Not good!

I love my camera. It's small enough to carry in my purse. I use it all the time for work so it comes in handy to just keep it with me.

So Friday night we were enjoying a "Family Fun Night" and I had taken a couple of pictures. I put the camera back in my purse and later went to retrieve it. This is what I saw when I turned on the camera:

Crap! So amidst the fun, it looks like my camera took a blow and this is the result. Kind of artistic isn't it though?

Stupid DMV!!

I hate stupid rules and even more so when my tax dollars go to support these retarded policies. It was time to renew my drivers license and I had received notice that I could do it by mail. Well my birthday came and went and I forgot to send it in. Once I realized this, I was totally paranoid that I was going to get pulled over. And since I have apparently lost my talent for talking my way out of a ticket, I wanted to get the thing renewed as quickly as possible. I noticed that the renewal notice had an option to renew online. So, I went to their stupid website and walked through the process but there was some code that was missing from my renewal notice-of course.

I didn't want to chance sending the thing in and waiting for the new license to come in the mail. Since I was over in the area (after taking an hour long spinning class-and mind you, I don't dress up for the gym) I decided to the pay my fee and be on my way...not exactly. Now the wait was pleasantly short, I don't even think it was 5 minutes. But once I paid them and the bureaucrat was almost done with me, she says, "Now I just need you to step over to the camera for your photo." What??!! I explained that I didn't need a photo- I was eligible to renew online so why did they need my photo now? The one I already had was perfectly awful and I still looked the same!I looked to her for some sympathy. After all she was a woman and as far as I know, a human. Well, no such mercy from her. In fact, I could even read the bit of delight she took from my frustration that I had to get a picture taken when I was clearly not in any shape to be in public, let alone photographed. She stated that anytime you go in the offices for a renewal, they have to take your picture. Blah, blah, blah....something about fraud...blah, blah.

How dumb is that? So I really had no choice. I couldn't come back after a shower and finish the process. I was trapped in their stupid rules.

Jeff took great delight when a couple of weeks later the envelope arrived. He even committed a crime and opened my mail to see the thing. I guess it's not as bad as Nick Nolte's mugshot, but it's right up there. He's threatened to do something awful with it, but I'm sure he knows better. I think it might get lost...Stupid DMV!!

Great To Be Eight!

With turning eight, Cara was old enough to decide that she wanted to be baptized. It was such a great day for her and we are so proud of her decision.

She was able to wear the same dress that both my mom and I had worn when we were baptized. Her daddy baptized her I can't believe how fast she is growing up! We are so grateful for all the support of family and friends who came to share this special day with us. I made my first movie for the program. It was easier than I thought it would be. And since I was pleased with how it turned out, I thought I'd share it.

An American Girl B-Day

My Cara turned Eight on Friday. She decided she wanted to have her party at the American Girl store. So she invited a couple of friends and we had a "Girls Day." Those of you who don't have girls who are into this, may not be able to understand the "experience" so, I'll illustrate for you :)

A quick happy car ride..

We started downstairs...there was a 3 hour wait to get your dolls hair done (at $10-20 each, so we decided to skip this)

Then it was upstairs to more shopping, the doll hospital, doll photo studio and the cafe.

Waiting for our 2:30 lunch seating

Then it was time to take our seats

And of course the dolls each get a seat

Deciding what to order

Yummy cinnamon rolls...

The tasty appetizers...

mmm...Pizza

Sharing food with the doll...

Blowing the candles out on the cake

Enjoying the cake with peppermint ice cream

A fun and delicious meal!

Happy Birthday Cara!!

Merry Christmas!

I feel like I am posting this too late, but that would be on par with my life lately...

We had a great Christmas. Since both of our families live close to each other, we went up to the desert and spent Christmas eve with Jeff's Family. It was a casual thing-we read the Christmas Story and the kids performed songs. Cara sang "All I want for Christmas-My Two Front Teeth" and Natie sang "Santa, Santa."

Then it was over to my parents where we spent the night. The girls woke up to find that Santa had brought Cara a Mia American Girl Doll and Natalie had received the American Girl Holiday Sleigh she had asked for.

It was a great day and I was so happy to spend it with such an awesome family. Jeff did a great job, as usual, picking out thoughtful gifts for me and the girls were happy with all the new things they received.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Marathon Week!

This week has been a whirlwind and it all started off with a marathon-well actually a half-marathon. Jeff and I spent a long weekend in Vegas to celebrate my birthday, our anniversary and I ran my first half marathon.

For my birthday, Jeff took me to see Cirque Du Soleil's KA. It was absolutely amazing! Aside from the performers' unbelievable talent, the set was just as impressive. When I had heard that it took over three years to build it, I had figured that it was because they had been slow workers. Once I saw what the stage was expected to do, I completely understood why. The stage was on a loft and it moved in several directions, including a vertical 90 degrees and would rotate while doing so. I can't do it justice in my description, but it was fantastic.

Then Sunday morning was my run..I hated getting up at 4:30. It started at 6am but with 15,000 people running, we had to get there early for parking.

Before the start-I can't believe I'm smiling that early.

I finished in 2 hours and 23 minutes. (My goal was 2 1/2 hours.) I finished 3941 out of the 10,076 who were running the half. Some of the things I liked about this were the many different people participating--lots of fitness levels; the running Elvi; the run through marriage chapel; running up the strip without those dirty Mexicans harassing you with their "cards"; the massages after the finish line and who wouldn't find humor in the crowd cheering you on at 6 in the morning with beers in their hand (only in Vegas right?) So I'm crazy enough to have done it and I think I'm crazier to want to do another one :) I think I can do better since I had been fighting a monster cold the week before-thank you Zicam for getting me over it in record time.

So after the run, we spend the day relaxing. That evening we went to see the Tournament of Kings. It was basically the Medieval Times show with a little Vegas added to it. It was fun though. Then Monday was time to leave. We had to get an early start since I had a class project due that evening that I hadn't even stared. Besides, my mom was ready to get back to her real life since she had taken the last 6 days off so she could watch the girls for us (yes, I know I have the best mom ever). I barely got finished with the assignment and to class on time.

Tuesday I got to go to a birthday lunch with some of my friends-I love spending time with these ladies. Then it was a Holiday party that evening for a school group. Wednesday was a rehearsal for our Friday night church party (the kids were in the program), study for a final the next morning, and work on getting ready for Thursday evening party that started at my house.

Thursday was crazy busy starting with my first final exam. I'm happy to say I passed and got an A in the class. Then, getting ready for the evening which I was happy with how everything turned out.

Friday was more relaxing with an awards program for Cara in the morning.

Then I worked most of the day and had a Church party last night. Cara played Mary in a Nativity play

She was such a good Mary. She loves playing with babies so she just spent the entire program playing with her doll.

Natie played an angel....

And I had to post this lovely picture of our friend Adam with the awesome hairpiece. His son played Joseph so he was playing with the costume...(Adam, Kaye was the one who promised not to post a picture :)

And of course the evening wouldn't be complete without a visit from Santa...

Whew...That is my week in a nutshell. I am looking forward to tomorrow. A nice relaxing Sunday, complete with a nap :)

Absentee Blogger

I just visited my blog and realized that it has been over a month since I've posted or visited any blogs. I'm almost through with this semester and I've turned in the big projects so hopefully I can get back in the habit of posting :)