Families Can Be Together Forever

This week has been emotionally draining for my family and myself. Losing a loved one is one of the most difficult things to go through but also to watch those you love and care about go through. Wednesday morning after my first class, my husband called me and told me about the passing of his sweet Grandma Rena. She was 77 years young and lived an incredible life and was loved dearly by all who were privileged to know her. Her life was full of ups and downs but she never complained and relied on her Savior Jesus Christ to build her up and help others. She lived a life of service and compassion and will be so missed. The last year and a half have been especially trying on her health. She developed Lou Gehrig's Disease which greatly impaired her quality of life. It was so difficult for us to watch her suffer and so when she passed it was a very bittersweet moment. We are so sad to lose her but relieved to know she is in her perfect state and reunited with her Heavenly Father and loved one's on the other side. We love and will miss you Grandma!
Another tragedy struck this weekend with the passing of Officer Shane Figueroa. The Figueroa's have been friends of mine and my family for the last four or five years. My dad is their bishop in Maricopa. Shane was hit by a drunk driver in his car while responding to a call on duty. To say this was a shock would be an understatement. He was 25 years old. He has a beautiful young wife and a 3 month old little girl. I cannot express the remorse I feel for his family and loved ones. His loss was so tragic and unexpected. I love his family so much and our thoughts and prayers go out to them. It has been a very difficult for me to come to grips with this news and I cannot even imagine the devastation his family is feeling. Life is so fragile.
I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of Eternal Families. Families can be together forever. How wonderful is that? I know this blessing brings comfort and peace to my husbands family and the Figueroa's. We can be with our loved one's for eternity. We have been taught this principle from a young age but things like this remind us of its truth and promise. This life may seem long to live without them but the eternities are even longer to be with them. Kiss your loved one's. We never know when our time with them may be interrupted.

Now What?

So I took out this 3D puzzle to keep my mind occupied while looking for work and it did keep me busy. But I finished it a lot sooner than I thought and now it is back to finding something to do. Here is the masterpiece. It was pretty fun, especially when Lindz would help.

"Called to Serve"

My brother Tyler opened his mission call last night. He was so excited! My mom checked the mail at around 12:00 and saw that his call came. Unfortunatly, Ty was at work and wouldn't get off till 5:00 and so he had "the longest day I've ever had at work" as he put it. Poor guy had to wait another hour after that so that our family and friends could share the moment with him. When it finally came time to open it, we had several of our family members on a conference call, family and frinends gathered around in the kitchen and we all held our breath as he opened the big white envelope. To all of our shock Elder Loomis was called to serve in the Alaska, Anchorage Mission. I'm not sure how this desert dweller will handle the cold weather but I don't think he cares at this point. He's so happy and excited to serve the Lord in Alaska. We're so proud of him!

Picking him up from work. He's ready!!
Once he got home he wouldn't let that call out of his hands!
Let's get this show on the road already!

Hooray Alaska!!!
We are all so proud of him but I don't know if anyone is as proud as our Dad. He was the only child in his family to serve a mission and so to see his first born son follow in his footsteps and set an example for the rest of his brothers is pretty awesome!
Mom's just thrilled that #1 he's staying in the U.S. and #2 that he gets to be home for the holidays :) He reports Jan. 14th She's so proud of her little boy!
Ty and "big" sis (odviously he towers over me!) I'm SO SO SO ecxited for you Ty. You are such an AWESOME brother and you are going to be an even better missionary! We will miss you so much while you're gone for two years but we know this is the best and most important thing you can be doing with your life. So proud of you!!!

Fun Weekend!!

This is Trent again. So this last Friday I went mountain biking with a friend from my ward. Normally I am pretty good and if I ever come off my bike it isn't that bad like I loose my balance or something. Well this last trip I came off good and hard. We were on a downhill section and it was a single track trail and it was on the side of a steep hill. I started sliding off the side of the trail and fearing the fall down the mountain I locked up my brakes. Well I locked the front brakes a little too hard and I flew over the handlebars down the mountain. I landed about 10-15ft downhill from my bike and was dinged up pretty good. The impact wasn't that bad. I have been a little sore this weekend but what made it especially fun (note the sarcasm) is that as I rolled downhill I rolled through 2 cholla cacti. So this last weekend we have been digging out thorns, which isn't that bad when you do it yourself but the majority of the thorns were on my backside so Lindsay had to go to town. It hurts worse when you don't know when the pain is coming. And I don't ever want to repeat this accident but I have to admit that it was very nice with Lindsay concerned about me and taking good care of me while I was injured. She's the best!

My turn to update!

I guess it has been a whole since you all heard from me. Well I guess I have a lot more time now since I was laid off this last Thursday. It came as a surprise, kinda. I did dream the night before that I was laid off. I guess God was just preparing me for the next day. So its on to job hunting! Lindsay has a job interview today for this place called Jymboree or something like it for a part time assistant manager. So hopefully good things will come from that. Be prayin with us to find employment if you would. It will be greatly appreciated.

So on to a different topic... a little while back I received the best gift ever (for the moment I received it at least)! I got all my Legos back! That's right all of them! I sold them to my moms friend before my mission to try and save some money and I regretted it ever since. Well she told me that as soon as I had my first son she would give them back to me. Well once I knew that she was going to give them back to me I figured I should try and get them now. And I did! Lindsay and I have already separated them by color and I have built a few sets. Brings me back to my childhood! Its great! We might have pictures to come later.

So other than that I have started a new hobby about a month ago. My friends got me into fishing. We would go every Friday to Saguaro Lake and fish off the shore or the dock. At first we would catch nothing or these little Bluegill...

But the last two times we went we figured what the Largemouth Bass like, and that's what we want to catch! Last week my buddy Jason caught 3 Bass in like 30 min. and I caught nothing.

Well yesterday I caught 4 Largemouth and Jason 1. I just figured God was showing a little sympathy on me for losing my job the day previous and let me enjoy catchin lots of fish. It was all good and fun!

Our Fun FIlled Weekends! WARNING: Picture Overload!!!

Well I know it's been a while but I actually have an excuse this time for not blogging. #1 I finally started school!! YIPPEEE!!! It is so nice to have something to get accomplished everyday. Granted it has only been two weeks of it and I'll probably have a post soon enough about how 'I'm so sick of school!' But for now I'm happy. I already dropped a class though! It was my photography class and I was really excited to take it but I would have to spend at least $400 in equipment to take the class and that didn't sound too great. I wasn't too heartbroken though. It was a 35mm film class and I really just want to learn more about digital photography. So, till next semester.#2 Trent and I have been out of town for the last two weekends. For the first weekend, we decided to take a very last minute trip to Utah to visit my grandparents. Trent's mom was going to Kanab and offered to let us drive her up there in her cushy Cadillac and then we could go straight to St. George from there and she would get a ride home with a friend of hers. I was so excited to go! I have to state for the record that I have the best grandparents ever and I was so happy to see them and for Trent to get to know them better and visa versa. Trent was happy to get out of the valley for a while and see some of my family too. While we were there we got to see my cousin Brittany and her boyfriend Nissa. It was so great to see her! We grew up together and so every time we get together we have so much fun reminiscing about old times and catching up on what's new. We went hiking with them and enjoyed St. George's unique beauty. We got to go to the "Jacob Hamblin House" too. Jacob Hamblin is Trent's great great great grandfather. It was pretty cool to see that heritage. Of course the highlight was seeing my grandparents. Outside the 'Jacob Hamblin Home'
Hiking with Brittany and Nissa. His name is actually Apanisa(not sure on the spelling) and he's from Fiji which is so cool!

We saw this on the way up the hike. It was too funny!

The very next weekend we went to California to visit Trent's aunt Martha and her family. They're so much fun! We had a blast down there with them. We left on a Wed. night and then woke up on Thurs and went to 6 Flags with Trent's cousin Hayley and her friend Katie (they got to ditch school!). We rode all the big rides including the "Dare Devil". For those of you who don't know what that is it's a huge swing thing that lifts you up way high and then drops you. It is such an adrenaline rush! I screamed my head off the whole time. Friday morning we were up and at it again and went to Hurricane Harbor. After a long hot day walking all over 6 Flags it was nice to kinda take it easy and cool off at the water park. We realized from the 6 Flags day that we're not teenagers anymore and walking all over a huge theme park all day isn't as fun as it used to be. The park closed at 7 on Thursday and we were ready to leave by 5 or 6! Saturday we went to Santa Monica Pier and rode the Ferris wheel and met friends Dave and Rachel for dinner at a really crappy restaurant at the end of the Pier. It was still fun though! We stayed Sunday and went to church and were able to spend the whole day relaxing and getting ready to go home Monday. It was a great trip!

Getting ready to scream my guts out!


Cousin Hayley and her friend Katie getting ready to go. I think I freaked them out even more with all my screaming.

Almost to the first drop on Goliath
Tired, soar feet, sweaty and ready to go home already!

Santa Monica Beach! I know I look huge in this picture but I had to document that we were actually there so please ignore my chub! The Ferris wheel on the pier.
Melanie and aunt Martha.

We seriously had so much fun! Well that's my little update. Hopefully there will be more to come soon.
*Hopefully this all makes sense. I don't feel like proofreading!*

I don't even know where to begin!

There's so much to catch up on...I still haven't found a job, so with all my free time you'd think I'd have plenty of time to catch up on my blogging right? Well apparently there's all the time I could ask for and I'm just being lazy about it. I was actually pretty excited about not working for a while and having time to get things done and enjoy my down time. Needless to say I'm sick of my down time and I can't wait to go to school or get hired part time somewhere. I'm so bored!! I can't seem to find a part time job which I thought would be easy to come across. I have applied and interviewed at several places but with my full time school schedule coming up in a couple weeks I can't offer as many hours as employers need. It's frustrating cause 1. extra moola would be nice and 2. until I have babies I don't have much of a desire to stay home all day. You can only clean your house so many times and run so many errands in one day. There are some upsides though. I get to be home right when Tent gets home from work, I've spent a lot more time with my mom and help my friend Kelsey while she's working for a while by watching her little baby every now and then (so fun!). It's also nice to run errands and feel like I have time to get things done. But I am getting more and more excited for school to start!

Anyway... Trent and I had a great first anniversary. Our anniversary was on a Monday so we decided to celebrate the next weekend. We did honor that day though by going to The Melting Pot that night for dinner. We had never been there and had always wanted to try it. We had no idea it was so pricey though! It was a great atmosphere and a fun experience but we both decided the food wasn't really worth the money you spend. But it was fun to try once.

The next weekend we went to Snowflake and stayed at an adorable bed and breakfast there. Trent's mom gave us a night at the bed and breakfast for Christmas last year so we could go to the Snowflake temple and our anniversary seemed like a great time to use it. The temple was beautiful and a great way to celebrate our marriage. The funnest part though had to be the road trip to and from Snowflake. We have so much fun driving together and this time was no exception. We took a little detour on our way up to stop in Holbrook, AZ to see the town Trent's dad, Dale, grew up in and to visit his grandpa Stan's grave site. We also stopped at El Rancho for lunch, a must have according to Dale and it didn't disappoint! Once we got to Snowflake it was pretty cloudy and drizzly which I loved! I love rainy weather and it made staying at the bed and breakfast even more cozy. It rained on us on the way home too. It was so fun.

The famous El Rancho.
Snowflake Temple. It was super small but of course it was gorgeous!
This place was so adorable! It was really fun to stay there.


These thunder clouds were so cool lookin'! It looks like a painting to me.

Well I'm not sure if any of you remember my "Goodbye 'Happy Pounds'" post way back in January?(I'd put a link here so you can read it but I don't know how to do that, sorry) You may be wondering how we're doing and whether or not we've actually lost any weight. Well let me just tell you...No, no we have not. Unfortunately, we weren't serious enough about losing weight back in January and so we didn't lose any of our "Happy Pounds". But don't worry because we're on our way now. I just got SO sick of not fitting into my clothes and I hated seeing myself in pictures. Trent was ready to lose weight too and so now that we're both serious it's a little easier to keep our goals. We both have a goal weight to be at by October. We signed up for a gym and are going at least 3 to 4 times a week and eating healthier. We're kindof in a little competition with each other and are trying to be the "biggest loser" between the two of us. Whoever wins gets to chose where we go on our next vacation. Wish us luck!

Here are a few more pictures of the last couple months.

Heidi's wedding...It was so great to be apart of that special day with her. Not only was I asked to be the Matron of Honor but she also asked me to be the photographer for their special day and I was so honored! Here are a couple of my favorites. She looked beautiful!

Bein' silly at the reception...As usual.



Watching baby Brooklyn. I love this girls!

Just a few weeks old and already smilin'!
Seven weeks or so. She's such a sweetie! The pictures below are a few I took while I was babysitting for Kels. She is so precious.