Livin' the H.B. Life

Ryan and I had a mini vacation a few weeks ago out to the river and that was really nice a relaxing. However, just this past weekend I had been telling Ryan how it had been several weeks since we both had a day off to spend together... He reminded me that we had just spent a few days at the river! Funny how soon we forget...

SO, I got off work a little early on Friday so we went and played Tennis at the community college. Lucky for us the other courts were young girls who were each playing with one of their parents. We didn't feel too dumb when we whacked balls into their courts... We went home and had dinner but decided it was too early to call it a night. We went down to the pier and walked out to Ruby's, on the end, to get a shake. It was a nice cool night. It is always fun to see who/what is downtown... My favorite was a sleeping duck - standing up! He looked like a penguin! We got so close I was tempted to push it or poke it to make sure it was real and not dead! I've only seen ducks sleep while they sit...

Saturday we slept in and it was so nice. Thanks to our new black-out curtains we both can sleep past 7am! After a lazy morning we went out to Huntington Harbor and kayaked! We enjoyed seeing the amazing homes in the harbor and some really cool birds! At one house there were 2 dogs playing in the water. We were worried for a minute because there wasn't anyone around and we wondered how they were going to get out of the water. Much to our surprise, they had their own ramp to get out of the water on!

We stayed out for about 90 minutes. We grabbed some food for lunch and then headed out to the beach for some surfing! YES, I did surf. I may have only caught one wave, but I did surf. Ryan, of course, surfed for an hour and caught nearly every wave that appeared... Surprisingly the water was fairly warm and that helped to get me in the water.

After that we cleaned up and went to dinner at the Lone Star and out to a movie with Ryan's parents. We had such a great Fri/Sat. weekend! (Good thing because Ryan had to work Sunday and Monday and now he is sick)

We love living in HB! Come visit us whenever you want!

If you chance to meet a frown...

Do not let it stay.
Simply turn it upside down
And smile that frown away.

Why is it that the most basic and simple Primary songs always pop in my head...

Last Sunday in YW the lesson was on overcoming opposition. Although I didn't teach the lesson, I really wanted the girls to understand that just because you pray for something you really want, or even something you think you really need and your prayer isn't answered doesn't mean that Heavenly Father doesn't love you. Sometimes His eternal perspective is just a little clearer than ours is... Who would have known that I would need that lesson probably more than they did. Just like from the musical Wicked, it sometimes seems that "no good deed goes unpunished." (If you haven't seen Wicked you should really go see it! It is amazing!")

Anyway, I already knew it before, but I have since learned it again, that without the sorrow and heartache and without the trials we surely wouldn't appreciate the good days or the many blessings that are in our lives. I am glad this week is over and I am glad that I have been able to realize the many blessings in my life. Plus, now I know what mistakes not to make again! Looking forward to next week...

Ryan, Ryan, He's our Man!

In the academy the class chose a class logo, "No Sacrafice, No Victory." After 6 months of sacrafice, the victory has finally come. CONGRATULATIONS RYAN! Yes, I am really late doing this post, but at least I am doing it! Ryan graudated from the Academy July 25th and it was amazing! The whole ceremony was very good and I felt so patriotic! It was amazing to be in a room with so many police offers past, current and future! They all became a family at that moment. Ryan had several friends come to his graduation as well as family. Both our parents were able to come, as well as my grandparents. We were so glad our friends and family were able to celebrate this special moment with us.

The graduation was on a Friday and the following Tuesday Ryan was sworn in. The Cheif gave a short speach and then the 3 HB recruits were sworn in. It was nice and it made me feel so good about Ryan's new career. The HBPD really wants their officers to feel like they are part of a family and that they do matter.

Ryan is starting his 4th week on the job and LOVING every minute of it. He has practically done everything there is to do as an office on patrol - or so it seems to me. The best part is when he comes home he is SO happy and he tells me how much fun he had and how much he loves his job! (Even if it is 3am...) He has had a few loooooooong nights already. I think the longest one yet was from 3pm - 7:30am... Yes, I did wake up in a panic and worried. However, now Ryan knows to send me a text message when he is going to be getting home late.

We are both learning how to do this, but I would say, so far it hasn't been too bad. We both have a newer and greater appriciation for police officers and all public service workers.

Way to go Ryan!

A Hunting We Will Go...

In the past several months we have been finding cat poop in the planter right in front of our house. It has been making us crazy because the cat will poop right in the planter on top of or next to our freshly planted flowers and then dig a hole to cover the poop. Basically the dumb cat has been digging up our flowers! I tried everying - cayane pepper, cat repellant powder, etc. It seems that nothing worked long term, only for a few days at a time. The worst was that when people would come to our door they could spell the horrible poop! It was very depressing that our doorstep and doorway always smelled of cat poop.

SO, we decided to get a cat trap. We hid the trap behind some of the plants and put a paper plate in it with sardines on the plate. The next morning we had a cat! Ryan had all sorts of plans for the cat that I didn't think sounded very nice. So, I took the cat and drove far, far away from our house and let it out in someone elses neighborhood. The funny thing was that the cat wasn't one I had EVER seen before! Of course it didn't have any tags on it so we figured it was a stray.



So, we hoped we had gotten the right cat and it seemed we did until this week... We have had more poop in our planter so I finally just ripped out all the flowers and just left the bigger plants. I am so mad at this dumb neighborhood cat! We got the cat trap again and put it out - in plain sight. For a whole week nothing has been in the trap. THEN, this morning Ryan came in and told me we caught something, but not a cat!

We caught a possum! He hate ALL the sardines that were in there and let me tell you - they had been in there a week so they couldn't have been very tasty... He seemed a little scared and then he growled at us...


I don't know if this possum is the pooping culprit but now I am going to have to get online and compare cat poop to possum poop because whatever pooped in our planter last night got it right on the bricks surrounding the planter!!! UGH. I wish the animals would poop in their owners yards or atleast whoever is feeding them!

Running Club

So some girls and I from the ward decided to get together and run MWF at 6am. We have a pretty good 3.5 mile course along a green belt and even though we are all at different levels of fitness, somehow it all works out. We've all gotten to be such good friends.

SO, above is me and Jennifer at a race we ran together. It was a 2 mile run and we did great! We even got medals! We were so proud of ourselves. (This was back in June...)

We then decided to enter the Huntington Beach 4th of July 5k and it was SO fun! The lat 5k I ran was over Thanksgiving and before that it was several years... thanks to a knee injurty. Anyway, the HB 5k run is probably the biggest race I've run in - people wise. It was just a sea of people! There were several other people that we knew in the race so it was really fun to be running and see people we knew either running or cheering us on!

Don't I look professional?! Jennifer is just a tad behind me - this was the final stretch! We are now preparing for the next 5k! Feels so good to run!!

I heart Edward

I must admit it. I heart Edward! I am a little late in reading the Twilight series, but yeah - better late than never! I borrowed the first three books from my sister Tiffany and they sat awhile on my book shelf. Then, when I finally decided to start the first book, life as I knew it came to a hault! I read the first 3 books in one week. Poor Ryan... he didn't even know what he was getting himself in to!

So, I picked up the 4th book on the Saturday it came out. I read as often as I could and I finished it on Tuesday. WOW! I LOVE THESE BOOKS! It has been fun and easy reading and that is what I love! Can't wait for the next book to come out! The one from Edward's point of view! See you all at the book store!

GIRLS!

Yes, I am behind, but I just wanted to post about our annual girls weekend! This is the 3rd year we have gotten together - just the Winn Family girls and it is a blast! The first year we went to St. George and the past two years have been at my house in Huntington Beach.

We started off the weekend by going to the Newport Beach temple to do a session. Grandma and Grandpa White were working at the temple that day so they did the session with us and then we all went out to dinner.

I broke the rules and invited Ryan... even though we weren't supposed to have our spouses there. Oh well! I was glad he was there!

This year, we decided to go see Wicked and it was AMAZING! I can't wait to go again! We also got to take a limo there and back! We had so much fun!

When we got to the theater there were some girls outside looking at the limo and pointing. I think they expected some beautiful, famous people to get out. We decided we should keep our sunglasses on so we would look more famous and mysterious... ;) Of course we did look beautiful and famous!

After wicked we rode back to Huntington Beach in our fancy lemo and went to downtown Huntington for dinner and shopping. We shopped a little the day before at Fashion Island so now we were exploring the less expensive, surfer shops.

To top it all off we had to visit Pink Berry again! We had gone the night before, but we just coudn't pass up another chance!

I can't wait until next year!!! I am already looking forward to the 4th annual girls weekend!!