Huntington Beach Weekend

I just got back from the mid-singles conference in Huntington Beach and I had a good time. I appreciate everyone's prayers in my behalf. It means so much to me to know how much everyone cares and wants me to find my eternal companion just as much as I want to find him. It gives me hope (which makes sense because that was the theme of the conference - along with a scripture of course) that there are normal and cute guys out there. I participated in three rounds of speed dating and didn't meet anyone that caught my eye, but it was actually a lot of fun. I felt like I was somewhat hindered by the girls that I went with because they weren't exactly my type. Imagine a girl dancing all by herself in front of the speaker spinning around, bouncing and flipping her hair and doing this almost all night. That was one of the girls that I went with. But hey at least they got me there. If it wasn't for them I would not have gone. There were 1400 mid-singles there. That is how large our sacrament meeting was. One guy that I thought was cute I found on LDS linkup so I am going to email him. Then I went to Don and Alison's Sunday night and stayed until Monday night. It was fun to see them and the kids. Garrett kept calling me Mom - it was pretty funny. Olivia told me I have a big nose so now I'm definitely getting rhinoplasty. Michelle and I went and watched Adam in moot court last week. It felt so serious and real and Michelle forgot to stand up for the judges so she almost got kicked out. Just kidding. Adam was awesome! He will make a great attorney.
Love you all,
Natalie

DCFC Concert + Other Stuff

WE just went and saw the Death Cab for Cutie (they are an indie rock band) concert tonight and it was amazing! It was definitely the 2nd best concert I have ever been to (U2 is my favorite band of all-time and thus my favorite concert). They played at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel. The set list was awesome and their performance and energy were great! We went with Daniel and Brittney and had a great time. Good concerts always lift my spirits for some time afterward which is good because finals are coming up soon. Also, I advanced to the next round of the moot court competition at my school. Moot court is basically pretend court. And in the next round, I have to argue for the opposite side of what I argued the first time. So I have to prepare for that and prepare for finals at the same time - and law school finals are incredibly difficult and I get nervous diarrhea just thinking about them (I know, that's not the nicest image, but A) I didn't ask you to imagine it; and B) I wanted to put the nervousness into perspective) Thanks, bye.

P.S. to my blog: Jaylon and Maggie's pictures--cute! especially the one of Maggie and Jaylon with shades. Mom

Paso News

Our house smells! We've had painters here the last three days painting ceilings, doors(15) and woodwork, using oil paint. They'll be here again in a few minutes and will hopefully finish up today. I started my water exercise class last week after not going for over a year due to the pool being refurbished. It's good to be back in the water again. Our trip to Sacramento over conference weekend was fun. We stayed at Andrea's, spent time at Grant's, and enjoyed our time with both families. For some reason the kids just keep growing! Ethan seemed to take to me a lot and was always coming to me, hugging me and smiling. I loved it. He also scared me a little. I'll explain. The guys were at priesthood meeting sat. night and Andrea was in the hot tub with Gabrielle, Cal, Carson and Ethan. I was not in the water, but watching them. Ethan kept teasing us with acting like he was trying to get into the main pool (which was cold!) He'd try to get in, with Andrea and Carson trying to keep him in the hot tub. Finally, he did jump in the pool. And of course he loved it, but I was worried about the water being too cold. Oh, and Lisa had just run a quick errand. Try as we did, we couldn't get him to come out, but when Lisa came back, he just got right out. I guess it doesn't sound as scary as it was. Carson was genuinely concerned for his big brother and did not want him to get in the pool. Cal is amazing with hiw knowledge of the ABC's and the sounds they make. He knows every one. Gabrielle has such an imagination and it was fun "playing" different things with her. Then last weekend (Fri and Sat) we drove up to San Bruno, near San Fran, to see Tanner and Mason play lacrosse. Greg is one of the coaches so we saw him, too. Their team is awesome, it's nationally ranked, and the boys both played well and scored several points. The only downside was that we didn't get to spend enough time with them. And oh, it was hot--90 deg. And that is hot for that area. Our next outing will be the end of the month when we'll go to Alison's for a day and night(not long enough) and then on to Palm Springs for an ISSAC board meeting for three days. Max has been in the hospital the last few days for heart irregularity and breathing problems, although he is at home now. He's doing fine but has to be on oxygen fulltime. He's on medication for the heart problem. Natalie, our prayers are with you! Love to you all, Mom

I was watching Good Morning America the other day and they had this guy on (I don't remember his name). Anyway, he has some famous blog and he asked if people thought that the United States needed a new motto. He decided to have a contest asking for people to submit was they thought it should be, in 6 words, and the one that they chose as the winner is: "Our Worst Critics Prefer to Stay". Totally true!

Michelle

Pictures of Jaylon

New Poll: Let's get some votes!

I just posted another poll about the summer movies. The last poll about the NBA saw the Lakers as the favorites from our family with 10 votes (5 of which were from me). I already voted for The Dark Knight. I LOVED Batman Begins and I think that the new one will be phenomenal. Ate mais!

The Future of Our Nation

This is a great AP photo from Foxnews.com. We have a mouth-breather and a cross-eyed drunk that might be running our country next year. Woopeeee! If one of these retards gets elected, I just might move to a different country, like maybe Darfur or Iran or Neverland Ranch!

I know that Maggie tried to put a slide show of Jaylon on the blog but it didn't work. Maybe some pointers, Andrea? Matt is taking a ballroom dance class (fine arts credit/cute girls), anyway for extra credit he could go to a performance of the BYU ballroom dance team. We went Friday night and I must say I was impressed. No wonder they win so many awards! Love to all, Michelle

http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll254/maggie99_photos/?action=view¤t=cbe52eb1.pbw

Congrats Grant on passing the test! Awesome! Andrea mentioned a mid singles conference I am attending at the end of this month. It is in Huntington Beach April 25-27. It is for ages 30-40. I am going with a girl I work with at the temple and her friend. I really hope and pray I will meet the person I want to marry at this conference. Since my patriarchal blessing says - through the various singles programs of the church I will find the person I will want as my eternal companion. So if everyone would keep me in their prayers that would be great and hopefully I will have something good to report after that weekend.
Love,
Natalie

General Conference

We had a wonderful weekend watching conference. I really enjoyed Priesthood Session and being able to hear President Monson speak. You can tell the difference when the mantle of Prophet is newly placed on someone. I really enjoyed it and now feel more edified. I hope that everyone felt the same.

BTWPSFMFAF: I did get that externship with Judge Allen Earl and will be working there this summer. I am pretty excited because the endoscopy center cases will go through that office. If you don't know about the endoscopy center cases, it was basically that the employees were re-usisng needles that had been used on patients with HIV and Hep C so that some other people were lucky enough to get infected! But when those cases come in, I won't be able to say anything more so please don't ask me.

OAABTWPSFMFAFEFG: Congratulations to Grant on passing the test and becoming a therapist! I love you all! Byeeee

Well-for those of you who haven't heard-Grant passed his test!!  He is a real life therapist!  And he is a CSAT (Certified sex addiction therapist).  Woo hoo bring on the pervs!  (i'm kidding I know yo're not a perv Don).  Anyway that's good-now Lisa can go back to sleeping in her own bed rather than with Ethan so Grant can get his sleep for studying.  I'm really excited because Tina is coming to visit in May-I haven't seen her in almost 2 yrs.  Michelle I posted that it was a "Wiseman weekend"-Kyle got lucky cause he was in route to Wiseman festivities-and it took me 5 minutes to figure out what BTW stands for, what happened to P.S.?  Post some pics of JAylon por favor.  Natalie why don't you post some info re: Singles weekend in Huntington?  Mom just told me about it.  bye peeps!   

Back in the Groove!

After spending 7 days with Alison's family in Cabo I am back into the normal routine. We had a good time but I'm not sure how soon I will eat Mexican food again! Spencer's thumb is healing nicely and it looks like he will not lose the soft tissue after all. For those of you who don't know, Spencer tried to cut the pad of his thumb off with an exacto knife, 11 stitches later... It was 60 degrees here today but the forecast is for rain and more snow in the mountains. Matt went boarding on Wednesday and the snow was great. My tulips are starting to come up, which is a major accomplishment for someone who has never planted flowers before. Ryan and Maggie are settling in. He got his CDL permit and he just has to pass the driving test. Jaylon is so much fun. He is always so happy.

BTW: Next time my siblings come to town and don't call I might just start taking it personally.

Amen sister! to not living in the cold/snow. It sucks. I love the pictures of Gabrielle especially her crack. I'm looking forward to this weekend - watching General Conference and hearing from Pres. Monson and Sven and Jenz Monson.
Love you all,
Natalie

hello-Mom thank you for your post. I am so grateful for your and Dad's testimonies and example-I know it is what sustained me through "times". I truly consider myself blessed to have been born into your home. I will be seeing you in a couple of hours since you and Dad are coming to visit. We're going out to dinner tonight with mom, dad, Grant and Lisa-hopefully we'll be celebrating Grant passing his test today!! It's like a 50% pass rate and he'll have to wait 6 months to take it again-yikes!! We were in Utah last weekend for Aidan's baptism. We were only ther fri night through mon with an all Wiseman agenda. I did see Kyle and audrey though cause she lives like 1/2 mile from our hotel. Gabrielle had fun playing the Wii-as you can see. She was boxing Kyle and bowling. She was also so excited about the snow. She cam in on Sun morn and woke us up saying, "mommy I think it snowed! Ican't believe this is happening to my life!!" She wanted to do snow angels, but that wasn't going to happen without snow pants so she settled for snowballs. 2 things that have been cemented into my head since this trip-1 I hate traveling with kids-just a big fat pain (sleep schedule jacked, eating crappy food, no toys to play with, no break, and wrestling cal so that he won't get down and jump on everything in the airport) 2 I hate the snow and cold-I am destined to live in houses with no character because I can't ever live in the cold. Love you guys!