Blank Page, Big Pressure

Well, we're finally breaking down. We've joined Myspace, Facebook, and now finally we are creating a blog for our family. Deep breath, it'll be okay! Background on Eric and I... We're both born and bred Californians, Pretty much grew up in the Sacramento Valley. We met six years ago through our good friend Jared Willis. I thought Eric was drop dead gorgeous, but really had a chip on my shoulder when it came to men and dating (I really wanted to graduate college before I got involved with someone), and Eric apparently though I was pretty confident and sassy which I guess was a good thing. However, he was anti dating as well. We stayed good friends for awhile, though as we both looked back on things we both realized early on there were some pretty strong feelings that we both ignored. Finally, while I came home from BYU-Idaho on Winter break we went on our first date, his Christmas dinner and then to play Lego's back at his house afterwards. I thought it was awesome! We hung out for the whole break until that fateful day of January 1 2003 when we went sledding. We went with Jared, his brother Clint, and their cousin Candace. Eric sledded down the hill first, and then Candace, then I went. Unfortunately, I swerved just enough to jam my foot between two boulders that were coming out of the snow. My foot stayed wedged as I flew from the sled, twisted and fell on the opposite side of the boulders. Eric was determined that I had sprained my ankle and was being a baby. I was determined not to cry in front of my guy friends so I screamed a lot instead. The boys pulled me from the mountain and when I finally was home again I knew it was totally busted. I ended up cracking my ankle on the diagonal for six inches, which was mended with a plate, and then crushed the other side which was repaired with screws. From there it was pretty much history. I never made it back to BYU-I at least not until I was picking up my stuff because I was getting married. We were married in the LDS Temple in Oakland on June 21 2003. Since then we've done a lot and gone through a lot. We lived in a dinky apartment, lived in a huge house, and bought a first house. On October 15 2005 we were blessed with a little girl named Lily Lynn. She was only with us for 45minutes since she was born prematurely at 24 weeks. She is our little angel and we both miss her and look forward to seeing her in heaven one day. December of 2005 we adopted our first kitten, Jinx, a Norwegian forest cat, which basically translates to one BIG cat. She is 18 pounds and the vet says she is perfect weight, though Eric lovingly calls her "Princess O'Plenty". I'm not sure she loves it... Last June we adopted our second kitten, Caesar, a Blue point Siamese Rag doll cross. Because of his Rag doll genes he is also a pretty big cat, though he is much more slender than Jinx. Finally last August we adopted an American Quarter horse named Winston to round out our funny little family.

Right now we work a lot. Both Eric and I are total workaholics! Eric is working for EMCI a commercial air conditioning company as a lead installation technician. Basically, the way I understand it, he is responsible for making sure that his team gets everything wired, balanced and calibrated on these amazingly large machines. He tries to explain it to me but I am not as smart as he is! I am working as a volunteer coordinator at a therapeutic center in Orangevale. I love it! I am responsible for coordinating about 150 people every week. It is a challenge but I love my job. I do work in a barn and that can be physically draining, but I also get to ride whenever I want so that is fun. I am also in school again, finally, after taking four years off. I am finishing my associates degree in psychology by Jan 2010. It is VERY slow going because I can only take so many classes while working full time. It is about 1 semester a year. When I get my associates I will transfer to a 4 year university for my bachelor's. Eric in the meantime is very supportive and sweet. He walked me very slowly through my math class this last semester, I couldn't have done it without him.

We've been trying to have fun lately too. I have been working towards showing my retired horse Winston in Western Pleasure at some local shows, and Eric is getting back into golf and loving it. We spend free weekends at the ocean whenever we can, and visit Eric's family in Idaho whenever possible.

Well, I never was accused of being short on words. I hope this is the first of many post! Love to all!