Soccer in California

Aunt Emily with Aubrielle, Benson and Jaycie

This little girl will steal your heart! She was turning a lot of heads as she walking all over strutting her stuff at the soccer game.

Aubrielle was pronounced the best Real fan ever by the very drunk guy behind us :) She was dancing and cheering and showcasing her sassiness.

Matt had a hard time with the pressure of the game, but managed to not split open his pants when we "won". Ok tied, but we still advance to the next round, so that's a win in my book.

The whole Plaster family at the game. Camron refused to wear anything with Real Salt Lake on it, for fear that he would get beat up. We convinced him that since he went to Argentina for his mission and we have 2 players from Argentina on our team, that he could wear their national team jersey and be there to support them.

Matt and I are excited that there will be one more home game this season. We are looking forward to beating the New York Red Bulls this Saturday at Rio Tinto.

GO REAL!!

Happy Halloween!

Matt dressed up a as a soccer player My cousin Amy and I are just freaky!

On the road again

Well it looks we'll be making the trek over to LosAngeles to watch Real take on Chivas for the 2nd game in the playoffs. The team is offering another bus and we enjoyed it so much last time we decided to just go for it. It's a lot of time on the bus, but the Colorado trip was worth it and I hope this one will be as well.

Last time our trek even made it into some news articles http://web.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20081026&content_id=199217&vkey=news_rsl&fext=.jsp&team=t121

Oh here's a funny story from the game in Colorado. Any of you who know Matt, know that he gets VERY into any game one of "his teams" is playing in. The first half of the game, he was a nervous wreck. He kept sitting down in the midst of all the screaming Real fans, holding his head cause he couldn't take the pressure. Towards the end of the game, despite my reassurance, that it's not over till it's over, Matt had given up on the team. When they finally scored he jumped up with so much exuberance, he split his pants open!! The rest of the evening he wanted to carry my bag around to "hide his shame". By the time we made it back to the hotel, the tear had made it from his crotch all the way down to his knee. I need to try and get a good picture of the pants, it was hilarious!

Reba (and Kelly Clarkson)

One morning on my way to work I heard them announcing that tickets for the Reba McEntire were going on pre-sale that morning. I immediately thought of my cousin Amy and how we hadn't been to a concert together in forever. I called her and we decided we wanted to go no matter what. I ended up having to join the Kelly Clarkson fan club to be part of the pre-sale, but it was worth it. We ended up with seats on the floor on the 7th row!

Close up of Reba (with the help of the huge video screen)

Reba and Kelly sang most of the songs as a duet, singing songs off of both of their albums.

Amy and I after the concert with the stage in the background. It was so much fun to hang out with my cousin and of course to see Reba in concert!

RSL on to the playoffs!

Ok I'm supposed to be working right now, but can't focus! Matt and I travelled to the Real Salt Lake game against the Colorado Rapids this last weekend. The game was for all the marbles and for 89 minutes of the game it was pure agony, but in the 90th minutes we scored, tying the game and sending us to the playoffs! It was a crazy weekend and a ton of fun. I'll post more later, just wanted to get these pics up.

Matt with his favorite player, Jamison Olave, at the hotel after the gameMatt and I holding the Rocky Mountain Cup

I have no more wisdom......

teeth that is :) One week ago today I finally had my wisdom teeth pulled. I'd been putting it off for about 3 years now and was not excited about getting it done at all. I'd heard way too many horror stories.

I made an appt for my annual cleaning at the dds, only to discover that I already had an appointment with my therapist that morning as well. So I thought what the heck, might as well get my wisdom teeth out that day and get it all done. After I made the appointments Matt informed me that the day I made all my appointments for was the day of the first Real game at the new stadium and that I had to change my appointments. Of course I just dug in my heels and refused, I mean it had taken me 3 years to make the appt, I was not going to change it now.

After several threats from him about how I better not ruin the game for him, the day finally came. They put me to sleep to pull the teeth and it was done in what seemed like 10 seconds. In reality they said it took 2 minutes per tooth (I only had my 2 upper wisdom teeth). I was quite out of it immediately following and for a few hours, but I rested up for the game that night and had a blast, as you can see from the picture below. You can also see that I have no swelling either! For all the horror stories I've heard, I guess my experience was the fairy tale version. I even went to the Reba concert the next night with my cousin Amy. (post to follow)

Rio Tinto for the 1st time - Go REAL!

Party Time

On Saturday I was able to meet up with Connor, his brother, and his mom at the Olive Garden to celebrate his birthday. Connor drew a lot of attention on our way back to our table carrying his present that was just about as big as he was!

I had missed Taylor's birthday in June, so I was able to give him his present at the same time.

Connor showing me the airplane launcher I got him.

Connor loved his motorcycle jacket and began fighting all the "bad guys". Luckily we were back in the corner of the restaurant and were able to just let him play. He was quite stylin with his leather jacket, shorts and cowboy boots :) And he definetely has the biker attitude down.

Could it really be 4 years?!?!

I can't believe that Connor is 4 today! It feels like it was just yesterday I was holding him in my arms at the hospital and yet it feels like an eternity ago. I've come so far in the past 4 years and am so happy with where I am in my life, but sometimes it still hurts. I never know when the pain and the tears will come, but then all the sudden they are there. It hit me this morning that it was his birthday and the tears started to flow. It's been awhile since I've cried about it, so I guess it's just time for it to all come out. It makes me think of the song that says "when you cry, you're just letting go of heartache deep inside, tomorrow they'll be sunshining skies and love close by, you're not alone". I like to think that i'm just letting go of the heartache and then I'll be ok.

I truly feel Heavenly Father's hand in my life and know that he is the one who has gotten me through the toughest times in the past 4 years and that it was him that blessed me to find Matt. I also feel extremely blessed to have such an open adoption and to be able to see how he is doing with my own eyes and to give him hugs (that is if I can get him to stop trying to wrestle me for a minute). I was sharing with my sister Celeste how I was feeling this morning and then went to read her blog and found this - http://boandco.blogspot.com/2008/09/4th-anniversary.html

Talk about touching my heart! I love my sister and in fact I love my whole family for the love and support they've given me over the past 4 years.

Happy 4th Birthday Connor!

parlez-vous français ?

Well neither do I, but there is a new family in our ward that just moved here from Paris. The dad is going to the U to get his masters degree. They have 4 young children with the oldest being 11. I've watched them in Primary and can't help but think how hard it would be to move to a new country and all the sudden be submerged in a new language. Their oldest child is a girl and for some reason, I've taken a special liking to her. She gave a talk a couple of weeks ago in Primary and it was so neat to hear her accent and it must have taken a lot of courage to get up and speak in English in front of so many kids. She has 2 younger brothers in Primary and they speak even less English than her.

This last Sunday during singing time, we were learning some new songs for our Primary program and I happened to notice her writing something down in a notebook. Being the nosey lady that I am, I had to lean forward and see what she was writing. At the top of the page was "Primary songs to learn in English". I was so impressed by her desire to learn. After Primary, I kept thinking about it and about the pocket size children's songbook I had in my scripture bag. I went up to her after Sacrament and asked her if she had a copy of the songbook in English at home. She sadly said no and sort of looked down. I asked her if she would like to have my copy so that she could practice at home. Her eyes lit up and she was so appreciative. It was a small thing for me to do, but it made me feel so glad, and I'm sure she was happy as well. Just thought I'd share my fun experience.

Just had to share-

New York, New York

Ok so I'm late in posting about our trip, but my camera ate all of our pictures from the trip and it took me awhile to get some from Matt's friend. Anyway we were able to go to New York in the beginning of June. Back in Matt's days as a groupie for U2 he met John at one of the U2 concerts in England. John is from Scotland and currently lives with his wife, Laura, in Australia. They were going on an around the world trip and we were able to meet up with them in New York. I really enjoyed getting to meet them and was completely overwhelmed with everything in New York. There is always so much going on all at the same time, lots of sights, smells and sounds!! Times Square at night is amazing, so many lights! Not to mention its pretty cool to see things in person that you've only seen on TV before.
We did a TON of walking. So much in fact that by the time we came home my feet hurt so bad I could barely walk. We took one day and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, by the time we got across, I was done walking, so while John and Laura walked back across we went the subway route. Little did we know that by the time we actually found the subway station, we ended up walking more than we would have if we would have walked back across the bridge. Oh well I guess you live and you learn! Here's a picture of John and Matt walking across the bridge in style.

And for your viewing pleasure another shot of Matt and John -

Our trip ended the same way it started with a first class flight between New York and Salt Lake. I'm totally spoiled now and never want to fly coach again!

I shot my eye out!

Last night Matt and I went to the Real soccer game and it was an amazing game. Sometime during the first half one of our forwards, Robbie Findley, had a wide open shot that hit the post. I was so dissappointed, I threw my hands up in disbelief to cover my eyes. Somehow I managed to stab my thumb right into my eye socket! I just sat there stunned, 1st of all how did he miss that and second of all I'd shot my eye out! It's a bit sore this morning but Real ended up winning 2-1 and now have a winning record for the first time in their history, so I guess it was worth it.

So much "cooler"

Old and Busted.......

New Hottness!!

Well folks it was a sad day here on Wednesday. My little fridge gave up the ghost and died. I was devastated, how could I keep my sodas cold for my good paying customers!! I started doing some research online and was trying to decide what I was willing to spend and what I wanted to do. I came in to work on Thursday morning still contemplating my choices. Imagine my surprise to find a huge box wrapped up on my desk! My boss had bought this awesome fridge for me!! Let's just say she definetely gets free sodas for life!

Locked Up

My aunt Lori works out at the prison and every once in awhile they have a Corrections Week where the people that work out there can have their family come out for a tour. I was able to go a couple of years ago on my birthday and asked if Matt and I could go this year. So we spent last Saturday in prison!



It's quite an interesting experience for sure. We started out with a tour of the maximum security and death row cells. These guys are locked down for 23 hours a day and their "yard" is a concrete box outside. This definetely is not the kind of life I'd like to live. Then we went to the execution chamber and saw the table where they do the lethal injections and also saw the set up for the firing squad.



Next we went out to one of the other buildings were the prison looked more like what you see on the tv shows. Four stories of nothing but cell doors. That experience was pretty intimidating and the prisoners were less than 5 feet away and of course they were acting up because they felt like they were on display.

All in all it was a very fun day, that ended with a demonstration of the SWAT team's dog. Those dogs are amazing!!

Smash Mouth, Sunday School and Success

Matt and I have the lovely job of teaching the 11-12 year old boys in our ward. There are 8 of them and needless to say they can be quite the handful. We've had to crack down lately and they've been much better. I don't know what happened last week though. One of our most well behaved boys who always knows the answers and sits quietly snapped. He raised his hand and when I called on him, he said "My worlds on fire, how bout yours, that's the way I like it and I never get bored!" Of course the entire class erupted and I couldn't help but start laughing. The poor kid was laughing so hard that he face went red and then purple. I'm not sure if we ever regained control after that.

And now for the success part. Matt and I have gone and received our free gym memberships from his work!! And I've even worked out twice this week! It feels good to be going back and to be working out. I can't wait till I start seeing results again, hopefully with this week's weigh in, i'll be able to move my little scale in the right direction!

Weight Loss

Both Matt and I maintained this week, but I thought I'd at least post a little note to let everyone know that I am not dodging my updating responsibility. There just isn't any progress this week :(

The good news is that both Matt and I now are signed up for this program with his work where we have access to several gyms for free. Our plan is to go try it out tonight. Wish us luck!

When life hands you lemons......

Open a lemonade stand. And that's what I did. Well sort of.........

I started working here at Headwaters just about 4 years ago. This whole time we have had the wonderful perk of having a fountain machine with free soda. Imagine my dismay and horror when they decided to discontinue the benefit. I spent several days sulking and paying way too much for my soda (anything more than free is too much). And then I came up with a brillant idea. I could open my own soda shoppe! So I did and business is booming. I've been open for a little over a week and have been averaging sales of 5 cans of soda a day. With the profit I am making, I am again able to drink my soda for free.

However it has created another dilemna.....Matt is quite concerned that I have started depleting our stash of soda in our basement. What are we going to do if there is an emergency??? Don't worry honey, I'll buy some more soda, so you can have your 72 hour kit full of soda.

Ok so it's been awhile since I updated our weight trackers. It may or may not be due to the fact that we are struggling in that area and the scale has moved in the wrong direction :( It's a new day and we're still trying.

Weekly Weigh In

So today I was asked the question, "if I gained weight, would I still post it on here?" The answer to that question is yes. That's the whole reason that I decided to put it on here, to help me be accountable for where I am at. Besides no one wants to tell somebody they are gaining weight, so that's a great motivation for me.

Anyways the walking to the church thing didn't turn out so well, apparently I can't do anything after 9pm. All but 2 nights last week I either fell asleep or was so too cranky to go with Matt for the walk. I think those of you that know me best know the mood I am talking about, and well it's not pretty. I'm very proud of Matt though he walked over there every night even though I was being a bum.

I'm very happy to report that the # on the scale went down for both of us!! Weight loss trackers have been updated :)

Lucy & Jaycie love their quilts

We have success, both of my sisters posted pictures on their blogs of their daughter with their quilt from me. Check them out -

Celeste's daughter - Lucy (also a guest appearance by Lucy's brother David)
Angela's daugher - Jaycie

Weight Loss

So for the past 6 weeks now, Matt and I have both been pretty diligent about trying to lose weight. I prefer not to refer to it as a diet, but as more of a change of lifestyle. We've had pretty good results so far (check out our weight loss trackers on the sidebar), but I want it to come off more quickly. Of course I know what I need to do.....exercise, but for some reason I just can't get myself back in the routine. This week Matt and I are on building security for our church, so we've been walking over there at night to lock up the building. It's not a very long walk, but at least it's some exercise. We talked this morning about extending the walk and having the church be a stop on the walk, not the destination. I'm really hoping that this will help us get in the habit and now that the weather is warming up that we can start going for a walk every night.

I decided this morning that I need to blog about our weight loss journey to help my motivation. Somehow it feels if others know what you are doing, you are more accountable for your choices. I don't like to fail, but weight loss seems to be one of those areas where I have been lately. Anyways any support and cheer leading is definitely appreciated. I'll be updating our weight loss trackers every Monday morning so you can follow us along on our journey.

Christmas Quilts

I know that Christmas has come and is long gone, but I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of the quilts that I made for gifts this year. I had so much fun making "I Spy" quilts for the boys, several different fun fabrics, with matching squares. It's a game and a quilt all in one.

I was able to be with David on Christmas morning when he opened his quilt. He was a little overwhelmed with everything that was going on, so it just got put to the side. Luckily Grandma and Aunt Emily(me) we were able to show him what it was all about a few days later

Benson exploring all the different things there are in his quilt and trying to find their matches.

Connor just wanted to wrap up in his and pretend it was a cape. He did however really like the bannana fabric, afterall he is a monkey!

It just about killed me to make this blanket for Taylor, and to have that fabric in my house, but I knew how much he would love it and he did.

Brad & Miranda now have the perfect quilt to cuddle up with and watch a movie.

Boo, hisssss......Angela has been promising to send me pictures of Jaycie with her quilt from Aunt Emily, but I have yet to see them. I think we should boycott her blog until I get the picture.

Update: I still don't have the picture from Angela, but I won't boycott her just yet, I know that her 3 kids consume her time :) Also this actually wasn't a Christmas quilt, but a "congratulations on being born" quilt. Both of my sisters had baby girls in the past couple of months and I was able to make the 2 new nieces matching quilts. Hopefully we'll soon have pics of Lucy & Jaycie with their quilts.

A cool autumn day

I debated about posting these pictures, because they are a bit old, but hey I just downloaded them from my camera, so I think that makes them new :) These were taken the day of the BYU -vs- Utah football game. Ben & Holly had tickets to the game and asked if I could babysit Connor, DUH!!! of course I could! It was one of the best days of my life, well it would have been better if the U won, but we won't go there. My cousins and some of their kids were over to watch the game and the kids became bored rather quickly. They all wanted to go outside to play, so we let them out on my little patio, the older kids lasted about 2 minutes and then wanted to come in because it was too cold. But not Connor, he was having too much fun working in my garden. I had a hard time getting any pictures of his face because as he put it "you already took my picture".

The good old days

I came across this video this morning and I just couldn't resist posting it for everyone's enjoyment. I'm not sure of the exact year, but I'm guessing it was about 20 years ago. I have to say I'm quite impressed with my ninja moves :)

Cast -
girl in the purple coat - Emily
girl in the pink coat - Angela
little boy intent on bugging his sisters - Brad

And then there were three....

Well I guess it's official, Justin is getting married!!! Last night he sent a pic to my phone of hand with a new engagement ring on it and then called me this morning to tell me the news. He said he proposed over a romantic candlelight dinner at home. When I asked him where everyone was, he told me that they were actually babysitting our nephew David who was at the other end of the table playing with playdough. That will for sure be a story to make sure he knows when he's older.

Now that leaves the 3 little boys as the last single children in the Wagner family.

Back to Reality

Well here I am back in freezing cold Salt Lake City. I was totally spoiled by the weather in California, not to mention getting to spend so much time with my sister and her family. Matt was trying to figure out why I was in such a mood this afternoon and then it finally dawned on him.....I'd spent too much time around Aubrielle and some of her sassiness had worn off on me. She sure is a firecracker and kept us on our toes the whole weekend.

The first morning I was there I woke up around 6am when Camron left for work. I could hear that Aubrielle was awake and went to go find her. She was too hungry to bother talking to me and went off to get herself a snack. I stood there talking to Ang for a minute when Aubrielle came to the doorway with her hand on her hip. "What is the problem with you?? She is supposed to be sleeping!!". That was just the first of several times that I would be put back in my place by a 3 year old.

More family fun

So it's been pointed out to me that my definition of the whole family might not be the same definition that other people have of the "whole" family. Beside Aubrielle has been bugging me "Can we please make some more M&M's today?" Here is what we've come up with-

David welcomes Lucy

Ok so this video isn't the best quality and I have no idea why David has a diaper on his head, but here he is welcoming his new baby sister Lucy Anne into the world. Lucy was born on Feb 1st at 1:47 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 12 oz. My sister, Celeste, is very grateful to finally have the baby born!! Everyone is tired, but doing well.

Fun for the whole family

While visiting my sister, Angela, and creating this blog (with her extensive help I might add) we decided to change the whole family into m&m's. I don't think we even want to admit how much time we spent designing them, but it really was fun for everyone. My niece Aubrielle, was so excited to decide how everyone should look. She of course thought that everyone should have a crown and be a princess, but we managed to talk her out of that somehow. When her dad came home from work, she couldn't wait to tell him what we'd spent our day doing. Anyway here is the results: