The Good

I keep thinking I am going to have more time to blog, and I just can't seem to stay on top of it. I just finished 3 hours straight of homework, and I really should be crawling into bed right now, but I just wanted to blog.
I have to say there is so much good in life. I am so lucky to be married to the man I am. He takes such good care of me. From bringing me keys when I lock mine in my car, to shoveling the snow off the driveway for me, even making me do my homework that I am procrastinating, he is a fantastic husband and I can't help but be grateful I was blessed to marry such a wonderful man.
We have been blessed with so much. When I was stressing about paying the hospital and ambulance bills, we got a notice that said Scott's insurance (my secondary) covered the rest of the hospital bill. What a blessing in our lives. While the ambulance bill is still large, it was a relief to know that we had $340 less to pay. Also, another bill that I pay $144/mo on will be paid off in February, so that money can go toward the ambulance bill. What a blessing. We can't help but keep paying our tithing. We have been very blessed in our marriage to have the money every time an unexpected expense comes up, and I am grateful for that as well.
My job is great. The Christmas bonus this year was very generous. It has always been generous. Without my Christmas bonus, I don't know how we would pay for Christmas each year. It is so great to have that extra money and they give it to us in November so we can use it for Christmas. It is great company to work for, and just the other day my boss expressed he appreciation for me and told me he would like me to work there for years to come. I am not sure what the future holds, but it is awesome to work for a company that makes me feel so appreciated.
I am grateful to have the friends that I do have. I don't have very many close friends any more, but I do have a few work friends that help me through the days. I grateful for that. It is always nice to have someone there that can help me through the crazy days at work, and even listen to my personal issues. Heaven knows I have too many of those.
I am just very happy with my life and I know where the blessings have come from. I am grateful for that knowledge on top of everything else. I am so blessed to have the gospel so prevalent in my life. I am so grateful we have so many temples around us. It is a constant reminder to live the life I know I should be living.
I just can't say enough about everything I have been blessed with. I am so grateful for it all! There are many more blessings, but I feel like I have written enough and it is time for bed.

Baby Hungry

Pretty much since the day I turned 25, I started thinking I really need a baby. Sometime in the past couple of months, I really really really want a baby. I even wrote a paper in my English 150 class about whether or not children make you happy, which by the way pissed off a guy in my class becuase the whole essay was pro baby. I don't think the essay really helped. It did help me to remember why I don't have one yet though. Scott and I have discussed it at length and if I think with my head and not with my heart, we are just not ready. Not that anyone ever is ready, but we could definitely be more ready. We are too selfish right now. We don't want to give up time with each other to give to a baby. Not to mention the money.
My sister and I were talking the other night about Trace Adkin's song,"You're Gonna Miss This". I realized while we were talking about it that we think too much about the future and we don't really think about how much we might miss the phase we are in now. Once we have a baby, we can't come back to the time we have now. The time where it is just the two of us, and we could up and take a weekend trip after an especially trying week. We can just go to dinner without making it an entire ordeal. I know I will miss this later on in life. I just need to cherish the phase of my life I am in and quit thinking about the future. The future will come, and the changes along with it. What matters is that I am happy in the present.

Our Vacation

Scott and I had a vacation the week before our anniversary. Usually we try to get our anniversary week off, but since Scott has to bid on his vacation weeks, it just so happened our week was already gone. It was fine. We just celebrated a bit early. For our vacation, we didn't plan anything. It was great. Sunday we rode up Nebo loop and ended up in Nephi for a while. It was really cool to head up the loop and see all the fall colors. God is the greatest artist isn't He? Monday, we looked up some things around here to do that maybe we haven't ever done before or haven't had the time for in the past. We decided to go to This is the Place Heritage Village, but it was not really open during they day because they had the haunted village at night. That was rather disappointing, but the Hogle Zoo is right across the street and I had never been there, so we went there. It was a lot of fun. Scott and I can make most things fun anyway, but I actually really enjoyed looking at the animals. There were sooooo many baby animals. It was really cool.

Isn't that baby monkey the cutest? There were a bunch of baby tigers too.

The picture is not as good, but there are a couple of baby tigers with the mom in this picture. Baby animals are so cute. There were these kids there that kept calling all the babies "darling". What kid talks like that? Anyway, that night I had to back in time for class, so we headed back around 3.

Tuesday we went golfing I believe. We went up to some executive course in Salt Lake somewhere and I actually hit the ball pretty well. I was pleasantly surprised.

I have no idea what we did Wednesday... did we do anything? Maybe we ran errands or something? I might even had Wednesday and Tuesday mixed up. But I know we did something Tuesday because I decided to skip class. It has been too long sadly.

Thursday, we headed up to Midway to use a free night stay at the Zermatt resort from my work. Scott upgraded the room to the Honeymoon Suite for my anniversary gift. It was nice. We really like it. He also took me to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, well actually we used the $50 my work gave me along with the hotel stay (it was actually the Christmas present they gave all the ee's last year). We had a good time. It was cool to have the ice bucket filled for us, and have the beds turned down with chocolates on the pillows. Makes you feel special.

Friday, since we were right across the street from The Homestead, we played golf again. It was REALLY cold when we first started, but it got much warmer and Scott was prepared. We took warm clothes and Scott brought hand warmers. We bought hot chocolate and payed extra for a covered cart as well. We would have frozen with the cold wind in the uncovered cart. I actually played pretty well again. I wasn't putting well, but my drives were really good. Scott started making fun of me for playing boring golf and hitting it right down the middle over and over. It was a really good time. And it was pretty cheap, at least for The Homestead.

Friday afternoon we headed to the Park City outlets to do some Christmas shopping. We bought a couple of gifts, but we still have a lot to go. Scott bought me a new down coat, which I needed badly, as a Christmas present. I am so excited to have a coat that will be able to keep me warm i the freakin cold Utah winters...I guess that was the end of our vacation. Saturday we didn't do much more than buy groceries because I got a cold. Which I have to say only lasted a few days. I was really happy about that. I contribute it to downing Vitamin C like crazy and Zicam. Well there you go, or at least now I have a record of our vacation. It was a really nice vacation. I enjoyed not having the stress of travel involved with it.

I'm Back!

Sorry folks, I haven't blogged in over a month. I have just been crazy busy. I got tired of school, and then got really behind in school, and all my free time was used up trying to catch up on school stuff. I am finally back on track as far as school, and maybe now I can start blogging again. I know at least Scott has been disappointed that he couldn't read about our lives... so I am going to be recapping the past month with a few different posts. Feast or famine!

Scott's Gift

This is Scott's anniversary gift. It is a little early since our anniversary is not till the 26th, but I think I got a little over zealous wanting to make sure it got here in time, and it got here 12 days early. It came while I was at school yesterday and Scott started setting it up. There was no way of disgusing it. The box it shipped in had a picture of what it was, so unfortunately I didn't even get to give it to him. Oh well though. I think he likes it. It will keep our golf stuff a lot more organized. There is actually a specific place for it. Scott has like 4 sets of clubs, so there are still a few in the guest bedroom closet, but this will be really nice for the set he is using most often. It is readily available, but doesn't look like there are clubs just laying around.

I'm going to have an ad!

I signed a contract with Utah Valley Bride magazine today to put an add in their 2010 magazine. I don't know exactly what it is going to look like yet, but I am really excited about it. I was little nervous to do the add this year considering I will still be working full time and going to school when the add is run, but Scott convinced me the longer I put it off, the easier it is to put off. The great thing about advertising with them is the magazine is put out with a different cover for each season, so the add will run all year. And... I get to put a bouquet together for them to photograph and put in the flower section of the magazine. So I get more than just the add for my money. It is such a great deal and I know I will get an awesome return on investment. After I pay for the ad, I will try to get into a wedding show. I hope I'm ready for the business!

The Last Marathon

This weekend I finally got my opportunity to run the much anticipated St. George Marathon. After the three hours of sleep I got, I was surprisingly awake getting ready that morning. Unfortunately, I left my water and gatorade in the fridge in the hotel. Not sure if it was a contributing factor to later events, but I think it might have been. After the wonderful bus ride up to the top, I waited with my friend Colleen's husband for the race to start. It was really cold. It was kind of nice that they had a bunch of fires up there that most people who weren't standing in line for porta potties were huddled around.
For the first three miles of the race, I did really well. At least I was happy with how it was going. I was at 3 miles at 29 minutes. Next time I actually paid attention to my time was at mile 15. By then I was three hours into the race with no hope of finishing in the 4:30 I hoped for. Somewhere in the upper single digits, my chest started burning and it was really hard to breathe. I stopped and walked for a while. But every time I started running again, but chest burned more. This really upset me because I felt like I had trained really well, and I could continue running if it weren't for the burning. I figured I had caught the cold Scott had. Sad. I ended up walking most of the second half of the race, and finished in 5:56:45. So depressing. I felt awful. Towards the end of the race there were a couple of misting stations. Every time I went under one, I gasped and it hurt BAD.
After I finished the race, I sat down with Scott. I was tired. When I tried to get up, I got really dizzy and I had to sit back down. I can't really describe how I felt. I felt weak, nauseous, dizzy, and hot. Once I finally got enough energy to move, we started walking to the car, but because there was so many people, Scott had to park a little ways away. I couldn't even make it to the car. I laid down on the grass and Scott went to get the car. A couple of girls walked by and asked if I was ok, and offered me some ice cream. I took it (it was ice cream from the marathon, they weren't just weird people). The ice cream made me feel worse. Scott came and got me and I thought I was going to throw up twice before we got to the hotel, but thankfully, I didn't. I didn't that is, until we got to the hotel parking lot. I knew I couldn't make it to the room, so I sat down on the curb. Then began the vomiting. Over and over. I laid down on the curb with my head in the gutter, pleasant huh? I asked Scott to go get my gatorade, water and crackers from the room. He brought it down and everything I ate or drank, came right back up. It was awful.
After I was laid on the curb for 30 to 45 minutes, some lady came and asked if I was ok. I told her I was sick, and somehow she determined I was sicker than I said. She and her husband helped me inside (I threw up on the way). She got a bunch of towels and water and put them all over my body. I was little uncomfortable to have some random lady lifting up my shirt to put towel on my stomach, but I was feeling so awful, it didn't really matter. She said I was really hot. My body was burning up. It was so hot, I kept warming up the towels. She tried to get me to drink some water, but it kept coming right back up. Eventually she told me that she wasn't comfortable with how I was doing and asked the hotel to call an ambulance. They came out and gave me an IV and oxygen. Eventually they determined that I needed to go to the hospital to get completely checked out.
By the time I got to the hospital, I was feeling much better. Just getting water and oxygen into me really helped. At the hospital they gave me a breathing treatment for asthma, some zofran for the nausea and took some blood to test. I was there for a couple of hours and they determined I was ok to go. They discharged me with heat exhaustion and told me that I need to be super careful from now on because now that I have had heat exhaustion, it is easier for me to get it again. Heat exhaustion turns into heat stroke, and you can die from heat stroke. I was told I can never do a marathon again. Which was my plan already, but I was hoping to go out with a bang. Well, I did go out with a bang, but not the type I was hoping for. I was hoping to do better on this marathon than the other two I had done. Oh well I guess, I can't control what happens to me in life. I can still do half marathons. I am happy about that. Anyway, for anyone who is wondering, I am doing much better. I am still a little weak and I get tired if I do too much, but I am functioning, and I am feeling good. I am happy that nothing was worse than it was. Oh, and I am really excited to get the bill!

Brittney's Baptism

This last weekend Scott and I headed up to Rexburg for my niece's baptism. It was a lot of fun. We spent the weekend playing with the kids and hoping for our niece Ashley to want to play with us. Brittney's baptism was pretty cool. Malachi told everyone there that he didn't want to get dunked like that, but he did want to go in the water. It was really cool that Britney made the decision to get baptized and when Scott asked her if she felt different after, she said she did. I hope she knows the importance of what she just experienced, because heaven knows most of us don't know it at that time. Scott and I spent a lot of time with the kids, and every time we take care of kids together, I am constantly amazed at how good at it he is. He is just so good at communicating with them and getting on their level as well as the discipline part. He will be an awesome dad when the time comes. Oh, and I really enjoyed holding my sister's brand new baby all through sacrament meeting. Then she woke up and was grinning at me. So much fun!

Redundant

Yes, I know my constant posting about my fantastic husband can get old, but I just can't help it. On Tuesdays I have class until 9, and this week I was a little bit sad about how messy our house is and how I wasn't going to have time to clean it. When I got home from school, Scott had done all the laundry, put away his clothes that were out, adjusted our sealing fan, adjusted the head lights on the truck, changed the sheets on our bed, made the bed, cleaned our room, and dusted our room. It was so nice when I was kind of grumpy about how much of my time is consumed these days with seemingly useless things (like my science class, blech!), Scott was so great to do so much around the house. It was such a relief and it made me sooooo happy! I am a very lucky girl... what can I say?

Wordle

I had to steal this wordle thing from Cali (thanks Cali!) It is based on my blog, and it is kind of sad the words I use most often. Just and time are the biggest? and Scott and love are kind of on the small end. Sad! Still fun though!

Brad Paisley

Scott and I spent our Saturday night with this gentleman (yes, sorry I am so behind folks, still haven't quite figured out how to balance my time). I seriously can't say how much I love his music. He has the most ridiculous sounds, and then he comes out with a song like "Then" or "If I Could Write a Letter to Me". I seriously cried 3 times at his concert. He is by far my favorite artist right now. We had amazing seats too. We were in the VIP section, that's right for fan club members only, we were in the 5th row, and only 2 seats away from where the stage extended. Which is where he was standing when I took the picture. It was so awesome to be that up close and personal. Best concert EVER! Scott even had a good time. Dierks Bentley was the opener and he put on a really good show as well. Just have to say that. I knew most of his songs and he is full of energy and fun. But Brad Paisley was definitely the star of the show. What a great entertainer.

Scott's New Toy

This is Scott's new bike I mentioned earlier that he got. It is our newest addition of things to do together, which is never a bad thing.

And here is the bike I want. The purple is just me. Scott and I have both brought up how much we would like to get this bike, but considering I have a bike already and this one is a little expensive, we are going to have to wait. I am excited either way that Scott has a bike now and we can go on bike rides together. It is a great way to get exercise and not be sitting on our butts watching TV.

Random thoughts from people 25-45 years old

I had to post this, it is actually an email forward, but it was one of those things and you can't help but think how true most of it is. My comments are in parenthesis.

-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.
-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong. (Haven't we all been there?)
-Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk. (My trick is to check my cell phone)
-I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger. (I always tell the children I know to cherish their naps)
-Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?
-Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft. (SOOOOO true.)
-There is a great need for sarcasm font.
-I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.
-How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet? (I hate trying to fold those things, there is seriously no good way)
-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
-Ithink part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die. (Ok, serioulsy, this one is stupid.)
-The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text. (And then the red night never lasts long enough)
-A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it. (Yeah, I wouldn't know)
-I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
-Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".
-How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said? (I do that all the time, but it can come back to bite you in the butt)
-I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!
-Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second> lapse)..ummm...Goonies" (I've done that only, I was giving my email address and I said T as in Tom. Then I said, or as in Tisha)
-MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
-Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
-I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.
-Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.
-I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
-Bad decisions make good stories.
-Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!
-Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year? (It's awful how slutty they look when they also look way too young to be dressing like that)
-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....
-You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.
-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection. (AMEN!)
-"Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.
-I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'
-I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away? (I love this one, makes me laugh so hard, because it happens every time!)
-I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste. ( And then when you feel like crap, you see a ton of people you haven't seen in years)
-Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...
-As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always>hate cyclists. (YUP, even though it may become a new past time of ours)
-Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
-I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
-Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.
-Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey, but I'd bet everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...(I am sorry if anyone takes offense to this one, I wanted to edit, but thought I would ruin it)
-My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?
-It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com <http://cnn.com/ and the link takes me to a video instead of text.
-I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit. (My brother in law is a cop and he said it gets annoying, especially when he is off duty)
-I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
-I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay. (I don't drink, so in my world they don't being with Miller Lite either, but seriously who doesn't hate those commercials?)

Lovely Evening

What can be better than taking a bike ride with your honey on a cool crisp fall evening? We went a purchased a bike for Scott tonight. It was a little expensive, but it will be well worth it. It made me feel like my little cheapo bike that I have had for years is not good enough anymore, but my bike still works, so there is no reason to get a new one right now. I really enjoyed being able to go for a bike ride together though. It was very pleasant, and I am looking forward to more of the same.

School

Wow, who knew that going back to school and only taking 6 credits would make you so busy! I feel like I don't even have enough time to do anything outside of work, school, homework, and training for my marathon. Right now I am avoiding doing my homework. I know I should be working on it, but out of everything I need to get done, I really just don't want to do any of it. I am a huge slacker. I will pay for it later I am sure. A girl I work with has been working full-time and going to school full-time for a long time, and I seriously don't know how she did it. Whew!

I love my husband

I so love my husband. He is such a great man. I am so lucky to have a guy that is so good with kids. We were over at my parents this weekend for a Labor Day BBQ. There were bunch of our nieces and nephews there as well as some neighbor girls. He handled the whole thing really well. He played with the kids a lot. We went to the park basically right before it was time to go home and he got on the plastic playground with the kids and even crawled through a tunnel that he really didn't fit in with them. It was so awesome to watch him interact with the kids and actually embrace the things chaos around him even though his family is so calm. I see him interact with kids every Sunday in nursery too, and it just makes me fall in love with him even more. He is so great with kids and they love him. I love him too!

Should Be Interesting

So I actually did start school tonight. I am pretty sure I am the only Junior in the class and I am the only married person in the class. Is it going to make me feel old or young? Probably old. Sadly since I am going back and doing core/prerequisite courses, the class consists of mostly freshman. I was hoping since it was a "night" class there wouldn't be as many, but alas, there are. The professor is a grad student, and really she seems more my age. Gotta love it. I'm sure it will be fine. I just feel like a giant geek...Why did I stop school for so long before going back?

First Day of School

I was sure today was the first day of class at BYU. I have had it on the calendar in my brain all month. The 24th is the first day of the semester. I had planned to take a short lunch today so I could leave early and get to class on time, and then I was going to pick up my books, and head home. Then I was talking to my friend Angie at work and she mentioned school starts next week. I was like, well, all I know is I have class today. So I checked the online calendar and well, the semester starts next Monday. I have another whole week of summer. Hooray! I was nervous about starting the new semester anyway! Love that I am a nutcase...

Moab

This weekend Scott and I decided to take a little break and head down to Moab. I took Friday off and when he got home from a route, we headed out. We stopped in Price and played golf at Carbon Country Club. It was a pretty nice course. Scott played really well as usual, and I well, I played. Then we headed down to Moab for the rest of the weekend. It was really hot. Friday night we drove up to Arches and started a hike, but it was starting to get dark, so we turned around. Saturday morning we got up and golfed the Moab golf course. There were some really pretty holes on that course. The red rock around the course made for some beautiful views. We were downing water at every water jug we came to. It was fun. The course wasn't super busy, so it was relaxed and made for a nice golf game.

Saturday afternoon, after we rested in the hotel during the hottest part of the day, we went back up to Arches and hiked to a couple of them. We didn't get to see as many as I would have liked, but it was so hot during the middle of the day, I don't know how we could have done any more. I think it would be best to go back in the cooler months of the year. It was fun seeing the arches we did see. My favorite arch that we did see was the Sand Dunes Arch. It didn't seem very popular, but you walk between a bunch of really tall rocks, and for some reason I really enjoyed that. Unfortunately none of these pictures look as good as the actual views. The views in Arches are so awesome.

Book Recommendation

I just finished reading "Why I Believe" by Senator Jake Garn. It was published sometime in the 90's and apparently it wasn't very popular, but I really enjoyed it. It is a short book about why he believes in all of the things he believes. It was very inspiring to me. He has gone through sooo many things and seen so many things. I can't even imagine going through all the trials he has and still being able to write a book about the faith he has. It really made me stop and think several times that I really have no reason to ever feel sorry for myself and I really should be doing more for the people around me. If you don't mind reading a book about religion, it is definitely worth the time.

Sick

Today, I am sick. I hate being sick. I got up this morning feeling queasy, but went for my run anyway... felt sick the entire time, but tried to ignore it, when I got home and showered I felt so week I wasn't sure I was going to be able to stand up long enough to finish my shower. I went to work anyway, but only stayed till 10. My stomach ache never went away. What I hate the most about being sick is being at home all day long and not being able to accomplish anything. I have been feeling like I can't get enough done around the house as I would like, and being home, but not having the energy to do anything really sucked. Scott was super nice and cleaned a lot of the house while I was sleeping. He is such a super sweet husband. It made me feel even worse about not doing anything because he was doing so much. At least I was able to stand up long enough to make his dinner for him tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow I feel better!

Our Country

I am currently reading a book that was recommended by our "human performance coach" at my work. It is called Why I Believe. It is basically a book about why this man believes in several different things. It is written by a LDS man, so a lot of it is church related, but the chapter I read last night was on freedom and democracy. He talked about thing he had seen in other countries and the amazing freedoms we have here that we take for granted. We have the right to vote for our local and federal leaders. And half of us don't even take advantage of being able to vote for the leaders we believe will make the changes we believe in. We just sit back and complain about life when there is so much in this great country to be grateful for. We take for granted how rich our nation is and how well off we are. There are people living without indoor plumbing and we complain if the our employers don't give us enough incentives. It is actually quite pathetic. I realized after reading that chapter how lucky we are to live in a free nation and be blessed with all the abundance around us. I know I need to be more grateful. This is a great country and we are so fortunate to be a part of it.

Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

While I was living in Idaho and dating Scott, I had this quote pinned up on my bulletin board,
"Absence is to love as wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small and enflames the great."
I really and truly believe it. Scott and I spent a large part of the 3 years and 1o months we were together in a long distance relationship and yet we had a really strong relationship. People would tell me all the time that long distance relationships don't work, and I would just laugh and tell them our relationship is different. It is different. We have our own dynamic that is hard to explain. But I think a lot of it has to do with the deep rooted friendship we built it upon.
I am really missing Scott a lot these days because he is sporadically running routes. I get tired of not seeing him, but the one and only good thing about him being on routes is when we do get back together it is almost like we are dating again. Not that our relationship has ever been bad. We have a fantastic marriage. We are still madly in love with each other, but the feeling I have being with him this week has been awesome. I love to be with Scott more than anything else in this world. It is awful to spend time away from him, but if nothing else good comes from it, at least being away from him helps me remember how much I love and adore him. He is a great husband. The kind you dream of when you pick out the features you want in a man. I am lucky to have someone who puts my feelings first, and loves to spend time with me. He won't even go golfing without me if I am available. Which is really saying a lot. Being married is better than I ever imagined, and I know that is largely due to the man I chose to marry.

Our Plan

While Scott and I were visiting Multnomah Falls in Oregon, Scott says to me,"We are going to married for 50 years right?"I respond with, "Only 50? Is that the cut off?" He proceeds to tell me that we have 50 years and 50 states, so why don't we make a goal to visit all 50 states. And of course play golf in all 50 states. The conversation went on into discussing things that can be seen in random states that you wouldn't really think of visiting. I am really excited about the plan. I think it will be fun to be able to say that we have been to all of the states. Besides all of the things we will be able to see and experience instead of just going to the beach on every vacation. Besides Scott I think is excited to play the golf courses all over the U.S. I am trying to put together a map board for us to put pins in when we cross the states of the list. It will be fun to have something to track our progress with. One state a year. It will be so much fun! I think we are thinking Colorado next... We'll see when decide to do it.

I am now a golfer!

This weekend was great. I got off work at 1 on Friday, which was great. And Scott called me around 2:3o and said he was having a rough day and wanted to get away. So I started looking up hotel prices and we headed down to Mesquite around 4:3o. Saturday we head back up north to play golf with my brother in law at Cedar Ridge Golf Course. I had pretty much my best round ever. First of all, I scored a 95 on 18 holes, and for me that is good. It's the first time I have ever broken 100. I know, it may sound lame, but I think it's great. I have really only been playing golf for a couple of years. And this is the better part, I got my first eagle!!! It was on a par 4, and I hit a really good drive, which left me about 100 yards to the pin, and I hit it in! It was awesome!!! I was running around trying not to jump out of my skin. It was so cool! It is not as impressive as Scott's two double eagle's or his hole in one, but for me it was the best thing ever. I am still a beginner. I have never even gotten a birdie before, but I do have an eagle! Hooray!!! And here are some pictures of the event!

Kenny Chesney Concert

Thursday night we went to the Kenny Chesney concert. Scott is not a huge fan of Kenny Chesney, but I convinced him to go because Miranda Lambert was opening for him. Miranda Lambert was super good. She is a ball of fire. Super feisty and full of energy. She is seriously a red neck chic. Scott and I talked about how we think she would be fun to hang out with because you would never know what would happen next. Kenny was good as well. He is so energetic, it is always a really good show. Scott, being not much of a concert goer, still doesn't get why the minute the guy walks out on stage everyone screams, but it was still really fun. There were a bunch of drunk people around us, but there were also a few different couples I learned some things from.
The first couple was directly in front of us. It was a guy with his maybe 12 year old daughter. Scott and I talked about them later and we got the same impression. This guy was a really good dad. He obviously did not want to be there, yet had purchased these tickets for his daughter who obviously loved Kenny. It was so sweet that he would sacrifice so clearly for his daughter. That was really cool to see. Good things.
The second couple was an upper middle aged couple. The guy was sitting down and she was up dancing like there was no reason not to. I loved that she was sure of herself enough to just dance away all by herself. I really hope I have that kind of spunk when I am that age.
The third couple was another middle aged couple who were so cute together. They were not the most attractive couple, but they were clearly in love, which is so great to witness. I watched him grab her butt at one point. Which usually annoys me, but they were just so endearing. He never took his hands off her all evening. Not in a bad way, just he had her hand on her back or around her shoulders. It was cute to watch them, they were so in love and didn't care who knew. So cute.
I have always been a people watcher, but this was a really interesting dynamic. There are just as many pleasant people and things as there are things for me to be annoyed about. How great!

Complaining

So, today at work I was chatting with a co-worker, who I love by the way, and I realized that I have a lot to say, but a lot of what I say is complaint. I complain about people who do this or someone that did that to me the other day, and I am starting to feel like I am a big fat whiner when in all actuality my life is pretty darn good. So here is the deal. I decided with my co-worker to try to stop complaining. I'm not sure how long I will be able to do it, but I am going to try really hard and if I fail, try again. There is no reason to be complaining when there are so many good things in life. I want to start posting about those good things instead of my random complaining. So my good thing to post about today is: I had a fantastic run this morning. I had a 6 miler to do, and I was a little nervous for it, but my running partner ran 5 of them with me (which always helps a lot, thanks Allison!) and I actually felt rather good when the run was over. Nothing better than a great run to start off your morning! Hooray for the good things in life!

School

Last night I decided to work on both of my classes. Both are information systems classes, and both are basically independent study. I had a really tough time last night. I was really frustrated and throwing psycho fits and Scott was just trying to ignore it because he know he couldn't help. The frustration combined with my lack of money (I am having to budget every penny now), I was seriously wondering why in the world I was going back to school. Today we had our "coaching sessions" at work, and it was our theory day, my favorite of the weekly rotation. Some of the things that were said really helped me to remember why I am going back to school. One of the things is that one of the ways to better your position in life is education. The other quote that really hit me was this: "The greater the conflict, the greater the triumph." I am not even that far into school. I haven't started any of the hard business classes yet. I just had one bad day. I know it is going to get harder, but I realize now that if it wasn't hard, it wouldn't be an accomplishment. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from a movie:"Of course it's hard, it's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard everyone would do it. The hard it was makes it great." Both of those quotes could apply to so many things, but right now the struggle is school, and well, I know that 5 or 6 year from now and feel the greatness and the triumph... Oh,and I really hope I can remember this post when I need it again, because I know I will have other days of frustration going to school. That is just part of the whole experience.

Why do you think people want to see that?

Ok, I know I use my blog a lot to gripe, but just so everyone knows, I do like people in general, but there are just somethings I don't get. I am not a negative person, I just don't understand and that is where these posts come from. My newest thing is I don't understand why guys seem to think that they have the right to run around without their shirts on! What makes them think that everyone wants to see them without their shirt on? I understand if you are swimming or if you are playing a sport shirts against skins, but going skateboarding? Really? It is not a good look for most guys, and even the ones that look good, it's still an uncomfortable thing... Come on...it's just not wanted or appreciated as far as I am concerned. Maybe there are other women that enjoy it, but I sure as heck don't and never have.

My Harry Potter Obsession

So being who I am, I kind of didn't buy into the whole Harry Potter thing when it was first popular. I hate buying in to hype, so I refused to read the books, even though EVERYONE recommended them. I finally bought the first two over a year ago, but still didn't read them. Then, I ran out of books to read, and I figured, I might as well read them, since I have them. And I have to say, I LOVE them. I can't wait till 8:30 so I can go lay in bed and read my Harry Potter book and play with Scott's hair. I was so excited to see the newest movie, and I stayed up the night finishing book 6 before I saw the movie, and I thought the movie was great. They do a really good job on following the books even though they have to cut out SOOO much. I was amazed because I read most of the books after I had seen the movies, but this one I read first, and I still like the movie! Scott didn't love the ending, but it ended that way in the book too, so that wasn't super annoying. It was great. I can't wait to start book 7, which I need to hurry and buy!

Ute Stampede

Last weekend (yes I know I am behind) we went to the Ute Stampede down in Nephi. We go every year with Scott's family, and it's always really fun. I did some wedding flowers that I had to drop off on the way down there, which turned out really nice by the way, but we didn't get there until after 11 am. We started out at the car show and they had a lot of cars this year. Their car show is a lot bigger than I have seen at a festival anywhere else. There were so many cars. Here are my favorites.

And Scott's.

Later in the afternoon we went over to the craft show. We ended up going right at the perfect time when the storm came in, but it blew over and everything was fine.

We ended the night with the rodeo! Always my favorite part of the festivities. It wasn't as good this year as normal, but still better than other rodeos I have been to. It seemed like every event was a little short. Maybe less entries this year? Who knows. We were super comfortable through the entire rodeo thanks to the stadium seats we purchased. We looked like big dorks, but hey it's worth it! That was the only part of the rodeo I hated was my back and butt hurting towards the middle of it. The stadium seats were fantastic.

My favorite part of this year besides the bull riding was this giant boot! They had the kid, yes kid, who sang the national anthem come up out of it. It was really cool.

Inconsideration

Recently I have really been struggling with people in general. I really don't understand people who are ungrateful, who think they are entitled, who are inconsiderate of people around them, and who treat people around them badly. I seem to encounter these people everywhere. At work, at church, just going about my daily life. Who taught these people their manners? And why do they thing they are better than everyone else? I really don't understand it. It is fine to think well of yourself. In fact, I think it is important to like yourself, but to think you or your needs or your wants are more important than others is ridiculous. And why, I ask, if you are an inconsiderate person who thinks you are more important than those around you, do you feel the need to talk so sweetly? Don't pretend to be nice when you are acting like a big jerk. Please, please, be real for heaven's sake! I don't know if this post has even made sense. Basically, I need to suck it up and handle it because this people will always be around. But dealing with it does not necessarily mean I will ever understand it. The end.

Freedom 10K

I'm apologize to my faithful readers, all 1 of you. You know who you are. Because of new internet restrictions at work I can't get online for personal use even on my lunch break, which was when I did a lot of my blogging. So here I am almost a week later talking about my run on the 4th. I decided to do the Freedom 10k this year. I have done it once before and the thing I hated before was the same thing I hated this time. The uphill climb at the end. Who in their right mind ends a 6 mile run with an uphill? How rude. I really had only run 6 miles twice before the race, so my finish at 1:06 wasn't that disappointing. That is exactly 11 min miles. It was fun though to run with a girl from work who I really haven't been able to spend much time with in the past. It was fun talking to her a little bit and I really enjoyed having company. Running races with a friend is always a lot more fun than running alone. She had only run 3 milers before the race, and I was actually the one holding her back. She left me at the end with about .2 miles to go. She was a great running partner.

Baby Blessing Weekend

This weekend was our newest niece's baby blessing. It was a fun weekend, even though it was super busy and we got very little sleep. Our new niece is so tiny and so adorable. She looked so precious in her blessing dress. Isn't that the sweetest picture? What a beautiful baby girl.

We basically hung out at my sisters house all weekend (after we got in our 18 holes of golf of course). We played wii with my sister's kids, made homemade ice cream, helped clean up the house and tried to win over our 18 month old niece, Ashley, who doesn't like people. She is so funny. She doesn't throw a fit when you pick her up she just gives you looks like she is not sure why you think you should be privileged enough to hold her. I did get a few smiles out of her, and of course Scott did manage to win her over as well. It just takes a little time. She is just so adorable you want her to like you. It's such a challenge.

This is the best picture I could get of us.This is Britney & Ashley (Britney is the older sister, who I also adore):Scott & Ashley waiting for church to start, just after she had wandered off, and we went to find her:Malachi just before church, he is just so cute...And of course, Darrin looked super cute on Sunday too, so here he is in his super sharp looking suite. I need to get one for Scott.

I somehow didn't manage to get a good picture of my niece, Chrystal. Sorry Chrystal!

Hole in 1

Scott and I played 18 holes of golf while we were in Rexburg this past weekend and he got a hole in 1! We were on hole #4, a par 3. Scott hit his shot and I thought it was going in the hole. My brother in law said he thought it had hit the flag stick and I was just amazed with how close to the hole it landed. When my brother in law was getting ready to tee off, Scott and I looked over and saw that his ball had disappeared. It had dropped in the hole. It was awesome. Scott has gotten two double eagles before, which are actually more rare, but this was his first hole in one and I was glad I was able to witness this one. I just happened to have my camera, so here are a few pictures...
This is Hole #4. Scott's ball is actually already in the hole at this point.

I'm a Wimp

I am seriously a huge wimp when it comes to spending time away from my hubby. This last week, he ran a route at work, which meant he had to get up between 1 and 2 in the morning, so he went to bed around 5. Last week I only got to see Scott Monday for a few minutes, Tuesday all evening (he had Wed off), and about a half hour on Friday when I went home before going to my work Lagoon day. Of course I was still able to text him, but not being able to see him really sucked. And it was hard for me to sleep at night. It is amazing to me what a wimp I am because that was life when we first got married. He used to be on a route all the time and I would only see him Tuesday nights, Saturday all day, and Sunday till he went to bed. I am just not used to it anymore and it's really hard to not be around him. Luckily, this week did end up being Bunco week and Lagoon day at work, so I did have some stuff to keep me busy besides my online class. That was good, but I still missed seeing my best friend... :(

New Baby

My sister Tiffany welcomed a new addition to her family on the 11th. She is so adorable. She was 5 lbs, 11 ounces. Tiny! And not even a premy. I can't wait to go see her at the end of the month when she is blessed. What a beautiful baby! There will be more pictures once I get to meet her. I'm just glad it's my sister who just had her fifth and not me!!

Weekend Rundown

Does it seem like the weekends are a lot busier in the summer than the rest of the year? I definitely think so. Friday, we went up to Salt Lake and dropped off my laptop at PC Laptops in West Jordan(I emailed corporate about my horrible experience and the West Jordan manager agreed to get all of my pictures off the laptop for free). Then we headed to the Joel McHale show at Abravanel Hall. It was pretty funny. If you don't know, he does The Soup on E, and he makes fun of celebrities. At his comedy show, the making fun of celebrities was the least funny. Still once he got away from that, he was pretty good.
Saturday, we had a lot to do, so I didn't plan a run (and then woke up at 9 am, so I could have gone at 7 and made it back, but apparently I needed the sleep). We ran a few errands in the morning, and then went and picked up my commercial refrigerator from my parents house. We have been in our house for a little over year and we just barely went and got it. I am glad to have it at my house now for when I do wedding flowers. It will be nice. We also picked up my bicycle while were were at it, and I am excited to be able to ride that. They both could use a good cleaning, but that can be taken care of. Following that little adventure, we went and got a few groceries, some stuff to clean out the garage, and a hand vacuum (easier for the vacuuming the stairs).
Then, we headed up to pick up my sister and Dad for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. The temple was beautiful. It had this amazing star chandelier in the sealing rooms and celestial room. So gorgeous, but aren't they all?
Following the temple open house, we headed up the canyon for a reception. That was pretty interesting since we were dressed up from the open house and the reception was casual. And I mean casual. The bride and groom were wearing t-shirts and shorts. The T-shirts said "The Bride" and the "The Groom" on them. We were slightly overdressed.
After the reception we picked up some Brick Oven pizza and had a little picnic. Then we headed back over to my parents house to pick up my sister and go to Summerfest, but the minute we got there it started storming AGAIN, so we turned around and went back to my parents house. It was a super long day, but it was fun. Always lots to do!

Expensive, bad customer service

I will never go to PC Laptops again. They charge A LOT just for a diagnosis. They have horrible customer service, and they lied on the diagnostic sheet and said they told me something they actually didn't. First of all, they told me 48 to 72 hours, and it took 5 days for anyone to even give me a heads up on what was going on. The guy called and told me he was starting on my computer, and then told me anything he does to it is going to take him into the second hour. Um, really? Starting means you are an hour into it? That is weird. They acted as though I was a bother when I went to go pick it up. And, they took out the CD I accidentally left in the drive, which happened to be our wedding pictures and didn't even put it in a sleeve, they just closed it in the computer! Hello! Do you give a shit about other people's stuff? Do you know CD's scratch? I am paying you how much to ruin my WEDDING pictures? What jerks. Never, never again.

Blessings

I just wanted to say how blessed I have been feeling recently. Over the past week Scott and I have been hit with a few unexpected expenses. And a few expected expenses that we were putting off and can't anymore. However, we have been blessed to have money come in to cover those expenses so we could pay for the things we needed to without having to put them on a credit card. I know times are tough for a lot of people, and money is a little tighter for us than it used to be, but I feel very blessed that we are able to cover the needs that we have as well as be able to spend a little extra here and there. I mentioned to Scott that the money came in right when we needed it, and he said we better keep paying our tithing. I can't help but agree.

Am I behind?

Ok, while in my last post I did say I am going to start saying I am from Utah, I do have to ask on question...Why do so many people around here look so young and have 3 or 4 kids? I see people that seriously look my age (and I hope the aren't) that have 3 kids at the grocery store. Most of my friends have at least one kid of their own, which is probably pretty normal for my age, but 3? Good heck. Maybe I am just too selfish. We still aren't even thinking about kids any time soon. People have started asking since well we have been married a year and a half so protocol says I should be pregnant right? I am just not ready for the life altering change of having a child and how much sacrifice it takes. I like that Scott and I can go wherever, whenever and not worry about all the baggage that comes along with a child. And I don't mean that in a negative way. I actually love kids (as I have mentioned before on a case by case basis). I am shocked by those like my sister who have five at the age of 30. I won't ever have five and certainly not by 30. Maybe it's me? Maybe it's the culture in Utah? Don't know, don't really care, just kind of spouting my thoughts...

The Rest of Vacation

Well, the west of our vacation was pretty fun. We golfed Thursday and the course was super pretty, but I haven't had a chance to download the pictures and I don't have my cord at work, so that is that. We went back to the hotel after golf and took a nap and then went over to my brother's that night and had dinner, played with the kids on the trampoline, and roasted marshmallows. I think one of my favorite parts of the trip was spending time with our niece and nephew. They are some really funny kids. Anyway, Friday, we didn't do a whole lot. Kind of just drove around Portland and had lunch at Hooter's (Scott's choice), then we went back over to my brothers and ended up playing rock band for a little bit. Scott and I sucked really bad considering we had never played before. We flew home that night after an hour delay and didn't get home till about midnight. And it seems like we have been super busy ever since. We had saved a portion of our tax return for our vacation and we managed to have about half of it still left when we got home. Plus we got a check in the mail from our mortgage company because we had overpaid our escrow accounts in our first year. So... we went and got much needed new tires on our truck and went to Lowe's and bought some things for our bedroom and a grill. That night I painted our room and seriously didn't get done until midnight. Scott decided to break in our grill and cooked steaks for dinner. I can't even tell you when the last time I had a steak was. They were SUPER tasty. He did a good job. Sunday of course was church and stuff, and sadly we had to put our bedroom back together that night. But I like the color. I still need some pictures that match the decor and stuff to be done with my room, but it is a little bit closer. It's really hard to come back from vacation and get back into the swing of things. We golfed Monday night and I had class last night. Tonight we are probably going back over to the driving range. Good times.
I know this is sort of off topic, but I learned something while we were up in Washington/Oregon. Vancouver is no longer my home town. I think I am officially a Utahn. I lived in Washington 13 years and Utah 12, but I realized that everything is different than it was when I was a kid and I seriously felt like a tourist. Both of the houses I lived in up there were completely different. My elementary school had a stop light and a turning lane in front of it (used to be a two lane road). My junior high wasn't even there. It was remodeled and is basically a brand new school. I didn't feel at home. It was actually kind of sad. It was still just a beautiful as ever, but that was the only part I was familiar with. Vancouver is now the place I spent the first half of my life, and I am anticipating that I will spend a much larger portion of my life in Utah... oh well, life changes and we move on, I guess it's time to start saying I am from Utah.

Vacation!!!

Our vacation is sadly coming to a close. Only two more days left. :( Monday we spent the day with my brother and his family. We played 18 holes of golf with him and his wife joined us for 9. Then we had dinner and hung out at their place that night for a bit. We didn't get any pictures because the course was super crowded. Tuesday we spent the day here:
And here:
View from the bottom (you might need to turn it if you want the correct picture... I am lazy):
Us in the middle of the hike (pretending we are happy to be hiking straight up):
And from the top:
Today we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory in Tillimook Oregon with these joker's (my niece and nephew) and their mom:
Then we went here:
To see this:
And we stopped by a few beaches to let these faceless children play on our scenic drive up the north Oregon coast.
My Captain Morgan:
Vacations are great, aren't they? Another 18 holes of golf tomorrow at a place where the clubhouse is made from an old barn, cool huh?