Thursday, December 5, 2013

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving started a little early for us.  We went to Dad's and Laura's for an early Thanksgiving dinner.  The missionaries were there and it was a great reminder how I need to be on the Lord's side.  It also made me miss my mission but also made me so grateful I decided to go serve a mission.  

Thanksgiving morning we slept in (kinda) and started our Christmas shopping online.  It was nice to not have to go out in the stores and fight the crowds.  We got ready for the day and went to the grandparent's home.  We had an awesome dinner and pie to go along with it.  Later that evening we went Black Friday shopping which was no Black Thursday Shopping.  We went with Jason's mom to Old Navy, which took two hours to stand in line before we checked out.  Everything was 50% off, while she stood in line we went to target and best buy and got a new Christmas tree for pretty cheap.  It looks nice.  Target's lines were a breeze.  We also hit JcPenney and got in and out under 45 minutes.  It was a long night but we slept in the next day and got our eyes checked by Jason's dad.  He is an eye doctor--happy to report we are both got healthy eyes.  Just a tad near sighted but nothing to be concerned about.  

Saturday we slept in and mom and I got our nails done.  I was under the weather all weekend which was no fun.  I think my children got me sick with all their coughing and such.  Later that evening we went to help Dad move and organ from Grandma's house. She has moved out and had a few things left.  It was luckily not as bad as I thought it would be to move.  It was freezing outside and we went and grabbed food at a pizza place but we had philly steak sandwiches instead.  It was a good weekend.  

We went to church at mom's ward and it was what I needed.  The Sunday school lesson was about putting on the whole armor of God and it was a reminder of how I need to be better at protecting myself from the evils of this world.  Also, in RS there was a great lesson about our Savior Jesus Christ and it reminded me that I need to let him more into my life.  Also, I need to slow down my life and not be so concerned about getting everything done in one day.  

Very excited that Christmas season is upon us and we are able to celebrate our Savior.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

My 28th Birthday

This year I turned 28 years old, it's crazy to think I have been alive 28 years.  But, this birthday I was humbled a little bit.  Every year I get a little emotional thinking about my birth mom.  As many of you know I am adopted along with my younger sister.  My birth mom was 13 years old when she had me in Mexico.  I do not know anything more about her but every year I am grateful for her and wish her the best.  She gave me life and for that I am blessed.  

This birthday was on a Saturday so Friday night October 18th I came home from work and Jason had made a cake, blown up balloons and decorated the house.  It was so sweet.  We went grocery shopping and he bought me a bouquet of purples roses.  We relaxed and my on October 19th, my birthday our stake( bunch of congregations together is what a stake is) went to the temple for a special meeting in the temple.  It was a neat experience to be in the Priesthood room.  I learned some new things and then Jason and I stayed and did some sealings. (We have the opportunity to help people after they have passed on to be connected to their families through the power of God) It was a neat experience.  I loved the Washington D.C temple, it is so beautiful.  After that we went to the LDS book store and to lunch at Wendy's.  We relaxed and about two hours before the Washington Capitals hockey game we decided to go to the game.  We found some tickets from ticketmaster and bought them.  Unfortunately, the tickets were suppose to be fast but they were not.  We had to wait thirty minutes before they came to our email.  It was frustrating because they were supposed to be instant.  But, they finally came and we ran from our car to the metro station and caught the metro train just in time.  We only missed about fifteen minutes of the game.  

It was a fun game and we sat by some nice people.  We won 4-1.  It was a nice birthday.  I got some money, a Luke Bryan cd, two new shirts, and some material to make a skirt.  It was a good day. 

My  birthday table and decorations

My birthday cake Jason made me

Sunday, September 8, 2013

BYU vs VA Football game

Our view from our seats

Cosmo and the cheerleaders

Jason and I in our game day shirts

Score board

The team on the side line

The field before the rain
Jason, me, his brother Chad and his Mom and I bought tickets to the BYU vs Virginia football game in Charlottesville, Virginia.  We drove up two hours and went to lunch there.  Chad was supposed to get his interview to become an Elder at the game.  We were so excited for the game.  My mom bought Jason and I the game day shirts we have on the in the picture.  It was so nice to be back with BYU football fans.  It was hilarious, people from UVA kept saying, "Wow, there are a lot of Mormons here, they traveled all the way from Utah."  I kept telling them we were from all over, not just Utah.  

The game started out fine and we were looking good and then we had an lightning delay for an hour and half.  They had us leave the stadium and go to near by buildings.  Luckily, we had air conditioning, water, and bathrooms for all that time.  We were able to go back into the game and it was pretty good.  Then it decided to down pour and since Jason and I forgot ponchos we went into the portals to watch the game.  I finally found garbage bags to put on and rejoin mom and Chad. They were smart and brought ponchos.  They were a little wet and tired so they left during the 3rd quarter. It was a long game, almost all day. We stayed the whole time, unfortunately we lost and we didn't get home till midnight. 

 The next day Chad was ordained an Elder and we spent some time with Jason's dad and Laura. They got a cute new dog named Allie. She is adorable, but likes to flop on the floor. She is a mini horse and tried to sit on my lap.  It was funny. We are really excited for the rest of the BYU football season. 

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Blood drive at Washington Nationals Park

Jason and I signed up to donate blood at Washington nationals Park.  They were giving away a shirt, two tickets to a game and tours of the park.  It was pretty cool, we were excited to help people.  We were both feeling well when we went in but during my blood donation my stomach started to hurt and I got dizzy.  A few minutes after the blood phleobmist guy poked me he said oh crap.  I got nervous and was like what happened, he was like nothing all is ok.  It made me nervous.  

Since I got dizzy they tipped my chair up a little.  The guy that was watching my blood told me I could get up once I felt better,  I had ice packs on my chest and behind my neck.  I am not one for a lot of attention, but I sure got alot of it.  I got up and the lady that was helping me told me to sit in the snack area for twenty minutes.  I drank juice and apparently as I was sitting there I went pale.  So, they had me lie on the floor with my feet up on a chair and more ice packs.  

This nice medical guy named Eric was very helpful and nice.  He made me laugh and helped me feel less dumb for being pale.  These very sweet volunteer ladies kept feeding me cookies and juice. I got color back into my face and my stomach was a little queasy but I was able to walk and felt okay.  I had to go to the bathroom and the women would not let me go alone so I had an escort take me to the bathroom.  It was rather awkward.  I felt so helpless and every one was so concerned for me. I mainly felt bad because I didn't want Jason to worry.  I felt better and left the room with snacks and juice in case it happened again.  We sat outside and we waited to take the tour of Nats park.  It was so cool.  We got to go in areas we would never go to normally.  

 During the tour, we were up in an area that was a little warm.  I started feeling queasy and dizzy again.  An EMT was there and had me lay down and elevate my feet and drink juice.  I think I drank so much juice yesterday, I won't like juice again.  Luckily, I was feeling better so we got to catch the end of the last tour.  The EMT eric that took care of me the first time was the EMT on the last tour.  He came up to me and was like, "I feel like I have seen you before, in this same exact position."  I became part of the tour because I passed out on the tour route.  Rather awkward.  But, we got cool views of things.  I got to see the visitors locker room, the training room, the dug out and stand on the field.  It was an interesting day but I am feeling better today.  I ate food and slept and was able to not faint today.  

Visitors clubhouse

Hallway in visitors locker room

Visitors locker room

batting cage for visiting team




Us in the dug out

Us on Nats park by home plate

Nats park sign



Minnesota Vacation 2013

We took a summer vacation to my cousin Jens wedding in Minnesota.  My mom's family is all from there so it was a mini family reunion.  I flew out August 9th and spent the day with my mom and younger sister Gabby at the Mall of America, having brunch with a family friend, and visiting my grandpas grave sit in Fort Snelling.  My mom gave us some money and we spent almost all day and could not find one thing to buy.  We went out for ice cream that night.  Jason was flying in Saturday morning and we went to the Mall of America for a second time.  It was a lot of fun.  This time around we found stuff. Later that evening we had a fantastic wonderful BBQ at my cousin Nick's house.  It was very nice weather our whole visit there.  Jason and I stayed in a very nice hotel in White Bear, MN.  Our hotel room had a rubber ducky that they gave us. It was pretty funny.  We had a nice king bed which is always nice to have.  Our hotel at breakfast and it had a pancake maker that was so cool.  I had never seen one before.  It is so cool that even though it had been a year since I had seen my mom and Gabby every time we see each other it seems like we were never apart.

Sunday afternoon we went to my cousin Jen's wedding picnic at a park in downtown Minnesota.  It was a potluck and they re did their vows and it was a good time. After the wedding we went to the Minneapolis sculpture garden.  They had this cool cherry spoon thing and we took some funny pictures.  It was so nice to spend time with my family again.  My uncle Matt, cousin Hans, aunt Rose, cousin Sara and her husband Larry and there two kids were there also.  Also my cousin Nick, his wife Haja and there son Terrance.  It was nice to reunite with family again.  Monday morning we got together and ate White Castle hamburgers before Jason and I had to get on an airplane.  We were flying to Atlanta and then to Baltimore to pick up our car. Our flight to Atlanta was very calm.  On our way out of Atlanta it started raining and lightning really bad. We had a two hour delay.  Most of it was weather related and then their was a lack of a pilot and the luggage was not on the flight because of a delayed flight.  There was just no communication.  We sat on the tarmac for a long time.  We were on the plane an hour and a half before we finally got to Baltimore.  There were alot of people upset.  But, we made it home by midnight.  Unfortunately, Jason and I had to go to work the next day.  I felt bad Jason had to work at 7:30am. 

My mom and her sister sherry

My Mom, me and my sister Gabby

Me lifting the cherry, the couple behind us were entertaining

My sister straining to lift the cherry

My sister and me

My cute hubby and me

My sister trying to push the wall


St. Paul MN temple
Jason and me, it was cloudy but sunny somehow
Jason and I at the wedding

My mom, her sister sherry and her brother matt

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Three Year Anniversary

Today is our three year anniversary!!! We celebrated all weekend.  We took a mini vacation to Baltimore Friday night to Saturday night.  We spent the night in a hotel and stayed in watching tv and eating pizza.  It was nice to just relax after a long week of work.  Saturday we woke up and went to the Baltimore Aquarium and Inner Harbor.  It was about 105 degrees and we were melting.  The Baltimore aquarium was a lot of fun.  It was a little crowded and I swear the A/C was not on high.  We saw lots of fish, sharks, the dolphin show, jellyfish.  It was well put together. I love dolphins. The trainer was so cool to watch, she just jumped into the tank and swam with them. 

Later for lunch we ate at the cheesecake factory.  There was a long wait so we took a seat in the terrace but it was very hot.  We both had some delicious fancy burgers and shared a piece of white chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake.  It was so delicious, we were so full.  We also walked around arundel mills mall.  It was fun.  Later that night we came back and just kinda crashed.  Jason bought me a massage and I gave him a new leather wallet and a cute jar of gummy worms that says, "Hooked on you".  

I cannot believe that three years has gone by.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to be married to him.  He always makes me laugh and knows how to make me smile.  We have such a fun time together just hanging out and going to all our sport events.  I love ya lots babe. Thanks for always being my best friend and for being a great husband.  I am lucky to have you in my life.  I am excited to see what the next few years bring.
A cute dolphin

Our delicious cheesecake

Aquarium picture

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Ingrown toenail surgery

Both my big toes had ingrown toenails in them. So, Saturday July 13th I went and got the surgery done. I was nervous all week about it.  I  am not the biggest fan of needles so I made Jason come with me to hold my hand while they did it.  The doctor and nurse were very sweet.  The nurse told me I had a high tolerance to pain and that I would do well when I had a kid. I laughed, she said this is actually nothing like birth but you will do fine.  After the pain of my big toes being numbed was over it was all fine. The numbness was supposed to work for 24 hours.  I didn't watch any of the surgery but the nurse told Jason to take pictures so I could see it later.  They were going to tape my toe in red tape but the nurse said the tape was too small. So she gave me the choice of blue or pink tape.  I of course went with blue tape!!! Go Cougars!!! 

It was funny.  As the nurse was putting the chair up this big thud happened. She forgot to move the trash can and the remote fell. It was a little scary.  Then while I was getting up I knocked off the foot rest.  I waddled out of the room and Jason drove the car up to the door.  I luckily have been on some pain medicine and antibiotics.  Jason has been awesome at taking care of me.  I forgot that I was having surgery so I am off to work tomorrow all day.   I work with toddlers so I am going to be very cautious of their little feet.

Day 2 has been a little painful.  The numbing medicine has worn off and I woke up in a lot of pain. The pain medicine has helped a little bit.  I slept a lot today. I never felt anything during the surgery. But here is a picture of my toes before and after the surgery.  Those are tooth pick sticks on both sides of my toe. It never hurt.  I loved the paper they placed down for my feet.they were smiling feet.  It was a wild adventure, but I am slowly surviving it.

My feet after surgery

All bandaged up

Fourth of July Weekend

On the Fourth of July we decided to go downtown Washington D.C. to see the fireworks and hear the concert.  That morning our ward had a breakfast and a small program to celebrate the Fourth of July.  Later that afternoon we went to see Despicable Me 2, which is awesome.  It was a warm day so we waited till it got cooler to go through security to go sit on the capital lawn to watch the concert.  The concert was fun to listen too.  Scotty McCreery, Cory Montieth, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, Jack Evancko were some of the singers.  The fireworks were awesome, they also shot off cannons which scared me at first.  We began walking to the metro as the fireworks were going off to try and avoid the masses of people that were riding metro home.  We got on early and got a seat on the train home home.  Unfortunately, on the way home we got caught in between stations because the train in front of us had a malfunction and we were stuck for 20 minutes or so.  The next day both of us had to work, I worked all day with only 8 of my kids in my class. 

Saturday, of that same weekend we had tickets to the Washington Nationals baseball game.  The Nats won the game 5-4.  It was an exciting game.  It was a hot day but we got lucky that our seats were in the shade. After the game we had a post game concert. Thompson square was the band that was playing.  We were excited since we both like country music.  It was such a fun concert, it lasted for an hour and a half.  It was a good weekend.  I am so grateful for those that have served in the armed services so that me and my family can have the freedoms we enjoy daily.

Me and my minion from my happy meal
Jason and I on capital hill

The capital view

The Washington Monument and the fireworks

Me and Teddy Roosevelt

Me and the Pig
Bryce Harper in the oufield

Thompson square on the jumbo tron

The concert on the field

Friday, June 14, 2013

Graduation 2013

On June 7th my brother in law Chad graduated from high school.  We got the opportunity to go down and be a part of the celebration weekend.  Tropical storm Andrea decided it would be nice to down pour on us so it was a wet day.  It was down pouring on our way there.  We had nine family members there.  It was neat to listen to the speakers and know that the next generations of high school graduates are doing well.  The man saying the names said them so fast, he did it in like 20 minutes.  Then again there were only 500 students graduating. The rain cleared up for a few minutes to get a family picture real quick. Not my best picture but everyone looks good.

We went to lunch at Capital Ale House.  It was really delicious.  I had a really good burger and fries.  It was nice to see family again.  I am so proud of Chad for all his accomplishments he has made in the three years I have known him.  He is off to BYU-Idaho in September to study Mechanical Engineering.  I am excited to see what the future holds for him.  He is a great guy, brother in law, and person. 

Later that evening we watched a movie and ate pizza with Jason's dad and wife Laura and the brothers.  Saturday it rained most of the morning and cleared up in the afternoon.  Just in time for our barbecue we had at Jason's mom's house.  It was a good time.  Later that evening we went bowling with Jason mom, Chad and the two of us.  Jason mom had the bumpers up. Lol.  It was funny the way people move to get the ball to go a certain way.  Our lane kept breaking down on us so the guy working had to keep walking back to reset the pins in the back.  I actually bowled a 102 by the end of the second game.  I got 2 strikes too which is pretty good for me. 

Sunday morning we went to church with Jason's dad and Laura.  It was nice to go to RS since I never go anymore since I serve in Primary with the little three year olds.  We celebrated Father's Day this Sunday because Dad and Laura were going to Georgia to celebrate Father's Day with her parents.  It was a good dinner and we headed back home.  As a family we are trying to loss weight to get into better shape. We are trying to do the biggest loser thing.  We will see how it goes. I am sore after the first week but it is nice to get back into shape. 


Jason, Dad, Craig, Chad, Mom, Me at Chad's Graduation










Sunday, June 2, 2013

Mini golfing at National Building Musuem and Archives Musuem

We found a mini golf course for $5 at the National Building Museum.  Different architects and artists built the mini golf course holes.  There are two courses, we went on the blue course.  We had a good time.  It has been really warm in D.C and Fairfax lately so it was fun to do something inside. Some of these holes were so hard.  Tomorrow's water was such a hard hole.  It would fall off the sides and there was no simple path to get the ball to a hole in one. On the imagination powers of the future hole my ball was so close to a hole in one. It stopped at the lip of the hole and would not fall in.   Afterwards, we had some time and figured we were downtown already.  We walked to the Archives Museum were the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are on display.  It is a pretty cool museum. 

They had a cool display of all these things on file.  They have a way to do family history there. I thought that was pretty neat.  It was neat to see in person the declaration of Independence.  It is really faded because someone left it in direct sunlight.  Oops.  It was very heavily guarded.  It was a pretty busy display but only about 60 people can be in the room at a time.

Jason golfing

Imagination Powers the Future

Malleable Green Hole

Mt. Vernon Triangulation

The Future is looking up/Rooftop

My sad face, I was so close to getting a hole in one

Tomorrows water, such a hard hole

Monday, May 20, 2013

Nationals Baseball Game May 10th, 2013.

We found tickets to the Washington Nationals Baseball Game vs. Chicago Cubs.  We found tickets for $8. We had pretty good seats, they were in the middle section, three rows down from the top but the stairs started at the top.  We had the outside seats so we could move in and out.  It was a great game, they won 8-2. Go Nats Go!  It was also the third game of the Washington Capitals so we were able to see the score of that game from where we sat. We had hotdogs and soda and popcorn.  It was a good night of great baseball.  I have never really liked baseball till I meet Jason.  I figure, to be a true American you need to like baseball or at least go to one of the games.  

On our way home the Metro shut down the metro five stops from our normal stop. They were working on the rails for the new line that is coming in January.  They have us taking bus shuttles to the stop we need to go too.  We had to wait in line and some drunk dude was trying to cut in line. They guy behind us pointed it out and confronted the guy.  We were able to get on the bus right before the down pour.  I felt bad for everyone that had to wait in the rain.  We made it home safely.  It was a fun night. 
Our view of the field

Home plate

The outfield


Teddy Roosevelt

George Washington

Mount Rushmore with the Presidents