The End of 2009, The Beginning of 2010

The week after Christmas was a busy one; visiting family, visiting friends, playing chaperone... During the break I had planned to learn to Knit, I was SO excited, unfortunately I wasn't able to fit that in. (Lowry's, I'm so sad/sorry I wasn't able to, but I still plan on coming sometime to learn!!) I had been looking forward to learning a new skill/craft but there is a reason I wasn't able to and here we go: (It was right here that I had to pause and decide between; List, No List. List Won)

• Saturday - Baby Shower for my Sister
• Sunday - Still Loving my Ward
• Monday - Drive to Vernal to visit Grandma and Grandpa Uresk, quick trip to visit Great Aunt Vee (wishing it were warmer so I could ride her horses) Drive to Roosevelt to spend the night at my Aunt Karen's. Hang out with Nikki, Beau, and Beau's Cousin.
• Tuesday - Visit Jason, Rachel and Miles (played with the new Geo Tracks Miles got for Christmas, wishing they had them when I was living there this summer). Drive to Neola to see Kylene and her kids, Tyson ran straight for me for a big hug, I missed those kids!! Held Kloe D and rocked her to sleep, the best part is she is a cuddly baby and cuddly babys are so great. (again wished it was warmer so we could go see the horses and dogs) Drive home.
• Wednesday - Had plans to go visit Adam and the Bakers. I hate Snow. Thank goodness for Online Scrabble. Also should mention my new favorite phrase: Cuddly Duddly!!
• Thursday - Chaperoned 9 kids at Boondocks, drove a Minivan there and back couple of times. I know what most of you are thinking at this point; A Minivan!?!? Man and I thought Jacque couldn't GET any hotter, well I just did, I just did!! After I finally got the kids back safely to their party animal parents it was off to Grantsville for me. I got to spend New Years with Adam and his Family, played board games, karaoke and toasted in the New Year with, what else, Sparkling Apple Cider!! Also this is the BEST part... wait.. for .. it... I BEAT ADAM AT SCRABBLE!!!! This is a big accomplishment since he mostly doubles my score. I taught them Speed Scrabble, (a Uresk Favorite). While I didn't come in first I managed to beat Adam and that was a good feeling indeed.
• Friday - Made it home from Grantsville without one wrong turn, (this is where I should mention I made it there without getting lost also. Look at me, I'm growing) Finished 3 backdrops for my friend's in-home Photography studio, feel bad it took so long. Took Princess for a walk, did some dishes then came home and fell asleep on the couch for a couple hours....
• Saturday - SCRAPBOOKIN' I got lots of pages done, another long walk with Princess, then off to Logan to have a late New Years Party. I really like the game Buzzword, first round was the boys against the girls, Boys -The Punishers, Girls - Pheobo. I won't say how much we won by, but it was a lot!! ;) Next round we switched it up a little and Missy, Brody and I were Team Crap Bag. Brian, Brad and Traci were team Princess Consuela Banana Hammock..... Team Crap Bag WON!! (the names are from the show FRIENDS) We played other games and watched the Ball Drop in Times Square, thanks to Kristy recording it on her DVR. Later stayed up until 4 a.m. chatting with Kristy. This is the best part of visiting her!!
• Sunday - Write this Blog Post. (among other things)

Here's to you, 2010!!

(Sorry there are no Photo's, I really wanted some but I haven't been good at making sure I take them lately. I'm hoping I get a new camera for my Birthday in a couple of weeks... I may post one or 2 pictures later, but we'll see.)

Gearing Up for a Non-Stop Week

This week is going to be CRAZY!! I'm excited and nervous (Nervous about the Tests). Here is all the stuff I have planned.

• Monday - Make Dinner, 2 Nutrition Exams, Visit Ashley.... (Surprise Ashley!! Ok I'll ask her first)


• Tuesday - Geography Test, Class until 9:00


• Wednesday - Yogurt Stop Day!!


• Thursday - Class until 8:20, Then Back to get the Girlies, NEW MOON at 12:01 A.M.


• Friday - 7:00 A.M. CPR Training at Work (it's early but it has to be done), Drive to Provo to challenge Min and Phil to a game of Ticket2Ride, Maybe see that Adam guy ;) (by the way Adam we will be playing Ticket2Ride with my cousins)


• Saturday - Be home by 10:00 A.M. dressed and ready for The Nutcracker Ballet (I love this Ballet, seriously it's not Christmas without The Nutcracker Ballet), Later that night, my Ward Thanksgiving Dinner. WHEW!!


• Sunday - A Day of Rest

Here's to this week and me not going crazy!!

Happy Halloween!!

Are you ready for Numerous photos?? Good, because I really have a collection here!!

So my beautiful friend Kristy had a Halloween party and of course I am that friend that just stays.... FOREVER!! I showed up early and we made cookies (I mostly watched.....) and chatted because I love chatting with her, also she has the CUTEST little boy ever!!

This cute little Eeyore is Ethan and the scary guy is his dad Brian. Seriously it was creepy looking at him!!

The lovely Hostess Kristy!! Stirring up the Homemade Rootbeer made by Traci and Brody

After Pizza and Apples to Apples (which Adam won) we played the best game ever, SING STAR!! We split into teams and the teams were: Team Cousins and Team Not Cousins. Technically the Hardings are not cousins, but their kids are!! This is a picture of Team Not Cousins duet, sung by Traci and Adam. GO TRACI & ADAM!!

Male part of Team Cousins, Brad and Brian.

All the Partying was too much for Ethan, I am really sad I didn't get a picture of Abbi in her cute skunk costume!! Seriously Missy your little girl was a Super Cute Skunk!!

Missy, Brad, and Brian. This is after Adam had to leave (PARTY POOPER!!) and we had to get creative with the teams.... (we drew names from a hat) this was the losing team!!

The WINNING TEAM YEAH!! Notice how Rock'n Roll we are!!
Kristy, Brody, Traci and Me

Oh the silliness!!

We LOVE the camera, like REALLY LOVE it!!

I'm a WALRUS.... or Vampire. Don't you love my Dollar store buys!! We broke these bad boys out and at one point had a dance party outside with them. Ok it was mostly Traci dancing but she had enough awesome moves for the group!!

I had 2 Glow sticks and 2 earings so I figured, eh why not make some earings and strike a funny pose!!

And now without the flash so you can see these classy earings glow!! (seriously why I am posing like that??)

I inspired Brad!!

Watch out for Kristy!!

And for Traci too!!

And so ends the Many photos from Halloween!! Thanks for a great time everybody!!

Halloween Extravaganza!!

I have to make this good since my date will be reading this (At least he BETTER!!) My great friend Traci suggested I come visit sometime for some Corn Maze fun and I couldn't resist that idea!! We decided that not only would we do a corn maze but also we should carve some Pumpkins and watch a scary movie in order to really feel the Halloween Spirit. Thanks to Adam for being my date :)

Traci showing the cool place where we picked out our pumpkins. We had some time to kill while Adam was getting ready (he wanted to be extra pretty for me!! Also we didn't really give him a lot of warning as to when we were coming)

Oh how I love Traci, I always Fall for her!! (Get it FALL ha ha!!) Ok there wasn't really a place for my other foot so made her hold me.

After we picked the perfect pumpkin, resulting in Brody doing a lot of heavy lifting, (thanks Brody) we went on to pick up Adam. We accidentally went to the wrong apartment and woke up some random guy, but don't worry we eventually found the right place. The four of us went shopping for some pizza toppings, then it was back to Traci and Brody's to make the pizzas. We alternated making the pizza and carving the pumpkins. (I love playing with the stuff inside the pumpkins, it's so squishy!!)

Traci and Brody with their cute pumpkin. I think this pumpkin's name is Regina Phalange.

Adam and I took a long time deciding what to carve on our pumpkin. It didn't help that he's a pretty darn good artist and all his sketches looked great. Clearly the end result was amazing, we love our pumpkin so much we gave it a big ol Smooch!!

Why yes, yes we are licking our pumpkin (that just so happens to be a skull and named Ken Adams)

The look on my face should explain my thoughts on this pose. Why are we holding this pumpkin with our bums?? I don't know but it sure was Funny!!

We finished our pumpkins and ate our yummy pizza we headed off to the Corn Maze. (the HAUNTED corn maze to be more specific) I know what you are thinking if you know me, and yes I did go to a corn maze that was haunted. I'm so proud of me!! The scariest part was the Clown that followed us around, and the chain saw guys, and the dark tunnel. Luckily I had a big strong man to hide behind. After we found our way out of the maze/castle and dragon we went and got a movie. Thankfully it was a Clown free movie!! Thanks to Adam, Traci and Brody for a fun night and thanks to Traci for letting me sleepover in her cute house and feeding me. You are a great Hostess!!

Finding our Centers

Monday Nikki called me for an impromptu dinner up the mountain. She and Beau had suddenly decided Roasting Hot Dogs would be fun, and I agreed!! (I love spontaneity) They picked me up and we headed to Jubilee for some supplies.... (Nikki still has my Peanut Butter Cakesters!!) Beau's cousin Dustin was invited to join in the fun, and decided joining us would be more fun than going to the singles ward FHE (even though he was supposed to help lol) After getting our supplies we headed up to Dustin's house to prepare the Chicken (He decided to grill us some BBQ Chicken, YUM) Nikki and I did our best to supervise. Then we packed up and headed for the hills. We managed to find the perfect spot.... Seriously it was right by the water, secluded and had a great view.

At this point I'm standing right by the Fire Pit to take this picture, the running water was great background noise.

While Beau started the fire, Dustin started to set up his mini grill and Nikki and I set up camp.... it was here a few things were realized:

• We had left the propane tanks at Nikki and Beau's, there had been no tinfoil at Dustin's so we figured we could use Dustin's Propane tank even though it was a little low, it lasted all of 3 minutes.
• We didn't have our bug spray
• Although this sight was great, it had no table, so instead of moving the Truck so we could use the tailgate as one, Nikki and I had to get creative..........
  

The legs were logs brought by us for the fire, the table top was made from pieces of a deck. Someone had brought and left the nice stuff for their fire... Crazy, but it worked out for us!!

It took a while to get the perfect coals for grilling our chicken (we just took the grill of the mini grill and stuck it on the coals) so while we waited we chatted and ate chips and Nikki's YUMMY Dip. The Chicken turned out great and we ate and chatted some more, at one point Beau explained how he loved to go to the mountains and find his center (hence the post title). Around 11:00 we decided to clean up and head home, but not without some Moose hunting, we didn't see any, not even with some great Moose calls!! We saw 2 Deer though, just running in the brush, and a Giant Moth got stuck in Dustin's truck and flew at me a couple times.



For a while I was sad that I hadn't taken a picture of us all, but then I remembered I had taken one!! When looking at this picture I am sure many of you have questions or comments about it, I figured I would make a few points about it to clear things up....

• I'm sure you are wondering why Beau is wearing a suit..... He is just fancy like that!! We told him he didn't have to impress anyone but he just wouldn't listen.
  
• Also, Beau has great posture..... look at how straight he is standing.
  
• No Nikki didn't magically grow out her hair, it's just the lighting that makes it look long.
  
• Yes that is Dustin, not Johnny Knoxville. The first time I met Dustin he had shaggy hair and when I saw him again it was SHORT!! I had to do a double take to make sure it was him. I mentioned that with his aviators on he looked just like Johnny, so I understand if you are thinking to yourself "man it looks just like she copied a picture of Johnny Knoxville from the internet into paint, cut around in and pasted it onto some random mountain picture."
  

First Drive In of the Year and my Crazy Week

This week has been crazy, hectic and non-stop. The craziness started when I got home from work and found that my Dad and little Sister were sick. I was helping take care of them most of the night which included cleaning up after them (I'll leave it at that). Thursday mornings I clean a neighbors house so I had that until work, after work I went to another neighbors to get all the info for when I Dog Sit later this week. Then home to rest before a trip to Hobby Lobby for CraftyThursday, Grocery Store for the sickies.... which now included my Mom, then Noorlanders (to return some movies and chat with Melissa who is AWESOME!!). Home at last. Next morning I went to work at Cheryl's time, she nicely switched me so I could leave for Roosevelt with my family. It my first time seeing what TrackShoe Friday was all about, lots of work, lots of FUN!! My Keva Juice got stolen when it was half full, Cheryl's husband Brad so nicely brought me a new one!! Then off to Bun Basket for soup for my Mom (Who was the only sick one at this time). Got home, got packed, got on the road. The trip there was pretty uneventful Rissa and I watched Count of Monte Cristo until she fell asleep. That night I went on my first Blind Date in a while, my Cousin BJ set me up with his roommate, Milton. We went to the Drive In, and man was it FUN!! I absolutely LOVE the Drive In, and these boys had it planned right!! BJ and his girl Delia (probably spelled wrong oops) picked me up at his Mom's and we got Arby's YUM!! We then met Milton at the Drive In with his big Truck and 2 couches!! The long one we set up in the back set up on the sides, the second smaller one on the bed. Can you say Stadium Seating!! lol Beau and Nikki lent us their big stereo with many speakers. (They came and squished on the couch with us for the second movie). The first movie was Dragonball, what an odd movie, didn't really follow it, didn't really care. The second movie was one that I have been looking forward to for a LONG time.... X-Men Origins!! It did not disappoint!! It rained a tiny bit, but the boys had been prepared with blankets and at the end of the night I would have to call it a Complete Success!! The next day we went to our Family Reunion/Grandparents Wedding Anniversary, it was cold and rainy but nice to see the whole family and meet cousins I have only met when I was very little. Then the drive home, Spencer and I got home around 7 and the hectic week hit me and I was asleep soon after getting home. Now I'm rested and ready for the next week.......

I Heard the Nile Runs East to West

This is a random post, what do you do though. The last couple days I haven't really had patience for anything, (for my PreSchool Moms that read this, don't worry my patience at work has actually been better than ever) even listening to the radio is getting on my nerves. So to solve this problem I have started hitting scan and just been listening to my radio in that way. Once or twice I have stopped and actually listened to a song, but mostly I just scan. Well early this morning I was laying on my couch, half asleep and singing a song in my head over and over. I sang the same 3 lines continuously in my head. One of the lines was "I heard the Nile runs East to West". All the while thinking it was a song I had heard while scanning, much later that day I had decided I made it up and sang it in my head over and over for roughly 30 min. I just googled it though and it is Spaceman by the Killers. Glad I'm not crazy.

Midnight Reading on the Trampoline

So Manly Adam...... (yes that is his actual name) mentioned reading out loud while we were hanging out once. Apparently it's loads of fun... so I agreed to try it out. I had my doubts and I giggled a lot at first, but I have to admit that it is a great way to read. Granted we won't get done fast because I have to move back home earlier than planned but it's way fun so I don't mind if it takes a while. We are reading Loves Music, Loves to Dance. A Mary Higgins Clark book and a good one at that. We didn't read long because the bugs were eating us alive. Manly Adam is going to be a man and get us Bug Spray. So hopefully now we will get further in the book. I'll keep you all updated!! :)