This summer has flown by!

Life has been a little crazy and I have slacking on the blog.

This is what has been happening in our lives since the last post...

I graduated from the University of Utah with a communication degree in August! I decided not to walk or anything, but now I am wishing I would have. It was kind of a big deal, huh? That explains the lack of pictures.

I have been working at 4Life as an event coordinator which has been so much work, but I have loved every minute of it! I have a great boss and have already learned so much. Our big convention for distributors from around the world was about two weeks ago. I spent the last couple months preparing for the food, logo wear to be sold, a fashion show, props, photography, housing, and employee logistics. I think I have found my niche and can't wait to see what else this job has to offer.

Trevor started up his fall semester at Westminster. He also applied for the Westminster nursing program in August. Hold your breath...we find out in November if he made it or not. They had double the applicants that they usually do for the program. Yikes!

Trevor turned 23 in June and I turn 23 on Thursday.

I learned how to drive Roxy - our manual Toyota Corolla. If you see a white Corolla jerking around on the road - be patient - its probably me. I'm still trying to get the hang of it.

Other than that the summer has been pretty laid back. No big trips or events. Just enjoying every day to day life. I can't believe it is already the end of September! I'm sad that summer is over, but I am getting a little excited for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas!

I'll try to keep you updated...And take pictures. :)

All this for $15 bucks?

Maybe someday I will finish my last post about Turkey...
But for now, I have too post about the greatest thing my friend Brittany told me about and I took advantage of.

Anyone ever heard of Bountiful Baskets? It is an organization that gathers fruits and veggies from around the state and provides them at a low cost. You sign up for the basket on Monday night and pick it up on Saturday morning. The basket includes 6 fruits and 6 veggies - all for only 15 bucks. Every week the food varies. The only catch is you have to volunteer every six weeks for each time you sign up. Not bad at all.
This Saturday I picked up my first basket
5 plums
7 peaches
Bag of apples
Bag of grapes
3 mangos
bananas
3 weird little fruits
12 corn on the cob
2 cucumbers
5 tomatoes
4 onions
10 peppers
Head of lettuce

What a deal! Thanks for a great shopping tip Britt!

Part 3

Israel was by far my most favorite part of the trip.

With my sunburned body, and nasty lips we left the hotel before the crack of dawn (3:15 am), hopped on a bus and made our way to the airport.

After an hour plane ride we landed in Israel about 11:00 am. We met up with our tour guide and hit the ground running. We only had 8 hours to see Israel!

We first stopped at a place where the landscape is very unique. Because of the geography one side of the hill is tropical and plush and the other side is pure desert. The far mountains in this picture are African mountains.

Our next stop was to drop by the Israel BYU center. It was Sunday so nothing was open, but it was fun just to drop by and see it.

We then made our way to Holy Sepulcher where Jesus was supposedly crucified. The building was beautiful and everything was done with such detail. A couple different Christian religions own each part of the building. They all had a little shrine where people were praying and chanting. I was a little taken back by the atmosphere. If this was really where Jesus was crucified I was shocked at the lack of reverence. But, the Latter Day Saints believe that Jesus was actually crucified and buried in a completely different place. Trevor and I want to go back some day with an LDS tour guide. It would be so incredible to see Israel from that point of view.

After the Holy Sepulcher we went to the Mount of Olives. The trees were incredible! Our tour guide said that the outside bark very well could have witnessed the days of Jesus. What happens is even though the bark might die the roots are eternal and new branches grow through the old tree.

After those sights we took a tour of what they call “The Old City’. The city is divided up into 4 quarters. A section owned by the Jews, a section owned by the Christians, a section owned by the Muslims, and a small section owned by the Armenians.

Each section had its own look and feel and it was fun to just walk around the city and see the ruins. The city is actually built on top of the city from ancient times. So in some places archeologist have dug into the ground, not to find dirt, but to find ruins of a city.

In the Jewish quarter we saw the Wailing Wall, which is where the Jews believe that directly underneath it is the wall of Solomon’s temple. It is a place of worship for them. They write notes and stick them in the wall so that their prayers will reach heaven.

After seeing Jerusalem we took a bus ride to the Dead Sea. Trevor and I were debating if we were going to get in the water or not because we didn’t want to ride back on the airplane all stinky and wet, but we did and I am SO glad! The water was so dense that we didn’t have to swim or tread water. All we did was sit down and we floated. It was so cool! We took the mud and rubbed it all over our bodies. The water and mud has a lot of minerals in it so it is supposed to be great for your skin and health. I believe it. My skin was so silky smooth afterwards. Trevor bought some Dead Sea skin care product for me. It has magically made all my acne scars, wrinkles, and sunspots disappear!!!! Ha, kidding…I only wish it made your skin flawless.

(not the greatest picture, but that is us out there floating away)

(not us, but you get the idea of the mud bath)

Our last adventure was eating dinner at where the Dead Sea scrolls where found.

After a full day we made our way back to the airport. We arrived back at our hotel room at 2 am.

It was a full 24 hours of tourism and we LOVED every bit of it!

New Pet Peeve...

People that don't fess up when they make a mistake.

If you make a mistake, don't act stupid and try to play it off!

Admit that you were wrong and made a mistake, apologize, and try to help figure out a solution!

Gees!!!!

(Still working on the 3rd and 4th post of Turkey. It'll get posted eventually.)

Part 2

On Tuesday, May 11th we flew from Istanbul to a resort town on the Mediterranean called Antalya.

For the next couple of days we hung out at the pool, played games, went to the beach, read books, and just enjoyed each other company.Sisters Leslie and Jessica

Trevor and me playing boochie.

One of the days we went on a boat tour along the coast.Jessica, Trevor, and me swimming in the Mediterranean.

Curtis, Jessica, me, and Trev on the boat.

The boat tour went right past our hotel.

This is Cleopatra's face. Turn your head and you should be able to see it. I still haven't figured out how to flip photos. They say that this is where Mark Anthony met Cleopatra because Cleopatra used to like to bath in this part of the Mediterranean because it is so rich in minerals

For those of you getting jealous I have to tell you that it was during the day of the boat tour I became...well...a little beat up.

I woke up the day before with a couple of cold sores on the inside edges of my lips and cankers in my mouth. I have maybe had one or two cold sores in my life, but it had to be on this trip that I got the cold sores/cankers from hell -we think maybe I was allergic to something there. I had been using medicated chap-stick, but while we were swimming in the Mediterranean Sea I came up with the brilliant idea to rinse my mouth out with the nice and salty sea water. Worst idea ever! That night my mouth sores went from bad to worse and I spent the next couple of days not even being able to speak my mouth hurt so bad. Notice the pathetic half smile of mine in pictures of me from here on out. I'm not kidding when I say it took all I had to muster up those pathetic grins.

It was also on this day that I was tired of waiting for the elevator so I decided to take the spiral staircase and race Trevor to the lobby. As I took my third step I misplaced my foot, my bad ankle popped, I gave out a yelp, and vol la...a sprained ankle.

If you are not feeling sorry for me yet let me tell you about the nasty sunburn I got on the boat tour. The whole trip I had been using SPF 85. I was determined not to get a sunburn! But of course on the day of the boat tour I decided to only use SPF 30 and for some idiotic reason I only used it once the whole day. The next day I woke up to blistered shoulders and blistered and swollen knees.

Needles to say I was pretty pathetic for the following few days. Good thing I had a wonderful husband and family to nurse me through and an amazing one day trip to Jerusalem that took my mind off of everything.

Stay tuned for the details!!!

Our Adventure to Turkey - Part 1

Its hard to believe that our 10-day trip to Turkey has come and gone. Despite a few kinks in the plans a combination of beach time and sight seeing was a perfect recipe for an amazing trip. We have lots to report on so enjoy and so stay tuned for the next three parts of our trip!

My mom, dad, brother, two younger sisters, Trev and I left bright and early Saturday, May 8th. Our adventure began by taking a 4-hour flight from SLC to the JFK airport in New York. We made the 10-hour flight to Istanbul, Turkey, but not before sitting on the runway at JFK for 2 hours making the already long flight even longer. But none-the-less we made it to Istanbul in one piece early Sunday afternoon.
Later Sunday night we ate some dinner and took a stroll on the on the local boardwalk along the Mediterranean Sea. It was such an amazing view it made us wish we had something similar to that in Utah.On Monday we made our way to downtown Istanbul. The city is unbelievably huge with a population of 13 million. My family was expecting a more middle-eastern atmosphere, but we were surprised to find that only half of the women in the city wore the traditional head scarves.

(A street market near the Blue Mosque)

We visited the Blue Mosque.
And the Hagia Sopia which was my favorite of the two buildings. They are built across the street from each other. The Hagia Sophia was built before the Blue Mosque and the Blue Mosque was supposed to outdo the Hagia Sophia. I still think the Hagia Sophia is still far more impressive though.The Hagia Sophia was the 3rd church built in that exact location. The first two churches had previously been destroyed. The building was used as an Orthodox basilica and then the overtaken by the Muslims and used as a mosque until it was turned into a museum in 1934. Both Christian and Muslim elements are displayed in the Hagia Sophia. I was amazed to see the incredible detail of the building.

We also took a bus tour of the entire city.

(The city wall)


That sums up Istanbul. Next to come will be our stay in Antalya, Turkey.

Crazy Sleeper

When I was younger and my family went on vacations I would always share a bed with my little sister Leslie. Leslie would always sprawl herself over the entire bed or steal all the covers in the middle of the night. How would I deal with this? I hate to admit it, but I would kick her to the other side of the bed or until she gave up the sheets.

Well, now I am married and share a bed with my husband who often times sprawls out over the entire bed or steals the sheets in the middle of the night. Instead of kicking him I poke him and say "Can you please move over?" or "Can you share the blanket?"

Well, in the middle of the night two nights ago Trevor told me to chill out which isn't unusual because sometimes I have bad dreams and thrash around in my sleep. Yesterday I was giving Trev a hard time for telling me to chill out when I wasn't even doing anything when he informed me that I was kicking him....it all came back...I remember his leg being on my side of the bed so I was kicking it to get it out of my way. Opps, sorry!!!

I don't mean to be a violent person, but when I need my sleep I need my sleep! Stay out of my way, I'm not a crazy sleeper...I am a violent sleeper!

St. George!

Trevor and I spent the weekend in St George last week helping my parents move into a second house they bought down there.We LOVE St. George. We were only gone for two days, but it was so nice to get away and relax.

We went and took a picture at where we met. 3e. :) Trev lived down here while going to Dixie before his mission and I was visiting a friend. Who would have thought our random 5 minute meeting would have led to us getting married?On our way back from St. George we saw this sweet car filling up at a CNG station. These folks had some serious money!

Ah, oh wonderful day!

I love days on which I get flowers for no reason at all!

I found them on my desk when I got to work today.

What could be better than that?!

Thanks bestest husband in the world!

What to do with the time?

Life as a college student is nearing the end.

I am taking 2 classes this summer and I will be done forever and moving on to the next phase in my life.

Sigh...I'm so happy to be done, but I always have a hard time changing up my daily routine.

No school? What will I do?

With a full time career in the near future I decided it would be too much to continue coaching cheer.

Again, bitter sweet. Lova love those girls and I will miss them like crazy, but I didn't feel like I could be a reliable coach for them next year considering I would be working 40+ hours a week. I'd be stressed trying to be in two places at once and I'm sure the girls and the studio would be frustrated I wasn't putting forth my all into coaching.

So, with no school and no cheer. I have decided I need a hobby!

And the winner is...YOGA!

Oh yes, I am taking my first class on Saturday.
I have done a little research on yoga and if any of you care to know of some of the benefits here they are!

Aging. Posture. Strength. Energy. Weight. Sleep. Balance. Core strength. Mood. Stress Reduction. Anxiety. Self-acceptance. Self-control. Mind-body connection. Positive outlook on life. Hostility. Concentration. Memory. Attention. Calmness. Muscle tone. Endurance.

Call me a hippie, but hey I'm excited. Just what I need!
Next time you see me don't be surprised if I can do this...

Ha, Yeah right!

Has it been a year?

Why yes it has. How time flies. Last Friday Trevor and I celebrated our first year anniversary!

Before we get started, I forgot my camera. Genius, I know. We bought a disposable one, but haven't gotten the pictures back yet.

The festivities included...

Maddox - an incredible steak house up north. Everything was so fresh! It better be. The ranch was right next to the restaurant. You look at a cow as your walking in and think...that might be my dinner. Sigh, kind of sad, but the food was delicious.

Trevor surprised me with the Swiss Family Robinson Room at the anniversary inn in Logan. There was a tree in the middle of our room and a fish tank! A huge jet tub, room service, cheesecake, movies, all the makes of a romantic evening. ;) Thanks honey!

We went and saw Alice in Wonderland the next day and later that night we celebrated good ol' Ty's birthday.

It was quite the weekend.

I have to agree with my cute friend Kylee who already posted about her anniversary. When we were sitting in the temple year ago I didn't think I could love Trevor any more, but as time goes by I am amazed at how much more I love him everyday. We have grown together so much this year and I am so lucky to have him.

Here's to us and years full of excitement and fun to come!

Jealous? You should be!

Meet Sam, the new addition to our family.

He might not be a looker, but he is a natural gas car that we can fill up for $5!

Our 1998 Honda civic came to our family after being owned by the government. He runs like a dream and only has 40,000 miles on him!

I have to say, for his age he is in great shape!

His dashboard still makes me chuckle though...what a glance into the past.

We got him for a great price, especially with a tax credit. I've gotta give it to my husband for finding such a great deal!

He might not be a brand new car or even a car from the 20th century, but he's ours! He is our first big purchase together since we've been married.

Welcome to the fam Sam!

Turkey here we come!

Yes, come May trevor, me, and my family will be making the journey to Antalya, Turkey to enjoy this quaint town and beautiful beaches!

My dad travels the world for his job and occasionally we get lucky and he takes us with him for a family vacation.

It must have slipped

Just got home from teaching a tumbling class.

Two little boys decided to try the class for the first time.

Maybe not the most coordinated of little guys.

I was spotting the older one on a back handspring.

Not wanting him to fall on his head, I was spotting him really close.

He bent his legs.

Flipped backwards.

And right when he was upside down, butt in my face...

He FARTED!

YES, a loud, nasty, wet and juicy fart...in my FACE!

Bah, yuck!!!

Everyone in the room was rolling with laughter.

Couldn't have been better. I couldn't have been more disgusted.

But hey, I guess I was looking for a good laugh.

Laughed for 5 minutes straight. Still laughing.

Congrats Girlies!

This past weekend was cheer nationals in Vegas. I wanted to give a shout out to all my little cheerleaders! I couldn't be more proud of them! We finished out the year with 5 first place trophies and a third place trophy at nationals.

Some of the girls were heartbroken because our goal was an undefeated year. We only got beat by .25 of a point for second place and .9 of a point for first place. SO CLOSE!

The girls looked so great and I hoped they had a great time. It so fun watching them perform and get recognition for a routine they have worked so hard on this year. They have all progressed so much and I was honored to be their coach this year.

Thanks for a great year HEAT WAVE!

To watch the routine we took to nationals click on the youtube link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEUBnSXUhik

My pledge to the world

For the past couple weeks I have been dealing with some real complainers/whiners. I wont go into detail, but needless to say the constant complaining has nearly put me over the top.
For the most part I feel like I am a pretty positive person and I don't think I am entitled to any special treatment...but today I caught myself complaining about things here and there....Urch!!!! Not okay! I refuse to be like these oh so wonderful people who always find something to complain or whine about.
So to all you out there who are listening and care...or don't even care, but still listening...I pledge from this day forward I will not be a complainer or a whiner. I will make the best out of what life gives me and I will do it with a smile on my face and a positive attitude. Not to say I wont fight for what I want, but I refuse to do it whining and complaining.

My new mottos to live by:

Instead of complaining that the rosebush is full of thorns, be happy that the thorn bush has roses. ~Proverb

If you have time to whine and complain about something then you have the time to do something about it. ~Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book

morning commute + bad weather = a waste of time

Just got to work after spending over two hours trying to get to school today. By the time I finally got to school my one class for the day was over. What a waste of time and gas. Isn't winter over yet?

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

To say the least we were very spoiled this year for christmas.

Trev's big present was an iphone.
On my wish list were those reebock easytone shoes that supposedly tone your butt and thighs (cross your fingers...i'll let you know how they work.) I also got my all-time favorite gift that will never get old. A facial. :)
This was Trev's valiant attempt on trying to wrap my present...lets face it is not one of his talents, but I appreciate him taking the time to wrap my present. He was downstairs trying to wrap this for about a half an hour
Gifts from our families included rockband, leather jacket (for me), sport coat (for trev), super nice backpacking gear, flight and hotel to arizona (i'll explain later), well needed odds and ends, and gift cards. Thanks moms, dads, grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings!

We couldn't have asked for a better Christmas...well, maybe except for not having to throw up all night. Of course our first Christmas night together we were sick. Trev was feeling a little sick earlier on Christmas and when we got home the poor guy threw up. Only after saying I didn't even remember the last time I had thrown up did I feel a little quezzy and join my husband's sick state. It must have been a 24 hour virus or something because the next day we were fine. Gotta love our great luck!

New Years Eve was spent with a few of our good friends Logan and Lisa and Matt and Amy. We went to Tepanyaki and Sherlock Holmes. Not your typical New Year's Eve celebration but we had a good time together.

A couple months ago I told Trevor he could buy a motorcycle, but when he brought it home and told me how much it had cost I made him take it back. Typical woman who can't make up her mind, I know. To make it up to him I bought tickets to the Green Bay Packers vs. Arizona Cardinals football game in Arizona. We couldn't have asked for a better time to make a trip to Arizona. What a well needed WARM vacation from the cold weather!

We went to the Phoneix Zoo (which, by the way, is SO much better than the Hoggle Zoo).

Went to dinner with Trev's mission companion.

Visited the Mesa temple.

Just hung out and relaxed.

And of course, went to the game. Trev was like a little kid going to Disneyland for the first time. (For those of you who don't know Trev is a HUGE football fan.)

It was fun to get away and spend time together without the hustle and bustle of real life.