Long Time

Title of post...courtesy of The Roots.

We had a wonderful Saturday afternoon, attending the sealing of our friend Tom and his new bride, Amanda.

After the ceremony, we were outside waiting for the newlyweds to come out. I brought our camera and was roaming the grounds, taking pictures of the lovely flowers that are in season. It must have been "reunion day" at the temple because we ran into two friends that we hadn't seen in a long time.

Linda Fa'nana (I know I'm spelling that wrong. Polynesian last names are usually easy for me to sound out but this one doesn't look right.) and her husband (forgot his name!) were at the temple as well as our dear friend Tomasi. We haven't seen Linda in years, obviously since she's had 2 kids. And Tomasi, I think it was at a fireside across the bay almost 2.5 years ago. He was one of our biggest cheerleaders for us getting married, while we were dating. It was great to see both of them!

Some things will never change

Title of post...courtesy of Tupac

I enjoy birthdays but I don't deal with the transition very well.

I've never been big on change. I dreaded going back to school after our two week Christmas vacations when I was younger because I loved having all of the family together everyday. I've had my bangs my entire life and don't plan on getting rid of them anytime soon. I have a carebear that I've had since I was a baby, that my parents tried to replace because the original Deedee was lost, but I wanted nothing to do with the imposter. These are just a few of the changes that I've faced in my 24 years.

Every year, my parents give me a birthday card and reminisce about where they were on the day I was born, what their thoughts were, etc. It always brings a smile to my face but a tear to my eye and I'm not quite sure. I'm not sad about getting older (physical things like wrinkles and gray hair) but I get sad because of...the change. Sort of like the Christmas vacation...everyone went back to their lives and had their own things going on.

Oh I do hope all of that made sense.

Now onto the fun part. I had a wonderful birthday doing absolutely nothing! I woke up at 10:00 a.m. from my sister calling me to wish me a happy birthday. I received several phone calls, text messages and cards throughout the day. Many thanks for the well wishes!

My new shoes! Too cute!



My lovely flowers from LaVor's parents.



Taco dinner...hasn't changed in years.



Blowing out the candles on my rainbow chip cake!
I've never had another flavor.



Popie & the kids.



Gifts from HC & Keifers and Mom & Pop

Thank you again to everyone who made my birthday a special one!

It Was a Good Day

Title of the post...courtesy of Ice Cube.

On my lunchtime walk, I passed a house that had tulips blooming in the yard. I love tulips. They're my favorite flower and had they been in season for our wedding, I would have used them everywhere. The bright colors and closed buds brought a smile to my face. But I was also saddened because we had bought tulip bulbs to plant but we never got around to planting them. I doubt they'll still be any around but I hope we'll be able to see some tulips while we're in the Netherlands.

I came home to the smell of spaghetti and meatballs. I had been looking forward to dinner all day. We use my mom's recipe for meatballs (minus the rice krispies...we don't have any) and I must say, the bbq sauce adds a special something to the entire dish. And so does the piece of mozzarella cheese LaVor sneaks into the middle of the meatball.

We recorded the new episode of The Hills last night and watched it tonight. Lauren and Whitney were in Paris. Although we're not planning a trip to France, it still made me very excited to be in Europe. I brought some books home from my parents to re-fresh my German. Ich habe 3 jahren in die schule gelernt aber ich habe zu viel vergessen. At least I'll be able to say that to people :o)

How many more minutes until I can come down?

I have the privilege of watching my sisters 2 kids on Thursdays. Every week, around 1:00, I put the younger one down for his nap and around 2, I send the older one up for "quiet time". I don't make her go to sleep if she doesn't want to but I have her stay upstairs for at least an hour.

Last Thursday, she kept coming downstairs to see how much longer she had of quiet time. I told her I'd come get her when it was time. This process repeated several times until I just started to ignore her. She then came down the stairs and handed me a note that said, "How many more minutes until I can come down?" I laughed and repeated again, "I'll come get you when it's time." A few more minutes passed and she came down with another note. She's in kindergarten and although she can read and spell most words great, she had obviously sounded out what she had written on the note. I was confused at first but I then sounded out what she wrote. It said, "I wrote on my door and walls." I immediately ran upstairs to find "How many more minutes until I can come down?" written on her bedroom door. As I opened the door, I saw a huge green heart written on her wall with a crayon. I looked at her and without saying anything (but obviously by the look on my face) she burst into tears and said, "it was an accident!" Indeed, it was not. An accident would have been a small line on the door or wall. But this was intentional. I used my sisters magic eraser (bless Mr. Clean!) and scrubbed the markings off. She asked if she could help but I knew if my 23 year old arms struggled to scrub, her 5 year old arms wouldn't make a dent.

It was hard not to laugh at the innocence of this 5 year old. But I sure hope she doesn't do it again.

5 down, 0 to go

The last sibling was married off last week. Amy & Keith had a beautiful wedding! It's somewhat bittersweet. My parents have accomplished a lot by having all 5 kids sealed in the temple but it's sad to know the fun of planning a wedding is over for our family.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

We started off our festivities by celebrating Christmas Eve at Mom & Pop's house. We enjoyed our usual spaghetti dinner and opted to stay in the warm house (thanks to Pop's FABULOUS fire) and play games rather than head out into the cold to see Christmas lights. We played Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit. Mom and her wonderful winning talent, won both games. But we're ready for a re-match tonight!

We then headed back to our house to get Christmas ready. When we woke up this morning, we saw that Santa had come!

When LaVor opened his stocking, he saw...

When Kimberly opened her stocking, she saw...




















(Clogs & a robe)

LaVor got lip injections!

But not the plastic surgery kind. I got a phone call at about 11:00 this morning, right when I arrived to Munchie's dance recital in San Leandro. It was LaVor telling me he was on his way to the hospital. He's pulled this a couple of times and it's been a joke so I thought he was yanking my chain once again. But he wasn't. He said he cut his lip open and would probably need stitches. When I got home, this is what I saw:

As you can see, the cut starts at the lip and goes all the way to his nose. He was working with a cutoff wheel when part of the blade broke off and got him. He said he was covered in blood and looked like he was "coming home from war". He did have to have stitches but they'll be out in a week. We knew he should have taken the day off :o) But we're very thankful (how appropriate...right before Thanksgiving) that the injury wasn't as bad as it could have been.