melimba...and who doesn't like cupcakes?

enjoy the cupcakes I made for a work party the other day. they were quite delicious, if I do say so myself.

dear team,

so, i spent a morning and updated my *melimba* blog. I have an actual website for the company at www.melimba.com
but there aren't tons of pictures of actual cards that are available. Alas, I posted a BUNCH on the *melimba* blog. Eventually, I am going to figure out a way for people to go to melimba.com and automatically lead them to the melimba blog until I am really happy about the REAL layout for the website. You know? si. It is hard to figure out website coding and all that jazz...but Aaron did a good job for now.

Anyway, if you are curious to know what I've been up to, feel free to take a peek. And if you are interested in ordering anything, let me know. I'm excited, today I am going up to another store in SLC to make a big delivery. Fun fun fun.

check it

So here we are in utah. This is a picture of us sleeping. Look at how peaceful Utah is. Really peaceful.

Uh-huh... melissa accidentally spilled bleach on her collar and so it is her sleeping shirt.

We went and watched my nephew play baseball yesterday. I thought it was great cause i got to yell at the umpires a couple times (payback for all those years when I was the ump) and melissa felt really bad each time an 8 yr old struck out and had to walk back to the dugout with quiver lip.

Not really sure what we're doing today, but I'm sure it doesn't involve 1) anything to do with UTHSCSA 2) work of any kind and 3) mosquitos & crickets (San Antonio's gettin' taken over).

Oh yea, we are going to HP5 tonight.

Also... shout out to sarah craig for her uncharacteristic-non "bi-annual" update. We're all very proud. Oh, and congrats on getting the cast off.

Hopefully we can see some of you Utah people while we're here.

Adam and Ashley... you need a blog.

let freedom ring...and mustaches that make me want to ...sing! (or puke, whatever).

uncle rico delivers.

oh, wait. maybe he's more like kip. either way i say, "GROSS."

I was trying to figure out a way to post LOTS of pictures and save on space. Now it is a disjointed mess. I apologize. Hey, I have lots more of these cute kiddos, but couldn't post them all. Parents, if you want any pictures, feel free to email me and I'd be glad to send them your way! :) Happy 4th of July!

Some of the pictures look all messed up... just click on it and it'll look better!






would you look at all these cute kids? and crazy adults? :) lucky for the pictures, the lighting was great because it was grey and wet! All of the cute little outfits were probably destroyed, but we had a fun time. Right? right.

Babcock engagment photo...with the camcorder. love it.

bbq and pool-side delights

So, I just want you to all be impressed that I have posted more entries in the last week than I have ever done in my entire life.

yes, you are welcome.


let freedom ring. If this isn't country pride, then I don't know what is. I was at WalMart (a true American treat) and wanted to buy a flag. As I was selecting the flag of my choice, Aaron pops around the aisle to notify me that we not only have a flag, but one that was flown over the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. I love that I married an Eagle Scout! So, alas...here is the flag. Long may she wave on our front porch without blowing off in the wind!

A little trivia for you...in honor of Summer AND my 2nd favorite holiday, the 4th of July.
I posted this on the Primary Newsletter this month. Here it is:
The longest frankfurter ever was cooked at a summer cookout in 1999. How long was it?
7 feet 8 inches, 26 feet 2 inches, 13 feet 4 inches

Take a stab at it. I'll put the answer at the bottom of this post. Prepare to be amazed.

Yesterday Aaron and I felt like we were a "Real" family when we started cleaning out the garage, found shelves at Lowe's for better storage solutions, looked at pots and flowers in the gardening section (and then quickly decided that we aren't responsible enough to keep anything alive), then came home and hooked up the infamous propane tank on our bbq, (we have waited over a year ! to purchase that darn tank!). We also got fresh cherries at the supermarket and some fun things for our first bbq that evening.

We both looked at each other after the perfect day and said, "Is this what real life is like?" If so, we love it. We loved being able to work together and do projects on the house and then have fun with friends that night. It was good. Really really good.

Kip, Kajsa, and cute Jaylie in our pool. Take a look at Jaylie's cute little swimsuit! Too fun! And do you love our pool cover hanging over the fence?

And I love our sunflowers, it makes a nice backdrop for the "family portrait".

Aaron and fun Dylan. I think Aaron has found his new best friend. There was tons of room to throw the kids around. They were the perfect size for the pool.

I (melissa) was the photo taker...just picture my head where that blue ball is, okay? good. See! Look how much ROOM we have! Room a plenty.

Anyway, it was a really fun day. So, I thought you might want to see and hear about it.

Oh! and the answer to the hot dog trivia? Okay, here 'tis.
The answer is 13 feet, 4 inches! The humongous hot dog was created in West Homestead, Pennsylvania to honor National Hot Dog day on July 20, 1999. Pass the mustard! (Taken from Time out for Kids)

I think that last part, "Pass the mustard!" is my favorite part. fyi.

rainy days and pools...

So, I thought you might want to see some more from our Jamaican adventure...enjoy.

view from our hostel porch.

ok. that is all the photos I feel like waiting for at the moment.

Who knew that we would have a bunch of chlorine and shock treatment in our garage? Not I. Too bad that the weather has been extremely wet these last few days and we can't be bathing beauties in the pool. Guess how many gallons of water it holds at 80% capacity (that's what the spec's say) ? Ok...I'll tell you, 1779 gallons. Thanks to the good people at SAWS (San Antonio Water System).


I really don't have much to say right now...other than the fact that I am eating some Delicious Grandma Sycamore's bread with homemade strawberry jam. In the background the Dixie Chicks are playing "Soldier's coming home" (or whatever the title is).

OH! We found out this morning that Kirstin, Aaron's cute sister that is my age, just had her baby last night. !!! They named him Max (can't remember middle name) Starr. Pretty cute. She wasn't due until July 7th and we were all excited to think that he could be born on 07.07.07...but alas, we'll take the kiddo early! :) There will be more on the baby that apparently looks exactly like a mini Klinton (her husband).


All's I'm saying is this...Life is good. And, I wanted to give a shout out to ya'll to say, "Heeeyyy!"
So, hey.
Have a happy Saturday.

cleaning/organizing...attack the stacks!

this was a great picture of kemy with a real jamaican mon. ha!

So, yesterday Aaron was able to come home really early from "work". He called at 10:30 and said he was on his way home. So, somehow Aaron was able to get me into a cleaning mood (which doesn't happen very often, just ask him), and he pumped music all through the house and we went crazy. How was he able to pump music through the house? Awesome speakers? No. Just our t.v. We both have our laptops, but the volume isn't the greatest...hence, we put cds into the dvd player and BLAST it. Having a small house has it's advantages.

So, he went at it in the kitchen, cleaning the oven, toaster oven, mopping the floor and just DEEP cleaned everywhere. I, on the other hand, attacked the bedroom. My mom has complained for years that my piles are awful. I feel that I have organized chaos. I know what, for the most part, are in each of the stacks. But, for a long time, I have had major stacks on my night stand and two dressers. So, I attacked the stacks. That has a nice ring to it. I just added that to the blog title...it was that good.

Anyway, I was surprised to find some wonderful things along the way...I found nail polish, so I painted my nails. I found my old hand-held tetris game that my mom sent to me in Spain...so I played to level 5. I found a ziplock of lipsticks and glosses...so I proceeded to give myself a makeover. I found a ten dollar bill...thought of what I wanted to spend it on. I found an old calendars and flipped to see what I was doing this week last year. Graduating, can you believe it? So, I decided to reminisce for a while. Found a stack of pictures from highschool...you get the idea. Don't ask me why all these things were all together?! They are big stacks. :)

My favorite is when Aaron came in and saw my lips all glossy and weird makeup...nails painted too. He was like, "What have you been doing in here?" ha...if he only knew.

And I wonder why it always takes SO mUcH tImE to clean/organize. Can we say A.D.D.? Perhaps.

Anyway, that is not the reason I decided to post today. I wanted to show some pictures of what's been going on here...

I am sad to report that our good friends, Chris and Kemy are leaving us and heading off to Seattle. I won't write their last names, just in case someone wants to steal their identity. :) You're welcome, Kemy. I dropped Kemy off at the airport yesterday and had a really sad ride home. They have been a lot of fun to hang out with and we are pretty bummed they are leaving.

In honor of their departure and another cute family in our ward, we had a little Girl's Night. Kemy is in the middle in black and Rebecca is in the red. We are sad they are leaving! But luckily, there is a really fun group of gals to console each other in their absence.

Before the big departure, we went to the Gunther House (such a cute place! not to mention DELICIOUS too). Here are some photos of that event.

delicious food! Kemy's favorite, Eggs Benedict. And Chris got a mixed berry waffle...we got breakfast tacos and strawberry waffles. wow, talk about wonderful.
Since I put together a big disk full of fun pictures for Kemy, I thought I'd post some of them here. Here we are with Kip, Kajsa, and cute little Jaylie and the rest of us at Longhorn Cafe. Delicious burger place. We love it.


Here's a different picture of us enjoying probably the Jazz or maybe 24. Oh, I know it was the Jazz, because Kip is standing up...Kip is quite the fan. You should watch him watch the game. It is, in a word, AWESOME!

Anyway, Lots of fun with Kemy and Chris! You will be missed!

To totally change the subject, Aaron and I have been looking into getting a pool. Yes, a pool. If you are thinking a major pool, think again. We have looked at the Costco pool for a while, but didn't want to make quite an investment. :) So, the next best thing? Walmart. Ahhh, walmart. They sure had quite the selection.

BEFORE...

aaron is getting the ground ready. Do you like our beautiful secret garden? ha!

AFTER!

Well...actually, this is that night. Do you love Aaron's cute legs? He will die that I posted that! I guess he thought the water would go a bit higher. It is 3'x12'. But obviously, it isn't filled to it's capacity here in the picture. I will post some better ones later, but get excited for now! We are!

POOL PARTIES at the WOOD HOUSE! Get excited! Oh, and don't bring your floaties...you won't need them. I promise, you'll be able to touch the bottom!

we be jammon' in jamaica!!

yes, you read correctly.
we just got back from jamaica.
was it planned? no.
did we book the flights at 10:45 a.m. and then leave to the airport that night around 7:00 p.m. ? yes.
ha! Talk about spontaneous. Now no one can say that I am not adventurous. Thank you.

Aaron was helping our friends, Chris and Kemy, look for a flight before they start "real life" to Costa Rica. In the process, they stumbled upon this super crazy deal for flights leaving from Dallas to Jamaica for $90...so, he and Jared decided that it would be cool to go for the weekend (jared's girlfriend was out of town, so he was free :) ) and us...well, we could swing it. And then their other friend down the hall at school came in and said he wanted to come too, but that his wife couldn't come because she doesn't have her passport (sad! Jill get that thing ASAP!), and then we knew that Kemy was free b/c her husband was doing a humanitarian thing in Laredo, Texas...so, we booked the LAST 5 spots on the plane and headed out!

isn't this little kiddo so cute? They were doing swimming lessons out in the ocean. too cute.

It was funny because none of us had any time to do real research about Jamaica. We had all seen Cool Runnings...and knew plenty of Bob Marley songs...but this was our only "real" knowledge of this country. ha!
But it was fun. Everyone wanted to braid Kemy's big hawaiian/japanese hair and of course, Quintin's long locks, everyone offered us drugs of every sort...but we declined all of the invitations and just hung out.

Right before we went to the airport, Jared and Aaron picked us all up some flippers and snorkels...talk about wonderful! It was so great to have those and swim around and then come back on the beach and relax.

Love that.

this is us...the new jamaican bobsled team. oh wait...this was just in the airport.

check out that farmer's tan. LOVE IT! :) This was the first day we were there, in Montego Bay.

there is my little snorkeler. so cute.

we be jammon, mon.

packed up to full capacity in the taxi van.

no disrespect, mon...but we don't want to buy your bracelets or postcards.

i love this picture of the boys. Future dentists? I guess so...that motley crew.

So, enjoy some pictures of the event! Crazy! We're back a few days later, with a little more color on our faces, a little sand in the backpacks, and lots of fun pictures!

One love, mon! Respect.

i should be studying

i should really be getting ready for finals, but the latest Outside magazine just came in the mail and it's way funner to read than the gastro-intestinal system. (no offense natalie). Anyway, there was a blurb in the magazine that caught my eye and I had to check this guy out, here is the link.

This guy is a nut. Anyway.... gotta get back to Ascaris lumbricoides, the most common worm that infects your body.

PS - here's a picture is of the teeth that I'm supposed to make out of wax for our practical exam on Tuesday.