What's Life Without Laughter?

I got this in an email (that claimed its real) and thought I'd share...

Okay so this is how I imagine this conversation went:
Walmart Employee: "Hello 'dis Walmarts, how can I help you?"
Customer: "Yes, I would like to order a cake for a going away party this week."
Walmart Employee: "Whatchu want on the cake?"
Customer: "Best Wishes Suzanne." And underneath that "We will miss you".

Happy Birthday Little Bro...

I have no idea if you ever look at our blog, but just in case you do, here's a shout out to you: Happy Birthday Scotty!!! I cannot believe my little brother (who finally made me the shortest in the family) is 16 years old. Good luck on your drivers test and be nice to that car...maybe I'll buy it off you when you go on your mission!! Love you bro!

Weekend Getaway...

Mark and I just returned from a wonderful Valentine's weekend in Arizona. Mark was sent by his school for a Law Conference at ASU in Tempe and I was lucky enough to tag along. We spent our Stupid Cupid day at a really good Mexican restaurant in Mesa. We got to eat out in the back garden and I got a rose :) I spent most of my time shopping with his aunt and cousins, and eating at all the good food stops we don't have here in PA. All in all it was a good trip. Thanks babe for letting me come along!!

Valentine's Vote...

Which princess are you?
HAPPY LOVE DAY TO ALL!!

A New Season...

I can't wait, the new Bachelor season starts Monday March 17th and I have a seat on the couch reserved in front of the television. Mark probably won't be too pleased with this post but I am excited. Apparently the Bachelor was on the Dance Wars show to advertise for the show but I had to find the picture and bio of the new Bachelor, Matt Grant from MSN and I am so excited. Don't worry there will be plenty more posts about the show come March :)

Surprise!

So we threw a surprise birthday party for one of our best friends last night. Her husband, Dave, and Mark and I put together a great party for the big 3-0 at our house last night. She was so surprised, it was so cute! We had a blast. To see more pictures and the video of her surprise face (coming soon) click on the link to their cute blog in the Family and Friends section under Vassilaros. Happy Birthday Bonnie, we love you!!

byme-foryou.blogspot.com

In case you were wondering or in case you’ve been waiting, I am finally finished updating my card website. There are more new card styles and an easier way to select and purchase products. I am still making new styles and cards whenever I have free time and will update my site as often as possible. Please, tell your friends about it and feel free to post a link in your emails or on your blogs for those of you who have them. This has been such a fun project thus far and I hope I can keep it going for a while. Thank you so much for your support so far.

You can access the site through the link in the "Friends and Family" section under By Me*For You and the link in the "Favorite Links" section on the right hand side.

Wanna see something embarassing...

Visit my friends blog (link under Vassilaros in list of family and friends) and watch the boxing buddies video. It's classic!

A Christmas to Remember...

Warning: This slide show is really long. To look at the pictures at your own pace or select only certain images, click on the slide.com link that says "View all images".

So sorry about the delay in posting pictures of the trip, but unfortunately I had a rude awakening back from the trip by getting sick in the car on the way home from the airport. Other than that, the trip was amazing. We had such a good time. We spent a day at Pearl Harbor, a day on the North Shore, a night at the Polynesian Cultural Center, and everyday was spent basking in the sunshine. Spending Christmas day on the beach was such a treat. We had a blast! Thanks again for the trip Mom and Dad, we love you!

Mele Kalikimaka

Friends and Family:

Sorry we didn't send out a Christmas card this year, you can consider this it if you'd like. We want to wish all those we love a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We will be spending Christmas in Hawaii, so we will be checking out of the blogging world until the new year. It's been a wonderful year for us and hopefully for you too and we're are so looking forward to 2008. Have a great holiday!

Love,

Mark and Jacki

The end of an era...

At least it feels like it to me. We had to say goodbye to our best friends from law school Ethan and Heather. They are moving back to Utah and we wish them the best of luck in their endeavors, thank them for the memories and we'll keep the hope alive that we will see them again soon! This law school experience would not have been the same without them and they will truly be missed.

The Day After Tomorrow...

For those of you who have not seen the movie, you'll have no idea what I mean, but still look at these pictures. We had an ice storm today. The dark gray sky was raining ice all day and everything is coated in ice: our cars, the trees, our house, our mailbox, our trashcan, the grass. Everything! It totally reminds me of the movie Day After Tomorrow when everything freezes over instantly. I just had to take some pictures for my friends to see where I live. A new experience everyday out here!! Sorry I'm not the best photographer in the world, but enjoy!!

Look at the power lines, we kept losing power at work, it was challenging:

Our trash can lid frozen shut:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Our Christmas Tree

The First Snow of the Season

Yeah! I love this time of year. People in general just seem so much happier even though its freezing outside! At least here it is. Being so far away during this time of year is so hard, but we went out yesterday and bought ourselves a miniature size Christmas tree and put up the Christmas decor. I love Christmas, if only it were in June it would be my favorite time of year.

Voting Polls

I decided since there aren't many things going on in our lives right now, its the middle of the semester, I work all the time and we have no children, it might be a little more of a rare occasion that I post some pictures, so...I've decided to start running different voter polls on the side each week. This weeks is prompted by my husband telling me I always wear black. So do I wear too much black? How often should a person wear black? What do you think?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Thanks Dave and Bonnie and family for a wonderful meal and a lovely holiday!

What the Bachelor?

Did anyone else watch that epsiode? What in the world?!?! If you ask me I say he has major committment issues. If you have an opinion leave a comment! Maybe next season will have an ending that makes the show worth watching for 2 months!!! Sorry just had to let out my frustrations about that :)

Tagged...

So I got tagged but I wasn't sure if it was 6 or 7 random things people probably don't know about me I was supposed to say, but I could only think of 6 anyway so here it goes:
1- I hold the record in the Messick household for eating the most pancakes on Sunday morning...12!!!

2-I live in Carlisle, PA. You have to live here to fully comprehend that one!
3- I am afraid of the dark. I can't see, I feel like something is lurking and I just hate it!
4-I love to play dress up in my closet, but I get really embarassed when Mark catches me.
5- I didn't like my wedding cake. It was delicious but I thought it wasn't very pretty. I drew a custom design for the lady but she didn't do it right. Oh well, it was cheap.

6-I was absolutely, embarassingly, insanely obsessed with *NSYNC for like 7 years. No joke, I went to every concert, watched every TV concert, movie, bought every CD and followed them all the way to Hawaii for New Years!!


Now I tag: Kendal, Lyndsie, Nicole, and Aubrey- here's an excuse to start a blog!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

We had so much fun at our Halloween party the other night. Our home started feeling really small as the night went on, but that’s just because we have so many friends :) We had homemade funnel cakes, bobbing for apples and most everyone dressed up. Mark and I were Salt and Pepper and our friends were all a wide variety of things, our favorite was Adam and Eve (there's no picture for a reason). Thanks to all our friends who came and brought great food, we had a lot of fun!

A couple new sites

I have added 2 new site links to my blog in the “Favorite Links” section on the right-hand side and just wanted to bring your attention to them and offer a little explanation. I have started a new blog to showcase the crafts I’ve been making in my free time. I started the blog so that people can buy them if they want to, or just look at what I love to do. I created a link to it from my blog because I am trying to get the word out any way I can. If you know anyone who is interested, send them my way!! The other new link is, is for my cousins photography. He has a great talent and I am so proud of him.

My craft site: http://byme-foryou.blogspot.com

Weekend Getaway

For my last weekend off (I start my new job on Monday) Mark and I went to Washington DC. Mark’s cousin Ashley just moved there last week so we got to spend some time with her. On Friday night we went with her and Mark into the heart of downtown DC (to Chinatown, the national mall and such) and ate some good Mexican food, which is a rare occasion out here on the East coast. We stayed at an incredible hotel for really cheap, the hotel was much better than we were expecting, it was really nice! On Saturday morning Ashley’s boyfriend (the other Mark) took us to the Garden Tour at the White House. He works for the government so we got in for free and parked really close. It was mostly a bunch of trees, but it was a really neat experience to be that close to the White House. We kept hoping President Bush would pop his head out  On Saturday afternoon my wonderful husband took me to the DC temple. It is so sad that the temple for our district is more than 2 hours away, but it’s always well worth the trip. One of the few things we love about the East Coast is that you can be in 3 states and 1 district in a single day. All the good stuff is just a hop, skip and jump away. We had a wonderful weekend getaway and are ready for the busy, upcoming week.

I've been tagged...

Ok, so I’ve officially been tagged twice now (by Lyndsie and Kendal) without doing this so here it goes:

4 PLACES I’VE WORKED:
1. Red Robin (Server)- in PA
2. Citizens Bank (Teller Manager)- in PA
3. Handbill Printers (AKA for my dad)- in CA
4. Magleby’s Restaurant (Server)- in UT

4 MOVIES I CAN WATCH OVER AGAIN:
1. How to loose a guy in 10 days

2. The Notebook
3. Anything with Reese Witherspoon in it (I love her)

4. Behind Enemy Lines


4 FUNNY MOVIES I CAN WATCH OVER:
1. Dumb and Dumber
2. Fun with Dick and Jane
3. Cars
4. Office Space

4 PLACES I’VE LIVED:
1. Laguna Niguel, CA (home)
2. Provo, UT (in college)
3. Carlisle, PA (law school)
4. Scottsdale, AZ

4 FAVORITE TV SHOWS:
1. The Bachelor (if you can’t already tell by my blog)

2. The Office (can’t miss this one, ever!)
3. Extreme Home Makeover (I cry every time)
4. Flipping Out, Flip This House, Property Ladder (all the same)

4 PLACES I’VE BEEN:
1. Hawaii

2. Mexico
3. Bahamas
4. New York City/Washington DC
**(I’ve been lots of places in my life, but these are the most exotic)**

4 OF MY FAVORITE FOODS:
1. Burritos
2. In-N-Out Cheeseburgers

3. French Fries
4. Candy


4 WEIRD THINGS ABOUT ME:
1. I’m scared of the dark
2. I don’t like hot showers
3. I am the only blonde in my family
4. I have to have something to drink every time I eat

**Now I tag: Michelle, Kim and Shellie

Baby Sam and Me

I love babies and I especially love this little guy. It's a good thing lots of my friends have adorable little ones for me to play with or I might be tempted to have my own! Also, in my defense, I was told my face wouldn't be in the picture.

Happy Fall

October is one of my favorite months. Probably because it's my birthday month but since we've lived out on the East Coast it's been like a whole new season. There are so many trees so when the leaves change it's an incredible view. Plus, after a blazing hot summer we are excited to have it cool down a little.

P.S. Don't forget to vote each week for Bachelor, if you're interested :)

A New Season

I know that it's Fall now and the leaves will soon change, but what I am so excited about is a new season of shows. I am most excited tonight for my favorite, The Bachelor! Honestly, I don't know why but it is my favorite show on TV :) Pathetic, I know! I am starting a poll on the side (below), vote for who you think will win! I listed my favorites, if your choice is not included, leave a comment and I can add them. Have fun!

Our New Digs

Sorry it has taken me so long to post some pictures of our place. We still aren't completely moved in (as you can see in the pictures we haven't put everything on the walls yet). However, I figured if it was good enough to have people over to watch the football game, it's good enough to post pictures on the blog. Especially because people have been asking for them. Hope you enjoy pictures of yet another temporary place with our cheap furniture :) Someday we'll settle down...I HOPE!

Incredible

Normally, I don't like posting until I have a picture, but I had such an incredible experience this weekend. Our stake conference was this weekend and we had the rare opportunity to hear from Elder David A. Bednar. He was the presiding authority at our meetings. We had some smaller meetings with a small and more close and intimate group and therefore had the chance to shake his hand. It was such an amazing opportunity to shake the hand and look into the eyes of an apostle of the Lord. I was so touched by the things that he said and I really recognized how rare an experience that was. I took a lot of notes. If you are interested let me know and I can email you a copy. To learn more about Elder Bednar visit: http://lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg

"We are - Penn State"

Attendance: 107,678 at PSU v. FIU

We lucked out cause our seats were in the shade

Mark and I got to go to our second Penn State football game on Saturday. It is such a cool experience. The stadium holds over 107,000 people. It's in the middle of this little farm town in nowhere-Pennsylvania and the whole town shuts down for this huge football game. The entire city has tailgate parties in the cow fields and parking lots. In the stadium one side cheers "WE ARE" and the other yells "PENN STATE" and it goes on forever til the first side says "THANK YOU" and the other says "YOU'RE WELCOME". Thanks to Ethan and Heather for the tickets, we had so much fun!!

THE littlest THINGS

So I just have to say that I am SO excited over something SO silly :) Thanks to a little help from Lyndsie I was able to custom design my blog. I don't know much about computers but ever since I started this blogging thing, not only have I kept in touch with my friends better and started taking more pictures, but I am actually becoming more computer literate! Yeah for me :)

Pictures from the LONG drive

The Journey Out East

Wow!! We made it...only a 45 hour drive, but we're here!! We stopped along the way to visit friends so we took a few extra hours to get to PA. We made sure to see my Grandparents in CA and also see Mark's mission companions new baby, Mackena. Not sure about the spelling but Mark calls her MaRkena anyway. Then we stopped in Vegas to see some old friends from law school and couldn't believe how big their kids got and how cute their house is :) Then we made it to Utah where we saw my long time friend Nicole's 12 day old baby, Brynlee. I feel like an auntie but not quite yet. Then we saw Mark's cousins, with a baby on the way. And last of all we saw Mark's old roommate in Morgan Utah. He let us stay at their family's mountain cabin which is absolutely amazing. We got the whole place to ourselves. It's like a luxury resort, we loved it. It was also the first time all summer we were actually cold. Unfortunately we were on such a tight schedule we didn't get to enjoy it as much as we could have. Then it was through Wyoming and Nebraska (the flat states), Illinois and Indiana. We had to make a stop in Indiana to see Notre Dame stadium and get Mark's picture taken with touchdown Jesus. Then off to Ohio and eventually PA. We had a heck of a time finding a place to live. Thanks to our friends for letting us crash with them and their 4 boys (one brand new) for a couple days. We've finally moved in, Mark's started school and I am on the job hunt again. I'll post more when I get a chance but for now here's some pictures of our treck.

Back to PA

We had a blast of a summer but today we start our 40 hour treck back to the East coast. I wish we could stay here but its only 1 more year!! Who knew we would make it this far?!? We'll miss our West coast friends and family (and weather and beach and pool and...everything else!), but we are excited to see our law school friends. See ya soon!

A day at the Lake

At least in my book, wakeboarding is my favorite sport. Even when its not your turn, its just fun to be on the boat. My sister and her friend took us to Lake Elsinore at 5 o'clock in the morning to get the good water. We were tired but that didn't stop us from having a blast. Here are some fun pictures.


Thumbs up...

A sweet wipe out...

Dinner?...
(only at a lake dirty as Elsinore)

Aubrey's big air...

Jacki's little air...
Thanks for the super fun trip!! We'll have to do it again soon. You can only wake board so much in one day. I am completely sore from head to toe...TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!