FINALLY! I know...

I know, I know... it's about dang time i finally got my act together and posted something new. It's been, what? The end of January? I will be the first to say it..... I AM A SLACKER!!! But, in my defense, I have been seriously busy the last 6 weeks and have really only been home during the week and sometimes not even then. So, the only problem now is that I'm not really sure where to start..... Okay, here you go....


I will start by asking a question. Do you all like my new background? Here's the story - About a month ago, I went and found a background that I thought I liked and changed, right? Most of you probably saw it. Anyway.... when I saved it to my blog, the new template erased tons of the stuff I had on here - pictures, my music, my contact list (which I was the most upset about).... anyway, I was so ticked off that I had no desire to go back and fix it all. Excuses, excuses. Call it whatever you want, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it. So, I just downloaded this new one, and I really like it a lot better. I really love Easter lillies and I like the look of the black. So that's that.

Last week I was in Anaheim, California for a nursing convention. That was really fun, minus a few little things, like how the trip started out and how it ended. But don't get me wrong, the middle parts were great fun! My friend from work that went with me, Jen, called me at 0830 the morning we were supposed to get on a plane to tell me that she had rolled her Expedition right by Strawberry Reservior while driving out in the terrible snow storm that we woke up to. Thank heaven she was not seriously hurt or killed. People die on that road all the time it seems like - it's a pretty dangerous highway. So her vehicle was totalled, and long story short, she finally got to our hotel about midnight. The trip ended with us finding out at the airport the morning we were to fly home that the airline had canceled her flight home because she didn't make the flight there. Once again, long story short, everything turned out alright and she was able to get on our flight on stand-by. So, in the meantime, we did have fun and we learned a lot and found lots of really cool new products. Here are some pictures!

Jen and I went to the Medieval Times jousting dinner, which was tons of fun! I've always wanted to go to one of those things. The food wasn't that great, but it was pretty entertaining, anyway!

Here I am with the Yellow Knight and the Black and White Knight. They both suck because they lost, but it's still cool to get a picture with a "real knight".

Jen is so lucky!! She got her picture with the White Knight and he won the jousting competition.

One of the booths in the exhibit had this cool giant Operation Game. Get it? Operation Game at a surgical nursing convention? Very clever....

This booth we got charicatures drawn. It was really funny because the people at this booth would sit there and make fun of you while you were being drawn. We had a good laugh.

Disneyland was way fun! This is the Matterhorn in the background.

Of course, we had to get a picture in front of the famous princess castle.

This is probably the coolest mohawk I have ever seen. It was probably like a foot long, for real!

Let's see... what else has happened? Oh, I went straight from the airport when we got home to Moab for the rest of the weekend. Albert wanted to try out his rock crawler (I will post some pix of his crawler on here soon so you all can see just how redneck we are out here in the Basin!!!) and some friends of ours were down there for a volleyball competition, too. It was great fun until I got food poisoning the night before we were supposed to go home. I haven't puked like that since I was a kid. It was horrible! I was sick for like 3 days.

I need to shout out to my cute cousin Suzi a huge congrats on your new little boy! He is a doll! Also a congrats to Mike and Camille on your new arrival! And good luck to Andy and Kelli who are expecting another baby in October! Good grief. Babies everywhere!! Congrats to Kathleen and Drew on your wedding. Sorry we couldn't be there.

What else has happened? Hmmm... We're going to Texas the second week in May. Albert has an insurance conference and I mostly get to just hang out with my mom and dad for a week! I'm so excited! I signed up to run in the Wasatch Back Relay Race in June and I am planning on doing the mini triathelon out here in August. I needed some goals and motivation to keep working out and just be consistent with my exercise in general.

Adam comes home very soon and Aaron and Brittay and their cute kids are coming over from Germany for a month to visit and all sorts of fun stuff! I am so excited to see my family all together again. That will be very cool!

Girl's Camp is early in June this year, so it will probably be pretty cold. I know, I'm a dork, but I love camp! It's such a cool time that we can bond with the girls and get to know them a lot better other than on Sunday. Hopefully it won't snow on us again. We went this same week 3 years agon and we got 6 inches of snow. Yuck!

Last, but certainly not least, this coming weekend is SCRAPBOOK EXPO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only my sister and I and a few other people I know truly understand what scrapbook weekend really means. I seriously look forward to this weekend so much and I can't wait for Friday!!! April, Tina and I will be going into the VIP section (thankx, mom and dad!)on Friday and I'm way stoaked about that! VIP pretty much means that we are the coolest scrapbookers that will be at the expo. I know, you are all jealous, so you can stop drooling. OH! One more thing....

HAPPY BIRHTDAY MIKKELE, PAPA JOHN, AUDREY AND SID!

Okay, now I will shut up and I promise not to be such a slacker anymore.

Missionary Moments

I was very impressed by an email that my little brother, Adam, sent this week in his weekly missionary mass email. Most of you know that he is in Brazil serving a 2 year mission for our church (he comes home the end of May) and it has been so amazing to see the kind of progress he has made as a person, and more important, spiritually. So, here is the little blip from his email that I thought I would share. ***Disclaimer - Please ignore any misspellings and/or poor grammar - this is an area he kind of struggles with***

Well family i would like to share a learning moment that happened this week while i was studing. Well i was reading those sweet InSights that ya´ll sent me for christmas. So there is one that is in 2 Ne. 9. I don´t remember what scripture it is, but it´s the one that talks about our life after this one. Anyways the quote talks about how we will be judged according to what we knew on this earth. And that those who lived in ignorance, not knowing the truth, will be judged according. So i starded thinking...wouldn´t it just be a whole lot easier to be one the those that ''didn´t know?'' We could do what we want and then at the last day we wouldn´t be held accoutable, because ''we didn´t know.'' I stopped reading and just started writing. So i came to the conclusion that NO! Maybe i would be easier in the eyes of the world. Then i started to think. Knowing what i know, and what we all know being members of the church set us apart from the world. We are 13 million out of 6 billion that know the truth. That makes me feel important. We were valient in the pre-existance and we were chosen at this time of the world to know what we know. Why? We have the special responsibility to help the others that don´t know. So obviously at the last day a lot will be expected of us because we knew. But just think how much farther along we will be than the others who didn´t know. In the middle of all these thoughts i felt the embrace of the sprit and i knew that even though doing what is right is hard some times we have what the other 5.87 billions of people don´t have...the Holy Ghost. How greatful i am for parents who taught me what is right and raised me in this gosple. How greatful am i for the opportunity to know what i know. How greatful i am for the scriptures and the things we can learn from them!!!

What a cool kid, huh? I am so proud of him and his decision to serve the Lord. He truly loves the Lord and the gospel! He is an amazing person and I am so happy that he is my baby brother.

Snow, Snow, GO AWAY!!!

Okay, it's official. I am tired of winter time. It is so cold out here and I am seriously itching for some sunshine. Maybe I need to take a weekend trip to Cali or something and sit on the beach for a couple days to catch some rays. I know I probably couldn't be out there in a swim suit right now or anything (like anyone wants to see my pastiness in a swim suit right now, but still....), but I would be happy just sitting on the beach in normal clothes just soaking in some rays. But really, I just want the temperature to maintain a low above zero and a high around freezing so we can just melt a little of this ice that is covering the streets that has been there since before Christmas. So here is my chant for the next few weeks (I know it doesn't rhyme, but you'll get the point)....

Snow, Snow, GO AWAY..... Dont' come back 'til next year!

It's a Dance Thing.... You Wouldn't Get It.

Okay, so I have now been to 3 (that's right, count them....one, two, THREE) drill team competitions! Shut up, I know! Sorry, Mom - do "S-words" count if they are on my blog? Anyway... The first one I went to was actually at Jordan (my high school) to watch one of my young women dance. The second one I went to was a couple of weeks ago in Richfield to watch Albert's little sister, Jen. It was 1A, 2A, and 3A from all over Utah. Today, I just got back from the 1A region drill competition. Can I just tell you all that this is a totally foreign world to me. I was never a dancer because I have NO coordination or finesse and none of my close friends in high school were dancers. Well, I had no idea what a huge deal it is. It is such an enormous production!

Well, I just have to brag about Jen's team for a minute. She goes to Duchesne High School, which is a 1A school and they have taken state for the past 4 years in a row and it looks like they are getting ready to take state again. They won region today and the state competition will be next Saturday. So to Jen and all her teammates.....GOOD LUCK! You girls will be awesome and you'll take state again!!!

The Stress of a Mother..... Oh, wait......

Before I begin this post, let me just let you all into a little portion of my life right now called infertility. Yes, I am getting personal here. Most of you probably know that Albert and I are, for some unexplained reason, unable to have children. We have been "trying" to start our family for almost 4 years now and month after month are unsuccessful. We have tried almost everything that is mostly non-invasive are now looking at in-vitro fertilization (yes, for real). We are not out of options, and are not completely hopeless, but it is definately a daily and monthly stuggle. So, that being said, here is what I really would like to say.....

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine and was informed of a very serious situation that is going on with one of my Young Women. Apparently, she has gotten into some trouble with the very useful, very addicting, sometimes dangerous, internet. I don't know all the details and so I am not going to give details, but it is not good. Parents need to HEAVILY monitor what their children are doing on the internet. There are freaks, preaditors, and just overall, creepy people out there that are just waiting for innocent, naive kids to cross their paths.

Okay, now with that being said, I'll tie everything together..... Have you ever heard that song from the Forgotten Carols about the woman who can't have children of her own but knows that there are other ways that she can be a mother? She says "Those like me who can't have children, still can be mothers." and "Something in His eyes convinced me, I could serve so many others". Sometimes I feel like this woman in the song - I can't have children, but I can be a mother in other ways, I can serve others. That's why He made me Young Women's President. The Lord wanted me to be a "mother" to 17 teenage girls that drive up the stinkin' wall with worry. Cruel. Another thought - Maybe this type of situation is why the Lord hasn't let me have my own kids yet, because I can hardly stand to watch someone else's kid go through a horrible situations like this, let alone my own child. Not saying that this exact thing would happen to my kid, but anything is possible, I guess. I have just been sick about it since I talked to my friend a while ago. I think that if the Lord would bless me with a baby, I would probably be hospitalized immediately for bleeding ulcers because I would be worrying so much about all the "what-ifs". Freak. I guess I need to work on that or we'll never have kids. I need to learn how not to stress so much. It's funny because I don't really think that I am over-stressed, but I just proved myself wrong. This blog is a tricky little tool. It brings out little quirks in myself that I don't recognize. Okay, I'll stop talking now. Thank you for reading.

Moki Loves Peas

I know this is going to sound really strange, but my little weiner dog loves to eat sugar snap peas. For some reason, every winter, I forget about this funny little quirk that he has and then I remember in the spring when my peas start coming up and there are several missing from the vine. Well, I got a bag of sugar snap peas at Costco on Friday and I am sitting here munching on them while I catch up on my blogging, and he starts whining for one! So I gave him one, he ate it and then whined for more. So now here I am sharing a bag of peas (that aren't too cheap, by the way) with my dog. Hmmm.... What a life!

Long Lost Cousins

I got to go out to lunch in Provo with a couple of my cousins and my sister a little while ago. It was so fun to be able to spend time with them because we all did a lot together when we were little kids in Texas. Allison is Aaron's age and Suzi is a little older than me. The last time I saw Suzi was at her wedding over 3 years ago. She moved to New York with her husband so he could go to school and now she is preggers with her first baby - a little boy! It never ceases to amaze me how fast time goes by and how the older I get, the faster it goes. So, the top pic in me and Suzi, the next one is of everyone that came - April and Grant, Allison and her 2 boys Chase and Christian, April's friend Tina and her baby, Suzi, Mikkele and me. The last one, obviously, is a pic of the cousins. Wish we had the other 4 there for a really sweet reunion, but Adam and Chris are on missions, Aaron is in Germany, and Nicole is with her family in Texas. Maybe someday we'll get a picture with everyone back together again. Until then, this will definately do. It was great to hang out with Alli and Suzi! Hopefully it won't be another 3 years before we do it again!!!