Nordstroms Flavors

My mother gave me the most amazing cook book for Christmas, it is the Nordstroms Flavors book. Nordstroms is not only one of my favorite places to shop, but it is also one of my favorite places to eat, especially their bistro in San Francisco. So last night for dinner Kaden decided we needed to eat something good and he whipped out the pretty cook book. We decided to make grilled shrimp with asparagus and risotto. Honestly it was probably the best meal we have ever made.

The Things My Mother Says

So i have decided to start keeping track of the funny things my mom says, because admittedly Sarah and I say the same exact things, and if it is something we don't really say but just think and my mom says it we will make it a family joke for the rest of time.

This weeks best one was- "Well Sarah how bout you just starve your self for the rest of the week, then maybe your hips will shrink and the dress will look really good for the pageant."

Yes she was totally serious. Poor Sarah, or you could just go with a different dress.

Time to Myslef

I love my husband dearly and i miss him when he is gone, but it was really nice this weekend to have a few experiences to myself. Kaden had to work Friday and Saturday up in Cedar while i stayed in Logandale so i could go to the temple while my Grandma went through for the first time. That experience was so amazing. I don't even know how to describe it. I had never felt the spirit that way before while at the temple or ever imagined i would get such clear answers from the Lord like i did. I had the opportunity while my Grandma was preparing to take out her endowments to do some temple work on my own. It was a first for me, Kaden and I always go together. That time alone though doing work for several women who were waiting for it to be done was so perfect, i felt such a sense of comfort as i relearned of blessings that have been promised to me. I am so excited to go back and serve some more. It was also great to see my Grandma go through, a few years ago i had jotted down a list of goals, mostly spiritual ones, like read my scriptures everyday, say my prayers, fast each month, be married in the temple, help reactivate some people, be an example to my sisters, seal my grandparents, and the last one was help get grandma Karla baptized. In the past year i was married in the temple, we sealed my grandparents, and grandma was baptized, and now she has gone through the temple. I am so grateful to have been a part of that and to see the changes in her life and to witness her growth and know that she will now be with us for eternity.

The rest of the weekend was just as amazing for me. The weather was beautiful, i got to sleep in, and i got to spend quite a bit of time with my sister and with Whitney. It was so great to catch up and kind of reconect and i am so excited to have her back and hang out more. We tanned for quite awhile on Friday and Saturday and now i am probably going to have cancer because of it. Seriously i am so red and i swear i can feel the freckles multiplying.

A Quick Update

After getting my update on the Ty and Annie Leavitt family i decided i seriously needed to update my blog. So here is a quick update on everything that has been going on for the past couple months.

Aunt Dianes- we are still camping out in Aunt Diane's bedroom, and rotting our brains every day with NCIS and the new favorite, Criminal Minds. I honestly can not wait until we don't have satellite anymore.

The King Ranch has died- Near the end of February the truck started acting up and then it died while we were visiting our families one weekend. Penn and Kaden decided they would fix it and ordered up the parts. After a few days of working hard on the dang truck it decided that it still wasn't going to work.  So now our ridiculous truck is sitting out in the shop until Penn and Kaden decide what to do next. I will caution you, do not ever buy a Ford King Ranch! It is not worth it. Luckily my good old Saturn is still kicking though, We have put a little over 7,000 miles on it this year already, and the shifter cables went out, but its a quick trip to pick a part and then its fixed.

San Francisco- Let me start off by telling you how amazing my parents are... They are two of the best parents in the entire world! For our one year anniversary my parents took us back to one of our favorite places. Of course they came with us, but that just made it more fun. On this trip we decided to once again scope out things to do that we hadn't done before. We bought city passes and went to a pretty cool science museum in Golden Gate Park and a little aquarium on the warf. We ate at a few of our favorite places again, Nordstroms Cafe, Mama's, and Scoma's. Seriously the best food ever! Thanks again Mom and Dad we had so much fun!

CAAP Test-  The CAAP test is like a college ACT for education majors. I was so nervous before i took it and pretty much had decided that i would have to retake at least two sections of the test. I got my scores in the mail last week and Guess What!? I passed and not just passed i passed with amazing scores! I usually am not one to brag but i am pretty dang proud of myself.

Kadens Job- Kaden finally has a job! We are both very excited, it was not his first choice of work but he is just happy to have a job. After months of constant praying and applying we were starting to get pretty discouraged, neither of us had even recieved one call back, not even one telling us we didn't get the job. When you have applied at 50 plus places that is pretty discouraging. Then last week the amazing call came from Jiffy Lube, first there was an interview, then there was a job. I also had two interviews this week. We are shouting our praises and crossing our fingers. We honestly feel so blessed right now. 

Jace's Funeral

Jace's funeral was today. I was nervous going, i didn't really know what to expect. I got up early and got dressed and tried to look as good as you can when your going to funeral. Sarah and I met our aunt and uncle there around nine to save seats for the rest of our family. I am so glad that we went early and not just because of the seats. I got to catch up with a few people who i really enjoy talking too. It was nice to be able to express my gratitude for Jace being a part of my life to other people. The service itself was amazing. I could not imagine a better service. Funny and Spiritual stories were shared from Jace's life, his testimony was shared by Kevin and Elder Cook from the Quorum of the twelve apostles spoke on a number of things but also blessed everyone who was in attendance and the valley. The meeting was so strong and spiritual, i have no doubt in my mind that Jace was not pleased with his funeral, probably so pleased that once we get to heaven he will make fun of all of ours because we didn't have an apostle speak at ours. Okay well at least he will do that to me. I am really going to miss Jace and so will everyone else who knew him,  but i truly know he is doing the Lords work and that he served his time here on earth. I am so excited for the day that i get to be with him again and we can once again make fun of each other and council one another on the little things we always have. Jace was and is a great friend and he will always have a special place in my heart. Jace really did affect my life in more ways than he will ever know.

An Amazing Saturday Night

So Saturday night I got to spend some time with a few old friends. It was seriously so much fun, i wish i had more pictures but i'm pretty luck that i even got this one. The night started off with me picking up Sarany just like the old days, and then it got better as we were leaving her house and honestly couldn't get very far because of a huge river that took over the road. It had been raining quite a bit Saturday but in a matter of minutes a river formed and we weren't able to pass. We laughed so hard as we just sat and stared at this huge river and tried to figure out what we should do. We decided we would try the back way out which is a dirt road. It didn't take us very long to figure out that the back road was destroyed by the rain as well. Then Sarany decides we can just go get her dads truck and take it. So we head back to her house, get the keys and stomp through a ton of mud to the truck. The truck was stuck and we couldn't back out of the yard. Instead we just spun the tires down into the mud for awhile. After laughing about the mud forever we made our way back to the car and decided to just see if the river had disappeared yet. So we drove back to the river and sat and looked at it for awhile contemplating whether or not we should try to cross. After quite a long time i decided my car should probably just die anyways and i drove into the river. Ha Ha it was like driving through a puddle. We had no reason to worry the entire time. We laughed for so long afterward and drove on to Brett's house. We spent the rest of the night with Jeff, Spencer, Brett, Amanda, Lexi, Carlie, and her Fiance Josh. It was a lot of fun. We reminisced and watched old high school videos.  

Jace

Saturday night as i was driving Sarah to the Bellagio Sarah called my mom and instantly started asking what was wrong, my heart sank as tears filled Sarah's eyes. I was on the phone with Kaden when i imagined Lilo must have got ran over, (Sarahs dog) but as the words left her mouth i let out a scream i instantly understood what she was telling but i am not quite sure how well i was able to grasp what it meant. Jace Davis past away last night. How could that be true he is on his mission. Missionaries don't just pass away they are protected. My emotions have gotten the better of me for the past few days. I can't have any normal thought with out it finding its way to Jace. I know this will pass and this process of grieving is necessary but i do wish i could be happy for him and excited for the amazing mission he must be serving with our father in heaven. My thoughts and prayers have been with his amazing family and will continue to be for quite a while if not forever. His family has been through so much in just the past couple of months it breaks my heart to imagine this being added to it. Shawna Jesson pointed out though that have been through the refiners fire. They have been being prepared. I hope Jace's parents can find comfort at this time in knowing what an amazing son they raised. Jace always had such enthusiasm for life. He did everything with his full heart. I have been reflecting back on a lot moments i shared with him and i wish now that i would have taken more care to preserve them than i have. I have known Jace since the first week that my family moved to Logandale. I met him at church my first Sunday there and he honestly was probably the first boy to ever tell me i was hot. Haha i remember him adding me to msn and messaging me and saying hey you were the hot new girl at church right. Jace always had a way with the ladies :). I am sure he proposed to half our graduating class at least. Even though it was all fun and games he did have a way of making everyone feel special. Our senior year of high school we spent a good majority of our time together. We were both very into getting the year book just right and bossing around all the new year book kids. We had some days that we would just sit in the computer lab talking about life and our small problems that then seemed to be so big. I think Jace made sure i knew that i was beautiful everyday and that conley or joe were stupid for not being in love with me. I made sure that Jace knew the same thing about the girls he liked too. I have so many thoughts running through my mind of the things we did and how much he made me laugh. I hope that he knew what an influence he was on my life and how much he did to help me. Jace was one person who always stayed my friend no matter what, i haven't had very many of those people in my life but i am so grateful that i had him.