England!!

Hilltop - Beatrix Potter's House

Lake Windermere - We had to come up with new poses we needed a change

Paris Airport after 10 1/2 hour flight....little tired

Benningbrough Hall - I think

View Fountains Abbey

Ruins of Fountains Abbey

Pemberly!!!! Ok it's really Lyme Park but it's Pemberley from the A&E Pride and Prejudice

My roomie Elizabeth @ Fountains Abbey (She reminds me of you Mom she likes to climb on everything)

Found an iconic red telephone box so of course I had to take a picture!

Wray Castle - it's actually only about 200 or 300 years old, I don't remember, it was built too look mid-evil

We got caught in the rain one day so Elizabeth and Ann had hot chocolate (made with milk so I couldn't have any)

Cute stone wall, they're all over

This may or may not be Cartmel Priory....Guess I should have kept better notes

Furness Abbey - It's just crazy how old stuff is over there.

The trip was really fun, I'm so glad I went. I've been back for a week and I'm still trying to get caught back up at work but it was worth it. We traveled thru the Lake District for a few days and then down to York.
The scariest part was driving (or in my case riding) on the wrong side of the road. It's weird how much more it looks like people are going to run into you when they're coming from the other side of the road. Some of the roads were only wide enough for 1 car but were 2 lane roads!
I took almost 900 pictures and one roommate took just over 900, not sure how many the other took so I'll probably do a few posts on this.

Mom and Dad's 50th at the Beach

It was my parents 50th anniversary last Thursday and all they wanted was all the kids to come home for a long weekend.
We started Friday morning by going to the Temple together, it was amazing to be there with my family, I love them so much! We took a few pics but none have all of us in them because the only people around were working on the landscaping and they looked too busy to bug. I realize I look pregnant in the dress...I'm not.

Family pic minus Dad cause he was taking the picture

Family pic minus Beth cause she was taking the picture

Mom and Dad have friends that have a cabin near the beach in Westport, WA and they were nice enough to let us use it. It was really fun to be together and at the beach, I miss the ocean living in Utah. The Salt Lake just isn't the same thing.

B + D 4Ever

Aren't they just adorable!
It was super cold and like an idiot I only had sandals, by the time we left the beach I couldn't really feel my toes.

Gorgeous sunset on the beach

Totally amazing sunset! It was so beautiful the pictures don't really show it all.

Before and After as they called it

We had their wedding picture put on canvas, it turned out really cool.

That my friend is 50 year old wedding cake

Can you believe they actually took a bite of that on their anniversary and lived to tell the tale!? Kinda weird but also really cool I think.

Look what I built!

The pieces didn't have letters on them but the instructions did so I connected the first 2 pieces wrong. Luckily my nice room-mate came in and helped me figure it out.
I think it looks better than the other shelf I had that I got from DI a few years ago and just took back there yesterday, recycling at its best I think.

Who went to a Demolition Derby?

Me, that's who. I never really thought about going to one but Amy and Jared invited me along to one. It was actually pretty fun. Seems like it could be a fun way to get some aggression out. It did make my neck/head hurt just to watch though so I think I'll leave it to the professionals.

Randomness

So it's been a while since I posted, sorry to my loyal readers...by loyal readers I mean all 3 of you.
Since my last post was about the gym I should tell you as of this morning I'm down 7 pounds! Not as fast coming off as I'd like but at least I'm going in the right direction now right?!!?

I've been thinking lately how grateful I am that I have wonderful friends and family. I don't have tons of friends but the ones I have are pretty dang great. They love me when I'm smart/stupid/happy/sad/weird/....I was gonna say normal but really how often am I normal.

That's really all I have to say, thanks for loving me!

Good Timing

It's good timing when you are complaining about being the biggest girl at work and your boss is trying to think of a good bonus to give you. My company bought me a gym membership for a year! They are so good to me!
I'm so excited, I know who gets excited about working out except "those people" but I'm excited to be healthier. Best part is I've been praying for the motivation to eat better and exercise and then this happens. It means so much that my Heavenly Father knows me and loves me enough to help me out with something so temporal as weight.

If my life was a movie, what would the soundtrack be?

1. Open your library (iTunes, Media Player, etc) 2. Put it on shuffle 3. Press play 4. For every question, type the song that's playing 5. When you go to a new question, press the next button 7. Your turn

Opening Credits: The Second Star to the Right – Peter Pan

Your Theme Song: Journey to the Past - Anastasia

Waking Up: Splish Splash – Bobby Darin

First Day at School: Jolly holiday – Mary Poppins (school never was a holiday)

Falling In Love: The way you look tonight – Tony Bennett

His/Her Theme Song: Just that Girl – (actually it’d be a guy) – Drew Seeley

Confession: Don’t cry for me Argentina - Evita

The Villain's Theme Song: Why Not – Hillary Duff (cause villains are mean, that’s why not)

Fight Song: No one mourns the Wicked - Wicked

Breaking Up: Mr Mistoffelees - Cats (we’d have to break up cause that’s a dumb play)

Prom night: Would you – Singing in the Rain – (depends on what the “would” would be)

Life: Good Morning – Singing on the Rain

Mental Breakdown: He’s Just a Friend – Saturday’s Warrior (story of my life..just friends apparently it finally drives me mad)

Driving: I belong to you - Muse

Flashback: Superfabulous – BT McGowan – (cool)

Getting back together: One Last Summer – Mamma Mia

Wedding: Marion the Librarian – The Music Man (not sure what that means)

Honeymoon: Don’t go breaking my heart – Ella Enchanted

Baby Shower: Sit down you’re rocking the boat (guess I’m pretty big at the shower) – Guys & Dolls

Birth of Child: Once upon a dream - Sleeping Beauty (a baby is my dream….)

Final Battle: Take a chance on me – Mamma Mia

Funeral Song: Take my breath away – Berlin (guess I wont be breathing)

After Death: Life is a Highway – Rascal Flats

Final Credits: Supercalifragilistic – Mary Poppins

Jack O Lantern

I bought a pumpkin at the farmers market last weekend cause it was cheap and such a cute little size. This Saturday I looked at it again and decided to carve it. I haven't carved a pumpkin in years! It was pretty fun and I think he looks scary/cute.

Depending on my bravery level I may even try to make him into a pie after Halloween!

Brad Paisley Concert

Amy, Jared and I went the Brad Paisley concert last Friday. It was fun and our seats were crazy close to the stage. Those steps go right up the the stage, no zooming at all.


This is Amy and I waiting patiently for it to start. In the nice warm sunshine. It's not really fair she looks cuter than me...not sure why, it just isn't.



This is when Brad came over to our side of the stage. Just a little bit of zooming here but not much. Too bad he's not LDS...and he's married...oh well, a girl can dream.

This is Amy and Jared being cute.


There was one opening act I've never heard of but that's not saying much with country music, he could be crazy famous for all I know. The second act was Hootie sans Blowfish. Actually he just goes by Darius Rucker now. He did some of his Hootie songs which was nice then some of his newer country stuff. Not a huge difference just slower and....countrier.



All in all it was fun night. Not quite as good as last years concert but a good time.

Fun Times in Texas

I'm a lucky lucky girl who got to visit one of her bestest friend's last week. Kelsey is amazing! Here are some of our fun times since I don't really write all that well.

We went to a labor day BBQ at her parents house and her kids loved playing in the water. They ran thru the sprinkler then filled up this wheelbarrow.

They were already soaked so Kelsey decided to embrace it and bathe them, not sure they liked it much but it was pretty funny.

Her dad kept turning down the water so the kids would go up to it to see what was wrong with it then he'd turn it up and they'd all run. Reminded me of my childhood since I'm pretty sure my Dad did the same thing. (Love you Daddy)

We got to go to lunch on Friday at Charlie's school, it was fun, I haven't had school cafeteria food in.....a long time. I'll tell you though, stay away from the apple sticks. The lunch ladies said they taste like apple pie, they actually taste like apple pie that's been left on the road for 8 weeks and run over by sweaty bikers.



Think I'm overdue for a an eyebrow wax....

After dinner at Red Robin got a little silly....

Ben made the mistake of heating up some macaroni and leaving it unattended....Jemma reminded him that that is never safe.

Jemma and Lilly too cool for the library bathroom.


Beautiful sunset!

Thanks Kelsey for letting me visit and for wanting me to visit. I'm actually thinking of making some changes in my life that would include moving there. It'll require alot of thinking and praying and stuff like that before there are any definite plans but it's an option. I've decided I will not be 40 and single in Utah so I've got a few more years to either get married or I've got to move.

Thanks for the great birthday!

My parents are so sweet!! I had a birthday on Wednesday and this shows up to my desk, how stinkin' cute! They are so beautiful. I love pink and I love flowers, totally perfect.

Top one shows the cute birthday balloon too.



Then Amy shows up at work and convinces the other girls to come in with a cake, pumpkin bar and pink roses!! Also they happened to be tooting birthday horns and singing and throwing confetti.
This is what my floor looked like after the confetti brigade hit.(I have to add that my slightly OCD boss has now outlawed the use of confetti in the workplace) I had at least this much in my hair and down my shirt. Everywhere I went that day I left a trail of the stuff.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes and making me feel so special. That night my roomies and some friends took me out to dinner. Love you all, thanks!!

Look Ma I fixed it!

So from my last post you know I knocked off my mirror. The one place I got ahold of said the mirror would be $74. Amy's husband Jared was willing to try to put it on for me to save me money on labor, such a good guy. I called the auto part place that told me that price and when I asked them to order it she said they couldn't it was out of stock. I asked her what my options were and she gave me the number of a junk yard who might have it. I called them thinking I'd get a used one from a junker car and he said they only had one and it was a new one.......for $50! I went down that night and got it.
I googled how to put a new one on and it didn't seem that hard so I figured I'd give it a shot.

As you can see from the pic I did it! All I had to do was remove a panel in side the car and a few screws then put them back. I figure the fact that I got a deal on the mirror and fixed it all by myself negates the stupidity of breaking it off. Right?

I'm glad Jared was so willing to help me but I'm kinda glad I fixed it on my own, gives me a weird sense of accomplishment. I'm so grateful to my girlfriends for marrying such wonderful men. Amy's Jared, Kelsey's Ben, Ruth's Tim, Michelle's Michael (he's still amazing even though he's not with us anymore) plus all the others I don't have room for. They have all at one time or another given me a blessing or just been there for me. I never thought I'd still be single at this point in my life and having them there for me makes it just a little bit easier.

Smart people do stupid things

So sometimes the garage moves when I'm pulling out....I swear it got skinnier. Unfortunately I did this this morning and it happens to be Pioneer day here in Utah so no body shops are open to give me an estimate. I called an auto part store and the mirror unit itself is only $74 so hopefully the labor to put a new one back on will only be maybe a couple hundred. We shall see.

Home for a bit

I got to go home to my parents for a week last week, I love that!! It's so nice to see my family and visit for a bit and of course not have to go to work but that's just a side benefit. I drove from Utah to Washington with Amy and Jared, 14 straight hours. We left at 8pm on Saturday night and got in Sunday morning. It was a very long night especially due to the fact that I have an irrational fear that if I fall asleep so will the driver so when I managed to nod off for a bit the slightest swerve made me think we were leaving the road, not very restful.

This is due to some dry lightening somewhere in Idaho, I think near Boise. I opened the window to take the picture and you could feel the heat coming from the fire.

Mom and Patti and I decided to make Smore's after a fun BBQ, they were very very yummy. Dad manned the grill for dinner so we delivered his to him.

Seems like we might need better skewers but it worked. We had over-sized marshmallows so it was pretty intense getting them "cooked" thru.

I should have taken more pictures I realize, I don't even have one of Dad...sheesh, I hate when I do that.


This is one of the roses in my parents backyard, my attempt at an artistic picture.....I'll keep trying.

Thriving Ivory

A friend and I went to a free Thriving Ivory concert last night, it was the shortest concert ever. Must be why it was free. It started at 6 and ended at 6:30! Worst part was that my friends babysitter was late so we didn't even get there till about 6:15. From what we saw it was pretty cool. They have a different sounding lead singer but I like it. The fact that he's cute helps too. We got preferred seating (that we were too late to take advantage of) because we commented on a radio stations Facebook message about the concert so we got these cool wristbands that got us to the front of the line to meet the band. I didn't have too much to say, not a ton in common so I just said something like, love your music, nice to meet you...that sort of thing.

My super cool wrist band, the venue had to stamp our hands when we came in cause it was a bar, yes Mom, sorry I went to a bar. I didn't drink though I promise! They even carded me....I think they have to card everyone cause they scan the license but I pretended it was because I look so very young.

This is a picture of the band performing, see cute, I told you.