A Day in the Life...

Good Bye Teal Car You Will Be Missed

2011-01-12T20:04:00.005-07:00

So I finally said goodbye to my faithful teal '99 Toyota Corolla. He had 185000 happy memory miles on him. I will miss him... a moment of silence please.........
Ok now on to my new (well new to me) 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid... He is a dark blue/gray color on the exterior. And 3 toned interior, tan/grey/blue. The pictures I posted are off of Edmunds because I didn't want to take pictures of my car because its all dirty from the salt and snow. But it looks just like the pictures with a few minor scraps on the paint. But I love this car, it has Navigation, granted the map is from 2006 so my house doesn't exactly show up on the map, but it works for now. If anyone has an updated map version they would like to let me have, let me know. But I love it, it runs amazing and I am currently getting 45mpg for this tank of gas. I plan on trying to get closer to 50 as I learn to adjust my driving style for the hybrid. But I just thought I would tell you the exciting things in my life.

I Hate Humidity

2010-07-01T14:06:00.005-06:00

We just went on a fantabulous trip to Missouri and Nauvoo. It was really fun, after the 20 hour drive of course. We got to St. Louis at about 1AM on Thursday. We slept for a few hours and then got all dressed up (some of us more than others) to go into the city and see Wicked. The best musical, definitely on the top of my list with Les Mis and Phantom. I love this play. It was a fantastic performance too. Brandon, Michaelene, and Robert had not seen it before and I was excited for them to see it. They all loved it and I was perfectly happy to see it again. I thought that the guy who played the Wizard when I saw it in LA was better, but overall still really good.

Us Oustide the Fabulous Fox Theater

Oh BTW I hate humidity. I don't know how people stand to live there. Don't get me wrong, my skin loved it, but every time I would walk outside it was like walking into a wall of water. And my hair hated it. I didn't even try to do it the whole trip (as you can tell from my pics). Anyway back to my story, while in the city we stopped by the St. Louis Arch. Really big and cool. I wish we could have gone up to the top, but we didn't. But we did walk underneath the arch (not as cool) and see the Mississippi River for the first time (big river). The St. Louis Arch

Then we headed back out of the city to Robert's brother's house. After spending the evening getting to know Robert's brother and sister in law and their kids we went to sleep so that we could wake up and drive to Nauvoo on Friday. We got to Nauvoo which is about a 4 hour drive from St. Louis and went around to all the different shops and learned about the different houses that people from our history had lived in and left. We got to see Joseph, Emma and Hyrum's graves, which was actually really cool. It was too bad that they are on the Community of Christ Church's side. I think it was the only place that I could feel the spirit at all while we were on their side of Nauvoo. But we eventually made our way over to the LDS side and enjoyed ourselves; except for the fact that the temperature was around 109 degrees with 70% humidity (just shoot me). I did end up getting my Nauvoo brick though.

The Brick Place

But we ended up going to the shows that they put on when the sun goes down. They had the Young Ambassadors from BYU performing and they were really good. It was too bad that a storm started rolling in just as they started their Wicked medley. They started singing Defying Gravity and the wind was blowing her cape and the lightning was flashing behind her as she is doing the final part of the song that is so dramatic. The thunder is booming through the sound system and I'm thinking wow they have great effects. She's almost done and one of the leaders of the Nauvoo Mission comes out and stands right in front of her with a mic and she keeps going, until they suddenly stop the music while she is in the middle of singing and the poor thing just collapses because she's laughing so hard. I felt so bad that they stopped her. She had like two more lines. Lame! Anyway they stop the show and send everyone on their way because they have a severe storm warning in effect. And we are planning on camping, LOL right. Luckily Robert's parents were also staying in Nauvoo that night and they had a hotel room that they graciously let us stay on the floor of, so that we didn't get poured on. Now I will give that part of the country this...they have THE most incredible storms. Brandon and I sat outside and watched the lightning for awhile, we came in just before the downpour started. The storm went on strong for hours. In the morning it was its usual muggy self outside. So we went and did a sealing session at the Nauvoo Temple, which was really cool, we kind of felt like it was appropriate since before the saints left they did a bunch of sealings. We decided not to reenact the scene too fully, we omitted setting fire to the temple, we thought it was best to leave that part out.

Beautiful Nauvoo Temple

So we left Nauvoo and headed back to Missouri for the Cardinals game. Now I'm a sports fan, I enjoy basketball, football, I would even watch a soccer game, but baseball... not so much.

Busch Stadium, Home of the St. Louis Cardinals

(that's Robert's Dad and Brother in the Pic with us)

Everyone kept telling me "Oh its so different to go to a major league game." No its not. Nothing exciting happened for the first 5 innings. I was actually hoping that it would get rained out. So much for that. It cleared up just in time for the game to start, yeah. But the Cardinals ended up winning the game, they had 1 home run which was exciting and that's about it. Its official I really don't like baseball. Sorry America.

Cool Shot from inside the Stadium

So the next day was Sunday (Happy Father's Day!!) and we did stuff with Robert's family and I was so jealous of Michaelene, she got to fly home because she had a photo shoot to do on Monday, and she left the 20 hour drive home to us. But I'm getting ahead of myself, on Sunday we hung out and ate dinner with Robert's family and I was introduced to the game of D&D. I must say that the story isn't half bad (I guess that would depend on the people that are playing) but I wouldn't want to be a character in the game again. I didn't know what to do and ended up killing my own allies in the battle. So I think its the sidelines for me next time the dice are brought out. Then the next morning we woke up at 6AM and drove home. It was a long and uneventful ride, we got home around 2AM. And that sums up my first trip to Missouri and Nauvoo. Hopefully I'll be able to post something again soon. Loves until next time.

Finally Something Exciting

2010-05-08T13:27:00.002-06:00

So here are the long awaited pictures and story of my trip to California in March.

So Brandon and I and the whole crew went to California. We went up to see the horse races. His dad had a horse racing that day. So we met the horse and had some fun watching the races.

Best Apple Juice in the World

Nice Horsey

The next day we went to the beach, which was kind of cold because it was March. I probably would have been ok with it if it hadn't been windy.

Sitting at the Beach. Wow I need a tan.

The next few days we spent at Disneyland and California Adventure. And thanks to our friend Michael, we had lots of fun. Michael works for Disney and so can tell us all the best spots to eat and all the fun facts about Disneyland which can help keep you entertained while standing in line.

They are totally redoing Tom Saywers Island and California Adventure. A brand new water show to watch in California Adventure. They are taking down almost everything to do with California and making it more Disney. Some new rides that will be opening soon, and a whole bunch more awesomeness. I'm not too excited about them redoing California Adventure, but what do you do.

So the funniest part of the whole trip was when we were walking aross the main cross roads to all the different lands of the park, and all of the sudden I hear whoosh and then Brandon screams "OWW" and drops my hand and I duck just in time to see this dark object fly over my head. I look back and Brandon is holding the back of his head looking like he had just had a baseball hit him smack in the head. I look and see the dark object land. Brandon was hit by a duck. How funny is that? I still laugh when I think about it. I asked him if he had a "duck egg" on his head...ha ha ha. I thought it was funny.

Sorry I don't have a better story. I should have written this right after I came back. But anyway here are some pictures from the trip. We had fun and I'll try to get some from my trip in June up sooner than these.

The Yard Progresses

2009-09-14T17:33:00.005-06:00

Ok so we are finally done with our part of the yard. It is now time to call in the professionals for some help. We did all the stuff for the hardscape, moving the dirt and rocks around and making the base for everything that will be pretty when we are done. I don't have any pictures of the after, but I have some of the before. I would just go out and take some now, but its raining pretty hard and I'm am sick of getting rained on today. So I'll post the after pictures at a later date and tell you what everything is. But we should have the guy here for our water feature and sprinkler system next week. That will be awesome, because then we can plant the grass and start seeing the whole thing come together. But anyway as I said here are the before pictures and I'll get up our current progress pictures as soon as it stops raining.

These are just some shots of our trees that we cut down and sold for firewood. Some of these weeds were seriously 8-9 feet tall. They were beasts. And then we have a mound of dirt in our backyard that became our water feature. So check back for updates.

My Summer

2009-09-05T00:29:00.005-06:00

Ok so I haven't posted for awhile as I have been reminded by quite a few of you lately, so here is a quick sum up of my summer.
June was pretty much boring, work, sleep, work, and then sleep again. But July we had some fun.

For the 4th we ended up taking trip with Brandon's family to Jackson Hole, WY (not to be confused with Jackson Hole, MN) We drive up there and start looking for our campsite that Michaelene booked for us and can't find the highway that the map says that the site is by. So we stop to ask a local and they tell us that they are search and rescue for the area and have no idea where that highway is, it doesn't exist. So we call the campsite and find that they are in Minnesota. Go figure that there would be a Jackson Hole by a Snake River in MN. So the nice local directs us up a nearby canyon to camp for the weekend. This property is part of the National Forest and is free to camp on, just don't bother the cows that pasture there. So we made our way to cow pie heaven where we set up camp and gathered wood for the fire.

Our very own tent

It was getting dark by the time we got there and went right to bed. Now, I'm not a huge fan of camping in the first place, but this was really roughing it. I at least expect restrooms when I go camping so I don't have to squat over a bush, but I guess that is too much to ask for when you just show up without a camping spot reserved. Needless to say I basically dehydrated myself for most of the trip so that I wouldn't have to find my favorite tree. But anyway, the next morning we woke up and went to pick up our raft, which thankfully was in the right state. This was my first time down a river in a raft, but I decided that I would have a good attitude and I wouldn't chicken out.

Getting ready for what turns out to be a long day

So we get in the raft, its a little chilly, but not too bad, as long as we don't get wet. We were doing pretty good, until we hit our first patch of bigger rapids. We hit them sideways and dumped half the people out of the raft. After getting Makenna, Wendi, Monette, and Patrick back in the boat we went to get Robert, but it turns out the Robert is about 100 feet down the river so we have to chase after him and he makes a superman leap from shore to get back in the raft. Now that we are all soaked and shaken we continue down the river because we have no choice. I'm now at the front of the raft and every wave we hit comes crashing into the boat and soaking me. But we are doing pretty well. Then we come upon Lunch Counter. The biggest swell on the river. The swells were 11-12 feet. And we were terrified, we had tipped on much less. But we went for it head on. I was freaked out, but totally having fun, which you wouldn't believe from the pictures that were taken. In the end we totally hit it perfect and went down the rest of the river without problem.

Lunch Counter on one of the more happy trips down

By the time I got out I was soaked. It looked like I had fallen in, but it was all just the water splashing in the boat. We went down twice more without incident and I was completely soaked everytime. It was awesome and I can't wait to go again. The next day we went into town and walked around all the shops and made friends with the stuffed animals.

Let me get that for you

Meoww

The next day was the 4th and we drove home. Brandon and I made it to sit outside Stadium of Fire to listen to SheDaisy and the Jonas Brothers. They were both awesome. But that was pretty much my 4th.

The 24th we ended up getting tickets and taking Stephan and Jo up to Kamas to have the Best Burgers in the State 2009 at the Drug Store, then we headed over to the Demolition Derby to be a little red neck and cheer as cars crashed and fires erupted.

Having fun at the derby

This is THE best derby in the state. I know it sounds really stupid, but we all had a lot of fun. And I hope we do it every year.

CRASH!!

But I guess that was my summer so far. August was spent working on my yard that I will post some pictures of in the next few days. Hope this post appeases you all for a few days.

My Babies

2009-05-22T18:08:00.006-06:00

As I sit here on a Friday night, my husband playing with his "home projects" and wondering what I am going to do with myself, I decided I had two options; help him or write on my blog. Obviously the later won out, cause here I am. I don't know what to really write about because we haven't done much exciting except work for the past couple of weeks. So I decided to write about my babies. As most of you should know I don't have actual human babies yet, but I decided that my dog and cat were close enough. And I'm bored so bare with me while I procrastinate actually going and helping Brandon finish "projects."

So lets start with the oldest shall we?? Mia, she's our dog for those who don't know. She will be 9 years old this July. She was the puppy of my family dog Trixie. She was born under the couch while I was at work one evening. My grandma was none too happy to find our dog giving birth on her carpet. I immediately fell in love with the little brown and white spotted puppy. She was just too cute, she fit right in the palm of my hand. Long story short I convinced my grandma to let me keep her. Mia is a very anti-social dog for whatever reason, but she is your best friend as long as you have food and play with her and her toy. She'll eat almost anything. Most recently we have discovered that she enjoys grapes, carrots, and lettuce. She loves playing with her squeaky toy with currently has a broken squeaker, but she doesn't seem to mind. She also has many talents such as; playing dead, rolling over, shaking hands, begging, and my personal favorite "who's a snob." She also enjoys "playing" with our other baby, Roxy.

Mia loves her Hippo

"Who's a Snob?"

Now Roxy is our cat. She is currently 3 years old. She doesn't like doing much of anything but laying around the house, oh and playing with the feather toy that we bought her. She plays fetch better than Mia. She dislikes the dog immensly, probably because Mia tried to eat her when we first brought her home. But they do seem to tolerate each other for the most part. She hates to cuddle and if she is to be pet, it is on her terms. I've had a hard time convincing her when we moved to our new house that its ok to not hide under the chair all day long, that she won't get locked in the basement, and that eating is a good thing. But I think she's finally getting it after 2 months of living here.

Roxy, the Great Escape Artist

She is ready for her close up!

I'm sure this was a very exciting blog for most, but it gave me a reason not to work on the stupid low voltage panel in the basement. But I guess that's all I really have to say about that. Check back next time for a hopefully more exciting story.

Anni-Vegas-ary

2009-04-22T10:06:00.004-06:00

So as you may or may not know Brandon and I celebrated our first anniversary last Friday. We spent most of the actual day working, so we didn't end up eating at all until 9:30 that night. Pretty much the same story on Saturday, but Sunday after church we packed our bags and headed to Vegas for a couple of days. It was so nice and warm I think it was above 80 degrees everyday. Sunday we didn't do much because we got there late and it was Sunday. We ate some dinner and just walked the strip and through some of the shops. We stopped at the Belagio and saw there gardens and the fountains. At the Belagio

We were pretty much exhausted and went to our hotel room at the Luxor. The next day we went to buy tickets at the half price ticket place by the M&M factory. We bought tickets for the Tournament of Kings and Mystere. We decided to go and lay by the pool during the day to maybe get some color in our albino skin. Luckily we had some sunscreen or we would have come back as lobsters. After a couple of hours of sun bathing we went back to the room to get ready for the night. The Tournament of Kings was of course awesome.

At the Tournament of Kings (Our King Won)

We met a lady that owned a McDonalds in Pennsylvania and they were apparently having a world conference there in Vegas. We went to our next show which was interesting. If you haven't heard of it, its a Cirque Du Solie show. Once I realized there was really no story, I just started enjoying the acrobatics, and the comedy acts in between the performances. On our way back to the hotel that night we saw a motorcyclist, but the odd part of this was the dog perched on the front of the bike enjoying the ride and barking at people.

I am getting Mia that Helmet and Sunglasses

It was pretty funny. The next day we checked out of the hotel and headed home. That's pretty much the weekend. We had fun and having a weekend away was well welcome. Hopefully we will do something else fun that I can blog about soon.

We Passed the Final

2009-03-31T21:29:00.004-06:00

So we passed our final inspection on Monday and we have been cleaning house ever since. We should be closing sometime this week, but the inspector said we could move in whenever we wanted to so moving day is Thursday. We are so excited to be done and moving into our own place. It looks awesome and we are so happy with it. We are having a house warming party in May and would love to have everyone come down and hang out and see the house. So if you want to come send me your address on facebook and I will send out invites. We just want to have a fun party and hang with our friends and family that have been neglected during the building process. But here are a few pics of the finished product.

Living Room

Hallway and Stairs

Kitchen (with awesome lighting)

Master Bedroom from Bath

The Building Progresses

2009-03-20T22:38:00.003-06:00

Ok I just wanted to give you a quick update. We now have carpet and our kitchen is put together. I feel like the fridge is massive, but maybe I just need to get used to it. We put our mirrors up as well. We took small 12x12 mirrors and put them together to make a couple of larger ones. I think they turned out pretty good. We just need to put up some light switches, patch some minor holes in the drywall and finish up the huge amount of low voltage that we have left to do. I'm so excited for this to be done so I can go and sleep there instead of work there. We are hopeing to be done next week. That would be awesome, and then we throw our House Warming Party, which everyone is invited to. So I will let you all know. Here are some new pics that I took today. That's all for now, cause I'm exhausted.

Our Deck/Backyard

Master Bath/Our Mirror

Living Room Carpet and Fireplace

The Painting never ends...

2009-03-15T21:42:00.003-06:00

Ok the painting did finally end, except for the fact that I walk around the house and still see spots that I would like to fix, but that is for another day. For today I am done with painting, the cabinets are in, the countertops are on, and we have hung most of the light fixtures. We'll see how well it all goes together. We have the carpet going in tomorrow, and the tile should be finished up soon. I'm so excited to be done with everything. I want it to be finished so so so bad. I don't know if I can ever stand building another house. This has been so much work. I had no idea what kind of effort went into building a house. But as I promised, what a week or more ago, here are some recent pics of the place. We got a killer deal on our granite countertops. Our bathroom counters are remnants that cost us a bunch less, so they don't match our kitchen, but we feel its an ok thing, because they rock! I can't wait for it to be done and show it off to everyone. Well here are the pictures that I promised.

Master Bath Vanity

Hall Bath Vanity

Kitchen

Cooktop

More House Stuff

2009-02-24T21:40:00.003-07:00

Ok, so I haven't taken many pictures of the house lately, but it is still coming along. We actually have texture on the walls now and we are going to start painting this week. The finish carpentry guy is coming in this week as well. So its going to be way fun. The cabinets should be in next week, and then they come to measure a template for the countertops. We are also currently having our tile layed. I don't have pics of that yet, but I promise I will get some when he is all done laying. He is also going to start on the tub and shower surrounds and doing the wall around the fireplace. I love seeing color in the house. I am getting really sick of white. We are also getting the stucco on the outside of the house. They finished the brick last week, and put up the garage doors as well. So its coming along, we are slowly doing what we can to finish up the electrical and all of our fancy low voltage stuff. I will take some pics tomorrow and add them to this post. But here are what I have so far.

The Master Bedroom

Our Fireplace

The Kitchen

The Brick

Update on House

2009-02-06T13:04:00.008-07:00

Hi All!! Sorry its been a couple weeks since I updated. I've been doing the wiring in my house over the past couple of weeks. But it is finally done. The roof is almost done and they are putting up the drywall as I type. I realized that I didn't tell you were I was building in my last post. We are building in Lehi, a Patterson Construction Subdivision called Willow Brook. Its just off Main Street and 1700 West in Lehi. Its awesome we are the only house on our street right now. Anyway as I was saying we finished up the wiring in our house today. I think it may be the most wired house for its size in the state of Utah. I have never seen so much wire in one place. We have places (4 I think) for Plasma TVs on the walls for our pictures. They will be hooked to computers so that we can just have a slide show going on. We have our multi-room sound system that also links outside to our covered deck. This sound system is also hooked into the security so that when the door bell rings the camera by the front door will turn on and show who is at the door on every color keypad in the house. There are 4 keypads in the house. I can also put a camera in one of the bedrooms so that when we have a baby I can check in on baby from anywhere in the house. I think that rocks. Anyway I guess that is all the updates for now. I'll take pictures as they sheet rock and get some more stuff done and post. Hope to hear from you all soon.

Our House is a Very Very Very Fine House (Sorry couldn't resist)

2009-01-18T18:51:00.007-07:00

So as some of you may know we decided to build a house. It all happened kind of suddenly. We went to our good friends at Patterson Construction and they decided to help us out with our goal. We looked at floor plans and found one that we really liked (pictured below)and then decided where we wanted to live. We found a sub-division that wasn't too far out there and the lots weren't too expensive. Turns out that they already had the foundation of the house we wanted poured in that location. So a week after we went in to talk about building a house we had a floor. Luckily it has been great weather and they have been able to work everyday and now after a week of actually working we have walls!! In the picture I am standing in the master bedroom. It looks like they are starting to put the roof on Monday and will have it done by the end of the week. I will keep you posted at least once a week. Lots to do so I will do my best.

Big News!!!

2008-12-17T11:22:00.002-07:00

So I know its been awhile since I have written a new blog, but nothing really exciting has happened until now. So here is my big news. Everyone has been asking me about this since I got married and finally I can say "Yes! We sold my condo!!!" Ok I don't know how many of you thought I was going to say I was pregnant, but sorry, not for a while. But we are very excited to have that little addtion out of our life. I just wanted to let you all know so you can do a mini-celebration for us!! Let's see what else is going on with life? Oh yeah my sister in law got married yesterday, and it was beautiful. I caught a cold from standing outside in the snow taking pictures though. But all in all it was a good day. I guess that is all that is going on in my life right now. Hopefully I will be able to find more stuff to talk about sooner than later.

Our Trip to Big Hat Country

2008-09-18T16:47:00.009-06:00

Brandon and I decided that we were bored so we decided to take a trip down to Texas and see what this whole Hurricane Ike thing was all about. Ok it probably wasn't the best idea to take a vacation to Houston during a hurricane warning, but we had been planning on visiting our friends Coley and Jason down there for months. We didn't have any other time to go, and we figured 'How bad could a hurricane be...?" It was a very interesting vacation. For another side to this adventure please check out Nicole and Jason's blog that is linked to mine. Anyway here is our version. We had a slow start last Wednesday. We planned on leaving around noon, but we didn't get on our way until 9:30pm. Ugh! Anyway we drove down there straight without stopping. We made one stop to eat lunch. We made it to there by 10 pm Houston time. I had a deja vu feeling of being in an alien movie, everyone was on the other side of the freeway evacuating the coastal cities. I felt like a storm chaser. But we arrived safe and sound, a little sleep deprived, but nothing that we couldn't catch up from.

Houston Temple

Playing at the Park

Preparing for Ike

Downtown Houston

So after catching up with our friends we went to bed. When we woke up the next morning they drove us around to see Houston. Turns out everything was closed, but we went to see the Houston Temple and the nice houses around there. Then we went downtown and played in what I think was Memorial Park. Then it started raining and got really windy. So we went back to their apartment and played The Wii and watched the news about the hurricane. Wii Fit is pretty fun, Brandon really enjoyed it, I have a feeling we will be owning that game at some point in time. It was really funny on the news, they had evacuated Galveston Bay, but there were still some people hanging around, trying to surf and stuff, the idiots. But they ended upinterviewing this guy they asked "Why are you still here?" and his response "I am here to feel the elemental energy. Can't you just feel that in the air?" Yeah, I can feel that its called wind and rain and your impending death if you stay there much longer. Dumb, anyway we went to sleep that night and listened to the wind and rain. The power flickered on and off a few times and finally went out around 3 in the morning. We woke up with no electricity and no water. All in all where we were the storm was no worse than a bad Utah wind storm. So we ended up playing card and board games most of the day. Eventually the heat and mugginess got the best of us with no AC so we left to find real food. We had to drive about 30 miles West to find stuff that was open, but we finally did. We had fun spending time with our friends, but that night was one of the worst I have had. It was hot and muggy and gross. Luckily during the middle of the night there was a huge thunder storm.

Be glad you were parked in any of those spots

Flooding of the Bayou

This was what I was expecting from the hurricane, bright lightning, loud thunder, and massive amounts of rain. The best part was the slight breeze that was coming through the open window. I finally fell asleep. The next day we decided it was time to leave Houston. Jason's work sent him to San Antonio so that he could continue working during the clean up efforts of the storm, so we all packed up and went to see San Antonio. Jason's work put him up in a nice extended stay hotel for the week, and so we had AC and a mall across the street.

The Riverwalk

The Alamo

More Riverwalk

The first day we were there we went to see the Alamo and walk the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk was really nice there are nice hotels, shops and restaurants all around. Jason and Coley decided to go a a tour boat ride while Brandon and I decided to walk the river. We stopped to rest on a island which turned out to be Lover's Island. It is a naturally formed heart-shaped island where there is at least one marriage performed a day. We were just sitting there chatting, when he gave me a kiss on the cheek and people on the bridge across from the island started clapping. Um..thanks. Anyway we went back to the hotel for more card games and a good night sleep. Jason had to go to work the next day so Coley came with us to the mall. We got a few new clothes and had some ice cream. Then we were on our way home. Nonstop we made it in 18 hours. Then we crashed on the bed for a couple of hours. But that is our adventure with Ike. He actually had a very small appearance in the whole thing. I'll keep you posted on life happenings.

Welcome to Beaver...

2008-08-15T20:57:00.004-06:00

Brandon and I decided to take a short trip down to St. George to see a play at Tuacahn. We wanted to get away and Les Miserables seemed to be the best way to do that. So after a long 3 days of work we decided to get on the bike. We didn't take Dave this time we are adding a new addition to our family, but its going to be shared custody with Brandon's brother. I don't have a name for our newest bike, but its a Harley Davidson Ultra Classic, so I'm sure I will think of something. Maybe this one is a girl... Classy??? I don't know I'll get back to you, anyhoo back to the story. We have an uneventful trip down to St. George except for the fact that I was freaking on fire!! I thought I was going to burn alive on the bike. But it was a very nice ride, my butt was very comfortable on the seat, and we had radio. This bike had everything but cup holders. We made it the entire 4 hours with only one stop for gas and to get a drink. When we got to St. George we stopped to eat at In-n-Out Burger, very tasty and then went to check into our hotel. The Country Inn and Suites. It was brand new and very very nice. I highly recommend it. So we chill there for an hour or so and head off to our show. Its a beautiful drive out to the amphitheater. We get there and we had paid for dinner so we go to fill our plates with pulled pork, chicken, salad, fruit, rolls, carrots, potatoes, and yummy raspberry lemonade. The biggest problem were the stupid bees!! I think they got mad because I tried to shew them away from the pork I was trying to dish up and so they followed us and harassed us while we tried to eat. I think we moved 4 times outside before we let the bees win and went inside to finish dinner. Finally it was time for the play! We actually had really good seats for a good price. I could actually see the actors spit, crazy! But it was great to actually see Les Miserables the full version, I mean. I had seen the concert version and the movie without any music(boring) so it was nice to see it all together. I thought all the actors were very good. Brandon liked it too, even though I thought he wouldn't with it being a pretty sad story. Leave it to Brandon to make that story happy. I would try out for the part of Eponine if I was going to do that kind of stuff. On a side note, on our way out I saw this really cool waterfall that went all the way down the stairs and through the parking lot. It reminded me of a similar water feature I have seen in down town LA. I think near the tar pits. So it was an uneventful evening and morning. We checked out of our hotel and start heading home. Brandon wanted to stop in Monroe and have lunch/dinner at his favorite place to eat so we decided it would be good to be on our way. I told him that we should probably stop for gas in Cedar City because I didn't think we would make it all the way to Beaver for gas. He decides that he is going to stop just outside Cedar at Summit, but he missed or forgot to take the exit and we ended up drifting off the next exit into Parowan. We pull into the first little community we see to ask for some help to get gas for our now useless bike. There we met Bonnie and Loraine. Nice ladies. Bonnie took Brandon to get some gas while I hung out with Loraine. People have interesting stories. About 10 minutes later we were on our way again. In between the 2 Beaver exits all of the sudden the bike starts fish tailing while we are going 75 on the freeway. Luckily he was able to get us safely to the shoulder and stop the bike with out it tipping over. I was really scared for about 30 secs. Turns out, we have a flat tire. What do we do about a flat tire in the middle of nowhere Utah. Its not like we can just pull out the spare and be on our way. Luckily we had rented to bike for the day to try it out before we buy it, so all we had to do was call Harley and let them know we had a flat tire. Their answer to this... "We will send someone to pick you up." Ok we are down in Beaver and they are in Lindon, 3 hours away!!! What do we do? Start walking down the freeway to the rest stop at the next Beaver exit. Luckily we were not walking long. A nice guy stopped and gave us a ride to the station. He said we didn't look too threatening walking hand in hand down the side of the road. We get there and realize we have 3 hours to occupy ourselves. We realize we left the book we were reading back at the bike. That sucks. Well I guess we are going to take another little walk. We start on our way back to the bike where we are meet by Mr. Highway patrol. So I finally got to ride in a cop car. How cool is that? It was one of the nice Chargers. Very cool. So he takes us to the bike. We grab some stuff, and he drops us off at the Subway to eat fresh. He tells us that he lost 35 pounds by drinking Slimfast and eating Wheathins. Hmmm what an endorsement, maybe I should give it a try. We spend the next few hours in the lobby of the Best Western reading. Finally the guy comes to pick us up. I slept most of the way in the back of the truck. But we finally made it home in one piece, but with no Monroe dinner like Brandon had wanted. So that was our most recent vacation. I'll try to keep you all updated with my interesting stories.

Husband Tag... My First Tag ( so special)

2008-07-28T11:04:00.001-06:00

Ok so Coley tagged me to do this almost a month ago, and I'm sorry but I just found time to read your blog so here it is...

1. What is his name? Brandon Timothy O'Keefe

2. Who eats more? Him, definitely him. I've never seen someone eat so much food and stay so skinny.

3. Who said I love you first? He did, although he slipped a couple times while we were dating, he says he was just thought I was being cute (uh huh).

4. Who is taller? He's got about 6-7 inches on me.

6. Who is more sensitive? I'm pretty sure he is, I'm such a robot!!

7. Who does the laundry? Me, even though I barely have time to do it. It usually gets done every two weeks, as soon as he runs out of clothes and reminds me that he doesn't have as many as I do.

8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do, it feels weird if we switch, he just thinks I'm crazy.

9. Who pays the bills? I pay the utilities and stuff, but he takes care of the rent.

10. Who cooks more? We split that, whoever gets home first usually starts dinner.

11. Who is more stubborn? I am definitely more stubborn. I try not to be annoyingly stubborn, but if I want something bad enough, I will get it.

12. Who is the first to admit they are wrong? We are both pretty good about admitting when we are wrong, but I'm never wrong so there isn't much of an issue. :)

13. Who is more clean? We are probably equal on that. I probably clean up around the house more, but he helps out a lot.

14. Who has more siblings? Brandon wins, 2 brothers 1 sister. 1 sister for me.

15. Who wears the pants in the relationship? He wears the pants, but he will almost always give me what I ask for.

16. What do you like to do together? We usually just stay home and veg after work, watch TV or movies, read a book, but we will go out to eat on occasion.

17.Who eats more sweets? Neither of us have much of a sweet tooth, but probably me.

18. Guilty pleasures? Computers, motorcycles, movies, electronics, video games, and just about anything that will get your adrenaline going.

19. How did you meet? We met through mutual friends at the Ogden Institute.

20. Who proposed? He did, as only Brandon could, the best and most spotlighted way possible.

21. What is his best feature? His eyes are the best thing, the color changes from golden brown to greenish brown, depending on who knows what (I haven't quite figured that out yet) and he has these 3 little flecks of dark brown is his right eye, its pretty cool.

22. What is his greatest quality? That he loves me and wants to make me happy, also that he is so fun loving and acts like a kid sometimes. It makes life fun and interesting.

Now, who to tag?... Amber, Mel, and Bren.

Ah a theater... a lovely theater

2008-07-23T23:53:00.004-06:00

So we took this trip to Cedar City awhile ago, but I am just getting time to blog about it now. I thought life would calm down after the wedding and stuff, turns out...not so much. But anywho here is our trip to Cedar City. It wasn't too eventful. We left Friday around 7 or so (on Dave the bike, of course) and took a "small" detour to Monroe so that we could eat "the best steak on the planet" for dinner. But by the time we get to Monroe the restaurant is closed and Brandon gives them this sob story about driving down from American Fork just to eat their food, so they gave us free cheesecake, which was pretty good. And then we didn't have any cash to tip them, so I felt like scum. Next time we stop by Monroe we promise to tip really well. Anyway we continued on our journey south. Now it was dark and cold. We have both decided that we do not like riding on Dave at night, its very cold and very scary. No more night trips for us, thank you. So we finally arrive at our hotel in Cedar around midnight. Brandon goes to park the bike and unload while I check in. The girl at the counter looks up at me as I walk in and says "Wait a minute while I count the till." Ok no problem, I've counted a till before, it takes what a minute or so...no no this girl is counting going on 5, 10, 15 minutes now to count the stupid drawer of a register. Oh Come On!!! Finally she finishes with that and attempts to check us in. She messes something up on the computer and has to call her computer guy to figure it out. We are on hold for 10 minutes while she fiddles around and fixes the problem herself, finally checking us in. We go to our room and die for the night.

The next day we hang out in Cedar eat some yummy Godfather's Pizza and read a book. Just passing time until the main event. Fiddler on the Roof. Cedar has this great thing called the Utah Shakespearean Festival that goes on every year and we decided to go down. The Green Show was entertaining and the play was awesome. We loved it. After we were done we were starving so we found the one place that was still open in Cedar to eat, Taco Time. They were practically closed when we pulled up, but we still got food. Its fun carrying a bag of food on a bike, BTW. Anyway we head back to the hotel for our banquet of tacos and burritos and then sleeping. The next morning it was home we go. This time it wasn't so cold, but we did have to dodge some rain storms. All in all not too eventful of a trip, but fun none the less.

My Ride to Logan...

2008-06-19T22:12:00.007-06:00

Ok so its been a month since my last post, I will try to be better, but here is my one for now. Brandon finally has his motorcycle, a Harley Davidson something or other that is pretty cool. It is the Harley Davidson orange color, with the added accessories of a back rest, windshield, and bag that attaches to the back rest. I have affectionately named the bike Dave. So we took our first long trip on Dave up to Logan to go to my friends wedding. Stephan and Jo were married in the Logan Temple on Wednesday and it was awesome. The ride there from Ogden was a little cold because the morning was just starting to warm up when we started, but it was kind of cool. The wind on my arms and face and blowing the little tuff of hair sticking out underneath the helmet. It was a different perspective to say the least. My bum was numb by the time we got there, but the canyon was beautiful to look at.

After the ceremony and some pictures we headed back to American Fork. We stopped off in Perry for my introduction to Maddox, one of the best ranch cooking restaurants that I've been to. I enjoyed the rolls the most. Back on Dave and we were on the freeway. This is a very interesting experience. Driving at freeway speeds with only a helmet to protect my head. I could have reached out my hand and touched the cars next to us. Very interesting feeling. It was good none the less. I was happy to be back in Hottie when we reached Centerville, where I had music and UV protection. My arms have a nice farmers tan on them now. Love it! I guess that's all I have to say about my ride on Dave. I told Brandon that I would only do a cross country trip if we could stop every hour and let me walk around to de-numb my legs and bum, oh and I definitely would need my ipod to keep me entertained. That's all for now. Post again soon.

A New Skill

2008-05-23T18:23:00.000-06:00

So I have a new skill to add to my resume. I can now build a computer. Pretty cool, huh? I can take a case, put in the motherboard, put in the CPU, disk drive, hard drive, and connect all the wires to the right spots, well most of the time. :) The reason I learned this new skill?...Brandon has 25 computers to build for the Harley job he is working on. I built them and he installed the software. We had a pretty efficient team going, and we had them all built within a week. Pretty cool if I do say so myself. I'll keep you updated with any new skills that I learn during my new married life...

Finally what you've all been waiting for...

2008-05-05T21:35:00.001-06:00

A new blog!!!

Ok so I haven't been the best at keeping up this blog, but you know life gets kind of crazy when you rearrange your life for the guy you love. I am now done with moving, wedding, and honeymoon. So what should I talk about first... I don't have any pictures from the wedding as of yet, but I do have some honeymoon, so I guess that would be a good place to start today.

After the wedding Brandon and I went on a awesome 7 day cruise to Mexico. But before we go there we have a day stop in California. We decided it would be fun to head down to San Diego since we had a day before we headed out to sea, so we took a drive from LA down the coast to Sea World. I took Brandon to all the fun shows that this park had to offer, because he had never gone to the shows. I wonder what he did at Sea World if he didn't see the shows???? Weird, any who we remedied the problem and had a wet ride on Journey to Atlantis the best and only ride there, that's really worth going on. But after that we drove back to our hotel and went to dinner. There just so happened to be a Mideviel Times right next door. So we went. It was awesome, we were the blue knight guy, who I thought might actually win and then the yellow knight guy killed him, that sucked. Than we booed the evil guy and cheered when the good guy won, all was well. It was really awesome food, great service, and a fantastic show. I totally recommend it, wow I should sell advertising for these people. Any way on to the cruise...

We had 1 Fun Day at Sea and 1 Sea Day of Fun before stopping at our first Port; Peurta Vallarta. We woke up early and walked ALOT we decided to walk into town (only 4 miles) and when we got there we decided to walk up the street which turned into a mountain, but hey we saw some real life Mexican dwellings. We got up to the top and decided to go back down, awesome morning. We then found some guy that offered us a free taxi ride to the other side of the island and back, free lunch, and discounted para sailing. Sounded good to us. We get to this amazing resort where they proceeded to try and sell us a time share. Hello! We just got married and we are trying to build a house, do you really think we have the money to buy a time share? I think not. So we turned them down, they were upset and sent us on our way to go para sailing. Which was awesome! Brandon went first and I watch him go thinking "What am I doing? This is too crazy." But we had already paid and I didn't want to whimp out. So when Brandon got back it was my turn. It was a lot easier than I thought. It was just run and sit and you were up. Then you are about 200 ft in the air and you can see everything, it was awesome I wish I could have taken the camera, but we do have some photos from the ground. By the time we were done we were tired and ready to go back to the ship. We were starving and our feet hurt from walking so we went to the dining room to have an amazing dinner served by Jamie and Renato our awesome waiters.

Next stop Mazatlan...We arrived at what appeared to be a place were old cargo containers were dropped off to die, but they put us on a little shuttle thing and we were surrounded by taxi drivers, tour guides, and who knows what else in no time. We decided to take one of the taxi driver's up on their offer and had him take us to where the "good shopping" was. He dropped us off in the grungiest part of town. I can now say I have been to a "real" Mexican market. Needless to say after walking around for a bit and me getting a little more uneasy by the minute hopped in another cab and had him take us to "The Golden Zone" this is the place we wanted to go in the first place, we should have been more specific. We get there and find these great little Mexican shops and find a bunch of stuff that we want to buy and take home. We found a chess set hand made out of marble that was just too good to pass up. He gave us the "K-Mart" special so we had him pack it up. Then we wanted some lunch and we had a coupon to the restaurant called Senior Frogs. We had passed it on the way so we decided to walk back to it. Turns out to be a very far walk with a very heavy marble chess set. Finally we got there, CRAZY!!! There were guys walking around with Tequila in gun holsters shooting it down people's throats. We politely refused and they called us chickens, but we got some cool balloon hats and free chips and salsa. Than we finished shopping and headed back to the ship.

Final stop and personal favorite, Cabo San Lucas. It was so beautiful, I've never seen water this blue. We couldn't pull into the docks, so the brought boats to shuttle us in to the port. This place definitely has money, everything looked new and clean and awesome. We walked through town and finally around to the beach because we wanted to go snorkeling. I have never seen sand like this before either. You know the color you picture when you think of sand, well this sand was actually that color. A gorgeous tan/yellow color with the water it was an amazing site. After was seemed like forever walking on the beach we found snorkeling. We get taken out to this island and dropped off for an hour and a half and get our snorkeling equipment and hop in the ocean. FYI salt water is nasty stuff. I was doing pretty ok with this snorkeling thing, but Brandon was having problems. His goggles kept filling up with water, so after a bit of seeing the fishes, I trade goggles with him and we decide to swim back to the spot with our clothes and stuff, along the way I keep feeling sharp little stings on my arms and legs so I just haul to the beach as fast as I can and get out to find little jelly fish stings all over. They went away within a few hours but they weren't fun. Brandon had some too, some of his were worse and I felt bad that he'd been stung. I don't think snorkeling was the funnest experience for him. Than we got back to were the shuttle boats were and finished up some shopping and went back to the boat. It was awesome!

Our final day at sea was just that, we had definitely run out of things to do and all we could do was walk around the ship. We decided to have a couple of virgin drinks and play some cards. That was fun, but all and all an uneventful day. I think we were ready to go home. We had an awesome trip thanks to our awesome waiters and our cabin steward who made us a towel animal each night, thanks Gilbert! I guess that sums up this trip. I don't think I left anything exciting out, but if I did I'm sorry. To be told at a later date I guess. I hope to post again soon. I have no idea what it will be about but I'll try.

I hate the snow!!

2008-01-22T14:41:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

This is my first blog ever and I think its going to be kind of fun, don't you? Anyway I am here at work and just decided to start a blog. I think it is a good way to keep in touch with friends that are far away (Coley) and for anyone else to be updated with my life.

Today has been a very boring day! I have had barely anything to keep me occupied. I have sat here trying to decide what I am going to do tonight. I have much to accomplish before my wedding in 3 months and little time to do it. I still have to put deposits down on everything! I have to leave work early today to go down and put the deposit down on my reception center before I lose my date. I still haven't found a bridesmaid dress that my sister approves of or anything else for that matter. I found my videographer and I still need to pay him the deposit, which (get this) is more than the deposit for my reception center. Dumb! I still need to pick out my flowers, cake, invitations, his ring, and figure out how I'm going to do my hair. Ahhh, maybe I will just elope. That sounds like the cheaper and less stressful route.