Oh Hello.

I don't want to get too wordy on this post, so I'll highlight the last few weeks (or few months...has it been that long?) in bullet points, with a smattering of photos to break up the monotony of text:

life as a wife, mother, friend, designer:

• playing constantly with Clarke, who is now 11 months old and has no shortage of energy. God bless you mothers with more than one child.
• cleaning. Every day. It never ends.
• teaching Clarke sign language--his favorite sign is "more," no surprise there.
• planning two-week meal calendars and buying groceries every two weeks. Life. Changing.
• keeping up with a birthday calendar, for once--this year I designed and printed birthday postcards and when I see a family member's or friend's birthday coming up on the calendar, I write a short message and pop the postcard in the mail. Easy, simple, effective, personalized, and inexpensive.
• jogging. That's right, three times a week!
• dating my husband regularly.
• designing logos, labels, invitations, business cards, t-shirts, book covers, posters, certificates, you name it.
• serving at an ever-growing capacity in the primary, and learning more than I ever thought possible.
• weekly piano teaching, a new job I started last year. I have two wonderful, dedicated students!

life as a family:

• waiting until Franco gets home from school every day so we can all play and laugh together.
• traveling to and from Camarillo and/or Santa Barbara as much as we can swing it.
• looking forward to pizza Fridays.
• attending the LA temple as often as we can.
• taking walks around our beautiful neighborhood.
• going to Disneyland in the rain or shine. Literally.
•  spring-breaking at museums in L.A. (and seeing the space-shuttle Endeavor up close--magnificent!) Soaking up the sun in Camarillo and Santa Barbara.
• contemplating where Franco's fourth year of externships will take us...do we want to stay local or travel around the country (and world) every three months? Definitely calls for many pro-cons lists.
• encouraging Mosiah, Franco's youngest brother, who will serve a two-year mission to Montreal, Canada starting May 1st. (!!!)

 So that's what we've been up to lately. I totally neglected to take any pictures on Easter, mostly because we were having such a good time that I forgot to pull out the camera. But we had a great day, well, great week, actually, for Franco's Spring Break. That's what I love about working from home, I can vacation whenever I want!

Happy April!

* Instead of waiting for the rare post on here, you can follow us on instagram and vine. We'd love to connect with you through those awesome apps!

5 years.

what happens when you're married to your other half,

with whom you always seem to be on the same wavelength,

with whom you share the same goals, beliefs, and silly humor,

who knows you inside and out, sometimes better than you know yourself,

and who doesn't care if you have more weaknesses than strengths?

i'll tell you what happens; 

time flies,

and then suddenly you've been married for

five whole blissful, amazing years.

happy anniversary to my one true love, franco!

Today, I Went Home For Lunch And The Cleaning Fairy Had Visited My Apartment.

As you know, I'd been working on the crafts for New Beginnings for about a week.

Well, by the time I got home last night at 10 p.m., our apartment looked like a craft-bomb had exploded all over the place. A lot like the table in the picture below, only multiplied by a bagillion:

I had every intention of waking up early today and clean it up, but laziness took over. So I went to work, vowing I'd do it after work.

I was so lazy this morning I didn't pack a lunch, and went home to eat during my lunch time.

This is what I found when I opened the door.

All of my paper scraps, painting supplies, crepe paper, boxes and bags full of stuff gone, dishes put away, the bed made, and even a little memento from last night: the fuzzy pink "trees" in a jar on our bookshelf.

My little Cleaning Fairy paid us a visit.

I couldn't stop smiling, {after totally feeling guilty about not waking up just a little earlier to do it myself; it was my mess, after all} and immediately phoned my thoughtful Cleaning Fairy to thank him.

Did I mention I have the most wonderful husband ever? :)

Disclaimer: I do not own the name "Cleaning Fairy." Franco came up with it on his own.

Catching Up: Phone Pictures

On Sunday December 27th about ten couples met up to take a picture together entitled

"Married Under Malan."

What does that mean?

During the time that Bishop Kevin Malan was serving as the Singles Ward bishop for our church,

a ton of couples met in the ward, dated, & got married.

Hence, we were "married under Malan."

He has since been released as bishop,

so to commemorate the several years he was our faithful bishop

we wanted to give him something to thank him for all his great support and friendship.

{I really hope he or his wife don't read/hear about this because it's a surprise!}

Franco & I were one of the couples,

as were a lot of our friends including Erin & Kyle, Susie & Clay,

and Franco's sister Iris & her husband Randy.

I'll post the professional picture when I get it~ it's a fun picture!

I just had to take pics with Erin, who was visiting from Utah.

A few couples are either pregnant or have kiddos already!

They had a little photo shoot of their own.

Itzmeliani, Sheky, Charlotte, and of course, Noah.

The only boy in the bunch.

Love the expression on his face.

He ran off just after I took this picture.

It was a short, but fun afternoon getting together with all the couples we "grew up" with in the ward.

So sad they mostly all live out of state.

I love the holidays when they come visit sunny California.

Nuevo Ano!

Guess what we did on New Year's Eve?

We chaperoned a youth dance.

Yup.

What a better way to remind us that we're an old married couple than to stick us with a hundred fourteen- to eighteen-year-olds who're chirping and jerking,

{apparently the latest dance rage}

listening to music we've never heard, let alone know how to dance to,

and feeling so lonely that we had to call our friends to come keep us company.

Hooray!

Here are Erin and I right after she got asked to dance by a 17-yr-old.
Who wants to be 17 again?

Reverse that.

Happy New Year!

It was a long night. But fun.

I'm so glad to be married.

Sawyer/ Wilson Wedding

On December 29th, our friends Natalee and JJ were married!

And the coolest part was that they had their reception at the Camarillo Library.

I totally would have had my reception there if I had known I could.

I Am So Cheap, I Splurge

I am so cheap...

• I don't throw away paper if one side is still usable.
• I download all my music from limewire, unless I can't find it for free or don't mind giving my $ to whoever the artist is {which happens very rarely ...}.
• If I don't want to buy the music or download it, I just make a playlist and listen to it at work or at home.
• I get all my books from the library or download them from 4shared.com.
• I turn off all the lights in my apartment except the one I'm using.
• I live in a studio apartment. One room.
• I share one car and one cell phone with my husband.
• I don't own a dining table or any chairs, for that matter.
• I got paid to go to school. Really. And I took a trip to Europe and bought a new computer with the left over money. Again: Really.
• I buy everything I can on sale. It hurts me physically to pay full price for most things.
• I reuse one waterbottle. I recycle the rest for money.
• I don't ever order soda or any other drink at restaurants. It's always free water for me.
• I love the $1 menu at fast food restuarants.
• I buy clothes at thrift stores, garage sales, Ross, and Forever 21. I hate Macy's.
• I haven't bought a DVD in ages. If I do, I buy them on Amazon for way less than they're worth.
• I watch all my favorite TV shows online. {The Office, Pushing Daisies, Wizards of Waverly Place.} We don't have cable.
• I watch full movies on YouTube when I don't feel like driving 8 miles into town to rent one.
• I won't spend a dime on something I can make myself. I will never buy a Hallmark card unless I'm physically unable to make one myself.
• I'd rather spend hundreds of hours fixing something myself {aka my computer, printer, etc.} than to pay someone exorbitant amounts of money to do it. {Take that, Geek Squad.}
• I get a haircut about twice a year, and even then, I have someone I know do it and I usually trade something besides money for it.
• I have never spent more than $30 on a pair of jeans. And $30 was a lot for me.
• I get all of my jewelry from Forever 21 or Claire's, when they have the red dot sale 10 items for $5. Or I make it myself.
• I spend too much time in the grocery store comparing prices and will refuse to buy something if I know I can get it cheaper somewhere else. {I love Target for food, by the way. Good deals on milk, eggs, bread, and juice.}
• If I order something online, I score the net first for coupon codes. I usually can find one for free shipping, at the very least.
• I used to shop at Costco a lot, but I realized I threw away too much food so now I mostly just buy photos, T.P., chips, movie tickets, stamps, cleaning products, and Swiffer pad refills there.
• I see myself as a frugal designer. I think it's plain dumb to buy brushes or fonts or the like, so I find what I can for free online, even if it takes me a long time to find it. {love Dafont.com and Summertime Designs.}
• I have thousands of photos on my computer because I'm too cheap to print them out.
• I buy some of the cheapest makeup and keep it forever. I think I've had my mascara for about 8 months now. Gross.

~*~

You'd think that by being that cheap all the time I'd be rich, right? Well, let's look at the reverse side of me. I splurge on a lot of things I probably shouldn't.

 

I splurge on...

• Makeup remover from Clinique. $16.50 every few months.
• Basics Skin care line from Arbonne. About $130 every year. It should be every 6 months but I'm cheap, remember?
• Cheese. I love brie, parmesan, and gorgonzola. I will not buy the cheap stuff. I like exceptionally good cheese.
• Cleaning products. I will not buy generic brand furniture polish. It's always Pledge for me.
• Travel. This one's a biggie. It is my Achilles' Heel.
• My favorite movies and books. I don't care how much it costs if I really like/want to buy a book or movie.Thankfully, this doesn't happen too often.
• Clothes detergent. Tide Ultra all the way. $25 every couple months.
• Gas. If I weren't so lazy I think I'd use more.
• Milk. This one's not really my fault because Franco's lactose intolerant. $3-$4.50 a half gallon every week.
• Renting movies. We watch a lot of movies, so we spend about $20 a month renting them. We should probably use Netflix.
• Health and dental insurance. The good stuff.
• The Wii.
• Computers. We have a 25.5 inch screen, the fastest internet connection Verizon offers, and the entire Adobe Production suite. I love my computer.
• Though I don't buy anything on Amazon.com that's not on "sale" I buy too many things I don't need and then they accumulate.
• Dawn or Palmolive dish soap. Generic brands make my hands dry, one of my pet peeves.
• Pure& Natural Hand soap.

~*~

 Lastly, My budgeting motto:

Spend less than you earn and don't lose what you save.

We could all be smarter about our money. I know I can be. I've been thinking about finances a lot lately and about how I can improve and how I can minimize my spending to save for the things that really matter. Franco and I have been blessed immensely and I know it's because we're trying to do the will of our Heavenly Father. He pours out more blessings than we have room enough to receive them, just like it says in the scriptures. We try not to get caught up with what the world teaches, and if we do, we know we have the atonement and can and do repent. We just have to keep our focus and pray for guidance every day.

San Francisco Trip: Thursday, November 26

Thanksgiving day in San Francisco started with a lot of driving around in circles.

Market Street is a long street and though it's host to a lot of stores,

it's impossible to make a left turn anywhere along it

because there are one-way streets on every block.

We wanted to go a few blocks south but kept having to make right turns

until we could get to where we wanted to go.

Let's just say we saw a lot of the city trying to get to Safeway.

It was sort of a good thing because on one of our roundabouts we found

La Boulange, where we had Thanksgiving breakfast.

Oh, how I wish there was one close by.

{I have a thing about French bakeries, can you tell?}

After that delicious breakfast,

we found Safeway {Vons} and bought some picnic food for later.

We weren't about to hunt for an open restaurant during lunch or dinner

so we decided to picnic it for our Thanksgiving meals.

Then it was time to head to the coast.

We hadn't seen the Golden Gate Bridge yet,

so when we rounded the corner on the marina,

we got excited because there it was!

It finally sunk in that we were definitely in San Francisco.

We parked {for free!}

and made one stop before driving closer to the bridge.

The Palace of Fine Arts.

Breathtaking architecture coupled with the sun shining on the lake and the...seagulls? wha...? Uh, yeah, seagulls...chirping, or whatever they do...it was an imposing sight to see.

A little intro by me. :)

{Dislaimer: I'm no actor, sorry.

I get tongue-tied and shy when the camera's aimed at me! 
I'd much rather be the one on the other side of the camera.}

We then headed to Crissy Field and walked around for a bit,

watching families setting up BBQ's and playing with their dogs.

There was little wind, so it made for a perfect day for a picnic.

We wanted to get closer to the bridge so we drove to another part of the beach

where we walked up a flight of stairs and took a little hike up to a hill overlooking the bay.

We could have gotten closer but this was good enough.

After looking at the bridge,
we drove across it.

Wild!

We drove around Sausalito for a while but then paid the $6 toll to go back to San Fran.
It was around 1 PM by then and we were getting hungry.
We ended up at Golden Gate Park and ate our Thanksgiving feast at one of the picnic tables.

Golden Gate Park is huge,

 therefore we only saw about one tenth of it.

We saw the Conservatory of Flowers,

a nursery for all kinds of rare plants.

It was closed but there were some colorful flowers in the garden around it.

 After we walked off our feast a bit,
we got back in the car and drove around the uncrowded city.
Seriously, Thanksgiving was the best day to see the sites--no traffic!
We stumbled upon Alamo Square,
where some of the opening credits of Full House were filmed.
We saw the famous painted ladies, the Seven Sisters.

Next on our list was Lombard Street,
the "crookedest street in the world."
I took video instead of pictures,
but I'm sure you can imagine how driving down a really windy road feels.
At least we can say we did it.

There's just a little more:
Coit Tower was our last stop before
going back to the hotel to watch movies on HBO the rest of the night.

That was the Castrejon's Thanksgiving Day in San Francisco!

Phew, that was a looong post, sorry! :)