7 random things about me

I have read this on other peoples blogs, but my sister (thanks, Mar) officially tagged me to do one. So, without further adieau:
1. I hate dirty feet. I love to wear sandals, but not anywhere that I know my feet will get dirt on them. And if I feel like my feet are dirty and I'm just sitting somewhere (like in the car) I just keep my toes up so they don't hit my dirty flip-flops. Eewww.
2. I love to read. And I love to read mystery novels. However, mystery novels sometimes scare me. So I'll read a good one, then have to find some sappy love story or other type novel to read in between or I start to get paranoid. Just ask my husband.
3. I love snowmen. And snowflakes. I had a friend whose mom used to collect Santa Clauses and I thought that was so cool. But I have found that without even trying I have started to collect snowmen. It's just everytime I see one I just have to have it! Snowflake jewelry is super cute (especially necklaces, hint, hint), but currently I don't have any.
4. I love small things. Anything miniature is adorable to me. Little tiny dishes, notebooks, pens, stuffed animals, you name it. I used to get teased saying I loved small things because they were just my size. (Jerks)
5. I am still fascinated with little girl things. For example, I see the Barbie movies at the video store and want to rent it because Barbie is so pretty. I sometimes wish I had a little girl so I could get away with stuff like that. My favorite color right now is pink. I love to dress up in pretty clothes and wear cute jewelry and just feel pretty!
6. I am obsessed with maps. Maps of every size and color. I like to learn where places are, names of states and capitols, countries, whatever. mapquest.com is one of my favorite hits on the computer. If I could decorate an entire room with maps as wallpaper, I would. (The new office? What do you think, Babe?)
7. I collect quotes. I don't use them much for anything, but I love to collect them, and have a notebook specially dedicated to great quotes (or funny ones) that I find. One of my all time favorites is by Marianne Williamson (not Nelson Mandela):
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Well, there you all have it. You know a little bit more of the craziness that is Rachel!

Out of the mouths of babes

Last night at 8:30, Zander and I are in the kitchen getting a snack. We're frying a quesadilla, so he's standing on a chair and I'm standing next to him cooking our treat. Here's a little snippet of our conversation:
Rachel: "Zander, I love you."
Zander: silence.
Rachel: "Zander, I said I love you."
Zander: "I can't say that to you right now."
Rachel: "You know, you can say I love you anytime and anywhere."
Zander: "Now is just not a good time, Mom."

Not a good time? He's only 4! Where do they come up with these things!

Then a little bit later, when I'm rebandaging his 'owie', again he's standing on a chair and I'm standing in front of him putting a bandaid on his hand (where he got a blister from sliding down our rope swing) and he laughs a little laugh then says, "Do you want to get away from me? I just tooted." Then laughs again.
Kids are so stinkin' cute!

my presidency (yes, mine)

So, I'm in the primary presidency, for those who don't know, and tonight we had our weekly meeting. We have our primary program on Sunday (yeah!) and we did the finishing touches on that and the final draft of the seating chart, which took way more time than you would think (think how many kids there are, and who can and can't sit by who, who can/can't be seen behind the piano, etc.). In our meeting our president asked for suggestions on who to put in as 1st counselor when we move. We talked about a few names, then I started crying. What a baby! I'm going to miss these girls so much! They have been my best friends and we have so much fun together, even when we're just in meetings. Rachel, Melissa and Joanne, here is your warning: You better keep in CLOSE contact with me (I know I'll only be a few miles away, but once we don't see each other in church and at meetings...it's all downhill from there. At least we all have our blogs!
I love you girls!!
Side note: this picture is an old one...our secretary also moved and we have a new one (we miss you Irinna!), but I don't have a picture of the 4 of us, so sorry Joanne!

WE'RE MOVING!

We bought a new house! Well it's not brand new, but it will be new to us. We close on it next week and move in next weekend! I can't believe it's already here...does anyone know how long it takes to box up a house? I'm pretty sure I don't have that much time until moving day comes. Michael is out of town all this week so not much is happening in that area right now....Aaaahhh! We'll keep our same phone numbers, so don't lose those! We're really excited, because our new house will have a playroom! Yeah for toys being all in one room! We are also going to be doing some renovations and I'm excited for all of that! We'll keep you posted as we get closer and things start moving.

Lake Powell, Part II

So, better way late than never?? I have other things I want to post now, so I better get this out of the way. Here are some more fun pictures from our Gonzales reunion at Lake Powell.

Some of the girls in the fam...Kinley, Christine, Nicole, Samantha, and Rachel.

Oh so pretty...wish I was better at taking picures while on a moving boat. =)

Zander got stuck in the mud here twice. The second time it took 30 minutes to find his water shoe that he lost. He didn't do that again.

Christine, me and Nicole getting some good air on the tube. I was a little sore the next day to say the least.

Michael on the slalom ski.

And me on the slalom. I shouldn't put this picture next to Michael's...makes me look bad. But I did make it out of the wake as you can see. Getting back in, well that's another story.

Here is the sandcastle the kids made. Isn't it awesome? They even broke up little sticks to make a door that you can't see in this picture, but it was pretty cool.

Well, there are some more fun pictures from one of our summer adventures. Hope you enjoyed, and stay tuned for many more posts to come!

Girls at Work

So, I found some cute downloads for scrapbooking and decided I needed to put them to work! It was a DIVA album, so I naturally had to put the girls I work with in there. Take a look, I hope you like!

Lake Powell

Hey, better late than never, right?!
We went to Lake Powell with the Gonzales family August 9-12 and had a great time! We camped on the beach. We actually got up there a day later than expected due to Zander having an ear infection and fever of 103.6. Little scary. Here are some pictures of our fun vacation!

Keagan being a big helper and helping Michael set up the tent.

Keagan, Michael and Me starting the long, hot day!

Here's our dog Patch, and even though it doesn't look like it here, she had a great time at the lake with us, and she was even well behaved, which was a little uncharacteristic of her. Good dog!

Michael being a big hot shot on the wakeboard.

Well that's it for now. I'm going to stop and post this, just to make sure it all works, then I'll come back and post some more pictures and stuff later!

Happy Anniversary!

So, eight years ago today (well August 20th was the EXACT day) there was a beautiful young couple excitedly waiting their turn to be married in the Salt Lake temple. It was me and Michael, of course! We got married on my parents 25th anniversary. It was a beautiful day, nice and sunny, until we got to the reception. It was raining so hard the power went out, when they were trying to take our family pictures, of course. Amazingly, our pictures turned out great! You'd never know there were no lights on at the time.
So this year Michael sent me these lovely flowers while I was at work! I was the envy of the office, it was great! It's a beautiful bouquet of all pink flowers: roses, lilies (two kinds), gerber daisies, and carnations. It was gorgeous. What a great husband I have, even eight years later! That night we went to dinner with my parents to Thaifoon, a delicious restaurant at The Gateway. I highly recommend their lettuce wraps and the spicy tuna rull sushi. Amazing.