Houston, Baby

So, We have been in Houston for nearly 3 months. At first, I just pretended we were in Hawaii, and that's why it was soo humid. Now I am just like one of those people that cannot Stand to be outside unless I am swimming. Houston is an incredibly ugly city, and you can break a sweat just crossing the street to the other apartment building, at NIGHT.

However, I do like Houston for these reasons:
1-I now go to the gym frequently to run, and have a nicely toned stomach (something I've always wanted)
2-I have been able to read tons of classic novels, and some other books as well, (that are more embarrassing).
3-I have time to teach myself stuff, like cooking, crosswords and doing the splits.
4-Jake and I now get to hang out with a bunch of really cool married peeps.

This is Natalli's 20th birthday party (90's themed) with us, the Coopers, and the Ellsworths. We are all trying to Slow Dance, 90's style.

This is us and our favorite upstairs neighbors, the Duffys. Tyler and Jake always try to distract Melissa and I so they can sneak off and play Call of Duty.

5- I think I'm finally getting a grip on what I want when I "grow up" (a cat lady, ok, jk)
6-Last but not least, it's been a cool experience for me and Jake, we are closer than ever. We don't get to spend a whole lot of time together, but we make the most of it. And we are into lots of good habits. Like going to the temple every week with the Ellsworths and such.

We are very excited to come home though. I think Natalli is going to suck me into sewing.. I need to get away from her ;)

I Got It From My Momma

Pretty much every favorable attribute I have is due to this woman right here. As I've grown older, I start realizing more and more how I've seriously under appreciated the woman I grew up with. I've always loved her and thought she was admirable, but I never appreciated her half as much as she deserved. I really hope that when I grow old and weary I can look back on my life and feel like I'd become at least half of what my mom taught me to be. Maybe it's because I am married now that I am starting to notice all sorts of things I overlooked? I don't know. She is really something amazing. The woman ironed my sheets even, not to mention every shirt that I ever wore. Here are just a very few reasons that I love my mom:

-She is incredibly faithful. My mom is always praying about things, and if she gets a prompting to do something, even if it seems impossible or impractical, she will immediately do it and no one can shake her from it.

-She leads by example. My mom taught me and my four brothers many things, but to me, words are nothing without works, and my mom has never struck me, even in my most rebellious moments, as a hypocrite.

-She is classy. I thought a lot of women were like my mom, but they are not. She is not crass, or unkempt, or degrading. Quite the opposite in fact. She is also not a gossip. If I ever were to say something less than nice about someone I assumed couldn't be her favorite either, she would usually respond to my comment by saying something nice about that person or trying to subtley get me to see the bigger picture. She was always showing me how to have morals and character.

-She makes things happen. My mom is the one to go to if you have an ambition or a need. "Mom I need new contacts!" voila there they are in my room. "Debbie, I can't spend much, but we'd love to go on a cruise" voila, four families worth of flights, bookings, and excursions found for nearly half the regular price.

-She is always thinking about other people. My mom has her own problems, but you'd be hard pressed to find out what any of them are. She is just not a complainer. She wants to know about you, she wants to help you. and she is always positive. When I was younger I disliked this, I wanted to know more about her, but she was always asking about me. Now I can see that it was just another way she tried to show me how important I was to her. Though I do wish she'd spend more time on herself.

-She is an AMAZING cook, and it's not just that the food is good.. It's just awesome that she always tried so hard to get our family together for good food and a good time.

-She is amazingly creative.. she does not hide her talents under a bushel basket.

-She gives great back scratches

-and she loves me, which is nice because I am a weirdo.

.

Here is my favorite memory of my momma:

I was a Laurel, and it was my very last girls camp. My mom volunteered to come with. There was a lady in our ward who volunteered as well whose name escapes me but she was older, her kids were grown she was starting to stoop a little. The lady brought all these supplies to give the girls pedicures. Now.. our ward had a Lot of girls. This little old lady washed, massaged, and cleaned up foot after foot. At least a dozen girls came to her, including myself. You could see the strain it was for this woman, but only by looking carefully at her hands, which slightly trembled, she acted excited to see how many of us wanted a pedicure. All the other young women leaders sat in a semi circle around the old woman and chattered amounst themselves. When my mom came out from where she was helping prepare our dinner, and saw this old woman sitting on the ground, who was determined to give as good of a pedicure to the 14th girl as she had the 1st, my mom looked overcome. With tears in her eyes, she took that old ladies cracked, trembling hands, helped her to her feet and sat her in a chair, and shooed away the awaiting girls. Then my mom knelt and took off the woman's shoes, and tenderly washed, massaged, and cleaned up her feet. Her old, wrinkly feet. And I remember that vividly. I was in a superhero outfit, having a good ol' time making tie-dye T-shirts and trying to be really fun for all the younger girls that I had been told numerous times looked up to me.. but there was my mom, and at that moment I knew just how blessed I was that that was the woman Heavenly Father gave me to look up to. She is my super hero, and I bet she doesn't even remember that.

Leaving Time

Soo.. Jake and I are going on a grand adventure. To Texas. Actually.. I am posting this late so really.. we are already here. But lets just pretend for a minute that I was more prompt.

Now, if you know my family at all, you will know that I have all brothers. The youngest of which just loves, loves, loves me. His name is Jacob. Jacob and I share the same birthday, so therefore, we are really close. Jacob wanted to do something really fun before Jake and I left for 4 months (an eternity to an 11yr old kid). So we to Boondocks to play games and go laser tagging. My dad challenged us all to racing games. I never won. I never came close to winning. I don't even know what Jake was doing the whole time. I was like a kid in a candy shop. My mom and I ran off in search of the Deal or no Deal game. My mom and dad would always watch that and get really into it, but they never agreed so it was always really funny. So I watched my mom play. She picked the MILLION DOLLAR case, but she didn't know it til the end. I would have chickened out two offers previous. We got soo many tickets.Excited, I went directly to the ticket counter and looked for things Jacob might like (the rest of us are too old). Turns out we didn't get as many tickets as we thought. So we went and laser tagged. My other brothers loved that, and so did Jake. I definitely didn't win that either, but, I definitely killed my mom like- a thousand times. I'm glad Brandon and Danielle didn't come, I would have creamed them too ;) Tyler won.. no big surprise there.. what a nerd.

When we came out of our kill session, we noticed this guy with a golden cane with a snake's head on top (yes, in Draper UT) and his weird um.. girlfriend. Pretty sure it was just them and us that were even there. The weird lady ended up winning HUNDREDS of tickets. Like over a thousand. We all openly stared, of course. Then, she spied Jacob, and said "there's a kid" (he was definitely the only one even close to being a kid there) and gave him all of it, and then was out of there faster than you would believe.

I wish I would have had my actual camera, instead of my phone. But.. This will do. It was a fun last night with my fam. I miss all of them mucho mucho.

With Jake's side we bowling with Jake's mom and Don. It was a blast. Jake bowled pretty amazing.. like really. But then we had to leave. To Texas. It's unbelievably exotic here. You should all be jealous.

Jake sorta has a fetish for Disneyland.. is that weird?

So.. Valentines was nearing, and we wanted to do something really amazing, but- alas. We had no ideas. Then, on friday morning, Hailey Roper mentioned wanting to go to San Diego that day but not having a car to take... Jake just bought me a Subaru (yes I love them trees) and so we had a great idea. Just do it. So we just did. I spent Valentines Day shooting laser guns and stalking Pluto. It was soo much fun. A very unconventional V-day, but spontaneous and surprising, which I very much appreciated :) I think Jake loved it as well, anything that would excite a 13 year old boy excites my bay bay, haha.

We also spend a day wandering around San Diego, which is such an amazing place. Near this picture however, was a whole lot of pee. Why some man would pee atop a building really makes for some interesting explainations by others.

Also, we went to Coronda? Coronaba? Coriando? Island. And I saw some really awesome architecture (which is a secret pleasure of mine). But, I did not see Shamu. I wanted to so badly. Jake says Shamu eats people though, which put a damper on my chances.

Also, we love Jordan and Hailey. Much, much, much. No one else would have randomly driven to San Diego with only hours notice.

Eaty a little Treaty

So I'm not a very good blogger, but Halloween this year was good. I glued a beard on my face and Jake finally let me put make up on his face. (I ask him if I can all the time). We went as Bret and Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords.

We had to go to Wal-mart and everyone thought I was a man, until Jake and I held hands and then we got stares. Apparently our costumes were so good some people didn't recognize us at first. It's amazing what a beard and a wig can do. I think I'll go rob someone ;)

Jake Made Me Lunch..

Yes. That is Top Ramen, a Vlasic "zesty" pickle, and barbecue flavored chips. Jake asked if I was hungry during the morning session of conference at Jenny's today, and then ran off and concocted this. I laughed so hard I nearly cried.. the mix of aromas was a complete sensory overload.Seeing as I could hardly eat all this on my own, and the combination of flavors was quite overwhelming, I shared this delicious meal with Eva.. or as I like to call her: Creature.

Creature has four puppies right now, however, I am Not allowed to go anywhere near them unless I have something quite tasty. I like to think Jake's meal also fed Creature's babies. I will post pictures of them once they look more like puppies and less like bears.

This is Jake teaching Eva (named after Hitler's wife) to dance when he sings the Milkshake song. She didn't think it was very funny.. what a shame.

Jake kept Oliver from also getting fed, they have this weird love-hate relationship that I don't really understand.

In case you are wondering, none of these dogs are ours, we just co-habitate.

Brandon and Danielle

As you might have known, my brother is now married :) His long time girlfriend Danielle Yerman is now my sister and we Love her. I need to get a picture on here of my parents' bridals. My dad has the nastiest stashe ever! So, naturally I brought fake mustaches to the party. A grey one for Papi, and a nasty hairy one for Brandon. Zach got the Hitler stashe and pulled it off eerily well :)

This the funnest wedding I have ever been to (besides mine) and also I was able to see my dad finally, after 20 years of myth, unleash his moves on the dance floor. He is a regular John Travolta. I was stunned. Also my brother cried. That was life changing. I loved it.

Just something I wanted to point out: My hubby looks like he could be my brother.. creepy. My brothers also won't refer to him as an in-law because he is "just one of us". I think they would trade me for him sometimes. I wish I was kidding.