Dumont Dunes

Many of you asked, nay begged, to see pictures of Kyle. So, without further ado.....

Don't think that I have been ignoring your requests or dismissing them, its just that I haven't had the time or access to internet. Friday I took off early from work and we headed north on the 15 to an unknown place to me called Dumont Dunes, it is 30 minutes NW of Baker. Just think of Glamis, but much smaller and fewer white trash people. After settling in a bit we were off where I got my lessons in riding. It was more of a refresher course seeing that I have riden quads in Costa Rica and Hawaii, and even took a motorcyle class while at BYU, but never have I riden on sand. I will have you know that I did quite well, and Kyle was tremendously impressed. We were there until Monday just before noon and I had a great time.

Heart Day

After getting a call from the Infiniti dealership that my car was finally working and not going to cost me anymore, I jetted over, paid the $1500 and rushed back to my apartment where I speed changed my clothes in 5 minutes. Then I was off to Kyle's house where he had beautiful pink roses and dinner waiting.


We then watched I Am Legend which was pretty good. The rest of the evening we spent out back by the fire enjoying the stars.

Boot Camp

I decided to spice up my workout routine and have an adventure doing it as well. So, that is why I signed up to do a women's only Boot Camp and it started this morning, at 5:30 AM!!! And I didn't even have work today, talk about dedication. My mother signed up for the 3-day a week month long program as well, but she was a slacker today and did not show up for the first day of class. No, she was actually in Texas visiting my adorable nephew and does not get back until tonight.

This program takes place Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 5:30-6:30 am at the top of the parking structure at Victoria Gardens, an outdoor shopping mall about 1 mile from my apartment. Good thing it is close otherwise I don't know about the early morning.

Well, they split the 40+ group of women into two groups: those who have done their boot camp before and those who have not. My newbie class started out by running down to the lowest level and then halfway back up where we did high steps and then butt-kicks, and grapevines. Then back up to the top where we grabbed our weights before heading to the front of the Cultural Center/Library. Once there we used the benches to do dips and squats, a ledge to do push-ups and our weights to do bicep curls and other things I can't remember at the moment.

The last 20 minutes were spent doing ladders. This consisted of starting off by doing 10 lunges, followed by 10 bicycle crunches, and 10 mountain climbers. We then had to run about 3/4 the length of the parking structure and back. We then did 9 squats, 9 crunches and 9 push-ups before running 3/4 down and back. 8 lunges, 8 bicycle crunches and 8 mountain climbers, then run.....and so on all the way down to 1. I must brag here by saying that I was usually one of the top 8-12 to finish each time, beating many of the return boot campers.

So far I'm a little sore but I'll have to let you know how I feel tomorrow morning and then again after Wednesday class.

Update Time

So I finally have some time and decided that I should sit myself down and get my blog updated with everything that has happened in the past 2-3 weeks.

• Saturday, 26 January 2008, I went on a date with Kyle, a friend of a friend, where he took me to the Melting Pot. We then attempted to go ice skating, bowling and then to GameWorks, but due to not knowing the exact location of the rink, the alleys being packed and the entertainment center being closed for a private event, we were left out in the rain.
  
  


• Sunday, 27 January 2008- President Gordon Bitner Hinckley passed away at the age of 97. While having family Sunday dinner, my sister's boyfriend got a text message from a cousin informing us of the news. I knew it was coming sooner or later, but it was still a shock that it had really happened. I KNOW Pres. Hinckely was a prophet!

• Tuesday, 29 January 2008- I took my car into the dealership to be serviced. For the past month or two my car had been making funny noises and not running quite right. Also there were a couple of times where it would turn off has soon as I turned it on, or after driving for awhile and then parking it would just shut off. A week prior I had taken it to my dad's mechanic and he said the intake manifold gasket needed to be replaced. We called around and the Infiniti dealership was cheapest amazingly enough, (but not for long). So the dealership checked it out, confirmed it was the intake manifold gasket, but also concluded that it needed 3 new engine mounts. After three days and $1800 later, I had my car back. Only to drive it home from the dealership, park it and have the 'Service Engine Soon' light come on.



• Thursday, 31 January 2008- Kyle took me to a Thai restaurant for dinner and then we went over to the Riverside Stake Center for volleyball.



• Saturday, 2 Feb 2008- attended a wedding reception for Megan McDowell. The food was tasty and non-traditional with an In-N-Out truck pulling up and pumping out hamburgers. After the reception Kyle beat me big time at Lazer Quest.

• Tuesday, 5 Feb 2008- Kyle surprised me by taking me to dinner at the Jolly Roger restaurant in Dana Point. We then drove through the Doheny State Beach campsites seeing that we had both grown up camping at them with out families. A short drive south and we ended up at the San Clemente pier where we walked to the end and then got hot chocolate.


• 


• Wednesday, 6 Feb 2008- I took my car back into the Infiniti dealership to have the service engine light looked at and see what more damage had been done. Now the ECM- electronic control module was not functioning correctly, which would set me back another $850.



• Thursday, 7 Feb 2008- Went in to get my car and the new ECM was not working correctly because the throttle body was not registering and would probably need to be replaced. So pretty much everything in my car is breaking one by one. I left the dealership and cried. I don't usually cry, it's just not natural to me, not that I'm opposed to it but it's not a common occurance for me. I cried because I was tired of spending money that I don't have, I cried because I felt betrayed by my car. It is only a 2001 Infiniti I30. Granted it has 130,0oo miles (I did a lot of driving to and from Utah) but it has always been dependable and I have always been good to it, so I felt like it was turning its back on me. If more things continue to go wrong I will just give up on my car, trade it in and get myself the beautiful Infiniti M35.

I needed to get out of the IE and escape this mess so I asked Kyle to go to Disneyland with me only to find out that it closed 10 minutes before we got there. I already posted about this so I won't continue about how I barely lost miniture golf. We're both positive I won the first game but I messed up on the score card so ...

• Saturday, 9 Feb 2008- Finally got my hair cut which I love, and got myself a HUGE tv, for FREE. My co-worker just bought a new 50-something inch DLP tv and so he offered me his old 65 inch. Kyle and and his brother moved it into my apartment and I am amazed at how big it is.
  

Misinformed

I don't want to say that I lied to you yesterday about blogging right after work, because I had every intention of coming home and doing just that, but then life happened. This is the second time in 2 weeks that my car has been into the dealership to be serviced, one thing leading to another and frankly I'm all out of money. So after having a little cry in my loaner car, must be the menstual hormones because I usually never cry, I decided I needed a distraction by going to Disneyland. We got down there around 8:10 and to complete my luck for the day it closed at 8pm. So onto Plan B. We had passed Camelot, a mini amusemant center, on the drive down so that is where we played two rounds of miniture golf and I lost by 2 strokes. Seeing that I lost the bet I now have to buy Kyle a CD.

I'm Sorry...

I became one of those bloggers that I detest, you know, the ones who don't update in close to a month or longer. No real excuse to offer but I promise to update later today when I get home from work.

Benji Sighting

So yesterday at church there were some new faces in the crowd. It's not hard to notice new people seeing that there are only 50 or so that show up to my branch every week. Well, after sacrament I found these four new guys standing out in the foyer and decided to introduce myself. I asked if they were new and they said that two of them were possibly moving out this way and would be in the branch so they wanted to check it out first. I asked them their names as I shook hands with them. The first was Rick, then there was JC who was the cutest of the bunch, then Nate and as I got to the last guy I didn't even wait for him to say his name, I just shook his hand and said, "and you are Benji." I thought he had looked familiar earlier but all of a sudden it hit me who he was and it just came out of my mouth. So yes, ladies and gentlemen Benji Schwimmer, winner of season 2 of So You Think You Can Dance was at my branch and I briefly met him. I then sat behind him in Sunday School where he actually commented twice. Hopefully they come back again sometime so I can get better acquainted with his cute friend JC:)

Birthday Time

So yesterday was my birthday and I had a wonderful day. I suppose having to work on my birthday isn't the best, but it wasn't the worst either. At least none of my students tried to hit and punch me like they do to each other and their birthday.

I meet up with two dear friends, Robin and Katrina, for dinner at the delicious Las Campanas. The original restaurant is located at the Mission Inn and is a favorite of mine for the food and the location. But this past summer they built a second restaurant here in Rancho Cucamonga and I had yet to visit it. It has a completely different modern feel to it than the original, but the same yummy food is at both:)

After dinner I had to rush home because I was having a birthday party at my apartment. About 25 people showed up and we had a great time. Thanks to everyone who came!!!

Bridal Showers & Country Line Dancing

Saturday was a fun filled day with various activities. First I attended a bridal shower where the food was delicious but the gifts were lacking. I know I've stated it before in a blog and I'm going to say it again, bridal showers should be for the bride, NOT the house. The reception is the place for household items such as baking utensils, dish towels, and Tupperware, not the bridal shower, it is called a bridal shower for a reason. I felt bad for the girl because she has been living on her own for 3 years now and has everything she needs for the kitchen, bathroom and rest of the house, but she ended up getting more duplicates of what she already owns. Enough of my ranting......but just know, if you get an invitation to my bridal shower, your gift had better be sexy, slinky and seductive. I have all the cooking items I will most likely ever need, seeing that I have never liked to cook and never will.

I then attended the adult session of my stake conference, and sang in our branch's Relief Society choir. It was a good meeting but found a few differences than what I am used to. Each of the speakers had their talks completely typed out and read it pretty much word for word. This may seem normal to most of you but in my old stake the speakers, especially our priesthood leaders, would have an outline of what they wanted to touch upon, but spoke more by the spirit. They prepared their message, but focused more on preparing the messenger. It was just different and a tad bit less impactful to hear the talks read word for word.

After the conference a group of us from the branch decided to go to the Brandin' Iron, a country western line dance club. I used to go in high school Monday nights for teen night, but that was a good 10 years ago. We had a blast, I picked up on the line dances fairly quickly, and Tim McGraw look-alike cowboys are pretty easy on the eyes. I had a great time and hope to go back soon, but perhaps next time I will be able to get home before 2:30 am.

Random Part III

So I have another installment of my random factoids to share with you all:

1. Yahoo, the Internet search engine, stands for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle
2. Capri's, the mid-calf length pants are named after the Italian island of the same name-Capri
3. Ben Stein, actor/lawyer/game show guy, was once a lawyer and speech writer for Presidents Nixon and Ford
4. Podunk is the actual name of cities in Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Connecticut & Michigan.
5. Zebra skin is also striped, not just the fur
6. Grand Tetons, the large mountain range in Wyoming, means large tits in French.
7. Golf=Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden
8. There is only one country in the world that starts with the letter Y= Yemen

3 Desserts

Some friends and I went to lunch the other day at Elephant Bar Restaurant, which has very tasty food and exotic decor, and we ended up getting three desserts. Mind you there were only 5 of us girls, but for some reason we felt the need to splurge.

But who could resist this deliciousness...

Two Good Movies

If you have some spare time on your hands I have two movies to recommend for your viewing pleasure.

1. The Kite Runner- although I think you should first read the book before watching the movie. The movie follows the book pretty closely but character development is always better in the book.

2. Amazing Grace- the story of one man's goal to stop the Slave Trade in England and how the song Amazing Grace came to be.

Both movies are very thought provoking and worthy of your time.

Lights at Mission Inn

So after the smashing good time we had at my apartment for my grandfathers turning the big 8-3, a few of us headed down to the Mission Inn to see the lights before they are turned off until another year.

Family in front of the all lit up Mission Inn


Evidently they have an ice skating rink in the pedestrian mall during the holidays

California Christmas lights

Birthday Party Time!!!

I am the Eagle...

Wednesday night my cousin Gary got his Eagle, the highest rank in Boy Scouts of America.

Congrats Gary!!!

Merry Christmas

I had a pretty low key Christmas this year but received more than I expected:

1. a cool tool tote from my uncle Brent for my new apartment

2. this cool Quik Pod that attaches to my camera so that I can take pictures of myself

3. a gift card to Victoria's Secret

4. a gift card to my favorite store Target
5. all 3 Austim Powers movies, yaaa babay!!

6. The very cool Planet Earth DVD set

7. and watching Dash, my brothers dog, be silly

100th Post!!

Just thought my avid fans and readers would like to know that I have reached my 100th blog milestone.  The time went quickly for me and hopefully for you as well. 

So I would like to hear from a few of them that are too shy naturally to leave a comment: Robin, Cindy, Brooke, Loretta, Joan, Holly and any others I absently forgot but you know who you are:) 

Guess what I have?....

Having lived in So Cal my entire childhood life, ages 0-18,  I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have been to Disneyland.  But all of that is about to change.  We went Monday evening and for some crazy reason ended up buying annual passes.  So now if I'm in the area of Anaheim and have an itching to go to the most Magical Place on Earth, I can.  

My mom and dad in the second  row enjoying Space Mountain

Me in front of all the Christmas decorations on Main Street

Cupcakes

Sunday night my YSA branch was supposed to have a potluck and Fireside. Are we supposed to call them Firesides anymore or Devotionals?...Anyways, we had the potluck and I brought these delicious cupcakes.
But then we went into the chapel for the Devotional by our Institute teacher and he wasn't there yet. So we all sat and quietly chatted while we waited and waited. Our Branch President said we would wait 5 more minutes and then figure something out if he didn't show. So 5 minutes later with no speaker present, our Branch President gets up and says, "well, I hope this was edifying, now lets go eat dessert."

There's a BOY in the girls locker room!!!!!!

True Story:

Names have been changed to protect identity

Part I

A boy goes into the boy's locker room and tells Mr. Scott, "I need to talk to Ms. Leigh." With all the commotion and crazy stuff going on in a boys locker room, Mr. Scott responds, "well okay, go find her."

So said boy, lets call him Silly Billy, goes outside to the PE area to find Ms. Leigh. She is nowhere to be found, so he asks a girl where he could find Ms. Leigh. Girl answers by saying she thinks Ms. Leigh is in the girls locker room. Who knows what Silly Billy is thinking at this point but he needs to talk to Ms. Leigh and she is inside the girls locker room.


Part II

Ms. Leigh and Ms. Laura are having a friendly conversation in the coach's office inside the girls locker room. Ms. Leigh glances at the window separating into where the girls change their clothes, and to her surprise there is a boy staring back at her with a look of desperation. Ms. Leigh jumps out of her chair and proclaims, "there's a boy in the locker room!!!!" She zig zags through the TA's office into the locker room, grabs the boy by the shirt and pulls him into the equipment room. Ms. Laura hops out of her chair because she thought Ms. Leigh said, "there's a fight in the locker room!!!" She looks through the glass into each row, checks each mirror but is unable to locate the fight or any sort of unusual movement. She steps into the TA's office to get a better view when she sees Ms. Leigh whisk a boy past her into the back room where they keep the equipment.

Part III

"What are you doing in here?!" demands Ms. Leigh. Silly Billy sheepishly states, " I wanted to know if I could go to the band room to practice for our upcoming concert?"

"Yes, just go, go go." Ms. Leigh responds as she pushes him out the back door.

Note Worthy

So I have two incidents that happened to me today that I believe are note worthy to blog about, at least somewhat funny.

1. I went swimming for 30 minutes at the gym today. That is note worthy in and of itself but not my story. After I got out of the pool and showered I was trying to discreetly change in the corner of the locker room. I was almost done when an old Asian lady comes to the locker right next to mine and starts changing out of her swimsuit, saggy body right in front of my face in all its glory. This sweet old lady had no inhibitions.
2. Went to do some less active visits with the other branch missionary and couldn't remember the exact house. Picked which one we thought was correct and proceeded to knock on the door, ring the bell and even peek through the window when a man in his 40's answered the door in a robe giving us the evil eye. We said, "sorry, we think we have the wrong house." Crusty eyed man responded, "yes, I think you do too." We asked where the Garcia's lived, he pointed next door and we ran off his porch laughing the whole way.

Ants are the spawn of Satan

I woke up this morning to find Monomorium minimum crawling all over my freshly cleaned kitchen counter. That would be little beady-eyed ants for those of you who don't know the official scientific name. I had made some cupcakes on Sunday for my visiting teachees, and the leftovers I covered with aluminum foil and set on the counter. Lucky me I woke to this...

Not lucky ants got sprayed to high heavens and ended like this.

Vandalism is of the Devil

That's right little boys and girls, vandalism is a tool of Satan and should be avoided at all costs. Don't for one second think that is cool or fun to go to a middle school on the weekend and tag on the walls.

Or put mud in the drinking fountain
Or throw rocks at the lights above the doors going into the locker rooms causing the light bulb and surrounding glass to break and shatter everywhere.

Don't do it, don't think about doing it. Because we will find you, you little suckas, and then you'll be sorry!!!

Corteo

Circus acts amaze me. Maybe it is the unnatural things they do with their bodies. Or perhaps it is the cabbage smell, you know....carnies....small hands. So anyway, last night I went to Corteo for the second time, but this time with my family. Again, I was in awe with most of the acts and performances, but my sister on the other hand thinks she could do most of them quite easily. She either is talented beyond what is evident to me or has a very high view of her abilities.

Oh Christmas Tree

I'm not one to get into the holiday spirit much with lots of decorations and gifts, and I pretty much can't stand Christmas music. Well, I like Christmas hymns that are sung at church, it's those dumb commercial songs like Here Come Santa Clause, Deck the Halls, Up on the Rooftop, Rudolf, Jingle Bells, etc... I am much a fan of Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, Angels We Have Heard on High, We Three Kings, Silent Night and my fav O Holy Night.

So, where I'm heading with this is that I was debating back and forth if I wanted to get a tree for my apartment. Last week I bought a wreath for the door... and a cute snowmanwhich I though was very Christmasy of me. Above and beyond any of my expectations for myself.

But I finally decided that I did want a Christmas tree with decorations.

It is very simple and not extravagant but I like it that way.

Where did all this energy come from?

I've been trying to hit up the gym as of late and have made it 2 for 2 so far. I worked my lower body yesterday, so needless to say I walked around a little stiff today. When I got home today I decided to go to my apartment complex gym, jump on the treadmill and run for 15 minutes. I wasn't sure I would make it this long because I've got a bit of a hurt ankle. Last week while playing basketball with my students I got tripped up, sort of rolled my ankle, heard a pop, and saw my face fast approaching a big metal pole. Luckily I saved my face from a nasty impact but my ankle has been a bit sore since. But today on the treadmill I fought through the discomfort and when I reached 15 minutes I kept on going. When I got to 20 minutes I kept on going, and when I got to 25 I figured lets make it an even half hour. Way to go self!!

PE Conference

I love my job, I really do, but every now and then it is nice to have a day away from my students. Today was such a day as 4 of us 5 PE teachers went to a conference created by and for PE teachers. Good thing because I don't think I could have handled one more conference or development day where we talk about vocab or math strategies.

Okay, so I have to admit that I thought our presenter was a bit hokey at first as he started off with, "clap 3 times...clap clap clap. Stomp 3 times...stomp stomp stomp. Clap 3 times...clap clap clap. Stomp 3 times...you get the picture. But after doing some fun and easy icebreaker games and warm up activities it was pretty cool. One thing I came away with is the desire to teach/trick my students into learning square dancing. Our presenter did this is in such a natural organic way that it just might be feasible with my students, and fun to boot. Also, I have a much better understanding of the California State Standards for Physical Education and how to break them down. So thank you to my principal for shelling out the big bucks for us to attend.

Sunday Driving

Now I've heard of the expression "Sunday driver" and have seen it first hand by my grandfather, but today I saw it in a whole new definition. I was driving home from church and coming up on a four way intersection, where there was a middle divider dividing the left turn lane from oncoming traffic. As I approached I past a car but they were on the wrong side of the divider and she was now in the left turn lane but going the wrong direction. Luckily all the other cars were going straight and none had to go into the left turn lane as it was now blocked. I felt a bit of concern and nervousness as to how this situation would be rectified, hoping an accident would not ensue seeing that I would probably get hit in the event, but they lady waited for all the cars to stop at the red, drove past us, did a U-turn and returned to the left turn lane but in the correct direction this time.


Reminds me of my dad driving in Austin this past week where he cut a left turn too short and ended up on the wrong side of a middle divider. With everyone in the car screaming at him and the headlights of a car approaching, he was lucky enough to cross the divider as it was only a 20 foot stretch of grass with no curbs. Good one dad!

Go Cougs!!!

A month long postponement and the threat of rain made for a very low turnout for the BYU vs SDSU football game today. The game was originally scheduled for Oct 27, but then those crazy fires took over and they couldn't very well have a football game when evacuees were being housed at the stadium. Then it was pouring rain all day Friday with the threat to continue today. Both probably factored into the reason why only 20% of the stadium was full. But that doesn't matter as long as the Cougars won. And they did, 48-27!!!

Me and my mom enjoying an Aztec stomping by BYU

Tribute to Chase