Six Flags Great America

We celebrated Memorial Day with our friends at Six Flags in Gurnee,IL.  2 of our favorite coasters are at Six Flags: Superman and Vertical Velocity.  If you haven't tried them, and you love thrill rides, you need to add them to your list - they're awesome!

Game Night!

Early morning seminary is over and summer has officially started at our house.  Now that I'm not spending Sunday nights preparing lessons and going to bed early, we are reinstating Sunday Night Game Night.  Sunday nights are the perfect time to turn off the TV and have some good old fashioned fun playing games, making a little homemade ice cream and enjoying each others company.  We'd love to have you join us!

So You Think You Can Dance

Our favorite show starts tonight and we are so excited! Watch for my sister Debbie and her husband Christian at the Seattle try-outs. They are the cutest couple and will be dancing ballroom.

Shane and the Two-Bites Taste Rule

Whenever Shane tastes something he sticks to a strict two-bites taste rule.  He says the first bite cleanses his palate so that the true flavors of the food come out in the second bite. The only problem with this rule, and his sister will agree:  he takes really big bites!  

The other night as we were eating ice cream, chocolate peanut butter for me and triple chocolate for Shane, I asked Shane if he wanted to taste mine.  Not being a chocolate peanut butter fan (gasp!), he declined but offered me a taste of his.  That triple chocolate ice cream is pretty tasty and I'll be the first to admit that I "tasted" it with a few bites more than was necessary.  After my 3rd or 4th taste of his ice cream I noticed a coolness had settled over the room and Shane's postures has become a bit stiff.  Could it be possible that my food loving and tasting husband had his feathers ruffled over a little ice cream?  I found the situation amusing and couldn't help myself from laughing out loud. He got himself another scoop of ice cream, I kept my spoon in my own bowl for the remainder of the evening and all was well.

The next day I offered Shane a bite of my toast and when his bite consisted of almost 1/2 the piece I looked at him and said," Seriously?  And you were upset when I tasted your ice cream?"

His quick reply was a line from a story I'd shared in seminary that very morning,"You knew what I was when you picked me up!"

How could I not be in love with such a passionate guy!

Shane

I'm married to the most amazing, sweet, handy, fun, smart, hard-working, all-round-good-guy, sport-enthusiast husband who has sweet dance moves and isn't afraid to show them off at family talent shows!  It is my intention this week to share some of the things that make him so wonderful!

Infertility and adoption are pretty difficult paths and the last seven years have been full of more pain and heart ache than I care to admit.  Needless to say, baby showers are often a painful reminder of what we don't have and usually end with me driving home dissolved in tears.  After one such shower, I came home to find that my sweet husband had placed dozens of pink post-it notes around the kitchen filled with words of love.  He knew it would be a difficult day for me and wanted to make sure that I knew he was thinking of me.  

I'm so blessed to be married to such a thoughtful man who always puts me first and turns my tears to smiles.  I love you Shane!

Fish Food

Shane and I are always saying that we should eat more fish, so this week I made it one of my intentions.  Sunday night we  grilled Chile Lime Tilapia and served it over a Black Bean Spinach Salad.  It was really delicious and pretty easy, plus since we did it on the grill it didn't make our house smell fishy!  I'll post the recipe when I've got a bit more time.

Something to Smile About...

We just got our Canon Power Shot A70 camera back and it's better than ever!  There was a problem with the CCD image sensor but it was covered under warranty.  Canon was really great to work with and we got the camera back 9 days after we sent it in.  Talk about great customer service!  If you own a Canon Power Shot A70 and are having problems with you pictures check out Canon's Website for help.

What are your Intentions?

Soon after my parents met my dad went to pick my mom up for a date and was met by her tough older brother George who invited my dad out to the barn to have a talk.  My mom, having heard someone at the door, went into the living room to greet my dad only to find the room empty.  She was furious to learn that George had taken my dad out to find out what his intentions were with "his baby sister".   Needless to say, my dad wasn't scared off like my mom feared he would be, and they were married a few months later. 

I like to think the conversation Uncle George had with my dad about his intentions was a catalyst in their relationship that got my dad to really take a look at his life and see what my mom could add to it.  

Grenville Kleiser says the following about intentions:

"The great things you intend to do some time must have a beginning if they are ever to be done, so begin something worthwhile today."

Shane and I are pretty good at setting long - term goals but are in need of improvement when it comes to making the short-term goals that lead the the accomplishment of those long-term goals.  Last week we decided to set weekly intentions, or short-term goals, we plan to accomplish during the week. 

 

My intentions for this past week were:

1.  Walk or jog 10 miles.

2.  Hang up my clothes when I get home from seminary (instead of putting them in a pile until the end of the week!)

3.  Go to the temple.

What are your Intentions?

Broken Camera won't ruin our Spring!

It finally feels like spring around here and we are spending as much time outside as possible. Last weekend we got a table and chairs for our patio but because of rain we didn't test them out until yesterday.  Once we sat down to our BBQ feast and tried to document the moment with a photo our camera went all crazy adding in all kinds of stripes, blurs, and colors.  Off to the repair shop for you, dear camera. Hopefully it will make a speedy return!