Tai Pan

     So, I started another new job last week.  I'm getting kind of tired of starting new jobs but it keeps things interesting.  My current job is at Tai Pan as a cashier.  My interview was an interesting experience.  They called me to schedule an interview and luckily my day off of school was the next day.  I went in for the interview and about 5 minutes later they asked me if I could start the next day.  Wow, that was easy!  I was only in the office with the managers for a total of 10-15 minutes and that was mostly just me asking them questions about the job.

     I have only worked 3 days so far but I have really enjoyed it.  I worked 11:00-7:30 last Saturday and it was crazy busy ALL day long.  It never slowed down.  I've heard that black Firday is crazy from some of the other cashiers that worked at Tai Pan last holiday season.  I'm not really looking forward to this Friday and Saturday because I have to work 11:00-9:30 both days.  I hope the time goes fast. 

Halloween

     Growing up my mom always did a Halloween dinner.  She would name everything with creepy or gross names, print out a menu for all of us, and then when it was time to eat we would guess which food was what from the menu.  I loved our Halloween dinner nights but I haven't ever done it for just David and I since we have been married.  This year I was just going to do a simple dinner and not worry about naming everything.  While I was driving home from school today I decided that would be no fun...So I decided to really get into it.  Here is the menu...

Appetizers

Scabs
Body Parts
(Cat Eyes, Heats of Black Cat, Owl Eyes, Witches Toes, and Sliced Albino Snake)

Main Dish

Monster Vomit in a Pumpkin

Skelton Bones covered with Shredded Moon

Beverage

Ghost Blood

Dessert

Crushed Bat with Mud

     YUMMMMM!!!  Can you guess what each one is?  Here are some pictures to help you out.

 

Happy Birthday!

     Yesterday was David's 28th Birthday!  He had to work and go to school during the day but we managed to get presents and dinner at Chili's in before he had to go back to school for a study group.  I hope you had a great Birthday Honey Buns!  Love you!!!

                                      The Birthday Boy

                                     The cake and gifts.

                                      He blew out all 28 candles with one breath. 

 

Sometimes I Say This to Myself

     I couldn't help but share this.  A friend posted this to her dental hygiene blog after a rough day of clinic at the VA hospital.  At times I feel like saying this to myself.  Enjoy! 

Park City 8/20/11

     This past weekend was our last weekend before school started again for the year.  David and I knew that we wanted to do something fun and something that we haven't done before.  We have been wanting to go up to Park City to ride the Alpine Slide and Alpine Coaster and to shop and hang out.  We finally did it!  Bryce and Audrey came up with us and we had a blast. 

 Whitnee, David, Bryce, and Audrey.  Riding the chair lift up to the Alpine Slide. 

David and Bryce

 Audrey and Whitnee

 The Alpine Coaster.  This was SO much fun!  I wish it wasn't so much money to do because we would have gone on it ten more times. 

Bryce and Audrey sitting in the Alpine Coaster car. 

 Riding the Alpine Coaster to the top. 

The scenic view from the Alpine Coaster.

     After we did all our playing we headed to the outlet mall.  I hadn't been shopping at the outlet mall for probably 6 years.  Before we left home I got on the outlet mall website and found some awesome coupons for some of the different stores.  The best coupon was 30% off entire purchase from the GAP Outlet.  I was so excited for this one.  I found a hoodie that was normally $40 but was marked down to 60% off, plus I had my 30% off coupon.  So, I got a $40 hoodie for only $11.20!  I also found a really cute cardigan that was $40, marked 30% off, plus my 30% off coupon.  I got that for $19.60.  David also found some pants and shirts at different stores for really good prices.  It's worth the drive up there if you can find coupons on the internet plus use their sale prices.  After we left Park City we went back to Bryce and Audrey's place and watched a movie and ate pizza and breadsticks.  It was a great day. 



Camping-July 22-24

     I just downloaded the pictures that were on my camera and I found pictures from a camping trip that we went on in July.  I forgot I had them.  The day we got home from girls camp we hurried and unloaded everything, cleaned the tent, got showered and packed to go camping again.  It was a lot of fun.  We met my parents and Riley up in Old Canyon by Randolph.  It was beautiful up there.  The downside was all the mosquitos.  There were tons and tons.  I don't ever remember being somewhere with so many mosquitos.  We were putting bug spray on about every hour.
     David and I were just planning on sleeping in the tent so that all our stuff wasn't in the way in the trailer.  My mom was worried about us being outside in the tent because of bears and I was a little nervous too but I just thought it would be too much of a hassle every morning to take apart our beds and then have to set them back up again at night if we slept in the trailer.  The dogs were in their kennel on our motorcycle trailer about 50 feet away from our tent.  We went to bed Friday night and the wind was blowing a little bit and pine needles and little things kept falling on our tent, Josie kept barking like something was outside our tent, and I thought I could hear a little critter walking around the tent.  I was working myself up and getting more and more nervous about being outside for the night.  I finally fell asleep.  A few hours later I woke up to Josie barking again.  I wasn't too worried about Josie barking because she barks when nothing is really there.  The thing that really woke me us was when Sammy starting growling and barking.  Then we knew that something was out there.  David sat up in bed just about as fast as I did.  I could see that my parents had flashlights outside the trailer and David opened the tent door and was looking outside too.  We could hear something walking and breaking twigs and stuff down the street from our camp.  I was pretty freaked out.  Luckily we survived.  David thinks that it was probably an elk just passing through.  I sure hope it was only an elk.  We survived the rest of the weekend without any more near death experiences.  :)

The big lap dog.  Sammy loves to go camping because she knows David will let her sit on his lap. 

 Josie didn't want to miss out on the fun of sitting on David's lap. 

 Riley...He keeps things lively.

 It was extremely dusty.  We all came back from our motorcycle rides looking like this. 

Relaxing and playing a game. 

 This view was just up the road from where we camped. 

 What are they doing?  ;-) 

 Whitnee, David, Sammy, and Josie

Let's Ride!!!  Whitnee, David, Dad, Mom, and Riley

     

Let's Get A Pool

     For a while now I have been telling David we should go buy a pool and set it up for the summer.  David never agreed to it and in a way I really didn't want a pool because I didn't want to worry about taking care of it all summer.  Well, the Saturday before the 4th of July was extremely hot.  We were both outside and David said, "This hot weather makes me want to go get a pool."  Of course I said, "Ok, lets go get one!"  We went in the house and got on Wal-Mart's website to see what they had.  We found some that we liked that they had in the store so we were off to Wal-Mart.
     Neither of us really thouht that we would walk out of there with a pool so we took the car.  Well we did come out of Wal-Mart with one and then we had to try to fit it in the trunk of the car.  Too bad I didn't get a picture of that.  The box was hanging out of the trunk and we couldn't get the trunk closed.  We felt pretty stupid driving down the road. 

We started setting it up when we got home.  The cool water felt very good on our feet and we were super excited to have a pool that we would be able to come out and swim in whenever we wanted to. 

 Josie loved floating in the pool when the water was shallow.

 Josie's new relaxation spot.

Sammy checking things out.

     Now that we have the pool we both look at each other and ask ourselves, "What were we thinking?"  That was a spur of the moment purchase that we wish we hand't made.  Oh well, when these thunderstorms stop popping up every afternoon it will be fun to go relax and cool off in it. 

     

Our Garden

     This year we decided to make the garden dog proof.  We are hoping we will get some more veggies than we have gotten in the past when the dogs were free to roam through the garden. 

 Putting down the "foundation." 

Next we put up the posts.

 Then we put up the chicken wire. 

 
 Here is our garden!  We have lots of tomatoes growing.  Hopefully we will get some watermelons this summer.  I think next year we will make the area bigger so our big viney plants have more room to spread out. 

     

Youth Conference

     Due to school assignments and Young Women's projects I am a little behind on my blog posts.  Almost a month ago, June 23-25, my ward went to Youth Conference.  It was so much fun and I was glad that I went.  At the beginning of the year I was debating not going because I needed to work and save up money for school next year.  Due to the other Young Women leader's schedules I ended up going and loved every minute of it. 

     We stayed at Payson Lakes Campground for the weekend.  Thursday morning we met and drove to the campground, got everything all set up, and then left for Manti.  Instead of going all the way back down to the freeway the men decided to take the dirt roads down the other side of the mountain.  It was a beautiful drive but the GPS kept taking us to dead ends and when we found the road that we needed, it was still closed due to the snow that was still up there.  We did end up finding another road that took us down.  When we finally got to Manti, about 2-2 1/2 hours later, we went and ate a delicious turkey dinner at one of the stake centers in Manti.  After dinner we went to the temple to hang out till the pageant started.  The pageant was great and I think that the youth really enjoyed it.  After the pageant we headed back to camp.  We took the freeway back this time and arrived back at camp about 2:00 in the morning.  Everyone stayed awake and we didn't have any problems with deer!  I was really worried about driving back to Payson that late at night.   

     Friday morning we slept in, got up and had breakfast, had a devotional, then headed to the lake for some team building activities. 

     I think the team building activities was the highlight of my weekend.  The first activity that we did was a Trust Fall from a picnic table.  I was really suprised how willing the youth were to participate in this activity.  I even did it!  I just don't have a picture of it to prove it.

Tiffany

Zoie pushing her mom off the table. 

The next activity was to get all the youth balanced on a pallet that was on top of a broken cinder block. 

 They were all on it and balanced for about 3 seconds then it broke. 

The next activity was my favorite.  We split the youth up into groups of 3.  The object was to get their whole group across the grass while only having 2 hands and 1 foot touch the groud.  It was entertaining to see the ways they tried to accomplish this. 

                                                          Steven, Preston, and Seth

Abbie, Tiffany, and Bailey

 2 of the Young Men leaders and a member of the Bishopric decided to try.  They were very creative and so funny to watch!  People walking by were looking at them like they were crazy. 

Their crashes were the best!

After watching everyone try for awhile me and another Young Women leader decided to try.  We grabbed Zoie and we made it all the way across!  Again, no pictures to prove I did it though. 

 The next activity was the above picture.  I can't remember what it was called.  We had two groups at a time race across the grass on these ski things.  They really had to cooperate to all move the right leg at the right time. 

     My camera batteries died after this and I didn't have anymore for the rest of the weekend.  After the team building activities we played in the lake for a while.  I worked on homework during this time while soaking up the sun.  When everyone was done playing in the lake we headed back to camp and hung out and relaxed.  We played a good game of Signs with all of the youth and some of the leaders.  Talk about some major confusion!!!  I think a couple times 3 people were passing the sign all at once. 

     Dinner that night was super yummy.  A member of the Bishopric had his wife, sister-in-law, and father-in-law come up and cook us a dutch oven dinner.  Sweet and Sour Chicken, Cheesy Potatoes, and Cobbler.  I need to get some dutch ovens and learn how to cook with them.  I think dutch oven food is my favorite.  After dinner the Bishopric did a devotional and we spent the rest of the night around the camp fire telling stories and jokes. 

     Saturday morning we woke up, had breakfast, packed everything up and left camp.  We were home by 12:00.  I loved that we came home early so we had the rest of the day to put things away and do what we needed to do. 

3 Years!

     Today is our 3 year anniversary.  I can't believe how fast the time has gone.  Everyday we fall more in love with each other and learn to appreciate each other more.  There has been some interesting moments during the last 3 years but they have made us stronger.  There are moments when I have to repeat a quote from "How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days," which is, "I love you but I don't have to like you right now."  That usually make us both laugh and forget about our differences and the argument that we are having. 
     We had a pretty low key anniversary day today.  We both went to work and David surprised me by coming home earlier than I thought he would.  We picked up take out from Cafe Rio and came home and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.  We have just spent the rest of the night on the couch watching TV and relaxing.  This weekend we are trying to plan a short get-away somewhere but haven't decided where yet.  We better get something figured out quick!
     I love you Honey Buns and look forward to an eternity together!  To eternity and beyond!!! 

President

     Today I was sustained and set apart to be the Young Women President in my ward.  I am really excited for this calling.  Life will be busy with this calling and school but I know that with the help of my Heavenly Father I will be able to get everything done that I need to.  I know that Heavenly Father knows what I can handle and will help me through everything that I will face. 
     During the past couple of weeks since I first met with the Bishop and he asked me to accept this calling my love for the girls in my ward has increased so much.  I know that they are all daughters of our Heavenly Father and I have been called to teach them their divine roles and prepare them for their future families.  I am grateful for the opportunity that I have been given and hope that I will fulfill my calling the way my Heavenly Father wants me to.  I am grateful for the examples that my Young Women leaders always were to me as I was growing up.  They helped prepare me for this calling.  I am grateful for my counselors and secretary for the love and support that they give to me.  I am excited to work with a new counselor and get to know her better.  I know that the church is true and that the Young Women program has a great purpose. 

Summer!

     I'm proud to announce that David and I have successfully made it through another semester of school together. We have had a week of freedom and it has been wonderful. It is so nice to come home from work and just do whatever we want to do and not have to worry about homework. If it ever gets warm we are looking forward to evenings spent in the yard, going hiking, and visiting family. I love the summer!
     I have completed the first year of the dental hygiene program. In one more year I will be graduated! I am so looking forward to that day. I have decided to get my bachelors degree in dental hygiene. I was totally against getting my bachelors degree until I realized how close I already am to getting it. With a bachelors degree in dental hygiene you don't get paid any more than if you have an associates degree but you are able to teach. I don't ever plan on teaching but as I was talking to a family friend who is a hygienist she recommended that I get my bachelors degree just because it might be a benefit to me with how many dental hygiene schools there are now in Utah. Because of this I am taking classes this summer. Not exactly what I wanted to do with my summer but I don't think it will be too bad. I just have 3 classes and they are all online. The classes are easy and one of the classes is only seven weeks long. I decided to just get it done this summer instead of going back to school next summer or fall after I have graduated with my associates degree.

A New Job

     This last Monday I started a new job.  I have really liked it so far.  I get to drive one of these monsters around all day.  I am working for the Davis School District mowing their  large playing fields.  Here are some facts about the mower...they say it has a top speed of 20 MPH but when I drove past one of those radars  that shows your speed I didn't get over 18 MPH...the mower has three mowing decks, front, left, and right and each deck has three blades...with all 3 decks down I can make a 16 foot sweep of the field...when the decks are down and the blades are on the top speed is only about 10 MPH...I'm by myself all day, just mowing and listening to my i-pod, and when it finally gets warm I'll be soaking up the sun!  My route includes schools in Kaysville and Farmington. 

It has been a week filled with lots of adventures for sure.  Here is how my week went...

Monday-Training...sat around for at least an hour before watching a 30 minute movie on how to operate the mower.  Finally went outside and was able to drive the mower around the parking lot.  There was 3 of us starting Monday so after we were comfortable with the mower in the parking lot we drove 2 mowers and a truck over to Antelope Elementary and practiced mowing and driving the mower around the field for the next 2 1/2-3 hours.  That got really boring.  When it was finally time for lunch we drove the mowers back to the shop and took a lunch break.  After lunch I found out that my mower needed to be drove to Davis High and parked so it was ready for Tuesday morning.  That was really really cold.  It took me and hour to drive the mower from the Freeport Center in Clearfield to Davis High.  20 MPH all the way baby!!!  As soon as I left the Freeport Center it started to rain.  Of course, just my luck, and I had left my rain suit in my car.  When I finally made it to Davis High I called the 2 other gang mowers to come and pick me up.  I had to wait outside for about 30 minutes while they drove up from Bountiful.  Once they picked me up we drove around Kaysville and found some of the schools that are on my route. 

Tuesday-This was the big day of adventure!  The first day out on my route by myself.  They assigned me and another guy or own DSD trucks for the summer and told us to go see if they had keys in them.  Neither on of them did so we sat around for about 45 minutes while they tried to find the keys.  Once the keys were found they couldn't get the trucks to start.  They told us to go outside and someone would meet us to jump start the trucks.  It took about 30 minutes to get both the trucks started and then we were off!  Or we were supposed to be anyway...I put my truck in reverse and noticed that the gear indicator on the dashboard didn't move.  Oh well...I pushed on the acclerator and nothing, I just rolled forward a little.  Oh no,

there was a building right in front of the truck.  Next I pushed the brake with my left foot and hit the acclerator hard, still nothing but rolling forward.  I tried again but my foot got stuck and I couldn't get the brake fast enough...I rolled the school district truck into the building.   Oops!!!  The guy that jumped the truck was still putting his cables away and ran over to make sure I was ok.  He got in the truck and he couldn't get it to move either.  He was so mad that the district even keeps trucks like that.  He said that the truck didn't have a transmission.  They finally found a truck that would work and I was finally off to Davis High.  When I got to my mower and started to go to Windridge Elementary I couldn't get the mower into high range.  So instead of being able to go 20 MPH I could only go about 10 MPH.  I wasn't going to go all the way to  Windridge and Farmington going only 10 MPH!  I called the mechanic and she didn't answer.  I waited for 20 minutes for her to call me back and of course it was something dumb and easy to fix.  When I got to Windridge I was able to mow the entire field and I got stuck on my last sweep of a hill.  I called the shop again and waited for someone to come pull me out.  While I was waiting my uncle, who also works for the district, happened to pull up for a job at the school.  He thought it was pretty funny.  Looking back on it now it was.  They finally got me unstuck and I headed to Farmington.  All these events happened in the first 3 1/2 hours of the work day.  Great way to start my first day on the job.  Surprisingly I was able to get 3 1/2 school done Tuesday even with all the delays I had. 

Wednesday-Flat tire.  I drove my mower all the way to Famington Jr. High and finished most of their field and got low on gas so I called the shop to have the gas truck come fill up the mower.  When he got there he noticed that I had a flat tire.  He called one of the mechanics and they said they would be there as soon as they could.  I sat outside and read my book for about 20 minutes then I got cold so I went inside to hang out.  Within 15 minutes the mechanic was there.  He said he needed to take the tire to Les Schwab so I could just  hang out in the school.  I went to the library and read a book for an hour.  Finally he got back and I was ready to mow again.  I didn't have any other problems the rest of the day. 

Thursday-I didn't have any problems.  Just mowing all day. 

Friday-I got stuck again.  This time at Fairfield Jr. High.  The west side of their field was extrememly wet and I had decided that I wouldn't come out this far in the field next go around.  Pretty much right at that time I got stuck.  I called the shop and they sent someone out to pull me out.  When I finally got out there was a rut from the tire that was about 8 inches deep.  Oops.  The rest of the day went pretty smoothly.

     I was able to finish my whole route in the first week.  I think when I get my route down better and how to get to the schools I will have quite a bit of down time.  My brother has done this job for 3 years and he said you just drive the back roads a lot wasting time because you have to have 8 hours a day.  Works for me.  I will just listen to my i-pod and get tan.  :)

David's Version of Mad

     The following story happened a few months ago and I forgot to blog about it.  We were talking and laughing about it last night and I remembered that I needed to write about this moment so we can always remember it. 
     Ever since it has gotten cold during the nights we have been bringing the dogs into the gargage to sleep at night.  We usually don't lock them in their bed because they have learned that they better not chew on anything in the garage or they will face the wrath of dad, aka David.  For some reason Josie can't make it through the night very often without having to go to the bathroom.  Since we leave the door of their bed open she just goes in the garage by the garage door and we just have to clean it up in the morning.  Thats not very fun but better to clean it up there than in their bed.  Well one morning we woke up and there was dog poop by the door as usual.  We were both running late for school so we just left it and I told him I would get it when I got home from school later that afternoon. 
     Well I kind of forgot to clean it up when I got home that afternoon.  Oops.  David came home from work and we ate dinner and then decided to go somewhere for the evening.  We were going to take the 4 Runner so we walked through the garage to go outside.  Of course right at that moment I remembered I hadn't cleaned up the poop.  I was about to warn David but figured he would be able to see it and he would remember it was there.  We proceeded outside and then David realized there was something squishy on the bottom of his shoe.  Big oops!  I expected him to blow up and get mad but all he said was, "Woogams, I am not happy about this."  I couldn't help but laugh.  He was trying to be so serious and all I do is laugh at what he says.  Of course he started laughing too. 
     Ever since this moment I have been trying to keep my mad moments calm like he did.  He is pretty good at letting me know he is not happy but he still stays pretty calm.  Me on the other hand, usually totally blows up at him.  Whenever I get mad now I just remember that I want to stay calm like he did during this instance and it just makes me laugh and everything is a lot better. 

Valentine's Weekend

     I had so much fun with Valentine's Day prepartations this year.  A few weeks ago I found an article on the internet that had seven activities/surprises to do the week before Valentine's Day.  Since I wasn't going to be home during the week for the evenings due to work I decided to choose 4 of the surprises.  It was so much fun and inexpensive. 
     Friday morning while David was in the shower I went out to his car and put two of his favorite candies in there with a note that said "Somethin Sweet for My Sweetie."  When he got to work he sent me a sweet text saying that he appreciated that act.  Later that day he also called me to thank me.  I love how such small and simple acts can make someone's day.  It made my day and I was the one giving the surprise. 
     Saturday morning when David got up and went to the kitchen there was another surprise note inviting him to a night of playing the Wii Fit, with a few different rules than normal.  During the day we went snowmobiling with our families.  To my surprise my parents bought 2 snowmobiles last week and surprised us Saturday morning as we were leaving.  It was so much fun to go snowmobiling with my parents and my in-laws.  It was a warm and sunny day.  Those are my favorite days to go snowmobiling.  I don't have any pictures because our camera batteries died as soon as I took it out, of course.  When we got home from snowmobiling we got everyting cleaned up and showered and cooked a yummy steak dinner.  We ended up asleep on the couch by about 9:00.  We are big partiers as you can tell.  :)
     Sunday morning there was another note on the kitchen table inviting David to a game later in the day.  Sunday was pretty low key, we just went to church and our meetings then did homework and got ready for school for the week.
     Monday mornings I don't have to be to school until about 12:00.  While David was in the shower I went out to his car and used window paints to decorate.  I wrote "Love You," "Kiss Me," "Hot Stuff," "Be Mine," and drew hearts all over the windows.  Of course I couldn't leave the inside undisturbed so I put some confetti on the driver and passenger seats with a note wishing him Happy Valentine's Day.  Then I got back in bed to read until he was ready to leave.  When he left I was peeking out the bedroom blinds to see his reaction.  He stopped in the middle of the driveway and was shaking his head.  I could hear what he was saying even with the windows closed.  He wasn't very happy about it, and then he opened the door and saw the confetti..."No, not inside!"  I was busting up.  He ended up coming back in the house and one of the first things that he said was, "You want me to drive that to work today?"  I just laughed and said "Yup, you aren't taking my car."  What he said next was the best..."Everyone at work will make fun of me!"  HAHAHA.  So I replied, "Well, tell them that your wife loves you and likes to embarass you."  After a few more comments about embarassment he left for work.  Thats when I really got busy. 
     I started to prepare our dinner for that evening.  We only have about a half hour that we are home together before David has to leave for his night class so I needed to have something prepared that I could just put in the oven for a half hour as soon as I got home from school.  I made stuffed jumbo pasta shells and then headed to the grocery store to pick up some salad and sparkling cidar.  When I got home from that I hurried and got the table all set and decorated then headed to school for the afternoon. 

 I should have taken a picture of the table right before we ate but I didn't even think of that.

       When David got home from work he was pretty surprised to see the table all decorated and candles lit.  He even brought me home a bouquet of one dozen hot pink roses.  I didn't even have to beg him to get me flowers this year.  After dinner David left for school and I cleaned up the dinner mess and started homework.  When David got home from school we had to go to the grocery store to get some things that he needed for the Blue and Gold Banquet the next night, made a cake, did homework, and went to bed.  

     It was so much fun to celebrate the fun and romance of Valentine's Day for the whole weekend.