Our New Obsession!!!

Everyday after work we rush home so we can go on a bike ride! We love our new bikes! The weather has been amazing, but we've learned quickly that if we aren't back in before 9:00 pm, it gets really cold (even though it's still light out)! We're trying to enjoy our beautiful surroundings before we have to say goodbye in 6 weeks.

New Home Owners!!!

So this weekend we went to Logan and we were on a mission! We had to find a house! We looked at a few and after going to lunch and writing down our pros and cons, we decided to go with the first one we walked through. We are now official white trailer trash! We decided that living in the USU Trailer Court would be the best deal. We paid cash for the trailer, but will have a pad fee which includes phone, cable, and internet. So basically our rent is $265 a month! With both of us going to school full time, that's a deal...plus we own it! We're excited and everything will be final July 1! Things seem to be falling into place! Now, if I could just snap my fingers and our entire house would be packed! Haha, yeah right!

Snow in June?!

Yes my friends, as I type this I'm looking out my window watching the snow flurries...in June! Something is sick and wrong with this picture!

Trip to Arizona

So Friday morning we took the first flight out to Arizona along with Jaron, Jen, and little Jaron to surprise my mom for her birthday! Her "friend" Tim put it all together and insisted that he pay for everything. We totally suprised her! She had no clue! Then we spent the day at Golfland/Sunsplash! Oh my gosh was it fun! Ummm...now I know why we moved from that blasted hot state though! My aunt Pam and her daughters Kristin, Amber, and Kim (aka Shmim) met up with us! Of course, I spent more time hanging out chatting and holding my absolutely adorable nephew than I did in the water. Little Jaron is at the sweetest stage right now, and he just loves his Aunty Nay! He is cooing and smiling constantly! Now at this point I'd normally add a few pictures of this awesome day...but brilliant Deneigh forgot her new camera! What?! Yes, it was a sad 30 minutes when I realized I forgot it. Moving on! Saturday rocked because my mom took me to get a pedicure! Thanks mom! Then we went to Gecko Grill for lunch with everyone, including some of Jaron's friends from high school! We all kinda went our seperate ways and of course I hit the scrapbook stores, a fabric store, and Seagull Book & Tape! Then we all met back at my grandmas house for a surprise 70's party for my mom! It was cool! We had delicious fondu and my aunt Pam had some totally rad trivia! Of course we went to bed way too late and had to get up much too early! Off to the airport we went. We got home from Denver around 9:00 pm. It was a quick fun weekend! Now it's back to the real world!

I'm finally a Mac owner!

So after our computer bit the dust (it's 6 years old) I begged and pleaded with my husband to buy a Mac. After making pro and con lists, and with the help of Becky Higgins and her brother Kevin Allgaier, I finally talked my husband into switching! We went with the awesome Mac Mini because we already have the wireless keyboard and mouse, along with the wall mounted LCD monitor/TV. With the mini, you just plug in all your equipment. One of the great features is that it is so tiny! I love that it doesn't take up a whole lot of space! I can't wait to start using iPhoto and cropping pictures and editing videos! I'm one happy girl this week!

New Camera

This my friends, is a happy day!!! Look what came in the mail! Oh my goodness, I did my happy dance for like an hour! I love, love, love this new camera! It is amazing! Now I'm off to start reading this HUGE novel of an instruction manual!!! Oh happy day!!!

Saying Goodbye

We were so lucky to have Champ as our family dog! He was such a good pet/family member! We're going to miss his ADD personality and all the silly things he did to make us laugh! Phillip is going to miss having someone to play soccer with, and I'm going to miss the way I would put my chin on his lips and he'd hold really still for a few seconds then lick my chin really quick! He was so great with kids and loved everyone he met. He had a million names and songs that me and my mom bestowed upon him. To name a few...my poopy puppy, babies, Champer-D, stinky dog, and the list goes on. He truly will be missed!

Champ was killed by 3 pit bulls a few days ago. My heart breaks because I know he must have suffered. Through this whole ordeal though I've learned something. My brother is going to be so mad that I'm talking about him like this, but he truly is such a Christ-like person. See Champ has been living with Jen and Jaron this past year. A few months ago, these pit bulls got a hold of Champs lip through the fence and he had to have stitches. Then when my brother came home the other night to find Champ, he wasn't hateful, in fact when I talked to him on the phone HE calmed ME down. He told the neighbor that he knew what he needed to do and that this is an experience they would both take from. Who says that?! My brother. He is the most forgiving, loving, Christ-like person I know! Now of course we're sad and my heart goes out to my brother because Champ was very special to him. He helped Jaron through some tough times with his anxiety. So here's to Champ, the best dog in the world!

Weekend

So my poor hubby got his wisdom teeth out on Friday late afternoon and I don't know who's been more miserable this weekend, me...or him! Just kidding, he really hasn't been that bad. I was preparing myself for the worst because sometimes he's a big baby when he's sick or in pain (let's face it, when I'm sick I still manage to cook dinner, do laundry, pick up the house, etc.). Anyways! He's doing okay, still blending up all kinds of soups and making him yummy smoothies though. I so wish my camera hadn't broken at the scrapbook convention because I can't take pictures of his chipmunk cheeks! No worries, my new camera should be here Monday or Tuesday (it's a Canon SD900!!!)! Do you know what it's like to go without a camera for a whole month?! Okay, probably not because I'm a freak about making sure we have pictures of just about anything/everything! Just knowing that I don't have a camera "just in case" sends me in to pure anxiety! What if I miss that one moment?! Okay, stop laughing!
Back to my weekend. I did run down to Glenwood Springs to go shopping at my beloved Target! It's a treat to go shopping there because it's 40 minutes away (of course any kind of shopping is 40 minutes in either direction). I also hit Bed Bath and Beyond along with this awesome health food store! It was totally a treat to go bum!
Today was a crazy Sunday! I skipped sacrament because of Phillip, but I did get to nursery and in the first 5 minutes I wished I'd found a substitute! Okay, it wasn't that bad, but it was! The kids were all TERRIBLE! I mean one problem after another! We had about 5 kids who just wouldn't stop crying for their moms. It was a nightmare. Then we had a few who kept having tantrums. Is it just me, or is this calling getting harder and harder (maybe because we've had about 5 kids added to nursery in 3 weeks)! Now I know why they say 1 in 6 will say yes to this calling. I told Phillip that anyone who puts up with that many kids in nursery for 2 hours each Sunday is entitled to a nap after church! And that's exactly what I did! I took an oh so deserved nap, then we watched "The Prestige". I totally guessed the ending halfway through the movie (but anyone that knows me can attest that I love to call the endings)! I didn't accomplish anything that I wanted to this weekend, but I'm over it because last week was a week from you know where! I let my house go and as I type this tonight and look around...I don't care! Haha! Tomorrow I will fold the clothes that are still in the dryer from Saturday, and maybe I'll get around to washing the dishes! Who knows, I might get ambitious and scrub some toilets! Goodnight!

1 Year!

I can't believe it! We've lived here for exactly a year! It's so sad that we have to leave this beautiful place, but at least Logan has the same weather! As much as I miss Arizona and all our family and friends, I'm so not jealous of your warmer temperatures! If anyone wants to come visit us here in Vail for a much cooler get away, you only have a couple months left! River rafting anyone?!

Sunburn

Since it was such a beautiful day today we decided that after church we'd take a drive up to Sylvan Lake and have a picnic. I know it's not a typical Sunday activity, but Phillip has been working in Aspen and Steamboat Springs this whole month (he leaves Monday morning and comes back Friday night). The sun was out and so we put on short sleeves. We got up there and just loved it! We played games and ate. Well all of a sudden it got cloudy and I told Phillip we've been here for like and hour and a half and I feel really sunburned, lets just go because the clouds make it too cold. Well later that night I realized I got fried! He felt so bad! Ahhh, oh well, I'm so white I could probably use it!

He's Sooo Expensive!

We all know Phillip likes to speed! It's no secret. We also all know that the rules don't apply to him! So Sunday as I was driving us home from Denver I told him I had a feeling he was going to get pulled over this week. He got really defensive and said if you wouldn't say negative things like that...then they wouldn't happen. WHAT?! Try, if you wouldn't speed and obey the laws you wouldn't get in trouble, haha! So he left for Steamboat Springs bright and early Monday morning and I get this call. He's like hey. Instinct told me to say how much? And he's like how did you know. Let's just say I've been married to this man far too long to not know his tone! I was right, he got pulled over for going 19 over!!! Well then of course they run his license. Guess who didn't pay his tickets and now has 2 warrants?! That would be MY spouse! Needless to say it cost me $800 to bail him out of jail, plus another $500 to pay the tickets, and there's still one from 2000 that he has to pay! Luckily they were able to quickly reinstate his license after immediately paying the old tickets so his work didn't get too mad. Ahhh...I love this man! Our lives are never dull that's for sure! Note to self: just pay his tickets for him, it will cost a lot less in the long run!!!

Day 3

I can't believe it's already the last day of convention. We saved all the awesome classes for last! We scored with free stuff in our last few! Here are a few pictures to end the weekend! (Molly took different classes so she couldn't join us for our silly pictures).

Day 2

So amazingly enough we all made it to our first class only a few minutes late! My wonderful friends all pushed me in the wheel chair the hotel gave me. Lets just say Sarah is a crazy freak pusher and almost dumped me into the grass! Gee, thanks Sarah!!! My G-ma missed her first day of classes, but we were able to get her kits for her. We all met back for lunch in the hotel room and had Ned's Crazy Sub, YUMMY! Of course then we were off to the rest of our classes and shopping! Later on we went to the church for our scrapbook party. It rocked because we could all sprawl out and work on stuff! Thanks Kristin for arranging the church for us!

Day 1

So today is "day 1" of this crazy scrapbook convention that I love to go to! I started my morning off at Scrapbooks Etc where my wonderful hubby didn't give me a limit! I was proud of myself because I only spent $120 there...and that was with 2 books! Then I went over to ribbons and lace! Man I miss that place! I got about $60 worth of stuff, but that also included 4 bows each for 3 sets of girl babies that are being born to friends. I also got stuff to make ruffles on the socks. Anyways. I ran and had Krystal Garrett at Blossoms do my hair (always a must)! Love the color and cut! Then of course we all met at Gecko Grill for dinner. My mom is the biggest sweetheart because she treated all of us girls!

Then we ran over to Sams Club so we could get waters and muffins for convention. And Sarah was so kind as to insist on her temporarily handicaped friend using a cart. I laughed the whole time!

I wished we had have taken pictures of our cars because they were packed to the top with our scrapbook crap! As you can see from our hotel room, we made a mess!

So on a sad note, my poor G-ma had an allergic reaction to some dye from a test yesterday and she ended up in the hospital and they are keeping her tonight. Hopefully she will only miss tomorrows classes.

Convention

Oh my goodness, I've been planning and preparing for this weekend since October! I can't believe the convention is finally here! When I got to the Denver airport they were waiting for me with a wheel chair. I got to bypass the lines and go through security (after an uncomfortable search). It was nice. Then when I got to the Phoenix airport the same thing happened. The wheel chair guy was there waiting for me, and my mom and Tim (her boyfriend) we trying to keep up. We got all my thousand pounds of luggage and found the car. They took me to Village Inn for some dinner/breakfast where we got to talk and I got to know Tim better! It was great!

Ouch!

So I thought it'd be a total blast to hurt myself while I was at work today! I was simply walking to the copier when my ankle went completely in and I heard it pop like 10 times. Yep, all my weight on it! If it weren't for the people at work making me laugh I totally would have cried! Then used my rolling office chair as a wheel chair out to the car and off to the hospital we went. My operations manager was so nice. She stayed with me and eve took me home afterwards. The verdict...a severely sprained ankle and pulled tendons. Here are a few pictures a week later.

(Update: A month later it is still terribly swollen and I now have to go to physical therapy twice a week to re-gain full range of motion.)

Baby Jaron's Blessing

I was so honored that Jen let me help get Jaysters dressed Sunday morning! I loved putting the lotion on him after his bath. He was so alert and cute. He really is such a sweet baby!

We hurried and took all these fun pictures before sacrament because we had to leave the moment the blessing was over (it was a 12 hour drive for us and we had to get to work the next morning).

There's is something so sweet about hearing your little brother (who I've always admired) bless his new son. He is a lucky baby to be raised by Jen and Jaron. She is such a good little mommy. They are amazing parents!

Busy Saturday!

So we all tried to wake up early on Saturday because we had a lot to do. We went over to Jaron and Jen's cute house and I got to see Champ (my poopy puppy - it's an affectionate name)! I missed him so much! Appharently he missed me too because he pee'd all over me for like 2 minutes!

We had biscuits and gravy for breakfast, then the guys got to work on Jaron's garden. Us girls took off and went shopping! After a few hours I hadn't found much that I liked so me and my mom went shopping on our own, which rocked because we got 30% off everything at JcPenny's! I scored with some cute stuff plus a new dress for the blessing! Here are a few more pictures of us mauling my stinkin' cute nephew!

Jaysters

I was so excited when we got to Boise because I wanted to hold my nephew. We met everyone at this yummy bbq place. Here are pictures of us seeing and holding Jaron for the first time!

Logan, Utah

So we decided that on our way to little Jaron's blessing up in Boise, we'd stop in Logan for the day to check it out and look at housing. Okay, on Easter weekend, not so smart! We did look at the one house we've had our eye on for a while (from the windows because the landlord left the wrong key under the mat), but we'll have to go back up there in June. Papa and G-ma stopped there with us and we did lunch and showed them the house. They took this picture for us.

Crunch

I was about 2 minutes into my lunch hour today when a big 16 passenger van crashed into me. Ugh! I'm totally fine, it just sucked! The insurance of the company that hit me rocked though! I had a 2007 Trailblazer brought to me at work and they took my car for me! So nice!

USU or Bust!

Thank you to all our friends and family who shared in our fast. Now we can tell you specifically what you were fasting for! Phillip has been thinking about going back to school to follow his dreams, Marriage and Family Counseling. After studying schools and programs we had it narrowed down to BYU-Idaho and USU. He was excepted to both schools, but we needed to make a decision. After our fast, the answer was to move to Logan, Utah! We are so excited! When I found out he was excepted to USU, I made him this poster to tell him...

Our projected moving date is July 31st/August 1st. We are so sad to be leaving this beautiful place after such a short time, but we know that we came here for a few reasons. We also know we will be blessed for following the promptings we have received. Although we will be taking 10 steps back in life and becoming poor starving students, we know there is a greater plan for us, even though it's different from our own! Thank you all for your love and support!

Olf Friend

We were so excited when one of Phillip's best friends from high school called and said they were in Denver (they live in Kansas). We haven't seen Jared in a long time! In fact, we've never even met his new wife! So after work on Friday we drove (through a lovely snow storm up on Vail pass) down to Denver. We went to Gunther Toody's, which was way yummy and a perfect place to laugh and talk! The guys were a hoot and Josie and I just laughed at them! So fun to be around them!

Our Ensign Came Today!

When Phillip came out of the post office with our mail this evening I saw in his hand the Ensign ! I admit it...I squealed! I was so excited, and I don't know why. For some reason I was thrilled to get this months issue. So we got home and I started reading, highlighting, and making dinner (mind you I had already started a load of laundry). Phillip just laughed at me. I'm still devouring the first few pages, but I wanted to share a piece that struck me and I think I'd like to make something out of it and put it on the wall.
"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him." (Revelation 3:20) Then Thomas S. Monson goes on to say: "Let us listen for His knock. Let us open the door of our hearts, that He - the living example of compassion - may enter."
Anyways, I know this is simple and basic, but for some reason it was meant for me tonight, and I thought I would share!

Jaron Stirling Fletcher

(At least that's what they think his name will be) was born yesterday at 6:07 pm. He weighed in at a whoppin 9 lbs 1oz and 22 1/2 inches long! That's one BIG BOY! We are so happy for Jaron and Jen! We love you guys! Welcome to our family "Jayster" (a nickname my mom gave the baby)!

Hannah Elizabeth Olsen

Our niece Hannah Elizabeth Olsen was born last night at 9:17 pm. As our brother-in-law Bill put it, she weighed in at a dainty 10 pounds even (Diana has big babies)! We are so happy for their family! She will be showered with love and kisses! There isn't a child more loved or wanted!

Super Bowl

So our train didn't leave until 7:30 am, which was great because it WAS scheduled for 4:50 am. We raced home and then on over to Phil's bosses house for a Super Bowl party! Too fun!

When we got home we crashed! It's been a crazy weekend!

6 Years!

Thursday night after Phillip's work party we stayed at the Hotel Colorado. The next morning he surprised me with tickets to Utah! Not just any tickets...train tickets! So we borded Amtrak at 5:30 pm (3 1/2 hours late) and got to Utah at 1:00 am.

After a little bit of sleep, we started our day off with a yummy breakfast...then on to shopping!!! We had a lot to do in a short amount of time. And of course we HAD to hit the scrapbook stores. My husband is the most wonderful man in the world because he never once complained! He's the best! We were even lucky enough to take my cousin Tyler to lunch.

After a long day, we did find time to have a nice dinner and celebrate our 6th Anniversary!!! Once again my husband surprised me with a sweet and thoughtful gift.

This means the world to me! It is a gentle reminder to not lose hope and that someday we will have a family. Did I say I LOVE THIS MAN?! He is too good to be true!

New C.D.

I'm so excited because I got the new Norah Jones c.d. today! I had a gift certificate so it was only a few dollars! I got hooked on her music back when I was a nanny. I love lighting a candle, turning on one of her c.d.'s, and scrapbooking for hours. I find her voice calming and her music inspiring. Weird huh?!