Happy Birfday

Happy birthday to my lil' sister Lauren. She turned 23 the other day. She returned from her mission in Feb. and I'm glad she did because we talk like every day and I was sad for 18 months....but happy she served a mission!

If I Could Live Anywhere

I would most definitely live in San Diego. I love that place. Matt and I were able to take another fun vacation this Summer to California. We started our week off by driving down to the Moffitt family reunion in Huntington Beach/Buena Park. On Friday we met up with Matt's parents and stayed at the Hyatt right on Huntington Beach. We had a great Mexican Buffet for dinner and enjoyed cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents that night in our hotel room! We were lucky enough to get an office suite! Some of the meeting rooms at Hyatt also serve as guest rooms. So our room had a huge board room, wet bar, and a pull out couch! I think we had 15 people in that room just hanging out and playing games. It was perfect!

Saturday we drove over to Buena Park and had a get together at a really nice park. Matt's sister Lisa and her family and brother Mike and his family were there too! It was a lot of fun. We stayed there for about 6 hours and then if was off to the airport to drop Matt off. Matt had to work Sunday-Wednesday so he was sweet enough to fly back and let me stay with the car so I could go to my family reunion in San Diego. I was so proud of the fact that I drove from LA to San Diego and basically around San Diego all week long. My parents didn't rent a car so I drove everyone around and it wasn't that bad!

Grandma Moffitt, her husband Walt, her four children and her grandchildren

My family flew in late Saturday and so I had a couple of hours to hang out with my cousins. They basically played video games all night while I watched....teenagers. I love staying with my Uncle Whitney, he is known as the party uncle and he always has great food (sweets) and spoils us. I think we ate out almost every night while we were there! On Sunday we had a nice home cooked meal of course. Monday we drove over to the Mormon Battalion Museum and I was so impressed! Matt and I went there on our honeymoon but it was kind of boring. They recently renovated it and I felt like I was at Disneyland. Afterwards we went to a fun Mexican restaurant in old town.

Do not love my wispy hair but I like this picture with my baby sister

Tuesday we went to the beach! I love the beach, however I got the worst sun burn of my life. The weather is so cool in San Diego that you have no idea you are burning. It was horribly painful...like I couldn't even sit down for a few days. Anyways it was still fun! My Aunt Lezlie and cousins Katie and Nate met us there. They had just flown in from VA. At this beach there was a rock wall behind where we set up our canopy and millions of ground squirrels live in it. They were everywhere....I fed them of course.

All of the sisters together minus Kyra. She still had school in Idaho :(

Wednesday we went to Sea World! I hadn't been there since my honeymoon. We saw all of the shows and rode all of the rides. The Shamu show is kind of lame now. The trainers don't get in the water with shamu, they just dance around and clap their hands. I know it's for their safety so it's all good.

Little Sebastian!!

Soaking wet after the river rapids ride

Wednesday night Matt flew in! On Thursday we went to the San Diego temple to do baptisms. It was fun to have the family together in the Temple. Afterwards we had to get In-N-Out and See's Candies!

Friday was Harry Potter day!!! LOVED the movie. Might have shed a few tears. It was a great ending to the best series! I was a little surprised at how packed the theater was. We got there an hour beforehand and couldn't find seats together. I guess it was the first showing of the day but I thought all the mega lovers went to the midnight showing. I am too old to stay up that late.

Outside the theater. Missing Keeks (she went to the midnight show in Idaho and dressed up...)

Friday night we drove over to Glendora to visit some old friends. I lived in Glendora until I was 13 and it was fun to show Matt my OLD stomping grounds. Unfortunately the 50's diner was no more :( Saturday we drove up to Simi Valley to visit some friends. We were so nervous about the 405 being closed but Matt said he had never seen the freeway more clear! We lucked out. We stayed in Simi Valley until 3pm and then back to Phoenix it was. We made record time!

Donut Man in Glendora. My mom used to take us here after swim lessons

Matt and I with Crystal. She's a funny little girl!

And we can't forget Trumpy! We watched Mystery Science Theater one night and just laughed and laughed.....all Trumpy did during the movie was touch people and they would die. Best line- "Do you know what playing is Trumpy?" "Yes, it's when I break you in half"

Makes Me Laugh

May not be very nice but still........

type byurejects.com into your web browser........hehehehe

This little doodad makes me laugh every time :)

Summer Is Over

You'd never know though because it is still 110 degrees outside...bleh. According to the calendar Summer's not technically over but Hobby Lobby's Halloween and Christmas sections tell me otherwise. Plus school is back in session for the youngins and that means more traffic in the morning.

I also feel like Summer has come to an end because my vacationing has come to a halt. And as of yesterday my schooling has been completed! I graduated in May but I stayed on at my internship until yesterday. It was a sad farewell.

When I first was accepted into grad school I was so excited. Then came the first tuition payment and I felt sick. I had no idea how I was going to afford the tuition. I also had no idea where my current income was going to come from since I really couldn't work and go to school at the same time. (I mean you can but they don't advise it). I just remember thinking this wasn't going to work out. When I went for my first interview with the internship office at ASU, I remember asking the lady if there were any paid internships. She said NO. I was again starting to doubt my ability to go back to school. That same day I got a text message from a friend in my ward who had connections to LDSFS. She said the adoption worker was looking for an intern and to call her! I was so excited. I called and set up an interview for the following day. My dream has always been to work in Adoption.

When it came time for my interview I was nervous and excited all at the same time. I worked for LDSFS in the past but I really wanted to learn more about adoption and hopefully do some clinical. During my interview the supervisor told me she had been praying for extra help. She covers Phoenix, Tucson, Safford, Yuma, etc. all by herself! She was swamped. She told me I was an answer to her prayers! That felt good. However, what she didn't know was that this opportunity was an answer to mine. Before the end of the interview she looked at me and said, "you know this is a paid position right?" I seriously couldn't believe it! It paid just enough to make up for most of what I was losing by quitting my full time job. I was so happy! I don't know if I could have gone to school without the pay.

An entire year later and I have grown more than I can put into words. It's been the best internship I think I could have had. There were hard times, but those experiences are the ones that make you grow the most. My internship was the most rewarding part of my education and that alone was worth every penny.

Thrifty and Nifty??

It has been a funtabulous Summer. But because we had so much fun going to Hawaii, California, Girl's Camp, etc. etc. Matt and I have decided we need to scale back the spending. This has not been easy. For one, we love to eat out, and two I love to buy whatever I want when I want to buy it! We decided to try a one income budget for the month of August and I'd say we are doing pretty good.

One sad bit of news is that we decided to cut out 'unnecessary' spending. Therefore, Netflix has been chopped. I am so sad. I'm pretty sure in the last 3 years I have used each and every benefit to the max. I always watched the movie right when I got it and sent it back the same day. I also have watched many, many, many shows and movies on instant play (remember back to last Summer when all I was doing is going to one class a week!!). Since they are jacking up their prices we've decided to just get rid of it altogether. I think I will be Ok with this decision because of Redbox and the city library.

~

Our library is a little gem that I finally decided to check out a couple of weeks ago. I've been reading a ton lately and I have a list of about 20 books to buy. Well I can't buy them because of our scaling back so I was frantically trying to figure out what to do.....then a light bulb came on...check the library. Matt and I loved the Greenwich library when we lived there (best library in the WORLD). So Matt and I drove over to our city's library and it turns out the library is a 700 square foot room. Matt was disgusted (we were pretty privileged in Greenwich). I decided to give it a try since I really wanted my book. Sure enough they had my book and every other book on my list! SCORE. They also have every new release on DVD and you can check out 50 items at a time! So there you go....I will just reserve any movie I want to see and then go pick it up when it comes in....no need for Netflix. It will still be a sad day when I cancel it (I promised Matt that I would do it by the end of this month...I just hate good-byes).

Another way we are saving money is by canceling Matt's parking pass. He found a parking lot downtown that is free. The reason it is free is because it is 10 additional blocks from his office and is an outside lot. Poor Matt walks 10 blocks in 110 degree weather only to get inside his baking hot car. This was all his idea so I gotta give him props. We are saving a good chunk of money!

I could go on and on about the ways we are saving money; turning off the ac 7 hours a day, freezing meals, not eating out :(, doing our own yard work, etc.

Also my friend Alexa has introduced me to DIY blogs and now I'm addicted. I spent 3 hours today at thrift and craft stores. I'm currently looking for the perfect dresser to re-do and I won't pay more than $25 for it. I'm hitting up goodwill tomorrow! Watch out!!

I hope I can start to contribute and bring in some money! Now that we've been to Hawaii I have the travel bug (let's be honest, I've always had the travel bug!!) I need to start saving for our 2012 trip. I'm thinking a cruise to the Caribbean...........