Christmas 2010

Just playing a little catch up today...



We had a great Christmas this year.  We did all our activities with Shane's side of the family this year.  It was a nice holiday weekend.

Christmas Eve we hosted dinner with Shane's mom and sister.  Since it was just the 4 of us we didn't act our the nativity but we did have a good time.  They both left about 9:00 and all of the sudden Shane and I decided to go see a movie.  So at the last minute we jumped in the car and drove to the theater. The theater was very quiet but a fun time.

Christmas morning we slept in...late.  A nice little present for both of us.  It won't always be that way so we take advantage on days like this and sleep while we can.  We woke up and cooked our cinnamon rolls (yummy) then decided to open presents.  Shane spoiled me as always and I got a nice sweater, a new curling iron, a new black coat and some other things.  Then we just hung around until it was time to go over to Shane's brothers for dinner.  We had a nice turkey dinner over there and had a nice Christmas dinner and evening together before it was time for us to get home and pack for our trip...we were leaving the next morning.

All in all it was a great Christmas and I'm so thankful for the many blessings in my life and to reflect on Christ's birth and all that He has given us.

Ramblings

Are you sick of looking at me in an 80's prom dress?  I don't look at my blog that often, but I am sick of seeing me in that wig and dress...I guess it's time to post.  The only problem is I have nothing to post about, so here are a few ramblings that are going on with us.

I was going to post a Thanksgiving post and say how grateful I am for our garbage can.  Right before Thanksgiving when we had all that wind, our garbage can blew away on garbage day.  There were several cans all over the street but they were all claimed by the next day.  We sent emails, made some phone calls, and no one had it.  We called the city, they gave us the serial # on it (note to others:  write down your serial #, you never know when you'll need it).  Then they told us it costs $75 to replace it.  Uh yeah...we'll keep looking.  A week went by...nothing.  Luckily it's just the 2 of us and we don't have much trash.  Then one night we're coming home and notice our neighbors have 3 garbage cans....they usually only have 2.  We called over there and yep they had it.  So although we had sent them an email apparently one spouse didn't communicate to the other about their find.  All is well and all garbage has been taken out and life is good again.  See what a great Thanksgiving post that would've made...yeah that's why I didn't post it.

Work has been extremely busy.  I am managing 2 major projects right now and both have their challenges and both keep me going from meeting to meeting all day.  I'm still not sure how to get my work done when all I do is sit in meetings and talk about what work needs to be done.  It's been stressful.  The other part of stressful work is that this year we have to use all our vacation before the end of the year or lose it.  So I had to use all my vacation plus what I had saved up from previous years.   I had to take 35 days this year and as I type this I still have 6 days left to take, which will happen over Christmas.  I know you're thinking, why is that stressful?...cuz being on vacation is not stressful and I love it, it's just that everyone else is on vacation and it's hard to get things done when you are at work...plus you still have your same job to do, just in less time.  It has been nice but it will be a big adjustment for everyone come January when we don't have all this saved vacation to use.

What else?  Something happened to me last week that I can't blog about for a while.  I've wanted this to happen to me for a long time.  Shane says that if I blog about it, I will curse myself and it won't happen.  And no...it's not that I'm pregnant, I promise!  Just to prove that it's not that I'm pregnant when I told Brigitte she said and I quote "I'm sooo jealous!!!"  See...she wouldn't say that if it was that I'm pregnant.  I promise to blog about it if it happens.

Speaking of Brigitte, in case you read my blog and not hers..she's pregnant...yeah.  Fyi...you should read her blog if you don't.  She's a cute pregnant girl, although she's not had the easiest of pregnancies.  Here's hoping it starts getting better soon.  She's having a girl...yeah.  I can't wait to start buying some cute girl clothes for her.  Although I just thought of this, it would have been cool to have a boy so he would have those Pace eyes that Tyler and his brothers all have.

One other thing, if you've seen this countdown on my blog and wonder who Stacy is...she's my friend and past roommate that currently lives in DC and she got a job and is moving to Utah at the beginning of summer.  So excited to have her back in town and especially in the same timezone as me.  I think we'll do a lot better at communicating if we're at least in the same timezone.

I think that's about it.  My life these days consists of going to work, going home, going to work, going home, etc.  Then throw in a few young women activities and you have the summary of my life the last few months.  I'm not complaining, it's just been low key and nothing to brag about on this blog. 

I've enjoyed the Christmas season so far.  We cut down on presents this year on my family side and although it's fun shopping for other people, it's been nice not having a lot of shopping to get done.  I'm just sitting here typing by my tree and enjoying being home.  I'll update again after Christmas on my Christmas activites.

Thanks for reading, sorry for the long time between posts and sorry for no pictures this time.  Here's hoping 2011 will bring more blog posts.

80's Murder Mystery Party

Last week we were invited to a Murder Mystery party with some people in our neighborhood/ward.  When we got the invitation we found out it was an 80's theme.  I was supposed to be Molly Mingmold (Molly Ringwald) and Shane was to be Scabface (Scarface who I had never heard of before but he is a mobster character from the 80's.)  It just so happens that my sister still has her Pink prom dress from 1986 and it was PERFECT for the part.  I found a red wig and was set.  Shane's was a little harder but eventually we found a great white leisure suit, gold chain, gun, etc.  As part of his character he had to have a scab on his face.  So we found this scar makeup thing in a halloween store and when he put it on it looked so real it was kind of freaky.  Then about 20 mins after we got to the party, this guy comes up to Shane and asks if it's real...he didn't think it was but said he had to make sure cuz it looked so real he then couldn't remember if he had seen that on Shane before...lol.  You can see the scar over Shane's right eye in the pictures below.

The night was super fun, we were given different clues and things to reveal to people throughout the night and everyone came dressed up so great for all their characters.  We were attending the Debbie Gribson album release party when the 'murder' occurred.  It ended up that neither of us commited the murder although we were both accused of it and then it ended up that I did actually confess to murdering my childhood friend by smashing a rubik's cube into his head!  Gruesome...

Here are some pictures of the night:

Final Hike of 2010

Shane and I decided to do one final hike of the season yesterday.  It was such a nice day so we wanted to get out and enjoy it.  We decided to hike to Lake Solitude.  It starts at Silver Lake at Brighton and is appx. 3 miles long (round trip).  It was a really easy hike with just one steep hill to climb up at the end.  We took a little picnic and ate it on our way to the lake.  We had a great time getting out doors as we know this weather will not last much longer.  Here is a picture we took of Lake Solitude.

Weekend Fun

It's almost the weekend but I wanted to make sure I didn't forget to blog about my fun weekend last week.

Friday night my sister in law, Margene, treated me to the Brad Paisley concert for my birthday.  We had grass seats at Usana and had a great time.  I've seen Brad in concert but it had been a while.  He gave a great concert and we had a good time hanging out on the grass before it started.  Darius Rucker from Hootie and the Blowfish opened for him.  He has turned country.  I loved hearing his songs. I like his country voice and music and he even sang his popular Hootie songs as well.  Thanks Margene for a fun night!

Saturday night was the Relief Society broadcast so my sisters, Lori and Michelle and sister in law, Whitney all met up for dinner at Rumbi's beforehand.  Randomly Michelle had never eaten at Rumbi's...what?  Then we went and found a stake center to watch the broadcast from.  The opening song was amazing to me.  It was 'Count your many Blessings.'  Usually not a favorite song of mine but hearing it sung and then singing along I was very struck by just how blessed I am and to know Heavenly Father knows me personally and blesses me with so much.  In fact I got a little choked up singing that song and never have really felt that moved by that song before.  It was good I had that experience because the rest of the broadcast was a little tough for me. 

My family all knows that if we go see a movie together, do NOT let me pick the seats.  I am CURSED when it comes to movie theaters and always pick the seats with someone talking, kicking seats, eating something with some loud wrapper or bringing a crying baby.  Well why in the world my sisters let me choose where we sat for the broadcast was beyond me.  Just after the opening hymn in walks these girls and one had her 3 year old toddler with her.  The rest of the broadcast was her talking and not just talking, talking loud and the mother was talking to her right along with her.  Then she started running up and down the aisle and the mother didn't seem to mind at all.  The entire time I kept thinking 'don't judge her Sheri, she wouldn't have brought her if she didn't have to' or 'maybe she really needed this time to come here' or 'maybe she doesn't own a tv so she couldn't watch it at home.'  Anyways, it took all my concentration off the broadcast and then I was feeling even worse when Pres. Monson got up and talked about not judging others!!  I was being tested!  Not sure I did so well on that test.  I felt a little better that at least I was trying not to be judgmental but obviously I have a long ways to go.  So the broadcast was good, the evening was fun and I'll make sure to read the talks again when they're published in the Ensign next month.

Sunday after Church Shane and I decided to go on a little Sunday drive to look at the fall leaves.  We drove up to Silver Lake (along with a lot of other people that had the same idea) and walked around the lake.  It was beautiful and such a pretty drive and walk.

I am LOVING this warm weather by the way.  I would love for it to stay like this until Thanksgiving.  At that time I give the weather permission to get cold, but please, please stay as long as you possibly can!

Family Dinner

Now that my parents are on a mission, we've had to come up with a schedule as to when we can all get together for family dinners. It used to be that my parents would have us over on Sunday's several times a month. We decided with them being gone that we would get together once a month for an official family dinner and take turns hosting. This month was my turn. I wanted to hurry and get a turn so we could use our big back yard that we don't get to use very often. So even though my birthday was one of the 4 we were celebrating this month, I hosted.

The 4 birthday girls: Jennifer, Ashlee, Me, Kayla


We had such a good time. We had chicken tacos, rice, chips and salsa, fruit and yummy cake. The bad part was my neighbor decided that the perfect time to seal his driveway and cement was 3o minutes before everyone came over. So it kind of stunk a little but we still had a good time.

We sat under the gazebo, the boys played soccer for a long time, and then bacci balls (is that the name of it?) and then sang and opened presents.





There was 2 things that happened that made me realize just how often we used to get together.
1 - Lori's 2 girls were both shy towards us when they first got there. Aubrey insisted she didn't remember anyone's name!
2 - Even though Ashlee's birthday is only 8 days after her mom's, she was a little insulted that we were making her share her birthday dinner with 3 other family members. Have we really always had a separate dinner for her? Jennifer told her that she had to do it her whole life since Jennifer and my birthday's are just 3 days apart. Ashlee handled it well and is so excited to be turning 12 and going into Young Women's this year.

We haven't finished one corner of our yard yet. We plan to put a small basketball 1/2 court but haven't done it yet. We have a big pile of dirt there to use if any part of our yard sinks. Well when Collin (Michelle's 2 year old) saw this dirt pile he yelled 'Mountain' and ran over to it, climbed up it, and spent at least 30 minutes on top throwing dirt off of his mountain. It was seriously so cute and so funny and he had dust coming off of him the rest of the night.





This last picture is just crazy. Apparently one of Jeff's friends got this Laker Poncho for him in Mexico. Jeff can hardly wait to go to the next Jazz/Laker game and wear this. How embarrassing! :)

Birthday Week

That's right, it was my birthday this week. Well technically it was yesterday (Sept. 7) but as many of you know, I tend to celebrate my birthday for a week. Shane didn't believe me when we were first married but it seems this year he has caught on. I came home from work on September 1 and found this scene in our entry way:



A present for everyday of the week leading up to my birthday. Yes Shane likes to put presents under the tree, it's not a Christmas tree fyi. The great news about this is I got to open a present everyday! How fun is that? I was so excited!! So each day I've been opening a present and here is how it went:

Day 1: 3 packs of my favorite apple, pineapple gum
Day 2: Candy Corns (remember how much I like Candy Corns?)
Day 3: 100 Grand candy bars
Day 4: Candy Corns (yes I was almost done with the first bag! oink, oink!)
Day 5: A new set of washcloths (I needed some bad and just never get around to buying any)
Day 6: Candy Corns (do you see a pattern?)
Day 7 : My actual birthday. This present had actually been sitting under the tree since the beginning of August. It came in the mail and Shane just wrapped it and stuck in under the tree to torture me for a month. He would give some hints but I had NO clue what it would be. So I finally got to open it up and this is what I see:



Doesn't it look like chocolate covered pretzel sticks to you? That was my first thought. Then I saw that it had a screw on the top of it and they bent in all sort of directions. Still had no clue what it was. Shane finally helped me out and it's a mini tri-pod for my camera. I LOVE it. I can't tell you how many times I am looking around for a place to set my camera to take a picture so both Shane and I can be in the picture. Now this will allow me to not only set it on something but bend and move it to make it just right.



I had a good birthday. I took the whole week off from work and have just been hanging out and relaxing. I read Mockingjay, Shane treated me to a manicure at Brickhouse retreat. We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and a movie, Inception. I also got to go to Young Women's on my actual birthday and they were nice enough to get me a cake and sing to me. Everyone seemed to remember my birthday this year so it was fun hearing from old friends and getting caught up with people.

Happy Birthday to me, another year!

Summer = St. George

What would summer be without at least one trip to St. George to enjoy a little 110 degree weather! Sadly, I think this is going to be my last Summer = post...summer apparently is ending and fall is upon us! :(

However, a few weeks ago we were able to do just that. Brigitte and Tyler invited us down for the weekend. We stayed in Tyler's family's condo and had a great time. My car had been in the shop a few times over the last month so we left a little early thinking that if my car happens to break down that Brigitte and Tyler would be behind us and could pick us up. Well just as luck would have it, our car worked just great. However, about the time we got to Cedar City, Brigitte called to say their car broke down in Scipio. Luckily the other couple that came down, Kim and Milan, were close enough to turn around and go get them. So we all made it down there.

So what did we do...what else do you do in St. George, we shopped, ate, hung out, saw a movie and slept. It was a great weekend, it went by way too fast, and luckily we all made it home without any more car problems. Thanks Tyler and Brigitte for inviting us, it was a great weekend!



I didn't realize Brigitte and I were so matchy match...and still not sure why Brigitte was trying to hit me in the leg?


Milan, Kim, Brigitte and Tyler

Summer = Girls Camp

I have officially attended my first Girls Camp since I was 14 years old. Yep...I rebelled and never went after I was 14. I am NOT a camper and back then Girls Camp was always just as it reads...camping. This year it was more along the lines of a Girls Retreat. It was just our ward so we were lucky enough to use someone's cabin in our ward. Lucky us!! We had 32 Young Women and 7-8 leaders. The cabin was down by Scofield Reservoir and it had enough bunk beds for all the adults to use. Then the girls 'camped' out on the carpeted floor for the very few hours they were asleep.

We had a great time...we went on a 'hike' (it was more of a walk.) Right as we were about to start back it started raining and coming down pretty hard. We were all soaked by the time we got back and pretty muddy. We played some games based off of the 'Survivor' theme and the girls all had to eat some interesting things. Love being a leader so that I don't have to participate in those things, just watch and take pictures. We made some camp journals, had a few speakers, played lots of card games and ate and ate and ate. The food was delish.

It was only 2 1/2 days and just as everyone was getting really tired and probably turning cranky and emotional, it was time to clean up and come home. It was so nice, there was no drama and fun was had by everyone there.

Here are some pictures from the week:

All the YCL's or as I call them 'My Laurels'


For you Emily...I told you I was going to post it, you blog creeper!

Summer = Bugs?

Ok seriously I still get the shivers just thinking about writing this story. So last night about 10pm I was in Shane's office chatting away and I decide to go to the kitchen to get a snack. As I am walking by our front door on our wood floor, I am about to step down when something just under my foot starts moving.

I freak out!! Scream!! Run!! And yell at Shane to get out here!! We flip on the lights in the entry way and this is what I see crawling across the floor, well crawling pretty fast:



Seriously, the body itself was easily 1.5 inches. So what does Shane do?? He brushes it out onto our porch and closes the door...like well that's the end of that. OH NO!!! I was NOT about to just let him brush it outside, so I ask him why he didn't kill it? His response? It's Sunday! Seriously!!!???!!! And he just goes about life like nothing has happened. Meanwhile I'm still totally freaked out that maybe it's going to crawl back in...what if it had babies, maybe our house is infested, etc. etc.

I think Shane finally realized I was NOT going to just let this drop so he went and got bug spray and went out and sprayed it (why couldn't he just smash it I still don't understand?) So it was doused with bug spray and brushed into the bushes. Oh great, so now it's in the bushes mating with his friend producing more.

Ok I know I'm being overly dramatic but when I finally sat down to eat my bowl of cereal, I started gagging thinking about it and couldn't finish. Ok I'm a freak, I admit it.

I thought it was a cockroach but consensus at work today says it's some type of beetle. I haven't seen anything this big since my mission in Australia where I had to kill cockroaches this big on a regular basis. Hint, put bowl over big cockroach, wait overnight, remove bowl and it's dead. They crawl up the bowl, fall over on their back and die. I LOVED learning that on my mission, that I didn't have to smash them.

PS I do have to give Shane credit for taking care of the problem, as I don't know what I would've done. I was paralyzed with fear. I love being married!!

Summer = A busy blog slacker

I'm still here! Did you wonder where I was? Yeah, it's summer and my sit inside and work on the computer knack has gone away. Probably because I've been busy enjoying summer.

So I'll get you all caught up in the next several posts of Summer with a promise to try to post more often so I don't get behind.

Summer = Cancer Free

Maybe the most exciting piece I have to share with you is that I had my 2 year scan about a month ago and everything came back clean and perfect! Yeah! So I've hit my 2 year mark which is the big milestone you want to hit for Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Apparently my chances of the cancer coming back went from about 15% to less then 2% now. I LOVE seeing that percentage going down.

I thought when I hit the 2 year mark I'd have a big celebration, some sort of party. But so far I haven't. I still might but nothing has really come to me as to what to do to celebrate. Any ideas?

So...the plan now on my health is that now I only have to go to the clinic every 6 months instead of every 3 months...yeah. But I still have to get scanned every 6 months (I thought it moved up to a year, oh well.) However, instead of a PET scan like I have been having, I only have to have a CT scan. Berry Barium here I come...mmmmm (ok really it makes me want to gag thinking about having to drink that stuff!)

And an update on my hair for history sake. Here is my hair growth of 2 years, minus some trims to get it to one length.



So that's the update. CANCER FREE!!!

Summer = Concerts

We've been going to a ton of outdoor concerts and events this summer and the best part is that they've almost all been free. Who doesn't love throwing a blanket down on some grass and listening to music? It's one of the true signs of summer for me!

We've been to see Peter Breinholt at Draper historic park, Ryan Shupe at some political event (I was there to hear Ryan not for the political event, so much so that I didn't even vote for the guy...should I be admitting that on here, oh well.)

We also went to the opening of the new Draper ampitheatre where we saw the Utah Symphony perform. It was fun because they performed movie themes like ET and Harry Potter.


Then we spent both nights at Draper Days this year. Have I told you how much I love Draper. I do...maybe I should save my love for Draper for another post...until then, just know that I LOVE Draper! We saw Collin Raye and then the next night was Beatlemania and Fireworks. Beatlemania was NOT good I didn't think but loved Collin Raye. I think Shane wouldn't have minded skipping both nights but he was a great sport to go with me both nights.


The 4th of July was spent in Sandy with some of my family. Not sure who performed but they played a bunch of songs from the 80's and so we all enjoyed it. And then of course the fireworks at the end were great.


This last weekend, Brigitte and I went and saw Tim McGraw in concert at Usana. We got grass seats at the last minute and had a great time. I hadn't been to a big country concert in a while so it was fun to go to one and hang out with Brigitte.

Summer = Hiking

Brigitte and Tyler invited us to go hiking a few weekends ago. We hiked of Bells Canyon, not too hard of a hike and it was fun to see the views and the lake up there.

That hike inspired Shane and I to go on a few others. One other one that I really liked was hiking to Secret Lake (some spell is Cecret, I saw both and not sure which one is right.) It was a little early in the season for wild flowers but it was a good hike and fun to hike when it's so hot outside and then all of the sudden you come to a big pile of snow to walk across. Then the lake still had a frozen section in the middle.




The other thing we did which isn't really hiking, well hiking in your car out west. We went to Kennecott Copper Mine. Of all the years I've spent in Utah, I've never made it out there to see it up close! So it was a fun little afternoon trip one day. We didn't stay real long but still fun to see.

Summer = Family Time

We've been doing a lot of things with our families lately and it's been so much fun.

Christy and her family came up to visit and so one day we took all the kids to the Draper pool. It was actually my first time at the pool but it was so fun. The kids had a blast and loved playing with cousins.


My parents left on their mission to Arcadia, California the end of June. They had a big open house the night before their farewell and then Sunday was the farewell and setting apart. It was a very busy weekend but so fun to see everyone that came to support my parents. They're settling into everything down there a doing a great job.


Shane and I got to babysit Michelle's kids for their anniversary one night. We walked over to the park and played on the playground and let the kids run through the water park. We had so much fun and loved spending time with them.





My sister Lori had a baby boy in July. They named him JD (Jay Douglas) and it's their first boy. He's a cutie and I would imagine he's going to be dressed in blue and orange a lot when football season starts. We're just happy they didn't name him Gator! :)


We've also been entertaining at home. Shane's mom is in town so we were all able to get together for a dinner one night. It was fun to just sit around and talk and get caught up with everyone.

Also, Jeff and Whitney came over one night for tacos and a little Jazz Singer movie watching. Love all the music in it. Although Jeff grew up part of our family and even knew 90% of the songs, he had never seen the movie. So I introduced Jeff, Whitney, and Shane to the movie
and I think everyone thought the movie was a little better than they anticipated.

4 Little Monkeys

This last week I had the opportunity to go to California and stay with my sister Christy and her family for the week. Christy just had her 4th Girl and needed a little extra help as she was recovering. So I flew down and stayed the week with her. The week was casual and we just hung out mostly so although I went down there to help out, I still consider it a vacation because it was pretty low key.



Some things I did do: Go to the park with Mia, walk Avery to school, take Eliza out to dinner to celebrate her getting baptized the week before, and held, fed and cuddled Emmy whenever I could. We did go to the beach on Saturday, it was overcast but still a fun time.

Eliza and I at Ruby's celebrating her baptism:


Being down there just hanging out made me more excited to be a mom one day. Christy's girls are so cute and full of energy and they made me laugh everyday.

Christy and I were able to go to a movie the last night I was there so it was fun to get out for a while. Also, my good friend Konstantina came down one night and we went to dinner and got caught up on each other's lives.

The 3 girls could not get enough of their new, cute, little baby sister Emmy. If they were home, one of them was usually holding her. They argued over whose turn it was to hold her and would often count to 10 (or 100) to signify it was now their turn to hold her.

All 3 girls surrounding their new sister:








One cute story about Mia. Mia is obsessed with iphones. If there is an iphone around she is begging to play a game on it. Whenever she would turn my phone on and see the picture of Shane on the front she would say: "There's Uncle Shane" and then flip the pages until she found the game she wanted to play. She knows how to turn the camera on to take a picture, how to pull up the pictures she has taken. She knew when I moved one of her games to another page on my phone. The girl is a crack up with the phone and she isn't even 3 yet!

Mia at the park so excited that I was going to take a picture of her going down the slide:


So it was a fun week and it was so fun to be down there and hang out with family and see their newest addition, little Emmy. And she is so little, I always forget how little they come!