Ab Fab Angela

Happy Tenth Anniversary

2008-08-15T14:03:00.000-07:00

The past ten years have been the best of my life. I love looking back and seeing all that we've been through. The good and the rough times have made our love stronger and I am grateful for them all. Mark is my best friend and I would rather be with him than anybody else in the world. He makes me laugh everyday (remember that cheesy line from Legacy?) Well, he made the promise and has kept it. I figure that's well over a few thousand times that he has made me laugh. I'm grateful everyday for every moment I have with him.
Happy Anniversary My love. xoxoxo

Cancun

2008-08-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

This is my new favorite place in the world. For our anniversary, Mark and I spent 5 nights (not nearly long enough) in a couples only, all inclusive resort in Cancun, Mexico. We absolutely loved everything about it, most of all the fact that it was the longest we have been alone in ten years. (How sad) It really was amazing to just do whatever we wanted and give each other

our undivided attention.

Fun in the sun

2008-08-15T13:50:00.000-07:00

We spent a lot of time laying on the beach and floating in the ocean. The hotel brings out your food and drinks to the beach so you can stay as long as you want. We bought a boogie board to ride the waves and that was fun. We went snorkeling and that was amazing. Mark snorkeled a little in front of the hotel, and found a really neat shell. We also went out on a snorkeling tour where everybody gets there own mini speed boat and you follow the guide out. Then they take you through some reefs. We saw lots of colorful fish. It was so beautiful and relaxing. We also tried kayaking (that was okay).

One of our favorite things we did was to go out on this little sailboat. It's called a sunfish and only fits two people. It was fun trying to catch the wind. We went pretty far out from shore and sailed around for about and hour. It was so relaxing. Mark has done a little sailing before on the Pacific Ocean, but I never had. We will definitely do that again.

Volleyball Stud

2008-08-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

I had fun watching my sexy husband play beach volleyball. He played really good. One guy came up to me while I was watching and said, "Your man is really good." You better believe it baby!

Sea Turtles

2008-08-15T13:35:00.000-07:00

Every night between 11pm and 1am a half dozen sea turtles would come up on the shore in front of our hotel and lay their eggs. You can't take pictures of them (who wants a picture taken when their in labor), but these are the tracks that they leave when the climb ashore. We sat out on the beach a couple of nights and watched them. It's quite a chore for the mamas just to get up on the shore. We watched one mama turtle land on shore over and over again, just to be washed back out to sea. One time she came within a few feet of where we were sitting, but washed away. Once they reach the shore, they have to use their flippers to drag their bodies ashore. They don't crawl like other turtles, and it takes a long time to get where they are headed on land. Once they find their spot, they dig a hole in the sand (this also takes a long time) and then they lay their eggs. While they are laying their eggs, a biologist collects them all. The mama doesn't even notice, because she is in a trance. (I've been in labor, I can relate). They collect the eggs and incubate and hatch them in a fenced off area in front of the hotel we stayed at.
It was neat to watch the turtles. The neatest part was one night the biologists brought out a couple of hundred baby sea turtles and let a bunch of us release them into the ocean. They were about the size of the palm of my hand and had really strong flippers. Mark and I each released a couple of dozen.
Seeing the turtles was part of the fun of our nightly walks on the beach.

Another Day in Paradise

2008-08-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

I never realized that such a beautiful place existed. I've always loved the California coast, but it held nothing over Cancun. I was crying when we had to leave. I made Mark promise to bring me back within the year. I can't believe how relaxing it was in Paradise.

I LOVE THIS PLACE

2008-08-15T13:26:00.000-07:00

How could you not LOVE this room. Ocean view, double jacuzzi... Suffice it to say, we ordered a lot of room service.

Painting Marathon 2008

2008-07-30T13:07:00.000-07:00

I got this crazy bug in my ear to paint one room in my house every week in July. I wanted to do three bedrooms and the kid's bathroom. My husband thought it was a horrible idea. (Ten years of experience have taught him that I always take on bigger projects then I can finish, and then I pull him into them. ) But I reasoned that July is my least busy month of the whole year, and the perfect time to do this project. It was a crazy month, especially throwing in swim lessons and all of the other things that comes up; but, we did it. Mark and the kids helped a little (it turns out that my nine year old is very good at painting, and also good at entertaining her little sisters while I paint). My kids watched more TV than I would have liked, but...at least we have colorful walls. Hooray! (To my credit, I didn't make Mark paint very much- I just left him dishes, dinner and laundry :)
The bathroom was my first project. I used a dual sponge roller.

2008-07-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

I was excited to do the master bedroom. I already had some black and white pictures taken in Paris ,France, (Mark went there on his mission) but I got new frames and a couple of new prints. I painted the room brown, and ragged over it with a very light brown. It feels very European and I love absolutly LOVE it!

2008-07-24T12:55:00.000-07:00

This is (obviously) the princess room. It had been a very, very dark blue when we moved into this house 2 1/2 years ago. We used it as an office for a while and the color was fine. But a year ago, my three year old daughter moved into that room and I've been promising her a princess room ever since. It usually takes me a while to get to what I plan, but I finally did it. The blue was very, very hard to cover up and even after two coats of primer and and two coats of pink, it still showed through. But I sponged on a light blue and a white and it all worked out in the end!

2008-07-23T12:41:00.000-07:00

This was the room I put off until last, because I was soo worried about painting the stripes! My neighbor had done it and it looked so good I wanted to do it too, but I was so worn out after my other weeks of painting. It turned out that the stripes were not that hard to do, and they look incredible. I was the most proud of how this room turned out and I have showed it off to anybody who would come over! =)

Birthday Cake

2008-06-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

Here's the cake I made for my daughter's 9th birthday. She really wanted an ice cream cake, so I gave it a try. I'd never done one before, but after scouring allrecipes.com, I realized it wasn't that hard. I used Oreo cookies for the bottom layer and around the outside. Then I layered strawberry and vanilla ice cream, and topped it with whipped cream and strawberries. It tasted good and looked beautiful. Although, it seamed like a lot of work for something that just tasted like an ice cream sundae. We'll have to see if I get an itch to try it again.

Summer Book Trek

2008-06-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

Okay- this is in two spots on my blog. I'm still new to this and trying to figure it out...
I'm doing a summer reading challenge. Here's the books I want to read this summer.
Out of Jerusalem Series By HB Moore
The Independence Club By Rachel Ann Nunes
Spires of Stone By Annette Lyon
Spare Change By Aubrey Mace
Promise of Spring By Kristen McKendry
A Modest Proposal By Michele Ashman Bell
Fields of Home By Rachel Ann Nunes
Choosing Mr. Right By Jennifer Stewart
Breaking Dawn By Stephenie Meyer

If you'd like to join the challenge (yes, there are prizes and they are books) look for the link on the right to sign up.

Dinner at home?

2008-06-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

The other day I was driving to my yoga class and listening to a conference talk to get in the right "Zen" mode or whatever you want to call it. It was a talk from last November by Elder Oaks talking about getting our priorities straight. I loved the whole talk and have listened/read it several times, but this time I was struck by the comment about eating a dinner, AT HOME, all together as a family. When did it get to be so hard? It used to be the norm. Every night: mom, dad, kids. We still eat dinner together at home more often than not, but it made me realize, that it really takes a concentrated effort to make it happen. He listed all the stats that prove that kids do better in life if they have regular family dinners together. Recently, I was in ward council and a member of the stake presidency talked about how it has always been busy in his family, but they try and carve out at least an hour each day to be around the table as a family. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so. Out of 24 hours in a day we can at least make that time for each other. With summer here our schedule seems to be more loosey-goosey and it takes more effort. But I know it is worth it. My only question is: Does Cafe Rio's take-out still count as dinner at home? I sure hope so, or we really are in trouble! :)

Hello World

2008-06-05T14:27:00.001-07:00

I've been having fun working on a family blog, but thought it would be fun to have a personal one that I can write on. So.... Here it is. My absolutely fabulous blog!!!