Quick Trip To Seattle!!

I just realized while posting this, that we didn't get very good pictures here. We stayed with Doug and Elisa Tehero and didn't even get a picture with them....lol. Sorry guys. :) We'll just have to come back up to hang out you guys and sweet Kayla. We headed up to Seattle for Fernando Mladineo's wedding and decided to have the Tehero's show us around a bit Saturday afternoon.



We totally had front row seats for this one! Dallas and I were standing right in front of where they throw the fish at Pike's Place in Seattle. When someone orders something, they throw fish to each other to package it. This dude threw a huge fish over some ladies head, and then the guy that caught it through a stuffed fish out into the crowd which freaked us all out. It was pretty awesome.


Fernando and Diane got married in April, but had their Seattle reception a few weeks later. Sorry we didn't get better pictures of them, but we got some nice pictures of their decorations. :) It was so great to see them and how happy they are together. We had a really good time at the reception even though we accidentally showed up an hour early...



What a hottie!



I love their cake! I decided that the only bummer about being the first of most of my friends to tie the knot is that I didn't have as many people to copy good ideas from. Don't get me wrong, our wedding was by far the best I've ever been to, but in the last 4 years, I've seen some great ideas that I would've loved to have used at my own reception. Hence, the picture of the cake. The brown and blueish teal was a great combination as well!



This look says, "I'm not amuzed...don't talk to me till I've eaten." :) Brie, you can relate to me on this one right??? :)



This is Dallas taking the first bite of our TEXAS style donut we bought in Seattle. It tasted gross, but we'd never seen a donut that big, so decided to fork out the 4 bucks for a picture.



Even Toby wasn't impressed.


Girls Weekend...with Dallas!




Brie and Brooke came up the last weekend in March for the tail end of their spring break and we had a total blast hanging out with them. (This makes two visits in three months--woohoo!)



This is me being excited.



Unfortunately we don't have as many pictures as we should of our fun times, but this one will go down in history. All of us went to get pedicures, (yes, even Dallas) and at the end, Brooke and Dallas decided that he should get HOT PINK polish instead of clear. And then, of course, he had to get some green palm trees to match the nail art that the rest of us got. It was hysterical. All of the women in the salon were laughing and wishing their husbands were as cool as mine! Yeah baby!



After pedicures, we went to Home Town Buffet for old time's sake. The pineapple here was phenomenal!



Dallas and Brooke were cracking us up the entire time. I love this picture, you can tell Dallas is chuckling and Brooke is about to take a deep breath from laughing so hard.



Ahh...this reminds me of when Dallas came home with me for Thanksgiving about 2 months after we started dating and Brooke was only about 8 and said, "Dallas, will you be my brother in law???" Way to go Brookie!

We had a fun filled weekend playing the Wii, going to movies and just goofing around. We always love it when the girls come to visit!

Taiwan Rocks!!

I just wanted to link to an article about the 100th congregation in Taiwan.  Having been a missionary in Taiwan, it delights me to see the gospel continuing to go forth and grow so quickly.  I sure do miss being a missionary, but I'm comforted knowing that there are great, capable people still doing the Lord's work in the country that I love.  Here's the article below:

MINGCHIEN, Taiwan /21 May 2008/

The Pacific island of Taiwan now has 100 congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Last month Mormon officials organized the new Mingchien Branch (small congregation) by dividing the larger Nantou Ward (large congregation).

Mingchien is a small central Taiwan town that sits in a scenic agricultural valley. From Taipei in the north to Kaohsiung in the south, the 100 congregations of the Church serve a total Latter-day Saint membership approaching 50,000.

The first handful of Mormon missionaries arrived in Taiwan in the late 1950s and began establishing the Church from scratch. One of the early Mormon missionaries to serve in Taiwan was Gerald Walker, who arrived on the island in January 1959. He is now back in Taiwan and, with his wife, Christie, directs the operation of the Church’s Taipei Taiwan Temple.

Members of the Church’s 100th congregation in Taiwan gather following organization of the Mingchien Branch. 

“When I was here as a young missionary, I don’t believe there was one member of the Church in the area where Nantou and Mingchien are located,” he says.  Walker notes that he and 40 other missionaries were thinly dispersed throughout the 36,000-square-mile island (about the size of Indiana).  There were just five scattered congregations organized then and about 600 Latter-day Saints. The young missionaries were often assigned to lead the congregations.

Today all lay ecclesiastical leaders of the Church in Taiwan come from the ranks of the local members.

The town of Mingchien is a 40-minute ride on public transportation from where the Nantou Ward meets, so the formation of the new congregation is welcomed by Church members who live in and around Mingchien.

“Having a large enough core of faithful Church members to begin a branch in Mingchien makes it much easier for the members to attend our services,” says Chen, Chu-huang, the newly assigned branch president. Adds his wife, Chen, Mei-shia, “We will do our best to make the congregation a warm and friendly place so that new members will join us and we will grow.”

Grow is what the Church has been doing in Taiwan for over 50 years now.  The establishment of the 100th congregation in Mingchien is proof of that. 

Now That's a Fish!!

I've been meaning to post these pictures since January, but haven't gotten around to it. This is Ashley's Grandfather Simmons. He caught this fish back in the 80's and I believe it was a lake record, maybe a state record? I'll have to double check. But catching a fish this size would be a dream come true! Just look at the size of that thing!!

Tribute to Sam Richardson

I think everyone has an acquaintance that seems wise beyond their years. So in posting this, I want to pay tribute to an old roommate of mine by the name of Sam Richardson. I was going through some old pictures the other day, and nearly died laughing when I saw this. Fernando (maybe it was Chris) put this educational piece on evolution together, so we could partake in Sam's wisdom. Sam (as well as Morgan) always had advice for us young 21 year olds that overtook their apartment in the fall of 2002. I have no idea where Sam is these days, or what he's up to. But I wish him the best. I'm sure I speak for all our roommates when I say it was good times all around when Sam was around.

The First Snow of... Spring?

I thought that after Spring started, we were supposed to have gorgeous sunny weather!  Since last Thursday up through this past Monday, ever morning I woke up to snow on the ground.   Oregon has some beautiful weather and some very unpredictable and odd weather as well.  Today for example, is completely clear and sunny.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was snowing again by the 12:00 noon.  Anyway, I don't even remember Utah ever having snow after Spring started.  But here's something I didn't tell you...  I love the snow :)   I was born with Wyoming blood and the colder it is, the better I sleep at night.  But I also love Spring, Fall, and Summer weather.  But there's still something about a nice chilly night that doesn't compare to any other weather during the year.  Ashley on the other hand, is from California.  Here blood is definitely "Cali Girl" blood.

Toby update!!

So I know that many of you have been dying to hear how Toby is doing and what he's been up to lately. Well, actually I know that's not really true, but here are a few pictures of him for your viewing pleasure. He's definitely not like his mother. He loves to cuddle and he's already bigger than she is (in weight) even though he looks smaller. She's got a lot of fur to make her look tougher and bigger than she really is.

Toby is a real BYU Cougar. He likes to wait around corners for Zee and then pounce on her. She gets pretty irritated when he does this, but it doesn't seem to bother him at all.

As you can see in these last few pictures, he loves to snuggle up next to us when we're sitting around. The last two is him upside down next to Ashley one night when she was sitting on the bed typing on her computer. He seemed to enjoy that because he was like that forever.

Yay for blogs

Because we blog every now and again, I feel like it makes keeping track of my life experiences way easier. No need to scrapbook, no need to write the "travel log" in a journal, just post on the blog! If the internet dies, so do my published posts...lol. Blogging has really aided in my efforts to simplify and get rid of unnecessary fluff in my life. Now I just save my journal for all my deep thoughts about contemplating the universe and all the why questions I have and answers I've received so far. As for scrapbooking...I'm done. One's enough. And that's just fine with me...no offense all you crazy scrapbookers...maybe when I have kids my desires for such things will change.

So, how did we get to March 16th already? That's what I want to know. What happened to January and February? Not that I'm complaining, because winter is actually my least favorite season, but it seems like the older I get the faster the time flies by. Now that I've realized we're almost in April, my apologies go out to those whom we have not kept in contact with. We have not forgotten about you, we still think of you, we just don't call or write. lol. We shall try harder moving forward. That's one of the things I love about Sundays. No matter how crazy the previous week was, we always have Sundays to worship and reflect and get things back in order to try and make next week better than last. So, who knows, maybe someone will get a random phone call or email? No promises, but anything's possible right?

Well, enough words, let's get on with some pictures of the last few months. Some are way old, but we never posted them, so here they are.



These pictures are of Gramma and Grampa Simmons' 50th wedding anniversary. Don't they look great?!!! I loved watching them dance...you two have still got it goin' on!! Well, I guess you've gotta, since we all heard what your favorite past time is!! ;)



Brie and Tara on the left...Lexi and her baby Taylor on the right...we've got some hotties in the family!

So I want to know how I can be almost 10 years older than all these girls and they are all way taller than me. (You can't tell, but I have 4 inch heels on.) They're not so little anymore...like I said, time flies...craziness I tell you.



Here is our very own Brooke Kathryn Simmons Horse and Pony Lover Forever. Or, as she signs her emails, "BKSHAPLF." She's quite the equestrian and has leg muscles that could crush you...just try giving her a piggyback ride.



This was our night on the town with Brian and Kristin Masse (sorry guys, I couldn't figure out how to put the little accent thing over the e). We went to the Chart House and had some amazing filet mignon baby!! The view over the city was amazing as well...then we checked out Kell's, a sweet Irish Pub down town. You would never know they were parents of 5 would you? Party animals! (I know, I was in midsentence in this picture, but it's the only one we had.)



Aren't you all jealous of my sexy feet?? All the years of soccer really paid off. When I grow up, I'm going to get paraffin pedicures every week. So, yes, this is my amazing blister. I am officially training for my 2nd marathon!!! AND, two shorts weeks after I bought myself some sweet new Nikes, I found out that you are supposed to buy running shoes at least a half size too big if you are a serious runner. Well...at the time, I was NOT a serious runner, in fact, I don't think I've seriously ran since my last marathon when I was 18. So... I forgot that small fact and this was my reminder. I'm actually grateful it happened when it did, because I was able to get another pair before we got into our longer runs. We....meaning my new crazy running partner Kyndra. Love her! She motivates me to be crazy like her and I'm actually starting to ENJOY running. I NEVER in my life would have anticipated THAT...but, it's all just a big head game anyway like any other sport. 26.2 miles...just a head game....:) We finished our 10 miler in 1 hour and 37 minutes, Woohoo!!

These are my pretty flowers Dallas sent to me at work on Valentine's Day. Good choice, eh? He scored major points here. :)

This is Chelsie Mecham...er Cornu now :) and her new hubby John. They are an adorable couple! I met Chels my Freshman year at the Y and she is originally from Forest Grove, which is 30 minutes from Newberg, so it's been fun to hang out with her since college...YAY for the Cornus!!

Had to get a picture with the Bride!

We went snowboarding with some friends a little while back and Dallas did surprisingly well for his first time. We both collected a lot of snow in the backs of our shirts, which was quite hilarious, but all in all, it was great fun!

So...I'm ending with being tagged. I've been tagged a lot lately, and so here's one big post so I never have to do it again...and I'm choosing not to tag anyone this time, so you all may go free...

UNTIL NEXT TIME....love to all!

10 years ago:
I was 14 and a half...:) I was playing high school volleyball and competitive soccer, stressing about getting A's, obsessed with Aaron Call, and I talked on the phone all the time and got grounded from it almost as much. I was pretty high strung, a perfectionist, and overly dramatic about most things, and I also thought I was more mature that most people my age. Wow, isn't it a blessing people can change? :)

5 things on my list to do today:
1. Clean my room
2. Make out with Dallas
3. Read "21 Days Closer to Christ"
4. Finish posting this on my blog
5. Figure out my to do list for tomorrow, and put the rest of today's list on it, so I can relax for the rest of the night. :)

5 snacks I enjoy:
1. Artichokes
2. Chips and Salsa
3. String cheese and a banana
4. Peanut butter pickle sandwiches
5. ICECREAM

What would I do if I were suddenly made a billionaire?
Deposit everything in my savings account, so I could see all the zeros in my account balance. Write a big fat tithing check. Pay off our house, travel all over the world, adopt a few kids, create a scholarship fund, create a day spa for moms to go to (that's relatively inexpensive), with a daycare on-site that has storytellers. I'd also buy a cabin in the mountains somewhere, and a condo close to a beach, build my dream house, create a college/mission/wedding fund for all my kids and then do something like they do with Extreme Home Makeover for underprivileged families. Shop, duh. I'm sure I could think of lots more.

5 places I have lived:
Loomis, CA
Provo, UT
Guangzhou City, China
Medford, OR
Newberg, OR

5 jobs I have had:
Soccer Referee
BYU Telefunder!!, LDS Philanthropies
Customer Service Trainer, Sento Corporation
Recruiter, Advanced Personnel Solutions
Account Manager, Employment Trends

3 things you don't know about me:

1. I have never died my hair
2. I had a trainer at a gym tell me I was a "heavyweight" when I weighed 118 pounds my Freshman year in high school...
3. I want to adopt a chinese baby girl

And that's the end of my novel...Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow

My Cousin Debra

This is an email that my cousin Debra sent out that made me laugh. She is serving her mission in Argentina.

Dallas

-----Original Message-----From: Debra Taylor Sent: Monday, February 18, 2008 8:30 AM

Subject: top 20 listTOP 20 THINGS I WOULDN´T HAVE DONE BEFORE THE MISSION (most of which have to do with food and bugs. In no special order...)

1. The "ant dance" - We have an ant problem in this apt. Raid is really expensive and so instead of poisoning them I sweep them all into a pile and dance on them . IT´s much cheaper and not as damaging to the body.

2. Squish a spider with the back of my spoon rinse it off and then eat off it (at least I rinsed it off)

3. Buy 2 tomates and an onion, cut them up into slices pour oil and salt over it and eat it - on purpose (it´s a very argentine salad... I love it!)

4. Wash all my clothes by hand - including dirty socks and underwear (TMI I know)

5. Find a 50 billion ants in my bread, shake them off into the sink, and eat...and continue picking them off the bread as I eat it (not all of them shook off)

6. Find lots and lots of spiders in my bed and not die and continue to sleep without problems

7. Wear the same dress 3 days in a row without washing it

8. Eat cow heart

9. Eat boiled chicken with many, many feathers still attached

10. Clean under the stove, find over 500 teeny little spiders that began to climb all over me, and not even get up to shake them off.

11. Buy bread twice a week from a guy that sells it from the trunk of his car.

12. Walk between 10 and 15 kilometers everyday without problem

13. Brush my teeth with a toothbrush that is crawling with ants (Like I said, this apt has an ant problem...really)

14. Pick up a spider´s egg out of curiosity to examine it

15. Exercise every morning

16. Kiss everyone, all the time, 50 times a day, when I enter and leave a room even if it´s 44 degrees C outside and everyone is sweating and nasty

17. Boil noodles to make macaroni and find the pot full of little green grasshopper like bugs...strain the noodles and keep going.

18. Put sunscreen in my hair

19. Eat in a member´s house...pull one hair out of the food... continue eating...pull another out...continue eating...pull another out....etc

20. Sing in front of anyone anywhere without problems whether it be in church or on the street corner.

Warning!! Graphic Images Below!!!

Well, I don't know about too graphic, but these are pictures of an open wound on my forehead :) Some of faithful readers might be too wussy to see these, so be warned.

Ashley and I have been lucky over the last month to have 3 trips to the hospital ER down the street from where we live. Don't worry, it's only a $100 co-pay every time we have to go visit the ER!!! I mean @#$^!!! Why can't we hurt ourselves during normal business hours, so we only have to pay a nice $15 co-pay to get fixed up. Oh well, it builds character I guess...

Anyway, back to the important thing... me. On Saturday night, I had just gone to the rest room (#1 btw, and this detail will be important later. I'm still getting to that). After that I was getting a drink of water. Since it was 10:00pm, I was tired and my body felt the urge to stretch really good. So I did. Now this wasn't just a normal 2-3 second stretch. It must have been 5-7 seconds. You know what I mean, right? A really good stretch. Well after I finished stretching my huge muscles, I walked into the hallway. I started to feel really light-headed, and decided that Ashley should know. So I said, "Babe, I feel kind of light-headed." While saying this, I thought to myself, "This seems to be more than a usual run of the mill light-headedness, and I think I should sit down because I might pass out." (I'm sure that was a verbatim quote.)

Anyway, the next thing I remember, I was waking up from this deep sleep. Ashley was sitting on the floor beside me saying, "Babe, are you okay?" When I realized that I didn't know why I was waking up on the floor instead of my comfortable bed, I knew that something must not be right. The only thing I could think to say was, "I'm all right. I just need a second." After a few minutes of regaining consciousness, I felt better and color had returned to my face.

The troubling thing was, the other 2 times in my life when I passed out and had small seizures, there was a clear reason as to why I passed out. This time, I didn't have one. The only thing I could come up with was that I really had to take a leak and stretch afterwards. On top of this, both of my grandfathers have died from Brain related issues that I don't quite know the details of except that at least one had tumors, and passed out with a seizure or something like that. So Ashley and I decided to go to the emergency room, and speak with a doctor about. (Looking back, I should have just called Todd, but that would have meant waking him up at midnight. And I had already done that when I was in China once throwing up something that... well never mind what it was.)

So we went to the ER, and checked myself in. They were pretty busy, so we waited a little while. My body was extremely tired and I couldn't stop yawning. A common symptom after you've had a small seizure of the muscular system. And also common after passing out. so I told the nurse everything that had taken place 10 mins before my wife found me stiff as board up against the wall in our bedroom. Then they took me into a small room, where I got to watch TV!! (I sure do miss sportscenter.) Anyway, back to me again. The doctor came in (The same guy who stitched up Ashley's finger a month before at 10:00 pm at night), and asked me a few questions. Talked to Ashley a little bit, then told me that stretching, peeing, getting out of bed too fast all can cause the blood to kind of rush out of your head and to your feet. It's common for people to pass out while they are peeing, driving, standing at attention, etc...

So, the bottom line was that I had 3 of these things all within about 5 mins time, and I whiffed it. Nothing was wrong, and I don't need a cat scan or need to worry about tumors. I just wish it hadn't of cost me $100 bucks to find out that I shouldn't stretch after I pee!!

I'll have Ashley post her perspective on what happened later, so you can here her fun details.

Well worth the read I must say. Man I love that woman!

Now, on to the graphic images. I passed out on Saturday night. On Wednesday night, I go to mutual. I was pretty excited because I was taking the boys to the driving range, and I was finally going to get a few good hits in after a long winter! Well, when we got there, I passed out some clubs to the boys and was delivering range balls to each of their areas. Next time, I'll pass out balls, and deliver clubs after that. Hindsight really is 20/20. So, while I was still looking for boys without any range balls, I didn't get out of the way of another boy with a 3-wood. On his back swing, My forehead decided to head-butt the 3-wood and teach it a lesson for good. Unfortunately, My forehead is stupid and I ended up with 7 stitches above my eye. I didn't pass out or really feel any pain and Brian Masse drove me back to my favorite late night ER, so I could get stitched up. Thankfully, Brian was also able to take some sweet pictures of my MAJOR surgery! Here they are.

Yeah, I'm a moron. We already knew that.

Here's kind of a close up. Don't worry there's more :)

Because I'm such a wuss, they had to put me under, so I wouldn't cry during the MAJOR operation.

Actually, I'm kidding. The nurse told me to keep my eyes shut, so I didn't get cleaning crap in them.

I do look peaceful and innocent though. Where's Ashley when I need her to see how innocent I really am!

The nurse tells me it was a pretty deep wound. That only makes me feel "slightly" cooler for getting in the way of a Boy Scout swinging a golf club. You would think I know better having been a Boy Scout myself. At least I knew to "apply pressure" to the wound...

See!! I told you it was a MAJOR operation!!

This is me on the phone while under the knife. I was telling my wife that I got jumped by some Boy Scouts who didn't have their totem chips yet, and they knifed me.

This look pretty much sums it all up.