Baby William

My sister Lori had her baby on her birthday, September 22... so I am a little late on this post about my newphew, the newest addition to our family, William Owen Wrenn. I went home this weekend weekend and I FINALLY got to meet him! He is so cute. He was crying most of the time that I saw him, but he is still so cute, and so sweet when he is sleeping (which is when this picture was taken). It is amazing how much you can love a tiny little baby that you have just met for the first time. I feel like I have been blessed for having quite an amazing family. I can't wait to see the family and little William again in December and watching him grow. At Christmas, we will be able to have all three newphews be together for the first time. I can't wait. By the way, Lori and Billy are amazing parents, and although I missed seeing Billy while I was home, it was fun to watch Lori as a new mom. She is a really great mom as I knew she would be. :o)

Lori ended up having to have a C-Section, which was a bummer, but she did awesome. This is their first family photo.

Baby William Wrenn with his cousin Asher Hixon (Jamie & Dan's son). They are so adorable!

Doing my part

mar⋅riage 
Show Spelled Pronunciation [mar-ij] Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1.
the social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc.
2.
the state, condition, or relationship of being married; wedlock: a happy marriage.
3.
the legal or religious ceremony that formalizes the decision of a man and woman to live as husband and wife, including the accompanying social festivities: to officiate at a marriage.
4.
a relationship in which two people have pledged themselves to each other in the manner of a husband and wife, without legal sanction: trial marriage; homosexual marriage.

It took me a while to get on board, but I finally decided I needed to do my part. I had my dad help me register to vote in California since I am living in Utah, so when I was home this last weekend I was excited to vote for the president (although I am not too excited for either party with this election) and I voted for my dad (for Goleta Water Board) and there was many more things I voted for, but the main purpose that I wanted to vote in California instead of Utah was so I could vote YES on Prop 8! I know that my vote doesn't count for much, but I wanted my voice to be heard. I made a donation, although small, I care enough to do so and I don't normally get involved in differences in opinion, but this is something I truly care about. This is important!

I first posted the definition. THAT is the definition of marriage. If we change the definition of marriage, what next? Why are we catering to the tiny percentage of this country that are gay, and on top of that, the even smaller percentage that actually care to get married. By voting yes on Prop 8 changes NOTHING for the gay rights, they still get to live the way that they want to live, and I am fine with that although I don't agree with that way of living, I would never tell them what to do, they have their freedom to live that way. But why are we tolerant of them, but they can not be tolerant of us? They can have their right to be gay, but we can't have our right to have our religious belief's? Why can't we have peace and understanding both ways? Why is it that when asking someone to photograph their gay wedding and the photographer declines because of religious belief's (because we have the right to freedom of religion) that instead of just finding someone else to do it, they have to sue them. It is just not right. I personally would not want to give up a child and put the child in a gay home, but that is my right, it doesn't mean that I hate gays, I just don't want a child to be raised that way. I don't want my children to be taught about gays in school... I don't feel like that is necessary, but I don't think I should be sued for that either.

These are all just my opinions. But really even though marriage between a man and woman is very important to me, I would still normally not speak up. What is comes down to for me is that I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and I have a testimony of modern day prophets, and that we have a living prophet today, President Thomas Monson and our church never gets involved in politics, but they have asked us to take a stand with this issue. I believe that our prophet receives revelation, and because they have asked us to take a stand, there are not questions asked from me. If that is what the church wants us to do, that is what I will do. I believe that Satan's number one target is to destroy the family. If he can succeed at that, then I don't see a bright future for our country. The family is the core of humanity... everyone comes from a family that they should love and cherish and hold high above everything else in this world. I love my family and am so thankful for how I was raised and I hope that I will have my own family one day and I would like to raise my children in a similar way. Sorry... I am rambling and I am not sure if it is all making sense, so I will end by saying, Family is important, VOTE YES ON PROP 8!

Tagged again

I was tagged by Desiree, so here we go with the questions


8 Favorite TV shows: (this is hard because I hardly watch tv)
1: Alias
2: American Idol
3: So you think you can dance
4: America's Next Top Model
5: America's next dance crew
6: Anything on the food network
7: What not to wear
8: Split Ends (this is a new kick with my roommate and I)

8 Favorite Restaurant's
1: Bombay House (Indian Food)
2: Goodwood BBQ
3: Olive Garden (Italian)
4: Tuccano's (Brazilian)
5: Tepanyaki (Japanese)
6: Cafe Rio (Mexican) -not really fancy, but I think best Mexican they have around here
7: PF Changs (Chinese)
8: Brick Oven

8 things that happened yesterday
1: Woke up in Vegas 7:30am at Brian Christensen's house
2: Drove in the car back to Provo with Brent Christensen
3: Went to work at 3pm
4: Got a raise
5: Came home/showered
6: Went to Corn Maze for ward FHE
7: Brent FINALLY kissed me
8: unpacked/got ready for bed/ put pictures on my computer from my trip/got caught up online

8 things to look forward to
1: Halloween
2: Spending time with Brent
3: My parents coming to Utah next month/Thanksgiving
4: More traveling to new places
5: Singing at Disneyland the first weekend in December
6: My birthday/Christmas
7: Someday getting married/having kids
8: Trying new things and going on more adventures

8 things I love about fall
1: The changing colors of nature
2: Perfect temperature
3: Halloween/Thanksgiving
4: Not busy at work
5: Corn Mazes
6: Carving Pumpkins
7: New clothes for the season
8: The start of hot chocolate season. :o)

8 things on my wish list:
1: To get married
2: To be a mom
3: To travel to every major continent
4: To visit all 50 states
5: To go on a church history tour
6: To learn guitar
7: To learn Spanish (so I'm fluent)
8: To be happy forever!!

Carving Pumpkins

One of my favorite things to do around Halloween is to carve pumpkins. Brent and I had talked about doing it, but then I got an e-mail saying our FHE group was going to be doing that for our next activity. I was excited. Brent and his brother Brian I guess have a tradition where they don't carve the normal cute faces in their pumpkins... they think of different violent scene's to carve, which I feel fits in with the holiday, but I guess it creeps some people out. So he was thinking of what to carve in the pumpkin and then he was inspired by my roommate Tina who had told us a story the week before. The story goes like this:









There is a family in Springville Utah and they had a pet Boa Constrictor that had free range of the house, and supposedly slept at the end of the parents bed... like a dog or cat, which is weird/dumb. I guess they kept rats or mice in the garage for when the snake got hungry. One day the wife noticed that the snake stopped eating the mice in the garage, so she called the vet to make sure that the snake was alright. The vet assured her everything was fine, but if it was still not eating in another month or so, to give them a call. So she waits like the vet told her and the snake was still not eating. She called the vet again, tells him that the snake was still not eating and it was also acting weird, she had found the snake stretched out on her side of the bed. The vet then told her to get rid of the snake immediately, kill the thing if she had to because it was measuring to EAT HER!!! Then the woman is hesitant because it is the family pet. HA!

Anyway... I admit that the thought of this happening is kind of gross... but when Tina told Brent and I , we both started laughing, which Tina could not understand. I had pet snakes before, and I have just never heard of a snake measuring its food before it eats. And why would it change diets all of the sudden? Just one day decide, I don't think I want to eat mice anymore, so I am going to stop eating for a while so I can save some room for a human! It just seemed very unrealistic, but she swore it was a true story. Well my friends... I don't know why I didn't do this earlier, but I decided to look up on the Internet if snakes do indeed measure their prey before they eat, and I ran across this same story, and they were asking if it was true and turns out it is a legend. Sorry guys. I guess people probably change the story to sound like it came from someone they knew so people would believe it and then get a kick out of everyone's reactions. That is what I have done with this story. I love to see what people say after I tell them. Only one person didn't believe the story (besides Brent and I) and I am proud to say that it was my sister Kristy. :o) Anyway... here is the answer that I found in response to that story, asking if it were true. I thought it was a great answer and confirms a lot of what was going through my head when I first heard the story.

"No. That is an urban legend, and a persistent one, at that. I hear variations of this story on a regular basis and it simply isn't true.

First off; a five or six foot long snake, no matter how thick, is incapable of eating an average sized adult woman.

Second, snakes don't really 'measure' their food in that way; if they notice something is much too big to eat (like a woman would be to a snake that size), they don't even think about trying to eat it. While not stupid at all; snakes are very instinct-driven animals and their minds simply don't work like that. If they decide something is food, they attack it immediately. No measuring or calculating period necessary. ;)

Third, how the woman is said to keep the snake should give anyone experienced with reptiles reasonable doubt. Snakes need terrariums that are temperature and humidity controlled, (unless they want to mist their carpets daily and keep their house with a basking spot of 88-95 degrees with an ambient (background) temperature in the high eighties) and it is simply unsafe to allow a snake to slither around without observation. The snake could get hurt or lost, or is capable of killing small animals. I know of no responsible keeper who would allow their pets to wander around without supervision.

But say if we gave this story the benefit of the doubt, and it is true that a woman somewhere did allow her large snake to free-roam, and she found it lying length-wise next to her upon waking. If that happened, the most likely reason behind it in the snake’s mind would be that the snake was cold, the human was warm, and that was the most convenient way to thermoregulate. If the woman was startled and called a vet who wasn’t experienced with reptiles, then it is very possible that the vet could have told her story like that, despite it having no basis in fact. That is the only explanation I can come up with on how this story could have any foundation in a real-life situation."

But lets be honest, it made for a fantastic pumpkin carving! The End.

Apx Softball

This summer, I was asked if I would play on the Apx softball team. We were in the Provo City Softball league and it was a blast. I forgot how fun it is so play and be part of a team. I used to play a lot when I was younger... like grade school to middle school, but the skills just came right back like riding a bike. We started playing games at the end of July and after losing only two games during the season, we went to the play offs and after losing two more games, we were out of the play offs the 2nd week of October (which was the last week of games anyway). So all in all our team was not too shabby, infact we rocked. I think many of the other teams were a little afraid of us. I mean, just look at our uniforms, we just look official. Ha, anyway, I hit every ball that was pitched to me, so I was pretty proud of that. Other than that I switched off on what position I played. Sometimes I was 2nd base, I played short stop a couple times, right field and catcher. So it was fun to switch it up and get to know more people at Apx and become even better friends with the people that I already knew. Even though it seemed like we played for a long time (oh wait, cause we did) it was really fun and a great experience. I should get involved with more team sports I decided. Yea for doing other things besides watching tv!! ha ha

Guatemala

So I had a wicked busy summer at Apx. That is the busiest time of year at the company I work for because that is when all the sales reps are selling. So, the whole summer, you are only allowed 5 days off, which I had to use for my brother's wedding in May (the very beginning) so I did not really feel like I got much of a vacation while the rest of my friends (who taught school and got the summer off) were going everywhere and doing lots of fun stuff and I was all kinds of jealous cause I love to leave Provo every chance I get. Sometime towards the end of the summer I mentioned wanting to go out of the country... somewhere cheap, like Guatemala. I had always wanted to see the ruins and I remember how much I loved Costa Rica and Nicaragua years ago when I went with my sister. So when I threw that out there, my friend from work, Jordan said he would want to go too. It was great, but I never believe people until we buy the plane tickets together. Anyway... when trying to get other people to come, most people said, that would be cool, but.... and nobody ever really commits, weird. Thankfully, one of Jordy and Trever's friends, Nate (Who we call "Big Nate"who also promised Brent when he was seeing me off on my trip that he would not touch me) decided he wanted to go too. I was glad cause it would have been a little awkward if it had been just Jordy and I. So we bought our plane tickets together and it was final. For a long time I didn't feel like I was going. Jordy had since moved back home to AZ and I never saw Big Nate because Jordy and Trev had both moved and that was the only time I saw him... so I never talked about it with them, but the date came that we were supposed to leave and we met up in Vegas at one of my best friend Lolly's house and she took us to the airport the next morning and off we were. We were there for a week Saturday September 27th- Saturday October 4th, and boy was it an adventure. The first picture is a good description of how the week went. Big Nate was the loud one that always needed to take charge and be center of attention, Jordy was always go with the flow/ whatever, and then there was me... the only girl, the one that always got picked on and was always to the side going along with whatever and laughing about things that would happen. Anyway, we didn't have any plans once we landed in Guatemala, the only thing I wanted out of the whole week was to see the ruins. We got there and found out that they were 8 1/2 hours north of where we were and there was not a whole lot to see in between, so we went to the bus station and got on a bus that drove us all night while we tried to sleep. When the sun came up, we were there in the city of Flores where we would stay in our first hostel and then take a day trip out to Tikal to see the ruins. This was the most expensive part of our trip, but well worth it. The ruins were amazing. As well as the rainforrest. We even saw some Howler Monkeys. So since the main thing that we wanted to do was done the first day we were there, we had to figure out what to do for the rest of the week. A lot of time was spent on different bus rides traveling from place to place, which was always an adventure in itself because they don't have speed limits there or many traffic laws for that matter, the only cops I saw were peeing on the side of the road, which is pretty normal for everyone there which is probably why the city smells so bad. So I was always happy when we made it safe to our next destination. We even saw a dead girl on the side of the road on our way somewhere and everyone looked, nobody stopped or did anything about it. It was pretty sad. This is already a long blog... so let me just give some highlights from the trip besides the fact that I like to backpack in foreign countries where I don't know the language (don't worry, both the boys were fluent). 1- we found our church in Coban and decided to stay in a hostel close to there because it made us feel safe. 2- The Quentzales, their money (named after the country bird) is so much cooler than ours, very colorful and fun. 3- we ran into sister missionaries in one city and then a district of Elders in another city. 4- the food was awesome 5- I didn't come back with any worms or funky diseases even though I drank and ate things I probably shouldn't have and didn't get any shots before I left... I did get a cold the last day I was there, but that is because I didn't get any sleep all week practically. 6- Learning to bargin with the locals to get the best prices on everything... just walk away and they will always meet your asking price. 7- staying in a hostel that was only 3 dollars a night, I repeat 3 DOLLARS A NIGHT!!! It was pretty ghetto with a broken night stand, broken springs, stains on the pillowcase and no curtain for the window. 8- a new stamp in the passport. 9- coming back with cool stuff, fun stories, and awesome pictures. 10- the fact the Brent was super jealous that I got to go because that is where he served his mission (By the way, thanks Brent for giving me tips and hooking me up with bug spray and itch relief cream before I left... it helped a lot). 11- Our travel buddies! We met some pretty awesome people on our trip, like Charline Bon from France who we met on our overnight bus. She was traveling by herself, so she hung out with us for a day, which was really fun to have another girl around for a little bit. Those are the top ones I can think of right now. But the last day was for sure the worst day of the trip. I woke up with a cold, we walked around dirty Guatemala City for hours, then went to the airport at 3pm... my plane didn't leave until 6:40am the next day. Oh ya... somehow we got different flights home too... so I was solo on the way back, but to be honest, it was nice to have a break from the boys and they were jealous I got to leave because they had 5 more hours to wait in the Guatemala airport before they got to leave. I can't say I have ever spent 15 hours in an airport until this trip. It was not fun sleeping there either. I landed in Vegas at 1pm... Lolly was awesome and came and picked me up and then I had until 8pm until the boys flew in. It was fun to hang out with Lolly... but I really wanted to go home. We still had to drive home that night. Big Nate didn't make if far even though I was going off of less sleep than he was, but I think I wanted to be home so bad that I somehow drove us back with 3 days and nights of NO SLEEP! It was pretty much a miracle. We got into Provo at 4:30am. Thank goodness General Conference was the next day and I didn't have to go anywhere... don't worry, I didn't sleep through it. Anyway... that was my week adventure in Guatemala in a nutshell... pretty awesome. Can't wait for my next trip! :o)

Camping and Fishing with Brent

As you can see, I have been spending all my weekends with Brent. We have so much fun together and always seem to be on the same page and think the same things... so it looks like we will be hanging out for a while. Which I am OK with. :o) Brent and I both like to camp and we wanted to camp one more time before it got too cold. We made all the plans and invited a bunch of people and come Friday we were packed and ready to go and nobody else showed up. We wondered if we should still go having it just be the two of us... but we went (don't judge us, nothing happened... we did not even touch each other the whole night). We had a lot of fun still even though it was just the two of us. He brought his dutch oven and cooked for me. For dinner we had shrimp and for breakfast we had rocky mountain eggs with potato which didn't really turn out the way they were supposed to, but we ate it anyway. Brent is a good cook. He even widdled a spoon out of a stick. I was impressed. It rained... which was kind of fun. So we just had fun talking. The next day we went fishing at Deer Creek. Brent LOVES to fish. I think it is pretty fun too, but every time we have been, I have never caught anything. This trip he caught the fish again, but to make me feel better, he let me reel it in. ha ha... so we could say we caught the fish together. I told him I wanted to keep it and eat it. So we did keep the rainbow trout that we caught. We had a lot of fun, AND we got to use club 400 again to fish out on the lake. It was a blast. We ended up spending an entire 24 hours together and we were not even sick of each other at the end. That has to say something right? Anyway... we came home and Brent taught me how to gut a fish, and I thought I would share with you... because I think dissecting things is fun. I don't know why. I just think it is interesting. So here are step by step pictures of how to gut a fish! Enjoy.

Club 400

I am really trying to get caught up here. So I am doing two posts today. This double date took place back in August over the holiday weekend. I just have to say that spending time with Brent and Brian is always just lots of fun. This double date was no exception. We all went to the store and the boys each bought a blow up raft and some oars. The rafts had "Club 400" written on the sides of them, so that is what we refer to them as. After buying the rafts we headed up to Heber Valley (By where we went camping at Mirror lake) and we hiked a mile (after going out to lunch at Granny's in Heber, which seemed to be the hang out there) to this pretty little lake that did not have anyone else around. Just peaceful, quite, and beautiful. We blew up the rafts and got in with our dates and floated around the lake. For a little while we were together, but then we went our seperate ways and I really got to know Brent pretty well while he rowed us around this peaceful lake and we just talked, about everything. I'm not going to lie, it was kind of romantic. ha ha... anyway, we all had a blast. What a fun, creative, and cheap date. Way to go boys. :o)

Afghanistan Gift

So my brother in law, Jess, is in the National guard and is serving in Afghanistan right now. He will be there for a year... which will be up in February. He did get to come home for two weeks though to see his new baby Grant, which was awesome. It was so good to see him and my sister and the kids were so happy to have him home for a little bit. He was so sweet though and brought Blythe and I a gift from Afghanistan! I totally was not expecting it at all, and I just thought it was so thoughtful of him to think of his sister (Blythe, my roommate) and sister in law, me... while he was overseas. Anyway... we took this picture to show him how much we loved our gift. We probably look really silly because most likely we are wearing them wrong... but we tried. It is the thought that counts right? Ha ha... So here we are. I really love mine, the green one.