Adorable

Okay, so I owe you all some pictures from last week. It was spring break and to celebrate it, we bought ourselves a new king size mattress, really nice, and are happy to no longer be sleeping on a very old a worn out mattress on the floor (our bed frame broke last month). Then on Monday, we went to Tuscon for the day. We had a blast at the botanical gardens, esp the butterfly exhibit. Then we went to the zoo down there and really enjoyed feeding the giraffes. The next day, I enjoyed crafting with my sister Katie and letting Jason play with mom and jennie. However, Jay got sick that day, and through the week, me, Dustin, Mom, Katie, Chris, Dad, and Jennie all got sick as well. Amid the rotating sickness (and it was pretty bad, trust me, you don't want more details than that) we still managed to paint our kitchen (I owe you pictures for that too) and go out and see Alice in Wonderland to celebrate our anniversary.

However, tonight we are having a birthday party for me at our house, and Dustin is gone all day taking a test to officially get his credential transferred to AZ. So I have a busy day of cooking and cleaning by myself with Jason to prevent me from doing much. So I don't have time to detail all our Tucson trip and painting pictures for you. (Tucson pix are on my facebook page if you want to go see them).

But I couldn't resist putting at least these pictures up. I took Jay to get some photos done 2 weeks ago, and I think they turned out great. Hope you enjoy too, and if I don't find time to blog before next week, Happy Easter as well!

Home Sweet Home

Recently, we have made some bigger changes to our downstairs area. Aside from extensive cleaning this weekend in preparation for some visitors, we have also done some decorating and furniture reorganizing.

Specifically, thanks to Katie and Chris, we got some new-to-us leather sofas, which went in the family room and meant we could move the blue sofa into the living room with the matching chair, and move the piano to a new spot to make room for the sofa. I finished sewing all the curtains and matching pillows (minus the round ones, I bought at Ross - perfect color matches!) for the family room and dining room, bought some wall decor and hung it, moved the piano, and got some nice decor stuff on top of the cupboards. We even bought bar stools and assembled them, as well as reupholstering our chairs.

We still need to paint (not sure what color yet... we're open to suggestions, esp. to compliment the burnt orange wall), and we plan on getting a brown ottoman instead of a black one, and eventually see an entertainment type center where the TV is, as well as refinishing the kitchen table and chairs to have brown wood instead of white.

But I thought I would post a few pics so you can see at least our downstairs area. Let me know if you have any decor suggestions!

Do you have my name?

On February 27th and 28th, we had the privilege of being reunited with some of our favorite people in the world - Denny and Tina Niumatalolo. These musical Maori friends of ours started a choir in California called Latter-day Ambassadors. Those rehearsals and firesides were the highlights of our Sundays. Tina writes all the music herself, just words on papers and she plays the songs by memory. None of her music is notated. So we learn to sing all the parts by ear in rehearsal. And she can play the songs on the piano in any key. She doesn't realize she's playing it in the wrong key sometimes and just quickly transposes it. She's amazing.

Denny is a spiritual giant and conducts the choir. His testimony is the sweetest thing you've ever experienced. The way he loves each individual just pierces your soul and overwhelms you. And of course, they have great senses of humors, contagious laughs, and always throw an amazing potluck.


Unfortunately, they moved to Utah and the choir in CA disbanded. They formed a new choir in UT and are blessing the lives of those singers and everyone they preform for. Well, Last weekend, they came down to Gilbert AZ, to two chapels 15 min from our house, and preformed a special fireside called "Do you have my name?" on family history and temple work. We were invited to join them, and some of our CA friends from the choir made the trip out.

We were so grateful to the Wyzlics and the Somes for watching Jason both nights while we preformed. Dustin had a speaking part he had to memorize of a young confederate soldier. Hearing him speak in a southern drawl was quite entertaining. Overall, the whole presentation was moving, and it was such a treat to get to be a part of Ambassadors again.



We even got to go to an "after party" of sorts Saturday night. We picked Jay up from the sitter and brought him with us where he slept on the floor soundly, despite dozens of loud adults and a "jam session" going on 2 feet away.



Jason eventually woke up and had fun with the dog of the homeowners where the party was at. He loved to give the dog kisses.


During the "jam session" Dustin got to sing a solo in one of our favorite songs "What would you do." We got it on video. The lighting isn't ideal, but it will give you a feel for the type of music, as well as the nature of the group we were with.


Oh how we miss the Ambassadors already! We can't wait until the next reunion we can attend.

Boogers and headbands and fetishes, oh my!

Since birth, little Jay has had a clogged tear duct in his left eye. This has created constant eye boogers and eye crusties, sometimes being so bad that his eye is sealed shut when he wakes up in the morning or after a long nap. We were constantly wiping out gunk with our fingers, so much so that since the new year, Jason has been fighting back and poking everyone else in the eye with his finger, to see how they like it. No drops or massaging was working, and it didn't clear up on its own, so finally we went in to have it surgically fixed.

Here is Jason's eye before the procedure.


On Tuesday, February 9th, Dustin took Jason to Desert Banner for his surgery. Mommy was too sick to take him herself, and didn't want to be around Jason because if he was sick, they would reschedule the procedure. The procedure was pretty simple - light anesthesia, stick a probe down the tear duct, puncture the membrane that never opened, squirt some saline solution down the duct to make sure it was open, and let Jay wake up from the anesthetics. He was home a few hours after he left. No adverse effects from the anesthesia and he was eating and playing like normal that afternoon. Here he is just come home from the hospital. His eye already looked so much better. The pen on the forehead was to make sure they did the correct eye.


Otherwise, Jason has just been his normal, loveable self. He loves exploring all things new, such as the drivers seat with all its gadgets and gizmos.

He is going through a shoe fetish and just loves putting mommy and daddy's shoes on.

He has even gotten fairly good at walking around in them.



He also has taken to wearing Mommy's headband as a necklace and weighing himself on the bathroom scale (he's about 23.5-24 pounds these days). If he can do it naked, all the better.

He also dances whenever he notices music. We just love to watch him. We hope you do too!

Picture a Christmas ....

Well, since I haven't posted pictures in quite some time, I figured I would spent an hour or so loading pictures on here so you could have your fix. Here is our Christmas break in photos.

Jay received a large teddy bear as an early Christmas present and has been hugging all things plush ever since.

On the 21st, Dustin's mom came in town. We took her to see the Mesa Temple lights.
Christmas Eve we carried on the Owens tradition of having Mexican food for dinner. Jay was quite the ham that night, and took a very smiley picture with Grandpa Karl.
He even let mommy get a picture taken.
After Mexican food, we went back to Grandma and Grandpa Owens house for a Luke 2 reading and to play with Katie and Chris' new puppy. Dustin's sister Brooke (who came in town on the 23rd) made fast friends with puppy Toby.
Christmas morning, Jay made off like a bandit. Since all things go up to his ear like a cell phone, we decided to get him an actual toy phone. So did Grandma and Grandpa.
We also found a cool Handy Manny truck and doll and Jay now loves to fix spark plugs and radiators with his little screwdrivers.
Whitney was forbidden to go in the garage for the week before Christmas and finally found out why - her new jogging stroller was hiding out in there.
For a second time, Dustin and Whitney both got each other the exact same gift without knowing it.

One of the musical instruments Jay got was a "wiggles" guitar.
Thanks to Katie and Chris, Dustin can exercise like the superhero he is.
Here's Jay with his haul. With the exception of the nice dump truck ride-on toy he got from Neina, and the toy phone from grandma nad grandpa, all his other toys are from garage sales and Goodwill.
The day after Christmas, still stuffed with Apple Fritters and Ham dinner, we saw Neina and Brooke off, then headed out to CA to visit with friends. Marco, Jamie and baby Eliana Vergara (she's the adorable one below) were kind enough to let us crash at their apartment all week.
The next day, we enjoyed going to our old English ward and seeing friends, then afterwards having a "Ugly Christmas Sweater and Sock" Party at some friends' house. We loved getting to meet little Noah Nielsen finally, and Jay loved figuring out his high tech swing.
Here we are in our outfits. I sewed all the things on my sweater by hand. Dustin borrowed his from some friends in AZ. Dustin won the contest and we got a yarn-knit Christmas Kleenex box cover as a prize.
Jay enjoyed playing with Eliana in the down moments back at the Vergaras.
We went to the mall one day and had fun just goofing around.
We also went to visit the Liu's and Sophie sure was excited to see Jason again.
Hooray for old friends.
New Year's Eve we got to see the Sepulvedas and Jay and Jonathon (13 days older than Jay) got to finally play together again.
New Year's Eve at the Cox's - Little Emily was all smiles.
Erica, Beka and I had a good time chatting up in the girls room that night.
Brian, Larry and the boys had a good time on the wii down stairs.
The next morning, I got to meet up with my friend and old co-worker Becky Human on campus.
As soon as I set Jay down, he walked straight into the fountain, so we had to take his wet clothes off and let him roam around in just a diaper. He didn't seem to mind at all. The weather was pretty nice New Year's day.
Later that day we went to a park to read scriptures and feed the ducks. Jay actually said, "ack, ack ack" to the ducks (his form of quacking).
He LOVED going on the swings and slides with Daddy.

That night we were invited to the Flores' home for Tamales. Que Rico! Jay loved the balloons they had left over from their festivities.


The next morning, we spent a few hours packing up, loading a BBQ onto our luggage rack, and driving to South County where we stayed at the Clarke's home and got ready for Owen and Theresa's reception in Oceanside. The Gooches and the Haddocks were there as well, so it was so fun to see family.
Jason and cousin Gavin (6 months apart) got to see more of each other.
Jay also got to play with cousins Lauren, Jocelyn (and Courtney - not pictured, all 2nd cousins) as well as Spencer (and not-pictured Isabelle, first cousins). Jason enjoyed playing and dancing at the reception, and was a pretty good sleeper for most of the car ride home the next day.

Let's Get Down To Business

I know. Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone, and I have a month of Jason's antics to make up for. But that's not what this post is about. I promise I will catch you up with some quality photos and videos, including one of him dancing I took tonight. But that's all for later.

For right now, I just wanted to update you on my current hunt for employment. Needing to make about $600/month after taxes to meet our budget, I was eager to get piano students signed up. Turns out I am one of 3 or 4 piano teachers in our ward, so church hasn't proven the best avenue of publicity. I had Dustin send out an email to all the teachers at school, and that got some hits, though many have never followed through to committ. I tried putting fliers up around the neighborhood, and that got me no where as well. So I decided to pay $75 and put up a vendor booth at a local community fair. It happened to be on a weekend that Dustin was gone a scout camp out (he's the new boy scout leader for the 16-18 year old boys), and so I had to get a lot of help from neighbors and friends for babysitting Jay and getting all the tables and tents shippped over and set up. But I had about 12 potential leads come out of it, four of which are starting lessons next week (Along with 2 others from Dustin's school). However, with all of the discounts I had to give to be competitive with other AZ teachers, I still have a long way to go to make up that deficit.

Which brings me to my huge exciting news. I got a message on facebook at the beginning of December from a lady I knew in California. She asked me for a favor, saying something most people didn't know about her is that she is a development executive for a production company, there are two scripts her partner had written and she promised she'd get a second opinion on them and wanted to know if I'd be willing to read them and give my thoughts. I said of course I would, and she sent the scripts (along with a small thank you check) and I was so excited to have actually been paid, even something at all, to do what I love. Well, turns out they really loved my notes and rewrites on the scripts, and her partner wanted to meet with me when I came to California this week.

Dustin and I met with them today, and instead of turning in the scripts back to them, I am keeping the scripts because he is getting me the electronic file, and wants me to add in all of my corrections and rewrites myself on both scripts, as well as read over two new scripts, and eventually write the script for a story he has outlined, which if it sold and was produced, I'd get to share the screen credit and base writer fee with this guy.

So there you have it. Four years of not touching my screenwriting or doing anything with my degree and all of a sudden, this opportunity falls into my lap. I feel so lucky. Just to hear that someone in the business likes what I contribute made my day, my week, my year! And even if it never goes beyond these couple of projects for this one company, at least I can say I was paid to do script doctoring, to do what I love. Just wanted to share with my excitement with you all.