Hello from Mexico!!!

Well hello there! We are here in Mexico, us and the Hiatt family. We came down here yesterday for a service project. Last year we built two houses with the group "Families helping Families" and now we are back for a second year in a row. 

What an experience it is. We worked yesterday from 8am - 5pm! oh my gosh... let me just tell you that I have so much more gratitude for construction workers. Because building the foundation yesterday truly killed me! My back, my arms, and my legs all are so sore. So pretty much that is telling me that I am SO out of shape! 

We just got back from church, and we made biscuits and gravy and now we are all just chillin and hangin out in the condo! my in-laws own a 5 bedroom condo at the Las Palomas and it is truly beautiful. Just imagine, you are doing dishes at the sink and you look out the 6 sliding doors and all you see is ocean! And during the summer time you can open up all the doors feel the breeze of the ocean. It is so relaxing down here. We love coming down here. I cannot wait for the summer time. Well I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Brint and I did. I will post pictures later! 

Happy New Year! WOW 2009! 

Hard at work...

At work I am on a committee that helps do our work Christmas Party. This year we are having our party at Mission Palms in downtown Tempe. So for the past few weeks I have been preparing for the party. Getting list together of who to invite, making runs to the store getting envelopes, making "homemade" invitations (which, I thought, turned out perfect), keeping track of all the gifts that have been coming in, and trying to help with ideas for the night of the party. We have had many donations from different vendors we do work with. Especially at times like this, I am truly grateful for any donation. We have got allot of really neat things. I am sure our guest will love them all. Below are pictures taken from one of the other girls at work showing how hard working I am... hehe I am having so much fun wrapping all of the presents! I feel like Mrs. Clause... every time someone walks by they see me and smile. At least I'm bringing smiles to others by how girly I am about wrapping gifts. Well at least I hope that is while they are smiling.

Check out how many stinkin' gifts there are in the background!
Hard at work...

PRESENTS!!! too bad they are not all for me :( j/k

UPDATE....

Well...Duke has been such a good boy since I last posted that gross, nasty, disgusting, health and safety violating post. :) After he peed the second time I told Brint THAT'S IT we need to take him over to your parents and let him be outside and just run around and play all day. So that Friday, that is what we did. I promise you, that bringing him home after work on Friday he was a COMPLETELY different dog. He was calm, obedient, loving, and SO glad to be home. I was thinking to myself "what happened to our dog?" But I was so grateful for the Hiatt's for putting up with him all day. He truly loves it over there because their backyard is huge and he can run and play. It's pretty much a dream backyard for any dog. So I think that we are going to try to take him over there at least once a week just to get so energy out.

As far as my comforters go, well I washed my favorite comforter (the first one he peed on) and it is back to smelling pretty and looking gorgeous in my bedroom. Then for the down comforter I ended up washing the "pee" spot by hand and got it out and it smells and looks fine now too. Woo... Thank goodness! Duke has tried once or twice to get up on our bed since the accident but I am sticking to it my rule. NO MORE DOGS ON THE BED! haha poor guy...

HELP ME!!!

Don't let this cute little face fool you, this boy has been a bad bad boy! Ok so for the past 2 days Duke has purposely got up on our bed in the morning and PEED! Yesterday he got up there and peed all over my beautiful comforter! We can't figure out why he would of done that. He usually gets up every morning around 6-6:30, and by that time I am already up and getting dressed, so he like to get up there and sleep with Brint until it's time for Brint to get up. He has been doing it this way since we got him.

Yesterday, when he got up and peed I couldn't believe that he did that. I thought that it could have been just and accident because I gave him a bath the night before and he drank a lot of water. BUT this morning, He got up at his same time that he always does and the first thing that he does is PEE!!!!! WHAT THE HECK! Brint and I got so mad at him. Brint hurried and picked him up and put him in the bathtub to finish and then once he was done.... the punishment came.

Brint gave Duke a bath and then he had to take a shower because Duke peed all over him on the bed, and then in the transition from the bed to the bathtub there was a stream of pee coming out! All over the carpet! What a MESS!

So I was about 45 min late to work this morning because I was trying to clean up my SECOND comforter that he peed on, which is a down comforter and pretty much can't washed it because it is all feathers. So I stuck it in our spare bathtub and was trying to at least get the pee rinsed out of it. Oh my gosh... I just don't know what to do, or for the matter, what we are doing wrong! This is SO out of character for Duke. Have any of you had this experience with a dog before? If you have please I need all the advise I can get.

LSAT!!! Crunch time...

So on Saturday Brint took his LSAT. This is his test that will determine if he is able to get into law school or not. As most of you know, our goal is to go to Duke law school in North Carolina. Brint's dad and Grandpa Hiatt went to Duke Medical school. So Brint's dream school that he has always wanted to go to would be Duke University. Brint follows Duke's basketball team and hates it when he misses a game. So you see we have set the bar for ourselves pretty hi and hope and pray we get in.

We are trying to keep our options open and deciding where else we would want to attend school if we do not get into Duke. So here is a list of schools that we have looked at that we would be interested in attending:

BYU
Georgetown
U of A
ASU
UNC
Univ of Hawaii
Vanderbilt
Geroge Washington Univ
Boston
Loyola Univ Chicago

If any of you know anything about any of these schools please comment and let me know. There are many pro's and con's to attending these schools. But really we will take what we can get. Honestly, here are my top 3 choices:

UNC- Because we will still be able to go to North Carolina, and it is a great school.
Boston- I would LOVE to live in Boston!
Univ of Hawaii- need I even comment... HAWAII!!!

Review of the year 2008

January- Had my wisdom tooth out (yes just one, thank goodness!!)and we went down to Rocky Point, Mexico to help build homes for the people down there. What an experience that was. We will also be doing this again, but leaving the day after Christmas and we are still debating about staying over the New Year.

February-Crazy planning of a wedding!!!

March- Wedding month! Woo... March 29, 2008 the best day of my life!

April- Hawaii!!! living in our own place and attending our new ward. We love it here. I started my new position at my job. I am now doing Field Payroll and enjoying it, for now.

May- Crazy Family DRAMA!

June-Travis's Death, What a tragedy that was. Brint and I are still struggling with this. We miss him so much. I am just grateful for the knowledge of the plan of salvation. Knowing that Travis is just fine and probably loving where he is. And also knowing that if I live my life the way I know I am supposed to, I will see him again.
More family DRAMA! But on the plus side I was able to meet my real dad and his family.

July- We got a puppy!! Welcome Duke to our home. What a fun adventure he has given us...

August- Another friends death, and also 1 year mark of Chris Alexander's death.

September- Went to Utah to visit Leslie and help her get situated in her new place for school.

October- my 21st B-day!! Halloween... Brint and I had the best costumes. We went as John McCain and Sarah Palin.

November- Barack Obama, President of the United States.

December- Christmas time!!! 9 months of being married. And I am SO excited this crazy year is almost over!

This is why you don't take men to the store with you!!

After I retired, my wife insisted that I accompany her on her trips to Target.
Unfortunately, like most men, I found shopping boring and preferred to get in and get out. Equally unfortunately, my wife is like most women- she loved to browse.

Yesterday my dear wife received the following letter from the local Target.

Dear Mrs. Samsel,
Over the past six months, your husband has been causing quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and have been forced to ban both of you from the store. Our complaints against Mr. Samsel are listed below and are documented by our video surveillance cameras.

1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people's carts when they weren't looking.

2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.

3. July 7: Made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the women's restroom.

4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official voice, 'Code 3 in Housewares. Get on it right away.'

5. August 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bad of M&M's on layaway.

6. August 14: Moved a 'CAUTION- WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.

7. August 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told other shoppers he'd invite them in if they would bring pillows and blankets from the bedding department.

8. August 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him he began crying and screamed, 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?'

9. September 4: Looked right into the security camera and used it as a mirror while he picked his nose.

10. September 10: While handling guns in the hunting department, he asked the clerk where the antidepressants were.

11. October 3: Darted around the store suspiciously while loudly humming the 'Mission Impossible' theme.

12. October 6: In the auto department, he practiced his 'Madonna look' by using different sizes of funnels.

13. October 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed through, yelled 'PICK ME!! PICK ME!!'

14. October 21: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he assumed a fetal position and screamed 'OH NO!!! IT'S THOSE VOICES AGAIN!!'

And last, but not least.

15. October 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited awhile, and then yelled very loudly, 'Hey! There's no toilet paper in here!!'


LOL!!!
I don't know if you noticed, but DANG she sure went to Target A LOT! hehehe
Hope that brought a smile to all your faces!

All ready for Christmas....

I have been awaiting the day to put my Christmas tree up... and the day has finally come! Well technically I put my tree up about a week and a half ago but I promised myself that I would NOT decorate it until after Thanksgiving. So here it is, the day after and I am all ready for Christmas.








Last night/this morning, my cousin Jenni and I took a dare and decided to go to the midnight opening of Arizona Mills mall. OH MY GOSH... it was truly chaos! Jenni and I both thought that there was not going to be that many people show up, but let me tell you, but the parking lot was FULL! At 11:45pm there was a line to get off the freeway at Priest. It felt like it was 7:30am and everyone was trying to get to work. It was truly insane! But it was really fun. We got to stand in line for hours in different stores and fight the crowds.

There was one thing that was driving me CRAZY the whole time though, it was that fact that there were little kids there with their parents and then there were so many teenagers there just chillin and hangin out at the mall, just like any other day! So really it made it really difficult for people like Jenni and I to get through and try to get our Christmas shopping done quickly so we could go home and get to bed. Ahhh.... but overall I had alot of fun. And it was a really good experience. Now we know for next year...

All I can say is I am so glad that today is Friday and that I still have 2 days to recover after this crazy past 24 hours! :) Woo..... I hope all of you that got up at the crack of dawn this morning had a blast beating the crowds! It was truly crazy! But I can still say that Black Friday is still one of my FAVORITE days in the year.

Family Pictures

So when we were at the cabin for early Thanksgiving we decided to take family pictures. After a long shot at trying to get Duke to look at the camera we finally got a couple. WOW was that hard!!!




I love this picture of Brint and I. I love the trees up there and to have them in the background is just perfect.

Do you have a place where you can go and just relax and forget about the "real world" and it's problems and drama that it entails??? Well this is my place. Ever since the first time I have gone up to the Hiatt cabin I have felt a since of relaxation and peace. You can just sit on the back porch and look out into the trees and forget all your worries of the world. I truly am so grateful for the Hiatt's and introducing me to the wonderful place. And especially for all the relationships that I have made while up there. Family reunions, getting to know different cousins of Brint and actually having my own relationship with them and not just be known as "Brint's wife" that truly means so much to me. Thank you all... I love you.

Twilight...

1 hour and 15 min in counting ......oh my gosh I'm so excited!!! We are here sitting in the theater waiting for the premier of Twilight to begin! I am here with my wonderful husband, my in-laws, and my sister-in-laws Aryn, Aubry, Brooke, and our cousin Jalyn, and Aunt Linda lee and Morgan and then somemore friends... We are all SO excited!!! Well I'll let you all know how it was....

Xoxo
Brea

The Cabin!

This weekend we got to have an early Thanksgiving with Brint's mom side of the family. We had so much fun. We ended up going to the cabin up in Pine, AZ and FROZE! Well at least I did. I am such a baby when it comes to cold weather. 

Duke was truly in doggy Heaven as he is every time we go up there. He gets to run and play and hang out all day outside. What more can a dog ask for?? Anyway, Brint made cinnamon rolls for Saturday morning breakfast and they were amazing (you can see pictures from my previous post)! I didn't know I married such a baker! That's good though, because I can't bake to save my life. I can cook but no baking for me. 

As you can see we had a blast. I am so grateful for the opportunity we had to go up there and spend time with family. It really is so nice to be able to get out of town and spend time with the people that you love the most. And especially go to a place as beautiful as this. I just feel so lucky to be apart of this family. I couldn't ask for a better one... 

Cinnamon Rolls

Ok, My husband can make the BEST cinnamon rolls i have ever tasted. We went up to the cabin this past weekend and Brint got begged to make his YUMMY cinnamon rolls and so he did. Go ahead and look at the pictures from bottom to top though. I put them in the wrong order. Anyway, we started making the rolls around 10pm on Thursday night because Brint had softball games (thank goodness they were early games) So honestly we did not get done with just the dough part until 12am! oh my gosh, we were so TIRED! As you can see from the pictures we both had bags under our eyes. Any way they were a SMASHING hit! Everyone loved them! I think I am going to talk him into doing them for Christmas too! :) 

Carrie Underwood!!!!!!

Okay you guys seriously my husband is THE BEST!!! For my birthday he bought me Carrie Underwood tickets!!! I LOVE HER!!! We had so much fun! Little Big Town opened for her and they were just great! We have seen them once before, last year actually when we went and saw Martina McBride. Another GREAT concert! Anyway this is us before the concert started!

 

What a Stud! Actin' cool...

Check out those boots! I really want them!!

Little Big Town! The girl with the blond curly hair had a baby in this stadium when they were her with Martina. The group came on and preformed and then with in a few min the baby was born back stage. How crazy is that?

Anyway, it ended up being a really great and awesome concert! I am so thankful that we were able to go! Thanks Baby.... you're the best! 

Emergency Room

Poor little Duke! We still don't know what exactly happened but he got some kind of Allergy attack. It begins with Duke and I outside playing fetch and there is this area in the grass where the water will not drain down into the ground after they water it. So the water has just been sitting there infested with bacteria and bugs and it smells like the sewer!!! well Brint and I try to keep him away from that but he does like to explore. So he ran over there and I was trying to get him to come back. But he was bound and determined. So anyway by the time I ran over there after him I caught him drinking the water. And I ended up getting him and taking him back to the "good grass" and we continued playing catch.

So within 10 min or so duke started walking in circles and I couldn't figure out what he was doing and then he started vomiting. He ended up vomiting for about 10 min and once he was done I carried him up stairs because he couldn't even walk. He was all muddy so I put him in the bath and by that time Brint was home and I was just finishing up Dukes bath and then we noticed that Duke's left eye was all red and I just thought that maybe he got a little soap in it and it was just a little irritated, but then it turned into this (see below) within 10 min....

Then you will notice that the right side of his nose is all swollen too. It was spreading! So we ended up going to the Pet Emergency room because our vet was already closed. So when we got there, they took a look at Duke and told us that it was probably some kind of bite, or a bee/wasp sting, or it could of been whatever bug was in the water. So really we have no idea what happened or what he got. So really all they gave him was a shot of Benedryl and told us to go home and watch him. And if the swelling got any worse than we should give him 1-3 tablets of Benedryl a day until it got better.

So when we got home he curled up on the couch and rested... You can see in this picture that his eye and nose swelling is going down and it is starting to look alot better. Thank goodness...
My little baby dog... :) I was in heaven just holding him!!! Well this morning Brint said that Duke's swelling is pretty much gone and Brint took him over to his parents house and now he is playing and having fun. Yay... he's back to normal...

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!

So I would like to tell you all of my tuna fish experience. First I would like to say, if you like tuna fish please STOP reading!!!!

Okay, so here it goes... Well I was sitting on the couch with duke watching CSI and all of the sudden I smell something. I look down and duke is staring at me! I put my nose down to him and he STUNK!! he totally Farted!!!!!!!! oh my gosh you guys, I promise my sweet little puppy dog's farts smell just like TUNA FISH!!! he actually farted on my arm because his butt was right up against it and I smelt my arm on my long sleeve shirt that I had on and I just started screaming and jumping up and down EWWWWwww....... DUKE!!!! (and if any of you have been around me long enough you can probably imagine just how I screamed with a lot of squealing!!)  and Brint just looks at me and is like "what??" and I told him to smell my arm (I thought he was going to kill me for making him do that LOL) and I hurried and took my shirt off and washed my arm in that bathroom! Honestly it has been 30min now and I can still smell TUNA!!! 

I hope this didn't ruin tuna fish for any of you. And I hope that if you are having a bad day and needed a laugh this did it for you. But I can promise you, I can NEVER eat tuna fish again!! Ewww!

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!!!! 

Can anyone guess who Brint and I are suppose to be????

Jon McCain and Sara Palin...

What do you think? I think we can pull it off pretty well.

Brint and I with his grandparents Grandma and Grandpa Clement. 

Grandma and Izzy

Me and My sisters

Stephanie, Me and Brooke

Me and Kenedy... (another sister, she is the youngest)

I wish I could have got a picture with Lauren too, 

But she was too busy with her friends! next time...

Duke and Izzy.

Izzy was a hot dog and Duke was a pumpkin! SO CUTE!!! 

Mr. Duke.... :)

Close up of Izzy... she is probably one of the fattest Chihuahua's I have ever seen.

That costume barely fit her. It was so funny. 

GO SUNS!!!!

So Duke thinks that he can just hang out and chill on the couch! 

So I had him come with me to surprise dad with a nice treat...

YAY Go SUNS!!!! Duke can now chill on the couch and support our team! 

I had to carry him out because he couldn't walk (the shirt was WAY to long!!)