the millers

The long awaited tale of the Miller's move to Montana

2011-12-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

Fourscore and 7 years ago...

That's kind of what it feels like right? My apologies!

August 1st, 2011 we rolled into town in our little Toyota Camry anxious to find a place to live and a place for me to work. It was my task to do both while we lived out of a hotel as Casey went about doing his work as a new Area Manager to At&t. After a week and many hours of searching we finally found a place we loved and fit all of our needs. It was quite a bit more expensive than we wanted it to be but we had run out of other options and hotels aren't cheap!

We moved in all of our stuff and went to our ward that first Sunday in town. Casey suggested that we bear our testimonies so people in the ward could get to know us. So we did and it turned out to be fruitful. We made a lot of fast friends that we love being around. I got hired about 3 weeks later at a plasma donating center, Biolife, and Home Depot where I worked in the paint department. It was a lot of fun working at Home Depot, but I came to find that between both of my part time jobs that I didn't like working 60 hours a week. At Biolife, I am a phlebotomist in training. It has only been a few months that I have worked there, but eventually I will be sticking people and hooking them up to machines where they lay for an hour donating their plasma. I really enjoy working there.

We explored our surroundings quite a bit upon our arrival. We drove to a few different neighboring cities that had more of the country feel toward them. I was actually kind of surprised to find out that Missoula had a Target and a Home Depot and a Costco. I guess I thought I would be moving to live in the barn with the horses among fields and fields of pine trees, and rivers, and mountains full of bears. I didn't expect to live in a little neighborhood with tons of neighbors and no yard. But we love it! And don't worry, there is still plenty of fields with pine trees and rivers and mountains, and you only have to travel 10 minutes to get there! It is gorgeous here.

Casey drives around a lot for his job. He is the Area Manager over 6 At&t retail stores in Western Montana. 2 of the stores are in Missoula so he doesn't have to travel too far. Then he goes to Helena, Bozeman, Kalispell, and Great Falls. He visits each store each week. Some of them are 2-3 hours away so he is on the road A LOT. He really enjoys his job and is learning quite a bit from his Superiors. He is a very hard worker and is always smiling about his situation, even when the going gets rough. I am a very lucky woman to have such an amazing husband.

We visited a lot of fun places over the last few months. They include Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, LoLo Hot Springs, Flathead Lake, Seattle, and of course back home to Utah:) We miss that place. We miss our friends and our routine and all the delicious restaurants and entertainment. But we are excited to be in the beautiful country with plenty of outdoor adventures to pursue! I'll post some pictures of the place we are renting and some of the adventures we've had.

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK

BISON RANGE

YELLOWSTONE/JACKSON HOLE
We stopped at Yellowstone on the way down to Jackson Hole. It was a quick visit to Old Faithful and then we met up with our friends, Lindzi, Aaron, Isla & Whit in Jackson. We had a lot of fun there. We went to the Bar J Grill, got ice cream, went swimming, hiking, shopping and just hung out in gorgeous Jackson. Casey and I rode the lift at Teton Village to do the mountain bike trails over and over. It was super fun! And really good to see our awesome friends.

SEATTLE
We went to Seattle for our 1st YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! We went to the Public Market and rode the ferry to Bainbridge and saw the Space Needle. We went to the temple on our anniversary to remember our covenants and it was really neat. We had tons of fun, despite the really long drive it took to get there.

Well, now you're caught up on August thru September...ha ha. I suppose I'll have to write another long post about October until now!

alright alright alright...

2011-10-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

I know. I know. I have like SOOOOO many fans out there that are wondering, "WHY has our ashley gone dark?" As in, "why does she never post anything on her blog?" Yeah, I know. I'm big-time into the blog world. Super missed when I don't post for a month to be sure! But don't worry minions. I will be back into business here soon enough and I've plenty to tell you; so hang on to your britches and get ready for the next posts!

We've had a lot of weekend trips...and I still haven't "introduced" you into Montana...so I have lots to share. Thank you for your patience and your undying support! I just love being missed.

As for now: you can rest assured that eating a bowl of popcorn at 11:30 at night has brought me great comfort and zero guilt. Until next time.

Crunch!

2011-09-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

September 7, 2011

1. Pour Ice Cold milk into deep bowl.

2. Spill Kellogg’s New “Crunchy Nut” cereal into bowl of milk.

3. Fetch Large spoon from drawer.

4. Eat. Smile. Repeat process

Kellogg’s new “crunch nut” cereal is the best cereal known to man, Second only to Coco Pebbles. Although, entirely different levels of nutrition, naturally. I found it to be nutty, crunchy, and all around golden delicious.

Buy some. Try it.

Things to be grateful for...

2011-08-30T15:20:00.001-07:00

Does it count if I list all the things I DON'T have and then work up?

Internet in the home.
Then you don't have to go to a stuffy library where smelly transients hang out (trust me...their lack of hygiene is completely evident!) or to Barnes&Noble where they strategically place their outlets AWAY from any chairs or tables; therefore giving your laptop about 30 minutes of juice for prime internet time. Enough? Hardly.

Kids.
If you have kids you can hang out with them all day and feel like you're actually accomplishing something because they add meaning to your life. Not to mention they make life so much more unpredictable and entertaining. Right?

A Job.
I did technically get a job, so that's exciting news! However, I don't start for about another month and that can be just as difficult waiting for it to come along. There is only so many "errands" I can run as well as exercise I can do before I get tired of it all. Yes...I've increased my time practicing the piano, guitar, doing crafts, reading, writing, dancing, cleaning, sighing, watching movies, learning how to sign, learning spanish, racking up the cell phone minutes, and floating the river as many times as I can. Oh, and don't forget...cooking...dun dun dun!! So I suppose I can't complain all that much. I have "plenty" to do...but it still feels like I'm not accomplishing all that much.

I'm the sort of person that needs to be kept on a schedule. **GASP** I know! SHOCKER to all of you who think I'm this perfectly unbound free spirit that never needs anything to do but free time in her life but it's a lie. The busier I am forced to be, the more efficient I become. The less I HAVE to do...the less I do. It's a weird concept I know...but whit gets it. And so does mom.

On the upswing I AM grateful for the fact that I DID get a job, I DO have an amazing husband, and I'm in a wonderful new place making lots of new friends and doing lots of fun things. Maybe next time I'll blog about the fun things...:) I just can't handle the rancid smell of the library's occupants anymore. Chau for now!

Mizoozles!

2011-08-09T15:15:00.000-07:00

Mizoozle is the affectionate name I've given my new town of residence! (Formerly and more commonly known as Missoula, MT).

Casey and I are just having the time of our lives here!

Exhibit A:

No, really, we are!

Yes, we have an empty house, but we do have a house, well...townhome. At&t packed us up a couple weeks ago and said, "you can expect us to deliver your things sometime in between August 2nd and 12th." (Great! thanks for the 10 day gap heads up)!

Turns out, they are coming tomorrow so we may not have to sleep on a cheap old air mattress anymore, yay! I've been applying for every sort of job imaginable. I've applied at the airport, a few restaurants, a teen home, REI, ranch resorts, river guiding shops, the Post Office, and a nanny site. So far my efforts have proven to be fruitless but I'm not losing hope. I still have the dental office, Famous Footwear, Barnes & Noble, and any clothing store in the mall that I could work lousy retail hours making next to nothing for a discount that I would probably spend the whole of my paycheck on...I suppose that is the last resort...:) I've even thought seriously about getting my Pharmacy Technician License renewed so I can work in a Pharmacy somewhere around here.

So far, Mizoozles has proven to be GORGEOUS and very exciting to explore. Casey and I were finally able to find a nice place to rent so we weren't having to live out of a hotel anymore. We went to the hot springs, a small hike, and tried to get our fishing licenses for MT. Good thing you have to have a MT Driver's License for 6 months before you can enjoy the lovely season price of $26 as opposed to the out of state $70 license. Eee. May not be fishin' til the spring boys! We also went to church on Sunday at our new ward and Casey suggested we share our testimonies to meet new people in the ward(since last time it took us 9 months to make friends) and it proved to be a good thing since I have a few more people to talk to in person than the walls and Casey in the evenings. Casey is loving his new job! He is very busy and gone quite a bit, but people revere and look up to him and he is setting the high standard of being your best in all of his stores! He's happiest when he's busy and working hard. And trust me..he's ALWAYS working:)

We've got plenty of things on the list of things to do and see, including visits to:
Lolo Campground (I love camping:)
Flathead Lake
Glacier Lake
2 Waterfall Hikes
Floating the Clark Fork River (here in town)

So, if anyone wants to come visit we've got plenty of room(but not for the 10 ft long church pew that was previously serving as our living room couch....NOOO!) and lots of adventures to fulfill!

Love and miss you all in the beautiful Salt Lake.

And don't worry because I know you were all wondering...we ARE within walking distance of a movie theatre! Casey and I are planning on buying within a year and I'm pretty sure it'll be out in the gorgeous country but for now we are still in the city and that's alright.

LOVE that...

2011-07-12T16:22:00.001-07:00

I love it when one of your favorite songs comes on the radio when you're driving to work and it finishes at the same time as you're pulling into your parking slot.

I love it when you get a personal letter in the mail.

I love it when you get to bring out the sun dresses, skirts, and flip flops.

I love it when fingernail polish chips because you're so hard core with your fingertips:)

I love it when a 2 year old little Isla girl gets so much joy out of going down a little baby waterslide like 25 times.

I love it when your best friend whips out a guitar that she didn't know how to play very well a year before and then just throws down like 7 perfect songs. Amazing.

I love it when you can have popsicles for every meal.

I love it when your husband gets a job in Missoula, Montana cuz he's such a rockstar at his job!

Last, and most definitely not least, I love it when you get to put in your two weeks notice and start packing up your house. Yes, I most definitely love that.

the Road to Nowhere

2011-06-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

Twas the night night before Summer Solstice,
and throughout all the house,
Not a husband was there, nor a wife, nor a grouse.
For they were out playing, having all sorts of fun;
Yes, and driving to tunnels that capture the sun.

(Mwuahahahaaa! I'm SO good at poetry! No applause necessary. I know you all agree).

Casey and I decided to make the trek to the sun tunnels near Wendover. It's kind of a 3 hour drive from Salt Lake but it was TOTALLY worth it:) On the way to Wendover (on our quest to beat the sunset) we passed the salt flats and I experienced my first ever desert produced optical phenomenon. I saw...a mirage! I guess I've never been caught out in the desert before (whew! That was close!). I would look off across the desert flats and in the distance by the mountains there was water, I swear it! And then...it wasn't water. Super trippy. So that was really exciting. Shut up. It really was.

After 2 hours of driving we finally took the turn off to go bustin' down the dirt road 50 miles per hour in search of the elusive sun tunnels. There's something so intoxicating about the country when the wind is in your hair and you're singing "John Deere Green" at the top of our lungs as you kick up a dust trail behind you that stretches on for miles of open deserted fields. An hour later we saw little specks out in the middle of a field that could only mean one thing. We made it!

The sun tunnels are basically just two large cement culverts that are lined up to catch the sunset just right every year when Summer Solstice comes along. Thanks to my good friend Brady, I have found out that culverts tend to make the ultimate best pictures...and adventures. So naturally, driving 3 hours to get a wicked awesome picture of a wicked awesome culvert is a complete no brainer. History lesson for those of you who are wondering: according to wikipedia, Nancy Holt constructed the tunnels to create an abstract perception of space, time, and landscape. There are two other tunnels running perpendicular to the Summer Solstice tunnels to capture the sunrise during Winter Solstice; X marks the spot! She also carved holes in each of the tunnels so you could see certain constellations through them at night. They were pretty cool to play around in and the pictures turned out to be really fun.

After hanging around for about an hour and making friends with all the random people out there we decided it was time to head back. Casey decided to go all adventurous on me and take the dirt road leading North (instead of returning on the road we had taken which would have led us South). Oh sure, honey. I think. No problem. We'll just take this unmarked, unknown road to an unknown destination for an hour or two and just pray we get home safely. "I know where it goes," he says. I just laugh and say alright, because it doesn't really matter where we go, as long as I'm with my boo. And like I wanted to get back to work the next day anyways!

I think my most favorite part about driving on the road to nowhere-in the dark of the night-was when Casey would yell out a warning to his little kangaroo-rat "buddies" in the middle of the road. Our headlights would drown the road with light and we'd see little critters blending into the dust-colored road scurrying to get out of the way. "Hurry, buddy! Come on little buddy! Get out of the road!" His voice was so encouraging as they would ping and pong in between the trail trying to decide which way to run to avoid their impending doom. Some of them shot right off to the side and others would get tangled in the green brush in the middle of the road, saving their little lives. Most of them boinged around from left to right and most likely got nicked...or squished. Poor little guys.

"Watch out, little buddy! No, go the other way! Oh, i got him!"
"Run, buddy, run! Oh, he made it!"
"Come on buddy! little buddy! Oooh I think I got his tail!"
"Wake up little buddies! Get out of the way!"

And then he would just chuckle and call out his words of encouragement to the next little guys. I was laughing pretty hard. My husband is the cutest dork known to man. I guess he didn't care to call out his warnings to the jack rabbit that got in our way because when it pounced off the road Casey got out his gun and shot at him while driving. He got out to inspect his work and I made him hold my hand as I stood over his dead jack rabbit a few yards from the car. Great shot! I felt really bad for the jack. Poor guy. "At least we know we wouldn't die in the wilderness, babe!" He says. Yeah. As long as we have a gun, I think. And as long as you could convince me to eat dirty jack rabbit. Yes, that would be my man.

We FINALLY got to the highway where we stopped to relieve ourselves. I was leaning up against the car, squatting and feeling so much better about the current bladder situation when my foot slipped in the dirt and I had to catch myself. It just so happened that my right hand caught myself in the nice little pee puddle I had just created. I screamed out and Casey came running around the back of the car as I held up my drenched "pee hand" for him to see. "Oh, gross!" He was doubling over with laughter searching for some sort of towel. I poured some water on it since we didn't have any sanitizer and I basically just held my dirty hand the rest of the way threatening to touch Casey with it if he did anything to aggravate me. We laughed for another couple hours and then finally we reached Tremonton. Okay. This is definitely the part where I fell asleep.

We made it back to our humble little abode an hour later at about 1:30 am and my head was so happy to hit that pillow...and wash my hands:) Thank you, Nancy Holt, for constructing tunnels in the middle of nowhere so we could have a wonderful little adventure. And thanks to Whit for letting us borrow her camera so we could capture the moments! We tried inviting others; hopefully you can all make it out there someday! It is definitely worth the drive.

Tri it!

2011-06-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

Oooooh, aren't racing events so fun!? I pleaded with my husband to do a triathlon with me and he consented right away! It was a week ago, June 11th, out in Daybreak. We got out there early to get all marked up and pin on our numbers. This was Casey's first tri so we were both pretty excited. My dad decided to come do it with us so we had our own little support group to pull each other through.

Luckily it wasn't raining that day and it was supposed to reach the high 70's, low 80's. We squelched (I think I made up that word...but that's about what it felt like) into our wetsuits that we rented for $20 each. They were the super thick kind that made you feel like you were walking in a corset-style, sumo suit-restricting the movement of all your limbs. We walked the half mile to the start of the swim in our bare feet and stood there for a half hour trying not to let the pre-race jitters get to us. Men went first and I watched as my jolly green giant of a man lowered himself into the 57 degree weather still towering over everyone like Poseidon among all his tadpole minions. They all took off battling upstream like competing, bloodied salmon.

Before I knew it they were calling for girls and I jumped into Oquirrh "Lake" sinking into the silty, slimy earth almost up to my knees. Cold? Yes. Freezing actually. And then I was swimming the half mile in a pond-stream of a lake that I could have stood up in; my hands would rake the muddy bottom and stringy, slimy, seaweed would strangle my fingers as I stroked along. The corset wet suit held me super tight making it extremely difficult for me to breath and any time I could see light filtering through the surface of the water there were thick, yellow floaties swimming all around me. Every time I accidentally choked down some water I tried not to think about all the duck turds and microscopic germs that were now swimming in my stomach. The swim wasn't the most pleasant experience for those reasons and I'm surprised I haven't come down with the bird flu or the plague as of today, but it definitely got my blood pumping!

I finally made my way out of the black-brown, abyss of disease-infested waters and ran on the pavement to the exchange area. On the way I found my Poseidon half stripped of his wetsuit walking along looking as though he was ready to puke. I hugged him, wished him luck, and told him we could die together on the bike ride if the infected water hadn't gotten to us by then. I would have beat my dad out of the exchange area if my wetsuit hadn't decided it was all the sudden a large octopus with suctioncup tenticles that wouldn't let me go. Finally I was on the bike rushing to catch up with my dad. I finally caught him and we lumbered up the long, stretched out hills together. I got to the top and saw Poseidon pushing his way up the last of the hill and I torpedoed (yes, that is a word) down as fast as I could. After a few miles of pure bliss Casey came ZOOMING past me and said "See you, lovey!" I laughed...and then scowled...and then started pedalling faster.

The exchange to running was so much faster as all I had to do was pull off my shoes and put on my tennies. I started the 5K feeling pretty exhausted and almost had to walk from the cramps in my little calves. I kept on going and then I finally reached mile 1. Explitives. About a half an hour later mile 2 came. Okay, I'm exaggerating but it seemed like FOREVER! I pushed myself pretty hard on the run and finally got to the end where random people were cheering me on. I love random people that cheer. They are so great. I made it in for a time of 1:54 which isn't very good, but I was just glad I didn't die!

It was tons of fun and I was all sorts of out of shape so I'm excited for the next tri to beat my time! My Dad came in shortly after me at 2:01 placing third in his age group and Casey followed with a time of 2:03. I was so proud of my man! He never even complained:)

Who doesn't love Poseidon in bicycle shorts? And I love my cherry red face:) Next time we want to look all hard core just like Dad. What a team.

Patience is a virtue...

2011-06-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

Don't you HATE it when people say that?

This is what I say, "patience? I don't do patience."

Perhaps that's why I'm being challenged in that area lately.

Pet Peeve at work: somebody pees in the toilet but doesn't have the decency to flush.
Patience? A must have. (But seriously, are we 2nd graders?)

Bad hair day. For some reason every time I look in the mirror today I look like an innocent 18 year old little school girl. The fact that I am actually about a decade older than that tends to leave the look a little disheartening. I'm going for sophisticated/sexy here. Apply eye liner for the edge. Mess up the hair to "bed head" level and I'd say I had a little bit of success...at least until the eyeliner melted off only to settle under my eyes for a great "emo-mode" look and the hair looks more like "bun-of-frazzled-kindergarten-teacher." A valid effort. Patience? Sure. I may just cut my hair tomorrow. Chop it up nice and wildly short. Momma won't be surprised. Neither will husband. They never are anymore, and that's no fun!:)

I've found that patience is actually a lot easier to do if your COMPELLED to be patient. Like, if you don't have any other option than to be patient. I got some good advice from Elder Uchtdorf's Continue In Patience.

"Practice means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can-working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!"

Anyone that knows me very well knows that I don't "endure well" with delayed heart's desires. But I sure am trying!

Back it up, back it up!

2011-06-08T08:03:00.000-07:00

This day seems to be a "my-stomach-is-in-shreds" kind of day. There's a lot of things going on in our lives right now that you'd think shouldn't cause me anxiety, especially if it involves moving to a different state (because that is definitely what I wish for every other second), but I have anxiety all the same. Whenever that happens and I can't think straight-because my stomach is literally sending tidal waves of emotion to my heart-I simply turn on a little bit of Thomas Newman and for some reason it all just fades away and I can think clearly again. I really only need one song; that brilliant composer has me all figured out. And just in time, because I have a hilarious story for you:

I have sworn myself off of soda. It was a hard task. It's still a hard task. But I still find excuses to longboard to the gas station about 2 blocks down from my work. Excuses like "it's really nice outside today, I have to get out of this dungeon" and "gosh 2 large gatorades for $3 really is a great deal" or "must-have-crackers-or-I-will-combust." This particular time, 2 days ago, it happened to be the gatorade excuse. I took my hilarious co-worker, Jai, with me. He's half black so there is ALWAYS something funny lurking about.

We didn't have to wait long. The squatty, "I will not be trifled with" stern-faced gas station lady wouldn't even crack a smile for all of Jai's hilarious half-black efforts. Just when we thought she was about to give way and say something with an ounce of happiness in her voice we heard an earth-splitting, ground-shaking groan just outside. Ms. Squatty, with hair all ablaze, whipped around to see what had happened and screamed (in the most agonizing, paralyzing, grab your child and run kind of scream):

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Evidently the car port oning wasn't high enough on the clearance scale for a humble mother and son driving a large Uhaul van up to the pump. It had scraped along the aluminum casing of the oning and bent part of it under. It was an obvious tight squeeze that just wasn't going to pan out but it wasn't the end of the world. Squatty pants flung open the window in utter disdain, hung her poisonous Medusa head out the window and yelled "BACK UP!" Her voice was dripping with sheer hatred. Jai and I were peeing ourselves with laughter especially when the son in the passenger seat (Edward, from Twilight), grabbed his head and hung it in shame. He got out of the car and Jai said, "It's not that bad. I think she'll be okay."

Luckily the world didn't end that day. It may have for the squatty lady, but I can bet if I go down there right now, she'll still be around counting her till in pure misery. It made me think about what makes our days become completely demolished by outside factors. Why do we allow little things like that affect us so deeply that all the sudden we're having such a terrible day? Sometimes it seems we need a stronger element to pull us out of the downward spiral ever gaining momentum. (Other people already have it figured out, Sosa). Lucky for me I have Thomas Newman. What's your element?

ramblings

2011-05-31T17:40:00.000-07:00

I have the hardest time remembering to put the garbage cans out on the road every week. I don't really know why that is...but it's definitely a curious thing that my husband forgets about them as well. Weren't we supposed to marry our opposites? Here's a slash to the fairy tale: most "opposites" include the things you never want to become. Like, for instance, being reasonable...and rational...and responsible...at least from a "free spirit" point of view. Although, I do love that Casey gets to be those things instead of me. Mwuahahahaaaa! (evil laugh).

I've found that the opposites that attract are not necessarily where the other is weak and the other is strong. For instance...I am terrible at waking up in the morning. So is Casey. Snoozers? Absolutely. Snorers? Definitely. He is a deep sleeper. So am I. I tend to despise putting away my clean laundry. Evidently, so does my husband. Luckily we do differ on a few things. Like how Casey can make a meal in under an hour and I somehow stretch it out to 3 hours. How did I, the woman, choose the bad end of the cooking trait stick? Another slash for the fairy tale: when a recipe says "easy" that just means if you already have 20 of the rare such and such ingredients, it will only take you 45 minutes instead of 90.

It's windy today. I love the wind. More than any other phenomenon. Most people hate it. Which I didn't quite know until a couple years ago. (I suppose it's better that I'm finding THAT sort of thing out now instead of not realizing that a pickle was once, in fact, a cucumber. No, that wasn't me! Okay...maybe it was. I found that out 4 years ago. Please don't tell anyone). Reasons for hating the wind:

It makes it harder to ride my bike. Easy fix: don't ride your bike on windy days.
It pushes my car sideways on the freeway. Fix: roll down you windows.
It blows the hay around before I can bale it. Fix: Don't live on a farm.
It messes up my hair. Fix. Wear your hair messy to begin with.

Although...i do have a funny story about that. For Sunday School, my husband and I teach a gaggle of 6 year old boys every week. One windy Sunday morning, not too long ago, I let my wet hair whip wildly to the power of the wind before going into church. It must have been as large as a lion's mane because at least 3 of the 5 boys collectively looked at me and audibly gasped, "your hair!" I was laughing really hard. Note to self: don't do your hair like that again.

Perhaps I love the wind because I would find countless activities to do with it during my childhood. I would make sails for wagons and sleds and let the wind take me wherever it pleased. Or I would create parachutes out of bed sheets and jump off of playgrounds or from my parents second story window. (They weren't watching of course). I would sing like Pocahontas or climb tall trees as high as I dared to feel the sway of it's branches or try to catch goldfish crackers in my mouth as they flew uncertainly in rampant directions. But for whatever reason...I feel the most free on windy days. Like a careless bird of the brightest colors without fetters or prior engagements.

Why is it that wooden church pews are SO uncomfortable for an hour of church and so much more comfortable when they become your home furniture? (Stay tuned for THAT post).

I've had quite a bit of fun doing some projects for my sisters. Laura just got married and had a beautiful wedding. I was able to do the decoration for Laura's wedding and I was so enthralled that she trusted it to me! Luckily it didn't rain in the evening and the decorations were able to go as according to plan. I will dedicate a whole post to her but I wanted to show off the nightstands I painted and glazed for the occasion:

Here is a pic of my gorgeous sister and her husband:

And Camille just graduated from High School! Or, rather, this week. And I had quite a bit of fun taking pics of her and designing it into an announcement.

Not to mention, Court, the baby, has her driver's license now! I adore my sisters and I would do anything for them. It is hard to believe they are getting old enough to do things like drive cars, graduate, and get married. Life just keeps on keepin' on doesn't it?

Viva la Vernal

2011-05-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

3 hours.

That's how long it takes to get to Vernal.

"Dear Casey & Wife," Read the desperate email of the Director of Sales at At&t.

"Would you please consider going to Vernal as a 'team' to help out the new stores that have just been acquired from Altell? They are nose deep in paperwork and in dire need of your expert (for good measure) help. Great, I knew you'd say yes. You leave tomorrow."

Which is as if to say, "Please travel to middle Earth and throw lava rock from one pile to the other. Oh, and ps. don't die while you're there."

Alright. I'm surely exaggerating. I've sarcastically suggested that this was a terrible thing to take part in. And that is a lie. The truth is I'm really not that cynical at all. Anything to break up the monotony of my day and add a bit of challenge is something I highly look forward to.

We finally reached Duschene County (pronounced Doo-Shane) and I incidentally read it as Doosh-nay which coincidentally pitched me into a hysterical fit of laughter and euphoric derangement for at least an hour of the drive. Poor Casey. He kept trying to teach me Spanish and I kept converting them to Disney songs so I could remember words. They weren't exactly straight translations. I found that Spanish doesn't convert to the Japanese "Domo Origato Mr. Roboto" song very well either.

Thankfully my husband knows how to put up with me on long drives and we got to our super nice hotel just in time to go to bed at midnight and arise early for delicious waffles followed by a 12 hour work day! When I will usually do one half-full box of returns a week (about 10-15) phones we were able to knock out approximately 350! And I was loving life.

Vernal was fun for a couple of days. It was deathly cold for some reason but I feel like we helped to resurface their little sinking ship at least for a little while. I was glad to be of service.

the DUKE of DI

2011-05-27T13:07:00.000-07:00

One rainy afternoon sometime last week, I took a lunch break from work and headed to the Deseret Industries 2nd hand store to see what sort of furniture items they had for my temptation. You see, I've been really into making really ugly furniture look really cute lately and I was in the market for a new project.

I wasn't looking around for very long before I found a desk I just had to have. It was very cute-didn't need much work and it was only 25$! I had been looking for a desk for quite some time now. I took the little slip and paid for it and then said, "well I'll come back later today and pick it up." The desk was too large to fit into my car and I would need a larger vehicle to tote my new prize home.

"Hopefully it's still here when you come to get it," replied a snacky looking gentlemen with thick square glasses and pasty white skin. He was the type of character that comes sulking out of the shadows in a hooded "wanna-buy-a-watch" sort of cloak, speaking out of the corner of his mouth.

"What do you mean," I asked calmly. "I just paid for it. The sticker on the desk says sold."

"Yeah. Well, that doesn't stop people from switching tags." His hair looked like someone had taken the bright orange pollen that rubs off from lily flowers and smeared it on top of his head.

"So...can't you put it in the back for--"

"I don't have any room in the back. It's too full," the Duke interrupted.

"Okay. So if I come back and it's gone...do I get my money back?"

"Oh, we'll give you store credit."

Oh, thanks. Idiot. Just what I wanted.
"Can I put my name on it?"

"If it makes you feel better."

Stand up gentleman, this one. It was making me a little angry so I decided to leave since the Duke wasn't going to help me at all. I'm sure he was just doing his job...but he didn't make his points very nicely.

Luckily I was able to find a friend that was just getting off work so she could come pick it up for me. Thanks, Terese! Friends are the greatest. And now I can get started on my new project.

For some reason I'm really into refinishing furniture lately. So, I'm sure I'll be seeing more of the Duke himself. But beware...he may just jump out of the shadows and switch your "sold" stickers around. He's got to be the culprit...I'm keeping an eye on him:)

Bike it up, Buttercup!

2011-05-18T14:41:00.001-07:00

This is the story of why you should eat Wheaties for morning-of-bike-races instead of English Muffins.

Somehow my 2 best friends talked me into doing a 100 mile bike race with them on May 7th. Why not, right? Why not jump on a bike with my stick-no-muscle-legs and proceed to battle the wind up and down 70 bajillion hills for 13 thousand miles? No biggie. Turns out when the day came around finding me in my unprepared state there was a conflict with my schedule. My little sister Laura-who would be married 4 days later on May 11th-was going through the temple initiatory to getting married that same Saturday morning. Hmmmmm...this posed a little bit of difficulty since I had signed up myself for pure, mortal torture for the next 12 hours. I was able to do both, however, although not the bike race in its entirety. I did get to race for 2 full hours before I had to leave for the wedding party and though I felt bad leaving my friends, I was glad to be with my family that day for such a special thing. Here's what I remember most about that day:

5:15 am:
rolled out of bed.
proceeded to clothe myself in little biking shorts, a tank, and my huge gangsta sweats that are 7 sizes too big for me. (gosh I love those things).
stumbled to the kitchen.
thought: "gee, I'm hungry" (which is odd because I can NEVER eat before racing events. my stomach is ALWAYS in knots).
thought: "hmmm...I must not be nervous."
opened up cupboard to reveal an empty bag of english muffins. (husbands).
opened freezer.
took out frozen english muffin.
tried every angle to cut frozen english muffin with butter knife.
sliced finger...
...with butter knife.
cursed.
held finger.
wrapped bleeding finger with Disney CARS band-aid.
smiled.

7:01 am
"Hello, Herriman, UT."
gun goes off.
"GUYS HURRY!" says Lindzi.
Whit and I meandered over, click in, take off.
sang: umbrella by rihanna at the top of my lungs while riding with no hands for part of mile 2.
thought: "man, lindzi looks awesome when she clicks in!" and "has she always had such awesome calves?" and "why does she have so many awesome fake sponsors on her jersey?" (mwuahahahaha!)
thought: "hot-dang I look good in this jersey of whitney's"
thought: "gosh, whit sure is making this look like a cake-walk"

8:24 am
"flat tire!" whit says.
eeeerrrrk! says ashley's bike.
thought: fixing flats is way more fun than riding 100 miles.

9:03 am
"don't worry, honey! it's only 3 minutes past 9, we still have plenty of time. I'm on the main road. the MAIN road. come find me, I'm going up a hill. gotta go."
the "oh no, I'm going to miss the plane" panicked face that Casey does for the whole hour ride home. (he he he. he's so cute:).

11:30 am
"yay we made it!" face from Casey
"I knew we would, darling. Now, let go of the steering wheel, white knuckles."

That was pretty much the bike race! Everything else went great. It was awesome to see Laura in the temple with her man-to-be and fun to get pedicures after. Then Casey and I made homemade strawberry jam at my parents house, prissed up my littler sister, Camille, for her hot prom date (ow, ow!) and went home to probably watch a movie and fall into bed in an exhausted state.

Whit and Lindz and our friend Lisa made it all the way through the 100 mile bike race by like 5 pm and I was so proud of them. Yay for 100 mile bike races that I don't have to do! Hah! Just kidding. I'll for sure have to do another one, for REAL this time.

Sunshine, Please.

2011-04-19T12:54:00.000-07:00

BEWARE! VERY HEAVY READING (& pictures!) Let's face it. We all know I'm long-winded. But it's just too good not to share!

So, let's pretend that we live in Utah and it's springtime and it's actually sunny. (Cue thunder sounds) Not a chance. Say hello the rain and the snow and the sleet and the hail and the dark luminous clouds that flood out every ball game you have lined up from now until JUNE! Okay...perhaps I'm being a bit dramatic...

NOW let's pretend that I MIGHT have gone to the Caribbean for a few days and let's think about what we would have done during that time...

Imagine, if you will, a LARGE cruise ship sitting in the bay at Fort Lauderdale that seems higher than the Empire State Building from the dock. It's fit to hold up to 6000 people with more balcony rooms than you can imagine and full of zip-lines, surf-simulators, rock-climbing walls, and water slides with 3 or 4 pools! Dreamland, right? Oh wait, sorry...that was the wrong boat. Turn around. Now what do you see? Yes...an old, rickety, much, much more modest boat with 2 saltine cracker size pools and quarter size hot tubs. But still you're thinking, hey! Not bad! "I'm on a boat motha----I'm on a boat! Don't you e're forget!" (it's a rap song. A way cool rap song. That I just bleeped for you). Yes, we were on the smaller boat, but guess what? It was still SO MUCH FUN!

After we made it to our cabin and walked around the boat taking in the specs, we had our fun giggling after the walkers and the canes and the motorized carts that all the old people were using to sustain themselves. Wha? Did I say GIGGLING? I mean't GAWKING...in a good way...like "They're still here!?" As in, "Wow, that's so inspiring...I also want to be on a cruise when I'm like 108." The truth is...We happened to choose the 11-day cruise ship that had a capacity of 1600 people, 1500 of which were old...the other 98 being middle aged...and the other 2 being me and Casey. Okay...there I am exaggerating again. Let's quit talking about the specs and get on with the good stuff! Like how I got FRIED on the first day at: (Cue low sports-arena announcing voice that echos)

HALF MOON CAY (The Bahama's private little island):

Okay. Talk about PRISTINE! For those of you who believe paradise to be an "untouched mountain of powder full of possible avalanche pockets and little signs that blink 'DANGER! EXPERTS ONLY! NO OTHER WAY DOWN!'" DO NOT READ ON. You'll only be disappointed. Because I'm about to melt away your little ant hill with 96 degrees of pure, unfiltered, just-north-of-the-equator sunlight. (Cue Chorus of Heavenly Angels)Half Moon Cay was devoid of any and all dark and ominous things like, prickly bushes, and poky sea shells, and sharp rocks, and bare-foot-slicing-broken-beer-bottle-glass, and scary looking sea animals. In fact I'm pretty sure that God himself came down and touched the island with his finger. I'm also pretty sure that's were the angel's go on vacation. The sand was so fine and so perfect you literally had to ask yourself how it could be possible. We pulled up some beach chairs and got a little too excited to apply any sort of sunscreen. It wasn't THAT HOT if you were standing in the ocean...With child-enthusiasm we adorned our snorkeling gear and jumped in the ocean to find absolutely nothing at all. (Okay...I should probably drop the "we" here...who am I kidding? I was the one so excited...not Casey...heaven help him for marrying a 5 year old). Needless to say we totally got BURNED but we had lots of fun. And the water was GORGEOUS. Let's move on.

Day 2: The next day we were at sea and the only problem I had with the ship was the shot-glass size cups of ice water they gave you. I know. I'm just full of complaints. But seriously. I was wishing I brought my liter sized water bottle to guzzle it down because I had to get 5 cups just to keep myself hydrated for the hour. One time I even thought to myself, "I'd like a coke or something." "Oh, sure miss. That'll be $1.95 per can." There was that gawking face again. Nix the coke.(This means...NO CHERRY COKE (or Dr. Pepper) FOR 11 WHOLE days! How did I ever survive without that syrupy goodness? I didn't even touch it for 24 years and then BOOM! Say hello to the nectar of the Gods. Remember when I used to run marathons?! (ahem...the little angel on my shoulder just corrected me: maraTHON...make that singular) I used to be so good...and then there was soda...mmmm). I pretty much had to stay out of the sun the next day...due to my crimson shade...expletives...but reading was fun. Would you belive I actually read 4 books on the cruise? I don't blame you. I can't either.

Aren't underwater pictures just the cutest?

Bring on the Saints!

Day 3: St. Croix

What an odd little town. If Half Moon Cay was created by heaven, it sure looked like Hades was put in charge of this island. We were able to walk off the boat onto a loooooong dock that funneled us into the city of cement block homes with peeling paint of all colors. We walked past a few shops and weaved in and out of old buildings, taking pictures of crumbling archways and old churches. We didn't know what else to do, really. We combed the beach front and found more conch shells then I ever knew existed and it was all I could do to NOT take up an armfull and start blowing every single one to see if it would make a loud horn-blasting sound. I was about to jump over the fence and try them all out when Casey grabbed my arm and talked some sense into me. See what I mean about child? I didn't agree with him...but I did obey:) (Cue applause and cheering).

We saw a lot of people there and I kept getting the impression they didn't really appreciate people coming there. Maybe it was the way they stared at us as if to say, "don't you dare step on that beach, you gringo" or the way they would just glare when we said "hello," or the way one guy yelled at us to "USE the F---ing SIDEWALK!" instead of the road. "You TOO!" I shouted. But I don't think they know who Brian Regan is...so nobody laughed.

We did walk a ways down the beach to a less populated area and Casey watched our stuff on a pile of ants in the shade while I picked my way through the garbage/broken glass strewn beach to get into the water with my snorkeling mask. The first thing I saw was a head full of hair drifting on the bottom of the ocean floor. It was the Bob Marley kind of hair when it's all fro'd out and twisted into curls at the end. It was swaying with the waves on the ocean floor not even 5 feet down and I wouldn't have been surprised if there was still a head attached to it. It kind of freaked me out so I kept looking up to make sure nobody had mugged my 6'7" husband. But what was I going to do? Throw a flipper at them? Don't worry. I didn't investigate the head of human hair further and I pretended like I was interested in some other underwater garbage a few more feet out before coming back to claim there wasn't much to see. I suggested we should probably just walk down to where all the white-people looking umbrellas were perched on the shore about half a mile down. We found a commercialized little hut with guava-colada smoothies (that were to DIE for) and some non-garbage-ized (I love making up words) sand. (Let's face it...in scary town central we tourists, (I personally hate the term tourist) are BEGGING for a bit of commercialized property. Makes the public comfortable...right?). I even convinced Casey to come out into the water and play with me for a bit. I didn't see any dead person hair so I figured the waters about a half a mile down were safer:)

The MOST fun part about St. Croix was discovering that the really long dock on the way back to the ship had a ladder to climb up from the water. This meant that somehow I puppy-dog-eyed Casey into jumping off the dock and into the water only to climb back up and do it at least 6 more times before being told we weren't supposed to do that. "Oh really officer?" (cue puppy-dog eyes) "I'm so sorry. I had no idea! I'll never do it again!" Snicker snicker. (I think my shoulder angel almost had an aneurism). Well, it's not always the expensive stuff that makes trips so fun:)

Day 4: St. Kitts

We didn't have anything planned at this stop either, but it ended up being really fun. We were shopping around (I fenagled Casey into buying 2 pairs of boardshorts-this is MONUMENTAL! He purchased something FOR HIMSELF!)when a man with some monkeys came up to me. He had Bob Marley hair-the dreaded kind-and I told him I didn't have any cash. "No bother" he said. And he let us take pictures with the monkeys. SO CUTE! Then another guy, Vernon (whom Casey kept calling VERNER-he was WAY off!) came up to us and told us he could take us on a 2-3 hour tour of the island for $20 each. We succumbed and he took us loads of places showing us 250 year old trees and mutli-million (or billion) dollar homes, and old churches, and old sugar cane plantations, and breathtaking lookout points! There were monkeys in the trees and weird sounding birds all over the place. The tour really helped us appreciate St. Kitts a lot more and by the time we got to the beach we were pooped! We snorkeled again, naturally, and saw an octupus. Later I found out it was the poisonous kind...eeek! But don't worry...we didn't get hurt and Casey only tried to touch it like 5 times. Ha ha. Secret: Casey gets very adventurous when he's underwater! Other Secret: I don't. "Verner" got us back to the boat in record time. Just in time for 2nd lunch! (And now, please give a moment of silence for the $7 walmart-purchased water socks that didn't make it back on the boat with me...sad face:()

Day 5: St. Vincent

GORGEOUS! We pulled into port about 10:30 am and when I looked outside my heart melted from how beautiful it was. All the other islands we had been to had been a little flatter and green but NOTHING like St. Vincent. Say hello to black, sheer cliff sides covered with luscious, mossy, green jungle foliage and black, volcanic rock sand. THIS is what I call "Paradise." Evidently the volcanic rock tends to keep the soil very fertile, which described the thick, raw, rainforest everywhere you looked full of exotic looking trees, flowers, and fruit.

We had planned to do the kayak/snorkeling tour and we were really excited to see everything. Our guide, Sherlock, told us as we were driving through the city that it was Saturday, which meant it was market day; everybody was out selling their brightly colored vegetables under their brightly colored tents in their brightly colored clothes. The population of the island was 110,000 and everybody built their own house. They build them in whatever shape they want, in whatever color they want, on whatever part of the island they want. There is no rhyme or reason to the way they build and it was so fun seeing everybody's personality come out in their different houses. There were some houses on stilts being held against the steep hillsides and there were some on the tops of the hills or hidden back in the trees. Other houses would build around or on top of large volcanic rocks.

There was a narrow, windy road that weaved through the colorful lego city popping out of patches of thick jungle. We finally got to the beach that we were going to launch off into our kayaks and the black sand was so breathtaking-and HOT-I just had to scoop some up and take it home. I filled my water bottle about 3/4 full before I got a look from Casey that said "Do we REALLY need that much sand?" so I put in one (or two) more handful/s and stopped.

We boarded the kayaks and headed out to sea! Casey and I got to share one which made things easier and the going faster. We got to the sheer cliff sides where our guide took us through a bat cave which was AWESOME! and dark...and batty...and I definitely got pooed on but I didn't care! The water was gorgeous and clear outside of the cave, so having an underwater camera was perfect (THANKS, Dad!). Next we kayaked around the cove into the open sea and the waves were swelling around us, pitching us up and down. They weren't HUGE swells, but it made the kayaking a little more challenging and fun. Sherlock showed us the cove where they filmed Pirates of the Caribbean and then led us a couple coves over where we stopped on the beach to snorkel and sunbake. I found DOZENS of sand dollars on the bottom of the ocean and I was totally freaking out cuz I'd never seen one "in the wild!" I almost peed my pants. No, actually...I think I did. But it's the ocean! DUH. Casey kept giving me the eye through his snorkel mask as I would dive down and retrieve them to see if they were dead or alive (ps. I didn't even know sand dollars were actual living creatures...I just thought they were a mix between rocks and coral...then Casey filled me in. Yay for really smart husbands!), but luckily I couldn't see Casey's "eye" through his mask anyways. It didn't take him long to realize I wasn't interested in the fish like he was. Fish? Psh! Sand Dollars? Paa-leeze! I found a few that were take-home-able and I did my best not to break them. On the shore our guide let us (us as in Casey wouldn't try it. I can't blame him-he wasn't underwater) hold a couple sea urchins. The not-so-poisonus/dangerous kind, of course. Mine looked like a chocolate macaroon ball that had pointy coconut shards tipped in brown sticking out of it. It was way scary to hold it at first but Sherlock said it was perfectly safe. I took a picture of the peice of shorline for sale and we got back in our kayaks and rowed back to shore. I still dream about that little island that melted my heart.

Day I don't even remember now: Barbados

Despite it's REALLY COOL SOUNDING name, Barbados didn't turn out to be one of our favorite islands. It was a bit more industrialized, which is fine, and made out of coral instead of volcanic rock, which apparently made the island a lot flatter than the other ones. We did a shipwreck snorkeling tour at Carlisle Bay and hung out on Rockley Beach for the rest of the day. The shipwreck was awesome! (Although, they probably planted it there for the tourists to gawk after. Gawk). The beaches were GORGEOUS! and I saw 3 sea turtles within 10 feet of me. It was so cool! I even tailed one for like 10 minutes and then somehow...it disappeared. I'm not even joking you! I think there's some sort of disappearing sea turtle magic that's been given to those helpless little guys cuz how else would they survive? That or he combusted into a gajillion micro peices of matter because I was tailing him so closely. Tell me, though, how do you lose a sea turtle?

Casey and I took the "15-20" minute walk back to the cruise ship-that ended up being an hour and 15 minutes...ha ha...don't ask the locals...cuz they don't know. But it was fine. We got there in time and our boat didn't leave us. Hooray!

Day Whatever #2: St. Lucia

The best part about St. Lucia was that I still had like 4 more days of vacation! I was not even getting tired of it! Who would? Get this! No seriously. Hang on to your pants. One word: Tranopy. I realize it means nothing to you, but not for long. Imagine a dozen of ziplines under a large expanse of exotic jungle canopies. Still have your pants? We took a tram through the "canopy" of the jungle and our guide told us about every tiny little fact you would ever want to know about the jungle and the plants and the animals and the birds. It was SO beautiful. Then we took the tram back down for a breathtaking view of the ocean off in the distance and a sneak peek at our upcoming zipline extravaganza! We zipped 10 different lines through the gorgeous jungle. We even did a Tarzan swing and repel-dropped 70 feet! LOVED it! It was so much fun! And I even got to go backwards:)

The Last Day (sniffle) before the trek back to Florida:( St. Maarten

Now, THIS is the place that you'd want to live. If you take the topless/bottomless beach chicks out of the equation you'd have a downright perfect island and here's why: Sailing. (Cue longing and contented sigh). Our last expedition was the Regatta. Our group was split into 3 different groups and distributed onto 3 different sail boats measuring 68 ft in length to race to the finish for the cup! (fake cup). Our guides told us how sailing races began-first in England-then America took the cup for 100+ consecutive years until the Aussies ripped it from our hands. (BOO Australia!) But Captain Dennis Conner (who actually was the one to lose to the Aussies) won it back for America on the Stars and Stripes sail boat which is actually the exact same boat Casey and I got to race on...or so they told us...

They breifed us on what our jobs were going to be and then we headed out into the open sea on a rolling start to forge our victory against the other two boats. It was really intense! Waves were spilling over the side and when the boat was full sail we were almost paralell with the water when we would turn. We had to go around a few bouys and then re-loop the course. It was hard to know where we were going and just how our captains were gaging the wind. One of the other boats cut right in front of us to turn around the bouy and head back out to sea and I had no idea sail boats could turn like that! On a dime! It was a very close call across the finish line but our boat won! We were so excited jumping up and down and yelling and screaming at the top of our lungs. It was the most fun thing I've ever done in my life and something happened that day. You've probably already guessed it:

Yep. I want a sail boat. I've wanted one before but now I want one more than ever. And not only do I want a sail boat but I want to sail the world. Again. I've wanted that before...but now I want it more than ever. I think Casey is silently cursing that he ever took me on that boat because I won't shut up about it. But deep down I know he wants to do it too! (Now all I need to do is get my 5 little shoulder devils to play with his mind and blot the reason and rationality and responsibility clean out of him! Pray for me?)

We had two full days at sea that we spent eating and reading and lounging and laying out and eating and reading and eating. It was an AMAZING trip! We saw a lot of really cool, gorgeous places and did a lot of really cool things. I couldn't have asked for more! Even on our zip-line-less, waterslide-less, big pool-less, rock-climbing wall-less, karaoke-less, young people-less ship! I know, it's true. We can all shed a tear. They DIDN'T have karaoke:( Which I actually decided was okay because the only songs to sing to were probably the "they're gonna put me in the movies-they're gonna make a big star outta me" western type songs that make you wanna heave yourself overboard into the ocean to be eaten alive by caribbean man-eating sharks. I just love that my man is so content with 7 books for entertainment on an 11-day cruise. And he's smiling all the way. I just love being with him. I don't need anybody else to make me happy. He makes every situation perfect and there's no such thing as a "bad day" when he's around. We got wicked tan and we were sad to leave the ship. We should probably start planning the next one now...

Ps. Thanks to Mike and Patricia for listening to all our ramblings at the dinner table! It was so pleasant to have you with us while we ate all 5 of our desserts every night! I wonder if Mike has responded to the breakfast-in-bed menu on the door knob yet? I didn't think so. Didn't work on Casey either:)

Hiatus

2011-04-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you a little story about this word...

Rewind back a few years, say 10 or 11, when I was 16-ish and gangly beyond all reason, and hardly cordinated enough for any sports besides the awkward track, cross country, and swimming teams. Let's just say I was an innocent, bright-eyed little girl with shishkabob-stick legs and large feet. I attended seminary during school hours for a bit of religious inspiration and I particularly remember one lesson that branded itself into my mind: The Parable of the Cinnamon Roll.

My seminary teacher told us the secret to life was to be like the center of a cinnamon roll. He then proceeded to ask us what the particular qualities of the center of a cinnamon roll were. With warm afternoon, high-school-lunch induced enthusiasm we answered: delicious, soft, sugary, and things along that line. He agreed that soft and supple were the right answers. If you want to find joy in living the commandments of the Lord-be bendable and soft in the very core and you will find your life will become just as sweet! He made up some bogus word describing this very desirable trait that I logged away in the back of my forgetful mind only to try and dig it up a decade later.

Fast forward to 2009 when in the basement apartment of a quaint neighborhood my 3 bored friends and I sat around making the greatest phonetic alphabet ever to be known by man. We decided that 1 o'clock in the morning was the perfect time to put our minds together and top the army's alphabet. Forget Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, and bring on Wombat, Turbulent, Floosy. We started with A, naturally, and the new labels were as follows: Artichoke, Baboon, Curaco, Delinquent, Electromagnetic, Frolic (or Floosy-we couldn't decide) and Garbonzo. We got to the H and my brilliant friend, Isaac, suggested the word, "hiatus." If you roll the word off of your tongue just right it's a very appealing word to say and we all agreed that it was the perfect word for H (whether or not we knew the meaning to it). Before we proceeded to the letter I, my friend Sarah asked, "what does that even mean, anyways?" For some reason brainiac didn't answer right away and we were all left to the stupor of our own thoughts.

Suddenly it hit me, I knew exactly what it meant. Slowly and surely I answered while cupping my hands as though I were holding precious water in them, "It's like the center of a cinnamon roll." I was so confident in my answer and it sounded so profound that I didn't even think the following tangible silence was awkward at all. Then all of my friends burst into laughter so intensely they started crying. Isaac informed me that I was definitely not correct. "That's not even close!" he exclaimed through ragged breathing, "It means to take a break!" I tried to explain the bogus word I learned ten years ago in that unforgettable (riiighhht)seminary lesson (and that I could have sworn my life on at least started with an H), but nobody understood. We laughed harder still and the memory remains as one of the funniest things that has happened to this day. That, and rollerblading around in my living room with wetsuits on. But that's another story.

SPRING time!

2011-03-24T07:06:00.001-07:00

I woke up with so much energy this morning it was almost unbelievable. That NEVER happens! My alarm went off and I thought..."hey! I'm awake!" and I got out of bed...it was the most amazing thing I've ever felt in my life! Well okay, maybe there were other things but I deal in extremes so if you're not used to it by now, you might need to get used to it:) I felt very empowered and motivated and energized, well I still do and I looked at my blog, said "tsk, tsk" and started writing. I've a lot of random thought so we'll see how they come out...

I love the spring. I think I mostly just love the fact that we are coming out of a drab winter and into a new season. I've never loved the cold. I love the snow...but I don't love the cold. I am a summer girl all the way. The other day when it was nice out I went running around in a park and I watched a few skater kids dropping bowls and jumping out of half pipes and grinding rails. It was so fun to watch. Sometimes I like to think I'm a skater girl...and I know deep down it's a lie. I can only longboard and I don't even take steep hills anymore. I could skate in a park to save my life! But in my mind I'm a rockstar and I'm going to be one of those 30 year old pro skate boarder chicks-you just wait!

I wanted to wash my car today. According to the local weather forcast it's supposed to snow later on. I'm not even upset about it (THAT's how amazing I feel this morning)! I might even still wash my car; I have found that sickening bird poop all over your car is a great motivator for washing it. I used to hate the rain. Well...I still might...but I don't today. In my childhood rain was always the inhibitor for going out and riding my bike or playing basketball on my backyard court or playing softball or soccer or something like that. Rain was always the most bummer thing that could ever happen to a child in the summer. It's strange that in adulthood I'm so much more content just sitting under an oning and watching the rain or opening up my window to smell the wet pavement or cuddling up with a blanket and writing a story. I always thought that wind was the best of all weather phenomenon's and rain the very worst...but now it's kind of moving up on the scale.

Casey and I have had a very fun winter. We've been snoboarding/skiing a few times, and we've used our snowshoes a handful of times too. We got in sledding, snowmobiling, shooting stuff in the snowy wildernesss (Casey's personal favorite), jumping off balcony's into deep snow, flipping of stuff into deep snow (MY personal favorite), watching the snowboarding half-pipe Dew Tour competition, and staying at a snowy cabin. Not to mention watching almost every movie that ever came out...and in Casey's case (that phrase doesn't really work with his name...) reading every book that was ever written (I'm not kidding you he has read like 12 books since December...that is UNHEARD of for me. I like reading...but not THAT much). Anyways, it was quite the adventurous winter for us and now we are looking forward to Spring and Summer with great anticipation.

This is how: we're getting a softball team together with a lot of fun people that's starting in April. I'm on an outdoor soccer rec league team that I'm really excited about and we've gotten out our bikes and have started riding:) We are also going on a cruise next Monday for 11 days. We just had to do it. It's a Southern Carribean Cruise to St. Kitts, St. Croix, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Barbados, and a few other places. I CANNOT wait to be in the sun and the beautiful ocean sipping on fruity little smoothies.

Hopefully you can excuse my absence for a couple of weeks...ha ha...not that you don't do that all the time with my blog. But hey, I am trying. Work was busy, hectic for a while but we got audited and got a really good score (which reflects on me) so I'm happy about that, and I just got over a super nasty sickness that lasted for 2 full weeks, and I'm acing my one school class that the U told me I "somehow missed and need to take in order to graduate." LAME! But I'm doing well and I'm happy about that.

I love my husband. I love my life. I love my family. I love the rain. I love cruises:)

Peppery fish chowder

2011-02-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

The other night I made this delicious tilapia chowder. It was way super good, we loved it. Here is the recipe for those of you that would like to give it a try!

2 medium red potatoes (or 1 1/2 regular potatoes skinned)
1 1/2 cups water, divided
1 1/2 tsp salt, divided
4 slices peppered bacon
1 small onion (or if onion makes you sick...like me...just use 1/4 to 1/2 of an onion)
2 garlic cloves, pressed (or 1 tsp if its in the jar; 1/2 tsp=1 garlic clove)
3 Tbsp flour
2 cups clam juice
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 lb boneless, skinless tilapia fillets
1/4 cup snipped fresh parsley
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Hot sauce (optional)

Dice potatoes, place in 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 cup water, cover and place in microwave on HIGH for 6-8 minutes or until tender. Do not drain.
Dice bacon into 1/2 inch pieces and mince onion. Place bacon in deep skillet and cook over medium heat 5-7 minutes or until crisp. Remove half of the bacon and set aside.
Add onion, garlic to remaining bacon in skillet, cook 2-3 minutes or until onion is tender. Add flour and cook 1 minute stirring constantly until flour is evenly distributed. Slowly add clam juice, potatoes with cooking water and remaining 1 cup water, remaining 1 tsp salt and black pepper; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 3-5 minutes.
As soup simmers, carefully remove reddish brown vein down length of tilapia. Cut tilapia into 3/4 inch pieces and add to skillet. Cook an additional 2-4 minutes or until tilapia is opaque throughout.
Meanwhile, snip parsley using a pair of kitchen scissors. Remove soup from heat. Stir in cream and parsley and ladle into bowls. Top each serving with reserved bacon pieces. Serve with hot sauce if desired.

It turned out to be way better than I thought; I love trying new things. It's fun learning how to be a little cooking wifey! I figure I gotta have it figured out by the time I have kids and I have a LONG way to go before I get to the "figured out" part about cooking. My mom is a pro, so I have her to thank! Perhaps I'll add a couple more recipes for those of you that are interested.

There went the bride...

2011-02-07T22:56:00.000-08:00

Okay...I know I'm kinda 4 months behind, but I figured some people would still want to see and read about my wedding, right? I've been working on this for a long time...so, please enjoy! I'm excited to finally get it up.

Friday, September 17, 2010:
THIS WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PERFECT DAY OF MY LIFE! (except for maybe that one time I went snowboarding at 2 in the morning under the light of a bright, full moon shining down on 2 fresh feet of glistening powder on the back side of Powder Mountain. Pure Euphoria. Some of you understand:)

The morning started pretty early. Casey and I, (mostly I), wanted to do something fun/adventurous on our wedding day too. I suggested hang gliding, which he quickly refuted with "Oh, yeah, great! We'll just die on our wedding day before we're even married!" Such a drama king. So then I suggested going to a water park and inviting everyone to come along. He didn't like that idea either. Finally we both agreed on a hot air balloon ride. I got to be in the air, so I was ecstatic, and he, due to his research, could rest easy knowing that we weren't going to die. Research: Hot Air Balloon Safety. Conclusion: Safe.

It was a gorgeous, clear sky morning. A bit chilly on the way up in the balloon, but we got to watch the sun rise and pour over the luscious, green beautiful valley of Heber. The ride was very smooth, nobody fell out or died, and we all touched ground safely.

Breakfast was the next item of business. Since we weren't getting married 'til later we decided to invite all the friends and have a serious meal at the Pancake House. Casey and I DEFINITELY ordered pumpkin pancakes. It just makes the season feel so authentic when you're shoving pumpkin spice flavored food down your throat. It feels a bit out of place and hard to imagine since I'm writing about this in February and all I can think about is those little cherry-flavored JuJu Hearts...but you'll just have to imagine yourself back into the fall season for a moment. Or I could just wait another year to post this...all in favor? I didn't think so.

Moving on, breakfast was delicious and super fun to have our close friends share the morning with us. I went to bride myself up at my house. Emilee came over to do my hair in a twist around the back and a spiky spray on the right with a feather head ornament. Casey and I drove to the Salt Lake Temple with everything packed and ready to go for the day.

The temple ceremony was amazing. I was completely in love with my temple dress. Jill, Casey's mom, made it for me. I designed it and she made it within a week; she's an amazing seamstress. It was touching to have our close family and friends there with us. Of course my dad started crying. I'm sure he thought it would never actually happen...me getting married to a stand-up "reasonable" gentleman. Ha ha. So...I MAY have teared up a bit too. I've always been a daddy's girl, and I, his little princess. Casey and I got some really good advice and took the first real step to promising our virtuous lives to each other.

Moments later we walked out of the temple and into a beautiful sunny day and the arms of friends and family.

We took some pictures around the around the temple, then headed to our luncheon at a park in Bountiful. We had Plates & Palates cater it and it was delicious. We ordered Fennel Chicken, Roast Beast, and Pear & Pecan Salad, my favorite. Then of course some little coconut flavored cheesecake squares. My family surprised us by giving us a radio flyer wagon (that I REALLY really wanted for about 10 consecutive Christmas's in a row), and my dad and brothers sang us a song. It was sweet.

The reception came next which was the visual culmination of all the wedding planning I took part in. It was in a gorgeous backyard with a little waterfall and river running through the back part of the yard; trees and plants lined the edge of the large expanse of green grass. The size of the yard was perfect and helped create the beautifully natural ambiance I was going for. We strung up some white lights and rented a dance floor, threw up some tables and chairs decorated in white linen, burlap, and water pitchers full of colorful wildflowers. The entrance was my favorite. Twine clotheslines bordered the narrow entrance to the backyard where we pinned up some of our favorite pictures from our dating life. The entrance table had a vintage typewriter on which the guests could type their "words of advice." The same table coupled with a shutter that held pictures of our childhood pastimes on which the guests could write their congratulations which we later put into a book. My favorite was the hanging mailbox that we had guests put their letters in. I had a lot of fun creating the entry-way. It took a lot of help from my dedicated friends that I was so grateful for and it turned out just the way I imagined.

Food:
Cheese, crackers, fruit, fruit, fruit! And little fresh peach and pumpkin pies. We didn't want to have a cake for our wedding so we had three tiers of our favorite pie: Peach! My mom was such an angel to make the pies the day of:) She also made all the mini pies that our guests raved about. It was all so good:)

Music:
I had all my very talented friends come and play their different respective instruments and sing. All my sisters, best friends, brothers, and other talented individuals participated. The ambiance was perfect because of their music. I only regret I wasn't able to sit there in front and watch them all. We had a DJ as well for the sound system and dancing afterward:)

My Hawaiian cousins, JJ & Jonnie, were so nice to fly from Hawaii to come see our wedding. They performed a beautiful Hawaiian wedding dance for us and gave us leis. My Auntie Margaret also came and made leis for both of our parents. I loved having my Hawaiian family participate in my wedding.

I surprised Casey by singing to him "I need a hero." My sisters were my back up singers and it was tons of fun for me.

Camille must have been way ahead of the game...or way behind...

We cut the pie and shoved each others' faces full of it. Mom makes a delicious pie!

Danced our dance. (The many dancing practices in my basement paid off...Casey wasn't sweating bullets under the spotlight. I was so proud of him. He even dipped me).

Danced with Mom & Dad. Dad loves dancing. We danced to "Once Upon a Dream" from Sleeping Beauty. Dad used to sing it to me when I was a little girl and twirl me around in the living room. It just seemed right to replicate it. Casey and his mom, Jill, decided that they each had two left feet and decided they were better off just skirting the dance floor. I think I may have shocked his family a little bit once the hip hop started...I like to let loose sometimes.

Casey took a little convincing to get to the dance floor for the hip hop music. He doesn't really love dancing like a fool. I suppose I can't blame him...if I were 6'7" I might not like it so much either...but I did have to DRAG him to the dance floor at one point. Ha ha. And then his nieces did a pretty good job of keeping him on it.

I threw the bouquet behind me as we drove away on my 1979 Honda XL Endurosport motorcycle. I let Casey drive it so he felt like a man...I'm such a good wife! It was the perfect ending to the perfect day and I was so happy to see everyone that came to my wedding.

My amazing photographer, Jordi Burr, captured all the other magical moments that words don't need to describe! Gander away.

Overall, I wouldn't have changed anything about that day. I was so happy to be married to such an amazing, strikingly handsome, man that I can live out the rest of my life with. It was everything I wanted my wedding day to be.

(A special thanks to my amazing family members and in-laws and my outstanding friends Lindzi, Whitney, Terese, Emilee, Nichol, & Sharee for helping me in all the little ways a bride needs help. I'm so grateful for your friendship).

Warm Vanilla Sugar

2011-01-30T14:44:00.000-08:00

Bath & Body works have definitely got some things figured out. With scent being the strongest thing linked with memory, their scents have followed me throughout my life and brought me back to certain moments of my childhood. I used Warm Vanilla Sugar scented soap at someone's house yesterday and it brought back a whole slew of memories. It primarily reminds me of my cousin Mychelle. It was her favorite smell at the time, so naturally I had to get the same smelling bottle of lotion. I figured the boys would love it.

It reminds me of being a punk high school kid driving with Mychelle in her cluttered car from my house to hers and getting off the freeway exit almost running over some stray rodent. Whatever possessed me to suddenly care for the life of that dirty animal I can't even answer today. I screamed at Mychelle to stop as her car straddled over it and back up (on the off ramp). Whatever possessed HER to actually do what I asked is also still a mystery. But she did and luckily the car straddled back over the gopher-like animal and shone its headlights on the thing scurrying along slowly.

"Quick!" I reasoned with my cousin, "give me some gloves or something!" I remember Mychelle laughing at this point as if to say, "Hey, I know there's lots of junk in my car, but I don't have those." I settled for some clean socks and got out of the car to go and rescue the poor mangy animal. I managed to scoop it up in my socked hands, evidently unafraid of rabies or some sort of plague; I was just worried about the life of this gopher, if it was even a gopher.

Luckily no cars had come behind us on the off ramp and I jumped in the passenger seat with my prize thinking of what to call him and where I would keep him and how I had just saved his life and his little heart was beating so fast. I'm pretty sure my cousin thought I was CRAZY but she drove on until I screamed and threw my little rodent up in the air. He BIT me! It didn't cut through the sock but it startled me and I threw him out of my hands. At first I thought he was running around in the bottom of the car and then I noticed him running away from the car. I suppose I had thrown him out the open car window. So much for that idea! My cousin said as we were driving away, "let's not try that again..." But we still laugh about it to this day. I didn't get rabies...

Warm Vanilla Sugar also reminds me of long nights at the Applied Technology Center for Pharmacy Technician school; I was also with Mychelle. It reminds me of sleeping over at her house and painting flowers on our toenails and listening to Mindy McCready and stuffing myself with ranch-flavored corn nuts only to wake up in the middle of the night spewing them out. There's so many memories there.

Thank you, Bath & Body works, for reminding me of these moments.

Much Ado

2011-01-29T17:55:00.001-08:00

I've decided it's time to stop waiting on myself to put up "THE WEDDING!" post..ha ha. It IS in the works...(I'm having conflicts with my computer memory space and all my wedding pictures; I've FAR too much music)...but NO use keeping you in the dark about the rest of my life:)

THIS is what I'm doing right now:

Looming over my husband taking secret pictures of his slumber with colored pencil photo booth effects. Perhaps I should have somehow hoisted him up and put a jacket and tie on him and taken a family picture for our wall, but I suppose that wouldn't be too far from appearing like necrophilia. I'll spare you then. He is sleeping (at 7 pm on a Saturday night); my Goliath has fallen, and I'm afraid he has extinguished the fluff in the puff-patch quilt beneath him. How he manages to stay asleep atop the quilt and not under it probably has to do with his abominable snowman heat producing capabilities. I'm as warm as a cold blooded eel, but next to him my cheeks flush and I find myself pushing away from his mass to cool off on the other side of the king size bed. Still, though...he is squishing the puffs!

I'll recount the day. Maybe we can solve the mystery of what sleeping serum he's managed to find. We awoke to the beautiful blue bird day to go skiing...and then didn't go. Casey has one more free pass to use with my season one and we chose to use it on a bomb snow day:) Which is fine with me. Here's the reality about Casey: I don't care what we do. When I'm with him, it's my best day ever. After the staring at the drab gray bars of my caged-in work week, I'm ready to break free and just be with the man I love. Nothing is better; except maybe homemade coconut syrup drenched on waffles and freshly cut strawberries in a hammock on my North Shore beach, (can I claim it if I've never done it? Well the breakfast and the Hawaiian sunrise were separate...but I've never done them both simultaneously. To me...imagining should account for it all). Sorry to sell you out to the beach and the coconut syrup, honey, but we all have our cheats.

We made omelets and watermelon smoothies then set out to my soccer game, played some racquetball (I won, 3 out of 5-which is AMAZING because Casey usually beats me soundly, the little cuss), cut Casey's hair, booked a cruise, had a sudden urge to try and dance like Michael Jackson (ha ha ha...ahem! Yes, we really did. You wouldn't have wanted to see that...I couldn't even spin in ballet class at age 10 without tripping over my feet. And then there's always the fact that I can't point my toes, literally. Not to mention Goliath IS 6'7"). Which brings us to now. Casey fell asleep about 1 page into his book-more like a me thing-and I've got my music going so my mind is in its comfortable niche of imagination.

I've been working on a story. I want to write a book. Casey is sort of the inspiration behind it....and of course Thomas Newman. And the writing class I had a while back. I've worked out the intro's if you'd like to visit my "writer's block" blog site. But as for now...we've got a "farewell buddah" party to get to! Therefore, Adieu! I shall post again soon.

Engagement PHOTOs:)

2010-12-28T19:52:00.000-08:00

Here are some of my favorite Engagement photos that were taken. Jordi Burr was my photographer all the way through my wedding and she did an amazing job!

Pretty much...I have WAY too many favorites to just post one or two...he he he. Next up, Bridals & Groomals!

Engagement Story

2010-12-26T17:13:00.000-08:00

Here it is fans! The long awaited Engagement story. Now that Christmas(which was AMAZING btw) is over...I have no excuse for not posting anything!

Tuesday, JULY 13, 2010:

Casey came to my house at 5 in the morning and awoke to tell me that he had called my boss and told her that I needed the day off. What was even sweeter was that he had performed my bi-annual inventory count rotation the morning before (Monday) when I was supposed to do it Tuesday morning. It usually takes 2 to 2.5 hours to get it done and since he is a manager at At&t he set it up so he could do it for me. (SO SWEET! ha ha...mostly because I DESPISE inventory counts...anyways...all you need to know is that they take forever, they are boring, and it doesn't prepare you in ANY way for the Millenium).

He stole me away in the wee hours of the morning telling me to pack only a swim suit, towel, and something comfortable to walk in because we were going on "AN ADVENTURE!" The moment those words left his lips...I knew he was up to something. He hardly ever refers to things we are doing as an ADVENTURE. Ha ha. That's ME. He told me it would be an ALL DAY thing and that I would miss work, homework time, and my soccer game. So naturally I was thinking, "ooh! Great! We're going to St. George to lay out in the sun for a few hours, he'll totally take me hiking and WAH-BAM! bring out the ring and tell me he needs me for the rest of all eternity!" However, we did not go to St. George. He drove to the airport and we flew to San Diego for a day trip! So at this point I'm thinking "HOLY CRAP! I'm totally going to see SHAMU! and then we'll go to the beach and he'll get all choked up and hit his knees and we'll live happily ever after!"

I was THRILLED to be in California. We had SO much fun. We rented a car (that initially was a mini-van-ha ha. Since Casey's so large the "large sedan" he ordered was automatically classified under the mini-van section. But the nice lady gave us a convertible instead:) We got some breakfast and headed to the beach and fried ourselves like lobsters after trying the way-too-freezing-for-comfort ocean wave jumping. I was thinking "any minute now...he's gonna bust out a little box and look like he's going to throw up and I'll totally say yes!" But alas, no such thing happened. And he was acting quite normal, not very nervous at all!

Next we headed to Sea World! I had been raving about seeing Shamu for the last few months-I think this is because my parents went there with the 3 girls and left me behind:(-so Casey surprised me by taking me to all the shows. Which were SO much fun. We walked around and took a bunch of random pictures.

Even went to the tide pools where they have the starfish and a little sign that says "DO NOT REMOVE ANIMALS FROM THE WATER!" ha ha...well, I HAD to because I knew my dad would LOVE it if I tried to replicate the picture he took of me as a 3 year old holding a star fish at the same pool.

All the shows were marvelous. The sharks were fun to look at, and our time in San Diego was drawing to a close. I figured he wouldn't propose to me at the theme park so I told myself he probably had some really secret romantic place in mind just before the airport. And there I was sitting in the airport a few moments later as he left our small cafe table to use the restroom. "There's no way he would propose to me here!" I thought. "I guess it was just a fun trip!" I wasn't disappointed in any sort of way...but I was still very curious so I stole into his backpack looking for the ring....which I did NOT find. "Yes, just a day trip," I said to myself with a smile. And I left it at that.

By the time we got back home-at 11 pm-I was exhausted and sunburned and ready to hit the sack. I was so happy I didn't have to work that day! I turned to tell Casey what an awesome time I had when I noticed he was clutching something very preciously to his stomach, a small box. He also looked like he was about to throw up and I was already doing cartwheels in my mind. (But I was totally calm and collected on the outside: "Oh....You want to marry ME?" all innocent-like). He got on both of his knees and fumbled through something that ended up sounding like this:

"I know we just had this great adventure and I want to take you on another adventure with me...will you marry me?" Ha ha! I don't know why he was so nervous, the twit! It's not like I was going to say no! So, of course I said, "YES!" and his face went a normal color again. I was too excited to cry. :) It was the perfect day, I wouldn't have changed a thing and I was so excited to be getting married to the perfect man for me!

a SeRieS oF fORtUNaTe eVeNTs

2010-11-26T09:43:00.000-08:00

So, let's pretend that I haven't blogged since March...and I have a lot of things to catch up on. I know you've all been worried sick about me (yes, this includes the only 4 people who read my blog) but fortunately in my case, there are other forms of communication on which we can rely for updates...such as telephones...miraculous things, really. Anyways, without further ado, here are the events in which you've all been DYING to hear about:) (in chronological order...maybe).

CASEY'S BIRTHDAY SURPRISE (MAY 2010):

What better time to go SKY DIVING, if you've never gone before, than when you're turning 31?

Needless to say, he loved it. Don't worry, for those of you that are a little more conservative, he DID have it on his list of "things to do before I die" list...and I figured if I didn't surprise him with it, he'd just come up with some lame excuse for why we couldn't go-being as reasonable people are-such as "well, now we're married and we'll DIE if we go!" And technically...if he DID die from sky diving...at least he would have done it BEFORE he died right...? Just a free spirit way of thinking:)

RANDOM SUMMER EVENTS:

Fishing:

Fort Building:

Tennis Playing:

Whit's KILLER slam down.

Ninja Training:

Some of us are better than others...

River Wading:

Getting Buff:

Wedding Attending:

My good friend Gabriela:) So beautiful.

Waffle Morning Making:

Snow Cone Tasting:

And just plain fun:

My good friend Emilee:)

Oh yes...and there was that time I graduated...:) August 2010!! Or so I thought...

My parents were so proud! Ha ha...and then I called the U to ask what was taking so long to get my diploma and they said "Oh...you still have another class to take..." REALLY? Yes, this was a month ago. SO I'm NOT graduated yet...ooops. That sucks. I don't really want to talk about it...

WELL! If you can wait a little while longer you can read up on what happens next!

Engagement!
Marriage!!
Honeymoon!!!

Oh it's all so exciting!

Front Runner

2010-03-30T19:33:00.000-07:00

Casey surprised me the week of St. Patty's and took me to ride the Front Runner to Ogden with him. We ate our taco soup on the train and walked to the Egyptian Playhouse where we celebrated Celtic with a little bit of bagpipes and some river dancing. Totally fun.

Baby Blessing!

2010-03-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

Congrats to my close friend Nichol who just blessed her baby! So cute :)

SKI day!!!

2010-03-30T10:47:00.000-07:00

Okay...So this might have happened on March 6th...but it was way super duper fun! Terese was WAY nice in helping us to get tickets to the CANYONS resort and we skiied our little hearts out that day! Well...I was snowboarding which is WAY better. Skiiers are LAME! Just kidding. All my BFFs are skiiers. Hmmm....

Casey hasn't been for like 10 years...but he was skiing like a pro after the 2nd run down! And THEN...

The catastrophe! Yes...it's true. As Casey was walking from the last slope of the day he felt his boot loosen and looked down to find it had cracked completely! Ha ha! Woops Rossi! Ah well...they're giving him a good deal on some new ones.

Ice Castles

2010-03-16T10:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this actually happened mid February...oops...and Lindzi already blogged about it but whatever! Its tons of fun:) Casey was just officially made manager so I wanted to take him somewhere cool to celebrate. Leave it to him to already know where we were going! hah! Oh well.

My BFF's. Whit and Lindz. And the gorgeous little baby Isla.

Pretty cool formations eh? Don't even ask me how they did it...you can ask Lindzi. SHE's the engineer.

Confessions...

2010-03-11T17:42:00.001-08:00

I'm addicted. To a lot of things. Here's the list:

Dr. Pepper.
TOTALLY love this stuff. 54 oz please! Ten min later...gone-zo! I never used to drink soda..but now I totally do. I guess its because I stopped believing that it will give you ultimate chunk-a-zoid tendencies like curdled cottage cheese legs. But who knows? Maybe I'll still get cellulite...I'll let you know how this goes. (More on this in a few years).

Natural Ice.
I say, I have SUCH an addiction to this stuff. I think the health department forgot to write on the label that it has addictive ingredients. I think they should write something like "Natural Ice. The OxyContin for chapped lips." Don't you?

Likening people to cartoons/characters from books/animals.
Like these little guys, for instance. I see these guys EVERYWHERE: Wemmicks. Ever read that book? "You Are Special" by Max Lucado. They are little wooden people in the book. And I think they've been planted everywhere...there was one in Hawaii at the Polynesian Cultural Center...I know...WEIRD-blonde hair, white skin...working at the PCC...

Also, I think it's important to mention that every time I do a session at the temple...all the announcers always look like animals. I've seen Koala Bear, Black Bear, Wolf, Parrot, and Old Dog(the saggy skin kind).

Analogies.
I LOVE them. I love making analogies. I don't really mean to all the time...they just kind of come out...
For better examples of this you can check my other blog www.analogyme.blogspot.com. I haven't updated it for a while but stay tuned...

MOVIES!!!
I LOVE Movies! So does Casey...so that's really good. In the last 4 months I have probably gone to 15 movies in the theatre and watched at least 20 at home...plus it's winter...which leads me to my next confession. So for those of you who haven't gone to see a movie in a while you're missing out on a lot of good ones! Here's some of my favorites:

The Lightening Thief
Alice In Wonderland
Sherlock Holmes
Avatar
When in Rome

Sunshine.
I can NEVER get enough. EVER. I LOVE being tan and warm and all sunned up. I totally DIE in the winter. That's not even an understatement. I'm like a withered reed in the wintertime and then I turn into a beautiful bright yellow tulip in the spring!

The Ocean.
Weird. I don't even live by one...not very fair.

Exercise.
I love feeling healthy. Running outside is my favorite. Running outside during the winter time? Forget it. Not my favorite. Not even close.

Journals.
I LOVE buying journals. Oops! I DEF have tons and tons of journals...he he he...

Lists.
I LOVE lists. Grocery lists, to do lists, lists of things to buy, lists of things to see, lists of places to visit, lists of things to improve. Maybe I'll include a list one of these days. Just for fun. I blame my father. He does the same thing:)

Skate Shoes.
No explanation necessary.

Thomas Newman.
A marvelous composer of film scores. Meet Joe Black. Finding Nemo. Shawshank Redemption. Little Women. Road to Perdition. Angels in America.

Smoothies...
Oh my GOSH. I LOVE smoothies.

Being around my sisters.
Ha ha. Oh my gosh. They are HILARIOUS! I freaking love them WAY WAY too much. I love that they're all gorgeous and funny and have their own vibrant personalities. They totally make my life for sure.

Also...(wow...I have a lot...)

Laughing.
Vacations.
Hating work.
Writing.
Sleeping.
My Mom's good cooking! Yum.

And LAST but not LEAST

THIS guy:

Awe! Isn't he the cutest? I'm totally in love.

Maybe I should plan on being addicted to more useful things like: Homework...and Service..and Positive Thinking...but mine are so much more fun..:) Hmmm...I guess I'll have to work on that.

Poetry Project!!

2010-02-09T21:09:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

In an effort to harness my writing aspiration I have enrolled in a creative writing class this semester, in which I am currently undergoing a project; a poetry project! I am turning in a blog address with my poetry posted for all to read! If you would be so kind as to read it and comment on it so my instructor can see the sort of public opinion my poetry creates, it would be greatly appreciated. I know Melissa will LOVE this and Kaylin will go along with it cuz she in turn likes getting comments on HER blog...right? (We all do). (But melissa...don't judge the grammar too harshly! But don't be afraid to criticize the rest of it!) And well, Lindzi and Whitney don't really have a choice cuz they are BFF status. Sorry girls. Lindz...I know this will probably kill you..but try, just for me. Mychelle, don't be afraid to be honest about it all! I know you'll comment, thank you:) Sharee, Erin, and Amy-I know you're all married with kids...so do it if you can:) If Sarah Mercedes decides to pick up blogging again, I'd love to hear her input and TARA I know you'll enjoy it:) As for ANYONE else, feel free to visit the blog and tell me what you think! So, please do what you can, I'd love your support. It IS due Thursday...he he...so if you could comment with great haste that'd be awesome! There will be updates periodically all day tomorrow, so if you get bored and you want some more-keep checking!:)

Visit http://www.whoknowsprose.blogspot.com

Thank you very much!

Love,

Your dearest blogger,

Ash

Cutest Cousins EVER!!!

2010-02-02T20:34:00.000-08:00

My cousins have the CUTEST kids in ALL the WORLD. Here's some pics to commemorate how much I love them!

This is Bridget.

Bryce's daughter. They have a ridiculously cute boy, Isaac, too but I don't have any pics of him...

Ha ha! Look how cute!

Here come my favorite girls!

Lucy and Sami.

These are my beautiful cousin, Mychelle's, kids! One of my most beloved cousins.

Lucy is so spunky and smart and you should see Sami's eyelashes!

Love the cowgirl boots!

So adorable.

I wish this girl lived closer to me! My Brooklyn baby!

She's SOOOO freaking cute!

I don't have a picture of Cayden but I love him just as much!

My beautiful cousin Andrea and Brooklyn. She happens to have one of the cutest noses I've ever seen in my life. I don't think we get those with the Clawson genes!

I love my baby cousins. Family means so much to me!

I wish we all had more time to be together.

I love you all!

Sorry Doug and Brandi-I don't have any pics of your cute kids! Acting in my behalf...Logan doesn't even remember my name...so you might wanna work on that.

Mom said so...

2010-02-02T19:36:00.000-08:00

So, today my mother texted me exclaiming that she "saw some really great pictures of you with darling blonde hair and I think it would be wise for you to change back to blonde now! Thank you very much." Well mother...I'll go back to blonde when I can, but I'm not done with being a brunette! (She HATES my dark hair!!:) So, if you'd all amuse me and take the poll to the right hand side of the blog I'd love it! Blonde or brunette?

New Year's Resos

2010-01-12T09:30:00.000-08:00

Awe ya! You guessed it! I'm SO blogging it! So here it goes. A couple of the things I want to accomplish this year.

1-Graduate College (Bachelor's in Communication) Dec 2010

2-Finish 2 semesters at 4.0!

3-Acheive the FLATTEST stomach in the world!

4-Save $10,000 by the end of the year

5-Learn Spanish

6-Be on time(...right...)

7-Get Scuba Certified

8-Live in Hawaii at least 2 months-become the ultimate surf bum

9-Keep in better touch with friends

10-Complete an Olympic size Triathlon

11-Sell bags/journals online or @ farmer's market

12-Land a Method snowboarding

13-Find Terese's Husband

14-Temple once/month

15-Convince Casey to marry me!!

I have many more...like patience, understanding, preparedness, flexible, blah, blah, blah. But they're just the obvious ones if you're always thinking about self progression, nowhere near as fun!:) Don't worry, I'll achieve them all!

to the COAST

2010-01-08T13:27:00.001-08:00

OREGON

in december

I know I know, great plan right!? It did happen to be FREEZING but it was still WAY fun!

Here's a few pics. I"m still just playing catch up.

Casey's best friend Luke and wife Meghann were nice enough to let us come stay with them for a while! Here's their super cute kid, Siena with the face showing off her personality!

We visited the coast and saw tons and tons of seals just chillin and floating out in the waves.

Checkin out the fatties on the beach. Good thing they were seals or I mighta been jealous.

Beautiful coast!

Super fun trip! My favorite parts were as follows:

Hanging out with Luke & Meaghann at their cute, comfortable home.

Hitting up the movie theatre in Eugene-Christmas Carol in 3D

Going to the mall and trying to fit Casey into clothes...Larges just don't fit!

Clam Chowder within the (Risque) Mermaid Painted walls of Drift Inn

Walking barefoot on the beach and into the freezing waves.

Carrying 230 lb Barefoot Casey over the rocky coast line to the car.

(I'm such a trooper:)

Trying to assess if a beached seal was near dying...or just confused...

Kettle chips and Organic juice.

AND MOST OF ALL!!!!

The Cherry Bing Ice Cream.

(I'm totally addicted and they don't have it here in Utah)

the MiRAcULoUs tUrN of eVeNTs

2009-12-31T14:15:00.001-08:00

the BABY

Well for ONE: Lindz went and had herself a BABY!! (I know...I'm WAY behind-she was born August 9th!) Me and whit were firm supporters of this move...even tho Whit hates babies and I won't be having children anytime soon...The only REAL downside is that little Isla will not have any playmates til she's about 6 (at the rate me and whit are going:) But we get to be her godmothers and her aunties and we just love being around all the time to watch her grow up and discover new things like how to suck on her hand and stare at the camera for a photo shoot. No, seriously...she's good! She'll be brilliant just like her mother:)

I also don't think it's very fair that Lindzi looks that good after having popped out a baby...but whatever.:)

the BIKE

Yes. That is mine. And she is beautiful. That is a $400 1979 Honda XL 185 Enduro Sport, ladies and gentleman!! And I love it. She's gonna take me to school and to work and thru the mountains on little wussy trails(I'm okay to admit that I'm not that good of a dirt biker). And all without letting mom and dad know!!:) So, SHHH!!! Top secret information. They'll know....eventually...and don't worry for all those out there that are wondering: Yes, I have a helmet. ( I even use it sometimes...)

the MAC

It's a miracle! I finally got a laptop! JW was kind enough to let me buy his mac book pro off of him and now I can't get enough! It will help with school and things:) And most of all blogging now that I have internet at the house! Woot woot!

Drumroll please....and last but not least...

the MAN
(yes, it really is true!)

Specs:
6'7"

230 lbs

dirty blonde hair

blue eyes

totally white

great smile

makes me smile

awesome (speaking) voice...he's an aspiring singer

great family

totally handsome

makes me laugh

hard worker

hot

positive
huge muscles(he wanted me to put that...)

likes to ski

really, really, ridiculously good looking

oh, and spiritual, of course.

He definitely has my heart and we haven't even been dating 3 months yet!

I'm pretty sure we were meant for each other.
(no, I don't know what he's doing with his eye in this picture...)

And yes...he really is that tall.

sUmMa fUN!

2009-12-31T14:14:00.001-08:00

hiKeS n stUff

Lots of fun in the sun with sunglasses and suntans and sunshine and sun...kisses...? And good friends.

It was pretty much always me, Terese, Whit and Brady all the time!

And every once in a while we got so spice it up with a little T-O-Double D!

Whit and Brady and I went to snowbird and rode the alpine slide and the zip line and the tram. It was totally romantic. (No, really...I didn't mind being the 3rd wheel! Whit was good at sharing Brady).

sHoOt tHe tUBe

This summer we had a lot of good times to be sure! One of those good times is what we like to call "shoot the tube!" This is where you find the largest culvert in the salt lake valley (450 ft long....ish...) dam up the front of it til the river is brimming over...

Grab a bunch of intertubes and line up single file waiting for the raging rumpus to begin.
A few cold immersions, intense collisions, ecstatic screams, and one prayer to Jesus later you come shooting out the bottom at top speeds just hoping you'll stay on your tube and not get pounded into the sharp river bed and foray of flailing bodies behind you.

Some how we always managed to come out alive and still smiling...miraculously unscathed.

(I guess prayers really do work...)

sT. gEoRGe

My family went down to St. George this fall to check out the new house my aunt just bought in Hurricane. My father and I decided to go down to Zion's and do the Angel's Landing hike. A hike that was fairly simple and not very long but very dangerous if you decided to get a little too close to the edge...My cute dad made it the whole way and he was very happy to see everything up top. I think he took about a million pictures...but I'll just share one:)

MoAb

Whit, Russ, Brady, And I went down to Moab to ride some bikes and mess around! The highlights definitely revolved around the culverts! Biking was fun. I managed to make it thru the trail without eating it at all. Plus a week before I was able to go mountain biking (in the mountains-ha ha) and learn how to go off some jumps! We definitely found out that Russ is one of the funniest people in the world. And that bathing in a dirty, murky river of mud water does wonders for keeping your hair in dreds!

Good times were had by all!

Don't be deceived...

2009-12-30T14:40:00.000-08:00

I know...It looks like I might have actually posted something...No. I just switched up a couple things. I'm sure I'll be playing with it quite a bit...he he he. But don't worry! I'm going to be a better blogger! Why? Well I got internet at the house!!! But, of course! ...stay tuned...

Good Idea?.....Or Bad Idea....

2009-07-24T06:27:00.001-07:00

Good idea:
Taking a picture of Terese playing Rockband when she least expected it.

Bad idea:
Burning the Sunday night cookies making the smoke alarm go off for the 5th time in 2 weeks.

REALLY BAD IDEA:
Going to Easter Sunday Service mid-April at 5 in the morning when it's ridiculously freezing and windy.

Good Idea:
Making a tower cake for more than one person's birthday.

Cake=Happiness

Bad idea:
Weeding

Weeding=Work

Bad idea:
Standing next to a beautiful bride when it's the worst hair day of your life,
and your dress makes you look frumpy.

Worse idea: taking a picture of it.
An even worser idea: posting it on your blog.

Bad idea:
Letting your brother show up to a party like this.

Bad idea:
Leaving your camera unattended for coworkers to pillage.

Good idea: hauling a king size mattress and every pillow in the house
outside in the weeds for a back yard movie!

Good idea:
Finding a huge cement flower pot and making it into a fire pit!

Good idea or bad idea?
Rope Swinging two at a time...

Bad idea:
Thinking a 2 year old would appreciate a homegrown garden tomato.

Good idea:
Teaching a 2 year old how to longboard.

Good idea:
Longboarding and riding 4 to a pit bike.

Bad idea:
Going out into the middle of a busy road to see if the truck that just dumped
a box of bananas thinking there MIGHT be some good ones worth eating.

Good idea:
Making Homemade icecream from tin cans and jars. mmmm!

Bad idea:
Making homemade taffy without glycerin.

Good idea: Rollerblading in a Neoprine suit.
Bad idea: Trying to make a music video of it.

HAWAII Trip!

2009-07-13T08:07:00.000-07:00

Okay...So, i might not be so hot at this blogging thing after all. I think the fact that I don't have internet at my house might have something to do with it! I guess I can write about Hawaii now! Ha ha! Lindzi had it covered by the time I got home from Hawaii 6 days later but here it is! May 10th-May 22nd: the much needed, most relaxing, exciting, full of adventure trip to Hawaii! Brace yourself...this might be a long one! But I'll put a lot of pictures in it for people that don't like to read so much...

Members of the party included: Linzi, Aaron, Tyler Parris Neal, Whitney, Terese, JT, and Me!

It was a little rough for whit in the beginnings...

I mean...triathlons are hard to recover from...especially after 6 hour flights!

The newest addition to the Hawaiian Family! This is Chontel's 2nd, Ever Taala:) Cutest little thing ever.

My Hawaiian family-for those of you that don't know, I do happen to be an 1/8 Hawaiian. Compliments to my father. This is his cousin (Sharmaine's) family.
From L to R: Little Liahona (Tel's first), Ikiaka, Chontel, Aunty Sharmaine, Me holding Ever, JJ, and Jonnie.
This was at Cheesecake Factory on Mother's day! Thanks to everyone's mom (especially Sue-I know how you love Lindz to be with you) we got to spend it with my Aunty and family.

Jj: The woman who made this trip happen! We owe her the world!
She took care of everything for us!
From a place to stay, to food, to barbeques, to camping on private beach sites,
to condos, to breakfasts, to golf carts, to a car, and even...supplying hot Hawaiian men!
I MIGHT have met a Hawaiian Dreamboat who may or may not know
about my marrying him with or against his will.
It's all about getting the dark haired, dark skinned babies! Nothing personal.

Lady with a baby!! And the cute hubby just chillin at the lagoon 5 min from the condo!

Me and Lindz:)

You know you've cause to be depressed when you can almost push your stomach out as far as your pregnant friend! (ps...I'm not pregnant)

This was the beginning of whitney's sickness. Day 2. She didn't feel very good-as you can see-for the bulk of the trip. It was very sad.

Come to find out she actually had Bronchitis...eee! But don't worry we made her feel better by making fun of her awesome inhaler!

Jj had a lot of wigs hangin out under her bed that she let us try on...We've deduced that Whit should NEVER go blonde and Terese should stick with long hair...

The crew! Whit was better yay!

Whit and me on a hike thru the jungle

Still feeling a bit crappy...

I know. I'm skilled.
We didn't get to surf much cuz the only day the swells were up we weren't near any board rentals! Bummer.

Hawaiian Bums.
Day 3 of not showering...I think we look pretty good. That's how you do it right?
But since church was on the "to do" list for sunday we HAD to shower.

The Trio! Man we look good together.

Snorkel Queens and King.

This is Terese...but it marks the fear I overcame of doing a back flip off rocks into the ocean.
I never used to be afraid of back flipping off stuff but a couple bad experiences left a bad taste in my mouth. But I overcame it in Hawaii! Whit helpe me to over come it! Wah hoo!

Golf Cart in Hawaii: Best idea ever!
Packing 7 people on it: Worst Idea ever. Gave up after 3....he he...

The boyz! Tyler Parris Neal got nominated "Fun Boy" by Jj's sarcastic boyfriend, John. And the name kind of stuck, can't imagine why.

The flowy dress helped us to get some really awesome model shots! Of course it isn't hard when you look like Terese!

Billabong model for sure!

All in all, the Hawaiian trip was freaking AWESOME!
It was full of adventure, sickness, excitement, happiness, loud laughter and tons of family time that is irreplaceable to me and it won't be long before I'm back!

AFTER Hawaii we found ourselves in Lake Powell with a fun crew! Got a little bit of Boating time but not so much sun since it was raining most the weekend.

Everybody seemed to be really prepared with tents and tarps and blankets. All we had were Hawaiian clothes and towels...not good for the rain.

Blake and Terese made a tent in the back of the truck with some wood and it worked a lot better than the first makeshift one with holes everywhere in the tarp.

Oh, Cam:) Can't not love his face!!
More to come...Dragon Slayer.

TRI-athlon

2009-07-13T07:25:00.000-07:00

I know it's a bit late...but I wanted to write about this. After spring semester FINALLY ended in May I topped off the most stressful weeks of my life with the most relaxing activity of all! My first Triathlon! Woo hoo! Whit and I had decided that it'd be super fun to do and we both had a goal to run one so May 8th we drove down to St. George and made the proper preparations to kill it in a tri! We'd been training quite intensely for the last 6 months for it, mostly swimming, and I found it wasn't all that hard to swim a mile in a lap pool so the craziness in me decided that a sprint tri wasn't hard core enough and I needed to do the olypic size tri! The Olympic is 1 mile swim, 26 mile bike, 6 mile run. I know...I'm crazy. My dad actually came too to do the sprint so of course he bought EVERYTHING he could in order to look and feel legit! Ha ha. I didn't so much have the fundage for that so I looked pretty ghetto but I got on okay!

We got to Sand Hollow early that morning with our bikes and transition gear and were given the horrible news that the swim would be canceled due to the white capping of the waves in the resevoir getting kicked up by the wind. I was pretty torn up about it since that was what I felt would be my strong point! So we started with a 3 mile run then jumped on the bikes then ended with a 3 mile run again. Gosh, it was really really hard! But I loved it. So I can't actually claim that I've run a Tri...just a Bi...and that was pretty upsetting, but Hawaii washed away all the bitterness of the tri, so I've no complaints there! I'll be running another one soon! And I'll make sure it's a tri this time. Maybe I'll start with the sprint...

I looked so sexy coming into the finish! Fam in the background with their arms up. Ha! They support everything I do:)

Eggstremely Smelly!

2009-04-17T17:32:00.000-07:00

This Easter was eventful. It was full of all the perfect little kid things! An Easter egg hunt, coloring Easter eggs, making Easter cards for Bums on the street, getting an Easter basked from Mom...and OF COURSE-the first annual raw Easter egg FIGHT! Eggs, though fragile, are actually quite resistant to breaking if you throw them as hard as you can at someone. They also don't break if you squeeze them as hard as you can. Having egg all over you is actually quite disgusting! Slimy, yellowy ooze dripping off the tip of your nose is far from appetizing. The fight happened to be held on a freezing day, and I happened to have only one sweatshirt. That sweatshirt...after having been fully egged turned up to be forgotten until this morning when I awoke to smell something that I imagine would smell just the same as THIS looks:
Only I'm sure my sweatshirt smelled much worse! Like the death of a million exotically diseased pigeons being cooked in the sun and thrown helplessly and lifelessly about by carnivorous vultures left with their insides out and oozing all over the place. (I obviously couldn't find a picture to portray such a sight!) Things like that should just never be smelled! Anyways. It was DISGUSTING! And I think I've washed it about three times now....Note to self. Don't have egg fights in clothing you want to keep or keep smelling nice.

Lies.

2009-04-08T16:33:00.001-07:00

So, while I've never been a LIAR, I've never been COMPLETELY HONEST in ALL things. I do try. I've never actually lied in a verbal manner before...but things like...sneaking into hotel hot tubs or concerts or parties are just far too enticing! Or signing up for institute to get a parking pass and then not going to class...Okay, okay. So! I MIGHT have done that...and I have before. It is CRUCIAL for me to have a parking pass. However, it is NOT crucial for me-nor is it ideal or convenient for me to actually GO to institute. And since you're required to go to like 75% of the class during the semester to maintain the pass...there is an obvious conflict of interests. The trick is going to class on the day they give you a new sticker halfway thru the semester so you don't get parking tickets. Well, I got a parking ticket. And I couldn't afford to get any more. So, naturally, I was COMPELLED to go to class.

I made it just when everyone was breaking up into their social groups (after class! ha ha...sneaky sneaky!) and I approached the pulpit. Usually I ask the instructor for a sticker and he gives it to me no questions asked. (I know...I'm a dirty little punk.) Only, this time, Brother Instructor was no where to be found; just some punk kid that looked like he was in charge. So, I asked him if he knew about the passes. In his efforts to help me he opened up the role and asked me what my name was. I knew that I would either NOT be on the role or have a really bad track record of ZERO attendance, so, I improvised! (please keep in mind names have been changed for security reasons) "Lola....S S S Sampsonite." (oh shiz!) I found out that his name was BJ and I hoped he'd forget "mine" soon. He said, "Well, Lola...it doesn't look like you've been to class very many times. I don't know whether or not they'll give you a pass." Thanks KID! Remind me why I'm letting you help me? "I swear I've been more times than that! I just haven't signed the role!" (everything from here on out is a lie now since I've decided to impersonate someone else). I said, "Maybe I'll just tell them the name of my roommate cuz she's been here more!" And he replied "Well, that would just be dishonest now, wouldn't it!?" Right......Ha ha! (oops!) I thanked him the best I could in a Lola manner (not an Ashley frustrated manner) and told him I'd just check with the office and prayed he would not remember my name or face after that moment. But, I suppose that it was a pretty invalid prayer...cuz it obviously didn't work when he saw me on campus a week later! He said, "Hey Lola!!" And I was like Dang! Really??! Who remembers names anymore? "Oh! yeah! Hey!" Turned my head and walked on in...was it shame? Or entertainment...? Ha ha! Moral of the story...if you're going to lie...make it a believable one. Or don't lie about your name being a your rommate's name to someone who knows that person...turns out BJ knows Lola afterall! So, it's only a matter of time before my dirty lie is revealed!!!

Sorry...that was a REALLY long post. Ps. the REAL moral of the story is never lie.

Red heads.

2009-03-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

There was a time when I believed that Red heads could be classifiable in their own race. Well, okay, I still kind of think that but not in a discriminatory way. There was also a time that I would avoid red heads like the plague (mostly only the male species) so that I would not somehow possibly fall in love with one of them and end up having red headed children. But then i saw a picture of this girl and I decided that red headed children could not possibly be all that bad. She sold me with her wanting eyes and pouting face. I was done. I'm hooked. Okay! I'll have red headed kids! If I get one as cute as her-I won't complain. (But I still avoid red heads for lovers.)

THIS is Isaac.

2009-03-23T10:35:00.001-07:00

He's my good friend. (I also believe this to be the most action he's had in years.)

Weddings? I LOVE weddings!

2009-03-23T10:30:00.000-07:00

MARCH 12, 2009
Heather & Jake's Wedding

So, as it turns out...my younger brother made it to the alter before I did! I can't say it wasn't expected. He's a "get it done" kinda guy. I'm pretty freaking proud of him and I freaking love Heather. It was a simple, beautiful wedding and good times were had by all!

Here are all the Bridesmaids! Me and my sisters and some of Heather's friends. Her colors were lime green, sienna orange, and cream. It was gorgeous! And tons of fun of course! They both look so happy and cute! It was fun to hang out with my sisters all day...they are pretty freaking hilarious...and they're all models. Goofy but gorgeous!
Here is a really funny photo of us girls competing to get the bouquet! I am pretty much clothes lining Laura-and judging by the location of her hand I don't think she could see where the bouquet was! Which is funny cuz she's actually the one that ended up with it! I guess that means another sibling will be wed before I! Oh well.

The garder toss was equally as funny. I love pictures that are taken when no one has a clue they are on camera! Apparently Tyler used force to get what he wanted at the expense of JJ's face.

Here's a toast to my bro and Heather! I love seeing them both so happy and I know they will have an amazing life together! Forever and always baby!!

the LUCK of an Irishman!

2009-03-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought that dressing up and dancing like a Leprechaun could be so fun? It was the night of the 17th and Terese had agreed to go with me to Mandy Cannon's annual St. Patrick's Day party. After searching for gold and eating shamrock cookies and chugging rootbeer the dance competition began. The Irish music was played and those who could riverdance-or just dance like an Leprechaun-for the longest time would win. So began the dancing! Hoppin g, skipping, spinning, jumping, kicking, twirling, laughing. About 10 minutes in-despite my burning muscles and side-aches-I broke into a hysterical fit of laughter. I kept dancing and spinning and I couldn't stop. I couldn't stop laughing. Blissful and carefree I continued on laughing away. Now I know why the Irish are so happy! Terese and I held out with two other assailants for about 20.3 minutes. We would have kept going but they had to stop us. I've never felt so drunk as I did then. (Although, I've never been drunk...so that's not saying much!) But I loved it! Bless Mandy Cannon and the Irish too!

The roOMiEs...

2009-03-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

I MAY have some of the BEST ROOMATES in ALL America! Oh wait, no. I do. I'll explain a little bit more of why they're the best and ultimate understanding will be had.

Let's start with Sarah Mercedes. Apart from having the hottest name, she is a phenomenal cook. Sometimes I will come home after a bummer drag day and think, "NOTHING could make my life better right now." And then SMILING Sarah comes bounding around the corner and leap tackles you into a hugging collision into the book shelve that holds all our winter boots and says, "I made dinner for everyone!" Who can't love that?? Unpredictable, sassy, fun and easy to be around, and up for anything! She never complains and has a very sweet temperment. She also happens to be a pro-wake skater and I'm dying to see her in action! She will make a lucky catch one day and she deserves nothing less than a rock star.

Terese is a walking embodiment of all things chill and paradisaical. She's a pina colada, a palm tree, and a sunset all in one. She has a vibrant, fun personality, and ready and willing for all kinds of adventures. She's the reason why I wear outfits that don't match and have no color scheme. She always says, "Dress me up SASSY!" And that's why her clothes are the most used between everyone in our house; they're ALL cute and sassy! She's always good to laugh with or dance with or talk to about all her decisions. Very indesicive but extremely good company. Her slightly slouching shoulders exude her chill attitude towards life. She and I share many dreams and since we're both spontaneous and free birds there probably isn't anywhere that we wont fly together without.

Whit-the Frit. Not enough can be said about this complex and talented individual. Apart from being an awesome roommate, Whitney is my BEST friends(and Lindzi too! Don't worry!). Since I've already described Whitney as a friend, I'll describe her as my roommate. There are a MILLION reasons why I am so glad she lives with me, but for blogging perposes and space restraints, I will limit it to five.
5 reasons why I LOVE having Whitney for a roommate:
5-She is always cleaning everything! I come home and the dishes have been done, the floor has been mopped, the garbages have been taken out and there's little notes on the dishwasher like, "clean!" and on the washer like "Don't forget to turn off the water!"
4-Even though she hates it, and feels like my mother, she WILL wake me up for tri class if my alarm clock is obviously not cutting it. And somehow-she works EVERY time!!
3-She lets me borrow her clothes and stuff and she always tells me if I look cute or if I need a little work in a certain area.
2-She's right there to talk to if I'm having a problem or need some advice. She always gives very sound advice. AND THE NUMBER ONE REASON WHY I LOVE HAVING WHIT FOR A ROOMMATE IS (drumroll...)
1-She bought me a Jesus candle. Need I say more.

Worst Blogger EVER....

2009-03-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay...I admit. I am one of the worst bloggers. I try to find the time to upload photos and update my life just like a journal entry but it's kinda freakin hard! My last post was about 3 months ago and I don't even have that many cool applications. I guess I gotta freakin get on it! Here it comes!! A Butt load of posts!

For all the Stalkers out there...

2009-01-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

You! Yes, You! reading my blog! Don't think I don't know where you sleep!!!! Bre-this was meant for you about 2 months ago. Short lived I am, yes, but fun and LOVING your blog. Could a person be more hilarious? I mean really! You're funny!

My calling...

2009-01-01T10:45:00.000-08:00

One day...Whitney and I discovered the most miraculous form of entertainment involving 3 couches, a mattress, tons of blankets, and a little jumping action. It's called "I will ninja kick your face!!" Please allow the following pictures to demonstrate. After this moment, I felt there was no other calling for me in life, except to be a ninja.

That WOULD happen.

2009-01-01T10:29:00.000-08:00

So, I secretly have this passionate hatred toward the color purple. I don't really know how to explain it...but I've never been a lover of its any shade. I've never been able to touch it, wear it, see it, or think about it without cringing in some sort of way...you may even think I'm being dramatic. Well, a few months ago, I told myself that I needed to get over this ardent detestation for purple, for maybe, like the color orange, it would soon move from hatred to favorite. One day, I decided to borrow and adorn a purple shirt from my sister's closet. "I'm just gonna do it." I told myself. "It is high time I get over this silly dislike for such a royal color." So I did. I was quite surprised when I found myself actually liking it a little. But still, it was missing something. I KNOW! A vest. A black one. I needed one of those. Only problem was. I didn't have one...and I didn't have any money...but FORTUNATELY I DID have black fabric...and coincidentally a sewing machine as well...So I made one! Feeling my outfit was complete I whipped down to meet my friends at Jordan Commons for a movie. I was so proud of myself for wearing purple and I couldn't wait to show my friends my homemade vest. I approached the congregation of friends and it only took them seconds to realize that Jared, the ticket taker, was wearing the same thing I was. Purple shirt, black vest. "NO!! It couldn't be I thought!" I looked around...the sweeper...purple shirt, black vest. The concession stand workers, all purple shirt and black vest!! My worst nightmare had come true! After I got home that night I tore of my outfit...never to be worn again...with a continued fixed hatred for the color purple. Will I ever be cured?

Halloweenie

2008-12-30T18:10:00.000-08:00

HALLOWEEEEEEN must be one of my FAVORITE holidays...probably because I get to dress up as someone that I'm really not and pull it off for a whole night! I am partial to fabricating my own costumes as I am a) very hard to fit b) very picky about what my costumes look like and c) let's just face it...I never have a c. So, since I LOVE it so much-OF COURSE I had to dress up for THREE different occasions. I was a Japanimation Anime Warrior for the main Halloween night with the spiky hair and all. A Gothic Lady Guinevere for a murder mystery dinner, and a human size spider for a haunted forrest. Creepy! I LOVE halloween! Could they have created a better holiday?

The many hair styles of me...

2008-12-30T17:47:00.000-08:00

I have found that I can be quite the chameleon as far as hair style is concerned. Within the last year I have tried a few different things. Long straight/curly blonde, long dark, short blonde, afro(my personal favorite), platinum blonde, and dread locks. If I had to run away and change my whole identity I feel this could be very beneficial to my survival.

Let's get down to the nitty gritty...

2008-11-17T15:32:00.000-08:00

Who is this, Incarnacion?
I'm not huge on the normal introductions with the cemented format of where you are from, where you are working, and if you are still going to school or dating anyone. I think most introductions should skip that part and get right down to all the good stuff. Take layered jello for instance. They always put the NASTY flavors up top-like lime and lemon and orange-I mean those are all good flavors-if it's not jello-but it takes you a second to get to the orally pleasing jello flavors like black cherry and raspberry and strawberry. The richer flavors. The good stuff. So here's a little bit of that good stuff about me. Lemons and limes aside.

2008-11-17T14:58:00.000-08:00

Me: Best described as a light-hearted, fancy-free, boisterous, unruly, spontaneous person.
I've little or no left side brain in me at all. Creating is my world:)
I feel most defined when I am without make-up with sand in my toes and the sun on my back.
If I could choose-I would live right by ocean and swim in it everyday. There would be no winters. Even though I love to snowboard, I could live without snow and be just fine:)
Contrary to my friends, I probably own one pair of sunglasses.
I lose sleep over nothing. Altho, I've never killed anyone, so I may want to say, "So far, in my life I've had no trouble getting to sleep..." That way I'm leaving it open for a possible murder situation. And then, at least I'm not lying.
I AM kind of morbid...especially around halloween...my dark side starts to seep out. I mean, I HAVE planned my funeral...but I'm not planning on killing anyone...so, for all of you that know me really well-or don't-you can stop worrying.

2008-11-17T13:25:00.000-08:00