Friday Night Adventure

Late Friday night we decided to go do some shopping. On our way to the store while we were stopped at a red light, we saw two men break through the glass of a ‘tires and rims store’ and start running. They had broken the glass and just robbed the store. Well we called 911 and decided to flip a U-turn to see if we could get a better description of the guys. Sure enough, they were on the other side of the street watching to see if the alarm would go off in the store. I gave the dispatcher a very detailed report (down to what color their belts were) and we decided to follow the guys from a distance giving the dispatcher details about their every move. We had to keep making u-turns because it was on a busy street, but sure enough after about 10 minutes the dispatcher finally said, “Ok thank you mam. We have the men in custody!” Sure enough we drove by and the cops had both men in custody! IT WAS AWESOME to be able to witness the break-in and then see the cops in action!

Christmas Soup

I asked my mom what she did during the holidays to make our house smell so yummy (it's got to be hard with 5 boys in the house!).

Her secret is Christmas Soup. But don't eat it! Here is the recipe:


Get a small pan and put some water in it. Add cinnamon or cinnamon sticks, some yummy smelling spices like cloves, ginger, allspice, nutmeg and place on simmer. Add some peels of clementines or oranges as you eat them and keep simmering until January…yep, you read correctly…all season long! You will have to keep adding water, and spices when needed. But your nose will know, and your family and friends will think you are baking all season long!

I've tried it, and it works. Enjoy!

Our "$500" Christmas Tree

Getting our Christmas tree Wednesday night was a terrible experience! I felt like I was watching a terrible movie where everything just got worse and worse and then the movie ended before anything got better. Anyway, we decided to go get a Christmas tree and didn't know where to look. So we spend an hour driving around to places we've heard of that have them (home depot, walmart, savemart, etc). Nothing!

Finally we see a place off the freeway. We stop and finally find a tree narrow and cute enough to go in our little apartment. The guy ties it on for us and we pay and get in the car. So we're driving home and all of a sudden we hear a "whoosh" and see the tree slide off our car watch as the car behind us swerves. We couldn't believe it! So we turned around to go get another tree.

Well the kid who tied it on is freaking out because his boss is a real piece of work and the kid's nervous he's going to get fired. Well the boss comes up and to us asks in a gruff tone "ok guys--what happened?" Then he starts going off about how this cuts into his bottom line and that it's probably our fault cuz we were going 80 mph (it fell off in the slow lane right after we entered the freeway!). Then he starts questioning us about how and who tied it on the car (luckily the kid claimed it all). The whole time I'm thinking "Oh I'm so reporting you to the Better Business Bureau!" (that's where I work)

Mind you that behind him is a huge sign that reads "GUARANTEE: WE WILL REPLACE ANY TREE FOR ANY REASON, AS LONG AS YOU WATER IT." So Jimmy brings attention to the guy the sign behind him and says "Ya know we didn't have time to water it but we'd like a new tree for free." The guy is like, "Well it's probably going to fall off your car again." (the place is only 15 min from our house). Well finally he's like "OK I'll give you a new tree but you have to buy a tree bag." Jimmy's like "What? I don't want a tree bag." long story short, after an hour we find another tree, put it in the bag, and put it IN OUR CAR (without paying for the bag of course).

HERE'S WHERE THE STORY GETS GOOD

We drive home and Jimmy is backing into the spot and RAMS INTO THE POLE! So our bumper got messed up, the light is broken, its 9pm, we're exhausted from looking for trees for 2 hours and still haven't eaten. I couldn't be mad cuz it wasn't his fault but it was like "c'mon!" So then I go into the house to clear a spot for the tree and I'm moving our entertainment center (without taking the TV and DVD player off, and "crack." The table breaks! Oh my gosh I wanted to punch a wall. So Jimmy comes in, we throw the tree on the floor, make a Dominican dinner to try and cheer us up and try to laugh but we're so angry inside cuz it's going to cost $500 to fix the car.

I'm smiling while writing this just cuz I can't believe it happened. Finally Jimmy gets his tools out and fixes the table, he gets the tree up, we taped our bumper and light back together for the time being, and seriously just went to bed like "What the heck happened tonight." MERRY CHRISTMAS! (Here's a picture of Jimmy decorating it last night.)

Attempted Break-in

So last Saturday at 11pm, Jimmy and I were cuddled up on the couch watching a scary movie (with the lights on of course). All of a sudden we hear a noise by our front door and watch as the door handle turns. Then we hear this “thud” as if someone pushed their shoulder into the door. The door was dead-bolted (I thank the angels) and the person wasn’t able to get in. Jimmy jumped up and peeked out the peep hole and didn’t see anyone. So, gulp, he went outside to see who it was. The perp was long gone, but I was left freaked out! We called the cops and they said they’d come patrol the area. We turned off the movie and tried to go to bed. All night long I kept imagining what would have happened if the door wasn’t locked and made myself sick. Literally, I was sick about it. I threw up for about 5 hours and couldn’t sleep from nightmares. At 6am Jimmy went to get me some sprite and I was too scared to stay there alone so I went with him, vomiting all the way.
Overall, it was a good wake-up call for us. We purchased dowels for our windows and sliding glass doors and another deadbolt. (Daniel advised us to purchase a gun before it’s outlawed…). I hate scary movies-especially when they come to life.

CA Fun

This was Jimmy's first time going to Lake Tahoe since our honeymoon. We went over the summer time when some of the Calvert Family was up there. It was a blast, to say the least. Jimmy had never been crawdad fishing before, but before long, figured out the tricks. And of course he wasn't even scared to pick them up. I wonder how long these crawdads will continue to fall for our bait!

Trip to New York

Jimmy and I had a blast in New york when we went back for our reception. Jimmy had never been before and we had a huge check-list of things to do. We were able to get on the letterman show and got to see Julia Roberts, we went to a broadway play, Hairspray, and the highlight for Jimmy was to see his Yankees play right before the stadium got torn down. Derek Jeter even threw us a ball (that was dropped when the guy behind us hit our hands). We had amazing seats, just 10 rows behind the Yankees' dugout along the 1st base line.

And of course we went to the statue of liberty, ate some New York hot dogs, pizza, and nuts, hung around Times Square at night, shopped in China Town, rode the subway and got to jam with the Jamaicans who made the ride more enjoyable, and lived it up! We're going back for Christmas so Jimmy will be able to see the big Christmas Tree, ice skating in Rockefeller Center, and maybe we can even go for a horse-carriage ride in the snow! We love New York!

Trick or Treat

Ok I couldn't resist--I normally don't like to express my political views since not everyone agrees with them--however this was one of the funniest comics I've seen. Happy Halloween everyone!

Proposition 8

So this week we went to the call center for Yes on Prop. 8. I'd have to say that my last call of the night was definitely blog worthy. It went something like this:

KT: Have you heard of prop. 8?
Man: Oh there are so many will you brief me?
KT: This is the one that defines marriage between a man and a woman.
Man: Ok...
KT: So do you know how you'll be voting?
Man: I will vote NO.
KT: Oh? Does your spouse feel the same way?
Man: Yes HE does!

HAHA! What are the chances, right? It made our experience fun. Being a CA resident once again has been great, especially to participate in the YES on 8 campaign. I can see this battle of prop. 8 as a sign of the times and hope that Californians vote the same as they did a few years back...YES ON 8!

Jimmy and I Scuba Diving

Having Fun in the Sun

If Jimmy and I have one thing in common it is our love of water sports. Jimmy pretty much grew up on a boat and loves to wakeboard. Me, on the other hand, just picked it up along the way. Here is Jimmy and I on our friend Emily's boat in Park City taking turns wakesurfing. No he's not in the ocean, he's actually about 2 feet away from the edge of the boat surfing on the boat's wake. Jimmy still prefers wakeboarding to wakesurfing, but it is for sure my new love!
You start out holding onto the rope and slowly find your sweet spot in the boat's wake. Then you throw the rope into the boat and carve it up behind the boat. You're only going about 10 mph so if you fall, it doesn't hurt--heck you don't even have to get your hair wet. My favorite part is that you don't have to paddle out against the waves like you do surfing at the beach. The boat does all the work for you and you get to cruise the whole time.

Here is a friend Emily (left) and I attempting to surf at the same time. This is how you start

(off the back of the boat)

This is one of my old companions from the mission, Jade, who always dreamed about going on a boat. So when she got to the U.S. we decided to take her for a ride (and we also made her try wakeboarding of course-haha). She actually got up and rode for a while! It was great.Jimmy looking so buff and ready to surf it up!

Jimmy and I got SCUBA certified for free through my work. It was honestly one of the scariest things I've done because if you make a mistake, you're 60 feet below the surface and if you hold your breath, your lungs explode! You learn techniques for what to do if you run out of air or how to breathe underwater even without a mask. You even learn how to put your mask back on 60 feet underwater. We're planning a trip to Santa Cruz in December when the water is clearest.
Hang loose!Here's Jimmy and I at Santa Cruz after a day at the beach. Jimmy tried to teach me to skim board but after one-too-many falls I decided I was done.
Jimmy skim boarding.

Our Sacramento Apartment

We moved to Sacramento, CA in the middle of August so that Jimmy could double major in accounting and pre-dental. It was an easy move since we had NO FURNITURE and all of our wedding presents were, for the most part, still in boxes. After spending our first night on the floor, luck came our way as my parents told us they'd pay for our bed (my dad was very upset that we didn't get bunk beds).
My Aunt Pam from San Jose just happened to rebuild her house and didn't want her Oak Table! So, she gave it to us (along with tons of lamps and clocks) and the house started to come together.
Our first day after moving in we met a family that was moving out and didn't want this nice "L" couch with a pull-out queen bed. Nor did they want all their tree lamps, IKEA art, TV, Chest of Drawers, etc. So-3 hours after we moved in, all of a sudden our apartment was partially furnished.
We opted to not have cable in our house for the time being. It makes it nice for Jimmy and I to be able to take up hobbies like wakeboarding, tennis, scuba diving, and salsa dancing instead of just sitting in front of the tube.
Here is our cute little kitchen/bar. So now our house has become a home and we love the area we live in. We can't believe that we don't have to put up with another Utah winter, trudging around in the snow and freezing our hands while scraping snow off the car. We love CA!

Our honeymoon

So going back in time a little bit (obviously not to the date on the pictures) Jimmy and I went on our honeymoon. We went to Lake Tahoe for a few days as well as to the Dominican Republic. Las 27 Cascadas, or in english, the 27 waterfalls, is located in Jimmy's mission. Basically you hike and swim through this beautiful, clear water-- waterfall after waterfall. There are cave-like structures that you swim through...
...as well as narrow ravines.
This was part of the river you cross on the way to these waterfalls. The falls are hidden in the mountains and from the main road you'd have no idea that one of nature's wonders was hiding a fifteen minute walk away. The locals drink the minteral water but say that it makes the gringos sick.
After climbing to the top of all the waterfalls, you jump or slide down the rest of them. They range from about 5-35 feet high and the ones you slide down are so smooth.
It was a blast for us to be able to FINALLY get in the water (after not being allowed to as missionaries) and do some of the tourist attractions that all our friends told us about.

Wedding Pictures

Here are some pictures from the wedding that our friends took.

Our Dominican Fiesta

As most of you know Jimmy and I were both called on LDS missions to the same island, the Dominican Republic. I served in the Santo Domingo West mission and he served in the Santiago (north) mission. Although we never got to see each other during our missions, having a common love for the people andculture has really bonded us. Both of us say that although we have finished our missions, nuestros corazones se quedaron alla (our hearts remained in the DR). When we got married we knew we wanted to spend this happy moment with our dominican people--so we did. We had a huge fiesta in the DR, dominican style with beans, rice, chicken, and lots of music and dancing. We rented busses and had about 300 of our old companions, baptisms, and ward members show up. What a party! My mission president's even came.