Fugals & Hair dye

Funny story:

I have brown hair, I've always had brown hair, and about a year ago I was brave enough to highlight my hair, one thing lead to another and before long I was totally blond. (Stupid super cuts). Josh like blond hair, I like highlighted hair and I REALLY like not having to get my hair done cuz it grows out. So, Josh deals with it when it's ugly. So, last time I got it cut, I didn't do the highlights again cuz it's WAY too expensive and that's a pain. SO I finally decided it was time to switch to a grocery store dye, or nothing at all. While we were at Walmart, I got a highlighter kit thing and decided I'd see if my sisters would do it on Sunday while we were all there. So, we're playing cards, and I put the cap thing on and I've got Sarah and BreAnne pulling my hair out of the little holes in the cap. It didn't hurt that bad except once in a while they'd stab me with the pin they were using. I secretly think Sarah thoroughly enjoyed it. When we were little she used to do my hair and when I'd whine cuz it hurt she'd say "it hurts to be beautiful!" she did that again, it was like a flashback to when I was 7 years old and couldn't handle the pigtails....ouch.

When everyone saw how much leftover highlighting stuff there was (and there was a LOT) they wanted to play too. It started with Randy, he kept talking about how nothing EVER colors his hair, and it just doesn't work, so we put tips on his, then I was teasing Josh about how we could do him too if he wanted, and he said OK (I'm pretty sure he figured he'd just given himself a buzz, so he may as well have a blond buzz), so we did, then we teased Nate, cuz "everyone was doing it" so he did too. Of course Garret wanted in on the action, so he got in line and we did him too. That was fun. So while all of the boys were "processing" I made them let me take the picture.

Garret didn't do very well at sitting still, so he took a lot of pictures of everybody else. Including mom, who was not amused. :)

Clint and dad were the only ones who got away, Sarah started doing Katy's and we all turned out with really cute hair actually.It was a pretty funny night though. I never would have thought that my family would bond over hair dye. :) I'm sure it's everything Garret ever would have wanted for his birthday party. More pictures at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7431&l=6514a&id=608591775.

Good times.....

Rodeo

Saturday night was STRAWBERRY DAYS! Yes, that's right, the best time of the year. Josh and I went to Provo for Spencer's (one if his bestest friends) birthday party, so we decided that we'd spend the night there for Platt's welcome home thing. So, since we'd be there AND it was Strawberry Days, we went to the Rodeo!

First we went to the pool, which was really fun. Turns out that it's expensive if you don't have a pass, and we were only there for like an hour so we could go to the rodeo, but we went on the slides, we swam a couple of laps, went on the diving board and EVERYTHING. It seriously was fun, I miss doing that all day every day in the summertime. Josh doesn't even like swimming, but he's nice and went with me anyway, which I was thankful for. He's fun to do stuff with, even if he doesn't like it - that's a good quality I love in him. ANYWAY, after the pool, it was RODEO TIME!!!

We raced home and hurried to get ready, earlier in the day we bought cowboy hats at walmart, cuz I'm cool and I wanted them, and I think Josh looks good like a cowboy.

So, we ran home, showered and got ready (with cowboy hats) and went with Nate and BreAnne (Nate's girlfriend) to the rodeo. That's good times. We didn't get there until like 8, and that's when it starts, and the place was PACKED. 10,000 people there! That's a lot of rodeo goers, especially considering that the population of Pleasant Grove is only like 27,000 people - most of them were at the rodeo on Saturday. :) Anyway, there were ZERO seats available, and certainly not 4 together, so we wandered for a little while and then ran into Aunt Pam and her cute girls!

She had GREAT seats, and let us sit by her, which was awesome. We were squished, but we made room, and that was good. I remembered just how much I like her, she's so friendly and easy going. So loving and easy to get along with, I hope I can grow up to be the cool aunt like her. She's awesome. She said she had to work the night before and probably hadn't slept in like 3 days, but there she is at the rodeo, smiling and happy and loving it. She's amazing.

The rodeo was TONS of fun. We saw bull riding, and cow milking, and roping of all kinds, I won't lie, I got a little nervous about people ripping off the animals heads, but everyone assured me it's OK. :) I'll get over it, but I still prefer barrel races instead. The halftime show was this one-armed bandit dude. He was cool, he rode a horse with no hands, and made some other horses do some cool stuff. The coolest part was when he rode the horse up on TOP of the trailer (like way high in the air) and then STOOD on the horse's back, with no hands! The scariest part was after he was standing on the horse that high in the air, he dropped straight down to sit on the saddle. I seriously don't think he'll ever be able to have kids. Anyway, it was cool - but Nate was protecting my camera from me losing it and had gone to get everyone strawberries & cream (sooooo good!!!) so I didn't get any pictures. The guy was rad. Anyway, I learned a lot about rodeos, and we saw some WAY cool stuff. Plus we got to wear our cowboy hats, we're cute. :)

Good times at the Rodeo.

Calling in Pink Eye

Thursday night was so much fun, I totally missed and loved my husband and couldn't wait to see him again, and HATED the fact that I had to work on Friday morning. SO I devised a plan, I was going to do that really naughty thing where you call in sick even though you aren't sick. (Wicked!) So anyway, Friday morning came, and I was tired and I called in sick. There wasn't a whole lot going on at work, so I didn't feel that bad about it, it's been slow and I don't have a ton of undone tasks, so sick I was. We made breakfast, pancakes & eggs, took our time getting ready and hung out all morning. Josh had some redbox to do, so we planned to get it done and go play cuz it was Friday. We went out to do Redbox, I checked in a few times at work and took care of the few things I needed to take care of. Then we got done really early because Josh had been working his butt off all week so he didn't have too much to do. So, we went to see "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer". It was rad. They have this spaceship thing in it that is RAD. We had tons of fun, and the whole day I was just glad to be with my husband. After the movie we ran some errands and did some shopping. (Yay for Walmart, they're glad they got our money I'm sure.) I was all excited because I got a glade car-freshener and it smells pretty dang good. I have car-freshener issues, so I was excited about it.

Finally it was time to go home, so we did. And we ordered pizza and watched a movie and played games. We got to spend the entire day together and it was SOO nice! I feel like I never get to see Josh and it isn't fair, so I always get excited when it's my turn. I love it! The whole day was great, I had a few responsibilities, but nothing major, I had time to do anything I wanted and we pretended like we could do anything we wanted, it was GREAT! I love days like that.

States & Sprinklers

You ever have those moments....you know the ones when you suddenly realize how uneducated you are and even though you thought you knew the stuff that mattered, and all of a sudden the stuff that never mattered does? Yep, I had one of those. Jamie sent me this real funny game. It has a map of the United States, and you just have to click and drag the names of the states to where they belong. So, I did this "special school" in elementary school, and I never even memorized the states. I knew I didn't know them all, and I knew I struggled with the midwest, but OH MAN! I had NO clue I was as clueless as I was. I seriously didn't even know where Minnesota was. I can't for the life of me remember which one is Wisconsin and which is Michigan. The real shocker though, was when I couldn't even find Montana, I really thought I knew the western states. Ouch! Anyway, if you're bored or want to find out how smart you really are, here's the link:
http://www.pibmug.com/files/map_test.swf

This morning as I was walking down the street to my office, the neighbors' sprinklers were on - not uncommon. The cool part was the birds that were just chillin' in the sprinklers. Yes, that's right, quail running through the sprinklers. They'll all get in a big group, and go in. Then they'd all fly out at the same time and scatter. That's cool and I don't care who you are. I love things like that.

In all it's been a good/exhausting week.

You win some you lose some

I have a new niece! My oldest brother Spencer and his wife Emily delivered their beautiful baby earlier this week and I'm SO excited for them. And excited for me. They named her Anna Kaye. I like it. I love the name Anna, but Emily said it was OK if we both had daughters named Anna - whew! Thank goodness. Anyway, that makes 3 kids for them and I'm happy for them. It's kindof a bummer that they live so far away, but someday I'm sure we'll get to see her. It's weird to have relatives you've never even seen before though - that's new for me. I guess I'd better get used to it. Anyway, here's a cute picture of my cute new niece.

The same day that Anna was born, grandpa Godfrey died. That's a really weird thing for me, it's weird what death does to you. It makes me think a lot. Josh and I went up to see him on Sunday, which was good, I'm glad we went. He was awake for a little while and we talked to him, I'm still reading his biography that uncle Kenneth wrote, and still enjoying it. It's funny to me to see him as a real live normal person. He had a great long life, and my mom says she's happy that it was so quick and relatively painless. So I guess that's good - it's still hard to lose someone though. When we saw him I was SHOCKED at how sick he looked. His pants were WAY too big for him and mom said he hadn't really eaten real food since memorial day. I've never seen him as old or sick, just as Grandpa. Since he's always been so capable, it was weird to see him need help for everything. But, he's in a better place now, which is good.

Last night me and Jamie attempted sewing. That's funny and I don't care who you are. We were going to sew some blankets, but we were practicing on the scraps first. So we spent like half an hour just threading the machine, and she has this real cool needle threader piece on her machine so you don't have to try to get the thread through the eye of the needle, it just does it for you. That's cool. We figured out how to use the cool stitches and make them cute and stuff, so that was a good discovery. After she practiced for a while, she let me practice, and I suck at sewing. That's what I learned. Wow, it should be pretty simple, straight lines and all, but it wasn't, I struggled. Somehow I got the thread stuck down below the foot/feeder plate thing, and it made a big fat knot under there. We couldn't get it out and wound up having to cut the fabric (thank goodness it was scrap material) and pulling it out the bottom. Yeah, that sucked. I'm pretty sure I'm cursed as far as sewing goes. Fortunately, Jamie is NOT cursed and she will have a VERY cute blanket someday. It has taken us a long time to get it ready for sewing, but I think it's ready now. So that's good. Yay for Jamie's blanket!

Josh came home from school last night all sorts of relaxed and happy, he's funny. He had his actually massage class last night, which means that he got a free massage, and he liked it. He said it about put him to sleep, which is always a good sign for the person doing the massage. Anyway, I think he likes school, and that's good. Someday I'll learn how to like it too - but now I'm still just sad that I don't get to spend much time with him. He's nice and understanding and supportive and all that, but it doesn't mean I see him more. But, at least we have weekends. Can't complain about that.

I'm not crazy.....I'm just a little unwell....

Man! What a weekend. On Friday I went home in an icky, sad, depressed, not good enough, don't wanna do anything, kind of mood. Not the greatest plan. Especially since we were heading to the Reilley house. I LOVE the Reilleys, they are wonderful and nice, but when I'm feeling icky and inadequate, it's not my first choice of places to go. They are all very healthy, open honest, talkative people. Usually everyone gets together and talked about what diet/workout plan they're on. So, I feel stupid, fat, and inadequate. My family doesn't talk about such things as bodies, health, fat, weight loss or anything like it, so it's a really awkward topic for me. But I am getting used to it. Jus tnot when I feel icky already. So, we went to the Reilley's because Megan graduated. (Yay Megan!) It was the biggest baddest barbeque of all time. Neighbors, family, friends, everyone that knows and loves that girl came. We played that golf toss game again, Josh kinda blew me off a little, and I tried to stay hidden as much as possible. The night turned out to be fine, but I just wasn't feelin' anything. You know those times that you just wanna be sad and alone and you don't have a good reason, but you just don't feel like it. Yeah, Friday was one of those nights. I went on a walk by myself at about 11 and didn't really announce my departure and I think Josh freaked out his mom when he told her he didn't know where I was. He called me and we went home, but I just couldn't handle being around everyone. I just needed a good walk. So I took one. Now I'm pretty sure his parents are all worried and think we were in a fight or somethin, it wasn't Josh, I just wasn't feelin' it. When we finally got home I took a bath and got in bed. Hoping that "sleeping on it" would make it all go away.

Saturday was a little better, but I couldn't shake the ickiness. I wasn't as bugged, but I still just felt heavy and hurt. I'm weird. Anyway, Saturday we had to go to this presentation about travel stuff to get our "free trip" and it was quite the adventure. Josh is all excited about it, he's funny. It's actually a decent deal, but it's expensive for us right now, and since we don't know anything about what our finances will be like in the next year or two, it didn't seem like the best plan to commit to right now. Then they offered us the "trial period" for 18 months or whatever. Anyway, we took that and now we have some serious vacationing to do. Josh really wanted to go somewhere fun for our anniversary, but I'm not sure what we'll come up with. He actually took the time off work - so I hope I can do the same. I'm a little excited to go somewhere with him. Anyway, I re-established my hatred for sales people. Blah and ew. That's all I have to say about that.

We found out that Josh's biological father is back in the hospital again. They were supposed to come over for a barbeque for his birthday on Saturday, but since he's in the hospital, we decided to push it back till he can come to his own birthday party. We invited Jamie & Cameron over instead. That was fun. We fed the missionaries, who are really nice, and played a little super-smash. Then we watched a movie and played settlers. I'm pretty sure nights like that are Josh's dream world. We had a really good time, and Cameron won at Settlers. Good for him.

After Stake Conference on Sunday, we went to Logan to visit my mom's dad. He's sick and getting sicker, and they really thought that he wouldn't make it through the night on Saturday, but he did and so we got to see him. It's surprising how hard it is to look at someone who has always been strong and smart and now he's so tiny, and weak. He looks so much like Grandma Godfrey when she died. He so thin, mom said he hasn't eaten anything in probably 2 weeks. He can sometimes get down a whole can of ensure, but that's about it. It's so sad to see someone be so helpless. I think everyone will be happy for him if he doesn't have to suffer very long, but it's still hard to watch him go. Becky, Linda, and Brenda showed up while we were there adn we all sang some hymns, which was fun/funny. It made me think of how hard it would be to see my own daddy like that. I know it's not the end, but it's still hard. Anyway, I was glad we went to see him. That was good for me.

Once we got home Josh was hungry again so we made fajitas and looked at all the places we could go on vacation. :) It was a grand adventure. Last night was really fun. I finally felt like I kicked the icky feeling I'd had all weekend and we could just relax and have some fun. We played 5 crowns, we hung out, talked, and had a great night! I LOVE nights like that! He fell asleep and I read until I was tired enough. We slept in this morning and here I am. I'm so thankful for Josh and how much fun we can have together. I love that kid. He's amazing and I'm lucky to be married to someone so perfect for me. :)

Exciting news is that this weekend I get a new niece (yay for Spence & Em) only she'll be in Washington, so maybe someday I'll get to go see her, but at the very least I'll see pictures cuz Emily is really good at things like that. We also get to go camping this weekend (I think) so I have plenty to look forward to. It'll be a good and busy week.

I shouldn't have complained about being busy...

Yep, that came RIGHT back to bite me in the butt. :) It's been a crazy week. Stuff going on pretty much every day, which is nice in a lot of ways. Seems like a lot of work lately - I think that's a good thing. Today Kim and I went to work with Teresa (she used to work with us) and we had a blast, only problem was that we were gone for 2 HOURS!!! So, I didn't really notice that we were gone that long until we got back, and I have tons to still do. I guess it'll have to wait. We had a good time, but I find myself bashing Gabe the more we talk. I really think he's a great guy, but I don't know that he's on my top 10 list of people I admire, you know? So, the more I talk to Kim, the more disappointed I am with Gabe, and that's probably a bad thing, but it's good that he's leaving. That will be good for all involved. We also keep talking about how David gets weirder and weirder. He's a funny man. He read some mystery crazy survival book and now he thinks he needs steel doors to his bedroom and bullet proof walls. He also wants to turn our storage room into a "secret hidden food storage room". He hides it with a bookshelf that has a special button and that way no one will come in and steal your food storage. I think it's funny because we're in Utah, and I think most people have food storage, and if they don't they aren't gonna steal it from him. Anyway, he's funny.

Josh has been in school all week and I've been doing a whole lot of working after work. I went to lunch with Jamie on Monday and this nice lady in the cafeteria that Jamie always talks to about 24 was saying that she's sad it's over. BUT, it's OK because she's now addicted to reading James Patterson books. So, the other night I went to Walmart for a couple of things and decided to get a James Patterson book. I trust people that Jamie trust, I think it'll be fun. Fortunately Jamie has been willing to hang out with me sometimes and I've been going to my institute class, both of which are good things.

Tuesday at institute we had some interesting topics. I was talking to Matt about the devil and if he's necessary to the plan. Turns out I don't think he is. Interesting stuff either way. Matt always puts and interesting perspective on things. We also talked about talking to your kids. Our teacher was saying that his wife is very blunt with his kids and he likes it. One of their kids had a stealing problem (young kid) and they were so scared because their kid was a cleptomaniac. So they'd go to their cousin's house and come home with new toys. Finally one time this little girl stole something at Walmart and the mom freaked out and said that she refused to have a clepto-daughter and marched her to the police station and made the policeman talk to her about stealing. He whipped out his handcuffs and told the little girl that he puts people who steal in jail. The girl never stole again. :) That's a funny story. Anyway, it started this whole discussion about talking to your kids and how honest to be with them. It's an interesting topic for sure. Matt is all for brutal honesty at a young age and thinks he won't ever tell them that Santa Clause is real. He doesn't want to ever lie to his kids, which I think is a good point - but a little extreme. I still can't decide how I feel about. Actually I know how I feel about it now, but I know I'd change my mind in the middle of the situation. I just hope that I can do what is right and that it will be best for me and my kids. That's all. Crazy though, huh?

Anyway, things here are pretty much the same old same old. Josh said we won a free trip, but it's the kind you have to listen to a presentation to get I think. We'll see if we actually get it. I like free stuff. Maybe we'll do something fun for our anniversary. I sure hope so.

Bolo-toss-ladder game

Yesterday we went to Josh's parents house to have dinner cuz they were going to have a big fat bbq and stuff. The bbq part was cancelled and we had yummy crock pot food instead, BUT while we were there, we had some fun times.


Josh's dad built this game thing, and it looks like this. The ladder part of it is PVC pipe, and the hanging things are 2 golf balls on the ends of a rope/string that is about a foot long. You have 2 of the stand things, and you put them far apart from each other, then you take turns throwing the rope/golf balls at the stand. You get 3 points if you make 'em stick to the top rung, 2 for the middle, & 1 for the bottom rung. Turns out it's really hard. The worst part is that you have to get EXACTLY 21 points. If you go over, you start back at 11 points. It's crazy. Anyway, we played that for a long time, and we hung out and ate REAL good food.



While we were all sitting around and talking, Josh's aunt (who is only 2 years older than Josh) asked when we were gonna finally have kids. So, there I am, with his 2 aunts, and his mom, and he's outside so he can't defend me! Yep, that was fun. :) I told them we weren't sure yet, but that we're kinda thinking about it. I remembered how great of a gramma his mom is going to be. She was so cute with the other kids there, and she really can't wait to have grandkids. She's cute. I made the mistake of saying that I think we want to wait until Josh is done with school, and she said that she has a quote about how if you put your family on hold for school you'll get cursed and have problems later in life. We got a little lectured, but nothing I can't handle, cuz I'm tough. :)



Dad-Reilley was talking about this really big pig thing that some little kid killed. And I wasn't quite appreciating the size of the thing. They said it was 12 feet tall on it's side. It was like 9'4" from nose to tail and it weighed like 1,094 pounds. I still wasn't properly appreciating the size of the thing, so Josh's dad made me go upstairs and look at the picture.

So, this 11 year old kid shot this thing with a pistol. That's pretty sick if you ask me. But holy cow! Look at the size of that thing! Like he could have missed, there's no way that thing could run or hide! :) I mean, I could have shot that..... how hard can it be? Here's the article, I like th part where they think they're gonna turn the thing into a LOT of sausage. Can you imagine/ that's gross. Anyway, here's a link to the story, in case you're bored. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8PBKB5G0&show_article=1&image=large

Anyway, I guess it's back to a normal week. I found out that the mormons will monopolize my week, so I probably won't get too bored without Josh! Yay for that! :)

Rainy Days & Weekends...

OK, I know the song is "rainy days and mondays always get me down" but in real life, I like rainy days and weekends. Last night was long and boring and I was TERRIBLY disappointed with the stupid TV shows. But, I survived, Josh came home, and we had a good time. He doesn't normally have school on Friday nights, but he had to make up for the Monday holiday and I was lonely. :)

Today however, has been awesome! I woke up at the same time as Josh, which is fun and happens very rarely. I challenged him to a rousing game of Super Smash Brothers, in which I kicked his trash. :) I still like that he lets me win a little, it's more fun that way cuz otherwise I die too soon. We hung out, made breakfast (waffles for me, pancakes for him) and started to get ready. Josh mowed the lawn, I cleaned a little, and then I cut his hair. I still need some practice, but I must say I'm getting pretty good. Then we had this brilliant idea about a bbq and how we should invite our families to see if they would come play (I couldn't get in touch with Jamie & Cameron and we don't really like/know anyone else. Sad, but true.) We called my family and they were in. So, we went shopping, redboxing, and prepared for the feast. That was some GOOD GRUB!!! My family played badminton, which is fun and funny. You should see Nate swingin' both arms around with "whacker sticks" flailing. That'll make you laugh. My mom even said she liked my garden and she's proud of me, which is always fun for me. I like it when she's impressed, it makes me feel good.

Ryann Elise (Katy's baby girl) is SOO funny! She just found her voice box and she loves to growl. Katy is funny because she narrates what the baby is saying and here's how it goes:

Gramma: "Ryann, look at me" (all baby voice)

Ryann (played by Katy): "Gramma, I am a wild thing! I never do what I'm told"

Ryann (played by Ryann): "arghghgh garble garble garble raaahhhhrrrrr!"

Yep, she is one cute kid. :) This is a picture of Gramma growling at her. :)

Earlier in the week I went to lunch with Jamie, cuz that's what I do best. And I saw the PRETTIEST flowers on temple square. I have no clue what they're called, but check out the pattern on their insides! They were beautiful and there were tons of them. Anyway, I thought it was cool and I liked it.

Not bored

Well, I was so worried about being bored during Josh's school this week, that I way over-planned myself and I am DEFINITELY NOT bored! :)

Work has been crazy because on Wednesday morning Kim's mother-in-law died. She was really sick for a long time, and they knew she would, but it's still sad and hard for her. So, I've been trying to fill in for her at work, and that's a hard thing to do. So, I've been working later and more and trying to get stuff like that taken care of.

Wednesday I went to Sweet Tomato with Sarah (my oldest sister) and trained to work for her. She has her own company doing medical billing out of her house, and now she just doesn't have the time to do everything so she needed some help and I needed a hobby. She's funny. Anyway, that went really well actually. I'm really excited to start doing things and working for her, I think it will be a good thing and I'm excited to learn more! Plus, if she ever gets sick of doing it (like when she graduates and becomes a therapist) she could hand me her business and I could do it from home when I have kids. So, maybe that would be good. I'm excited either way.

Last night I went to this really great place called Pei Wei. It's owned by the same people as P.F. Chang and has the same menu, only it's like fast food and cheaper and quicker. It was seriously SO good. I even had lettuce wraps, which I've only ever heard about until last night. That is some really good grub. We had a good time, Cameron was doing a banquet and Josh was at school so it was just Me & Jamie, which I feel like we haven't done in a long time and I liked it. :) It was a great refreshment after the long work day.

David yelled at me yesterday, he's mean sometimes. I seriously felt like I was just going to break down and cry every time I saw him. I still feel the same way today a little bit, and I feel dumb crying at work. Ick, what a day. There were some ads that were supposed to go out int he Daily Herald 2 weeks ago, and we JUST found out that they didn't go out at all - he was REALLY mad about it and I felt like he was blaming me, but I had nothing to do with it! I get so frustrated when I have to be accountable for other peoples' jobs, it's not fair that I'm supposed to be the most grown-up and capable person in this group when I'm the one with no experience and no DESIRE to be the grown up. Ew. Hopefully today will be better.

Creation or Evolution?

OK I am taking the coolest class on the planet. It's Pearl of Great Price and Brother Douglas and Brother Wilcox team teach it, which is pretty rad. Last night we were talking about the creation and evolution and the church's stand and all that. We talked about Christ creating other worlds and him being the savior for other worlds. I had a couple of interesting thoughts and realizations.

1. If Christ (under the direction of Heavenly Father) created other (not necessarily all, but some other) worlds and

2. Christ was the Savior for other worlds.

Was he born, lived on, and died on these other worlds? We talked a little bit about how his atonement is infinite, and that should mean there would only need to be ONE atonement. But, if that's the case, did he atone for people on other worlds without living among them first? Part of what makes the atonement so personal (for me) is that he lived here, he understands, he experienced everything that I have. If other worlds have different laws, would he then have to go to those worlds to have the experiences associated with them? And how important is the relationship between the "creator" and "savior" what really is one without the other. Would someone be willing to make that kind of sacrifice for something that was not theirs in the same way that someone is yours when you create it. I was thinking of how much more I care about the things that are mine, the things I make, care for, and understand. Just like parents love their own kids in a different way than they love other people's kids. It would seem that the amount of love shown by the atonement, would have to be achieved through creation.

We also talked about why a creation was necessary.

One person talked about how he couldn't have "tested us" in his backyard because it would have been too painful - they then referenced a general authority as saying that during the crucifixion Heavenly Father turned his head away in the farthest corner of the universe because it was so painful. The person quoting it in class said it was in Jesus the Christ, then my mom said it was Melvin J. Ballard in a talk about a dream he had. So, if anyone knows where I can find that, I wanna read the rest of that story.

Another person pointed out that it is against God's perfect nature to have imperfection in his "backyard" so to speak. If we were going to make mistakes, we needed to do it away from him. It thought of how we put muddy kids outside, and make them play in playpens. It's funny to think of our Heavenly Father sitting in the "home teaching room" of his house and saying "don't bring those muddy feet in my clean room! If you're gonna make a mess, do it outside!" (Not in an impatient way, of course, but in a kind loving, respectful way.)

Someone else pointed out that the veil is important and I kept thinking that we very well could be in his back yard for all we know. We certainly feel his presence with us at times, and there's no good reason that this earth isn't right next door so to speak. We just don't see it. And that's the whole point. The veil is the important part of that.

Another good thing I learned was that general authorities don't always agree. We read about how Talmage and Joseph Feilding Smith had VERY differing views of evolution and they made it very clear that they weren't on the same page. And it turns out that they're both still really good people. That was a good click moment for me. Not all people who are "good and righteous" agree on everything. It's OK that we disagree and have different perspective.

My teacher also quoted something that I've heard before about "when are the words of our leaders counted as scripture" and how not everything a GA or even the prophet says is hard doctrine or scripture. It's only when they've been moved upon by the spirit to say what they are saying. I can't remember where that came from, so if you know about that one too, I'd love to know that source - my mom didn't know what I was talking about (which shocked me!) so I'd love to show it to her.

Most of all I'm glad that I get to go to class and to learn more. I'm glad to live in a place where that's so easy. Yay for Utah!

vacation? or not!

So much for vacation, that's all I have to say. I feel a little jipped, and it's my own fault, which is the worst part!

On Friday I was SOO excited and ready to go because Josh didn't have school (yay!) and we had 3 whole DAYS to be together, which is SOOO exciting! So, I planned to leave work at like 3:30 - 4:00 at the latest, so much for that. I was here until 6:30. Josh called just before 4:00 and told me he had run out of gas, which kinda makes me laugh, and could I come get him, I told him I could leave in half an hour (too much to do, too little time) and he said not to bother then cuz he wasn't that far from home and he'd just walk. I was still trying to get out of here as soon as possible, but that didn't happen until 6:00. One thing after another, EVERYTHING had to be done before the long weekend, stress, stress stress. I finally left and then still had to go the bank, but I had to go to the wrong one because it was so late, and that took FOREVER! I finally made it home and Josh was tired and bored and didn't really care what we did. But, neither of us felt like packing up and camping, so we didn't.

Saturday we slept in, played ninentdo (I figured out how to use all of Yoshi's powers and TOTALLY beat Josh. Secretly I think he let me, but he didn't say he did and I'm just proud I beat him.) and went to see a movie. Shrek was pretty funny, but we REALLY wanted to see Pirates, so we bought our tickets early and at Jordan Commons (they should give me free tickets for all the advertising I do for them) they have this new thing where you can reserve your seats so you don't have to get there 10 years early to get seats. I really think that is on my list of top 10 inventions of all time. :) So, we saw Pirates Monday morning (I highly recommend re-watching the 2nd one immediately before the 3rd, cuz I was TOTALLY lost through the whole thing. It was still cool though), Shrek Saturday afternoon, and didn't do much else. It was just a long weekend and we're both still tired and Josh is sick. So yay for vacation, right? Or something like that.

One fun thing was that we went to my parents' ward. Someone called Josh and asked if he would teach Sunday School and we still didn't know what we were going to do, so he said we wouldnt' be here, so we had to find another ward to go to so we wouldn't be lying. (sinful!) :) it's always fun to hang out with my parents. LOL. We even went on a walk, and Randy made no-bake cookies. Mmmm.....cookies...... I ate a LOT of BAD things this weekend, but oh man! I enjoyed it!!!

We also went to Ikea with Jamie & Cameron, that was fun. They have TONS of stuff in that store! I'm pretty sure I wanted to buy most of things we saw, and Josh REALLY was ready to go home the whole time. I'm still learning that there are some things I shouldn't make him come do with me i.e. scrapbook stuff, furniture, fabric, etc. I still had fun, but I felt a little guilty for making him go. I probably won't do that again and just go with Jamie cuz it's more fun that way. :)

All in all it was a good break from life, but I just didn't feel like we did anything that great, you know? I hate it when stuff like that happens. And now this week is gonna be an interesting one...

It has begun

It's Wednesday, that means 3 days into this massage school thing. I was really surprised at how lonely I got without him here. Monday he didn't even get home until 11 at night, which is later than we usually go to bed, so I was really feeling it. You know? I sat and watched tv, did laundry, did pilates, made dinner, did dishes, and then still had 2 hours to kill. Until about 9:30 I was all excited about him coming home and couldn't wait to see him, then I just kept getting sadder and sadder until he got home. I just missed him. And I felt left out. Like he gets to do this big, exciting, adventurous thing and I'm at home watching "The Bachelor" and wishing he was here to tell me to quit watching such stupid TV shows and play super-smash brothers with him. :) It's funny the things you miss. I just love him, that's all. Last night was better, and I expect tonight to be better too. I think eventually I'll get good at being alone, but for now I just don't like the silence, boredom, and lonliness.

Last night I started my Institute class, which I am really exccited about! Brother Wilcox teaches a Pearl of Great Price class on Tuesday nights, which willl be rad! I haven't studied the Pearl of Great Price since before I got married, so I'm excited to re-learn it. The best part was that last night Matt Harvey stuck his head in the class. He was on student council at the BC with me and I love that man to death, I was SOOO excited to see him! I made him stay for class, and we talked through class and after class. He really is one of my favorite people and I was glad to see him there, he's a good guy.

Work has been nuts lately and today it all kindof climaxed for me and Kim. We both have SOO much to do, and I think she's going to fire Kirby because he can't do what she needs him to, and I'm still not sure what my position will be in the company, but we might be back to putting me in Accounting. I'm not sure exactly what will happen, or even what I want to happen, but I am excited for whatever it is. I know it'll be good no matter what. This is my putting my job on my faith shelf. :) Josh's sister, Misty, taught me that phrase and I LOVE IT! It seems like I run inito plenty of things that I just need to put on my faith shelf, and trust that it willl work out, so I'm glad that my shelf now has a name. LOL

Good weekend

So this weekend was...well pretty dang good. Earlier in the week Jamie & Cameron had asked us if we wanted to go hiking in Marysville (middle of nowhere) Utah, and we politely declined because we wanted to go camping again before Josh starts massage school (Monday). So, all week we had kinda planned on going camping on Friday night. On Friday at work I was talking to Katy (my older sister) who was bored at the time, so I told her she should come with us. She kinda said she might want to, but she wasn't sure cuz her husband had to work Saturday morning, etc. etc. etc. Anyway, we decided we'd go camping in AF canyon in case they wanted to come with us. So, I had a CRAZY day at work and didn't leave until a little after 4:00, when I had intended to leave at 3:30. So, it was busy and crazy at work, but I finally made it home and Josh was only a little mad at me for being so late. On our way we went to Big 5 to get paintballs for his blow gun, and they didn't have any. I now officially am NOT in love with Big 5. Instead we stopped at Cabella's on our way, and I now AM officially in love with Cabella's. That is a REALLY cool shooting/camping/outside store. We got paintballs and a couple of other things and headed up the mountain. We went to a campsite, which was full, and decided to camp in a "picnic area" which you're not supposed to do apparently. The sherriff told us so. Mom & Dad & Kate & Rand all came up, bearing guitars, we ate banana boats, sang around the campfire and had a grand ol' time. It was actually really fun. Josh hasn't ever been camping with Fugals, and he really enjoyed the singing etc. He fell asleep in my lap while we sang, and he told me that he likes being sung to sleep, that was kinda fun. He's cute. In the morning the park ranger cam and told us it was illegal to be there, and then we made breakfast (we're good at cooking during camping). And went on a little tiny hike, only it was up a really steep hill and I'm a pansy, so I made us come down a long time before Josh would have liked too.

Anyway, we got home, planted our garden (yes including grape tomatos Emily!) and cleaned up and I decided to get my hair cut. It was long and I needed to get it cut. So, I went to the place I usually go to, they're the ones that made me BLONDE when I wanted highlights, you'd think I'd learn.... I told the lady it was too long and I wanted the same style, layers & junk just shorter, about at my shoulders. Well, I came home and here I am!

Wow huh! They cut it all off, pretty scary if you ask me. Josh doesn't like it, but he's trying to be nice and not tell me I have ugly hair. Fortunately it will grow. :) After the haircut, we went to see Spiderman, which was a blast! That is a great flick, in case you were wondering. Totally work the money to see it on the big screen, I LOVED it. The rest of the weekend we've just been chilllin', but it's been really fun. Hangin' out, being outside, sleeping in, I LOVE weekends like this!

May 2007

GOOD times with Mat Kearney, even if I do look like the devil a little bit. Why didn't he smile? Wasn't he happy to meet me? Do you think if I tag him he'll be my friend on facebook?

Stranger Danger

Creepiest thing happened yesterday:
Josh and I were in our room at about 7:00 at night, we have this really bad habit of leaving our back door open, with just the screen door keeping out the scary strangers in our neighborhood (if you weren't already aware we live in a neighborhood full of really old nice mormons. :) We don't worry about locking the doors when we're at home.). I hear the creek of the screen door and sit up in bed IMMEDIATELY. I scramble and am clearly shocked, Josh looks at me like I'm crazy "what's wro-" "SHHHH" I interrupt him and listen intently. I hear rummaging in my kitchen, and rush to slam my bedroom doors shut. Josh listens closer and then we hear the creek of the back door again. We both get out there as quickly as possible and see NOBODY. There was no-one outside. Personally, I think it was mummies, but you're all welcome to form your own opinion.

While we were outside looking for the stranger in my house, I remembered that I needed to get my purse out of my car (the stranger didn't steal that, OR my dirty dishes!) when I did I remembered that my car has REEKED the last couple of days. I'm not talking about a "hot day" kind of odor, I'm talking about a "dirty diaper under the seat for 3 days in the hot sun in a black car" kind of odor. It's smelled increasingly yucky since 2 days ago, and I have searched my car high and low for whatever it is that's causing the stench. I can't find anything. I made Josh stick his head in my car and he almost gagged, then began the search. He found nothing then asked me to pop the trunk. Wow! In my trunk was a bad of formerly frozen chicken breasts from Costco that has been there for 3 DAYS! That's right, 3 long disgusting, record-breakingly HOT days. I thought he grabbed everything out of the trunk when he went, he thought I did, and there it sat. If you're wondering what that smells like, feel free to stick your nose in my dumpster. GROSS!!! So, now that we've found the culprit, scrubbed the trunk carpet and febreezed my brains out, I'm hoping to enter a decent smelling car this evening when I leave work. Sick. That's all I can say.

On the plus side of yesterday, we got to see Mat Kearney! Talk about good times, he was really cool and chill and fun. I liked him for sure. However, when we went to DI to find camping pots/pans they had NOT 1 SINGLE frying pan or pot for boiling water. Not even 1. That sucks huh?

So, 3 bad experiences 1 good, I consider the day a success.

Kabobs

Don't you worry we learned a few things in our shish kabob research.
1. That really is how you spell shish kabobs! Who knew? (other than google of course, which is the source of most knowledge)
2. There are like a million recipes for shish kabobs out there. I never would have thought it was a recipe, just seems a little odd to me.
3. ooohhh.....those are SOOOOOO good!
Yes that's right, Jamie brough stuff over, we kabob'd all night long, well only for a while actually, Then, after Jamie & Cam went home Josh & I did laundry, filing, cleaned our house, and it felt so good to get that stuff done! I had NO dishes in the sink, and no piles of bills to pay and it was a beautiful thing. We watched a movie & ate asparagas (I forgot how much I like that) and had a mellow, calm, relaxing evening. I love it when that happens.

So, not only did I have a great day yesterday, but I woke up on time and am well on my way to having a great day today. :) I love my life.

PS I get to go to Mat Kearney too! Cameron/Josh won tickets so we get to go! Yay for us!

"I'm a mormon....yes I am...."

You can tell I'm mormon because last night I got home from work and made strawberry jam. Yes, that's right, my husband and I made strawberry jam ALL by ourselves! Without even having our mom's help us. We rock. I had already told my husband that I wanted to, and when I got home he was washing and cutting up all the strawberries, I'm still so whooped over him and I am amazed at how much he does for me. I really don't know what I'd do without him. ANYWAY, he's cutting up strawberries so I start measuring and mashing. If you've never mashed up strawberries with a plastic potato masher, you should do it just because you'll appreciate all the people who do it on a regular basis. Whew, hard work! So, we mashed up a bunch and made 2 batches of homemade freezer jam! Yay! PLUS since I have a bosch, I could make fresh bread to put under it! That is truly exciting to me.

Last night we also watched The Mummy, wow, that was an experience. I have to admit I kindof enjoyed it, even if it was incredibly cheesy. :) Yep, me and my husband watch dumb cheesy movies together. That's because we're cool.

Today is going to be the shish kabob debut, at least I think/hope so. Yay for shish kabobs! Turns out they probably aren't that bad for you, which is encouraging to me, and I can probably eat most of the ingredients on them. That's pretty exciting. So yay for barbeque tonight!

Fresh fruits & veggies

OK, I've officially gotten out of control. I haven't been able to stop gaining weight since Josh & I got married, except for like 2 weeks when I ate NOTHING but fruits & veggies & protein. So I guess that's what I have to do. So, I decided on Sunday that I would start doing that on Monday. I made it through my first day! (Thanks to the COB cafeteria and their AMAZING salad bar - thanks for the hookup Jamie.) So now we're on day 2. Josh went grocery shopping with me last night because he loves me and we got all kinds of good tasting food. So, I won't starve to death. Josh is REALLY helpful in this endeavor because I have like 0 self-control and I like food. But he is very helpful and supportive and nice and not a nazi or a mean-guy. Anyway, he got all sad and asked "what about our barbeque's?" And he was not happy when I told him that I can't eat hamburgers, cuz they're not fresh fruits or vegetables. He got all sad and said "they're protein!" He's so cute. I love my husband.

Anyway, I think we're going to have to make shish kabobs (I don't know how to spell that word, so if anyone knows, I'll correct it. :)). Only I asked Jamie and all she could think of to put on them was pineapple and chicken, and that's all I could think of too - so we don't know any ingredients. So, maybe we'll just have pineapple chicken shish kabobs. :) We're cool.

This morning I made a smoothie goodness creation with my bosch (of course) and the blender leaked a little bit out of the bottom, that made me sad, I wonder if it has problems or if I have problems. I'll have to check with my mom on that one. Anyway, yay for yummy smoothie goodness! That was good grub!!! So, between that and all the other good stuff we got last night, I should be a happy girl, and maybe just maybe my clothes will fit again! (and the peasants rejoiced).

Campin'

Yep, we went camping. That's some seriously good times. Josh and I had to HURRY to get there, but he got home before I did (I'm so glad he's so helpful) and started putting things together and getting us ready to go. I got home, and we made quick hobo dinners and packed up and left.

We found: waterslides; pokin' sticks; jamie-the-fire-nazi; a fridge; and a racoon. That's some seriously good camping if you ask me.

Cameron found these "waterslides" and I was convinced that when the water is higher, we'll need to slide through them.

THEN, Cam found these logs that he thought we should "stick race" through the "waterslides", so even though they were stuck, he and Josh tried to get them to float and they finally did.

I think the most important discovery we made on this trip was simply that Jamie is smokey-the-bear in disguise. She is the ultimate fire-nazi and made SURE that we didn't burn down the whole world. LOL. She wouldn't let us leave until we were 100% positive that the campfire had been extinguished, and she was VERY concerned when a piece of cardboard we had burned flew off as burning ember. Cameron quickly pointed out that "the chances of that lighting a tree on fire are like 2 to 1" which didn't bring her any comfort. There were no embers when we left, and our campfire was safely extinguished. See?

Cameron also found a "fridge" which really means he made a circle of rocks in the river and put drinks in there to make them cold. It worked.

After we made banana boats (thank you Joshua) we were sitting around the campfire, just chillin' waiting for it to burn down and we heard something behind us, it was a raccoon and I was scared of it and wouldn't walk around without an escort for the rest of the night. I'm a pansy, what can I say? :) This thing was HUGE! Seriously! And last week Kim (my boss) was telling me about one time when her husband had to kill a raccoon and they told them to put it in a cage and drown it in a garbage can and it was mean and scary, so that's why I was scared, otherwise I would've thought it was cute.

Apart from all that, Josh and Cam brought their blow guns and we spit paintballs everywhere and I painted the log - we should have taken a picture of that, maybe Jamie did. We also shot Cam's airsoft guns, which was pretty cool. Overall, it was a very good vacation. I like those.

Oh yeah! I forgot the most important part! Josh helped me sleep, I haven't had a good night's sleep camping in like eternity, but he taught me how to do it right and I slept SOOOO good, until the car alarm went off because the raccoon came back, but I seriously slept very well. *sigh* I love my husband. :)