I love the temple... and geese

Yesterday was so great. Some of our very best friends, Jason and Michelle, invited us to their sealing to their adopted daughter Chase Delaney in the Columbia, SC temple. Awesome experience.
For those who don't know what that means, it is an ordinance performed in LDS temples which seals a family for all eternity. So we aren't just together in this life; we get to put up with each other forever. :)


And I guess this is my chance to spotlight Michelle! She is one of my bestest friends ever. She makes me laugh so hard. Of course, coming from me that may not be saying much. Let me put it this way then. I can count on one hand the number of females that have made me laugh so hard I have vomitted. (sorry for the crudeness). Three that I can recall. Very close to 4 though. The first...Janna Bonana. second..Beth. third...MICHELLE. and Jeanette has come pretty close to provoking my upchuck reflex as well. She may get me Memorial Day weekend though. And to me that is really saying something. I think I just feel so much joy around these women that when they make me laugh I get so much more excited that my body can't handle it and it makes me sick. True mark of friendship.
In all seriousness though, Michelle is such a great example to me of a good friend, wife and mother. Chase is so lucky to have been found and adopted by these 2 wonderful people. I am so lucky and blessed to be apart of their lives.
Such a classic picture.


And then to add to an amazing weekend, after 3 weeks of headache we FINALLY were able to complete the construction of our bookcase!! Yeah....3 weeks people. Now, I am not one to complain, however, just in case you have an overwhelming urge to buy furniture from Costco...have them open and check inside it before you leave...(if they can even do that). Anyway, it is the gorgeous Mahogany one with the lights coming from the top, and glass shelving. I won't go into details...let's just say...not all functional pieces arrived in box. Each week we would realize something else was busted or missing from the box. But Spence got it set up and I got our books in it...
I still need to add a plant here and a picture there to some shelves, but you get why I was so excited to discuss its completion. Now that I have our extra bedroom clear of those huge boxes and piles of books, I can get it painted and set up to have visitors....or hopefully a kid. And just to add a note on what my favorite books are on those shelves, in no particular order... Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, the complete works of Jane Austen, Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow. And right now I am reading "The Last Jihad" series....incredible. oh and Twilight series was good to, but I borrowed those.

AND...we finally have animals of OUR own in OUR yard. I always hear about my parents seeing deer or bears on their property, and lately my brother has taken up the sport of squirrel poaching with a rifle in his yard, and finally Spencer and I awoke to this this morning...









Matthew is not allowed to bring his rifle when he comes to visit.

Baby is here!

Spencer's elder sister Melanie had her new baby girl!! A little scary though, they had to do an emergency c-section due to the baby's heart rate was dropping. And then as the doctor was cutting he nicked the baby in the side too! But all is well. Both mother and baby are fine. McKenna Noel Peterson. As soon as I get some pictures I will get them up as soon as I can. But here are the proud parents. Melanie and Adam. aka Melfrado and Peetie Weetie. Oh and here is a picture of Melanie's oldest daughter Saiva. She is an incredibly bright and athletic gal who is now entering the years of teen.


And Spencer's younger sister Desiree and her hubbs Dave had their baby, David Cruz Flores, on January 2nd of this year.
This is them with their awesome little girl Italia, who is hilarious!! We miss them so much!

And here we have Grandma Vera with baby David.



We miss everyone sooooooo much! Not being there for any births is painful and we hate being on opposites sides of the country, but someday we will all be kickin back and sippin on what?? Isalean shakes....LOL.... Love you guys!

Introduction

The only time we ever journal is whenever anything spectacular, extraordinary or eye opening happens to us. For example, the 1st and one of the last times I ever wrote in a journal was in high school after I was asked by Olympian volleyball player Adam Whitmarsh to serve a volleyball at a televised match at the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas...against fellow Olympians Mike Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh. And then we swear we are going to keep at it every day so we can have something our grandchildren and great grandchildren can read about our fascinating lives. However, as I set out to do this blogging I realize that Spencer's and my life together may not seem to others as the aforementioned adjectives. Growing into adults and the busyness of our lives if we are able to recognize simple blessings in our lives every day; whether it be spending quality time with each other or reconnecting with a long lost friend or someone letting us sneak in front of them in a traffic jam even though it may make them late to work, then that is something to call spectacular and eye opening. So that is what I am setting out to do. We have no children to gush about yet, but we do have nieces and nephews and a new sister in law soon to join. So hopefully we can keep this blogging up with littles lines of who and what we are grateful for everyday.

To get things started off. Spencer and I have a great story of how we met and got married. The year was 2001. In October of that year I had fled Salt Lake City, UT to my parent's home in Crescent City, CA., in hopes of going on a mission for the LDS church. Spencer at that time was selling pest control door to door in Austin, TX. He had this little birdie on his shoulder telling him to go home to Crescent City, CA. He talked to his bishop about it, and his bishop told him that he thought he was going to meet his future wife. Spencer dismissed that idea due to the lack of single 20 somethings in the geriatric city of Crescent. So, he went up there anyway to see his mom. The next weekend I arrived. My parents were in the same church as his mother and so we were introduced at a church service project on the beach. His mouth was hanging open and eyes staring at me the entire length of time it took us to plant ice grass in sand. The next 2 weeks we were inseparable and at the end of those 2 weeks we were engaged. Three months later...married. Of course, not everyone was very excited about it and not alot of support due to the 2 weeks thing and some other stuff which at this point isn't important. But that IS what made it more exciting and bound us even more closer together. So we were married on Feb 14th 2002. And now everyone loves everyone else and we are one big happy family!!
Since then it has been a roller coaster of events. We moved from Crescent City, CA back to Austin, TX so Spencer could continue selling pest control. Then the company transferred us to Mesa, AZ where Spencer became a service manager and I was hired on as well. Then they transferred us to Charlotte, NC to clean house out here. We love it here. We got offered further transfers but Spencer and I want to stay here. We have started our own company where we coach small business owners on how to market their businesses online using different web affiliates and building web sites. It is challenging and interesting as we get to talk to people all over the world. And it allows us to be at home with each other which is a huge blessing.
The past six years haven't been as easy as that unfortunately. My brother Daniel passed away in Feb 2005 from a brain tumor. I thought that was it for me. I went through the hardest time in my life, thus far, probably burned a lot of bridges...but Spencer was right there for me and pulled me out of it by reminding me that I will be seeing him again. And I am trying to reconnect with all the people I pushed away at that point. And so far...successful.
I am so grateful for family and friends. And I love that my family is growing. My brother Matt is engaged to an awesome girl Jeanette. People say she is just like me but I think she is much sweeter and smaller. And Spencer's sisters are having babies right about now actually. I can't wait until the day when we can fill up villas in Cabo San Lucas with tons and tons of kids and family and friends at all different times of the year. hee hee hee. Yes, we aspire to live there 6 months out of the year. Don't be a dream destroyer...:) Okay, this is way too much for the 1st day. I'll need more to write on later if I want to keep going with this.