The Circus- Zing Zang Zoom!

I always thought the magic words were 'Abra Cadabra' but apparently they have changed to 'Zing Zang Zoom' or so says Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

Ryan and I went to the circus on Satuday night. It was fun but not quite as exciting as I remember from going as a kid.

My favorite events are the originals. The Elephants, the Tigers, the Horses.

The Elephant Finale.

Tumbling through the ring of fire!

And of course having a snack while getting a great souvenir at the same time:)

Festivals and Basketball

This weekend Ryan and I went into D.C. for the start of the Cherry Blossom Festival.

I love the cherry blossoms, they are so pretty when all the trees are in bloom.

Ryan in front of The Castle and the Cherry Blossom Trees.

Stopping to smell the blossoms.

They also had the Kite Festival in D.C. over the weekend. The weather was perfect. It was just the right amount of windy.

The kites in front of the Capitol.

More kites in front of the Washington Monument.

Also this weekend was Ryan's basketball tournament. His team did really well, but unfortunately lost by one point.

Ryan getting the jump ball.

Taking a shot.

Getting the rebound. Ryan was awesome getting the rebounds and stopping the other players on defense.

Newest Addition

Yes, we finally gave in to Ryan's demands (or impulses) and bought a...

Now we never have to go outside to play sports again. That better not happen! Anyway, it is fun to play together though like always Ryan's favorite game is my least favorite and vice versa. Though he likes them all so we usually play what I like. Makes everyone happy:) I will definitely post some video of Ryan boxing. So funny!

Mel's Movie Review

Okay, let's start with the bad! Ryan and I decided to Red box it this weekend and we decided never to let Ryan choose again because this was his choice:

Worst movie ever! I still don't know what the point was or really what it was about. The plot was a couple receives a box with a button on it and have to decide whether or not to push it. If they push the button, they will receive one million dollars but someone they don't know will die, then the box gets passed on to someone else. If they don't push the button then nothing will happen except the box getting passed on to someone else. Anyway, they of course push the button and then we follow through all the consequences of this action. I still don't know what the mangled plot line was. Maybe Aliens, or Avenging Angels, or government conspiracy. But for sure stupid decison after stupid, annoying decision. Anyway, we watched the whole things just because we were hoping to get some answers at the end, but there weren't any. Definitely not recommended! It was even worse then 'Knowing' with Nicolas Cage- which is saying something!

Now for a good review, my choice. We also watched 'Up.'

Overall, a very cute family film. I liked how they teamed up the young with the old on the premise of the boy getting his 'assisting the elderly' merit badge:) I love that you are never too young or too old to have or share an adventure. I liked the first 10 minutes of the movie where we got to see Carl as a young boy and his life with Ellie. Life is an adventure, even if it's not the one you planned:)

When Will It Stop?

Do you ever feel like when you're busy, YOU'RE BUSY!?!? I mean the whole reason I started my job two weeks ago was to better organize and use my time. But since I started, I feel like I have no time. Granted, I am much more productive but I just have so much more to do. Maybe it's that we've had visitor the last couple weeks, but I feel like we've been so busy. Besides work and hosting visitors (which we love having so don't feel unwelcome and please come again!) I have been working on my table decoration for Relief Society, which you can see in the below post. I have been cleaning, doing laundry, grocery shopping- you know, the never ending chores. I am now trying to make a baby shower gift for my office manager. I am also trying to make some things for my mom's store (sorry mom, I'm just not getting very far). And I've been playing ward basketball. I know it may not sound too bad, but cram it all into a week where I'm still trying to learn my new job and adjust to working and I guess I just feel a little overwhelmed at the moment. Oh well, life goes on and I'm sure I'll adjust in no time.

Here are some pictures of my ward team playing:

I love playing ball and we actually had a lot of good players.

Of course there are always a few that aren't as experienced, but I guess there's no place for my competitive attitude in ward basketball.

Our last game was yesterday. It was the first game in the single-elimination tournament and since we lost... oh well, it was fun and I made a lot of new friends and got to play ball:)

Relief Society Birthday Celebration

On Thursday was my Relief Society's Enrichment activity. We had a Birthday Celebration. It was of course to celebrate everyone's birthdays no matter when they are in the year and also to celebrate the birthday of the Relief Society. We had a couple sisters share their thoughts on Relief Society and how it has helped them in their lives and also talk about Emma Smith and how she helped start the Relief Society. We had dinner and conversing and meeting other sisters, but my favorite part was the tables! There were 12 decorated tables for every month of the year.

I decorated the NOVEMBER table!

Here's a close-up. I love the scarecrow couples. I bought them for 50 cents each! Shopping out of season has it's benefits:)

I made the table runner and the candle sleeves. Here is a close up of the candles. The whole saying is "Give Thanks."

Each table had it's own seasonal dessert. I brought apple pie and cherry pie for my table. Here is a picture of everyone mingling and getting desserts from other tables.

Me and my friend Lauren. She is my friend from Gold's Gym and one of my first friends in Alexandria.

Here are some pictures of a few of the other tables that were there. Which is your favorite?

July

May

August

December

April

A Good Weekend

This weekend we had some visitors. Ryan's sister, Wendy and her 10-year-old daughter, Tayzlie came and stayed with us. They will be moving here in the summer and wanted to do some house hunting. On Friday night we all met Amy in D.C. and went ice-skating in the Sculpture Garden on The Mall. It was a lot of fun. And entertaining to watch Ryan's attempts:)

The Ice Rink

On Saturday, Ryan and I both played ward basketball. Ryan's team just lost, but my team was able to win (we crushed the other team). After, we met up with Wendy, Amy and Tayzlie in Old Town Alexandria. We went out for lunch and then watched some of the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

There were many many groups of bagpipers. But it was fun to hear them all.

There must have been a dog event before the parade or something because there were dogs EVERYWHERE. Tayzlie loved this of course.

One of my favorite things about the parade was all the old soldier uniforms they had. I guess it makes sense since we live in the East and have a bit more history with the Revolutionary and Civil wars.

All in all it was a very fun weekend. Now it's back to reality and another week of work.

Working

We don't have much to update on other than work. Exciting, I know! I'm hoping once the weather warms up we'll do more things, go more places, and be exciting once again.

Ryan recently had his six month review. He, of course, is above average! I think that the people he works with really enjoy working with him and like that he is a hard worker and smart. The only thing he needs to work on is making sure he hits his hours every month and is efficient. I'm glad that he seems to still like his job.

I recently started a new job in Alexandria. I work for Dental Associates as a Front Desk Receptionist. It's only part time but I think it will be a good job for me- once I get down the dental codes and insurance policies and such. Those are the new parts for me. The scheduling and other tasks are pretty routine secretarial work (to bad it all revolves around those blasted dental codes). Oh well, hopefully I catch on sooner rather than later.