I'm Done

I'm sure that Tim feels the same.

Though I'm done with classes for the semester.

Tim still has more to finish.

Poor guy.

Broken

Last weekend, Husband and I went with my brother and his wife, Tom and Tami, their cute little family and our other brother, Kurtis, to Capital Reef. Its this beautiful national park, made mostly of sandstone. You should go. It's beautiful. Even my 2 year old nephew kept pointing at the rocks saying "ooooohhhh!"

We all made the trip down south-east to celebrate the 7th birthday of my niece, Lily. We stayed in a town called Teasedale at The Laforborn Ranch. It's this cute barn/hotel (it's literally a barn with some rooms and a kitchen attached...though these are definitely not you basic country bumpkin rooms/barn). It was quite nice. Check it out!

As part of the celebration festivities, we went down to ride some of Tami's aunt's horses. Tami's Aunt JaNae lives in Torrey, UT, and houses her horse at The Laforborn Ranch, so it was easy access to her horse, Old Oxbow.

Saturday morning we got all "cowboyed up" and went out to ride the horses. Husband was THRILLED. He grew up with horses and couldn't wait to ride one. Lily got to ride first as she was the birthday girl. Then Tami got on Old Oxbow just as we saddled up another horse to ride. Kurtis was going to ride first, but the horse was stubborn and refused to move. So, Husband, with all his horse-riding wisdom, got on the horse, determined to make her do what he wanted. Well, after several minutes of a battle of stubborn wills the horse lost her footing and down she went, right on Husband's left leg, and SNAP.

We immediately got Husband in the car and Aunt JaNae and I took him to the small clinic in the nearby town. No one was there when we got there, due to the clinic being closed because the county fair taking place. We had to dispatch the doctor....it took him about 20 minutes to get there.

They took an x-ray and confirmed it was broken. They put a splint on it and told us to go to a doctor in Salt Lake to get it completely taken care of.

Poor Husband. No more horse riding for the weekend...and for awhile.

Husband didn't want his broken bone to ruin the weekend for the rest of us, so he was content to stay back and sleep while we hiked in Capital Reef and then ate at this fun pizza place.

Overall it was a fun weekend, even if there was an injury involved.

Monday morning I took Husband to see an orthopedic doctor. He took new x-rays as the ones from the clinic were quite fuzzy. And again confirmed the ankle was broken. The medial malleolus was broken clean through and had turned and with where it is sitting, if we just put a cast on, it would not heal properly. Therefore, surgery is necessary.

Due to the ankle being swollen, we scheduled the surgery for this Wednesday as they have to give the ankle time to reduce the swelling or they won't be able to close the incision after the surgery.

Husband must stay off his foot for 6 weeks after the surgery. We are in for a long recovery. Which will be interesting with work and school. But we'll get through the semester just fine, Husband is strong and will be able to do it all.

PS - If you want to see more photos from the weekend, just check out Tom and Tami's blog.

The New Job

Husband and I decided that we want pay off our debt faster than we currently are. And as I cannot work overtime because I am on salary at my current job, and we want Husband to finish his degree as quickly as possible, we decided that I would find a part time job to help us get to where we want to be while Husband finishes his schooling.

For the last several months I have been applying everywhere, I mean, EVERYWHERE.

Finally, I found an add for an "on call associate" for Macy's. I didn't know how well that type of a position would work with my schedule, but I opted to apply anyway.

I went in for the interview and no more than 5 minutes into the interview (which was not your typical interview, mind you) the store manager said that he had a position for me that was not the position that I applied for.

I was a little surprised but happy. He said that he'd had a supervisor position open for 3 months that he had not found anyone to fill until now.

Happy day!

So now I am the Sales Floor Supervisor at Macy's at the Valley Fair. I work 20 hours a week, mostly 3 nights and Saturdays. The people are fun, and the job is great.

Life is pretty busy (working a full time, and a part time job...with school starting the end of the month). We'll be lucky if I can find time to blog. Don't miss me too much. Ha ha.

But overall, we feel this is the best thing for us right now, and yes, yes, I'm going to say it, but I can't deny it, we have truly been blessed.

Backgrounds

A few days ago I chose a new background for my blog, just to discover today that it was the same background as my brother and sister inlaw's blog. So of course I had to change my background. So I did. Just to find out as I looked at my friend's blog that she had the same background I'd just changed it to! So I changed my blog background again.

I'm just hoping that no one that my blog is linked to has the same background as myself.
Because that is lame.

Study Crazy

Currently Husband is trying to finish his pre-requisits for his nursing degree (yes, go ahead and poke fun all you want, but once he gets his Master's Degree he'll be rocking it with the monies...hopefully).

He needs to finish 7 classes before January to be able to enter the program he is applying for in August. And this program is awesome! Its expensive as can be, but it will be well worth it as he will be graduating 18 months after beginning the program, with his bachelors degree (unlike any other program that would only be awarding him an associates degree after 2 years).

So, because the stakes are so high, he is studying like MAD. He has 3 classes (and a lab) this summer, and 4 (and a lab) in the fall. Seriously, he is at class until 9 o'clock during the week, comes home, eats something, then is up until 1 or 2 studying, just to get up the next day and do it all over again. Then on weekends, he is at the school library for 8 hours and spends most of Sunday afternoon studying.

And I admire him for all of it. He is so dedicated to his studies, because he knows how important it is for the grade and for us

Yeah, I wish I could spend more time with him, but I know that this small sacrifice will be worth it in the long run.

And I love him for it.

Father's Day

This Father's Day, my younger brother, Eric, and sister in law, Carlee, spoke in their ward (my parents ward). And they were assigned to speak on their fathers or other influential men in their lives. So Husband, my other brother, Kurtis, and I went to go support them and hear all the good things they had to say.

They both did an AWESOME job, it was great to hear the wonderful things they had to say about their fathers. It was especially great to hear the wonderful things they had to say about my father. Eric is an especially tender man, when he speaks of something that is very dear to him, he gets quite emotional, which in turn, caused myself (and my father) to get emotional.

My father has been an incredible influence in my life. He is one of the most selfless people I know (my mother is one of the others). He has worked incredibly hard his entire life, and all of that hard work was for his family. He has taught us all to work hard ourselves, to be honest, to love others, and to love the gospel of Jesus Christ. He has an incredible love for his wife and for his family. Its wonderful to see him with his grandchildren and how tender he is, he's gotten soft in his old age. =)

I love my father and I am so thankful for all that he has done for me and my family, he is the best father I could ask for.

Green Thumb

I am my mother's daughter.

My mom has always had a garden. Filled with zucchini, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers and whatever other veggie she has decided to try that year. So when the back yard is filled with greens, the front garden is filled with color - purples, yellows, reds, and pinks.

Now that I live in my own place, I don't get to enjoy the sweet benefits of having a garden.
Or do I?

Last year I tried to plant tomatoes - but I got started quite late and I only had a few edible tomatoes come of it. This year I decided to get started with the best of them and try my hand er, thumb -green thumb that is! at the whole garden thing...well as much as I can living in a condo. I have but a balcony - which doesn't get nearly as much sun as I'd like. Regardless, I now have 6 planters with tomatoes, zucchinis, and a cucumber plant.

Now we will see how well they grow.

I also planted some hanging baskets with flowers, just like last year. They look great. And they did last summer as well.

Fingers crossed that come August I will be reaping the benefits of a home "garden".
If sadly, I am not - I will have to settle for planting flowers until I can get a house with a real garden.

Sick II

Now I am getting sick.

I can feel it in my throat.

I cough.

I sneeze.

You should now stay away from me.

Sick

Husband has been sick all weekend, poor guy. He came home from work on Thursday, stayed home sick Friday, slept most of Saturday and all of today.

I wish I could wave some magic wand and make him better. It breaks my heart to have him not feel well. And the Nyquill doesn't seem to cut it. Sad.

Get better soon honey!

Slow

Husband and I are waiting on our psychology grade. Why must this teacher be soooo slow? My other two teachers had our grades posted 5 days ago! One of which posted it within 24 hours of our final! Why can't this teacher be like him?

Maybe I'm just extra anxious because thus far I've received AWESOME grades, and I hope to get something very similar with this class. I guess I'll just have to be patient.

....

Still waiting....

...

Patience isn't all its cut out to be.

Sky Diving

Husband's family arrived in town on Wednesday for his brother's wedding on Saturday. We had planned to go sky diving on Friday with his brother, Charly and his sister in-law, Rachel. However, for those of you who live in Utah, it was extremely stormy and rainy. So, Friday's plans were ruined, much to the dismay of Charly and the rest of us.

However, the wedding day was BEAUTIFUL and the bride and groom were as happy as can be. Lucky for us, the reception and all the other wedding festivities ended early in the day, so Husband, Charly, Rachel and I headed to Ogden to hopefully catch a plane ride, high in the sky.

We arrived around 5, and started the preparation for our flight - we put our diving suits on, and received some instructions. To the north the sky was beginning to darken, and we knew if we didn't head up soon, we wouldn't be able to.

I was more anxious than nervous as I have always wanted to sky dive. My dear friend, Suzy, was able to go a couple of years ago and I was crazy jealous, and then I'd hear of friends here and there who went. Again, jealous.

And here I was, climbing into a plane, ascending to sky, where I was going to be able to join the ranks of those who have jumped before me.

My tandom instructor, Farris, strapped me to him and his parachute and instructed me further as to how to best jump. As we got higher, we entered the clouds and could see snow and ice surrounding the plane. Technically we weren't supposed to jump through clouds, but we prepared to do so anyway.

Charly jumped first of all of us. He's working on certifying and he has already been 17 times so he jumped solo. His wife, Rachel, is also working on certifying, this was her second jump, however, she went solo with an instructor by her side.

I would jump next, then Husband.

As I scooted to the door, I was nervously excited. And then next thing I knew, I was falling.

It was exhilerating. The force of falling was intense. It felt like major pressure, and I had to remind myself to breathe. I didn't feel that "stomach in the throat" experience that comes from amusement park rides, which generally tends to make the experience less than desireable. And the good thing was, we jumped into the cloud, so I couldn't see a thing, but I had the wind and snow pelting my face, but I paid no mind to it as all I could think of was how cool it was!

I exited the clouds and enjoyed the incredible view of falling from 12, 500 feet towards the earth. The moment my instructor pulled the chute, I felt a moment of weightlessness as we had stopped free-falling, but the chute hadn't deployed completely, so there wasn't the jerk upward that came a moment later when we would then more slowly descend. It was amazing.

We coasted toward the earth, enjoying a spiral here and there as we headed to our landing site.

When my butt hit the earth, and I was on solid ground, I was sad that it was all over, because it was the time of my life!

Husband and I can't wait to go again...however, that will have to wait for awhile, but go again we shall!

The Red Dress

Husband's brother is getting married next week. And for this wedding I needed to find a dress.
Up until today I hadn't looked much because I had no idea what their colors were. There was some jesting about showing up in bright orange or some color that would most assuredly clash with whatever colors they had decided upon.

As luck would have it though, the soon to be bride and groom did drop by dropped off Husband's tie, which was a lovely deep red, much like unto the red of my own wedding. And I was also informed that their other color was gold.

Red and Gold.

So now I can go dress hunting. However, I decided that I most likely wouldn't be able to find a red dress, and there is pretty much no way that I would be caught dead in a gold dress. So I began searching for a black dress as black would look good with red and gold and would not clash.

I visited a few stores with now avail with even a black dress. I wasn't feeling very hopeful.

But I made one last stop before I headed home - JC Penney.

Surprisingly they had a decent selection of dresses though not many that would match. I finally found 2 black dresses that I decided to try. On my way to the dressing room, right there, hanging on the end of the clearance rack was the perfect red dress. Ahhh! Perfect!

I tried it on, and it fit like a glove. And to make it even more perfect, when I looked at the tag, the originally $80 dress was 80% off...making it $15.95!

I aslo tried on both the black dresses, the first one was so-so. But the second was quite cute, fit well, and, dun dun da dah! was originally $98 but was also on sale for $20.

Double score!

So I headed to the checkout, feeling pretty good about my findings.

But wait!

When Rebecca rang up the dresses at the register, they were $10 and $13! Oh blessed day!

So when I left JC Penney, I had 2 dresses, valuing $178.95 for $23. And a dress for the wedding.

I can't wait to dress it up with my red lipstick. Dubonet here I come!

The Cruise

In January, Husband and I went on a Caribbean Cruise with my family.



We flew into Puerto Rico and stayed the night at the Holiday Inn Express.
EIGHT of us squeezed into 1 room with 2 full sized beds. We had to get creative. My brothers slept on the floor....



I slept on 2 chairs pushed together....



And Husband slept in....yep...that's the bathtub!

CRAZY!



Here is the Carnival Victory - our home for 7 days.




We enjoyed food.



Fun. (The Gun Show).



Game nights.



The beach. (In St. Thomas)



And the wildlife (this lizard jumped on my leg and proceeded to crawl up my leg - me screaming all the while).

The Emerald Pools (In Dominica)

The odd shipmates (WHY!?! OH WHY is he wearing those socks!?!?).

More Gun Show.

The odd towel animals (if you can call that THING an animal).

Getting our hair braided in corn rows.

The view.

The Kayaking (on St. Lucia)

More beautiful views. (Puerto Rico)

Husband and I enjoyed ourselves immensely.

If I could choose, I would just move right in on the ship and sail the high seas for the rest of my life.

It was heaven.

Blog Smarts

Apparently I'm not very blog smart.

Back in February I started a post about the cruise Husband and I went on. But I didn't have time to complete it, so I saved it as a draft.

Tonight I finished the posting.
And it posted it in chronological order, back as a February post.

Not cool.

And I don't know how to move it.

So if you want to read about the cruise and see some photos, scroll down or click here.

Wanted

A few weeks ago, our neighbor's condo was robbed. So therefore, Husband and I have been more cautious about locking our doors and keeping our eyes open for anything suspicious in our neighborhood.

Today as I got home and pulled up to my parking spot there was a black car parked there. A man was sitting in the driver's seat. I pulled up near the spot and stopped so that the person could tell they were in my spot. But I kept far enough away so as not to be thought rude.

He backed out and as I pulled into the spot, I waved "thank you" at him and made sure I got a good look at the driver.

I pulled into my spot. And kept my eye on him. I memorized his license plate number and the make and model of his car.

He drove to another part in the parking lot. I was suspicious.

I got out of my car and watched him drive back to where I had parked. He rolled down his window.

He flashed a police badge at me.

By looking in the interior of his car, and noting his laptop and a few other objects, I could tell he was an undercover police officer. He looked like Sayid Jarrah from Lost. Hot.

He showed me a photo of a woman and asked me if I had seen her in the condos across the way from me. She is thought to be living there.

I didn't recognize her.

I apologized that I didn't know who she was as I wasn't very familiar with my neighbors in that building.

I wished I could've been more help.

He apologized for parking in my spot. I told him it was fine but that initially I had been suspicious of him as my neighbors had been robbed and he was just sitting there. He complimented my awareness of suspicious individuals.

I thanked him to trying to keep our neighborhood safe by looking for criminals.

I walked to my condo feeling like a superstar because I had the police asking for my help, but I also felt like a failure for not being able to help.

I will be keeping my eyes open for that woman he was looking for.

Black Iris

My brother, Eric, and his super-soon-to-be-wife, Carlee, are trying to break into the photograpy business. And they are making a run for it! They've done a couple of photo shoots but are looking for more opportunities to build their portfolio. They are currently doing some "pro bono" shoots, so if you have any photo ops that you are in need of, Easter, family pictures, new babies, children, engagements, bridals, etc. Check out their blog and contact them and they will get you taken care of!

Go Back

Home has too much stress and work. I want to go back on my cruise. Lame.

My Floor Mat Saved My Life...

....er...saved my car.

Husband and I were driving home from my sister's house after our monthly family dinner and Husband stopped quite abruptly causing the crock pot on the floor at my feet to tip over dumping all the contents onto the floor. These contents being Little Smokies in barbeque sauce. "NOOOOOOO!!!" I screamed! There was NOTHING left in the crockpot as it was all over the floor!

Thankfully...we had purchased floor mats not too long ago and not one bit of barbeque sauce or Little Smokie tainted the actual carpet of the car. Yes, I did have to sit with barbeque sauce all over my hands, leg and shoe for the remainder of the 45 minute drive, but the clean up to the "Crockpot Disaster of 2010" was surprisingly minimal for the mess that was created.
I promptly dumped the barbeque sauce and Little Smokies in the garbage and used the lovely spraying mechanism on my sink to spray off the mat without making a mess. Now I just must wait for the floor mat to dry.

I do have a small fear in my heart that the floor mat with forever have the "essence of barbeque sauce", however, if that be the case, I guess I can fork out another $20 at Wal-mart to buy new floor mats.

Floor mats have now become a necessary possesion. The crockpot however, may be re-thought.

"Everyone Loves a Panda"

Over the years I have watched many a films and many a television shows. Some I've enjoyed more than others. But one of the things I enjoy about these experiences is all the random one-liners that I've gathered from the shows. Maybe I'm this way because my brothers have always quoted lines from movies and shows. It's all their fault. But here are some of my favorite, most of which come from Gilmore Girls.

"Yeah! I'm a llama again!"
-The Emperor's New Groove

"My dear boy, if the good lord intended us to walk, he wouldn't have invented rollerskates"
-Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

"Lorelai Gilmore. Disappointing mothers since 1968"
-Lorelai Gilmore from Gilmore Girls

"Me? Raising a kid? I don't even like kids! They're always sticky, ya know, like they've got jam on their hands. Even if theres no jam in the house, somehow, they've always got jam on their hands. I am not the right guy to deal with that!! I have no patience for jam hands!!!"
-Luke Danes from Gilmore Girls

" And don't get the tights with the lines down the back or you'll look like ten cents a dance"
-Emily Gilmore from Gilmore Girls