Caribbean Christmas

For Christmas this year, Dave's parents took the whole family on a 7 day cruise. After Daves finals, and Jes starting a new job it was EXACTLY what we needed. We traveled to St. Maarten, Aruba, Curacao, St. Thomas.Snorkeling in Trunk Bay.

To keep the holiday spirit, we put up Christmas lights and a small wreath in our cabin.

Christmas Eve on the ship.
Matthew and David hanging out in the Sports Bar.
Since we were gone on Christmas day, Dave and I celebrated our Christmas the day after we got home from the cruise. Monday night, this is what I walked into after work. A pair of my sweatpants were hanging from the banister by 2 connecting belts. Dave is known for wrapping presents in creative ways and this year I was dying of laughter! I had to use a ladder to get to the present in the far right pic. I was SOOOOOOOO surprised when I opened the presents!

Inside the red boxes was a new printer and my new iMac! My laptop has been acting funny for awhile now and I am so happy I now have a working computer again!

Property Virgins No Longer!

Yes..the rumors are true--Dave and I are official HOMEOWNERS! Dave and I started looking at this house at the beginning of September, fell in love with the house as well as the location (Highland) and here we are 2 months later all moved in just in time for a big snow storm! We have great neighbors who have already brought all sorts of yummy food.

Dave sometimes makes fun of me because I dont particulary love cooking/baking or anything that involves more than pouring milk and cereal in a bowl. I've been a bad wife when it comes to the cooking department. However, I'm hoping that having this awesome gas stove will motivate me to be the next Julia Childs--or not--we'll see. So far, I've made some amazing scrambled eggs.

I would post more pictures of the house, but most of it still looks something like this with my beautiful sheets being used as drapery. We ordered shutters, but they wont be installed for another 2 weeks!

We feel so blessed to live here and hope to be here for a long time!

St Geezy/Vegas Trip

I am such a slacker lately with keeping up our blog! A few weeks ago Dave and I went to St. George to watch my mom run the St. George Marathon. This was her 14th Marathon! GO MOM! She is an inspiration to me. One day I will run one, one day...

Later we drove to Las Vegas for a long weekend! Lots of shopping, good food and FUN! What more can you ask for?
We went to the carnival in Circus Circus and remembered how much fun it is to be a kid again. Dave was determined to win me a teddy bear and luckily for me he is a really good aim at darts!

S.I.M.P.L.I.F.Y.

I have been unpacking boxes since Thursday.
I'm still not done.
All this packing and unpacking has made me want to really SIMPLIFY my life. I have too many clothes. Too many shoes. Too many victoria secret PINK sweat pants! And yet, when I look in my closet in the morning to get dressed, I can NEVER find anything I want to wear. So, I am getting rid of all the clothes I don't wear. I hate getting rid of things because I always think that maybe someday I will find somewhere to wear it. But the truth is, I never do and it just sits and takes up space. Am I the only one who has a hard time getting rid of things I've had since middle school? So far I have taken 2 boxes of clothes to the D.I. Its nowhere near what I need to get rid of, but its a start.

Busy as a Bumble Bee (in Daves words)

We're baaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Well, almost. Dave will be back this Sunday. I came back home to Utah about 2 weeks ago to try and find us a place to live. We put an offer in on a home clear back in April.....4 months later they finally rejected our offer. Boo000. Short sales are no fun. Although, I have learned the meaning of terms like, "short sale, BPO, MLS#......." Uh, ya thats about it. I thought I knew more realty jargon--but it has been a fun process. Anyway, that house obviously fell through so I came back to try and frantically find a place to live in Provo who would do month to month rent. NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE. Thanks to Emily Roche--- I found a place pretty close to BYU and moved all our CRAP in this week. And yes, I mean CRAP. Who knew we could have accumulated so many uneccesary things in such a short amount of time. I am so lucky my dad was willing to bring one of his trailers to Provo and help me move all the big furniture out of the storage shed. John, Cathy and my brother Jake all helped move as well and I couldn't have done it without them .

We had to ship both cars back from North Carolina and they will be here tomorrow! I have loved driving Tyrell (Daves Audi) around but Im so excited to drive my Trixi again! (the mazda) I always get nervous when I send my car with some strange truck driver for over 2000 miles. Im keeping my fingers crossed that both our cars come back in one piece.

Carolina Fun

Daves' parents were able to come visit us in North Carolina for a few days. We were able to do a lot of fun things. (when I say WE I really just mean ME because Dave was out working hard for most of our adventures.) Dave was able to come to the U.S. NATIONAL WHITEWATER CENTER with the whole fam.


We went water rafting on this man made river. We nearly tipped over several times and it was awesome!
The boys (Dave, Matt & Kyleur) went climbing and Meg, John and myself went rode the mountain bikes for awhile. I thought I was in "OK" shape, but riding the bike for a few miles showed me otherwise. Dang. CHIMNEY ROCK

There are stairs that will take you all the way to the top of this giant rock. We opted for the easy way and took the elevator that they placed so conviently for me inside the mountain. You think Im joking, but I'm not, there really is an elevator inside the mountain!

THE BILTMORE ESTATE

It took us 2 hours to walk through it and we didn't even see the entire house.

The house was finised in 1895, has 99 bedrooms, 65 fireplaces, 43 bathrooms, heated indoor swimming pool, bowling alley and sits on almost 125,000 acres of land.

There was an ABBA concert (ABBA imitators) later that evening at the Biltmore Estate. It was SO fun. Meg and I were probably the youngest people there by 15-20 years! We sang and danced throughout the ENTIRE concert.

Charlottetown

Quick Update- Dave and I moved to North Carolina about a month ago. It is fun to live in a big city for a little while. Things I love about living here so far -
1. Panera Bread
2. Trader Joe's
3. Anthropologie
If I lean over my balcony far enough this is what I see:
And if I just look straight out my balcony, THIS is what I see:

Things I DONT love so much about living here so far:

1. The freeway right outside my bedroom window

2. The noise from the freeway outside my bedroom window

3. Did I mention the freeway outside my bedroom window?

Ok, ok so its really not THAT bad. Its like having extra white noise to fall asleep to. Except you get an occasional semi-truck that may wake you up. To make up for it, our apartment is SUPER nice and bakes fresh cookies every day, free of charge!

Welcome to Atlanta Where the Playas Play

Dave and I ventured to Georgia last weekend with Matt and Kyleur to go watch the Braves vs Red Sox baseball game. We had AWESOME seats thanks to my in-laws (John and Cathy)! I dont really love, or actually even LIKE watching baseball on T.V., but going to the game was so much fun! I love that you can get a hot dog, snow cone and diet coke without ever getting out of your seat.

The game was a little slow moving, since only 2 people scored...I guess thats baseball for ya. However, we did get a fun little show in the 9th inning. A fat red headed DRUNK man ran out onto the field and it took 5 security guards to tackle him down. So, you're telling me, those "SECURITY GUARDS" are suppose to be able to protect me, and the players and yet they can't even catch a fat drunk man? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

On the way home, we found this little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant, El Norteno. My spanish dictionary tells me that Norteno means "northern". I dont get it? We are in Georgia... I thought that was the SOUTH? Anyway, Dave and Kyleur were on cloud 9. The restaurant had flies all over the place, and to them, it made them feel like they were right back in Mexico (they both served their missions there).

Dave and Kyleur both agree that this place is the closest thing to authentic mexican food since they've been in Mexico. Luckily none of us got sick after eating there.

Year One

Mistake # 1. Dave and I both agreed to go see YEAR ONE with a bunch of the reps/techs from his office.
Mistake # 2. Not walking out of the movie the FIRST time I wanted to walk out.
Mistake # 3. Not ordering a diet coke

I didnt know much about this movie, but I knew Jack Black was in it, so I thought it might be funny. Next time I'll take the time to read the reviews before seeing a movie I dont know anything about. Overall, it was given 2.5 stars and I think this review pretty much sums it up:

"What a colossal failure it turned out to be. I don't think I laughed once -- except at one of the bloopers that ran at the end during the credits. I'm angry at what a waste of talent this film amounted to. Such heavy hitters - did none of them read the script before agreeing to do this film? I only wonder what kind of blackmail Harold Ramus has over each of these actors that would make them agree to be in such an awfully written film."

I should have known that any movie with Jack Black would be really crude and not worth my time or money.

On a HAPPY note.....

I LOVED this movie. I have been looking forward to it since January! Its totally predictable, and if you've watched any commercials in the last month you already pretty much know the entire story, but I still loved it. Critics only gave it 3 stars, but if you havent seen this, you should because I think you'll like it!

Where ma-pa-T People At

I have a rough life. I spend most of my days relaxing at the pool with all of these fun girls. Sometimes I complain because I get bored, but truthfully, I dont know what I will do when I have to go back to the real world and get a job in the fall. The past couple of months I haven't had any responsibilities other than cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner for Dave.... and its been GREAT! Thanks to my Baaaaabe for letting me have such a relaxing summer!

Jill, Jes, Edna, Madison, Becca, McKenzie, Monique and Amanda

No More Lost Keys

Yes, I am THAT bored and the result is a blog about frugal things such as this key holder. However, before you judge me, you should probably purchase one of these so you can experience the same joy that I now have. I have a pocket in my purse that I have designated as my "keys pocket," but do I ever really put my keys in the "key pocket?" Nope. Im a failure at placing my keys in easy to locate places. Or rather, I WAS a failure. Not anymore thanks to this handy little gadget I purchased yesterday at a cute little boutique.

You put your keys on the end and it conveniently hangs over the side of your purse! Now when I go to search for my keys, I know EXACTLY where they are.

Harley Night Train

Our Sunday drive this week took us to the wonderful Harley Davidson world. Or rather HEAVEN. Dave, Kyleur and Matt were on cloud 9 as they looked at EVERY bike in the store. I wandered off to the clothing section and found some tank tops that were cute... in a WT kind of way. What I really want is some leather pants! (you think Im kidding but Im not)

When I wander back to find the boys Im convinced that Dave has found

a new love:

the Harley Davidson Night Train.

Dave says:

"I knew it was the ONE for me when I first saw it...... .....Just like I knew you were THE ONE for me when I first saw you." I just laugh and hope inside that he is kidding. Although, Im pretty sure he is at least 75% serious. One day babe. One day.

Centipede on Steroids

Today I was in my room cleaning and I looked on the wall and saw this
A house centipede on steroids! I cant believe I took the time to take a picture of it before killing it. Yes I am one of those people who kills spiders, flies and other eight legged (or rather 100 legged in this case) bugs without loosing sleep at night. In fact, I think it makes me sleep better. So, I killed the disgusting creature with this

I was too scared to squash it with a shoe, so I grabbed my kitchen cleaner amd it turns out, 409 really is an ALL PURPOSE cleaner as well as an effective pest control.

BMW Root Beer

Last week we went to the BMW Factory. However, we THOUGHT we were going to the A&W Root Beer Factory. Wrong. Well, they sound similar. We took a tour of the place and watched a car get built from scratch to the final product. Lucky me, now I know how the brake pedal gets mounted in your car. No free root beer samples were passed out.

Here are some old-school BMW's. The people MUST have been so much smaller back then because I dont think even my left leg would fit in this car!

Bubblicious Bliss

Mango Peach Bubblicious Burts. My new obsession. If you have not tried this gum, you are missing out. A lot.

Yay for Weekends

We love the weekends because its the only time we get to hang out and have a "normal" life. The office reached their goal for the dinner incentive, so we all (yes, all 44 reps and techs) went to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse (its like Texas Roadhouse.... but not quite as good).
On Sunday we went downtown and walked around Falls Park. There is a cute cafe that overlooks the waterfall that I hope we get to go to before we leave for North Carolina.

This 'N That

Little Switzerland, NC

Last Friday I drove to Little Switzerland, NC to hang out with Nicole! On the way there, my GPS would not locate Little Switzerland. After my 3rd stop at a gas station to make sure I was going the right way, I finally broke down and bought a giant map of North Carolina. 2 diet cokes, a rice crispy treat and 3 hours later, I arrived. It was SO beautiful. I wish I would have taken more pictures. Nicole and I went for a hike on Saturday moring to this waterfall. It reminded me a LOT of Midway, UT and felt a lot like home. Thanks to Nicole and her in-laws for sharing their home with me for a couple of days.

On Sunday we had a BBQ at the pool with all the guys from the office. Sunday is their only day off, and it was great to relax by the pool.

The boys played a little water basketball.

While the wives mingled. I love these girls!

Yes, we're alive!

Its been SOOOOO long since I've posted anything on here.... and apparently I forgot how to post things in the right order. So, for this to make sense, you will need to read this post from the bottom up!

We moved to South Carolina on April 25th and Im still trying to figure my way around the town. I still get lost about once a week.... but its an adventure! My favorite thing about the pace so far are the people. They are incredibly nice and have great southern accents.

Before I headed to graduation, Dave and I decided we would ship both of our cars out to South Carolina for the summer. Here is my car getting backed onto the trailer. I thought the guy was going to run my car right off the truck! You should have seen all the disgusting bugs on the back of my windshield when it finally arrived to me in SC after traveling backwards over 2000 miles.

My family.... and yes, as normal.... my eyes are closed! We could not have moved out of our apartment in 2 days without all of their help. Daves sister pretty much packed my kitchen, his mom packed Daves room and my mom and sisters cleaned our entire apartment for us, while Dave and my Dad moved everything to a giant storage unit. I am dreading to unpack that thing when we get back.



On Friday, April 24th, I finally graduated from BYU! My whole family along with my grandparents came to visit and it was a blast. Dave and I were both extremely sick this day, so, that is why we look somewhat out of it in these pics.