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Happy Birthday Jason last Sunday!! I went out and bought a springform pan (using a wedding gift card, those little life-savers) so I could make my first real cheesecake! I think it was a success, and maybe the start of a birthday tradition. Happy Birthday Lover!

First Date Anniversary

Its true! Though we've been married for 8 months, our first date (also my 105th first date) was August 1st last summer! Incredible, no? Jason took me to a play at the "New Play Project", we ate peach cobbler, and played card games and talked for almost 3 hours! I knew from that night that if we didn't marry, we would atleast date for a long time; I was so very much in 'like' with this kid :)

Pell Grant

So I got a blessed email today stating that I needed to check my online financial account to accept or decline an award. I went and checked it and the picture below is what I saw. That will pay for tuition and books for me for all of next year. We feel so blessed. Life has been super great lately what with the show, callings, free money, and just life in general. I'm excited to begin school again though. I feel so fulfilled while I'm learning. P.S. Come see our show!

Showtime!

Well, the time has come! "Joseph" opens this Friday, with shows every M, Th, F, and S through the 15th, with another week of shows at BYU Education Week, ending the 21st. Rehearsals have been a blast and we just can't wait to perform! Jason does an excellent job, and I can't wait to show him off. I'm turning into a soccer mom already :) If anyone has interest in 2-for-1's or $3 off coupons, let me know. Bring a blanket to sit on, and munchies to snack on, and see you at the show!!

Reason #47 Why I Love my Husband

My Role Model

Evan's healed scar from brain surgery 10 years ago, and the new one from last week, which had to be cut open twice because the surgeon missed the tumor the first time. As my mom put it, we're not out of the storm yet. Evan starts radiation this upcoming week, and with such courage, I really think he's one incredible kid.

Family Reunion

(my family is on the left side)

My family held their bi-annual reunion this last weekend in Mesa. We debated back and forth as to whether we could go because of missing rehearsal (which is a big no-no when you open in a week), and pleaded with the director, but Jason had to stay to rehearse. I SO enjoyed being with my family, and getting some time with Evan, healing from his 3rd brain surgery, and my grandpa, who is starting to show signs of alzheimer's disease.

(on the left side, standing with Evan) There were 85 immediate aunts, uncles, and cousins in attendance! Crazy, no? I LOVE my big family! What a strength they are to me.

Evan Update from my Mom

Evan has had a very good recovery from his surgery. He seemed pretty stable this afternoon when the doctor made his rounds in ICU. So, instead of sending us to a regular room on the floor, he decided to send us home with detailed instructions on his care. Evan was so thrilled to get to come home!! The MRI showed that they got the tumor and pathology confirmed that it is ependymoma cancer (the same type he had 10 years ago). With this information, we can now proceed with radiation, after a few weeks of healing. The "suspicious" area on the MRI is still possibly present, but hopefully can also be treated with the radiation. The doctor cleared Evan to travel to Arizona on Friday to attend my parents 50th wedding anniversary. Of course, we'll use our best judgement and see how Evan is doing by Friday. We are so very thankful for the good outcome of this surgery, for Evan's speedy recovery and for the great outpouring of love we have felt from our family and many friends.

Update on Evan from my Mom

This has been a very tough day. The good news is that we are now home from the hospital with Evan. The bad news is that we have to go back on Tuesday to do the surgery all over again. We met at length with the neurosurgeon and oncologist today to discuss the results of the first surgery. Unfortunately the tumor was missed. There are some plausable reasons for this that we won't go into here, but after much discussion, consultations, and prayer we still have confidence in the surgeon and feel that he should be the one to complete the job. We do know that Evan will start radiation treatments several weeks after surgery and possibly have some form of chemotherapy. There are still a lot of questions to answer, but we're moving forward in faith. Evan has been a trooper through all of this but he did take the news of a second surgery quite hard, which is perfectly understandable. He has definitely enjoyed being home this evening and we hope to have an calm and relaxing weekend so he can get his strength back before Tuesday. Thanks to all of you for your continued love and support. So many people have stepped up to watch our little boys, bring meals, visit Evan in the hospital, etc. We're so thankful for such a great family and friends. Robert and Joann

Now on Sale!

I was going through a bunch of clothes I made in high school, and thought I'd see if there's an interest, so that maybe I could sew more, sell more, and make another hobby out of pleasure sewing. Take a look! Its all on my other blog: www.dearmistergable.blogspot.com Just contact me through email, facebook, blog messages, etc. and I can ship these out as soon as I get some payment, FREE SHIPPING. Have fun looking!

So today, I almost ran over...

LOL, so we were on our ward activity/date night on Friday night to the BYU Planetarium and decided to go out to ice cream afterwards. The consensus was to go to the creamery. So we pull into the creamery and a guy walks through the parking lot with his wife, all dressed up like all normal mormons do when they go to church. Camille says, "He looks like a general authority." I said, "Heh, at the creamery yah, uh huh." He turned his head to check traffic and it was none other than Elder Christopherson heading to the creamery for ice cream. We walked inside with the rest of our group and heard all these whispers about apostles. We walked up to the line and were standing right behind Elder Bednar who was paying at the cash register for their ice cream, and Elder Anderson turned around and said "How about a hand shake?" I was speachless as I shook an apostles hand. We spent the next 20 minutes sitting 5 feet or less eating ice cream next to three apostles. We didn't bother them because we figured they just wanted some time to have a date night with their wives after mission president training (which I'm sure was the reason for being in Provo), but man, who woulda thought huh? Moral of this story...support your ward activities :).

Twilight

Since the movie came out on our wedding day, I never got really into the whole series, until now when I have the free time for pleasure reading. I'm on the 2nd book, don't tell me what happens!

Evan from Heaven

My mom called to tell us that my little brother Evan's cancer has returned :( He's been in remission for 10 years now, after having a brain tumor when he was a baby. He goes in for brain surgery within the week and more radiation to follow. He's been through so much already, and to have to deal with it all over again, to start junior high with a bald head, my heart hurts so much for him. Prayers for him and my family are appreciated.

Happy Father's Day!

Dear Jason: I love you so much, and think you're really cool. I love how you make batches of cookies and eat the whole pan with a spatula. I love how you have to make the bed perfectly before you can get in. I love how you butter your bread with a butter cube like its a stick of deoderant. I LOVE how you do the dishes for me. I love how you treat me, how you hold my hand everywhere we go, and how you know me so well that you know the moment something's wrong. I love how you let me rent girly movies and try 'healthy' dinners on you, and how you eat seconds just to make me feel better. Someday you'll be a wonderful father, just like you are a wonderful husband. You're my favorite :) Love, Wifey

(This one time, Jason started with the shaving cream, only to find our water had been turned off for the morning for some maintenance, so he couldn't even wash it off, and I laughed and had to take a picture)

Celebrity

So I'm always up for a karaoke contest...turns out they have this competition at the Scera, where 15 singers come and sing with a band (without having ever practiced with them). It was pretty fun singing "Hopelessly Devoted to You" to Jason. Well, I get to go to finals! They're in August, coincidentally on our closing night of "Joseph"...so we'll see how that one goes :)

Cruises are for Lovers

We're leavin' on a cruise boat...

The beach at Catalina Island--a really cute little town where everyone drives golf carts.

Formal Night!

The market in Ensanada Mexico. The port stop had been canceled because of swine flu, but surprise, they came over the loudspeaker that morning and said the authorities looked the boat over and said we could get off! We were the first cruise in like 40 days to be able to get off.

The Titanic staircase.

And then we stopped by Vegas on the way back, in honor of our Bellagio honeymoon 6 months ago, but actually stayed at Excalibur. Yay vacations! For more pictures, visit my facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=17803805&ref=profile

The show must go on...

So, once upon a time, we auditioned for a show at the Scera, and it was so cool, we decided to audition for another show. After the long grueling auditioning process, they gave me a call one day and asked me to be Joseph in their summer show at the outdoor theater the Scera Shell. Ya, this coat looks kinda girly, so they're makin a new one that is sooo much more stylish, (and modern :) You'll just have to come see the show! It runs starting the first weekend of August to mid August.

The picture above depicts me in the multi-colored coat. They asked me the night before to be in this parade, along with the leads of the other shows also playing at the Scera this summer, which are West Side Story, and Beauty and the Beast. It looks nice and sunny right now, but behind the picture taker (Camille) is a big nasty cloud that covered the sky within minutes and started raining in the middle of this random parade. Who knew that Orem threw some random community festival called "Summer Fest" ? Oh well. It was still cool, and tons of people came out to see it. Later.

Weekend in Idaho

Ok, we have so much to post about, so here's from a couple weeks ago. We spent the Memorial Day weekend with mom, Diana & Marc and drove up to their cabin. Good times. Pretty Idaho.

Skipping rocks. Something all boy scouts are naturally good at, and something I will never ever be good at.

We Are Family

Travis (on the left) got back last Wednesday from serving in Taiwan,and Braden leaves this Wednesday to serve in the Samara Russia mission! We had to get the family together while were all in America for a week, especially because Travis and Jason hadn't even met.

We're In Ohio!

I love being home! More pictures in the morning...

One Year Ago Today

Crazy how today marks one year since the day we met! It was May 27th that we had call-backs for Beauty & the Beast. I don't think Jason really remembers seeing me there, but I totally remember him, and recall really hoping that we would both be leads so that we could have some quality rehearsal time together. And I guess it worked out! Turns out we're gonna be in another play...but I'll let Jason share the big news...

PS--My brother Travis comes home from his mission today!! We leave tomorrow on a red eye flight to spend a week in Ohio with the whole family for the first time ever!

Happy Six Months!

6 Months Anniversary! Wow, what a wonderful six months its been! I'm the luckiest girl in the world!

Copperfield

Ya, we're pretty cool. We got to see David Copperfield's show yesterday! His $120 show in Vegas was at Kingsbury hall for $30. It was really impressive, and somewhat frustrating, because I sat there puzzled with absolutely no idea how he made a car appear, guessed correct random numbers of car license plates, made 10 audience members dissappear, etc. Ugg, I'm still frustrated.

Wanna Be a Parent?

It was flour sack baby week at school! My students draw a slip of paper (either boy, girl, or a combo of twins) and are given flour sacks that they have to dress up and carry around everywhere for a week. If any teachers see any incidences of child abuse, they email me and I start docking grades. (This picture was taken today, when they were turning them in, and most of them had just taken off the babies' cute clothes. Notice the football player and batman, who won 1st and 2nd place, respectively, in our "Cute Baby Contest") Then for one day, then had to trade them in for a mechanical baby to take home and bring back in the morning. They cry at any moment, and the battery-powered box inside them keeps track of any instances of rough handling, neglect, and how many minutes they cried for before getting attention. My favorite part was deciding what program to put it on (most of them got the "cranky" setting, unless they had twins, or they told me about an AP test they had to take in the morning). One of my rotten kids got the "drug affected program" and they had to wake up 25x in the night to tend their crying mechanical baby. :) Aren't I mean?! And the best mentor/friend ever: Miss Lenora Reid, who has helped me SO much this year! We've had so many great experiences as I've tried to follow in her footsteps! Someday I'll be like Lenora. (And notice the new haircut in pigtails --7 inches!)

Ahh the Theater