Fantastic Funks!

Navigating the Healthcare System

2012-02-03T15:44:00.000-08:00

I’ve wanted to do this blog for awhile as I feel like we’ve gotten a lot better at dealing with the multitude of doctor’s offices and appointments and tests and everything medical! It’s mainly just things we’ve learned along the way or things I’d wished I had known. It’s probably basic stuff to most of you but hopefully it can help someone.

1. Be your own advocate – Growing up I was often embarrassed when my Mom asked a lot of questions or was so straightforward with doctors or other service providers. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the only way to get what you need, whether from a doctor or at the grocery store, is to ask! You are the only person around you 100% of the time and no one has your best interest at heart better than you. Speak up and be honest and straightforward about what you need and expect.

2. Don’t be afraid to ask questions – Asking a lot of questions is part of being your own advocate. The only way to learn something you don’t know is to ask and the good doctors will welcome your questions. Any doctor that acts irritated when you ask questions is not the right doctor. If a mechanic was telling you that you needed to have expensive tests run on your car wouldn’t you ask everything you could about why?

3. Take someone with you to appointments to take notes or be a second set of ears – This isn’t something you will need 100% of the time for the basic appointments (a yearly physical, for example) but if you have an appointment that you are nervous about or will be getting information out of the norm it’s a good idea to have someone to help you, even if it’s just for support. There have been so many instances where the doctor will say something to Jared and he doesn’t remember later but because I was there and heard it/wrote it down we still have the information.

4. Don’t be afraid to get a second (or third) opinion – I used to think that any reputable doctor would know exactly the type of ailment I had and the precise treatment to help. This isn’t to say that the doctor doesn’t know what he/she is talking about because doctors have a lot of schooling and experience but different doctors have different backgrounds and ways of doing things. One doctor might not know about a new type of treatment that another doctor knows about. We saw physical therapists in 3 different states before one told us about this new type of electrotherapy treatment that could drastically help Jared. It never hurts to ask

5. NEVER EVER EVER go without medical insurance – Obviously it isn’t always possible to have amazing insurance but you should ALWAYS have some form of insurance to help cover emergencies. Before Jared was admitted to the hospital we thought he was totally healthy and well. If he didn’t have insurance during his whole hospital stay and follow-up doctor’s appointments we’d be in for well over $250,000 of medical bills. I cannot stress enough how important it is to have medical insurance. Accidents happen and medical emergencies occur all of the time to people not expecting them. If you do have to go without insurance for a time, make sure it’s no longer than 63 days or your next insurance company might not cover a medical condition because it could be deemed a pre-existing condition.
a. Not only is it important to have insurance but it’s equally important to know what your insurance covers. Although insurance plans are often boring to read and confusing, knowing what they say can save you from spending money unnecessarily. For example, when Jared was admitted to the hospital his insurance didn’t cover private hospital rooms, which we didn’t find out until after he had been in a private hospital room for about a week and a half! Luckily the hospital didn’t charge us for that because we didn’t ask to be moved there but that could have been a lot of money.

6. A good attitude goes a long way – Being a Psych major has made me aware of what a powerful influence our minds have on us and those around us. I believe a positive mental attitude can make the difference between recovery and continued illness. I realize that willing yourself to get better is not going to cure everything but being positive and happy affects your complete outlook on life and the situation you’re facing. Jared is the absolute best example of having a good attitude in the face of adversity and it has made a huge difference in both of our lives. It’s normal and natural to have those days or weeks where you recognize that things are tough and realize the magnitude of what you are dealing with and feel blue. However, allowing yourself to dwell on the negative will never help you get better.

7. Just because a doctor orders a test/procedure for you doesn’t mean you have to have it – When Jared was in the hospital they would wake him up before 6am every morning to take his blood just to have it on record. When they couldn’t give him a reason for the blood tests other than to track different levels (unrelated to his health issues) he told them he didn’t want that anymore and they stopped. If there’s a serious reason your doctor wants you to have a test then you should definitely do it. Just ask the doctor for the reason behind the test/procedure and if it’s really necessary. Most doctors will be straightforward with their reasoning and you can make an educated decision.

8. Medical Records – I could probably write a book on medical records but I’ll just mention a few points:
a. The hospital/doctor’s office keeps track of everything they do and those records are yours. It is a good idea to get copies of your medical records after every procedure so you can keep them organized but at the very least you should request them if you are moving or switching doctors. Call your doctor’s office/hospital and ask how you can request medical records. Usually it’s just a form you fill out and submit to a medical records department but either way it should be an easy process.
b. Create and manage your medical history. Compiling your entire medical history might seem daunting but it could really help your doctor with any health issue that might come up. There are different types of software designed to create a medical history or you can create your own. I created a spreadsheet for Jared dating back to his birth. Jared and I were blessed to be born to extremely organized moms who kept great records so I was able to go back and compile all of that info. If you want any tips or to see the spreadsheet I made I’d be more than happy to share. After creating it you need to maintain it with any new medical info.
c. File! I am hugely into filing for everything anyway so the medical records are no different. I keep our medical records in a separate file box from the rest of our paperwork so I can easily access the information for a doctor’s appointment or to reference it for any reason. If you aren’t a big filer then find some way to keep those records organized so you can find something if needed.

9. Designate someone to speak on your behalf – Due to HIPAA and other regulations hospitals and doctor’s offices are often not allowed to speak to anyone besides the patient regarding anything medical. Most hospitals and doctor’s offices have a form you can fill out designating someone to request records or information on behalf of the patient. It’s a good idea to have someone you trust listed that can speak for you in case you are unable to request them for some reason.

10. Bills/Explanations of Benefit – After any procedure/doctor’s visit/etc. your doctor will send a bill to the insurance company listing everything they did for you. The insurance company will then decide what is covered by your plan and for how much and then pay the doctor for whatever portion is covered. The doctor will then bill you for the remaining amount. Somewhere in that process the insurance company will send you something called the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) listing all of this information (the procedure, how much they were billed for, how much they covered, and how much you should expect to pay). This process can get confusing when you have a lot of appointments and due to imperfections in coding and human error there are times you could get billed for the wrong amount or the insurance company won’t cover something you think should be covered. Because of this it is very important to compare the EOB with your bill as well as understand what is covered by your insurance. I keep a spreadsheet listing the info from our EOBs and before I pay a bill I always compare it to the EOB to make sure we aren’t being billed for something we shouldn’t be. It also helps to keep track of the EOBs and Bills so you know what bills are outstanding.

11. Flex spending – Many large businesses will offer something called a Flex spending plan which is basically pre-tax money you set aside for medical expenses. Your benefits administrator can explain more but if your company has a flex spending plan I would recommend contributing to it because it can save you money. The only downside to it is if you put money into it that you don’t end up using by the end of the year you lose the money. So just try to calculate what you think you’ll actually spend in medical expenses and be a little conservative.

This kind of turned into a book but hopefully it was helpful to someone! If you have any questions related to this I'd be more than happy to attempt an answer! :)

80s

2012-01-25T21:30:00.000-08:00

This last weekend Jared and I went to a friend's surprise 30th bday party at a rollerink. It was an '80s party and we were supposed to dress up which I was SO excited for. I went to Savers and found most of our entire costumes for less than $25 bucks! I asked my lovely sister where to find leggings and she had the genius idea of cutting up a men's sweater and using the sleeves (smart right?). I thought the costumes came out pretty well and I had a fun time trying to tease my hair (even if it didn't turn out as big as I had planned). We even attempted a "flock of seagulls" hairdo for Jared but his hair was too short, haha.

This weekend we also had some friends (the Crocketts) visit for the weekend and had a blast (even though we didn't take any pictures). Saturday the boys went golfing and Robyn and I were able to get pedicures with hot stone massages (SO nice!) and then after the party we all played games. Spencer and Robyn have awesome games that they always show us how to play and we played lots of those this weekend, which was a lot of fun. We were bummed when they had to go but had a great weekend with them!

Stormy Christmas

2011-12-30T12:37:00.000-08:00

This year we had Christmas in Hemet at Steven and Christina's house. It was a lot of fun to have the whole family together for the first time in 2 years! We enjoyed hanging out and playing games and chatting and the boys were able to play golf while the girls saw a movie which was fun!

We tried to get family pictures but they didn't turn out the best. We were originally going to take them by this barn but we got there and saw a No Trespassing sign so we thought we should go somewhere else. We went to a park but it was tough because we didn't do the pictures early enough so the lighting was weird and we were just taking them with Jared and my camera on a tripod with a remote control. It was fun to take them but we will probably go with a professional next time. We are going to work on fixing them up in Photoshop but this is the best one so far.

Christmas morning was fun with the little boys. It's so much more exciting when you get to see their reactions to their presents from Santa!

I couldn't resist including this pic cause it's funny

Bryson was cracking us up because he was just driving through all of the presents with his new 4-wheeler

The lighting's not the best and our colors clash but I wanted to put this in too

Merry Christmas!!!!

The Return of the Jakie

2011-12-30T11:44:00.000-08:00

I'm finally posting about Jake getting home from his mission! He served in the Joao Pessoa, Brazil mission and returned on December 9th. We had his flight itinerary about 4 months before he was coming home so I was able to plan it so I could meet him in San Francisco and fly the rest of the way to Chico on the same flight as him! I was so nervous that our flights would be changed or something would happen and we would miss each other but luckily it worked out! The only bummer about the whole thing was that Jared wasn't able to come because when I bought the plane tickets I didn't yet have a job and we were trying to save money.

I got to San Fran about 2 hours before our flight to Chico was supposed to leave and I was there when Jake's flight landed and knew it had landed because Jared was following it online and let me know. I couldn't be at his gate when he got off of the plane because of the way the airport is set up and security procedures so I went to our gate and waited. I was anxiously waiting for an hour and the whole time I was thinking about what I would do when I saw him. Would I run up to him or sneak up behind him and tap him on the shoulder or just wait for him to notice me? In the meantime our flight starts boarding and then they announce that due to weight issues they need some people to take a later flight. During all of this Jake still isn't showing up and I'm getting more and more frantic and calling my mom and asking if I should wait for him or what I should do. I finally decided to walk to the security check point to see if he was stuck there or anything and on my way back he comes up and surprises me!! I was so bummed that I wasn't able to see the surprise on his face when he saw me but happy to see him and relieved to make our flight. It turns out he had to completely go out to baggage claim, get his bags, and re-check into the flight and then he went through a different security gate than the one at which I was watching for him. As I was walking back to our gate he saw me and surprised me that way. Then they almost weren't going to let him on the flight because of the weight issues and because he was the last to check in but luckily it worked out.

Jake and I waiting to get off the plane in Chico

Our little plane and Jake in California for the first time in 2 years

I love this picture because of how emotional Katherine is, it just tugs at my heartstrings a little bit :)

Jake and his best buddy Ben

Everyone at Jake's homecoming

First time driving in 2 years

Katherine's reaction to Jake's driving, haha

Everyone except Jared after Jake was released

They're so cute!

It is so great to have him home and we are so proud of him and how faithfully he served the people of Brazil!

Beard

2011-12-28T13:01:00.001-08:00

I'm way behind on blogs lately and still have to post about Jake coming home from his mission and Christmas but I wanted to throw this in here really quickly! After Thanksgiving Jared started growing a beard. I'm not really sure why other than he didn't feel like shaving and he knows I think he looks good with a beard. I think he originally intended it to be a 2 week thing but it turned into a month long thing and got to the point that he even had to trim it a bit. He finally decided to shave today and thought it would be fun to do it in stages.

Here he is, Mountain Man Jared

This is Coffeehouse Intellectual Jared

This is Prison Jared

This is 9th Grade Gym Teacher Jared

This is the Jared we know and love! Good to have you back!

Now he just needs a haircut, haha

Photoshop Fun!

2011-12-03T20:04:00.000-08:00

I have always thought that it would be fun to learn how to edit pictures in Photoshop but never took the plunge to purchase it. Well Lori's mom has been doing a lot of work with her family pictures and wanted someone to help her edit some pictures. Lori volunteered and her mom was very kind to send the software to us!

Thursday night I uploaded the software and have spent every free moment learning the program and practicing different things. It started out kind of frustrating because I didn't know anything but after searching how to do things online and trial and error I was able to finally start doing some pretty cool things. I'm by no means an expert and there are so many functions that I still don't know but I though I would show some of the things I have done.

The main pictures I edited were our wedding pictures.

Original picture

Next phase

Phase 2

Final Product: I think it is much better to not have the cars and kids in the picture but I can still see all the imperfections so in the future I could play with this even more but for now I'm happy with it.

The remainder of these are just different formats and stuff. Some are kind of lame but if you like any of them let me know.

This is where I got a bit "crazy". I tried to combine two pictures to make the sky look a bit cooler, but the problem is the shadows and brightness in the foreground don't match that of a sunset. So if anyone has any ideas on how to overcome this problem let me know.

These are just some other pictures that I messed around with. It has been fun!

So there ya go...while I know there is a lot of things I can improve on I think it is pretty good for only having started working with Photoshop two days ago.

P.S. If anyone has any suggestions, tip or tricks please let me know...

Christmastime is here!

2011-12-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

I LOVE Christmas and being able to decorate. Nothing beats the feeling of the season with Christmas music and hot chocolate and pretty lights, it's the best! Today was our Christmas decorating day and it was even better than normal because this is the first Christmas we're living in this apartment and it's so fun to figure out where to put all of the decorations.

We decided to go with a smaller tree this year because we didn't really want to deal with a bigger tree or spend the money on one. I absolutely love our little tree though!

View from outside our apartment (please ignore how "white trash" we seem with duck tape holding up our outside lights, haha. We didn't have anything to hang up lights on stucco and I was really anxious to get our lights up)

Our little tree! I love it!

Seriously, every year I get out this Nativity I love it! Probably mostly because the manger was made by my dad but also because I think Willow Tree statues are the best things ever!

I wanted to put this pic in to show a little bit of what our apartment looks like because we still haven't done that. I need to take pictures when all of the Christmas decorations are down but I'm still working on organizing and decorating so it might not be for awhile. :)

Hope everyone is finding time to enjoy the season!

Gobble Gobble

2011-11-26T19:04:00.000-08:00

Happy belated Thanksgiving!!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving this year in American Fork, Utah where we were able to spend the week/weekend with Jared's family.

We started off with a little friendly arm wrestling and Ping Pong. Jared wants me to mention that he beat his brother David and his dad at arm wrestling. It's probably because he's been pumping iron at the gym lately, haha.

On Thanksgiving day we played football to work up our appetites and work off some calories to prep for dinner. I even played this year! I haven't in the past because I'm not confident in my football abilities but decided to this year and had a blast! I even caught 2 TD passes!!

The teams were: me, Jared, and James and the other team was Jared's Dad, David, and Celeste (James' friend). This is Jared's Dad's team coming up with a play.

Beautiful Utah mountains

This is one of the TD passes I caught! :)

Me trying (and totally failing) to catch David who was super quick

After the football game we had an excellent dinner prepared by Jared's lovely mom!

David can do this weird "gargoyle" thing with his shoulders.

Ready for dinner!

Jared and I wanted to get a good picture but this sweater makes me look thick, haha. I think it's a good pic besides the sweater.

On Friday we were able to go to SLC to have a pie night with Jared's mom's side of the family and then went and saw some Christmas lights. The rest of the time we pretty much hung out and watched football. It was a really fun time and we're sad it's over already!

FORE!!

2011-11-26T18:46:00.000-08:00

Since we moved into our new place we've been wanting to go to this driving range nearby. We finally went one night to hit some balls and had fun (even though I'm even more awful than I thought I was!).

Jared did pretty good and the practice with the driving range helped improve his long game a little bit...

I, on the other hand, did not do so well, haha. As you can see in the pictures below I really need some practice. It's actually kind of embarrassing how poorly I did considering my whole family has been involved in golf for my entire life. I feel like I'm shaming the family name, haha. We will definitely be visiting the driving range more and hopefully I can improve.

Notice where the ball is.... :)

Jared had some problems with the club, haha. (J/K, this is a club of my Dad's that he likes to tease people with)

Things Not To Say to Your Childfree Friends

2011-11-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

I read this article today that I had to share. Jared and I have been married for over three years now and currently don't have kids. We have noticed that some of the people we've been around who do have kids tend to say things sometimes to imply that we are young or don't have life experience because we aren't yet parents. If you know us at all you know that we've had our fair share of "life experience" and even though it didn't include waking up with a sick child we've learned a lot. This isn't to say we think we are so wise and know everything but we definitely have had trials and you can learn from all kinds of things outside of having kids.

I know people don't intentionally say things to make us feel "less than" and they're just curious about when we're going to take the leap to parenthood but that doesn't stop it from getting to me once in awhile. It seems that unless you're close to someone you should realize that it might not be ok to ask about their plans to have kids (see #1 below). You never know a person's reason for being childless and if you aren't my friend or family member I do not want to tell you why we've "waited so long" to have kids. I think it's similar to asking a single person when they're going to get married. I hated that question when I was single because it forces you to either come up with some witty response to satisfy that person's curiosity but allows you to maintain your privacy or you have to divulge information that you might not want to share about your current dating status. I think what we need to realize is that even if we love someone and want all of the happiness of marriage and children for them it doesn't help to bring up that aspect of their life which might be painful. If any of you have said or asked us these things this isn't meant to make you feel bad, I'm sure we've all done it to someone. It's just a reminder to be conscious of what we say and how it affects others.

I copied some of the article below:

1. "When will you finally have kids?"
Once you have offspring, you want your friends to share the experience. But please don't loudly ask this question across the table at Thanksgiving dinner or at a baby shower. Although many people are happy to be childfree or waiting, the situation may be more complicated. A friend could be facing infertility, in the agonizing position of having a spouse who doesn't want children, or otherwise in a complex struggle over the issue. Bring it up privately with close friends, or wait for them to share with you.

2. "We always wanted to have a family."
If you use the expression "have a family" to mean "have children," you inadvertently send a message that people without kids are... family-less. Family comes in many forms: significant others, parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, neighbors -- happily, the list goes on!

3. "I only invited other parents."
Having children is the norm, and people who are childfree can sometimes feel isolated or excluded. So invite us to birthday parties! Sure, there are some people who just don't like kids and have no desire to spend an afternoon surrounded by them. They can decline the invitation, and the rest of us will cheer when the birthday boy takes his first bite of cupcake.

5. "You're so lucky you get to sleep in/shop/travel."
We understand that you give up a lot to be the amazing parent you are -- and we do appreciate our extra cash and free time, and god, yes, the sleep. But too many offhand comments like this make us feel like you assume the reason we don't have children is that we're lazy, selfish, or shallow. The decision is never that simple.

6. "This must be birth control for you."
Parents often make this joke when their kid is being loud or persistent, and we understand it's because you're worried the situation is bugging the hell out of everyone around you. Don't stress -- a good friend understands that your kid is going to have a meltdown once in a while. We can take it. And, of course, a crying toddler is not actually a tipping point in our decision to have kids. We're not that shortsighted.

9. "I'm sorry it's taken forever for me to call/email/text you back."
Don't start every correspondence with an apology. Your life is insane and letting us know you want to make time for us is appreciated. But don't stress so much: My life is busy too, and more often than not, I didn't even notice a lag.

10. "You wouldn't understand."
We know there are many things about parenting you will turn to your mom friends to talk about. And, honestly, with anyone other than a close friend, that's probably best -- I lose interest fast when someone I don't know well talks too much about their kids. But when we're real friends, don't let our relationship fade because you're afraid of boring us with parenting stuff. Just like we used to listen to you talk about your ex, we want to hear about what's important in your life now. And we hope you'll do the same for us.

Halloween

2011-11-02T20:29:00.000-07:00

The highlight of our Halloween this year was that we got off early from work, haha. I wanted to dress up for our ward Halloween party but we didn't really plan it far enough in advance so we just got some random stuff from Savers. We found this hat for Jared and I got a ghost headband to wear. Jared happened to have a Hawaiian shirt so he pretty much got a whole costume with that hat and I had a Halloween shirt which kind of went with the headband. We went to our ward Halloween party which was fun and then just kind of hung out, pretty much uneventful but still a good day!

First Visitor

2011-10-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had our first visitor since moving to Arizona, Jared's sister Camille! Camille is awesome about visiting people and we were really happy when she told us she could come visit us! She got in on Friday and was nice enough to wait at the airport for us to get off of work and come pick her up. We didn't do anything too exciting while she was here but had fun hanging out and watching tv and movies. We did take her to one of our favorite restaurants and we also drove to Mesa to see where she used to live when she lived here. It was a pretty lazy weekend but we had fun and were really glad she came!

The only pic we got was of Camille and I making snickerdoodles. I changed it to black and white because the lighting's bad, haha.

Employment

2011-10-07T22:28:00.001-07:00

I got a job! I started this last week at the same company Jared works for as an Administrative Assistant. It's an awesome company and it's so nice to be able to shorten the commute by using the carpool lane. What's funny is it's not the first time we've worked together! We actually met when we were working at the Online Testing Center in College. I thought he talked a lot and he thought I was dating someone else, haha. Obviously we got over our misconceptions (although he still talks a lot, lol).

Even though we work on different floors it's still fun to work for the same company and be able to have the same schedule. I hate starting new jobs but it's a great company and a good job. We feel blessed and are very grateful!

Half of a Half Century

2011-09-21T19:04:00.001-07:00

It's official, I'm a quarter of a century old! It's a little weird but kind of nice also. I'm in a new age group now and am able to rent a car by myself, haha. Other than that it's kind of the same and I don't really feel very different. My birthday was on a Sunday this year so Jared was nice enough to give me a birthday weekend and we mostly celebrated on Saturday.

We started the day with garage sale-ing (so exciting! haha). We're looking for a lot of furniture so we thought it'd be cool if we could get it cheap from a garage sale. We didn't find any furniture but we did get two complete games and the exact spice rack I'd been wanting for like $7 total! Awesome huh? So that was about it and then we hung out and then went to dinner at Claim Jumper (yum!). We thought we'd splurge and get their Chocolate Motherload cake to go. It was like carrying a suitcase out the door, haha. This is a picture of it in all its deliciousness!

We have church at 9:30a and I wanted to open presents before church so Jared was nice enough to get up earlier.

One of my friends sent me these gorgeous flowers (thanks Lisette!)

Jared made me poke'n'pour cake which has been my standard cake for probably 20 years, haha. We did "jazz it up" with heath bars though which was a pretty good addition!

So that's it, another year older and (hopefully) wiser!

Reluctantly crouched at the starting line

2011-09-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

More big news for us! After going back and forth between test-driving cars and then trying to decide which car to buy, and from where, we found one! It's a Kia Sorento and we love it! Apparently Kias have gotten a lot better and the one we bought even still has warranty with it so that's completely awesome!

Car shopping is definitely an experience! I've never bought a car through a dealership before, always private party, so we were pretty naive about the process. Luckily we are also very frugal and NOT impulsive so no salesman could sell us on something outside of our budget, haha. The first car we really wanted was a Chevy Equinox which was really nice but after giving us a huge runaround the dealership couldn't meet the price we wanted so we walked away. We ended up going to this place (LeSueur Car Company) that is owned by the friend of a friend and we really liked them. They were completely honest with us, had competitive pricing and didn't give us all of the salesmen techniques which was refreshing. We ended up going back there three times and then going home and discussing what we should do and today we finally "bit the bullet"! The only downside is that black cars in the desert in the Summer are scorching but other than that we are totally happy!

Bringing Home the Bacon

2011-09-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

Jared, being the clever man that he is, thought it would be funny to surprise me the other day. As you probably know, for the last year I've been the sole money maker in our relationship as Jared was attending school (I take that back, he was a TA during school but unfortunately that's not a significant contribution). So he came in a little later than expected from work on Wednesday and plopped this grocery bag on the counter and looked at me in a way that said, "aren't you going to see what it is?". So I looked and there was a package of bacon. I stood there for a few seconds wondering if maybe someone at work gave it to him and then I asked why he had a package of bacon and, with a little smirk, he says, "you didn't want me to bring home the bacon?". I about died laughing!

It's so funny because one of the things he always teases me about is my "punny" sense of humor (inherited from my father!) and what a dork I am about stuff like that. He's so nice that he does things like this to make me laugh. It's also funny because he later said he'd been planning that for like 2 months, haha. I can just imagine the internal torment he must have been going through waiting to get a job so he could do this. Hahahaha

Newness

2011-09-07T17:15:00.000-07:00

I don't even know where to start with this post. Life has been slightly hectic lately, but definitely in a good way! So Jared got a really great job in Phoenix and the last week has been filled with us trying to get as much settled as possible before he started.

We got into the apartment in Tempe we had been wanting which is awesome because it's a great place. I will even go so far as to say it was worth the insane apartment hunting experience that pretty much ended with me breaking down and crying because I was so frustrated. That should show you how much I like this apartment! It's a 2bd/2ba which is a first for us and kind of exciting. It has vinyl floors that look like wood which is a perk. I guess most of these apartments come standard with carpet but someone was going to move into it before us and paid for the upgrade but then backed out and didn't move in, which is awesome for us! Also, we like Tempe a lot and we are in a great ward!

So in the course of the last week we found and leased an apartment, moved our stuff from a storage unit into a moving truck and then from the moving truck into our apartment (thanks to our ward for helping us with that in the extreme heat!), mostly unpacked, registered our car and got AZ driver's licenses, shopped for and bought a couch, and shopped for a car. Our car shopping experience probably deserves its own post but that might be later (when we actually "bite the bullet" and buy a car instead of just shop for one!). As you can see, we've been busy! Oh, and Jared started work yesterday so that's cool! I'm still looking, unfortunately, but hopefully will find something soon! The one downside to a bigger and nicer place is that I already have a list of organizational supplies/decorations I want to get to make it look nicer. :)

These are pics before we moved our stuff in. I didn't get a lot from a bunch of angles because I was too lazy. I wanted to do a before and after but you'll just have to settle for the before pics because I'm not fully happy with the after yet, haha

Yeah, that awesome washer and dryer came with the apartment!!!

Ok, so I guess there's one after pic. This is the couch we bought. It looks similar to our old couch but not a sectional, haha. We did some "negotiating" to get it for a good price so we were pretty proud of ourselves. Please ignore the bare floor, one thing we want to get is a rug to make it feel warmer (not literally because it's already really hot here, haha)

Yay for being settled for awhile!

Funk's Lake

2011-08-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

We've been busy lately with everything going on but we finally have some good news! Jared got a job. It should be a really great job and it's with an awesome company in Phoenix so we are pretty excited! We found an apartment in Tempe that we will (hopefully) move into tomorrow. I'll do a post about that when it's official and we're moved in.

These are some pics from the last couple of weeks.

This is during a dust storm in Gilbert when we were staying at a friend's house (thanks Riley and Jill!!!) The sky looked yellow and was really cool looking!

We decided to go visit my Grandparents in St. George last weekend which was fun. They showed us a part of Southern Utah we had never seen before and was really pretty. Unfortunately we forgot the camera so we didn't get any pics but it was fun. It was a great visit and we were glad we had time to do it!

After staying with my grandparents we decided to go back up to Jared's parents' which was only a 4-5 hour drive from St. George. On our way up we went through Ephraim (where Jared attended Snow College before his mission) and Manti because I wanted to see the temple there. Outside of Ephraim and Manti is a city called Sterling where Jared has some strong family history including a lake that an ancestor built (Daniel Buckley Funk) and is now called Palisade Park. I guess Daniel Buckley Funk built the lake and area so the people of Utah could have a place for recreation. There's camping around the lake and a golf course across the street, it's a pretty cool area!

Jared in front of Funk's Lake

Signs posted around the lake

Many of you probably know but Manti has a really beautiful temple and each Summer they do a big Pageant about the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Jared has even participated in the Pageant with his ward from Southern California and he said it's really cool.

And this picture is just to show my immaturity, haha. We drove by this theater and I made Jared turn around so I could take a picture because I thought it was so funny. I guess part of what made it funny is the story about my older brother Steven that my Mom always tells where he had a teacher named Mr. Murphy and he called him Mr. Murf one time and got in a lot of trouble. I always thought that was funny, probably mostly because my brother got in trouble, haha (sorry Steven!) :)

Anyway, more info to come once we get situated in an apartment! Thank you so so so so much to family and friends who let us crash with them during our month of homelessness! We couldn't have done it without you!

Gypsies

2011-08-14T19:54:00.000-07:00

We are now starting week 3 of being gypsies! We have stayed in 3 different states, interviewed in 2, and eaten out more than we ever would want! It's tough because we don't want to get an apartment or settle anywhere without having a job and we are currently considering Arizona and Utah for places to live (Phoenix area being our first choice). Luckily we have had amazing friends and family that have let us crash with them so that's been awesome!

This last weekend we went to CA (Hemet area) to attend our nephew Aiden's baptism! We were so glad we were able to go and we had a blast with Steven and Tina and the boys!

Isn't this the most handsome face!?

My Dad and Jax are buddies

I can't believe I have an 8 year old nephew, it's crazy! Aiden is such a great kid and we were so happy for him choosing to be baptized!

It's crazy with 3 boys in the house but it was so fun! Notice where Bryson is in this pic, haha

I had to include this video because Bryson just stole my heart this weekend! When he would come into the room he would get all excited and say "Hi Loli!" and then run up to me. It was so funny and cute! Sorry for the blurry video, he would stop playing if he saw me videotaping so I had to pretend the camera was just sitting there and I didn't realize it wasn't focused.

So now we are back in Phoenix with some interviews this week. We pretty much only have as far as Tuesday planned so hopefully we'll get some info at the beginning of the week and finally be able to settle somewhere!

Moving Pics

2011-08-14T19:27:00.001-07:00

This is totally late but here are pics from moving/our drive out West.

Our sad living room with everything boxed up!

Most of everything we own, haha

This is a disgusting me after a LONG week

We stopped and saw Laura and Scott and the girls on the way

We loved the moving truck (so not true)

We saw some amazing views along the way, we were too tired to stop to take pics so these are from the moving truck as we were driving, sorry if they're blurry, haha

Hello Arizona!

2011-08-01T14:40:00.001-07:00

We are finally in Arizona! I think about it and can't even believe that we just decided to quit my job and move across the country with no job and no apartment but we're here! Right now I'm at a public library waiting for Jared to get done with a job interview. I thought I'd do a blog while I'm waiting. We have pics but I'll have to put them up later cause I haven't put them on the computer yet.

We packed our stuff all last week. On Thursday we went to lunch with some of Jared's classmates/groupmates at a great place in Columbia. We had a fun time and I think Jared wishes he could work with them at his next job because they worked so well together and had such a good group! Friday we picked up the moving truck and car tralier. Trying to park that stupid trailer was probably the most stressful thing of the whole move because I didn't know how to direct Jared to park it and he doesn't have much experience backing up a trailer. Add that to the fact that we live in an apartment complex and the options of parking spots are limited and that was a lot of stress! It worked out though and we ended up getting it parked! Friday evening some of the guys from our church came and helped us load all of our stuff in the moving truck. THANK YOU to those who came and helped, I can't even say how grateful we are! I know it's not easy to move a piano that weighs a million pounds and a washer and dryer but we couldn't have done it without you!!!

Saturday morning we checked out of our place, loaded the car onto the trailer, and headed out. The truck seats were cushy so we thought they'd be comfortable but after 24 hours of sitting in a straight backed seat that makes you semi-hunch over we were so ready to be out of it! We stopped in Wichita and saw Laura and Scott and the girls which is always fun (thanks to Laura for the yummy food!) and then kept driving. We ended up staying in Dalhart, TX which basically smells like cow maneur but we were happy to have a place to crash. Then we drove the rest of the way on Sunday. The worst part of the drive was the hills around Flagstaff because going down them was horrible with trying to brake and keep the car in a lower gear and going up them was horrible trying to go faster that 25mph and not succeeding. Other than that it wasn't too bad.

Now we're just kind of waiting to see what happens with this job interview of Jared's and then we'll make a decision of whether to load our stuff in a storage unit or try to find an apartment here in the Pheonix area! Crazy stuff but we're surprisingly calm. I think we just have faith that things will work out for the best!

It is really nice to be in a dry heat and I realized how much I missed living in a bigger city! I love that everyone here drives at a good speed and there are more highways and they are bigger and there is just about every store you could ever need in a 30 mile radius. I also realized that I like living in the desert. I guess growing up in it makes me partial but I don't mind the heat or the dryness and the purple mountains at sunset are just so gorgeous.

Here are some funny/interesting things/tips that we realized on our trip. Nost of these points are probably the result of boredom so they aren't actually very interesting, haha

- Small town cops have nothing to do so make sure to go the speed limit through small towns because pretty much every town we drove through had a cop sitting and waiting. Luckily it's impossible to go to fast in a moving truck loaded down with stuff.

- If a big bug gets stuck in the windshield wiper, chances are good nothing will pry it free including driving at high speeds through rain storms. It's gross.

- We drove through lots of agricultural areas and passed through wheat fields which were really pretty but Jared must have said "amber waves of grain" like 15x. I think after I laughed when he said it the first time he thought he'd keep trying to get me to laugh by saying it, it's really not that funny after the first time, haha.

- Kansas has really amazing views and we should have stopped and taken some pictures because it was awesome.

- Midwest drivers never look over their shoulder when merging onto a highway and aren't very good at merging in general (sorry to you Midwesterners but we almost got hit multiple times by people merging onto the hwy without even paying attention).

- Texas has the largest cow farms we've ever seen, I'm still in shock at the number of cows in some of those places

- We saw some incredibly long trains. It made me remember when I was younger and my siblings and I would try to count the train cars when we passed a train. The trains we saw on this trip would have kept us busy for awhile! :)

- We learned that in the future we need to be patient when we're behind moving trucks going up a hill because they really can't help that they're going 30mph and they probably really hate that they're going that slow.

- Jared also said "purple mountain's majesty" a few times when we got into Arizona because the sunsets make the mountains look purple. We ended up thinking through the words to "America, the Beautiful" to see how many parts we saw on our drive, haha.

Overall the trip was good and we feel very blessed! Even though we weren't the biggest fans of living in Missouri we were sad to leave because we met some really great people there and had some good memories over the last year. Sometimes I wish we could just take people with us when we move!

Stressed/Desserts

2011-07-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

Things are really crazy for us right now. Actually, Jared seems pretty calm and I think it's just me that feels stressed. I feel like I have a tiny crazy woman running around in my brain constantly coming up with new things I need to do but not giving me any solutions for how to do them! Moving is stressful by itself. Having a moving date in less than 2 weeks and needing to be out of our apartment but not knowing where we're going or how we're going to move our stuff or if we're even going to have jobs in the near future is almost giving me anxiety attacks! I have literally contemplated becoming a minimalist and just selling everything we own. Seriously, how can 2 people with no kids have so much stuff? And this is after selling our couch and car.

Anyway, today I was making a casserole to freeze so we'd have something to eat next week and also to use up food (because for some reason when we were at the store 2 weeks ago I thought I needed 6 pounds of hamburger because it was on sale). I went to get something out of the fridge and saw a little bit of cookie dough we had left over from when we made pizookies for the missionaries on Saturday. I thought about the saying about dessert being stressed spelled backwards and what a cliche that is but didn't want to waste the cookie dough so I made 6 little cookies. I am not exaggerating when I say it completely changed my mood! Whether it was a placebo effect or the sugar affecting my hormones or simply my unhealthy (no pun intended, hehe) love-affair with food I don't know but I'm definitely grateful for cookies and their stress-reducing effect!

Bye Couch!

2011-07-14T19:24:00.001-07:00

We (I) have been thinking for awhile about selling our couch before we move. While we love(d) the couch it's just too big for us right now. I'm not sure what we were thinking when we bought it because we knew we'd be living in an apartment for a few more years and it's not like we have kids around to need a lot of couch space or anything. I guess we figured it would be a good investment and we'd grow into it...lesson learned. :)

Besides it's size, my biggest complaint was that it didn't allow for rearranging, at all! I realize how petty that might seem but when you live in an apartment (meaning you can't paint or anything like that) with a low income (meaning you can't buy the cool things you'd like to decorate with) the only you can do to satisfy the creative urge is rearrange furniture, which is next to impossible with a big sectional in a small space. Regardless, the main reason we wanted to sell it is we didn't want to have to move it again! So we posted it on Craigslist (after a lot of "encouraging" from me to Jared) and today we sold it. It's kind of sad because when we were both working we were able to get a little bit established and start upgrading from things like my parents' card table we used as our kitchen table or the nightstand we used as our "entertainment center". The biggest purchase we made though was the couch which we bought in place of a 3x hand-me-down sleeper sofa. I definitely don't regret buying it or selling it but the couch will be missed!

This is right after we bought the couch, it fit the space in our old apartment pretty well.

Before: The couch in our apartment here in Columbia

After: Our new seating arrangement, haha

Let Freedom Ring

2011-07-14T18:59:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late with this blog post due to craziness in our lives right now (I guess that's what happens when you're moving in 2 weeks but don't know where and haven't even thought about packing yet!). For the 4th we went to an area outside of town on the Missouri River called the "Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area" hoping we'd see some eagles (it seemed patriotic with it being the 4th of July and all). We drove around a lot but didn't end up seeing any. We did come across these birds and got some fun pics of them flying away but that's about the most eventful thing that happened to us while we were there.

In front of the Missouri River

Jared wanted to film the Missouri River because it was moving swiftly and kind of cool to see so close. That's pretty much all that is in this video so please watch if you feel like hearing Jared narrate while watching the Missouri River for 1 minute, haha.

After that we just kind of hung out all day and did some random stuff, mostly revolving around food, (lunch at a cool restaurant in town, half-price happy hour Cherry Limeades at Sonic, movie, burgers and microwave s'mores) and then tried to find a good place to watch the fireworks. We wanted to be close to the Stadium near where they were shooting them off so the best place we could think of was the quad near Jared's main building on campus. Unfortunately we were right by the intramural field and the bright lights were on the whole time. Also, we were being attacked by what we later learned were June Bugs. We had a hard time focusing on the fireworks when I was worrying the whole time that some bug would get lodged in my hair and Jared was trying to swat them out of the air to protect me (isn't he sweet? haha). Still, it was fun to watch them and I love the way the 4th of July feels and how great it is to celebrate living in such a wonderful country!

Waiting for some EFY kids to vacate the spot we wanted to sit (we didn't even know they had EFY outside of Utah or Idaho!)

Cornell Hall where Jared had all of his classes

Cool pic of Jesse Hall

I tried to get some good pics but with the lights shining so bright and forgetting the tripod we didn't get too many

I like this one because it looks like a sunburst

Jared watching the show!

Wichita!!!

2011-07-10T17:55:00.000-07:00

Recently my sister and her family moved to Wichita, KS in order to complete my brother-in-law's residency. We had been wanting to visit them or have them visit us, since we are only five hours apart now, but we haven't gotten the timing right. So this last week I thought "we better make it happen or it may not". Lori and I are going to be moving in a few weeks and we still aren't sure where so we may not see my sister's family for at least a year maybe two and it is hard to ask them to drive so far with two little girls and they are just getting settled. So Lori ended up taking Friday off and we decided to drive to KS and spend most the weekend with them.

We had a blast with them!!! We enjoy talking to Laura and Scott and we also enjoy playing with the nieces! The only negative was that the day we arrived the heat and humidity also arrived so we were limited on some of the activities we did but we still had fun.

When we arrived we fist sat and talked but then our cute little nieces saw my leg and asked what happened. I thought to myself "how do I explain intramural sports, ultimate frisbee, and compartment syndrome to them???" so instead I just told them a shark bit me and they understood that very well. Hopefully they aren't afraid of water now. So once they looked at it and I said it was a big "owie" they suggested that they put a band-aide on it and lucky for me they had Disney princess band-aides. With the scar being so big and being on both sides of my leg they devoted a lot of time and band-aides to my leg. In the end we had to cut their fun short because it was really a big waste of band-aides. But it was cute that they were worries about my leg and not scared by it!

After I was all patched up we went to the KU medical school art Gallery!! It had 14 watercolor paintings and was in an beautiful hallway which led to different doctor's offices! The lucky thing for us was that we got a tour from Dr. McIntyre who happened to get off early that day and was able to spend the afternoon and evening with us! We didn't expect to see much of him since he is so busy so we were glad that the hospital let him visit with us!

These were our favorite pictures
Us in the Gallery!
On Saturday we drove around Wichita a bit and were really impressed at how neat downtown was and how much they have down there. We were able to take a picture in front of the most famous statue in Wichita....I think it is called "The Protector of the Plains" it was a neat statue and the area around it was pretty cool as well.

Lindsay was having more fun on the ground and wasn't as happy when I tried to pick her up for a picture.

That same day we went to the American Indian Festival in downtown Wichita and had a lot of fun. Luckily it was inside and they also had a live Golden Eagle there which we all thought was really cool!

This is us at the event. I just like Katie's eyes in this picture.

The girls coming to find me after they went looking around at the booths for a second time! I think Lori enjoyed this because they all walked slow and enjoyed what each booth had to offer whereas I usually just want to look at things quickly and move on.

The little girls with their new rocks that they got at one of the booths.

We had a wonderful time and miss Laura, Scott, and the girls already! We didn't know Wichita had so much to offer!! Hopefully we see them again soon!!

Birthday!

2011-07-02T19:02:00.001-07:00

Jared turned 29 this year! It was on Thursday and I had to go to work so we didn't get to hang out during the day but I think he still had a good day! I made him bacon and eggs for breakfast and then he opened presents. After I got off work we went to Bennigan's for dinner (which he's been craving forEVER) and he got a full rack of ribs, haha. Then we went and saw Transformers which was ok and then came back and had cake and ice cream. Not a totally exciting birthday for him but, as Jared said the other day, the older you get, the less exciting birthdays are, haha. It's funny because a couple of people told him that 29 is the age everyone wants to say so he better enjoy this year!

I like this pic because he's so confused about what I got him, haha.

Lakers apron for grilling! I would've liked to have gotten him a grill but that'll have to wait :)

Ok, so the cake is a whole different story! Jared had been wanting this cake (he calls it "his creation" like it's Frankenstein's monster which is about accurate because it sounds like a monstrosity!) that is one layer of strawberry and one layer of chocolate cake with cherry frosting filling and funfetti icing! Even thinking about that is gross in my opinion! Anyway, I told him he could have it if he wanted but kept sending him links to cake recipes I found online anyway, hoping he'd change his mind. I sent him the link to this cake I found on tasty kitchen called "Chocolate Overload" that sounded amazing. He really liked the idea but wanted a white chocolate mousse filling instead of the chocolate the recipe called for. I also made some other substitutions because the recipe calls for espresso in some of the stuff.

First, I didn't grease the pan properly and part of one of the cake rounds stuck to the pan, making the cake lopsided. Then as I was making the white chocolate mousse I didn't follow the recipe like I should have and it didn't set up properly so it was more like pudding than mousse. Because it was like 10pm on Wednesday as I was assembling the cake I didn't have the time or energy to make new mousse and thought I had a clever solution to keep the mousse (pudding) filling in the cake center and not overflow. I had the idea to take some of the buttercream frosting and pipe around the bottom cake layer to keep the mousse from spilling. Well, I didn't pipe a thick enough line and the instant I put the top cake layer on the mousse completely overflowed making a complete mess. I cleaned it up and put the crumb layer of frosting over the cake and let it set in the fridge for an hour, hoping it wouldn't spill more. As I was walking back into the kitchen to frost the second layer of icing I literally said out loud, "this cake isn't going to beat me!", haha. It all turned out and even though the ganache got too thick in the time it took me to do all of this and I ended up having to pipe it on the cake instead of letting it flow and look pretty it still tasted great! Luckily Jared doesn't care about the aesthetic appeal too much and enjoyed the cake anyway!

Happy Bday Jared!

Lori's Wish Comes True!!!

2011-06-30T11:32:00.001-07:00

I don't know what is going on lately but suddenly I am getting rid of a lot of stuff that I have had for a while. I think it can be one of two things either my mind set has changed because we are moving soon and I don't want to move as much stuff as we moved a year ago, or Lori's perseverance is finally paying off and the seed she planted years ago to get rid of the Explorer and other stuff has finally taken root in my mind and now I am acting on those messages she planted.

In any case this last week we sold one of our cars, it happened to be my first car ever. I bought it in 2006 before I went on my internship. It stuck with me while I lived in San Jose, Rexburg, and Columbia. It has seen rain, sand, snow, sleet, mud, hills, mountains, desert, and probably some other stuff. It was a great car because it was big enough for me to load all my stuff up from college and transport it and small enough to fit in compact parking spaces. Probably the best thing about it was that once I had the car girls started to take me seriously. In fact when I first dated Lori I didn't have a car and she rejected me and then a year later the second time Lori and I dated I had the car and we all know what happened. So basically if guys want to find a girl you need to get a car!!

While I'm not sad about selling the car it did represent a milestone in my life which causes me to reflect. Since I didn't receive financial help from my parents for college (they had six kids you couldn't afford college for six kids either), cell phone, insurance (I was too old to be on their insurance), or other expenses the car represented to me that I was improving financially in my life and was able to afford the gas, insurance, maintenance, and all other expenses while still going to college, having a cell phone and paying for medical insurance. And I did this all without going into debt, in fact I finished college in the black! Anyway since the car was more of a milestone I guess I don't feel sad because I am working towards the next milestone (an Audi crossover which won't happen for at least 40 years).

Although I don't feel sad about selling the car I do feel like it deserves a moment of silence for all its hard work. I will always look back on it with great memories. Finally I want to formally and publicly express my gratitude to that Ford Explorer and for its committed service to me for the last 4.5 years. Below are some pictures of the car.

PS my comment about Lori liking me once I got a car was only a joke and people should know she is not high maintenance or materialistic, they should not take this comment seriously and they shouldn't think to "read between the lines" because this joke doesn't contain a grain of truth but is just funny.

My Shoes

2011-06-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

This is a special post dedicated to some of my shoes, it may be odd to have a bond with shoes but there are a couple pairs of shoes I have come to like more than a normal person should.

A couple weeks ago we were visiting my parents and my mom wanted to throw out my old shoes that I used on my mission. These old Dr. Martins I used almost everyday, I would walk on streets, dirt, rocks, mud and a couple times have to run throw flooded streets with these shoes. They lasted the full two years in Mexico and even became my soccer and basketball shoes when we would play with kids on the street. Having been through so much with these shoes you might be able to see why it was so hard to get rid of them. Eventually I realized that I would never use them again and I don't really need them. So with Lori's encouragement and pressure I happened to "forget" them at home and then they were thrown away. It is kind of sad but then I keep thinking how sad should I be about shoes being thrown away?? At least I didn't cry.

The next pair of shoes that have earned my affection are my Addidas shoes that I have had since 2005 or 2006. I used these shoes all through college so that means they have gone throw plenty of snow, rain, slush, and been all over BYU-Idaho campus. But more importantly these were the shoes that I had when my walking ability started to fade. With the onset of my walking issues I started to use different braces to help me lift my left foot so I could walk somewhat normal. The braces didn't always fit perfectly into the shoes and had to be forced into them sometimes. That's why these shoes were awesome! They held up to all that.

Below is a picture of the three braces I have used. The one on the right is the most recent.

Part of the reason why I used the same shoes from 2005 to now is because it has been hard to find shoes that would fit my braces in them and still fit my right foot. About a month ago I got my new brace which allows me to where more normal shoes and still have the right foot shoe fit. As you can tell from the picture the new brace doesn't go along the whole bottom of the foot and has more spring action to help me walk. It has been great to be able to have the option to buy new shoes and know that I will be able to find shoes that will fit both feet even with the new brace.

So since I haven't gotten new shoes since 2005 Lori and I decided that it was time to get some. It was still kind of a challenge to find shoes but not nearly as hard as before. So after a week or so of searching we found some great shoes that worked perfectly and were not incredibly expensive (see below).

I could have talked about many other shoes like my cleats, Sunday shoes, nice casual shoes but I feel like the shoes mentioned above have really earned their stripes (or will earn their stripes).

Utah Trip!

2011-06-10T12:46:00.001-07:00

This post is a little late but here we go! I already blogged about my brother graduating but we did a couple more things while we were out there. While we didn't do anything too amazing it was just a good week overall.

We were able to go to some of our favorite restaurants while there (Costa Vida, In-N-Out, and a couple others). We also got to try a place called Jdawgs. My siblings have been telling me how good this place is for some time now. I kept thinking how good can a hot dog be? I mean I like them and all but enough to rave about them so much??? I don't think so. So we got to Jdawgs and the line was HUGE which is always a good sign and then once I started to eat my hot dog it was just as good as they said it would be. First off the hot dog is at least 8 to 10 inches long so it is filling and second they put this "secret sauce" on it that is kind of sweet and just really adds some flavor. So in the end I was very please with Jdawgs and I highly recommend it!

We were also able to see the movie "The King's Speech" in a theater that edits movies from being rated R to PG-13. We knew we wouldn't be able to find this in Missouri so we took advantage of this opportunity. It was a GREAT movie! We also got to see my long time friend David Bence and his wife which was a lot of fun as well! I really enjoyed that evening as did everyone else who went.

We also went to James's softball game the night before we left. It was a colder day then earlier in the week but we still had fun even though James's team lost.

We had a BBQ with my mom's side of the family on Memorial Day which was a lot of fun since I haven't seen many of my cousins in a long while. It was great to be able to meet together and remember those that have sacrificed for our country and freedoms. We also visited my grandmothers grave and left a flag there for her.

We really enjoyed the mountains and weather while we were out there. We miss the mountains and the dry non humid weather. We ended up leaving Utah on Saturday and were going to make the drive to MO in two days but ended up making it in one. On our way we passed through Iowa and part of the road was closed because of flooding from the Missouri River. It was pretty intense to see that happening.

Anyway I attached some pictures of the trip:

The view from James's game

Jdawgs

Grandma Funk and Great Grandma Wyson's grave. (the one in the front of the one with all the flowers)

Lindsay

Katie

James at his game

Congrats David!!

2011-06-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

Other than the family reunion in Oceanside the other big reason for going out west was to see my youngest brother graduate from High School! It was great to be able to spend a whole week with him and my family before coming back to Missouri. We had a great week of enjoying food and restaurants that we don't have in Missouri as well as just being with the family.

On Thursday we went to the Marriott Center on BYU campus for David's graduation. It was really neat to see him graduate and we were so glad that we could be there to support him.

It is pretty crazy to think that the youngest of the six kids in my family have graduated. The oldest graduated in 1996 from high school and the youngest in 2011. It is a pretty good spread and I have to admire my parents for being able to handle teenagers for such a long period of time.

We are all very proud of David and know that he will be successful wherever he decides to go. He has been a great younger brother and we look forward to seeing what happens in the future.

I attached some of the best pictures from the day.

Photo Shoot

2011-06-05T17:55:00.001-07:00

While we were in Utah we decided to take some pictures because we don't have a lot of good pics of us lately. I felt a little silly about it because it seemed like engagement pictures but Jared was doing funny things throughout so that made it fun. Thanks to Laura for taking the pics!!!

Visit with Grandparents

2011-06-05T17:43:00.001-07:00

After our trip to Oceanside we headed up to Utah to spend the week with Jared's family and see Jared's younger brother David graduate from High School. On the way up we stopped in St. George to have lunch with my grandparents! I love being able to visit with them but we don't get to see them very often so it was nice that we were able to do that. Katherine was with us because she was on her way back up to Idaho for school and we gave her a ride.

Other than seeing my grandparents my favorite part of the visit was seeing different pictures from an album my grandma put together. There were lots of pictures of her family that I'd never seen so it was cool to see those!

On our way out of town we all went to Leeds to visit my grandpa's mother's grave. I never met her but she was a wonderful woman and I love the stories I hear about her.

Johnson Family Reunion

2011-06-05T16:54:00.000-07:00

The purpose of our trip to So Cal was for a family reunion! It was for the posterity of Walter & Byrdie Johnson which are my mom's paternal grandparents. My grandfather was the 3rd child of 6 and I was grateful to be able to learn about him and his family through this reunion. I was originally going to help my mom put together a picture slideshow for the reunion but I didn't have the time so my mom finished it. Still, I was able to look through a bunch of pictures and learn different stories about my relatives that I never new before!

My great grandma Byrdie always made cinnamon rolls and it's something that her grandkids remember about her so we started the day with yummy cinnamon rolls. My mom always tells the story of calling her grandma when she was 93 and asking what she was doing and her grandma said, "I'm making cinnamon rolls to take to the Old Folks Home", haha. I love that!
My mom has adopted this idea and one of my favorite things about going home is having some of my mom's cinnamon rolls!

It was a cold and windy day unfortunately but it was still fun!

There were standard cinnamon rolls with frosting and carmel rolls, both are delicious so it's a tough choice.

The picture taker!

Veora (2nd from left) is the sister of my grandpa and the only one of Walter and Byrdie's kids still living, she's awesome! My mom's bday was the day before the family reunion so my mom's cousin Leslie (also awesome!) had everyone sing happy birthday to her which was nice!

My mom and her brother Bob

We wanted Jake to be included even though he's on his mission in Brazil so my parents had a cardboard cutout made, haha. We still missed him though!

My dad and Uncle Bob cooked the yummy tri-tip which was amazing!

All of the food was really good

Oceanside

2011-06-03T11:21:00.000-07:00

Last week we were able to make the LONG drive to southern California from Missouri to stay in Oceanside with my family for the week. We left Saturday morning from Columbia and ended up in Amarillo, TX where we stayed that night. Interestingly, we drove through Joplin the day before the tornado which is kind of crazy. The next day we drove to Phoenix, AZ where we stayed with Jared's friend from childhoood, Riley O'Neill and his family. It was fun to see them but a very quick stay so that was kind of a bummer. The third day we made it to Oceanside! The drive was definitely long but really not too bad thanks to tons of songs purchased from iTunes or sent to us from family (thanks guys!), books on CD, questions books, and interesting things we saw along the way!

The purpose of the trip was because of a family reunion for my mom's dad's side of the family but we decided to make a week out of it and spend the week at Oceanside with my entire immediate family (except Jake who is on a mission). We had a great time and spent almost every day at the beach which is one of my favorite things to do! We were also able to see my nephew Aiden in a school play where he was a pirate and we all swam a lot at the pool and enjoyed the jacuzzi. It had been a year since I'd seen any of my family so it was so fun to be able to spend the week with them and it cemented my adoration of my nephews who are definitely the cutest little boys ever!!!

My mom at the beach

I absolutely could not get enough of Bryson! Just looking at this pictures makes me want to squeeze him!

Aiden has always been adorable but now that he's getting older he's so much fun to be around!

Jared and Aiden were buddies. This is them trying to skip rocks.

Jax is a little pill but still adorable as ever. This is him drinking Grandpa's drink.

It was fun to spend time with Steven and Tina and the boys.

My parents are awesome!

The men trying to coax Aiden to boogie board

Seriously, I could not get enough of this kid! He makes the absolute cutest faces

Jared took pics while my mom and I played paddle ball and I thought some of these were funny

I bribed Aiden with money if he would go boogie boarding (which I'm just now realizing I never paid him, haha, woops!)

Kath and I boogie boarding

I missed my sister a lot and it was fun to spend time with her!

Lori is Lovely!!

2011-05-19T08:19:00.000-07:00

About a week ago I had my graduation ceremony. Right at the beginning of the commencement they had the mothers, fathers, and other relatives stand and recognized them for all their help and support to their graduates. One thing has bothered me though, since this was a graduation ceremony for masters and doctorate students and there is a good number of us married I don't understand why they didn't recognize the spouses specifically instead of just lumping them into "other relatives"!? I'm not trying to take anything away from the support I received from my parents and in-laws but Lori has been so great during this whole process that I think she deserves some recognition!

First off when I started throwing the idea around of going to get my MBA Lori was supportive right from the beginning. We had two good jobs in San Jose, CA and we knew that if we left for Missouri we would be further from family, we would go into debt, and we would not have nearly the same income that we had in CA. Even with this knowledge Lori was totally on board and has never complained or regretted coming to help me get my MBA.

Lori has put her career and education on hold to help me further mine. Again Lori could have easily said that she didn't want to come or that she wanted to further her education but she has been so unselfish by allowing me to go through school while she basically works so that we can pay the bills.

Lori is probably the most loyal person I have met and more than likely the most loyal person I will ever meet. When we were engaged and when I first went into the hospital in 2008 and was told I had cancer and had about six months to live she NEVER left my side and NEVER gave any indication that she would leave. I even told her that she didn't have to marry me or stay with me and she was angry that I would even suggest something like that. Luckily the initial diagnosis was wrong and I am still here! I hope that I can show her the same amount of loyalty and love that she showed me!

She has sacrificed so much to support me and help me... a good simple example is that because I still have trouble with my balance, walking, running and jumping Lori is willing to do certain house hold tasks that typically I would do but because of my health am not able to, a perfect example is that when we go grocery shopping I am not able to carry more than a couple bags without struggling so Lori loads up her arms and carries most of the food in and for three years has never once complained about it. I would rather carry all those bags but am so grateful to her for being willing to do so.

One of the biggest sacrifices she made was when I entered the hospital it was three weeks before our wedding and I got out two days before the wedding. While most brides would be planning for the wedding right up to the last minute, Lori came to the hospital and spent each day with me instead. We did have a great wedding and it was beautiful but I know there were certain things that didn't go just as Lori had hoped and probably would have been fix if she would have had more time to help plan. I am grateful that she was with me in the hospital and sacrificed certain aspects of the wedding to do so. But I also feel bad about that and hope to make it up to her some day.

Finally Lori has helped me a ton during my MBA, she has blogged about me getting some academic honors but without her they would have never happened. Lori proof read every paper I had to write and had to hear about ever project I had to complete. I am sure that if I handed in my own papers without her help I would have gotten more "B's" rather than "A's." I don't see this degree as just mine but rather ours because without Lori it would have never happened!

So in the future the University of Missouri may want to recognize the spouses of the graduate students instead of lumping them into the "other relatives" group, they deserve much MUCH more recognition than anyone!

I decided to include some of my favorite pictures of Lori....ones that make me smile! I didn't include the ones that make me laugh because they might be embarrassing for her.

Graduation and Nauvoo

2011-05-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

Although it seems like Jared just started his MBA program here in Missouri, this weekend was already graduation! We're still here in Missouri for at least two more months while Jared finishes up a Summer class but he is pretty much done!! Jared's wonderful parents came out to see him graduate so that was fun! They got to town on Thursday night and then on Friday we showed them Columbia and the Mizzou campus, had some really good food, then went to graduation!

Even though it was really long and I was frustrated because I couldn't get the camera to work with the lighting it was so great to see Jared walk across that stage! For the last year he has worked so hard and done such a great job and I'm so proud of him for getting his MBA!

Sorry for the lighting! These pics aren't too great!

This is Jared walking across the stage, I tried to get it with Jared's name being announced but was too late.

The next day we all went to Nauvoo! Unfortunatley we didn't get any pics of us together so all of these pics are cool pics of the temple at night. Even though it was cold and rainy Nauvoo was great and it was fun to go with Jared's parents who had never seen it before! We did a session at the temple, visited historic Nauvoo, ate at the Hotel Nauvoo, and stayed in this condo complex called the Nauvoo Villas that was amazing! It was clean and fully furnished and really nice! Jared and I were talking about how we wouldn't mind having it as our apartment. The next day we went to church, went again to historic Nauvoo, and then went to Carthage jail which is also a really cool experience.

It was a really great weekend and we were so grateful to Jared's parents for coming!

Easter!!

2011-04-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

Easter! I really love Easter. I love that it represents Spring and a fresh start. I love that it's filled with happy colors and yummy treats. I love that it's a reminder of the Savior and the fact that He Lives! It's just wonderful and happy! Even though it was overcast all day and I was sick it was still a great day! I watched Elder Holland's talk "None Were with Him" which was just as good as the first time I saw it and a great reminder of the beyond words Amazingness of the Savior and all He did/does for us.

Less importantly but still fun, I love dying eggs! I was sick pretty much all last week and over the weekend so I was dying (no pun intended) to do something besides lying around and moaning (haha, I wasn't moaning...that much).

We only had 8 eggs to hardboil so that's what we did, and then Jared ate one so we only had 7.

It looks like I'm trying to show off my ring in this pic but I'm actually holding an egg in some dye.

Drying!

Completed eggs! Jared wasn't too creative this time so the plain eggs are his.

I had some carrots that I needed to use so I made carrot cake. Can I just point out how ironic it is that Carrot Cake is an Easter dessert and Easter is a holiday where the Easter bunny brings treats...carrots and bunnies... Ironic, right? Maybe it was planned like that. Or maybe I find irony in nothing...

Anyway, I totally realize how bad the carrots are on these cakes but I was sick and did the best I could, haha

We had steak for Easter dinner for the following reasons: I don't like Ham too much (and Jared loves steak), I just feel like it's inappropriate eating lamb on Easter (plus I don't know how to cook lamb), they were on sale, I got Jared a grilling book and he wanted to try this rub recipe.

They were SOOOO good! We don't have an actual BBQ but this smokeless indoor grill we have is awesome. I keep telling Jared he's becoming the grill master! Seriously, they were really awesome and the seasoning was made by stuff we just had in our cabinet! Yum!

I hope everyone had an awesome Easter!!!!

Sicky

2011-04-23T14:22:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a Sinus infection and Bronchitis brought on by my allergies this week hasn't been the best for me. I seriously HATE being sick (as I'm sure everyone does). The main reason besides feeling crappy is that I can't stand just sitting (or laying) around doing nothing. Jared's been constantly telling me this week to "just go lay down or something" because I've been up doing stuff and refusing to nap which is what will ultimately help me get better!

I never realized until Jared and I were married how much I'm like my mom in the sense that I'm constantly going. For some reason I have this drive to just be doing something whenever I can and I despise being bored. Even when we're sitting and relaxing I want to be doing some project or something.

It's funny because my parents always joked about how my little brother would be up in the morning and active all day until he went to bed and just crashed at night, always moving and rarely resting. I never identified this trait/quality in myself until recently. I don't think I'll ever be as active as Jake because he's always doing very physical things but I definitely like to keep myself busy. One way I'd like to improve on the busy-ness, though, is to serve more. My mom and dad are amazing examples of serving others and I feel bad that I haven't done more in terms of service! I definitely have a new goal to serve more.

Anyway, this is a random blog but, like I said, I'm sick and bored! :)

Ramblings

2011-04-16T12:24:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been in love with the Sara Bareilles song "Gonna Get Over You" (thanks for sending it to us Camille). I really like her music in general but this song I could listen to over and over and over! It's just fun and upbeat and makes me want to sing and dance around, haha. You can watch it here on YouTube.

I've also had a minor obsession with Chick-fil-A lately. Not only is their food amazing but they are usually really clean and the people that work there are super nice. Right now they have this Banana Pudding milkshake that is A-MAZ-ING!!!!!! It seriously tastes like they put ice cream and banana cream pie in a blender. Yum! Jared or I never had a Chick-fil-a near us growing up and I didn't appreciate it fully when I lived near one in Georgia. Now I pretty much crave it!!! Luckily there's one very near the St. Louis temple, just one more reason to go to the temple regularly! :)

Babies! I know it's Spring but I seriously think that everyone I know is either pregnant or just had a baby! It's still a little wierd to me to be at the age where friends that are my age are married and having babies. I just bought a little spring baby outfit for someone at work who is about to have a baby girl, it was the cutest little flower shirt and khaki shorts! It makes me excited for when Jared and I are able to have one of our own. Seriously, is there anything cuter than baby booties (is that how you spell booties?)?

I'm pretty excited for Easter to get here. Mostly because of the treats. I'm going to make these little "bird's nest" treats my mom used to make with chow mein noodles and I'm also going to attempt my first carrot cake! I think a carrot cake is appropriate (Easter bunnies...carrots...you get it right?) haha. Anyway, I've been on a kick lately where I freeze any extra food I can to try to save money. I think I'm obsessed sometimes but we usually make family-sized portions and never finish it cause it's just two of us so I freeze the extra! We had some leftover carrots from something awhile ago so I shredded them and froze them and have been trying to think of some reason to use them and the only thing I can think is Carrot Cake! Who knows if carrots even freeze well! I'll let you know when I attempt the cake! I'm also excited for Easter because it's one of the only times that the whole Christian world celebrates the Savior and what He did for the world. It's such a great time to remember and be grateful.

Homesick! I've been pretty homesick lately. In about a month it will be a year since I've seen my family or most of Jared's family. Luckily we have modern technology that allows us to communicate but it's still tough to be so far away. It's our own fault for moving all the way to Missouri and then deciding not to go back for Christmas but it's still a little tough. One of my coworkers brought her Dad to the office yesterday and I almost cried just thinking about my own awesome Dad. I can't wait until the Family Reunion we have coming up! I hate being an aunt and never being able to see nieces or

nephews!

Also, Jared graduates in less than a month!! Woot!!!!!

Spring!!

2011-04-10T09:44:00.000-07:00

Alright, the last few weeks the weather has been confused. We have had anything from snow to 80 degree weather. This last week I think mother nature finally figured out what direction she wants to go. We have had a beautiful week and many of the trees around us are starting to bloom and it is a really beautiful time. This last week the maintenance crew even mowed the lawn which is always a good sign.

This morning it is already in the 80's so I decided to go out and take some pictures of the blooming trees. I have attached some of mine and Lori's favorite trees by our apartment.

This view didn't turn out that great but it kind of shows everything blooming.

As a side note yesterday was in the low 90's so we decided to got outside and throw the football and Frisbee around. In past years when Lori and I have done this Lori can never seem to get the Frisbee to me. BUT, after a full winter off and some long hours on playing Wii Frisbee every throw of Lori's was within 5 feet of me!!! It was so nice! I guess the Wii can help people improve their skills. There was a funny moment when I was thinking to myself "this is awesome Lori is doing so well, we should do this more often!" right after I thought that I released the Frisbee right at Lori and all of a sudden Lori took of in a sprint the opposite way of where the Frisbee was going. I thought to myself "what the?? did I jinx it?" then I said out loud "you're going the wrong way" then after Lori ran about 15 yards she said "there was a bee right by my face!" So needless to say we were both relieved because Lori got away from the bee and I didn't jinx her and she threw great for the rest of the day!

Honors

2011-04-04T17:32:00.000-07:00

If any of you don't know it already, Jared is awesome! I'm going to take some time to brag about him right now! He has done so well in his MBA program and I'm so proud of him! He considers himself not that great at school which I think would shock most people because he actually is an amazing student. He had the opportunity to take the lead on a huge consulting project and really did well. The company he was consulting for thanked him because they did such a good job on their analysis even after his group gave them really bad news! That's just one example of the amazing job he's done in grad school.

He was recently invited to an "Honors Luncheon" recognizing him for his accomplishments! He wasn't even expecting it but has definitely earned it.

Here's a screen shot of the invitation! Isn't that cool? He's awesome!

Kansas City

2011-03-31T09:07:00.001-07:00

Jared and I got really lucky with the fact that I have a job that allows me a Spring Break and Jared has Spring Break at the same time! Since moving here we've wanted to go do the church history stuff on the Western part of the state as well as take time to see Kansas City. We decided that Spring Break would be a perfect time to do that!

Independence

On Monday we wanted to do all of the church history stuff so we started in Independence. We went to the Visitor's Center there and a missionary took us through a little tour about the Saints that used to live in Independence. There was even a little replica of an old log cabin that you could go into, which was cool. We learned that the story of the two girls who saved some of the pages of the Doctrine and Covenants when the mob destroyed the printing press happened in Independence. I thought that was cool because I've heard about that story in church since I was young and then being in the place that it happened made it more real and meaningful. Those young girls obviously felt strongly about what they were doing to risk their lives. Visiting church historical sites really gives me a greater appreciation for what the early Saints went through.

Independence is the headquarters for the Community of Christ church and right across from the LDS visitor's center is their temple which is pretty cool looking.

Independence is also the home of Harry Truman, this is his house.

Liberty Jail

After Independence we drove a short way and stopped at the visitor's center in Liberty. The visitor's center is actually built around a full-size replica of the Liberty Jail where Joseph Smith was imprisoned. It was pretty powerful to think about the fact that the Prophet could overcome the desperation and anger he must have felt for being wrongly imprisoned and feel the Spirit in such a dark place. On the walls around the jail replica there are excerpts of the revelations he received while in Liberty Jail, my favorite being when Joseph is wondering where the Lord is and he receives this revelation in D&C 122:

"And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee eexperience, and shall be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?"

I love this because it makes me realize that even though things are incredibly tough sometimes, things happen for a reason and the Lord is aware of us and our struggles and we will be stronger in the end. Apparently they made this jail pretty much impenetrable with the walls being three layers thick and the door not even having a handle on the inside. I guess there were two doors and the inner door you had to have someone let you out from the outside!

Glore Psychiatric Museum

After Liberty we had some amazingly delicious Chick-Fil-A for lunch and then took a less spiritual trip and went to St. Joseph to the Glore Psychiatric Museum. I've wanted to go there since I first read about it in a Missouri Travel Magazine right after we moved here. I figured since we were on that side of the state this would be the best time to go! It's a museum that used to be "Lunatick Asylum #2" and it has exhibits that show the history of the treatment of the mentally ill over the years. I was really grateful to Jared for being willing to go with me since I knew he couldn't care less! :)

It was pretty interesting but kind of creepy because we were the only ones there pretty much and the exhibits are on floors 2, 3, and the Basement. They are set up in individual rooms with manekins showing how different "treatments" were done or how the mentally ill were treated. It was creepy because you would walk around the corner and there would be this manekin in a strait jacket or tied to the bed or whatever and it was unexpected. Add that to the fact that it was completely quiet and you were down this long hospital hallway and it was kind of unnerving.

After we left Jared told me that he kept hearing doors shut on the 3rd floor and then when we got to the third floor he realized there was no one up there and not even any doors anywhere, haha. I'm glad he didn't tell me that while we were inside the building.

Overall, though, I found it fascinating and I would recommend it only because it shows how horribly people were treated in the past (and even currently) because of ignorance and misunderstanding. I think if everyone understood mental illness a little more it would go a long way in helping those in our society who suffer from it.

This room was creepy because you walked around the corner and saw this manekin being "burned at the stake" right in the middle of the room. The big wheel against the wall is something they used to make people get in if they were "misbehaving" or to kind of shock them back to reality. They would have to run in this wheel for hours like a hamster or something, very sad. The outside of the building, a little creepy right? WWI Museum On Tuesday we went to the WWI museum at the Liberty Memorial. This was probably one of the coolest museums I've ever been to and I'd recommend it to everyone!

The museum was set up so as you walk in you walk over a glass floor and underneath there are 9,000 orange poppies and they tell you that each poppy represents 1,000 soldiers that died in the war (9 million total). After crossing over the poppies you go in and watch a short movie about what led to the war and then you go around the museum and see items and read things about the war before the U.S. entered. Following that you go to the middle/back of the museum and watch a movie on this huge screen about the U.S. entering the war. Below the screen on a lower level they have this replica of a trench and during the video it highlights different sections of it, very cool! After you watch that video you visit the section of the museum with information about the U.S. being in the war.

Replica of a trench

Union Station

We wanted to just visit Union Station so we just went inside really quick but it is a very beautiful building.

Oklahoma Joe's

To end our trip we decided to go eat at Oklahoma Joe's BBQ which everyone has said is the best in KC. It really was good and we left extremely satisfied!

We had a really fun trip and I'm glad we were able to see that part of the state because there are a lot of fun things to see!

Top O' The Mornin'

2011-03-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, I absolutely LOVE St. Patrick's day!!! I'm not sure why because I don't have Irish ancestors and I don't drink! Still, it's one of my absolute favorite holidays!

A week ago I told my co-workers about how the "Leprechauns" had visited my apartment in college and messed up the furniture and dyed all of my roommates' milk green. When I got to work on St. Patrick's Day the "Leprechauns" had visited my desk. There were little green footprints leading to my desk and stuff was completely switched around. It was really funny and a fun way to start my day!

For dinner Jared and I had chicken, pesto with green noodles, garlic bread with green butter, green milk and for dessert, mint and chip shakes with homemade whipped cream, dyed green! Luckily Jared's a good sport and is willing to eat all of this green food with me!

I know I'm a nerd but I'm so excited for when we have kids and we can help them set Leprechaun traps and watch Irish movies! Yay for St. Patrick's Day!

I didn't have any green shirts so Jared let me use his tie for the day! I know this is a totally dorky picture but I wanted more than just a food picture on here, haha

I miss warmth!

2011-02-26T10:12:00.000-08:00

We realized today that it's been almost a month since we've done a blog so I thought I'd do a little ranting. The common saying about the weather here in MO is "if you don't like the weather, just wait 24 hours." When people would say this to me in the summer I'd just kind of laugh and think, "ok, whatever." But now, after winter has been here for far too long, I've realized that this is completely true.

About two weeks ago the weather here was in the 60's to 70's. For a week, it was pure Heaven! The snow was pretty much completely melted and I was actually trying to spend time outside instead of quickly rushing from the indoors to my car and back again. We didn't have to worry about slipping on ice or driving slowly and it was wonderful. Then this week it has been in the 30's again and Thursday it snowed!!! Now there's snow covering the ground again and it's totally slushy and wet everywhere! SO FRUSTRATING!!!! It's almost cruel to be blessed with beautiful weather and then be right back in the cold! Honestly, I don't know how people in Canada or Alaska or Russia (or anywhere it's really cold) do it!!

Reasons I love and miss and can't wait for Spring/Summer:

- Driving with the windows down

- Not having to walk hunched over when I'm outside just to keep myself somewhat warm

- Sun!

- Not looking like a ghost with skin that hasn't seen the sun in months

- Open-toed shoes

- Wearing my hair wet without worrying about catching pneumonia

- Shorts and short-sleeved shirts

- Airing out the apartment

- Exercising outside

- Doing anything outside!

- Getting out of work when it's still light outside (longer days)

- Snow cones!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Pasta Salad

- Watermelon

- Pretty much all summer food!!

- No college sports!

So, I hope this made everyone think more about Spring (if you aren't already) and maybe if we send enough positive Spring thoughts it will come sooner!

I can dream right?

Also, I miss poppies so anyone reading this that's in CA, please enjoy them for me!!!!

Snowstorm 2011

2011-02-02T15:55:00.000-08:00

After you read this I’m sure many of you will think I’m crazy but I have to say it anyway because it’s just too big of a coincidence anymore! My maiden name is Storm and I dearly love that name but it brings with it something else! Everywhere I’ve moved in my life there is always some incidence of “the craziest weather that area has had in a long time.” For example, when my family moved to Georgia in High School, the first winter we were there they cancelled school for 3 days because of snow! I lived 2 hours SOUTH of Atlanta in Augusta, where it NEVER snows and they cancelled school for 3 days! That’s the biggest example I have (until this year) but I realized years ago that the weather is always bizarre when I’m around. This is the first year Jared and I are living in Missouri and we just had a HUGE snowstorm where basically the whole city is shut down. They even cancelled classes for Jared at Mizzou and it’s only the third time in Mizzou’s history that they’ve cancelled classes and tomorrow will be day 3 of cancellation!

I don’t “actually” believe that my last name affects the weather but you have to admit, it’s really ironic and quite a big coincidence that every time I’m around the weather acts unnatural to the area I’m in…

The Storm here started with "freezing rain" on Monday which basically means rain the freezes the second it hits the ground. I went into work that morning and by 9am people were already talking about the roads being bad. I told Jared I didn't think he should go into class because he's not very stable on slick ground and luckily he only had one class that day. The snow didn't even start until like 7am on Tuesday but it went all day and did not stop once! Jared and I were amazed at the snow level as it just kept growing and growing, it was crazy! We woke up today with it being totally sunny and nice so we cleaned off Jared's car and played in the snow a little bit. I even took a little walk around the complex to get out some energy and it was fun!

Jared and I aren’t having cabin fever too horribly yet now that we will be on day 3 of being cooped up in the apartment. Overall the worst things have been that I’ve had this intense desire to bake (instinctually trying to get us fat in case we run out of food?) and that we wanted to order pizza tonight (I know, we’re mean to the delivery people) and the only place open was Domino’s who didn’t have enough staff to do deliveries! The amount of snow we got is insane and we are incredibly appreciative to the maintenance staff at our apartment complex who’ve been working constantly to clear the roads and sidewalks!

Tomorrow we are going to try to venture out and see what’s going on in the world!

During the blizzard

The next morning

There was a TON of ice on the windows of the cars. Thank goodness the sun helped melt it off!

The last part of this video is the best!

"Come What May and Love It"

2011-01-22T07:41:00.000-08:00

The title of this post is taken from a talk by the late Joseph B Wirthlin (the talk can be found here) about facing trials with optimism. In May it will be 3 years since Jared went into the hospital and it seems like we are still right in the midst of dealing with health issues. Sometimes it seems like there are more things to worry about now than there were 3 years ago. I don't mean this to sound like a pity party but I want to give a little context to my recent thoughts.

About a year ago when Jared first started having hearing issues we had a low point for a couple of weeks but then really came out of it when Elder Scott came and spoke at our Stake Conference. Ever since then Jared has had this motto of "No Bad Days." I can definitely tell you that he has stuck to it! The amount of optimism he has is always surprising to me and it helps me so much to see his good attitude in spite of the seemingly constant trials. Recently I've been struggling a little bit with everything and trying to deal with the worry that comes with watching a loved one suffer with health issues and not being able to help. Sometimes it's easy to become discouraged and feel helpless, especially during a trial that's lasted for longer than expected. As a result I've been trying to read or watch scriptures and General Conference talks about hope and faith.

For Family Home Evening we watched Elder Wirthlin's talk and I have been thinking about it ever since. This talk by President Uchtdorf about hope has stuck with me as well. It's so easy to let ourselves get discouraged when dealing with a trial but I love what Elder Wirthlin said about just smiling or laughing about it. I feel like Jared is living proof that trials can be faced with optimism and a good attitude. Dealing with something difficult doesn't have to mean despair. Obviously there will be tough times but the outlook of the situation can be positive. For me the key is to realize the blessings in life and have faith that the Lord knows what He's doing and what is best for me.

I just thought I'd share those two talks in case anyone else might need them, they are excellent!

Funktastic New Years!

2011-01-03T18:41:00.001-08:00

For New Years this year two of Jared's siblings (James and Camille) came to visit! It was a lot of fun and nice to have family visit us all the way out here in Missouri. We picked them up from the St. Louis airport and then went to the Arch and Cardinals Stadium. For dinner we tried to go to Pappy's (because we saw it on Man Vs. Food and really wanted to go) but they were closed for the Holidays. We were completely bummed but ended up going to "the Hill" and found solace in some AMAZING Italian food. We went to a place called Zia's that was really really good. I have been dreaming about going back ever since we left, haha. One thing we learned about St. Louis is that if you park on a residential street in a handicapped spot with a sign that has a little number on it (that looks like a little graffiti sticker) that it's actually a private resident's handicapped space and you will be ticketed even if you have a standard handicapped parking tag, woops! Luckily we got to our spot at the same time as the cop and narrowly avoided a ticket.

The next day we tried to show them around Columbia and tons of places were closed! First we tried to show them the building where Jared attends classes on campus, that was closed. Then we tried to take them to the local pizza place that everyone here raves about (in order to get an unbiased opinion) and that was closed. Then we tried to take them to a local custard place we've been wanting to try, also closed!!!! We were pretty bummed but showed them around the city and campus and ended up finding other good places to eat so it was all good!

The rest of the time we pretty much watched football, played Wii, and played some games (if you want to see video of us playing Battle of the Sexes go to Camille's Blog). Oh, and we ate, a lot. I think we all ended the weekend looking forward to healthy food again because we ate so much over the holidays, haha. We had a blast hanging out with them and were so happy that they came! Thanks guys!!!

Under the Arch

Outside of the Arch

In front of Mizzou Stadium

Happy New Year!!!!!!!

Snow and Sugar Cookies!

2010-12-24T11:43:00.000-08:00

Last week Jared and I went to a cookie exchange with my co-workers. The cookie I signed up to bring was sugar cookies. I knew I was being ambitious when I signed up to bring 4 dozen decorated sugar cookies but I had this new way of decorating that I really wanted to try so I decided to do it. Thank goodness Jared helped me decorate or I would have been up all night! I definitely underestimated how long it would take! I forgot to take into account that I don't have a Kitchen-Aid mixer so I would be mixing all of the frosting by hand and finding just the right consistency for the frosting is no easy task! Like I

said, thank goodness for Jared helping! He was actually an awesome decorator and a lot of the creative ideas were his.

We bought some sugar pearls at Michaels and used them and they really brought out a classy touch I think! The other cookies people from work bought were amazing and yummy! We've pretty much been gorging ourselves for the last week, haha.

We've also had some snow lately! A few weeks ago we got a little bit of snow one night. Most of that snowfall melted just a few days ago and then last night it snowed a lot and we woke up to the snow shown in the bottom 4 pictures! It's actually been snowing all day and is very pretty because it's just lightly falling. I know everyone here is happy because it will be a White Christmas, which, I have to admit, is kind of cool! Jared and I are used to California winters but it's kind of cool to have snow when you can just chill (no pun intended, haha) and watch it through your
window!

This is the view from our "back" window this morning, very pretty! It's amazing how beautiful snow makes everything look.

Jared wanted to clean off the cars before the snow froze to the windshields, so smart!

"O Tannenbaum" retraction

2010-12-21T16:41:00.000-08:00

This serves as a retraction to the statement made in our previous blog post titled "O Tannenbaum" in which I said the following: "Growing up my family always had an artificial tree." I have been informed that this statement is untrue and that I, in fact, did have a real tree for Christmas during most of my formative years. I am sorry if this statement hurt or offended anyone. =)

O Tannenbaum

2010-12-11T13:20:00.001-08:00

A couple of months ago I got a brochure for this Christmas Tree farm about 30 miles away and I've saved it because I really wanted to get a live tree! Growing up my family always had an artificial tree. My mom always told us we were allergic to real Christmas trees and that's why we couldn't have one but as I've gotten older I've come to realize that I'm not actually allergic to them and I figure my mom just didn't want to have to clean up the pine needles, haha (sorry Mom!). Since Jared and I have been married we

have been using a small fake tree that Jared's Mom gave us to use (thanks Lynette) but we gave it back to her on our move to Missouri.

Last weekend we decided to go and get our tree! I've never cut down my own tree so luckily Jared knew what to do! The trees here in Missouri seem more round than we're used to but they are very pretty and we picked out a perfect tree that's probably a little too big for our apartment but I still love it, haha. We took it to the "shakellator" where they shook off all of the extra needles and stuff and then they bagged it and we loaded it in the Explorer and took it home!

We set it up in front of our window that faces the woods so at least the squirrels and groundhogs can have something pretty to look at! =) After decorating it we realized we don't have that many ornaments but with our other tree we felt like we had too many! It's ok though cause it still looks awesome!!!!

Yay for Christmas!!!

First Fabulous Funk Feast!

2010-11-26T18:57:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving Jared and I decided we weren't going to go home for the week (because it's expensive!) and made our own Thanksgiving dinner. I have never before made Thanksgiving dinner and was very nervous because Jared really loves Thanksgiving dinner and I didn't want to mess anything up! I literally started planning for it and finding recipes a month ahead. I have never wished more that I'd listened to my mom when she tried to teach me how to make her awesome rolls or apple pie. =)

Originally I had big plans to do this fancy Turkey by brining it the night before and using all of these herbs and spices. I also found this great pie crust recipe that I'd never tried before and was somewhat complicated to make but looked amazing! Then I remembered that I have never before made a whole feast, including large Turkey, and I had better keep it simple. I ended up getting an Oven Bag to roast the Turkey and buying pre-made pie crusts, which I was so grateful for in the end! I feel like I cheated a little bit but I was still pretty proud of the end result! Even though it wasn't deep fried (which is the absolute very best way to have Turkey on Thanksgiving) the Turkey turned out pretty good!

Jared carving the Turkey (he did a great job)!

I did do the lattice work on the pie crust so I guess that's something!

We ended up eating and cleaning up in like 30 minutes which seemed a little strange to me after cooking all day, haha. Having only two people instead of the whole family really makes things different! I think we were both a little homesick but we had fun together and it turned out to be a great day!!! I am very grateful for the incredible blessings in my life and I love that the whole nation takes a day to recognize the good things in life and think about gratitude.

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!

Turkey Trot 5K Fun!!!

2010-11-21T16:07:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Lori and I travelled 45 minutes to Fulton, MO so we could run/walk in a 5K race. Fulton is a very small town and we probably wouldn't have known about the race or the city unless Lori's co-worker would have invited us to run. An interesting fact about Fulton is that Winston Churchill gave his "iron curtain" speech there at the Westminster University. It is a nice charming town with some good history.

Last week we drove out to Fulton just to get the lay of the land. We drove the course that we thought we were going to run. When we drove it there were no big hills so we were both excited for that. However, once we arrived there was a different route mapped out and it had a very large incline right from the beginning.

Lori's result

Lori did AWESOME!!! She shot right out of the gate and was the pace setter right from the beginning! Okay maybe not the pace setter but she took right off and was doing great up that hill. About half way through the race she lapped me and she was still flying. In the end Lori got 2nd PLACE IN HER AGE GROUP!!! I was SUPER proud of her! She had been training for a while so it was great to see her get a wonderful result. She even got a medal and everything...she has yet to take it off...haha jk but it is a cool medal.

Jared's result

With all my health stuff I am still unable to run so I committed to walking the course. It wasn't my day, that hill right at the beginning kicked my butt. When I finally reached the top I was 5th to last and I was already getting really sore probably because I never trained on a hill of that size. The downhill portion was easy but by the time I reached the bottom of the hill I was officially last place, which I was totally cool with. The problem came when my left leg started to give out. When Lori passed me she gave me a high five but she said that I looked like I was in agony, which is true it hurt to walk and I was limping very badly. I kept pushing but then there was another incline and by the time I got up that small incline I had to catch my balance each step. Conveniently there were some stairs on the trail so I sat down and tried to stretch it out but it wasn't meant to be. Finally they sent a golf cart to pick me up. So it was a bummer that I wasn't able to finish but I did go half way so next time I hope to finish! I think I would have finished had that hill not been right at the start and if it was a bit warmer because I think my muscles were pretty tight with it being so cold.

In the end it was a great morning we both accomplished something and celebrated with getting some donuts!! The rest of the day we were both extremely sore and today we are even more sore. We are already looking forward to doing another 5K in the spring or summer. Lori wants to get 1st place and I plan on finishing this time!

Pre race!

Lori and Amy (her co worker, she got second in her age group)
Lori with her medal at home, she even wears it in the shower!

Halloween

2010-11-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

I really love Halloween! It seems like the opener to the Holiday Season and makes me happy. (to be fair though, I would probably love any day where there's an abundance of free candy). We carved pumpkins this year which is always fun! We also had our ward trunk or treat in which Jared and I were about the only ones who decorated our car! It was fun though and I'm glad we did!

This picture probably makes it easy to tell whose is whose!

On to Thanksgiving!!!

College Game Day

2010-10-30T17:27:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know every Saturday ESPN picks one city/game that is the "game of the week" and goes to that city to do their morning broadcast and analysis. Well two weeks ago on October 23rd they picked the Mizzou v. Oklahoma game and came to Columbia to do their show.

It was the first time ever that ESPN came to Columbia, MO so as you can imagine the week prior to their arrival everyone on campus was talking about where they would be broadcasting from and when. It was really exciting and Mizzou set the attendance record with 18,000 people showing up to the Game Day show.

We were among the 18,000. It was really cool to go and see how the broadcast works and the energy was awesome. For those of you that watched the game it was a GREAT game and Mizzou beat then #1 Oklahoma in a thriller.

So it was a great weekend and very cool to be part of Game Day!!

Picture of the Columns, these were the back drop for the broadcast.

There is the set, and some brave OU fans.

Here is a video with the band playing.

St. Louis

2010-10-26T17:43:00.000-07:00

This last weekend Jared and I were able to take a trip to St. Louis to do some of the fun things we've been wanting to do. There were two main things on our list, going up in the arch and going to the Zoo. The St. Louis Zoo is free and I love going to the zoo so I definitely wanted to do that and we felt like going up in the arch is just something you have to do. We ended up going the night before to go to the temple and got a 3 and a half star hotel on Priceline for $50 (normally a $200 room)!! I was so happy about staying in a hotel in which I actually didn't question whether the sheets were clean. Also, they gave us a warm chocolate chip cookie when we checked in which made me a forever fan!

We ended up having to wait an hour and a half to go up in the arch but it was worth it!

To go up in the arch there are 8 little "pods" that you ride up in and it takes like 4 and a half minutes. It's a little nerve-wracking because it seats 5 people and is really cramped and kind of rickety. I was comforted to see stairs as we were riding up so at least I knew there's a way to walk down if something happened, haha. This is the door to our little pod.

View from the top!

Jared wanted a picture of the stadium

630 feet!!!

The St. Louis Zoo is pretty remarkable and it's even better that the only thing you have to pay for is parking! I thought this was so cute cause it's a Mom elephant with her babies.

Penguins are one of my favorite animals to see because they're so funny to watch. There's a video below with Jared doing voices to the penguins that I think is hilarious.

This picture cracked me up because the bear was just kind of chillin' and he stayed like that for awhile.

Of course I had to get a picture with the leopard =)

Jared was making me laugh so much with his commentary of the animals. When we walked up to the camels we saw this one and Jared was like "sneak attack!" because the camel looks like he's hiding from the zebras, haha. You probably had to be there but it was really funny.

When we were in the penguin enclosure the penguins were kind of waddling around and being funny and Jared was doing commentary. The video's kind of interesting because one of the penguins goes to the bathroom which is gross but if you turn it up and hear Jared's voice it's funny (at least I think so).

Thoughts

2010-10-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been thinking about agency and choices and the church of which I'm a member (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints/Mormons). For some reason a lot of people either have a negative view of Mormons or don't understand them and their beliefs. I can understand not knowing much about our beliefs but what I don't understand is how people can have a negative view of the Latter Day Saints! I absolutely love this church, what it teaches, and the type of person it encourages me to be, here's why:

1. We believe in Jesus Christ, the Atonement, the Resurrection, and fully strive to live His teachings and follow His example. Who better to emulate than the Savior?

2. We believe in modern day revelation from a prophet and apostles who love us and love the Lord. I absolutely love that we not only have the scriptures to guide us and teach us, but we have living men who are inspired by Heavenly Father to help us in our current day.

3. In addition to the Bible, we have the Book of Mormon. I think there's a lot of misconception about the Book of Mormon from people who don't know exactly what this is. For those who have questions, I'd recommend reading it before making any judgements one way or the other. I really love having more scripture to teach me of Jesus and inspire me to be a better person.

4. Our church is run entirely by a lay ministry and all of the positions in the church are volunteer. It is so amazing to me that such a huge church that does so much good for others is all due to the work of people who choose to do it and don't receive any payment for the work. We serve in these positions because we believe in what we're doing and love the gospel.

5. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints does SO much to help others in times of need, on a large scale and small. When there's a disaster we are usually quick to be on the scene and help through donations of time, money, and supplies. We don't get tons of publicity for this usually but we are always there and will continue to be.

6. It has it's own women's organization (called the Relief Society). The Relief Society is one of the oldest and largest women's organizations in our country. The motto is "Charity Never Faileth". I can't even explain my love of this organization and all of the good it does. It encourages the women of the church to be the best they can be. It's full of support, love, and service for each other and for everyone.

7. It encourages clean living by abstaining from coffee, alcohol, tobacco and any other addictive thing. Many people think of this church as restrictive because its members are asked to avoid these things, I think it's the exact opposite. How restrictive is being addicted to alcohol or cigarettes? How addicting is it to have that daily caffeine craving that comes from drinking coffee? Because I'm not addicted to these things I'm not bound by them, which is freeing, not restrictive! My life is so much healthier and happier by avoiding addictive substances.

8. It encourages service and love of everyone. No, we do not agree with all opinions and lifestyle choices, but we are always encouraged to love everyone and treat all people with respect and kindness. You will never hear something negative said against another religion over the pulpit.

9. Modesty and Sexual Purity. We are asked to dress modestly always as well as to be chaste until marriage. I am saddened by how our society views these issues. We may be thought of as "prudes" for our beliefs but I'm ok with that. God gave us our bodies and trusts us to use them wisely. Do women not realize the way they are viewed when wearing revealing clothes? Do people not respect the importance of virtue and chastity? There are some things that can never be undone.

10. Free agency. One of the big beliefs of members of this church is that of choices and free agency. We all have choices and although our choices have consequences (good or bad), that is our right, given to us by a Heavenly Father who trusts us and wants us to make the right choices that will lead us back to Him.

These aren't the only reasons I love this church but just some of the ones I've been thinking about lately. I would encourage anyone with questions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to talk to missionaries or someone who can answer your questions honestly. I was raised as a member of this church but I choose to be a member still because I know that the teachings are true.

Roots'n'Blues'n'BBQ

2010-10-06T15:58:00.000-07:00

This last weekend Jared and I went to a local 2-day festival here in Columbia called "Roots'n Blues'n BBQ". It is basically a BBQ competition with live music at stages throughout a blocked off section of Downtown. The BBQ from the competition isn't for sale (it's judged by judges) but there are vendors who sell bbq throughout. Jared got some ribs and I got a pulled pork sandwich from one of the stands. The music was great and it was a lot of fun!

Jared enjoyed his ribs!

Happy Happy Birthday!!

2010-10-03T11:44:00.000-07:00

It has been a few weeks now but on September 18th Lori had her birthday!!! I think she had an enjoyable day. If you compare it to last year it is a major improvement (last year we were traveling to UT for a funeral on her birthday).

I decided to pick a princess theme for her birthday (see photo below) so we had a "Princess Party"!! Although other than that sign there weren't any other princess themed items.

Since Lori's bday was on a Saturday I was able to wake up earlier than her and get everything in order and then she came out and opened presents. She got a smoke free grill (which has been awesome so far) from her parents and a bday card that had a princess crown in it so that worked out very well. From my parents she got a kitchen scale, a book and a little money for shoes. And from me she got a big hug! AND a Beach Boys CD that she has been wanting. I would have gotten more but a month or so ago Lori got some new clothes and said that they would count toward her bday present so I held her to that. She was extremely happy with each present (see photos below).

After presents I made her breakfast, she loves crepes so I made that and it turned out very good. We then got ready for the day and went to the Heritage Fair for a little bit. It was really cool because they had people there making items like they would back 200 years ago. It was humid that day too so we didn't stay too long. After we went home and I felt sick so I took a nap but then I woke up feeling better so we went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse.

So overall Lori had a wonderful day (or that's what she tells me). I was glad she was able to have a good birthday! Lori is the best she is such a great friend and support to me, I know I would be worse off without her in my life. I love her quirky jokes and fun personality she is the light in my life and I know I would be lost without her. Happy Bday!!!

Princess Party

Beach Boys!!! So excited!

Smoke Free Grill!!! Awesome! With Princess Crown!

Kitchen Scale...yay!!!

Knife Skills

2010-10-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

I currently work at an adult education center that offers training programs as well as fun "enrichment" classes for adults. Since starting the job I'd been wanting to take some of the classes that we offer because they look like fun and/or teach things I've been wanting to learn (i.e. Photoshop, cooking classes, etc.). One of the classes we offer is called "Knife Skills" and it's basically a class that teaches you the proper knives to use in food preparation as well as the proper way to cut different foods as you cook a meal. I thought it would be fun for Jared and I to do so I signed us up and we were able to go and take this one night class about cooking. We had a blast and I'm so glad we were able to do it because we learned different cutting techniques and got some really great recipes for delicious food!

We were in a group of 4 and each group made chicken fajitas, guacamole, pico de gallo, and corn chowder. Jared and I were in charge of the chowder and I have to say, it was amazing (as was the rest of the meal)!!! I can't wait to cook this meal again because it was so delicious!! I think the next class I want to take is French Pastries, yum!

Our Awesome Cutting Skills

Le Chef!

Yummy Corn Chowder (I didn't even know I liked chowder until this, haha)

Jeff City and "The Columns"

2010-09-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

For Labor Day Jared and I wanted to do something that got us out of the apartment but something where we didn't have to drive too far either. Unfortunately Columbia doesn't provide a lot of options for something close and fun if you are trying to save money. We decided to go to the Capitol of Missouri, Jefferson City (known to the locals as Jeff City) which is only 30 minutes away. The Capitol building is really beautiful and we were able to take some good pictures of it because there were hardly any people there (due to Labor Day). The bad part was that because there was no one working that day a lot of the shops were closed. It almost seemed like a ghost town because of how little traffic there was. I've never seen a capitol city that dead, it was kind of wierd!

Capitol Building

Jared and Jefferson

Jared trying to get in the building, =)

The trip to the capitol took about 2 hours in total so when we got back into town we tried to find something else to do for the rest of our day off. We decided to go take a picture of "the columns" on campus and then drive around Columbia and see different places we haven't yet seen. Since we moved here people have talked about "the Columns" and we were never really sure what the big deal was with these free-standing columns in the heart of campus. We finally learned that they used to be a part of a building that burnt down and instead of tearing down the columns, the alumni wanted to keep them as a remembrance of the old campus. Apparently now students walk through them as kind of a "right of passage" or something. Jared still hasn't walked through them but they are kind of cool looking!

M-I-Z-Z-O-U

2010-09-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Lori and I were able to go to a Mizzou football game! Part of my plan to get Lori to start to love college football was to get her to a game so she could feel the energy and excitement. One thing that helped is that since we have moved here we hear and see a lot about Mizzou and its football team.

The game started at 6pm but we were invited to start tailgating with other MBA students at noon. Since we didn't want to wait six hours for the game to start we decided instead to go downtown to Shakespeare's Pizza (which according to locals is the best pizza in the area) to eat and then walk to the game from there. The pizza was good but not the best, but we won't tell anyone that here because they will get offended. We then walked to the game from there and got our workout for the day.

Once at the game we took it all in, it was a nice stadium and a beautiful night. We got there about an hour early and thankfully it was just a division II school we were playing so it wasn't packed. I thought I would start Lori out on a fun game that we would most likely win instead of a big game that would be packed and intense.

It was a perfect evening, no humidity it wasn't that hot and it wasn't that cold either. There was a fly by which I took video of below. Then the game started and we jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead. Since I have been to tons of BYU football games I know each school has their own traditions so it was cool to see what other schools traditions are. One we liked was that during commercial breaks or whenever Mizzou would get a first down one half of the crowd would yell "M-I-Z" and the other would answer "Z-O-U" so that was fun. So while the environment was great our team was killing the other division II team 30-0 at the half, by the mid 3rd quarter we were up 43-0 and Mizzou put in their back ups so we decided to leave so we could avoid the traffic at the end of the game also Lori started feeling bad for the other team so before she started cheering for them we decided to take off. The final score was 50-6 Mizzou won.

It was a great time and a good night for football and I'm glad we got to go to at least one game while we are here. Below are some pictures.

Lori outside of Shakespeare's pizza before the game

Jared waiting for pizza
Pre-game!

The big M and score board

Part of the field and the weird looking mascot.

As we left we got this picture

Here is the video of the fly over!

Game Day

2010-09-05T13:32:00.001-07:00

As most everyone probably knows from the incessant commercials and stores stocked with chips and dip, College Football is here once again. I never used to know the day on which all of the big College Football games started (nor did I care). Now, not only do I know the day it starts, but we celebrate it with a feast and a day filled with watching an endless amount of games.

Because Jared has been talking about "game day" for weeks and we have been discussing all of the food we could make to celebrate, I feel that this year I was well-prepared for the season to start. The day wasn't even horrible and we had fun watching the games and gorging ourselves on chicken wings, pizza, and homemade onion rings. I do enjoy being able to try to predict who will win and see what my chances are of being the one to choose the most correct against Jared's family through College Pick'Em and it's fun to spend time with Jared, even if it's while watching football. Of course, now that we're at a school with a decent football team, that doesn't hurt either! Go Mizzou!!! Now I just have to get throught the rest of the season...

Are you giving rides?!

2010-08-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

Apart from going to the Field of Dreams, this last weekend we also went to Nauvoo, IL. The only difference from the last time we went was that this time we actually went inside the temple! It was VERY beautiful inside the temple and we were amazed by all the beautiful wood work and stair cases and even the lockers they have were made out of wood. Everything about it was amazing!

Since we were back there we decided to visit a few spots in the Old Nauvoo city that we didn't visit last time, although we didn't spend much time visiting it was still fun. Just as we were getting ready to leave Nauvoo and head to the Field of Dreams we could see this HUGE dark storm clouds rolling in. As we were driving past the temple the contract of the gray sky and the white temple was spectacular. I pulled over and we got the camera out and started taking a bunch of pictures. See pictures below.

Also while we were there we noticed a bunch of EFY kids. As it started to rain (well not just rain it was pouring very hard) there were tons of kids running to some building, we also noticed vans driving around picking up these kids. While we were sitting in the car waiting for the storm to pass a kid knocked on our window and asked if we were "giving rides". Seeing that the kid was soaked and we didn't know where they were going or anything else about this kid I instinctively said NO, but right when I said no Lori saw that someone was in need and instinctively said YES (what a great example). Before I knew it we didn't have just one kid but the whole back seat was full of people we didn't even know. We took them where they needed to go and they were very grateful for the ride. So the moral of the story is that I should be more willing to help EFY kids that are running in the rain, and yes our backseat ended up being soaked, but it is dry now so no harm done.

In the end we had a great visit and we are grateful for our time in Nauvoo!

Old Nauvoo

Cool view of the temple.

The sky before the storm was cool.
The temple kind of glowing with the storm coming from behind.
Cool shot with the clouds and temple.

This is one of my favorite shots we got.

This one too.

The Mississippi

The sky and view from the temple.

Cool shot of the temple glowing.

Below is a video we took:

Is this Heaven?

2010-08-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

Ever since we decided that we were going to be moving out to Missouri one of the first things I did was to look up and see how far away the "Field of Dreams" was. That movie is one of my all time favorite movies and I have always thought how cool it would be to go visit and have a catch. Since I have been out of school for the last two weeks I had plenty of time to go and Lori took a day off so we could drive up to the movie site by way of Nauvoo (see subsequent post for details on Nauvoo).

I grew up playing baseball and have been on a number of baseball fields and also been to a number of professional baseball fields, but this field has to be one of my favorites all time. Most likely because of the movie and of what the movie represents but also it was some of the nicest grass I have ever been on I just wanted to play around and get grass stains. The owners have kept it up so well.

Lori was so great to go with me especially since the field is literally out in the middle of no where. She also had a catch with me even though she never played softball or baseball. She did really great though and I could see her natural athletic ability shine through.

It was such a beautiful day too, hot and humid but there was a nice cool breeze. Overall the 5 to 6 hour drive was SO worth the visit I am glad I can mark that off my list of things to do!

Enjoy the pictures:

Here is the entrance

Me going into the corn, nothing happened! The view from right field
Lori and I coming out of the corn.

Having a catch!

Lori almost diving for the ball, it was a great catch I'm glad I got it on camera!

Us with the sign and house in the movie.

Lori on the bleachers in the movie.

The road to the field and house.

Here is a video of the field and a movie line we repeated over and over again. I had fun going to different spots on the field and trying to repeat as many lines as I could remember from the movie.

Trifles and Puzzles

2010-08-03T07:05:00.000-07:00

With the heat and humidity being really bad lately it is hard to find the energy and desire to want to go outside or even leave the apartment sometimes. So we tried to think of things we could do besides watching TV, reading or playing the same games over and over again. So we went to Wal-mart and I spent some of my birthday money on a couple puzzles. We started with the 500 piece puzzle and it only took us maybe 4 hours in one sitting to finish it. It is a nice looking puzzle, next up is the 1,000 piece puzzle!!!

With Lori working full time and me going to school I have been the one with more free time therefore, I have been making most of the dinners each night. Some have turned out great while others have been not so good but I am getting better. A couple weeks ago we had the missionaries over for dinner. We had mashed potatoes and chicken and it was really good, mainly because Lori took care of that part. I was in charge of the dessert which was supposed to be a strawberry trifle. I guess when you make a trifle you are supposed to be able to see the levels of strawberries, pound cake and whipped cream and it is supposed to be level. Well not when I'm making it! While it tasted very good it sure didn't look pretty.

You can find me in St. Louie...

2010-07-18T15:22:00.001-07:00

This last weekend we went to St. Louis to do some of the touristy stuff and go to the St. Louis temple!! We left Friday after I got off of work and went first to see the Gateway Arch. We got a little lost on the way so by the time we got there they had just sold out of tickets to get to the top. We were really bummed but decided to go the next time we were in St. Louis. It was still cool to see and the Arch was HUGE!!!! It was definitely worth the trip! After the arch we drove by Busch stadium where the Cardinals were playing the Dodgers. It was a cool looking stadium and we were amazed at how dead the town was during the game! I've never in my life been to a downtown area on Friday night where there wasn't traffic but that's totally how it was in St. Louis! It was crazy! For dinner we wanted to find something to eat that was local so we could get the whole experience but we found a Cheesecake Factory and couldn't resist! I think we've been a little nostalgiac for California lately so finding a Cheesecake Factory made us completely happy!

We stayed the night in a suburb of St. Louis and then went to the St. Louis temple the next day. It was a gorgeous temple! After that we drove through Forest Park which reminded us of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco because there's a ton to do inside of the park and it's huge. We didn't stop and do any of the fun stuff (free Zoo, museums, etc.) because it was late in the day and so hot and sticky but we made a plan to go back and do some of the fun stuff in the fall when it's cooler. We were able to go to a place called Ted Drewes (frozen custard place) which people from the area rave about. It was definitely tasty and I'm glad we had something that was authentic St. Louis. The next time we go we're going to try to eat at some other local hot-spots.

Overall it was a fun trip and we can't wait to go back and do some more of the fun stuff!

Click here for a link to a slideshow of pics

Here's video of the arch

28 and looking great!

2010-07-05T13:58:00.001-07:00

Jared's 28th birthday was on Wednesday of this last week! Because it was my first week of work and Jared had classes we didn't do a lot but I think it was fun anyway! I decorated the apartment with balloons and a sign which he saw when he woke up. That morning he opened cards and presents and he got some stuff he had been wanting and then we both went to work and school. After work I picked up a Chicago Style stuffed pizza from Papa Murphy's and a cookies and cream ice cream cake, both which Jared previously requested and both which were extremely delicious! Jared always wants food for his birthday that either I can just buy or he wants to make himself so his birthdays are usually pretty easy for me to take care of, haha. Unfortunately I forgot to get candles so I had him blow out a fragrance candle I have, haha. Overall I think it was a fun day and I'm very grateful Jared was born 28 years ago!!!

Happy Bday Jared!!! I love you!