Two for Two!

Two for two! What are the odds?
Only 12 more days until we visit Arizona!


Oh, and that was the last cookie, so you can get off the edge of your seat.
My future is no longer an open book.

Men!

3 days.
72 hours.
4320 minutes.
259,200 seconds.
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And this is the ONLY picture Nathan took the whole weekend he was gone:

David (background), Marti (midground), Richard/Dad (foreground)

Men! Can't blog with 'em, nothing to blog about without 'em!

January 2001 Dear Diary,

Since Nate has my camera, I won't be able to finish this week's journal until later. I decided to write about the night that George, my former car, died. I was thinking of it earlier this week and I've never "documented" it anywhere.

Preface: George got his name because he was a '92 Nissan Stanza. And his middle initial was "K"----> Get it? George K. Stanza....like George Costanza of Seinfeldom?

Jana made this magnetic picture frame for my "first" fridge when I got married and moved away:

The Story: Jana, Brenna, and I were all headed to the dollar theater. I tried to pull away from the curb of the house and my car wouldn't move. I revved the gas, it rocked forward and backward a little bit, but went nowhere. I got out, walked around the car, and spied the problem--there was parking block in front of my tire. I don't know how to explain it, but it's similar to this:

Except it was portable, taller, and made for airplanes! As I removed it and threw it in the trunk, I wondered which secret admirer came to my house to play a trick on me. I mean, I was 18 and obviously very cool (going to the dollar theater on a Saturday night with my sister and neighbor and such). So naturally I had tons of secret admirers.

Fast forward ten minutes.

Driving East on Thunderbird Avenue. Approaching the 5100 West stoplight. Someone is fiddling with my radio. I slap her hand and look up in time to see a Toyota truck coming at me! Or rather, it was sitting still and I was coming towards it's bumper. *CRASH* Right in front of Denny's.

After we got home, I cried harder than I ever had in my life. So hard I suffered an epistaxis episode (doesn't that sound much nicer than a nasal hemorrhage or a nosebleed?).

On Sunday, I had to face my Sunday School teacher (Bro. Dorn) who LITERALLY told me seven days earlier that I was a crazy driver. Something about me taking a corner on two wheels and almost hitting him as he rode his bicycle to work?!? I told him--and I quote--"I have never been in an accident." Never mind that I had only received my license 547 days earlier. I was proud of my "no accident" streak.

On Monday, I found out my seminary teacher (Bro. Coley) was the insurance agent for the lady I hit.

On Tuesday, I found out who put the stopper under my wheels:

Rich Crouse "spiking" the drinks at my wedding.

My 'admirer' was our neighbor, Rich Crouse. When he saw my totaled car in the driveway the next morning, he was scared. He thought I was so frustrated with the parking stop that I punched the gas to get over it and ran into a brick wall. He was sure his trick somehow caused the wreckage. I like to think it did...haha. If I hadn't taken those 3 minutes to retrieve it and put it in the trunk, I would have been in front of the truck, and not behind it. So, clearly, the accident was not my fault Ü.

Well, when you lose someone you love, you reminisce about the good times together. I'll never forget going to a kiosk in the mall to have a front license plate airbrushed to say:

I remember the conversation with the employee going like this:

Vendor: How can I help you?
Me: I would like a personalized plate for my car.
Vendor: What should it say?
Me: Aubrey and George Forever
Vendor: Is that all?
Me: Can I have a date put on there?
Vendor: Yes. What date would you like?
Me: (thinking out loud) Well, I know it was in August, but I'm not sure of the exact date. It was before school started....oh, just put the 12th.
Vendor: (incredulous) You don't know the day you were married?!?!
Me: Married? I'm 17. George is my car. (under breath: Weirdo).
Vendor: (under breath: George is a car? Weirdo).

I decided the only way to honor George properly was to hold a funeral before the insurance company towed him out of our front yard.

So, I dressed in my most somber black dress....


I printed a funeral program,



and invited everyone who loved him as much as I did. I even wrote an original poem for the back of the program, that went something like this:

George K. Stanza was more than a car,
A companion to places near and far.
To Sonic, MacFrugals, the dollar movie,
Even to Jamba to grab a smoothie!
He never complained about trips to the mall,
Or even when he hit the car wash wall.
He was so young, yet full of knowledge.
He was going to come with me to college.
Now it's time to make a new start,
But George, you'll always be in my heart.


A few weeks later, I honored George by making my first (and last) scrap book page:


Wow. This is getting longer, but I just now thought of another facet of this memory. I was a TA for Ms. Culbertson at Centennial High School. TA = Teacher's Assistant---which basically meant I roamed the halls for an hour and hung out with other TA's (Cuffy, and I think Clifford) . Hmmm...between TA 2nd hour and Student Council for 3rd hour, I wasn't in a classroom for very much of my senior year.

Anyway, if you ever had Ms. Culbertson, then you probably recall "Happy Notes." They were anonymous notes you wrote to other class members to say things you like about them. {Monica, are you digging these "words of affirmation"?}

As a TA, it was my job to round up the Happy Notes, make sure they were appropriate, and then distribute them to their owners. After the accident, I received a lot of Happy Notes with sentiments for George. HAHA Ü

Fortune Cookies and Duct Tape

Nathan left this morning at 6am to drive to California for the weekend and go fishing with his dad. I had leftover Chinese for lunch and I scanned my fortune:

Is it too soon to call him? I don't wanna seem clingy.....Ü

Now about that Duct Tape--I sent my camera with Nathan this morning because I thought I could go 3 days without taking pictures of Deac, but he just manages to be cute at least once an hour Ü. I went to wake him up from his first nap this morning and he was standing in his crib.....completely naked!! He had taken off all his clothes and his diaper. I think I'll need to start putting Duct tape on the tabs to keep him covered.


I did find some pictures Nathan took last week of Deac stripping down to his diaper.



Future Chippendale?

04/20/2008 Dear Diary,

Dear future posterity,

I have failed you and did not keep a good journal this week. I also didn't take many pictures so I have nothing to remind me what we did! I do remember taking Deacon to get professional pictures taken on Wednesday. I use the term 'professional' loosely because it's really whatever 18-year-old was running the closet photo studio at Wal*Mart. The photo shoot was to commemorate his first birthday. Does commemorate make it sound like he's a stamp or coin collection?

Well I did take some pictures, but they are all of Deacon. I know, I know. He has his own blog but ever since I gave him my password, he has been posting an exorbitant amount of his pictures on our family site as well. Here he is this week in some birthday pj's from his aunt Carla.He mastered going down the stairs which is great for us because our baby gate never really worked, and it was annoying to have our couch permanently blocking access to the stairs.

Here he is getting ready for bed. Again, I just want to reiterate that we never put him to bed with a bottle. That would be bad.

Later that night, Nathan and I dropped Deacon off at Wyatt's house so he and his sisters (but really his mom) could watch him and we could go to a temple. Last week in church we were challenged to attend a temple once a week for the next three weeks. We'll see how that goes....

Random Video From This Week:


I'm thinking that I don't have many pictures this week because (besides work), I mostly just read. I went to the library four times, but I thought it would be awkward to document it by asking to take the librarian's picture. Four times is already borderline stalking, add a photo request and I'm asking for a restraining order.

I like their system: I order online, they call when it's available, and then hold it at the front desk for me. Plus they have a drive-thru book drop for returns. In January I set a goal (this is eerily close to a New Year's Resolution) to read one book a month. Since we stopped subscribing to the Tribune, I've found it easier to achieve my quota. Who needs current events, right? I'm thinking of copying those "Shelfari" things I see on people's blogs so I can remember and keep track for the end of the year.

January: Orbit by John Nance (does this really count? It was a Reader's Digest condensed version. Plus I read it to Nate on the way home from Christmas in AZ so we finished it on January 1st).
February: Twighlight, New Moon, and Eclipse all by Stephenie Meyer
March: The Innocent Man and The Broker, both by John Grisham (P.S. The Broker is NOT about a Stock Broker Ü, but I love the author and that should have tipped me off that it had something to do with an attorney).
April: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, Post Secret by Frank Warren (again, does this really count? It was all pictures). Playing for Pizza by John Grisham, The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman.

I am open to anymore suggestions!

Oh yeah, back to Wedneday: at Wal*Mart I did buy a cute little chair for Deacon. And he was even able to sit in it....for about five minutes before his mean dad made me return it! HAHAHA. I'm teasing. Kinda. I knew as soon as I brought it in the house that I paid too much for it and could find it cheaper somewhere else. So Nathan took it back the next day, but not before Deacon crawled in it all by himself. Luckily he's not older (and more aware), or we would have had to pry it from his clenched fists.


On Sunday, I walked from and to church. From and to? Don't I mean "to and from"? No. I don't. Nathan had to leave church early and took Deacon with him. I walked home afterwards but didn't see my car in the driveway. I knew I hadn't left my keys in the door---this time--so it couldn't have been stolen. Then I deduced that Nathan was kind enough to walk home so I wouldn't have to. Is this like Gift of the Magi? Basically, we both walked home and left our car at church. So we took a family walk tonight to go get it. Hence: I walked from and to church Ü

Getting ready for the walk "Rocky Style"


Not our house, not our car. No offense to any Geo drivers *cough*Brenna*cough*

Happy Birthday Brenna!

24 years ago........Brenna was born! So much to say about Brenna. Hardworking, beautiful, funny, and let's not forget talented----she is an artist of several mediums. You can click here to see some of the murals she's drawn for homes and businesses. She creates awesome cakes for weddings and other events. She also likes to have fun. That last one may not seem like a "talent," but when you see some of the following pictures, you'll realize it is.

Crazy Day - October 2001


Western Day - October 2001


Western Day - 2000 Slightly grainy, but please notice the red vinyl "leather" sewn into the back of her jeans as chaps! Only Brenna can pull that off!

Brenna was born 17 months after me, so we were one grade apart in school. This was a "problem" because we often wound up with the same friends---and teenage girls/sisters can't share anything Ü. We had similar tastes in clothes too: I would often accuse her of wearing a shirt/shoes/belt of mine without permission, only to find out we had bought the exact same item from the same store.

Note: I searched EVERYWHERE for the picture of us during basketball season where we arm wrestled for the photographer, but I couldn't find it :(

When she was born, our parents were so sure they would have a boy, they even had the name picked out: Brennan Wade. But alas! It was a girl! Just for fun though, I wonder what Brenna would look like if she were a boy..................well wonder no more:

If you want to see the faux facial hair, then click the cholo to enlarge.


Geez! We need more pics together, this one is 3 years old!

Birthday Presents!!

We found a smokin' deal on a pocket bike for Deacon and it matches Nate's motorcycle perfectly. Since it was his birthday we thought it was the perfect present! Now they can go riding together!


Here are just the top 5 cutest pictures out of the 100 I took Ü





P.S. We did NOT buy Deacon a pocket bike Ü That was just an image we found on the Internet.

04/13/2008 Dear Diary,

Monday: I usually don't mention Mondays in my journal :,( ---> I think I just made up that emoticon...it's supposed to be a tear drop coming out of a sad eye.

I don't like Mondays because I'm gone for 12 hours and only see Deacon for a few minutes before bed. On the bright side, he gets to hang out with dad all day and they do manly bonding stuff. Last week it was Home Depot, today they worked on the motorcycle. Nathan took these pictures, and since this is his journal too, I uploaded them.

These are the new pipes that UPS delivered. Remember? the ones that were NOT part of the bomb I was building :) Deacon 'helped' install them so Nate's bike is MUCH louder (Nathan says it's more of a "safety" issue so that people hear him and don't pull out in front of him). I think it's more of a testosterone issue.....



Tuesday: We thought we'd see how Deacon does with whole milk.

Got Milk?

Yes. He did manage to get some in his mouth.


We also played a little bit of "dress up." Even though the PJ's I sewed last week were too small for Nathan to wear, they were a perfect shawl for Deacon. To all the babies reading this blog: it's cool to wear your onesie unsnapped and untucked.


Wednesday: Deacon had his one year check-up with the pediatrician. He loved the carnival mirror. He kept doing his Monkey Crawl (on hands & feet) around the waiting and an elderly woman next to me looked slightly horrified when she asked, "is that the way he's always crawled?"


He loved the office toys (just let me keep believing that these are disinfected daily by an attentive staff member).


He liked looking out their window too:


Notice I didn't take any pictures after he had his shots, because it was so sad :, (

Stats:
Weight-24.4 lbs -75%
Length-31.5 in-91%
Head-49.5 cm-80%

Nathan got a birthday coupon from Red Robin. Later that afternoon, we went there to use it and the gift certificate we won last month. Usually, we're the people that order just a main dish----not even drinks! So it was fun to go all out this time on someone else's tab. We even ordered an appetizer and our own desserts.




Thursday: For Deacon's birthday, we took him to the bank to open his first savings account. Thanks Grandma Jo for the opening deposit from Deacon's Easter card!

I had a Mother/Daughter Spring Fling Fashion Show for Achievement Days. It was funny because the girls got to 'design' outfits for their mom using trash bags, ribbons, toilet paper, etc.

While at the bank, the general consensus of the employees was that I was mean to even consider making Deacon a bran muffin for his "birthday treat." So I baked him a cupcake with sugary {pinkÜ} frosting. He seemed to REALLY enjoy it:




Friday: Clifford, Heather, and Corbs came to visit Thursday night. They drove all the way from Idaho to celebrate Nate & Deac's birthdays....or maybe they had a flight to catch Friday morning out of Salt Lake : ) Have fun in AZ this week!

Earlier in the week, I asked Nathan what he wanted for his birthday breakfast. He worked all night Thursday. When he came home, there were pork chops with country gravy, hash browns, eggs, and juice waiting for him.

Later that afternoon, I made Joooooooeeee Zumwalt's famous carrot cake for Nate's b-day. I really think this "2" candle was a pretty good investment for us. We've used it twice a year for the last five years, and Deac will be "2" next year : )

On Saturday we went to Delmer and Dolores Smith's 60th wedding anniversary celebration. Delmer "saved" Nathan's life back in 1993. Nate wasn't where he was supposed to be and ended up getting left at church and had to walk home. It was in the Arizona heat and Delmer convinced Nate's dad to go pick him up Ü We signed the guest book as "Representatives for Richard & Joleen Hunt."

Sunday: I was asked to meet with a member of the bishopric. I already have two callings and I've only been in them for six months, so I didn't know what to expect. I was released as RS Pianist and Achievement Day Leader and called as an advisor to the Mia Maids. He asked if I had any leadership experience in the YW program and I just smiled Ü. I've had a nice break these last two years, so I feel refreshed and ready to start anew.

For dinner, I made some hamburger buns from scratch. Not the best idea when your church gets out at 5pm and it is Fast Sunday. By the time they rose (twice) and were done baking, it was almost 8pm when we were ready to eat.