Happy Anniversary

So, with Venita trying to get the blog all caught up, I figured I'd help a little.
Venita and I had planned our trip back to Russia for this summer before life gets even more crazy with her Masters program and me applying to Optometry school. Unfortunately, because of a few factors, the trip just didn't seem to work out. I decided that for our anniversary though, I wanted to surprise Venita with a fun trip to make up for it. When we found out her sister Kami was going to live in Hawaii for the summer (or until she decides to come back to real life), I decided Hawaii was a definite must! I arranged the trip and made reservations (with Kami's help) and took Venita to the local Hawaiian restaurant to tell her the exciting news. On my way home from work, I took our itinerary to the restaurant and explained that I'd return with my wife for dinner and asked if they could bring the itinerary out with our food. They were great to oblige and everything worked as planned. Venita was very surprised and couldn't believe that we were really going.
When August rolled around, we boarded the plane and said goodbye to an intense summer semester for me and Venita's miserable job of 3 years. We landed at about 3 on Friday afternoon and Kami and her boss were nice enough to meet us at the airport and provide our transportation to the hotel. We stayed about a block from Waikiki beach and you would have thought we were staying next to Pearl Harbor with how many Asians there were but it was still fun and convenient. We spent the evening exploring Waikiki and having a great dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise.
The next day was our official 3 year anniversary! What better way to celebrate than to spend the morning at the local Flea Market? I bought myself a nice little Ukulele (original, I know) and Venita got some fancy jewelery. That afternoon we just hung out and relaxed at the beach and then headed to Top of Waikiki for dinner. It's a revolving restaurant that was very delicious and had great views of the ocean and also downtown Honolulu.

Sunday we went with Kami and her boss' family to church.

After church, they were kind enough to invite us to their home for an authentic Iranian/Persian dinner.
The next day, we woke up and caught our bus to the Polynesian Cultural Center. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

At the Luau, we did have our first public dance of our marriage. They asked all couples celebrating Honeymoons or Anniversaries to go on the stage and surprisingly, Venita wanted to go.

Waiting for the Shuttle to the temple

I bought our tickets on my phone only 2 days prior and we ended up having great front row seats to the show that night!

Tuesday morning we woke up early to beat the long lines at Pearl Harbor. It was a good experience and actually more interesting than I expected.

We were so surprised to find out that it is still leaking oil.

Kami's boss took us on a tour of Diamond Head to show us all the mulit-million dollar houses and then dropped us off at one of the best secluded beaches. It was so relaxing that we both fell asleep for a few hours. Luckily it was our last day there because we definitely paid the price and were downing ibuprofen like it was candy. My burn was so bad that I was feverish the rest of the day.
All in all, it was a great trip and such a fun anniversary. I know it was a pretty typical Honolulu trip but it was fun for both of us as neither of us have ever been to Hawaii. We did everything that we wanted to but next time we go, we will probably hit up a more secluded island. I'm just glad that Venita is in charge of the anniversary next year!!!

DMB in SLC 4 FREE

We had a great time at the Dave Matthews Band concert.  I sat with Yulia, while Jeph and Mike waited six hours to get front row of the pit section for the concert.  I can't say that I minded having a place to sit if I got tired but it was different watching a DMB concert without Jeph telling me which song they were going to play by looking at what guitar Dave was holding and what chord his fingers were getting ready to strum.  But over all it was a very good, fun concert and I was glad to share that with Yulichka.

 

Where we think Jeph was standing.  Mike and Jeph were just to the left of those 4 speakers in the middle.

  

The view from our seats.

 

The view from Jeph's seats.

 

Either way, it was a great show.  Probably my favorite of the 7 I've seen.  

We've finally adopted!!!

We were so excited when we found out the adoption that we had been working on for 2 years finally was happening.  We have been trying to get my Russian daughter here since 2008 and she is finally here.  In all of the excitement, we (Jeph) made her new curtains for her room and took down the DMB shrine to put up a few more girly decorations (of course one Dave picture had to stay). 

 

Check out Jeph's mad sewing skills!

Here is our girl:

Ok, she might be too old to adopt legally, but she is my mission daughter and now pretty much our adopted Russian daughter while we take care of her as

she lives with us and goes to school at BYU's ELC program. 

We have had a few weeks filled with fun visiting old friends, the DMB concert (post still to come), going for rides to various places, playing Guitar Hero and many other fun things.

She bought these sunglasses the first day she got here and has rarely taken them off since.

We're glad to have Yulia's cute face with us these days and hope she has a good experience while here with us in America. 

Birthday Party

We had a small birthday party with Grandma Lynn and Grandpa Mike for Co6aka a few days after his birthday.  (We didn't invite anyone else because we know that everyone else is jealous since he is the favorite grandchild.)  Pup was so excited about all of his cool presents.  Those grandparents of his sure spoiled him rotten!

Puppy was so excited, he kept running back and forth between presents.  It was cute.

He loved rolling around in all of his new toys.  There were so many, he could not decide with which to play next.

The late Uncle Gomer even joined the party for a few games. 

I attempted my first decorative cake.  It was a little rough, but Pup wasn't too picky.  He didn't get to eat it anyway since it was real chocolate cake and we all know that is poison to dogs.

Papa and Pup (don't worry, he only came inside to blow out the candle)

Getting ready to blow out Co6aka's first candle!

Happy Birthday Pup. Thanks for bringing so much joy to our lives at this time.  We are sure glad you are part of our family.

Aloha

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Welcome

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Happy Birthday!

To our little puppy!

We cannot believe Co6aka is one year old today!

It seems like just yesterday we were at the Simmons' Family Lagoon Day when we got the text that he was born! 

Adopting this little guy has been the greatest blessing in our lives yet! 

We're thinking about doing it again someday!

It has been such a fun year with the little guy!

And we cannot wait for many more!

Here are a few pics from the past year to remind you all how cute our little puppy really is!

 

Meeting the little guy for the first time.

Precious moments with papa

Playing in the park

Relaxin at home

After the Big Fix

Typical curious face (mama's fave)

1 year old pics

Just being cute (papa's fave)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Co6aka! We are so lucky and glad you are part of our forever family. 

Footies!!!

So I went to my favorite store today to see what little treasures they had on sale this week and I found this little gem!  I saw them and immediately knew that this picture would be taken very soon!

Jeph loves his footy pjs and even though it is the wrong time of year to be wearing them, I can't get him to take them off.  Isn't he just the cutest thing?! I love that the back door is open and ready for business!

Somebody should really update this blog for me.

We're All in This Together - High School Rocks!

 As you know, if you follow this blog, I am going to school to become a MASTER of School Counseling.  I am half way through the program now and just finished my practicum. We are to start an internship in the fall and complete 600 hours between September and June of next year.  Not bad right? Only 20 hours a week, no big deal.  Until I was reminded that there are only a few paid internships around and I have to work to help pay the bills for now.  Well, with no paid internship in sight, I was planning on working my 40 hours with the state, 20 hours of internship at a school, 4 hours of class, about that many of homework, travel time, church stuff, and hope that my husband and puppy don't forget I exist.  Needless to say, I was a little stressed.  Especially after doing my practicum of only 8 hours a week and all that other stuff, I thought I was being a little stretched, I could not imagine adding 12 more hours into my week schedule somehow.  I was thinking I'd need to call Hermione Granger at Hogwarts and see if I could borrow her time-turner necklace or is she knows where I can get one for real cheap. Then Jeph had to go and break my heart and tell me that Hermione is not real and magic does not exist.  That was a sad day. (I'm still not 100% convinced, cuz me and Harry, we've bonded and there is no way that is made up so it all must be real.)

Anyway, me, being dramatic (I blame that on the birth control) and stressed about all of this just about lost my mind thinking that the school year had ended and I procrastinated setting up an internship for next year in hopes that something would come along.  (This is getting really long and boring - I'd apologize - but if you have a problem with it find someone else to stalk).  Luckily, my favorite school district also put off hiring school counseling interns until after school was out for summer, so I had another chance at getting a paid internship.  I applied and was interviewed at two absolutely fabulous schools, one middle school and one high school. At this point, I would have accepted a job as a school janitor or lunch lady just to be at the school in hopes that I could get some internship hours without killing myself.  To my amazement and surprise, both interviews went really well and I was happy to think that either one just might give me a chance next year.  I interviewed with the high school first and the middle school the following day.  Both told me I would most likely not hear from them until the beginning of the following week unless things went really well.  Well just hours after I interviewed with the middle school, one of the high school assistant principals called me and said that those who interviewed me had all gone out of town for the rest of the week, but that they recruited him to call my references and me as soon as possible so that I didn't accept any other positions and offered me the PAID INTERNSHIP at ALTA HIGH SCHOOL!!!  I was extremely flattered! Of course I accepted and he welcomed me on as a Hawk (I've been an Indian, Bear, Pirate, Spartan, Viking, Pheonix, and now a Hawk - very cool)! After my lengthy explanation, you should be able to imagine the relief as the sound of angels singing the Hallelujah Chorus came flooding into my gloomy work office that day! I've been walking on sunshine and loving life ever since!

To my amazement, the assistant principal from the middle school called me the following day to congratulate me on getting the internship at the high school (I guess they talk - awkward since the high school kinda sneaked in under the middle school's nose and stole me out from under them - calling after they knew I was interviewing with the middle school to set up an appointment the day before I was supposed to go to the middle school, then calling me the day of my interview with the middle school to offer me the position - I don't know about you, but I'm thinking they had someone sneaky working on this one) and to tell me that he would never forget that I told him I was raised on a farm.  hhmmm.  I never would have imagined that growing up on a farm would be so memorable, but if it would have gotten me the job, than I'll use that line in every interview from now on!  Anyway, I'm flattered that I was even considered for one or both positions and grateful that at least one of them selected me to work with them. I hope they don't mind my dramatic, sarcastic, lame personality.  Maybe, they just realize how much easier it will be for me to relate to the high school students than it would some old serious person who has never even heard of let alone seen High School Musical one, two, or three - LOVE THEM! (maybe junior high would have been a better fit ... nah.)

Anyway, this has been such a blessing and an answer to a lot of prayers (thank you moms for your faith - I couldn't have done it without you).  I cannot even express how grateful and relieved I am about getting this internship (despite the pay cut I'll be taking which isn't saying much since I work for the state and don't make that much in the first place. Jeph is more upset about it than me anyway, I'm just grateful I MIGHT get to keep my mind sane for one more year). GO HAWKS!