Oh earbug.

Today is Eden's FIFTH Birthday!



Here are the five reasons I love Eden...

1. She is such an amazing singer! All you have to do is sing a song once around her and she'll be humming it all day long and have the words memorized already. So you have to be really careful what you sing around her unless you want her to be singing, "Shake that A.."just kidding Amanda don't have a heart attack...that never happened.



2. She loves to perform for people. Whether it is in the play 1856 where she was an actress and singstress extrodinaire, just standing on our fireplace singing one of the songs she learned in her music group, or acting like a total ham at family dinner she is ALWAYS doing something to show off how much she knows and how amazing she is!




3. She is so SMART! Like I said, Eden can memorize anything. It was quite the sight to see her singing the FULL national anthem when we were watching the figure 8 car racing (yes we are white trash) at the fair. She had the whole thing memorized and was belting it. Everyone around us turned and just watched her sing because it was kind of incredible.



4. She loves to play and have fun with the Fletchers (a fantastic quality on my list). Eden comes to our house to spend the night on weekends and is so much fun to have. Whether it is watching Little Mermaid and singing and dancing to all of the songs or going out to eat and doing impressions of Devin she is a blast to have over!




5. She is the cutest girl! She was the first grandkid in our family so she will always be thought of as the cutest baby in the family and she totally was. She was so much fun to play with and take pictures of as a baby and her mom still always keeps her dressed up perfectly!



We LOVE you Earbug you can come play at our house ANYTIME!

Don't be late in 2008

So my main goal for 2008 is stated above...

"Don't be late in 2008"

when I told devin that he said, "oh so you don't want to have a baby right now?"

not exactly...but I guess I could add that in?
I already have two fake kids with my fake spouse Emily named Julia and Annie. Thanks tho.

but really my goal was to not be such a procrastinating waste of space...
because lets be honest, I kind of can be/am.

But overall I did much better. I was almost never late to all of my classes.
Being late to church is still a regular occasion but at least I have my priorities in order right? And its gonna be a lot easier this year now that we have 9:00 am church.


There were still plenty of no sleep nights see also ALL of October.
And I still tried to do WAY to many things see also ALL of October
with my schedule just being a little too full.

To give you an idea, here is the list of October's festivities.

All YW at my house for watching Saturday General Conference,

15 page wedding sign in book,

Stake YCL leader for 4th year camp,

30 page anniversary book,
Make all games for Ward Halloween party,

make time to go to the fair with the fam (that is an event that CANNOT be missed!)


make food for the opening of Elliot's mission call,


all on top of going to school full time,

interning 6 hours a week,
( I would post pictures of the kindergartners becuase they are ADORABLE but I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed so here's something we made together after learning to sort with their Halloween candy.)

working full time-ish (being one of the pretend moms at the Jones house),

playing photographer for Julia's homecoming date,

midterms,

trying to celebrate my FAVORITE holiday Halloween
and pretending to be a wife.


Just thinking about that month makes me tired.


I am kind of really good at pushing the limit and working until the last possible second which results in regular mental breakdowns. Emily always tells me that just hearing about everything I have to do gives her stress. But I think I am getting better...right? Just don't ask Devin, Emily, Julia, or any other family member that has seen me in one of my stress induced comas.

I'm pretty sure 2009 is going to be filled with more no sleep nights but I'm trying to get a jump on things.

Motto for 2009:

"It's going to be fine in 2009."

I already bought my the scrapbook paper for the valentines I am making my soon to be students for student teaching this spring,


I am already decorating for Valentines day, my second favorite holiday.
(maybe I am the grinch becuase I kind of hate decortaing for christmas/it ranks pretty low on my list of favorite holidays),

and I am trying to be more composed/have less mental breakdowns.

So I think I am going to keep with the quote on the bottom of my computer screen from Mi Madre,


"I can do hard things"

and keep reading this talk

to remind myself of the change Elaine S. Dalton made to that quote,
“In the strength of the Lord, I can do all things.”

If I remember that quote then I know that
"It'll be fine in 2009."

Who studies. Lame.

so ya my blog hasn't been very up to date lately I mean I didnt even blog about halloween even though it is my favorite holiday and devin and I placed in two different costume contests...
but in my defense apparently I do much better in school when I actually do my homework instead of blogging.

this is the first semester I have gotten straight A's at ASU*. Usually I get at least one B.
Hurray for being studious.

On the flip side I decided that I would have way rather put forth minimal effort most semesters and gotten a B then tried as hard as I did this semester every semester to get straight A's.
Way too much effort. I definitely like being mediocre much better.

* maybe one semester I got straight A's on my transcript with one W for withdrawn but really got an F in that class that I appealed and got removed off of my record. oopsies.

citrus fruit

Day after Thanksgiving we went to the Christmas Lights at the Temple.
They were amazing, per usual.

We even got to see Brooke White turn on the lights. I don't watch American Idol so I was not star struck. Just kinda bored.

Then we walked around the lights and Devin and I had a conversation that went something like this...

Devin: I'll give you a dollar if you steal an orange off of that tree.
Laura: Deal but its not an orange its a grapefruit.
Devin: Fine just get the "citrus fruit" and I''ll give you a dollar
Laura: Sweet. (picks fruit off tree)
Laura: Done and done. Where's my dollar?
Devin: Umm...I don't have one. I owe you.
I'll give you a dollar if your throw your orange at the protesters.
Laura: What? No. I didn't get the last dollar your promised and I told you its a grapefruit!
Devin: Laura it's a figure of speech. I wasn't really ever going to give you a dollar. Sorry Miss Citrus Expert.
Laura: Fine. I'll give you a dollar if you won't promise me a dollar again and then not give me one again. Seriously...figure of speech...what a let down.

See it was a grapefruit.

(oh and BTW devin dyed his hair black.)

Flat Stanley

Dear Grace,

We had so much fun having your Flat Stanley at our house. We finally had time to put together a little package for you to return back your Flat Stanley. Sorry it took us so long.

We promise we will mail it today. Included is...

Pictures about our favorite Christmas traditions like going to see the temple lights and going to Disney Land.

Also a couple of hand drawn numbers by Miss Annie-bo-nannie.


Hope you enjoy and thanks for giving us the chance to have Flat Stanley!

Love,

Annie, Laura and the rest of the Jones Fam.

My secret fear

In case you are ever driving in front of me slash behind me
and see me swerve in an irrational manner
to miss hitting something in the middle of the road like
a box, a bag full of something or maybe even a shoe
its because I have a secret fear...

there might be kittens inside.


and you have to look out for the little loves.

Eat. Breathe. Sleep. Swim.

The above stated = our life for the past three months/twelve weeks/84 days.

Introducing the Mesa High Swim Team


It all started back in August, when the three of us witnessed an hour that is never spoken of in our family during the summer. Apparently the sun rises around 6:00 am in the summer. Who knew?



A week before school started we rolled out of bed at the crack of dawn for swim practice. We were really excited to be there. See also none of us were coherent enough to realize how stupid we were to be up that early.

It was Annie's first year and Julia's third so Julia was a darling and showed Annie the ropes of how it was done. We practiced a lot over the summer at the pool to try and get Annie to learn that she had to swim ALL the way across the pool and couldn't stop in the middle. Both girls did really well.

Sometimes Annie acted ticked but she secretly loved it as evident in the second picture.

Saturday practices were always entertaining (sans the mosquitoes) because I got to watch them do stupid exercises like the bunny hop and jump or dive. Random Julia talent, she is really good at jump or dive. Read: really lucky at jump or dive and the coach always says what she is already doing so she won the game. Jones's are never actually coordinated.


Julia had one major set back. When she got her team suit one strap was ridiculously shorter than the other strap. You can see in this picture as she is about to race how far the strap is cutting into her back.

This is what it looked like on the front...


I told everyone on swim team that she just had really uneven boobs. Julia wasn't so much a fan of that littler rumor.
No exaggeration. When we held up the straps it looked like this.



The extra strap isn't part of the short strap its the strap that goes across her back. I honestly don't know how she got the swim suit on. But I think it was lucky because this was the pool that Julia first broke her 29 second 50 free and got a 28.7. We were very proud. Here she is coming in from the race.


Julia really focused on dropping time this swim season and did an awesome job! She qualified for state which is no small feat as junior and we are hoping she will swim at state next year too!

While Annie waited for her race she practiced her top model poses. Who says a cap and goggles can't be fashionable.




Annie was a great swimmer! She was able to drop over 18 seconds on her 50 free over the course of the season. Annie always swam so fast on the first 25 lap across the pool but her favorite thing to do was stick her head out of the water to see who was cheering for her on deck. So her second 25 kinda slowed her down since her stroke went like this one arm, two arm, stick her head out of the water and turn back to see who was on deck cheering. She just loved seeing that all her friends were on deck screaming for her to do well.

At the swim banquet (my pictures are on my internal camera memory and i can't transfer them to my memory card so we might never see them...if you are reading this and have pictures of Julia or Annie at the banquet send them to us) Julia got another Varsity certificate so she received a pin for her letter that she got as a freshman (like I said she's really good). Annie got a junior varsity certificate and was able to give a little thank you speech to the other kids. She was very nervous but did an awesome job speaking clearly in front of everyone and reading her little speech. Then she told all of the swimmers that they were her BFF and handed out a bumper sticker that looks like this:


You know you are jealous. Let me know if you want one, we have extras. All during swim season, as Annie made friends on the team she would tell them that they were her BFF so we decided they all deserved a bumper sticker that said it for all the support they gave Annie.

Anyway Julia and Annie both had an awesome season and we are so excited to do it again next year!

Consolation Prize

Hi there, Devin here.
No, no, I am not going to gloat. I know that a lot of our friends were ardent supporters of John McCain, and trust me, I know what it is like to have your candidate lose, while the country elects a president you think will ruin the country. So, as an olive branch, I give you one of the best videos I have seen in some time. God Bless America and God Bless snarky kids on the internet.