Thompson Time

2011 in Review

2012-01-08T20:01:00.000-08:00

Dear Blogosphere,

This is Josh, Calley's husband. She said that I could post once in a while so I thought I might have a whack at it.

2011 was a rather eventful year for us. There was plenty of good and bad to be had. There was a lot learned and much to be celebrated.

The year started out with Calley recovering from having a pulmonary embolism - what is know in lay-man's terms as a blood clot in her lung. It had formed after having her gall bladder taken out in October of 2010. By the time January rolled around Calley was feeling pretty good, but still had to be on a medication that is called warfarin. Warfarin is something that is supposed to thin out your blood and prevent new clots from forming.

Early in the year Calley and I had also come to feel that it was time to expand our little family. Warfarin, however, had other ideas. The active ingredient in warfarin is also the main ingredient in rat poison. That doesn't bode particularly well for little developing fetuses. We were advised by doctors that now would not be an ideal time to start thinking about a baby. We took that advice and waited.

I don't remember exactly when it was, but we finally were able to say goodbye to the warfarin and entertain the thought of growing our family. Having a kid is kind of a funny thing. It was funny how much we looked online to find which pregnancy tests were the best, which ones were most cost effective, other ways you could tell if you were pregnant or not etc. It was also funny being in Wal-Mart and having to keep a sharp eye out for anyone that we might know. Heaven forbid that anybody see us with a pregnancy test in hand.

One day, before we got pregnant, I was at home and found an e-mail about plane tickets to Florida for an unbelievable deal. When Calley got home there really wasn't too much to discuss; the price was right and we weren't sure when we'd get the opportunity again so we booked a trip to Florida for August of 2011.

A few weeks later, May 6 actually, I was at work and my neighbor, Steve, who happened to be a coworker chatted me and let me know that his apartment was flooding. I called Calley and asked her to go home and check on our apartment as well. Turns out our apartment was just as flooded as was our neighbors.

I won't go into too many details about the flood, but here's a recap: Construction and faulty sewer lines near our home caused our apartment to be filled with 6-8 inches of SEWER water. Over the next several weeks promises were given to us by those responsible and by our landlord. The responsible Logan City officials and their insurance people turned out to be more full of crap than our apartment was on May 6. Our landlord also turned his back on us. We lived in a hotel for nearly two months. Afterwards we fought another couple of months to try and receive what we felt we deserved. In the end we just accepted that we weren't going to get it and that stressing out about it wasn't worth it. I previously had distrusted government before, but after being treated as terrible as we were it's much more than distrust. I have a disdain for some specific Logan City officials as well as a greater mistrust of governments in general. We also learned that money will cause others who you previously thought were your friends and allies to change and turn on you. Please don't misunderstand though - as bad as things were, I recognize that they weren't that bad. Nobody lost their life or was disabled by any of this. Nothing irreplaceable was lost. It just hurt to know that through no fault of our own we lost what was to us a substantial amount of time, money and comfort. It hurt to know that people would take further advantage of people who were already the victims because it was easiest to take advantage of them than to stand up for what is good and right.

That was the bad part of the year :) Enough of that. About a week and a half later Calley and I celebrated our first anniversary. Calley took me down to Layton where we had a lot of good food and a lot of fun. It was ironic that we had been staying in a hotel - Calley had booked a hotel for us previous to the flood.

Later that month Calley and I found out that we were finally pregnant! It was right before we were going to go to Tridell and spend the weekend with Calley's family. It was kind of fun teasing like I was going to tell people - looking at baby name apps on my iPod etc. It nearly killed me actually not being able to tell everyone.

We felt very blessed with regards to the baby when we were displaced. As I understand it, that first trimester can be rather hellish for some women. While Calley was a bit nauseated from time to time she didn't throw up even a single time. This was great since we had limited control over what food we ate (remember, we were living in a hotel :) ).

In June Calley and I made a trip up to Boise. We had found a deal for a nice looking hotel in February and thought that it might be a fun quick vacation. What Calley didn't know was that I had looked around to see when Tim McGraw might be passing through Boise that year. I got her those tickets for her birthday. I did my research and found out how to get good tickets without paying a fortune. I don't like to brag too much, but if you want to see how good the seats were take a look at this video on youtube. During one of the songs Tim actually came over and put his mic down for Calley to sing a couple words. Even though I'm not a huge country fan I have to say that he put on a pretty good show. It was also 100% worth it to see how excited Calley was to have such good seats.

After about three weeks of living in a hotel and not knowing when or if we'd ever make it back into our apartment we thought that we might start house-hunting. I think we looked at every single home for sale in our price range from Wellsville to Smithfield. We had a very patient realtor, to say the least. We made a total of six different offers on three different homes. None of them were accepted. It was pretty crushing at the time. We wanted to get out of the hotel and into a living space. In the end we decided that the best thing would be to return to the apartment. It KILLED us to do so. Were we really going to go back to the place where this aggravating thing had happened? Were we really going to go back to the landlord that made us pay rent even though we weren't living there and the insurance guy had promised him the money for lost rent? REALLY?!?!?!?!?!?!??! Yeah. . .we did. Here's a big reason why:

Even though there were multiple people and parties who we felt treated us unfairly throughout the whole flood ordeal there were even more people who were very kind to us. There were families who brought us home-cooked meals in the hotel, invited us over to their homes for dinner and just to hang out and get away from the hotel. At the end of everything there was actually someone who was leaving for a couple of weeks who let us stay in her house so we could leave the hotel. We discovered that there are people who are selfless, kind and charitable. We had seen and heard of these kinds of acts before, but there had never been occasion for others to be so generous towards us. We live in a wonderful area with LOTS of wonderful neighbors. We were happy to be able to return to them.

After two months and six days we were able to return back to our apartment. In August we were able to go on our trip to Florida that we had booked earlier in the year. We thoroughly enjoyed being there. It was a great opportunity and I'm glad that we were able to take advantage of it.

Two days after we returned from Florida I interviewed for a new position at work. The job would be pretty different from what I was then doing and I would definitely face some challenges. The long and the short of it is this; I feel very lucky and I ended up being selected for the job. I've been there since September and am enjoying it a lot. It has provided me the opportunity to learn a lot more and to expand my skills and abilities.

More importantly though, in September we had the pleasure of finding out the gender of our baby. We were super excited when we found out it was going to be a girl. Since then we've gathered more pink things than I have ever seen in my life. We still haven't settle on a name yet, even though she'll be here in less than three weeks, so please feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments :)

Since then things have been pretty smooth sailing. Every time we go to the doctor they always remark that our girl is "right on track" and "very active" and a whole bunch of other positive things. We are anticipating the time when we will finally get to hold her in our arms.

We're grateful for last year. We learned a lot of things. I think the biggest thing that I learned and had reinforced was that there is a God and He loves us. There were a lot of things that didn't go according to OUR plan, but looking back I can see that things definitely went according to HIS plan. We are anxious to see what this year brings and we'll do our best to keep everyone posted.

Have a happy and joyous new year everyone!

Have your self a Merry Little Christmas!

2011-12-17T12:48:00.000-08:00

It is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! With Christmas just around the corner I like to reflect on what Christmas has and does mean to me. As a kid I was like any normal kid and looked forward to the presents, Santa Clause, the school and family parties, all the treats, etc etc etc. You get the point.
As I got older I started to realize it is a lot more than that. I enjoyed buying presents for other people. Seeing their faces light up as they opened the present I thought long and hard about getting them. I enjoyed being around family and friends and started to appreciate them.
It wasn't really until my mission that I TRULY felt the real meaning of Christmas. I saw and felt the Christ in Christmas. I had no family, I didn't have any big presents, sometimes I even felt very alone and very homesick. But serving in the south was one of the greatest things I have ever done. People were kinder, warmer, and more generous to us missionaries, even though they didn't agree with our religion. Everyone talked of Christ, rejoiced of Christ, and shared the testimonies of Christ.
My first Christmas I had only been out two months and was still very green and didn't know a lot of people, and had to really rely on the Lord for comfort. My second Christmas I was serving in an area I loved, I had a wonderful companion, and had wonderful members and investigators at the time. My mission President asked us missionaries to instead of going tracking at night to go caroling to people. At first I was like uh.....that is weird, I don't sing, and you want just me and my companion to start singing to people. But it was one of the best experiences ever. Luckily my companion had an amazing voice and we talked the elders into going with us so it wasn't as intimidating. It was so amazing to see people's faces as they opened the door and we started singing to them. Our mission President told us to just sing, not to proselyte, or teach, or anything unless they asked but to just sing of Christ, and that is what we did. People were so open to us and so warm to us. I felt the spirit so strong while singing of Christ. This turned out to be a very humbling Christmas as well. Three days before Christmas I was transferred to a hard area with a hard companion. To make a long story short some members invited us and the elders to their home for Christmas dinner. To try to explain how they lived would be very hard. They were very POOR, and yet they invited us for the best food they had. Let's just say I was very nervous that I wasn't going to get sick from this food, but they gave us what they had. I know it meant a lot to them to have the missionaries in their home for Christmas! I have never been so humbled in my life.
I wish I could say that I still feel the spirit of Christmas like I did as a missionary but I don't. I wish I could always remember those feelings of Christ!

This Christmas has been a little different for me as well. Being eight months pregnant I can't help but think of how Mary felt being pregnant with Christ. I think of Mary and how she was chosen to have the Savior of the World, what a woman she must have been. I think of how Mary was probably scared to have a baby but knew she would be taken care of. I think of how Mary must have known just a little bit of the importance she was doing for the world!
I hope I can be the kind of mother that Mary and Christ would want me to be. Josh and I are sooo excited to be parents and can't wait to have this little girl here. It seems like I have been pregnant forever, but soon enough she will be here and our lives will change forever!!! I hope that we can teach our little girl the true meaning of Christmas!

Fall Fun!

2011-10-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year that I LOVE!!!! Okay so I don't really love that the weather gets a bit colder but....I do love the spirit of fall. The colors, the smells, the clothes, the FOOD, etc etc etc...you get the point.

Anyhow a few updates to catch you up on. A few weeks ago I had a little cousin Halloween party. It was fun, I don't really know how to entertain people but I do know how to feed them.

Last weekend my sister, Marci and her kids along with my Mom and my other sister, Diana came up to Logan to visit. It was a lot of fun. Marci gave me all her baby stuff, which we are SOOOO grateful for. It was a big baby weekend. We got tonz of baby stuff from her. While they were up here we went to the American West Heritage Center and did some fun stuff. We also went to the awesome Pumpkin Walk they have here in Cache Valley. It is one of my favorite things to go to each year. I think her kids really liked it as well.

And our car seat and stroller that we ordered came, which I think Josh is in love with. He pushes the stroller up and down the hallway. He is very excited to actually take it somewhere, I informed him we can't take it anywhere until we actually have a child in it.

Well as you can see we are getting ready for this little girl to come. I don't know if we will ever really be ready but we are trying. As for names....many of you have asked and the answer is NO we don't have a set name yet. We probably won't have a set name until we come home from the hospital so you will all have to wait and see. We are taking suggestions though......
Well til next time!!!!

What are little girls made of?

2011-09-17T20:43:00.000-07:00

Sugar and spice
and everything nice
that's what little girls are made of

Sunshine and rainbows
and ribbons for hair bows
that's what little girls are made of

Tea parties, laces
and baby doll faces
that's what little girls are made of

That's right, if you haven't guessed we are having a little girl. We had our big ultra-sound this last week. Secretly, I was a little nervous. I think I had the mom thing going on and I was scared that the baby might not be healthy or something might be wrong with it. But the ultra-sound really helped with calming those nervous. The baby is growing and is really healthy and everything is going really well.

Neither Josh or I really cared if the baby was a boy or girl, we just wanted a healthy baby and that she is. But I am really really excited for a girl now that we know. And NO we don't have a name yet and I don't think we will until we leave the hospital. It has been really fun this week though to look at all the girl stuff. I have to admit when the tech told us we were having a little girl I got just a little teary eyed, it was a really cool experience...and I haven't even had her yet.

Here she is!!!! We can't wait for her to be here, although we will wait. Her due date is January 30th but pretty sure she will come before that. Because of the heprin medicine I am on I have to be induced so I think the doctor will start me before that.

Other exciting news is Josh got a raise/promotion/new position at work. His work is starting a new department and he is heading it up. He is now the Energize Manager. It will be a lot of work and stress for a little bit but should be really really good in the long run...at least we hope. He interviewed and worked really hard for this new position and personally I believe he deserved it more than anyone, but I am a little biased ;) We are excited for it and it will really help for when I stop working come January.

Work and been good for me. After School started two weeks ago and we had to train around 100 staff so that was a lot of work but hopefully it will be worth it. I also had to hire about 15 new people, so that was a lot of work as well but good. It keeps me busy. When I have nothing to do at work that is when I get really bored and am really happy I am quitting. I am excited to be able to stay at home when we have the baby.

Anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE this time of year. I LOVE the fall colors, fall smells, fall weather, fall decorations, fall everything!!!! I love Halloween too....Josh and I have been looking for over a month of what we should dress up as.

This first picture was Halloween 2009, we were Sonny and Cher. Yes I still married him after seeing him dressed as a woman....

This was Halloween 2010, yep you guessed it Bam Bam and Pebbles. Just so you know this was like a week after I got out of the hospital last year with my blood clot and gallbladder.

So we need a killer costume for this year!!! If you have any idea's pass them along!!!

The closer Halloween gets the more excited I get. I am just like a kid....sad. I think I will even be more excited next year for when we have our little girl.
Anyhow, thanks for reading!!!! Til next time!

What does it mean to be a Survivor?

2011-08-02T21:34:00.000-07:00

This is the question that has come to my mind lately. You ask why? Well....from my last post LOTS has happened. I feel like since May we have just barley been surviving! But things are finally looking up for us!
Around four weeks ago Josh and I were finally able to move back into our apartment. The flood happened May 6th and we moved back into our apartment on July 8th! I pretty much told our landlord and the ARS cleaning guys we were moving in that week and they darn well better have our apartment finished.....well the kind of did. There were things not quite done but hey we were able to sleep in our own bed.
Much happened in those two months of our homelessness. We lived in a hotel, gained 10 pounds each from eating out so much, got to know many ward members from all of their generosity, and realized you really can live with none of your stuff. We spent our first year anniversary and both our birthday's as a homeless couple. We did however have a fun trip to Boise. We had dinner with our good friends Bob and Amber. Then we were off to get up close and personal with Tim McGraw at his concert.
The big news we found out in May while living in a hotel was we are pregnant. We are REALLY excited and can't wait until our little baby Thompson is born in January. Many of you are probably wondering why we went back to the apartment because we were trying to buy a house...well we put three different offers on three different houses but none of them were accepted at the offer we wanted and finalized. But this turned out to be a blessing in the long run. We want to save a little more money before buying a house especially with a baby on the way.

So back to my question, what does it mean to be a survivor? Well you won't believe this but this plant survived being stuffed in a box with stuff on top of it for two months. Our lovely Alpine guys that packed our apartment after the flood stuffed the plant in a box and stored it in their warehouse for two months. It survived having no light and no water. I was amazed. I pulled it out of the box and it was REALLY sad looking. I just about threw it away but Josh talked me into trying to save it. Well here it is and it is surviving. If this plant could survive this flood with no water or light I figured I have nothing to complain about.

Something I have debated about sharing and telling people is about a blood disorder my OB figured out I have. It isn't anything big I just don't like to flaunt my problems. But some people have asked and are wondering. So...when I will try to make a long story short. When I went to my first doctor appointment I told him back in November last year after my gallbladder surgery I got a PE (blood clot in the lung). He was concerned and did tonz of blood work. They took 8 tubes of blood. Well he tested me for a genetic disorder called Factor V Leiden and I was positive. Pretty much it means my blood clots more than most people's. Hence why after surgery I got a blood clot. Well being pregnant and all your blood clots a lot more so I am at a higher risk. So you ask what does this mean, well for the next 6-7 months while being pregnant and a little bit after I(Josh) gets to shot me with a medicine called Heprin twice a day in the stomach. It's not a big deal but I am learning from my little bonzi tree to be a survivor and not complain.
Other than the shots I think I have been really really lucky with my pregnancy. The first 8-9 weeks I did get a little nauseous and didn't have much of an appetite at all but I didn't throw up once. The last 3-4 weeks has been much better. I can actually eat food. The only other weird thing is I broke out in a BAD rash. Went to the doctor and they pretty much said yep you have a rash, use this cream and see if it helps. I went through three tubes of anti-itch cream two days. It was awful.

I think it is finally going away, but at night I have itching attacks and leg cramps. I know many of you that have had kids are just laughing at me and saying oh it will only get better...well I know, but make my rash go away, I can deal with being sick. hehe
Other fun news is in two weeks Josh and I are going to Florida. We are really really excited and our counting down the days! We figure this will be our last big vacation together before we start having kids, so we are excited!
Well I think that is enough details for one night, till next time!

The Flood of 2011 part 1

2011-05-13T16:12:00.000-07:00

The flood of 2011 that is what Josh and I are calling it. This will probably be one of many blogs that I will write about of our fun adventures of wading through poop. We just wanted to give everyone a little update of what is really going on.
Well.....it all started a week ago from today. I get a call from Josh saying that our neighbor told him that their apartment was having water come up through a drain in the utility closet and that I should go check and see if ours is okay. So it is about 3:30 on a Friday and my first thought was sure I will leave work early. Then....I started thinking about it more. What if there is water all over the place, nah I thought it won't be that bad. Well little did I know. Two hours later there was 6 inches of sewer water filling our entire apartment as we are frantically moving stuff out of our apartment.
Well here we are a week later living in a hotel. Not really sure when we will be able to move back into our apartment because they have re-do the entire thing, or if we should move to a new apartment. Eating out for a month may sound like a good thing but believe me after just a week I am thinking I better stop eating all together or I might weigh 300 lbs when this is all over.
There is much more to the story but like I said this is only part one!
Til next time.....pray for us to win a million dollars!

As of Late!

2011-03-12T21:21:00.000-08:00

Well it has been a little while just thought I would share a few things that I have been doing. Megan and I took a cake decorating class in February. It was very basic but it was fun and something I have always wanted to do. I hope to be able to take another one soon, but my schedule doesn't fit with when the classes are for this month. Mostly we just learned the different things you can do to decorate with frosting. Here are some pictures of my work....like I said it was a beginner class and I am still learning. I was not that good. But hopefully I get better.

Sugar cookies...learning how to use the different tips for decorating.

Chocolate Strawberry cake with chocolate pudding filling.

Coconut cupcakes with butter cream frosting.

Chocolate and vanilla cake with strawberry filling with a chocolate butter cream frosting.

I can't brag on the decorating but I can brag on how GOOD they tasted. Hopefully with practice I get better. The next class I want to take is the fondant cake class.
After I master cake decorating my next goal is to learn floral arranging and photography. We will see though it may take me years!
Thought I would add a few more pictures. Josh and I had a country date night a few weeks back. We found some amazing things at the local Cal-Ranch.

It is amazing what things you can find on clearance.
Well till next time....

Good Times!

2011-01-26T19:41:00.000-08:00

Well I am sure many of you are tired of looking at my last post which was before Christmas, so I thought I would update. I think I will go backwards and start from the most recent and work backwards to Christmas.
This past weekend was a fun weekend. My nephew was getting baptized so Josh and I decided we would go out to Tridell for that. We took Friday off of work and headed south with Megan.
Well Josh saw a liquidation sale that was going on in Ogden and wanted to stop by it. It actually was really funny. It was all knock off merchandise and over priced and lets just say it was in Ogden for the Ogden people. We were very disappointed. Megan and I remembered there was a REAL nickel arcade in Ogden and we thought that might lift our spirits.
Well....did it EVER!!!!
Before we knew it 2 hours had passed by. I think we spent about $10.00 in nickels, which equals A LOT of games because each game only cost 2-4 nickels. It was sooo AWESOME! One of my new favorite places in Ogden.

This is awesome, I know, you are all jealous!!!!

This was the coolest horse racing game!

Megan and Josh playing a soccer game.

After the arcade we went to Roosevelt and watched my little sister Diana's basketball game. She is getting better and better every year. It was fun to watch her play especially against Union.
The next day was the baptism and we just hung out with family. It was a good weekend.

Last weekend Josh took me ice skating.....sorry no pictures. Trust me they would have been terrible. I have not been skating since I was in high school and I have only been ice skating a few times in my whole life...so just imagine THAT!!!! But I will have you know we didn't fall at all. We also had free lunch thanks to the radio station again. And we went and saw True Grit. We watched the original a few weeks before so we were interested in how the new one was. It was good but still liked the John Wayne one better.

As for New Years...we had a fun one. We invited some friends over and had dinner and played games. It was fun. I will admit it was my first New Years to watch the count down, drink sparkling cider, and then have someone to kiss. It was fun!

Christmas was really good. Short but good. We spent it down in St. George with Josh's family. They are such a fun family. We just hung out, ate lots of good food, and played games. Although it was very different from my family. The whole time I was thinking where is everyone? Why is it so quite? Why aren't there children running around? Josh's family Christmas consisted of us, his parents and his two sisters. My families Christmas consisted of my parents, all 9 of my siblings, four in-laws, and nine children under the age of 8. Hence why I was feeling it was so quite and calm. Good times though.

Josh's cute family!

He is very excited to open presents.

We love hoops and yo-yo.

I got Josh a puppy for Christmas. (This is the only kind of puppy we will ever have.)

Josh's Aunt gave us these awesome burrito Jazz t-shirts. (They are the one's that fall from the ceiling during games.)

We walked down to the river in St. George that was flooding right before Christmas, this is what we found. Kind of crazy!
Well to sum it up we have had some fun/good times lately. Life is treating us well! Til next time!

Tis the Season!

2010-12-19T20:05:00.000-08:00

The count down to Christmas has officially began and the day is soon to be here. I love this time of year. I love how the earth literally changes. Everything turns white and pure. I love how people are so busy going and doing and yet life seems to slow down and really mean something if you let it. I love how people DO for others. I love the Christmas spirit.

It has been a little while since I have updated the blog. So I will try to catch you up. Josh and I went to Tridell for Thanksgiving. I was excited to spend some time with the family. Marci and Andrew were planning on going to Idaho but because of the BIG storm they didn't go. Which I will be honest, secretly I was happy. I love spending time with them, especially those girls, they make me laugh so much. Here are a few pictures of the fun times we had together making silly faces.

This next picture is of Josh, Diana, and Craig. Sometimes I tease Josh too much. This is one of those times. Lets just say this position of Josh's arm is a regular thing he does ALL the time. The first time I thought it was super weird, but I have gotten use to it. I just think he doesn't know what to do with TWO arms so he puts one on his head, don't ask why....

It is pretty funny though!!!

Another adventure that Josh did was to attempt to eat a GIANT pizza. Sadly they were unsuccessful, but they came soooo close. Him and another guy from his work had to eat this whole pizza in one hour. If they did they would each get a free pizza every week for a year. I think they could have done it if they would have had more time. But lets just say the pizza made its mark...hehehe

Josh and I have had some fun times. We made a count down chain to Christmas right before Thanksgiving. For each day we wrote something on that day we could do together. One day was to play Jenga.

We think we are pretty much Jenga champions!!!

Another thing I wanted to do was to see Christmas lights. Last year we went down to Salt Lake to Temple Square, so we wanted to do something different. Well I remember a few years ago I went to the Christmas Village in Ogden with Marci and Andrew, so I thought that might be fun. We went down early and walked around Ogden had dinner with Melissa, Josh's sister, and then went to the Christmas Village. I think we were the only people there with out children, but it was still fun.

This is us at the Christmas Village.

We are excited for Christmas. We are going down to St. George to visit Josh's family. It will be a quick little trip, we are leaving Friday afternoon and coming back Sunday, but it will be fun. I am excited for a little warmer weather.

Mostly I am excited because this time of year is so amazing. I am so grateful for what this past year has brought to my life. I am so happy I was able to be married in the Temple to the most amazing man. I am so grateful for our Saviour and the gospel. I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father and his patience he has with me. I am thankful for the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

As of Late...

2010-11-13T19:53:00.000-08:00

As of late so much has happened, I don't even know where to begin. Let me start with back in September. Josh, Melissa(Josh's sister), Megan, and myself went to the Brad Paisley and Darius Rucker concert at USANA. It was a fun concert and I really like Brad and Darius but I realized that night that I am getting old. There were soooo many drunk people and I really really really hate the smell of beer. But it was still fun.

The yellow blanket in the background was a very very drunk lady that almost spilled her bear on us like 20 times, GROSS!

Well October came, and I love the month of October. I love the smells, I love the changing weather, I love the leaves, I love wearing sweaters, and I love Halloween. I love the feeling the FALL brings.
Josh's brother Jacob was having his farewell for his mission October 17th so we decided to make a little vacation out of it. Josh had never been to Arches and we have a National Park Pass so we decided to drive down to Green River and stay in a hotel Thursday night and then spend Friday in Arches. Then we would drive over to St. George and spend the rest of the weekend with Josh's family. Well...lets just say things didn't go exactly as planned. I kind of hurt my knee and it swelled up and I could hardly even walk on it. So I limped around Arches.

When we got to Josh's house I felt like an idiot because I couldn't walk normal. But I was trying to act normal. Well then Saturday night comes and I have a major MAJOR gallbladder attack. I won't give details but it was a long night and I felt like an even bigger idiot. Let me explain why I felt so stupid. Every time I go to Josh's house I get sick, not just a little sick, but really sick. I think his family thinks I am some sickly girl. Well the next morning I was feeling a little better so we went to church. We decided to come back to Logan and I think both Josh and I thought we were going to end up in some hospital between St. George and Logan. Well we did make it back to Logan and I wanted to just wait until the morning to go to the hospital but lets just say things got pretty bad and I finally let Josh take me to the ER.
I just realized this blog is turning into a novel. So let me try to sum things up a little faster.
I went to the ER, and had the gallbladder surgery on Monday. Got home from the hospital Tuesday. The second counselor in our Bishopric came over on Wednesday and called me to be the second counselor in the Relief Society. Which is a whole other long story. Lets just say I was very shocked and a little sad to leave primary. But it has been good.
Well Friday I was still having lots of pain. Back in the ER Friday. They found a bile leak and yep a blood clot in my lung. Stayed in the hospital until Sunday and begged the doctor to let me go home. Well to sum it up. I have to be on some medicine called Coumadin for at least three months to prevent future blood clots. I was pretty sick for a few weeks. I couldn't lay down at all. It would cause SOOOO much pain so I had to sleep sitting up, which is not comfortable. I was on pain killers for like 3 weeks. And there were some other not so fun things. But with all this said Josh and I managed to put together some Halloween costumes for our ward Halloween party.

So after almost a month after the surgery I am doing lots better. I still am on the medicine and have to go get my blood levels checked once a week, but I feel sooo much better than I did even a week and a half ago.
With all of this....I really realized how blessed I am. I have an AMAZING husband that took such good care of me. I have a very caring family. My ward was fabulous at bringing us food. It was a little hard at times, but I really realized how much my Heavenly Father really is aware of me and my life. I am so grateful for the gospel and my testimony.

Dear Blog

2010-09-12T20:51:00.001-07:00

SO. . .My wife invited me to blog on here a long long time ago. I'm not sure what the expectations were, but I'm on now and thought that I would write a few things. Calley doesn't know I'm writing so I suppose this will be a surprise for her too :)

I've actually blogged a little bit in the past, albeit infrequent and rather odd. . .(please see http://themustelidae.blogspot.com/ for a reference.) I don't plan on trying to keep things as normal as possible. Calley is always reminding me how weird I am, to which I remind her that she married me.

Life has been really great with Calley. Though we've only been married four months, we've passed the year mark of being together. I can't imagine life without her. She loves me like I never thought anybody could love me. It is so wonderful to be able to wake up in the morning next to the one you love.

Calley puts up with my weirdness. I think that she actually kind of likes it, so I just keep getting weirder and weirder. In fact, just today Calley has had to deal with me wondering how many AA batteries it would take to run our bodies for a day, and my brilliant idea of giving people meatloaf (if you live in Logan, and I can work my magic, be on the look out for a mini-meatloaf headed your way around Christmastime).

As you may know from Calley's most recent post, please see below if you haven't read it, we headed out to Tridell this past weekend. It is a magical land. Calley's family is really something else too. I really love them. I came to realize that this past weekend. I'm extremely lucky to have them as inlaws. I'm sure some of you have horror stories, or at least have heard horror stories about bad inlaws. Mine are great. I really feel like I've joined their family and have just extended my family. Before I was married I wasn't an uncle, but now I'm the uncle of nine. . .I think nine. That's fun too. A lot of Saturday was an "Uncle Test."

Anyway, I've probably wasted a lot more of Calley's blog space than she ever intended me to take up. She might have to delete me from the blog if I reveal too many secrets. I'll just have to come in occasionally as a guest or something. Maybe I'll just make comments on her blog posts instead of actually blogging. So. . .this last paragraph is just a whole bunch of mumbo jumbo of me trying to finish my blog post. Amen.

Blogging

2010-09-12T16:47:00.000-07:00

I really am such a terrible blogger. What makes it even worse is I love reading other people's blogs and check them every week and I am a little disappointed if they don't have a new blog. I am lucky if I blog once a month. But I don't even really know who reads this anyways so I guess it doesn't even matter.
As for life...life is good. We have had a little bump this last week. I was SUPPOSE to have my gallbladder surgery on Friday (which I actually was looking forward too). I wanted to surgery so I could feel better. Well Wednesday afternoon I get a call from the doctor's office saying our insurance won't cover the surgery because it is considered pre-existing. Well after many phone calls trying to get this figured out we decided to cancel the surgery. The good part I guess is the insurance said they will cover it come January so I can have the surgery then. So for the next four months I just have to watch what I eat really well and make sure I don't eat the things that make me sick. So that is where we are at with that.
On to other things...
Josh and I were called to teach the 4-5 year olds in primary about a month ago. It has been so much fun. We were happy to get a calling in the ward. The first little while in the ward it was weird to just "GO" to church, we had no responsibilities. For both of us in our single wards we had callings that kept us busy, so to just go to church and that was all was a little weird. But any how these kids are sooo fun and so cute. There are 10 of them and they are all full of energy. They are all really good kids but the hardest part is trying to actually get through a lesson without hearing ten stories of how once their cat got stuck in a tree or how once their little sister's toy was lost or once they went fishing or how they can ride their bike with no training wheels, etc...etc....etc.....! It is sooo funny to hear some of their stories. I was also called two weeks ago to be the achievement day leader, I am not totally sure what that entails, but I am excited!
Josh and I went to Tridell last week. It was fun. We hadn't been out to see my family since April so it was nice to spend time with them. The whole family was home and there wasn't even any drama. We went up to Whiterocks Canyon and had lunch and took a hike through the river and woods with about 15 adults and 5 small children, it was an adventure. Since it was Labor Day weekend we went to Talmage to visit Josh's Grandparents on Monday. They are such fun people. We went shooting and had lunch and then had to head back to Logan but it was fun to spend time with them!
Josh and I heard about a co-op group called Bountiful Basket. Many of you probably know what it is but we are loving that. We get a ton of fruit and veggies for $16 dollars every week. The best part is we just have to go down the road pick it up and we have fresh fruit and veggies for weeks. My opinion I think Bountiful Basket will be my garden for the rest of my life...hehehe
So I can't think of much more we have been doing. Just work and life keeps us busy but we love it! People always ask me how married life is and I always respond great. Being married really has been pretty easy for Josh and I thus far, I know hard times will come but it really has been so good for us!
Well I could say I will be better at blogging but I don't want to lie so I will blog when I blog. Till next time!

The Happenings of Late!

2010-08-19T02:27:00.001-07:00

Well thought I would give a little update on our life.
A few weeks back Josh and I decided to go to Jackson Hole and the Tetons. Mostly because we like camping and wanted to do something fun and also my sister Megan is working up there this summer so we thought we would visit her.
So many of you may now but I have this weird thing about watching terrifying shows about bear attacks. So I was a little worried about us camping three nights in bear country. But Josh reassured me nothing would happen. He made me promise not to look anything up about bears a week before we left.
So off we were on a Thursday morning. This was Josh and I's first real vacation and camping trip together (honeymoon doesn't count I think). So of course I started packing and loading the car the night before. I think Josh then realized that camping with a girl is much different than camping with his buddies. Now I am not some girly girl that needs everything, just the basics like tent, sleeping bag, air mattress, lots of food and all the equipment to cook the food, then all the stuff to clean up the food, you know nothing big, but still the poor guy looked at the packed full car and didn't know what he got himself into.

So anyhow. . . off we were. We had a good. The first day we stayed at a campground that was surrounded by buffalo. Of course Josh and I discussed what would make buffalo stampede. The second day Megan came up and we went to Jenny Lake and hiked up to some waterfalls. My family and I did this last year and I wanted to do it again with Josh. The third day we decided to go to Yellowstone. Josh had never been and I think he really wanted to say he has been to Yellowstone before. We didn't have a lot of time though because we wanted to be back in Jackson that night for the rodeo. So we decided to go to Old Faithful. We'll lets just say Old Faithful was not so Faithful. We waited over two hours for the darn thing. Not to mention in the middle of our waiting there was a huge burst of RAIN!!!! But no worries Josh and I were not leaving before we saw it. I don't know who is more stubborn about things like that me or him. The only thing that really kept us from not going crazy from waiting was the old southern woman from Texas that was seating behind us that made me laugh so hard.

Anyhow we did see Old Faithful! Then off we were to Jackson to the rodeo. Oh don't worry right before the rodeo started that huge rain storm decided to visit us again. But Josh and I were determined to wait it out. We weren't about to leave a rodeo that hadn't even started that we just paid $26.00 dollars for, no sir wee! So in the rain we were. It did clear up eventually.

The next day we went to a ward in Jackson then I think we were both so tired we decided to just come home. The best part was Josh's cooking, he is one great cook!!! It was a good little vacation and it was fun to see Megan. And no worries we didn't get eaten by bears but there was a bear attack that killed a man in the Tetons just one day before we got there, that was real comforting to know.

Other happenings are, Josh and I were called to teach the 4-5 year olds in Primary. We are both excited to have a calling. I am excited to be in Primary I feel like I fit in best with children, something about I relate to them more I think. It is fun to see Josh with the kids too. This Saturday is our first Primary Activity should be FUN!!!

This last Saturday Josh's work had a work party and paid for everyone to go to Lagoon. Let me just say when I found out I wasn't too excited. Now I know many of you are going to hate me for this but I don't enjoy rides. Let me explain, I wish I did I really do, but I just don't. One I get sick, two I don't like heights, three I don't like heights and being jostled around in some cart. I did however tell Josh I would go on ground level rides with him and one other scary ride, but I got to choose it. So when we got there the very first ride we saw was the Jet Star, I calculated the height and speed of the ride and decided that was the ONE ride I would go on, and I did. I think that was like my third time ever being on a roller coaster. It was a fun day though, I actually did enjoy myself. We are friends with a bunch of people Josh work with and some of the girls didn't want to go on some rides either so I was able to chat with them. We ended the day with a bang....we went to Smith and Edwards, I had never been and have always wanted to. It is a great store!

Other fun things are we went to our ward camp out. Spent some time with Josh's family a few weeks back in Salt Lake. In July went to the McKee family reunion at Bear Lake, that was fun!

Well many of you may see that I am posting this at 4 in the morning. That is because the last month or so I have been having real bad gallbladder problems. At least that is what we think it is. I have intense pain in my stomach and back. It has been real bad the last few weeks. No worries though. I am going to see the doctor tomorrow, hopefully they can figure something out.

Life has been real good!

p.s. Did I mention we saw a giant pig at the fair/rodeo? We have a couple video's I tried uploading but for some reason they didn't work, I will have Josh figure it out then post them

Married Life

2010-07-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

Okay I know many of you have really given up on me and blogging, well I am here once again. It has been over two months, but I think there are only like four people that actually read my blog anyways so I figured it is not a big deal.
So you all know Josh and I got married in May. It was such a wonderful day. I couldn't have asked for a better one. It was so great to have friends and family come to the wedding and reception.
We spent our honeymoon in San Diego. It was so much fun. We did drive or should I say Josh drove the entire time while I slept. While in San Diego we went to a baseball game, spent some time in Old Town, went to the Zoo, Sea World (where yes we did get sun burned), we also went to the Wild Animal Kingdom. We did go to the beach one day. The water was a little cold but it was nice to spend time on the beach, this was after we went to the San Diego Temple. And of course we ate a lot of really good food. We had an awesome hotel right on the beach. It was fun to just spend time with Josh away from work and other people and distractions. I really enjoyed the baseball game. It was the first time I had actually been to a real big time baseball game.

Speaking of baseball...Josh's birthday was June 30th and the weekend before I got him tickets to a Bee's game. We spent the day down in Salt Lake, went to the West Jordan Temple, visited my friend Shelley, and had lunch at the Olive Garden. It was a good weekend overall, but my I suggest that every marriage should come with a GPS for getting around in places you don't know it makes life a lot happier.
Recently we moved into a new apartment. We did this because when we got married Josh just moved into my apartment that I was in with Karalee and Amber. They moved out and he moved in. Well our contract was up and Josh and I wanted something different. We found a great little apartment on the south west side of town that is cheaper and much MUCH cooler than our other place. Our new ward seems great. It is kind of an adjustment for me to be in a family ward. Not counting my mission I haven't been in a family ward for a little over 9 years. I really liked singles wards, but this ward does seem like a good one.
Last week we spent some time at the McKee Family Reunion at Bear Lake it was lots of fun to spend some time on the lake with family. Josh showed the nieces and nephews our cool turtle kite.

Anyhow, that is a quick update. I'll try to be a better blogger, no promises though.

2010-05-09T00:13:00.000-07:00

Life's Travels

2010-05-08T22:53:00.000-07:00

Here I am one week to the day before Josh I are to be married. How life brings such surprises! I can't wait for the new adventure's and changes my life is about to take. If someone would have told me a year ago that I would have been married in a year I would have laughed. But I am sooo happy I am! I know....if you are reading this you are shacking your head and either one - remembering when you were about to be married and how wonderful it was or how naive I am or two you are gaging at how in love I am and how I am rambling on about how great my life is.
Well I have really been thinking a lot lately about life and the different things we go through. If it be graduating from high school or college, getting married, playing the single social card and the different trials, tribulations, problems, or whatever we may call them that we go through. As I have thought about this I really have come to the conclusion that life really is what we make it! Sure we may have family, money, personal problems we may even get in a car accident and lose a leg, I am not saying it is easy but I am saying we either bury ourselves with the problems or we can fight through the dirt and rise and shine with the sunlight and be our best. As we shine we can't but help get a little "light" on other people. That is what this life is all about! So I may be a little optimistic tonight and that may be due to that I just watched the Pursuit of Happyness, but that is how it is and that is how I feel.
So other life travels brings me to share my trip to D.C.
In April I had the opportunity to go to D.C. for a work conference. It was the National Association for After School Programs. Yes many of you are thinking they have that stuff of after school programs, well yes they do. After School Programming is a huge thing!
Anyhow. I was able to go with Tara from work which made it even ten times more fun. Pretty much Monday - Wednesday we were in conferences and such. Tuesday we went to Capitol hill and meet with the senators and reps from Utah. We were also part of a rally. It was all a really good experience for me. We had some fun adventures on the metro, bus, and taxi trying to get back to our hotel. Speaking of our hotel we stayed at the Gaylord National Resort where the conference was being held. It was a fancy hotel, it was nice and all but soooo expensive, and no perks for free like at the cheap hotels. I would totally rather stay at a cheaper hotel just for the continental breakfast. So overall the conference was good. The trip was planned back in October before I was real serious with Josh. I didn't realize how hard it would be to leave him.
So after the conference I was able to stay an extra four days and hang out with Erin and Taci. It was really fun to see the both of them. Friday they both had to work so I didn't have anything to do so I decided to go to the Washington D.C. temple. It was so amazing and so wonderful to be able to spend a whole day in the temple. I didn't have to hurry, didn't have anyone else with me waiting on me or anything, it was so great! It is such a beautiful temple.
So Saturday Taci and I wanted to do something different. We both have been to the down town and seen all the monuments and such. So we decided to go to Gettysburg. It was so amazing! I loved it! We spent all day there. We first went to the museum and a movie then we drove around with an auto car tour, which was great! It is amazing how for being such a place where terrible fighting and war went on it is such a peaceful and beautiful place. Then on Sunday I flew back to Utah, it was a good vacation/conference, but I was sooo ready to be home and to be back with Josh.
The next of life's travels will be me telling you how I am married and reporting back about our honeymoon to San Diego. Til' then!

Being Engaged!!!

2010-03-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

Yes...believe it I am posting something!
Thought I would post a few of our engagement pictures.
Life is good, busy but good!

I got to thinking the other day...Josh and I have had a pretty easy dating experience with each other...meaning not a lot of drama. It has been FUN dating Josh. Being engaged is even 10 times better than dating. So it got me to thinking how great being married is going to be. Don't get me wrong I am not stupid I know marriage is hard but I also think dating and being engaged has been great so marriage can only get better!!!

As for the wedding plans everyone keeps asking about. They are going great. Josh and I are both planners so we really do have most of the stuff done. Of course there are still a bunch of little things but for the most part we have a lot already planned.

Some of you may know that I am going to D.C. in April for a work conference. Back in October when this was planned I was way excited...now don't get me wrong I am still excited and I do think it will be good to be gone a week because it will help the time pass before the wedding. But I must admit it is going to be hard to be away right before the wedding for a whole week. Josh and I essentially have seen each other and spent time together every single day since probably the end of October, so it will be a little weird to be away from him for a week. But I am sure I will live...hahhaa!

Anyhow just some random thoughts for you.
Take care!! Till next time!!!

Crazy in LOVE

2010-03-08T23:10:00.000-08:00

Well, the word is and has been out for a few weeks now, but if anyone by some chance did not know...I am officially engaged to be married May 15th in the Logan Temple to the most amazing person ever!
LOVE is a funny thing! Everyday I am amazed at how two people can fall in love with each other, but it really does happen!
I wish I had more time to write more but my life is to busy and crazy for blogging right now. One of these days I will have a little more time to write some actual meaningful things.
Til'then...peace love and chicken grease!

Welcome 2010

2010-01-18T23:52:00.000-08:00

Oh my I don't have time to write everything I want to but I was sick of my Christmas reindeer on my blog as I am sure as were you!!!
So I wanted to get a new background. Which I love this new background because it is purple. Many of you may not know but when I was a small child (or even when I was a large child) my favorite color was always purple. For some reason my mom always dressed me in purple and Shasta in pink. Actually I do know why, she told me it was because of my red hair, I didn't look good in pink as a child, therefore I was always in purple and Shasta always in pink. So you can say as a child my signature color was purple. As I got older my signature color changed to green. I do love GREEN!! However, I am really happy the color purple is coming back into style, I LOVE it!!!

So that is my tid bit on colors. . . who knew!
Just one quick funny story. The other day I was at Smiths getting some stuff for work and as I was walking out to my car I was looking down at my receipt to make sure they got it right and I was walking to my car. I opened the door almost sat down when I realized there was a dog on the seat growling at me. To my disgust and shock I realized I was getting into someone else's car not mine!!!! Well of course I had to look around to make sure no one saw me especially the owner of the car. . . I think I was as horrified by the dog as the dog was by me. It was really funny, I laughed all day about it. And now I hope you do!
Stay tuned hopefully more to come soon, if I find the time!!!

Tis the Season!

2009-12-07T19:56:00.000-08:00

The Holiday season is upon us. Oh how I love this time of year, Christmas is an amazing time of year! Despite the cold and snow people seem to be kinder, love more, and serve one another more often. I could go on forever about Christmas but I will save that for another blog moment. I just wanted to add a little something about Thanksgiving and put up a few pictures.
Thanksgiving was great!!!
The Wednesday right before Thanksgiving thanks to Josh winning some tickets off of the radio he and I went to the Tran Siberian Orchestra Concert. It was awesome! They are amazing and had a great performance.
Thursday I ate way too much food, played with the nieces and nephews, had a great nap, played a little guitar hero, and saw Josh. It was a great day!
Friday we went up to the mountain to get a tree, it was a little mediocre this year. . . there was no snow for sledding. :(
Saturday Josh and I went to Salt Lake spent some time with his family then went to see the lights on Temple Square. I haven't been to see the lights in a LONG time, they are sooo beautiful and it was fun to see them with Josh.
Overall Thanksgiving was great!!! There wasn't even any drama to report. So here are just a few pictures from the weekend.

Friday the 13th

2009-11-13T16:55:00.000-08:00

So as I was sitting at work today looking at my calendar and I realized today was Friday the 13th!!!! What does this really mean? I then left work early and was just a little curious of why so many people make a big deal about Friday the 13th so here are a few facts:
Superstitions about Friday being lucky or unlucky day have existed since ancient times.
The number 13 has been considered unlucky for a long time. Early Romans thought 13 was a sign of death and destruction.
In French Lick Springs, Indiana, a law was once passed requiring all black cats to wear bells.
Greek philosophers called 13 an 'imperfect' number.
Friday was the common day for people to be hanged in the past.
Hangmen were once paid thirteen pence halfpenny.
Some Texans say never to cut any kind of garment on a Friday because it will not be completed.
Fear of Friday the 13th — one of the most popular myths in science — is called paraskavedekatriaphobia as well as friggatriskaidekaphobia. Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13.
Many hospitals have no room 13, while some tall buildings skip the 13th floor and some airline terminals omit Gate 13.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13.
Mark Twain once was the 13th guest at a dinner party. A friend warned him not to go. "It was bad luck," Twain later told the friend. "They only had food for 12." Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest.
The number 13 suffers from its position after 12, according to numerologists who consider the latter to be a complete number — 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, 12 days of Christmas and 12 eggs in a dozen.

So I think my new favorite number is 12!!!! What do you think? Yes I know this is all very random, but that is me!

If Friday the 13th isn't scary enough here is a picture of Josh and I at Halloween, we were Sonny and Cher, but he was Cher and I was Sonny if you couldn't tell. . . it was really funny! We may have scared a few people, including myself!

Update!!!

2009-10-28T23:03:00.000-07:00

How am I doing? Well since you asked I will tell you. . . j/k, but really many of you have been asking how I am doing since my little hospital visit and I am doing much much better. I have a doctor's appointment next week to see if I will have to have my gall-bladder out, but they said that most likely I WON"T, which would be great! I have been a regular visitor on Monday's to the blood bank. It's funny how I use to HATE needles and having my blood drawn, but not so much anymore!

Well to prove that I am doing much better I thought I would add a few picture's of my life the last few weeks!!!

Josh and I at the first USU game of the year, I also must add the first USU game that either one of us had been to where they actually won!!

Pumpkin carving is always a must!!!

I went with Josh to his FHE murder mystery party it was a lot of fun!

So as you can see I am feeling better, at least well enough to hang out with a cute boy!
I love this time of year, I know lots of people don't because it starts to get cold and all but I love the change.
Some of my favorite things about fall:
-The leaves on the trees start to change colors, (so beautiful in Logan).
-Once the leaves fall, one of my all time favorite things is to step on crunchy leaves. I can't really explain why it brings me such joy, but it does!
-I love jumping in huge piles of leaves, just seeing big piles of leaves in people's yards brings a smile to my face.
-I love the cooler air because that means I can start wearing sweaters, I love sweater weather.
-I absolutely love hot chocolate!!!!
-Many of you may be shocked to hear this but I really do love this time of year because all the good sports start. Such as the JAZZ!!!! Also, I recently have watched some baseball, I will admit I am becoming a fan.
Well there are many many more wonderful things that happen this time of year, also there are many many more wonderful things happening in my life, but these are just a few of the highlights. Stay tuned there is always more to come! :)

My life in a nutshell!!

2009-10-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

Okay well here I am!!!
I know many of you are amazed that I am actually updating my blog! I wish I could say it was because it is on the top of my priorities list, well it's really not. But I have a little extra time on my hands because of a certain illness that hit me so I thought I would give a little update. Plus I know many of you have questions of why I was in the hospital for 5 days so here is the run down.
Conference weekend I went down to St. George with Josh on Sunday when we were coming back I started not feeling well at all. Monday I went to work, still didn't feel fabulous but I was okay. Tuesday I got worse, couldn't even get out of bed. I draged myself out of bed went to work for 30 minutes and couldn't even stand. I had a really high fever, the chills, headache, my whole body hurt, and plus I had major pains on the left side of my stomach. Tara told me I had to go to the doctor. Well easier said then done because I don't have insurance I was really worried. It takes a lot for me to go to the doctor. Anyways, it got so bad I decided to go to the community clinic. The doctor there ran a bunch a tests and stuff, the conclusion was that I probably had mono. They had to wait for the test results to come back but that is what they thought. He said that a lot of people that have mono their splean becomes enlarged and that is probably why my side hurt so bad. Okay.. . so I just waited. Wednesday and Thursday it got a lot worse. Thursday I was in soooo much pain was doubled over in pain. Karalee, Megan, and Alicia were over and told me I should go back to the doctor, so Josh came and got me and took me to the clinic. After waiting what seemed like FOREVER, I finally saw the doctor and I still had a 101 degree fever my side was in SO MUCH pain, he told me I had to go to the ER. At this point I was soooo delerious I didn't even care, I just wanted to stop hurting. We went to the ER, the rest all just happend, they did X-rays, ultra-sound, blood work, and such. The found gal-stones in my gal-bladder, so they admitted me into the hospital.
Josh was soooo great through all of this!! He was right by my side anything I needed he got for me! He stayed at the hospital with my until like 2:00 in the morning.
The next day my mom came up because they thought they were going to do gal-bladder surgery well . . . something was going on with my liver. They took my blood almost every six hours to see how the insines in my liver were. To make this long story just a little bit shorter . . . The conclusion was I did have gal-stones but something totally different was happening with my liver. They ran all kinds of test everything came back negative. They did a cat-scan it was normal, they put a tube and camera and balloon down my throat couldn't find anything there.
Meanwhile I am dieing . . . or at least I felt like I was dieing. I really started to hate the hospital bed. It is funny because you never really sleep in a hospital because every 2 hours the nurses come in to check on you. Sleep is really a joke. I had two different doctors looking at what might be causing my liver to have problems, they couldn't find anything. Come Sunday I was so ready to just bust out of that hosital but they wouldn't let me. They wanted to watch my liver more.
Well Tuesday morning my insines in my liver were down enough they said I could go home!!!!! HURRAY!!! I was so happy. Well kind of. . . I still felt like I was going to die but at least I could die in my own bed and not the hospital bed.
So what is the conclusion? The doctors think I had some kind of virus that attacked my liver. . . why, no idea. I still might have to have my gal-bladder out but not for a few weeks. I still have to go have my blood drawn every few days to make sure my liver insines are going down.
This whole experience was something I never never want to happen or go through again. I don't wish it upon anyone, it was terrible.
However I have learned a few things from this whole experience.
1-No matter how hard you try you are never fully covered in a hospital gown.
2-If you are real sick you don't really care if you are fully covered by the hospital gown.
3-Being sick and in the hosptial in not fun but you really see how much people care about you. I had soooo many people, friends, and family, do sooo much for me!!!
4-After having my blood drawn twice a day really curred me of my fear of needles and my blood drawn.
5-Nurses really can make or break your stay in the hospital.
6-Hospital beds really should be upgraded!
7-I discovered I really can go 4-5 days without eating.
8-Flowers really do brighten your stay in a hospital.
9-You can get anyone to do anything for you when you are sick.
10-Everyone should have a boyfriend when they are sick!!
Well I hope you all learned a little something about hospital stay's now, hehehe
I promise to be a better blogger!!! Stay tuned more to come!

Alaska Adventures!!!

2009-09-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, here I am!!!
I know it has been awhile since I have updated my blog and all, I have been a little busy with life.
I promised pictures of Alaska so here they are:

Alaska was so much fun!!!
As you can see. . . We camped on the beach and went fishing with great big nets.
We went on a small airplane ride over Ancorage.
We went on a surprise airplane ride, which made me a little sick, but it was still fun. We also went with Laura and Fifua to their Samoian ward, that is why we were wearing pulatosies. Amber and I played some terrible volleyball with a bunch of samoian boys. Laura and Fifua were so good to us, they took us all around Alaska and let us crash at their house. It was such a good trip. It was fun to do stuff that I normally don't get to do. Well I know this update is over a month old but it was a great trip. Stay tuned for more updates, much more to come in the life of CalPal!

Too much to say, too little time, not enough money!

2009-08-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

That is my life in a nut shell right now. Too much to say, too little time, and not enough money. I know you are all dieing to know about Alaska and to see pictures, well you must have patience and wait. You see Karalee and I are trying a new experiment and that is to be poor. We are really excelling in this area, therefore we have no internet, so you get bits and pieces we can sneak on during work hours. Don't worry I do work at work, at least 2 of the 7 hours. HAHAHA
As for being poor, lets just say that fish we caught in Alaska are being eaten a lot faster than if we had a little extra cash flow, if you know what I mean.
This whole poor thing is growing on me, the other night a certain someone asked me one of my secrets and I realized one of my secrets is that I love living in the Ghetto infact it is a new goal of mine. There is just something about the atmosphere that puts a smile on my face. (For all readers that don't know me real well, this is a joke. . . sort of:)) If my mother read this should would die!
Speaking of my mother, she is a funny lady. If she only knew I had my own club and the books that Karalee and I read as well as the book we plan on writing. As for this club well the other day Karalee brought to my attention that I have a club! What. . . a club, I had a club and I didn't even know it! Only select people can be or know about this club, if interested in information please inquire!
So sorry for the randomness I promise the Alaska Adventures will be coming soon so stay tuned for further updates!

Funny Thoughts!!!!

2009-07-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

This summer while Karalee and I have been living in "The House" we have the old bunny ears with a converter box to watch TV. This means we have about 6 channels to watch. Its not that bad actually we do a few shows that we absolutely LOVE and watch on a regular basis!!!! Wipeout is first and foremost, yes we love watching people get hurt, bounce on bouncy big red balls, and really just make fools of themselves. Next is Seinfeld, it has only been within the last 6 months that I have discovered how funny Seinfeld really is, I love it!!! Then there are those that we watch together every so often if we are home, such as BONES, Without a Trace, and such.

So my point is one night while Karalee and I were watching Seinfeld, Jerry's phone kept ringing, and ringing, and ringing. Jerry and Elaine were talking about how the phone was just ringing off the hook. This began a funny discussion between Karalee and I how telephones no longer "ring off the hook". It is sad what our world has come to. . . cell phones. In about 20 years someone might say the phone is ringing off the hook and no one will know what they are talking about.

Other NEWS
So as many of you probably know I have had a huge crack in my windshield for over 8 months now. But the last 2 years every time I go home to Tridell I get some kind of chip or crack in my windshield. I got a new windshield only 1 year ago, this is why I was in no hurry to get a new windshield. Even though I wouldn't have to pay anything for it I just didn't want to get a new one because I knew I would get another chip. Well this week, I pulled out of the garage to go to work and was only 1 block from my house and I got pulled over by an officer of the law. Ummmm I had no idea why I was being pulled over. I wasn't even speeding, and that's not typical for me. He then proceeded to tell me he pulled me over for the huge crack in my windshield. REALLY!!!!
Don't these cops have anything else to do better in this town of Nibley, apparently NOT! So I got a ticket or fix it. So don't worry after 8 months today I got a new windshield. This brings me to this funny e-mail I came across today it made me laugh.
Things Not to Say to a Police Officer
-- Sorry, Officer, I didn't realize I was driving.
-- Wow, you must've been doing about 125 mph to keep up with me!
-- I was going to be a cop, but I decided to finish high school instead.
-- You're not gonna check the trunk, are you?
-- The question is -- do YOU know why you pulled me over? (My favorite)
-- I was trying to keep up with traffic, and it's miles ahead of me.

So that is the latest update! Stay tuned more to come!

Family Time!

2009-07-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

Well last weekend was the big McKee reunion get together! Really it is just all my dads brothers and sisters with all their kids and grandkids, but if everyone were to come there would be around 150 people or so. They are usually interesting but fun. They usually consist of lots of food, games, and well more food. It was fun this year because I was able to see some cousins I haven't seen in years!
Anyhow, here are a couple of funny picutes! My aunt brought some dress up clothes and wanted to take pictures of families together. Of course Karalee and I were feeling a little left out since were not married and all so we decided to have our pictures taken together, as always. . . hehehe!

Here are a couple more just for fun!

The first one is of my dad and his oldest brother dressed up as a woman, oh good times! This one will be forever remembered and used as blackmail.

And the other one is of my crazy cute family!
Well part of them at least.

So that was last weeks adventure it was really fun.
New updates on my life. . . well this week Karalee and I have been on the hunt for an apartment. After many dirty, stinky, small, cramped, gross apartments, we finally found one that is not so dirty, stinky or gross. Lisa and Nick are coming back the 1st of August, this is why we were in such a state to find a new place. So we talked our new landlords into letting us move in on the 29th which happens to be the same day we fly out to Alaska, but we wanted to get moved before we left and before Nick and Lisa come back. So life is good, we got a place, with a few other minor stressors that are going on, things should work out well. With that in mind stay tuned more life to come!

Life is about the adventures!

2009-07-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

Life is short . . . why wait! This is my new motto, for life!

This also relates to why I am going to Alaska, well . . . and also because I am going with two of the coolest girls ever, and it doesnt' hurt that Alaska is one of the most beautiful places to visit! I am not exactly sure what we are going to do there. I do know we are going to go fishing, I can't even remember the last time I went fishing. Not just any normal fishing either, we are going in the ocean, and we are wearing wadders, I've never worn wadders, it should be an interesting experience! Plus I think we are going camping in the wilderness, I am some what excited for this but I must be totally honest, I am just a little scared! I have watched too many documentaries about Grizzly bears attacking peopel in Alaska! Too bad I won't have some big nice rugged man to protect me! Karalee and Amber will have to do!

So I am adding a few pics from my little family get away vacation to Yellowstone, Jackson, and the Tetons. It was a fun trip, I loved the Tetons and hiking up to some amazing waterfalls. The only downer on the whole trip was know one, no not know one brought any games. . . wait I take that back we did have some matching animal cards, which I did play with, ofcourse I did play them with my 1 year old neice.
Since we did not have any card games we improvised, I mean we really improvised, because it was raining we couldn't play outside so what did we do you ask well . . .

We roasted marshmellows and starburst inside the camptrailer on the stove, then we played the sign game, which consisted of only 6 people trying to play this game at 10:00 at night in a cramped trailer, on a pull out bed, trying to be quite. Then when that got old we played down by the banks, then we decided to do bubble gum bubble gum and whom ever lost was chosen to buy card games for the rest of the trip. It was fun, I think my younger brother craig and my little sister Diana thought I was crazy cause I was pulling out all these crazy old games out of my head, but hey what can I say, I didn't have a Wii or an Xbox growing up, I only had my imagination and the great out doors. We use to make dolls out of flowers! Yes flowers, and we thought they were amazing!

Well, most of you know by know that my blog just consist of me blabbing and rambling about a bunch of nothingness, so that's all for this time, stay tuned til next time!

Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything. - Blaise Pascal

Oh I can't make up my mind!!!!

2009-06-26T23:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, I do have exciting things to write about and fun pictures to put up but I just don't have the time right now, but I do need a little help!!!

Amber and Karalee are going to Alaska in about a month, I am trying to decide if I should go with them. I can be responsible and save my money, pay rent, and pay off some bills. Or I can blow it and have a blast in Alaska! Um. . . . What should I do??????

I hate making decisions like this!

Birthday Weekend. . . 26 and still counting!!!

2009-06-03T21:40:00.000-07:00

Turning 26 years old has been a little eye opener for me more than any other age. I am now officially closer to the age of 30 than 20 which is a little weird. But I feel 26 is going to be a good age. Many good things are in sight. Megan and Karalee also have big plans for me, and that is to go on 26 blind dates in one year. I have come to enjoy blind dates, you may ask WHY in the world does anyone enjoy blind dates. . . well I find much humor in them. I use to not like them, but I have been on so many they are just funny. Blind dates fall into one of two categories, many fall into both categories, lets be real, most fall into both categories. One, the blind date is very awkward for both participants, because the person or people that set you up feel you are a match made in heaven. And when you meet this supposibly partner that is a peice of your heaven you realize you are as differnt as water and dirt, and what does water and dirt make, oh yes mud. And who wants mud, not me. Well the second kind of blind date is the date that is soooo awkward because the guy is soooo awkward. He is that kind of guy that still lives at home and is 30 years old, he asks you what kind of statistcal information you can tell him about yourself so you don't have to sit in the silence of awkwardness, you all know the kind of guy I am talking about. I find it humorus, these kind of dates make the best kind of stories to tell.

Well now that you all know that I have a goal to go on 26 blind dates, let me tell you what I did for my 26th birthday.

Karalee, Megan, and I wanted to go on a little camping trip before Megan left for summer camp. So we planned a camping adventure up Logan Canyon, many people wondered what 4 single girls would do on a camping trip. . . well pictures always help.

The last picture is of couse us seeing how many marshmellows we could fit into our mouths, before throwing them up. Diana I think had 6, I had 8, Megan had 10, and Karalee I believe had 13, we all know she has the biggest mouth.

The second picture is of us playing boche, it is a fun game, you pretty much throw balls trying to get closest to the small ball thrown in the middle, it was a little difficult since we were playing on a slant with rocks.

The first picture we had to climb trees, this is a difficult task as you get older, hence why you won't find me in the picture, I am taking the picture.

We had a lot of fun, we did have to wait out the rain, but we got a good game of skip-bo and phase 10 in, also some dutch oven cooking. It was a short little camping trip but it was a nice get away. We came back and decided to take a little dip into our pool. Thanks to Megan and Diana they taught us how to jump on the side of the pool into the pool, it was a blast. I know many of you had questions of two single girls having a pool, but just take a look at this picture, I know you are jealous. All the neighborhood kids are jealous of us already. You may wonder if I turned 12 or 26, sometimes I wonder myself.

I have decided the best thing about birthdays when you are older is getting phone calls from all the people you only hear from on well. . . birthdays, christmas, or special happenings. . .you know who you are. . . so thank you for all the phone calls, it was great to hear from everyone!

One last birthday thing that I debated on putting on hear, but for some good laughs on my account I will add it. About a year ago I had this amazing dream of me being part of the X-MEN team. I did have this dream after watching the first and second X-MEN movies with Megan and Alicia. I can't remember what my name was but my dream consisted of me wearing purple spandax, a cap, me flying, and my special power was I could point my wrist towards people and a mist would come out of my wrist (like spider mans web) and the magical mist would put people to sleep. It was a great dream I loved it!!!!
Ever since then Megan and Karalee remind me of this great dream and part of my powers are to invoke world peace. . . so Megan gave me a birthday gift to help my dream come true. . .

I thought I would put a few pictures up from Memorial Day weekend. I went home for the weekend to Tridell and the McKee's had a little get together up at Bacon Park. Being the favorite Aunt and all I have to keep up on my awesomness, so in order to do this I bought all my neices and nephews punching balloons, I must say I earned a lot of aunt points for that.

A funny thing happens when I go to big family get togethers, somehow I end up playing with the children. I am not sure how this happens but it does. I don't really fit in with the people my age because they are all married with children, I don't fit in with my aunts and uncles, I don't fit in with the teenagers so before I know it I have loads of children around me. Maybe it has to do with working with children for so many years, but it just happens. This phenomon happened at the memorial day get together. I went to find a bathroom and before I knew it I had 7 of my neices and nephews following me, it was really funny, I felt like a mother duck, it was fun though. I do have the cuties neices and nephews though. So stay tuned for more later!!!

Summer Days are HERE!!!

2009-05-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

I scream you scream we all scream for SUMMER DAYS!!! This is how I have felt for about two months now. Every time it starts to get even a little warm in Logan, it will snow the next day. But I think the sun has officially decided to stay out. I know it isn't officially summer until June, but with the sun being out and all, Karalee, Megan, and I decided to make it an official day of summer yesterday. You may ask yourself how did we do this well . . . first I started with playing in the park. I am an advisor over Youth City Council and yesterday was our closing social and we had it outside at Lundstrom Park. We ate Pizza from Firehouse (one of my favorite places ever), then we played some frizbee, and then some Koob.

After Youth City Council was over, I came home and Karalee and Megan were setting up our POOL. Yes we have a pool, you may question what kind of pool and why should three single girls have such a kind of pool, well . . . BECAUSE we want to, that is the real reason. Really I think people are going to be jealous. It is a pretty big pool it is at least 3 1/2 feet deep and about 15 feet wide, so just big enough to play in this summer to get wet but also big enough we can lounge in. My theme for this summer is I am going to be a lounger, many of you may think of this as being lazy, well, it is not! I am going to be really busy lounging all summer long.

So back to making yesterday the official day of summer, we were still waiting for the pool to get full, so I decided I was going to put my new bike seat on my bike. You see I bought a bike at the end of last summer and only rode it once because the back tire was low and the seat hurt my bum so bad that I didn't want to ride it ever again. Well I got a bright idea and bought this new amazing bike seat. So after much labor of putting on the new bike seat and getting the tires just right, Megan, Karalee, and I all went for a bike ride around our neighborhood. Now this is not your usually singlehood neighborhood, this is your traditional family neighborhood, so I am sure we looked a little out of place. But it was sooooo much fun. I felt just like a kid again, riding my bike around the neighborhood with my friends, it was great.

While we were on our bike ride we rode past the soccer field and thought it would be great to fly our kites. Yes we have kites! So we rode back to the house got the kites went back to the soccer field and well . . . tried flying our kites. It was not very successful, there was no wind, we thought there was wind but then we decided that was because we were riding bikes, so we went back to the house after a sad attempt of flying kites.

By this time the pool was ready!!!! Yes it was freezing!! But it was great! We hung out in the pool for 10-15 minutes and decided we wanted to feel our legs again so we got out.

To top off this official summer day, we ate some delicious watermelon, and I of course got a really bad sunburn. That is how I really knew summer was here, my first real sunburn of the season. I didn't even mind because SUMMER is HERE!!! Well sorry for such a long post, but stay tuned there is always more to come from the life of CalPal summer is just starting so the adventures are just beginning.

Only Time will Tell!!!

2009-05-09T19:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, well sad to say but I will not be going to Ireland this summer. After really sitting down and looking at my budget and how much it is really going to cost, I can't make it happen this summer but my original time frame was Summer 2010 so that is what I am shooting for now. So I am still going to take a little vacation this summer so if any of you have any ideas let me know!!!!

So anyone that knows me knows that I am not a morning person, but for some reason since I moved to "The House" (that is what Karalee and I are calling Lisa and Nick's house so we don't have to call it their house all the time, since we are living here this summer) I am WIDE awake every morning at 6:30. My body just can't sleep. This does make it good for work, I don't hit the alarm five times every morning. So this morning being a Saturday and all I was hoping to sleep in at least until 8 or 9, NOPE it did not happen!

Instead I got up and had an amazing eventful day. I was able to do more in this one Saturday than I normal do in two weeks. Karalee and I took care of the lawn, organized the garage, washed the inside and outside of our cars, I did bills, went shopping, cleaned my house, finished unpacking, did laundry, oh and watched a movie!

So I guess this early to bed early to rise thing really is a good thing! I think I might try it a little more!

Stay tuned more to come!

2009-05-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

Top of the morning to ya!!!!

Well for those of you that don't know. . . Karalee and I are planning a little or should I say a big vacation this summer. My dream has always been to go to Ireland, and well this summer I am making it happen!!! With my side kick Karalee we are going to tackle this dream of mine! I have always put it off telling myself I will go when I have a full time job, or when I have money, or when I am married, and since we all know none of those will happen for awhile, I am going to make it happen myself. Of course it does help to have a side kick that is willing to go on this adventure with me. People ask what I want to see or what I want to do. . . heck I don't know, I just want to go see green fields, blue oceans, irish accents, and say I have been to Ireland! So stay tuned. . . this vacation is just in the begins of being planned but we are buying tickets soon and getting passports so we can make this adventure in late July early August!!!!

2009-04-21T21:39:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is. . . after months of people trying to get me to make a blog, I have finally given in!
Most people who have blogs usually post cute things about their kids or the exciting lives which they live. Well don't expect that here . . . no kids, and no exciting life. The closest thing you will see to children is Karalee and Megan and they may also be included into the exciting life. So really this is a warning more than anything!
So welcome to my blog, stay tuned, more to come!