A Little About Gretchen

1.) What I was doing 10 years ago: December 1997

I was 12 years old...so I was in 7th grade...which lets face it, it was kinda an awkward phase for everyone. I remember 2 of my best friends started hanging out with a "naughty" crowd, so it was a big transitional phase where I was trying to find myself and true friends. I was also getting ready for Christmas.

2.) Five Years Ago: December 2002

It was my senior year at PHS! I was just getting back together with Larry for the 2nd time. It was a fun and very restless time because I was trying to decide where I was going to go for college. Part of me wanted to stay with friends and go to southern Cali, but a bigger part of me wanted to go to BYU....because that had been my dream ever since I can remember. I’m so thankful that I chose BYU....otherwise I would not have met my Jake.

3.) 1 Year Ago: December 2006

It was my first Christmas with Jake as a married couple. We flew to Paradise for Christmas and Boise for New Years.

4.) Yesterday:

Going to 1 of my 3 classes that day....ooops =) The semester is basically over and I had studying for finals to do.

5.) 5 Snacks I enjoy:

Wheat Thins with string cheese
Fruit snacks
Any candy
Ice Cream
A smoothie

6.) 5 Things I would do if I suddenly had $100 Million:

Buy Jake a really nice car, buy an SUV for the snow, purchase 3 beautiful homes...1 on the beach, 1 in the mountains, and 1 in some quaint and peaceful suburb. Put money away as college funds for our 4 children, invest, donate money to charity, and put Jake through medical school and purchase him a private practice.

7.) 5 Locations I would run away to:

Hawaii
Italy
Paris
Sunriver
Lake Tahoe

8.) 5 Bad Habits I have:

Checking Facebook everyday
Picking my nails
Not going to the gym
Not keeping in touch with old friends
Not reading my textbooks

9.) 5 Things I like doing:

Snuggling with my hubby
Dancing
Watching movies
Watching my favorite TV shows
Shopping

10.) 5 TV Shows I like:

Moonlight
House
Dancing with the Stars/So You Think You Can Dance
Bones
Extreme Home Makeover

11.) 5 Things I hate doing:

Dishes
Brushing and blow-drying my hair when its wet
Cleaning the tub
Homework
Finding a job

12.) 5 Biggest joys of the moment:

Jake
Getting ready for Christmas!
Coming home from work/school
Eating
Spending time with family and friends

My Firsts

First Friend: My first friend would have to be Ashley Manwill. We met in Sunbeams in primary...which means we were about 3 years old. We have remained close friends ever since....We lived together for 3 years at college and she was one of my bridesmaids in my wedding. She has been such a good example to be throughout my life, I love that girl! (She's the one in purple.)

First Time to Disneyland: Hmmm...I have been to Disneyland probably like 6 times. My first time I can’t even remember because I was about 4 years old. But I do remember how much I loved it, especially when I got stuffed animals. My favorite rides would have to be Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and most recently Indiana Jones.

First Memorable Gift: I was 5 years old and it was Christmas time and I was walking through a department store with my mom. We came across this beautiful teddy bear that was so soft and cuddly...and my mom bought it for me. During the car ride home I remember holding it and naming him Gummy Bear, because he was soft and sweet just like the candy. I slept with Gummy until I reached college age...He still sits on my bed as decoration =)

First Time Wearing Makeup: Well...I started dance lessons when I was 3yrs and had to wear makeup for our annual performances. In high school I wore blush and lip gloss...it wasn’t until college that I started wearing foundation and the whole works.

First Birthday Party: My parents always had wonderful birthday parties for me. The first one I remember I had like 5 friends who came over for a sleep-over and breakfast party. We had abblesceivers and eggs...yum!!

First Car: The first car I drove was a Chevorlet van (aka the shag’n wagon, hahaha) My guy friends named it that because it had a tv and a backseat that lowered down flat like a bed, haha. The second car I drove was my mom’s Ford Explorer. But the first car that was actually mine was my beautiful little Acura Integra. My parents bought it for me my junior year. I had it for a good 6 years but sold it this past April to help pay for my fabulous Toyota Camry!

First Job: My first job was working for my dad in the summers at his office. I would do filing and help change out his old folders to the new system they were implementing. My first non-summer job was for the MTC Dining Services. Jake and I started working there together Fall of 2003. That was fun being able to see my friends who were there training for their missions.
First Car Accident: I have been in a couple of fender benders, but nothing serious (knock on wood)

First Concert: I went to a Brad Paisley concert with my parents and lil bro.

First College Roommate: Serena Dickenson! We were roommates from summer of 2003 until winter of 2004. I loved being her roomy. (She on the far left in this pic)

First Airplane Ride Alone: Flying to EFY in Provo when I was 15 years old.

First Time I Met Jake: I was in line at Jamba Juice in the Wilkenson Center of BYU when this cute boy behind me spoke to me (aka Jake)... "Can I ask you a question" He said, "sure" I replied. He then asked me a question I had never heard before "Does your toe ring hurt?" I told him I could hardly feel it. We talked for a while and he asked if I could sit down and talk for a while. We talked for about an hour and he asked for my number. Let’s just say I am soooo glad I wore a toe ring that day!

First Kiss with Jake: We were watching a movie....The Ring I believe....in the clubhouse of Glenwood. The movie ended and we were snuggling on the couch. He went in to kiss me and I moved my head (I was scared! He was an RM and I was a little freshman) He then said "I won’t kiss you if you don’t want me to"....I really did want him to, so I told him, and then he kissed me. Sparks flew and we were inseparable.

First Home with Jake: Our little 1 bedroom apartment #101 at College Park. It was perfect for newlyweds, but after a year we were ready to move on to a bigger and better place.

First Real Job: Still haven’t had one of those yet.....

First Time I Realized I Wasn't a Kid Any More: Walking out of the temple on July 7, 2006 and realizing I was married to the man of my dreams. Also...recently when I realized my college days are almost over. I can’t believe how quickly our lives pass before our eyes.

Brandon's 19th Birthday

We woke up yesterday morning and found a pleasant surprise of snow on the ground! We got about 6 inches, which was a wonderful birthday present for Jake's brother Brandon! Above is a picture I took of the beautiful snowy scene from our balcony.

Jake and I went to the Christmas Around the World dance performance yesterday afternoon. It was a wonderful performance, but it really made me sad not to be out there with them. It was the first time I watched CAW without being in it. Its one thing to watch a performance, but its another to be performing. Dance has been a part of my life for so long, its hard not to be involved in it for a semester. Anyways....Jake and I coincidently had seats right next to my friend Kathy who was on SPAC with me in 2006. It was fun to sit next to her and exchange fun memories and comments. My favorite dances would have to be the ones from the Philippines and China. The Philippino dance included tininkeling, which was really fun to see. That is when they use the long poles that they swing together and make individuals dance and jump through them...kinda like jump rope on the ground. It reminded me of my oldest brother Ronnie, when he was on a dance team that performed dances of the Philippines. I also enjoyed the Chinese dance because it was very lyrical and smooth, Jake made a comment that he thought it was ballet. It was fun to see all of my friends out there who are still in folk dance, all of them are on PAC now, which is really exciting for them.

After the performance we carefully drove home on the icy roads and Jake stopped to pick up Brandon on the way home. We then took Brandon out to dinner at Applebee's (which is right across the street from out house), and came home to finish watching the BYU vs SDSU football game, which BYU won. BYU is ranked 19th in the nation! Which is awesome!

On Monday Nov. 26th Jake and I put up our Christmas tree for Family Home Evening. We bought the tree before Thanksgiving because Kmart was having a sale! We got a very good deal because our tree is just perfect! It took a couple of nights to finally get the lights and decorations up, but it turned out to be a very lovely tree. One minor difficulty that occurred while we were attempting to put up our lights was the power went out in the neighborhood from about 7pm to 4am! Which wasn't very good seeing as how it was the coldest night of the season....it got down to the 20's that night. But thankfully we were able to keep warm. (Below are some pictures of our Christmas tree)

Pictures from Thanksgiving in Oregon

I'm giving Elissa and Emma their good morning hugs. It was the first time I saw them because they were asleep when Jake and I arrived.

Emma is such a goof, and look at the size of little Elissa's smile! They are so beautiful!


Thankgiving Dinner at The Meadows in the Sunriver Lodge. Emma wanted me to sing her nursery rhymes...so I did.

Check out the view behind us!


More pictures of the view from Sunriver Lodge.

This is a picture of one of the golf courses, a bike trail, and the Deschutes River.


These pictures don't really give the gorgeous view justice.


You can see how cold it was in this picture, since the water is frozen.


This is such a beautiful picture of Justin and Deena's family!


Emma and Elissa snuck into the picture


This picture really depicts the highly energetic nature of our gathering. We are such the partiers!

I thought this was adorable. Elissa and her dad fell asleep snuggling.


Emma being silly while eating cereal.


She is so precious!


Absolutely love this picture! Emma is rocking her little sister to sleep...so cute!


Emma was stroking Elissa's hair, so sweet.


This time Emma fell asleep on her daddy


Jake showed Elissa how to do the monkey face and she continued to show it periodically throughout the weekend. She loves to laugh and make others laugh with her.


The family out to dinner at the Pine Tavern.

Thanksgiving in Oregon!

For Thanksgiving Jake and I took a long weekend and flew to Oregon to celebrate it with my family. Mom and dad rented a house in Sunriver, one of our families favorite vacationing spots. We had to fly into Portland and then drive a little over 3 hours to central Oregon where Sunriver is located. We had a few minor difficulties trying to retrieve the car we rented, one worker from another rental company was rude and wouldn't tell me where to pick up the shuttle to our car. We ended up missing the shuttle, but another one showed up in about 15 mins.

The drive was beautiful, especially around Mt. Hood. Even though it was dark outside, the moon was out and you could see the lighter blue silhouette of the mountains. I was a little nervous weaving through the forest near Mt. Hood because there was snow on the ground and we couldn't tell if there was much ice on the road. It was really funny though....When we were driving I said "Well, at least it is a clear night with no clouds in the sky, that was a blessing", and seriously 1 minute later when we came around the mountain and started to descend...we noticed a huge cloud we were heading straight into, haha. Thankfully there was no precipitation with it, but we thought that was kinda funny. When we pulled into Sunriver mom was outside the house down the block waving us in, she was so excited! And we were too! It was about 11:30pm when we finally made it to the house. Justin and Deena were asleep, but woke up to come greet us when they heard the commotion. We stayed up late talking, as well as eating pizza and potato wedges.

The next day was Thanksgiving! We went out to dinner at The Meadows in the Sunriver Lodge. It was a really good dinner...not quite as good as what the padres cook up, but still tasty. The view was gorgeous. Jake got really excited about the golf course and mentioned we should invite his parents up with my parents in the summer to Sunriver to get together and golf. We then went home, watched some football, played some card games, swam in the hot tub, and just hung out as a family. Jake and I played Go Fish with Emma, and then we played Hearts with dad, Justin, and Deena.

Friday we went to the High Desert Museum. I was very impressed with the expansive and detailed museum they had. Emma and Elissa loved looking at the fish and animals. Mom and dad also walked into a replica of what appeared to be their childhood home. All the appliances including the refrigerator, oven/stove, TV, and sewing machine looked just like what they had in their home as children. That was really neat to see. Following the museum we went out to a yummy dinner at Red Robin and quickly took Jake on a tour around Bend, OR. Then we headed home so Jake wouldn't miss his BSU vs Hawaii football game he had anxiously anticipated. The game was a bit of a disappointment, to say the least. Hawaii got away with passing the ball every play except 2 and won the game. I was impressed with Jake and how well he took this loss, even though I know it broke his little heart. That night Justin and Deena bought a couple of games: Risk and Uno. We played Uno that night which Emma was really good at and went to bed.

Saturday was our last full day in Sunriver. We started playing Risk in the morning and it lasted until later that evening without even finishing the game. Turns out I'm not very good at global domination...I got knocked out of play within the first hour. But we still had a good time. We also watched the BYU football game vs Utah. BYU didn't play that well, but we ended up winning the game in the last quarter with only a minute and 30 sec to do so. We were jumping up and down and giving high fives all around when we scored the winning touchdown. It was nice to have at least one of our teams win their game that weekend. That night we went to our favorite restaurant in Bend called Pine Tavern. Then we headed home and played and watched TV until late that night.

Sunday morning we left Sunriver at 8am. It was sad to say goodbye to my family, but good to know I will be seeing them in a few short weeks for New Years. It was amazing to see how grown up our little nieces have become. Especially little 20 month old Elissa. She isn't a baby anymore! And she is soooo fun to watch because she loves to laugh and make others laugh. Jake taught her the monkey face and she did it the remainder of the weekend....Soooo cute! Emma was just precious too. I love that she loves me =)

The drive home was fun. For some reason Jake didn't want to listen to music, so we ended up talking the whole way to Portland, which really made the time go by. One funny thing that happened on the way home was when some muddy water sprayed onto our windshield. Jake forgot there was no wiper fluid in the car so it smeared it all over the windshield and then quickly froze. We could hardly see a thing! But we were very blessed when just half a mile down the road, in the middle of nowhere, there was a Chevron where we could clean the windows. We don't know how we could have gone any farther, that was really neat to see the hand of Heavenly Father in our lives that day.

It wasn't difficult finding the hotel to drop our car off at, but it was difficult trying to find a gas station to fill up the tank before we turned it in. After 20 minutes of Jake driving down a road to nowhere he finally listened to me and turned around to ask for directions to a gas station. There was actually one across the street, but unfortunately it was closed! So we drove to the hotel, asked for directions again, and finally filled up the tank. We rushed to the airport, but to our surprise the airport was not busy once again! We had time to eat lunch and rest before we boarded the plane. While we waited for our plane we found out we were flying through Boise. Jake's brother Brandon was flying into SLC from Boise at the same time, so I had Jake call him to see if it was the same flight number. And it was! It couldn't have worked out more perfectly since we were driving him home from the airport and he was on the same flight as us. We got home around 7:30pm and we were pretty exhausted from the trip, but we did some studying before going to bed. It was a very fun weekend with the family. I am so glad we were able to spend it with them, but sad that it went by so fast.

Stressful Week for Gretchen

So this past week has been quite stressful for me. Last weekend I started getting stressed out about everything I had to do this week....so my immune system decided to do me a favor and quit fighting for me! I got the flu.....and let's just say I was miserable. I had 5 exams and a paper to write, and I could hardly do anything because I felt so sick. However, I not only got everything done, but done well! I am so amazed at how blessed I was despite my illness. I know I couldn't have completed everything I had to do as well as I did without the help of Heavenly Father. It's great to have those testimony builders that prayer really does work and that Heavenly Father is watchful of our every need. Maybe I got sick so I could learn that lesson, haha. I know Heavenly Father was watching over me and walked me through this tough week. It reminds me of my favorite poem which I'm going to share with yal (if anyone really reads this, haha).

Footprints in the Sand
by Mary Stevenson

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was

walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the

sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he

noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one

belonging to him, and the other to the Lord. When

the last scene of his life flashed before him, he

looked back at the footprints in the sand. He

noticed that many times along the path of his life

there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed

that it happened at the very lowest and saddest

times in his life. This really bothered him and he

questioned the Lord about it. "Lord, You said that

once I decided to follow you, You'd walk with me all

the way. But I have noticed that during the most

troublesome times in my life, there is only one set

of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed

you most you would leave me." The Lord replied,

"My son, My precious child, I love you and I would

never leave you. During your times of trial and

suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it

was then that I Carried You."

I guess the reason why it reminds me of this past week is that when I got really sick I questioned why, of all the times possible would He let me get sick now? But looking back, I know He was watching over me, and carried me through this small trial in me life.

Brandon's Mission Call!

Jake's brother Brandon submitted his mission papers early last week and received his mission call yesterday! We were all trying to guess where he would get called to right before he opened it. Aubrey said Japan, Mike said Peru, Jake said oriental, Jerry said the New England states, and I said California Spanish-speaking or Brazil. He is going to Santiago Chile North mission! And we are all thrilled! He reports to the MTC on January 16th, which will come really quick because of the Holiday's. But we are all very proud of him and the time he will be giving to serve the Lord. Congratulations Brandon!

Jake is Reading Twilight

So....In an earlier post last month I mentioned that I was trying to convince Jake to read the Twilight series. Well, I am proud to say I was successfull! Actually, more then successful because Jake loves the books just as much as me! He read the first 2 books in about a week and is half way done with the third. When the 4th and final book comes out next year we might have to buy two copies cuz I don't think either of us could wait for the other to finish. I just finished reading the series for a second time! And guess what, Jake is excited to start reading them over again too. If you haven't read them yet, you need to!

No Calculas For Me!

So I took Pre-Calc and AP Calc in high school....let's just say they weren't the best experiences of my life. Mostly because I didn't know you actually had to read and study, I mean come on it was high school, hehe. So anyways, I have been dreading Calculus my entire academic career and now am proud to say I don't have to take it after all! I heard of friends substituting it with Pathophysiology....so I went to my academic counselor and 2 minutes later I was smooth sailing. Yay! No Calculus for me!

I'm Graduating!

So today I turned in my application to graduate in April of 2008! I am so excited I can hardly stand it. My time at BYU will be one that I will always cherish. Some of the best experiences in my life have happened because of this university....most importantly finding my eternal companion =) I will miss my college years, but I am very excited to move on to bigger and better things!

Jake's Surgery

Ever since Jakes mission he has been battling with stomach issues. Every 6 months something would trigger him and we'd be in the ER all night. Well, last week I had to take him to the ER again but this time it ended much differently. The physician actually found out what was causing his problems and why it would randomly flare up. He had meckles diverticulitis and they had to operate immediately to decrease the risk of a rupture because his WBC count was up twice the amount of normal. That was a rough night for both of us....When he woke up he was rather loopy....complimenting the staff on the great job they did and asking if he "was still a man". That was fairly interesting...especially with his aunt and uncle within hearing range. Jake and I spent 6 days and nights in the hospital recovering from the surgery. He is doing much better now and we hope this operation will cure him for good. We appreciate the support of our family and friends during Jake's time of need. Especially his parents who drove all night to get to Jake as soon as they heard he was having surgery. He sure is loved =)

The Best Books Ever!

Those of you who know me know that I've never been much of a reader. I'll read my assigned readings but never for enjoyment purposes. Well, I found a new series that I fell in love with. It is the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. All of my friends and random people kept telling me how wonderful these books were and I didn't believe them, until I sat down and read the first one. I became consumed in the story and 2 days went by and I finished the first one...I ran to the bookstore and bought New Moon, 2 days later I finished that one. I ran to the store one final time and bought Eclipse and 2 days later I was done with the series. I never thought I would be one of the people who could read 600 pages in a couple of days, but turns out I am. Those of you who haven't read these books yet should....I'm still trying to convince Jake to read them =)

Cancun Mexico Trip!

Plane Ride To Cancun

View from the balcony of our hotel room

Poolside Salsa dance lessons

One of the many towel sculptures the maid left for us after cleaning our room

Another one of my favorites that the maid created for us


Following our zip-line tour across a mile of the jungle

Another picture at Selvatica before returning to Cancun from the jungle

The view from where I was laying out by the pool

Out to dinner at Marco Pollo, it was Mexican night and I had excellent tamales....but they still didn't compare with moms =)

Waiting for the Mexican Entertainment Show to begin

This was a pretty picture of a typical Caribbean night sky

Boat ride coming back from Isla Mujeres

Out to dinner

It's so difficult to get him to smile normal for a picture...but it turned out cute anyways

Iguana's were EVERYWHERE!

On a stroll along the coast

Jake swimming in the ocean...I liked to watch him to make sure he was safe

A quick picture before heading in to get ready for dinner

Out to dinner for Itallian/Lobster night, this is a picture of our amazing desserts which took over the table

Another dinner picture

Waiting for our plane ride back home

Day 1 Saturday Aug 25th

Jake and I left for Cancun with 2 of our good friends Staci and Chris. We almost didn't go because Hurricane Dean went near the area a few days before...however we checked with the hotel and verified there was no damage. Going was the best decision ever! We had a blast, I couldn't imagine a more beautiful place to spend 8 days and 7 nights. After we arrived we went to this cute little deli by the pool and got some quick grub before dinner time. Our rooms were lovely and even more lovely because I convinced Jake that we should upgrade to an ocean view...which he gladly did. We had a gorgeous view of the Caribbean ocean and pool from our 4th floor room.

Day 2 Sun Aug 26th

The next day we just kinda hung around the pool area. They had an entertainment staff that kept us busy with activities that day. We started off with water aerobics in the morning and then played some games such as a water balloon fruit salad game where I came in second, a movie charade game which I won, and a salsa dance class which Staci and I participated in. It was a fun day....however we soon learned that if we went to the adult pool we wouldn't be bothered =)

Day 3 Mon Aug 27th

The next day which was Monday we went on an excursion to Isla Mujeres. We went snorkling, shopping, swam with sharks, ate some delicious authentic Meixcan food, and watched dolphins do some pretty cool tricks with people who payed a ton of money to be a part of it.

Day 4 Tues Aug 28th

The following day we took it easy by the pool. Jake frequently went and played in the ocean, he would always say "the ocean is calling me". He was really funny because he would always try to catch the waves, but it looked more like the waves caught him when he would land face first on the shore.

Day 5 Weds Aug 29th

The following day was perhaps the funnest of the whole trip. We went on a trip to Selvatica, a jungle excursion about 40mins from Cancun. It was raining that day which was perfect because otherwise it would have been unbearably hot and humid. We went on a 1 mile zip-line course across the jungle!! Part of the time Jake and I went upside down which was quite the rush! It consisted of 12 cables spreading over a mile of terrain. The most beautiful and exhilerating trip of our lives. Following that we went on a bike ride to a nearby natural rain water swimming hole where we cliff jumped and zip-lined into the water. I was pretty nervous at first but it was so worth it! The water was cool and refreshing. Jake actually went backwards on the zipline and dove off it into the water. He is pretty talented =) We then road our bikes back to the main lodge and ate some good food and headed back to the hotel.

Day 6 Thurs Aug 30th

Thursday we went on a separate excursion from the Thackers and went to Xel-Ha while they went to Chichen Itza. Xel-Ha means "where waters are born" and was a beautiful natural aquatic park with snorkling, a natural lazy river, shops, dolphins, and 5 delicious restaraunts. Chichen Itza is a place to visit the Mayan Ruins. Staci loved it but Chris admited he went for her. Jake and I had a lot of fun even though the water wasn't that clear which made the snorkling less enjoyable. There was also bike riding and lots of cute shops. Jake and I enjoyed taking a nap on some really nice hammocks in the shade while we watched the dolphins do there tricks. I also like laying out and relaxing on the lazy river and watching people cliff jump into the water. That was a long day, we left at 7:30am and came back around 7pm. We got back and cleaned up for Steak night at the outdoor restaurant by the pool. We were kinda dissapointed....especially when the menu described our steaks as thick and juicy and we got a dry skinny pethetic slab of meat.

Day 7 Fri Aug 31st

We wanted to spend our last day relaxing by the pools and ocean again...so thats what we did. These days were always relaxing and most of our time was spent drinking the refreshing non alcoholic frozen drinks such as pina coladas, miami vices, and banana sexy...these were our most popular selections. Following our last day soaking up the Cancun sun we had lobster night at Marco Polo, a really nice restaurant at the hotel. The lobster was really good and the desserts....wow....there are not words to describe. We each ordered 2 desserts and ate every last bite. That night we went to a Magic Show which was actually very good. I even got chosen out of the audience by the magician to come up and assist him in a trick. I of course was very hesitant b/c I prefer not to be sliced in half, but luckily all I had to do was hold an empty bucket which when he opened had a huge duck in it that flapped me in the face. After the Magic Show we went into town and went to a popular night club called Senor Frogs. We danced for a couple of hours but it was pretty hot and humid in there so we left early. It was cool b/c they had a slide that went to the outside of the building into the lagoon that the club bordered. We got to see 2 guys who lost a competition go down the slide, that was pretty funny.

Day 8 Sat Sept 1st

The next day was Saturday, we went to town and did some shopping and then headed to the airport to return back to the states. It feels really good to be back in America, you don't realize how blessed we really are untill you visit another country. I enjoyed being in the same country as Elder David Ainsworth (aka poopy) for a while too =) Unfortunately we have to return back to real life...Work and school. We hope to go back to Cancun again because we loved every second of it.