My 30th Birthday

JD does birthdays GOOD. It's one of his talents. He should open a business: a one-stop shop where you can get help with planning romantic birthdays and receive legal advice. I wonder what we'd call it.....


He did not disappoint this year. He actually went WAY over all expectations.

Unfortunately the pictures we took did not turn out that great, but you get a little taste of our weekend. It started with me coming home from work on Friday and JD throwing me in the car and heading to DC. We had a great meal at The Melting Pot- Spinach and Artichoke Cheese Fondue, followed by their famous salad with a fantastic raspberry vinaigrette, and ending with a meat platter dipped in a citrus broth fondue. Heaven!

Then, JD pulled a stunt that only he could. He asked me if I had any idea what we were going to be doing (every aspect of the weekend was a surprise) and I admitted that I thought he was taking me to Wicked. He stopped, got an embarrassed look on his face and said- "Oooo... That would have been a good idea." I started to back pedal- "No, of course, whatever you've planned is perfect!" Next thing I know he's having "problems" finding a bridge to go back over to Maryland and we end up by the Kennedy Center. JD is the only person I know who can surprise me when I know exactly what's going on.

These costumes were on display and were exquisite. I think I could drum up a place to wear this emerald green gown!

JD has a thing for taking pictures of me in front of the stage. I should have known- he did it when we were dating. Now every time we go to a show, I have to stand up in front of an entire audience and get a snapshot.

Part of the scenery

LOVED it!

After the show, JD whisked me away to stay in a hotel for the weekend. My Italian Stallion packed 2 suitcases full of everything he thought I'd need or want. He probably packed enough for 2 weeks, but he wanted to be sure I had options. I'm tellin' ya- that one's a smartie!

I've been dying to go to the farmers' market in Old Town Alexandria. It's the oldest continuously running farmers' market in the US. It takes years to get a booth there. We went for breakfast.

Then off we went into the western part of Virgina.

JD discovered that there's a lavender farm that lets you come and pick lavender. You can purchase all kind of lavender products and make lavender wreaths.

They also had a couple of baby goats roaming around. Did you know that these are fainting goats and every time they hear a loud noise they faint? Imagine- a whole field of goats keeling over when a motorcycle drives by! I MUST see that some day!

We ended our day in Maryland at Medieval Times.

It's a place you go for dinner.

With no silverware.

And a jousting match

Complete with sword fighting, horses performing tricks, and lots of strobes and fog. It was awesome!

The last gift JD gave to me was returning to the hotel and INSISTING that I get to sleep in. We went to a 1:00 church in Alexandria and headed home. What an amazing birthday! And what an amazing person to share it with!

Swearing In

JD was sworn in today as a member of the Virginia Bar.

I wanted to swear too, so I jumped into the action.

The VA Supreme Court in action.

Anyone want to sue anyone?

Another Lesson from Brain Training

One of the most challenging areas of cognition to improve is processing speed. Processing speed is how fast you are able to do something. It affects everything you do and can seriously impact your academic and functioning abilities.


The other day, we had a staff meeting and received additional training on how to improve a student's processing speed. My boss showed us a technique using one of our procedures. She took the Speed Numbers worksheet- kinda like this but bigger:


 1    4    7    6    9    2    6
 2    9    3    5    1    8    3
 7    2    9    1    6    3    9
 6    2    6    2    9    6    4
 1    6    3    5    9    4    2


and had a mock student come up and told her to circle all of the 5s and cross out all of the 2s as fast as she could. To get through one grid, it took her 22 seconds. Then our boss told the student that she needed to do it faster. She told the student "I want you to do the same thing, but in 10 seconds." 


So the student tried again. She failed. My boss said: "I want you to get to the bottom of the page in 10 seconds. Do it!" Again she failed. Again she tried. However, soon, the student successfully completed the task. 


Although the student was able to double her processing speed pretty quickly, her accuracy decreased. And she said that the whole time she was trying to go faster and faster, she was getting frustrated that she was missing numbers. But accuracy wasn't the goal. Increasing her speed was. Had my boss continued to work with her "student," she would have worked on increasing the accuracy next, but accuracy was not the goal for the moment. She gave her student a ridiculously difficult task to accomplish (double your processing speed in 3 minutes) and it forced her to do things a new way. And that is what changed her.


My boss actually mentioned that she has used this method to improve her business throughout the years. She said that she will set ridiculous goals for her staff and it forces them to work in a new way.

I think that the Lord sometimes gives us ridiculously difficult tasks. They are called trials. Don't our trials seem ironic? I swear, how many times do we say "ANYthing but this!!!" "Give me the trial of X! Give me the trial of Y. But NOT this!"


- I want to be the best mom that I can be. HOW on earth can I do that with this illness?
- I have the righteous desire to provide for my family. Why did I my job get taken away?
- I could do so much if only I weren't alone. All I want is to be with someone. Is that wrong?
- I never, ever expected that my child would be taken from me. Give me anything but this.


And for me personally:
- I know I could be a good mom. I know that JD would be a good dad. It's all I've wanted. Why am I being denied this duty and this blessing? Isn't this what women were divinely called to do? Am I not divine enough?


But God gives us things that He knows we can't deal with on our own. And while we tend to focus on our inadequacies (our accuracy in circling the numbers) God has a different goal for us. All we need to do is try and trust.


What would happen if the student ignored the trainer's instructions to get to the bottom of the page in 10 seconds? What if the student felt that the goal of accuracy was really more important than speed? Or what if the student didn't think she could succeed and didn't attempt it at all? It's easier to decide our way is more important. It's easier to give into the fear of failure and not try at all. But when we try and trust, the Lord will change us. That's what His trials do. They are designed to help us become more- more like Him.


Isn't it amazing? This Gospel is simply amazing.

Out to Lunch with Michelle

Yeah- we're BFF. I've got the fuzzy pictures to prove it (translation- I sat so far away that my zoom could barely do its job). 

I was able to attend the Congressional Club's First Ladies' Luncheon today and it was quite the experience- complete with K9 team, hundreds of Secret Service crawling around, and a helicopter hovering above the hotel. Can I just say it's a whole new world being a Santini? 

Everything was Florida themed because the president of the Congressional Club is from Florida and she's considered the main host of the First Lady.

Gift bags! They were full of beach-y things like flip flops, beach towel, nail polish, etc.

Samantha had the opportunity to be one of the junior hostesses and got to walk down the catwalk with her name being called out to recognize her. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of her on the catwalk, but she sure looked beautiful.

Michelle Obama's entrance

Being introduced

Gloria Estefan was the entertainment

Not every day you get to see the First Lady dancing to "Get on Your Feet!"

Catching Up

So I haven't been the best lately at keeping up with blogging. So here's a catch-all post to fill you in on some of the details.

JD planned a sweet little date night out to see the cherry blossoms on a river boat down the Potomac. Along the way, we discovered a fish market with all kinds of seafood. Gotta love me some spicy crab soup!

The cherry blossoms come out once a year in March and only bloom for a couple of weeks. DC has a whole cherry blossom festival.

JD, me, and my sticking up hair

Remember this post? The one where we discover that home renovations are not for us? We've improved since then. We actually mounted a TV. And did it with NO swearing! 

This is Mark's room. JD and I designed and furnished it so that it would be accessible to him. We pretty much started over from scratch and added everything we thought he'd need to be as independent as possible.

JD got the news that his good friend from freshman year at BYU was going to be in town. Mari, the Stroms (Dave is another freshman buddy), and us met down at The Mall to see the blossoms.

JD, Dave, and Mari

We got the opportunity to go to BYU's Management Dinner. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf was the main speaker because the BYU Management Society awarded him their yearly recognition award. Senator Smith is giving Elder Uchtdorf the award in this very fuzzy picture.

 

Another date- Color Me Mine Ceramics. Here we reenacted one of our first dates. Except this time his our ceramic pieces looked much better!

The way we celebrate every important event in the Santini family- PF Chang's. The cause? Passing the bar. You can now call JD "JD Squared." (There's your math humor for the day).

JD scored a basically free trip to West Virginia to go white water rafting. We stayed overnight in this little cabin that was just big enough for a bed. It was soooo cute!

"Wetsuits strongly recommended." What the HECK was I getting myself into?!

The nerves only increased when we were handed helmets.

"It was nice knowin' ya!"

Don't let that smile fool you. I was terrified.

Stopping for lunch. So far, still alive!

The rapids quickly won me over. So. Much. Fun!

Sign me up again! Total thrill! The highest class rapid we encountered were several class 5 rapids. Good thing I didn't know this before, but class 6 is the highest that you can go.

Carrie- does this picture look familiar? We snagged it off of your blog. We surprised Dave and met the Stroms at a fabulous Italian restaurant for Dave's birthday. Great food, great friends, great times.

Last week, I got to go to the Ambassador's Wives' Luncheon put on by the Church, with Mom Santini in charge. This is at the home (yes, home) of Donna Marriott. Donna is in the first row, second in from the left. Quite an amazing experience.

The entertainment was the country group SheDaisy.

Yes, home.