October

It may be the middle of November, but I am just now blogging about October. But you know what they say, better late than never right??

October just flew by! I guess I should get used to that as the holiday season gets into full swing - is it just me, or did it sneak up this year? Phew!

Anyways, it started with my 24th Birthday on the 2nd. Every year my "Birthday weekend" falls on conference weekend, so Saturday night Jon and his dad and brother, Brenden, went to the Priesthood session of conference. I was at work - and afterwards we were all going to meet at Mom and Dad Saline's house. I showed up and they surprised me with this absolutely adorable cake!

Isn't it so darn cute!?
Well, apparently our nephews weren't that interested in the pink purse cake....they were way more interested in Tangled.....
Here's Keagan and Kaleb.

And here's Collin.

Trust me, when it was time to cut the cake, the movie got paused and they were fully present and accounted for! Yum!
Well, our niece Heidi had a hard time waiting for the men-folk to get home from conference - she was trying so hard to get her hands in the cake and when she was finally able to get a piece, she loved it!!!!!



It was so great to be able to spend time with Jon's parents, Shaunalee and her sweet family, and Brenden and Nikki and their babies. Jon especially loves all of our nieces and nephews, and he is so great with them.

After cake and ice cream, we played games and laughed and just had a wonderful time! It was a fantastic birthday party!! Thank you Mom Saline!
The next day (my actual Birthday) my Daddy invited us over to their house so he could make me a Birthday Breakfast (kind of a tradition). Well, he went to get the eggs out of the fridge, and here's what happened........

Look at his sad face! Luckily we still had enough eggs for breakfast and my biscuits and gravy were so darn good!!! Yum!!!!!!!!!!
We spent the rest of the morning lounging around and watching conference (and maybe sleeping a little bit......oops)
It was wondeful!
Later on we went over to my Grams' house. Her Birthday is the 7th of October, so we decided to have a double birthday party. We had a great dinner and then, instead of cake, we had an ice cream sundae bar complete with chopped up candy bars, graham cracker crumbs and peanuts - so good!
I love spending time with family and friends!


It was a really great Birthday!!! Thank you to everyone!
Later on in the month, Jon and I noticed a cat that kept hanging out around out backyard. Well, we have a built-in grill in our backyard with a big counter top area that, it turns out, is hollow underneath. That is where the cat started living.
Just when we were about to run the cat out of our yard, we discovered this

Yup, that's right. The gal-dern cat had 5 baby kittens under our grill! Ugh!!!!
Mamma cat was doing a really good job of taking care of the kittens, and Jon and I were trying to figure out what to do. We didn't want to hurt the kittens or make Mamma leave them. We considered calling the Humane Society, but they are completely full, and we were sure they would euthanize them. So we were just letting them live there while we thought about it.
Then we noticed that we no longer saw Mamma cat anymore - or the 3 bigger kittens. It was just these last 2 kittens, and they were literally dying. They couldn't even stand up anymore. It was absolutely heartbreaking.
Even though we aren't necessarily cat people, and I am allergic, we decided to bring them inside and nurse them back to health.
I even named them...the gray one is Luna and the orange one is Lottie.

That is a picture of them right after we brought them in - don't they look so unhealthy. After a bath, some food and some time, they perked right up.

They are so stinkin' cute, but they are baby kittens which means that they were in to everything! Not to mention the fact that they were abandoned by Mamma before she taught them to clean themselves, so (warning, this might be too much info) while they were easy to litter box train, they always had terrible dingle-berries! Ugh!
They were a full time job and Jon and I simply aren't home often enough to deal with it! Molly is trained, so she is easy, but baby pets are a lot of work!
We kept saying a lot of prayers because we wanted to do what was best for these sweet kittens, but we didn't think we had it in us to keep them
Our prayers were answered and I met a girl who was looking for kittens to keep in the house - she absolutely fell in love with them and we were so relieved! Phew!!!

Finally, October ended with Halloween, and Jon's incredible costume! He spent the entire month making this entire suit of armor out of just duct tape and poster board! All of his "hinges" actually bend, including the fingers!



Isn't he absolutely amazing!! He never ceases to amaze me with how talented he is! He stood outside the door when trick-or-treaters came up, and he would pretend like he was just a decoration - then he would move or jump out at them and scare them! Don't worry, he didn't do it to the really little ones - but it was so darn funny! He's an incredible man!!!!

All the while I have been in rehearsals for "Grease" at NPC where I play Patty Simcox. We just opened this past weekend and we have 3 more performances this Thursday, Friday and Saturday.


October was super busy, super fun, and super fast!!! Bring on the Holidays!

Superheros, Candyland, Homecoming, and Dinner

This past weekend was wonderful! It was also very busy!
Jon and I went on a little date on Friday night. In classic "white mountain style" we got some dinner at Samurai Sam's and then headed to Wal-Mart to walk around and pick up a few things we needed for the rest of the weekend.
While we were there, we decided to see what is new in the world of toys (since we don't have kids, we don't always get to see the hip-happenin' new toys), and that is where Jon turned in to Thor....

...and Captain America.

I told him that we should put the Captain America picture on a campaign sign someday, "Vote for the Real Captain America!"
He didn't go for it......hmmm......
One of my very favorite things about Jon is how he can make anything fun! He is always making jokes, doing silly things, and making me laugh! I love that guy!

While we were at Wal-Mart, we found the game Candyland on sale! Since our nephews would be coming over later in the weekend, we decided it would be a fun game for them to play.
Turns out it is fun for adults too!! Jon and I played a few rounds after our date, and I won every time - he says it's because I went first every time - because the directions say that the youngest player goes first....
But, he is excited to turn it into high stakes Candyland! hee hee hee

On Saturday night Laney and our new friend (and my next door neighbor) Julie came over to help me get some baking done for Tanner's homecoming group (they were going to come over after the dance), and after the cupcakes were finished (we made chocolate peanut butter cupcakes and oreo cupcakes - yummy!) we got out Candyland! It turned intense fast! If you don't remember how to play, you basically draw a card that has a picture of a colored square. You move your gingerbread man to that color. Some cards have 2 boxes, so you move 2 times, and some cards have a picture of a sweet - ice cream, cupcakes, licorice - which means you have to move to the square with the matching picture. This can be really good or really bad depending on how far you are in the game and where the pictures are located on the board.
Well, while we were playing, we would get to the very end, and get sent back to the beginning....it was a really long game and it was very exciting!! So darn fun!


Around 11:30pm, Tanner and his Homecoming group came over. Apparently the fire alarm went off at the dance because of the fog machines, so they decided to leave when they evacuated the dance - but that meant that they didn't get pictures taken. So, my fancy husband got out his professional lights and started taking pictures. Meanwhile, I got some snapshots with my iphone....





This is Tanner and his beautiful date Brooklynn. She is such a nice girl and it looked like they were having a great time!

I was so impressed by this group of kids. They were so polite - even the young men asked if they could help me in the kitchen when I was getting some food on some plates for them, and then again if they could help clean up before they left! They were so appreciative, and just all around great kids!
It was kind of a whirlwind because they all had to be home by midnight (curfew), but I was so happy that Tanner had asked if he could bring his group here. He is such a great guy and I am so proud of the young man he is becoming!

On Sunday I got up and started making bread dough. It was fast Sunday in the Snowflake stake, and we are trying to get a tradition of having a Saline family dinner every fast Sunday, so Mom and Dad Saline and Beau and Shaunalee and their kids were coming over for dinner - and I was making Navajo Tacos.

After church I started making the fry bread...

Then the family showed up. Poor Dad Saline couldn't be there because - as a surprise to all of us, including Dad Saline - Taylor Stake did not have fast Sunday, and since he is in the Stake Presidency, he ended up at meetings for the entire dinner. We missed him and we felt so bad that he wasn't there.

But it was so nice to visit with Mom Saline and Shauna and her wonderful little family!! They all got to see our house, and we got to talk about Shauna's new house and how the renovations are coming. I can't wait to go see it! It was so fun to see Keagan, Kaleb, and Heidi. They are so sweet and they also loved Candyland! I'm telling you, it's a game for all ages.

Unfortunately, I was a lame-o at taking pictures at the family dinner, but trust me when I tell you, it was so darn fun and the kids were so darn cute!

Finally, yesterday was Jon's older brother Brenden's birthday. Jon got to talk with him on the phone, but we did miss not being able to celebrate with them. I hope it was great Brenden!

And that was the weekend! Phew!! It was absolutely fantastic!!!

P.S. On Saturday morning, Jon and I went to the rummage sale at the Catholic church and we found the most darling chairs for only $4 a piece. Don't have pictures of them yet, but I will post them soon....they are fantastic!

Blog Makeover

Well folks, over and over again I have said that I was going to give my blog a makeover, but I have never gotten around to it. My Blogging Genius sis-in-law Nikki gave me a bunch of pointers, but did I actually use them - no, I kept them on hand for "someday".

I am pleased to announce that "someday" is today!

With the help of Nikki and a newfound blog site that I am in love with called Shabby Blogs (shabbyblog.com), I have beautified and organized my online life.

No, I still don't know how to make my own backgrounds and fancy things - I am still using other people's brilliance for that - but I have learned some fun ways to personalize, and it's a really exciting jumping point for me!

The most exciting part to me is the discovery of "pages". I have now been able to organize some of my favorite blogging ideas! This "home" page will be the page for all of my personal stuff. Stories about Jon and me and the house and the dog and the family, and everything else. Then I am bringing back "The Tasty Club" blog. Some of you may remember the story behind it - if not, I will give you a refresher on that page. You will also find that I have an entirely new page for "Malori Reviews All Sorts of Stuff" where, if you're not familiar, I do precisely that, I review everything in the world. And, last but not least, I am trying out "The Good In the World" again. This is the page where I post the good stuff I see taking place in the world - because it is still there.

Anyways, this will be great because then, if you aren't particularly interested in any of these things, it's much easier to avoid reading them!

Basically, it is going to be a lot of fun for me. I enjoy writing down my thoughts and I hope you enjoy reading them.

What The Hail?!

Today started off normal. The sun was shinning. The sky was blue. Absolutely perfect weather.

I even had a conversation with the oldsters at work about how nice the weather was. They noticed that the little decorative windmills in the courtyard weren't even moving.

On the way home from work, we turned on the air conditioner.

Then I went to my mom's house to visit, we heard some thunder, and then......

WHAM!

It sounded like rocks were being shot into the house! It was so loud and kinda scary.

We looked out the window (and what did we see - can't help but finish that phrase that way, but this was not popcorn), and this is what we saw!!






Yes, that's right, it looks like it snowed!! The hail was a little bit smaller than marbles and I picked them up and they were solid ice!

It was crazy because it only hailed/rained for about 15 minutes, and it looked like this! The roads in our little neighborhood are running with water and the roofs (is that what they are called?? Or is it rooves?? Hmmmmm...... you grammar geniuses need to help me out with this one. While you're at it, what do you call more than on rhinoceros?) are covered in white.

Well, all of this insanity happened about an hour ago, and now the sun is shinning, there is hardly a cloud in the sky and not even a breeze. We have come completely full circle!

I guess that's why they say that only a newcomer or a fool tries to predict the weather in Arizona!

Sneak Peek!!

It's official!! Jon and I are homeowners! Yep, you heard it, we closed on our house on the 26th of September, and we have all of our stuff here. It is still in boxes and still mostly in the garage, but it is all here and we are slowly getting all moved in.

Here are a few pics of our house from our moving day!



This is the kitchen and the living room area - it is all sort of a big great room and I love the open floor plan!

This is a picture of our new fridge. The house came with all of the other appliances, but we had to get our own fridge, and this is the one we chose! It just got delivered yesterday (after spending an entire week without one - you don't realize how much you miss it when you can't have things like milk, butter, eggs, or even ice cream!) and I keep opening and closing it just to look!


Of course I will post more pics as I get the rest of the house put together - I am so excited about decorating and maybe even painting some walls!

Jon and I are absolutely in love with our new home and we feel so blessed because things just went so smoothly. We have heard horror stories about buying homes - things just not working out, or having so many stressful bumps in the road, but we didn't have any problems and the whole process went so fast!

Come visit us!!! We would love it!

Catch-Up

It has been since the very beginning of May since I last posted - Wow!!! It seems like instead of moving to Snowflake, I fell off of the face of the planet (as far as the Blog world is concerned).

So I'm going to give you a nutshell catch-up of what we have been up to...it's picture-less, sorry.....

We moved up here to Snowflake and we both started working right away. Jon is working for the Taylor Law Office, and he really enjoys it! It us such an improvement from his last job that was so high stress and kept him at the office until 3am! It is only him at one other attorney, so Jon is able to learn a lot more and take on a lot more. We really like everyone who works there and Jon is a much happier guy!

I am working at the Carriage House - a nursing home for the elderly that my Grandma owns. I had worked there before (about 5 or 6 years ago) so, after a brush up training course, I was back in the groove of things (who knew that taking care of the elderly was like riding a bike....). It's a good job and such a blessing to take care of these wonderful people who can't take care of themselves anymore. I get to hear amazing stories, and I have absolutely fallen in love with the residents!

I know I promised to send you pictures of the cute little house we are renting - but I haven't had a chance to do that yet, and hopefully we won't be living here much longer (I know, another move - ugh!!). You see, our house recently switched owners (long story....) and since we are no longer bound to our lease, and another house is up for sale in our same neighborhood, we are looking into buying it. This other house is much bigger and it is a short sale, so it is going for very cheap! We love it so much! We are currently working with the lender and doing all of that stuff....paperwork that goes for miles....but we are really hoping to get it and be moving into it in the next couple of months. And this move won't be nearly as bad because it is just up the road (and we have been so busy, a lot of our stuff isn't unpacked from the last move!!).

In other news, Jon and I have also started adoption paperwork. We have spent a lot of time thinking and praying over this decision and we feel like it is the right thing to do. We have always wanted to adopt whether we could have our own children or not, so this seemed like a perfect time (when we seem to be delayed on our own). Now, this process is very long and we are only in "phase 1" so don't expect any exciting news for a very long time - but we are excited to be moving forward toward a family.

Speaking of family - it has been so wonderful to be back home and around our families! It's so nice to have the love and support so close by! We are always doing fun things - I had really missed them. Of course, it has been hard to leave our family in the valley - I miss my nieces and nephews (still haven't come up with a word to combine those - I'll let you know when I do) and my brothers and sisters-in-law...but we aren't too far away from them so they can still visit.

Well folks, that is the world's fastest catch-up, but it gets us back up to speed.

I'm going to do my best to not go another two and a half months before my next post!!!