Appreciation #19

My appreciation this month goes out to the Orton's. I first met the Orton's when Eric was in the bishopric of the singles ward that I was attending in NYC. We got to know Eric and his wife, Emily more after Doug and I were married and Doug served in the bishopric with then Bishop Eric Orton. Eric and Emily are one of those couples that you always find yourself asking, "how do they possibly do so much and always make it look so easy?" They are by far one of the strongest couples that I know. They have five beautiful children, home school their kids, attend every church activity, do service for both the family and singles wards, and are the best of friends to everyone. When we had to pick another couple to write a reference letter for Doug and I to adopt they were one of the first couples that came to mind. I will always be grateful that they put so much time into the letter. We miss spending time with the Orton's and secretly hope that they move to California but we are so happy that we have continued to keep in touch:)

Adorable

I have been trying to get up to date on my editing so I am finally at editing my families reunion back in August when we were in Island Park, Idaho. We did a talent night with the kids and I just had to show some of the things that they did and show why I love these kids so much:)

Month of February

Yes, it has been a while since I have written anything on the blog, life has changed around here. February has been a great month so I will just keep it short and write the highlights.

1- Doug and I celebrated our three year anniversary of being married. We celebrated by Doug going to a Clippers Game with his father.

2- We went to Disney Land again and Doug said that it counted as part of our Anniversary. We once again had a marvelous time and I love Mickey but not the Tower of Terror.

3- My new position at work is going great. I even have time to join a gym and go to spin class as often as possible. Doug still claims that he can kick my butt on a bike ride but he wont take my challenge of coming to spin class with me.

4- The adoption process in still going on. We are patiently waiting for a little bundle of joy to bless our family. The waiting process is hard because I feel like a part of me is missing and just aching for a child but it will happen when it is meant to happen.

5- I still have regular girls nights out with the MBA Wives Club. We run together, bake together, and go see movies. It is always a good time.

6- I got released from Nursery today (don't worry, Doug is still in there) to be in the Relief Society Presidency. I am the Enrichment Counselor and very excited. I love to plan activities so it is a perfect fit.

7- Doug has had some insightful interviews with the bank UBS and we are praying very hard that he gets a New York interview. I think once they meet him in person there is no question that they will be begging Doug to take the internship.

8- We did celebrate Valentines Day together this year and I even got a signed card from Doug...I will treasure it always.

9- DTtransfer is keeping me very busy so not only do I work all day, I get the joy of working all night as well. Mama is bringing home the bacon.

10- We have gotten to play a lot with Doug's family (fancy dinners, more Clippers games, movies). It has been a real joy and a blessing living close to them.

That is it, my top 10 favorites things in February, I will try to be better about this whole blogging thing. Don't worry, I have been just as bad on Facebook.

Another weekend update

It's already been a week since the last post. Since I don't really feel like telling a whole long story, I'll just hit some of the highlights.

What a great Super Bowl. I can't believe it was even a game but each team had opportunities to take a big lead and neither capitalized. AZ's pic six was a 14 point swing that killed them. Pitt. couldn't get anything going in the second half. Who knew AZ's D would be so good. Unfortunately some of the refing was a little suspect but what are you going to do? The toughest call was the pic six that wasn't clear if he was in or not. We had a little fiesta with some big time food. Good thing I started running again to work that off.

The commercials from the super bowl were mostly whatever. The highlights: Two Doritos commercials seen here and here. I also liked the Pepsi max commercial here and Tamara like the Coke Mean Joe Green remake here. I really think that was about it. We enjoyed seeing MC Hammer, especially from a company with traditionally horrible ads. GoDaddy continued with their mature content. But nothing earth shattering. The US automakers and banks were noticeably absent. I can't make any comments about Mrs. Potato Head. Maybe I'll add the MacGruber to the list that were good but not good enough to link to.

Maybe the most exciting ad was for the new Star Trek movie. I only see a few (meaning less than three) movies a year in the theatre and this will be one of them.

I was outside when it happened but apparently Taylor to the left was very upset about how lame the "3-D" was since it came out in 2-D.

The Office really blew it afterwards. They've never really done well with the hour long episode and now the story lines continue declining and it's really not that funny anymore. I'm out. Unless there's another funny one I hear about and I'll watch it online.

We went to see the Phantom this weekend with my parents, Jason, and Jason's girlfriend! This has always been one of my favorites since we grew up listening to the soundtrack growing up. Dad really has the hook ups with the tickets. My mom's b-day is coming up tomorrow. I'm not going to say how old she's turning, but it's a major one. And rhymes with nifty. So I'm giving a shout out to my mom. It's been awesome being back in LA and spending more time with her. Though we talked a lot when I was in NY, it's not the same as seeing her on a regular basis and it's been great. Since I've grown and require a little less hand on direction we're able to be better friends and I'm grateful our relationship has matured in that direction. Thanks for all the support. Tamara and I love you.

I have a couple interviews for international gigs which I'm not getting my hopes up too much about but it's interesting how I can't get one for a domestic company, just international. Which is cool by me since I do want to live international at some point and Tamara's still on board at this point. So, if this summer you're planning a trip you may have a place to stay abroad if you give me a couple months.

Weekend Update

It's been awhile since we posted. Usually I wait for something cool to happen to post but the longer I wait the cooler it has to be to make up for the lull. Originally I was just going to do a lame post to get the ball rolling but this weekend provided just the example.

We went to Tamara's brother Rob's ranch this weekend. You can see a picture of Rob to the right. He's been described a lot of ways but probably never as cuddly or soft. I had a lot of stuff to do so the first time they went out I stayed back and read. When they came back, Rob made some comment that it was too bad we had to leave the next day because they were branding some cows. We decided to stay a bit to see the branding since we never had.

The next morning we drive out to where the cows were "waiting" for us. They did the big group over christmas and there were only twelve for that day. They split off the steers from the to be branded and their moms into a different pen so they didn't cause problems. It sill confuses me an animal who outweighs you 10:1 will run scared like a little girl because you yell and run at it. I'm sure it has something to do with what we were about to do to the calves because saw the wrath of the bulls in Pamplona (that's right, 4/6 of the Hall men have run with the bulls.) I mean, when I play ball and see a guy who I outweigh (doesn't happen too often) by even 10 pounds I think about how I'll dominate him in the low post. I can't imagine if I outweighed him by 1800 pounds. Even the calfs we were going to brand were ~300 pounds.

They roped the first cow and as I walked over I overheard something about "not dropping yet" and saw some blood on Ottavio's hands. I thought to myself, I'm no doctor, but it sure looks like they're castrating that cow. Turns out I, without medical training, was correct. I didn't know this was part of the process. Then I saw Ottavio put them into the pocket of his chaps. I mean, I know cowboys do thing their own way but let's not get carried away.

On the second one they let me help hold the calf down and on the third one they let me flip it onto it's back and hold it down. Over the course of twelve calves I learned some of the finer nuances of how to make a calf submit (they don't tap out but you can see it in their eyes), flip it over, tie its legs, and some of the other joys of the process. A lot of the cows didn't even flinch when you emasculated or branded them which thoroughly surprised me. I guess they saw struggling didn't do anything for their brother so why fight it. I don't know.

After we were done Ottavio emptied the contents of his pocket into the fire. I said, "You're going to burn those and not give them to the dog?" "No, I'm cooking them" he responded. Typically, you cook stuff you're going to eat. "They taste somewhere between shrimp and lobster" he continued. "So they're a delicacy?" I inquired. He laughed. I'm not sure why I ate one. He just held out his hand full of them and I took one. It wasn't bad, but I'm not counting down until I get to eat another one. It didn't really have a lot of flavor but I think with some tabasco it could be all right. They should also probably be grilled and not just tossed into a fire because I don't think the ash helped. In case you skimmed some of the above, I did in fact eat a cooked bull testicle this weekend. What?

After all this I shook hands with a couple of the guys, forgetting what they had been doing with their hands mere minutes before. I told Rob it thanks and that I had a good time, which I did. I said, don't misunderstand-I don't want to be a cowboy or anything but it was cool. Twelve is one thing-200 might not do it for me. I'm not looking for a career change or anything. But if riding around on horses while roping, castrating, branding cows and eating rocky mountain oysters is wrong I don't want to be right.

Adoption Profile

Dear Friends and Family,

As many of you know, Doug and I are in the process of trying to adopt a child. We have tried many ways to have a family on our own but it seems that it was not meant to be that way.

We are currently working with LDS Services and we hope that something works out with them. We are also trying to do this on our own. We are asking our close friends and family to help get our information out there to a mother that is looking to give up her baby for adoption. We have put together a website with some of our information. If you could please have a look and forward it on to anyone that may be able to help.

http://www.dougandtamarahall.com

We appreciate your help so much and we are so very excited to be parents sometime in the near future.

Gone Shootin'

For the New Year Papa Hall took us shooting. I really thought that I would do better but I am very proud of the 9 clay pigeons that I did shoot. Who went home a winner was Lisa, she made all of us look bad!!! Just goes to show that I have a lot of practicing to do but it was still a great day....so great that I even got a full body massage after.

I wished!!

Doug's mom has been wanting us to do a character picture of ourselves sense we were married. Everyone else in the family has one and they are all framed it the main room of her house. Well, we got one done and gave it to her for Christmas. I must say that this does NOT look like us at all, I am kind of embarrassed that is it up in Katie's home, but hey...I wished that I look this good!!!!!

Scary Stuff

My nephew Colton gave us quiet the scare a couple weeks ago. We first heard that he had a tooth ache and was going to Arizona to take care of it. Next we heard he was rushed to the hospital and staying there for a couple days. I never really heard what was wrong but now that we know that he is okay we can laugh about this picture taken of him at the hospital. I am told that this was taken three days after the swelling was really bad. Poor kid, we are so happy that all is well with you!! The best part was when I asked him how hard it was to be in the hospital he answered, "It was the best week ever. I played video games, ate a lot of desserts, and I didn't have to do any chores." Oh to be a kid again.

Happy New Year

2008 was a tough one for us so we are only hoping for the best in 2009. We rang in the new year with our friends here in LA. A little get together at the Fishers, then we headed out the The Marina Del Ray for the Fireworks. Well, we were able to hear the fireworks because the fog was so bad we could not see anything. We found ways to amuse ourselves!!! The pictures below are not taken by a dirty lens, that is just how foggy it was outside. Doug was not pleased that he got to bed so late (or early) but I believe that he still had a great time.