The Day of the Dress

The Day of the Dress

Ok, so I don’t normally pride myself on taking risks, but desperate times make for desperate measures. Those of you who have followed our shopping adventures the past month, you know that my girls found a dress for the wedding but not me. Since I didn’t want to attend the wedding stark naked, I decided I better order one. I searched for hours, found the perfect dress, but had to have it delivered to my mom’s house so we could make sure it arrived in time. Yes, it was a risk, but I really didn’t have a choice.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. I get the dress and try it on. IT WOULDN’T ZIP UP!!! I promise I’m not delusional but they must have sent the wrong size. REALLY?? Of all days? Even if I sucked in as hard as I could and removed all my internal organs, it wouldn’t zip. So, we had to go shopping and we had to go fast!

It was a crazy day. My dad and his graduate students did balance testing on all the kids (and Bob and I) to provide a baseline for their research on children. It was kinda cool cause they hooked us up on a harness and shifted our surroundings as well as the floor beneath us. I, of course, failed. It amazes me that I used to be a ballerina with incredibly balance, and now something as tiny as my middle ear that chooses to constantly ring, can make me look like I’m drunk.

New Aunt Diana took Marisa, Kayla, Alayna, Emily, and Tara out to the mall to go shopping and they claim it was “the best day ever”, so it was a HUGE success. We also all went out to Chilis with Grandma for lunch.

We shopped until we literally dropped, and with no luck until the very end. I was to the point of exhaustion and everything I tried on looked like I was a hippo trying to squeeze into jeggings and a tube top. I’m sure it was my skewed perception! I’m not sure I love it, but at least no one will have to witness my birthday suit. I FINALLY found some shoes and bought them. The 3 teens working at the store felt so bad for me and my sad story that they gave me a peppermint patty J When Kayla saw I bought them, she started sobbing because they were the exact shoes she had. I thought it would be cool to match, but apparently we have passed the point of being cool if we match. She sobbed through the next few stores until we got to payless and I found a pair. I will look like the jolly grey giant and I bet I break my ankle since the shoes are like 4 inches high. But hey, at least I won’t be shoeless and Kayla won’t spend the wedding bawling her eyes out embarrassed by her mom. I have a migraine, anyone wonder why?

We headed to the movie theater to celebrate both Elijahs and Bobs birthdays. It was transformer themed with BumbleBee as the main attraction….literally! Diana’s stepdad brought his Bumblebee Camero. It was AWESOME! So, we got to take pictures of it. We had pizza, cake, and ice cream and even got to sample Chocolate Steamers, and Italian sodas and they were to DIE for. Angela and family even came to say hi. We miss them so much!!! At the end, Jonathan helped the kids put on a little comedy show by telling cute jokes. Silly kids.

 

Now to get ready for the wedding…

We made it!

We got to Logan in the evening, checked in to our hotel, and headed to Jonathan and Dianas house to see all the family and have a fun get together.  I think its been 1 1/2-2 years since we have all been together.  What a wonderful fun group of people!

(Alayna with cousins Emily and Tara)

(Playing peek a boo with Brooklyn)

(Aunt Nina helping all the grandkids make pilgrim hats with chocolate!)

(Alayna with cousin Hailey and the pilgrim hats)

(Playing with Fluffy)

(Marisa with Grandma Ribera)

(Tyler with new baby SinJin)

(Kayla trying to find a way to take SinJin home with her in her suitcase.)

(All the little girl cousins with matching hats from Aunt Nina)

Look Out Logan, Here We Come!

Marisa had a great time at all-state this week.  She had her concert last night in Ames.  She got home after midnight, got to bed by 1 and we all had to wake up at 4AM to catch our flight.  Our 1st flight was a couple of hours to Denver.  Basically uneventful except when Alayna spilt her sprite all over Marisa’s lap.

(Weird pics from the emergency manual)

We had a 4 hour layover in Denver.  The kids rode the escalators for fun.  Then the flight was delayed ANOTHER hour because some IDIOT from the previous flight tried to flush a diaper in the plane toilet.  REALLY?  It was about a 2 hour flight and had a pretty turbulent landing.

(Trying out new cool chocolate straws!)

(Pretzels with cheese and watching the escalator as entertainment)

The awesome marine at the car rental place upgraded us to a kick butt suburban!  We met my dad at the airport and drove through the mountain up to Logan.  We finally made it after 12 hours of travel!

(Notice that Kayla didn’t cooperate with the any pics today!)

Before the trip!

Ok this week will be full of little photoblogs.  The easiest way to do busy trips, right?

1. I went to seminary Monday morning to introduce a new scripture as a devotional.  It was Leviticus 19:18 and I even made heart shaped cookies to go with them!

2. My new headband.  Yes, I am 40 and getting into headbands.

3. Kayla had to bring a rare or new fruit to class for extra credit.  She brought a Kiwano Melon- ever seen it before?

4.  More projects I have done at work:

(Series numbering and color coding for all fiction section.  Im about 1/2 way done.)

(Reorganizing the honor books by genre)

“When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels”

November 13, 2011

First Snow

We got our 1^st snow of the year. It melted by the afternoon. Not sure we are ready for winter!  We didn’t have enough to make snow angels, but we also didn’t have to shovel!

IPod Touch

Tyler has been saving all his money like crazy, even sacrificing bday presents. He finally earned enough to get his Ipod Touch. He thought he would DIE waiting for it to come in the mail. When it finally did, he could hardly contain his excitement and he had a posse of sisters following him around to check it out. The only thing is I’ve barely seen his face since.

Acceptance

Marisa submitted her application to BYU-Provo and BYU-Idaho this week. Two days later she received her acceptance to BYU-Idaho. It was so exciting, but she is still holding out for acceptance to BYU-Provo. I wanted to share some of the mail she has been getting lately too.

Making Christmas Cards for Cousins

For my side of the family, we are doing a Christmas Card exchange with the cousins. Here we are working hard on them.

My attempt at being “crafty”. Decorating these flowers to go on our dresses for the wedding. We fly out in exactly one week. Hope you Ribera’s are ready for us!

More Apples

Tyler and Marisa experimented and made apple pie in loaf form! Turned out super yummy!

Band Concert

Tyler has his jazz band and band concert.  He had 2 solos and did an awesome job on his trombone!

Halloween and Why Mothballs Aren’t Our Friend

Halloween and Why Mothballs Aren’t Our Friend

November 6, 2011

Halloween

This was the 1^st Halloween Bob and I didn’t have to walk the kids around to Trick-or-Treat. We hunkered downstairs watching CSI while the kids took Alayna around the neighborhood. Then the older kids took off with friends to hit more neighborhoods. They hauled in quite a stash and then Alayna and Tyler organized them (I wonder where they get that from?)

Why Mothballs Aren’t Our Friend

A sweet friend gave us a box of cute clothes for Marisa and Kayla. We realized the box had a hideous smell, finally realizing it was that nasty mothball smell. The girls tried the clothes on and as they did our house started to really stink. So, I decided to wash them. BIG mistake!!! Man, did our house, clothes, and everything stink after that!! Somehow my ONLY pair of jeans that fit got into that load and now they reek. I washed those 2 loads twice with double the laundry soap and fabric softener, and 2 dryer sheets when I dried them and NO LUCK! Have you ever seen the episode of Seinfeld where that smell attaches to Jerry’s car? This was just like it. I hopped on the internet and it says they need fresh air. I put them on the deck but it’s a wind storm out there- so it looks like someone barfed up clothes all over the yard. Ugh!

Odds and Ends

*Marisa won a contest at Hyvee (her work). She came in 2^nd place by selling these donations while she was a cashier! She was so excited and won a $50 prize, which came in handy because someone stole $40 out of her wallet the last few weeks. I guess she pulls out even?

*A potato from our garden

*After 3 more hours of shopping I think we have almost everything for the wedding. We leave in exactly 2 weeks!!

*More Alayna creativity?

*Just wanted you to see some of the daily mail we receive here for Marisa…