My Favorite Things

I was "tagged" a while ago by Lyndi, and now I'm finally getting around to doing this. This is supposed to be a list of my favorite things. As I was trying to think of things mostly food items came to mind. Maybe that's because I've been constantly hungry all the time lately, I don't know. Anyway, here are a few of my faves:

1. Back and arm scratches. Not a massage, but scratched lightly. Josh knows how much I love them that we'll be sitting watching TV together and I'll just plop my arm on his lap and he'll start scratching it.

2. Strawberries. The best fruit ever! So succulent and sweet, such a pretty color. I just told Josh yesterday that if he ever needed and idea for a gift for me or if he ever just wanted to make me happy, all he had to do was buy me strawberries.

3. My George Foreman grill with removable plates. I grill so much more now. It's so easy to clean. It's great.

4. Giordano's Pizza. The best pizza in the world. What more can I say. I will miss it a lot when we move from Chicago.

5. My scanner. I am loving the fact that I can now scan all my print photos onto the computer and then put them onto CD's. I got married in the "olden days" before digital pictures were popular, so my first project is scanning in all my wedding pictures. Next will be my Europe pictures.

6. Arizona Sunsets. They are among some of the best.

7. My down comforter. I inherited it from my great aunt, and it's super high quality. It's the most comfortable thing, I love to just snuggle in it, even in the summer. It makes getting out of bed in the morning that much harder.

8. Europe. This is such an indredible place, so full of history, charm, romance, beauty. Maybe if I can get my pictures scanned in I'll post some of my favorite places from Europe. I'd love to go back and explore more.

9. Beagles. I don't have one, but I think these are just the cutest dogs. Every time I see one I tell Josh I want one. I hear they can be wild and crazy though.

10. Target. I don't know how I'd get by without this store. I've probably given them too much of my money already.

IT'S A BOY!!!

Yep, definitely a boy.

He's quite flexible, touching his head with his toes.

They gave us some 3D pictures too!

And, just for kicks, my most recent belly shot.

Spring Break Fun

Spring is finally here!!!

For this year's spring break we were unable to take our usual big trip due to our schedules, but we were still able to manage a quick overnight trip to Wisconsin. Since it was a pretty snowy winter for the midwest, Josh had been wanting to go skiing. And yes, believe it or not, there are actually ski resorts out here in this flatland part of the country! I was surprised when I first found this out. And there are actually more places to go skiing in Wisconsin than there are in Arizona. Natives from the west would surely laugh at the ski areas in Wisconsin because they're not on big tall mountains, but rather short hills. But hey, they're perfect for the beginner skier as Josh is. I opted not to ski because I figure it's a little too early to teach our baby how to ski. I was able to just relax, watch Josh come down the hills, watch a movie, and read. It was nice.

The whole drive up we were nervous the snow would all be melted because the whole week prior had been quite warm. But Devil's Head Ski Resort said they were still open. We trusted them and low and behold there was snow and we weren't the only ones there! Some of the snow was slushy but Josh was still able to have a great time.

That evening we drove up to the Wisconsin Dells area and ate at a restaurant that we had gone to last year when we visited the Dells. It's this GIGANTIC lodge type place, it's so fun and yummy! They had a bowling alley next door, and since we had only been bowling once before in our entire marriage (and we even lived next door to a bowling alley for two years!) we decided to have some bowling fun.

As usual, Josh showed off his athletic ability and beat me all three games.

The next day, before we drove back to Chicago, we decided to explore the friendly city of Madison. This is the capital building downtown, pretty much the biggest building they have. But it's a nice enjoyable city.

We also hung out at a local mall for a bit, did some window shopping, then went to see the movie Vantage Point. It was a great entertaining movie, I recommend you see it if you haven't!

Six Years Strong!

Yesterday Josh and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary! And I can happily say I am still madly in love with him, even more so than the day we were married. We have done so many great things together. We've endured good times, bad times, fun times, sad time. But he's always there for me, he supports me, he's a great husband and friend. I'm so glad I married him!

To celebrate, we had planned to go out to dinner at a nice restaurant on our anniversary, but then we were able to get Bulls tickets for a game the day before our annivesary. Since Josh has been studying like crazy for his surgery rotation boards, he decided he couldn't go out two nights in a row. So the Bulls game was our celebration. It was a lot of fun! We hadn't been to a game before, and it's been on our stuff-to-do-in-Chicago list for a while. What was even better was they won! (they played the Utah Jazz) and because they won and scored over 100 points we all won Big Mac's! That alone totally made it worth it. ;) So can you guess what we ate for dinner the night of our anniversary? That's totally right, big macs!! I really dislike McDonalds, and I eat a big mac maybe once a year, if that. I think the last one I ate was also from winning one at a Blackhawk's game.

We had decided not to get each other presents this year, but I couldn't resist getting Josh just a little something. I looked up anniversary gifts by year, and for your 6th anniversary the traditional gift is candy or iron. The modern gift is wood. So I got him a little basket filled with candy. The nice thing is, it doubles as an early Easter basket! I know, cheesy huh. But he thought it was cute and thoughtful.
The best thing about our anniversary was that the weather was so nice! It's finally creaping up to the 40's and 50's. That alone puts us in a great mood. Spring is in the air!!

I thought it would be fun to also include pictures of us through the past six years. Luckily our anniversary always falls near Spring Break so we've been able to take fun trips around our anniversary. You can decide if you think we've changed much.

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

Protecting your blog privacy

My friend Darby made a good post on her blog about how to keep your blog more private so you don't have problems with creepy people posting strange things. I thought they were all great tips so I wanted to share (I hope you don't mind me sharing your post Darby):


"first i went into my settings and did the following

Went to Settings, selected Basic

Add your blog to our listings? NO
(this means that when i update my blog it does not show up on the blogger homepage or any other page as being updated - very important)

Let search engines find your blog? NO
(this means that search engines can not bookmark my site at all - bad if you are a buisiness, good if you are a family)

(Scroll down and click Save Changes)


Next I went I went to Comments (still in settings)

Who Can Comment?
Registered Users - includes OpenID
(this means that only people who can comment are those with gmail accounts - or who have active blogs open - this helps eliminate computers from spamming)

Enable comment moderation? Yes
(this means that no comments will post to our blog with out us approving them first - this way you can axe anything before it shows up)

Show word verification for comments? Yes
(this is super annoying, but important to stop spam and deter unwanted comments because it's an extra step)

(Scroll down and click Save Changes)

LAST THING
I never mention last names, show my address or town and I try to not tell the full names of anyone else on my blog either. also i don't post birthday specifics or when i'll be out of town. all of that will just lead to a home alone movie where the burglers find out when you are leaving. leave that kind of stuff to personal emails to family or blog about it when you get home. I also try to respect my friends privacy by not posting photos that could embarrass. The internet is really quite insane. once it's on the web it's ALWAYS on the web so post with courtesy and care.

All in all those are my safe blogging tips. the first few are really important as they blog the search engines from seeing your blog!"


I already went and made the changes, and I removed all the last names of people in my links since it's good not to post full names. I hope these things will prevent me from needing to make my blog private. I really don't want to do that!

My Week

Not much going on these days, and not much exciting to blog about. I figured I'd just write about my week.

SUNDAY: I got to sleep in, ate breakfast in bed, relaxed, went to Stake Conference in the afternoon (we usually have 9 am church) and heard a General Authority speak~Elder Douglas Callister of the Seventy, made dinner, set new goals for Josh and I, clipped coupons, talked to family on the phone.

MONDAY: Worked a long, busy day at work, came home and crashed.

TUESAY: Went to a dr. appointment in the morning. They didn't do much, just questions and a few labs, but in about two weeks we get to find out what we're having!! Then I came home and did laundry and dishes, made lunch, enjoyed Josh being able to come home early, did computer stuff, planned a dinner menu, then in the afternoon/evening went with Josh to a youth activity at the bishop's storehouse, which happened to be an hour drive away so it took all evening and we didn't get back til quite late.

WEDNESDAY: Got up early to take Josh to school by 5:45, then went to the gym since I was already up, took a nap, tutored 1st/2nd grade at Reavis Elementary for a couple hours in the afternoon, then did some grocery shopping, made a stop at the local produce store, relaxed a little, did some reading, made dinner, went to bed early.

THURSDAY: Worked all day, then went to our weekly LOST potluck/party night with fun and fabulous friends!

FRIDAY: Worked a long, busy day, came home to a tasty meal Josh made, then crashed.

SATURDAY: Slept in a little, then headed to the gym in the morning braving the treadmills once again (It's been a while since I've run, I still took it easy though), caught up on some needed cleaning, read blogs, made lunch, and that brings me to the present. Now I plan to read some, maybe work on some crafts, wait for Josh to get home from studying, then we'll have our date night. We'll either go out to the movies or else stay in and watch one of our Netflix movies and order Giordano's pizza. It'll probably depend on if it's still snowing. Before bed we'll turn our clocks an hour forward because daylight savings time starts tomorrow! This means tomorrow will be only a 23 hour day and we'll lose an hour of sleep. (I still think this whole time changing thing is a bad idea and a waste of time. We should just stick to either daylight savings or standard time all year long. But oh well. Thank you Arizona for being smart.) Good thing tomorrow is Sunday and we can take nice nap after our morning church!

So I guess this is a pretty typical week for me- work, chores, some shopping, a little me time, a night or two with friends, a date night. As you can see I have a pretty nice schedule. I love it! Hope you guys have had a more exciting week than me!