Grandma is in town and it is better than Santa!

And she started things off with a bang! She came bearing gifts. Practically a whole suitcase full of the cutest stuffed animals that sing and make animal noises. The cow scared him a bit but other than that he was in some kind of baby heaven that only lets babies and gift-giving-grandmas (say that 3 times fast) in.

 

She spent her days here just kissing Gray's cheeks and loving on him as much as his squirmy little self would allow. One day, they strolled the Pier while I went for a quick jog. It's amazing how much easier less-hard a San Francisco hill is when you aren't pushing a 40 lb stroller up it. Followed by the traditional bowl of clam chowder, she couldn't resist and neither could I.

 Kimball had to step away for a few days for a dental conference. It was perfect timing to have a mom to spend my nights with watching Sound of Music and South Pacific. The next day we took a picnic to Golden Gate Park and fed the squirrels, not ducks. The first squirrel didn't even wait til I had the nuts out of my pocket to literally straddle my thigh until I shook it off. You better believe I was that freakin' annoying girl screaming in the middle of the park while my mom, the QUEEN of germ-a-phobs, was all hunky-dory with them and letting them climb all over her. Barf. I made her sleep outside that night.

She helped me run all my errands, clean up all my messes, finish all my primary projects, get all the bargains at the flower market and get all my girl-talk out, all in time to catch the sunset.

You're Invited to a Mustache Bash

We are back in Utah and Idaho now-a-days and I am finding myself with a little extra time on my hands and missing these great people: 

Right before we headed out for the summer, my two great friends Alysse and Jane threw Kimball and I the most adorable baby shower. Let's be honest, sometimes the conversation at baby showers tend to gravitate towards talking about sore lady parts or the baby's latest blowout which no one is a fan of, so we thought that a co-ed shower with more of a 'bbq feel' would be the most fitting. It was such a blast and we couldn't have asked for a better goodbye/happy baby party. Kimball even learned some 'baby shower etiquette' when opening gifts in front of everyone; it wasn't as comfortable as he thought it would be :). We have some of the most amazing friends and feel so blessed to have gotten to know them over the past year. Pretty sure the Allens and Stantons were up all night making the adorable decorations and incredible food. Can't thank you guys enough, we loved it all!

Happy 75th Birthday Mr. Golden Gate Bridge!

A couple days ago, the Golden Gate Bridge turned 75 years old. I have to say I really am not much of a city girl. I have developed such an appreciation for cows and endless fields whenever I see them back in Idaho and Utah but the city has some incredible perks too, like getting to watch a firework show being lit off the Golden Gate Bridge. I don't think anyone could ever get sick of looking at that iconic bridge. Whether it's the safety orange color or the mountain drop background, there is just something that makes it so much more spectacular than any ordinary bridge. I really feel so lucky that we get to spend this little chapter of our lives in such a beautiful place, not to mention our incredible, photogenic friends that we get to share events like this with; love those Youngbergs and Allens and baby Evie was a real champ.

And we just found this fun video of the whole celebration: http://vimeo.com/43004940

Friends in the City

I have some catching up to do. Over the last month we had some of our besties come and visit us. Sydnie the crazy, decided the day before that she needed a weekend getaway and bought her ticket for the next night. That's the kind of spontaneity I can only hope to have one day. We had such a good time at the Farmer's Market on the Pier, checking out all the street performers (we saw all my favorites including trumpet boy, the bush man and the robot dancers) got clam chowder and hit up the beach when Kimball was done studying.

My favorite picture of the weekend definitely came from the beach visit. Unbeknownst to us, the beach we chose to go to happened to have been the most popular nude beach in San Francisco. And I thought walking down the street in the Castro was a sight for sore eyes. I had no idea that it was fashionable to walk around in just your shirt and flip-flops or if you're a woman, just your pants and bolo tie. Unfortunately, someone at my house also thought it was a great idea and no it is not me. Anyways, I would share the money shot with you but blogger.com won't allow it, ha! I'll leave it up to your imagination to fill in the blanks.

And then the very next week, we got a wonderful visit from Emsio. And we just talked. I can't even tell you what we did and my phone being broken has left me with a lack of pictures except for the super flattering ones the boys decided to take while Emo and I were on a bathroom hunt. I just know that we talked and talked and it was awesome. We went on a gorgeous hike in the Presidio, got some killer ice cream, ran (and someone walked) across the Golden Gate Bridge because one of the items on Emo's bucket list is to run across one of the 7 world wonders. The GG Bridge is number 8 on that list if anyone was wondering. :) Had a beautiful temple visit and then I drug them all along to an overrated flee market and then before I knew it she was gone again! Come back Emo, come back.

Happy Mother's Day!

Recently, Allegiant Airline has opened up a new direct flight from Idaho Falls to Oakland and at the most ridiculous and fantastic prices ever! So I decided that for $50 each way, we could afford to send me home for a quick Mother's day/Mother's birthday weekend surprise visit! With a lot of help from Kimball's family and my brother's, we were able to throw my mom a little birthday bash. It seems like surprises are the only eventful things that happen in my life right now but seriously it's Kimball's and my way of  making it up to ourselves for having to miss out on all of the little get-togethers that our family's do while we are 12 hours away.

The original plan was to dress me up as Tyson's new girlfriend and have me sit in at dinner at Olive Garden (mom's favorite) until she realized that Tyson's new girlfriend looked strangely like her daughter and was for some reason, already pregnant. But because of a five hour flight delay (guess that's what you get when your entire flight costs only $100) the boys had to do dinner without me. So as soon as I got there, we threw a nasty black, Frankenstein's wife looking wig on me and the boys gave me Mom's dessert to bring into the kitchen to her. Tyson took some footage of the whole evening surprises from her dinner to the new tv to her visit from Samara from the ring (aka me) which can be seen here, here and here. Video #3 shows the unexpected reaction of her crumbling to the floor with laughter. Seriously? No tears? I come all this way for her birthday and she doesn't even cry? She just laughed at my dumb wig. Typical Sheri. I feel like I post videos of her like I'll post videos and pictures of my baby. But for now, she entertains me like a small child would. :)

The rest of the weekend flew by as I got to be there to say good-bye to my sister-in-law Mandi before she headed off to PA school in Philadelphia and spend time with my wonderful Burton family. Only one month left 'til we move home for the summer!

The Burton Family minus some keyplayers (Kimball, The Adams and Jeddy)

Mandi's Going Away Party

Don't forget, Trevor was there too.

To Haley, Amanda and Liz

We always joke about me getting on the blogging train, and how terribly terrible I am at it but you guys have to understand that the pressure you put on me after reading your eloquent blogs has been building for years now. I just had to wait till I had something big enough and exciting enough and interesting enough to write about. And it's finally here, my cookie-crumbling story has arrived! :) To be honest, I was starting to write about weird news reports, that's how boring work and the nightly television had gotten in my life ;). Plus, I figure you three are the only ones that will ever check out this blog, oh and the occasional family member and of course Taza (she already asked if she could do a guest post, I'm still thinking about it) but I wanted to share my fun news (feel free to scroll down whenever) with you guys in a fun way that we've been joking about for forever. I'm always telling you that my awesome blog is almost ready to go public. And yeah yeah, it's not great, there are a lot of missing pictures and it's no Amanda the chef or Haley the poet or Liz the Frenchy but now you guys can start teaching me. (PS Haley, you went private and since I've been inactive on this thing I don't have access anymore, invite?) I miss you best friends! Now you have a super valid reason to come visit San Francisco sometime in the next year cause this kid is going to need to meet his/her aunties :) Love you besties!

Sharing the News

Kimball and I have been scheming for the past couple months about how we wanted to share our good news with our families. My family does an annual snowmobiling trip every winter and knew that we'd be flying in for it. Please excuse my irreverence in the following video but seriously my mom's face was just too priceless.


Seymour Surprise from Tess Burton on Vimeo.


Kimball's family had no idea we were in town so Sunday morning we snuck up to Idaho and skyped them from their next-door neighbor's living room. I think the triple effect of BAM, we're in town and BAM, we're pregnant and BAM we're going to be here to have the baby BAM BAM BAM was a little overwhelming. Courtney didn't cry as hard as I was hoping for but the tears they lacked were made up for in high-pitched squeals :)

Burton Surprise from Tess Burton on Vimeo.

So Monday afternoon we had lunch with the Burton aunts and uncles and then headed back to Farmington where we met up with Whitney and Matt at a gas station in Kaysville. The original plan was to catch them at Matt's in Bountiful and hopefully get to watch the Bachelor with them but poor planning on my part had us spoiling the surprise to Matt and getting him to pull over on their way back home to Logan. We faked a letter from ABC saying that Kimball and 3 guests had won a trip to L.A to take a tour of the Bachelor mansion. Yeah, we got a little carried away but it was so worth it.
Checkett's Surprise from Tess Burton on Vimeo.

Right after the gas station attack, we had dinner with my mom and headed to Salt Lake where conveniently Mandi, Sarah and Tanner were watching the Jazz game at Mandi's boyfriend's house. We did a quick in and out, showed some ultrasounds, and a few belly rubs for the belly that isn't really there yet and then we headed on our way to the airport.Unfortunately I forgot to pull my camera out until the last second for this surprise but it was a great way to top off an incredible weekend.

The Kid's Got a Face

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. I finally understand what Dickens was talking about. No but seriously yesterday was a really great day and a ridiculously hard day. I don't have a legitimate excuse for my poor performance at work lately except for that being a receptionist just plain sucks. Most days not only do you feel like the bottom of the totem pole but you feel like the dirt that the totem pole is stuck in. Combine that with the constant nausea and entire lack of energy that the first trimester brings, and you get a giant dump of yesterday. My slacking was brought to my attention pretty bluntly by 3 people to be exact, one super intimidating boss, one arch enemy and one girl I actually really like. :(

I've been trying to schedule a "hey boss, I'm pregnant, thought you should know" meeting and she's been trying to schedule a "what's going on with you lately" meeting, the two collided into one ultimate disaster. She asked "what's going on with you?" and I said, "well actually I've been wanting to talk to you, I'm pregnant." And she said..... "Oh Shi*! Are you serious?! Well you won't get salary while you're gone" and utter disappointment flooded her face. Not the greatest first reaction to the greatest news I've had in a long time but anyways, we carried on an awkward, uninteresting and quite annoying five minute conversation and then da da da daaaa....

 I got to go see this:

And everything was okay again.

Second Trimester!

If you’ve been around me as of late, then you can testify that hanging out with a pregnant lady in her first trimester is nothing short of an absolute roller coaster. Kimball can attest to this the most though because really, we try to avoid other people when I’m feeling like I am going to puke all over those brand new shoes you’re showing me. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of concealing it with a lot of lies and Kimball actually holding me back from snapping at certain people during Sunday School, (trust me, pregnant or not, you would have wanted to deck this guy in the face for chewing his gum that loud, too). It amazes me how much I’ve already changed and still I can’t grasp the fact that we are really going to have a baby. A BABY. A little human. A perfect little combination of Kimball and I. With skin and bones and a heartbeat and I’m sure a handful of attitude; regardless of gender. I had my first mommy cry last night as we were watching American Idol. Really? That’s what it takes for reality to set in? It wasn’t after we saw the ultrasound, wasn’t after we heard the heartbeat. But American Idol? How ridiculous, yet fitting. Anyways, it was just a mom kneeling down by the tub, with her two little boys splashing together in the bathtub and I realized, that is my future, my very very near future. We’re a couple days away from the second trimester and it’s starting to feel safe to accept and believe and hope that this is really happening for us. I’m just barely opening that gate of excitement so I’m sure it will kick in full blast sometime soon.

This past month has been challenging. I’ve been a pretty sick girl. I’m lucky that I have such a patient and loving husband who lets me crawl straight into bed from work and not lift a finger once I get home. Seriously, he treats me like a pregnant princess. It has been nuts to watch my body transform. Super weird. First thing we (Kimball and I) noticed was the swelling of my mosquito bite boobs. I know most of you haven't seen me in awhile, what with us living in California and such but it really happened, this is actual factual news. I. Grew Boobs. Thank you baby! But.... about a week later I started to grow a stomach as well, so the flattering new look has become an over-all bleh and we all know it's just going to get worse. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining because in 7 months, I will have me a precious baby and so all of this is totally worth it and fantastic and quite beautiful but I did want to document my symptoms and changes for future reference.

We didn't find out we were pregnant til we were about 7 weeks along. An irregular cycle, Christmas vacation and a little bit of denial had a lot to do with that. But I swear the day after we found out I was sick as a dog. Kimball actually said to me, "I'm pretty sure this might be all in your head" and I believed him because none of it felt real. At first I was starving all of the time. I ate everything I could see for about two weeks. I was always eating and it made me feel great!  So I pretty much just ate all day long. And I actually think I lost a little weight; crazy I know. Then the nausea hit. That lasted about a month. I was constantly googling "can pregnant women eat _____" and on occasion, pictures would pop up that just the sight of would make me throw up. My first case of morning sickness at work was interrupted by the janitor knocking on the door and standing outside of it for the whole 15 minutes it took for me to feel comfortable walking away from the toilet. I actually said, "ha, sorry that took so long!" and kept on walking. Ew. Awkward. But not as bad as my 4th or 5th time when I decided to have a raspberry crystal light to wash everything down with right before it all decided to come back up and of course it stained everything inside of me red. What a fun sight it was for the lady that walked in on me, bent over the toilet appearing to vomit my actual intestines, all stained a very horrifying shade of dark red. Too much? I'm sorry. It's the truth and this blog isn't even public yet so I don't care. I think the worst/most unfortunate/funniest aversion I've had yet though has got to be that I can't see my husband naked without gagging and running for the toilet. I think my subconscious knows exactly who got us into this sick-mode and has decided to stay as far away from him as possible. Ha. Poor guy.

Luckily things are starting to get better with the beginning of the second trimester. For starters, I'm beginning to believe that there is a baby in there. I'm absolutely ecstatic about getting to go home and tell our families and soon after, our friends. Two weeks! Second, Subway and Saltines have been the only thing I could consistently eat that didn't make me sick this last month but now I am starting to eat and I don't even gag every morning when I get out of bed. But seriously I just need to know, why doesn't anyone ever warn you about the awful case of the pregnancy gas/burps? This needs to be discussed more openly. Not by me of course, but it should be right up there with morning sickness on the list of well-known and common pregnancy symptoms. Geeze!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Christmas is so close, I can practically taste it. This weekend we finally put up our Christmas tree. Our very first family Christmas tree. This week is finals for Kimball and we played a lot harder than we should have. Kimball neglected his studies a bit and spoiled his wife with some one on one time. He took me to a surprise dinner at a new cheese steak joint but when we got there and saw the menu we decided to go to our usual cheese steak place just two blocks away (well one of us decided to stay loyal, the other couldn’t have cared less). Saturday rolled around and proved to be very eventful; much more than I expected for a pre-finals weekend. We sang Christmas songs, took pictures with a glitter fairy, attended the ward Christmas party, tricked the 2nd counselor into eating a slap of butter shaped like cheesecake, destroyed the car, threw watermelons from a cliff into the ocean, got ice cream, made some very cheesey potatoes, went shopping at union square, babysat and of course, watched football. We don’t really need to talk about that very middle event that has to do with the car, but if you must know, I rubbed the Intrepid up against someone’s stupidly small San Francisco garage. Pictures attached. L But the best part, Kimball wasn’t even mad. A little surprised that what I called a tiny scratch actually was 3 feet long, but not mad! A wonderful weekend indeed.

Sleep Much?

Life has been pretty good lately. Work has gotten a bit better. The weather is phenomenial, 65 degrees on the last day of November to be exact and best of all... I discovered sleeping for 12 hours straight. I came home about a month ago and Kimball was home taking a nap, he earns those midday power naps though, the kid stays up til 2 or 3 in the morning just to be prepared for the next day of school. Anyways, I laid down next to him right when I got home from work around 6pm and although he woke up an hour or two later to study, I didn't wake up until the next morning at 6am when my alarm was going off. I woke up pretty disappointed that for 36 hours all I had known was work and sleep so I told Kimball we couldn't let that happen again.

It's happened at least once a week since that day. Including last night. One of the nights I woke up in the middle of it to Kimball laughing out loud and burying his knees in my back. I guess, in my sleep I had refused to move my legs/feet from Kimball's pillow and everytime he pushed me back to my side I'd kick right back onto his. And the best way he found was to knee me in the back as I was yelling, "Ouchy, ohhh ouchy, that really hurts. Stop it! Ouchy!" FYI ouchy is not a part of my daily vocabulary, just when Kimball touches me in my sleep.

I'm going to look fondly back on our years in dental school and think to myself how I caught up on 22 years of missed sleep. Kimball will be catching up on these 4 years of missed sleep for the rest of his life. :) He also likes to give me a recap of the nights that I turn into zombie Tess. This morning I woke up to this notecard:

K: Tess are you ready to get into bed?

T: No I'm telling a story.

K: Okay well are your toes cold?

T: No. Is your vagina cold?
Then you shot me with your finger-gun.

Ha. What a great way to start the day. Ps sorry I said the v word. In my defense, I was asleep.

Surprise for Kimball... HOVA

Can you keep a secret? Cause I sure can't. I don't know why but I am sooo excited for this. I bought Kimball birthday tickets to go see Jay-Z and Kanye West perform in San Jose in a month. And every single day there is at least one moment where I almost just blurt it out to him, so maybe if I type it out and feel like I'm telling someone than it will help me to not tell Kimball. Cross your fingers.

Kimball loves Jay-Z and he loves Kanye West. We don't listen to the ipod very often, but just last night Kimball came into the room and scrolled through everything to find the one Jay-Z and Kanye song we have on there and that's what he picked to listen to and his next choice was the Kanye West playlist. :) My wife job is just too easy sometimes. When we first started dating Kimball invited me on a road trip to Seattle to go see Jay Z in concert and then head up to Canada. It was on that trip that Kimball popped the big question, he was so nervous to ask me to come to Thanksgiving dinner. Kinda a big deal right? Especially since Thanksgiving was still a month and a half away. One could say that Jay Z brought Kimball and I together, yeah, one could say that.

Wednesdays Get Whacky

The Good: Look at her face! Is that not priceless. In the good today, I came across this picture that just melts my heart:

This adorable couple, Ann Thayer, 87, and Paul Walker, 88, got married at the Marshwood Center in Lewiston, Maine. The couple met at church and have dated for 17 years until some nurses in the nursing home where Walker is rehabilitating teased the couple about getting married. Thayer said their conversation went like this, "All those nurses said, 'You've been together how long? Why didn't you ever get married?' Paul looked at me, 'You want to do it?' I said, 'OK, well, when?' 'Right now,'". I just love how you can see happiness all over her face.

The Bad: In Lexington, SC, a six-year-old first grader came home from school telling her Grandma how tired she is of rubbing her teacher's feet. After hearing this, the Grandmother called the school and reported it on facebook and immediately received at least 6 other parents who had heard similar stories from their children. The teacher admitted to making the kids rub her feet during the school day and upon her confession was sent home for the day, only to return the next morning!! WHAT? "Does she take off her socks and shoes?" the Grandmother asked,"Grandma, she wears flip-flops." Ew. If you ask me this should be just as punishable as physical or sexual abuse.

The Ugly: Pretty sure the headline of this news article tells us all we really need to know, "He's no Santa: Burglary suspect stuck 10 hours in chimney". Apparently this 17 year old kid needed $500 to pay his taxes and after stealing it from an Atlanta resident, his best escape route was up through the chimney. A neighbord heard cries from the chimney calling out, "Help me! Help me!" and when asked what he was doing down there, "Ahhh... I'm stupid" was all he could say. I'm sure Antoine Dodson will be happy to hear that they finally caught him! So hide your kids, hide your wives and hide your Christmas presents cause they climbing through your chimneys!

And in my own news report, we had Thanksgiving dinner for lunch at work today :) Pumpkin pie and stuffing and everything. I even saved a dallop of whipped cream to put in some apple cider. I'm sitting pretty at this little desk of mine, yes siree. And later Kimball and I are going to head down to the Mission district to go thrift shopping, a bit sketchy at night but definitely has the best thrift stores around. Specifically, we are on the hunt for a new headboard and bed frame. Our little dorm room is lacking in decorative spirit, don't worry though, it's nothing some cheap furniture can't fix.

Wednesdays Get Whacky

Since getting a new job that requires me to be in my car and on the road by 7am, I have found a radio talk show that is entertaining enough to keep me awake and alert for the hour commute (as if the traffic didn't already do that). Anyways, my absolute favorite part of their morning show is when they feature 3 news articles and categorize them as the good, the bad and the ugly. So funny! Well lately since I figured out that I could leave by 7:10 and still make it on time to work, I've been missing my favorite news articles so I figured maybe I could find some myself. Fun little challenge and if not, I can always just post the link to Greg and Fernando's articles and I know they're guaranteed to pull through for me.

The Good: Rocky start I guess because I'm not quite sure how to categorize this article but it was just too interesting to not post. CBS reported here that 26-year-old Chris Birch suffered a stroke after he attempted a back flip and landed on his neck. His then-fiancee and family stayed with him in the hospital but when he woke up, they found a very different person. Chris awoke and immediately knew that something was different, he says, "Suddenly, I hated everything about my old life. I didn't get on with my friends, hated sport, and found my job boring". He quit his job, trained to be a hair dresser and started dating a man. The doctor interviewed said that he's never personally heard of a stroke changing some one's sexuality, but he doesn't doubt the stroke had some impact on Birch's life. Hmmm.... that's why my mom would never let me do flips on the trampoline.


The Bad:: About 15 miles away from my front door, this is going on:


Occupy Oakland, inspired by the Occupy Wall Street Movement has made quite a name for themselves. The Movement began about 7 weeks ago in light of the struggling economy and the many people who have suffered. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they are targeting Wall Street in direct relation to the many CEOs who have ridiculous Christmas bonuses and are getting paid well over Over the last couple weeks, Kimball and I will turn on the news to hear at least one 'Occupy Oakland' story. The stories has progressively gotten more and more violent. This article here details the latest action. Thousands of people successfully blocked off one of the nation's busiest shipping ports, their main objective being "to stop the flow of capital". They also prevented any trucks from getting in or out by surrounding the vehicles and climbing on top of them. An update shows that the camps in Oakland were raided by hundreds of police, but very few people remained to stay and protest. I wish they would organize themselves a bit, become more united across the nation and transcribe their list of demands because I don't know how they aim to get whatever it is they are fighting for. Empty camps = surrendered?

The Ugly: Andddd the ugly, a South-African couple, soon to be married and give birth to their baby, found out this weekend they are brother and sister. I guess Mom and Dad split when they were little. Dad took the son and Mom kept the daughter and they agreed to not speak of each other. The two families ended up living 50 miles apart until the son and daughter met at the local university and instantly had a connection. They fell in love and have been inseparable for the last 5 years. Now she is 8 months pregnant with their baby and they have called off their engagement after introducing their parents to each other and finally being told the truth about their past. Holy moly, this is like Oliver Twist mixed with Anastasia mixed with a handful of significantly high-risk deformed DNA. My heart is breaking for these two. What in the world would you do if you found out your husband was your brother, I can't even imagine what kind of emotions come with that.

And that'll do it for Wednesday's good, bad and the ugly. Stay Classy readers.

A Little Halloween Magic!

This Halloween, a wicked witch turned my handsome husband into this little Britney Spears look-a-like beauty:



You can call me the wicked witch. Or JT short for Justin Timerberlake. As our first Halloween, as well as our first holiday, in San Francisco, we wanted to make sure to go all out. I don't know about you but having Halloween on a Monday night made us feel very pressured to celebrate it on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. But Saturday night was the main attraction. Saturday night was the ward Halloween party. It started at 6 but some lady in relief society said it went all night or as long as your little heart could party. Was I the only idiot who believed her that this was an all-out all-night party? Guess so because we showed up at 7:10 to a dwindling crowd. It was my fault: I started making these bad boys at 6 and these sicky bloody bandaid cookies at 6:15 and didn't even put this boy's eyeliner on or help him put his tights on till 6:30... so we kinda missed the whole dang party, we spent 2 hours getting ready for a party that we caught the last 10 minutes of. Secret blessing in disguise though because our costumes were not well received to say the least. Our stake president walked up to Kimball, ha, and said, "Looks like you're in San Francisco now, aren't you?" Seriously?! Yikes. What does that even mean?? I felt really bad for Kimball, he was pretty embarassed.

It didn't help when Kimball got compared to the most passionate gay guy in the ward who was dressed head to toe in pink; pink boa, pink custom made tuxedo, pink top hat, pink gloves and pink alligator shoes who finished the evening out singing 'Let's Be a Lady'.

We went home, washed off Kimball's eyeliner and headed back out to salvage our night. We dropped by Kimball's friend from Utah State's house to help him move a couple things in. Then stopped at some friends from the ward's house, hung out for an hour or so and then decided to take the long way home, through castro street. The show was too good, we had to stop and get a midnight cheeseburger and walk around. Happy Halloween!

A Real Camera... Isn't it about time?

That's right. I finally did it. I splurged and bought myself a real camera. I had had it up to here with my little point and shoot and after the blurry, unfocused, unzoomed, uncropped pictures of Kimball at his white coat ceremony I decided to end this. I knew I wanted a DSLR, my first, so I did a bit of shopping and read a zillion professional and consumer reviews and top ten lists and compared Nikon vs Canon. I've always been a Nikon fan, but I really don't think it matters. Everyone says they are neck in neck with features and consistent updates so it really doesn't matter which brand you go with, both deliver phenomenal results. I chose Nikon, the Nikon D5100 to be exact. Only problem is, the price. If you know me, you know that I'm a cheapwad. I most likely got it from my Dad, who I love, but the man could use his senior citizen pass to get a discount on church tithing if he wanted to. He just knows how to cut a deal. So I don't ever make any serious purchases without consulting ksl (if I'm in Utah) or craigslist (for everywhere else). I was able to find a couple ads selling Nikon's D5100's. But this one particular ad had everything I wanted for a price that was just too good to be true. I sent him a text and offered him even less than what he was asking... just to test the waters. His reply, "sure, sounds good." What? Okay I must be talking to a 12 year old kid who stole this from their Mom's closet and was trying to make a buck or two. So after asking a couple more 'tester' questions, we agreed to meet so that I could test out the camera. He wanted to meet at his grandma's house, op I was wrong; it's Grandma's camera, not Mom's. When Kimball and I showed up, This man answered the door:

Not exactly the 12 year old girl I was expecting but we'll take it. He said that the camera was a gift and photography is not his thing. I didn't really believe that but I stopped asking questions. The camera was sitting right by the front door in its brand spanking new box with all the packaging still intact. I was shocked that it really hadn't been used yet. I pulled it out to check the lenses, which were still in their individual boxes and turned it on to see how many actuations it had, none, zero, zilch. So we bought it! I'm so happy! This is, what I hope, the beginning of a very beautiful relationship. And it will become even more beautiful when I figure out how to use the dang thing.

As we were walking out, I asked him for his name so that in the case that things go wrong within the next couple of days with the camera that I could call him. He says "my name is Kenny" and I look up from my paper where I was writing this down and say, "... and your last name?" He looks around the room then to Kimball then finally back to me and says, "G. You can call me Kenny G."

Thanks a lot Kenny G.

How My Facebook Profile Picture was Changed

Kimball started school on September 12th. It was a range of emotions for all of us, well mostly just for him. He was nervous and excited and ready to learn and I was bored, downright bored. We had such an amazing week and a half just getting to sleep in until 10, heck sometimes 11, then playing for a couple hours, going to explore the city all day, taking a late afternoon nap, going out to dinner, and falling asleep to an episode of 24 (we hadn't set cable yet and our options were few). We did that like 10 days in a row, plus church on one of those days. Then when school started I felt like a little puppy dog waiting at the door for their owner to come home. By the third day of Kimball's orientation, I was something short of a mess. That Wednesday morning, things started out as normal, I slept in, lounged around and when 12:00 rolled around I patiently waited by the window-which is the only place we get cellphone service in our apartment- for Kimball's lunch phone call. Okay, I am exaggerating, I patiently watched the season finale of 24 while my phone laid next to the window. Still, the result was the same, there was no lunch phone call. Looking back on it now, it's not anything to think twice about. But then, wow, the highlight of my day didn't happen because my husband forgot about me. It was the worst thing that could have happened. And to shorten this story up- we'll skip the details about how I may or may not have cried myself to sleep that night and I may or may not have locked him out of the house for minute, opened the door a crack to say, "You didn't call" and then closed it, ahh fine, slammed it.

The next day I made an appointment with a temp agency that was recommended to me by another dental wife in the ward. I googled her company just to see what people have said about them, to make sure My interview was in downtown San Francisco set for 1:00 that afternoon and I was on the road by 12:00, feeling confident that since I was only 15 minutes away I'd have a world of time. So wrong. Finding parking amongst all the one way streets, the little china town, the private parking lots, the red zones, the white zones, the yellow zones and the blue zones (who really knows what all those colors mean!?) was a nightmare. I finally walked in to my interview at 1:40. Checked in with the front desk and sat down with an application, a grammar and a spelling test. I spelled definitely wrong. I have been having dreams about it ever since, that is not a joke. In the middle of my spelling test, a very friendly woman walked in, greeted me and walked into the boss' office (also the lady who I was supposed to have interviewed with over an hour ago). A few minutes later, the boss lady, who I had not seen or met yet comes out and asks me if I have a car. I began to spit out my apologies of why I thought I could drive and find parking for my car, and yes my car is the reason I was late and how this is the first time trying to park in the big city and oh my gosh blah blah blah. She stops me, "do you have a car?". She must have been looking for a shorter answer. "Yes" I reply and she leaves. I finished my test, turned it without double checking definitely...idiot idiot. And then proceeded to the boss lady's office.

And that was it. Just like that, I had gotten a job. She sent me away to go start my computer tests.

I sat down and started the 2.5 hour long computer tests which tested my skills in outlook, word, powerpoint and access. In the middle of taking the test, boss lady sticks her out of the door and tells me to stop everything and come in her office. She and her assistant where standing there looking me up and down. I figured they just realized that I didn't know how to spell definitely and were going to boot me now. No, but really she said, "The company that you were going to work for called and said they googled you and they do not feel comfortable with you working for them now." I was so confused. Boss lady sat down at her desk and pulled up the same page the company had seen. As it loaded the title "Model Mayhem" popped up on the screen and I knew exactly where this was going. Tess Burton from Orem, Utah the beautiful blonde model pulled up with her hair draped over what should have been draped with a shirt, a tank top, maybe even a bra would have been nice. Ha. The assistant, bless her heart, kept saying "no, it's not her, look at her eyes, this girl has brown eyes, that girl has blue eyes, they are not the same" to which boss lady would reply, "I don't know, look at the hair, the hair looks just the same." Geeze. My hair color is not even real.

Anyways, to cut to the chase, after ten minutes of talking with the CEO over there, she called me back in and said they want to see your facebook. I pulled it up. The boss says, "Oh gosh, that's you?! You look fat in this picture. I can't send this to them" she paused to look me up and down and after much thought she said, "Hmm.. You're not even fat! Yeah, we definitely need a different pic. Do you have something on your phone or just anything?" haha I was immediately reminded of my long summer days which were spent watching this garbage: _________

I let her scroll through my previous profile pictures until she found one that she liked. I start on Monday!

And that's the story of how my facebook profile picture got changed.

Sharing Dreams

"Sharing dreams" as the title of this post sounds a little more magical than it really is... but it has recently become one of my more favorite things that Kimball and I do since getting married. I love waking up in the morning and in our half-awake half-asleep, equally-manly morning voices telling each other what we dreamt about and hearing the whacky ridiculous stuff his mind comes up with. Although, I have to admit my dreams are usually the more absurd of the two. The last 3 nights I have really had some doozies.

So side-story real fast, while we were in California last week, we went to Six Flags and there was this unfortunate little 13 year old girl who was slurping on her blow pop sucker right behind us, literally inches from my ear. And as she'd pace back and forth, I watched the reactions of my husband and little brother start to get equally as irritated as I already was. Good thing the line for this ride was only an hour and a half. So anyways, days later, after we'd come home from the trip and I was asleep laying in bed next to Kimball I started to see the girl in my dream. I dreamt that I started to walk away from her as she unwrapped her lollipop and she just stayed one step behind me the whole time and slapped her nasty little tongue all over the sucker making that horrible sucking noise. Then I started to run and she stayed with me, just haunting me with that slurp, slurpy, slurping. So I threw her a right hook and punched her right in the face. And the slurping stopped right as my husband started groaning. Haha, then I realized that Kimball's dry mouth slurping noise that he does sometimes when he sleeps had manifested itself in the form of that awful little girl and I punched him/her to make it stop. Ha ha.

Then the night after that, Kimball had to wake up that morning at 6:00 to run into work really fast. After he had left I started dreaming that Kimball and I were in some honeymoon suite with two bathrooms, separated by the master bedroom. He was taking a bath in one bathroom and all of a sudden the door burst open with tons of freshman girls came in screaming "Kimball! Kimball! Let's hang out! It's so good to see you!" And to this he responds, "Hey girls, yeah for sure, lets make a plan!" Haha. Cool Kimball. And so in my dream, I slammed the second bathroom door and just watched through the glass door as he flirted with the girls sitting on the edge of the bathtub with him in it. Finally the girls left and Kimball tried to come into my bathroom and I locked it right as he started to push the door open. Then he smashed the glass, broke through the door and started running towards me with his arms straight out as if he was ready to strangle me and right before he caught me, the real-life Kimball had gotten home from work and crawled into bed and wrapped his arms around me. I woke up and just stared up at him with the most horrified, disgusted glare on my face and finally after laying there for a few minutes trying to determine what was real and what wasn't, I said "I had a dream you tried to kill me."

THEN, and I really can't believe anyone is still reading this, the next night I had a dream that Kimball and I were at a concert put on by Utah State and Kimball's buddy Tyler Tolsen, student body president, pulled Kimball up on stage and asked him to dance for the ladies. So naturally, he got butt naked and started dancing for the ladies. Gee wiz. What a sicko. He was shaking his butt and laughing and winking and pointing and making that awful "I'll call you" hand gesture thing where you turn your hand into a phone at girls. All I could do was roll my eyes with disgust. Apparently subconscious Tess is also the most self conscious Tess I know. The bad guys in my dreams are Kimball and freshman girls.

I think this all started with the time some random girl came up to me at church and said, "Are you Kimball's wife? Oh I know Kimball from Snow College, well I don't know him, I just know who he is because all the girls knew Kimball at Snow, all the girls wanted him and all my roommates would talk about him." What do you say to that? That's nice. But I guess you know your life is pretty dang good when you ended up scoring the talk of the town and your worse nightmare is a couple of freshman girls. :) Happy dreaming!

Dire Need of an Update

How silly of me to think that we had seen the last of Kimball's dental school acceptance letters. When you are applying to grad school, medical school or dental school, as many of you know, it is quite the guessing game. You want to apply to enough schools that you'll have a fighting chance to get in yet not so many that you start to waste your time and money. And then when you finally get in to a couple good/great options and are wait-listed at your first choice school you disregard that wait list and just thank the heavens that we got in somewhere. But low and behold, the heavens opened up and in the most feminine of male voices said, "Kimball Burton, congratulations, you have been accepted to University of California San Francisco School of Dentistry". And that is final. We leave in 1 month and are so grateful that we get to have the luxury of only having to drive 13 hours to come see our families versus the 36 it would have taken to get to Virginia. Not to mention the direct flights from San Francisco to Idaho Falls! This was meant to be!

Virgina or Portland....

Virgina or Portland........

Kimball has been so successful in this whole dental school application process.
I am SO proud of him.
I hate to brag but it's allowed when it's about my bf.
He was accepted to Philadelphia, VCU, UNLV, OHSU
and waitlisted at San Francisco.
Pretty good, huh?

But all that glory and excitement made for a very difficult decision.
We narrowed it down to our top two:
Virgina or Portland.
And then we made a list.

Richmond, Virginia Vs. Portland, Oregon

After much deliberation, pondering, praying and thought
The verdict is:




We couldn't be more excited!!! :)