"Price Club"

Whatever Hair...

2012-01-23T09:11:00.000-08:00

My hair is whatever. It's not straight, curly or wavy but more of a combination of the 3. I guess it is more wavy and poofy when natural!

I love to curl my hair but I've noticed when I do it always falls out within an hour or so into big waves. I do like this look sometimes but other time I want curls. I remember my friend Janelle telling me (well actually my sister Lahren who told me) that right after you curl the hair put it in a pin curl while it's cooling off and that will help the curl. So I decided to try it the other day. I hope you don't mind the cheetah P.J's my parents gave me for Christmas. It was just one of those days. :]

After curling with no pin curls.

From the top. I just pinned the top half.

After taking pin curls out. BAM! Beautiful Curls

Over an hour later and still super curly. It lasted all night long.

I took 2 strands on the side of my head and braided them. Then used them as a head band.

A Tribute to Mr. Knightly

2012-01-20T16:38:00.000-08:00

Today Jarom and I got a new car! A Dark Gray 2009 Toyota Camery.

We weren't really planning on getting a new car as we can't really afford one but this was a great price from one of Jarom's co-workers. It was a company car from the church that he needed to sell and the church was extremely fair on the price. Since my '94 Camery (18 years old. Isn't that like 103 in human years :]) is about to die and we had this great offer we felt that it was time. If Jarom's car dies anytime soon we'll have to be a one car family so we're hoping that doesn't happen. We can afford it but it will be tight. We just want to get it payed off asap!

I named my old Toyota Mr. Knightly. Mainly because I had just seen Emma recently when I got the car but he has truly lived up to his name.

1) He has driven me to San diego about 1000 times since we've moved up to Rancho. Many times late at night and has gotten me there and back safely every time.

2) He has great gas milage and has even gone many miles on fumes so I don't have to be stranded and call AAA and waits until I can get him to a gas station. Even if he sees me pass 10 stations on my way to Costco he'll wait.

3) He was hit by someone once but didn't complain when we used the money to buy a T.V instead of getting him repaired. :]

4) I have never had to take him to a mechanic to get repairs except once. He has suffered through to save me money.

5) He has let me go a couple months late to get oil changes even though he has an oil leak and never complained.

6) Although he can go 70-75 (even 80) he really prefers 65 on the freeway but hasn't minded when I've had to speed when I need to get somewhere in a hurry.

7) When people are driving crazy and I need to stop quickly he helps me push on those breaks to keep me alive. Alright alright sometimes I have needed to put them on because I have done crazy things but he hasn't complained even when I feel those brakes grinding.

8) He has put up with my loud (sometimes blaring when I'm in a really good mood) music even though his speakers are tired.

9) He has saved us so much money by being old and beat up. We had no car payment on him and our insurance payment was about $200 a year for him.

10) And last even though he has over 170,000 miles on him and is probably ready to go to car heaven he has always gotten me where I need to be and is even staying alive so we can make a little bit of money off of him.

Mr. Knightly you have been good to me and even though I'm really excited to have a new car you were as gentlemanly, selfless, and reliable as the person you were named after. You were my first car and I'll remember you forever. :]

Pics will be posted soon...

My house is finally in order...

2012-01-09T16:36:00.000-08:00

Our year started with a few goals and a lot of cleaning. We'll start with the cleaning.

On Saturday the 6th Jarom and I spent all day (at least 6 hours) cleaning and organizing our apartment for 2012. It hasn't been so organized since before we moved in. The 2 places that really needed help were the kitchen and master bathroom. When we moved in I just kind of threw things places and we finally went in and organized it the way we wanted it.

The Master Bathroom Before:

After.

It feels good when you have a clean house but when you know places other people don't normally see are clean and organized... that feels even better.

Now the goals.

This year I have 2 New Years resolutions. I started to feel like everyone else and thought about not doing any (since I rarely keep them) but then I thought "Tay you're motivated to change right now so whether it's New Years or not you need to set some goals." So I did. I actually wanted to set about 500 goals but then I knew I really wouldn't follow through so I thought about all the goalsI wanted to set and thought of one goal that would help me accomplish the rest of them.

1) To wake up at 7am. I know that might seem weird but I usually wake up at 9 (because I went to bed at 12 or 1am the night before) sluggishly get out of bed, do my treatments, get something to eat, forget prayer and scriptures and before I know it it's noon and I have done 2 things and I'm still in my P.J's. I needed to have better structure to accomplish my 500 goals so I decided that waking up a 7 would help me a little with each goal I want to accomplish. As I get down the 7am thing I'll be able to set better goals to help me with everything else I want to do. This is also helping me go to bed earlier. I was asleep but 10:30 last night. My goal for this is to be getting ready for bed by 9 so I can be in bed by 10 and asleep but 10-10:30.

2) I want to be more spiritual at the end of this year then I am now. I know that's very broad and I need to set smaller goals to help me do this but it's a start. Plus the 7am thing is helping me with this too. This is my first morning doing it and I already feel more spiritual.

Wonderful Day!

2012-01-09T16:02:00.000-08:00

Utah was wonderful mainly because of this...

Yes Marisa Price (or Marisa Fisher) is married. It was such a beautiful wedding and we couldn't be happier for her and Jonny.

Jonny is a great guy and we're glad he's a part of this family.

I don't really have any other pictures of our time in Utah but it was a lot of fun filled with those crazy Price games and a night in the Jacuzzi. :] It was also unseasonably warm. There was NO snow excpet for some on the mountains and in the 50's every day. Which was a bummer but at least I wasn't freezing. We also visited Jaroms grandma (Rahns mom Rasmina) and that was fun. She is so awesome. Even though she is basically blind and almost deaf she is so witty. She was making me laugh and I'm so glad I'm related to her!

Christmas in a Nutshell

2012-01-09T15:41:00.000-08:00

Wow where to start. I have so much to write about and not very many pictures.

Christmas was fun and BUSY!!! Here it is in a nutshell...

I worked at Bath and Body Works and on the 23rd until 11:30pm helping to close. As soon as I got home Jarom and I left for S.D (we had early morning plans) and got to bed around 2am. Then woke up at 7:30, got dressed, and had the Price traditional scone breakfast the morning of the 24th with Jarom's brother and grandparents. Then we came back to my parents and took a little nap. Before I knew it, it was time to leave for La Jolla to be with my dads' dad and stepmom (Jerry and Bernice.) Here are some pics of Christmas Eve.

Grant loved opening gifts. He just wanted to open open open. In fact as soon as he was done with his gifts he started to open mine. But I didn't mind the help.

My little Bryce in his Christmas Vest. :] What a cutie!

After the evening with them we went to Balboa Park, walked around and looked at Christmas lights, and fed the homeless. A couple years ago Lahren got the idea to make some food and put them in sandwich bags. We also add water bottles and we've passed out blankets and socks. It's been such a great tradition and a wonderful way to give during the Christmas season. After that we came home and Jarom and I did presents to each other and fell asleep on the couch watching Christmas Carol.

Isn't the living room beautiful. I love living in Rancho and I love our home but it doesn't truly feel like Christmas until I'm in this house looking at these decorations. :]

Kind of blurry but us about to watch Christmas Carol and me in my Christmas P.J's that my parents got me. :]

We rolled into bed around 3am and were up by 7:45 the next morning to get ready for Church. We went to Church with Jaroms grandparents (Sue's parents Ralph and Carol), then my Grandma Jo Anns for breakfast, over to Aunt Donnas' (she has SO many health problem and couldn't come that morning), back to my parents to Skype with Dallen...

then off to Jaroms' grandparents (Rahns' stepmom and dad. Joe and Daisy) to visit them ( mainly Daisy she also hasn't been doing very well), back to Cathywood to spend some time with the Hogewonings and eat some dinner, then our family Christmas.

My gift from my parents. Isn't this the most beautiful picture you've ever seen! I love this story in the Bible of the woman with the blood issue and the great faith that she had.

Me and my Chunky Christmas night. Making faces.

I drove back to Rancho Cucamonga the next day and worked from 7pm-1am. We had "floorset" and that's getting everything re-stocked and taking down all Christmas decor. I was home by 1:30am, did some treatments and ate dinner. Before I knew it Jarom was coming to get me (around 4am) so we could leave for Utah for his sister Marisa's wedding. Jarom had stayed in S.D to get a rental car with some friends who were also driving up to Utah. They stopped by Rancho to get me on the way.

On the way to Utah.

Right around the corner

2011-12-22T23:19:00.000-08:00

I can hardly believe Christmas is in 3 days! Here are some things that have been filling us with a holiday mood.

The Roger family came up and spent Sunday night and Monday with us. Sunday night we went to the LA temple.

Then the next day we drove over to the institute, made breakfast, and played ping pong and pool. Afterwards we drove up to the "snow." Yes this was real snow (not sleet) but there wasn't too much. It was still fun and it was probably for the best since we didn't really have snow gear. I took about 70 pics but EVERY one had Grant in it. So I was able to post 2.

Jarom chasing Lahren with a huge block of snow.

And this picture of the scenery. There was a beautiful fog rolling in. I wanted to get out and take pictures but we were in separate cars and needed to get back to Rancho.

Wrapping gifts definitely gets me in the holiday mood. I can't wait for everyone to open their gifts. It's not that I got anyone something I know they will love but it's fun to surprise them. I finished wrapping the gifts tonight. I'm ready!

Included in our gifts we make applesauce for everyone on my side of the family. Since Jarom's family makes the applesauce we figure they don't really want it as gifts but my family loves it.

We core and cut apples

Then boil them in sugar, lemon juice, apple juice, and cinnamon. They look kind of gross but taste delicious.

Then you spin it around in this cool masher we have. It takes out all the juice and inside of the apple but not the peel.

Me making applesauce.

Viola!

Merry Christmas!

Oh and Jarom watching Castle... or Cake Boss. We're into both shows right now.

Merry Christmas! Hope you're feeling the holiday spirit as well.

Snow in Rancho

2011-12-16T10:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was such an awesome day. It started out sunny which was ok but then I went up to the institute. Around 3 it started getting really dark. FUN! I was in Jaroms office and it started raining really hard. One of the institutes students came in a told us it was hailing not raining. :] SWEET! It hailed for a long time and then started pouring rain. Soon after there was a huge crack of thunder that shook the institute and for the next while we watched/ heard lightening and thunder. While this was going on Jarom was making everyone waffles while we listened to music, talked, and played pool. Eventually it moved on but then another institute student (Joey) came in and said it had snowed over by where he worked which was very close to the institute. So we hopped in the car and checked it out. True to his word it really had. It wasn't snow snow. I mean we're not in Utah or Wyoming or back east but it was snow.

It was so awesome. What a great day.

The Windy City...

2011-12-02T20:03:00.001-08:00

At least it was 2 nights ago. I woke up at 12am to roaring wind outside. As soon I was awake enough to realize what was going on I ran to our balcony to find our Christmas ornaments on the ground, our mat flying around, and the chair moving towards the wall trying to find it's freedom. I quickly grabbed everything and threw it inside the house. Luckily our lights were ok but then I ran to the front to grab our wreath that was a few swings away from flying off the hook on our door and our table. I forgot our doormat which was laying at the bottom of our stairs the next morning. I then was awakened by the wind 2 more times at 1am and 3am. It was so loud and a little scary but also kind of fun.

The next day Jarom came home from work and said "have you been outside?" I hadn't because I had spent all day cleaning the house (it looks amazing by the way) and he insisted that we go out. So I grabbed my camera and we took a tour of the city devistation. Ready...

I guess the door wasn't closed all the way. It was ripped right off.

Someones fence. You can see part of it on the ground

Pulled up at the roots

The top of the tree is on the ground

Can you believe this? Did you notice the huge rock that was pulled up with everything else?! Jarom said on his way to work there were trees like this laying in the middle of the road and they were having to re-direct traffic. We saw at least 8 trees like this. Like the one below.

As you can see the top of the pulled up ground is next to the second story and that's only half of the tree.

I can't believe how windy it was. They said it got up to 70 mph. These trees that were being pulled up by the ground weren't little trees, these were big huge trees. It was a crazy night!

It's Thanksgiving time... It's turkey time...

2011-11-24T09:28:00.001-08:00

His name is Tom... He's a bird... That's the word.... Tom's a birrrrrrrd. " -Cosby show Olivia :]

On Monday we had a Family Home Evening Thanksgiving with Lahren.

Aren't these so cute. She cut everything out and then we could put together our thankful turkeys. There is suppose to be only one layer of feathers but Jarom didn't want to finish his turkey so now it looks like my turkey is on fire.

Anyway these are the things Jarom is grateful for:

~Gospel

~Sports

~Temple

~Tayler :]

~Family

These are the things I'm grateful for:

~Jarom/Family (If I could have had more feathers Jarom would have had his own)

~Health/Doctors

~Jaroms Job

~Home/Decor (Maybe decor seems superficial but I do LOVE making my home beautiful and I love decorating it and I'm thankful for all the things I've been able to receive/buy to make my home more beautiful)

~Church(Sacrament specifically)/Temple

~Trials (Underneath I put I'm grateful for the knowledge I have of growing from them and that the can make me more like Christ)

Trials seems to be the thing that stands out most in my mind this year of the top thing I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for so many things but right now I'm so thankful for my trials. I can honestly say as I get older that I LOVE them! This doesn't mean they aren't hard or that I wish I didn't have them sometimes but I have the most spiritual experiences that come from them. Recently with everything going on with my feeding tube I have felt the spirit so strongly and have felt so close to the Lord. I have learnt so much and I have a sure knowledge that trials make me the person I need to be to return back to live with my Heavenly Father and eventually reach exaltation.

Although I do feel there are many different trials and not all of them come from Christ. These are some trials I have discovered (I've highlighted the things that make each one different):

1) Lord trials-Trials the Lord gives us that we need no matter what to make us the kind of person we need to be to return to live with Heavenly Father... like C.F

2) Trials the Lord gives us but last longer or are more intense then they should be because we are not doing our part... myself making C.F harder then it needs to be

3) Self Trials- Trials we bring upon ourselves... through our foolish actions... getting caught in an internet scam, making lots of phone calls, and having to switch credit card info (don't judge... it was for a good cause :])

4) Reminder Trials- Trials the Lord gives us that didn't need to be in our lives if were progressing spiritually on our own... not reading person/family scriptures, saying personal/familyprayer, FHE & the Lord says " If you don't start remembering me on your own I will help you remember." :]

Recently I also received new meaning to a certain scripture. Matthew 16: 21-23. Christ is on earth and is teaching his disciples. He is telling them that he will soon be crucified. It says:

21: "From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and raised again the third.

22: Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee

23: But he (Jesus) turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me Satan: Thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of me."

I believe that Christ rebuked Peter because....
1) Peter could not see what was truly of God and what was of man
2) Because of this Peter could not praise and rejoice in what was about to happen (which was that Christ was about to save the sons of men and bring us back to exultation)

This has a lot to do with why we (members of The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints/ Mormons) don't wear the cross.

When people tell me they would take my C.F away if they could or make sure nothing bad happened to me from it, I feel badly for them. Like Peter I feel they are totally missing the point. Although I know they mean well and I do appreciate what they are trying to say what they don't realize is that if they really could do this, they would be denying me exultation. They are referring to the fact that this disease came from man and not God. It absolutely came from God. I have C.F because God wants me to have C.F because he wants me to return to live with Him again and He knows that's how I'll be able to do this. People need to "savour" their trials and realize what is from God and what is from man. I LOVE my C.F and would live my life with it again. It has given me opportunities and experiences I would have never had without it. Like I said this doesn't mean it isn't hard or that I don't hope that there is a cure one day but it will come at the right day, whether I'm here to see it or not.

I rejoice in my C.F and I'm thankful for it. Today I'm thankful for all my trials. Even the ones that don't have to do with my C.F. :]

Christmas has begun...

2011-11-12T17:40:00.001-08:00

at least in the Price household! :] We aren't going to do inside decorations until after Thanksgiving but I was driving around the other day and saw some people had put up Christmas lights. It made me so happy. I guess because lights put me in a holiday mood so it makes me feel excited for Christmas and Thanksgiving!

Like I said the inside of our home still has Thanksgiving (and some Halloween) decorations. :] But our patio is looking very Christmas-y! Since we're in an apartment and can't nail anything we had to get some extra stuff. I'm not going to say we had to get creative because Lowes did all the crafty thinking for us! We just went in a bought it. :]

First off I LOVE this! My dad did it when we were growing up and I think most people know about it but they have plug converters that go into your porch light. Take out the bulb, screw in the converter, and plug in your Christmas lights! Then you can control them from your switch!

Then instead of us having bars on our balcony (like most people) we have a concrete wall with glass to help block the noise from the street. These are banister hooks (for garlands) but they work very well for us!

Since we can't use those for the bottom we bought this suction cups that hold the cords.

Then these clips are probably the thing most people can use. They clip onto the wood partition under your gutter and hold your lights up! Jarom loved these and I'm pretty sure even when we move into a house that we can nail into we'll still use them!

Finished Product = Beautiful! Thanks babe for helping me with this! :]

Best husband award goes to...

2011-11-10T13:17:00.001-08:00

Jarom Price!!!!

When Jarom and I were first married and would get into arguments I would want to tell my mom, Lahren, friends, basically everyone what happened. Jarom finally came to me and told me it really bothered him when I did that. I didn't need to share everything that happened, I needed to come talk to him so we could fix it. I'm so glad he told me this. It was hard to not share things at first but now it's hard to share things. I feel that this is totally appropriate and I love that our relationship has become more private in this area. It has made us so much closer and better able to communicate.

I know you're wondering where in the world I'm going but I'm getting there :]...

So along with not always sharing when I'm frustrated with him I've also toned back on sharing when I'm utterly in love with him. I mean people can tell I am because it's super hard to not show when you're completely in love with someone :] but I'm less likely to post it on facebook or write a blog about it and I think this is good also because instead of me telling the world when I'm in love with Jarom, I tell Jarom. I believe this has also brought us closer together.

So with that said I am going to step a little out of my comfort zone for now and write a blog about the sweetest thing. The main reason I'm doing this is because this blog is my journal. It's so easy to type out everything I want to say and post pictures and I want to remember this forever. I also want our children to know about these things (from my perspective) so they can learn from him and they can be more like him.

Well 2 nights ago Jarom and I got into an argument. Jarom and I never yell at each other or say hurtful/mean comments on purpose or out of spite. I feel that we're very good at communicating how we're feeling but sometimes things are said that get taken the wrong way and this was one of those nights. It was hard and hurtful. We finally went to bed (not really having the issue resolved) and Jarom left at 5:30am the next morning to visit a seminary class and I didn't get home until 9pm because I had a doc appt. in S.D.

As I was walking up to the apartment I realized all the lights were off. I thought this was a little weird but not to much because I always call Jarom my vampire. If he gets home when the sun is up and is sitting on the couch watching T.V when the sun goes down he wont get up to turn on the lights. I've come home to him many times sitting on the couch in the dark playing with his iPad or watching T.V (Or both.) So I walk in but there's no Jarom. Then I hear music coming from the back and see a weird glow coming from our bedroom. None of our lights make this kind of glow. It looked like Christmas lights coming from our bedroom. Then I listen to the music more closely and realize it's Christmas music! Very un-Jarom like to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving.

I'm so confused so I start walking into the back and hear the shower going. So at this point I hear Christmas music, see a soft glow, and realize that Jarom is taking a shower. What is going on? When I walk in to this...

I know you're thinking "What is it?" So I will tell you. I took a pictures with more lights on but the presentation was so beautiful that I hated turning the lights on because the pictures cannot do it justice.

On top of the nightstand are flowers, a card, a village piece, and his iPad that was playing music all on some of our fake snow. Below is a lamp from the kitchen so the ornaments could be lit (also sitting on fake snow.)

I just sat there in awe!!! A few nights ago we had gone to Costco and I had seen these indoor/outdoor ornaments and wanted some to hang on our balcony! So that night he had gone to Costco and bought the ornaments and flowers. Then went and dug out our Christmas decorations, found the fake snow and village house. Wrote me a beautiful apology note, turned on some Christmas music and set everything up to take my breath away. Plus he had gone on the Find a Friend app so even though I hadn't called and told him that I was coming home he had followed my every move to know when he should set it up and hop in the shower so I could have some alone time to soak it all in.

The note was special to me so I didn't post the whole thing but I loved this part.

(I hope these flowers and Christmas wonderland will bring back the joy I caused to take away.)

Flowers.

Beautiful Ornaments!

SO beautiful and incredible sweet!!! I love you Jarom Price. Thank you for being such a thoughtful man! I hope all of our children turn out just like you!

Recently...

2011-11-05T00:26:00.000-07:00

Will first off I have about a gazzilion pics of my new adorable nephew Bryce and his equally adorable brother Grant but I cannot post them. Lahren and Will aren't so comfortable with the blog/picture thing and I don't blame them. There are some creepy people out there. Blogger needs to come up with private posts. If there is a post that you want to add but just want close friends to see (like my sweet nephews) you can make just that post private. Wouldn't that be awesome. Alright blogger we're waiting. :]

Then I was going to do a Halloween post but I have to admit our Halloween was pretty lame. At least to post about on a blog. It was nice but not packed with spooky fun-ness or pictures. :] We did go to a really fun Halloween party put on by our good friends and we dressed up last min. as baseball players (just put on a couple of Jaroms old shirts and some hats.) Yeah we didn't dress up this year. I was feeling particularly poor and we don't have kids yet so it's no big deal right?!

The next night was the trunk or treat with our ward and we passed out candy to all the cuties and talked with some friends and then headed home for the evening.

Halloween was next. That morning I was in S.D for a doctors appt. (which you can read about here) and spent the morning with some (not all) of my favorite people (Mom, Lahren, Will, Grant, and Bryce) and then drove home to spend that night with my hubby. We went out to dinner and then snuck into our house before the trick-or-treaters could see us. Lame? Yeah but candy is SO (Caps, bold, underlined, italicized, so you'll get my point) expensive and we did do the trunk or treat so we felt that we have done our part. When we got home we made hot chocolate and I went to put on the Others since it's the ONLY scary movie I can watch (probably because it's not even that scary and was on instant Netflix) when Jarom said "I don't like this movie." Meh... I had been looking forward to this for days... just me and him, candles, hot chocolate, cuddling, semi creepy movie... and at the last second he tells me he doesn't like it. :[ So we talked for a little but about what we wanted to do and decided to rent that weeks "Halloween" episode of Psych! Our favorite T.V show and the only one we watch. We couldn't get it online because they're making us wait 30 days before they'll start putting the episodes online (lame.) So we decided to splurge and invited over an institute student ( SUPER cool Tia) to watch it with us since she is a Psych lover too. So the evening ended up being pretty good. I loved the episode but I rarely don't like the episodes.

This brings me to today. Who knew my introduction about why I haven't been doing blog posts and my beautiful day today would turn into a massive update about what's been going on?!

Well ready to hear some more... good. :] Actually I really just do these for me. My blog is definitely my journal so sometimes you get the fun posts and sometimes the boring ones that I will love to look back on. :]

So today really was a bunch of nothingness but that nothingness ended up being AMAZING! This morning I went to Jaroms institute class that he started for the women in our stake (and anyone else who may want to join.) It was great and I loved it and being with/ learning from other women instead of just on Sundays. Plus woman from primary/ YW can come so I think it will be a great opportunity for them as well. :] We only had 5 (including myself) show up this morning but that usually happens with the first class plus it was raining. Hopefully it will grow and a lot of women said they were bummed they missed this morning.

So after class Jarom said he needed to work on his lesson for tomorrow (he's talking at youth conference) and was going to spend some more time at the institute. Well he needed to get on youtube to download a video he wanted to show and he cant do that on his church computer so he said he'd have to come home and work at home... darn. :]

I think you can guess what happened next. Yeah he came home and we lit candles, took a nap, played games, talked and had so much fun just being together all while it was cold and rainy outside. Then around 5 he picked up a pizza and cleaned the kitchen while I did my treatments and then we rented Cars 2 while we ate cookies and had hot chocolate. I wish the movies were $2 instead of $5 (I'm sure future generations will look back and laugh at that when they're paying $15-$20) but when you consider that it would have been $25 for us to see it in a movie theater... $5 HD isn't that bad. And we have a pretty nice T.V. We loved the movie and I cried but I don't think there is one Disney movie that hasn't made me cry when I see it (at least the first time.) Now he is finishing up his lesson and I'm writing on my blog instead of doing the school that I've procrastinated into doing tomorrow. :]

GREAT DAY!

Pier Date

2011-10-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Jarom and I were just sitting around wondering what to do when I thought "We live 1 hour away from L.A. We should take advantage of that" Even though it still an hour it's better then 3 which is what we would have driven if we still lived in S.D. So we decided to head out to the Santa Monica Pier.

Pier

Sweet Boardwalk. I mean this is considered a boardwalk... right?! :]

Love him!

Old Photos they had on the pier. Love these! The right photo is what the pier looked like in 1954(?)

This was just a weird drinking fountain. The water just falls off onto the sand... which is why you can see little bits of green grass growing.

After the pier we found a mall just 2 min away and decided to have dinner and walk around. It was so such a beautiful evening and the mall was huge. They had performers everywhere and that was cool too. Well the good performers were cool. :]

This is where we ate dinner. We got there at the perfect time. After we left is started getting really crowded.

Jarom at the restaurant.

Look at those dimples. When I was in YW and we were making those lists about what you want your husband to be like/have I totally put dimples. :] Who knew I'd actually marry a guy who had them! Love them!

Me with beach hair. :]

Newest Bath and Body Works Employee. :]

2011-10-14T17:51:00.000-07:00

Kind of a long post so if you don't want to read the whole thing... I got a job at Bath and Body works. :] The end.

Want to know how I got the job

So I got a job and I'm really excited about it! I really just wanted something to do to bring in some extra income and keep me busy. I guess I was really suppose to have this job because a little over a month ago I started thinking about getting a job and Bath and Body Works popped into my mind. I liked how it was a smaller store and there is one 2 min driving distance from our house so on cooler days I can walk/bike to work. :] They also happened to be hiring at that very time. So I put in my application and they said they'd call me the next week. Well no call came in so I went into the store and told them that no one had called me and wanted to make sure they hadn't forgotten about me. Well, they had forgotten about me. There is another BBW about 10 min away at a mall and it's closed for renovations so everyone had just moved over to this store and it was really crazy and they had lost my application. So they set me up an interview time (sweet) and I came back a few days later and had my interview. It was a group interview which was a little awkward but I thought it went really well. They said they'd give me a call in the next week.

Well in my application I had put that I worked for a dental office (in 2007) and Rhonda. I was glad I had Rhonda as a reference especially since my last job was in '07 and I wasn't even sure if they remembered me. Well after I had my interview I remembered that I worked for Darcy at the dance studio but I got payed in classes not money which is why I hadn't thought to put her down as a reference in the first place. So 2 days after the interview I went back in and gave them Darcy as a reference. The next day they called me and asked if I could have my references call them (which I thought was weird) but both Rhonda and Darcy were super sweet and said they would. About 4 hours after that they called me and said I got the job. :]

This is really the first job I've ever applied for (the other 2 basically fell into my lap) and I'm very happy about it.

I had orientation yesterday which I was told would take 2 hours 3 at the most and was there for 4 hours and had to leave early because I had school. So I have to go back sometime at the end of this week and finish the last hour of orientation and then have my register training.

It will start off really slowly (about 4-6 hours a week) which I don't mind at all. Just because they have the one store and are hiring about 50 new people for the holiday season. I don't mind because this is the busiest I've been in a while with school, V.T supervisor, another calling which I received on Sunday :], driving down to S.D every week for my study and other appt., finally getting to know and hanging out with new people in the ward, etc. So starting out slow in fine with me. By the time we get into mid November the other store will be open and I'll be working part time (about 25-30 hours a week).

Can't wait. :]

Price Visit

2011-10-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had some house guests. Nathan, Colleen and their 5 kids came to see us. It was a little tight but SO worth it and we were so glad they'd make the trip with 5 kids. That's no easy feat! They came on Friday and we went and looked at some model homes. The kids LOVED it. They'd run from house to house picking out their favorite bedrooms. Then we came back and went to the park, ate dinner, and watched Veggie Tales. The kids went to bed and the grown ups talked for a little bit. We went to bed around 11 but Hannah and Ethan were sleeping in our room and they woke up at 5:45am. Let's just say I missed the first hour of conference Saturday morning and about 30min of Saturday afternoon. :] We watched the first session at the Institute so the kids could run around and play and then the second session at our house so Chloe and Kaitlyn could take a nap. Then they drove home before preisthood. I usually post pics and then write in-between but there were so many pics I wanted to separate it. Hannah (age 10) also took some pics. You got to give a photographer their credit so I put a caption under the pictures that Hanna took. I think we have a future photographer in our midst. :]

Kaitlyn

Aubree. She loved playing dress up.

Model!!! :]

Chloe (Hannah took the bottom, I took the top)

Hannah took this

Jarom, Aubree, Kaitlyn (Hannah took this)

They did a triple head butt when they got to the bottom. You can see Kaitlyn crying in the corner of the bottom pic but she was ok. Aubree got the worst with her right upper eye hit by Kaitlyn's head and the back of her head hit by Jaroms chin. She had a puffy red spot on her eye the next day so you know it hurt. (Hannah took these)

Aubree and Kaitlyn telling me something some boys were doing earlier.

Jarom and Aubree

Hannah and Chloe

Colleen and Chloe (Hannah took this)

Walking back to the apartment

Chloe watching Veggie Tales. Apparently our screen isn't big enough for her.

General Conference. Not a very good pic with my iPhone.

Chloe the bottomless pit. :]

Jarom and Chloe

Game High!

2011-09-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

So Sunday and I Jarom were having a nice day together and decided to play a game. I picked Yahtzee. For some reason I wasn't feeling it. I won the first game but only by a little and then totally bombed the second. Jarom wanted to play a third to break the tie but it just wasn't settling. A few hours later I all of a sudden wanted to play. I just felt like I couldn't lose. :] Guess it was good I followed my gut feeling because...

I got 3 Yahtzee's!!! :] I was a little bummed because I sacrificed my bonus (for the upper section) and 4 of a kind but come on... 3 Yahtzees. My final score was 447. Probably a new high. :]

Jarom was such a good sport even as he watched me take pictures and knew I would post them on the blog. What a great husband. :]

Mountain Drive

2011-09-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

A while ago (Sept 5th) I wasn't feeling very well so Jarom put me in the car and drove me up to the mountains and we took the back way up to Big Bear. There were suppose to be lightening storms and so we decided to chase them but that's exactly what happened all day... we just chased them. By the time we got to big bear everything was wet and cloudy but the storm had passed.

I was so taken with the town that I didn't take any pictures. :] But now I totally want to spend Thanksgiving or a week before Christmas up there. In a cabin, walking around town, snow, movies, puzzles, games, playing, a fire crackling, friends/family... you get the picture! Anyway took some pics of the drive. We didn't get out except at the lake and none of the pics are very good but... oh well. I'm a work in progress in everything but especially when it comes to taking pictures.

My car is soooo dirty! :]

On the lake. The people who own those houses are pretty lucky.

Baby Shower 9/10/11

2011-09-11T12:40:00.000-07:00

Lahren had her baby shower yesterday and I really wanted to go down since I missed the first one being in the hospital. It was so cute (if I may say so myself since I did most of the decor :]) and lots of fun! Since she's having a boy and already has a boy there wasn't to much that she needed except diapers!! So it was a diaper shower. :] Here are some pics (well lots actually):

Clothes line

Not gonna lie, I was CRAZY proud of myself when this cake was done. :] I really loved how it turned out and I don't know how people who make real cakes let other people eat them?! I just wanted to save this forever and take it to every baby shower I will be invited to. :]

Back of the "cake"

Cake topper! Huh these shoes were so cute! :] I also wanted to keep them. Hopefully Will Jr (not really the name) will not be as big as his brother Grant and he'll get to wear them a couple times. :]

Baby Games! Andrea Rogers (no relation to Lahren and Will Rogers just good friends) did the games. :] SO cute. This was a raffle. If you brought a bag of diapers you got to put your name in the bowl. The winner won a massage. Augastina Wilkins won. YAY!

The first game was "Guess how big around Lahren is" Viki Austin won that at 48 1/2 in. Viki guessed 48. The second wasn't so much of a game but "Help Lahren and Will choose a baby name" Lahren went through all the names and chose Devon. Although that will most likely not be his name Candy Sadlier "won" that game.

The third was this game. Guess how many candies are in the bottle. There were a little over 300 (I can't remember exactly) but Linda Franc guessed 280 and won the bottle. :]

Food Table

Alright I really can't take credit for all the decor. Just the baby decor. :] All the beautiful flowers and candles were Tia (Rhondas mom). She has such a talent for making something simple look so beautiful and elegant!

Cake Table

Cake
"Congratulations Lahen and Baby???" No name baby.

Arriving at the party.

Wish I could remember what was being said in this conversation.

(I know they'll love me for posting this one)

Pulling the name out for the diaper raffle.

Something interesting was happening here. :] Actually it's an electric recliner and Grant loves to play with it so he started putting it back.

The "How Big is Lahren" game. Lahren desperately wishing she'll magically be 30 in. :]

Guests

Grant knocked out!! Too much fun and too much sugar.

And last but definitely not least... the BEAUTIFUL mom to be. Love you sis!!! SO happy for you.

Tayler = not creative

2011-09-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

So I'm not creative at all and I want to be so badly. And I love people who are!!!!! Anyway I was looking at my friends blog and she had this button "make it and love it" I went to check out the website and ended up staring at this blog for at least an hour!!!!!! This woman is sooooo creative and makes things SO easy for people like me who are not creative at all! Anyway I put her button on my blog because I know I'll be going back often!! I'm going down to S.D this Saturday and I'm going to try to steal my moms sewing machine (since she's not using it right now) and start making things for people in my ward. I always think "when I have a baby then I'll get into that stuff" but what if it's just a fad. So I'm going to start now (when I have the time) and just do some fun things. We'll see how it goes. Anyway check it out here or click the button.

I love homes!!!

2011-09-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

I love Jarom and one of my favorite things that I love about Jarom is the fact that we could spend all day looking at model homes and we have. :] I love that he loves doing this with me and picturing our future together. And home shopping is so much better then apartment shopping. Or maybe it just seems that way to me since we've never been pressured to buy a home and it's all fun. :]

Anyway ever since we moved up here that's something we've been doing for fun. Especially since this could possibly be where we live for a long time if this is where the church wants us. Plus it's FREE! Sometimes we'll just drive around cities to see where we'd like to raise our family. :] Well yesterday we found a home that I loved! It just seems like the perfect size. Today they make homes so big. All the signs we see say "up to 7 bedrooms" but I don't want 7 bedrooms. More rooms, more cleaning! And I doubt we're going to have enough kids to fill them anyway. Plus it just makes the home more expensive and we don't have that kind of money.

This is 4 bedroom and they're actually pretty small rooms compared to the homes they're building these days but the living areas are spacious! There's also a loft upstairs which I love and the laundry room is upstairs which is genius! Who wants to cart all of their laundry up and down the stairs.

The only downside which isn't really a downside is it's not really in a city. Haha it's considered right outside the city of San Bernardino but it's in San Bernardino county. After you pass Rancho it's just barren land until you hit Hesparia. Well this is about 10min north of Rancho and Fontana on the east side of the 15. So even though it's considered San Bernardino the shopping and school districts would be in Rancho and the new nice area of Fontana which are only about 10 min away. I actually really like it. They're also trying to get a big park and elementary school right there in the community. Plus I think they're hoping to make it an actual city so it'd be perfect to buy now before it gets more expensive. I took some pics and some are off there website.

Downstairs

Upstairs

Foyer (off to the right is a guest bath and 4th bedroom)

Living room

Dining

Kitchen (with huge pantry)

Kitchen, Dining, Living (LOVE the fireplace just not the brick)

Master Bedroom

Master Closet and Bathroom

Loft (the laundry room is just to the left)

One of the bedrooms

This was in a different house but I loved this room so much and it made me want to have twin girls sooooo badly! :]

Anyway I know in a while I'll probably find a different house that I love more :] and I doubt we'll ever live here but I just love getting ideas of what I want. Sometimes you don't even know what you want until you see it!

Food Glorious Food

2011-08-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

So even though we already celebrated our anniversary we never really had a nice dinner and I was craving CPK so I forced Jarom to take me out for an anniversary dinner. :] It's in Victoria Gardens... a beautiful outside mall here.

Just a random picture of the mall.

This is why I forced him to take me! I'm in love with there Kung Pao spagehtti. I know it sounds weird but it is pure spicy deliciousness.

I also LOVE there mango lemonade!

We got this a few days later but since this post seemed to be all about food I thought I'd include it. A smores mix that they are selling at Costco right now. It is so good!

Anniversary Number 3

2011-08-09T15:12:00.000-07:00

Well like I said earlier we were at my family's house for our anniversary. In the morning we just laid in bed and read (really that's it :]). Then my parents bought and made us an anniversary breakfast.

My mom was writing Dallen that morning and wanted to take pics of everything to email to him. Hence the picture of us reading. :]

And this random one of all of us. Don't we look great?! :]

Our delicious breakfast!

For my present Jarom got me a new camera!!! :] I love it and these are some of my favorites so far. I know I'll look back and think "Wow I thought that was a good picture" (well hopefully I will :]) but I still love them. :]

This was my anniversary gift to Jarom. Along with the third and some ties that he's really been wanting! We're reading it together.

I love his face! He's my CHUNKY!!

Intensely leading the music.

My parents. <3

Random but it's of my red shoes that I LOVE! And I do liked how it turned out with my church dress.

Living Room Wall

I love you Jarom. It's a privilege being married to you. Thanks for all the good times. You make everything hard worth it. :]

Birthday from Rhonda. :]

2011-08-09T14:57:00.000-07:00

The new stuff I got at Bed Bath and Beyond. :]

New Bedroom

New Art

End Tables

Dresser

Sign over our bed

Plate Decor that Jarom hates but I love.

New mirrors by our picture of Christ

Thanks V!!! I love it ALL! :]

Price Trip

2011-08-09T13:28:00.000-07:00

So Thursday night I picked Jarom up from the train station, we dropped off Marty and headed back to Rancho. We got back super late and crashed. Then on Friday Jaroms parents came. Friday was frantic as we were trying to get everything ready and setting up all the new stuff I got at Bed Bath and Beyond. They came and we talked for a couple hours. After we went and got something to eat. It was Rahns birthday so we let him decided. I guess there's this really good BBQ place up here so we went to check it out. It was an 1 hour and 45 min wait and they decided to wait. It was a long wait as I was very tired and hungry but it was also fun as we just walked around the mall. We were finally seated around 10 and were done by 11.

It was good but nothing compared to Phils. I think that's the one restaurant we don't have here! Well we came home and went straight to bed. :] Then the next morning they watched movies while I slept in. We got up and got ready for the day. Went to the institute and played around for a while.

Dan and Ammon

Jarom and Rachelle, Rahn and Sue

After we got some Subway and came home and watched Inception (Daniel's catching up on his movies.) They were watching the movie very intently!

Then they went to S.D and we followed shortly after. Sunday we went to La Mesa 2 ward to see Jaroms grandparents and our friends the Mackays. Matt was teaching Sunday school also and Jarom wanted to see him. We went by there house after church and Matt helped me with my new anniversary gift (a new camera and also a future post :]).

The kids LOVED Jarom like all kids do! I can't wait to have kids and watch him be a daddy!

We had dinner with them and then went and saw my Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Bernice in La Jolla because it was his birthday on Monday the 8th (also our anniversary:]).

We talked with them for a while and then came home. Monday was our anniversary and we spent the day with Jaroms family having a pool party.

Chole

Kaitlyn

Aubree

Ethan

Hannah

I have to admit probably not my first choice on how to spend my anniversary but I wouldn't have missed it and it was great to be with everyone. :]

Another Trip to S.D

2011-08-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

I went down to S.D while Jarom was at a conference in Carpentaria. We drove down to S.D Sunday night and then on Monday Jarom took the train up to Caprentaria with Marty Morgan. I spent the week with my family. Monday night we went to Rhondas and played Tripoli. Her new house is beautiful!

Tuesday I went to the zoo with Lahren but we were only there for a couple hours because it was so hot!!! Even out by the ocean there was no breeze and the sun was beating down. So we went back to Lahrens and hung out. Then I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and I got some new stuff for the house (which will be in a later post.)

The rest of the time we just hung out. My mom had silver from my dad's grandma(Ines), my moms grandma (Nana), and my mom's mom (Ammy). They were old and discolored so my mom and I (but mainly my mom) cleaned them. Lahren got Ines, my mom took Nana's and I got Ammy's.

Before

After

Then we sat around, watch movies, ate and did nothing. :] I just wanted to share this photo of Grant. :]

Cinderella Play

2011-08-09T12:38:00.001-07:00

A couple weekends ago our friends (Doug and Melissa) invited us to a play of Cinderella. It was in Redlands at an outdoor amphitheater. It was so fun and we're so glad they invited us. There were over 1000 people there.

The play was great. Right in the middle when the fairy godmother is turning cinderella into a princess and the pumpkin into a beautiful carriage; The carriage comes out pulled by a white horse and stops on the stage showing off while everyone is singing "Impossible" when all of a sudden... yes the horse decides it needs to go to the bathroom. Everyone was laughing (of course) and even the people on stage were just trying to get through the song. It was still a wonderful play and very memorable. :]

FHE in Rancho

2011-07-26T13:42:00.001-07:00

The other night for FHE Jarom and I went to the community center. It's really nice over there. We brought our frisbee and the Ensign.

This story was incredible. They are a group of people (Uros) who build islands made of reeds about 4 feet deep. They are amazing!

Not a very good pic but I love it anyway :]

And it just so happens they were having a movie in the park night! Furry Vengeance. It was pretty dumb but there were some funny parts and it was clean :] Plus it was a nice night.

Zoo Sister Date

2011-07-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

After my appt. I stayed the night at my parents house and went to the Zoo with Lahren and Grant the next day. She has the diamond pass so I get in for free. :] Anyway just wanted to post some pics of our super fun day.

Lahren was in the bathroom. I guess he was a little nervous and was looking for her.

These are in the play areas for kids but they're life size collars that they put around elephants necks and track where they migrate. They're huge (obviously if they fit around an elephants neck) but they look really heavy also. :[

This is all Grant wanted to see this day were the hippos! There was one right by the glass but since it's the summer there where a gazillion people there (even on a Wednesday) and we could only be there for about a min.

Yuck I hate snakes but I took this because it's eye looked weird. I came home and showed Jarom and he said "Oh it's about to shed." I didn't believe him but I googled it and true enough skin forms over their eye before they shed and then it all comes off together.

I've seen big turtles but I've never seen a long necked turtle. Pretty weird huh?

Even though it was late in the season we still saw some babies.

This was Grants favorite place. Just a little pond area out of the way that has ducks and turtles.

Flamingo's

You can tell this is a baby because standing it's the same size as it's sitting mom. :]

The whole time these guys were fighting the mom was just relaxing in the back letting the trainer scratch her ears. :] She seemed like a regular exhausted mom. I mean look at that tongue. :]

More Feeding Tube

2011-07-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday I had my doc. appt. in S.D to see why my feeding tube hole isn't closing. Nothing is wrong (of course) but there's just enough scar tissue built up that it's not closing. They did a CT scan and some x-rays with contrast. It was a long day. My appt was at 1 for the CT scan (and they told me I couldn't eat). They didn't get me in until 1:45 and only after I went up and talked to them. They got me in (since I had the appt. with x-ray at 2) and 25min later I was done with that. Then I waited and waited and finally at 3 they brought me back for my x-ray. The doctor came in and looked at it, explained that there was nothing on the C.T. scan and gave me options of how I could close it, told me what they were going to do with the x-ray and then left. I thought he was going to prep (it needed to be sterile) but he didn't come back. In the meantime they've prepped me and made the area around the hole sterile so I can't move. So I'm laying on the table not able to get my phone or do anything and I eventually fall asleep. 45 min later the doc comes back into the room and finally starts the proceeder. I guess there was a small emergency with another patient (glad I didn't need to be anywhere but I still haven't eaten!). They put the contrast in, confirm there is nothing there, and ask if I want surgery or a plug. Surgery is more intense as they would have to knock me out and possibly make other incisions to stitch me up. It would probably be a longer recovery as well. For the plug they sedate me then numb the area... go in and widen the hole a little, scrap of the scar tissue that's accumulated, and put in a bio-degradable substance that will help the skin to close. There's a plug that sticks out of my stomach and when the hole is closed it falls out. Sounds better except there's a greater chance that the hole wouldn't close. They say I'm a great candidate (young and very healthy for anyone who would normally get a feeding tube) but they can't promise anything. They can't promise anything with surgery either but there's a better chance. So I've thought a lot in the past week, debating what's going to let me get pregnant sooner :], and I think I'm going with the plug. Initially I thought surgery but I've decided to go with the less invasive procedure and if it doesn't work then I guess I'll have the surgery.

Me in my beautiful hospital gown.

The x-ray with contrast.

The catheter is going into my stomach. You know... where the feeding tube hole was. :] They stuck in the hole.

Dallens in the field!! :]

2011-07-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

Dallen is officially in Mexico. He was doing great in the MTC except for some companion issues that he was working on. I can't believe it's already been 2 months! But it still feels so far away before he comes home even though I know time will fly! He got to call us before he left so we got to talk to him for about 30 min. It was so nice. :] He told us what was going on and asked us some questions. Then he told Jarom and Will how thankful he was for them and their example in going on missions and their influence to help him go on one. He talked to Lahren and I about how much he loved and missed us. He talked to my dad for a little bit also but I couldn't hear what he was saying. Jarom and I were on face time in Rancho and so I could only hear him when the phone was being held up to the computer. I know he told him how he knew he was in the right place and that the Lord would protect him. He also told my mom and dad how much he loved them. Then he bore his testimony to us in spanish and he sounded awesome. He has a great accent! I know it will be different out in the field when they're talking 50mph but I couldn't believe how fluent he was. He sounded great! The mission president sent us this picture of him.

I'm so proud of you bud! You are such an amazing young man and I can't wait to see how you'll change. And then eventually get married and have kids. You'll be an amazing father and husband and I know your mission will contribute to that a lot. You inspire me to be better and I can't wait to see you again! I have such a deep love for you. Come home soon. :]

Red Pumps

2011-07-14T21:34:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited about these shoes!! I've wanted red pumps for so long but either they're the right price and I don't like them or they're super cute but to expensive. Well the other night Jarom and I were walking around Victoria Gardens (a great mall up here) and we walked by this little shoe place and I saw they were having a bogo 1/2 off sale. I was going to pass up it but then I saw in the corner of the store a sign that said $10, $15, $20, and $25 shoes. So I forced Jarom to go in with me so I could see what they had in the $10 and $15 shoes and they had these for $15. :]

I know they look kind of pink or orange but they're a candy apple red. I LOVE them!!!

I know this is kind of blurry but it's to prove to my kids that I did have style at some point in my life. Hahaha. :]

Feeding Tube (Photo Warning)

2011-07-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

In April of 2006 I got a feeding tube. I didn't really feel like I needed it but I was excited to get it. I mainly got it because everyone was constantly on me to eat food and gain weight. I hated eating (which is why everyone was always on me to eat) and I knew if they would just back off I might like eating again. I knew I might lose some weight at first but then I'd learn to like to eat again. But no one listened to me so I decided to get a feeding tube. I had some spiritual impressions that it would be a difficult recovery and it was. I mean stomach surgeries are hard anyway because it hurts to do ANYTHING. I mean I didn't realize how much I use my stomach muscles for everything! Plus with my C.F they wanted to me to cough all the time and it did take me a lot longer to heal to then other kids. Well like I thought after I got it everyone backed off and I learned to love to eat again. About 2 years later I wanted to take it out but my dietitian kept telling me... well if you want to have a baby someday you'll want to keep it in. So I did for another 3 years in which time I got married and we decided it was time to start our family. So I started seeing doctors and they had never heard of anyone who was pregnant with a feeding tube. :/ Huh I was so mad because I wasn't sure how an expanding stomach would work with a feeding tube and no one could give me answers plus it was hurting sooo badly it would keep me up at night. I asked a G.I doctor about removing it and he said I could just take it out and it'd heal in a few days. So I took it out and 5 months later it still hasn't healed. This is what I wanted to write about because it's why we came to S.D in the first place. I finally got an appt. set up to see another G.I doctor to have a consult about getting it sewn up this past Friday. When we came down we decided to stay for the weekend and for the 4th. Anyway we went and the nurse and surgeon had never really heard of it not closing before. It always closes on it's own in a few days, 2 weeks at the most. So I have to come back July 12 (Tuesday) and have a C.T scan. They're going to put some ink in the hole and make sure that my stomach acid isn't leaking into any other parts of my body. They also want to see if something is blocking the hole (like a stitch) that's keeping it from closing. If I'm lucky they'll just get it closed up right afterward. When I got those impressions that it would take a while to heal I didn't think that meant when I took it out also. :]

Well here are some pics...

Right before I took out the feeding tube

Right after... It was so raw and red. Super painful. The scar next to it is an incision they made to help them during the surgery.

5 months later. It actually doesn't look to much better in this pic but it's not raw and there's just a bit of red. It's also closed a lot. It probably looks bad because it's a close up shot.

4th of July Weekend

2011-07-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

Well that's how we started our weekend in S.D. After my doctors appt we just spent the day out in La Jolla. We went to the temple and spent some time on the grounds and saw Sister Tenney at the distribution center. We're actually both related to Sister Tenney even before we were married. :] Anyway it was nice to see her. Then we went to CPK and had some lunch and came home. The next day Jarom went for a bike ride and then we went to the fair.

I normally don't post pictures of myself (as some have called me conceded :]) but I liked this pic and I want pics of me in my journal to. :]

We walked around, got some food, and then saw my moms children's choir perform (East County Children's Choir EC3) along with Darcy's dance studio (Expressions Dance and Movement). Afterward we went to see some of the animals (for Grant) and tried some fried Koolaid. I didn't really like it but Lahren had some friends who came the second day the fair was open and they said it was delicious. then they came back at the end of the fair and they said it was not very good. I guess we got a bad batch.

Fried Koolaid

Us trying the fried Koolaid

Then I really wanted to go on one ride and this is my favorite ride at the fair. It's called Tango. :] It spins you in 3 different directions. It's so fun but it's actually pretty scary. I mean if that bar popped open there's nothing else to hold you. You'd fall to your death.

Me, Corey, and my mom.

Sunday we didn't go to Church because I was feeling pretty sick but later on we went and saw Daisy and Joe. We hadn't visited them in a while and we really wanted to see them. We were there for a few hours and it was nice to talk to Daisy. Joe can't really hear and so when we come he normally just sits on the couch and watches T.V. As we were walking out she showed us her garden. It's grown so much since the last time we were there.

Jarom and Daisy in the Garden with a tomato and a radish.

A tiny carrot that Jarom tried. He said it was pretty good.

Tomatos and green onions. They were really good!

Then Monday was the 4th of July. I didn't take to many pics but it was fun. We went to Cavan and Andrea Roger's parents house. They had a beautiful back yard with a nice swimming pool. We went swimming and had a bbq. It was a really nice day.

My mom took a nap on the swing. :]

Lahren's delicious dessert. A sugar cookie with cream cheese type frosting. Strawberries blueberries and chocolate fudge to top it off. AMAZING

Grant with some dessert on his face. Or some "tootie" as he calls it. (Cookie)

We came home around 8 and watched the fireworks here. When we came home it was 90 degrees inside our house. :/

The fireworks were nice. We just walked down the street and saw Rancho's fireworks and Fontana's.

I usually don't post videos because I like making my blogs into books but I thought I'd start. I mean they just wont show up in the book right. :]

Rancho Apartment

2011-07-05T12:25:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post some pics of our apartment. For memories sake. :]

Balcony/View from Living room. I was soooo excited about the view! :]

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Laundry Room

Hallway. Yes our apartment was big enough to have a hallway. :]

Office/2nd Bedroom

2nd Bathroom

Master bedroom

Master Bathroom

Master Closet (in LOVE!)

Proud to be Mormon. :]

2011-06-28T12:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at Ralphs a lady asked us if we knew where the diet section was. We told her no since this was the first time at this store since we just moved up from S.D. We started talking about Rancho and random things when out of no where she says "Well we have 2 great temples relatively close and great wards around here" I was a little taken aback and asked if she was mormon also. She said yes and then said "You just have that look." Hopefully she was talking about our beautiful spirits emanating through our smiling faces... but I can't help but think she got the idea from my flip flops, knee length shorts, T-shirt, no make up, and messy bun while Jarom was in his white shirt and tie. :]

Either way I'm proud to be mormon and proud to be spotted as one. :]

Del Mar Fair

2011-06-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

I left Jarom in Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday night and drove down to Santee so I could go to the Del Mar Fair with my family on Friday (June 24th). I came down to get out of the house (I'm going a little stir crazy) and to see Grant perform. I wasn't expecting to much becasue he performed at the Santee street fair right after we moved and cried the entire time. This was his performance this time. :]

"Where's Grant?" I'll give you a clue... he's in a white shirt.

Me the "Stroller pusher" :] (and my dad on the side)

He had 2 dances and we didn't even stay for the 2nd one. We did some kiddie rides. This is Grant in the fun house. He ran into the wall twice.

Grant and Casen on the indian canoes. Grant didn't like these at first but by the end of the ride he wanted to ride them again. Casen wanted to go on some trucks across the way and I guess Grant didn't notice that Casen didn't get back in with him because as he got in the canoe he said "Wheres Casen" only it probably sounds more like "Whers Sasen" :] He loves his buddy Casen!

Then we went over to the midway and got some food and saw Grandpa Jerry play the piano. :] My lunch. I was soooo craving BBQ. It wasn't as good as Phils but it satisfied. :]

We also had Dip n' Dots. Something about the individual beads melting in your mouth makes them taste so much better then regular ice cream.

We walked around the shops and Lahren bought me 2 rings for my birthday and I bought her a hat for her birthday. :] Then I came home . Grant on the ride home.

I was going to stay that night also but I missed Jarom so I drove back that night to be with him. Great day. :]

Bass Pro Shop Date Night

2011-06-16T13:02:00.000-07:00

Last night Jarom and I went to the Bass Pro shop. When we started telling people where we were moving a lot of them said "Oh isn't that by the Bass Pro Shop off the 15... you got to check it out." So that's what we did. It really is an amazing place. It's kind of like a hunting/wilderness Walmart. They have everything. Food, clothes/swim suites, cooking utensils, pool supplies/toys, furniture, bikes, guns, fishing poles, tents, seasoning for making your own jerky, haha everything. There was also a restaurant (which we've heard is really good) and a fudge place. It was fun to walk around and just check it out.

View from the upper level.

Huge Aquarium!

Fishies.

All of the animals (which were everywhere) are all Taxidermy. Haha Does that make sense. I'm not sure how to use that word in a sentence.

These candles were in the store and I though they were funny. The sign says that in the 17 century parents would be concerned about how long suiters would stay with their daughters so this candle would time how long the suiters had been there. You fed (or feed) the candle 3" through the clip and light the wick. The wax will melt approx. 20min per inch. I thought that was so funny and cool. Anyway you can buy them.

We also got some fudge. If you bought 4 pieces you got 2 free so we did. Haha. I love fudge. There was Milk Chocolate with M&Ms, Milk Chocolate and strawberry (My FAV!), Milk chocolate, Butterfinger, Cookies 'n Cream, and Mint.

Then we came home and watched Tooth Fairy. When I first turned it on I thought "this is not very good" but then Billy Crystal popped up and he had some pretty good lines. It got better after that. :]

Birthday Weekend

2011-06-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

Alright well in all honesty it didn't start out to well. It was my fault. Jarom had to work on my birthday and I don't like that. All I want every year is to just be with him all day long. I don't need anything else just him. Well I thought I had prepared and worked myself up enough to be ok with him working but then when he left I let myself get all mad and depressed. He even left me a cute little birthday note and came home with my favorite flowers and fun silly little gift.

But by then I just wanted to be sad. He tried everything to make me feel better but as the day went on I was to proud to say sorry and pull out of it. By the end of the day I was so mad at myself and how stupid I had been reacting that I just cried. Around 11pm I finally let go of my silly pride and watched a movie with Jarom. He of course was amazing as always and forgave me. I was so mad at the way I had reacted because I don't feel like I'm that kind of person. I'm not someone who usually has a problem admitting when they're wrong so when I spent the whole day trying to defend myself and why I was right I just ended up being mad at me.

So I asked him if we could start over and pretend like Sat the 11th was my birthday. That morning he made me breakfast in bed and then we had a good in depth discussion about what had happened the day before. After that we got ready for the day and cleaned the house. I actually enjoyed it. Just cleaning with Jarom and getting it ready for my parents who were coming later that day. Then we went to Victoria Gardens which is a really nice mall here and got my new white iPhone. :] I love it and am so excited I finally have a phone... especially an iPhone. Plus it's also acting as my new camera. :] Afterwards I got a new purse and glasses at payless and then we walked over to TGIF for lunch.

New Purse

At TGIF

Then we went home and my parents came for the night. They wanted to come up for my birthday and to see the new apartment. We went over to see the institute and ended up hanging out and talking there for a couple hours then went and got a late dinner at Boston Market. We came back to the house and watched Tron. The funny thing about that was the sound didn't work on the regular settings so we watched the option for blind people. In the middle it got really annoying but I wanted to see how it ended and no one else really seemed to mind. Basically the actors would say their lines and then when no one was talking there was commentary about what was going on. You know like "Then as the father is leaving he looks at his soon longing as he gets on his motor bike and drives to work." Only through the whole movie which makes you realize how often people don't talk. I swear for a full 20min of the movie no one said anything. It was just music and commentary.

The next day we went to church which was our first time in the new ward. There were 10 new women in R.S. Yeah I don't have to be worried about being the new girl. :] But everyone was really excited that Jarom and I are staying long term because a lot of guys come down in the summer from Utah and Idaho to do the whole pest control selling thing. It's a very transit ward and the women were excited that I'm staying for longer then just 3 months. I guess priesthood was excited that Jarom was staying for longer too which probably means he will be the next Elders Quorum president or bishop. :] Then we all went back to S.D so Jarom could go to the seminary graduation and I went and got a Roger/Grant fix. :]

We left my parents car in Rancho, left my dad in S.D for work, and brought my mom back up to spend another night.

The next day Jarom went to work and my mom and I slept in, hung out and watched a movie, and then went to the Tai Pan Trading company. I guess it's the only one outside of Utah. It's like a huge Pier One Imports. My mom got a ton of stuff for the house. I didn't get as much but I got some great stuff for Christmas and Halloween in the sale section. I know a little soon but these were some great steals.

Cute hat I found but didn't buy.

After we had an early dinner at Souplantation. Then the weekend was finally over and my mom went home.

I have a great family and it was a great birthday. Presents, family, time with the hubby, good food, and some learning and growing. :] SO I'm not perfect like everyone thought but it was still a great 3 days. Hahaha.

Lovely Weekend

2011-06-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

Lots of little things happened this weekend in S.D and so I just wanted to write a few things down.

Friday night Jarom and I took showers and I went to wash the clothes. When I came back in Jarom asked if I had checked his pockets. I said no so I went back out to check and guess what was in there... his iPhone. I felt so badly but he was so patient and wonderful and just said " It's ok babe... It was an accident and it's just a phone." :] I'm in love!

Sat was way better. I had a new outfit and we went to Matt and Annie LaVoire's wedding which was out by the ocean. Then after we got some KFC and had lunch right by the water. It was perfect. I love days like that where you're together and the weather's beautiful and it was just beautiful. :] Then we went and saw Nathan, Colleen and the kids and that was fun to be with them. We played and talked... they are such an awesome family and we'll miss not seeing them more often. Then we went over to the Apple store to see if they could do something with Jaroms old phone and they replaced it for free!!! :] They don't normally replace water damage but we came in and were nice and honest and they said they would replace it. :] We were both so happy... especially myself. Then we went to the wedding reception which was also beautiful. It was just a lovely day.

Nothing spectacular but still lovely. :] Of course any day with Jarom is lovely.

We've officially moved!

2011-05-31T13:11:00.000-07:00

So I'm really bummed because I want to be posting lots of pictures but we don't have a camera! :[ I've been using Jaroms phone but I need to take the time to download the pictures. Anyway yes it's official... we now live in Rancho Cucamonga.

We moved Thursday but then came right back to S.D that night and spent the weekend with my family. We also cleaned out our condo and made it nice and pretty for the couple who is moving in. Next time we're getting a maid. :]

I like our little apartment but I LOVED our condo so I'm still adjusting. :] Actually our apartment is not so "little." It's way bigger then our condo. Our condo is 781 sq. ft. and our apartment is 1100! I love the space. We have a second bathroom which is nice AND we have a washer and dryer. This is the first time I've LOVED doing laundry! I've already done 2 loads and I can't wait to do more. :] We also have a huge walk in closet and master bedroom. I've unloaded almost everything (still working on the office) and it's definitely starting to feel like home but I'm anxious to put up pictures.

Jarom is at the institute today. I feel badly because there isn't a whole lot to do. We really want to get in a clean it out but Hal doesn't leave until June 1st so he can't really do anything until then and classes don't start until June 9th. But he is hired so he's just kinda hanging out, preparing lessons, and trying to find stuff to do.

Well that's about it. I can't wait to share more posts about our time in Rancho! :]

Oh and P.S just an update from my last post about my glucose test. Turns out my numbers are semi-"normal." They did 4 draws and I guess the lab tells them to only look at the 1st and 4th. The doctors have tried to convince them to only do 2 shots but they still have to do 4. Yeah I don't think it makes sense either but I guess it was good they did 4 for me because my fasting was 102 (normal). But then it spiked up to 189 and then 230 (high). My fourth draw was 89 and they know it went even lower then that later because when I got home I was dizzy, shaking, and nauseous. SO that's the problem. According to the first and last number I don't have diabetes. But because it spiked so high and then because of how low it spiked when I was home it show that my pancreas it struggling. The insulin doesn't kick in soon enough and then when it does it's let's out way to much. They said right now it can be treated with diet. No soda (not problem for me) and only little bits of juice (big problem) and fruit with my meals. No sitting down in the morning with a big bowl of fruit or anything like that. My meals have to be very frequent and mixed. I should be having 6 small meals a day and only little amounts of sugar with each meal. But when I become pregnant they'll have to put me on insulin since I have a "struggling pancreas." :[ Like I said... I love you future baby!

Future baby... I must really love you!!!

2011-05-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

Although it's not 100% if Jarom and I can conceive we have felt prompted that it is the right time and that we need to start trying. And that doesn't bother me because I'm so ready to be a mom. Well I'll be FAR from perfect or prepared but I'm ready in the sense that I want to be a mommy! And the more time that goes by the harder it is because I don't know how long I'll be on the this earth and I want to be with my baby as long as possible! I know I have eternity but I also have a natural man mind and that makes it kinda hard.

Anyway with that said there are a lot of things that I've needed to do physically (and spiritually) but mainly physically to prepare for this little munchkin! Horrible, painful things and I'm not even pregnant yet! I mean at least if I was pregnant I'd know that all the bad things I was going through was worth it right?! :] Well it's all good because all these things are helping me to be healthier in general but for example...

Today I had to take a glucose tolerance test. A horrible test that should be banned because it's to close to torture!! Haha jk it's not that bad it just involves a lot of needles and I hate needles. I know you'd think with my life I'd be used to it by now but... no! And of course anxiety is the worst but first you fast for 12 hours. Then get your blood drawn. Then you have to drink this horrible orange flavored drink that made me feel like I was going to throw up for about 3 hours until I got some food in me. But before I could eat I had to get another shot 30 min after the 1st. Then 30min after that. Then 1 hour after that!!!! YES that's a total of 4 shots. :[ And like I said I'm not even preggo yet! This may all be for naught. :] Future baby I really love you so I hope you're coming soon and I'm not getting these promptings because the Lord knows that's the only way I'll buckle down and really take care of myself... and then in the end I wont be able to have babies. So yes I hope you're coming soon!! :]

My shot marks...

This was the worst because they used the same vein. They always say "I'll go higher then the last poke" but it's doesn't matter... once the vein is bruised, it's bruised and it still hurts!

I know they are so small but even the smallest things can be the most painful. Hahaha in reality it wasn't that bad and I know I'm going to have to do it again in the future and I'll be able to handle it. I just like being dramatic.

New hire training

2011-05-21T18:33:00.000-07:00

This past Tuesday and Wednesday we were in Utah for another training. This wives were included for this one. :]

Our flight left at 6am so we were up by 4 and on our way by 4:45. We had a lay over in Vegas and when we got there I was really hungry. I saw a Wendys and told Jarom "I'm so hungry let's get some lunch." He looked at me and said "Tayler it's 7:30 in the morning." That's when I knew it was going to be a very long day and it was. But good.

We arrived in Utah and a shuttle picked us up and took us to "The Plaza" hotel right across from Temple Square. We got checked in and then headed over to the church office building for lunch and meetings. It was raining and so I wanted to have the hotel drop us off closer to the building but Jarom wanted the adventure of walking. By the time we got to the church office building I was wet and freezing cold. My hair was soaked and somehow my hair spray soaked up the water and my hair wouldn't dry so it looked wet and greasy for 3 hours. Fun. But we got there and had lunch with 12 other couples who had just gone through a training that we'd go through after lunch. They were awesome people. It was kinda sad to meet all these amazing couples but then not see them again because we're all in different states. Actually there were about 25 couples who were hired this year. One was going to Mesa Arizona, about 6 were in Idaho with one on the border of Idaho and Organ, we were the only ones in California and the rest were all over Utah. The rest were Seminary instructors; Jarom was the only institute director.

After lunch we went to the meeting to have Jarom learn more about the laptop they were giving him and met with HR to finalize everything. I was exhausted! Plus I had worn heals and we were walking everywhere so my feet hurt like mad and I wore a dress that was to short and I was so consciences of it all day. I threw it away when we got home. But after the meeting with Bro. Valenga (who was our HR rep that day) we went up a few stories and saw Rahn. It was nice to just set in the office and relax for a little bit. Then we walked back over to the hotel, changed, and had dinner with the rest of Jaroms family.

This is the view from our room. It was so beautiful looking at the conference center and capital building all lit up.

The next day we got a ride over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where we had some morning meetings, then lunch, and then an afternoon conference with Chad Webb the CES administrator. He's at the top. He meets every 2 weeks with the church education board (Pres. Monson, Pres. Eyring, Pres. Utchdorf, Elder Nelson, Elder Ballard, Elder Oaks, Elder Snow, Sister Dalton, and Sister Beck) to discuss everything. He talked to us for about an hour and a half and it was amazing! When we left there we were even more excited about what we were doing and what our future has in store for us.

BUT before I close I have to tell you about lunch. I can have such a fascination with food. Haha I'm pretty sure it runs in my family. Anyway lunch was AMAZING!! I had to take some pics and talk about it briefly. :]

First was this salad. Spinach, strawberries, bacon, candied nuts, and red bell pepper with a strawberry vinaigrette dressing. I know those foods may sound weird together but it was delicious.

Second: Chicken Teriyaki. The teriyaki sauce was to die for. It was thicker then most teriyaki sauces because it had some honey in it. They also served rice and perfectly steamed veggies. Bell peppers (my fav), carrots, broccoli, onions (which were perfectly flavored and didn't overpower the rest of the food at all or leave you with stinky onion breath) and snow peas (which were good but I'm not to big on those). There was also some fruit but I though it was more of a garnish and didn't think it tasted good since it was warm from the plate.

Last Course: Dessert. It wasn't fudge but it wasn't a brownie either. It was like a combo and it was chocolate with a mint topping, vanilla ice cream, and a strawberry. Everything was amazing!!!!

What I learned from my lunch... the church likes us to have healthy delicious satisfying meals. After that I really wanted to be a better cook and make healthy dinners for Jarom and I. Plus the portion sizes weren't that big but extremely filling!

It was a great 2 days!

(If you're reading this and there are no pics I thought they would be posted soon but as you'll see in a few posts I washed Jaroms iPhone before he downloaded everything. :[ But I don't want to go back and re-write the whole thing.)

Blessings!

2011-05-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

Wow the past couple days have been amazing. Like I said a couple of posts ago so much has been going on and we've felt so blessed but I've just kind of had this unsettling lump in my stomach. Well luckily that went away about a week later and even though it was gone I must admit my faith was wavering. :] I was worried about where we were going to live with how much money we are making and if we were going to find renters, when are we going to pack with all the training days that are coming up, etc.

Well it's always easier to have strong faith once everything works out but I can truly say that this experience has enhanced my testimony. Not only to have more faith even when things don't seem to be working out, but how much my Heavenly Father truly loves me, wants me to be happy, and is involved in my life. I don't understand people who believe in God but think that he's just there to try and test us, or that He's not really involved in our lives which shows such a lack of love! I also believe that He wants to give us everything we want that is good for us or part of His path for us. Sometimes I think we feel that He only gives us the things we NEED but anything we want is up to us. But I really believe that He gives us those things that we want also because we are his glory! He wants us to be happy and have a full joy in life!

Well to show you what I'm talking about we drove up to Rancho Cucamonga on Tuesday May 11th to see the new institute, secure an apartment, and go over and see Jaroms new "mentor."

So on the 11th we went to the institute and met with Hal Haywood (the institute director there now) and talked about the institute and training meetings that are coming up, etc. Then we had some lunch and went and looked at apartments. There were 2 we had in mind. One we REALLY like at a place called Jamboree. It was more of a town home layout so there was no one above us and we had an attached garage beneath us so there was no one beneath us either! We just like the layout more and it had a partial mountain view which I was excited about. You may be thinking "what is the problem" but it was price. Of course the nicer one with the attached garage is $1547. Then there was the other one that had smaller sq. ft with no attached garage (but a detached), and no mountain view for $1398. So we went through both again and still couldn't decide. Was it really worth the extra $150 for a better layout, mountain view, and attached garage? So we went to Best Western, relaxed, and then for the rest of the evening broke down every little bit of our finances to see what we could really afford. Well it turned out we could afford Jamboree but it would be pretty tight. Carmel would be less tight but we didn't like it as much. What to do, what to do?! So we slept on it.

Then the next day we went over to San Bernardino and met with Jaroms new mentor who is an institute director over there. His name is Wes and his wife is Melissa. They seemed like a really great couple! We sat in on one of his lessons and he's a great teacher! We also met with Scott (the area director) and talked with him. He just wanted to make sure that we were doing ok and was there to answer any questions.

After that we drove back to Rancho when 2 things happened. 1st we got an e-mail that confirmed we officially have long term renters!! *sigh of relief*

2nd we got an e-mail from Carmel. It said that there was a new apartment open and ready for immediate move in, was a bigger model of the 2 bed 2 bath, and had a mountain view. We went in and really liked it. Not as much as Jamboree but it was only $1428. :D After about 20min of debate (because we still REALLY wanted Jamboree) we decided to go with Carmel. We felt so blessed. Right as we were about to go back a choose an apartment this popped up. If it had popped up even 2 hours later it would have been to late. We are so grateful and it really showed me how mindful the Lord is to our situation. Not only has he blessed us with the job, renters, and an apartment... but it's the PERFECT apartment for our price range. :]

We are so grateful to start this new adventure and we can't wait to get up there! 2 weeks from tomorrow! :]

The big 3 0!

2011-05-01T16:32:00.000-07:00

Jarom turned 30 today! :] He's such an old man. Haha. Not really but it's just weird for me (an almost 22 year old) to be married to a 30 year old. Actually I don't think about it to much. Anyway it's a great time of life. He just got hired by the church and we're starting this new part of our lives... it's the perfect time to start the next decade of your life. :]

Jarom... you completely enrich and fulfill my life! I've become so much more spiritual and stronger because of you. You are patient, kind, and loving. No matter what kind of day you've had, if you come home and I'm not feeling well, you always make sure I'm ok and taken care of. No matter how hard or busy life may get you never complain. I don't know how much time we have together on this earth but being with you have made all the hard trials in life completely worth it. I'm so glad we were sealed in the temple and that I get to spend an eternity learning, growing, and loving with you. I hope that soon we'll be raising a family together and that through that process we will grow closer and I will get to know you even better. Happy Birthday to my wonderful happy husband!

Haha this was taken while we were waiting (2 and 1/2 hours) to get into my hospital room. :]

Tay & J's REALLY new adventure :]

2011-04-29T16:19:00.000-07:00

I don't even know where to start. :] I guess the first thing is Jarom got hired. We are so excited and a little stressed... but more excited! :D When Bro. Valenga came in January to give us an interview we had talked about where we were going to live. By the end of the interview we had decided (due to health and wanting to have a baby) that the 2 places we could live were Utah or San Diego. We really wanted to be close to family when I had a baby so they could help. SOOOOOO when they called us to Rancho Cucamonga we were very surprised. When Jarom told me I started shaking I was so happy. I couldn't believe we got hired. We had dreamt and prayed for this for so long and it was finally happening. This is Jaroms dream career and we feel so blessed.

So after this wonderful excitement then everything started setting in. Feeling overwhelmed and scrambled. Not knowing what we needed to do or where to start. Then I thought how I wouldn't see Grant all the time and see all the new things he was doing and saying and I started crying. Not that Rancho Cucamonga is that far but about 2 hours. So I can't just pop down to S.D when I want but at least it's not a day away.

We also found out that Jarom is going to be the Director of the Institute which is also a little overwhelming. He thought maybe he'd start out as an instructor and go slowly but we're just jumping right in. Jarom was feeling like he didn't have a lot to offer. The Director he's replacing is amazing. Bro Hal Haywood. Jarom felt like the institute was going to go downhill once he got there (I mean just at first until he gets the hang of everything :]) but we went and saw the institute a couple Tuesdays ago (actually on the way to the Avi for a few days for spring break) and we felt so excited. All of a sudden we couldn't wait to get up there. We also realized that the institute was built in the 70ies and still kind of looked like it was in the 70ies. We had impressions that we needed to make it brighter and update it. Really make it a place were students will want to come and hang out and if they're not members to come check it out. I just can't wait to see what my budget is. :] Haha!

Anyway we got back from the Avi on Friday and Saturday (a week after we saw the institute) we went apartment shopping. We probably saw 7 or 8. By the end of the day we were burnt out! In fact after about 5 we weren't finding anything and we were feeling very frustrated. Then I saw a couple that looked nice so we decided to check them out and we really liked them. Carmel and Jamboree. We like the lay out of Jamboree better but it was more expensive. We had just about decided to go with Jamboree when we found their ratings. They weren't that good. 50% said yes and about 50% said no. Carmel got much higher ratings (about 80% yes and 20% no) so we decided to write them and see if they had anything available. That was yesterday and we're still waiting for a response. Hopefully we'll find out soon though because we're suppose to move May 21st!!!

Yeah I thought we'd have more time also. When we were first going through this process I thought that it would be around the 1st of June. I was worried that they'd hire us to go to Utah and we'd have a month to rent out our condo and move. Then when we actually got hired we thought we'd have until August (since College doesn't start until September). So we've been taking our time. Well we have been feeling like we need to be up there soon which is good because we just found out a couple days ago that Jarom must be up there by June 9th for his first summer session. So now we're frantically trying to find a renter and get up there. The only weird thing is we still don't know where we're moving or who is moving in but we know we're leaving May 21st. :] We feel like everything is going to work out though. In fact when we first found out that we were moving up to Rancho Cucamonga Bro. Bishop (who's "over" Jarom) told us that he and Bro. Kinnect and the men in Utah had a video conference and they all felt really good about having us move up there. When I heard that I knew it was the right thing also.

The only bad thing is that I keep getting all these negative feelings. I got them before I was married to. I felt so good about marrying Jarom but then the 4 months leading up to it I was so depressed and frustrated. I felt so down and I rarely ever felt good about anything and it really inhibited my being able to feel the spirit and make other decisions! The same thing is happening all over again. I feel like when anything good is about to happen Satan works really hard on me. It's not until after the big moment (getting married or moving) that I feel a weight lifted off of me and I know I made the right decision. Maybe that's part of the reason I feel this urgency to move.

Anyway I just want to get up there. Of course it would be nice to have renters first but I guess I can't wish for everything. :] Ultimately we're both very excited to be starting this next adventure in our lives. Next... a baby! Hopefully! That is if I can get through 9 months of frustrated negative feelings. :]

Freeway Opening!!

2011-03-29T16:24:00.000-07:00

So 2 Saturdays ago (March 19th) there was a party for the new 52 extension. The entrance is a 30 sec drive from our house. We are so excited for it. It connects the 67 to the 52 instead of having to go around on the 8 or across Santee where you're hitting all the city stop lights. It will cut our 35min drive to the temple to about 20. :]

Anyway in celebration they opened up the 52 and let pedestrians walk/bike/run on it. There

were so many people and a lot of booths trying to expand business.

Looking to the East. See all those houses on the top of that hill. Yeah those are super nice houses and we don't live there. We live under them. :]

Looking West!

With my mom.

Me and my chunky!

You know the lines on the freeway that separate lanes? And then when you're getting off an exit they get smaller and thicker... more squareish? Or so I thought. Yeah this is one of them. It was so much bigger then I thought. When you're driving by them at 70 miles an hour they look so much smaller. I wear an 8 size shoe.

This is a car from an accident getting off the 125 (right by the new 52 extension). A drunk driver plowed right into the car and the female driver died on impact. The police that were there said that they hadn't changed the car at all since the accident and that they saved it to take it around to school when they talk to kids about drunk driving.

Crazy blow up people

Look at me on the freeway. :]

Good thing they had porta-potties

All the booths! Crazy. The had free food!!

Poor Grant! He was so cold and tired by the end.

new...New...NEW!!!

2011-03-05T10:58:00.000-08:00

I love new things and I LOVE decorating my house!!!!! I'm slowly making it more and more of what I want. :] We've done the living room, and kitchen! Now I've done the bathroom. All that is left is the bedroom and office. I've been holding out on the office because I'm hoping that it will be a nursery soon but I guess if we never have kids then I wont know what to do with it. So I better become pregnant soon. :]

Anyway here's the bathroom!

When I first saw it I thought "that's modern and cute" and then the more I kept starting at it I thought it looked like indian patterns and I wasn't sure if I wanted it. The more I stared at it the more I thought "I should keep looking" but every time I looked at something else I kept coming back to this. :] Anyway in the end I really liked it.

We also had almost no light in our bedroom. We had one little lamp. I found these at Walmart and I really liked them! Plus our room is sooooo much brighter!

Yay for having new stuff!!! I love making my home new and different! Which is why I never have extra money. :]

Sleepover

2011-03-03T11:28:00.000-08:00

Last weekend (Feb. 25-26) we had some guests. Hannah, Ethan, Aubree, and Kaitlyn. We gave Nathan and Colleen a free night which they loved. :]

It was a lot of fun. We watched movies, played, and ate a lot of food!! We had popcorn, P.B pretzels, grapes, smoothies, and some candy.

Watching "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs"

Jarom making smoothies.

After the movie we got ready for bed. Jarom helped brush Aubree's teeth. Isn't he going to be a great dad?!

After a long night we woke up, had breakfast and finished a movie from the night before. This is Jarom playing a game with the kids. They could only step on the blocks of squares or they would get burned by the lava. :]

I wrote a long e-mail to Sue about the kids and some funny things they said so I'm just going to paste it in the blog. :]

HANNAH:
Hannah is going to be such a great mom! She was so helpful with the younger kids in making sure they were were well taken care of. We watched 3 movies and Jarom and I hadn't seen 2 of the three. She made sure for those 2 movies to tell us how it was going to end 10 min into the movie and then proceeded throughout the rest of the movie to tell us what was about to happen right before it happened. :] She also told us Friday night that she was so tired and wanted to fall asleep but since they didn't have T.V at home she didn't want to miss anything. :]

ETHAN:
Ethan as we all know is a ball of energy. As we were getting ready for bed he asked if he could sleep with Jarom and I. We told him that he needed to start in the living room but if anyone were to wake up in the middle of the night and be scared they could come in with us. Long story short about 10min later I had Ethan and crying Kaitlyn in bed with me and Jarom had Hannah and Aubree in the living room. So the 3 of us are in bed and Ethan is kicking and moving like crazy and yelling into a pillow from excitement. Jarom comes into the room and whispers something in his ear about calming down. I kid you not within 2 min Ethan was asleep and snoring. Jarom must have magic or pulled a Spock. :] I guess as soon as he relaxed his body he just drifted off.

AUBREE:
During the movie we had popcorn, P.B pretzels, grapes, smoothies, and some candy. They just kept eating and eating (mainly the grapes). Well a while later (after we put the food away) Aubree turns to me and says

"I need a bowl"
I asked "why"
"because I need to burp"
"You want a bowl so you can burp?"
nods head yes
I go and get bowl, come back and give it to her... she has a confused look on her face
Me: "Do you want something else?"
blank stare
"Do you want some more grapes?"
"Yes"
I go and put grapes in the bowl and she proceeds to eat about 10 more grapes, gives me back the bowl and tells me she's done

About 20 min later Jarom comes out of the kitchen with a bowl and gives it to Aubree... turns to me and tells me that Aubree said she needed a bowl because she felt like she was going to barf from all the grapes she ate. To which I then realize that earlier she wasn't saying burp she was saying barf... but when I offered her more grapes because I wasn't sure what she wanted she ate them. We have learned not to leave bowls of food out during a movie. They were like zombies with there eyes glued to the movie and absentmindedly reaching in and grabbing handfuls or grapes or popcorn which resulted in some very full kids. :]

Later we got all ready for bed... laid everyone down and were trying to get everyone to fall asleep during the movie (mainly Kaitlyn) so that everyone would be asleep and Jarom and I could sneak off to bed. Well they refused to fall asleep since they were so desperate to finish the movie and watch T.V. Aubree was so desperate that when she started to fall asleep laying down she would sit up. Then as she was falling asleep sitting up her head would slowly start to fall backward. It went so far back that she was just watching the T.V through tiny little slits in her eyes and her mouth wide open. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen, I was cracking up!

KAITLYN:
Well since Kaitlyn slept with me I got about 2 hours of sleep Friday night. We have a California King and that girl needed the entire bed to spread out on. She moves constantly, sleep walks, talks, and snores.

At one point Ethan must have smacked her in the head because all of a sudden she was crying and Ethan was apologizing. From the living room Jarom jumps off the couch and almost steps on Hannah's head to get to her so he could calm her down before she woke up anyone else. :] Luckily they both fell back asleep very quickly.

Another point I wake up to see her crawling over Ethan and almost off the edge of the bed. I thought she was awake and needed to go potty so I quickly grab her and bring her back (before she falls off the bed) and she's totally and utterly asleep. No blank or confused stare that you might get from someone who is sleep walking. She was out!!

Then the last and my favorite. All of a sudden I hear her say in a whining/crying voice "No, I a big girl, I a big girl"

A is for Apple is Amazing!!

2011-01-26T20:33:00.000-08:00

About 1 year ago Jarom and I got a laptop from apple and with it came my iPod touch. Ever since then there have been times were I'm really into the iTouch and then times when it's dead for 2 months. Then I pull it out, update it, add some new games, and I'm into it again. :] Well this is one of those times. And the reason is because of this...

Yes this is the Apple T.V! Jarom got it for Christmas from my Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Bernice. We love it. It has the usual... netflix, movies you can rent instantly, youtube, etc. and it also has a mobile me account. This account is for your pictures. You put all the pictures "in the cloud" or on this account and then if something happened to your computer you still have all your pictures saved on this account. Well since Mobile Me is on Apple T.V we have all of our pictures/videos on the T.V and we can get some pretty cool slideshows of our pictures.

Anyway the point of this is because apple T.V has inspired me to use my iTouch again and this is why...

You may be wondering what this is. It is a remote. THEE remote app for the iTouch/iPhone. So when I'm watching something on the Apple T.V I can control everything from my iTouch. You maybe thinking "so what... that's what you do with a regular remote" which is true but for some reason this is more fun. Plus it doesn't have to be pointing at the T.V so I can control everything from any room. I don't know why but it's just better. Haha.

Also Jarom and I love listening to Mormon Channel or Pandora and we can play those from our phone and sync it to the T.V and listen to it from the T.V speakers instead of our little iTouch speakers. :]

And last but not least... the last reason why I've gotten back into the iTouch is because of this...

Now when I go somewhere I have a bunch of books all right there at my fingertips without having to bring anything. Plus they have a ton of stuff for free... today I got "Mansfield Park", "Wuthering Heights", "Emma", "Sense and Sensibility", "Pride and Prejudice", "The Book of Mormon" and "Taming of the Shrew" all for FREE!

I love my iTouch. The only this I want more is the iPhone but you have to pay for that every month. The iTouch is a one time deal. Plus I don't want to get the iPhone and then have it dead every 2 months. Hahaha I feel like I should prove myself with my iTouch first. :]

Good Deals=Happy ME!!!

2011-01-21T21:22:00.001-08:00

Ok so this blog might be a little long and may seem conceded but I can't help it! I was so pleased with myself today! I never get deals this good and I just had to share it! Old Navy is my favorite place ever now.... officially! Kirstin I know you'll be proud. :]

Purse: Reg: $30

Sale:$3.81

Pink Cardi: Reg: $30

Sale: $3.14

Tan "Camper" Shirt: Reg: $25

Sale: $1.86

Red Scarf: Reg: $8.50

Sale: $2.80

Flower Embellished Tank: Reg: $16.50

Sale: $2.47

Necklace: Reg: $12.50

Sale: $2.23

Bracelet: Reg: $7.50

Sale:$1.11

Earrings: Reg: $7.50

Sale: $.66

Pom Ballet Flats: Reg:$23

Sale: $2.24

And last but definitely not least

Jeans: Reg: $40

Sale: $5.40

Grand total: Reg: $120

My Price: $30!

Christmas Present #2 Disneyland!

2011-01-16T16:01:00.000-08:00

Our trip to Disneyland was so much fun! We loved it. Of course by the end of the 2 days it had felt like it had been at least a week. And we're excited to go with kids. It seemed like about 3pm we had done everything we wanted to do both days. It'll be fun to go with kids who still feel the magic and are so excited. Not that we weren't excited or didn't feel the magic but... you know what I mean. :]

Anyway these are just a few pics. We went to California Adventure the first day, January 11 and Disneyland January 12.

Our favorite ride at Cal. Adventure was Toy Story Mania. We went on it 4 times and both agreed if we had gotten the hopper pass we would have gone back again on day 2. I wanted to go back because I won all 4 times. I was excited because Jarom wins EVERYTHING!! So I couldn't believe that I won! Jarom wanted to go back because he was losing. Hahaha anyway the last time was the best score for me and I won out of all 8 people in the car.

When we played it really was just between me and Jarom but there are 2 cars... 2 people on either side of the car so that totals 8 and at the end it shows you who had the best of everyone in the car. :] And I did.

Us in our 3D glasses! The ride is in 3D which is part of what makes it so cool!!!

Then we went to Disneyland. It was a day where we did a lot of things we might not have normally done because we had so much time. :] Like the next 2 pictures of us are on Storybook Land.

Lahren, Grant, and Rhawnie went to Disneyland that day also so we met up for a few hours. Grant was actually scared of this ride. I'm not sure why. Once in a while he'd just start whimpering.

This is our picture from the Buzz ride. Don't I look happy. This was the first time we played and Jarom totally crushed me but then I beat him the second time.

I just took this one because we had nothing to do in line and it was Jaroms favorite ride when he was little.

Anyway we had a great time!! :]Thanks mom and dad for pitching in on a great Christmas gift!! Love you!

Christmas Gift #1 (New Living Room)

2011-01-10T22:07:00.000-08:00

Jarom and I finally finished the living room. We still have 2 little things we need to do but other then that we're through. :] I'm so happy with how it turned out!!

This isn't a totally true before since I had already started taking down decor when I remembered that I hadn't taken a before pic. I wasn't feeling good at all so I didn't want to put everything back up just for a good before pic. Also the before pics are taken with are bad camera. The after pics are taken with Lahren and Wills really nice camera.

Anyway Before...

And after...

We love our new house. :] We didn't plan on getting new couch at first but then everything just came together and we found the perfect one! It was like the universe was telling us we needed to get it. :] Haha anyway we love it!

Just a few more before and afters.

Before...

After...

Before...

After...

A great year behind us, a better one in front.

2011-01-07T11:43:00.001-08:00

Well I haven't posted in a while. I have a Christmas gift blog coming up but not for about a week. So just thought I'd post some highlights of 2010. Most of them are from the end of the year since that is the freshest in my mind. :]

~ Jarom didn't get hired into CES. That was actually a huge blessing for us. Jarom has had a wonderful year learning new things with his class of 22 mostly talking girls and a few stubborn boys. He has learned a lot. :] We have also grown a lot together as a couple which we needed before he was hired. But hopefully as the new hiring year approaches it will happen this year. Hopefully that will be a highlight for 2011. :]

~Went to Vegas for my birthday and then up to Utah for almost 2 weeks to see Jaroms family. While we were there we had the amazing experience of hiking the Narrows (thanks to Jaroms generous family). I recommend it to anyone!!

~ Colleen and Kirstin (Sisters- in- law) had babies. Colleen's 5th (Chloe) and Kirstin's 2nd (Lincoln).

~ My health is the best it's ever been. Because of this we found out we can finally start trying to have kids!! At the beginning of 2010 I wanted to be pregnant by June. :/ Well it's Jan of 2011 and I'm still not but hopefully it will happen soon. We also found out our insurance is changing again and we can go back to UCSD!!! :] This is the best news!! We were with Sharp but they didn't have a C.F center and it just wasn't the same.

~ We remodeled the living room (my Christmas gift). I don't have pics yet since it's not totally completed but they'll be up soon. :] We put in wood floors and I painted an accent wall. We're also getting a new couch. We love it! Just need to put in some baseboards.

~ Dallen opened his mission call Christmas Night and we find out he's going to Cuernavaca Mexico!! I was crying like a baby. I can't believe my baby brother is 19 and going on a mission. I'm so proud of him. So many boys don't make it and this is something he has wanted since he was a little boy. He's done everything he could to make sure that goal was at the top of his list. Love him so much!!

~For Christmas we also for a digital piano from my mom so I can expand my talent of piano playing. We also got a 2 day trip to DISNEYLAND. Which we're going on in 3 days!!! SO stoked! Pics of this along with the living room will be posted in my Christmas gift post. :] I haven't been in 3 years.

I loved this last year. Every year is such a blessing!! I can't wait to see what happens is 2011!!!

2010 Family Pictures

2010-12-16T10:00:00.000-08:00

"O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree"

2010-12-02T21:55:00.000-08:00

This is our Christmas tree this year and my Christmas project. Every year I like having a Christmas project. The first year Jarom and I were married I did a wreath, then a garland, and now a Christmas tree. For now it works really well as our "main Christmas tree" since anything bigger makes our condo feel so small... but when we move and have the space for a bigger Christmas tree then this can go in the office or somewhere else. It's about 3ft and I had lots of fun decorating it!

A few of the ornaments.

I didn't spend to much money on decor this year but this is something new. My mom gave it to me for Christmas last year. Since we got it on the 25th we didn't have much of a chance to put it up so this was the first year we've really been able to enjoy it and we love it! It is a beautiful manger and I love anything that's "Willow Tree"!!

First Christmas Present!

2010-11-29T20:31:00.000-08:00

Jarom and I recieved our first Christmas gift of the season today and probably the BEST gift of the season! It is a beautiful advent book from my Grandma Dee and it is making me more anxious then EVER for Dec. 1st to get here!

I hope you can read this. It's an intro to the book!

It is the most beautiful book and it is such a treasure for our family already and I haven't even read it yet. Well I tried to but Jarom told me to be patient. But this is a sneek peek of the first day! Hehehe!

This of course is only making me more excited to have children so I can share this with them. I know this will be a Christmas favorite and of course it will be even more treasured since it was made by our wonderful Grandma Dee! The time and effort put into this book cannot even be counted and I'm so grateful to have a grandma who would do that for me and my family! I love you grandma! Thank you for this wonderful book! There are no words to describe my gratitude!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-28T16:08:00.000-08:00

A few days ago (Nov. 20- Nov. 24) Jarom's family was in town. I have a small blog update I want to do but the pictures are on Jaroms iPhone so that post will have to wait.

Thanksgiving was great. Lahren made the whole dinner (like always) and did a fabulous job. Turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, stuffing (from scratch... AMAZING), rolls, corn, and my dad did a broccoli casserole. So delicious. We also played a game (Cranium) after dinner and then we started off the season by watching "White Christmas."

In the spirit of Thankgiving I would like to mention a few things I'm grateful for. They aren't in order... if anything it's probably least to greatest. :]

1) Our beautiful home!! I love our home and I'm especially grateful that starting in Jan we will officially be down to 5 figures in our payments. :D That is REALLY something to be thankful for!

2) Our cars which are terribly old and have many little problems (and some big ones on the way). Lots of prayers have been made in behalf of our 2 little cars and we are so grateful that they keep on running so we can have that transportation without needing to buy new cars. Right now we have no car payment and since they are so old our insurance payments are about $400 a year! Yes as much as we want a new car I'm so thankful for the ones we have!!

3) Health. Jarom is always healthy but my health this past year has been amazing! I have truly been blessed. When I went to the doctor about 2 months ago he said "a lot of girls your age are showing certain symptoms about this time that you aren't showing so far... keep doing what your doing" I wanted to tell him it was because I was working in the temple but he wouldn't have understood. ;) I'm thankful for health... for my health!

4) Family and friends who are so amazing and loving. Especially family (both mine and Jaroms) who do so much for us!!! Shout out to my mom and dad who let me do laundry at their house and let me use their soap and dryer sheets. And sometimes a rare load at Rhondas when I haven't done laundry in over a week and am in desperate need of underclothes. :]

5) The gospel. My life would be nothing without the gospel! The blessings of the gospel are amazing. We always have everything we need and want! It's made me the person I am, it's the reason my health is so great, and because of it not only do I have Jarom, I'm sealed to him forever. Which brings me to #...

6) My husband. The most amazing man ever! He always makes sure I'm really well taken care of and that I'm doing my treatments and getting plenty to eat. He is an amazing provider and even though he has work, O.T, preparing seminary lessons, teaching seminary, his masters, and a wife with a deadly disease (who can be quite difficult and emotional :]) he never complains and always makes sure I'm ok. I think one of the things I'm most thankful for in Jarom is his schooling. I'm so thankful that Jarom would go to school and be so dedicated in getting his Bachelors and Masters (which he'll have in March :D) so he can be the best provider for his family! Linked to this is also the fact that he went to school for many many years just trying to figure out what he wanted to do. I'm so thankful that he didn't just settle down with a job he didn't want but took the time to find something he loves and look where it has brought him so far! I'm thankful for my husband!!

Halloween Fun!

2010-10-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

Saturday Jarom and I went to a Halloween party put on by our good friends Noah and Rhawnie Miller. We didn't want to spend to much money on costumes but we wanted to do something a little creative so we went as Steve Jobs and the iPhone

Ha Lahen came late to the party and didn't wear a costume so she threw on this wig that Rhawnie had. :]

Then every Monday before Halloween my family always gets together for a FHE halloween. We've been doing it since I was little and I love it! Jarom, Will, and I carved pumpkins. Well Lahren started the pumpkin and Will finished.

Jarom did the headless horseman and I did the ghost in the graveyard.

Will did the pirate. arrrgggg

Then we had chili and Lahren made some Halloween cookies. We also had our traditional Halloween story about Gregory Ghost and Patty Pumpkin. :]

The cookies Lahren made and my moms cute Munster Village.

Also Lahren took some of the Pumpkin seeds and toasted them. I thought they were really good but I wasn't the only one. Grant is the one of the pickiest boys alive and he could not get enough of them. He loved them. It was great. :]

New Desk

2010-10-05T19:02:00.000-07:00

So Jarom and I have wanted a new desk for a while. Our last one was really small and kinda falling apart. When Jarom would be doing homework he'd have his books on the desk, his lap, and the ground trying to study. Now he can have them all on the desk. :] It's not to big not to small! And the best part was this desk was origanlly at Office Depot for $250. It was on sale for $130 and I hada 30% coupon. We got it... out the door... for $115! :] Haha we stayed up until 3am putting it together. The next day that didn't seem like a good idea. Again sorry for the pics. I really want a new camera.

Putting it together!

Half way through. :] Can you guess what I'm watching?

All done. The lighting is super bad but you get the idea. It's really nice.

$8 Furniture!

2010-09-09T17:02:00.000-07:00

Anyway I was really excited when I thought of doing this. I'm not super creative but I got these pieces of furniture from my grandma. She passed away a while ago but my parents are finally selling her mobile home so we had to get rid of everything. I took a chair and a bookcase thingy. Haha I'm not sure what we'll do with it yet. Anyway all I had to do was buy the spray paint. :]

I didn't get a before picture of the chair but it was dark green and fading in some places.

I forgot to take a before pic of this also but I thought about it half way through so the bottom half is the color it used to be.

The fully finished product! :]

Pretty good huh? I have to admit I was pretty proud of myself. I like when I think of creative things. It makes me feel... creative. :]

Well Hello Dolly!!

2010-09-03T16:31:00.000-07:00

So my mom, Lahren, and I had a girls night out last night. It was so much fun! But before that I want to apologize for my crummy pictures. I took them with our hand-held HD video camera and even though you can take stills that's really not what it's for so a lot of them came out blurry/crummy which is a bummer. But anyway we started out by having dinner at Souplantation.

Then we went to Starlight Bowl to see Hello Dolly. It wasn't Barbra Streisand but it was fun and we were in the very front row!!

Our tickets. You can't really see them but my mom got seat 23 which is her lucky number!!

I don't know why I always look so weird when I'm laughing in pictures but this is

the only one we got with the of us so it will have to do!!

Fun night with the girls!! :]

Silent Movie Night

2010-08-26T18:08:00.000-07:00

Every year at Balboa Park they put on a silent movie "night" at the Organ Pavilion BUT they play the organ behind the movie. The organist said that the piece of music he was playing was the actual score that was written to go with the movie. So even though it's a silent movie it sounded so good together that a lot of times I forgot someone was there actually playing in person. He was amazing and he had to play for 1 hour and 30min straight!

Everybody waiting for the movie to start! Haily and Justin Jesperson, Rhawnie and Noah Miller, and Andera and Cavan Rogers also came.

They had a gift shop but they put the sign on upside down... at first! :] Haha

Me trying to create a panoramic view of the organ pavilion on Picasa. It looks better smaller.

Other pictures of the Organ Pavilion. The left bottom picture is the movie starting and the organist down in the corner.

"Happy we will be, beyond the sea"

2010-08-17T19:49:00.000-07:00

Jarom and I had our two year anniversary Sunday the 8th. I know this is late but it was still our anniversary and I must document it. :] For our anniversary we went sailing on Wednesday the 11th. It was so much fun!! We loved it. And shout out to Jack Dunn for taking us out on his boat!

Name of the boat

I drove to but Jarom didn't take pics. :] The wheel was big.

Sometimes I can't believe Jarom and I have been married for 2 years and other times I can't believe Jarom and I have only been married for 2 years. :] And I mean that in a good way. Every once in a while it just feels like we've been together for so long. I love him sooooo much and I can't wait for all the new adventures this next year brings!! Happy Anniversary babe.

The Narrows

2010-08-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

The narrows were amazing! We loved hiking them and I would recommend it to anyone. We left Utah Sunday July 18th, hiked the 19th and came home the 20th.

These were some of the hiking shoes and socks we got.

All of us!! :]

The rest are just random pictures of us hiking.

Vacation 2 -Utah

2010-08-03T16:12:00.001-07:00

So after Vegas we went up to Utah while my parents and Dallen went back to Cali. We left Friday the 9th and got to Utah that evening. The next day Sue-mom was helping run the American Fork parade so we helped. I don't have any pics but it was a lot of fun. Jarom and I were some of the people in charge and telling people where to go. Then that night they were having a carnaval and we went and gave people tickets, talked with family, and I got my face painted with Rachelle. :]

Sunday was church and it didn't start until 1! I used to think that it would be to late but it was perfect. I loved it. Just sleep in and take your time getting ready. It's not like I have anything else to do later. :]

The rest of the week was just hanging out with fam and relaxing. I didn't get to much sleep up there and Jarom had some homework so we had a couple days of just hanging out at the house.

Monday night we went to Stewart falls by Mt. Timpanogos and had a picnic and hiked!!

Wednesday was pretty low key and Tuesday and Thursday we went to Salt Lake City.

Tues:

~We took a tour of the conference center. The roof was amazing. They have this black wall and had a worker sand blast people on it. It was suppose to symbolize all different types of people and being able to see our ancestors. I think... haha anyway when you take a picture by it it's suppose to look like you're part of it. Cool. Then we mainly just walked around Temple Square and saw the new Deseret Book store.

Thur:

~We saw Rahn's office. It was beautiful.

Then we had lunch and went to the cemetery where all the official members of the church are buried. One of Jaroms ancestors is buried there and we found a Tenney which is my moms maiden name but I don't know if I'm related to them. :]

Some of the men we saw: Gordon B. Hinckley (above) John Taylor, Heber J Grant, David O McKay, Wilford Woodruff, Joseph Fielding Smith, Joseph F. Smith, and a tribute to Hyrum Smith.

Then we drove up to Bountiful to see Grandma Rasmina who it the cutest, sweetest, funniest Grandma!! She likes to knit but she's losing her eye sight and so she does a lot of it from feel. Sue was telling her that what she was doing was amazing and she kind of paused and then said "well I'm good at it." Haha she cracks me up!! I love her!!!!!

After we visited Grandma we came back, picked up Rahn, had dinner at the Lion House, and then went and saw the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform. When we went to the conference center on Tuesday we found out that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was doing a dress rehearsal for the 100 year concert there... at the conference center. So when we came on Thursday we went to see it and it was so much fun!! I loved it. They did some amazing songs and we were in the front row of the second section (which was the closest you could get) right in the middle.

Friday was another low key day but I went to go get pedicures with Erin and Rachelle. Fun!

Then we went to the narrows. Post that in a couple days! :]

Vacation - Vegas

2010-07-31T19:08:00.000-07:00

Well it started out with us leaving on July 5th for Vegas. We stayed at the Tahiti village. It was a lot of fun. Mostly just sitting and relaxing! :] I didn't take to many pics but the pool area and lazy river were really nice.

These were taken on Wednesday.

Thursday we went and saw Toy Story 3 and went to CPK.

This mall was cool. Kinda hard to explain because it felt like down town but you drove to it as if you were going to parkway or UTC. They had parking garages on the outside of the mall and then you walked in. But where the kiosks would be and what not it was roads. It was like a town. Like I said it was hard to explain. I wish I could have taken an above shot.

While we were waiting we played a balancing fork game. We did a pretty good job!

Like I said most of the time was down time but Thursday night Dallen, Jarom, and I drove down the strip. It was really warm in Nevada. I took this when we were driving down the strip at 12:30 AM!!

It was a lot of fun. We were by the pool a lot, shopping, crossword puzzles, movies, and eating!

Birthday Bedroom :) (Phase 1)

2010-06-29T19:52:00.000-07:00

Before I start my post you may be wondering why in my title it says phase 1. Yes this is just phase one of my 3 phase birthday month. Haha.

So for my birthday Jarom got me a bedroom set that we've been looking at for a while and really wanted! I LOVE it. I was really surprised when he got it for me.

The first nice thing about it is we got 2 end tables. Yes TWO! Before we had one and I was using a little white table for my side.

The second nice thing about it the drawers are HUGE!! We had my grandmas old set and it was nice but sooooo tiny. We have way more drawer space now. Plus it adds a whole new dimension not just to the room but the whole house. Yeah it is a little big for our room. It was hard to get a good picture because I couldn't go anywhere to get the right angle but oh well. It is beautiful and I couldn't be more in love with it. :D

Birthday Cabin (Phase 2)

2010-06-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

So because of my dance performances Jarom postponed my birthday trip. We just went this past weekend, June 26-28. Jarom completely surprised me.

He took me to a cabin in Idyllwild up by big bear. One of his co-workers at work owns one and he let us stay there for the weekend. I completely forgot to take pictures of the cabin :/ but it had a huge balcony/porch that looked over the woods. We got there around 7:30 Friday night because Jarom had some homework to finish up that day. Since it was later I got really freaked out. It seemed like there was no one around. There were lots of cabins around us but I didn't see any people or lights on. I was being such a big baby. I felt like I was in some horror movie that took place in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Well we got settled and watched T.V for a few hours. Then we decided to go to bed. I was still freaking out so when we laid down Jarom turned on Pandora and we played Sudoku on his iPhone. That helped me calm down. I was feeling much better when all of a sudden I thought I felt something run across my face. It freaked me out so I jumped up and was swatting my face to try to get whatever it was off. We had a fan on so I just figured some hair flew across my face and since my imagination had been running wild I must have imagined it. So we laid back down and a few minutes later I felt it run across my face again. At first I thought it was a misquito hawk because I thought it was attracted to the light on Jaroms phone so Jarom turned on the bathroom light so it would fly in there. When he got back he saw it; A spider was laying on the pillow. EWWW!!! When Jarom went to kill it it crawled under the bed and he didn't get it in time. The all of a sudden we saw another small spider on the bed. Jarom killed that one and then I saw one behind Jarom crawling down the blinds. Jarom killed that one also and then he saw another on the floor. We had had enough!! Even Jarom felt uncomfortable getting back in that bed. We just stood, looking at the bed for about 20 min wondering what to do. There were 3 more beds in the house but they probably had spiders in them also. We thought about going home but I was really excited to spend the next day there so we ended up sleeping on the couch. I got a few hours but Jarom wasn't so lucky. Anyway the next day was much better. We watched the world cup but the USA lost. So that was a bummer but it was really fun watching it and some other movies. We also did puzzles and sat around while we ate junk food. We were suppose to stay Saturday night also but we decided to go home and sleep in our spider free bed.

On the way home we stopped at Buca de Beppo. It was very good.

They even let me have birthday dessert even though it was 2 weeks after the actual big day.

Thanks for the birthday trip babe. Even though there were spiders everywhere and it didn't turn out like either of us thought it would it was still amazing to be with you!

Sorry there weren't many pics and LOTS of writing but it's all about the memories. :]

Birthday Vegas (Pre-Phase 3)

2010-06-29T17:37:00.000-07:00

So on Monday June 5th we are heading up to Vegas. We are staying at the Tahiti Village in Las Vegas. It's my parents birthday gift to me. :]

Jarom and I are both sooooo stoked! One of the things that totally sold me, Jarom, and my parents is that there is a lazy river. :] Also it's about 2 miles south of the strip right by an outlet mall. It's gonna be amazing!

Well to get us in the mood we did a Las Vegas Puzzle. We started it at about 7 on Sunday night and finished it at 3 in the morning. Haha there is something so addicting about puzzles.

After Vegas we're going to spend about a week 1/2 with Jaroms family! For the last 3 days we are going to zion to hike the narrows. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures when I get back.

Dance Equals Love

2010-06-28T16:43:00.001-07:00

On June 19th I had my dance performances. This will be my last year at Jeans Dance Studio. I had some really cool dances.

On the left is me and Carissa. We were both assistants to Darcy. We helped with Tap, Jazz, and Production. She is so cool. That's why we were in the teacher dance. We danced to a orchestrated version of "Sweet Child Of Mine" by Guns and Roses. I loved working with her and Darcy. The middle photo is all the girls (except 2) who were in our Lyrical dance. We danced to "Dreaming With A Broken Heart." On the right is me and Laryssa. Love her!

I love these girls!!!! They are sooooo much fun to be with!

These were the costumes for our Jazz dance. We danced to a remixed version of "Move" by CSS.

I had lots of fun and I love all these girls. Really gonna miss them!!

Birthday Trip

2010-06-28T16:06:00.000-07:00

So just this past weekend Jarom and I went on my birthday trip. We had to wait a couple weeks because of my dance performances.

New Purse

2010-06-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

So I made this purse a couple weeks ago and I totally forgot to do a post about it. You may be wondering why I used the word made instead of bought. Yes I indeed made this purse with the help of my wonderful mother-in-law Sue; who stayed up with me until midnight to finish it.

It was so much fun! Thanks Sue-mom :] for helping me make this and fixing all my mistakes because if it weren't for you it definitely would not look this good. I also have to give a shout out to rahn-dad who waited and watched the cartoon avatar until we were done. Thanks to both of you!!

Jaroms Birthday

2010-06-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

Ok so Jaroms birthday was 1 month ago and I figured I should post about his since mine is tomorrow and I'll probably do a post about it soon. Also I was going to do it a while ago but I lost all of his pictures. :[ They must have accidently been deleted.

Anyway it wasn't that amazing. We just spent the day together and then that night I surprised him and had his friends meet us at Cheesecake Factory. I let him get whatever he wanted and thanks to Noah he did and I didn't have to pay for it. :] Thanks for the amazing gift Noah.

He also got P90x and the new HD Kodak Zi8 Video camera.

He likes it. I'm sure the next generation will be better but it's amazing how far technology has come.

Anyway Jarom is the most amazing man/husband ever! He is so kind and patient. I love him more then anything in the whole world. I can't picture life without him!!! Thanks for being so amazing babe! I'm really glad that I married you and get to spend eternity with you. Glad that there is a day set aside to celebrate you... although I try to do it every day! :]

This and That

2010-05-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!

1st I'd just like to say that it was my sweet husbands birthday on the 1st of May. I have an update but just haven't gotten around to it yet. So I just wanted to say now that he is so extraordinary and I could not picture my life without him. Don't worry there will definitely be more romantic mushy stuff when I do his birthday post. :]

2nd the C.F walk is just three short days away!!!! If you can come that would be great. If you can donate that would be better! :] Hehe and you DO NOT have to walk if you donate. Just a reminder the walk is this sat. May 15th at DeAnza Cove, Mission Bay... 9am!!!

Want a FREE t-shirt...

2010-04-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

and a way to raise more money for Tayler's Team. Then read this. :]

Basically you'll be making your own account page under my team on the C.F website. If you do this people will donate to your account under your name but everything will go to Tayler's Team. When you raise $100 then you will get a free t-shirt. If you do this you will also be automatically signed up for the walk but do not have to attend. I know this sounds confusing but I'm taking you through a step by step process and it really isn't as bad as it sounds.

Here's how:

1) Follow this link to my page. http://www.cff.org/great_strides/TaylerPrice6390 On the left side you will see a button "register to walk"... click it!

2) It will ask you state or Chapter. State is CA and chapter is the S.D & Imperial counties chapter.

3) Then register for 2010 DeAnza Cove

4) It will ask you what you are signing up as (team leader, member etc.) You want to choose - I am signing up as a MEMBER OF A TEAM!!!! It's important that you choose this. If you don't you will either create your own C.F team and end up as a team leader for the walk or you will just be a random member and not going under Tayler's Team.

5) Choose - Tayler's Team-

6) Then you have to fill out your info. Sorry. I hate doing it to. :[ But it only takes a few minutes and it goes to a great cause! :] And it is a VERY secure site. I never worry about it. Plus your account will last for a long time so you can do it again next year. :D

Now you are a registered walker. You can put up a story, pic, whatever. Your page will look exactly like mine does now with your own extraordinary touch. :] Now you can post this link on your facebook, twitter, blog, e-mail, etc. and your friends can donate to your account (which means you'll get a FREE t-shirt) but all the money is still going towards Tayler's Team and finding a cure for C.F. I just made one for Jarom so I could know exactly what I was trying to explain to you. Here's the link to his if you want to check his out first.

http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/dsp_DonationPage.cfm?walkid=6390&idUser=397844

C.F Walk

2010-04-26T19:51:00.001-07:00

Can you believe it is time for another C.F walk again?

I think all of you know that I have a disease called Cystic Fibrosis. It is genetic and deadly and every May friends and family get together and walk to raise awareness to help find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis.

The walk this year is May 15th at DeAnza Cove, Mission Bay... 9am! I hope to see many of you there. It's a great day to get out and walk right on the water. :]

I know it is hard times financially but every penny counts towards finding a cure or discovering new medicines that can help prolong the life of people with C.F!! If you'd like to donate to my team just copy and paste this link

http://www.cff.org/great_strides/TaylerPrice6390

into your browser and you should be at my home page on the C.F website. There is a donate button on the top and bottom. It is an extremely secure site. I have been doing this for many years and have never had any problems.

Thanks you so much for all of your support! I love you guys!!!

This is one of my favorite quotes:

"I don't know why I have Cystic Fibrosis or if there will ever be a cure for me. But I do know that if having this disease is why I have felt so much love for you and my family, I would do it again just the same. Maybe God gave me this disease so I would understand how important loving life is. Even when it seems that we don't understand our own worlds, He does. He is the one with the big picture."

Wild Animal Park

2010-04-21T17:39:00.000-07:00

During Spring Break Lahren took me to the Wild Animal Park. It was fun.

We went to see the butterfly exhibit which was amazing. It was only their for the 2 weeks of spring break.

In line they were passing out worms and crickets. They were real but not alive. The park cooked them and coated them with cheese, barbecue, and another kind of powder. My mom always taught me to try everything once so I couldn't pass up the opportunity. It was just one of those things I knew I would regret later... and it wasn't to bad. They didn't taste bad but the outside skin of the worm got stuck in my teeth... hence the 3rd picture. I was trying to wash it out with some water. And the best part was Jarom was still in love with me enough to kiss me when I came home. :]

Anyway for the butterfly exhibit you just walk into this huge cage and there are butterflies everywhere. You have to make sure you don't step on them. They just come up and land on you! Well none landed on me but one landed on Lahren. It's on her hip next to the left of the B.

We also went and fed the parakeets. It was right after lunch so they weren't very hungry but we got one to come feed. Although the poor bird looked like he was about to die. I think he was molting.

Then we went on the safari route/ride thing whatever it is. I know you can't really see but in the second picture there are 2 lions on top of the car.

Then we came home. :] It was a beautiful day!!!

Date nights & days! :)

2010-04-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated my blog in while but these are some date nights/days that Jarom and I have been on in the past month or two.

The first post happened at the Vejas outlet.

Well that's the casino but we didn't go in. I promise. :]

I love that place. :) Not only do they have amazing stores but it's just fun to walk around and be outside. I'm not sure how recent this is (we don't go up to often) but they have a bowling ally and a small arcade. Maybe I've just never noticed it before. :] Anyway we went shopping (well I went shopping) at Dress Barn (I LOVE THAT STORE) and then stopped and played some games in the arcade!

Mostly because of Jarom we ended up wining around 500 tickets. :]

This is what we decided to get. Haha you can't really get anything big with 500 tickets.

Our second post was at the beach. Jarom and I don't go to the beach very often. Ha you think we would living in San Diego, but we decided to go to Coronado. It was so beautiful there. And I could not believe how many sand dollars there were. I mean I knew they had some but we must have seen over 50. At first we were excited if we found a piece or half of one... but after a while were only content if we found whole ones. We took home about 6. :]

Also a few years ago my cousins Chris and Rachel lost their sweet baby girl Chloe. A while ago Rachel asked if anyone who lived near a beach would write Chole's name in the sand as a remembrance to her. We put three of our sand dollars in the middle of the o. :] I'm so glad I finally got to a beach and was able to take a picture of it. So this is for Chris, Rachel, Chloe, & the whole Price family! Love you guys!

P.S Yes my cousins last name is Price but we're related on my moms side. Ha totally different Prices. :]

Then for our third and final post... Jarom and I went camping at Paso Picacho in the Cuyamaca Campgrounds. Just last week over spring break. It was so much fun. We just went for one night but it was so nice to be together away from the T.V and obligations. We just sat and talked to each other about memories and what we want to do with our kids someday. It was really bonding and I loved it!!

When we got there we set up camp and then hung out for a while.

I took a piece of wood and stated shaving off thin pieces for kindling. It was fun and I felt cool. :] Haha And because of it I made an amazing fire with ONE match.

That night it was a full moon. It was beautiful.I couldn't take a pic of it because it just looked like a little white dot on the pic but it was so bright it was almost hard to look at. At one point it made my eyes water. We went for a moonlight walk and we didn't even need a flashlight.

Then the next day we packed up camp and hiked up Stonewall Peak. 2 miles of switchbacks. Good thing there were switchbacks but it was one crazy hike. It was beautiful at the top and I'm glad I did it once but... I'm not sure it will ever happen again. :]

Like it says on the pic on the left that was our campsite and you can tell because it must have been what the firefighters were trying to save in the fire a while ago. Everything around it is gray.

St. George Girls Trip

2010-04-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

Just catching up on the blog but since this one was so big... I decided to give it it's own post. :]

February 26-28, 2010

My mom decided to go up to St. George for a family history conference. She invited me and Lahren to go with her so we had a girls trip! It was a lot of fun. We left Santee at about 6pm Friday night, dropped Will and Grant in Hisperia so Will could see his family for the weekend, and were back on the road around 8:15. We thought we'd do the trip in two sections but my mom and I were both feeling very awake so we did the whole trip in one night and ended up getting into St. George around 3am. We got ready for bed and crashed.

The next day my mom wanted to do a morning session at the temple before her conference. Lahren wasn't feeling well from the lack of sleep and decided to sleep in. I thought I would sleep in too but I just kept thinking "how often are you in St. George and can do a temple session and how often can you sleep in?" So I jumped out of bed and decided to go with her. Much to our dismay the temple was closed but we still went into the visitor center that they have their... which is beautiful. We also decided to take some pictures in front of the temple. We ended up playing a game to see who could get the best shot with the most temple in it.

We met the cutest woman their (Bonnie) who just loved life and everyone in the world. She had the biggest smile and invited us (more then once) to come to church and sit with her and her husband the next day. She also told us that if we were ever in St. George again to come visit her! She was such a doll!!!

Then we went back to the motel, picked up Lahren, and took my mom to her conference. Then Lahren and I went shopping at Old Navy (ha because I had a gift card:]). Unfortunately Lahren wasn't feeling well so we got some lunch and took it back to the motel room. "Around The World In 80 Days" was on and so we watched that while we ate lunch. Then Lahren took a nice nap while I picked up my mom from the conference. Then my mom and I went driving all around St. George. We even found a back road that took us up into the red bluffs and gives you this amazing view of St. George! It was so pretty.

Then we picked Lahren up and went out to dinner at Chuck A-Rama. Yes that's right Chuck A-Rama. I know gross name but the food is pretty good. It's like a really nice Home Town Buffet.

Yeah My mom was blowing on a straw that still had the wrapper on it and it went flying off and hit the table next to us. Haha this is the after effect. :]

Then we were going to jacuzzi but some boys were in it and filled it with bubble bath. :/ So they shut down the pool area. Then we just watched a movie and fell asleep. We got up Sunday morning, went to Hesperia to pick up Will and go to church, and we were on our way home again. :]

It was such a nice time and a really fun girls trip! Thanks Mom!

Newish year... newish me! :)

2010-02-02T16:04:00.000-08:00

So this year in my dance classes I have been having a blast!!! I love all 3 of my dances and I have a solo! I'm so excited to perform them. Since I love these dances so much and I have a solo it has lit a spark in me.

Even though it is a month into the new year I have a resolution.

1) To become more physically fit

2) To become more spiritually fit

Rhonda (the woman that I work for) has a gym at her apartment complex and I have decided to work out every day after work (4x a week) to get nice and buff so I can do amazing leaps, kicks, turns, etc. Also to make sure I stretch every day so I can be nice and flexible so I can do amazing leaps, kicks, splits, etc. :)

Also with being physically fit I am going to grow out my hair and tan so I will be a bronze goddess. :] Hahaha!! These are just two things I would like to do to make me feel more beautiful on the outside, and I personally feel, would make me seem like a more beautiful dancer with tan skin and long flowing hair! :]

Now with all this thinking about making my body more fit and beautiful I have also been thinking about the inner me. :) I should always have a goal to say my prayers, read my scriptures, have more meaningful Sundays and fasts but alas sometimes I fall behind. I have until June to work on the new outside me (that's when my big dance performance is) so I will also make that timeline a goal to work on the new inside me. Now this spiritual goal should go on long past June but I think this is a good starters! :]

SO this was kind of a long boring post but saying it out loud and letting everyone know will help me! :] So thanks!