catch up

I have some catching up to do on this. We'll go in chronological order I guess. I'll only post a few pictures here. If you want to see the rest, check out my facebook album.

These first few pictures are from a mutual activity. Russ and I both work with the youth, so we get to hang out sometimes at combined young men and young women activities. Russ has fond memories of "mall madness" at a youth. The point was to go to a mall and find a few of the ward members hanging out there in disguise!!! For our activity we went to Walmart instead since it was closer. Russ was very excited to be chosen to disguise himself and we found a Pedro costume at a party supply store. Our friend Lindsey Whiting helped us put it all together.

































I tried the wig on for size. I thought seriously about cutting it this short for reals afterward, but then decided I didn't like the thought of really short hair while pregnant.














Next up: PUERTO RICO!!!!!

Russ and I lucked out this year and had spring break at the same time!!! We flew out to Puerto Rico (a favorite vacation spot for us) to visit Russell's brother and his family. A lot of these pictures were taken on an Island just off Puerto Rico called Culebra were we stayed for two nights on a pretty empty beach. It was all heavenly. It almost brings me to tears to think that Ryan and Alayna will move back state side this summer. We didn't really take a lot of pictures of the two of us.




















































































































Last bu not least: St. Patrick's day! I will write the rest of this post in green to commemorate this wonderful day! Again, there are more pictures in my facebook album. I love St. Patrick's day. I don't really know why. I'm not Irish. I'm not Catholic. I just really like Corned beef and Darby O'Gil. We almost didn't have corned beef this year!!! Russ and I went to the grocery store late monday night (all my fault) and they were all out!!! We called another store and they were all out as well!!! Luckily I convinced Russ to try one more store and we got lucky (hurray for st. Patrick's day luck) because they had plenty. It was harder this year to get all the cooking done since I had school that day. But my good neighbor Misty was awesome and helped get the corned beef started before I got home. Unfortunately, since I had no appetite for food at this time, I really did not enjoy eating the corned beef. This was a little depressing. Of course I had to eat some still so that my guests wouldn't think I'd poisoned it or something. I served a couple of other things.... but I can't really remember what. I do remember that Ann-Marie made AMAZING sugar cookies though! I just love St. Patrick's day!! How does Darby O'Hill sound for a baby name?

Beach thoughts

I was thinking today as I was perusing my friend's blog (who still lives in California) how much I miss living close to the beach. It's such a fun and relaxing way to spend the day. I miss the beautiful drive over Hecker Pass and through Watsonville's "strawberry fields forever". I miss the smell of the salt air and the Eucalyptus trees. I miss collecting shells. I miss playing in the water and going out as far as I dare into the waves. I miss spotting dolphins and whales so close to shore. I miss nighttime fire pits. I miss digging for sand crabs. I miss burying my feet in the cool sand. I've never been bothered by the sand getting into everything. You learn how to make do.

From where I live now, the beach is a least 3 hours away. You can't just decided to go on a last minute trip for the day. You actually have to plan ahead of time or it never happens. Plus, I don't know if I would really want to live any closer to the beach here. There is a little thing called a Hurricane I would rather avoid by living inland. This is why I want my parents to never move.


But there is sooo much to do on the ocean!!! How can I NOT live near? Whale watching, scuba diving, snorkeling, tide pools, playing on the dunes, days at the beach, kayaking, beautiful sunsets, the list goes on and on. There are so many reason to live by the ocean, I guess Russ will just have to accept the costs because it's outweighed by the benefits. (obviously I'm learning something in my econ class).

New CD

If you don't like country, this post is not for you.

I just go the new Dierks Bentley CD Feel That Fire. I'm excited.




















I haven't had the chance to listen to it yet but I'm suuuuuper super excited!!! Other songs I like from his past albums are "Every Mile a Memory", "Free and Easy (Down the Road I go)", and "Long Trip Alone". Russ and I went to his show last year at the Houston Rodeo. I really like his voice. It's easy to pick out from all the other country singers.

Woops

I locked myself out of facebook today on accident. I was deleting old emails that I don't use and deleted the one I use to log in. So now I can't log in. The help page says that you can use any of the emails listed on your account to log in, but I found this to not be true. So now I'm facebookless until this problem gets solved. It's probably a good thing. Maybe I'll actually study for my Macroeconomics test thats tomorrow since Facebook isn't there to distract me like it did on Monday when I was supposed to be studying for my nutrition test that was yesterday. I ended up waking up at 4 yesterday morning to study because of it. So while I'm frustrated right now, it's probably a good thing.

Weekend trip

Russ and I got back from a relaxing weekend last night. Our trip was totally spur of the moment and everything just worked out perfectly. It all started last Wednesday when Russell finally decided I needed new shoes. While we were at sketchers, we found these strawberry covered shoes.


My mother in-law is obsessed with strawberries. If you don't believe me, just take a trip with me to Houston to look at her kitchen. They were only 10 bucks. $10 is an easy and inexpensive way to buy your way into your mothers heart (not that we needed to or anything). So we called her up to make sure she wasn't going to be out of town (as she often is). We were in luck!!! Not only would Russell's mom be there, but his dad was flying in from Nigeria that weekend too.

I don't have class Fridays. Russ had just taken his test Wednesday. Conditions were perfect (Flight of the Concords anyone?). So Thursday night, we took off for Spring, Texas. Of course mom oooed and awwed over the shoes when we got there.

Raelene just spoils us the whole time we are there. Friday we spent the day visiting, laughing, and just enjoying the company. Of course a trip to visit mom just wouldn't be complete without going out to dinner and a movie. Not only were we well taken care of and loved, but we got to relax more than we would ever do at home. At home, you can always think of something you should be doing.

Saturday she took us to the grocery store and tried to buy all our favorite foods. (mmm asparagus). Saturday evening we had delicious homemade pizza's at our friends house (Russell's old mission companion). It was fun visiting with them and seeing their new house. But, the best part was almost giving Russell's dad a heart attack in the car after picking him up from the airport. We hid in the back seat and then grabbed his shoulders with a big "HA!" after he got comfortable. Oh man, that was THE highlight of our weekend. Sorry Normy :)

I know from all this is sounds like we just like to visit Raelene for all the perks. But thats not the case. My favorite part was that we got to spend time with just her. No other family around (until Norm flew in Saturday night) that you have to please and moderate between. We could just focus on her, getting to know her, and building a firmer more loving and understanding relationship with her. It's hard to do this at big family gatherings. While no relationship is perfect- there are always differences, history, annoyances, and frustrations,-I am grateful for opportunities like these where you can look past all those things and just love a person for who they are and appreciate the things you can learn from them. I wish we could visit all our family members this way. I'm grateful for those random shoes for inspiring our trip.

Goings on

I haven't posted in a while. Obviously. However, unlike most blogs that start with that sentence, I do not feel the slightest twinge of guilt. But I am bored and I'm home from my first day of class of my last semester, so I'd thought I might as well. This will probably be just one of those quick blogs with a list of a few things we've done recently.

• I am in my last semester at school. Hurray. What more can be said? I'm only taking four classes. Macroeconomics (bleehh but it's a requirement), Intro to Ancient Rome (excited), Medieval cultures (I was excited but I went to class today and found out it is being taught by a philosophy professor and cross listed with a 4000 level philosophy class thus this class really should be called Medieval Philosophy. Anyone who has heard my rants knows that I greatly...dislike philosophy and I thought I was done with it all last semester! Alas, it is a required course.) And last but not least, I am taking Survey to Human Nutrition. This is not a requirement...sort of. I needed one more upper division elective and this is the only one that fit into my schedule and sounded interesting. I am actually very excited about this class. It looks fun, easy, interesting, and educational. So those are my impressions after my first day of class.
  
• Last week I had a whole week of nothing to do. And since I had already spent enough time relaxing at my parents house for 3 weeks, I actually got stuff done last week. I finally finished a set of curtains that I started a year-and-a-half ago. There are three windows in our family room. Two windows had matching curtains. One window had an ugly white accordion cloth window shade stapled in place. Now all three windows have matching Roman shades!!!! I also made curtains for our bedroom and Russell's office while I was in the mood. And now my mood is over and my sewing stuff is packed away again.
  
• I have a new calling. I am now the Young Womens secretary at church. This calling came with a little bit of sadness because it meant I was released from cub scouts; with which I was having a blast. I am a little intimidated at times with my new calling. I feel like I can relate and manage rowdy little boys better than relating to emotional teenage girls. But I think it must be Heavenly Father's answers to my prayers when I've expressed lots and lots of worries lots and lots of times about future teenage daughters. I know it's kind of early to be worried about this, especially since I have no children of my own. Yet, this really really scares me when I think back on my own teenage years, choices that I made, and the relationship I had with my mom. I'm not sure if Heavenly Father is trying to scare me more with this new calling or make me more comfortable... it's too early to tell.
  
• I took Athena to the vet last week. She needed her annual vaccinations and check up stuff to make sure she's not infested with diseases and parasites. She passed with flying colors. I even posted her report card on the fridge for the whole world to see. I was especially proud since we only had to make ONE trip this year instead of the FOUR trips we made last year. I gave her a half pill more of the magic yellow sleepy pills this time, and it seemed to finally do the trick. Of course, it did mean that Athena couldn't walk. Thus, I couldn't let her out to go to the bathroom that morning. And so with that, and because she is deathly scared of the vet, she had a hard time controlling her bowls. She pooped twice on the Vet's examination table, once on our driveway, and just the slightest little bit on the floor of the truck. Lucky, even though I had to carry her from place to place, she was kind enough to not poop on me.
  
• Today is mine and Russell's three year anniversary.
  

And thats all I can think of right now.

tagged

Thanks Emily.
Third folder third picture.


This is our engagement picture that we sent out with our announcements. My sister in-law took our pictures for us. She's a great and amazing photographer!!!! Located in the Austin area, check her out. Here is her photog blog. Her website is kristendukephotography.com.
Any of you that know Taylor and Diane Goggins will recognize them on her website.