Christmas 2008

Well I can't believe Christmas has come and gone already! Since we spent Thanksgiving at home with family we decided to have a very laid back Christmas. I worked the night before and Ryan surprised me with Christmas breakfast when I got home. We opened a few gifts then took a much needed nap. Later in the day we made Christmas dinner together and learned the consequence of not giving the turkey enough time to defrost :) This is our first Christmas not spent with our families but thanks to my dad, brother, mother in law, and Ryan we all got our webcams up and working and got to see and talk to them. It was very cool and it felt like we were there with them. I highly recommend it to all you out of staters!

We put up a red themed tree in honor of the Utes and went with the "old traditional" look for our $10 real tree

We realize that we are very blessed and lucky to live the lives that we do. We are sure grateful to have loving families and great friends who think of us and spoil us often. We appreciate all the fun cards and thoughtful gifts we've received . We love you guys! Merry Christmas!

Ode to Eddie

As some of you may have heard, our little dwarf hamster Eddie died on the 13th. We had been married about a year and a half and I was dying for a pet so Eddie became our first "baby." I had just had surgery and for some reason felt inclined to name Eddie after my surgeon (don't ask me why, it's a cute name). I remember picking him out and spoiling him with a fun cage and toys. It made me smile everytime he would run up to the cage door to take a peanut from us. We sure love him and although he was with us for a brief time (average hamster life) we enjoyed him and will miss him very much!Sorry for the blurry awful close-up picture but I couldn't resist

Our first family picture

Norris always kept a good eye on his brother


On a brighter note, we had some friends over tonight for a Christmas party. Most everyone in the ward is staying home for the holiday so it's nice to have each other to celebrate with. I'm sure grateful for such awesome friends!

Oh and one more thing. We had a crazy storm yesterday and as you can see from the picture, it dropped more than 6 inches in less than 8 hours! I get really anxious driving in the snow but we had to finish our shopping but good old Elias kept us safe. Poor Ryan though, he ended up digging an old crazy guy's car out on the freeway, helped our neighbor get a new battery, dug out our neighbor's neighbor, and dug my car out of our driveway twice! Love ya hun :)

All I want for Christmas is...

this little goat...


that will live on this little farm with us in Virginia!


Don't worry, we're not moving...yet anyway. I just like to dream. Isn't that goat cute?! Her name is Grace. Oh and the farm, I love it! 6 acres in Virginia with a guest cottage and garage with studio, what more could a girl ask for :) Even Ryan likes it. I've always loved animals and am lucky that I had cool parents who got us the coolest pets and taught us to take care of them. Since we've been in Michigan and "real life" will start soon, I've decided that I want a zoo. Not a farm because I don't want to grow crops, I just want the space to have all my animals. And since we returned from our road trip to Virginia I can't stop thinking about the possibilites. But who knows, we could end up smack dab in the middle of Boston or LA with my luck. Guess we'll just have to wait and see...

I'm Baaack...

finally! I can't believe we've been home for a week and I still haven't posted but we've been busy catching up to real life. We went back to Utah for a nice long Thanksgiving break and had a great time! Both of our families are there, about 30 minutes apart and we were able to spend a lot of great time with both of them. A few highlights were...

*Seeing Twilight opening night
*Enjoying the play at West Jordan High that my brother built the set for
*"bUTEifying Ryan's parents house for the big game...go Utes!!
*Meeting up with friends for lunch
*Getting a workout at my sister's water aerobics class
*Enjoying a photo shoot and the wonders of photoshop with Kelli (I'll post pics soon)
*Of course enjoying 2 Thanksgivings
*Ryan survived Black Friday shopping at Walmart of all places (minus a small battle scar on his nose from fighting for a toy)
*Celebrating my 25th birthday
*Enjoying the lights on temple square and the Sunday broadcast in the Tabernacle
*In honor of my Grandma Ann who always decorated her Christmas tree with red glass ornaments, Ryan helped me decorate the tree above her at the cemetery. I love seeing the sun shine on the red ball, I think it's her smiling. Love you grandma!
*but mostly just lots of great time catching up with our families. We love you guys!

Allow me to vent

All right, this is for you Meg to add to your anti-"my life is perfect look at my pretty blog" collection. I had a bad night at work. Is it possible to love and hate your job at the same time? I love being a nurse. I love medicine. But what has happened to our society? When did we breed the attitude of "entitlement." Some nights we're never fast enough, never babying our whiny patients enough, never enough. I am a nurse. I am not a waitress, you are not in a hotel or a restaurant.
Sunday night was the first night with decent snow on the roads and we had 1 accident that sent 9 people to the hospital, and more than one of them lost their life. At the same time, I had a patient truly say to me, "It's not my fault the weather is sh***y and you all get 9 traumas, I should not have to wait!" Really? Is that where we are as humans? Now I am just frustrated and clearly know that that represents a small population but really, it's ridiculous.
Okay, I'm done venting. Like I said, I love my job and wouldn't trade it for anything but this has just been one of those nights that wears me down and it helps to write it out. Thanks for reading my rambling. I promise more positive posts will follow soon :)

Couldn't help myself

My buddy Karly posted this on her blog and I couldn't resist, thanks Karly! Be sure and pause my music first before starting the video. Enjoy (especially you Nancy, love ya)!

The product of leaving two naughty dogs unattended

Norris surveying his work

The culprits, don't let those pretty faces fool youOkay, how can I be mad at faces like this? They have their mommy wrapped around their little finger...

I love visits!

So my friend Stephanie came for a visit this weekend! We worked together in the ER at St. Marks in Utah and I just love her! She got me this awesome chocolate strawberry boquet on my last day
She was out visiting family in Ann Arbor and I stole her for a few days. It was so fun to hang out with an old friend (or any girl for that matter) and catch up and participate in my favoite passtime, shopping. When we were looking at buying our house I remember showing her the pictures and we always joked that our guest room would be her room and sure enough, she was our first friend who said she would come visit and really did. Anyway, we loved having her and hope to see her again next summer, love ya Steph!

Halloween

Today was one of the most beautiful, warm Halloween's I can remember! It must have been close to 60 today and was a picturesqe fall day making the spirit of the day even more fun.
This is the last tree in our yard to change colors and I love it
We were lucky to have the Latunski's as our first trick or treaters of the night. I work with Troy and Rachel and they rock!
We were starting to worry that our little Eve wasn't going to make an appearance but she did, as one angry ladybug :)

Our attempt at a family picture, I love Norris's head!Ohh, mommy's little angel and devil :)
I didn't go all out this year to Ryan's delight but I love any excuse to decorate
Happy Halloween!

Saturday Recap

Wow, so yesterday had to be the longest Saturday we've ever had. A 20 hour day is a long day, which also makes for a long post (sorry)...oh and sorry for the blurry pictures, I guess it's time for a new camera.

So we woke up at 5am and drove to the Detroit temple for an 8am appointment with the youth to do baptisms. Ryan and I stayed after for the 10am session. I had a feeling it might be a tough one for me since it was the first time I'd been to the temple since my Grandma passed away and I was right. I've missed her so much lately and it must just be reality setting in but I think she was there with me. I kept thinking about the day I met my grandma and grandpa in Orem to pick out my temple dress. My Grandma helped me look through everything to find the right one and my Grandpa waited patiently then gave his smiling approval. I can still hear my Grandma touching the dress and saying "Ohhh Stephie, it's perfect." (Pause, gotta gain composure). Anyway, they were so happy to buy that special dress for me and it means so much to me. I remembered the night I went through the temple and looking at the row behind me and seeing my Grandma smile then getting a big hug from her after the session. I think the temple will be an even more special place now.

Okay, back to the day. After the temple we grabbed lunch at Ryan's favorite place, Chili's. Then we burned time at the biggest mall in Michigan in Auburn Hills. We walked the whole thing with the other million people and stopped in a giant outdoors store. It was really cool until I figured out that all of those cute little animals all over the store were REAL! I guess I'm not a fan of taxidermied animals, some of them were so young...


My new favorite store however is Neimen Marcus. This was the outlet version and we still couldn't afford anything but they had a furniture section to die for! I guess we've seen them in Vegas and on Rodeo Drive but it was fun to see labels like Prada and Dolce & Gabana.
After the mall we caught a movie. It was Ryan's choice and we saw Max Payne. Not good! Very slow and dark and pretty much destroyed any reverent spirit we had going for the day :)

So after the movie we explored downtown Detroit to burn time before the So You Think You Can Dance concert. It was kind of creepy, the streets of Detroit were empty, so empty we wondered if there was an evacuation or something. There were a lot of abandoned buildings but a few old ones with beautiful architecture further downtown.The bridge to Canada

A cute couple taking wedding pictures under the giant severed arm...still don't know what thats all about
Then we finally made it to the concert. It was in the hockey arena where the Red Wings play and our seats were great. We had 14th row which I thought meant 14th from the stage but they filled the floor of the arena with about 50 rows in front of the stage. I think our seats were better though because we didn't have to look over people. Anyway, it was fun to see all the dances again, especially for the 40 year old couch potato man next to us and the screeching 14 year old girls behind us :)


We finally got home at 1am and found a package from Ryan's family. They sent a copy of my Grandma's obituary and an angel to hang on our tree this year to remember her. It was SO thoughtful and certainly brought tears to my eyes once again. Thank you so much guys!!

Whew, what a day. I wouldn't want to be that busy every week but it's fun to break up the monotony of school and work. Plus to top it all off, Michigan State beat the University of Michigan for the 1st time in 7 years! Sounds like another BYU/Utah :)

Friends + Fall = Fun!

Is that the lamest title you've ever heard :) I had to throw it out there. So this is super late but a few weeks ago we went with some friends to the must hit fall Michigan attraction, Uncle John's Cider Mill. It was cool I guess but I had a better time just hanging out with our friends :) So to go along with the lame post title, here is the lame pumpkin patch picture. I will try to remember that pictures directly facing the sun are not the best idea :) I'm pretty sure Ryan is physically incapable of not squinting during a picture...
And the rivalry is on...3000 miles away!
Couldn't resist Ryan holding Porter
Some of our "Michigan family"

For all you hockey moms and joe six packs out there

So True

Excerpts from a Dog's diary:
8:00 am - OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
9:30 am - OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
9:40 am - OH BOY! A WALK! MY FAVORITE!
10:30 am - OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!
11:30 am - OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
12:00 noon - OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
1:00 PM - OH BOY! THE YARD! MY FAVORITE!
1:30 PM - ooooooo. bath. bummer.
4:00 PM - OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!
5:00 PM - OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!
5:30 PM - OH BOY! MOM! MY FAVORITE!

Excerpts from a Cat's diary
DAY 752 - My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre
little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh
meat, while I am forced to eat dry cereal. The only
thing that keeps me going is the hope of escape, and
the mild satisfaction I get from ruining the
occasional piece of furniture. Tomorrow I may eat
another house plant.

DAY 761 - Today my attempt to kill my captors by
weaving around their feet while they were walking
almost succeeded, must try this at the top of the
stairs. In an attempt to disgust and repulse these
vile oppressors, I once again induced myself to vomit
on their favorite chair...must try this on their bed.

DAY 765 - Decapitated a mouse and brought them the
headless body, in attempt to make them aware of what I
am capable of, and to try to strike fear into their
hearts. They only cooed and condescended about what a
good little cat I was...Hmmm. Not working according to
plan.

DAY 768 - I am finally aware of how sadistic they are.
For no good reason I was chosen for the water torture.
This time however it included a burning foamy chemical
called "shampoo." What sick minds could invent such a
liquid? My only consolation is the piece of thumb
still stuck between my teeth.

DAY 771 - There was some sort of gathering of their
accomplices. I was placed in solitary throughout the
event. However, I could hear the noise. More
importantly I overheard that my confinement was due to
MY power of "allergies." Must learn what this is and
how to use it to my advantage.

DAY 774 - I am convinced the other captives are
flunkies and maybe snitches. The dog is routinely
released and seems more than happy to return. He is
obviously a half-wit. The bird on the other hand has
got to be an informant, and speaks with them
regularly. I am certain he reports my every move. Due
to his current placement in the metal room his safety
is assured. But I can wait; it is only a matter of
time......

Blog Help

Hey all you creative gals out there, I need some help. Maybe I am doing something wrong but when I try to add our family name at the top of my "welcome picture" it shifts that picture all the way to the left no matter which words I use. Anybody else have this problem?
P.S. Who's excited for another political debate tonight? j/k, ok maybe I am a little excited...

Feelin' the Fever!

The UTAH football fever that is! It's 12:30 in the morning and we just finished watching the game, what a game it was! Definitely worth staying up late for. During the last quarter of the game when they were talking about the wind picking up just right for Utah, Ryan made the comment that "President Hinkley must be cheering extra hard for the utes tonight." I thought that was quite appropriate :) And then at the end when Johnson tied the game we cheered so loud that Norris (who had been sleeping upstairs) ran downstairs to see what the ruckus was all about. What a fun season this has been, we are counting the days until we are home to cheer on the Utes as they crush the Cougars!
Ryan has really gotten into the team spirit this year. He latest goal is to learn the Utah school song which he has been practicing daily. He even added the music as his ringtone :)
Oh and to top off a lovely evening we quite enjoyed the Vice Presidential debate. Can I just say, I Love Joe Biden! Ryan and I were the biggest Romney supporters but Obama was a close second so now our loyalty is for team Barak. (By the way, I know some people are sensistive about talking openly about political matters, and while I am no political expert by any means, I feel like we shouldn't be afraid to share our thoughts and opinions- no matter how liberal they may be :) Anyway, I thought the best part came after Palin (who is a fine lady) pointed out yet again that she is a mother and because of that can connect with the average American. I am so glad that Biden made the comment that even though he isn't a mother he still knows what it's like to be a single parent after his wife and child were killed in an accident and to wonder if his other kids would make it. Way to go Joe Biden! I grew up with a stay at home Dad and feel strongly that men should get just as much respect as women do for being parents. We're in this together right?
Whewww, okay I'm done with my ranting and soap-boxing. It's going to be an exciting next couple of months between football and politics, that's for sure :)