why my mission was better than yours

ok... i don't really feel like my mission was better than anyone else's, but my mission was pretty awesome. if you don't know, i served in the nebraska, omaha mission where not only did i do the whole door to door tracting and teaching thing, but i was also able to serve at the winter quarters visitor center where i was able to become well acquainted with church history.
i was also able to become well acquainted with this man, bob smith. bob smith is the great grandson of Joseph Smith and if you're not familiar with who that man is he is the prophet who restored Jesus Christ's original church back to the earth. anyway if you have questions on that, give me a call and we can discuss. anyway, i love bob smith and i was able to get to know him very well and be there during his conversion. i love his story and he finally shared it. i want to share it with you now.

by the way, when you click on the link it will take you to page two.  scroll to the bottom of  the article and go back to page one. 


Meridian Magazine - Missionary Moment - Emma: I was Too Tired to go West - Page 2

decisions, decisions

this...

or this...

i think i already know what you're thinking, but it's not as easy as it seems.

tj and i are feeling really blessed, excited and a little overwhelmed. 2011 is kind of a big deal for us, not only are we going to welcome our twin boys, but soon after we will be moving to a new city. this week tj recieved an offer from amazon which would mean we would move to seattle. seattle!! what a cool city with tons of stuff to do. museums, restaurants, the ocean, and of course the high cost of living.
then there is the offer from walmart which would mean we would be moving to bentonville, where we lived this summer. small town, family oriented, down to earth people, beaver lake and one cheap flight away from places like florida and new orleans and of course the low cost of living.
so we are supposed to make a decision here pretty soon that will shape the course of our lives. (deep breath) but i'll be perfectly honest, i'll go anywhere. i think both places sound fun and i am open for whatever the future brings. i really think it will come down to whatever company tj wants to work for. anyway, i will for sure let you all know (all 2 of you) as soon as we make a decision. i love a new adventure!

well...

          that's right, two boys.  we are so excited!!  girls scare me.  i'm sure you're thinking "but you grew up with all girls alex and so did tj".  well girls are hormonal, drama, they cry a lot and i don't think that i can be sensitive to that, but if we have a girl after these two boys they can straighten her out. 
          anyway... there you go.  so freaking excited!!

our little a and b

              all of this is true except for the boy and girl part.  we don't know quit yet, but anyway, yeah...we are totally having twins!!  let me answer some questions that EVERYONE asks us (which is fine):

1.  i'm 10 weeks along
2.  yes, we were using fertility treatments.  clomid to be exact.
3.  yes, twins run in my family.
4.  no, i haven't been sick at all, just really really ridiculously tired.
5.  yes we do have some names that we love, but until we know what we are having we won't nail those down.
 6.  we have known for 6 weeks now.
7.  yes, we are sooooo excited!

       anyway, that's all i can think of right now but please feel free to ask. 

we found out about the twins in kind of a funky way.  on my mom's birthday, november 19th, we thought i was having a miscarriage and rushed to the ER.  we were really sad, as you can imagine, and as i was getting an ultra sound we thought that we would be making sure that the baby wasn't there.  well, the tech looked at us and said "do twins run in your family" and we looked at her like "really, your going to be that insensitive and tell me that we lost twins".  as i had tears in my eyes i said that i did and she said " because you're having twins and they are doing just fine".  holy crap.
       as you can imagine we went from crushed to elated in about 2 seconds.  it was crazy. 

      so there you go.  our lives are drastically changing forever and we wouldn't want it any other way.

       best reaction of the news?  some of our really awesome friends who we talked to on the phone and his exact response was
                       "excuse my language but that's f***ing awesome"
       hilarious.

  

home

      that is where we are.  we got back late wednesday night from our long drive home with a detour through pheonix to see my sister and through vegas where i had to hit up a trade show to do some buying for work.  we came home to a welcome poster on our door (shout out to the wells.  holla!) and a beautifully clean house (you're the best syd!).  we are so happy to be home but we are already missing it out there in arkansas.   here is our list of things we miss

1.  southern hospitality
2.  weekends off together
3.  our weekly housekeeper
4.  weekend trips
5.  our arkansas friends
6.  simplicity
7.  seriously everyone is so nice there
8.  sharing the gospel (cheesy i know, but it was fun sharing it in a relaxed question answer kind of way)
9.  hammontree's grilled cheese (best restaurant ever)
10.  not having to work (alex)
11.  reading a ton
12.  being together, just us and no one else.  it reminded us of san diego when we were first married.
13.  the ozarks
14.  beaver lake
15.  canoeing the buffalo river

      we love utard, but we will always have a special place in our hearts for arkansas.

laura udall and rachel ridd

yes i am talking to you two.
if you don't know who they are, these are two girls that i LOVE from high school and jr. high.
they think they are really cool because they are moving to sao paulo brazil.
yes, maybe you guys will experience an incredible culture
maybe you will eat fine brazilian cuisine
maybe you will lay on the their beautiful beaches
but don't think you're cool because of this:

because...

BOOM

WE GOT OUR OWN!  right here in beautiful arkansas.
this is called Christ of the Ozarks.  i want you to take a look at this beautiful craftsmanship.

and here is todd.  we love todd.

he didn't know how he should pose for the picture so he chose this.  i like it todd.

in the next picture, please notice that no one is touching

it was hotter than hell.
so my point is, laura and rach, you don't have to go far to be in a culturally rich and exotic area.  just come to arkansas.  love you guys.

oh yeah, by the way.  we even have the golden gate bridge.  click here to see that majesty of it all.

who's jealous now?

twilight zone

we had quite the weekend.
     it was the last weekend here in bentonville and it has been bittersweet.  we are super excited to go home but we have made some really great friends here. 
        seeing that it was the last weekend, everyone wanted to go out to dickson street to celebrate.  dickson street is the street in fayettville that has all of the clubs and bars and tj and i thought "let's go and dance and hang out with everyone, but we'll bring our own car because we are wieners when it comes to nights like these and we will probably be tired by 11:00".  so we did.

 here we are with todd and graham.  we love todd and graham. 
         this is the beginning of the night when we are optimistic, footloose and fancy free.
        
         and yes i dyed my hair dark again.  this is a really bad photo and you actually can't tell but my hair is red.  i've always wanted to be a fiery red head.  (my sisters are going to have a melt down because you're not beautiful unless you're blond right?  love you guys!)

here is a list of the rest of the night.
1.  bored.  the bar had no music and so tj and i were sitting around picking our nose while everyone started getting tipsy
2.  new bar.  this is a piano bar.  watch a bar fight go down (my first one) and see a bouncer headlock a guy, take him outside and pretty much curb the guy and he throws his head into the curb.  we get there too late and the piano players are finished.  we are bugged and go get our cover charge back.
3.  new club.  awesome music.  great dancing.  todd is throwin back shots "for alex and tj".  right todd, right.
4.  you know you're wasted when you start trying to dance with your mormon co worker's mormon wife.  it was hilarious.  more than anything it was just funny to people watch and to be happy that we are so not in that scene.  yeah sure, it was fun to dance and watch everyone but i have never been more happy that i don't drink.
5.  tj and i leave.  we go to village inn at 2:30 (i was pretty impressed with our old, married selves)  and see this guy:      

ronnie brewer.
tj was soooo excited but too scared to say anything to him.  so we got in our car like two creepers, watched him pick up a couple of pies, get back in his escalade with his entourage and leave.  tj was really bummed he didn't say anything, so as we were riding home i pretended to be ronnie and have a conversation with him.  i think it worked out great!

so we are in bed by 3:00
we wake up by 10:00 and get ready to go to church where everything is familiar, peaceful and normal.
we get there around 11:15 and grab a seat.  we look around.  no one looks familiar.  the bishopric is totally different. 
we start going over with one another that we are sure that church had always started at 11:00, right?  we were pretty sure that we were in the correct building.  as we feel everyone's eyes burning a hole in the back of our heads ready to welcome us to the ward we ditch out.  we walk around the building and i look inside the relief society room to see that i don't recognize anyone in there either.

tj and i get back in the car and just look at each other and laugh.  what had just happened?
tj gets on our ward website and it looks like the time has changed to one.  of course it had.  why not.  why should we assume that arkansas does ANYTHING normal.  right when we think we are old pros at this whole arkansas thing.  i guess everyone just assumed that we knew this info and we probably didn't hear the announcements. 
so that is our last weekend here.  kinda crazy and out of our norm.  we start the long drive home friday and we are really excited.  and of course, tj did a great job on his final presentation, but are you surprised?