Merry Everyone

Merry Everyone, be merry because it is a merry time to be with merry people.

So its Christmas and we got to be with our families and we loved every minute of it. We left for Utah on the 23rd and the roads, weather, and traffic were just perfect. We were going to stop half way so we weren't driving in the snow at night but we were making such good time we kept going and got into town at 1 am on Christmas Eve. Getting there earlier meant extra time with family ~HOORAY~ And fun time we had. We got to spend time with Lars' Dad, Mom, and my parents. Here are the top moments of our Christmas Extravaganza;

Making the traditional Barlow Christmas Roll

Eating and enjoying the traditional Christmas roll

Taking cool pictures like this:

Looks like we have one head of hair, like my hair is connecting to hers. Cool huh

Seeing how grown up my nieces and nephews are getting

Seeing most of Lars' brothers

Sitting around chatting with my syblings

Seeing my niece and nephew enjoy their gifts that you can only get from Anaheim, CA

Playing with my nieces and nephews

Halloween Events

This post is very late. So bear with me while I am playing catch up.

Halloween. The older I get the more I see the following cycle happen. I get excited for Halloween and I have lots of costume ideas, then come a few weeks before they all go out the window and I am not in the mood until a few hours before we are going to a Halloween gathering. Thankfully I have some friends that post a lot of Halloween make up and costume ideas that they have done so I get inspiration from that. A few hours before our ward party I was unsure what to be, but I managed to come up with this...

Guess what I am?

If you guessed broken porcelain doll, you guessed right. I was going for a theme of: "Remember the doll your brother broke when you were a girl. She is back to haunt him." I liked it and I had fun with it because I had to be serious and scary the whole time which is so far from who I am. I lasted a long time in that character too. But before the night was over I did break character I started smiling and laughing. I appreciated the people that got what I was too. I had one person ask me if I was Shirley Temple and other people called me cute. I wasn't going for cute, just creepy. I think it might have worked better if I had a black contact to put in one eye. All in all I feel proud of what I did concerning the time I did it in.

Lars was a...

slashed up victim. A few people thought both our costumes were tied together, sorry, but not this year. Hooray for stage make up. Gotta love Halloween.

Later in the week I went to work as my old lady character that I never fail to do. Always get a good chuckle out of that one. Check out this link for a picture.

http://barlowstars.blogspot.com/2008/11/this-is-halloween.html

Then we went to the Oertel's for a fun Halloween gathering.

Lars went as a truck driver. His character was inspired by his brother, Brent.

And I went as a disco gal. "Disco is not dead, Disco is life."

At this party we had good food, company, movies, and a few good science experiments.

Too much dry ice...

= a mess we must rescue.

Fun pics from the party!

Then on Halloween we were adopted by a family in our ward, The Avila's. They are an amazing family and took us in and made us feel at home. I was so grateful for them because early that day I was feeling a little blue that we weren't with our families and friends from Utah. They have a few teenagers and younger kids in their family. Let me tell you they were wonderful hosts. They had Halloween themed food and decorations. I loved it. I helped them take their kids trick or treating and then we played games. Lars helped them pass out candy at their door.

This is Haley, their youngest. She is one of the coolest, smartest, funniest, and just totally awesome 6 year old that I am happy to be friends with. She taught me a bunch of "High Five jokes" I have never even heard of. One of the coolest kids ever.

Happy Halloween until next year!

Networking

Been a while since I have blogged so here you go.

Lars has been looking for work for a few months now and recently he has more aggressively been searching. The best way for that is through networking. So we have been advertising with our family and friends and church about looking for a job. A few weeks ago we went to a networking meeting through our church. It was like speed dating but with job hunting instead. I went with Lars to be supportive and all and I ended up giving out my card to get resumes for my company. More people should go to these even if they aren't looking for work. You could help someone or learn something. It was a really interesting experience. One thing that I noticed however is that a ton of people from across the board are out of work. I expected mostly people in real estate and the car industry, but we had people from IT, business managers, teachers, owners, artist, and more. It made me sad at how all professions are cutting back. I wish I could have helped them all. I hope things change and get better in our country so people are able to work again and provide for themselves and their families. Until then help people anyway you can because there are two sides to the coin and we may not know exactly what it is like for others.

Lars was able to find a job with the help of Quiet Agent, a job search finder tool, (not Craigslist, sorry). He had a few interviews and was offered a job as a med lab tech with UC Irvine. Hooray! We are so grateful for this and appreciate every ones prayers and support. It is also nice because we get to carpool together which will save gas and we get to hang out more. I can never get enough of my honey. So that's us for now. Until next time...OXOX!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO A HOTTIE!

Happy Birthday Lars!

You are a wonderful husband and a good friend.

You make me happy when I am sad and make me laugh when I am too serious.

I am so grateful and blessed to have you in my life.

I love everyday of life because you are in it with me.

Have a fantastic birthday and many more to come old man!

Love you!

The Beach and I

The beach and I have a love/hate relationship. Not just any beach, Huntington Beach. I am not sure what to make of it because I love going to the beach, it is beautiful, I love the sound of the beach, I have fun when I am there. First, in January I went to this beach and broke my fingers. Then on Memorial day we went to that beach, the night before I had a lot of weird dreams that something bad was going to happen. I figured it was all in my head because of my first accident and this beach. We got there and started having fun, then I got hit in the face really hard with a beach ball, I thought I broke my nose but I was fine. Stephanie-1, Beach-1. My beach yips are over. No beach can one up me. I am back in the game, or so I thought.

A month ago our friends Brandon and Melissa were in town and we were taking them to Newport Beach. We weren't able to find parking there and Huntington Beach is just down the road so we ended up there and I didn't think twice about it. It was my first time swimming in the ocean and I was super excited. We took pictures then we jumped in the ocean and swam and jumped over the waves coming in. It was a lot of fun except for the salt water. The waves were really pushing us around and it was wearing me out. We had only been swimming for maybe 10 minutes when I took a break for a while then jumped back in.

The first wave that came in after my break was HUGE! I mean huge, taller than anything, and massive. We all jumped and here is what I remember happening. I think I jumped to early and the wave pushed me into the water where it spun me around into a somersault and slammed the back of my head against the bottom of the ocean while pushing gallon after gallon of water up my face. I didn't loose consciousness or anything so I knew I was fine, but I was cooked. I rose out of the water and announced that I was done. Lars took one look at me and said get out of the water now, you are bleeding. I had blood running down from the top of my head to my chin. I didn't feel anything except for my mouth and nose swelling up like I had just gone to the dentist and got punched in the face. Lars checked to see if my nose was broken and it was still straight. We then walked to the showers and I rinsed off to see if there was anymore damage. The blood was all coming from my nose, how it spread around my face and head is beyond me.

Then we walked to the life guard tower to get checked out. They looked at my face and said this, "I don't know how your face looked before, but you look fine to me." Then I told them my neck hurt and that's when they panicked. They asked me a bunch of questions and had someone look at my neck and move it around then offered to take me to the hospital. I was fine considering I had just got done walking around after the accident, so I declined. They gave me some ice and we went back to our towels and just relaxed. I was bummed I got hurt again during all the fun. A while later some dolphins swam by, it was so cool. Man I love the beach, but it doesn't seem to love me. Before we left for home I put my feet into the water just to warn the ocean that I would be back.

We actually had plans to go back to that beach the next week but we cancelled. I will go back but not for a few weeks.

I was feeling fine, just sore, swollen, and tired. But my face looked fine. This was a Saturday, by the middle of church on Sunday I looked like this:

My top underlip and inside of my nose was completely bruised and scrapped up. My teeth hurt so bad like I had braces and surgery at the same time. I looked like a battered wife from a Lifetime movie. Poor Lars got a lot of crap for it too. My neck was sore and it hurt to turn my head, thankfully that went away after a week. It hurt to breath, eat, and talk, three very important things. Luckily I had some pain pills left over from when my fingers broke so that helped a lot. But for the next two weeks I was on a liquid diet and had a lot of pain. At the time I thought it was the worst pain ever. But now that I am healed and can breath and move my nose again it feels like nothing. I guess I am stronger now because of it. It still sucked at the time, but I am grateful that nothing worse happened to me. Every now and again I replay back in my mind the accident happening and think about how I could have and maybe should have been hurt a lot worse, like make a broken neck or cracked ribs or something. But I didn't get hurt. God does have Angels look after me. And for that I am so thankful.

No worries anymore because my beautiful face is back and here to stay, at least until our next beach adventure.

Summer Comes & Summer Goes

This summer has flown by so fast I didn't post much as we did it. So here is a recap of our summer.

June-We went camping and went to Vallejo, CA. See previous blog from way back

July-On the 4th we just relaxed at home and went out to see a movie. Later that month we had visitors, Josh and Lori, Lars' brother and sister in law. We played with them for a day and it was a blast. We went to the beach and then to a taping of Comedy Central's Tosh.0. It was so neat to see the live taping and the show was funny. They had to do a few takes of one joke or two and when they do you are supposed to laugh like it is the first time you heard it so by the end of the taping my tummy hurt. There were a few times I tried to laugh in a loud distinct way (but not too obnoxiously) so when we watched that episode I would hear myself. I think it worked but you have to listen hard. We appreciate Josh and Lori taking the time to see while they were down here.

Excited to be at the beach

Near the end of the month Lars' sister came to Utah from Iowa. We met up with her in St. George, UT to hang out for a weekend. We went hiking, shopping, and played with her kids. Though I love all her kids, Annkia, the youngest, was my favorite. She made me feel so happy. She is so funny and smart and just the coolest kid ever. I was really sad to leave because we couldn't take Annika with us. Being and Aunt is so cool.

Hiking

Annkia points out all the dirt while hiking

Lars, Mom, Sarah

Annkia and I

Annika resting at the hotel

August-The first day of August was a lot of fun, we went to the No Doubt/Paramore Concert. It was my first time seeing No Doubt and Lars' 4th time. Paramore sealed the deal on our decision to get the tickets. We have had them since the beginning of the year. I was very excited to go. We had a good time and loved the music, No Doubt can really put on a show and Paramore was sooo cool, Haley has a beautiful voice. I would see them again in a heart beat. Though it was fun, the arena was huge. Most punk concerts I have been too have been small and intimidate. I think I prefer those venues over the large ones, unless I have like front row seats. Either way a good time.

On the grass waiting for the concert to start

On August 8, 2009 our best friends got married, Brandon and Melissa. It was a lovely wedding and reception and we are so happy that they found each other. They are a wonderful couple and deserve all the happiness in the world.

At the reception

Outside the reception there was a park with a Bison that we each took a turn riding

Yehaw!

This quick trip to Utah was specifically for the wedding and I was worried we weren't going to have any time to see family. That did stop my mom from invited all of my siblings over for a BBQ the night we drove in so we can hang out together. I was so glad she did because I really missed my family. I love living in California but I truly miss family and the convenience of getting together with them. I got to chat with my brothers and sisters and play with my nieces and nephews. Kids are so cool and have the wildest imaginations. I love how I feel when I am around them. It makes me happy when they remember me. I love being and Aunt, it is so much fun. I am sure it will be cooler to be a Mom, but until then I am going to be a rockin' Aunt.

Connor, Karen and I playing the spider game

Connor and Bronwyn

Bronwyn at the piano. She was so cute and darling. She kept saying cheese because she thought I was taking her picture. She was a blast and I love her to death.

After Brandon and Melissa married they honeymooned in Las Vegas, NV. That is honestly only a 4 hour drive from where we live so they took a few days to come down and see us. We love having visitors and had a good time with them. We took them site seeing, hung out, went swimming at the beach (more to come about that experience), annnnnddd played Rock Band. Brandon and Melissa are apart of our Rock Band Group that got started when we lived in Utah. We are the B-Sharps. I do vocals, Brandon is on drums, Melissa is on bass guitar, and Lars is on lead guitar. We had a fun reunion tour. I miss them already and can't wait until our next reunion tour.

Outside the Lego store at Downtown Disney

August 12th we celebrated our 6th year anniversary. Lars got me the most beautiful and wonderful smelling flowers and some Von's chocolate cake, my favorite. We went out to dinner and then for a walk. We even went to a pet shop and looked at puppies, something we have been considering more seriously as of late. Not going to happen for a while, but maybe in the near future. I love Lars very much and am so glad I married my best friend and look forward to eternity.

That brings us up to speed on what we did this summer. Today is Labor day! Hooray for holiday weekends. Fun weekend so far, we had a baptism, an awesome Fast Sunday Meeting, and now just hanging out with my hubby watching movies.

How was your summer?