Amanda's Shower

I'm the worst blogger ever! I always think of things to write, but never take the time to write any of it down. Hopefully I'll get better as this is my only source of journaling!

A really good friend of mine got married last month and I was able to throw her shower. She is the sweetest and married the sweetest guy. I couldn't be happier for their new family! Click here for some pics from the celebration!

Teachers

I love twitter. I follow about 15 people that regularly tweet links to cool stories and what not. Its a really simple way for me to stay up to date with the things I care about. But every once in awhile, they'll tweet normal stuff about their lives. Recently one of the guys that I follow tweeted this:

Great kindergarten e-mail: "Please remember to send your child to school tomorrow with a stuffed animal for a class project on measuring."

Marleah and I don't have kids yet, but when we do, I hope they have teachers that email us parents. I think it would be such a cool thing to get daily emails from my kids' teachers. Imagine how cool it would be if everyday they sent something like:

"Ask your child about the game we played with fish today. Everyone loved it!"

I think these quick emails would increase parent participation by a hundred percent. I think it would create more communication between parent and child, as well as create more interest from the parents in what they are learning at school.

I may be wrong, but I think it's a small thing that could create a huge change. That's Change I would believe in!!!!

Reading for the A.D.H.D

For those of you who know me, you know 2 things: 1. I'm Mexican. 2. I'm the poster boy for A.D.H.D. That being said, I love to read. I am constantly reading blogs, magazines and books. One thing that has always been difficult for me is to concentrate on things for a long period of time without being distracted. It takes all I have to focus on my scriptures to read even a chapter because my mind is always racing about one thing or the other. So, much to my joy and happiness, a new company has come out called Vook. Basically, they make books that are a combination of Text, Video Clips and links to other information on the web. You read them on your computer, or on your iPhone (and soon your iPad! ) I have read two of them already and I absolutely LOVE them. The combination of text and video clips makes for an absolutely immersive learning experience. Plus, whenever they are talking about a place, person or company, they always have a hyperlink to the web somewhere so you can see exactly what they are talking about. I friggin love it!!!!

The two that I have read so far are Unleashing the Super Ideavirus by Seth Godin (which right now is only $1) and Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuck. Both are business books, but there are plenty of Vooks on the site that are fiction. The next one I'll buy will probably be the Sherlock Holmes vook.

My dream is to have a Vook of Mormon. I would just love to be able to read and have video clips of general authorities about a particular scripture or principle. That may not happen in my lifetime, but I'm certain there will be iPads in heaven, and a Vook of Mormon will come standard on each one of them.

Mechanics Suck! Except for...

 

This last week Marleah and I were put through the ringer with her car. We needed new brakes, but everywhere we took it, they said we needed different things. I was pissed! Some mechanics said we needed $700 worth of work, some said just brake pads, but they wanted to charge us $400. 

I hate mechanics. It's the same crap everytime. 

So, we decided to buy our own parts and hire someone that her Dad knew. While shopping at an Auto Parts store near our house, we were talking to one of the guys that worked there. He mentioned that he was a mobile mechanic and I asked him more about it. He said that he only works at the store part time and does this mobile mechanic thing the rest of the time. He then whipped out his appointment book and showed us how booked he was. And man, his entire book was friggin full. I thought, either this guy took a long time to fill in an entire book of fake names and numbers, or this guy is really really good. Turns out to be the latter. 

I am very pleased to announce that we have a mechanic that i will go to for the rest of my/his life.

He even bought the parts we needed, brought them with him and we paid for them and his time all at once. 

He came to our house. Worked on the car there. He showed us what he did. He made some recommendations of things we should look into in the next few months and gave us a receipt. He charged us $100 plus the $70 in parts. Done and done. Can you believe that? Compare that to the last time you took your car to Jiffy lube! 

I love honest people willing to do an honest job for honest pay. He was probably Republican. ;) 

Give him a call and tell him Chad sent you. He probably won't have any idea who you're talking about, but I've always wanted to say that.

Dropbox and Evernote

 

 

 

Ok guys, 

I wanted to tell you about two things I use EVERYDAY. Both of them are free and both of them are absolutely awesome. 

Dropbox allows you to have a file folder that holds all the normal things you would put in a file folder (word docs, pdfs, excel files, etc...) except that this file folder is available to as many computers you want to install it on. This way, it is totally simple to save certain documents at work, and then have access to them at home. Or in my case, I can view and edit documents on my computer, and my assistant can view and edit them on hers. And whichever is the last to be updated, is the one that is available in the Dropbox folder. Brilliant! It runs on macs, pcs, and iphones. 

Evernote is every bit as awesome as Dropbox, just for different reasons. I'm one of those guys who uses To Do lists extensively. I have too much going on in my head to function without them. So, i've always used to-do lists that synced to both my iphone and computer so that no matter where I was, i could view and edit those to do lists. The thing is, to do lists aren't very good at keeping notes. Alas, comes Evernote. The killer app with Evernote is it's ability to "tag" notes. This way, you can easily sort your notes into sections. I simply use one of the tags as "To-Dos". So this way, I have one place to keep all my notes as well as my to-dos. You can easily sort voice memos, photos, web clips, text memos, basically whatever you want. I love it. And it, too, is available on macs, pcs and iphones.

Enjoy your weekend.

My wife is AMAZING!

This weekend was Marleah's first official event as owner of Limelight Events. And WOW, did she do amazing. I do have to also say thank you for all the friends and family members who helped us (especially our Moms who spent countless hours putting up the damn ceiling....twice!) ha ha. The event was gorgeous and the bride cried when she walked in and saw everything. I know that meant a lot to Marleah because she worked really hard on it. We'll add pictures of the event soon, but I just wanted to give her a shout out for all her hard work. And if you guys haven't seen her new website, CLICK HERE.

I love you babe and this is the beginning of something AWESOME!!!!!

Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam

Every Sunday I am entertained by a group of 3 year olds for 2 hours. My Sunbeams have LOTS of energy, but say the craziest things that makes it all worth it. This week we learned why Jesus loves us. They had to stand in front of the class and hold a picture of Christ while they finished my sentence. These were my most favorite responses:

Jesus loves me, because "He gives me stuffed animals."

Jesus loves me, because "my sister's tooth is wiggly, but the tooth fairy hasn't come yet, because it didn't fall out."

Jesus loves me, because "He builds me things with legos."

Oh to be 3 again!

December

December was super busy for us, just like everyone else. These pictures pretty much sum up our month.

December 2nd marked the one year date of when Chad first kissed me. Normally a first kiss wouldn't be that big of a deal to either of us, but considering the fact that we had been friends for four years prior, it was a big deal to our relationship. I found this little present in my purse on the 2nd. He even engraved the date of when we first kissed on the back. Isn't he the sweetest?!

David Archuleta concert. Don't judge!

Knotts Berry Farm, which is now equally as ghetto as the Circus Circus Adventure Dome. The recession did not do this place good, or was it always this ghetto?

Bunco Group. Enough said.

Rodeo date night with the greatest in-laws EVER! I love Paul's face in this picture.

Paul and Nola took everyone to dinner at Lupo and Larry the Cable Guy for one of our Christmas gifts. We had so much fun! I didn't know red necks talked so much about their poo, but I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard.

Quick trip to San Diego.

Our first Christmas!

Hope everyone had a great holiday month as well!

A Magical Birthday

Chad rocks! That pretty much sums up this post. On Monday he came home from work and told me to pack my bags, because we were headed to California for a few days so we could celebrate my birthday at the Happiest/My Most Favorite Place on Earth! I was completely surprised and beyond excited. We got there around dinner time on Tuesday and had dinner at Roy's. They go all out for your birthday. I was totally impressed. On Wednesday we woke up early and spent all day and night at Disneyland. Chad was such a good sport all day. It will definitely be a birthday I will always remember. Thanks for making it so special babe!

Friends Thanksgiving

When I was in college we started a tradition of hosting a Friends Thanksgiving a couple weeks before Thanksgiving. It was a great excuse to hang out with whatever boys we were crushing on, and who doesn't love Thanksgiving twice? This year my friend, Katie, and I decided it was time to start the tradition again. As a parting gift we made everyone carmel apples and wrote a short note as to why we were grateful for them. I was reminded that I am truly blessed to have so many amazing people in my life. The evening was filled with good food, good company, and I'm glad my current crush will be spending every Friends Thanksgiving with me.