Have a Fabulous Christmas!

We are leaving today for Utah, with a quick 48-hour stop in Vegas to see the BYU game. Go cougs! We will be gone until the new year, so everyone be safe and don't drink and drive. I look forward to the cheery posts I will see when we return. I'll try and take pictures of our annual New Year's Eve family murder mystery costume party so I can share the joy with you all......we go all out, it's great fun.

It's a boy!

Why did they give this girl a license?

I eat a bowl of cereal on my way to work. I started this tradition 6 months ago when I realized that it was too early for me to eat at home before I left, but 30 minutes later by the time I got to work I was starving. I realize there are safer ways to drive, but that’s not the focus of my story. Last week on my way to work I had a bowl of rice crispies in my hand as I started the car and began to pull forward, coasting a little on my empty street. Then I remember that Nate had driven my car last and the seat was too far back, so I leaned down, lifted the handle with my empty left hand and tried to gently scoot forward. The seat, however, didn’t move at all, it was stuck somehow. SO, I was almost to the point on my little street where I have to turn onto an even littler street, so I went to put my foot on the brake so I could slide the seat forward safely before I turned.
Then, simultaneously, my foot was hovering over the brake as my seat suddenly decided it was time to move forward, which made my foot hit the brake, which sudden stop in movement made my seat throw itself all the way forward like a rocket, which made my foot slam the brake pedal all the way down and the car come to a lurching halt and I was thrown against the steering wheel and I nearly crashed my head through the windshield and my rice crispies went flying. Not the bowl, no, I was still clinging to the empty bowl when I came to and realized what had just happened. Grateful I was alive, I moved the seat back again and surveyed the damage. I couldn’t have gotten the inside of my car to be that covered with milk and rice crispies if I had made serious effort. It was as if a rice crispy bomb had gone off. Apparently, rice crispies multiply in the bowl like grape nuts. It was on the roof of the car, the windshield top to bottom, covered the instrument panel, the steering wheel, the entire floor area, the passenger seat, the passenger floor, the middle console, in my hair, on my face, from my neck to my feet I was speckled and soaking wet. After a few seconds of stunned silence (and considering the possibility of just going to work like that, that explains my state of mind) I turned the car around (and drove past the two houses I had driven by previously) to get to my house. I sloshed in my shoes as I walked into my house and standing there on the tile decided all I could do was yell Naaaaaaaaate! He ran downstairs immediately yelling “What happened, is everything okay?” until he saw me, and saw the hundreds of cereal bits stuck to every part of me. Then he got this really compassionate look on his face and said, “Oh, did you throw up?” Well, of course that made me laugh to tears, but finally I told him no, that I needed him to help me clean my car because I spilled. He went outside and immediately came back in saying, “WHAT did you do??” Honestly, folks, it was SO bad, and we didn’t even get a picture. He had to bring out the shop vac!! So, that’s my story, my wonderful husband mopped up my car while I went upstairs and took a shower because I had milk in every crevice.

And in case you’re wondering if I learned my lesson, the answer is yes....... when I eat cereal in the car I always make sure I move the seat first :)

For Amy, My Home Fry

Sorry it took me so long, dude.

8 Favorite TV shows:
1. 8? I hate most TV shows
2. The Office
3. Wheel of Fortune
4. Everybody Loves Raymond
5. Monk
6. Trivia shows
7. College football
8. That’s about it.

8 Things I did yesterday:

1. Went to work

2. Talked to my mom on the phone for 45 minutes

3. Drank hot chocolate sitting by a fire in our backyard

4. Had family home evening

5. Read some conference talks

6. Ate leftovers for dinner

7. Crochet (yes, I’m an old lady)

8. Had some great conversation with Nate

8 Things I look forward to:

1. Holidays

2. Taking showers

3. All meals

4. Seeing Nate after work

5. Making new recipes

6. Spending time with family

7. Nate shaving his face

8. Sleeping in on Saturdays

8 Restaurants:

1. Manuel’s

2. Maggiano’s!

3. Papa Johns :)

4. Outback

5. Wienerschnitzel

6. PF Changs

7. Tepanyaki

8. In n Out

8 Things on my wish list:

1. My dumb citrus tree to make some fruit already

2. The ability to play the piano

3. My degree finally

4. A sewing table

5. Health and safety for my family and friends

6. No headaches and perfect vision

7. A housekeeper (although Nate does a great job :)

8. To pay off student loans…..a wish in progress

And my 4th picture in my 4th album is this:

Sadly, my fourth album was the sample pictures, so it's not very entertaining. But pretty! It reminds me that I'm grateful we have family in Utah and Chicago, so even though we never see snow here at home, we are blessed to see it every Christmas.

Santa Fe! Are you there?

(A song from the movie "Newsies"). Before Christian donned the black mask.

ANYWAY..........I find it ironic that when my life is the busiest, I have the least amount of time to blog, and then when I do actually blog I feel like it's boring because the reason why I am blogging is that life has slowed down and I have nothing to share. Hence, the following post:

I have a couple more pictures of Santa Fe. You really wouldn't guess that we were only there for one day. And please, to my fans who commented on my apparel in the "hiking" pictures, re-read the story about how we were just supposed to take the tram that day but because of bad weather they shut it down and so we took a spontaneous hike in the rain. I obviously would have dressed differently if the initial plan had been a hike.......duh. Also the reason why Jessica was wearing heels, as pictured.

VERY VERY WET. Nate's jeans are not really that dark and my jacket is not two-toned.

Even with all my apathy towards animals, (and that doesn't make me a bad person) I truly love riding horses. I got to ride all the time while I lived in Jackson Hole, I miss that.

Not sure why Nate's picture looks smaller than the rest, but isn't he adorable?



So that's the end of that trip. Maybe in a month or two I'll post about D-land, the Grand Canyon, or other good times we've had recently. But mostly I stay busy with the Young Women, (including a sleepover/sewing party this evening), and work, and spending time with Nate. Today I will try and get around to decorating for Halloween. It's one of the two holidays I decorate for and I haven't started. Soooo behind. This weekend my parents are coming to town and my nephew is getting ordained and Nate's work is having a "cocktail party". And that is an entirely different story.

PS. Wasn't General Conference fabulous?

The News

I need help. I'm serious.

CAUTION: Those who avoid reading the news because it is too depressing, you may want to stop reading here.

When things are slow at work sometimes I look at the news online. I boycott cnn.com off and on because they are SO biased politically, but I haven't found a better new site yet, so I went there today. I'm sure some of you will have already heard about one or all of the following, but here's what I saw in the news today:

1) A bombing at the US Embassy in Yemen, multiple attackers, mostly suicide bombers. I think I can understand the idea of dying for a cause, but if your cause is to kill other people? I'm lost.

2) In Nevada, a supposed serial rapist/murderer is on the loose, who leaves the underwear of it's previous victim at the site of his current crime.

3) In Phoenix, a 14-year-old left her living healthy baby in a garbage can. I know this is not the first time we've heard a story like this, but it still shocks me every time. The baby was found by the principal, luckily.

4) Thousands of babies are sick in China because of tainted baby formula. A few have died. The men who say they're responsible say they did it to cover losses of a previous rejection of their business.

Not to mention the devastation that natural disasters are spreading.

I think I can stop there, you get the idea. The news just stinks, I really hate it. But do I just try to be ignorant of goings on in the world? Do I read but try not to internalize anything? How do I feel informed without having to read story after devastating story? And the topics I mentioned are just from ONE DAY. I need advice.

So, I require comment from my readers. Both of you. I want to be an informed citizen of this country, but sometimes the news just makes me sad. (Now that I think about it, there was a really good conference talk about this subject a while ago. I'll read that, too.) So tell me what to do. I'm up for suggestions.

Bad Blogger

I don't even count this post as getting back into the blogging side of life, because it's going to be pretty pitiful. To be brief, Nate and I went out of town FIVE times in the past eight weeks. I just got some pictures from one of those trips, a whirlwind 24 hours we spent with Nate's family in Santa Fe, so I'm posting them......well, because, I have nothing else to say.

When we found out the mountain tram was closed for bad weather, we decided to go on a "hike" (scaling a mountain full of cactus) with Nate's brother Ian and his wife Jessica. (Fabulous people, we love them). It only took an hour or two, but it was pouring down rain almost the whole time, which made it adventurous. Jessica was wearing heels!! Ian had his very expensive camera and tried futilely to keep it dry. My hair was so soaked it was dripping water and hairspray into my eyes so I couldn't see a thing. All in all, we had a GREAT time.

I See London.....

My sister whose first three children were crazy little boys thought she would never have her girl. Well, at last, she did. You can tell by the bow.......this little girl will be showered with all things girly. And that's the way it should be. :) Welcome to the fam, little London Leigh. You'll learn to love the chaos. Embrace it.

Fields of Gold Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Fields of Gold Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Stinking Heat.

I miss my backyard. Sometimes I look out the back door like a kid on a rainy day and yearn for the time to come when we can go outside again.......alas, it will be October before the weather shapes up. Not that I'm not grateful....we had a BEAUTIFUL month of May and we have a couple get-out-of-the-heat trips planned during the worst of it. But I really miss my backyard! Our grass is at its greenest during the hottest months (does that make sense to anyone?) and our "shade" tree is getting so big and shady. Our BBQ and fire pit are just sitting there on the patio, collecting dust and lots of sun, and yet we stay inside with the AC. Sigh.

So, I post a tribute to the time we spend in our backyard in the normally gorgeous weather we have here in Phoenix. Then I'm going swimming.

This is Nate's sister, her hubby and four kids, and Nate's brother. Notice the kid in the orange, Cameron, as far from the fire as he could get. He was terrified. Then yesterday we were at their house and Cameron asked if we could do the fire again. Kids have 2-second memories. Anway, in this picture we are making s'mores, a common occurence at the Kolbaba household. (S'mores ingredients are in our food storage supply. Only the necessities, right?)

I joined my first giveaway!

Which is funny cause I don't have any kids, but everyone I know is pregnant so these could be great shower gifts.

Ice Cream Social Frock Giveaway!!!!
Roosters-N-Rickrack Pinafore GIVEAWAY!!!!

Gimme a J!!!......Gimme a U!!!!.........

Is this year really halfway over? July is a great month to be thinking about what I've done for the first half of the year, and what I plan to do for the second half. It's like a mini-new-year for me! I don't ponder on that too long, though, because July is a marathon month. All important dates are in July. Nate's birthday is the 3rd, mine is the 22nd, our anniversary is the 19th and my favorite holiday of the year is on the 4th. There are at the very least 5 other family birthdays in July as well. Gladly we don't live in Utah or we would have to celebrate the 24th, too! It is an exciting, expensive, whirlwind kind of month. We hardly notice that it's 117 degrees outside and that gas is $4.10 a gallon. :) Will that stop us from driving to the Grand Canyon tomorrow? No! Because July is the month to never hold still, to celebrate daily, to go see the sights!

I guess mid-year resolutions will have to wait until August.

The Proof

I just realized I don't have an "after" picture of what my hair looks like now, and since I broke our digital camera while I was at girl's camp, (oops) I guess that will have to wait. But, Nate took these with his Blackberry before and during the haircut, and they document the event pretty well.

Now that I see the picture, I could have almost had shoulder-length hair even after the 12 inches were gone. I suppose I really seized the day going chin-length, and layering the back of my hair to near extinction.

Lovin' Those Locks

I have never been the kind of person who freaks out at every haircut. My hair is not my security blanket like it is for some people. It grows back. Always. It's one of those few things you can actually count on.

So, the first time I heard about Locks of Love while I was in high school, I made a goal to one day donate my hair. Heck, little kids who are losing their hair to cancer need my hair more than I do, right? Well, I have been thinking a lot about that goal lately for two reasons. One, there is a lovely woman in my ward who is battling cancer, and two, it seemed like the perfect time because my hair was probably the longest it had ever been. So.........I did it. Over twelve inches, gone in five seconds.

It is wonderful.

Top ten reasons I love my short hair:

1. I don't recognize myself in the mirror. Not in a bad way, in a I-have-to-glance-back-in-abrupt-confusion-to-make-sure-it's-really-me way.

2. I am forced to get over my neck insecurities. Whenever I wore my hair up I always worried people were staring at my neck.......odd, I realize that. I no longer have my hair to cover my neck, ears, sides of my face, forehead, you get the idea. I will learn to be comfortable with my own neck!

3. When I brush my teeth, my hair doesn't fall from behind my shoulders into the sink, indubitably at the exact same time I spit, ending up in wet, toothpaste-foamy hair. No more!

4. Five words. One Hundred And Twenty Degrees. This is Phoenix, people.

5. It still goes behind my ears, and in two little pig tails, barely. SO easy to deal with. I never realized what a burden my hair was becoming.

6. Our year's supply of shampoo and conditioner is now a three year's supply of shampoo and conditioner. Sweet.

7. It is so light and airy, I feel like I'll never get a headache again. (This, unfortunately, has already been proved false, but it still FEELS like I won't).

8. I feel liberated. When she cut that 12 inch ponytail off, she may as well have been removing a backpack full of rocks from off my shoulders and paying all my bills while letting me take a four hour nap. It was so exciting.

9. Nate loves it. And honestly, his opinion matters most.

10. When I do feel a twinge of regret, and I'll admit, I've had one or two, it's been a great experience to think about my hair being a blessing to a child. In the end, my "sacrifice" really wasn't one at all. I feel a little silly that I ever thought of it that way.

To those of you considering losing the tresses, I say go for it.

Wedding Superstar!

The photographer who took the pictures at my wedding has a website with multiple "example" photos from weddings he has done. And, for the past three years, he has had FOUR pictures from my wedding as his examples! It makes us feel so famous! So, while they aren't all necessarily my favorite pictures from that blessed day, because they are the ones he has up I wanted to share them. The first three are from my bridals at Thanksgiving Point. You can tell by the third picture that I got a little goofy that day. The one of the boys is right before the reception, I think. I love that photo, I wish you could see their faces more close-up.

That was such a good day. I can't believe it's three years next month! What I want for my anniversary is to relive that day exactly as it was on July 19, 2005. That's not too much to ask, is it Mom?

Anything that flies.

I haven't always been afraid of birds. I trace it back to my mission, where the families we taught that had birds didn't keep them in cages, and they zoomed around our heads as we attempted to teach with the Spirit. I also remember an Elder on my mission who was afraid of lady bugs and butterflies, and when I asked him if he was serious his companion piped in, naming all the things this Elder feared, laughing to tears, "He's afraid of everything that flies." Well now I am, too.

We went to the Wildlife Zoo with Nate's family (HUGE animal people, and me, NOT an animal person) and I was actually enjoying myself. Shocking, I know. So then they decide to go into the birdcage and feed the birds some apples. I stayed outside, happily watching with a bird-proof cage in between myself and any danger. Then, when they gave the two-minute warning before time was up, I had a strange impulse to go in. Why? No clue. Fear of future regret, perhaps. This was my chance. So I went in, Nate shoved an apple into my hand, and a bird landed on it and started to nibble.






I think I blacked out for a minute, but I'm pretty sure the only reason we have a picture of this is because I kept screaming to my mother-in-law, "I want proof!" And here it is.

Has anyone seen my glass slipper?

Dignified and hard working. With a gentle and soft-spoken manner you have something many people don't. Patience. Even through the moments of heartbreak you're still able to hold onto all of your hopes and dreams. Bide your time; your dream will come true.

I can't think of many things I have in common with Cinderella, she is so sweet and I am so not, but I like the quote this result comes with. (Anyone who knows me, feel free to laugh at the "soft-spoken" part). However, patience is something I have really been working on, especially when things go wrong, so it was nice to be reminded that dreams come true! :)

I found this quiz on a friend's blog, if you want to take it.......

http://www.greatestjournal.com/quiz.bml?Q=16354

#1 Husband

This post, initially, was going to focus solely on the progress of our little squarefoot garden in the backyard. Nate took some pictures, emailed them to me, and I told him I would post them. However, as I went through my usual getting ready rituals this morning, I kept noticing things, things that are not out of the ordinary at my house, things that I often look over in a rush, things that make me wonder in awe about my husband.

First, I went into the bathroom and saw written on the mirror "Toothpaste Date" with a dry-erase marker. A day or two ago, in passing, I mentioned that I would like to keep track of how long it takes us to go through a tube of toothpaste, so we know how many tubes we need for our home storage. Nate, knowing I would forget, as I always do, wrote a sweet little reminder note. This was not the first time he's done this.

Then, as I'm brushing my teeth, I notice how nice and clean my sink and faucets are. Why are they so sparkling? Because Saturday morning we were in the bathroom and I said with quiet laugh, "Geez, our sinks get dusty so quickly." Later that day I left for a baby shower. When I got back, my husband had cleaned the bathroom, including windexing the mirrors.

When I'm clean and ready, I make my way downstairs, like I do every morning, and get my lunch out of the fridge. My lunch that Nate (who wakes up at 4:30 am every day) has lovingly prepared for me, sandwich, applesauce, string cheese, granola bars, and he throws in pop tarts that I can take to work and make for breakfast, if I don't have time at home (which I usually don't). He does this for me every single day.

As I turn to leave the kitchen, I glance out the sliding glass door into the backyard, where I see that our garden, his garden I should say, has been freshly watered that morning, like every other morning. The garden is flourishing, Nate has cared for it well, and yesterday we picked and ate a very delicious zucchini.


The first few sprouts, almost two months ago....

Nate picked his first zucchini! That giant bushy/shrubbery type picture frame is our garden.

So, there you go. I posted about the garden. But mostly, I just think my husband is wonderful Sometimes I wonder why he puts up with me. He is the most observant, thoughtful, unselfish man I have ever met. Kindness is just his habit, and I think he deserves a round of applause.

One Hour Photo

Nate and I were going through some unpacked boxes. Yes, there are still boxes to unpack, don't judge me, we only moved two months ago. I don't remember what we were looking for, but what we FOUND was way better. Three rolls of film! Old school, ghetto, kodak film. So.....we went and got them developed because neither of us could remember where they came from. Are you on the edge of your seats? It was our honeymoon camera! What is ever funnier than that is that fact that there are about 5 pictures of our honeymoon and the rest of that film had pictures from our first Christmas. Obviously, we weren't big into photography our first year of marriage. So, three years later, we share our honeymoon pics with you.







Our own memories and these pictures are all we have to document that week. I find that pretty funny.

Cruise Pics Part II

More pictures of us!

Formal Night! There were two. If you look back in older blog posts, you'll notice I'm wearing the same formal.....thanks to Beth V. for lending me her prom dress for the second formal night :)

OK THIS WAS PRETTY COOL. If you look below, you'll see many photos, mostly small and black and white. These are the pictures they took of us as we got on the ship the first day, every person who got on the cruise. There were hundreds! See? In the very center of the picture? It's me and Nate, superstars!! They made the picture of the two of us in color, and HUGE. It was probably 11 by 15 inches.
Melissa was breaking the rules taking pictures of the pictures, so she had to do it quick, (we didn't want to pay the $40 to buy it, but we had to document the stardom!!). Anyway, this guy thought she was taking pictures of him. This picture is classic!
Nate and Brad, very serious about giant chess.

Yes, I am the same size as my mother who had nine children and my 6-month pregnant sister. Sigh.
They had an American Idol type event that lasted for three nights, and Mel won the whole stinking thing. Hooray!

Cruise Pictures!

We got back last Saturday from our Mexican Riviera cruise on the Holland America cruise line. It was fabulous! My parents and my sister Melissa and her husband Brad were with us, and we all really enjoyed the vacation and each other's company. I had some first time experiences on this trip, like seeing a bullfight (quite gruesome) and going four wheeling. Here are a few pictures, for the whole trip, you can click on the picasa link. Also, we're going to add more as soon as we get the pictures from Mel and Brad and my parents, so stay tuned.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mandykolbaba/HollandAmericaCruiseApril2008

We promised our friend Colin Moses that we would go to PiPi's while we were in Puerto Vallarta. The pina coladas were incredible! The guacamole was superb! The taxi driver that took us there was a jerk!
This is the bullfight. Sorry if blood makes you queasy, but it was really surprising how gory it was. There were four matadores and four dead bulls when we left. Very interesting cultural experience. Some of these dudes were super theatrical!
That is the first matador. That is the bull's ear in his hand, he cuts it off after it dies and then walks around showing everyone. We thought this guy looked like our friend Cosme, so we took lots of pictures.
Ok, this is Brad holding a cup in his shorts. Why? Because the four of us volunteered to play the pool games on the ship during the activity time. We did the transfer the orange down the line with your neck game, the runwith a pool noodle between you legs game, a game with a hula hoop, a belly-flop competition, (six month pregnant Melissa opted out of that one) and a swimming race. The favorite game was when the boys had to hold this cup in their shorts while the other team members got a rag and had to squeeze ice cold water into the cup, the first team to fill the cup won. We won :)
This was the largest shrimp we had seen. Pictures don't do it justice. The food was great the whole time.
What we looked like before four wheeling.
My hilarious parents. These pictures are even better than the scooter pictures from the Disney Cruise. (In front of the "Hell" mural with my dad making his best scowling face).
The most humiliating pose I made while Nate had the camera out. Worth documenting. What was I thinking?
Nate revving up to speed through the water. We got soaked. Hence the swimsuit attire.
This is my mother finishing up the largest margarita I've ever seen. We told her to make her best drunk face, maybe people won't know it was virgin, and therefore just a sugar high.
This was one of the many days we won the "daily trivia competition." We won an umbrella, a luggage tag, and a key chain. Go Anderson family champions!!!
This event was in Mazatlan, called Salsa and Salsa. First they taught us to make 7 kinds of salsa then they taught us how to salsa dance! Nate was the star of the show, of course, entertaining all the participants with his grooving hips. This was super fun!

My Altima's gone!

Nate and I sold our Altima. It was pretty ridiculous for the two of us to have three cars, even though it was only for a few weeks. We got our asking price for it, so that was nice, but we loved this car and we were sad to see it go. This is our memorial:


You were a good car, but we look forward to life without a car payment. So long!