Hot Coco Loco to the Max

I have this friend...

Her name is Kim.

Kim and I have known each other for over ten years now.

Our paths first crossed at school. 

At Campus Plaza.

 

Kim and I like to do all sorts of things together. Like snowshoeing...

Going to the temple...

Going to the Old Folks Home...

 

 Going on road trips...

Hiking...

Traveling the World...

Going on African Safaries...

and eating... just to name a few.

However, our FAVORITE thing to do together is to have a Hot Coco Loco, as we like to call them. The tradition started many years ago. 

Kim and I weren't roommates, so we made a special time together every Sunday evening to meet up on a bench located in-between our apartments and we would brew up some hot coco and wrap up in blankets (seeing the tradition was started during the winter) and we would talk. 

That's all... nothing fancy. 

We would just talk and hear about how the week went for each other. 

Simple yet wonderful.

It became tradition rather quickly and one that we didn't want to ever end. 

Obviously, life "after college" happens and people move away. This happened for Kim and I as it does for everyone else. 

However, our tradition didn't die.

It just changed a little. 

Now our Hot Coco Loco's have to be conducted over the phone and they RARELY, if ever, involve a bench or hot coco anymore. However, they still happen EVERY SINGLE week. 

A few weekends ago, my hot coco friend and I got to have a Hot Coco Loco in person. No phone time this week. The best Hot Coco yet. 

Kim came to town with our friend Nate to visit and so we could go see the production of Wicked together.  It was such a great weekend. 

The best.

I have no doubt that our Hot Coco Loco's will continue on throughout our entire lives no matter how old we get or where we live. I look forward to the times when they get to be in person; When we get together to go to the theater, go camping, go on an International trip or just... TALK. 

Thanks Kim for being the best friend a girl could ever ask for!

Sugar and Spice

This is old news to most of you by now, but the wait is over! We are having...  a girl! 

A little baby Jess! 

We are so thrilled for her to join our family... now we just need a name. 

Any good ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Friday Date Night

Scott and I make it a priority to have date night every Friday night. It is our time to spend together without the thoughts of work or school. I look forward to it every week. Last week we went out to dinner (one of our favorite things to do) before enjoying an outdoor movie in a cute, quaint little park. There is a place here in Vegas that plays a free outdoor movie (even with complimentary popcorn) every Friday and Saturday night. The movies are all family oriented, so we can count on them to be clean. Great little discovery!

I thought I'd also add these few pictures from last Sunday...

Isn't my man so handsome! For the record, I had to talk him into posing for me. Thanks Scottie!

Cliche Photo

I know that these type of photos are super cliche, but let's be honest, I couldn't resist. This is me at three months! I am now 15 weeks and my baby is supposedly the size of an apple. We find out the gender in September at twenty weeks!

Any predictions? Boy or girl?

Swagger Wagon

Check out our new digs! I like to refer to it as our new Swagger Wagon.

Yes, yes, you heard right...

I KNOW we don't have any kids yet...

I KNOW that our family, as of now, only consists of two people...

I KNOW that many of you wouldn't be caught dead in a mini-van. They just aren't "cool"...

Well, before you place any judgements let me plead my case and you may feel a bit differently.

First off, it is important to not think of it as a mini-van. Scott and I own a Swagger Wagon, which is TOTALLY different. Just watch the link below and you'll see what I mean.
 (The Swagger Wagon in the music video happens to be a Toyota Sienna, but in this case, we will considering all mini-vans to be a Swagger Wagon seeing that we purchased a Honda Odyssey.)

In case that didn't change your mind about mini-vans, let me continue...

Secondly, the gas mileage is still great. It's not much worse than a car. Sure it would be nice to own a more sporty,  "cool" SUV, but the gas mileage on other SUV's stink!

Thirdly, talk about convenient! Sliding doors on both sides, seats that fold down and provide basically the same storage space as the bed of a truck... I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
Scott and I knew that someday, perhaps when our family doubled or tripled in size, we would want to get a mini-van.  We recognize that this is still many years down the road.

Well, what can I say, sometimes things change. Due to a random kismet of events (such as the Toyota place offering to buy Scott's car back for almost as much as he originally paid for it) and for a plethora of other reasons (such as the fact that we found an almost brand new Honda Odyssey with less than 45,000 miles for below blue book price), we now own a van a little earlier than expected.

Don't be jealous.

Team Allen + 1

Scott finished up his first year of physical therapy school in May. What a great day. Scott worked so hard all year and I am SO proud of him. We celebrated his last night of classes by attending an end-of-the-year, school sponsored bbq at Lake Las Vegas. (Pictured above) The next day was a Saturday and we played ALL day. We started the day out with a great round of tennis...

...followed by some pool time, golfing, dinner and a movie. This was truly celebration time.

We went to a restaurant at Sunset Station, which means we had to walk through the casino to get there. We have to walk through casinos to get to places all the time. I thought it was a little bit odd that this particular walk through the casino left my nose rattling like crazy. I could barely breath from the stench of the second hand smoke. I usually deal with the smell fairly well, but this time, covering my nose and mouth was my only chance of making it through. I looked pretty funny as I walked through briskly with both hands smothered into my face with gagging reflexes appeared periodically.

I thought it was even more strange that my dinner was greatly disturbed by the fish that someone ordered multiple tables away. I like fish, but the smell was SO strong... once again... a few gagging reflexes occurred.

When we walked by a lady on the way out and the smell of her perfume about knocked me over, I knew something was up.

Shortly after that fun weekend, we packed up to make our way to Utah for our vacation. We stopped in St. George so we could utilize our National Parks pass and do some hiking in Zions.

I've always considered myself to be a decent hiker... intense elevation change, trekking great distances or having to hold on to a chain in order to climb (such as at Angel's Landing) are something I revel in, rather than shun away from. I enjoy the feeling of the challenge. This particular trip however, something was different. We hiked to Emerald Pools, which is virtually flat, has a lot of shade and would definitely be ranked an "easy" hike. However, I was huffing and puffing and had to walk extremely slow compared to my normal pace. For those of you who know me well, I like to walk fast... in fact, I have been teased for it my whole life. Something weird was going on.

Something very weird indeed. Where was the "push-it-up-the-mountain" Jessie that I was used to? 

About a week later, after many other "weird" things took place, we solved the mystery!

Okay, so it wasn't really a mystery... we had a pretty good hunch of the cause of so many weird things to take place, but the reasons behind them all were confirmed! We had a little Allen on the way!

Say hello to Papa Scott and Mama Jess! We are so excited to welcome our little one and we will be doing so on January 29th... or thereabouts. This picture of our little one was taken at the end of ten weeks. Still a little alien looking since the head is still the same size as the entire body, but to be able to see the arms and legs was super exciting. The little one was very active. The doctor had a hard time measuring it on the screen because he/she was flipping around and waving at us. The heartbeat was easy to find. What a blessing.

The remainder of our 6 weeks proved to be interesting seeing that my little tummy got a bit more sick and queasy every day. I tried to still get out and have fun, but I had to modify my activity a bit due to pure lack of energy and the feeling or throwing up at any moment.

Scott and I went golfing.

Well... Scott went golfing and I drove him around in the cart.

Scott and I went prairie dog shooting.

Well... Scott went shooting while I stayed in the front seat with the binoculars. I was his spotter.

Scott and I worked on the farm.

Well... Scott worked on the farm and I sat in the tractor and cheered him on.

So while I wasn't the same energetic Jessie that I normally may have been, we still had a nice vacation in Utah and were able to do a lot of fun things. I met up with many different friends...

 enjoyed Arches National Park,

went to San Diego and Sea World,

and celebrated a great forth of July.

The sickness is almost totally gone now and I am SO grateful. The upside of being sick for all of vacation, is that I had Scott there to support and help me.

WELCOME BABY ALLEN!!

Memory Keeper

Ever since I was young, I have had a crazy pattern of keeping memories in any and every possible way.

Memories are extremely important to me and I try to capture them... ALL of them.

I write in a journal... almost daily... and have since eighth grade...

I keep letters, important papers and newspaper articles of things that I want to remember and bind them into my journals...

I have a memory jar that I keep theater, movie and fun event tickets of things that Scott and I have gone to...

I scrapbook... old school style

And Digitally....

I make musical CD's or soundtracks for different times through out my life...

          * Highschool Soundtrack
          * Summer 99 Soundtrack
          * Africa Soundtrack

... you get the idea.


Another fun way that I have tried to keep memories is through making quilts. The first quilt I made was in commemoration of my summer in Africa. I bought a ton of colorful African material in the market place and I put them all together in a blanket. I loved the way it turned out.

My newest form of memory keeping?  A T-shirt quilt! I have not finished it completely, but the top is done being sewn. All of the t-shirts are from races that I have run over the years.

Quirky?  Yes.

A little extreme in the memory keeping?  Maybe. 

Do I love it?  Absolutely!!

Each one has a great memory attached and now they are all kept in the form of a blanket. When I am using it as a lap quilt when watching a movie, I will be able to relive each one.

Let the memory keeping continue on.