Saturday Fun

I had a busy, but fun Saturday!

Susannah and I started the day with some sand volleyball in the Woodlands. I didn't remember to take any pictures so I just nabbed this one on google images from this website.

Later on that day, we headed down to our cousin's daughter's baptism. Her name's Lauren and she's so cute! This is a picture her mother, Wendy, took. She's a fantastic photographer. If any of you are in the Houston area and are looking for a photgrapher, you should check her out. There's a link to her photography blog on my "Things to check out" list at the side of my blog.

Wendy's friend made this fantastic cake for a treat after the baptism. It was ridiculously cute.

I snapped this shot of Lauren right as they started cutting the cake.

I couldn't resist taking another quick shot of the detail on the side of the cake. Amazing! I love the kids in the background as well! They were swarming the cake.

Our cousin, Heather and her family came down for the baptism as well. She's Lauren's aunt. We had to take a quick girl cousin picture. We should have stuck Eric in there as well, though. He was the only other EE Bushman cousin there!

I got a picture of the Arthur Bushman cousins that were present. They're all such cuties.

This is a picture of our cousin Eric's family. We LOVE them!

Wendy's going to be mad at me for this part of the post. Their little Brandt is one of the cutest kids I've ever seen and I'm so excited that he has the Turley fingers. I think they're the cutest thing. I had to snap this picture of them when he was crawling around. Wendy saw me and said, "Great, here comes another post!" Sorry, Wendy! I also have to add some quotes from Mike, Heather's husband, and Susannah:
Mike - "Freakin' Turleys!"
Susannah - "They've cursed us all!"
It made me laugh!

Here's a group shot of all the family that was at the baptism. It was good to see Art, Gene, and Heather and her family since I hadn't seen them for awhile. I love my family! This was taken with the timer on my camera and I got a corner of the car in it and it's a little crooked. Oh well!

After visiting for awhile at Eric and Wendy's we went to a mission farewell party for the lovely Hulme twins. They leave in a tad bit more than a week.

There were tons of people there and they performed for part of it. They took my request and sang the Lak Me song again, but this time with accompaniment and without any bumps in the road. It was beautiful.

It was longer than I thought, so I gladly filmed some more! No complaints here!

The girls did a trio with their mom as well. Since they were going to be gone for the next two Christmases and the Hulmes usually do Christmas concerts, they decided to do a Christmas song - one of my favorites. It's called Breath of Heaven. I think it was first recorded by Amy Grant. They did a 3 part version of it that was really pretty.

We had a fun visit with Bridgette and her boyfriend, Jason when we got home from the Hulme's. Bridgette moved here on Saturday from North Carolina for 3 months with her traveling nurse position. She couldn't get into her apartment that day so they got to stay with us. Yahoo! I stole this picture off of her Facebook page. Yahoo for Joseph City friends!

Wizard Wednesday

We do something fun in our district for first grade in science. We have something called "Wizard Wednesday." We do a fun science experiment that may or may not be related to what we're studying, just to spark the kids' interest in science.

This last week we did one called "Mystery Brew" with dry ice. My cohort, Janelle, was the scientist on this one. The kids LOVED it!

I love the way she gets them involved and love how excited they are in this video.

The kids are practically screaming in this one. It totally cracks me up!

Happy Birthday, The Mexican!

Tuesday was Abraham's 25th birthday!

We took him to one of his favorite restaurants. He loves Fuddruckers for some reason! He was pretty lucky - the only guy with 4 girls. It was a fun night.

He loves to get the pound burgers there! Seriously! He actually didn't quite finish it, but got pretty dang close!

Football Fun

Susannah and I took 2 days off of school for a really fun time! We went with several people from our ward to Fort Worth for the BYU v. TCU football game on Thursday night.

Bishop Chappell rented a 15 passenger van and we headed on over. It was a great trip. One of the most fun things in the van was playing a bubble wrap game on Mauren's i-Pod. It was hilarious.

Another one of my favorite things was making the Hulme twins sing to us. This song is one of my favorites. It is from the opera "Lak Me." I wish I could have recorded the whole song.

We went to a tailgate party on TCU campus for BYU fans. It was put on by the BYU Alumni Association. The best thing about the tailgate party was TY DETMER WAS THERE! FAMOUS! We got a group picture with him.

I've been a fan of his ever since he played for BYU! It was awesome to see him and he was so nice!

They had a huge BBQ and gave us tons of food.

We got our picture with Cosmo - not quite as exciting as TY.

When the different guest speakers were talking, we noticed this lady that looked a TON like Sarah Palin.

We ran into some old friends as well. Here's Brady. We also saw Matt and Carrie Hong and their cute little boy.

Here's a close-up of Ty! We, okay . . . I, was a little mesmerized.

I took this little video of part of his speech. He has a fun Texas accent.

My Uncle Darrell and Aunt Maylene were just a section over from us at the game. Sadly, BYU played like trash. TCU kicked our hineys. The final score was 32-7. YUCK!

The best part of the game was the Haka the players did before the kick-off even happened.

We also enjoyed the cool weather and this pretty sunset.

We had to get another sister shot in front of the field.

We stayed the night there in Ft. Worth. On the way home the next day, we stopped in Madisonville, TX at Texas Burger where the Chappells treated us all to lunch AND ice cream. It was great! They're so wonderful. It was a fantastic trip minus the terrible game which will now destroy BYU's rank and winning streak. Bummer!

Out with the old . . .

Several years ago, when I moved into a new apartment when Susannah moved out here, I bought a used washer and dryer that have been wonderful.

My washer started leaking recently. I got it checked out and it was the main seal that was broken. That part would cost $200 so I opted to get a a new washer instead.

It's just a plain ole' top loader, but I'm pretty excited about it! Sad to break up the set, but a working washer is a necessity!

Susannah in Idaho

Susannah went to Moscow, Idaho this past weekend to visit the illustrious Mr. Warr. I'm sorry about the size of her mobile pictures. I couldn't make them any bigger. I'm going to let Susannah do the commentary on this post:

(Hello blogging world! I'm actually quite excited about my first post. I've been riding Alona's coat-tail on this one!) Adam took me to one of his law classes. I forgot to get a picture in front of the actual law building, so I am pretending that the building behind us was.

I thought that perhaps, if it were just me around he could take a normal picture. I was wrong! I do have to give him credit, because I think this is the only ridiculous face he made.

It may appear that Adam is trying to do a sideways crunch, but alas, he is trying to be seductive! We went on a walk through an arboretum and came upon this little bench. It was donated on April 25, which is Alona's birthday. I told Adam to hop on and pose for a little birthday present for her. This is what she got!

I really don't know what came over me in this picture!?! This one's for you, Abraham... Besito numero uno!

I like this one! This is back on the campus of the U of Idaho. It was really pretty there. The buildings were fantastic and the leaves were starting to change colors. I miss fall...and was glad to experience it for a weekend!

We (Adam, Sean the roommate, and myself) decided to venture to Elk River Falls. We were excited because when we got to the entrance of the park, there was a sign saying how popular these falls are...with visitors coming from as far as Moscow, Idaho. It was only about 60 miles away! This, I believe was Middle Falls.

Here we are at Upper Falls. I asked Sean to take a picture. It seemed like we were blocking the fall, so I asked him about it. All he said was "Split"

We were a little daring and went off the beaten track onto a little rock island in the middle of the river. I made Adam walk back and help me over. I tried to do the same for Sean, but he was a little too manly for help! He made it perfectly fine. This is still at Upper Falls.

Moscow, Idaho rocks!

Columbus Day!

Happy Columbus Day!

Thanks to the man who not only discovered America, but also made it possible for me to have today off from school!

Dinner Cruise

On Saturday I went on a little dinner cruise in Austin.

I took this one of the water with my phone just as we "shoved off." This was a "Mid-Singles" dinner cruise. Yes, I fit snugly in that category.

I did run into a few friends I hadn't seen for awhile - Julie and Hillary. I met lots of new friends as well, whose pictures I didn't take!

I took a not very good picture of the boat once we got off. The weather was so nice. It was an enjoyable time. I just drove straight back to Houston rather than staying the night. I was missing my own bed after the slumber party the night before.

Other good news of the trip is that gas prices are finally going down. I took this shot in Giddings, Texas. I saw it yesterday in Houston at $2.71. My dad says it's $2.59 in San Angelo!

Sleepover!

Our ward Relief Society had a sleepover for a fun activity on Friday night.

There were games, painting, and face masks. We also watched an entire Josh Groban concert on the big screen. It was a fun and very girly night!

Thanks to the Chappells for letting us have it at their house! I'm pretty proud of this picture. I got a new phone that FINALLY has a camera. This is my first post with a picture from my camera! Yahoo!

After a lovely pancake breakfast some of the better singers in the group gathered around the piano for some ABBA! Nice. Here's a snippet of "Dancing Queen."

I also filmed a bit of "Take a Chance on Me!"

Election Day

General Conference

Last weekend we were privileged to watch the 178th Semi-Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I always like General Conference a lot, but this time I LOVED it! It was so wonderful. Susannah and I watched on my computer thanks to the great LDS Media at the Church's website. I'll have you know that I didn't fall asleep ONCE!

All of the talks were spectacular. I especially liked Elder Holland's talk on the ministering of Angels. Click here to listen to, read, or watch a conference talk from last weekend! Click here to learn more about the church!

Memory Lane

I am mourning the passing of my beloved "boom box."

I got my CD player for Christmas . . . in the year 1993! This little guy has worked for me since then, but has recently taken his last breath! So sad!
My parents gave it to me along with my first two CDs - Bon Jovi Keep the Faith and a best of Beethoven one. What a duo.
I actually was checking back in my journals to make sure I had the correct year and came across some funny stuff including the fact that I gave my dad an "assortment of cheeses" for his birthday. I also got a kick out of all I wrote about my high school romance with Jeff Hansen. For you Joseph City readers, here are a couple of important things of note that happened close to the time I got this CD player: Zachary Miller and Branick Larsen were born, and Ila Claire Miller passed away.