What's the Big Hair Deal?

         I just cut my hair last week. Not a trim, a 15 inch cut. It's funny, because there have been 3 other times in my life that I've done a dramatic cut like this (this one might have been the biggest though) and every time I get the same reaction from people. I have a few friends that say, "It looks cute!" or "It looks good." Which of course are nice things to say. I don't necessarily try to look cute though, not since I was 13 years old. And then there are the 'other' comments: "You had the most beautiful hair ever, why did you do that?" or "What made you want to do that?" or "You cut it! Do you like it?" Each of those comments could probably be argued as 'innocent', but in all honesty, they aren't positive or cute banter.
          First of all, why didn't you tell me I had gorgeous hair when it was long? Why tell me now, when I've already surgically removed that part of my body making that, would-be compliment irrelevant? I can honestly say that the last 5 years (that's the last time I cut my hair) I've probably had a handful of people tell me I had pretty hair. Usually it's even just a, "You're lucky your hair grows so fast", or "I hate you for having such pretty hair" (is that even a compliment?) It's like I'm Jo on Little Women, "Jo! Your one beauty!"
          My hair has been long 85% of my life. I like it long; it's feminine, sexy, creative and well..... feminine. I mean, there's a reason 95% of Victoria's Secret models have longish hair. I have had so much fun with different braids and twists. I also LOVE full, wavy hair. Even more, I love messy, wavy hair.
           But there is something kind of freeing to chopping off those locks. I don't feel like I fit a mold anymore. It's like breaking 'girl code'. For one, I have three young children which require a lot of attention. My long hair didn't get 'fixed' everyday. I workout for an hour every morning, which leaves the kids begging for attention and food by the time I get home. My showers/get ready time are usually 10-15 minutes. On a good day, maybe Sunday, I'll milk the hubby being home and spend a good hour- hour and a half getting ready. Now with it being short, it's been fixed everyday in an easy 3-5 minutes! So okay, it's efficient. But to answer the , "Do You like it?" question, I think so. I'm usually pretty critical on my appearances and rarely give myself a thumbs up. But  it's been fun, easy and freeing so far, so I guess that will have to do.
            It does make me realize that girls don't compliment each other very well, or often. Myself included, women need to speak out and give other women more compliments! I think for some reason we feel that magnifying another's positive traits takes away from ours, but the actual opposite is true! The women in my life that have been the most complimentary and sweetest to me, are the ones that I admire and feel most comfortable around.

Good Excuse: Zuchinni Bread

    

      It has been too long since I have updated, it's ridiculous. But, I have an awesome friend who asked for a recipe, I told her I'd blog it, and now I HAVE to. I hate not following through, so I like to make promises to others on things I'm not good at keeping :) . Win-win.
     So I have been a very healthy eater for the most part, for about 5 years, but more recently, I have tried to eat clean. As in, no preservatives, fresh made, raw food: grains, fish/chicken, fruit/veggies, and some low fat dairy. I made the best zuchinni bread ever yesterday, my kids didn't even care that there were pieces of green in their bread, it was that good. It does have about 3/4 a cup of cane sugar in a loaf (or you could use NuNaturals Presweet Tagatose if you have that on hand) because I don't believe in completely depriving myself....but next time I might lower it to 1/2 a cup :)

Zuchinni Bread

1    c Greek Yogurt
1/2 c apple sauce, unsweetened
3/4 c cane sugar or 1 c NuNaturals Presweet Tagatose
3 egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c Zuchinni, grated
1 1/2 c Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 c slivered almonds

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease 1 large loaf pan or 3 mini loaf pans with coconut oil, set aside
3. In medium bowl, add yogurt, applesauce, sugar, egg whites and vanilla extract: mix until blended
4. Fold in Zuchinni
5. In a separated bowl add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; mix
6. Pour flour mixture over zuchinni mixture and mix until combined
7. Fold in almonds
8. Spoon batter into loaf pan
9. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour for 1 large loaf or 30-35 min for the 3 mini loafs. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes.

Everett Lyle King

Meet my nephew, Everett. Isn't he handsome? He was born February 11, 2013 in Plantaion, Fl. , weighing 5 lb. 4 oz. and a sweet 17.5 inches tall. His momma, Brenna, delivered him via c-section because of his heart rate dropping too quickly.

          The doctors noticed quite a few things weren't working that well with his little body, so they took him away immediately for testing. When my mom told me the news I was crushed. I could picture it all too well. Brenna coming out of the anesthisia, wondering where her little one was. Hearing the news in disbelief and confusion.The one thing that makes the physical pain better was missing from her arms. Our family bonded through the hundreds of prayers we said for this little angel. I just knew that he had the best parents possible, and that God only sends these sweet spirits to such righteous couples. His big sister Cordelia June King (such a princess of a 3 year old) would be such a good friend to him, I could picture it. I'm quite the visual person, so I automatically picture their life with this big change. What a challenge, but a spiritual one at that, so that I would call it more a privillege. This is the picture (the one above) that made me fall in love with him. He definately has his sweet sisters doll mouth, and I just couldn't get over how perfect he looked. It was like his face was carved by the master of all doll makers (which I'm sure it was). I wanted to hold him so badly.

We were told that a geneticist was coming to further test Everett and determine a diagnosis. After much testing and long hours of worry he was diagnosed with Edwards syndrome (also known as Trisomy 18) which is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome. One in every 6,000 children that are born have it, 80 percent being females. Why my little nephew?

When my sister called me to tell me this news I just fell down. This couldn't be right, I was sure that everybody was wrong. Brenna and Aaron are a healthy couple in their mid 20's.... they are married in the temple and take great care of their little girl. How can this even make sense or be fair both spiritually and physically? They were supposed to find a cure, or a surgery that would help him...not this. He was given days, maybe a few weeks to live.

My oldest, Elise who is 7, has quite the tender heart. She had been praying for her cousin constantly, making him cards and writing him a letter. One day when we were at my inlaws I couldn't find her and I was shocked that she wasn't playing with all of her other cousins and sister. I found her in the dinning room, alone. The room was dark, but there was a little light coming in behind her through the window. I asked her what she was doing, and she said, "I am writing Everett a letter, and drawing a picture of him so Brenna will remember what he looks like....mom, I think they named him Everett because we will remember him forever and ever".

On Sunday, February 3rd, precious baby boy went back to heaven. I won't lie, I felt jipped. I didn't get to meet my nephew. I wanted to see him and hold him. I could feel his spirit just looking at his pictures, it was amazing. I just knew it would be better in person. A huge part of me didn't want to believe what was said to be inevitable. I wish I could have been there to hold my little sister too. Through all this, I have realized how much I didn't know I loved her.

This other picture is a blanket I bought for him when Everett was a few days old. I wanted to send a fun package for him. I fell in love with it! It was perfect for him. It was so soft and just the right amount of cute with out overdoing it. Today I went to the store to return it....and  I just couldn't. It felt wrong. Like I was giving up. For some reason it still doesn't feel real to me at times. My mind still wants to fight for him, and my heart aches for his wonderful parents, Aaron and Brenna.

Just some Positive thinking....

I give myself a hard time about alot of things. This is one of them, of course. Recently I told Brian," It's so rediculous that people look at stretch marks as 'ugly' or 'flaws', they should be an awesome thing! They tell a story, they show that this body has had a (mine 2) baby grow inside of it for 9 months and then painfully delivered her afterwords! My body was the home of children! That's quite an amazing thing!" So Tara, you rock, forget about the rest of them.

This Summer

So yeah it's been awhile since I updated this thing. So many things have happened! We went to Hawaii for Brian's brothers' wedding which was alot of fun and flew by so fast! Elise had her 6th birthday which I still can't believe. We had 2 family reunions which was so much fun! Here are some little updates on the kids:

Elise

She is now six and just loves to talk. (The talk part isn't new though) She's an old soul in alot of ways. She even talks like me sometimes and it's so weird. She wants an answer for everything, saying, "because" does not work anymore:0) She loves to hum as she's walking around the house. She completely loves her little sister as well as telling her what to do. She is so helpful around the house and with Jovi. She has gotten into My Little Ponys which is fun. She really enjoys books and is getting better at reading. She LOVES swimming, she's our little fishy that we're hoping to eventually get into lessons. She loves to get her nails painted, go to Petco Park, the beach, the Park, the Library. Her favorite places to eat would be: El Torito, Chucky Cheese (duh), and Chick Fil A. She just started 1st grade today and she acted like, eh not a big deal :) The pic is of her first day!

Jovi

She is 19 months (almost 20). She is 35 inches tall and in the 99th percentile for height. My dad calls our girls Amazon women :0). She loves her Kitty of course, but now she gets excited to see Elise's stuffed animals too. When she sees Woody or Jessie she gets super excited and says, "Yeeeeehaw, Yeehaw!" Her other favorites are Tenkle (Tangled) and Doa (Dora). She now goes to the bathroom to grab the stepping stool, puts it on the floor by the movie cabinet and stands on her toes and digs through the movies till she finds a 'Yeeeeehaw or Tenkle'. She can count to 7 and can say half of her ABC's, the other half is mumbled or hummed. She also can sing twinkle little star :0) . She is growing so fast! She was our super eater, but now she developed some pickiness. She loves bread, cheese, raisins, strawberries, milk, goldfish and bananas. She adores her big sister and doing what she does. She is the first to run to her dad when he gets home to give him big hugs. When we're at the grocery store I am slumped forward quite a bit because she says "Iwahuk" with her arms out, which means I want hug. So I hug her while pushing the cart :0)

Yay for good deals!

So I honestly have a ton of things I should be writing about...which I will...eventually. But this one was quick and easy. :0)

My latest shopping trip was awesome! I have been using coupons for 3-4 years now, but it's been over the last year that I have been doing some serious saving, and not on junk food (which is SO much easier to save on (like Lucky Charms, un-natural margarines & PB, cookies, soda blah blah blah) but on natural, more healthy food! This shopping trip at Ralphs I got:

8 boxes of Mom's Best Natural cereal

4 Boxes of Ronzoni Wheat Pasta

1 tub Land O Lakes Butter w/Olive Oil

4 Protein Bars

2 Bags Quaker Rice cakes

2 Silk Almond Milk Cartons

2 Gallons Arrowhead Water

3 Voskos Greek Yogurt

2 Bottles of R.W. Knudsen Organic Black Cherry Juice

1 Boulder Organic Kettle Chips

And I spend a grand total of: $13.86 !!!

I have 2 more super awesome trips for this next week :0)

Easter!

Easter was alot of fun. Brian had a 3 day weekend, which started with a bang (literally). Brian started his break with an intense leg workout using dumbells during squats. He pulled his muscle pretty bad and needless to say he had an old man sore back the last four days. I've loved watching him grab the table or chair to bend over and awkwardly pick something up... it's a sneak peek to our distant future :0) .

We drove down to Brian's parents' on Saturday. After lunch, Elise and I left with Grandma and Lorin to Granny's Attic. It's a gem in Temecula filled with random treasures. It is used and new antiques and collectibles in a decorated warehouse with 50,60, and 70's music playing. They have everything from old records, girdles, Wash sinks, sofas and jewelry to toys. I felt like I was walking through the past and couldn't help but tap my feet to the music, smile and let my mind roam to some magical era. So many items reminded me of my Grandma Geitz's house and her many trinkets. So many fun memories of growing up and playing in her house. I also found a McDonald's toy that I had when I was 8. It was a plastic 80's barbie with crimped hair that I had LOVED. And well I had to pay the .80 cents to get it! For some odd reason it made me so happy to find it and brought back a pool of memories I had forgotten. When I got home Elise wanted to play with it, but I just said, "this is Mommy's toy".

That night Brian's dad treated us all to heavely fresh mex at Wahoo's. I am in love with Fresh mex... Baja Fresh is the best and has an awesome salsa bar, yes it is a party in my mouth! Later that night we rented the most confusing and badly written movie ever, don't see 'Fair Game' such a waste of time!

Sunday morning the girls woke up nice and early at 6:30. They were very excited to look through their Easter baskets; Elise got a Tangled book, doll and the movie, and Jovi got a movie and book as well... the stuffed animal she got was shoved aside when we showed it to her, as she moved over to grab her kitty, oh well :0).

We all got ready for church and the girls' dresses turned out all right I think, I learned quite a bit from making them, things I would or wouldn't do again. But I made them without a pattern and only using old T-shirts, so considering my resources they weren't too bad. We went to Bethanie and Jareds' ward because Jared was singing in sacrament meeting. He sang "The Greatest Gift" by Afterglow which was just beautiful, it was perfect for Easter.

After a little bit of lazying around, since I had lovely intense allergies, we had a very nice dinner and TONS of candy. The kids did their Easter egg hunt which was fun, then we all played games. I like hanging out with family, especially for holidays because it reminds me of growing up and my uncles hiding the Easter eggs in their front shirt pockets and the cousins parading off to play while the adults visited. I love that my kids have that. On the way back home we stopped at a friends' house to visit for about an hour which was so nice, our kids got to all talk about their Easter baskets, the Brians talked about cars and what not and Amy and I got to talk about girly/ mother things, good times.

A Day At the Beach

Brian had worked a late day on Thursday, so we decided to make it a beach day on Friday. He got off work at 1 pm and off we went to Moonlight Beach! It was so much fun. Elise has always loved the beach and we were excited to see Jovi's reaction. Jovi has been to the beach quite a few times, but never in the ocean. Well she LOVED it. She only cried once throughout the whole time we were there and it was when we took her away from the water.

Elise was busy filling a big hole with water for Jovi to play in and looking for rocks. It was so fun to see the two play together, that is something I have wanted for Elise for a long time.

Kevin and Lorin showed up too which was fun, and I am bummed I didn't get any pictures with them! Afterwords we all went out for pizza, some of which was eaten off the floor...haha don't ask.

On the drive home Elise told us about 100 different April Fools jokes. Some where, "Hey mom there's a tree on our car!... April Fools!" Or, "Hey guess what it's night time now so you will all turn into buildings!...April Fools!" She so silly, but she loves this day :0)

Jovi started to fall asleep on the drive and we tried hard to keep her awake since we needed to bathe her when we got home, but she was so exhausted. She was smiling and laughing the whole time though, even with her eyes half open, right until she was completely out.

Sweet Growing Girls

JOVI

So, Jovi is officially walking! She's been walking for 3-4 weeks (a step here and there) but she can now cruise around the whole house! She loves that she can carry things and move around. She used to hold things in her hand and then crawl using the tops of her hands (it looked EXTREMELY uncomforatable). She also now has 10 teeth! She's getting quite the mouthful! One of the sweetest things ever, I saved for last. Since Monday, February 27 Jovi can now give kisses! I was holding her when I kissed Brian goodbye, so after she leaned over and planted a big one on my lips!! Haha, it was adorable. Now we say, "kiss kiss" and she leans over and kisses us, then we all clap our hands. (It's become a big part of our day :0) )

ELISE

Elise LOVES to fix hair. She's quite good at it too, in the picture she said, "I will turn you into a princess mommy!". Such a little hair genius. She has been doing both addition and subtraction in Kindergarten now! She's doing pretty well, her common quote when she does her homework is, "Easy peasy lemon squeezy". Not sure what she thinks that means. She is SO excited for Nana and Papa to come stay with her. She says, "Papa is funny huh mom, cause he's always like tricking me." She has written out a list of everything she wants to do while they're here, she is stoked!

BRIAN & I

We are super excited for our upcoming sweet escape! Thanks to my awesome parents coming up to watch our little princesses! It's been two years since we've had one, and that has felt SO long to us! I am in the middle of condensing and organizing our house (it's taking me forever). And Brian has been working hard with his clients and knocking doors still occasionally. We both have our weekly one hour getaway, good for you activity. Mine is Yoga, and his is church basketball :0) .

PS......Did you notice Jovi's pacifier? Yes she likes it. NOW. After a year of buying every kind I could find and trying to keep them in her mouth. Now, when she randomly found one in their toy box, and we don't give them to her anymore. She loves it, and puts it in her mouth all the time. NOW. At 13 months. When we would be breaking her of one, she wants it. Not cool.

More To Learn

I am in love with this quote, it has so much meaning to me, and really was one of those, 'huh' moments that I love to get.

"We've all known a teenage beauty who's convinced she's hideous. Or a macho daredevil who is driven to prove he is not a weakling. Or a "supermom" keeping the family going by her indefatigable efforts and struggling to fight off depression over her inadequacies. The beauty would never had suspected herself hideous if she had not made her appearance a major issue by wishing to be gorgeous. The macho punk would never had doubted his strength and courage if he had not first indulged in fantasies of himself as strong and courageous. The mother who doubted herself to a point of depression would not have sunk so far had she not gotten herself into the business of proving herself to be a "supermom"."

-C. Terry Warner

Loving Me

So, I have been thinking alot ( too much lately if you ask Brian :0) ) but I want to love myself more. Haha....do I sound full of myself yet? No I mean to accept my outer flaws, all of them. To give myself comments, to avoid insecurities. I know working on my innerself will take my whole life, but I figure, if I can have a better attitude about the outer, then I could be an all around better person. Take for instance I was thinking for this post, I'd put a picture of just me. And did you guess what happened? I took about 20....didn't like any of them. For some reason I've always thought I look worse in pictures, or from a diagnal....stop laughing. My biggest complaints are usually my pores, my scar, my unproportional face, my stretch marks, my toes, skin coloring, hair color, crookedish teeth/mouth, my eye shape/position and one other area to which those of you who know me, know what it is. Do I sound negative yet? Don't you dare look for them next time I see you! But a change of plans has been made to order! I want to focus on what I do like, or make what I don't like silly or acceptable in my mind....maybe even eventually positive? I mean, can't thinking more positively make something look better? I sure do need to....cause exposing my insecurities all of the sudden made me feel naked!

So I will say what I do like:

I like my nose profile :0), my ears (eh what's not to like), my hair thickness (not too thick or thin), the few freckles I have (they seem to have disapeared over the years), my arms, the mole by my belly button ( too personal? naw it's just my button!-Elise's words), my fingernails, the fact that I only have peach fuzz above my knees on my legs, my hips, and then there are a few others that are in the 'pending' state that I am working on.

I have a goal to enter into a state of acceptance first. Then maybe turn some of those 'acceptable traits' into unique, cool traits that make me different or special.

I'm starting with, "Huh, this body gets me from here to there, how nice of it. This body is my friend, helping me do so many things, like hold my baby. No matter how much I haven't liked ____, it works, how blessed am I? Well geeze, it's not all that bad, it kinda gives me character!"

You're probably thinking, "Whoa, why would she tell everyone this?" or "Dang now everyone is going to know what she does!" Well, I don't care. I like being honest with myself, and I have come to a realization that something shared is something gained. Admitting imperfections that I have (character ones) doesn't bother me. I think it shows strength. Because I have discovered a fault, admitted I have it, and now am working on it. That's growth in it's beginning stages and is a beautiful thing. Being positive in any aspect is really so refreshing and inspiring. In fact, I have my best days when I am optimistic. Everything is so much happier, beautiful and just less complicated. My biggest goal for the year 2011, being more optimistic in every area and Loving Me :0)

Elise lost her first tooth!

She was so excited to lose her tooth. But I'm not quite sure she realized it would hurt when she told Brian to pull it out :0) She got a bag of change and some chap stick for those chapped lips! She insisted that the tooth didn't go under her pillow because the fairy wouldn't be able to get it, smart girl!

The other day when I was driving her to school we had the radio on the song Marry Me by Train. She said, "That's weird, he's saying marry me. All he should do is just do something for her, like make her food." I love my Leiser.

She also learned to braid only after being shown twice, it was a new years goal for her, and she is so motivated!

Jovi's 1st Birthday!

Jo's 1st Birthday! The cake was super yummy, served with strawberries and vanilla frozen yogurt!

Mom and Dad Schrock, Jared, Bethanie, Mason and Lorin came to help celebrate which was awesome! She loved her presents and had so much fun with family! :0) The kinect was pulled out and well, it was too hilarious....even mom Schrock pulled out her dance moves! We feel truly blessed to have had Jovi join our family 1 year ago, she is just the perfect daughter and little sister.

It's almost Christmas

Yay! School is out, and Elise doesn't go back till January 18th! Pretty awesome! To start off the Christmas break we made cookies, wrapped presents and are about to watch a Christmas movie!

The picture is Elise's and Jovi's first time on Santa's lap!! Woohoo Elise, her first Christmas not afraid to sit on his lap!
This season has been so fun with her, she is really getting into it, wanting to Christmas shop, wrap presents, look at lights. It has been so fun!
Brian has been out of town for a few days, which has been kinda fun and lonely all at once. For one, mental note to Tara: Don't watch a scary movie before you go to bed you dork, it results in pocket knife under your pillow (apartments are loud!). On a more positive note, I have been getting some projects done that I have put off FOREVER, which I have to say feels so good.
Elise got her first award at school today, which we are so proud of her for! There were about 7 out of the 25 in her class that got one. Hers was for: Outstanding student,careful worker, Consistent work in everything and very responsible.
Elise has shown all kinds of interest in church, and has been asking so many questions. Her most recent thought was: "You know, That really isn't fair that we didn't get to see Jesus when he was a baby!" Yeah, that would have been fun huh? " I know, and I would bring him my toys for my gift! Did you get to see him as a baby mommy?" No Elise, that was 2,000 years ago. "Oh....were you alive then?" Huh....no.
This morning I made Elise breakfast. After I handed it to her I said, "How is it?" She tried it and thought for a second and said, "Pretty salty", What, really? "Yeah......but that's okay mommy, it's a.......... good salty!" She is so sweet!

We spent Thanksgiving in El Paso which was alot of craziness and fun! There were 4 babies and 3 little kids! It was a full house but it was alot of fun and went too fast! We were very lucky that everyone could make the trip, and for a whole week!

Thanksgiving

SO... It is November now, and yes even here in San Diego some of the leaves are turning orange, the air is crisp and my candles have been in continual use. Usually everybody (including myself) starts celebrating Christmas and indulging in gifts, treats and a Christmas mind set the second Halloween is over. I absolutely LOVE Christmas, it's just amazing and I start the countdown till it arrives in January. I have decided this year to do very minimal Christmas things yet and to observe 'Thanksgiving' the whole month of November. The more I've thought about it, Thanksgiving is really the best holiday. And I'm not talking about all the food.
I had one of the best 3 hours of church I've had in a while where everything: sacrament meeting (testimonies), sunday school and relief society were all pretty much amazing! The spirit was just dancing around our church building :0) and it was awesome. (Don't freak out, I don't mean literally) I had so many things I started thinking about and a realization that I am immensly blessed! So, I decided I wanted to celebrate the season of Thanksgiving! I am going to try to overall be more thankful for everything! Our country, church, family, friends, trials, my body (well at least the good/healthy parts), and everything I take for granted. Beautiful music and a calm, peaceful walk to the beach. Hiking through meadows with my family, looking for orange butterflies with my little Leiser. The opportunity Brian and I have to raise two beautiful girls and have them with us forever. The best husband in the world that is so patient with me. Rain and the way it smells afterwords, sunsets and rainbows. Date nights with the love of my life and best friend- holding his hand, flirting and laughing while his sweet parents watch our angels. We really have the best family ever on both sides (lucky us). Brian's job that supports our little family, our home and President Monson! (I love that man)

Wo I am writing!

Alright...2 years later and I decide eh, I don't know maybe I should update this thing? So much has happened since then! I went through a whole pregnancy (aw man I didn't get to use the pregnancy little ticker on the blog! So depressing ;0). Our little angel is now 7.5 months old! Jovi Kaikea was born January 14th at 7 lb. 13 ounces. She is a doll that loves to crawl backwards, chew on tags, eat and play with her big sister. Our little family of four could not be more perfect!

Elise turned 5 August 20th and starts school next week! I can't even believe that yet! I am a mom of a kindergardener! She is so excited for it too! Her only worry is that she won't see me as much, which is so cute! Her teacher's name is Mrs. Peterson and she's about 6'2"!

I have a goal to spend my free time wiser. With Elise going to school for the first time (she didn't go to preschool) I can now get some quality things done during Jovi's nap. No internet stuff either. Purely sewing, bows, piano and reading! I will probably need to write it down so I don't blow it off, for some reason I take myself so much more serious when I write things down.

Alright, so for Elise's funny quote for today. While talking about what animals we would want to be Elise says, " Daddy would be a monkey........Daddy loves bananas!! When you are sleeping at night daddy eats tons of bananas! He just gobbles them down!" Wow I never knew that, maybe I should set up a hidden cam to catch the monkey act.

Christmas is over.........which it almost doesn't even feel like it happened! It went by very fast. Plus, this year was our first year not being in our own home during the Christmas holidays, so that kinda changes alot. I know I know.....still milking the living in with the parentals. What can I say! Supposedly we should be moving into our new home (apt) within the next two weeks. At least that's the plan. It's what Elise calls, "Our Blue house", in her prayers.

Brian is doing pretty good with work, you know he is actually pretty good at anything he puts his mind to, lucky guy. He loves to get in some weight lifting, raquetball, basketball, or pretty much any sport with his free time. He's such a boy :0) .
Elise is getting so big and saying so many different crazy things.....I just can't believe how smart she is. The other day there was a guy asking for money in front of Target with a sign saying he was from some sort of shelter, raising money. And please don't think I'm terrible , but I usually don't give them money because I just don't know how legit any of that is...I mean I could make a sign out of cardboard that says I was raising money for the battered womens shelter and not shower for a week, and then go home and show Brian all the money I made. Plus I pay my tithing :0). So I try to dodge them without making eye contact cause I feel kinda awkward but Elise points at them and yells," Mom, put money in his bucket!!! Give him money mommy!!!" Right, thanks Elise.....here's 3 quarters....geeze
So I happened accross some awesome stuff and have set myself some New Years goals.... I am quite inspired and must share my insight!!!!
* Just for today, I will live through this day only. i will not brood about yesterday or obsess about tomorrow. I will not set far-reaching goals or try to overcome all of my problems at once. I know that I can do something for 24 hours that would overwhelm me if i had to keep it up for a lifetime.
*Just for today I will be happy. I will not dwell on thoughts that depress me. If my mind fills with clouds, I will chase them away and fill it with sunshine.
*Just for today I will accept what is. I will face reality. I will correct those things that I can correct and accept those I cannot.
*Just for today I will improve my mind. I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration. I will not be a mental loafer.
*Just for today, I will make a conscious effort to be agreeable. I will be kind and courteous to those who cross my path, and I'll not speak ill of others. I'll improve my appearance, speak softly, and not interupt when someone else is talking. I will refrain from improving anybody but myself.
*Just for today I will gather the courage to do what is right and take responsibility for my own actions.

Something else I would like to think of is from a St. Francis prayer:

"Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned."

Our Life as of NOW

So.....we are living in Temecula, Ca. right now. It's Brian's hometown, so he's in heaven. Well, and I'm starting to really like the place too. It cools down to 69 degrees at night (in the house) when you leave the windows open and during the day it's in the 90's- in July. SO different from Arizona! We're living accross a meadow- so Brian and I have been doing morning jogs and walks which is alot of fun and exhilarating.



That child!

Elise!!!! Wo that girl!! She is getting so big!! She'll be 3 in a month! 3 going on 14. Seriously, this girl thinks she's an adult. When you tell her to eat her dinner, she says, "you eat your dinner". When you say,"Stay here with grandma, I'm going shopping", she says, "no I want to go shopping!" (Not even toy shopping, CLOTHES) And when she goes shopping she'll hold clothes up to me and go, "oh how cute! I like this one". While we were shopping about a week ago I was looking at some throw pillows and Elise walked on the other side of the aisle, like she was shopping. And I told her to come by me because I couldn't see her, so she says, "Come here mom, I can't see you!" Finally when I got her to come over she just says, "What mom?" And I tell her she needs to stay by me......so she swings her purse onto her shoulder, sighs, puts her hand on her waist and walks in front of me. Ha ha...but she still has our hearts and is quite cute when out of nowhere she says, "guess what? I love my mommy" or "Mommy, you make me so happy". Love that girl!



Brian has been working for Edward Jones (voted #4 in Fortunes magazine for top 100 best companies to work for) which we're pretty excited about. He does investments, 401k's, IRA acct., the works. It's a good company, It's definately one of those 'work your butt off, sweat, sacrifice, go broke' type of jobs that can end up being awesome (only if you do all of the above).....So yeah. Brian's also been training for a 6k swim/run he's doing today..... .67 mile swim in the ocean, and 3 mile run, and then next month it will be 1.5 swim to Alcatraz then 7 mile run across the golden gate bridge! I'm so proud of him! And my Pops is doing it with him! Exciting!!!!! Brian is seriously like Superman!



I've been finding every little free activity possible for me and Elise this summer! And I've found quite a bit...the ward does 2x a week swim days, the mall does craft days on Thursdays, and the movie theatre does tuesday and wednesday free movies @ 10 am, and then there is story lady at the library once a week.

I have been doing pretty good at working out! Yay! I was so slacking since college. I've been doing my dance classes again- Rumba, salsa, swing, and hip hop! I always feel so good after sweating like a pig! It's awesome. Brian has signed me up to kinda be his secretary for now...so I'm entering his contacts, sending out thank you's and scheduling appointments. It'll be nice to have some extra money and take some work off his shoulders.