And the countdown begins...

Yesterday was exactly 1 month until graduation. I hope I can hold out... and make it that long!!! 10 page paper on Tai Chi... here I come. (How that relates to me being a better physical therapist... you've got me!) I just have to jump through all their silly hoops.... 48 down, it seems like 380 to go!

WOW!

It has been far too long since we've blogged...

please forgive us. That is, if anyone still reads this. However, it is my (Jessica) 24th birthday today! So far, so good! (Breakfast in bed is always amazing!) So just a quick blog on my lunch break, after consuming a Don Pepe's shrimp burrito, to let you know we are all still here. And lots of good things have been happening, and are currently happening. We'll update you soon, my little friend the blog!

Happy Belated 50th Birthday Mom!!!!

Ok, so please don't think that I'm a terrible daughter. My mom, Dawn Denise Armstrong, turned 50 February 27th, 2009. I am posting this blog about a month late.... and for that I must apologize. Dave posted blogs on both his parent's actual birthdays.... I am slacking for my madre. Please know that this does not in any way reflect a lack of love for my mom. Extenuating circumstances, involving ridiculous school responsibilities, and planning her birthday extravaganza kept me busy. In all honesty, I was so busy that day and the days before that it didn't even cross my mind to blog. Please, please forgive me.

My mom is awesome. And don't you ever forget that. I will compile a random sampling of why she is just so awesome below:
-she was a great sport at her party... and wore the old lady boa with medicine attached to it, a flashing pin, tiara, and used the walker i had tricked out with bows, ribbons, glitter, etc! (gotta find a picture of that... because it was awesome!)
-she was a HOTTIE on her big 50 day... sporting black skinny jeans, a flowy white tunic, layered gold jewelry, and some sweet flats. uhm... can i be that cute please?
-she gives the world's greatest hugs
-she will try anything once
-she has become an awesome cook... and makes family dinners every sunday night with inventive new recipes... that are 99% really good! (beet brownies have been an exception)
-she will drop anything to help anyone
-she is selfless
-she devotes 110% of herself to anything she does (including her new CAbi business adventure)
-she helps those in need... for awhile she was buying grocery boxes from a local church twice monthly to support a family she knew who simply needed a hand
-she is super stylish! ;) (i wish we wore the same size shoes...)
-she always made the best peanut butter and syrup waffles for me when i was sick
-she just always makes you feel better when you're feeling sick
-i can text her that i am in need of "mommy time" and she will always make me feel better
-she is so fun to shop with/run errands with
-she gives stellar advice
-she walks with the Lord
-she truly has a heart of gold
-she has "Full House" moments in everyday conversations (dave and i have coined this term, meaning she brings a note of sentiment, albeit overtly sweet most times but altogether wonderful, and makes learning lessons of everyday events)
-she is constantly adopting "family"... extra sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, etc. did you all know my uncle ray and aunt dee are full blooded Hispanic and look nothing like any of us?
-she sews, quilts, bakes, scrapbooks, oh and don't worry she can change a car's oil and replace the brake pads... what can the woman not do?
-she used to tickle my back every night when i couldn't sleep
-she is a great example of how to eat healthy and exercise
-she's always a good shoulder to cry on
-she supports me and my husband no matter what
-she brought casa corona snacks to our hotel room on my bachelorette party. amazing.
-she can't wait to be a "go go grandma"... and she will be really good at it. but she knows it's not time yet.
-she loves my brother, dad, husband, and myself unconditionally and never lets us forget it!
-she is a shining example of how a wife and mother should be

ps- example #2 of how wonderful of a daughter i am... i had 0 pictures of just my mom and i in my iphoto. however, the most recent picture in my iphoto is also from new years eve 2009. i'm just a little behind. i just never take my pictures. that is all dave's job.... plus this is a skill i picked up from my mom. she is not the best at remembering to take pictures as well. so again, i'm sorry.

Daft Punk fan video = Creative

I just wanted to share this crazy video because I think it is very creative and that it must have taken such a long time to make. Think of all the planning that must have gone into it. I wish I could come up with someting crazy like this. Enjoy...and make sure you watch at least half the video, because it starts out a little slow, but it does pick up.
-Dave

Monster and Rhett

These two crazy/ridiculously good looking kids are getting married in May. SO SOON!!! And of course, all engaged couples must start their blog together. So I just wanted to introduce you to my friends over at something good aka Rhett and Monica soon to be Billen. Monica is one of my funniest friends. We met one day freshman year of high school.... and she's been cracking us all up since.

So go check out their blog. And give them some love. http://ya-like-that.blogspot.com/


Because we sure love them!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Well, I'm assuming my dad saw this coming since his birthday is just a week after my moms. However, I still thought it might be a fun little surprise for him. A lot that was said about my mom rings true for my dad as well. We really appreciate him and love him a lot. He has always been there to support us with our crazy ideas or extra curricular activities. He may have even supported us a little bit more with our crazy ideas, simply because he was the one that would show us weird stuff. While Mom was supportive and protective of us, Dad was supportive and well, more like Bill Nye the science guy. My dad wasn't afraid to be a little kid and he still is to this day, which I think is awesome. He'll make goofy faces or tell "Hale jokes" which everyone else knows as groaners. But you know what? I wouldn't change that at all.

He's the type of dad that would bring us over anytime he was fixing something on the house, yard, or car. He wouldn't make us do the work, but he wanted us to be able to see how to do it, just in case. I remember my dad showing me how to graphite a key hole, thinking to myself, "When will I ever need to do this?" Sure enough, when I moved in with Jess, the keys wouldn't slide in and out of the door easily. Well they do now. Jessica always wonders how I know how to do random things in the house and I say, "I don't know...my dad must have taught me." Thanks dad! Like mom, I want to thank you for being such a positive role model as a father. It's a nice feeling knowing that you're always going to be around, that you love mom and would never hurt her, that you would protect your family at all costs, and that you're MY dad.

I love that you taught us what true camping is (No premade campsite people...just pick a spot that looks good and set up. Also, no toilets or showers; you're in mother natures house now), that we went hiking on a seven day hike to Mount Whitney, that we went boogie boarding, that you always make sure that we were prepared for anything (Got your first-aid kit, luggage tag, snow clothes, EXTRA BATTERIES, that we watched the Three Stooges, Little Rascals, and other classic black and whites, that you have a first-aid kit larger than most carry-on luggage, and many more. Thanks for being you Dad and for being the other tool that shaped us into who we are today. Oh, also olives...my dad loves olives and anything else weird/interesting to eat like rice candy, honeycomb, or ginger candy.

And though he may not like to admit, I know my Dad is the type of guy that is really in touch with his feelings and empathetic to others. He always wanted to show others, especially his parents, that he loved them. So with that in mind, I just wanted to say that I love you Dad and I think you're great! "Looking Good Dad, Feeling Good Dad" Happy Birthday! OLD GUYS RULE!

Thank You Uncle Sam!

So we just got our tax refund.... which came directly deposited into our account! I love it... that is great! Is this a new thing this year? Or am I just really far behind the times? But for any reason, we got it. And i love it.

Most people aren't happy with our government/economic situation these days. Myself included. However, getting married and the poor stock market sure does wonders for tax returns! I will take it!!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Today is my mothers 25th birthday...how many times she has celebrated it, I will not divulge. I just wanted to take the time to tell her how much we appreciate and love her. She is amazing! We can go to her for anything: From a simple spelling question or recipe advice, to marriage advice, proper etiquette rules, to life lessons. She always has some wisdom for the subject. I guess we have finally come to the age where we know that we don't know everything, and contradictory to what we thought in the past...our parents are a lot smarter than us. Thanks for always being there for us mom and for keeping us out of trouble. We may not have understood why you did some things in the past, but we are better people for it now. Thanks for also being such a devoted mother and wife. We are so blessed to have grown up in a house where parents not only got along with each other, but loved each other. What a great example. I want to also thank you for being the type of mom that wasn't afraid to go camping at Convict Lake, who will camp out overnight at Chick-Fil-A, who made us wear long pants every Sunday to church, who would make homemade strawberry jam and mac-n-cheese, a mom that supported us through sports, band, choir, or anything crazy like dodge ball that we set our hopes on. Thank you for sacrificing yourself and things that would spoil you, just so we might feel happy. Thanks Mom. I love you! Happy "25th" Birthday!

Sign of the Times: Fail

This post is dedicated to my brother and his enjoyment of "funny fail photos."

Cute Kid...and funny

I stole this first video from Madi, but it's pretty funny. When I went to look it up, I found couple more with the same little guy. Check out the karate one I also posted and you may want to check out one that sounds like commentary from America's Funniest Home Videos..."He kicked him in the..."

25 random things....

So I've been tagged several times with this thing on facebook, but I have neglected the blog so long that I thought it would be smarter to do it here. So with no further adieu...

1. I can't whistle. at all. and trust me, this is not for lack of trying.
2. I love peanut butter. seriously- we have a love affair. My favorite brand is jiff, and it has to be creamy.
3. I love the smell of chlorine on a person. I think it goes back to my days of constant smelling like that.... oh how I want to go back.
4. I will dance anytime, anywhere, and to any music. I just love to dance!
5. This ties in to #4, my husband swears that I am part "black girl" as I love to dance, enjoy some pretty ghetto music, and can shake my thang (if you know what i mean). However... I am missing the booty. I have none!
6. I watched the movie "Remember the Titans" every night my senior year of high school... and I STILL love it. Cried 3 times watching it last night.
7. I don't like coffee. I think the smell is heavenly... but the taste is sick. however, I still really enjoy starbucks. conundrum?
8. I was on the spelling bee team in elementary school and won 2nd or 3rd place... I don't really remember.
9. Sticking with the nerd theme, I love to read. anything and everything.
10. I have a slight interest/obsession with the Amish. I don't know why- I really want to travel to Pennsylvania to visit.
11. I really enjoy organizing and I like things clean. Dave calls me "monica" as in Monica Geller from FRIENDS when I'm getting a little too organizational happy.
12. Dave and I are both huge FRIENDS fans.... we own all 10 seasons, and when we met we knew it was meant to be as our seasons matched up... He had 1,2, and 7... I had the rest. We quote it constantly to each other and our (cool) friends (who know it too).
13. It really bothers me when people use the wrong forms of your and you're and other simple spelling and grammar mistakes.
14. I can't imitate any accents at all. I always sound retarded- Dave can do any and all and never fails to make me laugh really hard.
15. I'm secretly obsessed with Taylor Swift. When she first came out with the "Tim McGraw" song, I thought she was lame. Now, I can't get enough.
16. I love to cook and bake and constantly watch Food Network, however when I get to the grocery store I never really know what to buy and always end up short a few ingredients for meals I want to make.
17. I love to work out... a lot. But I also like to eat... thus it's hard for me to lose weight.
18. I have always thought that one of my children would be special needs... I don't know why.
19. I am a big blog stalker... I have a list of blogs that I must check daily. I love all the neat home ideas, recipes, and funny tidbits. However, I am a really bad blogger to my own.
20. I need a lot of sleep. We're talking at least 8 hours a night or more.... I'd be happy with 10 each night.
21. It's not womanly at all... but I really enjoy the flavor of a good dark beer. Some of my favorite well known brands include Downtown Brown Nutty Brown Ale, and Negra Modelo.
22. I am allergic to milk. I get sinus infections about a week later after I eat too many milk products. But, I loooove cheese and all food (see #17) so I often eat foods I shouldn't.
23. I enjoy trashy tv far too much... The City, The Hills, Real Housewives (Orange County and New York are my favs), Desperate Housewives.
24. My emotions are linked to the amount of sunshine.... Bright sunny days= happy me, dark gloomy days= sad, slightly depressed me. Good thing we have more sunny than overcast days.
25. I look forward to the Clovis Rodeo every year. I'm not necessarily a "country" person. I do listen to country music year round and this one weekend I just embrace my small town, Republican, cowgirl roots. I love it!

I now tag all of my friends who don't update their blog anymore. You know who you are.... all those people linked on the side there. Do it!

Cuppy Cake Sam

So Sam is a young boy that was on the Tyra Banks show evidently and has quickly gained popularity on youtube with the following adorable video. Sam has a kidney disorder and the medication he has to take to combat that disorder has had certain side effects, including his cute chubby cheeks. We wish him a speedy recovery and a healthy life.

I have to mention that my favorite parts of the video are in the middle when he makes his squishy face and at the end with his eyebrows. You're going to love it!

SO PUMPED!!!

Just have to share how excited I am. One of my very best friends, Russell Weaver, got married on 07/07/07 in Virginia to his sweet wife Ann. Long story short, they decided to move to North Carolina to train Russell in pole vaulting because of his natural skills. So needless to say, I haven't been able to see him much since then.
However, two of my other good friends, Chris and Humberto, and I just booked a flight to go see Russell this summer and we are all incredibly excited about it! We're taking a red eye to get there, but it's well worth it. Can't wait to spend so much time with you buddy

2 down... 2 to go!

My 2nd internship is OVER!!!! Last day was yesterday and the feeling is great. I actually really enjoyed this last one.... my CI was really laid back, easy to talk to, fun, and to top it all off I learned a lot. But WOO HOOO!!!! only 2 more to go after I graduate in May and I will be DONE.

sigh. back to school on Monday.

Food Poisoning is not fun!

so sorry we've been MIA for a while now. as you can probably guess from the title.. we got food poisoning. and it knocked us on our butts!! we had a great weekend with Chris and Kalia on the central coast surfing and hanging out- so we wanted to prolong our weekend and we stopped at got take-out from Tsing Tao on Sun night. it tasted good at the time...

well needless to say about 8-12 hours later.... it came back. dave got sick first, and since i had monday off of work i planned on just taking care of him. boy was i wrong! late mon morning i joined him in puking our guts out. we found out that day kalia also was violently ill. woo hoo! so it totally knocked us for a loop and we both had to miss tues this week too! ps- have you ever been super sore from throwing up? not fun my friends. not fun

so a big thanks to both sets of our parents who brought by love packages filled with gatorade, chicken soup, popsicles, and of course lots of love. it is so great to live close by our parents, especially at times like this! (side note- dave and i have only been really sick about twice this entire year+ of marriage... both times together! which makes i really hard to take care of the other one, ya know?)

anywhoo... we will be back to blogging soon.

The Drink of The Gods

I was just reading a book given to me for Christmas from the Armstrongs titled Beer, by Michael Jackson (Side note: This is not the one-gloved, baby dangling over the balcony, Jesus juice popstar, but the highly respected in the beer community beer enthusiast pictured above). I read something rather interesting and wondered if we should have been drinking that mock wine during communion. Here is the excerpt:

"The Aramaic scrolls that were the foundation for the Bible have Jesus miraculously turning water into "strong drink." The Greeks translated this as "wine," but the Saxon version of the Gospels refers instead to "beer.""

Makes you wonder a little bit doesn't it? It makes me even more excited about a possible future in the beer industry.
-Dave

"What The Hale": side post

Anybody else remember this video? If not, you're welcome.
-Dave

addendum

so as many of you (or 2 of you) had asked.... the little box held a pair of diamond earrings! i know right!?!? but it's not exactly what you think. for our 1st (dating anniversary) dave bought me a pair of diamond earrings. i loved them! i wore them almost every day for a couple of years... but after we got engaged.. i kind of lost one. i haven't been able to wear them for a few years now, so dave being the cool guy he is, thought 1 year wedding anniversary correlates with 1 year dating anniversary and got me the matching earring to complete my pair. yay!!!

and we just got back from our weekend in paso robles. SO MUCH FUN. we spent the weekend over there drinking amazing wine, eating great food, enjoying the gorgeous sunny weather, and simply enjoying each other's company. it was AWESOME. seriously. but more to come later. we are about to finish our glorious weekend with a redbox, pizza, and the rest of the (best bottle of wine we've ever drank) wine we drank at Cass winery at lunch today.

1 year of wedded bliss!!!

So this is a day late.... woops. but yesterday we celebrated our 1 year anniversary. or as I liked to call it our "schmanniversary". (I don't know why)

wow did this year fly by. we both loved it. I can't believe how fun being married is!!

to celebrate, we went out to dinner at campagnia. OOOOH so good. and we had decided no gifts, but dave being the wonderful husband he is, bought me one! ;) what a catch I have!!! (and might I add it came in a small box with a big bow- and all girls know the best gifts come in small, beautifully wrapped boxes!) But sadly, we both had to work all day long, and early might I add. we both got up around 5:30 am. far too early in my book, so sadly, we were both exhausted and i think fell asleep by 9:00 pm. wow, we are an old married couple already!


but I love my husband, my Freddy, my best friend! thanks for an amazing first year- I can't wait for many many more together!!!

here is a side by side comparison of January 5 2008 to January 5 2009:
Thanks to all of you that sent us messages, cards, or called to congratulate us! It means a lot

Belated MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you all had a great time, got to spend a lot of time with family and friends, were in good health, and really felt the joy of the season while remembering Him. This was our first Christmas together as a married couple and while part of me really missed running out to the family room with my parents (and brother in years past), I couldn't help falling in love with a new tradition with my wife.

I stayed up a little later than Jess the night before to see if Santa came and magically he did! When we woke up, our stocking (Which Jessica made with the help of Dawn) were full, presents had been laid out, cookies and milk had been consumed by Santa and Rudolph had even nibbled on his carrots (Santa left a thank you note too). Snow and icicles filled the window and a delightful dancing fire roared in our "fireplace" (The tv). The air was filled with the smell of our Christmas tree and of cinnamon rolls baking in the oven. We shared mimosas and soaked in our morning as little kids on Christmas day together. Overall result: I fell in love with my wife and my favorite holiday/time of year even more.

"Merry Christmas to all! And to all a good night!"