My Baby's First Haircut!

There comes a time in a person's life when their hair grows too long to pass as attractive. Many of you bloggers have kids, and I am sure you posted about their first haircut that you gave them. Well I don't have a baby yet. The only baby in my life is my husband Jason, and I just have him my first haircut. I have never ever EVER cut anyone's hair before in my life. Jason is such a good sport and has agreed to be my guinea pig as I learn to cut hair. I figure that it'll save us a lot of money if I can do our family haircuts myself, and it's about time I learn. Here are some before shots:


Things were going well. I felt like I was picking it up pretty fast, and I was pleased with how his haircut was going. Jason has such straight asian hair that it was pretty difficult. Here is some proof of how things were going:




Well, anyone that knows what it is like to give a haircut without any training knows that it is easy to go too short on one side, then go try and even out the other side, but end up going too short, so you go back to the other side, and it is just a vicious cycle! It was not my fault! I had no training. I just kept going back and forth, until this was our outcome:

Two things I hate about cars...

I would not consider myself super learned on cars. I like cars that drive nice and look pretty. There are two things that I really REALLY don't like, though. Number one: I hate gold cars! I think they are ugly, tacky and old-looking. (I hope not to offend anyone from this post. This is just my opinion.) And number two: I hate Ford Focuses. I just don't like the body. I think that there are much better looking cars in the world than the Focus, and I have never been a fan. I am pretty much cool with any other car and feature. I don't know why, I just don't like Ford Focuses, and I definitely don't like Gold.

As some of you know, last year I had to sell Penny, my little white Protege, to pay for our flights to Argentina. Let us all take a moment and remember Penny's greatness, for she truly was the best little car. It was a good idea to sell her, though, because I feared she was close to her death bed. Anyway, Jason and I have just had one car since then, and have been surviving just fine. Last winter I would drop him off at school in the morning before I went to work, then pick him up on my way home. When it got warm enough we bought a scooter, and that was a fun treat for the summer time. Well now we are approaching winter again, and I don't think that Scooty is going to suffice. Because of our conflicting schedules this winter, we decided it was time to bite the bullet and buy a second car. We started looking, and boy are there some pretty cars out there!! All of which are out of our price range.

My dad had just bought a car from a man that was selling one more car, and my dad was soooo impressed with his deal. We went and checked out the other car that he was selling, and it was a deal that we could not pass up. The engine sparkles, there are only 40,000 miles on it, It's a 2007 little girl, just a baby, and she runs fantasticly!!! Is that a word? Hmmm... anyway. There is just one problem. Let's just say that she is a sweet spirit. She is exellent and above average in every department on the inside... but esthetically she is just lacking so much! My dear friends, meet the newest member of our family. I think we'll name her Goldie. She's our new 2007 GOLD FORD FOCUS!




That'll teach me!

The Man My Husband Has Become

This is the first picture that I ever saw of my husband. Very handsome man, if I may say so myself. When we got married Jason was a fine young man. Over the past year and a half he has changed quite a bit, and has grown for the better. He becomes a better man every day, and I love him more and more every moment. But recently there have been some unexpected changes. Just this past week he has gotten very tired. He started slowing down, and losing motivation to even get up off the couch. He started complaining of a sore throat, and I thought that he was just being a baby. But then more changes started to take place. He started to shrink and grow unwanted hair. A horrendous cough took over, and when I took his temperature it was at 103 degrees. My poor husband was burning a hole in our bed! I opted to sleep in the other room last night just to give him all the wiggle room he wanted in our bed, and when I came in this morning to check on him... this is what I saw!! This is the man that my husband has become!!!



That's right. We think that Jason has caught the swine flu. The poor guys is sick as a pig. (hahaha, I just made myself laugh out loud. That just proves my dorkiness.) He is just taking it easy on the couch and trying to avoid our neighbors, because they are all so old they would probably die from it. I am pretty sure we moved in to an old folk's home.

May I just point out one great thing here real quick. Look back up at the picture of my husband in our bed this morning. Even in this awful condition he is still smiling! He has a great attitude about this, and even though he looks the way he does (sorry honey) he still is able to smile about it. What a great man he has become!!

Fit in to the dress!

It was just over a year and a half ago that Jason and I were married, and I got to wear my beautiful wedding dress! I loved my dress so much that I wish that I could wear it every day. The problem now is not that it would be totally weird to wear my wedding dress everywhere I go, but that I can't even fit in to it! How embarrassing is that? I could understand like after ten years of marriage or something, or at least after kids, but no. I have no kids, and it has only been a year and a half. So even if I wanted to prance around town in my wedding dress... I can't! Out of the question. My love for Jason has grown immensely during this year and a half, and so has my body. =)

So I am reaching out for help! I am so freaking out of shape that I died after a half hour on the treadmill this morning. I got P90X and get out of breath just watching it! Is there anyone else in my same boat? Does anyone else need a little push? Can we please just motivate each other somehow?? I would really like to fit in to my dress again. Oh, and when I do, does anyone want to lounge around the house in theirs with me?

Your Fat Friend,

Sarah McChubbyson



p.s. this is the only dress that I fit in to now.

ADDICTION

Hello all of my friends. It is time that I publically admit my problem, in hopes to someday overcome my habit. I am addicted to travel deals. I said it. I look at them all the time, and really I have no choice, because travel companies continue to email me cruise, flight, hotel and vacation deals. What is a girl to do? It satisfies me beyond belief to slide my arrow just barely over the advertising letters until the word illuminates in blue, then ever so gently tapping the top of my mouse just to see a new page load, and soon deliver a medium to a wonderful vacation. Then my mind starts going, and there is no stopping it. I start planning out dates, and ways to make these vacations come true. Before I know it, I have 16 windows open, each with a different airfare search or hotel comparison, to make sure that I can find the best deal. By the end of my fix, I have an entire outrageous vacation planned, and I excitedly tell my husband, just to hear him say, "Yeah right!". He has learned, though, to play this game with me, and now will say his line on queue, "Yeah, Sar! Wouldn't that be awesome?" And then I light up and say, "Yeah!!! This would be so fun!" Then slowly I come back down to reality, and never mention it again, because seriously, a dream vacation like the ones that I plan in my head would never ever ever really happen in our current poor, young, college-student, newlywed income lives....unless.....

YOU FIND TICKETS TO AUSTRALIA FOR $500!!!! All of my pretend vacation planning has really done me some good. Because I am a dorky addict, and love to look up deals all the time, I found airfare to Australia at a price that I just could not pass up. (Really, I had no choice. It was just too good). So I let my brain run wild, and I put together an unbelievable vacation for us and some friends of ours that had asked us to go with them before. We also had a timeshare that we got to use on the beach in Port Macquarie, Australia, that was unbelievable. Here are a few pics from the trip.

What the..... Sarah is updating her blog???

I know, I know, we are creeping up on a year since I have updated my blog. I just like to keep everyone in suspense. It has been a year since we left for Argentina. I can't believe how time flies. So far this year I have been able to keep myself put, and not move to any far off countries, but the year isn't over yet =)

I suppose a little update is due. After an incredible, uniting experience in Argentina we got on a plane and flew back to California, where we enjoyed an awesome Christmas. We settled back into our old routine quite quickly with me back at Provo College and taking online classes, and Jason full-time in school. Yep, just the same old same old, except for one minor detail. Instead of graduating as planned, Jason has decided that he wants to be a dentist. So he has been doing the pre-reqs for them since January, and is doing awesome. It'll be a loooong road, but worth the journey.

IGUAZU FALLS!!!!!

Wow!! This was incredible. There really are no words. The weather today was gorgeous (and hot and humid of course, but gorgeous) and the falls were amazing!!!! I would recommend this vacation spot to anyone in the world; even rich, spoiled people that always see cool things. This is cooler. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. P.S. All of these pictures were taken just with our little camera. They look like postcards, huh??

Adventures

Ok, I am not a good blogger and I am aware of that, but I will attempt again to give an update. I spoke last about our yucky meat experience. Since then we have learned that the meat really is good, we just have to find the right kind. We have one tiny burner that we plug in and cook on, which makes cooking at home very difficult. Jason still manages to make the best meals. This is one of the many beautiful creations that he miraculously puts on our table, even with only one small burner.

We have been traveling a lot lately and teaching quite a bit. We spent a few days volunteering at a college for English professors. I REALLY enjoyed it because it was the first time in months that I felt like I could express myself fully. The people were great and we were happy for the service opportunity. We plan on doing it a few more times before we leave. Last week we traveled to Posadas, which is a beautiful city on the border of the Parana river, and Paraguay is just on the other side. We loved our time in Posadas, but we were SO sad with our adventure to cross over into Paraguay. We were told that we could get in and so we went. Here are a few photos of our adventure...

When we got there the mean man at the border wouldn't let us in! He wanted us to pay him a lot of money to let us through, which we didn't have so we had to go back. I was SOOO mad at him! But we still enjoyed our time on the Argentine side of the Parana river.

We loved walking around Posadas and would recommend this cute town to anyone.
I found my best friend!

And Jason found his!!

We ate lunch at the only restaurant that we have ever found here in Argentina that makes other types of food besides the regular lomitos, hamburgers, sandwiches, pasta, beef steak, or milanesa. This place had "Mexican" food! I was SO excited because I have been craving Mexican food sooo bad lately. Unfortunately their Mexican food is not even CLOSE to Mexican food. We ordered nachos for an appetizer, which were a weird tasting type of Doritos with cheese on them, and then I got a burrito. Does this look like a burrito to you? Yeah, me either. It was really gross, but the experience was fun!

This week we are in Goya, Corrientes. We have been here for two and a half months already and the time has flown by. We'll be home in three weeks. I know I am not a good updater, but I'll try to update soon. Next week we are going to Iguazu falls so I'll have to do a post about that. Love to all!

What is Argentina famous for???? MEAT

We had heard about the asados that they have hear, so we decided to go out to dinner at a parrilla (grill) and try some of the Argentine meat. We asked what was good and the said everything, so we ordered the plate that has everything, which was called the full parrilla. It came out on a little grill and all the meat was still sizzling! We were really excited and SHOCKED at how much meat they brought out!
We didn't know what to think, so we just started to chow down!! One problem.... they eat a lot of things that we don't usually eat. We didn't know what anything was. We first tried some meat on a rib and it was really good! Then a little chicken that was dry, but edible. Then came some funky shaped things and we tried them all, all being really really really disgusting. We asked afterward what everything was and they were intestines, kidneys, brains, you know. Just all of the parts that I would never eat. A few seconds later I found that my dinner was making it's way back up and luckily made it to the bathroom in time. I felt so sick!

Needless to say we are never eating a full parrilla again.

The Great Storm

The other night Jason and I went to be at about 2 am but we couldn't sleep, so we watched Avatar, the greatest cartoon in the world, on our computer in our bed. Jason decided to move our bed into the middle of the floor because our air conditioning stopped working the day before and doesn't blow the air out as strong or as cold, so he moved our bed so that we are could feel the air a little bit more. We finally fell asleep around 4 am, but around 4:30 we woke up to the most horrifying thunder I have ever heard. I am almost 25 years old and I was still really scared. We learned that there were no weather strips on our windows and water from the heavy rain was gushing into our apartment. We got everything off the floors and there was already an inch of water covering the tile. Our bed usually sits closer to the window, and if Jason hadn't moved our bed I would have woken up soaked! There was only a few seconds between lightening bolts and the thunder was almost constant. Jason was frustrated and trying to soak up the water as fast as he could, but then he opened the window and shut it again really fast. He looked at me with the most amazed look and said, 'Sar! You have GOT to come and see this!" He told me to brace myself and to look quick. He opened the window and rain was hitting me fast and hard, but I saw the most incredible thing! It is an image I will never forget. It was just like out of a movie. The lightening and the wind and rain... I just can't explain it! It was so cool that Jason was no longer frustrated and we stopped our efforts to clean up the water that night. We woke up to our whole apartment in a few inches of water. We took turns on our hands and knees wringing the water into a bucket with our only rag. It took a couple hours and was not all that fun, but every bit of it was worth the few seconds of seeing that storm.

I Lied...

I lied and said that we didn't have to teach last week. We were told just before 6pm that there was some miscommunication and that we were supposed to teach the workshop starting at 6!! We jumped in a cab and headed for the chapel where we were teaching at. This was by far the smallest workshop we've taught yet. There were five people in total, and two of them have callings in the employment resources, so really there were just three.
It was AWESOME!! I felt so much more comfortable teaching in a small group and we all got really close. Yesterday we were on a bus for four or so hours on our way to our next adventure here in Formosa, Argentina. We arrived at 3:45 and were taken straight to the chapel to teach our workshop that started at 4pm. We hadn't eaten or drunken anything all day and I kid you not when I was teaching in front of 25 people my mind went completely BLANK and I couldn't think of anything to say. I just stood there! It was really funny, and by funny I mean not funny at all, just embarrassing. But someday it'll be funny, I am sure. Our hotel is great here; much better than our last one in Saenz Pena. Last night I only got like four mosquito bites, which is amazing compared to the 5,000 that I got in Saenz Pena. I still haven't figured out how to to cool things for the blog, like separate my pictures or make words big. I am sad looking at everyone's cool blogs. Can you all make your blogs not as cool so I feel better? Thank you. Now here are some random pictures for you!

More to come!! Love to all!

An "American" Breakfast

We were invited by our bishop and his family to join with them in their family tradition, which is to have a big American breakfast the Sunday morning of conference. We really enjoyed the experience... but I wouldn't say that it was American. There were American things, just not like we are used to. We had french toast, but instead of putting butter, syrup and powdered sugar on them we had a weird soft cheese and raw bacon. There was deli ham, a really good liquado, which is just milk and fruit mixed up in the blender, cereal with drinkable yogurt, a super sugary lemon pie, and scrambled eggs. It was a lot of fun. They usually just drink mate for breakfast, which is their typical hot drink that everyone drinks here, so this big breakfast is a big treat for them. Last week we traveled about 2 1/2 hours on bus to a city called Saenz Pena to teach the workshop. We stayed in a more expensive hotel, which was actually really disgusting. Our room was full of mosquitos and Jason and I were almost eaten to death. He still has battle scars on his legs. They were inside our sheet so there was nothing we could do, but we know that it could have been a lot worse. What if we had opted to go with the cheaper hotel!? Teaching in Saenz Pena was a really cool experience. The people were so humble and so appreciative of us. We spent our days doing our homework and the nights teaching the workshop. We ate the best meat there. I am so glad I am not a vegetarian. I love meat! And Argentina has really good meat!! This week we were supposed to teach the workshop in the south stake of Resistencia but some people fell through on their assignments and nothing was organized for us, so we are not teaching this week. I say great! Time off to go and travel nearby countries!! But we need a visa to get into every country so I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe we'll just get really ahead in our studies so we have time to play at the end. Life is great here. We love walking around at night through the plazas and seeing all of the crazy hairstyles of the teenagers. I've gotta get some good pictures. Maybe that can be my next post. We'll see.