Catch-Up

Well, I'm trying to remember what has happened since my last post but I'm having a hard time. I can say that I have been super swamped with activity planning, working and trying to keep my house under control!

New years was pretty fun. We went to a couple of parties and stayed up way to late! We did have a fun time though! Kirk and the guys went to a Phoenix Suns game and dressed up! I didn't expect the dressing up part so it was a shocker to get these two picture messages on my phone.


I got a new calling at the end of the year. I was really sad when they released me from being the miamaid advisor. After all, I've had that calling for 3 years now! I thought I was getting a break from the YW (don't get me wrong, I LOVE them!), but alas, they called me right back into the program as 2nd counselor! Now, I really have to go to mutual! Ha ha! I've been loving this calling because one of my favorite things to do is organize, and thats exactly what I get to do! My first event to plan was Un-Camp. Its like an un-birthday. We wanted the girls to remember the feelings and spirit they felt at camp so we re-created it in the backyard of our president's house. And living in AZ, we can do that in January! It was a complete success! The girls and leaders loved it! Now, I'm waist deep in the plans for New Beginnings. I've been to a thousand New Beginnings but this is the first one I'm planning and its gonna be awesome!

Another exciting thing is that in exactly 17 days (and counting) my brother, Alan will be coming home from his mission in Mendoza Argentina! Yea!! My family is, of course, super excited! We are all planning on being in Dallas bright and early on the 17th to welcome him home! I can't tell you how much I love this kid! He will always be an example of righteousness to me and I'm so incredibly proud that he is out there serving the Lord. There's no better way to spend two years of your life.

I might as well end this post with another emotional event, since I'm already crying. Yesterday I ran a race. Many of you know that this year, one of my goals was to become a runner. I've never been good at anything that takes athletic ability (except dance, I guess), so I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could actually do it. Throughout the year, I doubted myself so many times. Even after I finished a triathalon, I didn't thing I was that great. But yesterday, I think, no, I know my struggles paid off. It might not sound like much, but for me, finishing a 10k (6 miles) was a huge deal. I remember when I first started running this time last year, I couldn't even run a half mile without almost fainting. But during this race, I didn't stop once, I didn't even walk. I ran the whole time, and that was an accomplishment for me. I might not ever run a marathon, I might not ever win a race but to me, I've won. I realized that my body can do amazing things. I know now, that I am an athlete. I know, that I can do anything I set my mind to. Can't, won't, not good enough...those aren't options for me anymore. I can, I will and I am good enough to do anything.

December Happenings

The month of December has been pretty un-eventful for the Spencer family. Even though all our family lives out of state, we decided not to visit them for Christmas. My brother will be coming home from his mission in February so our trip to see family will have to wait until then.

As for this month, Kirk went out of town on a buisness trip, we went to a couple Christmas parties, and I got sick...again. This time I had a sore throat. I did go to the doctor this time because I wanted to make sure I didn't have strep. Fortunatly, the test was negative. So after much investigation from the doctor, he came to the conclusion that I have allergy induced asthma. Great, just great. I came home with Prednisone and Albuterol. I'm officially a nerd! But, I am pretty excited to use the inhaler for exercising. He said that will help since I get winded easy with exercise.

As for Christmas, we kept it pretty low-key. We saw the temple lights with some friends, went on a date to see Avatar in 3D (if you haven't seen it, go. Its super awesome), and had a fancy dinner and movie night with friends. Normally we don't exchange gifts because we don't like to spend the money but two days before Christmas we decided to get new cell phones. Kirk got the Droid and I got the Droid Eris. I can't stop playing with it! Definatly the best phone ever! I thought it would take me forever to get use to a touch screen and the whole navagation but it really wasn't hard at all. Way worth the money!

We also got a very nice framed picture from Kirk's parents. It matches our house perfectly!

And of course, I have to add the token Trixie picture. She loved having one or both of us home all day for the entire week of Christmas.

Thanksgiving 2009

This year for Thanksgiving we stayed here in AZ. We decided to get together with some other friends who didn't have family in town to have our big feast. And let me tell ya, it turned out to be a huge feast! We had 4 smoked turkeys, tons of sides and about 11-12 desserts. Oh and we can't forget the homemade ice cream and root beer!

We ate, played volleyball, talked and played Rock Band. All in all, it was a fantastic day! It was so fun spending time with our friends on Thanksgiving.

Oh and those pictures of Trixie are from earlier that day, when Kirk and I were bored waiting for the turkey to be done. She hates when we decide to do photo shoots with her! :)

Hanson haters....BEWARE!!

In case you haven't heard, I had the most amazing day of my life last week (not including my wedding day)! As I said before, my birthday present was to go to the Hanson concert. My friend Cynthia and I have been waiting for this day for months. It was down in Tucson so we decided to have a Hanson day where we watched all our Hanson movies, recordings, etc before we headed down for the concert.


Our plans changed (cue mood changing music). Right after I blogged about how we were going to the concert, I checked the Hanson website and they posted that there was going to be a "walk" that afternoon hosted by Hanson. Now, if you don't know what a Walk is here's a brief description. Hanson has partnered with Toms Shoes to help raise awareness of the poverty and AIDS epidemic in Africa. Hanson periodically hosts walks where you walk a mile in these people's shoes (which is no shoes)to help people become aware. So we heard about this last minute walk and we were off to Tucson.

When we got there, we thought we'd be able to find the location pretty easily. It started at the Mall on the University of AZ campus. Easy, right? Not exactly. We drove around the campus for about 15 minutes looking for the mall. Then we got out and ran around the campus for another 15 minutes asking people 'where's the mall?' and 'have you seen Hanson and the walk?' We must have sounded like idiots! And to top it all off, we were a half hour late to the walk. We thought we had missed it and were about to give up when across the 'mall' (by the way, the mall is a strip of grass...dumb!)we saw a group of people walking with a banner and shouting with megaphones. It was HANSON!!!!

We ran up to the group and Hanson shouted on the megaphone for us to take off our shoes and join the walk. They TALKED to us!!! So we took our shoes off as fast as we could and fell in line with the group. When we looked around, we were standing right next to HANSON! I couldn't believe it! I think thats when I started hyperventilating.

After we finished the walk (we joined up with about .10 of a mile to go) they took us to a bookstore on campus to thank us for walking with them and sing us a couple songs.

Then they offered to sign autographs. We were tickled pink with excitement. When we got up there, I transformed into the teenage version of myself. My words came out like vomit. It was like I had to tell them my whole life story in a matter of seconds. They probably thought I was nuts! But, I did get a 'Happy Birthday' from them, an autograph and my picture taken with them. I think I could have died!!!

Afterwards, we watched them from the top of the stairs because we didn't want to leave. When we finally did, it felt like I was in a dream. I finally lived out my 14 year old teenie-bopper fantasy! I met HANSON!!!

The concert that night was amazing! We were in the second row. Well for me it was like the first row because the girl in front of me came up to my chin. We couldn't take pictures of the show but that was ok because we got way better ones. We left Tucson around midnight and I was in bed at 2:45am. What a long and exhausting day but it was one that I'll never forget!

Now that you've read this whole post and looked at all my pictures, go ahead....let the jokes begin! :)

An Unusual Birthday

Its no fun being sick. But whats worse...being sick on your birthday! Last week I got a sinus infection, which I've gotten at least once a year since I moved to Arizona. I desperatly wanted to get rid of it in time for my birthday but to my dismay, I didn't.

Mondays are my day off so I spent my birthday watching season 3 of Heroes. Kirk surprised me by coming home at noon with flowers, a card and my favorite root beer. He is so sweet!I felt bad for him because I think he wanted to spend some time with me but he came home to find me blowing out boggies and hacking up mucus. Sexy, I know.

But sick or not, I was not gonna miss my annual birthday dinner at Joe's BBQ. Mmmm... I know your jealous! We go there twice a year, once for my birthday and once for Kirks. Its the best BBQ joint in Arizona! So I held in my sickness for one night of pure food heaven! But all that holding in came out when we got home and I felt sicker than ever! Oh, I hate being sick!

And to top it all off, my birthday present is happening tonight. I told Kirk all I wanted was a ticket to a concert. Which concert you say? Only the best band in the world! HANSON!! Yep, I'm talking about the teenie-boppin' boy band! Oh man, I'm so excited! If only I wasn't so dang sick still!!! Ugh! Well, you know the drill now, I'm gonna suck it up for one magical night of re-living my teenage fantasies! And in case you're worried...I'll have a special blog dedicated to Hanson! :)

Halloween at Work

We can't forget about Halloween. At work, we definatly didn't. Although Halloween isn't my favorite holiday, well, its my least favorite actually, I agreed to dress up with the other gals at work. Our theme was Miss America. We all dressed up as Miss America contestants.

I was Miss Texas, of course. We also had Miss Hawaii, Miss Iowa, Miss New York, Miss Michigan, Miss Pennsylvania and last but not least Miss Ryanne. Now, I know what your thinking...there's no state called Ryanne. And you're right. One of the gals decided to dress up as another gal that works with me just for fun. She overdid some of her features and even had a blond wig. Needless to say, we had a good time working. :)