Bonsai Pumpkin

Life is good, isn't it?

I have pondered starting up my blog again.  Usually this idea comes to me when I feel the urge to vent about something that I feel passionately about.  Such as, the unnecessary use of foot orthotics, or the fact that we're still driving gas-powered cars when we hold the key to driving vehicles operated solely from electricity.   Or the fact that every processed food contains corn.  Or that there are so many people that believe that it's okay to choose to kill your unborn child.

Sometimes I think a food blog would be fun.  But I'm the type of cook that melds 4 different recipes into one and then forgets how she made it.

Maybe I'll just blog about my love for Jimmy Fallon.  He is the best late night show host in the history of time.

How about I just post pictures of my perfect life. Cuz everything is perfect.  I never get mad at my kids.  My house is always spotless, as you'll see in the pictures.  I make perfect meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner…daily.

Sold.

Okay, just kidding.  This is why I don't write on my blog that nobody reads anyway.  I don't want to try to get readers by divulging too much of the reality of life or revealing deceptively too little.  Case in point, look at my pictures.  If I were viewing these as anyone but myself, I would say, that person's life is in perfect order.  She has time to ride horses, go to the temple with her husband in a different state, she has 2 perfect children, and a green garden.  This is all true, but there is so much more than just these pictures.  I have days where I am tired and unmotivated.  Days when I get angry or feel anxiety.  But overall, I'm happy.  I love my life.  And I love my family.

Happy Memorial day everyone. We saved our Saturday chores for Monday and went hiking instead to Hidden Falls up in Auburn.

Ugh, I need to take a blogging class, cuz I suck at figuring out the picture thing. They always just go wherever they want. And people wonder why I don't blog. THIS IS WHY. I'm so annoyed right now.

Well, now that I'm married, I feel it is appropriate to re-enter the blogging world. I suddenly feel super crafty and domestic. I love it! Some of the things I've been craving to do:

Make curtains

Knit sweaters

Cook extensive meals

and

BLOG!

I have lots of pictures to put up, but currently, the only picture I have on this computer is a picture of Tommy, Ethan and I at Mongolian BBQ for Ethan's 15th birthday. I can't believe he is getting so old and I can't believe that mine and Tommy's sunday school students are the same age as my little brother. For some reason they seem so much older!

So, let me introduce to you, my wonderful husband: Tommy Michael Clements

Born April 6, 1980 in Provo, Utah with his dear twin sister, Melanie. A big surprise to his parents, Mike and Rogene, as this was before sonagrams.

After moving around between Utah and Washington in his younger years, Tommy spent most of his growing years in South Sac. (He likes it when I say South Sac, cuz it makes him sound tough, being from the ghetto and all.) Although he will argue that he was a "performer", I like to think of him as a "dancer". Tommy met and grew close with his lifelong friends in a "performing" group called Galena Street East. They not only did shows here and in DC, but they also toured Europe, sharing their testimonies through song and dance.

After his rowdy days, Tommy headed out to BYU to begin his degree in exercise science (same as me!) and took a 2 year break to serve a mission in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He is still working on teaching me Portuguese. Sim! It was back to BYU, from which he graduated in 2005? Or so. Meaning...we were there for approximately a year and some at the same time. Weird.

After his undergrad he went on to dental school at UOP in San Francisco, where he fell in love with the city by the bay. He basically had no life other than studying for 3 years, doing clinicals and trying to get his date on when he could. He left there in 2008 and has been practicing dentistry at a few different practices until he found (or rather, they found him) the practice of his dreams. He now works for Weideman's Pediatric Dentistry and he loves working with the kiddies. It is an awesome practice with good moral values that is decked out with an underwater theme that the kids love.

We met at a Valentine's Dance in February. He got my number at the refreshment table and there was some good conversation going on. He didn't call me and 2 weeks later I sat in his sunday school class in the singles ward, and it was back on. I didn't mean to, but I gave him the run-around for a little. Took off for Utah for a month and when I came back we eventually started dating for reals. It didn't take long for me to realize I was never going to find a better person than that Tommy Clements.

He is amazing in so many ways. As Melanie said: "To know Tom, is to love Tom." He is a happy person with a great enthusiasm and love of the gospel. He loves the ninja blender, Life and Planet Earth, birds of prey and his wife's cookin'. He is patient, a genius, loving, a good communicator, funny, cool, a good DANCER, a good singer, a great husband.

And that's Tommy!

best weekend ever

hi, my best friends came to visit this weekend. and it was awesome.

we went to the beach.

janica has a baby jose in her belly.








then we found the real santa claus eating some oatmeal at denny's. so we sat on his lap for a picture. he was a pretty jolly fellow.

then we found a cemetery and took a picture.










we ate pizzookies at bj's.
then we went to the byu vs. sdsu game. byu won 38-28. go cougs.


then we took some pix at the SD temple










i have the best friends. i will miss them. the end.

Thee first post

So, no...I haven't gone and gotten married (yet), but YES...I am starting a blog.

For this first post I intend to lay out the purpose of my blog, which is to inform the reader of the daily occurrences in my life at orthotic school in Long Beach, California. I intend to uplift and inspire, while informing the reader of how awesome orthotics and prosthetics is as I experience it for myself firsthand. I have titled the blog "custom made," mainly because I did not have the time or motivation to think of a better name, but also because all of the braces I have been working on are custom made, similar to my life, which is very custom.

I don't have a lot of cool pictures yet, and I definitely don't know how to arrange them yet. But the first picture is what my hands typically look like after casting each other. I was lucky enough to be the girl that had two classmates casting each of my arms. We use indelible pencils to mark certain landmarks and that stuff does not come off my skin very easily.

The second picture is obviously me, holding a plaster leg I cast and modified, standing at my bench. Yeah, I have my own vice, hammers, screw drivers, blades, files, wrenches, etc. It makes me feel very official. Heck, I even have my own very large trash can.

More to come.