The Awesome Adventures of Jason and Heather

It starts...

2012-01-12T06:42:00.000-08:00

Well, I knew this would happen someday. There have been moments when it looked like he was ready to take off at any moment. He’s been standing by the couch and holding on to it while he walks along the edge for a few months but he was always afraid to let go. On Sunday afternoon it happened. He let go and took 2 steps out into the middle of the living room. Jason and I got so excited that we started clapping which distracted him so he fell down. I’ve been trying to capture it on camera but every time I tried he would go back to the couch. However, I noticed last night that he was being more adventurous and taking a few steps here and there so I decided to grab the camera unnoticed (he realizes the noise it makes when it comes on and immediately stares at it and squints his eyes, ready for the picture). I got it this time, he was determined to take a few more steps than normal, which was great. He doesn’t really bend his legs when he takes his steps but I’m sure that will come in time. So here you go, our baby walking around.

This other video is Braydon watching a show on Sprout TV called The Pajanimals. Now, for some reason he found this frog hilarious. It played the first time and he was laughing up a storm. Then when it came on a second time I decided to record it so that I could show Jason when he came home from work. And it’s only the frog, he doesn’t laugh at anything else. So I thought you might get a kick out of watching him, I know I do.

Oh the places we will go...

2011-12-27T10:55:00.000-08:00

Things have been crazy these past few months. Not crazy like I’m insane but crazy busy. Our internet connection in our apartment isn’t that great so when I try to download or upload anything it takes a few extra hours to get it on the blog so I usually give up and try to find something else to do.
Braydon’s very needy when I come home from work so if I’m not paying attention to him or holding him he gets upset. However, I think he likes to trick me into thinking he’s upset because as soon as I sit down with him on my lap he sometimes turns around and goes after any electronics he can get his hands on. He started crawling back in September and he got 4 of his teeth, he won’t let me get close enough to see if anymore are coming in. He’s also been standing against the furniture for quite a while. In October, we went searching through a pumpkin patch and found the perfect pumpkin. Then we dressed him up as a monkey and took him to “Boo at the Zoo”, I didn’t want to take him around for the candy it was just so that he could see the animals. I don’t think he really cared about them too much though. November, he stood by himself without holding on to anything. It usually lasts about 20 seconds before I get excited and start clapping for him and he can’t clap and stand at the same time. He’s taken a few steps to get to a toy that he really wants or to get to Jason or I. Every night when we bless the food Jason and I will kiss each other and then we’ll go over and give him a kiss. He’s gotten used to it so no matter what he is doing he will crawl over to the corner of the couch and wait for us to finish praying so he can get his kiss from mommy and daddy. In November, we went to California for Thanksgiving to be with Jason’s family and Braydon opened his first Christmas presents. He’s been playing around with them ever since. He got a ride or walk truck, at first when Jason put it together he was afraid of it but now that he’s gotten used to it he loves it. He likes to ride it and even more if you can push him really fast. If no one will push him he’ll sit on it and move his feet so he’s going in a forward direction. He’s started to stand up behind it and push it along with a stuffed animal behind the wheel. He’s a great clapper and gives high-5’s. He giggles at the most random things, he’s also started watching tv which sometimes makes him giggle. He also started waving when I’m leaving in the morning or when I’m going back to work after lunch. He hasn’t started blowing kisses yet but that’s alright. He’s a super smart boy, he’ll start stacking things on the floor so he can stand on them in order to reach a remote or the laptop. We bought a fence to keep him in the living room which has been helpful. When Jason is sitting on the floor, Braydon will try to crawl behind him or underneath his legs so we’re thinking that we will get him a tunnel for his birthday. As far as food goes he still doesn’t like anything with puffed rice, so he hasn’t started using finger foods yet. He’s also hesitant when it comes to anything with texture or beef. He’s so cute!
Jason had 2 classes he was taking this semester that he needed in order to get his associates degree. And we found out last week that he passed both of them. Woo-hoo! He wants to go to Utah Valley University to get his Bachelor’s degree but won’t be able to start attending until Fall 2012 semester. He’s been watching Braydon during the day and then drops him off at my work when he’s headed to work or class and then I watch him for the rest of the night. I like to think that we have a good system going. Jason’s been excited since the NBA lockout ended, so now he can watch the Utah Jazz play again.
And me, I’ve just been working nothing too exciting. I love watching Braydon play around and just learn new things. I also love watching Braydon and Jason interact with one another. I’ve been called to be a Relief Society teacher in our ward but I only have to teach every 2 months so I have to prepare for January 8th.
We had a great Christmas, and since we’ve already bought so many things we needed this year we weren’t going to give each other gifts. So I made Jason some gifts and ornaments for the tree and he surprised me by getting me a Kindle. He said that he already got his Christmas present when he upgraded his memory for his playstation 3. Braydon got a stuffed Perry the Platypus and Phineas and measuring cups and spoons and I think he’s enjoyed the kitchen supplies more than anything else. It’s been a crazy busy year and we’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Here’s to a great 2012!

Braydon on the swings in California

Playing on his new toy

I was folding laundry last week and he did this to himself, I thought it was funny

Thanksgiving in California

Playing with his measuring spoons, if I would have known he'd enjoy these the most I would have skipped the other presents.

He's Crawling....Everywhere

2011-09-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. It's been a while and I haven't had much of an opportunity to update you on what has been going on in our lives since the end of July. We moved out of our old apartment at the end of July and couldn't move into the new one until August 5th. So with the help of my Brittany and Clay we were able to stay at their home for a week so we didn't have to pay for another month of rent. I got to see what it would be like if I had ever had a long commute to work, and I'd prefer not to have to leave an hour before to make it on time. That Friday we got to move it and did the walk through and started moving things in. I was going to take a picture before we started moving everything in but I forgot because I was just so excited. Our apartment is quite spacious 1000 sq ft. There isn't a storage shed or anything so we have some stuff stored behind the couch, under the bed and on the back porch which so far seems to be working out fine.

We've gotten back into our regular routines which is good. Jason is enjoying being at home during the day with Braydon and then going to work at 5pm or school. We're glad that my work allows him to drop Braydon off with me at 4:30pm. Jason started school again at the end of August, his last semester at SLCC. He'll graduate with his associates and hopefully he'll remember that he needs to finish his application for UVU today. He just had 2 classes this semester but they are a little more time consuming than the past few semesters. From what I've gathered it's also more difficult to do homework when there is a baby in the house who seems to crave constant attention.

Braydon is doing fantastic, he's a very happy baby. He's been eating solids since we moved into the new apartment. He likes applesauce, peaches, pears, carrots and he wasn't a fan of the rice cereal, green beans, peas, squash or bananas. He's grown accustomed to some of them but he's still not eating as much of them as he does his favorites. He got his first tooth at the beginning of September which was accompanied by a cold. His second tooth came in about a week later. At the beginning of September he also started pulling himself up to stand next the couch or using us as his anchor. In church I noticed that he likes to pull himself using the chair in front of us, which is usually occupied by a sister in the ward and he'll touch their bottoms in order to get the grip that he needs. It's pretty funny but I always apologize to the sister only to come to find out that she is fine with it. Hopefully that doesn't teach him that just because he's cute that it's OK to grab girls butts. He also started crawling which caused us to go out and buy some electrical outlet covers and create a fence out of various things in the living room. We have to keep him out the fireplace and away from the entertainment center and in order to keep him contained in one place so we aren't running all over the house after him we just block that area off completely. I also went to Kid to Kid and bought him some pajamas since it's starting to get cooler at night.

We had a family reunion with my side of the family at the end of August which Braydon seemed to enjoy seeing all of his cousins, even dressing up in Noah's Jack Sparrow hat complete with hair. I think he really enjoyed seeing Ty who is only a few months younger than he is. We had fun playing around with the kids and playing on the playground. He enjoyed the swings which made me happy, he went down on a slide with Daddy and he seemed to like it. Our new apartment has a swimming pool and we went out and bought some Little Swimmers for him and an outfit to wear in the pool and we never got the chance to take him in the pool. Either Jason or I were working most of the time and rarely had time off together to take him in the pool, which is now closed for the winter. There is a hot tub still but I don't know if he can go in there. The week after my family left, Jason's parents came out to visit. Braydon liked showing off for Grandma and Grandpa P and enjoyed all of the attention.

Here are some pictures of our last month:

His first experience with Rice Cereal, he seemed more interested in the spoon than the food.

Cute smile!

Future BYU cougar fan!Sorry Dad I had to post it, I thought it was funny.

Braydon as Jack Sparrow

Take me out to the ballgame....

2011-07-24T16:00:00.000-07:00

On Saturday my work had a party at the Salt Lake Bee's game. We had a suite and lots of treats and even got a visit by the mascot. He was in a hurry so we didn't get to have him hold Braydon but that's ok.

Our baby sucking on his fingers...his favorite.

I made certain that he was wearing this outfit for the game. I think it's so cute!

In the suite before the game began, Braydon getting ready to root for the team.

And one of Daddy being animated but Braydon not so much.

The baseball diamond, I'm always impressed with the way they cut their grass.

Braydon praticing his windup. I'm sorry that it's sideways.

This morning Braydon was very intense while playing in his toy, I thought I better take a video of it.

Summer

2011-07-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

I think I do this every summer, I forget about the blog and just update when Jason goes back to school. I figured I would get a head start and just skip over one month rather than all three. Braydon is such an amazing baby, he's growing up so fast. He had his 4 month check up in June and the doctor said that he is very healthy. He is now 5 months and getting so heavy I have a hard time carrying him in his car seat, especially up three flights of stairs. He rolls everywhere and he is getting so fast at it now. Every time I lay him on the ground on his back he'll immediately roll over onto his stomach and then just keep going. I'll find him all over the living room floor so laying a blanket on the floor no longer works. He's been drooling a lot which makes us believe that he is teething. You can see his gums on the bottom that there are little white nubs there but they haven't broken through yet. He grabs onto everything with his hands and his toes, yes, his toes. He has little monkey toes that catch on everything. He also likes to yell, it's rather funny. Jason likes to call it his dinosaur roar as you can see below. We try taking regular picture of him, but as soon as we get him to smile we bring out the camera and he just stares at it looking a little confused. This is the best smile I've caught on camera.

We took Braydon to see the fireworks on the 4th of July and he was attentive, he looked in awe but he didn't really make any noise or anything. We strapped him to Jason's front and covered him in a blanket seeing that it was starting to drizzle. He looked like a Jedi.

In other news we are finally moving into another apartment. We have to be out by the end of the month but we can't move into our new place until August 5th. So our plans are that we will pack everything up and little by little drop stuff off at Daniel and Kali's who are nice enough to allow us to use their garage. And then we'll stay at my sister Brittany's in Provo for a few days until we are able to move in. It's so exciting to finally get rid of a lot of stuff and finally get organized and know that we only have a few more weeks left until the big day. Our new apartment is in a nicer area where it would be easy to actually take a walk and Jason is within walking distance to where he works so that's great. It's also a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartments 1,000 sq ft and washer and dryer hook ups. We went out on the 4th of July weekend to find one and after several hours we found some that were at a good price. I think that is one thing we are most excited about is having our own laundry. And now Braydon is ready to go to sleep so I better go put him to bed. I'll update soon...I hope.

3 months old...

2011-05-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe how fast time flies. Our little boy is 3 months old and everyday he does something new that surprises us. He can hold his head up by himself for long periods of time. He smiles and laughs all the time. He is definitely showing his personality. He can entertain himself for a little bit while we try and get things done around the house. He still likes to be held when he is getting sleepy, which is ok with me. He’ll follow his rattle with eyes and turn to the sound of it. He likes to play patty-cake and peak-a-boo, also Godzilla (Jason likes to make Godzilla noises when Braydon stomps his feet). He likes to grab his feet, which comes in handy when we are trying to change his diaper. He’ll sleep through the night waking up at least once around 3am. His usual bed time is around 10:30pm, enough time to see Daddy come home from work and play with him a bit. He is in the stage where he likes to roll over any time he is on his back. It used to take him a while before he would roll but now he has become a pro. He likes to watch SportsCenter with Daddy too, he’s captivated by it. He’s so well behaved when we go out to Church or other events, he just sits there quietly and he’ll only fuss if he’s hungry, tired, or needs a change. He’s drooling quite a bit now which makes me think that teething will come and ruin his sleeping pattern but I guess that’s something we should prepare for.

I went back to work the day after Easter and it was a hard week. The first day I had a couple of break downs and couldn’t wait to be home to see him again. Since then I’ve gotten better, I still can’t wait to go home and see him but it’s getting easier to leave him with relatives who love him. Kali has been watching him whenever Jason was scheduled to work, on Thursdays I would take off early in the morning to bring him down to Brittany’s. So I feel lucky to have such great family who take good care of him while I am unable to do so. My biggest fear was that Braydon wouldn’t remember me, but it doesn’t seem to faze him at all. He still gives me the biggest smiles when I come home.

Braydon at 2.5 months

2011-04-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

Braydon had his 2 month check up at the beginning of the month. He weighs 11.3 lbs and was 24.5 inches tall. He's just growing up so fast and adorable as ever. Jason has become a miracle worker getting him to sleep in his crib. He's very talkative and smiles a lot which makes my heart melt every time. We decided last week that I'll go back to work for a little while so that we can pay off our debts, I'll be sad to leave him. We're trying to make it work with schedules so we'll see how it goes. It doesn't look like Jason will be taking any classes this summer unless they decide to offer classes that he actually needs. He's on the hunt for another job that pays better and has more hours and would work with him on his school schedule. So far I'm just enjoying my last week of being a stay at home mom. I thought I'd post a few pictures to show Braydon off a little bit.

Smile - and the awesome onesie that our nephew, Noah, picked out for him.

Posing for the camera

Twins...sort of

He spit up all over his face - he's still cute!

Sleeping in his crib and it looks like he spit up here too...

Another posing for the camera picture - plus check out those blue eyes

Quick Story...

2011-04-05T18:43:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately I don't have a picture for this but it was hilarious when it happened.

On Sunday night I had just fed Braydon and I could hear him working on something, trying to get it out. A few minutes later I heard the audible noise of him pooping. I waited about 5 minutes and Jason and I went into the room to tackle it together. Jason was holding his legs while I wiped. I had gotten him all cleaned up but I wanted to use one more diaper wipe to make sure I didn't miss anything. I reached into the drawer to grab another wipe when I saw something fly out of the corner of my eye and I heard Jason give a little yell. I thought maybe Braydon had peed but no, it was much worse than that. I looked at Jason and he had a poop spot on his leg, I looked at the floor and there were poop spots next to the door, and then I looked at the changing table and there was poop all over it, he also managed to get his sock. I looked at Braydon and he was smiling. Jason and I have never seen poop fly like that, but it is one of the joy's of parenting that we are discovering.

1 Month - 2 month

2011-03-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since Braydon came into our lives and even though it's been tough it's all worth it. He is so adorable, I can't help but kiss his chubby cheeks (on his face) every chance I get. His sleeping habits are getting better, he's sleeping longer through the night but the issue is he won't fall asleep until about 3am and then he'll be out until 8am or so. And then he'll wake up to be changed and fed and he'll fall asleep for another hour or so. I have been surprised at how many diapers we go through. We seem to go through about 10 a day which is just amazing to me, our diaper pail gets filled up so quickly but luckily it doesn't stink up our bedroom. He started to smile and laugh around the 12th which has been fun, and he really seems to enjoy his tummy time. He is so strong and he's able to lift his head for quite a long time. Jason even has him walking (with some help of course).We are excited for family to come out and be there for his blessing at the end of this week. We want to thank family and friends for their help with everything.

Ok, so the paragraph was written at the beginning of the month and I never had a chance to complete it. Everytime I got onto the computer to update it Braydon would want to be fed so I had to wait until another day. He's adorable though. We had family down this past weekend for Braydon's baby blessing, it was amazing. Jason and I got to show off a little bit, we had to give the opening and closing prayer in sacrament meeting and teach Sunday School so it was a lot of fun. I can't believe that he will be 2 months at the end of the week, time really does fly. Well he just woke up from his nap so I better go feed him. Here are some photos:

St. Patricks day we got a big smile - he's my lucky charm, it says so on the shirt

Look how tiny Braydon looks

He liked me reading The Hobbit

Family photo

Jason playing with our nephew Noah

This is what he originally was going to be blessed in but he wet through it right before Sacrament meeting.

Our bundle of joy...

2011-02-24T09:49:00.000-08:00

I know it’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve had Braydon and I thought that I would have time to sit down and write out our whole experience but so far that hasn’t happened. He’s the most adorable baby I’ve ever seen but then again I could be biased. He’s sleeping right now but who knows how long that will last. We had an appointment set up for February 4th to go in and have me induced at 8:30pm. They told me to eat a big dinner and then call in an hour before our appointment to make sure that they have a bed for me. We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and then we went home and prepared our overnight bag and Jason gave me a blessing before we made the phone call. And when we did call they told me to come in at 9pm instead. So we arrived at the hospital and checked in, they took me to my room and had me change before hooking me up to the IV, Blood Pressure cuff, Pitocin, and the heart monitors on my stomach. I don’t think that they got me fully set up until 11pm and then they told me to get some rest…not that easy. Every time Braydon moved out of the way of the heart monitor an alarm would go off and wouldn’t stop until the nurse came back in to readjust it. The blood pressure cuff went off every 15 minutes, and every couple of hours I had to get up to go to the bathroom but I had to have Jason come over to the bed and unhook me from everything and then I had to roll the IV into the bathroom with me. I sat awake the entire night listening to Jason snoring away in the corner and thinking about everything that was about to happen. I think I finally fell asleep around 5:30am and was startled out of sleep at 6am by a woman screaming her head off in another delivery room. At that point I was scared out of my mind and wanted to back out, but it was too late. When the nurse came in she explained that the woman that was screaming came in too late to have her epidural but I shouldn’t worry because I’ll get mine in time. I certainly hoped so.
Dr. Langer showed up at 7:45am to check to see where I was at and to break my water…that was a weird sensation. She said that I had dilated to a 4 over night and they decided that they would continue to increase the dosage of pitocin until I was fully dilated and effaced. All during my pregnancy I couldn’t really tell the difference between contractions and the baby moving but once they broke my water those contractions came on heavily. The nurse told me that the anesthesiologist was with someone but was heading to my room next. Jason came over and held my hand as I tried to breathe through the contractions and I could watch them on the monitor. Luckily I only had to go about half an hour without the epidural. I was worried that when they put in the epidural that it would be painful but it wasn’t I just felt pressure. My right side from the stomach down went tingly and they told me to roll over on to my left to make sure that the epidural would spread evenly. Jason and I watched despicable me while we were waiting for the epidural to take full effect and it actually made me sleepy so we turnd off the movie and I tried to take a nap. The nurse kept coming in every half hour to check on me and to see how I’ve progressed. At about noon I was 7 cm dilated and almost there. At 2pm she came back and checked again and she told me that I’m ready to push this baby out, I was completely dilated and effaced. Then the nerves really set in, this is the part I had dreaded all along. Jason hurried up and changed his clothes and put on his shoes while the nurse and doctor got everything ready. I pushed for about 15-20 minutes and then I felt nauseated. I thought I could handle it since I never throw up but I’m sorry to say that in this instance I couldn’t keep it down. They let me pause for a bit while I tried to compose myself and the nurse ran off to get a medicine that would help with the nausea. Then we were ready to push again, after another 10-15 minutes Braydon was finally here. The doctor was surprised at how big he was, she was thinking that he was only going to be about 6.5 to 7 pounds. He was and is beautiful weighing 8 lbs 9 oz, 20 inches long. They washed him off and gave him to Jason to hold and bring to me. Jason was beaming from ear to ear so proud of his new little boy. Jason and one of the nurses took him to nursery while I tried to get some sleep and wait for a recovery room to open up. We had him sleep in our room the first night and we didn't get much sleep with the nurse coming in every couple of hours to check on us and I think Jason had the most uncomfortable bed ever. The second night the nurse wanted to wheel Braydon into the nursery around 1am to do some lab tests and she asked if I wanted her to keep him in there for a whiles that we could get some sleep, I felt bad saying yes but I was so exhausted after the past couple of days.
It’s now been almost 3 weeks since he was born and it’s still an adjustment. He likes to sleep all day and be awake most of the night. Since Jason has school and work I’m up with Braydon trying to get him to fall asleep most of the night but he has gotten better. I’m able to get him to fall asleep by about 2am or 3am and then he sleeps until about 8 or so. One thing we haven’t been able to do is get him to sleep in his crib. Everytime we get him to fall asleep we lay him down and he wakes up 5 minutes later crying his eyes out. I’ll admit I’m a wimp and I don’t like him crying so after about 2-3 minutes I go and pick him up and hold him until he falls asleep again. Anyone have any good ideas on how to get him to sleep in his crib?
He had a doctors appointment yesterday and we were told that he weighed 8 lbs 5 oz, not exactly at his birth weight but the doctor said that’s fine since he was rather large to begin with, he‘s in the 50th percentile in weight. He is now 21.5 inches long which is in the 85th percentile. The nurse came in and did a PKU test while Jason held on to Braydon and Dr. Buchanan came in and spoke to me about different things. They did tell us that we need to get him some vitamin D drops which apparently breast milk is deficient in. And the worst part of the visit was that we had him circumcised. We decided to do it in the doctors office rather than the hospital because some insurances won’t cover the cost believing it to be more cosmetic than necessary. In the hospital that could end up being a $1500 procedure that we would have to pay out of pocket. In the doctors office it’s a 1/3 of the price at $325. I didn’t want to watch but I was in the room while they did it and Jason ended up helping out with the procedure, by dipping Braydon’s pacifier in a cherry syrup and by holding onto his hands to comfort him. The doctor told us everything he was doing and showed us all of the pieces that he uses. They actually numbed the area with a shot of lidocaine which Braydon didn’t enjoy. Jason was doing perfectly fine being that close and watching until the doctor asked him how he was doing and told him about another dad that was helping him in the hospital that passed out. After that Jason felt a little woozy and had to sit down. After the procedure was over Braydon was not happy at all. We stayed in the room for about 20 minutes trying to calm him down by feeding him but every few minutes he’s let out a huge cry which would make the milk fall out of his mouth and then he’d cry more. We finally decided to try and get him dressed and in the car seat thinking that the sooner we got him home to an environment he recognizes the better. He passed out as soon as we put him in the car seat and placed the blanket over the visor. He slept for almost the entire afternoon, waking only for 15 minutes to eat and then he’d be asleep again.

Our Family!

Our handsome little boy

I just liked to watch him

Jason held on to Braydon while I tried to get dressed and wait to be discharged

I thought this was so cute, they were both passed out.

D-day!

2011-02-01T07:49:00.000-08:00

Today is our official due date and we still don't have our little guy to hold yet. I went to an Indian restaurant last week hoping maybe the spices might help induce labor but I could only eat a few bites of that before I felt a little sick. I've walked around quite a bit hoping to induce labor as well but so far that hasn't helped. When we went in for our doctors appointment yesterday Dr. Langer said that I'm still a tight 2cm dilated and 80% effaced, which was disappointing to hear. So with that in mind she'd like to induce me by this Friday evening, our appointment is at 8:30pm and then they will break my water in the morning to get the contractions starting. I'm excited knowing that there is an end in sight but I think that also makes me more nervous just because once we go in there is no turning around (not that we would want to). Another plus to having this scheduled is I know that Jason will be there rather than worrying about him missing it while he is at school or work. The doctor said to bring lots of stuff to keep us occupied so we'll be packing a bigger bag than what we have already, any ideas on what we should bring?

Also in other news, last Friday was my last day of work until my maternity leave is over and I have to make a decision on whether or not I want to go back. The person that I was training was only there 6 days out of the 10 that she was supposed to be so we'll see how much she actually picked up on. I'm sure I'll hear something from someone about it over there. I'm just excited to be able to spend this time with Jason and soon we'll add Braydon into the mix. We'll keep you all posted...

Baby Shower

2011-01-22T18:51:00.000-08:00

Last weekend one of the sisters in our ward threw a Baby Shower for Braydon. I've never been a fan of the games and everything at these things which is why I was so happy to hear that she didn't like them either. I had friends from work, church, and family.

And as promised, here is an updated side profile of the big baby bump. I've had a lot of people tell me that it doesn't look real but it is. Also in the background you can see our brand new table that we bought, Jason did a great job of putting it all together. And there are only 2 chairs visible but it came with 4, we just hadn't put those ones together yet.Our doctors appointment last Wednesday went well, however there weren't any changes in dilation or efacement from the week before. We did get to see him on the portable ultrasound and he had chubby cheeks but that could just be gravity since he is head down. He looked very handsome, just like his daddy. Our doctor measured his head and as of Wednesday it was around 9 cm or so, which is what a 39 week old baby should be so he's measuring a week ahead of schedule. I know that Jason and are I feeling ready to finally get to hold this little baby boy. We have another doctors visit scheduled for Monday January 24th and I hope that things are finally progressing.

The year in review...

2010-12-24T08:42:00.000-08:00

January - Jason returned to school for his second semester of classes. We also decided it was about time to get some new furniture for our apartment to help with organizing. We got to experience the Sunday Film Festival and saw a movie that neither of us cared for. Definitely and interesting experience...unfortunately I can't say that we ever really saw any celebrities. I finally got my drivers license changed to my new name after a year and half.

February - Super Bowl Sunday we went over Daniel and Kali's and pigged out on lots of great food and watched the game. We also got to babysit Maeli while Brittany and Clay went out for their anniversary (a few months late). She loved me....We also went to H&R Block to have our taxes done...unfortunately Maeli was already counted for so we couldn't get that tax break.

March - Met up with an old roommate and her fiance for the first time in 5 years. It wasn't as awkward as I thought it was going to be and we had a lot of fun hanging out at Olive Garden...after waiting for a table for over an hour.

April - Jason's classes ended for the Winter semester. Paid off a car. And the apartment search continued as we tried to find something that would be bigger and less expensive than we are living now.

May - Jason and I went to a Renaissance Fair and had a lot of fun. Of course, Jason had ended up spilling most of his lunch on his lap so we stopped off at Target and grabbed some new shorts (who knew that they had a Target back then). Jason's summer class started. And we received the best news in the world when we found out that we were expecting.

June - We finally decided it was time to declutter and get rid of some of the old furniture that we had in the apartment. My desk and dresser had been water damaged a few years ago, so we went out and purchased a new desk from Ikea. Had our first doctors visit that confirmed that everything was going well with the pregnancy.

July - Had our second check up and finally got to hear the babies heart beat.

August - Birthdays, we didn't really do anything for our birthday's this year we didn't even make a cake or anything. We were just saving up our money for new expenses yet to come. Jason's fall semester began at the end of the month and we finally were able to find out that we were having a baby boy! Also finally went out and bought some maternity clothes, which was an interesting experience. Got to hang out with Kevin, Nicole, Noah, and Abbie while they were out and have a good game of wiffle ball.

September - Had a picnic on Labor Day (unfortunately it was too cold outside to stay for very long). Went to California for Jason's brother's wedding, got to walk along the beach and feel the cool breeze. It was a quick trip but we had a lot of fun. Bought a new bookcase to help store all of the books I had lying in different parts of the house.

October - Finally put together our wedding photo album. Jason built a changing table, I was very much impressed with his skill. Went to the ward trunk or treat in the pouring down rain. I didn't stay long because I didn't bring enough candy for everyone like I thought.

November - Celebrated our two year anniversary by going to Olive Garden and watching a movie. Also had to do the glucose testing which was interesting but not as bad as expected. We also stayed home for Thanksgiving and made our own turkey, thanks to Alton Brown for teaching us the proper way. Went out for black Friday and purchased a few things that we needed, getting up at 4am was amazing and we had such a good time just being together.

December - We bought a crib that was easy to set up. Jason's classes ended for the semester and he got decent grades. His car had some issues which I was able to take care of while he was at work. We did get to go to California for Christmas this year and we actually had a vacation that was longer than 3 days, which was nice. We decided to forgo gifts for each other and just focus on saving money for Braydon. New Years we had Brittany, Clay, and Maeli over for the annual new years party.

Quick Update

2010-12-01T19:47:00.000-08:00

I haven't had much time to update within the last month so I'll work on writing up what we've been up to but I wanted to share some pictures with all of you.

I came home from work on our anniversary and saw these sitting on the counter. He knows I love Gerber Daisies!

We tried our hand at making our own turkey for Thanksgiving...I think we did a pretty good job. And a picture of Jason carving the turkey.
Here is my Christmas Ornament Wreath I made, I don't have a hot glue gun yet but when I do I can fill in some of those wholes and make sure that they ornament isn't going to fall off the hanger.
And of course, our most important purchase during the Thanksgiving weekend. We ordered our crib online on Thanksgiving night and got the mattress for free and shipping for $1.00, needless to say we felt pretty good about it. Now all we have to get is some sheets and we'll be good to go on that front.

And for the final picture, do not attempt to adjust your computer monitor. Yes, I really am this large at the moment. My belly button is starting pop out but only part way so Jason calls it a half moon.

Jason's Handywork

2010-11-07T20:20:00.000-08:00

We finally finished it!!! Our changing table that we've been working on for the past month. Jason did some great handyman work.

**Disclaimer: Jason wants it known that the stain on the top portion turned out a lot lighter than it said on the can...and we are far too cheap to try something else. Before

After

Halloween Time...

2010-10-30T17:58:00.000-07:00

Everything out here in Midvale is going well. We've been keeping busy with work and Jason has been staying busy with school as well. We had our 25 week check up and was told that the baby was doing well. The heart beat has slowed down a bit which the doctor said is normal with the growing that he's doing. He's definitely an active baby, he's kicking all the time and last night Jason really got to feel him do some cartwheels. It's pretty amazing to think that in a couple of months I will be a mom to a baby boy. Here is the latest belly picture...enjoy!

I went down to Provo yesterday evening to bring Brittany her sewing machine back and to take advantage of the free food that she and Clay offered. Brittany took my to the Kid to Kid down there and there are a lot more choices in regards to cribs and strollers and everything. I bought a car seat with the base for only $23 and then a few baby shirts for $1.99. I was pretty impressed with the pricing and hope that maybe I can go back another time and find some more great finds... Here is a picture of the car seat, I think Jason was impressed with the price.This morning Jason and I woke up and headed over to a new donut shop...ok, it's not new but it's new to us. It's delicious and it was packed full of people. It's a self serve sort of a thing so you had to try and beat people to the ones that you liked. Another thing that we did today is take a look at another apartment. We actually went down to the office to renew our lease and said that we wanted to resign for another six months and she asked us what it would take for us to stay longer. Jason asked about a two bedroom apartment and both Jason and I laughed when he said it but she looked at us and said that they do have a two bedroom, and she can take us to it right now if we liked. It's not too far, just on the other side of Heather St. One flight of stairs (added bonus right now), parking in the back, quiet neighborhood, two bedrooms, new carpet, fresh paint, new blinds, shower rod sits higher (Jason loves that part), and dining room area, all utilities paid except for electricity and cable, rent is $710/month for the two bedroom and we are paying $650 right now. Now there are a few downsides to this as well. Rent is $710/month, no cable, smaller kitchen (it has quite a few cupboards above the counters but not a whole lot beneath), no walk in closet, no balcony or storage unit, or washer or dryer hook ups. They do have a laundry on-site in the back of the building. We told the landlady that we'd like to think about it so she'll give us until Monday to decide whether or not we want to go for it. Our biggest issue is the space we'll lose in the kitchen and the no outside storage but we might be able to get better organized and store things in the babies room. I'm looking into selling my papasan chair (sigh) to make more space for everything. I'll let you know what we decide.

Our ward had a Trunk-or-Treat this evening and since Jason was at work I decided to represent the family and stand out in the rain to pass out candy to trick or treaters. Luckily the gentleman next to me offered the use of his umbrella since I couldn't use my trunk the way other people were (I should have taken Jason's car). I ran out of candy rather quickly since I wasn't expecting that many people, I figured it would just be our ward. I didn't take into account everyone inviting their neighbors or grand kids to come around and I think I got swindled by a few who made the rounds more than once. I left rather quickly once I ran out of candy, I didn't want any of the kids to start throwing anything at me. Now I'm home trying to warm up with a donut and some hot chocolate before Jason comes home from work and we can have dinner. I'm breaking tradition for Halloween and having tuna casserole for dinner rather than pigs in a blanket and tater tots.

A Slow Weekend...

2010-10-03T12:55:00.000-07:00

This week I have been uploading photos to Wal-Mart to finally get developed after 2 years. I figured it was about time I actually filled up our photo album and some of the picture frames that we have. Now our issue is where to put the frames. I think we'll just do some rearranging of the ones currently on the walls and see what happens. Another thing that we have done is finally cleaned up a lot of the clutter around the bedroom which will help when we finally buy a crib. And Jason has built a changing table topper for one of the dressers, he gets really into it. I love my man! He even has a blister on his thumb and on the palm of his hand to show that he is a handyman. Jason had to work yesterday and he has to work today, but we were able to get in the annual conference breakfast before he had to take off. We did Blueberry Muffins, Bacon, and Hash Browns...delicious! Other than that we haven't done a whole lot this weekend. I'm sure I'll post a picture once I have things set up around the house. It's interesting, I've heard from two people this week who are expecting boys. Ours is still kicking quite a bit which confirms to that everything is still going well. I'll write more later.

It just flies by...

2010-09-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

The summer went by so fast this year that I think I already forgot most of it. Jason had one summer class that he took that was over in about 3 weeks, he passed the class and now he is done with his generals and ready to start on the fun stuff. He started classes again on August 25 and so far he has been enjoying at least one of them. One of his teachers goes off on tangents which doesn’t allow him to really learn the materials he needs. Unfortunately he has this teacher for three of his classes and then the other class that this teacher isn’t involved in Jason is enjoying that one much more. He’s home a lot more right now because of his school schedule/work schedule. I get to see him in the evenings on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and then he’s gone at work in the evenings on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It’s not fantastic but it’s not horrible either, he at least had yesterday (Sunday) off so it was nice being able to sit with him in church and hang out with him all day.

Every summer there are certain things that you would like to do like go on a picnic, visit historical sites, visit with family, go camping, play some wiffle ball, and go camping. I’d like to tell you that amazingly we did do some of these things. We went on a picnic for Labor Day, we packed up our stuff and headed to a local park and spread out the blanket and ate our delicious meal. However, it quickly turned too cold to be outside for too long so our picnic lasted about half an hour. We visited with family, my parents came out in July and then we went and visited Jason’s parents in September. Kevin and Nicole and Noah came out in August so it’s been fun to be able to see almost everyone (Jordan & Christina we’ll have to visit with you soon). The camping part didn’t happen this summer; we do have a tent but only one sleeping bag which we will have to remedy sometime in the future. We did go to the drive in theater which was a lot of fun; we’ve also gone to a Bee’s Baseball game. However, our most exciting thing we’ve been doing this summer is….preparing for our baby.

This summer we found out that we are expecting a baby. I had to take a couple of pregnancy tests in order to make sure that it was positive, however; a line is a line. During the first trimester I had nausea and everything but there was only one night where it got the best of me. I don’t know if I can look at French Dip Sandwiches the same way. There were foods I couldn’t bring myself to eat, anything with BBQ sauce, and foods that were just tempting like cookie dough. However, I’m proud to say that I have not succumbed to my cookie dough addiction. We are hoping that our baby boy will be healthy and strong and according to the ultrasounds he will be.

With a baby on the way we are trying to figure out how to accommodate all of our stuff and all of the baby’s stuff into a one bedroom apartment. We’ve tried to consolidate, Jason cleaned out all of the boxes I was saving for when we are going to move and took those down to the trash can in order to make more room for whatever we might need. We bought a new bookcase to try and get rid of the clutter behind the loveseat that I hope no one ever noticed. I can now fit all of my books into one place…until they start expanding again. Our latest adventure is trying to rearrange the bedroom to make room for a crib and changing table. We haven’t rearranged the room yet but I’m sure it will be coming soon, I’m getting too impatient. We went to Kid to Kid on Saturday to try and find something that we liked and we walked away with a changing table pad, our first purchase for the baby. Jason likes to wait for the sales or for January but I think I’ve talked him into finally buying a few things soon. We’ve been looking at crib/changing table combos to see if that would free up some more space in the bedroom. We have a dresser that isn’t in use that we could stick the changing pad on and then we can just get a crib. We’ll see what happens in the next few months. We’ve thought of moving several times but we can’t find anything within our budget that would allow me to feel safe while I am home alone. We'll see what happens.

My ever growing belly....

And my ever growing book collection.

Our new desk...

2010-06-06T13:55:00.000-07:00

I think I've been telling Mom that I would post pictures of our new desk for about 2 weeks now and I kept forgetting about it. So, without further ado...here is our desk.

It's a little on the big side so we'll have to dismantle the top when we move but it has lots of storage and the white you see behind the monitor is actually white board so you can write on it with dry erase marker. Then the two white drawers on the left pull out to store paper and stuff and then storage shelves on the right. We also purchased these cool little magnetic holders that stick to the white board where we can put pens and pencils and headphones and stuff...One of the them is holding up the poster Jason stuck on there...I didn't take it down before taking the pictures because...well...I was lazy that morning.

I'll post another update this week...

Good Sirs and Ladies!

2010-05-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

This weekend has been a lot of fun! Jason has had Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and today off so we've been able to enjoy each other's company. Thursday we went to the temple and out for ice cream afterwards. Friday we went to see Robin Hood in the theater. And the crowning glory was our day Saturday, we decided we wanted to go to a Renaissance Fair. We got a late start because we were up late playing a computer game that Jason found on the internet. So we headed out around 11:00..ish and planned on stopping off to get something for lunch, well Jason ended up wearing a little bit of it on his shorts so we had to stop off at Target to pick up some Tide-to-go and new shorts and a belt. And then we realized we were almost out of gas so we had to stop off and get that too. It's amazing what happens when you don't follow your wife's directions, I like to think I have a pretty good internal compass but I've come to find out it doesn't really work if you tell someone to turn after it's too late. We got lost, we lost sight of the freeway and instead of turning around to get on the freeway Jason wanted to keep going straight to follow the freeway on side streets, but we we eventually realized it wasn't the freeway. We ended up on Legacy Parkway but we didn't know that at the time, we thought we had passes our exit but alas we came across a sign that told us which way to I-15. We finally made it to our destination at Millcreek Hollow and I was glad that I wore my tennis shoes and that it was warm enough you didn't need a jacket. We got into the Renaissance Fair and started walking around, I was amazed how many people that weren't a part of it dressed up in full garb none the less. We saw Robin Hood, Three Musketeers, the Royal Family, Friars, Pirates, Italian Renaissance ladies, Gypsies, Peasants, Knights, Fairies (the pointy eared ones) and Elves...yes, I thought that one was odd too. They had a lot of shops for you to browse through with clever names, puppet shows, bands that played music from the time, magicians, pirate ships and shows, fire dancers, a food court (Yes, they did have turkey legs, $8 a leg) gypsy dancing, and best of all...jousting. And as usual Jason and I thought that there would be more shade than they offered and we hadn't even gotten our sunscreen out of the closet yet, so now we are suffering from our first burn of the year, I think Jason got it worst than I did. The one souvenir we decided to pick up were...foam swords, I won't let Jason have any real ones. After we saw the jousting tournament we decided it was time to leave and eat Mexican food. Today will just be a day to relax and hope the redness on these burns go away before tomorrow.

Jason in a fetching new hat, he wanted the silver shirt behind him too.

I realize now that this is the King and Queen coming towards us.

I ran into Captain Jack Sparrow.

My hoodlum...he looks too happy to be in there.

A pirate juggling swords

And jousting...

We're Very Much Alive

2010-05-08T19:41:00.000-07:00

To all those who are wondering, we are still alive. The past couple of months haven't been too exciting with Jason in school and both of us working full times jobs. It's amazing that we are able to see each other during my lunch break almost every day and after he gets home from work. His classes are done for now but he has a summer class that will start May 17th, but it is only for a month. We paid off my car with our tax return, since mine had the least amount left. Now all of our leftover money will go towards Jason's car and then we will be debt free.

We've been debating with moving to a different apartment, one that has washer and dryer hook ups and a little bit more space. We looked at one called The Springs of Country Woods. It looks like it would fit our needs, especially if Jason might be transferred to the Midvale Famous Footwear store, it's right across the street. We'll see how the next couple of months go, we renewed our lease for three months which will keep us in this apartment at least until the end of July, it will be easier to move when Jason isn't in school. We'll keep you all posted!

In other news, tomorrow is Mother's Day so I just wanted to say Thank You to our Mom's, Grandma's, Aunts, Sisters, and Sisters-in-law and Friends (who are mothers) and we hope that you have a great day!

Super Bowl and the Sundance Kids

2010-02-14T14:12:00.000-08:00

The past couple of weeks have been pretty exciting to say the least. We had the opportunity to attend the Sundance Film Festival, stand in lines at the DMV, make goodies for THE Super Bowl party, and spend lots of time together.

My boss at Express decided that she would give everyone a ticket to see a movie at Sundance and she’d also give us the day off as long as we didn’t take the same day off. We got tickets to see a movie called “The Dry Land” and so I got Thursday off, trying to match it up with Jason’s school schedule. We decided that we would try that morning to go to the DMV to finally get my name changed on my drivers license. It has taken so long because I work the same hours as the DMV and it’s impossible to get everything done before I start work at 8am. So we got down to the DMV on my day off at about 8am, license. So we had to turn around and head back to the apartment, after waiting in traffic for 15 minutes we made it back and luckily I knew where my passport was.. And we promptly turned back around and headed back to the DMV. This time they let me through and I figured that was a good sign. Since we were there to change my name I didn’t think that I would need to wait that long but no, we were sitting down waiting for our number to be called and finally after about an hour we got to talk to someone. During this time I was worried because our address had changed from the time before and I didn’t think I had anything valid in my wallet to say what our new address was. Luckily, the girl behind the counter took pity on me and accepted a letter I had from the Social Security office and the envelope mom sent our marriage certificate in as proof of address. We finally got out of there by about 10:20.

We decided we would go to IHOP that morning and that made up for all the standing around (Thanks Mom and Dad Poetschlag). Since we had all of our marriage certificate stuff we decided to go to our banks and get that situation straightened out. I think the only thing left I need to switch over is my passport but who knows how often we’ll be going out of the country in the next 7 years, so until then I’ll keep it as is.

That afternoon we headed out to Park City for the Film Festival, it was cold but a lot of fun. We walked up and down Main Street hoping to see a celebrity or two but I think everyone was so bundled up you couldn’t tell who they were. The movie we were scheduled to watch was called “The Dry Land” and I heard from others at work that saw it that they liked it, the only bad part we were told about was they show a slaughtering of a cow, they actually show it and it’s quite gruesome. The movie was…umm…interesting. It’s about an Afghanistan Vet who comes home and it’s about the post traumatic stress he experiences. The movie also contains lots of “F” words, rape, sex, and female and male nudity. As you can tell according to Hollywood those make a great movie and apparently the audience we were with didn’t have any issues with it. Jason and I pretty much kept our focus on the people in front of us rather then on the movie at some parts. Oh well, the best part was the Q&A session at the end of the movie where the director and some of the actors get up on the stage and answer some of your questions. Overall, the experience was good the movie not so much.

We decided that we would hang out with Daniel and Kali and their family for the Super Bowl this year and with that we wanted to bring some treats. After debating for a bit we came up with Sugar Cookies (Football shaped) and potato skins. I’ve got to tell you that they turned out really well. Here are pictures of our creations…I was quite impressed with our capabilities.

Christmas Eve

2010-01-19T09:21:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve in my family was always a big deal; we’d have an amazing dinner by candlelight and have Mannheim Steamroller playing softly in the background. Once dinner was over we’d clean up and grab our scriptures and head out to the living room where we would read the story of Christ’s birth. And then when we were younger each of the kids opened one present most likely pajamas to sleep in that night or when we were older we would open a family game to play that night. Then we would top off the night with a Christmas movie. This has always been a cherished memory of mine.
This past Christmas when we visited with my family in Oregon, things were a little more exciting than usual simply because of the three nieces and one nephew, and having the whole family together after three long years. Our Christmas Eve sort of followed the same structure but this year we went to the Stephenson’s to play the chimes and then home for the amazing meal Mom had prepared. Once we were done with dinner we gathered in the living room for the Christmas story but this time there were some twists, the girls wanted to act it out. Here is a cast of characters

Mary...................Tia
Joseph & Donkey........Jordan
Baby Jesus.............Maeli
The Angel..............Hayley
Innkeeper..............Jason
King Herrod............Clay
Narrator...............Dad

And since these videos are too massive to post on blogger, here are some links.

There is one more but I'll have to add that when I get home from work tonight.

DI Drive

2010-01-19T09:01:00.000-08:00

This past weekend our ward had a DI Drive, and we found it to be a perfect opportunity to make our apartment look like it was well taken care of. We went through our closets and drawers and found clothes that we haven’t worn in over a year, we also found some appliances that we had ruined but still kept in a drawer in the kitchen. I even have a dresser that we should have taken to the DI but I forgot about it until we had already dropped our stuff off. This one DI Drive caused us to go through almost the entire house and get rid of things we no longer use or need, we had hampers full of stuff from when we first moved in that we finally went through. Now our apartment looks clean…at least until tomorrow. Another reason why we wanted to clean up the apartment was to make room for our new piece of furniture. We decided that we had too many dvd's and they didn't all fit in the DVD case that we had so we purchased one of these stands and thought we calculated enough but no, we couldn't fit all of them in there so we had to go back for a second one. Now, after organizing here is the finished product.

And I think he's cute while doing his homework so here's a quick picture of Jason doing Math.

A Long Bout of Laziness

2009-12-02T17:39:00.000-08:00

I admit it, I’m a lazy bum. After typing all day at work the last thing I want to do is type when I get home so that is why the blog has remained dormant for the past several months. It seems that as soon as Jason’s school started that’s when I decided to become more lazy. We’ve been crazy busy some weeks and doing absolutely nothing on other weeks. Isn’t it crazy how that happens? Our days are full of school, work, homework and fantasy football. Jason is liking his classes for the time being but he is feeling the pressure of having finals coming up in the next couple of weeks. I think that he has an A in all of his classes up to this point, even English which means that I didn’t mess his papers up too bad, we hope we can keep it that way.

We did go to visit with Jason’s family in California at the beginning of October, it was nice seeing everyone again. Jason wanted to take me to Knott’s Berry Farm for their haunted rides and some of the rides themselves, I have learned that I HATE Ghost Rider. It’s one of the old fashioned wooden roller coaster but it wasn’t too friendly on my stomach. We had fun going through the haunted houses with Robert and have many memorable memories of that night, especially getting lost trying to find the freeway to go back home to his parents home even though the freeway entrance wasn’t too far away from where we were, it was 2:30 in the AM, we were tired. Robert taught us a game, Munchkin, that Jason is now hooked on and I didn’t understand what I was supposed to do the first 2 times that we played it but I think I finally got the hang of it, Jason picked it up right away, smarty-pants.

November was a pretty good month, we did celebrate our first wedding anniversary and I have to say I’m surprised at how quickly that first year went by. We were thinking of keeping it low key and not spending a whole lot of money but we decided that our first anniversary is something to celebrate and you don’t get that first year back so we splurged. We decided to go out for breakfast and dinner and go through a temple sealing session. And just a plug for my husband, he is the sweetest most compassionate person ever and I love him more everyday (don‘t mean to get mushy). We received a CD from Daniel of our wedding pictures so I do plan on getting some of those printed and getting more picture frames to put around the house.

We are still working on getting our apartment decorated for Christmas, we both decided that we will put up our tree in a week or so I think…hmmm…I might have rethink that with how quickly Christmas is coming up. We already have our advent calendar up but we need more decorations, something to continue to look for over the next couple of weeks. We are still in our same apartment since we were unable to find anything that was cheaper and that had washer and dryer hook ups, it’s not too bad. We did make some new friends with people in the ward though. There is a couple that just got married a couple of months ago that came over the other day since she is my Visiting Teacher and they invited us over for a game night that evening so that was fun to get out of our apartment and meet new people after living here a year.

I’ll work on my laziness and make sure to update more often…

Oregon Vacation and School

2009-09-06T12:45:00.001-07:00

I think it's safe to say that I have been slacking off for a few months on updating our blog. It's interesting that even though I often have time to type it out I just don't know what to type. Since the last time that I updated we have been doing A LOT of stuff. One of which includes going to Oregon to visit with my parents. It was so nice going home and as Brittany mentioned in her blog "walking around on the soft carpet." We had so much fun driving Jason around and showing him places that he didn't get a chance to see when we were in Oregon for our wedding. We got to go to Mill Creek Falls and Crater Lake, which are beautiful and it was so hot and exhausting after we got home from our trip that I think everyone passed out on the couch for awhile. On August 1 we had scheduled to go on a jet boat trip down the Rogue River and it was so awesome. Jason looked so happy sitting there on the boat, he always had a smile on his face with the wind blowing hard and the captain doing donuts in the water, we all had a blast!

We were sad when we had to leave on Sunday but we had to get back to work. Thanks for the fun times Mom and Dad!

Mill Creek Falls

Crater Lake, I have more pictures but for some reason blogger won't let me move things around

At the dinner on our Jetboat Excursion, ignore the shiny faces please, it was hot

Jason's excited to get back on the boat after dinner

I really don't know why we posed like that, I think we have about 4 or 5 pictures in other spots where we all had one leg up.

One of the jetboats, it fit about 50 people on each one.

We had great birthdays in the month of August, with Jason's being on the 9th and mine being on the 11th we decided to have family over to celebrate with cake and ice cream and a fun game of Jeopardy on the computer. I really think that Jeopardy was the highlight of the evening, just ask Brittany, Clay, Eden, Daniel and Kali. We also had a long game of Life on the computer but I think that Clay and Tiff had more fun with that than anyone else. We also celebrated our birthdays by signing up for free birthday meals. We went to Red Robin for our birthdays and they told us that they haven't had it happen very often when there are two people from the same family who turn those in. I think we went to Coldstone Creamery a few days later for the free ice cream.

Other than that we have been working and Jason started school so that has been taking up a lot of his time. He is taking an English class, Communications, two Computer classes, and a Political Science class. So far he is really enjoying his classes...ok, maybe not enjoying the English, but he's interested in Political Science and his Computers class, when he is on his way home he calls me up and tells me all about it. We found a system that seems to be working for him for typing up papers, he'll start talking and I'll type up what he says and then together we paste everything in order and grammatically correct (kind of, I'm not the best in grammar either).

Two weeks ago we dog sat for my boss Christine's two dogs while she was away in Vegas getting married, it was fun but it was rather time consuming. We'd stay the night at their house with the dogs and then we'd leave together in the mornings, Jason for school and I'd leave for work, and then we'd go back to Christine's for lunch together and then I'd go back to work and Jason would go back to our house to get change for work. And then we would meet back at our house for dinner and then drive separate cars over to Christine's to start all over again. It was fun though, we decided that we really want a dog but that we aren't quite ready for one...and only one.

I don't think that we have a whole lot of stuff planned for Labor Day since Jason has to work most of it but we have been starting to look at apartments again. Our lease for the apartment that we are living in now is up at the end of October so we're trying to see if we can find something that has two bedrooms, washer and dryer hook-ups and is cheaper than what we are paying now. It's not easy to find after everyone moved back here to start school but hopefully we will come across something, if not we'll probably be staying here for a little bit longer.

Also, I hope that everyone caught the amazing BYU game yesterday, it was simply amazing. Almost like the "Answered Prayer" video with John Beck and Johnny Harline. I like to think we have turned Jason into a BYU football fan, he kept screaming at the TV last night when something bad happened and would jump up and do a victory dance when something went right, it was great! I hope that everyone has a fantastic Labor day and I'll try and update more often.

4th of July

2009-07-11T07:03:00.000-07:00

I've always enjoyed the 4th of July, sitting around and watching fireworks from atop a high place, being able to feel the big boom as they explode...it totally adds to the experience. I remember when we were younger pieces of paper with gun powder with strings coming off each end. It was always fun getting the "Booby Traps", which were thin round connecting the strings to my brothers door; however, after I did that I would find them connected to my door everyday even to the point that I was afraid to open doors and hear that snap as Iflung the door open and ran for cover. The "Snap-its" were a lot of fun too, we use to throw them at other people or at their feet so that it would make them dance, we'd snap them in our fingers, and our foreheads. I think my cousin Amanda got one thrown in her ear one year, but luckily it didn't ruin her hearing (I don't remember if it was me or not who threw it in her ear but since I have bad aim, it probably was, Sorry Amanda).

On the 3rd of July we woke up early to try and get to IHOP for breakfast...ok it wasn't early, it was more like 11am by the time we got there...only to discover that it was completely packed. We decided maybe we should try to get up early on Saturday and try to make it by 9 or so. Since IHOP was packed and neither of us are a fan of Denny's, we went to get donuts intead and they did fill us up. The rest of the day consisted of playing Worms (Remember that game? It's a lot fun) on the PS3 and waiting for Jason to get home from work around 9:30pm. I did do more than that while Jason was gone but I don't remember what we did anymore. I had heard from someone in our ward that the Rio Tinto Soccer Stadium was going to launch off fireworks after the soccer game and since it is only about a mile away from us I figured it might be nice to see it. I was worried that they had already started launching fireworks by the time Jason was driving down the freeway but he assured me that he hadn't seen any fireworks yet so they may have already finished or the game hadn't even ended yet. I hurried up and made dinner (french bread sandwiches and peanut butter twix bars...yep we were eating good) and ran outside to meet Jason in the car. We took off to the Rio Tinto Stadium trying to find the perfect spot to park the car and eat dinner and be able to see the fireworks going off and we found it, in a roller skating rink parking lot that we didn't even know existed. I think parked in 4 different places just to make sure that we didn't have any trees or anything in our way but the spot we found was in a clearing of trees and we could still see the lights from the Stadium. We had our picnic dinner and watched as other people drove into the parking lot only to discover that we had already taken the best spot and they quickly took off to find another spot to park. With mosquitos being rather abundant this year we decided to stay in the car and watch the fireworks from there...which was a great idea but we missed out on the music being played in the Stadium so we opened the windows to listed to it and we let the mosquitos in anyway. When the fireworks started we were able to lay our seats all the way back and watch and feel them as they exploded. It will be something that we will defintitly have to do again next year.

On the 4th of July we did get up early enough to beat the morning rush to IHOP but we still had a 20 minute wait. I bet you can guess what I had? Jason is a little more open to trying new things. Last year for the 4th we went to Sugar House Park and watched the fireworks that were launched from the school there but we had to deal with a lot of traffic after that and decided we didn't want to do that this year. Jason had to work on Saturday until about 6:30 and since he works across the street from Sugar House Park he didn't want to come home and pick me up and then travel back to there so we figured we'd drive around a little before 10pm and find the best ones to watch. So we decided that since we had seen fireworks the night before we'll just go to the store and buy "John Adams" and watch that until 10 minutes till 10:00 and then we'll head out to Draper to see if we could catch all of them. When we went to the Draper temple for Daniel's wedding we were high enough up that we could see all of the Salt Lake Valley and figured that would be the best place to go. We found a spot on the side of the road where other people had pulled off and parked. We decided to get out of the car this time and stand by the hood of the car. We could see about 15 different firework shows going off at the same time, the only thing was that we were missing the loud booms that were coming from these various places. The good thing was that we didn't have to sit and wait in traffic trying to get back to the apartment, it was clear the entire way back.

On Sunday we had made plans with Brittany, Clay, and Maeli to have a BBQ down at their place in Provo so we finally got to see their new place. For dinner we had steaks, bakes potatos, corn on the cob, spicy chicken and Jason wanted me to make a cake with whipped cream frosting and then sprinkle chopped up pieces of Peanut Butter Twix and Reese's Peanut Butter cups on the top. We also got to show Brittany and Clay the movie 3:10 to Yuma that we just got edited and I think they liked it. However, while they were watching the movie we spent most of our time playing with Maeli. Overall, it was a great 4th of July weekend and hope to spend next year with more family and friends...

Here is a shot of one of the fireworks shows going on pretty close to where we were. This was the only picture I took because after that we were attacked by mosquitos - not as lucky this time.

Here is a video of Maeli and Jason playing around.

Date Night, We Should Do It More Often

2009-06-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

It's always hard to start out writing especially since I'm not 100% sure what to write about. Also, I don't know about anyone else but it seems like the busier I get the lazier I get. It had been a slow moving month until last weekend when Jason's family came out for his brother Daniel's wedding. On Thursday we went to the airport and picked up Robert, we had to wait an hour or so until his bag finally came around on the baggage claim. On Friday was the ceremony at the Draper Temple, this was our first time sitting through a temple sealing other than our own. It was a beautiful ceremony but we had to chuckle a few times since the officiator couldn't quite get Kalianne's name correct. Oh well, it's the spirit of it all isn't it? We stood around outside so that we could see Kali and Daniel come out of the temple all dressed up. I don't know if you have seen the houses around there or not but they are MASSIVE, and the view of Salt Lake valley is pretty impressive there as well. Once we took a few pictures of the happy couple we went home to change before heading out to dinner at Fuddruckers. Jason and Robert were thinking of doing the 1 pound challenge but both wimped out at the last minute. Fuddruckers is a hamburger joint that serves great milkshakes and hamburgers...however, I'm not a huge fan of the fries. The pound challenge consists of a pound of hamburger, a pound of fries and a milkshake. If you can eat ALL of it yourself they will give your meal to you for free, give you a t-shirt and take your picture to put on the wall. To be honest, I'm glad that neither of them went with it because then they would have been waddling like a penguin out of there. On Saturday they had a ring ceremony followed by a light lunch and a toast 'n roast. As soon as we got to the ring ceremony it was pouring down rain, it wouldn't stop. The ring ceremony was beautiful but Kali's dress was soaked and muddy around the bottom while standing close to the edge of the tent. It was so cold during this rain storm that after the toast n' roast we went home and changed our clothes into something warmer. During the reception the skies had cleared up quite a bit and everything went wonderfully.

On Monday we took Jason's parents and grandparents through the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. It was absolutely gorgeous and surprisingly enough I didn't think about getting a picture of the Angel Moroni and his charred arm and trumpet. There isn't really much to describe but it was beautifully decorated and there were a few interesting decorations in the windows and Jason was able to see for the first and only time the brides dressing room. It was a lot different then the Medford temple that's for sure. There were individual dressing rooms that were a little larger than a regular bathroom stall and then you would go into a larger room where the wall was lined with vanities and full length mirrors. Once walking through they give you cookies and bottled water at the end of it so that was definately an added bonus.

On Wednesday night both Jason and I had the evening off so we decided to go play some miniature golf. We started off on one course and got to hole 2 and found out that the people in front of us took a while to finish a hole. Then there was a family behind us whose son would come and stand on the green next to me while I tried to make my first putt, it was a little awkward. And it was then that we realized the family in front of the family in front of us were taking quite a long time to get through a hole so we got as far as hole 9 and decided to jump to the other course. This one was actually more fun because it gave you a spinning wheel and then it would say things like "crane-shot" "blind shot" and a bunch of others I don't remember right now, anyway, you would have to do whatever it said on that hole. We started making up our own rules eventually like having races and doing it hockey style. We'd set both of our balls on the starter pad and then count to three and then we would have to dribble up to the hole and shoot...It was a fun night.

Our Uninivted Guest

2009-05-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a very uninvited guest enter our home and he ended up terrorizing us for about half an hour. It was getting really warm in our apartment so I opened up the balcony door hoping to get some air circulating through but I hadn't planned on him coming in. This is our univited guest:
Isn't he huge?! OK, so he doesn't look that massive in the picture but that's because I took it from about 10 feet away, there was no way that I was going to get closer. When I saw it fly in I was thinking that it was a huge fly but Jason got up to look at it closer and decided he better not get that close. He just happened to land in between the pictures that I took in Europe so we couldn't exactly get to him that easily. One thing that we will definately have to purchase is a fly swatter just in case he decides to tell his friends where to go. Jason, armed with a kitchen towel in one hand and a cup in the other, walked close to him but because of the precarious position that he was in as soon as he went to cup him he could still fly out and then we would have an angry bee or hornet on our hands. I tried to brave and went to go grab one of the pictures off the wall I tried hiding somewhat so that he couldn't see me. I moved the picture frame just a little bit and then looked at Jason who was watching the hornet very closely making sure that he didn't move closer to me, luckily it didn't move. I took the picture down and realized just how close I was to him at this moment and took off running towards the bedroom. I learned that move from Jordan when we were at home in Medford in the backyard if he found a wasps nest he'd make sure that the kitchen sliding glass door was open and then he would go to the side of the house and throw a rock or something at the nest and then he would take off running for the door often leaving me running behind him. Jason being the brave person that he was wanted to fold up the kitchen towel and then capture the hornet in that but decided maybe that wasn't such a good idea. I came out of the bedroom and was going to move another picture so that he could have a better shot with the cup and while we were discussing what our next move was going to be the hornet disappeared. We both ducked where we were and made sure we weren't being attacked and took off for the bedroom.

The hornet didn't make it too far, he ended up landing on the lamp that we have about 4 feet from the door. Jason was thinking that he was attracted to the lights so he shut them all off but then we couldn't see where the hornet was so I tried to be brave and approach the balcony door to hide behind, I was waiting for him to get far enough away from the light that I could switch on the balcony light that we have out there. He walked all over the wall, ceiling, window, and door but he never got over the molding on the door for some reason. Every now and then he looked like he was about to make his move and fly outside but he just landed back on the window or something. We sat there for about fifteen minutes watching this bee walk all over the walls and Jason was starting to get restless just sitting there. Right when he was going to make his move the cup the hornet flew outside and we quickly closed the door so that he wouldn't come back. Now if we had a fly swatter there probably would have been a completely different result, we would have either had a very angry or very smashed bee/hornet on our hands. We decided that we'll go out and by a fly swatter or by a screen for the balcony to prevent the bee/hornet from ever coming back, we'll see how that goes.

Soccer fun!

2009-05-17T11:36:00.000-07:00

To be perfectly honest the past couple of weeks we haven't done a whole lot. We are just trying to enjoy the time that we have to spend with one another. I've been getting Jason caught up on some of my favorite TV shows, i.e. "Psych" and "Lost". Psych he had already seen a few episodes but with Lost we are just in season 1 and episode 21 and I think he is loving it, he does watch quite a few episodes while I'm gone at work. Also, good news, Jason has applied to start classes at Salt Lake Community College and we just signed up for financial aid the other day so hopefully it all works out.

Last night we actually went out to see a Salt Lake Real soccer game. This was Jason's first soccer game so we wanted it to be a good experience...however, Real lost so I hope it didn't ruin it too much for him. We invited Eden to come along with us since she is a big soccer fan so we bought our tickets online and then we took off to Smith's grocery store to find some snacks. There was no way that we were going to pay $4 for a bottle of water that you can purchase at the store for .49 cents. We also grabbed some swedish fish, caramels, and gummy worms. On our way home I remembered that they usually check through your bag when you go through the front gates so we were a little hesitant with bringing everything in. We went back to house to meet up with Eden and I started thinking what we would do if they prevented us from taking our snacks in. Jason was sick earlier this week and had finished off a bag of cough drops and so earlier yesterday morning I went out to grab some more...keep reading, there is a point to this random piece of trivia. We took all of the cough drops out of the bags and started filling the bags up with the candy. We couldn't make it too full because then they would definately be able to tell that there weren't any cough drops in there.

We had to wait in a long line to pick up our tickets and then we looked at the other line to get in which was much longer and Jason found an opening where no one was waiting so we showed them our tickets and they let us through...they didn't even check my purse, but they checked Eden's so it's probably a good thing that we decided to leave our water bottles at home. We got in and found our section and sat down in "our" seats. We actually had good seats and there was a cement block behind us that blocked the sun so there was no worries about getting a sunburn. Right before half time and group came over to us and asked us if we were in our proper seats we told them yes and then we realized we were in the wrong section...That was embarrassing. Oh well, I doubt that we will see them again.
That is Jason's finger in the picture, he wanted it to look like he was scratching Eden's head. I guess that's all that we have for now. Talk to you all later.

I hope this isn't too morbid...

2009-04-25T17:48:00.000-07:00

I know that this might sound strange but I have always had an interest in walking through cemeteries. When dad and I would go on our walks while living in Medford sometimes he would take me to the oldest cemetery there and we'd just walk around and read the headstones. I'm not really sure why I like doing this because it does sound creepy, but I think I like the history, just thinking of the kind of life that these people lived. It's really interesting when you actually know the story behind some of the people that are buried there. This past Sunday Jason took me to the Salt Lake Cemetery, which is huge we walked for about 2 miles and still didn't see everything. In this cemetery is where a lot of the pioneers and prophets have been buried over the years. Most of the prophets graves are marked by obelisks, so they stand out and naturally draw you to them. We saw one very large one and walked towards it, it was in remembrance of Hyrum Smith who was actually laid to rest in Nauvoo. We saw the graves of John Taylor, Willford Woodruff, Joseph Fielding Smith, Joseph F. Smith, Heber J. Grant, David O. McKay, and Gordon B. Hinckley. Like I said we didn't get a chance to walk around the whole thing because our feet were aching and it was getting really warm, but we do plan on going back when it's nice outside again and trying to find some of the other noteable people in lds history.

The picture below came our dark but this is Heber J. Grants:

I thought that it was interesting to see so that's why I'm posting them. This past week we've just been working and trying to spend time with one another. It's been hard when Jason's schedule is working the night shift and I work the days so sometimes we just see each other for 2 hours before its time to go to bed and start all over again. I know that many of you did that when you were in your early married stages but wow, it's hard stuff. We are so excited to see Kevin, Nicole, Noah, and Abbie Mae this week and hopefully the weather will be nice enough where we will get to play wiffle ball again. I'll let you know who wins! Love you all,

What a Fantastic Year!!

2009-04-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

It has officially been one year since I moved to Utah on March 31st 2008. It’s amazing how fast the time goes, however; it didn’t always feel like that. I decided that I am going to take a cue from my dad and give a year in review starting in March.

March 2008- Quit my job at the Medford Medical Clinic after working there for 3 years, told everyone I was moving to Utah to follow an idea of getting my master’s degree in curatorial studies. I was released as Relief Society President in my singles ward after two and a half years, that was a little hard but it was good for me. March 30th my parents helped me pack up my Nissan Sentra as much as possible, but I had to leave behind several favorite items. March 31st took off for Utah on my own drove straight through but had to stop a few times on the Salt Flats because I kept on getting tired. Finally arrived at Eden’s sisters house.

April 2008 – Moved into our new house, met the other three roommates and got to unpack the entire car by myself and lug it all down stairs, this I will tell you was not fun. Bought several items to make my bedroom look like home, i.e. bookcases dvd case, dresser, computer desk. General Conference morning I was the only one home so I had to go out and buy rabbit ears to watch it on the tv downstairs. Brittany and Clay moved to Utah too so I had family close by. Had a few job interviews but none that worked out.

May 2008 – Received my stimulus check so I bought a new bed and a new laptop computer. Definitely overspent that check but I had more left in savings to make up for it. My bedroom flooded, I backed into Eden’s car and finally, after 25 years of searching I found my better half at a stake FHE activity no less. He asked me out for that Friday night but I had plans to go camping with Brittany, Clay and Eden so he told me he’d call next week when he knew his schedule. I kept my phone close to me that whole camping trip and nothing. Finally on Monday afternoon he called and we had our first date. He was (and is) absolutely wonderful!!

June 2008 – Jason took me to Lagoon and to the zoo, we started officially dating and seeing each other ever day. He met members of my family and at the end of the month he took me down to California to meet his family. I didn’t do anything with the job search.

July 2008 - Met up with Kevin, Nicole, and Noah and played a few games of waffle ball they met Jason…seemed to like him. Since Jason and my birthday are so close together we went down to the DMV together to see if we could get our drivers licenses renewed. We got there 15 minutes to 7am and ended up being there until about 11:00am. Don’t worry though, we passed that test with flying colors and are now officially Utards.

August 2008- Went wedding ring shopping, did a lot of reading, watched a lot of softball/baseball games. Jason met my parents and asked them for permission to marry me…they said yes! Then the next day Dad had a seizure, my phone kept on going off every 30 minutes around 6:30 but it was on silent so I couldn’t hear it. Finally woke up and listened to my messages. Called Jason up so he could take me down there since I don’t think I was fit to drive. Dad was ok after a little bit. The next day Jason proposed!!!

September 2008- Went looking for apartments everywhere and narrowing it down to 2 that we really liked. Took Brittany, Clay, and Jason to see my favorite LDS band Colors, it was amazing. Decided that I needed to start making money to pay for the wedding so I went into a temp agency and walked away with a job at their office.

October 2008- Had our engagement pictures taken by Daniel, they turned out really well. Mom and Dad came out for General Conference; it was great to see them again. Finally went through a haunted house/maze thing.

November 2008- Packed up all of my stuff and moved into the new apartment with the help of Jason and Daniel. Had the flu for a few days and then took off to Oregon for the wedding. Went through the temple for my own endowments and then was sealed for time and all eternity to my best friend the very next day. Went to San Francisco for the honeymoon got lost quite a few times but that was ok, at least we were lost together.

December 2008- Jason moved his stuff into the apartment and we tried to make it feel more like home. Went to Temple Square to look at the lights, froze to death while walking around but it was beautiful. Met up with Brittany and Clay quite a bit to celebrate the holidays.

January 2009 – Mom came out to help Brittany with Maeli. Jason and I injured ourselves quite a bit but luckily none of it required stitches. Watched a lot of TV shows trying to get caught up.

February 2009- Had my first real Valentines day, it was awesome! Had free pancakes as IHOP and was introduced to the gelato place in West Jordan. Went to the temple again with Brittany and Clay.

March 2009 – Went down to California for Grandma Daggett’s birthday, hung out with family and played on the Wii. Found out that Jason and I can be really competitive when we want to be. Went to the South Jordan Temple by ourselves this time and had a good experience. Still trying to decide where to live, what to do, and when to do it.

So that’s my year in review and looking at it this way everything happened so fast but I’m glad it did. It was an amazing year and a lot of stuff happened that really made my year an adventure. With the trials that came I don’t think I would trade that for anything because the blessings that came afterwards made it all worth it. Love you guys.

Has anyone else ever burned their tongue eating ice cream? Or is that just me?

2009-03-06T08:34:00.001-08:00

So you know that promise I made to myself last month that I would update our blog more often? Well, obviously I need to rethink that goal and make it more realistic. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks but it’s been a good couple of weeks too. Jason has gotten some of his hours back at work which is good but his schedule is still a little trying sometimes. He still works a lot of late shifts but he’s also had some days off which gives us more time to spend with one another. My schedule at work is still from 8-5 so at least that’s constant. One thing that was nice the month of February, is that we went back to the temple the first time since getting married. We went with Brittany and Clay and tried to just follow them around since they had been to the Mt. Timpanogas temple before. We decided that we need to try and make this a monthly thing now so we went out and bought some temple stickers so that we block that night out of our calendar.

On Valentines Day Jason had to work that morning so I kept myself busy by cleaning the house, especially the kitchen. When he got home he wanted to exchange gift so he gave me Victoria’s Secret lotion and body spray called Berry Kiss…it smells really good! Now I don’t want you to think that he bought me this because I smell bad or anything. It’s just I wanted to know what perfume he liked that I had and said all of them reminded him of food (What’s wrong with that?!). He also took me out for dinner and to Mr. C’s for some gelato, so delicious! My gift to him, or rather for both of us was tickets to see the Utah Jazz. He had already partially guessed that we were going to go to the game because I made sure that he had that night off but I told him that we were going to see Celine Dion in concert. He knew that wasn’t true but still he played it well. When Tuesday rolled around we were excited to finally get to go to the game and he wanted to make sure that I was properly dressed. He bought me a Utah Jazz Jersey so that I looked like I blended in. The game was really good and we won so that was an added bonus. Also, I don’t know if this has happened to anyone else but I think I got freezer burn from eating too much ice cream. We paid $2.50 for a cup of ice cream but it’s like 4 scoops into one bowl and that’s a lot! When I finally got towards the end I could feel that my tongue was burning…It wasn’t pleasant for the next couple of days but it finally healed.

Last Tuesday night was Free IHOP pancake night so of course we’d stop in. We invited Eden to come along with us so we went to pick her up and waited in line for maybe 45 minutes before being seated. They sat us down, handed us a menu and asked what we wanted to drink, we also said water. Then they bring us each a short stack of their buttermilk pancakes and since we didn’t order anything we didn’t receive a receipt. It felt weird just walking out of their without paying, we did leave our waiter a tip despite the fact that he forgot to bring us silverware until we asked for it. And we did leave a donation for the Children’s Miracle Network so we felt like we had paid for a little bit of dinner. After that we somehow found our way back to Mr. C’s for some more gelato, don’t worry I got a smaller size this time so I didn’t burn my tongue again. After that we went back to our place to watch a short movie and then we had to take Eden home.

I finally got to see the new Twilight movie! It came out the night before our wedding and I guess it just wasn’t a priority at the time. It came to the dollar theater so we made plans to see it last Saturday. However, Jason wanted to buy me a bigger purse so that I had more room to fit candy in…also the zipper on my other purse had broken so it was probably time to switch anyway. We made a trip into the Dollar Store and most of their candy had been picked over so we bought a bag of potato chips, beef jerky, and tootsie rolls, yes it was a rather weird combination for me too. Anyway, I thought that the movie was good, it was a lot better than I was expecting. I still don’t think that Robert Pattinson is my ideal Edward but I thought he did a good job. I was a little disappointed that they skipped over a few things that were in the book though, or things that I thought should have been in the movie. So I guess that is the last few weeks in a nutshell…

Love Survey? Is that what you call these things?

2009-02-18T11:17:00.000-08:00

Even though I was an English Major you would think that I could come up with something compelling to write about. I promised myself that I would update our blog more frequently but other things come up and I forget. So since I’m not ready to post an update on our lives the past two weeks I’ll leave you with this fun little survey about us, you know since it was Valentines Day and all…So here are my answers...I had Jason answer the same questions just to see where we differed, an interesting experiment. If his answers don't turn out well I'm taking this down...

♥ What are your middle names? William and Renée

♥ How long have you been together? 10 months…it seems longer than that though

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? Ummm…a day? I don’t know! We met and he asked me out for that Friday

Who asked who out? Jason asked me out

♥ How old are each of you? He’s 27 and I’m 26

♥ Whose siblings do/ did you see the most? Ummm…When we were dating Jason lived with his brother and so we saw him a lot. Now that we are married we probably see my sibling (Brittany) the most.

♥ Do you have any children together? Nope, not yet...we have 3 adorable nieces and one handsome nephew

♥ What about pets? I wish…we want a beagle puppy but can’t have any pets in our apartment

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? Umm…right now we are just trying to figure out the job situation; Jason’s just trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life and wanting to go back to school. We’ll make it work!

♥ Did you go to the same school? No

♥ Are you from the same home town? No

♥ Who is the smartest? I think he is but he tells me that I am. I guess I’m more book smart and he’s more street smart.

♥ Who is the most sensitive? Oh that would be me!

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? Café Rio…we try not to eat out a whole lot though we have to save money!

♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? San Francisco, Medford, Pocatello, and LA

♥ Who has the craziest exes? I’d say he does, he has stories to back them up.

♥ Who has the worst temper? That would probably be me too…

♥ Who does the cooking? We both do, anyone have any good recipes we should try out?

♥ Who is more social? Jason…he makes friends with everyone

♥ Who is the neat-freak? I think we both like the house to be clean.

♥ Who is more stubborn? I don’t know…

♥ Who hogs the bed? He hogs the bed but I get all of the covers

♥ Who wakes up earlier? I do

♥ Where was your first date? Formosa (Chinese Restaurant) and then he took me bowling and then to ColdStone Creamery

♥ Who has the bigger family? I do I think

♥ Do you get flowers often? Yes! He treats me well!

♥ How do you spend the holidays?Well, we’ve only been through Thanksgiving with my Family and Christmas with Brittany and Clay but I think we’re going to try and keep it even, somehow…
♥ Who is more jealous? I don’t know, probably me

♥ How long did it take to get serious? About 2 weeks

♥ Who eats more? Jason!!!

♥ Who does/ did the laundry? We both do

♥ Who’s better with the computer? He is, depending on the program…

♥ Who drives when you are together? Jason

And here are Jason's answers...He is more brief in his answers than I am...

♥ What are your middle names? william renee

♥ How long have you been together? 9 months about

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? 2hrs

♥ Who asked who out? I asked her

♥ How old are each of you? 26 &27

♥ Whose siblings do/ did you see the most? hers

♥ Do you have any children together? nope

♥ What about pets? none

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? work

♥ Did you go to the same school? nope

♥ Are you from the same home town? no

♥ Who is the smartest? her

♥ Who is the most sensitive?her

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? cafe rio

♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? san fransisco

♥ Who has the craziest exes? me

♥ Who has the worst temper? me?

♥ Who does the cooking? both

♥ Who is more social? her

♥ Who is the neat-freak? her?

♥ Who is more stubborn? me

♥ Who hogs the bed? her (I'll have to talk to him about this one!)

♥ Who wakes up earlier? her

♥ Where was your first date? furmosa/bowling

♥ Who has the bigger family? her

♥ Do you get flowers often? get her flower

♥ How do you spend the holidays? together

♥ Who is more jealous? dunno

♥ How long did it take to get serious? 3 weeks

♥ Who eats more? me

♥ Who does/ did the laundry? me, sometimes both

♥ Who's better with the computer? me

♥ Who drives when you are together? me

Another crazy month!

2009-02-03T17:30:00.000-08:00

The month of January flew by and I’m sad to say that I didn’t accomplish a whole lot. At the beginning of the month it mainly consisted of working and trying to do thank you cards…and other projects I’ve been trying to accomplish. Jason’s schedule at work has been weird lately sometimes he’ll go into work from 5pm – 9:30pm which means that he starts work when I get off and we don’t get to see each other until he gets home around 9:35 or so. This also means that all of our favorite TV shows that started up again this past month are being recorded so that we can watch them together…which means less sleep. We probably don’t go to bed until midnight most nights because we’re trying to catch up on 24, Psych, Burn Notice, American Idol, and Glenn Beck…oh and I can’t forget Jason’s Utah Jazz basketball games that he records. Also some of our time was spent down in Orem visiting with Brittany, Clay, and their new adorable baby Maeli plus it was an added bonus that Mom was here for a couple of weeks. We tried to go down whenever we could but gas is expensive these days and couldn’t make it down everyday. Mom, Jason is still raving about the Chicken Curry you made.

We finally used the ice cream maker attachment that Jason bought me for Christmas. We decided on French Vanilla and while Jason was at work I made the batter(?) which was interesting because it called for egg yolks and that was a little worrying but I guess you do cook it a little in a pot before making the ice cream. It had to chill in the fridge for about 8 hours and then we had frozen the bowl for a few days and were told to turn the churner on and poor the liquid in while its moving…I did at first but then I was taking too long to try and find a funnel of some sort so that I wouldn’t spill the liquid all of the place so I stopped it and poured the stuff in and when I tried to start it up again, the liquid had frozen in place and the churner…thing was stuck. It wouldn’t move at all because it was frozen in the liquid. I know now why you leave it running while you are getting things prepared. Luckily, Jason had to try and turn it himself a few times before it became unstuck and then we could turn the Kitchen Aid back on and have it complete the process. We through a few Reese’s Peanut Butter cups and Peanut Butter Twix in there for added measure and it turned out really well. It’s very filling but at least it tasted like vanilla ice cream.

Last week was crazy, both Jason and I got injured throughout the week. My injury occurred on Tuesday morning at work. I was sitting in my chair at my desk and had my fingers on the arm rest and I swung around and my middle finger on my right hand got caught in-between the desk and the chair and I had given myself quite a deep cut that wouldn’t stop bleeding. It didn’t look pretty but it’s healing now at least. Jason went to play church basketball on Thursday night and ran to save the ball from going out of bounds and he slammed his back into something that was sticking out from the wall and scraped his left shoulder up. So we were a bunch of wimps the past couple of days.

On Friday morning I had forgotten to eat breakfast and Jason had the day off and had planned to go to a grocery store right by where I work. I had asked him if he would bring me something to eat since I was starving. When he arrived he brought me some granola bars, apple juice and…flowers. He made me the envy of the office that morning. And then he had told me that he had something planned that night but it was a surprise. I knew that we weren’t going out for dinner because we were doing that on Saturday with his brother Daniel and his girlfriend Kali, so it had to be something else. I was thinking either bowling or going to see the movie Taken since it just came out that day and we’ve been talking about going to see it. So when it was finally time for the surprise we headed out towards…the movie theater. I knew it! It was a really good movie, lots of action and intense in some parts. It was just like watching 24 but in only 90 minutes. Liam Neeson actually made a good action hero.

The next thing won’t really interest anyone but the girls but I thought I’d give the boys a warning before reading forward. I had a real hair appointment on Saturday morning. Yep, Jason agreed to let me try and real hairstylist and luckily I found one that specialized in curly hair. I was told to come in with hair freshly styled and dry so that’s what I did. I went in and was given a haircut that helps enhance the curls and given tips along the way to help enhance the curls as well. It was great! She also gave me a head massage which was worth every penny. It wasn’t until I was talking to my parents last night that I realized I forgot to tip her!!! I’m a horrible person!!! I can’t believe I forgot to do that. I’ll have to make up for it the next time I go in. However, it did cost me $55 for the appointment so I say she got a tip out of that. I had Jason take pictures when he got home from work, so the first picture is not a very flattering one of me but you get the idea, and then the sides and the top…he said he took a picture of the top because that’s what he mostly sees.

Saturday night we hung out with Jason’s brother Daniel and his girlfriend Kali, met three of her kids. They were a little shy when they met Jason and I but hopefully we didn’t scare them too much. They took us to a Chineses Restaurant in Holladay that was pretty good, however; I'm a little disappointed that they didn't have orange chicken on their regular menu...just the lunch menu. After dinner we went back to Kali's house to watch the Jazz play against Portland...to be honest, I don't remember who won but I think Utah lost.

On Super Bowl Sunday we went to church but I attended my first real Super Bowl Party. One of the families that Jason and Daniel know invited us and a bunch of other people over to watch the game and pig out on food, let me tell you, it was a great way to break the fast. Ryan and Wendy (the hosts of the party) gave a great party and there was lots of entertainment, even some quizes and questionnaires that were fun. I actually won one of the prizes, yep, I won for guessing the outcome of the game...of course, I came in third place and tied with Daniel but I won because we had to play rock, paper, scissors for it and I came out victorious. Your probably wondering what my prize was, well, Mom...you'll be jealous. I was given a Symphony bar, almonds and toffee, I think its still in Jason's trunk but I'm hoping that it's still holding its shape because it was melting just sitting on my lap on Sunday. So far that is the update of our lives for January and the beginning of February. I hope you enjoy the pictures, love you all.

My lovely finger, I promise I'm not flipping you off or anything...unfortunately that's as close as I could get to it without shaking the camera.

Jason's basketball injury, this is after it had healed a little bit.

I warned you that this is not a flattering picture at all....

What a busy month!

2008-12-29T08:30:00.000-08:00

Normally I would say its been a long time since I last updated and I don’t have much to say…well, that wouldn’t be true this time. The month of December has come and gone and after having my first Christmas away from home I realized that I can’t recreate it just like it was back home. Jason and I did have a couple of firsts this year though. First time making pomanders and they were delicious; Brittany likes them to be about golf ball size so we didn’t get a whole lot out of it. We also made homemade caramels which was fun but very time consuming. We had to wait probably 30 minutes for the temperature to get just right stirring constantly. Once it set up it turned out really good and then we had to individually wrap them all which took forever too. Jason also took me out to temple square, which I’ve never been to during the holidays. It was gorgeous but freezing cold, we stopped to get hot chocolate which I ended up spilling on my jacket…good times, good times. We set up our Christmas tree we bought from Wal-Mart and ended up getting electrocuted when one of the bulbs was broken, that was another good time. We looked all over the place to try and find some cheap ornaments which is practically impossible. Wal-Mart has boxes of 4 ball ornaments for $6 or a box of 24 for $10 which is still expensive for our pay grade. So we just borrowed ornaments from Jason’s brother Daniel since he was going home for Christmas (Thanks Daniel). On Christmas Eve we both received a phone call around noon from our Bishop, we thought we’d be safe for a couple of weeks at least but no, we were asked to speak on Sunday and unfortunately it was on a topic I hadn’t talked on before so I had to write a whole new talk on the Second Coming. We were invited to go over to Brittany and Clay’s for dinner on Christmas Eve for Ham and Elegant Potato Casserole, Rolls, Salad, and dessert…mmm. That felt like home but there was no Sees Candies so that was a little disheartening…not like I need it though, I think I’ve had enough sweets this year. We played Guitar Hero and I finally got play drums which is a lot harder than it looks, I’m not coordinated enough to use the foot pedal and then pound on the drums…I would have liked to try singing the songs but I didn’t get the chance so maybe next time. We did get to watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation that night so it felt like home. We tried getting out of there before the snow storm hit but we weren’t so lucky it had been snowing for a while before we left and on the drive home it was hard to see the lines in the road. I don’t trust myself in snow anymore after this past January’s snow storm in Oregon so I have Jason drive who is more experienced in snow. Christmas morning was great, Jason got me an attachment to my Kitchen-Aid…it was the ice cream maker attachment I’ve been looking at for over a year. He also bought me a movie called Daniel Deronda (I read the book this summer and had wanted to buy the movie ever since) and some micro fleece pajama pants, he bought me an XS which was very sweet but I needed another size up. So we tried exchanging them on Friday and no one sold those same pants anymore so we just returned them and will have to go out and get something else later. Jason received a new wallet, replacement shaver head, and Transformers on Blu-Ray. It was a great Christmas…plus we received a gift from Kevin and Nicole with the softest blanket ever (we used it last night, Thanks guys!) and a blockbuster gift card and popcorn for our movie night. Ooh, we can do that on New Years Eve!

We had Brittany and Clay over for dinner on Christmas night and I was pretty impressed with our meal, we felt just like we were at Sizzler or something. Jason cooked up bacon wrapped filet mignon, we did twice baked potatoes (which didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked) and I made a cheese toast bread...Usually the day after Christmas in the Smith family is a big deal we go out for dinner and to see a movie so after Jason got off work we made plans with Brittany and Clay to meet up at a Chili’s for dinner and then head on over to the movie theater to see “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. The roads were so slicked over from the snow storm the day before and Friday that we were sliding all over the place. I had cleaned the entire apartment that morning and actually hung pictures up so it was nice to finally be able to come home to a clean house that looked like we lived there. Saturday we were working on our talks in the morning until Jason had to go to work at 3pm and I had the pleasure of driving once again to Jason’s old house to do laundry and to use their internet to try and write my talk but alas, the internet was down so I had to occupy myself some other way I played games on my computer for 2 hours and read through articles of the Ensign while I waited for our clothes to dry…After I made it back home around 8pm I figured I had some time to write my talk but I ended up falling asleep on the couch until Jason called an hour later. So yes, I am a procrastinator, I didn’t get to write my talk until Sunday morning but I think it turned out well. I was perfectly fine at church until the passing of the Sacrament, and then I started to get really nervous and felt dizzy. I have a tendency to talk really fast when I’m nervous but Jason said I didn’t rush through it so that’s good. I was more relaxed after I was done and just happy to have it over with. Jason did a great job even though he said he felt nervous you couldn’t really tell.

Now it’s back to work for a few days but I get Thursday and Friday off again so that will be nice and hopefully I can get a lot done. On Wednesday we have plans of getting together with Brittany and Clay again and watching movies and pigging out on junk food unless Brittany has her baby then it will probably just be Jason and I hanging out on the couch eating junk food…either way I’m eating Chex Mix (I made some last night), cream puffs, peanut butter M&M’s, Butter mints, Chips, Salsa and bean dip. Anyway, I guess that’s all I have for now, I will let you know how everything goes.

We got hitched!

2008-12-04T19:29:00.000-08:00

To be perfectly honest the past month was a such a blur everything went too fast but it was amazing. We took off for Medford on November 17 and it was a very long drive, we took off at 5AM and arrived at home around 4:30pm so we definitely made good time. When we got there Jordan, Christina, Hayley & Tia were there so that was exciting. We got our marriage license on Wednesday and hung out with family, and on Thursday night Kevin, Nicole, and Noah made it out to Medford so hung out with them too. Friday was spent getting food items for the wedding reception and flowers for corsages Costco had a bit of a lacking in the cream roses area so we were lucky that found a lot of cream colored roses at Safeway. That afternoon I was kidnapped by Eden & Hanah and taken out for lunch at a really nice cafe and then we made our way over to the Brookhurst building where the reception was being held so that we could help set up. That night we went to the temple and took out our endowments. It truly is an amazing experience to go through for yourself and I don't think I will remember a whole lot about it but that is why you go back. On Saturday I woke up early to get ready and Dad made pancakes and bacon so it was just like old times (Thanks Dad). When Jordan, Hayley and Tia came over Hayley kept saying I looked different I looked beautiful...I had a new face...however, I don't remember getting plastic surgery or anything so I guess make up really does work. I got all ready and we were a little late getting to the temple. It seemed like we were waiting in the lobby forever but finally it was our turn and we went through with it. I know that you were all worried but I can now say that I married my best friend...After taking pictures we went back to my parents house and changed and went over to Aunt Jeanne's for the luncheon where Jason's parents made a delicious meal of taquitos and chicken tortilla soup and we watched the BYU vs. Utah game (I was hoping that being married that day would have created some good luck for them but to no avail they lost). The reception was really nice everything was beautiful and the food was terrific, and of course it was great to see everyone again.

On Sunday Jason and I took off for San Francisco and found our hotel pretty easily and right next door was a Sizzler so that's where we ate...I still love their cheese bread. On Monday we had tickets to Alcatraz, we just had to find a way to get their so we went looking for a gas station to drive to downtown San Francisco and the closest gas station happened to be next to the BART Station. So we got to ride BART to the Embarcadero area and then walked the rest of the way from Pier 1 all the way to Pier 33 where our ferry was waiting to take us to Alcatraz. I've been fascinated with Alcatraz since I went there on choir tour in high school several years ago and it was different then. We had our our own personal guided tour and stayed with the group. This time we were given an audio guide and got to walk around and follow our own time table and got to go anywhere. The audioguide was interesting because it had interviews with 4 previous prisoners and 4 previous guards. They had background noises like whistles blowing, people chatting, yelling, doors closing and it all seemed like it was happening around you it was kind of creepy but I loved it. After taking the ferry back we walked to Pier 39 and watched a magician light his hands on fire while juggling, we also tried finding somewhere to go for dinner but everything seemed so expensive. We walked a few blocks further to an Italian restaurant we heard about but there were no customers inside and the cheapest thing on the menu was $15 so we went back to Pier 39 and looked at something else and finally decided on Hard Rock Cafe not knowing what was on the menu...sure enough it was $15 a plate too. Oh well. On our way back to the hotel we saw a Krispy Kreme donuts and IHOP while we were on BART so on Tuesday we tried to drive to where we thought they were. We ended up driving around for about 2 hours trying to find IHOP and finally found it. We drove to San Francisco and wanted to go to the Golden Gate Bridge and got lost driving around again but quickly found our way. We walked across the bridge and then tried to make our way back to the hotel so that we could go to San Jose for the Winchester Mystery Home but no, San Francisco was more of a mystery and we got lost again. While we were lost we did find Ghiradelli Square so it wasn't a total loss...and we did make the mistake of going down Lombard street (the crookedest street) and it really is crooked...I don't think I want to do that one ever again. Eventually we got out of San Francisco but unfortunately the Winchester Mystery House closed at 5pm, next time we'll make it there...Wednesday we took off early to make our way back home in Medford and when we got their we had a game night with the family. Thursday, thanksgiving and we all know that was amazing. And Friday we took off for Utah again, it was a fast trip but I enjoyed every minute of it, it was sad to leave but I hope that everyone in the family can come together soon and this time with Brittany, Clay and Maeli joining in. We love everyone and appreciate the love and support that has been shown to us during this important time in our lives. I tried to keep the posting short but sometimes I just ramble, sorry about that.

I'll post more pictures once I get them!

1 week to go...

2008-11-14T19:16:00.000-08:00

So the wedding is a little over a week away and I'm just now starting to update my blog. The main reason for this is that I don't have access to the internet at the new apartment...Well, I guess that's not entirely true. I have access by stealing it from someone else in the apartment complex but it's not reliable, it says its connected for about 2 seconds and then it doesn't take me anywhere...I guess that's what I get for trying to cheat and get it for free. The weeks have been going by fast which is good but at the same time I feel like there is still so much left to do. I bought a temple dress last weekend and we're supposed to go in and meet with the stake president on Sunday...yep, he couldn't get us in until then. So we go in on Sunday and then have Monday to go to the Distribution Center to pick up the rest of the items and then we are taking off on Tuesday morning to go home to Medford.

On Wednesday after I got off of work I was in a hurry to get home so that I could make a cd for Brittany and run down there to drop it off. So I did all of that but I wasn't feeling too well. I was freezing cold even and I couldn't seem to get warm no matter what I did. Then yesterday I woke up around 4am, I had a huge headache, my body ached, I was burning up and coughing every 5 seconds. I took off my covers and fell back asleep until about 6 and then decided I might as well get up and eat something so that I could take some advil. I was fine during the day and hen when I got off work again I was freezing cold so I put on my sweatshirt and took a nap when I woke up I wasn't feeling well at all. Even when Jason got off work and came to pick me up he said I felt like I had a fever. We went out bought some Kleenex and some Theraflu. I took the Theraflu last night and it was supposed to be for daytime but it kind of knocked me out anyway. This morning I got up and took some Dayquil and was perfectly fine for the 4 hours that it works. After lunch I started to cough a lot again and when it was finally time to go home I was told by my boss Christine that I looked really pale and I wasn't feeling too well anyway. I was told by someone to eat a lot of garlic and it knock the cold right out and then someone else told me to take some coldeeze so when I met with Jason we went to pick some Coldeeze up so we'll see how that goes. I just don't want to be sick for the wedding or the trip down there....and while I am typing this Jason is starting to cough too...Oh great! We are all getting sick. I'll be going home on Tuesday and can't wait to see friends and family again. I'll update you as we go along, talk you later...

I'm moving...again

2008-10-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

I started writing this particular blog a week ago but I didn't get a chance to finish, so I'll try and keep it short but wanted you all to know that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Well the past couple of weeks have been flying by fast but that's a good thing. I think it helps a lot now that I am employed and have something to do during the day. We've just been trying to get stuff put together for the wedding in a couple of weeks. We did the invitations this week and had a bit of trouble along the way but we made it work. First of all, Jason's brother came up with a really great design for the invitations and we sent that off to Costco and picked them up on Tuesday. They cut a little off of the bottom which was kind of upsetting but what are you going to do when you are on a time crunch...That night I brought Eden over to Jason's house to help us stuff envelopes and Jason's roommate and brother chipped in which was nice. We though it would take us forever to burn through all of them but it only took about 30 minutes. I was impressed...it pays to have friends that can help you do such tedious things. We also had an idea to drip wax on to invitations and use a seal that we had found but we thought it would be a very long project to do that to all of them so we only used them on ones that we sent to family...I'm sorry if there are wax smears on the envelope...if it's any consolation, we had a fun time doing it. Jason stuck them in the mail on Friday morning so hopefully everyone receives theirs in the mail soon.

Leading up to Halloween there are a lot of haunted houses, haunted forests, haunted mazes. I had never been through one before and always wanted to. After our experience with Brittany and Clay at the haunted forest we wanted to go through another one pretty quickly and Jason's brother Daniel wanted to go too. So we find out that one of the top ten places in the country is right here in Salt Lake, naturally we wanted to go. It was called Castle of Chaos and Daniel called ahead to find out the price. He found out that if you pay a little extra they take you through additional rooms and then they also give you a poncho to wear...yep, as you walk through the people waiting to scare you will spray you with "blood", "snot", and "vomit". How exciting! Don't worry, there was no way that I was going to go through that one. We decided to go with the cheaper one and while we waited in this huge line there was a lot of cussing, cigarette smoking, and pot smoking...not by us though, just wanted to put that in there. After the guy behind us in line lit up his cigarette we decided it was time to leave and find somewhere else to go. There was another haunted house a few streets down called Nightmare on 13th. We went in and the price was much better than the Castle of Chaos and not as long of a line. Since there were a lot of people you try and distance yourself so that when someone jumps out at you, you don't ruin the surprise for the next person. This was a little difficult at times but it was fun. There were people dressed up in costumes just waiting around every corner to scare you. The first room you entered into there was a stage and things would pop out and show pieces from every scary movie. The part that scared me was they showed the video from "The Ring" and Samara came out of the well and then all of a sudden she was standing in front of the TV and then next thing you know she was flying over our heads, it scared me enough that I grabbed onto both Jason and Daniel. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to doing it again next year. Jason and I went to Lagoon last Friday for Frightmares. They have the places decked out for Halloween and have a few haunted places...ok, they aren't haunted but it was still pretty cool. In some of them you had to wear 3-D glasses and things on the wall would jump out at you. It was fun but a little too cold to be standing in lines all night.

The past month Jason and I have been trying to find a place to live when we get married. First we tried Sky Harbor and decided that it was too far away and much too small for our needs. Then we tried to get into Alta Pines which was perfect but they couldn't get us in until December 15. So we went with the first places we saw and really liked. It's called Legacy Court and we really like it, it's 710 square feet and just down the street from where I work. We went in two weeks ago to turn in our applications and they had a place ready to move in as soon as possible and they would knock $50 off the rent because the tenants before had stained the carpet, the vinyl in the kitchen around the sink, and stained the carpet in the bedroom. Seriously, it's not that bad but if they are wanting to take money off our rent I'm fine with that, we pay $625 a month and all utilities paid except for power. We were originally going to move stuff in on November 15 since that would be the weekend before we got married but my roommates already found someone to move into my space by November 1. I'll be honest, I wasn't too happy about that but then once I got talking to family and Jason I figured it would be cheaper this way. I will only have to pay one rent payment for the month of November instead of 2 and right now I really need to save my money. So I'm moving stuff in today, Jason is at work right now but I've got most everything packed up and ready to go when he gets off work. Daniel will help us move tonight after he gets off work and can bring the truck with him. I'll let you know how the move goes but I wanted to post pictures of what the place looks like now so you can get an idea.

This is the front entrance of the apartment. The kitchen has lots of storage and there is a pantry to the left of the fridge.

Another picture of the kitchen, you can see the stain on the floor from the previous tenants rug.

This is a really dark picture for some reason but this shows from the kitchen looking into the living room. The coat closet to the right of the door and to the right of that is our balcony.

A picture of the balcony taken from the storage closet outside, it's not huge but we could probably fit a few chairs on it.

The pantry, it's huge and I don't know how we're going to fill it.

The bathroom, but then again you probably guessed that.

The towel closet in between the bathroom and the bedroom.

The bedroom, it's pretty big but wait until you see.....

The huge walk-in-closet, we're thinking we might put our computer in there or something, it's big enough.

I am a slacker...

2008-10-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

I just have to say that these past two weeks have really flown by, I didn't even realize that I had been a slacker and didn't write anything on my blog. I hope that you all can forgive me. Jason and I had engagement photos taken, his brother Daniel did them and did some really amazing things. Here are a few of them, if anyone is interested his website is: http://www.thruthelensphotography-thruthelens.blogspot.com/

Basically, I have just been working and finally making some money instead of spending it. I have to tell you that it feels pretty good to be getting a paycheck again. However, I'm starting to think that maybe I should have asked for more money since I am basically running this place...ok not really, but sometimes it feels that way. I sit behind the front desk and answer telephone calls, greet job applicants, get them started on the application, once they are done I have to enter the application and other information into the computer. Then I have to get them ready for an interview with a staffing consultant. Sometimes the whole process takes about 1.5-2 hours to complete, but in between that I am filing, verifying employment, and verifying that people are legal to work in the US. Yep, it's a busy job and I don't get to take many breaks, when I do get to it's sitting at the front desk answering phone calls and completing my online training.

First off, while I am typing this blog I am becoming increasingly annoyed at my laptop computer because my hand brushes against the mouse while I am typing and it moves the cursor to another area on the screen and starts typing there...it's just really annoying, I probably could have been done now if it weren't for having to go back and delete what I wrote and place it elsewhere. AND yes, I know that I can cut and paste.

Mom and Dad came out last weekend for General Conference and it was really great seeing them again. Friday night Jason and I drove up to Salt Lake City to pick them at the hotel that my Uncle Joe and Aunt Kelly were staying at and drove them down to Orem where they would be staying with my sister Brittany. When we got there Brittany, who is pregnant, had to be taken to the hospital since she had had a fever all day. You can read more about it on her blog if you want but while they were gone Jason, Dad and I watched TV before deciding to buy stuff for our ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE BREAKFAST (Thanks to Kevin and Nicole for starting this tradition!) We waited a l ittle while at Brittany's house just in case they came back and could tell us what happened but at Brittany's apartment complex they put a boot on your car if you don't have a permit to park there overnight and it was getting close to midnight which is usually when they do the booting.

Saturday morning Jason came to pick me up and we headed back down to Orem to watch General Conference and to start making breakfast. After the first session of Conference Mom, Dad, Brittany and I took off for Wal-Mart and the Distribution Center for a few items. It was funny though at the Distribution Center because when we had to sustain people everyone would stop what they were doing and raise their hand and then they would go back to what they were doing before. Even during the prayer everyone would stop where they were and close their eyes and fold their arms. I mean, where else would you see that? After that session Dad took us all to Applebees for dinner and that was great! And then the boys took off for Priesthood session while Mom, Brittany and I stayed home and watched Sleepless in Seattle. Then on Sunday morning we had tickets to the Sunday morning session with my family and ended up walking 4 blocks in the pouring down rain...I didn't even think about bringing an umbrella with me. It was a great session and got to meet up with the Zimmer's and Woodley's again. Then we walked back to Clay and Brittany's car for lunch, they had brought us all sandwiches. We went to the afternoon session in tthe Joseph Smith Memorial Building for the afternoon session and the seats were more comfortable too. After that I said goodbye to Mom & Dad, but only for a month.

On Thursday night Brittany, Clay, Jason and I went to the Haunted Forest in American Fork and it was a lot of fun. Brittany took pictures and I'll post some of them in a minute but I have to say I had never been through a haunted maze before but I'd love to go to another one. When we first walked in there was someone dressed up like Michael Myers from the Halloween movies and he went right up to Brittany and tried to scare her but then he realized he had easier targets in the girls standing across from us. I was lucky to have Jason there because he would walk first in line and look around if there were any people standing around waiting to scare us and I realized that if I kept pace with him and sidled up to his right side and walked by nonchalantly that the people didn't even know I was there. That only worked sometimes though. When we walked through pitch black places Brittany would grab onto my arm and then I'd feel a tightening on my other arm only to notice when we hit light again that it was Clay. It was a lot of fun and lucky to have made it out alive. Jason hit his head a few times on low ceilings but I think he'll be ok. I will admit that I screamed twice and I didn't mean to but I got scared ok... One time we were walking through and "Freddy Krueger" hit a barrel of some sort and it made a loud bang that scared me and I actually stabbed Jason in the hand with my fingernail (don't worry, I didn't cause permanent damage). All in all it was a great night. Last night (Friday) we were going to go to Frightmares at Lagoon but after eating dinner we looked up and there were thick rain clouds heading that direction and it was freezing cold outside so we decided to wait until next week or the week after when we can go through again. Hopefully the weather will be better then and then we won't mind standing in line that long. Well I guess that is all that I have for now, I'll end it with pictures that Brittany took. Love you all,

Heather is officially entering the workforce!!! Again!!!

2008-09-25T16:16:00.000-07:00

This summer has been great but it has also been a little trying given the fact that I have been unemployed since the end of March. However, I prefer to save money than to spend money but ever since March that is all I have been doing. The money situation started to weigh on me a few weeks ago and so I decided to do something about it. I had decided that I would go into Express Personnel and see what would happen. I went through them 3 years ago right after I graduated from college and I was with the Medford Medical Clinic ever since so I figured that they might be able to help me with the current situation at hand. I walked in last Friday and did the application and the multiple tests and when I was in for the interview it was mentioned that they were looking for a front desk receptionist at their office if I was interested...which I was, since it was an opportunity to make money. So he said that he would be in touch when the branch manager came from vacation. So this Monday I got the call asking if I could come in later that day for the interview and so I met with Christine for about 45 minutes on Monday and she said that she would like me to come in for a second interview with the owner and she'd call me to let me know when that would be. I waited all day Tuesday for a call but nothing came, so I waited all day on Wednesday and finally at 3:45pm I got the call that they wanted me to come in on Thursday for the second interview so I set the time for 11:30. I was so nervous this morning but I got there on time and waited about 15 minutes for them to take me back for the interview. I ended up meeting with the owner and the branch manager for about 15 minutes and then they told me that they would be in contact later that day or on Friday but they were talking to other candidates and they'll let me what is going with that. So I walked away feeling even more nervous just waiting for them to call me back to let me know the news. I went down to visit with Brittany and Clay so that she could help me with my bridal bouquet (Great Job, Brittany!) and it was during that time that I got the call from Christine. "We have been talking it over the past couple of hours and we have come to a decision and that decision is....that you are the best candidate for the job" I was so excited, they asked me to start on Monday and they will be paying me $11.00 an hour which is great. It is professional attire so I will probably have to go and buy some more works clothes, oh well.

Last week I posted about that Sky Harbor loft that we really like but when we took in our application and paid the fees we found out that they had raised the prices about $70 so we decided not to take that one. Another apartment that we liked was Alta Pines and this one was 860 sq ft for $575 and we really liked the landlord so we started filling out the application and today we found out that the apartment she had told us would be available won't be after all since the current tenent decided to keep her current lease for another year. So we are going back to trying to find a place to live but now with my added paycheck it might make it easier to find a place in a better neighborhood or just a nicer place in general. Anyway, I think that is all that I have for now but I guess I will write more later...

I finally got to see Colors!!!

2008-09-15T12:22:00.000-07:00

For the past 5 years I have regretted not going to Provo in 2002 to see the last performance of one of my favorite LDS bands, Colors. I didn't make it down then because my roommate didn't have the money to come with me and I didn't want to go on the bus by myself and I've felt like an idiot ever since. Even though Kevin and Nicole did get me their autograph that night, I've still regretted not being there. As fate would have it, they have gathered together one time a year to put on a concert. Last year I wanted to go but the day of the concert I was more than happy to be in London but this year I finally got to see them play and it was AWESOME! I'll tell you all about it in a minute but first, let me update you on everything else last week.

To be honest, there wasn't a whole lot that happened leading up to Saturday but on Thursday Jason and I went to check out some of the other apartments we didn't get around to the week before. We went to one that was kind of in a scary neighborhood so it was one of those we drive through the lot to check it out and promplty leave. The next one that we saw was our favorite. It's called Sky Harbor Apartments and it's near the airport but it's really nice. We drove through the parking lot and found cars that are a lot newer and more expensive than ours so we felt like our cars would be safe there. So we decided to go inside and check it out. We looked at the one bedroom first but it just seemed really small but right next door was the loft and that's the one that we are looking into. If anyone wants to see the place go here: http://www.apartmentguide.com/apartments/Utah/Salt-Lake-City/Sky-Harbor-Apartments/PropertyOverview.aspx?listingid=13052

This is just the floorplan but it has lots of cabinets in the kitchen and countertops which is what we wanted. Our favorite part is that it is $560 a month which is much less than the other apartment at the top of our list. Also they have one that will be available on November 15 so that will be perfect. We'll be able to move in our stuff on the 15th and then head off to Medford for the wedding so then we don't have to worry about moving the big stuff afterwards. On Friday, I went down to Orem to visit with Brittany, Clay and cousin Rachael, her husband Tyler and their son Jacob. It was nice to see them since I haven't seen them since I left Rexburg in 2005 the rest of the time was spent watching the movie Rocky with Clay and a little Will Ferrel SNL. Also this past week I have become obsessed with a show that my parents introduced me to. It's called Burn Notice on USA Network and it's just really interesting. They brought out copies of the shows for me to watch and I watched a few on my own and then Jason watched one halfway through and now he can't get enough of it either. I finished the DVD's on Friday but now we are having to go back to watch the first season since Jason missed all of those, but I'm ok with watching it again.

Saturday was the Colors concert so after Jason got off work we waited for Brittany and Clay to head up to Midvale so that we could go to dinner. We went to Chilis and then headed for the Sandy Ampitheater for the concert. It was outdoors and a little chilly but at least it wasn't raining or anything. They played a lot of my favorite songs and then a few more that I hadn't heard before. It was a lot of fun although where we were sitting we had the bars from the stairs in our way at times and people ended up parking in front of us but they left and went more towards the middle so it made it easier to see.

Sunday was our Regional Stake Conference and because I'm here in Salt Lake it was held at the Conference Center and broadcasted to several other places. We were on the plaza level and to the left of the podium but it was just really nice to be in there. We heard from Elder Richard G. Hinckley, Cheryl C. Lant, M. Russell Ballard and of course, President Thomas S. Monson. They were all really great talks and I got a lot out of it. The bad thing is coming out of there and having to deal with the traffic just walking back to the car but we were lucky enough to park somewhere where the traffic wouldn't be so bad to get back on the freeway. I don't think that I have anything else really to report but as always, I'll keep you updated on what's going on. Talk to you all later...

Busy days ahead...

2008-09-08T16:50:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
I know that it has been awhile since I've updated (thanks Brittany for pointing that out). On Aug. 30 Jason and I went up to Preston, Idaho for his cousins wedding. It was nice to meet with more of his family and he apparently had kept the engagement a secret to his extended family until he could introduce me in person. I like to think that they liked me, but then again who wouldn't? (That was rhetorical, so I better not get any comments on that). We were only there for a few hours before heading back down to Provo for the BYU football game. We were making good time until we hit Pleasant Grove and then the traffic started which was not fun to get through. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the stadium from there...plus we had to walk about 2 miles to get to the stadium...parking was atrocious. We missed kickoff but that's ok, it was pretty warm out there and after walking 2 miles it wasn't feeling too good. Oh well! It was a great game and it was Jason's first college football game and he enjoyed it a lot. One thing we did find out that day was that our wedding...is the same day as the biggest rivalry game BYU vs UTAH...so hopefully people will still come to the wedding. Dad even thought maybe we could have a tailgate party or something and watch the game at the reception, Jason liked the idea but I'm still not sure how I feel about it. He's still trying to sell me on it we could have the colors be blue and red and have a football cake and cook hamburgers and hotdogs and nachos and candy...Yeah, it sounds good and all but that will cost a lot of money and frankly I'm not willing to spend that much. We'll see how it goes but I'm kind of hoping that I get my way on this...if not, I'll compromise and we can set up a room at the church for the game or something.

This past week hasn't been too eventful, we did go apartment shopping on Wednesday and we had 19 places on our list that we wanted to check out. Four of them we scratched off just by driving through the neighborhood (gang members, scary people...you know the usual). I think the first one we saw was our favorite, it had a nice layout and were really nice looking apartments. It ranges from 600-675 a month with most utilities paid but we would be responsible for heat and electricity. We looked it up on apartmentreview.com and there were a lot of complaints about the managment and one about the neighborhood but you can never tell if the people that write on these things are just bitter or not. There were a few that the management seemed nice but they didn't have any apartments for us to look at. So we will have to go back to see if we like those ones or not. I'll keep you updated as we go along. Other than that I don't have anything else to add to this blog. I'll talk to you later...

I'm Engaged!

2008-08-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

Wow this is a first...two posts in two days. I just wanted to update you all on what happened last night...Jason proposed to me last night. So here is how he did it: He told me on Monday night that he worked from 7-3 yesterday and that he would be over right after work which is usual. It normally takes him about twenty minutes to get to my house from where he works so when he didn't show up after an hour I started to get a little worried but I was thinking it was possible that he might be setting something up so there was that. Then I called him after an hour and a half to find out what was going on and he told me that he was on his way and that his brother was making dinner and rented some movies and then I had to tell him that Mom, Dad, Clay, and Brittany wanted to have a BBQ and I already bought salads for it and they wanted to do some Jason trials. So he naturally agreed with me and we went down to Orem for dinner and to play the candy bar game...I told him that we could leave around 9pm so then we could be back at his place to watch the movie. So at 9 we headed back to his place and he was getting all giddy and dancing when there was no music which I thought was kind of unusual. Then we went inside and there was a telescope sitting in their living room that needed to be put together but Daniel (his brother) told me that their roommate Brent borrowed it from someone now that he is a star buff. Brent is a little lazy sometimes and they said that if they didn't put it together then it was going to stay out in living room for the next two weeks and just sit there. So we tried putting it together but there were no instructions so while Jason messed around with it I got on his computer and tried to find a manual of some sort. Luckily, Jason actually figured it out himself after a lot of trial and error and then he and his brother took it outside to test it. We couldn't see a thing at first and couldn't figure out how to work it so I went inside and was reading the manual for the how to and Jason and Daniel were outside playing with it..or so I thought. Daniel told us that we might not be seeing the stars because it was too bright with the city lights and everything so we should go to Wheeler Farm and try it there since it is on the edge of the city. Right then his roommate Brent came home and Jason asked him if he could take it and check it out which he agreed with. So we went to Wheeleer Farm and pulled over on the side of the road there and set up the telescope and tried finding the north star in the cross hairs of the eyepiece but because it was too bright that way because of city lights we decided to turn it around and look towards the East where there weren't as many lights. There are little cables on the sides that if you twist it you can move the telescope a little left or right on one side and if you twist the other one you can move it up and down so he told me to look through the lens and see if I could get a star cluster in there and he would twist the cables to my directions. I found a cluster but couldn't really see anything through the telescope part so we tried another cluster. The second cluster I was telling left, left, down, down, a little up and saw a few stars in the telescope part but they weren't very clear so he asked me if I saw anything sparkly and I said I saw something but its not very bright and I kept telling him down, down, right and then I actually got them all in there and they were clear and then he asked me "Do you see anything sparkly now?" At that moment he touched my leg or tugged on the jacket I had on and he was holding the ring in his hand. "Heather Renee, will you marry me?" So I told him Yes! Little did I know that he borrowed the telescope from a friend and he was late coming over because he was trying to set it up before. We are planning the wedding for November 22 so hopefully that works for everyone and we'll be able to have all of our family there. Just wanted to let you know.

A little delayed...

2008-08-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks have been slow moving but I figured I'd still try and update on what has happened. Jason's Birthday was on August 9 and his brother had made plans to go 4-wheeling and I'll be honest, I was extremely nervous. However, the Thursday before he injured his shoulder playing Softball and couldn't even really turn it or anything so I guess you could say I got lucky. Basically the day consisted of watching TV and eating a pizza from The Pie...he just wanted to take it easy. On my Birthday, August 11, Jason and I had met up with Brittany and Clay who took us The Mayan for lunch. We had a good time eating and watching the divers jump into the water and since it was my birthday we were kind of hoping for a free dessert of some sort but they said they only did that for 12 years old and younger...I do not agree with this policy. The waitress said that she could have the divers come over and talk to me though and Clay was all for it but I didn't really like the idea of being up close and personal with the people in speedos. Luckily they came out long enough to say hi in gibberish and were making cave man signs and grunts when Clay told them it was my birthday...very interesting. Then Jason had to take off for work and Brittany and Clay left to go back home but I was to meet up with them later for dinner. I waited for Eden to get home from work and then we took off for Orem to eat Chicken Curry...one of my favorite meals and it tasted so good. And I got to talk to my parents and siblings on the phone, I even got serenaded with some music from Celtic Thunder my nieces (they are so cute). Brittany even made me my favorite cake, Angel Food Cake...mmmm.

On Tuesday morning I had to go down to Provo to wait in line to buy tickets to the first BYU football game of the season for when my parents come out. Jason and I got there around 8:30 and ended up being the 8th person in line and I heard people in line talking about the games they were going to. The BYU vs UCLA game only had the very top row of the endzone left and they were individual seats. We were lucky enough to be going to the cheapest game and the one with the most seats available. So come this Saturday we will be watching the BYU vs Northern Iowa game in person with my parents, Brittany and Clay, and my Aunt Jackie and Uncle Gary it will be so much fun! However, Jason has a cousin that is getting married that morning so we will be heading up to Preston, Idaho for the wedding that morning and will have to book it back down to Provo to make it in time for kick off..it should be a fun day!

This past week after looking at my bank account decided to start the job search again. I sent in one resume to a place in Murray on Wednesday because I figured that I would just start off slow and see where it goes. I finally got a call from them on Friday and they asked me to come in for an interview that afternoon. It was at Intermountain Stroke Center and right around the corner from where Jason lives so if I do get the job I have a place to go for lunch that is close by. Anyway, I was waiting for about 30 minutes before they took me back for the interview but I like to think that it went well and that they liked me. She said that she will give me a call at the end of the week to let me know what they decide. So here is hoping!

Mom and Dad came out on Saturday and they brought a lot of my stuff that I had to leave at home, it was just like Christmas! I finally have more books to read and my nightstand which will make it easier with the alarm clock and everything. They were tired and only stayed for about an hour before making their way down to Brittany and Clay's where they will be staying this week. On Sunday, they finally got to meet Jason and I think the meeting went well. Jason was really nervous before we got there but as soon as we got to the door I think he relaxed a bit. We ate dinner and watched the closing ceremony to the Olympics and played a game or two. All around it was a good day. I'll update more as the week progresses. Talk to you all later....

It's official, I'm a nerd

2008-08-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

Let's start where we left off last time...Sunday I went down to Brittany and Clay's for dinner and Jason was going to meet me down there after he got off work. Brittny had made chicken and mashed potatoes and corn and it was delicious! They had purchased a Guitar Hero game for their newly acquired playstation 2 so most of the time had been spent playing that...let's just say I'm not that good at it but I guess that practice makes perfect. I was glad to find out that you don't need to know how to play the guitar in order to play it because that would just be lame. Mom and Dad, you are going to have fun playing that I'm sure when you come out.

Ok, I know that I'm not exactly a nerd but after this past week I guess that you could call me one. Everyday that I was with Jason we were over at his house(simply because he has air conditiong and I don't) watching episodes of Dragon Ball Z. I don't exactly know how to explain it but it's Japanese Anime that started in the early nineties and it has a compelling story but I used to secretly make fun of people that watched that kind of stuff but now I had to eat my words because it does get addicting. He just has the first season and a little bit of the second so we had to stop after that but this Friday he bought the third season so maybe I'll get to find out what happens...man, I am a nerd.

On Wednesday Jason and I had made plans to make a BBQ Roast Sandwich and I can just say that it was delicious. We just used my crock pot and bought a roast and addes the BBQ Sauce and a few other seasonings and it was so tender and delicious. It kind of tasted like the Gary R West Beef Jerky that I've grown up my whole life but not that dry...it was moist of course. Later that evening his brother wanted to go to the Great Salt Lake to take some pictures. He's a photographer and just likes practicing different things. He did a lot of silhouette photos since the sun was going down so you can just see these dark shapes doing weird things...we were posing of course but it was a lot of fun. I have to say that the thing that you notice the most of the lake is the overwhelming stench, WOW! It smelt so bad and then there were a lot of flies and other flying creatures all over the place but the water was so warm. We were able to walk out into the water quite a ways without it going above the knee...However, the sand was so soft in some spots that you would kind of just sink in a little lower than I was expecting so my pants did get a little wet but not much. After the sun went down that's when we were attacked by the mosquitos so Jason and I got out of there really quick while his brother took a few more pictures but we didn't escape unharmed. I got one mosquito bit on my ankle while Jason had 4 all down his left leg and a few on his arms.

On Thursday night I went to cheer Jason on at his Softball game. All of the elder's quorums in the stake play against each other every Thursday night and it's kind of fun to watch. They did a lot better this week than they did the week before. Last week they were beat by about 20 runs or so...this week they actually won. On Friday, Jason had the day off so we went to the Gateway Mall since there was a Famous Footwear there and he got a discount and one of his coworkers was just transferred to that store so he got to see her and buy some new shoes. He bought me a pair of shoes too so that was nice. I like to count it as an early birthday present but I think he was paying me back for something I had bought him earlier that day...we were at the gas station to get some gas and he was almost on empty and he didn't realize that his card had expired the day before, so I bought him some gas so that we could get back to his house to pick up his new card.

Saturday the new Breaking Dawn came out so I went to Barnes and Noble to pick it up around 12:00pm and I didn't stop reading until around 6 when Jason came over after work. So again, this is another part of the nerd in me. That book is so addicting, it's definately different then I was expecting but I am enjoying it. It's nice that both Brittany and Eden are at exactly the same place that I am so that makes it easier so I at least have some people to talk to about it. It's nice to just throw just theories out there to see if people feel the same way that I do.

I don't have a whole lot else to say for now so I guess I'll get off of here and go back to the book that has been taking me away from common sense for awhile.

A Quick Update...

2008-07-26T17:06:00.000-07:00

On Thursday night I went with Jason and his brother to the Rocky Mountain Revue. It's a basketball game by the rookies of the Utah Jazz playing other rookies of professional basketball teams. I haven't seen a professional basketball game in person before but it was awesome. It was an intense game versus the Atlanta Hawks and I'm amazed that the Utah Jazz actually won.

Yesterday afternoon Jason and I went to the theater down the street to reserve our seats for The Dark Night and we actually were able to see it on the IMAX screen which is amazing though it's a little hard to figure out which part you should focus on. At this particular theater they let you reserve your seats so after reserving our seats we headed over to Smith's to pick up breakfast...donuts. I have yet to find a good donut bakery out here other than Krispy Kreme but that's all the way down in Provo. It was a really good movie and pretty violent, Heath Ledger was pretty scary and very convincing as The Joker.

Do any of you remember playing laser tag as a child? You know the game where everyone gets a laser gun and you have to go around and try and shoot them with it...Well, I had the opportunity to do that last night at an actual laser tag course. It was a lot of fun even though I got shot at quite a bit and the guns actually record who you shot and who shot you and where and then they give you a printout afterwards telling you all of that information including your rank...I was ranked number 15 out of 22 which I guess isn't too horrible but I would have liked to have been ranked higher. I tried hiding in one area when it first started but no one came around that area so I started moving and that's when I got tagged...so I went up on the tower and tried shooting at the people down below or across from us and I think I did pretty well up there until I got hit in the back or the shoulders. Oh well, it was a lot of fun, it cost $7.50 for just 15 minutes of play time. After that we went to Coldstone Creamery for dessert and I really enjoy their Peant Butter Cup Perfection. It's basically Chocolate ice cream, peanut butter, fudge, and peanut butter cups and it's wonderful. I don't have anything else to add at the moment, I'm just trying to pass the time while I water the lawn. Anyway, I'll talk to you all later.

I am not a fan of the DMV Driver's License renewal process!

2008-07-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why I do it but I always want to start my blog with the word "Well" so I decided to start it off with this sentence instead. Last Friday (6/11) Jason and I went back to Lagoon and this time I remembered to layer on the sunscreen. I didn't get burnt at all...I know you are all so proud of me. The most disappointing thing of the day though was that one of our favorite rides was closed due to a malfunction of some sort and they were waiting for a part to arrive. I did however ride Blastoff Reentry or something along those lines, it's supposed to be like Drop Zone at Great America but I don't think it's quite as high...I'll admit, I thought I was going to pee my pants but I'm sure you didn't really need to know that. It takes you up 215 feet and lets you sit there for a little bit before dropping you...We also went on a few water rides that we didn't get to the last time we went one of which was called Rattlesnake Rapids. We were waiting in line in the hot sun for a bit and watching people as they came off thinking oh they aren't too wet...A lot of them were pretty dry and there were only a few that looked completely soaked. I was really hoping that I wouldn't get too wet but alas, that didn't happen. It was just the two of us and these two other guys in the circular raft and I got the brunt of it, even though I was the lightest person in that boat. They even take you under a waterfall which is crazy since you are already soaked, I hid behind Jason during that part because of course it was coming straight for me. Luckily after that we went home so I didn't have to walk around completely soaked and feeling uncomfortable. Later that night we had a Stake Luau and we were pretty pumped for that they were going to have a catered dinner and hula dancers. We walked in and the catered dinner was basically pulled pork (I think) and a ball of rice and a fruit medley of sorts, I was a little disappointed but it was still pretty good. After that we sat around waiting for the show to start, and once it did it was a lot of fun. They showed us dances from New Zealand, Samoa, Tahiti and other places that I don't really remember now, they even had the fire dancers which is basically why I went and I wasn't disappointed. It was awesome!

Saturday was my roommate Holly's birthday party and so that night I sat around and ate cake and talked to people that I didn't know. At around 10pm we went outside and set up a little movie area with a projector and everything it was a nice setup but the grass was a little wet and we couldn't figure out why. Afterwards we found out that Adrienne had watered the lawn not thinking about the movie moment, she just thought that it looked a little dry there and was trying to save the lawn. Luckily, it wasn't soaking wet or anything so it's all good.

Sunday I went to church and after Jason got off work he came to pick me up to make me dinner. He made bacon fried rice and barbecued some terriyaki chicken and it was really good, we didn't get to eat until like 9 though because he had bought a wok the night before and we didn't get around to seasoning it until then...that is quite a long drawn out process. I remember Mom seasoning the dutch oven that they never use that's been sitting out in the garage for who knows how long. Let's just say that's a process that I don't want to have to repeat, why can't all pans come already seasoned?

Monday, Jason cooked me dinner that night as well and he made Tacos and they were really good. I hadn't had homemade Tacos since leaving home back in April and I can say that I really miss my parents cooking (you guys are amazing in the kitchen! I look forward to you coming out next month and maybe making me something tasty...you know, if you want to). Tuesday night I went with Jason and his brother and roommate to Del Taco and it was really an interesting experience. I have to tell you that this was at like 10pm and I don't think I will go to a fast food place around that time ever again. This might sound kind of mean saying it but there were a lot of weird people that came in at that time. There was a security guard guy that came in before us and he actually parked his car in the drive thru lane and came inside and ordered 6 tacos and ate those and then ordered 3 more he left at the same time we did so I hope that no one was trying to come through the drive thru at that time. Then there was a girl that came in and she was asking the guy at the counter if she could buy stamps there and she was carrying a lot of shopping bags and I don't think she ordered anything. She just stood at the counter for probably 10 minutes before moving over towards our table and she ended up taking to Jason's roommate Brent for a bit and she was really coherent from what it sounded like. It was definately an interesting night.

I had received a call from Brittany earlier in the week telling me that she had received a package from Jordan and Christina for Sisters Day and they sent me a present. I didn't get down there until Wednesday night to pick it up and they had sent me some really sturdy magnets (Thank You Guys...we actually needed those). Hayley and Tia wanted to have a Sisters Day since there is a Mother's Day and a Father's Day so Brittany and I were to celebrate Sisters Day on Thursday July 17. I called Brittany to wish her a happy Sisters Day but she didn't get my message until Friday so that's how we celebrated. It's ok Brittany, we can just say that we celebrated it a little early since we saw each other on Wednesday night. Thursday night I went with Eden to a ward party at someone's house and we just watched people play volleyball and tried to avoid hornets who were really interested in my Taco. Yes, it's true I had Tacos a few times last week...what can I say, I like them.

On Friday, Jason and I both need to renew our driver's licenses which expire next month so we went to the DMV around 3:30 hoping to get in and out before they closed at 5:30...the line was huge and we weren't willng to wait that long so we just left and decided to come back on Monday morning at 7am when they open...hoping to beat the rush. This morning Jason came to pick me up at 6:30am and we went to the DMV and there was a line going halfway through the parking lot, so much for being first in line. We ended up waiting about an hour and a half before getting called up to do the testing. I had kind of psyched myself out thinking that it was going to be hard and that I might fail it but luckily it was open book. I got to take my test on the computer system which was nice because then I could find out my score right away instead of taking the written version and having to wait. I'm proud to say that I passed so I can still drive but...I'm very disappointed in my drivers license picture...I look like I'm disgusted at something in the background and I just don't look happy. I tried not to smile too bif because in some of the pictures in Europe I smiled really big and my eyes bugged out and I didn't want that to happen so I just smiled a little bit and I think I'm more disppointed in that...if only they would have let me take it again. Jordan, do you remember my School ID pictures? It's like one of those. Oh well, hopefully I don't really have to show it to anyone...I still have my Oregon license but they poked holes in the bottom so that you can't really use it anymore...I'm disappointed in that too, that picture on my Oregon license was perfect, why can't they just cut that picture out and paste it on the Utah license, wouldn't that be easier? Ok probably not but at least I would be happy with the picture. I just need to let it go and not worry about that too much. Well I don't have anything else to really report but I'll update again soon. Talk to you all later...

What do Wiffle Ball, a Fly Massacre and family have in common? Probably not what you would think...And no the massacre was not caused by a wiffle ball

2008-07-10T20:13:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a little over a week since I last wrote on my blog and I kept telling myself that not much happened but thinking back that's not entirely accurate. I've been able to hang out with Kevin, Nicole and Noah the past week and it's been a lot of fun. Last Monday Jason and I travelled down to Provo at 7:30 am to help keep the Stephenson grandbabies occupied while they take their family portraits. That was a lot of fun actually, and it didn't take that long. It was nice that Kevin and Nicole got to meet Jason and I think they like him so that's a plus. We felt pretty good about our work there so Jason and I decided to treat ourselves to IHOP.

On Tuesday I made my way down to Provo again to invite myself to lunch with Brittany, Clay, Kevin, Nicole and Noah at Maria Bonita's. It's Brittany's favorite Mexican Food restaurants down there in Provo. They give you tons of food with your meal, like chips and salsa, and this soup that was really good that had chicken and rice and some kind of broth. I got the taquitos and those were really good.

Then on Wednesday night we went out again with Brittany, Clay, Kevin, Nicole, Noah, Jason and Eden...we went to Red Robin this time and it was nice to be there with friends and family...even though we were still missing a few members of the Smith clan children (THAT MEANS YOU JORDAN AND CHRISTINA AND GIRLS). We were thinking of going to play wiffle ball after that but everyone was too full to move and run around so we decided to skip that and go another day.
On Thursday I went to lunch with the Stephenson family to Applebees and then we went to the South Towne Mall in Sandy for a little bit and I ended up buying myself a shirt at Maurices (you didn't need to know that but I thought that I would add it in anyway) and it was fun going into a store with Nicole and looking around (you can be my shopping buddy anytime).

Then on the 4th of July I didn't really have any plans until later in the evening with Jason so basically I was just trying to pass the time shopping at Barnes & Noble and checking out some other stores. It was during that time that I got bored and called Brittany up who was going to the Stephenson Family Barbeque at 3:00...so basically I invited myself to that too but then I felt bad and said that I wouldn't go and then I got a call from Kevin who told me that Kara Lee would be offended if I didn't come. So I went to the BBQ and it felt like old times actually, I think I've spent the past two July 4th's with the Stephensons in Medford so it was nice to keep up tradition (Thanks for letting me hang out with you guys!). Then I made my way back up to Salt Lake so that I could be there when Jason came to pick me up for the fireworks. He got off work and we took off to Sugarhouse Park and had to go some odd routes to get there due to street closures and everything. We found one place in the park next to a duck pond so we sat there for a few minutes before we realized all of the smokers in the vacinity. So we made our way to another part of the park where there were a lot of people but we still weren't exactly sure where they were going to be launching the fireworks from so we kind of just decided to try that area anyway since that was where everyone seemed to be congregating. We had to wait around for about an hour and a half but the fireworks that followed was excellent, they were so pretty to watch.

On Sunday I invited Kevin, Nicole, Noah, Brittany, Clay and Jason over for roast and baked potatoes. Of course, I delegated to others different food items to bring. I took care of the roast and Kool-Aid, Brittany and Clay made baked potatoes and Kevin and Nicole brought a Marie Callendars pie so we were fed well. While waiting for Brittany and Clay to come we noticed that we had probably about 20 flies in the upstairs family room alone and they seemed to multiply by the second. We didn't have a fly swatter and we couldn't figure out where they were coming from but luckily I remembered while growing up Kevin and Jordan and Dad even killing fruit flies with rubber bands so I gave Kevin a rubber band and he went to work. He actually took out quite a few, and it was impressive work; however, he still left marks on the glass which I'm sure you all wanted to know but it was impressive nonetheless. After the great fly massacre started by Kevin and Jason we finished making dinner and sat down to eat. Everything was so delicious and clean up was a breeze. We were planning on playing wiffle ball afterwards but Noah was getting grumpy so Kevin and Nicole took off back to Provo to put him to bed so Brittany, Clay, Jason and I took off to Murray Park to play a quick game. I had all of the equipment, even bases and we found a nice place and laid everything out...remember not to play wiffle ball near any streams or anything because it can carry your ball away. I think after dinner Brittany and I were having trouble running the bases but it was still fun. Clay and Jason hit a few homeruns and Clay hit one under a car that was passsing by and amazingly it came out unscathed...but we did lose one ball to that stream...oh well.

On Tuesday evening I went down to Provo again to be with Kevin, Nicole and Noah one last time before they took off to Logan. We went to El Azteca and they have really good Mexican food there, even Noah seemed to enjoy it. We then went to Orem park to play some more wiffle ball. This team it was Kevin and I against Brittany and Clay. Yep, we were winning thanks to Kevin but then the last inning I couldn't catch a thing and Brittany and Clay kept hitting the ball and scoring runs so we ended up losing, oh well, it was a fun game anyway. Noah kept running onto the field and taking some of the balls away, he even got up to bat with daddy's help. He is so cute! After we finished playing our game Nicole wanted to help a few so I sat with Noah on a park bench while she hit. He was standing next to the bench and he would sign please so I lifted him up and put him on the bench with me, he'd walk around on it and then he leaned in to give the bench a kiss...and I'd pull him back and say dirty and he'd start laughing and he'd try it again and I'd pull him back and would tell him dirty and he'd start laughing again. I think this was our time of bonding...he actually let me give him a hug and a kiss before they took off for the hotel this time. After taking Brittany and Clay home I went to Krispy Kreme donut and picked up a few before heading home...they just sounded so good. Well, I don't think I really have anything else to report but I think Jason and I are going to go back to Lagoon tomorrow for a few hours and this time I'm definately coating myself in sunscreen. I'll tell you how it goes!

A quick trip to California...

2008-07-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

Well this past weekend was a lot of fun! Jason had 4 days off and we decided to go down to California to go to the beach and to see his family. We left early on Thursday morning..around 4:00am and drove down to Mira Loma, California which is just outside of Riverside. It was a nice ride and actually wasn't as long as I thought that it would be, we arrived there around 1pm and actually needed to fill up once in St. George. He drove me around the town before meeting with his family, and in Norco (which is just outside of Mira Loma) they don't have concrete sidewalks they have sidewalks for horses and stuff...and no street lamps either. His family was very nice and welcoming, I like to think that we got along pretty well and it's obvious they were pretty excited to have him there if only for a few days.

On Friday morning I got ready to go to the beach that morning but first we made our way to Huntington Beach to visit Jason's Grandparents and after visiting with them for awhile we took off to the actual beach. It was overcast outside but I still put on sunscreen everywhere I could remember and let's just say that Huntington Beach is definately a lot warmer than any of the beaches that I have ever been to in Oregon. It cost $10 just to park the car anywhere remotely close to the beach. We walked along the beach for awhile and then walked back to the car to get our stuff and then walked to a restaurant on the Pier called Ruby's (It's kind of like a 50's diner). I got their cookies & cream milkshake and they had pretty good hamburgers but their french fries were delicious. Jason got their Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake and I was surprised at how good that was. He then took me to Fashion Island which is a really nice mall in LA there, there were lots of fountains all over the place which was fun to watch the kids run around in. We then took off back to his house during Friday night 5 o'clock traffic, seriously it took us what seemed like forever to get home but it was a nice adventure. We picked up his brother and went to see "Get Smart" and it was then standing in line that I realized I had completely missed the back of my right leg and the back of my ankle when putting on sunscreen that morning. After the movie we went back to his house and found some Aloe which felt good. We then took off to come back to Utah by about 9:00 am, and again it was a long ride but it didn't seem that long, we arrived at 8 that night. On Sunday I must have been so tired because I didn't wake up until 11, I went to church and when Jason came over afterwards we made dinner together and then we took off down to Provo to have a game night with Brittany and Clay. We started off with Pit and that was fun but of course I lost every single time, it just seems to be the way things go down. After that we played Risk, Clay is really good at it and knows all of the rules and Jason had played it a few times and knew some of the rules but he picked it up a lot quicker than I did. I actually ended up winning the game but I still don't understand the rules. Well, I don't think I have anything else to add to this other than photos from my trip down to California, the pictures of Jason are basically him trying to catch a sand crab and stuff...and I couldn't help but take a few pictures of some Ferrari's along the road as we waited in traffic.

Sunburns...you'd think I'd know better by now

2008-06-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

I know that I haven't been that great on keeping everyone up to date on what is going on over here in Utah and that might because I haven't been up to a whole lot. The job search has kind of come to a halt as of late simply because I have been dating this great guy, Jason...and it's not so much that I don't want to find a job, it's just nice to be distracted every now and then and he is a great distraction. We actually met at the FHE activity a few weeks ago, he was one of the ones that we were playing football with and we kind of hit it off and he asked for my number and asked me out the next week. We have a lot in common which is fantastic. He took me to Lagoon last Friday which is the amusement park in Northern Utah and it was a lot of fun. I ended up going on all of the rides and everything regardless of my fear of heights, the only thing is that I did end up getting sunburned...pretty bad. Also, later that evening we sat down to eat on an empty bench and this family comes strolling by and one of their sons came over and stood next to me and I couldn't figure out what he was doing but all of a sudden I hear something pop and I had Mustard all over my left side. Let's just say that wasn't pleasant...mustard isn't that easy to get out of clothes. I looked at this boy and he looked back at me seeing all of the mustard and just said "Sorry" and ran off. His parents were mortified they just kept on handing us stacks and stacks of napkins. That was an interesting experience!
My arms and nose were burnt pretty bad but everything was fine, but on Saturday I went to the Farmer's Market in Salt Lake City with Eden and ended up getting burnt there too on my arms and neck this time...don't worry, I've learned my lesson to buy sunscreen SPF 50. We actully ended up taking TRAX which is kind of like a metro bus that picked us up at the parking lot across the way and then we rode that all the way to Salt Lake, it was just like being in Europe again...but everything was in English this time. At a Farmers market you would expect there to be a lot of produce and stuff but at this one I think we only ran across one booth that had produce everything else was fair food and crafts and jewelery. After walking around Pioneer Park we went to the Gateway Mall and they had sidewalk chalk drawings...or whatever you want to call them. I have to say that the people who can do that are simply amazing. A lot of them looked like they were in high school or something but it was still amazing.
Well, I don't have much else to report for now, I'll update more soon...

Sizzler and A Supposedly Missing Roommate

2008-06-11T12:41:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's amazing how time gets away from you when you are unemployed...ok not really, you just find something else to do. The last time I wrote about camping with Brittany and Clay and I realized that was like two weeks ago so I figured I better write something.

I don't have much to report though so I hope I can make this interesting for you. This past Friday Eden and I drove to Orem to go out to eat with Brittany and Clay and we went to Sizzler. I tried finding the least expensive item and it was the bacon wrapped steaks which were all right, I asked for it well done and it came out medium but at least I got to eat the cheese bread (That's my favorite part of the meal anyway). After eating we saw a Big 5 sporting good store and since Clay had wreaked havoc on my Wal-Mart ball and bat a few weeks ago I decided maybe they have an official wiffle bat and ball but alas no such luck. And someone came up with the great idea to go to Toys-R-Us and sure enough there they were. So if anyone wants to play wiffle ball just let me know. We went back to Brittany and Clay's apartment and watched Disturbia and then we made the trek back to Midvale. All of our roommates were camping so it was just Eden and I sleeping at home.

On Saturday morning Eden and I watched "Somewhere in Time", I had never seen it before but it was...well...different. I was a little disappointed with the ending but what are you going to do. Later that afternoon I thought that my roommate Eden was gone forever! I talked to her on the phone at 4pm or so and she said that she was going to go get something to eat and she'll be home soon. So I figured she's be home pretty soon but she still wasn't home by 6:30 so I called her phone to make sure she was ok and it went straight to voicemail. I was starting to get worried but decided that I was overreacting, she must have gone to her sisters or something. By 9:30 I drove to Rumbi's Grill where she said she was going to eat and didn't see her car there and I drove to the movie theater where she had called me from and still there was no sign of her. I waited until 1am thinking that she would be home soon...she never stays out that late. I woke up at 3 in the morning because I heard some commotion upstairs and realized that it was my other three roommates that had just come home from camping but still no sign of Eden. The next morning when I woke up I noticed that she still hadn't been home so I called my parents to know what to do. I would have called her sister but I didn't have the number so I called Eden's mom who then called her sister Naomi and a few minutes later Eden called me. So she was safe but had forgotten to tell me that she was going over to her sisters to hang out for awhile and she had fallen asleep over there and didn't wake up until the morning. So I'll admit I was a little paranoid and worried but I'm glad that she was safe.

I also had the unfortunate opportunity to catch a cold this past week, don't worry I've been taking 4 Vitamin C every day so hopefully it's on its way out now. We'll see! Anyway, I think that is all I have to report right now but I'll be sure to update more often as things come along.

I love Camping...

2008-05-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

I have to say that this has been a good week. On Friday Brittany, Clay, Eden and I went up to Tanner's Flat to go camping. When I got up there around 3pm to reserve the spot there were still plenty of openings, they first gave me campsite number 27 and we went and checked it out and it seemed pretty nice. I went back to pay but when I did that they said that they made a mistake and that particular site wasn't available as a walk in. So they gave us campsite 31 which was awesome. Lots of rocks and boulders and the firepit was right next to some rocks so that it would block the wind...if there was wind. At this particular campground they told us that as of a few days before there was still two feet of snow on the ground, they had to bring in snow blowers to remove most of it. I had left Clay there at the campground and went back home to pick up Brittany and Eden. When we made it back out to the campground Clay already set up our tents and had the fire going. It was fantastic! Brittany and Clay made hotdogs and Eden brought the s'mores, lots of great food. Once it got dark we got into Brittany and Clay's tent and played some Phase 10...which I lost, until the last hand which we said would take it all...and I won that one. Woo-Hoo! It was getting late and we were getting tired so we went back to our tent and tried to sleep. I had on a t-shirt, a sweatshirt and a snow jacket, jeans, pajama bottoms and two pairs of socks and I was still freezing...I think I slept for about a total of 20 minutes that night, I was just trying to stay warm, which eventually happened but the whole night I was singing songs in my head trying to put myself to sleep but obviously that didn't happen. When it was finally light outside we got up and Clay already had the fire up and going and he didn't even use one match...he was pretty impressed with himself...I was impressed as well. We had cinnamon rolls and muffins and orange juice and mandarin oranges for breakfast...maybe a little bit too much starch but it was good. We figured it was much later than it was and decided to take things down and get ready to go and then on the way out we saw what time it was...only 9:30. It was a lot of fun though and we look forward to the next camping trip, I think we are going to try Moab and this time we will reserve a spot and be more prepared, plus there shouldn't be snow on the ground there. The rest of Saturday was spent sleeping and showering and trying to get rid of the campfire smell from our clothes and blankets.

On Sunday I woke up early and made myself some cornmeal pancakes...mmm and they were good but not as good as Dad's. I wonder if it might have been the oil that I used because all I had was vegetable oil so maybe that's what was different...plus cooking those in a pan isn't exactly the easiest thing, I really need to get a griddle. During church I was trying to think of something to make for dinner...I know I shouldn't have thought about it then but I was getting hungry. We have stuff to make chicken roll ups and mashed potatoes and corn and all that good stuff but when we were in Relief Society one of Eden's visiting teachers asked us to come over for dinner so we were happy to oblige. I said that I'd bring cookies and figured that they would be something fast and easy but I didn't want to take the time to actually dish them out so I decided to make chewy bar instead. It started off great and then it came time to add a few of the dry ingredients and then I saw a snag in my plan. It called for baking powder and I had was baking soda. I went online to research what I could substitute and it said that baking powder is essentially baking soda, cream of tartar and cornstarch...and again all I had was baking soda so that's what I used albeit not as much as it called for. I was surprised they actually turned out pretty well and were a big hit at dinner. We then made our way home and decided to watch a Bollywood movie. Eden had one called Dil Chahta Hai, it was pretty entertaining and a little confusing but all around it was pretty good.

And Monday was pretty much spent reading and relaxing. There wasn't a whole lot that could be done outside since it was pouring outside and come to find out that there was a leak in our laundry room, nothing too serious but still it was enough where I noticed it. I put a pan down there to see how much it would collect and it stopped shortly after that. I've been reading a book called "Daniel Deronda" by George Elliot lately and it's pretty good but it's really long and the first one hundred pages or so are hard to get into but it's starting to pick up now. I look forward to seeing the movie though, it's only $10 at Amazon so maybe I'll make a purchase sometime in the near future. Well I think that is all I have for now, this coming Sunday I have to teach the temple prep class so I've got to prepare for that. I hope that everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend and I'll talk to you all later...

What do a leaky hose, IHOP, wiffle ball, picnics and football have in common...just my last week

2008-05-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been about a week so I figured that I would update you all on what had happened with the carpet and everything. Monday night I called our landlord, Marty, and told him about the flooding that had happened. He came over and took a look at it, he thinks that when we turned on the water the hose had leaked and made it's way down to the bottom of the foundation and seeped in through some cracks. He went out and bought us two box fans and set them up and told me that I should rotate them throughout the room and he'll come back on Thursday to check on the status of it. Well by Wednesday night the whole room was dry but it still smells kind of funny. On Thursday he came by and said that if I notice anything to let him know and he'll have someone come out and clean the carpet. I've been spraying Fabreeze every night on the floor so hopefully that will help out. I'll let you know.

On Friday night Eden had arranged with her sister to have a sleepover with her nephew Zachary. I was happy to come along when she told me that we were going to IHOP (I love that place), we didn't get there until about 7:30 so I think that might be the best time to go since there wasn't anyone there. I got the usual...french toast with a side of hash browns...I'm sorry Kevin, I almost branched out and got the corn cakes but the french toast sounded so good. And on Saturday morning we went to a park in Murray across the street from the high school to play some Wiffle Ball and soccer so that was fun. And on Saturday night I went with Eden to see Iron Man with a friend of hers that unexpectedly brought his three other roommates along with him so she wanted me to come to even it out. I thought that it was a good movie, I really liked the music in it but the strangest thing about the movie theater we were at was that it was reserved seating only. I have never been to a movie theater that told you to pick your seat before you go in the theater, but it was pretty cool. After leaving the theater Eden and I came back home and watched PS I LOVE YOU, it was alright but I don't remember crying or anything...sorry Brittany.

On Sunday we had invited Brittany and Clay over for a picnic and it turned out rather well. We had bought croissants and made our own chicken salad to put in it with grapes, lemon rotisserie chicken, almond slivers and mayo. And we had chips, pasta salad, and orange soda and Brittany had brought cake mix cookies for dessert. We went to the same park we went to on Saturday and surprisingly there were more people there on Sunday than there were on Saturday. After eating we decided to play a little wiffle ball but the bat that I had bought was too flimsy and when Clay got up to bat he bent it...but he straightened it out again. Then the next time he swung he broke the ball in half...so there was the end of that game. I had bought a set of six just in case this happened but for some reason I didn't have it with me. After we got home we watched Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade...I love that movie and I'm looking forward to seeing the one that comes out this weekend.

Last night we went to FHE which was a Stake BBQ and there were so many people there that it was hard to meet people. We had just eaten and were on our way out when we were stopped by someone in our ward and he introduced us to someone else that was walking by...I don't think he knew him but we all had to wear name tags so it was easy to know peoples names. After talking to them they wanted us to toss the football around with them. They brought out a real size football which I'm not use to throwing, I prefer the nerf balls because I can through them farther. I think my family would be surprised to learn that I actually caught the ball nearly every time...but the throwing was the hard part. We were all probably 15-20 ft away but I should take a picture of my right wrist, there are a bunch of red marks all over, it's interesting looking. And my thumb feels like it's out of place but it will heal.

Well, I don't think I have anything else to report, I've had a huge headache since last night so I worry that my sentences in this blog aren't making any sense. This weekend we were thinking of going camping with Brittany and Clay but now I'm not so sure since there will be so many people on the road...maybe we could just camp out in the backyard or something. I'll let you know, I'll talk to you all later...

And why is the carpet wet Todd?

2008-05-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

Saturday Eden and I drove down to Orem to spend some time with Brittany and Clay. We had a nice time eating Krispy Kream Doughnuts and chips and salsa and watching Batman Begins. In fact, we had such a good time that we decided to down to visit them again yesterday...well, Sunday dinner was planned last week but still...it was nice. They made a bunch of fried food: Fried Jalapenos, French Fries, BBQ Chicken Wings, Fried Chicken, Corn Dogs, Onion Rings...all tasted great. And for dessert I brought one of those no bake Oreo pies...mmm...We ate and played a few games, I lost playing PIT...and I lost bad! Somehow I always ended up with either the Bull or the Bear or sometimes both, I wish we hadn't kept score, it would have made me feel better about myself.

When we got home we walked down the stairs and Eden said that she thought it smelt kind of musty down there. I didn't really think anything of it, I just wanted to go to bed. I walked into my room and took my shoes off and went to put something away and I thought I had stepped onto something that was wet, maybe my water bottle had leaked. I took another step in the area and yep that spot was wet too...I kept feeling around the carpet and everywhere I stepped near the wall it was wet. I wasn't sure what had happened but we were thinking maybe that there was a leak coming in through the walls, so we checked around the walls and they were perfectly dry. I walked upstairs and asked one of my roommates if they had turned on the water to water the lawn and she said that they had done it earlier but didn't notice anything wrong, no leaking spicket or anything that would cause that to happen. My bedroom is right below that spicket so we are thinking that maybe there is a leak in the pipe or something. Eden checked her bedroom and it's perfectly dry. I moved out some stuff into the family room last night like my computer and a few other things here and there and I thought that would be sufficient. I didn't realize quite how far the water had spread by that time. Eden and I stuck our feet under the bed to see how far under the bed it went and It went all the way from my computer desk all the way to the end of my bed and into my closet. I was too tired to move the rest of the furniture last night so I waited until this morning to do that...what a mistake! I started with moving my dresser thinking that would probably be easiest. The bottom of it was still wet but luckily the backboard is fine. Then I went and emptied my bookcase and moved it to the living room. This one isn't in that great of shape...since it's particle board the sides are peeling up and the backboard is a little warped. I'm glad it didn't eat through anymore of my books (Last night I found one of my books laying on the floor and the last 100 pages or so were wet). Then I went to work emptying my computer desk and disconnecting all the parts and when I got that cleared off I moved the desk and it's in the same shape as the bookcase, the backboard is warped and the bottom shelves are wet...which leaked through and started to soak through some of my cookbooks. You can tell looking at the back of it how far up the water spread through the furniture but I hope that they dry out soon so I can put my room back together. The only thing that I haven't moved it my bed, since it's so huge I can't move it by myself but I'm hoping that the water didn't cause any damage to the headboard. So that's been my morning so far. One of my roommates said that she'll call Marty (Our landlord) this morning but I don't know if she's done that or not and I don't have his phone number so hopefully someone can come out and fix it so that it doesn't happen again...I'll take pictures when I can and keep you updated.

David Beckham...

2008-05-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend wasn't a very good one in some respects. On Friday night around 9:30 Eden and I were heading out to go catch a movie at the Dollar theater and while I was backing up and talking to her I didn't notice how close I was to Eden's car parked across the street...and I backed into it. I didn't hit it very hard but we just thought maybe it was a scratch and went to see the movie. Saturday morning Eden went outside to check out the damage and it was worse than we had thought. In the front drivers side wheel well there is a noticeable dent. So she called her insurance and I called mine to report the claim. Her car is still driveable but still...I can't believe that I did that, my first accident in my car and then what do I do..I was backing out of the driveway not paying attention. So she has forgiven me but the claims adjuster wants to come out and inspect the damage today. My car is perfectly fine though, no dent, just a scratch on my rear right bumper.

So that took most of the afternoon to get taken care of and that evening we had decided that we are going to go to our first professional soccer game. Salt Lake Real vs LA Galaxy...which has a certain celebrity on their team, David Beckham. We didn't have tickets so we needed to go to the ticket office to purchase first. We got to Rice Eccles Stadium (University of Utah stadium) and drove around for awhile trying to find a place to park. We found free parking and parked there but had to walk the rest of the way to the stadium. When we got to the ticket office there were still tickets left and we were relieved to hear it...and we got tickets to the bleacher section. We hadn't eaten anything yet so we thought we'd try to walk around to find something to eat off campus that would be cheaper. We didn't find anything after walking a few blocks so we turned around and decided to just go in and look at the food in the stadium. On our way to our seats we found one that was serving hamburgers and chips for $5 so we went with that. Once we got our food we were walking around trying to find our seats only to find that we were in the very last row of that section and in the middle. Oh well, it wasn't too high up on that side so we were ok. There were a few people practicing on the field and we were curious but decided to get some water first. When we came back all the members of LA Galaxy were out there practicing so we ran down to the bottom level so we could be right next to the field and took quite a few pictures and a video. I am so glad that I have a good zoom on my camera, otherwise you wouldn't be able to tell that it was him in the pictures,,,

We like to think that he was looking at us in this picture...

So there you have it, my first encounter with a celebrity. Unfortunately the game was tied 2-2 so a lot of people were upset but it was still a lot of fun. And though parked far away from the stadium we didn't have to worry about bumper to bumper traffic so that was wonderful...

New toys...

2008-05-01T12:26:00.000-07:00

Well my new purchases finally came this week and I'm very excited about it. The laptop comes in handy when the internet goes down all the time on my desktop computer so then I can just run upstairs and use the laptop. I'm not going to lie, I've already had a few problems with the laptop since I got it on Tuesday. One of the programs that was pre-installed on it wasn't done properly and then I couldn't uninstall it because it was stuck. I talked to Trend Micro, the company that made the program, and they told me something to do and I did it but it didn't change anything. And then I called Dell...and I was on the phone with them for over an hour trying to figure out what was wrong with it. Eventually we just had to reformat it and uninstall the program then. Luckily I hadn't really added anything on to it then so I didn't mind...just as long as it was working. Then today I got an error message saying that the version of Trend Micro that was intalled on the computer wasn't compatible with Windows Vista the way it's current set up so I had to install an update and now it works just fine. Here's a picture of the beauty...

And remember I also bought a bed last week, well that came this morning and it's HUGE! I've never had a queen size bed before...well other than the air mattress I've been sleeping on but it's wonderful. They came and delivered it this morning and got it all set up for me and everything...however, the hard part was trying to put the bed skirt on without having to take the mattress off the box spring. I did get it all done and set up and think it looks rather nice. It's a little taller than I expected it would be so that means I'll have to wait until June or July or even August when hopefully I can get the rest of my furniture from home including my nightstand that will be taller than the dresser I currently have set up next to the bed. I'll post a picture of what it looked like before...and then after...and the last picture is of the dent in the side that made the headboard $600 cheaper...

And I also need to figure out what to do with my Venice picture...there just isn't enough room on the walls I guess...
See the dent isn't too bad, I'll just buy a wood marker and cover up the discoloration. Anyway, I also heard back from one of the job interviews that I went in for last week...and I'm going in for a working interview today at 5:30-7pm. It will be interesting I'm sure it's with Mountainland Rehab and the hours are MWF 7-3 and TTH from 11-7. So I hope that I get the job but we'll have to wait and see. Anyway, I think that's it for now. It's snowing pretty hard outside right now and it's May...isn't this supposed to be the month of May Flowers? Oh well...hopefully the snow goes away soon. And I don't think that I have anything else to update you on but just wanted to post some pictures of the new stuff...I'll talk to you all later!

Buyers Remorse?

2008-04-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

With the stimulus checks coming out next week I felt like I was justified in making a few purchases but I'm starting to feel the pain already. Two weeks ago I purchased a laptop computer that I thought would come in handy when I'm away from home or when I just don't want to be cooped up in my bedroom. I'm excited for the laptop but the price is what killed me...again the stimulus check was my only hope of seeing some of that money back. And then I did the unthinkable today...I went out and bought a bed. Don't ask me why I would do such a thing when I've been sleeping on a perfectly comfortable air mattress. I just wanted to see what was out there that was cheap. I've been looking at bed's for quite a while but hadn't found one that I really liked.

I went to the RC Willey Outlet store in West Jordan this morning thinking that maybe I'll find something cheap there that would coincide with my budget. Last time Eden and I went to RC Willey we stood around for about 15 minutes for someone to come help us purchase her mattress...After walking through those front doors I was met by a very nice elderly woman welcoming everyone into the store...behind her were about 10 salesmen waiting for their next commission. I found a section of beds and was lucky to be able to walk around in peace until I made my second trip through the headboards and was stopped by a salesman who wanted to know if he could help me find anything. I said I was just looking but I felt bad and asked him a question about the headboards and railings...I kind of already knew the answer to this question but I thought that I would give him a chance to show me what he knew about it. I looked at a few and wasn't convinced that those were right for me. Then he took me to the scratch and dent section of the store...much cheaper and more my price range. We looked through a lot of those headboards most of which were already sold. We kept looking and found a very nice leatherish headboard in a queen and it had one scratch on the side but you couldn't tell. Here is a picture of what the headboard looks like...now keep in mind this isn't my bed...I just stole it from a website to show what it would like. And it was below my budget for a headboard, and he threw in the rails for free...which I liked the sound of.

The only issue was that I had no way to take this headboard home, at least not in my car. So I'm having them deliver it and it will be here by Thursday this week. Then Ron, the salesman, pulled another fast one by asking if I had a matress and box spring for the bed...I hadn't even thought about that part of it yet. I know that I thought about it but I don't think I was planning on buying one right then and there. He showed me the mattresses that were cheapest...$400, $500 and had me lay on all 5 of them to find out which one felt the best to me...And luckily the cheapest one felt the best so I bought that one too. I figured that the stimulus checks are coming a week earlier so I have money to spend on this. However, because of that laptop I'm back where I started but with cooler stuff. So both of these items will be delivered next Thursday and Ron is getting a commission off of this so he must be happy.

So, now I'm officially getting a bed and my room will look complete but then there is the issue of spending money without having an income to replenish my checking account. I'm working on that part of it, I've had three job interviews this week. One of them was in West Jordan at a Physical Therapy office where it would be kind of like what I did at the Medford Medical Clinic but with added responsibility, it'd be an office manager job. Then I had an interview at Kirkham & Friends and I didn't even want to go to that job interview because it was so far away...plus it was snowing on my way there so that put a damper on things too. Anyway, I interviewed with the owners sons and they were really nice guys and we kind of just talked for awhile and they asked a few questions. This job seems a little more relaxed, almost like the job I had at Rogue Valley Home Loans, answering phone calls and helping out where needed. And then I had another interview with the same Physical Therapy office but this one was in Murray. It's a much smaller office but just as busy as the other one. They were nice but I was tag teamed as they brought in several people to interview me to see how I dealt with the pressure. I'd like to say that all of these interviews went well but you never know until you get a call back from them. All of them said that they would call me next week regardless so I hope that for my beds sake that I actually will get one of these jobs...otherwise, I'll just have to keep on looking. I'll keep you posted...

The Job Hunt

2008-04-22T16:35:00.000-07:00

Now that I have moved to Utah my days have consisted of hours on the internet looking for a job, reading up on the news, watching movies or hanging out with family and friends. The job hunt is the most difficult part right now because well...I need SOME kind of income. I had heard a few months back that Salt Lake City is one of the best places to find a job but I'm not sure if that is exactly true. Sure, there are a lot of listings online and in the newspaper but they are all jobs that I am either way underqualified for or those that I am overqualified for. It can get frustrating when all that you are seeing are Installation Technicians, Pharmaceutical Reps, CNC Machinest (what does that mean anyway?!) or even a Buyer (What does that entail? I like to buy things). I did see that Jamba Juice is hiring but that might be a step back in the wrong direction. I've had my resume revised probably about 10 times in the last 2 weeks and I haven't sent it in to anyone yet...again because I feel I am underqualified or overqualified... I have a Bachelors Degree in English Literature for goodness sake. I'm just trying to find something that I will actually enjoy doing, something where my talents and skills will be appreciated, is that too much to ask for? I looked on craigslist for a few jobs but they seemed a little iffy, plus I'm a little hesitant after the craigslist fiasco in Oregon last month. However, I always have in mind something that my dad said "if they can't afford to pay for an ad, they can't afford to pay you." Well...I must have dismissed that phrase today because I got fed up looking at openings and found a job on craiglist and after deliberating with myself whether or not to do it, I sent my resume anyway (Sorry Dad). I received a phone call an hour later and they want me to come in for an interview on Thursday. After talking to the lady on the phone I'm regretting sending the resume in because it's not something I am really interested in and I don't have a lot of experience in the real estate field. I'm still looking around, maybe I'll come across something just perfect for me working in a museum or actually using my degree for something...hopefully before Thursday...

MTV Cribs

2008-04-08T10:08:00.000-07:00

I don't usually do blogs (except for when we were in Europe) but since everyone else is jumping on the band wagon I figured I might as well too. I wanted to be able to post pictures without having to weight down everyone's emails. So here goes...

Last Monday I took off to the land of Utah, not knowing what to expect. It was the longest drive I have ever done by myself and I don't think I want to do it again. I had to pump my own gas which was interesting. I had everything under control there until I got to Wendover and the thing wouldn't start for me. I actually had to go inside and tell the guy what pump I was on and it was freezing cold out there and I just had a sweatshirt on. I think I stood there for a good 10 minutes arguing with the credit card machine before I went inside. Luckily, we got it up and running and I didn't feel like that big of an idiot after that. That last stretch on the salt flats was the hardest because there is nothing for several miles and you tend to get a little sleepy...at least I did. I was doing everything I could to possibly stay awake. I turned my music up loud, I slapped my cheek a few times, I chewed gum...but nothing was helping. So once I pulled over to the rest stop I called family to know that I was tired and pulled over at a deserted rest stop...well deserted by all but truckers but they were on the other side of the median. It was then that I got a call from Eden who told me to just come to her sisters house in West Valley because it was much closer than Midvale and I wouldn't have to worry about unloading my stuff. So I took off and had people call me every 10 minutes to make sure that I was still awake. Let me tell you, it came in handy (Thanks guys). I was on my way to West Valley and talking to Kevin on the phone when all of a sudden I saw a pool of blood on the road which I tried to avoid but I don't think I was successful at...then all of a sudden there was a carcass of some kind lying in the middle of the road which I tried to avoid as well but I don't think I did very well at that either. Luckily my turn off came and I found my way to Eden's sisters house.

The next day was when I first saw the house that I will be living in for the next few months. It's quite large and it's pretty nice. These pictures were taken after living in it for a week so it looks pretty well lived in for now...

The first picture is the front of the house, as you can see my lovely car sitting there...It was kind of cold this morning and I was standing out there in my pajamas so I only took one picture of it so that no one would see me...

This is the little porch to the side, right now it just holds are trash cans...I think today is trash day but I'm not sure why we have to garbage cans and one recycling...Oh well...we haven't accumulated that much trash anyway.

And this is a picture of the living room taken from when you first enter the house. In the first picture there you can see the dining room as well

This is our kitchen looking towards the front door... and the one below is the kitchen looking from dining room. I had to take a picture of my kitchenaid there because it looks so pretty...

The door there to the right leads to the backyard...

At least it's green, I'm not sure if we are the ones that are supposed to mow it or what because I think I'd end of killing it...

Then we'll go down the hall off the left of the living room...down this hallway are the 1.5 baths and the other three bedrooms...I didn't take pictures of those because I figured that the girls wouldn't want me to plaster them all over the internet...

Then immediately to your right is the stairs that leads to the basement...

Once you come down these stairs, to your left is the bathroom and I really like that shower curtain... Target!

And to your left at the bottom of the stairs leads to the family room or living room...whatever you want to call it..

And yes, that is a lovesac which I have wanted forever! It belongs to one of my roommates, however, when I sat in it yesterday Eden promptly told me that she saw two spiders on it that morning so I jumped off rather quickly. It's a pretty big area, in the back under those lights we are wanting to put an air hockey table or a ping pong table...just something fun.. the next picture is looking from about the hallway to the TV.

And for some reason I didn't take a picture of the hallway but once you walk down it there is the laundry room to your right and a storage room to your left and then at the end of the hallway is Eden's room to the right and my room to the left, so here is a picture of my room...

So there you have it, a complete walkthrough of the new house, I feel like I'm on MTV Cribs or something...Anyway I better get on the job search so I don't just keep on spending money. I'll keep you updated...talk to you later...