Promotion!

I am slowly picking away at the things about which I need to blog. (or in American-ese “I am slowly picking away at the things I need to blog about.”)

Side note: As a teenager, my mother drilled into me the “never end a sentence with a preposition” rule – both when speaking and writing. There are several of these rules that I’ll never forget because of the constant reminders from mom. I know I sometimes get it wrong…(and sometimes I just don’t care), but the thought always crosses my mind.

I thought I would do a real quick blog to announce that I just got promoted at work. As of July, I will now be a Senior Accountant at Moss Adams instead of a Staff Accountant. For non-accounting people, a public accounting firm is made up of five levels (staff, senior, manager, senior manager, and partner). It feels good to be promoted and I look forward to taking on new challenges (that’s for the people from work who read this). On a more personal note…I also look forward to seeing what the raise will be.

PS – I just Googled “preposition” to see if I had any other slip ups in this post. I think there are a LOT more prepositions than I realized. For example, “Beyond”. Way to go Buzz Light Year…you have every little boy in America ending their sentences with prepositions. The shame of it.

Happy Anniversary

Note: I have posts concerning our recent vacation to Seattle...but that will have to be a different day...it's 1 am.

Karl and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this week. Well..."celebrated" is an overstatement. We didn't really do much. We are going out tomorrow though so that should make up for it. I can't believe it's been 8 years. I was looking through some old pictures and came across our engagement photos. Behold the glory below.

I think a picture like this deserves a moment of silence......... .......... . First of all, look how skinny we were. Karl looks like a baby to me. I always think he looks the same now as the day we got married but then you look at a picture and its like "oh, wait, we have gotten older." I was rocking a killer hairdo back then. I hadn't quite learned the meaning of "no midriff" yet. I mean, I was there in spirit, but I would all too soon learn that it had to be 100%. Also, I still have those shoes in my closet...perhaps I should get rid of those now. Thank goodness Karl doesn't still have those shoes in his closet. Leather man sandals are never a good idea. Anyway, that's when we got engaged.

Here is our wedding day...

Here is us now...(well, a few months ago before I got huge pregnant...I didn't want to burn your eyes out).

I feel very lucky to be married to such a wonderful man. He is an awesome husband and father. At this time in our life, I am especially grateful for all the home tasks he's willing to do (cleaning, cooking, meal planning, child rearing). That may sound menial, but most moms know what work it is and I can't express how grateful I am for all the little things he does. He treats our marriage as an equal partnership and we counsel together is almost everything. We both have different strengths and thus are able to help each other become better people. We got engaged after three months of dating and then got married four months later...yes, we were one of those BYU couples. I look back to the day we got married and think "there is soooo much I didn't know about you on that day." But I knew I was doing the right thing and had no doubts going into the temple with him. I feel so blessed for personal revelation. So here's to eight years. I'm sure in another 8 years I'll have learned a whole lot more about him (and probably myself as well).

First of Several

So I am doing an all night blog session...that's what I get for procrastinating. Now I have so many things to blog about I am going to be at this for hours. I will also be doing a few posts to break it up.

First off...I was able to get together with my college roomies. See pic from Freshman year at BYU below. We have cuter ones of us...but right now it's midnight and I can't find them. So, sorry gals, this is going to have to do. Oh - and we were really into 3 waving our hair back then. I'd guess at least one of us has our hair that way in the majority of our pictures.

Last time we were together was when the last of us got married, 3 years ago. So a few weeks ago, we all flew to the exciting travel destination of Los Alamos, NM. It actually wasn't bad, but we decided to go there since the one who is 8 months pregnant with twins lives there. There were lots of parks and since it's a little town, we got to hang out and do a lot of talking rather than feel pressure to see the sights. We all brought our kids so it was a little crazy, but still fun. Here is a pic of the clan (Me, Carson, Kaylee (2), Julia, Wyatt (1), Erica, Marguerite, Andrew (1)). Marguerite has another little boy that is 3 but he stayed home for this trip. Also, Julia has another daughter but she was at preschool.

Carson was a little frustrated at first because the kids his age were girls and the boys there were 1 year olds. But after a day or two, he realized that playing house can be fun too (although he would still ask me to play Star Wars with him every once in awhile). He also realized he could help with the babies. It was probably good practice for him. They kept grabbing his toys and it took him a little time to understand that they don't know how to share yet.

It was impossible to get all the kids in one picture. We tried several times. There was one time we had all the kids lined up and then Carson decided to be the stinker. He refused to get into the picture and then once it was over, he threw a fit that he didn't get his picture taken. Hence, a picture of the other children...and then Carson by himself.

We ate a bunch of good food (check out my friend's blog www.neighborjulia.blogspot.com, try the easy tamale griddle cakes...so delicious). We spent a night looking at freshman year pictures and reminiscing. Stayed up late talking and laughing. The kids had a dance party to a mix CD we made freshman year. Watched some Arrested Development. Etc. Etc.

There was one afternoon that we decided to let the kids play in the basement and we would try to play a card game. After a few rounds I decided to go check on the kids. As I was walking downstairs we could hear them outside. We all thought "How did they get out there?" I kept going downstairs and found the three oldest children (Carson (3), Emmy (4), and Kaylee (2)) having the time of their lives. I could hear the giggles all the way down the hall. They had pushed out the screen of a ground level window and were jumping on the bed and then jumping out the window, climbing back in, and doing it all over again. Carson didn't even realize they might be in trouble when I came around the corner. He saw me and exclaimed "Mom...I

pushed out the screen so we can do this!" While I was worried about the damage he had done to their screen, they were so happy it was almost hard to tell them it wasn't ok. Plus, we had never gone over the rule "no pushing out screens" so I didn't feel right doling out a punishment. Luckily, the screen went back in (after a little bending). I'll never forget the pure joy on their faces.

Carson also developed a bit of a crush on this trip. He took a liking to my friend Erica. It became clear he preferred her over boring old mom. He wanted Erica to read him books, he wanted to sit by Erica, and he gave her excessive amounts of hugs. I think this was his first little crush. Here is just a pic of Carson doing some awesome posing. He wanted his picture taken really bad.

Oh - and one friend took a pregnancy test while in NM and it was positive! I won't say who in case they haven't announced to all, but it was fun to share that moment. Two of us are already pregnant...so maybe it was one of us...but then that wouldn't really be exciting news.

And the life lesson from this trip...it is just sooo nice to have those friends that when you get together 3 years later, you just pick up where you left off. Those friends that know your personality so well (pros and cons) there is nothing to hide and you can just relax and have fun. I am so grateful to have made friends like these three special ladies. What a blessing to have three life long friends. Thanks for being my friends. Love you guys!

That's It!

We had a scorpion in our house last night. We moved here in 2005 and this is the first I've had to deal with INSIDE my house. It could have gone a lot worse, but here is one more reason I don't love Arizona. When will it end! Grrrrrr. If I see another one in the house, I'm outta here. (Obviously not for real...we have jobs and responsibilities to consider...but you know what I mean).

My Mother's Day was very nice (much better than last year when Karl got appendicitis). Karl let me sleep in (as much as possible since we still have church at 9 am.) Carson woke me up with a sweet bouquet of roses (I was actually awoken by him shoving them in my face, but still sweet). Then I spent the day doing whatever I wanted. Karl made a nice dinner and dessert. I had no responsibilities. It was very nice. In Primary, Carson wrote a letter about me. In it he says I'm 18 and also 18 feet tall (it's his favorite number). He says my favorite thing to do is play with him, that I love to cook him pasta, and that my favorite word is "love." He actually "read" the letter to me and it was so much better coming from his mouth. He got pretty close to the real thing as he was reciting it from memory. I love my sweet little boy so much I can't stand it sometimes. I just want to gobble him up...or have a perfect memory. It kills me to know that I'll forget half the cute things he does.

Back to Life

So now that my work "busy season" is over - it's time to get back to life (back to reality). I let myself go off grid for a bit and then there is the recoup time. I'm starting to feel normal again as far as my work schedule goes. Unfortunately, I am now in my last trimester and thus not sleeping very well at all and feeling uncomfortable almost all the time.

I can't quite remember everything that has gone on in our lives recently, so I'm just going off the pictures I have on my camera.

I tried my hand at canning for the first time. I think it actually went pretty well. The jam is a little sweet for my taste, but as that is my only complaint, I say it was a success. I imagined it going so much worse. Here's a pic of my stove during the process - jam and sanitation.

We did a trial camp out in Karl's parent's back yard Easter weekend. Our last few camping trips with Carson were not great, so we avoided it for awhile. The problem was that he would always refuse to go to bed and then wake up at 5 am. Then we had to deal with a cranky kid/cranky us all day. He went to bed ok this time. Unfortunately, I got uncomfy in the middle of the night and moved inside to a bed. Carson woke around 4:30 am and wanted me. So Karl brought him inside and he fell back asleep in the bed with me, but now we're not sure what time he would have woken up if outside. I think if I had been out there he would have gone back to sleep. We'll find out for real in a few months. We've got a camping trip planned at the end of June.

The rest of Easter was good. Carson enjoyed his Easter basket and dying Easter eggs. We got him his first tie too. He looked so handsome for church. See the pics below (his dad doesn't look too bad either). Karl's dad is in the last one as well.

Upcoming: We've got Carson all signed up for preschool. He is super excited to start and talks about it all the time. Hopefully he'll love it as much as he thinks he will.

FBI!

So Tuesday at work we had an extra exciting day. The company located in the office space right next to us got raided by the FBI!! The FBI busted in, questioned employees one by one in an empty office space, confiscated computers and documents, and looked totally awesome while they did it. I kept trying to find the Jack Bauer of the team. They were all wearing bullet proof vests with FBI on the back. We have to walk through the lobby (and past their office) to get to the bathrooms...I'm pretty sure everyone in our office went to the bathroom 15 times that day. The news showed up eventually and were taking pictures from the outside. After much Googling by the CPA's in our office (yes, we know it's busy season...sometimes we need a break too), we learned that they are an investment company and have had several complaints against them for taking peoples' money but then never investing it...and never returning it. Apparently they've been under investigation for awhile. So if any one out there is thinking of investing with Remington Financial Group...I'd think twice. Of course they are innocent till proven guilty, but I think I'd go with a firm that's not been raided by the FBI...just saying.

Anyway - most exciting thing I've witnessed this week. Anyone able to top an FBI raid?

Announcement!

I just posted this on Facebook so I guess it is national news by now, but I am four months pregnant! We had our ultrasound yesterday. Everything looks healthy and we found out it is a baby girl. Karl and I are excited but we both kind of went "Are you sure?" I was in shock yesterday and just kept thinking about all the girl things we are going to need to get. I realized I'm going to have to start buying dresses and accessories...headbands and clips! Looks like Carson's Rubbermaid bins of clothes can go back into storage...I got some shopping to do!

Oh - I am due July 31st (the most wonderful time of the year to be 9 months pregnant in Arizona).