10 Random Things

As per Hilary's suggestion here is a list of 10 random things about me. Just remember that there is no judging on this site and those who do judge me from my list will be blackmailed. I know something secret about everyone.

1. I love to shave my legs. Not just having shaven legs but actually shaving them.

2. I'm addicted to crime shows. Not just CSI and stuff but shows with real stories about people, like American Justice and Cold Case Files.

3. Whenever I drive down Parley's Canyon I think of things I would do if my brakes went out and I was past the runaway truck ramp.

4. I hate grocery shopping.

5. Most of the time my left leg is 1/2 inch longer than my right. I wasn't born this way, it happens when my bones shift in my hip and my sciatic nerve acts up.

6. If I could have any calling in the church I would be the Primary Chorister.

7. I really don't like scrapbooking. I think it's overrated and I'm not very good at it.

8. I can type really fast and pretty accuratley.

9. I absolutley hate being late to things.

10. I use to eat snow with maple syrup on it when I was really little. My neighbor taught it to me. Gross.

Sweet sweet honey.

Back seat of our "paid for" Nissan Altima.
Cloth seats and accompanying seatbelts.
7 lbs of spilled honey... yes 7 lbs.

How do you even begin to clean that up?
I'll tell you... a ladel, a big bowl and lots and lots of soapy water.
Our back seat is still crunchy.

The Bird

When I was younger, maybe 5th or 6th grade, I got a Cockatiel for Christmas. His name was Piper and he was a sweet bird. That is he was sweet until Steven and Brian tortured the poor thing and turned it against everone. If you think I'm kidding you should ask them, they still laugh about it. Anyway, Piper did a lot of interesting things. Once he ate a black pearl after bending the earing it was in while still attached to my moms ear. Another time he flew away and ended up landing on a neighbors bald head while he was outside in the garden. Finally he met his demise when left outside in his cage one night. He got eaten by a raccoon. There are differing accounts as to what really happened but he was dead. Well...

Today Katherine and Natalie and I were leaving my salon to go home. As we stepped into the parking lot a hear a bird and it sounded familiar. I looked down and there was a Cockatiel in the parking lot! Just chillin', hangin' out. Flash backs from my childhood swarmed through my head and me having a soft spot in my heart for animals and not wanting it to meet the same fate as Piper, we tried to catch it. It took a few minutes and a piece of chocolate cookie but I got him. He was squalking and trying to bite me. Poor thing didn't realize I was there to help him! So we have this bird, now what do we do with it? Of course, there's a pet store right around the corner! They'll surely take the bird. We walk into the store and this girl tell us they can't take it because they don't know where it's been and it could disease the other birds. Whatever. So what did we do? We left it in the Bird World parking lot for some other person to deal with. Yep. Serious. Now I have guilt.

Moab 2009

This past weekend Jeremy and I went to Moab with the Barclay's, Steven & Tara and some friends. Jeremy's dad works with a guy who got a permit to run the Westwater seciton of the Colorado River. A 17 mile section of river with a series of 17 rapids. Of course we were in the smallest raft. There was lots of rowing, lots of sun and lots of water. The first few rapids were pretty small. I thought "if this is as bad as it gets, we're good". Boy was I wrong. We went through some pretty amazing rapids. The one that I have the best recollection of was called Skull Rapids. Ya, the name really instilled a sense of saftey for me. Well, the 6 of us in our little raft (that included a guy who's run the river a lot and was our "guide") headed into the rapids and after we hit the first big one we got thrown over to the right and pinned against a rock wall. The raft went up on the wall and we thought it was going to flip and we'd all fall out. Instead Jeff (my brother-in-law) fell into me and I in turn fell into Jeremy and Jeremy and I both fell out! It was pretty scary. Luckily I was right by the raft and could feel the side of the raft. I kept reaching for something to grab onto but couldn't find anything. I was still under water and couldn't get any air. Suddenly I was ripped out of the water and was back in the raft. Literally ripped. In the process I got a huge bruise on my leg somehow. Jeremy on the other hand had gotten sucked down when he fell in. Finally he came up and was right under the raft. He finally got out after being under long enough to feel "uncomfortable". When he popped up the other rafts in our group were yelling at him to swim left. We finally made it out of the rapids, picked up Jeremy from another raft and tried to calm down. It was at this point that our "guide" told us that 3 people have died this year in that exact spot. He didn't tell us before so we didn't freak out. Overall the rafting trip was AWESOME! Definitely scary in spots but way fun!

35th Annual Scottish Festival

This past weekend Jeremy performed/competed with the Utah Pipe Band at the Utah Scottish Festival at Thanksgiving Point. Friday night was the tattoo and Saturday was the competition. The UPB placed 3rd out of 12 competing bands in both the timed medley and the quick march medley. The main reason I go is to see my hubby in his kilt! Oh, and I guess the sweet piping that they do isn't bad either!

Masters of Business Administration (MBA)

grad·u·a·tion; (n.)
- Conferral or receipt of an academic degree or diploma marking completion of studies.
- A ceremony at which degrees or diplomas are conferred; a commencement.

2 years of study, countless late nights, 1 trip to Europe. Lots of money.
Finally being done with his Masters degree. Priceless.

Trip Pictures

Europe 2009

In lieu of the fact that there is no way I could possibly share all the experiences we had on our amazing trip to Europe I am going to list a few key things that stick out and let the pictures do the rest. That's if I can ever get this blasted slideshow to work.

Poland/Czech Republic 2009

Number of flights: 5
Hotels stayed in: 3
Overnight trains with moldy cheese in them: 1
Days of chronic coughing: 10
Amount of money spent on bathrooms: Lots
Amount of money spent on drinks with no ice: Lots
Number of people in our group: 30
Favorite place visited: Prague
Weirdest food I tasted: Pork lard spread on bread... Yummmmm!
Days spent being grateful I'm American: 10
Most sobering place: Auschwitz
Favorite moments: When it was just me and Jeremy walking around exploring.
People who wouldn't sell us ice cream: 1
Friends made: Many
Hours on a bus: Numerous
Miles walked: Countless

Don't let this list fool you. Even the things that may sound negative were so fun.. well, everything except being sick the whole time. I could have done without that. I'm sure I'll have more to say once I get everything organized.

Snow, snow and....more snow

Microclimate (n); The climate of a small, specific place within an area as contrasted with the climate of the entire area.

I have learned two things in regards to the recent accumulation of snow here in Layton.

First. Don't try shoveling the snow off a huge driveway unless you want to employ a chiropractor and a massage therapist. Whoever said 'lift with your legs, not with your back' has obviously never shoveled a driveway 15" deep in snow. Because I DID lift with my legs... and my back... and my arms and every other muscle in the human body. In fact my jaw is sore from clenching my teeth while lifting. Crazy.

Second. Before you buy your next house check out the neighbors and make sure you have some good ones. Our neighbor Dusty gets the award for best neighbor this year. Although we do have a snow blower, it's a hand-me-down and doesn't work. Dusty, however, has one of those industrial snow blowers that can suck up small cars and turn them into rubix cubes or something like that. He generally beats us to our driveway and saves me from any shoveling at all. I must admit that last Monday when we also got dumped on he didn't come and snow blow our driveway. I was kind of irritated that he would leave me to do it myself...heaven forbid. Well, yesterday when I was out there shoveling again he came over when I was half done and helped finish it. We got to conversing and he told me how sorry he was that he didn't help on Monday. He wanted to but couldn't because he dislocated his shoulder! Wow, I'm a jerk!

AND THE WINNER IS...

As many of you know Jeremy is in his last semester in the MBA program at Westminster. One of the requirements for the Masters program is that he take a trip to study business internationally. He was given a list four locations and had to pick which place he wanted to go. Choice #1 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; could be interesting but there's no real desire to go there. #2 Mexico City, Mexico; might be fun but guaranteed to be very dirty and hot. #3 Ireland; you might think this is a no-brainer and the obvious choice. However, that is one place we will probably visit someday due to it's close proximity to Scotland. You all know Jeremy's Scottish right? That leaves us with #4 Poland & the Czech Republic. It may not be an obvious first choice, however, the likely hood that we would choose to go there on our own is pretty slim. So that's where we're going. Yep...WE! It just so happens that there was extra space in the group so spouses can go if they want to. Thus, April 29,2009 we will be flying to Warsaw, Poland where we'll start our stoic journey. Next on the itinerary is Krakow, Poland. Last but certainly not least (I'm very excited to go there) is Prague, Czech Republic. In the coming months we have lots to do to prepare and to be honest I'm a little bit anxious about it! So if any of you have any information about any of the places we're going we'd love to hear about it!

THE BIG 30

The other day I was reading a section in a fashion magazine about skin care for different age groups. As I was reading the section on skin care for women in their 20's I realized that I wasn't in that category any more! I got bumped up! I'm now officially in the 30+ category.

In honor of turning 30 I'd like to list 30 things that I did or that happened on my birthday:

1. Woke up at 6:30 and attended a Cosmetology conference all day.
2. Ate a delicious mushroom burger at lunch with Jeremy.
3. Listened to an old lady yell at her husband at the restaurant. She kept yelling, "no more beer!"
4. Got The Office season 4 from Jeremy.
5. Had my mom sing me a song on my voice mail.
6. Had my dad sing me a song on my voice mail.
7. Went to dinner with my parents at Mimi's Cafe.
8. Ate a homemade cinnamon roll from Christina.
9. Drank some Dr. Pepper.
10. Pulled the "it's my birthday" card.
11. Got a really unique bread bowl from my parents.
12. Figured out how to work a GPS.
13. Watched an episode of The Office with Jeremy.
14. Laughed a ton!
15. Watched a lady drive down 6th South the wrong direction on a one way street!
16. Went through a whole small bottle of hand sanitizer.
17. Watched the history channel.
18. Made fun of Christina.
19. Had Christina make fun of me.
20. Listened to two women fight about state cosmetology laws...interesting.
21. Got calls from MOST of my family and friends.
22. Talked about sex and saran wrap with my boss...she's was talking, I was listening.
23. Shared my iPod with Jeremy for a few minutes.
24. Made more fun of Christina.
25. Talked to Jeremy on the way home.
26. Drank some more Dr. Pepper.
27. Talked to a guy who lives in Argentina but works in Calgary.
28. Received 5 calls from Kristen. (She really loves me!)
29. Didn't win a thing from the drawings at the convention. Shocking.
30. Kissed Jeremy good night!

Wow, that was a lot harder than I thought it would be! I'm so grateful for all that I have and who I am!

ESPN

Check out this article on ESPN. What more can we say.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3815656

13-0 Baby!

We were so lucky to go to New Orleans to see the Utes play in the Sugar Bowl. It was a long journey...driving to Las Vegas on New Years Eve and then flying to Houston and then New Orleans on New Years Day. Here's a few of the things we experienced while we were there.

• Saw the mighty Mississippi & got our shoes shinned by a guy named Dan the Shoe Shine Man.



• Ate really good oysters on the half shell.



• Got ID'd at Harrah's Casino. They didn't believe I was 29 and Jeremy is 31.



• Saw TONS of Alabama fans. They had lots to say before the game and not very much after.



• Visited a planation and as luck would have it it was POURING rain so we bought some ponchos and it promptly stopped raining.



• Visited the French Quarter and ate beignets (french doughnuts).



• Made a one time drive down Bourbon Street...no wonder New Orleans flooded!



• Listened to Jazz.



• Visited a cemetery where all the plots/tombs are above ground because of the water table...weird!



• WATCHED THE UTES DOMINATE ALABAMA IN THE SUGAR BOWL AT THE SUPER DOME!!!!

The energy at the game was amazing and it was awesome seeing the 71,000 Alabama fans just sit there while the 14,000 Utah fans yelled and cheered! What a way to end the season! Go UTES!