Sorry I haven't posted in a while (Chrissy :P ) Here are some pics from the past month or so.

Below are pics of my family on Black Friday. This is a favorite holiday of ours, we mostly go for the experience and it is only my second year. This year we shopped from 5 am to 12:30 pm. Gotta love it! It's a requirement to look gross when you have been up since 4:30 am so don't look too closely. Unfortunately Bryce had to work so he didn't get to come this year. The dogs also had a fun time hanging out for a few days. I think Max enjoyed it the most. ;)

The happy Shoppers

And here are some of the Christmas pictures we took.

A few odds and ends

Since I haven't updated in a while here are a few random things from the past few weeks:



First and scariest is that I found four different charges on my credit card that I had no idea what they were. I had paid off the card and made only one purchase on it since then and had been keeping it in a box, but last month there were charges on it from Nevada. I called the card company and they gave me a phone number that was the same for all four charges. When I called it, it was an automated system talking about account updates, but it didn't say the name of the company and there were no options to speak to anyone. It just hung up on me. I called twice just to make sure and then called my credit card company back. They cancelled the card, took the charges off my account, notified the three major credit companies and they are investigating the charges. I am so scared! If anyone has experience or advice let me know. I don't know if there is more that I should be doing or not. And I am clueless as to how they got my account information which is even more scary.



On a lighter note, here is a picture of the two brain dead dogs. We put these craft button things on their noses and they didn't even notice they were there! He He! We like to find different ways to torture the poor things and laugh at them. What else are dogs for? jk


Here is a picture of our thankful jar that we made. Jennifer invited us over one night for FHE and this is what they were doing. We weren't able to go but I liked the idea and thought I would copy her. I guarantee theirs looed professional and not 2nd grade-homemade like mine but it's what's inside that counts right?

These are a few of the things we wrote down during the month. It was fun to go back through them and find out what each other had written. Some were funny and some were serious, but there is a story behind all of them. It is nice to have a holiday every year centered around being grateful.

Husband of the year awards

My co-worker sent me this e-mail with pictures including the ones below of "husbands of the year" and it reminded me of my own husband....

Ha! Don't worry, he is the opposite of these men! This e-mail reminded me of how grateful I am for my husband. I don't know if these pictures could possibly be real or if they are staged, I sure hope they are fake.

I am such an independent person that I always said that I didn't want anyone to open the doors for me and I still have to tell myself to quit being so headstrong and just let him take the heavier bag of groceries. He knows I can handle them, but he is being sweet and respectful. And now I love that he gets all of my doors for me, I am definitely spoiled. I have to give his parents credit for teaching him so well and him even more credit for sticking to it.

The view from our window

My friend Jennifer has a blog listed on her blog that is dedicated to people's view out of their window at home. I thought that was a cool idea and it is fun to see the different sceneries in different parts of the world.

Here is the view from our window in the spare bedroom. I love this view. When we sell our house it is one of the things I will miss. One of my favorite memories was when we had just moved in and were looking out of our window and all of a sudden Weber High's fireworks started. We had the perfect view so we layed on the floor and watched the whole show, just the two of us .

Here is a picture of the dogs on their favorite couch. They love to sit here and watch the cars and people pass by. They can be entertained for quite a while doing this. I am sure they will miss this window too. :)

Funny Story

Friday while I was driving to work I heard a loud noise and assumed I had run over something. But my car seemed to run smoothly and then on the way home from work my car started acting weird. Then it got louder and louder and louder....next thing I know I see smoke and little pieces of rubber so I pull over to the side of the road and call Bryce. Then I get out to start attempting to change my tire that is completely shredded.
I look up and there is a green van that has pulled up in front of me. The lady that got out is dressed from head to toe like an angel :) Halo, wings and all. She looks at me with a shrug and hands out her cell phone. All I could do was laugh! How ironic is that?
What a cute lady! I wish I had a camera on me and I would have taken a picture.
A UDOT guy ended up stopping to help me and all was well. I will always remember that lady and her willingness to at least stop and offer her phone if nothing else. She truly was an angel.

Changing Seasons

Happy Halloween to everyone tomorrow! Hope everyone does something fun :)

The update on us is that I have been working in Taylorsville for 2 weeks now, things are going well, the commute takes a lot of time, but I have borrowed a few books on tape from the library to keep me from falling asleep on the way home. (Thanks Heather for the recommendation) Bryce has also interviewed with a company that is only 8 minutes north of where I work. They have told him that they just need to do a background check and then he has the job. So I guess we are supposed to end up in this area eventually. The only problem is our house, we have it listed but our listing expires tomorrow and we will probably just try to sell it our selves and lower the price a bit. We are praying that it sells soon so we don't both have to commute that far every day.

I must have been a bit naive/dumb, but I thought that the days of instability and change were over when I got married. I figured that I wouldn't be moving so often and changing jobs, but I am at that crossroads yet again in my life. The thing I am grateful for is that things always seem to work out somehow. We will try to have the faith to be patient until our house sells.

My aunt Emily has a blog and she likes to write something that she is grateful for in every entry, I think I will try to follow that example from here on out.

I am grateful for the knowledge that Heavenly Father cares about me and my family and what is going on in our lives.

What do I know?

The economy is scary right now, there are so many uncertainties, doubt, fears, etc. I have noticed that the real estate market isn't what it used to be a year and a half ago when I was asked to work with my dad and my uncle. Because of this, I started looking for another job, hoping I could find something that would keep me busy and that I didn't feel guilty being paid what I am with what little work and little hours I actually work.

In my job search I accidentally applied for a job in Taylorsville which is about an hour away from where we live right now. If I had seen where it was located I never would have looked at it twice. Long story short, two interviews later they offered me the job. It was last Friday and I asked them if I could take the weekend to think about it. Over the weekend I decided that I was going to accept, but then for some reason on Sunday night, I was thinking "what am I doing?!". Why am I giving up a job that pays great, has amazing flexibility and is way closer to home? So Monday morning I called the HR guy back and left him a voice mail saying thank you for the offer but I don't feel 100% right about it.

Thank heaven's for my mother, I called her and told her and she reacted differently than I thought she would. She actually told me she was disappointed which took me by huge surprise! When we got off the phone she said a prayer for me that I would either feel at peace with my decision or I would have a strong feeling and have the courage to act on it, and that is exactly what happened. I felt like I was going to throw up for the next hour and I started searching for another job and just felt hopeless. So somehow I got up the courage to call the HR guy back and luckily leave another message. I told him that I thought it was just nerves and that I really did want the position. How embarrassing! I felt like a complete idiot.

I waited all day for a phone call and it never came. I thought for sure he had already given the job to someone else, but then this morning he called and spent a lot of time with me going over all of the benefits and the great things about the job. I accepted and will be starting on the 16th.

I am so grateful to have a mother that is in tune enough to pray for me and I am so grateful for that sick to my stomach feeling I received from the Holy Ghost. I guess his still small whisper wasn't enough to get through my thick skull this time ;).

This job decision may not make sense now, (Bryce works in Brigham City, or town-home hasn't sold yet and the market is aweful) but I know for sure that it is right. I know Heavenly Father is looking out for us and guiding us in the right direction. Change is in the air, I can feel it.

I loved listening to conference this weekend. I felt hope and optimism. Things may not always make sense to me but what do I know? :)

Bryce's first race

On Saturday September 27th Bryce ran his very first race. It was a 5k in Centerville and the proceeds went to benefit kids with down syndrome. Our goal was to run the whole thing without walking and we did it! I am so proud of him. He did awesome and made huge progress in the little time that he had to train for the race. My cute parents also came out to show their support. Gotta love em! In the future the races we run will only be on The Run Bug, but I had to put this one on here because it was important.

As is tradition, Carrie drove up from SLC to join us.

We are in there somewhere! This race was actually a little kid's Eagle Scout project. I thought that was a creative idea. There wasn't a huge turn out, most of them were speed lightning high school boys that kicked our trash, but yes, we did beat the two tiny girls :)

This is us towards the end of the race. Bryce got a huge grin on his face and started running faster when he saw my mom taking pictures.

Luck be a lady

Some people make to-do lists of things they want to do before they die, me.... I decided a few months ago that I want to win something. I don't need to go sky diving or backpack through Europe. Just let me win some sort of contest and I will be happy! :) So for the past two or so months I have been entering into tons of contests. One day I texted the word "ears" 152 times while driving from Clearfield to Harrisville in hopes of winning a pair of tickets to the state fair. It was dangerous and aparently not worth it because just as I pulled into our parking stall at home I received a text back telling me someone else had already won the tickets. Stupid I know, I am a great driver, but my apologies go to all of the other drivers on the road at that time.

The other contest I entered into a million times was to win John Mayer tickets and a blackberry. I was confident that since I had entered the contest about 5 times a day for the past month and a half, I was definitely going to win. The concert came and went and I was not there and I still have my same phone. :(

My latest endeavor is to win a Nintendo Wii and Wii fit bundle. How sweet would that be? So wish me luck! If it isn't the Wii, someday, somehow, I will win something. Just to say that I did.

Shout out

I just wanted to write a quick post and send a shout out to our cute neighbors. This is their newest addition. She has Hypo Plastic Left Heart Syndrome. So far she is doing very well and it is great to see her progress! She still has hurdles to get through and if anyone is looking for a good reason to pray, Kylie is it. Keep this family in your prayers, we love them and are excited for the day when they can bring her home and be together as a family.

Designer Eyelashes

I officially have designer eyelashes today. :) I signed up to be on Allure Magazine's panel of readers and this is the first product they sent me to try. Never in my life did I expect to own anything designer and the best part is that it was free! This mascara makes me feel like my eyelashes look dramatic, curled and expensive. It sounds silly now that I have written it down, it's just mascara right? Isn't it funny that since it is designer I am way more excited about it than if it had been the usual $6 kind I buy. Why is that? Maybe it's because it is something new, something I would normally never even look twice at, maybe it's because I didn't have to spend my own money on it. Whatever it is... I am so excited to use it.
I have only used it for one day, but if you are in the market for designer eyelashes the link below will take you to them!
http://uma.chanel.com/product.php?chnprd=MAEMU2B8

Making the most of the last days of summer

Saturday was one of the funnest days of summer. We woke up early to make it down to Salt Lake so Aubrey could run her 10k with Carrie. I'm not going to lie, at first I thought I was going to be the only guy there (because it was an only women's race) so I was a little nervous, but to my surprise there were actually a lot of men there supporting their wives which is a good thing. Brownie points for me right? I hope so!! So I was there to support Aubrey and cheer her on, it was pretty fun!

After the race we met up with Scott and Brittney at their place in Salt Lake, loaded up the bikes and went up to Park City to do some mountain biking, play volleyball, and do some shopping. We went up to Deer Valley and rode some of the trails up there, once again I'm not going to lie, the Mountain biking kicked my butt! After riding about 8 miles we rode down into Park City to get some lunch. I thought it was a great Idea on the way down, its because it was all down hill, then on the way back up I was immediately regretting that decision! The ride back up to deer valley was all up hill. After our crazy bike ride we went down to some sand volleyball courts and played some volleyball, it was alot of fun! After our game of Volleyball we went to do some shopping, and you can't go wrong there.

I'm not gonna lie.... Lava was pretty fun

Long term friends are something I never thought I would have. Moving around so much my whole life has made it a necessity to move on and make new friends because I never knew if I would see my old ones again. This past weekend Bryce and I had the chance to go up to Lava Hot Springs with the Morgans and the Allens. It was so much fun to spend time with friends that I have known for quite a while. It made me realize that lifetime friends may be a possibility for a nomad like me. :)

When Bryce and I were dating he liked to express how hilarious something was by saying, "That's SO funny!". My brothers got a kick out of it and would always echo him. On this trip they catch phrase quickly became "I'm not gonna lie....". Apparently he says that one a lot and everyone started echoing that phrase.

Overall the trip was a blast! The weather was awesome, the company was also and other than Heather getting a killer scrape on her back the first time down the river, we all escaped the rapids unscathed.

This trip will be one I always remember. Sometimes a simple camping trip is all you need.

P.S. Notice the Mountain Dew. Just documenting the addiction for future reference.

Bella's Surgery

On Monday we took Bella in to get her spayed. It was her 5 month birthday to the day. What a birthday present huh? But it had to be done. If she is anything like her momma she will get out one day and get impregnated by one of the neighbor dogs and we will be in trouble!

When we took her in they gave us all these additional options like an IV bag, laser surgery, extra monitoring, etc. Besides racking up the bill with each additional option, I was feeling guilty and getting more scared by the minute. Isn't this a routine surgery that they perform all the time?

We chose not to get any of the extras and I worried all day, but her surgery went fine. They sent her home with a cute little bandanna around her neck and glazed over eyes.

The first picture is the night we got her home, she looked so pathetic. The next day she kept licking her stitches so we had to go to Petco and buy her a cone. The fourth picture is today (three days later) and she acts like nothing ever happened. We love Bella, she is so sweet, and it is such a relief that everything went well.

Crazy Top of of Utah Fun

The Top of Utah was probably an idiotic thing to do with such little training but it was definitely worth it. I think I have to give most of the credit to Carrie for helping to push me along. We picked road marks and set goals along the way which helped to break down the large distance into smaller distances.

We had a blast, there is nothing like getting up early in the morning and going for a long run with beautiful scenery. The feeling of accomplishing something like running 13.1 miles is an awesome feeling.

Now I have run pretty much every length of race that there is. I have run a few 5ks, two 10ks, one 15k, one half marathon and one full marathon. My goal is to run many more. Running is a bug that is hard not to catch!

Thanks Carrie for being there for me. I am looking forward to the 10k in two weeks!