Big news!

So yeah...I'm a super slacker. I've been busy/lazy/actually busy! Plus it's winter and you know it sucks the life right out of me. The big news is later on in the post so keep reading!

October was filled with Spooktacular craziness. It really makes me despise October. This year wasn't as bad.  I just looked at it differently. It was a lot of work, but I had a lot of help. The long days seemed shorter. Maybe I'm just getting used to it. Mary was quite level headed.  I think that's what helped me stay so calm. Mandy didn't seem like she felt like talking to us much which was really sad. I hope she can feel better soon. 

We got to go to Catching Fire with a big group of friends and that was really fun. We don't get a lot of movies in anymore, so it's nice to get everyone together and have a good time. The group was kind of a modge podge of people and I think that was really great. 

Kurt and I chaperoned a trip to Idaho Falls with Bobbi and Tanner for Tanner's hockey team. It was fun to watch the team play, and they did a really great job. Not so fun was the freezing ass cold ice rink they have there.  I spend plenty of time at ice rinks so I thought I would be a little more prepared. We ended up having to go buy another layer of clothes as well as gloves and hand warmers so we didn't straight up freeze to death. Unprepared. That's the lesson.  I was unprepared. 

Thanksgiving came and was a bit crazy. I spent the night before and the morning of at my work getting ready for the morning race. It was really fun, although I was anxious to get it over with to get on with my day. We had to be in Centerville by 11AM and then to Toelle by 1:30 PM. Meanwhile, Kurt had to get some sleep so he could work that night. BUSY DAY! 

Black Friday came next and man did it! Mary picked up me and Bobbi while it was still very dark and we headed to breakfast. Then it was on to the stores! We literally shopped until I thought I might drop. We got home just in time for dinner. Long long day. I really missed having Mandy there.  It was very different without her. 

Kurt and I then celebrated our birthdays with family and friends. I don't think I'm having anymore of them though.  I'm pretty much done. :) 

Oh yeah...we bought a house! That's right! Pictures to come! 

A peaceful reminder.

My niece Bobbi invited me to go to the General Relief Society Meeting with her at the conference center in Salt Lake yesterday.  It's kind of out of character for me, but she didn't want to go alone, and I'm definitely not against religion in any way, so I decided to go.  

It's funny how things like that can speak to you so personally. It seemed as though all of the speakers had written their talks directly for me. They touched my heart so strongly. It was definitely a nice little reminder from God that I'm not forgotten. 

busy busy weekends

It is nice to get out and have fun, but sometimes a nice quiet weekend at home is just as great.  Our last few weekends have been nuts! 

The 24th was a fun night.  Kurt planned a super secret date night that really got me out of my comfort zone.  We went to a murder mystery dinner out in a hotel in West Valley. When he finally told me what we were doing, my heart started to race.  I don't like socializing with people I don't know, let alone risking having to be a part of the show.  Luckily we just had a nice dinner and got to watch the mystery unfold.  Participation wasn't necessarily mandatory.  

We spent the night of the 30th up at a hotel in Logan so we could be up bright and early for Man VS Mud the next morning.  This was our third year running this race and we had a lot of fun.  They added a few obstacles this time, and one of them nearly killed me.  It was basically an army crawl through ice water.  It wasn't too bad when I stepped in, but once my body got submerged, I think my lungs froze.  It felt like I was literally fighting for my life.  

Once we thawed out, it was time to head up to the Heber Valley Camp, where my in-laws are missionaries.  The family got to spend a night up there in the cabins and it was a lot of fun.  We also got to climb up a 20 foot log, shimmy across a tight rope, then zipline down.  It was difficult, but a lot of fun!  Kurt, Tanner and a few of the little kids then took accidental long hike, which was just about the last thing they wanted to do after the mud run.   

On the sixth I had the opportunity to be an extra in a movie called, "'Till Blood Do Us Part."  My bestie Andrea's little brother David is making a legit movie for film festivals and that kind of stuff.  He's such a champ and I was happy to get all dressed up and help.  

Right after that I headed up to Molly's cabin with Molly, Brittney, Natalie, Andrea and Erin.  We have so much fun up there and this time was no different.  We rode ATVs and sat on the porch and listened to the rain.  We got to be present for Natalie's inaugural viewing of Pitch Perfect. Molly, Andrea and I got in a little extra BFF time in the middle of the night laying on the tennis courts watching the stars and figuring out life's dilemmas.    

I came home just in time to accompany Kurt to go get his tattoo worked on.  It's looking cooler and should be done pretty shortly.  

Needless to say, I'm ready for a quiet weekend home with my man.  Anyone who tries to get in the way of that this weekend had better watch it. :) 

Those wizards are missing out.

I have been waiting 15 years for my letter to come. Maybe I'll finally have to be okay with just being a muggle. :(

Uncomfortably Hot but Unquestionably Cool

August kicks my ass every year.  It's such a busy time trying to squeeze in all of the fun stuff before the summer ends.  It's hectic and crazy, but I love every minute of it! 

The last day of July my BFF Natalie came home from her mission.  This was a long day in the making for me.  I wrote to Natalie pretty frequently while she was gone, and I missed her a ton.  I'm glad to have her back.  I only wish she lived a little closer so I could stop by after work or something.  

Up next was a tour of SLC on the Pedal Hopper.  It's a 16 passenger bike that you pedal around the city and stop at different watering holes.  We'd done it before, and it was fun to try it out with a different crop of friends. 

Camping up at Willow Flats is a tradition that I would greatly miss.  We spent the week of Doug's birthday up there and had a lot of fun.  I was a little unsure about it this time around because so many extra people were coming and it got off to a rocky start due to someone borrowing and only half returning our tent, but I ended up having a great time.  

After driving up to Idaho and back, Kurt and I hit the road (or rather, stayed on it) and headed to Parowan for the wedding of one of his good friends.  It was a little uncomfortable for me, but we had a fun little road trip and got to chat along the way.
  

My super cool friend Brittney works on Antelope Island and she invited us all for a kayaking tour of the Great Salt Lake.  I was a bit nervous, but ended up having a blast.  I can't wait to do it again. 

I discovered a fantastic flavor of ice cream.  I'm going to get so (much more) fat. 

This last Sunday was Natalie's homecoming talk.  It was so nice to hear the things she has learned in Arizona and see the love of the people radiating in her countenance.  I even teared up a little when she bore her testimony in Spanish. (Molly did too, I'm not the only baby!) Brittney insisted we all get a photo together since we were all dressed up, and I'm really glad she did.  She posted the cutest description of this picture on her Facebook page, so I though I would steal it. "Together we've been through graduations, road trips, missions, weddings, divorces and a whole slew of adventures.  I'm so lucky to have these cool kids!"

Hello my name is...

                         

August 4th

Today is Doug's birthday. He would have been fourty-nine today. I can imagine the celebration we would be having with his favorite dinner and cherry chip cake for dessert.  I can hear his sweet laugh as he opens the funny gifts from his kids. He would have loved cheering on his favorite people in our summer Sunday shows. The rest of the world will not notice today as any different. I feel like I always will.  We are going camping without him for the first time this week. It's going to be difficult.  There was so much that we relied on him for. I miss you, Doug. 

PostSecret

I am a woman of routine and I love it.  My favorite thing (and usually the first thing) that I have done for years every Sunday is to check PostSecret for the new secrets of the week. At lot has changed in my life since high school, but this is one thing that has stayed the same.  I love the release it gives people to get their secret out into the open.  Maybe one day I'll see one of my own up there.

My Summer in photos.

Snowcones! It's been one hot summer and this is our way of beating the heat. 

I got my craft on once or twice.  Inside activities are for me. 

I went to Parade of Homes with some awesome ladies and saw this sweet map. Someone please make this for me. 

We bought a hilarious amount of taffy for the 4th of July parades we were in at work.  

My pal Natalie (who will be home in 9 days!) sent me this hilarious card. I hope it is me and my friends in a few decades. 

We had some super cutesy cupcakes at my cousin's birthday.  Adorbs!

Jenna Marbles is my spirit animal.

My inner fat child knows what she's talking about.  

Anniversary Week

I'm lazy.  No question about it.  Sometimes I don't think my life is blog worthy.  Personal problem, I know. 

We had a pretty great anniversary week a couple weeks ago.  We spent Sunday through Thursday in Las Vegas hanging out in the pool and seeing a couple shows. We have gotten pretty good about avoiding the 112 degree Vegas heat by cooling off in the water. We love the Monte Carlo for many reasons but their pools are definitely one of them. 

We like Cirque du Soleil a lot and try to see a show whenever we can. This time we splurged and saw two.  We really liked Mystere but were a little disappointed by O. We had heard such rave reviews and it really didn't seem to live up to them. 

Thursday through Saturday was spent in St. George with some family.  That was a lot of fun. We were there to see Mary Poppins at Tuachan. It was a beautiful outdoor theater that I really liked.  The play was a little different than the movie but I really liked it.  

Now we are home and it is a different kind of great. :) 

First world nap problems...

It's no secret that I like naps. They are just so darn comfortble and I have so little to do.  One of my best napping partners is my cat.  He is cuddly and warm and great.  One problem, he drools. Hmmm.....guess that explains the wet cleavage I'm sporting now doesn't it. Gross! 

Just a thought.

It's hard to see someone suffering and not be able to help. I'm learning lessons lately about staying within boundaries and I guess sometimes it is better to just stay away, even if it sucks. I'll always be there, even if it means I'm in the background. 

Excited ;)

We just booked our anniversary trip to Las Vegas and I'm really excited. Kurt and I really have a great time whenever we go on vacation and we definitely do Vegas well. After the Vegas part of our vacation is done, we are meeting up with the family in St. George to go see Mary Poppins at Tuacahn. Here is a list of the five things I am looking forward to most.

5. The drive. I love a good road trip. Jamming out to good tunes and making random stops. It's great and Kurt is a great road trip partner.

4. Tuacahn and St. George with the fam. The drive home is always so long. It will be fun to stop in the middle and have a little fun.

3. The food. We'll be going somewhere delicious for our anniversary and I'm sure it will be great. Fat Tuesdays has the best drinks! One is all you need and you are set for the day.

2. Cirque du Soleil. We are seeing two shows this trip. O and Mystere. We've seen Ka, Zumanity and the traveling show Quidam. I'm really looking forward to adding to our Cirque collection.

1. The hotel pool. We usually stay at the Monte Carlo and we love their pool. There is a lazy river and a wave pool and we spend a lot of time there. It's fantastic and I'm quite looking forward to it.

I found a talent.

I have a skill. It's not something everyone can do very well. I'm quite proud of it actually.  I'm real good at the DI.  Thrift shopping is an acquired skill and I've totally got it. 

Here are two of my recent finds that I'm loving right now. 

It's official.

I am not a good girl any more.  I am officially a badass.  Kidding :) but I did finally go and get my tattoo.  You may recall my last experience, which you can also read about here.  Yesterday, I put on my brave face and my big girl panties and just went and did it.  Kurt took some photos to document the experience.  

Here I am filling out the paperwork.  There is still time to back out. (Spoiler: I don't.)

 

 That's Clark Snyder back there from Ironclad and he did an awesome job.  He didn't even laugh at me when I cried a little. Don't look too close or you can totally tell. (Sorry about the boobage. There isn't much I can do about it at this point in my life.)

 Here it is finished and bleeding.  Gruesome, I know. 

Here is a picture from a couple hours later.  It's still red and swollen, but it's looking better already.

 Here I am today, looking fly. It's healing nicely so far.

In conclusion, yes, it hurt.  Much less than I was anticipating though.  Most of it wasn't bad, but they stem was a little hard to handle.  Overall, it was a great first experience and I'll probably end up getting another at some point in my life. Currently, I'm lotioning it up a lot and looking forward to summer where I can show it off a little more.

 

Winter camping or snow hates me and I hate it back.

The most recent trip up to Molly & Erin's cabin was quite different than most. It was SNOWY! Normally we can drive all the way up into the driveway, but this time we had to pack all of our stuff and hike in. That limited our activities like four wheeling. It's too bad. It's my favorite thing up there.

Instead, we spent a lot of time chilling in our leggings and playing games. We stayed up real late talking about boys and friends and our futures. Andrea and Molly suited up in some fabulous old snow suits and had way too much fun outside. I really love those girls.

Kurt surprised me and came up the last night. It was really great to see him and definitely helped me have more fun since I didn't have to be sad about missing him. He left this for me before I left. I adore him.

I love going to the cabin, but I think it's definitely a Summer/Fall activity from here on out. :)

"Do you know what we need? A kite!"

That is what I said on a windy afternoon that prompted my super sweet husband to take a trip to Dollar Tree to buy this gem. 

 

We headed up to the church parking lot and had a great time. We did look a little bit crazy, but we had a lot of fun.

$1 adventures are the best kind!

BFF Birthday & Jurassic Park

Today is my BFF Natalie's 25th birthday and the last birthday she will spend away on her mission. We sent her a birthday banner and mini versions of cardboard us to spend the day with her. I hope she liked them! I miss her like crazy and I can't wait for her to come back. She adds an element of fun to my life that has been missing. The time apart has moved quickly for the most part, but some days and weeks I'm really missing her. We have been great pen pals and I'm ready to bring this friendship back to reality. July 30th can't come soon enough

In other news, I saw Jurassic Park 3D last night. I normally hate 3D movies but I had to see it. It's Jurassic Park! It was actually very good and I liked it much more than the standard version.

Road Trippin'

Along with a few great friends, I hit the road on Friday for Lava Hot Springs.  I had never been and was pretty excited.  We had a blast.  It was super relaxing and it was nice to spend some quality time with some of my favorite ladies.  The only downside? It was FREEZING when we got home.  I'm still working on warming up! 

(Contrary to what it looks like in these photos, I did swim. I just happened to be dressed before the camera came out.  Good call me!)

Squares

My husband works nights so when he gets off work Friday morning his weekend begins.  He will try to stay up all day but he is usually SO tired. Yesterday he ended up falling asleep about 3PM. (After getting the motorcycle out for the year. Yay Spring!) It was okay though because I went old school and pulled out my Super Nintendo for a little Mario time.  He woke up when I was in the Forest of Illusion and helped me beat the entire game before bed. Nerds? Maybe.  But what is love if it isn't beating the special levels in Star World for me? 

 This is not my photo.

$20 in my pocket.

Is it wrong that this song makes me want to go to the DI tomorrow? 
(Sorry about the language. I couldn't find the real video with the clean version.)

Don't worry. I won't be popping any tags. 

Lemonade

In about a month, my in-laws are leaving for {what could be} 18 months and have offered to let us stay in their home, with my sister-in-law, until we can find one for ourselves. At first, I didn't really see how it would be any different than my current living situation, which is already in their house with them. I was bummed. I knew my friends and my financial advisor would say, "Stay there and save money." Or "Why would you turn down a free house?" For me however, it was a prison sentence. It was just MORE time living in someone else's house when I wanted to be out on my own.

After the sun came up today, I began to look at it in a whole new way. This is time that I can spend preparing myself in the ways of wife-hood (or whatever) before it is all or nothing. I'm thinking of it as a trial run of cooking, cleaning, decorating and yard work before I have to commit to my own place. We have the opportunity to save quite a bit of money to put down on a house of our own.

Don't get me wrong, I still want a house, and will definitely still be looking, but I've just decided to make some lemonade from this shipment of lemons that life seems to have expedited me.

Thank you sunshine for pulling me out of my winter funk.

Finally!

It's funny how after a winter of single digit temperatures, a 46 degree day feels like the middle of Summer.  I just went and took the garbage out without a jacket or shoes.  It was a momentous occasion.  

 

For worse...then better...

The husband has been having some hard times lately and it has been really rough for both of us.  I love him and it has been difficult figuring out how I can help him.  I saw this picture this morning and it all fell into place.  This is the worse.  And it will get better. 

Let It Be

One week ago, about this exact time, a wonderful person was taken from this world.  Doug Bangerter was my sister-in-law's husband and I will miss him deeply. 

Doug was a fantastic father and husband.  I have never seen him upset for more than two minutes.  He made friends everywhere he went.  He cared so deeply about his family, that he put them before anything else.  He spent early mornings and late nights at the ice rink because he loved his kids.  He worked two jobs to support his family.  Doug could fix anything and was always tinkering with anything mechanical.  He helped me buy my car, and he helped me with many life lessons in the five short years that I knew him.  

I hope that I can be an example of Doug's sweet spirit now that he has passed.  I want to be there for his family and assist in any possible thing that they could need.  I want to have his care for people.  He was so genuine and took the time to talk and help anyone with anything they needed.  He was such a hard worker.  He made everything fun. 

He opened his heart to me and welcomed me into his family with open arms.  I hope his welcoming on the other side was just as great.  He lived an amazing life and I have no doubt that he is in a better place now.  I can't imagine a world without this wonderful man. There is laughter missing from my world.  My children will be worse off because they didn't know Doug.  I can only hope that he can love them for me before they are mine.  

Goodbye for now, my friend.  I will think of you when I'm camping.   I will think of you at hockey games.  I will think of you when we buy a house that needs fixing.  I will think of your laugh.  I think that is what I will miss the most.  

Five Things

Sometimes all you can do is post five things. These are the five things from my last week that seemed post-worthy. 

1. My sister-in-law's husband had a heart attack a few days ago. They lowered his body temperature to help prevent brain damage.  They eventually raised his temperature, but he still hasn't woken up. Hopefully his brain is just recovering a little more slowly than it should, but it could mean something else entirely. 

2. We put an offer in on a house we really like.  It was a pretty fair offer based on market value, but the house was a bit over priced so it is about $24,000 less than the sellers are asking.  I hope their hearts can be softened for a sweet little couple that really needs a place of their own. 

3.  We did our taxes.  The result was MUCH better than last year and I am definitely thrilled by that.  If only we could justify using our refund as frivolously as we would like to. 

4. I have a Vanilla Coke addiction. It's getting a little ridiculous. I have always been one to say that I didn't understand drinking your calories away.   Well I get it now.  

5. It's almost Valentine's Day and I made a semi-inappropriate card for the husband. I'm quite proud of it. I don't think I have ever been so excited to give a card in all my life. Thank you Pinterest for the inspiration. 

New year, new me.

I am such a slacker.  Just because I haven't been blogging doesn't mean I haven't had time. I have just filled it with other things such as napping and re-watching Lost.  

I thought I should start out this year's posts with a little bit about what I have been up to. 

I have been wanting to make some changes so I started out by dying my hair red.  It's fun and frivolous, but it is also symbolic of the new me.  I don't want to spend this year worrying about what other people think.  I want to be true to me. Those who really like me will stick around.  Others, well, I don't really care about what they think. 

I started going to a step class.  It's pretty fun.  I'm not good at it by any means, but I am having a nice time trying it out. 

The husband and I have been spending time cooking together and I'm really enjoying it. It's a fun thing to do together and a learning experience in the process. 

That's about it for now but hopefully I will have some blog worthy experiences in the not too distant future.