~my valentine~

We come to LOVE not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. 

 -Sam Keen

Today I am THANKFUL for my hubby who is perfect for me.  

He makes me laugh so hard I can barely control my bladder, tears just roll down my face and every now and then out pops a little snort.

He knows just what I need, right when I need it.  

He can make me smile even when I just feel like crying.  

He works and studies so hard and pushes me to do the same.  

He is my example in so many ways.  

He is my best friend and I'm thankful he's all mine! 

~oh and I already know he is going to say, "That's embarrassing, why did you blog about that?!" haha...but then I will just have to tell him to take me on exotic trips so I will have more things to blog about :)

The Unanders

      There is the most DARLING family in our ward here in Provo, the Unanders.  They are some of the nicest, most positive people Curtiss and I have ever met, especially considering their circumstances.  Curtiss feels so blessed to be their home teacher and we have had the opportunity to work with their kids in the nursery and primary - they just make our hearts melt! (Seriously, LOOK how ADORABLE they are in that picture!!)  They are SOO precious and it breaks my heart to know that their parents are going through such an incredibly hard trial.  I can't even imagine.  Yet every time we see them they have hopeful smiles on their faces.           My reasons for posting this are first in asking for prayers in behalf of the Unander Family.  Please check out their page.  My heart breaks for them and at the same time I am grateful for such amazing, strong people who are examples to us of faith and hope.  It helps me to be a lot more grateful for my blessings and look past my little trials.  It helps me to have a much more ETERNAL perspective.  

   I added a link to their blog and here is a little bit of their story below.
About The Unanders

Jon (30) and Tiffany (26) have been happily married for 7 years. They have two adorable children, Maxwell (age 4) and Kenadee (age 1). Jon was recently diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic melanoma. 

About 8 years ago Jon had a suspicious looking mole removed from his back. It turned out to be melanoma, a very dangerous and potentially deadly form of skin cancer. At the time they attempted to remove the cancer from the area by removing some nearby lymph-nodes and the mole. They thought they got it all and for the last 7 years his blood work has looked "normal".

9 months ago Jon noticed a small, tender lump under his arm. He waited for it to heal and get better (hoping for the best) but the lump only continued to grow. A biopsy was done and they found out that the lump was actually melanoma; apparently there were some cancerous cells left from the original site and it has now spread (metastasized).

Soon after this was discovered, Jon experienced some tenderness in his leg/groin area and then cancer was discovered in his pelvic bone also. This is believed to be melanoma as well, but a bone sample needs to be taken before that can be verified. The type of cancer that is in his bone will determine how the doctors will treat the cancer.

The outlook isn't great. Even with all of the best treatments (and "best case scenarios") Jon has about a 25% chance of a cure. Jon is a strong person and he is not going to give up! He is an amazing daddy and a great husband and isn't about to leave his beautiful family without a fight. And the doctors have told him that he definitely is in for the fight of his life.

Jon has already had many medical procedures done, with many MANY more to come. They do have insurance but the deductibles and their out of pocket costs are starting to (and will continue to) pile up. We can help this amazing young family by donating money, spreading the word and offering our prayers and support.

Please help however you can!

St. George & Cali

Over Christmas break Curtiss' sister had a wedding reception in San Diego and we were able to make a vaca out of it and go to Cali and St. George for a week.

It was so nice to be able to completely relax and enjoy the warm weather! 

There was lots of driving, but its always fun to just talk, enjoy the ride and the pretty views.

Tennis is always a favorite of ours.

The "Red Rocks" or narrows are always a must.  

Its so fun to just walk and hike around.  

It's always a gorgeous view!!

Knotts Berry farm was FUN FUN! 

 

This ride (aka Greg's favorite ride) kinda made us sick! haha...we must be getting too old for this kind of stuff. 

The day was PERFECT weather and we were just enjoying it all!

We could never get enough of the sunshine and scenery of  So. Cal!

La Jolla is one of my FAVORITE places on earth! 

WE LOVE THE BEACH! (who doesn't though, right?)

It was so much fun to hang out with The Smiths on the beach!

We ALL played football and that was SOO much fun!

We had a bonfire :)

and enjoyed the beautiful sunset!

A highlight of the trip was being able to go to the GORGEOUS San Diego Temple! 

Incredible.  

By the end of the week we were exhausted and happy to be home again... 

But it was a wonderful trip and we can't wait to go back!!

diciembre

Ok, so it's been a CRAZY month.  So much has happened, its been so FUN! 

I will just update with pictures and minimal writing.  Here is what the what has happened since my last post:

Telley got married to Shawn in the Salt Lake Temple!

What a gorgeous couple, right?

It was a perfect day and a beautiful reception!

We are all SO HAPPY for them!!! 

(hahaha...this is Curtiss lil cousin, isn't he SO cute??)

Our first Christmas together was perfect :)

The day was full of surprises!

I beat Curtiss 3 times at darts that day!! woot woot!

Curtiss' dreams came true when he got the only gift he asked for!

My dreams will be coming true when I go on my first cruise in Feb.!

(part of our Christmas was our cruise, and our Cali vaca we just took!)

My nightmare came true (JK)when Curtiss surprised me with new converse.  

I will miss my old ones so much!

  I have had these lovely's for over 6 years. 

 You can't even tell though, they still look and smell new!

Another semester of school is over with and we are happy with our grades. 

Thankfully all our hard work (and possibly some tears from me) paid off!

Especially for Curtiss, he got amazing grades!! 

2 of our closest friends got engaged on Christmas and we are SOO excited for them!! 
(She was one of my comps from the mission and he was one of Curtiss' roomates!)
*Match maker match maker, make me a match!! :)*

Oh and I can't forget the joyous beard Curtiss grew over Christmas break!

 We will be saying goodbye to him tomorrow.  

Goodbye Al Borlin, welcome back hubby!

(Curtiss just said to his beard (yes, he talks to the beard), "I'm gonna miss you lil guy".)  

Tomorrow may be a tragic day.  Please call Curtiss and support him in this loss.  

Hope you all had a wonderful month of December and a great New Year!

Cant wait for all the adventures of 2010! :)

ba-hum-bug

We are no longer scrooges. 

We finally put a tree up and even some decorations. 

 We bought a lil tree a couple of weeks ago and we kept saying we would put it up "tomorrow"...

well we finally did a few nights ago and it was a lot of fun! 

I even sang Curtiss some holiday jingles.  

Although our stuff is nothing fancy or extravagant we are still excited to be spending out first married Christmas together! 

Curtiss would be so hurt if I didn't honor him for making the top of our wonderfully fake Christmas tree shaped in the form of the letter "C". 

 Just like his name.  

And Christmas.  

What a gem.

I hope we all make it through finals and the crazyness of this month so we can enjoy the TRUE meaning of Christmas and spending time with our families! Love you all!

(Thanks to our abuelita, my Mom, Sarah and Kristie for giving us cute decorations!!)

Go ShOrTy ItS yO bIrF-dAy!

The 17th of Nov. was my birthday and it was a fabulous day! (and week!) 

Its always fun to spend time with family...

 Curtiss' family came down the night before to sing me happy birthday! :)

The morning of my birthday Curtiss woke me up to give me some presents! 

He did a great job and I was way surprised! 

He got me a coat, a gift certificate for a couples massage, some head phones for running and wrote me a romantical note! :)

Curtiss HAPPILY made me breakfast that morning, it turned out so yummers! 

Here is the jacket I wanted that Curtiss got me, I love it! :)

We went to The Cheescake Factoy for dinner that night and it was mmm mmm good!!

Thanks to all my family & friends for making my birthday a special day & making me feel so loved! :) 

OUCH!

Saturday was an eventful day!  We had fun plans: football game, shopping, visiting the grandparents and then hanging out with some friends.  Things didn't really go as planned.  

We got to Curtiss' game and RIGHT when it was about start it started snowing.  A lot.  Those of us that were watching were covered in snow! (It was actually really fun and kinda miserable at the same time!)

Well as you can see the snow was really coming down so we made peep holes so our faces wouldn't freeze off.  It made it hard to even see the game!  The game was really close and very intense!  (almost a few fights, so of course that makes it more exciting!) haha.  

Well anyways, all the sudden I see that the guys are making a big deal about a guy who got hit, I could see a guy on the other team holding his face and he looked like he had been pretty hurt.  Well through my tiny peep hole I didn't have a broad view so I had no idea that Curtiss was the one who had rammed into the other guy who was holding his face.  I didnt know until I heard Greg yelling "Curtiss are you OK?  Do you need a time out?"  Thats when I was like, "did he say Curtiss?"  I popped my head out of my peep whole and I saw Curtiss with his hands on his knees and I instantly did what any normal person would do, I panicked.  I ran over there to see if he was OK and freaked out even more.  (Im going to be a great mom, when my kids scrape their knee Im sure I will just bawl along with them. Cause I seriously felt light headed and felt like crying! haha...yeah I know, not normal.) The ref told me to zip my face cause I was not going to make it any better.  So I grabbed our stuff and we headed to insta-care. 

 Long story short.  He broke his nose.  

He was a brave boy the whole day and did not even cry. 

 I gave him a lollipop.  

Here are some of his best shots of the week! Enjoy the new look! 

First night.  Pretty huge. 

Icing and texting.  At the same time.  He is so talented. 

Yeah, this is a good angle, huh??

He wasn't complaining when he was watching football though. 

or napping...

You cant really tell but he woke up with some bruising and black eyes.

  He thought it made him look tough.  

At least it cheered him up when I would take his picture!!

 Always cheerful and smiling for the camera! 

Oh the best part of it all was he would use the, "But my nose is broken" excuse for just about anything he wanted.  (like a 5 year old would do)  

 I thought it was cute. 

 The other thing is if I was ever teasing him he would say, "Keep that up and I'm gonna make your nose look like mine!" haha.  

Well I had enough of both of those, so I elbowed him in the nose.

  He learned his lesson.