Ew.

OK I woke up in a fine mood, then Josh remember how late he was for his dentist appointment, so I kinda got in a hurry this morning. But nothing terrible happened, until I got to work. I can already tell it's going to be a terrible horrible no good very bad day.

Actually it kinda started last night. I was in this really great mood, then I went into the kitchen to do the dishes and started feeling really sick. Yesterday morning I put a bunch of stuff in a crock pot so Josh could eat (look at me, I'm a good wife), and one of those things was broccoli. I've done this before, and it was really good. But yesterday it smelled overwhelmingly like cooked broccoli and it seriously make me wanna puke just because the smell was so strong. So I didn't have that for dinner, I had leftovers from another yummy crock pot creation. But, my house smelled like it, so I locked myself in the front room so I couldn't smell it as much. I finally went into the kitchen to clean up, and truly thought I was going to lose it when I took the lid of the crock pot. I don't think I've ever been so close to throwing up without actually doing it. It was the weirdest feeling. It just was gross. So, I finally cleaned that up, but never really recovered, I just felt icky. I'm vegging on the couch, like a slug, not really sitting up, or laying down, just kindof being a bum and the phone rings:

Josh: "Wakey wakey! I'm COMIN' home!" (this is in the most happy, excited, fantastic tone of voice you can ever imagine.)
Me: "OK. I'll see you soon." (this is the most depressed, sad, on-the-verge-of-tears voice you can imagine.)
Josh: "Guess what! (no pause like you're supposed to after you say "guess what") I learned a new kind of massage, are you ready for me to practice on you? When I get home we'll read scriptures, and then I can massage you, it'll feel sooo good!" (completely oblivious to the above mood)
Me: "OK, anything you want." (starting to get irritated that anyone can be so happy when I just had to clean the crock pot from yucky broccoli smelling dinner that I didn't even get to eat because it made me want to puke)
Josh: "Sweet, I'll see you soon!"
Me: "OK"

Josh comes in about 5 minutes later, gives me a hug and a kiss, tells me his good news and then starts getting bugged that I'm such a bum when he is so excited and happy.

Josh: "Guess what (no pause) I got an 'A' in anatomy!" (trying desperately to tell me anything that I can't possibly NOT get excited about.
Me: "Congrats, good job studyin'" (trying equally desperately to sound enthusiastic, but really not feelin' it.)
Josh: "How was your night."
Me: "I don't feel good." (breaking into tears. not sobs, just the silent useless kind of tears. I don't know why I'm crying, I didn't have that bad of a night, but for some reason I just feel icky.)
Josh: "I'm sorry, can I help?"
Me: "No."
Josh gets up and gets a drink, starts whistling (the single most irritating sound to an unhappy person is that of a whistle from a happy person) I go hide in the living room and wait for scriptures. We read and pray and go to bed. No massage, no celebration for the 'A' in Anatomy, nothing happy, just going to bed.

So, this morning I woke up in a fine mood, but it quickly went sour. There wasn't anywhere to park outside my boss's house because the people I work with are pretentious and think they get to park in the driveway, which is rude. I come in and NOBODY has done their job, so I get to clean up messes all day long. I'm given the responsibility of finding a stupid headset for my boss's stupid phone, and rent the unrentable-cockroach-infested-too-much-money-for-too-little-space apartment, I have to do the accountant's job and collect rent from people who haven't paid, solve the issues with the roof and try to get tenants to pay for something they didn't think was done, sign David's son up for school, type up the list of food storage crap David bought, and try to find the missing statues in Bali. None of these things should be my job. I know nothing about any of them, and I'm spending more time finding out the history behind them than it would take for people to take care of their own problems! Ew! Ew ew ew!

In the middle of all of this, I'm blogging. Yes, that's right, I don't wanna do it, I don't know where to start, so I'm putting it off. I'm grumpy, and grouchy, and parked illegally and I'm gonna do whatever I want.

good friends

You know when you just wake up feeling good? Today was kinda one of those days. I felt like I wans't way behind, I slept well, I was just kinda in a good mood. I love those days. Over the weekend we had a reasonable productive Saturday, it kinda sucked because Josh worked and I had to stay home to cook for missionaries, so I barely saw him, but it's OK, we had fun anyway.

Sunday morning was one of those calm relaxed mornings. We could chill, hang out, and sleep in. I LOVE that feeling. I had visiting teaching appointments, which was really fun. For the first time I really felt like I got along with my partner. We talked about housing and stuff, and it was really great. We had a fantastic time. We were visitn teaching for like an hour and a half and it was really nice. I came home, took a little nap just before church and then we had a great time at church. Good talks about pioneers and being good, all that stuff. When we got home we ate dinner and then decided that we wanted to do something, but we didnt' wanna go anywhere, we didn't wanna stress about anything, but we wanted to do something fun. We called Jamie and Cameron (I don't know how to make Burch plural..."es"? "'s"? hmmm...I'll have to think about that.) to see if they'd come hang out on short notice. Fortunately they did. They came over, and I realized after they left that I was a complete disaster. My hair was all messed up, I was wearing Josh's shorts and a big ugly t-shirt. I had mascara under my eyes and my hair was pulled all up in a pile. I was embarrassed for about 2 seconds before I realized that I didn't even care. That's you how you know you have good friends. They'll come back, they didn't hate me, it was just fine. I LOVE that feeling. We played Greed for like a hundred years, it was great. Good friends, good night, and it lead to a great morning. I love having good friends and good times. It's such a comforting feeling to know you're loved and supported no matter what, and not feeling like you have to impress people. :) It was great.

Saran wrap gone bad

Some days I just have to laugh at my boss. Let me give you a little peek into the mind of David. He is one of those people who really feels the need to be prepared in any situation. He likes to know exactly how everything is at all times. The first evidence of this surfaced my first week on the job when I was introduced to the travel file.

The travel file has in it EVERY file from EVERY trip David has ever gone on since 1973. Not even exaggerating. It's a full filing cabinet that has a folder for every trip. It lists the destination, the people going, the flight information, the hotel they stayed at, his packing list, his postcard list, who he met while he was there, the guy who served him is coffee at the shop on the beach on the 2nd morning at the 3rd hotel they stayed at, the bus passes, plane tickets, confirmations, reservation numbers, and contact information for anyone involved in the whole process.

He also has the compulsive need to date EVERYTHING. I mean everything. I've seen people dating their cans of food so they know how old they are, I've seen people keeping the date of computer equipment, I've seen companies even date phone equipment, but David takes it to the next level. He dates his plastic utensils (he has a box of plastic forks that he bought on June 9, 2003), and even his saran wrap. The man doesn't cook, doesn't eat leftovers, and doesn't use saran wrap, but he has a roll as big as his thighs that he purchased on Jan 26, 2003, and just in case he's in a bind and needs to know that date that he purchased it, it's written right there on the box. No worries.

At first I found the whole thing a little funny, but not that extraordinary. Now it's time for a new phone again (it's been a whopping 3 months since the last one) and we're trying to find a cell phone that can handle his database of contacts. Most people kindof laugh when I tell them that I'm dealing with a LOT of contacts, and they ask how many,

"you can't have more than a thousand, right?"

"nope, more than six THOUSAND contacts"

awkward pause....."I don't know where you would save that many contacts, have you tried an SD card?"

"yes, but you can't move the contact file from the phone to the SD card or it doesn't recognize it in the contact application"

longer awkwarder pause "hang on, let me get my manager"

"ok"

manager gets on the line

"I hear we're dealing with a rather large contact file"

"yep. we sure are"

"do you know how big the actual file is?"

"36.9 MB"

"oh. that's bigger than expected."

"yep."

"there's probably not a phone on the planet that can help you with that. Anyway you can delete any of those contacts?"

"I'll look into it, thanks for your help."

Enter David

"you can't have that many contacts"

"I need them"

"all of them?"
"There's no way I contact more than 1% of them in any given year."

"so can we slim it down so you have the bulk on your computer and the regulars are on your phone and if you need another you can remote to your computer?"

"what if i need to call someone I didn't know I'd need to call? What about when I'm having a conversation with James and afterward I need to call Bruce, and Bruce needs James's attorney's phone number, address, fax number, and e-mail address? What will I tell him then?"

"To call information to get it."

"What if they need to know the date that we went under contract?"

"Tell them to call your assistant and she'll give it to them."

"What if my assistant isn't there and they need it immediately?"

"You can remote to your computer and get it."

"What if they power is out where I'm staying and I don't have an interent connection."

"It won't be an emergency to get the date then."

"I have to have all of my contacts with me at all times just in case I need one of them."

And so the quest continues for the perfect phone with an unreasonable amount of memory and storage space, the ability to get e-mails, calendar items, tasks, and phone calls, connect with the bluetooth headset, have service EVERYWHERE on the planet, including Bali and Marrakesh, can remote to his desktop computer, and will make him pancakes and eggs in the morning.

Ahhh.....the rain

What an INCREDIBLE storm! Last night seemed really great to me. I felt more productive than I have in a long time, which is always a plus. When I got home, Nate (little brother) was already there, so he and I talked while I did the dishes and he played nintendo. Then I talked to Josh and he was on his way home, so I started making him some food to eat. The best part about that is that I got to pick more cucumbers and peppers from my garden! I feel like a real live grown up, it was great. So, I was a good wife, made dinner, did dishes, started the laundry, watered the lawn, and all that before he even left for school. :) It was nice. After everyone left and I was on my own, I did a couple more things around the house, and most importantly talked to my mom. She called and left a message saying she hadn't heard from me in forever, which is true, so I called her back and we had a great talk. She even reminded me that I can just freeze all of my extra peppers (cuz I'm gonna have a ton).

I went to my missionary meeting and nobody even yelled at me! Yay! Apparently we got a new Elder, and I hadn't even met him. It was a good meeting, but I was mostly just relieved that I didn't get in trouble at all. Whew! Those missionaries are nice. But my favorite part of the night was the rain.

Oh man did it rain! I got home and it smelled a little like rain, and I went inside and started to read Harry Potter (I'm re-reading book 6 before I read the new one). I cuddled up in my cuddle chair, under the perfect reading lamp, with a blanket. And listened to the rain, saw the lightening and heard the thunder while I read. It was SOO perfect! The only thing that could have made it better would be if it was cold enough for hot chocolate. mmmm. At one point, the thunder was so loud that it literally shook my house. I heard plates rattling in the cupboards. It was incredible. The coolest part about that is that it didn't really sound loud, it was this low rumble, but it was BEAUTIFUL. I LOVE rain like that. I'm sure it was also very destructive and stuff, but I love it anyway. This morning my lawn was green and the plants didn't look too beat up, so I'm happy.

What a great night!

Massage

Sigh. Josh called on his way home last night and he was all sorts of excited because his massage table finally came! Yes, that's right, we have a massage table in our living room. Last night was HILARIOUS because he called all excited, then I'm sitting there trying to get my work stuff finished so I'll be ready for him when he comes home, and I hear the doorbell ring. Given that it's 11:00 at night, I went to the back door hoping it was just him, but a little freaked out. He's out there half in the back seat of the car: "Help!" The muffled voice coming from behind the biggest box I've ever seen. I have no clue how he got that thing in there - turns out massage tables are kinda big. So, we pushed, and pulled, and it didn't fit. We lifted and turned, and it didn't fit, somehow he put the thing in there all by himself without a problem, but with the two of us no matter what we tried we couldn't get it back out. I almost suggested removing the car door because it looked like the only option for a while there. Finally, we both stopped pushing and looked at the situation, I almost laughed out loud, there we are in the pitch black in the middle of the night trying to get this thing out of the back seat of my little car. "Turn it this way!" "Can you lift up on your end?" "the roof is taller in here!" "I can't get it out!" "It's stuck on the stick." I'm sure we looked and sounded really cool. Finally it occurred to us to take it to the front seat. If we pushed it as far back as possible, we could lean the seats back and lift it over the seats to try from the front doors. So, we put the seats back, and try to lift it over, but the box it too thick. So it's wedged between the head rest and the back of the backseat. Josh had already suggested taking the headrests off, I quickly shot that down, but after seeing that it got wedged, we had to do just that. Up went the seats, off went the headrests, over went the box, and then we squished it out the front doors. What a pain! But well worth it. We rearranged all the furniture in our front room, the kitchen table blocking the front door. Set up the massage table, and Josh showed me everything he learned. I might be a little biased, and I've never had a massage before, but oh my goodness, I'm pretty sure that's all anybody does in heaven. That was truly a fantastic feeling. I still felt like putty this morning and wasn't really willing to get up. :) Well worth the half hour that it took to get the thing out of the car. :)

Garden

Yes, that's right, we're grown up to have a garden, and even to pick vegetables from it. See?

Yep, that is one HUGE cucumber. We were kinda worried that it wouldn't taste good since it was soo big and we hadn't watered it the whole time we were gone, but it actually was really yummy. But seriously, that's a big cucumber, I couldn't even get my hand around it. It makes me feel like a grown up and I like it.

End of vacation

A happy end to happy vacation. Yesterday was the PERFECT Sunday. It almost made me wish that we didn't live so close to so many relatives because it was so nice to be together with nobody else. I love having family close, I love that we always get to do something fun, but once in a while it's nice to be able to just be with each other. I really miss having time just with us. It seems like now that Josh is in school, our time together is so limited that we always try to go out and do something when we have it. I've really missed just hanging out, so it was nice to have SO MUCH time to do nothing but talk, hang out, swim, chill, and just do anything we wanted. I can certainly understand the advice we've received from so many people to get away every year. It's important to be just with each other, and we don't even have kids yet! I can only imagine how much more important it becomes. Even the driving around was fun - we spent a lot of time in the car, but we listened to books and we had a really good time. We ate at Village Inn, which is kindof a sentimental place for me. It's where we went on one of our first dates, the night we got engaged, and on our honeymoon. I like it and I'm glad we went again. The whole trip seemed to be just perfect. I couldn't have asked for anything better. So refreshing to be our geek selves and have nothing to worry about. Now, if only I could capture that feeling at home. :)

Zion

I love vacations. There just aren't words for how nice it is to not be doing anything, nobody cares where I am or what I'm doing, I'm COMPLETELY free. I love that feeling.

Friday morning after sleeping in and taking our time, we arrived in St. George. We got to the hotel, swam, watched movies, played games, ordered pizza, it was great. We decided last night that we'd go to Zion National Park this morning and maybe do a quick hike and come home. Turns out that it's like a 45 minute drive, so by the time we got there, we wanted to make it worth it. We hiked to Emerald Pools (all 3 of them) and weeping rock. The funniest thing was that on our way to Emerald Pool, we went backwards, starting with the highest, then working out way down from there. We got to the part of the trail that forks off to go up to the highest pool, and I wasn't sure I'd make it, but Josh was patient and nice and I did. We went to the highest one and as we came down into the pool area, this is what we saw:




Yes, that's right. A HUGE gathering of people. A bunch of them with cameras, and they all seemed to be paying attention to something. We kept walking in, (this is a national park and not somebody's private backyard, right? can people reserve this? are we intruding on an important meeting?) and learned that the thing everyone was looking at was a wedding. Yep, people were getting married. Who knew? Weird. So we kinda hid out of the way, clapped at the end of the ceremony with everyone else, took some pictures of a frog and went back down. :) The lower 2 pools were very disappointing because there is so little water they were more like over sized puddles than pools. I was really glad we went the extra half mile to the highest pool, even if there was a big fat wedding party there too.

Next we did weeping rock. Again, the lack of water was a little disappointing, but it was still really beautiful. I can only imagine what it's like when it's really running.

As we came down from weeping rock we realized that we could see! When we got there in the morning there was so much smoke, you couldn't see far. The nice-park-ranger-lady told us that it settles into the canyon at night and then moves up when it heats up. So, it got HOT and sunny, and all of those good things. We hung out, walked, sweated, looked at the beautiful canyon and then came back. It was a great time, I remembered what a wuss I am, and I'm glad we did it. I can't tell you how thankful I was for my amazing husband for his patience and support. He rocks.

On our way down we found a trading post, we went in there and got our anniversary presents. See, Josh came up with this really great idea, that instead of worrying about anniversary presents, we'd just go somewhere cool every year. Only then he was feeling a little sad/left out for not getting presents, so we decided that we'd get something from wherever we went on our vacation. So, we stopped at the trading post and I got a BEAUTIFUL wind chime, and Josh got some really yummy smelling rocks. It was cool. So, that was our really fun day today. I'm pretty sure my legs will be sore tomorrow, but it was well worth it to see everything we saw. I was nervous about coming down here where it's hot, but I'm glad we're here.

Still Learning

This is really cheesy, but the other night I was watching super-nanny and I think I learned something important. I pictured the cartoon lighbulb going on above my head. She was working with this family who had a NIGHTMARE of a 4 year old boy. He was horrible, screaming, biting, cussing, a holy terror. She followed the kid to school and learned that he didn't play well with the other kids (surprise surprise) and after a little bit of work, she convinced the mom to set up a play-date for the kid. When his friends got there, he started to play by himself with a motorcycle while the other kids played with a train set. The mom had the kids invite the naughty child to play with the trains and he started to play with the other kids without ANY problems. He shared, he wasn't mean, and he was a great host - even serving the other kids cookies that he made earlier. :) So, it occurred to me that the only problem with this child's social skills was simply that he hadn't been taught to play with other kids yet. He just needed his mom to show him how and that was it. He was done. He was completely fine.

Now, here's my cool aha moment. How many things have I just not been taught to do yet? I'm sure that kid could've grown up to be a grumpy mean old man just because he wasn't ever taught anything different. His parents weren't bad, they were scared to let him play with other kids cuz he was horrible. But the bottom line is, he never learned that skill. I think I decided that people aren't necessarily bad at things, they just haven't been taught how yet.

Josh was talking to me about something he thinks he's bad at, and it's something he should've learned like when he was 2 years old. Only when he was 2 years old, his life at home was a little stressful (his parents were getting divorced), and he was learning how to keep the peace between his parents, and how to show his mom love like she so desperately needed, he learned how to take care of himself, he learned how to do a lot of other things, and this basic function was kindof skipped. I felt like I had the same situation in dealing with confrontation and problems. In my house all we ever did was ignore it until you didn't care anymore, and then you move on with your life. Josh however, learned that you talk about stuff, hurt feelings, mistakes, problems, and then you feel resolved a lot sooner. So, now I'm learning how to do that, and for him it was a basic skill that he learned when he was like 2 years old, but it's still new to me. I always thought I was just bad at it, but in reality, I just hadn't been taught that skill yet.

Thank goodness that I have a lifetime to learn all I can. And thank goodness I'm surrounded by people who are willing to teach me the things I just haven't learned yet. Who knows, maybe someday, I'll even learn to like roller coasters!

home sweet home

Today I whined at work about how hot it was in my house and that it never really cools down. But Josh and I don't really want to whine because we have such a sweet deal living here, so we've avoided it and decided it's just an old house. BUT I whined about it today at work and Kim told me I should try changing out my filter and that would probably make a BIG difference. So I told Josh and he took it out and said it was NASTY. So he immediately went out and bought a new one and replaced it. There is so much dust and dirt and grossness in it, you wouldn't even believe it. It was absolutely disgusting. So, already my a/c is fixed and my house is cool, I might even cook tomorrow. It's amazing! I'm thrilled. My husband rocks.

I can see clearly now...

You know how I work up on the hill and have a beautiful view of the whole wide world? Well, today for the first time in like 2 weeks I could see the mountains! With all of the fires going on all over this state it's been a while since I've been able to see very far at all, so that's a big moment and I'm happy about it.

This whole day has been a little like that. I had this crazy dream last night and I woke up feeling VERY thankful for my husband. Do you ever have those moments when you realize what your life could have been like if it had turned out the way you thought you wanted it to? I had one of those days. I'm SOO glad that my life didn't work out how I wanted it to before I knew Josh.

I sincerely hope that the rest of my life goes the same way, that I get to experience the things that are really best for me, in spite of what I think is best for me.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

We had a weekend full of movies, games and fun. It was so relaxing and nice to not be running a million different places. If it weren't for these kinds of weekends, I don't know that I would be able to make it through this year of school.

On Friday we went to Lindon and watched "Premonition" with my family. Wow, that was really not my favorite movie of all time. It was like someone who normally makes really scary movies like The Ring or something made this movie that wasn't really that scary. The idea was really interesting, but the movie and the scenes kept looking they were supposed to be terrifying. And then they TOTALLY ruined it with the end. Yep, that was the worst ending of all time.

Saturday was another good morning. Josh let me sleep in because he loves me and he got up and mowed the lawn. I'm pretty sure that makes me a lazy wife, but I appreciated it anyway. We got some stuff done around the house, we hung out together, and then we went to see Harry Potter with the Burches. That was pretty dang fun. I have to say that movie was much better than the last one, I think it was less dark and more just plain fun. Anyway, great flick. Jamie and I decided that we wanted to have a barbeque, so we went shopping for good food and we barbequed steaks. It was crazy fun. Only problem was it meant we were cooking inside and our house gets REALLY hot! But, it was worth it. We played some games with them and we stayed up WAY past Jamie's bedtime, which was kinda fun. Shhh...don't tell her mom. :)

Sunday we had the Burches come over again, which was great because I like them and Josh and Cameron haven't been able to play for a LOONG time, so I think they had fun too. I made home-made rolls, which made me feel important and grownup. They brought over this really fun game called Ticket To Ride. It was tons of fun. We're going to have to get that one, becuase it's just plain cool. I guess there are different versions of it, like you can be in different countries and stuff, so maybe we'll get a different one, but it was really fun. I'm glad they introduced us to that game. We also taught them how to play Spades, which we learned from Randy, and that was fun too. I like good nights like that.

While we were playing, the power went out. It was already really hot and when we lost all a/c and fans and anything relieving. It was horribly hot, so finally I called Rocky Mtn. Power just to see what they knew, and it turns out that 10,000 people were without power for 2 1/2 hours. That was crazy. But eventually it came back on and we survived - whew! We're good.

I think this weekend I remembered how much I like to feel like a "wife" or what I think a wife should be. I enjoy cooking, cleaning, doing the dishes after everybody's happy. We made cookies and hung out. It makes me feel good to take care of people, and I can't wait to be a housewife/mom and do that full time. Somedays I'm sure I'll hate it, but for now, that sounds greater than anything.

Ahhh...productivity

Last week I was really not feeling the productive vibe. I played more tetris than any human being should, I talked to Jamie all day long while I was at work, and I didn't have a ton going on at work, so it was not my ideal feeling by the end of the week. Yesterday however, I made up for it. Kinda. At least I took a step in the right direction. :) I was much more productive at work and only played a little bit of tetris. I didn't blow ANYBODY off, which was good. At home while Josh was at school I was REALLY good. I turned on the TV, but I didn't even sit down to watch one show. I got up and got stuff done. I cleaned the house, watered the lawn, changed our OR reservations, filed all the stuff that's all over my house making a mess, threw away old stuff I don't really need anymore, made today's dinner, took a shower, worked a little, and made a bunch of phone calls I've been avoiding, and even picked up my parents from the aiport. It was a REALLY great night. I love nights like that. I went to bed dead tired, but it was the good kind. It worked out great because, of course we slept in today, so I was glad I had already showered so I didn't have to hurry as fast. I like that feeling. I even had breakfast this morning! Yess!!!

I also looked at trucks, we're thinking we might have to buy a new truck because Josh's is going to cost more money and we'd rather pay for a truck that works than pay for one that doesn't. So, we're looking into a new purchase, which is scary and exciting. Jamie has the hookup for everything in the world, including vehicles. So, I'm excited about that. We're going to go look at some at the Church Office Building and we think they have Josh's dream truck right now, so we'll see what happens. Wish us luck!

"sugar sugar.......honey honey"

Wow. What a weekend.

On Saturday we had some Redbox to do, so we got it done, then went to see Transformers. Just in case you were wondering, it's a really cool movie. But it was the first time EVER that Josh was 100% enthralled with the whole thing and I was like "yeah, that's cool" but not head over heels in love with the thing. It was a weird feeling. Normally, I'm the one who loves the movie and he gets bored halfway through. Anyway, I can appreciate the crazy-love other people feel for it, it was really cool, but I'm not on some kind of crazy high because of it, weird.

After the movie we retrieved my purse (yay!) and headed down to Pleasant Grove to see Randy and Katy's new apartment. It's SOO great, and I'm so happy for them. It made me a little jealous because it's really theirs, everything in the home is theirs and they get to decorate how they want, and it's really their very own space. They aren't using other people's stuff. Anyway, it's way cute, and there is tons of room, and we had a blast. We played Risk after Randy got home and I really did have a good time. Maybe I don't really hate that game and I just hate the idea of it. Anyway, we had a good time. And we played games pretty much all night long. We didn't get home until like 1:30 in the morning, blah.

Sunday was our first Sunday in our ward in like a month and a half, it's weird but I was totally nervous to go back, I figured everyone thought we were inactive, but it turns out I don't think they even noticed. :) It's funny how important you think you are until you notice you're not that big of a deal to anyone but you. Funny. Anyway, after church on Sunday we went over to the Reilley's, which is always an adventure. We had dinner and played games all night long. It was great again. We even played scrabble - another game I thought I hated, but it was OK. It's still not my favorite, but we played anyway and it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be.

The FUNNIEST part of Sunday was Braden, Josh's little brother. He cracks me up, he's 12 years old and a sweet kid. Anyway, Josh always calls me "sugar" not sure when that started or why, but he does it all the time. Apparently Braden hasn't learned the difference between a nickname and a petname. We're playing cards, and we ask who's turn it is. Without even batting an eye he says "it's sugar's turn!" I was SHOCKED. It sounded SOOO funny to be called sugar by my 12 year old brother in law. I thought I was going to die laughing. Anyway, he didn't miss a beat and we just kept playing the game, but it made me think about the stuff we say and what kids learn. Later on Josh burped (a rare thing for him because his stomache is tied up in knots) and I looked at him pretending to be disgusted. The conversation went like this:
Josh: "braaghuuuuhhhhh" (I don't really know how to spell the nosie of a burp, but that's my guess.)
Me: "Who taught you to do that?" (in an obviously pretend disgusted voice)
Braden: "Meg-"
Mom: "It certainly wasn't me."
Braden: Thinking pause........"wait, did you just burp? Yeah. It was Megan."
That kid makes me laugh every time we go over there. He's a sweetheart.

It turned out to be a good weekend, nothing big or exciting, but a good weekend anyway.

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I have this really cool friend named Jamie. She figured out how to add music to a blog, and then since she gets bored at work, I made her look into adding tetris. That's right, the moment I've been waiting for has arrived! I have TETRIS ON MY BLOG! The cool part is that it's ON MY BLOG like it's not just a link, the whole game is on my blog. Yep, I love this cool internet thing. Now I can listen to my FREE playlist of my favorite music of the day, WHILE I play tetris. That's pretty dang cool.

She also added a counter to hers, so it counts how many hits there are, and that made me feel pretty cool, turns out between me and Jamie, we look at this blog like 100 times a week. :) Yep, blogging is rad.

I had some trouble uploading the 4th of July pictures, but they are on my photobucket site (see the link on the Right sidebar) and some of them are FREAKING CUTE! I have cute cousins, that's what I learned this holiday. Now, I'm off to rock the tetris game.....if only I had a massage chair.....

Happy 4th!

The 4th of July has always been one of Josh's mom's favorite holidays and this year I can really see why. Every year she gets to hang out with her best friend and family (the Kearney's) and they do whatever they want. I get it now.

This year we went to Morgan for a big Reilley party. We were up on some big fat private golf course and the beautiful mountains. It was beautiful. We played games, frisbee, that bolo game, phase 10, and a bunch more games. We really had a lot of fun, I like it when everyone gets along and plays together like that. Eventually we went to a park for a picnic. Josh's mom got a new digital camera so we spent a long time playing with it and learning how to use it, it's pretty cool.

Our cousin Tyler (he's only like 2) was playing in the water and he kept BAWLING every time someone turned off the water. He was totally soaked, and LOVED running around in it. He is such a cute kid. His mom Kerrie was talking about how he's such a stinker and it's a good thing he's so cute because it's the only way she'd keep him. :) He's adorable and I can't WAIT until we get to have one. When Josh and I were dating Kerrie and I talked at their Thanksgiving/Christmas party and she was so friendly and nice, she teased us about getting married and now she teases us about having kids. It's good times.

The boys were playing ultimate frisbee and Josh had some breathing issues, so we left before fireworks. We kindof left in a rush, and halfway home I realized I had left my purse. That's an icky feeling. Josh's mom rescued it from the picnic table though, so I felt a little better. Until this morning anyway.....then I realized my purse has EVERYTHING I own in it. My cell phone, my money (both dollars), my keys, my chapstick, my everything. *Sigh* What are you going to do?

On our drive home we got to see all the fireworks between here and Ogden. It was beautiful. Josh likes fireworks so we pulled over for a few finales, but mostly just enjoyed the drive home.

I really can see the appeal of the 4th of July, it's a great outside, good food, good family, no major stresses, maybe someday it'll be my favorite holiday too. :)

Fireworks

I was sitting here anxiously awaiting my husbands arrival when I started to hear thunder outside, I looked outside and it was kindof blowy, but not exceptionally stormy. I couldn't figure out what was happening for about an hour, when I finally stuck my head outside and realized it was the neighbors doing fireworks. I couldn't see them, but I'd hear the crackle of the fireworks followed by the excited squealing of the kids. They all laughed and giggles and screeched with joy. It was the kind of moment when you just can't figure out why the background song isn't coming on and the zoom lense doesn't focus in on the mom smiling because you know the whole scene is straight out of a movie. Those moments when you know everyone is happy and everyone is getting along - I love those movie-moments.

A little while later there was a flash out the window, and I saw big fireworks! Apparently the high school right by my house was doing fireworks on the 3rd instead of the 4th and I got to sit on my couch and watch them all. I don't even like fireworks most of the time, but last night it was a beautifully relaxing experience to just sit and watch them from my window. It's too bad Josh wasn't home to watch with me.

Starbursts and taffy

For our wedding we got this really weird silver thing, we couldn't figure out what it was for a long time, actually we thought it might be a paper-weight, but then Jamie told me it was clearly a candy dish for my desk at work. She was right. I bought a bunch of salt water taffy and starbursts and it's REALLY bad for me because I snack on them all day long. The other day I didn't have lunch, and I was hungry so I just kept eating starbursts and taffy, I seriously was shaky and crazy because of all the sugar. So today I bought some pretzels for my drawer too. Hopefully no more sugar-comas. There's my online confession for the day.

Bear Lake

Oh man. I am one of those people who has never been ANYWHERE, last year was my first time at Bear Lake, ever. And it was AWESOME. But, this year we took wave runners and it was WAY BEYOND awesome.

I tried pack and get us ready to go Thursday night, but still had those few things to do before you're really ready to go on Friday, but I left work (right at 5:00, please be impressed) and we were out the door by 6:00. Josh had spent his day getting the truck and the wave runners ready to go, so by the time I got home, there was only a little to do.

As we started up the canyon Josh was watching the temperature gauge on truck intently. He didn't talk, he just stared at the gauges. I asked him if he was OK and he said yeah, but didn't say anything else. I told him if he was going to be this paranoid the whole way up I'd rather take the car and no wave runners. He struggled with that for a while. The last time he towed something up a canyon road it blew his entire engine and cost him $5,000. So he was a little worried about taking them this time. But he had talked to his dad (his dad is so great) and he told him to just to watch it and be safe and we'd be OK. So we did and we were. We got stuck in this nightmarish traffic jam on the way up, but I quizzed him on his anatomy stuff for school and made good use of the time. As we pulled down looking over Bear Lake I got SOO excited! It's such a beautiful lake and we got to stay there! Josh and I were talking and have a great time, I love car trips with him, he's fun. We blasted the tunes through the canyon, we talked about stuff, and seriously had a great time. Then he looked at me and then looked at the big sign on the road that said "WELCOME TO IDAHO - we don't litter here" or something like that. Yep, we sure had missed the turn. The cabin we were staying at is way up the mountain, but it's not in Idaho, so we had totally missed the turn and were just going on our merry little way. :) Fortunately he found a driveway and turned us back around and we found the turn. We pulled up just a couple of seconds after the Egberts did, so it was good we went to Idaho, because nobody would have been there anyway.

Saturday morning Josh and I were up early and ready to go play, but we had to wait for everyone else. We made it down to the beach at about 11:00 and Nancy and Meleta had rented some wave runners too, so we had 4 total and we all got to play on them a lot. The place the rented from wouldn't let us launch our own from their dock, so we had to use Meleta's friends private beach. She has a house literally ON the beach, and they had to drag our stuff out there with their big fat tractor. This tractor was so cool, I was impressed. Anyway, they drive the tractor right into the water. So at first Josh took me out and I was really scared, but he was patient and nice and went slow for me, then I got to drive my own and it was SOO cool! So I was out playing and FLYIN' across the water. Then Josh came and found me on his and we were playing with each other, it was awesome. Then, all of a sudden, out of NOWHERE, he does this CRAZY 180 on the machine. He seriously just flipped around. So he taught me how to do it, and eventually i figured it out and that was AWESOME. You're going really fast in one direction and you just turn it hard and you slide across the top of the water, it was sooo rad. So, I did a few times, then I did it again and it tipped the thing up on it's side, so I'm trying to balance it out and lean the other way so I can get it back down to normal, and I totally lost it. Yep, I flipped the thing over, fell out and everything. So, there I am in the water with my wave runner bottom up. I felt pretty dumb. Josh came and saved me, turned me right side up and we went on our merry little way. We had a great time. All the while I'm trying to remember to put on sunscreen every 5 minutes so we don't get burned. Josh really couldn't get burned because he has to get a massage all the time for school, and oh man, that would HURT. So, we tried to keep up on it, he still got a little burned on his shoulders and we both burned the tops of our feet. But, I think we're gonna be OK. :) By the time we packed up and came home we were so tired and beat we went to bed at like 10:30. Sunday morning we had breakfast and packed up to go, so it was a short trip but DEFINITELY a good one. I'm officially converted to wave runners and can't wait till we buy our own.

Next weekend we get to go with Jamie & Cameron and we're going to the KOA campground which will be a party. If only we could have the wave runners again, I think Josh's uncle is taking them back to Idaho, but we'll still have fun playing at the beach, that's for sure. I'm excited.