Catsup, Ketchup, Catch Up

(The title of this post has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that I'm slowly catching up on our life.)

Jon and I hung out with Brad and Marissa last minute one evening a few weeks ago. We went mini golfing (we love mini golf- we did this the last time we hung out with them!), ate pizza and bread sticks, and watched Heavy Weights. It was good seeing them again since they will be leaving at the end of this month for Nebraska. So sad!




As I've said plenty of times, I babysit my niece twice a week. I love it. I miss her when I don't get to babysit her. I don't know what I'll do when we leave Utah... I also like to take pictures of her because she is just too funny!

That's her "what?!" reaction to me taking a picture of her.

She's so cute, huh?

Jon and I did our usual thing of walking to Provo Center Street/University Avenue for the Fourth of July festivities. You would think that we would stop doing it since it's really not that exciting after the first time. But oh well... it gives us something to do for free (as long as we don't buy anything- like food or merchandise). And since the fourth was on a Sunday this year, in Utah, it is celebrated the day before. So these were actually taken on the third of July.

We saw these old cars and thought Jon's Dad might be interested in seeing them.

See that paper in the window? Look at the next picture to see what it says...

We went searching for the people dressed in the colonial clothing (there were some walking around, and they had an area last year near the Indians- Jon wanted to see if they had a cannon). Unfortunately, they didn't seem to have a spot set up this year. So I guess the people were just walking around? Anyways, this is the Boy Scouts area. Jon wanted to saw the long like the kids were doing. He pretty much has a dream of being a logger now.

The Indian tepee setup near the Boy Scout area.

On the actual Fourth of July, we headed up to my sister's place in Herriman to set off some of our own fireworks and play with sparklers. It was probably the first time I've done that. (Fireworks, sparklers, etc. are all illegal in California. Although, I do vaguely remember being at a neighbor's house, who was playing with some small fireworks... and I have done small sparklers at my parent's house.) Anyways, Ry was too funny about the fireworks. She was so excited and loved every second of it. I have some videos that are pretty dark, but you can hear her excitement and funny comments. I'll put some at the end of this post.

Jon and I went mini golf again (What can I say? We love it!), but this time we went with our other friends, Joseph and Julieta. They will also be leaving at the end of this month to head back to Arkansas. So at least we will be able to see them (and their baby!) during Thanksgiving when we head out there to visit Jon's family (and, of course, the Herb Family).




We also did the batting cages. Jon and I love those too. We just need to find some good ones close by, and I think we might go a lot.


I have more pictures of things from this past weekend that maybe I'll get around to posting this week. But seeing how this whole post took me a week to finish, don't count on it.

Here's the videos (Again, they are dark, and you can't see much. They more so just show my niece's excitement):

Not One More Child Sacrifice

So a few months ago, in my hometown of Poway, CA, a girl went missing. Long story short, a sex offender, who lived down the street from a park she was running at, raped and murdered her. I did not know Chelsea King, but I followed the story pretty closely because it's my hometown, and everyone there worked together to find her and fight for her. Unfortunately, the guilty man entered into a plea deal with law enforcement and would only tell them where her body was (and a body of another girl, who he also raped and murdered one year before) as long as he wasn't given the death penalty. So his conviction ended up being life in prison. This whole story has been very upsetting to me because he was already in prison a few years before for being a sex offender, but he was released early (I don't remember why). Maybe if they kept him in prison for his full sentence, this might not have happened to this girl. But then again, this world is getting worse and worse with each passing day, so who knows what could have happened. I know exactly where she went running; I have been there many times myself, and it always seemed like a nice and safe park. It just scares me to think that this could happen to me or someone I love. I don't understand why there aren't harsher punishments for this kind of thing (he was only sentenced to about 5-6 years for his first offense). I just don't know how ANYONE could ever hurt anyone else in this way, especially a child. I just read a story today about a 16-year-old boy who raped and murdered a 5-year-old girl, who lived in the same house as him (I assume their parents were involved with each other/living together). It makes me sick that someone at the age of 16 could ever think this was okay, and it's sad that someone so young would do something like that. Anyways, I guess I'm just a little scared for the future, especially with the way this country has been going. I'm scared for my friends, family, and my future children. But I'm grateful for the knowledge of the Gospel and for eternal families. I know that whatever happens, there will be justice in the next life.... And as long as I'm doing what's right, I will be happy.

Here's a beautiful song written in Chelsea's memory:

Life Lately Mixed With Some Drama

The last week or so has been kind of crazy. I got called to be the Young Women's 2nd Counselor. Crazy. I was happy because that meant I would only have to teach once every other month instead of twice a month (which is what I had been doing for the last year and a half). I had a lot of things going on last week, like mutual, a presidency meeting, visiting teaching, babysitting my niece, cleaning, etc. Then on Thursday afternoon, I got a text from the YW's president asking if I was willing to give a talk on Sunday, along with the rest of the YW's presidency. That freaked me out. I hadn't given a talk in church since I was in YW's myself!!! And I HATE talking in front of people. The first couple of months teaching in YW's, my body and voice was shaking. Anyways, so I was SUPER stressed out about that. I tried not to think about it Thursday. But then I remembered that I had to clean before Jon's family came in sometime Saturday, go visiting teaching, watch my niece (which is hard to do much of anything else with her around), AND now write a talk. I was freaking out about my talk so badly that I couldn't sleep very well Friday or Saturday night. I had a couple of breakdowns over it too. I kept praying that I would calm down about it, and I finally did! At least until Sunday morning... Anyways, I got my talk over with first, which I was happy about so that I wouldn't start having a breakdown and crying before I even got up there! I'm just grateful that my prayers were answered, and I was able to be a lot more calm about it than I thought I was going to be. I was seriously humbled this weekend with small blessings I received and the wonderful lessons that I got to hear Sunday, and I am really trying to be the best YW's 2nd Counselor that I can be.

Moving on...

As I said, Jon's family came to town Saturday. They were only staying with us that night and then heading to Derek's (Jon's brother) apartment for the rest of the week in Sandy. They were coming out to visit Derek before he is deployed to Iraq at the end of the month for about a year, and I guess to meet Derek's fiancee. So Derek and his fiancee, TJ, planned a family BBQ Sunday evening. We were thinking it was just going to be the immediate members of the family, but aunts and uncles and cousins, etc. were invited from TJ's family. It was definitely overwhelming and WAYYYY too much for me to handle (I was only going off of MAYBE 4 hours of sleep). Anyways, it was crazy and way too long of a day. I did not want to be there that long. Oh well. The next day, Jon's family and I, along with TJ and her daughter, went to Temple Square because his parents have never visited it. The day started later than expected, and we got there much later than we wanted to. We only got to visit the temple visitor's center with the Christus, see the Joseph Smith video, and eat at the Lion House. Well, Jon, his parents, and I went to the JS video, while everyone else went to the mall......... Yeah. Anyways, we were trying to head back to Provo so that Jon, Derek, their Dad, and friend could all go shooting in the Spanish Fork canyon. I took Jon's sister and Mom to Old Navy to do some shopping, while the boys were out shooting. It was definitely an interesting day, and without going into too many details, mixed with some drama.

Here's a few pictures from yesterday:



Hopefully, today will be a much better day....

Things that I've done lately OTHER than this last week:

1. Painted this magnet board (I'll post a picture another time of the finished project) and made magnets to go with it:

2. Made some throw pillows for the couches because I found cute throw pillow covers at Target on clearance:


3. Made the outside of a pillow for my sister/niece. My sister stuffed it with a pillow and sewed up the unfinished hem. Then she hot glued a matching silver cord around the outside edges. She put it on my niece's dresser in her bedroom and put her princess shoes on top of it.

4. Tried to finish the shirt I wanted to do forever ago, but it just doesn't work right... So I'm probably going to take it off and do something different (it pulls down the shirt where it's attached):
5. I made a water bottle sling for when I go hiking. There's a few things I messed up on, but it works fine, so I'm okay with that! I'll post more about it another time:6. Jon and I went to the Herriman rodeo with my sister's family. More on this and why this pictures is the only picture I got, and it ended up being blurry (UGH. So annoyed.):

Best Idea EVER!

So I have decided that Jon and I need to go on a road trip.... a fun road trip with AMAZING views. Because, let's be honest, driving from Utah to Arkansas is probably one of the ugliest drives around (right after the drive from Barstow, CA to Arkansas). So where do I want to drive?

PCH

Otherwise known as Pacific Coast Highway. It is one of my favorite drives (I've only taken it as far north as Huntington Beach), and I would love to take it from northern California (like way northern) all the way down to Orange County. I love the views of all the beaches and the ocean. Plus, you get to drive through really cute beach towns, where everyone is walking around ready to go to the beach.

Of course, this probably won't be happening until Jon finishes school, but I think that I can convince him to make this his graduation trip. :)

P.S.

Make this. You will not regret it. It's the most amazing chicken I have had in my life. Seriously.

My New Camera

I'm getting this little guy in the mail (*HOPEFULLY*) this weekend:

My whole paycheck from the week I substituted for a kindergarten classroom went towards it. Plus, a little carrier for it when Jon and I go hiking and the like:

I'm excited, and I hope it's better than my current camera. If the battery life lasts more than a half hour of continuous picture taking, then it'll be better already. Seriously.

So maybe I'll have more pictures this summer... but I can't guarantee anything since Jon and I won't be able to do a whole lot with his job.

My Mother

(My Mother on her wedding day)

Reasons Why I Love My Mother:
She is the best Mom ever and is AMAZING with kids. No joke. She just has that natural gift. At my wedding reception in Arkansas, a little boy she had never met before latched onto her and was her best friend the whole evening. Kids just love her.

She raised five kids, and I can hardly remember her yelling at any of us. The one exception that I recall was my sister and that was maybe once or twice when my sister was a teenager. Although, now my sister has realized that she was a brat a lot of the time growing up, especially after she has finally had a child of her own. I remember hearing from my brother about how my sister called my Mom up one day crying and saying, "I'm SO sorry! I don't know how you did it with five kids. I can't even handle one!" I'm sure I'll probably break down like that one day when I have my own kids. But I know that I can call my Mom up for advice and comfort.

She is always giving. This last time Jon and I went to visit my family, she offered to pay for Jon's and my tickets into Disneyland. She has also offered to pay to fly my brother and me out to California later this summer before my youngest brother leaves on his mission. Last Christmas, both she and my Dad offered to pay for flights out there, so we could spend Christmas with family (we didn't end up taking them up on that offer though). I think that growing up with a family of seven, we weren't able to afford things like that.. and now that most of her kids have grown up and moved out, she wants to be able to use the extra money my parents have now to give those gifts that she couldn't always give us growing up. I know that she can't wait for more grandchildren, so she can spoil them because, right now, my niece is the only grandchild, and she IS spoiled! :) Also, she always put her family before herself.

This is so much more I could say about my Mom, but I don't want to get TOO mushy and boring.

I'm so grateful for my Mom, and I am happy to have her in my life. I am also grateful for all the other Mothers in my life that have inspired me throughout the years. Happy Mother's Day!

A Little Behind, Sorry!

Okay, this may or may not be a long post depending on if I have enough time to type it all out. I'll try to add pictures (none taken by me because I'm still working on getting a new camera) so that this long post won't be too boring. Now...where to begin? Hmm...

Well, we'll just go with spring break last month! Jon and I drove down to Poway (in San Diego) on Tuesday, March 16th. We arrived in warm, beautiful Poway around 9-10 PMish (we left after Jon's classes).

Photo taken by my little brother on my wedding day at the Stone's residence (the reception site).

I was so happy to be back in San Diego. We were outside at night, and it was perfect weather. We didn't need jackets nor long sleeves. I love San Diego weather. The next day, Wednesday, Jon and I went for a walk around my parents' neighborhood because my Mother went into the dentist, and it was WARM... no, it was HOT. When my Mom got home, we headed over to visit my grandma.

My cute grandma. Photo taken by our wedding photographer. Don't mind the fact that my eyes are closed. It was bright!

We visited a bit with Gma, and then she took us all out to lunch at the best place EVER... Pat and Oscar's!!!!

Photo taken from P&O's website. Look at that yummy food!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing.... until the evening, when we went to pick up Jon's sister and nephew, Lacey and Kaden, at the SD airport.

Photo taken from Lacey's Facebook page.

I started getting a sore throat that evening, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from having fun at Disneyland the next day! Unfortunately, for whatever reason, my body would not go to sleep that night. I don't understand why because whenever that happens, I usually am stressed out or worried about something. This was neither. I just couldn't sleep, which made Disneyland not so fun the next day. I maybe got about two hours of sleep. It was miserable.

On Thursday morning, we headed up to Disneyland! We had a late start to the day because Kaden was VERY cranky (he did have a long day before and was now in an unfamiliar place). Well, I'll be honest, he was cranky most of the day. We got onto plenty of kiddie rides, but he would only go on with Mom. He would be upset if she wasn't near him, which made it difficult for her to ride some of the bigger rides that he was not allowed on. It wasn't until after dinner that he finally was happy. We took him into ToonTown to play. He had so much fun there! He opened up more to Jon and me and was okay without Mom. Success! Kaden did well on some of the scarier rides (Matterhorn, Pirates, Haunted Mansion). He only got scared when someone screamed in the Haunted Mansion's elevator/growing room. Unfortunately, I was having a hard day because I was SO TIRED and sick. I wanted to go on Splash Mountain, which we had fastpasses for, but around 8 or 9, I was ready to go home. Everyone was exhausted.

Friday was our rest day. We slept in and lounged around for a bit. Then we got ready to go to the beach! So off to La Jolla Shores we went. I was the only one willing to get pretty far into the water with Kaden. Yes, the water is always cold in San Diego, but you get used to it after a bit. Jon had fun with Kaden when the tide went in and out.


Photo also from Lacey. Cutest picture of my husband and nephew, right?

After we were done at the beach (when we were hungry for lunch), we headed back through Mira Mesa in hopes of finding real filipino mangoes for my husband, who served in the Philippines. We thought we found some because they were called "Manila Mangoes," and they were yellow. Unfortunately, after buying them and eating a few, I realized later that day that they said they were from Mexico. Ugh. That was misleading! Poor Jon.

On Saturday, we went to California Adventure. Kaden was much better this time. Lacey was able to go on all the big rides, while Kaden stayed behind with either Jon or me. It was a much better day for everyone.

Sunday was the day we left and drove back up to cold Utah. I was sad that our trip was so short. None of us wanted to leave, but Jon had to be at work on Monday. Anyways, Lacey and Kaden stayed with us the next week. We didn't do a whole lot here (she had already been to Temple Square). We did take them into the Provo Canyon and up near Sundance Resort because Lacey wanted to see what a ski resort looked like. She couldn't imagine people skiing down the mountains since she had only seen the west side of the mountains, which are pretty steep. We did go to the Hogle Zoo one day so that Derek's (Jon and Lacey's brother) girlfriend could meet Lacey. Awkward? Yes, because Derek is in Boston.

So that pretty much brings me to now. I've just been going to school and babysitting my niece. Nothing too exciting. Actually, Jon is done with his current job NEXT WEEK! So that is very exciting. He's going back to wildland firefighting this summer because he just couldn't handle his job, and because I told him he could do it, if he wanted. I felt bad for him, okay? I just want him to be happier. May 1st is when he'll be on call. And as much as I don't want to spend the summer alone, please pray that he'll get called to lots of fires because we're hoping he earns enough money for us to survive on for a year. He starts the fire academy in the fall (if he's accepted). Then he'll be doing the Paramedic program January through August, I think (spring and summer semesters). That's also if he gets accepted. Although, we kind of want to leave Provo for St. George, so he can do the Paramedic program down there. And because we don't want to go through another winter up here. Anyways, so that is why we are hoping for lots of fires- because he won't be able to work full time during his schooling.