A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

This is the only picture that I took while we were on vacation in Orange County. This was taken at Laguna Beach. We had so much fun celebrating our anniversary and Ben starting a new job. I took the entire week off and was able to workout, swim, go to the Irvine Museum, the beach, tour Ben's mission and just relax. It was so enjoyable. I can't wait for our next vacation....As for now, back to reality :(

A New Year, a New Day!

Happy 2012!   Wow 2011 was quite the year for us in the Allen household. As I a reflect on what transpired in 2011, it's quite over whelming and I can see how much we've grown. In March we moved thousands of miles away to the great state of Texas. I arrived on March 30th to a blazing 85 degrees. The next day I totalled my car returning home from the grocery store. What a welcome to Dallas. Ben was transferred here, but things went downhill fast, which left us wondering what we were going to do. We battled through one of the hottest summers on record and survived living in a 2 bedroom apartment for 6 months.

October came and we were wondering where we were going to live. Ben had been interviewing with several different companies around the US, but we felt like we should stay. While I was away on business, Ben found us a home to rent in Richardson, TX. We are thankful for a home with enough space for Ben and I to each have our own office and he doesn't have to use the living room anymore. After 7 interviews with Mimi's Cafe, Ben was offered the job as a Field Marketing Manager. He will be over the central states.  We could not be happier with this new opportunity.

A week from today, Ben and I will celebrate our 2nd Anniversary. On Saturday, we are headed out to L.A. and spending a few days, before Ben starts his training in Irvine, CA. I fortunately, have the entire week off and I'm looking forward to exploring the area while he's working.  I love Ben so much. He is my rock and my best friend. I look forward to many more years with the man I love.

OK, enough with the mushy stuff. I am excited for what 2012 will hold.  Even with all of the trials that have been thrown my way, I feel very blessed and excited for what is to come.

All Things Driving

Well folks, Ben and I are close to celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary and so I thought it is time to officially change my name on my driver's license. Yesterday afternoon I spent a few hours at the DMV and got that all squared away.

When we went to sell our Ford Escape, we found out that the officer who filed the accident report, used the VIN number for the Escape, instead of the Focus to report the accident. The Focus was totalled, so we are unable to sell the car until we get this resolved, so Thursday we get to go to downtown Dallas and pick up a copy of the accident report and then I get to call the officer who did the report and have him change the VIN number. Then we will have to go through the whole process again  to get another accident report.

10 Year Anniversary of 9/11

On this day 10 years ago, I was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That morning we woke up and did our scripture study and got ready to meet the English speaking elders to teach a discussion to a single woman. Right before we started teaching the discussion, the Elders said that one of the members of their ward said that a plane hit the world trade center. I seriously laughed and said that could not be possible. We left the discussion and went to our next appointment. Our investigator opened the door. The TV was on and they were sitting there watching in disbelief. We sat there and watched the 2nd plane hit the tower and the tower collapse. Afterwards we asked them to mute the tv. We sang Nearer my God to Thee and said a prayer with them and left.

I must back track a little bit. I was serving in Freeport, TX, which is an island on the Gulf of Mexico, where the refineries are massive cities. We had to take a bridge in between the refinery to get to our apartment. We went home for lunch and had several messages from the rest of our appointments for the day saying they were evacuating the island. Panic started to set in and we called our mission president to see what we should do. He said to pack several items and if a mandatory evacuation was asked of us to head to Austin. Also, he told us to always have a full tank of gas.

We had no more appointments, so we decided to go tracting through the streets. As we got out and walked down the street there was not one person on the streets and it was eerily quiet.

After I came home from my mission in 2002, I had so many questions. I had to ask my dad who Bin Laden was. It was hard not being able to use the internet, tv or read newspaper, when such a huge event in American History took place. At college, I was part of a play that was written about the events of 9/11. We posted newspaper articles all over the building from the events of 9/11. I remember spending hours reading about the events that occurred, because I felt disconnected from that day.

I am so thankful for those who have sacrificed everything to defend our country.

I will never forget.

Back to the Grind

I can't believe it's Tuesday and that it's September. It was so nice to have a lonnng 4 day weekend. The weather was gorgeous. It was in the 80s on Saturday and we were able to open up the windows in the apartment for the first time since April.

Work was ok today, but I'm sure it will be even busier tomorrow, as quite a few people took today off. During my lunch, I went and worked out. After work, I went to get the oil changed, did a little shopping for an outfit for my mother in law's wedding. Now it's off to get gas and go grocery shopping. We went through the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks this weekend and picked out several recipes to try. We are opening up our repertoire of dinner menu items. I'm excited to make new things. I'll definitely take some pictures of the new menu items as I make them and post them on the blog.

Breast Cancer Awareness Chain Game

One of my husband's cousin's wife's posted a link to a Blog post by C.G. Ward about the game that started this week and clogged the status update on Facebook as things like, "I'm 10 weeks and I'm craving..." I loved her article. Apparently, faking that you are expecting a baby was supposed to raise awareness for Breast Cancer. I really don't see the connection of the two. She had some great points. If you'd like to read her full post, here's a link to her blog: cgwardphotography.blogspot.com Being a huge supporter of Breast Cancer Awareness this game is completely offensive. There are many ways to raise awareness. One is to support a Breast Cancer Charity. There are so many different non-profit organizations. For several years I raised money and walked every mother's day for the Beverly Breast Cancer 5k walk. One of my friend's friend had Type IV Breast Cancer at age 32. She fought a huge fight, but lost her battle at age 35. She would come in her wheelchair and participate in the walk with us. How sad it was that she left 2 young daughters and a husband. Also, she touched on infertility in her blog post. There are so many women in this world who yearn to have a baby of their own, but have difficulty conceiving. Many people feel isolated and bear their pain in silence. I know that once I started seeing people post this on their boards it made really sad, even though I was excited that they were having a baby. We want a baby, but have not been fortunate enough to have one of our own. I would just ask that if you're going to play a silly, thoughtless game, think about the consequences of what you are doing, before posting it for the whole world to see. Also, ask yourself, is this really going to bring "awareness" to the cause.

Accountability

Ok...so It might get a bit boring, but I have to do this, because if I'm accountable, I will actually follow through. Today I could not wake up at 6am. I laid in bed wayyyy too long and had to get up to walk to work (aka the second bedroom). Instead of putting on some pj's, I ended up putting on my work out clothes. I wore them the entire day. When I got off work, I put my gym shoes on and went to the gym. YAY!!! Wearing my workout clothes all day really worked. It was a constant reminder of the commitment I have made to get fit and healthy.