Easter Sunday

"Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!   Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!" Christ the Lord was risen today. Death doesn't win. Hope wins. Christ wins. I am infinitely grateful that Christ lived, died and was risen for us. That he gave Todd and I the ability to be together for all eternity. That we see our grandparents and loved ones again. That we will live again. Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia! 

Sherrys Marathon

Sherry finished her first marathon last week. She did the Salt Lake marathon which was awesome because they stayed with us the night before the big race, and Todd got to be there as she crossed the finish line. Todd got choked up watching her cross the line. He was telling everyone that his mom was running it and even drove her to the race at five a.m. I get choked up thinking about him choking up while watching his mom cross the finish line hunched over with blisters on her feet. So so sweet...

I also get a little choked up knowing that my mother-in-law was able to finish a marathon and I literally can't even run a mile. Seriously, I faked a stomach illness when we were supposed to run the mile in Mrs. Steiners 9th grade P.E class. At one point Todd and I decided to be ambitious and went with my brother and his wife to run around the green belt in Idaho Falls, Todd ended up carrying me on his shoulders for half of the run... not even joking I was on his shoulders. I often tell people I have asthma that severely limits my ability to run, or rotate between the "I ruined my knees doing gymnastics" excuse or the "I pulled a hamstring" excuse. None of these are entirely true, or even partly true. for Truth is I'm a morbidly obese girl trapped inside my body and I have a large fear that one day that girl is going to come screaming through and I'll end up being the next contestant on tbe biggest loser (which I watch faithfully every week, Go Hannah!). Maybe someday I'll be able to fullfil a dream and strap one of those cute bold numbers on my stomach and run some race, but until then I'll be so proud and impressed with everyone who runs a race, or runs period. You inspire me.

Waiting for Summer

Or also, a shameless way to show off the cute shoes and shorts Todd got me :). Its love.

Recycle for Jesus

Sunday is our favorite day of the week, probably not totally for the right reasons. Sunday always proves to be filled with comedy that keeps us going for the rest of the week. Today there were some real gems in testimony meeting. Our favorite was a woman who talked about how her whole family came down with the flu, and she couldn't help but think today that the gospel was just like that diarrhea that her whole family caught, that it just spreads and people can catch it. I wish I could have captured Todds face.... we were so immature and couldn't stop laughing for 10 minutes! Then in primary we talked about service and what we could do for others, because as we all know "When you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God." We asked them to write down how they were going to serve Jesus this week. And one little boy raised his hand and said "I'm going to recycle for Jesus" another boy said "I'm going to watch a movie with my mom for Jesus this week." So cute.

We gave our kids packets to fill out during general conference and one boy brought his back with notes he had taken from EVERY SINGLE talk. He wrote down what songs we sang, and had the whole church statistical audit report written down. He took notes on EVERY talk. It just melted Todd and I's hearts looking at that packet in the cutest little kids handwriting. After church we took him a cupcake and told him how much he inspired us. It was so fun to see his little eyes light up when he came to the door.

Now, we get to eat our homemade cafe rio pork, nap, and go for a walk around the park. I love that Sundays are different than any other day. We HearT SunDAys.

Ecuador

Missing this overcast country today.

Let Me Be Your Missionary...

SOOOOOOOOO funny.

My Mother-in-law: the rockstar

This weekend Sherry came to my house after a P.E Teachers conference in San Diego. She was telling us stories of her trip. She told us how she went to a class to learn how to "krump."She explained that she "battled" with other teams while she was krumping. If you don't know what that is, google it. I just couldn't help thinking, I have the coolest mother-in-law in the world. I know that she was probably front and center rockin it out during the Zumba classes she took, and I'm sure all the young girls around her were jealous. She is training for a marathon right now for petes sake! This woman is one of those people you look at and think, man I want to be like her. She is crazy! At the conference she went to she just covered her P.E teachers badge and walked herself right back stage to meet all the important people and celebrities. I'm telling you she is HANDS DOWN the most confident woman I know. So when Todd tells me I remind him of his mom, it is the biggest compliment he can pay me. But, also living up to the high high standard his mom set for me is a daunting task.

I could not have hand picked a better mother-in-law for me. God knew what he was doing when he paired us two up. She is exactly what I need. She doesn't make me feel stupid for not knowing how to make gravy, or set up a tent and never tries to meddle in Todd and I's life. She always tells me I look cute, and is constantly teaching me something new. We get no judging comments from her, just love. From what I hear that is rare in a mother-in-law. I am glad that she taught Todd that it is okay for women to have opinions. Because, our strong opinions are something Sherry and I have in common. I'm glad she taught him to be proud of who he was, I'm glad she taught him to respect and be tender with women, and I'm glad she raised the best man I know. Todd always tells me the stories of just him and his mom hanging out at home, or running errands together. He says that everyone would be sitting around watching T.V and she would always yell for Todd to come help her. He always asked "why do I always have to be the one to help you?" She said, because I know you will always do it. I'm glad she raised such a dependable boy for the both of us. Sherry, I love and appreciate you more I could ever say. You will always be a rockstar in my eyes.

46 dollars

46 Dollars spent on groceries in March. No, not because I'm amazing at couponing or have a stellar food storage. Just simply because we don't eat, we always forget to eat. Today at 6:00 I asked Todd "What have you eaten today?" He said, "um a couple hand fulls of Swedish Fish." He said "You?" I replied "a couple hand fulls of Marsh mellow Mateys." I thought the days of living off Simply Orange orange juice and toaster strudels ended when I got married... nope.

I feel like now would be a good time to apologize to my future children. I'm sorry that you will always be the kids that have to buy hot lunch. I'm sorry that 80% of our foods may be something pre packaged from Costco, I apologize that you will genetically inherit the need to end every meal with chocolate chips, I'm sorry that I would rather not eat than have left overs and because of that you may go unfed frequently. However I am not sorry that you will not be victims of childhood obesity.

Primary

Our 9 year old primary kids are the funniest. We LOVE teaching primary. I think I might refuse to ever be released. Yesterday we taught about building our lives on the Rock of the gospel. When we talked about what temptations that they are faced with here were some of the comments "Murder","kidnapping", "killing turtles" and "reading when you aren't supposed to in class"... WoW these kids have some tough challenges to deal with. We told them if they all brought their scriptures three weeks in a row we would have a cake with whatever they wanted on it. So in the closing prayer a little girl named Mckenzie said "bless that we can all bring our scriptures so that we can get a cake and ice cream with something on it." I literally had to bite my thumb as hard as I could not to laugh, and at one point in the prayer I still snickered a little bit. This is the second time this week I have left a church event with bleeding thumbs from biting so hard. I may or may not have had a little laughing incident at the temple the other day.


This picture is of my darling little niece Halle.

Todd Time

St Patricks day party with our friends,a fabulous shopping spree at gateway, a redbox, banana pancakes,an afternoon nap,nerd ropes and orange juice,an awesome Jimmer game = a great great weekend. The last few weekends we've been all over... actually four states in two weeks to be exact. We've had so much fun, but didn't get much Todd & Suzy time because we were always hangin out with the fam, or we were busy working and going to school. I am SUPER selfish when it comes to time with Todd. I love to have his undivded attention,actually don't function well when I don't get enough of it...think a four year old throwing a fit for attention type of deal. This weekend I got plenty of attention and love, my tank is now refilled and I am a happy happy girl.

I heart rectal tubes.

Rectal tube = maybe the best invention of the century. Just inserted my 7th rectal tube of my career... I'm thinking about writing a song about them entitled I heart rectal tubes. Awesome. Awesome job. Awesome Life.

My excited boy

I want to always remember how super stoked Todd was to get his new phone. We have been waiting for a year for our renewal to come up to get a cheaper phone. And today was the day, Todd and I were just chatting away and mid sentence Todd pulls out his new phone with this huge mischevious grin on his face. I apparently didn't remember today was the big renewal day. You would think it was his child he was so proud. He spent 30 minutes briefing me on all of the cool thing it could do. Growing up with a slightly stoic Dad, I really appreciate how Todd wears his emotions on his sleeve. Not in a girly dramatic way, but a always fun and keeps things exciting way.

Vegas, Jimmer and the Knights Inn

I am very proud to say that we only came out -15 dollars from our Vegas trip. Much better than we have done in the past. This is mostly thanks to Sahara's 1 dollar blackjack tables always being packed and never having enough seats for Todd and I. I'm still super bitter and am thinking about writing a letter. The high lite of the vegas trip was definitely the New Mexico vs BYU, or should I say vs Jimmer game. Jimmer had his career high of 52 points that game. The crowd was crazy, and everywhere you looked there was a number 32 jersey. Todd wore his with pride. All six of us were decked out in BYU gear.I thought of Aunt Pat often, especially when signing the BYU song, thinking of watching her do the raw raw raw part even when she was so sick on the couch. Made me miss her alot.

I thought state basketball last weekend was intense. NO COMPARISON to this game. We were all screaming and jumping and high fiving, and at one point I believe Todd was massaging the shoulders of the construction working UNLV fan in front of us??? At another point Zach was jumping up and down with more enthusiasm then a junior high cheerleader. I have serious concerns that Kellen may have shaken baby syndrome after having been jostled so much during the game. We pulled out a win. We all felt so stoked that we were at that historic game. Todd hasn't stopped talking about it since and finds a way to casually slip it into his conversation with every person he talks to... yes that includes the student loan office from the U.

That night was full of side splitting laughter. Everything was so random, we loved walking around and having strangers yell "Jimmer" and "Go Cougs", we loved being stalked by someone who thought he was Wyatts BF for life, we loved our Cheesecake factory food and the freaky talking gargoyle, we loved the view from the Stratosphere, we loved the BYU Bomber shirts people were wearing, we loved losing 15 bucks in two minutes...okay didn't so much love that part. Then that night, we loved our nice hotel beds. (Except for Dan who had to sleep on the floor)

Vegas day two was full of shopping, and laughing and depression as BYU got worked by San Diego. We ate at the Rio buffet and cracked crab legs and ate gelato till our hearts were content. The casinos were all packed so someone came up with the genius idea to go gamble in Mesquite instead...

Mesquite= more packed than Vegas, and we were all pretty tired since we arrived there at 2:00 a.m. We decided we could drive all the way home that night. After twenty minutes past Mesquite we decided that we couldn't. We spent forty five minutes trying to find the cheapest motel in St George. We did it... we found the cheapest. The Knights Inn baby. It was one of those creepers that you drive up to and that boasts having "weekly rates"--- I'm sure hourly rates too. Not the worst Todd and I have stayed at, but pretty bad. We got to our room to find a suspicious crusted substance on the blankets....so freaking disgusting. So we high tailed it out of there after laughing our heads off and made it to the next town. When the night finally ended at 4:17 a.m. I found myself in a King size bed with Me, Todd, Wyatt and Ashley. I ended up with my hands on Ashleys chest all night, and Todd had two night terrors where I had to prevent him from hitting the others in the bed. Zach, Lyndi and Kellen were only inches away from us on their little cot. We slept for six hours and headed back to real life. That was Todd and I's fifth trip to Vegas and probably the most fun one yet. Gotta Love the Vegas.

State

State basketball is my favorite holiday besides Christmas. This year we decided not to go because we didn't think anyone in my family was going. Then Todd woke me up on friday more exicited than a kid at Christmas and said "hey get up we are going to state in two hours." Apparently Zach and Wyatt decided to go and there was no way Todd was getting left behind. So we played hookie and off to Boise we went rehashing state memories and writing Todds school papers the whole way. State was actually the first time I met Todd as an adult. He and his friends came with Bryce to our hotel room. Apparently I was wearing a sweater over my swimsuit and gave Todd a very enthusiastic hand shake when I first met him. Yep a handshake.

Anyways state this year was a blast as usual. We surprised my parents and it was fun to see the look on their faces when they saw us. My dad started laughing and said "I thought we might see you here." It's a good thing their hotel had a pull out bed because we crashed with them. The first game was a nail biter and we were all packed into a little gym making it seem super intense. Trademark Dad screaming "WALK" at the refs. Trademark Todd copying Billy Hawkins "YOU BET". Trademark me having an anxiety attack because the game got too close. Trademark Mom jumping up at every three pointer and every good steal or score. I've watched hundreds of Madison basketball games with these people and it really one of my favorite things to do. We shopped, ate really good food and laughed till our sides hurt. Favorite stories were: Wyatt hitting a newborn baby in the head with a basketball, my Dad showing so much drama about a heart pizza, and just remebering past state experiences.

The championship game was so fun. We had to stand in line forever to even get into the Idaho center, it was jam packed. The biggest lead Madison ever had was by 2 points. It was back and forth the whole time. At one point Wyatt screamed "Are You FREAKING KIDDING ME" insanely loud at the ref, at another point Todd picked me up from where I was standing on the row below him and pulled me clear over the chair to the seat by him he was so excited. Little Riley was yelling "Guard number three." My mom was near tears because she was so happy Lincolns friend was out of his shooting rut. When something exciting happened we all high fived eachother. Overtime was pretty intense and then we pulled out the WIN! Zach quoted Billy Hawkins winning speech almost word for word before he said it. Very Funny. This year I would like to thank DENNYS,ZACH AND WYATT, TGI FRIDAYS, COMFORT INN'S ONE PERSON PULL OUT BED, IDAHO CENTER, BORAH FREAKIN HIGH SCHOOL AND THE FIRE MARSHALL OF BOISE COUNTY,BILLY HAWKINS, PEGGY HAWKINS, KYLE BLANCHARD, SCHWABBY, AND THE MAKERS OF TYLENOL EXTRA STRENGTH for making our state experience another one to remember. Winning two out of the four times Todd and I have watched the championships together aint half bad. GO CATS!

Kimberlee Joy

Kim, Kimberlee, Kimberlee Joy, Kimberlee Dawn, Kizerz, Kimmy, Kimmy Gibbler, KF,Kim Bop,... All names for my best friend who turns 24 today. Kim and I have been best friends plus or minus a few months here and there for thirteen crazy years of our lives. We know each other like the backs of our hands. I talk to her mostly every day. We've spent thousands of hours driving or sleeping in cars, having deep talks, laughing till we cried, actually crying,figuring out our lives our hopes,fears and our dreams. She is one of the first people I call when something really bad or really good happens. She can turn my mood from bad to good in an instant. She knows exactly what will make me laugh. She never takes herself or basically anything seriously, she is always positive and happy, she makes everyone feel comfortable, she makes me feel like I'm a comedian because she laughs at everything I say, next to Todd she is the most humble person I know, she is so forgiving and so unconditionally loving. She is one of those people that would do anything for anyone, and she puts everyone else first. She is my favorite person to be around (minus todd obviously). I love that she has no idea that she is any of these things. I know this sounds like a love letter, but I do love her with all of my heart. Through my whole life I've felt so proud to be her best friend. All through school I loved being the best friend of the most popular most pretty girl in the school. Right now she is reading this and laughing out loud, but it is totally true she was. I wanted to be exactly like her. I wanted her hair cut, her silver jacket that she wore like everyday in middle school, I wanted her handwriting, I wanted her make-up. I idolized her and still do to this day. Our friendship started making spice girl music video's in my parents gym in middle school. We were SuzyKim in high school..One word. We were inseperable, where one went the other followed. We lived together in college and found out who we were. And now here we are thirteen years later. Her trials are my trials, her triumphs are my triumphs, we lean on eachother so much. I love her more than there are even words to say. Kim, I am who I am because of you. You bring so much into my life, and I am unbelieveably grateful that you are my best friend. I know that a friendship like ours is very rare. Happy 24th birthday chica. I wonder what is in store for us this year...?