The Random Sampler

You know sometimes at restraunts they have an appetizer that's named a "Random Sampler". That's what I've decided this post it....a "Ramdom Sampler"; a little of this a little of that, it's all good right: ) I keep waiting for something exciting to happen to blog about, but nevertheless things have been pretty much same-oh-same-oh, besides the fact that we had a community party last night and Chad and I ended up square dancing, something that Chad informed me we would not participate in on our way to the party, and it was actually a blast. Chad even liked it. So hooray for square dancing.
Ummm....so what else can I say. Oh, updates on Emyri. She is now 13 months old and cute as a button......one of those really cute buttons. She likes to spend her time giving luvs to my in-laws dog Bosco, dancing to a collection of her favorite tunes including Dora the Explorer theme song, Wonder Pets, and the Elmo song, and she also is huge fan of head banging. Seriously folks it's funny stuff. Sometimes I even have to calm her down because I'm afraid she'll give herself shaken baby syndrome. She's also quite sociable and says "hi" to whoever we're by. I was holding her while looking at some shirts for Chad in the mall the other day. There was this young couple shopping next to us and as soon as Emryi made eye contact with them she said "hi". When they laughed and said "hi" back she proceeded to continue to say "hi", "hi", "hi", "hi", for about the next five minutes. I kind of laughed at first and said, "She's pretty friendly" and turned back to my shopping so as not to make things awkward, but after she wouldn't stop I didn't know what to do. Should I look at them and say something else? Should I just gradually move away? The couple finally left, but not without emyri giving them one last good "hi" before they did: ) She's the kind of kid who really likes to make people laugh and once she's found something funny she'll use it for all it's worth: ) She really is so awesome though. I love getting to hang out with this amazing and funny little buddy of mine all the time!
Well this post is already random so to finish it off, everyone should check out my friend melissa's blog and also her sister Tara's blog. They are two of the funniest bloggers I know and always have something to say that will put a smile on your face. I've already got melissa's link on my blog, but I'll put Tara's on and hope that she doesn't think it's too weird that this person she doesn't know finds her completely hillarious and linked her on her blog. I hope things are going awesome for everyone! Good luck with school starting all! I'm out for now: )

Finally!

I feel terrible about my blogging absence for the past...what has it been now...about three weeks. Wow! I've kept putting off posting because I've felt like I've had so much to say that it'll take so long to write, but in actuality I should have just at least been making little posts here and there so I wouldn't feel so overwhelmed with all I was not writing about. Well, I've changed my ways, brought my sister in laws laptop outside along with emyri and plenty of toys to entertain her, and I am dedicating this next however many minutes or hours to complete and publish an entire post no matter what. And right now emyri is sucking on some rocks she found in the drive way while standing on top of her Dora push car about ready to tumble over any second, but I am so dedicated to this post that I'm just gonna let her enjoy her little oddly behaviored self. : ) First things first, I still haven't posted the seven random things about myself that melissa challenged me to do oh so long ago. Mel, I'm not a very fun person to play tag with....I've been it for about three weeks now: ) my bad, hopefully you'll forgive me for my trespasses. Anywho, so I've had quite a while to think of seven random things about myself so here they are take 'em or leave em.

1. I have a semi-secret obsession with the Disney Channel. Does anyone else find the shows they play as entertaining as I do? Among my top favorites are "That's so Raven", "Hannah Montana", Phil of the Future", and "Cory in the House". It amazes me how their simple themes corny jokes and little kid humor captivates me so, but there's no denying it, I seriously find great humor fulfillment in each episode. For those of you who haven't ventured into this funfilled disney entertainment world, you're really missing out: )

2. So when I was a Freshman I was invited to attend a Math competition with the SV team at a nieghboring college. I'm not sure why I was invited, I like math but I'm by no means a genius or anything. Well, the rules of the competition were that we would take a certain number of timed tests throughout the day. For every answer right you would get plus ten and for every answer you got wrong you would get -5, and if you left an answer blank you didn't get any points plus or minus. (or something to that affect). Well, the tests were needless to say pretty tough for a mere freshman and I did leave a lot of the answers blank, but I was quite confident that that ones I did answer had to have been right. We all waited for the tests to be graded and in the mean time ate at the cafeteria, flirted with some boys from other school, I was given the nickname fat veda (another story for another day), and all was well...that was until the results were in. Our team ended up not even being mentioned and the worst thing was that when our coach announced our individual scor\es I had scored an incredible....NEGATIVE THIRTY! Needless to say the kids who were taking this competition seriously were about ready to mutinize (is that a word?) me. But I eventually got over it though to this day I am still a little hesitant in my math skills and also quite calculator dependent.

3. This one is quite embarrassing, only because of the fact that I've had to admit it to not only my optometrist, but 1-800-contacts as of late. The truth is that I've been wearing my contacts that expired two years ago in 2005. Yikes! The thing is that I'm just so cheap that I've kept putting off getting new contacts and despite the fact I'm only supposed to wear one pair for a maximum of three months I've figured why throw them out if their still working and have worn some pairs probably up to around nine months. Man! So I finally went to order some new ones through 1-800-contacts and after calling to verify my perscription with my optometrist they called me back and said "Your doctor said your last perscription expired in 2005, is this true?" I just kind of sheepishly laughed, "Yes, that's true." Well, now I've got to pay for a new perscription and set up another order...crazy stuff huh: )

4. In eighth grade I had this huge crush on this tall, dark, handsome, jock like guy named Jayce. Despite the fact that he openely had a girlfriend who was in highschool and also kind of on the side liked one of my good friends kel, I still thought he was something else. We were in student council together which was definitely an added bonus. There were about ten or so of us in the student council all together and every month or two we'd all take a vote and whoever was voted for was the new president for the next month or two. Well, during the time that this little mishap took place Jayce had been the Pres. for the last month and it was time to vote again for the new president. Well, apparantly I wasn't paying attention, more likely dreaming about jayce, when our advisor announced that we couldn't vote for someone who had already been president, so when we were voting I quickly scirbbled jayce's name on my little unanamous paper, folded it once, and passed it to the front of the class. I sat chit chatting with some of my friends while our advisor tallied up the votes. Suddenly, our teacher must have come upon my little paper with Jayce's name on it because he quieted the class and announced that whoever had voted for jayce again had to come up and vote for someone else. My peers erupted in laughter at the thought of someone dumb enough to vote for jayce again after it had been clearly stated that we couldn't. I tried my best to blend in with their jabbing laughs and looked around the room with my best, "okay, who's the ediot who did it" face, but I'm sure I wasn't fooling anyone because I could feel my face turning bright red. Again the teacher called out, whoever it was just come up here to we can get this over with. By now people were questioning one another, "Was it you?","No, you?". There was no way I was going to walk up there to the front of the room and admit to everyone that I was the love strucken ediot who'd voted for the same dreamy guy twice. The heavens must have looked down upon me that day with pity because just at that moment the bell rang and I bee-lined my awkward eighth grade body out the door, never to reveal my embarrassing secret for as long as I lived.....or until today that is: )

5. When I was little, the only logical conclusion I could come up with concerning how babies were made was that people got pregnant by kissing each other. And man, I seriously believed it too. You should have seen me once the boys in my grade started thinking kiss tag was fun. I'd run my little guts out before I'd ever get caught. And after making a mad dash away from some stinky boy I'd look back and feel so sorry for those girls who were somewhat speed challenged and who'd end up getting kissed. It wasn't until I realized that the girls who had got kissed weren't suddenly having babies that my theory was in fact false.

6. I sometimes have an overwhelming urge and desire to be in a punk band or some really cool alternative band singing and playing my heart out on a mic and guitar in front of hundreds of people. Really though, I can't imagine how much of an adrenaline rush that would be. How awesome would it be to have your song be the song that stuck in people's heads all day at work: ) Then I could wear some really crazy off the wall clothes and people would think it was cool rather than just wierd or untasteful: )

7. I'll end here with a fond childhood memory. Does anyone else remember jumping on their tramp with their little brother and thinking that it would be cool to throw dog food up on the slanted roof then lay down with your mouths wide open to see how many you could catch in your mouth? Those days were the best weren't they: )

Here's to becoming a more dedicated and more frequent blogger in the future....cheers!

Sweet Pictures eh?

This is a pictures, actually a whole bunch of pictures, that my little brother put together. I thought it was pretty cool so I decided to post it. He's pretty handy with the ol' photoshop: )

The Tragic Tale of the Sticky Mouse Trap

Yesterday the saddest thing happened. We went over to my parents house for Sunday Dinner and after dinner Chad and I started looking at his high school pictures...which was quite fun by the way, while Emyri played around. After a while Chad took Emyri upstairs while I kept rummaging through his pictures. About 15 minutes passed and I decided to go upstairs to see where everyone was. I found Chad laying on the tramp outside, my dad, grandma, and my little brother and his friends in the front room, but the one person I didn't find was Emers. I went back to the tramp. "Chad, where's emyri?" "Doesn't your dad have her?" "I don't think so." I said as I headed back into the house. I started searching in every room when I heard a faint cry from the back room in our house. When I opened the door I found the saddest little tear streaked face you could ever see. Upon further inspection of the sad baby I found the reason for her woes. I looked down to find that her tiny hand was thoroughly stuck in one of those gross green extra sticky mouse traps...you know the kind....the ones that are so sticky that when a mouse happens upon them their rodent bodies become so entangled in the goo that they easily give up all hopes of ever getting out and eventually die in a ball of glue-matted fur. After I picked her up, wiped the tears away, and pulled the nasty trap off, the next task was to try to remove the green goo and seriously...that stuff is ruthless. It took another 20 minutes and multiple sticky stuff remove it products before her fingers would stop sticking together. Needless to say it was quite the experience for this almost one year old.

Jenny Philips and Scuba Diving?

I was rummaging through some of my in-laws music here at the house, in hopes of finding something fun to learn, and I came across this music by Jenny Phillips. I've heard some of her songs before and thought they were so good. I especially love the words she uses in this song...

Every Breath

His hands are catching your tears
And even without any words He hears
You feel so far, but He's right where you are and He knows
Every Breath, every pain
He knows your heart and He knows your name
The giver of life, the light in your soul
Oh come home, come rest, let Him bless
Your every breath
Silence your voice and be still
And even without any words you will feel
You think you're far, but He lives in your heart and He knows
Every breath, every pain
He knows your heart and He knows your name
The giver of life, the light in your soul
Oh come home, come rest, let him bless
Your every breath
There's nowhere you can go
That He hasn't been below
Every breath, every pain
He knows your heart and He knows your name
The giver of life, the light in your soul
Oh come home, come rest, let Him bless
Your every breath

I was laying by emyri the other night singing this song to her as she was falling asleep and it hit me just how much I wanted her to know that the things in that song were true for her, that He lives in her heart, knows her name, is so close, and loves her with all that He is. I hope that if Chad and I don't get anything else right when it comes to parenting our kids that at least we will leave them with a sure knowledge, nothing doubting, that they are Gods children and He loves them perfectly and He is right there no matter what.


Anyway, things have been going good. I worked at the Red Baron yesterday, the drive in restaraunt that kel wrote about in her blog earlier. I didn't spill anybody's drinks down the side of there car, or misinterpret any foriegner's order (*see kel's blog), but I did flip some guys change up in his face and all over the ground (must have been an arm spasm or something), and I got attacked by a giant killer moth, seriously this thing was as big as a well fed humming bird not joke. It came out of nowhere, rearing it's ugly head and flapping into the window that I was trying to grap someone's order out of ( I work outside as a car hop). It was seriously wigging me out and I'm sure all of the people sitting in their cars were enjoying the free entertainment as I was trying to dodge the hairy little beast. Fortunately my boss came to my rescue with a huge fly swatter. We were just hoping that no giant hairy moth rights activists were outside watching: ) My boss said that those kinds of moths can actually sting you...who'd a thunk. I'm just glad it's dead.


Well we're headed out to yet another family reunion tomorrow in Heber City. It's at this cool place with a swimming pool and lot's of fun stuff to do so we're pretty excited about it. Chad's even gets to go scuba diving there. He just got certified this last semester. I've known Chad for how long (long time) and I never ever knew he was interested in scuba diving at all, but he heard about this class on campus where you could get certified and it was all he could talk about. It was like this long lost dreams suddenly surfaced and seriously he was like a little boy at Christmas time. It cost us a little bit, and when I say little bit I mean quite a bit, for him to take the class and get certified but it's been worth it seeing how excited he is about it. Really though, if you brought up the subject he could talk you ear off, so it's good: ) Now he wants me to get certified, but even though I'd like to think I'd be brave and it wouldn't affect me much, I'm really not sure how I'd do that far under water breathing through a mask. I don't know if I'd freak out or if I'd be fine. Maybe we'll see someday....who knows. Anyway life is great and emyri is cute (just thought I'd throw that in there). I better go check and see if she's up from her nap. love you all-
-peace-

Here's the crew minus my oldest brother and his wife and of course my mom who is taking the picture. (I'm sure the weird look on my face is from trying to hold in a laugh over something Chad said or did: )

(I know this isn't the greatest picture of emyri and I, but I didn't have many to choose from. I need to take more pictures with her: )

Two weekends ago we got together with my family at Bear Lake. We rented this really fun and cute cabin and had a blast together. It really was such a great weekend. (That's what these pictures are from) One of the highlights of the weekend occurred when my grandma was telling everyone goodbye before she left. She's this cutest little grandma marge who says some of the funniest things and is always so happy. Well my little nephew Jaxton who is 5 said, "Bye Grandma!" as she was walking down the stairs. Grandma responded with a, "Goodbye Doll!" And Jaxton just looked at me with the most surprised look on his face and said in an astonished tone, "She called me Doll!" It was so cute the way he thought it was so funny that grandma had called him Doll. I died laughing...that may be one of those stories that you had to have been there or known the people to think it was funny, but just trust me on this one...: )

Then this last weekend we had a family reunion with all of Chad's dad's family. It was really fun and I got to meet a lot of the family that I had never met before. They all came up here from St. George and spent the weekend. The only bad thing was that one of Chad's cousins and her husband decided to take a four wheeler up this trail by Chad's house and they ended up rolling it. I'm not exactly sure if his cousin hit her head on a rock or if the fourwheeler landed on her head, but she ended up having some severe head trauma and was life flighted to Salt Lake that night. It all happened so fast and was pretty scary for a while. I felt so bad for their two little girls. The five year old kept crying every once in a while because she wanted her mom. They have a one and a half year old also. She was such a good sport but I'm sure she just wanted her mom after a while too. Chad's Uncle Deloyd would call every so often from the hospital and update us on how Kim was doing. Things were pretty uncertain for a while but she's doing a lot better now. She can understand what people are saying to her and isn't as confused anymore. She was also able to get up and walk around after a few days, but she's having a hard time talking and getting her words out. We just hope she'll be able to get back to herself soon. It's sometimes scary how uncertain and fragile life is but as I was thinking about it the night of her accident I kept thinking that Heavenly Father really is in control. Our lives are in His hands and to me that was the most comforting thing.

Anyway life is good and things are going great. I actually worked out this morning and it felt good: )

Wowzers!

Well, it's been a crazy busy couple of weeks and despite the fact that I started blogging with full intentions of posting frequently I haven't posted in forever....my bad. But at least since the last two weeks have been jam packed with nonstop action I won't be lacking for things to write about. So our adventures began around the first of June when we headed to Lake Mead with our friends the Onkeses. It was a way fun vacation and Emyri was such a good sport. The drive took forever, about 10 hours, but emyri slept most of the time. So that was good, but I really started to think this taking a ten month old to the lake was a bad idea when we first got there and it was so hot you just wanted to strip down and jump in the water, seriously though I don't know if I've ever been in that hot of weather, but everything turned out great. We lathered emers in sunscreen at least four times a day, gave her tons to drink, made a shady spot for her to take naps with beach towels, and would spray her periodically with a spray bottle to cool her off. I was so proud of her. Everybody there kept saying how good of a baby she was. They were worried when they heard that we were bringing our baby, but seriously I think Heavenly Father blessed Emyri to be alright and even have some fun too, so it was great.

One of the neatest things about our trip was watching the Onkeses together and realizing how neat of a family they are. Chad and I learned a lot from being around them. They are some of the kindest and most fun people I've ever met. And they love to just be with each other. I loved watching them interact and laugh and talk together. One of the days was too windy on the lake so we ended up all going to Las Vegas together. We just hung out and went to all of the free things we could find. One place we went was to this huge fish aquarium with tropical fish. I learned so much about finding the amazing in the simpleness of life and about how a parent can make even the most simple thing be such a neat experience for a whole family. When we first saw the aquarium I just quickly glanced at it and thought that's pretty neat, okay what's next, but the Onkeses all sat down on a bench that was right next to the glass of the aquarium and started pointing out all of the cool things they saw. We ended up staying there for about an hour, but it was so much fun. Everyone kept pointing out cool things and saying how neat it all was. At one point Ron, their dad, turned to Mason their youngest son and said, "Isn't this so amazing Mas?" Mason just couldn't stop smiling. Chad and I talked about it later and decided we wanted to be the kind of parent who help our children discover the joy and amazement in the little and simple things in life. Life is always exciting for them because they find awe in it all. I'm glad I was able to be taught that little lesson. Chad and I also learned that making memories with your family is always worth it and will be the things you remember and talk about all your life.
Well anyway we stayed about five days then headed home. As soon as we got back to SV on Thursday night we went straight to bed then woke up Friday morning and headed over to the Jr. High track to help Chad's mom set up for the Relay For Life Cancer Walk. Chad's grandma died of breast cancer and his cousin Kory died of cancer at age 17 so a few years ago his mom started a team to raise money for cancer research and participate in the Relay For Life. The cool thing about Chad's mom is that she puts 110% into everything she does and she always makes things extra fun. Our team dressed up like pirates and sold plastic swords, eye patches, pirate balloons, candy, hot chocolate, burritos, glow stick bracelets, and other cool trinkets. Our whole team ended up raising about $5000 dollars. It was a neat event. Everybody's team takes turn walking around the track so that every team has a team member walking for a whole 24 hours. My mom watched emyri that night because it was so cold while we stayed and helped sell things and participate in the events they had going on. I even convinced Chad to enter in the Fear Factor competition and the best part is that....he won! He had to be one of the fastest at catching and eating a gold fish, had to put a puzzle together while being shocked by a shock collar, and then had to pull cheese off of a mouse trap without setting it off. I couldn't believe he won....it was so fun to see him up there. We got a hundred bucks out of the whole deal too. It was great. That night we slept at my parents and then woke up early the next morning to head back to the Relay to take our turns walking from 8:00 to 10:00. The early morning walk was actually really peaceful and I was grateful for the time to think. The night before I actually found a lump in my armpit when I was getting ready for bed. It seemed so ironic that I'd find a lump the night of the cancer walk. Even though we weren't sure exactly what it was and it could be a number of things it really made both Chad and I think a lot. We fell asleep that night worried and holding each other. Chad was really close to his grandma and after she died of breast cancer while he was on his mission I think he's been so much more worried and cautious about cancer. He's always telling me to make sure and get my mammograms and says we should go in and get checked for cancer just in case. The next morning we didn't talk about it much but we both thought about it a lot. I couldn't stop thinking about it all day, and even though I was sick to my stomach with worry sometimes it was like a peaceful feeling encircled us both and our love for each other and for life was so much deeper. Chad's been trying so hard lately to remember to read his scriptures and be better with prayers...so it was neat when the morning after finding the lump we woke up early and first thing Chad had us do was pray and read scriptures. Chad even said maybe Heavenly Father put that lump there to help him to change, because it really made him think about his life and what meant the most to him. (I love chad so much) Anyway, we decided that I'd go in first thing Monday morning and have it checked out. I wasn't able to get into my doctor until Wednesday. They had me do some blood work and they thought at first it was lymphatitis, an infection in my lymph node, but the blood work showed that everything was normal. The blood work apparently also would have shown if it was a tumor, so they think it's probably just an over sized lymph node. They just told me to watch it and if it gets any bigger to come back in. Even though this tiny lump was quite nerve racking for about a week, I'm grateful for the way it drew both chad and I closer to our Heavenly Father and closer to the spirit. It's funny how certain news can suddenly spin your world and really make you think, but also draw you so much closer to heaven.

(Anyway, jumping back to Saturday...sorry my thoughts are so random) After the Relay For Life ended at noon on Saturday we went home and showered and then headed to Rexburg to go to a going away party for some of our friends down there. It was tons of fun to see a lot of our friends from school and to hang out. I even found out that my good friend Ashely W. is having twins. I'm so excited for her. She had a miscarriage that was pretty hard for her this last January and it was neat to talk to her about it all. She said she just feels like she was supposed to have both babies in her home and that's why she is having twins. I'm so happy for her. Well we stayed the night there in our apartment then headed home early sunday morning to make it back in time for church. I sang in sacrament meeting with Chad's sister Kyrie (which is a big thing for me...I get really scared, but it turned out great and I was glad that I got the chance to overcome my fear a little more and sing in front of people) and then both chad and I taught lessons that day as well. After church Chad and I just sat down and took a breather. We'd been going non stop for so long that we were really grateful to have a little break. Even though it's been so busy, we've been so lucky to get to spend time together and with some of the people that we love most. Well, this is plenty long enough so I'm out for now. Hopefully I'll get to write again soon so I won't feel the need to catch up writing about everything. Life is amazing....
love vandi

p.s. Other Important news
*Emyri started officially walking on June 11th (it's so fun to see her wobble around)
*We're all registered for this upcoming semester (I'm doing a 20 hr. a week internship and we're both taking 14 credits and Chad's going to work part time....we're not sure how it's all going to work out...but somehow I guess it will: )
*My goal for this week is to organize our finances and our budget...a much needed thing: ) If anyone has any advice about how to best manage your finances I love to hear about it. thanks