Coveting

My Honda Civic has seen its better days. It is struggling in the following areas: numerous dents, passenger side mirror gone, right side door handle is hanging by a limb, and the paint job is fading really bad. Not to mention that is has 203,000 miles on it. AND it is making really weird noises. Whenever I come to a stop, my whole car shakes. It is actually quite embarrassing. Whenever I am at a stop light I feel like everyone is staring at the Honda civic that is shaking uncontrollably next to them.

Point is...I don't know how much longer the Honda will be with us. I really do hope she will make it until Niel is done with school for obvious reasons. I have had my eye on a few cars though...

Toyota FJ Cruiser. This is my favorite. This car says, "Independant entreprenuer woman."

I love how it looks and it is pretty affordable. Cons: bad gas mileage and not great for kids. bah. So pretty much we won't ever get this car since those two things kinda kill it.

2009 Pontiac G8. One word: HOT

Pleasantly surprised with this one. I mean seriously, never in my life have I thought about ever buying a pontiac until I saw this car.

Lexus IS 250. I think I would look good driving this car...except I would be a little nervous driving it.

Truth is, we probably won't get any of these cars because we want to get one that is a few years old. Going straight on looks, these are my favorite. Which one is your favorite?

Almost in time for next year

Niel drew our Christmas card this year. I wanted to get them mailed out to everyone but I ran out of time with all of the holiday craziness. I ended up only getting them sent out to siblings and a few friends. So...for those of you who didn't get a Christmas card here it is! I promise I had every intention of getting them out to everyone and I am really bummed I ran out of time. I thought Niel did such a good job so I still wanted to display it.

Brianna

Niel and I have another niece! Niel's sister Michelle had a baby girl last night. They named her Brianna Beverly Willis. She was 10.1 pounds! I can't wait to meet her.

Love

Saturday I convinced Niel to go with me to Huntington beach. I love this beach. I like the beautiful homes by the beach, I like how everyone rides their bike around, I like the shops at the pier, and I like how there are always lots of interesting people there. And of course I love the ocean, the breeze, and the beautiful weather that can be enjoyed there.
We parked about three miles down from the pier to avoid the craziness of parking. I rode my bike and Niel roller bladed along the pathway that lines the beach up to the pier. It was so much fun. I could ride my bike along the beach everyday.

We rode around the homes by the beach and one of them was having an open house. The asking price was 1.6 million. It was gorgeous. It was decorated like it should have been in a magazine. But don't worry, it was their "vacation home". After biking around for two hours we laid out on the beach for a bit. We definitely didn't get in the water, but we did see some whales in the water:)

A crafty journal

We made journals in enrichment the other night. Here is the journal I made. I thought these were really cute and easy. It is a plain notebook covered with scrap booking paper and finished with a ribbon. I'm not really sure what I will write in this journal since I use my blog as a journal, but I'm sure it will be put to good use.

78 Degrees

It is currently 78 degrees in Southern California and Huntington Beach is calling my name. I don't know about you but I am ready to hit the beach. I like to have colder weather October-December but once the holidays are over, bring on the sunshine.

Jealous? Hopefully this will inspire you to come visit us:)

Update

This week Niel did his first surgery rotation and he really enjoyed it. On his first day he helped assist with five major surgeries including a gal bladder removal and surgery on a hernia. It's great he is enjoying surgery because he was hoping to specialize in orthopedic surgery. Now he doesn't have to wonder anymore whether or not he will enjoy surgery...now he knows from experience that he likes it!

Friday night I had a girls night while Niel worked all night at the hospital. I decided to invite a couple of the young women from church & Gayle Land to watch a chick flick with me! I felt pretty special that they were willing to spend their Friday night with "Sister Schurig" who is seven years older than them!

Niel and I both spoke in church today. I spoke on "Renewing our commitment to the Lord" and Niel spoke on Latter-day prophets. I was really nervous, especially on Saturday (Saturday I spent the whole day preparing and fretting about speaking). It ended up going really well and we both got lots of compliments. Yay!

AND...tomorrow is my day off!! I am so stoked about having a three-day weekend. I will work on my large "to-do" list tomorrow. Maybe getting my hours cut isn't so bad after all:)

HECK YES.

Yesterday was a good day.

1) My work hours were changed to 8-5p.m.!!! You have no idea how happy this makes me. seriously. This means I will be getting home around 5:30/45 instead of 6:15/30.

2) I won the thank-card drawing at work and won a giftcard to Chili's! We love Chili's! the thank you card drawing is a tradition where everyone writes thank you notes to each other throughout the month. Then there is a drawing at the end of the month.

Top 10 of 2008

In 2008, we were able to explore California with friends and family. It has been an adventure living here together in Southern California while Niel is going to P.A. school. Since I didn't start blogging until August I thought I would do a recap on year 2008.

1. Trip to Maui, Hawaii
2. Darci graduating in April from Brigham Young University with a degree in Business Management from the Marriott School of Management. 3. Selling our four-plex and making good money on it right before the market turned. The patience was worth it!4. Touring California with family and friends

-Disneyland three times 1) With Mom and Dad Child 2) With my brother Paul and his family 3) With the Bowers Family-Six flags three times. 1) With Niel's mom 2) With Jim & Amy Gifford 3) With Devin & Stephanie
-Sea World three times 1) Niel and I 2) Niel's mom 3) My brother Brannen's family
-Hollywood with Niel's Sisters Sonya, Stephanie, and her husband Devin-Rodeo Drive (pictured is the Prada store)
-Huntington Beach with Mom
-Newport Beach with Adam & Brittany
-Santa Monica Beach with Paige & Karyna
-San Diego Harbor. We stayed in this yacht with David and Gina Bailey. -Darci went to Big Bear with the Cordons
-Angels Stadium in LA. We got free lower level tickets from my work to go to the Angels vs. Mariners baseball game! 5. Hotel Schurig. Even though a few of our guests stayed in a hotel we had all of these people visit us this year!

-Mom and Dad Child
-Mom Schurig
-Jim and Amy Gifford -Devin & Stephanie Ellsworth
-Sonya Schurig
-Paul, Lindsay, Ethan, and Ben Child
-Lori, David, Tyler, Todd, Tiffani, and Trent Bowers
-Brannen, Tiffany, Austin, Isaac, and Dylan Child
-Steve Nebeker

6. Niel finishing his first year of P.A. School
7. Darci surviving first year of girls camp as the Assistant Girls Camp director

8. "Yes" on 8 passed in CA to protect the definition of Marriage.


9. Darci's trip to WA for the BYU football game with family

10. Trip to Utah for Christmas.

Our favorite times of the year were when family and friends came to visit us. We can't believe how many people were able to come visit us this year! We hope to have just as many family and friends visit this year! Plan your trips to Southern California and don't forget to pencil us in:) 2008 was a good year and we look forward to more fun adventures in 2009.

A new kick

Lately I have been on a Bath & Body Works kick. Most girls fall in love with Bath & Body around eighth grade. I hadn't every been into it that much until the last month or so. I think it is mostly because they came out with some fragrances I really like AND they have had some really good sales lately.

I think their stuff is usually over-priced so I wait for the sales. Their wall flowers are now $5 (instead of $12.50 each) and I got the foaming hand soaps 4 for $10 before Christmas. We are hooked on their foaming hand soap and will never be able to go back to regular hand soap.

I went the first day of their half-yearly sale and stocked up! Their signature collection was only $3 instead of $10-14!! I got the body spray, body butter, and lotion in the Midnight Pomegranate. It smells amazing. I also stocked up on Brown sugar and fig body lotion. I couldn't resist their special edition Shea Cashmere body lotion either. I smell perrrty good now.

Thank you Mr. Schurig

This week is the last week of Niel's three week break from school. I will admit I have been quite jealous as I venture off to work everyday while he is still in bed.

Even though he has been relaxing alot he has also been quite the little house husbund. He has been making my breakfasts, packing my lunches, and keeping the house clean. We returned from our Utah trip on Monday night around 10:30 p.m. The following day I had to be at work. I wasn't looking forward to all of the unpacking and cleaning. Taking down the tree is a really undesired job-especially when the tree is real. When I came home Niel had un-decorated the whole house. He took the tree out, vacuumed, and cleaned the whole house. Our condo was spotless and I was SO happy! Thank you Mr. Schurig...I will miss having my temporary house husband:)

Partying like Rockstars

Not really actually. News years eve we fell asleep watching "Mama Mia" at like 10:30 on the luv sac. Next thing we woke up groggy at 1 a.m. and realized it was 2009. Yeah I know, that sounds like what 60 year old people do on New Years. Oh, did I mention we had taco bell for dinner?

New Years day I went to Palm Springs to visit with the Bird family where they are vacationing. We went shopping downtown where I got these $6 rockstar sunglasses (pictured below for your enjoyment). Then we went to dinner at The Elephant Bar.

Niel on the other hand decided to kick the new year off by staying home to study and watch the rose bowl game.

Happy New Year!