5 Years Ago . . .

It is hard to believe that it was five years ago that Dan and I were married; it seems as if it was only yesterday. It is such a great feeling to know that I have found someone to share everyday of the rest of my life with. He always knows just what to say or do to make me smile or laugh. When I have a bad day he comes home and gives me a hug and I feel like nothing else matters. All of my stress just disappears. I love to sit and watch him play with our two beautiful girls, and see the love that they have for their daddy. He is so patient, loving, and intelligent and I feel so blessed to not only be with him in this life, but for eternity.

Here are some of our Engagement and Wedding Day pictures.

Dan . . . I LOVE YOU, Happy Anniversary!!




Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Accident Prone . . . or . . . Lacking Intelligence?

Anyone that knows me knows that I am constantly doing dumb things and getting hurt. I have always just chalked it up to being accident prone, but I think yesterday's occurrence might be more of a lack of intelligence. I mean, I have been burned before, many of times.

One of the first times I remember was when I tried to make scones and forgot about them while they were cooking. They caught on fire, so I took the pan outside to dump it our on the ground, and dripped the oil down my thumb. Then there was the time when I worked at KFC (my first job while I was in high school), when I went to get the Macaroni and Cheese out of the oven and stupidly forgot to use an oven mitt. Or the time when I decided to try waxing my eyebrows and put the wax in the microwave too long, so when I put the stick in it exploded all over me (and ruined my favorite shirt). And of course all the countless times when I am baking and accidentally touch the pan. In fact, just a month or so ago I burned my hand pretty bad, not nearly this bad, when I grabbed the pizza pan out of the oven without a mitt.

It isn't just burns either. It doesn't matter what I am cutting or chopping, but there is this one knife that I always use, because it is the best, that I cut myself with every time. You would think I would get rid of the knife, or better yet, quick cooking and stay away from the kitchen. But, seeing that I love to bake and cook, that's difficult. You would think that I would learn from all the times I have been burnt and cut and not do it again, yet here I am today, with a huge burn all over my arm, and you ask, well, how did you do it this time.

Well, my stove doesn't work quite right. So in order to cook, I have to use a tiny burner with my big pan. To do this I have to turn the stove to high so that it will actually heat up. So I did this, and then poured in the olive oil. You would think when it started to smoke I would have realized it was too hot, and turned down the stove. But smart me didn't, and put a piece of chicken in the pan. Since the pan was bigger than the burner, the oil was all gathered at one side. So when I put the chicken into the pan, the oil tidal waved out of the pan and clear up my arm. And this, is the result.

So you tell me, I am accident prone, or just lacking in intelligence!

By the way, after soaking my arm in cold water and ice for about 9 hours yesterday, I did get to sleep, and today, I have little feeling in the burn area. So, very little pain today.

Oh, and the scar on my arm is from a car accident 3 1/2 years ago. Boy am I going to have a good looking arm or what!

The Somewhat Official Update

So I have had quite a few inquiries lately as to what has been going on in our family lately, and what are plans are for the future. Some of you just wanted clarity on where we are going and what we are doing when we leave the great town of Nacogdoches. Others are dear friends whom we had lost contact with and recently found. Who knows, maybe there are even some Blog browsers here. Anyways, for all those who have been wondering, I will try to remember everything.

For the past two years we have been living in Nacogdoches, Texas, where Dan has been pursuing a Masters Degree in Psychology. He has been doing great, accomplishing a perfect 4.0 the entire time, and will be graduating on August 9th. After his graduation he will be starting school at UNC Chapel Hill to begin a PhD program in Educational Psychology. With this he is hoping to teach Psychology on a University level. He has been very blessed in his Master's program go have the opportunity to teach a few classes. This summer term he is teaching a General Psychology class while finishing up his Thesis, an extremely vague description of the topic is motivation and stereotype threats. If you want to know more you will need to ask Dan, lol. I don't claim to be smart enough to understand it all.

My story isn't quite as interesting, lol. I tried to go back to school when we first moved here, but that was short-lived. Since SFA was lacking an Architecture program I decided that I try out Interior Design. I liked it a lot, but after one semester found out I was pregnant with Kate. Seeing that I had been sick nearly everyday throughout Sarah's pregnancy, and thought that Kate's would be the same, I decided it would be best not to continue. However, the pregnancy was completely opposite and I was hardly sick the entire time. Oh well, I got plenty of quality time with Sarah before Kate came along. Most recently I have been "broadening my horizons" so to speak. In the past 6 months I have made 2 wedding cakes, started making and selling Handmade Photo books, Embellished Sandals, and Tile Photo boards at the local Farmer's Market and Flea Market, am trying to create a blog store for selling my crafts, and am taking an online Medical Transcriptioning Course (Transcriptioning is a job that you can do from home, and my past medical classes are really helping me out.)

Sarah was 7 months old when we moved here, and was instantly the most popular child in the ward. We have sometimes joked that seeing Sarah made everyone want to have babies, because about a month and a half later tons of the women started becoming pregnant, including me. While I was pregnant with Kate, if we told Sarah to give the baby kisses she would kiss my stomach. When Kate was born Sarah would always put her finger to her mouth and say shhhh, baby sleeping. Ever since Kate has been born she lights up Sarah's world. Sarah is a great big sister, and is very intelligent. She loves to sing and dance, and loves anything to do with the Disney princesses.

Kate (Katelyn Gayle) was born June 26, 2007, just 18 months and 1 week after Sarah. She is now almost 1 and is running just as fast as she can to keep up with her big sister. She has a mouthful of teeth and loves to eat. She probably eats at least twice what Sarah does. She is trying to talk quite a bit, but you can't understand hardly any of it. Occasionally she does get out a clear word though. Her favorite thing is to blow on anything she can find to create a "farting" noise. It is actually kind of shocking how good she is at it. She also has just started trying to do the actions to "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Popcorn Popping". It is so fun to watch her learn and grow.

The past couple years has also brought a few tragedies.

A year and a half ago my brother Nate was in a car accident in which he received extreme brain damage. He was in a coma for quite a while, and the doctors were not sure if he would make. However, I am proud to say that he is recovering amazingly and is currently attending BYU-Idaho. He no longer has therapy and seems to be happier than ever.

The most recent tragedy happened the week after Thanksgiving. This is when we found out that Dan's younger brother had passed away while attending BYU. He was a very brilliant young man who was loved by everyone around him. We miss him very much.

Anyways, I think that pretty much sums up the past couple of years. I hope I didn't bore any of you with my lengthy ramblings, lol.