little sketches of us…

Here I am done with my classes and done living here. Sad. We liked Fort Worth a lot. We recommend it to anybody who is looking for an adventure. Saturday we went to 6 Flags – a huge amusement park between Fort Worth and Dallas.

The park has all sorts of rides and fun things to do. We started with the rotating cups, then a bob-sled ride, the Superman and then a drop in the pond ride. It was fun.

I do have to tell you that I have a fear of heights… this should let you know that these kinds of rides are somewhat scary to me. In fact, I had great fun until we got to the Superman ride (the one in the map above). The ride takes you up in your chair to a very high spot, it bounces there a little, and then after it takes you to the top, and it drops you all the way to the bottom. Kevin (Heidi’s brother) did not want to do it because it looked too scary. He left the line and later returned. I thought for a while that I could do it. The person invited us to sit down. I sat, looked up, saw the great distance we had to travel, got up from the chair and said: “I can’t do it.” And I didn’t. I couldn’t do it.

Here is a picture and a video of Heidi and Kevin going up without me.

Yep, I’m a wuss.

Merayla loves balloons and bubbles. One Sunday I went to pick her up from Nursery and found her mesmerized in front of a bubble blowing machine. Here are some recent pictures of us trying it at home.

Merayla also loves putting things on her head. She found a pink flower basket in the bow bag the last time I wrapped a gift, and it made a perfect hat.

Ok, just one more. (She is just so cute most of the time that it’s hard to pick the ones to include.)

This last item is fun because when I was young my mom had some huge fuzzy white snow boots. In one picture, I am wearing those boots and trying to lift a heavy log. I’m about Merayla’s age. It’s one of my favorite pictures from when I was a baby.

Anyway, a few Christmas’s ago I found the perfect boots as a gift for Char. When she went on her mission, the boots happened to get re-located in my closet. Here is Merayla trying them on and then taking them off.

Ah, she is great! Oh, here is the balloon video that yall missed out on. It’s from Cristian’s birthday in March.

As you know, or may not know, there are no proms in Romania. So what a great opportunity I had to go check one out. Southwest High School’s Senior Prom was yesterday, and I decided to take my Heidi to the dance and to a nice restaurant. The prom was downtown at the Hilton hotel. It was very fun to see a lot of my students dressed very nice, and Heidi enjoyed meeting them. I was also able to find her a cool dress in our shopping frenzy earlier that day. Here are some pictures of Heidi’s new "designer" dress. Heidi is great.

After the Prom we went for our reservation at Bonnell’s.  This is a fine restaurant. It is one of the best in town. We had frog legs as an appetizer. They were tender and juicy. Tasted somewhat like chicken with a hint of clams.

For the main course, I ordered Buffalo Tenderloin — Pepper-crusted buffalo filet, pan-seared and topped with a silky cream sauce, served with grilled asparagus and truffled pommes frites. Heidi got the Bandera Grilled Quail –  Grilled Diamond H Ranch Quail served with a jalapeno and garlic cream sauce, mashed potatoes of the day, and spicy parmesan creamed spinach.

This was some exquisite stuff. The food was brought to us looking very fancy and with a taste to die for. We recommend this place to anyone that is visiting Fort Worth.

I hesitate to write a post about a movie because it absolutely drives me CRAZY when people talk about movies and TV constantly. But, I talk about other things so this is forgivable, right??

Anyway, here it is, I’m going to write about a movie: Bella.

Cris and I are kind of picky movie watchers and have not really found a reliable system for movie recommendations. Thus, we find ourselves watching something really lame with “high” reviews or something interesting but unknown. Lately most have been thumbs-down for us, even though our movie qualifications aren’t very stiff: We don’t watch R. We aren’t set on a certain genre. We like SciFi if it’s good science fiction. Mostly we’ve decided that the plot makes the movie for us. All that aside, the main point of this post is: THIS WAS A GOOD MOVIE!

It’s called Bella. It’s about a chef at a restaurant, a waitress that gets fired, and a Latino family. Basically it’s about normal people and one guy’s soul. It was touching and interesting. It’s filmed in New York, but we thought Argentina at first. The perspective of flash-forwards instead of flashbacks throughout the movie was a good way to portray the ideas. We both liked the conclusion though it was unexpected; we can discuss it later if you watch it. Don’t watch much of the trailer because it will give away too much of the story (like all trailers seem to do lately), but it is definitely worth your dollar at the Redbox. It’s interesting, moral, not cliche, and worth your time.

Also, if you made it through reading all of that info, comment and let us know what one of your movie recommendations are. Maybe there’s a few more good ones out there.

If you know Cristian, you know he is not fat. He is actually… skinny. Lately though, he has been putting on weight like crazy. At first it was a few pounds a week. The weight gaining has increased now, and I am kind of worried about it. He is now about 250 pounds. Read on and see pictures!

Continue reading Cristian Gains Weight!!

This is how I eat corn. I take it in my hands, I bite out of it, and when I start getting tired of repeating steps one and two, I put the corn on top of my head and roll it around.

Aren’t I the cutest thing?

Most of you know that I want to be a real writer someday. Occasionally, I work on stuff but then sometimes I need motivational re-enforcement. Anyhow, I have actually written and submitted something lately. Don’t laugh…I’m starting small. My goal is Friend, New Era, Ensign, in that order. Then, move on to something in the magazine article area. We’ll see. So here it is: my article for the Friend. Let me know what you think.

Continue reading i think i can, i think i can

After seeing Dad floss his teeth every day for a while now, I decided to give it a try. The problem is that Daddy wouldn’t give me his floss so I had to do what any baby could do, find something else that could work.

After some digging I found it. It was perfect. It was Daddy’s translation tag chain. Here I am proudly flossing my teeth until suddenly the camera runs out of memory and the video ends abruptly.

This is my second annual spoof article for DHI’s company newsletter. I have worked for DHI since November 2005 when I was swayed to a full-time job from my two part-times at Novelland Neovest. I am a technical writer and also web guru (until moving out of state) for the current project of converting all manuals to a Website. DHI is an interesting place to work, and I’ve enjoyed that I can now work from home while Merayla naps.

There are a few things you should know about the company in order to understand the following article.

1. DHI gives us (tech writers) the opportunity to write spoof articles each April Fool’s Day. I posted my first one here, and the next April I was on maternity leave. Here’s celebrating the 3rd year…

2. I really quite enjoy spoof time because I enjoy writing something creative. It also gives me a chance to joke about those annoying quirks that office jobs always have. Though my article was heavily edited before publication so as not to step on toes, I feel I can publish it in its entirety here.

3. The format of the article is based on Cristian’s well-visited Game Trailers site. Though he doesn’t buy games and can be persuaded to spend a limited amount of time playing them, he really enjoys watching the reviews. And, as much as I don’t get into games, I have to give it to these guys for smart, entertaining, and well-written reviews. I’ve tried to stay with their voice in my article.

4. DHI Computing Inc. was started in 1954. It has several subsidiaries, all of which are software companies–banking software, medical software, and dairy management software. The tech writing team kind of works for most of them, depending on the priority of projects. It is a family owned company and a good 50%-75% of its employees really are related. The rest is took lengthy to explain unless you work there, but I hope you enjoy the article.

Continue reading Spoof II

Sadly, we will be leaving Fort Worth in June, but there are some fun things y’all should know about if you are ever traveling in the great state of Texas. This is our ranking of the top seventeen fun things to do while you’re here:

17. South Fork Ranch (from the 1980s Dallas show. Be sure to hum the theme song while you’re there, and don’t miss JR’s luxury bedroom. Ok, maybe this one is really not worth the drive unless you saw more of the episodes than me.)

16. Downtown Dallas (Go on a warm day. And not on a holiday because it will be deserted.)

15. Southwest High School (home of the Raiders, my husband–Mr. Icleanu, a great teacher named Karen, some interesting kids, and some stylin’ fads)

14. The Historic Stockyards (There is a twice-daily cattle drive, shops for authentic and expensive cowboy stuff, and a Candy Store that even has Neccos.)

 

13. The Modern Art Museum and Cafe (The cafe is a unique experience because it seems to float on the water and features very tasty foods that we had never heard of before.)

12. The Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo ("Smells like prosperity, " my Dad would say.)

11. Watch BYU beat TCU (See if you can spot the Mormon missionaries that were allowed to attend in the first picture.)

10. Party at the Gardners

9. Slide at the Trail Dust Steakhouse

8. Visit Polly and Santino in Temple, TX

7. The Botanical Gardens

6. Play at the Park off of Merrick Street

5. The Fort Worth Zoo

4. Performing Arts at Bass Hall

3. The Kimball Art Museum (No pictures inside, but this place is amazing.)

2. La Madeleine, Mi Cocina, the Swiss Pastry Shop, and Central Market (depending on whether you feel like French, Mexican, dessert, or specialty groceries)

1. Or just hang out with us!