I Came, I Saw, I Conquered...

I have turned a new leaf in my book... I visited the Taco Cart in the Sears parking lot yesterday after school. I was a little, well a lot apprehensive but I was pleasantly surprised. Special thanks to my fellow Social Worker friend Dave for helping me step out of my comfort zone!

Oh Elise...

Yesterday Elise hit the BIG 23, thats right, 23 years young. Here are a few of the reasons I LOVE her:

She gives the very best back scratches. Without fail she scratches my back every Sunday in church. She hates to do it, but does anyway.

She is an AMAZING student. I mean this girl has 2 associates, and a bachelors by the time she is 23!! Best part of all is she has not had to borrow one penny. She has sacraficed and worked full time to help support us both in school.

Elise is good with money. Maybe too good. :) Ha ha just kidding. I am the complete opposite. She is always trying to make a games out of it for me. Hence the reason why if I am good for 2 more weeks I get ReAL season tickets!!

She works really hard. She works 12 hour days, has 2 jobs, and still juggles everything else.

She loves the church, and helps keep me on the straight and narrow.

Most of all, she is my BEST friend, my BETTER half, my ETERNAL companion!!

To celebrate yesterday Elise spent the afternoon with her mom. I had to work so she had a nice lunch, and then went shopping with Siobhan. After work we of course got Bettos and watched Biggest Loser. Tonight is the real party...

Have You Seen This Place?!?!?

As I sit here looking at the snow, I thought I would post a "warm" picture. I was at work last night talking to some friends, and they were telling me about a trip to St Maarten they were planning. I have never heard of this place, so they started showing me some pictures of St Maarten. Here is what they showed me:
Is this a sick joke? Seriously look how close that plane is. I have seen this picture before, but I thought it must be photo shopped. Nope this is real stuff my friends!

This KLM plane is a 747. Do you know how big these are? I have not seen one is person BUT they do hold about 375 passengers.

There are warning signs on the beach however people still lay there and watch the planes. ha ha

But take a look at this water... I think I would risk it! We need a cruise...

Going Out With a BANG!

We sure know how to end the year with a bang... Let me catch you up on the past few months. I was coming home very late on a Monday night from work. I was almost home, and had to go back to meet a plane that was returning to Salt Lake because it could not land. Elise had a soccer game scheduled that night, but it had gotten cancelled, so she was still parked in the middle of the driveway. I got home about 1:30 in the morning, and was not paying attention and backed into her car. It was my back bumper against her back bumper.
Now this is not the "actual" picture, but it gives you the idea. I accept full responsibility for the accident. I should have been paying better attention, but was not. Well no big deal right? That is what you have insurance for. HA HA Well insurance is nothing but frustrations! :) Elise's car is insured on her parents policy, and so we had two different insurances battling it out. Of course my insurance had a clause and a husband and wife can not be liable to each other. So that means two deductibles. Not the best news, but manageable. Well Elise's insurance did not want to pay because there was another insurance involved. After honestly 3 weeks of fighting we finally got it figured out. We went from not having to pay anything, to paying for all the damage to only paying one deductible. It was pretty stressful, and a great way to start off the Christmas season.
So after about 3 weeks of discussions we FINALLY got it figured out. 2 deductibles later we were in business. Well my car had to be registered in December. So I took it in. We fixed an oil leak, did emissions and then a tune up. During the tune up they found some problems, and we decided it was time to trade it in. Of course we had just dropped a few hundred into fixing it, and picked up this beauty.

A 2006 Nissan Altima. Anyone who knows me knows that I HATE shopping. I mean HATE with a passion. Elise LOVES to shop around, and around and around some more. I guess that is what makes us such a good team. Well after only 2 short dealer visits, we had a new car. Funny thing is we did not plan on buying a car that day. I had not even thought about cleaning out my car for a trade in. I mean I had so much crap in there. I even had 2 of my mom's snow tires! ha ha Well we ended up with the car, and have loved it. We needed 4 doors so that ONE day (and I stress the ONE day) we are going to have kiddos to load in the back. I think it was a good purchase, however Elise would have liked to shop around a little more.

That brings us to our last picture... I went downstairs to put some towels from the washer to the dryer. When I opened the door to the dryer, I got shocked. So I moved over and tried it again, and surprise surprise I got shocked again. (Don't ask, I do not know why I did it the 2nd time, but I did) After the same result twice we decided it was time for a new pair. I did not know how old our Avocado green dryer was, but I was guessing 1970ish. Well I talked to Granny and come to find out, it was the more like 1960ish. INSANE! Who has a dryer that last almost 50 years?!? Well it did. In fact it out lived 5 washers. So it was time for an upgrade. So we made the trip to RC Willey. We did not want front loaders, but we got them. We got a great price, and could not pass it up. The only bad part is that the new washer requires High Efficiency soap. Being good coupon shoppers we have a surplus of soap, none of which is HE. Well we had a garage sale of sorts, and got rid of it. Lucky for us RC Willey provided us with a bucket of 150 loads of soap. That should last until about 2020 the way we do laundry. Well my friends that is the update on our boring lives. Now we are all involved in School and work. BORING! But on a bright note Elise is in her LAST semester. Very exciting.

Let It Snow!! Let It Snow!! Let It Snow!!

It has been a lovely Holiday break from school. I have been able to get a few extra days off by taking some vacation. It has been very snowy. Roxie and I go outside and I shovel, and she plays in the snow. Our Christmas was great. Lots of family time, and very relaxing. This morning one of my good friends from work got married. It was a great ceremony, and fun to eat lunch with some of my coworkers. I also had the chance to take my aunt to the dr for a chemo follow up. It was really good to spend some time with her, and be able to talk with her. We reflected a lot on the Christmas season, and what it means to give. It was a good bonding moment. Here is a picture from the wedding this morning:

Christmas Is Here!!

Elise and I both love Christmas. This year has been very hectic. My school finals went an additional week then they normally have so that was not. Grades are in, and school is out for a few weeks so we are just LOVING life. We always try and do something generous to help out someone in need. This year with it being so crazy I was afraid that we would not get to. A coworker of mine in California was putting together some stockings for an orphanage in Mexico. We decided to send a box full of stuff. We had lots and lots of toothpaste, deodorant, and other hygiene items we could spare. So we sent that off, and finished out the semester. We got to go to the Festival of Trees this year. Lets be honest... this was not my favorite thing to do. In fact it didn't even come close. However, one of our friends had decorated a tree so we went to support her. We had a good time and saw some sweet gingerbread houses. We also got quite a few decorations for our house. The money all went to a good cause so that is nice. We have started a tradition with Elise's siblings, and her cousins to go see the lights every year. Last night we went and had a great time. Tonight promises to be more fun, and lots of family time tomorrow. Merry Christmas to all!!

Oh Say Can You C...

Oh yeah! I got a C+ in Human Biology. Why am I so excited you ask? Because that class was fetching hard, and it was online. I bombed my last 4 tests... I am so happy I got a C+ because that is good enough for the Social Work program, and I do not have to take any more Science classes EVER again... On a brighter note I am taking full advantage of Christmas break. Hence the reason I am posting while Elise sleeps. I think I might spend a little time with my long lost friend the Wii tonight...

Go Granny Go!!

So last night Granny and Wayne were headed to Reno for a wedding. They love to ride the train, but the train has 2 problems... middle of the night departures, and the station is in the ghetto. Last night they were supposed to leave at 11:00. At 9:00 they delayed it until 11:45, at 10:00 they delayed it to 1:00, and at 12:30 it was delayed until 5:38. So the final word was to go to sleep and I would pick them up at 5:15. Well Wayne called me at 5:00 and said the train had "made up time" and we needed to be there by 5:25. Ha ha right? I mean we have been waiting all night for this dumb train. Well I got them to the station before the train was even there. It is a scary area of town, and I fear of getting mugged. :) Well I took Granny and Wayne inside the station, and left them in the ghetto. Ha ha I assume they made it safe, I have not heard back from them. Lets hope when I go pick them up Tuesday morning at 3:30 they area delayed until about 7:00 :)

Who Wants Free Music??

Follow the link to about 67 free songs on Itunes!!

Click_Here

Happy Holidays!!

Kitchen Progress.....

We are almost done with the kitchen remodel. We still have a few odds and ends, but for the most part it is done. Lots of people have wanted to see pictures, so here they are... next project: taking out a wall and a few door frames!

The new view coming in from the back door...

The new view coming in from the living room.

Very pretty knotty alder wood with a BEAUTIFUL crown molding.

New fridge area... added bigger cabinets on top and a pantry on either side.

Our old stove....

The new stove and microwave.

The old sink...

Our new sink! (excuse the dishes...)

Pretty exciting! We really like it. We have more pictures all along the complete process... click Here.

Nick IS My Homeboy!!

Nick Rimando truly is my homeboy... and to prove I will soon have a shirt. Siobhanie and I are going to have fun Thursday morning!

Thanks Granny and Wayne, and Go ReAL!!

Last night was the Eastern Conference Finals and ReAL was playing. Of course we do not get the channel, but Granny and Wayne do!! So we threw together a little party. It was a lot of fun. Granny and Wayne were great sports. They humored us and watched the game with us. Granny is so funny she had a veggie tray ready and we provided the pizza. ReAL won in a very exciting shootout, and we all tried diligently to give Granny and Wayne the rules. The best part was the comments Granny would make. She is so funny when she watches sports. Oh and did I mention that ReAL are now CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS?!? Because they are...

Much needed vacation!

So, we were planning on going to Peurto Vallarta for vacation! We were all excited and had our bags packed and ready to go! The flights started filling up to Mexico and so we started looking for other places that we could go. Seattle, New York, California, and Texas were all options. Hawaii was the winner though!! We flew into Maui and went to our resort to look around! The resort was beautiful!!! I was surprised at how many mountains there were in Hawaii - for some reason I guess I thought it would just be beaches! :) It was wonderful to spend time with alone with my husband! We did have to do some homework while we were there but it is much better doing homework next to the pool than at our house! We went to the store and spent way more money on milk than one should pay for milk (everything there is very expensive) but it was well worth it for the cold cereal every morning in the hotel. We went to the beach every day and enjoyed the sun! On Friday we went to Lahaina and went shopping, Andrew's favorite thing in the world! I enjoyed it quite a lot! I bought a shoulder bag, a hat, a collar for the dog, some jewelery including a pearl necklace, and much more. Andrew got a pair of sandals. On Saturday we had planned a boat trip to Molokini Crater and Reef and Turtle Bay. We went out on the boat bright and early and enjoyed hours of snorkleing. I got stung by a jellyfish while we were out there on my legs and my arm - the areas got a little swollen and I got all these red raised bumps on it. No, I didn't let Andrew pee on me! We hung out Sunday and left Hawaii sadly on Sunday night. Overall it was a good trip! We had a lot of fun! Here are a few pictures!

Maui = Paradise!

I love it here. The high is 80, and we have been beach bums. Not to mention the Wailea Marriot Resort is AMAZING!! (Thanks Priceline.com) More to come later!

To My Dear Friend...

This is what Elise looked like in action...
We used to have this....

and now we DON'T!! Let the remodel begin! We just went to Lowes and dropped $900 on a sink, faucet, two kitchen lights, a disposal, and an over the range microwave. Since we are rich we will let Rick work hard while we are on the beach next week! Ha ha A special thanks to Siobhanie who will be spending a few days at our house taking care of the children.