My Niece, Avery

I was so very excited to come home for Christmas this year for many reasons but one reason in particular was because I was going to be able to meet my adorable niece, Avery! Everyone else had already had a chance at one point or another to get to see her except me and if you know anything about me and the way I adore little kids, ESPECIALLY MY NEPHEWS, you can imagine how it had been driving me CRAZY that I hadnt seen my niece yet!

We spent time playing with new toys Avery got for Christmas, playing with Madison, watching Eppie put together her new puzzle, and just getting to know eachother!

After a little while we got very comfortable with each other!

We had fun with Uncle Jonny too!

Thanks Honey!

These were delivered to my work yesterday with a love note from my husband! Thanks honey! I love you!

My Ode to Working at Pinnacle

I came up with this at work today while our data base was down again. Its much funnier if you know what everything is but I'm kinda proud of it! The parenthesis are added for understanding purposes!

I come in every morning to a dark office space, and wonder “Why the heck cant we turn on some lights in this place?”
I count down the hours from eight until five, thinking of things I feel I’m deprived.
A quick visit from Lewis (my boss) to see how we’re all doing, but we all know deep inside he has ten projects brewing,
As I open Great Plains (our data base) that works half the time, I’m constantly reminded I’ve got a deadline!
We’ve only got a short time to complete data entry and if not we know all too well we’ll all pay the penalty.
If it’s not done on time the calls will begin, to which it seems there is never an end.
“Where is my sale and where is my money? Don’t you know how important I am to this company?”
We calm their poor nerves and comfort their sadness, but that’s just a portion of what adds to the madness.
From coworkers cell phones that EVERY day ring on high, to customers that constantly call in to whine.
Shell creation endures the privilege of flirting *ahem* working with sales rep and techs, and can consequently be heard saying, “What a pain in the neck!”
Distraught customers call to report a battery is dead, while tech support patiently listens with a hand on their head.
They inform the customer replacing the battery will only take a sec, but they’re quickly interrupted, “Of course, you need a tech.”
Collections calls customers to discuss mounting issues, and attempt to resolve the accounts that are past due.
As customers explain with excuses galore, the collection team states, “We cant wait anymore.”
Customer Service handles everything and worse, from changing account passwords to customers that curse.
The Retention department plays a very special part; the negotiations they make could be considered a work of art.
Customers wanting to cancel are not few, but Retention quickly explains, “This is more beneficial for you.”
At times some may wonder, “We work to what end?”, but Chris Munday (our CEO) always reminds, “On our way to One-hundred Thousand!” (accounts)

The Meaning of Christmas

With how much of my time I have spent working lately, especailly at Eddie Bauer, I realized I have not really taken much time to get beyond the shopping, and lights, and presents, etc, to ponder the deeper meaning of Christmas. While I was at work today and in between assignments I looked for some good talks by the First Presidency to help me and I thought I would add it for anyone else who may need some refocusing also.

A Christmas Message from the First Presidency to the Children of the World:The Real Christmas

“The Real Christmas,” Friend, Dec 1994, 2
Christmas is a busy season. Streets and stores are filled with people making last-minute preparations. Travelers on the highway increase, airports are crowded—all Christendom seems to come to life with music, lights, and festive decorations. Christmas trees, baking, mistletoe, and the giving of gifts are all part of the celebration, but the real Christmas lies much deeper than these. It is found in the life and mission of the Master, in the principles he taught, in his atoning sacrifice.

Christ is not just a fact of history, but the Savior of men everywhere and at all times. If we open the door, he will enter. The Prince of Peace waits to give us peace of mind, which can help us to also be peacemakers.

If you desire to find the true spirit of Christmas and partake of its sweetness, find time during the hurry of the season to turn your heart to God. Perhaps in the quiet hours and in a quiet place, on your knees—alone or with loved ones—give thanks for the good things that have come to you, and ask that his spirit might dwell in you as you earnestly strive to serve him and keep his commandments. He will take you by the hand, and his promises will be kept.

Sooner or later—and we pray sooner than later—everyone will acknowledge that Christ’s way is not only the right way, but ultimately the only way to hope and joy. Every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that gentleness is better than brutality, and kindness greater than force. Whenever possible, we must become more like him.

This is our prayer and our wish for the world. We testify that Jesus is the only true source of lasting joy, that our only lasting peace is in him. We bear testimony of the Firstborn of God who has “borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows,” who “was wounded for our transgressions” and was “bruised for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:4–5). We give you our solemn witness that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, for whose coming the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob prayed during long centuries. We testify that he lives. He is the Only Begotten Son of the Father in the flesh. He is the Savior, the Light and Life of the World. He is the real Christmas.

Part Two: The outside...finally

The outside of our house has actually been decorated since a few days after Thanksgiving I just havent taken the time to sit down and do it, but here they are.

I appreciate very much the help everyone gave me in making the outside of our duplex very festive! Lippy is not in either of these pictures because as is customary while decrotating with me she had to go to the store to get....MORE LIGHTS!!! Yes its true I have a problem

Unfortunately the railings are often covered with snow but it is still fun! I am waiting for one more picture from Adam that I will add later...his camera is a little better than mine and the picture is beautiful!

I Was Curious...

It better be after how many papers I've had to write!

Crowning Achievements

I have accomplished many great things in my life. Greatness seems to be attracted to the good looking apparently. My accomplishments range from writing well-know novels (Dad's Lectures of Life volumes 1 &2), to marrying a girl who can actually dish out as much as she takes (quite the challenge). I have perfected the art of admiring my own work, managed to attend college longer than any of my siblings, and I can leap tall buildings in a single bound. However, none of these heroic actions can compare to my latest quest for glory.

As previously posted, I had the opportunity to "fly" to Iowa for my friend's wedding. While there, Tavis and I spent much of our time planning and running errands. We didn't even have time to bow anything up!

Tragic.

However, we were able to do something that forever will be remembered. Something we have wished to do since highschool. Something that simply screams glory! Something that will forever cause our wives to shake their heads and wonder what they were thinking!

That's right. We wore "Dumb and Dumber" tuxedos to his rehersal dinner. And no, Molly (Tavis' wife) did not know about it till we showed up. Now my loyal readers, if you will all excuse me, the Nobel Prize committee has heard of my achievements. I must prepare my acceptance speech.

My First Cheesecake

Yeah kinda silly but I have always been very nervous to make my own cheesecake but I found a recipe for a Pumpkin Swirl cheescake and decided to give it a try. It was really good. It cracked a little in the middle so if you know how to keep that from happening let me know. If you would like the recipe it will be posted on my recipe share page within the next day or so.

Let it Snow!

This past weekend we got about 4+ inches of snow. We havent had any since the beginning of October so we are all kinda excited about it and we definately took advantage of the situation.

Of course we had to prioritize and naturally watching the BYU football game came first.

Once the game was over, and by the way BYU is the Mountain West Champions AGAIN, we got ready and made our way to Rock Canyon park for some quality snow tubing.

It was very packed with it being basically the first snow of the season but we had a great time anyway!

Jonny had a blast flying off a jump that we found! I dont know if this picture will get bigger or not but if you look closely you will see that he is actually not touching the ground at all!

Lippy was a little cold but she had a great time. This was a picture of her coming straight at me which made her a little nervous but I moved right before she ran into me!

We had a ton of fun forming every kind of chain possible going forwards, backwards, side by side, etc. We even had a couple guys come over and join us for a while. It was really cold but definately worth it!

Arent we cute?

Heaven Help Us!

Or maybe heaven help our children....I came home the other day for lunch and Lippy happened to catch a very common activity in our home. Other than that I dont have a whole lot to say about the pictures that will follow but I will ask; Are you really all that surprised?

I never win...but I'm getting better

I'm a Problem Solver

I've actually always been pretty decent at problem solving. Not with word problems or any of that kind of junk just when something needs to be fixed or small things need to go in tight places, etc...every day stuff. I can usually figure out how to make something work, even if it looks ghetto sometimes....

I got this frame for our temple wedding certificate about a month or so ago. While a certain someone that we will refer to as M. Rankin of Meredith R. was putting my clock back up after fixing the time it accidentally fell and knocked my frame. Unfortunately it knocked the stand thingie in the back loose and so it has been falling a lot....and driving me crazy. So tonight after decorating I decided to fix it and that is what I came up with. Yes I did make a hole and tied a string through it to the wall mount thing, but it keeps it in place.

At least you cant see if from the front and it doesnt fall anymore!

Christmas Decorating Part 1: The Inside

One fun thing about living in a new place is figuring out how to decorate for Christmas. As always I had a TON of fun! Jonny and Lippy helped me put up the tree.

Every time we go somewhere special I always make it a point to try and find ornaments for our tree. I love it becuase this year when we had new things to put on so we have two from our wedding, one from Yellowstone, one from Disneyland, and one from Las Vegas...all very fun and very memorable events.

It was very fun to use my lights, garland, and poinsetta flowers this year!

I love Christmas!! I cant wait to go home and visit everyone!

My First Video!

I have wanted to post a video for a long time but since we dont have any adorable children yet I had to wait for something really good....here it is.

I got off work early on Wed so I went home and my wonderful husband and sister were cleaning the house when I walked in. (I love them) We decided to go get lunch but Jonny needed to shower and thats where our video comes in....no it is not indecent, just funny!



I love my husband! There is never a dull moment!

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

It seems that most of the times we meet in the blogging world I end up sharing an experience about flying somewhere. However, rest assure that this story does not involve the functionally retarded who seem to favor air travel.

Last week I flew back to Clinton, IA for by best friend Tavis' wedding. On my flight from Salt Lake City to Dallas, everything went better than expected. I was bumped up to first class for free! I learned two things there:

1) Wearing a sweatshirt and jeans really clashes with the "suit and tie" decor of the cabin.

2) They give you the whole can of soda for a beverage. That's right...the WHOLE can. Now that's luxury.

The plane lands in Dallas and the trip is off to a wonderful start. Then I get on the plane that flies from Dallas to Moline, IL. For those of you who have never been to this airport, it has one runway and only 3 planes there don't have propellers on them.

So my little plane takes off to make the longest trip of its life. It was here that I learned 2 more things:

1) The pilot only needed to lean from side to side to steer it.

2) If a bird sneezed in passing, the turbulence was enough to cause a premature birth.

If you don't know me very well, I get motion sick...alot...easily. About 30 minutes into this epic flight, last night's dinner decides to make an encore appearance. I have no idea if this bicycle with wings had a bathroom or not, so I was forced to resort to the air sick bag in the seat pocket. Luckily, I was sitting alone which cut down on the embarrassment. Now here's something that they never tell you about those air sick bags, what do you do with them when they are full? I can't tell you how long I had to think about this. The one flight attendant on board had passed me handing out drinks. So what do you do? Ring the call button and ask a perfect stranger to come pick up your bag of vomit? Slip it back into the pocket and hope no one notices? Seriously, there are no instructions for disposal on the bag. I looked. I consider that to be a rather large over site in air travel. I considered holding it inside my sweater and try to find the bathroom, but then figured that holding my hand inside the breast pocket of my zip-up sweatshirt may cause me to be beaten to death as a terrorist. In the end, I held the bag for about 20 minutes and then slipped it into the garbage as the attendant walked by again. And so I learned 2 more things:

1) Always have a disposal plan ready

2) If you need to go from Dallas to Moline, walk.

Before the Snow Falls

We have had a very nice fall season this year. A little snow came in early October and I was afraid we were in for a really long winter but it actually hasnt snowed since. The warmer weather has given me an opportunity to take care of and prune my rose bushes I have on the side of our duplex. I have always wanted to have roses bushes! It has been one of my favorite things about living here! Since a cold front was supposed to come through this weekend, and I'm sure winter is going to set in soon, I decided to cut a bunch of my roses, just in case we got snow. I love having fresh roses all the time! (Jonny loves it too but for different reasons...) Here are a few pictures of the differnt kinds we have.

I never imagined....

that I would ever be excited to go home and clean my house, but tonight it actually happened. I always hated doing chores and cleaning the house luckily my parents were very good at teaching me that living in a clean house is much better and more peaceful than a messy, chaotic house. Yes I know I probably only had a clean room about 20% of my life and half of that I was too young to make it messy. Sometimes the things your parents try to teach you dont take effect until you move out..sorry Mom and Dad.

But tonight I got home from working 13 hours and and I was still so happy that no one was home and I would have the chance to clean as much as I wanted without anyone getting in the way. Sometimes thats just the best way to clean, right ladies! I know this is kinda silly but I am proud of myself because I actually enjoyed cleaning....now if I can just learn to keep it clean! Thanks Mom and Dad for teaching me the importance of a clean house!

Thanks Lovey!

I just wanted to express my gratitude to my husband for getting me this pink XBOX controller so my playing time could be so much more enjoyable! I never knew what I was missing!

In case this sounds silly or pointless he bought it a while ago, in the middle of October, and therefore at the time actually helped support the research on curing breast cancer. Yes even those responsible for mindless game playing are concerned about curing cancer! Plus it is kinda fun to have my very own pink controller. Thanks honey!

I Got Tagged

So Laura tagged me a long time ago so I decided to take this opportunity while I am sitting at work and my data base is frozen (which happens quite often and for long periods of time) to start working on this. Apparently we are supposed to write 6 things about ourselves.

1. I am intensely afraid of spiders! I can handle a lot of bugs but for some reason I can not handle spiders. I do not believe that people swallow spiders in their sleep. I dont care what studies have been done or whatever because, number one; that is sick and number two; I refuse to think that spiders would be crawling on my face in the middle of the night! Jonny is very familiar with my call for help when there is a spider anywhere around me. I will call his name once, wait about 5 seconds and then I will call him over and over, getting faster every time, with my voice getting higher everytime also. He knows to come to my rescue with a wad of toilet paper. He and Lippy love to bring this up in social settings so I figure I will just get it out in the open for everyone! OK and as an additional note on this I was going to put a picture of an animated spider but when I searched pictures of real spiders came up and it seriously creeped me out so much I decided against it!

2. I like humidity. Almost everyone I talk to calls me crazy, especially here in Utah, but I grew up in it. I loved going outside in the evening in the middle of the summer and just sitting in the warmth of it like a blanket wrapped around you. Humidity brings rain! Granted doing yard work in 100 degree August heat and 100 percent humidity and swatting mosquitoes the whole time does present the ugly side of it. But I just tell people especially in Utah that if I can get back to a humid place then we will compare how we look in twenty years and I guarantee I will not look as old as they do!

3.That brings me to my next point. I am an avid Weather Channel watcher! I even have my favorite meteorologists and I usually know about when they will be on. I have always been amazed by the weather and how it impacts people. For a long time I wanted to be a meteorologist and tracks storms and stuff. If I could go back to school for a second degree thats what it would be. I adore a good thunder storm and though really intense/dangerous storms scare me they also excite me at the same time..kinda weird I know.

4. I love dark chocolate. One of the great things about loving dark chocolate is that it is somewhat of an acquired taste and so at this point I can leave dark chocolate sitting around in my house, leave for work, come back and its still there!!!

5. My fav shows to watch are Law and Order, What Not to Wear, and That 70's Show. I love Law and Order because you can always find an epsiode on. Bill Engval has this joke that involves watching Law and Order and I wont tell it cause its kinda racey but if you know it you can laugh and know that it somewhat applies to Jonny and I! If you dont and want to know call me and I'll tell you. We own every single season of that 70's show that has come out on DVD only one more to own them all! After finishing the last season we bought just a week or so ago I was so concerned about what happened at the end that it bothered me for days...it still does if I sit and think about it.

6. I have an obsession with things that sparkle and glitter, from Christmas lights, to fireworks, to fun make up, to yes even jewelry. I always have! My prom dress was lavender with bluish, purplish sequins all over. When I was shopping for my wedding dress I was looking for sparkle that was still temple appropriate! I think that is why I get so excited to decorate for Christmas because it includes lights and tinsel and ornaments....lots and lots of sparkle and glitter! In fact I just got some lotion the other day that has a teeny bit og glitter in it! I dont know why it just makes me happy for some reason.

So if you took the time to read this and you have yet to be tagged then consider yourself tagged! (Chiara, Marissa, Ashlyn, Mary, Mom, Meredith.....have fun)