Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Home Sweet Home

We made it home safely last Saturday. I say safely because Ja was driving a big moving truck, it was supposed to snow that morning, and the roads were wet. The cars in front of us were kicking up dirt on our windshield so we tried to clean it with wiper fluid only to find out that the fluid was gone. We could barely see out of the windshield. Ja was moving his head all around trying to get a good view. We stopped at the next gas station to clean the windshield and buy wiper fluid. This station was very busy with people cleaning their windshields and buying wiper fluid. Darin and Devin were driving our car and said that our wiper fluid was gone too. I went to pour more in only to realize that it wasn't gone, it was frozen! Our truck's was frozen too so there was nothing we go do but drive with a terrible dirty windshield. We welcomed the big rig trucks because they kicked out enough water that we could use the wipers to clean the windshield and see much better. Thank goodness it didn't snow at all and the weather was great. We stopped for lunch in St. George and our wiper fluid finally unfroze. We eventually made it home after 10 hours of driving. Moving trucks sure make the drive longer. But, the drive was worth it and we are so glad to be home for a few months. 

That night our family was nice enough to help us move everything in the condo. We set the couch up and my dad set up our bed.  I've spent the last couple of days unpacking all the other boxes and trying to find a place for everything. The condo is huge compared to our tiny apartment and we love it! I'll have to post pictures later. 

I hope that everyone is enjoying the Christmas season. Have fun with family and friends and have a Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Let it Snow!


We had our first real snowfall and it's beautiful. I really wanted it to snow before we went to the land-of-no-snow so I wouldn't forget it's winter. I got my wish! Here are some pictures I took around our house.
I shoveled the driveway for my first time. 
 I didn't know flamingos liked snow.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Lights at Temple Square


My Aunt Linda was in town and wanted to go see the lights at Temple
 Square so we went with her as well as my sister Stacie. We had to drive around quite a while to find parking, but we eventually did at the LDS Business College. Later on we realized there was something going on at the Conference Center which is why we couldn't find parking. We made it safe and sound to Temple Square and we weren't too cold. Ja took some great pictures and these are my favorite. I'm now in the Christmas spirit thanks to the lights, our ward Christmas party this morning, and the snow that's supposed to be dumped today. 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

My Husband loves me so much

Look at what Jonathan gave me for Christmas!

He wants me to be sooo happy.

Passionate about Paper

Yesterday I spent 4 hours working on cards. I've never spent that long making cards in one session! Thanks to my friend Lauren who let me take some of her cute paper, I successfully made 19 cards. Usually my creative juices run out after an hour but I rediscovered my cute stamps and rubons so I was occupied for hours. There are five designs in this afternoon's series and I just had to take pictures of my favorites. 
On a side note, I have to make a shout out to all those clear stamp users! I love those things! You can create your own designs for stamps over and over again. I love being able to mix and match designs and spell whatever I want. They also cost less than the traditional rubber stamp because you usually buy multiple stamps on a sheet instead of just one wooden stamp.

Also, I saw an infomercial for the Circut Expression today, and that thing looks awesome! It's definitely going on my Christmas list for next year. You can cut out all shorts of shapes and letters out of any paper, fabric, or chip board in any size you want. 

Oh, I love scrapbooking and making cards! Put me in a room full of cute paper and stamps and I'm in heaven.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Christmas Woes

What do you get for men who can buy anything they want? What do you get dad’s, uncles, or grandpas? I don’t care what men say, men are much harder to shop for. Women always enjoy getting soap, lotion, easy stuff. Any ideas anyone?


As I was researching this problem, I came across this nifty shirt. It's too bad I can't buy it for anyone but I thought it was cool. It's a bottle opener right at the bottom of your shirt. No more broken teeth, your dentist would be happy.


Also, what's up with not singing Christmas songs at Church? The whole month of December should only be Christmas hymns if you ask me.

Concert of the Year

We received a check in the mail from PwC and we had no idea what it was for. Ja hadn’t worked for a long time, and no taxes were taken out. So when Darin told Ja about the Coldplay concert we knew exactly what to spend the money on. 


Apparently tickets in Salt Lake City are much cheaper than other places. The people sitting behind us were from Las Vegas. They said tickets in Vegas for where they were sitting  are $400 each! So it was cheaper for them to fly to Salt Lake to see the  concert. They even paid $65 more dollars than we did for the row behind us. We were lucky enough to sit on the floor 28 rows from the stage.  We bought the tickets the Thursday before the concert and they were to be mailed to us. When it was Saturday and still no tickets I called the ticket seller. Evidently the tickets never shipped to us. That meant we had to meet the seller at the venue before the concert. It also meant we got $24 back for shipping costs. We aren’t sure how this happened, but the seller also bumped us up 11 rows, so now we were sitting on the 17th row!  We were a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to see since everyone stands the entire concert. Luckily for us again, the people in front of us were even shorter than me so I could see just fine. Chris Martin was a good entertainer, he danced and ran all over the place.


For a few songs the band came out on a appendix of the stage which was only 5 rows in front of us. We were so close we could see Chris Martin’s sweat dripping from his face. Being on the floor in the 17th row was absolutely awesome. We could see the band clearly, and even their faces. 


I don’t even know how to describe how fun and amazing this concert was. Coldplay’s music is the best when listened to loud so the concert was the best you could get. Vida la Vida is our favorite Coldplay album so we loved every song played. Most of the songs didn’t differ to much from the albums but it didn’t matter because they are amazing on their own. At one point, Coldplay left the stage and we looked at each other and thought, “That was a really short concert!” Then they show up in the audience on a little stage on the upper terrace. They sang a few songs up there and the audience members were estatic to be so close. They were within arms reach of the whole band.

The pinnacle of the concert was Lovers in Japan. To start off, there is a huge screen on the back of the stage showing pictures and little movies of people and things in Japan. Then during the chorus confetti comes shooting down from the ceiling. Once it gets closer we can see that it’s tissue paper butterflies which go beautifully to the song. In the second chorus the butterflies come out even faster and more abundantly. Now there are black lights shooting at the butterflies which make them glow. It was so much fun. The atmosphere of the whole concert was great. Everyone was singing along, clapping, dancing and cheering like crazy. At one point Chris Martin said he was going to make the largest choir in Utah. I didn’t know what he meant, was he talking about the MoTab? Then he started playing Viva la Vida and it made sense. Instantly everyone starting singing their most popular song. We absolutely, certainly, and positively loved every minute and didn’t want it to end.

 If any of you have the opportunity to see Coldplay in concert, you need to go. Even if you have to  sit in the nose bleed seats it will be worth every penny. 


*Disclaimer: I didn't take any of these pictures because I forgot my camera! 

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Blog secrets revealed!

Have you ever found something out that you thought was super cool only to find out that everyone else knew about it and didn't tell you?! That's how Chelsey and I felt the other day. We wanted to change our blog background to a Christmas theme like so many of our friends have done. We were hesitant to do so, because in the past we've had to edit the blog html code which takes quite a while to do. It's also very easy to make a mistake and make your blog look like a big mess. This is the very reason why my blog face hadn't changed in months. I've always admired other peoples blogs that look so srapbooky and cute. Even a friend that said she doesn't do anything cute had a super cool blog. 

Chelsey and I did a little undercover work and now we know the secret- thecutestblogontheblock.com! Why we didn't discover this, or why nobody told us about it is beyond us. Oh well, we are so happy to discover this classified information that isn't so classified anymore. All you have to do is copy one little code into the side bar of the blog. "It's that easy!" (Quoted by the cutest blog on the block. We didn't believe them until we tried it.) The hardest part is deciding which cute theme to choose! 

Truman Photo Shoot




Since we had this new camera I had to take pictures of Truman. Chelsey was nice enough to oblige and let me photograph her son. I had fun with it. He's only 2 weeks old so we couldn't do too many poses because he can't hold many poses. We did try to put a cute hat on, have Chelsey hold him, and have him on a blanket. It's hard to photograph babies because they like to move a lot! I took over 100 pictures and ended up with about 16 good ones. I'm so glad we don't use film anymore, I feel like most of  the film would be wasted.  Yeah for digital!

Our new find




Over Thanksgiving break, Ja was looking around his dads office for a computer cord. In that searching he came upon a nice Canon camera. He asked his dad about it only to find out that Greg forgot he had it! After much discussion and contemplation, we took the camera home to be put to use. Ja and I had fun with it at our first attempt to take great pictures. Here's what we came up with.

Monday, December 1, 2008

New happenings

We had a great Thanksgiving break in La Canada. We were able to spend 5 whole days there in the sunny warm weather. It did rain a little, but we didn't really go outside that day. Everything we had to eat was great. 
I drove to Pleasant  Grove today for work only to find out that Management had laid off of the temporary workers. I'm so glad someone told me this before I got up early and drove all the way to Pleasant Grove. Actually, I was a little sad to not have work anymore, but it's great timing since Christmas is coming up and we will be moving in 3 weeks. 

Today I decorated Grandma's house for Christmas. I went to Wal-mart and bought her a christmas tree, ornaments, and tree skirt. She had a few Nativity sets and we had a few other Christmas decorations. Grandma sat as I decorated the tree. She thinks it's beautiful and it brightened up her day.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Our new friend Truman


My good friend Chelsey had her baby boy last week, so Ja and I went to visit them in the hospital. Truman was so adorable! I instantly fell in love with the little guy. I haven't seen a two day old baby in a long time so I've forgotten how small they are. He has a perfect face and lots of dark hair. So, interestingly enough, I had a dream last thursday night that Chelsey had her baby and that he had dark hair. I woke up and thought, "That's weird, neither Chelsey or Andrew have dark hair." Not only did she give birth Friday morning, but he had dark hair.

Chelsey had a pretty hard labor; there were two unexpected twists, but she survived and she's still happy. I'm pretty much terrified of giving birth (I haven't figured out if it's from the pain or being in a hospital), so if Chelsey can have such a rough time and make it through, I think I can. Thanks for the encouragement Chelsey!

Monday, November 17, 2008

My trip to California

Somehow I had acquired enough Southwest points to earn a free flight, so I decided to take a little vacation and visit my family. Ja went to Virginia for a job interview the same day so we were able to go to the airport together.

The first night at home we had dinner with both sets of grandparents.

Grandma & Grandpa Francis
Grandma & Grandpa Seymour
The next day we went to the Long Beach Aquarium. That place is awesome! It's a well stocked aquarium and very well maintained. There is so much to do and look at. 


















In the middle of the day we took a 2 1/2 hour trip on the open ocean. We saw the Queen Mary, the Long Beach port, seals, sea lions, and two whales! None of us had seen whales before so that was pretty cool to see. We followed them around for about a 1/2 hour. I didn't take pictures of them, but they were very large and gray. The captain said they were fin whales.













Wednesday I went shopping and got a few things like new makeup and a couple shirts. At night I went to the musical Happy Days with Grandma and Grandma Seymour. I've only seen a couple episodes of the show so I didn't always get the jokes. Sometimes everyone else in the theater would laugh at a line so I figured it was a joke from the show. I had a good time though.

Thursday my mom and I went to breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa Francis. Then it was more shopping. At night I went to "Spa night" at Enrichment. It was fun to see old friends and leaders there. I'm glad I was sort of a good teenager so people are still excited to see me come back home and visit with me.

Friday my dad took me to get new running shoes. It's so great to have new running shoes. You don't notice that your old ones are old until you try new shoes on. Later that night, Jill, Kenny and his girlfriend Lisa, and I went to In-N-out for dinner then saw Madagascar 2. The movie had some good parts and funny lines, but I think seeing it once was good enough.

Then it was time to go home Saturday. I forgot my jacket in the trunk, luckily my mom wasn't too far away so she could bring it back to me. It was 85 degrees so I didn't even think about having a jacket! I also left two shirts hanging in the garage, luckily we'll be back in a week!