Andy's Exercises

Andy has to do "strength-training exercises" to strengthen his ankles. Due to his aggressive high school track career, the boy has the most fragile muscular system ever! Anyway, this is a picture of my favorite exercise...I could describe the technical benefit of what he's doing, but suffice it to say that it involves Andy touching his nose with his eyes closed and it makes me LAUGH. Enjoy.

So True.....

July visit to North Carolina

Here are some pictures of Andy's visit to North Carolina to visit Emma. Among other things, they built a fort, went on a scavenger hunt, and went to jungle rapids (an indoor jungle gym).

Tarts

Andy was gone last weekend to visit Emma. Since I didn't have to entertain him, I decided to do a little baking. I made some mixed-berry tarts. I've never made them before, but was up to the challenge. I used cream cheese pudding instead of pastry filling (less fattening--thank you very much) and they turned out pretty well. The only downside is that the recipe only makes 6 small tarts. I ended up giving away some to relatives and Visiting Teachables.

Mamma Mia!!! Pizzaria!!!

So Andy has been attending the "Fully Employed MBA" program at UCLA for the past couple of years. As a part of the program, they have to do an international project wherein a foreign company approaches a group of students and asks them to do research on if/how that company can break into another country's market (usually the USA). Well, we found out a couple weeks ago that Andy's group will be working with a company in Italy. The company has developed a mass-transit communication system. For example, the subways in Italy have an electronic communication system such that passengers can be notified of delays or security threats etc. Andy's group will be conducting research on if/how this company should enter the US market.

Of course, Andy has opted to be the team leader and, as such, he will be required to go to Italy for a week to conduct research and meet with various employees of the firm. The company is in Torino and because of my willingness to sacrifice my time and to support my husband, I will be going to Italy as well. So the plan is that we will need to be in Torino from September 17th to the 21st and we will then stay for another week or so to go to Rome and Tuscany and a few other places. I am totally excited because this will be my first trip to Europe. Heaven knows I've been all over Asia, but this will be really interesting to go to Italy. I've always thought that, given a choice, Italy would be my first pick in traveling to a European country. Even though Andy's group was initially contemplating companies based in Australia, New Zealand and Finland (all good options), I'm glad it worked out this way.

If you've ever been to Italy, let me know what we should do and see and if you have any traveling tips. We don't have a lot of time to plan our trip, so your advice will be much appreciated.

Last week was fun. Stephen and Crystal came out for a visit. They arrived on Tuesday, July 3rd and spent the balance of the day at the beach then we had a BBQ and went to a church-sponsored 4th of July Celebration.

For the 4th of July, we went shopping (one of Andy's LEAST favorite activities) and then went to check out some William Lyon model homes. We then met up with Andy's family at the park for food and fireworks. Andy's nephew, Evan, was so funny. We were playing with a football and he was afraid to catch it and would run around with his hand on his head to protect himself. It was hilarious!

Stephen and Crystal spent Thursday at Knott's Berry Farm and Friday at the beach. On Friday evening, Andy got tickets to a local pro tennis match. Anna Kournikova was there. She sure is tiny--but her diamond earrings were not.

On Saturday, Stephen installed a new faucet for us in the guest bathroom. It was not an easy task considering the pipes have become pretty corroded. We have very hard water and I have become friends with CLR in order to get rid of hard water stains on our glasses and stuff.

Before they left, Stephen and Crystal took us out to breakfast (or should I say, brunch) at Mimi's. It was very tasty.

They were also lucky enough to get free tickets to La Reve (at the Winn) in Las Vegas. So they left after breakfast in order to get there in time for the show.

All in all, it was a very fun week.

I'm a Survivor!!

I survived Girls Camp 2007. Girls Camp was this past week, from Tuesday through Friday at Camp Cedar Falls. It was extremely well organized and the girls had a ton of fun. Sister Snow, from our ward, was in charge of camp this year and she did an excellent job. She is absolutely hilarious!!! She came up with all kinds of clever things for the girls to do and ways in which to play up the theme. It was great. The theme was Candy Land--Sweet is the work. Each cabin was named after a candy of some sort.

There was a certain amount of confusion regarding which cabin I would be in, but things turned out OK. Prior to Girls Camp, I was told I would be in the same cabin as one of my Mia Maids, Kendall. I was particularly excited about being in her cabin. However, I got a phone call just days before we left and learned that I would have to be in a different cabin--one in which I didn't know ANY of the girls. I reluctantly acquiesced. Upon arriving at camp and finding my cabin, the "Nerds" cabin, I was soon informed that one of the leaders wanted to switch cabins with me and I was off to the "Life Saver" cabin. I settled into my new cabin which had several members of our wardin it. As a side note, the husbands of the two other adult advisers of the cabin I was in had served missions in Taiwan. So that was cool.

Each cabin was in charge of creating their own cheer. The stake leaders, "The Peeps" went all out and even had creative costumes. It was great. The picture below is of the Life Savers doing their cheer.

The first night was a lot of fun. The girls were all very excited to be at camp and stayed up pretty late. Thank heaven for ear plugs. I got a decent amount of sleep that night. They played games for a couple hours (including a round of Truth or Dare in which most of the dares revolved around licking things--the floor, the bottom of a shoe, the bunk bed ladder and a toe). At least I was entertained--knowing that leaders are not expected to participate in such games.

All of the activities were very well planned. The seminars were all very good. My personal favorite was one by President Monson (not Thomas S.) in which he talked about appropriate dating habits. He started out by informing the girls that Girls are desperate and boys are retarded...meaning that girls tend to be very hard on themselves and feel that they are never good enough for any boy and so they must change who they are or break the rules in order to fit in. Boys are retarded because they don't mature as quickly as girls do. Anyway, he is a VERY entertaining speaker and I found myself agreeing with everything he said and I just hope that the girls listened to every word he said. It was excellent!!

On the second day, there were a couple of groups of girls who were supposed to go on hikes. I volunteered to go on the 5-mile hike. I wanted to get some exercise (given the theme, there was a ton of candy at camp) and I generally enjoy hiking. The hike was good. We passed a stream where some of the girls took off their shoes and enjoyed the cool water. It was a good hike, but it was very dry and dusty. We haven't gotten much rain in California this year, so all the dust (or something) gave me a sinus headache. By the end of the hike, I had quite the 'dust tan'. My legs, from where my shorts ended to where my socks started were covered in dust!! It certainly felt good to take a shower.

When I got back to camp, I was informed that I would need to switch cabins again!! Apparently, one of the two adult leaders in the "Runts" cabin left after the first night because she had to go to work the next day. Our Life Saver cabin was the only cabin that had three adult leaders, so I was asked to move in with the "Runts". The Runts are, of course, the first years.

They are adorable. They were very obedient and went to bed at a reasonable hour. They were too afraid to sneak out of the cabin at night to attempt pulling any pranks (not that that was a problem this year--but it has been in previous years). The Runts are sooo cute. I was especially impressed that of a cabin with 11 Runts in it, three were non-members!!! So that was great. Unfortunately, one of them fell and twisted her ankle. So that was sad, but she was a trooper and stuck it out.

One of the highlights of the week was the testimony meeting on Thursday night. The way I see it, so many of these girls go to school every day in an environment where their peers swear and dress immodestly etc. So coming to camp was a stark change from what they were used to. Therefore, most of the testimonies revolved around how nice and friendly everyone was and how there were so many good examples around them. It was a great contrast for them. We then had hot chocolate with Peeps in them and Krispy Kreme donuts. Mmmmm.

Of course each girl and leader got an award--a candy lei. My award was the "Super Trooper" award. I got it for being willing to go on the hike and to switch cabins...several times.

I was very proud of my Mia Maid girls. Those who were leaders did an excellent job in organizing their cabin devotionals each night and they truly loved their girls. Those who went on the overnight hike were also troopers. They hiked in 4 miles, spent the night out under the stars and then hiked out 4 miles the next morning and did an excellent job.

One funny thing about the camp was that it was run by 7th Day Adventists. Therefore, there was no meat served at mealtime. This didn't sit well with a lot of the girls and by the time we were heading home on Friday, everyone had plans to go to In-n-Out or to have a big juicy steak as soon as they got home. Every billboard or restaurant we passed was met with longing and wistful groans. Andy and I went to Black Angus on Saturday to pacify my hunger for meat.

For as much fun as it was to go to camp and to take a few days off work, it was nice to get home and to take a shower and a nap. I also got a pedicure on Friday afternoon and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Father's Day 2007

Andy was able to spend Father's Day weekend in North Carolina with Emma. They had a great time. Among other things, they went to the beach, saw a movie (Surf's Up) and went to Jungle Rapids--an indoor gymnasium. Here are some pictures of their adventures.
Emma likes jumping around in the bounce house at Jungle Rapids. Emma is a lot of fun but can be very dramatic. She briefly fell in the bounce house screaming in pain and stating she hurt her ankle. I was worried and gave her lots of attention, love, and ice. Luckily the ankle was better in no time (three minutes). Once she had the attention her ankle was fine and she went back to playing. I am always amazed of the healing power of bandaids, ice, and love.
Emma is very friendly and outgoing. Usually when we go to Jungle Rapids there are several birthday parties and dozens of kids running wild. This time it was only Emma and Lauren. They soon become best friends and made up several games to play together including hide and seek.
Emma decorated a pot for me for Father's Day. I love it. Emma suggested planting Azalea's in the pot. Wilmington is the home of the North Carolina Azalea festival.

Survey Says.....

Something we have been doing lately to entertain ourselves is we will record the Family Feud (I'm not sure how people get along without DVR...commercials are a waste of time) and then play along as we watch it. So, for example, John O'Hurley (aka Mr. Peterman) will say, "We surveyed 100 people. The top 5 answers are on the board. Name something people do to liven up a dull party." Then we pause it, discuss our top answers and then press play to see what the contestants say. Anyway, it's a lot of fun and we even 'played' it at a dinner party we had a few weeks ago.

Well, the other day, Andy and I had just watched an episode and I was quite disappointed that it was over. You need to understand that I'm pretty good at playing the Feud and hold myself in high regard for doing so. So Andy, in an effort to entertain his delusional wife, says, "OK. We surveyed one Andy. The top one answer is on the board. What TV show does Andy feel like watching?" To which, I replied, "PTI!!" Of course, I won!!!


P.S. In unrelated news, we are in escrow to sell one of the homes in Yucaipa. YAY!!!

Take me out to the ball game!!

Andy works for William Lyon Homes. The company has box seats to the Angel's baseball games and every department gets to have an annual party at a game. We went last night to see the Angels vs. Mariners. I don't care much for baseball and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way because why else would they have created box seats?!? We had a ton of food and it was so fun to just hang out and watch the game--which, by the way, was pretty good. The Angels won 8 to 6. So it was a relatively high scoring game.

This is Andy trying to decide what to eat:

Now that he has his food, it's time to put the hurt on!!

The best part of the evening is not the 7th-inning rendering of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", but when the dessert cart comes around!! They always have an awesome selection!! Andy ended up getting the peanut butter brownie and I got the creme brulee cheesecake.

This is what we train for!!!
Here I am with my cheesecake! Mmmmm....tasty!