lots of love

life has been pretty good to me lately and i've been feeling extra blessed.
sometimes its the little things that make give me the greatest joy.

10 things i'm loving right now:

1. coconut ice cream from the scoop in fairfax
2. back rubs.
   [sometimes joe gives them without me even asking, usually he makes me beg for them]
3. string cheese
4. having fresh flowers in my house
5. getting new nail polish
6. how soon the 4th of july is
   [definitely one of my favorite holidays.
   but then again, what holiday do i not like?]
7. farmers markets//fresh produce.
8. bagels
   [even though i read somewhere that a bagel has the
   same nutritional value as a donut...]
9.  sytycd
   [a new season has begun and i couldn't be happier.
   i'm also quite pleased that not only will the hubs watch it with me,
   but he actually likes it too]
10. joseph clegg jeppson 

art festival

directly across the street (freeway) from our apartment is the

marin county civic center.

it's a beautiful building and was the last commision by the famous architect

frank lloyd wright.

we can see the marquee from our front balcony

so i always know what fun events are coming up.

and they have farmers markets all year round!!!

last weekend was the marin county art festival. sounds fun right? joe and i braved the 95 degree heat and headed over, ready to take in some art. we payed $10 each to get in and i think i can speak for both of us in saying we immediately regretted it. don't get me wrong, i enjoy a nice painting here and there. but walking around in the hot hot sun looking at things that i can't afford...not the best time. joe refused to leave until we

got our money's worth

so we walked by every booth, bought a $6 freshly squeezed lemonade (which was actually really good), and listened to the live music for a while.

i enjoyed sitting in the shade more than i enjoyed the music, oh well.

 makeshift band

 a little family of stilt-walkers

i don't know how they didn't overheat and die in those costumes

 these weird little things were for sale at a going rate of $600! not sure who would buy them, or where you would display them, but they were kinda cool.

the art festival wasn't all bad, but i can't say that i'll ever go again...

life's a beach

we did it! on saturday we finally went down to santa cruz for the day. i've been looking forward to this little adventure since last summer when joe went and then told me how much i'd like it. i've always wanted to go to a beach boardwalk carnival - and santa cruz definitely delivered.

i was so giddy the whole drive there and almost died from excitement when i saw first roller coaster.

we walked around the boardwalk for a while

ate corn dogs and french fries for lunch

[the corn dogs had more fried breading than actual hot dog, but they were still delish ] 

browsed the surf shops

watched lots of beach soccer

[there was some kind of tournament going on - joe was in heaven]

lounged around on the beach
did some serious people-watching 

and finished off the day with some dippin dots and cotton candy
it was lovely

 

        

 

rest and relaxation...probably not

i just had to take a minute to welcome my brother home from afghanistan for his R&R! i briefly mentioned that jaren and his wife were able to meet in costa rica last week for his first week off (even though it took him a couple days to actually get there). now he gets to spend his second week in north carolina with his two little girls, atla and mila, and even my mom for a couple of days!

anyway, i wanted to share this little video of him seeing his girls for the first time in almost a year! mila was just a tiny babe when he left, but alta was almost two so she definitely knows who her daddy is! i can't watch it without crying, but i can't bring myself to stop. 

i'm so happy they get to be together, even if it's just for a little while. welcome home jaren!

and good luck getting some rest and relaxation with alta around...

scout master

Joe and I were in our new ward for about 4 months when they called us as primary teachers for the 9, 10, & 11-year-olds. We loved it - the kids were hilarious and would say things like this:

me: "is it hard to do what is right sometimes?"
kid: "ya. like if you're a murderer, it's really hard for you not to kill people"

joe: "you should all follow the example of your parents"
kid: "well my dad drinks beer so i guess that means i can too"

kid1: "you're a dumba--"
kid2: "you can't say dumba-- in church, idiot"
kid3: "shut up you guys!"

So, we stay pretty entertained. And the best part was that we got to spend all three hours of church together. But, about 2 months ago, they had the nerve to take Joe away from me and make him first counselor in the Young Men's Presidency! I know, rude right? Ok I'm not that upset because the young men are lucky to have him and I'm usually able to control my primary class by myself.

As part of the YM presidency, Joe is now a scout leader. (And not to brag or anything, but he's an Eagle Scout...) So here's the problem: he came home this week with a new scout uniform and asked me to SEW his patches on.  Then he continued to say, "oh, and the pants need to be hemmed too."

and then he just looked at me with a face that said "ya, i know you can't sew"

and i looked at him with a face that said "uh, good luck with that."

I said, "I don't even have a sewing machine. Or a needle and thread. And I don't know how." And I felt like a bad wife for a minute cause I wish I was more domestic and could sew stuff for my hubs. But good news!!: the patches are iron-on! I think I can handle an iron (although I did drop it on the ground once and almost burned my foot off). It'll be fine. And Joe said we can just ask someone in the ward to hem his pants...

ps this was a conversation Joe and I had the other day...

joe: hey, i just realized one of your talents

kara: what?

j: you're really good at hiding things..

k: um, what does that mean? (i wasn't aware that i was hiding anything from him)

j: our apartment used to be crammed with boxes and stuff, and somehow you got rid of all of them. it looks really nice. i have no idea where you put everything.

k: thanks?

So, maybe I can't sew, but at least I have some talents. Right?

Catching Up...

I didn't realize it had been almost 2 months since my last post. Oops. It's not that I don't have the time, its just that usually I would rather do anything else other than write a post. Plus I feel like a total dummy when it comes to blogging, so that doesn't get me very motivated to update. PLUS I am horrible at taking pictures and let's be honest, thats the best part of blogs, right? Ok, enough of the excuses. This is the only form of a journal that I have right now, so I want to document some things. In other words, I'll try to be better. Here's what has been going on in our lives lately...

Last week, my best friend in the entire world came to visit me (and my husband I guess but really just me)! It. Was. The. Best. We had so much fun and I loved having her out here. I think if I ask her enough, I just might be able to convince her and her husband to move out here. Probably not, but a girl can dream!
She's a better blogger than me, so if you'd like to read more about it, or see lots a pics, check out her blog here.

These are the things we google when we're together. One of the reasons we're besties. 

I've been working as a receptionist in a dental office for 6 months now. I love my job and it comes with a lot of perks (free dental care for me and the hubs, half days on Fridays...). However, lately I've been starting to wonder if people think my job also doubles as a free baby-sitter while they're in the office. I've always loved children, and when I was a young tween I loved baby-sitting. But now, not so much. I guess it isn't too bad though, it gets me out of answering the phone and looking at pictures of gross teeth...

My brother is a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in the Army and he has been in Afganistan since August. I can't even imagine how hard it must be for him to be away from his wife and two little girls (and how hard it is for them to have him gone). I was able to go visit them last May in North Carlina just after Brenna had Mila. Jaren took me to base one day to show off his helicopters and I was so amazed. There's about a gazillion buttons and different controls that he has to understand and be able to use under intense pressure. This is the man that loses his keys and/or wallet at least a couple times a week. I'll never understand it, but he's good at what he does, and I'm so proud. The point of this, besides bragging about my awesome brother, is that he gets his R&R this week so he and Brenna get to go to Costa Rica. I'm so excited for them, no one deserves a vacation more!

Not the most recent pictures, but here is Mila and Alta. I don't get to see these nieces of mine enough. 

My favorite thing lately (or for the entire time I've lived in Cali) is facetiming with my fam. It's really the only thing that keeps me from jumping on a plane to Utah every week. Plus my sister Lindsay is 7 months preggers and it breaks my heart to see her tummy growing and know that I won't be there when baby girl is born. So, my fam might be sick of my constant requests to facetime but that's not going anywhere any time soon. And when these are the faces I get to see, how could I stop?

Joe has been super busy with work lately, which I hate. And he's been working a lot of weekends lately, which I double-hate. The silver lining? Every so often he'll get a weekday off which means we can do one of my favorite things in the world...lunch dates. We very rarely get to go on lunch dates because we work too far away from each other. Therefore, I have to take advantage of every opportunity I get to have lunch with my man. And trust me, I do. (In fact, a few [3] times I even scheduled dental appointments for him in my office right around lunch time just to guarantee we could eat together after. Mean wife. Sorry Joe.) Monday was one of those lucky days, so we went to super duper burger in Mill Valley. I'm not a huge burger fan, but this place is gooood. And they're fries and shakes are pretty awesome too.

 Sorry, no pics of the yummy food. Just this guy, who might like the lunch dates just as much as me?

Last weekend we finally got around to seeing the Avengers. I've been wanting to for a while, but we never seemed to have/make time (see above=Joe's busy work schedule interfering with my social life, how rude). Anyway, I thought it looked good when I saw the previews. At first, Joe's opinion was "I don't really care to see it, but I'll go with you if you want." But once he heard how good it was, and that it made a billion dollars in a couple weeks (or something like that) he finally came around to the idea.

So we saw it. And loved it. And I want to see it again. But first, and this is the embarrassing part, but we decided that we better watch all of the original movies for each of the super heroes. We've both seen Iron Man, and I'm pretty sure I saw the Hulk [maybe] but we definitely need to see Thor and Captain America before we go back for round two. Hopefully then I won't think Cap America is so lame?

Last but not least, we have some pretty exciting things coming up...

• In July my sister Marci is visiting for 12 DAYS! I'm so excited and pretty bummed that I'll have to work while she's here but it will still be fun. 
• One of my best friends, Megan, and her husband Tyson, are also visiting in July! In fact, it'll overlap when Marci is here so we're gonna be one big happy family stuffed into a 7hundredsomething square foot apartment. Can't wait.
• We are planning (wishing, hoping, praying) to visit Utah in August. One of Joe's bff's, Colin, is getting hitched AND baby girl Burton will have arrived by then so it'll be the perfect time to drop by.
• Mini trip to Santa Cruz..coming right up.

Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Yes, I'm excited.

This summer just might be one of the greatest...