Speed of Light FedEx

As I came to business school last year, I purchased a business laptop from HP, expecting that the power and ruggedness of a business notebook would make it more reliable. However, due to my past experience, I also purchased the 3 year warranty. My logic behind choosing a business notebook was completely flawed, but getting the 3 year warranty was inspried.

So my HP laptop is broken, again. If I didn't hold it at a specific angle while booting, it would freeze. The trick is that the angle is never the same. Some times it's 45 degrees back, sometimes it's perpendicular standing on its right or left side. Once I got it to boot by holding it upside down!

What is particularly disturbing is that finals start NEXT WEEK!!! This is the third time my computer has crashed just as I'm about to start finals week. That's right, do the math - that would be every single finals period of the MBA program to date. I spent over an hour on the phone yesterday just to make sure I escalated this issue to the top of HP's escalation protocol (and still got no concession out of them).

In order to get my laptop repaired, I need to ship it to Houston. HP sends a box to my house and when it's ready to go, I call FedEx (it used to be DHL) to schedule a pickup. Just as I finished the call yesterday afternoon, I opened the door to put the box on the porch - just as the FedEx truck pulled up! Now that was amazing!

You Know You're in California When...

You know you're in California when:

• People are walking around the grocery store in bathing suits and swim cover-ups. And it's November.
• There are palm trees everywhere you look.
• You can't travel more than 5 miles on the freeway (and that's freeway not highway) without passing several crossing overpasses.
• Gas is a good $0.45 higher than wherever I happen to be living.
• Produce is ridiculously cheap and the quality is amazing.
  
• 95% of the people you see are wearing flip-flops. 80% of those people are wearing Rainbows flip-flops.
  

It's good to be home. :) The kiddos and I came for a visit while Bryce flitted across the country winning case competitions and interviewing for potential jobs. We've eaten watermelon, played in the blow-up kiddie pool in the backyard, picked tomatoes, had kids parties (a tradition!), oh, and I had some dental work done. Hurrah! Today we took a stroll down the San Clemente pier and it was lovely. The weather was perfect and Sophie was completely fascinated by the ocean and the surfers. Tomorrow it's back to reality - sigh! BUT, we are all VERY excited to see Bryce again. Hooray!!! See you tomorrow, Bryce!

Sophie watching the waves crash - she couldn't believe they just kept coming!

watching the surfers and their "skateboards" as Sophie called thema tired Sophie and meone of Sophie's favorite toys at Grandma's house...

cute!

some bonding time with Jake over banana smoothies - they were having a whole conversation when I took this - so CUTETwo of the states Bryce traveled to in the last week...

and ...

Where will he go next...? Stay tuned to find out...

I Couldn't Resist...

This year several girls in the MBA spouse group have advertised their talents in the photography department. There are so many and each has their own style and they almost make me want to pick up a camera and try it for myself. But... since I don't have a camera that shwanky (love that word), I decided that we'd put to work all their shwanky cameras! I just feel like, when are we going to be near this many willing and talented photographers again? Who knows?? Might as well take advantage of it now, right?! Of course right! (what musical is that last sentence a quote from? Rare nickel to whoever knows the answer...!) Soooo, much to Bryce's chagrin (what?? more pictures??), I signed us up for another round of family pics! Since Sarah had just taken such lovely lovely mantle-type pics for us (thanks again, Sarah! Just framed one of them!), I asked Kelli to take more candid-type pics. And they turned out so cute! Thank you, Kelli! Here's just a couple...Each moment of the year has its own beauty . . .

a picture which was never before and shall never be seen again.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I Heart Productivity

Tonight Bryce was actually home for a bit - HOORAY! With trips to Georgia, Arkansas, Minnesota, and possibly Florida, bishopric meetings, a case competition team, heading up a student organization club, etc. added on top of the usual schoolwork load... it feels rare that he's around much. He amazes me with his ability to keep it all straight and do it all so well! Just thinking about all that makes me tired. Somehow he keeps going.... mmmmwah, Bryce! umm, that was the sound a smooch makes, fyi. Anyway, I digress. So my Sweets was home tonight and I took advantage of it to run a bunch of errands while he was putting Sophie down for bed. The errands have been piling up on my dining room table for the last week or so. It just takes sooooooo much longer to run in and return something with two kids in tow than it takes me by myself that I just couldn't bring myself to do it during the day. BUT HOW GREAT IS THIS?!?!? In less than an hour and a half I went to Kohls, Target, Babies-R-Us, Walgreens and the Post Office!!! And now I have zero errands to run and a much clearer table and... I feel SO productive! Love it.

And you know how I hate to do posts without pics, so here are two pics that Marci took the other week (Marci rocks, too!!). Wow. Do I have cute kids or what?!?Also want to send a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sweet mother-in-law! Sending lots of birthday hugs and wishes your way!! Here's a pic of the lovely lady with her first four kiddies -- two sets of twins! I'm telling you, people, she is a super-star! :)

And now... off to do dishes.... good night!

Sarah ROCKS

Our friend, Sarah, took some family pics for us yesterday and they turned out soooo cute. Thank you, Sarah!! It was a beautiful warm day and the leaves were a perfect backdrop. I wanted to take the pics on campus as proof that we were here at BYU. Sarah managed to get a pic with the Y in the background to show where we were. I am so excited to have some pics with Travis in them - he is getting so BIG! Anyway, so here we are - and thank you again, Sarah!!

Sophie's face in this pic absolutely CRACKS me up!!Gooooooo, Cougars!!!

Happy Halloween!!

"A dream is a wish your heart makes...
...if you keep on believing, the dreams that you wish will come true!"

Happy Halloween!
May all your trick-or-treating wishes come true!
Cinderella, Prince Charming, Fairy Godmother & Gus Gus

We opted for the Cinderella theme this year and all dressed up for our ward Trunk-or-Treat party (everyone decorates their trunks and the kids go from car to car in the parking lot trick-or-treating). There were about 15 other princesses there that night, but if you ask me, Sophie was the cutest. :)

Cinderella and her Prince Charming. :)Tiny princess. SO CUTE!We did something similar to this a couple years ago when we lived in Virginia... only that year Bryce hid in the trunk under the "Izzy Deadyet" tombstone and popped up when kids would come around (scaring the be-geebies out of them). It's supposed to be a grave yard -- if anyone out there has stood in line to ride the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland this may look familiar.
Tried to capture the fog oozing out of the fog machine in the trunk...

Too bad you can't see Bryce's whole ensemble in this pic - it was my pride and joy.
I also made my fairy godmother cape, but no one could quite figure out what I was supposed to be... oh well, no wishes granted for them!

Check out my LOOT!!! Sophie had never seen so much candy in her entire LIFE.

Happy Halloween!!

3 Cheers for Babysitters who take pics!

Today I went to save these pics in our October folder and... there was no October folder!!! Having a broken camera has really put a damper on our picture taking! I couldn't believe we were almost to the end of the month and I had NO pictures to show for it!! Luckily for us, we have great friends/siblings with cameras. (thanks guys!!) Thanks to these great people you will [eventually] get to see pics of a REALLY fun bridal shower I hosted today. More on that later...

Also lucky for us, this girl who babysat Sophie for me yesterday thought Sophie was so cute that she just couldn't help snapping a couple pics of her while they played. I was so overjoyed to have some pics of my little girl who seems to be getting so... OLD lately. sniff sniff. Anyway, so here's a few pics of Sophie from yesterday...

Her babysitter took Sophie to the library where they have story time -- somehow she talked the librarians into letting her play with one of their puppets! Sophie LIVES for puppet shows...ta-ta for now...!

A Very Happy Birthday.... to YOU!

(that's from a Strawberry Shortcake dvd that we rented from the library... doesn't it make it that much better??? Sophie thinks so.)

Happy Birthday Marci!!!
We hope you have a fabulous day and get to play games all the live long day!

Twinkle Toes

My little brother, Jacob, just clued me in to this video of him and 4 friends doing a fully choreographed almost-4-minute ditty in front of a group of adoring and screaming fellow teenagers during a youth activity at our church. I was laughing my head off watching this. And you will, too -- esp if you know Jake! Enjoy! (Jake's the one in black.)

ps - I think my favorite moment of this occurs from about 3:00 - 3:07 -- check out those MOVES! :)

pss - Marse & Meliss, I am supposed to tell you (from Jake) that he and the others just threw this little number together in "about an hour..." Who's the biggest, fattest, juiciest rat now??? ;)

4 Years

Four years ago today... amazing how fast time has flown!
I've had fun tonight looking through these pics... :)

I wish I didn't look so goofy in this pic b/c I absolutely LOVE it of Bryce. He looks so... content.This one is better.

Another good one I'd forgotten about.

We have several pics of this pose and Bryce and I crack up every time we look at them b/c without fail, in each pic like this my bouquet is exactly covering Bryce's face...!! Sorry Bryce!

Love this one, too.

And this one is too hilarious. You can read Bryce's thoughts just by looking at him -- "seriously??? MORE pictures??" Yes, dear. :) It was such a perfect day - Happy Anniversary, Bryce!