I Have a Confession!

I've always been a fan of reading and have always prided myself on reading books that mean something and have something to say. In fact, my favorite book of all time is 1984 by George Orwell, which makes a profound statement about Orwell's idea of what the future may hold and the role that government may take in society. I won't get too much into the story and what the ideas are, but it's always been one of those books on the controversial list. I've read it and reread it many times. My copy of it is pretty torn up and the spine is about to split! It's had quite a bit of influence on our society overall and some may not know that the title of the trashy reality show "Big Brother" is actually a reference to 1984!

Though I have my favorites that I always keep close, I am always open to trying out something new. I had kind of heard something about an LDS woman who wrote a series about vampires and let's face it, who doesn't love vampire stories!? Chad and I were in Bakersfield for last Thanksgiving and I was out with the girls doing some Christmas shopping when I realized that I had forgotten to bring a book with me for some extra entertainment. I walked down the aisle of books at Target and there it was-Twilight- the first book in the series. I figured I'd just pick it up and take a chance on it. If nothing else, maybe it would just be a quick, fun read.

Well if you've checked out my little section that lists what I'm currently reading, you'll probably already know that I've since moved on. I got through Twilight in two days and wanted more! Locating a copy of New Moon (the second book in the series, duh!) proved a bit difficult, but a couple months later I finally located a copy! And like the first, I plowed through the second and that's when the addiction started! I headed out to locate Eclipse (of course the third book)a couple days later and probably ended up paying twice as much as I should have for it, but I had to have it!

Needless to say, my addiction has become greater (with some fueling of the fire by my sister) and I think I have officially diagnosed myself as a Twilight fan! Through word of mouth of other fans, I discovered that in December we will be blessed with a Twilight movie! So now, on most of my lazy nights, or when I'm avoiding work, I can be found searching the internet for any pictures or movie clips from the movie that doesn't even come out until December!

So here it is, my confession! I love Edward and Bella! I want Bella to become a vampire so that her and Edward can be together forever! I can't wait for the movie and I want to go to the midnight showing of it! And...I LOVE TWILIGHT!!!! So there it is, bring on the scoffs and scorns! I'm ready for it!

But maybe you should check out this awesome link before you pass judgment!
Clicky!

Tagged by Sam!

4 Jobs I have had:
Copy Center at Staples
Day camp counselor
Secretary at a law office
Social Worker (or a Crazy Person as I like to call it!)

4 TV Shows I watch:
The Office
Lost
May Name is Earl
30 Rock

4 Places I have been:
St. Thomas
Mexico
Jamaica
Caymen Islands


4 People that email me:
Chad
My mom
Target
24 Tix

4 of my favorite foods:
Cookies
Ice Cream
Antyhing Mexican
Sandwiches

4 Friends I Tag:
Ashley
Jarad
Angie
Carina

4 things I am looking forward to in 2008:
Raises!
Collecting more vacation time
Outdoor fun in the summer
Vegas for our anniversary

Our Children

Well many may already know that Chad and I already have two kids, Gracy and Rilee. We adore them and they never fail to bring a smile to our faces. After much debate on the subject, Chad and I decided that if we were ever going to get new furniture for the house then they would have to be declawed. I went back and forth about it for such a long time. The day that we rescued Gracy from the shelter, I talked to one of the employees there about declawing a cat. When she told me that declawing a cat is like cutting a person's finger off at the knuckle, I couldn't bear to put my kids through that and I dropped the idea completely.


Many months later, we adopted Rilee from a family that could no longer have her since they just had a baby that ended up being allergic (what are the odds!?). Unfortunately, Rilee was allowed to scratch on everything at the prior owners home, a habit that I knew had to be broken. So here we are about 5 months later, and while she has gotten better, Rilee just can't kick her habit. Gracy was even falling victim to Rilee's influence and also began scratching on things she wasn't supposed to. Chad and I revisited the idea of having them declawed and decided it would be the best choice. Our decision became completely solidified when I found out that both of them have been secretly scratching on the coat rack in our living room!


The kids went in on Tuesday to have the deed done. Chad dropped them off and picked them up later that evening. All was well at first. They were still out of it from the surgery and pretty much slept. The vet wraps up their feet pretty good and it looks like they have huge white boots on their feet. Gracy however, decided it would be fun to jump off my lap and run upstairs, something she should not be doing after having her surgery. Well things turned into a mess once that happened. Gracy was meowing like crazy, Rilee was bleeding all over, Chad was gone visiting his family, and I couldn't stop crying. It was a disaster! Things ended up working out and the kids are doing much better now, though they are both still walking funny even without their boots on their feet.

I couldn't get a picture of Gracy and her boots, but here's Rilee. This was after the fiasco with her bleeding all over. She ended up falling asleep on my lap.


Another one of Rilee. Gracy pretty much hid until we took her boots off her.

The Happiest Place on Earth!

I just wanted to do a quick post about the greatest and happiest place on earth! No, I'm not talking about Disneyland! It's so much better! My sister just came in for her annual spring break visit on Saturday morning. After catching a movie, we were on our way home when a giant red sign reading CLEARANCE! caught our eyes at the DSW shoe store. Now, I've always meant to stop in to see what there is to see at DSW, but never have. What an error of judgement on my part! I think I found the most amazing place ever! There are shoes as far as the eye can see! Well at least that's what it felt like. They carry just about every possible style and color of shoe that you could even imagine. And we're not talking cheap Payless shoes here. We're talking anything from Rocket Dogs all the way up to Micheal Koors and of course the designers that are high end enough that I've never even heard of them! Once Adrienne and I found the clearance section in the back, we were on fire! I was good at containing myself though and only ended up with an adorable pair of black, round toe, wedge heel Steve Maddens and Adrienne scored a pair of fun red plaid, pointed toe, kitten heels. We walked out the door for $35! What an experience! By far, one of my new favorite stores!

Cali Adventures, (cont.)!

We finally rolled into the hotel in San Diego at about 12:45 Friday night. Unfortunately it was yet another early morning for us. Chad and I went with my family to Sea World the next day for my sister's final cheerleading competition. With her going away to school, this one was it for the rest of her life so we wanted to make sure and be there for it. It's not a huge competition, but we still had fun anyway. If you haven't experienced (which Chad hasn't) the world of competitive cheerleading it is something else. Ever heard of soccer moms? Well don't dare try and cross a cheer mom! My mom will attest to this since she has spent 8 years as a cheer mom! I don't think that cheerleaders have any other volume besides loud and louder, so between the nose, the parents, and the hair and makeup competitions are quite the events. Despite it all, I was able to catch some shut eye before awards were handed out and of course Chad couldn't help but catch a picture of it. The competition did provide us with lunch and chocolate cake, which was nice. Except we were being watched closely by several hungry seagulls that ended up being able to sneak away with with a few hamburger patties that some girls had left unsupervised on the table. We spent the rest of the day playing and smelling fish. We took in the shows and sights, but finally called it quits kind of early.

Sunday was a nice relaxing day accompanied by my wonderful 4 hour nap! Chad would say I had a coma, not a nap! We went to church with my parents' which is always fun since it's the ward that I pretty much grew up in. It was great to see some familiar faces. Early Monday morning we headed to the airport. When we arrived they refused to let us on the plane because they said we were too late. We got listed on the next flight out which was fine. Well long story short, we weren't able to get a flight out till that evening. Everything was booked, if not oversold. The flight out that evening ended up having 90 available seats, so we just got listed on that one. We lucked out since my mom just works 10 minutes from the airport. She came and picked us up and gave us her car so we could hang out around Newport Beach for the day. We just ended up doing some window shopping, having lunch overlooking the beach, and seeing a movie. We made it back home that night finally after what seemed like the longest day ever.

It was a fun trip, not so much on the relaxing side though! It was great to see my family and hang out with them. We usually end up having fun with them.

Cali Adventures, (cont.)!

Friday came really early the next day, but this was the most important day! It was RACHEL'S BIG DAY!!!! Thursday night ended late and Friday morning came really early! Rachel and Shad were getting married in the Los Angeles temple, which is about an hour and a half to two hours from my parents' house, which is where we were staying. Since I was a bridesmaid, I had to get there early to pick up my clothes and get changed before heading over to the temple at about 9:45ish. Well I wanted to be up by 5:30 so that we could get up and ready in enough time to leave by 7. Well when we went to bed I asked Chad to set his alarm so that we would be sure to wake on time. He assured me that he did and I went to bed. I heard some rustling around in the morning and decided I would get up to check to see what time it was. When I realized that I had woken up 45 minutes late, I started freaking out! Now in any normal situation it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but we're talking about traffic on a weekday morning in Southern California!

Well someone must have been watching over us that morning because the traffic was clearer then I have ever seen it! We got to Rach's hotel by about 9 am, leaving us plenty of time to get ready and to the temple by 10. The ceremony was beautiful and I balled like a baby. I think the only two people in the room crying that hard were me and her mom! It's amazing the wonderful feelings that the temple brings. I was so happy for her and for the choices that she made to get there. We then spent about an hour or two taking pics with the wedding party. Rach looked amazing! She's going to get some great pictures! Poor Chad stuck it out, even though he was starving since I refused to stop for food on our way out there.

We then headed up to Lancaster for the reception. Chad and I were the first ones to get there so we helped get things setup as much as we could. The church looked awesome! Her mom did a lot of work! The reception went well, except for the part where Rachel and Shad got caught in traffic on their way up, making them about an hour late for their reception. Things worked out okay though and it went great.

Chad and I unfortunately had to leave before we could help clean up because we had a three hour drive ahead of us to San Diego to meet up with my family for my sister's cheer competition! It was a long trip and we finally got to San Diego at about 12:30 or 1. It was a long day, but I was so glad that we got to share it with Rachel and Shad.

Here's some pics that Chad took at the wedding

Cali Adventures!

Okay, so we finally made it back from Cali in one piece. It was definitely a fun, but short weekend. Most of it was spent running from one place to the next, but it was still a great time. Since we did so much in just a few days, I decided to do a post for each of the exciting things we did.

The journey started off with trying to fly stand-by during spring break. Uh, yeah, not a good idea. Getting there was fine, but later on I'll tell you all about trying to get home! So heading to Cali, we were supposed to leave on a flight at 5 pm, but weren't able to get on that one so we ended up on the next flight at 9 pm. It seems like a long time to hang out in the airport, but Chad and I were able to entertain ourselves. We finally made into Cali around 10:30 ish.

Thursday night we drove out to Hollywood to see Wicked! I've always had a deep love for L.A. I remember as a kid going to the Natural History museum, the Getty, and the Museum of Tolerance. I saw my first musical at the Pantages when I was about 10 or 11. There were also quite a few times when my mom would have to go to court, so I'd skip school and we'd ride the train out there and go shopping after her court appearance. So despite the traffic and crowds I can't help but love to be there. So I've been to musicals and plays before, but this was absolutely the best thing I have ever seen! We had a great cast Thursday night which just added to it. Chad even loved it and he's really not into stuff like that. At intermission my mom asked my what I thought and immediately I told her that this was the best day ever. Well Chad felt a little offended by that, but he knows how excited I get about the little things!

So here's a pic outside the theater. Isn't Hollywood fantastic!


I took these pictures with my cell phone, so they're not the greatest. Here's the inside of the theater. The set is amazing. There is this giant dragon thing above the stage that moves and roars during the musical.


Me and my sister in the theater.
And Chad!


And of course we got to see a variety of characters hanging out on the Hollywood strip. Even Spongebob was out that night! The popparazi were also out in full force that night. There was a huge crowd in front of a red carpet outside the Egyptian theater. We never could figure out what was going on, but it sure was exciting.