Merry Christmas!

This is our super cute christmas tree. Gold balls and white bows.

This is Diego making an absolute mess of our kitchen.

And this is Diego's super cute gingerbread house. Um... gingerbread... saloon? This is Diego's super cute gingerbread saloon.

We Passed!

I'm happy to say the home study went very well. Our caseworker is awesome. She is one of those people that you can tell really takes pride in her work and truly cares about the people she deals with. She exclusively worked with birthmothers up until a few months ago. It's great hearing her side of everything because she knows what these young mothers need from adoptive couples to make them feel comfortable and that they made the right decision in choosing adoption. I have so much love for people that only want the best for their children. I can't imagine how hard it is to place your own baby in the arms of someone else. I don't know that I could be so strong. So, how can I feel anything but love for them?
Anyway, I digress. The caseworker showed up at our house and immediately started to inspect our home. Yes, she opened closets and cupboards looking for hazardous/toxic chemicals. She checked every room for smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. She made sure we had a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, and made sure our medicine drawer was securely locked. It sounds like it took a long time, but really it took ten minutes and we passed. Then we had our joint interview, which was honestly just a nice chit-chat, followed by individual interviews. It was so laid back and relaxed. What was I so stressed about?! She didn't even notice that I polished all of our stainless steel appliances or that I scrubbed the glass shower doors so hard that you could see Mr. Clean himself smiling back at you! Oh well, I guess the house needed a good cleaning anyway. And we got the end result we were hoping for so I'm happy. Now we can enjoy the holidays and wait to be approved. It should take about six weeks. I just hope we don't run into any complications that might make the process take longer!

Home Study!

We are scheduled for our adoption home study on Monday at 1:00! For those of you who have never adopted before (that's a joke, none of you have adopted before), it's when our caseworker comes and inspects our home to make sure it's safe and kid-friendly. She will also interview Diego and I as a couple, and separately. So all in all, her visit will be about 3 hours long. I think it will go just fine. It's the days leading up to it that will be somewhat hectic. We have had family at our house for a week now. The last bunch just left last night so our house is once again a mess. I would love to devote all of saturday to cleaning the house, but we are on the activities committee and saturday morning is the ward Christmas breakfast. We have to be at the church at 6:00 in the morning! Yucky! And we will get home at a reasonable time, about 10:00, but I'm pretty sure we will be exhausted. Oh well, we will just have to work anyway. And Diego teaches Elders Quorum on sunday so he will have to devote his saturday evening to preparing the lesson. Not to mention there are several requirements for the homestudy that we haven't taken care of either; childproof locks on cabinets containg toxic/hazardous materials, fire extinguisher in the kitchen, guns and ammunition locked away separately, etc...So, I'm a little stressed about how everything is going to get done in time. Oh, and I really wanted to put up our Christmas tree this weekend! Sunday? Maybe?

Thanksgiving at the Salgado's!

This was my first year ever to make all of Thanksgiving dinner by myself. Normally, we travel back to New Mexico and visit our families that have done all the cooking. But this year we stayed in AZ and my family came and stayed at our house. It was a lot of fun and my mom helped me every step of the way. I've been kicking myself because I didn't take any pictures of the dinner! I was just so busy and by the time the food was ready all I wanted to do was eat it. Sorry, no dinner pics here, but I did take some pictures of bro-in-law Jacob's delicious pies! Apple, pumpkin and pecan.

And here is Diego enjoying said delicious pies.

Everyone working on a puzzle. This was actually the saturday after Thanksgiving.

It's always a tradition for my family to work on Christmas crafts a day or two after Thanksgiving. I made a beautiful wreath that I was extremely proud of. See how intensely my sisters are working in the background?

After crafts, the family went to the Mesa temple to see the Christmas lights. Diego was out camping so he didn't get to go. Sad. But I still had a really good time.

Oh! And Diego's 29th birthday was on Friday! Happy Birthday Diego!

I got tagged by Candice, so here you go!

8 Things

8 T.V. Shows I Enjoy

1. The Office
2. Little People Big World
3. Mystery Diagnosis
4. Jon and Kate Plus Eight
5. Amazing Race
6. Celebrity Rehab - if you ever want to scare your children out of doing drugs, this is the show to watch!
7. Dirty Jobs
8. Anything on the Food Network

8 Things I did Yesterday

1. Slept in
2. Made pancakes
3. Helped Diego organize all of his baby photos into an album
4. Went to Church
5. Got pulled out of Sunday School to sub the craziest primary class in the world
6. Folded laundry (I know, not a Sunday activity, but it had to be done)
7. Made tostadas for dinner!
8. Filled out adoption paperwork

8 Favorite Restaurant's

1. Gabriel's
2. Joe's Farm Grill
3. Chili's
4. Taco Bell (I stole this from Chelsea, but it's perfect. I love the Bell)
5. Rubio's
6. Olive Garden
7. De Colores - a Los Alamos favorite
8. The Cheesecake Factory

8 Things on my Wish List.

1. Get approved to adopt without any complications.
2. Children
3. New jacket
4. Close-toed shoes
5. I wish for my husband to not give me a hard time about numbers 3 and 4
6. Make a wonderful Thanksgiving meal! my first time cooking all of thanksgiving dinner.
7. Think of perfect christmas gifts for my husband and family. But mostly my husband because he's really hard to shop for.
8. A beautiful landscaped backyard. Right now it's just dirt.

I'm supposed to tag 8 people but I'll just let anyone have at it.

Trunk or Treat!

Here are a few pictures from the last couple nights:

First of all, we had to carve a new pumpkin to redeem ourselves. Much better than the first, yes? No stencils Andrea, I promise.

Second, was our ward Trunk or Treat. Diego worked on decorating our car trunk for hours. He drew the whole night sky and lit it up with a black light. There was also a skeleton laying in front of the tombstones but you can't see it. Beautiful art, Diego! Good job.

Adoption

So many of you know, and many of you don't, but Diego and I are in fact trying to adopt. After six greuling months of failed fertility treatments and procedures, we decided to take another route in creating our family. We never expected to have to deal with this but it's okay. Our marriage has only become stronger as a result. I feel so blessed in so many other ways that it's hard for me to complain. Actually, I feel blessed to be a part of such a unique experience. I feel special to be part of something as wonderful as adoption.

At the moment, we are right in the middle of filling out what seems like an endless amount of paperwork in order to just be approved to adopt. It's a long process, and for most couples, the wait to be placed with a child is even longer. I have met some really great ladies that have been waiting years to be placed with a child. I just ask that if any of you know someone that is thinking of placing their child for adoption; a sibling, a friend, a distant relative...let me know. I have met some great people. I got connections! I would love to help out my friends as much as I can.

My Rotting Pumpkin

So Diego and I carved this awesome pumpkin over the weekend. And we forgot to take a picture of it! It's already starting to rot, I think because it's still so warm here. The weather's not cold enough to keep it nice and fresh. Anyway, it was a spider with great, long, slender legs. But as the days have passed, they don't look so slender anymore. They now look kind of fat and gushy. Ah, so sad. We were so proud of it. Diego's actually a little embarrassed of me posting the picture. But I assured him we will carve another one a little closer to Halloween and I'll take a picture of that one while it's still in it's true form.

The Pleasures of Working for a Small Company

So, for the most part, I really like my job. It's a small privately owned company that provides different financial services, mainly financial advisement for high-end investors and accounting for captive insurance companies. The company is owned by two extremely well to do ex-attorneys, who also happen to be members of the church. It makes for a very nice environment. But the environment is a little quirky too. You see, I don't know how many of you have ever worked for small companies, but this is a first for me. There are certain duties I have to preform, being that I'm an administrative assistant, that I wouldn't have to preform if I was working for a large business; such as taking out the trash, cleaning the coffee pot, etc... Those tasks I expected and was just fine with. But... my boss doesn't exactly know where his boundaries lie. Let me re-phrase that. He does not know where his boundaries lie at all. I thought some of you might like to hear about a few duties of mine (and my boss's personal assistant, which is not me) that were a bit over the line:

• Wrapping all of his wife's and his kid's Christmas presents.
• Writing a talk for church on Sunday (this he made his assistant do, and she's not even a member of the church!)
• Updating spreadsheets and making copies for various church meetings.
• Taking his car to get an oil change, or a dent fixed and then making me call back to negotiate the price down to a more reasonable one (I've had to do this 3 or 4 times).
• Making copies of his kid's homework.
• Driving down to the DMV and then waiting for two hours to get his wife's BMW re-registered.

That's just a few of the crazy things I have done for this man. I know there's so many more but I can't think of them all. He's such a nice guy too, so it's really hard to say no! Especially when he's smiling and has that shiny glint on his teeth (ding!).

Corn Maze

So, the pictures are a little fuzzy but they were the best we could get. My parents visited this weekend and we felt like doing something a little different so we went to a place in Mesa called Vertuccio Farms. It was really fun and extremely windy. They had a pumpkin patch, a little train ride for kids, and a corn maze. Have any of you been in a corn maze? This was my first time and I must say, they really do turn you around. After wandering through it for about 15 minutes, I became really confused. I didn't know which direction I was facing or how close I even was to the end. Luckily, Diego was with me and we decided follow his "fail-proof method" as he kept calling it. Basically you just stick to the right. You never go left. If you come to a fork in the road, stay on the right side. If you come to a "T", turn right. I was skeptical but it actually worked! It turns out we were the only ones to make it to the end without cheating. Both my parents and my sister's family cut through the corn to finish faster. So technically we were the winners.

Here's some pictures of my niece, Bethany, and my nephew, Adam, playing on the train and the bounce house.

Fun Facts From High School

1. Did you date someone from your school? Yeah, but they were all losers. And I was dumb enough to date them because I didn't care, I just wanted a boyfriend.

2. What kind of car did you drive? 1984 Toyota Camry named Speed Racer. Sweet racing stripes. And an impressive collection of Happy Meal toys glued to the dash board. I kept Crystal's answer because we shared the car, but I'd like to add that it also had a super duper loud engine that you could hear all the way down Myrtle Street.

3. Were you a party animal? No! And I actually had to ditch my group of friends because they were all turning into little party animals. It was such an emotional time for me! (sad violins playing in the background)

4. Were you considered a flirt? I don't think so, but Crystal was! And I knew how but I only flirted when someone flirted with me first.

5. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Choir! Fun times in horibble black and forest green velvet dresses, with huge puffy cinderella skirts, puffy sleeves as big as my head, and sweetheart necklines. We were stylin'!

6. What was your most embarrassing moment of high school? I think the time I fell in front of my whole class (well, I fell a lot but this was the worst). I was late so everyone was already seated. So I had to walk in front of everyone because the desks were in a "U shape" and of course my desk was all the way on the other side. While I was in the middle of the "U" my ankle rolled and I fell on my hands and knees. Everyone laughed, ha ha. So I get up and go to my desk. Place my books on my desk and bam! My desk breaks and collapses to the floor! I kid you not, this really happened. Yes, it was embarrassing but I had to act cool and laugh along because pssssh, I don't care! (I really did, but what would you do?)

7. Were you a nerd? Looking back, yeah I think so. But at least I didn't know it.

8. Were you on any varsity teams? Of course not. Those take talent.

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? No I wasn't that bad. But once in math Brad Schramm stole my ring and I was trying to get it back and got in trouble. My teacher made me sit on the floor next to her desk until the bell rang. That was pretty humiliating.

10. Can you still sing the fight song? All I know is "Go Toppers Go. For the green and for the gold." That's all I can remember.

11. Who were your favorite teachers? Ms. Fitzgibbon. She taught art and had a voice like Kermit the Frog. Plus, who doesn't get an A in art?

12. What was your school's full name? Los Alamos High School. LAHS, for those of you in the know.

13. School mascot? The Hilltopper! I don't know, dumbest mascot ever. He was a mountain man.

14. Did you go to homecoming, and with who? Yeah, with some guy from Chimayo. He was kind of weird but he was a friend of a friend so you know. And the next year I went with Geoff Nichols, the choir teacher's son. He was also homecoming king that year. So he had to carry his crown and little wand all over the place. It was ackward.

15. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Honestly, no. I usually cringe when I think of high school. It was okay but I was so stupid. Always wanting to fit in and never caring at what cost.

16. What do you remember most about graduation? Having a grand old time sitting next to Neal Peterson. His twin graduated with honors so he didn't sit next to us. But had he, I would have been right in the middle because his twin's name was Brandon. A nice Peterson sandwich! Those boys were so fun.

17. Where did you go senior skip day? Um, nowhere...I do remember all of the seniors cleaning the school grounds because it got trashed on the night of the senior campout so of course we were all punished.

18. Were you in a club? No, I wish I was a little more involved with extracurricular activities. No school spirit, right here.

19. Have you gained some weight since then? Well yeah... I was super skinny in high school and now I'm just normal but I'm trying to be skinny again.

20. Who was your prom date? Junior year, creepy Kevin Talley. Senior year, druggy Geoff Kapernick.

21. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? No, I'd rather not be reminded...

22. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself? Focus a little more on academics. Make a career decision and choose an actual college major other than General Studies. Don't worry so much about boys! Family is more important than friends.

I tag Chelsea and Katy of course! Oh and it would be fun to read Julie's responses since we went to the same school.

Goodbye Toby!

Ok, I'm so excited to watch the season premiere of The Office! I watched the rerun of last season's finale the other day and so many questions were left unanswered! Will Michael date Toby's new replacement? Will Angela stay engaged to Andy? Will Ryan come back to the Scranton office? Will Toby enjoy Costa Rica? And the question on all of our minds, will Jim propose to Pam?! I can't wait to see. It's hard lasting the whole summer without that show. It really is a part of me.

Ward Campout

Ok, so I have to admit, I wasn't so excited about going to the ward campout this weekend. But, alas, our calling is in the Activities Comittee and we had to go help out. I had a pretty good time when we got there though! We camped just outside of Payson, AZ and it was a beautiful spot. It was nice and green and surrounded by pine trees. It reminded me a lot of my hometown, Los Alamos. And the weather! It was probably in the high 70's, low 80's during the day and pretty cold at night. I haven't felt cold in a long time, and oddly enough, it felt pretty good. We had over one hundred people from the ward show up so it was a great turn out. Diego built a huge bon fire in the evening for everyone to gather around for a short program of singing songs and a devotional, then everyone was off to bed. We got up at about 5:30 am to set up breakfast for everyone and make another fire for people to eat around. After a few hours, the children played some games and people just left as they pleased. We almost decided to just stay for another night because it was so peaceful and relaxing but we were feeling a little too gross and dirty for that. I have to say, of all the activities we have planned in the past, this one ran the most smoothly. All in all, it was a nice weekend and I hope we can camp up there again someday.

Diego's Septoplasty

Diego had surgery on Thursday. He has always had some trouble breathing due to allergies and decided to finally get checked out. The doctor noticed the tissue inside of Diego's nose was a little thick and he had a deviated septum as well! He got smacked in the nose playing church-ball a couple months ago. I always said those guys play too rough! Anyway, the doctor said he could perform some "minor" surgery to thin out the tissue and straighten out Diego's septum. I had some pictures of him up but he felt too embarrassed so I told him I would take them down.

Owen Wilson has a severely deviated septum. But Diego's wasn't even noticable.