Home, Sweet, Home

So we went to Utah to watch Holly run her marathon. Which she finished! Yay! We wore our "Team Chu-a" shirts, held up signs, and had lots of fun cheering for the other people running the marathon. Jared starved to death while we were at the marathon. Luckily, Dad revived him at the local McDonald's since that was the only place Jared would allow. Rebecca got to meet her Great Grandpa Bob. She really liked his duck voice and the beard. We ate lots of yummy food, like Cafe Rio, Pei Wei, Neilsen's (twice), and J Dawgs. We saw lots of family too.

We then proceeded down to Southern Utah to stay at the cabin in Hatch.

Rebecca and Dad in front of Tucuben sign. I believe it means friend in English. Its the name of the cabin.

This is a shot off of the deck, its was snowing and beatiful.

Then we went to Las Vegas and we took no pictures at all for the day we stayed there. Rebecca loved looking at the lights and everything that was going on. She didn't want to sleep while she was in Vegas, but she did. And now we are back home and so glad to be.

Austin Tid Bits

So, after being called out on not posting to this blog (some of us do have a lot to do these days), here is my two cents to contribute, broken finger and all.



Here is a pic of me and Allison. She is the blonde. For those of you who may have forgotten what I look like, I am the brunette on the left. Her birthday is tomorrow (4/17) plus she will be out of town this weekend, so I figured this weekend would be the perfect time to go and secure housing for the summer. Yes, I will be returning to Dallas for the summer to work for Texas Instruments in their Finance Leadership Development Program. My first day of work is the Tuesday after Memorial Day. I'm pretty excited to see what they will have me do. And hopefully it won't be getting coffee and picking up lunch for everyone. Plus, this means I will be in Dallas to celebrate the Championship that WILL be won by the Mavs.


I'll be heading up to San Jose, CA for Allison's brother's wedding in a couple of weeks. Hopefully the mirror-smiling baby will see me while I'm out there. I fly back on the same day that Mom flies out there--we'll probably pass by each other in mid-air.

Teaching gospel doctrine is still going on, though this Sunday is my second-to-last day to teach. I'm trying to give my lessons a little something extra--you know, so that I can go out with a bang.

Other than that, not much else is happening. The semester is starting to wind down--can't wait for it to be over.

The Shoes

Yeah, its a little blurry. But you get the idea. I wore them last night for the first time. We went to the temple, Steve's cousin went through for the first time. She is getting married this summer. I probably wore them for a total of an hour and received like 10 compliments. Even from a group of girls I didn't know, who said that they just LOVE shoes. So they are beautiful! Multiple people said I was Dorothy too...Wizard of Oz reference.

Now because we apparently have slackers in the family...here is a picture of Allison provided by the "broken ring finger I can't type because I'm a wimp." She is the blonde in the red shirt. Don't know who is the other person other than her name is Jalaine. Isn't Allison pretty!

Rebecca found herself in the mirror this week and loves to smile at the cute little baby starring back at her. I got multiple pictures of this because it was just so adorable. She has also started to blow bubbles while making farting noises with her mouth by pursing her lips together. It is the funniest thing especially because she takes a big inhale and as she purses her lips and exhales she throws her arms down at the same time. There are a lot of funny faces that are invovled in this whole process as well.

Happy Easter, Ruffle Bum!

I bought this beautiful dress for Rebecca Joy at Kohl's for 60% off! I then put the tights on that Grammie bought her in Texas that have a ruffle on the bum. She is my little doll that I get to dress up.

She sleeps on her belly and she was sticking up her little ruffle bum...so I had to take pictures of that too.

For Easter we had dinner down in Livermore with Steve's extended family. We did an easter egg hunt for the adults. There were 5 or 6 people (including me) and 40 eggs. I got 15. That's right, I kick butt especially when it comes to finding candy.

Mmmm...Guacamole

So Monday I was making some guacamole...and thought "Hey I wonder if Rebecca would like this?"

There is guacamole all over her mouth...so cute. She made some of the funniest faces. I'm not quite sure if she liked it or not; I don't think she was sure either.

So for some reason she has started to suck her two fingers. She has done it at least two times this week. I personally feel like its either a thumb or a pacifier. Anybody else have thoughts on this?

My first blog!

Ok, so I'm not a blogger and am not sure I'm doing this right. But I like the idea of sharing our day to day life with each other so we can keep in touch better. This is a great idea, Kelli! I hope everyone will participate. I must admit, when I thought of photos I could share on here I first thought of pics I took of the hail storm from 2 days ago. I quickly realized how LAME that is! Am I getting that old that I the first thing I want to talk about is the weather? Yikes! So when I was at school yesterday, I took a few photos of where I spend a lot of time and who I spend it with. Now...this is my life...

This is outside of our building on the Texas Wesleyan campus. We have our own parking lot and pretty much everything we need in that building. It is nice to be able to stay in one place for all our classes. These are just a few of my classmates. There over 140 of us but less than 60 are in Fort Worth. The others do distance learning from Louisville, Denver, Shreveport, Alexandria, and several other cities. It really is a good program (even though they are stressing me out!). The girl on my right is Shannon. She joins Kim and I for study sessions at the school about once a week. She's a good buddy. The two big dudes in the back sit next to Kim and I in class.

This is our classroom...stadium seating, wireless internet, the black mounds on the desks are electrical outlets for laptops. Nice facility. Usually cold (I guess they don't want us to fall asleep during those hours and hours of lecture). You see Kim in the middle of the picture. I sit just to her left. Juby (you can see her stretching) sits right behind us. Good people.

This is the front of the classroom. We have projection equipment, cameras, and a sound system that makes it possible to see the distant sites and them to see us. Isn't technology amazing! That is Eric (red shirt) and Zak (red hat). They held a little study session for anyone that wanted to come listen. They have genious brains and can see things a little differently (like the professor). Eric is going to be doing clinical with me at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. Zak will be at Plaza Medical Center, a hospital just down the street from JPS. Good boys.


Now this is my life at home. I've taken over the guest room. I can spread all my text books out over the bed and have my laptop on. Yes, I'm in my jammies because the best study is late at night or early in the morning and changing clothes is too much work. :o) (When hygiene becomes a burden, you know you are too stressed!)

Ok, so I am lame and included the hail. But it was so cool, just another wild spring storm in Texas. People a mile away from us never even got more than a sprinkle of rain. You can see all the hail on the ground...some were pea-sized, but most were the size of a large marble. The temperature had to have dropped from 84 to 60's within the hour. Our temps are supposed to be in the 60's all weekend with lows in the 40's. Now how cool is that for Texas in April!

Love to all and I look forward to reading blogs from everyone. You have to participate because it is the only fun I'm having right now. :o)

Becky

P.S. Matt, can't wait to see a pic of Allison...or your broken finger. :o)

I have nothing to talk about but running....boring!

I feel all pretentious having a blog. Like everyone wants to hear about me and my boring day. Unfortunately you will have to hear about me, because Kelli is making me post something.


Here is a picture from my half marathon two weekends ago (March 24). I ran it with two girls in my ward. Erin, me, Jamila (we did not coordinate the pink, it just happened--By the way, this picture was taken after the race so we were all sweaty and tired.) I later found out there were a whole lot of other people from our ward running it. My goal time was 2:15:00, but I ran it in 2:03:41. I loved it!! I had bought some new running shoes (actually 2 pairs) the night before at the expo where I picked up my racing packet. I decided that I was going to wear them in the race, which is never highly looked upon, but I didn't care. My mentality was, It's only 13 miles. I got a few blisters, but I was going to get some either way. My next half marathon is in September in Virginia Beach and my goal time for that one is 1:50:00.



I only have 2 1/2 weeks until the Salt Lake Marathon. I'm excited and scared.....a little more scared than excited, though. Hopefully that will change soon. I got my marathon shoes in the mail last week. (I had ordered these before I went to the half marathon expo and bought the other two) They are gorgeous!!! If I get the iPod shuffle that I want they should match perfectly. I'm will be breaking them in the next few weeks. I'm excited to go back to Utah, and get away from here! Which reminds me, Steve is dating someone. A girl he works with at Sky Box. And....she's Mormon. He needs a swift kick in the buttocks. And I'd be happy to be the one to give it to him. Today I made the reservation for the pre-marathon dinner that we are having at Thaifoon. It should be a pretty good turn out. Around 20+ people. (Jake has not yet responded--also, someone who needs a swift kick in the buttocks.)


Well, I think that's about it for now. I can't wait to see what all of you post and to know how everything is going. Love ya

In The Beginning

Welcome to the Van Leeuwen, Perkins, and Palmer website! Alright, so upload some pictures, and tell everyone a little about what's going on. On the right is a place to put your favorite websites. If everyone could add one or two webistes to get a top ten and if we want to put more on then we can change that.

If you are wondering why the picture to the left is a little crazy its because anytime I put the camera up to take a picture of Rebecca, she won't smile and just stares at the camera. So I keep the camera out of site, get her to smile, and then whip the camera out to take a picture. This is one the results.

The smaller picture to the right is Rebecca in a Bumbo chair. Ashley Palmer has a niece who is about 5 monthes older than Rebecca and they bought this chair for her (her name being Addison). She grew out of it quickly and they sent it to Ashley to use for Dayne. Dayne is too young for it, so Rebecca gets to borrow it. This was her first time to sit in it during Sunday General Conference at Grandma and Grandpa's. She is getting so BIG!