Saturday - Shopping, a Show and a Smarty

After we finally got ourselves together on Saturday morning and decided what we were going to do for the day we headed out to do some shopping. Maria and Crystal can't make a trip to Vegas without going to the outlets - IMPOSSIBLE!

Dan was a great sport in keeping Arianna entertained while we were shopping. She loved it too. It just makes me more sure of what a great dad he will be and how wonderful he is with kids!


After our shopping trip we had to hurry home so that Crystal and Jesse could get ready for their show. (One of the main reasons for the entire trip was because Crystal and Jesse are both now finally 21 and able to hang out in the casino and don't have to be the babysitters anymore. They wanted to celebrate Jesse's b-day by going to a show. They decided on Blue Man Group - which is fabulous)

While Crystal and Jesse were off eating dinner and seeing their show the rest of us decided that we would go have some dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. The food was good but the service was horrible. I mean really BAD. I have never had such bad service in a place like this and I was really annoyed....

After getting past our rough dinner we decided that we would try to pick a movie that all of us could see, two guys, two girls and a 7 year old... this ended up being a little harder than expected since it was already 8pm... but we went with Get Smart. I think everyone liked the movie. We know it would not have been Arianna's first pick but it was okay. It had some funny parts but I think if you knew the original TV series it would have been a lot more funny!

All in all, another busy day.... After the movie us girls went home and the guys went back out to pick up Crystal and Jesse from their show. They dropped Crystal off at the house and then took Jesse to the Casino so that he could experience being 21! I guess it went okay because they did not come home until 5am!! We didn't ask many questions... we didn't want to know how much money the lost (or maybe won- yeah right!)

Friday Fun at the Lake

Everybody came to visit us this weekend and we were all so excited to get out to the LAKE! They got here late on Thursday night and after going to dinner/breakfast we came back and went right to bed so that we could get up early and make a full day of Friday out at the lake, and we sure did.....

Morgan, Arianna and Crystal

Marvin getting ready to be pulled by Dan

Robert taking a ride on the jet ski


Dan and Aranne swimming in the middle of the lake

All of the girls playing on shore... McKenna, Arianna and Morgan

The day was perfect. We managed to not get too sunburned even with the sun shinning brightly overhead. We had hot dogs for lunch. Everyone loved the jet skiing. Dan got an early b-day present from Marvin when they decided we NEEDED a tube and went and bought one. That did provide hours of enjoyment though! Maria, Jesse and my Dad were all there too but I guess they managed to not show up in any pictures. We are all trying to get the next trip planned already.

Visiting Teaching Overload

I have definitely gotten my fill of Visiting Teaching over the last 3 days! On Tuesday I went visiting teaching in the morning to one lady. Then on Wednesday I went to the other three ladies that I teach. Then today the two ladies who come to visit me just came by to see me! Wow... that is a lot of visiting going on.

It is funny actually because I have lived in the same ward for over 6 years and NEVER had consistent visiting teachers. Right when we moved in I had an awesome visiting teacher, but she moved out of the entire ward (state) within about 6 months! After that I have not seen a visiting teacher (or home teacher for that matter) in our house but maybe 2-3 times. I mentioned this to my companion (because she happens to be the Relief Society President) and told her that I really like the older ladies in our ward better than the ones my age (I am weird I know) and what happens... I get the two oldest ladies in the entire ward... HONESTLY! But... beggars can't be choosers. They are the sweetest things ever and they are consistent and come! They are really sweet and really do care and I love them. But I think I have had my fill of visiting teaching for the month.

WEEKEND WRAP-UP

No real pictures... just a quick run-down of the weekend's events.

FRIDAY: We ditched work and headed out to the lake for some jetskiing. The weather has just been too hot to avoid it. And you don't want to go on the weekend because that is when everyone else is out there... So Friday it is! Dan spent the afternoon resting because Friday night/Saturday morning he was out doing restaurant systems at McDonalds until about 5am... He loves those kind of nights!!!!

SATURDAY: We just did some shopping and errands during the day. That evening we had a pre-show snack at the Hard Rock Cafe before going to see an all-ages show of Sarah Silverman's with some friends. Besides her being almost 30 minutes late to start, the show was pretty good. After the show we got some dinner at Buca Di Beppo's. More great food and wonderful dessert.

SUNDAY: Church in the AM and then a family BBQ after church at Mom and Dad's house.

That was about all we could pack into the weekend. Now we have to work during the week... do some visiting teaching, clean the house, go to scouts and get ready for our guests that are going to arrive on Thursday night.....

Pregnancy Pact

I read this story today and was shocked. I could not believe that something like this was actually going on and that it was happening in a high school and that people knew about it and that nothing was being done.....

17 teenage moms at one high school.... all planning to get pregnant and have their babies together...!!! That is absolutely crazy right?! Not unless you go to this school and are part of their pact.

I know I graduated 10 years ago, but come on I don't think I am THAT old when I say what are these kids thinking? I knew a couple (and when I say a couple I really mean A COUPLE) of girls throughout my entire high school career who got pregnant. And when they got pregnant it was a BIG deal and not something that people were overly excited about either. I don't know what our school, my friends, or anyone else at the school for that matter, would have done if 17 girls all at once would have been walking around pregnant - AND ON PURPOSE! This world really has lost their minds.

Soon-To-Be Father's Day Post

I think that more than I want to be a mom... I want Dan to have the chance to be a DAD! He is going to be the best DAD ever. He is such a great person, friend, husband and I know he will make a great DAD. He has such great traits that I hope he is able to pass on to our children. He is patient and kind. He is giving. He is funny and lighthearted and easy-going. He is understanding and easy to get along with. He makes friends with people quickly.

I can't wait to watch him interact with our children and be the DAD that he wants to be. I can't wait to see him playing catch, going on camp-outs, building forts, teaching them how to work on cars, showing them how to fix fire extinguishers... and he has already told me this will all happen weather it is a boy or girl! But right now we have all nieces and it is sweet to watch him with them too. He does play dolls with them and blocks and reads to them. So that side is there in Dan he just needs a "princess" to help bring it out. Either way I know Dan will be a great DAD and I hope that he will have that chance very soon. I hope this is the last Father's Day he will have to spend without a little one looking up at him in pure adoration!

By the way... Happy Father's Day to my Dad for being a great example to me and for always being there for me, and to Dan's Dad for helping him be the great guy that he is today.... We love you both!

Weekend of Good Deeds

This weekend we headed to California to spend some time doing some good deeds and hanging out with some friends. After arriving late on Thursday night, Friday morning we headed into Downey and visited Maria at her new office. It was great to see at at work (especially since I don't work there with her anymore!)

Friday night we hung out with Maria, Crystal, Officer Jesse, Marvin and Arianna at Maria's house. We had some dinner and then watched a movie. We had to get up early on Saturday for the....

HOGS AND RODS POKER RUN

Saturday we participated in the 4th annual poker run that benefits the Orange County Ovarian Alliance. My Dad is friends with the guy who runs the organization and it is a great cause and a lot of fun so we decided to go and participate this year. My dad has been going since the beginning... It was a lot of fun. We were able to see lots of vintage cars and tons of motorcycles. We didn't have the winning poker hands but that was okay too.... Dan had a pair of 3s and I had a pair of 7s... Better luck next year!

After a busy day of driving around Orange County we made a stop at Wendy's to help out a good cause there as well. They were donating 50 cents of every frosty purchased to the Dave Thomas Adoption Foundation. It is not the service that we are using but adoption is a great service and we were glad to support a good cause and have a yummy treat at the same time.

Sunday we woke up and picked up Morgan and she came back to Nevada with us. She is out of school and came to visit for a couple weeks. She is staying at Grandma and Grandpa's house and then dad and McKenna will be coming to get her.

Frosty Anyone?

IN THE MOOD FOR A FROSTY???

This Saturday we should all take advantage of this wonderful program and help out a great cause and beat the heat by enjoying a frosty.

Celebrate Father's Day and help a child find a forever family. For every Frosty product purchased on June 14 and 15, Wendy's will donate 50 cents to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Please join us for Father's Day Frosty Weekend at a participating Wendy's near you!Proceeds support the mission of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption to dramatically increase the number of adoptions of waiting children in North America so that every child will have a permanent home and loving family.

Take a look here http://www.davethomasfoundationforadoption.com/ and see what this wonderful program is really all about!

WEEKEND WRAP-UP: Visitors, Registers and Swimmers

THURSDAY NIGHT: We went to the airport to pick up Laura who would be visiting for the weekend. She was coming basically just to visit and get away from LA for the weekend...



FRIDAY: Dan had to work in the AM for a little while. My dad was having a work BBQ on Saturday so we spent some time shopping and helping him get ready for that. The main event for us on Friday afternoon/evening was that we decided to go and start a registry at Babies R Us. We decided that since LDS Family Services thinks that we have been on the "List" for about a year we figured it was about time that we start getting things a little more ready than we are. We also thought it was pretty good timing since Laura is good at that kinda stuff and she was very helpful with reminding us of things that we would need right at the very beginning and man is there a ton of stuff. It really was fun though. Now at least if we get the call we won't have to go and start from scratch on a registry, we have a big head start and can just add gender specific items to the list.




SATURDAY: My dad has his BBQ and we participated by spending a lot of the day in the pool. The weather was great and the water in the pool has finally gotten nice. We also had purchased a new volleyball set for the pool and Dan and I made good use of that. Fun, Fun, Fun!



SUNDAY: Church and then relaxing. Another busy weekend, but we felt like we were able to accomplish a big task and hopefully now that we have taken this big step maybe it won't be long and we will actually need some of the things that we have on our list... that is the plan at least!

A Little Off The Top

So after months, no maybe years, of Dan talking about wanting to shave his head he finally did it. I was a little unsure about the idea to say the least. I don't mind shaved heads, but you never know how it is going to turn out. Some people just don't have cute heads and you can't tell under all that hair until it is too late. I think we lucked out with Dan. Besides... his hair grows so stinking fast that he will have his crazy mop back before the end of the summer anyways!

Has it been a year already?

Well I opened my email yesterday and got two sort of unpleasant messages. The first one was a note from our caseworker Brad stating that because we had done all of our paperwork on real paper we were in a group that we going to have to re-do/update our file and change over our paperwork into an online format... oh and it needs to be done by JUNE 9th... WHAT?! Like I have nothing better to do. And like that whole process didn't take us months to do before. The only good news is that we don't have to fill out the 44 long answer questions but the rest of it still takes a while, so that made me a little upset. But I was dealing with it....

Then the next email came..... We got an email that just said "Annual Update". I opened it. It was from LDS Family Services in Salt Lake and it said that because we were approaching our year mark that we needed to update certain things in our file. WHAT? Our year mark... they must be mistaken. It hasn't been a year since we were approved. It can't be?! The letter that we got from Salt Lake stating that we are "fit to be parents" is dated October 2007... I was prepared to have this email come in October, but not in May.... It was a shocker that is for sure. I had always told myself that it takes 9 months to have a baby naturally so not to stress or worry for at least then first 9 months... I also told myself that Brad has told us a "normal" turn around in our agency is anywhere from 1-1.5 or even 2 years.... so I was going to be okay with waiting about that long. I would be a little impatient but okay with it. After that is when I would start wondering what was wrong with us and why no one was choosing us and what we were doing wrong. I was not ready to already be at that year mark though. May to October is a big difference.

I do have to sit back and think about where we really are in the process though. We really haven't only been waiting a year, or 9 months, or even 2-3 years... it has been much longer than that... so I am not sure why this upsets me so much. We started the paperwork in approximately January of 2007 and then told our families in July, and got the approval in October... It really doesn't seem like we have been waiting that long. We have been able to keep ourselves busy and active with the group and with members of FSA and we are grateful for that. We need to remember what we are here for and remember the blessings we will receive and the final outcome of this process. We will be an eternal family and there is nothing that we want more. No matter how long this process takes it will be worth it.

So this week we have a lot of "paperwork" to finish up online and fingerprints to re-do, Bishop recommends to get again, and all of that fun stuff. We have to do all of the updates by the end of the month but I want to just get it over with and hope this is the last Annual Update that we have to do.

WEEKEND WRAP-UP

FUN IN THE SUN......

FRIDAY: We started our weekend a little early by going out to the lake with some friends on Friday. It was a perfect day with very little wind (which is rare here in Vegas) and the weather was fabulous. We took out the grill and had some chicken and a great time on the skis.

We continued our day in the sun by going back to my parents house for some more BBQing for dinner and a dip in the spa later that evening.

SATURDAY: We spent the day with my Dad running errands and just sort of hanging out. We went to the bank, Costco (gotta love Costco), went to a couple furniture stores looking for a new bookshelf... Nothing really exciting but that is what we wanted. We stopped by Hollywood Video on our way home so that we could watch movies on Sunday.

SUNDAY: After church on Sunday we did NOTHING! It was wonderful. We sat around all day and vegged-out. It has been weeks since we have been able to do this and it was great. We came home and put on jammies and did nothing but watch movies. I loved every minute of it. I watched a really good movie that I am sure a lot of people have already seen but I hadn't. It was called "The Ultimate Gift". Very sweet and touching (kinda cheesy) but if you are in the mood for a few tears and a lot of cheese... a great movie.

This was a well deserved, relaxing weekend and we were ready for it. The next two weekends will be busy once again, so we have this week to get ready for them. Wish us luck!