I....EVERYTHING!

I am...Aranne, enough said!
I think... too much. My mind is always going and going.
I know... I am loved.
I want... a vacation. A "real" vacation.
I have... great family and friends.
I wish... we would get "the call".
I hate... doubting myself.
I fear... the unknown.
I feel... BLESSED!
I hear... music in the background.
I smell... my shampoo. AAHH!
I wonder... if I am doing enough??
I regret... not staying on my Senior trip.
I love... to laugh.
I always... make lists.
I am not... in the shape I want to be!
I believe... things work out they way they should.
I don't always... have enough patience.
I win... at Scrabble against Dan and he hates it.
I lose... at pretty much everything else!
I never... try new things and I should.
I listen... to those who have been there.
I am scared of... thunder and lightning.
I read... when I have time.
I am happy about... the choices we have made together.
I tag ... Anyone and Everyone!

Some funny since the Olympics are over

Check this out and enjoy a good laugh....

YouTube - 1988 Paul Hunt gymnastics comedy beam routine

ENGAGED!

My best friend in the whole world (really) just got engaged and I am so excited. She is from Sweden and he is from the UK. They are currently living in the UK and just got engaged and I could not be more excited for them. They came to visit us last summer and he is wonderful. They mesh so well together and he makes her so happy and that is so important to me!

I think the best part about this is now we know that we have a vacation coming up because of course we will be attending this fabulous wedding whenever the date is actually set, and it is exciting because we don't know if it will be back in Sweden or if it will be in the UK. We secretly hope it will be in the UK since we have already been to Sweden (twice for me) but either way we will be there and can't wait for it.

Congrats Lina and Gary Sims!

WEEKEND WRAP-UP

No pictures for this weekend, but there were some happenings so here is the run-down.....

FRIDAY: Spent the morning cleaning up the house a little bit with the help of Morgan. Dan tried to get his truck shell but it wasn't quite ready...Oops! Headed over to mom's house for Card Class. Had some dinner with Dad and Morgan...Robert and McKenna arrived in the wee hours of the morning.

SATURDAY: Dan's truck shell was finally ready so he picked that up early in the morning and spent the rest of the day transferring all of his equipment from the old work truck, so his shinny new work truck. I spent the day at my mom's house helping out with her Stampin' Up New Catalog Open House. It was a lot of fun and we had a really good turn out. For lunch Cindy, Robert and I ventured out and went to Cafe Rio (my new favorite mexican place)! I had to hurry home because this weekend was Stake Conference and since we are in charge of the technical stuff for the stake we had to be there to set up the video equipment.

SUNDAY: Stake Conference in the morning and then a relaxing afternoon. For dinner we had some friends over from the Ward for a BBQ. Rex and Kim Hardy and their littlest one Ty came over and it was really nice. We haven't had a chance to spend any time with them in a long time and it was really nice to be able to talk to them and really catch up.

So, all in all a really nice weekend and hopefully that means we are off to a good week!

Name option?

So yesterday Gwen Stefani went into Cedars-Sinai and had her new baby boy. She is married to Gavin Rossdale and has one baby boy already, named Kingston... So we have a Gwen, a Gavin and a Kingston. Semi-normal names, definitely not traditional but not totally "out-there" either.....

As Dan and I continue on the road of adoption we tend to toss names back and forth.... maybe we won't have to anymore... We might go ahead and steal the name from the Rossdale/Stefani family....

The new name they have chosen for their little bundle of joy is Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale... ours of course going with Zuma Nesta Rock Urbancic... It has a nice ring to it don't you think?

SPT: August Week 3

Stronger, Faster and Higher...

That to me is our new air conditioner that was installed today... YEAH!!!

It should blower stronger, and faster for sure and made a higher bill for me... but it is totally worth it....

It's getting HOT in her'

The time has come.... We have to get a new air conditioner.... We thought that we could make it through the summer (we hoped) but that nasty machine has other plans. I am sitting at my mom's house right now as I type this because it is getting hotter and hotter at my house and we are staying here until it is fixed. But luckily it will be done tomorrow!

Sunday night it died on us for good. We have been fixing part after part for the last few months but this time there was no fixing... we had to suck it up and just get a new one.... So Sunday we slept (well I slept and Dan sweated) through the night... but today and tonight we will be at my parents house.... When we left the house this morning it said 91 degrees... that is HOT let me tell you!

Thank goodness the company was so good about coming out to check it out and then coming to get us a new one so fast.... too bad they didn't want to give it to us for free too!

Alan Jackson

I guess this was a weekend of surprise shows....

We ended up with tickets to Alan Jackson at the Mandalay Bay for tonight and his concert was great. He has been around for a long time so he has a ton of songs and they are all great. It is so fun to go to a concert and know all of the songs that a person sings and that is how I felt tonight at this concert. Of course he is an old pro, so he did a great job. His opening act was Leann Womack and she was awesome too. Country concerts are always fun to go to because the people there are so funny. I could just people watch at a country concert for hours and hours!!!!

Early Weekend

Last night Morgan (our niece) spent the night with us. A treat for her after being at Grandma and Grandpa's for the week wanting to come over to Uncle Dan's and Auntie Aranne's. So she came over to help us get ready for our fun day today.... We went to the store and got the stuff we needed for our trip to the lake! Uncle Les was coming down from Canada and he wanted to try our our jetskis and of course we could not disappoint.

So we spent the morning/afternoon out at the lake and had a blast. Then we came home and cleaned up and found out that we were able to get some tickets to go and see the winner of last seasons "America's Got Talent", Terry Fator. We had heard nothing but great reviews and were really excited to check him out. It worked out great since my mom was having her card class tonight and Morgan was old enough to come and see the show with me, Dan and my dad. She was so excited to go and see a grown up show.

Well......

He did not disappoint. Terry Fator was fab-u-lous! He was so funny, and so talented so say the least. I highly recommend him that is for sure. We had a great day and it is only Friday, and we have the whole weekend ahead of us!

SPT - August Week 2

STRONGER, FASTER AND HIGHER.....

The OLYMPICS are fabulous and I enjoy everything about them. I love watching them and feeling the pride in our amazing country. I love seeing all the amazing athletes and watching their dreams come true as they stand up on the platform and the flag waves with the national anthem playing in the background. It really is an awesome moment for them and for us as a nation as we encourage them and cheer them on....

FSA Conference - Day 3

The conference was awesome today too.... I am sad that it is over and that we couldn't have more. We really did have such a good time and learned a ton and now have even more things to think about and ponder as we continue on our path of adoption. But this is all a good thing!

Today our classes were Supporting adopted children outside of the home, Understanding transracial adoption, and Understanding placement. In the morning there was a general session with Barbara Thompson (member of the General Relief Society) speaking and also Cherie Call providing musical entertainment. It was fabulous. I really can't wait for next year and hope that we can tell people about it and get them excited so that we have big numbers from Nevada there to represent...

After the conference today we decided that we would head down to Thanksgiving Point just to walk around and see what we could find. Well, it was a good plan until it started raining right when we got there. We were able to look in the stores for a minute but no walking through the gardens this visit. We happened to notice this huge blue building close buy with bright yellow letters on the side and it was calling my name.... Yep, IKEA was in our future. We stopped in, had some Swedish meatballs for dinner and then did some shopping. We didn't buy anything (can you believe that) but we have some things in our mind that might look great in a nursery! We will see.

FSA Conference - Day 2

We woke up early today so we could make the drive from Rees and Lisa's house (thanks for letting us stay) to Layton where the conference is being held. We had to be there by 8:30 for registration!

Today the conference was amazing. So we were the only one NOT from Utah but that is fine with us... We went to learn about adoption and hear other people's stories and that kind of stuff, so that is the important part. It is so great to be in a place where everyone is so supportive of adoption and here for the same reason. I love it! The classes that we took today were Promoting your Own Adoption (which actually was given by Lindsey who writes on The R House blog), Understanding Openness, Raising adopted children within your home, and a birth mother panel. All of the classes were wonderful and so informative. Can't wait for tomorrow.

After the conference we called up our friends Josh and Kirsten who use to live here with us to see what they were doing. We were able to meet up and decided we wanted to head out to the Salt Lake County Fair.

This was Kirsten's first experience at a Fair, and my first time at a demolition derby. I think we were both pleasantly surprised. Both of us decided that maybe next year we would have cars ready to enter into the derby!!!

We all had a great time and enjoyed the night. It is so fun to get together and just relax and hang out. It was really nice that Josh was able to be there too (since he is a pilot and you never know about his schedule). We can't wait until the next time we are all able to see each again.

FSA Conference - Day 1

After arriving LATE last night we were ready to check out Salt Lake and see what we could find to do. The FSA Conference doesn't start until tomorrow so we have a full day to just see the sights and do what we want!

We went to Gateway and did some shopping. We then decided that we wanted to go to the Salt Lake Temple. Neither of us had actually been to the temple and we felt it would be a perfect time. It was amazing. That is pretty much all I can say about it... AMAZING. After going to the temple we headed just down the street to Little America for some dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Petersen. It was great to see them and to be able to catch up and see how they were doing. I had the chance to have dinner with them last week while I was in town, but Dan has not seen them in a while so it was great.

We are now getting ready for a full day tomorrow of adoption!

SPT - August Week 1

citius, altius, fortius (faster, higher, stronger)

These three words encourage the athlete to give his or her best during competition, and to view this effort as a victory in itself.

*** So what in my life fits into one of these categories...? I must say right now I am totally involved, no, consumed with, all things ADOPTION! I think that my first post for this challenge would not be sufficient if I did not call it Fortius.

Stronger... This process has helped me become a stronger person. Stronger in my faith, stronger in my desire to be a great mother (not just a mother, or a good mother, but a great mother), stronger in the relationship with my wonderful husband Dan and also stronger in the relationships with our extended family as they offer us such unending support and love. Hopefully I will be able to take this strength and hold on to it and use it in other areas of my life.

A boy and his toys....

I leave for a week and I come home to Dan having bought a new truck!!! It is a new work truck and he REALLY needed it so I was not mad (actually I was really glad I did not have to be there when he did it. I hate going to car lots and dealing with all of that drama!)

He is very excited about his new purchase. He is now the PROUD owner of an F-250 4x4 and can hardly wait to start using it. He has to wait for the shell to come in. He has it ordered and it should be here next week. He can't use it for work until that comes in.

He tried to sell me on the truck by telling me about the 6-disc CD changer and the leather seats with seat warmers... nice try but since I don't EVER ride in his work truck it wasn't a big selling point for me! I know that he needs this truck and that his old one doesn't even run past 20 MPH (on a good day) so it is a necessity! I also know that this one has air conditioning which in the Vegas heat is a necessity too. This will be great for him and I am glad he finally found one he likes and can't wait for him to be able to start using it!!!

A week of Stamps!

STAMPIN' UP! 20 YEAR CONVENTION

So besides spending the entire week with a bunch of screaming, stamping crazy old ladies I had a good time. I wasn't quite sure what to expect and I think I got more than I bargained for! I packed up my stuff and headed to Utah with my mom, and our friend Sue and that was about all I knew. We arrived and the rest is history. We stayed up late and got up early (mostly thanks to Sue) and did nothing but attend classes and stamp all day long. It was a lot of fun.

This is a picture of me with the vinyl lettering that I won during the first general session with my prize patrol!!! Yeah me and my green wrist band!

Mom and Sue getting to walk across the stage because they won the trip to Hawaii next March!

Sue and her kit she won during general session for prize patrol.

Me and Aimee with our Ronald McDonald Stamp set that was given away to the entire audience at the last session. What a crazy experience. The crowd went wild when the UPS truck pulled up and confetti went off and they started passing out these stamp sets. You had to be there to see this!

This is for sure something you have to see to believe and something you have to experience. It was fun and I will probably go again (despite all my complaining and giving my mom and Sue a hard time about being such old ladies!!!)