One Of My Many Weaknesses

I am only revealing this weakness to help those with the same weakness to keep this from happening to you and because it is a funny story- at least now it is. I am a fairly organized person but when it comes to mail – not so organized. Brandt and I pay some of our bills online and the rest are on auto-pay so we rarely check our mail. Once a week when I do check the mail I pull out all the fun stuff like wedding announcement or shower invitations and put the rest of the mail in a pile. After the pile accumulates for 1 to 2 months (this is so embarrassing). I have Brandt go through it and throw away the junk and file the important stuff. This last Saturday (July 26th) Brandt was going through the pile and saw “Jury Summons” that was sent on June 24th for Brandt to appear in court from July 9th through the 11th. As you can imagine our worry quickly turned to being freaked-out when we read the following, “If you fail to appear as directed, you will be in contempt of court and may be fined for up to $1,000 AND jailed for up to 30 days.”




Every 2nd Sunday for over a year now I have enjoyed people’s reaction when I tell them that Brandt (who is the Elders Quorum 2nd Counselor in our ward) is in jail. Just to later explain that he has a calling to teach Sunday School and translates Spanish to all the Logan criminals that attend the jail branch. But I never thought that I would be telling people that Brandt was in jail for up to 30 days for not showing up to jury duty, and it was entirely my fault.

After finding this mail in the pile all we could do was wait for Monday to come so that we could call and see what was going on. It turned out that that specific case was settled out of court. Besides lots of prayers, one good thing that came out of this was now I check my mail more and go through EVERYTHING before putting it in the pile and eventually maybe even get rid of the whole "pile" process.

Congratulations Gavin & Mallory!

I know I'm not as fast or as thorough as Gentry, so if you want to see details from the whole day go here, but I figured I would put a few of our favorite pics from the day up as well. Really we just want to say congratulations to Gav and Mal and wish them the best! We love you guys!

What a cute couple!

I think Mallie is pictured-out, that's what 5 hours of sleep does to a 2 year old.
A couple of my favorite ladies!
Handsome pink tie'd devils!
What a great idea!
Signing off until next time.

July 2nd to July 6th

My Family had a 5-day Reunion. Usually this would sound crazy but it was on my moms side and all I can say is that Mexicans and Polynesians sure know how to party! Unfortunately on the 2nd I was studying all night for a final for one of my classes. And on the 3rd I was taking a final and had to miss out going to Lake Jordanelle to Jet Ski with my family. This was a good thing though because I am allergic to something that is in that specific lake and 4 of the times that I have gone there I have broken out into hives. So instead Brandt and I went to see the Granite High School fire works with my friends. I was a little worried about how good the fire works would be if it was anything like the girl who sang the National Anthem, if so then we were in for a pitchy treat (Gavin, you know what I mean). Fortunately we were so impressed with how good the fire works were. I swear that the finally was 5 min. long.


On the 4th of July Brandt went golfing with the Davis’s which he does every year –all 18 holes. Later that night we had a big potluck dinner with my family and watched the fire works at Provo. They must have spent all of their money on getting Hannah Montana to perform there and ran out of money for the fireworks, GHS was so much better. But it was nice to see family that I haven’t seen in a really long time!


Along with everyone else, Brandt is just in love with my cousin Julie’s little baby. Isn’t she a cutie pie! Everyone knows that once Brandt holds her, no one else can hold her the rest of the night because he has got her.


On July 5th my family had a talent show. Ethan my nephew played his violin for everyone. I was so proud of him, he didn’t look nervous or mess up! Way to go Ethan!!!


On Sunday July 6th after church we had lunch together and a family home evening. This is a picture of my family with my grandma Escobedo.


And of course it isn’t the 4th of July without our tradition of Brandt painting my toenails. Good job babe, you did wonderful as you usually do!!!

My version of “I Just Forgot” by Mercer Mayer

A while ago Brandt and I went camping with our good friends and neighbors Jessie and Sean, they live across the street (which in a trailer court it’s about 5 feet away). This was our first time ever having a more active role in planning a camping trip, so Brandt and I were way excited. We planned for this thing months in advance and it was only an overnighter.

Brandt remembered to bring his GPS and Palm Pilot…

I remembered to bring my eyelash curler…

We remembered to bring starbursts to roast on the fire, yumm…

Brandt even remembered to bring his “invention” to make biscuits for breakfast, which, by the way turned out beautiful!

See!

But we forgot to bring enough cash to pay for the camping spot at Bear Lake. Luckily we had enough loose change in our cars to pay the rest of the $23 fee. We also realized once we got there that all 4 of our tin foil dinners were still in our refrigerator at home, oops! So after we set up our tent, we drove to the town and had pizza. I hope that this doesn’t make people not want to go camping with us. I promise Brandt and I have learned from our mistakes.

Weekend With The Crawfords

This weekend we went to Salt Lake and got to see Brandt's sister Gen. She had knee surgery on June 16th and will be on crutches for 4 weeks. Gen is so sweet, even though she is in pain and has a hard time getting around (which is really hard when you have an adorable 2 year old running around everywhere) she still has a smile on her face! She amazes me.
This is going to be my new sister-in-law! Mallory is marrying Brandt's brother Gavin on July 19th. I had a fun time at her bridal shower. Yes, we are going to have 2 Mallorys and 1 Valerie. Maybe I will name my first born daughter Valerie just to add to the confusion.
Little Mallory (my niece) is so cute. I wish that we could see her more often. 
A tradition that we started last year and hopefully will continue each summer with the Crawfords is going to a drive in movie. I think Shah specifically asked me to put this picture on my blog. So this one's for you Shah.

Happy 5th Aniversary! I LOVE YOU BABE!

June 12, 2008

This is the B&B where we stayed on Thursday night after the Cheescake Factory.

Here is my hot wife!

The gift basket that was in our room when we got there.

Wake up the bubbley, the Martinelli's Bubbley that is.

Val loved the robes. (I hope she didn't keep 'em)

That's a big tub!

What a view from the room.

$10 bucks says I win.

What's the fire code in buildings built before 1900???

Val's favorite part, and not just because she didn't have to cook it.

Garden Fever

I have never been the garden type of person. Last year the only reason we had a garden is because my sweet momita saw all of my overgrown weeds and weeded and planted tomatoes for me when she came to visit us in Logan. This time when my mom came to visit me she once again saw my weeds and started to weed it for me. Although my mom likes to weed and garden I wanted her to relax during her visit, so I made her stop weeding and I promised her that I would weed and garden. Brandt and I planted tomatoes, cherry tomatoes (my favorite), cucumbers, and pumpkins. Later we will plant lettuce and peas. I am proud to say that gardening is definitely growing on me!

My New Hog

Well, here's my new ride. I traded the van for it straight up, and yes I do get 100 miles to the gallon on this thing, at least! Just kidding, I didn't trade anything for it. It was my boss's husband's and he couldn't get it to run. He didn't have time to mess with it so he gave it to me. After a new battery and a new fuel line it fired right up, and the best part is that it has an alarm and remote start. My car doesn't even have that! It's fun to cruise around the neighborhood on, but you probably won't see me buzzing around town too much on it since it tops out at about 30 mph going straight down hill. Oh well, it's pretty fun anyway, and for free I sure can't complain about my new toy!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Here are a few of my favorite kid quotes:

My niece Mallory:
Gentry (Mallory’s mom) says, “Mallory, say snow”
Mallory, “snow”
Gentry, “say man”
Mallory, “man”
Gentry, “say snowman”
Mallory, “see-mo”

My nephew Ethan:
When Ethan was little and I was at his house I accidentally said the word “stupid,” but before I could even finish saying it he said, “No fruit snacks for you!” I guess in his house that was the consequence for saying “bad words,” oops what was I thinking.

Ethan’s conversation with Uncle Brandt, “My dad says that video games are a waste of time. But I like wasting my time!”

On 3/26/08Ethan said, “Dad, I want to save my money that I earn for something really special.”
Mark (Ethan’s dad) said, “Oh really, what?”
Ethan, “I want to give it to Uncle Brandt and Tia Valerie so they can buy a house in Lehi and live closer to us.”

My nephew Tristan:
“Mom, how did Jesus make our bodies?”
My sister Veronika said, “Well…”
“Oh, I know. He just puts us together like Legos.”

“Mom, is Uncle James, Aunt Kristina, and ‘that other girl’ (referring to me, his aunt) coming with us?”

One of my favorite special ed. students in my practicum this semester:
After I sneezed he said, “Kazuntight! Did you know that word is Mexican?”

One day I was in the middle of teaching reading to this student and he told me, “You look stylin today!” Needless to say that made my day!

After class I said, “Good job! You earned a swedish fish!”
The student looked at the fish in his hand and then looked right into my eyes and said, “I wish you could earn a swedish fish.”

One of my ESL students when I was an ESL aid:One day out of the blue this student was leaving my class and said, “Happy March Day!” She said is so cute with her accent that even to this day I smile just thinking about it and it happened over 3 years ago.

School Highlights

In my Applied Behavior Analysis class we did a behavior change project where we had to create and present a display explaining our intervention and the results.

Out of 40 people in the special education program that displayed a poster, I won the “Best Visual Poster Presentation Award” and some extra credit points for winning! I am sure that the decision was tough for the judges, because there where many other cute posters to choose from.

Here are all my classmates in the Special Ed. Severe program!

I am just pointing like a nerd at my name on the Deans List for having an overall GPA of a 3.5 or higher. I can’t believe that I only have one more semester left of school! Time has really flown by.

Sad or Happy Day?

Today was a great day until I ate my last chocolate marshmallow egg. Every Easter I look forward to these little bundles of joy, and now I have to wait a whole year until I can buy 6 boxes of them again. It was fun while it lasted though!

Happy Armpit April!!!

When Brandt told me that he was going to do “Mustache March,” I said that he could do it under one condition, if I could do “Armpit April!” I’ve only been growing it out for 22 days but it is coming in nice and thick, don't ya think?

First Heels & Then a Dress?

I bought these shoes a few days ago and immediately fell in love with them. I plan on wearing them for Gavin and Mallory’s wedding! Now I just need to find a dress to go with these pink and green plaid shoes!!!

Birthday Wish

So it was Brandt’s Birthday yesterday and I did a few things to try to make it special for him since we weren’t able to spend as much time together as we would have liked to. Brandt had to work all day and I had a night class that night. Don’t think that I am naturally this creative. I got the idea to decorate his car from my very creative sister. Thanks Gentry!

Have you ever wondered what 80 bottles of Gatorade looks like? Well I hope this answers you question. It was Brandt’s Birthday wish come true!