I've been tagged twice now.....I get the hint Julia!:)

1. Where did you meet? We met on a blind date, not sure I would recommend that to everyone though...I hated all I went on but this one. Neither of us actually planned on going on a blind date that day but got ringed into it at the last second and didn't know how to say no. Guess it shows when you have great friends who know you well enough you setting you up on the date...things can come from it!

2. How long did you date before you got married? We met January 2, 2006 and were married on August 10, 2006. So about 7 months?????

3. How long have you been married? About 2 1/2 years. Crazy to think that the time has gone by so fast!

4. What does he do that surprises you? He is always doing stuff to help me around the house and surprise me. He often gets me flowers or something when he knows I am having a rough day. But what I love most is when he surprises me by being in a really goofy and happy mood. It seems to often we get busy with life and don't laugh as much as we should...we are generally happy but I love when something all of a sudden makes him smile and laugh so hard that it surprises me and makes me try to remember the last time I have seen him so happy.

5. What is your favorite feature of his? I love when he is so happy that you can see his eyes smiling.

6. What is your favorite quality of his? He is EXTREMELY patient and hard working. A lot of things don't come easy for him but he is the hardest worker I know. The dedication he puts into his schooling is so much more than I ever did when I was in school. He is very patient as well. That is the number one quality I know I need to learn from him.

7. Does he have a nickname for you? Mostly babe and on occasion Tus Nxtais Huab Tias (which is Princess in Hmong).

8. What is his favorite color? Red, he was the biggest Bulls & Michael Jordan fan there ever was a kid...therefore, red is by far his favorite!

9. What is his favorite food? Um, probably rice or mash potatoes. He loves rice from serving his mission with the Hmong people but I think more and more potatoes are starting to become a favorite as well.

10. What is his favorite sport? Basketball

11. When and where was your first kiss? It was in his car in front of my house. He had actually planned a whole night's events around it but when I became suspicious of what our date was about...I "accidentally" invited Randy & Julia to come with us on our date. I was freaked out by the idea of being kissed...I know lame, but I was. So I had kinda rained on his parade and he gave up and ended up just kissing me in the car.

12. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Probably watch movies together. We like to go out to eat and to movies on the weekends, but even more so we just enjoy watching something together at home on a regular basis. One of our favorite things is to watch a Home Improvement episode together on a really busy day so we can at least spend a little bit of time together.

13. Do you have any children? nope.

14. Does he have a hidden talent? Um, he can make really, really good grilled cheese sandwiches and eggs. I know that sounds funny but he always says he isn't that great of a cook but he definitely can make those two things really well. I don't know why I always burn grilled cheese or overcook eggs...I can decorate cakes but yet I can't cook a stupid grilled cheese sandwich...so I am really grateful for that hidden talent of his!

.15. How old is he? 25. One of the girl's at church the other day guessed he was 21 and I was 27....can you believe that?? They said it was because I act more mature than him but still! I am NOT THAT OLD! I am not 6 years older than my husband! Rather I am almost 4 younger....

16. Who said I love you first? He did. I said it right back to him afterwards. He says that I didn't answer him for ever but I swear my answer followed within a second or two.

17. What’s his favorite type of music? Probably the Goo Goo Dolls. He likes Phil Collins too but he doesn't listen to that nearly as much.

18. What do you admire most about him? Like I said before, that he is such a hard worker and so patient...I admire that even though a lot of things are harder for him to learn than for most that he doesn't give up, he just keeps on working as hard as he can until he succeeds and proves the whole world wrong.

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

About the end of August I started getting really, really excited for Halloween and it was KILLING me because Halloween was still so far away. I told myself I needed to wait a little while to set up my decorations but by about the second week in September I couldn't handle it anymore! Dan was away on a TDY in New Jersey so I spent one of the night's he was gone digging through our storage for my decorations and setting it all up. I also couldn't help myself and bought a few more things to add to our collection as well....

Both of us have been REALLY excited for the holidays this year. I think it is mostly because our first holiday season being married we were dirt poor and hadn't made really any friends yet around here (and were quite homesick at that point) so we didn't do as good of a job celebrating. Then last year Dan was deployed and I was in Utah. I decorated my room in my parent's house and loved celebrating with them but that isn't quite the same as decorating your own place...so this year I have been so excited to say the least!

I took pictures after setting up my decorations but never posted about it and was quite jealous to see a lot of people have now beat me to posting their Halloween decorations! Anyways, here are the few pictures I took and there will be more to follow....I have added to my collection since then, thanks to my parents getting me the Halloween Smores I wanted for my birthday! I will post those as well as pictures from Halloween in a few days! Dan and I are going to the ward Trunk or Treat tomorrow night. A few people have kinda thought we are crazy for going (including ourselves since we don't have any kids!) but I want to celebrate the holiday in every way possible! We don't get any trick or treaters in our apartment complex so the only way I get to pass out candy and dress up is if we go! I am hoping to make a few fun Halloween desserts as well for the occasion...we will see how ambitious I get tonight though!

My favorite is my new Pumpkin Haunted House. The blocks on the bottom left I made this year. I got a vinyl cutting machine for my birthday and did Halloween blocks for my first project and sold them at work. (P.S. If you double click the picture it will appear larger).

Gross!

So yesterday one of my co-workers and I went out to lunch. We decided to go to this little cafe that is just down the street from our tower (which just happens to be called "Just a Little Cafe....lol). Keep in mind there are VERY few food choices in Downtown Shreveport. I had ordered a to-go meal the other day there and it was decent so we decided to go there and order in.

Our meals were fairly good, the place wasn't as cleanly as I would have liked, but I wasn't completely appalled until the end. There was a refillable ketchup bottle sitting on the table. I had looked at it several times during our lunch wondering what kind of sauce was in there. It looked like a sweet & sour sauce with seeds. There was little seed looking things all in the sauce and also all around the top and sides of the bottle...like they had stuck there each time someone had turned the bottle over to get the sauce out.

As we were finishing eating Mandi decided to squeeze the bottle out of pure curiosity and out flew a bazillion of fruit flies. They were everywhere!!! After that you could see that the thousands of seeds, were NOT seeds, rather fruit flies that had been sitting really, really still. We quickly got up from our seats and promised to NEVER EVER go back there again. All of a sudden my fairly good tasting food turned into awful food that made me sick to even think about....YUCK!

Mrs. Smurf and her heavy metal.....

During the past two weeks I took a Fondant and Gum paste class. The first class was last Tuesday and the final class was last night.

The first week I was still really sick but had paid for the class and it was non-refundable so I was determined to go...We were supposed to be learning how to make a flower bouquet out of gum paste to go on top of the cake. The teachers was incredible...it looked so real. Mine on the other hand....well I don't think I will be trying to make it again anytime soon. It was supposed to be a bouquet with wire stems (almost like a corsage) that you could pull off the cake and reuse. Well the teacher accidentally bought the wrong wire so it wasn't strong enough to hold the flowers up. So in the end we ended up cutting off the wires and just arranging the flowers on top of the cake (keep in mind the flowers still had wire inside of them...just no longer had a stem). Overall, I definitely wasn't too fond of the class...probably mostly becuase the cake wasn't my style and I couldn't seem to grasp the concept of making the dang flowers...

I brought my cake the next night to the youth activity and I stepped out of the room for a few minutes when everyone decided to dig into the cake...I had yet to tell everyone that they shouldn't eat the flowers....so when I got back I was informed that one girl found a staple in her cake....which made me laugh a little because it obviously was NOT a staple...rather a wire and everyone else in the room had probably eaten wire without even noticing! YUCK! I wouldn't even try eating the flowers in the first place....fondant and gum paste tastes yucky, let alone with wire in it! Guess that is a lesson learned not to get anxious and just dig into something before you are given permission...because ya never know what could be in it!

I wasn't too excited about yesterday's class after the previous class experience but I decided to go to the class anyways just to see what they were teaching. I am really glad I did. We made a present cake, much more my style....I learned a lot of useful fondant techniques that I know I will use again. I definitely like modern styles of cakes...so yesterday was much more up my alley.

We had to add color to our fondant. Using fondant is a lot like playing with play dough. The teacher put a huge glob of coloring in our ball of fondant and we had to squish it around until it was all mixed. Everyone ended up with bright red hands except the teacher...guess in 20 years of cake decorating you learn the tricks of the trade! Anyways, if my hands would have been blue, everyone would have been calling me a smurf today, no joke! I think next time I will probably just buy fondant that is already colored...I am way too messy of a cook to probably ever catch on to how to do that process in a "non messy" way!

Good news...well at least for now!

Sorry Mary, I know you asked several days ago what I found out from the ENT but I seem to have lost a lot of ambition to do things, such as posting, the past few weeks....hopefully now that I am starting to feel better I will get that ambition back real quick!

When I went to the ENT last week it was confirmed that I had tonsillitis. He informed me that all the prescriptions I had been given in the past were not strong enough to kill it. My mom said it's a wonder I didn't end up in the ER with pain since the meds weren't even working...I seriously considered it a few times late at night but then the pain would always start to dull itself about the time I thought I couldn't take much more. Anyways, so since I had never had any meds strong enough to kill what I had and he was unsure how many times I have actually had tonsillitis or if some of my other times of being sick were from something else...he wants to hold off on the surgery. I was told to come back in two months or if I get sick again before then to come back then. Wednesday night I was also able to get a blessing at church. It seems between the meds and the blessing I really have improved. I am tired and a little sluggish still but I am pretty much back to normal....

Last night my ears and throat started to hurt a little again, along with a sinus headache...but so far it hasn't got worse...so hopefully with all the medicines and vitamins I am taking I will be able to keep it from turning into anything! Dan told me last night that I am taking more pills in a day than he has probably taken in 2 years combined....which is probably true:) Granted, he never takes medicine, vitamins, or anything.....which he should at least take vitamins...but seriously, the two of us could not be more opposite when it comes to stuff like that! I swear sometimes that any immune system or metabolism that I might have ever had, must have been given to him because his is perfect! He rarely, if ever, gets sick or gains a pound after eating everything in our cupboards in one setting! And some days I wonder if mine even exists! Hee hee....

Anyways, thanks family for praying and worrying about me so much lately! My blessing was so very helpful and I am grateful for that. My parents care package they sent has been a big help too!

Now I just need to work on posting about everything else I have been thinking about lately....

Yuck!

Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck yuck. That is all I can say.....I have been sick lots lately. Don't remember if I have really said that on the blog or not, but I have. This past weekend we went to Lafayette for my sister-in-law, Angel's, bridal shower. Sunday morning I woke up not feeling so good and by the time we left to head home Sunday night whole right side of my throat and right ear were just throbbing and haven't stopped since. I instantly had the impression that it was my tonsils, and sure enough it was. I went to urgent care yesterday and they told me I needed to have them removed. They gave me a steroid shot plus several prescriptions. I have had at least 6 episodes of being sick/sinus infections this year, 3 of which have been in the last month. So....tomorrow to the ENT I go! So I guess I will wait to see what he says. If I have surgery, hopefully it will be soon so I can get back to normal before Angel's wedding and our trip to Utah for Christmas.

Rolling with the punches.....

So yesterday Dan was FINALLY promoted to a Senior Airman (E-4) rank. He was supposed to get it about 6 months ago but due to some mixups when his supervisors changed a lot of his paperwork got misplaced and therefore he didn't get the raise. We had to wait 6 long months in order for him to re-apply and the day finally came!

I went to his promotion ceremony and it was really neat. I have never been to one before so I was completely unaware of some of the Air Force traditions. His Commander present him his award and rank advancement. I really like his Commander, he is a very nice man who is very family oriented and is easy to talk to. He said some really nice things about Dan and about both of us in general that we really appreciated. It was nice that his Commander recognized how unique of and individual Dan is. He said that Dan was one of the best assets to his squadron and that they are lucky to have him. He said that no matter what path Dan chooses in life he will always succeed because that is just who he is. He said that Dan is a great man and is always showing improvement each and every day in his job. He said that he was coming quite near to being a perfect human being...but not quite, and that he shouldn't get a big head over it! It was a funny moment...He also congratulated us on being one of the few and far in between couples to have a happy marriage. Anyways, he was a really neat guy. After the award was presented we were able to talk to him a little bit more and learned that he met his wife on a blind date just like us! He said that their meeting was definitely due to the hands of God. It was neat to hear his boss talk so much about God and religion and the importance of good and successful marriages.


After his Commander presented him the award they have a little tradition of how they put on their new stripes. Generally, the Commander will stand on one side and another Officer on the other. Well they had me stand on one side of him instead and I had no idea what was coming...We each had to put stripes on his sleeves and then punch him as hard as we could to make sure they would stay on. I was told to punch him as hard as I could! As everyone came around to congratulate him he was punched about another 20 times. After we left the ceremony he told me that his arms were too sore to do push-ups....I didn't realize anyone really punched him that hard but I guess a few did! Anyways, so now I have an excuse to punch him whenever I want when he is in uniform. I can just blame it on making sure that his stripes are sticking....

Dan & I with his Commander

Dan's new stripes and sore arm.

Dolores, this picture is just for you. I made him push his hat down lower. He claims that they are supposed to wear their hats where they are just sitting on top of their head but I swear I don't see anyone but him wearing it that way! I think that is just his excuse for not wanting to push it down on his head and make him sweat more:)

Corn Maze Pictures

Here are some of the pictures I took of the youth at the corn maze last night.

Top Row (Left to Right): Elisha, Kali, Jacob (he is really short, you might not really be able to see him, we should have had him in the front!), Jaclyn, her friend. Bottom Row: Madison, Cady, Emma, Heather D., and Josh (his family is the one that own's the corn maze).

Bishop Maranto, Jaclyn, and her friend rubber ducky racing.

Sarah and Jean

Cady and Madison eating cupcakes (Cady's favorite food...she begs for us to have cupcakes at every activity.)

Jacob & Elisha riding the cow train.

Another picture on the cow train.

Dan and Josh.

My dear sweet Jean:)

Last night we went to the corn maze for the youth activity for church. A family in our ward owns it. We helped them out a few months ago to prepare for the corn maze so in return they let us come for free. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the activity, especially Jean.

Jean is my cute little Downs Syndrome young woman. She is the smartest downs kid I have ever met. She comes from a family of 14 kids and is the youngest. I think with growing up with so many other kids and with her parents treating her like a normal person she has really learned how to be very independent. She can do more than most kids with the same problems she has. Her parents are definitely gifted in how they have raised her. She is the smartest kid in her Special Ed class and actually helps tutor the others in her class. She is also the happiest downs kid I have ever met as well.

She always runs up to me at church and gives me a giant bear hug and tells me she loves me (she does this to all the other leaders as well). If you are ever doubting your self worth, Jean is definitely the right person to be around. On Sunday she usually sits by me during Young Womens and loves to hang on me and hug me with dead weight and tell me she loves me about every 2 minutes. One of her favorite things to do is to just cling on someone else and let them hold her up....sometimes it gets a little claustrophobic but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!

Lately Jean has been starting to really open up with us leaders. She used to be a lot more shy but lately she seems to just thrive off of our attention. Last night she was in the silliest mood I have seen her yet. Every time I would say anything she would say exactly the opposite just to see the reaction on my face. When we were driving to the corn maze a few of the girls and I commented on a really cool house we saw. She instantly said, "That house is not cool!" and was just giggling waiting for me to say, "ya huh" and then she would say "nu uh" and back and forth and back and forth. It was really funny.

Anyways, Dan and I were Jean's partners throughout the maze. She has a hard time walking so we took turns walking slower with her and holding her arm. I think she found her new crush last night. She wouldn't let go of Dan the rest of the night once he started talking to her. She was such a hoot on the car ride home as well. We turned on the movie Madagascar for them to watch. Her parents told me she has only seem the movie once or twice but yet she was quoting the entire movie. It was the funniest thing to watch...she was cracking all us leaders up. She definitely made our day.

I the picture of her at the top of this post while we were in the maze and just loved it! The picture captured every reason why I love Jean so much and how special she makes all of us feel! She is definitely one of the many blessings I thrive off of from serving the with the youth at church.

Wahoo!

For those that don't know...Dan and I have been struggling through him trying to pass his sciences classes in order to get his associates degree for almost a year now. When we met almost 3 years ago he had EVERYTHING done for his associates except for his sciences classes...he was a major procrastinator is all I can say! Science is definitely the hardest subject for him to comprehend and he often gets overwhelmed with the class before it has even started.

For the first year and a half of his Air Force career he was unable to go to school between being in Basic Training, then Tech School, and finally having to complete a ton of required Air Force classes. He had planned on getting back into school last fall but when he deployed we were afraid he would have to put it on hold once again. We decided to have him study and try to pass the Science CLEP test instead that would give him enough credits to graduate. He studied hard his entire deployment and so did I. He would email me with a long list of questions he had while studying several times a week. I then would spend several hours studying in order to be able to answer his questions. It was a lot of work for both of us but also drew us closer together because it was the one thing I could do to help him when he was so far away. Anyways, after 3 months of studying he took the test and didn't pass. We were both very disappointed because that meant he still had to take 3 science classes.

So I quickly signed him up for school for Spring Semester this year through Weber State's online program. We signed him up to take a Nutrition class. He missed almost the first month because he was coming home from a deployment so he had a ton of makeup work to do. That semester was very challenging because we were always trying to get him caught up with his work and we quickly learned he definitely prefers learning in an actual class setting.

This summer he took a biology class on base. The teacher didn't have a book, only lectured. Dan would bring a tape recorder to the class and record everything the teacher said. The man was like 90 years old and he always sounded like he had a frog in his throat. His voice would drive us both nuts as Dan studied at home! The class was a challenge once again because we were out of town a lot during the summer and biology was just a hard concept in general for him to grasp, let alone the teacher's teaching methods adding to that.

This semester he is taking his last class in order to get his associates degree and we are beyond thrilled to have this done and over with! Well at least until he starts on his bachelors (hopefully that will include absolutely NO SCIENCE CLASSES!!!!). It is a slow process to take only one class at a time but I guess you have to do what you have to do. He is taking an Astronomy class at a local college and is doing great! He has taken two tests in the class so far and has gotten the high in the class! Today he called me and told me his newest test score was posted on the Internet and he wanted me to look it up for him. He got a 97% on it!!!!! He was so excited and couldn't stop shouting "Wahoooo" in the phone....hee hee. If it weren't for the fact that he was driving at the time I know he would have been jumping up and down with excitement! He said that he can't remember ever getting a score that good on a test in his life, let alone on a science test!

Anyways, the point to this whole story is all all the torture from this past year feels like it is FINALLY paying off. This past Thursday was my birthday. Dan took me out to dinner and then we stayed home for the rest of the night so he could study for his test the next morning. I did my own thing for most of the night but then helped quiz him for about an hour before we went to bed. I was slightly disappointed with our evening plans but knew that is what needed to be done. He had been gone for 4 out of the 7 days of class that he was being tested on. He had been on temporary duty for the Air Force during those class days. So he was quite stressed for the test after having missed so much...so getting a 97% after just that alone was extremely exciting to both of us!!!! Then you add all of last year on to that....and that only intensified our excitement!

Dan asked me if we could go out and celebrate...I told him we could go to the corn maze tonight (we were already going anyways for our church youth activity tonight). I don't think he liked my joke too much...I will have to think of something fun to surprise him with for doing so good another day when we aren't so busy....

Anything but Cake!

Now that life should be getting back to normal (whatever that is....) I promise to post more things other than about cake!

Week 4

This past week was my last cake decorating class, well at least for the beginning course. Dan got home from his TDY a week ago Thursday and came home with a cold. Between sick co-workers and a sick husband somehow I seemed to catch it all! I came down with the flu, ear infections, a sinus infection, etc...I woke up feeling miserable on Sunday morning and stayed in bed for 3 straight days. I finally went back to work on Wednesday, not because I felt that good but because I was ready to get back to life before I got any more behind. The doctor had prescribed me 250 mg of Sudafed a day. If you look at a box of over the counter Sudafed, the max for the day is 120 mg. So to say the least, this drug that normally can make it hard to sleep basically kept me awake all week long. I finally quit taking it last night so I could get some rest and slept 12 hours straight! I have been on the slow road to recovery all week long but think I am finally on the last lap of the track.

On Tuesday, as you know, I have my cake decorating class. I really really wanted to go, which I knew wasn't very logical, but I went anyways. I made sure I left the classroom each time I started to have a coughing fit and used lots of hand sanitizer as I learned how to cut, shape, and decorate a fish cake. By the end of 1 1/2 hours of cake decorating I was exhausted! It was the most I had done in over 3 days! I am still glad I went though. It gave me a chance to get out of the house and I am sure someday I will have the need to make a fish cake again, well...maybe not but you never know!

Week 3

A few weeks ago I had week 3 of my cake decorating class. We were told to bring 30 cupcakes...annoying that one box of cake mix only makes 24 cupcakes. So in the end I made two boxes and had 48 cupcakes. When I got to class we only used about 15, so in the end I didn't even need to make the 30!! So when I got home that night I still had undecorated cupcakes coming out my ears...I stayed up late that night icing them all so that I could take them to Young Womens the next night.

The next day upon returning home from work I found them all covered in hundreds and hundreds of sugar ants...ughh! We get sugar ants like crazy here, they are definitely my least favorite thing about the south. By the way, did I tell you I HATE SUGAR ANTS?????? For those of you lucky enough to have never come across a sugar ant they are teeny tiny red ants that are attracted to anything and everything that might possibly be sweet in your house, such as toothpaste, food, crumbs, etc. I know of friends that have to keep all their groceries like cereal and everything in the fridge in order to keep the ants away. We get them a lot but haven't had to do that yet. But this time the ants were more frustrating than they have ever been. I had all the cupcakes in sealed rubbermaid containers and they still found their way in!!!

Anyways, we learned how to decorate lots of cute cupcakes in the class as well as how to make a cupcake cake. I really enjoyed it and it is probably one of the things I will do most often out of everything I learned in the class.