2009 in a Nutshell

Since I am not the best at posting, I will post a little recap of 2009, although I really didn't take too many pictures of events this year. And I must be getting old because I can barely remember what happened last year.

February

We started the year off by welcoming our new baby nephew Noah Shelton into the world. He is now almost 1 year old and terribly addicted to soda. No one can figure out why....



March

Our one year anniversary



April

My little brother got home from his mission to the Cordoba, Argentina.



May

I went to Hawaii for my first time ever! I had to leave my husband behind, which I had no idea how hard that would be. It was the longest 12 days of my life! I know, I am a dork, and all you military wives are shaking your heads at my wimpyness. Regardless, Hawaii was so incredible, and I had a great time with my family!






The day that I left for Hawaii was the same day that Jason got in an accident on his scooter. He tried to keep it from me.... that lasted ten minutes. We are still paying off medical bills.





July

Although Jason and I had been married for almost a year and a half at this point, I had never met my brother-in-law Dallin. Jason and I met like RIGHT after he left. He came home from the Belen, Brazil mission in July. I LOVE having him home, and even though I have known him the shortest time, I feel the closest to him. He maketh me laugh!




August

We took the longest plane ride in the world to visit one of the coolest places in the world. AUSTRALIA!!





September

Devon, Jason's youngest brother, and the last to serve a mission, received his mission call. He is called to serve in the Cordoba, Argentina mission!! That's right, the same exact mission that my brother Chris came back from this year! He reported to the MTC last week.




November

JAZZ SEASON!! We got to sit on the VERY front row at one of the Jazz games! And we got to invite my sister Kristen and her husband Josh, which made the experience 100 times even more better for me! Josh made sure that we got a picture of his bald head blocking part of the court so he could prove that he was that close. It was AMAZING!!!





On November 20th my little brother (yeah... the one that just got home from his mission in April) was married to the cutest girl, Leah Michelle Stoker, for time and all eternity in the Bountiful temple. It was a beautiful day!!






We had Thanksgiving at Jason's family's house in California. We had a great time with all of our family, and even got to help decorate the tree before we went home.




December

December went by way too fast! I decorated my home for the first time for Christmas, and I thought it was so cute, but I don't have pictures on my computer yet, so I hope what you imagine is even cuter than it really was. We celebrated Christmas with my family this year, and we had the WHOLE family together. We wore our Christmas pajamas, which we always love, and this year all of the boys got snuggies. Jason played a great Ghost of Christmas Present. We had WAY more fun giving each other our gifts than getting them. This was a fun Christmas!!




The day after Christmas we flew down to San Diego and met Jason's family to go on a 7 night cruise to the Mexican Riviera! I don't have pictures from that yet either. So sad. But we did celebrate New Year's Eve on the cruise, and we had a blast dancing the night away!! (Who am I kidding? We danced like two or three songs and then called it a night while his younger, single siblings danced the night away. We are old, married, boring... I like to call it matured! =)




That concludes our 2009. Let's pretend that it's not February, but more like January 4th so it makes more sense as to why I am posting this. Last year was a great year, but this year has already started out SO MUCH BETTER!! Now all we need is a bun to get in my oven! I have been keeping it warm and I think this might just be the year!!!

I QUIT!!!

Anyone want to hear my little tender mercy story? If you keep reading then I will take that as a yes. So I have been feeling really unsettled for a long time, and I have not been able to figure out why. Some of you may know that Jason and I have been trying to have a baby forever, and it's been over a year and a half since I miscarried, and still no baby. So I have started to do everything that I feel would help prepare me and my body to be able to carry a baby, i.e. eat better (I have been really good on my low-carb diet for two weeks now!), exercise, get enough sleep, but still I couldn't shake my unsettled feelings. I have such a wonderful job and I love it, it just happens to be an extremely high-stress job. I wouldn't consider it negative stress because it's the kind of stress that I like, that motivates me to hit my goals, but regardless it is still stress. So I started wondering if the immense amount of stress that my job provides, as well as taking classes, is having a negative effect on my body. I started contemplating the idea of leaving my position and finding a part-time position, going back to school full-time, and lessening my stress load. At first it was just an thought, but this thought grew and grew in my mind. Jason just finished school and could go to work full-time until we go off for grad school, which means that I really could leave my job if I really wanted to. But did I really want to? I LOVE my position, and it is the best paying position that I am sure I will ever have. I was in turmoil over this decision. I couldn't recognize answers, I was totally confused and hot and cold, I just could not decide what I should do. I finally decided to turn in my two weeks, and I did it, but then corporate stepped in and gave me a counter-offer that seemed idiotic to turn down. Then I was back to my distress. I went for days trying to make a decision and my emotions were all over the place. One early afternoon I talked to my boss for awhile and left feeling even more confused. I went out to my car and called Jason and just sobbed to him. He said some things that made me feel better and see things differently, and I hung up and prayed. I felt the best, most warming sense of peace about leaving the company and showing the Lord that I was going to do everything on my part to help my body be ready, that way if it still doesn't happen then I know that it is the Lord's plans, and then we can confidently turn to other options. I felt so good about my answer that they could have offered me any amount to stay and I wouldn't have. I took a deep breath, dried my eyes and went back inside. I sat down at my desk and said to myself, "okay, now I need to find a part time job." I pulled up craigslist and all of the jobs were for sales, telemarketing, or customer service $8-$10 an hour jobs that I could not imagine going back to. It made me cringe to think about that (not that those jobs are bad, I just don't think it would lower my stress levels). So I refreshed the page and a new one popped up for an office manager/admissions part time! I called right away and she explained the position to me (it was made for me!!!) We set up a time to meet that night! There was probably ten minutes in between the time that I had called Jason bawling, and called him completely ecstatic. We met that night and she offered me the position right then! I just couldn't believe how incredibly blessed I was. As soon as I had made my decision and received an answer, the Lord was like "okay, here you go." I am so so grateful.

So now we only had to worry about Jason finding a good full-time job. It started out rough and he interviewed with a lot of places, but it has paid off. He interviewed for a position with Stevens-Henegar to go meet with businesses and build relationships, (something that he would be perfect at) and he made it into their top ten candidates. On Friday they said that he was in their top three candidates and interviewed him again, and then this morning they offered him the position! We are taken care of and extremely blessed. So that's my tender mercy story and my testimony that once you give up your fears and trust the Lord, He makes things happen. My last day of work is February 8th because they won't let me go any sooner, and I'll start my new job on the 9th. Jason starts his this Wednesday!

I am an OLD WOMAN!!

Today I celebrated my 26 birthday. My entire family went down to Richfield to my sister's house and it was a BLAST! Last night we had dinner and played games, then had cake and ice cream at midnight. We all slept over, and all 22 people came singing into my room this morning with breakfast in bed! How cool is my family? We went up into the beautiful mountains and the boys had a big air soft gun fight. It was so fun to watch, but my age has caught up with me, and I couldn't run around like I used to! Everyone kept commenting all day about how old I was!! I am only 26; I didn't think that I was that old. Several people also commented that my old age was really starting to show. I don't know, what do you all think? Here is me with my birthday cake last night....

The Monster in My Mouth!

There was a certain something that Jason has been wanting for awhile, and I decided that I would get it for him for Christmas. A few weeks ago we were at Costco and it was on sale, but the rebate was ending that day, so we decided to just go ahead and buy it then instead of waiting until Christmas. He was so excited about it, and as soon as we got home he ran in our bathroom and plugged it in to charge. There were two of them, one for each of us, and we had to wait for 24 hours for them to charge, so we didn't get to use them until the following night. When it was time, Jason came in and handed my mine, and he had his in his hand. We smiled at each other, then proceeded to stick the machine into our mouths. I turned mine on and felt like I had stuck a tazer gun in my mouth! I immediately took it back out! It was the most awful feeling! The machine vibrated and tickled every part of my mouth. I HATED IT!!! I wanted to throw the stupid machine away right then and there! I made it through the full two minutes with tears practically streaming down my cheeks. Jason looked at me in a way that said "I don't even have to tell you how big of a baby you are being. Get over it. It's a friggin toothbrush!" I felt like a four year old who was being forced to do something that was scary and uncomfortable. Brushing my teeth has never been so traumatizing! I could hardly sleep knowing that I was going to have to get up soon and do it again! That was no toothbrush... That was a MONSTER!!!



You all might be happy to know that since then I have grown to love my new sonicare toothbrush. I no longer recoil before brushing my teeth, and I have even grown to enjoy it! This isn't much of a post, but it is what was on my mind when I sat down just now. Congratulations to you all for getting to read my weirdness.

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!