My Firsts...

(Thanks Aubrey for the idea.)
Maybe Tyler will do this later.

1. My first prom date-Robert Tyree
2. Do I still talk with my First love? No and I really don't want to. He is weird.
3. First job? besides baby-sitting-Subway
4. First car? small dodge truck
5. First text today? no one, texting is dumb most of the time
6. First person you thought of today? Rachel
7. Who was your First grade teacher? we moved around a lot that year
8. First airplane ride? I went to St. Louis to visit family
9. First best friend? Do you still talk? Melissa Rimmer, No
10. First sleepover? with Katie Sullivan Baney
11. First person to talk to today? Tyler
12. Whose wedding were you in First? Robyn (sister)
13. What was the First thing you did this morning? showered
14. What was the First concert you went to? Colin Ray
15. First piercing? ears at age 8
16. First foreign country to visit? Venezuela for the mission, went back to Aruba for vacation
17. First movie I remember seeing? "Joe Versus the Volcano" with my mom and brother
18. First detention? I got in trouble in the 5th grade for being involved in a food fight
19. What was the First state I lived in? Missouri
20. Who was my First roommate? Leslie Adamson "LeeLee"
21. First "I Love You"? My Mom
22. Wish right now? realistic-for Tyler to be able to keep his job
for fun-to go back to Russia with Tyler and for Tyler to go back to Aruba with me

Tyler gets political....

Is anybody still wondering why the Republican party is such a mess? Bobby Jindal's response to the president's speech last night was terrible, so bad that even the boys at Fox News couldn't come up with anything nice to say. Not only was Gov. Jindal's response a boring regurgitation of what republicans have been saying for years and what lost the election for McCain, the man sounded exactly like Kenneth Parcell:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Things are not looking good for Jindal's chances at becoming the GOP's next rising star.
Meanwhile, Gov. Jon Huntsman keeps saying all sorts of sensible things that could vault him to prominence and maybe even help bring his party back toward the center of American politics.
Read this and this.

Draper Temple

We went to the open house at the Draper Temple this afternoon with Rachel.
Our discussions with her about the temple being the house of the Lord may have been taken too literally, as she was upset that we didn't see Jesus during the tour.

No more....

.... checking the "18-25" box.

Is this normal?

Does anybody else have water that comes out of the tap as white as milk? Ours has for the past few days now. Eventually, after 5-10 minutes, the little bubbles disappear and it seems normal.
Also, it tastes gross. Looks like we invested in a Brita pitcher just in time....

I discovered today the downtown condo that I'd been lusting after is already sold, so I guess we'll have to settle for the next best thing: this 2,700 SF Unit on the 20th floor of The Regent, which will arguably be the best looking building in the city.

It only has 2 bedrooms. I guess that means we can't have any more children. :-)
Does anybody have $750K that they'd like us to take off their hands?

Hobby Lobby

It all started at Christmas when we couldn't find a cute, cheap nightgown for Rachel. I decided to sew one from a pattern my sister gave me about a year ago. With some help and a few mistakes, I did sew her one for her Christmas Eve jamies. After that, I was hooked on sewing. I decided to sew another one all by myself and give it to my niece. This is the result. It looks great. Rachel is actually going to keep this one because it is smaller. The back, by the way, is plain yellow, because I didn't buy enough material the first time I went to the store. It is still cute. I wonder what I will sew next. Maybe, I'll sew her Easter dress--if I have time.

Where were we then....

We're a little late this month posting our journal entries detailing what we were each doing 5 years ago. Here goes:

Tori-
February 17, 2004
Well, not much change. I still have 5 days until transfers. I went on spits with sister Elizabeth Lasley from Missouri. We had a blast! We were 100% obedient and talked to so many people. I saw myself as a missionary. I saw happiness again. It was completely different than with Sister Brown. Now, I know every companion is different. However, we can all be obedient. I know I’m doing my best I can with what I have. Heavenly father knows both of our heart. I think they are both good.
Still no word on my visa. I’m not too distraught. I love this Mission and Mission President. I love the programs and spirit. We have certifications: Intermediate, Advanced, and Master teacher. By the end, we have 80 scriptures memorized and write 6 testimonies. I have my intermediate. I’m working for the others.
As far as distractions, I’m doing better. My mind is focused on missionary work and how I can be better. Perhaps, I should change focus of improving myself to helping our investigators.
I feel confident as a missionary and I know I still have a lot of changing. So far, so good.
Tyler and I continue to write. I have mixed feelings, but everything will work out. If he gets home and gets married, we are not meant to be. If he is available, we’ll try it out. In the end, it will be God’s will.

Tyler-
February 20, 2009
This morning was kind of disappointing, but not too bad. We got dogged on some appointments, but because of this we ended up tracting a little bit in an area we normally wouldn’t have gone. We met some good people, so it all worked out good in the end.
We had a terrific lunch of roast beef and mashed potatoes. After lunch we had a meeting with Sasha, Marina’s nephew. He is 10 years old and going to be baptized next month. After this, we stopped by Anatoli, the Kammers old neighbor. It was kind of odd, being in the Kammer’s podezd without them living there anymore.
We had another meeting then we decided to take a bus back to the south area and drop by some people. While we were on the bus, we saw Andrei walking on his way home from work so we asked the driver to stop and got out to surprise him. He ended up going with us to Anya Belyakova’s. It was her birthday and we brought a cake and ate some salads and stuff, then had chai with her. It was good to talk to her mother and grandmother.
Tomorrow, E. Neeves is coming back. It will be interesting to see how he enjoyed Korea and what he brought back for us. The past few days have been good for Elder Weidman and I and our companionship, but it has been hard trying to cover two areas, and it will be nice to get back to normal next week.

Park City

Tonight we decided to trade the part of winter in Utah that causes respritory illness....

.... for the part that charges $30 for a 10-inch pizza:
It was worth it.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

This is a day late, but my mom is now officially 50 years old!!!

To offset the depression that receiving your AARP card in the mail this week certainly caused, here are a few pictures to remind us all of your younger years:

Happy Birthday Mom!
love, Tyler

(I'm pretty sure that those are all pictures of you, but its difficult to tell you and Jan apart in some of these old pictures.)

I almost forgot the best one:

Pizza

We usually eat pizza for dinner on Saturdays. Last night, we decided to make it ourselves:

Rachel helped:
Mmmmm....

What?!

So, not only does Valentines Day begin on Dec. 26th, it now ends on Feb. 4!
At Smith's today, as I was picking up some lunch, I noticed that their employees were busy pitching all of the Valentines Day candy and gifts into the clearance carts to make room on their seasonal aisle for Easter stuff.
Isn't Valentines Day still like 10 days from now?

Mr. and Mrs. Tumnus:

The cell phone did a terrible job taking her picture, but with her hair sticking up after taking out her pigtails and just her brown tights on, she bore a striking resemblance.