A Challenge

I follow the Scrap Matters blog and I've been wanting to participate in some of their challenges and speed scraps but have always missed them or thought I wasn't good enough. But, I've been playing around quite a bit and I think I'm getting okay at it.

This challenge was making your pictures into shapes. I also made a tree then decorated it. I don't think I've ever used one kit on one page. It's always a whole bunch of stuff from a whole bunch of kits, but this time I stayed with one.

The kit I used is a collab kit by WM [Squared] Designs and Digi Keepsakes. It's called "Retro Spring".

Take a look!

Only problem is I don't know how to submit it. Do you know how?

I Have Been Waiting For This Day My Whole Life

I am so excited. I'm saving my pennies for a Camera, but I'm so tempted to go get this TODAY.

Pace Yourself Whit

Lately

Lately I have been more busy during school than I have ever been before. I'm taking 6 classes that add up to 13 credits. Not a ton, right? Then each class has groups or outside projects. I have never had EVERY single class having out of class things. Here is a breakdown of the classes and what's going on:

Aerobic Fitness Techniques: Mon, Wed 8-9:30 plus 10 out of class teaching times and 5 in class teaching times. This class is a lot of fun. I can get certified through AFAA to be an Aerobics instructor. I'm planning on doing it, I just don't know where in the heck I'll teach. I think it would be a fun job to do a few times a week. I have always been very much into fitness. I think it started in Jr. High when I started playing sports all year round. Then starting my Freshman year in High School, even though I was playing sports year round I started exercising on the side as well. I've always been very health conscious which is why I wanted to be a nutritionist (not going to happen because I'm in Rexburg forever, unless someday I try to do it online). My major is Health Science and I have a cluster (2 clusters is the same as a minor) in Exercise Science. I absolutly love what I am learning. I really don't like the stressful process of being tested on it, but I love knowing it! Anywho - this class is tyring when you do nothing but aerobicize for an hour and a half in the morning (and then I have a dance class that same day), but I really enjoy it. I have 3 teaching things done (teaching a class how to use medicine balls, and then two classes how to spin(cycle)).

Adolescent Development: Mon, Wed. 9:45-11:15. Getting to this class is a little challenging at times because I have 15 minutes to change out of exercise clothes, into normal clothes, then haul myself to another building and up 3 flights of stairs. So, I'm usually there within a minute of being late or on time. Oh, and I'm sweaty, so it's gross. Oh, and I'm hungry, so I'm constantly eating within 15 minutes of sitting down and drinking my entire bottle of water. The second I get out of that class at 11:15 I go to lunch because I'm STARVING. I'm always so hungry. Exercising like a crazy person really makes me hungry. Adolescence... it's probably my most structured class. Before every class I have to have read the assigned chapter, taken a quiz on it 3 times, and then responded to a case study that we will be discussing that day and then writing up something else that was assigned. It takes up quite a bit of time, but I always get it done. I wish each of my classes were as structured and laid out as this one. My one complaint? That the teach would make a study guide before tests, because there is none. Just 4 chapters that are at least 30 pages each that I need to know.... blah. Each chapter is really interesting and the discussions during class are even better. I still feel like an adolescent, but I'm technically not... the nice thing about it being just a few years ago is that as we discuss all these theories and things about teens I can understand. This class goes towards my second cluster in Child Development.

Jazz Dance: Mon, Wed. 12:45-1:45. I picked this class up when my Sports Nutrition class (to be mentioned next) was moved to a later time and forced me to drop a soccer class. I had planned to take the Soccer class with one of my friends, but then Sp. Nutrition was moved from the morning to 2-3 which would be the second hour of soccer and make it impossible for me to attend. I would rather be taking the soccer class, but I am enjoying this dance class. I took dance classes when I was younger then danced on my Jr. High's and High Schools dance team for years. But this is a technical class and I am learning terms and things I didn't know before. I have to wear a leotard (yuck) and anything I wear over that (pants, capri's, shirts) have to be tight. The room we dance in is full of mirrors and I really don't enjoy that. If I could wear more comfortable clothes I don't think I would be as bothered by my reflection as I am (go ahead, roll your eyes.. but it bothers me). It's rediculous, but because of this, I don't enjoy the class as much as I should. We have learned two warm up routines and are learning our first dance routine. I really like the dance we are learning and have been practicing at home every night. I make Jaren turn the TV off and I play the Avril Laviegn song over and over and over while I do the first 4 8 counts we've learned. And for some amazing reason, he doesn't seem to mind, he just picks up his Bourne Supremacy book and reads. :) Every once in a while looking up and smiles and says, "that's good" and "your so cute". I think he loves me. We have to get into groups and make up our own dance routine on our own time before the semester ends.... I don't even know who is in my goup because she does not let us talk and does not give us time to figure it out.

Sports Nutrition: Mon, Wed, Fri, 2-3. Again, I have 15 minutes to change out of my leotard, into my normal clothes and then book it to the same building as my Adolescents class and the classrooms are right next door, so up the three flights of stairs and I get there a minute or two early each time. I sit down, am sweaty (gross again) and am also starving again so I eat AGAIN. Amazing I'm not gaining weight. Nutrition is the only class that came naturally to me. I got A's on every test and of course, ended up with an A in the class. So, I thought Sports Nutrition would be similar. NOPE. It's quite a bit harder and the class is not as structured/planned out as my first Nutrition class. The stuff I'm learning is interesting, just a bit hard to comprehend at at times. So, this class stresses me out at times. Oh, and we have to train someone outside of class.

Mondays after Sports Nutritoin: For an hour I volunteer(for a class) in the Wellness Center (the place where we do fitness assessments and do body comp (how you find out how much percent fat your body has)). The hour goes by really fast and I really enjoy working in this type of environment.

Fitness Appraisal and Presentation: Tues, Thurs. 8-9:30. Love this class. We have to train someone who needs to loose weight, and that wont be so bad. It's hard to describe everything we are learning because it's basically everything about assessing someone who needs to loose weight. It is this class that I volunteer in the welleness center for. It's taught by the same teach that taught my Kinesiology class last semeter that caused me so much turmoil. The class is infitily easier, but just as intersting and beneficial.

Exercise Physiology Lab: Thurs, 12:45-2:45. This class goes with the Exercise Phys class I took last summer.... quite a bit of the stuff we do in there follows along perfectly with the stuff the Exercise Phys class is learning. Only, I don't have the book and it's been quite a while since I've gone over it so I am getting reintroduced to quite a bit. Each class time we do some sort of testing to see a desired result. Here's an example: this week we had two subjects cycle on an Ergometor(cycling machine) whith a huge tube hooked up to their mouth. They cycled twice with rest inebetween at two different intensities. We wanted to see their EPOC (aka. Oxygen Debt. The heavy breathing that happens after you exercise. That happens because your body is trying to replenish the oxygen stores and is replenishing glucose stores and getting rid of the lactate as well). Next class we are doing hydrostatic weighing. Where you get in a pool and are weighed under water to get an accurate measurement of percent body fat. I'm one of the subjects for this and I hear it's extremely uncomfortable because you have to completely clear your lungs from air before you go under. I'm not sure how long you have to be under water for, but I guess you think your going to die. haha.... sounds so exciting. I am excited to get an accurate measurement of my body comp, though. What I've learned it is in the wellness center is great. It's a lot lower than I thought so I'm all sorts of feeling good about myself. I just hope the hydrostatic (that is more accurate that the body caliper) is consistent or better than the results I already have. We have to write lab write ups with groups out of class. So, theres the out of class thing for this class.

There's my 6 classes and what's going on. Monday through Thursday is exhausting. I'm busy all day and up at 6 every morning. By the time Thursday night comes around I'm so relieved to have made it through another week. I get to sleep in, or kind of sleep in since my body wakes me up at 7 anyway. I'm really trying to focus on not getting overwhelemed this semester, but it's hard.

I had two of the three cavities that needed to be filled filled Wednesday. I was so nervous I about cried talking to my Dentist about the whole thing. He understood and talked me through the whole thing, told me exactly what was going on which I apprecaited grately. The only problem, besides smelling my teeth dust and hearing that horrible grinding sound was that both were in the backs of my mouth so I had to open super wide. When I had my wisdom teeth pulled I was put under and one of them was way up high so they opened my mouth much too wide and sprained my jaw. That was almost 5 years ago and my jaw still get's sore every so often. So, having to open wider than is even remotly comfortable took it's toll and my jaw is feeling bruised and sore. Chewing cereal was really painful and I didn't get a whole lot down two mornings later. But, I will say that I am so impressed because I think he re-did one of my previous 9 and the one he did was still sensitive to cold. But I had ice cream last night and chewed it! I chewed it!! I haven't done that in two years! And it didn't bother me ONE bit. He fixed one of my teeth! I'm really happy about that. He also fixed my bite since it was off so this was a MUCH MUCH better experience than last time. He wants to fix one more tooth and we scheduled that for Tuesday morning. Hopefully it will be as good as this last one and hopefully it's much closer towards the front so I'm not opening wider than is natural.

Jaren has had a horrible cold for the last week. He is finally sounding better and feeling better. I've been scared to death to get it because of my crazy busy schedule and how much exercising I have to do. I just can't get sick this semester!! But, low and behold last night I started to cough. Today I feel just a little tired and my throat is just a little sore, but for the most part, besides the horrible racking cough, I feel okay. I hope it's not as bad as Jarens. Maybe because I'm exercising a whole lot I'm okay. We'll see.....

Oh, and my house accumulates horrible messes throught the whole week till Friday when I can finally do dishes and now I'm spending all day doing laundry and cleaning. UHG. And I think it's going to be like this this whole semester. I'm going to be SO GLAD when I'm finished. 2 months and 3 days to go.

So Proud

I just learned how to drop shadows. So I redid all of the pages I've done so far and then did a new one this morning. I flipped through my photos and found this one. I miss my sister, Lindsey so I was drawn to this photo and am so proud with what I came up with :D



Now I just need to figure out how to do/get different fonts.

The Best Compliment Ever

Today I was teaching a Fit for Life class how to exercise using medicine balls. After wards when I walked into the locker room one of the girls from the class came up to me and said this:

"Thanks, you did a great job. And you have great eye brows."

Only one other time do I remember a compliment given to me directed at my eye brows. I was 17 and leading the music in Young Women and one of the Beehives told me they loved my eye brows. I've always remembered that. I try particularly hard to groom my babies because if I don't, they get out of control. You can blame the genes from my father.

I've only ever had them waxed two times in my life. Let's take a look, shall we?

Ignore the strange behavior and check out the eye brows. I will admit, my eye brow self esteem is normally very low, but as of today has been boosted considerably. For some reason, Kodak doesn't seem to think I have red eye in this picture and wouldn't let me correct it. Oh well, that's not the focus of this image anyway. It's the brows.

I hope everyone is doing well, I'm sorry I've been so absent. This semester is so crazy busy. I look forward to graduating soon and having the time to travel and blog and read and scrapbook and clean and cook and do laundry and fold and iron and do whatever I want. I'll be back, I promise!

Countdown to Graduation

2 months and 18 days till I walk the plank

Current Musical Obsessions

For those of you who do not know - I love music. I'm somewhat of an addict. I have a HUGE CD case that got stolen, but I got lucky and got it back. I mean, I have hundreds of CD's and I really haven't bought more than 5 hard copies in the last 2 years. But, I have bought quite a few online.

Thanks to blogging friends I was introduced to a music site that sells .15 cent songs. AMAZING. If you would like the address, ask and I'll send it to you.

But, I also have XM in my vehicle so I hear a lot of stuff the radio doesn't play.

I now have two (still three, really) voice lovers. I love their voices. I told my husband that I had a few other loves and they were voices he laughed.

I was going to embed a video for each artist, but you tube decided to get stuck up and took off their embedding link. So, instead I'll give a list of awesome songs and link them. If you listen to any of them listen to the first one. You wont be disappointed.


Numbero Uno

Kings of Leon
Use Somebody
Closer
Sex Is On Fire (don't be alarmed by the name of the song, it's not dirty)
On Call

Numero Dose

Interpol (they are really good live)
Slow Hands
Evil
Take You On A Cruise

Numero Tres

Muse
I'm going to let you go on You Tube and search these guys because I like every single song they've ever done. Their music is amazing, but the lead singer's voice isn't as good as these other two. But I like it all the same.

If you have any good music you'd like to share, I'll check it out. Let me know in the comments!

Just A Little Upset

Just a little... or a lottle? I can't decide.

I've been wanting to share the story about my teeth for a while, but just have never done it. Well, after going to the dentist today I'll share and then you might be able to understand why I'm feeling the way I'm feeling.

I went to the dentist on April 4th, two days before I got married in 2007. I was still under my parent's insurance and my mom worked for the school district so dental was super cheap. I knew I had needed to go before I got married for months, but put it off. It's my own fault.

I asked Jaren who I should go to and he recommended Dr. W, who he has gone to since he was little and when I couldn't get an appointment as soon as I needed to he recommended Dr. A. I went, had X-ray's, he found one cavity - I was bummed. He told me that I should come back in after we got back from our honeymoon, that I would be fine as long as I came in in the next month.

3 weeks after we were married and I had started school and we were somewhat settled I made an appointment with Dr. W. He decided he wanted his own X-ray's (understandable). With these X-rays that had just been taken 3 weeks after my one cavity other X-rays he found 9 cavities. Count 'em, NINE. I was floored. I was panicking inside and trying so hard not to show it on the outside. NINE CAVITIES!?!!!!! Where did they come from?! I had had ONE three weeks before and one since I lost all my baby teeth.

My thoughts automatically turned to money. We had insurance but like most insurances, did not cover dental. I told Dr. W, I needed to ask my husband, because he was ready to start filling them right then. I was concentrating on not crying, so I sent Jaren a text instead of calling because if I talked to him I knew I would start to bawl. He said to get them filled.

I was given two options, fill all 9 right there, or do half now and half later. I chose to do half then and half later. I picked the porcelien because with nine cavities I knew my mouth would look made out of metal when they were done if I had chosen the metal fillings.

I was surprised at how quickly he filled 4 of them. He was a little violent with my mouth, but, he was a pretty big guy and he was drilling and jostling, it was to be expected. Right?

3 days later I went in again to get the other 5 filled. I was having so much sensetivity with the other 4, but I thought that was normal. I told Dr. W about it and he looked at them and said, "They are probably too high" so he drilled them down. He filled the other 5 and sent me on my way.

My bite was different, my mouth was killing me and to top it all off we were planning on getting me a lap top, but with this turn of events, we got me 9 white fillings instead. I was bummed.

I was told that my mouth should go back to normal a few days later. So I waited..... and waited.... and waited..... my mouth hurt and hurt. I couldn't drink anything that wasn't a teeny bit warmer than room tempurature. Or eat anything that wasn't the same temperature and it could not be harder than a hot dog.

I would wake up in the middle of the night with my mouth aching and my head killing me. My jaw would hurt horribly, too. I went in again and he thought they were still high... so he drilled them down some more.. by this time my teeth had no shape to the tops of them, they were just little bowls. One was even so sharp I couldn't run my tounge across it. I was given Valium and told to take it before bed because he thought my jaw was clenching and I was grinding my teeth.

The first night I took Valium was interesting to say the least. I took one pill - they are teeny by they way - and in 30 minutes I couldn't move. My entire body had seemed to loose it's ability to use my muscles. Jaren had to carry me to bed.

Waking up was weird, too. I was groggy and still lacked some motor capabilities. I decided I wasn't taking it every night and when I did I was cutting the pill in half. When I would take the half a pill I could at least walk and move around. It was still really hard and I didn't have a lot of strength but Jaren just had to walk me to bed - not carry me.

A month went by and I was still drinking warm water through a straw. And the water could NOT touch my teeth or I would start to cry - it hurt so horribly bad. I ate hot dogs and soup. The kind of soup you drink. I ate tons of rice a roni and mac and cheese. Bread hurt because the second it touched my teeth it was too cold. I tried to eat a chewy granola bar and about died. And when I went into Dr. W again telling him it hasn't gotten better - it feels even worse he mentioned that I might have to get root canals. I wanted to scream.

Instead he just ground them down some more.

Another month went by and I had lost a few pounds. I was still waking up with my jaw hurting and I was constantly starving. I started to take Motrin. A lot of it. I didn't realize that I was taking too much because I was in such pain. I took anywhere from 10-14 in a day. It helped a lot, though. My head aches went away when I took it and my jaw stopped aching. It even hurt to breath AIR. If I walked outside and the air was too cold it stung my teeth.

One day, my mom was at my Grandma's for I think Father's Day and my Uncle Charlie was there who is a dentist. She mentioned about how sensitive my teeth were after 2 months of having them worked on. This perked my uncle right up and he started asking questions. He told her that it should never be like that, that something was wrong. He told her to have me call him -so I did. Right away. I told him what had happened and how I was feeling, he told me that as soon as I could get to Spokane he would take a look and fix me. I finally felt like maybe I wasn't going to have to live off of drinkable soup for the rest of my life.

I don't know how to explain how those 3 months were for me..... I was always hungry, I weighed less than I had in 7 years. I was constantly getting "stung" by something too hot or too cold and I would cry because it hurt so bad. I had horrible head aches and my jaw hurt all the time. I would get really sick and I didn't know why. I even went to the doctor trying to figure out what was wrong. I told him I was taking like 12 Motrin a day and he just nodded and said, "MMM, hmm.." He thought I had IBS. So he gave me some pills. I was really tired of taking pills, by the way.

I took the IBS pills once and thought I was going to throw up for 3 full hours. I never took them again. I knew it wasn't IBS. I was pretty sure it was because of the Motrin. But I was in so much pain that I kept taking it. Finally I had a pretty bad scare where I got really really sick and I was freaking out.

I was crying hysterically and Jaren grabbed the computer and started looking up side effects of the birth control I was taking and Motrin. Sure enough he listed off the adverse side effects of Motrin and I had about all of them. I stopped taking it immediatley and have maybe taken 4 pills since.

In August I finally made it to Spokane. My uncle looked at the X-Rays I had sent to him and then looked at my teeth. He kept saying how horrible they looked and how sorry he was for me. It was his day off and he came in just to find out what was wrong. He and a guy that was buying his practice had come in just for me.

I laid there for 6 hours with my mouth pried open and hands in drilling on my teeth. I had had so much numbing things I couldn't feel my face or my ears. My uncle chipped out every single peice of filling and found holes in the fillings and under them my teeth were rotting. He found teeny cavities that Dr. W had drilled around and made huge. He took his time on each tooth and shaped them so they had the grooves of my real teeth. He and the other Dentist skipped lunch to keep working on me. I could hear both of their stomach's growling and I was grateful for them and that I shoved a huge hamburger down my throat before I had come in. Just in case.

Just 5 days after that I was able to eat a carrot. A carrot!! Oh, no one realizes how nice it was. I could only chew it with my front teeth and I had to let it get a little warm, but I was still able to eat it! I could tell a difference immediatly. I healed quite steadily over the next 4 or 5 months. Slowly I was able to eat a sandwhich, and at my 2 month mark I was able to eat a salad. No one knows how much they take their teeth for granted until they cant eat because of them.

I am forever grateful to my Uncle for taking an entire day to hunch over my mouth and fix every little centemeter of my teeth. How do you thank someone for something like that? He's a saint.

So, needless to say after all of that I have not been too excited about going to the dentist again. But I went in July of last year to Dr. L. He was very nice and said my Uncle did a very good job. He has no idea. (well... maybe he does... but really......) He said there was one tooth, (the one that caused me the most pain and was the hardest for my Uncle C. to fix) that was going to need to be watched. It was the same tooth my Uncle said might need a Root Canal someday. Dangit.

But I left there with no new cavities and I felt better. I floss and brush my teeth like no other now. I've learned my lesson and I hope you have also learned my lesson.

But. Here's the upsetting part. The last 2 months I have had 2 incidences where I have eaten something sweet and the one troublesome tooth has hurt. A feeling of dread went through me both times, but then I just continued to eat my mini Snickers and it didn't hurt again.

Today was my second Dentist appointment since my Uncle fixed me. Dr. L poked and prodded at a few of my teeth and only one hurt. The one that was sensetive while eating mini Snickers and a gummy bear. He didn't sound quite like it needed to be filled, but then as I was leaving the dental assistant said, "Alright, do you want me to schedule you a date?" I'm thinking.... in 6 months for my next appointment?? Getting aheald of ourselves, aren't we? So I asked, "For what?" She said, "To fill your cavities." Me: "I HAVE CAVITIES?!?!!!!!!!" She got a little uncomfortable and said, "Yeah... like, 2.. or 3.... or 4 or something, I'm not sure..." OH. MY. STARS. AND. GUARDERS. Again, do not cry... do NOT cry! So I didn't, and I told her that I would give them a call to schedule a time later.

I called Jaren and told him and he just apologized and said sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I cried and I'm feeling so.... sad about it. I can't understand how so quickly I went from one cavity in like 10 years to all the sudden almost my whole mouth needs to be replaced. My experience was so horrible that I just dread the dentist and I'm scared to death of having cavities for fear of a root canal or a repeat of the past. I can finally drink ice water again!! After a year and a half I can drink ice in water - but it's still a little uncomfortable. I'm sure that I wont have a repeat of what happened in '07, but I'm still scared and scarred over it. When I go back in I'm going to ask that only the one that hurt when he poked it get filled. If it's not hurting me, then I'm sure I'm fine. I take care of my mouth so I should be able to keep the others at bay for a while, right?

It just feels like a nightmare I can't get out of. This isn't even the first bad mouth experience. Wait till I tell you all about my wisdom teeth.

My First Digital Scrap

I had no idea you could even do this on your computer until I met my friend, Victoria.

She told me about how amazing it was and how real digital scrapbooking looked. Before this I would sit for hours trying to work on one page by cutting, positioning, then re-cutting and finally taping, then not being super satisfied, but being too tired to deal with it and it never get's fixed.

The problem was I didn't have any software and didn't know what to get. I looked around and then I realized that one of my bloggy friend's blog has amazing scrapping.

Why don't I ask her?! So I did, I asked Brigitte what software she used. She was so kind to send me an email explaining what she used, so I downloaded a free 30 day trial.

It took FOREVER to download and I once I had it open I had no idea what the heck I was doing. I tried to figure it out but just got super frustrated. After a few frantic e-mails to Brigitte she told me about tutorials at Shabby Princess where I download all of my elements. I read one of them and figured it out.

Feast your eyes my friends!!! I can now digiscrap!





I stopped when I had everything in place. Tomorrow I will figure out how to add shadow's and whatever the finishing touches are. But for now.. I'm pooped.

(I'm trying to decide if I should add "learn how to digiscrap" to my new years resolutions since I just accomplished it. That would sure boost my self esteem to have already finished so mething)

2009 Resolutions

Most years I don't even make any because I'm pretty sure I wont keep them. But this year is different.

I'm makin some and keepin 'em.

Here are some of my 2009 resolutions

• Exercise at least 3 days a week - preferably more than that, but I'm being realistic.
• Iron all of Jaren's church shirts - because i don't think i've had all of them ironed at one time for all of 2008
• Read my scriptures every day - i was soo good at this from ages 14 to 20 then i got married and my routines changed.
• Have a baby before December 31st - i think i can i think i can
• clean bathrooms once a week - again, a routine i need to invent and get into the habit of keeping
  

A few of these will be easy and the rest will take some effort. I should take it a week at a time and not think of a whole year of exercising 3 - 5 days a week, cleaning bathrooms 4 times a month and ironing shirts all the time.

I think I can, I think I can!

Christmas Vacation in Pictures

I have a ton of pictures from my Washington Christmas vaycay and a few from New Years.

I had a really good time with my family. I'm so glad we made that Seattle flight. It was so nice to be home for a few days, to see family and friends.

There will be commentary with these pictures.
I've always said that I want a boy first. Then I met this little girl. She is so happy all of the time (unless she's tired or is done eating and you wont take her out of her high chair). She babbles and talks and after a few days of telling her my name is "Whitney" she called me "kitty" which is close enough for me :)
She would stand up and squat down over and over on this stool. Then pick it up and carry it around, then get back up on it and stand up and squat. Very cute. Very funny.
We visited the dairy and found this escapee! Of course she runs right to the food. I would have done the same thing.
Nathan drank the dairy water and sprouted this crazy mustache
Stephanie, me and Vicki and Josh at our Milk Processing Plant. I helped build this thing and it was dirty.
Baby Conner. Due to pop on out of there in less than 2 months. I felt him move a lot. In fact, I would find him and then push on him and he would move away. It was a fun game. He might hate me when he comes out, but his daddy does it too, so I feel pretty safe.
Apparently we don't know how to make a "weird face".
We are posing in our new pajamas. They are wonderful. They are soft and silky and are lined with silk... Victoria's Secret sure does know how to make em. Lena is the only one missing. Her belly is as small as Stephanie's, but her baby wants to come out already. So she's on bed rest and couldn't come - we missed them.
My mommy and daddy
My Grandma and Grandpa
My Daddy
At the Christmas Eve program. All of the Regalado's with Lisa and Lindsey.
Grandpa loves to lead and whistle to the music. He would do this during sacrament, too. I loved to turn around and watch him lead :) Whenever he hums or leads on his own without any music he always always hums, "We Thank Thee O God For A Prophet". And he calls everyone Brother Gilbert or Pancho.
Lindsey looks very cute in this picture
This is Josh laying on Claire. She didn't cry or scream. Just made a very uncomfortable whine. I think she's a little used to this. It was so funny.
Lindsey and Vicki and half of my face
Check out her Christmas Eve outfit! The boots were adorable. She is one of the best dressed babies I've ever seen. I take it back - the best dressed baby.
We were on our way to the Christmas Eve party. I love Jaren's eyes..... I hope our children get them
"Josh, what do Reindeer look like?"
Those boots
So excited for Santa! Josh says, "Not everyone puts out hay for the reindeer"
With Grandpa putting out the hay for the Reindeer to eat.
She's adorable!
Jaren and I at our Christmas at his parents house.
Three of my Young Women girls at the New Years Eve dance I had to Chaperone. They wandered around till they found me. Hannah, the girl on the left said she knew it was me from far away because I was talking with my hands..... If you know me, it's funny because it's true.

Celeste and Kimball came to keep us company for a while at the dance. We ended up being basically road blocks so kids couldn't go make out at the far corners of the building.
Jaren and Kimball. Jaren saw this picture, laughed and said, "Yep! That's us."

I'll Take A Vow

to never take a baby into a movie

until they are old enough to be able to pay attention to the movie - how old is that anyway?

I took Jaren to Twilight and there was a screaming baby throughout at least a fourth of the movie. Did the mom take it outside so as not to bug the people who payed 3 bucks to enjoy the movie? Nope. It was then that I officially vowed to never take a baby to a movie. I will find a sitter or wait to rent.

Happy New Year!

Then and Now: Christmas Edition

I am back in Idaho. Getting here went smooth and we didn't miss any flights. Read the post before this to hear a horrifying travel story. Jaren actually laughed about it today while we were in the air port in Salt Lake. I didn't. I'm still a bit traumatized, I think. :)


Christmas went very well. It was so very nice to spend time with everyone. We missed my brother Kevin, his wife Lena and their little spitfire, Isak.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas and is still enjoying the spirit of it.


I was on facebook last week and saw that my sister, Lindsey had posted a picture from Christmas 2005 as her profile picture. I took a look and couldn't believe what I saw.

Feast your eyes, my friends.

That's right. Horrifying! I had just lost most (but, as you can see, not all) of my freshman 20. The look on my face is horrifying and really confusing - I don't quite understand it. And the double chin? Ehhh. Lindsey, though..... I think she was mad cause she just got plastic for Christmas and I got a game.

So she had to recreate the picture this year.

It took a few tries and I still don't think I can make that face again consciously. I hope my subconscious has forgotten all together. But Linds, she has the glaring thing down pretty well. I see it a lot, actually.

I am now going to come back into the blogging world! woohoo!

Never Again - Christmas Travel

I am in Washington with my family for Christmas. It's so nice to be with everyone (except Kevin and Lena and Isak, and fetus that has put mommy on bedrest so they couldn't be here - we all miss you).

Oh, but getting here. Getting here has given both Jaren and I migrains. His worse than mine :)

We got to Idaho Falls to fly out at 1 p.m. early and sat and waited... waited... found out our plane was delayed 20 minutes.

Okay, that's not too bad. We have an hour layover in Salt Lake, now we have a 40 minute one, we'll still make our flight.

So we wait, wait, 1:20 comes and goes, now the flight is delayed till 1:50

I start to panick a little, we might miss our flight. We go check with the lady at the counter and our flight to Tri Cities is delayed 40 minutes.

Few! We'll still make it.

So we wait.. wait... 1:50 comes and the plane barely arrives. It takes 30 minutes to get people out, feuled up, lugage unloaded and loaded, then us loaded. By the time we get into the plane I'm quite worried. I tell Jaren he had better be ready to sprint and cut people off.

We land, we are out after everyone else infront of us which drove me crazy. As soon as we get off the ramp I take off. I was a good 15 feet infront of Jaren, we get to our gate to see that our flight is delayed till 4:30.

Oh! Well... that's okay. Just means Lindsey (my sister) will have to wait in Tri Cities a little longer to pick us up.

At this time it's just after 3:00 p.m. and I'm hungry so we walk up, get $9 sandwiches (ouch) and eat. Then go back downstairs to wait. We are sitting by the smoking room, they were the only two seats available in the entire terminal. We sit, I read, Jaren looks at the screen and the time has changed. Our flight has been delayed, again, till 5:30.

Blah! It's 4:00 right now. Better call Linds and tell her it's off another hour.

So I do. She's okay with it because it gives her more time to shop at the mall there. But there were so many people in that room that it was really starting to smell. And I don't do well with smoke, so we decide to go for a walk. We get up, and walk for a while just around the airport to different terminals. It's 4:50 now and we decide to sit at these chairs just by the stairs that lead down to our terminal. We are sitting infront of a flight schedule screen and are watching. We get up about 10-15 minutes later, so just after 5 to go down to board our plane or see if it's delayed again. We go down the stairs and look at the flight board. Our flight is GONE.

From the 45 seconds it took us to leave the chairs and get downstairs and look at the other flight screen they have taken the flight OFF. So I feel my stomach clench and we run to the gate.

NO ONE is there. Half the room is empty when an hour before it was PACKED. No worker at the gate. But there is one at the gate next to it.

Mind you, I am FREAKING OUT. Seriously panicking. I don't care that there is a line. I ask her, "WHERE IS THAT FLIGHT????" "WHERE IS IT?!" "It was supposed to leave at 5:30!!!!!"

She tells me that she doesn't know, but if I went to the service desk they could tell me. I think I remember mumbling something not so nice to the lady (I mean... she didn't deserve it, but who else was I going to yell at?!)

We run, again, to the service desk. There's a line of about 15-20 people waiting. I could care less. I walk up to the edge, ask the people who were being helped if I can ask this lady a question, they say yes (because I'm sure I looked wild and ferocious). So, I turn on the lady, "Where is flight 4720?!" "It was supposed to leave at 5:30 - no one is there! Is the plane out there? Can they hold it? Can i just run out there and flag it down?"

I really did ask these questions.

She typed in the flight number and said, "No, they flew out at 5:06"

"WHAT?!!!" Panicking, panicking... freaking out. what?! calm down... no... i can't, we missed our flight, WE MISSED OUR FLIGHT!!!!!!!!!!

She makes a phone call and I hear this, "We have another one. No. Look, something went wrong here. No, hey, I'm not pointing fingers but we have a problem."

She tells me that she will help me as soon as she takes care of the people that she was currently helping. I say ok and stand there. Sure, everyone in line looked like, if the air port allowed guns they would pull them out and bust a cap in our heads. I did not care. Not one bit. I was so worked up.

Then, the family that was also being helped next to the ladies that let us in tells us that they are also trying to get to Pasco. They have been in Salt Lake, for two days. And the only flight they can get on is on Christmas day.

Two days. Christmas. Two days. Christmas. No.... no... no no no no NO! We can't leave until CRHISTMAS?!

So, I can't help it. With like, 30 people shooting daggers into us, I start crying. I'm sure everyone thinks I'm being dramatic. but NO. I CANNOT miss this Christmas! Esepecailly the Christmas Eve party at my Grandma's that happens every year. My Grandma is very very sick and I HAVE to be there! So.. I cry and try to stop. But I can't. I think I set off some water works because the girl that was being helped right next to me starts crying and is saying, "My babies, my babies, I need to see my babies!" When 30 seconds ago she was fine. The helper lady splits up the mom and daughter to get the daughter to Arizona tonight. The mom will come on Christmas, she just wants to get her daughter to her babies.

Then the helper lady says, "Okay, I can help you now." So we start to step up to the counter and the guy that was next in line walks up infront of us and the helper lady says, "No, sir, they were waiting." He is MAD. Looks so mad and annoyed and backs up and glares at us. I didn't look.. I didn't look at the line, I knew they all wanted to throw us out to get run over by a plane. Did I care that I cutted? NO. We just got hosed by Delta. I don't care.

She brings up flights. Christmas night is when we can get into Pasco... no.... There's nothing going to Spokane. She asks if we want to split up. One of us could get to Pasco tonight and one of us would have to wait till Christmas. I look at Jaren and there's no way. No way we could be split up. So we say no. I wish that we could just share a seat. I mean the flight is just an hour and 50 minutes, it wouldn't be too bad. Stupid saftey regulations.

Then Jaren asks about Seattle. Seattle was closed the day before but has been taking flights all day now. She says there are two seats to seattle tonight, we would get in at 8:45. I grab my phone, call my mom, tell her that someone needs to get to seattle (3 hours away) to get us. She calls my dad, arrangments are made, and we are on that flight. Unfortunatly the only seats available are first class. Oh man, that's too bad. I guess i'll take those complimentary tickets. That was the only thing I was excited about.

1st class... never been in first class before.... hmmm....... they have big seats. that will be nice.

We take the tickets, go to the gate and sit there and wait for 2 1/2 hours. Neither of us gets more than 20 feet from that gate. We have learned our lesson.

About an hour before our flight was supposed to take off Jaren got nervous and wanted to make sure that the tickets we had were not standby, that they, were in fact, real tickets for real seats - just for us.

He goes to the desk and asks the lady. This is their conversation
Jaren: I just wanted to make sure these are not standby tickets.
Lady: (looks at the tickets) Nope, these are real tickets.
(loos at them a little further)
Lady: wait, your not supposed to have these
Jaren: (with a huge knot in his stomache and blood boiling) Be that as it may, we HAVE them and we are going to Seattle tonight.
Lady: (still looking at the tickets) Sky west was not supposed to do this. They do not have authority to do this. (getting worked up)
Jaren: They did because you guys screwed us
Lady: Hey, a lot of people today here are getting screwed.
Jaren: No, not like this. They had the time our flight was going to leave, then left without announcing it or changing the time on the board. So we missed it.
Lady: (softening up) Oh.... okay. Here you go (hands him the tickets)
Jaren: Thank you.
And then walks away

That was a close call! I know I would have died. DIED if we couldn't have gotten on that flight. I mean, our bags were alrady on their way to Pasco. Lindsey picked them up, thank heavens.

So we get on the plane - it's delayed 30 minutes. It's okay. Were on it, I don't care. Everyone get's on - there are NO open seats. We had to get someone to move to another seat so Jaren and I could sit by each other. She was nice and didn't mind.

Then a couple comes on and says, "these guys are in our seats" Pointing to the first row in first class. The stuardess (sp?) looks at their tickets (which were just little reciepts) and at the peoples tickets who were already sitting there. They have big tickets and the seats, go to them cause they have the more real tickets? I think the reciept people just had standby reciepts. So the girl says, "there are NO seats on this plane???" Looking sad and mad. The stuardess says, no. The girl says, "we have been here since 5 this morning!" and then leaves.

Me? I am so so so sosososososososo grateful to be sitting in those seats. That we still got to where we wanted to be in the same day. We are SO LUCKY.

We fly into Seattle - the view is beautiful. I wish I had my camera, I would take picutres, it was so clear, breath taking. I hoped that I would fly into Seattle sometime again at night and sit on the right side of the plane.

My dad picked us up. We got home at 2 in the morning. I'm exhausted it's 3a.m. my time and I slept horribly the night before. Vicki and Stephanie and Nathan and my mom and dad are all up and gathered around us talking to us and are glad we are there. I still don't care that I cutted in line. Do I feel bad? A little.. but really, we got hosed.

I got 5 hours of sleep last night and I don't care. I'm home. I'm with my family. I get to go to the family party tonight. Jaren and I are together. I am happy and grateful and full of thanks and still feel so so lucky and blessed to have gotten on that flight.

Jaren has an upset stomache from all of the events yesterday - I have a huge headache and I just don't care. I'm home!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day today and tomorrow. Remember why we really celebrate Christmas. Christ is the reason that we can all return home someday. I'm full of thanks and happy feelings.

Merry Christmas!

and if it was any of you or your relatives i cut off in line, sorry. the lady told me to stay :)

The Biggest Loser?

We just watched the season finale of The Biggest Loser.

We hardly watch an episode throughout the season (because there are other shows on at the same time we have on a higher priority) but the big unveiling of the amazing weight losses - we can't resist!

I kept saying, "Ed is so sweet! He loves Heba. It's so cute to see someone so in love with their wife!!"

And Jaren yells, "ME!! I love you! Your my Heba!" hahaha. Then I say, "besides us in this house." and he yells, "yeah!"

For those of you who have ever seen a season finale of The Biggest Loser... do you ever kind of sort of wish you were morbidly obese so you could go on that show and loose tons and tons of weight and win $250,000?

Yeah... me neither.....

I asked Jaren that same question and he said, "No! We will get that treadmill and you can loose as much weight as you want and get toned up but there will be no getting fat in this house!" HAHAHA.

He thought I was serious!! hahaha... ha.... hah....*cough*

But really! How amazing! Heba lost just about HALF of herself. If anything, this motivates me to get running. Which is why we have decided on a treadmill! We looked at reviews and saw it in person and made the final desicion.

A Sole F80. Were ordering it TONIGHT!

I wanted a Precor.. but they are just a little bit pricey.

Woohoo! A treadmill!!!

sorry i've been gone so long. school ruined my life, then my internet decided it had been worked much too hard and stopped working. then i decided i had been worked much too hard and left the state for a few days. now both my internet and i are back! but give me a few days to catch up. but catch up i will!!

Thorn In My Side

School is officially OVER!

I AM SO HAPPY.

I finished my last final yesterday and about cried (yes, about. tears didn't actually fall, but they welled). It felt SO good. Like two anvils were taken off each shoulder and I could breathe and function again.

This semester has been the hardest out of all 9 of my semesters. I'm 13 credits from graduating and I've finally had a semester that really really made me want to quit. It was only 13 credits(I've taken 15 in one semester before)! I've taken two anat and phys classes on blocks (one semester of info squeezed into half the time - 6 weeks) and that was tough.... but nothing like this.

So many times I would get so frustrated and overwhelmed, I just wanted to be done. But I know it's ridiculous, I'm about finished and it would be horribly stupid. So that was out of the question, or consideration - whatever.

I guess I just want to write down how hard this was. I fear I will forget the pressure in my chest 85% of this semester. If I ever have a kid that is crying because they don't want to continue on - it's too hard, I want to remember that I felt the same way and I can tell them to continue on, they can get though it because I did.

I've never been so happy with a 78% in my life. Kinesiology was so challenging. So interesting and fun and I loved the class, but it was SO HARD. Took so much time, but I know that if I had spent more time I would have had a better grade. I love health. I love learning about the body and it's functions and how to keep it healthy and how to fix it. This class was perfect for all of that. It just had SO much information. Every muscle in the body I had to know and that was no biggie, I did that in my anat and phys class. But in this class you also have to know each muscles origin and it's insertion and all of the actions it performs and what nerve innervates it. I love that stuff! But it was SO MUCH INFORMATION! And not just that, I had to be able to discect an action (like doing a pull up, or batting or sitting down or crossing your legs) and tell you which muscles were being used (agonists), which muscles were stabilizing and neautrilizing the action and then what class lever system and the anatomical name of the joint and ligaments and how each of those worked and why they are there. UH!! See? Probably causing some of you anxiety just reading about it. Anyway... just really hard.... it's so nice to be finished.

Next semester will be cake compared to this one. I just have a bunch of exercise classes and a few classes that will require studying and tests. I thought I was scared to be done, but after the feeling I had yesterday I am very aware I will be invigerated when I finish. It will be so nice. I will probably be bored trying to find something to fill every second of my day because that's how it is in school, but it wont take long to get me into a groove.

For now I just want to get my house spotless, catch up on blogs and set up Christmas decorations in the next week. I'm going to craft, watch TV and cook and clean and take care of my husband and I'll read a few books - everything I couldn't do in the last 4 months! WOOHOOO! So excited!

Oh yeah! And I'm famous again!!!
I'll tell you all about it later.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, It's Only A Day Away

If you can't already tell, this is me. (Well, I took a picture of a burly man and tried to make it me. I hope my face isn't that masculine)

Been studying for this for 5 hours so far.... have 2 more before I take this final.

I feel this way. What way is "this", you ask?

You tell me.

What words come to mind when you see this image?

(let's leave out, weird, hermaphrodite, ugly, horrible paint skills, butch, botched hair cut, flat chested.. you know, obvious stuff like that)

Bicycle(s), Anyone?

Please press play and listen to this as you read the post.








I have now seen just about everything.







wait for it











Not one, not two, not three, but FOUR frames on that thing.

Now, you are wondering, how the heck does he ride it?

I've seen it. It's the most bizarre looking thing. He jumps all the way down when he's done (do his ankles ever hurt?).

How does he get up? I don't know!! I haven't seen that, but I imagine he just pushes off the ground and climbs on up.

Look at how long the chain is!!

The funniest thing about this is that it's at BYU-Idaho.

Five Guys and Why I'm Famous

Here is the conversation

Me: Sometime when we are down here (Utah) we should stop and eat at this one place, I got a burger from there when I was here last - it was really good.

Jaren: okay, where?

Me: Five guys or something

Jaren: Five guys! Yeah! We sell potatoes to them.

Me: YOU DO?!!?!

Jaren: Yeah, have for years

Me: I didn't get any! We HAVE to go! This is so cool...

Jaren: Yeah, pay to grow them then pay to eat them......

Me: But I'm going to tell them the fries are YOURS!

Jaren: You will not.

Me: YES, I will.

It's true. Yours truly(meaning Jaren - I just stand and cheer on the sidelines) grows the amazing fries from Five Guys.

They claim "We use only Idaho Potatoes" and it's true!

They should say:

"We use Mr and Mrs Potatohead Idaho Potatoes - they are especially yummy because they are grown with love"

This is the most exciting day of my life. I feel famous. I am famous! You are all so welcome to know me.

Success!

I am officially the real Mrs. potato head!

I was able to keep all of my settings, my followers, my little gadgets and gizmo's on my side bar... EXCEPT for my blog lists.

It's a really good thing that last night I spent a good 2 hours going through and bookmarking every bodies blogs. Otherwise I'd be in big trouble.

I'll update that list Sunday or Monday.... if you want me to stalk your blog than I suggest leaving me a comment sayin so.

Have A Great Weekend!

Sleep Deprivation Makes My Head Heavy

Forgive me for being absent from your blogs. One word: School. Oh, another: Finalsweek.

I checked for mrandmrspotatohead and someone has it! I'm a bit upset about it. They don't have ANY posts. Just some pictures on their sidebar. Bunch of malarkie. I bet they don't even potato farm..... (what? bitter and angry you say... how can you tell?)

So I checked out therealmrandmrspotatohead (not to be confused with the fake ones) and it's available. So that will be my new address. I'm changing it tomorrow morning. So if you want to find me (I hope you do), find me there!

For my Child Language and Lit class I had to write a childrens book that consisted of pictures of family faces and familiar things for my future children. I knew about this assignment from the first day of school back in September. I just had no idea what to do. Finally in October I decided on doing an ABC book.

I wrote the wording last week
Found the pictures for each letter Tuesday this week
Printed them all out at Wally World yesterday
Picked up paper and a notebook and sleeves yesterday
laid out each paper with the picture and made cute wording with word art (5-6:45)
went to mutual (6:45 - 8:30 p.m.)
checked email (8:30 - 9 p.m.)
started cutting, slicing, gluing, sticking, positioning, making beautiful and crafting my book at 9 p.m. (jaren says he will stay out with me)
still beautifying my book at 11 p.m. (jaren falls asleep on couch)
11:30 p.m. - me: "Jaren.. you can go to bed" jaren: "in a little bit......"
11:45 p.m. - me: "Jaren... you can go to bed" jaren: "In a minute........"
12:00 a.m. - me: "Jaren, sweetheart, go to bed" jaren: "okay.... I'll wake up when you come to bed" me: "uh, huh... okay"
still working... put in a movie (1 a.m.)
movie over so I turn on Law and Order, everything else is infomercials! (3 a.m.)
FINISHED! at FOUR A.M.
crawling into bed at 4 -
me: "I'm SO tired"
Jaren: (really loud cause he's trying to wake himself up) "YEAH! cause you were up forever!" me: "yeah.... I have to get up in two hours"
Jaren: "why did you stay up so late?"
me: "I had to finish!"
Jaren: "yeah.... ok..... your feet are COLD!"

It was funny, he tries to wake himself up but is mostly incoherent.

I woke up at 6, whined and whined, got read, went to class, turned in my beautiful book, came back home, skipped my next class, went to sleep for three hours, woke up, went to lunch, went to my 3:15 class and am now home.

SO. TIRED.

I didn't get any pictures of the finished product. After it is graded and I get it back I will take some pictures of my favorite pages and post them.

But, I did take a picture of the mess I made before I cleaned it up just a few minutes ago.


(see those indian couches from 1994? They are officially getting replaced!)
Jaren called this a disaster of scrapbook proportions
It's all clean now! But I have a feeling I'll be falling asleep here in about an hour.

I will be back activley stalking as soon as I finish this semester next Friday.

remember: therealmrandmrspotatohead.blogspot.com (it wont work until tomorrow: Friday)

Going Private?

Kidding! Kidding! I'm not going private, but I am going to change my address.

I'm afraid I'll loose my blogroll, I have everyone on google reader so that should save me, right?

We decided we want our last name off of everything so we (Jaren) will sleep better at night. So, it would be greatly appreciated if you will change our name on your blogroll on your page if it contains our last name.

Here are some name ideas:

• Jaren and Whitney
• Whitney and Jaren
• Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head
• Whitney is awesome
• Jaren loves Whitney
• Whitney is my idol
• Some people that live in the boonies in Idaho
• Baby Hungry Blog
• School is for fools
• Do these jeans make me look fat?
• No dear, your fat makes you look fat
• Where did all of the tamagachi pets go?
• Mirror Mirror on the Wall.. Who is Farest of them all? Whitney is
• Jaren is a stud
• Jaren, not to be confused with the name Jared
• The coolest couple on the earth (or just in Idaho, or just in Rexburg)
• Who I want to be just like

You get the idea.

I hear it takes a few days to get redirected properly and since I'll be out of town from Friday to Sunday I figured this weekend would be great to do it! So I'm changing my blog url on Friday. I will post our new address tonight once I make sure it's freed up.

If you can't find us and are having thoughts of jumping off a cliff (into water, of course) don't fear. I believe you can find us by typing "Jaren and Whitney, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head" into a google search.

By the way - This is my 100th post!

And what a memorable one it is. To comemorate this occasion I'm giving away a FREE CAR! Well... almost free, you have to pay taxes, and at least I'm adversizing that so your not fooled like on the Price is Right thinking you can just drive it off the lot just like that.

I'll announce the winner when I have my new bloggy address up.

i should probably mention the free car is just a matchbox car. Or a train car. Or a drawing of a car. Or a thought of a car. Whatever I choose.

The Internet: Where Worlds Collide

I spent an entire weekend with these two girls.

I met Amber once the month before and met Alexis for the first time that weekend.

What did I learn?

• you can make awesome friends on the internet
• staying at someone's home you barely know can be quite fun
• Alexis is the most stylish prego I have ever met
• Amber is super talented and she doesn't even really realize it
• Amber is an awesome mom
• two girls who grew up together can make you feel like you also grew up with them - even though you didn't
• the hostesses husband makes awesome Sunday breakfasts
  
• husband also let us girls hog his wife and his bed till the wee hours in the morning (he fell asleep on the couch or with his son... not quite sure which)
• i love playing connect four with a 6 year old
• i should have put all of my notes from middle school and high school in plastic sheets in a huge binder
• that I want to spend weekends like that again and again
  

I also spent some time with Victoria who I had been wanting to meet in person for a while now. We met online through a mutual friend 7 years ago. Never spoke again and she randomly found me on Facebook in June or May.. can't remember. We've become really good friends and It was so great getting to spend time with her. She has the cutest little boy that I want.

Here's to the internet for rekindling friendships and making new ones! (but not for meeting weirdos and stalkers and creepies. Oh, and bad gossip and basically anything you want to know is on here! Can't promise it's true, though. My goal is to put myself on Wikipedia)