Friday, November 20, 2009

3 posts in 1 day...

...is that bad? Make sure you scroll down and check out all three!

This one's about San Francisco!!!

One of the 1st things we saw when we got off the plane was this horse in the airport. It looks like it's made of driftwood, but it's actually metal. Pretty cool.
The view from our hotel room--foggy, yes. But you can see the ocean!
The 1st night we attended a reception where our school received a certificate of accreditation for our Certified Family Life Education program. Yay us!
Kristen, Janice, Ron, Me, Alisa, Caryl, Kristalyn, and Roger (a.k.a. Santa Claus)
After doing some volunteering Thursday morning and taking a nap, we got on a couple of tour buses and made our way to San Francisco. This awesome building was there waiting to welcome us! :)
Santa taking a picture of us...he really was a blast to have with us. Thanks for coming, Roger!!
The crew:
Lindsay, Hillary, Me, Janice, Santa
Carson, Kristen, Caryl, Ron

Our evening pretty much took place at Pier 39
Fun sour dough creations
Digging in and feasting on our sour dough
You should have seen all the boats!
Ron sharing our precious sour dough with the seagulls!!
(More of this story to come below)
Janice finally found her boyfriend in San Francisco!
Alcatraz
Someday D and I will go to San Fran and take a tour. It's one of our dreams.
The Golden Gate Bridge
I promise there is a reason a took a picture of this seagull. Here's the rest of the "feeding sour dough to the seagulls" story...
Ron had just given me a chunk of some yummy chocolate sour dough bread with chocolate chips and raisins. I was holding it in my hand and trying to take a picture at the same time, so the bread was up by my head. All of a sudden, my bread was gone! This ginormous seagull (it really was a huge seagull! This picture doesn't do it justice) flew in right over my head and snatched it right out of my hand, then swallowed the entire thing whole! So, if you look at it's neck, you can see the bulge, which is actually my chunk of chocolate sour dough bread. Janice said the look on my face was priceless. Man! I wish we had gotten it on video!
Moral of the story: Don't hold a chunk of scrumptious bread up by your head and expect to hang onto it while you're by the ocean. A seagull will come and steal it!
Tons of sea lions at Pier 39
These random toilets on the street cracked me up. I had to get a picture!
Street performers singing "Red Wine." Love that song!
We ate dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, although we really ended up there because our whole group of girls had to use the restroom. Seriously! You cannot easily find a public restroom in San Francisco! We really had to search! But it ended up being a good find because we had great food (most of us anyway) and some fun dancing with the waitresses.
(*Note: I do realize that I just posted a picture of public toilets out on the street, but none of us would have actually used them...they were pretty gross on the inside!)
Friday was filled with Conferencing at the NCFR for most of our group. I spent the day (and most of the trip, actually) sleeping in the hotel room because I got sick the day after we got there, and was miserable!! I still tried to enjoy myself as much as I could, and I had great people with me who took wonderful care of me while I was away from my hubby. Then Saturday evening our group went back to San Francisco in our mini-bus we rented. We did some driving around the Golden Gate Park, and saw some amazing houses and beautiful streets. We drove down Lombard street in our 12 passenger van, and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge a couple of times. It really was a blast! (Despite being sick and feeling miserable.)
Unfortunately you can't tell from the picture how steep this road really was.
This is an amazing view of San Fran from Twin Peaks. There is a street close by named "Deming." I seriously wanted to stop and get a picture....maybe next time.
Janice & I weren't feeling too great after our delicious dinner, probably from eating too much, but that didn't stop us from going to Ghirardelli Square where we got some scrumptious chocolate!
The next morning, Sunday, we flew back to SLC. Despite not getting out of the trip what I expected or hoped for, I still had a good time. Out of our 4-day conference, I was only able to attend one 45 minute session, and even had to leave early because I was coughing so much! I was sick enough the first couple of days we thought I might have swine flu because I had a lot of the symptoms, but never got a fever. Being sick pretty much forced me to change my plans, but that's why we try to be flexible! Luckily Ron was the only other person who was sick, but he wasn't nearly as bad as I was. Thank goodness!

Thanks, Ron, for allowing us the opportunity to attend a conference and get the experience! Thanks to everyone who came and made the trip a blast! It's so great to be back home with my sweetheart though!

What Are You Thankful For?

Our own lists to come...

A Little Irreverent Christmas/Mental Health Humor

Schizophrenia:

Do You Hear What I Hear?


Multiple Personality Disorder:

We Three Queens Disoriented Are


Amnesia:

I Don't Know if I'll be Home for Christmas


Narcissistic:

Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me


Manic:

Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and Fire Hydrants and...


Paranoid:

Santa Claus is Coming to Get Me


Borderline Personality Disorder:

Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire


Full Personality Disorder:

You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll tell You Why


Obsessive Compulsive Disorder:

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...


Agoraphobia:

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day But Wouldn't Leave My House


Senile Dementia:

Walking in a Winter Wonderland Miles From My House in My Slippers and Robe


Oppositional Defiant Disorder:

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus So I Burned Down the House


Social Anxiety Disorder:

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas while I Sit Here and Hyperventilate

Monday, November 9, 2009

The next Van Gogh...seriously!

I posted this on my private blog, but I'm still so proud of it that I have to post it here too to share with everyone...

I have to tell you first of all how proud I am of my drawing. Not only does it actually look like a moose, but I DREW IT IN THE DARK!! I couldn't see a thing, so I'm honestly quite impressed with myself for how well I did. I don't even want to attempt to draw it again though, because I know I can't draw that well with my eyes open! Talk about kicking Pictionary butt!! Woot! Woot!
*Art by K.D., November 4, 2009*
P.S. I drew this picture as an object lesson in Institute to go along with D&C 111, talking about being led in the dark. And, my picture was actually one of the better ones!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Michael McLean and the Adoption Conference

The Adoption Conference went outstandingly well! I think that no matter what event you put on, there are always a few bumps, but I think everything was awesome. All of my anal efforts in organizing the volunteers paid off and things went very smoothly. I honestly had a blast during the conference, despite a few slight moments of stress. I even volunteered to help out again next year if they decide to do it again and if I'm available. I hope everyone who attended got something out of it...I know I did. (And, it was so great to see you, Tricia!) I was able to be a moderator for one of the sessions--a panel discussion of social workers that was extremely informative, and I had a blast doing it. But the biggest highlight of the day for me was being able to meet Michael McLean in person, and he even gave me a hug (and the pictures prove it)! :) He's such a genuine person and really cares about people and their stories. That's one of the things I love about the field I'm going into...I've learned and become more aware that every person has a story, and it's learning those stories that makes me want to make a difference. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from the day, and a video I took of Michael performing his highlight song, "From God's Arms to My Arms to Yours." Sorry it's a bad recording and a little shaky, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Janice and Me
(She's my partner-in-crime at school...we have a blast together)

A couple of our volunteers at the sales table...selling Michael's book/cd combo
See the half hug? I told you!! ;)
Yeah--that's us with Michael McLean...Suh-weet!
Michael telling us awesome adoption stories in between playing and singing songs for us


Sunday, November 1, 2009

Our Awesome Halloween

We must have been busy this year because we didn't get to do all of the fun things we usually do for Halloween. We usually carve pumpkins every weekend, we usually go to a pumpkin patch, we usually take the time to watch our Halloween movies, we usually go to a Halloween party, etc. You get the picture. Despite not being able to do all of the usual, fun Halloween things that we love, it was still awesome. D carved his first and only pumpkin the first weekend in October--it's his favorite keep-me-awake activity while we watch General Conference. I absolutely loved the pumpkin he carved though! It's an adorable mummy couple looking at each other...I don't know how well you can tell what it is in the picture:
D baked the seeds and made our scrumptious Halloween mix that we've enjoyed snacking on all month. Our good friends Courtney and Wayne had us over for dinner and we decorated some fun Halloween cookies, but didn't get any pictures of them. Then D dressed up for school on Thursday and his students and the other faculty members absolutely loved his costume! He had a blast with it too, and totally played the part of Jack Sparrow.

He was trying to get a picture, and I jumped in to join him :)
Then, yesterday, the weather was absolutely beautiful for Halloween!! We went to our ward trunk-or-treat, and several people came and told D he had the best costume there. Everyone loved that he played the part, and a member of our bishopric actually thanked us for our entertainment in Sacrament meeting today. Haha. People in the ward who weren't there last night, or missed coming by our car kept asking us throughout church what we did to entertain everyone. I just said I had nothing to do with it...it was all D. :) I seriously have the best husband ever. I'm glad he's such a people-person and everyone tends to like him. The rest of the pictures are from the trunk-or-treat:

Jack Sparrow handing out candy
Believe it or not, several of the kids were afraid of him and wouldn't take candy from him, so that's when I would take over and put candy in their bags. Poor kids...they didn't know what they were missing out on.
These adorable grape bundles belong to a couple of our friends.
These boys loved D's costume so much they were throwing candy to him! It really was hilarious to watch...I couldn't resist getting a picture of them!
Some of our friends dressed up as characters from one of our all-time favorite movies. We loved their costumes!
We tried to be a little creative with my costume since we didn't have time or money to get one for me to match D's, so I dressed up as Jack Sparrow's love: "the black pearl." Cheesy, I know, but it was fun anyway :)
Our favorite picture
Then, last night we only had about 4 or 5 trick-or-treaters after the trunk-or-treat, we got an unexpected but welcome phone call from an old family friend--it was great to talk to you for a minute, Bill!! And finally, we had our friends Jaime-Lyn and Buckley over for dinner and to play some Wii. It was super fun as usual. Halloween was pretty laid back, but very enjoyable.

Happy Halloween, everyone!