The Westgates

Truman's blessing day

2011-11-27T16:59:00.000-07:00

We blessed Truman on Nov 6th. We had so many friends and family that came and helped make it such a special day. Judd's dad and his girlfriend Lynelle even flew out to be with us. And of course, they spoiled us while they were here. Judd gave Truman such a sweet blessing and I felt the spirit so strongly during it. He's such a great dad and is going to be a wonderful example to our sweet baby boy! Here are a bunch of pictures! I don't feel like labeling them all. :)

Mr. Best Friend

2011-11-27T16:38:00.001-07:00

So it's been a little over a month since we celebrated our 5 year anniversary, but I just wanted to give a shout out to the man that I married those 5 years ago. I love love love that I am married to my very best friend. And it doesn't hurt that he's pretty dang hot as well. He's the most amazing husband and I've found out these past couple of months that he's also an incredible dad. I couldn't be married to someone more perfect. I'm so grateful that we found each other and even more grateful that we get to be together forever and ever. I'm a lucky girl!

1 month old!

2011-10-23T21:59:00.004-06:00

Has it really been a month? My baby is growing so fast. It makes me sad and excited at the same time. I'm sad because I know he'll be walking before I know it and my baby won't be a baby anymore. Yet I'm excited to watch him grow and for him to be in a stage where he can interact with us a little more. He's such a good baby. He rarely cries and when he does, it's never a full out screaming fest. He is so content to just hang out wherever. We're so lucky! He's smiled at me once (where I think he meant to) and is starting to be a little more vocal, especially in the mornings. He's so happy in the morning.
He's doing pretty well at sleeping, although he has a pretty hard time putting himself to sleep. He will lie in his crib for over an hour and not go to sleep. Little poop. I'm not sure what to do to help him with that. I usually just make him stay in his crib for the whole time he's supposed to be in there. I will sometimes go in and give him his pacifier if he gets really upset, but usually he doesn't cry much, he just won't go to sleep. I'm hoping we can work it out. :) He kinda has set times during the day when he does it. After the morning feeding when I put him down around 9 or 10 and then again at night when I put him down around 8 or 9. Other than that, he sleeps pretty well. He's started going 4 or 5 hours during the night...can't wait til that's a little longer. :)
He gets the hiccups ALL OF THE TIME. Sometimes they keep him up when he's supposed to be sleeping. They're so frustrating! I feel so bad for him, although they probably bother me more than they bother him.
He's been pretty gassy the past week. I'm trying to figure out if it's something that I'm eating that's bothering his tummy, so I'm currently on a dairy fast to see if that will help. It is not easy. I didn't really realize how much dairy I eat in a day. He's worth it though.
Anyway...I can't believe it's already been a month and that it's almost time for me to go back to work. It's so sad! I wish I could get paid to stay home and take care of this little guy. He's the light of our lives! I love being his mom, I love taking care of him, and I love how he makes my heart happy with every little thing he does.

2011-10-12T10:47:00.005-06:00

I really need to post about Florida still, but things are a little crazy these days, so I'm gonna post about our little man's birthday first. It was a little bit of a rollercoaster ride!
We went in at 7:00 on Tuesday morning (the 20th) to be induced since I was past my due date. I got all hooked up to the IV and such and the waiting began. My midwife came in and broke my water at about 9:30. My nurse told me I could get the epidural before my water was broken since the contractions would start getting strong fast. I decided I wanted to wait for a bit. So- contractions hurt way worse than I was expecting, and I lasted about an hour before asking the epidural. The epidural was amazing and it didn't hurt like I thought it would. I was a happy camper after it kicked in :)
Little Mr. had his head turned the wrong way the whole time so it was a little bit of a slow process. I didn't start pushing until 7:00. His heart rate was dropping at the end of the contractions so I had to have oxygen...

After pushing for 2 hours, they called the on call doctor in because our little man seemed to be a little stuck. His head was still not in the right position, his heart rate was dropping still and they were worried. The Dr. came in and they decided to use forceps to get him out. I was a little freaked out that it would hurt the baby. I pushed for another 30 minutes and the doc was finally able to yank him out (not much of an exaggeration).

From that point on, everything was like a whirlwind. The baby wasn't breathing, the cord had been wrapped around his neck, his color wasn't good...they didn't ask Judd to cut the cord, they didn't even show me the baby. Later they told me that his apgar was a 4 (out of 10). The nurses from the special care nursery were there and they took him straight over to the warmer and started him on with a respirator. Things were so scary and happening all at once, we didn't even take any pictures. They took him away to the nursery to start him on an IV about 10 minutes after he was born. Judd got to go in for a minute, but I still hadn't even really seen the baby at this point. It took a while to get all stitched up (pretty sure forceps were not meant to be put in that part of your body...I tore pretty badly). My family and Lindsey and Reed had waited the whole time all of this was going on, so they came in and said hi and then we were off to our room. It felt weird to be leaving the delivery room without a baby in my arms. This is how I felt about going to our room without the baby.

So it was 1:00 in the morning before they had the baby stabilized and ready for us to come in and see him. He was perfect! It was so sad to see him hooked up to all of those things. He had to stay in the special care nursery the hospital stay and we actually stayed one extra night to be with him.

I felt so much love for him the second I held him and it just got stronger every time I got to see him. The morning after he was born we finally decided on a name. We had been talking and talking and TALKING about this ever since I found out I was pregnant :). I was pretty sure I liked the name Bennett the best, and Judd liked Truman, so we had narrowed it down to those two names. When we were sitting there with him I decided that he really didn't look like Bennett to me, and we named him Truman Judson Westgate.
He was hooked up to oxygen and IVs most of the time he was there, so up until the last night of our stay he had to be in the nursery. So we made lots of trips from our room down to the SCN (Special Care Nursery). They called me every time he woke up and I'd waddle down to feed him.

It was super exciting on the last night when he got to come to our room! And even more exciting when we got to go home! :)

It definitely wasn't an ideal situation, but I'm so grateful that there were such great people at the hospital to take care of him. It could've been a lot worse and I'm just so thankful that Truman is here and that he is healthy and strong now. We're settling into things...I feel like I'm getting the hang of most of it. I'm trying to get him on a schedule and that isn't really working out the way they say it will in the books I've read, but we just keep trying :). He's a really good baby-he's usually content to sit in the bouncer or just lay wherever we put him. He doesn't usually fuss unless he's gassy or hungry. He is already fighting going to sleep for naps, but is pretty good about sleeping at night, so I can't complain about that.
My hormones have had me a little out of whack and I don't like that feeling, but it seems to be on the up swing the past few days. I'm not usually an overly emotional person and it feels weird to cry at the drop of a hat. I also feel insanely lonely, especially when Judd has to stay at school or work late. I'm so used to being alone at night because of Judd's crazy schedule, so I hate that I can't handle it now. Hopefully my hormones will settle down soon! (Especially so that Truman can lose his man boobies! haha)

Aunt Biph (my friend Kathrin) came over and took some pictures of the little guy. Blogger is being really slow to upload pictures, so if you want to see a few of the pics, head on over to facebook. He slept the WHOLE day before she came and passed out right as she left, but of course was awake and a bit upset while she was here. Stubborn little baby :)

Anyway, we're so excited to start our family! We love this little peanut and are so grateful to have him in our lives! Can't believe we're parents!

The Crunchmaster!

2011-09-02T15:12:00.003-06:00

So whilst we were in Florida (post about that to be posted) I tried these crackers at Judd's aunt's house and have been craving them ever since. I looked for them at Wally World and Maceys, only to be disappointed. But, have no fear, I found them! You must try them. Seriously. I can't get enough of them. The sad part of the story is that I have only found them at Sam's Club so far and alas, I do not have a membership there. SO, if you do, and you're ever there, buy some for yourself and buy some for me :).

Pop!

2011-07-28T10:02:00.002-06:00

I think my belly button is about to pop out. I am very sad about this! Judd and I have taken wagers on when we think the big event will actually happen. I think August 5th, he thinks August 20th or something like that. I really love my innie belly button and really don't want an outie. I hope it goes back when the baby is no longer pushing on it. :)
This summer is flying! I can't believe it's almost August. I can't believe that Maghann (my friend that has been my prego buddy) could have her baby any day. I can't believe it's time to start thinking about work again. I have seriously not even put one thought toward my upcoming class yet this summer. Nice huh? I was sooooo burnt out by the end of the school year, I really needed some time to be away from it. I have been working summer school and at RISE this summer, which are similar to my job, but have been different enough to offer the break that I so badly needed. I think I'm ready to get back into the swing of things with my actual job. I really will only be with my new students for a week or so before fetus comes. Horrible, horrible timing, but I can't wait!
Being pregnant has definitely not been as bad as I thought it would be. After the 1st trimester was over I really haven't had anything that I could complain much about. I feel good and haven't been overly tired. The little guy kicks me in the ribs all of the time, but that's about the worst thing I could complain about. I have been really lucky to have such an easy pregnancy. I like feeling him move around, but don't like the way it feels, does that make sense? Especially when it feel's like he's dragging an arm or leg across my stomach. I feel like I have an alien inside of me. :) It's still so weird to think that there is a PERSON INSIDE of my body. So weird! I am getting a little more anxious to see what he looks like and hold him in my arms. It's getting more and more real as it gets closer.
We just had a family reunion up in Idaho last weekend. We went camping and swimming in the Snake river and although it was a short trip, it was pretty fun! The boys (Judd, Paul and Tanner) decided to jump into the river on the last night around midnight...it was really funny. I am sad that we probably won't have a chance to go camping again this summer. I love camping! I even love camping when I'm pregnant! This summer has just been busy and has gone so fast and we haven't really made camping a priority unfortunately. Maybe next summer...
We're getting ready to go to Florida in a few weeks, and I am stoked. We're staying with Judd's grandma-whom I absolutely adore-in West Palm Beach. We're also driving up near Orlando to stay with his aunt for a few days. We're gonna spend lots of time on the beach/pool side. I'm hopin' for an awesome tan at the end. I've never been to Florida before, and I'm really excited to go there and also to meet some of Judd's family. We don't get to do that very often because they all live so far away.
Okay, that's all I can think of for now. I apologize for that lack of pictures. Hopefully I'll do that next time :)

Really

2011-07-07T18:02:00.002-06:00

I really need to update this more often. But I just have been having a hard time thinking of things to say. I've been having lots of fun this summer so far, but nothing really has happened that I feel like blogging about. I haven't seen any movies that I feel like talking about. I am currently reading mommy books and don't really feel like writing about those. I want to try to avoid turning my blog into a baby reporting system, so I really don't want to only blog about the prego stuff or the baby once he's here. Hence, the lack of blogging.
So anyway, just so you know, I still check your blogs, I'm still alive, I'm feeling pretty good so far and I found a summer job! Yay. It's kinda like glorified babysitting and doesn't pay well, but it's better than nothing. We've set the baby's room up for the most part and it still kinda weirds me out to go in there and realize that we have a baby room in our house now. I've been spending a lot of time with my bestie (Judd) and it's been the best. I hate when he has to go back to school. :)
We had fun on the 4th, just hanging out at home. We bought some AWESOME fireworks. haha...they were pretty ghetto, but we didn't want to spend much money. Perhaps I'll post pictures when I'm not feeling so lazy.
We haven't decided on a name yet, but we're trying new ones out each day. The little guy is growing well, kicking and moving like crazy and making me look large and in charge.
So anyway, there's an update...boring as it might be. I'm gonna make a goal to be a bit better about posting things more often. Hopefully I can find things that inspire me to blog about :)

Decision

2011-04-27T18:08:00.002-06:00

I've decided that I really stink at blogging if I'm working. The only times I ever blog are when I have some time off from work. So, I've decided that I should probably quit my job so I can dedicate myself more fully to my ever important blog.

Music

2011-03-21T08:52:00.001-06:00

So, Judd told me the other day that I always listen to the same old stuff when it comes to music and that I should "explore" new music. :) I got to thinking about it, and he's totally right! I haven't found a new artist that I like listening to in a really long time. So I thought I would get the opinion of all my lovely friends..what's your favorite stuff? Who are your favorite artists? If you say Taylor Swift then I'm blocking you from blog :) jk.

MOM!

2011-03-12T18:08:00.002-07:00

So, thanks to my lovely mom, (whom I love so so much) I have really dry skin. This stinks super bad when you live in Utah during the winter. It translates into having a really dry scalp which translates into DANDRUFF! I hate it! I have tried all the solutions I know...lots of conditioner, every single different kind of dandruff shampoo (currently trying the T-gel stuff), going longer between washing my hair, NONE of it is helping. Any solutions people?

Oh, by the way, I'm gonna be a mom. In September. Around September 12th to be exact. We're so excited! I'm just out of my first trimester and am feeling better everyday. It's nice to not feel nauseous all of the time. I was lucky and didn't throw up much, but felt like I needed to do so all day long. I would even feel it when I woke up in the middle of the night. I also am getting my energy back which is fantastic. I can finally get things done around the house again. Yay!

On that subject, here's a little shout out to my AWESOME AWESOME sisters-in-law, Steph and Pra who have ALREADY sent me stuff for the pregnancy. Steph lives clear in Germany and sent me a bunch of maternity clothes that are super cute and I'm so excited to have. Priscilla owns her own business called Scrunchbump and makes these amazing shirts and tanks that are totally meant for prego bellies. They're like Shade or Downeast but way better. She just sent me a ton for free. Pretty sure I have the best sisters-in-law in the world. They rock! Thanks so much girlies. It means a lot to me!

Anyway, Judd and I are super stoked to be able to start our family. I'm still not sure it's totally sunk in for me, but I get more and more excited everyday. We get to find out the gender on April 29th and it feels like forever away. I want to know right now! I still can't believe there is a PERSON growing inside of me. So crazy. We're so lucky to be able to have this little spirit join our family. Yay!

your mom!

2011-02-22T16:52:00.002-07:00

Don't have much to say....just thought I would start posting more so that people might actually read my blog again. I think lots of people might have given up on me. Or maybe everyone has just given up on blogging...'cause a lot of you people aren't updating your blogs enough for me. But I am loyal, so don't worry. I keep checking even if you haven't posted anything since Halloween (Brindee).

I am getting spring fever SO BAD. I need a vacation. I need a break from work. I need warm weather. I wish I could go to Cancun. Or Hawaii. Or Florida. Even St. George would be okay. Anyone want to take a road trip down to St. George? I have next Friday off. We should totally make a girls road trip to St. George. I never see the hubby anyway. Any takers? :)

I had to go the the dentist yesterday to get some cavities filled. I hate the dentist. No offense to anyone who is emotionally tied to a dentist, but I always feel super ripped off after I go. And I look like a big old nerd. Judd wouldn't stop laughing at me. He told me I looked like the sewing lady on channel 7. How rude. My mouth hurts today where the guy gave me the shots. And by the way, my dentist has no social skills. He stuck that needle in my gums without even being kind enough to let me know what he was about to do. He seriously walked into the room, didn't even say hello, sat down and grabbed the little mirror thingy, so I opened my mouth and he stuck me with the stinkin' needle. Maybe a warning would be nice next time k friend? Sheesh. He needs to come to my classes social skills groups on Friday.

I'm baaaaaaaack!!!

2011-02-13T20:18:00.002-07:00

You guys sick of Christmas music yet? I hate that I never feel like blogging. I need to get back into the groove. I spruced up my blog to make me excited for spring. Maybe that will make me want to blog more. I don't know. I was feeling very overwhelmed when I opened my blog and saw the Christmas stuff so I would just close out of it and try to forget about it. Maybe this is a new start :)
I have a few updates, but no pictures. I'm too lazy to walk downstairs and get my camera, hook it up to my computer and upload them. haha. Maybe another day.
Update #1
-Tami had her baby! His name is Tyce and he's a cutie pie. I just got a dang cold a couple days ago so I haven't been able to see him in awhile. I'm angry about that. I like babies :)
Update #2
-Yesterday was the hottie husband's birthday. Have I ever mentioned how much I love him? Well I do. He's the greatest thing since french fries. We both got massages at our fav place and went and got sushi at Happy Sumo with Linz and Reed. It was TASTY. I want more right this second. Judd is such a hard worker and I love and admire him more and more everyday. We have the best friendship and the best marriage and he is definitely the greatest blessing in my life. Happy Birthday to him.
Update #3
-We always go see Darby for our massage needs (like yesterday) and she's GOING OUT OF BUSINESS. I am so sad. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
Update #4
-As mentioned above, I have a stupid cold. I have gone ALL WINTER wiping gooey 5 year old noses and haven't caught one. I just started taking lots of Vitamin C a couple of weeks ago and now I get one? Where the heck did I pick this up? If I find out it was from you-you're gonna be in big trouble.
Update #5
-Next week is the start of 3 weeks in a row where I only have to work 4 days a week. Sweet huh? Not quite as good as going off track, but still something to look forward to.
Update #6
I'm looking for a summer job that pays fairly decently...if you hear of anything you should tell me k?

Alright, that's all for now. The dryer just stopped so that's my cue to go fold laundry. You're welcome for taking down that stinkin' Christmas music!:)

What a day!

2010-12-11T16:57:00.001-07:00

I just wasted an ENTIRE day! The only eventful/productive thing I did was go to to choir practice for our ward Christmas program. Today was AWESOME! :)

well who knew?

2010-11-29T20:44:00.001-07:00

Did you know that there are websites that will make your blog into a book for you? I was just thinking that I should invent something like that since so many people use their blogs as journals. How cool is that? I want one!

ps. I love my Christmas-ed out blog! :)

Happy 100!

2010-11-23T18:52:00.002-07:00

Today one of my students came up to me and said, "Teacher, 100". That was all. :) What a coincidence that he said that on the same day that I am posting my 100th post on this blog right? It's taken me forever to get here! Maghann started her blog later than me and reached her 100th post a REALLY long time ago. I need to start picking up the slack!
Anyway...
I am excited for Thanksgiving this year and grateful for the opportunity I have to reflect on all that I am blessed with. I have so much to be thankful for! I have the world's best (and hardest working) husband! He's my best friend! I have a wonderful family, the best friends ever, a warm home, a stable job, freedoms to live my life how I choose, the knowledge that my Savior loves me, food in my fridge, a reliable car, 20 sweet children that I get to teach and love, and the list goes on and on. I am so lucky to live close to my family and see them on a regular basis. I am lucky to work with people that have become some of my favorite friends. I am blessed to have a job that is very rewarding. I know that I often take my blessings for granted. I know where my blessings come from. I am lucky to know that. I am lucky to have the knowledge of the gospel. I am blessed to know that my Savior lived as the perfect example for me and died for me so I may have the most wonderful blessing of returning to him someday.
I gotta say that I've got it pretty good. I love Thanksgiving because it helps me remember all that I have. I also love the food :).

Hangin Tough

2010-10-31T18:20:00.003-06:00

Halloween was so much fun this year! I loved that Judd got so into dressing up. It's the first time since I've known him! I've decided that he gets to chose the costumes from now on since that seemed to make him excited about it. It was cute to watch him get into it and maybe someday he'll love Halloween as much as I do!

We had fun with Maghann, Paul, Amanda, Spencer and Quinn. Maghann made super yummy chocolate fondue and I STUFFED myself. I seriously almost threw up when we were leaving. Good thing I'm going to my exercise class tomorrow. Anyway, we played cards with everyone and had lots of fun. I like our little Halloween tradition. We didn't get to scare any trick-or-treaters this year because of the lame rain, but we still had a really good time.

Judd and I looked pretty tough if I do say so myself. Judd actually pulls off that look pretty well....don't get any ideas love. :) He made a pretty great "skin head". I compromised with him on what he wanted me to be (a crack whore) hahaha....and dressed like a biker chick instead. We left our stupid camera at home, so maybe I'll post more pics when I get them from Maghann, but we did take some when we got home, so enjoy!

Now I am ready to get excited for Thanksgiving! HORRAY for the holidays!

Cuatro Anos?

2010-10-19T21:11:00.004-06:00

Look at this hottie!
It's been 4 years since I married the hottest man on the earth. :) In some ways I can't believe it's been that long, and in other ways, it seems so much longer. I can't really remember what life was like without Judd, and I don't want to ever know. I don't think I really knew how happy our life would be together or that it would keep getting happier and better. He's FOR SURE the best thing that has ever happened to me. I LOVE YOU JUDSON T WESTGATE!

To celebrate the happy occasion, we went to Lake Tahoe for a few days. It was so relaxing and beautiful.
While we were on the beach, these ducks came RIGHT up to us and decided to snooze underneath our lawn chairs. Judd didn't think it was very funny and kept trying to get them to go away. I laughed the whole time. I loved that they were sitting with us like puppies or something.

I'll post a few more pictures later. We had so much fun and it was SO nice to spend so much time together! I'm pretty sure we won't be able to spend that much time together again until Christmas break and I loved every single second of it. Happy 4th Anniversary to us!

what are you gonna be for Halloween?

2010-10-03T00:06:00.001-06:00

So I decorated for fall/Halloween today. I'm soooooooooo excited. Have I mentioned how much I love this time of year? I have a student who is equally excited. He got off the bus on Friday convinced that it was already Halloween since it was October. He kept saying, "Hey Bailey (Sue's daughter that so kindly volunteered in our classroom)it's Halloween!" and when he got on the bus to go home, he was sure to wish us "Happy Halloween" a few times. :) Okay, so maybe he's more excited. But I have an excuse. I have a major dilemma. I have no idea what to be!!! I have come to realize that I'm pretty picky about the Halloween costume thing, and I have yet to have a year where I really love my costume. That needs to change this year. What oh what should I be? I want to be something funny/cool. I want to look really cute in my costume. I want it to match with Judd. I need it to be fairly easy and cheap. I have searched the internet and have yet to find something that I think Judd will agree to. Maghann and I came up with some pretty funny ideas, but Judd said no. Why doesn't he want to be bunnies? Sheesh. Anyway, if you have any grand ideas, I will be a captive audience. Help!

productivity I am doing it!

2010-09-24T20:27:00.003-06:00

I think I am finally getting back into the groove of going to work each day and still being productive when I get home. Those summer breaks sure do spoil me. I forget how hard it is to not just pass out once work is over! This week was a good week though! I made it to the gym most nights and did something around the house after the gym. I spent a minimal amount of time checking blogs and facebook :). It feels so much better to be productive. I've found that if I have a routine (clean the toilets on Mondays, laundry on Tuesdays etc) I am less overwhelmed and therefore more productive. So...yay for me! I think if I keep it up for a month, I should definitely deserve an awesome treat. What should I motivate myself with?

This makes me happy

2010-09-18T16:51:00.000-06:00

OMH--this is so funny. Please watch this. I promise it will make your day. This kid is my new best friend.

p.s. In case anyone is worried---I'm feeling much better now :). Oh and Emily wrote me the most awesome social story ever and gave me a cute de-stress present. Thanks Em!

Dear Emily,

2010-09-10T19:14:00.005-06:00

This is for you! I will attempt to post things more often because I would NEVER want you to become bored with my awesome blog. :)
I survived another first week of teaching. That means I have FIVE under my belt. Five first weeks of CRAZINESS. I'm exhausted. For real. I always forget, every single year, how tiring the first few weeks of school are. I think it's like how women forget how painful childbirth is. If you remembered exactly how much fun it's NOT, you wouldn't want to ever do it again. That's how the first week of school is. Don't you agree? HOWEVER...my kids are darling darling darling. Their little personalities are soooooo endearing and are already sneaking their way into my heart. I'm already quoting and copying them at home. Judd loves it. Or I pretend he does anyway.
With that said, I need to complain for minute about stress. I am surrounded by stress at the moment.

Judd is stressed, I am stressed, we are stressed together, stress stress stress. You know the suckiest thing about it? He's always so dang busy that we don't have time to hang out and relax. Which means that I just end up being lazy 'cause I'm "hanging out" alone which makes me more stressed. And I just realized that I've been grinding my teeth for the past hour as I have been thinking about how stressed out I am. I think I need a vacation...and I KNOW Judd does. He has ZERO free time. I'm not exaggerating. So if you ask us to hang out with you and I tell you that we can't because Judd has to study, I am not just finding a sneaky way out of not hanging out with you. For real. Last weekend (you know, the nice long holiday weekend), Judd and I spent MAYBE a total of 5 hours together and it was mostly after 10pm each night. Poor guy. I wish I could lighten his load a bit.
I was watching Wife Swap a week or so ago and this lady made her whole family do positive affirmations each morning before they left the house. Maybe I should write some stress relieving affirmations so I don't feel like my head is going to explode. Or
maybe you (Emily) could write me a social story about how to cope with all the stress in my life. I could read it to myself every morning. I think that is a really great idea.
Thanks,
Becky

Havasupai 2010!

2010-09-05T18:16:00.011-06:00

I'm finally buckling down to blog about Havasupai. It was so so so so fun. And AMAZINGLY beautiful. I am going back FOR. SURE. Anyway, the drive down was fun. It's been awhile since Judd and I took a long road trip alone. We ended up meeting Judd's dad and crew (Lanelle his girlfriend and her two sons, C.J and Dalton) in Peach Springs, where we stayed the night before embarking on our journey down the Grand Canyon. The drive from Peach Springs to Wallapai hilltop was so pretty! It took us about an hour and the scenery changed about 5 times in the hour. Hard to describe...it was so pretty. The hike in was not bad at all! Here we are a few pictures from the trip down.

I was really excited when we started to see water because I knew we were getting close!

We got into the village, where Steve, Lanelle and the boys where staying, and rested in their motel room for a bit.

Then we finished the last 2 miles of the hike to the campground. I loved the campground! It was surrounded by the creek/river and the high walls of the canyon kept the site out of the sun for a good part of the day. It was really beautiful! It got dark super early. We seriously went to bed at like 8:30 every night. Some pics of us at the campground and the campground itself.

There are 4 main waterfalls in Havasu. The first one you come to (on the way to the campground) is called Rock Falls. This one was a new falls created in the big flood of 2008. We didn't swim here, but it sure was pretty to look at!

The next one is Havasu falls, and this is super close to the campground. We did most of our swimming here. There weren't very many deep pools to swim in. I guess those were destroyed with that same big flood that created Rock Falls. It was still so beautiful. There was a lot of shade to sit in and we spent a lot of time relaxing here at Havasu falls.

The next one is Mooney falls. This one is like 200 feet tall. It was SO pretty! The hike down to it was C-razy! You basically scale this rock cliff. There are chains and spikes along the way to hold on to. I thought I would be really scared, but it wasn't that bad. It was exciting to be doing something like that, and well worth it at the bottom. It was indescribably beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice at all.

The last major falls before you get to the Colorado river are Beaver Falls. It's about a 3 mile hike from Mooney Falls. The terrain was nuts! Not hard, but you would never imagine that you would find that kind of scenery in the grand canyon. You have to hike through a mile or so of THICK grapevines. It's so green there...not the barren desert you would imagine. We didn't quite make it to Beaver Falls unfortunately. We were SO close when Steve fell and did some MAJOR damage to his ankle, so we turned around and went back. He was a trooper. I can't believe he hiked all the way back on that ankle.

The hike back out wasn't bad either. The switchbacks at the end were steep and kinda long, but not bad. We slept in Steve's motel room the night before we left and got up at 1:00 in the morning to hike out and avoid the heat. We also needed to get an early start on driving home. Hiking out in the dark slowed us down, but sure made it nice temperature wise. We saw some coyotes about 100 or so yards away at one point...after that I hiked a lot faster :). I was afraid there were gonna stalk us and try to have us for breakfast. haha. We got to the switchbacks just as the sun was beginning to rise. We took a break and ate some breakfast and some of the dogs from the village found us there and hung out with us. They hiked with us the rest of the way. It was cute how they would stop and wait for us when we took our short little breathers. I really wanted to take them home with me.

The trip was so fun! I can't wait to go back. If you've never been there and you enjoy hiking, you should seriously plan a trip. You most definitely won't regret it!

K, I'm going now!

2010-08-07T07:50:00.001-06:00

I'm off to Havasupai! Cross your fingers that it doesn't rain, k? I'll be back real soon, so don't miss me too much. Oh and I'll post pictures when I get home and you'll all be reeeeeeeeaaaaaaallllll jealous of my trip :). See ya!

Things I love that you might too

2010-07-31T21:43:00.004-06:00

Here are some things that I am loving right now-you should try them! I bet you'll love them too!!
The first thing I would like to share is my FAV restaurant at the moment: My Thai One word. AMAZING. If you like Thai food you MUST, I repeat MUST eat here. Dee, the owner and chef is the loveliest lady you'll ever meet. She makes your food according to your taste, and if you visit as frequently as we do, she remembers how you like it :). The service is almost always super fast, the portion sizes are HUGE and the prices are super cheap. I cannot even pick my favorite dish there because everything is so tasty, but the Panang curry is divine. There is a dish called Sweet chili sauce and veggies that is also super tasty, the fried rice is better than any Chinese fried rice I've ever tasted, and the desert rice is my FAVORITE desert ever. SO SO SO yummy.

Next thing I am loving:
I have the world's lamest eyelashes, but you sure can't tell that when I wear this mascara. I have thin and short eyelashes, and these make them look pretty and long. I haven't tried their new product that claims to do length and volume, but the length stuff is great! I struggle with mascara...so this is a happy find.

Next...

These ear buds rock! They come with different sizes of "cushions" so you can find one that actually fits in your ear. They block out a significant amount of noise and they don't feel like they're going to fall out when you're bustin' your butt at the gym.
Speaking of the gym, I HAVE to have good music to work out to. I can't listen to my everyday music, either. I need the pump you up with a good beat, but still a song you know kinda stuff. I love this set of music...

I seriously feel lost at the gym when I forget my iPod. You can borrow these if you'd like to try them out yourself :).

Since we're on healthy topics, I'll tell you about my favorite bread! It's Aspen Mills Honey Whole Wheat Bread. This stuff has like 5 ingredients. No corn syrup, no sugar (only honey), no enriched wheat flour. It's a little heavy and tends to be a little too dry for something like a pb&j, but it makes super tasty toast and is good for moister sandwiches. I love bread a whole lot and like finding one that is semi-healthy. You can buy it at Costco for under $6 (two loaves) and I've seen it at Good Earth as well. They have other kinds of bread that are yummy as well but not quite as healthy. :)

The last thing that I have been loving lately is:

SUMMER! I have spent lots of time outside this summer. I know, I might get skin cancer someday. That's a definite downside. The sun is good for my soul though. I have been so relaxed for the past 4 weeks, I almost don't recognize myself. :) Maybe my full time job should consist of laying out by the pool, lunches with friends, time with my nieces, and sleeping in every day. If you hear of an opening for something like that, let me know! :)

Love it!

2010-07-27T12:37:00.004-06:00

I'm hanging out with this girl today:

She's getting so stinking big and every time I spend time with her I am amazed at what she's learned.
Anyway, we had lots of fun today. We went shopping and found these stylin' shades.

Then we headed to the park 'cause that was the first thing she asked to do when she woke up from her nap.

I love being an aunt! I hope someday I can have a baby girl as cute as my nieces!

We are pioneers...

2010-07-26T13:10:00.002-06:00

For the 24th I decided that I wanted to go and see the fireworks. It's been forever since I've been. We are always doing something on the 4th of July that does not consist of fireworks, so it seemed like it would be fun. We invited Maghann and Paul to come with us and we went to California Pizza Kitchen first. That was super duper yummy! Then we headed to Liberty Park for the fireworks. I thought I was thinking ahead by getting there around 8:30. NOT! Seriously, did everyone in Salt Lake decide to go see those things? It was nutso. We had to park like a million and a half blocks away and even there we barely found a spot. Crazy. Anyway, the fireworks were just okay. Apparently that's partially due to the little mishap they had. We were wondering where the stinkin' grand finale was. I feel a little better knowing that there was supposed to be more, but the part we saw wasn't anything special. I decided that I will not be participating in that madness again anytime soon :). But, I did feel very patriotic! (Even though I'm not sure how fireworks really celebrate the pioneer concept...)

And I might die..

2010-07-20T16:05:00.003-06:00

In just 2 weeks and 3 days, I am going here:

Pretty freaking amazing, right? I am pretty stoked and nervous at the same time. I love me a good hike, but this one is 10 miles in and 10 miles out with a heavy pack and I have never done that before. It's possible I might die. Especially on the way out. Since it's almost all uphill back. Last summer we went on a hike to Lake Blanche- it was only 3.5 miles one way and I thought about giving up and dying right there on the trail :), so....we'll see how this one goes. When I start to feel those little jittery, gonna pee my pants feelings, however, I just look at these...

...and I get so excited that I know it will all be so worth it!
Then, I see one of these....

...and have to start the process all over again :) Wish me luck!!

Wish they all could be California...

2010-07-18T21:45:00.004-06:00

I sure do love California! Maybe someday I can live there, or just have a second house there when I am rich and famous.
I seriously wish we had a beach here in Utah. There really isn't anything better than lying on the beach. When we went, the weather was so perfect. It wasn't hot at all, I could've stayed there on that beach for the whole stinkin' day. Can I please go back?
We had a relatively short trip, but we packed a million things into it and it was AWESOME! We went to 2 Triple D restaurants (Diners Drive-Ins and Dives), Six Flags, China town (we had the BEST BEST BEST Chinese food I have EVER eaten. Chinese food here in Utah is trash compared to what we had there!) the beach and Hollywood. I already posted pictures on Facebook, but I know you want to see them here too. And don't worry, I've got some really awesome pictures in store for you soon...so stay tuned! :)

p.s. I'm pissed that they are all in the middle like that, but too lazy to deal with it. :) Also too lazy for captions.

Blush

2010-07-11T22:33:00.001-06:00

Awwww shucks. Thanks for making me feel loved friends! An update is coming on Tuesday. I feel a renewed sense of motivation! :)

Gimmie Some Love!

2010-07-08T20:52:00.001-06:00

Okay, Okay, I know I deserve the lack of comments on my blog since I have been gone for-freakin-ever. Nonetheless, I need my blogger friends to show me some love with comments! Otherwise, I do not know that people are checking my blog. If people are not checking my blog, it is not worth my time to post things on here and I will save my oh so valuable time and just email Maghann and Amber :). Sound good? Don't forget to comment. K-love ya, bye.

Back from the DEAD!

2010-07-01T02:15:00.002-06:00

The blogging world has been dead to me for the past few months. I don't get on my blog, I don't get on your blog, and I don't really even have the energy to feel bad about it. I am, however, awake at 2:00 in the morning this lovely day because today just didn't seem to be "my day", and I am NOT ready for my last day of school yet (which happens to be starting in about 6 hours). Aren't you jealous? Thought so. As we "speak" I am willing iDVD with my mind to encode my DVD at anything faster than a snail's pace. Apparently I haven't mastered that mind magic stuff yet.
Anyway, since tomorrow is my last day of school, I feel like I will soon be returning from my blogging grave and I will tell you all about the fun things I have been doing lately. We had a blast in California in May, took some awesome pictures when we went camping over Memorial Day weekend and we're leaving for Vegas on Friday. I know you're getting all giddy inside thinking of all the amazing pictures you're going to be able to see soon! Until then, please comment on how sorry you feel for me that I had to stay up all night burning "Class Memories 2009-2010" dvds instead of getting a good night's rest before my big day. And, if you're feeling extra generous, say a few bad words about iDVD because this super duper program has made my day a day from, well, you know where.

Mayday Mayday!

2010-04-28T08:03:00.002-06:00

So things on my journey are not going so well. Don't get me wrong, I have been working hard. Really hard. Okay maybe I ate a cinnamon roll for breakfast, but other days, I have been doing really well. I've been working my butt off at the gym, but not literally. My butt should seriously be coming off with how hard I have been working, but it's not. What is the deal? Why can't I lose weight? I am SO FRUSTRATED! However, I am becoming stronger, I feel healthier and my cardiovascular system is most definitely improving. I guess I could look on the bright side and be grateful for those things, but all I really want to do right now is complain that I'm still chunky and I want to be a hot mama in my bathing suit in T minus 15 days. Grrrr.

Journey to 130

2010-04-05T17:07:00.004-06:00

So really more like 140, but that didn't sound as poetic. Okay, Judd and I are headed to Cali in a little more than a month to spend a few days on some rollercoasters and the beach, and I don't want to look like this in my swimming suit:

So, I'm on a mission to lose the pudge. I'm keeping a food journal, trying to be more consistent with working out and eating good foods, and I just bought some home fitness equip (a jump rope and stability ball) for the days that I can't get to the gym. I'm aiming for a new, cute swimming suit to take to sunny California! I'm determined and hopeful and I REALLY REALLY want to attain this goal. I'm planning on keeping you all updated so I can't hide in my shame. :) Here I go!

We Are Family...

2010-03-20T21:01:00.004-06:00

I spent last night with my sisters and my padres, we had a girls night plus Dad. :) We rented Band Hero and played it until 1:00 in the morning, then decided to bring the full size mattress from upstairs to the downstairs family room so that the 3 of us could all sleep together. Tami and I were having a special time getting the mattress down the stairs and ended up getting it stuck. It was super funny to us and we couldn't stop laughing enough to really try to get it unstuck. Jess had to go to the top of the stairs and reach over the railing and shove the mattress down, which left a huge blue mark on the wall from the sheets. It doesn't sound funny at all right now as I'm typing it, but it was hilarious to us at 1:30 in the morning. It was so much fun and left me feeling so grateful that I have such a wonderful relationship with my family.
I love that my sisters and I grew up together in a small family. I love the relationship that I feel was formed because of that. I love how dorky we were...
...Yet we thought were pretty cool. I love my sisters and I love my family and I had a blast hanging out with them this weekend.

The Last Song

2010-03-15T21:41:00.002-06:00

I just finished this book. I read it in a couple of hours. It's the first book I've read in a while and it was an easy read! I liked it overall...it was cheesy...a little teenager-ish, but entertaining none the less, and I must admit, I'll probably watch the movie.

Next on my bookshelf agenda:

I really want to see the movie, but have to wait until it comes out on video so we can ClearPlay it, so I guess I'll read the book first. Hopefully it's not rated R as well :). I just got through a SUPER DUPER stressful time at work, and I'm excited to be entering a time when I can come home from work, get my "stuff" done and then settle down into a good book. I'm seriously so glad that the stress has subsided! I made it! Leave your suggestions of what I should read when I'm finished with Shutter Island!

Rock N Rose Massage ROCKS!

2010-03-14T18:45:00.003-06:00

I love this place! Darby is the best massage therapist ever. She is so good at deep tissue work and really finding your problem areas. My back feels so so happy after I visit Darby. If you are into massages, I would MOST DEFINITELY recommend this place. I love that they play rock music during your massage. It's surprisingly relaxing. They have different play lists to choose from, my favorites are purple and blue rose. Purple rose is oldies rock...Eagles, Jimmy Hendrix... things like that. I'm telling you people, you must visit this place. Your body will for sure thank you!

Tired

2010-03-07T21:14:00.002-07:00

I don't mean to complain, and I know some people have it much worse, but my schedule these days is WEARING me out. Seriously! Here is a typical day for me...work until 5:15ish, go to the gym, leave for home around 6:30(40ish minute drive home), get home and make dinner, muster up the energy to clean up the dishes and hopefully do laundry or clean the house, try to find time to spend with my equally (if not more) busy husband and then try to get to bed on-time. Maybe it doesn't sound that bad, but just typing it makes me tired. These past and next few weeks are especially stressful at work with lots of paperwork and testing my students...and my students are getting spring fever and are especially exhausting. All I want to do is find a nice little hole, crawl in it, have the world forget about me for a few days and SLEEP!
But, I'm not complaining. Just saying. :)

Food!

2010-02-20T12:48:00.002-07:00

I love FOOD! :) It is very true. I have been trying to be more healthy about my obsession lately. haha. I found a yummy treat that is not healthy, but healthier than some things.
These. Are. Amazing. I didn't think I'd like them because I'm not crazy about Baked Lays, but I LOVE them. If you are like me and get the munchies a lot, and are looking for a totally satisfying, not TOO fattening treat, buy these! You won't regret it! :)

Somebody that I love is 27!

2010-02-12T09:39:00.004-07:00

I love this man very much! And, in light of his 27th birthday, I believe I will tell you 27 reasons that I love him! (Sorry, Maghann I sorta stole this from you haha)

1. He makes me SO happy! We laugh together all of the time and I'm happiest when I'm around him

2. He is REALLY funny. I don't think most people really see my favorite side of his personality, but he knows how to be silly and weird and I love that so much because I am silly and weird all of the time!

3. He makes me feel SO beautiful. I know he thinks I'm the hottest thing there is, and that feels so good.
4. He is a REALLY good cook. Much better than I am. He can make lots of things like sauces and soups and such with no recipe and he makes a KILLER cheesecake.
5. He is so LOYAL. He is a really good friend, brother, husband and son.
6. He has introduced to me so many new things! My favorite food is now sushi and I had never tried it before I met him.
7. He loves to do outdoor things like camping and hiking and so do I! He really helped us develop that hobby together

8. He works REALLY hard. He puts AT LEAST 40 hours a week in just with class and study/homework time and has a job and a significant church calling on top of that. AND he still makes time to spend with me. Amazing!
9. He is the most motivated and ambitious person I have ever met. He inspires me to go after my dreams.
10. A lot of his motivation comes from wanting to provide for me and our future family and he does all of that HARD work with a smile on his face.
11. He rides the bus to help us save money. I would hate to ride the bus everyday! He is so self-less.
12. He's my very best friend! We share so many similar opinions on things. We talk to each other and have good conversations, and he's always trying to make me happy. For example...the other day I picked him up from school and I was SO hungry. I told him that I was "hungry ornery" and without saying anything he drove straight to Cafe Rio to get me some food. He knows me so well!! :)

13. He is GREAT with children! All of our nieces and nephews love him so much and always want to be around him. He is so sweet with our nieces. He was also a really GREAT primary teacher! The kids loved him so much. I can't wait to have a daughter that wraps him around her finger, and I KNOW she will!

14. He's a good listener~
15. He's SUPER smart...I think it's sexy! :)
16. He loves me for who I am and works hard to understand me and all my little quirks.
17. We've learned to communicate with each other REALLY well and he's really helped us to get where we are with that.
18. He is romantic. Remember that poem he wrote for me for my birthday? Yeah. Pretty amazing right?
19. He's got an amazing voice (that was on my list of 'wants' before I got married haha) Not only is his voice wonderful, he has like perfect pitch. Seriously makes me jealous.
20. I love his smile. And his laugh. Both are definitely infectious.
21. He's the kind of guy that never looks at other women. I have NEVER, not once, heard him comment on the looks of another girl, not even celebrities. Because of my "issues", I LOVE LOVE LOVE this about him. He really, truly makes me feel like I'm THE MOST beautiful woman to him and I never feel like he wishes I were any different.

21. He is amazingly hot. The first time I saw him I was almost embarrassed to be going out with him because he was so out of my league. He's hands down the most handsome guy I've ever even spoken to! I'm a REALLY lucky girl!

22.Our relationship feels natural and easy. I feel blessed to have a marriage that runs so smoothly.
23. I love how groggy he is in the mornings. I'm not sure how he ever made it anywhere in the morning before we got married. He says really funny things when I try to wake him up!
24. He finds ways to be interested in what I am interested in. He has met all of my students every year that I have taught because he wants to know who I am talking about, and he is SO cute with those kids. I love that he can find humor in the things that I think are funny at work. Most people don't understand why the things that my students do are so funny, but he really does!
25. If we go shopping together, he always makes me buy something for myself. I know it's because he appreciates me and thinks I deserve the world. He really does treat me like a queen!
26. He's super good at almost all sports. I admire him for being so naturally athletic because I am SO not naturally athletic.
27. He's pretty much just the most amazing guy on the planet. There is so much that I love about him that I just can't put into words, so this last one is for all of the unsaid things that make him so wonderful! I love love love love him!!!!

Happy Birthday my love!

You've gotta see this

2010-02-02T22:20:00.002-07:00

I love this show so very much. It is so funny. Please don't take my word for it. You have to watch it. Go to hulu.com and watch the first episode so you can get the gist of the characters, then tune in to channel 4 at 8:00 on Wednesday nights. I don't think you'll be disappointed. It's hilarious and I love it!

A liter of COLA

2010-01-27T17:06:00.002-07:00

So one of my true loves is Diet Pepsi. MMMMMMMmmmmmmmm (I currently am detoxing and soda is a no-no, so it sounds even better than it usually does)...
I can't help but crave an ice-cold 32 oz Diet Pepsi from the Maverick on the corner and I will not tell you how many times Judd and I tend to visit that said Maverick during the week. HOWEVER, my sister just sent me this story from KSL and I am now saying a dear good-bye to my beloved fountain drinks. At least until the health department does something about this! I mean seriously, fecal matter on the soda machines? Siiiiiiiccccccckkkkkk. It reminds me of the poop in the brownies story. Ever hear that one? If there was only a little tiny bit of poop in the brownie batter, would you eat a brownie made from it? Would you drink a soda if there was a little tiny chance that you might be drinking someone else's pooh flakes? I think not. Gross! Guess I'll have to stick to the bottled soda, because I do love Diet Pepsi muy mucho!!

L.O.V.E.

2010-01-24T20:58:00.008-07:00

I decided that since this upcoming month is all about the icky love stuff (name that movie) I would try to blog about people and things that I really love. The first post was inspired by some recent pictures that my dad has been posting on facebook of my late Grandpa Park. He's been gone for about 7 years now and my heart still aches when I think of him. I miss him so so much. I wish that everyone in my life could've met him because he meant and still means so much to me. I have so many wonderful memories of him. He had the greatest smile and such a great sense of humor. He was so easy to be around and he was always so happy. (Well when I was younger he was really grumpy sometimes, but we always made a joke of it). I remember we used to call him our garbage disposal because he would always eat whatever was left on our plates. He was a campground manager up at Spruces and then at Jordan Pines for a few summers and I have the greatest memories of going up there to visit and camp with him. We always played Uno, and he always got mad when he didn't win. :)
One of my last memories of my grandpa was when we all traveled down to St. George to say goodbye. He was in hospice care and we knew that it wouldn't be long before he passed. He was sure that he was going to get better and get out of there, so we were asked to be upbeat and just spend happy time with him. It was SO hard for me to stay smiling and upbeat... but I managed for the most part. Then I noticed a sucker from Disneyland by his bed and asked him where he got it. He told me that his nurse brought it back for him when she went because he had told her that he'd never been. Never been to Disneyland? For some reason that was so sad. I managed to joke with him about how we should sneak out the window together and go right then, but then I had to leave the room. For some reason, that was so sad to me. Everyone should get to go to Disneyland before they die and at that moment, all I wanted to do was take my grandpa there and not be in that room saying goodbye. Even though it's sad, I love that memory. I can still feel what it was like to be with my grandpa when I think of that, how it always was a warm, happy place when he was around.
I don't really have words to describe how wonderful my relationship was with him, but I just always felt at home when I was with him. I'm grateful that I have the knowledge of the gospel so that I know that I can see him again! I hope that my children can have the same kind of relationship with my dad that I did with my grandpa Park. I sure do miss the guy and I love him so so much!

Love you Grandpa Park!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T18:25:00.003-07:00

Just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I am grateful for all my wonderful family and friends! You all enrich my life and make it what it is. Hope the spirit of Christmas is with you tomorrow and throughout this new year! Love you all!

Viernes Negro!

2009-11-28T23:46:00.004-07:00

My family and I (well my sisters and my mom) have gone shopping on Black Friday as long as I can remember. We used to have Thanksgiving in Idaho with the extended family on my mom's side, and we used to all go together. It's always cold and crazy, but I love it! Here we are looking through the ads the night before and making our game plan :)

This year we weren't after too many things, but I found a stellar deal (just like I said I would) on a camera at Shopko, so we headed over there at approximately 3:15 am. Sheesh! There were some interesting people in line...one guy in front of us had horrendous breath...maybe it was too early for him to brush his teeth. Another guy kept talking to us about really weird things. Don't we look pretty at 3:00 in the morning? I love my mama and sisters!

So when the doors opened some lame sauce ladies cut in front, and bad breath guy was NOT happy. I hate it when people do that FOR SURE, but this guy REALLY hates it apparently. He called her a not so nice name and the store employees seemed nervous that something was about to go down. I love crazy people on Black Friday. So we got what we needed at Shopko, stood in a ridiculously long line, then headed off to Target. We really only wanted to get the cheap movies at Target. BTW, I am bugged that the Office season 5 was not on sale this year. The latest season is always on sale. Bummer. Anyway, I digress. I ended up only finding one movie that I wanted to buy, but the line was seriously 2 hours long and there was no way I was standing in that for one movie. I really didn't want to come back later either. What's a girl to do? I'll tell you! I asked a lady at the front of the line if I could put my movie with the stuff that she was buying and just pay her cash for it. She was so nice! She just let me go in front of her. She was the nicest lady I've ever met. I wish I would've taken a picture of her, but I guess that would've been a little awkward. Anyway, she started my holiday season off perfectly. I love when people are nice. Thanks nice lady at Target!!
Although we didn't really have a lot of items to fight for this year, it was a success and I had fun once again. I really love this tradition and can't wait until next year!!

I need to vent!!

2009-11-23T21:06:00.002-07:00

Okay, this topic seriously makes me feel anger inside. It's kinda silly that it makes me angry, but it really does, and I just need to know if there are other people out there that feel the same, because it seems as though not many people share my opinion. So, the issue that is making me so upset is TAYLOR SWIFT. What the @*%^ is up with her winning so many awards? And being nominated for artist of the year along with Michael Jackson? Seriously? Can they even be compared? I DO NOT think she is a talented singer! Okay, so she writes her own songs. They appeal to teeny bopper girls. Sweet. Then give her a dang song writing award. Have these people ever heard her live? Come on! She SUCKS SUPER BAD EVERY SINGLE TIME. Anybody can sound good in a recording studio with amazing technology to hide your tone deaf issues. If you can't sing live then you're not a good singer. End of story. If you can't sing live, you SHOULD NOT be nominated for artist of the year. What is the deal with this girl? Can someone please explain the hype? I mean, I'll be the first to admit that sometimes, sometimes I don't change the station when her songs come on the radio, but sometimes I don't change it when the Backstreet Boys come on either. Let's be honest people. Her songs are catchy, but she can't sing. I hate so much that she wins so many awards and the people that are employed in the music industry are the ones that are giving her all of these dang things. Let's recognize people with talent please. Otherwise, nominate me for those awards. I bet I could sing them better than Taylor! GRRRRRRRR!!!!

heehee

Waiting...

2009-11-07T19:34:00.003-07:00

I want to blog about my fun-filled-fall adventures, but I don't have pictures as of now. We had fun carving pumpkins with my nephews and niece, but the pictures are cuter than just writing about it. We went to a super duper Halloween get together and Judd even dressed up for me (even though he REALLY didn't want to), but words don't do justice to how awesome his face looked or how fun our friends were. My niece, Tayla, just turned 2 yesterday and her party was super cute, but alas, I didn't take pictures. So, just so you know, we've been having fun, but I have a LAME SAUCE camera, so I just let everyone else take pictures for me, and then I have to wait to get them. I am going to be looking for a stellar deal on a camera the day after Thanksgiving.

My off-track time has been amazing. I have slept in but stayed busy. Judd and I went to Park City and had lots of fun. Oh, I have pictures of that too, but on a disposable camera (how cool are we?) that we haven't finished the film on yet. We went shopping at the outlets and discovered the Croc outlet. Didn't know that existed. I immediately thought of my friend Adrianne who HATED crocs. She would've died in that store. They make ALL kinds of shoes, it was pretty crazy, and I will sheepishly admit that I thought some of their designs were kind of cool, and I probably would wear some of them (only if no one could tell they were crocs...). I still have one week left of freedom and I am going to seal the grout on our tile and watch some more Price is Right.

I am getting excited for the holidays. This year I have been thinking about family traditions and what traditions Judd and I could start and have them be our own. I have only come up with one so far. I am thinking it would be cool to write letters to our family members on Thanksgiving and tell them specific things about them that we are thankful for. I want to try to make Thanksgiving more meaningful and not just about food and football (although I do love those aspects of it). What kinds of holiday traditions do you have? Please share, but be warned, I might steal them. :)

Happy Anniversay to us and stuff!

2009-10-15T21:51:00.003-06:00

So it's been 3 years! I can't believe it. I'm grateful that we found each other. Judd makes me so happy and I'm so glad he's mine forever.
I love that our anniversary is in the fall because that is my favorite time of year. I'm so excited for Halloween, Thanksgiving, shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, the Christmas season....yay!!! I love fall!
We haven't been up to a whole lot lately. Just the same old stuff, Judd is stressed out with school, and I go to work everyday and find a million things to laugh about. I love my job and my students! I also get to go off-track in a week, and that is always exciting! I bet you're excited too because I am WAY better about blogging when I don't have to work! Stay tuned!

shhh.... just go!

2009-09-09T22:15:00.002-06:00

On Sunday we met Daphne at the airport to say goodbye. She flew to Germany to live with Steph and Luke. Lucky! I can't even tell you how jealous I am! I wish I would've done things like that after high school. You go girl! We, of course, already miss her! Family get-to-gethers just won't be the same without D. She's so sweet and funny. One of my first memories of her was that she said, "your face" to everything anyone said. Kinda like "your mom" jokes. I love her and am so glad that she's my sister-in-law. I'm pretty sure I inherited the best sisters ever! Have fun Daph. We love you, miss you and hope to come visit you and the rest of the crew!

(sorry it's a little blurry. The picture was taken in a hurry.)

Good Times, Good Friends

2009-09-08T19:47:00.004-06:00

A couple of weeks ago my best friend from high school, Amber came into town. From 9th grade on we were joined at the hip and I miss and love her very much! Some of my other bestest friends from high school joined us for dinner at my favorite place...Cafe Rio! We were just missing Brittany. It was so much fun to see everyone and it made me realize how much I miss my friends from high school. We always had so stinkin' much fun. I have the best memories with those girls, and I'm so happy that I was able to be blessed with their friendship in my life. I don't think we always take time to realize how good friends can shape our lives for the better. I know that those friendships helped me be who I am today and I love those girls. I love getting together with old friends and having it feel like it's only been a few days since you've seen each other. That's the mark of a true friendship and I have it with these girls!
Here we are, Am and Beck, siamese twins joined at the spirit. :)

Katie, Dusti and Ember's sister Becca and then the 4 of us. (Ember was feeding her baby and missed the pictures. Sorry friend!)

I love having good times with good friends. It makes me feel very blessed!

Pooping in Public

2009-09-01T15:27:00.002-06:00

One thing I REALLY hate, is going poo in public restrooms. It seriously makes me anxious. If I'm not home when the urge hits, I hold it until I start getting the chills and know that if I don't go RIGHT THEN, disaster will hit. I just hate being next to strangers, knowing that they might be able to smell it, hear it drop...you know all the nasty details. I also hate using the really thin toilet paper.
Whenever this happens and I do have to use a public restroom for this reason, I also wonder why it's so embarrassing. Come on, everyone poops right? It's not like some nasty disease that I want to keep secret, so why do I get so anxious about it? I don't know the answer to this question, and no matter how many times I try to convince myself that it's normal, I still hate pooping in public restrooms. Anyone else feel the same? :)

Trip to Boise

2009-08-02T09:53:00.004-06:00

My Dad's side of the family planned a spur of the moment trip to meet together in Boise. We don't get to see my Uncle Brent, Aunt Jeri, Aunt Jana or Uncle Mikey very often and when we do see them, it's usually for a funeral. I was excited to go up and spend some time with them on a more positive note. It was a good trip. Kinsley wasn't very happy about the car ride. I slept a lot. I love sleeping in the car. I love sleeping anywhere really.
So we, didn't really do anything specific, we just visited and ate lots of good food :). Here are some pics from the trip.

And some more :)

I love my family!

GNO + Paul

2009-07-20T00:02:00.009-06:00

On Thursday, my momma took the girlies out to dinner to Wingers. Tanner and my dad were out of town and Judd was studying for a test. Paul didn't have anything to do so he decided to be a girl with us :). jk Paul. We told him to come with us. So before we left I decided to do my nieces hair. It turned out cute!

Then Tayla decided she didn't really want her hair done.

Wingers was yummy! I love the Wing sauce there. MMMMMMMMM. If you go there, you totally have to try dipping your popcorn in their creamy original dressing. It sounds gross but it's amazing!!

Kinsley and Tayla loved their Mac and Cheese!

Kinsley also loved Paul's fries and kept reaching over and stealing them off of his plate. So cute!

After dinner, Jessi and I slept over at my mom's house with Tami (she's staying there while Tanner is out of town). The babies of course, had to get cleaned up!

We all slept in the same room and Tayla was really excited when she woke up and saw "aunt Sessi" and "aunt Bucky" in her room. It was fun! Thanks mom for the fun night!

Who knew?

2009-07-16T00:04:00.006-06:00

I've lived in Utah all my life and until I moved to Stansbury Park, I never realized that the Great Salt Lake is actually really beautiful! The view from 201 getting onto the on-ramp to I-80 is incredible, you would never know that it's a stinky, rather useless lake. And this is the view from my bedroom window every night (well, sort of...we're not quite that close)

Pretty amazing right? Sometimes I pretend that I live by the ocean. :)

"Then"

2009-07-12T15:54:00.002-06:00

I heard this song, "Then" by Brad Paisley, on the radio awhile ago and it made me tear-up because it says so much of how I feel about Judd. I came home that day and told him that I heard a song on the radio that made me cry when I thought about him. I never told him the name of the song or what it was about because right when I heard it on the radio I started planning a blog post about it for him, but of course, never got around to it.
A week or so later, he came home and asked me to look up a song on the internet and listen to it because when he heard it, he thought of me. It was totally that same song! I am such a music person, and it meant SO MUCH to me that he would hear that song and think of me, enough to have me listen to it later (he's never done that before). It was so sweet and it made me feel so good, and I am so happy to be married to my best friend whom I love so much. He works so hard and is so ambitious, and he always puts my needs and wants WAY before his. He is compassionate and loyal and is a really good friend to those who are good friends to him. I love him!
My "blog plan" was to write the lyrics to the song on here, but change them a little so it's a girl (me) saying it to a guy and not the other way around. These words speak exactly how I feel about Judd and our relationship. So, since I can't write as eloquently as I might wish, this is how I feel:

"I remember trying not to stare the night that I first met you. You had me mesmerized. And three weeks later in the front porch light, taking forty-five minutes to kiss goodnight; I hadn't told you yet, but I thought I loved you then.

Now you're my whole life, now you're my whole world. I just can't believe the way [it feels to be your girl]. Like a river meets the sea, stronger than it's ever been, we've come so far since that day, and I thought I loved you then.

skip a verse :)

I can just see you, with a baby on the way. I can just see you, when your hair is turning gray. What I can't see is how I'm ever gonna love you more....but I've said that before.

Now you're my whole life, now you're my whole world. I just can't believe the way [it feels to be your girl]. We'll look back someday, at this moment that we're in and I'll look at you and say, and I thought I loved you....then."

I love that song and I love how it says so much of how I feel about him! If you've never heard of it go to the bottom of my blog and click on it in my little radio thingy. It's much cuter when you hear it with music.
I love you Judd!! You're my whole world and it's that happiest world I could ever imagine being in. You've made me complete and I can't wait to grow old with you and fall more and more in love!!
(sorry all that read if this is a little bit cheesy. haha. You can go ahead and gag now if you need to do so.)

I know, I know!

2009-07-08T17:54:00.002-06:00

I have been a total slacker! I just haven't been in the mood to blog. I haven't even been checking other people's blogs much. I guess I've been so stressed that I haven't had room in my brain to think about it. But alas, I am finished with my 3rd year of teaching! I have 6 weeks to be not-so-stressed. Nice. I had a really hard time saying good-bye to my classes this year. I actually have had 2 dreams about it since Thursday and have cried in my dreams both times. I love my kids! It's sad to know I won't get to see them everyday, but somehow, I will have room in this little heart of mine to love my next class that much....but for 6 weeks, I prefer not to think about that! :) I think I shall focus on getting rid of my WHITE legs and on catching up on some sleep. That sounds nice.

We went camping this last weekend up at Redman in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was super. The weather was very cooperative and it was nice and relaxing. Except for the hike we went on. That was NOT relaxing. I thought it was very possible that I might die before it was over. Man, I am OUT OF SHAPE! Thanks. I think I'll go to the gym right now. Sheesh! It was a really, really pretty hike, however. I would recommend it, but if you haven't been to the gym in a while, I might run a few miles before you try it. It leads up to this really pretty, isolated lake called Lake Blanche. I took a nap there. :) It was really pretty and I even got some sun on my legs so I guess my near death experience was worth it. Perhaps I will post some pictures soon.

Ashley also kindly reminded me that I have yet to post pictures of our no-longer-new house, so I shall attempt to do that soon as well. But for now, this is all!

I heart soda

2009-05-20T15:23:00.003-06:00

So, Judd and I are officially not drinking soda. We decided we spend WAY too much money on it and therefore are not going to buy anymore. We're on day 3. First day, not so great. I got a MAJOR headache that tylonel and ibuprofen didn't even touch. Second day, minor headache, little craving. Today is only half way over, but hasn't been too bad. I must say, I'm drinking a whole lot more water, which I am sure must be better for my body. I also have become a very big fan of these little guys:
They help me drink water when all I want is a soda. Thanks Crystal Light!
However, if anyone wanted to buy me one of these:

I wouldn't be opposed to drinking it, and I wouldn't be breaking the rules because I wouldn't be the one buying it! :)
p.s. Isn't my husband so sweet? His last post made me feel so great. I love him. He seriously is a such a great guy and has risen above so many obstacles in his life. I'm so grateful he's my husband!

Why I'm Happy

2009-05-14T23:19:00.002-06:00

After all, what is life without happiness? It's not about school, money, etc. I have a lovely wife who picks the bumps on my arms. And, when the wise man said, "money can't buy happiness.", he was right. I've never been to a store with a bunch of Beckys sitting on a shelf. Plus, if you could buy her, she's be really expensive. She's a rare type of person. SHE'S THE ONLY ONE!! So you tell me...

Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. ~Dinah Craik, A Life for a Life, 1859

Blogging Blah

2009-05-13T12:06:00.002-06:00

I guess I haven't been in the mood to blog lately. I started back at work the beginning of May and have been putting everything off since. This last stretch of school is really hectic and stressful and when things get like that, I just sorta pretend like I have nothing to do. It makes me feel better for a while, or so I tell myself. In reality I think it just stresses me out more. I can't seem to separate work stress from home either, because I don't feel like doing ANYTHING when I get home. No cleaning, no laundry, no blogging. So this is my first step to get out of my procrastination. Don't you think it's a good idea to blog instead of doing all of those other things?
Here is what I have been up to since my last post:
-Steph and Luke came out from California for a couple of weeks. Steph is Judd's sister. I spent some good time with them.They are moving to Germany and came out as a stop before they leave. They have two kids, Porter (almost 3) and Afton (almost 1) and I love them. I am so lucky to have the cutest nieces and nephews! I am going miss them. Porter will be in kindergarten when he comes back. I hope we can visit them!
-I went to the zoo with Tami and Jessi and the babies. I don't think they really cared about the animals, but it was fun to take them, and Tayla and Kinsley both liked the giraffes a lot.
-We ate sushi! Yum!
-Judd finished finals and we got to spend a whole week without him studying!
-I slept a lot and hung out with my sisters and friends.
Now, onto hectic times!!

Go Jazz!

2009-04-24T00:04:00.003-06:00

I LOVE the Jazz. I love them even when they suck. I love watching the games. Tonight, Judd was out of town, so I watched the game all alone. I felt like a nerd because I couldn't help yell, cheer, scream and clap throughout the whole game. I love it! However, I do not love Kobe. In the words of my brother-in-law, he sucks at being a person. You can't argue about his basketball skills, but he is just an overly arrogant scumbag person. Now you know how I feel about that! Judd and I have decided that someday when we have a little money, we're going to buy Jazz season tickets. I hope Harpring and Okur are still playing then. :) Anyway, I really should be sleeping right now, but I got so excited watching the game and now I can't calm down. So, I guess I'll just blog about how much I love the Jazz instead!

It's finally Spring!

2009-04-21T13:49:00.002-06:00

I am always surprised how much of a difference the weather makes on my mood. I think I forget every year how much winter can bring me down and get me stuck in a rut. Seriously, since the weather has been so nice the past couple of days, I've been motivated to work-out, do housework and turn off the tv. I'm so happy it's warm outside! Hooray, hooray, hooray for Spring!

If you want to make Judd happy...

2009-04-11T22:22:00.002-06:00

If any of you so desire to make Judd the happiest guy on earth, you may purchase this for him...

He might love you more than he loves me if you did that for him. We rented it this weekend, you would enjoy watching him play it. Seriously. I think I might have to disable the "getting booed off the stage" application because he gets REALLY mad when he gets booed. It's pretty funny. He doesn't think it's funny, but I do.

One other thing that is really funny about the game, he doesn't like it when I "mess up" his songs, so last night he made me sit on his lap so he could strum for me while I pressed the notes because I wasn't getting the rhythm correct. I laughed so hard I cried. Don't mess with his Metallica man.

Just a little rant...

2009-03-26T11:58:00.002-06:00

You know what? I'm sick of all the economy stuff. It hasn't affected Judd and I a whole lot, but I have friends that have lost their jobs and our bi-annual family re-union was canceled this summer because of the hardships that people are experiencing. I think it stinks. I love the family re-unions! Anyway, I know it's a real problem and obviously I know it really stinks for some people, but I am getting sick of hearing about it CONSISTENTLY on the news and radio. Seriously. Ever listen to NPR in the mornings? If so, can you think of a time in the past few months when their topic has NOT been on the economy? Maybe we just don't have to talk about it ALL the time. Maybe we could still hear about the positive things. I know not talking about it won't make it better, but it won't make it worse either. Then maybe people could keep their minds on something just a little more positive. What do you think?

Lame-O!

2009-03-06T20:27:00.003-07:00

Want to hear the lamest thing Judd and I have done so far? I knew you did, so I shall tell! :) Well we've been trying to get up around 5:30 and go to the gym before work. This morning, our motivation was lacking, but we managed to get out of bed and drive into West Valley to the gym. We got there and decided to sit in our warm car for a few minutes. Well, we fell asleep and then kept sleeping until there was no time left to work out. So, we went into the gym, changed our clothes and went to work. How lame? haha. I think you burn more calories sleeping in the gym parking lot than you do in bed though, so it's all good.

Funny Post

2009-02-28T12:28:00.002-07:00

I saw this on my friend's blog and thought it was funny. I struggle to be funny on my own, so sometimes I appreciate the help. Anyway, you type, "[your first name] needs" including the quotes in Google search, and the all-knowing google will give you your top ten needs! Here are mine.
1. Becky needs a home.
2. Becky needs to listen to Kareem Abdul Jabbar.
3. Becky needs a little taste.
4. Becky needs a friend
5. Becky needs 2 know stats
6. Becky needs friends, not boyfriends! (apparently I'm pretty lonely)
7. Becky needs a psychiatrist (and crazy)
8. Becky needs a place to live (and homeless)
9. Becky needs a free download
10. Becky needs time to think

Google thinks I'm a pretty lame person apparently. It said "Becky needs a friend" 6 times. Sad. I have friends, right? :)

My lovely Valentine

2009-02-25T20:46:00.009-07:00

It's about time for an update, yes? Sorry kiddos-had to wait for the photos. I'm not great at coming up with posts if I don't have pictures, but since I know you all wait faithfully for each post, I'll try harder. :)
Anyway, this time I do have pictures. For Valentines day, Lindsey and Reed invited us to go to St. George and go hiking and Judd and I said heck yes! We really wanted to get away, even for just a few days. We went hiking in Snow Canyon State Park. The weather wasn't super warm, but it wasn't snowing! We had a good time. We kinda like our friends, and it was fun to get out and get some fresh air!

Here's my hot Valentine. I love him!

Here are the happy couples. Lindsey and Reed are weird.

BFF! We're so pretty!

We stopped at this cool "hot pot" just outside of Fillmore on the way home. It was REALLY cold getting out, and we all look pretty cool with our shoes and swimsuits.

Here's a precious Valentine's Day picture to leave you with!

Thanks Linz and Reed for a fun weekend! We had a really good time!

I love baked potatoes!

2009-02-06T14:45:00.003-07:00

My FAVORITE food in the whole world is baked potatoes! For a really long time I have wanted to eat a humongous potato, but just have never done it. I tried once, I went to a restaurant and they had "monster" potatoes on their menu, so I ordered one and was REALLY excited. I thought it was going to be really huge because they waiter told me I should probably just get a half of one, but I didn't because I was trying to fulfill my dream. Anyway, I was extremely disappointed when the waiter brought it out. I eat those kinds of potatoes every day. He was lame.
I saw this one at the grocery store and just knew it was my destiny. Please keep in mind that it is on a rather large dinner plate, not a salad plate, and that the fork I used is also larger than normal. It was so fabulous. I loved it so much! :)

Here it is all made up, my favorite way, butter, sour cream, cheese and salt!

Disappointingly, this is the best I could do. I'll have to try again I guess.

Dang girls!

2009-01-31T23:17:00.007-07:00

I have the cutest nieces in the world! How is it possible for me to love them so much?

p.s. My nephews are equally as cute, but I just needed to show off the girls!

We're funny

2009-01-28T13:55:00.004-07:00

I haven't had access to these pictures until now, so I wanted to post about the "talent" that we did at our Tolman family Christmas party. Every year we're supposed to participate in the talent program, and every year we bail out or do something pretty lame. This was last minute, but it turned out pretty funny. Please enjoy! :)

We did a dance to the Nutcracker! Aren't we so cool? It was way fun. We probably thought we were more funny than we really were, but hey- it's better than singing a Christmas carol around a piano right?

Yo Soy Muy Honesta

2009-01-26T14:03:00.003-07:00

At least according to Maghann. She tagged me with the Honest Award, so here's the deal.

Here are the rules for the Honest Scrap award -
The honorees are to:
A) first list 10 honest things about yourself - and make it interesting, even if you have to dig deep!
B) pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you feel embody the spirit of the Honest Scrap.

So here go my 10 honest things.
1. The thing I think I am most afraid of is Judd dying. Seriously, I'll be driving in the car and hear a song like Tim McGraw's If You're Reading This and get really teary eyed. I bawled my eyes out in the movie P.S. I Love You because I could just imagine myself being like that if Judd died. Sometimes I think about it too much and get really scared and have to pray for comfort and knowledge that Judd isn't going to die. :)
2. I'm afraid I'm going to be a really impatient mom. I lose my patience really quickly with my students sometimes and wonder what the heck I'm going to do when they're my own kids.
3. I can belch louder than my husband. (sorry I stole one of yours Maghann) He gets really proud of himself when he burps and it's semi close to one of mine. :)
4. When I am asked what my favorite books are, I either have to lie and say something sophisticated like, Les Miserables or I have to be embarrassed and admit that it's Harry Potter.
5. I am fairly concerned about what people think about me, and tend to assume the worst. For example, if I am at my sister's house and she keeps texting someone, I usually think she's saying something bad about me. Weird.
6. I have already said this on here before, but I really hate to shower. When I worked at Oakcrest, I had an excuse to shower only once from Mon-Fri and I honestly didn't mind it that much.
7. I love going to the beach, but I HATE the way that the sand feels on my feet when it dries. It's so awful to me that it actually puts a damper on my beach experiences.
8. I really, really like potato chips. :) I could eat way more than I should.
9. I wish that my best friend was Memot Okur. I think he's really cute, and I love that he looks like he just got out of bed everytime he's playing a game.
10. I am doing this while I'm at a training for work. Needless to say, I'm not paying attention to what I am supposed to be. Give me a break though, it's a really boring training.

Now I am giving the honest award to:
1. Tami
2. Katherine/Bipheda
3. Laura
4. Bekah
5. Jessica
6. Lauri
7. Steph

It's freezing!

2009-01-20T16:32:00.002-07:00

I decided that I am tired of being cold. It's cold outside, it's FREEZING in my classroom. Seriously, it's like 63 degress. I don't even keep my house that cold unless we're sleeping. Don't you think I should be able to control the temp in my classroom? I do. Apparently Jordan School District doesn't. Anyway, I'm at work waiting for Judd to come and pick me up and I just thought I would get on my blog and tell you all that I'm ready for Spring! I usually like Winter a little more than I have this season. If I made up the 4 seasons, I would make it so that winter only lasted until January 5th. That's just long enough for the Holiday season. Then I would have it warm up and have Spring last from then until June. Wouldn't that be the best?

A serious update

2009-01-15T17:23:00.008-07:00

I finally found a cord to my camera, so here we go! We'll start with our anniversary "get away" to the Park City area. Judd had flowers delivered to our room so they would be there when we got there and they were beautiful! We ate yummy carmel apples, went to the Olympic Park for a tour and just relaxed and had fun!

Next is Halloween at Maghann and Paul's house. Judd hid in the leaves and scared the kids as they came trick-or-treating. It was hilarious. Amanda and Spencer had way cute costumes!

Next came moving day! We were so grateful to Lindsey, Reed and my dad for helping us out. It went pretty fast!

Now I just have to upload the pictures from our other camera so you can see our new house, Christmas and New Years Eve! I'm going to be better at blogging!
Things are going well for us right now. Judd's starting a new semester and still able to work at the University and that makes it really nice for us. I'm still loving my class this year, but they are REALLY hyper right now, so I'm pretty ready for a break. Anyway, I will post again soon!

Ode to my Becky

2008-12-13T22:46:00.002-07:00

How lovely a woman ne'er a human has met.
Impressive, affecting, and affectionate.
I'm not sure why the Lord has sent you to me....
I'm a loser without you,
I couldn't live without you,
You make my heart rush when I finally see you after a long day without you,
You make me want to be a better person,
You're passionate about life,
You're forgiving, understanding, loving, caring, considerate, forbearing, perceptive, patient,
Sensitive, and sympathetic.
In a few words, you're simply incredible.
The world is a better place because of you.

Baby, happy birthday!
I'm so happy we're together.
I'm so THANKFUL that you took a chance and married me.
I could never have been this happy without you.
Happy 26th
I love you. Thank you for your love.

Makes so much Scents!

2008-12-08T09:20:00.003-07:00

I just wanted to put a little shout-out about how much I love Scentsy. I love that it doesn't leave the smoke residue. I went into an apartment of a lady who was obsessed with candles once, and her whole ceiling was covered with black soot. I definitely don't want that to happen to our house, but I sure do love the smell of candles. With that said, I love that Scentsy gives all the smell of really expensive candles, but doesn't create the soot issue. My favorite winter/holiday smells are Snowberry and Winter Wonderland (I think that's the right name). Anyway, if you haven't tried it, you should, and go to this website to order!
http://scentedgoodness.blogspot.com/

ps. I don't know why the link won't work, so just copy the address and paste it in your address bar. Thanks!

Yay!

2008-12-02T18:17:00.002-07:00

I like my blog. I like Christmas. Are you still waiting for pictures?

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T09:59:00.002-07:00

Today I am grateful for so much! I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for ALL I am blessed with. I have a warm and cozy house and I don't have to pay rent anymore! I have a really handsome, hot, loving, funny best friend that also happens to be my husband and he treats me like a queen! I love him! I have the best family ever! I love them so much and I know that they would do anything to help me. I have 3 of the cutest babies in the world for nieces and 5 super cute and fun nephews and I love them all more than I ever thought I could. I have really good friends that are always there to make me laugh or to help us out. I have a really rewarding job that I look forward to going to most days and get to work with and help the sweetest kids on the planet. I know that all I have comes from the Lord and I am so blessed to have the knowledge of the gospel. I am grateful for the knowledge of my Savior, who comforts me and loves me. We have the means to put food on our table and I know that there are so many out there who aren't able to say that. I just feel so lucky this year. It makes me want to help out as many people as I can! My brother-in-law Paul suggested that our family start a family tradition this year of finding a charity or someone in need and helping them out, so if you know of anyone that needs something, let me know! I remember one year in high school my friends and I did a sub for Santa and we all pitched in a LOT of stuff and went together to drop it off on their porch. Man, I can still remember that feeling that I had. It's so awesome to help others.
Anyway, I just wanted to take some time to reflect on all that I am blessed with and make sure that I don't take it for granted. I know I am so lucky!

p.s. I promise that I will post pictures of our house soon!!

I'm it again!

2008-11-05T10:54:00.003-07:00

People love me so much that everyone keeps tagging me! This will be a short post, I have lots of fun pictures and things to update, but alas, I do not have my camera with me today. The tag was to go to the 4th picture file, pick the 4th picture and then tag 4 people. Here is my picture. It's from Christmas at my family's house, almost 2 years ago.

I tag Tami (both of them), Jessi, Angie and Julia!

I'm it!

2008-10-29T20:28:00.003-06:00

Thanks Angie for the tag! It reminds me of the first day of school when in EVERY class you have to stand up and say something "interesting" about yourself. I could never think of ANYTHING that was ever "interesting". I'll try for random. Here are the rules:

The Rules for playing TAG:

*Link to the person who tagged you
*Post the rules on your blog
*Write six random things about yourself
*Tag six-ish people at the end of your post
*Let each person know he/she has been tagged
*Let the tagger know when your entry is up

So 6 random facts about my life....
1. I LOVE pickles, however, I am fairly picky when it comes to ones that I love. I love the Kosher spears, (you know the ones that are in the refrigerated section) and banquet dills, but others not so much. Especially the movie theater ones. I do love the idea of those huge pickles, but have yet to try a yummy one. One time I bought a HUGE jar of them from Costco, and they wouldn't fit upright in my fridge so I put them on their side on the bottom shelf. Later that day my whole kitchen smelled like pickle juice and I opened my fridge to find the entire bottle had drained out into the fridge and onto the floor. That was fun to clean up. What a silly girl. Another random thing about pickles, I used to love drinking pickle juice when I was little. Oh, and pickle juice does not feel nice when dropped in your nose, just fyi.
2. I am obsessed with cleaning out my ears. I HAVE to clean them out right when I wake up in the morning and right after I get out of the shower at night. Seriously, they drive me crazy if I don't. Sometimes I even feel the need to clean them during the day. I've been trying to break this habit because I'm pretty sure a little ear wax serves an important purpose.
3. I don't really like showering. :) Judd teases me about this all of the time, so I can't wait until he reads this, but seriously, showering is a burden to me and if it weren't a necessary evil, I would skip it. Now I'll admit that after a camping trip or a serious work out, it feels really nice to shower and be clean. I'm just talking about the every day (or every other day heehee) routine shower. I hate how long it takes me to get ready after, I hate how it dries out my skin, and it just wastes my time.
4. I love rollercoasters and REALLY want to go skydiving, but it freaks me right out to climb up a ladder and then get on the roof of a house. Go figure.
5. I like picking Judd's dandruff. haha. He'll probably love that I put that on here. For some reason it's calming for me and I feel like I'm showing him lots of love. That's so weird!! I bet that's why monkeys do it 'cause they can't say "I love you". Don't worry, I don't eat it after I pick it!
6. I love to sing really loudly in my car. I'm one of those people that you probably look over and laugh at because they're totally rocking out to a song by themselves. I don't dance like some people do, but sometimes I get really into the songs that I sing. Occasionally I even pause the song when I'm at a red light so that I don't feel so silly getting into it. :)

That was easier than I thought it was going to be! I tag Maghann, Steph, Biph, April/Bama, Lauri and Laura!
p.s. I'm not going to the tagged peoples' blogs to tell them they've been tagged. I'm a rebel, I know. Just do it if you feel like it.

2.99 are you outta your mind?

2008-10-22T18:13:00.003-06:00

Okay, so it was actually $2.96 but that doesn't rhyme. I got gas for under $3.00 a gallon today! What a wonderful, happy thing. It cost me less than $40 to fill up my tank. It was fantastic! :) This one says $2.97 but that's close enough.
Look at this beautiful picture!

Anyway, I was a little excited about that today. Now onto my update.
We're going to Stansbury tomorrow to do our walk through and then we're closing on our house on Monday. Crazy crazy crazy. I can't believe how fast this whole process has gone. It will be very nice to be in our very own, brand new, tiny little house! :) I will post pictures once we get all settled and semi-decorated.

Also, happy anniversary to me! Judd and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary on th 13th of this month. We went up to a little lodge just outside of Heber and stayed for a couple nights. It was fun. He had flowers delivered to our hotel room so they were waiting there for me when we checked in. It was so cute. He is the best husband ever and I'm so happy I am married to him and get to keep him forever! I LOVE YOU JUDD! Here's a little lookie at how cute we were together two years ago. :)
Aren't we hot? We should be in a magazine or something!

Thanks for ruining the picture Tanner...sheesh (if you enlarge the picture you can see that his eyes are closed). This is my fam-Jess and Paul(on the right), Tami and Tanner(left) and my mamma and papa.

And this one is just for fun. I do, in fact, think that my husband has a very nice butt! (just in case you wanted to know)

I'm off-track now, so maybe I'll blog a little more in the next few weeks! I'm excited to have a break! It's always nice to be able to step away, reassess how things are going, and then change what needs to be changed. Okay...that's all for now. Happy Halloween to you all!

It's about time...

2008-10-06T20:40:00.004-06:00

...and time is not something I have had much of lately. It's been forever since I have updated my blog! This is becoming more like my journal all of the time. I have so much to write about that I just keep putting if off, which results in more things to talk about and not any more time to write about it. So I'm just gonna do it. First, here are the pictures of our townhouse a month ago. It's way further now (we're supposed to close on the 22nd of this month) but we don't have new pictures of that yet. They will come someday. :)

We are getting really excited and pretty nervous! It's a big change for us, but it will be so nice to have something that is our own! You'll all have to come and visit us and stay the night! (I am really excited to have a place to offer now!!)
One of the reasons I haven't blogged for a while is that I got really sick two weeks ago and am just BARELY feeling better. I hate getting sick, especially when it ruins my plans. We were supposed to go watch the season premiere of the Office at our friend's house last Thursday, but that just had to be the day that I started to feel like poop, and we couldn't go. I missed 3 days of work, and that wasn't even fun because I was so miserable that I would've chosen to be at work had I the choice. So that was lots of fun. I just started feeling myself again yesterday, so today has been very nice!
This weekend my parents and I flew out to my cousin Dustin's wedding. I haven't seen him in maybe 7 years, so it was fun to see him and meet his pretty bride. I also had fun seeing my aunts and uncles. It seems like we usually only get together for funerals these days, so it was fun to see them on a more joyous occasion. It made me realize that LDS receptions are a little boring sometimes, 'cause these guys knew how to party! haha. It probably would've been more fun for me had I partaken of the provided "spirits" at the reception, but it was fun nonetheless.
I am 1 1/2 weeks away from going off-track and I can't believe how fast these past few months have gone so far. I really have a good class this year. They say the cutest things all of the time. I have to tell one story (my family gets really sick of my stories). I have this little girl that talks in the cutest voice. It's really high, and she's sometimes hard to understand. Anyway, she's a doll, and when I was feeling that Thursday (the really inconvenient one), I was resting my head in my hands and she started the cutest conversation. It went like this:
C: "you okay?"
me: "yeah, I'm just feeling a little sick"
C: "go home"
me: "that's a good idea!"
C: "go bed"
Now I realize as I'm reading this that it doesn't sound as cute without me imitating her voice, but it was SO cute! And really funny. Every time I have coughed since that conversation, she has said, "get drink" or "you stay?". She's so cute. I love little kids, and I think I have 23 of the cutest 5 year olds in my classes this year. I am pretty lucky.
Another thing I wanted to post about, but instead I will just mention, is that I am SO EXCITED FOR FALL!!! I love this time of year. I know a lot of people do, and I know why. I love the weather, I love the smell in the air (and the smell of fall candles), I love the excitement that the start of the holiday season brings, I LOVE Halloween, I love the colors in the mountains, and SO much more. This is seriously the best time of year and I can't help but be happy all of the time (well most :)). I am excited to be in my house so I can decorate for all of the fun things coming up!
One more thing, and then, for those of you who actually survived to the end of this post, I will stop boring you. Judd got a new job up at the U. His boss at his other job is less than awesome. I have not very nice feelings for or words about him, but since I'm so happy that it's fall, I'll skip that part. :) So, Judd got another job as a network administrator at the U. He says he feels a little overwhelmed right now, but he likes it so far. I am so grateful for him. We tried so hard to find a way that he could not work and just focus on school, but someone (his boss) sort of ruined that for us, and I can't express how grateful I am that Judd is taking upon himself so much responsibility and stress to support us. He's the hardest working person I have ever met, and he hardly ever complains! I need to be more like him. I love him and know that he does all of this for me, and that makes me feel so loved. He's the best ever. You should all be jealous that he's mine. :)
Welp, I think I'm finally done! Oh except, I just finished reading the draft of Midnight Sun and I am really mad at Stephanie Meyer. I think she is being really stupid about all of this, and I think she should just finish and release the dang book. I mean really, anyone that was going to buy it in the first place, will still buy regardless of a dumb draft that was leaked out. Don't you agree? My friend Maghann said it just how I feel. You should read her post on it here.
All right....I'm out!

C-R-A-Z-Y!

2008-08-30T13:56:00.003-06:00

We went out to Stansbury Park yesterday to do the "4 way walk through" in our townhouse. CRAZY! They have the sheetrock up, and the superintendent said that it would probably be mid-to-late October when our townhouse is finished. I am so excited. It felt so crazy to be walking through OUR house with Judd and know that this is a new and exciting step in our lives together. In the meantime...we're moving in with the folks for a month and a half because month-to-month rent at our apartment complex is OUTRAGEOUS! We decided to save the almost 2,000 dollars we would've had to pay and buy some needed things for our townhouse. It's gonna be a little crowded to say the least. My sister and her husband and baby already live there, so we'll see how it goes. I'm super grateful for my parents because they never hesitate to help us out whenever we need it. They're the best! But it probably won't be much fun. Worth it though, that's for sure. Judd and I are planning on driving out in the next few days to take pictures of our humble home, and I'll post them when we do that!

My 3rd year of teaching started this week, and it was amazing to me how it just keeps getting smoother each year. I have a couple really tough kids, but the rest are ADORABLE (the tough ones are as well....they're just a little harder). I always am reminded why I am crazy enough to be a teacher when I meet these sweet little 5 year olds every August. They're so cute! I already have the best stories. I sure wish I could post pictures of them so you could see just how cute they are. Since I can't you all should just come and volunteer in my classroom so that you can see for yourself that I'm not exaggerating. They're all angels! I love my job! It's so rewarding to know that I have an impact on these little kiddos and that I have the opportunity to love and teach them for just a short while.

Judd started school this week as well. He has some really tough classes. I admire him for his dedication. I know his motivation comes vastly from his desire to support me and our future family, and I can't imagine the pressure he feels. He works so hard and I love him so much! We think we've figured out a way to make it so he can just work on Saturdays, which gives him a lot more time for studying and homework. I know he'll do great!

Well...that's all for now. Pictures should follow soon!!

Camping at the Spruces

2008-08-13T14:54:00.003-06:00

We went camping up Big Cottonwood Canyon over the 24th of July. Lindsey, Reed, Paul, Jessi, Judd and I shared a campsite and had a really good time. We went hiking to Doughnut Falls (of course I fell in) and we also drove back down to the city to go to the days of 47 rodeo (thanks for the tickets Linz and Reed!). It was so nice to relax, play games, eat yummy food, and be up where the air is clear! :) I love camping!!

Oakcrest Reunion

2008-07-29T13:43:00.011-06:00

I used to work at a LDS girls camp called Oakcrest. Most of you that know me, already know that, but I just thought I'd get that out there. :) Anyway, this summer was the 50th anniversary, and they had a reunion for anyone that had worked there in the past 50 years. It was really neat! There was one lady that worked there in the 60's I think. Crazy. It was so wonderful to get back up there. I love the memories that I have of those 2 summers that I worked there. I truly believe that my time as Chunky Monkey changed my life for the better. I am grateful for the friends that I made those summers and the lessons that I learned.

Lindsey(Tinkles), Reed(her husband), Judd and I all drove up together. We started off by going to Dick's, which is a yummy cafe down in Kamas. We used to visit that place frequently when we were Assistant Directors. They have really yummy shakes and onion rings. MMMM....getting hungry just thinking about it!!

Once we got to Oakcrest, we had an hour or so to walk around the camp and look around. It is so beautiful up there! We went on the zipline, and it was funny to watch Judd go down the not-as-fast-as-I-remember-zipline. :)

There were also a lot of changes in camp. They added a pretty little waterfall/pond thing by the lodge, an obstacle course, and a beautiful picture of Christ in the lodge.

Then they had a program in the lodge and it was crazy to see how many people were there. Duzz(my good friend who was the director when I was an AD) put together a slideshow with pictures from a lot of the different years. It was fun to hear camp songs and see Oakcrest throughout the years. After the program, we met on the softball field by a sign that divided us into the years that we worked. Here, we were able to talk with many of the girls we worked with and we took lots of photos!!

This first photo is of Lindsey(Tinkles) who has been one of my best friends since Oakcrest, standing at "our" sign. :)

Here are some of the girls I worked with in 2002.

This is a picture of some of the ladies on the Women's Committee. They are the behind the scenes ladies that do a bunch of the planning for the camp. The lady on the bottom row in the white is Duzz.

These are girls I worked with in 2003.

Another picture of some of the 2002 staff.

Judd didn't get any sleep the night before, so he was pretty sleepy. After the program, he took a little nap while I caught up with my friends. He's so cute. :)
These are just some pictures of the scenery at Oakcrest. The sunsets there are AMAZING. The camera doesn't do it justice. I miss those sunsets. The stars are amazing up there also, but I couldn't take a picture of that.

Here are a few more random pictures from the night. The first one is Lindsey and I in the trading post, where you can buy treats, Oakcrest memorabilia and other stuff. The second one is my good friend Biph, who I call Bipheda (I like her a lot!). The third one is Citrus and me. Everyone always told us we looked like sisters.

It was so much fun! It was so wonderful to see all of these girls that I have come to love and respect so much in a place that is filled with the spirit of the Lord. It was very refreshing. The ride home was a lot of fun as well. Lindsey, Reed, Judd and I rocked out to some good tunes and it was a good way to end a wonderful evening.

So Much to Update!

2008-07-28T09:02:00.002-06:00

I have so much to update, and I actually took some pictures of the events! When I do that, however, I always procrastinate putting in on here even more because it takes so long. So I told my self, just take it one step at a time! So my first posting is random, but I think it's pretty funny. Here's the short story. Judd bought a headlamp awhile ago because he was planning on going on a backpacking trip in Colorado. He didn't end up getting to go on his backpacking trip, but he sure does love that headlamp. I always tease him because he wears it while he's reading in bed. He does it just to be funny and it works. I think it's so funny. I wish he really did love his headlamp SO much that he wore it everywhere. Anyway, one night, I took pictures of him and his little friend.

Isn't he SO cute? I love him so much!

Memory Tag!

2008-07-19T19:47:00.000-06:00

I stole this from Laura 'cause I thought it would be fun to reminisce.

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

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

Kinsley Timpson

2008-07-05T17:09:00.003-06:00

Hooray for being an Aunt again! I love this business! Kinsley was born on July 1st and weighed 7lbs 14 oz. She's perfect! She is really super cute and I already love her so much. I didn't get very many pictures, so I'll have to post a few more later, but here are some for now.

awww... there's the cute mom!

...and the proud daddy!

She's not exactly happy in this picture.

Congrats Jessi and Paul! You have a beautiful family and I can't wait to watch Kinsley grow up!

I love my wife

2008-06-26T20:59:00.002-06:00

I know this is HYPER cheesy, but I have to. I can't tell everyone how much my wife means to me. She also makes a lot of money which doesn't hurt.

Our favorite video

2008-05-13T20:09:00.004-06:00

You guys have GOT to see this video on youtube. Judd and I watch it all the time and laugh over and over! Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8aprCNnecU
the link isn't working, so you'll have to copy and paste. It'll be worth it. I promise you'll laugh.

Our Announcement...

2008-05-01T19:41:00.002-06:00

We bought a house!!!! It's actually a townhouse, but we're SO excited to have something of our own. It's being built soon. We'll move in 5-7 months, so we still have a while, but it's fun because we get to choose the flooring, paint and all that jazz. Hooray!! I bet you all thought I was going to say I was pregnant. :)
Here's a little drawing of our new home. :

Announcing.....

2008-04-28T21:04:00.001-06:00

So, Judd and I have some very exciting news! Stay tuned to find out what it is!! :)

Just some thoughts...

2008-04-12T20:35:00.004-06:00

I haven't posted anything for a week or so...and I don't have anything extremely productive to say. However, I'm in a pensive mood, so I thought I might just share some of those thoughts.

First of all, I'm so grateful for my family. I'm grateful that I have two sisters that I get along with, that love me and treat me as their friend. I'm grateful to have parents that love me unconditionally, and would do anything for me at the drop of a hat. I am so thankful for their example to me, and hope that Judd and I can pattern our parenting after the way they raised my sisters and me.

I'm also EXTREMELY grateful to have the most wonderful husband in the whole world. I have found the quote at the top of our blog to be so true. ("Being in love is when the other person's happiness is essential to your own"). He has become my whole world. When he struggles, it makes me so sad and I feel like I would do anything to make things right. I love him and thank my Heavenly Father every day that He led me to someone who makes me so happy and treats me like a queen.

Another thing I have been thinking about, is how our own attitude and thoughts are so ESSENTIAL to our own happiness. I find myself complaining at my job, A LOT. I started thinking about how I feel when I do that. I feel like I can't stand another day there, and everything that happens seems like such a burden and bogs me down. I realized that if I could start focusing on all of the wonderful things about my job the tough things might not seem like such a big deal. I want to be that kind of person. I want to see the positive side of situations and not get so wrapped up in the negative. I know I would feel so much better, and would probably be more fun to be around. Starting today, I'm going to try to be a more positive person.

Anyway, those are the things on my mind right now! Enjoy. :)

Everything always works out in the end...

2008-03-26T21:08:00.003-06:00

If you read my last post you would know that I was working very hard to finalize our camping trip to Southern Utah last week. We failed to make reservations, and everything was pretty much full. We decided to suck it up and drive down anyway in hopes that we wouldn't end up sleeping in our car. We (Judd) followed our/his gut feeling and headed to Zion National Park to check out the campgrounds there, and there was 1 camp site left! We were very happy and had a wonderful time. We even got sunburns which was wonderful after such a long, cold winter. Here are some pictures of our much needed get away!

p.s. Let me add that Jessi looks completely unhappy in all of these pictures. :) She was a trooper! She's 6 months pregnant and starting to get a little uncomfortable, but she didn't complain! (well not much anyway.....)

A little re-cap

2008-03-20T14:02:00.003-06:00

Here's a little re-cap of my life, thanks to Lauri. :)

20 years ago... I was 5. I loved Teddy Ruxpin and Care Bears. I really thought that the Care Bears would come to me when I was really sad. They never did. :) I got my 1st cat and named her Pearl. My mom babysat and I remember that the kids used to torture Pearl all of the time. She was a really ornery cat the rest of her life.

10 years ago...I was attending Hunter Jr. High. I was on Dance Company and I loved it. I started to get really close to Amber Mills and we were inseparable for many years to come. I was boy crazy like any girl in 9th grade but I had a crush on someone new almost everyday.

5 years ago...I was preparing to go back to Oakcrest for the 2nd year. I was an assistant director with two of my now best friends, Bekah (Caliope) and Lindsey (Tinkles). I talked Lauri into applying and was so happy when she interviewed and accepted the job. Working at Oakcrest for 2 summers was one of the best things I've ever done and I have wonderful memories of those summers! It also indirectly led to me meeting the most wonderful man in the world (Judd) since Lindsey was the one that set us up, and I met Lindsey at Oakcrest.

1 year ago...Judd and I had been married for about 5 months. I had been teaching for 7 and was actually starting to like it. Judd was going to school and working at Mobilight. He had just accepted a promotion there.

So far this year...we have been researching options for the future. We want to find a way to let Judd dedicate the next couple of years just to school. We're excited about the changes that seem to be on the horizon. We're still debating about buying a house. I'm still teaching diagnostic kindergarten and I enjoy it more and more. Judd still works at Mobilight. Life has been exciting and good. We love each other and continue to grow in that love everyday.

Today...I'm desperately trying to figure out our camping trip for this weekend (it's my first day of Spring Break). We didn't realize that you had to make reservations so far in advance for camping in St. George! So today, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will all work out. We both really need to get away for a few days.

Later tonight...We'll hopefully be packing for our camping trip!

Tomorrow...We'll hopefully be driving to St. George, finding a place to camp, and relaxing in the 70 degree weather!

This year...we look forward to the changes that will come. We'll probably be moving, either into a house or an apartment closer to the University. We might get a puppy. :) (If I can talk Judd into it!) I'll start with a new class in August, and Judd will hopefully be a full time student at the U. (I've said hopefully a lot in this post.) We might try to make it out to Missouri, California, or Florida to visit some of Judd's family. With so many "hopeful" things on the horizon, I know it will turn out to be a productive and great year!

Now I tag Steph, Bekah and Amanda!

The Grande Tour

2008-03-19T18:54:00.004-06:00

Welcome to our home! Please enjoy the tour of our humble abode. This is Judd walking you through our apartment from the front door, to the living room and kitchen, then finally to our bedroom. It's a little crooked at first, so you'll have to turn your computer for second. :) Enjoy!!

If you couldn't tell from the music...

2008-03-10T18:50:00.013-06:00

...I love Rascal Flatts!!! When they came in 2006, my sisters and I went to their concert and had a blast. Well, they came again on Friday, the 7th of March and we made it a girls night again! It was a definite adventure. On our way to pick Jessi up from work we saw a guy with a front bumper on the back of his car, which you can kind of see in this picture here:

So anyway, we picked Jess up and went to Subway for dinner. Yummy!

So, after dinner we found a really AWESOME parking spot right down the street from the Energy Solutions Arena. The time was 5:30. We started commenting on how strange it was that there wasn't much traffic around and there was only a half hour left until the concert started (Tami told us that concert started at 6:00). So Tami looked at the tickets, apparently for the 1st time, and we realized that the concert didn't actually start until 8:00 (which was 2 1/2 hours away). Hooray for blonde moments. So...we decided to go to Gateway and kill some time. On our way we saw this sign.

So here we are at Gateway, killing 2 hours. We went to Brookstone and sat in the massage chairs, and then walked around a little, finally deciding to go to Orange Julius and get a smoothy. *and I look like I'm 12 in all of these pictures to come.

Well, we made it to the concert in plenty of time, and had lots of time to watch people filter in. After a while, we decided we needed to be cool and have cowboy hats, so we each went and bought one. Which is even cooler to have matching cowboy hats, and they even said Rascal Flatts on them. How much cooler can you get? So here are some pictures of us killing a little more time before Kelly Picklar came out to entertain us. There's one where we're REALLY excited for the concert to start. See if you can guess which one has our excited faces in it. haha.

The concert was great! They performed for almost 2 hours and it was well worth the wait! I love my sisters and am glad I had some time to bond with them and our favorite country stars!

Tagged!

2008-02-21T18:31:00.008-07:00

Thanks Manda for the tag! This is the first time I've been tagged in blogger world, and what a better subject to talk about!!

What's his name? Judson Talbott Westgate
How long have you been married? Almost a year and a half
How long did you date? We dated for 5 months and were engaged for about 3.
Who said 'I love you' first? Judd did. He was so cute about it. The first time he said, "I can see myself spending a long time with you...". Then he told me he loved me another night, and I said, "I feel the same way!" To this day he teases me about not saying I love you back.
Who kissed who first? Judd kissed me first. That is a very cute story as well!
Who asked who out first? We were set up by our mutual friends Lindsey and Reed Glauser.
Who proposed? Judd! He proposed in San Diego and our brother-in-law filmed the whole thing, I didn't even know he was there! :) Funny story, but too long to share. It was the perfect proposal nonetheless.
Who eats more? Judd usually does, but I can hold my own a lot of the time!
Who is taller? Judd
Who is smarter? I would say Judd by a landslide but he would disagree.
Who does laundry? I try to do it more often, but he does it a lot of the time.
Who does the dishes? We both do. He has a lot of studying to do, so I try to do them more often.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Judd. He's so groggy in the mornings....so he's forbidden to sleep by the alarm clock. :)
Who pays the bills? I usually do.
Who mows the lawn? Man, I wish we had a yard to mow! If (hopefully WHEN) we do, I think we'll both do it.
Who cooks dinner? I do more often, but he's a better cook than I am.
Who drives when you are together? He usually does.
Who is more stubborn? It depends on the subject, but I think I might be a little more stubborn as a whole.

Who is cleaner? He is!

Who has more siblings? Judd does.

Who wears the pants in the family? Um, I think we share all the responsibility fairly well.

Whose parents do you see more often? Mine for sure. I'm still a little more attached to my family than he is.
Who has more friends? Umm... a lot of our friends are mutual friends, but I probably have more friends in the area since I grew up here and he didn't.

I love Judd so much! He is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and life just wouldn't be complete without him. He's so thoughtful and always is putting my comfort and happiniess on the top of his priority list. I'm grateful that he is my companion!

Snowcat Adventures!

2008-02-17T16:16:00.007-07:00

Judd works at a place that recently started repairing and selling Snowcats. They're "vehicles" used in mountainous terrains to rescue people and get around in the snow. Yesterday Judd had our nephews come to his work so they could go on a ride. They loved it!
Here they are before we went on the ride.
This is Nathan, Parker (they're twins) and Logan.

They were so excited, they kept saying that they wanted to work there. They're so cute. Here are some more pictures of them on their fun ride!

What happens when we leave the camera out.....

2008-02-17T15:37:00.007-07:00

Judd and I are not very good at taking pictures of the various things that we do. Last week we left the camera out on the table for a few days, however, and this is what happened. :)

And this...... :)

Pretty much, that's what we do with our time!! haha. I love being married to Judd! He's my best friend and we always have fun together!

SURPRISE!!!

2008-01-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

My dad is 60!! We threw a surprise birthday for him last weekend. So many people came to support him and celebrate with us! It was a lot of fun. I sure do love him!

The perks of teaching school

2008-01-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

So one really nice perk of teaching school is the vacations I get. I'm finally off-track again! Hooray. I have 3 weeks off and I am very happy. Maybe I'll have more time to up-date this! :) Although most days I love my job, this has been a very welcomed break. I was starting to feel pretty burnt out.
Life is pretty much just normal. Judd is going to school full-time and working 25-30 hours a week, he's such a hard worker. I love the weekends because I get to see him a bit!! We're still looking for a house, but not real vigorously right now. We might wait until the summer since our lease isn't up until August, unless some awesome deal comes up before then. I can't wait! I hate living in apartments! Our neighbors are SO LOUD!
My sister Jessi is pregnant, she is due July 4th. My sister-in-law is pregnant due the middle of June....all these pregnant siblings are making me very jealous! I am getting baby hungry for sure. Don't worry, this isn't any kind of announcement. haha
Well. That's all. This sure is boring! :) Hopefully I'll have some better stories for my next post!

I know you've all been waiting...

2007-12-04T19:04:00.002-07:00

To see my niece!! This is Tayla. I love her! She's so stinkin cute. I hope my babies are this cute!

This is Paul, my brother-in-law (not Tayla's dad) holding her at the hospital. He loves her too. :)