Good Luck at the BAR!!

Justin,

I know that you probably won't read this tonight, but I just wanted to tell you good luck tomorrow!! You are going to do great! I love you so much and really miss you! One day down, two to go!!

I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL WEDNESDAY!!

Love you FOREVER!!

Jess

Home for another visit...

This past weekend, Justin and I were able to go visit my family. My brother, Jared, is leaving for the MTC on Wednesday and the family was getting together. We drove down on Friday (I drove while Justin studied...shocker!) and I spent the afternoon shopping with my Mom while Justin studied. That night we went to visit Justin's seriously cool cousin April, her seriously cool husband David and their super adorable baby, Breea. We had some Mexican food and played Ticket to Ride. It's a really fun game!!

April, David and Justin (April won...figures!)

Justin and Jess (I beat Justin!! Take that!!)

Saturday morning we had a great breakfast: bacon, hash browns and french toast. Then we all went to go see The Dark Knight. It was really intense! Justin loved it and I liked it but thought it was kind of scary...there were some parts I couldn't even watch. I had a headache at the end of the movie from clenching my teeth. Heath Ledger is the Joker and he's really creepy. After the show, we went to Uncle Craig and Aunt Wendy's house for a BBQ. Nice grilling Uncle Craig! We had lots of tasty stuff and some really chocolatey chocolate cake. Then we had to run back home and change for family pictures. Do you know how hard it is to get shirts for three girls that they all are OK with?? It's pretty much impossible, but we did it. Anyway, this really nice lady, Lisa was our photographer. We took pictures FOREVER...but hopefully they turn out. It's also very hard to get my brothers to sit still longer than like 5 seconds. We started taking pictures about 6:30 and got home about 9:00. This is a picture of my handsome husband and I on the back deck. He is SOOO CUTE! He works so hard and I love his guts!! LOVE YOU BABE!

Jess and Justin

Sunday, we went to church and listened to Jared speak. He did a GREAT job!! It was really weird to see him so serious. Usually he is so funny! He is going to be a great missionary. Good Luck buddy!! See you in two years! Love your guts!! He leaves for the MTC tomorrow!! So weird. We had a BBQ at our neighbor's house (they had a baby blessing and we had a "farewell" and since our families have been friends forever, we combined them...it was a great idea. There was tons of food!!) So we pretty much played the rest of the day...cards, lightning and the boys wrestled. Thankfully no one is dead...the rest of us watched just to make sure.

Jordan, Jared, Justin and my Justin...I don't know where Jason was.

McCall (my bros girl), Jen, Dad and Mom...and all the dogs watching Jen eat a hot dog.

Justin and I had to come home on Monday because Justin has to study. The bar is next week...I am going to be so glad when it's over. That's all Justin does...study, study, study. He can't wait until it's over, I can't wait until it's over and Dexter can't wait until it's over!!

Question

Do you think the bearded lady at the circus shaves her legs?

Older....and Wiser?

I am now a quarter of a century...Do you remember when you were a little kid and your birthday was one of the greatest days of the year. I used to get so excited and now it's just another day, but with cake! My birthday was on Monday and I was excited to spend the evening with Justin!! He had to study during the day for the bar and as our friend Tannith put it..."trying to remember why he thought this was a good idea." I went to the pool to enjoy some sunshine and a little bit later Grandma and Grandpa brought us cupcakes!! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! We went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant in town and it was pretty good. I really miss the Mint Cafe in Cleveland!! We walked around downtown and looked in some of the shops. Then we came home and had some Coldstone ice cream cake...SOOO GOOD! It has peanut butter cups and a layer of peanut butter and chocolate ice cream and chocolate cake and the frosting is awesome - it's so rich and creamy.

Justin, you are my favorite husband! Thanks also to the Deb and Ben - I am pretty sure he remembered the cake we had at your house...SOOO GOOD!

Isn't he just so handsome!!

CAKE! Don't mind me, I look really weird in this picture.

My favorite husband also got me flowers for my birthday...daisies!
They are just so bright and happy! Thanks Babe - you are the best!

Another thing that is great about birthdays is that people call you! I love it when people call me!! Thanks family for the phone calls and the awe inspiring songs...you guys truly are amazing talents. I have already called David Letterman to try and book you...but I haven't heard back from him yet. I am sure that I will soon as I sent him a tape of your amazing singing! :)

HAPPY 4th of JULY!!

Happy 4th!!

God bless the men and women serving our country! God bless our veterans!! Thank you for all you have done!! God bless our founding forefathers! God bless the dudes who invented fireworks and the barbecue! We are so lucky to live in this great country!
Since we have moved to Idaho we have been really blessed to be closer to our families!! This is Grandpa Cranney. (Isn't he the cutest Grandpa??) Grandma and Grandpa invited us over for a barbecue with the cousins. It was great fun! We had burgers and all the "fixin's" on the deck. Nice grilling Grandpa!

Then we headed inside for a Nerf battle. It was chaos! There were people and darts everywhere.

Uncles and Aunts and Cousins!! (Some of the girls hid in the bathroom)

More chaos!! You can see that even Aunt Sally and Aunt Sara were in on the action.

Grandma and our cousin's cousin - I have to tell a funny story about our cousin's cousin. He is possibly the only person I know who has named his behind (I don't know how old he is - maybe 7ish??). His butt's name is Steve - which I guess is a very fitting name for a butt??

This is my favorite picture of the day. Tessa and Justin were having a battle in the living room and this is the best shot of the evening...

Nice job Girl!! It stuck to his head. Notice the 7 or so darts stuck to the window behind him?? We had a lot of fun!!

Then we went to the field at the church to launch water balloons and have some tasty dessert. Then we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house for some fireworks!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa, we had a great time!!

A Post by Dexter: Dear Howie B-Ham

Dear Howie,

I got the pictures you sent and I love them!! I really miss you - My BFF!!

We had some great times together - biting, chewing, and doing weird things I am not going to blog about.

Dexter and Howie (Christmas 2006)

If you are ever in Idaho, look me up and we can sniff butts or something.

Love,

Dexter

Random things for July 1, 2008

Here are some random things for today...

I decided to change my blog to something that feels a little more tropical... :)

I had to go do some personality tests for a job I am trying to get. (Thanks Angela - You are a super hero!) What exactly do they learn from personality tests?? Now they know I am a messy dreamer who has to write everything down otherwise I forget. What do they do with that information?? Hopefully hire me!!

Dexter man has been sick...ewwhh. I was up every two or so hours taking him outside...poor guy. I am not sure if it is the random plants he eats on our walks, the weird bone he picked up in the parking lot or the food we just switched him to. So just to make sure it wasn't his food...I did a little research on the Internet. They put some NASTY things in dog food...this is actually on the label of his dog food right now: Corn meal, CHICKEN BY-PRODUCT MEAL, Ground whole grain sorghum, chicken, dried beet pulp, chicken fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherois, a source of vitamin E)...and on and on with the nastiness. Basically, this is chicken neck dog food. We are switching to a good brand!! If I had only done a little research before. I am so sorry puppy!

Something I love today (besides my husband who is HILARIOUS!) is the color yellow.

We don't have cable - which I will have to admit...I don't really miss all that much with the exception of a few things. I love being able to watch What Not to Wear online!!

Why is it that there is some sort of weird satisfaction from peeling the shell off of a hard boiled egg? Kind of creepy, but I like it!

I really love Blik, which is a super cool collection of wall art, tee shirts and other random things.

My Thai Basil has sprouted and soon we will hopefully be able to eat it!! I really miss the Mint Cafe on Coventry!! Someone send me some Wild Boar Basil!! SOOO GOOD!

Something I was thinking about today is would I be willing to die for the things I believe in?? If it really came down to me being thrown into a big fire pit or denouncing my religion, what would happen? I would like to think that I would die willingly...kind deep for a post about how much I love the color yellow today. But it was something on my mind.