Couch Family Blog |

After recently talking with a friend about the struggles and frustrations she was having with her sister it made me realize just how lucky I am. Sure there are times that I struggle with my sisters and they struggle with me. We all annoy one another and do things that make the other mad. BUT…. I always know that my sisters will be there for me no matter what. If I am struggling with anything I know that I can turn to any and all of them and they will help me in anyway possible. I am truly grateful to be blessed with the wonderful sisters I have. Thank you to each of you for loving me and being there for me.

Please note that I do not have many pictures of certain sisters…. this is due them not allowing me to take their picture.

My friend sent me this e-mail and it made me laugh pretty hard cause many of the things are so true!!!

40 truths

1. I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear
your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you
realize you’re wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was
younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I’m pretty
sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the
person died.

9. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I
don’t want to have to restart my collection…again.

13. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this - ever.

15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn
it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to
voice mail. What did you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not
seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

17. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

18. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

19. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or
Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

21. Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

22. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand
than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

23. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to
finish a text.

24. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

25. How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?

26. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

27. Shirts get dirty. Underwear get dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

28. Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

29. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car
keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the
Donkey - but I’ll bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!

30. My check engine light has been on for three months now and nothing’s happened. I’m starting to think that my car is just an attention whore.

31. I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink
to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and
sticks when they’ve invented the lighter?

32. Sometimes I pretend not to remember details about people because having a good memory apparently equates to creepiness.

33. My GPS says “Estimated Arrival Time.” I see “Time to Beat.”

34. Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart”, all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.

35. My keyboard needs a removable crumb tray like my toaster.

36. What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow
each other?

37. I wish it were appropriate to say to a complete stranger, “Excuse
me, would you like me to show you how to discipline your child?”

38. I never understood why the Lions and Cowboys always get to play on Thanksgiving. Shouldn’t the Patriots play the Redskins, and then steal their stadium afterwords?

39. Chocolate is not a treat, it is a food group.

40. Double-Stuffed Oreos should just be called Oreos, and regular Oreos should be called Diet Oreos.

So I wrote a lot of these things down right after we got back from Disneyland… clear back in October of 08. But I never finished. So I thought I would post them now cause I am REALLY wanting to go back again! Amanda is planning another trip back for all of us and I can’t wait to go again!

So for Halloween in 08, about half of the family went to Disneyland! Oh my word was it fun! I just wish we could have ALL been together and I wish we could ALL go together this next time. I am going to share little details about the trip. If you don’t want to read through all of it… don’t! If you want to see pictures visit my Facebook page… all the pictures are there.

Spencer, Amanda, baby Spence and Dad started the trip early flying out together. As I was at work, wishing I was already in Disneyland, I got a text from Spencer saying that baby Spence had thrown up 3 times on the flight (one of those was on dad!) I felt bad for my little buddy, but thought it was pretty funny that dad was the recipient of the mess! Thankfully it wasn’t too much. Mom, Kaka and I flew out that night to then meet Jenny, Steve, their 3 kids, Dad, Spencer, Amanda and Spence. They all went to the ESPN zone in Downtown Disney while the 3 of us were flying in. Apparently they had really crappy service and the food was overpriced. They weren’t too happy with the outcome of their experience.

(Pic stolen from Spencers blog! Look how tiny baby Spence was. Crazy)

We got to the hotel room to have Tyler and Abby jump out at us and scare us! Not a good idea to scare me because it tends to make me scream not so nice words! Good thing they didn’t scare me too badly! They were so excited to be there and to have our room connected to theirs! It turned out great having it that way. In the mornings we would open the door when we were ready and the kids would come running in! I loved it! It was fun because we were able to stay up late at night talking and Jenny and Steve could check on their sleeping kids. It was convenient. Spencer and Amanda had to go a little further down the hall, but still only separated by a room in between them and Jenny and Steve’s! Not a bad set up!

I LOVED staying up at night and talking and hanging out for a while. Even though we had been together all day long throughout Disney, it was a blast to stay up and still continue to talk and laugh! I don’t think dad always appreciated it, but he’ll get over it!

We stayed at the Howard Johnson right across the street from Disneyland! It was perfect because it was such a close walk. Maybe 5 minutes to get into the park. It was so nice and convenient. Of course it would be a million times easier to stay at the Disneyland Resort and be right there in the park. But considering we can’t afford that, the Howard Johnson worked well enough.

One of the days we hung back and Abby, Tyler and I went down to the water play area at the hotel. It was great! It would fill this giant bucket of water and then all of a sudden bells would start ringing and the huge bucket would dump water all over this play place. It was crazy to see the force behind all that water. I am surprised it didn’t knock all the little kids over. It was cute cause Tyler wanted to ride the waterslide down, but he wouldn’t do it by himself. So he sat on my lap and we went down this tiny little slide into a ton of water and then the bucket would drop! Abby loved standing right where the water would all splash down! They both had a great time!

Abby and Jenny went to eat lunch with the Princesses at Ariel’s Grotto. I tried to do Abby’s hair all fancy! She loved having it done up for the princesses. She wore her white witch costume and she and Jenny went to lunch! Jenny said that the princesses didn’t stay long at all, but it was still fun!

standing like a princess!Abby

One time we got Jenny to go on the Tower Of Terror with us. She was scared to death and kept wanting to back out. Anyway, we were standing in line and Jenny saw that I was chewing gum. She was very concerned and asked me ” What if you choke and then you scream on that!” I laughed really hard because she tends to mix up her words and say funny things like that. When we got to the first room where they show you the movie about the elevator and the people dropping Jenny was scared. She thought that we dropped right then and there. I laughed cause hello… bodies would be flying everywhere and smacking into eachother. When we finally got to the elevator to be seated and buckled she felt much better about it! She makes me laugh.

There was this woman who took her kids on the Tower Of  Terror without telling them what it was! Oh my their faces were priceless. They were crying and so upset when the ride was over! I don’t think I have ever seen kids so scared in my life. She acted like they were checking into this hotel for real. Ha ha. It was mean, but funny.

Later on Tyler told Spencer that he wanted to ride the Tower of Terror. Spencer tried to talk him out of it and explained it all to him. Tyler was just so excited that he was tall enough to go on it so he wanted to go! He even told Spencer that he wouldn’t scream. Spencer said of course he could scream… that is what you do on rides. I will never forget that poor kids face! Oh man! Priceless. He kept to his word and didn’t make a sound. However the pure horror and shock on his face after the first drop was great! The poor kid was scared to death. Both Jenny and Steve happened to be looking down at Tyler when the picture was taken on the elevator! You can’t even see the poor kid, but that picture tells it all from Jenny and Steve’s worried faces! Child abuse I tell you! Ha ha. It is so funny cause still to this day if you ask him if he wants to ride the Tower of Terror again he refuses! He says he won’t ever go again! He probably isn’t nearly as traumatized as those other kids though.

Tyler waiting to ride the Tower of Terror

We purchased separate tickets to go Trick or Treating with Characters in California Adventures. It was so cute and so fun. They close the park down to everyone else and then only those who purchased the separate tickets get to go in. It was still kind of crowded but way fun to go on the rides and go stand in line for candy! Steve ended up stealing some poor kids giant bag of candy out of the bumper cars so we all had plenty of candy.

There was a character dressed as Captain jack Sparrow. He was super lame and wasn’t really taking pictures with anyone. But it was funny cause Abby saw him and wanted to take a picture with him. So we were on our way to try and find him. Come to find out she only wanted to picture to make Lizzie jealous cause Lizzie loves Captain Jack Sparrow! On our way to find Jack she must have told me that about 10 times how she only wanted to make Lizzie jealous! Funny the competition between those 2!

Tyler and Abby didn’t love the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. For that matter I don’t think Baby Spence liked it all that much! I got to hold him on the ride. He was clinging to me the whole time. He would peek his little head up and then bury it back into me! I think that was my favorite ride just for that reason! I loved every minute of being able to snuggle with him! Tyler wasn’t happy cause at the end the pirate shoots and he thought it was shooting him! He didn’t like that idea!

Jenny, Spencer and I got to ride Screamin’ two times in a row! Oh my word. I LOVE that ride. It was so so so so much fun- Made us a little sick, but totally worth it! Loved the ride. I just love the feeling of your stomach dropping like that and the speed as you are flying on the track. I think I could ride that one several more times. I love the thrill of the speed and the loops!

The super lame part was that I ended up with REALLY nasty bad blisters all over both of my feet and my knee was way swollen. (this was only a few short weeks before my knee surgery). Anyway, between the mixture of the pain from my knee and the blisters I couldn’t walk anymore. I finally broke down and rented a wheelchair! ha ha. I looked like a loser and felt bad cause someone always had to push me around but it was still fun! Of course my family had fun teasing and making fun of me… but it was worth it to be off my blistered feet and my swollen knee!

We were able to stay and watch fireworks show on main street one night. Amazing. Spencer thought he was funny and was using his laser pointer to pretend that it was Tinker Bell before the fireworks show started. Abby and Tyler really thought it was Tinker Bell coming down to visit them before the show started. They still think it was Tinkerbell to this day! Kids are so fun! The fireworks were awesome though. I didn’t love how crowded it was, but it was worth it to watch that. I want to go back SO bad.

Kaka, who HATES roller coasters, but loved Space Mountain. Shocking cause she HATES roller coasters and the dropping feeling in your stomach. It was so fun to go on Space Mountain with her though. I think even better was going on any roller coaster with Amanda. You could just hear her laugh the entire time! I LOVE to hear Amanda’s loud laughter… especially as she is laughing through the entire ride.

We couldn’t ever get Abby or Kaka to go on Splash mountain with us. I think that may be my all time favorite ride. The only problem was that I got soaked everytime because somehow I always ended up in front. I think I love that ride so much cause it reminds me of riding it with dad in Disneyworld years and years ago.

The Toy Story ride was a blast! I wish the lines weren’t so long for that ride cause Iwould have loved to do done that one again!

Buzz Lightyear  ride was so much fun. You have these guns that you shoot the “Bad Guys” with and it was funny because Tyler did better then Jenny. Even Mom picked up halfway along and still did better then Jenny!!! Ha ha! That was a fun ride and quite entertaining.

Anyway, I am super excited to be going again soon!!! Thanks Amanda for planning another fun trip for us.

Jessica and I should not go grocery shopping separately on the same day. She and I both went shopping the other night. I came home and was unloading the groceries and saw bananas on the counter… I too had purchased bananas. Then I open the fridge and see cherries, which I had also purchased! Ha ha ha! We have plenty of bananas and cherries. Next time I guess we will have to coordinate better or just go together!

I just saw this article on KSL. Oh HAPPY day!!! Granted it is still a long time from now, but still! New countdown chain here we come.

SALT LAKE CITY — The U2 360 tour dates in the US, which were postponed due to Bono’s emergency back surgery, have been rescheduled for spring/summer 2011. The U2 concert in Salt Lake City will be on May 24, 2011 at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

U2’s manager Paul McGuinness thanked fans for their ongoing support, “We’re delighted the dates are rescheduled and in all the same venues we originally planned to play. It hasn’t been easy to accomplish this and I’d like to thank the managers of the many venues and sports teams across North America and Live Nation Global Touring for their help and cooperation in making this complex new plan possible. Above all we want to thank the U2 fans for bearing with us. They’re the best and the band wants to get back to where they belong, surrounded by their audience.”

Tickets for the previously scheduled performances will be honored at the door. Tickets for the rescheduled performances will be available at www.livenation.com and all usual outlets.

We got together just before Easter to celebrate and dye the Easter eggs for our family party. I love it when we get together to have fun and celebrate whatever holiday it happens to be! Thank you for the support and thank you Jenny and Steve for always letting us use your house for the parties!

It was great to watch the kids dye their eggs. It made me laugh when both Tyler and Steve had eggs with Poop written on them. They then placed them in each of the colors to make it look like a poop egg! Boys! Overall we had a great time and were able to have lots of laughs and enjoy our time together.

Thanks guys for the fun time!

Kaka and I are finally in the new place! It is WONDERFUL! I love being on my own. Of course it makes it really nice and convenient to have Jenny and Steve so close to us though! We are so grateful to everyone who put so much work into helping us repaint everything, and for tearing out the carpet and for putting in our ceiling fans, and for putting down the wood floor in the entry way, and for everything else that was done. Thank you for all of the hard work you put into this for us. I know I am extremely grateful since I wasn’t around to help much due to school. Thank you so so so so so so so much for all of your hard work. I will post pics as soon as we have the place cleaned up and organized more. But it looks cute!

Natalie, Libby, and myself have had nothing else to look forward to but the U2 concert. We were SO excited to be going. we made a beautiful countdown chain to help us know just exactly how close we were and we have been listening to a U2 song of the day everyday for a couple of weeks now! Well… when we had less then 2 weeks to go we got the announcement that the concert has been postponed SAD day! Apparently Bono hurt his back and had to have emergency surgery. Yikes. Hoping he is ok. So bummed out for him, and of course for my selfish reasons…. cause I no longer have anything to look forward to! Hope they reschedule the concert fairly soon. I assume Bono will need some time to recover first though! Until we hear when the concert will be our chain is now a sad face instead of a U.

January 21-24 Jessica, Stacey, Jenny, Mom and I went to San Francisco! Oh my word…. I LOVED it there. We had an absolute blast. Jessica wanted to do something fun and special for her SPECIAL BIRTHDAY (she turned 24 on the 24th) so we decided to go to San Francisco and see WICKED!

I cannot believe how amazing it was! The play was awesome. I sat through the whole thing with a giant perma-grin and was just so happy to be there. I was so sad when it ended and wanted to go back again the next night. I will for sure need to see the play again. I normally do not love plays, but I really enjoyed this one. I love the soundtrack, and listened to it 5 million times before we went, so it was a lot of fun to finally see the play. Such a great play!

It was so much fun to get away for a weekend. Granted, next time I want to go somewhere warm and sunny! It rained on us the entire weekend. But it was still SO much fun and really the rain didn’t put a damper on things like I was afraid it would. Instead it was just a great weekend with my mom and sisters (minus Stephanie, Amanda, and Ashley… we missed you guys).

We were able to stay in a hotel close to Fisherman’s Wharf. We only had to walk a few blocks to get down there each day. It was fun going to Ghirardelli Square and enjoying chocolate, and to walk down along the water, and to go shopping in the random shops along the wharf area, to enjoy yummy sourdough bread. MMMM…. sourdough bread! It was just a nice, fun relaxing weekend.

We took a couple of random trips driving around random streets in town. Oh my word, the streets were SO fun and so crazy steep! It was funny to drive on them, especially the ones that were so steep we couldn’t see anything when we got to the top! Scary, but so fun. We had a Dodge Charger for a rental car……

I truly HATED this car. It was fast and worked great, but had HORRIBLE turning radius and way bad blind spots. I didn’t enjoy driving this car through the small and steep streets of San Francisco or attempting to park the stupid thing in the tiny parking garage of our hotel. Next time I will for sure choose a different car. Still grateful that we had a car to get us around though.

It was funny and super scary to walk around because they have psychotic birds that would attack! Seriously I almost got hit in the face several times! The birds freaked me out so bad. One time there were several birds around us. I suddenly freaked out and screamed loudly. Everyone just looked at me and I laughed. I totally thought there was a bird on my shoulder cause I saw one of the corner of my eye! Yeah, I am an idiot! ha ha!

We had a great time and I really hope we can do fun things like this again! I vote that we go to New York for my 30th birthday and see plays and enjoy our time together. Start saving your money girls!  

I am truly blessed to have such a kind, caring, and giving Mom. I am so grateful for all that she has done for me. My mom is very talented and LOVES quilting. I love to see the many different projects she is making and you can always guarantee there is a new one. It takes so much time, creativity, concentration, and love to make these quilts and I love to see the finished product.

Anyway, my friend Amy was having a baby shower and I knew that I really wanted to make a certain kind of blanket for her. However, I do not possess the same talent as my mom! I do not know how to sew for the life of me. In fact, every time I touch my mom’s sewing machine… I break it! Oops! So she has forbidden me from touching it unless she is around to supervise! So I went to Thimbles & Threads (the quilt shop mom works at) and picked out all the fabrics for this baby blanket. I was so happy with the fabrics chosen and proud that I picked them out completely by myself, with no help, and they all coordinated well! Surprising!! Anyway, of course, as with everything I try to start in my life… I ran out of time and didn’t even get to start the project. So my sweet mom sewed the blanket together, and did all the work for me, including the binding. Ha ha! She tried to teach me how to do the binding… it didn’t go over so well and wouldn’t have held at all! So she took over! Good thing my mom is patient and knows it is not likely the projects I start will be completed in time!

Anyway, here is the finished project. The pictures aren’t enough. You had to see it in person. It seriously turned out SO cute!

Thanks mom!