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5 things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. I was just getting to Spain after spending 2 long months in the MTC! Don't get me wrong, I loved the MTC, but I wasn't learning a language and after the first month they didn't really know what to do with us. We went to the temple twice a week, watched every single church video ever made... It was definitely time to move on!

2. I was excited to go to the airport and see my family one more time, and I was ready to leave when it was time to get on the plane; I was nervous but couldn't wait to start my mission. Then we made a transfer in New York and I remember looking out the window as we began flying over the ocean. That is when it really hit me that there was no turning back- this was it. I was really going and I started to panic!

3. When I got to Spain, my Mission President was at the airport waiting to meet us. He took us all back to his house for lunch (I rode in his car and it was weird) and then sat us down in the living room and brought in all of our companions and lined them up. There was one sister missionary that looked like a cheerleader from head to toe, and I thought to myself, "well, there's my companion" because all throughout my MTC experience I joked around that I would be fine as long as I didn't have any companions that were cheerleaders.... Ha ha, the joke was on me! Hermana Blad became my trainer and she actually taught me a lot of wonderful things- not judging cheerleaders before getting to know them was among those lessons learned.

4. My first day in Spain was a blur. After leaving the Mission President's house, we took my luggage back to our apartment, or piso as we called it. I walked in the kitchen and thought, "this is a joke, right? Six girls have to share this kitchen?!" It was as big as a closet! After dropping my stuff off, we went to a new member, Sandra's, house. She made us a delicious dinner that included platanos- one of my favorite foods from Venezuela. After eating, we went into her living room to talk for a while and I fell asleep on her couch! Oops! But seriously, it was a long flight!

5. I think those first couple of months I waited for the mail every day like a vulture. Like every missionary, I loved getting letters from home. I devoured every piece of mail that I got, but I have to say that the letters from my sisters were the best. Kimberly made me laugh out loud in every single letter- I would read and re-read them. It was so much fun hearing from home.

5 things on my to do list:

1. Get off of the computer and take a shower!

2. I'll tell you one thing that I don't have to do. I don't have to make breakfast! Out of the blue, Isaac and Adam brought me breakfast in bed this morning. They brought in a cookie sheet with grapes, 2 pieces of bread, a slice of banana bread with jam on it??, a piece of string cheese, and a diet coke!!! I tried to not laugh, it was so sweet. Isaac told me that it was the best breakfast because it had grains, fruit, and cheese from the milk group. The only things missing were protein and vegetables, but I could make those for lunch if I wanted to! I let them help me eat, so we all had breakfast together on my bed. I asked Isaac why he was such a sweet kid and he said, "because you are the best mom in the world and we like doing nice things for you"! Who wouldn't wake up smiling after something like that?!

3.I still need to do some touch up painting in my living room and the boys room.

4. I need to vacuum and clean the rest of the house again so that I can take more pictures to post on ksl.com. We've had our condo up for sale for a week now, but need to advertise a little more; apparently our signs aren't generating enough interest!

5. If it's still a sunny day by the time I finish cleaning and getting ready, the boys and I NEED to get out and go to a park. The poor kids have been neglected these past few days while we have been finishing up projects, packing, and cleaning. Thank goodness for Alisha, my Mom and Stephanie, and our friends who have given them some relief from their crazy parents.

5 favorite snacks/food:

1. Anything sweet, seriously, anything!

2. Better Cheddars, reduced fat Wheat Thins (they taste better to me than the regular ones), Triscuits, and those big, round whole wheat crackers. I don't know why I like crackers so much!

3. Mexican food. I especially love and crave the shredded beef salads from Costa Vida!

4. Tiny spicy chicken from Mandarin Garden. I stopped liking this when I was pregnant with Adam, and didn't enjoy it again until Jason was a baby. Pregnancy does weird things to your taste buds!

5. Doritos and Pringles.

5 things I would do if I was a billionaire:

1. Pay off everything we own and then give it all away.

2. Buy a new house (with tons of land) and new cars, and then buy new houses and new cars for everyone in my family and Chris's family, and Chantel. Then we would build my dad his dream cabin.

3. Set up huge savings and retirement accounts so that we could go on as many missions as our bodies would permit, and set up accounts for all of our kids so that if we went broke suddenly, they would still be taken care of. And set up a missionary fund for prospective missionaries in our Stake. Heck, we are billionaires, we could probably set up a college scholarship fund also, and not give out money based on academics. We would give it to college students who are married and have kids and are working a million jobs trying to make ends meet... We'd be good role models for them, we did the same thing and look, now we're billionaires, so stay in school!
Number 2 and number 3 should probably be switched around for priority reasons, but who am I kidding, I probably would buy new cars before I did anything else!

4. I would build a new family center in Logan that has bathrooms, running water, a kitchen, a huge meeting room, a fenced in playground (I already have it designed in my head), and set up funding for the PAT program so that we will NEVER have to worry about grants again!! Then I would fire the board of directors and find all new ones who actually care about what they do!

5. Travel, travel, travel. We'd take fun trips together and also do service trips. I would want my kids to know that they have a responsibility to share what they have with other people, and wouldn't want them to take anything that they have for granted. Other than the traveling and the new cars, I wouldn't want them to think that they were any different than any other family. Isaac would still have to keep doing chores and earning money for the Woody doll (from Toy Story) that he wants (he only needs to earn $3 more, but I am running out of chores for him to do, so, if any of you could put him to work, that would be great)!

5 bad habits:

1. Getting frustrated with my kids way too easily, and not being able to step back and see the bigger picture when little things happen that make me upset. Like yesterday. I was making banana bread and I put the butter in the microwave for 20 seconds and then went upstairs to go to the bathroom. Isaac came up a minute later and said, "mom, the microwave went off so I set it again for 3 minutes for you." I made him run downstairs as fast as he could and turn it off. When I got downstairs, Isaac was trying to clean up the mess, but there was melted butter EVERYWHERE! I got so mad because that was all of the butter that I had left. After I cleaned everything up, I had to go and hug him- poor kid, he just thought that he was being helpful. In fact, most of the times that Isaac makes messes or gets in trouble, he is just trying to do something nice for someone else. But, when I walk downstairs and see a huge mess in the kitchen that I just cleaned, it is hard to step back and have some perspective!

2. Talking too much- as you can see by answer number 1!

3. Coming up with long, drawn out theories about everything all of the time, and then boring everyone around me by actually making them listen to all of my theories and ideas!

4. Being bossy. I am REALLY bossy! (Kimberly wrote this, but it is true for me too- it must run in the family).

5. Staying up WAY too late EVERY night! I am such a night person, and I CRAVE alone time with Chris, so I make him stay up too late (generally by bribing him, if you know what I mean!) and then he is tired at work and grumpy when he gets home. Poor guy. This is all a vicious cycle though, because then by the time I finally start to fall asleep, the kids start waking up and crying, and then I get all mad at them, and then they wake up way too early and I am tired...

5 Places I have lived:

1. Kaysville, Utah

2. Caracas, Venezuela

3. Rexburg, Idaho

4. Logan, Utah

5, Madrid, Spain


I tag: Everyone who actually reads this!