What do I know.

July 2012 - August 2012  July 4th of July - Celebrating the 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays of the entire year. My family always celebrates the entire day, and our home town has lots of activities and things to do.  In fact! While I was on my mission for 18 months, away from my family, with no contact (basically) the only time I was homesick was on the 4th of July.  At the parade with Noah and Abbi. This year was amazing! I missed the sunrise ceremony, but made it to the parade.  The best part about the 4th of July is how many old familiar faces you see, and the community  feeling as you celebrate together.  I literally almost cried at the parade, the feeling of patriotism and community was so strong, and they had an amazing marching band from a college come and perform, the first in years. I should have recorded it.  After the parade we had a great time at the carnival in the park where my dad rushed over to his favo...

September - December 2011 September:   Had a quick weekend trip to Vegas for a National ABPA Board Meeting, never left the hotel, barely left the meeting rooms.  The President appointed me as the Magazine Committee Chair, despite my refusing it twice.  October: Joey and Dad had wonderful birthdays.  President Cook, my former basketball coach and Stake President, spoke in General Conference, my Sunday School class had a party and watched it with me.  You can watch it here.  http://youtu.be/znvTtWYWvtM   Wendy and I played our favorite form of lottery, and lost in more ways than one. Had a fun Halloween, Ray and Amee brought Aiden to our Ward trunk or treat, he was the cutest dinosaur anyone had ever seen.  Due to Wendy and I being so inactive, socially, in the ward, everyone thought we were the visitors and Ray and Amee and Aiden blended right in. Aidenosaurus November: November was the most exciting month ever. ...

  Happy Groundhog Day!! In celebration of Groundhog Day and Rosca de Reyes we had a wonderful feast.  In Mexico they used to? still do celebrate Christmas differently.  Instead of Santa bringing gifts on Christmas Eve the Three Wisemen bring gifts on January 6 and put them in the children's shoes.  As part of the festivities they have a delicious bread in the shape of a beautiful wreath.  A little baby Jesus is baked inside of the bread and who ever is served the piece with the baby Jesus is said to be blessed.  In return for the wonderful blessing they are expected to have a feast for their friends/family on February 2nd.  Beautiful Bread I n honor of our Christmas guest, Ana Maria, my mom tried to have this wonderful tradition.  Although it was her first try. My mom's beautiful bread. It tasted delicious, and I lucked out by being blessed with the Baby Jesus in my piece.  So I planned an amazing Rosca de Reyes - ...

Day 1 (January 6) - I decided to teach Hurley to jump through a hoop.  Problem #1: I have no hoop.  Problem #2: Hurley is scared of the cardboard rectangle I tried to use as a hoop.  Problem #3: The vet thinks Hurley is a couple of pounds overweight, if I feed him treats to get him to jump through the hoop he may lose the ability to jump completely. Accomplishments: Hurley hesitantly jumped through the hoop several times, always for a treat.  I learned that I can use the hoop as a way to get him to run away from places and things that are bad. Next time: I think I might try getting a bike tube to use for a more gentle less intimidating hoop. Stay tuned. Misc. hoops for jumping. Day 2 (January 7) - He hates the cardboard hoop. Success!  He pretends not to know what I"m teaching him to do, but the second I told him we would go on a car ride if he jumped the hoop, he jumped right through it and ran to the door.  I bought a new hoop, that ...

Well, it's official, I'm going to turn 30 this year.  I don't think I'm worried about it, really I didn't want to do anything special at all, but I decided to make a list of 30 things to do before I'm 30, like my friend Ana did.  It was kind of fun, and hopefully will serve as a distraction. So as the final countdown begins. (138 days to go), I'll introduce you to my list: 30 for 30 Write a song for the guitar and perform it. Run a 10 minute mile. Teach Hurley a circus trick. Get Sunny out of my head. Learn to Salsa. Fix my cemetery. Transplant flowers from Cody's house to my house. Write on my blog 30 times. Go to the temple 30 times. Start a public blog. (should i write about water or sleep disorders?) Read the Book of Mormon. Write real letters to 30 friends or family. (if you want one, let me know). Make homemade cinnamon rolls. Make fortune cookies. Make egg foo yong. Sew a levi quilt. Go scuba...

So, I recently took after my sisters and made a lengthy list.  Mine is of house projects I would like to do, or save up for (is more realistic).  My first project was to move my birthday present from Jeremy, a Pacific State fire hydrant, from my patio so we wouldn't be the junk yard neighbors. Birthday Present 2010 Pre Make Over Although it was a good looking hydrant before I started working on it, our patio is only 10' and it was a little out of place, and in the way. A little TLC is understatement.  I took the entire hydrant apart (hydrant anatomy lesson post forthcoming), drilled new holes in different pieces, greased it up, repainted it, designed and implemented a new plumbing system and........ VOILA!!! I had a brand new sprinkler for our flower bed/veggie garden.  Note:  there are three sprinklers built into the hydrant, which I might have connected to our landscape sprinkler system without permission from the HOA.  Also n...

I love....all things Hurley 1. Hurley is my favorite character on the tv show LOST. 2. Hurley's, from LOST, blog is my absolute -favorite-. Go check it out. 3. Hurley the dog is pretty great, most days, too. Although I really really hate dog hair. What month is hate month?