ADayInTheLife

Monday, March 1, 2010

Here we are! 40 days away!

Well we are now into the month of March. February offered some fun adventures... here are some highlights!

I really hate Valentine's day.... I think it is a pointless celebration and there is no good reason to join in the "festivities". This bitterness doesn't come from spending Valentine's alone however, I hate Valentine's day when I'm with someone. I just think it is a stupid day to show each other how much you love each other... I hate flowers... I hate cards.... and lets be honest, there aren't any really good "Valentines" for men. So this year I made Paul promise that we wouldn't celebrate Valentine's day (we agreed to go on special dates once we're married, but thats it!). It just so happened that Valentine's day would fall on a Sunday, and that particular Sunday would be spent in St. George with Paul's brother Rory and his fiance Rachel. Perfect situation!

St. George Adventure!!

I love road trips. They are so much fun! Obviously it depends on who you're road tripping with, but for the most part I really love road trips. Singing in the car, snacking until you feel sick, having good conversations, it is just fun. So we started our road trip, I had fun being the DJ (even though SOME people didn't like it... he he) and we snacked out until we reached St. George. It was so warm! All I needed was a light jacket or a long sleeved T... it was very nice down there. Rachel and I hadn't met the grandparents yet, so there were introductions and hugs and we got our stuff put away. Then we watched the opening ceremony for the Olympics (it was so awesome) and off to bed! Saturday was so much fun! We played card games together, we played the Wii (I killed everyone at the tanks game... Rory almost had me though), and we went on some nice outdoor walks. We had lunch at the golf course club house.. thingy... which was fun (we got to drive there in a super swank yellow golf cart) it was all around relaxing. That evening we went to the driving range and hit around some balls... I hate golf. But only because I suck at it. So after that, I got to drive the golf cart home :). We had a nice sit down dinner (compliments to Granny) and then we played chicken feet with everyone. I won once! I never win that game.... Paul and I decided that we would go to a student ward the next morning (Rory didn't bring clothes so he used Paul's clothes earlier in the morning and then they switched and we went to church). It was an overall relaxing weekend :) It was honestly just what the doctor ordered! Paul and I had had a rough couple of weeks what with wedding planning and such, so it was a very good thing to go out of town together.

Oh! and another cool thing, on our way to St. George I got a call from Britt Hosken D.V.M of Olympus Cove Veterinary Clinic. I got the job! I started the next week and I have now worked there for a week. I really love it so far. He is definitely a good guy (so far) so we'll see how it goes. So I am currently working Local Pickup when needed in the mornings, I work Thursdays in the warehouse doing odds and ends, and I work Mondays - Wednesdays and Fridays 2 - 6pm at Olympus Cove Veterinary Clinic. I also do what I can at Camp K which for now means running 2 programs starting this week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. yay for being busy, at least that means I'm getting paid!

Signing off

Monday, February 1, 2010

Life updates...

Here is my awaited life update! I am so horrible at updating this that I'm pretty sure I have zero followers and therefore am posting this purely for my own sick entertainment. I am currently working for the Steal Network as their local pickup person on Mondays... I was hesitant at first, but I've found that I really like talking to people and selling stuff to them... go figure. I am still working at Camp Kostopulos (part-time) and I'm hoping to find a job at a Veterinary Clinic so I can help the little animals of the world :).

So here goes, my last post was September... nothing really spectacular has happened since then... oh wait!! I got engaged! But we're getting ahead of ourselves... I can't really remember what happened in September, all I know is that it was dating bliss. Then, October rolled around and I went to Disneyland!! (or Didneyland as I call it) I went with my Dad and his wife (my mom) Elisabeth as well as baby sister Heather. It was shortly after that trip that I found out my mom was pregnant (mom Elisabeth) with what I'm hoping is their last child.. he he. I also had my birthday somewhere in there and I got to have dinner at the Blue Bayou, the restaurant that overlooks the Pirate's of the Caribbean ride. It was awesome! I had a blast, but I was sad that Paul wasn't around (we hadn't been away from each other for more than a day up to that point), but it was nice to find out that I miss him lots when he isn't around. Also while I was in Disneyland, my sister Lexi had her first baby. Her name is Macie Isla Jones and she is so cute!

This brings us to November!! The first week of November, I visited Lexi, Ben and Macie Isla in Naperville Illinois. It was so much fun helping out with nighttime feedings etc. while Ben was on a trip for business. I got to bond with my new niece, and I love her so much! Mandy and I were there together so as to give the best amount of sisterly love to Lexi. We got to see the city one day (I've never been to Chicago) so it was a lot of fun to explore and help Lexi get out of the house for once. During the course of the trip I experienced a lot of The Office (getting Mandy hooked on it), Halloween candy, family drama, and overall awesomeness. Once I got home I was kinda nervous because I figured that Paul would propose... we went ring shopping in October after all... so I had geared up and prepared for it. The Friday after I got back (Friday the 13th) Paul had planned on us going horseback riding at my friend's ranch in Farmington Utah. I knew something was up because he had talked to her without me knowing... something was definitely up...

So here is the story...

We drove to Farmington to ride Amy Larson's horses (some of the best horses I've ever ridden) towards evening time. It wasn't yet too cold to ride so that was fortunate. I was riding Chance a huge gorgeous Bay Quarter horse and Paul was riding an old Sorrel barrel racing horse named Isaac. I was kind of nervous because I wasn't sure when he was going to do it, and I was supposed to be leading our expedition I guess... Well Chance could tell that I was nervous so he started acting up a little bit (I was certain I was going to be thrown off by the end) but we went out around the neighborhoods in Farmington and by the time we were heading back he still hadn't proposed. I started to relax a little at this point because I couldn't think of what he might do so I figured he wasn't going to until later or something. We tied up our horses and started to uncinch, but Paul kind of wandered away and looked into one of the horse stalls. He got a very quizzical look on his face and pointed at something in the stall. I kind of looked at him and asked him what he was pointing at so he said, "What is that thing in there?" so I kind of looked at him and responded, "What thing?" He looked at me and said, "I don't know, I don't think you have one of these at Camp" (this isn't exactly accurate.. it has been a few months now :)). So I walked over and looked into the horse stall only to find a horse blanket laid out on the mud with a dozen roses and a card with my name on it. So I danced over and read the card (it said all kinds of cute things to and about me) and once I had finished I looked over at him, at which time he got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him :). I told him that of course I would! And then he kissed me all sweetly :). Then we went over and thanked Amy (who had conspired with him and set up the flowers) before we left for dinner. Best. Friday the 13th. Ever.

The only other thing that happened in November was Thanksgiving!! Paul agreed to accompany me to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Rexburg Idaho for the feast. We drove up together in Shera (its his car... Heman's woman... but we don't know how to spell it) and it was the most awesome rode trip ever! We stayed at my Aunt's house and hung out and played with cousins including around the world ping pong! It was the bomb.com until my youngest cousin got hit in the face with a paddle and broke her tooth in half... yikes! It was fun because everyone got to meet Paul knowing that we would be getting married.

December!

December was kind of stressful.. I don't remember much about it other than I didn't work much at Camp K, but I had a lot of work at Babysteals due to seasonal overload. Paul was unable to go home to Ohio so he stayed and spent the Christmas season with me and mine :). I collaborated with Paul's (and my future) parents, Scott and Linda, to get Paul his Christmas gifts wrapped and ready to go for Christmas morning. It was quite the Christmas marathon, we spent Christmas eve with my grandparents, my dad and Elisabeth, aunt Karen with Brett and a bunch of my siblings. We did Christmas games and opened gifts from my grandparents (mostly pajamas but a few other things as well). After the whole Christmas Eve Jamboree, we went back to my place and Paul opened his gifts from his family. I took pictures and it was fun knowing what he was getting when he didn't know *devilish laugh*. Then off to bed so we could meet back up for breakfast in the morning. Christmas morning was fun, we each had a stocking for the other one with fun goodies and stuff :) then we opened gifts from each other before we left for my dad's house. Paul got me Guitar Hero 5! I was so excited! I wanted to play it right then... but we had to leave :( I got Paul some awesome smelling cologniac... and Ender's Game... and some lotion for his dry hands. I felt bad because they weren't as awesome as Guitar Hero, but I liked that he smelled so nice :). We went and did Christmas morning with my dad and all my siblings (from my dad's side) and it was pretty fun. Paul got a BYU hoodie (that I insisted on wearing even though I had a long sleeve shirt and jacket already on) and we had breakfast at my dad's after all because we took too much time opening presents. Then off to Mandy's house! We did our sibling gift exchange with my mom's side of the family kids with Lexi, Ben, and Macie on Skype :). It was so much fun! We all got some fun stuff. Paul got some gift cards to Fanzz and Aeropostale (that we used later on... oh the mall) and I got a book and some really nice horse sketches. It was super fantastic, and Paul was a trooper for putting up with my family craziness.

sidenote: we also went to a super fun birthday party for my friend Lyndsey, her husband made some tasty ribs :) We played some fun games and laughed our heads off!

January!!

We spent new year's watching Angels and Demons with Amber at Paul's house, and then we flipped through several of the countdown channels. It was really fun (I was getting over being sick though) and I liked how chill and relaxed it was. So here we are still in January and I'm wrestling with partial unemployment as well as planning a wedding that is now only 2 months and a week away! It boggles the mind...

For those of you who don't know Paul... you suck, because he is an awesome person to know! Especially if you care about me at all. So here is a mini bio of the man I plan to spend eternity with:

(it won't do him justice I'm afraid) Paul was born in Utah! His growing up, however, was mostly in Arizona and Ohio... who does that? But he's still cool anyway. He is a very talented singer and has been in at least 2 choirs that I can think of... I'm sure there have been more but I am unfortunately not aware of it and he doesn't just list his accomplishments :). Paul is a BYU boy and attended before AND after his mission to North Carolina (Raleigh mission I believe). His major was in broadcasting communications and he received his degree in it in 2008 I think... I'm pretty sure he graduated the year before I did... anyway, he has an amazing broadcasting voice (when we first started dating I used to make him read things to me because I liked listening to his voice) I still love listening to his voice (in fact he is singing Incubus in the other room right now). He worked for KSL for a while doing a radio show called the Nightside Project, but by the time I met him he was (and is) working for the Steal Network as the warehouse manager. So when we first met, he had a vast knowledge of high end baby products that could put any Beverly hills new mom to shame. Should I have run away? Nah, I'm glad that I didn't. Paul is one of those people who is extremely smart, talented, and business like :) Sometimes people think he is a little too serious, but I like it. He has a good sense of when its appropriate to be serious and not. He definitely knows what he wants and he gets it (obviously). I do tease him sometimes that he is a snob, but we both know it isn't true :). The best part is, we have the same sense of humor, right and wrong, taste in music, goals and wants, and personality (pretty much). He is one of the few people that I can communicate with without using words (and all the others are girls) and I love that. Paul would do absolutely anything for me, and he loves me way more than I feel like I deserve sometimes. I guess the bottom line is... I love him! Thats really all anyone needs to know. He makes me the happiest person alive and we laugh lots together. (I knew it wouldn't do him justice)

So there you go! Probably a little too much information and I hope I didn't embarrass Paul, but like I said before, no one reads this anyway! :) Yay for my random thoughts and feelings!

Until next time, signing off!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Am I subconsciously self destructive?

I have come to the fast conclusion that yes, I am maybe subconsciously self destructive. Why is this? Well I'm just not sure... I can only tell you how I've come up with this notion at 2:00pm on a boring Wednesday. I have terribly frightening dreams. And not every now and then, they happen all of the time! I hate having bad dreams, and it is especially frustrating to tell the dream to someone else expecting them to react in a frightened manner (similar to my own upon dreaming the dream) only to realize you had to be there...

Lately (this past week) I have had a series of dreams consisting of world ending themes and life threatening situations. The first one, that I can remember, I dreamed that I was acting as a body guard for a pop star who mistakenly told hungry people that she would bring them life sustaining food to her concert if they were to attend. The impression that I had in my dream was that the food was a really really big deal to these people. It was almost as if we were at the end of the world or had suffered some sort of shortage of supplies in the United States. Anyway, she didn't follow up on her end of the bargain so the people who came started to throw rocks at her. The other bodyguard and I decided that it was our job to protect her from the rocks that people started to throw. One person in particular was trying to smash our heads in with huge boulders, and I remember yelling at her that she would be murdering us if she succeeded. She didn't seem to care, and at that point in my dream I became really frightened (the kind of frightened that comes with knowing, or thinking you know, the end is near). We decided to run into a house and barricade ourselves. It was almost like a horror movie where you aren't sure if you locked the back door no matter how hard you try to remember... I just hate dreams like that! And right before I could figure out if I really had locked the door, I woke up.

The dream I had last night probably spawns from working community based programs up at Camp Kostopolus. For the past 2 weeks, I have been helping with what we call community based programs for people with disabilities. Basically, a group of activity leaders, myself included, pick up participants in the 15 passenger vans and take them to an activity that usually lasts 2 hours. The activities are in the evening and by the time everyone gets dropped off and the leaders get back to camp, it is 11:30pm most nights (if not later). The reason I am telling you this is because before we leave we have to close the gate to the property. This is no ordinary gate, I have often referred to it as sounding like those big creatures from War of the Worlds. The noise it makes at almost midnight is earth shattering for me, especially since I am deathly afraid of the dark. I can't help but imagine that the gate is some sort of demon calling to its cohorts who are hiding and waiting in the forested areas of the Camp's property... I hate it so much!

Now that you have the background... I dreamed last night that I was running from those creatures and every time I found a place that seemed abandoned or I felt like I wouldn't be found, I would hear those creatures and have to start running for my life again. Sometimes I would find a grouping of people somewhere, but then someone would make too much noise and attract the creatures again. So it turned out that I had to run by myself and hide or be caught... creepily symbolic? I dunno... Even after I woke up really scared and then fell back asleep, I was in the same dream.

So maybe I'm not self destructive, but if anything my subconscious has a morbid sense of humor... and I don't like it one bit!!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Summer After Graduation

So I've already told you all how bad I am at this... I don't feel guilty at all for not posting in so long.
So this is what I've been up to, I got a job fresh out of college at Camp Kostopulos up Emigration Canyon. I am their new Equestrian Manager year round. I do therapeutic horseback riding for people with disabilities as well as the summer camp equestrian program. It is so much fun! I pretty much get paid to play with horses all day :). I never thought that I would like working with the population we work with, but I've found that I enjoy teaching therapeutic lessons more than any of the other lessons. So that is going really really well so far. I'm looking into becoming NARHA certified (North American Riding for the Handicapped Association) so that I can be legitimate. I would also like to do psycho therapy with horses... or what ever you would call that... equestrain psychiatry. So anyway, those are the things I'm looking forward to as far as career things go. I'm also looking to move into a duplex or house or apartment that isn't ghetto... that would be really nice. Other than that... check out facebook!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

It's been a while...

So this is what I've been up to.. growing out my hair and trying to take pictures of it :) I've also just been trying to get ready to graduate. It seems very surreal.

This is me laying on the floor... I'm not sure what I was doing at the time, but I did it since my last post :)

Curly hair! Yay.. my hair is actually considerably longer than this now and it is hard to curl. Haircut needed!!

I made this face at Amber because she was late to church that day.

These are the SUU bulls, we collected semen from them and checked scrotal circumference... yeah it was weird.

If you look in the center of the screen, you will see a massive bird crap that was on the window of my car.

This is a huge fish that was at the Shark Reef in Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas Nevada.

I tried on this dress, and really really liked it :) I wish I could have bought it for the 54 dollars.

At lake Mead, we went and fed the fish (Amber and I) because we went to Vegas for half of spring break :)

These are carp, and they have huge mouths, so we shoved bread in their mouths... scary.

I had a really amazing spring break, but I've been so busy with school lately. I'll be graduating May 2 and I can hardly wait. This has been a rough school year, but I think I'll end up surviving :)

Monday, February 9, 2009

These are the longhorns! They play ghostriders in the sky by Johnny Cash and then run them out in the arena after the wildwest show. It was neat.

We watched the Hunter Jumper class of the jumping horses.

Leechman's cattle had a bunch of different composite breeds, but I like the hereford looking ones the best.

They also did feed trials where a magnet would read the bulls ear tag and weigh how much feed it ate. Then they would weigh that bull and determine if it was able to use the feed well (feed vs. gain).

I like big bulls....

The babies were just too cute! And at first they were scared of us, but then we named them and became friends...

And that's about it! Sorry it takes so long to update my life... things are pretty boring right about now.

Denver!

It is another new semester at the beautiful SUU! At the beginning, I was able to go on a trip to Denver Colorado with the Block and Bridle club ( I am a national member). We drove to Denver on Thursday and did a bunch of stuff over the weekend, and then drove home on Martin Luther King day. These are just a few pictures of what we saw/did :) One of the first places that we visited was Royal Vista Equine Breeding Center where in this picture is their first foal of the year.

We also went to a dairy, and I thought that the milkers were way cool :) The guy didn't seem to know very much about his own dairy, but we had fun anyway. Most of us just wandered off and played with the calves in their little houses.

Of course I made friends with a dog :) His name is Jake and he was hanging out with his owner at the stock show.

This is a bull.. we think or maybe a steer, that you could pay to sit on top of! So people had their little kids sitting all over it and stuff like that. He was gorgeous.

This is my very first time touching a calf! And it sucked really hard on my fingers... very slimy, yet satisfying :) I had a lot of fun. I sort of felt bad for the poor little guys....

We had a 9 hour drive to Denver (not including stops for lunch and potty breaks) and then we hung out at the hotel. We went swimming in the hotel pool (it was a La Quinta) and we had a ton of fun playing around. Unfortunately, the water was slimy and we aren't sure if certain rashes were obtained from it... Then on Friday, we toured the Equine Breeding facility, the dairy, Leechman's cattle, we stopped by a sheep feedlot and then went to the Budweiser brewery. We got to see the Budweiser clydesdales and they gave free samples to those who were 21 (only if they wanted it :)). Then that night we went to D&B's which is pretty much an adult chucky cheeses with a bar and arcade games and stuff. Saturday was the stock show and we were on our own to do whatever while we were there. We watched the horse jumping competitions, saw the show bulls, and saw some longhorn cattle! Then we met up with the group again and saw the Wild West Show where they had trick riders, ropers, and chuck wagon races. It was a ton of fun. Then we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and had the best steak ever! Sunday we went back to the stock show (some of us went home and slept for a while) then we went to the rodeo that night. It was my first rodeo and I had a ton of fun! My favorite was the mutton busting (and if you don't know what it is, they put kids on top of sheep and see how far they can go without falling off) Kaden would have loved it! And all the kids got huge trophies that were bigger then they were. We all decided to go bowling that night and had a ton of fun, then we walked back to the hotel and rolled down hills, and jumped lamp posts... it was great fun. Monday was another long drive back to Cedar City. I had the best time! It was definitely worth it to go my senior year. I'll post a few more pictures after this for the full effect :)