Question of the Day

"If you could relive one of your childhood memories, which one would it be?"

I love this question because it brings about so many fond memories of my childhood! Probably because my birthday is around the corner, the first memory that came to mind was that of my many birthday parties at Christy Cove Park and the amazing homemade cakes that I always had at them! My mom would always bake the cake, and it was most often a Funfetti cake. Yes, that's right! My favorite cake in the whole world was the kind with the sprinkles in the mix that would make colored dots when it was baked. Best cake ever!

As far as the frosting, I loved the matching Funfetti frosting as well. But, there was more to the frosting than just that. As a young child, Mom would buy a package of stickers at the store that matched the theme of our birthday party. I definitely remember a Strawberry Shortcake year, a Rainbow Brite year, and a green M&M year. (Funny, I think my cakes matched a lot of my Halloween costumes as well!) I would then pick which sticker I liked the character's pose best in, and we would give that picture to dad. Dad would then use that sticker as a guide to draw the character onto the cake with frosting. Shane and I thought this was the coolest thing ever!

Then, when I got a little bit older and was no longer into character themed birthday parties, my birthday happened to fall on Easter one year. Well, I LOVE the Hershey chocolate eggs that have the pastel colored candy coating. So, as a surprise that year, Mom made my favorite cake of course, and decorated the entire top of my cake with those eggs. I was so excited! I was such a big fan that this then became a tradition for many years to come.

I remember a couple of random "phases" I went through with birthday cakes as I got older and into my pre-teen/teenage years. One year I was DYING to have an ice cream cake, so of course, off to Baskin Robbins we went. Well, I later found out that I broke my mom's heart by deciding that I wanted the ice cream cake that was in the shape of a fluffy white dog! I swear I wasn't trying to do anything by this...I just thought it was a really cute cake! However, the behind the scenes drama was that prior to my birthday we had recently given back our Bichon Frise puppy that we only had for 2 weeks. After years of begging our parents for a dog, they finally gave in and got us this puppy, which later turned out to be the runt of the litter and to have some severe separation anxiety and behavioral problems! The breeder had told my parents that they had 2 weeks to make sure it was a good fit, and if it wasn't working out, they could return it for a full refund. Well, on the 14th day...Maggie was gone. Looking back, I probably even named my cake Maggie or something atrocious like that. But at the time, it seemed like the right cake to get! I wore an outfit from Wet Seal on that birthday. It was a white t-shirt with pink elastic bands around the arms, and jean shorts that had matching pink elastic bands around the cuffs. I thought I was SO cool that I was finally old enough and could fit into a size 0 at Wet Seal. Yes, this is the same Wet Seal that is still around these days...but my how the clothing there has changed. My mom would not be buying me clothes from there anymore!

The other random birthday cake that I remember was the giant cookie birthday cake from Paradise Bakery.

After leaving home to go to college, the birthday cake tradition changed. We have now shifted back to the tradition that Mom grew up with when she was a child. Mom bakes the most wonderful angel food cake with her famous double boiler icing. The cake has rainbow sprinkles on it and always includes candles to light, sing to, and blow out hoping that your wish comes true.

I had the greatest childhood! All of these memories, stemming just from thinking about my birthday cakes of my younger years! Thanks, Mom and Dad!

P.S. Just thinkin'...I got distracted by my birthday cakes talk, but my birthday parties always had really cool games at them too! In addition to pinatas, we would often play the drop the crayon into the bucket, remember all of the items on the tray, who knows Kelly the best, Red Rover, and scavenger hunt games!

Homemade Spaghetti Night

Last night Paul and I made homemade spaghetti! It was so much fun, and it was delicious! Paul's dad and step-mom were sweet and got us the pasta maker attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixer when they stayed with us, and I was so excited to use it but also a little intimidated by it. I was worried that it wouldn't turn out and that it would be a huge mess and a two person job. However, on Friday night, Paul and I were both home, and had no desire to go out for the evening. I had recently looked at the pasta recipe booklet again to see what ingredients I would need to have on hand to make pasta, so I knew that I had them all. We were talking about what we should make for dinner, and I suggested giving homemade pasta a whirl. Paul was game, and so the process began! Our pasta making attachments were initiated into use, and now, I can't believe we have been missing out on homemade pasta this long! It was so good, and really easy to make.

We bought some giant meatballs from Marina market and a marinara sauce that was from Italy that was amazing. We opened one of our fancy bottles of wine that we're always saving for a special occasion and put on the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Vertigo". It was truly a perfect night!

P.S. Homemade pasta is very long.
P.P.S. Paul's fun in the kitchen!

A Trip to the de Young Museum with Gayle and Bryce

While Paul's mom was in town we made a trip to the de Young Museum. Being an artist and art lover, she enjoyed seeing the work of a lot of artists that she knows and loves. Paul, Bryce, and I enjoyed learning some of the unknown details about these artists and their work from her, and we also enjoyed a lot of the modern art in the museum. Paul and I snuck into the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit to check out all of the couture clothing designs and fancy dresses on display. I then proceeded to get yelled at by a security guard for what I assumed was going to be not having a badge on to be in that part of the museum, but it turned out that it was for photographing the pieces. She made me delete them from my camera in front of her, so that she could see that there were erased! She informed me that I could take those photos somewhere and have the dresses made to copy. I was like oh, ok. Got it! They had informed us not to use a flast in the museum, but the no photos at all in the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit explanation must have occurred when you actually bought your ticket to get into the exhibit. I didn't think I'd explain my error to the security guard! It was a great day, although I definitely had memories of my Europe trip and quotes like, "I feel guilty if I don't do all of the cultrual stuff" running through my head.

My cool, hip cousins!

When did you girls grow up so much, and get so mature and cool? I swear, this was the first picture where I've ever seen them as young ladies, mature, and totally cool! I guess we're all getting a lot older. On this particular day I was home in AZ for the weekend. It was a Friday afternoon, and I decided that I needed to spend some more time with Paige and Lauren. So...I got to pull them out of school for their "orthodontist appointments" and we hit up Desert Ridge! Went in every store they wanted to, ate like 50 cookies at Paradise Bakery, got Starbuck's frappacinos, bought some cool new blue nail polish, jewelry, etc. Then we ended up at Target...the greatest store on Earth, browsing the aisles, looking for anything else that we might "need". We found these cool headbands, and immediately thought of Jenn and decided to take a picture with them. What a fun afternoon with my favorite girls! I think they're looking forward to their next orthodontist appointments!

Are you happy?

I have to laugh whenever I hear Paul or myself saying, "Are you happy?" or "It's a happy day!" These are phrases that we've adopted from my cousins Luke and Paige when they were little.

The "Are you happy?" phrase came recently from my 2-year-old cousin Luke, who, sitting in church, concerned about the happiness of the stern looking older gentleman sitting next to him, asked him repeatedly, "Are you happy? You happy? Are you happy?" He was required to ask repeatedly because the cranky old man refused to answer him. (I think Luke was onto something and the man was not happy.) This story always makes me smile, and Paul and I tend to use this phrase randomly throughout our life now! It's a nice reminder of Luke every so often! And it always makes us smile.

The "It's a happy day!" phrase came from when Paige, who is now 12, was about 2. Every time she got up in the morning or from an afternoon nap, she would get a big smile on her face when she saw the sunlight coming in through the window and say, "It's a happy day!" We now find ourselves commonly saying this to one another when we get up in the morning and are trying to coerce the other person out of bed..."Time to get up...it's a happy day!"

It's definitely children who see the simple things in life!

To 2009!

I can't believe it's 2009. I think this is going to be a good year. A year of lots of great memories, but no major events like changes of jobs, moving, weddings, etc. At least none planned!

2007 was busy with completing my dissertation, graduating, planning a wedding, completing my internship, getting married, and moving into our 1st house together.

2008 was filled with my first year of work post-internship, Paul getting a job offer outside of AZ, the two of us deciding to move to San Francisco, apartment hunting, packing up our house, moving to CA, finding a new job for me, and living away from my family and friends in Arizona for the first time in my life.

I have no regrets from either of these years, and I know that 2009 will hold as much excitement in it as well. However, I am happy that it is not planned to include any of the excitement of the last two years!

What do I hope 2009 will include?

• A trip to Japan
• A trip to Guatamala
  
• Weekend trips to fun California destinations
• Continued trips home to Arizona to visit family and friends
• Making use of my gym membership regularly
• Continuing to have fun baking
• Developing more friendships in SF
• Reading some good books
• Being better about calling people to stay in touch
• Checking out more neighborhoods in the city
• Taking pictures
• More friends' weddings and babies being born
• More visits from friends
• Trips to LA to visit all of our family and friends that live there
• And being better about documenting the year
  

They're done!

Well, after one night of printing and cutting with Paul until 2:30am, and one night of putting together, tying, and addressing with Mom, Sherry (Paul's step-mom), and Kristin until 2:00am, we officially have invitations that are ready to be mailed out Monday morning! I think they turned out really cute. I hope everybody else likes them! We couldn't have pulled it off without our amazing friends and family!

Paul and I were talking the other day about how you really could make a wedding pretty easy to plan if you didn't want to personalize anything, and if you weren't a perfectionist. Unfortunately, we both fail both of those criteria! We have really had fun doing, and are proud of the things that we did to personalize our wedding. And of course, these are the things that took us the longest, held us up on other things! Our website, invitations, guest book, bathroom buckets, and hotel room treats fall into these categories, and I think they were all well worth it!

I'm sooo ready to get married!!!

And, I can't wait for the next two weeks! Starting on Thursday night the fun officially begins!!!

General update.

I finished my 3-day restraint training course tonight. I learned how to get out of hair pulls and bites, how to best dodge kicks and punches, how to take a child's punch and turn it into you holding them in a basket hold, and how to do prone restraints! The prone restraints weren't part of the "published" course as it is not a "suggested" hold; however, our instructors swear by it when the basket hold doesn't work. I'm a little nervous about all of this! Part of me wants to try it out to see if it works. The larger part of me, however, never wants to have to attempt any of these moves in my lifetime! I think I will try them out on Paul, instead!

I'm getting pretty stoked about the wedding. Paul and I have been going to our marriage preparation classes at ASU's Newman Center. The classes are awesome. There are 10 couples in them, all our age, and all very nice. The classes are taught in an up to date, and current, yet still ethical, moral, and spiritual way. They are really fun, and wonderful ways to spend time together for the two of us. We are both enjoying them greatly. Other details for the ceremony and reception are all falling into place, and I'm really starting to get excited! (Starting probably isn't the best word! I've been excited since March 24th!) But it's starting to feel like it's coming now. It's not REALLY far away. The school year is flying by, and it'll be here before we know it. I'm glad about that! I am not stressed either. I mean, I want to get things done, but we're checking things off our list slowly. I don't think there will be any crunches of needing to get things done last minute...hopefully! Jenn is starting to talk about bachelorette fun, and my Mom, and Kim, and Darcy and Jenn are starting to talk about showers! This is going to be such a fun Spring!!!

Internship is going well. I'm working hard, and learning tons. I learn something new every day. I am confident in my testing and report writing skills, pretty confident in behavior management strategies (having lots of practice in this..learning every day!), gaining confidence slowly in leading meetings and talking to parents and teachers, and need some experience in counseling! My supervisor doesn't really do counseling at my school, but the social worker does, so I will hopefully be able to have a couple of her cases to get experience with this. I need it! I feel unprepared still in counseling. On the otherhand, this is most likely because this appears to be the area that most school psychologists (at least in elementary schools) do not engage in. I want the skills though.

Dissertation: What a long time this IRB process has taken. However, I am happy to say that I GOT IRB APPROVAL FROM PHOENIX CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL TODAY!!! I am sooo happy! I got approval from ASU over the summer, but PCH was dragging on and on, making it go from one department to the next, just taking up time. Now, I have to go back to ASU to submit a modification form, telling them what PCH changed and hoping that they ok it. They better! Or they're going to be hearing from me!

I guess I'd say life in general is good right now! We need to get the family healed up a bit from all of the surgeries that have been occurring, but other than that, we're tight. I love my family. They're the best!