Happy Holidays!!!... Happy Holidays!!!... Happy Holidays to you!!!!

Yes my friends, I am quoting the ever so popular "Happy Holidays to you"...
It's official, I'm in a chipper holiday mood! Call me crazy, but I am super excited for this coming Holiday Season. Everyone is broke, (story of my life these days) so I've turned the so called "light on" in my brain and come up with some extremely cute, extremely easy, and most importantly EXTREMELY CHEAP ways to gift give. Yep, with a little ingenuity, you can create marvelous things! :) I can't really share what they are, 'cause some of you might just be on the receiving end of my craftiness. (Just forget I mentioned it didn't cost much). This morning kicked off the season with some crowd pushin', present stealin, swift move of the hand BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPIN. Thanks to the kind man that I will be marrying soon, I was able to do just a "little" shopping, and I mean little, and get exactly what I needed. Plus, simply stated, I just got to go shopping! How could anyone be less then happy when they get to shop! I must say, we were lined up at Target at 5:45 (yes I gave him a 5:15 wake up call to be ready) and we braved the crowded "Tarjet" and then headed off to the mall for some PRE-WEDDING gifts for ourselves. :) (I.E. the most awesome goose down mattress pad thingymabobber). Then we headed "home" (my house) for some good 'ole movie watchin... it kind of turned in to a marathon/napathon! Must have been all that delicious food from yesterday! (We spent the day between both sides of the family and it turned out to be such a wonderful day)!
So with the words from the a fore mentioned Christmas tune (by Andy Williams), I sign off!! Happy Holidays, Happy Holidays, while the merry bells keep ringin', Happy Holidays to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our Internet Children...

Apparently the new thing to do for couples without children yet, is to create their own baby via some website... I have had several friends try it out and then tell me we should do it even though we still aren't married yet... We did, and here are two of the outcomes of our cyberspace created babies... Hope they don't turn out as funny lookin' in real life!!!

Lazy Days...

So I must apologize in advance for the negativity of this post. Today I am not posting to let you all in on the happy things going on, I'm actually just writing to write, to vent, to blow off steam, however you would like to define the following words...
Today is the second day of my week off of work (it actually started Friday). Most people would probably be more then beside themselves for a week off from work. I on the other hand am not. I am rather annoyed to be quite honest, I don't know what to do with myself. This was supposed to be my week to do my Christmas shopping and enjoy my time off by getting pampered. Instead, I'm sitting home, alone might I add, trying to come up with ways to entertain my self. The reason being, a VERY LARGE bill came in at the end of last week thanks to my lovely brother and his lack of ability to pay his own darn bills. Yes, once again, as previously stated when I was bothered about the cell phone thing, nice guys finish last! :( arrrrrr!
So I've already done the cleaning I had planned to do for the week (i.e. cleaning house, sorting, doing, and organizing laundry, cleaning the car, washing the dogs, etc...) now I've resorted to laying in bed at 5:00 in the evening playing around on the computer. Such is the life of a woman with no money and no work for a week! Don't you all wish you were as lucky as me?! :)
I promise with all my heart, my next several posts will be more uplifting. I have to make up for the two "downer"ones in a two week period!

I L...O...V...E... flowers!

I love flowers. What girl doesn't? They make me happy. Simple as that. I love to look, touch, and once upon a time when I could smell... smell them. :) My passion is to create what I like to call "masterpieces" with flowers. If I could do anything in the world right now, I would own a quaint little floral shop with lots and lots of smell good flowers! In the mean time, I have to stick to making arrangements of bouquets and center pieces for friends and family as they get married or bring babies in to the world...
Since I am still without entertainment in my house, I was scrolling through old pictures of flowers and the following is what I have come up with as far as my own arrangements. (Just FYI, there are a few pictures that look very similar to ones you might have seen on florists websites, I promise they are my own creations and i'm not trying to steal their pictures. They're just good replicas!) :)
(oh and thanks to all my girlfriends who passed on the pics of their bouquets for me)!

Not so "Temporarily Disconnected"

Here I sit on front of my computer, for the time being, my only form of communication, not so Temporarily Disconnected. Living at home is great when you are under the age of 18, or have not previously lived on your own for several months or years. The last thing I ever thought I would be doing at the age of 22 was living under my mothers roof succombing to her rules. Now you must know, I love my mom, she is a great mom, but at times she lives in another dimension, one far from this one.
She has decided no Tv for the time being. That is actually fine with me, I'm really not a big television watcher any way, I'd rather read books, or be outside, anything but home in front of the tv. Ironically, today, the only thing I'd like to be doing is sitting on my butt in front of the tv lost in tvland.
Sadly, that is not my luck of the draw. Instead, I find myself home alone, with only the dogs as my companions.. dinner made, staring at the wall wondering when someone, my mom or Frank, might be home to partake of this wonderful meal I have prepared. "Why, you might ask, don't I just pick up the phone and call them" well, if we had a home phone, or better even then that, if my cell phone, that I pay for each month was working, I could do just that!
But that is not the reality I face. Instead, I, the nice guy, the one wanting to the Christlike like thing and help family out in time of need have been given the "ROYAL SHAFT" from my own flesh and blood. When I say Royal, I mean ROYALLY SCREWED!!!! (please accept my apologies for the language but understand that is necessary, very necessary, for the predicament I am currently in).
So each month I make a phone call to my brother. Me: " You need to pay your bill or they are going to shut the phones off." My Brother: "Yeah Yeah whatever, I'll take care of it" shortly after that phone call, the phone provider: "You MUST make a payment by midnight tonight or youre phone will be temporarily disconnected"...
Me: "ok." (discouragement in my voice) next phone call: ring ring ring ring "I'm sorry youre phone has been temporarily disconnected" GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Noises of frustration.
A day or so passes and the phones magically turn back on!
Today, there will be no magical turning on of phones... Instead, there is a rather large decision to be made on my behalf. Do I use my hard earned money, the money which has been set aside to pay for my wedding to pay the several, and I mean several hundred dollars in fees thanks to my brother and his wife, or do I hope and pray they will pay their part before the debt is turned over to a collection agency which then will reflect in a VERY negative way on my credit?
Either way I look at it, I'm the loser. I lose out on reserving the location I have looked long and hard for to have my special day, or do I basically give the phone company free access to turn my account over and mess up my credit? What would you do? Any thoughts would be much appreciated because at the moment, I am facing the harsh reality that I am not so Temporarily Disconnected, and left in an EXTREMELY LARGE PREDICAMENT!
Why is it "Nice guys always finish last" :(

The Santa Rosa Plateau and Our Sacred Grove....

Me... Relief Society President? You're Joking Right?

Yep, that about sums up my reaction. Just over a month ago, I was called as the Murrieta Springs Branch Relief Society President. I told the new Branch President he was crazy for two VERY GOOD REASONS... A.) I'm getting married in 6 months(it was six months then) and B.) I DON'T LIKE RELIEF SOCIETY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That just goes to show you when you have a rather strong dislike for something with regard to the Gospel or the Church, Heavenly Father finds a way to first slap you across the face in a rather large way, and then humble you so far as to make you drop to your knees and beg for mercy! :) Well, I don't know about the begging, but in my case, it was pretty close. The former Relief Society President was PHENOMENAL! She is one the most kind and caring women I have ever met. She is non judgemental, meek, patient, long suffering, and a million other things that I could only hope to become in this life. All I kept thinking was why on earth would I be called to serve as her successor?
Yesterday, during Fast and Testimony meeting, I think my answer came. You see, just a few days after I was called as the new President, our wonderful Stake President called me up out of the blue and guilt ed me in to speaking in Stake Conference. ( I can say that because he is a very good friend )anyway, he asked me to speak on a Chapter in the book of Matthew in the New Testament referring to "Seek ye first to build up the Kingdom of God, then all things shall be added unto you." That is paraphrasing of course, but there I stood in front of 3,000 plus members of the church proclaiming to know what it's like to seek first the Kingdom of God and having all things added unto me. Realizing now that I hadn't a clue what that meant I felt prompted to stand from that same pulpit once more and shed some different light on the subject.
Any of you who have served in this calling, or even in the Presidency itself, can fully relate. I'm certain of it. When you are set apart as the Lord's steward of the women in your ward, there immediately follows this added measure of gifts and talents that seem to appear from no where. There comes this flood of compassion and desire to do what is good and right to support and sustain your fellow sisters in Christ. There comes this added burden of cares which strangely enough is not a burden at all, rather a feeling of trust from our Father in Heaven to see fit that these wonderful women are continuing to grow and progress and become the Divine Women that they promised our Father in Heaven they would become while in mortality.
As I stood at the Pulpit yesterday looking around the chapel at different faces, more often then not Franks, I realized that the things that I would have added unto me weren't the things that I was seeking after, and certainly not of this world, they were things of a much more glorious nature. They were and are and will be every necessary thing from talents to thoughts to carry me safely home in to the arms of my loving Father in Heaven and to hear Him say in me He is well pleased. AS I woke this morning, I reflected briefly on that feeling, but more so now as I sit here in silence... I am beginning to realize the weight of my calling... by no means do I feel overwhelmed, but I do feel a sense of urgency to impress upon, especially the younger sisters in the Branch, the importance of learning and then living the Gospel Standards. Especially as we are being faced with more and more opposition to what we believe to be correct and true. I realized that the importance of our meetings just stay there in the Relief Society rooms, but that they should and must carry over in to the days and sometimes even weeks between Church meetings. The strength of the sisterhood of the Relief Society begins with the President and her Presidency and that is something I am striving to accomplish while serving in this capacity. I also taught the lesson in Relief Society yesterday and as I was standing there speaking I felt the need to focus on the fact that we each have HOLY PLACES, places where HEAVEN and EARTH come together, and it is those places that the most valuable lessons are taught and it is the Relief Society room in which I preside that I hope to bring Heaven and Earth together for the growth that is necessary for each women to solidify her testimony in the gospel of Jesus Christ and in the understanding that she is of great worth, her nature is divine, her beauty and grace is found in her virtue, and that she is of the Nobelist of birthrights. She is not only a Child of God, but a Daughter of God. What a powerful thing to come to know.
How truly grateful I am for the Lord trusting me enough to be an example to the women of my branch and how I lucky I am that my Branch President wasn't joking when extending this assignment because the amount of growth which has taken place already is insurmountable, I can only imagine what is coming throughout the rest of my time serving.

I LOVE LUCY!!!

The basic Pumpkin... the outcome of all the searching. How Lame!

Halloween Extravaganzas!

So, until recently, Halloween has been my least favorite Holiday...ish day. I have just never been in support of the creepy bloody disgusting costumes. I know there are some cuter ones out there. I have just never seem to have been in the same place with those costumes. This year Frank's love for Halloween seems to have begun to rub off one me. The last two weeks all I have thought about is how I'm going to carve my pumpkin ( I have spent many a day browsing Martha Stewart's web site) as well as pondering just how well Frank and I would be able to pull off Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.
The kick-off for the Halloween festivities for us began with a trip to Fallbrook to the COOLEST PUMPKIN PATCH EVER!!! This guy had his own private pumpkin shrine with over 150 different pumpkins he had grown in his yard and had given them all these awesome names to suit their personalities. They were so cool, and the patch was so cool. We found four awesome pumpkins, a giant white one, two cool green and orange exotic ones, and a fantastic baby one. We took great pictures that captured the essence of the Fall Season and the best pictures Frank and I had ever taken , only to loose the camera sometime after the Pumpkin Patch and arriving at the Temple. Nice, I know. GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! :(
Then, the following weekend, our young adult ward was going to attend the AHHHHHHH oooooohhhhhhh SCARY Haunted Trail of Terror in San Diego at Balboa Park. Frank and I are TERRIBLE at supporting the branch activities so we decided to change it up and attend, especially since Frank is now on the Activities Committee and I am the Relief Society President in our Branch. You could say we kind of felt obligated. It was fine though because we had a blast.
Later on in the week, more like midweek, we found ourselves scrounging around trying to find the time to carve those precious pumpkins... or so I thought. AS I was getting ready to mention that we were carving that night, Frank informed me that we needed to go to the store to purchase two more pumpkins so we could carve them. What!!?? More pumpkins? We
just bought four! But oh, no!! Those were too perfect to carve, we had to go get the crappy ones to carve. That was fun, Frank is intense. He LOVES, LOVES, LOVES, to carve pumpkins! (the longest two hours of my life!) :)
Then actual HAlloween arrived and we were ready to get primped and pretty for the night. We hurried up and got dressed in our RIcky and Lucy getup ( I was so worried about how we'd look). It turned out PERRRRRFECTO!! We were even the right ethnicity (well I think. Maybe Ricky was cuban... atleast we got the latin american and white down) The only thing I was having a hard time with was the nasty fifties style bangs horrific bright red lipstick and the poodle hair. I looked like my dog who is a poodle for crying out loud. It really looked great though and we had a blast so I guess that is all that matters. We had dinner with the Pulsiphers and the kids as well as some of their friends, then we headed down to San Diego for the night for a cruise around San Diego harbor on a horn blower cruise. We were exhausted by the end of the night becaue didn't get home until just before dawn, but we had a great time and now were looking forward to the Holidays coming and the cooler weather... if it ever comes!