no snow, just pure heaven

still loving cancun. loving it so much that i'm only going to take three minutes to tell you how much i'm loving it because i just gotta get back to loving it some more. ha.

anyways, for all four of my fans out there, i wish you could be here because it's amazing. this is where chris and i came for our honeymoon except that now we're here with nine of his family members and we're staying at a resort three down from the omni where we stayed a year and a half ago. it's a lil different this time around but wonderful just the same.

it takes forever to upload pictures to this blog so i put some from the first half of the trip up on facebook. here's the link for all of you to enjoy... try not to drool.


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2232000&l=9fe3a&id=17800933

nevermind

I no longer feel like doing a good job posting on this thing. i will give you a half hearted apology but that is all i have. lots has been going on, but not really that much stuff that would actually be interesting to write about...
It is so freezing cold here. and it won't stop snowing. the upside? i'll be in cancun on wednesday! thank goodness for that christmas getaway!
I was offered my own classroom at work and after thinking about it for a week i accepted. i'll be teaching two year olds and instead of having an assistant teacher, i'll just have less kids. that's a plus since my current assistant teacher is driving me nuts. sadly, i'll be glad to not see her on a full time basis anymore.
christopher and i completed out christmas shopping today! YEAY!!! we also went on a tie shopping spree and got over $400 worth of ties for under $50. i might even be more excited about the ties than christopher although only some of them will be for him...
k, i'm burned out again. maybe i'll post again in another month or two. maybe cancun will motivate me... but then again, maybe not!

i'll attempt to keep good on my promise

ha, i decided to post something since it's been a while. i actually had to go back and reread my last post. is it sad that even i don't keep up with my blog? oh well. i just finished my fourth full week at my job. i work at a pre-preschool daycare type thing. i'm a one year old teacher. my assistant teacher and i have eight kids in our class and we're getting a new one on monday. the kids are mostly between the ages of 14 and 18 months so it's pretty fun. it gets kinda stressful at times and this week i did have one of those little kids smear his nasty lunch filled hands all in my hair when i bent down to pick something off the floor, but it's pretty great. i figure if i can learn to deal with nine one year olds and love some gross, snotty kids that aren't even mine, maybe it'll help me prepare to be a good mother. maybe, maybe not, but i do get paid and i have full time hours. i think life is pretty good.
chris is working with his dad. they're in the business of group health insurance. chris is really liking it and he's getting lots of valuable work experience to prepare him for stanford. he travels almost every week but normally only for one day/night at a time so that's pretty good. he goes to places out here like wyoming, kansas, nebraska, oklahoma type places for meetings and to make presentations and meet with clients. his dad is an excellent mentor and chris is learning so much from him!
we're so happy out here in colorado. i'm loving colorado so far and i think it's loving me too. this was the first year in nine years that it didn't snow before halloween. i was hoping it would go all the way to november 21st (the day after my birthday...what an amazing birthday present!) without snowing but apparently that is the lastest snow on record for colorado and hasn't happened since 1934 or something. anyways, it snowed yesterday, dashing my hopes... but i still think colorado loves me because it was even mostly sunny yesterday and the snow melted really fast. apparently colorado has 300 days of sunshine a year (it's amazing the facts these natives come up with to brag about their state!) which makes me very happy since i'm pretty sure i could diagnose myself with seasonal affective disorder.
everything is going right for us. we have an AMAZING ward which i could not be more in love with. chris got called to be a ward missionary (his dream calling) and i got called to work with the 8-11 year old girls as an achievement day leader. we've already made pajama pants for an activity and it totally took me back to my own acheivement days. another phenomenal thing about this calling is that i still get to go to RS on sundays (not primary as i have been doing ever since we got married) and it's only two nights a month! and my friends in the ward have the same calling so we're having a blast together.
we're loving all the time we get to spend with chris's family. our apartment is about ten minutes from their house so we go over there all the time to watch sports games, have sunday dinner together, and just hang out. chris still has three younger brothers living at home so it's awesome to get to see them so much and chris's mom is my best friend out here. we love our girl time together and help keep eachother sane! today we all went to the BYU - air force game down in colorado springs. it was a really good game and BYU ended up winning which was way fun. we even got to sit on the sunny side and it wasn't too cold. but then again, i was wearing fur boots, pajama pants under my jeans, and two hoodies. what can i say, i'm a southern girl through and through.
so excited... chris and i are going to the farm for thanksgiving! we're going to an avalanche (that's hockey) game with his family on wednesday night and taking the red eye to atlanta. then we're going to drive down to the farm and get there mid morning in time for thanksgiving festivities!!! i couldn't be more excited. i think we'll even get to spend sunday in atlanta before flying back to colorado early monday morning. i think about this trip every day and how insanely excited i am for it. the weather will be nice, being on the farm will be amazing, and seeing my grandparents will be the absolute best!!!
other things (are you impressed with this thorough update?!?!, i am!) going on: chris is playing in a pickup hockey league here and although his team isn't that great, he sure is! he has a game once a week, late night either friday or saturday. sad news though, last night he separated his shoulder and has been in a lot of pain since then. luckily though we got him a sling at walgreens and he's hoping he'll only have to miss one game before he gets back in the action! also, a little random, but i got this recipe for pumpkin soup at an enrichment activity this week... didn't sound too appealing but i tasted it and it was delicious! not a whole lot of pumpkin tasting... just tastes like some sort of bisque. anyways, if anyone is interested, i'll get the recipe to you. and while i'm thinking of it, if you don't know how to make the easiest pumpkin cookies ever, you should. i thought everyone had heard about this until i found out my mom was clueless...if my mom was clueless maybe there are other lost souls out there. mix together a box of spice cake mix, a large (21oz or something) can of pumpkin, and a bag of chocolate chips. bake. so easy, no measuring, and it doesnt create a whole lot of dishes to clean up.

anyways, i think that's all for now! i hope this will suffice for a while since it'll probably be a while til i'm on here again...

till next time!

i'm still here... just not here on the blog

don't worry, i didn't fall off the face of the earth, just the face of the blog. although i was never really a big (or medium) blogger... i'm acutally not even sure that anyone reads this... i know i have been seriously slacking which is sad because chris and i have been doing nonstop fun things since my last post six plus weeks ago! we finished up our apx summer, went straight to europe for three weeks, went to utah, came to colorado and have been getting ourselves situated in our new life here. we got our apartment all unpacked and i finally got a job! THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT!!! chris love his job and we absolutely love our ward. anyways, life is great and one of these days i'll post pictures of the fun things we've been up to. ps- if you're reading this, thanks for not giving up on my infrequently blogging self!

Work Work Work!

With only a week and a half left here in Pennsylvania, I'm getting really sad about leaving my new family away from home. I don't really feel like writing right now but I thought I'd post a few pictures from some of my good times at work.


Here's Dominick in his pretend kitchen, turning on the stove to make a delicious treat.

Lexi rollerblading around the kitchen.

And getting the proper cooking utensils. What a smart boy!

We spent countless hours in the sun this summer, one of our favorite activities being playing in the sprinkler. When we planned to play in the water, I would put a swimsuit on him, but sometimes you just gotta go with the moment!

Dominick knows how to dish out the attitude! Megan and I got some great laughs from the things that would come out of his mouth!

Typical afternoon in the backyard. Lexi's coloring on the trampoline with sidewalk chalk and Dominick is just jumping away.

Dominick LOVES to play in the clean laundry! I would take pictures of him and then he would ask to see them saying he wanted to look at the laundries!

My precious little boy. I wish I could take him to Colorado with me!

Let him eat cake!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOMINICK!!!

After weeks and weeks of telling people I have a 3 year old (kinda) I finally do (kinda). A week ago today, on July 29th, we celebrated Dominick's 3rd birthday. We grilled hamburgers, hung out, and best of all, ate cake... or rather watched the cake eat Dominick...


It started out simple enough, putting cake in Dominick's hands and watching it go in his mouth.

He seemed to think it was some sort of play dough because he lost interest in putting it in his mouth and preferred to put it a variety of other places starting with his face...

Then his hair a little bit...

More in his hair, and a little on Uncle Randy's face...

And with a little help from Lexi he got REALLY into it!

He pulled out all the stops...

Paused just long enough for a picture with me...

And continued on to the rest of his body! Haha, this is a picture of the aftermath. He was eventually stripped of all of his clothing and placed directly in a bathtub to soak! Thank goodness cleaning up that mess was NOT in my job description!

A husband something or other

My old roommate, Sarah, recently got married (congrats to sawah!) and recently got a blog. As I was stalking her on blogspot (right after I finished stalking her on facebook, my preferred method of stalking) I realized that she "tagged" me for this husband survey of some sort. Anyways, in my attempt to become a blogger, I figured I'd give it a shot...

• What is his name? Christopher Scott Hillier
  
• How long have you been married? 1 year and 3 months
  
• How long did you date? About a year before we got engaged and then another 4.5 months
  
• How old is he? 24
  
• Who eats more? Probably me. He has the ability to eat a ton, but normally doesn't. And I probably eat more just because I have to eat every hour or two or else I get too hungry.
  
• Who said "I love you" first? He did. Almost exactly two years ago.
  
• Who is taller? Christopher, but only by a couple of inches.
  
• Who sings better? Christopher. He's always singing crazy songs.
  
• Who is smarter? DEFINITELY Christopher. He got accepted to Stanford for business school for goodness sakes!
  
• Whose temper is worse? Mine. Chris has a lot of self control. You have to if you're gonna be around me all day.
  
• Who does the laundry? Me. Neither of us trust Chris to wash my clothes.
  
• Who does the dishes? Whoever has the less demanding schedule at the time. This summer, it's me.
  
• Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Well, ever since we got married it was always me who slept on the right side and after a week or two in our new apartment here in PA, Chris started stealing the right side of the bed while I was still brushing my teeth. He was very persistent and after a week and a half of that I finally gave up. In short, the answer is Chris. Don't worry, I'm only a little bitter about it.
  
• Who pays the bills? Chris. I don't trust myself, I'm too forgetful.
  
• Who mows the lawn? When we had a lawn, I did because I LOVE mowing lawns. But now that we live in an apartment, the grounds crew takes care of all of that.
  
• Who cooks dinner? I wouldn't really call it dinner so much as just random items of food. I have no idea what we eat but goodness knows I don't cook anything unless I'm in the mood to play house, which happens rarely.
  
• Who drives when you are together? Christopher. I'm a little ADD and don't feel comfortable driving when there's anyone else in the car. And I hate driving. That's why Chris drove the entire way out here from Utah.
  
• Who is more stubborn? I don't think either of us really are.
  
• Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Me. Chris is almost never wrong. And when he is, he doesn't know it. I'm wrong very often and am very used to this idea of being wrong and then admitting it and then apologizing. I'm very good at it.
  
• Whose parents do you see the most? Chris's. With the exception of this summer, Chris's parents are always much closer.
  
• Who proposed? My sweet lil Christopher.
  
• Who has more friends? Chris. Definitely definitely Chris.
  
• Who has more siblings? Chris. He has one sister and four brothers. I have one brother and two sisters.
• Who wears the pants in the family? Chris. He takes care of me.

I just HAD to put this picture up. It makes me laugh every time...

ps- I know I'm probably supposed to tag people but I really don't know of anyone that actually reads this, so if you're out there just tag yourselves!

Going "home" to Atlanta

All in all, Atlanta was TONS of fun. The whole reason for my trip was to go to the beach in North Carolina but I missed everyone in Atlanta so much that I had to tack on a couple days days to my trip so I could spend some time at home.

The first night I got back Lisa (her knee is pictured in the left corner), Rebekah, Rachel, my brother Walter, and his girlfriend Lauren came over for games and fun. Here we're playing scategories which was absolutely hilarious. Even though Rachel totally missed the mark on when Wendy's was founded, she still pulled of the win!

Even though we stayed up late playing games the night before, I made Rach wake up before 6:30 am Sunday morning to go to the soup kitchen with me. She was a little reluctant to get out of bed and definitely regretting that she chose to spend the night at my house!

Us girls had a photo shoot with Walter after church on sunday and it turned out some hilarious and ugly pictures that I will not post here. We're not sure why Rebekah looks so weird but we voted Belen "most fierce."

And here is our take at a normal picture. L to R: Rebekah, Lauren, Belen, me, and Rachel

This is a picture of my longtime friend Valentine. She moved to Atlanta from France in the middle of 3rd grade and had no friends and didn't know a single bit of English. I thought she looked nice and so I went home and had my dad (who went to France and Belgium on his mission) help me write down a few things in French. I remember I told her that I had a brown dog named Sandy and I asked her when her birthday was. She was thrilled to have a classmate that she could semi talk to and we became fast friends. Sadly, I switched to a private school next year and didn't see her much after that, but now we keep in touch on facebook and we were able to get ice cream together and catch up. Crazy how that all played out!

During my days in Atlanta I came to the harsh realization that even though Atlanta will always be my home in the sense that I lived there for the first 18 years of my life, it's really only just that. When I say harsh realization, I mean it. I got out of my neighborhood and didn't know how to get to the nearest Target. I got confused when I was buying my breeze ticket on marta. I had to ask my mom for directions to get to places within ten minutes of my home. I still love Atlanta like crazy but when I'm there I just feel like a visitor. When I'm not there, I call it home but really, my home is just wherever my Christopher is. And boy, does it sure feel good to be home!

Pennsylvania

We made it to Pennsylvania! After many many hours of driving through state after state of nothingness, we finally arrived!

This is Chris driving through Illinois I think. What a wonderful husband, he drove every inch of the way. Take note of the desolation we tried to call scenery.

Thanks to dad, we somehow managed to fit everything we would need for the summer into the back of our car (and under our seats and at our feet etc...)

We live on a golf course and I mean ON a golf course. I woke up to this one morning soon after we got here and I suddenly felt not so far from home... If only it was Papa driving...

Despite unloading tons and tons of junk out of our car, our apartment still looks very sparse. I kid you not, when I talk on the phone, I get distracted by my own voice echoing off the bare white walls.

This is my beautiful kitchen, complete with a dishwasher and a garbage disposal! And the oven even looks like it was made within my lifetime. I'm so spoiled!

i won't post until karen adds me as a friend

yes, you heard me.

COLLEGE GRADS!!!

I finally graduated! Who would've ever anticipated that? ;-) And Chris graduated too... but we all knew that would happen. Personally, I think it feels great to be done but Chris is just itching to get back to school. He's planning on working for a year in Denver and then going to Stanford next fall for his MBA!

Look at those smiles! Seriously one of the happiest days of my life. I'm glad I stuck it out and made it through college but honestly, I never want to go back to school ever ever again in my life!