And you thought Friday the 13th was unlucky...

Leave Your Print

2008-11-04T15:20:00.001-08:00

75% of the way there...

2008-10-03T16:13:00.001-07:00

Nate got his results from the 3rd section of the CPA exam that he took during the summer and he passed! With an 85! That's his highest score yet, and ironically, it was the section he walked out of the testing center feeling the worst about. Only one more section to go and Utah's Ethics thingy and he can become a full-fledged Certified Public Accountant.

24 Hours Later...

2008-08-03T01:30:00.000-07:00

*Don't Worry, No Spoilers*

I didn't end up going to a Breaking Dawn release party on Friday, like I was originally planning, because I went to a late showing of The Dark Knight with Nate and my dad instead (and we missed getting into the earlier showing we had planned on going to because it sold out, but we did get to see a preview for Twilight). So after the movie, we swung by Wal*Mart so I could pick up a copy- at 1AM. Pretty quick in and out of the store since I had missed the big rush, but my dad wandered, so we had to look for him (and his cell phone was still turned off from the movie). We got home around 1:30AM, and shortly thereafter I starting my long day of reading. I was already so tired that I didn't read for long- only until about 3:30AM, at which time I fell asleep on the couch. Saturday was a busy day (birthday party in the late morning, ate out for lunch because Nate insisted), so I didn't get much more reading in until the afternoon, but I was determined to finish the book that night without staying up extremely late. Yes, I neglected about 75% of my parenting duties (I still managed to take a break to help bathe the kids and get them to bed), but since it was a Saturday, and Nate was home, it wasn't too big of deal. I didn't even rush through the book. I felt like I read it at slower than my normal pace, and I still was able to be finished by 1AM. All in all it probably took me around 12 hours of reading time. If I had been able to stay engrossed without so many breaks, I'm sure I would have been quicker, but hey, it is a 754 page book.

So anyway, I liked it. How about you? Now Nate is busy reading it. I doubt he'll be able to finish it in one day, since he ends up with more distractions, but he still won't take long.

*Monday morning edit- I was wrong. Nate did end up finishing in one day (well, 24-hour period). He stayed up reading until 6 this morning to finish and now he gets to work all day on 1 hour's sleep.

St. George- Part 2: Wakeboarding

2008-07-22T10:07:00.000-07:00

(Go here for Part 1)

I finally got to try wakeboarding for the first time and I loved it! I really was worried that I wouldn't be able to get up, but I did about 50% of the time, and for a first-timer, I think that's pretty good (especially since the last few times that I failed to get up it was due to my exhausted arms). I had a few short runs and couple really good runs before my arms would go no more. Here are a couple pictures of me in the water:
Just getting in the water

Ready to go

I'm up!

(Justin and Janna have some better pictures. Nate is not anywhere near a photographer, so I couldn't expect much. He doesn't even know how to use the video function on our camera- and it's way easy!)

Nate was able to go wakeboarding for the first time 2 years ago at the previous family vacation (I stayed home due to the recent birth of Mason) and was excited to get to go again. He went out 3 times during the week, but only had the camera for pictures when I went. I shot some video of him, but kept missing his best moves. This is the best video I got:

We went to Sand Hollow Reservoir, which is only a few years old, and it was nice. The water felt great, the surroundings were beautiful, and the boat was relaxing. Some of you may know that I have a slight fear of water, but I didn't once get nervous being on a boat in the middle of the water. It probably helped that none of the kids were with us.
The view:

"Take A Picture With Your Camera Phone At Ikea" Day

2008-07-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

This unfortunate event happened while we were waiting to load up my dad's truck with our furniture purchases:

I felt really bad for the guy, but, like nearly everyone else around, wanted to get a picture. Luckily, no one was on the sidewalk when he accidentally zoomed across. I didn't get an official story, but someone said he just accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brake and it all happened too fast to correct his mistake in time. It's a shame. The car looked like it was pretty darn new too.

*Edit- No one was hurt, just a bit shaken.

My Accident-Proneness Strikes Again!

2008-07-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

*If you don't like hearing about injuries that involve blood, I recommend skipping this post and averting your eyes from the pictures*

In June, we took a family vacation with all of Nate's family (minus a few) to St. George. Despite the heat, we had lots of fun, but of course I can't do anything without at some point hurting myself, so I decided the 2nd full day there I should drop a cast iron cookie sheet on my foot in the afternoon while I was trying to get my desserts made for Father's Day. Ouch! Almost the WORST.PAIN.EVER! Blood was pumping so hard under my big toe nail that I really felt like my toe was going to explode. I made it to the couch to sit down and prop my leg up, which allowed the pain to slightly subside, and had Nate get me some pain medication. Standing up was torture, sleeping was torture, and laying down was even mostly torture. I lasted until the next morning when I decided I had to get something done with my toe. We went to the Instacare and paid our insane $75 co-pay so that I could get two holes poked in my toe nail to allow the blood pressure to be released. The doctor who performed the procedure kept apologizing to me for causing me additional pain, but I kept insisting to her that it was much less painful than it was before I walked into the room. It was amazing how two tiny holes in my toenail could change my pain level so dramatically. I was able to walk out of there with very little discomfort- nearly pain free! She did give me a prescription for pain meds since sleeping would still definitely be an issue- anything that even brushed against my toe sent pain running through me. I only took the medicine at night and only 6 times, yet I still got addicted enough that it took me well over a week to really start sleeping okay again without it. I've always been cautious with prescription meds, and that just taught me more how important it is to be cautious.

Here's my toe!
The first picture was taken before I went to the doctor, the second was taken shortly after getting home (and my camera wasn't cooperating, so it's blurry), and the last picture is from yesterday (three and a half weeks after I injured it).

I will lose my toenail, which will be gross, and my toe is still extra-sensitive to touch. The kids have kindly stepped on my toe about 50 times in the last few weeks and even Nate has done it a few times.

So the funny thing is, I had briefly considered letting Nate's dad poke the holes in my toenail to save money, and that same day I hurt it there was an episode of like "Deadliest Catch" or something on Discovery Channel and one of the men on that show smashed their toe or thumb and did the whole hole-poking thing, so we even had a mini-lesson in what to do. I'm glad I went to the doctor, though, because I was given instructions for proper care of my toe and some good meds (despite the addiction thing- the ibuprofen just wasn't hacking it).

Memory Lane...

2008-07-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

I participated in Heather's, so now I have to put this on my blog:

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

C'mon now, anything funny, strange, cool, embarrassing, or awful you remember about me??

I'm not dead...

2008-07-08T14:27:00.001-07:00

I've just been lacking energy, busy getting ready for vacation, being on vacation, and sick these past few weeks. Hopefully I will manage an update soon...

Tuesday Tell All: Graduation

2008-05-27T19:21:00.000-07:00

I don't have much to tell about graduation, so here's a couple pictures of my graduation days from high school and college. I do remember having a countdown to graduation day from college because I didn't let myself have a lot of fun at Ricks and everyone knew I could tell them exactly how many days were left until graduation. Looking back, I definitely should have let myself have more fun- Ricks/Rexburg wasn't as bad as I led myself to believe.

Tuesday Tell All: One Word

2008-05-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

Answer the following with only one word.

1. Where is your cell phone? ....................Table
2. Your significant other?.......................Working
3. Your hair?....................................Brown
4. Your mother? .................................Talker
5. Your father?..................................Retiree
6. Your favorite thing?..........................Fun
7. Your dream last night?........................Interrupted
8. Your favorite drink...........................Mocktail
9. Your dream/goal?..............................Success
10. The room you're in?..........................Dining
11. Your children?...............................Handful
12. Your fear?...................................Loneliness
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years...........Elsewhere
14. Where were you last night?...................Home
15. What you're not?.............................Single
16. Muffins......................................Spice
17. One of your wish list items?.................Wii
18. Where you grew up?...........................Virginia
19. What you read last night?....................Alma
20. What are you wearing?........................Clothes
21. Your TV?.....................................New
22. Your pets?...................................Deceased
23. Your computer? ..............................Shiny
24. Your life?...................................Busier
25. Your mood?...................................Indifferent
26. Missing someone?.............................Always
27. Your car?....................................Silver
28. Something you're not wearing?................Shoes
29. Favorite Store?..............................Target
30. Your summer?.................................Vacation
31. Like someone?................................Most
32. Your favorite color?.........................Blue
33. Last time you laughed........................Evening
34. Last time you cried?.........................Church

A Hometown Restaurant Makes It's Way To Utah

2008-05-17T16:19:00.000-07:00

Yep, the award winning Five Guys Burgers and Fries are about to open their first restaurant in Midvale. So to be honest, I didn't grow up with Five Guys- they didn't open up in my neighborhood until about 5 years after I graduated from high school, but I have had the opportunity to eat there a few times and they are quite tasty, AND they are a Virginia original (founded in 1986 in Arlington). They are quite different from In-N-Out (which I love)- more the style of Fatburger (also rumored to be making their way to Utah, and also a yummy burger).

Other restaurant news: El Pollo Loco now has a "Now Hiring" sign up. Mmm, can't wait until they open! Now if Bob Evans (not the Fox 13 anchorman) would just come to Utah.

What Do You Think?

2008-05-14T11:56:00.000-07:00

*Don't forget to pause music player ->

Twilight in HD

Spiders

2008-05-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

As a child, spiders didn't really bother me (I even touched a tarantula at zoo camp)- actually, I didn't really have a problem with any bugs. Well, that time has long passed and now I'm not so fond of spiders (or ants, in large numbers). The other day we came across the largest spider we've seen inside our house. Really not all that big, but it was black and a little hairy and just not my favorite kind to look at. Poor Jefferson has a severe fear of spiders (he doesn't even like to see pictures of them) and he was the one to discover it. After unsuccessfully spraying it with a couple different household cleaners to paralyze and/or kill it, it swung towards me and headed down onto the carpet. I quickly grabbed a glass and trapped it and then, using a piece of cardboard as the bottom, transported the glass to the counter to let Nate finish the job. After having the spider swing at me on it way to the ground, I was done.

Here is a pictured of the captured spider (sorry, it's a bit blurry but it's body was at least a 1/2 long and it could easily span an inch with it's legs spread):

Reconnecting

2008-05-05T21:51:00.000-07:00

Through Facebook and the blogging world, I have been able to reconnect lately with so many people from my past- roommates, elementary school friends, high school friends, college friends, and even old boyfriends. It's been great. I love finding out what all those people are up to and how their lives have changed. It's so interesting to see what paths each of those people have taken and the things they have accomplished- whether it's being a mom (or dad), having an advanced degree, traveling the world, or whatever, it's all amazing. I feel honored to have been friends with these people at some point and look forward to continuing on in our friendships.

Here are some old school photos containing some of the people I've reconnected with recently:

Now that I have reconnected with so many old friends, I'm feeling like I need to do a better job of updating my blogs more frequently. Hopefully I can do that. I know several people who are amazing at updating their blogs and I aspire to one day be a better blogger like them.

And Then It Was 9...

2008-05-02T19:28:00.001-07:00

May 1st, once again we woke up to snow. And snow flurries continued on and off throughout the day. This better be the last snow we see until October. I love snow, but in May? It's pushing it for me in April. I know, I know, it's not unheard of in Utah to have snow in May, but still, when we've had snow the last 9 calendar months (we started off in September), it gets a bit tiring.

Here's a shot of our neighbors yard in the late morning (there was a little more snow on the ground when I woke up, I just didn't think to take a picture, so most of it had melted):

Tuesday Tell All: Hometown Favorites

2008-04-29T16:08:00.001-07:00

Tell us about your favorites close to home.

Favorite Places To:

grab lunch: Kneaders Bakery & Cafe (mmm, I love their turkey sandwiches- slow roasted hand pulled turkey, not deli slices) or Gandolfo's (Knickerbocker- Cold, no tomato)

go for Date night: Really, any restaurant without the kids is a whole different experience, but we do like Chili's, Red Robin, and Outback a lot. Oh, and after dinner, we like to see a movie or hang out at Barnes & Noble.

pick up some creative goodies: Target (yeah, as I said before, I don't do a whole lot of crafty projects).

keep the kids busy: McDonald's, Costco, Thanksgiving Point, Discovery Gateway, Nickelcade.

get wet: Legacy Center

buy a treat: Thanksgiving Point (their ice cream is tasty and pretty cheap and kids cones only cost 25 cents- or free for under 3!) , Smart Cookie, Sonic.

shop for fun: Park City Outlets, Target, Costco, Down East Basics

get some fresh air: The park by Grandma & Grandpa's house

splurge: See "Shop for fun"

drive for a weekend away: St. George, Midway, Vegas.

Vote In My Poll!!!

2008-04-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Tell All: Laugh Out Loud

2008-04-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

What makes you laugh?

The first thing that comes to mind is The Office. I just love that show. Although at the same time it makes me laugh, it also makes me cringe in pain. Just the thought of Michael's ignorance is painful.

Outside of television, my kids definitely make me laugh. Whether it's Jefferson doing a "Remember when....? That was awesome!" or Jackson just saying "yay" after completing the ABC's, they make me happy. When Jackson did this it made me fall back on the floor laughing so hard it brought tears.

Whenever I get together with my friends from home, the night is full of laughter. We talk about the craziest things and most people don't even understand us if they haven't been exposed to us enough. It's always great to go to back to Virginia.

Tuesday Tell All: Professional Help

2008-04-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Last catch-up topic! Hopefully I can now keep up with doing a weekly TTA post.

For what activity would you want professional lessons?

I'm going to go with two related activities.

Whenever I think about what I would do if I won a bunch of money, besides the usual stuff (pay of the house, invest some, take a trip, etc) I also think "ooh, it would be great to have a personal chef and personal trainer." Now, I don't necessarily need the chef to cook for me all the time, I just would like to learn how to cook healthier, while still being tasty, taking into consideration our dislikes, and not overly complicated. Is that too much to ask? As for the personal trainer, I don't have much of a problem working out, I just would like to know that I'm doing the best workout I can, and it always helps to have someone push you a little harder than you would go if you were by yourself.

Mix these three people together to get my perfect personal chef:
(take Bobby Flay's spicy cooking, Alton Brown's food science knowledge, and Ellie Krieger's healthy cooking)

Tuesday Tell All: Livin' on the Edge

2008-04-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

Today's catch-up topic: Livin' on the Edge
If you could do something dangerous just once with no risk what would you do?

I was having trouble thinking of something really good for this one, so I asked Nate what he would do. He came up with "re-enact the lobby scene from The Matrix," which sounded great to me. I can be Trinity to his Neo:

Our New Sectional!!!

2008-04-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

Yay! We finally have some decent, comfortable seating in our family room! A couple days ago our sectional that we ordered through Macy*s was delivered. After searching for our perfect sectional, we were surprised that Macy*s had it, and at a great price-even better than the one we were going to settle on if we didn't find one better! Here's the new sectional:

Tuesday Tell All: Made By Hand

2008-04-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

Today's TTA catch-up topic: Made By Hand

I'm not really the most crafty person. It's not that I can't do crafts and sewing, etc, I've just never been that into it. Sometimes I wish I was more into it, sometimes I'm glad I'm not. Over the years, I have made a few things that I have been proud of and today I'll mention 3.

The school I went to for K-4th grades had an Arts & Crafts and Science Fair every year that encouraged children from all grades (it was a K-12 school) to participate in- actually, I guess we had to do a science project, but the craft project was optional. I did both projects most years, but the only craft project I really remember doing was in 3rd grade. I made a sleeping bag for my Cabbage Patch Kid doll (actually, the doll was a handmade version of a Cabbage Patch kid- made by my mom). It was a lot of work and I learned that I am actually a decent sewer- too bad I haven't used that talent well. I won 1st place in my grade. I still have the sleeping bag, boxed up with all of my favorite girl toys that I have saved over the years, just on the chance that I'll have a daughter, and my Cabbage Patch kid sits on my closet shelf.

We bought a nice cherry wood coffee table and 2 end tables from our neighbors when they moved. With 3 kids, I wanted a way to protect the coffee table from scratches and crayons, and whatever the kids may do to it, so I came up with an idea to make a cover for the coffee table. We picked out some fabric and some padding and I went to it. I only had the coffee table for a pattern, but I think it turned out pretty good. I still haven't finished it the way I wanted, but it's serving it's purpose (I wanted to add elastic or straps or something to keep it on better). Here's a picture:

My most recent project was making train-themed pajamas for my friend's daughter. I also picked up some other fabric to make the my nephew and my boys some pajamas while I was at it. It was a way easy project. Here is a picture of one of the pairs of pajama pants:

Nate has also done a few projects in the past year. Most notably, has been the train table he made for the kids. It wasn't all made by hand, as the table started out as an old coffee table, but he did have to do a lot of work converting it into the play table it is now- the only part of the table that was unchanged were the legs (with exception to them being painted). Here it is:

Nate has also put in a lot of time remodeling our downstairs bathroom. He has mudded over the orange peel wall texture and, with the help of his dad, added bead board and changed out the toilet and sink. He also has added some nice trim detail. I'm in charge of painting the room, so it's really my fault that the project is not yet complete, but I hope to get myself moving soon to complete it. I'll post a picture when it's finished.

Tuesday Tell All: The Working Girl

2008-04-12T15:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, second catch-up topic: The Working Girl

This week tell us about your favorite or least favorite job that you've had OUTSIDE of the home (we know the hardest job is being a Mom). Or just take a minute to document the jobs you've had.

The first real job (not counting temp jobs, babysitting, etc) I had was my senior year of high school. My friend, Joanne, and I both got a job at Cinnabon, where two other friends also worked. It was a great job (despite the crappy hourly wage and a few bad run-ins with customers) and I had tons of fun. I also got to eat all the cinnabons I wanted (seriously, when you took a break the manager was always like "eat a cinnabon!") and got to take home "expired" boxes of cinnabons for my family. And strangely, I didn't really gain any extra weight while I worked there. To this day I can almost always smell if there is a Cinnabon in a mall when I walk in.

Jobs I've had since:

Paint Dept Lead at Sears
A Vampire at "The Haunted Forest"
Salesperson at a Halloween Costume Store
Accounting clerk at a bank

There were a few I skipped- they weren't memorable.

Tuesday Tell All: Collections

2008-04-11T15:00:00.000-07:00

I was introduced to this blog called Tuesday Tell All over a month ago but have been slow getting around to participating. Hopefully, over the next few days, I'll be able to catch up on the last several topics. The first topic I'm going to talk about is "Collections."

What collections did you have as a child? What do you collect now. This week share with us some of your treasures from the past or present.

I wasn't really good at sticking to one collection. I had (have) a tendency to collect a few of one thing and then a few of another. One of my best collections from childhood (and I still have) is my sticker album. Here are pictures of the cover and one of my favorite pages:

Nate even still has his sticker album. We have several duplicate stickers between us. Stickers albums were definitely all the rage in the 80's. After seeing our albums, Jefferson has decided that he wants one. I haven't looked for one yet, but I assume they still sell them- stickers are still popular among kids.

The next largest collection I had were figurines. My sister collected unicorns and I collected Pegasuses. My parents would get us a couple a year for birthdays or Christmas, or sometimes when they just found a really cool one. They were displayed in the china cabinet. I still have them, but they have been packed up in a box for the last several years. I just don't have a good place to put them- especially with 3kids (and rambunctious boys, at that) running around the house. I briefly collected "Precious Moments" figurines and still have those in a box, as well.

I've always had a fascination with money- not necessarily spending it, just counting it and looking at the different types and old coins, and such. My dad has several different coin books, so I never felt a huge need to start my own, but I do have the state quarters and several 2 dollar bills.

My current collection would have to be dragonflies. I don't have a lot, because I'm super picky about which ones I like, but I do have a Tiffany-style dragonfly lamp, a ceiling-mount dragonfly light, a vase, dragonfly dishes (that are treated like china), dragonfly fabric covered lampshades, pillows, and more. If it's more in the style of the Arts & Crafts movement, I'll probably like it. Our house has kind-of become the "find the dragonfly in this room" place.

Virginia- Home Sweet Home

2008-04-10T21:18:00.001-07:00

After finding a smashing deal on Yahoo! Travel, I had the opportunity to fly out to Virginia last week for a weekend visit. My high school has been celebrating it's 40th anniversary all year long, and this past weekend was their big events for the celebration. Although I had originally planned on going to their evening gala event, the cost of tickets persuaded me to skip it and just go to the daytime school showcase. One of my best friends, Joanne, and I spent Saturday morning/afternoon roaming the halls of our high school and checking out performances by the theatre and music departments. We chatted with a couple of our old teachers and saw a few familiar faces. We also got to eat lunch in the cafeteria (although not the questionable school lunch food from our high school days). All it cost was $6 for the lunch (which, considering the amount of food they gave us, was a great deal). It was fun roaming the halls again, and seeing how little has changed (umm, they painted the lockers a different color, but that's about it). My sister managed to make it to the school showcase right before Joanne and I left.

Here's some shots of the school:
(Main Lobby, Cafeteria, Path up to the athletic fields, Football field)

And my graduating class' contribution:

I also got to go out to dinner twice with some old friends- Rob, Matt, Paige, Duff, and Joanne. It's always fun when we all get together. It's just a shame that two of the gang (Becky and Melanie) ended up not making it out to DC.

Since my sister was so late to the showcase, and lacking her family, we made plans to meet at my favorite ice cream restaurant for lunch the following day. Here are some pics of her kids, Gabe and Isabeau:

And here are Joanne's kids (Tyler and Jaiden):

(All a little dirty from their ice cream)

It was a great weekend. Definitely strange to be away from the kids for so long and to get on a plane all by myself and have a peaceful flight. But, that said, I was still happy to get home and see Nate and the kids. I even ended up keeping Jefferson home from school yesterday just to spend some extra time with him (he may have been a hair sick).

A BIG THANKS to Joanne for letting me crash at her place while I was in town and driving me around (even though I know she won't actually read this- she just looks at the pictures).

My Two Easter Basket Cakes

2008-04-10T21:18:00.000-07:00

Here are the two different Easter Basket Cakes I made around Easter time. The first one was my test run for the second one, which was for the Cub Scout pack meeting. The first one is a two-layer cake which had a circle cut out of the top layer to create a well for the basket. The second cake is a bundt cake that is upside down from how you would normally serve it. While both cakes turned out nice, I liked the bundt cake better for it's simplicity.

Photobucket Tag

2008-03-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

I saw this fun tag on another blog and the blog author tagged anyone who wanted to do it, so I said "hey, why not!" *Sorry some of the pictures are so huge! I tried to adjust them.

Here are the rules:

1) Answer the questions below.

2) Take each answer and enter it into photobucket.com

3) Take a picture from the first page of results and post it.

Here goes!

My age at my next birthday

A place I'd like to visit
(There are lots of places I'd like to visit, but the first new place I'm likely to get to is Alaska)

One of my favorite places

Favorite object

Favorite food
(cupcakes- and these ones look like the ones from Costco- my favorite right now)

Where I live
(Utah Valley)

My middle name

My college major
(Broadcasting)

Bad habit of mine
(sleeping too much)

Favorite color

Favorite animal

Name of pet
(the last pet we had was named Indy)

Favorite holiday
(Halloween)

I now tag anyone who reads this post!

Finished and Moved On

2008-03-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

By the way, I finished reading Frankenstein at the end of last week. It really was not the story I expected- "It's Alive!" shouted with maniacal glee. Nope. It was still a good book, though. Frankenstein's monster is a distant relative from the one that Hollywood taught me. Sure, he's uncomfortable to look at and frightening to be near, but he's also intelligent and he wants desperately some companionship.

I'm not really good at putting my thoughts into words, so reviews and such are always a challenge, so I found a film review that discusses some of what I'm trying to say about the differences between my Hollywood expectations and the actual original story: (A Review by James Berardinelli)

During the course of more than thirty adaptations, sequels, spin-offs, rip-offs, and spoofs, the name of "Frankenstein" has become associated with one of the world's most recognizable movie monsters. The creature, as typified by Boris Karloff with outstretched arms, flat-topped head, and ubiquitous neck bolts, has met the likes of Dracula, the Wolfman, and even Abbott and Costello... Rarely, however, has a cinematic interpretation of "the daemon" approached the level of three-dimensionality with which it is portrayed in the novel.

As conceived and written by Shelley, Frankenstein was more of a gothic melodrama than a horror story. Considered in its most basic terms, the tale is one of actions and their consequences, and of what happens when man, in his hubris, attempts to usurp the role of God. For the most part, however, motion pictures have chosen to ignore the weightier issues of the book to concentrate instead on the "monster movie" aspects...

...The greatest strength of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is that it illustrates both the good and evil qualities in each of its main characters.

Just a snippet of the review, but it helps explain how the original story felt.

I am now working on Bored of the Rings. I'm not sure I'll actually read it all, but Nate bet I wouldn't read it, so I'm giving it a shot. And then Dracula is up next. We'll see how that compares to my Hollywood teachings.

New Episodes!!!

2008-03-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

I am so excited that new episodes of my favorite network TV shows (that were forced into repeats and taken off the air and what-not due to the writer's strike) are finally starting trickle onto the air! I'm not a big network reality tv fan (although I've seen more American Idol this year than any other year- dang you David Archuleta!) and I don't watch the majority of those crime dramas, law dramas, and medical dramas (even in repeats) so there hasn't been much for me to watch lately (only LOST, Eli Stone, and the now finished-for-the-season Sarah Connor Chronicles), which probably is a good thing since it's reduced my tv time but it still doesn't mean I haven't missed my beloved shows!

REAPER aired it's first new episode last night. I know, I know, most of you are thinking "Reaper? I've never even heard of that show!" And it's a shame. The show really deserves a larger audience. It's downfall is that it's on the WB, I mean the CW, same difference. It's a fun show about a guy who's parents sold his soul to the devil before he was even born. It's not all dark/spooky like Supernatural (which is also a CW show that I love). It's a comedy. Of course it's not for everyone. I'm sure my mom wouldn't like it AT ALL, but my dad would enjoy it. And I happen to know it's one's of Nate's brother's favorite shows. Maybe it would be for you. Thursdays at 9/8c on the CW.

Virginia Here I Come!!!

2008-03-05T14:20:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, I came across a great deal on airline tickets to DC ($196 round trip, including taxes and fees), so I quickly talked to Nate about me taking a weekend trip to Virginia in April, and after a little bit of pleading, he agreed that I could go as long as I arranged caretakes for the kids for while I am away. Yea!!! I am so excited. I had been looking for tickets for awhile and as the date I wanted to go for drew nearer and nearer, the less I expected to get to go, but suddenly this deal showed up and now I have a plane ticket! My high school is celebrating it's 40th anniversary and there is a school reunion and a couple other events and even though I didn't LOVE high school, I didn't hate it either and I thought it would be fun to go. It will be weird to be away for the kids, by myself, for that long (4 days) but I know I'll still have lots of fun.

Reading

2008-03-01T14:48:00.001-08:00

Since Christmas I have made a big effort to read more books. I've always been a reader, but over the years I have slacked off and don't read as much as I'd like. Sure, there's those short waves of rabid reading (Harry Potter, DaVinci Code, Twilight, etc), but now I'd like to be more consistent. Since Christmas I have read several books, most only taking 2-3 days to read (some less). I've read: The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, and Princess Academy(all by Shannon Hale), Fablehaven by Brandon Mull, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, Among The Free (Shadow Children series) by Margaret Peterson Haddix, The Catcher In the Rye by J.D. Salinger, and all of The Spiderwick Chronicles (Books 1-5).

Most of those books on the list were quick reads since they are Children's or Young Adults books. The shortest book on the list, The Time Machine (I'm counting all five Spiderwick books as one), took me the longest to read because it took me awhile to get into the style of writing, but still was a good book.

I would recommend all of these books, although, while I liked the concept and character discovery of The Catcher In the Rye, I did struggle with the foul language that was used. I actually had started the book several years ago and had never finished it. After knowing so many people who love that book, I was determined to finally read it from start to finish.

My favorite book on the list to date would have to be The Goose Girl. It took me a couple chapters to get into the book, but once I was in, I couldn't pull myself away from the story. It was beautifully written and weaved a great tale. It's actually based on Grimm's Fairytale "The Goose Girl" and Shannon Hale did a wonderful job expanding and giving more life to the story.

Right now I am working on Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Like The Time Machine, Frankenstein is taking me awhile to read because of the style of language used. I am also finding out that the original Frankenstein story is quite different than what I had thought it to be from all of the different usages of the Frankenstein concept.

I have also been reading The Book of Mormon to Jefferson to help him with his challenge to "Beat the Bishopric." The Bishopric of our ward challenged our primary to read The Book of Mormon and if they beat the Bishopric, then they are promised to receive a candy bar the size of The Book of Mormon. That has been a good incentive for Jefferson, so we have been (mostly) diligently working on our reading so that Jefferson will earn his candybar. We are currently at the beginning of the book of Alma. I stop every few verses and have him repeat to me some of the words I read to make sure he stays focused. I don't really expect him to understand most of what we read (since he is only 5) but hopefully the next time through he will remember some of what we are reading now and be able to understand more.

Once I'm finished with Frankenstein, I plan on reading Dracula by Bram Stoker and then moving on to some Jane Austin (of whose books I've never read). That is, unless I break down and buy the hardback version of River Secrets or Book of A Thousand Days (both by Shannon Hale) because I can't wait any longer for the paperback editions to be released.

A Concert-Attending We Will Be

2008-03-01T14:48:00.000-08:00

It's official, Nate and I will be seeing The Cure in concert in May and The Police in concert in July!

Although, as we found out from the last concert we went to (Morrissey last May), we are now old and earplugs are our concert-going friends. Of course just looking at our list of concerts we've been to is probably a bit of a tip-off. All three concerts I've mentioned just now are bands or singers from bands that were BIG in the 80's. Okay, I'm not THAT old. None of my teenage years were spent in the 80's. I'm a 90's teenager, but I loved (most of) the music of the 80's.

Breaking Dawn Release Date!

2008-02-06T21:20:00.000-08:00

Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer, will be released on August 2, 2008. Yea! That's less than 6 months away! Of course, if you can't wait that long, the Eclipse Special Edition will be released on May 31st and will include an excerpt from Breaking Dawn and a look at the cover.

Did You?

2008-02-05T22:23:00.000-08:00

BYU Men's Volleyball

2008-02-04T15:31:00.000-08:00

On Saturday night, we did a couple things we haven't done in a long time. First, we actually paid for a babysitter (we really should do that more often), and second, we went to a BYU Men's Volleyball game. Both were great. Now, even though Nate is a BYU Alum, he's not a big BYU fan. In fact, these days the only reason he'll even set foot on campus is Men's Volleyball. BYU (currently ranked #1) was playing CSU-Northridge (#6), so Nate thought it would be a good game to go to. BYU comfortably won the first two games of the match, making it look like we would be home by 9pm, but Northridge stepped up their game and started playing like a top 10 team in the third game and BYU didn't seem to realize they needed to start playing better until Northridge had won the third game and was ahead in the fourth game. The fourth game was back and forth all the way until the end when BYU hit a bad serve and allowed Northridge ahead, facilitating their win. BYU finally got their act together and quickly won the fifth game to win the match. It was nice to see BYU still win and stay undefeated, but it would have been even better to see them sweep Northridge instead of dragging it out into 5 games.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

2008-02-04T15:21:00.000-08:00

It's 4pm (MST) on Sunday, February 3rd. I'm sitting on the couch watching TV and I change the channel to FOX. Nate hangs around for about 15 minutes and disappears for a few minutes and reappears wearing snow gear and states, "I think now is a good time to go shovel the driveway."

Any guesses?

Well, if you thought something along the lines of "that's when the Superbowl started and the man of the house was the least interested" you'd be right. Of course, those who know Nate well already knew that he doesn't really like any sports outside of volleyball. So yes, in our house, I'm the bigger sports fan, although I don't watch much in the way of sports these days.

Shoveling Snow Can Be a Really Good Workout!

2008-01-27T15:47:00.000-08:00

We got several inches of snow last Monday, and since Nate has been working like crazy having started the busy audit season 6 weeks earlier than usual, he's not around much to do any snow shoveling. I figured that I might as well do is since it mostly benefits me. Once Mason and Jackson were both down for naps, Jefferson and I got in some snow clothes and went outside to shovel. I didn't think it would be too hard or take a long time- I used to help shovel snow as a kid - but boy was I wrong. Not only did we have about 8 inches of snow on our driveway (the other side of the street had less- the wind must have blown it our way), but the snowplows had gone done our street and had pushed the snow off the road towards our side of the street, so that added a couple inches on the sidewalk and the lower half of our driveway, plus it was more packed down, so it added weight. So it took me over about an hour to get it all shoveled, without taking any breaks. As soon as I got inside and warmed up some, I looked up how many calories are burned shoveling snow. Most sites calculated around 400/hr but some sites said as many as 900 calories/hour. Either way it was still a decent workout- better than all of the lower intesity exercises and on par with weight lifting (vigorous), skiing, and swimming. Here's what the snow looked like the next day (and it had started snowing again):

My Year In Cities

2008-01-23T13:04:00.000-08:00

From time to time, like most bloggers I know, I check out the links to other blogs that my friends have on their pages. It's fun to see what random people blog about and what their blog looks like, etc. Today I came across this fun meme on one of such blogs and thought I'd also give it a go. You list all the cities where you stayed at least one night. I wasn't expecting much of 2007, but was pleasantly surprised once I made my list. Then I did 2006 for comparison and 2007 turned out to be quite a good year- especially when you factor in toting around 3 kids. Here goes:

2007

*, UT (where we live)
Las Vegas, NV (twice)
Near Anaheim, CA (I'm really not sure what city Sherrie and I stayed in)
Pasadena, CA (twice)
Williamsburg, VA
Sterling, VA
Strasburg, PA
Washington, UT
Henderson, NV
Cedar City, UT

My Sad 2006

*, UT
St George, UT
Pasadena, CA (twice)

At least I made it out of the state!

(And Mason was born that year, so what was I really expecting?)

So how about you? Post your list in the comments section! Or post on your blog. I'll be waiting...

Game Night!

2008-01-11T13:12:00.000-08:00

Last night I hosted, for the third month in a row, a Relief Society Game Night! We had a great turnout. At the peak there were 12 sisters (only one less than the first game night) and we had a great time chatting, munching, and playing games. We played Hoopla (a Cranium game) and Last Word. Both were fun games, although a bit challenging for some of the group. Of course, they were both newer games that only a few of us had played before (and only I had played Last Word before - once). I love learning new games but I get nervous sometimes that people will get scared away by the new games that are the "unknown" so I hope everyone that came last night will come to a future game night! I plan on hosting the game night the 2nd Thursday each month. It's nice to have a night away from the kids and get to know the other women in the ward.

Oh, and by the way, my name is now Sue. Not really, but kind-of.

Pictures from the White House New Year's Y2K Party

2008-01-09T12:13:00.000-08:00

I was sorting through some old pictures and found some from one of My Favorite Past New Year's Celebrations- The White House Party! And since I now have a new printer with a scanning function, I thought I'd scan them in and share. Here they are:

My Favorite Past New Year's Celebrations

2008-01-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

This year we just sat at home on New Year's like it was any other night- except we let the kids stay up a little later than usual. Jackson and Mason made it to around 10pm, before they were too cranky to stay up any longer, and Jefferson made it to midnight-barely. We didn't watch any of the New Year's countdown shows until 2 minutes until midnight (Nate can't stand those shows). And we even had to pause the TV so that we could get the martinelli's ready to drink at "midnight." So two minutes after midnight we watched the 10-second countdown and celebrated with our martinelli's. Since we didn't do anything exciting this year for New Year's (although spending a quiet evening at home with the fam is still nice), I thought I'd reflect on some of my favorite New Year's celebrations from the past. Ordered by year, nothing else.

1. New Year's Eve 1990-1994 (New Year's 1991-1995): My Stake Dance New Year's Celebrations. I loved going to Stake dances and the New Year's dances were always extra fun. Plus, we'd all go to someone's house or the ward building afterwards for breakfast so the night wouldn't end. New Year's Eve '93 was especially fun because we had a Tri-Stake (or was it a 5-Stake?) Youth Conference that year that ended with the New Year's Eve dance. The conference was a blast and the dance great. I even won a hula-hooping contest (well, technically tied for first place)- in a dress even! New Year's Eve '94 was special because I had my first "Happy New Year" midnight kiss! And coincidentally, the girl that I had tied with in the hula-hooping contest the year before, who I hadn't known then, was the sister of the boy that I shared my midnight kiss with (yes, for those who know him or of him, it was Paul).

2. New Year's Eve 1998: Once I had graduated from the youth New Year's Eve dances, I quickly embraced the Young Single Adult dances. While not as well attended as the Stake dances (which could boast 700+ attendees during the summer months), they were still a blast to go to. '98 was fun because I was able to meet up with some high school friends that I hadn't seen since high school at the YSA dance. I split my time that night between the YSA dance and a party at my friend Sahana's house. It's also memorable because my friends, Joanne and Duff, got engaged that night (although I missed the actual proposal because I stayed at the dance longer than I had intended).

3. New Year's Eve 1999: This was the first New Year's Eve since turning 14 that I did not spend at a church-sponsored dance. I was living in Provo in the "White House" and all of us White house ladies (minus Audra who had just gotten married) decided to return from our Christmas vacations in time to spend New Year's in Provo. We threw one of our spectacular White House parties and had quite the turn-out. I don't remember everything that we did, but I do remember playing Cranium for the first time (Hilary had gotten it for Christmas) and running outside at midnight to light sparklers and take a run down the street. It was a fun-filled night and I didn't miss being at the YSA dance.

4. New Year's Eve 2000: This year was special because it was the first New Year's as a married woman! We got to celebrate New Year's two nights in a row since New Year's Eve fell on a Sunday that year (and celebrations in Utah tend to be moved to the Saturday before). Nate and I spent the evening of the 30th at Provo's "First night" celebration and enjoyed listening to the band "Fiddlesticks" play. We enjoyed watching the fireworks and seeing the various displays.

5. New Year's Eve 2002: This was Jefferson's first New Year's Eve (he was 6 months old). We spent the evening at the friends of our good friends the Boyle's. We played some games and chatted and munched on snacks until midnight and then we went outside and watched Provo City's fireworks. Jefferson stayed awake the whole time and was mesmerized by the fireworks. He fell asleep the moment that he realized the fireworks were over.

6. New Year's Eve 2005: We moved into our new house only 6 weeks before the new year. A couple weeks after we moved in, our next-door neighbors had moved in as well as the people on the other side of them. We knew our next-door neighbors (Nate and Jason served in the same mission) before they moved in but we quickly also became friends with their other neighbors. We decided to hang out together for New Year's and had tons of fun playing games (especially that super fun version of Uno that I can never remember the name to) and drinking virgin margaritas.

7. New Year's Eve 2008: Okay, so I know it's in the future, but after reminiscing all the fun New Year's Eves I've had in the past I was thinking that next year I need to throw my own New Year's Party so that the fun can continue. Okay, it's being planned.

Toe Socks!

2007-12-28T22:05:00.000-08:00

Nate got me some toe socks for Christmas! It's been years and years since I've had a pair of these and now I have 3 pairs! Yeah, they feel a bit awkward when you first put them on but you get used to them. Nate doesn't like to even look at them on because it freaks him out. I love socks that aren't just regular plain white ones. I used to only own one or two pairs of white socks in my pre-marriage days. I was all about the striped, plaid, silly socks and was reminded of them when I was going through some old pictures a couple weeks ago, so I decided to ask Nate for some non-boring socks. I didn't expect him to actually get me any since his reply was "but I like that you wear regular white socks now." He just doesn't get my love of the unusual sock. I also bought myself some non-white socks for Christmas, so now I have several new pairs of non-white socks. Yay!

Halfway there...

2007-12-28T10:05:00.000-08:00

Nate received some really good news in the mail yesterday. He passed the Regulation section of the CPA exam! Woohoo! 2 sections down (REG & BEC), 2 more to go until he will be a Certified Public Accountant. He was surprised that he actually passed Regulation since he didn't feel like he did that well. It was great news- not only because now he's halfway to getting his CPA designation but also because we don't have to pay for him to retake the section.

A Long Overdue Family Picture

2007-11-18T20:40:00.000-08:00

It's just too bad it wasn't planned ahead so that Nate would have worn something a little nicer. Oh well. Beggars can't be choosers.

The Chicago Caper

2007-10-28T18:36:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I hosted a murder mystery party. I have done many in the past, but this was the first one I'd done since my single days. I wasn't sure if Nate would enjoy it, since he'd never done one, but I didn't give him a choice in the matter. Lucky for me, he did enjoy it and now I know that my murder mystery party days are not over.

Finding 3 other couples to participate ended up being more of a challenge than I expected. We thought we were all set, but one of the couples had to back out kind-of last minute and gratefully, our neighbor Sherrie's sister, Rose, and her boyfriend were more than willing to step in . It ended up being a very fun group.

Setting up for the party was quite the task. We had gotten our carpets cleaned the week before, so we took advantage of that to move our furniture into different locations for the party. We moved furniture into our living room (which previously only had the two bookcases) and set up our dining room table in the family room so that we had more room around the table.

We did The Chicago Caper which is set in a 1928 speakeasy. For decorations I put up some brown paper on the wall in an attempt to resemble holes in plaster and I picked up some liquor boxes from the liquor store to stack around the room. I also covered the windows with brown paper and a dropcloth.

I set up our living room as a lounge and used the pillows from our bed to add to the look on the couch and then hung the drapes from our bedroom to separate the living room from "da back room".

I had fun setting up the table and experimenting with different ways to fold the napkins. I settled on "The Rose" since it also worked great as a holder for the placecards.

Since we were in a speakeasy, it only made sense to have a bar. My dad kindly agreed to play the bartender and I researched the popular cocktails from the 20's and used my Mocktails recipe book to find some non-alcoholic versions.

With only a few minor glitches at the beginning, everything went as planned and it turned out to be a very fun and enjoyable evening. I look forward to the next one!

The Gents

(Greg, Nate, Rich, James)

The Ladies

(Rose, Sherrie, Me, Mary)

Are You a US Citizen?

2007-10-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm sure the test isn't this simple, but how would you do if it was?

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

Our 7th Anniversary

2007-10-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

Nate and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary on Saturday. Now that my parents live close we were able to go away for the weekend. I've been itching to go to the theatre more and so Nate suggested that we go down to Cedar City to the Shakespearean Festival, so that's what we did. I purchased tickets for the two plays that were playing in the evenings that weekend- The Tempest and The Mousetrap (not Shakespeare, the festival does about half Shakespeare) and made hotel reservations.
Of course, travel plans never go as smoothly when I'm involved. I love to travel but it always seems like there's some mishap when I'm involved (like flight delays/cancelled flights, lost luggage, mechanical errors, etc). This time it was two things. Nate left work early on Friday so that we could get down to Cedar City in time to check into the hotel and change before the evening's performance of The Tempest.
Since we would be out of town and the kids would be at my parent's house, I figured it would be a good time to have our carpets cleaned (at least the downstairs). I scheduled the carpet cleaners for 2pm, figuring that that would give me enough time to show them the problems spots and get them started before it was time to go. Well, they were running late- really late. Initially they told me they would be about 20 minutes late. No sweat. Plenty of time to still get out on time. When they were 1 hour late and I still hadn't heard from them again, I called them and found out they were still 20 minutes away (which turned into 30 minutes). It was already time for us to leave. I couldn't believe that Nate beat the carpet cleaners to our house. I called my dad to come over so that we could leave the second the cleaners showed up (since I didn't want the cleaners to hang out at our house alone). My dad showed up right before the cleaners did and I ended up spending about 15 minutes talking to the carpet cleaner before we finally made it out the door. So it was 4pm by the time we ended up on our way- after a stop at McDonald's for some food and Costco for gas. Okay, still enough time to get to the play just on time.
Then Nate got a call from work. He accidentally forgot to sign some file back in and needed to do that so that the final work could be done. So now he had to take care of that. We were still able to continue our drive down to Cedar City, but now he would have to sign the file back in once we got there- luckily he had brought his laptop with him and the hotel we were staying at had free WiFi. It's sounds like a simple enough process, but it's time-consuming. We got to Cedar City just before 7pm and while I checked in he got his laptop out and ready. We got to our room, only to find it looking a bit in use (the bed was unmade) and so I went back to the front desk to get another room. Nate ended up just going to the lobby so that he could transfer the file while I straightened the room out. We were upgraded to a suite (in the loosest definition of the word- it was just a slightly bigger room) and I got changed for the play. It was 7:20PM and the play was starting at 7:30. I went to check on Nate in the lobby, only to find him about halfway through the transfer. Argh! It took another 15 minutes to complete and another 5 to confirm with the office and shut down the computer. We ended up being 15 minutes late to the play. And since I had never seen The Tempest before, or even read it, I was a bit lost. Plus, I had a headache from the ordeal of getting there and Nate was tired from going into work early so he could leave early and kept nodding off (plus it was quite warm where we were sitting) and one of the main actors didn't articulate. So we didn't end up enjoying the play as much as we should have. Oh well.
Saturday was much better. We slept in as late as we could without missing the hotel's free continental breakfast and just relaxed the rest of the morning. Then we decided to take a walk around downtown Cedar City (the whole 2 blocks of it). We went in a bunch of stores, ate lunch at a diner, got ice cream at the soda fountain, and walked back to the hotel. We caught up on some of the TV shows we had downloaded and then went to dinner. We made it to the play that night with plenty of time to spare- we even walked to the theatre. We saw The Mousetrap which we were both able to enjoy much more. We weren't tired and I didn't have a headache. It wasn't as hot in the section we were in and the actors were much easier to understand. I didn't think I had read this play before, but about halfway through I realized I had because I knew who the murderer was. This play still wasn't Nate's favorite, but at least he didn't hate it like he did Spamalot.

Sunday morning we also took advantage of the fact that we wouldn't be woken up by the kids and slept in. We made it to breakfast in time and then packed our stuff back into the car and headed home. All in all it was a good trip and nice to get away. And yet, I was still happy to get home and pick up the kids and return to our normal everyday life.

The Twilight Obsession

2007-09-29T16:50:00.002-07:00

Two weeks ago I bought the first book in the Twilight series at Costco that I had heard a little bit about on the news or something. All I really knew about the series was that it was written by a BYU grad, it was a vampire story, and the vampires had morals. Being the vampire lover that I am, I had to give it a read. I started the first book, Twilight, after church two Sundays ago and was so taken by the story that I had it finished by Tuesday morning (all 500 pages). And since the book had the first chapter of the second book in it as a teaser, I was desperate to get the second book. I held off on buying the second book, New Moon, until that Thursday (and went ahead and bought the third book while I was at it) and had it completed by Friday night (another 550 pages or so) and immediately started in on the third book, Eclipse. I was finished with the third book (about 650 pages) the following Sunday after I had started the first book.
Yep, I read all three books in almost exactly one week. I had a hard time keeping myself away from them. I didn't completely shun my duties. I still took care of my kids and cooked (although house cleaning did suffer), but I longed for the times I could read- like naptime and when Nate got home from work and once the kids were in bed. I stayed up late reading almost every night. I dreamt about Twilight. I was obsessed. And now I have to wait a whole year for the next book! In that way I am glad that I did not stumble across the series when only the first book was out. The torture of waiting would have just been horrible at times.
So if you like vampire stories I suggest you give this one a try.

POTGSL & TLAPD

2007-09-29T16:50:00.001-07:00

On International Talk Like A Pirate Day I went to see a screening of Pirates of the Great Salt Lake. The screenplay was actually written by two guys who grew up in the same ward as I did and I had been waiting awhile for a chance to see the movie. They encouraged people to dress up like a pirate for the occasion and I was happy to oblige. But since I didn't really think about dressing up until the day of the screening, I had to scrounge around my house for my costume. I think I did a really good job. Here I am:

I was disappointed to arrive and find that so few other people decided to also dress up. They movie was very enjoyable and I hope they get a distribution deal soon.

SPAMALOT!!

2007-09-29T16:50:00.000-07:00

Spamalot came to Salt Lake City and Nate was very excited to see it. Although we knew exactly when it was, we waited for whatever reason and didn't get our tickets until about 2 weeks before the show. Our seats were the absolute last seats available in our sections. Seriously- last row of the balcony, last two seats on the far right. Visability was mostly a problem for me due to tall guys sitting in the couple rows in front of me, but our neighbor realized that since we were the back row we could get away with sitting on our seats folding up and that was much better. I really enjoyed the show and was reminded once again why I love theatre so much, whereas Nate ended up absolutely hating it. Here's what he has to say about the experience: "At first it was mildly uninteresting and then it degenerated into completely intolerable." He really thought that a Monty Python musical would be different, but it was not the case. They just made fun of the typical musical by singing about typical musicals in the same style. So much for my hopes that he would change his mind about musicals and take me to see more. I guess I'll just have to find someone else to go with me next year when Wicked comes to Salt Lake. We are going to Cedar City for our anniversary to see The Tempest and The Mousetrap, so hopefully he'll enjoy those and take me to see more plays (of the non-musical variety).

The Summer Party

2007-09-29T11:32:00.000-07:00

The company Nate works for decided to do things a little different for the Summer Party this year from years past. In the past the Summer Party consisted of spending the day in Park City doing whatever you wanted and getting $50 for it and then meeting up at The Grubb Steak for dinner (paid for by the company). They decided too many people weren't really spending the day in Park City and were just taking advantage of the day "off" so this year the party was much more structured and everyone had to show their face at various points throughout the day, which made it known to the partners who was actually participating. If you didn't spend the day in Park City doing the specified activities, the employee was required to actually go to the office and work like it was just another normal work day, or take vacation.

The Summer Party was planned so that all the activities would take place during the normal work hours (8am-5pm). To start the day everyone was to meet at the condominium (co-owned by one of the partners) at 8am. Once there, we had a choice of walking, running, or biking a mapped out course that would take approximately 45 minutes to complete. After completing your chosen course a light breakfast would be served at the condo. At 10:30am there were two more options to choose from for the next activity: Golfing or Park City Mountain Resort. If you chose golfing then you had to be experienced to play 18 holes, otherwise you would participate in a group gold lesson. The Park City Mountain Resort group would receive an unlimited all-day pass to ride the rides and enjoy the other activities that the Resort offered. At 3:30pm everyone was to meet back at the condo for a partially catered dinner.

When we first received the flyer detailing this year's Summer Party, we were a little disappointed. We were looking forward to a day at the outlets and I especially was looking forward to the creme brulee at the restaurant that we had gone to in the past, but after this year's new-fangled Summer Party was over, we were happy for the change. Here's how the party went:

We left our house for Park City around 6:30am so that we would arrive at the condo on time. Traffic was great and it was looking like we would actually arrive on the early side, until...Whoa! There was an accident on the 80 that entirely shut down our side of the freeway. Shortly after we got to the stopped traffic, an ambulance, firetruck, and several police cars drove by us down the shoulder. We were parked for about 15 minutes while enough of the accident was cleared so that traffic could merge into the left lane to get around the accident. A second accident happened right in front of us which made it a little more difficult for the emergency vehicles to get around to the main accident which involved 2 trucks. It took us about another 10 minutes once traffic started inching forward to see what happened. The Semi-truck was completely smashed-up in the front and even the windshield was cracked- he rear-ended a dump truck. Not something you see everyday.

We got to the condo about 25 minutes late, although due to the accident, we were actually among the first to arrive. We ended up being pretty close to the accident so it didn't take us the hour it took some people to get past the crash. We started in quickly on the walk and considered taking a shortcut to finish up on time but Nate was afraid that one of the Partner's wives would be sitting at the last turn just to make sure people were doing the whole course (he really wouldn't put it past his boss to do something like that). Of course, we found out no one was watching us as we came around the last bend and walked the final stretch back to the condo. When we got back, the condo was packed full of the employees and their guests. And all the food was gone. Yep, all the people that were stuck in the accident longer than us decided to skip the walk (run, bike) and just dive into breakfast. Luckily, someone took pity on the dozen or so people that actually participated in the first activity and ran to the store to get some more juice and some donuts.

The next activity that we chose was going to Park City Mountain Resort. I had never been there before and Nate had only been there once about 15 or so years ago. I had looked at their website the night before but wasn't sure how fun the rides would be. Especially the slides- Nate had told me horror stories of people going to fast and going up over the edge and gashing their arms or legs open. So I go on the Alpine Slide just a bit on the nervous side not sure if it's something that I'm going to get hurt on since I do tend to be on the accident-prone side. But it turned out fine and I was actually disappointed in myself for being too conservative with my speed. Yeah, umm, horror stories. No, just one story really. Nate's story of his experience when he was going to fast and cut open his arm and now has a scar. I'm not even sure how he managed to even do that. Here are some pictures of the Alpine Slide (click on them to see a larger image):

We ended up going on the slides 2 more times- racing each other down (technically against the rules, but...). Nate beat me due to a technicality the first time- I had to stop because the person in front of me was going way slow, although I would have clearly won if it wasn't for that. I had no problem beating him the second time.

We really enjoyed the Alpine Coaster. We didn't expect it to be that exciting when we first saw it, but once on, we realized it was a much better ride than it appeared at first sight. We went on the coaster 3 times, one of which we rode together and went really fast. Here are some pics:

Another favorite ride was the ZipRider. I hadn't been on a zipline in at least 15 years, but it was every bit as fun as I remembered and more because it was a much longer zipline. Here are some pictures from the top and of people going over us on our way up the coaster:

The other things we enjoyed were the trampoline (only I did that one) and the rock climbing wall. Nate got all the way to the top on the 2 highest skill levels and I made it about three-quarters of the way up on one of the lowest skill levels. If I hadn't done the trampoline first (which really wears out the arms) and hadn't taken a wrong step to get me kind-of stuck, I probably would have made it all the way up, but my fingers just weren't having it and gave it. Here's some more pics:

After our time at Park City Mountain Resort, we headed back to the condo for dinner. There we enjoyed some good food and non-work related conversation (and some work related conversation that lead to a guy quitting the following week). All in all it was a fun day and we hope the Summer party is done the same way next year.

It's the dreaded 3-0

2007-09-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

I. am. 30. Yep, it's true. I never thought I would have such a hard time turning 30, but it sort-of sucks - especially since Nate was out of town for my birthday (for the second year in a row), due to work training. Luckily, I have two wonderful neighbors (Samantha and Sherrie) who took me out for dessert so I felt a little more special (and my parents also took me to IHOP for breakfast). Here's me on my birthday:

As my sister put it, I'm now 29 from now on (or for as long as I can get away with it!).

And here I thought I could avoid being tagged...

2007-08-26T22:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been tagged by my old roommate Angela, so here are my answers for the questions I was given....

Jobs I've had:

1. Babysitting
2. Temp jobs (data entry, stuffing envelopes, receptionist, etc)
3. Cinnabon (mmm, never got sick of eating them)
4. Sears (I started first in the electrical dept and then moved to the paint department)
5. Haunted Forest (didn’t pay that well but was lots of fun)
6. Halloween EFX (Halloween costume store- I worked there 2 Halloween seasons)
7. UVSC Ragan Theatre (doing tech theatre stuff)
8. Samples at Costco (I forget the name of the company I actually worked for- I only did it for about 2 months)
9. Hair Diamonds (owned by one of the Halloween EFX owners, so they pleaded for me to come work there- it closed when I quit)
10. Far West Bank (accounting dept.)
11. Assistant Manager at a Senior Mobile Home Park

Getaways - I'd like to do:

1. Alaskan Cruise
2. Hawaii
3. Europe
4. Brazil (to see where Nate served his mission)
5. See all 50 states (I’m up to 33, kind-of, 30 solid)

Movies I put on repeat:

1. Empire Records
2. Some Kind of Wonderful (it’s been awhile)
3. Dirty Dancing (well, I used to)
4. Girls Just Want To Have Fun
5. Nightmare Before Christmas

Guilty pleasures:

1. reading
2. sugary foods
3. watching television (I watch waaaayyyy to many shows and we just got Dish a little over a month ago after not having any TV for over a year and a half)
4. looking at houses and house plans online (you know, to plan for our dream home…)

Places I've lived:

1. Herndon/Oak Hill, VA (18 yrs plus a couple Summers)
2. Rexburg, ID (4 semesters, 3 apartments)
3. Provo, UT (5 1/2 years total, 8 moves)
4. Orem, UT (almost 1 year)
5. Ventura, CA (about 2 years, 2 moves)
6. Lehi, UT (going on 2 years)

Places I've been on holidays (vacations):

1. Texas (Dallas, Houston, McAllen)
2. Albuquerque, New Mexico
3. Wildwood, New Jersey
4. North Carolina (Outer Banks, Greenville)
5. Wheeling, West Virginia
6. New York City, New York
7. LDS Church sites across the country
8. Disneyland
9. Las Vegas, NV
10. South Carolina
11. California (all over)
12. Washington (Seattle, Port Townsend)
13. Bahamas
14. Louisiana (Monroe, New Orleans)
15. Victoria, BC (Canada)
16. And many more…

Favorite foods:

1. Steak
2. Costco Pizza
3. Oriental Chicken Salad
4. Homemade Mac & Cheese

Favorite Desserts:

1. Fudge
2. Brownies
3. Lemon desserts

First kiss location:

• Outside the Washington, D.C. Temple Visitor’s Center. It was Christmas-time and the singing group I was in was performing that night at the Visitor’s Center. My high school boyfriend (although not quite yet) came to watch but I didn’t end up singing because I had a sore throat. We ended up just hanging out the whole time and when we went outside he asked if he could kiss me.
• My first kiss with Nate happened at his apartment right after we finished watching a movie. It was on May 8th and we were engaged less than 2 months later.

Okay, now to tag some people...

I tag Sherrie, Shayla, and Sally (If she evens reads my blog). I'd tag more but I don't really know anybody else that has a blog and hasn't been tagged recently.

This blog is for the non-children related events

2007-08-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, I don't know how often this blog will be updated since so much of our lives are centered around the kids, but we'll see. I hope to find some stories to tell that are more about me and Nate. Hopefully I'll add a real entry soon!

2007-08-08T13:10:00.001-07:00