Shameless Plug...

So I have two awesome sisters who have taken blogging to the next level. They each have created a blog so they can share their smarts and their skills... cooking and saving money!

My sister Natalie has a blog called "Hot off the Garlic Press". Some of you may have noticed the link button on the side of my blog. It is a great place to go for recipes! She is such a good cook and has been nice enough to share her knowledge and love for cooking with everyone! She has had this blog for about 10 months and continues to add every few days. If the entertainment of reading her blog is not enough, she has great recipes that make up for it. :) You will not come away disappointed... I promise!

My other sister Nicole has just started a blog called "Being Frugal is Fabulous" (also a link button on the side). Her blog helps you find deals so you can get the items for free or for a fraction of the price! She has already put so much time into finding deals for herself and is now sharing that information with everyone! Who doesn't like free stuff?

You are a fool if you don't check these blogs out! So get looking!

St George--A Much Needed Vacation

Last weekend, Kate (my sis) Jordi and I drove down to St. George. It was supposed to be for my grandpa's wedding the week before, but he eloped the week before. We originally cancelled the trip, but we thought that decision and called it back on. My parents and Hannie met us half way (or so) for a weekend of fun!

Friday night, I was able to meet my new "grandma" or new grammie as we are apparently referring to her as. We had fun playing her wii and going to Nielsen's for some frozen custard. Yum. My parents were originally going to get me and Jordi a separate hotel room, but since we couldn't commit because of Jordan's work, we were given the opportunity to stay at my grandpa's house. We were told that my grandpa and new grammie would be staying at her house, so we didn't see a problem with it. Well, that wasn't so much the case. Instead, both of the "honeymooners" were under one roof. I came into the spare bedroom (where my grandma used to live for the past 10 years and where she actually passed away) just as my grandpa was clearing off the hundreds of items off of the bed. To avoid that trauma, I quickly said told him that we were just fine with sleeping on the couch bed. We were given fresh sheets and sent to the "den". It was so funny to see Jordan's reaction as he unfolded the bed and potato chip crumbs, old kleenexs, etc fell off the bed and onto the floor. I am not saying that my grandpa is a slob, he is in fact a saint, but it was still funny. Maybe you just had to be there... I guess it is true what they say, beggars can't be choosers... We had a less than comfortable night of sleep as we laid on the comfy mattress in the steamy room (which if you have been to my grandparents house, this would be terribly out of the ordinary. I can't be sure, but I am sure they used to keep it at a crisp 58 degrees).

Anyway, onto the fun stuff. Saturday was full of fun as we started at the pool. We got some good suntime followed by pool time.

Katie and me vs. Hannah and Mom

The take down. Nice try mom.

It started with chicken fights which led to "formations". This began with Katie trying to stand on my knees to create said formation and it escalated to this:

Cheer formations. For the lack of experience that we came in with, let me tell you, we got GOOD. I am sure the other people at the pool enjoyed it too...

After the pool it was more wii time. We seriously couldn't get enough. In fact, we played it so much, that I was actually sore on Monday and could barely move my arms. If you have not played a wii, you are missing out because it is a GOOD TIME (and a workout I might add. Thank you. Where do I sign up?)

We also hit up McDonalds for a double cheese (family tradition) and then back to Nielsen's because we just couldn't get enough.

The crew at Nielsens

Ugly face time. I think we succeeded.

This is a friend that Jordan made and he loved having us take pictures of us. He especially loved taking pictures with Jordan.

Pretty Katie

And last but not least, we were finally able to give my dad his Father's Day present complete with the jewel that I found at Target. Feel free to enlarge the picture for a better glance. (Present did not include the jeweled polo shirt--that was a present he found for himself.)

We were so sad to leave because we all had to be at work the next morning, but the trip was DEFINITELY worth it. Thanks for the fun trip family!

Tagged Again!

4 things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Babysitting
2. Playing night games
3. Crushing on any boy in sight
4. Maybe playing Barbies in the Skinner's basement for HOURS/DAYS

4 things I was doing 5 years ago:
1. Working at Western Wats
2. Driving in my VW Cabriolet with the top down... oh how I miss that
3. Preparing to be the Junior Class Secretary the following school year
4. Taking piano and voice lessons

4 things I did yesterday:
1. Went to work for what seemed like forever
2. Watched TV
3. Went to the weekly "Girl's Night" where we made BBQ Chicken, Pasta Salad and Strawberry Shortcake. Yum.
4. Attempted to clean/organize my house, but gave up because it was too hard.

4 shows that I like:
1. LOST
2. Arrested Development
3. So You Think You Can Dance
4. Seinfeld or the Simpsons... Jordi and I have been pretty into these lately... no joke.

4 Biggest Joys of My Life Right Now:
1. Being married to Jordi... come on, we're newlyweds
2. The thought of leaving for St George in like an hour
3. That I don't have to be back to work until Monday
4. That I am almost done with decorating! WAHOO!

4 people I tag:
1. Katie (I am pretty sure she has never been tagged)
2. Brittany Statham (because she never updates her blog)
3. Any other sisters (Nicole, Natalie, Megan, Shauna, etc)
4. Tara

You Should All Be Impressed

So Jordan and I have started this new thing. It is called EXERCISING. While it is a normal habit for many, we have fallen slightly out of the habit. Ok, not so much slightly, but maybe completely stopped and headed in the opposite direction--laziness. Ok, Jordan has been a little bit better. He refs basketball, so he runs up and down the courts for a few hours... which is much more than I can say for myself (Couch potato).

So we have started light and have just been running around a track. Since I am REALLY out of shape, we have to run on the track because Jordan laps me after about two laps. Well, running has never been "my thing" and I have always kinda hated it. I am the person who is constantly stopping on the run to walk. When I used to run by myself through the streets, I would always walk when there was no one around to see how pathetic I was. Jordan always laughs at me and says that it is so weird that I just walk sometimes because he has never once in his life stopped running to take a walking break. Well yesterday I decided to just run for as long as I could. I got one lap around without stopping which isn't far from the norm. After the first lap, I told myself, just get one more half lap. When I was done with that, I would say, ok just one more half lap and then you can take a break. So I did two full laps without stopping! But wait, I didn't stop there, just a half lap more, and then another, and then another... by that time, I was so tired and I was barely conscious... and yes, I am serious. When you haven't worked out steadily in about a year, you tend to be a little "out of shape". At this point, my lungs were BURNING. I think for the last lap and a half, I ran mostly with my eyes closed (seriously) so I wouldn't have to see how much farther I had to go. Well people, I did it. I ran a FULL MILE without taking a break. Not only is this the first time that I have done this in a year, but this is the first time that I have EVER ran a mile without stopping. No joke. Elementary... never. Junior High... yeah right. High School... nope. But I did it yesterday... I seriously thought that I was going to pass out, and that my heart was going to explode (it probably almost did), but I did it! Wahoo!

After the run, Jordan said something like, "After running I always feel so much better and energized". I can't even imagine the look on my face. It was probably somewhere between "I hate you" and "I want to die". We'll see if I can make this a "habit" or whatever they call it....

I Got Nothin.

Katie kept pestering me about my lack of posts. What she doesn't understand is that I have no life and don't do anything blog worthy. I work and then usually come home and do nothing. I have still been working on finishing the last bit of decorating. This includes pictures. I watned them to look a little more unique and cool, so here are my latest creations. Enjoy.

This picture was done on accident, but I liked the way it turned out... it inspired the rest of them.



When I have something more to say, I will post it. I am going to St George this weekend, so I am sure there will be a post to follow.

I Think A Change Will Do You Good

I know, I know... It has been ages since an update. I have been a little occupied over the past few weeks and a blog post has not fallen #1 on my priority list. It still really isn't #1, but since everyone keeps telling me I need to update my blog, I will give in.

A LOT has happened since my last post. A lot having to do with our location. The security thing just wasn't working out for us in more ways than one, so we decided to cut our losses and move home! We left the Friday before Memorial Day after we spent the day packing (and me working). We got a little bit of a late start and ended up getting lost. Just what we wanted after we were already getting a late start and we had a two day drive ahead of us. We ended up in the middle of no where and we barely had cell phone reception. Luckily, we were able to call my sister Nicole and she was able to mapquest us back on our way (actually we got lost a few more times and ended up not really using the directions but thanks anyway Nicole! You led us far enough!). We stopped in Des Moines for the night and then woke up the next morning and drove all the way back to Sandy. It took us about 15 hours, but luckily I picked up the 2nd book in the Twilight series and kept myself entertained. A big thanks to Jordan for driving pretty much all day.

We were in Sandy for a few days, but we wanted to move to Provo. We kept our eyes on Craigslist to find a house, basement apartment or pretty much whatever we were able to find. I had high hopes of getting a quaint little house with a backyard, but everything was sooooo overpriced. There were the dumpiest basement apartments that smelled, were old and were so expensive and didn't include utilities or cable or anything. Get real people, I am not shelling out all of my money to live in your gross, moldy basement. We decided to try a few apartment complexes around Provo and finally settled into Cambridge Court--one step up from my hood, the Glenwood. Just kidding, this place is MUCH better. However, the deal breaker was definitely when the "tour guide" told us that we could paint.

Before..kinda

I started thinking about what color I wanted to paint and had a pretty good idea. I went to the paint store and got the color and came home and painted all day Saturday. All was well until I realized that the color that I imagined in my mind was nothing like what was on my wall.

After...yuck

I imagined a beautiful light sage green that would be so cute with all of our decorations. I ended up with a beautiful shade of florescent green. Okay, it wasn't completely florescent, but it really reminded me of this:

My old Glenwood apartment. It was BAD. If you can't tell, it is a nice, bright florescent green. It was so bad that sometimes it made me ill.

Since I didn't want to be reminded of that, I decided that I should paint again, so I went down to the paint store and picked up some burnt orange paint and painted my little heart out. I do have to say that I was EXHAUSTED after painting. I really wanted to only use one can of paint (I'm cheap), so I had to make every little drop count. I was pressing as hard as I could as I painted so it would go into every little crease. You should be amazed because I did it! Although some places didn't get a second coat... but only the places that are hidden, like behind our couch.

Cute huh?... humor me and say yes. Jordan doesn't really like it. He says that it is too bright and would prefer the green. :(

I like it soooooo much better and it looks really good with our new couch! Yes, we bought a new couch. I had started to look on Craigslist to find a cheapy one, but they were all nasty and were like $200. So I marched down to the RC Willey outlet and found this beauty for $250! I think it was a pretty good investment and I am really happy with it!
We also have been doing a few other home improvement things around the house. Jordan painted a table and I started painting some chairs that were passed to us from my grandparents. I am still working on recovering them, so watch for a future post when they are finished. They are going to be really cool. We are definitely still moving in and I am definitely not done with decorating. I still need to hang up pictures and other decorations, but I am just glad that we can finally do that since we have painted and everything is getting ready. I will post more pictures when everything is finalized... but these are the rough drafts.
It has been so great to be back to Provo. It is also nice to have our normal life back again. Jordan just got a job with Gold's Gym selling memberships, but for now, his hours are 1-9... so maybe life isn't back to normal as much as we thought! Luckily this should only be for the training part, so we will only barely see each other for the next three weeks... and he has to work on Saturdays, so really the only day we will have is on Sunday! I am just so glad that he has been able to find a job!