A little bit of news. . .

Hello Again! I have some news I want to share. I have written or rewritten this post about a dozen times either in my head or on the computer, but nothing seems to fit my excitement. So here is the news.

WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A BABY!!!!

It so so exciting to say that: ) I'll post other details, like due date and what the gender might be, later. Right now I am just reveling in sharing the news with all of you.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Finals week

Since Maggie has practically abandoned this site, I figure I might try writing for the first time. After all, my name is part of the address. You probably know Maggie is graduating. Just 3 more finals and she is done with college. I am probably more excited than she is to have her be done. No more late papers, no more stressful tests, no more complaining about professors. Man, I am excited about that. I think school will be much easier with just one of us carrying the burden next semester. Maggie just happens to be playing tetris right now. I think she and Nikki are addicted. As far as Christmas goes, my younger brother Kevin will be leaving for his mission. He was called to the northern-most mission in Japan. Not quite as great as Taiwan, but at least it is still in East Asia. I still have all 6 of my finals to complete, but I did get the house quite clean today. Maggie and I will be attending a singles' ward for the next little while. Don't worry--we did not get divorced. We just get to go serve in a single's ward for a while. This will be the 5th ward we've been in since we were married--the BYU 141st ward, 82nd ward, 5th ward, 109th ward, and now 177th ward. That makes the average the 103rd ward. So there are probably about 206 wards on campus. Have any of you been in a higher ward number? Maggie claims I will get absolutely no response because pretty much only women are into this blogging thing, so I will not be offended.

catch up!

I know what you're thinking - "Where have you been" - at least that is what i hope you have been thinking, you probably haven't missed my absence from the blogger world. I kind of feel like I have been realigned to work in "go mode" and to only stop to eat and sleep. The last couple of weeks have been some of the hardest of my life. Jeremy left for five days last week and I think we both thought that we were going to die. It was the first time that we have been apart for more than 8 hours since we have been married and we both had separation anxieties. Jeremy had to go to Texas to do some job interviews. We are keeping our fingers crossed hoping he will get an acceptance from one or all of them. Other things that have been going on in my life are typical of the average student, work, papers, exams, quizzes, etc. I am going to be so happy when this semester is over with and I am finally finished. Whenever things get excruciatingly painful I remind myself that I only have four weeks left, but then I remember that i also want to go to grad school : ( *sigh*

Because it is November i just want to mention the three things that I am most grateful for. . .
1. the atonement
2. jeremy
3. friends and family

I hope you are all having a great time getting ready for the holidays ahead!

our worst nightmare!

Well folks, like it or not, get use to this face b/c your gonna see a lot of it in the next 4 years - as if we haven't seen enough of it!!.

We don't need to fear or feel discouraged about where America will be after those four years. We are a tough nation. We have gone through hard times and can make it through the next four years as well.

Happy Halloween everybody!

Church Survey

The Church (yes, the LDS one) is asking for feedback on their monthly Ensign. I thought you mike like to take this survey, if you have time, so as to help the Church make any necessary changes.

To take the Ensign Survey click here.

The Best Two Years!

Today is our Wedding Anniversary. It's been the best 2 years of my life! Thanks Jeremy for making me laugh everyday: )

The Wedding

Whitney's Wedding was so FUN!!!

She was such a pretty bride

Melanie, Me, and Sarah at the family luncheon

My cousins - Russ and Laura

Jeremy and I took a picture in the limo!

They are so cool!

Esther and Whitney (Esther is Russ's wife)

Cousins who helped decorate the car. It was so cold!

Whitney and Don leaving

It was so much fun to see everyone from Canada!!! We were so glad we got our new camera b/c we took all our pictures with it : )

The Car

This last weekend we went to Canada, with my brother and his wife, for my cousins wedding it was very fun! On our way home, however, we had some major car trouble!



Our FIRST and most traumatizing breakdown happened about 120 miles south of the Canadian border. I can't remember what it is that broke, but it was something that helped feed the battery. We got towed to the nearest city spent the night there and waited the next morning for it to get fixed





Outside our car on our first breakdown





After we got the car fixed the next day we were able to travel quite a bit, but then about a mile north of the I-15 Rexburg turn-off the car got a broken bolt that holds the belt so the belt shredded. Thane (my Brother) knows a lot about cars so he was able to fix it and it only delayed us for about 60-80 minutes.






We were a lot more calm the second time we broke down so we played cards while Thane fixed the car.





When we got home, ironically enough, Jeremy's and my tire was completely flat. We are now driving around on a spare until we can get into discount tires.
We got home over 24 hours later than we had thought we would. We missed several classes and other things (including Katie's kickboxing class, sry Katie!) but we are so happy to be home!

WINNERS!!!

So I am sure you are all tired of looking at McCain and Palin when you come to our blog so here is a new story.

Several weeks ago Jeremy and I went to the "meet the firms" event. I put Jeremy's name in a drawing and look what we won! I just picked up our prize this afternoon. Thanks so much Ernst and Young!

This is the front of the camera.

This is the back of the camera

We are so excited about our prize! have you ever won anything?

Politics

Here is the deal I don't like McCain. There I've said it. Glad to get that off my back: )

Back last Winter/Spring when McCain beat Mitt Romney in the primaries I was quite bitter. I felt that there were some dirty politics going on to get him to win. But, hey that's politics so I have tried to look past that and see McCain for his good qualities even though it has been extremely difficult to do that until. . . he announced his VP. I love Sarah Palin. She is my new hero! I felt that under Palin the McCain camp was going to start standing for things I stand for. But, alas, I feel that I have been mistaken. McCain is still McCain. To make things clearer I will bullet point my recent complaints against Senator McCain.

• Support of the 7 billion dollar bailout- I have been very disappointed in President Bush and Senator McCain for trying to push this bill through. Republicans should be for small government and people being held accountable for their actions. This bailout bill is pretty much the government buying companies (oh by-the-way they are buying with the national credit card) and trying save people from their own greed and mistakes. It's a nice idea, but it is going to hurt everyone in the long run.
  
• Not being proactive enough in his campaign - in the Republican Convention McCain (paraphrasing) said "I will fight, will you fight with me!" but it doesn't seem like he has fought that much. There are places where Obama posters have been out for over a year, but yet it is still fighting tooth and nail to try and get the McCain camp to give out McCain posters.
  
• Leaving Michigan - McCain decided to stop campaigning in Michigan b/c it is too hard. He sees that Michigan is full of liberals who have been hurting themselves economically and they are not about to change so he has stopped campaigning there and decided to just let them hurt themselves. This is what Sarah Palin said after she found out that McCain was pulling out of Michigan "Oh, come on! You know, do we have to? Do we have to call it there?" Todd and I, we'd be happy to get to Michigan and walk through those plants of the car manufacturers. We'd be so happy to get to speak with the people there in Michigan who are hurtin' because the economy is hurtin'. Whatever we can do, and whatever Todd and I can do in realizing what their challenges in that state are, as we can relate to them and connect with them and promise them that we won't let 'em down in the administration. I want to get back to Michigan and I want to try!" - so McCain wants to give up while Palin wants to keep on fighting.

I could go on, but I realize this is probably boring for most of you. Wouldn't it be nice if Palin was running for President instead of McCain. Or better yet Romney had made it and Palin was his VP! Oh well! I guess that one thing that is going for McCain is that he is WAY better than Obabama.

Tagged again

I have been tagged once again. If you are tired of looking at blogs all about me you can skip this one ; )

Four random things I love about my husband:
1. His laugh
2. His kindness
3. How hard he works
4. The massages he gives

Four jobs I've had:
1. Secretary
2. Bookkeeper
3. Gallery worker
4. Vacation Club employee

Four movies I have watched more than once:
1. You've Got Mail (one of the best flicks ever!)
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Enchanted
4. Series of unfortunate events

Four TV shows I watch:
1. Hannah Montana - that's about it!
2.
3.
4.

Four places I have been:
1. Taiwan
2. Mexico
3. Canada
4. Provo, UT

Four of my favorite foods:
1. tortillas and cheese
2. taco salad
3. steak
4. fried rice

Four places I would like to visit:
1. Paris - c'est la vie!
2. Andes Mountains
3. Egypt
4. Japan

Four things I am looking forward to in the coming year:
1. GRADUATING!!!
2. Jeremy GRADUATING!!!!
3. Jeremy getting a job!!!
4. Starting a life!!!

ok, i am going to do you a favor and not tag you unless you want to be tagged. So if you would like to be tagged consider yourself tagged otherwise goodnight!

Husband Tag

1. Where did you meet? we both have different answers to this questions, but I think we met at church. We were introduced by his roommates

2. How long did you date before you got married? 8 1/2 months

3. How long have you been married? 2 years next month

4. What does he do that surprises you? he is always surprising me how funny he is. I should be use to it by now, but he makes me laugh all the time and I love it. he is really good at helping me not to take myself too seriously

5. What is your favorite feature of his? his blue eyes

6. What is your favorite quality of his? his constant concern for me. He is always putting me first and making sure I am happy.

7. Does he have a nickname for you? yes, but it's always changing

8. What is his favorite color? definitely blue

9. What is his favorite food? pasta

10. What is his favorite Sport? this is hard. he likes to watch football but he loves to play tennis

11. When and where was your first kiss? Feb 26, 2006. we were in my apt.

12. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? uh. . . .this is a dumb question. What do you think a young married couple's favorite thing to do is?!?

13. Do you have any children? nope, not yet.

14. Does he have a hidden talent? many! his most used hidden talent is his ability to win EVERY game we play together. it can be quite frustrating!

15. How old is he? 24

16. Who said I love you first? he did and it freaked me out. it's a funny story.

17. What’s his favorite music? i don't really know, he likes little bit of everything. I am getting him used to Broadway and show tunes! we're seeing Wicked next spring!

18. What do you admire most about him? his willingness to do what is right.

19. Do you think he will read this? not unless I make him. haha. he never checks this blog!

I tag Laura, Tasha, Esther, Courtney and Katelyn

chiropractors and other dilemmas

I really want to post something, but I have nothing of interest to write about right now. We haven't done anything amazing or taken any pictures for about. . .3 weeks (oddly enough that is about the same time school started. Just a coincidence? I think not). Even though we have been enjoying school I don't think you will be too thrilled to read a blog on the the reconstruction of Western Europe after WWII or GAAP's (general accepted accounting principles) latest new report.

I think I will tell you about our chiropractor appointments. At first glance you might think this is digressing from GAAP and your probably right, but at least you don't have to keep looking at my old posts when you come to our family page.

There are two types of people in this world. Those who think chiropractors are useful and those who don't. I happen to be in the former camp and Jeremy in the latter. But, alas, about 6 weeks ago I convinced him that we needed to go to the chiropractor and get an adjustment. We went to the appointment and by the time we left the chiropractor office the chiropractor had convinced us to sign agreement to come in twice a week for four weeks to help correct our sublexations. At first this seemed like a golden opportunity to show Jeremy how the Chiropractor is. I thought "the Chiropractor will fix our sublexations and then Jeremy will be forever convinced of the usefulness of chiropractors." Ha, ha. I now laugh at my naiveness. needless to say Jeremy is not convinced and in fact has started to blame every ailment he has on our chiropractor.

Conversation 1.
Jeremy: My shoulder is really hurting
Me: is it b/c you worked out too hard last night?
Jeremy: No, I think it was the chiropractor

Conversation 2.
Me: I think I am getting a cold
Jeremy: It's the chiropractor

Conversation 3.
Jeremy: My tooth was hurting today
Maggie: That's too bad
Jeremy: It was the Chiropractor's fault.

You see my dilemma? What is a poor girl to do? Oh well! I hope you have a great day. And I hope something exciting will happen soon for me to post about!

P.S. so far this week I have only run 5 mi.

Balancing Act

Since I have started school my life has been increasingly chaotic. I have been trying to balance homework, exercise, work, scripture study and a social life. it seems that the days that I get in some exercise and some good scripture study are the days I don't all my homework done. Also since I have started school I have not made it to the Temple (i don't think anyone looks at my blog who is not Mormon). During the weekend I spend working b/c I am too busy on the weekdays, but then I don't get enough of other stuff done b/c I am so busy with work. I guess this blog is more like a plea for help. Does anyone have some suggestions on what to do when you have tons of stuff and so little time? Comments would be appreciated! Thank you!

P.S. I have run 13 mi so far this week.

What Women Want Expo

Last weekend Jeremy and I worked at the Utah Valley "What Women Want" Expo. So of course I went shopping and this blog is about what I bought (Warning! this post is seriously just about what I bought so you can stop reading now if you want to). The Women's Expo had hundreds of vendors who sell or give away almost everything a women could possible want, from lingerie to baby bows they have it all (no i will not post the lingerie pics). If you have never been to a Women's Expo you are totally missing out!

I wanted to show off the necklace I got for free (the earrings I had to buy)
isn't it so cute! Technically it wasn't completely free. There was this amazing jewelry place called All Jeweled Up that had a deal that if you spent $50 then they would give you this turquoise necklace for free (reg $35). With our Anniversary next month and Christmas shortly after, it wasn't too hard to convince Jeremy this was a perfect time to buy presents : ) I was going to take a pictures of all the jewelry, but when I got out my camera today I couldn't find my anniversary or Christmas presents so I think they have been hidden away until later.

The other thing i got was some makeup. I don't know how you are, but it is so hard for me to do my makeup. It's like there were some girls in this world who were born with the natural ability to know the whats, hows and whens of primping up and than there was the rest of us who have to figure it out one mistake at a time. Well, hopefully this makeup will solve some of my problems. I've only worn it twice, but already I love it!
I can't remember how much I spent on this little kit, but and employee at the booth told me that the sale they were having at the Expo was cheaper than what employees pay for the cosmetics (ya, I'm pretty gullible). You can't really tell from the picture but the smallest container is a dusk-blue eyeshadow that is absolutely stunning. And the best part about buying the makeup is that they taught me how to use it!

That is all I bought. Thanks for enjoying it with me!

Getting Old

Do you ever have the feeling that you are starting to get old. I don't mean "old" as in white hair, rheumatism and bath slippers. I mean "old" as in you have been around a long time and you see things come around full circle.
So what is making me ask this when I am at ripe young age of 22? Well, yesterday at BYU I ran into a girl I use to Babysit! Can you believe that? I was so surprised. I asked her if she was a freshman, but she replied she was a sophomore. I couldn't believe it. I use to babysit her and now she is a sophomore in college!
Shortly after that expereice another strange thing happened. I was early for class in room number 793 SWKT (this class room has windows) and when I looked inside I saw all the professors in the Poli Sci Dept. sitting around the table being lectured, I don't know what on, but it was wierd. First off it was wierd to see them all sitting and listenign instead of lecturing and then it was even wierder when I realized how many of the professors in the dept I actually knew and have taken classes from. It made me feel like i have been around BYU way too long.

Even though there experiements were totally random I cannot stop thining about them. I am sure I am not the only person who have had those feelings being tipped upside down by life as it awakens me to the reality that everything really isn't centered around me and thigns change without my notice. So have you had any of those moments when life catches you off gaurd and makes you see things differently? What are they?

P.S this week I have only run 6 mi but the first week of school has kept me pretty busy. I hope to do better next week: )

"Only you can prevent forest fires"

So, as of right now, there is a FIRE in our oven. Not joking! about 20 minutes ago I came into the kitchen from Jeremy's frantic calls to see fire leaping out of our oven. We shut the oven door and called Karen (our everything expert) and Googled "fires in oven" to see what we should do. Karen said to just leave the door close (which is our only option b/c I put it on cleaning mode thinking it would suffocate it, but all it did was lock the oven until it cools down) and wait. Her advise didn't seem very comforting but then when the results came up on our search engine I felt a little less worried. For your FYI Hanford Fire Dept. says this about oven fires. . .

"Most of the time an oven fire is not serious. The fire is usually contained in the oven, which is designed for high heat anyway. The oven fire usually suffocates or is easily extinguished."

great news, huh. So what are we doing now? we're fire babysitting.

seriously, these pic's make the fire look really small, but it is actually quite large.

P.S I didn't run any miles last week (pitiful) and this week i have yet to run, but I did bike 7.5 mi today.

P.S.S the fire has already gone out!

Family Visit

Wow! It has been a long time since i have posted anything! We have had a really busy last couple of weeks. My brother got married in the SLC Temple and so everyone came in town and most of them stayed with Jeremy and I. We had 11 visitors in our small apt. thankfully our landlords let us rent out a larger portion of the basement, but things were still a bit more crowded than we are accustomed to. We couldn't find our nice camera so all the pic's we took when they were here were by my camera phone. Technology is so amazing!

Me, Suzanne (my sister) and Elise (niece) at the swimming park

Random pic of me

Elise and I on a walk

Andre (nephew) playing in the park sprinklers

the men of the family at Jared's wedding.

Elise at the water park. She looks like a super hero!

Elise shopping with us.

Me by the pool
Westley(nephew) making a goofy face!

Kaye (sister) at the water park.Andre and Will (brother) showing off muscle!

I had so much fun! Suzanne, JC and their kids (Andre, Westley and Elise) came early and spent 3 weeks with us! It was nice to have somone to go shopping with and to talk to besides Jeremy (even though Jeremy is so awesome he is not the best shopper). Jeremy also played a lot of tennis with JC which is great b/c I am not a tennins player.

This is Suzanne, JC and Elise at the park

I wish I had taken more pic's of the wedding or reception but I didn't. It was so fun though!

My brother Jared married
Pamela from Ecuador.
She had a lot of family and friends come into town. And let me say South American's know how to party! It was also fun b/c Cassie Clark was also able to make it. She was my best friend during the Junior High years. She brought her boyfriends/maybe fiance with her and he seemed really nice. Thanks so much for coming Cassie!

I guess that is it for now. I will try to be more up to-date on postings.

P.S. running was pretty hard to do when my family was in town. The first week I ran 25mi, but the second week I only ran 9mi : (

Gotta Run

This post is going to be a quickie because I have to head to work soon. I don't know how many of you know this, but I love to run! Not only is it a great way to work out, but it also a great stress release. If I'm overly stressed out about school, work or life I just have to put on my running gear and in about 30 minutes I'm feeling great about everything.

Many of my intimate friends know that I am a goal freak. i have goals about everything and natural I have goals about running. Currently my running goals consist of increasing my mileage up to 50 a week. I know you might think I am CrAzY, but sometimes a girl just has to be a little crazy to stay sane. 50 mi weeks are hard on the body so to ease into my goal I have been increasing my mileage by 10% each week and then every 4Th week decrease it by 20%. It might be overly cautious, but I would rather reach my goal slowly than not at all b/c of injury.

So the funny thing is even though I love to run and it makes me feel like I am on top of the world I am often a slacker and I don't always do it. run I mean. I get these weeks what I call "bumber weeks" and it kind of seems like I fall of the running wagon. Of course when I have a bumber week I get discouraged that I will never be able to make my 50miler goal. So to fix that (or help in some small way) I have decided I need someone to report my running progress to. I don't know how many people even check this blog (probably 0-5) but anyway when I make a post I think that I will do a little P.S. and let you know my mileage for the weeks or couple of weeks as it may be. Hopefully this will encourage me to keep my running up.

OK, this was way long winded and I am not even posting any pictures (sorry Cassie) so I think I will end.

P.S. my weekly mileage was 12.5 but i was sick and I haven't done my long run on sat. yet (tsk, tsk i seem to have excuses for everything)

Roughin' It

Okay, so Jeremy and I actually went camping! But before you start applauding too loudly I'll have to admit it was a ward campout, we weren't in the wilderness all by ourselves. If you know us really well you will understand that we are not campers. We love the comfort of our own mattress at night (even if we did get the mattress off the side of the road) and warm showers in the morning. We don't even own our own sleeping bags. Roughing' it for a night isn't what we typically call "exciting." BUT we were however pleasantly surprised at how much fun camping can be. I don't know if were ready to go buy a tent just yet, but I definitely see us camping in the future and, who knows, maybe we will even go out roughin' by ourselves.

I thought y'all would like to see some pictures we took. I know we don't look the best, but we were camping, what do you expect?

This was our only source of water (besides the bottled water we had in the car)

Us in our borrowed tent

I don't know what you would call this pose. It was kind of late at night when we took it ; )

Jeremy in the light of the flashlight.

Taiwan

TAIWAN
Hello Everyone! We just got back form our Taiwan trip last night (We actually got back a week ago, but I have been so busy I didn't post the blog until today). It was very exciting! We have a ton of pictures from the Taiwan trip (we took over 275). Taiwan is so amazing. The people there are so nice.

Jeremy and his brother, Brian, served their missions in Taiwan so we were able to meet a lot of really amazing people. This is Doctor Yang and the Tang Family. Brother Tang has participated in the baptism of eight of his friends who he has shared the gospel with since he was baptised.

We also got to use several modes of transportation. We used a plane, train, fast train (which is different then a regular train b/c it goes 3 times as fast), subway, taxi, regular bus, double decker bus, car, and our feet. The traffic there is crazy! They can make two lanes out of one lane and if you are in the left turning lane and decide to go right it is OK as long as you can beat the other cars of the line. It is survival of the fittest on the roads.

This is the double Decker bus we took to the airport.

All of us with President Hsu and his wife (Brian's mission president).

Jeremy and I in the Bamboo forest. It was raining that day. . . actually it rained every day. That wasn't too bad b/c I like rain, but I was happy to get home to Sunny Provo.

This Buddha statue looks even bigger in real life. We had to walk up this incredible long high trail to be able to reach this Buddha Temple.

They have very funny English translations. This was in the bathroom of our first hotel. We made sure we kept the floor very wet ; )

We absolutely loved the trip. Jeremy and I want to become world travels so I guess Taiwan was a big addition to the travel log we hope to expand.