pictures

Who is this man in my house?

Sad that my house is messy

Painted pumpkins this year

Dad and his bunny

Raimo drove the whole way to Vegas with his eyes closed!

Love

Will someone please throw a fancy holiday party so I can buy this new dress? Thanks

I love this boy

He is just so cute. And he calls me bunny. I love it.

To Dad

Today is my Dad's birthday. There are certain qualities that come to mind when I think of my dad:
- Number one is hardworking. I have never seen my dad spend a day being lazy. He is always doing something, whether it's working around the house or the yard, helping my mom, running errands, taking care of finances, taking care of the business, driving back and forth to Pasadena day in the wee hours of morning, saving people's lives, doing his church callings, and doing things with the family. That about sums up my dad's daily life! He never thinks about himself--he is a real hero because of it. He has a very realistic outlook on life and has taught me the value of work and righteous living by his example.

- My dad takes great care of our family and of my mom in particular. He knows what she needs to be happy and he does his best to follow through with those things. I am glad he is that kind of spouse. I looked for and found that quality in my own husband and I feel loved every single day. More than that, it feels good to know my dad loves my mom more than anything. There is nothing more reassuring than to know that your parents love each other so much and love you too.

- Another role my dad has played in my life is peacemaker and a teacher. There have been many times when I have been stubborn (me?) or really angry about something, and my dad talked to me in private about it and tried to help me see to reason. He helped me learn to say I'm sorry and to forgive, something that really didn't come easy to me when I felt that I was not in the wrong. He taught me that being right is not the most important thing in some cases. My dad is a great example of forgiveness--he does it all the time maybe without even knowing it. He can get frustrated like anyone, but I have seen him demonstrate amazing patience and forgiveness. Most importantly, my dad always reassured me that I was doing okay and told me he loved me. He probably had no idea how much that meant to me whenever I was having a hard time.

- My dad has also been an example of prudence and management. My dad is not in any way materialistic--something that I have to work on daily! There are very few things that he seems to value highly--and "things" are not really in that category. He cares about the important things like the gospel and family. (But thank you though for paying outrageous sums for me to do cheerleading and the other thousand extracurricular activities. It did wonders for my confidence and gave me a really rich life). But I learned by example that possessions and money and "things" are just the extras--that they are not what matter in life.

- My dad is just cool because he is a fireman. This is where he currently works.

.(if that is not the station, it looks a lot like it)
I know he has inspired a lot of the young men in our ward and boys he taught as scouts. Lots of boys became firemen like him like Darren Fay and David Jones. I know there are others. He is really good at what he does, and he influences a lot of people's lives both in his job and outside it.

-I love you, Dad! Hope you had a great birthday!

I'm complaining

So I have senioritis BAD! I am so bored with school, not that my classes are so boring, but I feel like I've gone over all of this stuff before! So much American literature, so much creative writing. I'm so done with it right now! Not to mention life is just so busy. We have our BYU competition this weekend--it is always a scary one because we're competing against all our talented friends here. I am excited to have new costumes though!! yay!

Other exciting news is that we redecorated our apartment. Actually, we just got a new bookshelf, but we rearranged the whole room and it looks totally different! It feels cozier and I like it.

Tired of work. It seems so pointless sometimes. I am making 30% of what Raimo makes, and he spends a lot less time working! Maybe I will become an entrepreneur. Probably not.

Haven't been to the grocery store, haven't really gotten dressed (wore pajama shirt all day today because I woke up late), haven't picked up the house, haven't done any homework, and have no plans to do any of these things because tomorrow I work 6 am-8 am, practice 8-9, go to class 10-11, work 11-1, class 1-2, work 2-4, EAT 4-5, work 5-7, choir rehearsal 7-9, crash 10 pm. Yes, I have 4 shifts at work tomorrow. That's excessive. My fault entirely.

I will try to post some pictures soon like a good blogger.

I want a vacation!

Another week goes on by.

The leaves have changed their colors here in P-town. guess what I'm giving Jess a run for her money, we both competed this past weekend. We were so tired. But it turned out all right. Jessica took 3rd in Pre champ, and I took 2nd. Right after that exhausting 4 rounds of dancing cha cha, samba, & Rumba; we then competed in the amateur title which made us dance cha cha, samba, rumba, and the Paso doble. luckily there were only two rounds of that. I took 5th while Jessica took 4th so it was a fun switch aroo. and thats that. we'll be having another competition on the 7th of November and the following week after that! We'll be getting new costumes hopefully, with Jepp/s Design. They are the best!

Last weekend we had general conference. I really loved it, and I had such a nice weekend. Monica came and visited us for the weekend. So she and I hung out during the priesthood session (went shoe shopping!) and we just played around. I didn't really get any school work done, but who ever does?

I'm enjoying Singers so much. I've told Raimo many times that there is just something that I get from music that I don't experience with other hobbies, i.e. dance. Singing just makes me a happier person.

Speaking of Raimo, he is sick with a cold right now. I feel bad that he still has to go to school. Hopefully it will go away quickly!

This weekend we're going to Vegas to meet up with our family. I've only seen them twice since Christmas, and even those trips were really brief. I am getting excited to go for a nice long drive with my honey! It's my favorite. It will also be fun to see all our Vegas friends while we're there. Thank you Berkeley for taking my Saturday shift!

Life is great right now. Love it.

I'm taking poetry again...

Rabbit Food

"I'm trying to quit," she said stickily

through a bite of caramel cheesecake.

My spinach salad stuck to my palate

as I answered, "You're not overweight."

"But I'll have to jog three extra miles

to burn even half of this off.

She looked so distressed, I said, "Give it a rest,"

playfully nudging my plate toward her.

How many women are still trying

to eat more romaine and iceberg?

Most charismatic are red-tip fanatics,

arugula lovers pull a close second.

Water cress, spinach, Chinese lettuce,

looseleaf, Swiss chard, radicchio, endire.

"I'll have the Thai--dressing on the side.

Can I have extra peapods on that?"

Faithfully, we chew our cud,

knowing that salad is best.

shedding the pounds by chewing a mound

of wet leaves and veggies with zest.

Whirlwind

Wow this month flew right by me! SO much has happened. Raimo and Katie did a competition this month and took first place in both novice and pre-champ. They're going to give me a run for my money this November. I'm mostly excited about my cabaret routine, which is coming along. We're moving pretty quickly, which is great since we only have about 6 weeks until we compete! I'm really enjoying the song we picked for it too! Classes are going fine. Even though I'm taking way fewer credits, I still feel as busy as ever. That may be partially because of my work schedule... I work a lot more early and late hours when I have to open and close the office. But I'm still really happy with my job overall--I just can't seem to find a normal sleep pattern. One night I was awake till 3:30 am because I just couldn't sleep, and I had to get up so early the next day! Ugh. I'm also staying busy by actually doing all my reading for school. In the past I've always been perpetually behind in my classes, but I am mostly on top of things with fewer classes!

Raimo has the best schedule in the world. He has classes from noon to 7 on Tue/Thu and he has Mon, Wed, Fri off--no school. Nada. He usually does some work from home those days and works on homework. And dances of course. He is doing really great with his work goals--they get rewards if they hit a certain mark. Last month we got a 300$ gift card to Best Buy! I think it is really motivational for him too and it is exciting for him to be able to do so well even when he's in school. I don't know how he does it. He just gets people excited about internet and tv. I know I'm excited.

I'm getting really excited for conference. I feel ready for a good spiritual boost. Hopefully we'll get to spend time with Monica and Raimo's parents too.

I'm not excited that the forecast says it's going to snow. It just can't be that time yet. Snow is so much work. Can't it just snow for like 3 weeks in December??

Lastly, Raimo and I need a new computer soon. Any day now this laptop is going to shut down. The question is PC or Mac?? I have always been a fan of PC--I just that I know how to use them well and you don't have to worry about conversions because most people have them. But I'm taking a class right now that uses Macs for design and I am enjoying it so far. But do I really want to make such a drastic switch?? And this brings me to another question: laptop or desktop?

What should I do? Leave me a comment. I love comments. And tell me why, because of course everyone loves what they have.

Thanks,
I'm Jessica and I'm a PC.

Go ahead and ask me why I'm posting this:

Wooooooooo!!!!!!!!