Danny and Melanie

My Birthday Boy!!

2010-10-08T22:30:00.001-07:00

My amazing husband had a birthday last Tuesday on September 28. We spent the night out and had dinner down at the Gateway at Tucanos, which is a Brazilian steakhouse for those of you who don't know. So of course its one of Danny's favorite places to go since he served his mission in Brazil, plus its all you can eat meat so of course he loves it. Also an FYI to you all, I guess you can go to the Tucanos website and sign up to be on their birthday club. They send you a postcard for your birthday that you can go any time during your birthday month and buy one meal get one free. Danny had signed both of us up for it so we were able to use it on his birthday and get both our meals for 20 bucks before tax and tip and stuff. So it is an awesome deal and I suggest if you like a good steakhouse meal you should go sign up for it. It's delicious! Here's the handsome birthday boy at Tucanos! He's such a stud!
When we got home he got to open my presents to him
I wasn't going to put up all of the pictures of what I got him, but then I decided it was more fun to show you rather than just tell you!
He got a brown polo from AeroHaha and I think this picture is just funny and cute of him
MLB 2010 for his Playstation 3

Iron Man 2, the Blu Ray, DVD and Digital copy

A button-up shirt from Kohls that he had liked

I made him open this one last because I knew that it would be his favorite and that he would have no idea he was getting it. You can't see it very well in the picture but it is Fifa Soccer 2011 for his PS3. Every time we went to a store for the last like 5 months he would go look at Fifa Soccer 2010 and would always talk about how he wanted it so bad, but he would never just buy it. So when I was trying to figure out what to get him for his birthday I was trying to find a good deal on it and realized that the 2011 version was coming out on his birthday. So I was really excited because he had no idea that the new one was coming out for his birthday. And I'm pretty sure I ended up being right that it was his favorite present. He has played it almost every day since he got it and he is already like way good at it. Haha.

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It was lots of fun to get to spend the day celebrating Danny and his birthday. I pretty much have the most amazing husband in the world. He is such a sweetheart and I love him so much. I don't know what I would do without him. I have the cutest story about him to show just how amazing he is. I have been meaning to post about this for weeks, but I haven't been good at blogging again. So several weeks ago at work I was having a really crazy and stressful day. I had 2 members that had come in with problems that took me forever to work out with them, and then another one that came in that wanted to do an international wire transfer right before close that turned out to be a disaster. So anyways it was just one of those days that I just couldn't wait to get the heck out of there. Well I hadn't talked to Danny at all that afternoon because I was so busy at work. So he didn't even know that I was having a crummy day. So when I finally got home I was very surprised that he had bought me flowers for no reason at all. They were sitting on my counter. It was like the sweetest thing ever. And it couldn't have happened on a better day cuz I was in such a bad mood and it was just so sweet that it made my night turn right around. That was the day he also bought the wall hangings for the baby's room that I had wanted, which I talked about in my last post. I didn't get those for a few days, but it was just so sweet of him to even think to get me flowers or those, cuz he had no reason to do it. He is just amazing like that. I love him so much! And there are so many days I will come home from work and he will have straightened the apartment or cooked dinner, or the other day I got home and he had bought me a donut from Beyond Glazed (which I am pregnant so of course treats are very exciting for me). He's just adorable and I am so happy that he is mine!

Here is a picture of me with the flowers

And one with him and the flowers... Haha I love that he is such a goof

Just another angle of the flowers. They were so pretty and they didn't die for like 2 weeks so they were fun and cheerful to have around the house.

Soon To Be Nursery

2010-09-16T17:49:00.001-07:00

So since we are still in our one bedroom apartment we haven't been able to set up our nursery yet. But we have bought some of the main things for it and I am so excited about them I have to put them on here so that everyone can see them now... Haha.

I had to get both of my photos from Amazon.

So this is the crib that we bought. We don't have the other furniture, just the crib. We bought it at Costco and it is a Child Craft and has a dark brown espresso finish, even though in the picture it looks black. We got an awesome deal on it so we are way excited about it.
This is the bedding that we got. We got it off Ebay for a way good deal as well. It is made by JoJo Designs. They had so many super cute bed sets but this is the one that we decided to go with. It came with 9 pieces- the comforter, bumper, crib sheet, crib skirt, diaper stacker, toy bag, decorative pillow, and 2 window valences. And then Danny, being the cute husband he is, bought me the 3 wall square decorations! I just can't wait to get to set it all up!

Grandpa Anderson's Funeral

2010-09-13T18:07:00.000-07:00

Danny's grandpa on his mom's side passed away on August 31st. He had been doing dialysis for over a year and decided that he didn't want to do it anymore. So he stopped doing dialysis about 2 weeks before he passed away. He was a real sweetheart and he will definitely be missed. I met Grandpa Anderson around 4 and a half years ago and though I didn't know him very well, I am very glad I got to know him. Especially because without him I wouldn't have gotten my amazing husband. We were very lucky and grateful to get to go spend an evening with him right after he quit dialysis. I was especially grateful that Danny was able to get that time with him. And it was kind of fun because during our talk with him we put it together that he had been friends with and had worked with my best friend from high school's grandpa. It's such a small world. Here is a picture of me and Danny with Grandpa and Grandma Anderson at our wedding
His funeral was last Wednesday, September 8. There was a great service and then these pictures were all at the cemetary, Wasatch Lawns.

The grandsons were the pallbearers

Me and Danny

Me and Kaylee... Ya it was windy and hard to keep my dress down! Haha

24-26 Weeks

2010-09-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

Well today I am 26 weeks along. I have been meaning to update this for a few weeks but I hadn't gotten around to it until now. I have been feeling pretty good for the last little while so that has been nice. Thanks to everyone for the tips on my last post, I have only gotten a couple of charlie horses since and they have been very mild. The only thing that's been kind of a bummer is that I haven't been sleeping the best. I usually wake up several times a night. Most of the time I am able to fall right back to sleep, but some nights it takes awhile and I wake up pretty exhausted. But I figure it's just practice for when the baby gets here right? Haha. I am starting to feel her a lot more, so I am loving that. Some days I swear she is the most active baby in the world cuz I will feel her so much. But then other days I will hardly feel her. So it's kind of funny. I can't wait for her to come so that I can see her and get to know her personality better. Danny has gotten to feel her lots of times now and it is always really fun when he feels her because he gets so excited about it and talks about how much he loves her already. It is really cute. We are definitely getting excited!This is me at 24 weeks, people can definitely tell I am pregnant now!
So during my 24th week we were able to get another ultrasound with my doctor. This is a new ultrasound machine that they got up at Alta View and it has 4D capabilities which you will see in later pictures. It was fun to be able to see her again.

This first one shows her heart rate.
This is a cross section of her skull that they measured. It is still showing her about a week further along.

This is a cross section of her abdomen. These measurements show her more than 2 weeks further along, but my doctor thinks that she didn't have the best angle on it so its probably not a correct measurement.

Here is her femur. This measurement shows her about a week further along too. I hope that means she comes that soon. Haha

More proof that she is a girl.. Haha

I believe that this is a fist, but I can't remember for sure.

Here's a cute little foot!

Here's her face

So these are the 4D images that we got. They tried to get her face, but she wasn't being very cooperative and her arm was covering most of it. We did get to see one of her eyes and her nose but they weren't able to save the picture in time. But it was awesome to get to see that at least. Danny thinks her nose looked like our nephew Braxton's nose! So it will be fun to see if that's true when she comes out.

So this picture shows her bum and legs. You can see her little fist going up to her mouth too. And my favorite part is how you can see her little feet are crossed at the ankles. It is just so adorable to me!

This just shows the same thing, but it's not quite as clear. But these pictures are just so fun. it's crazy to be able to see her like this. It makes me even more excited for her to actually come.

20 Weeks

2010-07-24T11:53:00.001-07:00

Well today I am 20 weeks 4 days along. My belly is starting to get bigger and show more and I am feeling her move a little more in there, still not on a regular basis though. I have been feeling pretty good, the only thing that I can really complain about is always having heartburn, especially when I lay down to go to sleep, and there have been a few nights in the last week or so when I wake up in the middle of the night with super painful charlie horses in my right leg and foot. There are three places that keep seizing up on me, my calf, a muscle that runs up the right side of my leg which causes my foot to turn out into a way painful position, and then the arch of my foot. I always wake up and just one of the muscles is tight but the longer it takes to get rid of it, the others start seizing up too. I'll get one to relax and another will start up. It gets worse when more than one of them is seized up at the same time. And its unbearable when all three are at the same time. It puts my foot in a position that I know it is not supoosed to be in. The first time I had one of these episodes was right after Danny left for work one day. And I hurt so bad I was bawling for like 5 minutes because no matter what I did I couldn't get it to stop. And then it happened again last night and Danny was actually here so he would start rubbing where it was and at least for the most part they weren't seizing simultaneously. But they still did a couple times... I've been trying to get better at getting potassium and such, but I guess it hasn't been quite enough. But if any of you moms have had this happen and know of some trick or secret to avoiding this I would love to hear it!! But besides that, things have been going great! We are getting more and more excited the further along I get!Here is a 20 week picture!

So a day before 19 weeks I had my ultrasound through the doctors office. I was not very impressed with the experience. We did it at the Alta View radiology center. I think one of the hardest things there is that the only screen they have is the screen the tech is looking at and the way they have it positioned makes it hard for the mom the see whats on the screen. But I was mostly not impressed with the tech that did it. She really wasn't friendly at all. I understand that its important to get your job done quickly and effectively but that doesn't mean that there aren't some very excited future parents who are happy to see their baby, the least you could do is act like its important for those people. I don't know, maybe she doesn't like her job. But personally I think it would be such a fun job, because having a baby is exciting! I was going to go into ultrasound, but it was such a hard program to get into. But I still think if I ever were to go back to school that would be top of my list on what I would want to do. But anyways, we were just really glad that we found out our baby's sex at the Fetal Studio. The guy there was so nice and he seemed so excited for us. This girl didn't even know we already knew and when she told us you would have thought she was telling us we were giving birth to a tumor or something. I posted something on Facebook after I got home about how it wasn't a very good experience and a friend who is also pregnant said she had like the same experience when she went just a few weeks before. They hadn't known what they were having and she said it was really hard to get excited when the lady told them because she was so awnry about it... But you know, no matter what it was just fun to see our baby again and I am just glad our 1st ultrasound experience was better! Here is her cute little profile again! We just love her little nose so much!

Here you can see her face

Bottom of the left foot! :)

And now of the right...

Here's her knees, legs and feet. And at the right of the picture you can see the top of her head. She has her knees up in her chest and she's curled in a little ball.

Here you can see her curled in a ball again but it's from the side angle. On the right you can see her head and then the spine curls up around the top and then her legs are tucked up to her chest. She's just so adorable huh? Haha

Baby Update

2010-06-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

Well I had my 16 week appointment yesterday and everything went great. The baby's heart sounds great and everything seems to be going great. So we are very excited about that. So our official doctor ultrasound is set up for July 12, so 3 weeks from yesterday. Even though we already know that we are having a sweet little girl we still can't wait to see more pictures of her and see her move around again! :)

On another fun note, we are like 75% sure that I felt our baby move last night for the first time. It was kinda funny because me and Danny were looking at things on the internet about what's going on with baby now that she's 16 weeks and one of the things that it was talking about was that I might start feeling her move. So then we were talking about how I haven't and that from what we have heard it usually takes a couple more weeks for first time mommys. So then I started looking at other websites that were telling me that she is approximately the size of an avocado and is about 4.6 inches long. Well as I was looking at it I suddenly felt this weird flutter in my stomach. The best way I can describe it is that it kinda felt like when you are at Lagoon and your stomach kinda flips when you are riding a ride, but it was lower and not as intense as a feeling. So then I was like Oh, and grabbed my stomach because it had come out of nowhere. It didn't hurt but at the same time it wasn't the most pleasant feeling either. But it only lasted a second so I really didn't think anything of it. But then within 30 seconds I felt it again with the same reaction. So I jokingly told Danny, Maybe it's the baby. But then it happened again a few moments later and then for a 4th time and at that point I was really starting to think that it was. So I called my sister and asked her if thats what it would feel like. Well after talking for a few minutes she said that it sounded to her that most likely I was feeling our baby! So anyways we aren't positive that I did but we are pretty sure it probably was. So that was a lot of fun. I can't wait til when I start feeling her more on a regular basis and also for when Danny will be able to feel her move and kick around in there. He is so cute about all of this. I have the sweetest husband ever! He is always talking to and kissing my tummy. And he is just so excited for when our little girl gets here!

It's A......

2010-06-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

Girl!! Well we are a little shocked, at least I am. I was positive that it was a boy, but I was wrong. But I am so so so so so excited to have a little girl! We couldn't be happier! So anyways I am 14 and a half weeks and we just couldn't wait til 20 weeks to find out so we went to the Fetal Studio at the mall yesterday afternoon and got this ultrasound done. Our technician was from Lithuania. He was an OB GYN there for 15 years and then he moved here 9 years ago to be with his 2 daughters that live here. We realize that there is a small possibility that it might not be a girl for sure since I am still only 14 and a half weeks, but he was extremely well qualified and he was very sure from these pictures that its a girl. It was a really cool experience to watch her move around in there. So cute! We can't wait for when she will arrive! So this is the first still shot he took. The first thing he said when he saw it was look at the cute little nose! And then he said Looks like a girl to me. Which we still can't decide if we think that he was joking or if he could really tell that she looked more like a girl. We had already listened to the heartbeat so maybe he was just already suspecting it was a girl from that, who knows!
This is my favorite picture of them all. I also think it shows the best and most clear profile of her. But you can see that she has her fingers in her mouth. I just think it is so adorable! I hope that means she will take a binky!

This is another profile that he got. But it's not as clear as the other two.

So this picture is taken from the top angle. At the right you can see her brain through her skull. Then you can see her eyes and nose and chin. And then you can see her individual fingers and she has them up to her mouth again.

This is just another one from above that kinda shows her face again.

And here are the deciding ones! This one shows her little bum and legs. The guy was so funny. He says See, no pee pee. Haha.

This is showing the side angle of her legs and belly. You can kinda see a horizontal white line where her leg is coming out of her body. So I guess if thats how it looks its a girl and if it was a boy it would be poking out more vertically between the leg and the body.

So there you have it! Our adorable little girl! We are so excited! So things are going pretty well. I was feeling pretty good through my 1st 12 weeks. There were waves of nausea, especially at night time but they were never bad enough that I wanted to throw up. The only time I did throw up I was feeling just fine but I gagged myself while I was brushing my teeth. Haha. But then 12 weeks came and I have been getting pretty sick. My allergies decided to pick up hard core. And it makes me cough, which in turn gags me. So now I have thrown up one more time is all, which I feel really lucky about, but of course it still sucks. But I have been fighting serious nausea a lot. I am hoping the cough end soon and I start feeling better. But I am very grateful still because I feel very lucky that I have not been super sick the whole time. I know I have been very lucky! So that is whats going on with me. Just getting really excited to welcome our little girl here! :)

Exciting News!!!

2010-05-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

Well as you might be able to tell from the picture at the side of my blog that me and Danny are expecting our first baby on December 8. We are so excited to have a little baby of our own! In the last week both my sister and my sister in law had little baby boys and since we knew we are pregnant its been so much fun to see them and know that we will have one of our own soon.

Newest Member Of Our Family

2010-03-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight me and Danny drove up to Providence, Utah to look at some puppies. We had been looking at puppies online and when we saw these next couple pictures on KSL we just couldn't resist their cute little faces. So we drove the hour and half to meet them. They are mini schnauzers and look a lot like Danny's parents dogs Reggie and Harlie and they are 6 weeks old today. There were 3 males and 1 female. 2 of the males were pure black and then the other male and the female are salt and pepper. After playing with them for a long time we chose the small black male. He is 4 pound 3 ounces right now. Unfortunately we won't be able to get him until April 2, possibly a little earlier if the vet says he is ready. We can't wait to get him! So now we just have to decide on a name! We need your opinions. We have narrowed it down to 3 names. We like Brewer a lot. And then we like the name Wrigley and we could call him Wrigs for short. And then we like Remington and we would call him Remmie. This is a picture that was posted on KSL. We are not sure if it is our little guy or if it is his brother but either way it looks just like him. Isn't he adorable?
This one was posted too, so once again we don't know if it is for sure him. But this is what the salt and pepper ones look like. They were really cute too!

Here he is with Danny! He is so little!!!

Here he is with his new mommy!

So what do you think? Brewer, Wrigley or Remmie??

Las Vegas & Nickel Mania

2010-03-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

2 weekends ago me and Danny went down to St. George and Las Vegas. We drove to St. George Thursday night and slept at my grandma's house and then got up Friday and went to Vegas. We spent the whole day shopping and then spent a couple hours on the strip that evening before heading back to St. George. My parents and younger brother and sister had come to St. George Friday so we spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with them in St. George. It was a nice little trip and it was great to just get away for a few days!Me and Danny during the Bellagio show, our favorite thing to watch while we are in Vegas.
Just passing time between Bellagio shows

So this last weekend Michelle and Alec came down from Logan and we ended up going to Nickel Mania with them and Alec's friend Ben and his fiance Mary. It was a total blast from the past and we all felt like 8 year olds again. It was so much fun! Here is Danny playing some basketball game that he loved as a kid and was super excited when he saw they had it! Haha

Me and Michelle racing. This one was way fun!

Then the boys took a turn

So this machine is like the funnest thing to watch. On our honeymoon they had one of these in the casino and me and Danny sat and watched people play it when we would get bored. You insert your coins and try to get the coins at the edge to fall off the edge. Well we found one at Nickel Mania and Alec spent a good while giving it a go. And of course I just sat and watched forever. It is just so interesting to me. Haha

Me and Michelle after we had all spent all of our nickels. Funny side note- I am pretty sure that this was the first time I had even seen Michelle in her glasses. After living together a whole year I am really not sure how that could be, but there you have it.

After Nickel Mania we went and watched a movie at Ben's house. Michelle and Alec rented Surrogates, which I hadn't had much desire to see from watching the previews. But I ended up actually enjoying the show. It is one of the ones that you have to think in, and I always like shows like that. It was fun to get to spend the night with them! And the cool thing is that we have gotten to spend lots of time with them lately since they have been to Salt Lake several times in the last couple weeks and we also were up in Logan once too. Hooray it makes me happy and its always lots of fun! Love you guys!

Jazz Games

2010-02-05T11:12:00.001-08:00

Danny's parents have half season tickets to Jazz games so we have been able to go to lots of the games this year. It has been a lot of fun! We have been able to go to lots of big games and it's been awesome! These next few pictures were at the Lakers game that we won! It was such a good game. So this year the Jazz have been playing in these green and yellow retro jerseys. Danny fell in love with them the first time he saw them and really wanted one. So when he got his Christmas bonus he went and bought him one. So we went to this Lakers game and we had been wanting to get me a Jazz shirt or somthing so at half time we went to the Fanzz at the ESA and he ended up getting me a retro jersey too. Well I was wearing a turquoise plaid button up and I was not about to wear this green jersey over it. But Danny really wanted me to wear it so he ended up giving me his undershirt and I went and changed in the bathroom. Well needless to say his shirt was huge on me and the sleeves were super baggy, but it worked for the situation and I got to wear my jersey!! :) We have worn them every game since we got them. Danny has Millsap and I have Williams!
This one is still at the Lakers game.. We were just being silly!!

Showing off our retro pride! Haha.

So this picture is one that Danny found online at the Jazz website. For any of you who didn't see this game against Cleveland you really missed out. This is one of the best games I have ever seen, and by far the best game I have ever been to. If you look on the very right side of the picture you will see one of the Jazz players shooting... That's Sundiata Gaines, who was at the time a rookie on a 10-day contract with the Jazz. The Cleveland game was intense the whole game long. But Cleveland was pretty much winning the whole game. The Jazz made a good comeback but in the 4th quarter Lebron James hit a couple big 3's to put Cleveland up by a pretty good lead with just a few minutes left in the game. Well at that point a good amount of the fans got up and left thinking the game was over. The Jazz rallied though, and with some big shots by Ronnie Price, Kyle Korver, and then this 3 point shot on the buzzer by Gaines, the Jazz won by 1 point. This shot was incredible! It was so exciting to be there and to have seen it!! Everyone was going crazy!! Danny's brother who was at the game with us was so excited that he jumped over the chairs in front of us and started jumping around on that row... It was just so awesome! The Jazz have sinced signed Gaines for the rest of the year, and most fans couldn't be happier about it. Anyone who saw that game fell in love with the rookie. He doesn't get a ton of playing time since he is our third string point guard after D Will and Ronnie Price, but it is funny because at every game we have been to since this night whenever Gaines gets put in the game he gets cheered for louder than any other player does... so I guess no one has forgotten that incredible 3 pointer he made at the buzzer to beat the Cavs by one point.

This is me and Danny at that Cleveland game after Gaines hit the game winning 3 pointer... Such an amazing game!

All the rest of these pictures are from the Sacramento game last weekend. Michelle and Alec came down from Logan that night and Danny's parents were so nice to let us have all 4 tickets so that we could take them to the game with us! I miss Michelle so much so it was super fun to get to go to the game with them! (I borrowed all these pictures from her, hope you don't mind Michelle! ;) )

Alec, Michelle, me, and Danny. We just love hanging out with these guys! Of course me and Michelle get along great, but the fun part is that Alec and Danny are like best buddies now too! I am so glad that our boys like each other and get along so well! It makes hanging out with them such a blast!

Me and Michelle

Here is Gaines shooting a foul shot

Just another pic of them playing. Thanks for the pics Michelle!

Dashboard Concert

2010-01-28T18:18:00.001-08:00

My best friend from high school invited Danny and I to go up to Ogden to the free Dashboard Confessional concert they had up there a couple weeks ago. Dashboard has always been one of my favorites which made it kind of fun because it was the first concert I've been to. The only other time I tried to go to a concert (Secondhand Serenade) me and Britt got into our car accident. Haha. So here are some pics of my first concert! Me and Britt. I am so glad she invited us up!
Me and Danny

Britt and her husband Neal

Me and Britt again

New Years!!

2010-01-20T11:32:00.001-08:00

For New Years this year we went up to Danny's parents house and hung out with some of the fam. We played video games and board games and just had a lot of fun!Our girl band, rocking out on Rock Band
Nat, Danny, and Nicki taking a shot at it, o and of course Tate in the background!

Just after midnight, Danny trying to open a bottle of sparkling cider so he could spray it all over

But of course he drank some too!

Bryan filling up all our glasses!

Jim and Sue

Nat and Danny

Me and Nicki

Our First Christmas Morning

2009-12-29T08:59:00.000-08:00

Me and Danny had a great first Christmas as a married couple. We spent the morning together opening our presents at our apartment before heading up to Danny's parents for breakfast and then later going up to Logan for my dad's side of the family's annual Christmas lunch. Here are some pictures of both of us opening our biggest presents from each other. We were so excited to give each other these presents and neither of us had any idea what the other one had gotten us... Largely due to how each of us decided to wrap them... Hehehe Alright so this is my present to danny. If you look at the bottom right side of this picture you will see there is a brown box. Well the present he is starting to open now was inside that box with all those old books to make it seem heavier... well that box was wrapped 4 or 5 times with a mix of wrapping paper and newspaper...
Here he is unwrapping another layer of wrapping paper only to find more newspaper...

Yet more newspaper.... Danny was trying to get me to tell him what this present was since November when I got it... he doesn't like surprises... so I knew how anxious he was to open it, I couldn't make it that easy for him... (and no worries, I most certainly haven't put pictures of him opening EVERY layer, just enough to give you an idea...

Yet another layer....

And finally he is into the second box, and what do we have here? Halloween M&Ms and more girly paperback books.... But wait is there something else??

Indeed, an even smaller box...

...with even more layers to unwrap

Oh and finally he finds he end to the wrapping and it is the Fossil watch he has been wanting ever since he saw it on our cruise... I think he was pretty excited what do you think?

Unfortunately for me, Danny had a similar idea when he wrapped my present...

Trying to unwrap the present that was in a big awkward box...

Finally got all the wrapping paper off and what do you think I found inside?

Waterbottles, old baseball mitts, and this little package of toilet paper and tape....

Well it ended up being a new Ipod Nano, which I totally love!

So ya, that was us opening our presents... Haha.

Our Apartment- Part 1

2009-12-23T16:59:00.001-08:00

Well after taking a very long break from my blog, I am finally back!! And I am married now to the love of my life, Danny. Married life is a blast, and I think one of the funnest parts is having our own place and decorating it. So I thought that I would put up some pics of our new place while we have all the Christmas stuff up. So here are some pictures of our living room and some of the dining room. When you walk into the apartment that chair is directly in front of you. So this is the left side of the living room. That door in the left of the picture goes into the laundry room/wet room and then that is the kitchen in the back. Our DVD rack spins so it has 2 sides and it is completely full now that Danny and I have combined our collections, and after we went haywire on Black Friday and bought over 20 more. Luckily we have extra storage in our tv stand and we already have half of that full though. Haha. We love movies... Danny's parents gave us this beautiful statue!

This is on the other side of the room, our couch!

So this is a cute frame that we bought with some of the gift cards from our wedding. We have pictures of all our nieces and nephews in it. (Thanks to all of your blogs for all the pictures in it... hahaha)

Here is our Christmas tree! We did it red, black, and silver.

All lit up!!

The other side of the living room

This is our new temple picture that we just love. We actually bought it from our photographer from our wedding. Some day when we have more money I would really like to get it into a thicker frame, because I think it would look so much cooler. But for now it still looks great.

So that clock is actually a dark red, but you can't really tell from the picture. Our tv stand is filled with all of Danny's nintendos... a Wii, an XBOX, and a Playstation 2. Haha. And then our blu ray player that we splurged on on Black Friday. But we love it!

Here is the dining room which is just around the wall that the tv stand is on. We have a tall pub
table and I love the way it looks. It is just the right size for our apartment. That door leads out to our balcony.

These are the cutest placemats that we got at Target!

So there you have it. Thanks to my wonderful husband for hanging everything on the walls! I will put up pictures of the other rooms some other time but we still haven't gotten everything hung up in our bedroom so I want to wait til we do that to post pictures of it.

One Year Later...

2009-06-11T19:28:00.000-07:00

Well today is the year mark from the day me and Britt got in our car accident last year. I can’t believe that it was a year ago already. I still remember it like it was yesterday. In fact I probably remember it better than I remember yesterday. Isn’t it funny how traumatic things become so engraven in our minds. But really I am grateful for the experience because I learned a lot from it. I learned to never take advantage of anything in your life. If you care about someone you need to let them know it as much as possible. You never want to let opportunities pass you by to tell someone you care or to live your life to the fullest. I will never forget how that night before I left for that concert I gave my mom a hug and told her I loved her… We never really did that very often before that night so it was kinda weird. But I felt the urge to do it for some reason. And I can’t help but think about how that could have been the last thing I ever said to my mom and with that thought it makes me really grateful that that is what I said and did. Ever since my accident I have noticed that me and my mom tell each other that we love each other at the end of every conversation we have. And most of the time with my dad too. I need to do it more often with everyone though. I just never wanna let that opportunity go by and not take it now. But ya, I am grateful that both me and Britt ended up being ok and that it didn’t end any worse than it did! I occasionally get my headaches still and I expect that I probably always will but besides that I am back in good shape! These are just some pics of the car. That is my door that is open. They had to use the jaws of life to get me out and even that ended up taking them almost a half hour because my side of the car was so banged up the metal wouldn't tear and just bent.

I like this pic because you can see my headrest in it and you can see how the backseat is all the way up to my headrest. That's how bad my side of the car was banged up.

This is Britt's seat. It broke on impact so she was reclined in the back seat. It knocked her unconscious so she doesn't remember anything from the accident.

Here is a far away shot of the car.

This is a lovely shot of my head, I know. It's pretty nasty looking. This was after they had stapled it.

This is a pic of some of the staples over my 4 inch gash. I was really grateful that my brother Nick was there with me when they stapled my head because it was extremely traumatic and I don't think that I could have done it alone. Poor guy though, I don't think it was a very fun experience for him. But I was so relieved he was there. I remember that as soon as the ambulance pulled in to the hospital and the doors opened he was there at my feet. I started crying again the second I saw him because I was so relieved to have someone I loved there. Especially since my parents got stuck in a 2 hour parking lot on the freeway that the accident created. He held my hand the whole way in and the whole time they were stapling my head. I am so glad he was there. I love him and I am so glad he is my big brother!

This was after I had a whole lot of pain killers and they hadn't touched my cut in a couple hours... haha

This is the newscast from Channel 13 of our accident.

Here is me and Britt at her wedding 6 months later! Both healthy!

Lake Powell!!! :)

2009-06-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

So I went down to Lake Powell last week with my friend Blake from high school and his family. It was a really random thing because I hadn't really talked to Blake in forever. But then we talked on facebook a few weeks ago. And the next day he texted me and asked me if I would want to go. Well it ends up that he broke up with his girlfriend the night before and she was supposed to be going but obviously that wasn't happening anymore. All of his siblings were taking dates so he didn't want to take a guy friend, he said he would rather take a good girl friend. So ya, he thought of me! So ya I got a free trip to Lake Powell from it. And it ended up being a lot of fun. His family was awesome and I had fun getting to know them all. We left Monday and got back Saturday night. We had a houseboat down at Bullfrog. It was a really fun week!

Me and Blake had to cook dinner the first night. We made tin foil dinners. I peeled the potatoes and I found out that I am really slow at doing that. Blake had everything else ready before I had 12 small potatoes peeled. Haha.

This was a picture from a hike that we went on above our houseboat. I look like a goof but I think it's a cool picture!

Ok so this was my first time wakeboarding ever. And this was my first try and I got up! So I was pretty proud of myself. I didn't stay up much longer than this though because this was before we realized that I am actually goofy foot and needed my right foot forward...

Me, Jesse, and Jason on another hike we did through a slit in the rock

Jason, Jesse, Blake and me. Ya, I look cool with 3 guys... haha

This is called the Moki Steps... The indians put them in so that they could get over the mountain. Well the guys all decided to climb up it...

...But they hadn't thought about having to get down. It was really dangerous. They couldn't see where to put their feet because it was so steep. So the one beneath them had to direct them. It was pretty scary. I would suggest that no one ever try and attempt this... they learned that the hard way. Luckily they all made it down safely!

Getting ready to tube! My favorite!

Me tubing

This is the first fish I have ever caught!

Me, Blake and Jesse cooked my fish and another one we caught. It was really good!

Me and Blake on another hike we went on

Me and Kayleigh

Me, Blake's brother Taylor and his fiance Kayleigh. These guys were seriously a blast. They are super funny!

This is after I got my footing right. I got a bit better after that!

This is Blake's little brother Jason. He could get really good air and hang time on the wakeboard. He was really fun to watch.

This is me and Maryann. She is one of Blake's brother's girlfriends. I really liked her too.

Me and Blake getting ready to war on the tubes.. He was trying to bail water out of his tube..

Tube wars are my favorite. I think Blake beat me everytime but I beat most of the other people!

Another Close Call...

2009-04-08T15:55:00.000-07:00

Just another one of my crazy, could have died, stories. Haha
Ok so last Thursday I went over to my guy friend's Jade's house. And actually a bunch of my guy friends live there. These guys were all roommates with my friend Melissa's husband Tyler last year before they got married. We're all pretty good friends and I have a blast with them. Ok so me and Jade were sitting upstairs watching the Jazz game when suddenly there is a large bang in the room below us. And when I say large bang I mean like ear splitting crash. Ok so we yell down the stairs to see what happened and no one answered.. Well right when the sound happened I knew exactly what it was. It was a gun shot.. And the reason I knew this is because when I had gotten there Jake had been playing with one down in the living room. So when no one answered when we yelled I was like freaking out. So we run downstairs and we finally figured out what happened. Jake and Bill were down in the living room and Jake had been playing with his .45 pistol. Well the clip wasn’t in it so he didn’t think there was a bullet in it. So he was just playing with it and it ended up going off. Well thank heavens it wasn’t pointing at him or Bill. That would have been bad news. Ok so instead it was pointing up…. Yup that’s right, it went right into the ceiling DIRECTLY below the exact spot I was sitting. Well I didn't have a bullet in me, so something happened to change the its course. We don’t know what happened though. The bullet must have hit something in the ceiling that changed its course because if it had gone along the path it was headed it should have it would have gone directly up to where I was sitting. So I would say that I am pretty darn lucky that it did not. We couldn’t find the bullet hole where it came out though. So ya I have no idea where it went, but thank heavens it didn’t continue it’s original path! So anyways, that is my crazy experience of the week.
So ya, my car accident in June, the 2 other times when I have almost gotten into some pretty bad accidents the last year and now this... I guess I am pretty lucky!!

Grandpa's Last Sweet Ride

2009-03-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

My grandpa passed away Tuesday March 10, 2009 at age 78. He had been dealing with various health issues for the last couple years. My grandma, mom, all of his other children, and a very close cousin were with him when he passed away. It's been a pretty emotional thing for me to go through but mostly I am just glad that he isn't suffering anymore and I know that he is in a better place.

I am most grateful for the opportunity I had to go down to St George with my parents and little brother and sister the Saturday and Sunday before he passed away to spend a little more time with him in the care center he was in. My aunts and uncles and some of my cousins were down there as well so it was a really great to be around so much family. We didn't get there until about 10:00 PM on Saturday night, but when we got there he was able to give us each a hug. It was really hard to see him so weak. He didn't have much of a voice but it meant a lot to hear him say my name and tell me that he loved me. I got to sit and hold his hand for quite awhile while the family sat and talked and that really meant a lot to me too. At about 1 AM my grandma and all my aunts and uncles went into another room to talk about some things. So I was alone with my grandpa until around 3 when they came back in. He had been given medecine to help him sleep so he was just peacefully sleeping. But I am so happy that I got that time with him. That was definitely a blessing and a special time I will never forget.

His funeral was Monday March 16. It went really well. The coolest part was that instead of using a herse, they moved him from the church to the Salt Lake cemetary in the back of a 1932 truck that apparently looked like a truck he had once had. We also got a please escort. I am sure that all the people that had to stop and wait for our procession thought that someone famous had died. It was really neat to send him off like that. At the cemetary there were a group of veterans that had a pretty sweet presentation thing for him. So overall it was all pretty neat I thought.
(Thanks to Nick and Kimberly for the next few pics! I was gonna have you email me some but I just took these off your blog. So sorry to you all who have to see them again)

I really like this picture of Nick and Grandpa. It was over Easter weekend last year when we were visiting Grandpa in the hospital. This was really when things started going downhill. But I just think this is an awesome picture.

So the other night I had a minor meltdown because I was thinking about it and I didn't think I had a single picture of me with Grandpa. I was pretty upset. I looked through all the pictures that I have up here in Logan and couldn't find a single one. So I had my mom send me up a book of picture cds in hopes that I would find one. So I spent a couple hours last night looking and so far this is what I found. I just about cried when I found it. As you can see in this picture and the one at the top that my 14 year old self apparently wasn't thinking that I should try and not look like a goof when they took this picture. I guess I had no idea that in 6 years I would be really wanting a picture of me with my grandpa. But regardless of how goofy I look I still love these pictures. I am hoping I might find more, but at least I found my picture with Grandpa!!

I miss you Grandpa and I love you!

Best Valentines Ever

2009-02-28T12:11:00.000-08:00

Rachel, Dustin, Michelle, Lysa, me and Cameron

So for Valentine's Day me, Michelle, and Lysa went and hung out with a bunch of my guy friends. We watched the USU basketball game at their house, which we ended up losing so that was sad. Afterwards we went and got sushi. I got a roll of spicy tuna... it was only my second time having sushi. It was actually pretty good but by the end I wanted to throw up because there was just too much. But all the guys were super impressed that I did it! Afterwards we went over to some girls house and played games. This is where the game of kissing rugby was introduced to me... my life will never be the same....

Ok so this is how it goes. All the girls have a letter and all the boys have a number. There is someone in the center. Let's say that I am in the center. I call out a letter and a number. So i'll say E4. So the boy who is 4 has to try and kiss me somewhere on the head on skin before the the girl who is E kisses him. And then the one that loses has to sit in the middle. Kinda sounds funny, but o so fun!

On my first time getting called I was trying to kiss Scott but he ended up nailing my face with the back of his head. Yes, I got a bloody lip trying to kiss someone. My lip swelled to enormous proportions and for the rest of the night I had people freaking out "O my gosh your lip looks awful" "Do you think you should ice that?"... Haha. I still played though. I never did end up kissing anyone though because I lost every time. But I got kissed by quite a few guys so who can complain about a fat lip! Haha.

Scott, Cami, and Mike.

Some of these rounds got pretty crazy.. Lots of tackling going on!

Me and Mike, he was trying to kiss me

Me and Mike again, now I was trying to kiss him

I don't know why Mike is in all of the good pics but he just was!

Mike and Cami

Haha my face is classic! I think that this picture is Cameron trying to kiss April. I thought they were gonna squish me.

Trying to recover after an exhausting game!

Me, Mike, Luke, Cami

Back at the guys house later that night..

Michelle, Scott, me

Scott is quite the ladies man!

This is one of my favorite pictures for some reason! LOVE IT!!

Reagan, Michelle, Scott, me, and Luke

Some videos! The first one is Cami in the middle with Tom and Rachel. Second one is me Tom and Rachel. We didn't get any good videos of it, some of the rounds got pretty crazy!

Car Woes

2009-02-12T13:39:00.000-08:00

So I have had an lot of unfortunate happenings with my car in the past couple weeks. It all started a couple of Sundays ago. I had been having a bad day so I had decided to drive home to Sandy to hang out with the fam. Well as I was driving back to Logan that night there was a pretty bad snow storm going on. I was up by Lagoon when my tires hit the snow at a bad angle and I lost control of my car. I spun around twice, and was heading straight for cement barrier... so basically a total replay of my accident this summer. The happy ending of the story though is that I stopped before actually hitting it... Thank heavens. Well I had actually been talking to my mom on the phone as this was all happening trying to decide whether I should turn around and head home because of the weather. Well after I spun I knew there was no way that I was going to drive all the way back to Logan. I was a wreck. I really didn't wanna turn around and drive back to Sandy though either so I ended up calling Britt and I stayed up in South Ogden with her and Neal. Needless to say I drove extremely slow the rest of the way to their place. It was a pretty traumatic night for me.

Well then in the morning Britt and Neal had class at 9. So I got ready to take off at 8:30 and I get out to my car and I can't get my key into either of my locks. And not only that, I stuck it into one of my doors and it froze inside of it. So my key is frozen inside my door that won't open and I am parked behind Brittnee and Neal who are supposed to be leaving for class... So we start doing everything we can think of to get my key out of the door. Neal eventually moves his car out around me and heads to class because he can't miss it. Eventually I get the key out of the car, but I still can't get it open. So after like 45 minutes of trying my dad finally calls me and tells me to pour hot water on the door. My mom had told me not to do that when I had called earlier so we hadn't tried that. Well of course that was what finally got my door unfroze.. And it only took approximately 5 seconds. I felt so bad because Britt missed her first class because it took us so long to get it open. But anyways, after working out in the cold FOREVER trying to get into my car, I finally was on my way back to Logan. I had to stop in Brigham City to get some gas because I was I was empty, but I made it back to Logan just fine.

So I went to work that day and when I got home to my apartment I noticed that my gas door was wide open. You guessed it, I didn't put my gas cap back on when I got gas in Brigham. So I go into my apartment to find a phone book to get the address for Auto Zone so I can buy a new one. So I go back out to my car and in the five minutes I had been inside my locks froze again. So I had to go inside and get hot water so that I could get in my car to go buy me a new gas cap!! So frustrating!

Ok, so I decided not to lock my car that night because I didn't wanna have to deal with it in the morning when I had to be to work by 7. So I get out to my car at 6:45 and was thrilled when my car door opened right up for me. But I wasn't so thrilled that when I sat down on my seat and tried to shut my door, it wouldn't latch closed. That is right, in the five seconds the door had been opened the latch froze and so I couldn't get the door shut.. I think that this is all a sign to me that Utah, particularly Logan and Ogden, are way too cold a place to be living in!!!! I was so frustrated. Well i tried the hot water trick, but that didn't work. So after working on it for an hour I finally gave up, duct taped my door shut, and drove my roommates car to work (which by the way was covered in like six inches of snow that I got to scrape off).

My dad ended up coming to Logan that day because he finally decided that it was getting serious enough that he needed to do something about it. He put silicon in my locks and I'm really not sure what else but it worked pretty good. He also brought up one of the ugliest blankets ever made that he draped over the front end of my car, saying that it would help keep the door from freezing. It might not be the the cool thing to do, but I found that it did indeed keep the door from freezing and not only that it also meant that I didn't have to scrape my windows anymore!!! So I continued to use the ugly fashion statement.

Well I wish I could say that that was the end of my car troubles, but o no it does not end there. Last Friday a couple of my friends had a birthday party up here in Logan. It was really fun! We went and cleaned the sink at Angies. For those of you that aren't from Logan and have no idea what I am talking about, Angies is a local restaurant here and they have this ginormous serving of ice cream that they bring out in a kitchen sink (which isn't the size of a real sink, but still pretty big) and the cool thing is to eat the whole thing. Well there were five of us working on ours, and we still didn't finish it. And the thing that makes me both sick and amazed is that Danny ate the whole thing all by himself before his mission..... But that's a different story. Haha. Ok so then after that we went to see He's Just Not That Into You. Pretty good movie I thought!

This is me and Brittan, one of the birthday girls! I love this girl to death!

My roommate Lysa, the other birthday girl Michelle, and Me!

Here is the famous sink! Doesn't it make you sick to think that Danny ate that all by himself?? Pretty impressive though I must say!

This is Lysa, me, Katie, Lauren, and Jaclyne

So anyways, I get home at like 11:30 and I decided that I was going to go down to Sandy. I had plans the next day with Jackie down there and I decided that I would rather go then than have to wake up early on Saturday. So I pack all my stuff up, take it out to my car, and head off. Well I am about a block away from my apartment when I smell something kinda funny. So I pulled over to the side of the road to make sure that my emergency brake was all the way down. Well as I am sitting there, with my foot still on the clutch my car suddenly dies. Definitely not a good sign. So then it won't turn on... Yup it was broken down on the side of the road. So of course it is a relief that I am not far from my apartment at all, but there is still a very big problem... there is a law up in Logan that you can't park on the street from 1 AM to 6 AM, and I didn't know what to do with my car. At this point it was already quarter to 1. Well I ended up calling Ben and Brody to come help me because I didn't know what to do. Of course they were more than happy to come help me out. We drove around in Ben's car trying to find somewhere to push it to, but there was no where close enough. So Ben finally just calls dispatch and gives them the information on my car and they tell him that they will make sure I don't get a ticket. So that was good. I was really glad that he was there to figure out what to do, because I didn't have the slightest clue. So then we end up going down to Village Inn and Ben bought me some pie. Haha, I was kind of in a bad mood so that was really nice of him. I was just really grateful that I have friends I can call when something like that happens and my family isn't close enough to help me.

Well my dad came up in the morning and we towed it back to my apartment so that he can try and figure out what is wrong. Well quickly he noticed that my alternator belt was shredded, hence the weird smell I had noticed the night before. But apparently that was not what was actually wrong with the car. That's not why it wasn't turning on. So he spent over an hour trying to figure out what it was and finally decided that he wasn't going to figure it out right away. So we ended up towing it out to my Grandma's house in Millville and leaving it there. I drove home with my dad to Sandy after that. My wonderful sister agreed to let me use their other car until mine gets fixed so I really appreciated that. So I drove that car back up to Logan on Sunday and I have been driving it ever since. The only problem with that car is that it has a broken clutch that has been taking awhile for me to get used to. I can't hold the clutch in for very long or else the car will kill. So any time I come to a stop light or something I have to throw the car into neutral and just use my brakes. That isn't too hard, but the clutch has proved to be problematic when I am trying to reverse in my crowded parking lot. I can't tell you how many times I have killed the car just trying to get out of my parking place. Haha. But I'm so grateful to have it, it's been a lifesaver! So a big thanks to Diana for letting me use it!!

Well as for my car, it's still sitting at my grandma's house. My dad is supposed to come pick it up so that he can work on it at home but he has been to St. George for a job interview, Clearfield for another job interview and then back down to St. George for a second interview. So he hasn't had time to come get it. He probably won't be able to come get it til Tuesday so that really sucks. But what can you do right? I guess I will just have to wait this one out.

On a bit of a happier note, though. I was contacted by one of the students in the Anatomy class up here and told me that the professor highly recommended my name as a tutor. So she has hired me to be her private tutor. So I start that today. Hopefully that goes well, I'm definitely a little nervous! But I am really flattered that Andy (the professor) suggested my name to her! So ya, that is pretty much what's going on with me these days! Never a dull moment...

Basketball Game!!!

2009-02-06T12:22:00.001-08:00

This is me and my roommates Ashley and Michelle at a basketball game at the beginning of January. We were just messing around, waiting for the game to start! Of course B-rode was there!!
Me and Michelle.. Love this girl to death!

This picture got put up on the jumbo tron at the game!! We were famous for like 10 seconds!!! :)

This is me, Michelle, and her friend Zach

We were also sitting on the Axtell Taylor Rebound Row. So every time the Aggies got an offensive rebound they would give our row a free t shirt!! So we got put up on the jumbo tron for that too!!! And then a little later in the game they zoomed in on someone sitting in front of me so I was on the screen again!!! 3 times in one night! It was wicked cool!

After the game we went back to my apartment so that I could finally give him his Christmas present... I ordered him his favorite movie on the internet and I had had it since the beginning of December but I had not been able to give it to him yet. So I was so excited to finally give it to him. Of course he loved it!

My Best Friend's Wedding

2009-01-18T12:45:00.000-08:00

Brittnee and Neal McGarry

December 17, 2009

This is one of Britt's bridals. She wasn't super thrilled with the way her bridals turned out (even though she looked great in them) so she gave me the cds with the pictures on them and asked me to play with them on photoshop. This is my favorite one by far!

I got to go take her bridals with her. It was super fun and I was so glad that she invited me to go with her!

This was some of us at the bachelorette party we threw for her.
Britt, me, Michelle, Jenna, and Jennica The creator, creation, and inspiration
This was the awesome cake that I made for the party! I was pretty proud of it!

Well we ended up having so much food at the party that no one ate any of my cake. So me and my roommates Ashley and Lysa took it over to Ben and Brody's to have them help us eat it! The boys were much more enthusiastic about my cake than the girls had seemed to be. Weird...The boys insisted on taking pictures of cutting the cake.. It turned into a pretty big event!Ben decided he wanted a turn to cut the cake too. Haha Britt's last night single!! We took her to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.
The friends waiting for Britt and Neal to come out of the temple.

Jennica, Skeen, me, Jackie, David, Brody, Detrick, Neufford, and Tonks

Us girls at the temple.

Melissa, me, Ariean, Jackie, and Jennica Precious moments..

I think this is the only pic I have of Neal from the wedding day. Haha Melanie with 6 boys, any girls dream!

At the Joseph Smith Memorial Building between the wedding and the luncheon.

Neufford, Skeen, Brody, me, David, Tonks, and Detrick.

Yes, Neal's friends do have some interesting names. Skeen and Tonks are actually their last names, Neufford is a nickname, and Detrick is his real name! All these guys have become some of my best friends in the last year so it was a blast to get to spend the whole day with them.

All our friends at the luncheon at the Lion House.

Front row: Michelle, Emilee, me

Back row: Jackie, Karina, Aubrey, Taya, Ariean, Jennica, and Melissa Me, Jennica, and Jackie at the luncheon.

The 4 bridesmaids!

Me, Jennica, Melissa, Jackie

The groomsmen and the bridesmaids

Melissa, Skeen, Neufford, Detrick, Brody, Tonks, me, David, Jennica, Jackie

Getting ready to fight for the bouquet!!
This picture is hilarious to me! Doesn't look like Jennica had much competition for that bouquet. I have no idea why the rest of us were so very off!

Out decorating the very controversial car...

Me and the beautiful bride! Love her to death!

At the end of the reception there was dancing! I danced with Brody and Tonks and even even had some Boot Scootin Boogie action going on!

Overall it was a great day! The only thing that really messed things up was me going to get my hair done. Bad idea. The wedding luncheon ended up going over almost an hour. So I got to my hair appointment a little after 4. I was supposed to be to the reception center at 5:15 for pictures. Well by 5:00 the poor girl was only about halfway through my hair. And I had told her I wanted loose curls. Well my hair that is normally halfway down my back was in boingy curls at my shoulders. It was a disaster. Then she tells me that she is off work so she has to find someone else to curl my hair. At that point I was already 20 minutes late the reception center. So I told them that I was just going to have to leave and try to finish it at home. So then the owner of the place tells me that they can put 2 girls on it with more experience and they can have me done in 10 minutes. Well in the end I look like Shirley Temple. I was a total wreck... So I got home and hurriedly pulled it into a side ponytail and leave for the reception. Well the reception started at 6:30, and I got there at 6:25. So I run in, they take like 5 pictures with me, and they started the line. Pretty much a disaster... But it all ended up being ok, and even my hair wasn't as bad as I had originally thought. The only thing I wish is that I could have gotten a picture of it before I pulled it up. But I was in a total panic attack and bawling so there was no way I was thinking to do that. But besides that it was a beautiful day!!

Halloween

2008-12-01T19:55:00.000-08:00

Well it's more than a month late, but that's ok! Me and my friends went to the HOWL up here at Utah State. We were cavewomen! We had a lot of fun!

Catching up

2008-10-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

Holy smokes I haven't posted in a long time! It's crazy how time can just slip away so easily. I am currently halfway through my craziest, hardest, busiest, and most hectic semester in college so far. And somehow, with a lot of unseen help, I am getting along just fine! I have been taking 15 credits of math and science classes, 20 hours of work a week and driving to Salt Lake 2 days a week for physical therapy. I did end up dropping my 8:30 class this last week though because I have just been in way over my head. So I am down to 12 credits which is the least amount of credits I have taken, and yet I have about double the work load in those classes than I have ever had before. Funny how that works. So let me tell you what my week generally consists of.... Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have Biology from 9:30-10:20, Chemistry from 10:30-11:20, and Statistics from 11:30-12:20. Then I always rush home so I can be on time to work from 1-4. Mondays when I get home from work I have a couple hours that I can either study or run errands or whatever needs to be done. Then I go to FHE at 7, One Tree Hill is at 8 and of course I can't miss that. So then I have from 9 on to do more homework or whatever. Tuesday I work from 7-4. I work at a place called EK Ekcessories. It is basically line work. We put together lanyards, dog collars, dog leashes, and pretty much a whole lot of random stuff that I don't even know what it is used for. We are at stations and we switch every hour. It is not too bad the days that I only work 3 hours. But an 8 hour day is a bit much for me! So I think Tuesdays are my least favorite days because of it. Well as soon as work is over I head straight to Salt Lake to my physical therapy. My knee finally got better, in fact I just barely got back from a 30 minute run and there is no pain at all so that is great. He is now focusing on my neck. I have been getting a lot of headaches and my neck is so stiff that I can't really turn my head to the right to see behind me, I have to turn my whole body. At first I was feeling really discouraged because for the first 4 weeks or so of him working on my neck I didn't see any improvement. However, just this last Thursday when my session got over I was able to turn my head as far as I could before the accident. It was amazing. My neck has stiffened up again since then, but for like 2 days I could turn my head with no pain. So that was really encouraging for me. But anyways, I go to physical therapy at 6 every Tuesday and Thursday and it usually lasts about an hour or so. Well then I always have to go to my house and eat and fill up my car. I usually don't get back to Logan til 1o or later. So basically I can't get anything done on those days. Occasionally I will just go straight to the library to study, but it closes at 12 so I don't really have that much time. Well Wednedays I have class and work from 9:30-4:00 again and then I have 3 hours to get stuff done before I have my human dissection class. O man is that an interesting class. A lot of you may be thinking that it sounds disgusting, but it really is a neat class. We prepare the cadavers for the human anatomy class in the spring. Here at USU we have one of the nicest cadaver labs around. We have a total of 7 cadavers that were purchased from the U. The cadaver that I have been working on all semester is named Deloris, she was a 74 year old clerk that died from an abdominal carcinoma. Me and my partners were assigned to dissect out the female pelvis. But along with that we also have removed and dissected her kidneys, liver, lungs, and heart. It is just amazing how much you can learn. And you know at first I was really worried if I was going to be able to do it, I didn't really like dissecting pigs and worms and stuff all that much. But it is not as bad as you would expect. And mostly it is just so interesting! Well that class goes from 7-10 every Wednesday. So once again I will maybe study for a bit after before I have to get to bed. Well Thursdays are my lab days. I have a 3 hour biology lab from 8:30-11:20, and then a chemistry recitation from 11:30-12:20. Then work from 1-4, Salt Lake and PT until late. Fridays I juat have school and work til 4, and then I usually just try to relax or something for a little bit because I finally don't have something I have to be doing every second like most days. I will usually hang out with my friends Brody and Lauren or with my roommates on Friday and Saturday nights. Then on Sunday I have church from 9-12. They called me as the Relief Society secretary this year so most Sundays I have a plethora of meetings to attend throughout the day. And then that night we have ward prayer at 8:30. So ya, that is pretty much how my weeks go. Not all that surprising that I haven't really had time to blog recently. I had 2 hard tests this last week that I had to really cram for because I just can't find enough time to study for them these days. Amazingly I was able to do a lot better on them than I expected but still not as well as I would have liked. But I have had to decide that I will just do my best with things and that it is going to have to be good enough. I need to stop stressing so much. Last Sunday I was so stressed out I just had a melt down... which is part of the reason I ended up dropping my class. So ya, life has been crazy but you know it is just fine! Nothing I can't handle. I am just so happy to have my tests done this week, I feel so much better. And hopefully now I will be able to keep up in my classes better. Well the Relief Society has to speak tomorrow in sacrament meeting so I should probably stop procrastinating writing my talk and get to it. It's on repentance and forgiveness, pretty broad subject... Wish me luck!

These are pictures of my 5 roommates, unfortunately I have individual pictures of all of them though!

This is Michelle and a kid she was dating at the time. We were at a Richfield High football game over Labor Day weekend.

This is my roommate Lysa. I always take my makeup off at night and my roommates just think it is so funny how I look as I do it so we had to take some pictures!

This is Kieley. She is a real sweetheart!

This is Ashley, she is the roommate I actually share a room with!

Now these are just some pictures from my semester so far!
This is me and my friends Brittan and Michelle at a hockey game!

This is me and Brody up at a fire we had up the canyon. I spend many hours at the library studying with Brody.

This is me and Lauren. We work together and we live by each other so we have become pretty good friends. Love her to death!

Me, Lauren and Brittan spent one Saturday night this semester painting our toenails and watching chick flicks! It was a blast!

Just another cute pic of me and Lauren!

Working, Weddings, Weber, and Water Weenies...

2008-07-31T22:09:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness, I can't believe I finally have time to even write a blog! My summer that started out so amazingly dull and boring is anything but that right now! I swear I live at my work! I closed the last 4 nights and thank heavens I have the day off tomorrow or I think I would die. Haha. I am really liking working there, but I am really looking forward to having a day off!!! I have started taking pictures now, which has been a lot of fun. Some of the kids have been a bit challenging and I have had a really hard time getting 6 good shots out of them, but there have been some kids that were a piece of cake. Kids are so cute though, it's a lot of fun to get to work with them. So anyways, I have been working a ton!!

Well when I am not going to work these days I am attending wedding receptions. I went to 2 recepetions earlier this summer for my friends Erin Fuller, who I ran cross country with in high school, and Jennifer Neddo, who is my friend in my ward. And I ended up missing the reception for my friend Monica Cantor, who I also ran cross country with. And then this last Saturday my good buddy Ariean Fabrizio got married so I had her wedding dinner on Friday and the reception on Saturday! And I have another one to go to on August 7 for Melissa Turnbow who was my best friend in 6th grade. I feel like I am getting so old, haha! I can't believe everyone is getting married! I can't believe I am already old enough to get married! It freaks me out. But it's really fun to go to my friends' weddings. They are all so happy and in love, and I just love seeing that! Ariean's wedding turned out really nice. They had the wedding dinner and reception both in her husband's parent's backyard down in Alpine. It was beautiful. Unfortunately the weather wasn't perfect on Saturday for the reception. It was poring rain as I was driving down to it, but luckily the rain didn't really hit Alpine. It just sprinkled a little. But it was pretty windy! But even inspite all that it still turned out really nice!

This is all of us that came to the wedding dinner!

This is me and Ariean at the dinner

Then the two of us at the reception

Didn't she look gorgeous?!?! I absolutely loved her dress!!

Me and Karina battled til the end for the bouquet, which Ariean threw halfway across the yard. In the end, Karina beat me to it!! Haha

On a similar subject of weddings, my best friend Brittnee has decided to not come back to Utah State with me and go to Weber with her boyfriend instead. They are probably going to be getting married in March, but it's not official yet or anything. But because she isn't coming back with me, I had to get a new rommate to share my room with. I was way nervous about it. I almost didn't even wanna go back up myself because I really didn't have good friends up there last year but her. We had other friends, like Ben and Brody and our roommates and a few others, but for the most part we were just tight and then we we would hang out with different people together. So I was worried about not having any good friends up there. But they gave me the name of my new roommate and I found her on Facebook. Her name is Ashley and she looks like she will be a lot of fun! And then one of my other roommates contacted me on Facebook also and her and her two friends will be in the other 3 rooms in our apartment. And they all look like they are going to be way fun!!!! So now I am getting really excited for school to start. And I am actually looking forward to the opportunity of getting to make new friends! I have had the same friends since I was 12 and it's been great but I think it will be fun to make some more! There is also a girl names Brittan that I had calculus with last semester that is living in the same apartment buildings as me and I really like her a lot so I am hoping that we will be good friends too! I am really really sad to lose Britt as my roommate and it has been really hard and emotional for me. I feel like I am losing her completely. I hardly ever see her or talk to her anymore and I am sure that once school starts it will be even less, and that is just really really hard for me. But I am really happy for her that she has found Neal and that they are so happy together! I really like Neal and I wouldn't let her have anything less. He is a great guy. And I know things will work out for me too and that I will be able to make lots of new friends next year. So even though the last couple weeks have been hard on me, I am feeling a lot better and I am actually getting way excited for this next year.

This is just a picture of me and Britt at Ariean's wedding dinner

So the last thing I was going to say about my crazy summer is how I went boating a few weeks ago at Jordanelle. My stake had a young adult activity and it was a blast! We just played around on the beach, I got some water skiing in, and we rode the water weenie. Oh man do I love boating!!! We took most of the pictures that day on Britt's camera but here are a few that got snapped with mine!

Just waiting for the rope to get around to me

Haha, this picture is hilarious!! Pretty much the whole time I was up I was laughing like crazy. This pic shows it. By the time I was done skiing my face hurt so bad from smiling! I felt like tour guide barbie off of Toy Story 2!

This is just me with my friends Braden and Jennica

4th of July Fun

2008-07-08T20:36:00.000-07:00

So for the 4th of July this year me and my best friend Brittnee had a barbeque with a bunch of our friends and then after we went over to Jordan High and watched the Sandy fireworks. It was a blast!

So this is us waiting for the fireworks to start!

Me and my buddies Aubrey and Eric

Me and my bestest buddy Britt

Brittnee and Neal, what a good looking couple

Well besides that, life has just been chugging along! I have been working quite a lot and I am really loving it. I love working with little kids, they are adorable. I have also been helping to take care of my dad and younger brother and sister while my mom is in St. George because my grandpa is in the hospital again. It's been a rough few months for him and it makes me so sad to see him hurting like this! They diagnosed him with congestive heart failure and they had to put him on dialysis for his kidneys again today. We are all just hoping and praying that everything will turn out alright. The last few months with him have been somewhat draining on me because I kind of have a hard time with my emotions with things like this ever since Caydin passed away. I don't usually admit that to anyone though, because I think I have a way of being strong for others when it comes to tough situations. So I tend to hide my feelings and emotions from others when it comes to this kind of stuff. Which I think is probably a good quality, but sometimes I am afraid it all bottles up too much inside me. But really the hardest thing for me is to see people I love hurting, so I am definitely just hoping that everything will end up being ok. But no matter what happens I know that everything will be alright!! And I believe that he is already improving so that is great news!

So on a happier note my brother and sister-in-law blessed their little girl McKell this last Sunday. It was a great day. Kimberly's family was all able to come from Arizona, Colorado, and Washington so it was awesome that they were able to be there for it. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of her, but she looked like a little angel in her white dress!

This is me holding McKell the day she was born and one of her from like a week or so later. She has gotten bigger since, but these are the only pictures I have of her right now!

One year down, one more to go...

2008-06-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well today is the year mark for my missionary, Danny! He left a year ago today for the Brazil. He is serving in the Sao Paulo North mission and is loving every minute of it. It was really hard to say goodbye and I am just glad that I am much happier this June 26 than I was last year, haha. The past year has been a crazy one for me. In some ways I feel like it has gone way fast but then in others it feels like it's lasted forever. I finished my first year of college which seems to have flown by, but when I think about when me and Danny said goodbye it feels like it was a different lifetime ago. But I am pretty excited that we have finally hit the halfway point!! And from what I hear the second year goes faster than the first, so I guess we will have to see! I sure hope it does! I miss him like CRAZY!!!!!On a side note, I ended up turning down that job at Maurices because I got offered another job at Kiddie Kandids that I decided to take instead. I have always had a passion for taking pictures and I am thrilled to finally get to work in a studio. I start next Tuesday and I am super excited!

First Blog!

2008-06-25T13:06:00.000-07:00

Well here it is, my first blog! My sisters all have one of these and I figured that it might be fun to get one myself. However, since I don't have a husband or children yet it probably won't be a very exciting blog because I don't really have a whole lot to say. Haha. I finally got a job at Maurices at the mall and I start tomorrow. So I am pretty excited about that because I had been trying to get a job all summer. I am pretty sure I am a pro at the whole interview process now because I have had so many. I am just relieved that something finally worked out. I'm living down in Sandy for the summer but I will be going back up to Utah State in the fall for my second year of college. I am planning on declaring a biology major and going into a pre-med program. And currently I am thinking about going into being a physicians assistant as a career. So anyways that's kind of what I am up to these days!