Conference & Easter Weekend

Happy Easter!

For the Saturday morning session of conference, we enjoyed having Mom & Dad over for breakfast.  We had pancakes, maple sausage, eggs, fruit, & biscuits & gravy.  

Mmmmmm :)

What a great conference it was.  My sister even got to sing in the institute choir during the Saturday afternoon session - lucky!  I love how I can always count on a small handful of talks speaking directly to me.  How inspired our prophets are!

Goodbye

When I first moved to Arizona, I could name a million reasons why I didn't really want to live here.  The only reason I kinda wanted to live here was because it didn't snow.

After almost 2 years here, I've grown partial to and even developed a love for Arizona.

And now, in no particular order, a few things I'll miss once we move back to Provo (and I apologize in advance for all the cell-phone pics - I don't always have my camera when there's a great moment):

1. Starbucks runs & late-night drop-in's from Mom & Dad

(thanks to HBO's The Pacific for providing this special hat moment)

2. The Heat

3. Clouds and evenings sunsets

(not bad for a completely unedited cell phone pic, huh?)

4. Ward friends

5. Great boss/job

6. Hot air balloons on my way to work

7. the awesome road system, speed limits, & easy freeway access

8. the local cuisine

(Gecko Grill, Paradise Bakery, 

Pei Wei, & Nando's, to name a few goodies)

9. my neighbor's lemon tree that covers part of my yard, hence, all the wonderfully delicious meals & desserts with lemon in them
(more on this later)

10. Oscar, one of my biggest fans

when something leaves

You don't realize how good something is until it's gone.  This time, it's my boss.  I don't normally like posting anything about work, but I just have to mention how much I miss my old boss.  Anselmo is one of the great bosses I've had.  He is one of 2 bosses who have left such an impression that I just about cried when he left.  He transferred to another site to be their director, meanwhile leaving my site director-less.  We got a temporary GM since our current one is also out for a while on leave.  The temporary is not anything like Anselmo, and I'll be honest: I don't like it. 

Anselmo was the boss who would ask me how I was doing everyday and really cared what my response was.  He would ask me my opinion about things work-related and things not related to work at all.  He would chat with me about things he had passion for.  He trusted me and allowed me to use my own judgment only giving constructive criticism when necessary, and never doing it in front of others.  Anselmo was only my boss for 8 months, but I loved going to work knowing that I didn't have to worry about my superiors. 

I got to talk to him on the phone today for a couple minutes.  It was good to talk to him, albeit for only a couple minutes.  I told him I wanted to spend money and he said ok.  That was pretty much it, but it practically made my day. 

I pray my next boss is as good as Anselmo was.

St. Patrick's Day

For St. Patrick's Day, I honored my Irish roots by making potato & cabbage soup.  It was super, and the Irish soda bread I made turned out great as well.  I found the soup online, but the bread is one of Ina's (Barefoot Contessa) recipes.  

One Thousand Days: Part 2

Here are the pictures of our 1000th day:

Will with the banner I made

1000 Hugs and Kisses

 We also ate a meal that was 1000 calories, but the pictures didn't turn out so well.  It consisted of stuff chicken thighs, candied carrots & onions, mustard-roasted potatoes, and stuffing. 
Yum.

One Thousand Days

Today celebrates 1000 days of marriage for Will & me. He has put up with me for 1000 mornings of no make-up, ratty hair, & not getting up when he tells me to. I have had to put up with 1000 mornings of his rooster-tails, scruffy chin, & him telling me to get up earlier than I would like.

However, together we have loved 1000 days of smiling & sassing, teasing & tickle-torturing, wrestling & relying, pampering & praying, movie-watching & magic-making, scaring & surprising, flirting & forgiving, loving & laughing, needing & nudging, hugging & helping, giggling & gallivanting, playing & pretending, kissing & courting.

There isn’t anyone else we would have rather spent the last 1000 days with than each other.

in case you were wondering ...

 ... yogurt does sooth the sting from jalapeno oils on hands.  my ever-so-handy sister googled it and i am reaping the rewards.  thanks google, and jenna. 

Our celebration

After hearing about our great news, we just had to celebrate. Lucky for us, Valentine's Day was just around the corner, so we treated ourselves well in honor of both occasions.

We dined at Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and ordered their Valentine's special. Filet mignon and lobster tail were served with potatoes and grilled cauliflower.



For dessert, heaven sent us creme brulee with a chantilly creme and fresh berries.



We thoroughly enjoyed being treated as royalty and won't soon forget this Valentine's Day.

A Reason to Celebrate!!!

Some you know that my career goal has been to become a physical therapist. Well, I am happy to report that this WILL HAPPEN!!! I have been accepted into the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions in Provo, Utah. Yay!

School starts in May of this year which means we will totally be busy the next 2 months getting ready to move up to Utah again. The school will be 2.5 years long so I will graduate in December 2012. We are totally excited to move somewhere that is familiar and where we have family and friends.

Check back soon to see how we celebrated!

Read with caution: Includes Venting

Dear Yet-to-be-Named Collection Company,

Please stop calling my work phone looking for the girl who had my job before I did.  I've told you a million times that she no longer works here and can't be reached at this number and "NO, I do not have her new number nor will I transfer you to HR to verify her non-employment at my location."  How many times do I have to say this to you in my obviously-annoyed yet courteous tone?  I've told you to do whatever you have to in order to get my number off your list because no matter how many times you call, you won't find her here. 

Also, while you refuse to say over the phone for which company you are calling, I know you're a collection company because another company left their name and I googled it discovered who you people are that keep harassing me. 

And just to let you know, I laugh at the messages you leave because I've never heard someone threaten me via voicemail.  "If I were you, I would be very scared. And if you do not return my call, I can only wish you the best of luck."  Wow, really?!  If you are required to make outbound phone calls to people who owe you money, don't you think kindness and courtesy would be the desired way to do get them to work with you?  Besides, there's something to be said for customer service, which you are far from displaying. I have an example for you of a poor customer service agent from your company and I would like to file a complaint against her along with all the other agents who have called me. 

Me:  "Hello?"
Rude Agent #57: "Yes, may I speak with _______?"
Me: "She no longer works here."
Rude Agent #57: "Ok, well do you have a number I can reach her at?"
Me: "No I don't.  And will you please stop calling me trying to reach her, because she DOESN'T WORK HERE ANYMORE."
Rude Agent #57: "I can't do anything about that. And if you won't give me the information I'm looking for, then I won't do anything for you."
{insert utter disbelief and shock from being spoken to like this by a complete stranger}
Me:  "Wow."
{hang up on Rude Agent #57}

You see my frustration? You are impossible to work with, and I refuse to answer your phone calls to try to help you anymore.  In the future, I will only allow you to leave threatening messages that I will laugh at and discard.

Cordially,
Ticked-off Debt-free Citizen



Side note:
After letting one of my coworkers hear the messages they leave, he said, "Oh ya, I remember the days of collection calls.  Haha...they don't leave you alone until you pay, that's for sure." 
{insert more disbelief and shock from hearing that this is a somewhat common occurrence for people my age}

Really, though.  I get calls from the same 3 collection companies at least twice each week and have been since I started in my position...6 months ago.  How long does it take to get her name off your list?!

I'm fed up with these people.

Weeds

Weeds

Oh, how thou groweth too well,
And plagueth us into a spell
Where we can’t sustain
Your lives, nor maintain
A yard in which we love to dwell.

We wisheth thou wouldst die.

Not mundane, right?

This blog has unfortunately become the typical New Year’s Resolution which starts off great but then slowly gets forgotten or abandoned because the ‘newness’ and excitement wears off. This same thing happens to my journals. I’m great at writing consistently for a few weeks, but then there seems to be nothing new to write about and so the writing dwindles into nothing.

I didn’t plan for this to happen. I had big plans for this blog, even including the turn-your-blog-into-a-book idea. I don’t know how to fix this problem either, but I thought I would start trying to see the things I do not as mundane, but rather interesting and worth my time spent putting them into words.

It may take some time, considering we have the same schedule every day: wake up, go to work, go home, and go to bed. I know that has ‘Super Exciting!’ written all over it, but I’m grateful we do that every day because it means that we can think and act for ourselves, and we have jobs and a roof over our heads.

The posts that follow will hopefully be worth reading. We plan on posting about probably less-than-exciting yet valuable adventures, opinions, and thoughts.

I shouldn't be able to....

…see my breath when I’m getting ready in the morning. Yet this is what happens when the heater is broken.



You may be thinking, “It’s Arizona! It doesn’t get cold there!” Au contraire! We may not get snowstorms, or little blizzards, or even swirling snowflakes, but we do get temperatures below 40 degrees. That means it is cold inside the house regardless of the clear skies outside.

Because of the lack of heat, Will and I have a newfound appreciation for blankets, hot chocolate, and cuddling. (Oh, and the thermals that we never thought we’d use are coming in handy as well :)

 

mmmm!

An Official Notice

It is official: Christmas is my favorite holiday.



I am only now realizing it because the first thing I do when I get home is turn on all my Christmas lights and light my delicious holiday-scented candles and because I can’t seem to turn off FM 99.9 ‘The Holiday Station’ (lest we offend someone by calling it the Christmas station) and because I can’t get enough peppermint hot chocolate from Starbucks and because I made a calendar of all the local concerts or performances that I would love to attend and because I bought an extra string of lights because it was a good deal and I’m sure I will find a place to use them even though I don’t need them and because, when I’m not listening to the radio, I’m humming the last Christmas song that got stuck in my head and because I’m going to sing in the choir since they will be doing Christmas songs for stake conference even though I don’t like singing and because I can watch a myriad of Christmas movies and because I can put ‘For Unto Us A Child Is Born’ on repeat and try to hold back the tears while pretending to conduct Handel’s choir and because I get to cook yummy things with lots of cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves and because I get to go see the lights at the temple whether in Utah or Arizona (both this year!) and because I get to wear small poinsettias in my hair and because I can just sit and play amazing piano arrangements of Christmas songs and....


(inhale)


Anyone else feel the same way about Christmas?

hello

i'm afraid i have fallen deep into the i-have-nothing-noteworthy-to-blog-about trap, and here i sit with nothing noteworthy to write about. still, i find myself needing to post at least something for those who have hinted, prodded, and all-out begged.

in an effort to have something to blog about, i have composed a list of some things i've done since my last post (eh hem, a couple months ago):

• coordinated a blood drive where i reached 167% of my donation goal
• won a raffle and got 2 tickets to the Grand Canyon Railway
• learned how to swim (although i still hate being in the water)
• made my first pizza (whichwasamazingbytheway!!) and delicious desserts like caramel apple cake and lemon pudding cake
• started composing my first hymn arrangement
• successfully ran a candy drive for children at my work for Halloween
• made some new friends and fallen head-over-heels-in-love with my ward
• grew a real bicep that's visible when i flex :)

that's about it these days. oh, and here is my latest haircut:

the polls are in...

well, thanks to everyone for helping us decide the names of our little friends. the polls have come to a conclusion and it's time to name our pets.

our fish will be called Ray*; the frog, Webster.

they are quite the little rascals, especially Webster. he is such a character!

*as a sidenote, we have two more fish to add to our tiny school. they were found a few days ago frantically swimming away from the mama fish in an attempt to not be eaten. after netting them and taking extra care to keep them alive (do you know how much it takes to keep a 1/4'' long animal alive?!), they both are doing well and are about double their size now. their names are Bart & Dart. Bart likes to float comfortably at the bottom of the net while Dart won't stay still for even a moment. we can tell them apart by their coloring. they really are adorable. anyway, the point of this asterisk is that the poll names were chosen based on inaccurate knowledge, and while we have since learned that our fish is a female, we have kept Ray as the name although we understand it is quite masculine :)

New Additions

Well, we've decided it was time to add to our family. Yay for new additions!! Meet our new friends:

-frog-

-fish-

However, we need some help with their names. There are 2 polls on the side of the blog so you can vote for a name. If you have other suggestions, add them as comments to this post. Thanks for your help!

Medical terminology: Doctor & Covenants

We were trying to get through the flashcards as quickly as possible during piano lessons last week when one of my students came across this flashcard and said the most hilarious thing instead of just 'Middle C & D':

"D & C. Oh! Like Doctor & Covenants! Or Covenants & Doctor since it's C & D."

It was the cutest thing I'd heard in a long time. Kids say the darndest things.

*the Doctrine & Covenants is a book of scripture we use in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Our new abode

Here are some pics of my favorite things about my home:

so many cabinets and storage space


our enormous tub


plenty of counter space to cook all i want


7 of these in my kitchen...no more shuffling of the appliances

Mostly I just love my kitchen. It's the best ever.

She's gone nuts

Have you ever been driving, and then all-of-a-sudden you don't know where you are? Or where you're going? Or if you're supposed to go straight or turn? I have. And it's bizarre and freakishly scary. It went something like this:

Will and I are driving along...dee dee dee dee dee...still driving along...and I pull up behind a car to turn right. I have my blinker on, too. It's a long light and the driver ahead is going straight instead of right, so we're chatting. Then the driver ahead starts going.

Next, from me came, "WHERE AM I GOING?! WHY IS MY BLINKER ON? AM I SUPPOSED TO BE TURNING RIGHT?!?!"

Will thought I was kidding, but then learned I wasn't: "Yes, turn. TURN NOW!"

I'm sure I freaked Will out. He probably thought I'd gone nuts. I sure felt like it. I became completely disoriented all at once. I had no clue which direction I was going at all. It was so weird. Anyone else have this happen? Or am I really just losing it?

Phoenix NASCAR Race

Will and I got to go to the NASCAR Race at Phoenix International Raceway! It was quite the experience; we thought we were fans by watching religiously on tv, but by going to the race and feeling, hearing, smelling, and experiencing the race live, we solidified our enjoyment of this sport. Yes, it's that amazing. Here are some pictures of the festivities:

The long walk from the 'parking lot' to the stadium

Don't worry, we got ourselves a 'get-out-of-hell-free' card, so we're safe.


with our favorite driver's car

with my close-second favorite driver's car


fun before the race

the cars that take the drivers around the track before the race. no zoom required, we were really that close.

our favorite driver, THE dale jr.



look closely...you can see the checkered flag.

the bright green strings are earplugs. we wouldn't have made it to the end without them. what a great night!

Will's blog will soon have video footage of the race so you can all see and hear a little bit of what we experienced.

Beer Bellies

Stay tuned to see why I saw my fair share of these this weekend:

gee, thanks

you know your driver's license picture is bad when someone asks if it's really you.

"yes, unfortunately, that's me."

"well, you look much better in real life."

gee, thanks.

A Week in My Life

This week I am embarking on a new project called 'A Week in My Life.' I will be taking pictures of my everyday activities as well as jotting down notes, and then blogging about all of it.

I've seen some pretty cute scrapbook ideas revolving around this idea, but since access to my scrapbook supplies is somewhat limited, I thought I would blog my week instead. You may not even be interested in what I do during the week, but at any rate, it's a fun way to document everyday life. Follow my week at

100 & counting

Although I could probably come up with something cute and clever to say about this 100th post, like 100 reasons why I like blogging, or 100 random facts about Will or me, but I'd rather just say it simply:

"Yay for 100"

Purpose of Mormon Temples

thanks to www.ldsmediatalk.com

Lopsided

This is what happens when one does not think twice before grabbing two shoes and bolting out the door. It's a good thing I got a right and a left ... two lefts don't make a right!

{date night}

what constitutes a fun & cheap date night?

soap carving!

the product

the decision

the 'before'

the 'during'

still during...

the remains

the 'after'

I never thought I'd say this...

... but I miss the snow.


It was 87 degrees here the other day, and it was too hot. I saw a picture of snow on tv and I wanted to be in the snow. I wanted to get out of my car and have to step carefully so as to keep my pants slush-free. I wanted to hike up 200 stairs of ice to get to class at 8am. I wanted to drive 15mph under the speed limit to keep my car from fishtailing. I wanted to book-it out of the laundry room so that my clean laundry didn't get all wet and soggy before I got to my apartment.

Ok, maybe I really don't want all of these things for a whole winter, but I would like to spend a weekend in a snowy part of earth.

The Revenge of the Pinky

The latest news regarding my health can be found here.

Sneak Peek:

the "well" hand