Drink The Water

Lots to write about, or more like...catch up on! As you all know, last week was Valentine's Day. Well, LAST Valentine's day some friends were having a 'singles' Valentine's Day Party up in Salt Lake. Of course, I promised them I would go and was looking forward to it. Well, when this cute guy I had hung out with a couple times asked me out for Valentine's day on what would be our FIRST date , I couldn't pass it up. So, I told him I'd go out with him if he'd accompany me to this party. He agreed to the deal.

When Gary picked me up, he gave me a cute Valentine's card that he had made during a FHE activity with his Singles ward and a rose. We then went to a nice Italian restaurant called Carrabba's and had a wonderful time together before heading up to Salt Lake.

One year later, the year is 2007, Gary and I are married...Gary picks me up from work and convinces me that we need to change our plans and run home quickly first before going to dinner. We were already running later than we had planned by about 45 minutes so I was sort of getting nervous because, as many of you would know, Provo is NOT the best place to go out to eat during ANY night let alone Valentine's Day! No joke! Places don't take reservations, so you have to go early because if you get there by about 7:00 and think you'll only have to wait for 20-30 minutes, you are WRONG! We got there around 5:30 and had a 45 minute wait and by the time we were being sat, I heard the lady say that the wait was clear till 10:00 pm!!!

Anyhow, we went home first and I soon found out why. He wanted me to see his little project he'd been working on (that made him a little late for our date) He had arranged some flowers and a gift all cute on the couch for me to see!
It was really cute and of course I loved it! So, after barely walking in the door, we turned around, got back in the car and drove to where else? Carrabbas of course! After dinner we went home for a bit and Gary was super excited for me to open the gift he had wrapped for me. Before I tell you what it was, let me tell you a story...



During one of my many WONDERFUL trips to Georgia to visit my cousin, Lisa, we went to Crate and Barrel. Oh how I love that store! I bought this really cute glass pitcher and I seriously LOVE it! However, it's a beast to clean when you don't have a dishwasher (which we don't right now). This has caused some hard feelings toward my beautiful glass pitcher because I really don't like to use it as much anymore and therefore, we don't have any yummy juice or anything other than water or milk at our meals. Of course I have expressed my frustration to my Husband telling him that I REALLY want a plastic NORMAL pitcher and his reply is always the same, "Babe, why don't you go BUY one?!?" to which I say "HUNNIE, that is a FABULOUS idea, next time I run to Target, I'll get one."...but every time I've gone, I either forget, or they don't have one that I want. DRAMA! So, yes...of course you figured it out. My cute husband went out and bought me a pitcher for Valentine's Day. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for a better gift. Thanks Garbo! I love you! I'll make you some juice now ok?!?

This weekend I was able to convince an Elder that I served with from my mission to come visit a bunch of us Toronto Missionaries in Utah. I told him that we'd plan a fun party for him if he came up from Las Vegas. Let me tell you!!! - We all had a blast!

First, a confession...In the bowling Ally at BYU there is also a small 'game room' well a few years ago while bowling, I noticed this rather large strange 'game.' People stood on it and danced like FREAKS. I couldn't help but stare for a VERY long time and of course there was uncontrollable laughing too! I really never figured out exactly what it was and WHY people were ALWAYS playing on it until about a year later there was an article in the BYU Newspaper about this new popular thing in the game room called "Dance Dance Revolution" and how so many students LOVE it. - I still couldn't see why people would want to go out in public, dance like maniacs and look like fools.


Well, about a year ago, this same Elder came up to visit a bunch of us missionaries and brought with him...his very own Dance Dance Revolution dance pads and the game for the Play Station. Yeah, I swallowed my pride and hopped on. More than anything it was just fun to watch everyone look like fools and try to dance 'better' than the person you are competing against.






























Admit it!!! You've all played and you all love it! - I'm not ready to go out and buy everything needed to have my own little dance dance revolution party but we sure like to talk York into coming up as often as we can so we can all get together and play. We ALSO had another game called Guitar Hero...super fun as well. So in conclusion to all this, I STILL think that people who are obsessed with DDR (Yes, we refer to it by it's acronym) are a bit freakish...but I just had to come to the conclusion that I AM ONE TOO!

Never Know

So, unlike some of my friends in foreign countries, I don't have these fun events to write about such as, riding on Elephants or going to the Beach (Oh, I can only wish right now!). Nor do we have children to show pictures and tell cute stories about (Do I wish?). However, I DO have a brilliant husband who decided to cook himself lunch the other day and during his preparations moved the pan from the gas stove because it was getting too hot and he wasn't quite ready to throw it all in the pan. So, what happened when he reached over the flaming stove to drop some stuff in the pan forgetting that he left it on?!? I don't know what it was, but that arm hair stunk more than any other burned hair or skin I've ever smelled before! Thankfully that was all that got burned! And I think we can all probably admit that we've done the same thing! I dyed my hair really dark brown! Gary wants me to go black, I think this is as dark as I can possibly go. Can you tell? Oh, I can!



















Last night we went over to Gary's sister's house in Spanish Fork and had dinner and played games with them. OK, we watched the SuperBowl too! Here is Gary and our little nephew Tanner giving Gary some love.





So, here are some of the latest Vinyl creations. More to come!!

I LOVE this one I made for my Mom. Isn't it cute?!? It doesn't even look as cute in the picture as it really is in "real life" I finished it last night and seriously couldn't stop staring at it! It is beautiful and very elegant looking! Of course, as always...if you ever want to make one or something else with vinyl, let me know! I'd love to help you out!

And look at these cute feet! I guess the other day I left my camera at my parents house. Well, my Mom watches Haley during the day a couple times a week and Haley was sitting on my Mom's lap helping Grandma work at the computer. When she spotted my camera, it became photo shoot time! She wanted pictures of everything! Cute!

The Horizon has been Defeated

I wanted to share some neat pictures of the recent trip Gary and I took to the Arctic! It was SO cold but the sunset was so pretty. I do not know much about photography or I would have maybe done better at capturing the sky, but look at all the cool ice chunks! OK, so maybe this arctic is like five miles away from our house. It's called Utah Lake but it was still cool and really pretty. For any of you who actually live in Utah, you'll be able to agree with me...it hasn't been this cold in YEARS! I honestly remember when Utah Lake used to freeze over the way it has this season, and it was at LEAST fifteen years ago. Really! We actually walked across the lake to get to this pile of ice chunks. I guess the wind and waves have caused some 'colliding' of ice or whatever the propper term is for this. But it has pushed large piles of thick ice chunks up against the shore. Is this like the plates under the earth but on top of the earth? The pictures are neat, but not nearly as neat as it really is!

Flake

...snow flakes!

HAPPY NEW YEAR Ya'll! I can't even believe we are in the 2007th year.








Before we get into the new year, let's back up a bit so I can fill you in on the rest of 2006. Just before Christmas, Jordan went in the MTC. I can't believe he is so old! As much as I already miss him, I'm so excited at the wonderful experiences that are ahead of him!





On the 21st of December, Gary and I took a quick trip down to Las Vegas to attend the bowl game where BYU was to play Oregon. Basically, it was just an excuse to get to some warmer weather and hit In-N-Out a couple times! The warm weather thing didn't happen, in fact, it was FREEZING! But we did indulge in a few trips to In-N-Out. The game was fun and exciting. What should have been a 20 minute drive from the strip to the stadium, took THREE hours. Parking was a mess and there was one road into the stadium, traffic was HORRIBLE. We ended up missing part of the first quarter...Gary was not too happy about that one. One of my very favorite things to do in Las Vegas is visit the Bellagio Hotel. I love to watch the water show and also visit the garden room to see how it is decorated. For any of you who enjoy that as much as I do, I'll post a couple pictures of the latest Christmas decor.

We spent Christmas here in Utah with the Salmons this year and had lots of fun. New Years eve was spent in Spanish Fork with Gary's sister's family. We had a wonderful dinner, LOTS of treats, and played games all night long. Shortly before the New Year we hurried back to the Salmons only to find out that all the bubble wrap (a long time tradition) had already been popped along with all the confetti. Come to find out, it was done at 10:00pm (a little early don't you think) so that everyone could go home and go to bed. Party Poopers, if you ask me! Luckily Chandra and Lincoln were up for some more party time so we did our own confetti to celebrate the REAL New Year and then played Scene it (Disney Version) until 2:00 am!

Some of you may already know that Gary and I recently purchased a vinyl cutting machine and are in the process of starting a little 'on the side' business. It has been fun learning how to use it. For Christmas, we made a cute magnetic board for Gary's brother's family and also one for my parents using vinyl, of course. Today I decided to make cute little vinyl labels for all the containers in my kitchen cupboards. I thought it was so cute...yeah, I'm obsessed.