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!

Workouts and things that didn't quite workout....

This post will probably be quite random but it will include a few of the things I have been thinking about lately and may as well blog about!

Dan ran a race last Friday. I wasn't able to go mostly because neither of us even knew Dan was going to be running the race until that morning plus I was having a lot of car troubles (which is a long story within itself for another day...but basically I had to have my car towed out of a parking garage all for a bad battery....AFTER we had already had the battery tested twice! Oh well! That's life I guess!). Anways, back to the race. Dan did an awesome job and won a free day off of work again! I stole Dan's words directly on how the race went from an email he wrote his dad...figured his stats would be a lot more accurate than mine!

"I ran a 5K run on base on Friday, there were about 300 people present and i came in first place with a time of 16:32 which is a 5:47 mile pace. The race was actually only 2.86 miles long on my GPS watch, but that's O.K. i still feel real good and it was my fastest time on the run. My goal was to run a 5:55 mile pace for the race, so i met and beat my goal..."

So, to say the least Dan did awesome! I wish I had been there, but was probably better that I wasn't! Dan ran a cross country event the weekend before as well and came in second place. About a month previous to that he also ran a 5K where he came in 1st place. Did I mention I WAS NOT AT ANY OF THE 3 EVENTS??? Lately whenever I do go to a race Dan doesn't seem to do as well. He hadn't won a race in quite awhile until I wasn't able to make them. So....we both decided I must have been jinxing him! So now the debate has begun....should I start going again or is it better for me to stay away??? :)

Second thought. I don't think I have ever mentioned before on the blog but I have been working out with a few ladies from church several times a week for the past few months. I have been still trying to do small workout sessions on my own in the morning as well as working out with them. We started off "speed walking" about 3.5 miles as well as doing squats, lunges, and pushups on Tuesday nights, Thursday nights, and Saturday mornings. Lately, we have been switching it up a little by doing a workout video on Thursdays instead of our usual. I have really liked it! I feel like I am starting to get into better shape than I have ever been before. I have done a decent job of working out on a regular basis since I got married but now with this workout group I feel like I am starting to get more toned, which is a nice feeling.

Dan and I have gotten addicted to the show, Biggest Loser, this season. It is amazing to me how much weight people can loose and how much they are able to turn their lives around. I find it very inspiring. So a few weeks ago I decided to purchase a few workout videos produced by the Biggest Loser show. I figured if those workouts help people that are hundreds of pounds overweight get into a healthy weight zone, they should at least help me shed a few pounds and get more toned. I have done the workouts 3 times this week so far and I have to tell you they are awesome! We even did one of the videos last night at our workout group! I am really grateful for my friends in the workout group. They have been helping keep my motivation up for staying fit which for awhile was quite a struggle.

Dan has also enjoyed me working out with others because all the husbands have started getting together to play bball on Thursday nights while we do our workout video at the church. Since we moved to Louisiana Dan has not had nearly as many opportunities to play basketball as he used to. Last night we finished our workout quite a bit earlier than the boys so I was able to watch Dan play a few games. It was really fun! I like getting to watch Dan do something that makes him so happy.

Third Thought....the thing that didn't quite work out. Yesterday at work we had a toner for our copy room printer explode....yeah EXPLODE! It was a HUGE mess! I guess the toner didn't get installed properly and by the time we noticed the mess was EXTREMELY out of hand. Interesting how the smallest error can cause such a mess! Jenni and another co-worker got stuck with the majority of the cleanup while I spent forever making phone calls trying to get help with the cleanup. Because of the time of day I was unable to get anyone to come until this morning so in the end we had to tape off the area so no one would get caught up in the mess and make it worse than it already was. A few of the attorneys were not thrilled at all that I couldn't get people to come right then but what do you do??? The copier technician was on a job that was about an hour and a half away! It was frustrating to say the least but the mess is pretty much cleaned all up now! The copier technician said that in the 20 years he has done this job he has NEVER seen something happen like this before. He has seen a few toners leak a little but nothing like this.

The mess reminded me WAY too much of when we caught our apartment on fire almost 2 years ago now. The ink powder coated everything in the room just like the soot did from our fire. The powder was on all the paper, the tables, the stapler, the walls, etc, etc. I am sure the firm will find ink dust for years to come! We still run across soot in our apartment in the most random places! When you think you have cleaned it all...it seems to randomly appear again as dust settles.

Last random, didn't quite workout, thought. Last night while I was watching Dan play basketball I was also playing around with the camera a little. I was trying to take pictures of them playing ball but the lighting was really bad. I learned a lot of cool features on our camera during the process. There is a feature where you can correct people's facial expressions. I took one of the photos that was already on our camera and gave it a shot. I guess when the expression was already good there is no where to go but downhill! When I saw how Dan's facial expression changed I couldn't stop laughing! When I showed it to Dan he said, "What the heck did you do to my face??" He thought it was quite funny though too! Enjoy!

St. Patty's

St. Patrick's day is one of my favorite holidays, actually I think all holidays are:) I really wanted to do something fun for St. Patty's but as the day got closer, and especially the day of, I realized our schedule was going to be too busy to do much. I had to get allergy shots after work and then both of us had to be out the door by 5:30. Dan was going to a school performance for one of the young men at church and I went to an awards ceremony for one of the young women. We both loved getting to go!

Anyways, so I got home a few minutes before 5 and decided the only thing I could think of that was quick enough for dinner was breakfast. Since I still wanted to celebrate I figured it wouldn't take much more time to make it a green breakfast!

We had green waffles, green grapes, green juice, and a four leaf clover on top of our eggs (I didn't think I could handle eating green eggs:). I also pulled out our green Christmas tablecloth from Guatemala.

I am also quite the stickler for following St. Patrick's day rules! Dan remembered to wear green during the day (not hard when your uniform has green on it!) but when he changed into his pj's he no longer had green on. Dan goes to be earlier than I do since he has to get up at 4am. As he was trying to fall asleep I was laying next to him watching tv and kept on pinching him about every 10 seconds (I know...I can be quite annoying sometimes!). He finally got sick of it and went and put on his green military socks. I thought it was funny because he is so hot blooded that he is always in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. He never wears pants and socks unless he has to for work or church. His military socks are extremely thick and go almost to his knees so I knew he had to be burning up! After about 5 minutes of the torture I let him take off his green socks and promised I wouldn't pinch him anymore so he could get to sleep:)




I also made this plaque for St. Patty's! I was quite proud because this is the first craft project I have actually finished before the holiday (only the day before...but still!) since Halloween. I always get these great ideas and start projects and well....yeah...At least I finished my Christmas ones after Christmas!... but my Thanksgiving and January/winter projects are still sitting....:)

Happy Birthday Colt!

Like I said in the previous post, I assisted Jenni in making Colt's birthday cake. Colt loves the movie Cars so we did a Mcqueen cake. We didn't start icing the cake until almost 10pm on friday night so we were tired and ready to get it done! Plus we had to since the party was Saturday morning! Overall, I think it turned out really good! Jenni did almost all of the stars and piping. She did a really good job! She even fixed the bad cross eyes I created on the cake! I think I have gotten her addicted to cake decorating recently:)

Jenni putting on the finishing touches

Our little assistant, Jacob, wanted to help with the cake during every step! He was really excited for his brother's birthday cake.

Colt admiring the finished project. He was quite excited too. He kept on pointing to the cake and saying "My Queen! My Queen!". It was really cute! There were several finger pokes in the cake throughout the decorating process becuase he would get so excited when pointing and would poke it instead.

Birthday boy with messy hair from playing in his inflatable jumping gym that his daddy got him for his birthday.

Colt opening up his gift from Dan and I.



Jacob was just as excited for Colt's birthday, if not more, so Jacob was Colt's "helper" for opening presents.

We got him a giant Cars coloring book and crayons for his birthday.

And last but not least....Colt and Jacob blowing out his birthday candles!

Cake, Cake, Cake, and CAKE!

So far in the month of March I have made 4 cakes. It has been fun but I am a little cake'd out!

The first cake was for a baby shower. My friend, Jenni, was throwing a baby shower for one of her friend's from high school and she asked me to help her make the invites and the cake. It was really fun! I always enjoy hanging out with Jenni and lately crafting is our thing...so this was a fun project. I have to admit, the night wasn't going so smoothly between a few issues with the cake amongst a few other things. So by the time we were finished with the cake we were both so sick of it I didn't even want to look at it. A few things didn't turn out quite how I wanted and I was a little frustrated. So I am glad I was too lazy to blog for awhile because now that I look at the pictures of the cake I don't think the cake is half bad! I learned a lot while working on this cake that will help me in the future. Plus, it was fun to make it with such a great friend!

The finished product.


My extremely chubby puppy dog.

This was what Jenni gave as a shower gift. I cut out the vinyl firetruck for her. I thought her gift turned out so cute!

The second cake I made was quite a simple one but I thought it turned out cute. It was for Jenni's birthday. We all take turns buying cakes for each other's birthdays at work. I went to walmart the day before her birthday thinking I would be able to just find something that would work. They didn't have anything I liked so once again, I decided I may as well just make it myself! I thought I wasn't going to have enough time, that is why I went to walmart, but I am glad I made the time in the end! She deserved it!

The third cake made this month was for Jenni's son, Colt's 2nd birthday. Jenni actually did most of the work on it. I just assisted. I have pictures of the birthday party too so I will post everything on my next post.

The 4th cake is basically the same as the 2nd one. Same idea, just with a little twist. We had several birthdays that needed to be celebrated for the young women at church so we had a mini birthday party for them all last night. We were supposed to do a picture scavenger hunt and them come back for cake and ice cream. Right as we were about to leave the church the area was put under a tornado warning, so we couldn't leave the building. The girls all took it with stride though and we enjoyed just visiting, eating cake and ice cream, as well as playing sardines (which is the opposite of hide and seek...one person hides and everyone tries to find that one person and hides with them. The last person to find the hiding spot is "it" for the next round).

Allergic to so much wonder if I am allergic to myself??

A few weeks ago I went in for allergy testing. I have gotten sick too many times to count since about August of last year and have been sick at least one day a week since Christmas. Last year I was getting tonsillitis off and on so they thought my tonsils needed to be removed but when I saw a specialist he didn't agree. At first I was really upset because I was just so sick and tired of being sick that I wanted them removed! Well, in the end it was a blessing because I have not gotten tonsillitis again, so he made the right call.

Instead, I have just gotten lots of colds, the flu, sinus infections, etc, etc. So about a month ago I decided I was sick and tired of it all once again and went back to the ENT to see if they would test me to see what I was allergic to. As a kid I was allergic to dairy, cats, cucumbers, most shampoos, soaps, and lotions....had bad hay fever, etc, etc, etc. As I have gotten older my allergies have been the same except for the dairy. A lot of that allergy seemed to diminish and I actually have been eating it quite regularly since I got married, until now:)

When I got my testing done I didn't cry like a baby but boy I sure felt like it! I am quite a baby when it comes to needles:) I had to be given over 75 individual shots. I have heard that some allergy clinics have devices that do like 5 shots at once...well mine didn't. All the needles were brand new but some of them were so dull it was ridiculous! To say the least...I did make it through but wasn't the happiest camper! The started off with a row of 29 shots. If each shot reacts enough they have to do another test on that actual allergen. All 29 of mine reacted, so I had to do a another full set of 29. Of the second set of 29 only half reacted...so my third row wasn't too bad! The allergy lady said I was one of the most difficult patients she has had to figure out in a long time! Usually after one row plus just a handful on the second row she knows all she needs but I had to do three! She even had to go into their back office to pull out allergens she hasn't had to use on patients in forever!

This is a picture of my arm after the testing. I am weird, I know, but I couldn't help but take a picture because it looked like I had been stabbed to death. I had a really bad rash too but it is hard to see in the picture.

The day after my testing I went back for the results. Out of the 29 things I was tested for....I was allergic to 27!!!!!!!!!! Keep in mind...I was just tested for inhalants. They always test and treat for that first and then if needed they do food allergy testing. I was allergic to a ton of molds, everything you find outside in Louisiana except pine trees, cockroaches, cats, can't remember them all. I wasn't allergic to dogs though! I was happy about that!

The allergy nurse said that once you have lived somewhere about 2 years that is when your allergies to the area become prevalent, which totally makes sense because it was almost 2 years to the day when I started to get sick a lot. Some of the things I am allergic to now I wasn't as a kid. I found it really interesting to learn how your allergies develop and such. The more you are exposed to something the more likely you will become allergic to it. Our apartment has mold in the window seals (mold is everywhere in Louisiana since it is so moist) so that is why I am allergic to mold. Cockroaches are EVERYWHERE here as well...so that explains that one. I am excited I am getting shots now because I am hoping they will help!

The hardest part about it all is I have had to try to figure out a different diet again. Although they didn't do food allergy testing they can still tell some of the things you are allergic to by it. With being diabetic and needing to watch my carbs I have developed a routine of what I always eat. Since milk does bother me to an extent I have been having soy milk for breakfast. It is low in carbs, high in protein. I also have a lot of nuts and peanut butter for snacks, as well as cheese and crackers. The nurse informed me that since I am allergic to so many molds that I need to watch my intake of soy milk, nuts, and cheeses because they all contain molds. She said that my chances of going into anaphylactic shock are minimal but no guarantees. But mostly I need to avoid them to help with my allergies, sinus congestion and infections, etc. It has been hard to once again try to replace certain foods but I know it will be worth it!

Okay, I am done talking about allergies now...I have probably bored everyone to death...but this blog is not only for others to read but basically a family journal for me as well! So sorry!

Mardi Gras'ed Out!!!!!

The following weekend after Valentines we went down to Lafayette to visit Dan's parents. Dan's brother, Micheal, had flown in for the weekend as well so they could spend time with their dad. Paul volunteered for a deployment position to Iraq for 14 months. He joined a program that re-enlists retirees. It was a really fun weekend but a little bitter as well for the boys to say "see ya later" to their dad. Paul just left two days ago on March 1st for the beginning of his training before he deploys in the near future. We will miss him but we are proud of him for being so willing to serve our country.



We spent a majority of our weekend in Lafayette going to Mardi Gras parades. This weekend was the official Mardi Gras weekend before the actual Mardi Gras Holiday on Fat Tuesday. I think it is kinda fun that Mardi Gras is celebrate so many times before the actual day, kind of like Christmas I guess!

Dan and Mike before the parade.

Dan's parents dog, "Miss Princess Pandibella", is spoiled enough that she was part of the family for the parade. I have to admit, she has stolen my heart as well as her mommy's and daddy's.

Donna and I right before the parade. I couldn't help but get into the spirit by buying a Mardi Gras Boa:)

Everyone trying to catch Mardi Gras beads. Donna and the boys would stand on the fence and lean over as far as they could in hope to get the best beads.

Us during the parade!

Posing for the camera. The little girl in front is Olivia. She is Donna's Sister's Grandchild (not sure what the correct term is for how she is related to us???). It was really fun to have her at the parade. She would get so excited to see a single necklace come her way that you couldn't help but smile.

I had an obsession with counting how many beads we got after each parade. As I counted I would put then onto Dan's neck. I think this picture could definitely qualify as blackmail if it ever needed to be! Lol...just kidding Dan! We caught 105 beads at this parade plus 70 more that Mike gave us.

We got to the parade location right before the parade started, so this time we did everything in reverse! We ate and visited afterwards. Mike ate so much meat he could barely walk afterwards! He said he hadn't had as good of meat since his mission in Argentina.

Dan playing with the kids while everyone else visited. It's fun to watch him play!

Us after the parade.

This picture looks a little funny but it reminded me of Twilight for any of you fans out there. It almost looks like Dan is trying to bite me instead of kiss me. Lol...I don't remember why I was moving away from his kiss?? I think it was because he had just eaten venison or something??? Can't really remember.

Mike showing off some of the beads he caught for "His Ladies" back in Utah!

We decided to come back for another parade that same night. It had been pouring for like an hour before it started but we just waited it out in the car. We figured if it continued to rain once the parade was to us we would just go back home. Luckily, it stopped just in time. I think Donna was sure glad we stayed! Paul caught her the best necklace we saw between all the 3 parades we went to this year! Micheal was very jealous that he gave it to Donna instead of him!

We got a TON of beads at this parade. I think they had planned on the crowd being a lot bigger but since it had rained there weren't as many people. At some points during the parade they were throwing the beads by the handful! There were so many on the ground too that no one wanted becuase there were just too many!! We got almost 300 beads...Crazy!

This is a picture of all our "loot" from the parades. I was hoping it would all fit in this box...but I guess we went a little overboard on bead catching! I can't remember the exact number now (but I did have an exact number that day!!!) but we caught over 500 beads between the two parades in Lafayette and the one in Shreveport the weekend before . Crazy I know!

Our favorites by far was my froggy necklace, Dan's New Orleans Jazz, the big gold one, and the HUGE white pearl necklace as well. I was so excited when I caught that one. It has pearls the size of gumballs and went all the way down to my knees!