Happy

Since it's still Thanksgiving, I can still write my thankful list. And thinking about my blessings just makes me happy.

• a ridiculously loving husband who makes me happy everyday
• my amazing parents who having given me more than I deserve and taught me so much.
• I wish I always had a sister (but thanks to Jeff, I've gained 4 :)), but man do I love my brothers! We have so much fun together and they're hilarious
• the piano... I could listen to any kind of piano music for forever.
• my car... I can't imagine riding the bus everywhere or having to bum rides off people all the time
• hot showers
• Dr. Pepper
• air planes and being able to see some really awesome places
• my health
• unlimited texting
• cameras and photos so I can remember the happy times
• playing ping pong with Jeff
• Sunday dinner at my parents
• lip gloss
• my DVR that jeff finallllyyy let me get
• being able to spend all 3 hours of church with Jeff and the crazy 5 yr olds we get to teach together

Jeff's list: (I made him do this because I was curious what his list would be)

• I'm thankful my wife isn't one of the idiots on 16 and pregnant (she's watching it now)
• a wife who is kind, thoughtful, pretty, smart, an excellent cook and many other things
• the house that we have to live in
• the ping pong table in the garage
• good health
• the jobs that we have
• that we have everything we need
• my wonderful family: wife, mom, siblings, nieces, nephews, in-laws
• the gospel of Jesus Christ that gives us a much better perspective about what really matters

Lucky to Have My Half

Nothing notable has happened this week, except for just realizing how great it is to be married to the person you love the absolute most. Sometimes I accidentally forget that. I mean, I always know, but at times I don't fully recognize the meaning of how wonderful it really is. The sweet times that make you reflect for an instant how much you have a deep love for that person.

Like when I do silly things like make up songs and just sing about whatever is happening at the moment, he just laughs (even when it's like the 10th song that day haha) and kisses me on the forehead and tells me I'm funny.

Or like last week we went to go look at gigantic model homes just for fun and he got so into it, acting like we were actually going to buy one of them (we're talking like 4,000 sq. ft. homes for like $500,000) and excitedly gave his opinion about the layout/design and yelling "Now THIS is what brings a family together!!" (talking about how open the upstairs was) and being dead serious. It was seriously the hardest I'd laughed in a long time.

Or no matter how dead we are laying in bed and on the verge of REM sleep, he shakes me and says lets say prayers.

Last night we had our usual date night and at the beginning we had to run over to his Uncle's house to pick something up. His uncle coincidentally lives a block away from the house I grew up in from age 2 to 13. So that neighborhood is so special to me. Driving there flashes back a gazillion memories from my childhood. And I was telling Jeff a ton of little stories while we were driving through the neighborhood. And he's the one person that cares about little stuff like that, like my past, because he knows how meaningful it is to me.

When we spoke in church a few months ago, I told a story from when I was 9 and used it as an analogy about our relationship with Christ. The story was one time my friend and I walked to McDonald's and for whatever reason we didn't feel like walking home, so we hopped on some random city Cat bus thinking it was going to drive straight to my house and drop us off on my driveway and we ended up driving around the city for over 2 hours until the bus driver finally pulled over and walked to the back of the bus to help us and long story short, we ended up getting dropped off at bus stop directly across the street from where we were initially. So anyway, when we walked to McDonald's, we walked through a big ditch with railroad tracks on it (on the other side of my backyard wall, was that ditch). I really wanted to see what my old backyard looked like, so Jeff insisted we parked at that McDonald's and walk on the railroad tracks-- it was probably a half a mile walk-- so we could peek over the wall into my old backyard that I played in for so many years.

I thought that was so sweet. This whole area had no sentiment to him, but he knew it did to me, so we walked all that way in the pitch dark just to see my old backyard. That's especially when I knew he's such a great guy. Because he'd insist on doing that just for me.

I just love him!

And I'm writing this as he's working til midnight doing his second job, valet, because he wants to earn some extra money. And he doesn't complain. He just works hard. He's so great.

and Ps- I know you're probably wondering how the heck that short bus story could've been a gospel related analogy, but I made it work :)

Every time I see a dog my heart gets super sad and I just want one! About this time last year, we put our sweet dog, Sadie, down. I got really sad about it. Like really sad. It was the first time Jeff ever saw me cry, and I never cry. Ask anyone. He basically didn't know what to do haha. My dad surprised me with how down he got over it (because the first time we brought her home he was NOT happy about it). Her little dog collar still hangs in his rear view mirror. So tender, right? He wouldn't let my mom throw away her food bowl for months after she was gone (it sat in the same spot for years). We got Sadie when when I was about 6 years old. Hello, that's a long time! She was seriously THE best dog ever. My brother, Sam, will try telling you it's HIS dog, because when I was like 9, me and my brothers played a game of Uno and bet Sadie. So whoever won got to keep her.

I try to convince Jeff that we need a dog so we can "practice being parents". baha. He's not fooled.

This was taken the day my mom took her in.

Is it pathetic I'm posting about Sadie? Probably. Bah! But this is like journal ish so whateva.

On a lighter note, I'm just 2 measly math classes short of a lame Associates degree. I know, even more pathetic than dog reminiscing. I honestly have a massive load of hatred for Math. It's strictly a hate hate relationship. That's why when it was the only thing keeping me back from said degree, I said forget it and moved on to Esthetic school-- what I really wanted to do. So, 3 years later I figure I just need to suck it up and DO IT. But it's such a PAAAAIN. The whole process of figuring out which Dixie math classes are equivalent to CSN's, talking to counselors from both schools, being put on hold over the phone for centuries, etc. and I still have yet to sign up for my class. I know, I'm so whiney right now. Math puts me in a terrible mood. I better feel accomplished once I pass these stupid things! okthatsallbye.

Date Night

We recently decided to have "date night" every Friday night. I plan the whole date for one Friday, he does it all for the next, etc. and we just alternate. So since it was my idea, Jeff was kind enough to allow me to do the first one (thanks for the pressure, honey). So last week we gave it a go! I was planning on going to Canada today, but that didn't work out, so since I thought I was going to be gone Halloween weekend, I wanted to do something "Halloweeny", since we hadn't done any of that yet. So I started our night out at Fausto's. America's best Mexican establishment. Jeff had never been there, and who could beat a good cheap meal?

Next we went to a haunted house on the North side of town at the Cannery. It was so fun! We decided it was the best one we've ever been to. I was seriously screaming the entire time. And we ended up selling our second set of tickets (since there were two haunted houses), so long story short we ended up only paying $7 bucks for the both of us! (originally $27). GO US. We were so proud of ourselves that we went to Dairy Queen afterward and stuffed our faces in Blizzards. I got the pumpkin pie blizzard and it's ammmmaazzzinnngg.

So let's recap...

Dinner: $8

Activity: $7

Dessert: $5

total- $20!!!!

3 course date for 10 bucks each? SCORE.

I've set the bar high.

Partying with Dee-isney

Last weekend we went to California for a surprise birthday party Jeff and the siblings threw for my mother-in-law's big 60th! There was about 80 people that were invited so I was pretty sure it was going to get back to Jeff's mom by the night of, but it didn't! It was a total surprise which made it so much better. It was a lot of fun sneaking around trying to finalize last minute arrangements beforehand. The party turned out great and it was an awesome weekend with the whole fam.

We got to CA on Friday and went to Disneyland with Jeff's sister, her husband, and their four kids, and Jeff's mom. Amy had a Free Admission ticket from 1985 that hadn't been used yet!! She got it from a friend years ago who got it from a friend and forgot all about it til this weekend, and sure enough it totally worked! We had fun that day. I should really try to take more pictures, but I'm terrible about it. Sorry, folks.

Jeff was really good at this shooting game. I was pretty impressed.

Dallin loves his Uncle Jeffy.

Everyone on Small World.

Mini-Vaca

Jeff was in between jobs last week (his old clients wanted him back and he wasn't the happiest at his current job), so he quit and didn't have to start for a whole week! I've been begging to go to Knott's Berry Farm all summer, but Jeff insisted on waiting til school started so it would less crowded. So I patiently waited all summer (I love theme parks), and when the opportunity came with this whole job thing, we took it and it was perfect! We drove to California Tuesday night and stayed at Jeff's Mom's house. It was nice to visit with her-- we don't see his family nearly enough. The next morning we got up and ventured to Knott's. I'm SO glad we waited! The whole place was totally empty and we walked onto every ride. It was the best! I had so much fun (despite the fact my favorite ride "Ghost Rider"--the wooden roller coaster-- was under construction). Ahh, I love theme parks! It'd been so long. Jeff was trying to keep up with me (bless his heart that entire day haha). It all brought back the best memories, because my family grew up going to Knott's (we weren't Disneyland type folk). On one ride, X-celerator, this one man rode the whole time we were there. I was curious how many times he had ridden it, so Jeff asked him and he said "In the past 8 years I've ridden this 31,804 times"!!! Did I mention he was probably like 65 yrs old? My hero. So funny.

Boysenberry Funnel Cake!

On the way home, we spontaneously stopped at Calico Ghost Town. I hadn't been there since I camped there as a Girl Scout and it was so awesome to me back then, but it was hilarious this time around because it was seriously a GHOST TOWN. We didn't even see one worker. It was so funny. And so boring. I'm glad we got around paying the $6 a person to get in (again... the workers were missing).

Peneplain Ave. Update

We have these nice next door neighbors from former Yugoslavia that were the first (and only) to acknowledge us since Jeff got this house. They were always sitting on their porch, smoking a cigarette or drinking a cup of coffee and would always say "hi" whenever we pulled up. Well, a couple days ago I noticed that ALL their porch furniture has disappeared and all their shoes they leave out there are gone as well. The lights are off. No sign of inhabitation. We've been dying to know if they just picked up and left some time while we were at work or something. Tonight we did some 007 of our own and got a flashlight to creep in their back room windows. To our dismay-- EMPTY. No more nice foreign neighbors. And now we get to park in their driveway. SCORE! But I do hope these kind people are doing okay and didn't have to pick up and leave because of the outrageous mortgage (they told us before they bought at the worst time possible and paid more than double than what we did :(