This has been a good week filled with visits and games with lots of family and friends. On Monday we played Alhambra with Brandie and Josh. Josh won with Tyson in a close second and I got last place. On Wednesday our awesome neighbors popped by and invited us over to play games. We played Beyond Balderdash and it was a lot of fun! We had a good time reading the insane definitions that were true. I bet you didn't know that a zobo is a cross between a zebra and a yak! There was also snood (a hairnet), cannelure (the groove around the rim of a bullet) and titbow (a haze which occurs on very hot days). It was a fun game and I highly recommend it! We also had Jared, Robbie and Tyson's brother Brandon over on Friday night. Brandon was insistent on playing Life so we did. It was a lot of fun and half the guys found sunken treasure and got $500,000 from one square! We had a good time joking around and Jared had so many kids that he ran out of space in his car and had to stack the pegs between the existing ones! It was so much fun and Tyson and I were very close but I ended beating him by $150,000. Also we were the only ones who finished the game with no kids! I hope he knows that I don't want it to be that way in real life! The best part was that Tyson had 'entertainer' as his job and he became a grandparent- with no kids. He's got some 'splaining to do!

We finally finished Big Bang Theory this week! I am so happy! Now I have to wait another year for season 4 to come out on DVD. We have had The Departed from Netflix since New Year's and we finally started it- only to get bored and stop halfway through. Hopefully we will get to finish it this week! We also started The Great Mouse Detective with Tirza but had to take her home before we could finish. I wasn't feeling so great this week and thought I might be coming down with something so I watched a few movies on my shifts instead of being super productive. I watched Ballerina which was on Netflix and is about 5 dancers in Russia and it has a little bit of Russian ballet history mixed in. I love ballet and it was so much fun to watch this documentary! I hope I can find other dance ones on Netflix. I also watched Food, Inc which was recommended by Brandie. I thought the legislation was interesting and Tyson and I had a good discussion about it. I also watched Maxed Out which is about the country's debt, personal debt and bankruptcy. It was really good and totally fascinated me. I guess I picked the right field!

Tyson and I got some new movies this week after, I kid you not, 3 trips to Best Buy. We were trying to get Alice in Wonderland 60th anniversary edition in the Blu Ray combo pack and Best Buy had the best price. They didn't have it on Tuesday so we went to Wal-Mart and the sales guy didn't even know what we were talking about. We went up there Wednesday and they did not have it but said they would get shipments this week. I kept calling and they never had it so we went up on Saturday to get the rain check. We also got some Blu Rays on sale- Constantine, Domino and Hitman. On Tuesday when it was absolutely frigid out we were running errands trying to find the movie. We got home and took a while to thaw out!

Thursday was a really fun day for me. I got to help my mom clean the basement a little bit more and now the downstairs living room is clean is addition to the laundry room. It looks amazing! Marissa helped and we got to hang out at Noodles and Company after. A girl I work with has a relative that does craft projects. I signed up and decorated my own SWAK (sealed with a kiss) wood cutout. I painted it, glitterized it (I love glitter!!) and then glued some rhinestones and bows on it. I am all girl! It wasn't expensive at all and it was a lot of fun to hang out with some of the girls from work.

So a few random things from this week. My car would shake when on the freeway like it was going to DIE so I took it to the shop. A tire balance later and it drives just fine. I got the rear brakes replaced too. Ouch. I also tried to paint my toes this week. I have usually gone with Jeanne and gotten pedicures but I wanted to save some money and do it at home. I now realize why pedicures were invented! I can barely see my toes much less paint them and after I was done I probably got more polish on my skin than my nails. From now on I will get a pedicure or see if I can talk someone in to painting them for me! I also got some new clothes this week. I have been super girly and I love it! I dragged Tyson with me because he is awesome at helping me shop. I used the gift card to Old Navy I got from his mom and we picked out some cute stuff. I ended up getting a long black shirt with a scoop neck and a ribbon detail on the left shoulder. I also got a green sweatershirt that had a pocket in front and a hood. It was so cute and its way comfy. I cleaned a ton of my clothes out of my closet that I loved but don't fit anymore. It felt good to take the old clothes out and put in my new shirts! I love shopping and can't wait to go again!

Ok, so I really suck at this posting on Sunday thing. My graveyard shift is usually when I type this and my grave on Sunday is my shortest shift of the week. I think I will try to post Tuesday morning because that is near the end of my longest shift! Tyson and I finally got phone cases for our phones which is great because I have been terrified that I'm going to drop mine! We got plastic ones with grips on the sides and they have a stand that pops out in the back. Its very handy for when I listen to music while getting ready or watching videos while I'm working. I also finally got my other phone case in the mail. Its a wallet and phone carrier. It flips open and has slots for cards on one side and a little sleeve on the other that I can slide my phone into. Its very handy for when I don't want to carry my purse! Also, something a little exciting this week- I went running! I do not run. I have not ever run. I was feeling antsy one day and decided I wanted to go walking and expel some energy. I went to the office of the apartment complex and got on the treadmill. I walked 2 laps and then decided I should probably jog. Since my surgery whenever I run I stiffen my leg because I'm used to protecting it and trying not to jar it. Basically I run like a retarded gimp. I wanted to get in the habit of running normally so I cranked it up and ran full out for half a lap! I was so happy! Now I know that I can run and I don't have to favor my leg. Yay! It was even fun and I think I might do it again. I also wasn't sore the next day and neither of my knees hurt! That is a very good thing because the next day was when I helped my mom clean the basement and I was going up and down the stairs a lot!

Tyson and I watched more Big Bang Theory this week. Surprise, surprise. We are almost done with the third season and I am pretty excited. I absolutely love this show but I am ready to watch new stuff! I watched Good Will Hunting on my graveyard shift and it was a really good movie. Everyone had an accent and they all sounded fake but it had a good story. We watched Barbie's Fashion Fairytale when we had Tirza this weekend and it was super cheesy but I loved the fashion in it! I also watched a couple of episodes of the Dresden Files while working and I like that series. I think it only had one season so I will have to watch the episodes slower to make it last!

On Wednesday morning last week I was browsing Facebook and got some depressing news. My friend Annette that had a class with me at the U had lost her 5 year old daughter. Maryn had been battling DIPG which is a tumor on her brain stem. Because of its location it is inoperable and she ended up passing away. I was so sad! She was a sweet little girl and I got to take her for a ride in my convertible a while ago. I can't imagine how hard that would be and I hope she knows Maryn is okay. She is probably hanging out with my dad and he is teaching her about dynamite! I went to the viewing Sunday night and it was so beautiful. It was in the cathedral at Juan Diego in Draper and they had tables full of pictures. There were candles and little shoes and her dresses from her dance class. Annette held it together better than I did. When I talked to her I cried and she was so sweet. She asked how I was and she said she thought I had gotten married. I told her not yet but I was getting closer! She hugged me and she was so awesome. Maryn was lucky to have her as her mom. Annette's blog is marynshope.blogspot.com.

I got to see a lot of people this week which always makes me happy! I got to see Nicole while we carpooled to a team meeting and it is always so much fun talking to her. I had dinner with Jeanne Thursday night and we went to Sweet Tomatoes and enjoyed catching up. Its been too long! On Saturday we went to Brandie and Page's son Lucas's birthday party at Classic Skating. It was a lot of fun getting to see all of Tyson's friends and Tirza had a blast because she loves Classic Skating. It was very nice and pretty relaxing. On Thursday I helped my mom clean out the laundry room in the basement. I took some stuff home that I didn't even remember her having down there and we got the baby toys she got for the grandkids put on the shelves. It is so nice having a ton of room down there! We finally got all the Christmas stuff put away and we will slowly clean the entire basement. On Sunday we hung out with Ty's parents since we haven't seen them in a while. We had lunch with his brother Brandon, his parents and us and Tirza at Famous Dave's and then Brandon had to go to work. We went to Menchie's and got frozen yogurt and it was sooo good! I'm definitely going there again. We went to their house and played games and relaxed until we had to take Tirza home. It was a lot of fun!

I got to see my family a lot this week. I saw my mom on Thursday and helped her clean. On Sunday after the viewing I met everyone at Marissa's apartment and we hung out for a few hours. We play Rummikub and I won (only because Rachel wasn't there to kick everyone's butts) and we had ice cream and brownie sundaes. They were yummy! It was nice getting to see my family 4 times in one week! On Saturday we went to Desert Star and saw Back From the Future (a spoof of Back To the Future). It was so funny! It is everyone's favorite so far. We got to take Tirza and I was so excited. Its fun to see how she gets into it and really enjoys herself. The best part of the show was when the crazy Doc uses Barbie and Ken dolls to show what would happen if they fail to get the Lagoon go cart up to 8 miles an hour by launching it down a ramp off the Provo clock tower. It was improv and we found out later that she gets certain things that she has to fit in to her monologue from the 2 other actors on the stage. She gets ready to push Ken in the go cart and she says "By the power of Chuck Norris's beard!" She lets go and he crashes at the bottom. Barbie slides down the ramp to save him. She tried to give him CPR and the Ken doll's head popped off and flew across the stage! It was awesome. The other guy was laughing so hard he couldn't say his lines! There were a lot of funny moments and we all had a really good time.

Overall this was a really good week. It was great getting to see a lot of friends and help my mom. I hope everyone had a great week too!

This has been a very fun week! The most exciting thing that happened is we found out we were all going to Mexico! My mom is taking everyone in June to Nuevo Vallarta and I am so excited! I'm going to be in Mexico on the beach on my birthday! We will be down there for a whole week and its going to be our whole family minus Rachel's kids. We will miss them for sure. It will be all the siblings and their significant others so Tyson and I finally get to take a vacation together! I cannot wait!! Now all I have to do is get my passport.

Since Tyson wasn't feeling good on Sunday and couldn't make it to Sandy to visit my family we went on Monday. I took the train and he picked me up near his work and we drove down together. We hung out and chatted and had pizza. It was so nice to not have to do anything while we were down there and we could just relax and catch up. It was awesome to not have to drive two cars home too!

So we are boring and have not watched very much this week. We finished season 2 of Big Bang Theory and are a little bit into the third season. We got a netflix movie a few weeks ago and haven't watched it yet!

On Wednesday we picked up Tirza and after we had dinner we played some video games. We played Bomberman and Castle Crashers. It was a lot of fun and very relaxing. On Thursday we went to Hannah and Taylor's who live next door. They have the cutest daughter named Madelyn and we played games while she walked around and ate pretzels. We played Nintendo Monopoly and Tyson totally kicked our trash! After we cleaned it up we talked for a while and had a good time. They are such awesome people! I'm so glad they live next door to us!

On Saturday I went to my cousin Melissa's wedding (we are born 18 days apart- I'm older :)) I hung out with my family, saw some family I haven't seen in a while and took some cool pictures in an old fashioned photo booth. I will post them later since I don't have them and can't scan them! Marissa and Wesley got in my car and we drove to Layton. They stayed the night and we had so much fun! When we got home I made some salsa and we snacked on it while we played Munchkins. Marissa and Wesley brought it and we'd never played it before. It was very interesting! The cards were really funny and I want to buy it! After we played that we introduced them to Last Night on Earth. So far Rachel and Logan are the only ones who have played it out of my family. We picked a scenario that we thought would be easy for beginners and we've never played it before because its one of the new ones from the expansions. Apparently it was really hard and we ended up beating Marissa and Wesley because they ran out of time. Hopefully the next one will be easier! We told them it would only take an hour or so but it took a half hour just to explain the rules. The game ended up taking 3 hours! We were playing until 2 in the morning and it was the longest game we've ever played! We talked for a bit after that and crashed around 3:30. We got up and made a really tasty breakfast. Marissa and Wesley made French toast and Tyson made his yummy fluffy scrambled eggs. We lit the candles in the table decoration and had a candle lit breakfast :) We relaxed most of the day and played another game of Munchkins, some Rock Band and Bomberman. My mom and Brandon came up around 5:30 and the guys played Castle Crashers and the girls talked at the table. It was nice to just sit and chat with my mom and Marissa. We were going to make spaghetti and salad but we were so tired and no one felt like cooking so we ordered pizza! It was really nice to not have to worry about cooking and cleaning. We ate while we played Last Night on Earth and showed Brandon and my mom how to play. We did a scenario that we knew was easy and soon they killed 15 of our zombies and won. They all really liked it which made me and Tyson happy. I had a really good weekend and loved hanging out with my family!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Hiding in the princess castle :)
A Sharpie so that you can see how teeny they are!
The setup
Hanging by the filter!
The water level isn't all the way to the top because the frogs breathe air every once in a while. They live mostly underwater and can't be handled because they dry out too fast!
Tirza at Chuck E. Cheese

New Pets and New Phones!

Some pretty exciting things happened this week! Tirza got a new pet :) On Saturday we went to lunch with Tyson's mom and then headed to PetsMart without telling Tirza where we were going. Lisa bought Tirza frogs! She got a light one that she named Sticky and a dark one named Explorer. Tirza was so excited! We got a little aquarium and some cute stuff to put in it. We all worked together to get the tank ready and Tirza put one of the frogs in it. She did a better job than I did! The rest of the weekend she would randomly wander over to their tank and watch them and then go back to whatever she was doing. We are all very excited to have them!

Another exciting thing this week is that Tyson and I got new phones! I switched to T-Mobile and we got a killer deal on our phones. It was buy one get one free, plus they gave Tyson cheaper pricing on our plan since he's been with them for so long. We also got a referral credit since I moved from Verizon and I get 10% off through my work! So instead of paying $80 for my plan and going over every month we are now paying less than $130 for unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and a data plan on our phones. I never have to worry about going over my minutes again! I am so happy about that! Tyson and I have been with different carriers for 2 years and its been very frustrating. Now we both have the MyTouch 4g which is the coolest phone ever, and we never have to worry about going over minutes! I am very very happy about this. Tyson did a ton of research before we bought our phones and the MyTouch 4g is pretty much the best phone out there. It outperformed the iPhone and has a ton of cool features. We can do video chats, project pictures and videos onto TV screens, and you can customize everything! It is a way cool phone. I loved my Dare but after using this phone for 10 minutes I knew I could never go back. There is a ton of cool stuff for it and since Tyson is techno savvy he can show me everything and fix the phone when I screw it up!

Tirza is in Girl Scouts and has started selling girl scout cookies. She has set a lofty goal of 500 boxes and after just this weekend of talking to family and friends we have sold almost 100! I really hope that we can help her reach her goal. It helps that the girl scout cookies are so good!

I mentioned in my last post that I had gotten Troy's amazing salsa recipe. I have been working on perfecting it and then getting rid of the evidence so that I can try it again! Since I made the first batch 3 weeks ago I have probably made 5 batches since then! I have been sharing it with family, friends and neighbors and getting everyone's opinion to make sure it is as good as I think it is :) I have been wanting to make this salsa for a long time and am very glad that I get to make it and share it!

Tyson and I have not watched very much this last week. We have watched at least half a dozen episodes of season 2 of Big Bang Theory but besides that we only watched Karate Kid with Tirza, which we've both seen. We've had a Netflix movie for about 3 weeks so this week we will try to watch that so that we can get another one!

We took Tirza to Chuck E. Cheese on Sunday and she had a lot of fun. We went with Brandie and her kids since Page is out of town. The kids had a blast! I am proud to say that I won 25 tickets for Tirza. She got almost 200 tickets by the end and got a necklace, a T-Rex coin and 2 packets of Pop Rocks which are probably one of her favorite candies. She loves all candy and will devour it as long as it has massive amounts of sugar so it is hard to tell which is her favorite! I was glad she had fun because Chuck E. Cheese is definitely not my version of fun. Its too noisy, crowded and was woefully understaffed for how busy it was. At least she had a good time! She loved playing the games and Tyson and I cheered her on.

On Sunday I braved the pouring rain and drove to Sandy to see my family. I hadn't been down there on a Sunday in a long time and was determined to make it! I brought some fresh salsa and we hung out and talked. It was so nice! I really enjoy just hanging out and chatting with my family. I like to know what is going on with them. I couldn't stay as long as I wanted and had to head home to make sure Tyson was okay. He wasn't feeling good and couldn't make the drive. Luckily he rested and was feeling better when I got home!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Get ready for pictures!

The best way to start a blog- with a smile!


yay us!

Train! Some poor person got roped into taking this picture!


Pretend like we're not freezing!



Tirza helping with salsa
Eating some of the cotton candy I got from Classic Skating :)
Fairy tea party time!

Evelyn catching some air

Whee!
Ooh what's that?
Whoosh!

Evelyn approaching warp speed

Marissa and Jackson
Marissa and Wesley. It is still weird to say he's her husband!
Brandon and Adalie
Brandon's shadowbox
Rachel's shadowbox
Marissa's shadowbox
My shadowbox. My mom found the black and white picture in his wallet. I have the other 3.
Us in all our aproned glory!
Adalie and Jackson
Evelyn in her glass slippers
New blankie!
Hugs from Grandma!
The twins investigating.
Nap time
Gangster Eva eating candy while no one is looking!
She saw me on the couch and she came and snuggled under the blanket!
The best kind of chaos :)
Marissa, Wesley and my mom made all of them! Evelyn didn't want to take Tirza's off!
Me and Tirz in our matching aprons!

Oh yeah. She knows what that's for!
My awesome runner!