Pam

We only met her a few days ago. And only knew her a short while. But in that time she touched our hearts and we will never forget her memorable smile, her sweet laugh, or her precious way of asking guests if they want Pepsi :) We love her. Our hearts and prayers are with Kelly, Aubrey, and Raul as well as all her other loved ones still on the earth. I'm sure the family rejoiced when she joined them!

Recent Activity

Hi All!
We have been having fun over here in Louisiana keeping busy with all kinds of things. We are now ward missionaries in our ward and that keeps us pretty busy doing new member discussions and such. I have also been working hard to prepare my students for their performance which is coming up on Thursday night. They are going to do well I think. For my theater students, we just had tryouts for the play we will be doing "Much Ado About Nothing" They did SOOOO well. I think our performance is going o be phenomenal. And with all that going on, we also had a performance of our own yesterday. I sang in the Messiah with the Vernon Parish Community Choir. The choir director was my fifth grade music teacher and he is a really funny old black man! I just love him! My siblings and I have been performing with these guys for many years so its kind of a family tradition. Daniel didn't sing with us this year but he was sad he didn't. So now he is excited to do it next year :)
Its fun, but exhausting. And now we are ready to head up to AZ!! Woo Hoo! Actually we're not quite ready. We have got some packing and CD burning and all that jazz to accomplish. (Not to mention my kids' performance. We will see how it turns out!

Snow Day!!

Wow! One day it was 75 degrees and the next morning we had snow on the ground! What a difference. The weather men kept saying we were going to get snow and I did not believe it until I woke up on Thursday morning to see snow on our ground. I ran to wake Daniel up and get the camera. It has not snowed here in like 20 years. So anyway, we had fun in the early morning cold.

Here is Daniel with a hat from one of our lawn ornaments.
















Our fence was kinda pretty. It was way lighter outside, but my camera was taking dark pics for some reason.














This is our car with all the snow on it.














And the ground.


There wasn't enough here to stay home from school. It melted by 9:30 where we live, but about 30 minutes away (at a school that I go to) the snow stayed all through the next day and those kids got out of school. I thought that was nice. Anyway, I hope everything is going well for everyone and we can't wait to see you all!

Wow! Has it been a long time

Hello out there!
Just wanted to let you know we did not fall off the face of the earth. We've just bee really busy. I am going nuts teaching in two parishes. Its pretty crazy. But I will deal until something else comes up.

My birthday was AWESOME! My dear friend, Patty rushed to get to school before me so she could put my present next to the sign-in sheet and surprise me. It was SOoo cute. She gave me a card with a little old man playing the accordion and two little old ladies dancing next to him. When you open it, it says "Its your birthday! Act Accordionly." Super cute. And she always tells me I sound like Sleeping Beauty when I hum to myself so she got me the Special edition DVD of Sleeping Beauty and a Disney Princess Calendar. :) When I got home, Daniel brought me twenty-four gorgeous roses :) (One for each year I have been alive) And he built me a computer, and got me a game for the wii.It was a wonderful day.

And things have been going well for Daniel in school, although he is still working on a paper that was due three weeks ago! I can't believe him! But he says it will be fine. He does not have school tomorrow thanks to Veteran's Day. I still have school. No good. And I haven't heard anyone at any of my schools talking about it at all. CRaZy! Oh well, ya win some ya lose some.

Our house is ummmmmmm progressing I guess. I have kinda taken a break from it because I have been so busy with work. We still need to finish the walls and all that other stuff and we also need to save for a new kitchen.

Happy Late b-day Janae! Love you little girl! It sounds like you guys had a great time. Happy Anniversary Raul and Kelly! Love y'all

I thought this was really cute

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, "Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like."

The Lord led the holy man to two doors.

He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water.

The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful. But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.

The Lord said, "You have seen Hell."

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The holy man said, "I don't understand."

It is simple," said the Lord. "It requires but one skill. You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves."

Bomb Threat!

There was a bomb threat today at one of the schools I go to. So while they were making everyone pile into the stadium I asked if I could get out of there. And the principal said yes so I packed up all of the essentials and hurried out. And so I have some extra time. YEA! But i didn't have time to pack up my keyboard which stinks kuz I need it for my other classes. Oh well.
Also, We went to supercraft saturday this weekend and it was SOOO fun. I learned how to texture walls and it was so easy Daniel and I decided thats what we were gonna do! Finally we can get a move on with this house! So we have begun. And our house is dirty again. But its not so bad. I am actually enjoying it and it will be finished soon. Our hope is to have the walls in the dining room and living room textured, sanded, and primed by the time my family gets here on Saturday. I think its do-able if we work hard everyday. I actually have 98% of the walls finished in the dining room and one large wall textured in the living room. It doesn't take that much to sand its just dirty. Yea! We are getting somewhere, now we just need to figure out what colors we want.

This is the wall in the living room. It looks really good so far but you can't really see it in these pics.

And here is the wall in the dining room. It was the first attempt so its not as great. If we have mud left over I will probably go over it again.

I have pictures of the process, but I will post those in the HUGE upcoming post of the house from start to finish. Which will probably be a while since we still have to do crown moulding and paint the bedrooms and get curtains etc...Its never ending. Oh well.

We went to Raul and Kelly's this weekend. It was really fun. Although there were a lot of people at the housewarming party Daniel still enjoyed it. And the food really was excellent. Kudos to Kelly and Raul. We also enjoyed hanging out with them. Its always good to do that and catch up. Yes, we did watch the Paradine Case and it was pretty good. We also watched Chocolat which is one of my favorite movies. Every time I watch it I CRAVE chocolate. So I am READY for Halloween to come so I can get my candy fix. Kelly wanted to teach me how to ride a bike while we were there but I was too scared and wouldn't let her. Its too scary. I don't like falling off and scraping myself up. Anyway it was a wonderful weekend and we are looking forward to Arizona.

This weekend, I am taking a friend to Super Craft Saturday. It is the Relief Society Activity at our church. We are going to learn a whole lot of stuff. I can't wait. So SO So fun. And next weekend my family is coming down and we are going to have a party for my niece Natalie. She is turning eight! And the very next day she will be baptized! I am so excited for her. She is such a precious daughter of Heavenly Father. I know He is proud of her. And I am proud of her too. She always helps around the house and gets very good grades. She loves her sisters and her mommy and daddy very much and is a super cuddle bug!I am glad I get to be her aunt.

Tag

i am: Jessica Pauline Curiel
i know: Heavenly Father loves me
i want: Charity
i have: A loving husband and family
i wish: My dog would be potty trained already
i hate: forgetting everything!
i miss: hangin' out with my dad
i fear: car accidents
i feel: sleepy
i crave: BABIES!
i search: the internet?
i wonder: how much wood would a wood chuck chuck?
i regret: harsh thoughts and words
i love: DANIEL! that one was easy
i care: about my family
i always: procrastinate
i am not: the best cook
i believe: repentance is real
i dance: with Daniel
i sing: ALWAYS
i don't always: smile
i write: whatever comes to mind
i lose: the keys every time we go to my mom's house
i win: hardly ever
i never: brush my cats
i listen: less than I should
i am scared: Princess will die from eating clothes
i need:MORE TIME
i am happy about: Life

Long time no post

Life of course has been crazy. When is it not? But it seems to have slowed down a bit for a while. Here are some pics from the last hurricane. I know they are a little late, but you still will like them. This is our yard after hurricane Ike. It was worse before church, but drained out during the day. This was one of the shallow places. Daniel tried to stand in a deep area but was sinking super bad so we couldn't take a picture. But it went up to his knees. WHat's funny is at play practice this day we went and took a picture with the kids in a tree and they were SUPER dirty when we got finished.

And then here we are ready for the first evening performance of Bridge to Terabithia.


Now that we have the late stuff out of the way...We have been doing well. We finally got to go see my family and that was fun. Always crowded, but its fun hanging out with them. I love those TeSam girls. And conference was incredible, as always. It is really amazing how I feel like they are talking straight to me sometimes. I think its also amazing how I can feel so edified and so uplifted and yet feel like a slacker and that I need to get my rear in gear. Only the spirit can teach us so well. Anyway...

We are going to Alabama next weekend for Kelly's house warming party. I think she's gonna LOVE what we are getting her. tee hee. It will be great to see them.

The weather is SO gorgeous right now. I can't believe its so cool in the beginning of October! This is my favorite weather. When its just getting ready to get cold, but its not cold yet. And in the morning its cool and crisp and just perfect. It fills me with energy and the best part is there are NOOOOO mosquitos. YEA!!! Well time to go cook dinner :)

Bridge to Terabithia

Yes, I know I haven't posted in forever! But really have not even really had time. We have been working really hard omn Bridge to Terabithia! And I have been going and going from the time I wake up until I go to bed. Never a spare moment, which is not very good for the condition of our house tee hee. But the guys have been TOTALLY awesome and done the dishes and the trash and made dinner everynight for the past week and a half. They are THE BEST!

Things did not look great for the play on Monday, infact most of us were in tears...but it has really come together. Yesterday morning was our first performance and we had one today and then one tonight and one tomorrow night and then one on Sunday afternoon and then we are FINISHED!!! And I will finally be able to breathe and be a good wife once again. YEA! So I look smokin' hot right now for my performance tonight! I will have to take pics! Love ya

Can't take too long

So today was like TOTALLY gorgeous! The high was like 77 degrees. The sun was shining and we had a nice breeze. Usually after hurricanes it is HOT and Superdeeduper humid. (more than normal) and the mosquitos surround everything when they go outside, kinda like pirhanas. But it was so cool today they did not come out and it is really not humid at all today. Just perfect. Too bad we had to be at school all day today. Got home a few minutes ago and have to head out again soon because I am working with some kids on their parts in the musical," Bridge to Terabithia". Being the music director is kinda stressful when you don't get the music until 4 weeks before the performance and only have one rehearsal a week. But that's changing this week. Since the performance is next week and the kids aren't ready we are having rehearsals Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Monday Tuesday, and Wednesday. Plus we decided it would be best to rehearse with the main characters tonight. Talk about crazy, but we should make it. Especially since my life is a little less hectic right now since several of my students will not be in school for a while because the schools were flooded. So yeah everything is going well though. We are just praying that Abuelo hangs in there until after this play is over so we can go to the funeral and be with the family.

Trogs has style

Trogdor got a haircut! He looks naked, almost like a completely different dog. It is super cute and WAAAY easier to keep clean. I am a 100% fan of the new do.

He's SOOO cute! And he actually smells good for once in his life.

He is making a funny face in this one. I love those lower teeth jutting out! :)

Now that's one happy puppy.

Guess what I found!

We finally set up Jonathan's computer which has tons of our old pics on it. So I thought I would comply with Kelly's challenge as well as posting other pics. I love pictures (so there are lots)YEA!

Wedding reception.
This is my dad & Rachel-pie! Look how little!








Daniel is a hottie! Whew! and little Nattles, so cute













Daniel was being weird because he didn't want to be there, but he looks cute in this pic anyway. And so does Kimberly! I can't believe how young she looks! I just want to squeeze those cheekies!





My childhood best friend Sondra D. She is SUPER cute!

Look how cute Daniel is! I LOVE IT!

I worked at Lions Camp as a counselor for a summer. Here are a few pics. They are kind of awkward.












































And finally some of that good ole awkwardness. There are no image editing systems on this comp. yet, so these pics are all stuck together.


Kimberly is so little in this pic. She may not even be a year old! CRAZY how they just grow up...hmm

Post Hurricane

Hurricane Gustav wasn't bad in this area. Everyone was very worried. Especially my family. We received SEVERAL phone calls telling us to get our bohonkusses out of here. We weren't sure whether to evacuate at all for the storm, but after praying about it, and considering those phone calls we prepared our home (boarding up windows, digging trenches, ALL the laundry, covering all electronics, etc...) packed up all of our animals (good thing we had some good drugs to keep our cats calm) and evacuated Saturday night. Its a good thing we did it then because Sunday a mandatory evacuation was ordered and then the roads were packed and the traffic was horrible, or so I have been told. Anyway, we were safe in Leesville playing video games the whole time. LOL I have never played so many video games in my life, but we were having fun with Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Old school Bomberman, and stuff like that. We also helped my mom get her house prepared. But we never lost power thankfully, because its always EXTRA hot and HUMID after a hurricane and its not cool with no power. No pun intended.

So yeah we were just having fun hangin out and then I recieved a call from one of my friends at work. She said there is no school until Monday!!! Woo Hoo. I asked her why, she said there was no power in Acadia Parish and no way to get gasoline and still a ton of tornado warnings. But Daniel has to go back to school today so we had to come home yesterday in the midst of all of that to find our home actually does have power and you can get gas! YEA! We just have some cleaning up in the yard to do. Too bad we can't mow our grass now because it REALLY REALLY needs it. Anyway, I am just totally grateful that this storm wasn't as bad as everyone was making it out to be. I took a couple of pics.

Daniel covered our stump with dirt and now we have a mound :)

Daniel and Jonathan worked really hard outside all dayThis is the avocado tree before the hurricanePost Hurricane. Its actually kinda sidewaysBefore the storm our cypress tree was really full and beautiful, but now its kinda sparse.

Hurricane a comin'

This is actually real! We are going through another hurricane. Its kinda scary, but we will be okay. My mom bought a generator so we can always go there if we lose power. We are out of school on Tuesday so that people who are going to evacuate can leave now without having to worry about that. We are not sure what we want to do yet because I have to teach some kids at a musical rehearsal on Sunday. Its the first time with the music.
Plus we will have to tote all of our animals and that is NO FUN. But I guess we will keep an eye on it and see how bad it gets. It really could turn anywhere right now. But any way it goes it will be bad.

I was just thinking how amazing it is that we can be going along in life worried about silly stuff and then all of a sudden something huge comes up that could take away the really important things and everything gets put into perspective. Heavenly Father does really know what he's doing. Even though I am a little worried about what will happen to our newly purchased home, I know Heavenly Father will take care of us. His plan for us goes far beyond these earthly things. He loves us. He has a plan for us. Hopefully ours doesn't include "house being destroyed by hurricane" :) But if it does, we will get through it.

Remodel Update

The contractor is finished! And now we are painting. It is fun coming home from work, throwing on some old clothes, grabbing a roller and gettin down to business. Jonathan has also moved in with us. We are trying to get his room finished so he can have somewhere to sleep, but its not moving as fast as I wanted it. Its still fun though. I have to remember to take pics so we casn post them and have memories of the fun time it is remodeling.

Speaking of pictures...Sheena, when are you going to post pics of your house!?

So anyway, school is going fine. Things are still crazy and they just added another student/school today! I was already having a crazy time with scheduling before. I will just have to do my best. Okay, that's it for now. I need to make dinner.

We love family!

The weekend was super fun. We all got very little sleep and lots of laughs! We always love seeing familia! And we are always sad when they leave. But we will see Raul and Kelly soon. And we are also going to visit my parents this weekend. Woo hoo. Feels like its been forever since we had a proper visit. But this time its business as usual again because we have to pick up beds and Jonathan's stuff. So that will be fun. The cotractors will finish tomorrow! YEA!!!!!!!!! Finally!!! Then we can paint, hang wallpaper, paint some more, and hang crown molding! Woo Hoo. We are in the home stretch. And thanks to Kelly, Daniel and I have more walk space so our lives aren't so miserable! YEA!! Good things all around. I am happy. I will post some pics of our fun weekend later. TTFN ta ta for now.

*Pulling Hair Out and Making Crazy Faces*

Ummm..where do I begin. Yeah, sorry its been so long since I posted anything. Our lives are SUPER stressful at the moment. We are coping well, but I can't wait for some of it to be over. Like our house. It is in TERRIBLE condition right now. We are all jammed in one room with everything surrounding us so there is barely room to breathe. The contractor said he may not be able to come until Saturday to finish. So we are stuck like this with clothes EVERYWHERE and ceiling fans EVERYWHERE and no walking space, and dust that just won't come up. *sigh* It will all be over soon.
In the meantime, I have begun school. Yesterday was my first day and I found out that I am going to be shared between two parishes. If you don't know what that means, just know that I will have to be doing A LOT more driving, scheduling is going to be a nightmare, and I am finishing the biggest part of my LaTaap this semester. In order to continue teaching, I must do well on that.

Daniel is doing fine with his job. School starts the last week of August for him, but he should do fine. He passed Calc. II!!!!! We are really excited about that! But he is having to drive back and forth from Lafayette, so that means more driving for both of us, which means (unless gas prices go down) we need another car to replace the Mazda. It just doesn't get good enough gas mileage, not to mention all its other problems.

And just to top it all off, our dogs came home with fleas. It is definitely our fault. We forgot to put stuff on them before we left, but COME ON! (For those of you who are Arrested Development lovers, that was said in Gob style) I hate fleas. If you don't take care of them fast enough, you never get rid of them. So we are doping our animals up tonight with TONS of flea medicine so that it doesn't become a problem. That would be just a perfect little addition to our situation.

Anyway, there are actually good things going on right now too (Its just sometimes hard to notice them). We have received lots of rain so my plants look good. (The outside ones atleast. Those that are inside have been decimated by our omnivorous felines.) Other good things? hmmmm...Raul and Kelly are coming this weekend. Although I'm a little stressed about that because we have nowhere for them to sleep or eat or do anything else. But its still good. Lets see, Jonathan will come to live with us soon. That will be fun.
what else....(jeopardy song)

I am sure there are other good things , I just can't think of them right now. And I have to go give Trogdor a bath so have a good night. Hopefully I will post happy things soon.

Haircut Day

Daniel has been having me cut his hair since we got married. I have never learned how to cut hair and so it has always been a trial by error thing. And it is NEVER fun. Usually because I mess up a hundred times before I get it right so what normally takes 20 minutes at the barber shop takes me three hours and then talk about the clean-up. I don't even want to go there. So ta dah! Here is the masterpiece this time. (Its always different)

Before
After

That's my cutie!

How do you change the background?

I have been looking for a way to change our background but can't find one. Daniel's at work so he can't help. You guys are changing your backgrounds all the time. Can anyone help me?

Happy Anniversary

Wow I can't believe it has been four years already. In a way it feels like it has flown by, but it also feels like I have known Daniel forever, like he has always been a part of my life. I just love him so much. Heavenly Father has blessed my life with the most wonderful man in the world, and He has also blessed me with a temple marriage so I can be with that man eternally! Wow! Isn't it amazing to think how much our Father in Heaven loves us, that he would bless us so richly. It is staggering to think about, and I am grateful for it. It is hard to express just how much I love Daniel and how happy he makes me feel, kinda like describing the Holy Ghost, nothing is adequate. But I'm sure y'all understand.

So, for our anniversary Daniel got me a camera. Its beautiful. And it has lots of neato stuff on it. It even has a special setting to take pics if pets! (Those people know how to sell) And so I was able to take pics of our special day. Look at my ciutie patootie! I just love him SO So SO much!Whoa! Who's that hot chick?!I made a cake and my childhood best friend sent me a card. AWWW! We love it!Daniel enjoying his pieceWe are going to paint the walls anyway, so I thought I'd give Daniel a little surprise. I tagged th wall! It was fun and free.

New Camera :)

I just got my new camera! Its so pretty. I love it! (Its supposed to be my anniversary present, but I opened it a little early! So I went picture crazy last night! It was fun. Here are a few pics of our house AKA The disaster area...

This is the living room ceiling. Not much fun to live with.












This is the place where we live (normally a mother-in-law suite). One room full of pretty much everything. Its kinda frustrating, but it will all be over soon and then we will have a lovely habitation.














Our patio is full of wood with nails sticking out among other things. I have taken more pics, but will post them later with some after pictures.