Spoiled

Apparently Chris forgot what a budget is and got me this for my Birthday. For those of you who know Chris you understand that it's a miracle that I have have a cool gadget before he does. I love this phone. It has everything on it. Even Google earth. Hours of entertainment.

Merry Christmas

Interesting Website

Go look at this website. It's a map of all the incidents that are happening around the world right now. It's updated every 5 minutes and they stay on there for a few hours.

http://www.globalincidentmap.com/home.php

Our New Car

We got our new car to replace the truck. It's a Nissan Xterra and we love it. Ironically we found it in Las Vegas. Last Saturday morning we flew to Vegas, picked up the car, had lunch with some of my family then hit the road. We got home at 2:30 am Monday and went to work at 8:00. It took us 24 hours to drive back. That was a looooong drive

D'OH

Due to Chris' split-second decisions to strengthen our relationship by spending more time together, we are now a one car family




The good news is no one was hurt. The bad news is Chris was the rear end of a three car pile up. The good news is we don't have to pay for the guys truck in the front. The bad news is the guy in the front wasn't suppose to be driving and got arrested. The good news is we get a new car. The bad news is the insurance company totaled my fancy truck. The best news is..... the accident happened because Chris got distracted by a sign that said "Free Food"

I can no longer claim I have a perfect dog

Some how our dog got ontop of our counter high kitchen table, ran around it leaving claw marks, threw Chris's scriptues on the floor, jumped down, and chewed up the scriptues. I guess he was just feasting upon the word.

Bud Thompson

It only took 6 years but I finally talked Chris into getting a dog. We got him from the Humane Society. He was a stray that someone found. You can see how skinny he is from living on the street. Someone must have owned him before though because he is pretty well behaved and is already house trained. They said he is a Beagle but I think he has some other mix in him.

Valuable Life Lessons

During my 26 years I have learned many things in my life that I would like to share with you....





I've learned how to properly apply makeup




I've learned how to sew boxer shorts



I've learned from my brother how to creatively change a diaper



Being married to Chris, I've learned to fully embrace Van Halen



But this weekend I've learned that you should never wear flip flops while mowing your lawn, especially after a weeks worth of thunderstorms

The grass was so wet, it took me twice as long to mow because the blades kept jamming.

This one's for Lisa Itris

Remember all those dances you use to drag me to and I always stood in the corner because I couldn't dance.....

To many Russia posts on this blog

I'm sure no one cares anymore about our Russia photos but three weeks of vacations adds up to lots of photos. So these are the last ones i'm putting on here.

Toppins a Bag

These birds were so cute. We ended up feeding them a whole package of crackers








I guess the bird wasn't smart enough to tell the difference between a finger and a piece of cracker.
"We don't bite people, we only bite feeyood" Jason Myers age 3

St. Isaac's Cathedral

St. Isaac's Cathedral doesn't have an interesting back ground but it's a really amazing building. We were all amazed at the paintings and sculptures and mosaics inside. So much detail.

The Hermitage

The Hermitage is a five building museum with over 3 million artifacts on display and 20 times that in storage. It has paintings and sculptures by Rembrandt, Picasso, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, etc. The main building is Cathrine the Greats Winter Palace. This palace has 1057 rooms and 117 staircases. What do you do what that much space? The building itself is a work of art with amazing paintings and mouldings on the walls and ceilings.

Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood

Of every thing we saw I think this is the one that I loved the most. Alexander II was killed in battle and the people decided to build a church on that site to remember him. It was built between 1833 and 1907. The reason it took so long is because of the mosaic pictures that cover over 75,347 sq feet. During Communism it became a storage building. It took 27 years to restore and opened again in 1997

It amazes me how much detail was in these mosaics.

This is the spot were he was killed

St. Petersburg

After a few days in Moscow we headed to St. Petersburg and spent 7 days there. It's a beautiful city. It use to be a swamp but then Peter the Great came along and built an amazing city there. One draw back to this is.... lots of bugs

Moscow Day

Every year Moscow celebrates the day that it became a city. We happend to be there for the 860 year celebration. They shut down most of the city, including main streets, and had over 14 stages. Each stage always had some sort of performace going on, such as orchestras, singing, dancing etc.

This was the main stag. It looks a little to fancy to be used for only 1 day. They had alot of traditional dancing on this stage.

You can see how many people came out for the celebrations. They were expecting over 3 million people. The building in the back is part of Red Square

Back From Russia

Well our 21 day adventure is over. We really had a lot of fun but we also had some really bad luck. Chris sent his cell phone through the washing machine the night before we left. The airport lost our luggage going there and here. We had problems registering our visas and we didn't get them until 14 days into our trip (you are suppose to have them in 72 hours). It was sunny the week before we got there and the week after but while we were there is was rainy and about 50 degrees. The Bolshoy, Lenin's Tomb, and St. Basil's Church were closed. While we were gone our fish committed suicide by jumping out of his bowl. Other then all that (plus some other things) we really had fun, you can tell by these enthusiastic pictures Chris took of me. Chris took over 500 pictures so as I sort through them I will add some more.

From Russia With Love

Hi everyone. We are starting our third and final week in Russia. It has been alot of fun so far. We spent the first 5 days waiting for our luggage to be found. When it finally arrived we were very glad to get clean clothes. We then spent the next 7 days in St. Petersburg enoying the "Venice of the North." We are now back in Moscow and still have alot to see. So far we've seen the Hermitage, the Kremlin, many churches, millions of mullets and one pickpocket. The best part is that we have yet to eat at a Russian resturant but we have eaten at McDonalds, KFC and Subway. Just like the communists of yore. Chris has decided that he is now a photographer so be prepared to see lots of pictures when we get back.

Squire Boon Caverns

Indiana has alot of underground caverns so we went to visit one of them. It was very pretty but not even close to Timpanogos Caves. This one was discovered by Squire Boone and his brother Daniel Boone. There was also a cute village set up around the cavern with candle dipping and soap making.

I loved this underground waterfall

I can't imagine what the guy was thinking when he first discovered all of this.

To Many Bugs

I will never again buy a house surrounded by fields. I expected some bugs but not this many. I use to think crickets were soothing.... that was until they got in my house and wake me up every hour with their chirping. We also have some invisible bug that only comes out at night and flys around our room running into things. It landed on my face once.... that was fun

I don't know what these things are but I kill about 5 of them a day. They run around then try and burrow into the carpet when they get scared. They are fun to flick though

It's bad enough to see about 1 of these guys a day... but when you find two of them in your bed (different days) one of which is on your pillow... that is ridiculous.

Our New Neighbors

They moved in last Monday and are surprisingly quiet. There is over 100 of them and they move from field to field eating. The last few days I've come home they were sitting in the street and gave me a dirty look when they had to get up and waddle out of my way.

Our First Home

We bought our first home in Jasper, IN. We feel all grown up. Family Room Kitchen
Office/Guest Room

Library.... Yes we are nerds