We Made It!!!

Jake and I made it to our Boston house yesterday evening! The trip was great, and we made it through all of Harry Potter 6! No road problems, no weather problems, and no car troubles - so we were really lucky. We also spent about half a day at Niagara Falls, so I'll post pictures of that later. Just wanted to let everyone know we arrived safe and still in love!

And the Countdown Begins!

One week from today (Friday, May 1st) Jake and I are leaving to go live in Boston for 4 months! And we recently decided to cash in our plane tickets and drive across the country! Crazy! The decision to change our travel plans so close to our departure date was a difficult one, but it mainly has to do with the fact that my sister Hana (the one going on a mission) wants to hit all of the church history sites before she reports to the MTC, so we are driving my mom's car out to Boston (where Hana is now) and then my mom will fly there and drive home with Hana (and possibly some other siblings) stopping at all of the church history sites on the way.

So Jake and I will be back in Utah in August, and until then, we will be living in this lovely house:

which is conveniently only 5 minutes from the beach! I'll make sure to blog about all of our adventures in Boston so you can all be jealous of our jet-setting life! :)

Words Cannot Express How SHOCKED I Am!

Well, Hana got her mission call! Let me remind you that she went to school on the east coast, did an archaeological dig in Guatemala, went backpacking through Central America, did a semester abroad at Oxford University in England, and went backpacking through Europe. This is the girl who wants to sleep on dirt floors and doesn't mind showering once a week. So of course, she really wanted to go to the most exotic mission she could. Little did we know that she really would be sent to the most unique mission there is...

Yup - she is officially going to the Salt Lake Temple Square Mission!!! She is speaking English and reports to the MTC on August 5th! She did put on her papers that she is from Orem and that her family still lives in Orem, but I guess the Lord really wants her to go to Salt Lake! Now we just have to convince my mom to keep the rules.... Good luck! She is already talking about driving up to see her once a week and taking a tour from her or bringing her lunch or even moving up there and setting up binoculars so she can keep tabs on her. And you think she's kidding! This will be interesting to see how the dynamics of having her on a mission only 40 minutes from home.... Congrats Hana!
(I don't know who they are in the picture, but it's a pretty accurate representation of how she will look!)

Fun Family!

My beautiful, amazing, and Hilarious cousin Jackie is coming tomorrow and staying for a whole week! I'm so excited for the adventures we are going to have! If you can think of anything fun for us to do, let me know!

Every Day Is A Little Bit Easier

One year ago today a dear friend of mine passed away after valiantly fighting off breast cancer. So my mom and I went up to Logan today to visit her grave. We hadn't seen her headstone since it was put in after she was buried and we thought it was so beautiful! It was an emotionally hard day for my mom and I'm so proud of how good she did! So we spent a little time with her and even though we miss her so much, we are also SO grateful for the time we had with her! We miss you Deniece!

Color Me Mine

Alex, Rob, My Mom and I had a good time at Color Me Mine a few weeks ago. It was our first time at Color Me Mine, and we certainly learned a lot! Robbie picked out a fish plate to paint and fell head-over-heals in love with this paint called The Naked Truth. I'm sure he liked it just because it had the word "naked" in it, but it was still entertaining none the less. I think he used half a bottle on his own and you can't even tell because the actual paint is practically transparent!

Alex picked out a cute mug and painted it in stripes and then blew paint bubbles inside the mug to give it a kind of texture. It didn't work out so well...

I made a cake plate because I've always wanted one. I used masking tape to make really clean lines, but the tape kept rolling and so I didn't get the exact lines I wanted, but I was still happy with the finished project nonetheless.
It may look pastel-ly, but it came out VERY orange and VERY yellow. It is perfect! It was a very fun day!

Monsters vs Aliens - B+

This is a really fun movie! Kids and adults alike will enjoy this! And I definitely suggest you see it in 3D. It was the way it was meant to be seen, and it really added to a good movie. And if you don't like 3D movies, then you are out of luck, because there are like 7 movies coming out all in 3D, so it looks like it is the next "big thing".

Obviously this movie has a bare plot and was made just to pack jokes into it, but I was obviously okay with that because I kept giggling throughout the whole movie! It is absolutely appropriate for every age and isn't too scary. The brilliant colors and constant movements will capture any child's attention, and they make sure to put enough jokes in there to amuse the parents who go too.

Pretty much I only had two complaints with the movie - the sparse plot, which I understand because it's not supposed to be a deep movie, and the fact that the funniest character "Bob" isn't as funny as he could have been because most of his jokes were played over and over on every preview. So as funny as they were, I had heard most of them before and it definitely took away from the movie. I wish they had kept more of it under wraps so that I could have honestly laughed rather than just laughed at the memory of the first time I had heard it.

This is a movie you must definitely see!

Knowing - a Solid "D" Movie

Jake and I went and saw this movie on Monday and I was really excited to see it. Hollywood has been retarded lately and for the past couple of months there have really been no good movies at the theaters. So finally I was excited to go see this one.

Even though I graded this movie a D, I have to admit that up until the last 20 minutes or so I was seriously considering giving it a B, maybe even a B+ depending on my overall mood that day. But man, that had to have been one of the WORST ending to a movie EVER!!!

Also, I'm not really a Nicholas Cage fan. I don't really find him believable in his roles. I think the only movie that he is in that I really liked him as an actor was It Could Happen To You. And the fact that in this movie he is supposed to be an MIT professor, well, let's just say it didn't sit well with me.

I won't give away too much because most of the movie is never shown in previews, so the general concept is that there is a paper full of numbers that has been in a time capsule for 50 years and when it is uncovered, Nicholas Cage happens to figure out that the numbers are actually the date and the number of dead of every major crisis for the past 50 years. An interesting concept in a movie, and I was pretty excited to see where they would take it. I wasn't happy with the direction it took. Oh well.

This movie is pretty intense, and for me, intense = scary. Jake didn't think it was intense at all, but there was a part where scary albino people dressed all in black who never spoke were approaching the car where the children were and I was almost crying I was so scared. So if you are like me and don't handle intense very well, watch out.

The rest of the people in the movie do pretty well. The main little boy was good, although at the end of the movie I realized that he blended so well into the background that even after watching a movie that he partially starred in for 130 minutes, I couldn't pick him out of a lineup if I tried. The best actors in this movie are those who have been told to act freaky. Like the little girl in the beginning - she does a really good job at playing the disturbed little girl without overdoing it.

Would I recommend this movie? Only if you really want to see a movie and you have already seen everything else at the box office. But you have been warned about the ending. Not only does it go completely over the edge of the unbelievable cliff, but it jumps off it with a flying leap out of a car going 80mph. Hopefully there are alternate endings on the DVD.

Rated PG-13 because of some violent images, general scariness (if you are me), and some language.

My Life Has Been Saved!!!

No more dead mouse smell.

I'm in love.

Not a scented spray

but an air sanitizer that smells good.

Still no sign of the little bugger.

Goin' on a dead mouse hunt!

Our apartment smells so bad right now! Jake and I are pretty sure that we have a dead mouse somewhere. It smells to high heaven! It's like my niece Echo came and took a dump somewhere in my house and it's been festering for a few weeks. And there is nothing that we have found that has worked so far to take the smell away. It is VERY frustrating!

From what I have read, if we can't find the mouse, we will just have to wait it out. And it could be weeks. So my mom came over the other day and we went on a dead mouse hunt together. I am not afraid of mice when they are alive, but the thought of seeing a dead mouse just gives me the heebie-jeebies! So I made my mom do most of the looking while I just assisted. We had a small flashlight, which we called the CSI flashlight, plastic gloves, and plenty of Clorox Wipes! But try as we might, we could not find the little bugger anywhere! So I guess we will just wait it out. Weeks. >sigh<

So I am desperately looking for any known remedies for dead mouse smell. Even if it doesn't take the smell away but just masks it... I am desperate at this point! So any and all help will be appreciated! Thanks guys!

Happy Birthday Jake!

Jake is officially 24 today! So here are 24 things that I love about my husband (in no particular order):

1. His long-standing love for Jackie Chan and Jackie Chan movies

2. How he thinks it's so funny how revolting I find Jackie Chan

3. He plays the guitar - so super sexy!

4. His dedication to school - when a teacher requests that certain pages are read before class, he actually reads them before class! I never did.

5. His willingness to watch chick flicks because it means he can cuddle with me for 2+ hours

6. The love he has for my family and the attention he pays to Robbie

7. His willingness to eat all of my cooking, even if it is burned

8. His love for violent video games

9. How he will clean up after dinner so I can go lounge on the couch

10. He watched Lost until he liked it so we could enjoy it together

11. He lets me talk his ear off about petty things like The Bachelor even though he couldn't care less

12. He likes to make sure we say our prayers and read our scriptures together - I love how important that is to him!

13. His desire to have kids and how good he is with kids

14. How he has never complained that I am the reason we can't have kids for a few more years

15. His love for Jelly Belly's

16. His patience with me and my never ending conversations

17. His love for Willow the movie

18. His amazing ability for languages and his love for the Portuguese language

19. His willingness to have adventures with me

20. How he knows that when I slightly arch my back it means I want a big long back scratch and he is always willing!

21. The way he never complains that our house isn't spotless even though I've been at home all day with nothing to do

22. How when he wants to do something that he doesn't know a lot about, he researches it so that he pretty much becomes an expert - he even built a whole computer and made our TiVo!

23. How he is so loyal to those in his life who mean a lot to him

24. The way in which he loves me unconditionally - no matter what dumb mistakes I make!

Bloody Noses and Smart Siblings

Wow. It's barely 8am and I can already tell this is going to be one interesting day!

Well, I woke up this morning to a beautiful bloody nose. Not fun. I ran out of the room yelling for Jake to come help me. I was freaking out - not because of the bloody nose - that I can handle - but because I had gotten some blood on my favorite sheets! I love my bed sheets and was so worried that I had permanently ruined them! They are so beyond soft I can't even begin to explain how amazing they feel! So I laid down and called my mom for advice while Jake did everything he could to treat it quickly and get the blood out. My mom had some good suggestions so don't worry - my sheets will be fine. But while on the phone with my mom my brother Robbie wanted to talk to me. Keep in mind that this is my 6 year old brother who is in Kindergarten this year. He gets on the phone and begins to tell me that since your nose is connected to your mouth that when you get a bloody nose, you could also get a bloody mouth so make sure to keep your mouth closed so the blood doesn't run from your nose and out your mouth. I was stunned into silence. This kid was technically absolutely right! What a little smarty pants! Apparently, he's been reading this new body book and has been impressing my family with his new knowledge lately. I was definitely impressed!

Music to Jake's Ears

So Jake was commenting today about the music on our blog recently and how he didn't like it. He thought it should be changed, especially since it is "our" blog. I told him that there were 44 posts on "our" blog and I have entered every single one. He claimed that since it bore his name also that it should in some way show his personality too. So we compromised - I will continue to write all of the posts and take all of the pictures and document our lives as such and he will be solely in charge of the music. So the music list on our site has now been fully composed by Jake so that this can truly be considered our blog. And since it is by Jake, there were some obvious choices for "must haves":

There must be some music by The Cranberries. He loves them.
There must be some Joe Satriani. He's a big fan.
There must be some Brazilian music. I told him to make sure there were no bad words first.

And so, without further ado (is that how you spell it?), I present the now complete version of our blog. May it be music to Jake's ears.

This Guy Is A Lot Of Really Bad Words!

I have already confessed my love for the show The Bachelor. So of course I watched the finale of this season last night and was happy when he picked my favorite from the first episode - Melissa. She mixed well with his family and just loved him and wanted to be a mother and nothing else. Well, my happiness was short lived, because during the After the Final Rose show he decided that he had a change of heart and dumped Melissa and brought Molly back out to see "if there was still a chance". It made me sick.

He claimed that life with Melissa has changed during the six weeks since he proposed. This is totally understandable. I mean, all of the sudden the cameras are all gone, the fairytale destinations and dates are nonexistent, and you are no longer dating multiple people but just this one person. He also said that he couldn't get Molly out of his mind but that he tried for the sake of his relationship with Melissa. All of this I can see and I still don't think he's a horrible person. However, when he decides to break up with his fiance, the girl that he had plans to marry until death do they part, on national television without preparing her in any way, that is what I see as cruel and lower than low! He could have broken up with her privately shortly before the show so that she could compose herself, they could both go on and say that it wasn't meant to be, and everyone's dignity would have been upheld. Nope. Not this loser. He decided it was best to humiliate her in front of America and do it on TV. And he knows what it's like to be humiliated on national TV after DeAnna slammed down his proposal last year. What was he thinking!?!

Melissa, who is pretty much perfect, handled it much better than I would have. She apparently thought everything was going great in their relationship and was really upset that Jason first of all didn't talk to her about the issues he was having and secondly didn't want to try and work through anything or fight for their relationship at all. He just quit. She also had a great line where she said something to the effect of she wanted just one proposal to one guy and he has now stolen it from her. She didn't punch him or slap him and she didn't throw the ring down his throat but just calmly handed it back to him and asked him never to contact her ever again and walked off. He later stated that he believed they could be friends someday. She's not that dumb buddy.

But who is that dumb is Molly, who was brought back with a lot of questions, demands, and apparently, a lot of feelings for Jason. Jason came out and was struggling to get the words out that he had just dumped his fiance and wanted Molly back so Chris (the host) helped him a little bit and Jason told her that he and Melissa had "ended it" and wanted to know if there was a shot and then, very awkwardly, asked if she would go for a coffee or a drink sometime.... She didn't really believe him at first and then was overjoyed to find out that the man who dumped her and beyond broke her heart and couldn't give her any reason why he wasn't picking her in the first place had decided he had loved her all along. Wouldn't you feel at least a bit guarded and cautious after all he had put you through? Not her. She practically threw herself at him and not even joking - less than 30 minutes after he dumped his fiance he was heavily kissing Molly. Sleaze bag and dumb girl. I mean, make him work a BIT harder than that! I really wanted her to say, "Sorry, but you snooze you lose!" Instead, she forgot the pain he put her through and forgave him. Ugh.

I am very frustrated with this whole show. Part of me wants Melissa to come back as the Bachelorette but the other part of me wants her to just take this time to heal privately and find someone out of the limelight. I'm so torn. And still very angry. Stupid TV show for messing with my emotions!

List of Must Haves:

For those of you who haven't been following my drama of a life (shame on you), I have been on a VERY strict diet for the past month and a half. It has been a challenge and I pretty much don't eat anything anymore because it's hard to come up with stuff that tempts my taste buds. Well, after 6 weeks, I can finally eat normal stuff tomorrow! Here are the things I have been craving the most:

Cheese

Tortilla Chips

Big Mac and Fries

Ice Cream

Pizza

Milk

White Bread

Chocolate

Popcorn (smothered in butter!)

Oreo's dunked in milk

Wingers Sticky Fingers

Anything I don't have to make myself!

At this point, any food commercial that comes on TV instantly starts me salivating! I think for the first week or so I am going to go wild and crazy! So all of that weight I lost by eating practically nothing, well, lets just say it went away for a short vacation but it's about to come back home!