Why I love So Cal

^ A mini gondola river between houses!!!

I'm loving the beach, pool, sun, sand, exciting-ness of it all. I also have to love the sue-happy people, 9.75% sales tax, $4 gas, extreme heat, and sunburns. Luckily I'm not the one usually driving, the company reimburses gas, I try to buy things online as much as possible, and I have a Bear to rub aloe vera on me when I'm bedridden and sick from a sunburn :) Happy summer, everyone!

Sabbath Day

I love Bear. He always keeps things surprising-ful. One of his co-workers is coming back to church, but said that he didn't have any church clothes. So Bear gave him a suit. Bear has 2 suits. And he wasn't going to say anything about it but I noticed. Now, it was an older, not as nice suit that used to be his dad's. I'm very proud of him.

And Bear gave a talk in sacrament today. He forgot until he woke up. And I was asked to substitute for Sunday School next week. I love giving talks so I said yes. But then I realized that a lesson is very different from a talk. I'm afraid there won't be very many people because it will be a holiday weekend and so less comments. I'll be okay though.

I learn so much at church each week. Today I was really inspired to fulfill my callings and honor the Sabbath Day. There was a long debate in Relief Society today about what it okay to do on the Sabbath. There were so many different opinions but it the end it came down to it's what you feel is right. I also found a quote this past week from Mark E. Petersen: "Our observance of the Sabbath is an idication of the depth of our conversion..." Wow. I don't know about you, but that really inspires me.

Kansas Twister

In my spare time, I've finally been able to get to my Texas Twister quilt. I just finished my first block which is the red one in the picture above.

^ Here's the cover of the pattern. Someday it will look like that. But I think I'm going to use orange instead of blue. Or both. And I'm thinking about making one little pinwheel backwards, just to spice things up and make it unique. Because I've been using scraps, a lot of the blocks have

I'm almost done with a yellow, lavender, aqua, and orange ones too. I'm doing it all by hand and it's very time consuming, but there's something very satisfying in having sore hands and fingers at the end of the day because of something you made. I like colorful quilts. I don' know if I could make a quilt with only two colors.

Kate's step-mother-in-law who isn't Mormon came to visit and saw me quilting and asked if it was something Mormons had to do once they got married. Hahahahahaha That one made me laugh.

If you want this pattern, it's from Aunt Grace's Scrapbag 1930 by Judie Rothermel. There's a way to do it with a sewing machine, but I'd rather not pull out my sewing machine, and I'd need long strips of fabric for that, not little scarppies. So if you have questions, just let me know and I will help you on your way. It's such a cute pattern and I want to share it with everybody! The sewing machine tutorial is HERE from Why Not Sew?.

Vintage Dress Pattern

So I bought this super dee duper cute 1958 vintage dress pattern off of etsy.com. I'm planning on making View 2 but with the bow. The pattern came in the mail, but now the hard part is finding the right fabric. Secretly, all of this scares me because I've neer made something like this. Of course I quilt, and have made pajama pants and pillow cases and stuff, but dresses are a whole different story. And findng the right fabric...gah. And everybody sells quilting fabric (cotton), but it's getting harder and harder to find high quality fabric for clothing.

So far my favorite is this cream and gold brocade from eBay. But it's $20 a yard...sigh. I think it looks vintagey too. I might have to save for this fabric. Or find something cheaper. Anybody got suggestions? I would love to find the fabric soon.

Oh and I'm a size 14. Why'd they change dress sizes? It just makes it depressing when you're using a vintage pattern. But hey, Marilyn Monroe was a size 14. Weight and dress sizes are so weird.

All Grown Up

Poor Bear. During his first week of work he was exhausted and would basically sleep his afternoon work break away. By Sunday, he was so fatigued, he wasn't functioning at church and he told me he had never been that tired - except after the first week of his mission.

Bear doesn't mind the sun and heat. This is the perfect temperature for him. But all the walking and the sun do wear you down eventually. He's been working so hard. But he's made his quota for the month, and he's doing very well for it being his first 2 weeks of his first summer working for Dewey. I'm proud of him. Even though he gets frustrated with himself.

Well I officially joined bank accounts with Bear, and got my own debit card. They automatically made me one with the same design as his - the SF Giants. Oh well. It could be worse. Obviously we didn't need to consolidate, but at this point 2 bank accounts sounds to complicated for me.

And..I cut Bear's hair for the first time. I didn't have any men's hair cutting shears, but he just needed a little trim. I'd never done anything like that before, but I watched a Youtube video and went to work. It turned out fine. (The picture above is before the trim). Luckily, he has curl to his hair, so even if my trimming is a little off, you totally can't tell.

And finally...I officially changed my last name. The social security office is right down the street and was surprisingly painless. It was free, I got to keep my old social security number (which I didn't know beforehand), and all I needed was my driver's license and wedding license. I didn't even need to wait for my parents to send me my birth certificate. And then we were stressed out, because we had been keeping the marriage license safe, but when we pulled it out the day of, we realized the temple took the certified one and we only had the one from the temple. The guy didn't say anything about it. Considering everything else in getting married and settling down is so expensive and stressful...it was nice I kept my middle name instead of my maiden name. Gah I'm crying about it right now. I'm so happy to be a Price now, but at the same time it's hard to let go of my name. I hate being conflicted.

But I officially kind of feel like an adult now.

Room

^ I bought those pillowcases for me and Bear for Valentine's Day. They can finally be together now. You can buy more lovey dovey pillowcases, mugs, tshirts, and drinking glasses at Bold Loft.

Me and Bear are staying at the Fredrickson's in Lancaster. At first we were trying to find an apartment in the area, but all of them were at least 6 month leases. So we petitioned the bishops in the area and the Fredrickson's answered their bishop's request first. In a previous post I said we'd be living in their basement. I can tell you now that is not true. There are no basements in California. So we're living in the only bedroom on the main floor; all the rest are upstairs. Our bedroom is very lovely and my camera isn't doing it justice.

Kate re-paints and refinishes wood furniture and is a photographer. I'm jealous, because I would love to fix up antique furniture. I love her decorating and it is inspiring me. They even gave us the little TV which was in their room, which is very nice of them. The room is very "springy" and refreshing. Under the window is Bear's planning whiteboard. I'm going to learn her coupon-ing skills too.

So I only really have to keep our room and bathroom tidy and I'm not cooking any meals (I am helping, but I'm not planning the menu and shopping)...so I sometimes feel like a failure housewife, but I do enjoy the company and the skills I'm learning from Kate and her two cute kids. Kate's younger sister Kacy is staying at their house too, so it's nice to have another girl close to my age. I'm very grateful to them for letting me invade their space.
Here is Kate's blog. Click HERE.

Dr. Pepper

Dear Dr. Pepper, I'm saying bye to you for at least a week. I know I can. I'm not addicted enough to go buy it all the time, but when it's around the Fredrickon's house in large amounts, I can't help myself. You make me want to eat unhealthily all day and I want the body I had right before my wedding. Yes, in 2 weeks you've already started to affect me. Leave me in peace and let me lose the bloating, weight, and jiggly-ness. Here's my motivation:

1. Soda is useless



2. Weight gain and obesity



3. Diabetes



4. Weakened bones (osteoperosis)



5. Cavities and teeth erosion



6. Kidney damage



7. Increased blood pressure



8. Likely to acuse heartburn



9. Metabolic Syndrome Risk Factor



10. Harmful effects on liver



11. Impaired digestive system



12. Dehydration



13. High caffeine content



14. SUGAR



15. Possible cell damage ability



16. There are so many healthy alternatives

Win

Do you want to hear an awesome story? I found this shirt on anthropologie.com . And I really liked the white, lacey, crochetyness of it. But it was $98. So...I did some more research...

And found this similar tank top from delias.com. But it was $39.50 and they were out of my size.
So...I did some MORE research...

And found this on etsy.com for $5. That's right. And you want to hear the best part? It's vintage. I'm happy. Steal. Win.

It's amazing that a few minutes saved me almost $100. I'm obsessed with deals, sales, coupons, and vintage and used items right now.

Father's Day 2011

I would just like to tell my dad how much I love him. I wasn't able to spend Father's Day with him. I even forgot to send him a card.

But me and Tashi did go in on buying him a white iPhone 4.

I'm jealous. Well, maybe not because paying for a data plan doens't sound like too much fun right now haha

But anways, it felt nice to buy him something that he actually wanted (and I didn't buy him TOMS! I am a little original). It's just sad that I onlt called him, because it's the first Father's Day I didn't spend with him. I wanted to Skype with him but then we realized our hand-me-down ghetto laptop doesn't have a webcam or microphone. Poo.

At least I was able to call him, but like my dad said, a long time ago a Father's Day call was a big deal, but now I call my family a few times a week anyways. I love him and miss him. He gave me lots of good financial and marital advice before I got married and I plan to apply it. He's helped many businessmen become very successful with his advice. I know he loves me and my mom. I'm thankful my parents are still married and that they set a good example of a happy marriage for me.

I hope I can become as "love-birdy" as them someday. I hope I can make my kids as happy as he made me one day. He's a good, hard-working dad, like Bear. I'm proud to talk about him. I'm proud to call him my father.

Love you, daddy schmoopsie!

If you want to see a blog post back from March 2007 about my dad with some cute pictures and "Why a Daughter Needs a Dad", click HERE
And if you want to go to his blog, click HERE

I bought Gracie these pink sparkle TOMS for her birthday. So now eberyone in my family has a pair of TOMS except my dad and Bear. But quite frankly, I think they're kinf of un-manly. I need to find some dress shoes for Bear. Anybody have suggestions?

I love TOMS!!!!!!!! The ivory glitter TOMS are back in stock. Those are the ones I originally wanted. It's so tempting...but fixing Tercel was a little more expensive than we thought. Ah, newlywed finances. I love it.

Does anybody else own TOMS? Which are your favorite?

Sunday Goodness

My past two Sundays in Lancaster have been very good. I've learned a lot and I really enjoy my new ward. That's one of the things I love about the church. No matter where you go, all the members arebgetting the same lessons and meetings with the same principles being taught. It's such a comfort. But one of the wonderful things about moving around so much (even though I hate it), is you get different comments from all the different places and it keeps things fresh. I learn a lot more that way I think.

One lady commented on how she thinks How the Savior has helped her during the week during the bread, and thinking about how she's going to include him in her life during the next week during the water. I'm going to start doing that.

Another thought was from Matt. 20:26-28. It reminded me of learning to be a Leader-Servant at SVU. "And whosoever will be your chief among you, let him be your minister." I love the school I go to. What a good way to look at leadership. Lead like the Savior.

And I love Sundays because me and Bear read the Ensign to each other. And because it's the one day of the week that I have him all to myself. His work schedule is quite rigorous.

When we learned about talents in Relief Society, it made me want to pursue my dream of learning to make vintage dresses (clothes in general too), cake decorating, and making hand stamoed jewelry. I can't wait to start!

Give me more inspirational thoughts in the comments!

Belated Wedding Speech

Bear's brother Scott that couldn't make it to the wedding sent this speech to us to be read at the reception but it didn't work out:

"As you all know I am a man of few words....(wait for
it).............................................................
................................ok I know that got a few laughs..... If not,
...there must have been a wry comment or two.... Anywhoo,

I wanted to express my deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep,
deep, deep, regret for not making it to this certainly lovely wedding. I am
beyond honored that I was asked to be your best man barrett, it really meant
a lot to me. As far as Brothers, Best Friends, and great men go, there are
none better. That's why I'm so sad that I can't be there in person to show
off my fabulous tux which is certainly better than anyone elses in the
wedding party.....

I am not a man beyond arrogance, selfishness, ignorance and forgetfulness.
Part of the reason why I admire you so much Bear, because you don't exhibit
those things, well perhaps a little forgetfulness but that's neither here
nor there. You are a better man than I and that's why I love being around
you. You've somehow turned your older brother who used to change your
diapers into a middle aged groupie.

Part of the reason we share such a close bond is because of our love of the
celestial game of baseball. It really is a microcosm of just about any life
lesson you can learn, or even life itself. The struggle of competition, the
actual aesthetics of the game, all combine together to make a ballplayer
feel like everything is right in the universe when we're on the field, even
when we lose the game. We play for victory every time we step out on the
field but understand that we will individually fail more often than we
succeed. Yet victory can be achieved in many other activities, other sports
or games, but baseball... ahhh baseball is different. It's much more about
actually playing the game, enjoying the friendships made by the bonding of
your teammates in between the lines and in the dugout. And I certainly never
enjoyed playing the game more than when I was privileged enough to actually
have you as a teammate for parts of two seasons and last year for the entire
summer.
It's not just because you have a rocket arm, a sharp eye and a quick bat
that you will be successful in the game of baseball, but because you possess
Christlike abilities that make you the person who can perform at the highest
level.

A great baseball player must possess several redeeming qualities that
usually make that player a better person as well as a better player:

1. Toughness of the mind~ the ability to press forward through the
refining fire of failure and never give up
2. Confidence~ he knows he's done it before, so he can do it again on the
very next pitch.
3. Loyalty~ he's there for his family, so he's there for his teammates in
a pinch and more importantly, he's rooting for the others on his team to do
well, even if he doesn't get the credit for it.
4. Courage~ it's much more than not being afraid. It's having the
proactivity to seek out the big moment and do the right thing, whether to
win the game or help those in need.
5. Love~ He must love the game and others so that it becomes a part of
who he is.

Barrett I know you possess all of these and certainly these are things
praiseworthy and of good report and Christ is proud of those attributes in
you. Because of the person you are, I know that Alexa is at least as
wonderful a person if not more than you. Because that's the kind of babe you
would attract. (wink) Alexa by all accounts I've heard that you are a
magical person and I'm anxious to get to know you and we'll need to meet up
sometime before the summer is over.

I'm so proud of you. I'm a very nostalgic person and like to live in the
past so it makes me miss the days we used to play stickball with broomsticks
and homemade tin foil balls in the yard as kids. I'll never forget your
first homer when I took you down to Gattini Field in Hayward and you knocked
it over the 200 foot fence when you were 11 years old. I'm also grateful for
all the pitches you made to me when I wanted extra batting practice, I
apologize for abusing you and saying "Just one more...ok just one more....ok
really just one more this time..... Ok last one for sure for sure this
time..... And that time I bribed you with a cheap fastfood burger in
exchange for you going into the muddy creek to retrieve that ball I hit at
Stenzel Field.

As Baseball has brought us closer together I know it will keep us close
forever, and when we're old and gray and can only remember what it felt like
to run, dive, throw, catch and hear that special click when we've caught one
just right and you know it's going to go a long way, the day will come when
one of us will die, and begin playing in that other world. If it's my turn
to go first, I'll make sure I appear in a vision to let you know before it's
your turn to join me that you're catching the next day and we need a guy.
It'll be the same game, I promise......minus the chewing tobacco.

God bless you Barrett and Alexa,

No matter how you look at it, we'll be playing together again soon."

Huck's Harbor

Me and Bear took the bebbes swimming at Huck's Harbor in Fun City. We took Sarah along with us too. I love the lazy river there. But now I'm in Calirfonia where everyday is sunny and hot, unlike Illinois where you have to find the perfect day to go swimming. Gracie was being so funny with the tubes. Look at the way she's straddling that double tube. Swimming is one of the best parts of summer. And the cute bebbes of course.

Bear says he looks like a chubby bunny in this picture. Whatever.

The Babies

I miss my bebbes.

This is the day my grandma took us out to eat at Ziggie's Pizza in Nauvoo, a few days before my wedding.


I have too many pictures of this bebbe eating.


His signature smile. I want to kiss their hair and squish them til they scream. I wish I didn't miss people and things so much :(

So Cal

So I decided it's probably about to time to talk about California.

I feel really blessed in my situation. We had a one week road trip honeymoon from Nauvoo to So Cal. The driving wasn't so fun, especially in "My boy Tercel". Tercel is Bear's little '92 used-to-be-green-now-it's-faded-to-turquoise Toyota Tercel. It has no air conditioning, which I somehow didn't know beforehand and I've never really experienced before either. It was horrible whether there was humidity or not. But we had no car trouble and it was running great thanks to my dad's wedding gift of fixing up Tercel before we left.

We got to visit lots of people in Utah that weren't able to make it to our wedding. That was fun but surprisingly exhausting. The place we stayed at in Salt Lake was really sketchy. I took Bear shopping at the Gateway and bought him some basketball shoes and good walking/running shoes at Foot Locker, lots of cargo shorts for work from American Eagle, and a black Louisville slugger.

I still need to learn to drive Tercel because he's manual. And really old. He doesn't have too many miles on him though. He should be good for awhile.

We stayed on the Strip in Vegas. It was a place that had been renovated and wasn't as sketchy as the places around it, but it was in a sketchy part of town. I was afraid of getting an STD just from laying on our bed covers. We were lame and didn't see any shows are ride the stratosphere or go to the temple or anything. We went to a nice breakfast buffet and to Olive Garden with one of Bear's mission buddies who had just gotten engaged...and watched TV for the rest of the day. We were wasted.

Let me just say the Mojave desert is really ugly. And not fun to drive through with no AC. But we arrived in Lancaster late afternoon on Saturday. The Fredrickson's are very very nice and gave us homemade sushi for our first night there. I thought that was a very good sign. And there's so many nice places to eat here in Lancaster. I like how they eat on the West Coast much better. So we've already been to church in our new ward and Bear started work on Monday morning.

It's the kind of job that's good for him because he's a very hard worker and very driven. He's really good at following directions and he doesn't get his feelings hurt easily. I'll just have to buoy up his self esteem when sales aren't going as good as he'd like. He's gone from 8:30-1:30 and then gets a 2 hour break and then doesn't come back til 9 at night. He has to walk a few miles a day in the heat. Luckily heat doesn't effect him and the new shoes help his feet.

Our room is really nice and I will post pictures soon, when my camera cord gets here. Bear has to make 20 sales a month, but he only has to get 10 this month because it's a half month. I feel a little weird because I've either been in school or working or both and now I just get to relax all day. It's nice but hard to adjust to. Bear's been very good to me and besides the bladder infection (that healed up quickly) and random spurts of "adjustment" crying, I'm very happy.

Come visit us if you're going to Disney Land.

Memorial Day

Oh dear. I don't want to bore you all to tears with more talk of frozen custard. But to me, there is no limit to expressing love for this stuff.

On Memorial Day we went to Sunsey By the Mississippi for Family Home Evening. They had added a lot of new funny skits this year and the whole family enjoyed it.

My mom's cousin and his family were in town visiting Old Nauvoo. We had them over for Sunday dinner the day before but ran into them unexpectedly at the show. So we all tottered over to Annie's.

Um Gracie's face is hilarious. Actually all 3 of them.

3 generations. Each generation gets cuter. Haha totally kidding.

MMMMMMMMmmmmm she knows what's good for her.

Dancing

This is the day after I went through the temple :) After a family lunch at my favorite place to eat closeby (The Ivy in Ft Madison), me and Bear went around Nauvoo to see some sites.

The little Sister Missionary made us take dancing pictures in the old cultural hall. As Bear said later, "you just can't say no to them." It's true.

Frozen Custard

There are so many posts I was in the middle of and never finished because of wedding craziness. So I will start with Annie's Frozen Custard. I will eventually get to talking about married life, now that we're settled into California, but I left my camera cord at home and my mom has to send it to me today anyways. So back to old drafted posts...

The day after Bear got to Nauvoo we took him to Annie's Frozen Custard. I miss it right now. But I'm going to try and look on the bright side about all the good California food I'm going to get to experience.

I usually get vanilla with Helen's famous homemade raspberry sauce, but sometimes I like to have a change and get a chocolate malt or cream soda float. The picture above is my cream soda float.

I miss my Tash too.
If you're ever in Nauvoo, it's something you don't want to pass up. Between all the family and friends that came to the wedding (and needing them to experience pure joy from frozen custard), and need of a stress relief, I was at Annie's almost every night the week before my wedding.

Scorpion

So me and Bear went and bought suckers after visiting the old Nauvoo sites. I got an old-fashioned lemon one. But Bear had to get one with a real scorpion in it. I had to take a picture. And he actually ate the scorpion. That's all I have to say.

Kitties

This is Bear and one of our kittens watching TV at our house. They like each other. The orphan runt kitty and Bear like each other but I don't have a picture of them together. Bear took him on one of our nightly family walks in Mia's baby doll sling. I love him ♥ And the kitty too. But I like Bears more than kitties. Me and Bear have decided to take Bustard to school with us this Fall. He should be more stable by then and it's just not feasible to take a kitten to California with us. But I do love kitties. Bear does too. He just won't admit it.