season finale's

yea for finales. all my favorite reality tv shows have their finale's the past few weeks. the bachelor, survivor, antm, the hills, dancing with the stars, and i am so excited for the battle of the davids on ai.

i think i watch to much tv... yikes!

twilight teaser

the wonderful twilight books are coming to the big screen and watch the trailer here:

Twilight Trailer

Coming 12/12/08

a.i. nerd

ok, so last night i was watching american idol on my dvr, like i always do, that way i get to skip the lame judges comments, all commercials, and other form of talking i dont want to hear, even some performances i think are not very good. i was excited to hear they were doing mariah carey songs (im a huge fan), but extremely bummed after the first several performances. they all seemed kind of karaoke-ish, with all the girls trying to hit the high notes. anyways, i quickly went through the performances until David Cook came on. last week, i watched his performance at least five times, and even made justin sit down and watch it a few with me because i absolutely loved it. i was interested in what he would have done with a MC song. they just aren't his style, not to mention he picked "always be my baby". So long story short, i rewound his performance 5 more times, and reached for my phone to vote. i have never voted for any american idol show ever. with that said, i preceded to vote not once, or twice but 6 times! i felt that was good, and i had done my part to ensure his return to next week. so he is my favorite and i fully endorse him and all his rocker glory.

yard work

so we have this beautiful back yard that we havent exactly used because the weather has been crummy around here. and since we dont use it, we havent taken care of it either. so after 8 months of living in our lil house, we thought it was time to clean up the yard. (that, and we got a letter from our land lord saying we have to. thats good motivation!) i thought i would show you just how long our lawn got to be. Koda was watching her rival the lawn mower like a hawk.we also have this growing garden of daffodils and tulips that must have been planted by our previous renters. it was a wonderful surprise.

welcome, baby starkey

our good friends, the starkeys, just had their baby 3/16 at 7:30am. he weighed in at 9.1 lbs and is so adorable. congrats you guys!!

what an idea!

so i have never been very good at journaling, or scrapbooking, or any other permanent form of "lifes history" recording. blogging has been the only type of self history i have been able to keep updated and cute. since the first post in may of '07, i have put all of my thoughts and adventures into this computer web journal. so this is my modern day journal. i am definetly much better at keeping it updated, i love getting to include the pictures right in there with it, and i dont have to look at my horrible writing.

recently ive been wondering that there has to be a way to permanently save my blog, that in the event of the www crashes, the internet no longer exists and everything on it is now lost into a cyber blackhole, i am not to panic, i have a back-up. perhaps a way to print it in a way that my kids can read through my journal and all my hard work is saved.

and then i stumbled upon this. blurb.com. the company that takes blogs and puts them into hard bound books. alas, all the hard work preserved forever, and complete with pictures. a book with me as the author? not something i ever thought i would do! but i am so excited to start preparing my history into a bound hardcover.

awesome weekend

so we totally had the best weekend! garrett, justins youngest brother, was in town and he is a blast! i love having him around, he brightens the day. on friday, J and G went out to the coast in newport to surf and hopefully catch some crab with our brand new (free) crap pots. every one we had talked to, including those out there at the same time had said that they hadn't caught anything, so much to my and their surprise they pulled up 6! by the time they got home and cooked them up, we were eating around 9:30. there is nothing better than fresh crab!
on saturday i and my friend annie threw a baby shower for my good friend clara , who is due on the 20th of this month! it turned out really well and was a great time honoring her. we weren't feeling all the shower games, so the only one we did were guess how big her belly is with the string. the best part was that the winner was a 3 year old. she was almost exact. it turned out really well considering this was uncharted territory (and thanks to my v-teachers and everyones help!)that after noon we took garrett (the ultimate thrift store shopper) to eugene jeans, a local "vintage and retro" second hand store. (for everyone who knows how many hippies we have in this town, you can imagine all the second hand stuff the produce). he was like a kid in a candy store, totally loved it. between that and our favorite hog dog place here in town we were a happy bunch. we managed to get a game of sand volleyball that afternoon because the weather was so nice. we spent the evening lounging around and i went to bed around 10:30 (and thats after the time change). i got almost 12 hours of sleep that night but it was totally needed after all the sleepless nights (just ask j how cranky i am if i dont get my sleep). we had to leave church a bit early to get garrett up to portland for his flight, but it worked out really well. garrett, thanks for coming out, you are always a pleasure to have around, and are always welcome!!

movie night

so on monday night, in the midst of running errands, we fell upon the $5 movie bin at walmart. we dug through it a bit and decided on adding two new flicks to our collection. one was tears of the sun and the other was legends of the fall. neither of which i had seen, but justin thought they were both good. well, last night we decided to have a night in and watch one of our new video's. i picked legends of the fall, figuring it would be a soppy love story with brad pitt and all his glory and totally surprised justin would even consider letting mewatch such a thing with him. so this movie turned out to be not at all what i expected. between the beautiful scenery, great acting and twisting story, we were sucked in. needless to say, by the end of it, we had both cryed, but at seperate times, (hes going to kill me). so i recommend it, and try to find where we lost it....

lunar eclipse

so did everyone catch the lunar eclipse? super cool. it started just after i got off work so i hurried home and got out my camera. i headed to the top of skinners butte, an easy drive in the middle of town, to get the best view not obstructed by trees. there were already tons of people there, but i was able to get these great shots. and a few of eugene by night.
quick question... is the lunar eclipse something that the whole world sees? or is it only a hemisphere thing? any one know?

home sweet home

so last night we finally arrived back home to our little house in eugene. it was truely like a shock wave as we entered the freezing cold home that we were no longer on our grand adventure. with the temp being around 32 degrees, our days lounging in the tropical sun were over. we are now back to big coats, lots of layers and the heater on 100% of the time. as hard as it was to sit in the cold house, it was good to be back. we missed our routine and everything we have grown to enjoy in this town. it is good to be back.

thanksgiving day

so even though all of our plans originally fell through, this turned out to be a really good day. thanks to the parkers for letting us share this day with them (and only 1 days notice). we had a great time with them and their three adorable kids. and after an arousing game of grapes vs. raisins (the 5th wards turkey bowl of elders vs. young men) the huge turkey dinner never tasted so good.

lil' jace and baby jerum

christmas came early

so i know the tradition is to put the christmas tree up the day after thanksgiving, but justin and i couldnt resist around the 4th of november. thats right, almost two months before the actual holiday. we have this fake tree that we inherited from my mother, so we thought, why not? so sunday afternoon we put it up. what we didnt realize is that we had absolutely no decorations for it. it was just a dull fake tree. the next day, justin went out to the dollar store and picked up some great ornaments. when i got home from work that night, we had a beautifully decorated tree. i wish i could take some credit for it because it looks so good, but it was all him.

season finale

ok, so most of you know i am a sucker for reality tv. years ago my mom and i got hooked on this show called the bachelor. if you have yet to see this great show, its about a guy who gets to date these 25 women all in hopes that he picks them in the end. usually in the last finale the bachelor proposes or gives a promise to try this in the real world to one lucky lady who had endured all the past rose ceremonies. well last night was "the most shocking rose ceremony yet" (they seem to say that every season). brad womack (aka the bachelor) decided not to pick either of the girls!!! unheard of!!! both of them went away crying! so tonight is the "after the final rose" when everyone comes back and confronts brad, so it is sure to be some drama.

Turkey Day!!

oh how i love this day, let me count the ways

5. spending time with those you love
4. its a day set aside to remember all the things we forget to be thankful for through out the year. a day to reflect on all the blessings we have been given and give thanks for it all.
3. a paid day of no work. what a concept, get paid and not even go in. i love it
2. all the turkey bowls football games- the grapes vs raisins (you know what i mean 5th ward) is a favorite on this day held at monroe middle school at 9:00 am. and finally...
1. a feast of absolute deliciousness. the turkey, gravy stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and so much more. a combination so good it leaves you in a trance afterward thinking about how good it was.

a quick read..

so i recently got turned on to these amazing books through my friends sheri ward and heather heaton. it started with one, which quickly led to all three in less than a week. if you havent heard of them, i highly suggest picking them up. stephenie meyer, a graduate from byu, is the author of these incredible books. i wont give to much away, but its about this girl who moves to washington state to live with her father and falls in love with this boy. but of course there is a twist...