Five Things... Another tag

Five things on my to do list:

1. Register for fall semester

2. Find board shorts that go down to my knees.... anyone know where I can find any?

3. Get through the work day

4. Put away clothes... the worst part of doing laundry!

5. Return a dress to Costco... sadly. It is so cute!

Five things I probably won't wear again (I say probably because there is always 

Halloween or 80's day that just might require I break some stuff out):

1. Stirrup pants

2. A scrunchie

3. Short-alls... cute for kids, but shouldn't be made for adults

4. Pleated pants

5. A football jersey

Five things I do for fun or to relax:

1. Shoe shopping, or shopping in general

2. Be with my family

3. Discover new restaurants with Chris/Go on dates

4. Get a pedicure

5. Read

Five things I love about my husband:
1. His curly hair
2. How much he appreciates me
3. How patient he is with me and my moods
4. His spirituality

5. His strength and energy... mountain biking, running, hiking, sports, etc.

Five things I like to cook:

1. Spaetzle - German dish

2. Anything in a crockpot!
3. Cookies... I guess that would be baking
4. Any type of casserole
5. Taco soup

Five things I rely on:

1. Chris

2. The Lord

3. My family

4. Vacations... they give me something to look forward to!

5. My friends

6. Food :)

If you are up for it, I tag Laura and Andrea!

Exercise... It's good for you

It's true, and there is no way around it if you want to look better, feel better, and get rid of the fat you put on when inhaling platefuls (yes, plural) of sweets.

Sunday was my brother-in-law's farewell talk (which he did very well on, I might say), and of course, there was the traditional open house at his house afterwards. Before leaving our house for the meeting, we ate lunch after church - and I was full. Of course, I was still full an hour later when I was staring at pork sandwiches, baked beans, pasta salad, and a table full of desserts. Of course, forget the semi-healthy stuff that would be of some nutrition... I was headed for the good stuff. I loaded up on chocolate cake, applesauce chocolate chip cookies, brownie bars of some sort, and some AMAZING homemade gingersnaps. Now, although these delicious bits of fat were spread out over the course of a couple of hours, I don't think I have to say how I felt after eating them. I realized, as I was stuffing my face, that if I keep eating the way I do, it won't be long before it hurts to sit down...

And since I realize that I have totally blown my chances of reaching my New Year's goal of going to the gym about three times a week - I've maybe been three times this year... I wanted to change. And soon.

So, yesterday I headed to the gym. I worked my arms, mostly triceps, and put my booty on a treadmill... and it felt good. Of course, if you're like me, you are having a difficult time just trying to get through the 30 minutes of straight running on a treadmill (I'd much rather prefer running outdoors if I do at all), but boy is it a good feeling after you have a good workout! Now the goal is to continue to exercise... I do feel so much better when I do, and the fact that swimsuit season is almost here, it is another good motivation to look good!

David and Clay

Watch. Compare. Enjoy. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHQ82kAwEBM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AosUJBnfHxM

Sorry they are only links. I can't seem to get the videos to work!

Weekend Adventure

On Friday night we headed out to FastKart for my brother-in-law Geoff's birthday get-together. Though I finished last (I was doing well until being bumped several times out of the way), it was great fun. It is slightly overpriced in my opinion, but it's fun for a once-in-a-while activity. 

We went to Cold Stone afterwards. I love that it's warming up enough for ice cream!

That night we watched Alvin and the Chipmunks. Anyone else think it was super cheesey? I was really disappointed. I thought the singing was cute and it had some good one-liners, but I was unhappy with it.

The next morning we got to watch my niece Daytona. She is so funny and I can't get over how cute she is! We played for a little while before I had to go to my violin lesson, and Chris took over. 

After the lesson I was anxious to get home to see and play with her. I walked in the door, and this is what I saw. 

It was so sweet. Chris explained how he sang her to sleep, and he was beaming. "I've never done that before," he told me. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen.

When she woke up, we took her outside. Our pool was just uncovered, and they were getting it ready for the summer. It looked yucky.

Nevertheless, Daytona wanted in. She would grab the fence and shake it, and look at us, then look at the water. She was too funny.

After TJ and Dixie came to pick her up (we only had the privilege of watching her for about four hours), we ran some errands and then went to Chris's brother William's  Rugby game. I had never been to a game before; it was a lot of fun to watch! He's just a little guy (15), but he gets right in with the rest of them and plays hard! It was awesome. They won 55 to zero!

That night we hung out with our friends Katie and Chris. We decided that since it was such a nice day, we'd get Cafe Rio and take it up to Silver Lake..... we seemed to have forgotten that we are in Utah, and it's only May. These were our findings:

Snow.

Snow.

And walls of snow.

Perfect way to ruin our fun of enjoying the 

weather... but not for long. 

We decided to drive down the canyon and look for a picnic area where we could sit and eat. However, we did not remember having to pay SIX DOLLARS for a spot. ??? By this time, we were very hungry (not to mention the fact that Katie is prego - so if we were hungry, double it for her). We found a place on the side of the canyon road, looked in the trunk of their car, and found some camping mats and towels. Perfect! We plopped ourselves down and had a wonderful meal, and there was no snow to be seen. 

Katie and Chris are moving to Philadelphia in July. We became great friends when I worked with her at 3form (we got through it together), and I am so glad that we have kept in touch. She's so fun and I love her. We will miss them! Luckily it's only for two years! We went to the park after that and just sat out and enjoyed the weather. I am loving it - except for the fact that it seems to have jumped right into summer, and skipped spring all together. Why can't we have some normal weather around here?!

It was a fun weekend. On Sunday we ate at my parent's house; my mom is leaving to go to Florida for a month to be with my sister Holly, who is due with her 2nd child any day now. Did I mention I am jealous?

My sister decided to put some olives on my nephew Lance's fingers, who thought it was the funniest thing. He's so funny!

OUCH!

Pay no attention to the curly hair that is getting longer and more curly as the days go by... that's not what this post is about. While he would probably  like to have his hair long enough to prevent this very thing from happening, it's exactly what does happen when my dear husband Chris doesn't wear sunscreen. 

First burn of the year.... BRING IT ON!!

Mother's Day Fun

Sunday was great. Our ward let all the women (even those that aren't mothers) go to Relief Society and sunday school - so no primary for me! I do enjoy primary, don't get me wrong. I just enjoyed the break. The men played the piano, led the music, did sharing time... Chris taught with another guy in the ward. The bishop taught the lesson in Relief Society, and I just sat back and listened. It was wonderful.

That afternoon, we went to my parents' house, then the park with the family. It was so much fun! Our nieces and nephews are so fun. Chris and I had a great time also, running and playing. The swings are my favorite. :) Here are more pictures for you to enjoy! I thought I'd save the Pictures for one big post instead of making my last post super long! I wanted to make the pictures bigger... but I figured there were too many of them.

I always have a blast with my nieces and nephews. We sure missed Holly and Tim, and little Robby. Next time they come out we will all play. Happy Mother's Day to all of you out there. Hope it was a good one.

Happenings...

Before I bombard you with pictures from Mother's Day, I will give you an update of the week. Last week was kind of a whirl-wind, but ended up great with a long weekend.

On Tuesday night we went to look at a car we found on ksl.com. We fell in love! We've been looking for a more reliable car.... and we decided that we felt good about this one. We've been saving our pennies for a while, and on Thursday evening I wrote the biggest check I've ever written and paid in full for the car. It is beautiful and I love it! It is so fun to drive. The biggest thing for us was being able to pay for it all then. What a huge relief it is not to have another payment each month... which is exactly what we don't need. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy...

It's so pretty!

I had taken Friday off the week before by chance because I decided that I needed a break, and it just happened to work out perfectly for me to get the registration on the car the very next day.

We went out with my friend Danielle and her husband Nick on Friday night. She quit her job at 3form, where I used to work - yuck - and we wanted to celebrate (yes, it was that bad of a job)! We went to Texas Roadhouse. It was good, we had never been there. I had the ribeye steak - and was very pleased. 

We then went to their house and watched The Office from the night before. I must say, it's getting intense... I can't believe the season finale is already next week! The season seems like it should have just started, thanks to the writer's strike. I am anxious to see what will happen with Jim and Pam... does anyone share this curiosity with me?

Saturday Chris had a soccer game (unfortunately they lost), and we had cafe rio.... mmmmm..... and watched the Bee Movie. I thought it was cute. Pretty witty for a cartoon. I liked it.

For those of you who don't watch American Idol, Friday was David's Day! David Archuleta, that is. If you think he's cute in this picture, you should see him in person. Granted, I never got that close to him, about 20 feet away... and this is the best picture I got: 

If  you look closely behind the bald man's head, you will see his left arm waving. I obviously didn't have a great shot, but this was when he came around the whole track, and though the car he was riding in was probably just in idle, there were too many people around me to take the time to get something better. That, and I left my camera in the car (me of all people!) and I had only  my phone, which had a low battery. :(

Governer John Huntsman was there, named May 9th "David's Day," named their street "Archuleta Way," and recognized him as "Utah's American Idol." But the best part was his singing - he sang three songs. He was incredible, I must say. Even better live. The songs were "Imagine," "Stand by Me," and "Angels." The closer I got to the crowd, the less I could see, so my mom (who I took with me) and I switched off getting on each other's backs. She offered a little girl to get on her shoulders. It was quite funny when I had to help my mom up once the girl was actually on her shoulders. And I've always known my mom is loud, but I was reminded just how loud she is when she was in there, screaming with all of the other girls. She of course got the strange looks from everyone as usual, and I of course was happy to say that she is my mother. :) We had fun. I figured it was worth it - when will it ever happen again?

Oh, and I think he will win it.

FINISHED!

To me it is truly a milestone when you finish the Harry Potter series. I finished the 7th book last Sunday. It was fantanstic! It didn't take me nearly as long as the 6th book, and now I can move on to smaller books... which I am looking forward to.

My current read for the month of May is Life of Pi. Very interesting so far, and I've heard some great things about it. It's been on my list for a while, as well as many others. I am happy to say it has around only 300 hundred pages.

Interesting.... True?

You Are Ginger

Like ginger, you are a total shape shifter. You can be sweet, spicy, mellow, or overpowering. You are both soothing and unique. You are popular... yet you are often overlooked.

What Spice Are You?

Job Description: Mom

There are times, when people ask me what I do for work, I am tempted to say, "I am a mother" (of course they know I don't have children). Let me explain.

I am an Administrative Assistant at Axiom Design. While I enjoy my job very much, there are some days - to be specific - the last Friday of every month - that I could do without.

On those designated Fridays, we have what is called Axiom Lunch, for the entire company. It is a small company (17 people or so), thank goodness, but I am in charge of picking a restaurant, passing the menu around to everyone (making sure it actually does move... sometimes people forget about it and it doesn't get anywhere, which pushes lunch behind... it's a chain reaction), getting the list of orders, calling the restaurant and making the lady on the other end irritated with my huge order.

30-45 minutes later, I am at the restaurant, picking up the large order (normally alone). I bring it back to the office, and if the orders aren't numbered (which I ask for - it makes things much easier), I have to spend a good amount of time back at the office in the kitchen sorting the orders out. I set up the kitchen (that BAREY fits 17 people) with chairs, and put everyone's orders together with their napkins and utensils. WHEW!

Lunch could be nice... you'd think that the big hassle is over and I would be able to enjoy my meal with my co-workers. Just when I think it's all over.... then steps in "mom." There are a few picky eaters in the Axiom office. If something is wrong, you will know about it. "I asked for no tomatoes or lettuce." "I asked for BBQ sauce, not Ketchup." "I wanted fries with this."....The list goes on. Then I feel guilty, because even though I asked for it as specified, it comes back to me if it's wrong, as if it was my fault.

As everyone gets up and leaves after lunch, they normally throw away their meal. But I am left with a room full of chairs everywhere, tables with food all over them, and an occasional water spill here and there. The only thing nice left for me is the one or two people that say thank you.

The first time I went through this experience (which it truly is an experience), I left the kitchen with everyone else. It was maybe a couple of hours later when I walked down and realized that the mess was still there, and it was my job to clean it. Since then, I have become accustomed to this.

Last week I was told that we would not be having Axiom Lunch for the month of April. YESSSS!!!

Little did I know that Cinco De Mayo was a reason for my boss to celebrate by having lunch on the company. I quickly kissed my non-axiom-lunch happiness goodbye. However, this time it really was not so bad. We ordered from The Red Iguana, people were not as picky this time, and my friend Roger at work came with me to pick it up. He helped me set everything up, and the restaurant even numbered the orders like I asked! The kitchen wasn't even as messy this time. So, although I still needed to "tidy things up," it wasn't nearly as bad as it normally is.

I could go on about the list of things to do at work that put me in the "mom" category. I do enjoy my job, but let's just say on the last Friday of every month (and apparently the Mexican holidays that my boss likes to celebrate), I'd rather pay for my lunch than have to go through the process!