Thanksgiving and such

I'm glad i'm not the only one who hasn't posted in awhile! Sometimes I feel like there is just not much to say, which is usually true. In the middle of November Ryan quit his job at SkyWest, which has been unfortunately wonderful! Wonderful because I get to have somewhat normal weekends with my husband, and unfortunate because we can no longer go on fun vacations!
Thanksgiving was wonderful! We made pies...7 pies! We didn't intend to make that many it just happened. We baked 2 pumpkin pies, 2 apple pies, peanut butter and chocolate chip pie, and 2 lemon merangue. They were delicious as was dinner which we had at my grandparents house. We even went shopping on Black Friday. We got up nice and early and got to the stores at noon! HA! I'm not THAT crazy! Christmas shopping done! That afternoon we went to my sister-in-laws cabin up in Wyoming. It was a blast even though there was not snow. But we cut down our first real Christmas tree. Which about 4 days ago fell over because it doesn't quite fit in the stand. It is now leaning against the wall... I guess we are fake tree people? It was really fun though! We played games (Pit, so fun!) watched movies, celebrated my dad's birthday at a "fresh" seafood place in Afton Wyoming...it was really goo though. We even saw a parade! My dad brought up a bunch of guns and we did some skeet shooting. It was Ryan's first time and he did amazing! I didn't do so well and prefer target shooting besides the bitter cold and wind it was fun.
Ryan is almost done with school FRIDAY!! I am so excited! Only one more paper and its only 13 pages! Christmas eve we leave for Rexburg then on to Ephrata for Christmas with Ryan's family who will ALL be there. We are so excited. I LOVE the holidays!

Sorry I didn't feel like incorporating pictures throughout this post so here they all are. I am getting very lazy.

Changes

We still haven't been very exciting. Last week we decided that it was time for Ryan to leave SkyWest, a very hard decision, but he works 7 days a week so we can't even use the benefits he is working for and we never get to see each other! So we thought we would stick it out until the next bid and just see if things changed. Well they did he actually got a decent shift TH-Sat from like 6-9:30 and his on call day would be Sunday. So we decided to give it a try a little longer. That was Wednesday. Friday Ryan called me from work to tell me his schedule for the next 2 weeks and he had all closing shifts which he can't work because he has to be at UPS, then on Saturdays he was scheduled for a 6 am shift! That was the last straw for me I told him to quit. We had planned to go on one last trip before he quit, then we decided to stay a little longer so we decided we could wait to go on trip so we changed our plans then Ryan decided to quit and we wanted to get away one last time. Since we only had Sat and Sun we decided to go to Ephrata to see his family and Melissa was singing at Cabaret and we heard she did a really good job. She did a GREAT job! We were all so impressed!





It was fun to be able to go see Melissa sing I'm glad we had the opportunity!

This is just a cool picture Ryan took at Cabaret


So Ryan will go in and turn in his badges this week. It is sad to think we won't be able to go away when we want for free. But I would rather see my husband so I am kind of excited he is quitting too. Mixed feelings.

Work was crazy this morning. One of our doctors went to Mexico to do eye exams for 2 weeks, so we had all sorts of projects to do while he was gone. One of them was to get the carpets cleaned. I was gone Thursday and Friday so I figured they cleaned the carpets then. When I walked in the office this morning I just about turned around and went home. There were fans and cords and stuff ALL over the office! We had a FULL day of patients I didn't know what to do. I got in at 8 and our first patient is at 9 how was I ever going to get everything put back together before patients came? If the company going to come and clean up their stuff?? I was so frustrated that this wasn't done before. Then I wondered what kind of crazy floor cleaning company we used, I have never seen so much stuff. Well it turns out we did get the carpets cleaned on Thursday and on Friday we had a pipe break and flood the whole office!! The funny thing is people will leave me notes for just about any non important matter alive but no one said one thing about this, no note no message on the answering machine...I was in total shock when I walked in! It is kind of funny now in a frustrating way but I was so mad this morning! Needless to say it was a long day. Everything was not quite dry. I guess I am lucky I wasn't there when the actual disaster happened!

Life in the Village

That's what its called where we live. the "village" Our new thing is we stopped drinking pop. AND it was RYAN'S idea!!! One night when he got home at 3:00am he got in bed, we usually talk for 30 seconds, and he said "I have an idea" "...oh..." "I think we should stop drinking pop for 6 months." Then I rolled over to try to look at him. He was serious and we have been. The idea came because someone at work told him they had stopped drinking pop and had lost weight. Both of us have our trouble spots so we decided to give it a try. I have even been going to the gym a few days a week and we both think we are noticing a difference. Yah! Even if its all in our heads, it feels good.
Ryan did really well in his softball game yesterday! I was like a proud mom!! He got a triple and a home run. Even though it didn't go over the fence, the other team had enough errors that he made it all the way home! Way to go! They didn't win but he still played great!
I did make a blog for Ryan's photography class it is http://ryanbegphoto.blogspot.com/ it is really just a lot of pictures but I think it is fun. So check it out if you want. Tuesday we went to Red Butte Gardens to take pictures for his photography class. This assignment was different view points, we did get carried away taking pictures of the pretty plants! It was nice to walk around and enjoy the scenery. Here are a few pics, the rest are on his blog.





Last night at UPS Ryan got hit in the back of the head with a metal disc that came out of a package coming down the belt. He has a pretty good bump, but said he felt fine. I always worry when he gets hurt, but he is going to the Dr. tomorrow.
Last Sunday was a little crazy!! After Sacrament meeting we went to the library to make copies for our nursery class, thought we would try coloring again...and one of the counselors in the Bishopric told us he needed to talk to us "uh oh!" I was right. He asked us to speak, again, the Sunday after conference on one of the Sunday PM talks. The good thing is we got tickets! Then the exec. secretary told us the other counselor needed to talk to us, so we went in and he started extending us a calling...but someone kept knocking at the door, finally he opened it and the other counselor asked who he was talking to and which calling he was extending...turns out he had the wrong couple. Then the counselor who asked us to speak came in and extended us the right calling, activities committed, and told us we would be released from nursery. I was sad. So we went back to nursery and when we came in one of the super cute little girls saw Ryan and threw her hands in the air and yelled "RYAN!!" it was so cute! However we were interrupted again when the counselor pulled us out again to ask us if it was ok if we stayed in the nursery. Of course it is! We love "our" little kids! Crazy huh? Well that is what is going on in the village. Sorry not very many pictures.

Softball

Ryan is in a softball league right now. They play every wednesday night, and I look forward to going to his games. They are pretty fun to watch. Ryan is the pitcher. They won their last game. It was pretty interesting. The rules in softball are a little different than baseball. Apparently when you pitch the ball has to have a certain arch to it, but at the same time cannot go too high before it comes down to the batter. We did not know this rule before the game...needless to say it got Ryan a little frustrated when his good pitches were being called balls and the other team was getting walked. So the last inning the score was like 16-12 Ryan was pitching and had walked 2 guys not understanding the arch rule. We knew they had a auto out because one of their players was injured and they didn't have a back-up for him, so when it came his time to bat it was an out. Ryan had figured this out and was so frustrated with the ump that he decided to walk the 1 or 2 batters before the auto out, which would be their third out and Ryan's team would win. The other team was getting pretty frustrated with all the wide and high balls, it even took his own team a little while to figure out what he was doing. I knew. That is kind of what the games are like, not very professional but pretty fun to watch! It helps that Ryan is a good player too. He pitches, can bat, catch, and he is pretty fast! I might be a little proud, but its true!!







If you are wondering, yes I am a little bored. Ryan had to work at 12:00 this afternoon until 9:30 tonight!! I have a lot of free time on my hands! So who better to blog about than my dear sweet husband! Who also had the idea one night that we should stop drinking pop and so we have. We will see if it helps us lose a little weight! It can't hurt that for sure. Anyway that is what we have been up to. Pretty exciting!

Camera

Here is the beast!



Ryan is taking a beginning photography class (which by the way counts for 4 upper division communications credits!!) We do have a nikon cookpics point and shoot camera, but for the things he needed to do in class it was not going to work...first we search and researched prices and cameras all over!! Then we bought the Nikon D90 from Walmart.com. My sister works at Bestbuy and wondered why we didn't get it at best buy since they price match. So Monday we went to Bestbuy the first one we went to couldn't price match it exactly and the didn't have the camera, so we went to another BestBuy hoping they would be nicer and actually have the camera. We talked to the right person. Ryan showed him the paper work and they not only matched Walmarts price, but beat it! Including a better SD card! Needless to say we were really excited! And we have had a lot of fun going out a trying to figure the camera out!! We have been going up at night and taking pictures of the moon. So I figured I would make a blog of Ryan's photography so if you are interested you can see how he is coming in his photography!

Ryan's 27th Birthday

Ryan turned 27 on September 1st. We had a nice day. After work...we went golfing. I really just read my book and cheered Ryan on. I don't mind golfing like that! The course was pretty, I got to be with Ryan, and the weather was nice. Great day.



I did put once, and I did make it! We had a nice steak dinner. Ryan got a pair of ski pants
A black diamond jacket, Pearl Jam tickets and a Nikon D90 (also for his photography class)! I think he did good.
Happy Birthday Ryan, I love you so much!

Update

So we haven't been too exciting lately. Summer is over. Ryan started his senior year on monday!!! 2 more semesters! I am SO excited!! Two weekends ago we went to Ephrata to visit his family. It was really nice to get away. We were going to fly into Seattle because there is a flight from Seattle to Moses Lake which is like 20 mins from Ephrata, but the flights didn't look great and we had to check Ryan's golf clubs so we decided to fly into Pasco and drive 2 hours each way, because the flights looked more open. All this so we would make sure we got the golf clubs. We got in and Ryan got the rental car and I went and got the bags, or bag. Our clothes made it (fortunately!) but...the golf clubs did not. Oh well, we still went golfing and it was fun. Ryan's mom cooked delicious food, lots of fresh fruits and veggies from the garden! It was yummy. Last weekend I took my 2 younger brothers to seven peaks, it was supposed to be 100 degrees and basically the last weekend before school starts. We had fun. I think the boys had more fun playing on the triple tube on the grass though!




Ryan has been playing softball with a group of guys from SkyWest over the summer and their league officially starts tomorrow. But they had a couple scrimmage games and they actually did pretty good, considering a few on the team played outfield with a mitt on one hand and a beer in the other?? There is always a big cooler full of beer. I wonder if they would play better without it? Ryan is a good player though, and I might be a little bias, but anyone who watched would admit it as well. He can hit well, run fast, throw, and he is the best pitcher they have. I only had my phone with me for this scrimmage game so the pic's suck, but I will take some better ones later.



Here he is at bat. He even got an in-field home run!! I am so proud of him. It is fun to go to the games!

Tomorrow my little sister starts college and UVU!! I can't believe she is done with high school and moving up. I am so proud of her and very excited for her! I have a great sister I love her so much!


Ryan will turn 27 on Tuesday!! Guess I better figure something out something great to do for my wonderful husband. Well thats about it for now.

Wicked Birthday

So I turned 25 last monday! Not sure how I feel about admitting that yet, but I'm working on it. I had a wonderful birthday though. That weekend we flew to San Francisco and saw WICKED!!! I loved it! I think Ryan even liked it although he may not readily admit it. I would go see it again and recommend it to anyone! San Fran was a little cold however but still fun. My family came up Monday night for a BBQ and that was nice. I love having a birthday in the summer there are no cold restrictions!





The next part of our eventful week goes something like this...
Tuesday Ryan called me at work and told me to meet him when I was done so I could see the 4 runner he was test driving. So I met him and we drove back to the dealer, it was a nice 4 runner, older but in great condition. We talked to the dealer about price and what not and decided we just didn't want to do it right now. However the next evening I had a message on my phone from the dealer, he was dropping the price down...well this got Ryan really excited. The next day he went to the bank, got a loan, picked me up from work and we bought the 4 runner! A little less spontaneous than our STI purchase, at least we slept for 2 nights! So now we own a black 4 runner.



This isn't the best picture all I had was my phone with me to take a picture of the event. So, that is what we have been up to.

Look who finally made it back from vacation!!

Hope they had a good time!!

And here are some pictures of us at dinner before Leslie's Graduation!! I can't believe she is already graduated! She is a great sister!

Vacation?

I thought I would post some pictures of our wonderful long waited for, very much anticipated vacation.




Sunday we flew to LAX the flights looked good, we even checked 2 bags! We got in about 9:30 am and our flight to Lihue Kauai wasn't until like 1:50 pm. So we waited. At boarding time we went to our gate and to our horror we were long longer number 4 and 5 on the standby list just hoping we got first class, we were number 25!! Yes all the standby's from the other Hawaii flights like Honolulu (which you can never get to and should never expect to as a standby unless you are #1 on the list) and Maui and Kona had rolled over to our flight when they couldn't get on theirs! A great start to our wonderful vacation, we tried flights from LAX ALL day and couldn't get out, even back to SLC. It sucked. It really was disappointing. So we rented a car and drove an hour to my cousin Matt's house-Thanks for letting us stay, it is nice to sleep in a bed instead of the airport floor! we spent a ton of money eating at the ridiculously priced airport restaurants even though we ate at McDonalds twice! At Matt's house we checked the flights for tomorrow (MON) after all this was originally when we were going to leave so we figured it would still be ok. And flights did look pretty good, it looked like most the the stanby's should get on their flights leaving not too many rolling over onto ours. We get the the airport and all the self check-in terminals are being tested and not open so there is one giant line to get to the 2 customer service agents checking in Delta passengers! What a joke, is this really LAX how can a huge airport really operate this way!! Luckily they checked in people who had no carry-ons, which was us, ours were already in Hawaii! Ryan checked in and found out our flight had been delayed until 5:40 that night!! Giving other unsuccessful Hawaii stand-bys the change to steal our seats! So we looking at flights to SLC and knowing we would never make it out if we stayed to get on our flight. Everything was oversold!! We flew United to St. George, and from St. George we flew back home to SL. I was so upset and disappointed. If we had known we would get stranded in stupid LAX we would have gone somewhere else, but we didn't and that pretty much ruined our vacation. Flights to most sunny beach destinations were now unattainable! We thought we could go to Texas to the biggest water park, but the cost of a car rental there was so insanely high we could not bring our selves to pay that much for a day and a half! So we ended up going to San Jose CA to go to Raging Waters, supposedly one of the bigger water parks in the US. It was fun but nothing compares to Hawaii, especially when you have been planning your whole 5 days off for the year for months now and didn't get to go anywhere cool! (no offense San Jose) so that was our fairly crappy week rolled into a nut shell. Oh and to top it off somewhere in the mix of getting like 50 different boarding cards because we tried to many unsuccessful flights to get our of LAX, we lost our boarding card that had our baggage tag on it...and we are Non-rev...we still don't have our luggage...it might be a month. Other employees don't like to help employees. I have not figured that one out yet. So I guess we have next year to look forward to. For now I will just sit here an sulk about our lost vacation.

Parking Ticket

The campus police are kind of Nazi's! Because we have 2 cars we have a close parking space (permit B) which is still not that close. And a far parking space (permit C) which is even farther away. I am probably just being a baby because I am always running late for work and the extra distance to the car doesn't help. Anyway On Tanners birthday (March 26) I had made cupcakes and gone to the store, when I got back from the store I decided to park in the B permit parking with my C permit car just to unload the groceries and load the cakes. Carrying groceries in is my least favorite chore-we are juice drinkers and it is heavy! So when I came back out to load the cupcakes and leave I had a warning. I was a little annoyed. Then Last Week I parked in this spot.

ok I was parked where the gold car was parked. And the sign is a little unclear. It could mean visitor parking or C permit parking so I parked there since I have a C permit and it is the closest parking spot not taken up by broken down cars!!


It was just a crapy morning. I was running late, and work was stressing me out...and then I got a ticket! I was SOO mad! I took pictures so I could go in a fight my case.

If you notice the sign is NOT on the line, it is in the parking spot so I concluded I could park there, and other C permit people figured the same thing because they are always parking there too. So I went in and protested the ticket and got it dropped! I was so proud of myself.
Today is officially a great day because Ryan is done with the semester. He took his last final this afternoon. I am so happy. Even though next week officially starts a crappy schedule... at least I will get to see him after work. I have been going to my water aerobics class on Tues, Zumba on Wed, and Turbo Kick on Thurs, that keeps me pretty busy.

What the...?

Today is April 15 it is a bad day because it is tax day and that sucks for us. And it is a worse day because this morning when I left for work it was slushing! We even had some pretty big flakes during the day, which I did not get a picture of and here is what it currently looks like outside of my apartment.




I would be fine if it were raining after all April showers bring May flowers right? But when was the last time your shower snowed? It doesn't and it shouldn't be now. Other than the huge worms all over the sidewalk that is really the only thing wrong with today. I really have nothing to do so I am blogging (maybe not the best idea, sorry!)
Yesterday my dad came up to get his glasses fixed and we went to dinner after wards and he brought me flowers just for being a great daughter (favorite!)



Another happy thing. I have a full fridge!


That might seem really random to you but sometimes I don't go to the store for weeks! It is kind of sad to admit that. If you were thinking we must eat out a lot, you were right, but I am trying to be better however it is very hard! I even got delicious strawberries! I was going to make strawberry shortcake but we are eating the angel food cake I made and the strawberries taste so good by themselves they might be gone before we make dessert!

Speaking of desserts we had Easter with my family and I was in charge of dessert. I made 3 homemade pies. That is right homemade, even the crusts!!! I made Key Lime (my favorite) Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and lemon meringue. They all turned out delicious and I was so proud of myself! I wish I would have taken pictures. They were yummy! Easter was a little different this year, we don't really have any little kids who do the egg hunt so my Aunt Linda put the dollar bills in eggs and hid them for our "little boys" Tanner and Chad who are 13, Spencer 15 Matt and Andy 16 and 19(?). Cute!

Because all of our money went to paying Taxes Ryan had to do a medical research study just to earn some extra money. Poor boy has to go in every morning this week to dose which is extremely hard for him. The information packet says "Rifampin may cause side effects such as urine, stools, saliva, sputum, sweat, and tears to turn red-orange; this effect is harmless." But will still shock you when it happens! Ryan called me the other day at work to tell me how surprised he was the his urine was red-orange! We think it is pretty funny, hopefully not too much information. But I love his dedication! The things we will do to make some cash! Anyway I have nothing more to ramble on about so you are done now. yea!

Here they come

It has been a pretty busy month! (March) Ryan's sister Holly got married on the 14th.




We had our sweet whistler trip (next post) We got our scooter fixed
It now runs better than we got it! Poor Ryan had to drive it home in the rain. Greg and Michelle came and stayed with us before they went back east to check out graduate schools, RS birthday, I have tried a new class at the gym, Zumba it was so much fun! Holly and Brad came into town before they flew out to their reception in Missouri and we had lunch. Tanner's birthday was on the 26.

I made wax cake cupcakes and german chocolate cake. And I have to say we got him the best present.

Yes 8 dollars worth of silly putty from Kohlers. He was very specific on what he wanted how much and from where. I thought I had to get it out of those vending machines at the front of the store so I went to the back and got $10 in quarters. Turns out you don't. That was fun! The next day my parents left for their much needed and deserved week long Caribbean Cruise! I am so jealous! But glad they had a great time! I can't think of anybody who deserved it more!
That weekend we checked into the Condo in Park City! We commuted back and forth to work each day but had fun hanging out with Ryan's family. Holly and Brad brought Bryce and Liliya's kids down and we swam and swam and stayed up all night! But I have the cutest nieces and nephews!



They loved the rockband Drums especially Deagan! I didn't get a lot of pictures because I let my parents take my camera. so that's about it for Park City. I almost forgot. Ryan was also gone the whole weekend...he got into a clinical study and had to be in the clinic all weekend, but we can definitely use the money and have no problem donating our bodies to science for money! It's for a good cause!
Besides watching conference (trying) swimming with the kids, playing,and shopping Sunday was Spencer's birthday. After I picked Ryan up from the clinic we watched the morning session and then headed down to my parents house. Where we finished conference, and we might have snuck a nap in there too.Then we made some pretty good Chinese food even though we forgot our bamboo steamer everything turned out wonderful. Ryan is a good cook.



I feel tired just posting all of this! We have wonderful families who we love very much! And even though I hate not seeing Ryan on the weekends I am grateful for all he does to support us! Hopefully this next month won't be quite as crazy...we will see.

Whistler?

No not Whistler. We had been planning our annual Whistler Trip for months and everyone was really excited. Friday morning I got up and got ready got Ryan up and we headed to the airport at our usual just in time pace! We got checked in and through security and as we were walking up to the gate we heard this announcement "...need 8 volunteers to..." thinking bad words...yes the flight was oversold and we were disappointed but not totally discouraged. There was another flight to Vancouver that night at 9. So we went home rode the scooter around since it was like 70 degrees! Went back to the airport, cheked in, checked our bags, through security. There was only 1 paying passenger who did not make the flight, then us. So we went home pretty discouraged but thinking at least Ryan's 4 friends in Washington can go up. Wrong again! You can't get into Canada with a DUI. That night we figured only 1 paying passenger didn't make the flight we could still try in the morning. Got up Saturday morning got showered...looked at the flights there were 10 HK's (paying passengers who rolled over and were waiting for a seat assignment) HOW??? Fine now we give up. However I have been planning on getting away for so long I can't just stay home. So I look and look for other places to go, it is Spring Break...but we can go to Cabo, so we do. HALLELUJAH!! Yes we went to Mexico for 1 day but if you think that is crazy you must have forgotten that we went to Belgium for 1 day (much longer flight!) We flew in rented a car


sweet ride! Drove around ate at a bland Mexican restaurant went to the beach drove to another town where we could camp on the beach. The road was not the safest 2 lane highway you have ever been on at night...but we made it and ate dinner at a yummy hotel restaurant! Got directions to the camping beach.



We camped in Hawaii, we are in Mexico should be similar at night...no it was freezing! so we camped in the car (refer to picture above of small white nissan!) Surprisingly we slept pretty good. The hotels in Cabo were all pretty cool looking but high above our price range, you forgot we are already paying for our condo in whistler as we sleep on the beach in Mexico!



We did get to hang out at the public beach for a few hours before we headed back home. It was a nice beach not too crowded and once you got in the water it wasn't so bad.



Unfortunately this is the best picture of us.
Even though it was a short trip we had fun and it was just nice to get out of here! Coming home was not so pleasant. It was 86 in Cabo and raining and cold when we got to Utah...dang.