The Passing of President Hinckley

Gordon B Hinckley, President and Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints died this evening. He was an amazing man who made great strides to build more temples and bring the Church into the 21st century. His sweet wife died almost 4 years ago and now he can be reunited with her. My favorite memory of him was when I was a missionary on Temple Square. I was at our farewell dinner in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and the room we were in had a view straight into his apartment. I saw him and his wife, both with aprons on, doing dishes together. This was about 8 years ago and it always stuck with me. Here was a prophet of God, doing dishes with his wife. No servants did it for him and he obviously didn't consider it "woman's work." I'll never forget that. For a full story, go to www.lds.org

Reconnecting

I just have to say that I have recently reconnected with a bunch of friends from high school, college and mission days. It has been awesome to hear from people from my past. So, if you're reading this blog and haven't reconnected yet, please do. I love hearing from everyone.

I also wanted to give a shout out to the most amazing person I know. Rob is FREAKIN' AWESOME! He is the hardest worker I have ever met, never stopping to think about himself. He cares so much about his patients which they not only love, but will be such an asset to us when we are in private practice after the Navy. He gives so much to the kids and I. He was dog tired tonight, but still read books to the kids for 30 minutes before bedtime. Noah, Ben and Issy ADORE him. They absolutely light up whenever he is around. He's also got a rocking hard body now that the military pays him to workout 3 days a week (he runs about 6 miles at a time and biked 30 miles on Monday). Rob doesn't do anything half assed...whether it's dishes or dentistry he goes at life with gusto. That also means he works hard at our marriage and for that I am eternally grateful. I love you, Babe!

World Famous MUD RUN

I have a new resolution to lose that baby weight. It all started when we witnessed the Camp Pendleton World Famous Mud Run last summer. A "muddy" part is right by our house and we witnessed the mess firsthand. It was aweseome. 4,000 people and a 10K. So, I decided I wanted to run it before we leave for Okinawa. Registration opened up the first of the year and it is sold out. Three days are sold out (that's 12,000 people wanting to do this thing). I pretty proud of myself and how my training is going. I ran for 30 minutes straight yesterday all around our neighborhood which has some HUGE hills. Today I went to the gym and did a 60 minute "Body Works plus Abs" class. I know I was a runner in high school, but I was a sprinter. I used to try and get out of the mile warmup they wanted us to do. Anything over 200 meters was too long for me. This is 10K and I've had 3 kids since then. Stay posted for more progress reports.

I know...I know....

I know that I've said it a dozen times, but let me say it again. Disneyland is the happiest place on earth! We went (again) yesterday and I think it just keeps getting better everytime. Really. It does. Our new thing is the Buzz Lightyear ride. Usually the kids are begging to ride it again, but this time Rob and I were dragging the kids on it for "just one more time." We found some insider tips online before we left on how to get a higher score. For those of you who haven't been on this ride let me tell you how it works. It's kinda like a video game. You get on one of those moving walkways that puts you onto a seat where on a normal Disney ride you would spectate. On this ride you get a "gun" and try to shoot as many targets as possible to get the highest score possible. Before looking at these insider tips we would get 30,000 points and think we were hot stuff. Now that we know the secrets, I got 253,000 and Rob got 489,000! There is usually a person who gets over 1 million every day and I think Rob aspires to be that person. We'll see. How many Fastpasses can you get in one day?

SLAM DUNK BIRTHDAY

It was my birthday January 9th, (So thanks to everyone who called -- all three of you).
Melissa gave me a fantastic day. It was the radest, coolest, bestest, funest birthday to date.
Here's the scoop b/c I thought it was SO cool.
Day before: Date at the gym.
Morning: Ride to work, which was nice b/c I left my bike at work. I got to work and was surprised to see that Melissa had decorated my operatory with a nice sign made by my beautiful children.
Afternoon: Carrotcake cupcakes for the clinic and a Happy Birthday song by Melissa and the kids while I was working on a patient during lunch.
Night: Date alone to Disneyland. Thanks to Amy & Scott who watched the kids. Space Mountain, Star Wars, Roger Rabbit, rides we can't do with the kids. We did go on Buzz Lightyear ride, Noah's and Ben's favorite, where I totally creamed Melissa & Kathryn's shooting score.
Dinner alone with Melissa at the Cheesecake Factory. That was AWESOME! An added bonus is that I've had leftovers for the past two days.
Best Birthday I've had.
So what that my knees are going, my bladder and bowels are shrinking, my hair is falling and my mind is going. Whatever they say, I say 30 is the new 20!

I LOVE YOU MELIS!!!!!!

Stuff this week

Issy is so good about letting me play with her hair. I had a crazy idea to try and put her hair in sponge curlers the other night (right after tub time). She let me put them in, but her hair is so darn short and fine that they only stayed in about 3 minutes. I love her faces!

Our good friends Shelly and Eric came down from Glendora (about 2 hours away) for a fun visit on Sunday. You know the kind of friends that you can just be real around and say what you mean? That's the kind of people Shelly and Eric let us be like. Shelly and I worked together at Kaplan and as many of you know, that is where I met Rob. She was there during our whole courtship. They have two boys super close together like us and we all had a good time just chilling out. We need an adult game night next time!


I was making Rob's birthday cupcakes today and noticed it got awfully quiet. I looked outside and this is what I found wallowing in the puddles from our rainstorm this week.

Here she is all happy and frolicking....

...pushed over by the swing...

...not so happy and not so dry anymore. She's done frolicking.

Age adds a few things

Since we are moving to Japan and my passport expired a year ago I need to get a new one. I knew I needed to get a new picture taken and I needed to get ones of the kids too. So, on a whim yesterday driving back from San Diego, we stopped at Costco and got them taken. I didn't reapply lipstick (I had just eaten lunch) and it had been hours since I had put on any mascara anyway. Upon getting my old passport to mail in, I glanced at my old picture. I was horrified to notice what 12 years and 3 kids does to a girl! I saw wrinkles and aging and healthy hair lost. My green contacts and porceline skin are gone. I was going to post about how much better I looked back then. However, as I uploaded these pictures Noah said "oh Mom, you're so beautiful." I said, "Which picture is prettier?" To which he replied, "This one, Mom, because you are smiling bigger" Of course he was pointing the the recent picture and I couldn't help but be glad to have those wrinkles because with age I've gained a few more things along the way.

What does Mama say?

I thought this video was too funny. The other day we were asking the boys what I say and they basically said the same thing. What a shame...

Cage for Kids

Yes, I have a cage over my kid's bed. She learned how to climb out of her playpen while in NY for Christmas and that gave her the confidence to climb out of her crib when we got home. After seeing this wonderful "crib tent" on TV (a mother of septuplets used it) I knew I needed one too. Issy is only 18 months old and I need my sanity and peace of mind knowing she's in a safe place. How else am I supposed to sleep in 15 more minutes or take a shower? They also sell them for playpens and I'm trying to convince my husband that I need this piece of modern equipment for my trip to UT on the 10th. If you're interested in learning more about them, go to totsinmind.com

3 Cheers for Google Reader!

My friend Anne Marie posted something on her blog about Google Reader and I am singing praises to her name for mentioning it on her blog. If you blog and are sick of checking people's blogs only to discover they haven't updated, then listen up. Google Reader checks your blogs (or any site) for updates. Then, it lets YOU know when someone updates. No more clicking to discover that your cousin/friend/sister decided not to post. Check it out!!! It takes a minute to enter in all the addresses that you want it to check, but then you just check it like email and see who's posted. It's fabulous and I highly recommend it. Thanks Anne Marie!

Cul de sac bonfire

We have a fun little cul de sac that we live in. I love living in it because we don't get much traffic and since our houses all face each other it's been fun to meet our neighbors. We were talking to some of them last night and decided to have another bonfire together. We've had a couple of other dinner/bonfire get togethers, but it was fun to have one on the fly last night. We have some great neighbors and I'm gonna miss the comroderie in this neighborhood when we move to Okinawa. Of the 6 Marines in this circle, 2 have husbands in Iraq, 2 are deploying to Iraq in a month and there are 13 children between us. FYI...the bonfire pit was our 5th anniversary present to ourselves this year (the 5th anniversary is traditionally wood).

New Year's Eve thoughts

When did my New Year's Eve turn into vegging on the couch and not making it until midnight? Yeah, Rob will be 30 in a week. Officially old. Welcome to the club, Honey.


So, I've finished another quilt. It always feels so good to complete one. This was my sister-in-law, Amy's, Christmas present. She's getting married in March so I though red symbolizing love was in order. I haven't actually been able to give it to her yet (she's only seen pictures of it) since we weren't in UT for Christmas, but I hope she likes it.

My cousin, Amy, took this photo of my Grandma Ruthie and Isabella. I just love it and thought I'd share. She's been sick (got sick right after we left NY) and we've been thinking about her a lot lately. Get well soon, Grandma!


Ben turned 3 on the 28th. It's weird to think that we will be in Japan for as long as Ben has been alive. That makes it seem so long! Ben opened his presents as soon as he woke up, but shared with Issy and Noah. He let them each do "heavy hangover" and even let Noah open of them. What a sweet brother. He's pretty great at making Noah happy with sharing something, when he knows it's something that Noah will really like. Afterwards, he had his 3 year checkup at the doctor and then we went to Disneyland. Rob's awesome sister, Kathryn, and two of her girls, Claire and Brooke, came down for the day so we met up with them. It was sooooo fun to see them and I came about this close<> to going back up to UT with them. I just might still do it. Anyway, it was fantastic to see them and we stayed at the park until 10pm. Happy Birthday, Ben.