I just elfed my family!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1114034075

This is about the funniest thing we've ever seen.

The Official Announcement!

Now that all of our immediate family knows I can post on here. We are expecting a baby! I'm twelve and a half weeks along. I'm due on May 30th. We are beside ourselves with excitement. This week my belly started to pop a lot. We surprised all of Frank's family with the news when we cam out here, they are very excited, of course.

Leaving on a jet plane!

I'm getting very excited! Frank and I are leaving for New York/Washington D.C. on Friday for a week. We will be spending 3 days in New York and 4 days in Washington for Thanksgiving. I think we will mostly be in Long Island while we are there, but it will be fun. I like going back East for the holidays because it just puts you in the spirit. Palm trees and 60* doesn't really do it for me to get me excited for Christmas. Plus people out here really don't have much Christmas spirit. I loved it last Christmas when we were back there. Every house is decorated and has the candles in the window and the wreaths on the door. If I didn't hate the cold so much in January and February, I might want to consider moving there, maybe I'll just move there for 2 months out of the year, November and December.

Link to the Newspaper Article

http://www.parkrecord.com/education/ci_7322976

Here's the link to the newspaper article where my nieces are quoted. They are Maddie and Kathryn Austin.

Shake, Rattle and Roll

I finally feel like I live in California. I was sitting on the couch on Tuesday night, on the phone with my sister, when my legs started to shake. At first I thought it was just my legs shaking, then I looked around and realized that the walls were shaking and I could hear them moving. I looked at the fish tank and sure enough, the water was sloshing back and forth. I was still on the phone, not quite sure what to do, so I ran outside where Frank was. Smokey had been barking and agitated a few moments before, so Frank had taken him out. He was in the shed and he said the whole thing was shaking. I guess it's true what they say, Dogs can feel it before it happens. Although Bandit just laid there the entire time. I think it's because he thinks that he's human.

The earthquake was a 5.6, the biggest we've had since the "big one" in '89. It hit about 9 miles North of San Jose, and we are about 15 miles North. We've had about 45 aftershocks since. I've only felt one, they said it was a 3.5.

Welcome to California!

Girls Weekend

Last Thursday I took a last minute trip to UT to spend the weekend with my Mom and sisters. We had a great time.

We spent Friday just relaxing and then Saturday we went down to stay at my sister Alesa's house in Farmington. That day we went to Gardner Village and saw their display of witches. I guess they do it every year, but this is the first year that I've seen it. I'll post pictures as soon as I get them from Alesa.

Saturday night I got to go to dinner to see my friends that I went to high school with. It was so fun. We haven't seen each other in almost 3 years, so it was great to catch up. All of us are married, have babies, or are having babies, it's funny when you remember people how they were in high school and how they have grown up. You know that you grew up, but forget that other people do too. We had so much to say we stayed until the restaurant kicked us out.

Sunday we drove to Park City and stayed in a hotel up there for the night. We went shopping at the outlets, I bought so many clothes I had to buy a suitcase just to bring them home in. I've got to learn to start taking an extra bag with me.

Monday, my Mom had UEA conference. UEA is the teachers union in UT. They are in the middle of a big controversy over providing vouchers for public school students to go to private schools. It's a horrible idea. It's the only entitlement that Republicans have ever thought was neccessary and it's a complete mistake. Hopefully, it won't pass on November 6th, because if it does it could make the public education all over the country in for a drastic change. Anyway, they were having a PR event for this issue, so we all went and took the kids. The newspaper for Park City was there and they interviewed the little girls. It was very cute. I've never been to anything like it and it was actually quite emotional to see how much politics that we take for granted can affect our lives.

After the news event we went to Hogle Zoo. It was a beautiful 71* that day so it was perfect. All the animals were out and about. The kids were all very well behaved for walking so far.

Overall, we had a great time and I'm so glad that I was able to take the opportunity to spend the time with my family. I forget how much I miss them until I see them. I'm still working on Frank to get him to move to UT.