The Babies of 2008

Our family had 3 new additions in 2008. Three beautiful babies born in March, August, and November. Here they are, aren't they beautiful children?

On the left is Miriam, this is my sister Kirstin's little girl. She was born in August. She crawls around everywhere and has started experimenting with walking. She is a smart girl and so adventurous. What a cutie!

On the bottom is Gavin, this is my brother Bjorn's big boy. He was born in March. He's a bruiser. He is running all around the place and gives his mom quite a work out. His eyes are so piercing how blue they are and he is so loving and sweet.

On the right is Julia, my brother Leif's little girl. Julia was born in November and she is such a sweet little girl with her big eyes and baby fat. She has such a sweet smile and happy disposition.

It was a wonderful weekend being able to be with all 5 nephews and 4 nieces. So much fun!! I love them all in their own little way.

Update here, update there

I know its been too long since I’ve updated but that is just because I’m busy and having fun!

Update on my running:
I’ve been pretty good about running every Saturday morning when I wake up. Its great to see improvement. Before, I was stopping at least 2 times to take a breather and then finish. Now I’m able to push myself and only stop once before finishing.
I’m a bit different than most people; I don’t like to listen to music when I run. I like hearing the wind and my strides. I also like to hear how I’m breathing so I can make sure I am taking quality breaths. It is actually pretty relaxing to hear the rhythm of my feet in concordance with my breathing. I suggest trying it sometime if you are someone that listens to music when you run.

Update on work:
Since Local.com is growing fast and doing well considering today’s market, my department is being split up into client services and partner services. I was given the option to move over to the new side, partner services, and work on a larger scale with our partners. I took the opportunity! I’m so excited, I get to work with big guns, people that make our company a lot of money. Have I said yet how excited I am?? I really can’t complain… they also gave me a raise. Life is goooood.

Update on life:
Life is good! I’ve made and honest effort to be closer to the Lord and do His work and I see so many blessings in my life. I have wonderful friends and family, I am able to feel the Spirit SOOO strongly, and I’ve been given opportunities (like work) that allow me to learn and grow. Life is great and there is really nothing to complain about (other than I think I’m getting a little bit sick).I am so happy and I love spreading the happiness! That’s why I use so many exclamation points!!!!!!! :)

I'm only human!

So I'm going to be doing a super intense 5k on July 18th.  This is not your typical run.  Its called The Orange County mud run and it takes after the mud run that goes on at Camp Pendleton.  Its exactly what it sounds like... you run in mud, get very muddy, and also.... obstacles!!  Please visit the link to learn more about how awesome it is and, if you are in Orange County, sign up and run it with me!! Check it out and look at the course and the obstacles too!  I'm so excited.

When I first started thinking about doing the mud run I was debating whether to prepare for it.  These thoughts were going through my head: I work out everyday... I'll be fine, its only 3.1 miles, I'll have so much adrenaline from all the fun and people that it won't even matter.  Last night my roommate came home from a run she said was 3 miles.  I figured, hey, why not try it and see if I can do it or not.  I set my alarm for 8 am today and went out and ran 3 miles.  Thank goodness I was willing to try it because I have my work cut out for me!  I'm not in any way shape or form in running condition.  After each mile I walked a little ways to slow my heart down (for those of you who don't know... I have this heart condition).  By the end of the run I became more hopeful because I didn't die walking up the steps.

I plan to make that run plenty more times before the 5k comes because its quite a difference running on concrete to trudging in the mud for 5k.  Thank goodness I wanted to try it because I'm pretty sure I would have died on July 18th of the age of 24.25 and that is way too young.

Now I tell myself, I am only human.  I have weaknesses.  I knew running was a weakness yet I didn't address it until I said "why not?" Hmmm.... I could totally go out on a spiritual tangent right now but I will resist.  You all know what would be said anyway... face your weaknesses and make them your strengths.  I plan on doing just that in preparation for July 18th... the day of reckoning!!

P.s. does anyone know why my legs itch when I run??

I had a dream...

So thursday night I had a dream that I needed to make a blog post about something.  Then I woke up, thought about it, and decided there wasn't anything to blog about.  My dreams are apparently the most exciting part of my life.

Here are a few things I look forward to during the week:

1. Monday and Wednesday swims with Lesha (and playing with her handsome little boy on weds)

2. Monday FHE with the ward (tomorrow's sounds like fun... yay for holidays!)

3. Institute on tuesdays... Bro. G is an awesome teacher and he likes to make people feel uncomfortable in the best ways its hilarious!

4. Morning scripture study... I'm really growing my testimony and climbing my hill of faith!

5. The gym... it feels so good to be hot and sweaty and know its because i'm doing my body good.

6. Daily chatting online while at work with whoever else is online and wants to talk

7. Witnessing how contageous smiles are

If you want to be a part of my exciting things, let me know, I need some more exciting things in my life if you can't tell!

Much love and smiles... be good

Does anyone read this?

Since its been a month since my last post, I'm sure you can sense the lack of motivation to update. My life isn't all that exciting and does anyone even read this? I could put some juice in here, make my life seem more important and fun than what is really happening right now, but thats not really my style. Maybe i'll try it this one time. Let me think back on the last month....

Hmm. There was about a 2 week time where I was going on dates. I felt pretty cool, I had a date on wed and thurs both weeks in a row. One of them was a blind date, something I'm new to but I'm on my way to becoming a spinster so I figured, why not? We talked well on the phone and the person that was setting us up said that he was tall and single and i'm tall and single, so it must work out. (thats the only criteria for tall girls as you may know.. jk) We met at this restaurant right across the street from his house, kinda awkward because that was the first time I had ever seen him... ever... I didn't even get a picture to prep with. Who knows, I could have gone out with the wrong person.

So we go in to the restaurant and one of the first things he says is that I remind him of his cousin. Hmm... I don't know about you but I think this is as bad as when Lars gets mad that people say Desiree and I look like sisters. I tried to brush that off and continue. We had a good dinner, picked our entrees together and shared. It was really good conversation, had some laughs. He did mention that he was a bit intimidated by my family. Apparently everyone is overwhelmingly accomplished for him. After dinner (mexican food) he admitted that he doesn't like dessert from Mexican restaurants, which is true, so he took me somewhere else for this apple tart thing. MMMM, it was amazing. So good. I almost asked for my own. Then he took me back to my car and that was it.

Well, I thought that was a good night, but apparently he didn't agree because I didn't get the second date call. Boo. Oh well I guess. I'm not everyone's type.

Lets see if there is anything else I missed....

OH, this isn't good news though, sorry. I did find out that one of my favorite teachers from high school passed away over the weekend from a heart attack. Mr Clark, he was a phenomenal teacher. How many people can say they remember things that their teacher taught in high school? Well I remember a lot more of what he taught than what other teachers did.

The story goes that he was out fishing with a friend and started having a heart attack and by the time they got to shore and found someone to help he was already gone. He is survived by his wife and 2 daughters ages 16 and 10. They're family is in shock as I'm sure we can all understand why.

Well, sorry my life isn't very note-worthy or exciting. One cool thing, I get to start summer hours next week at work. So now I work 8-6 (instead of 8-5) monday through thursday and fridays are all 8-12. I get extra time for the weekend. How awesome is that??

If you actually read my blog, I would like to know. Maybe it would give me more motivation for updating it and finding things in my life that may seem boring or normal to me but interesting to you. Let me know!!

Sweet dreams, goodnight!

My wonderful day

Saturday was my 24th birthday and I wanted to have the best day ever, so what did I do?  I went to Disneyland!!  You go for free on your birthday and since I don't have a season pass this was great news.  I was able to get my 2 roommates from college to go with me which was the best thing ever because we can be nerds together and not even care what anyone else is thinking.  The whole day we were quoting from Charlie the Unicorn it was so fun.

I haven't been to disneyland in such a long time it was so much fun.  At one point we were the next in line for Pirates of the Caribbean and they had to shut it down for a little while, luckily Allana brought face cards so we were able to pass the time playing egyptian war.  It was really fun.  Allana also brought MadLibs to do while waiting in line.  Pretty sure I caught other people looking at us in envy because we were having fun when they were just standing there!  HAHA!

Don't call me baby!

I'm hoping some late night inspiration will come out in this post so its as entertaining as it was in real life.

As you know, or should know, I'm living in southern Orange County now and I'm having an awesome time making friends and immersing myself in ward activities.  Well, we have a powder puff game coming up (and for those of you who don't know, this is basically girl's flag football) and we've started practicing.  Last time I was practicing for powder puff I was throwing a ball around with the guy I was dating at the time and it was dark out.  Well, one wrong catch and my middle finger on my left hand was dislocated, it was so gross to look at so I held on to it and wouldn't let anyone touch it until we got to the hospital.  The doctor set it back, yada yada, I was on drugs which was really fun for the guy with me, yada yada..... Anyway... I was throwing around a football again and I was naive enough to not tape my fingers.  I'm going to assume that you can all figure out what happened.  Yep!  I dislocated the same finger!!  Well, since I have no cute guy to take me to the hospital these days I decided to woman up and pop the finger back into joint.  Yep, that's what I did.  I had to give myself a few minutes then I was back on the field running drills and even made a touch down when we scrimmaged.

Yes, now its all swollen and bruised and I'll probably have the ugliest picture of my ring hand whenever that big day comes but I'm feeling awesome because I can say I popped it back in and kept playing.  So next time you think of calling me a baby it better be for good reason!