Take little steps:

A funk

2012-01-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

I've been in a funk lately. It's just been constant work, exercise, and sleep over and over and over. In turn, I've had nothing to blog about. A large part of me not blogging is also because I've been doing this photo a day challenge on my Instagram app. So I take a picture every day, and it ends up going on there and not here. If you're not following me, you should (click the link on the side of my blog). My sister-in-law Rachel introduced it to me while I was in New Jersey, and it's quite fantastic. Now only if I could figure out how to build an iPhone app myself, and put my cool idea out there. :)

Anyway, for now, I wanted to give kudos to my husband for the awesome job he did putting up blinds yesterday!

I have this plan to redo the whole downstairs, and then we'll start going upstairs. I want it to look clean, crisp, organized, and bright, but my house now feels claustrophobic and no matter how much I clean, I always feel like it's dirty. After explaining this to my friend Lynda, an interior decorator, we came up with some great ideas, and now I just need to get them done.

Eventually, I want my downstairs to kind of look like this room below.

So yes, I will be putting molding around my windows, and crown molding by the ceiling, etc.

I would also love to have a room like this:

The only problem: I like TONS of things separately, but not together.

I was telling my friend Katie this yesterday, and she told me all about how she loves this kind of design stuff, and would totally help me. I'm super excited, and can't wait to see what she can put together for me! :)

Hopefully I can get this all done in the next couple months, and feel great about my bright, clean, cozy house! :)

Happy Birthday Eric!

2012-01-19T22:57:00.000-07:00

Eric turned 27 this last Saturday. I made him breakfast, then he played some Call of Duty, then we headed off to One Man Band to eat lunch with Nat, Kade and Addi.

Afterwards, we went shooting. All Eric really wanted to do was go shooting. Unforutnately, the gun he got for his birthday didn't get here on time, so he didn't get to take that, but we all still had fun.

Kade and Addi came along. Notice Kade's army pants. Eric and him have the exact same pants. They are now their "shooting pants". Kade loves to go shooting with his Uncle.

Usually Add doesn't want to go, but I gave her the option of going or staying home, and she chose to go, and actually enjoyed herself this time! :) YAY!

She shot five different guns - a Ruger mark II, a Ruger 10-22, a SW M&P 15-22, Red Ryder BB Gun, and Springfield XD 40. She shot the XD 40 last - that's a big bullet for a little girl!

And the videos:

Add and I took off after she was done, and went and got ready for Eric's party. We bought all car themed decorations. :)

We ate pizza and breadsticks.

Then Eric opened his presents.

Then we sang him to him, and he blew out his candles on his two DELICIOUS ice cream cakes, made by Angela. SOOOOO good! Thanks again Angela!

Then we shattered a Lighting McQueen pinata. :)

Afterwards, we went off to Trafalga and did a round of mini golf before we called it a night.

Happy Birthday Eric! I'm so glad you were born and are now my husband. There's no one else in the world I'd want to be with than you! I LOVE YOU!

It's 2012...

2012-01-13T23:00:00.028-07:00

And I have nothing to blog about. What is this? I'm at a total brain loss. So, brainstorm with me. Throw out some ideas...and I'll get on it! :)

For now, let me tell you this. I LOVE this picture and all that it means to me.

This little girl is the cutest. And I absolutely love her. And I LOVE how much she loves me.

She reminds me how great it is to have such a wonderful, loving family.

And she, along with her bro, remind me how important it is to laugh, and love just the littlest of things -like a puppy crawling all over you.

So, for this 2012, live, laugh and love!

And when too much life gets in the way and you forget to actually LIVE, just laugh and love harder than you ever could before, and you'll start living all over again.

2011 Christmas

2011-12-31T16:30:00.000-07:00

A few events rolled in one here:

My work had their Christmas party at the Natural History Museum up by the University of Utah. It's a really cool place and you should all definitely get up to see it at some point.

Sodavy and me

Eric and me afraid of the dinos!

Lots of dino bones

They had a free valet service and this red carpet - so fun!

A few days later, we had a wonderful Christmas breakfast at Natalie's and then ended up staying for church and dinner- even more deliciousness! We all opened presents before church.

That night, Eric and I went and dropped off our sub-for-santa gifts. I love sub-for-santa. And I love when the kids don't meet you so it can all be a magical holiday from Santa.

Later in the week, I left for WA, and Eric came up Christmas night after he was done work his four days. Addi did NOT want me to leave, and tried to tell me that she was going to come with me, and then walk to Montana for Christmas. :) Love that girl.

In WA, my parents need a different fridge/freezer combo stat. They blow dry the freezer vent when it ices over. haha

We spent a lot of time eating, playing games, and just relaxing.

Andrew really loved these cookies.

We also went to the snowflake lane show.

One day, Steph and I were running errands and she pulled out these glasses. I was laughing so hard.

We opened presents with Granddad. And opened presents the next day with the whole fam.

And played Rock Band.

And played with the lite-bright that I got Isabelle for Christmas. I wish they made them the way they used to.

Kenz and I went to hot yoga on Monday - Eric decided not to come.

And basically... chilled the whole vacation. It was very nice to just relax. :)

And that's all for 2011! On to 2012!!! :)

Christmas with Eric and Angela

2011-12-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

Every year, Eric and Angela have dinner with us and have our own little Christmas. We had it at my house this year, and had a nice five course meal.

The set-up

Then soup for the first course

Then presents first because Angela bought me green chargers - so we had to switch the silver ones out for the green ones.

Then sorbet for the in-between or, palate cleanser. We had this between each course.

Then salad - no picture.

Then...

Green beans

Potatoes

Rolls

Ham

And olives for the main course

Then we had some delicious pumpkin roll - no picture of that either.

It was a great evening, and I love to have our fun, nice dinner. I want to do one more often.

A "new" car

2011-12-22T07:08:00.001-07:00

Eric deserved a better subaru after having his gray one for three and a half years. Therefore...

TAH DAH!

Brandon bought Eric's old sube, so it no longer resides here. I also think subarus look ridiculous without roof racks, so Eric went to the junk yard and got one for $17. How awesome is that?

The lunar eclipse

2011-12-21T20:30:00.000-07:00

At 2 am, I woke up on my couch to a text message from facebook. It was a status update by my friend Tanya saying there was going to be a lunar eclipse. I looked all the times up, and decided I would get up at 4:30 to make sure I wasn't missing it. I had never seen one before this. I got up, and nothing was going on yet, so I went back to bed for bit longer, then got up and set my camera up to document the thing. Then, after I was all set-up, I woke up Eric. We sat outside until we just got too cold. We brought the camera inside, and would just open the door every now and then to take a picture. It was a lot of fun to experience.

Once it got too dark to see the moon the way above, I switched my settings and started taking pictures of the redness.

And then the moon went behind the mountains and that was the end of our view.

SO COOL!

11-11-11

2011-11-22T09:20:00.000-07:00

On my 11-11-11 day, I chose to get cut into.

My knee starting hurting back in September 2010 when I ran the Dirty Dash. Not sure what happened - it just started hurting. I went to 9 doctors who diagnosed it as IT band syndrome, then a capsular strain, then a possibility that my bone was falling out of place. I even had an MRI that came back "clean". After getting SO fed up with these numerous doctors, I put on facebook that I needed the "Dr. House" of knee doctors, and was referred to Dr. Cooley at TOSH by more than one person.

I saw Dr. Cooley in August. I had just finished the Spudman Tri with a big FAIL on the run. I told Dr. Cooley what was going on and that I had already had an MRI. His team took an x-ray, and after looking at that and seeing that the x-ray was "clean", Dr. Cooley said I bet you it's a cartilage tear. He said they don't show up on MRI's or X-Rays and he sees runners come in with this ALL the time.

Well, that was something I hadn't heard yet, so I was definitely interested in this diagnosis. I showed him where my knee hurt (on the right side) and he said, oh no, it hurts over here...

He grabbed the left side of my knee and I could have punched him for hurting me that bad. At this point, I was feeling like, hey, this guy might actually know what he is talking about. What other doctor picks a totally different place, than the place that hurts, to tell me I'm really hurt somewhere else? haha

So the next step was to get a shot, and see if I could run over a mile. I could run a mile before it started hurting, so I needed to run over that distance. If I could run past a mile, then I had a cartilage tear. The shot could last a few weeks, months, a year, but when it starts to hurt again, I would need surgery.

For three weeks, I could run one, two, even three miles, and then BAM. It hurt all over again.

So, I met with Dr. Cooley again, and surgery was the next step. He also told me that this probably happened because my knee cap might not be tracking right - and if that's the case, then he would need to "stretch" my ligament - called a lateral release. They go in and cut your ligament, then cauterize it so it doesn't bleed any more. Gross? lol

So... here I am in my pretty gown

And beautiful socks.

PS - see my pretty friendship bracelet above made by my awesome niece Addi?

They had to take it off... Addi, can you make me a new one?

My IV

Waking up from surgery - in the recovery room

Still very tired from the drugs

The doctor told Eric it was exactly what he thought, and he DID have to cut my ligament. :( He also said that if my knee cap wasn't off in the first place, I probably wouldn't have torn my cartilage. Good to know. Hopefully he is completely right, and I'll be running without pain next year!

Finally get to my car with this nice honkin' thing on.

Yellow toes from the iodine solution - or whatever cleans my entire leg. I still have a dark tint to my leg from this stuff. It's like self-tanner.

Flowers from my friend Awbrey - Thanks dude! Loved them!

(Between this couch, my bed and the living room floor is where I stayed for the next five days - BORING)

This blue pad is connected to my ice machine - coolest part of my knee surgery.

On Saturday, I received this edible arrangement from my co-workers. It was very yummy! Thanks!

Apparently, resting my leg was really for the dogs to have a more cushy place to lay down.

Sunday, Ethan, Natalie, Kade and Addi visited me and brought Eric this thing of Martinelli's (Ethan didn't want to leave Eric out of all the love. hehe)

And these cards in the first picture... big heart by Addi, little hearts by Kade, and get well card by Natalie...

AND the flowers in the second picture. Thanks guys! Loved them all!

(And another pic of flowers from Awbs, and my edible arrangement)

Here is my ice machine!

Monday, Eric's work sent me this peace lilly. It is my favorite flower. Thanks again!

On Wednesday, I was full of excitement! It was time for my follow-up appointment.

Waiting for the doctor to come in

The nurse started taking everything off...

EWWWWWWWWWWW (it looks like my knee/thigh gained 1000 lbs)

But so amazing. Three little holes - that's all.

She had to remove three little staples holding the slits shut - that was disgusting. And then they put these steri-strips on the holes so they can continue to heal.

The marker says "yes" so they operated on the right leg. :)

And I left there with this nice sock.

I will have a swollen knee for about four weeks. By the end of one month, I should feel 70- 80% better, and have a full recovery - meaning I can run again - by three months. I have to wear this compression sock until December 14th and then I go in for another folllow-up appointment.

Thank you to all the people who came to visit me. It was so boring by myself. A special thanks to my husband for taking care of me through this whole thing. I still can't do a TON by myself - and he's been such a trooper. Also, another huge thanks to the people in my ward and Sally, who brought me dinner on a few different days.

And a HUGE HUGE HUGE thanks to everyone else for the cards, flowers, fruit, etc! It definitely made my surgery 1000 times better.

Hopefully I'll be running soon without pain! That would be amazing! :)

Halloween Night - My AWESOME maze

2011-11-19T20:48:00.001-07:00

Every year, I've tried to build something "scary" for kids to trick or treat through. This year was AMAZING.

Entrance

It reads: Entrance - Too scared? Walk to door through spooky drapes

The scary entrance...

The path for the SCARED kids - most kids didn't take this surprisingly.

LOVED IT.

Next year will be MORE awesome. Better come trick or treating at my house. :)

My Halloween Party

2011-11-15T21:25:00.001-07:00

First off - if you didn't come, you MISSED out.

If you can't tell - the pizza pieces are halloween shapes.

This cake was supposed to look more like a pumpkin - haha

Brain cupcakes

Mummy dogs

Ramake made by Sally - thanks Sally!! DELICIOUS!

Brain ice

Dry ice

Popcorn hands!

Balloons and darts - and behind Kade, where you can't see, was pumpkin bowling

The maze in the backyard that didn't work out exactly as planned, but the kids loved running through it and scaring each other!

Lots of people wore costumes, and they rocked!

Donuts on a string

I LOVE this spider balloon

You can see all the spooky drapes I put up inspired by my friend Paige

And of course, the puppy had been born that week, so we took small breaks to come in and look at her

Ghost jugs

Thanks to all of those who came and partied with us! And a special thanks to ALL the people who came and helped me with everything. I couldn't have done it without you. It was great fun!

We also had a photobooth that my friend Angela suggested and put together for us. If you want your picture, I can email the big version to you!
PS the bigger versions have the entire backdrop - some of these pictures were cropped in the collage boxes when I loaded them.

The Puppy

2011-11-14T07:30:00.000-07:00

Back in August, we bred Roxy to a dog named Butch. Roxy started exhibiting all the signs of being pregnant, except for getting a large stomach. We took her to the vet, who couldn't feel anything and said it could be 1. A pseudo pregnancy or 2. one puppy stuck up in her ribs. The only problem with it being one pup, is that one puppy can take up all the room in the dog's stomach, so they usually end up being very large, and the mom dogs require a c section. We decided we would just watch her and see if anything happened.

Dogs have their babies between day 60 and day 65 of their pregnancies... so we went away to WA around what would be her 69th day.

While we were in WA, our neighbors, Tammy and Andrew, were taking care of our animals. Andrew calls me frantically exclaiming: Roxy had a baby!! We were in shock! I was going crazy thinking that Roxy might have more puppies stuck in her, and could be hurt or something. I was being a very worried "mom."

Tammy and Andrew took the puppy to the emergency hospital because it had a HUGE cut on it's head -it got stuck in between the wires on Roxy's crate. They left Roxy, but she needed to be with her baby, so our other neighbor, Eric, took Roxy to the baby. The vet did an x-ray and found nothing left in Roxy, and stapled up the puppy's head.

The next day, we finally got home to the puppy and Roxy - who were both doing very well. I'm so grateful for awesome neighbors!

This last Monday she had her staples removed, and the vet weighed her in at 4 lbs. He said a puppy this old should be about 2 lbs. HAHA I guess that's what you get when there is only one puppy for all the nipples. We just weighed her last night, and she weighed in at 5 lbs. She's gonna be a big pup.

And she is SO CUTE!

Anyone know someone who needs a boxer? :)

Washington

2011-11-13T19:03:00.000-07:00

When we arrived in WA, MacKenzie and her boyfriend Jarad picked Eric and I up and took us to Las Margaritas. :)

Then we headed to my the church building where Steph, Mom and some women in the ward were setting up Alexa's reception. We said hi, then headed for the house to eat apple crisp that my mom made - DELICIOUS.

The next morning, we went shooting.

My dad won the competition with a score of 36 out of 40. Pretty dang good dad!

Every time you shoot, you have to ride down and put the targets back up.

Stephie and me

We hung out for the rest of the day - saw my friend Michelle for a bit, and then headed to Alexa's reception.

My beautiful mom

Stephie and my cousin, Elyse

We did a song/dance for Alexa

And kissed her at the end

We had her come up and sing Poker Face - one of her favorite songs

Her bouquet toss

The garter

The first dance

Daddy and Daughter dance

We called up more daddy/daughter duos to dance

Later, I caught Isabelle grabbing chocolate cake and eating it all up. It was hilarious.

Afterwards, Andrew was playing on Stephanie's zune. Totally entranced.

The end of the night

The next morning, we were called by our neighbors and told that Roxy had a puppy. More on that later. :)

After figuring out the whole puppy thing, we ate omlets, and Andrew used a HUGE fork to eat them. Pretty funny.

After church, we hung out with Lynda for a bit. It was nice catching up. Time to move down here Lynda!

Then, we went to my granddad's house and he gave me this cat. When I was younger - around 10 or 11, I made this cat for my grandma. She taught me to sew, and she loved cats, so I made this for her. Ever since she died, I have asked my granddad about it, but he's never seen it. He was cleaning out her sewing room, and found it! I was so happy!

Later that night, we went to visit my friend Larisa at her parent's house. She's pregnant with her third child, and she's such a cute pregnant person. They have a sheltie - the dog I've always wanted- and Isabelle LOVED her.

And then we headed home, hung out the next day, then headed to the airport once more.

Ragnar Relay

2011-11-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

Before I found out my knee had torn cartilage, I had signed up to do the Ragnar Relay with my mormon boys. After figuring out that my knee would not let me run, Eric and I decided that we would just volunteer, while everyone else ran. We arrived in Vegas around 2 am, and woke up at 4:45 am to go to our volunteer spot. Then we set-up the station.

They had a pancake breakfast - $5 for all you can eat - so in between setting up stuff, Eric would run in and get his pancakes, then come back and get some more.

A break after setting up orange tape all over

Our station was to announce the runners as they came in. Here you can see their groups are waiting for them to come in so they can switch runners.

Announcing the teams... I only got to do this about three times before our shift was over. It was quite fun though!

The runners run in between those gates, pass off to the next runner, and then they leave.

After our shift, Eric and I were SO tired - we didn't get any sleep. So we went to Costco to get gas, and shop around to waste some time, and when we got out of the car, there was this nice, cold, shady spot... and we laid down and rested.

After Costco, we went to the Bellagio fountains. Every time I've gone to Vegas, I've missed the fountains for one reason or another - and this time, I wasn't doing that! So here we go! :)

Then we went to the airport to fly off to WA for Alexa's reception.

Stay tuned.

Rexburg, Idaho Part 2

2011-11-02T19:48:00.001-06:00

So...after the wedding, we headed off to Bear World. Eric saw it off the freeway and asked if we should stop. Why not? :)

If you've never been to Bear World, I highly suggest that you go.

You drive on a road through all these animals - they are SO close to you that you need to keep your windows rolled up just in case a bear decides to come attack you. They literally walk across the street you're driving on, and up to your car. SO COOL.

This bear was HILARIOUS. He didn't want anybody else in HIS tree.

Have you ever seen a bear use a tree to scratch? :)

They are supposed to sleep INSIDE the tubes. It's for when they hibernate.

Like this!

In this picture, you can see they are on the road we are driving on. These bears were having a conference. One of the bears did NOT like what the other was saying, so...

He showed the other one who was boss!

Then this one said, "nope, I'm the judge... let me sit at my judge log and make the decisions."

Big bear paws

After you drive through the bear part, you can play in the petting zoo!

And pet goats, elk, chickens, deer, etc.

This goat snuck it's way in to eat all the chicken food!

That's a chicken... it has a weird head.

And here's the albino elk they have.

Eric and the deer

Stephie petting a deer

Now THIS deer is my favorite! He thought I had food I guess... as you'll see in the video below.

Did you notice that he hits Eric's crotch at one point too? haha

After the petting zoo, there are baby cubs you can feed if you pay more and are there earlier than we were. So cute.

And they make these weird cow noises:

After bear world, we visited Steph's boyfriend in Layton, and went to a Corn Maze. SO FUN. I have never been in one and now want to make lots of corn in my yard somehow so I can make some cool mazes. :)

And then we were back home! :)

Rexburg, Idaho Part 1

2011-11-01T23:47:00.000-06:00

A few weekends ago, my sister, Alexa, got married in the Rexburg Idaho Temple.

Lexi and Stephie

My family

Sisters

Alexa

Eric

Eric and me :)

Flowers that Stephie made! Good job Steph!

After her wedding, we had a delicious luncheon and sang/danced to Poker Face for Lexi. It's a song she loves - and it was awesome! :)

After it was all over, we headed off to Bear World - see my next post.

Vegas - Lewis Black

2011-10-31T13:00:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging... but here we go!

At the end of September, Eric and I went and saw Lewis Black in Vegas.

On our road trip, we stopped by Jack in the Box - my favorite fast food place.

We got in Thursday night late, late, late.

The next morning, we headed off to the Wynn Buffet - introduced to us by Natalie and Ethan. Absolutely delicious.

After the buffet, as we were leaving, I saw this cool game. I took a dollar and put it in AND...

TAH DAH!

Do you remember last year when I was kidnapped for my bday to Vegas and Eric didn't bring me any shirts? Well... I ACCIDENTALLY did the same thing to him. It was hilarious So off to Old Navy.

Then we headed off to the temple. Gorgeous.

That night, we headed over to the Luxor to buy a pass for the aquarium, circus circus rides, and the bodies museum.

We visited the bodies museum and learned so much: A baby looks like a baby at two weeks old, your heart is HUGE, and your lungs are a lot smaller than I thought. I also got to see where they will be taking out cartilage in my knee. EWWWWW.

Then we headed off to Lewis Black, and of course needed some popcorn. He was pretty funny. His introducing comedian - NOT FUNNY. Lewis Black is one of Eric's favorite comedians, and he really enjoyed it. I just did everything to try and stay awake after the first hour and a half. haha

The next morning, we headed to the buffet at the Bellagio. VERY DELICIOUS.

Then off to the aquarium...

And then time for the roller coasters - SO FUN.

This one jumps OFF of the rail - SCARY.

Then we headed home. It was a great trip - and so nice to just get out and relax. I always need to remember to save time to relax. DEFINITELY NEEDED.

September 11th, 2001

2011-09-23T16:00:00.000-06:00

It is in great reverence that I write this entry.

In Sandy, there was a display of flags - each one representing someone who died in the attacks on 9.11.2001 - and a note describing the person. Eric and I went and visited the display and this was our experience.

------------------------------

It's a quiet, beautiful day at the field of flags. The site is absolutely amazing to see.

As we approach the display, I say to Eric, "Wow. The people who put this up are amazing. It must have taken SO long to write a story for each person, and then come and put it all together."

(There were so many flags I couldn't even fit them all in one picture. Above you're looking at one side of the field, and below you're looking at the other side of the flags - and this was several pictures smashed together.)

After my remark, Eric turns and says, "look how many people died."

After that, it hit me like a ton of bricks how sad of a day 9.11 was for the families who lost their loved ones.

For people who were in all these places in the signs below, died...

and the people they left behind had their worlds shattered.

*I remember clearly the day of the attacks. I lived in WA, I was 15, and a junior in high school. I had been in seminary all morning so I hadn't heard what was going on. When I got to school, I remember people talking about a plane running into the World Trade Center. I thought they meant a small jet plane. It wasn't until my 4th class of the day, that our history teacher talked to us about what was really going on and showed us what had happened.

I was heartbroken for those people. I remember feeling like things were going to get much worse - that this was the beginning of a war on America. I remember feeling lost and confused about what might happen next.

I remember getting home and seeing that my mom was still trying to make my sister's birthday special. I remembered being very grateful for the family I have. I remember making sure I told everybody I loved them very much.*

As I continue walking through the flags, I think of how mean, how harsh, how stupid the people who crashed those planes could be. While the flags are whipping in the wind, I think about how we let those terrorists live (for a short or long period of time) in our country - and this is how they decide to treat us? This is how they show our country that they are grateful to live here?

And then I turn and look at my husband - who is going through and reading all the notes on each flag...

- notes for every single person who died -

-EVERY. single. one.-

-The first field is 28 flags wide and 43 flags long. That's not a small amount.-

-To go through each tag would take hours on end - how I wish we had the time that day to do so-

And I see that he is crying.

*My experience of 9.11 was watching from far away. I didn't know anybody who died.

Eric was there though. Experiencing it with his peers. He knows people who worked there - and weren't killed. It meant something completely different to him than it did to me.*

And I watch him. And I think about what would have happened if for some reason, this was now, and he was there, and he was not in my life.

And I begin to mourn for those people who lost their loved ones that day.

As we cross the short stretch of road to get to the second field, we pass this...

and get to this.

Through this next side of flags, we see signs for the milestones of our country. I remember how lucky we are to live here.

As we finish walking through the flags and reading the notes, Eric turns to me and says, "Everybody was right in the middle of life. They weren't in a war throwing grenades and one hit them - they were just eating breakfast, or in a meeting."

And again, I think, how did someone do this to us?

After the field of flags, we drive over to this statue they made remembering the famous picture of the three firefighters.

And again, I think of all the people we lost that day - some who were just trying to help other people live.

So...

Remember the day we lost so many... and stood together...

For you can't ruin America. You can't tear us down. We will rise together. We will stand as a country together. We will serve. We will love everyone. We will mourn with those who mourn, and comfort those who stand in need of comfort.

America is beautiful. America is great. America is my country and I feel so blessed to be living here. I feel so blessed for my freedoms, and the people who try so hard to give those freedoms to us.

We love you America and will forever remember what it means to live here.

I am PROUD to be an american.

Jersey 2011: The rest of our trip

2011-09-15T21:06:00.000-06:00

Rachel and Brian graciously let us stay with them for the rest of our trip. One day, Rach and I went and made these birthday plates.

Rachel's plate:

My plate:

One night, we went to the pub with my friend Rebecca, her boyfriend, and Aunt Chris. Bexter's boyfriend got this EIGHTEEN ounce steak... he ate the ENTIRE thing.

My little nephew - Jackson

My other little nephew - Evan

On our way to the Phillie's game, we went and saw where Rebecca works. How cool is this?!

A lot of their new inventions use the xbox kinect to see - it's so cool!

One of the robots:

Rebecca's signage for her office

Rebecca!

Bexter and me

THE PHILLIES! I LOVE to go to games in person. SO FUN.

I'm pretty much a good luck charm at their games. The first time I ever went to one of their games, I saw the Liberty Bell start dinging and thought it was so cool! I said, "Eric! Please make them do it again!" And he said "They can't just do it again." And I just kept saying they needed to, and they made THREE homeruns in a row!!! Eric was shocked.

So, did they win? Uh, heck yes! Me = good luck charm. Duh.

Saying bye to Jackson.

Saying bye to Evan.

And riding to the airport with Brennan.

And then we got on a plane and flew home!

Thanks everybody for letting us come out and hang with you all!

Next up: My tribute (although late) to September 11th.

Jersey 2011: The Boardwalk

2011-09-10T22:13:00.005-06:00

One night we went to the boardwalk and had a tons of fun. I also got to watch them make taffy!

Nearing the end of the night, Noelle really wanted to go on this ride - so off we went.

A movie for your viewing pleasure. :)

More Jersey fun later!!!

Jersey 2011: The Shore

2011-09-08T23:06:00.009-06:00

This year we went to the shore for half of the time, then to Jersey for the rest. It was very relaxing - especially after all that yard work.

The shore in pictures:

The babies gotta go back and eat/sleep.

Eric told me he needed to have as many cheesesteaks as possible. I think he had them almost every day.

They dug this hole as entertainment for the children - I think it was really entertainment for Eric who HAD to make the hole bigger.

This cool octopus people made out of sand.

Cool dude.

Old Maid - I wish I lived near Nat and the kids, so we could always play games!

Very creative use of the boogie boards - which are SO fun by the way.

I love that the twins always have matching outfits.

More about the rest of Jersey later!

Last of the projects

2011-09-01T22:14:00.003-06:00

My really cool sister-in-law, Natalie, gave me this white table. Thanks again Nat.

So I sanded it all - primed it, and painted it.

And tah dah!

The final piece with new pictures and a cute bucket thing I put writing utensils in.

I love the phrase: Live, Laugh, Love - so I made a wall of it. I got a new piece while in Jersey - so I need to add that. And I have two more things that go above the wood board on the right. I love this wall - remember Live, and Laugh LOTS, and Love so much!

And I changed my company name and redid my photo website. It has a shopping cart now and a proofing section - it's so cool. And Living Social is running a deal for me in a few weeks. HOW AWESOME! :) I'm way excited.

My new photo website: click here

My most favorite photo of a baby photoshoot: click here

Next post - Jersey fun!

And MORE projects

2011-08-18T19:01:00.005-06:00

When Eric and I moved in, our closet had one shelf. We've been talking FOREVER about adding a second one for more room. Well, it finally happened because we needed room on the one wall for Eric's gun safe.

Presenting...

Two shelves!

We've had this TV sitting on our dresser, and Eric put it up on our wall. SO much better. Below the tv - you can't really see it - we put up a mirror, that has just been sitting on the ground, up on the wall.

How to get a HUGE gun safe upstairs? Get a lot of men, a dolly for appliances, and haul that upstairs.

Nice.

Last year sometime, I put these bars up in our closet for my necklaces and bracelets. I've never blogged about it- so here you go. I love seeing them all displayed in one place.

We also got new dressers, and an end table from Ikea. Got those built and love them so much more than the old ones.

It's been really busy around here for us - I have one more blog post to put up. I'll have to do it later though - still gotta take the pics! :)

More projects

2011-08-17T18:13:00.008-06:00

First, we laid sod for our whole front yard. I LOVE having thick, full grass.

Then, in the back yard, Eric wanted trees. So, we got four of them, and Eric rented this excavator. There is a reason Eric has a job in field maintenance - he LOVES these machines.

Tree not planted...

Tree planted.

Last Saturday, my family came into town, and my brother and dad helped us put in our garden boxes for square foot gardening. The boxes are complete (except for the tree boxes - we'll do those when we actually have the trees. In the next few weeks, we need to put weed barrier cloth down, rocks, and fill the boxes with dirt. Next year, we will fill the boxes with veggies! WAHOO! Hopefully we'll do the trees next year, and have a beautiful garden. Once we have both arbors up - we'll add vine plants too - grapes, and honeysuckle. I'm so excited.

Eric got a trencher and made the trenches for the sprinkler pipes.

Dad, David, Eric, and myself got the pipes done while they were here, and the boys built the boxes.

The boxes all done.

This was our rose garden before I spent literally ALL DAY weeding it.

Still before...

And now! :)

Eric and Stephanie helped me move all the rocks, and put the weed barrier plastic underneath the rocks. Hopefully it will help the weeds stay away! Next year, we'll get a bunch of roses from Costco, and it will be so lovely!

And last, but not least, is our front door.

Before...

After!

Our new screen door - I love having so much more sun coming in the house. Makes it so much more homey.

Concrete and Fence

2011-08-15T23:24:00.011-06:00

This year was the year for the front yard and other random projects around the house. So, be prepared for a few blogs on all the things happening around here and why I haven't had a second to blog.

Best Vinyl put our non-sharing neighbor fence sides up in early March. As some of you know, they did an AWFUL job. We ended up getting our money back from American Express since Best Vinyl wouldn't cooperate. Now, we have to get back to them after vacation about taking the fence out. We'll see where it goes from there. Because they did an awful job, we found a new fence place, and they put in our neighbor sides.

We had to get the posts up before we could lay concrete so that we could have the concrete under the fence. So the posts went in.

And we cleared everything from the side of the house.

Leveled the dirt, put concrete down and leveled that, then tied all this rebar. Eric spent a TON of time leveling everything - it's a lot of hard work but worth saving $3000.

Larry, our neighbor who does concrete, helped us a TON as well. He was the one who convinced us we could totally do it ourselves.

We poured the concrete in two sections. This is the first - Phil's dad did concrete before, so he came to help since neither of the two neighbors we have who do concrete, could be there.

Brian also came and helped - and the concrete truck driver came out to give some pointers as well.

And tah dah! Serious kudos to Eric who got the entire thing finished himself because everybody left him. One half done - one to go.

Just kidding! Let's add some Tucker paw prints first. (Bad, bad dog.)

Then the same thing on the other half... but leave out Tuck's prints this time.

And tah dah! Our one neighbor, Greg, helped us do this side.

After the concrete was in, the fence could be finished. The pretty boxer in the above picture is Roxy's lover, Butch.

And everything done! :) We are finally starting to look good - no more white trash outside for us!

The fence in the back....
The side concrete we added so you can get out of your car and step on concrete.

Thanks to all those who helped with the concrete. It was a huge success!

More project blogs to come!

The Spudman!!

2011-08-13T09:45:00.008-06:00

About a year and a half ago, my friend, Melanie, told me about this tri that had an easy swim because you could practically float down the current.

January came, and I signed Eric and myself up for the race. The catch - you're put in a raffle so you may or may not get in. The day we got back in California from our cruise, I got the email that said we were in! :) I WAS THRILLED!

So training began. Lots of swimming, lots of biking, easy on the running because my knee was giving me issues from doing The Dirty Dash in September 2010.

Training was going really well....and then the side-by-side crushed my foot on May 13th. After finding out it wasn't broken, I was extremely optimistic that we'd still do the tri.

However, 5 weeks of crutches put quite a damper on the training. At 3 weeks of crutches, I remember the doctor telling me I could do the tri, but I wouldn't be able to train - and I had at least two more weeks of my boot and crutches. I was devastated. So imagine the excitement I felt when just 6 weeks before the tri, I got rid of those crutches, and 4 weeks before the tri, I was able to run again.

Then two weeks before the tri, I tried for over a mile - and BAM. The knee was bugging me all over again. But hey, who said you couldn't walk a 10k if you had to!? :)

So off we went to Idaho - the last weekend in July.

We arrived, and went and got our goodie bags - which included this awesome shirt. Eric told me these creatures were the ugliest things he had ever seen. I had to explain that they were potato men- hence the SpudMAN. :)

After getting our bags, we had to take our bikes to the transition spot.

There was THIS dude sporting for us.

Wow... are those some tight jeans or what?!

After dropping off our bikes, we went to the carbo loading dinner.

That night, we got a bit of sleep, got all dressed in the morning at 6 am, and headed to the race.

We don't have any swimming shots - but Eric did take our underwater camera. We forgot to put an SD card in it. So, once we got on our bikes, we were going to pass our car, so Eric grabbed an SD card from the car. haha.

The swim went well. The current was awesome. Where we were doing a 35- 40 minute mile swim in the pool, we did an 18 minute swim in the current! SO COOL! Eric and I decided that we will do a sprint tri every year, and if we feel like doing the olympic again, we'll come do the Spudman because the swim is AWESOME!

Then it was off to the bike ride. I've been training on a hybrid bike but rented a road bike for the race. It was like going from a rusty truck to a ferrari. IT WAS AMAZING. I NEED to buy a road bike.

After getting off the bike, it was time for the run. The run in which I wasn't even sure I'd be able to run. BUT, two days before the race, I saw the chiro who thought my fibular bone was out of place, and the day before that, saw another sports medicine doctor who gave me a cortisone shot in the back of my knee thinking there was a tendon that was inflamed. So I was hoping for the best.

I ran a mile, and then the knee went. We averaged 14 min miles though - walking and running, so it wasn't awful. I'm now seeing an actual knee specialist - who thinks I tore cartilage under my knee cap. We'll see if he's right.

At the end of the last mile, Eric and I could see the finish line was soon, and ran as hard as we could - then did a cartwheel (me) and a forward roll (Eric) over the timing chip line, then ran straight through the finish line. They were reading everybody's names as they came across - it was awesome to hear our names over the speaker system.

And tah dah! SO happy we did the tri.

We stayed in Jessica's home -Jessica was Stephanie's mission companion at some point. She came and watched us finish. HOW SWEET! It was fun to have someone to run through for.

After the race, we took a shower in her friend's house (Jessica's house only has a tub), and went to Jack In The Box! YUM!

And then we went and got shakes at Jessica's sister's company, and went home.

It was AWESOME -and I hope I can get this knee thing figured out and do another one soon!

Hogle Zoo - Work family night

2011-07-30T21:16:00.017-06:00

So, Rio Tinto did a work night at the zoo this year. Because I work at Rio Tinto, and Eric works at Kennecott - owend by Rio Tinto, we both got a ticket to take five people (plus us) to the zoo - equaling TEN extra people. SWEET. We invited a bunch of family and friends and had SO much fun.

They supplied dinner and made all concessions free. DELICIOUS. It was wonderful. The zoo will never be the same. They also gave all the kids t-shirts and hats, and all the adults hats or visors.

Now for picture overload. I don't have a picture of the whole group OR all the dang food. Darn it.

Face paint!

We got this cart to store all the drinks we had. It was very worthwhile.

Baby elephant!

Carousel rides!

Sally, the camel, has two humps.

My favorite animal - the TIGER. My favorite tiger: white bengal tiger - don't get to see those a lot.

Look at the paws on that thing.

This ram kept posing for me. It was hilarious.

Giraffe licking this pole.

We went to the bird show - which was so cool! This bird untied two different signs in the show.

A bald eagle.

I remember when we had a bald eagle nest in our backyard as kid. It was awesome.

They kept releasing tons of birds - very cool indeed.

This chicken was shaking its tail feathers!

Addi and Kade both made donations to the bird show - the birds takes all the donations and puts them in the box.

The three butterfly ladies. They wouldn't let me paint my face with Add, but later in the night, there were no kids waiting, so I got mine done to match Add, and Sally joined.

Add is going to be a model - no doubt. :)

And that was our FUN trip at the zoo - wish they did this more often!

Thanks to all those who came!

Our 3rd year anniversary - part two

2011-07-18T06:00:00.002-06:00

The next day, our actual anniversary, we headed off to breakfast at Fanny's grill. Eric decided that he could determine whether a tree was real or "fake". If you can put your arms around the tree, it's fake. If you can't, it's real. :)

Breakfast at Fanny's grill.

After breakfast, we had to check out. This was the sign for our cottage.

Nice patio off our room.

We had coupons for a free carousel, so we went over to the Zermatt and rode the carousel!

After we were all ready to go, we went and explored the surrounding area.

Eric found that he could drive from midway all the way back to American Fork on his ATV. Not sure how long that will take - but I have a feeling he might be finding out soon.

After our exploration of the area, we drove to Aubrie's again, visited for a while, and then headed on our way home.

Eric wanted to stop at Squaw peak first, and we saw these paragliders. This had been our original plan for the morning of our anniversary weekend, but we didn't think my foot was up to the running/hiking part of it- so we had to hold off on the Living Social deal we bought. It was fun to watch them, and we ended up talking to the guy who will end up taking us paragliding when we can actually use our deal.

And then we headed on home.

It was a wonderful anniversary!

Love you Eric!

Our 3rd year anniversary - part 1

2011-07-17T17:00:00.001-06:00

For our 3rd anniversary, Eric and I went to The Homestead in Midway, UT by recommendation of my sweet sister-in-law, Natalie. It was the most perfect idea ever! Thanks Nat!

Before we headed to Midway, we ate breakfast at One Man Band. Delicious.

After that, we went to Lowes and bought Eric his anniversary present - a screen door for our front door.

Then we headed off to Midway.

We had their anniversary special which included breakfast, and dinner at Fanny's Grill. So we started off with our dinner.

Big huge fish with all the little fish.

YUM.

After dinner, we swam in the crater. It was so cool. We watched some scuba divers swim to the bottom and back up. So, Eric and I swam down to see how far we could go, and it hurts your ears! We asked the divers how they stop it from hurting, and they told us their tricks, but OW! Scuba divers - how do you get used to that?

After our crater swim, we went on a lovely carriage ride. The man sang a love song for us. It was very romantic.

They have a ton of little craters like this.

And everything is decorated in this swiss style - and most of the buildings are painted so beautifully.

And that ended our carriage ride.

Afterwards, we visited my friend, Aubrie. Her family moved to Midway a while ago, and I didn't realize they lived right there! I saw Aubrie's dad though, while on our carriage ride, and contacted her family, and went over to their house! Aubrie was even there because her husband was out of town. It was great fun to catch up!

More tomorrow!

Washington Extras

2011-07-05T07:00:00.002-06:00

My fave mountain -Mt. Raineer

Steph and Isabelle

Dad and Andrew

The signs that welcomed Stephanie home in April, and then me added to the end! :)

My granddad's basement - where my grandma taught me to sew.

My granddad and dad are AMAZING shooters - and both have tons of awards.

The precious moment dolls that my grandma collected. I want to start collecting more of these.

My granddad showing Eric his guns. Eric has WAY too much fun when he goes to my granddad's.

A goose in my granddad's house.

The side-by-side I bought Eric. ;)

We (Kenz, Jarad, Jarad's cousin, Eric and me) went to the restaurant that replaced Las Margaritas in Redmond. It was replaced because they didn't want to pay franchise dues for Las Margaritas. They still have menu items from Las Margaritas, so I ordered off that. They don't do birthday stuff here, and MacKenzie told the waitress I was very upset about it, and I think the lady felt bad so she made me this special plate. SO sweet.

Olives on your fingers... why not?!

Andrew

A bird's nest Eric found

Texas cookies for Stephanie's welcome home party

I think Steph brainwashed Andrew...

This cool talking fountain is in the SeaTac airport - the dripping sound in the beginning is the "talking.".

And that ends the WA trip! :)

And MORE Golden Birthday- the last of 25

2011-07-04T07:00:00.001-06:00

18. Go shooting - I used to do competitive rifle shooting with my dad, so we went to this shooting game I've never been to. Way fun - and makes me want to join a club down here.

19. Play monopoly! (This is something we always did when it snowed - first, we'd make a bobsled run, then play monopoly and drink hot chocolate! I love playing all board games. I wanna create a monthly game night - anyone interested?)

My dad and I ended up playing until 2 am, and then went to bed. The next day we played, and then agreed to call it a tie if no one won in the next few turns. We called it a tie. Dad, good game!

20. Play on the Emily Dickinson playground -this is my elementary school.

You would just hang upside down and play hand games with people on the other side of this bar contraption.

The tire swings were marked off... not sure why...

So, we used them any way! :) When I was younger, I would always push the swing for all the kids. Believe it or not, I was a TALL elementary kid - I was 5'2" in 4th/5th grade, and only ever grew an inch taller. I even wrote a children's book when I was little on how I pushed the swing one time, and ended up hitting my head on the back of that brown pole.

Our elementary school has the "old school" and the "new school" portions to it. This is a new playground in the new school.

Jarad.

The playground that was there when I went to the new school.

So... tell me... how do you use this part of the playground? Kenz and I think it's one way... the boys think it's another way. So seriously, comment and tell me.

21. Eat omlets for breakfast- made by my dad!

22. Put water on dad in church - when we drink the water in sacrament meeting, my sisters and I would take the leftover water that you get on your fingers, and put it all over my dad. We always would sing the hymns with the hymn book upside down or sideways. Did both of these. :)

23. Play in my cave

24. Play on the trampoline - this is about as much as I could play in a boot:

25. Save the frogs - the frogs get into our pool because they want the water, and then die because of the chlorine. So, you have to take the frogs out and take them back to the river. They probably end up going back and our efforts are pointless, but we do try.

And that ends the 25 things I did as a kid, and ends my golden birthday!

Thanks to everybody who made it so special and fun!

More Golden Birthday

2011-07-03T21:27:00.009-06:00

14. Have a swimming birthday party with Papa Murphy's pizza! YUM!! :)

My friend Tanya - met her in 8th grade (her 7th grade).

Jarad - MacKenzie's boyfriend. (Jarad - you gonna propose yet? ;) )

Pizza!!

My friend Danielle - she just got married! Congrats dude!

Flowers my cousin Victoria and her husband Vaughn gave to me. I couldn't take them back to Utah with me so a picture will have to do. I got lots of other fun presents too - thanks to everyone for the gifts!

And Kenzie. :)

We obviously had to use the pool... Lexi thought it was too cold.

Eric

15. Play shark in the pool. I was swimming down to be the shark. LOVE this game.

Eric, me, and my cousin Brad.

16. Do "bird man". This is a song my mom would sing, and you'd jump off the diving board after doing all the dance moves. BUT... hurt foot= no diving board, so in the pool had to do.

More bird man.

My mom - the one who made this all possible for me! She spent all week making food for us, hosting us, putting parties on for us, etc etc. I love you mom! Thanks so much - and you're looking awesome! :)

Obviously, I turned 52 this year... FAIL.

Me, Larisa and her daughter

17. Circus cupcakes! THANKS MOM! They were awesome.

A Golden Birthday Continued...

2011-07-02T09:07:00.001-06:00

8. Have a bon fire, eat hot dogs, and eat smores.

9. Go to Las Margaritas on my birthday.

They shut down the one in Redmond - SO SAD - so we traveled to Issaquah and went to theirs instead. Still absolutely freaking delicious.

10. Have homemade apple crisp

After a fun filled birthday, we came home and ate the apple crisp my mom made me. But, we didn't want to put candles in the apple crisp while it was warm (didn't want them to melt). I'm a huge believer in having to blow out candles on your birthday and having as many as you are old - so we stuck 25 candles in this chocolate muffin. :)

And then Andrew ate it.

And we had some apple crisp.

My favorite quote of the night was from MacKenzie. Jarad and Kenz had just arrived back from Hawaii that day, and yet, still dragged their butts to our house to eat some apple crisp. As we are sitting there chatting, someone said that we were so full that we didn't have any room for apple crisp and Kenzie goes "so wait, we're not going to eat the apple crisp tonight?" It was SO funny. She was SO concerned about that apple crisp. It was delicious by the way.

11. Have homemade french toast - as always, absolutely amazing.

12. See a movie at Bella Botega - went to a late movie with some friends - super fun!

13. Play on the rope swing in the forest

And now for a video of the rope swing and Eric trying to strangle me. haha This rope swing didn't used to have the seat part on it, it was just a hole for your foot.

A Golden Birthday

2011-07-01T14:04:00.001-06:00

When you turn the age that matches your date of birth - it's called a golden birthday. So for instance, I turned 25 on the 25th this year - so it was my golden birthday. Eric had his when he turned 14 since he was born on the 14th.

Since I was a little girl, and my mom ever explained that to me, I wanted to do something crazy and fun for my birthday. I thought of going to Paris or Australia, or just somewhere so exciting, but then ending up deciding to go back to WA and do 25 things I did when I was younger.

So this might take a couple blogs, but here goes - my 25 things:

1. Have a chicken burger 2. Have homecooked fries

3. Have homemade salsa

3. Have lemon pie - my parents made a ton of these and they were DELICIOUS!

4. Go to the science center - I always forget to get a picture of this, but the bridge breaks the water up so one side is windy and one is calm. Cool, huh?

The science center has changed a lot since I've last gone - I wish they'd bring back the HUGE playspace they got rid of when I was in junior high or high school.

There's a butterfly house in the science center.

They even hatch their own too!

The water toys at the Science Center - MJ is playing with one in this picture.

The water again

6. Go to the IMAX theater. The IMAX theater is huge. One of the biggest in the country, in fact. We went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean II.

7. When I was younger, my mom told us how Stephanie's middle initial could have been "O" instead of "S" if my grandma had her way. Ever since then, we've always played the ABBA song "S.O.S." and made pancakes with our initials, and always made hers "S.O.S".

And that's all for now. More later.

Surprise Bday Party!

2011-06-30T22:49:00.011-06:00

First off, I know I've been an awful blogger, but summer came and I've had 1,000 more things to do! AH!

Plus, dealing with the whole foot thing was driving me crazy, and everything just fell apart. BUT, guess what?! I went to the doctor today and he said I'm good to go - I get to start running, SLOWLY and gradually to build up, but he said, get on it, go do that race! So Spudman Tri... here we come! :) HURRAY!

Anyway, back in May, my hubby and my friend, Molly, threw me a WONDERFUL surprise party - it was SO fun. Molly said we were just going out to dinner, but then needed me to meet her somewhere and pick her up instead... and when I got there - SURPRISE! :) SO FUN. I love surprises, and definitely enjoyed this one. Thanks to everyone who came and made my birthday so special.

This little boy, Kai, always refers to be as "my jackie". I love when kids "own" me.

Thanks for the awesome party everyone! I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.

Who's a brunette?

2011-06-20T16:30:00.000-06:00

So... I decided to dye my hair back brown last month. One, it will be cheaper to maintain my natural hair color, and two, I was just sick of being blonde.

To become a brunette after being a blonde, you have to have all the blonde covered with this stuff that looks like blood. YUM. If you don't, the brown color will soak into the blonde, turning your hair gray.

Then it gets to sit in your hair for a while.

Then get rinsed out and dryed - making me into a red head. I would NOT look good as red head if anybody was wondering.

And then you get the actual brown colors, and TAH DAH!

Now I just have to wait until the dark stuff fades, and my hair returns to its normal caramel color. :)

YAY!

Friday the 13th

2011-06-08T18:24:00.000-06:00

On Friday the 13th, I left my old job, knowing that Monday was bringing a new opportunity. After getting home, Eric, Christie, Brian, Andrew and I went out on ATVs. Eric borrowed a yamaha rhino from his friend, Jason, to show me that we should buy one.

So, Eric decided it would be fun to do a quick donut. See the passenger seat? See the seatbelt? See the rollbar cage? Specifically see the part of the bar that comes from the bottom - where your feet go - and up towards the blue part of the rhino?

Well, what do you get when the rhino doesn't land on four wheels?

A broken Jackie.

I was wearing my seatbelt and a helmet, and yet, (from either throwing my foot out to brace myself, or from my legs falling out when it tipped) my foot ended up under that roll bar.

Eric rushed me to the hospital as fast as he could while being careful to go gently over the rocks coming off the mountain. A BLACK bruise, and a bump just under the size of a tennis ball appeared on my foot. Eric was extremely concerned something was broken. We put a cold Capri Sun on it, and by the time we got to the hospital, the bruise was gone, but my foot was HUGE.

I told each doctor/nurse there that I had two rules - 1. no broken bones, and 2. no cutting my foot off.

After a visit to the hospital, I left with NO broken bones, and a small boot thing.

A day later...I took a picture of my foot just for you. :)

Notice, I've got cankles!

And my right foot is like 1000 sizes bigger than my left.

All scratched up.

Monday, I went to the podiatrist and found out that I bruised my tendon. Crutches and a LARGE boot for THREE weeks.

A boot is AWFUL. It weighs a million pounds AT LEAST. Under my boot, I had a "soft cast" - a cast made of three layers of bandages.

Taking a shower was unsuccessful. I wasn't supposed to get the bandages wet, and yet, I did. :( That was Wednesday. They instructed me to put my own ace bandage on, and come in Thursday to get it wrapped again.

This is when I took it off - it's nasty because it's all wet, and the ace bandage makes my skin wrinkly. You can also see all the rest of the bruising.

Later that night when it was finally dry.

Thursday morning, I had it rewrapped by the doc. I asked him again about the recovery time - time on crutches, time with the boot, time to be healed, etc. He told me I'd be off crutches within the week, a boot the whole time it's healing, and three to four weeks for healing.

Thursday night, I put an ice pack on, and it leaked out and got the bandage all wet again. SERIOUSLY? So, here's a picture.

I didn't want to get the bandages wet again, so I kept rewrapping it after my showers each day.

Friday morning...

Saturday

Sunday

The next day, I went back to the doctor, and he put me in one ace bandage, told me I was allowed to take it off to shower like normal again, but still needed to wear it when I'm not showering - and of course, with the boot. He said to still use the crutches as much as I can - and just be gentle with it. He said I could go swimming in my pool for my birthday, but wouldn't go roller staking. (What happened to being off crutches within the week?)

Thursday, June 2nd, I went back to the doctor. June 3rd would have been three weeks injured.

The doctor told me that...

1. I still have five to six weeks to heal (from the time I hurt myself - June 17th = 5 weeks)

2. I need to stay on crutches as much as possible for better healing

3. Still rest, ice it, and elevate it.

4. Still in the boot.

5. A tri would be quite possible on July 30th -but training for the tri - not happening.

6. There is an absolute possibility that when he finally says my foot is healed, something else could still be wrong, and we can't MRI it until this first part feels healed. He said if I start using it again, and then it starts hurting, we'll do an MRI. He knows everything is in-tact still, and that nothing is torn... just have to heal the bruise.

7. It's not JUST a bruised posterior tibial tendon but everything surrounding the tendon as well.

8. After 6 weeks of non-use, muscles atrophy...

Six weeks? Are you sure it's not just under four? Yes, the right one is the one injured. And creepily skinny and muscle-less.

Tuesday, June 7th

8 more days until my next appointment... Hey foot, how do you feel about being completely healed by then please? :)

Goodbye old job, Hello new job

2011-06-06T21:55:00.004-06:00

So some of you might know that I quit my job a few weeks ago ago. My last day was May 13th.

The last week I was there, a bunch of us went to Cafe Rio as a goodbye lunch.

Tonya, Matt, Moose and Ruthy.

Ryan, Dustin, and Tiffany.

Jessica, Katy, Taylor and Kaylyn.

Matt just got a bike, and so he took me for a ride on it too. Not as scary as I thought - but still freak me out.

I worked at Smile Reminder for three years - promoted from a support rep to a marketing manager, where I handled all of the tradeshows and several other marketing duties - like editing all of our products literature, newsletters, etc with that college degree I have. :)

After a good run, it was time to move on, and I now work for Rio Tinto as a recruitment coordinator in their HR department. It's been an easy switch since it's basically like doing the same thing with tradeshows, but this is with people instead. I really like it, and hope that I continuing loving it for a while.

Time for a new chapter in life!

Dallas Part 3

2011-06-03T22:05:00.000-06:00

After Fort Worth, we went to Weatherford, ate dinner, played some rock band, went to bed, and woke up to shoot bows and arrows, and take a walk. My cousins make bows and arrows, and Stephanie LOVES to do this. They gave her her first bow.

It was really fun getting together with my extended family. It's been a while.

My mom left to hang with a friend -so she's not in this picture.

Eric is the donkey whisperer - did you know that? Every time we saw a donkey, he'd call and they would come. I guess there's another reason the people at his work call him "Donkey".

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. It rained almost every day, and was SO humid and hot the day we went to Six Flags - but all SO fun. We also got to see Christine for about an hour before leaving back to Utah.

Welcome home Steph!

Dallas Part 2

2011-06-02T21:40:00.000-06:00

We visited a lot of Stephanie's friends and "families" while we were there. This is a place she stayed and they had this big great dane. So sweet.

We went to Bass Pro Shops...

where I totally crushed Eric's score shooting. I can't remember what his was - I think 410 or something.

We also got $10 gift cards there for test driving toyotas, and I bought some new flippies.

We went to Costco, and they had this sign. So THIS is why they do this...

Saturday, mom, dad and Stephanie had a meeting to attend, that we couldn't go to, so off to Six Flags. SO FUN.

Can you see where the secret door is in this book shelf? This was at another house we went to - and behind it is a movie theater room and it can also double as a panic room because they have cameras watching the outside. I so need one of these in our next house.

I think our ward definitely needs this reminder.

On Monday, we headed off to Fort Worth. On our way, we stopped in Dallas to see this statue.

Then we got to Fort Worth and visited a little museum.

This is called the bad luck wedding dress.

Read this for why.

Eric wanted this picture for Nat. So here you go Nat! :)

Then we watched the cattle drive. Their long horns are crazy long!

And then we were off to Weatherford. More later!

Dallas Part 1

2011-06-01T23:07:00.000-06:00

My sister, Stephanie, finished her mission at the end of April. So we went down to get her.

I put purple extensions in my blonde hair just before I went. SO SO fun. :)

We flew in on Thursday, April 28th, and went to the JFK museum. It was such a cool thing to see that it's really too bad you can't take pictures inside.

The next day we went to the Canton market.

Eric got this deep fried snickers.

And we all got upside-down lemonade. So cool!

That night, we went to the Mesquite Rodeo. It was quite fun!

These kids had to run and grab the flags off the tails of the baby calfs.

I swear... these boys are going to get killed one of these days. Look how close that horse is to stomping on him!

Alexa kept score on her score sheet for the whole Rodeo.

Do you see the shark in this pic?

A lady won the "best seat in the house" and got to sit in this cage, while the cowboys did bull riding.

This bull was SO stubborn. It did NOT want to go back in the pen. SO... it stayed right here, and every time the cowboys (on their horses) got him to move forward an inch, he would move back a few feet. Nothing was working. About fifteen minutes later, they must have used a hot stick or something... cuz that bull finally started inching forward slowly toward the gate. Stubborn, stubborn bull.

THEN... we got to ride the FERRIS WHEEL!!

And more to come in the next post.

"Camping"

2011-05-15T09:42:00.011-06:00

Two weekends ago, we went "camping". I say this with quotes, because we actually stayed in a house, but for some reason, we all called it this. After Christie arrived here from Idaho, Eric, Christie, her friend Tyler, and I all headed down to Meadow. Brian was already there. We stayed in his uncle's summer house.

We left on Friday night, and the next day was Christie's birthday. I wanted to make it really special (because I LOVE birthdays) and so we did lots of goofy things to make it fun!

Here is Christie with her bday tiara. :)

After eating, we went and played on the ATVs. I got up to 45 miles per hour - first time since my crash last year, and was so excited! (This weekend proved to scare me from them again... but more on that later.)

After playing around, we took the ATVs up to the lava tubes.

This is Brian playing 127 hours.

We found this baby rattle snake. Ah, so cute. :) Then Brian killed it. Not so cute. (

In one of the lava tube cave things, it was pitch black. My little iphone flash helped out immensely. :)

After all the ATVing fun, we headed out to the hot springs. I've never been in one - they are so cool!

We ended Christie's bday with a pinata. :)

The next day we drove out to go shooting.

And then we all got in the jeep and truck and left. The pups were pretty pooped I must say.

Such a good weekend!

Happy Birthday Christie!

A fun filled weekend

2011-05-11T11:20:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago, before we went to Dallas, I celebrated Angela's birthday with her by taking her out for breakfast and a spa day. Addi got to come and we had so much fun!

Pictures are courtesy of my iPhone... how did I ever live without you phone?

First, we headed off to Mimi's cafe. Addi got the Mimi Mouse pancakes - a kid's meal. Now tell me, why would the fruit come like this for a kid's meal? Shouldn't they have it all cut up in bite size pieces? Also, Addi was very sad that the pictures showed watermelon, and no watermelon came with her meal. She tried to change her meal over and over until they would give her one with watermelon - she didn't quite understand that they just didn't have watermelon. I still owe her a watermelon from the store. :)

After breakfast, we went off to get Addi's nails done, a manicure for me, and a facial for Angela.

Addi picked my polish for me - and we were twins.

Addi kept asking if we could go visit Angela to see how she was doing, and I told her she couldn't right then, but could after Angela was done. This is what resulted. :)

After all of that, we went shopping at Rod Works and got some stuff to decorate with.

A very fun day was had by all! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGELA!

Best Vinyl

2011-05-10T14:01:00.000-06:00

They suck, they dont help out, they are not at all what they used to be, poor service, poor product. Now you all know, dont use them.

How To Host A Murder Party

2011-04-26T21:05:00.007-06:00

A while back, I hosted a "How To Host A Murder Party". My parents did this every year when I was growing up, and I want to make it a tradition too. My old roomie, Christine, was visiting from Texas, so we planned it around her coming. It was SOOOOO incredibly fun! I am so excited to do another one soon. My mom and Lynda wrote one themselves, so that's the next one coming up!

Christini

Amanda

Brandon

Angela

Eric

Matt

Eric

Christine and Amanda talking as their characters to each other.

Matt listening intently.

Eric being tough. :)

Everyone after dinner, showing Matt that he was, indeed, the murderer.

Me :)

Everyone stayed in their character so well, and we laughed SO hard all night.

I can't wait for another one!

Thanks to all those who came and made it so fun!