Everything Must Come to an End

Tonight is my last night on my vacation; feeling kind of blue. But it's been such an enjoyable time. I'm very grateful to Heavenly Father for allowing Ben and I to make this trip, and to be safe and have fun while in the thick of it. I love my family, and it's been so wonderful to spend so much time with them these last few days.

Today, Ben and I attended my old singles ward, and that was nice. Then we just chilled and played games the rest of the day.

He and I leave early tomorrow afternoon back to Salt Lake City. Back to the grind!

Hole in One!



Me putting an "extreme golf" hole.

I've been having the best vacation here at home.

Yesterday, a bunch of us went up to Lake Tahoe. We first went to Sand Harbor, and played in the sand, surf, and sun! Then we went to Kings Beach for a Steamers lunch and Kings Beach mini golf. I had the biggest calzone I've ever seen, and I didn't do too shabby at mini golf, either. I came in second behind my mom. For the record, I scored a hole in one.

Today, I spent lots of time with my family just hanging out, a little shopping, and whole lot of good eating.

This little trip has been so fun and worthwhile. Ben and I are having such a great time.

There's No Place Like Home



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I'm home!!!!

Dorothy was SO right. There really is no place like home. I'm so happy to be here with my family and with Ben. Playing with nephews, strolling through a park, froyo, and movie-watching are the activities that comprised this day. Looking forward to a good night's rest so that we can all enjoy Lake Tahoe tomorrow.

Four Goodies

Want to share four goodies with you:

1.

2.

3. What Mainstream Christians Could Learn from the Mormon Faith story.

4. Ben and I visit my hometown and family tomorrow through next Monday! Not sure if/how much I'll blog. Knowing me, I'll be sure to update, but we'll see.

fhe

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ben and i had fhe last night. don't be jealous of our activities:

+cleared my sink and shower drains with drain cleaner.
+read this article from august's ensign.
+made cookies that looked like these.
+both of us ate 4 apiece.
+checked on the drains and finished the bottle of drain cleaner.
+watched more of 24. we're half-way through season one already. i'm hooked!


thanks for following my blog, heather!

i can deal with not having today off

the freeway traffic was a lot lighter today on my way to work because a lot of people have the day off here in honor of pioneer day, which was yesterday. but i didn't have it off. but it's all good cuz i'm goin' HOME in three days! yeehaw! so dang excited!!

pioneer day

church was great today! it's pioneer day, and so that was kind of the theme throughout the meetings. i taught my first primary lesson, and it was about how all members can be missionaries (which can totally be pioneering, too). i love my class--they're great kids.

happy pioneer day!

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weekend plans



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ben and i had planned to help out at the pioneer day parade yesterday here in bountiful as spacing "police" between floats, but found out later that they didn't need our help after all. so what did we do instead? we went to lagoon! friday evenings are a lot less busy than saturdays, and so we were able to get on rides faster and not have to endure the crazy crowds.

as we were walking into ben's house yesterday after lagoon, i guess my bff, sophia, saw us and called out our names, but we didn't hear. anyway, she subsequently called and invited us to go watch pioneer day fireworks, and so we did! the fireworks were big and colorful and awesome! a lot better than the fourth of july ones. so glad we went.

and then today we just had to run a few errands: got my car serviced, ran to a couple of stores and the bank, and prepped for ben's nephew's bday party later this afternoon. and then tonight we'll probably watch a movie.

hope you're having a great weekend!

spenditol, shared birthday, and pioneer day weekend

couple of fun(ny) finds:



click on this sentence to read how this dad, mom, and baby ALL share the same birthday!

happy friday! whatcha doin' this weekend? this weekend is a big deal here in utah. pioneer day is sunday.

home in one

only really big news item is that i will be visiting home only one week from today w/my ben! we are so excited!

happy thursday!

rb and id

new rebecca black song and video!



wasn't that just too fun?

ben and i are going to the dmv after work today. he's gotta get his driver's license renewed so he can hit the hard utah streets again. oh, and to show identification at the airport when we go visit my family a week from tomorrow! can't wait!


welcome to the blog, karla, my newest blog follower!

24



when i first moved out here to utah, ben and i started watching heroes during dinnertime. we got through the first season when ben was ready to move on to something else. so then we started cheers. we just finished the first two seasons of that one. and now we're ready for something new, and so we just started 24. ben has already seen all of these shows, but they're all new to me. i'm already really liking 24. we've watched the first two episodes of the first season so far. have you seen it? it's so exciting!

the weekend



yummy saturday dinner!



sophia and troy enjoying their froyo!

busy, fun* weekend!

• store trips.
• lagoon.
• made the yummiest quesadillas and rice w/ben.
• ate that deliciousness w/our friends, sophia and troy.
• played games with sophia and troy.
• got froyo with sophia and troy (we kinda like s & t).
• watched next with sophia and troy.
• got my temple recommend renewed.
• went to church.
• watched wolverine with ben.

*just as i was typing this, my coworker walked by and asked about my weekend. haha!

p.s. lost a blog follower. sad!

my facebook postings over the last week or so

Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

Click on this sentence for this bizarre story.

Click on this sentence to watch an amazing dance.



lots o' little updates!

pic of a town and country market sammy i found via.

just little tidbits of what's going on lately:

• i went visiting teaching last night to two women in the ward. one of them has 83 grandkids and great-grandkids! and one on the way! can you believe it?! i couldn't. and her and her husband are still in great health. what a family!
• my primary team teacher called me yesterday, and requested that she teaches this sunday since she'll be out of town next sunday, and will want me to teach. so i will not be teaching the lesson this sunday like i had thought, which is totally fine because i then get to attend sunday school and relief society which i also enjoy.
• ben took the day off to spend with some of his brothers, one of whom is celebrating his bday today. happy birthday, sam!
• we got a free lunch today at work catered by town and country market, a local restaurant. i ordered a chicken salad sammy, and i'm not kidding when i type that this was the best sammy i have ever had. so so so good.

hope you're having a fantastic friday like i am!

first primary lesson



my primary president came over yesterday evening to give me my manual, class list, and schedule. i have seven kiddos in my class, and will teach this coming sunday on how the Lord helps missionaries. looking forward to this calling!

primary teacher



i accepted a calling (job) at church. i will be teaching the 5-6 year olds in primary! it should be a lot of fun. i'll have a team teacher to work with. not sure how it'll work yet, but we'll probably alternate teaching each sunday, but still both be in the classroom/primary room together.

my primary president* is coming over tomorrow evening to give me my teaching manual and tell me about my class.

looking forward to serving in this way!


*it's a small world. she happens to be married to a guy from my grandparents' hometown. i asked my grandma if she knew him, and of course she does. in fact, she taught him in sunday school for a brief time when he was 16.

weekend, dinner

hope you had a great weekend! i did, for the most part. i kinda had a breakdown last night, but hey, i'm a woman and that happens to women. ben was there for me through it all. love him!
i cooked a homecoming (he was up in logan, utah for a couple of days)/anniversary (6 mo. since we first met) dinner for ben and i saturday night. at first it was kinda disastrous, but thank goodness his younger bro, steve, was around. he helped me through it! i'm not a cook, but i'm learning very slowly, but surely.

and i also prepared some strawberry shortcake for dessert.



lunch w/dana



aren't we adorable?

i just got back from going out to lunch w/my bff from college. dana and i hadn't seen each other for about two years. it was so great to see her and catch up. the girl just got back from hawaii, yesterday! i'm kinda jealous. thanks for meeting up w/me, dana! let's do it again soon!

good life

ben's been out of town the last couple of days w/his mom. they went to the utah opera festival in logan, utah.

they get back this evening (yessss!). i plan on cooking a yummy dinner for ben and i to celebrate both his homecoming, and our sixth month anniversary from the day i first called him (january 9).

i really am living a good life.

abuse/spam my bum!

supposedly someone has flagged my new blog as abusive or spammy on fb, so i'm unable to post links from my new blog to fb. hence, i am now sticking to my original blog, this one.

so stay here!!

utah symphony concert

check out that chandelier!

ben and i attended a utah symphony concert last night. the computer that controls the AC for several of the buildings downtown crashed before the concert, and the hall we went to was one of them. it was pretty hot. i can only imagine how the performers felt on stage under the lights and playing their instruments!

after intermission, they got the AC to work again, so by the time we left the concert, we felt great!

but despite the uncomfort, we had a nice time. it makes me feel all cultured when i do stuff like that.


p.s. my relief society president just came by to get to know me better since i'm fairly new in the ward. she brought a yummy muffin for me. so sweet!

two vids

the first is cute. the second is moving.

the time machine and a dead spider



ben and i watched the time machine last night. have you seen it? pretty good. weird, but pretty good.

and this morning while at work, i got up from my desk to go use the restroom. i noticed something black on one of my toes. i bent down to see what it was....a dead spider! no joke! how did that even happen?!

free date!

ben and i are going on a mid-week date tonight to see the utah symphony perform! it's free!
if you're in the slc valley, and wanna do something neat for free, here's the info:

yesterday



yesterday's fourth of july activities:

• cleaned bedroom and bathroom.
• did laundry.
• went to the park w/ben and his nephew.
• ate one of ben's fave dishes, old-fashioned mac and cheese, for his bday dinner at his parents' house.
• had fhe w/his entire fam.
• watched firework displays throughout the valley up near the temple.

glad that it was a three-day weekend, and that now we have only a four-day work week!

p.s. four years ago, on july 5, 2007, i entered the mtc. time flies!

firework

happy fourth of july!

bday pics

pic #1: ben's bro, sam, gave ben the Heroes season 4 dvd set!
pic #2: ben holding up the gifts i gave him.
pic #3: newspaper blackout gift.
pic #4: photo collage gift.

fun games and ben's bday

had a lot of fun last night!

ben, two of his bros, my bff soph, and i all played a fun board game called Mystery of the Abbey. It's like a combination of Clue and Guess Who. and i actually won!

then the five of us walked up to ben's folks house to play another game called Bang. this was one was my fave game out of the two. it involves players taking on rolls such as sheriff, deputy, renegade, outlaws, etc. all the contents of the game are inside a big silver bullet, not a box like most board games. the game was created in italy, so all the cards and game items are in italian with english translations. we played this one twice, and will have to play again soon.


today is my ben's bday! so excited to spend the day with him and give him his present. pictures to come soon.

happy bday, ben!!!

the pie

for ben's bday lunch, ben, his parents, two of his bros, and i went to his fave pizza place, the pie pizzeria. he ordered the biggest pizza they offer--the 23 inch, or 16 slizes. it's huge! he ordered half hamburger, half onion and green pepper. i had 1.5 pieces of the onion and pepper, and a bite of ben's hamburger slice. the pizza was so good, and the ambiance matched. great time!

satterdaigh*

yay!! the three-day weekend is here!

plans for the day:

• ben's bday lunch at the pie pizzeria.
• whatever else we feel like doing.

*don't mind the blog title. i'm trying to be less precise/professional with my own blog, as i spend all day being precise/professional (-ish) at work. just go w/it.

Case Closed

I figured out what the baby smell is: my new deodorant. Weird, cuz I wore it for the first time yesterday, and didn't smell it then.

But that's what is is. Case closed.

Ben and I enjoyed some froyo after work today. Then we went home, ate dinner, played on the computer and played a video game, and finished the night by watching X-Men, the movie.

I love Friday nights.

Makes Me Want a Baby. Not Really.

My so sweet nephew Brody--I'd rather smell baby-smell on him! This was taken almost a year ago when he was more of a baby than he is now. But he's still a baby; always will be to me, I'm sure.

I smell like a baby. You know--baby smell.

While spending the morning before work with Ben, I just assumed it was him.

But now I've been at work for a few hours, and I still smell it. I think it's my shirt. But I have no idea why. I didn't wash it last in baby-smell detergent.

Oh, well. Makes me think I'm more adorable than I really am. ;)