Disneyland

I have been working on a partnership with Disneyland to put a credit counseling office in the back offices of Disneyland. Today, I had my final meeting with them and was given a back lot tour. My meeting started in the greenish building that is right off the 5 and ball. It was so interesting to walk through and see what happens behind the scenes. I saw the barns were the horses are trained and live, were they grow all of the plants, toured the floats for the parades, saw the maintenance department for the rides and walked right into Disneyland. It was so weird because there are no security officers or gates between toon-town and the back lots. We just walked right in and walk right out by it's a small world. The good news is they excepted my proposal and we will be opening an 'Disney Cast' office in September.

My CEO took a photo of me while at the park since we were both in suites and we looked so out of place. I also sent the photo out to the staff telling them the good news. They asked if I went on any rides and I said I couldn't. I then had to spill the beans and explain that I was pregnant!

School News!

After I found out I was pregnant I went and spoke to my advisor about how to speed up my classes. She was not very helpful and actually suggested I take a couple years off! Being very persistent I contacted each individual Professor and asked if they would make an exception and let me into their class despite my lack of the prerequisites.

Well, I immediately heard from two instructors that let me in. I was waiting on one more. If she didn't let me in I would have to take just one more class in Spring to finish my MBA. For two months I didn't hear anything. I sent my emails again and again. Finally, yesterday I got a response. Although the email was very stern, and express how agitated he gets when students try to get in without the prerequisites done... she is allowing me to take her class due to my "unusual and unique situation as an MBA student". So I officially done with my MBA on December 11th, but walk in May. I have to take 5 classes next semester, but it is just so nice to be done before the baby is comes!

Other REALLY great news!
Matt, my brother, decided to go back to school and finish his AA. He only has one math class left. He is taking it this fall and will graduate on May 20, 2009.

So, here is the breakdown:

May 20, 2009 Matt's Graduation at Fullerton College, AA
May 23, 2009 Brian's Graduation at California State University, Fullerton, BA (10:00 AM)
May 23, 2009 Kelly's Graduation at Chapman University, MBA (5:00 PM)

The loss of a Wonderful Woman

Today, my adopted Grandma passed away. Rosemary was the kindest, most loving Grandmother figure Peter and I had in our lives. She called us her grandchildren, my Mom was her adopted daughter, and Chance (my Mom's dog) was her best friend. She attend all our of family events (Holidays, Graduations). Due to her being ill she was unable to attend my wedding, and she said it broke her heart that she couldn't be there. I have spent many days throughout the last 4 or 5 years sitting by her side in the hospital with doctors telling us it was the end, but Rosemary was always so strong. After this last visit in the hospital they put her on Hospice.

I am so grateful that I was able to know her. I loved her like a Grandmother, and she loved me like a grandchild. I was so blessed to have a relationship like that.

Finally... Orlando Pictures

At the end of May the whole family (Mom, Dad, Matt, Peter, Danny (Pete's boyfriend), Brian and myself all went to Orlando to go to Disney World. Brian was the only one that has never gone. Although I have been there two or three times I don't really remember too much from our trips since I was too little.

We had such a great time, but I didn't go on any rides since we had just found out that I was pregnant. The best part was that Disney sell those huge pickles EVERY WHERE. Brian probably ended up buying me two a day!

We went on a swap tour, spent four days at the Disney World and even drove to Tampa Bay to go swimming.

Here some pictures from the trip:

Pregnancy Update

Brian and I went to the doctor yesterday, and I have kinda been taken OFF of high risk. This is a very good news, but now we don't get an ultrasound every time. I have already had 3 and I am 8 weeks and 7 days. I had two more scheduled next month, but they canceled one of them. They also moved the due date to January 29, 2009.

With Kaiser I am assigned to a mid-wife (endometeriosis specialist) and a physician. It was our first time meeting the physician and she was very nice. As she was reading my chart she was talking out loud and said "ok... I see that you have gained one pound so far." Brian remarked, "ONE POUND... and your already wearing stretchy pants!" After digesting his comment, I thought why is that? My belly does look a lot bigger and my old pants are way to uncomfortable to wear. My cramps have been so bad that I just can't wear anything with a button. So, I am already wearing maternity pants (just a little stretch in the waist). When you see me, please don't be surprised to see me in "stretchy pants"!

Morning Sickness

I have been having a lot of morning sickness. I will try anything to feel better. Any suggestions?

I can't stop crying!

This weekend Brian and I went to Palm Springs, and then rushed back early today to make it for church. We had such a wonderful time swimming in the pool and playing the baby naming game. Last night I watched the Notebook on TV and cried forever- Brian was really concerned. At church today we went around with the Primary kids and sang Father Day songs to all the dads. Watching Brian stand with a bunch of little kids singing (with hand motions and everything) I became really emotional thinking about when our kids will sing to Brian. Then, after reading Lisa Henderson's blog about Father's Day I cried again! This is very common lately- thanks hormones! I just started thinking about how amazing my Dad is, and what a special thing it is to have a unique bond with him. I also started thinking about Brian as a Father, and I cannot wait to see him interact with our baby for the first time!

So, thanks for making me cry Lisa!

If you haven't heard yet...

We're having a BABY!

Brian and I found out in May, and wanted to keep it a secret until at least the end of the first trimester. Well, it's hard for my parents to keep secrets and it was only a matter of time before everyone found out. So, here is the baby's first photo. I am only 6 weeks and 3 days. The baby's due date is January 31, 2009, but they told us to plan for the first week of February.

Brian and I were told that it could take a couple years for us to get pregnant. So after two years of thinking "if it happens it happens" we said both said one day that we wanted a baby. One month later (without doing anything different) we were pregnant! Our mid-wife said it is a miracle baby since women with endometeriosis sometimes never get pregnant.

Brian is sure it is a boy, and I am sure it is a girl.

So, since we found out this amazing news we have been making a lot of changes. We did not buy the 2-bedroom condo, and decided just to build more storage space in our current place. Brian and I are taking heavy school loads this summer and fall so that we have only one or two classes left after the baby is born. Brian is taking the GRE in October so that he can apply earlier for Graduate School. He is applying to Arizona State, University of Arizona, Cal State Fullerton, Loma Linda, Cal State Long Beach, BYU, Texas, Colorado, Ohio, and Cal State Fresno. Each Speech Language Pathology program only take 20 out of 300-500 applicants so we are basically planning on moving to any school Brian's is excepted to next June.

Some people have asked what we will do with Lily (our puggle). Since she is like our first child she is not going anywhere.

We are so excited for all of the changes happening in our lives, and will be blogging about our experiences!

My first time speaking in church!

Today was my very first time giving a talk at church. Brian and I spoke about Gordon B. Hinckley's book Way To Be. I spoke about Be Positive and Be Grateful. Brian spoke about Be Humble and Be Prayerful. Aunt Caroline came to cheer us on, and somehow got roped into substituting for the sunbeams class. She is a pro, and the Primary was so grateful for her willingness to jump in and help us out of a jam.



On a side note... I usually have to take the sunbeams class in with my CTR 4-7 year olds, but it is very difficult because each class has a very difficult child. So, when the classes are combined it is usually chaos. Luke, in the sunbeams class, will not sit still, doesn't follow directions well, and is always trying to take toys out of his backpack. During sharing time I am usually dragging him back to his chair or quieting him down. I have not figured out how to get him to sit still. So, today in Primary during sharing time I looked over at Aunt Caroline and I see Luke glued to his chair. He was quite, attentive and his backpack was not a distraction. I saw him starting to get up but Aunt Caroline gave him some magical look while saying "Luke" and he sat right back down. I don't know how Auntie does it, but we all commented how Luke has NEVER been better at church!

"How Old Does Brian Look?" Results

25- 1 vote

26- 1 vote

27- 1 vote

28- 1 vote

29- 1 vote

30- 3 votes

31- 1 vote

32- 1 vote

33- 1 vote



When this whole "how old do I look?" thing first started Brian was surprised that his primary class thought he was 38 years old. I told Brian he looked 26. The poll on the blog averaged 29.18 and the most frequent answer was 30. Well, Brian just had a birthday a couple weeks ago and his real age is...












28!

How Old Does Brian Look?

On Sunday, Brian was playing a scripture trivia game with his primary class (consisting of 9-11 year old boys). It came down to a tie. Trying to make it really interesting, Brian's tie breaking question was "How old do you think I am?" One boy thought really hard and then said, "38!" The other boy said, "That's not fair I wanted to pick 38!" Brian was stunned. "Do I really look 38?"

So after church Brian asked me, "How old do I look?" I gave him my answer, and he said I was bias. So, we decided to take it to the public.

How old does Brian look?

Please look as his current picture and vote on the anonymous poll on the right-hand of the screen. After the closing of the poll, I will post the results and Brian's real age.

Brian's request is that you be completely honest! He is not sensitive, so don't worry about hurting his feelings. We are just collecting statistical data to see if Brian or myself had a more accurate idea of what others think his age is?

Thanks for participating in our study!

Finals!

Right now Brian and I have finals! What a stressful time. Although, there is just something so satisfying about walking out of a final. I guess I have never walked out of a final worrying if I have passed, but more "Thank Goodness I never have to do that again!"

It is really nice to take a break between studying to read every one's blogs! Tomorrow I have my statistics final. I never want to see a z, t, chai table EVER again! The only benefit is that I can navigate around Excel very well now.

Old Photos...

I was organizing "My Photos" on my computer and came across these two awesome photos of my parents. The first was taken on February 6, 1985 by Uncle Larry. It was taken as my parents were walking out the door when my mom was in labor with me!

I can't believe how thin my Mom was- scary thin!

Money "Mom-sims"

I wrote this press release for Mother's Day. If you don't live in Orange County you most likely will not see it, but it will be open to the Associated Press after it is published in the OC Register and then it is free game for other news outlets to use. I write one or two a month, but this one seemed like a good fit for the blog! I know that my Mom and maybe Aunt Caroline have a lot of sayings. Peter and I call them "Mom-sims". So, thanks MOM for, in a way, helping me write this press release...


It never hurts to go back to the basics. When we were young children, our moms provided lots of advice on good money management through simple phrases. These tried and true “Mom-isms” may seem like plain common sense, but in today’s more complex world, they still provide good direction for how to make the most of our money and avoid financial trouble. In honor of Mother’s Day this month, Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Orange County suggests we revisit some of Mom’s wise sayings about managing money.

Money doesn’t grow on trees – Mom wanted us to realize that there is a limit to what we can spend – a finite amount of money available to us. Keeping that in mind makes understanding the difference between wants and needs a little clearer and impresses upon us the need to make careful choices.

Pay yourself first – Realizing how easy it is to find things to spend money on, Mom encouraged us to establish a savings habit by making it a priority. Nowadays, we can make it easy and automatic to save through direct deposit into an account each payday.

Save for a rainy day – Today, we may be saving for specific goals - a car, a home, retirement, but Mom knew that the unexpected always happens. With all the uncertainties in today’s world, an emergency fund account makes more sense then ever. Don’t think you can find the money? Track your spending for two weeks and you may be surprised at the “spending leaks” you’ll discover.

Don’t rob Peter to pay Paul – Paying one credit card with cash advances from another should be considered a red flag. Taking on new debt to resolve old debt should be considered carefully to make sure you have a plan to pay off the debt and are not just going in circles.

Don’t take any wooden nickels – Mom warned us that some things just seem too good to be true and that is still the case today. There are plenty of scam artists out there ready to take advantage of us through identity theft and fraudulent schemes. Increase your consumer awareness of strategies to prevent and defend against those crimes.

“This Mother’s Day, give your mom the gift of knowing you took her advice about becoming financially stable. That’s a present she won’t return,” said Kelly Rogers, Director of Education.

Need more than Mom’s advice? You don’t have to solve your financial problems alone. Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Orange County is just a call or click away. To reach the certified credit counselor closest to you dial (714) 547-2227, or online go to http://www.cccsoc.org/.

BABY!

Brian and I are SO excited... Brian's sister is pregnant! We just found out last night and we are so ecxited. Stephanie is six months- she kept it a secret for a long time! She is having her third child and it's their first BOY! Congrats Stephanie!

Coachella Festival and the Handlebar Mustache

The past weekend Brian and went to the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, CA. We went with a bunch of Brian's friends from Seattle and some of our friend from our ward in Fullerton. The cool thing was that we could walk to the festival from my parents house. Friday I saw Tegan and Sara, The Swells (from the movie Once... they won the academy award for best song), and I finished the night with Jack Johnson. Brian went all three days of the festival. On Saturday he saw PRINCE, and Bri said he was awesome. He played all of his old stuff. I guess Prince is the only 5'8'' guy to pull of a purple suit with platforms heels. He also saw Roger Waters (the guy from Pink Floyd). We had such a great time.

Brian and the guys had a 13 hour push up competition. The winner was who ever did the most push up in the 13 hour period, but I had to keep tally. They could not know how many they did or how many anybody else did. This intensified the competition. Since they all are so competitive they were doing push ups everywhere. I would be in the grocery store, by the pool, at the concert and they would drop down and start doing push ups. The winner was Joe Lambert with 299 push ups all the way down to Brian with 127. They were all soar for the rest of the weekend.

If you take a close look at the picture you can see that Brian's facial hair is a little different. Everyday of the festival Brian shaved a little more. One day it was handlebars, then it just kept getting shorter and more creepy! Per my request, he is growing it back out to the full goatee.

Brian really misses his friends from Seattle. He always has such a good time when they visit.

This was at 1:00am when the push up competition ended. Everyone was dead tired... Even I was tired of counting all of their push ups ALL DAY!

A night with the kids!

This was the night Brian, Peter and myself took Ashylnn, Caleb and Briggs to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. Since we are all lacking with our experience with kids we just got them ice cream in cones. Within one minute, before we could even pay, all the ice cream was on the floor. So, we re-ordered, this time with ice cream and cone pushed down in to a cup. It was SO much fun. Here are some photos of the event.

They took our OFFER!!!!

Hey everyone, I know that I have not blogged in a while, but today I have really great news.

Brian and I had put an offer on a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom condo and the offer was just excepted today! The new place is only about 200 feet away from our current 1 bedroom 1 bathroom condo. We are very excited to move into it. Since it was a bank owned property it has a longer escrow period of 45 days. We are still going to keep our current place and just rent it out. Brian and I cannot wait to start on the renovations. We are going to try to save where ever possible... So=Lis expect a ton of calls from me! We are so lucky to have such good friends in our ward that have graciously offered to help with most of the labor intense portions. At least the moving part with be easy! I am definitely going to blog and show pictures of the changes we are making. I just can't wait!!!

In Honor of Tradition

When I was growing up my Mom ALWAYS took a picture and filmed us in front of the house on the first day of school. Well, to follow that tradition, Brian took a picture of me on the FIRST day of lecturing at Chapman University. It was the one of the best experiences of my life. I taught three different lectures (management consulting, international entrepreneurship, and operational project management). Here is a picture of me practicing my best teacher pose.

Way Busy!

So, I haven't blogged in a while. That is mostly due to the fact that I have overbooked myself... once again. I am just finishing a four-week (winter term) management consulting class. I actually was assigned an Orange County business that is in need of some assistance. They basically have a revenue generating issue. My job is just to tell them how to fix it.

Some very good news is that I was offered a graduate teaching assistant position for a economics professor at Chapman. I actually get to teach some lectures and grade the tests and papers. I am very excited... since I am trying to get more teaching experience on my resume. The crazy part was when I left the interview with the econ teacher another teacher saw me and asked to speak with me. His name is P.K. Shukla and he was named Entrepreneur Teacher of the Year for the entire US. Somehow her got a hold of my resume and saw that I have grant writing experience for the Non-Profit that I am currently working at. He said that he really needs a Graduate Research Assistant and is very interested in me. Well, before I knew it I had to new part-time jobs (a Graduate Teaching Assistant and a Graduate Research Assistant). I couldn't pass up the opportunity, but this will be an additional 20 hours a week to my current full-time work load. And... I am still taking 8 units of Graduate classes.

Yesterday I did an interview for KDOC (Orange County Television) about the price increases at the grocery stores. Yesterday a gallon of milk averaged $5.33 in Orange County. I spoke to the economic reasons why the prices are increases, and gave tips to save at the grocery store. I totally thought they should call Lisa Henderson. She is the best at ways to save.

Today I was an actually guest on the talk show Joy in Our Town on the Trinity Broadcast network. So, it wasn't The View or Oprah, but it was my first ever live-to-tape 30-minute interview. It airs on KTBN on 2-22-08 at 10 am. I don't have the channel, but they gave me a DVD.