THANKFULLY

Once upon a friday night while driving back home from Springville and discussing Betos breakfast burritos Rodney and Laralyn hit a deer.

THANKFULLY... not a live one
But one that had been hit and left in the middle of the road just after a curve so that it couldn't be seen until it was way to late.

THANKFULLY... Rodney was driving (or this story could have been much worse)
He managed to only hit it with one side of the car, which still scared away all thought of greasy breakfast food! Laralyn hadn't been watching the road and honestly thought the car had hit a human. Not a good feeling. They pulled off to the side of the road and Rodney got out to check the car.

THANKFULLY... it looked ok.
But smelled like... well if you've never had dead animal guts roasting on the bottom of your engine you really can't understand the stench. But promise, there's nothing that smells worse. Car washes are useless against such a stench.

THANKFULLY... Laralyn had a cold and couldn't smell it nearly as well as she should have been able to. They drove it (carefullly) home without any further incident and...

MIRACULOUSLY... it's ok! A little piece of plastic got torn loose on the back wheel well, but that can be fixed with a zip-tie.

Part Two...

Once upon a thursday night while Rodney was in class Laralyn was waiting in the library parking lot in the rain the car battery died.

THANKFULLY... Rodney was able to get a ride from SLCC campus to the library.
But they had no jumper cables so no one there could help them. (a problem that will not be repeated again!)

THANKFULLY... Tom and Diane were in the area (with cables, they passed boy scouts)
and came to jump the car. Immediately Rodney and Laralyn drove to Pep Boys to find out what sort of gremlin was sabatoging (sp?) the car. Even though Laralyn was sure it was because she had worn black shoes and pants with blue and white socks out of the house. (Bad things always happen when you think you won't have to get out of the car and dress accordingly)

THANKFULLY... Pep Boys assured them that it was not Laralyn's fault.
But that they battery was practically dead and needed to be replaced ASAP. Of course they didn't have the right kind of battery there so today Laralyn called and found one and Rodney is out picking up and installing it now.

MIRACULOUSLY... it cost almost exactly what Laralyn and Rodney could afford.

THE MORAL... God is always watching out for all of us, even if our socks don't match.

Cheesecake

Anyone else think it looks delicious? Now, before you go getting TOO proud of me I should tell you Rodney made it. His mission reunion was on Friday (which was really fun, I think he had more fun than I did but that's probably cause he actually knew more than one soul there. Still, fun!) and we were suppose to bring a dessert to share, and he wanted to make something extra special. I think it turned out spectacular... but he will tell you that's just cause I made him "cover up all his screw ups with a million cherries".




He honestly thinks it turned out awful!! There's a crack in the top. Love him, but he is way to harsh on himself sometimes! Anyway, after a LOT of coaxing (24 hours to be exact) he took it to the reunion. Apparently everyone there agreed with me... it was gone first. I'm so proud! : )

Kaylee Rayne Smith

After much deliberation...
much frustration...
thousands of lists...
hundreds of baby books...
7 months of discussions...
and one very sophisticated game of eenie-meenie-minie-moe...
We've finally picked her name!


Disclaimer: I do however reserve the right to change it upon being struck with a visionary dream, meeting her and deciding it's all wrong, or receiving a stamped and sealed letter from above.

Oops, I Did It Again...

I'm way behind! I'd like to blame the fact that we don't have the internet at our apartment... but I'm at my parents as well as Rodney's enough that I really can't. But I have managed to track down a "belly" picture to make up for it! Although this was taken the end of Feb and so needs to be updated again. *sigh*

Well the big news from us is we made it a year! Phew! They say that's the hard part, guess it'll all be smooth sailing from here on out! ; ) The 13th was our anniversary and Rodney took me out to breakfast that morning, in PJs and messy hair and all. Just like the good old days!

Now, I have a very serious philosophy about anniversaries and birthdays. I am convinced that they are the two days of the year that you should justify andything and everything that you can't on the other 363 of the year. So (after getting ready for the day) we went to an arcade and wasted ten bucks to get an oversized bouncy ball and another couple doing the picture booth thingy. What are those technically called? You know that random booths in public places where you can stop and take pictures of yourself? I never see anyone in them (especially the ones at the mall, probably cause no one wants to take time to stop shopping and remember what they looked like before they got the new clothes...) so every once in a while I think it's fun to get in and take pictures! And since my camera is still MIA they are the only pictures of the day we have.

So The Garden, up on the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building, is AMAZING! We both absolutely LOVED it! It's bright and happy and has a gorgeous view. The food is absolutley delicious and there's a really wide variety of it. And the best part, they don't give you so much that you feel like you're going to burst and die by the time you leave. We even had room for chocolate cake for dessert! Going out to eat isn't nearly as much fun when you end up sick from over-stuffing, and without even trying anything sugary and totally unhealthy in the process!

Life Is A Collection of Memories

On the brighter side of life, we have had had so much going on lately! Unfortunately my brain seems to have vacated the premises when the baby moved in, and my camera is one of the many things I can't quite figure out what I did with. Which means no pictures... sorry! Hopefully it'll turn up soon and next time I'll have lots of pictures to show, until then maybe Google can help out a bit.

For starters, this little baby girl has personality already! She wiggles, moves, dances, and plays all day long, until her Dad tries to feel her. Poor Rodney, he's felt her twice, maybe three times, but every other time she stops all wiggling and holds still. I say it's cause she just feels to comforted when he's so close, the doctor said he just need to promise her a higher credit card limit. : ) We have an awesome doctor.

January is by far my least favorite month, and now it's over! All the other months have holidays, or sunshine, or both! So to celebrate January finally running it's course, we had a game night the beginning of February. It was oodles of fun! Cream puffs, strawberries, chocolate fondue, and two babies to play with. What more could a girl possibly ask for? Of course all the adults who came where a huge bonus as well, but it's hard to compete with a one year old and her pink stroller. J/K, mostly. Thanks to everyone who came! Some people I haven't seen in a year or two, a few new friends from the ward, and my busy cousin and his sweetheart even made time to stop by and play for a while. It was the greatest!


Cash On Delivery- it was awesome! I laughed and laughed! Even Rodney loved it by the end... and that's a big deal! What more can I say? Other than Keri, you owe me ice cream. : )

In more awesome news, last week my mom turned 39... for the 8th time! Congrats to her! : ) That's gotta be some kind of record! My dad was out of town on the Klondike (which is yet another Boy Scout tradition that makes me concerned for the sanity of men) for her birthday and half of Valentines day, but planned her an awfully cute surprise birthday party to make up for it! She thought she was going over to a friend's to scrapbook all night, but in reality Bethany, a bunch of her friends from the ward/neighborhood, and I surprised her in the friend's dining room with gifts, off-key happy birthday songs, and Cafe Rio. Nearly made her cry... maybe next year! We talked and laughed the night away, laughed so hard my stomach hurt for days! Growing up I use to think all these ladies were boring and could not understand for the life of me how anyone could spend hours just talking! About NOTHING! Thankfully I've grown up a little since then and am now of the opinion that there's not much better in life than sitting around with friends and chatting for hours. (I tried converting Rodney, he's hopeless. Men seem to think you have to actually say something to talk.)


Have you heard the new advertisements for the Mayan? The basic jist is "We know our food used to suck, but we've updated and now it's edible! Come try!" We tried it, they lied. The atmosphere is still really cool, just don't put anything in your mouth... you could end up curled up on the couch for hours.

Sometimes Life Has a Better Idea

I heard that once, can't remember where, but I remember thinking it was a very profound statement. Life, or shall we say God, usually has the best ideas. Leaps and bounds better than anything I could come up with, but sometimes it's still hard to trust the signs and walk off the proverbial cliff. Right now in my life I seem to be teetering on such one cliff and am having a really hard time not looking down...

Lets see... starting is always the hardest part. Well I've been working at this little restaurant since last fall and I absolutely LOVE it! The job part that is. I love seeing all the people who come through, laughing with the fun ones, rolling my eyes at the pains, and my co-workers are the best! (Tresa, this means you!) And of course all the "your tummy is so cute" compliments don't hurt either! : ) It would be perfect, except for my boss. Ugh! The man is... well he's just... I really don't know how to describe him. Just difficult. To make a long story short, he refuses to give me the hours I was hired for and treats me unfairly for no reason I can see other than that I'm pregnant. Which is not only stupid, but also illegal from what I hear. So, there's the background story. Rodney keeps telling me I just need to quit and not let myself be walked all over like that, and all the signs, signals and lightning bolts seem to be agreeing with him. But I'm terrified to trust life and leap.

June is still 3 months away, which seems soo short when looked at from the "pregnant" side of things but scary long when looked at from the "unemployed with nothing to do" side. Yikes! Here's where I need some help! I need something to do. An at home job, a service project, a charity to join, something! I don't don't don't want to sit around the house all day eating cookie dough and watching soap operas, but I'm having a really hard time coming up with an alternative. Especially one that tastes as good as cookie dough. : ) Does anyone out there have any ideas?

Now, I don't want to turn this into a poor-me-whiny-type of an entry so I'll leave it at that and hope that someone has a little advice. (I gladly take cheesy one liners and scriptural references!) Seems like a silly problem I'm sure, and in retrospect I will probably agree, but I don't think I've ever been accused of being a rational or logical person!

The Name Game

Let's start by saying... SHE'S A GIRL!! I'm so excited! As is Rodney, he's just not quite as loud about his feelings as I tend to be. : ) So now we get to start playing the name game! Which I must say was much more fun when I didn't actually have to pick just one, or was only naming a doll that would probably be lost within the year anyway. Choosing a name for a living breathing person is a whole lot harder!

We've been getting a lot of imput (most of it useful) from friends and family but still haven't settled on anything. So, I want to hear all your ideas! We're looking for something beautiful and less common that pairs well with Smith. (obviously) Porter is out. (sorry Bethany) and Autumn and Evalyn are at the top of the list. Ideas? Imput?

Sorry so short, but I figured I'd better write something before I get as far behind as my mother... speaking of which you should all tell her to update her blog. : ) Please, make my day!