been a while

here are a few pics from my camera. sadly i didn't take a ton of pics in costa rica- mostly cause it's the rainy season and they mean that. it rained from about noon through the night every day.



Here is Damon getting the first sun of the summer, which is quite obvious. The water was a bit dirtier than normal because of the class two hurricane that hit the night before. The waves were still fun and the sun was bright. We had a BLAST!









This was my first taste of coconut water. An old man was walking the beach selling them. I thought it would be wonderfully delicious and to my unpleasant surprise it was pretty bad. Then I learned that it is a natural laxative. Luckily enough for me I didn't suffer these ill effects.









One of the highlights of the trip was the Zip Line we flew down in Monteverde in the cloud mountains. The 13 lines ranged in length and height. Some we would ride down the line with trees on both sides of us and other lines we would fly a hundred feet above the canopy top flying for 1200 meters. It was spectacular, and worth traveling all around the world to do it again.

This was a red eyed tree frog that gave us a smile. We had to travel through the thick jungle in the middle of the night to find this phenomenal animal.  Actually...... we went to a frog museum.

I put this picture out of order. Well, most of them are out of order, but this is back at the zip line where Damon did the "Tarzan Swing."

Damon took a picture of the storm before the BIG STORM hit. The water in the road was two feet deep in spots and overflowing over the sidewalk in others. Later that night the big storm hit and tore down trees and the power and water was out for the night. It was a night to remember.

This bug was the grossest part of the trip. It was HUGE! But I guess the picture tells the story for itself.

MILO

This is our new puppy. We brought him home yesterday and Damon loves to him to death. He barely lets his sleep, because once he falls asleep he picks him up to let his sleep on his chest like a baby. It's kind of cute while he can because this dog is going to be BIG. 

a little late

this has already flown around the internet and blogs galore, but if you happen to be outside of utah, or outside of Mormonism, this is for you!

i love this woman. and i've never met her (though one time at Cafe Fresh here in orem i was  waiting for my food order, texting at a table, when to my joyful surprise, in she walked with 2 of her sisters for lunch and they sat at the table RIGHT BEHIND ME within about 2 feet. i was so excited but didn't say hi (stupid!) but listened to their conversation instead).  her blog is an inspiration to anybody who is a wife, mother, woman... seriously, go to her blog ("i read nienie" button up there on the left) and backread- yes. start from 5 years ago. i promise it will be fulfilling- yes, a blog can be fulfilling.

you will love her too.

12 days

give or take. actually i think it was exactly 12 from when i left in kristi's car for the long drive home to texas till i got in last night on that jet plane (after experiencing the worst turbulence on a plane i've ever been in- seriously, people were freaking out).

it was a fun trip. back and forth between san antonio and austin, hanging with the fam and tara and byron and jeni and kevin who happened to be in texas at the same time- what luck!

 but 12 days is a long time and i was REALLY ready to come home to my husband. traveling (even home) just isn't as fun without the partner in crime. who wants to go downtown or go hiking or eat at all the best places alone? not i said the fry. so home i came and damon was waiting at the airport for me... 

so on our drive home he mentioned that he'd left his jacket and wallet at work and we had to go pick it up at his supervisor's house. yippee, exactly what i want to do after traveling all day and not eating since 11:30 and feeling gross in airplanes crowded with weirdos. to make it worse, when we finally pull up to the house damon mentions how they 'want to meet me'  and can i just go in too for 5 minutes- he promises, i don't even have to sit down. (um, cause i told him i REFUSED to sit down. nice wife eh? haha) i follow him unwillingly to the door and put on a fake smile and say hi to damon's coworkers and their kids and in the corner of the room is a big box of squirmy...

WHAT!?!?!

damon got me a puppy!!!!! he's the best surpriser ever! holy cow i've been wanting a dog for like 4 years  now. and for the last 6 months damon just says 'one day, one day'... and i dream about a dog with his head out the window in the wind and a dog to take camping and a dog to play with in the park and to teach to open the fridge and grab me a cold one and ... my oh  my, a dog during the summer is my idea of ultimate. does that make sense??  well here he is!

his mom's a golden retriever (my favorite!) and his dad is half border collie and half lab! oh man isn't he so cute with his gold legs and eyebrows???  we can't have him till june but i'm SOSO SOSOSOSO excited!  

woohoo! our first kid!

DoodleJump THAT!

I did it!!!

It has taken me weeks and weeks and weeks and FINALLY

FINALLY

I beat Damon's Doodlejump score!

just over 60,000!!!

Ps. sorry I haven't kept up with the birthday week posting like I said I would. I've been working a ton in this short week, including 3 of the last 4 eight-hour shifts. and no, my shift off was NOT overnight so I didn't get any sleep in those 32 hours.  They were spent being 1-on-1 with a 16 year old who doesn't want to live and therefore is doing anything she can to get the heck outta dodge. including swallowing metal, glasses lenses, hairties, bottle caps, etc., pulling out her surgery staples, and on and on... So mostly I've been on hospital duty.  How do you help people like this?

FHE

Damon decided that last night's  FHE activity that he wanted to golf.

and he wanted me to go.

so we decided that I would drive (and try to beat his DoodleJump record on the iPod touch - not iPhone, my bad) while he played. good compromise. I like driving golf carts, and it was such a nice day outside (70's!  finally!) so we went out to Sleepy Ridge in Orem.

holy cow the mosquitos out there! it was ridiculous. and also those electric carts don't quite pick up speed. also there's a sewage treatment center a few miles away and the smell can be less than pleasant at times.

but it was still pretty and Damon got to golf and i played DoodleJump for a long time. without beating his score.

Next Time.

April 23rd

is the day my husband was born.

Therefore today is like kinda the start of his birthday week, right?  right.

some things about damon that i only noticed when we started living together (after we got married):

1. he whistles. all. the. time.  like from morning to night he'll whistle any little thing that comes into his head. songs or made-up-by-him strands. sometimes i have to call from another room "Damon can you switch songs!?"  cause he'll whistle the same 5 notes from a line of a song over. and over. and overoverover.  now i think it's funny cause i don't think he notices how much he does it.

2. he talks in his sleep. most people have experienced this if they've spent any time with him including an overnighter or a nap even. he talks EVERY time he sleeps. if he falls asleep in the middle of a conversation, he'll join in as if he didn't fall asleep. but don't be fooled. he still isn't awake when he says "yeah, i know right?".
 
     this morning my alarm went off at 5:50 a.m. i snoozed it for 10 minutes before i could actually start to snooze, this is what i heard:  "just cut off the fat, i can chew on that the whole day.  mmmmmmmmmmm!" and then 10 minutes later after i'd gotten up and was brushing my teeth in the bathroom:  "you'll see....  YOU'LLLLLL  SEEEEEEEEEE..." (imagine a sneaky creepy voice).  I while back i decided i have to start keeping a notepad by my bedside to start recording the things he says or does (including kicking me, sitting straight up in bed out of nowhere, pushing me off the bed, and once, when we were sharing a hotel room with anna, robbie, and anna's parents, i awoke feeling a cold rush of air on my face and look up to see damon sitting over me fanning my face.)

3.  he's addicted to scrabble. he plays on his iphone all the time. if you have an iphone or facebook, let him know cause he'd love to play you.

4.  he always does the dishes. not having a dishwasher is a trial, in my book. but damon never fails to do the dishes after i make dinner, or if there's any in the sink.  sometimes i'm a good wife and do them too. but 90% of the time, it's all him. our apartment in des moines has a dishwasher- damon's request.

there's 4 things for now. we'll have to continue this through the week of celebration.

it's tuesday.

i have to go to work. tuesdays are boring. they aren't really anything in the week. not manic monday or humpday or the-day-before-friday.  it's too bad, really.

we went to the temple this morning and then damon went to work and i came to the library because the people who lived above us with their unsecure internet connection moved. which means no internet for us.

and it's hard.

but we're coping, kind of.

anyways, this weekend we drove to des moines (grossly overlooking how long it ACTUALLY takes to drive to des moines. 15+ hours, not 12 or 13) to look for a place to live. and i think we found a place, so we're relieved to have gotten that out of the way.  just another 6 weeks of work before we're free for the summer!

First Timer

So, this is Damon. I get grief from Tara every day how I don't participate in OUR blog. I've been a slacker.  I'm not even sure what to say. I'll wing it.  Today was general conference. It was great. Yesterday I was able to go to Priesthood session while Tara was making the money for the fam. She's my little sugar mama. This last weekend, we took a flashback to the past. Rob and Anna, Annie, Kristi, and Morgan came over and dyed some easter eggs. I learned some new tricks. I never knew that if you color on an egg, the dye doesn't dye there. We tried some new "sparkle technique" that came with the box but it didn't work very well.  This is Tara imitating Jake's "what's the big idea" face.

Anna and Annie try to seem surprised by me taking the picture.

Tara is proud of her masterpiece.

This was our magnificent collection.

This was the ugly snow outside, but the flowers made up for it.

There, I have contributed.