Christmas 2008

Our little 3some on Christmas Eve. Doesn't our little one have Matt's eyes and my nose? Don't worry about what looks like a death grip that we both have on her, we were just making sure she wasn't going to wriggle away before the flash went off. No need to notify PETA.  :) Hope everyone had wonderful Christmas and enjoyed time with family! 

Holiday Survey

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?Oh boy, now that is a toughie! How 'bout hot chocolate with egg nog creamer in it? Mmmmm the best of both worlds!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa leaves presents out unwrapped Christmas morning. All wrapped ones under the tree are from family. 

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White is more classy looking. Colored ones are good for the tree.  

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Never have before, but this year might be a first! 

5. When do you put your decorations up? Whenever I feel like it. This year I put them up super early.....right after Halloween!!!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Those orange veggies with marshmellows on them (can't remember if they are yams or sweet potatoes) And of course olives that I can stick on all 10 of my fingers. 

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Too many good ones to choose from! I would have to say all the years spent at my Grandparents house in Idaho Falls and going sledding and playing in the snow with cousins.  

8. How and When did you learn the truth about Santa? I was 8 years old and went and told my mom all proud  "I finally figured it out!! The Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, Santa Clause and God all live together somewhere!" Yeah, my mom thought it would be good to break the news to me at that point!

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We open all the gifts under the tree on Christmas Eve and then the next morning the ones from Santa would be next to our stocking. 

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? So far with Matt each year we have picked out one or two Christmas ornaments that we like and write the date on the bottom of them. I think we have only about 10 so far, but they all hold meaning. So each year we put them on the tree we can remember the year we got them. 

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Absolutely love it. Wish it was here for me to play in. 

12. Can you ice skate? Yes. Anyone that grew up in Utah or Idaho and can't iceskate should be ashamed of themselves. 

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My brother Ben got me a super cool troll with hot pink hair when I was 8. It was the envy of all the other 3rd graders. Oh yeah and my easy bake oven was pretty sweet. 

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Getting together with family to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Peanut Butter pie!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Having a Christmas program on Christmas Eve where we each do something that we picked out whether it's a song, a poem, a story that we read. 

17. What tops your tree? Nothing this year. 

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Giving!! Only it's getting harder and harder to pick out gifts I've noticed for the men in my life. They all like electronics and gadgets that are too expensive!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Oh soooooo many good ones. I like 'breathe of heaven' a lot this year. It's on my page at the bottom if you've never heard it before. But I also can't go the holiday season without listening to 'O Holy night'. That one gives me chills every time!

20. What is your favorite Christmas story? The birth of Christ tops them all of course! But I also like the Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson. 

Our Holiday weekend

Last weekend we had lots going on. Friday night was Matt's work holiday party until midnight. Only we were the party poopers who left before 10 (hey every party needs one) because I had my math final Saturday morning bright and early.  Then we had my work party Saturday night and of course the meteor shower to watch afterwards. 

This is my not so good attempt at setting up the timer on the camera to take our photo. 

 Much better when you have an actual person taking your picture. Look how centered that is. 

My coworkers and I at our fancy schmancy party. (Notice the chandeliers?) It was really fun and I swear I saw Dr. 90210 there. If you can't locate me in the picture, well I'm the amazon women sticking up a head above everyone else.  I didn't think my shoes were THAT tall! 

Oh and for the record,  I only counted 10 shooting stars before we called it a night. Someone, who I won't mention any names,  zonked out before I made it to even 8 and it's just not the same watching them by yourself! :)

Star light, Star Bright...There's a Meteor shower tonight!

The peak of the Geminids meteor shower is tonight December 13, 2008. It starts as soon as it's dark enough to see the constellation of Gemini around mid evening, but the by far best time to watch is at 2AM til dawn when you should see one every 30 seconds!!! Bundle up it's gonna be cold!!! Nothing is more perfect then laying out under the night sky with some hot cocoa and counting shooting stars. 

I can't wait! It's gonna be spectacular!

Check out this website for more info on it. 
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message684292/pg1

I'm hoping to count at least 500!

Happy Birthday Gwanpa!!!

My Grandpa has a first name, it’s L-A-R-R-Y
He’s not just my grandpa, but a very special guy
Now I have to take a minute to brag about this man
He is super talented and can paint even better than,
That one eared dude Van Gogh and even Claude Monet
You should see his work, you’d be asking how much to pay!
He even taught me how, when I was eight or nine,
To paint with acrylics a forest full of pine.

My grandpa likes to have a lot of fun
And do all kinds of things outdoors in the sun
Like the camping trips each year at Rock Creek
Where we’d play in the dirt for at least a week.
We’d roast marshmallows and play in the fire with sticks
And at night look up at the stars in a transfix.
Sleeping in my grandpa’s trailer was my favorite part
Until that is the top bunk and I had to stay apart.
One time I had tossed and turned all night

And ended up giving my grandparents a fright. 

I eventually had fallen right out of bed
And needless to say I bonked my head :0



When I was a kid Christmas was the best
Spent at Grandma and Grandpa’s in the Midwest.
We’d celebrate all night on Christmas Eve
And were happier (mostly) to give gifts then to receive.
Grandpa usually was the one behind the lens,
Videotaping all of us unwrapping in a frenz.
Thanks to my grandpa we have lots of family flicks
Not to mention boxes of funny, priceless pix.

Now Grandpa I hope your birthday is the best
And that it by far tops all the rest.
If I could, I’d fly you to Germany or France
Or perhaps a cruise to Fiji where there’s exotic plants
Even a big expensive party I would throw for you,
And keep it a surprise so you wouldn’t have a clue.
Sadly though all those things I can’t afford to do.
I’m just a poor kid that has school to get through.
I’ll still wish though that I could buy you an international flight
Because anyway they always say it’s the thought that counts….right?

Thanksgiving Vegas Style

For Thanksgiving weekend we decided last minute to meet Ben and Chantal in Sin City where her Dad and stepmom live. They were so nice to have us over last minute and we had a ton of fun hanging with everyone. Before dinner while Chantal and I were smashing the potatoes like no there was no tomorrow the boys were in the other room looking like this.....


They must not have gotten the memo that the naps are reserved for AFTER eating the feast. 

One of my favorite family members that I met. We bonded immediately and I must have either reminded him of his madre or smelled like Taco Bell because he was down for the count. Just call me the Dog Whisperer. 

After dinner we decided to see if lady luck was on our side. Just for the record...she wasn't. 

But just the same our trip was still magical seeing as we got to stay in a castle. I couldn't have asked for more. 

UPDATE

In the last 24 hours I have not only read the book TWILIGHT from cover to cover, but also just returned from seeing the movie and they were both utterly fanfreakintastic. 

From Dusk to Dawn

Yesterday

 4:00 PM

Shopped at Costo with the other half million people who were there and the Twilight book ended up in our cart out of curiousity. I've been wanting know why all my friends have put crazy fan things on their blogs like countdowns until the movie came out, pics of what characters they are most like, what characters their husbands most resemble, etc. All of it kind of boggeled my mind so I decided to see what all the fuss was about. I highly doubted that I would get as deeply involved in it and figured I would just read the book here and there through the next month in my spare time. 

5:00 PM

Laid down on our bed with the book to read the first chapter.

5:25 PM

Matt (calling from the living room): How is it?

Kristen: It's pretty good. 

6:00 PM

Matt: Still reading?

Kristen: Yeah. It's reeeeaaaaalllly good!

6:45 PM

Matt: Aren't you hungry?

Kristen (grossly involved): Huh?

Matt: Don't you wanna eat something for dinner?

Kristen: Oh....yeah I guess.

7:00 PM

Cooked dinner. 

7:30 PM 

Ate while reading. Didn't realize I was capable of multi tasking like that. 

8:00 PM

Got ready for bed and managed to put the book down while I washed my face and brushed my teeth. 

10:00 PM 

Went to bed and Matt managed to fall asleep with light on so I could keep reading. 

11:32 PM

Finished book. 

Okay, I get it now. I'm officially as obsessed as the rest of you. 

I tagged myself

Hi madre. This one's for you. I couldn't think of anything from this past week to blog about so I stole this from my friends page and tagged myself to fill it out. And in return I hope to see this filled out by you on your blog (I'll give you a week to do it) 

Shows I watch
1. The Baby Story on TLC while I get ready for work
2. followed by Bringing Home Baby.
3. Jon and Kate plus 8 and all the re runs. 
4. One Tree Hill
5. Friday Night Lights
6. Gossip Girl
7. Greys Anatomy
8. Ugly Betty

Favorite Restaurants
1. Chili's broccoli cheese soup.....mmmmm
2. Cheesecake Factory
3. Cafe Rio in Utah. Oh how I miss your shredded pork salad.  
4. Flemings
5. Paneras
6. Flemings
7. TGIF's
8. I would say Olive Garden or Macaroni Grill, but alas since I found out I can't have gluten no more pasta places for me. :(

Things I did yesterday
1. Listened to my favorite Angels and Airwaves cd. 
2. Put a Holter monitor on a patient at work. 
3. Booked another night in Vegas where we are going for Thanksgiving to see Ben and Chantal!
4. Went to the gym at lunch time. 
5. Went to class at 6 and tried desperately to keep my eyes open. 
6. Cuddled up with Matt on the couch when I got home. 
7. Listened to Christmas music and turned on all our Chrismas lights. 
8. Went to bed at 9!

Things I look forward to
1. Seeing Ben and Chantal on Thursday and experiencing what sounds like should be an interesting Thanksgiving dinner!
2. Finishing my last class and getting on the nursing wait list.
3. Paying off our credit cards and celebrating by going on a trip to Europe!
4. Running a half marathon in the spring. 
5. Getting a 2nd dog someday when we have a yard. Hopefully an English Bulldog that we can teach to skateboard. 
6. Being able to use some of the names on my name list when we finally have a baby to name! 
7. Going snowboarding at Targhee in February. 
8. Turning 25!

Things on my wish list
1. Tall brown super cute boots. 
2. A house of our own to own. 
3. Time to scrapbook and paint. 
4. A body Bugg. 
5. Some nice sunnies. 
6. To be able to see my family more then once or twice a year. 
7. For it to get cold enough here that I can actually wear my coat and a beanie. 
8. To go snorkeling again in Hawaii. 



20 years ago
1. I was 4 and was building this snowman with my favorite big brother Ben. 
2. Had pink ballet slippers stenciled around my room compliments of my Mom. 
3. Loved to have art parties and color and paint. 



10 years ago
1. I had a ton of great friends, little responsibility and liked to have fun, fun, fun, all the time. 
2. Had braces and had to wear head gear at night. Totally Ugly Betty style. 
3. Celebrated my birthday at the Oregon Coast and my parents gave me a heart shaped ruby ring that I still have. 

3 years ago
1. I was planning my move to California to be near Matt and to get engaged!
2. Was working at Shapiro's the luggage store in the Boise mall for the Christmas season right before I moved.  
3. I was always on my phone 24/7 texting to Matt. 

1 year ago
1. I was in Utah to spend Thanksgiving with family and posing for this fantastic 'make out with your significant other on the stairs' pic. Chantal's expression takes the cake. 
2. Had just enrolled back in school to pursue nursing. 
3. Was working as a caregiver. 


This year so far
1. Got a new job working for a cardiologist and it's the best job I've ever had. 
2. Got a new puppy and realized it's a lot of work!
3. Moved to Moorpark and actually enjoy living in close quarters again because it reminds of when we were first married. 

Today
1. Starting packing for our little road trip. 
2. Went to the gym at lunch. 
3. Made some gluten free cookies that turned out to be delish!

Tomorrow
1. Going to work for a half day. 
2. Dropping little Moxie pants off at her grandparents house. 
3. Hitting the road to drive to Vegas. 

Next year
1. I will be on the wait list to get into a nursing program and only have a year to wait by then. 
2. All our debt will be paid off!
3. We will be moving again around this time, I'm sure of it. Can't sit still for too long! 

I took little Moxie pants to the park the other day and she frolicked about chasing what's left of the crunchy Fall leaves. This video is what ensued. 

Here are also some pics of her in her car seat. Yes, that's right. A doggie car seat!! Hahaha. My mom already asked if she has a high chair and pacifier too.  Just practicing our parenting skills out on a little Ewok first. A year ago my very first blog said we didn't have any kids or pets to speak of, but now that's all changed (the pet part anyway) so be prepared for every other blog to be about our fluffy friend. 

Beginning of our little road trip. Alert, happy and ready for an adventure!!

Approximately 2 minutes later. Knocked out like a narcoleptic on Nyquil. Looks like a pain in the neck later on if you ask me. 

 Yep looks like she wasn't digging the 90 degree angle neck position either and moved on to the droopy, pretend I'm a sleeping teddy bear pose. She was asleep for a full two hours!! Made for a nice quiet ride. Babies do that too, right??

Now that I work in a doctors office I see how much cancer has spread like wildfire in the past decade. It used to be you would know maybe somebody's second-cousin's bestfriends sister who had cancer, now I'm sure everyone could name off at least ten people they know or met who have had some form of it at in their lifetime. Scary!!! Anyway I got this pic emailed to me and thought it was super cute. So come on people we have to find a cure asap!! this little girl only has about 12 years before those little mosquito bites start turning into melons!

McHate Letter

Oh McDonalds how I hate thee... You have tricked me with your sly sneaky tactics and got me to believe I could win your stupid monopoly game. I hadn't eaten at your greasy, below minimum wage paying, cholesterol boosting place of establishment in years until 8 days ago I succumbed to buying a soda. On that soda were monopoly game pieces and the next thing I knew I was begging everyone I knew to purchase Mickey D's for me and give me their game pieces. I practically begged, borrowed and stole as many pieces as was humanly possible. I ate your nasty food for breakfast, lunch and dinner 4 meals in a row!

 And what did I get in return?! 

A stomachache, a headache, exhaustion like I just wanted to hibernate for a week, unquenchable thirst from your buckets of sodium dumped on your fries and ALL the pieces, but ONE on every prize offered. ALL but ONE!!!!!!!! I'm beginning to realize that all the other billion people out there who got tricked into playing probably only need one more game piece too. Alright Ronald McDonald, you got me! I've been duped. I learned my lesson and will return to boycotting you.  I think I would rather eat a Krabby Patty at the Krusty Krab then eat your disgrace of a burger ever again. 

Cannibal Moxie

WARNING: This post may contain graphic material too disturbing for young viewers. 

I came  home one day to discover this shocking and horrific scene. 

I don't think Barbie even knew what had happened before suddenly she was in the deathpaw grip of this barbarian. 

And the most terrifying pic of all. Look at those too perfect to be realistic plastic  Barbie legs underneath the beast.  

I finally managed to wrestle this helpless girl out of jaws of  the savage Moxie monster.  Her arm was a little mangled and she may never walk again, but her main concern was that chunks of her hair were missing and those extensions had cost her a bundle of money. Hopefully we won't have a Mattel lawsuit on our hands.  

Moxie made our little twosome a threesome last Friday. We went to the Pet shop at the Simi mall to have make our usual rounds checking  out all the animals and talking about what kind of dog we would want to get 'someday'.  Next thing we knew 'someday' had turned into that day and we had bought a puppy! We had been waiting until we had found the perfect little dog, but we both agreed that we had definitely found her! (Although Matt later said he partly agreed with me because he couldn't say no to my puppy dog eyes. Ha! I didn't even know I was capable of making eyes like that!)  She is a Lhaso Apso which is a dog I had done a lot of research on in the past because they are good for people with allergies since they shed little to no hair. Apparently like two thousand years the breed was only bred in Tibet by holy men and nobles and was used as a watchdog in temples and monasteries. Some watch dog since they only grow to be about 18 lbs!!  But they have an incredible sense of hearing as we have discovered since Moxie will occasionally start growling inexplicably or perhaps she just sees ghosts!! She has been a ton of fun so far and is pretty calm most of the time expect for in this video when we got her all riled up and she decided she wanted to play WWF wrestling. 

Unbelievable.

With Halloween coming up I'm sure you've already seen a bunch of spooky videos, but I can assure you this one will be the most terrifying of them all.  My parents sent this to me via email a few days ago and I just had the chance to watch it this morning. I don't know if other states are unfortunate enough to have to vote on keeping traditional marriage sacred, but sadly California does.   At age 24 I've never voted before mostly because I never paid attention to the issues being voted upon. This year I'm proud to say will be my first! It's unbelievable what happened to this family and I want to do what I can to keep family morals and values safe. If that means by voting I'm now going to get called to jury duty I'm fine with that :)

I love my hubby

Yesterday after work I got home and said to hubby Matt something along the lines of we had been so busy lately and so we never get to see each other and that life had been so hectic with our move and my school and work (blah, blah, blah, whine, whine, whine) that I really felt like we needed a getaway weekend. So Matt hearing my plea searched on line for any hotel deals he could find and next thing I knew we had packed an overnight bag and were in the car headed to San Diego for a  spur of the moment over night trip!!!!! Yeah for being whimsical!! And yeah for a husband who understands that I NEED things like that to stay sane and have something break up the monotony of everyday life. 

The place we stayed at was amazing! It was a golf resort tucked in the mountains of Escondido right outside San Diego. It was called Castle Creek Inn and was sooooooo out of the ordinary and romantic! Our room had a deck with an outstanding view overlooking the course, a vaulted ceiling and the room was all French decor themed.  So much more fun than a Best Western!

The grounds outside were gorgeous and to top it off there was 4 soaking pools that cascaded into each other (more or less hot tubs, but soaking pools sound so spa-like!) It was a great surprise when we got there!  This morning after soaking we had a scrumptious brunch and then hit the road to go see the Wild Animal Park.  We get in free because we have San Diego zoo passes, but hadn't yet been there. I was excited because you get to see all the animals in the 'wild' instead of behind closed in cages. 

We took the Journey Into Africa tour at the park and the highlights of the day were as follows:

Watching the Lions gnaw on the remaining bones of  whatever poor creature they devoured for lunch. Hopefully it wasn't a tourist. 

Checking out the two baby elephants play in the dirt. I was looking for Mogli, but he was no where to be found. 


On the tour we got to see Wenzi the newest giraffe and they just found out that all the other female giraffes at the park are ALL prego!! 

Trying to make the same expression that my new souvenir cup animal was making. Is it a cheetah? A leopard? A lion? Most likely a Tiger, but I really picked it cuz it's pink tongue was sticking out. 

What?! Spongebob is in the African Safari too?! I had no idea!

The biggest nest ever, can't remember what kind of birds make it, but I do remember it wasn't as easy to get out of as it was getting in! 

Me and my man by the lake.  We had a gorilla take our picture. Those opposable thumbs really came in handy.  

Hands down though my most favorite animal of the day was the Mattortoise. It was so dang cute I had to take it home with me. 

Afterwards on the way home we decided to stop by Pechanga Casino to check it out. We signed up for players cards there because then you always get X amount of money to play with on the slots and what's more fun then playing with free money! We each got $10 on our individual cards so we played the penny slots and cashed out with $14. Then we thought, what the heck, it's not our money so let's play it all on the Wheel of Fortune game. Ten minutes later we walked out with $150! Our little trip fully paid for! Haha it was a funny end to our last minute excursion! 

It was exactly what I wanted, a night away and a full day spent playing with my bestfriend. Now we are home from our mini vacation and the best part is the weekend isn't even over yet!

WOWZERS

This will be my shortest post ever. I can't sleep so I was blog stalking. Then I thought "hey I wonder how many times I've blogged on ours." I was in for a shocker. Once I got to the end of our older posts and had lost count I saw that the very first one I ever did was on September 18th, 2007!!! Over a year ago! What the hizzle?! A whole year has gone by since I first started blogging my little heart out. I can't wrap my head around that. Wow, does the time fly by or what?!

On the move again.

Matt and I have stayed in one place now going on two years. Much too long usually for the likes of me. I get itching to move right around the 6 month mark; however, the apartment we have been in we actually love and wouldn't mind staying in if we weren't on a mission. What kind of mission? A money saving kind!!!!! I won't spill the beans on how much we pay in rent right now for this 2 bedroom/1 bathroom apartment we're in only because it would blow the minds of anyone who lives in the other 47 states (new york and hawaii not included) and whose mortgage I'm sure if far far less then what we pay in rent.   

We read a book called the "Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey which I would highly recommend to anyone who doesn't enjoy living paycheck to paycheck. It is a good kick in the pants to start getting out of debt one little fork-full at a time, which then turns into a shovel- full, and soon you are on a roll and are bulldozing your way out (called the snowball effect in the book, but I like my shoveling visualization of it too) We decided to get the process going by making a drastic move.....literally. We are downsizing. Going back to a one bedroom apartment which is what we started out our married life in (the first one was about the size of a shoebox, thankfully this one is at least the size of a barbie doll house, not her 3 story dream mansion one though).

 Might not seem like a lot, but going from having an office and tons of closet space down to having NO office makes a huge difference as we are quickly finding out as we begin to move things over. Which brings me to my next point.....we are having a garage sale! Yep, my first one ever. I used to be quite the garagesaler, but have never been the garage seller. I'm excited! One of my co workers is  letting me bring all our stuff to her moms house and we are having a garage sale all together this Saturday. Let the bargaining begin! We have already sold 5 pieces of furniture on Craigslist so far and have paid off a whole credit card with that money. One down......I won't mention how many more to go! 

Check out our new humble abode:

Come on in and have a look-see. 

Watch those beams. They come out of nowhere. 

                         Cookies anyone? 

Just enough to let the light in. I think I see Matt coming home from work. 

              I think Matt's gonna need to see a chiropractor after this place. 

Alright, I'll post real pics of our new place later. After a year of living in our smaller apartment, which we will save $400 a month on, the future looks bright for us! We will be debt free and I can't wait to be able to actually save money for a house of our own one day, not be slaves to credit card companies/car loans/school loans, and most importantly I am really looking forward to being able to freely give of our money to help out others who really need it.  Here we goooooooo!!!!!!!!!!