swagbucks.com

So I rarely post on this here blog but I came across something recently that makes a lot of sense to me. Swagbucks.com is a website that rewards you for using their search engine, which is a combination of google and ask.com. Now, when you sign up and begin using their engine, you get swagbucks, which you can then redeem for cash, gift certificates, various prizes, etc. Since just about everyone uses search engines anyway, over time this is a nice way to earn a little prize. If you click the banner you'll sign up under my name, and I believe we both get point benefits for the connection. Cool beans, huh?

http://swagbucks.com/refer/MilRuko

4th of July

We had a great holiday! The Balls and the Smiths came over for a BBQ at my parents (because we are house-sitting while they're on vacation) and we had a lot of fun!

Jamie and Catherine made their own Kube (sp??) game! 85th ward, remember playing this a lot at Bishop's? I can't believe they made their own, it turned out so good!

Catherine, Chloe and I waited all night for a strobe firework so that we could dance around it. Here's what happened when we THOUGHT this was a strobe, but then backed away shrieking when we realized there were hot sparks flying at us. Jamie happened to catch the picture.

I found this pic on my camera - I think Ryan must have taken it sometime. . .I think it's a cool pic though. We did a tiki theme for the BBQ because my parents have a bunch of tiki torches.
We had a lot of fun setting up multiple explosions.

Thanks for coming over guys! It was a fun holiday! Also, Catherine should update her blog. The End.

Follow Me

I added the Followers sidebar, check it out and follow! Also, I will work on getting a profile pic up so that I don't show up as a mysterious murder scene outline on other people's follow charts.

Funny (and real!) Test Answers

If you google something like "funny exam answers" or "funny test answers" you will find loads of hilarious real life answers teachers have gotten back from students. These are a couple of my favorite.

Another great giveaway people!

If you still haven't gone to this blog, you should do it now.

http://therhouse.blogspot.com/2009/06/just-pictures-giveaway.html

p.s. I was one of the winners for the last picture giveaway. We get a free photo session!

No Hawaii For Me

Well, at 4am this morning my family went to Hawaii. Well, realistically, they're probably still on planes, but you know what I mean. This Hawaii trip has been in the works for about a year now, and originally we had planned to go with them. (Hence the Waikiki countdown that used to grace the top of my blog) Sadly, with Mike's change of jobs we no longer got paid vacation, and so it was kind of a huge bummer to have to each take 10 days upaid leave, although we still were planning it. But then once we started looking at houses, and calculated up how much money we wanted to put toward the down payment, etc. . .well, it just wasn't going to work.

On my calendar at work it says "Nat Hawaii!!!!" on the next 10 days, so patients keep saying, "ooh, is someone going to HA?" and I keep having to say "no. . .I bought a house instead."

Short term bummer, but better in the long term, hopefully.

I'm actually not as heartbroken as I expected to be. After crunching the numbers like 10 times, there just really is no way we could have afforded to take 3 weeks (combined) off work PLUS pay for tickets PLUS entertainment PLUS mortage. . so it's hard for me to feel too sad when it's just simply impossible. Plus what would we do with the pup? She's only 12 weeks old and still such a baby, I couldn't imagine leaving her behind, although I wouldn't want to leave her in a hotel room in HA all day either while we went galavanting.

Okay, okay, maybe I'm rationalizing a bit to make myself feel better. But then I remember how I haven't been on any vacations with the fam since I was 18 that have turned out well. I always come home frustrated, stressed out, crying from all the teasing, and vowing to not see them for a couple months while I recover. I think that most of us just have too strong of personalities to be in that close of contact for so long with no room for escape, one member in particular. If I'm going to be spending money, I'd much rather do it on a vacation of my choosing, like when I went back East with my sis Ayisha last year. That was completely freaking awesome!! Such a great trip that we weren't able to squeeze in everything we wanted to, and I really would not mind doing a repeat to catch all the things we missed (which we are actually considering doing in December. . .) Also, there have been rumors of a possible trip with the New York fam next year, which would be pretty fun since I get along with them quite well. It's much nicer being the one and only DIL because you get treated like a princess. :)

Anyway, now I'm just rambling. Ciao.

I can fit a lot of places you can't. . .(says Pocket)

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Yesterday there was a surprise birthday party for my mom, so I made this chocolate mousse trifle cake thing (I haven't decided what to call it yet). The bottom layer is brownie cake, the middle layer is chocolate ganache, and the top is cream. It turned out fantastic and tasted oh-so-good.

Unfortunately, the following is what it looked like after a few minutes in the sun!

no, those are not cheetos!

Last week we put my favorite childhood foam-filled pillow through the wash.

This is what happened.

I have no explanation for the explosion. But man, was it a beast to clean up!

Do you need 4th of July plans?

Cuz we do.

We usually spend holidays with my fam since they're 15 minutes away, but they will be in Hawaii this 4th of July (lucky them. . .we were supposed to go too but we spent our money on a down payment instead).

So we have no plans for the 4th of July. If you are also in this situation and would perhaps like to BBQ together or something, please let me know! I really don't want to just sit around by ourselves that day. We'd love to host a small party for anyone who also needs plans!

The R House

If you have never been to this blog before, I highly recommended. You will definitely become addicted as I have . . . I've been following the blog for 2 years now. I also have this blog button on the right side of my blog under my contacts list, for those who haven't noticed it before.

Right now they are doing a great photography giveaway. Check it out!

http://therhouse.blogspot.com/2009/06/rlt-photography-giveaway.html

Oh the Irony

Well here's a bit of irony for you, 85th ward!

Right after I wrote that last post about how everything was good and great, I thought "uh oh. . .this can never last. . .seems like things can't be this perfect for more than a couple months." And I was right!

Mike and I got callings yesterday at church. He got called to be a teacher in Elder's Quorum. He was kind of expecting this calling and has done this before and really likes it, so he was really excited. It's a pretty easy calling because he only teaches once a month. Nice contrast to how time consuming the bishopric was.

Speaking of, I was excited to have him released so that I could spend some time with him on Sundays and Wednesdays finally (he always had meetings these days). . .BUT that is not to be! In a crazy twist I was called to be 2nd counselor in the Primary! At first when they told me I was like, "okay, well I was primary president before (although it was really more like nursery president, and in this new ward there are about 60 kids), so this is alright" But the more I learned about it, the more I realized this is going to be a lot of work! I will be teaching Sharing Time once a month, which scares the bejeezies out of me. Not only do I have meetings on. . .*shocker*. . .Sundays and Wednesdays, but apparantly I am over the cub scouting program. Scouts!!!! I just stared at the bishopric in horror when they told me that. I don't have any brothers and Mike's ward growing up wasn't super into scouts, so I have no idea about anything!! This means that in addition to attending all meetings and Primary activities, I will also be expected to attend all the scouting events and activities, which I'm told happen 4-5 times a month. They called me right before church started, and then the Primary pres wanted me in there right away so 2 hours later there I was! It was a crazy flurry of a day.

I am a little sad about it because I really wanted to stay in Relief Society. I had trouble making friends in my old ward because I was absent from Relief Society so much because of primary. I had really hoped to be able to make friends and fit in better in this new ward, but this is definitely going to make things tricky. I have been trying to really put myself out there despite my timidness and introduce myself to someone every week, but I found the best place for me to do this was in Relief Society in the few minutes before and after when people are just chatting. Sooo. . .if any of my existing friends would like to come visit me (or I can come to you) I would be more than thrilled, as I try to adjust to this new life of mine.

Oh, also, Mike can't stop giggling maliciously about my new calling. I am sure I will grow to love it, it is just quite overwhelming right now, especially since I had already felt pretty worn out from being nursery president! At the end of primary the pres said something like "well, we're excited to have you, you came very highly recommended" and since I don't really know anyone yet I said "by who??" and she said "your old bishop." Geez. Thanks a bunch Bishop! I'm. . .only half teasing. :)

May was a good month

I was reflecting the other day and realized that we were incredibly blessed last month! It was a very eventful 31 days!



May gave us. . .





A house. . .



A puppy we have completely fallen in love with. . .


A stronger relationship. . .



A raise. . .



Work benefits. . .



A birthday. . .



A party with our old ward friends. . .



The sun, FINALLY. . .


Acceptance for Mike to work with his mentor of choice this fall at grad school. . .

. . .and so many other little things that I can't even list them all! I am so glad that even though we had doubts about buying the house, Mike going back to school, etc - we followed through with what we felt we were supposed to do, what Heavenly Father's plan was for us even though it meant sacrifice - and we have been blessed tenfold in return!

What made me reflect on all this was something Mike said a few days ago while we were snuggling under the covers in our new bedroom with Pocket (yes, I admit it - since she sometimes wakes up as early as 5am and starts crying, we sometimes get lazy and desperate for sleep and just let her come into bed with us). Out of the blue he said, "are you happy?" and I thought for a minute and said, "yeah, I am" to which he replied, "it's nice, isn't it?"

And it is. It is nice to feel like after everything that's happened the past few years, things are finally falling into place and we can finally start our lives.

Anyway, Pocket's been napping on me and she somehow keeps shifting more and more onto the keyboard, so I better get off the computer while I still have a few keys to type with. Tehe! She just opened her eyes, looked at me, and gave one of her HUGE yawns where she makes the cutest little "ahhhh" noise! Life is good!

p.s. The Name

Since everyone's asking, we've decided her name is Pocket. Stef suggested we name her Winfield (Winnie for short) as a solution to my blog title problems. I absolutely LOVED that idea, good one Stef! She definitely looks like a Winnie! The problem was that we had already been calling her Pocket for a couple days and she was starting to respond to it, so to keep things simpler (third name change, anyone?) we decided to keep going with Pocket. But the next one will be Winnie. :)

Also, I way overestimated her weight. I found that out when I took her to the vet last week and they weighed her. She was only about a pound and a half when we first got her!

All this girl does is. . .

As we speak, she is sleeping on my lap.