HOLY COW!

January 23, 2009

I don't believe this fog! I just took this shot from the middle of our street about 10 minutes ago. You can't even see the house at the end of the street or the massive mountains behind it! CRAZY! I don't remember the last time it was this foggy! Its been storming lightly for the past couple days which I am really grateful for because that means it will help clear out the horrible inversion that has been going on. I, for one, want it cleared out as soon as possible seeing as how I have been sick with a sinus infection and a sore throat for the past week. I got to see a doctor today and he gave me some antibiotics...YAY! So hopefully between those and the clearer air, IF it actually does clear up!, I will be feeling much better and quite like myself soon enough! :D

In a little reference to catching up, now that I've done so with the past holidays, I thought I would let everyone know a little more about what I've been up to. During the holidays I kept myself busy by working 2 jobs. At times I felt like I was over doing it, but I also felt it was necessary. I worked my normal job at the Holiday Inn Express and in addition I found employment with JCPenney where I worked through the End of November til mid-January. I had a lot of fun at JCP and I truly miss the people I worked with. To this day, I've never worked with such awesome people! They were the ones who made it all bearable when I had to go from job to job without a break in between and then having to deal with crazy last minute Christmas shoppers. They made the insanity less insane and sometimes laughable. As well as working with good people, I kept myself enthused by surrounding myself with good friends whenever it was possible. Even now, when I'm not working at JPC anymore, I am still trying to do that so I can keep my energy and motivation up. Of course lots of caffeine, sugar, and sleep helps out too whenever possible!

Sarah, Lana, and I being goofy as ever!

OH! And another new thing...sort of...I dyed my hair, yet again! Nothing drastic, but I wanted my hair color to be closer to my natural color but for slight edge I put some darker streaks throughout the bottom. I think its fun and I feel a lot more like myself. :D

UpDaTeS!!!

About stinkin' time RIGHT? Geez, where have I been? Someone should have smacked me or something, I've gotten sooo behind! But have no fear...I'm going to make up for it here and now! YES SIR! Are you ready for it? If not, then take a deep breathe cuz here we gooo!:

THANKSGIVING DAY was definitely a lot of fun! We spent the day at Dad's house and had a MASSIVE dinner we all enjoyed. I can't remember the last time I ate so much and it was sooo delicious! Dad DEF did good on the turkey. After din we all hung around, talked, and played with the pooches while we let our grub digest and once we had enough room we scarfed down some yummy pies! Later in the evening we sat down and played a game of 'Apples to Apples.' For anyone who has never played that game, let me tell ya, it is so much fun! We got so into it that we laughed until our sides were sore and we had no more energy left to laugh anymore. SO SO SILLY! What a crazy and amazing day!

Roxy and Darius

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Christmas was crazy as always! We certainly made the most of the entire holiday. The eve of Christmas was with Dad and the night was full of great conversation and entertainment. We munched on some goodies and opened gifts from one another and had some yummy orange soda floats! YUM! Darius-the pup- even got so riled up he tried attacking Kari all the whilst my brother in law and father were tickling her! POOR CHILD! It was quite funny. Sadly enough, my sisters, Angela and Cheryl, and niece, Kenzie, were unable to join us that night due to Ang having the flu :( and Cheryl spent the day with my Mom. The next day, CHRISTMAS DAY ;)...Dad and I saw the movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". WOW what a story! I was mesmerized through the entire film. As amazing as it was, it was also really long! It was at least 2.5 hrs long but overall, I sure liked it. The rest of the day was spent with my mother. Kari, Jordan and I hung out a lil bit at her apt for a couple hours and then made our way over to Angela and Nathan's house where we played a bit of Guitar Hero, ate some more yummy grub (WOW ANG, that spinach/artichoke dip was so GOOD!), and unwrapped more awesome gifts. Just before departing we were taking last min photos to try and captivate the mood of the evening and it swiftly turned into a super silly photo session. First, us girls took some crazy photos and then the boys jumped in and we got some really insane shots! REALLY good keepers! and some to use as blackmail later on. :P Again, Cheryl and Kenzie were unfortunately not with us. They were surely missed but we got to see them soon after at an important event.....(next blog update....)

Dad's Christmas Tree

Dad, Nathan, and Darius

Kari sporting Nathan's boots!

Mom's Christmas Tree

Yours truly at Mom's.

Kari and Jordan

Ang and Nathan

Crazy girls!-Ang, Mom, Me, and Kari

Clockwise from left: Me, Jordan, Nathan, Angela, Mom, and Kari

KENZIE GOT BAPTIZED!
December 27, 2008
It was such an amazing moment and a great experience for Kenzie. I'm so glad and proud of Kenzie for choosing to be baptized. The feeling in the room was astonishing! I even shed some tears...happy tears of course! It was extremely touching and I am so glad I was there to witness it. Nathan, my brother in law and Kenzie's uncle, performed the baptism and gave Kenzie her blessing. He did great and everything went as amazingly as it could have. What a fantastic day! :)

Kenzie and Nathan

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!!
New Years Eve was spent modestly at a friends house where a group of us played a board game while we waited for the ball to drop on the tele and when it did we all raised our cups and bottles of soda and toasted to the new year! :D The following day (New Years Day) Pops took me out to breakfast at Village Inn which was QUITE delightful! Later in the afternoon we spent a few hours at the Living Planet Aquarium in Salt Lake City (well technically Draper) and saw all of the amazing sea creatures. MAN sharks sure are kewl! Scary, but kewl! By the time we finished there it was evening and we were hungry again so we decided to stop at the Red Iguana in SLC which has THE best Mexican food I've EVER had. OH SOOO YUM! Even just thinking about it makes me drool! And for that very reason this is where I will stop for now. Until next time.....;)

Sarah and I on New Years Eve-She's my homie G!

HAAAAPPY BIRTHDAY LANA!

My good friend Lana just had her 21st birthday so, OF COURSE!, we totally had to celebrate! Sarah and I ended up suprising her with a night on the town...and what did we do you may ask? First we got fed and filled ourselves up on yum yum pizza at Sarah's house...can you say...stuffed crust? MMM! The we went to the comedy club WISE GUYS in Ogden where we saw a really talented, and might I add, quite hilarious, comic. His name was Marcus from Salt Lake City and he was actually the runner up on last season's television show The Last Comic Standing....sOOO funny! It was quite a treat seeing him perform. We could barely breathe throughout his entire act...we were practically hyperventilating! For everyone's benefit and so you all can see exactly how funny this guy is I will be posting a video clip of him at the end of this blog so be sure to scroll down and check it out. After leaving the comedy club, we rented a cute movie called 'Yes, Definitely, Maybe' and watched it at Sarah's where we also enjoyed some very delicious cheesecake. Was for sure a very lovely evening and a very funny one at that! :D

Fabulous VaCaS!

Recently I took a trip to Savannah, GA and St. Louis, MO to visit a couple friends for 8 days over Halloween weekend. :D I hadn't been to either place before so it was def an experience! Georgia wasn't QUITE as humid as I expected it to be, but enough that my hair didn't want to cooperate most of the time. :P Nikki, an old friend from highschool was who I went to go see first. I was super excited to see her fam too since I hadn't seen them for sooo long! They pretty much used to be my second family. Halloween night was awesome! Her brother, Dane, spend 2 entire days setting up a gigantic bonfire...literally, the thing was 6 feet tall before we even lit it! And then of course when he DID light it, the thing was MASSIVE! VERY KEWL for all those pyros out there!

After the fire died down and we had all visited for a couple hours we got all dressed up in our costumes and headed to the club for dancing! YAY! If you can't already tell, I was a vampiress! :D

The day after Halloween we went into downtown Savannah and strolled around all the little shops, curbside booths, and restaurants by the riverside and I bought me some OOBER yummy salt water taffy. MMM! Gotta love that stuff!

Then the next day it was OFF to St. Louis to see my close buddy, Ryan! He took me to the St. Louis Gateway arch that was AMAZING! The thing is 630 ft tall making it the tallest national monument in the United States. CRAZY huh? We even got to take a ride up in the oldschool elevators up the very top. What an awesome view. I could have hung out up there all day long!

Next day we went to the Saint Louis Art Museum...now those who know me best will know I thoroughly enjoyed this place. I didn't wanna leave! I even found one of Picasso's pieces, not to mention a few of Monet's and Van Gogh's....GENIUS's! True inspirations to me.

There were even 3 REAL mummies in there as well...I spent a wad of time checking those out too. I love stuff like that...learning about how people used to do things and their beliefs about the afterlife is extremely intriguing to me. The portion of my trip with Ryan was quite short which I was sad about but we def had a lot of fun and made the most out of every moment. Overall....What a great trip! It was really great getting out of town for a week. Really rejuvinated me! :D

FELIZ CUMPLEANOS A SARAH!

A really good friend of mine, Miss Sarah, recently had a birthday so Lana and I decided to grab her up one night and take her out for a night on the town. First, we went to a lil' independently owned pizza place in downtown SLC of which I absolutely LOVE. SOOO DELICIOUS! After we stuffed our bellies full of the two pizzas we shared we headed over to the Gateway Mall and wandered around for a couple hours to make room for dessert. And where did we go for dessert you may ask? Why to the best place for dessert! The CHEESECAKE FACTORY! YUM! WE got one choco brownie and the other a lemon cream with raspberry sauce....they were SOO rich! But we finished those suckers off! To finish the night off we headed back over to Lana's place and played a couple card games...as we are quite addicted to board games and cards n such-we're such nerds, and I love it! :D If you ask me, I'd say the night was fully successful!

BE HEARD!

YES! Its official! I have done my civic duty by getting out and voting...EARLY that is! YES! Tuesday morning my dad and I went to the local library and cast our votes. He did it mostly for convenience, I did it because I will be out of town on election day and I wanted to be sure I got my vote in. It was crazy... the purpose of early voting is so you don't have to wait in long lines on election day but we ended up waiting in line for almost an hour and the line wrapped clear around the library. I'm sure the lines will be a lot worse on the actual day..but STILL! Was good to get it done and out of the way...especially since I feel that this election is an extremely important one. Therefore I strongly urge everyone out there who wasn't planning on voting to do it! Though its too late to get registered...if you are, then do it do it do it!!! Let you're voice be known....anonymously! haha.

Road trip, Bday, Halloween Treats, Autumn, and a Postcard.....

WOWZA its been quite the while since I've updated this thing. SOOO seeing as how I have the day off, I figure this is the time to get caught up! OK...First things first...

IN the end of last month (Sept) Cheryl, Kenzie, and I ventured up to Oregon and Washington for a few days. IT was a short trip...but we def had a lot of fun! The day we left Cheryl ended up driving the entire way up to Portland throughout the night...that's 12 entire hours! How insane is she? But I was truly grateful because I was exhausted. Anywho...we stopped in Portland so we could visit Cheryl's old friend Ninna and all of her ADORABLE kiddos. MAN...I wanted to steal her 2 lil boys! SO ADORABLE! WE went to lunch with them and then went to a nearby park and had quite the time! haha who knew a lil playground could be so much fun!?! Once our visit with Ninna ended Cher, Kenz, and I hauled our buns to a town called Puyallup, in WA. Pronounced Pee-ya'll-up....yeah try saying THAT 10 times fast! The town was near Tacoma and the reason for being there was because we had a hotel reservation for the night. It was sooo nice sleeping in a nice comfy bed that night, rather than the passenger car seat like the previous night! The next day we all spent some time at a Family Fun center that was basically a GIGANTIC arcade and play area for kids and outdoors there were mini golf courses, a few rides and go-karting tracks. We had a ball...as you can see in our wacky pics. Check out all those tickets I won by winning a jackpot in the arcade! Nearly 2,000!



That evening, after stuffing our faces at a nearby Wendy's...lol..we arrived at our Aunt Janice's house in Maple Valley (We stayed with her for the last 2 nights). The next day was my favorite day...we didn't even do very much but we hung out and visited with our Aunt Jan and Uncle Mark and Cousin Megan. Megan has a new pup named Laslo we played with a lot as well as their old lil pup Rambo.


The next day we slept late and headed home...of course Cheryl and I got turned around so our already 12 hr drive ended up being about 15-16 hrs....GAH I thought we were going to DIE because the drive was never ending! But yes, eventually we got home....6am i believe!...and so here we are. Was totally worth the trip...I miss everyone up in WA already!



NEXT!...



My Mother's birthday was September 13th so all of us kids..and the sons in law...and grandkid...lol...got together to take our mom out to dinner and CELEBRATE! WOO! Of course we did this a month later than her actually birthday! haha I felt so bad for doing it so late but everyone is so busy these days and everyone's schedules like to clash but we finally did it! We went to a restaurant in downtown SLC called Z-tejas...mmm! SOO good! Mostly a latin-recipe based restaurant. IT was GREAT seeing everyone! Mom even brought a date....MR. JOE! I don't know his last name...but Joe is a great guy. We all had fun catching up with everyone and goofying off as we always do! And the food was DELISH! I ordered a spanish-versioned macaroni and cheese dish and oh man! I couldn't stop myself! Overall everything was fantastic and I can't wait to get everyone together again! :D





NEXT~~~



I LOVE Halloween! I usually dread this time of year because summer has passed and the weather starts to cool down much more rapidly than I would like...but Halloween time is always so much fun! The other night we came home to see a note on our door and a bowl of halloween goodies! MMM MMM!!! Our neighbors are the best! As you can see we wasted no time in digging in to the stuff...how can you resist rice crispy treats and salt water taffy?!? The note contained two pieces of paper...the first: a picture of a couple ghosts that we're supposed to hang on the outside of our door or in the window, the second: had a cute lil poem giving us instructions to make a present or some treats and deliver them to 2 other houses that do not have ghosts hanging on their door. The point being that we pass on the favor...YAY! I remember doing these kinds of things when we were little and I always loved it! I think my favorite part was that when delivering treats you are supposed to remain unseen so ringing the doorbell and running away quick was quite fun! haha....I don't think I'll ever get sick of stuff like this!

NEXT!~!~



Every year I cannot get used to what happens in the Fall. The trees are always sooo GORGEOUS!!! Look how amazing these leaves are! I took these photos from the rooftop (yes, I got some strange looks from the neighbors...haha!) of the japanese maple we have outfront of our house. I can't believe that a plant can turn such a beautiful color! I'm in awe....haha and I'm a nerd! awe well...i got some beautiful photos...neenerneener~!

And LAST but not LEAST!...



A close friend of mine, Stephanie, recently moved to Boston...LORDY I miss that girl! But we still keep in touch and text every few days. The other day I came home to some mail of mine waiting on the table top and I found a postcard from my Steph! Its such a simple thing but it totally made my day!...of course it made me miss her more, but it made me more appreciative of our friendship. Basically she was telling me about how she isn't used to living on the East Coast and having to deal with the crazy drivers out there. But I thought Utah drivers were bad? hahaha Perhaps those are worse! Hopefully in the near future I'll be able to find a good flight deal and go visit my good friend. Until then, I guess this postcard will have to do. :D