New Beginnings

Last night, we had our Young Women's New Beginnings. Our theme was "Becoming the Girl of Your Dreams." All the girls came wearing their Pj's. We transformed the room into a dream land, with pillows and blankets. I just wanted to share this poem that I read to the girls.

PJ’S Party Poem

When you put your PJ’s on & climb into bed,

We want them to remind you of what is ahead.

They’re waiting and waiting, so at the end of day,

You’ll quickly put them on and then you’ll kneel to pray.

But as you pick them up, you’ll notice you’re not through,

Please pick up a pen to help with the writing you will do.

With your pen and journal, write about the day,

Remember all the blessings the Lord gave you today.

And now before you settle down, there’s one last thing to do.

It’s time to read the scriptures; they will be a guide for you.

Now that you are dressed for bed and wearing your PJ’s,

Look again and you will find the SPIRITUAL PJ’S.

PRAYERS, JOURNALS and SCRIPTURES to protect and cover you well,

The Lord will always be with you and the Holy Ghost will dwell.

His love will touch your spirit each night before you sleep,

And carry you the whole day through if these PJ’S you will keep.

–Unknown author

I am so thankful that I heard this poem. I will never look at my pajamas as just a physical piece of clothing, but I will remember the spiritual side that goes along with them.

 "When I tell you I LOVE YOU, I don't do it out of habit, or to make conversation, I say it to remind you that you're the best thing that ever happened to me...!"

 2 hours later...........

Yesterday Tel and I got "officially" pre-approved for our house loan. It took FOREVER! But now comes the hard part, finding the perfect house, and then making the perfect offer.!

This past fall I was put on the United Way Board of Directors. I will serve a 3 year term. I am really enjoying being on the board and I have met some really cool people from the community that are also on the board. Intrepid contributes quite a bit of money to the United Way foundation. In October Intrepid ran a campaign to raise money for United Way for the employees to donate. Intrepid did a 100% company match! We ended up raising a little over $89,000 from our company alone for the local United Way.

That is crazy huh. On top of the campaign that Intrepid did, we are currently working on a project for the Battered Family Shelter. In a few weeks we are going to be building a 30x40 storage shed for donations to be stored as well as a huge playground at the site. It is really awesome to see these kinds of acts being done. Carlsbad has a lot of charitable committees and foundations for people to volunteer at. But along with that, there are a lot of people that need that little help from the community.I will post pictures of the completed project in March!

Celebrate Good TIMES.....Come on!

Friday or should I say 2-19 turned out even better than I thought it could. First, the Lady Cards won their game, making it to the championship game. BUT what also happened is, Tel got his ACT score back. He hasn't taken the ACT since he was like a Sophmore or Junior in High School and he didn't try super hard while taking it. So he needed to improve his score in order to get into the nursing program.  He just retook the test a few weeks ago, so we weren't expecting his results so soon. Everything was weighing on Tel improving his ACT. Because if he didn't, then he wouldn't be able to take the TEAS test in March, that is also required for the nursing program. BUT we got his score back and he improved his score 4 points and got even better than the score he needed, YAH!! So, of course on Friday night, we had to Celebrate with a little local MEXICAN food.

On Saturday, the high was 73 degrees! So we played some tennis, then we met with a Realtor and looked at a zillion houses. We have 2 that we really like, that are in our price range. So we'll see what we decide!

Yesterday I finally got to talk to Sara Sammann! She got home from her mission on Wednesday from Croatia, and I've been feeling kind of bad that I hadn't talked to her yet. But then she called yesterday! It was soooooooooooooo good to talk to her. We both had tons of things to say, but didn't even know where to start. But her brother lives in Santa Fe and she is going to be visiting him in March, so I am going to meet her up there! Bring on the Santa Fe!

*******DRIVE-IN ON A FEBRUARY EVENING?!*******

Who goes to the drive-in in the month of  FEBRUARY? We do! The drive-in in Carlsbad is open year around! They have three different screens, showing 3 separate movies. Last Saturday night (2-13-10) we went to the Fiesta drive-in theater in with Jess, Chad, Sara, and Lawrence.

And get this, we even sat outside in LAWNCHAIRS! I'm loving the weather here! Today we hit 70 degree weather. Anyways we went and seen the movie, "Extraordinary Measures." It was kind of a "blah" movie, nothing great, and probably wouldn't recommend. But it was so fun being able to be outside, without having to wait for SUMMER!

2-19!

2-19!...2-19!....2-19!

I remember the days of screaming 2.....19! while doing the sliding defense drill at the end of every basketball practice. 2-19 was the date of the state championship game that we were shooting for during our basketball season. Which we did make it to the championship game! Today is 2-19 and the Soda basketball team is at state. They won their game last night, and set to play their second game today. Sasha played well last night and my parents are in Boise fore the weekend.  It was also my dad's 57th birthday!

That is crazy to think about. When I talked to my dad he thought it was his 58th birthday. I finally talked him into realizing that it was only his 57th birthday. But 58 seems way older than 57. I don't want my parents to get any older. AH! Anyways, I haven't missed girls state basketball in like 6 years. I am kind of feeling a little left out. But Tel and I got our feel of B-ball last night. I went with Tel to play some church ball. It was a lot of fun. I had butterfingers and I blamed it on it being a boys ball I had to play with. But I didn't play too bad. I was better than half of the goobers that were playing. We played 4 on 4! I even picked Tel's nose while playing. He isn't used to playing against a girl with long fingers that can take chunks out of your nose with one single nail! But now I am feeling some more B ball. I need to shoot around and get used to playing with a boys ball! Then I won't embarrass Tel as much!

A WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY!

Well Telford and I had a non-typical Wednesday. Tel got to come to work with me! Ok, well I actually had to do a little job fair in Roswell that was only a few hours long. So Tel rode over to Roswell with me. While I did the job fair, Tel went to Home Depot and a few other things. I was done with my fair by 1:00pm, so we went an had some pizza for lunch (Tel and I have been trying to eat healthier, but we kind of splurged yesterday, kind of like it was the first time we have ever seen food before or something!). Then we went and seen the movie, "Dear John." It was an ok movie, the book was definitely better! I didn't even cry in the movie..Yah! And, they should have picked a different girl to be Savannah, someone cuter!





After the movie we went to Hobby Lobby! I love this store. I just wish I had everything in it. I got a corkboard that I am decorating for my kitchen, and I got some Disney papers so that I can make a chipboard Disney scrapbook. By the way, we go to Disney World in 62 Days!! I can't wait. I told Tel that he will get his own little autograph book so that he can get all the characters to sign it! This is an obvious MUST because he's never done that before. I remember when I was little and I went to Disney Land, I had an autograph book and we had a week long pass to Disney so we went multiple times to the park. I ended up getting Goofy's autograph twice. I remember looking at both of Goofy's signatures and they were DIFFERENT! I seriously could not figure out why Goofy had 2 different signatures. I guess Goofy has different signatures for the different days of the week! I am so excited to go to Disney with Tel. We have three free days to do what we want before my conference starts in Orlando. So I think we are going to Magic Kingdom, MGM/Universal Studios, and Epcot on those three days. And in that order. I don't think I could ever get sick of Disney. I have been to Disney Land twice, Disney World twice, and Paris Disney once. Yah for making this my third Disney World visit! I am going to be counting every day down until April 21st!

New "To do" List..many things I haven't done!

Rules: Anything you have done has to be in colored, bold, and/or underlined. How much have you done? It only takes about 5 minutes....it's fun!

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band-Rock band count?

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a Praying Mantis

10. Sang a solo-Rockband?

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched an amazing lightning storm

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Ran a Marathon

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied-not until we're totally out of debt and have food storage

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone snorkeling...

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Visited Italy

Need I say more...

"You will have significant experiences. I hope that you will write them down and keep a record of them, that you will read them from time to time and refresh your memory of those meaningful and significant things. Some may be funny. Some may be significant only to you. Some of them may be sacred and quietly beautiful. Some may build one upon another until they represent a lifetime of special experience." - Gordon B. Hinckley
 

**********************************

Lately I have been overwhelmed with how much I love Tel. He is doing so good in his classes right now and working hard on all the side jobs he's doing. I am so proud of him. We are also starting a project of stripping our coffee and end tables and repainting them.Which is going to be cool to accomplish together. But this morning my alarm clock went off at 5:25am, and I did not want to get out of bed and go shower. I immediately started debating in my head whether or not I really wanted/needed to shower. But Tel got right up and turned the shower on for me, eliminating the freezing time of waiting for the shower to warm up and saving my feet from the freezing bathroom floor (which is the hardest part of showering early in the morning). And then when I was ready to leave the house for work, my car was already started and warm for me. It was definitely a good way to start off the morning. 

"The Lucky One"

Maybe I should have done a blog about Nicholas Sparks! I'm not obsessed I promise. But I thought I would note that I finished another book. Because of the terrible memory with books and movies, a year from now I won't even remember that I read this book. Yah for being able to read back on the blog to see what I did in my life! Also, I guess to fill that I'm not just reading my life away with romance novels, I try to note what I got out of reading the book. This book left me wanting to walk across the country by foot with my own German Shepherd and Tel can come too. How crazy would that be to walk from Colorado to North Carolina?! But this book was kind of predictable but entertaining. On to my next book..."True Believer" by of course Nicholas Sparks.

Overview of the book:

Logan Thibault has been walking a long way from Colorado with no one for company but his faithful German Shepherd. His destination - a vague location based on a photograph he found while serving in Iraq. A photograph that's proved to be a lucky talisman and kept him alive through many dangerous encounters. The photograph of a lovely young woman.

Why he's compelled to find her, even Logan doesn't know. But find her he must. What happens if or when he does makes for an interesting and romantic story.

LOvE iS In ThE AiR!

So these are Tel and I's first Valentine decorations for our home.We thought they were pretty cute.Ahhh, not to get all gaga, but lots of XOXOXOX's for Tel and I.

Dog food trip to El Paso

A couple of Saturdays (1-30-10) ago, Sara and Lawrence had to go to El Paso to get dog food for their Chihuahua and pit bull.Kind of sad that the nearest Pet Co or Pet Smart is 2 1/2 hours away. So we joined them for the day to get out of Carlsbad. We had such a fun day. We enjoyed lunch at "Cheddars," I got to get some fun stuff from Michaels for projects, I bought some baremineral makeup, and of course we shopped for the dog food! Then we headed over the other side of El Paso, where we'd heard about some awesome outlet malls. They were SWEET! From where the mall was, you could see Juarez. But the mall was huge. It was outdoor, but had a cool ceiling thingy. Then finding a place for dinner was eventful. El Paso was packed everywhere, probably because it was a Saturday. But we ended up eating at this little Chinese place. Tel and I both ate for $7. Crazy huh. We were probably eating cat or something or week old food and thats why it was so cheap. That might also explain why only 1 other family was eating there too.

The picture above you can see the difference in the lights. The further lights, that are all the same is Juarez.

Devil's Hall Hike..

On Saturday (2/06/10), Tel and I went out to the Guadalupe's to do a little hiking. We chose the Devil's Hall trail. It was a perfect day, with perfect weather. The trail followed a rocky wash for most of the way, which made for a lot of climbing around rocks.Check out the pics!

 
We thought this tree was so interesting how the roots only grew backwards.
Below is what the Devil's Hall I guess looks like. It was really cool.
I love this picture with the orange.This bed of rocks was what most of the trail was like. It mixed things up and made it interesting. But I appreciate level, smooth ground!

"The Choice" by Nicholas Sparks

So I guess you can say I'm on a "Nicholas Sparks" kick. I finished reading his book, "The Choice." It was a good book. I like reading his books because they are such easy reads that are easy to read during carpool, and it doesn't matter if the radio is playing or I talk here and there with people in the car, because the book is so easy to follow it doesn't ruin it for you. And also, when I'm around people while reading sad books, I tend to not get as involved and emotional in the book, making it a less painful read. If I'm reading by myself with no one around, I'll end up crying  my eyes out! So I guess that is my explanation behind reading these books. 

 

 

Description of the book:

Travis Parker has everything a man could want: a good job, loyal friends, even a waterfront home in small-town North Carolina. In full pursuit of the good life -- boating, swimming, and regular barbecues with his good-natured buddies -- he holds the vague conviction that a serious relationship with a woman would only cramp his style. That is, until Gabby Holland moves in next door. Despite his attempts to be neighborly, the appealing redhead seems to have a chip on her shoulder about him...and the presence of her longtime boyfriend doesn't help. Despite himself, Travis can't stop trying to ingratiate himself with his new neighbor, and his persistent efforts lead them both to the doorstep of a journey that neither could have foreseen. Spanning the eventful years of young love, marriage and family, The Choice ultimately confronts us with the most heartwrenching question of all: how far would you go to keep the hope of love alive?

My thoughts:

If you plan on reading the book, don't keep reading because I am going to ruin the ending. At the end of the book, Travis's wife Gabby ends up in a coma from a car accident they were in. Years before Travis had promised Gabby that if she was ever in a situation that she couldnt' make a decision on her own that he would make the decision to end her life in the case of a coma or anything similar instead of dragging it out. When Travis is approaching the 12 week mark of Gabby still in a coma, he is faced with "the choice" to pull the plug or to transfer her into a nursing home.He can either keep his promise to Gabby and pull the plug, or follow his insticts and keep her alive....He makes the decision to transfer her to a nursing home and to just have faith that she will wake up. While reading this book, I knew Gabby wasn't going to wake up because all of Nicholas Sparks book end very sad. BUT she wakes up within the year! Their little family is reunited and things end happily ever after!! I can't imagine pulling the plug on someone that has only been in a coma for 12 weeks, (3 months)! That probably seems like such a long time in the moment, but in reality, 3 months is not that long. I don't know how anyone could give up in that short amount of time.But this is a good book with a great ending. Gabby only lost 7 months with her family, but could have lost many more, if Travis would've made a different choice.

Cookbook...

So I finally finished my chipboard cookbook/scrapbook. It turned out pretty cute! I used Bo Bunny's "Kitchen Spice" scrapbook paper. Now I'm motivated to do even more chipboard albums. Take a look!

The End.