Dear Santa-

-Rachel

An interesting read-

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1942834,00.html

Random

A few recent pictures from the camera phone-

Rachel "being brave of a pony":

The $126 view that being students can get you at the Utah Symphony for $10:

The hell that is Toys-R-Us the Saturday before Christmas:

Christmas is only a week away. Time to haul off all that holiday crap and get ready for summer?

New Shoes

Goodbye, comfortable brown shoes that I bought at DI after my mission in 2004-

even though there is nothing wrong with you, Tori is making me get rid of you.

In other news that only I care about, all new LDS Temples will now be LEED certified starting with the Kansas City and Philadelphia Temples. Very cool.

It's Done!

Tyler and I both finished our Fall 2009 semester. Just one more! It will be nice to finally have a short break. I've attended three semesters straight with only a week between them. I NEED this break. Surprisingly, however, I"ll be very busy. I've added a few hours at the drop-in childcare for some extra cash, and of course, I have the traditional Christmas assignments of cards, cookies, candies, and work parties. Still, it will be SO NICE to spend a lot of time with Rachel. I sure do miss my time with her and learning and playing with her.

Little baby Boy Lloyd is growing. Most people don't think that I'm showing in the belly yet. I think it is because he enjoys the background area of my belly. I certainly know he is in there.

It's a boy!

Anybody looking for a closet full of girl's clothes?

Modern Family

If, for some reason, you're not watching Modern Family, here is what you're missing:

Happy Thanksgiving!

^^^ it's a turkey.

2010 Dodge Ram

Meet my new (rental) truck, courtesy of Wasatch Front Kia:

Here's hoping it takes them a looooooong time to fix the power steering pump on the van.

LOVE IT!

I love Thanksgiving. I love the smells and the cooking. I love the weather and games. I love the parades. I have to admit that it is still not my favorite holiday. (4th of July is awesome!) However, I get so excited to have family around. In fact, this year on Thanksgiving, I get to wake-up in my own home with Tyler and Rachel all to myself before we head out to extended family activities. Wonderful!!!

Also, since we are staying in town this year, I'll get to hit the Black Friday sales. I'm not a huge shopper, but I love a great deal! (Remember the R.C. Willey Chair?!?!) Tyler and I have our eyes on a specific item this year that will certainly require some camping out in front of a store. I've never done that before, but it'll be "romantic" to do it with Tyler. (Wish us luck.)

I hope everyone enjoys Thanksgiving. Have fun with your family and certainly don't go wild at the dinner table. Trust me. It is NOT worth it. :)

ABCs

So, I know Rachel is only 3 years old, but I've been trying to teach her to recognize the ABC's. She has the song down good, but knowing each letter is harder. We even bought her a leap frog game for the fridge to enhance our efforts. It is frustrating sometimes, but every now and then she surprises me. Like this morning, I was wrapping some Christmas presents to sent to her cousins'. I wrote their names on the present. Then, I had a phone call. Yes, I left the marker out and open. In the mean time, Rachel decided to write some letters on the presents like Mommy. She wrote her favorite letter "R" (of course) and then continued with an "A", "i", "f", "o", and "t". She even told me what they were. Although the presents were now decorated, I was so proud of her and a little in myself.

From today's SL Tribune:

Exercise What?!?

So now that I am feeling better, I thought yesterday that I would go for a slow 3 mile run with my friend Dana. I knew it would be different because of the fetus in my belly and my lack of movement in the last 2 months. However, I did not expect how difficult it would be. My Dr. asked me not to raise my heart rate over 140 bpm. I thought he was crazy, but when I hit 150 bpm, I felt like my heart would pop out of my chest. My face was dotted with little white spots, and basically, I stopped running at about .5 mile. We kept walking, but I was really discouraged that I wouldn't be able to meet my goal of being a sexy prego woman. It is just highly unlikely. I"ll continue to be more active, but running may not be my thing for the next half of a year. SAD! Anyone up for a good walk, swim, bike ride?

Democracy inaction

It's nice to know that voter turnout in yesterday's election was 4 times lower than in the recent election in Afghanistan. You know- where the Taliban were cutting off people's fingers if they were found to have voted.

Way to go America!

Where were we then?

What were we doing this week in 2004?

Tyler -
(In Rexburg, ID)
This time "where was I then?" is literally a question for which I have no answer as 5 years ago this month I had returned from my mission, was in school at BYU-Idaho and effectively stopped writing in my journal.
As such, reports from Tyler are on hiatus until December when, in 2004, I got back on the bandwagon and started writing again.

It may be interesting to note, however, that today- Nov. 1, literally didn't happen for me in 2002. I got on a plane in Los Angeles on Oct. 31 and, thanks to flying across the international dateline along the way, I didn't arrive in Seoul, RoK until Nov. 2. Later that day, I arrived in Vladivostok, Russia for the first time.

Tori-
(In Aruba)
I'm still in Aruba! I've made it through another transfer. I thought for sure I would leave. Sometimes, we just feel the vibe. I guess I still have work to do here! Our investigators surely put us through some loops. Fam. Castillo still need to actually get married, but first she has to get legally divorced in the Dominican Republic. We probably won't see them baptized but they are on their way. Fam. Jaramillo are gathering their papers to be legally married as well but its going to take them a while.

Halloween

Happy Halloween from Snow White and the Lloyds:

Meanwhile, her dad is having way too much fun playing with dry ice:

Wait, Does Snow White even have a father?

Stuff White People Like

#122 - Moleskine notebooks

In my defense, my Moleskine is a weekly planner so technically, I'm not a yuppie.

Also, #5, #34, #35, #38, #39, #44, #48, #64, #94, #109, #112, & #119. I think it's safe to say that Tori and I are pretty white.

Dutailier Glider/Recliner

Tori just wanted me to post these pictures for her, She'll be back later to post about why this chair is possibly the single greatest thing that she's ever owned:

This is part of the reason:

Wheeler Historic Farm

This pretty much sums up what Rachel though of yesterday's visit to Wheeler Farm:

Lately....

....this little grape-sized person has taken complete control of our lives:

Aside from the usual quirks of pregnancy, we've both been quite busy with work and school and internships, and Tori has hyperemesis, which has made her almost constantly sick since she became pregnant. She had the same thing with Rachel and had been hoping that it wouldn't be as bad this time around, but after a week of not keeping any food down, losing 8 pounds and a fighting a small battle with our insurance company, she had IV treatments yesterday and is doing much better now. With Rachel, it got signifigantly more manageable after the first trimester, so here's hoping that we only have a few more weeks of this to live through. We're all doing a lot better now and Rachel is staying with her cousins this week while things get back to normal.

Anyway, it was Rachel's birthday last week, so we tried to make the best of a crumby situation and had a little party for her on Sunday afternoon.

Rachel wanted a pinata, and she picked out this "kitty" herself (in the halloween section):

Melinda made her a Snow White cake to match her dress:
Despite daddy's best efforts over the past 3 years, I think we can officially say that Disney has won:

Neither of the kids was any good at breaking the pinata open:


So that's it. Things have been busy and stressful but we've had a lot of help and are doing fine.

Discount Shopping

I think that Tori posted a while ago about the NPS Store in Salt Lake where we occasionally shop. It's sort of like a cross between Costco, the dollar store and a thrift store where they sell slightly damaged and expired groceries. Anyway, I'm not sure if it was funny or sad when I saw this on The Middle last night:

She's growing

Rachel turns 3 years old this Thursday. She is such a beautiful little girl. We do , however, worry about her hair. She had one trim to even out her hair a few months ago, but at three years old, her hair is only ear length. Apparently, this comes from Tyler's side of the family. In my family, we have plenty of hair thanks to our German and African American heritage. She doesn't seem to mind. However, she loves going to the Salon for hair cuts, but there will be few of those in her near future.

Home Storage

It's the time of year again when Tori gets another batch of hand-me-down clothes for Rachel, goes through her closet, gets out stuff for the new season, takes out what no longer fits and I get to find somewhere to put it all, which today meant I was sent to the store for more Space Bags.

Do you have any idea how much crap you can pack away in a Space Bag?

.... a lot of crap.

Here's hoping the next baby is another girl so that I don't have to find a place to store an equivalent supply of boy's clothes.

When we first moved into our current place from our 1 bedroom apartment we thought that there was more space than we could ever fill. Now, less than three years later, every square inch of space in each cupboard, closet, shelf, and under all of the beds is packed with junk.

My next task: find a Space Bag large enough to do something about the 9-foot Christmas tree that lives in our bedroom closet 11 months of the year.

Rat's Nest

Behind the entertainment center in our office, the TV, DVD player, TiVo, cable modem and wireless router all come together.

Sadly, this is what it looked like after I tried to organize all those cables while installing a new router this afternoon:

*** ooh, I almost forgot, there's also a TV antenna back there for the times that we want to watch broadcast TV in HD since we don't have HD cable.

the Mormon Channel

The LDS church has its own radio station now. I've recently been listening to a lot of their podcasts as I commute to/from work, but you can also listen online, on your iPhone, on HD radio or by podcast. They have a lot of really good programming- music, news, interviews, panel discussions and devotionals. You can link to the site by clicking below:

In related news, our blog now features its first widget (all the way down on the right), which you can also use to listen to the Mormon Channel right here on our website. It's basically your dream come true: You can now read about all the cute things Rachel is doing and how many times a day Tori has thrown up from hyperemisis gravidarum all while listening to an interview with the president of the Russia Samara mission or the latest song from Hillary Weeks. I generally dislike websites being cluttered with widgets and buttons and such, so there's no guarantee as to how long it actually lasts here. Enjoy it while you can!

So Sick-Already

What? I chose to do this? Why? The first trimester for me is sooo hard. I'm just starting week 6 of being prego, and I am already sick. I still have about 9-11 weeks of this upset stomach. I don't want to complain too much, because so far, I am not as sick this time around as I was with Rachel. Still, I feel like death, I have to give a huge THANKS to Tyler who is such a support and so understanding. He is mister Mom now along with all his other duties. He is so great to be patient and willing to help.
Any ideas on how to lessen morning/all day sickness. FYI-GINGER DOES NOT WORK!

Last Long Run for a While

A few weeks ago, my friend Melissa and I ran in the Legacy Highway Hess Cancer Foundation Half Marathon. I did about 13 minutes slower than my best time, but I didn't really train for this one. I sort of just showed up and ran. Also, as we now know, I was pregnant (just barely). My pose is so dumb. It is a habit from the mission, I guess. Melissa ran awesome. She came in 4th for her age group. She is so great! I hope she keeps running. Running Rocks!

Tomatoes

We spent hours last night slaving over pots and pans and bottles.
The result: 12 quarts of bottled tomatoes.

Hopefully, we're cultivating far more than the few vegtables that we've harvested as we try and live more providently by gardening and canning.

My Sister

I have older three sisters and one older brother, and they are all very awesome people in different ways. But my sister Dawn who lives in Arkansas just called to let me know that she was called as her ward's early morning seminary teacher (scripture class). At first, I thought, "What a lot of work!" Then, I thought, "Wow, she'll really get to learn a lot." Finally, I thought, "This is perfect for her." I wish I had a picture of her. She is just incredible. She is one of those people who has and enjoys a full calendar and seems to keep it all together. She works hard to be successful at all her challenges and appears to accomplish whatever she wants. This endeavor, I think, will be a little different than any other, however. This morning, I was comparing this new calling for her as a missionary calling. She did not serve a full-time mission, but her testimony is mighty strong. Recently, however, I've really noticed her desire to become closer to her Savior and to truly live His words. As a seminary teacher she will have to prayer and prepare everyday to teach the Lord's gospel. When I served as a missionary, I did the same thing. Depending on who my companion and I intended to teach that day, we prayed and studies accordingly, and I remember what growth, trials, and joys I experienced while serving full-time. I long for those same feelings, but day to day life is completely different than living life as a missionary. I simply do not have the same experiences as I did as a missionary. My sister Dawn will get a taste of those same magnificent feelings and experiences as she studies daily to prepare her lessons and herself to teach not only the words in the scriptures but also share her testimony and watch the testimony of her teenage students grow. It is an incredible opportunity for her. I wish her luck. I love you!

Hatch, UT

On the way to Arizona last weekend, we stopped and spent the night with my Grandparents at their cabin in Hatch.

Rachel was excited to feed the horse and pony until it came time to put a carrot in the mouth of a creature whose head was nearly as big as her entire body:

Arizona by the numbers

Total miles driven:
1,443

High temp. in Phoenix:
103°

Total hours spent in AZ:
38

Average fuel economy:
35.9 MPG

Hours spent in the car:

22.5

Potty breaks:
7

Bags of cheese curd from the cheese factory in Beaver, UT eaten along the way:
3

Bags of ice used to keep cheese and water cold:
2

Babies blessed:
1

Odd news day

A sample of the bizarre stories I found linked in the sidebar on the Tribune's website today:

Man goes nuts on vending machine, gets arrested

After stabbing friends in WVC, drunken man has a beer outside

Man kicked out of concert starts nearby field on fire

New homeowner finds stolen car inside garage

Perfume bottle goes flying in on-the-road assault

The golden thread that runs through nearly all of these is that they happened in West Valley City.

Willard Bay

We decided that since yesterday was the last day of our summer break, we'd finally make the trip to the beach we'd planned on all summer long:

Not exactly a pristine, white-sand beach, but it did the trick.

Just Two More

Two (2)--Let's say that again---ONLY TWO more semesters and we are DONE with school for a while (until we get inspired to earn our masters). I can't believe I only have to register one more time for classes. It will be such a great feeling to have a degree in hand, finally, in May. We still have a lot of work before graduation, but it is a short time.

This summer semester was pretty tough for me. I thought it was going to be harder, but turned out alright. I did not get the grades that I think I earned, but I didn't get any Cs which is great. I finished with four As, a B (which would have been an A if I would have studied more for the final), and a B- (I didn't put too much into this class, so I guess this is appropriate). Tyler always tells me to just pass the class, but I really believe that I have to earn an "A" to feel like I've learned and mastered the topic. I"ll just have to get over that, because with a calling, family, internship, and part-time job, I realize I can't do it all. I can just do my best.

Wish us luck for our last semesters. We have just four more days until we disappear into our books again and are pretty much oblivious to rest of the world. It is terrible, I know, but it is for just TWO more semesters!

5 Years

Five years ago today I came home from Russia: