Update

Kyle starts his student teaching next week! He has had meetings all day this week so the"madness" has begun. He's been getting up at 5:30 in order to make it to the gym, come home from work and make phone calls, etc. for work, is at the school from 8-3, then works until 8 or 9. On top of that, he has 2 online classes and will have lessons to plan for teaching. I'm not sure when or how he's going to do that, but he never ceases to amaze me with his productiveness. Is that a word?

I have been quite the opposite. Besides not having a lot of appointments at work, I've been really fatigued. Those that are sick of hearing me talk about it can skip this paragraph. I feel like I haven't been the same since I had mono in December. I used to be somewhat like Kyle-I was pretty productive and I rarely just sat around. I think I wore my parents out when I was in high school because I was constantly busy and always on the go. When I was living in Provo I worked 40 hours a week, and for a year was working 45 or 50 and would spend my spare time cleaning or doing something fairly active. It's frustrating for me to have changed, I feel like a different person because I don't have the energy I used to have. A couple months ago it got a lot worse, to the point where I had to fight to stay awake every time I got in the car, and I could no longer finish my aerobics classes at the gym or at least without taking a few breaks. A couple times I even started blacking out and had to sit down. I finally went to a doctor (it took me a while to get a good recommendation) and he ordered blood work to check my thyroid, liver, iron, and blood sugar. Everything came back normal, which made me more frustrated because I was hoping for an answer. I went back and he decided he wanted me to go to a sleep study. He thinks I could have sleep apnea. He had mentioned it before, and said if my labs came back normal this was his next guess. He also ordered more blood work to test for pregnancy (this was my idea-everyone here thinks I'm pregnant because of how I've been feeling and I wanted to be able to tell them I'm not, once and for all) and also Epstein-Barr Virus. This is something a couple people have that I know and their symptoms seemed to match mine. I had thought it was something you can get from having mono, but the research I've been doing says that EBV can cause mono. When I went back to the doctor a third time, he told me I did test positive for it, but that it's dormant. He seemed to think it could still explain why I've been feeling the way I have because that often causes Chronic fatigue syndrome and he thinks it's likely that I have that. But he still wants me to go to the sleep study place. Anyway, long story short, I'm confused because I don't really understand what is wrong with me or how to help it. My doctor said to take it easy at the gym and gradually try to build to where I was before. Even just walking on the treadmill wipes me out so it's easy to follow orders to take it easy. The problem is, I don't have energy at work and I definitely don't have energy by the time I get home and the last thing I want is for Kyle to have to worry about cleaning when he has enough on his plate. I don't like people worrying about me, and I don't like asking for prayers for myself, but I could use them right now.

On a brighter note, Cancun was amazing!! We had a blast and I'm going to post pictures eventually. We have so many and I want to figure out how to make collages so that my post isn't 15 pages long. So until then....

cAmPiNg

The last few minutes of the sunset...I was too late.

We had 5 desserts in one night. We got ice cream before dinner and then later roasted s'mores and starbursts over the fire, and had hot chocolate and dutch oven apple crisp. Did I mention that I love camping?

This is taken from the beach and our campsite is just right over that incline.

Kyle had a blast on this beach because he had boys and toys to play with. I'm always content to just nap or read the whole time. The guys taught him "Smash ball". I'm not sure if it's a real game or if they made it up, but it's basically ping pong with no table. They also did some skim boarding and boogie boarding. I'm such a baby....still not used to the salt in the water. Kelsey and I soaked up the sun with some good R&R. And took pictures of course.

Kelsey!

Our cousin Kelsey came to visit us from Utah for a full week! It was so great spending time with her and it was fun for me to get to know her better. She is basically another sister-in-law for me-she's pretty close to the Haskell's. She's the only child in her family and I asked her one day if she ever wished she had siblings. She answered without hesitation, "No, I had the Haskell's."

I had a slow week at work (shocking, I know) so we were able to do lots. Kyle took Monday off and we did the whole Hollywood and Beverly Hills thing. That was fun because this time we bought a map of movie stars' homes and used our GPS to find some. Not all of them were accurate....I was hoping to take a picture of Sandra Bullock's home for my father-in-law (she is his favorite) but instead I'm pretty sure it took us to Snow White's cottage. However, we did see the homes (or rather, the tall bushes hiding them) of Courtney Cox, Jennifer Anniston, Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes, and Tim McGraw/Faith Hill! It was fun, and as usual, Kyle was a good sport. I wish I had a recording of the way he said each person's name as we pulled onto their street. You'll just have to imagine it-he would say, "Ohhhh Sandra?" As in, come out come out wherever you are! He also had fun trying to persuade us that random people were them. For example, after we failed to find Meg Ryan's home (she is one of my favorites so I was really excited about it) he suggested that some Mexican gardner in front of a nice house down the road was actually her in disguise. Kelsey and I know better than to believe anything that comes from Kyle, but we did manage to convince ourselves of a few things. After pulling away from Faith Hill's house (bushes) Kelsey and I were sure she was driving the car behind us. Kelsey even managed to snap a picture but we're pretty sure now that it wasn't her. And....we may or may not have jumped out of the car thinking that we saw Eric Dane (AKA McSteamy) outside of a sandwich shop near Rodeo Drive. We drove about a block before we got out, and we were very calm and collected as we walked by...only to realize it wasn't him. But on the bright side, we never had to figure out a subtle way to suddenly turn and walk back in the direction we came from.

We drove to the "tourist" place to view the sign and

we were a little disappointed in how far away it was.

Even the Rite Aid in Beverly Hills was fancy

This is the gate leading to Jennifer Anniston's house.

Exciting I know.

The palm trees lining Courtney Cox's home.

Courtney Cox's home...doesn't look like much from

this view, especially with that truck in front, but I stole

this picture below from the internet that shows the rest





We wanted to see the Fresh Prince of Belair House before we left, but traffic was crazy so we decided to put it on our agenda next time. We went to Santa Monica and spent the evening there instead of heading back during rush hour. We went to the Santa Monica Pier which has a lot of fun things to do and supposedly is in a lot of movies. I know Forrest Gump is one, but not sure what others. Kelsey and I rode the ferris wheel which had a great view. Kyle spent that time strategizing his moves for a game that he played. The object is to make it to the top of the ladder without flipping over and is of course much harder than it seems. Lets just say, if I hadn't snapped this picture the second he got on, there would be no picture. Our plan was to watch the sunrise on the beach but it was actually pretty chilly so we did a little shopping instead. It has been in the 90's and 100's all month, and of course the week Kelsey was here it was only 70 along the coast. Near the water that's always pretty chilly.

On the ferris wheel

View from the ferris wheel

On Tuesday Kelsey and I went to the Yucaipa Regional Park which is a huge, open park that has a campground and lake, and also a man-made lake that's basically a pool with two big slides. We had a blast. I would go there every day if it didn't cost money, but it will be a fun place to take our nieces and nephews when they visit. Wednesday we went to Newport Beach and on the way home we stopped at Corona Del Mar and took some pictures. I have heard great things about that beach but didn't realize how close it was to Newport. It was really pretty. Thursday we went shopping. There are lots of cool malls around here, and we went to one that I always hear about but had never been. (One of the best things about having company is getting to explore new things.) And Friday, since I had no appointments for the weekend, we decided to go camping. Some friends from church were camping in Carpenteria, which is near Ventura and is 2.5 hours away and they invited us to come along. We don't have camping gear but we brought blankets and decided we would rough it for the night. The campsite was RIGHT next to the beach, (hence the reason we drove 3 hours to go camping) and it was awesome. One of the family's had an extra tent so we slept in there. I kind of wanted to try sleeping on the beach, but we figured it probably wasn't allowed so instead Kyle set his alarm for 5am and we went to the beach to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately it was really cloudy so there wasn't much of a sight to see. We fell back asleep and woke up a couple hours later when a beach patrol guy drove up next to us.

Him: "Are you camping here?"

Us: "Yes, just right there" (Pointed to our site which was just yards away)

Him: "Well, you're not allowed to sleep on the beach"

Us: "Okay, well we didn't. We just came out to see the sunrise a couple hours ago."

Him: "Oh, ok. Well we had some complaints that you've been out here since really early this morning."

Us: "Nope, just a couple hours."

Him: "Okay then" (Got back in his car and drove away)

Seriously, who has nothing better to do than call the beach patrol and tell on two innocent people watching a sunrise? Lame.

I remembered how much I love camping and I'm hoping to do it some more, especially while it is just us. The other families had kids and it looked like so much work. Mom, what are those things called you have that we use to cook pizzas in over the fire? Nobody here has every heard of them, and I dont understand how people camp without them! I put the pizzas on foil instead and they were good, but they're definitely better with those. I'll post the camping pictures later because this post is getting LONG.

It was great having another girl around and I miss Kelsey already! I didn't know how much we have in common. I figured I would get some good chick flick watching in, but I had no idea she loved all my favorite shows-One Tree Hill, Friends, The O.C., Gilmore Girls. etc. I'm so glad she came! I'm going to need her to come back real soon. :)

4th of July

I didn't have any appointments the weekend of the 4th, and Kyle needed to take a test for school which he can do for free at BYU (he has to pay $60 to take them here) so we headed to Utah to surprise his family. We planned it so that we would arrive in time for our nephew Ezra's first birthday party, and it was perfect timing because we stepped into the backyard as his family was blessing the food. When they opened their eyes, we were there! We had only 2 full days, but we managed to fit a lot in. After Kyle's test and Ezra's party, the sister-in-laws went to a late showing of Eclipse. But not just the girls-some of our husbands came also, including.....are you sitting down?.....MINE! The next day we attempted to go boating but it lasted about ten minutes once we realized the water was way too choppy. Instead we went to the Lindon Aquatic Center. The boys had fun on the "flowrider" which is like surfing in a pool. Next we followed the Haskell family 4th of July tradition which is eating KFC at a park in Springville and playing softball and kickball. The boys also kept up their tradition of having a homerun derby. After THAT....we went to Stadium of Fire and saw Carrie Underwood! Andy and Amber had 4 tickets and Justin and Leslie were going to go with them but when they learned how much I love Carrie Underwood they offered the tickets to us. They are so sweet and we appreciated that so much. It was my first time at Stadium of Fire and I LOVED it. For those that don't know, Provo puts on a huge patriotic show at the BYU football stadium every year and they always feature someone famous. At the end they put off really great fireworks. One of my favorite parts was when members from each branch of the military walked onto the field and they had members in the crowd stand also. The other was the National Anthem. Right after Carrie Underwood finished singing it, 4 jets flew over the stadium really close together. I was fighting back tears almost the whole show, but that's what really got me. Then one of the pilots came on the big screen, saluted us and talked to us while he was in the air. Even if they didn't put on a concert, I would want to go every year just for the show and the fireworks. Thanks again to Justin, Leslie, Andy and Amber. It was amazing.

On Sunday we surprised my best friend Ashley, in Orangeville, which is almost 2 hours from Payson. Her husband knew I was coming but she had no idea. When we arrived she happened to be at her mom's house grabbing something. She came back home and found me sitting on her couch. We just stayed for a couple hours, but it was so great to see her and her family. I always forget to take pictures when I go there.

After that we had dinner at Andy and Amber's, and then headed up to the cabin for the night with some of the fam. We love it up there. The next morning we were able to see Kyle's best friend Benny and his new wife Tacy on our way out of town. 6 hours later we arrived in Vegas and found that it was going to be bumper to bumper traffic probably the rest of the way home, and decided to stay the night there. Ryan, Stacy and their kids happened to be staying the week in Vegas while Ryan worked and they invited us to stay the night with them at the Excalibur. It was my first night staying in Vegas so I was excited. And of course we're always up for more time with our family. It was such a fun-filled weekend. I'm hoping we can make it back again before Kyle starts student teaching. Fingers crossed that I have another weekend with no appointments-preferably Labor Day weekend when my cousin Anna gets baptized!

The simple pleasures in life

I'm very appreciative of the beautiful world we live in and I feel that I'm pretty good at recognizing the beauty of my surroundings. In Michigan I loved the lakes, the green grass and all of the trees-especially in the fall. In Utah I absolutely loved the mountains, and here, I LOVE the palm trees, the beaches, the mountains, and the sunsets. I realized the other day, however, that I don't notice the small things enough.

Like the parrots we have flying around outside of our apartment. Every night.

The lady that lives behind us mentioned once that since she moved in 25 years ago, there have been parrots flying around. Apparently a couple of them escaped an Aviary, mated, and have made lots and lots of baby parrots. Anyway, we forgot that she told us that until a few days ago. We are pretty used to the loud birds here, (we have crows that wake us up every morning-they like to play right outside our bedroom window) but we don't pay much attention to them. However, the other day there were some really loud ones outside and Kyle was watching them out the window and noted that they looked "kinda funky". We had a couple over for dinner and I think it was Chad that realized they were parrots. There were tons, it was crazy! (Imagine our surprise had we not heard about them first) They're so pretty-mostly green and a couple other colors. Sorry about the bad picture. I have been trying to capture a close-up but have so far failed. It's so weird, they come around at the same time every night-between about 7:15 and 7:45. I've never even noticed them before and now I can't wait to see them every night. I think we're officially the coolest aunt and uncle ever-we live near Disneyland AND we have about 100 pet parrots. :) If only our nieces and nephews were close by to show them off to...

Random updates

We have been wanting to go on a late honeymoon since we never really did. The last we talked about it, we agreed to maybe go to San Fransisco for a couple of days instead. However, long story short- Kyle kind of surprised me the other day and booked a five day all inclusive trip to CANCUN!! We leave on August 16, which is Kyle's birthday. We're so excited! We've been looking at pictures online and it looks beautiful. It will be our last little hurrah before Kyle starts his student teaching. He's going to be crazy busy at that point-teaching all day and selling insurance until dark.

This isn't very exciting, but it's the only other thing that I can think of that is new with us. I finally brushed up on an old card game my cousins and siblings and I used to love playing. It's called Hand and Foot. I taught it to Kyle and we've been playing it in our spare time Like, literally, we play it every night. That and Skip-Bo. He had NEVER played Skip-Bo until last week. That is just crazy to me. We are still making more friends which has been fun. They are mostly from church. There's a new couple that moved in recently that we've been hanging with and another new couple that just moved in are coming over Friday night for games and dessert.

I've also been reading a lot. I sort of go in spurts with reading and I hadn't been for a long time-not since Breaking Dawn and before that it was probably New Moon. When my family came to visit in March, my mom brought books with her and I remembered that I liked to read too. So I've picked up on it again. My favorite author is Nicholas Sparks and right now I'm reading "Three Weeks with my Brother". It's a true story about a trip around the world that he takes with his brother and they reminisce about their childhood. It's really good-I highly recommend it. Work is still pretty slow, but getting a little better for me. Kyle's doing well. He recently switched to a new insurance company and it's working out great. We are still loving it here, despite the heat. It's been over 100 degrees AND humid here. And our so-called swamp cooler isn't making our apartment very cool. We love all the friends we have and all the fun things to do. Today I went with a couple girls and their kids to a fun pool that's just $2 to get in to. Last Monday on my day off I went to the beach with Laura and her kids. My favorite thing about the beach is seeing dolphins. I'm not sure if I didn't notice them before, or if they just weren't as close to shore, but the last couple times I've been to the beach we've seen lots.

Since I don't have a picture to go with this randomness, I'll post a picture of the pretty sunflowers Kyle just brought home for me. Have I mentioned how sweet my husband is??

I just remembered...I DO have a picture for this post. In fact, it's perfect because it's of us playing cards outside one night because we couldn't stand the heat in our apartment. No matter how hot it is during the day, it always cools way down in the evenings. Thank goodness for that and for our patio!

Sundays

As you can probably tell, blogging doesn't come easily for me. You could say I'm lazy, or that I just find other things to do with my time. And time is something I do have plenty of, so I can't use that as an excuse. Anyways, I suddenly felt like blogging just now, so I thought I better post something before my mood changes. And I suppose I should start posting things other than our trips we go on. Since I haven't been so great at journaling and this is the next best thing, maybe I should write about the little everyday things.

I've always loved Sundays. Not only because of church, but because it's the one day of the week that is completely spent with loved ones. Growing up we came home from church and had a late lunch (usually pancakes-sometimes mom would suggest something nicer but we would opt for pancakes) and then just spend the day being lazy. It would almost always end with us all in the living room watching a movie together. In college it was the same-my roommates and I would usually eat together after church. Sometimes we'd plan a meal together, but usually it ended up a shmorgishborg (sp? I actually googled the word to find the right spelling and this is what it showed but I don't know...) with random food that we each contributed from our own cupboards and parts of the refrigerator. And after naps, or visiting family, or hanging with boys, etc, we'd usually end up in the living room together, if only for a few minutes to catch up from the day. While I love Sundays just as much as I did before, they've actually become more eventful and not as relaxing as they were before it was just Kyle and I. We've been so lucky to move into such a friendly ward and make so many friends. Every Sunday is spent with at least one or two families. We usually do dinner with a family and then spend the evenings with Cody and Laura playing games. Sometimes it's hard to be away from family but we're grateful to have such great friends here and to truly feel at home even when our family is so far away.

We invited the sweetest man from our ward over for dinner tonight. His name is Stanley and he's an 83 year old African American that looks and acts about 70. I love him. He was a Jehovah's Witness and joined our church just a few months ago after the missionaries knocked on his door and started teaching him. He literally has a twinkle in his eye and his happiness is contagious. He has 10 children and we learned tonight that he has 159 grandchildren (including great and great-great). He enlisted in WWII in 1945, lying that he was 18 when he was really 16. He said they didn't find out until he was being released 4 years later and they saw on his birth certificate that he was born in 29. He had us laughing so much.

The rest of this night is going to end with a movie like old times. We love playing games with Cody and Laura but it's been a busy weekend and we're both ready to just relax. I just love hanging with my hubby. Even when we're 83 like Stanley, I'm going to love relaxing with him on Sundays. I hope we have lots and lots of grandchildren to play with also. Kyle had a meeting at church tonight and before he left he told me, "You can pick out any movie you want and we'll watch it when I get back." I stared at him with my mouth hanging open (I'm sure I've mentioned how he feels about chick flicks-words like that do NOT come out of his mouth.) Then, as he's walking out the door, "But it comes with parameters. I was like, "What does that mean?" He answered, "I'll have to see what movie it is first."