Me after the hike. See that HUGE peak?!?!?! I hiked that!!!! So take that Dr. ***** who says I'm obese and out of shape! (okay so I am out of shape, but I still did it!)
One of the hard parts
My daddy-o at the top!!!
Me and my aunt Paula at the top

So on Memorial day, my aunt Paula thought it would be a great idea to hike Picacho Peak. Well, when my dad asked me to go, my first thought was, "ya right!". But then after thinking about it and after being told I was obese, I thought, "heck yes, I'm doing this!". What I didn't know was that it was 2 miles basically straight up!!!! No, it wasn't really but almost. It was about 2000ft. up in that 2 miles, and part of the way you had to wear gloves and pull yourself up with cables. So basically I was dying the whole time and couldn't walk the next day, but hey, I DID IT!!! It was a great sense of accomplishment!!! And I guess it was fun. ha ha

Proof that my marriage doesn't stink! These are flowers my cute husband brought me just because. He is so cute!!!
Here we are a couple of weeks ago just before our "date". Doesn't it look like a MORP pic?

Since we have been married, I think pretty much the only question people can think to ask me is, "So how is married life?". Does anyone know what I mean? I always think this is a funny question. I sometimes think it would be funny to answer, "Oh ya know, it stinks" just to see the reactions that I would get. Luckily for me, married life is Awesome!!!

My tribute to NOM

Me and Sister Teauroa (I love her!) She is from Tahiti
Me and Sister Rubio wearing the NOM Rocks shirts we made!
Me giving a tour at the Mormon Trail Center
Me and Sister Peay dressed for the FREEZING cold winter

May 18th, 2007.......can anyone guess what that date means? If you guessed that it was the day I came home from my mission, then you are exactly right!!!!!! So it has been one year (yesterday) since I came home from the Nebraska Omaha Mission (NOM Rocks! ha ha). i can't believe it! Where does the time go? For those of you who don't know, i had the opportunity to serve as a proselyting missionary and also as a visitor center missionary at the Mormon Trail Center (Winter Quarters). It was such an amazing experience!!!!! I won't lie, it was by far the hardest, most stressful thing I have ever done, but the blessing by far out weigh the hard times. I met some amazing people and was able to teach the gospel and bear my testimony on a daily basis. I am so grateful for the time I had to serve the Lord full time for 18 months.

Places I served and Companions:

11/05-12/05: MTC :Sister Major

12/05-3/06: Mormon Trail center (full time: Sister Holyoak & Sister Peay

3/06-7/06: Lincoln, NE in the Holmes Lake

ward (full pros): Sister Rubio & Sister Major

7/06-10/06: Omaha, NE Florence ward

and the Mormon Trail Center

(half days doing both): Sister Latimer, Gunn, and Skinner

10/06-5/07: Omaha, NE Winter Quarters

Singles ward and the Mormon

Trail Center (half days doing

both): Sister Teauroa, Thatcher, Street, Dunn, and

Gunn

Cheers for the Nebraska Omaha Mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Obesity is a killer!!

So...... I have to tell you my horrible news........so a couple of weeks ago I go to the doctor cuz I FINALLY have insurance. Since I came home from my mission I am just sooooo tired all the time and I am always dragging, so I thought I would go make sure nothing was wrong with me. So the doc sent me to a lab to get my blood tested and I went back yesterday to get the results and he says, "well, there is good news and some bad news. The good news is everything is normal, and the bad is that we have to now figure out why you are so tired". So he proceeds to ask me what my eating and exercise habits are, (and we all know I'm not at the top of my game, haha). So basically he concluded by telling me I need to go on a diet and exercise more. Which isn't bad, but of course I already knew that!!!! So I was waiting for him to just call me fat or something. ha ha. He did give me a referral for a dietitian (sp?) and if you look really close you will see DX: obese. HOLY CRAP!!!! Am I obese? Ha ha. Basically I was like, "thanks for calling me fat jerk!" So that's my horrible news for the day. I thought I would just share. :)

Who wants their hair done?

This is the awesome salon station my cute hubby built for me!!! Isn't he amazing! We put it in our extra bedroom and now I can do hair from our apartment and I totally feel like I work in a salon again. So if anyone needs their hair did................

Braces.....gotta love 'em

My beautiful braces! (I HATE THEM! and they make my teeth look yellow!) I know, such an attractive pic......:)

So....I thought I would share with you all my recent trial in life................BRACES!!!!!! I have had them now for about 4 months, (ya my husband thinks he's married to a 12 year old) and I hate them! Usually it takes a lot for me to hate something, but I HATE them!!! Why did I get them you ask? I wonder sometimes myself. Well, forever I have had an open bite (which means my teeth don't touch in the front) and I thought since I work at an ortho office why not? So I braved it and got them on. So they have only been the most miserable thing ever!! I thought for sure that if my teeth didn't hurt I would lose weight. Well, that's a negative.........and I also have to have this huge cage thing behind my teeth to keep me from sticking my toungue out (which it what causes the open bite) and it makes me have a lisp! AND NOW....I have to wear rubber bands and they KILL!!!! I can only stand to wear them for a few hours and then I rip them out!!!! But I know that only means I will have them on longer. I can finally simpathize with our patients who will not wear their rubber band cuz I hate them too. Well.....I jsut thought I would share with you all my recent drama! ha ha

D-Backs game!

You can't totally tell but this is how close we were!
Me and Mark and Eric's head
Me and Aud
My silly husband! He did that right as
I took the pic

Geez I am so bad at being consistant on this thing! I guess that's what happens when you work 2 jobs. Anyways it's been a great past couple of weeks! Not last friday but the Friday before, Mark called me from work and said he was given 4 of the Classy Closet's owners Diamondbacks tickets! Awesome. So he said he was going to bring his bro Eric and that I could invite someone too. So I called my good ol' buddy Audrey Rose Askins (yes her sister is soon to be my sister! So we are going to be related!!!) and asked her to come! We had a blast! We caught up on all our girl talk while Mark and Eric enjoyed the game. Of course the d-backs lost, they always seem to lose when I am there. I must be bad luck! But all in all it was a great time. The seats were awesome too! We were in the front row right next to the pool! Go D-Backs!!!

Kristin's big news

Me and Kristin :)

So I dont know how many of you, so I thought I should post it!!! Kristin Faiva (Brown) one of my very best friends since 7th grade is pregnant! Not only is she pregnant, she is having twins!!! And not only is she pregnant with twins, she is having a boy and a girl. She just found out last Friday and I couldn't be happier for her anf Rich! They are going to be great parents to Danica/Danicka (they haven't decided) and Kaimen!!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS Kristin and Rich!!

Aaron and Allie are official!!

The Happy Couple! :)

All the girls out to lunch to talk about the wedding plans (clockwise starting bottom left: Zach-Heather's son, Allie-my soon to be sister!, Kellie-the maid of honor, me, Susan-Allie and Audrey's mom, My mama, Heather-my cousin/sister)

Well, it is finally official!!! Allison Elizabeth Askins is officially going to be my sister!!! Me and Audrey have been trying to make this happen for years and it finally did. Aaron proposed to Allie last Friday night at the art walk in Tempe. I guess they had their caricature (sp?) drawn and he had the guy write "Will you marry me?" on it, and he ripped the sheet off to show them and Aaron got on his knee and asked her!! She was totally shocked that he did it then, but of course she said yes. (She better, they already have basically everything planned!). I couldn't be happier that they are getting married and I get to be a bridesmaid. :)