New Calling

A new change of pace on Sunday

I was just starting to get more comfortable teaching the "Teaching for Our Times" lessons in Relief Society. They focus on talks from the Apostles and Prophets General Conference Talks. I have grown such a strong testimony of God's special witnesses here on Earth and I soak up their teachings. I have been teaching for just over a year and I just got released.  I'm really going to miss Relief Society.I got called to be the 2nd Counselor in the Primary. It is definitely a change from teaching women to teaching children. The biggest adjustment is to figure out what keeps the attention of junior primary vs. senior primary. I did my first sharing time today on the Articles of Faith. The children surprise me with their knowledge.  Here's to a new adventure at church and I sure hope it goes well.

Not quite old yet....

Thursday, November 8, 2012

I would consider age 30 as "old" ha ha...I guess it seems old to me. Luckily Trav hasn't reached 30 yet. He turned the big 2.9. this year.  He worked on his birthday, which meant he didn't get home until 8 o'clock. So we went to his favorite of favorites and ate at Red Lobster. I was so glad that they have expanded their menu very recently to include more non-seafood dishes and I actually liked my dish a lot. Trav got the meal that has lobster, shrimp, and crab. He didn't want to miss any of the good stuff. They recently remodeled the Red Lobster in Visalia and I liked the new feel it had. It was more of a romantic setting and we had a great dinner together.

For his birthday he requested tickets to the BYU vs. San Jose State Football Game tickets and a battery for his watch. Pretty simple I know. I decided when I was out and about at the mall to pick him up some Hickory Farm Sausage and mustard. He loves that stuff. The surprise for his birthday was a big Y flag from his parents. He was super excited about it. It's crazy to think that 6 years ago, while dating, I surprised him down in Price with a cake and painted Happy Birthday wishes on his car windows. Good Times.

 

 

Saturday, November 17-BYU vs. San Jose State Football Game

 

Travis was had a lot of anticipation for this game. It was originally going to be played at 1:30 PM which would have worked perfectly for the face that it is a 3 hour drive there and then back, but about a week ago they changed it to 7:30 PM because it was on ESPNU. We headed out and as always had a fun-filled car ride. There is never a dull moment with Trav. We have a blast and it included the usual singing. Our game tickets came with tickets to the BYU Tailgate Party. So we went early to be a part of that. It was held at a Baseball Field near the Spartan Stadium. We ate a BBQ dinner, watched some BYU highlights, and got in on the Cougarettes dancing with Cosmo. There were a ton of BYU fans!! They were everywhere!

 

After the tailgate party we headed to find our seats. We were about 30 rows up at the 50 yard line. In all the other BYU games we've been to we have been on one of the end zones sides. We had great seats and it was a lot easier to tell how many yards they picked up  per play. It sprinkled off and on and rained at the end of the game. BYU had two opportunities to win. In the last 1 minute of the game Trav and I really thought that BYU was going to pull it off, but Riley Nielson got tackled during a pass and fumbled the ball and it was over. San Jose 20 vs BYU 14. Bad loss for BYU, but never the less entertaining and a whole lot of fun!

Don't let the empty seats behind us fool you. It was all packed with BYU fans by the start of the game. If I were to guess I would say 50% BYU 50% SJSU.

Trav got a picture with Chad Lewis, former BYU Tight End who went on to play in the NFL.

 

We headed out at about 11 PM. We had a 3 hour drive ahead of us and it was still raining, which didn't help. We wouldn't not have drove home that night, but Trav had work the next day and I had Sunday commitments. Trav and I spent some time analyzing the game and giving our input of what we would have done as a coach. I like that I know quite a bit about football and most sports in general. It helps me know what is going on as I watch the game and it's always interesting to talk through the plays and the game with Trav. It always nice having something in common. It was a fun day trip to San Jose, CA.  Too bad we didn't have more time to explore the city...Maybe next time.

Holidays Flying By

 

Let me just make it clear that all holidays are more fun with children. They just get excited about every little thing, which is so cute!

 

I told Trav that I really wanted to carve pumpkins this year because last we we waited until the night of Halloween to look for pumpkins and couldn't find any. This year we thought we would head to the local pumpkin patch and pick out the ones we wanted. It was the weekend before Halloween, so needless to say the patch was pretty well picked over, but we were still able to find us some good ones that had one good side, stood up, and still had the stem. :) We had a great time carving them together. Travis is Frankenstein and mine is the "Wicked" one. While carving Trav asked jokily, "Are we too old to carve pumpkins." I happily responded, "We're never too old to carve pumpkins." I thought they both turned out great and they kept treat-or-treaters coming on Halloween Night.



On Halloween, since Trav had to work until 7, I went to the ward Halloween party with our friends The Deans. I loved seeing all the kids costumes and talking with friends. The kids went around and did the trunk-or-treat. Then we went back to the Deans house to hang out, Trav joined up with us, we ordered a pizza for dinner, and played Hearts. This was all in between playing with cute Lily and answering the door for treat-or-treaters, and holding Bella (their dog) back to not scare the kids with her bark. There were actually a few groups that came by with quite a few kids. I was glad that it was worth buying some candy.  I always like to be the house with "the lights on" :)

 

 

 

Up next is Thanksgiving! This is the finished project of the owls I did with my mom and sisters while in Utah. I think it is so festive and I added some garland and leaves or sorts from Hobby Lobby. I actually put this up before Halloween. Trav inquired, "Isn't it a little early to be putting up Thanksgiving decorations when we haven't had Halloween?" I answered, "They are just owls dressed up in their Halloween costumes." He had no response and we laughed. Looking forward to whatever we plan for Thanksgiving!!

What Trav has been missing the most....BYU

Continuation of Saturday, October 13

When we were planning this trip Trav had to make sure that he was in Utah over a weekend where BYU was playing at home. We met up with Marian, Ray, and Jaime to go to the BYU vs. Oregon State game. It was so good to see them!! We all made sure we were decked out in black and even bought the blackout specific shirts just for the game. They didn't win, which was a bummer for sure, but the BYU uniforms for this game were pretty sweet. We did make it to the first BYU Blackout ever. Trav got into the game as always cheering on his team and letting the refs know when they made a bad call. 

I always love spending time with my honey. Even if it is at a BYU game.

I love that our new camera will do panoramic pictures. You can capture it all in one shot.

Adam and Austin ended up making it to the game too. After the game we headed to Sportman's to meet up with Adam and Austin. Of course the guys all drooled over all the guns they wish they had. Then we headed to dinner at Sizzler. Trav enjoyed some steak and endless shrimp, and I got myself some malibu chicken. We so thankful for Marian and Ray having season tickets and letting us go with them whenever we can.

Side note: We have been to almost every home BYU game since we have been married (when we lived in Utah). Sadly this is the only time we have actually taken a camera.

Meeting Mckenna and Gpa Tidwell

Friday, October 12

I had been dying ever since Mckenna was born to meet her in person. Of course my family had sent me many many pictures, and I had seen her on Skype, but it just isn't the same. Well morning came and me and Travis woke up around 4 that morning to get ready and head up to Fresno to catch our flight. The Fresno Airport is small and is never busy that early in the morning. Well I won't give all the horrible details of the story because I'd rather not relive it, but basically we missed checking our bags in for our flight by 1 minute. So we were totally bummed out because we were supposed to arrive around 9:00 AM MST, and the next available flight wasn't going to arrive until 3:20 PM MST. It was a TOTAL let down. Instead, we ended up going to breakfast and going shopping at the mall to waste time. Finally we arrived and I got to meet the new addition to my side of the family. She is an absolute doll, especially in person. I just could't get enough of her. We oo'd and aww'd over here the whole time I was there. That night we enjoyed dinner with the whole family: Mom and Dad, Shannon, Josh, Mckenna, Me, Travis, Jeremy, Amanda, and Shane. The guys then played Ticket to Ride while the girl's chatted away and caught up on everything.

All the girls in the family

Saturday, October 13

Saturday morning we headed up to the U of U hospital to visit with my Grandma and Grandpa Tidwell. My grandpa had open heart surgery a couple of weeks ago, and then they decided he needed a pacemaker as well. So they did that too. Lucky for us he is doing really well for being 82. He is actually home now and is working on recovery and gaining his strength back. He was really happy that they provided him with the ESPN sports package. He has always kept up on sports and his hospital stay wasn't any different. I am so lucky that I have been able to know all of my grandparents very well and they are all still with us.

Work Desktop

I have this as my desktop picture at work. I absolutely love to see this precious bundle of joy several times a day. This is my cute niece Mckenna. I can't help but smile and be happy when I see her sweet face. I can't wait to hold her a week from today, October 12!!!!

A fun date...just for two

September 29-30

 

 

Trav and I want to make sure that we explore California while we are here. We don't know how long we will stay, it could be a very long time, it could be short, but we want to make sure we go see the places that are now such a short drive away.

 

This weekend we took a trip to the Santa Monica Pier. We enjoyed the carnival rides on the pier. They are not as crazy and adrenalin rushing as Magic Mountain, but it was a wonderful date. I especially love the Ferris Wheel. The lights had so many varieties and it was kind of like watching an awesome firework show in a sense. For dinner, we ate at a place downtown Santa Monica called Yankee Doodles.

The next day we headed back down tot he pier, but decided to hit up the beach. Travis didn't want to miss out on Clam Chowder so we found a place on the pier and he had clam chowder while I had a burger. lol....I'm not a seafood fan.

 

--As a side note, Trav LOVES Red Lobster. I don't prefer to go there because there is basically nothing that I want to eat, well I just heard a commercial on TV that stated that Red Lobster will be offering a wider variety of foods. BEST NEWS EVER! lol :)--

 

After lunch we headed down to the beach. We laid out on our towels for while just feeling the perfect temperature breeze and watching the waves crash in. Of course we wanted to go for a swim. As we slowly creeped into the water it was super cold, but our bodies adjusted just fine after a a  few splashes. Because I have hard contacts I have to be VERY careful that I don't get the salt water in my eyes or I am down for the day. So I stayed closer to shore where the waves would crash up  high, but not completely cover me. Trav on the other hand, headed out to the deeper waters and eventually came to join me after being completely crashed on my a huge wave. He experienced being sucked under to the point he was worried about coming back up. So he thought where I was located looked perfect for him too. Which I was glad because we had a great time laughing together and loving the waves. I love the ocean! It is beautiful!! I could listen to the sound of waves crashing and seagulls all day....so soothing.

I really cherish the moments that me and Travis spend together. President Uchtdorf said it well today in Conference...."We cannot take for granted one single day. I pray that we will not wait until we are ready to die before we truly learn to live." I think that with not having much of his time while he was in school, I REALLY appreciate the time we have together to laugh, to talk, to become closer, and to share life experiences.