Happy Memorial Day!

We had a fun day! In the morning we had plenty of time to relax (love it!) and we both finished the books we were reading (I think that's number 27 for me so far in 2009 and number 1 for Thomas). :] In the afternoon, we went to Sam's Club to look for a new camera. Still haven't bought one :[ Thomas swears his from five years ago is plenty good. I'm still trying to convince...

After no luck in the camera department we had a yummy BBQ at our apartment with Laurin, Mark, and Emma. We had delicious hamburgers (thanks, Thomas and Mark), potato salad (my grandma's is WAY better than this store-bought stuff!), IBC Rootbeer (mmmm!), and cheesecake for dessert! I love BBQ's!

Maybe tonight we can do some more camera shopping. :] I really want a new camera before we head to California...IN TWO DAYS!--P.S. I love packing and am getting so anxious to start!!!

Can't wait to see everyone in California SOON.

New Calling

Today I was called to be the Enrichment Leader. I'm excited--I think it will be a really fun calling! However, they didn't release me from my other calling (ward temple missionary) but said they were hoping I would be able to fulfill both. We will see how that goes!

Time Together

Thomas and I had a fun Saturday, spending lots of time together doing fun things! In the morning, we watched our neice, Emma while her parents attended the temple. We always have fun playing with her! In the early afternoon, we went to the driving range (my suggestion!) I think I am getting a little better but let's just say it'll be awhile (and by awhile I mean never) before I'm nearly as good as Tom. He hits those golf balls SO far! Once we ran out of balls we rented, we did some putting practice with Thomas's own balls. We played a little game and Thomas beat me 7-3 but I'm just proud I got any points at all!

After the driving range, we went on a hunt for a camera. We tried Target and Best Buy (already have looked at Costco) and still can't find anything we like. Here's the tricky part: my camera is really REALLY broken now. I mean, I know I said it was broken before but sometimes you could get it to turn on and after a million tries take a picture (hence the pictures in this post) but when I got home to charge my camera...it won't charge! I'm pretty sure this means my rechargeable li-ion battery is dead (for the second time in my camera's lifetime--oh and by the way they're supposed to last at least three years...or so the guy told me when I bought my camera). So anyway, now it's totally dead and I can't recharge it and we are going to California in FOUR DAYS and I'm definitely going to want to take pictures! We have to find a camera--fast. If anyone has suggestions of good cameras, PLEASE, let us know. :]

At about four in the afternoon, we decided to go for a bike ride. We rode up toward Provo Temple and then to BYU Campus. We found a little trail we didn't know existed and decided to explore...I was stunned at how pretty everything was! So I took pictures...as many as my camera would allow. And i couldn't choose one favorite so here are a few:

Although we were eaten alive by mosquitos, we had a good time! We saw a deer and it let us get really close! We followed it for a long time, trying to get a good picture. We finally got a pretty good one:

After our exploration through the brush, we went to the BYU library and each checked out two books. Let me tell you, it was quite an experience to ride our bikes home holding books in our hands (Thomas did a lot better than I at biking one-handed). We didn't get home from our bike ride until around 6:45. It was good exercise! For dinner, we enjoyed yummy sweet and sour pork with rice...I've never made it before but we really liked it!--and it was easy (my favorite part).

Oh, and while at BYU we walked around for awhile and I never knew this pretty place existed behind the JFSB! We've decided we want to have a picnic here sometime. BYU really does have such a nice campus!

Happy Two Years!

Two years ago today Thomas and I hung out for the first time (Actually it might not be two years to the date but it was the Friday before Memorial Day). My sister, Laurin, came home for Memorial Day weekend right after she graduated college as a little celebration vacation. She wanted to hang out with her high school friends so Laurin, Sean Hinds, Amanda Turley, and Thomas all got together.

Here's what I remember about that day/weekend:

• Tom jumping on the counter (where Laurin was sitting) when he came to our house to give her a hug.
• Running upstairs and fixing my hair/makeup to look especially pretty.
• Tom coming by on Saturday night before a YSA dance...wanted to see if Laurin wanted to go (even though she was married she went...thinking back I'm a little confused. I'm not sure why you wanted to go, Laurin, but THANKS because it gave me the opportunity to go!)
• Hoping someone would invite me to tag along (I'm 18! I'm ALLOWED to go!...I remember thinking that.)
• Finally someone asking if I wanted to come along (YES YES YES)
• Sitting in the backseat on the WAY to the dance but in the front seat on the way back (YAY!)
• Laurin trying really hard to set us up...it was awkward but it worked.
• After the dance, waiting with Laurin and Amanda for Tom while he talked to other girls (I was especially jealous even though I only really knew him for one day at this point). I remember constantly craning my neck to see what he was doing while Laurin and Amanda talked about high school.
• Back at the house after the dance having a sword fight with Tom (how mature)
• Texting for quite awhile after he left that night. I remember feeling especially pushy when I texted him because he hadn't given me his phone number. Laurin had given it to me (I think I asked for it) and I remember her convincing me to text him even though I felt it was too forward...I guess it wasn't.
• Seeing him in the foyer of the chapel on Sunday during my Sacrament Meeting (he didn't even attend church in the same building so I remember being quite suspicious). His excuse was that he had to go to the bathroom while driving past the church and so he stopped to use the church bathrooms. :] He came into the meeting and sat with our family during the remainder of Sacrament Meeting...and he stayed for Sunday school.
• Texting all day Monday (he worked, had a BBQ with his family, and went to a GIRL'S house for a party that night...and he had invited a girl he liked to come).
• Visiting him at work on Monday so Laurin could say goodbye before she headed back to Utah.

The rest is history. Fun memories! Thanks, dear sister, for a good set-up!

Fight for the Cause

Who agrees I should get a new camera since mine is past broken!? ME. I've been trying to convince Thomas all night to let me get a new camera because something is wrong with my lens and it gets stuck everytime I turn the camera on so the camera shuts itself off and it takes me like six or seven tries to get it on and then once it's on, you have to click the shoot button like at least five times every time to take ONE picture. It is SO annoying!...especially when you ask someone to take a picture for you "oh, by the way, sir, you have to push the button like ten times before it will actually take the picture...thanks for taking an hour out of your day for this picture." It's kinda ridiculous. Anyway, quite conveniently (really, it was just coincidental...no really!) my camera really did break for good tonight. I was taking some pictures to send to my sister and then the camera got stuck open...it wouldn't turn off or take a picture or do ANYTHING (and it isn't the batteries). Then it finally turned off but now it won't turn on (I've tried at least a million times...at least). Anyway, how can I have a respectable blog with NO pictures!? I think I cannot. Thomas says we can use his old camera but I'm pretty sure he bought it at least ten years ago and you need nothing less than a magnifying glass to see the picture you took on the tiny screen....I feel like this defeats the purpose of a digital camera when you can't even see how the picture turned out! Am I right or am I right? Fight for the cause.

Thanks, Bloggers.

WE'RE (he's) IN!

THOMAS HAS BEEN ACCEPTED INTO THE BYU ACCOUNTING PROGRAM!
woohoooooo!

Walk

Tonight, Thomas and I took a nice hour-long walk near and through BYU campus. It was so quiet since there are hardly any students around and it's a Sunday evening. We saw some cute baby duckies swimming in a pond near some of the dorms and also some girls brought some baby bunnies outside to take pictures of them near the pond (weird??). We thoroughly enjoyed our peaceful stroll :]

Tom's new phone is cool and has a self timer and can stand on its own so we decided to take a picture:

What happened??

I used to be so good at posting and now I forget to post all the time even when we do fun stuff. Just a quick update (and I'll try to be better about updating):

Only two more weeks until the kids I nanny are out of school and we can do fun summer stuff all day every day! The sad part of this is I only have one week and a half left with the little 2-year-old girl I nanny, Lia. She is the daughter of the Physician's Assistant and I knew from the beginning she would be getting her own nanny after the summer when her new brother comes (her dad is a teacher and has summer off so he will have her during the summer). So I'm awfully sad because I have definitely grown to love her. Here is the good news: My sister, Laurin, is going to be the new nanny!!! So HOORAH, I will still get to see Lia sometimes and I will always get to know how she is doing. That makes me so happy because I was so sad about not being her nanny any longer.

Last week, Thomas and I saw the movie "Taken" and we loved it! It was so good!--I don't even usually like action movies but this one was really great! We also went out to eat at Macaroni Grill last week (my favorite favorite!!) and I finally tried the pizza that I always say I'm going to try sometime and never do. It was good but, to me, Pizza is Pizza. It tastes the same almost anywhere. We did get a free dessert with a coupon we had and we chose some soooo yummy cheesecake!!! Delish.

Also, one of my best friends, Sabrina, got married today in the Boston temple. Congratulations, Sabrina PETTERSSON!! :]

24 Hours

Thomas and I just completed our first 24-hour shift at the Family Support and Treatment Center. We had a pretty good time although we're glad we are only doing one shift a month! We had children to watch from 6pm-9pm last night then from 9am-6pm today--no overnighters this shift! We had a couple volunteers this shift which is nice because they can play with the kids while we get the required chores done (vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, laundry, dishes, meals, etc). We thought this job was going to be more of a nightmare than it really is. The last couple times that we did shifts (filling in from 6pm-9pm) we've had the same family whose kids are CRAZY x10. They always are sitting in time-out (almost the whole time they are there), always getting in fights, throwing things, screaming, anything you can imagine basically! But this weekend, we didn't have them at all and--heaven. The shift is so much easier when the children aren't monsters! We only had to put one child in time out today and only one time for only three minutes! And then we got paid for 12 hours while we slept/watched tv/got ready in the morning. We think we might only keep this job until fall comes and Thomas gets really busy with the accounting program (assuming he gets in) but I guess we'll see how it goes the next couple months. So I'm thinking I should be prepared for any type of kid God sends my way when we're ready to have children between all this nannying and family support center! And then again, I probably won't be at all prepared. I think my life revolves around children now but I already know it's nothing compared to having your own child. Except sometimes I think taking care of my own children will be easier in a way since I'll actually love them and get to reap the rewards of raising them right.