Relay for Life

I have mentioned before that I have a few friends that I work out with 3 times a week. We had heard about a Cancer Relay for Life and decided we all really wanted to participate. We all are definitely not runners but we thought it would be fun to walk and talk all night. Unfortunately, it happened to fall on the Friday we were returning from Utah. We decided we still wanted to participate no matter how exhausting it would be! In the end, us girls talked our husbands into participating as well. The Relay started at 7 at night and was supposed to go until 7am the next morning. Our flight got in at 4 pm and we took a quick cat nap before the event. We had a really good time but were happy when they announced that the Relay would be ending early at 2am. I don't think we could have made it much longer!

We did an 80's theme for our group. It was really fun! Dan loved that I approved of his outfit. He was able to wear his long socks, short shorts, and headband and actually fit in with the right decade for once! lol...

Preparing to enter the MTC!

The night before my brother went into the MTC became a family project.

Rueben folded his church shirts.

Mom and I labeled and packed all his toiletries.

Dan folded his casual clothes...military style so everything would fit in his suitcase. Meanwhile, my dad was shining his shoes (not pictured). It was fun to help Rueben start of his mission on the right foot!

Rueben before he entered the Mission Training Center.

The three kiddos in what is known as the candy tree at the MTC (yes, Jess, you were right...it does exist!).

If you didn't notice in the previous picture, there was this huge flower that kept on getting between Dan and Rueben, so therefore...this picture was taken.

The boys.

Rueben entering the MTC.

Dad trying to go back to his youth (we all laughed when we saw this picture, because he looks like his eyes are about to pop out of his head! lol...sorry dad!)

Rueben trying to put his missionary badge on...he was having some technical difficulties.

The official Elder Black ready to go!

Thanks Rueben for letting us be a part of your special day!

Dan's Birthday

This year Dan's birthday fell on the same day as Rueben's farewell. I wanted to make sure he still had a great birthday even if he didn't really get to be the center of attention on his actual day. The Friday before we left to Utah my friend, Jenni, helped me throw him a surprise birthday night. I had been wanting to make him an alligator cake out of cupcakes for a long time. We had two little helpers plus hardly any time to put it together in order to get it done before he was supposed to meet us for dinner, but overall it turned out pretty good...it at least looks like an alligator!

Dan met us at a Mexican restaurant for dinner. The plan was to surprise him at the end by having the waiters sing to him and then go back to Jenni and Jason's house for cake and ice cream. About two minutes before they were going to sing to him, Jenni's little boy, Jacob, all of a sudden turned to Dan and said "Happy Birthday Dan! We made you a cake!". So, the surprise became apparent a little early but it was worth it! It was funny to see the shocked look on Dan's face as this cute little 3 year old revealed our surprise.

Anyways, we had a really fun night. Dan loved it. Thanks again Jenni and Jason for helping me throw a surprise birthday celebration for Dan!

Like I said before, Dan's actual birthday fell on Rueben's farewell. Dan's birthday also happens to be his mom's birthday. His brother, Jordan's birthday is the day before. So there are a lot of birthdays in Dan's family to celebrate at the same time. And to add to that...Kristen and Spencer had their little baby boy, Elijah, the day after Dan's and Dolores' birthday, so now there are 4 birthdays clumped together!

After the farewell, we went to the Jasmer's house to celebrate with cake and ice cream

Jordan, the youngest, got to blow out his 16 candles first

Then Dan with his 2 and 6 (we thought 26 candles might just be a little overboard...)

Then Dolores with her 5 and 2 (and we figured 52 might start a fire...just kidding Dolores!)

On Monday night, we celebrated Dan's birthday with my family. So in the end...I worried about Dan's birthday getting overlooked and he got to celebrate it 3 times! We invited Dan's two younger brothers over and played games and had treats.

We played Uno.

And watched Dan open his gifts.

Long story short, I had to trick Dan a little for his birthday. For those of you who don't know, he served an LDS mission in California speaking the Hmong language. He used to have a CTR ring in Hmong but somehow it has been misplaced. We will actually probably find it in the move tomorrow I am sure, just my luck. Anyways, all he wanted for his birthday was a new ring and he wouldn't stop talking about it! I had already planned on getting him one way before he even mentioned it to me. Well, I am a sucker for wanting to surprise people. So on the day of his actual birthday I gave him a gift card to Lowes. I told him that when I priced getting him a custom made CTR ring it was something we just couldn't afford right now, plus it would have taken too long to get it made that it wouldn't have come in time for his birthday. So instead, I gave him a $100 gift card.

Come Monday, when we celebrated his birthday with my family, I gave him his REAL gift, the ring. He was so excited! I had felt bad for tricking him but knew he would forgive me in the end once he had his ring. I have to admit though, he was quite confused about the gift card. It was really blank. I said it had $100 on it, when it really had nothing. I guess I didn't explain myself too well after giving him the ring because he thought I gave him both things and didn't realize that the gift card was fake. Sorry!

Anyways, I hope you had a good birthday Dan. You deserve it! Thanks for being such a wonderful husband. I appreciate all you do!

Rueb's Farewell

A few weeks ago we went to Utah for Rueben's mission farewell. We asked him to pick us up from the airport and this is what we got (see below)! It was really funny....I noticed that this crazy man was my brother right away but I had to point Rueben out to Dan before he noticed! He was looking at Rueben's car parked nearby and thought I was telling him that Rueben was in the car, so he totally overlooked him! As we walked near Rueben he just keep a totally straight face and kept on looking around like he was trying to find the Crandall party. He did a really good job. So in return, we walked right past him:) He didn't expect that one. When we got to my parents house my dad said he wouldn't be surprised if Rueben had spent more time picking out this outfit than working on his talk for church! We loved it though, it's things like this that make me love my brother. He has the funniest personality. He wanted me to take a picture of him so he could take a copy on his mission and say "This is what I looked like before I turned my life around...". Lol.

All day Saturday and into Sunday we helped my parents get ready for Rueben's farewell. My parents had started a renovation project on their house a few months before and were still working on it the night before his farewell. My parents did a really good job! Their house was pretty and there was plenty of food (that would be the understatement of the year..they probably could have fed twice the amount of people we had! Better safe than sorry though, and we always love leftovers!).

Rueben did really well on his talk too. He spoke on following the promptings of the Spirit. He said a lot of good things that really got me thinking, especially with all that is currently going on in my life. It is always good to be reminded of things like that. He read a quote by Elder Groberg that he had gotten at a youth fireside he had attended. It listed all the things that the Spirit will prompt us to do and all the things that Satan will prompt us to do. It mentioned that the Spirit brings light, hope, good feelings, etc.. and that Satan brings anger, fear, worry, doubt, and the want to be alone among other things. I knew all these things but to hear it in Rueben's talk for some reason really got me thinking. I so easily worry and overstress about things I don't need to. His talk was a nice reminder of who I want to be and who I need to strive to become.

As you can see....Rueben had lots of friends and family that came to listen to him speak and join him afterwards for all the food we prepared. The line for food was all the way out the front door!

The boys enjoying all the food (see above and below)

Cajun Easter

A few weeks ago we went to Lafayette to celebrate Easter with Donna and the rest of her family. Paul is currently deployed so he wasn't there. We missed not having him around but are proud of him for serving our country right now.

As usual, we ate lots at Donna's. She is a great cook and always has us leaving 10 pounds heavier! Donna also surprises Dan with an early birthday present (the t-shirt, which we both LOVE...thanks for helping us having a piece of Louisiana to take with us on our move!). We also made Dan turtle brownies and had ice cream. She had invited her kids over for dinner and when we began to sing Happy Birthday to Dan he didn't realize it was for him until he heard his name at the end of the song! He thought it was someone else's birthday....silly boy, we only celebrated a week early!

We also went to Deano's Pizza, our favorite local restaurant. Dan got the T-Rex pizza for his dad (both their favorites) and I got my sweet potato fries!!! Something I will definitely miss from the south! Deanos has lots of neat Cajun food that Dan loves, including crawfish pizza.

On Saturday we took pictures to send to Paul Sunday morning as part of his Easter gift.




It took Dan like a hundred tries to get a picture of Pandi actually looking at the camera with the bunny ears on. She was quite a wiggly girl that morning!

Our Easter Eggs! I had a ton of fun dying them with Donna (Dan mostly observed...he was a little outnumbered by the girls that weekend so he didn't really have a say in whether he wanted to dye eggs or not!) I hadn't dyed eggs in years and forgot how fun it was! We even did glitter ones.

Our Easter baskets. Can you guess which one belongs to Dan and which one is mine???

Easter afternoon on our way back home we stopped with Donna to her brother's house for an Easter BBQ and egg pocking. Neither of us had ever even heard of this Easter tradition before. Pocking is where two people each hold an egg. One person hits the other's egg with theirs, whoever's egg cracks first is the looser and the winner gets their egg. We had a lot of fun, but more than anything loved learning a Cajun tradition to continue in Utah.

(Take note of the change in my face in this picture and in the one below...can you tell who won??)

Someone got WAY too into that tradition is all I can say;)

Donna and I pocking.

Thanks Donna for having us over and teaching us some new Cajun traditions! We can't wait to see you again in a few weeks!

M.I.A.

I know I have been a little M.I.A. lately but I promise I have a good excuse! Or at least I think it is good... I haven't ever really blogged about this but most of you probably know we are moving in a month, those that don't know...my apologies! We have made the decision for Dan to switch from Active Duty to the Reserves. We will be stationed at Hill AFB in Utah. Dan's last day of active duty is June 1st, the same day the movers are coming.

We have been struggling with whether the Air Force was right for us long term for quite some time. We both have loved all the experiences we have had in the Air Force so our choice to leave Active Duty has been tough. We are excited to be near family again but we love it in Louisiana too! Dan has done quite a bit of research on military jobs and finally decided none were right for him. He has decided he wants to become a P.E. teacher, which I think suits him well. The plan is for Dan to finish out his 20 years of service in the Air Force Reserves so we can still have a little piece of military life and get a small retirement from it.

So long story short, we have been REALLY busy! The list of things Dan has to do in order to complete his separation from Active Duty is 12 PAGES LONG!!! We are finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel though! He only has a handful of things left on the list. We have also been quite busy between researching majors (I am going back for my Bachelor's too...I finished my Associates a few years ago and put my scholarship at Weber on hold. I figured now is as good of time as any to go back!) and registering for school, looking for a place to life, finding jobs, etc, etc. So my point is....I know I have been slacking on blogging but hopefully once we are in Utah I will have more time. Well, at least until school starts!

P.S. Mary...I PROMISE pictures of Rueben's farewell will come shortly! I finished registering for school and completed my resume last night so I should have some free time this weekend!

P.P.S. If anyone hears of any good job openings...please let us know!