Xanga

Did anyone else have a xanga account in high school? (for those of you who don't know what Xanga is, it used to be a popular site for bloggers, mainly teenage bloggers.) For some reason I just started thinking about it and decided to see if my account was still active. I remembered my user name and password and batta-bing there it was! I thought I'd share some of my favorite posts.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005
I'm getting married! It still doesn't sound real to me. August:)

And here is a post from my freshman year in college out in Utah. Made me laugh!

Wednesday, January 29, 2003
teriaki chicken yummmm......my new favorite food. They have a lot of that out here....and a lot of mexican food, which i love.....but there is taco time.....and that my friends is dirty.

I just love reminiscing:)

Christmas

Christmas is over and now all we have to look forward to is January. Bleh. Jk there is lots to look forward to, like MLK weekend, Valentines Day, Easter, and then summer!

We had such a good time in PA. We arrived around 7:30pm Wednesday night. My family was so gracious to wait and eat with us. We had our traditional sushi dinner with shrimp cocktail, Cesar salad and taquitos. Then we watched Scrooge and went to bed.

Santa was very good to me this year. I got an 8GB memory stick with all of the data from our deceased laptop on it! Our last laptop was destroyed by the Queens flood 1.5 years ago. I am so happy to have all of my college pictures, journal entries and music back! I also got this most wonderful pearl necklace with gemstones. I had been eyeing this necklace for a few weeks and Matt tricked me into thinking I was getting a new can opener, so I was super surprised. I got gift cards, necklaces, clothes, hair straightener and a 1 lb. sugar daddy.

Matt was happy with his new gun case, bowie knife (which he cut his finger on the first day he got it), angels beanie hat, Death Valley book, golf shoes, gift card, CD, bottle of sparkling cider (Lauren!), multi tool, and money. We both got money from family and some gift cards. Thanks to everyone!

We had a fun four day trip to PA. Christmas morning we had our traditional Christmas breakfast where we host all of our friends for, you got it, breakfast!

On Friday we all went to Target and spent our gift cards. I had to hit up the bath and body works sale. I go every year and get their body creams for $3 each and then I am set until the next December. We went and saw "Marley and Me". I bawled. And we played a whole lot of Guitar Hero.

Now back to work and the biggest loser moffitt style which starts Jan. 2nd

First few guests for the breakfast

Matt in charge of the pancakes

Kyra rocking guitar hero

My new favorite necklace from my wonderful hubs!

Best Christmas Card Ever

My sister apparently has a stash of these cards and only gives out one each December. Our family was the lucky recipient this year.

Merry Christmas!

Shortest Day of The Year

Today, December 21st, is the first day of winter and also the shortest day of the year. Oh and it's Matt's half b-day! Only 6 months to go until the big 30!

Here in Greenwich, the sun rose at 7:17am and will set at 4:29pm. I cannot wait for the days to start getting longer. Summer here we come!! I know I am a little too eager. We had the first major snowstorm of the season on Friday. It snowed about 5 inches. And it's supposed to snow again on Christmas Eve. We'll have a white Christmas and Matt and I will be driving to PA in it. Wish us luck!!

Tree Time

It wouldn't be Christmas in CT if we didn't go see the tree at Rockefeller Center. Thanks to the Jones' for inviting us along.

The tree was beautiful this year as always. It was freezing cold and crowded of course, but well worth it. My Aunt Lezlie from DC happened to be there the same time as us! We didn't know it at the time, but afterwards she called me and we realized we had missed each other by minutes. It would have been fun to see her and my cousin.....there's always next year.

Some of My Favorite Things

Life has been a little crazy and exhausting lately so I have been indulging in some new favorite things. Over the last month I have come across some awesome products. I will now share.

1. Netflix-The Stokes introduced us to the awesomeness of Netflix. You get one DVD in the mail at a time and you can also watch unlimited movies online. Yes I have heard of Netflix before and yes I do receive daily pop up ads for it, but I never experienced its greatness until that fateful Friday night at the Stokes. We have watched way too many movies already. I think I could start my own movie critic blog. Here is my first critique: 'In the Land of Women' worst movie EVER.

2. RGB Cable-This wonderful cable hooks our computer up to our brand new 32 inch TV so we are able to use the TV as a monitor. We can also watch our online movies on the TV. I love technology!

3. Skype-So my uncle has been bugging me to get Skype for a long time but I never felt the need to. Well it's awesome! We bought a web-cam and are able to see and talk to most of our family over the Internet for free! It's a must have. I talk to my sister every night and mainly just fool around watching video clips and gossiping.....in a good way:)

4. Mint Chocolate M&M's-To die for. Seriously. The other night I wanted chocolate anything so I bought this bag of M&M's. It was the only thing at the checkout and it was on sale. They are regular chocolate M&M's but twice the size and minty-delicious.

Ok well I'm going to go Skype, watch Netflix and eat my M&M's.

A Week of Fun

Our week of fun started with a trip out with my girlz to see 'Twilight'. No Matt did not see it and he says he never will. I have other plans.......Any who, I LOVED it. I thought it stuck very closely to the book and the actors were awesome. I am going to see it again at Christmas time with my sisters and Marmie.
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The next day we headed out to Cali via Virgin America which is an awesome airline. We landed around 11am and when we emerged from the LAX airport we were greeted with 70 degree weather. I was already at home. We saw Matt's bro Mike and fam and then drove to Ridgecrest where we had a delicious prime rib dinner at The Lodge. Matt used to be the manager of The Lodge.
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Sunday night we drove to the OC and stayed at the Hyatt courtesy of Matt and his awesome benefits. I got to see my old roomie, Julie. It was SO good to see her and her hubs, Asi. Monday we did the Disneyland thing all day. It was so much fun. Then we drove back to Ridgecrest, stopping to see Matt's grandma on the way.
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Tuesday we went shooting in the back country! Wed. we woke up stinking early and headed out to tour the rugged landscape and take engagement pics for Matt's sister Amy and her fiance Tim. We had a lot of fun hiking the falls and meeting Potlicker, the infamous dog of Ballarat, CA.
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Thursday of course was Thanksgiving, which was delicious and full of family and fun. Friday we went shopping, didn't buy anything but had to go anyways!! Then we took the red eye back to JFK and got in around 6am.
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Desert Rain


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All of you LOST fans out there will appreciate this. Michael from Lost was on our flight back and I totally stood behind him when we boarded! I was too afraid to talk to him or take a pic. Didn't want to seem like a creepy 'regular' person. But I finally saw my celebrity! Oh and Matt felt a little uneasy having him on our flight. I mean he obviously has bad karma because of Lost. Now that I think about it the turbulence was hideous. No kidding 10 minutes of hard core shaking and bumpiness. I pretty much started to cry and promised that I would never complain or be horrible again! That lasted about 2 minutes!
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We miss CA and can't wait to go back. XOXO.

Happiness

Yay for 70 degree weather in November. I <3 California.

Nicknames

A nickname is sometimes considered desirable, symbolising a form of acceptance-Wikipedia

When it comes to nicknames my family trumps all other families. Meaning, we have tons of nicknames for each and every family member including our pets. We have some of the more traditional nicknames; for example my name, Ami: Amers, Amers Lambers, amskis, ame. But we like to go with more of the bizarre, 'where did that come from?' nicknames. So now I present you with "Nicknames", a compilation of my family's bizarre thought processes.

Cats

Garfield: Garsies, Papa Fur, Po, De Pope (which my Mom put the kibosh on quite quickly, not wanting to insult her Catholic friends), Mr. Gee (this is the newest name given to him by Jenna and Hailey), SuPurr (or Sir Purr), Garsagoonie, Garfunkel.
Pumpkin (no longer with us): Shinzin Smide, Mama Kitty.
Jack: Jackie, Jack-O-Baby, Jackie-Roo, Jackie-Meow, Jackamo, Giacomo.
Toby: Little Fellow.

People

Mom: Mamatu, Pooh (no idea), Marmie, Ade.
Dad: Daddykins, Du, Stanley, Jor Jor Binks.
Crystal: Shwy, Crittle, Crystaleys, Rasputin.
Lauren: Weeno, Warlen, Laur-Laur, Lorenzo, Josephine, Owen.
Kyra: Bubba Do, K-Rock, Kiki.
Jenna: Jennies, Jotinga, Little J, Jota, Little Ho, Jen Jenny Ben Ben.
Hailey: Hay-Hay, Baby, Hales, Helley, Bays, Baysoos.
Matt: Mateus, Matticus, Broter, Studmuffin.

So I don't know if we are normal or just plain strange.......we rarely call each other by our given names. I'm gonna have to declare Garfield the winner of nicknames and say he is the most loved of all the Peterson's haha.

Are any other families out there just as abnormal as us?

Pobracito

Poor Matt has been SO tired lately. He gets up at 6am every morning and doesn't get home until 7pm so you can imagine how exhausted he is by Friday night. Well today he got up at 7:30am to go play football for 2 hours and then went on a 'Man Date' with some friends while the girls had the baby shower. So we stayed at our friends house to watch the football game and the girls were talking in the kitchen when all of sudden Lindsey says, "I think Matt is asleep". So I look over and sure enough there he is passed out in the arm chair. I could not resist taking this picture. It just goes to show that he was way beyond tired to be able to fall asleep during a BYU football game! Don't worry I got his permission to post this on the world wide web!

So this cute elderly man (who lives at the nursing home where I work) loves to look at the pictures in magazines. It takes him about 3 months to read one magazine so they are always lying around the nurses station. Anyways, I was looking at his National Geographic and found this flashback picture and story! Too precious not to share.

SITTING KITTY
A patient little cat endures lessons in baboonery. According to notes accompanying the photograph—which arrived at the Geographic in 1956 but was never published by the magazine—"Baboon mother tries to make Fluffy sit up like a good monkey baby. But the kitten always falls back on her four legs. It seems like such a hopeless case." The baboon, named Helen, was an attraction at Ross Allen's Reptile Institute, a roadside zoo funded in 1929 in Silver Springs, Florida. She may have been a holdover from the days when Tarzan movies were filmed in the region and Allen provided animal actors for visiting Hollywood productions.
—Margaret G. Zackowitz

Shwy

Happy 22nd B-day to my little sista Shwy aka Crystal. I have called her shwy since we were little....have NO idea where it came from but it fits. She loves to take pictures of herself! I had to choose just a few out of hundreds that were on her facebook page! She is a gorgeous and a very talented girl. As you can see by her pictures, she never has the same hair color for more than a week! She loves animals and works in a boarding home for dogs. She is great at her job. Happy B-day Shwy.

Food, Movies and Cats

So for Halloween we went over to the Broadbent's and ate delicious foods and watched a very scary movie. We ate homemade egg rolls, kettle corn, little smokies, caramel apples and more. We watched, "The Watcher In The Woods". So spooky. If you haven't seen it, you should! It's a Disney, need I say more?

Narek.........(you have to see the movie to get it).

Thursday night after we had gotten into bed, Matt asked me to get up and get him an advil. I was not happy but I got up and went out to the front room. On the table stood a chocolate cat from Godiva! I had seen it a week before and said I wanted it cause it was so adorable. Matt is so sweet. I haven't eaten the cat yet, I just can't bring myself to do so. It's too dang cute.

Halloween Trips

Last weekend Matt and I drove to Boston and met up with some friends. We walked the Freedom Trail and then headed up to Salem for the Halloween festivities. My pics are a little out of order but I don't feel like fixing them.

Matt bought this $7 book that you can follow as you walk the Freedom Trail. He liked to pretend he was our tour guide.
Stokes, Johnsons, Jensons and us in Salem:) Courtesy of Lindsey's camera.

They had a Rita's in Salem! I was SOOO happy as you can tell by the picture!

I saw this clown and had to take this picture for my Sis Lauren. She loves the clown from "IT".

Boston

This radio station in Boston was having a costume contest for dogs! I loved this one the best.

Beginning of Freedom Trail.

Cemetery where Paul Revere's grave stone is.

Matt outside the Boston Hyatt.

Because they love Matt so much, they gave us a mini suite. Oh and they had a mini bar in the room and I woke up with major hunger pains and had to buy a $3.75 kit kat bar. Matt took out three different candy bars for me to choose from and THEN realized each time you take something out it registers at the front desk. So we spent $11.25 on a kit kat, snickers and oreos. Lesson learned.

View from the hotel room.

Go Dad!

My Dad works for PNC Bank, whom today just bought National City Bank. So PNC is now the 5th largest bank in the US! My Dad is the senior vice president of business banking at PNC and just last week was quoted in an article in Smart Money. I will post the link below for all of you that are actually interested in this type of thing!

Here is what my Dad said, (The article is titled, Starting Up: Improve Your Chances of Landing a Loan)

These days, banks not only want to see that a potential borrower has a solid credit score, they want to review their entire package — from business plans to balance sheets, explains Jordan Peterson, senior vice president of business banking at PNC in Pittsburgh. Paperwork should be up to date, an experienced management team needs to be in place and there should be proof that customers are paying on time and debts are under control.

Already having an established banking relationship with a lender will help your chances of getting a loan, says Peterson. (Let me know if you need a small business loan, I have connections!!!)

http://www.smsmallbiz.com/capital/Starting_Up_Better_Your_Chances_of_Landing_a_Business_Loan_.html

Autumn In New York

It's Autumn in New York and I'm not talking about that bizarre Richard Gere movie.

We decided to take the train into the city yesterday and frolic in the fall foliage. Our original plan was to try and win the Wicked lottery and after we didn't win (because we never do!) we were going to walk around Central Park. So basically 2 1/2 hours before each show the ticket office allows people to put their names in for a chance to win front row tickets for $26.25 each. We have tried before and it is just a disappointment because about 100-200 people show up and they only choose 13 people to win. And one of Matt's co-workers didn't win until his 16th try! Crazy right?!

Well anyhow our plan for the day was ruined because.........we won (they gave us second row)! Matt's name was called near the end and we were so excited. The show was great from the singing down to the props. Because we were so close we could see the cast members spitting when they sang. At one point one of the cast members spit on the girls in front of us haha. Definitely a must see.

This is Matt now. You can kinda see in this picture that I have this huge red pimply wart on my nose. People thought I was a fan attending the show in costume. Hopefully it scabs over and falls off soon. Ami forgot to mention how I plowed through the crowd after my name was called. I was knocking off purses right and left. The tourists were giving me looks like, "Who does this guy think he is?" It was awesome. In my defense, I did say excuse me, but they took too long to move.

Time Out

Time out for Women, a conference put on by Deseret Book, came out to Philadelphia this past weekend. It's a conference just for Women.....obviously. My mom and I woke up earlier than I would have liked and caught the train down to Market East in Philly. The conference was held at the Convention Center which is conveniently located right above the train station.

There were probably about 1000 women who attended from a bunch of different states. Hilary Weeks, an LDS singer, asked people to cheer when she said the state they were from. Connecticut was first so I was a little bit nervous and my response was delayed a few seconds. She jokingly told everyone else to try a little better! Anyways, there were women from VA, PA, NJ, FL, CA, TX, DE, WV and others.

There were five presenters and they spoke on subjects such as raising children, marriage, the Atonement, Adversity and knowing that God is always listening to you. Hilary Weeks sang a ton of songs and they had about 6 tables set up with books and CDs from LDS authors. Let me just tell you that Deseret Book banked on this event. I have never seen one person buy so many books and Cd's. At one point they brought out a box of books that everyone was looking for and there was a stampede to this particular table! And to be fair, there are no Deseret Bookstores in the East and come on, buying them online is just not the same!

One of my favorite presenters was Emily Watts. She has written a few books on raising children and she spoke on joy and adversity. She quoted from a talk given by Carlfred Broderick. The talk is titled, "The Uses of Adversity". The talk was made into a book (the book I referred to above). There is a quote from the talk that I really loved and it was quoted three different times through out the day.

"The gospel of Jesus Christ is not insurance against pain. It is a resource in event of pain."

I have to add that I was persuaded to buy the new Hilary Weeks CD and I love it. My Dad bought me one of her Cd's when I was younger and I remember not really listening to it cause Church music was not at all hip. I guess I don't care to be 'hip' anymore!

She sang most of the songs from the CD and told the stories that inspired her to write them. My favorite song is, "Just Let Me Cry". She wrote this song when someone she knew lost their 9 year-old girl to brain cancer. The family sent out DVDs with pictures and videos of their daughter and in the DVD case was a note that said, 'Please don't try to find the right words to say or feel like you have to make us feel better. Please just let us cry.'

So all in all it was a great day and if there is a Time Out coming to a city near you, I would definitely try to go!

Mom and I sporting our 'free' (or as Matt says, '$40 bags!)

The new Temple will only be about 4 blocks from this location

Great-Spectacular-Wonderful News

Today President Monson announced that a Temple is going to be built in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Temple is where members of the church perform sacred ordinances and are sealed to their spouses and families for time and all eternity.
When President Monson said that he was going to announce five new temples, I crossed my fingers and chanted, "Philly, Philly." It's funny because apparently my mom and sister both did the same thing! I'm sure back in Philadelphia there was a lot of jumping up and down, screaming (mom!), and crying after he announced the good news. The members in the Philadelphia area have been waiting for this day for a long time.
I told Matt that we have to move close to Philly so we can participate in the excitement. We are extremely grateful that Heavenly Father listened to the prayers of the members and blessed them for their faithfulness.
**Just an little side note....Found out today that the Temple will be built in the inner city near City Hall. It will be very similar to the Manhattan Temple(http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/manhattan/).
It will have two chapels for the city members and church administrative offices. Probably won't be built for at least 5 years, as right now there is a lease on the land for parking.**

Happy Birthday Jenna

Jenna and Ami

Happy Birthday to my lil' Sista Jenna who turned the big 14 today! 14 is a BIG birthday in the church....for those that don't know, Jenna now gets to go to church dances. Lucky you.

Matt and I are really into sports right now. The BYU football team is undefeated and is ranked #7 in the national polls. The Phillie's are 2-0 in the playoffs and the Angels are just 'in' the playoffs. The Angels are more of Matt's team and they were doing really well but for some reason they can't beat the Redsocks when it comes to the playoffs. It's only 0-1 so we'll see if they can pull it off.

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Oh so cute story. I called my sister Hailey (age 9) last night to see if they were watching the Phillie's game. (my sister Jenna is a huge fan). So they were but Hailey wasn't really talking so I told her to give the phone to Dad. This is how the convo went:

"Give the phone to Dad."

"Dad's not home, he's at the Phillie's game."

"How did he get a ticket?"

"Um...I think either President Olson or President Uchtdorf had an extra ticket."

"Really Hailey......President Uchtdorf? I didn't know they were such close friends!"

"Yeah, he had an extra ticket for Dad."

"Hailey....he lives in Salt Lake and he is in the First Presidency."

"Oh, well I guess it was President Olson."

She didn't really seemed phased that she had said President Uchtdorf! She was actually thinking of President Coltron (my dad is in the stake presidency with Pres. Olson and Pres. Coltron). I just thought that was kind of funny.

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Oh and a shout out for Twilight: The soundtrack for the movie comes out on Nov. 4th and one of the songs is available to listen to on Stepheniemeyer.com. And if you haven't done it yet, you have to read the rough draft of Midnight Sun, which is also posted on her website. It is Twilight told from Edwards point of view and it is really really good. Ok that is all from me.

A church in Greenwich, CT during autumn.

I just realized tomorrow is the first day of Fall! I am at the point where I'm excited for the cool crisp feel of Fall but I'm not quite ready to let go of the lazy days of Summer. I love Fall out East; the colors of the changing leaves, the pumpkins and hay rides, apple picking and Halloween!

Yesterday the weather was gorgeous. I think it was in the high 60's and not a cloud in the sky! We had planned on heading up to Boston for the weekend but that nasty cold going around found its way to Matt. Instead, we stayed in and watched movies and I spent a lot of money online shopping! It's my new thing. I bought the movie, "Lady In White", it's a 1988 ghost/mystery film about a kid that witnesses a young girl's murder and then befriends the ghost of the girl. Funny enough it's the same kid from "Witness". My Dad loves this movie and showed it to my sisters and me when we were younger. He kept promising us he would rent it again and we would watch it for Halloween. That was 7 years ago and Blockbuster no longer carries it. So I went online and found it on Amazon.com for a pretty good price. I'm going to surprise him with it when we go home in a few weeks. Hope he doesn't read this until after I give it to him. Dad-If you do read this....act surprised!

I found this website, Hulu.com, which features free movies and TV shows. Today I watched Xanadu, loved the music, but don't think I will ever watch it again. IMDB.com also features free movies and TV shows. Something to do when the weather turns for the worst.

Matt and I are going to try for the third time to get up to Boston in October. I think the scenery will be much better and we might just be able to head up to Salem and check out the witch museum!

Greenwich in the Fall.

Match-O-Matic II

The abc website has this fun 'game' that shows you which presidential candidates philosophy fits you best. It has 13 statements on differing issues and you click on the statements you most agree with. Then in the end it shows you which candidates ideas you support. It's fun and educational!
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/MatchoMatic/fullpage?id=5542139

And The Winner Is.......

For all of you who want a chance at Jason from The Bachelorette, you'd better get going. Jason is the new Bachelor and ABC is accepting applications right now! The show premieres in January and I cannot wait. I'm actually kind of surprised he would leave his kid again. I hope he finds what he is looking for.


Let's hope the winner is not another Cheyne........whatever happened to them anyways?