Happy Birthday Husband!

I know this post is a day late, but yesterday was Scott's 29th birthday. I just have to say happy birthday to my wonderful husband. I am so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man who makes me feel like I am great just the way I am and yet helps me to be a better person everyday.You are the best thing in my life. I can't express enough how much I love you. I can't wait to spend many more birthdays with you!

Happiness

Today a wonderful man came to visit at work. I have always admired this man for his cheery countenance and his ability to make people smile. He is one of the happiest people I know and I envy him for it. He used to be a courier at my work. That is until he got cancer. Even amidst the chemo therapy and the weight loss and other side affects, he still comes to visit us all and see how we are doing. He still makes my day by laughing and joking. I overheard him tell my boss today that he made it through world war II, cancer is nothing. I am amazed that through this hardship he is still optimistic and happy. He is truly one of a kind and I am blessed to know him. He is someone I truly would like to emulate.

Always use a florist for your wedding

Today I was able to help out a desperate girl with her wedding flowers. She ordered her flowers through CostCo because she has a friend able to arrange them. She called CostCo about 10 days before her order date to confirm, and they informed her they could no longer get the flowers she ordered. Did they call her to tell her that? No. Had she not called them, she would have been shocked when she went to go pick up the flowers and they weren't there and then it would have been a disaster. Good thing she called. Get this... the lady at CostCo told her she must have forgotten to call and overlooked the order because this girl ordered the flowers so long ago. Seriously? It is a problem for customers to order in advance? And this is the kicker, the lady says, "Guess you are SOL for your wedding." Nice huh? I am amazed at the horrible customer service. Luckily for this poor girl who was in utter despair last Friday, her husband went to work the next day to ask some of the ladies if they knew where to get flowers, and my dad overheard. I was able to order the flowers last Monday and get them to her today, the day before her wedding. She had called other florists and just to provide the flowers to her, they were going to charge her $400 because of a rush order. I only charged her $100 and still made a little profit. I just can't take advantage of a poor girl who caught a bad break because of a poor decision of where to purchase her flowers. Maybe I will never make an incredible business person because I have a heart, but at least I will never have it on my conscience that I took advantage of someone because of their misfortune.

My Awesome Husband

I realized last night that I forgot to write about one of the best parts of my birthday. Originally our dinner with our parents was supposed to be on Saturday night, which would give me time to clean before anyone came over. But we changed plans to Friday night because my parents couldn't make it Saturday night. We changed plans on Thursday just before bed, so no time to clean. Scott was off on Friday and I mentioned that he could straighten up a little when I left that morning. He did way more than straighten up. He cleaned the kitchen and the living room really well. He swept and scrubbed the kitchen floors, he did dishes, he vacuumed and dusted, the whole bit. I was so impressed when I got home from work on Friday. He went way beyond what I expected. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband who pays attention to my needs and relieves some of my burdens.

Stake Conference

Today we had Stake Conference. From what I have heard, and I don't know if this is true or not, we have the largest stake in the church. While there were rumors that our stake was going to be split, the Stake President put those rumors to rest right at the beginning of the meeting. We are, however, going to have a new ward created. Part of that ward will come out of my ward. This new ward will be the 14th ward for the stake. We are meeting at a different time next Sunday for the split and creation of a new ward. Our ward is so big right now, it is not really a surprise, it was announced one day at church that there were 580 people in attendance the week before. There are a lot of wards that don't even have that many people in the ward, let alone attending. Anyway, I have mixed feelings about the split. We really like our ward and our bishopric is awesome. We may be split from our little nursery buddies and we miss them already. Also, we will probably receive callings once the ward is split. Not that that is a bad thing, it is just the unknown. I guess we will see how it goes next Sunday. As they say, worrying is like a rocking chair, it will give you something to do, but won't get you very far.

Driver's License

Since I am now 26, my license expired. I had the wonderful joy of renewing my license on Thursday morning with all the new requirements. I was planning on renewing my license online this year, but when I got online to do that, I found a big list of requirements and information on what locations had been shut down and that you can no longer renew online. Goody. I had to get my original birth certificate from my parents (no pocket copies will not be accepted), and get out my SS card, and two documents for proof of address. I headed up to the Provo "Renewal Express" at 7 am Thursday morning. Not so "express". The picture taker machine was broken and there was only one examiner working. So after the announcement that they had no idea when the picture machine would be working I headed up to Orem to stand in another line, show the information desk my documents and get a number. What a joy. I did get to work by 8:15, so it wasn't a huge inconvenience, but it wasn't my favorite. When I went to change my name after we got married, it took me all of 15 minutes. I love that we have so many dishonest criminals in this world that we have to go through such great measures to verify our identity before renewing a drivers license. It is so great that one stupid selfish person can cause all this inconvenience for the rest of us law abiding citizens.

Birthday Weekend

My birthday was this weekend and I had a fantastic birthday weekend. It is so nice when a birthday falls on Saturday. The celebration started on Friday at work. My good friend Sarah brought me cinnamon rolls and another co-worker brought bagels. Then I went to lunch with my friend Angie, another coworker, and she bought me a cake from The Chocolate which was really really good. The cake was super moist and the chocolate frosting was the best I have ever tasted. Mmmmmmm. Of course, I wasn't paying attention to my diet this weekend. Friday night we went to dinner with Scott's parents and my parents. It was a celebration for both our birthdays since Scott's is coming up on the 24th. I chose Texas Roadhouse, which is my favorite place to eat. It was a lot of fun and we had the sweetest little waitress. It was a good time.
Also on Friday, I got a statement from Scott's insurance saying they had paid all but $79 of my ambulance bill. That was really good news, and a fantastic birthday present. I am glad I called the ambulance service and had them charge Scott's insurance. It is nice to have double coverage.
Saturday, was my actual birthday and first thing in the morning Scott asked me what I wanted to do. I said I wanted to play, but when I started listing things I wanted to do, it was more like running errands. We went to the bank to cash our tax returns, which ended up being a bit of hassle. Scott and I have separate bank accounts and we went to his bank to deposit some of the money and cash the rest, but since my name was on both checks, they said I needed to have an account there too, so we had to add me to Scott's account. Which later we realized I could have just opened a checking account for me there, but for some reason we didn't think of it at the time.
Anyway, after that we went and got a few groceries and then headed up to my bank to deposit money followed by lunch. Then we headed up to Maurices to exchange a shirt. I thought they didn't have the size I needed, but the salesperson found one for me, so that was better than I expected. The next item on the list was buying a chest freezer, we did a little research Friday night and found the best deal at Home Depot, so we went there and purchased it. Scott and I are both really excited about it. It is another adult purchase that makes us feel like we are growing up. I am excited because we are getting a quarter of a beef and not only is it better and healthier meat than what we can get at the grocery store, but it is cheaper as well and will end up saving us money.
Anyway, after we go the freezer all set up, I didn't know what Scott had planned, but he decided to take me bowling, which we haven't done in a couple of months, and to me will probably always have special significance since we went bowling the night we started our relationship. Neither one of us bowled that well, but it was a lot of fun, and we ended up getting a free game out of it.
After bowling Scott asked if there was anything else that I wanted to do and I couldn't think of anything. He asked if there was a movie I wanted to see and I remembered I had wanted to see the new Jennifer Aniston movie. This actually spurred a trip to Springville Walmart, Provo Mall, Best Buy and finally FYE in search of the movie on blue ray. It was so nice of Scott to want to look all over to get me the movie. And it was really good. I liked it a lot. If you haven't seen Love Happens yet, I recommend it. It is not the typical love story, and it was clean. Anyway, we went home and watched that, while I ate ice cream for dinner (hey, it was my birthday, I can eat what I want for dinner). It was such a good weekend. It may not sound like much to many, but to me it was perfect. Spending the whole day with Scott and doing what I wanted. It was as good as it could get. Scott is such a fantastic husband and he takes really good care of me.
There will be more birthday to come. I still have a department lunch on Monday to celebrate, but unfortunately it won't be my favorite meal because one of my co-workers took it upon himself to choose the place, but oh well. It is still nice to celebrate. We also still need to do the little celebration and gift opening at my parents house with an ice cream cake. Not sure when that will happen, but I am looking forward to it. I still really like my birthday. 26 isn't old yet.

HCG

I guess the time has come for me to admit that I was on a diet and I am now on the maintenance phase of it. I was doing the HCG diet and lost 20 lbs in a month. My maintenance is over on the 24th, which happens to be Scott's birthday and we are going to his favorite fatty little mom and pop fast food place. HCG is a fantastic diet. I am not much of a dieter, but this one really has been worth it. Especially since I had some testing done in December and I have LOADS of food intolerances that I am supposed to be staying away from anyway, so doing the diet while I was staying away from most food anyway worked out perfectly. I still have 15 to 20 lbs I would like to lose, and I think that I will do the HCG again in April. It was tough, but the weight loss has really been worth it. It has made me feel so much better about myself. The only draw back is it is actually a pregnancy hormone and so I was a little moody and easily frustrated. But as always Scott was pretty patient with me. I am excited to start eating normal food again. I still have until April 1st before I can add everything back in as far as my intolerances go, but being off the diet completely will be refreshing. And I am loving being able to work out again. I worked out 6 days this week. Fantastic.

Valentine's Day

Well, here we are on Valentine's day, Scott is watching golf, I am blogging and the roast is cooking in the oven. Almost time for me to put in the potatoes (that I actually can't eat, but oh well). It is just like any other day. We are probably a little more aware of our love for each other, but I don't see any reason why we need a holiday to remind us we love each other. That is just stupid. There is too much pressure on Valentine's Day. We didn't do anything for each other this year because money is a little tight this year. Yes, I know we just bought a TV, but let me remind you that it is 0% interest for 3 years. Anyway, I felt bad that we didn't do anything for each other this year. Like we are not a good married couple somehow. But the truth of it is, we buy little things for each other all the time, and we tell each other we love each other on spontaneous occasions, so why do we need this ridiculous holiday? It is just sad how it has gotten in our heads and made us all believe that is is required to spoil your loved one on one day a year because the calendar says so.

New Stuff

We have a few new thing around our house now. The first we bought a couple of weeks ago because our dishwasher was so awful. Our new one is a Bosch and it actually cleans the dishes and is much quieter than our old one.A dishwasher is not the most fun thing to purchase, but I am happy with it.

Next, came our TV purchase. We bought it last Saturday as I mentioned, and we were offered free "installation." So, we waited the week to get it. We were under the impression installation meant they would be putting together our TV stand and everything. No, apparently the definition of "installation" at Best Buy is "to drop off." They came, brought in the TV and the stand in the box, asked Scott for a signature and left. Scott spent pretty much all day getting everything put together the way we wanted it. I helped put up the wall mount, which so far has been a good wall mount, but the instructions were awful. Anyway, our TV is fantastic and we are really happy with it. And it actually makes our living room look bigger. It doesn't overwhelm the room at all, which I was a bit worried about.

I know, the cords don't look the best, but we are going to get some cord covers to deal with that. But the TV is great and it has been really fun to watch the Super Bowl on today. And our old entertainment center is now in our work out room, and it looks pretty nice there. The last new thing, is I got my hair colored. I went a little drastic this time and went all red. I had some highlights in my hair before, so it has some lighter red and some darker red and I really like it. The picture doesn't show how much red is actually in it, but you get the idea. Just a few little changes, but we are happy with them. Change is good right?

Testing Center

I think whoever came up with the idea of a testing center ought to be shot. It is the most ridiculous way to take a test. I went to take my first exam for my accounting class, and I spend an hour waiting in line to take the test. The line went all the way outside the freaking building. It was ridiculous. Then when I get up to the front, I guess the computers weren't working. I spent more time waiting to take the test than actually taking it. The test probably took me 30 minutes.
And if all of that isn't bad enough, testing centers cause anxiety. It is such a strict setting. You can't even open your bag. You have to get everything out of it you need and then put it under your chair. Your scratch paper has to be stamped and approved and there are people walking up and down the aisles making sure you aren't cheating. Yeah, this is a great way to take a test. Totally at ease. I am not a great tester anyway. But to test in those conditions just makes me nervous. I got an 82%. Which I am not thrilled with. Because I got a 90% on the practice test and went through all of the review last night. Whatever though. 82% is not bad. It is just annoying to me. I know part of it was the environment.
What ever happened to good old fashioned testing in class? I am paying plenty to be able to spend a class period on a test and not have to wait in line and get all sorts of anxiety over it. I know testing centers have been around for a long time, but they definitely don't benefit the student, and I have to say I am not a fan.

Mice

We discovered we have mice a couple of weeks ago. I first heard it under the sink, and then started seeing little traces of mice under the oven and different areas around the house. Our attack started with poison strategically placed under the sink and oven, and while a couple of the poison packets disappeared, I could still hear a mouse under my kitchen cabinets. So, we set traps. We got the old fashioned snap traps that were little buggers to set, but yesterday we found our first dead mouse under the oven. It must have been there for a while because it was kind of stuck to the floor, and it was stinky. But we killed it! I am sure there will be more, I believe we had more than one to begin with, but we are winning. And luckily the mice haven't gotten into any cabinets or my pantry. Anyway, it is kind of funny to me because there is a girl in my ward that moved from her old place into these town houses because her last house had a mouse. Well, I hope it takes her longer than a year and half to get one in hers. Considering we are surrounded by pastures, it is pretty much unavoidable. Gotta love it.