In the life...

Time to dust myself off......

2011-11-10T09:40:00.005-07:00

Over the last couple months, I've been really down in the dumps. So I've decided enough is enough, and it's time to pick myself up and make a list of the things I'm grateful for.
1. I have the most AMAZING husband that would do anything for me!!

2. I have a GREAT family (I'm aware everyone in my family isn't in this but it's the easiest one I could post)

3. I have a job that I really enjoy (most days :) )

4. I'm very grateful for the Gospel in my life, for the guidance and hope it gives me.

5. I'm very grateful to be serving in YW, I love my girls they are amazing!

6. I love my cute little house

7. I have amazing friends!!

8. I'm grateful to live in this country, corrupt as it may be we're very blessed.

9. I'm grateful for music, I feel the right song can get me through any situation, or mood I'm in.

10. I'm grateful for wonderful parents, I know that kinda goes in with family, but if you've met them you know they are amazing, and I'm so grateful for the example and guidance they give both Brandon and me.

This is just the tip of the iceburg I feel that we are being incredibly blessed. I'm going to try to focus on my blessings rather then what I don't have, and keep on trekin.

P.S. After 3 picture I got sick of trying to load them, so use your imagination :)

Two Years

2011-03-07T11:11:00.005-07:00

I can't believe that I've been married for two years. Part of me feels like I've been married forever, and the other part feels like it's flown by.

Brandon's the most amazing/patient/loving/kind/hardworking/selfless person. I'm so lucky to be married to him, and grateful to know that we'll be together for ever. :)

My Mom

2010-07-30T23:36:00.002-06:00

So this week Brandon has been working late, so tonight I spent some time with my sister Brooke, and my mom. We went to Chili's for dinner, and then my mom and i went shopping, it really was so much fun we even went to Artic Circle and got free courtesy cones :) yum, i love my mom so much. I'm very lucky to have her for my mom!

Allergies YUCK

2010-07-19T17:48:00.006-06:00

So Brandon had an appointment with the allergist today, it was crazy what they did, they marked his arms with 42 marks, and poked/scratched each one with different types of trees, weeds, grass, different animals, and molds, the ones that swelled you knew he was allergic to. Each one was numbered, then they gave us a list of what each number was, and a book of what each tree, weed, or plant looked like, it was actually pretty funny if you could watch us, "ooo what's number 27 it's getting big", "oh that ones sagebrush, or timothy grass, or some other random plant."

This picture was just a few minutes after they poked him. They told him they were concerned about how allergic he might be, so the nurse checked on him after about 5 minutes (the test takes 20 min.), and put a steroid cream on some of them, because it was apparent there was some irritation. If you look really close his left wrist was HUGE.

This was after they cleaned off all the pen marks, poor Brandon he said his arms itched to the point of, his arms felt like they were on FIRE. Poor guy looks like he's beaten.

If you didn't know getting allergy shots are quite the commitment, for the first 6 months you have to go 2 a week, then after that it's once a week, every other week then once a month, it's like a 5 year process. good gravy.

This picture no where gives it justice, he was pretty proud of his popeye arms. He said he's never had so much fun at the doctor, ha ha. Turns out he's allergic to just about EVERYTHING that grows outside, which kinda really sucks considering Brandon is a custodian and works outside A LOT. Hope everyone is have a fabulous summer!!

MY CAR IS TRAPPED

2010-06-30T21:26:00.002-06:00

So today I got home, came inside just like normal. Then Brandon and I went to the store, and came back in through the garage, and Brandon said, "I keep hearing music" we thought it was our neighbors that just moved in, then i got in my car to go to young womens, and realized that my radio was still on. I turned off my car, just didn't turn the key all the way (eyeroll). So Brandon said try to start it......................click click click..............NOTHIN. So I went to young womens in brandon's truck, tried it when i got home again.....................click click click. So we thought ok this is bad, well we'll just put my car neutral and roll it onto the drive way, and jump start it. Applied the brake, tried to shift it NOTHING apparently the car has to be on to shift it. So i'm praying really really hard that by morning it will just magically be fixed and i will be able to enjoy my lovely pretty polly protege once again, if not brandon says we'll have to buy some short of battery charger.. Sounds expensive.

First young women's activity

2010-05-19T19:46:00.002-06:00

Can i just say I LOVE being in young womens!! For our first, well my first activity we did baptisms for the dead and got frozen yogurt after words (delicious by the way) but oh my gosh it's so nice to be excited about church hurray i love it~ It's so crazy that i am an advisor, i remember how much i absolutely LOVED my leaders, they are such a huge reason of why i am the way that i am. it's just weird that i'm one of them now!!

The Tour

2010-04-29T12:08:00.015-06:00

Before we start can i just say my computer is having major issues so sorry the pictures aren't lined up very nice, and it's slightly confusing, you'll just have to come see it in person.

Ok here is what we've all been waiting for ok here is the house from the outside, this isn't actually our house because it was snowing so i took a picture from the upstairs bedroom of across the street, but our house looks exactly like this one minus ours isn't an end unit.

This is the entry right as you walk in the front door

The door to the right is a coat closet, and the door to the left is the garage.

This is the shelf down the hall, you can't really see it from the picture above, but their is a door to the left the garage, and then a bathroom to the right.

Here is the Kitchen, the pantry is the door in the back.

Here is the table

These picture (3) will go on the wall behind the table.

Here is our back door (sorry for the mess this was taken while we were still trying to move in)

Here is the family room the tv is just against the wall you can't really see.

This is the picture as you go upstairs at the landing

sorry kinda hard to see, but once you get upstairs our bedroom is to the direct right (sorry it's too messy to post pictures) then the two bedrooms are to the left, with the laundry room right across from the second room (you can see the door open kinda)

Then here is the upstairs bathroom i kinda like ducks if you couldn't tell.

I didn't show the upstairs extra rooms because they are just junk rooms right now, we still have to paint them and put furniture in them. but once they are done i'll post pictures for sure. Also side note, i'm kind of looking for a kitchenaid mixer but don't want to spend a ton of money, i've kinda been looking into them, and saw that they come in different sizes, i think going smaller might be better because i don't have tons of counter space, but would that be a mistake and regret it later? also if anyone sees them on sale if you could let me know that would be great. thanks.

Wait for it...

2010-04-21T07:00:00.001-06:00

Hopefully we'll get our new kitchen table today or tomorrow, then our house will be pretty much doneish for now, until we get our next million dollars :) so once the table is in i'll present the grand tour!

One word: CRAZY

2010-04-02T09:01:00.015-06:00

Ok so the last month has been slightly crazy, this post will be a whole month crammed into this so here we go get comfy.

Well March 7th was our one year anniversary, so being the practical wife that i was thought it would be a great idea to get Brandon a ladder. So i said that we had to go get him a surprise and led him to Home Depot, (he knew something was up because i HATE this store, Brandon could live there and be happy as a clam). We got about half way there and i remembered that we should have driven the truck. Oops, but i just thought oh well Pretty Polly Protege is a tough ole bird she can handle it. so this was our ladder journey!

Sorry i didn't flip it, but this was the ladder.

This was us trying to get the ladder in Polly! we had to lay the back seats down, Brandon didn't think it would fit. but we got it to fit. BARELY!

As you can see. If we got in a crash i knew i was doomed!! but we made it.

More ladder pictures to come so sit tight.

Ok house pictures....... know these aren't the official tour pictures just "project" pictures. When we bought the house the kitchen was RED RED RED and i actually liked the color, but Brandon wasn't all about it, and the original paint job was not the greatest, can i just say after 4 coats of paint we still have red in random places!! PS after this project i LOATHE painting. So here we go.

Ok here was our nice lovely starting point, you will notice as the pictures get more and more into the project the mess gets more and more apparent. We took off the chair rail border (on the right side of the photo) which turned into a nightmare, we sanded and put the mud on the damaged wall a couple of times, primed and started with the first coat of paint, and realized that you could still see the seam on the wall so we started placing mud and sanding again!! good gravy! next time we move I'd better be a millionaire so that i can hire this out! ha ha.

This was after the ceiling had been painted and we were almost

ready for primer. (please notice ladder stage left)

This was the primer in the dining room notice the stove that we had to move to the center of the room!!

Long story Brandon's grandma said that she would pay for new carpet down stairs as a house warming gift, i just about cried when she told us that. but we had two people come out and measure, and they told us because of the odd shape of the room it was going to be about double what we thought it was going to be, so we seriously went back and forth about a dozen times whether or not we were going to get new carpet! we looked and different places, we looked at different carpets, in the end we got it figured out. which was very good because things like this happened.............................................................

It is not a good idea to set your paint container on the step of the ladder and then forget it's there and try to move the ladder. your out come will probably look similar to this.. may i also say this happened to me more than once. :) oops so it was a very good thing we ripped out the carpet!!! luckily Brandon still says that he loves me which i was surprised after the second time it happened. (please notice ladder again)

This is our beautiful new washer and dryer, that sing when you turn them off, on, or when a cycle is done. It's the greatest thing. I usually dread when the washer or dryer beeps, because that means you have to deal with it, but now it comes with a lovely song :)

This is our fridge being delivered yes I'm weird i took this picture from the up stairs window like a stalker!! but it's so huge they had to take off our front door just to get it in. lovely!! well that's all for now, I'll post more pictures in the coming weeks for the grand tour, once everything is done ish.

On a total serious note I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and the power of the priesthood, my cousin was in a serious snowboarding accident yesterday and broke two bones in his back, the doctors said that it is as close as you can come to being paralyzed. I'm so grateful for the comfort a blessing can give, in an almost hopeless waiting game situation. he was released from the hospital last night and has to wear a back brace for the next 6 weeks, but i would take that any day over the alternative. Hope you get feeling better soon Cameron!!

how much your life can change in a year

2010-03-04T11:31:00.001-07:00

I can't believe that this sunday is our one year anniversary!! that is crazy, we're also closing on our house tomorrow!! i'm so excited!!! as soon as we're settled i'll post pictures i promise.

No Home Blues

2010-01-09T17:41:00.002-07:00

Well we just met with our realestate agent today, and she said that we are probably looking at March before we are able to get into our house. I have mixed feelings about it. but yea

Anyways i know this is slightly late, but brandon and i had a great christmas we were able to spend time with both of our families, and just had a great time. i would post pictures but i don't have a working camera so i know this isn't nearly as entertaining. but i had to write something or else jenny was going to be upset with me. :) boring i know but no new is good news :)

Reaching out to the world

2009-12-03T11:29:00.003-07:00

Well I know it's been awhile, but a lot has happened since I last posted. Brandon and I moved out of our apartment, waiting for an offer on a town house to go through. In the mean time we are staying at Brandon's parents house. Which has been nice to be able to save some money, but at the same time I'm ready to have our own space again. We are hoping to be closed by the end of this month, so keep your fingers crossed for us. (On a side note we bought a washer and dryer, which I'm very excited for, that's when you know you're old, when things like that excite you :))
When we get settled in I'll for sure post pictures of our cute apartment and our new house.

Can you believe it's already December where did the time go, don't you remember when you were in elementary school, and the year seemed to drag, felt like 5 years had gone by, by the time Christmas came by again. Good grief.

I know this is very random, but I am seriously in love with the show Glee, (if you couldn't tell by my playlist haha) does anyone else watch it? if not you're definitely missing out big time. if you haven't start now i'd be happy to get you caught up on it. Thanks a lot gilly for getting me addicted to it. :)

Road Trip

2009-10-16T06:39:00.006-06:00

So Brandon and I went to Califonia last weekend for Allison and Justin's wedding, we drove the lovely van to bring things like linens, center pieces, pictures, wedding dress, tux, suites, bridesmaid dresses etc. It was actually really fun I've never been the "mom" of the van and been able to sit in the front seat. Let me tell ya there is no going back at this point, i refuse to be stuffed in the back seat on a long road trip ever again!! but here are a couple of cool pictures from our road trip. i'll post more about the wedding when we get pictures.

North Side of Fillmore, and South Side of Beaver the are having "Speed Testing" and they've upped it to 80 mph it was heaven!!

this isn't the best pictures but it was cool only certain trees where changing, so there was a perfect trail of colorful leaves.

Just call me CHEF

2009-09-16T17:48:00.002-06:00

So tonight i made a pretty delicious dinner that i was very excited about, because i tried something new on monday and it was ok, but not as good as i had hoped! so i was thrilled when this was pretty much amazing :) it was caesar pasta salad with grilled chicken and bread sticks :)yes i took a picture to admire my work half way through eating haha :D too bad it won't last for leftovers! so that just means i have to eat it all tonight :)

Music

2009-08-31T20:06:00.003-06:00

Do you have that song, where it doesn't matter where or when you first heard it, but every time you hear it there after every emotion, every feeling every thought comes rushing back to you, and puts you exactly back in that spot where you had originally heard it. I had that moment tonight as i was updating my play list, my ipod broke about 4 months ago, and i had honestly forgotten how much i LOVE music and how it has the affect on your mood, and stir emotions like nothing else can. how it can make your throat burn and threaten tear, or make you laugh, or smile, or think of a specific person, or a certian memory, or a certian "season song" (I try to always get at least a favorite summer song) like cleaning the house on saturday mornings with all the window open, and how you can almost smell the lemon pledge when anything carpenters or Dan fogelberg plays. one of my very fondest memories as a kid was our long road trips to california, and now i cannot drive threw the gorge between st george and mesquite without thinking of phantom of the opera, or the carpenters. Also just last week brooke, whitney my mom and i were singing a carpenter song, each of us in a different accent haha, now everytime i hear that song i will remember brooke singing in her pathetic french accent, my mom singing in spanish, my western and whitney doing whatever she was doing. haha i have a great family!!

FALL

2009-08-22T18:22:00.002-06:00

I'm so excited for fall.... seriously i can't wait so i've decided to make a list of my very most favoritest things about the fall

1. THE COOLER WEATHER

2. the fall leaves

3. Comfy sweaters, and sweatshirts

4. BYU FOOTBALL

5. It's practically Christmas haha ok halloween then.

6. fall just has a fun very distinct feeling and smell to it

7. my mom makes delicious apple chips, oh my gosh they are so good

8. it's soup and chili season, and just warm comfy food

9. you can't forget delicious 7 11 hot chocolate, and you get to mix in all these fun things like marshmellows and grahm cracker crumbs. prediction for this fall is i might be gaining some weight :)

10. Halloween costumes (any ideas for couples haha we'll see if brandon will let us be matchy matchy haha, because i just used matchy matchy i'm guessing any chance of that happening just went out the window.)

11. Tv series start (first year having DVR i'm very excited about that)

12. Pumpkin patches

13. Fire places

14. Warm Flannel Jamies

15. Cuddeling weather

16. Cozy socks

17. My delicious oatmeal (kinda with soups and chili, but it's so good)

18. Cozy blankets

19. When it rains and is threatening snow

20. The first snow of the year :) doesn't get much better than that!

Don't hate me

2009-08-06T10:41:00.002-06:00

Good greif can I just say that i am excited for summer to be over, i feel like everything with summer is so busy, once you feel you have your footing back, something else comes up and sweeps you off your feet again. i know this probably sounds horrible, and hit me up mid Jan. and i will be begging for this time back. good grief i know i know, be happy with where i am. Fine you all don't have to yell at me, i just had a lapsing moment. thank you for letting me vent :)

Alaska

2009-08-02T09:42:00.017-06:00

These Millions Pictures are for you Jenny in no particular order

At the Glacier Tourist in Ketchican

We had one job from Brandon's mom and that was to get a picture of a bear, i think we failed miserably but we tried a couple times.

Anchorage Temple
Sitka

Because it's alaska and gets cold you have to have a fur jock strap (the tail is crucial)

Glacier they were so blue it was awesome

Another pathetic bear attempt

Welcome to nothing is there Haines

Gilly and me on the boat

Formal Night you'll probably notice that my hair was curly 99% of the time some days was like 95% humitidy i wasn't even going to try to tame that beast. so it is what it is.

Life boat drill safety first.

Group short at the Anchorage Temple

Our Group for formal night!! Notice how close land was to us, we went through these channels it was crazy how close it was to us.

An Eye for an Eye

2009-07-15T13:28:00.004-06:00

So today at work we dissected cow eyeballs, (for those of you that don't know I work for an eye doctor, suddenly the cow eyeball doesn't seem completely mad.) Well and of course i forgot my gloves (i'm allergic to latex so i couldn't use the gloves we have at work), well let me say i tried to use the latex ones at work, i thought a little burning is better then touching a cow eyeball, so i put them on and had them on no longer than 10 seconds and my hands where on fire, so i took them off and ran to wash my hands and had red hives all over my hands. so i had to choose, fire hands or naked cow eyeball.............. naked cow eyeball. gross i know but it actually wasn't too bad.

This was my eyeball i named ollie eyeball, you can see displayed on the table the cornea, the crystalin lens, and the iris. please notice my naked hands. :(

Jackie (Our office manager) said that some people eat eyeballs as a Vietnamese Delicacy, I chickened out at the last minuet. No thanks i prefer my eyeballs securely in my head, rather than on a plate. but now i feel so edjumicated about the eyeball. it was really cool, one of those experiences though now i've done it and i don't think i need to do it again :)

Oh yes it's ladies night oh what a night......

2009-07-03T09:36:00.007-06:00

Last night i went out with a couple friends from work, and went to jason's deli. it was so much fun to get out, good grief i feel like lately i'm drowning in my own life, so it felt so great to get out and have fun, and eat yummy food :)

Alyssa, me and Laura (my name twinner)

Jenelle and Jenny

So please notice the people behind jenny and jenelle of course this huge place was pretty much empty, and this party of like 20 people come and sit right next to us, they were really loud and making announcements like Karaoke and singing happy birthday, don't you hate that they have the whole place and of course they sit right next to you!! good gravey. anyways it was a lot of fun. my cute friend is moving far far away!! so i'm going to miss you a lot friend, i will miss you a lot!! but wish you and jord (and little madi) the best of luck! you guys will have a great time on your new adventure!!

Thanks for all the fun times Jenelle, i'm so excited to come visit you!! :)

Ps. I'm pretty sure this was the first and last time brandon will ever let me put his shaving cream on him :) Love you dear.

Findlay Family Fun Day

2009-06-30T10:35:00.008-06:00

So once a month we have a "Findlay Family Fun Day" we take turns planning it, and June was Allison and Justin's month. They planned a surprise birthday party for my cute dad. It was actually a lot of fun, the weather was really nice and cool. I can't believe how big our family is getting its crazy.

All the Girlies!

Ha ha Allison's cute family :)

Cute Brandon

My cute parents Happy Birthday Dad!!

I'm really grateful for my family!! i really like them a lot!

Happy Birthday Dad

2009-06-26T10:19:00.003-06:00

Today is my dad's birthday, and i know he will probably never look at this i just wanted to give him a shout out. I'd have to say that my dad is one of the most patient, understanding, non judgement people i've ever met in my life. He's pretty amazing, and i really like him a whole LOT!! Love you dad.

Sisters

2009-06-18T22:18:00.003-06:00

I am very very lucky to have 3 sisters. serioulsy it is one of the greatest things in the world before i was married i'd come home and i'd say about 90% of the time, someone is there to talk to or just hang out with. so i just wanted to make a quick list of some fun memories of growing up with 3 (4 including my mom) incredible women.

Do you remember??

1. in our old house ice skating in the kitchen with all those spilled bubbles??

2. our old apricot tree

3. playing peter pan in the back yard and mom would pass us koolaid throught the window

4. long road trips and singing feed the birds

5. our matching outfits mom would make us

6. having our hair cut by grandma :)

7. getting our new bikes for christmas in july

8. dad's oreo shakes

9. going fishing at navajo lake

10. going tubing when we first moved into our house on the huge dirt piles

11. panaca

12. mom sending us out to the garden to pick tomatoes

13. brian head

14. carly caravan enough said

15. twinner bracelets

16. 7 brides for seven brothers

17. so dear to my heart just so brooke could bug us :)

18. sliding down the stairs on our silky sleeping bags

19. the "tootie lady"

20. allison's and brooke's poisons they'd make me try!!

Love you guys a lot many more memories to come!

People are so lame

2009-05-26T09:51:00.003-06:00

So this weekend i had a convention for work up in midway, we were staying at a really nice hotel it was going to be great! so i had reserved the room on my credit card.

So we are just fine and dandy going from class to class, and i get a phone call from Brandon and guess what!?!?!?!?!?! some stupid beyond stupid person stole our lovely credit card number (we both still had our cards in both our wallets ) :( GRRRR, so brandon told me not to use the credit card, ( same credit card that was holding the room awkward) so cute lisa just put it on her card, and luckily i had a measly $10 in my wallet (its a miracle in its self i had cash on me) for all my meals and anything else that i needed (just a note that's not enough to live on in midway). anyways so we have all these charges are on our account from the UK and who knows where else, freak i'm paying for a vacation that i didn't even get to go on.

so now we are waiting for our new credit and debit cards to come in the mail, so we are pretty much crippled until we get them, we can't even check our bank account because they have changed our pin and we can't log in. and we are in major need of groceries, and my car is below a quarter tank of gas so hopefully those bloody cards come quickly. so my wifely skills will be put to the test this week of how well my cooking from a can and what ever is in the fridge or pantry skills are wish me luck.

i know this was all over the place thank your for letting me vent!

Brandon set loose

2009-04-15T19:27:00.003-06:00

So i told brandon because it's my birthday he has to write 22 things about me (thanks brooke for the idea, i kinda stole it from you :)) so i set him loose and this is what my cute husband came up with i kinda like him a whole LOT :)

22 things that i love about my beautiful wife,

She is beautiful
She is funny
She is loving
She understands me
She is supportive
She is fun to be around
She is a wonderful cook
She has great taste in music
She is very simple
She likes the rain and thunder storms
She has a can do attitude
She is sweet
She is smart with money
She is always prepared
She enjoys four wheeling in the mountains
She enjoys road trips
She enjoys bon fires
She is my girl
She is strong in the gospel
She is a great wife
She loves holidays
She is smart

My Bucket List

2009-02-19T11:17:00.006-07:00

Here is a list of things I want to do before I kick the Bucket

1> Run a marathon

2>buy a red wrangler jeep (this might be a forever dream)

3> be a mom

4>Go snow boarding

5> Go to seattle

6>Go Sky Diving

7>Cross Country ROAD TRIP ( I'll bring the snacks)

8> Go to London

9> Be incredibly independantly wealthy :)

10>Master the Guitar

11>Get Organized

12>Start a clothing line

13>Learn some sort of artistic skill

14> Become an amazing chef

15>Learn to Needle point

16>learn to do a boys haircut

17>Be able to public speak w.out feeling like i'm going to lose my lunch :S

18> Buy the house i'm going to live in for the rest of my life

19> Raise a family in the gospel

20>Live a life someone would want to mimic

21>make i GIGANTIC quilt

22>keep a journal

23>learn a different language

24>Serve a mission with my cute hubby

25>Just be happy :)

Valentines Day

2009-02-10T08:48:00.003-07:00

Well i decided that since this is the first year that i will actually have a "valentine" i guess i should probably make the most of it! so i've decided to make asmall list of my favorite things about my cute brandon :D

1. Brandon never gets lost, it must be a boy thing but it doesn't matter where we are he can tell me exactly where we are (which i need more what we are by rather then our exact location) and he can tell me where the freeway is always good grief he is amazing.

2. He always smells amazing, sometimes i think he is o.c.d about hygine which i am not complaining but it just makes me laugh.

3. You've never met someone loves a clean truck as much as he does, i feel bad when ever he gets in my car you're always kicking something off the floor to get in, sorry babe.

4. I love that he is so strong about the gospel :)

5. I love that he misses me threw out the day, and when i see him after work his face lights up.

6. i love that he owns ZUMA best game in the world.

here we go

2009-02-03T00:43:00.000-07:00

well thanks to lizzy i've finally started a blog. i'm going to warn you all ahead of time, i hate to capitalize and use the right punctuation. i am probably one of the most random people you will ever meet! i love life and am not willing to miss a single second of any of it. i am about to marry the most amazing man that i have ever met in my entire life, and can't even imagine spending one more second of my life without him.