The Power of The Big O

I'm talking about Oprah......what were you thinking??? So on Oprah's show the other day she had a recipe for turkey burgers. I thought it looked pretty tasty and we should try them. So I sent Brent to the store to get groceries with the recipe in hand. One of the ingredients was Major Grey's Chutney, Well this is what Brent came home with.


A picture of two different kinds of Chutney in FULL stock. The kind that Oprah talked about on her show, completely sold out! That is the power of Oprah! I just thought it was funny. And that it was a pretty funny pic! I guess I'll have to wait to try the wonderful sounding turkey burger!

Summer Has Arrived!

So summer has officially arrived and in full furry. I've been enjoying the fact that we hadn't hit 100 yet and it's the middle of May. Just last week we had a high in the 80's! Well Mother nature decided to play catch up. We just had our first day of 100 followed by the first day of 110 the next day!! Two days in a row! That is the first time that has ever happened! But I think Mother Nature felt bad because we are forcasted to see a high of only 79 this weekend. Ok I know I'm boring and talking about the weather but seriously this is some strange stuff!

Very funny!

On Monday I came home from work. Terina was at a client's house so it was just me and the dogs, I thought. I came in and said hello to them and watched some tv. It was a hot day so I just stripped down to just my socks. I went up stairs to put on some shorts and walked into my bedroom. Sitting at the computer was my sister-in-law!!!! Now, the computer in our room faces the door and here I was totally naked. As soon as I walked in the room and realized someone was there, I was a little shocked and didn't know what to do. I stood there frozen for a second then covered up the goods and walked out of the room. "What are you doing here?" "This is kind of embarrassing", "You just saw me totally naked!" Apparently she had come over earlier in the day to work on her resume and Terina had forgotten to let me know she was there so I had no idea! It was so hilarious! Terina and I are still laughing about it and it's been a week!

The Lord Loves Me

So on Thurs. I was having a hard time with something. I was focusing on what I don't have rather then my MANY blessings! I was just about to have a pity party for myself, by myself when a friend called me. How tender is the Lord that he would bless me in such a silly thing. This was not important. Yet the Lord was aware of me and caring for me! How wonderful it is to have a loving Heavenly Father who is aware of me and watching out for me. And thank you to Kristen for being an answer to an unspoken prayer for a kind and listening ear.

Congratulations Crystal on Graduating!!!

We are so proud of Crystal! She Graduated from Nothern Arizona University this Fri. with a Bachlors in Elementry Education and a minor in Spanish!! We are so proud of the way she has press forward and accived her dream. She fully supported herself through school! Now she just has the exciting task of finding a teaching job! It was fun to see the fam again, even though it had only been a couple of days!!

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Cali Day One

We left Friday morning for CA and drove through the desert! It's such a long boring ugly drive! Ha ha good thing Brent and I have a good time on road trips! I think the only exciting part of the drive is the windmills. Those are pretty cool. We got to LA easily. The timing of our drive was good. We left about 9 ish so we missed the rush hour traffic in Phoenix and we got to LA about 3 ish, meaning we missed most of rush hour there! It was fabulous! We got to our friend Amanda's place and unpacked got settled in a little. She is running in a marathon later this year for AIDS research and was having a party to do some fundraising. (She is an amazing woman and I'm trying to support her in her fundraising, if anyone can donate even a dollar it will help! The link to her is
http://www.aidsmarathon.com/participant.asp?runner=LA-1188&Year=2007&EventCode=SF08
I know she would really appreciate it! Ok end of plug!) It was on Sunset in this really cute boutique! She had a DJ there and everything! She had to be there early to set up and Brent and I didn't want to drive because there was only street parking and street parking on Sunset, Friday night, no thank you. So we road over with her and Azam (her boyfriend) and let them set up and we went out to dinner. We went to Bosa Nova, which is a great Brazilian restaurant. If you are ever in LA you have to go! Such yummy food! Then we went and enjoyed the part for a bit. Azam saw Gary Coleman go into the restaurants next to the boutique. So we thought we saw him when we waked past to Bosa Nova. But on the way back we got a better look and it wasn't him in the window. Which really who would expect a celebrity to be seated in the window of a restaurant on Sunset?!?! But it was still fun to know he was in the building next to us. The party was fun and it was interesting to see all the fun LA out fits. Ha ha. Lets just say short short short! I realized as trendy as I may think I am, LA is still a league of it's own! Brent and I walked back to Amanda's apt. (yes she lives that close! Lucky girl!) It was so nice to take a stroll home together at night! Although as is typical for LA even a nice stroll home is entertaining! We were stopped by a guy who introduced himself and told us he's and R&B singer song writer. HE asked us if we wanted one of his cd's. Sure why not we said. We get it in our hands and then he tells us that will be $10 ha ha ha. So whatever we gave him 10 bucks. Then a little bit further down the road some guy stops us to ask if we have any change for a bus ticket so he wouldn't have to ride his bike any further. We honestly did not. But then instead of jumping on his bike and riding on he started telling us this story about how he was hit by a car while he was on his bike and they didn't even stop. But he was hoping to get some money from it. It was funny, and I just kept thinking, I'm sorry dude we honestly don't have any change, and a big long story is not going to magically make change appear in our pockets! Although I did feel bad for the guy, and all he wanted was money for a bus ticket. And LA has quite a few homeless people. It is always sad to see people curled up on the steps of businesses, trying to get some sleep for the night. We passed this cool tree, it was cut like a backward L. You'll have to see the pic it was pretty funny!

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Cali Day Two

The next day we got ups and drove to my families hotel. Not really knowing LA they ended up with a hotel WAY far away! I just laughed as I looked out the window on the way there and realized, they're not even in the city any more! There was wide open fields and grass! We picked up my Grammy to spend the day with us. We took her to he Getty Center. It's an awesome art museum. Just the architecture of the building is worth going there to see. The best part is the admission is free! You only have to pay for parking! We apparently had great timing of when we went! They have a garden and it was spring, need I say more? BEAUTIFUL!!! We took a garden tour and loved it! There were so many different kinds of flowers, unbelievable! I took so many pictures we had to go buy another memory card for our camera. When I was younger we used to call my Great Grandma and my Grandma Granny Flash because they both took so many pictures. Well I told Grammy, I think I got the Granny Flash gene!! The old lady who directed the tour was so funny. She told us we could all call her the old hag! She was hilarious! Oh and the best part was when she decided to give us a topless tour! She had on a sweater that buttoned down the front and the buttons came undone! I was trying to discretely gesture like I was buttoning my shirt but she didn't notice. So when she directed everyone's attention to something where we all had to turn to look I quickly went up to her and pointed and showed her. Great plan right, no one would have know......except, for the tour we all had head sets, and she was miked so we could hear her. So when I pointed she loudly goes, OH! OH MY! Well let me just fix that. So every one quickly turned to see what the fuss was about, and anyone who hadn't noticed, saw. Poor lady! Some one else in the group said to her, you'll just fit in with all the Cali girls. She just laughed and told her, there is such a thing as dignity, which apparently I do not have! HA HA Besides the garden tour there was a great photograph exhibit there. I loved it! I love photography. I have dreams of becoming a fabulous photographic artist! There was also some other sections I really liked. It was so fun! I love spending a lazy afternoon at an art museum. The weather was perfect too! Nice and sunny, light breeze, you couldn't ask for better weather! Oh and did I mention the view from the Getty is AMAZING! It's up on a hill so the view is phenomenal! After we were all tired from the Getty we drove back to Amanda's and just chilled. That is after we got lunch at the Oki Dog. The most disgusting hot dog I've ever heard of. Brent on the other hand loved it! It is two or three hot dogs, chili, bacon, cheese, wrapped in a tortilla. Makes me sick! If you Google it you can see pics, they are nasty! And I can only imagine how many calories are in them! WOW! Any way enough about that! So we napped and rested till dinner time and then we went and met up with my family. We went to Applebee's and had a great time at dinner!

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Cali Day Three

The next day was Sunday. We slept in a bit then got up and got ready for church. Then we went to church with Amanda. Sad to admit but it was the first time I'd been to a church other then my own. It was a great experance! It was a rock band church (not like the game silly). There was a rock band playing music when we got there. Then the preacher gave his sermon, which I greatly enjoied. It was on the Be Attitudes. The spontainous praying did throw me off a bit. He's just say let us pray and then we were praying! But it was great I'm gald we went! And it was fun! After that we went to Trinity which is the spa Amanda and I are trying to model ours after. I'm glad I got to see it! After that we went back to Amanda's and packed up drove down to Santa Monica. Brent checked into our hotel and I went to the wedding rehersal. That took no time at all! Very quick. After the rehersal we went to have dinner with everyone in the wedding party. We went to the 3rd St. promanade, a fun little place. We had lunch, plaied some pool hung out for a bit. Then the guys left and us girls went and got our nails done. Good times! I found out it was the first time my Mom had had a manicure or pedicure!! I dont know how you can make it to 46 years old and never have had either but she had! I'm glad she finally got pampered a little! I had to get acrilics because my nails were so short. I'd even been growing them out! Hazard of my profession I guess. After that Brent and I had to go get a new memory card, remember I'd filled it up at the Getty. Then we crashed! Long days required an early night of sleep. And boy did we enjoy our sleep! It was nice to be able to sleep in. At Amanda's the sun came in and I couldn't really sleep in at all. I love hotel curtains! They keep it so dark!!!

Travis and Stef's Wedding!

Ok so the last day of our vacation was Travis and Stef's wedding. It was perfect. In the morning all the girls got our hair and make up done. That was so fun! It's amazing what a professional can do. Everyone looked amazing! I've never seen my mom look so pretty! The resort where they had the wedding was spectacular! They had a cocktail hour before the ceremony. The actual ceremony was on a deck overlooking the beach at sun set! It was breath taking! Stef's brother became an ordained minister to perform the ceremony. When he first started I was a little worried it was going to be all about Stef but he did a wonderful job! It was funny and touching, we laughed and cried! There was also funny vows to "I will buy you junk food at odd hours of the night. I will watch old black & white movies with you whenever you ask." ... and... "I will close the cupboard doors when you leave them open. I will pick up your dirty clothes when you leave them on the floor." It was hilarious! I don't think Stef was too happy about some of them! But I thought it was a great way of saying, I'll be there for you even in the stupid things, even in the things I might not pick to do on my own. But because it's with you and for you, I vow to do it! It was great. It was super cold and it was windy. Us girls were all just shivering! Then the reception was so nice! The room was just beautiful! Dinner was delicious! Although there wasn't a formal time to dance Brent and I and a few other couples decided to take advantage of the live band and enjoy a moment together. It was beautiful! The whole wedding was like a story book wedding! And we are so happy to formally have Stef as a member of the family now! After the wedding they headed to Australia for there honeymoon. Lucky kids! I hear they had a great time! One other funny thing, Ethan discovered virgin drinks. I think he tried every drink there. Every time I saw him he had another drink in his hand! Silly boy! After the wedding they were giving away some of the flower from the wedding so even though we had a 6 hr drive home I thought I'd try and take some home. I'm glad I did. They made it! We just put them in the trunk and crossed our fingers. I again have to give props to my wonderful husband who carried the flowers from there hotel to our hotel, they weighed like 40 lbs. Not exaggerating! He is amazing! The drive back home was highly uneventfully, which is good. I mostly just watched The Office. Then Amanda and I watch No Reservations. It was a cute movie. Yes my business partner/friend Amanda came home with us then the next three days were spent on non stop business planning. We are getting serious about opening our spa! So expect up dates on that! If you want to see picks from the wedding or the rest of our vacation just click on the ***Our Online Photo Album*** link to the right (at the top of our friends list).

I Have The Best Husband EVER!!!

So April was a pretty crazy month. I was pretty stressed out over a lot of different things. Well one day that wasn't really any more stressful then the rest Brent reminded me once again why I'm so in love with him! I called him after working on some clients to tell him, lets just go out to dinner. I don't want to cook or think about dishes if you cook. You know those days. He said ok see ya when you get home. Well I walk in the door and Brent had flowers on the table for me and Olive Garden on the table. Keep in mind it only took me 10 min to get home, so he had done all this before even talking to me! I asked him when he though all this up and he said, well I was thinking about it this morning and you really have been going through a lot this month! I thought this might help! It did! He's amazing! I repeat, I have the best husband EVER!!!

Mother Daughter Date

Ok I know you're probably thinking what? She's not a Mother. I know but I got to fill in for a mom and it was so fun! I went to activity day with my cousin Shawna. It was a Mother Daughter dinner and my Aunt was unable to make it. We had dinner and the girls shared some things they had made for there Mom's. We played a memory game, and just had a good time. I had a good time going to Activity Day. It really made me think, the Lord is so smart! Here we are in a world where peer pressure is starting younger and younger. And girls have more pressure on them at a younger age, then I even and it hasn't been that long ago I was a little girl. But as the world changes the Lord provides us with additional help. At the age of 7 girls every other week can go to activity days and be around inspiring women and other girls with the same standards as them. Makes me feel better about having a daughter some day! The Lord sure does love us!


I dont know why I didn't get a pic with the two of us but here is Shawna and her friend! So beautiful!

Good as New

I finally have my car back and it is good as new! It looks so great! I didn't realized what a big difference the bumper made! While my car was being fixed quickly Brent met up with me and we went and hung out in downtown Mesa. We went to Milano's Music store. It was fun to dream of having a room in our home devoted to music some day. There are so many beautiful instruments! I was going to take Brent to this place a friend had introduce me to the other day called Sweet Cakes, but it was already closed. :( They have great cookies! So we went to Blimpie's and got mediocre cookies instead, and I got a pickle, I thought would be a good afternoon snack. Don't worry I'm not pregnant! It was a good pickle! It had been ages since I'd had a big huge pickle! It was fun to just walk around the old downtown.