Twilight Years

See the below link for a hilarious rendition of the "oh, so familiar" Young Single Adult Ward life with a Twilight series twist. Gotta love it!

Twilight Years from Tom on Vimeo.

Bowling

We've been bowling several times in the last few weeks. Fun, fun!

Katie and Tom

Me, Stacey, Sara (my roommie), and Lisa

Lisa and me

Lisa

Katie

Gingerbread Houses 2009

Sunday night after the Christmas Devotional I had some people over to make gingerbread houses. Here's some of the creations... "Billiam" with his modern creation.

Julia, Raelene, Bill, Danny

Lisa and Ben with their "classic" house.

The crime scene created by a cop.

Chelsey and Scott w/ their tower.

Stacey and Lee

"Dirty Seth" and "Dirty Stacey" always "up" to something.

Julia andRaelene

Katie and Andy's Church

Jake

Test Prep

I just finished my final preparations for my 2 day test at work
{10:30 pm}
for an additional certification.
I have a love/hate relationship with this certification.
I wanta/need to pass it so I don't have to take the 3 day class again,
{and let's be honest, I don't want my pride to be hurt},
but I don't really wanna pass it 'cause it just means that I get
more "difficult"/not so easy claims.

I took the first 1/2 {short answer with lotsa application with lotsa scenarios} today.
It was pretty dang hard!
Not really sure how I did.
Just 4 more hours of testing tomorrow
and then
I WILL BE DONE!
{BIG, HUGE sigh of relief}

And then I'll sit and wait
for my results
in 90 days!
{reminds me of the SAT/ACT days}!

Then I can party like it's '99 again!

Let the Christmas season begin!

Wish me luck!

Football

Saturday I went to the USC v ASU football game.

We went to the tailgate party beforehand with a bunch of alumni.

The band and the cheerleaders giving the pep rally.

This cool looking cactus attacked me!
Hundreds of tiny needles nestled themselves in my arm and shirt.
Ouch!

Fight on, Trojans!

The refs and head coaches.
My best attempt at getting a pic of Pete Carroll.
{This one's for Rach.}

Football

Saturday I went to the USC v ASU football game.
We went to the tailgate party beforehand with a bunch of alumni.

The pep rally with the band and the cheerleaders.

This cool looking cactus attacked me!
Hundreds of tiny needles nestled themselves in my arm and shirt.
Ouch!

Fight on, Trojans!

The refs and head coaches.
My best attempt at getting a pic of Pete Carroll.
{This one's for Rach.}

Demo Derby '09

Friday night I went to the AZ State Fair with a big group of friends.

The demolition derby before all the demotition!

A few of us fair-goers.

10 Year Reunion

This weekend I went to my 10 year high school reunion.

Here's the group of the Class of 99 Highlanders

My close friends
Kristen, Kim, Cindy, me, Anna, and Julie

It was great to get caught up with my high school friends and to see what everyone is up to.

Although I wish more people would have been able to come.

10 years

I'm heading home this weekend to

attend my

10 YEAR

HIGH SCHOOL REUNION.

I'm excited to see everyone

from my adolescent years!

My Girls

Last weekend I went to a Diamondbacks game with a couple of my friends.

I think we were good luck charms 'cause they won! Woot!

This morning I woke up at 6:27
to my phone ringing.
I couldn't figure out
who in the world
would call me at 6-something in the a.m.?
I answered.
Much to my surprise...
and my delight.
A special someone
was calling from
the other side of the world
while on a business trip
in Japan!
I wasn't very coherent.
He might as well have been
speaking Japanese.
I wasn't making much sense.
For all I know, I may have been responding
with my limited Japanese vocab
{Honda, sushi, Toyota, teriyaki}
But one thing I do know is that
I want all the world to know that
I got off the phone with
PERMA-GRIN!
What made it even better is
that it wasn't even a dream!

The Fam

Proof that the WHOLE family was together!

Aren't we cute?

Today my heart is happy
and my muscles are achy!
I guess that's what going to the gym
5 times this week will do to ya!
Pretty much the best feeling!

Rafting Trip

Several weeks ago we took a family vacation and rafted the American River.

None of us had ever gone and we had a blast!

Emily, the guide Hillary, Bryan, Uncle Mark, Casey, Dana, me, Aunt Jill and photographer Jeff Richardson

The Whole Group

Angels v Rays

Tuesday night after
an afternoon at the beach,
soaking in the sun,
playing in the waves
and developing our drip castle talents,

we did
did another CA "must do"
and went to an Angels game.

Although the first half of the game was
extremely uneventful
(only one hit with no runs),
the Angels kicked it into gear and won
6-0.

Our view from the nose bleeds.

Not pictured here:
our promotional bobble heads
and the traditional tossing of peanuts at other onlookers.

Pageant of the Masters

Laguna Beach

Mom, Dad, Brandon, Rach, Bryan and I had a Kentucky Fried Chicken picnic on the beach before the art show.

Lotsa local artists exhibit their original artwork, this one was one of my favs.

{It's a bunch o' screws.}

What is Pageant of the Masters you may ask?

It's a "live" art show at an outdoor ampitheatre in Laguna beach.

Basically, they take classic and contemporary art and make it the size of the stage.

They then place live people in their painted equivilant.

It's pretty amazing to see 3-D art made to look 2-D like the original paintings.

I wish I could've taken some pics, but cameras are highly prohibited.

Bummer!

CA YSA Conference

One of my good friends helpd to plan a CA (all statewide) YSA Conference.

I wanted to be part of the fun and see how it all came together so

I "dragged" my friends Lisa and Jaime along.

We drove over on Friday night and went to the Conference on Saturday and Sunday.
We had a great time being fed...
spiritually and physically!

Lisa, me, Jaime wishing we were
fulltime Californians.
The weather was absolutely amazing!

I love to see the Newport Beach Temple!

It was also fun to have them meet the fam.
They had a great time listening to my dad tell his embellished stories. :)

Home Again

There's no place like home.

Remind me. Why did I leave this place?

CA Here I Come

I'm getting excited for my trip to California this weekend.

Here's just a few reasons why:
Almost 9 days of "funness"
Road trip with 2 AZ friends
Attending the YSA Conference
Partaking of Mom's home cooking goodness
Get to hear from an apostle
Hanging out with CA friends
Spending time with the fam
Hanging out in the CA sun
Going to the beach
Pagaent of the Masters in Laguna
"Working" from home
Camping
Rafting down the American River
Uh-mazing camp food
Chilling with Steve and Heather in their "hood"
Spending time with the ENTIRE fam

I CAN'T WAIT!

Camping

This weekend I went {roughing it} in the woods.

We escaped the heat and cacti

and went up to the mountains

outside of Payson, Arizona A view looking out over the rim.

Forest, Gooch, Nate, and Katie playing hearts.

Stacey, Chad, Lisa and I played a rip roaring game of cribbage.
We bet that that winners would get homemade cookies from the losers.
Chad and I won...
by a landslide
aka we {skunked} 'em.
So the wager turned into cookies and ice cream.
Stacey and Lisa are providing the pizookies tonight...
and now the whole ward gets to enjoy the fruits of Chad and I winning :)


Katie pointing out the tin foil dinners.
They were pretty much amazing.

Nate, Katie, and Gooch

Lisa, Chad, and Lisa kicking back at the camp fire

Katie and Forest sporting their head lamps.

Lisa and I slept under the stars. We had the best star lit sky...ever.

We also spent some time at Knoll Lake.