San Felipe Weekend

This last weekend we stayed in San Felipe. I have to say I used to dread the weekends we stay here, but now don't mind them as much. I feel much better adjusted with how to use my time & stay entertained. When Saturday came Jeremy asked what I wanted to do, after I threw down a veto on going golfing I said "let's do a photo shoot on the beach!" Jeremy said he didn't want to be my model..wah wah. Fine I said, you can be my assistant, & blow up the turtle. But by the time we blew up the turtle & got to the beach a thick fog set in..

I thought this was going to ruin my little session, but it actually made a cool background.

 Diesel was happy as a clam chasing Jeremy around & eating sand & then choking it back out as per usual.

I was amazed at how long this little guy's tongue is! He was of course a great sport & as photogenic as ever :)

Jer by the end decided he did want to show off his modeling skills. haha this picture cracked me up, even more after I edited it!

Anyways I am loving my new camera & the challenges it & photoshop bring. I just wish I had more things and/or people to take pictures of. Hopefully this weekend I can get Truman to stand still long enough to snap some pics of him & Teddy. 

I wanted to write down that Sunday was a lot better this week. I almost have learned all the kids names which helps a lot. Sometimes it is a blessing & a curse to me that Jeremy is  fluent in Spanish. He helps bridge the gap in our little ward translating back & forth which I think really helps. This Sunday however I think he was sick of feeling like all he does is play telephone back & forth. He translated all of sacrament, all of combined Relief Society & Priesthood, then after church for about an hour someone was grabbing on his arm asking for him to translate something for them. I swear he knows more about what's going on in our ward than the branch president! He is so good to do it though with a smile on his face.

Valentines Project #1

So while Jeremy is gone for the whole day (usually he comes home for lunch) I decided to get started on Valentine decorations. Now this has never been a *favorite holiday of mine. I don't hate it, I just don't love it. Mainly because I think flowers are a waste & I am not a chocolate lover. Not that those things are what Valentine's is all about, but they are a big thing lots of girls look forward to. I think I just hope for a nice dinner. Jeremy & I are low in the romance department.. We need to try harder to be spontaneous & sentimental but it's just not the way we are. So just FYI single ladies you are not missing out on much this February if you are alone. My favorite Valentine to date is when all my roommates & I got Cafe Rio for dinner & came back to the house, watched a scary movie, & prank called our friends. (sorry again Brit) Back to the point, I feel like holidays are what we make them right? So I figured I needed to put up some decorations & what not to feel more festive. Plus it's probably the only time it's allowed to have pink & red girly hearts & decorations in my house.

This is not what I had envisioned making but it evolved in to this somehow. The feathers are not attached, I am just using them to hide my bad closure stitching. So I realize it's almost impossible to read that it say's LOVE, but I had initially planned on using small beads, but when they wouldn't fit over my embroidery needle I upgraded to pearls I had. I should have used a simpler font but oh well what's done is done. This is what the font looked like before the beads:

 I wouldn't say Valentine Project # 1 was a total success, but it will add some flavor to our blah brown living room. Can't wait to see Jer's faked *wow impressive Cass face. He is so sweet to pretend he likes me weird crafts, but I always know :)

More V day crafts to come. I would love to hear if you do anything awesome/romantical for Valentine's day?

Water for Elephants

It also looks like there will be a movie coming soon which I couldn't be more excited about!

Watch the trailer here.

Thanks again for the suggestion & I would love to hear about any other great books you love?

Girls Weekend

This last weekend I was supposed to head off to San Francisco for a girls trip. Apparently is wasn't meant to be, because it fell thru. Jodie however saved the day & came out to hang out with me in San Diego!

Friday morning I picked her up at the long beach airport & we headed over to Amy's house to visit with her & the boys. Mainly just sharing gossip about the bachelor :) After that we headed to Fashion Island to shop. Jodie & I were determined to make a change in our wardrobes! I have really been feeling out of style lately, I keep picking articles of clothing that are awesome but don't necessarily go well with my body type. Anyways we were pretty successful & happy with our purchases. Amy came & meet us for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory & was even generous enough to pay! I am so lucky to have such a sweet sister in law that I love to hang out with & get along with so well. After shopping we headed to San Diego and just crashed for the night.

Saturday morning we decided to head down to Pacific Beach. We got lucky enough to score front row parking as well! The weather was perfect & the waves were crashing pretty hard which was fun to watch.

 We got hit on at the beach a couple times which is always awkward.. I forget that I don't have a tattoo stamped on my forehead that says "I'm Married" so I am always taken off guard when boys talk to me. Especially cause it happens so rarely living in my San Felipe bubble :)

On the way home we stopped by the Temple because it's our favorite!

After the temple we headed to see Tangled which is absolutely the most adorable movie ever. I was so glad Jodie & are both 7 and wanted to see it. Jer was just glad he didn't have to see it with me!

 That evening we headed to Fashion Valley in San Diego to continue our shopping spree. We went into the Container Store which is seriously organization heaven & I picked up some boxes & wrapping for Jer's big day coming up! We then decided to go into Bloomingdale's because neither of us have ever shopped there & were curious. It is basically a more expensive Nordstroms. They had tons of awesome dresses that looked like they were for the golden globes, so we each picked one out and pretended to be famous! ha

Here is our dressing room fashion show, feathers included. Too bad you can't sport G-ments with this so I decided not to purchase it. haha I kid, I kid.

After I made my favorite purchase of the trip @ good ol' forever 21 we headed downtown for dinner at Roy's. I was sad because the only reason we had chosen there was for their amazing wedge salads which of course they didn't have for some reason.

Sunday we woke up & attempted to work out at the park across the street. My legs are still sore from the squats we did. I cut out early to take Sam a big lab we were watching home because he was dragging us all over the place! Little dogs are just so much easier to handle. We got ready & headed down to visit Jodie's sister in Huntington. After we figured we might as well visit every mall in California so we stopped by the Irvine Spectrum. The only thing I purchased was pinkberry & it was well worth it :) After the mall I dropped Jodie off at the Long Beach airport & headed back to SD. It was a lovely weekend & I was so glad to have company. I only got seriously lost once & that was on the way to the SD airport to pick Jer up. California is so massive it's really hard for me to figure out where I am especially with no Utah mountains to guide me! I will say I am happy to be back home where I don't have to drive anywhere. I hate driving Jer's big truck & will be happy when I have a car of my own again. 

This week's to do list includes wrapping Jer's presents & making Valentine's decorations so hopefully that keeps me entertained :)

Capturing the moon..

Have you ever tried to capture the moon? Well I tried a few nights ago & it is a lot harder than it looks! The moon was so huge & bright, I was just mesmerized.. It truly was brilliant & looked like I could just reach out and touch it. I made Jeremy pull over in an attempt to save this incredible moon I was seeing in picture form.

I guess the moon is really hard to take pictures of because it moves ever so slightly & my camera needed to adjust to let in as much light as possible.

That's just how it goes though, you can never capture the things, moments, or feelings that really mean something. I hope that in blogging I capture just little reminders of these memories.

In other news I had a lovely weekend in San Diego with my long time friend Jodie.

I keep not wanting to post about it until I get my photo's edited to my liking, but of course that takes forever & I keep running into speed bumps along the way.. I am giving myself a deadline so I will stop waiting for my posts to be perfect & just correct them as I go.

Can't believe January is almost over!! This year is already flying by!

A miracle & Justin Bieber

This last weekend we made a quick trip up to San Diego to get a break. I got Jer a couple birthday gifts & dropped off my broken laptop while Jeremy golfed. That night we had a wonderful sushi dinner & saw the movie The Dilemna  I hate to say it since I picked the movie, mostly because it had Channing Tatum in it but it was pretty stupid.

Miraculously they said my laptop was done the next morning! They replaced the logic board totaling close to $1,000 for free? When I asked why the guy said: "not sure.. you must have applecare". Which I don't, because when Jer took my computer in a couple weeks ago they charged him $300 for a repair? My summary is that I am way more attractive than Jeremy so they charged him but this dude liked me better so the gave me a freebie! :) Really I have no idea why it was free but I will be praying to bless that guy at the genius bar who hooked me up with a new charger too. (I fell down the stairs with my brand new one and broke it..oops)

He doesn't know he just resurrected my best friend from the dead! 

When we were at the mall, we ran into this..

 A singing contest for a chance to get into the premier of Justin Bieber's new movie/documentary. (Which looks pretty cool by the way) It was hilarious watching all the teen girls singing justin bieber's songs! I think I even saw some girls crying after they performed.. haha.. I know how they feel, I would have sang in front of a crowd of strangers to see the backstreet boys when I was in junior high too!

We ate some yummy lunch at the cheescake factory & then just relaxed the rest of the day. I planned to have our friend Chris who is a photographer help me with my new camera but got too embarrassed about how I still don't understand what aperture means.. So I only ended up taking these 2 pictures on the car ride home.. Maybe next week I will have the courage to ask for help :)

Birthdays..

A couple of Birthday cards I just made. 

Within January my Mom, Dad, Landon & Nick all have birthdays. Then Jeremy the first week in February. Makes life a little stressful because it's hard to come up with new ideas for presents right after Christmas. So I thought some home made cards might relieve some stress, & I think it did just the trick!

I was very pleased with they way they turned out. Especially since I found a reason to use my Martha Stewart glitter :)

New calling = chaos

So I thought I better document the fact that Jeremy & I have new callings. Though Jeremy was really "trying out" to be in the branch presidency, he did make young men's president which consists of about 7 active young men. I got called as the primary secretary. I was semi bummed when we got our callings because I knew that meant less traveling on weekends which meant more time in Mexico, which is exactly what I didn't want!

 I thought Jeremy's calling would be very hard & time consuming while mine sounded like it would be a walk in the park since I do enjoy kids, and the job description they explained to me was that I was to take roll, be in charge of copying things & materials, as well as keeping the children in their seats.

Man was I wrong! Jeremy's calling is SO easy! All he does is hang out with boys about his same maturity level. He does a short lesson sunday but mostly just arm wrestles & goofs of with the boys. That and every tuesday does an "activity". Last week they played wii & ate pizza, the week before that they played soccer. Really inspirational if you ask me..

(These are a few of the kids in the primary)

Being in the primary is so difficult! The primary president only speaks spanish & the 2nd counselor & I only speak english.  Right now the system is to stick around 20 kids ages 5-11 in a big room for 2 hours. They are supposed to split into 2 classes older & younger, but the teachers keep not showing up & then there is often times not another open room to take the kids too. It honestly is pure chaos most of the time.

It seriously takes me almost an hour to do the roll right now. The kids each have four names on the role including first, middle, mom's last name, & dad's last name. So scanning thru to find there name is near impossible since even when I ask them their name half of them only know their first name! Plus of course there are a ton of repeats like jesus, fernando, ivan & jose. The kids are cute but most seriously lack discipline, especially the younger ones who have never attended school, daycare, or any structured setting. It is so frustrating.

Last week the primary president started bawling at the end because she was so overwhelmed & stressed. I had to run & get Jeremy because of course none of us knew why she was crying. Last week we attempted to have a presidency meeting bringing Jer along to translate. We ended up having to have our meeting in the car because our Primary presidents electricity had been stolen. I felt so badly for her but she acted as if it was no big deal. We gave her our flashlight to help her out until they got their power back on. It also made me so mad that someone would do that, probably a neighbor even because they must have known they were out of town to pull out their wires why they were cold.

Jeremy has also become the ward translator poor kid. Sacrament, primary meetings, & even translated an interview last sunday while someone was confessing. 

We do love our ward, it is definetly always interesting with the grouchy old people mixed with the young mexicans when neither understand each other. I can say even though my calling is really tough I do enjoy it & the feeling of helping/serving.

Models Needed...

Because I'm pretty sure Diesel is pretty sick of me taking pictures of him. I am sort of getting the hang of my new camera. It for sure takes awesome photo's, it's just a matter of patience getting all the settings right! So if anyone wants to come hang out with me in Mexico  would love to have a real person to snap pictures of!? Jeremy is not a REAL person if you were wondering..

STOP!

Things that need to stop:
-Stop having computer problems. I just took my laptop in for the 2nd time this month. Seriously give me a break! The guy said it could possibly be $964 to fix. Which of course isn't worth it. So I can't say I'm super pumped at the possible chance of having to buy a new computer..
-Stop saying it's vintage. I really want people to stop selling everything old & calling it vintage. Now I love vintage treasures as much as the next person, but I see everywhere online & today at American apparel stuff that looks like it was pulled out of your grandparents trash! Let me say I also really like old people, but please no more saying everything super old is vintage, when it's really just old crap!
-Stop posting on facebook how great your husband & kids are, & that you love them so much. Every once in a while it's fine if you want to shout out a specific thing they did or what not, but the more you publicly proclaim your undyeing love & affection, the less anyone really believes you.
-Stop being so darn difficult Photoshop. Just stop.
-Stop watching Jersey Shore & the Bachelor.. If you stop watching maybe I can? We both know it's sheer garbage...so why can't we stop watching?!
-Stop golfing. It's not a sport, I even place it beneath cheerleading & rhythmic gymnastics!

Ok & now I will STOP. Complaining that is.q

Photoshop 101

So this Christmas I got a Nikon D90. I was really excited to use it until I pulled out the manual book.. YIKES! The thing is huge. I mean I knew I needed to take some photography classes and what not to really master the thing, but when it took me a half an hour to get the battery, sim card & lens in place I knew I was in big trouble. I turned the camera on and turned it to auto expecting to pull off some awesome photos! Well that didn't happen.. they were all blurry or I could see my own shadow. I really had to turn the lens to the perfect spot to get a clear photo. Needless to say this new camera is going to take some serious work. So I decided to put that on the back burner & figure out my new photoshop first.

Which I gifted to myself for Christmas because I think I was pretty nice this year :)

I figured I could use decent photos I already had, thinking I would still feel I was making progress by whipping out some legit edited pictures.

Anyways when I opened it up I found myself very confused and more frustrated than before.. Especially since I couldn't even figure out how to pull a single photo in the thing. So after waiting forever to load youtube tutorials with no luck of any understanding, I finally posted a sort of help please on fb! Don't judge me, I was desperate!

(Usually I would call my brother Landon to tell me how to problem solve these sorts of things, but I know he doesn't have photoshop & just recently had a baby so I decided he deserved a break from my technical retardation).

Anyways a friend from back home so graciously called to help me, & help he did!!! I still have loads to learn but he answered a bunch of my questions & so kindly explained everything to me. So without further adieu:

My first photoshop creations!

 

So there you have it. I have learned something already this year!

*Side Note: I had been trying to upload these pictures above for the last 3 days! They kept just endlessly uploading or would say server error. Initially I thought it was our slow internet connection, but even when I went to the pool where they have faster internet it still wasn't working. These sort of problems drive me crazy! I felt so frustrated and wasted hours & hours waiting for them to load with no success. I usually just ask other people to fix problems for me, it just seems to go faster & trust that other people always know more than me (which is mostly true, I know I'm no genius)! In this case I felt like no one could really know how to fix the problem over the phone & since Jer really doesn't know how to work blogger or photoshop I didn't think he could be helpful either. So finally I said to myself: 

this problem needs to be fixed, & I need to do it!

So I thought to myself if I were Landon, how would I fix this.... (poof idea pops into my head) I remembered how he will always google his question & read the possible solutions. So that's what I did! 2 hours later I figured out I needed to change the format of my photo's from psd to jpeg. Now I know some of you are thinking duh, but I have never been savvy with computers or technology. I am so jealous of kids these days really being taught how to work computers & the programs that go with them. I just feel so behind sometimes, I love technology but it will leave you in the dust if you don't keep up. I am glad however I learned how to communicate better than most kids these days with their facebook, iphones & what not. Jeremy always gets annoyed and says young kids these days are communication-ally retarded. Well sorry I know this story has turned forever long about how I could use some basic technology classes, but I glad for a moment that I figured out a problem on my very own. Diesel is very proud of his mamma's accomplishments this day :)

Holiday Greetings..

I started off this post by wanting to upload 12 of my favorite photos from these last 12 months of 2010. As I starting choosing them I realized they were all basically the same. They all included spending time with our family (Jer & I's). So instead I will just include this little picture we sent out as our Christmas card, in case you didn't request one :)

As I was home for Christmas I didn't really stay on top of blogging or taking pictures for that matter so I should have posted this before Christmas, but I really just wanted to spend time with my family instead of documenting it! I gave my sister in law Erin my idea & she came up with the design. We loved how it turned out! Hope you had a Happy Holiday & a great New Year!

pst.. how funny/cute is Jeremy in cartoon form!? I also commissioned an artist I like to do a couple portrait of us to hang on the wall, but Jeremy just ended up looking like an old man! haha It's the no hair thing :)

A little late...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Man I love confetti & streamers. I put these decorations on my Christmas wish list, but I guess Jeremy didn't find them appealing :) We had a wonderful new years! We ate dinner with my parents & then had a great night with friends (especially since Jeremy won some money):)

It has been such a crazy, tough, awesome, fun filled year! I can't wait to see what's in store for me in 2011. These are just a couple of things on my list:

*Go on Mediterranean cruise

*Show my sewing machine some more love

*Follow through with ideas

*Stop worrying about things I can't control

*Be more active

*Explore new music & art

*Bake more treats

*Figure out how to take excellent photo's with my new camera

*Give Diesel more baths

*Give Jeremy more kisses

and last but not least...

*MOVE OUT OF MEXICO!

So hopefully next year I can check off some of these items :)

Utah/Christmas Wrap up

Being home for Christmas was such a blast! I miss my friends and family already. It was a little stressful this year as I find our families getting bigger & bigger which makes it a lot harder to get quality time with each one! Next year I hope to start even earlier on my shopping list so I don't spend almost everyday at the mall. As we all know I really enjoy shopping, but even I can only take so much. I was glad we made it to the temple while we were in town as it is hard to go each month since we do not have a near by temple in mexico. It helped greatly with figuring out our goals for this next year.

I was so happy to be able to spend time with one of m best friends Chanelle while I was in town. She just recently returned from a mission & I'm glad she is back. So fun to have one of those people who knows basically everything about you. I could not see her for years but then feel like we haven't skipped a beat when we get back together. Chanelle has always been such a loyal friend & I always enjoy her happy corky personality. Can't wait until she comes to visit me!

Kemp Extended Family Christmas Party

The monday after Christmas we attended Jeremy's extended family party, (Sandy's side).  I wasn't fully aware of this until after the get together, but everyone in his family is full on cowboy/cowgirl. They mostly work on farms, grow potatoes or work with animals. His uncle Dirk who's house the party was at is a Dairy farmer. He even took us on a tour :)

 I know they usually seem gross but I loved the little pigs!

Jeremy & Chris participated in the annual Christmas pageant as wisemen.

It was so nice to be able to hang out & get to know his family better. Everyone is really down to earth & friendly. Just wish we didn't have to drive all the way to Idaho to see them!

That night we made it in time to stop at my extended family as well, (Ballam side). My grandparents are so generous. They always give us money, even though they just took us on a cruise. I love to spend time with all the cousins that are close to my age. My grandparents are so sweet, I am so thankful to have them in my life.

Teddy's Blessing

Last Sunday evening we had the pleasure of attending sweet Teddy's baby blessing. It was held at Amy's parent's house which was nice since it was much more quaint than having it at church. Amy made some delicious Hawaiian Haystacks & after we played a really fun game. Her family is so nice & friendly.

 All the gentlemen.

We have so much fun with this cute little family.  Glad Teddy joined the crew :)

Michael Jackson: The Experience

Jeremy got me Michael Jackson: The Experience for my birthday, & I seriously love it! I told my mom how great it was so she got it for my younger sister Prezley. We played it a couple times while we were home for Christmas. It was always entertaining, funny & just plain awesome! I would highly recommend it!

This video below is of my mom & dad's first turn. So funny. I love my mom's high pitch laugh & how spastic she is, also my dad is just the best sport. He will really do anything you ask him to! I just love hanging out with my family & MJ :)

Well as you have noticed there is no video here :(

I have been trying to upload it for the last 3 days & it keeps loading but never finishes. If i figure it out I will post it, but for now you will have to just imagine how awesome funny it was!