We're the A's good luck charm

They've been doing horrible. It's harsh but the truth. Except today, they totally kicked the Rangers butts and I'm convinced it's because we were there. They've won every game we've attended.

It was Breast Cancer Awareness day so we decided to make it our last game of the season. I wore my "I love my little tata's" shirt with pride and loved being amongst all the others in pink. They had a specific section set aside for breast cancer survivors. Very nice. LaVor tried to get one of the pink armbands all the players wore but no such luck.

Unfortunately, when I pulled out the camera to take a picture, I remembered that our battery was dead and I forgot to re-charge it. Shucks! So please try to imagine 21,000 people sitting in McAfee stadium, probably about 1/4 of them wearing pink, eating hot dogs and drinking lemonade and cheering because the A's won. Oh yeah, and Milton Bradley (a former Athletic, now a Ranger) being kicked out of the game for flipping the ump off. Too funny.

I woke up at 5 am, showered, got dressed and was at Seminary by 6 am. Sister Ericson taught the lesson, I'm sure Deborah and I chit chatted the whole time and at 6:50, I got into the Mustang where Kenny was waiting for me. The second I sat down, he said 2 planes had crashed into the World Trade Centers. We listened to the radio the whole way home and once we got inside the house, we saw the note my mom left for us that said, "Turn on the tv. You won't believe it." I sat in front of the tv watching the various news stations until it was time to leave for school. Logan had roughly 4,500 students and was normally bustling with noise but this morning, there was an eerie silence. My first class was Economics with Ms. Critz, a New York native. She had the news on for us to watch while she tried to get a hold of her family in NYC. Each class that day covered some planned material but for the most part, everyone was glued to some sort of communication source, be it tv, computer or telephone. My aunt was boarding a bus to attend a meeting at the Pentagon when the plane crashed into the building. I had an orthodontist appointment that day. I wore navy blue corduroys and a white t-shirt.

My parents grew up during the Kennedy assassination. On several occassions, my mom has told me the story of where she was when she heard the news. I never quite understood the emotions she felt that day, until now.

This made me cry like a baby. Notice what the song is in the background. Click here.

Motown Philly Back Again

I'm sure we can all finish the following line of this song.

I heard Boyz II Men on the way home from work tonight and it reminded me of 2nd grade.

My best friend, Katie May, and I had performed a dance to Motown Philly in front of the whole school, at an assembly. I'm not sure how we got involved with it but I remember a classmate, Shampaign (pronounced Champaign), being the one "in charge". Most likely, we saw her group practicing at recess one day and we wanted to join. We were the only white girls. I don't remember much of the dance (actually, none of it) but I do remember our "costumes". Black stir-up pants and a white turtleneck. Obviously 1992. I couldn't help but laugh as I heard the song tonight and remembered how cool I thought I was. More like a dork, Kimberly.


For months now, I've been eating lean pockets at lunch. I finally got sick of them and started making peanut butter and raspberry jelly sandwiches. Delicious! As I was making my sandwich yesterday, I saw the honey in the cupboard and was once again reminded of elementary school. I ate a pb & honey sandwich everyday. One day, my mom mixed my sandwich up with my sisters. I was so excited to bite into my yummy sandwich when I tasted...mayonaise! My dad and sister enjoy peanut butter and mayonaise but I on the other hand hate it. I immediately spit the bite out and obviously didn't finish the rest. I could hardly wait for the next day to get my sandwich back. Anyway, I've enjoyed my sandwiches this week just as much as I enjoyed them 16 years ago. They really do make me look forward to the 1:00 hour everyday.

Myspace is leaking over to the blogging world

I'm notorious for doing way too many surveys on myspace. We'll try not to let it get out of hand.

And thanks to Ashley for providing me with a few minutes of entertainment.

1. Do you like blue cheese? hate it! blah!

2. Have you ever smoked? nope

3. Do you own a gun? nope

4. What do you think of hot dogs? love them...obviously. That was our dinner at our wedding reception...Costco hot dogs :o)

5. Favorite holiday movie? It's a Wonderful Life

6. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? the leftover milk in my cereal bowl

7. Favorite piece of jewelry? only jewelry I wear are my wedding rings

8. Favorite thing to bake? I'm the wrong person to ask

9. What book can you read over and over? I'm not really into reading books more than once

10. What's one trait you hate about yourself? I don't always think before I speak

11.Middle name? Renee

12. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment:

1. It's too hot

2. I don't want to take a shower

3. I'm not sure what to have for dinner

13. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? water, water & water

14. Current Worry? No real worries

15. Current hate right now? the heat

16. Favorite place to be? Disneyland

17. How did you bring in the New Year? We...went to LaVor's aunt & uncles house and played games

18. Where would you like to go? Washington D.C.. It's been 13 years since I've been and I'd love to go back.

19. What shirt are you wearing right now? "I love my little tatas" t-shirt. My sister, mom and I went to cheer on the 3-day Breast Cancer walkers and I had to show my support!

20. Do you like sleeping with satin sheets? I've only used cotton

21. Can you whistle? you betcha

22. Favorite color? green

23. Would you be a pirate? nope and for some reason, I think it's funny that we still have pirates

24. What songs do you sing in the shower? I don't sing in the shower

25. Favorite girl's name? I have a list around here somewhere. Let's see if I can remember...Annika, Katharina, Minna, Britta. Do you notice a trend with the "a" at the end? Not on purpose.

26. Last thing that made you laugh? LaVor...he's silly

27. Worst injury you've ever had? probably when I broke my arm (the 3rd time) and the Dr's had to pull/push my bone back together.

28. Do you love where you live? It's nice

29. What's your favorite animal? dog

30. What is favorite candy? Reese's either cups or pieces & twix

31. Favorite sports team? A's

32. What song do you want played at your funeral? I'll be dead, who cares

Tis the season

to be jolly for Halloween!

How excited am I for Halloween?! The Spirit store has opened up down the street, stores already have their Halloween merchandise out AND Safeway has Halloween Mother's animal circus cookies! I couldn't help but squeal as we passed all of the Halloween goodies at the store last night.

I have lots of fun memories that revolve around Halloween. My mom usually made our costumes so we had to decide what we wanted to be around the time school started in September. She would decorate every inch of our house with Halloween decorations. We'd get Halloween treats in our lunch bags. After we'd get home from trick-or-treating, my dad would take pictures of us throwing our candy in the air. Then we'd sort the candy...chocolates, fruity, suckers, etc. I usually ended up with my candy bag next to my bed and would snack before bedtime. Thankfully I ended those bad hygiene habits. A house down the street from us always turned their front porch into a haunted alley type thing.

I'm anxiously awaiting to decorate our house and work on my costume. This year, I'll be...

good ole' Rosie.

Back on American soil!

Last night, we returned home after 2 weeks of traveling Europe. Before we even made it home, we had to stop at La Piñata for some Mexican food, which isn't available overseas.

We took almost 500 pictures so naturally, I won't be posting them all.

We took off from SFO on 8/15 around 6:50 pm. We took a flight directly to Frankfurt which wasn't bad at all. We enjoyed the movies on the plane, the constant flow of food and some good sleep. We got into Frankfurt on Saturday afternoon, had an hour layover and continued on to Zurich where LaVor's brother, Jason, picked us up.

In Zurich, Sunday morning.

We spent the night with his family, went to church the next morning and left the train station at around noon and headed up to the Netherlands. We arrived in Arnhem at about 9:00 that night, checked into the hotel, grabbed a bite to eat and were out for the night.

On the train to Arnhem

Monday morning, we woke up early and caught the train to Bussum, where his dad lived for a few years as a child. We had no clue where the house was that we were looking for so we just started walking. We came across a real estate office that had a home for sale on the same street we needed. The nice woman pulled out a map and showed us where the street was. We continued walking and walking and walking to find that there was a school in the spot where the house was. Disappointing but it was neat to be able to see where it once stood and soak in the cute atmosphere.

One of the canals in Bussum

On our way back to the train station, it began to pour and we only had one umbrella. Unfortunately, it being Monday, several stores were closed so we were unable to buy an additional umbrella until LaVor had already gotten totally soaked. To lighten the mood, we stopped at a bakery to grab some pastries and enjoyed them while we waited for our train to Amsterdam.

The pastries got a little messy

We arrived in Amsterdam and the area right outside of the train station is equivalent to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. Very crowded, lots of tourists and souvenir shops. The only thing we had planned in Amsterdam was to tour the Anne Frank house but our reservation wasn't until 6:30 that night so we had about 5 hours to kill. Just like Bussum, we walked our way through the city and got lost. We found ourselves in the outskirts and enjoyed walking up and down the canals. It rained off and on all day and we never completely dried from our downpour in Bussum so when the night came, it got cold. The Anne Frank house was interesting but sad to know what had happened, where we were standing. On our way back to the station, we grabbed a bite to eat at this cute hole in the wall pizza place. Super yum!

Tuesday morning, we woke up and headed into Arnhem and Velp to again, find another home that LaVor's great-grandparents lived in. Still, we had no map so we took the bus into Velp and hoped that we'd see something. We didn't. We finally stopped at a gas station that provided us with a map of the town and we found the street we needed. The address was 313 but when we got to the street, it only went up to 35. Things change over 40 years. Another disappointment but we bought some wooden shoes while we were in Velp. Red, to match our livingroom.

From Arnhem, we took the train to Berlin. I suppose I was excited to get there because the second I heard "Berlin" over the speaker, I thought it was our stop. We got off the train and realized it wasn't the HB but it was too late. We obviously looked puzzled because a nice man asked if we needed help. He told us the next train could take us to the HB and we'd be there in no time. He was right. We got in around 10 and again, crashed.

Wednesday morning came and we headed out to the sites. First stop, Checkpoint Charlie. It was weird to think that not that long ago, this city/country was divided. From there, we followed the markings of where the wall stood until we stopped for lunch. As we were heading back out, it began to rain so we enjoyed a cherry pastry while the clouds passed over. We continued on to Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Victory Column, Unter den Linden and the East Gallery. We saw lots of neat things, took tons of pictures and really enjoyed ourselves in Berlin. It was one of our favorite cities.

We had originally planned to take an overnight train from Berlin to Frankfurt but we would have gotten into Frankfurt at 4 am Thursday. So we decided to stay another night in Berlin and leave first thing in the morning. Much better choice.

We got into Frankfurt just after lunchtime on Thursday. We checked into our hotel and began walking the city. Our first stop was the Römerberg (city hall square) which was destroyed during WWII and later re-built. Very cute and touristy. That was really the only thing we wanted to see and we did. We then walked across the Rhine and sat on a bench, while watching people walk by. We made our way through a local farmers market that mainly sold meat. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped on a main street and enjoyed some ice cream. We thought we had an idea of where we were going but we totally didn't. We tried to determine our way back by a building we had seen earlier in the day. The one area I wanted to avoid was the red light district and that's exactly where we went through to get to our hotel. You would have thought we were competing in the Olympics for speed walking. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our room and I watched the life down below from our window.



Friday morning came and we took the train to Mainz, where my parents met and lived when they first got married. Our plan was to visit my parents old landlord and chat for a bit. We got into Mainz and checked out a bus map to see where we should go. Again, we obviously looked confused because a man stopped and asked where we needed to go. We told him and he gasped, said it was quite a ways and recommended we take a bus. We thought we'd walk and see how far we could get :oP We ended up taking a bus. We got to the home only to find that the couple wasn't home. We took pictures and raced back to the station to catch our train back to Zurich. LaVor's brother was kind enough to pick us up at the station on several occasions. Greatly appreciated.

We woke up Saturday morning and headed into Zurich with his family. Tons of cute shops, some sort of Renaissance festival was going on and it rained and rained and rained. I decided to wear a pair of flats that day...with flower cutouts (aka holes) so it was as if I was walking around barefoot. Not fun. We ended the day by having cheese fondue. Very delicious.

Sunday, we piled into the car and Jason & Julie took us to Grindelwald, Gimmelwald and Mürren. Absolutely beautiful! It was hard to believe that we were actually experiencing this. It was cold in the shade but hot in the sun. We had a nice lunch in Mürren and we headed back down the mountain in the gondola and drove back home.



LaVor and I decided to make a small day trip to Como, Italy. The book we had brought said that the lake was a 10 minute walk from the train station but it didn't say in which direction. We walked about 30 minutes in the opposite direction and decided to make a few turns and head into the old town. Sure enough, we found the lake. We stopped to grab a bite to eat (LaVor was set on getting pizza in Italy. It was much better than my lasagna) and while we were eating, we saw some missionaries walking by. We had wanted to see some so I jumped out of my chair and ran over to them. Obviously from Utah. We chatted for a bit and they said if we needed anything, to give them a call. I ended up losing the pass along card they gave me with their number so the offer was shot. We hadn't planned to do anything in Como and so we didn't. We literally sat on a bench and watched for most of the afternoon. We went back to the train station and went home to Zurich.


We packed our bags and headed to Neuschwanstein on Tuesday. We literally ran to each of our trains that day. One of which smelled of urine. Not enjoyable. We hiked up the hills to Neuschwanstein and enjoyed the views and captured many pictures. We only stayed for a couple hours and continued on to Munich. We checked into our hotel and didn't feel like going out to dinner so we ate downstairs at "Champions", an American sports bar. We were the only ones in there. I was hoping to be able to get a lemonade since I had been craving it for the past week and a half but no such luck. We ended up eating way too much and just went upstairs and fell asleep.



We woke up Wednesday morning and set out to the concentration camp, Dachau. While we were taking the bus from the station to the camp, I couldn't help but think of the residents of Dachau during the war. Had they any idea what was happening in their own town? They must have. One of the exhibits at the camp said that once liberated, the American troops were directed to bring in the residents of Dachau and show them the piles of rotting corpses. On the way to be buried, the wagons carrying the bodies drove slowly through the town so all could see what had taken place. Many residents were also forced to bury the bodies. Just like the Anne Frank house, Dachau was...to me, it was interesting. Not in a "fun" sort of way, obviously. But again, to walk where history took place is appealing to me. I pictured the prisoners and what they might have been doing or who was walking to what building. We spent several hours touring the camp and ended up leaving just after lunch.



We then went into Munich and enjoyed again...pizza. It was quite good. Munich was also one of our favorites. Lots to see, do, eat, buy. Again, we saw another set of Elders, and chatted for a few moments. It was nice to feel some sort of connection to someone in a foreign country. We had to do the touristy thing and eat at the Hofbrauhaus for dinner. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones that weren't drinking beer. We enjoyed the band, as did the visitors from Asia. They even got the bands autographs on the beer coasters. We enjoyed that atmosphere for a bit and then headed back to the hotel.

Thursday morning came and we made it to the station to catch our 8:25 train to only find out that it apparently wasn't coming but the 8:48 train would take us to Salzburg. You mean we could have slept for an additional 23 minutes?! :o) We got into Salzburg a little after 11, rented some bikes and tried to find the gazebo from The Sound of Music. We had only rented the bikes for 2 hours and the first 30 minutes were spent aimlessly riding around the city. We finally found the gazebo, shot a few pictures and raced back to have the bikes returned in time. We stopped at a small cafe for a quick lunch and caught the train back to Zurich. That was the worst ride ever! Each one of our trains was late and the last leg, the train kept randomly stopping. We got into Zurich around 9:15, stopped at Burger King to grab something really fast...which ended up not being really fast, then missed our train to Jason & Julies. We ended up not leaving Zurich until just after 10. It was a long day.


We went into Zurich again on Friday to grab a couple things and then went to the Swiss Temple that night. That's where my parents were married so it was ultra special for me. It was neat to know that I was walking where they walked.


Saturday came and we enjoyed a couple hours with the family. We then took the train to the airport and said our goodbyes.

The time went by slower than I expected, which was good, but we were ready to come home. We enjoyed ourselves very much and are grateful for the opportunity we had to visit.

Drowning, Nascar and Squeez-its

I normally just order water when we go out to dinner (I'm boring) but tonight I felt spontaneous and ordered a cherry limeade :oP

It reminded me of the summer of 1988 and a mini vacation my mom took my sisters and I on.

My dad had taken my brothers down to Riverside for the last Nascar race at the track. Since the boys got to do something fun, the girls did too.

We stayed the weekend at the Courtyard Marriott in Fremont. One of the days, we decided to take advantage of the pool. I was 4 at the time, Amy was almost 6 and Kari was 12. I'm sure I had floaties to assist in my "swimming" but Amy didn't. We were all having fun when all of a sudden, Amy disappeared. She had gone under (not for very long) and Kari rescued her. Amy still gets reminded today, as we pass the hotel, "that's where you almost drowned".

(This is the infamous pool)

At night, we would stay up late in our hotel room, watching tv and drinking cherry squeez-its. I haven't had one in years but the cherry limeade tonight definitely took me back to 1988.