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!