Rees' Pieces

Fur! What is it good for?!?

2012-02-23T17:50:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I feel like its good for absolutely NOTHING!

Ok I love my animals, especially my Wilson baby, considering he has been my baby for the past 7 1/2 years that we've had him.

Lately however his hair, along with the cat hair has been DRIVING me bonkers! I'll sweep or vacuum it up one day, I swear I get all those dang animal hair tumble weeds that I can find! Yet the very next day I look in the corner and there is another one just sitting there like it just appeared out of nowhere and now it's staring me down.. Almost like I had never swept at all...

Today I had enough, I just couldn't stand it anymore.....

Poor Wilson and his shaggy self were done shedding his long long hair all over my house. The bed, the couch, the floor etc..

So, so long my poor shaggy pooch.. Your shaggy self shall be only slightly missed..

THANK GOODNESS FOR DOG HAIR CLIPPERS!!!

HA HA HA had you going didn't I!?!? Like I could ever get rid of my Wilson baby!

He looks SO much better now that he has a new hair cut! I don't remember the last time I was able to give him one, I'm pretty sure it was at least last summer. The last time I was able to trim give him a bath was a few weeks before I had Emmaline. I just haven't had time since I had her. Thankfully Steve gave him his bath today!

Now the next form of Wilson business .. dealing with his horrible nails. If you've ever had a dog and had to clip their nails you might understand. Especially if that dog thinks you are trying to chop off his paw instead if just clipping his nails. If the nail clippers are something to bite, growl and snap at, then yes I'd say you understand . Or if it takes partially sedating the dog, one person giving him treats, one person clipping the nails and two people holding him down , then I'd say you understand exactly what I'm talking about!

Anyone want to join us in a nail clipping party?

**The long haired picture of Wilson is a few years old but its the only one I can find where it shows how long his hair was before being cut today.**

So long Facebook

2012-02-23T08:03:00.001-07:00

I will soon be discontinuing Facebook, for my own personal reasons. I will be keeping in contact with family members and friends mostly the good ol' fashion way via phone/text/e-mail, this blog and possibly good ol' snail mail.
I know I've mentioned not continuing FB in the past and never followed through, this however is the real deal. So if you'd like to keep in contact please do, I still love my family and friends but I no longer feel like being a part of Facebook.

This blog will currently soon be an invite only blog, so if you find yourself coming to the blog to see pictures of Emmaline (because lets face it, she's cuter than Steve or myself) and can't view it please just ask for an invite and I'll most likely be happy to send you one. :)

Wishing you all well! -Karen

Happy birthday to my hubby!

2012-01-08T23:45:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to throw a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my hubby on here! We had a great day just hanging out together at home. I made him nuetella French toast w/bacon for breakfast then he requested chicken wild rice casserole for dinner and strawberry cake.

Friday, Emmaline turned a month old, no longer a newborn. Time sure does fly!

I'm so grateful to have them both in my life!

Emmaline Josie Rees

2012-01-03T00:42:00.001-07:00

December 6, 2011

6 lbs 14 oz.

20 inches

8:50am

December 6th will always be a special day in my ( our ) life. At 8:50am Steve and I finally got to greet the little girl we had been waiting 9 plus months to meet. As I sit here typing this Emmaline is now almost a month old, she is currently sleeping in my lap, I believe she is going through a growth spurt as she wants to eat much more frequently than normal.

I woke up on the 4th of December at 4:23am to my water having broken, laying there thinking what a coincidence that it was 4 in the morning, seeing as how I found out I was pregnant at 4am in the morning in March. Then of course you add the constantly getting up around 4am for the past 3 years for work, I just found it kinda ironic. After waking Steve (who asked if I was sure it had broken.... yep I was sure) and telling him to run and get towels, finishing some last minute packing, giving my mom instructions for the pets and directions to the hospital we were off! Finally made it to the hospital and was admitted around 7 am.. After making it to 8 centimeters at 3-4am the following day, going through countless nurses and pain ( I wasn't allowed to walk after 12 noon the previous day so I couldn't make things progress any quicker), I broke down and got an epidural. Not only was I in pain, but I couldn't see Steve cry for me anymore ( or my mom who had come by the night before ). My doctor finally said (after being at 10 cm around 6am) and it was then 8:45 that I had been pushing long enough and the baby needed to come out.. So my choices were the vacuum or a c section ( which I really didn't want). So we went with the vacuum, and thankfully five minutes later she was out! The only part of my entire birth plan I felt we were really able to follow was me holding her skin to skin for an hour afterwards.

We stayed in the hospital until Friday due to her jaundice and some heart issues I was having. We were so freaking happy to go home!

I can't imagine anything else in my life I'd want to do than be her mother, being here to raise and take care of her. I love her so much, just can't believe she is finally here.

Steve is such a wonderful father, I knew he would be, I love watching him hold her, seeing him smile at her in his arms. I'm so grateful for the love and support he gave me during labor, it meant and still means the world to me.

Emmaline has the best grandparents, they love her dearly and are so happy to have a new grandbaby!
We are so grateful for all the support , excitement & love they've given us (and her).

Grandpa & Grandma Dysart

Grandpa Rees

Grandma Rees

I'm really grateful for my Mom and the fact that she was able to be here to help out that first week, plus being able to spend time with her before Emmaline came.

Grandma D

Now as Emmaline is nearing a month old I must say she has been the best Christmas present I could have ever asked for. She has finally started gaining weight, she is just past 7#'s, is beginning to stay awake longer, she is such a beautiful little girl if I must say so myself.

Emmaline & Wilson

Time is passing by quickly.....

2011-09-18T16:27:00.000-06:00

This month has flown by, there are only 12 days left until October hits.

The 10th of this month, (Steve's bro)Trent & Jenniffer were married, yay! Congrats to both of them!

Trent & Jenniffer

Mom & Dad Rees

Cheryl & I

Jason, Keagen and Cheryl

Myself & Natalie

Miss Natalie

Steve & I

The Wedding Cake!

I finally hit the third trimester and the past half week good ol' nausea has reared it's ugly little head.. It feels a little different, instead of not being all that hungry like the first trimester I'm still hungry.. Afterwards the nausea hits. I know things are really starting to crowd together now in my stomach, sometimes I think I can feel it. lol

Me at 29 Weeks!

I started week 29 yesterday, the baby is moving around a lot more frequently, which is really neat, while at the same time it's just kind of weird. I feel kind of selfish though, like this is my time to spend or have alone with it and I don't have to share. Steve has felt the baby move once or twice now, and he's seen it kick or hick up when my stomach moves. lol He's pretty excited, a bit nervous, I know he will do fine when it gets here. Yes I have not revealed the gender yet, if you couldn't tell... muahahaha Anything to drive everyone up the wall! :) We still need to paint the nursery, put together the crib, find a dresser and I'm sure many more things than I can think of at the moment!

This Wednesday we start Bradley classes! I am excited to start the classes, however, Steve and I really hate group introductions but we'll get over it! At least it's not a big group/class. :)

Camping Tonys Grove

2011-07-31T15:43:00.000-06:00

Our first camping trip this year included, mosquitoes, mosquitoes and.. did I mention LOTS of mosquitoes!?!?!?

We were planning on camping at the Sunrise campground closer to Bear Lake, however, it was full.. So back down the mountain we went.. The first site we came to was very marshy, no shade... I wasn't thrilled. We asked the camp host about Tony's Grove, if there was anything available 7 miles up the mountain.. He said he wasn't sure if there were any spots left up there. We decided to risk it!

On the plus side we found a spot at Tony's, and we had NICE shade!! yay for shade! The only downsides were the mosquitoes, and the bathroom..... That bathroom was so nasty! You'd think the camp host, (who actually ended up being the host from the lower campsite) would have cleaned it after he came up on Friday.... I did have high hopes he would... nope never!! Saturday I eventually ended up waiting to use the bathroom until we could make it to somewhere a little bit more clean, I couldn't go back in that bathroom again!

I ended up waking up on Thursday night/Friday morning to a coyote howling, at first it was just apart of a dream... Then it became more of a reality when it finally woke me up. First time I've ever heard something like that while camping. It was kinda neat/creepy at the same time.

We, Steve, Wendi and I, ended up going to Bear Lake on Friday, stopped at some of the little shops.. Wendi and I got our Christmas ornaments (kind of a Rees family tradition I think when we go anywhere is to find a Christmas ornament.. I think it's fun). Stopped and got some yummy raspberry shakes in town, would have loved to go swimming but (a) I didn't have a suit and (b) not sure where we would have gone.. We did end up going back up the road and took a small hike, not sure of the name of the trail... Wendi started having problems with her water pack, and ended up getting water all over her back from it leaking. Thankfully the problem was figured out and there was no more leakage! :) There was an abundant amount of mosquitoes on this hike.... If it hadn't been for those stupid bugs it would have been a pretty decent hike. :) lol

We weren't able to bring poor Wilson with this time, however, Miss Kiya (Wendi's dog) came to add some furry company to the group. She decided at one point that being under the table while dinner was cooking, and licking the container dinner (yummy creamy chicken wild rice soup) was brought in was a good idea.

Mr. Hot Stuff /aka King of the wood, gathered lots of firewood from broken branches/fallen trees..

We ended up having a blazing fire later on that evening, Wendi and I kept on having to move our chairs back, as Steve kept on adding more firewood.. At one point I got singed by an ember, went through my fleece and my t-shirt! So not happy about that!

Saturday we ended up going to Ryan & Taylor's for a Pioneer Day BBQ/fireworks and to spend some time with Milo before he left again for Oregon. *Unfortunately I forgot my camera*

We had a pretty good time, and really miss my four day weekend.. I think I need another one just to recuperate from the last...

On the plus side having the weeks/days pass quickly only brings December closer. We can't wait to meet our Baby!

Primary Lesson 25

2011-07-10T13:59:00.000-06:00

So this may not interest many or any of you.

I help teach the sunbeams in primary, every other week I get to give the lesson. This week's lesson was #25 "I love my whole family".

While trying to give the lesson to the kids (we usually have between 4 and 8) it's extremely hard to keep their attention. :) lol So during the end of my lessons I try bringing something they can color that pertains to the lesson.

This week it was a tree with a song on the paper and their name written below and the phrase Family Tree. I brought colored paper, and scissors with different edges to cut out leaves, then a marker to write Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle, Aunt, Cousins, Dad, Mom and the childs name. I think the trees turned out pretty cute, however, next time I think I'd just cut the leaves out before hand. I really couldn't figure out how I wanted to do the leaves until this morning.

Not only did I have to find my scrapbooking paper since I haven't used it in a few years, but I also had to uninstall the printing program on our laptop and re-install it, print out all of the pictures, write my lesson down, PLUS get ready to go in an hour and a half time period.. lol It all worked out and I made it! Note to self, next time be more prepared!

Baby 15 Week Appointment

2011-06-16T16:29:00.000-06:00

The Dr thinks he know's what it is, but he could be wrong, we'll know for sure July 13th! (hopefully it won't change) lol

Ogden River Parkway Trail

2011-06-05T20:38:00.000-06:00

Since it was such a nice day out today Steve and I decided to take Wilson on a walk on the ORPT, we invited Cheryl, Jason & Keagen to come with us. The Ogden river is flooded, it's always amazing to see how swiftly the water moves and how much the water expands past the shoreline during floods.

OOOOooooook so the video is kind of.. well no the video IS sideways.. OH well. :)

The Babies Pictures

2011-05-21T16:26:00.001-06:00

Here the baby is at 7 1/2 weeks and 11 1/2 weeks the second photo is all messed up because someone didn't put the paper in the ultrasound printer right. At the same time it is one of the best pictures of the baby so I'll just have to use it. :)

The Birds and the Bees and the Flowers and the Trees the Moon up above and the thing called Love

2011-05-20T17:48:00.001-06:00

If you couldn't guess already, I'M PREGNANT!! YAY!!

After years of trying, prayer, disappointment, frustration, pain and wanting to scream everytime someone else was going to have a baby, Steve and I are finally the ones able to say YAY it's our turn! I'm sure it is happening when it's supposed to, even though the thought of it never happening used to plague us.

I found out the morning of March 23, I got the good ol' tests that have the lines on them, the second line wasn't extremely visable but it was there, I've never had a second line on a test so I asked Steve to come look at the test as well. He was unsure, but after talking to a good friend and showing her the test she confirmed that the test was POSITIVE. Even so, I think I took 3 or 4 more tests, each time the second line getting darker until it was even darker than the first lol.

My last appointment was on Monday, we were able to see the baby thrashing around, I told Steve look there is your little alien! lol (I think they look like aliens at this stage) The Dr. asked if we were going to name it Spock (I don't think so!!!). lol

The estimated due date right now is December 3, 2011. We have names picked out already.
BOY: Daniel Steven Rees (Danny for short)
GIRL: Emmaline Leona Rees

We can't wait to find out what it will be, we are both kind of hoping for a girl, no matter what it is though we will be happy. I'm so grateful for my husband, and what a loving, kind sweet person he is. He's been very protective of me and any household chores (he won't even let me do the laundry, even though I've sneaked a few times). I also went to go sweep the floor in the bathroom and he asked me if I was going to be OK doing that lol. He's going to be such an awesome father, I love him so much.

As soon as I am able to I will post pictures of the ultrasound(s).

Our Living Room Updated

2011-02-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

So a couple of weeks ago Steve and I finally re-painted our living room, the hideous green is gone! YAY!! I'm loving it, and will eventually have to post a photo of our newly painted kitchen as well.

Looking forward to summer

2011-01-09T21:27:00.000-07:00

Steve and I are really looking forward to the snow being gone, and the sun being out so we can work on our yard. There are so many things we want to do in it; garden & fruit trees, put in lots of flowers, having grass would be somewhat nice lol, take down the old apple tree and there are other not so fun things that need to be done as well.. Taking out all of the tree limbs we have piled up from a tree that was growing through our back fence, out of the gardening area is one..

Besides that I really would love to start hiking again this year, started doing it last year, got sick and it kind of died off.. I am also looking forward to the hectic-ness of camping, just without the lightening and wind(we got to Red Canyon last year and we couldn't even put up the tent because of the lightening/wind, so ended up freezing the night in our car trying to sleep.).

Our First Home

2010-11-13T18:42:00.000-07:00

Steve and I didn't know how long it would take to eventually happen, we are now officially HOMEOWNERS!!! Woohoo!! Steve and I officially bought our first home on September 28th, 2010, we officially moved into it the 16th of October, it's in Ogden, Utah, located somewhat near the mouth of HWY 39. and above 12th Street. We've really enjoyed having our own space again, however, we'll be forever grateful to our parents for allowing us to stay with them until we were able to get things taken care of so we could buy our home.

Our house was built in the 1950's, it's a cute brick bungalow, has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, living room upstairs, family room downstairs, and a laundry room. We have a really big garage/shed (which still is kind of scary to me, "spiders"), and a BIG backyard, behind our house is 9th Street Park. We have a good amount of yard work/fixing up the backyard next year to do. We had to jump through a bunch of hopes to get into this house because it was a short sale; painting all the trim on the house and garage door, fixing the furnace (thankfully we now have a good electrician that charges a really good price) that was for the appraisal, putting up a rain gutter (for insurance), and other multiple issues that jumped up here and there.

All of our little beasties are enjoying their new home, especially Miss Mowgli, we also have a new addition to our beasties, Mr Oliver kitty. My brother found him wandering around the outside of my parents home in September when he was just a few weeks old. After talking with Steve, we decided to have my parents bring Oliver with when they moved our belongings down in October.

We enjoy our new Ward so far, we've only been once and to Sacrament, that will change as of tomorrow though. :) I absolutely hate standing up in front of others in meetings, I'm not someone that thrives for attention in a large crowd of people.

Besides that, yes it is a good 45-60 minutes drive to work, it sure is worth it though, and eventually Steve and I will find new jobs in Ogden.

We are loving our home, are so thankfull for all the help we received from family members, and love being able to have our own space again.

BEFORE PHOTOS

BATHROOM

BEDROOM

BACKYARD

BEDROOM

BRAYDEN "HELPING" lol

BLUE TUB FROM HELL

BATHROOM

BEDROOM, PUTTING IN FLOORING

COMPUTER ROOM

BACKYARD

BLUE TUB AGAIN.. IF I HAD/HAVE TO LOOK AT IT, SO DO YOU!

LAUNDRY ROOM

FAMILY ROOM

KITCHEN

BEDROOM

LIVING ROOM

2nd BEDROOM

FAMILY ROOM

RYAN FINISHING OUR FLOOR

COMPUTER ROOM AGAIN

BACKYARD

AFTER PHOTOS

BATHROOM

FAMILY ROOM

OLIVER

FAMILY ROOM/WILSON

MOWGLI

2nd BEDROOM, FLOOR LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER!

KTICHEN/OLIVER

LIVING ROOM/STEVEN

KITCHEN

Miss Midnight

2010-09-20T22:42:00.000-06:00

We found out today that Midnight is basically blind, not 100% yet (she can still see shadows), she has glaucoma in both eyes. Steve and I basically figured that she was almost blind, we also found out that she is losing control over her bodily functions, it's too late right now(need sleep) and I can't remember what the vet called it (I'm sure Cheryl can tell me if she reads this)... So in short term she doesn't have control over her muscles in the nether regions very well, and she will continue to lose control over them, because of this she has been leaving little "gifts" in unwanted places.. ew yes I know, but those are the joys/sorrows of having pets. We aren't sure how much longer she could have, possibly a year? Maybe less, we'll see. She still has a good appetite, and she's playful. For now we just need to make sure we are keeping her in a dim/non lighted room, and all the attention/love we can give her.

Do You Speak English?

2010-09-09T17:08:00.004-06:00

Funny story about the title, while Steve and I took our trip last weekend to Bryce Canyon, we arrived feeling like we had arrived in Europe.. I don't mind Europeans, however what I did mind was the fact that a lot of them seemed rude (maybe just a misunderstanding/non-communication, however I thought a lot of Europeans understand English), and I really felt like I was in a totally different country (I should say WE), a ton of them smoked, and the women had horrible perfume, it smelled like mens cologne with whiff of mens deodorant and flowers! And one last thing, some of them men thought the Sunrise to Sunset trail in an area that was shaded was their own personal sauna/relaxation spot... kind of funny yet disgusting! I'll talk a little bit more about it again later.

Other than that we had a good time, arrived in Bryce on Friday evening, set up the ol' tent and went into town to explore.. On the way back we stopped at the visitor center, and Sunrise Point.

It was so awesome to see the stars, and the milky way that first night, our tent has huge windows so we decided to leave them open the first night there. Even though I kept on waking up to weird dreams, it was awesome to wake up and see the stars and moon. We decided before going to bed Friday that we would wake up early on Saturday, go back to Sunrise Point and take photos.

I kept on having dreams that we woke up too late on Saturday, I think we actually got up around 5:30am, rushed to put our clothes on and took off to Sunrise. We got there just before the sun started to rise, and I was thankfully able to figure out how to get the photos I wanted with our uncontrollable camera.

We headed back to camp to change and grab our camelpacks, eat breakfast, grab hiking gear, then went back to Sunrise and started on our first and last hike of the trip. We decided to go on the Navajo Loop Trail, and after snickering at people huffing as they were walking back up the hill we were off! Of course we knew that our time would come, and we too would have to climb up the hill on the other side... Little did we know how horribly steep that hill would be. It was a really pretty hike, there were a couple of small tunnels, and then we ended up at the Queens Gardens, just as we were leaving the Gardens an older gentleman came up to us and asked, "Do you speak English?" (the main point of my title lol) To which Steve answered yes, he wanted to know something about the Queen's Garden.. On our way out we had a pretty good laugh about it. I think my favorite part of Bryce Canyon is how many trees there are, it makes it not so dry and hot. We got to almost the end of the trail and came to an intersection that said Navajo Loop/Peekaboo Trail 0.7 one way, and Navajo Loop/Double Bridges 0.6 the other.. Naturally I was being lazy and decided on the 0.6 way out... I think (and even thought at the time with my luck) it was much steeper than going the other way... We would climb one portion of the switchback, then have to stop/rest and continue on. lol FINALLY!! After just wanting to pass out we made it to the top of Sunset Point.

We headed back to our campground afterwards and were so exhausted we fell to sleep in the car for an hour, then after pulling ourselves out of the car made lunch, and passed out in the hot tent.. At least I passed out, was in and out of it, in the tent until 6pm. We ended up going to the visitors center again and found out the times of their Astronomy program... Steve and I really enjoyed the program, and all of the different tribes and what the stars mean to them, how the sky was built.

Sunday we headed down to Rainbow Bridge, then on the way back stopped at other view points along the way.

By the time we were done we decided there was really not much else to stay for, and didn't want to try and drive home Monday morning. We ended up cooking dinner, burning all the firewood, putting our things back together and headed home to beat the wonderful Labor Day traffic!

We had a really good time, and it was very nice to spend some alone time together with my bunny honey!

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

2010-08-16T19:29:00.009-06:00

Cheryl and Jason sitting in a tree

K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

First comes love

then comes marriage

then comes baby in a baby carriage!

So Cheryl & Jason could suprise the rest of the Rees' family, I've waited to post this until now.

They announced on July 3rd that Cheryl is having a baby in December, they are not going to find out the gender so it can be a suprise. In the mean time, seeing as how they don't know what to call the baby, they decided to call it "Scooter" when referring to the baby. It's caught on, and since it is THEIR child, I think they should be able to call it whatever they want! :) Plus it's a super cute nickname for later on.

We are all super excited and happy for them, and can't wait to meet little Scooter and find out if Scooter will be a "Rees(girl) or Keegan(boy) Hendricks"!

Poor Scooter, we all know how WEIRD your parents are, so just remember the rest of us are normal and would never dream of acting like this!

Birthday Shmirthday!

2010-08-03T17:02:00.005-06:00

I would just like to announce that I do not want to go through another birthday like the one I had last week... Where to start...

Steve and I got up early and left for breakfast, making it out by 8:00am, we headed to Ruth's Diner up Emigration Canyon. Breakfast was good.

We left from there and went around the canyon and headed towards the freeway to Park City, stopped at the outlets, then left for the Park City Mountain Resort.....

Our first clue should have been the line involved to buy tickets.. But we (I) was excited to go and ride the zip line! So up the hill we went on the chair lift, got to the top and waited in line for our turn... And waited...waited....STILL waiting.. I think we probably moved 2 feet in a half an hour.. Then whats that??? A sprinkle of rain on my arm?? Oh NO (can you hear the sarcasm oozing?)! Still waiting in line.. Finally find out that the ride has stopped because of the rain sprinkle.. ok.... 20 minutes later they send sand bags down the ride to see if it's OK... nope not yet .. some people left so we moved up *yippee we were thinking!* (if we only knew) waitin waitin... the sun is passing by.. ooh crap another sprinkle.. so the same routine starts again, more people leave!! woohoo! Now I must say that I had my doubts and I thought do we just stay and wait?? Or leave and have to go wait in line somewhere else!? What if when we leave the ride starts back up again!?! (Our luck) So now so many people have left the line that we are 3rd in line. And then.... DUM DUM DUM another sprinkle! And more drops of rain fell... At which point after 2 hours of shuffling my poor feet back and forth we were told the ride was closed and wouldn't be open until further notice (the weather needed to be better).. Now I understand that it's all a liability for them if someone went down and got hurt.. But dang! 2 HOURS!!! in line!

So Steve and I took the nice ol' ski lift back down the slope... Not quite the high flying ride I was hoping for!

After grabbing a drink, and sitting down for about 10 minutes I noticed the sky was back to being blue and no clouds! Thinking we could beat the rush (hahaha) we got back in the ticket line, to get updated ticket times for the zipride.. I was told that it would be another 20-25 minutes.. FINE! So we went to the Alpine Coaster instead. After waiting in line for 20 minutes, and seeing them send new employees back up to the top of the zipline I sent Stever back to the ticket line to see if he could snag us tickets.. No.. of course not... Still waiting in line for the coaster, five minutes later and we are getting onto the coaster FINALLY!! A ride!! After 3 hours!! woohoo!! And wouldn't you know it! They start sending people DOWN the zipline! Freaking ticked us off!! We decided ok fine whatever, we'll just enjoy the coaster and THEN go back to the zipline...... Well, while I was waiting for the coaster to pull my sled up the hill, it went around the corner right before it and just as it was going to go down the little sloap then head up it got jammed.. Not sure how, Steve came behind me on his coaster and I was trying to push the bars down on mine so it would go forward.. His sled ended up hitting mine, and my finger got crunched in the process... It still hurts if I try to bend it sometimes.. At which point I thought.... Could this birthday get any worse/better!?? *sarcastic laugh* can't you hear it??

So back to the zip line we go.. UP UP UP the hill.... And oh boy back in line!!!! And now it's an EVEN LONGER line!!

So for two more hours we waited, dealing with dirty mouthed 12 year olds behind us (I wanted to tell them off), a teenager with BAD BAD BAD BO in front of us, and some really weird tweens in front of them.. One of them was so dressed SO slutty! I really don't understand how parents (and there parents were there, I saw them with them earlier) can allow their teenage daughters to dress like hookers.

And FINALLY down the zip line!!! woohoo!! We got ONE ride on it, around 4:30pm... We arrived at the park at 11:20... Yeeeeeeeeeeeah.. Went on the alpine coaster one more time, decided we'd had enough and left.

...................................Down the road about 5 minutes away (thankfully it was ONLY around that far away)... I reach into my shorts pocket for my phone... Nope not there... Well I thought to myself, did I stick it somewhere else??? So I am frantically digging through the seat for my phone.. NOT there... We turn back around to our most FAVORITE place at that point, and left our name and number at the park incase they found it...

Oh yes... and we got burned... waiting in line for the zip line for two hours...

On the more positive side, I was able to spend the day with Steven, I got cupcakes because I deserved them, and I didn't have to work!

On the 3rd, Wendi threw me a Luau party, we had steak, salads, fruit, and chocolate cake with mint frosting. It was all very yummy, and am thinking of switching my birthday to the 3rd of August instead! lol

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

Engaged!

2010-08-03T16:37:00.005-06:00

Wednesday July 28, 2010, Trent and Jenniffer came over to "make us dinner" because they were "in the area". I had my suspicions about why they were coming over but didn't say anything. Just after the blessing on the food, and before we started to eat, Trent said that he had an announcement..... Dum dum dum dum

And that's when he announced that he and Jenniffer were engaged! They haven't set a date yet, but I'm really happy for both of them, I think they are great together and I'm excited that Jenniffer will now officially be a part of the family!

Happy Birthday Wendi!

2010-07-23T10:10:00.005-06:00

For Wendi's 37th Birthday, on June 29th, we all wanted to help make it special for her, because she likes to decorate and do special things for our birthdays. So Steve and I ran to the store and got some decorations after work. I also decided that I would send her on a puzzle/scavanger hunt, like she had me go on last year for my birthday. We all had a good time, and I'm glad we were able to enjoy the day.

I also got some really cute pictures of Wilson that day, so thought I'd post them.

Bears & Lizards & Fish OH MY!

2010-06-27T16:36:00.015-06:00

A little over a month ago Steve and I got back from our camping trip with Steve's family and my friend Diana. We had planned the trip back in February or so I think, and we were really looking forward to it. Because of Wilson's history we weren't sure if we'd be bringing him or not when we planned the trip, but decided to bring him along anyway and just really watch him. Then thankfully in March or April we started Wilson with the dog trainer, and he has been doing SO much better and we were super happy we could comfortably take him along!

**********WARNING LONG POST!**********

Day #1

After a long couple days of preparing camping equipment, deciding/making food and all of our other necessities Steve, Wilson and I took off in our fully loaded little green Chevy Malibu, after a quick stop at the grocery store, back home for something forgotten and the gas station we were on I-80 and on our way to the Red Canyon Campsite, near Flaming Gorge in Utah. We arrived in Wyoming, and passed Evanston, then the winds picked up, they made us a little nervous a couple of times, the wind gusts were pretty strong. Knowing on our way to our campsite there was a chance of thunderstorms/rain/lightening we got a little nervous (at least I did), and after we took the Ft. Bridger exit I saw the Mountains in the distance and got a little worried (it had been awhile since I'd driven to Flaming Gorge this route) they had snow on them! Watching our GPS and then looking over at Steve to see if he noticed the snow, which he hadn't, I was trying to decide if I should mention the snow on the Mountains or not, or if I should just keep my mouth quiet knowing that if I said anything he'd worry about it the rest of the way... I made the mistake of opening my mouth a few more miles down the road... and yes I heard about the snow and great we are screwed now... Thankfuly we got past Mt. View and into Mickinnon and realized that we wouldn't be heading into the snow. I think after chugging up a couple of hills, past a few RV's we made it to our campsite around 4:30pm. I had to sign a few papers for the camp host while the wind gusted outside, I hopped back into the car with Steve and we decided that once the winds died we'd attempt at putting up the tent. I think about 10 minutes later they died a little bit, so we pulled the tent out of our trunk and quickly tried to get it up.. No luck, the winds came back, and thankfully so did the camp host, our tent was filled with a ton of air so it was a little bit ballooned out. After shoving the tent back into it's bag Steve and I decided to get back in the car and wait for a little bit.. While we were waiting we were also watching the thunder clouds roll in (I had been watching them since we got into Wyoming, and after Manilla seeing the lightening strike made me a bit nervous.), with the lightening striking the ground in the distance... Finally the lightening made it's way to our little campsite, with me flinching, it striked near our car, and the area we were in for about 5-10 minutes then went away. We decided to make a fire and cook our foil dinners since the winds had died back down.. And wouldn't you know, after we got them made the winds came back, and the rain came with it, so we were out there shoving food in our mouths with the wind blowing on our backs and the rain pelting us.. We quickly decided that we would not be setting up the tent that night, we'd just sleep in the car with poor Mr. Wilsy. Thankfully I had a few fleece blankets near us in the car, and our pillows so we were able to keep from totally being uncomfortable and freezing that first night... We did end up turning the heater in the car on multiple times that night.

Day #2

Did I mention we were in bear country??

We woke up Thursday morning, sore, cold and tired. Wilson had gone back and forth between Steven and I all night, poor Steve had to sleep with both Wilson in his lap, the steering wheel, and not being able to put his chair back. Not that I have as much room to complain, but my backside near the car door froze all night. It was sunny out Thursday morning, but freezing cold! I was so happy that the clouds were gone at least, we quickly made a fire that quickly went out.. lol Then Steve and I put up the tent, and even used the rope ties on the tent (which we've never used) to stake it down. Later on that day Wilson got to run around free as a bird, you could totally tell he was excited. We ended up taking him on a few walks around the campground, next to a visitors center, and back the other way down a trail with awesome views. He scared a few squirrels, which made him pretty pleased with himself.

Around the same time we had gotten there the day before my friend Diana made it to our campsite on Thursday, we had already set up her tent, so we just walked to the visitors center with her and along a few trails until Steve's family showed up.. I think they showed up around 7:30-8pm-s=blsp-spelling-error>ish, and set up their two tents in the campsite next to ours. Some food items were forgotten, so most of us shared the hot dogs Steve and I brought, and our chips. It was freezing that night, and the subject of being in bear country came up.. So finally after the fire burned out and we had rushed into and out of the s=blsp-spelling-error>porta potty, we headed to our tents... Physicking out over the thought of bears roaming around the tents, oh and I told Diana bears weren't her only worry.. There were always Mt. Lions up there too... s=blsp-spelling-error>lol She was really happy I reminded her of that.. So she kept her "bear killer knife" s=blsp-spelling-error>lol in her tent. We all ended up FREEZING that night.. I don't think I really slept until late the next morning, it was SO SO COLD! I was shivering all night!

Day #3

Fishing!!

Friday was our first day out on the water fishing, we drove down near Mustang Ridge to fish. It was kind of sad because there had been a forest fire around the area some time/years before so a lot of the trees were dead. On to fishing!

The fishing shoreline wasn't the "FUNNEST" to fish from, at least not for me and my perpetual fear of falling on the jagged rocks, and hitting my head, or landing in the water. Our first day of fishing was pretty successful, Steve's Dad caught the first fish, Jason caught the second, I caught the third, I think Cheryl caught the fourth, I caught the fifth, Steve finally caught the sixth (after giving me a dirty/hey that's not fair look for catching a second before he caught his first lol) and I think Jason or Cheryl caught the next one or two I can't remember for sure. (Oh they were all small mouth bass)

Between dealing with the dogs wanting to chase the lizards along the rocks, and the nasty sun beating down on us, being hungry and no more fishies biting we decided it was time to go back to camp.

We had a wonderful dutch oven lasagna, and some dutch oven dinner rolls for dinner, thankfully Friday night wasn't as cold.

Day #4

MORE FISHING & LIZARD WATCHING!

Everyone decided to go early morning fishing, except for Diana, she was pretty tired so she stayed back at the campsite. Nobody caught anything, and it got hot out pretty fast. We ended up making our way back to the campground and had a yummy dutch oven brunch casserole.

After brunch I decided I just couldn't take my greasy hair anymore, I hadn't washed it since Wednesday and it was now Saturday, my scalp was burned, my hair was greasy/dirty/ and matted down from the bandanna.. I COULDN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!! Steve got the cold water and I got the Dawn dish detergent, and with him pouring the water on my head (which felt really nice) I was finally able to have clean hair! woohoo! I had ingeniously brought my hair pick with, so I just let my hair curl naturally and wind dry! And I want to add that Steve semi washed his hair too (minus the soap).

Later on that evening we went back to the gorge to fish more, I caught my trout on my first cast that evening.. Unfortunately it was the only fish caught that evening, everyone had bites but that was pretty much it. The dogs still had fun with their lizard watching, and after crawling all over the rocks for the past two days they were pretty pooped! We ended up leaving right before it got too dark outside and headed back to camp.

Day #5

Going home...

Our camping trip had come to an end, Diana left before the rest of us that morning, Steve and I quickly packed our things up and cleaned our area, then he went to help his family finish packing their belongings while I watched Wilson. We finally made it home around 2 pm, threw laundry into the wash, Wilson into the shower, then we each took our own showers and finished unpacking the car.

We had a really good time camping with everyone, but we were so glad to be home (and clean!).

Nutella Ice Cream - 317699 - Recipezaar

2010-06-05T12:11:00.000-06:00

Making this for Steven, he LOVES Nutella, so he better darn well like this! lol
Nutella Ice Cream - 317699 - Recipezaar

Oregon Coast 2010

2010-06-03T21:49:00.006-06:00

LINCOLN CITY BEACH

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The beginning of May my dad texted me and asked if I would be willing to come up for a few days to spend time with my mom, after looking at my work schedule and figuring out the right time I was able to plan a quick trip up to Oregon during Memorial weekend. This trip was originally supposed to be a suprise for my mom as a late birthday/Mothers Day gift, however; my dad spilled the beans one day when my mom wasn't feeling to great, which is ok I understand.

I decided to take her over to Lincoln City, which is on the coast, we left Saturday morning and after mistakenly not taking I-5 North, and heading southbound, then missing 2 of the Ocean Beaches exit we finally made our way over to Lincoln City on the Albany exit, that took us to Newport Beach about an hour (south) away from Lincoln City.

It was nice being able to get away and just spending one on one time with my Mom, we did some shopping and decided that antique shopping is just boring (there are a few neat things to see, but most of it wasn't all that wonderful). On Sunday we drove up to Tillamook to see Candace, Russell and their boys, it was nice seeing all of them since I don't get to see them very often.

I've decided to put together a list of "MUSTS" or "TO DO's" in Lincoln City:

Shop the old store's along HWY 101, or downtown Lincoln City
Find a handblown glass float in one of the shops
-OR-If you are lucky enough find one on the coast during Finders Keepers (Oct-May), I DID look for one but didn't find one :(
Fly a kite on the beach! - TO DO-(will have to do this one with Steven when we head back to Oregon sometime, now that he has his own kite I bought him while up there)
Go Horseback riding on the beach - TO DO
Go to Sandlake and hit the dunes on an ATV - TO DO
Visit the Peony farm next to Sand Lake - TO DO
Visit Devils Lake and go hiking - TO DO
Handblow your own glass float - TO DO
Have a midnight stroll along the beach

And I know there are a few more, however, those are all the ideas I can currently think of.

GOOD MORNING
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MY BED HEAD

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MOM ON THE BEACH, HER FEET HURT

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PICKING UP SHELLS AND ROCKS THEN STICKING THEM IN HER *COUGH* MY POCKETS

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THE BEACH, LINCOLN CITY, OREGON
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ME OF COURSE

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MOM AND I

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RUSSELL

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CANDACE

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DONOVAN

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CHRISTOPHER

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MICHAEL

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NEPHI

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MICHAEL & NEPHI

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Bonneville Shoreline Trail

2010-05-12T21:56:00.004-06:00

Real quick, Steven and I went on an awesome hike on the Bonneville Shoreline trail last Saturday. We started out the trail from the east side of City Creek Canyon, walked up the hill side, up up up, had a yummy lunch of pb&j (or pb&hny for Steve) with an awesome view, we had a blast! Here are a few pics.

New Chapter for Wilson

2010-04-01T19:00:00.002-06:00

Five years ago this summer Steven and I adopted Wilson through the English Springer Rescue Association.. During those five years we've been through a lot with him, and we've known that if we didn't do anything about it he would never get better. We both realize that he is going to take a lot of work to heal the way he is right now, and we weren't sure who to go to about Wilson. I've looked up different dog teachers down here in Utah and wasn't sure what to do with all the mixed reviews. About 3 weeks or so ago, we went to the Spring Home and Garden show with Steve's parents, while we were there we noticed a booth called Arrow Kennels, they were doing dog training exhibits, etc.. and had papers to hand in for a free dog evaluation. We weren't sure if they'd actually call us up or not, but sure enough a week ago they called to schedule a time for the evaluation (which happened today).

The trainer (John) came and I told him that Wilson was a biter, then with Wilson on the leash and Steve holding him inside, brought John inside the house. Wilson was not happy to have the guy there, he barked, and barked and barked some more while the guy stood there and just let Wilson bark at him, while still moving towards Wilson, and Wilson having to back away. John told us that he had no doubt in his mind that if he himself backed down, or moved toward us, Wilson would bite him.. That really didn't suprise Steve or I. We went through Wilson's history, and the guy told us about himself (since we didn't stay to watch the dog show because of time), after which he had us come outside to see his dogs and how he's trained them. He had one Jack Russell he brought out and showed us different things, then he brought out a Belgium Malinois (which is like a German Shepard on a caffiene rush) that's been military trained also. After which, he put his electronic collar on Wilson and a retractable leash and started some things with following him.. Wilson was so ticked, he wouldn't even look at the guy for awhile, he just kept on ignoring him, wanting John to go away. However, near the end Wilson did look at John twice. John had me walk him a bit with the commands he told me to use, afterwards we went back inside to discuss other things.

Starting next Monday Wilson has his first doggy class, for I think it is 4 weeks he'll be trained at home, on walks, whatever we need to do to help Wilson. After the 4 weeks, we can take him to the dog park classes he gives, with a muzzle of course (he requires the muzzle for dogs that are aggressive towards other people/dogs, which I totally understand). Near the end of our conversation he told us that Wilson was really lucky, because not many people would have put up with Wilon's behaviour for this long, they would have put him asleep a long time ago. I really don't know how people can do that, it's just throwing away responsibility in my mind, you bought/adopted the animal and now it is your responsibility to take care of it, they don't have anyone but you to depend on. Wilson will also be receiving his own electronic collar to be trained with, he does really good on them. Wilson by no means is a dumb dog, he's super intelligent and right now thinks he is the pack leader. However, he doesn't have the confidence to be the pack leader, but in his mind we aren't being the leader so now he will do everything and anything in his power to protect us (his pack), even if that means biting.

When this is finished we will be able to take him on walks without being pulled, not having him go nuts over other people, or their dogs.. We won't have to look as far ahead or behind as we can see to make sure there isn't anyone coming, or having to change the direction we are heading.

After the training sessions are started/over I know that for once he will be different, he will be a happy dog and will know that he doesn't need to be the pack leader.

WW

2010-03-27T01:34:00.002-06:00

Starting on week #3, and 8#'s gone! Two weeks ago I started Weight Watchers (which will be furthermore abbreviated to WW), with my friend Megan and her hubby Adam, I'm tired of being overweight, with chubby grandma arms and chunky legs! lol I want to feel better about ME, and happy about who I am, I've always felt like the chunky one in my family and I am soooooo ready for that to change. Besides those reasons, I have one other reason that is so much more important to me, than the reason's stated above. I'm not going to go into it right now, but will at a later time when I feel like I can be more open to talk about it
The first week of WW wasn't too hard, it's this second/third week that has been killing me these past couple of days. I also have some issues going on with my throat, it feels like it's being squeezed or something constantly/swollen. I don't know if it is contributing to how I've felt for a few days now, I feel VERY HUNGRY, like I'm not getting enough food.. And I've been finishing my points each day this week, so it's not like I'm not getting what I need. The only other thing I can think of it being is my thyroid fighting me back, it doesn't want to let go of me! lol..
I've been exercising every other day or so also; yesterday was awesome, Steve and I walked up "I" Street to 18th Avenue I think it is, then to the Bonneville Shoreline trail, and down that aways.. I burned 310 Calories! Gotta love my iPod Nano for keeping track of that! We even did a few minutes of jogging along the trail, until my lungs couldn't deal with it any longer.
Off to bed to continue onto week three!

Cherly & Jason's Wedding & Christmas Pictures!

2010-03-06T13:41:00.004-07:00

I've procrastinated in adding the wedding photos, so I'm going to do that now.. (I added them onto facebook, just not here.. lol) You'll want to go down to the bottom of my page and mute the music playing, if you want to hear the music on the video I made.. The Christmas video doesn't have any music..

Stole this from my cuz

2010-02-15T13:57:00.002-07:00

Mouthology:
Q: What is your favorite fast food?
A: Chic Filet
Q: What food could you eat every day for 2 weeks and not get sick of?
A: Thats a toughy... Raspberry Cream Cheese Croissants from work... (which I have been currently staying away from.. SOO GOOD THOUGH!!)
Q: Pizza Toppings of Choice?
A: Chicken, Feta Cheese, Gouda Cheese, Pesto

Technology:
Q: What is currently on your computer wallpaper?
A: Photo of a white poppy I took at temple square
Q: How many tv's are in your house?
A: 3

Biology:
Q: Are you a Righty or Lefty?
A: Righty
Q: When was the last time you had a cavity?
A: not telling...
Q: Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
A: Not by anyone trying to do so in a physical way. All my unconscious events have been under general anesthesia.

Otherology:
Q: What color do you think looks best on you?
A: That really depends on my mood!... Sometimes yellow.. orange... dark green
Q: Have you ever saved someone's life?
A: Not to my knowledge
Q: Has someone saved yours?
A: possibly

Dumbology:
Q: What is in your left pocket?
A: Nothing
Q: Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie?
A: no!!
Q: Last run in with the cops?
A: With Lily, Martin, & Steve on the way home from Multnomah Falls/Crown Point in November... Stupid retarded cop!! Asked me if I had been to the club Vortex in SL, just because I live in UT.. I told him nope, I don't do clubbing! I was getting very irritated with him, he woke me up from my nap in the car and was just being an ass!

Lastology:
Q: Last person to call you?
A: Probably Steve, nobody ever calls me
Q: Last person you hugged?
A: Steve

Favoritology:
Q: Number?
A: 7
Q: Season?
A: It's rainy now so I want it to be summer, when summer comes I will want it to be fall, then I'll get excited for snow and want it to be winter.. After which the cycle repeats itself and I will want it to be summer again!

Currentology:
Q: Mood?
A: BORED
Q: Listening to?
A: The Olympics/tv comercials
Q: Watching?
A: Look at above answer

Randomology:
Q: First place you went this morning?
A: Besides the restroom? lol The dentist
Q: Last movie you saw?
A: Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief
Q: Do you smile often?
A: I try to

Black Forest Trifle hmmm possibly turned into cupycakes??

2010-02-15T13:31:00.003-07:00

Around the beginning of the month I made a Black Forest Trifle... Soooooooooooo good! I've been wanting to make it again, or do something yummy for Valentines to give to people, take to co-workers.. Yes I know Valentines was YESTERDAY! But because it would be a pain to have to take a glass bowl to work (and I would want to take one, because it has to be pretty!), I've decided I want to experiment and make this recipe into cupcakes! My plan of these wonderful sweet morsels is as follows:

#1 Make the cuppy cakes
#2 While said cuppy cakes are baking, make chocolate mousse
#3 Make cherry syrup
#4 Make whipped cream

As soon as said cuppy cakes are done cooling *muahahaha* take the chocolate mousse and insert into cakes, like a twinkie!

*now this part I am still toying with, but I am thinking of putting a cherry in there too..*

drizzle top of cuppy cake with cherry syrup... yuuuuuuuummmmm

Add whipped cream to top of cuppy cake, add a cherry and shaved chocolate and voila!! Delicious cuppy cakes for my tummy!!

This is where I originally found the recipe:
http://www.foodchannel.com/recipes/1364-black-forest-trifle-

And with the Food Channels permission, this is where I have it posted on RecipeZaar!
http://www.recipezaar.com/black-forest-trifle-412417

If I remember to, or if I can find my camera I will take a picture and post it!

Happy Valentines Day!

2010-02-14T10:37:00.003-07:00

Just wanted to say Happy Valentines Day!! Steve and I don't usually do much for Valentines Day, and we aren't doing anything for it this year however; I'd like to post about my two favorite V-Days that I remember:

1. In 2004 Steve and I went to Fat Cats Bowling and Pizza with Megan, Adam, Nicole & Andy... I don't remember why but we left and went to Cottonwood Mall.. I think maybe while we were waiting for a table or something... Anyways we went to the mall and took pictures at a photo booth, just couples and then one with just Megan, Adam, Steve and I, and one with all of us shoved into the tiny photo booth together. I wish I had my pictures scanned in so I could share them. Afterwards, we had dinner at the pizza place and went bowling.. I think I lost, which would only make sense I am not a very wonderful bowler! lol

2. While Steve and I were living in (2007)Oregon, my Mom and I decided instead of going out somewhere nice for dinner we'd make a nice dinner for my Dad and Steven. We made baked potatoes, filet mignon, and king crab legs, with sparkling cider! sooooooooooo yummy!!

Happy Anniversary! 6 Years!

2009-12-13T21:21:00.003-07:00

Today Steven and I have been married for 6 years! Woohoo!!
We went to the Perry Hotel for our anniversary, in downtown SLC, which was nice, we basically just walked everywhere we wanted to go. We ended up going to the Nauvoo Cafe, which is where we had our reception, when we got married it was just the "Nauvoo Room". We had planned on going to the zoo to see the Christmas lights but decided against it. We also had wanted to go ice skating (or I did), but when we got to the rink at the Gallivan Plaza all of the millions of little chidlers zooming by, falling down and the tiny size of the rink hindered our desire to set foot onto it.. lol Instead we walked to Temple Square and checked out the Christmas lights this year. This was the first time we had gone back to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights, near our wedding date since we got married. My favorite tree was lit this year!! wooohoo!! For those of you who have been to Temple Square, it is the GIANT fir tree between the gates and Main street, they put red lights on it, but last year they didn't light it so I was sort of bummed. Afterwards we went out to eat at Ruby River for dinner. We came home this morning, just before the wonderful snow storm hit!
So to my Stevers, Happy Anniversary Sweetheart I love you dearly, and I am so grateful for all you do for me every day!

More pics coming soon

2009-11-10T21:57:00.002-07:00

So I can't do it right this second, but more photos will be posted soon from our trip and the wedding!

Busy Month

2009-11-10T20:21:00.012-07:00

Ok.... this isn't really in order, at least the first part isn't...

On Friday the 30th, Steve and I took my parents out for their 27th wedding anniversary to Red Lobster.
Monday we were able to see Raphael, and we went to Lincoln City with my folks, it was nice to see the ocean again.

As most of you know Steve and I went up to Oregon the end of October to visit my folks... Here are some details on that.
To start the trip out, as we go through security at SLC, they pull Steve aside and tell him they have to search his bag... He packed his cologne in it, and had a pocket knife he didn't know about in his backpack... SO he lost both of those things... Our flight was delayed, then on time, then really delayed, then we get on the plane and are told it is going to be early! I was able to get ahold of my folks before the plane took off to let them know. The plane ride going up and coming back were pretty bumpy.
We stayed at Lily (aka Jess') & Martins place while we were up there, it was super nice of them to let us stay with them while we were there so we didn't have to pay for a hotel the entire time.
The first night we were up there we all stayed up pretty late, and Mom, Lily, and I took some funky photo's on my computer... I eventually fell asleep after my Mom, Joe and two nephews went down to my parents' for the night.

On Friday the 30th, Steve and I took my parents out for their 27th wedding anniversary to Red Lobster.

Monday we were able to see Raphael, and we went to Lincoln City with my folks, it was nice to see the ocean again.

Tuesday we went to the Portland, OR Temple and were able help my parents do sealings. It was really special for me to be there with my Mom as she was being sealed to her parents, and to have her parents sealed together. I''m really happy for my Mom and Grandparents!

On either Monday or Tuesday night, we went out with Martin and Lily to Crown Point... I think we were there around 11pm-12am,there was a wind storm, it was AWESOME!! The wind was blowing probably 100 MPH while we were at the Point.. I really wanted to get out of the car at first, but when it slammed the door shut I didn't know if it would be a good idea. We weren't going to, then Steve got out of the car so I had to also, Martin & Lily followed. It was superbly hard to stand, and super cold. We were all laughing hysterically, messing around like complete idiots. At one point I looked over and Lil was walking up the steps to the building/visitors center at the Point (the building is an older round building with pillars/columns, I think built in the 1920's - 1930's), all I could think was crouching tiger hidden dragon, without the gracefulness... She was basically flying up the steps, then got to the top and got pushed into a air pocket, then wipped around... I was already laughing really hard, so when I saw that I almost lost it. So I headed back to the car.. After Crown Point, we drove over to Multnomah Falls which I have to say is kind of creepy at night with nobody there.

Now I think one of my other favorite moments was while we were on the way home, my dear lovely sister got pulled over (oh and the cop was heading the other way, then turned around and came up behind us REALLY fast).. The cop was a bit of an ass, he pulled her over because her tail light was out (I think he was hoping there was something else, and didn't have anything better to do, so at the last minute decided to claim it was for the light)..... Then he continued to ask if we all had our ID on us... Which kind of pissed me off.. He saw that Steve and I were from Utah and asked me if I had ever heard of the Vortex? I was all what?? I asked him what the Vortex was and he said it was a club... I told him nope, I don't drink, I've never been to a club... So yeah that ticked us off...

On Wednesday night Steve and I got a hotel room, since my folks and loverly sister had some prior commitments they had made, during the time we had to be taken to the airport.

Thursday night was Cheryl & Jason's rehersal/dinner at the Olive Garden..

and.. dummm dummm dummm dummm

Cheryl & Jason got married on Friday November 6th, 2009. Congrats to both of them, I'm so happy for them!! They had a beautiful wedding and are now on their honeymoon on a cruise in the caribbean!

On top of all that Steve and I have had some wonderful dental work done before we left, and it is still continuing... Lucky us!

On the plus side I got my hair cut before we left for our trip! woohoo!!

Storm last week and canning

2009-09-27T11:22:00.005-06:00

Last week ( the 18th) there was an awesome storm that moved through the Wasatch Front, it was weird because it came over from the east instead of heading in from the west. I snapped some shots of it, and am just now getting the time to post them.

Also Steve and I have gotten 60lbs of peaches in the past three weeks, he and I canned 20lbs the first weekend, and this past week (because I was wipped out) he and his Mom canned the other batch. So right now we have a bunch of nummy peaches for the winter!

Scotland Yard & I WON!

2009-09-21T23:08:00.003-06:00

Ok... SO I know getting carried away with the I WON dealy-o.... However, as any of my other siblings know it is just in the Dysart genes to be overy competitive to the point of making others feel bad/stupid/like crap/or just make them want to throw their hands in the air and their game pieces across the table.. Or if it comes down to it cry... I'd like to thank my Father for this.. :)

Anywho real quick, Steve and I bought a new board game last weekend called "Scotland Yard", it is a VERY fun game to play.... Especially for those who are competitive... Steve started first as Mr X... the detectives beat him.... Wendi was next... She lost out before Steve did the first go around... And then it was decided that I would be LAST...... HEhe haha whowho... I WON!! I beat the 4 detectives (Steve, Wendi, Mom & Dad)... It really is a fun game and I'll stop gloating now.

On a sad note we think Midnight has an ulcer in her left eye.... :( She has another vet appt. tomorrow.. Guess we'll see how things go then! NIGHT!!

RS September Visiting Teaching Message

2009-08-30T22:11:00.004-06:00

I just wanted to quickly post the RS Visiting Teaching message for September, I thought it was a really good message for this upcoming month and I hope you all enjoy reading it. :)

Understand and Live the Gospel of Christ

How Can I Better Understand and Live the Gospel?
Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

"Faithful members of the Church should be like oak trees and should extend deep roots into the fertile soil of the fundamental principles of the gospel. We should understand and live by the simple, basic truths and not complicate them. Our foundations should be solid and deep-rooted so we can withstand the winds of temptation, false doctrine, adversity, and the onslaught of the adversary without being swayed or uprooted. Members whose roots are only at the surface of the gospel need to sink them deeper until they reach the bedrock below the soft topsoil.

Spiritual nourishment is just as important as a balanced diet to keep us strong and healthy. We nourish ourselves spiritually by partaking of the sacrament weekly, reading the scriptures daily, praying daily in personal and family prayer, and performing temple work regularly. Our spiritual strengths are like batteries; they need to be charged and frequently recharged."
("Deep Roots," Ensign, Nov. 1994, 75).

Find the whole article here:
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=8e6e3ff73058b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Barbara Thompson second counselor in the RS General Presidency:

"Sisters, now more than ever, we need women to step up and be strong. We need women who declare the truth with strength, faith, and boldness. We need women to set an example to be "anxiously engaged in a good cause.' We need to live so that our lives bear witness that we love our Heavenly Father and the Savior Jesus Christ and that we will do what They have asked us to do" ("Now Let Us Rejoice," Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2008, 116).
2 Nephi 31:12: "Follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do."

How Does Understanding and Living the Gospel Bless Lives?

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency:

"As we strive to understand, internalize, and live correct gospel principles, we will become more spiritually self-reliant.......I testify as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ that He lives, that the gospel is true, and that it offers the answers to all personal and collective challenges the children of God have on this earth today."
("Christlike Attributes -- the Wind Beaneath Our Wings," Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2005, 100,101).

Find the whole article here:
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=d61c6169b62fe010VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:
"The plan of happiness is available to all of his children. If the world would embrace and live it, peace, joy, and plenty would abound on the earth. Much of the suffering we know today would be eliminated if people throughout the world would understand and live the gospel"
("Answers to Life's Questions,"Ensign, May 1995, 23).

Find the whole article here:
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=34c63ff73058b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:
" We must live the gospel in such a way that we wil lhave the Spirit to ever be with us. If we live worthily, the Spirit will always be with us. We can then teach by the Spirit.... The reason we pray, study scriptures, have good friends, and live the gospel through obedience to the commandments is so that when--not if, but when--the trials come, we are ready"
("Teaching by Faith." Liahona, Sept. 2003, 10, 14-15; Ensign, Sept. 2003, 20, 24-25).

Find the whole article here:
http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=02cb1c90483eb010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Wilson's New Haircut

2009-08-08T21:53:00.003-06:00

Wilson got his hairs cut again today, by myself. I cut his hair outside so all that wonderful excess of fur isn't floating around inside the house. He is usually pretty good about getting his hair cut, as long as you stay away from his feet. Every now and then he is touchy about his head, but for the most part is ok. He also received a bath, that was much needed. I trimmed back everything except for his chest, I like to leave that longer, and his tail which I didn't think needed to really be trimmed back. It just needs a good brushing right now, it likes to flair out all over after he gets a bath.

Steven also decided to shave off his hairs, I didn't help him with that though.

Wilson in his froggy pose

Steve's new haircut, by himself

Wilson's crazy dog pose

Holding very still looking intently at the toy

Wilsy & his Daddy

Pictures Finally

2009-08-04T16:12:00.002-06:00

So as I THINK I mentioned in my last post, I had my nails done at Cameo College here in Utah on Saturday last weekend. The girl that painted my nails gave me a beach scene with a wave, sunset and two birds.

The other photo is (not a very good picture.. Cheryl's fault!!! lol) a picture of the nail art I did on Cheryl's piggy toes. It is a tree with a mountain behind it/night scene.

(Yes Cheryl I posted your feet!)

Happy Birthday to Me

2009-08-02T22:20:00.003-06:00

So I've had a great birthday; today, we went to church, then came home early because I was extremely tired. I took a nap while Steve made my birthday cake for me, it was really good (peach with peach frosting). It was a first for Steve and it meant a lot to me. Before cake, his sister led me on a gift chase, where I had to go throughout the house and find my gifts with little hints. I got a new book (The Appeal, John Grisham), some mint foot lotion, scrub and one of those foot stones, some pretty jewelry, and Steve got me a jetted foot bath. So I'm super excited about using that! Yesterday my friend Megan, and I went to Cameo College and had European facials, and pedicures, they were super nice and the girl that did my pedicure did an ocean/sunset scene on my big toes. I'll post pics tomorrow, it is super late and I need to get to sleep.

Thanks Goodness for the 24th of July!

2009-07-23T15:56:00.002-06:00

So tomorrow is Pioneer Day, all I remember celebration wise growing up was dressing up as pioneers for church activities. Well not do people dress up in Utah, we also have fireworks at parades, and in Utah it is a STATE HOLIDAY!! Depending on where you work, a lot of people get to have the day off!!! THANKFULY I am included in that lucky category!! :) :) :) :) :) This week couldn't have ended QUICK enough! It has not been a happy week at work for me, and that is all I really care to say about it for the time being.

And on another plus note Steve and I got another CC paid off! So we are happy about that!

Now I am off to paint my nails (so I can have nail polish on my fingers for the next three days), and wash my grimey hair!

Pinky Eye :( :(

2009-07-01T12:40:00.004-06:00

So last night I felt like I had something in my eye and could not get it out, except for this gunky boogery type substance, that went all the way across the inside of my lower lash/eyeball. In the middle of the night I woke up, opened my eye for a brief moment and felt water dripping out of my eye. This morning when I finally woke up my eye was swollen/puffy and reddish pink. :(

The last picture is how I really feel.. lol!

temple

2009-06-26T09:19:00.004-06:00

Wednesday evening we went to the Oquirrh Temple open house, it was so beautiful inside, they will be dedicating it the last part of August. Here are some photos of us after we went through and a picture of the Temple in the evening. The photograph of the Temple was taken by Scott G. Winterton of the Deseret News.

Fathers Day, Greek Food and Zip Lines!

2009-06-23T20:17:00.002-06:00

Last weekend was a busy one, and it of course has run into this week. Last Friday consisted of cleaning, tons of FUN! hahaha

Megan, Adam, Steve and I went out together on Saturday and saw "The Proposal", we really liked it, afterwards we went to a Greek restaurant called Aristos for dinner. Sunday was Fathers Day, Steve's entire family was here for it, so that was nice. We had sish kabobs, melon, potato salad, cheesecake, and ice cream, it was all very good. We also got some family pictures together, and as soon as I can I will post them here.

Yesterday after work, Steve, his dad, Wendi and I drove up to the Park City Marriott (Mountain Side) Resort, where they have an Alpine Slide, Alpine Coaster (both of which you can control the speed of and stop), and a zip line with a 110 ft drop!. Steve and I first went on the alpine coaster, we did that three times, two with each other (cramped!) and once by ourselves. And then I did something I didn't think I'd ever have the courage/guts to do! I went on the ZIP LINE!!!! You reach up to speeds of 45mph, after you reach the place where you put the harness on and you look down (which you shouldn't do) it really scares you!!! I asked the guy if I didn't want to go down this way (on the zip) how I'd get down, he told me to hang onto the black straps (which are apart of the zip ride)... I said hahaha... Not funny!!! Well the guy on the other end of the radio told the guys where we were that he was ready for us to come down, so the operator on our end told us to say bye bye... I said bye bye, and the gate swung open, and Steve and I SWUNG FREE and DOWN the 110 foot drop! lol I will be honest, I screamed at first, however; IT WAS SO MUCH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!! So much so that we went right back up and did it again!!!! The rides closed down at 8pm, so we had a BBQ with his family , then went to the hot tub.

Today consisted of a very painful, sore muscle day at work, WANTED to DIE!! My arm, and my back are still in a lot of pain from the roller coaster! Stever told me he'd give me a back rub tonight, hope he still does! lol Tomorrow will be a big day at work, we are having our 1 year Anniversary Party/BBQ. And now I am off to bed!

Rain, Air Show, Rain, Scottish Festival and even more rain!

2009-06-14T20:35:00.003-06:00

First off, if you couldn't tell, it has been rainy down here in Utah. For the past two weeks now, or week and a half, we've had multiple storms come through. They've been nice, but some sun here and there would be great for our plants too! Last year we only had two rain storms, and I'm not exagerating. So yeah, these storms have been interesting, they remind me of Oregon.

Last weekend, George came up for the Hill Airforce Base airshow, with his squad. They flew their helicopter up from New Mexico, to show it off at the show and tell people what they do. There is one part of the helicopter that is used for refueling, except that looking at it you wouldn't know that is what it is for. It is this thing that looks like a probe on the front of the helicopter. Well they thought of a lot of different things to tell people what it was until they told them what it really was. The best one they told people (on Sunday), that Steve came up with was a flame thrower! lol! On Sunday, Steve, George and I went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, since it was the only day that George could get away. It was good being able to see him again, I hadn't seen him since I was 14.

This past weekend I went to Megan's baby shower; afterwards Steve and I went to the Scottish Festival down in Lehi, Utah. The weather was nice for the first 10 minutes that we were there, then the rain came... It poured cats and dogs!!!!!!!!! I did find out that the Dysart's came from the Fife District in Scotland, I am having problems find the Clan though.. I think it might be the Macfad clan or something like that....... It was a lot of fun though, I got a necklace from Red Dragon Glass, it is a red star, in clear glass. http://www.reddragonglass.com/ I also got some English candy bars, and a yellow blanket with a red dragon on it. Afterwards Steve, his Dad and I went to a small restaurant in Lehi/Alpine called Kneaders. They have wonderful homemade bread and baked goods there.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon 'Trailer'

2009-06-01T21:44:00.000-06:00

The Twilight Saga: New Moon 'Trailer'

Thunder Storms

2009-06-01T20:51:00.003-06:00

The first real summer storm of the year is happening outside right now, woohoo!! I love thunder/lightening storms! Last Saturday evening we got a little bit more than half of our tomato plants, squashes, and other veggies into the ground. We planted a lot of tomatoes, 41 plants (heirlooms, beef, romas, celebrity, yellow pear, and one other I can't remember), I love the way that heirlooms look, so I'm excited for them to pop up! This storm that we are getting will be very helpfull for the plants, and the grass that has turned brown.

On a downer, the head cook that I work with has swine flu (or so she thinks), and our grill person's daughter has it. So we are all kind of just crossing our fingers and hoping that the rest of us stay safe/unsick!

Back to a happier note, Wilson has been doing very well on his wireless fence. He won't jump the smaller fence to run the main fence and bark at people anymore. Infact for the most part he will run in a circle, bark a couple times, OR he'll just stand and watch the people, bikers, dogs walk by the house, which is very nice! This evening before the storm really started, I took him out so he could learn the front of the houses' boundries. He did pretty good, as soon as the beeping goes off he runs back towards the house. I know a lot of people may think that wireless fences are humane, but for Wilson and other dogs like Wilson, I think they are good. Wilson was getting out of control with racing up and down the fence, barking constantly at people, not listening to us. This fence calms him down, it allows him to not be able to run the fence and get so excited about chasing people. The other plus of him not being able to run the fence and get so excited, is if the gate was ever left open he would run out, and I know he would bite someone. So for Steve, Wilson & I this was a good $259 well spent/invested.

On another plus note *kind of*, Midnight, who has arthritis in her back legs has been jumping from the bed to the top of the dresser where we put Mowgli's dry food. Midnight really isn't able to jump things like that, it is probably 2 1/2 to 3 foot jump. So I'm glad she seems to be feeling better.

And one more, Mowgli has been chasing moths, I don't know where they come from, but they are small and she LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVES to chase after them in the room. She will stand against the wall and go after a mark, just to see if it is the moth.

Ice Cream Mania & Happy Memorial Day

2009-05-24T17:18:00.003-06:00

Last week I decided it would be fun to have a Memorial Day BBQ, with family & friends... Since I don't have many friends in the area, it is mainly just family. :) While Steve and I were talking over what to make, or I guess when I asked him if such and such sounded good, we both decided homemade ice cream would be good! However, our Cuisinart ice cream machine is in storage, so we new we'd either have to use his parents, which is expensive I guess. Or we could go and buy another ice cream machine, and thankfully since it is a HOLIDAY, there are wonderful sales so we were able to get our machine for $20 cheaper than what it usually costs. The ice cream maker we opted to buy ,is dutifully creaming my Raspberry/Marionberry chocolate swirled ice cream together right now, for tomorrow. My menu consists of the following:

BBQ Chicken (which I'm brining right now)
Homemade Mac and Cheese
Roasted Corn on the cob
Frog Eye Salad
Homemade brownies
Chips
Homemade Ice Cream : Peach, Raspberry/Marionberry fudge swirl, and mint chocolate chip
And of course we are having soda too!

So while you are all drooling over my menu, wishing you could be here to enjoy all the wonderful food, all I have to say to you, is maybe next year?! Have a WONDERFUL Memorial Day!

Distorted

2009-05-12T22:09:00.004-06:00

Here are a few of them!!!

WOOHOOO YIPPEE!!

2009-05-12T17:42:00.003-06:00

FINALLY!!!!! Steve and I got a brand spankin new HP Pavillion Laptop last week! Well the only downside was we COULD NOT get the internet to work on it!! >:( After calling Qwest and talking to someone from India, to calling the guy who helped set up the wireless router, and finally today being able to talk to someone online through the LINKSYS website we got it fixed!!! And we now have WIRELESS internet!! WOOOHOOO!! I am very happy, and will upload one of my funny pics from my new webcam/distorter!! :) --- MINUS that note, gotta go through the computer and find it first!

No More Teachers No More Books No More Teachers Dirty Looks!!

2009-05-03T08:18:00.002-06:00

Needless to say, SCHOOL is OUT!! WOOHOO!!! Between getting up at four in the morning Monday through Friday, and working 6am- 2:30pm, to going to school from 5:30pm to 7pm Monday through Thursday, I must say that we are both very exhausted and extremely happy that this semester is over.

All we have left to do is pick up our photography portfolio/documentary next Tuesday. Oh and the teacher wants a cd with a bunch of our photographs on it so he can post the photographs with our info on them, to the new Salt Lake Community College website for photography.

We aren't sure if we will be going back for the Fall semester this year, if we did we'd only be taking one class, and we wouldn't get financial aid if we took just the one class.. Right now we can't really afford to pay for tuition for two people out of our own pocket. There are a bunch of other things, and people we need to pay back/get debt off of our back right now.

On a happier note I am going to try to start getting our photographs from our last assignment up on our photography website. ( http://www.reesartandphotography.blogspot.com ) That way you can all take a gander at them.

These past two days have been kind of drizzly outside. Thankfully; I was able to give Wilson his first hair cut, just in time (before it rained)! If I can get a few photos of him I'll try to post them on here, I think he looks pretty good though!

On a sad note though, I'm not sure how much longer my cell phone is going to hang on to life. After we got home from work on Friday we threw our work clothes into the wash, I thought I had already taken my cell phone out of my work pants... Nope... Right after I threw my pants in and started the washer I knew the phone was still in my pants... So I quickly stopped the wash and pulled my phone out.. So far the little white square next to the battery hasn't turned pink yet (marking that the phone has gotten wet), but my phone keeps on having a mind of its own.. It will turn itself off, or say it is connected to the computer.. Neither of these things make me very happy. HOPEFULLY, it will last until October when my contract is up on the phone!!

Retarded project/classmates

2009-04-16T20:07:00.002-06:00

We had a class project in photography last week, this week it was due. We had to take photos to music; like with how the music inspired us.. Well Steven and I wanted to do landscape photographs, another great idea was planes soaring in the sky, but the later wouldn't have worked. We told our other two classmates/group our idea, they didn't really want to do that, and instead wanted to do DISHES.... yeah..... The song is called Disappointed, and if you have ever seen the movie "Whale Rider", it is from that. Anyway, our photo-song movie sucked! I wish I had the photo-movie on me so I could share it, but dang no such luck! Steve and I really weren't very happy about the whole DISHES subject, and I feel like re-doing the project and just handing it into the teacher and telling him this is what I really feel (photo-wise) when I hear the music. Oh another thing, they didn't even help putting the photo's together, when I asked them which photo's of theirs' they wanted in the movie they just said, oh just pick some out.. OK just me venting, and now I'm done! Thankfully this semester is just about over, and we can get over being stressed out with doing work,school, no sleep!

I really am going.....

2009-04-03T23:40:00.002-06:00

I really SHOULD go to bed since it is almost midnight, but I'm not going yet.. It's like Friday has come, and now it is basically over; furthermore I have no desire for it to end. These next few days are General Conference, AND on top of that we HAVE to study for our photography final which is on Tuesday, and write two papers for class on Monday. I really need just one more day during the week, where I can just SLEEP all day or be lazy all day.. Not have to work, or worry about school work.

Wilsy is sleeping next to me on the floor all cuddled up, I still need to get dog clippers so I can finish cutting his hairs.. And sometime soon we have to clip his grizzly bear nails.. He just gets SOOO .. oh whats a good word.... annoyed, mad, pissy, obnoxious .. FRUSTRATING !!! When we do try to clip them, it takes 3-4 people to clip his nails; one to clip them, two to hold him down, and one more person to give him treats, unless one of the two previous people can give him treats... And while his nails are being clipped, he trys to bite the clippers/attack them because he does NOT like his paws/nails being clipped... Wilson also likes to make noises that sound like we are torturing him, high pitched wails...He's good at making noises like that.. Almost like we are REALLY hurting him, cutting off a paw.. lol He's our DRAMA KING. SO for all you people out there that have children, and complain about what a pain it is to clip their nails, at least they aren't bitting you while you are doing it. And while I'm talking about clipping nails, that reminds me that the cats are due for their little razors to be clipped too!

Suprisingly he did very well when I did start cutting his hair with clippers last Saturday... So I'm hoping it wasn't just a ONE time thing.. lol

Ok.. REALLY am going to bed now!

Burnt Thumb

2009-04-02T05:46:00.000-06:00

So this morning I went to shut off my straight iron, and burnt my thumb in the process.. Now why couldn't it have been my left thumb?? WHY did it have to by my right!?!?!? It makes typing difficult. :( First time I've burnt myself on the straight iron, I got it for Christmas.. Well off to clock in!

Spring Break

2009-03-22T21:08:00.004-06:00

From the evening of the thirteenth of this month to tonight we have enjoyed our "SPRING BREAK"! WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! It consisted of hair cuts, laundry, homework, and a trip to Moab, and Arches National Park! Unfortunately spring break ends tonight, tomorrow it is back to the grind; work will start at the early hour of 6am, then school at 5:30pm.. Thankfully we still have Friday's with NO school, just work.

On Friday the 13th both Steven and I got our hair cut, we both badly needed hair cuts; I also colored my hair.. It needed to be fixed badly! At first when my stylist was cutting it I wasn't sure I would like it, because I didn't have my glasses on. Thankfully once I got my glasses on, everything looked GREAT! :) Later on that evening Steven and I quickly did our laundry.. Quickly ended around 3 in the morning; we ended up leaving for our trip to Moab around 9am the next day.

Saturday we reached Moab around 1pm, had lunch at Eddie McStiffs, then walked around Moab doing a little bit of shopping. I got a few Christmas tree ornaments that I'm excited to put up on the tree some Christmas in the future! Afterwards we headed to the camping cabin we stayed at, in the "Moab Valley RV Park"; the cabin we stayed at had a set of bunk beds, a queen bed and a full size bed. Cheryl and Wendi got the bunk beds, Steve and I had the queen, and when Ryan showed up on Sunday he got the full size bed, that everyone had dumped their things on.. lol

From Sunday to Wednesday we did hikes and off roading, in Arches National Park. Sunday we hiked Park Avenue, and did Balanced Rock; then went off roading for a half an hour. I'll be honest I got out of the car a few times; when the road ended and we had to go up a rock, and once when there were huge boulders sticking out the ground and we had to go down it.

Monday we hiked the Spectacles, Sand Dune Arch, Broken Arch, Skyline Arch and I think one other, but I honestly can't remember.

Tuesday started out fun, it was the day we did the Fiery Furnace Hike, guided by Cheryl & Wendi's "Ranger Rob", they were both gooey over him.. So of course we had to give them crap about it! :) Everything went fine on the trail, I didn't fall, even when I jumped from a rock to another rock that was I think two feet apart.. Scared the crap out of me, but I did it! I think shimming was fun (sp?) between the rocks. Unfortunately 15 minutes before our hike ended, Wendi slipped and fell on the rock stairs covered with sand. She sprained her ankle very very badly, and had to be carried out on a stretcher, then ended up going to the hospital.. Thankfully Wendi is OK! On Wednesday Cheryl, Ryan, Steven and I started out doing Devils Garden, I couldn't finish it because I felt sick and my lungs were bothering me; I made it to Landscape Arch, which was pretty. Steve and I hiked back to the car and waited for Cheryl and Ryan to finish the hike. The only hike we couldn't do, which is one of the best attractants for Arches, is Delicate Arch. So that means we'll have to go back down to Moab sometime soon (before summer) to hike Delicate Arch.

Thursday morning we stopped at Smitty's restaurant for breakfast, then headed home! These past few days we've been chilling, doing more laundry and homework!! woohoo!! One last thing we did was went to the movie "KNOWING" on Friday evening.. HORRIBLE movie!! DO NOT waste your time by seeing this movie!!!!!!!

We were also able to go to the Draper Temple Dedication today, which was neat.

Pay it Forward.....

2009-03-06T05:48:00.000-07:00

Pay It Forward...My sister's Candace and Becky are having a fun little game on their blogs. I'm playing along. So this is how it works - The first 3 people to leave a comment on this (my) post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. There's a small catch...You knew there would be didn't you? Post this on your blog then come back and leave a comment, telling me you're in. Fun, huh? Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift.
Come on! You know you want something from me!!

New Photo Assignment -- or Past I should say..

2009-02-22T21:29:00.005-07:00

So our past photo assignment, or assignment #3 was getting a CLOSE focus/depth of field on a subject.. Here are mine....

Class Photographs

2009-02-08T21:59:00.003-07:00

Here are some photographs I had to take last week for school. Enjoy! :)

School ....

2009-01-18T00:06:00.003-07:00

Finally after years of procrastination Steve and I are finally going to school.. Considering the fact we are both working full time, we are only taking 8 credit hours each..

So if by chance I don't write a TON or comment much on anyone's blogs etc.. I am working my butt off right now, in the process getting very little sleep as well.. Friday-Sunday are the best days to get in contact with me if needed... Unless I am doing homework.. lol

The two classes we are taking are Introduction to Photography and Writing... So far both classes are going much better than last semester, we are definitely enjoying them more than our aviation classes....

The only REAL mishap we've had was when we found out our digital camera wouldn't work for the class and Steve's film camera was somewhat broken.. Thankfully we were able to find a new camera body that works.. Hopefully we can eventually get the other fixed someday soon. Also would like to get a digital that would work for school..

I would also like to take a moment to thank Megan for being my proof reader! lol And taking the time to suffer and read through my poor writing skills!

I wish there were more hours in the day/night... especially for sleep!!!!!

Christmas Pictures

2009-01-10T11:55:00.004-07:00

Mowgli Playing with her food

2009-01-10T09:54:00.002-07:00

I'm not sure when it all started, Mowgli likes to play with her food. It is awfully funny to watch so Steve and I got it on video this morning... Thought I'd share it with everyone, enjoy!

The three stooges have it in for us

2009-01-08T17:23:00.005-07:00

First I must state that I love my animals, beasties.... I would hate to see anything ever happen to them, they are for Steve and I our children... I truly believe that animals act like children, or is it we feel that way because we treat them as such?? Hmm.. As of this morning Steve and I have decided that the three of them are in cahoots together to wake us up... Seeing as how Midight and Mowgli receive their food at 4am, Wilson receives his outside potty run and food at the same time of course... THEY KNOW, I do believe that they all have built in alarms.. Almost like time bombs getting ready to go off as soon as 4am or 5pm come along.. It's breakfast/dinner time! So yes THEY know!

This morning, the same as every Saturday and Sunday morning we were awaken by the three stooges...

STOOGE ONE
Stooge one (WILSON) will start off the morning by jumping up and down off the bed, or he lays on my or Steven's feet so that we cannot move them.... Or my favorite is when he comes up by my pillow, flings his body down onto the bed and scooches his boney butt into my back... Like "I" am in HIS way... It's like he's saying Hey you scoot over, this is my bed! Or he'll find pleasure in chasing the cats..

STOOGE TWO
Stooge two (Midnight) really isn't normally that bad.. unless she wants her food... Then we hear her meow..meow..meow... I do believe the number on thing that Steve and I do not appreciate is waking up to Stooge two licking our hair.. Yes licking our hair.... And she makes a noise while doing it.. Stooge two also jumps up and down off the bed constantly.

STOOGE THREE
Stooge three (Mowgli) will try and harass the other two... Jump up on the bed, then jump on the dresser, knock things around, scratch the bed, eat things she shouldn't, jump off the dresser.. Oh and I must say she likes to talk, Stooge three is a TALKER.. When she jumps up or down she'll make a noise.. Another thing we enjoy listening to on our Saturday morning sleep-in's are Stooge three scratching the sides of the litter box, playing with her water bowl.. Jumping up on the bed and walking all over me... I think the only thing she doesn't do is attack our feet.

This morning was not any different, we were woken between 6-7ish.... If not earlier.. Most likely they started their antics earlier... Between Wilson jumping up and down off the bed, chasing Midnight, which in turn made her jump up and down off the bed, to Mowgli scratching the sides of the bed, trying to eat the tape on the sides (put there in hopes of stopping them from scratching the bed.. no such luck)... It's almost like trying to sleep during a three ring circus.. Oh and they don't care if you go to bed late.. Not their problem.. Their clicking time bomb goes off at 4am!

Thursday was Steve's 28th birthday, so happy birthday to him! :) I'm making him his birthday dinner on Sunday, it will just be easier that way with work.. He's requested Mexican Style Pork and strawberry cake... What he doesn't know is I am going to make him the pork and the cake BUT will make it a strawberry margarita cake instead.. Also planning on making Mexican rice, chicken lime tortilla soup, fruit dip with assorted fruits, then having chips and salsa as well. Plus some virgin pina-coladas and strawberry margarita beverages.

Christmas Cookie Traditions

2008-12-23T11:27:00.001-07:00

Christmas is just a few short days away, and I am FINALLY in the process of making Christmas cookies.

I think one of my favorite memories growing up during Christmas is making Christmas cookies with my Mom. I'm so grateful for her; her ability, sacrifice and love she gave to me and my family growing up. For teaching me how to cook and bake, for the stories she'd tell and lessons she gave me. Even though now I might get a little irritated when she does give her two cents (when we cook together), I'm still grateful for it. I'm grateful I have someone I can talk to and still ask their advice for when I'm unsure about cooking or just in general. So in honor of what I feel are Christmas cookie traditions I'm making gingersnap cookies, snicker doodle cookies, peanut blossoms, sugar cookies, candy cane cookies, and to add a twist to a favorite, white chocolate chip cranberry cookies, and two new favorites, sour cream drops and chocolate mint thumb prints.

I'm also planning on making banana cream pie, cherry pie, chocolate cream pie and a strawberry pie.. YUUMMMM!

We got a rib eye roast for Christmas Eve dinner, we will be making yorkshire pudding, mashed red potatoes, brussel sprouts and frog eye salad for dinner.

Off to more cooking for me!

5 Years

2008-12-14T20:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Steve and I hit the five year marriage mark, time sure has flown by. In the past five years we've lived several different places, added a dog and two cats to our family. We've had our good times and our bad times, through it all I would never trade it, being with him for anything.

For our anniversary this year we went back up to Park City, where we went on our honeymoon. Steve took me out the night before to the Roof Restaurant at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We didn't think we were going to make it, the traffic downtown was horrible. We ended up parking at our ward parking lot, then ran down to the restaurant. Thankfully they ended up holding a table for us, we were a half an hour late. We weren't going to head up to Park City until Saturday, however there was a storm coming and we didn't want to be driving to Park City Saturday morning. So Friday night we headed up to Park City and stayed at the Best Western there. Saturday we headed over to the Marriott and finally arrived at it after some confusion as to which we were supposed to be at. After being lazy, ordering a pizza and watching some Christmas TV shows, we headed over to the Tanger outlet malls with our gift card and did some shopping. I got two new purses, and Steve got a watch. Afterwards we went and got some dinner at a place called Flippin Burgers.. Well I don't think we'll ever go back again, Steve and I both think the raspberry lemonade I got was spiked... It had a definite alcohol aroma to it and not that I've ever tasted alcohol, it tasted like what I would have imagined.. So that got thrown out.. After that "fun and interesting" experience we headed over to Cold Stone Creamery.. When Steve and I were on our honeymoon they just opened the first on main street in Park City, they were giving out FREE bowls of ice cream.. So for traditional reasons we had to go back. :) Stever got banana ice cream with raspberries mixed in, I got a mix of chocolate Ghirradelli, sweet cream and cinnamon ice cream with Reese's PB cups and hot fudge mixed in..

We got back home today, poor Wilsy, Midnight and Mowgli bear missed us. So now I am off to read a little bit more of Breaking Dawn and to eventually hit the hay before another work week starts off too soon.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T23:33:00.000-07:00

SO Just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! It's hard to believe that Turkey day is over and Christmas is quickly approaching, then the new year as well. Time sure does fly! Hope everyone had a great Turkey/Thanksgiving/should be wearing sweats instead of button up and zippered pants day! Gobble Gobble!

HAPPY HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

2008-10-31T21:41:00.000-06:00

October sure did fly by! Halloween is almost over, tomorrow November starts, then pretty soon it will be December and a whole new year!

Before I get started on pictures for Halloween, I've got to post the pics from Cheryl's birthday cake I made her. I told her I wanted to make her cake for her this year, it was her 30th birthday. So I asked her what she'd like, she jokingly told me a haunted house.. I said yeah right! Well after that I kind of felt like saying to myself "HEY?!?! Why couldn't you make it?!" SO I proceeded to look for ideas online, other cakes, pictures etc... I finally found one of a cartoon/coloring book page somewhere online. So this is the end product of the cake.. I made it with orange velvet, purple velvet and blue velvet cake. With a white chocolate cream cheese peppermint filling and a white chocolate ganache frosting. So here is my piece of art/cake :).

Now onto Halloween.. A few weeks ago Steve and I went to the Farmers Market at Pioneer Park downtown in SLC. While we were there I bought a large pumpkin, with an awesome stem of course. I finally got it carved tonight, I did Jack's face from the Nightmare before Christmas. As far as dressing up went, Steve dressed up as an Army guy, I dressed up as Alice from Twilight, we dressed Wilson up as a Mummy, and Merlin & Madi were M&M's.

So to keep in the spirit of Twilight/Vampires I got colored contacts to make my eyes a little golden. While it doesn't come through too well in the photos, it was pretty neat looking.

GNW Trip Part 2

2008-10-05T07:32:00.000-06:00

The following is my story for our trip last month.

The night of Tuesday the 16th we finally left the house around 8:45 pm-ish, stopped to get gas at a Tesoro, then had to stop at the Smith's grocery in Bountiful so Steve could get ambisol for his cankers. After that we FINALLY left! Between Ogden and Brigham City, there was this car kind of weaving in and out of his lane, almost hit us at one point.. So I had my eye on him, after he finally passed us I noticed a truck behind him, as the truck pulled up pass our car I noticed it wasn't any old truck, it was a Weber County Sheriff! I thought SCORE!! hehehe All my hopes and wishes came true, the guy that almost hit us got pulled over!

Cheryl made it to Burley driving, then Steve made it to Boise, then my turn was up and I made it to La Grande, after which Cheryl took back over and she made it to Yakima, then Steve drove to Seattle... I must say that central Washington is very pretty.. On the way towards Seattle we contemplated if we should take the ferry over to Bainbridge Island, or go all the way down towards Tacoma and back up 101 N... So I called my Dad to get his thoughts on the matter, he basically told me what I already thought. So it was into downtown Seattle to find the ferry for us... That wasn't fun I must say, between the arguing and one way roads however we finally found the freaking ferry! It was fun driving onto it, and crossing over.. I was also able to change my pj bottoms finally and put on my jeans.

We made it into Sequim around noon for breakfast. I got a Swedish pancake, Cheryl got the massive apple pancake, we split an omelet, Stever got a massive yogurt parfait. After breakfast we made our way to Bullman Beach (near Neah Bay). At that point I would have drove however I didn't sleep very much on the way up, so after Port Angeles I basically slept the rest of the way. Cheryl drove out to Bullman Beach, driving the 112 W can be nerve racking the first few times. I think we finally made it out there around 4-5pm... We had been planning on going to La Push & Cape Flattery that day, we were all too tired so decided to stay at the Inn... Which in the end was a good thing, there were Grey Whales right outside our window! So we all ran outside to watch them on the beach. Oh and before I forget we drove into Neah Bay to the grocery store, and got a few more things there.. While we were there I bought a couple of candy bars called Trufflehogs or Trufflepigs... They were so good! lol

Thursday morning was a little drizzly and pretty foggy, we made it back into Port Angeles, parked the car and took the Coho Ferry over to Victoria, BC. We shopped, walked around (a lot), went into Chinatown (and I guess if you are interested in eating it would have been neat, we weren't hungry though).. We also stopped at a soda fountain and got floats. Mine was a raspberry peach, Cheryl got an orangecicle, and Steve got a cola float.. Not sure how the others tasted, mine was pretty good though.. At that point it was 3 pm, and I could see the Coho Ferry boarding people.. I thought there was another ferry at 4:30pm... Should have known better.. The next one didn't leave until 7pm.. eek SO we had to find things to do for 4 hours... Not fun when everything closes early and everything is so expensive over there. We ended up going to the National Geographic (rip you off) Museum & IMAX.. We watched The Alps, or I should say I saw half of it since I fell asleep through it... To make a long story short we caught the ferry back over to the States at 7pm...

Friday was our day to check out, then we went to Cape Flattery and hiked to the Northwest Most Tip of the Continental US. When we got to the end of the trail there was a guide, she also had a scope so you could see the Stellar Seals out near the lighthouse which was pretty cool. Our way back up the trail the lighting was beautiful, so I took a lot of pictures.. To Steven's annoyment..

Before we left Cape Flattery I have to add that I had to use the restroom... BUT didn't want to use the outhouses..

We made it to La Push, and parked near the trail entrance to Second Beach... I should have just stopped at the gas station a 1/2 mile down the road to use the bathroom.. However at the time I didn't have to go anymore.. BUT when I got out of the car it all came back! So I walked down to the gas station and asked the clerk where their restrooms were... She looked at me very grumpily and told me they were in the back of the building.. OK goody.. So I QUICKLY walked back there and noticed there were 3... The first was closed, the second looked like someone had exploded in the toilet.. So yeah scarier beyond all reason, the third wasn't great but it was going to have to do.. I shut the door, and turned on the weird timer light... I should say DINGY light. QUICKLY did what I was there for, washed my hands, went to leave................................................................................................................................................................

............. I must say that all I really wanted to do was to get out of the bathroom as fast and quickly as humanly possible.. It felt like I was in some horror movie bathroom... Well even more so when my door would not open... AT ALL.. I made sure the lock was undone twice, I tried everything from shoving my body against the door, to pulling (trying) the door up and throwing my body against it.. I was hell bent on getting out of there, even if it meant busting the freaking door! After a few minutes I heard a couple girls talked outside, I knew I wasn't going to get out of the bathroom without help... So after swallowing my pride I said "Excuse me??" "Helloooo".. I might have even said Help... So embarrassing.. Finally Steven decided to come around the building to find out what was taking me forever... So grateful he did! He said there was some kind of lever he pulled on the door, which was NOT on my side of it.. Needless to say, I got OUT of HORROR Bathroom!!

After my oh so fun bathroom experience we decided to walk to 1st Beach, instead of trying to make it to 2nd. It was pretty, the sun was still shining. I think we must have stayed for a half an hour, then left. We stopped in Port Angeles for dinner at Tandys Restaurant. It's a pretty good Chinese Restaurant, my favorite is the nine flavored chicken.

We made it to The Days Inn, in Gresham at 12am, after checking in and taking in all of our luggage Steve and I drove out to Estacada to use my folk's iron.. After making my Mom jump (she didn't know we were going to be out there that night), talking with her, then giving the diggy dogs loves we left. I think we got 3 hours of sleep, then had to get back to get ready to go to the Temple. My folks picked Steve and I up around 7am, to go and do some of my Grandma's work. It was awesome being able to do it, and I can't wait to help finish the rest of it.

After getting back to our hotel we (well Steve fell to sleep), I didn't really.. We left around noon-ish and met my folks in Sandy at the Fred Meyers there. Our plan for the day was to drive the Fruit Loop (around Hood River), then stop at Calamity Janes for dinner. Which is basically what happened...

Sunday we had planned on going to church out in Estacada, but we all over slept so that didn't happen.. Instead we went to Multnomah Falls so Cheryl could see it, she'd never actually stopped and gotten out of the car to walk around it. Next time we'll have to hike up the trail. Later that evening we went out to eat with my family at the Olive Garden, the fire alarm went off 3 or 4 times.. Some kid pulled the lever for it. It was really good to see who I could see while we were there.

Monday morning we left for SLC, UT.. I think we arrived back home around 6:45ish pm. It was nice not to have to be on the road anymore.

..THE END..

Great Northwest Trip

2008-09-27T01:49:00.000-06:00

So to cut things short Steve, Cheryl & I recently took a trip to Neah Bay (WA), Victoria (BC), and the Portland Oregon area. I'll type up more later, I just wanted to get these pics posted.

I would also like to comment and say you can see more of my photographs at http://www.reesartandphotography.blogspot.com/ , I just recently added new photographs of Cape Flattery and First Beach in La Push, WA.

Happy Snappy Labor Day!

2008-08-31T23:17:00.000-06:00

We celebrated Wilson's 6th birthday this year, on the 10th (we normally do it on the 13th, but had other things going on that day, and wanted Wendi to be there for it). so I'll post some doggy barkday party pics . I made him white cupcakes with homemade strawberry frosting. He got yummy doggy treats, and three new toys for his birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILSON!

Wilson loves to help open his gifts!

Wilson is investigating his new deedle dude sharkie toy

Guarding his sharkie toy! Don't mess with him!!

And finally his happy pic! If you look close you can see that his tail is wagging! lol

I think it was two weeks ago, we took Wilson, Madi & Merlin (+ the family) up to Willard Bay. We threw the dog's water toys out into the bay, while the dogs went and retrieved them. The only diggy dog not allowed off the leash was Wilson, so I held onto him with the retractable leash. He absolutely LOVED it out there, however at first he wasn't too thrilled. Once he got going he didn't want to stop, he loved the seagulls as well.

Tomorrow is Labor Day, which is a BIG PLUS in my book!! I get it off, as does Steve, so we are super duper happy about that. Hence the reason I am AWAKE right now! lol

We played Ticket to Ride tonight, and of course I won! :) If you've never played it, you've got to! I've played Ticket to Ride, Ticket to Ride Europe, and Ticket to Ride Switzerland (online for that one). I really want to play the Ticket to Ride Marklin, that looks like a lot of fun to me.

Saturday Steve, his Mom, Cheryl & I went to the Farmers Market downtown, I bought some peaches, chocolate zuchini bread, and raspberry peach jam. All of which tastes wonderful. I am hoping we can go to Peach Days in Brigham City this weekend to buy more wonderful tasting peaches. However if we can't oh well. Later on Cheryl and I went out to Joe's Crab Shack with Natalie. We had a pretty good time, we laughed and felt embarrassed for the employees who had to dance during their dance times.. Sucky!!

Steve and I did start school on the 18th, but have decided to change our degrees and take photography instead. I love that I got the chance to somewhat fly a plane, I've decided though that I just don't have what I need to be able to become a pilot right now. That and going to work full time was just becoming too much.

Hmm.. Well not to blabber on, but we are having a wonderful storm outside right now.. We have probably only gotten one possibly two storms down here this year, so this storm we are having is really nice. It will be good for the plants, except my dahlias which it has basically blown over.

Spirit Lake

2008-08-17T14:27:00.000-06:00

On August 3rd Steve, his Mom, Cheryl & I went to Spirit Lake. We drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon and finally reached the lake, here are some pics I took. I will eventually be posting them on my Art and Photography website, but I don't have the time to do it right now.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-08-02T22:29:00.000-06:00

It feels like it's been a long day, but at the same time it doesn't. Yesterday Steve, Megan, Adam & I went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, then last night Megan and I went to the Breaking Dawn Party at Barnes & Noble. It was extremely packed with screaming teenage girls. However Megan and I had a good time (except when a girl knocked my white gummie Jamba Juice drink out of my hand, then didn't offer to help clean it & just took off.), we got our books finally at 1am. Went back to her house, first looked for the guys, then talked for a little bit until our hubby's came back from trying to be sneaky & spy on us at the party. I stayed up until 6am reading Breaking Dawn, then couldn't stay awake any longer, so I went to sleep.
I've been up since 11am now, and have read almost the entire book. Steve, his Mom, sister and I went to the California Pizza Kitchen for dinner, which was pretty good. Stever got me the Planet Earth DVD collection, then is planning on something else as well, I received a cookbook of cupcake recipes from Megan, called Cupcakes Galore. I am excited about making a few (a bunch really) of them! Then Steve's family got me a gift certificate to go and get a facial and pedicure.
Well I better get back to Breaking Dawn!
Oh yeah, and I'll be posting a few pics as well. One is of Megan and I with our Breaking Dawn Midnight Release Party shirts on, two are of the beasties, and one is of me from today. The one with Megan and I, I kind of look like a deer glaring in car headlights.

The End...

2008-07-28T16:39:00.000-06:00

So it is almost the end of July, and in a few short days I will officially be 25. I remember being little and thinking, I'll never be that old, or that is going to take FOREVER to be that old! lol It is amazing how quickly the years really do fly by.

A couple of weeks ago we took Wilson in, to get groomed.. For the most part I don't mind how they groomed him, but at the same time I absolutely hated the way they did his tail. I should have taken a picture of it. They shaved off just a small part of it, then left the rest of the hair long. So I couldn't stand it, and decided to take matters into my own hands, and shave off the rest of the hair that was on his tail. lol I think he looks pretty descent. However maybe next time we get him groomed, I will probably not have them keep his stomach long, and I won't have him cut quite so short.

This coming Friday my friend Megan, and I are going to the Breaking Dawn Midnight Release Party. I am sure there will be a million of screaming teenagers there, which won't be fun. But I am excited because it is the last book in the Twilight Saga, AND it is coming out on my birthday!!!! WOOOHOO! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!! hehe Plus I think it will be fun for Megan and I to go to at LEAST one of the Midnight Release parties together.

I finally have a few pics I can post of my dahlias, so I am happy about that. I bought 3 bulbs from Home Depot, and the bulbs had two plants basically, or stalks I guess I should say, come up out of the bulb. I've gotten a lot of pretty flowers off of them so far, hopefuly they will continue to bloom throughout the summer.

The 13th of August we normally celebrate Wilson's birthday on, plus it is they day that we got him (4 years ago). However this year we will have to do it on a different day, I am having a Cookie Lee Jewlery Party that day. So happy early 6 years to my Wilsy baby!!

Saturday night I invented a NEW chicken dish..

Pesto Chicken Rolls, with Alfredo Sauce

4 chicken breasts, pounded
4 TBSP Pesto, divided
4 TBSP Feta Cheese, divided
2 Eggs, beaten
1/2 c. seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 c. parmesan cheese
1 jar of your favorite alfredo sauce, I usually buy the Classico brand.. Although homemade is so much better. I think it is about 16 oz. ??
1 1/2 c. Mozzarella or Italian Cheese blend
oil for browning
toothpicks

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F & grease a cake pan. Take the pounded chicken and place 1 TBSP of pesto & 1 TBSP of feta cheese in the middle, roll up and stick together with toothpicks. Try not to let any of the pesto out of the chicken.

2. Quickly dip the rolled chicken in the egg, then breadcrumbs and cook in the skillet until browned on all sides. Place chicken in the cake pan and continue doing the same with the rest of the chicken. Pour alfredo sauce on top and cook for 50-60 minutes, covered. Add mozzarella/Italian chese blend the last 10 minutes of cooking

So besides all that fun stuff and reading my blabbering/typing I am going to go and lay down as I have a good ol'headache.

Happy Belated Fourth!

2008-07-06T17:01:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, I had a good one. My weekend started off on Thursday after I got off of work.. SORT OF...

First Steve and I stopped at the DLP (or could be DPL?? lol Can't remember) to change my drivers license to a Utah State license. That was a LONG experience, and a rather interesting one. First off let me explain that the tickets they give you there, have to do with what you are there for. So they had A-G going on, my lucky number.. Was F533.. Well about 1 and 1/2 hours into waiting I noticed all the sudden that my wonderful ticket (#F533) was no longer in my hands.. So of course I panicked a bit, thoughts went through my brain as to what in the world was going to happen if I didn't have my ticket, would they believe me if I didn't have it, that #F533 was really MY number!?!?!? So I dug through my purse 5 times, looked around on the floor, still no ticket. Steve and I then decided that we would wait and see if someone had the balls to go up and use MY ticket... Finally after 2 hours number F533 was called, and low and behold a couple walks up to the clerk, where my number was located. We walked got up from our seats, walked up behind them, Steve said to the guy, "now be honest, did you find that ticket on the floor." I think I might have pipped up and said F533 was our ticket, we lost it. The guy was all well.. yeah.. (kind of like in an oh I've been caught tone) The clerk kind of raised her eyebrow at him and asked if he had another ticket, which he said yes to, then she asked to see it, handed it back to him and told him to get back in line. She told us after the guy had left she was wondering WHY he had our number, because he wanted a duplicate license, and the number we had was for an out of state license/change. I was extremely happy she believed us, and EVEN happier when she told me I did not have to take the UT written exam again, since my old Utah license still hadn't expired in their system. So yippeee for me!! All I had to do was take a new picture.. Too bad that couldn't have waited until yesterday! lol

From there we drove over to the DMV to register our car, so now our car has UT license plates on it. Which will take a few weeks to get used to I think. We also got lucky going there since we arrived at the DMV at 4:31, it closed its doors at 5pm. Our wonderful ticket/number was called an hour later. I do however feel bad for the people working at the DMV, they get there at 8 am, the doors close at 5pm, but they have to wait until everyone it served, then they have to clean/count the money before they got home. Ew!

Friday the fourth Steve had to work early that morning, but arrived home at 8am. I got up around 8:30 and we went to the grocery store and bought some more dinner items, for the fourth of July. We had hamburgers, bbq chicken, and brawts, then fruit, fruit dip, chips, corn on the cob, soda and homemade strawberry ice cream. There were eight of us altogether, Steve's brother and his bro's girlfriend came up, along with another brother. Then everyone living at the house of course. We stayed outside on the patio to eat dinner, and watched the fireworks later on that day as well. I don' think I got to bed until 1am.

Yesterday I finally got my hair cut, after almost a year. I also got it colored, so now it is a darker brown with some violet hues. I really love it. Afterwards we went and did a little more shopping.

Currently it is semi hot/warm outside and I just want it to rain/thunder. Anyhow that was my weekend and I'm done blogging for the day!

Jamba Juice Old Recipes

2008-06-22T01:39:00.000-06:00

So I don't know if you've ever heard of the "Old Menu" for Jamba Juice, but once after looking for a similar recipe for the Peanut Butter Moo'd, I found that Jamba Juice had other older flavors. After reading many people talk about them, some saying they'd had them, other's talking about asking for them at Jamba and having the workers give them weird looks, I got the courage to ask the cashier/order taker at Jamba about them.

These drinks were taken off the menu because of the unhealthy sugar content, however they are freaking awesome & delicious! Today Steve and I tried for the very first time, the "White Gummy", and the "Pink Star." SOOO GOOD!

Flavor's Online I've heard about are:

White/red/pink/green/blue/chocolate gummy

strawberry/raspberry/pineapple dreaming

strawberry shortcake

peanut butter and jelly

Now and Later

Tropical Tango

Pacific Passion

Berry Depressing

Rainbow Sherbet

Blue topia

Skittles

Sour Patch Kid

Push Pop

Apple Pie

Key Lime

Rainbow Gummy

Pink Starburst

Save Me Jesus

Fruity Pebbles

Andre's Surprise

Orchid Oasis

Wilson, Midnight & Mowgli

2008-06-17T18:51:00.000-06:00

So last Friday, I think it was, we decided to (or I decided to) see how the dogs and the cats would do together at night.

Lately we've just had Wilson sleep with us, then Midnight & Mowgli sleep in the big kennel. So I let Mowgli out of the kennel, Midnight was already out sleeping with Steven, then let Wilson into the room.

Wilson immediately began trying to play with Mowgli, and come to find out Mowgli is the FIRST cat ever to NOT be afraid of Wilson. It's so funny, Mowgli will jump up and attack Wilson, go at his tail, try to pounce on him. Wilson loves all of it, he chases Mowgli around the room, & plays with her. Wilson also sleeps at night quite well without disturbing the cats, Midnight sleeps in her cat bed to get as far away from him as possible. Sometimes all three of them will sleep on the bed. Normally as stated above with Midnight sleeping as far away from Wilson as possible, and Mowgli and Wilson next to me. Anyway as Mowgli has gotten bigger I thought I'd share some more cute pictures of her, Wilson & Midnight.

Oh yes and Mowgli LOVES the laundry basket, we had to start to put it in the closet so she can't play with it.

This coming week we are going to get all of the animals taken care of so they will all be micro chipped (just Wilson is right now), clean teeth, spayed (for Mowgli, but not for another few months), and hips checked (Midnight). Plus any other shots they get to receive.

Minis Cupcakes

2008-06-14T01:39:00.000-06:00

In Salt Lake City, there is a bakery called Mini's Cupcakes, they are to die for!! My absolute favorite is "The Diva."

It is a RICH chocolate cupcake with PINK cream cheese frosting, so so very good!! My second favorite would have to be their "Nutella" Cupcake. If you ever happen to reach SLC for a visit, this is one place you do not want to miss out on! The only downside about the place is the parking, it's metered and on the street. But considering the wonderful cupcakes, it is so worth it!!

http://www.mini-cupcakes.com/

My Fav BBQ Sandwich

2008-06-14T01:30:00.000-06:00

Karen's Fav BBQ Sandwich

2 slices your favorite bread
Lloyds BBQ Chicken, Pork OR Beef (heated to package directions)
Favorite Cheese (I normally use cheddar), 3 slices
Butter

1. Turn on your broiler to low. Butter bread and stick under broiler to desired brownness.

2. Take bread out of oven and flip over so the unbroiled side is facing you, add two slices of your favorite cheese and stick back in the broiler until cheese is melted.

3. Add fav. BBQ'd meat, on top of melted cheese, with the last slice of cheese split in half and put on each slice of bread. Broil until cheese is melted again.

4. Take out of oven and assemble your sandwich, enjoy!!

Bacon, Red Onion & Tomato Spaghetti

2008-06-06T20:22:00.000-06:00

Prep: 5 Min, Cook: 20 Min

1 lb. uncooked spaghetti noodles
1 medium red onion, cut into thin strips
8 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 can (14 1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes with basil, garlic & oregano, undrained
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
Grated Parmesan, if desired

1. Cook spaghetti as pkg. directs.
2. While spaghetti is cooking, cook bacon in skillet over medium heat, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until partially crisp. Stir in onion. Cook, stirring occasionally until bacon is crisp, and onion is crisp tender; drain.
3. Drain spaghetti; return to saucepan. Stir in tomatoes, tomato sauce and red pepper. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until hot. Add bacon and onion, toss.

Calories: 305g(Fat Calories: 65g), Fat: 7g(Sat. Fat: 2g), Dietary Fiber: 4g

I made this for dinner the other night, it tasted SO GOOD!!!! Plus it was quick and easy to make!

New Job! Happy Happy Happy

2008-06-05T17:31:00.000-06:00

So I applied for a job as a Food Distribution Clerk out at an IHC facility last Tuesday(27th) or Wednesday(28th). Last Thursday I got a call from them to have me come in for an interview on Monday(2nd), they said they'd let me know mid-week. Today I got the phone call, with them offering me the job. So I am SUPER happy about finally having a job again.

I'm so very grateful to Heavenly Father for helping me get this job. I know because Steve & I have been going to church, paying our tithing, reading scriptures and doing the things that we need to be doing lately we have both been greatly blessed. These past few years we've basically been in-active in church weren't worth the strain, stress & problems we've had. We still have so much more growing and learning to do, but I finally feel like we are getting back to where we need to be. I know our trials we go through in this life will never be over, but I am so grateful that we are finally moving along. We both feel like a heavy weight has been lifted off our shoulders recently. I know that if we hadn't gone back to church and started to do the things that we should be doing things would have just gotten worse.

I go into orientation for the job on next Wednesday, which will be a long grueling 9 hours (I've done this before, not fun). Thankfuly they provide breakfast & lunch, plus I get paid for it. :) I think I'll probably either start next Thursday or the following Monday, I'll be getting paid $10.47 an hour. The plus about this job is it is strictly Mon-Fri., all morning/day hours.

So it's been a good day, and the week has gone by SUPERBLY fast! It feels like it should be Friday already! lol

Dinner Recipe

2008-05-28T12:49:00.000-06:00

Ingredients
1 cedar plank
1 1/2-2 lbs salmon
1/4 cup fresh basil
1/2 cup butter, softened
6-7 garlic clove, minced
salt & pepper
Directions
1Soak your cedar plank in water for 20 minutes, flipping over halfway through soak time.
2While the plank is soaking, mix together butter, basil and minched garlic cloves, spread on salmon.
3Salt and pepper to taste.
4Heat your grill to low, or the right setting for your grill for fish.
5Take your cedar plank out of the water and place the salmon on top of the plank. Place it on the grill and cook for 20-40 minutes depending on how thick your salmon is.Grill with the lid closed.
6During the cooking time, if the plank catches on fire, spray it with water.
7Salmon is done cooking, when it flakes easily with a fork.
8*Note: Whenever I make this it normally takes around 30-45 minutes to cook on the grill. I constantly check it to make sure the plank doesn't burn & the salmon doesn't over cook.
9Make sure you have water on hand to spray the cedar plank with, so it doesn't catch on fire.

My Favorite Recipes

2008-05-28T12:47:00.000-06:00

So I've decided to start posting my favorite recipes, if you happen to try them, let me know what you think! Most of them won't be ones that I created, but that doesn't mean I love them any less! lol So enjoy!!

Mowgli Update & Photograph sold!

2008-05-24T01:03:00.000-06:00

May 25 (26th if you want to get technical), 2008
So NEW update! We brought Mowgli home on Saturday, she is such a spitfire! She loves to shoot and jump around the room. Wilson is very interested in her, to say the least! lol

I came home last night to find I had sold a photograph, so I am SUPER happy about that!! I sold "Sunlight in the Forest", from my Etsy account. woohoo!

Well it's been a long day, with visiting & placing flowers on graves so it's off to bed for me and Willy Nelson!

**********************************************************************************
May 24,2008
So we should be bringing Mowgli home within the next week or so. And SUPRISE! Mowgli is a girl! lol

We did think about changing her name to Annie, but have decided Mowgli just fits her better. She is in that kitten stage where nothing scares her, she loves climbing, jumping and shooting around the room as quickly as possible. Lately she has been going after Madi's (a female golden retriever) tail, or anything possible. She and Madi are so cute playing together, I'll have to see if I can get a picture of it sometime.

Passed

2008-04-24T12:23:00.001-06:00

Woohoo! Finally after 8 years I took my GED yesterday, I was told I wouldn't find out the scores until tomorrow. Last night I got an e-mail telling me that my scores had been updated, so I checked and everything except my Language Arts/Writing test had been scored. I didn't know if maybe that would take until tomorrow, but decided to check again today. It had been graded and I passed! So I am very happy about that, now this is something I don't have to worry about anymore.

The Grand Wash Trail

2008-04-21T12:00:00.000-06:00

Yes I fell on my butt.....

The Grand Wash was a fun trail, and of course my whole hiking experience wouldn't have been complete if I hadn't fallen on my behind. I figured it was bound to happen sooner or later!

Hickman Bridge Trail

2008-04-21T11:44:00.000-06:00

Goosenecks Point, The Castle & Petroglyphs

2008-04-21T11:21:00.000-06:00

Me infront of Castle Rock

The Petroglyphs

Goosenecks

Rock Formation at Goosenecks

Cheryl & Steven at Goosenecks Point Lookout

The Castle

Steve & I at Goosenecks Point Trail head

Steven & Cheryl at Goosenecks Point Trail head

Cheryl & I at Goosenecks Point Trail head

A tree along Goosenecks Point Trail

Cheryl & I at Goosenecks Point Lookout

Capitol Reef National Park

2008-04-20T20:14:00.000-06:00

CHIMNEY ROCK

GOOSENECKS POINT TRAIL HEAD

THE CASTLE

So Capitol Reef was awesome, it was warm, windy and very red! I felt like I should be on Mars!! lol We left early Saturday morning at 5:30am, stopped for gas and then we were off! We stopped in Bicknell, UT for breakfast at the Sunglow Cafe & Motel. They are famous for their pickle & pinto bean pie.. Needless to say I didn't try it.. :) I guess I am just not that brave!! The food was pretty good & the service was great. We reached CRNP around 9:30-10ish, stopped at the Gooseneck Trail first, I also got a picture of Chimney Rock while we were there. Afterwards we stopped at the lookout point for Castle Rock and we got a few pictures of that as well. However after we stopped at the Visitor Center, I think you can get a MUCH better picture of Castle Rock from that point. Later on we stopped at the Petroglyphs, went to our cabin then came back and did the Hickman Bridge Trail. Our last trail of the day was Sunset Point. We got back to the cabin that evening ate dinner, then passed out. I had been awake since 4am, and had only gotten 3 hours of sleep. Sunday we got up at breakfast and got ready, then went and did the Grand Wash Trail.

We went on the following trails; Gooseneck, Hickman Bridge, Sunset Point, and Grand Wash. The Hickman Bridge trail was by far my favorite, the Grand Wash trail was also very pretty. We ran into the most wind on the Grand Wash trail, it was so windy at certain points that the wind sounded like water. My not so favorite part of the Grand Wash trail was the wind blowing sand into our eyes.

Altogether we had a great time, we stayed at the Pine Shadow Cabins in Teasdale. The cabins were very nice and spacious, we had a small kitchenette, a back porch/patio area & the other amenities that come with a hotel. And the best part of all is they weren't expensive, and the couple that owned the place were EXTREMELY NICE.

I'll post some pictures here and more pics on a different page.

Capitol Reef National Park

2008-04-19T00:37:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow I am going with my family to Capitol Reef National Park, we are all pretty excited to go. I should really get to sleep as we are leaving at 4-4:30am. Today (yesterday now) was a very long day. I cleaned the living room, kitchen and bathroom, then went grocery shopping for the trip. I made Chicken Crescent Bundles for dinner tomorrow, and I also made some Nutra Grain Bars (Strawberry). So yeah besides that and making a few other things for the next couple of days and getting things ready to go not too much else is happening. I'll post some pictures when I get back! :) Everyone have a great weekend!! :)

Mowgli

2008-04-14T18:05:00.001-06:00

So the sun is out and it has been so windy today. Steve and I are adopting a baby... lol A KITTEN.. Right now he is only a 1 1/2 - 2 weeks old , and he is with his foster Mama. We will probably get him in the next 3-5 weeks, so we are super excited. We've picked out a name for him, Mowgli. We aren't positive on his breed, but believe he is partially siamese.

Our check engine light in our car came on the other day, which didn't make us too happy.... Hopefuly nothing too serious is wrong! :) I cleaned out the electric grill today and in the process dropped the grilling wire on my foot... It landed on my big toe, which did NOT feel good! Besides that nothing else is really happening!

My Beautiful Photography

2008-03-26T09:58:00.001-06:00

Since I know everyone is dying to see my Photography, I thought I'd post some pictures! :) Enjoy looking!

WooHoo!! A first Post!

2008-03-26T09:03:00.000-06:00

A little about myself; Steve and I have been married for 5 years this coming December. So yeah we've almost reached the 5 year mark but not quite.

We met in August of 1999 and finally hooked up June of 2000 and have been together ever since. Steve served his mission in the Edmonton, then the Calgary Alberta Canada Mission when they switched the mission lines; from Fall 2000 - Summer 2002. While he served his mission, we wrote back and forth while I waited for him. Steve loved his mission and misses the area.

While I waited for him I worked at different jobs and moved to Utah, the summer of 2001. While I was living in UT I worked at ZSC Parking and had the opportunity to be in Salt Lake City during the Olympics. I was downtown on South Temple the night they ran the Olympic torch up the fronts of the Church Administration Building. I loved the Olympics, it was a blast to be in the same city where they were being hosted. I also had the experience to learn what living with roommates was like, I got to go dog sledding (which was awesome), I hiked Mt. Olympus, and met my best friend Megan. After all that excitement I moved back to Oregon.

After Steve came home the end of August 2002, I moved back down to SLC for a short time and worked with him at the Church Conference Center. We strung lights on all the fake Christmas trees, for the Walter Cronkite/Christmas Special in 2002. The end of 2002, on New Years Eve Steve proposed and we got married almost a year later, on Dec. 13, 2003 in the Salt Lake City Temple.

We have an adorable 5 year old English Springer Spaniel named Wilson and his seeestor (as Wilson would say, if he could) Midnight, a black cat. Of course they don't get along... Wilson wishes constantly that his seeestor would give him a chance, unfortunately Midnight doesn't feel the same family connection.. I think she probably thinks of him more so as... "That hairy beast"

We rescued Wilson from English Springer Rescue (http://www.springerrescue.org/), he has been a challenge & we've been through a lot with him.. Wilson has a mind of his own and loves to cause mischief, he is our "counter surfer, garbage thief, houdini, wants his own way, willy willy lump lump froggy doggie." We love him to death.

Midnight has been in my family since she was born, she was originally Becky's cat, then when Becky moved out was passed onto me. I wasn't able to actually move her with me until just recently, so I am finally relieved to know she isn't outside anymore. I am grateful for my family watching her while I was gone. She turns 12 next month but doesn't act like it. Midnight has always been a cat that loves to be held, or cause mischief... She will purposely knock things off a dresser or shelf just to get your attention, or if she is bored. If she had a choice, she wouldn't be a "seeestor"..

Steve and I currently reside in Salt Lake City, UT... How long will we be here?? Who knows?!
Steve is working at the Hospital in Murray and I am an "aspiring" photography/artist. I am also looking for a job.. lol