Thursday, November 27, 2008

New Calling...

Jared... this post is for you to have something to read while at work... I'll try to post more soon...

So, my sister and I moved from our place in Murray to a new joint in Sandy last summer... in July we attended a singles ward, which as they usually are, was "interesting". We attended the student ward for our area a few weeks too and then were out of town for a few weeks on our "trip". We came back and somehow ended up back at "interesting" singles ward. So at about the end of August/ beginning of September we found our way to where we are "supposed" to be I guess.

Well, basically I didn't have a calling from about July until about October - yes not even visiting teaching... So, we got into this ward, and they told me and my sister that they would get us callings soon. I was told that I would be put on a committee... And then after a few months (the end of October) I was called to serve in the Relief Society Presidency. It's funny how we end up in the right place at the right time. I don't know more than a handful of the sisters in my ward, and I don't always understand the in's and out's of this funny little ward, but I am learning to love and see people as the Lord sees them. Its been a great learning experience for me already!

Just thought I'd share a little of what is taking up so much of my time! I love that I can learn from serving others and can really see the work of the Lord in my life and in the life of others as I do so!

Halloween & Another Visit!

At the end of October my favorite older sister and my favorite nieces came to see us again! Steve was in Florida at some kind of doctor convention or whatever - so the girls, not wanted to stay at home alone decided to come trick or treating in Utah!

They came to see us right before Halloween so we were able to enjoy the opportunity to dress these lovely toddlers up as "princess ballet dancers" and I even brought them to school for a little bit of fun! (okay maybe the fun was for me and not the kids...) I invited Jamie to bring the girls up for a little Halloween "craft" project and treats. Then the next day they came for my school costume parade (which literally goes down main street in Sandy... but only about a block). I dressed up as a "mad scientist" and marched with a little lady at my right - whom everyone thought was "so CUTE!". I know that I enjoyed it, but I think the girls really liked the trick or treating the next night. On Halloween my parents and sister took the girls trick or treating, while I got things ready for a wedding order that I had to get done. Yes, I spent the evening working - the joys of having a small business! But it turned out to be quite beautiful in my opinion - too bad I don't have a good camera to show what things REALLY look like in person - but soon I'll have a website to see what the photographer can do... (I'm trying to collect professional photo's from friends weddings that I have done in the past... it's a long process)




The Saturday before they had to go home, we decided to head up the canyon for a little picnic lunch and short walk. It was actually quite enjoyable and as usual, brought out the strangeness in all of us - see below... and don't judge me - I'm around kids all day 5 days a week and my best friend acts like he's a kid... and sometimes I get sucked into it too... I know Adam, "I have a lot of growing up to do" - but enjoy anyway!




Wednesday, October 1, 2008

It's FAMILY TIME!

So after all of the excitement of MY summer travels, it was time for my favorite far away family (my sister, brother-in-law & two beautiful nieces, which are featured in the picture on my blog) to come and visit ME! Okay, so it's not really all about ME, but I like to pretend it is once in a while... The really came to participate in a family reunion on my brother-in-law's side of the family - but whatever:).



On their first evening home we decided to all go to the driving range (since Steve is eventually going to have to learn how to play golf - he's going to be a doctor for heaven sakes!) and that turned out to be an adventure.





We were all out on the range when it started to sprinkle a little bit. "Grandma" quickly took both of the girls and started for the car, not wanting them to get all wet. She had almost gotten to the club house when it started to POUR!!! It was awesome! The rain started coming down and we all grabbed out things and also headed for the club house which was about 100 yards away. By the time we got there we were all DRENCHED! After another few min we decided that it would be more fun to go play in the puddles than stand under the building covering - so we did! Within min. the rain stopped and we decided that we should head for home - due to the fact that we looked like we had just stepped out of the shower with our clothes on. Though it was a wet evening it was a FUN one!






While they were here we had a good time! We visited the farm country over at Thanksgiving point one afternoon and Allie thought she had died and gone to heaven when she got to ride on the little pony's a few times. She also went on a little wagon ride, which seemed to be a hit.





On their last nights with our family, we decided to head up to Strawberry to do a little fishing and cook tin-foil dinners. YUM! It was delicious!



It was a very low key evening, but lots of fun. I kinda got a little crazy with the camera... So here are some pictures.

This is a picture Allie after she face planted it into the ground! She had a little fat lip for an hour before the swelling finally went down. But though it was sad, it was kinda funny too... she was fine after a few min.



The next two are of Lindsay being her silly self... I was trying to get her to make a cheesy grin and boy did it work well for the first picture. The second one is just cute!





These are just some fun pictures of the girls...




Toward the end of the evening, I started "daring" the family to take "mushy pictures"... didn't take much encouraging - aren't they so adorable!





I know... Paige and Adam won't touch too much... boring!



Since Me and Spencer are foot loose and fancy free in that department, we had to barrow a cuddly partner for a bit... :)





I was happy to have them here and was really bummed to see them go! It's nice to have kids around and I wish that they lived much closer! But not to worry the girls are coming out to visit in just a few weeks! (Sorry Steve) And we'll have more new and exciting adventures together!

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Say Goodbye! IT'S ALL GONE!!!

Starting last January I decided to start growing my hair out, for a little bit of a change. After a few months, I thought, maybe I could keep growing it and even donate some of it to Cancer Patients. SO, after many months of hair in the face I finally had enough to do it! Last month I went up to my favorite stylist and said, TAKE IT ALL OFF! She put my hair into little pig tails and chopped off 9 inches of hair! It was a little scary, but then again, it's just hair... right?!?!?

THE BEFORE:





I actually have LOVED it and think I might just leave it this length for a little while... the only problem is that now some people can't tell Paige and I apart - Sorry Paige... I guess you had the right idea in the first place.

THE AFTER:



Time for a little Back Packing

After I got back from the best 9 day road trip ever! – (it really was the best – so relaxing and FUN!!!), I unpacked, hung out for 3 days and then packed again for another mini vacation – this time I had to pack all my goods with me. I headed up to the Uintah’s with my Dad, my brother Spencer and his friend Melissa. We hiked up one afternoon, set up camp and made some dinner. It was amazing to me how many mosquito’s there were! I thought I was going to get eaten alive! But we started a fire quick and things weren’t too bad with the smoke to protect us! However, despite the amount of bugs, it was BEAUTIFUL!!!, don't you think!





The next morning we did a little fishing, and reading – I mostly read & yes, I packed up 2 books with me, so I could read. I was less interested in the fishing and LOVED the book I was able to read! It’s called The Last Lecture. It was a great quick read and I felt inspired by what it had to say. I took a nap, meandered around and just mostly relaxed for the day. That afternoon we fished again and I caught a few – which was actually pretty fun, although I am still not interested in touching them. I asked my dad to take them off the line for me, cause I am a girly, girl. Anyway I had a good time!





Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Day 9... The END

So, after our trip to Portland we were headed for home. We got up early and then headed home. We stopped a few hours into the trip to attend sacrament meeting in a random town on the edge of Oregon. It was actually a really good meeting. Then after that we made lunch in the gas station parking lot and headed back on the road. Along the way I think I got car sick... I had never been car sick before... and I was a little miserable! Paige and Preston decided it would be fun to take pictures of me in my "pain". Don't worry I got a picture of her too - while she was sleeping :) And of course what would the trip be without a picture of the official driver... Preston really did a majority of the driving, which Paige and I were NOT complaining about.







We drove for about 13 hours that day and were very happy to finally make it back home! So that's it - we made it through the whole thing finally! Hopefully you enjoyed hearing/reading about it :)

Day 8... Portland

It was the last leg of the trip and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I had only been to Portland once and quite briefly at that, so it was fun to really see what the city had to offer, even though we only had one full day to do it. We started off by going to a "farmers market" style shopping area... I can't think of what it was really called. It was pretty cool. Then we went to a gigantic bookstore and of course the teacher in me won out and I purchased a few books (used... so they were CHEAP!) Preston and I also purchased a gift for Paige there. It was a journal made of elephant dung - long story - it has to do with a pet name she kept using when talking to Preston - and no it wasn't anything bad, just funny:) Anyway, after we went to the bookstore, we stopped for lunch and it was pretty tasty.




Then we headed to the local garden area. There was a Japanese Garden, which was beautiful! It was very interested to see all the different styles of gardens... rock, sand, water, etc. It was amazing! We of course didn't stay totally serious the whole time, but it was probably the longest period of somberness for the whole trip.













After the Japanese Garden, we went to the ever famous Rose Garden. I really enjoyed seeing the different types of roses, especially since I had just started my own flower business weeks before. I didn't know how they really grew on the bush, so I thought it was cool to see the long stems growing and how they look on the plant. It was cool... while we were there, Paige tried out her Photography skills... not bad... I told her the second one almost looked like an engagement photo... too bad I am not in the market for such services! But way to go Paige :)




We ended the evening with a walk through the local mall and a short drive for dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory. I thought that the day was enjoyable and was glad that we had the chance to spend the day there... I'd do it all over again.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Day 7... Day of Travel...



This is a picture of us as we were leaving the Red Wood Forest. It's almost as if they were calling for the "morman's" to come, but they got the spelling off just a bit... It was hard to leave such a beautiful and unbelievable place, but we were on to new adventures! Portland here we come! We had some awesome scene's along the way and really enjoyed just "taking out time" to get there...

So as we exited the "forest" areas we came to this small coastal town called Cresant City. We stopped at the city's tourist post and got some information on the local grave yard, because Preston's Grandfather was buried there and we wanted to stop and take a look at the grave. Another attraction in this small little town was a little lighthouse that we decided we wanted to take a peak at. SO, we did! And it was really COOL!!! The whole little place was amazingly BEAUTIFUL and we saw really pretty plants, some awesome shells/some kind of muscles that were living or had been living on the coastal rocks. And while we were there the tide was coming in which was kind of neat to see... anyways, here are just a few pictures of what we saw... we literally took about 60-80 pictures, but I narrowed it down a bit...







After the tide was starting to come in over the path we took to get to the lighthouse we decided we should go. We stopped at the cemetery and found Preston's long lost grandfather and I think his uncle, and took a picture and had lunch (yes, we ate at the cemetery... It was actually kind of a nice stop and it made me appreciate how beautiful and well kept the cemeteries are in Utah). After that stop we were on the road again until we made it to Portland early that evening. It made for a long day of driving, but we seemed to enjoy it for the most part - somehow this was the most "enjoyable driving" I've done on a trip - I guess it was the great company I had to keep me occupied during these long days of driving! Thanks guys!