Nursery

Today Cody gave a lesson in Nursery about prayers. He showed these pictures talking about thing we can ask Heavenly Father for.

Strong Bodies:



And happy families:


This picture was taken in 1995 - I was 10 with pretty skinny arms :) Sometimes I think how much I have changed in the last 15 years ... I am taller & fatter; I will call my friends without being forced to; I like boys, since I am married to one :) I might be a little more snotty too.
I wonder if I am a person my 10 year old self would like. I hope so - I wish that I had written down somewhere what I had hoped to be like. I did write down that I wanted to live in my parent's basement forever. Good thing that has changed :) Still love you though mom & dad!

Chilly Weather = James Bond

Cody & I went out on the town last night (read: mattress shopping) and it was FREEZING!

okay, it wasn't that cold - but I was :)

I zipped up my coat all the way, then Cody told me I looked like a James Bond villain's wife. Really?

Monday, Monday

My Monday has been rather lackluster, but I get such a kick out of reading about everybody else's lives that I figured I might as well throw something up here - blogging more often is one of my New Year's resolutions after all :)
My speech babies were nice today - which was a pleasant surprise. One of my first graders told me he visited his grandma, who has cancer & and is 'losing every single hair on her body.' I just wanted to snuggle him and tell him that I know how stinky it is to see your grandma hurting, and no matter what happens you will always love your grandma and she will always love you.
On a totally unrelated note, I realized today that I have WAY too many clothes. I feel like I wear them all - but Cody thinks otherwise. I say there are other people in the world that have as many clothes as I do. Cody dared me to find someone! The nerve! Throw me a bone here guys . . . count the number of tops & pants you have, leave a comment telling me the number of each separately, and if anybody has more than me I will send them a treat/prize for helping me be right :)
Hope your Monday has been fab!

the golden age of mexican restaurants

When I was in grad school, one of my professors hailed us as living in "the golden age of mexican restaurants in Utah Valley".  Then he went on to name about 15 establishments and their specialty.  The scary thing was that he was spot on.
Fast forward two years . . . Cody & I had decided to come to Iowa.  One of his cousins who had lived in Wisconsin warned us that the further east we traveled, the worse the mexican food would be.  For most people, that wouldn't be a big deal.  But it was a little scary for two mexican food junkies like us.  I hoped that Cody's cousin was wrong -- but he was 100% right. 
We have been trying really hard to find a good mexican place here.  Tonight, we may have had success.  Just take a look at Cody's $10 dinner:

The salsa was fab; the chips were delish; my diet coke was adequately caffinated; and the food was the best we have had here (with Taco Bell coming in a close second). 
To top things off, the to-go box had 'gracias' embossed on the lid.  Lovely!
Gracias for reading!  And commenting :)

three for one

It's your lucky day, because I am writing one giant blog post that should really be three separate posts.  Without further ado:

Christmas Break

We had a fabulous Christmas break with both of our families -- Utah for 5 days; IF for 2 days; Mesa for 3 days.  Unfortunately, it was freezing in Arizona (literally) until about 2 hours before we left.  Oh well, I guess all of the snuggles in Utah and cousin time/inventory in Idaho made up for it.  And the fact Cody went to the Fiesta Bowl with Dave, Ty & my dad.  No pictures of that -- they are boys.

To ree, or lottery

Cody made up that title.  If you say it out loud in an Asian voice, you will get it.  But I digress . . .
Today when I was at my office I got a nice Christmas card from my boss with a lottery ticket inside of it.  I am not sure if I want to use it or not -- probably not, because I don't even know how the lottery works.  But, it could be the most expensive present I get this year!  Maybe I will create a poll to see what my faithful readers would do.  Or you could just comment :)

Happy birthday Jessie

Tomorrow is Jessie birthday!  She is so fabulous -- I am lucky my Davey married somebody that I like a lot.  Otherwise, he would have been in big trouble :) 
Jessie & I are already planning to move much closer together after our husbands are finished with school.  It's no fun living so far apart, but we would like to thank Allegiant Airlines for starting a direct flight from Cedar Rapids (25 minutes from our house) to Mesa (10 minutes from their house) within a couple of weeks of each of us moving.
Love you Jess!  Have a great day -- see you soon!
 

Jessie & I on New Year's Eve @ PFs.  Yum!