New Callings = New Challenges

Jeff and I started off with the typical "newlywed" calling in our ward and were Primary teachers for 1 year, awesome experience and I was always amazed at how well the kids knew their scriptures at such a young age. Then in January of this year we were called to teach Sunday School for the 12 and 13 year olds, the kids were a bit more feisty and had the teenage attitudes, but for the most part even if they didn't really admit it I think they did like being spiritual! Our lessons were based on the prophets, and it was so fun to learn and grow with them, cause when we got called to Sunday school I felt like my knowledge on the prophets was scarce.

Jeff and I had been needing to renew our temple recommends and had tried countless times to set up an interview, but something always came up or they were busy with their own meetings. A couple of weeks ago the 1st counselor in the bishopric had called to meet with us, we thought that they were just being super proactive and calling us for our temple recommends...that was not the case though. I just knew that there was something else in store for both of us cause we had to cancel our first interview, and so they asked us to reschedule on Saturday...we both were thinking, "Why is it so urgent that they speak with us and especially on a weekend?!!?" Friday came and Jeff got another call from the stake presidency for us to meet with them as well...could it really be that they were that interested in helping us renew our recommends or was it a new calling?

Me being the excited and jumpy person that I am ran through all the different options that it could be, we both just had new callings so I highly doubted that they were going to release us and call us to something new. Jeff is Mr. Calm and didn't say much and assured me that it would be nothing.

We pulled up to the church parking lot on Saturday, and saw another lady from our ward there, she rolled down her window and started giggling and asked if we knew why we were there...we both said we have no idea. After that I kinda suspected it would be me that would get a new calling but I didn't know what? We went inside and they proceeded to tell us that she had been called as the new Young Women's President and would like me to serve as her 2nd counselor over the Beehives! I honestly was so happy and felt overwhelmed cause I knew we had big shoes to fill from the past presidency. I've always told Jeff that it was my "dream calling" to be in Young Women's, I love working with the youth and have always been bummed that I only could do EFY for 1 year before I got married.

I felt inadequate and knew there were so many others in the ward who were more capable of this calling than me, but I felt comforted once she told me that when Bishop had called her he had mentioned my name and she said that I was the one she had in mind too. We looked at the 1st counselor and said, "Well why are we meeting with the stake presidency tomorrow then?" He said that he was not allowed to say and we would find out soon enough! Jeff was laughing cause he knew that I would be a lot busier now, but little did he know that he was not going to get off the hook that easily...

We met with the stake president on Sunday morning before church last week and he got called to be 2nd counselor in the Elder's Quorum Presidency, so he has his work cut out for him too!! It was so attractive to me how Jeff would always serve so willingly in the singles ward, and I know he will do wonderful things for the members in our ward and will be faithful to his calling.

This bloggity is like my journal and I wanted to record this because last week when we got set apart it was such a spiritual day for both of us and really bonding. I know it's going to be a lot of hard work and are schedules are going to be jam packed, but I'm up for the new challege! Most of the Beehives that I will be working with were in my Sunday school class, so I already know them and they are such sweethearts! I'm so thankful that our Heavenly Father knows us so well and has prepared us to do certain things in our lives. I'm also thankful for this opportunity to serve, because it reminds me that I to have to be better and it's definitely a push for me to work on my own personal spiritual goals. I hope that I can have the same affect on the young women that I will be working with as my leaders did for me at that age. I know a lot of you have been in YW's a long time...any advice or tips would be much appreciated, so please share! :)

Spring Break in Sedona

I have been a blogging schlump a dump lately...sorry!! When Jeff and I want to get out of Phx and go on a mini vacation we like spending time at little bed and breakfast places! So, for Spring Break this year Jeff had found this bed and breakfast place in Sedona called Boots and Saddles! I'm a nerd and didn't want to make this post until I figured out how to upload my videos to my comp cause I took some footage in Sedona that I wanted to include! My Smarty Mc Smart hubby figured out how to upload them, so now I'm hooked on videos! Over the weekend I started playing around with I-Movie on our Apple Computer and have now become a wannbe videographer!! I had so much fun editing it and adding a introduction to the beginning!! It's not perfect and I'm sure some of you will catch my errors, but it was cool to learn a new program this weekend! The 1st room we stayed at was booked the 2nd night, so they upgraded us to another room for the same price! It was called the El Dorado and we loved it! Below is a vid of me taking you on a tour of our pretty little room! :)

The first room we stayed in was called the Santa Fe, and it had a jacuzzi inside and also a fireplace! It was so darn cute! They had a little tea pot where we could make hot chocolate and everything was just laid out so perfectly, so you could honestly just sit and relax and we felt right at home. The owners of the bed and breakfast were very friendly and welcoming and the whole time we were there they just wanted to make our stay comfortable and fitting to our needs! Here are some pics of the Sante Fe Room:

On Friday we went on a hike down Soldier Pass Trail, the weather was a bit chilly and we were afraid that it might rain on us but it ended up being just fine! Jeff loved having our new camera with him and he got some great shots of the beautiful scenery in Sedona! Here are some pics from that adventure:

When Jeff and I were dating we actually went to Sedona and spent the day there! (Don't ask him about that trip cause I had like 10 pairs of running shoes on at that time and did not want to commit!) The thing that we do like to remember about that trip though is a restaurant we ate at called Javelina Restaurante, to this day we still consider it some of the best Mexican food we have had and would highly recommend it to anyone!! They are quick about getting your food out too and it's delicious! The chips and salsa are our fav!

We had to wait a bit before we got seated so we started to look at the kid's menu and look what we found on there:

Do you see what we are talking about? We thought that it was so random and funny that it had "Elisa's Cheese Enchilada" and then "Ellie's Bean Burro"! I was to hungry to eat off the kids menu though!

We decided to go to the movies in Flagstaff cause we figured it would be a pretty drive up there anyways. We stopped at a look out point and then took some more pics! It was just gorgeous where we had stopped at!!

Then here are some pics of the last room we stayed in called the El Dorado, that's the one the vid was about too.

Everyone needs to go to a bed a breakie place, see how relaxed I look:

Just kiddin! But I kinda felt a little princess-ey cause both of the rooms that we stayed in had robes that you could wear after the shower or hot tub and it was just fun to pretend that we were rich for a bit! Ha ha!! Oh and this bed was soooooooo super nice!! We definitely debated on stealing the feather comforter, I felt like I was sleeping in a cloud or something. The food they served for breakfast was also really tasty and it wasn't just pancakes or cereal and milk, they went all out and served some pretty fancy breakfast dishes! :) When you stay in a bed a breakfast it is kinda awkward to eat meals with people that you don't know, but for the most part it is not bad at all and everyone is really friendly and come from all over to stay at places like that.

They also provided afternoon snacks that Jeff and I took advantage of cause no one else was eating them! They had DVD's that you could take and watch in your room, menu's for all the restaurants in Sedona, and good advice about different hikes and tourist things to do there. All in all it was just really laid back and pleasant to stay somewhere and have someone want to make sure that you had an enjoyable time at their place! FYI...Sedona has gone crazy with their round-a-bouts and for some reason they think that those are more effective than an actual stop light, not cool and Jeff got so annoyed of them when we were driving. Anyways, here is the link to Boots and Saddles if you ever want to go on a weekend get away. We definitely would give the rooms, service and food a BIG thumbs up!

http://www.oldwestbb.com/index.php?page_id=1&PHPSESSID=bfe4e7d0ee69a945efa67f30690cc76a

This is why I don't COOK....

Last week sometime I came home and Jeff had dinner ready and this is what he cooked up for us...beautiful huh? I was so blown away...cause #1 I always make the same ol' stuff and this was something new and it had lemons on it...who would of thought to cook with lemons? Makes sense, but when it comes to food I am Miss Plain Jane and just make whatever. Back when I was single I would just eat cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner!!

SCHAUB=COOKING TALENTS!! Really, I have yet to acquire all the talent that Jeffrey was born with since his mom is an incredible cook...his whole family actually is!! Or maybe another option is that I just need to spend more time with my own Mommy, cause she can cook up a storm too with all her yummy Spanish dishes!! Either way, I need to be better about trying new recipes, cause I usually run from them in fear that I might screw it up. It's funny, cause my cute Mom never uses recipe's and just cooks from memory or just adds a "pinch of that here and there" so when I call her for help she gives me "estimates" and then I mess everything up!! :'(

Jeff tells me that he cooks well, cause he always watches the food network channel...well I watch Rachel Ray and that doesn't help cause she always puts weird ingredients in her food that I don't have in my pantry!! Maybe some of those natural cooking skills will kick in once I have kids...if not I always have Jeff as my personal chef! So, here is a shout out to you babe for cooking up a tasty dinner!! Love ya! :)