Journal Topic #16

If I Had a Million Dollars:

I would pay my tithing first :) $100,000.
Put money aside to pay my taxes.

I would probably get a bigger house... I love our house but I would like a bit more space and a backyard that could fit a pool.

I would pay for the house in cash (it would not be a million dollar house).
Pay off our other car.
Pay off my student loans.
Money aside for kids colleges.
Some money to our parents to help them out.
new clothes and gym equipment for me.

Save/invest the rest.

Tea Time!

Yesterday my sister, Kileen, and I went to walk around the older part of my town where they have all these cute shops. We meant to take a picture of the cute rings we bought at one of the shops.

Here is our "tea" lunch we had at the Holly Berry tea room. We both ordered lemonade. Mine is lavender lemonade, it was delicious. Kileen got strawberry lemonade. We both got the "sampler" type lunch, which came with a cup of soup. Kileen got Canadian cheese soup. I got spicy ham and bean soup, it was made with jalapenos, very very yummy.







These pictures are a bit out of order...

I loved observing the people around us. There were cute old men enjoying a light lunch. lots of older ladies gossiping about the day. A room full of mothers and little babies. There was a mom, grandma, and little girl around 2 -3 years old. The little girl was given a pot of tea with a little cup that she sipped so gingerly. Drake came along too, thankfully he slept the entire time.

We both loved the food and decided to make it a regular hangout. I do believe I'll be taking Violet and her girl cousins there for her 4th birthday too.

Journal Topic #15

Getting Your Drivers License:

I think I was 18 when I finally got my drivers license. I needed to start driving myself to work and my college classes. I failed the driving test the first time I took it because I rolled the stop signs and couldn't parallel park.

Next test I made sure to really stop at stop signs and hold it for a few seconds. My dad taught me how to line the car up and when to start turning the wheel to parallel park... I still avoid it as much as possible. I passed.

The written test was easy for me.

New Weekly Dinner Menu

I decided to really simplify dinner time. I am going to make basically the same thing every week. I was thinking of a line from an old tv show (before my time but that I still watched as a kid thanks to nick at nite) where they mentioned "meatloaf" Monday or Sunday pot roast.

So I am thinking:

Sunday: (I would do a pot roast, but I'd be the only one eating it). Turkey meatballs in bbq sauce, with rice (or mashed potatoes as a variation... I like mashed potatoes, David likes rice so we'll alternate), green beans, rolls. I think I can put all of these things in various warmers/ crock pots so we'll be ready to eat when we get home from church.

Monday: Mexican night. We'll either have tacos, quesadillas, nachos, or enchiladas.

Tuesday: Either red beans and rice night (when I learn how to make it) or Fish/Seafood night. Fish sticks for the kids, some sort of baked fish for David and I... possibly shrimp for me. David's not a big fan of fish, but I'd like for us to eat more of it. Rice pilaf. Broccoli.

Wednesday: Spaghetti night. Spaghetti and salad. Occasionally switch the spaghetti for lasagna.

Thursday: Chicken night. Some variation of chicken. Peas. rice.

Friday: BBQ grill/ restaurant/ or take-out night. We'll either grill foods on the bbq (yet to be purchased) or we'll get take out or go to a restaurant together on this night.

Saturday: Asian night. Either some sort of stir fry, use any left over veggies from the week. Take the left over rice from the week and make fried rice. Egg rolls now and again. use any left over chicken or fish from Tues and Thurs.

Journal Topic #14

When I Was Baptized:

In my church a child can choose to get baptized after the age of 8 years old, but not before. 8 years old is an age where children are most likely to know right from wrong and be held accountable for their choices. Also at this age a child should be able to grasp the importance of our Savior Jesus Christ and the commitment they are making and also how to repent when they (inevitably) make a mistake. Children younger than this, we believe are innocent and incapable of sinning as they are still learning right from wrong. I was very excited for my 8th birthday and for the opportunity to be baptized. My dad, a worthy priesthood holder, was to perform the baptism.

One month after I turned 8 the day came. I was very excited. I remember feeling like it was a very special day. Members of my family came out and dressed nicely for the occasion. There was an opening prayer, songs were sung. Talks given on the symbolism of baptism, of being "buried", the death of a life with no hope because of sin and than reborn in Christ, a new life dedicated to serving God by serving His children. It is also symbolic of death and resurrection. The speaker explained the promises we make at Baptism and what God gives to us in return; We promise to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ (meaning "you see yourself as His. You put Him and His work first in your life. You seek what He wants rather than what you want or what the world teaches you to want"), you also promise to keep His commandments, and serve Him forever. I was taught that in return there would be special promised blessings from the Lord. He will bless me for my faithfulness, one of those important blessings is the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, He gives me a promise for the remission of my sins as I seek to repentance, and the wonderful privilege of being spiritually reborn (John 3:5). There was a talk on the confirmation that would be done after the baptism, confirmation is symbolic of being baptized by "fire" by receiving the Holy Ghost (Matt. 3:11, Luke 3:16).

I dressed in a thick white jumpsuit and entered the baptismal font. The water was warm and felt really nice. I saw my dad already there, also in a white jumpsuit, waiting for me. He said these special words: "Diana Eileen Delaney, Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." Then I grabbed his arm, his other hand went behind my neck, my other hand I grabbed my nose and he submersed me into the water. There were two witnesses standing outside of the baptismal font to make sure I went all the way into the water. Also my family members were there for support. I was only down long enough to be fully submersed than pulled right back up.

When I was brought up out of the water I had the most beautiful feeling. I have had 4 really spiritual moments in my life that have helped build my testimony in God and Christ, moments that no matter what the world says about my religion, I know what I felt and what I know to be good and true. The first one was my baptism. I remember the feeling very clearly. I remember thinking how true this must be if I could feel this pure, peaceful, good, happy. It's a feeling that came deep within and nobody could force on me or take away from me. So when somebody tells me I'm not really a Christian because whatever misinformation they have about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whatever lies have been fed to them, I know that I am a Christian and I love my Savior Jesus Christ with all of my heart.

Journal Topic #13

My Childhood Best Friend.

Erica. She lived about 5 houses down from mine. When I first met her, we weren't nice to each other. I think I road my bike past her house and she said something rude so I was rude back. Before you knew it we were best friends. I was about 7 or 8 when I first met her.

She went to a private school and when I was in the 4th grade she started going to public school and we were in the same class together. We played after school and weekends together nearly every day. We mainly played at her house... she had all the yummy snacks and it wasn't as crowded as my house.

Things we'd do:

Pretend to be spies and spy on people around the neighborhood.
Invent things... we may have only did this once.
Eat food at her house... once we, along with my sister Laura, invented a bunch of recipes and had a picnic with our creations...wish I could remember what they were, I do remember lots of chocolate.
Skate together.
Ride bikes together.
Play with our dolls together.
Her mom took us to Disney Land once.
Her mom took us to a water park once.
Watched scary movies and dirty dancing.
Had sleepovers.
Made club houses in the gigantic bushes in the field behind our houses, played back there quite a bit.
Talked about boys and had crushes on the same ones... they always liked her and not me though... I was quite the dork and she was very pretty.
We did the whole lemonade stand once or twice together with my brother and sisters.

When we got into the 7th grade we stopped hanging out as much... probably because we didn't have classes together and developed different interests...these things happen. In the 8th grade she moved away to Texas due to some family troubles. I had no idea I would move to Texas within a few years myself with my family.

I miss her. I haven't been able to find her on Facebook. I saw her again when I was 15, a year before we moved. I really wish I could find her again, she was such a big part of my life growing up.

Here are two class photos sent to me by an old classmate (that's why my name is spelled Diane and not Diana). I have the pink shirt and big glasses on my face in one of them. Erica has a peach sweater on with wavy/curly dark brown hair. In the other one I have a red sweater on with my hair in a side ponytail and no glasses on this time. Erica has shorter hair and a red sweater on as well on the end of my same row.

Journal Topic #12

Someone I Love Passed Away

About a year and a half ago David's grandfather "Papi" passed away. I love Papi. Papi is from Cuba and didn't speak much English, especially after his first stroke. But every time he would see me he would say very warmly "HELLO!" and I would give him a hug and kiss and say "HI Papi! ¿Cómo estás?" and he would usually answer "Estoy bien. Y tu?" (unless he really didn't feel well and then he would say "ehhh" and put a flat hand out and move it side to side) and I would say "Bien, graicas". And we smile and nod because neither of us could say much more. Once in a while he would ask me a question about one of the baby's. But I would answer him in English and he would just smile and I could see he didn't know what I was saying.

Sometimes he would feel well enough to join the family for dinner. David's brother Ken would tell a funny story and I would be cracking up laughing. My laughing always made Papi laugh, even if he didn't know what was so funny. My mother in law, Ines, would translate the story for him afterwards. But to me, the part he enjoyed wasn't the story, it was all of us laughing together.

Papi had several kids. I wish I could say exactly how many. He also had several wives... I think 3... unfortunately they weren't the kindest women and I believe 2 cheated on Papi and 1 of them was pretty good but she was a sort of "maid" for her family and they had a lot of will power over her. They didn't like it when she got married and stopped being their maid. So her family came between her and Papi. Papi didn't like the way they treated her but she was blind to it and eventually she left him to go back to living with her family and being their maid (I hope I'm getting that story right).

Papi was one of the kindest souls I've ever met. I didn't need to speak his language to feel his sweet spirit. For a living he refurnished furniture. He was extremely talented at it. He had his own shop/store in Cuba but then Castro came with his communism and changed everything. His store was taken from him and 'given to the people'. You had to have the career the government gave you after that and Papi became a police man for a little while. Eventually he came to the United States to live with Ines and my father in law Ken. I think he started working again refurnishing furniture.

He smoked for much of his life and after he got lung cancer he quit. I lived with them (my in-laws and Papi) for the first year and a half of my marriage. I heard Papi cough painfully all day and all night long every single day. He took several breathing treatments throughout the day. My mother-in-law is a saint and took care of him. He had several strokes but kept pressing forward. He got to meet two of my three children, and loved them dearly. One year we all evacuated Houston because of a hurricane. We were in the car for over 72 hours because of the traffic jams. Papi didn't complain at all. I know it must have been a hard trip for him because if my legs and joints were hurting from sitting in that car for so long, I can't imagine what his felt like.

It was incredibly sad when he died, at the same time I felt such a sense of relief for him, knowing he wouldn't be in pain and struggling to breath every day. I *think* he was 86 years old when he died. I remember the day. I had stopped by to see how he was doing. Hospice had just arrived to take care of him. My mother in law believed he had about a week left. I said "Hi Papi, I love you very much". He had stopped eating a few days before, he had stopped using the bathroom, and he had stopped speaking as well. When I said those words he made the slightest movement of his head. I think that movement took all of his energy but I knew he heard me. His eyes were barely open and he looked like a shell of who he was just weeks before. I came out of the room and burst into tears because I knew it wouldn't be much longer and I was going to miss his sweet presence in our lives. I left the house and it was hours later my in-laws called me to tell me he had passed away.

I love Papi and I know I'll see him again. PS I hope David is this cute when he's in his 80's :)

Journal Topic #11

High School:

Spent first two years of high school in California. I didn't have many friends. Got picked on a lot by mean girls. Tagged along with my older sisters so I wouldn't have to eat alone, but they didn't really like me hanging out with them. In the 10th grade I found out this very smart, very cute boy I liked, liked me. He didn't know I liked him and had day dreams about our getting married right out of high school. When I found out he liked me too I got scared. I pretended to like his friend instead. Flirted with him even. It broke the other guys heart... well as much as was possible. Our only contact was in our long talks we had at lunch. He stopped talking to me after that :( Funny though because I can't recall his name.

10th grade I occasionally ditched my English class. I always got good grades in English (not for my writing skills, obviously... but it was enough that I love to read and could talk about what it was I had read). My teacher was smart but kind of ditzy. Me and my friend Scott would go to Taco Bell to eat. We'd come back just when class let out, sneak into her class and mark ourselves there before going to our next class. That was the only "bad" thing I ever did in High School. An awesome thing that happened to me in the 9th grade was I got an award for BEST artist in the whole school! The art teacher loved me. I even won in an art contest I entered... I got 2nd place... which was like 3rd place because they had a Grand Prize winner, a 1st place winner, 2nd place and 3rd place. Still, it was pretty exciting for me. The theme of the contest was "The Power of One". My dad gave me the idea to do a drawing of The Little Dutch Boy, who saved a town by sticking his finger in a leaking dyke until it could be sealed. Also, in the 10th grade I was a Boys Varsity Basketball Manager along with my sister Laura and a few others. It was fun taking stats of the games.

I was very happy when I found out we were moving to Texas. I thought I could reinvent myself and keep from getting picked on. Or have a moment where I transformed from a dork to a beautiful girl, I was turning 16 after all. Lol. Though looking back I could have "reinvented" myself in California too, it's not like anyone knew me that well. All I really did was dye my hair a lighter shade of blonde... and later a dark brown.

I was in Texas for grades 11-12. Nothing really changed for me. Me and my brother Ryan ate lunch together when I was in the 11th grade and he was in the 10th. The next year we didn't have lunch together so for half of the year I ate it by myself. I finally made a few friends and ate lunch with them after that. I also went to prom with them. It was a few Asian girls and me. *note to self... upload prom picture.

English class in Texas was something else. 11th grade I took advanced English. It kicked my butt. I was used to goofing off a bit and getting A's. Here I worked my tail off and I got B's and C's. So for my senior year I decided to take regular English. It was way too easy. There was no middle ground at all. I can't imagine what a remedial English class might be like. My teacher loved me just because I actually did the assignments and showed an enthusiasm for reading. She even hugged and thanked me at the end of the year for being in her class!

Cool things that happened in Texas high school. As I mentioned before I won 1st place twice (they had several art mediums to enter and place in, I only entered the two and like I said, they both placed 1st) in a State Wide art contest which lead me to receiving a letterman Jacket from the school. I also won 1st place in an advertising art contest. I was asked by my computer teacher to join The Future Businessmen of America club so I could do the "graphic design" for the club. I had some of my lame computer artwork displayed in a local paper. Me and this other girl, despite being paired with two football players who weren't really helpful to the project, won a contest in our Economics class. It was a computer program that determined your "company's" success based on decisions you made for the company. Like what product to build, how much to charge for it, how much to put towards advertising the product etc. Also got extra points for the name/look of the company. We were Lunar Enterprises and I made an awesome logo for our team. AND at the graduation party I won a PC and printer. The PC sucked of course but still, these little accomplishments is what made me decide to graduate college with a degree in graphic design... never mind that I don't use the degree today... you never know. Besides it seemed so destined that it be my field.

I had some major crushes in high school, but only went on those two dates I mentioned in an earlier post... neither guy was a crush.

Journal Topic #10

I Was In the School Play.

Okay, no I was never in the School Play... another thing I was too afraid to try out for. This was the topic I pulled out today. BUT. I was in a "Road Show" in my high school years in my church youth group. All the different wards got together to perform their shows. They had awards after.

The play was called something like "1-800-Make-a-Wish". It's a hotline run by Disney that you could call and make a wish and the wish would come true... but with a Disney twist. My wish was that I would be more popular. The next day I turn into SNOW WHITE. I go crazy having this hoard of "7 dwarves" constantly surrounding me, singing songs. I get to scream and yell in my part and be very dramatic. I got a lot of laughs. I WON BEST ACTRESS out of all the young women who preformed in all the wards (about 4 wards) :)... should have tried out for that school play.

Here are some pictures of the event. Photo 1: Me before I transformed into Snow White. I got the part because of how white I am. Photo 2: Me turned into Snow White... after I saw that I looked pretty good with dark hair, I dyed it dark brown. Photo 3: Me and my "dwarves" Funnily enough, one of my "dwarves" is my future sister-in-law Amber, now married to my brother Ryan. Naturally she is the one who's face is being covered by the girl with the red hat. I liked the boy behind me with the yellow hat and large arm span... he was tall and nice and cute. Photo 4: The whole group in the play. Other wish makers turned into Sleeping Beauty (I think her wish was to be pretty and who kept falling asleep everywhere), She had a handsome prince who had also made a wish (I don't know the outcome for everyone) there was a pinocchio, and an aladin with magic genies.

Journal Topic #9

My First Car



A Ford Bronco II. Don't recall it's year. I was 19 when I bought it for $1000. That's my brother Ryan catching some wicked air on his roller blades off of a curb.

Journal Topic #8

Christmas as a Kid:

I mentioned before that we didn't have a whole lot of extra money to go around. But Christmas was never a disappointment. As a child I was somewhat fascinated with the Nativity and with Mary especially. The idea that this incredibly blessed woman got to give birth to the Lord and Savior of the world! I used to imagine how she felt when she looked upon Jesus, I wondered how much of his mission she understood at his birth. She was no doubt a holy woman, so surely she must have had a great understanding. I still think on it, but as I got older I started thinking more about the Savior and the hope for the world, that his birth instilled, even before the actual atonement came to pass.

My dad LOVES Christmas and has really fond childhood Christmas memories of his own so it was important to him to give us good memories of Christmas as well. My mom was not so fond of Christmas. She loves Jesus, don't get me wrong... but the commercial aspect made her say "bah, humbug" many a time. The drain it put on them financially stressed her out. They put the gifts on their credit card and it took them about half of the year to pay it off (I'm remembering this part from something she had said when I was younger... I really don't actually know how long it took to pay off). My dad, it didn't bother him. He loved to see our happy faces on Christmas morning. I'm sure my mom did to.

I don't mean to take any credit away from my mom. She actually did quite a lot for us to make Christmas special. She baked and decorated cookies with us every year. She had ornaments for us to paint. She painted several decorations herself... especially folk tole painted Santa Clauses. Many times we secretly dropped off cookies at a neighbors home. Ringing their doorbell and running away giggling, hiding behind a bush so we could see them looking around for the person who had left the Christmas goodies. A lot of the traditions I have with my family are because of her efforts.

Every year we got to go to my dad's work Christmas party. What a treat. They always had a Santa Claus who would let you sit on his lap and be told what you wanted for Christmas. He also would hand us a gift. I often got a new barbie at the party. There were soooo many delicious goodies to eat and my parents didn't tell us how many we could eat, where normally my mom was very good at limiting our sugar intake, it was harder to do so at the party because they would be distracted talking with someone and we would sneak off to get more. Luckily I was smart enough to stop before I got sick.

Our church had a Christmas party every year too. I remember them handing out stockings that had candy in them... maybe a coloring book as well. Looked something like the following... but it wasn't filled with quite that much.



My favorite Christmas's include the year I got my yellow bike. The year I got a keyboard. The year I got a MyChild doll.

Christmas traditions as a kid: Making/decorating cookies with my mom. Taking cookies to people houses anonymously. My mom would make and we would decorate a ginger bread house, she made delicious ginger bread. painting ornaments together. Big Christmas breakfast together. Going to my Grandma and Grandpa Soules house on Christmas Eve. Getting a big package full of lots of goodies including gifts for all of us and cookies in a tin and a popcorn tin from my Grandma and Grandpa Delaney. My mom would wrap each kids gift in a different wrapping paper so she didn't have to label every gift... just one... and we knew what pile was ours.

my sneaky tradition. I would get up at about 3 a.m. on Christmas. I would open my stocking and partially open my gifts to see what I got. Then I would put my stocking back together... maybe eat a few pieces of chocolate. Make sure my presents were wrapped properly. Sneak back to bed and dream about my gifts. This made me much more "patient" (technically by opening everything early shows how impatient I really was) in waiting for my parents to wake up.

My brothers and sisters didn't do this BUT they did search and find most of our gifts each year. I didn't partake in that tradition. So they didn't need to get up because they already knew what they were getting. I don't know what my two youngest sisters did.

Here are a few pictures from Christmas past. I'm the blonde in front. The boy is my brother Ryan, girl holding Ryan is my oldest sister Lorraine. Girl in the red is my older sister Laura. Connor, Kileen, and Maureen aren't born yet. They are poor quality because I took a picture of the picture... to upload the quickest.




This is me with a Strawberry Shortcake doll my mom made! My daughter Violet looks a lot like me at this age.

Journal Topic #7

Visiting a Foreign Country:

I love traveling to other Countries. David likes the idea, but not much of a traveler himself. Before I got married, before I even met David I went to England by myself to visit with an aunt who lived out there. She was in the middle of moving but was nice enough to let me visit. I helped them pack up the house to move and in return (besides feeding and sheltering me) she took me to London to spend the day and later surprised me with a trip to Paris, France for two days! The trip was amazing. And in Paris I met Leonardo DiCaprio on top of the Eiffel Tower. But that's a story for another day. Paris had amazingly delicious food and I would love to go back someday... I hope my father in law goes with us as he speaks French fluently and it might make for an easier trip.

Also about 6 years ago I went with my friend Lisa, her cousin Janice, and Janice's mother-in-law Beverly to Italy. I was married to David at this time, but he let me go as a graduation present to me as I was soon to be graduating college after 9 years of attending. He told me I was never allowed to travel to another Country without him again. I agree of course, don't want to be without him... but so grateful I got to go with these lovely and fun ladies.

We stopped in Rome, Florence, and Venice. Florence being my favorite stop. I was very newly pregnant with Liam at the time, morning sickness hadn't kicked yet... not until Venice that is. The thing that really sucked was I had to pee every hour to two hours. One time I cried because I didn't want to ask everyone to stop AGAIN so I could pee. First of all, I blame the hormones for the crying. But I felt like I was ruining the trip. Every time we stopped we had to buy something in order to use their disgusting toilets. I remember Lisa getting annoyed at me for crying about it... she insisted that it was okay if I had to stop to pee. Janice and Beverly said it was great, we got to eat a lot of Gelato.

Rome has lots of history, amazing art and the Vatican of course. Food was okay... I did have some food aversion thanks to the pregnancy and had no desire for the pizza :( or most of the food in Rome... I ate, just didn't enjoy it... at least not until Florence. The drivers in Rome were crazy and I think someone (was it Janice or Lisa?) got hit by a passing car, it hit her arm or something.

Florence had the nicest people, awesome art and cathedrals, and amazing food. Oh I loved the food there. No food aversion in Florence.



Venice smells soooo bad... especially with my pregnant nose that could smell everything. It smelled like rotten sewage to me. I don't know how the other ladies felt about the smell. I tried not to show it, but I had a constant headache and nausea... it did make me a bit moody. Venice is such a unique city that I am glad I got to experience it despite feeling ill. I'll always remember trying to find this restaurant that Lisa had heard about on Rick Steve's show on Venice. Can't remember the name of it though... anyhow we walk in. I looked quite stylish in my walking shoes and frumpy clothes, while everyone else was dressed very nicely. Everyone stared at us while we waited for a table. Then they took us upstairs. We sat down and were pretty shocked about the prices of the restaurant. The cheapest thing on the menu was the soup which cost something like €25 Euros... about $32 Us Dollars. FOR A BOWL OF SOUP! I went all out and spent nearly $100 for a plate of shrimp and risotto. They were okay, but not $100 okay. It was an experience though.

The way home was awful. We changed planes 2 or 3 times (hazy memory) and I was throwing up nearly the entire time... I think it was over 8 hours to get back, I could be wrong... and the first plane I didn't actually throw up until I got off of it. Morning sickness had definitely kicked in.

Glad I had those experiences before I had my babies. And I'm glad that my new travel adventures will include my babies.
Here are a few pics from my travels. Excuse the poor quality... pic. of a picture for quicker upload (it's hard to be patient when you have three kids who want your attention). I had a lot of scenery but thought I'd spare you.

LONDON. Photo 1: My aunt "hoping" the wall to this castle Photo 2: Meeting the look-a-like Queen of England Photo 3: Me on the train going back to my aunts home, all touristy. Photo 4: Another Touristy photo.






PARIS. Photo 1: I think I'm standing in line for the Louvre Museum... not 100% but the two things we did that day was the Louvre and Eiffel Tower... I think. Photo 2: Me and Leonardo DiCaprio on top of the Eiffel Tower.




ITALY. Photo 1: Enjoying a Gelato (one of many, this flavor was tiramisu). Photo 2: At a restaurant in Florence, where we met Franco (I think was his name) our waiter who happened to LOVE Texas :) He had all sorts of Texas stuff to prove it Photo 3: Lisa and I, enjoying some delicious food... must have been Florence still. Photo 4: me and Lisa again, this time in Venice. Photo 5: Lisa took a picture of me drawing some statues in a museum... I don't remember if it was Rome or Florence. Photo 6: Florence for sure. I don't know what this desert was made of... some sort of cream and chocolate. It was the best desert I've ever had ever. Photo 7: Me and Janice trying to figure out the map... I wasn't any help.

Journal Topic #6

The First Time I Kissed a Boy:

I was 18 years old... actually one month from turning 19.
I did go on two other dates before my first kiss with the guy I dated for so long... one was a blind date. The guy was shorter than me (I'm barely 5'2") and he talked about how in his Country they don't use toilet paper, they wipe their butts with their left hand. All I could think is gross, why are you telling me this. So no kisses for him. The other guy was a friend of mine. I had a good time but he wouldn't kiss me goodnight because he was about to go on a mission for our church for two years and didn't want to get too preoccupied with girls until he got back. I understood... but was sad I still didn't my first kiss. Finally met that loser I dated for too long.

The kiss itself... pretty gross actually. The guy hadn't kissed too many girls himself so we both didn't know what we were doing. He pressed too hard, used too much tongue, and this is super gross but he had allergies and his tongue tasted a little like mucus. Yuck. But I didn't know it could be better... couldn't imagine how it could be better. Just thought it was something I'd have to get used to.

When I met David. Wow. I couldn't believe what a good kisser he was (IS)... never mind that our first kiss was quite awkward as I had lunged at him and he wasn't prepared, didn't see it coming. He was looking at me and smiling when I lunged. We bumped teeth. It's a running joke with us to this day. I had been dying to kiss him. He has the most gorgeous shaped mouth I had ever seen and all I could think about was kissing him... but he was taking too long to make a move. I had even told my friend Lisa how badly I wanted to kiss him (don't know if she remembers that) but I wasn't sure I was going to keep dating him (was going to try to date people with my same beliefs as the last relationship I had wasn't the same beliefs and it lead to all our problems... David however does have the moral standards and basic Christian beliefs and eventually I realized he was the nicest, sweetest, most honest man I had ever met)... anyhow before I came to that conclusion about him I asked Lisa "would it be wrong to kiss him a few times and then break up with him?" she said "yes it would be". Good ole Lisa.

My dad actually paid me $200 to wait until I was at least 16 before I kissed a boy. It was on the honor system, but I was definitely honest about it. It did keep me from starting to date before I was ready... and then some. I plan to have the same deal with my kids, the girl and the boys. Except we'll make it $500. And when they are 16 until they move out of the house it will be group dates only. Dating at this age shouldn't get all serious. They should be having fun and seeing what types of people are out there. Not falling in "love" and making grown up decisions before they can even financially support themselves. Will the kids sneak behind our backs? It's possible, but I can hope can't I?

Journal Topic #5

Foods I Love:

Okay, I'm going to try to keep this list short... try. Because I love food. It is definitely a weakness I have. My goal is to learn to enjoy whatever foods I want, but in much smaller portion sizes. Here we go... no particular order:

Lobster anything... roll, ravioli, salad, bisque etc..
Shrimp
Noodle bowls, noodle dishes
Spaghetti
Potato soup
Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches
brownies (I made these the other day and realized why I never make them... because I like them so much that I eat too many of them)
eggs... fried, scrambled, poached, soft boiled, hard boiled, omelettes.
Indian food... samosas, murgh korma, naan, paneer, saag, mango Lassi and all sorts of dishes I don't know the names of.
Meat: Lamb, Cow, Pig, Chicken, Fish. but only the good parts, well my definition of good parts which DO NOT include... hooves, snouts, throats, eyeballs, marrow, organs etc.
asparagus
LOVE me some avacado
artichokes
Mushrooms
Tomatoes
quesadilla with the works
Thai foods... not all, but lots... keeping in mind that I am American and I like Americanized international foods...

There are more, but this list is making me hungry.

Journal Topic #4

Girls Camp:

In my church, starting at the age of 13??? Maybe 12... I don't remember... Girls are allowed to attend "Girls Camp" (GC) once a year. I think I went for 4 years. I went to GC in both California and Texas.

The great thing about GC in Cali is the weather. You get to camp in the mountains. It's cool in the morning and bit warmer during the day, but still brisk. The scenery is gorgeous, the fresh mountain air is intoxicating. We would hike, do survival training, scavenger survival runs, repelling off a large wall, swimming. It was always fun, with a few moments of "this sucks" when you'd fight with a friend or any girl drama really. In Cali we mostly made our own food at each site, everyone would get a turn at the chores... I think for the day you hiked they would make a sack lunch for us. In Cali they would mix up girls from different wards to camp out together, forcing us to get to know other people. Which was nice but a bit nerve racking for me. We would have older girls who were the counselors be in charge of our site and girls. The camp would have a theme and the counselor would come up with a name for our group and make us special things like matching bandanas or t-shirts to identify our group. We sang songs around the camp fire, hiked up to a huge tour only once to do star gazing, sing, and talk about the amazing universe God created. The last night of camp we sat around a large camp fire and bore our testimonies of our love for the Savior Jesus Christ and what our GC experience taught us about that love. This lasted for sooo many hours, that in years to come they changed it to having a camp fire with just your group of girls to share testimonies and experiences.

Texas GC was a bit of a shock for me. We camped in Louisiana. It was an extremely flat area, not that pretty, and excruciatingly hot and humid... not to mention the mosquitoes, ticks and chiggers (I had never even heard of chiggers until this point in my life). We stayed with our wards so we didn't really get to know the other girls. They made all our food for us, each ward had to take turns cleaning the mess hall. Activities for the day were fun enough. We had skeet shooting, target shooting (Texas and their guns, lol), canoeing, crafts, and swimming. Well that's all I remember anyway. I think mostly I sat around feeling hot. I really did not enjoy Texas GC. When I got older I got to help out with the crafts one year. They gave me shrinky dink paper and toaster ovens for the girls and I created shrinky dink charms. I had a very popular craft area. Luckily the craft leaders got to sleep in the craft cabin which had A/C.

Now a days they have a sort of obstacle course... forget what they call it. With lots of wall climbing, repelling, and all sorts of challenges. I should note that girls who've lived in Texas a while, generally don't have an issue with the heat and humidity.

Here is a blurry picture of me my first GC in Texas. That's me skeet shooting. I was terrible... couldn't see the skeet to save my life. I was much better at Target practice.

Journal Topic #3

Reading Books to My Kids:

Don't have much to say here. I think reading to my kids is very important. I definitely want them to develop a love of reading. Sometimes I am lazy... Liam knows how to read so if it's late I tell him to read himself a book. Sometimes I ask him to read his sister a book too.

My sister Kileen reads 4 books a night to her daughter. I read 1 book to each kid... and like I said, sometimes I'm too lazy for that.

I do have plans to read all of the Harry Potter books to them. I might start that pretty soon actually. I could wait until Drake is old enough, but maybe when he's old enough I can start over again. I just read "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" out loud to Liam and Violet... though Violet kept leaving the room. I had a 4th grade teacher who read books out loud to us everyday. I loved it. I think Ronald Dahl is a great start in reading larger books out loud to the kids. To get them used to hearing it and visualizing the story. One of my favorites growing up was The BFG. I think I might have to order that to read aloud before I get into the H.P. books.