Happy Anniversary!!!

Eighteen years ago today Jack & I were married in the Portland Oregon Temple. Look how young we were. What were we thinking?? We didn't have 2 pennies to rub together but we were "in love". We had met about 9 months prior to getting married at an Institute class in Philadelphia PA. A nanny job had taken me across the country and the desire for a date had brought Jack..a local boy who always knew a date could found at the local singles ward due to the high nanny population..to Institute that night. He made a point of meeting me that night by "accidentally" dropping his Hardy's (like McDonald's) bag in the hallway after class so that I was forced to stop to help pick up his stuff and introduce myself. We exchanged #'s that night and never really dated anyone else after that.
It has been an exciting, fun, and adventures time. Even after all this time Jack still makes me laugh and I love him for that. My sister Paige & I always said that was one of the most important qualities for a husband to have...of course there are other that are important too. =0)

California Part 3

One last post about our trip...We spent Thursday at Univeral Studios. It was a fun day...wish we could have spent more time there.



Cast members from the "Terminator" 4D show. We bought a "front of the line" pass so we didn't have to stand in the long lines in the hot sun and we got to meet the cast members after some of the different shows.

Shrek & Fiona

The "Law"

California Part 2

The second & third day of our trip we spent down in San Diego. The first day we spent at Sea World.

We went to the Dolphin show...
...the Sea Lion show...

and the Killer Whale show. They were all fabulous!! We had a lot a fun and managed to stay mostly dry even though we were technically in the "soak zone".
Then on our second day in San Diego, we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Two of the fun things we did there was feed the Lorikeets and we went on a tour of the park on Segways.

At one point, I had about 7 Lorikeets on me...one even tried to eat my earring.

The Lorikeets eat nectar...you can see the little container of nectar in Jack's hand.
We look awfully goofy in out helmets with our hats underneath but it was REALLY hot out that day and we needed the protection. Jack would have had the funniest sunburn on his head!!
This was a fun time of year to visit the park because there were lots of baby animals...giraffes, elephants, and tigers to name a few of what we saw. Our friend Peggy braved her fear of heights and went on the 3/4 mile zip line that is new to the park. It went right over the area of the park where we took our Segway tour. We might have to try that next time.

California Dreamin'

I have been asking/begging Jack to take me to California for years. He had made a vow to himself never step foot in the state so it was a hard sell for me. A few years back we had saved a little money and had a choice on how to spend it....a new big screen tv or a trip to California. Some how Jack won out on that purchase. I knew that I couldn't convince him on my own so I started recruiting people. Lucky for me one of Jack's good friends,Mark, and his wife, Peggy, are California/Disneyland freaks. I think they have been there a million times. Mark started working on Jack. He sent home Disneyland promotional dvds, emailed advertisments, everything Disneyland he came across he gave to Jack. It finally worked!! Yah for me!!!! We spent 7 days there...Jack survived and had fun. Jack & I outside Mainstreet U.S.A. We spent the first 2 days in Disneyland and California Adventure.



Here we are in California Adventure in front of the water rapids ride.
Jack in front of one of the stores in California Adventure.


Jack & I...I with my Minnie Mouse ears...on the Mark Twain Riverboat.

I got to meet Mickey when I visited his house. Jack missed this. So sad for him!!

It is hard to say what my favorite part of Disneyland was but I definitely LOVED Mickey's Toontown. So fun!! We explored all of the buildings, rode on the Roger Rabbit ride and ate lunch there on Friday. The only thing we didn't get to see was Minnie's house. There was always a long line there...gee I wonder why??? We will have to see that on our next trip. I made Jack promise me we would go again.

We spent Friday at Disneyland & California Adventure also. We ate dinner at the Blue Bayou Restaurant which is inside the Pirates of the Caribean ride. We waited for a table by the water so we could see the fireflies, hear the cricket and watch the people go by in their boats as we ate dinner. The food was SO good. I had Jambalaya for the first time....YUMMY!! Jack had lobster and steak.

We had so much fun on our trip. It was a great get away. I didn't think or worry about anything at home for the entire week. I guess that is what the "happiest place on earth" does to you!!!

I love the smell the fresh cut grass..

...and the look of a freshly mowed lawn. Today the weather was finally nice enough to mow. I didn't post a picture of our yard because it doesn't look too pretty. The grass was about a week past needing to be cut and it got rained on earlier in the day. Thus mowing left it not looking so good but at least it got mowed. It will look better next time.

Mowing got me excited and exhausted all at the same time. Excited about Spring and all the yard work that comes with this time of year. I LOVE working in my yard and get great satisfaction from making it look good but it is a LOT of work. That is where the exhausted part comes into play. It is absolutely exhausting keeping up with it all. But it is a good kind of exhaustion.

New paint in living room

Back at the beginning of the winter, when it first started into the rainy season, we had an issue with the roof which resulted in water leaking through the roof and into the living room. I ended up having to peel paint off of some the areas in order to get the water to drain. So I needed to repaint.
I had been contemplating repainting the beam in the living room anyway after seeing what my sister-in-law did in her living room. She used three different colors to highlight the architecture in the room. I loved the way it looked. When I originally painted that living room I didn't know what to do w/ the beam...I guess I thought I needed to make it blend in (it was painted the darker of the 2 colors on the walls) but after seeing my sister-in-laws living room I got a different idea about it. I think that the "Coffee Bean" color looks great!

72-hour kit

Jack & I..well, mostly Jack...has been trying to get our 72 hour kits in order. I decided my contribution could be homemade firestarters. I have been wanting to make these for a long time. They are super easy & cheap to make. All it takes is cardboard egg carton (I used the carton from my Costco eggs...you get three w/ each bulk package), dryer lint, and candle wax. It cost me less then $6 to make about 50 of these big ones that are pictured. I also made mini firestarters from the part of the carton the sticks up. I tested out a mini one in the fireplace...it burned for about 5 minutes. I thought the mini ones would be great to put in a backpack for a hike. Here in Oregon we are forever hearing about people getting lost in the woods unprepared. Not the Blazer's....we would have fire!!!