guy from the 50's for work this past Friday. It dawned on me that my mom still had the poodle skirt she made for me when I was 12/13ish, and I thought, "surely I haven't grown that much". Ha! I really had to suck in to get the skirt over my legs but I did it! (I just wasn't able to get the zipper more than half way up :)) We ended up going to David's parents ward party, then our ward party, and by then we were exhausted! So at 8:30, we rented Shutter Island (it's been scary movie bonanza this month) and headed home.

On another note, I am glad that Halloween is over and I can bring out my cute Thanksgiving decorations. AND.....this year I am going to attempt making my own pumpkin pie.

Today in my speech therapy sessions, I had my kids write something they were thankful for on a maple leaf die cut. I then took each thing they said and put it on the board so that the next set of kids could not say they were thankful for those things. (Trying to get them to think outside the box). It is amazing that each year that I do this, fewer kids understand the meaning of being thankful and have a much harder time expressing their gratitude for anything in their lives. I contemplate where I was last year and where I am this year. Among many other things, how grateful I am to live in my own home. David and I have been blessed in so many ways this year. What are you thankful for this year?

Painting, Painting, and more Painting!

This Fall Break, we had thought of doing a variety of things. We desperately wanted to have a vacation (as we haven't been anywhere outside of the East Valley in a year and a half), and head out East to New York/Vermont/Maine area. We looked at tickets at the end of August and a week later checked again and they had gone up over 100$, way too expensive. I have been dying to see the New England area during the Fall, and vow I will get there someday!

So instead, we decided to paint our living room and kitchen (which is about half of our house area wise). The kitchen we painted a cranberry red and the rest of the living room area/hallway was painted yellow. After about a day, we decided the entire living looked way to washed out (we were used to having a darker orange/brown living room, so yellow was a stark contrast)....so we took our leftover paint and had the Lowe's guy try to add a little of this and that to try to change it into a greenish sage color so that we wouldn't have to buy another gallon. We ended up with a greenish/blue color which we LOVE! Here are the before pictures:

Here are the after pictures: (we are still trying to get used to the stark changes in color)

We are SO glad we are finished with the painting for awhile. Here are a few pictures of a farm we visited over the break with my family....

When life throws ya lemons...

This weekend was quite the letdown for both David and I. You see for all the year since we've been married and some before, David has wanted to become a Physician's Assistant. So he applied to the only Arizona schools that offered such a program. On Sunday, I collected the mail and ran in the house excitedly screaming to David that a letter from A.T. Still had arrived. We read the letter and our hearts sank as we read that he did not get an interview. It's just crazy how many people are applying for PA school this year. David finds a new classmate who is applying just about everyweek.So after 4 years of college....what next. He will try to find a job doing something in the medical field (entry level) and try to build up some experience and then re-apply. And next time, he will apply out of state.

You must understand that I truly truly despise change. I don't want to be away from my family. I don't want to have to rely on the faith that I would get a job in another state (having to go through trying to get another Speech Therapist license) or try to find a babysitter that I could trust once we start having kids. I-Am-Worried. And then there is my house....my amazing house that David and I worked so long to get. It would have to be sold or rented out.

It's funny that just when you feel life is going great and smooth, a lemon gets thrown at you. And it doesn't feel great. So we've decided to take those lemons and throw them back at life. We are going to move forward and trust that as this one door has closed, others will open to bigger and better things.

Speaking of ghosts....

My Grandma Munro (my mom's mother) has been put in hospice and is staying at my mom's house since getting out of the ICU a week ago. My mom came in to Grandma's bedroom earlier this week and my grandma was just staring out of her bedroom window with this weird look. Their conversation went something like this:

Mom: What are you looking at?

Grandma: Mama (who passed away years ago)

Mom: What do you mean? Is she in this room?

Grandma: Yes

Mom: (thinking oh man, they are coming to take her away)

Why do you look scared? Are you afraid of dying?

Grandma: Yes

Mom: Don't worry mom...there are people on the otherside who love you and will take care of you.

Interestingly, my mom and her siblings as well as my Grandma Munro have always had a gift to see those who have passed on. My mom is not sure why this is....but perhaps for some of her family members, she thinks this is the only way they will listen to important messages (messages that would have little effect coming from the living)or be comforted from the loss of loved ones. My whole life I have been terrified of seeing something (Especially since my older sister saw my grandpa who had passed on, when we were little girls. We had shared a room when she saw him) , so I am really silly, but as soon as I get into bed and its all dark, I quickly shut my eyes. I have done this for as long as I can remember. I always wonder why I have never seen anything, but perhaps I am not meant to. Have you or any of your family had experiences like this?

On another lighter, non-Halloweeny note :) ....David and his brother went fishing really late last night and just before they were going to leave, David caught this gigantic fish. Yay for him! (I'm just glad he didn't bring it home for me to cook-I can't stand the smell of or eating fish)

Dreams

Dream #1: Now that I have a house, I have been dreaming up with numerous ideas as to how I want to decorate it. My next task is painting my living room and kitchen...but this is no easy task because colors must coordinate. I thought about painting my living room a soft bamboo yellow and the hallway a cherry red. But you can see my kitchen from the living room so the kitchen color must coordinate with the other colors. I love sage green or red (for the kitchen) but do not want christmas colors. I am a little frustrated and not sure what colors to do anymore-so for now, I am simply not doing anything. Any ideas would be welcome :) If I had a bigger kitchen, my decorating would look something like this:

Dream #2: You must know that since I have married my husband, I have done crazy wierd things in my sleep. I know it all started after I got married because I shared a bedrooms with 1-3 of my sisters my entire life and they never once said I did/said anything strange in my sleep. David says I often sit up really quick in bed and point to something at the ceiling and say "look"--and this really freaks him out because he things I see someone/something in the room. He has also said that I have gotten up, walked to the couch (while he follows me to see what i do), sat down for a second, gotten back up and headed straight back to bed.

So this morning, my husband says "Do you know what you did last night" and I said "no". (David has learned that he should try to converse with me to see if I say anything good or if I will respond to him). This is what he said our conversation was in the middle of the night, while I am dead asleep.

Me: (sitting up really fast) "Honey, what are we doing? We can't get all the objects"

David: "Ok, we'll only get the good ones"

Me: (lays down on David's chest) "Which ones?"

David: (Playing along) "We'll get the triangles and the squares and the circles..."

Me: (Falls asleep without another word)

**sigh**what I would give to actually see what I do, because I never remember saying or doing these things. I never even remember when I've gotten up or walked around-this part scares me.

Time to be crafty

As part of being a new homeowner, there are a million things that I want to do with my house ...especially since it tripled in size from our last apartment, and its mine! We've slowly been painting the bedrooms in the house and a few weeks ago got to paint the kids/guest bathroom.

I have been wanting to decorate the bathroom for awhile just haven't found anything that would go with the colors purple and yellow as it is now Fall and all the Spring colored things are gone. So out of the blue I decided to go shopping at Kohls clothing store and while I was there, I found these mirrored butterflies and a big sticker tree with birds on it. I excitedly bought the two and decided to go to Hobby Lobby to see if there was anything remotely close to the whole butterfly nature theme. After about an hour of browsing the store, I found some wood letters and the idea popped into my head that I could actually be crafty and do something with them. I modge podged scrapbook paper to the letters (I was blessed to be able to find some butterfly paper!) and then added ribbon and rhinestones. Below are pictures of my project. I was quite proud of myself that things turned out so well and that I was crafty!

The wall BEFORE:

The wall AFTER:

The month of July so far....

I know I am behind again but here we go...

This fourth of July I wanted to be more relaxed than it has been the last couple of years. No big multiple family get togethers-just my small family. ***Note***Don't get me wrong, I love big family get togethers but on a holiday like this where a significant meaning is attached, I just wanted quiet and time to reflect on our freedoms...after all, this is WHY we have Independance Day. We went to my brother's house where we grilled shis-kabobs. Afterwards, we went down to the City of Mesa fourth of july celebration to watch fireworks and view a small presentation about our nation's freedom that included a photo of my father-in-law. He went down to California several months ago to take pictures for a photographer who was trying to capture photos of the founding fathers...signing the declaration of independance. Here is the picture my father in law was in (he is the second one from the right), and following are pictures from our fourth of july celebration:

We even got mom and dad Bunzell (David's parents) to come see fireworks with us too! (And they also came to see the presentation that David's dad was in) So happy they came!

I am so grateful to live in this free land! On to the next news, my husband and his sister have been trying to get in shape so that they can hike Havasupai Falls in the Grand Canyon next month with my brother and sister-in-law. As part of their "training" this week, they decided to do a small hike up to the WindCaves. I didn't go because 1. I am not fond of hiking 2. It's summer and rattlesnakes are out-no thank you :) 3. A 4:30a.m. hike to beat the 115 degree July weather is not my idea of fun. Here is a picture from their outing.

And lastly...this past week we have had so much fun enjoying the lightening storms and monsoon season. I got to play ultimate frisbee with my husband and his family (although i'm not much good at all, it was good exercise). Later in the week, my husband's uncle's field (where we play frisbee) flooded with irrigation so some single's ward friends and family members played ultimate frisbee in the irrigation. I was the photographer :) Here are some action shots-sorry for the poor quality, camera isn't that great.

Oh What do you Do in the Summertime....

Homework, Homework, did I say homework? I decided I was tired of looking at my grandma's funeral pictures when I opened up my blog. Needed more cheery photos.

This summer has been extremely busy, full of excitement, and full of fear as well as sleepless nights/sick stomachs. This whole month of June is supposed to be my last month of summer school courses and Adult therapy clinic at ASU----before I was supposed to graduate FOR GOOD the first week of July. After two weeks (and only being in the clinic for two days), my supervisors did a midterm assessment and basically failed me in every area. I ended up having to write up a contract showing how I would improve myself in all of these areas within the following two weeks. I was so sick, didn't want to eat. I had two full years of excellent grades/reviews in the schools, and I couldn't believe that two weeks before I was to graduate, my professors were threatening to not let me graduate. Mind you I already have a job lined up to be a Speech Language Pathologist. The only other second year in clinic also got the same failing midterm. After much talking with fellow students and my sweet husband, I decided I was going to push forward , 300miles per hour and really prove to these supervisors that I am competent and ready to graduate-my last two weeks of therapy have been wonderful. Next week is judgement day as it's our last week of clinic----PLEASE keep me in your prayers!

On a more positive note, last week we got to see our adorable 3-year old niece perform in her first dance recital. She did so well! I haven't been to a dance recital for a long long time so it was really fun to see all the dancers come out and perform. I realized that if I were ever going to put my daughters in dance, that I would definitely put them in ballet. They were the most organized groups and I loved the music! They took songs like "we will rock you" and turned them classical with electric violins playing the songs. Loved it! Here are some pictures from the evening....

The Star of the Show with her trophy