A Terrible Day...But I Can Laugh About It Now

I don't even know how to begin this post! Yesterday was a bad day for several reasons, but first I'll give you some background info. On Sunday I drove down to my parents house to spend the night, because I had a Dr.'s appointment the following day. Sunday was actually a great day, besides the fact that Petey couldn't come down with me because of school and work (boo!).

Monday morning rolls around and I'm nervous for my Dr.'s appointment. I was nervous because I don't enjoy any doctors office (who does?) and I had to find the office, which is always a problem for me haha. I left my house at 1:10-ish so I could get to my 2 o'clock appointment in Provo with plenty of time to spare. I hop into my car and notice as I put it into reverse my car starts acting sketchy.

((( ***FLASH BACK*** My car has always been  'special.' I have to do things in a certain order and if I don't it freaks out. A few years ago my car was having all sorts of electrical problems. The radio would turn off when I would turn right, the seat belt light would flicker on and off while I was driving even though I was wearing my seat belt, the dashboard would make this weird clicking sound --- and afterwards the steering wheel would be extremely hard to turn...etc. There have been problems with the windows and many other parts of the car too. When my car was doing this a few years ago we took it into the mechanic and they couldn't figure out what was causing it. A few days after I got my car back I started my car and THEN put my seat belt on....and after that the car was fine!!!! So ever since then I always had to make sure that I put my seat belt on AFTER the car was already started. Well...a few weeks ago I wasn't paying attention and put my seat belt on before I started the car. Bad idea. Ever since then the the radio will turn off when I'm in reverse or neutral. That was the only problem my car was having  until yesterday...)))

So yesterday I put my car into reverse to head to my appointment and the radio turns off (like normal), but while I'm backing out of the driveway the radio clicks back on. At first I just figured my car was finally going to fix itself...alas I was wrong. So on my drive to Provo turns completely off, as in the radio no longer make sound for any station and my seat belt light starts acting stupid again. Then the dashboard starts making the clicking sound and my steering wheel becomes difficult to maneuver. On the freeway in Provo there is a lot of construction which made my drive even more eventful. To top off the drive I can't use the air conditioning in my car because my car will overheat, so I'm soooooooooo hot while on this stressful drive. I finally make it to the Dr.'s office and I call my mom and Petey to tell them about my car troubles. I'm starting to freak out because I don't know if I will be able to make it back to Logan, and with our busy schedules Petey and I need our own cars right now.

I check-in for my appointment and they ask to see my insurance card. Well.....before I left Payson I shoved a plastic bag (one of the zipper lock ones) into my wallet (it had some cash in it). My wallet didn't want to close but finally I MADE it close. Anyways, I'm trying to open my wallet to show them my insurance information, and my wallet is jammed. Seriously..I was trying with all my might to open my stupid wallet. No luck. Finally the receptionist tells me that if my insurance information is the same as my last visit (it was) that they shouldn't need to see my card. I sit down and start filling out the paper work when the nurse calls me back. The first thing the nurse wants to do is take my blood pressure. Reminder: I'm suffering from heatstroke, frustration, and anger at this time. The nurse takes my blood pressure and tells me that it is really high, 144/100. I told her about my crappy drive, so she wrote that in my file so people wouldn't freak out when they saw how high my blood pressure was. The Doctor sees me and at the end of our appointment I ask her if I can get her professional opinion about something. 2 weeks ago I found a weird lump/bump in my left thigh, so I asked her to look at it and tell me what she thinks it could be. She told me it could be a cyst, a blood clot, or even melanoma (cancer). OH JOY!!!!! She gave me an order to get an ultrasound on my thigh at the hospital in Logan to try and figure out what this thing in my leg is. At the very end of my appointment a nurse came back to check my blood pressure to make sure my bad drive/morning was the cause for my high pressure. By this time I had calmed down a bit and my BP was at 122/78, much better.

After my appointment I call Petey to let him know what the Dr. said and we both start to freak out about money. Now that I need to get an ultrasound done on my thigh, we could be paying hundreds of dollars in medical bills because our insurance won't cover much. I'm nervous to find out what this thing is, but we will pay the money to find out and put our minds at ease. Once I left the doctors office I met my mom for lunch and then I hung out at her work until 5pm. I had my mom drive my car on the drive home because it was freaking me out so bad. Once again it was a very hot drive! We stopped in Spanish Fork and met my dad and little brother for dinner at one of my all-time favorite food joints: Park View Drive Inn, a.k.a. Barry's. My day was starting to get a little better now that I was getting yummy food in my belly!! Next thing we know one of the employees (I always assume this particular employee IS Barry, but I'm not sure haha) asks us if we drive a white Toyota Highlander (that's the vehicle my dad and brother drove to dinner). My dad says yes and 'Barry' tells my dad that it was just hit by a car in the parking lot. I was thinking you've got to be kidding me. How could this day get worse?!!! We ran out to the parking lot to see this:

 

The owner of the truck that hit our car is an 18 year old girl, who is an employee at Park View Drive Inn. She was crying and freaking out. She called her brother and he came to help her get everything in order. My dad was freaking out, understandably, but we tried to let her know that everything will be okay. We've all done dumb stuff while driving haha. The worse part was that this teenage girl had just bought the truck! We spent probably 30 minutes trying to figure out all the insurance stuff out and to get a police report of the accident. The girl hit my parents car while trying to park her truck. After all of this happened, she had to go work her shift at the Drive Inn. I'm glad I wasn't the only one having a bad/weird day!!

So ya...that was my crazy/weird/badly eventful day! It doesn't sound as bad now, but while in the moment it was horrible! Now I can look back on yesterday at laugh and everything that went wrong. Since my car was being sketchy I came back to Logan this morning, instead of Wednesday like I was planning on.I wish I could've spent more time with my family, but I really missed Petey and needed him to make me laugh :) Now I just have to get my leg checked out, and hopefully everything is okay!

ALSO....our washing machine broke yesterday. One more thing to add to the list! Haha!!

And I've decided my car is NEVER leaving Cache Valley ever again!

It's a new day though, and it has been much better :)

Easter & My 23rd Birthday!

Easter this year was kind of a bummer since we didn't get to spend it with any family. Petey had to work on Easter from 1:00-8:00pm, so I sat around and waited for him to get home :) I hope that next year we will be able to spend Easter Sunday with family. My mom's side of the family always has a big get-together...yummy food, lots of family, and an Easter egg hunt! Hopefully we can make it next year :) Although we didn't get to spend much time on Easter together, Little

Bunny Foo Foo found our apartment and surprised us with some treats :)

My stash

Peter's stash

*No matter what holiday, I always buy Petey

a cat card. I just love them :) *

In other news my 23rd (gulp) birthday was on the 13th! I don't feel like I'm 23, but I guess I am haha. We starting celebrating early on the 12th when Petey took me to my absolute favorite Italian Restaurant, Le Nonne. It's a small Italian Restaurant here in Logan that serves pricey, but delicious food!! I got the Pennette Alla Pera (a.k.a. pasta with pears), so delish!!! Petey got a pasta with crab. We thought we would splurge a little more by getting some creme bruleee for dessert. Our waitress knew were were celebration my b-day so she gave us the dessert for free! Food tastes even better when its FREE! I had to take a picture of my lovely pasta:

After dinner Petey took me to do a little shopping. I had told him some things I wanted for my birthday, but he wanted me to pick them out to make sure I liked them :) I got a new purse, some cute socks (i love socks), 4 pairs of earrings, and Petey surprised me with a card, candy, and some Temptation cupcakes:

So cute! And it was 50% off!

Yummy !!

The day of my birthday I had the day off, so I just hung around the apartment until Petey was done with school. Once Petey was home we picked up Tyler & Jennie and we were on our way to Payson for the weekend to spend some time with my family! My mom had us stop in Provo where we stopped in on a BYU softball game to say hi to my dad (my dad announces for BYU, that's the ONLY reason we were there haha). My dad had to announce a double header, so we had to go to dinner without him. On our way out of the stadium he played a happy birthday song and let everyone know it was my birthday! For dinner we ate at The Pizza Factory, where they gave me a free pizza in the shape of my age!

At dinner!

After dinner we headed to Payson to hang out. My parents surprised Petey and I, and Tyler & Jennie with Easter baskets (since we weren't able to spend the holiday with them). So sweet!

Opening presents!

Dorks :)

On Saturday we ate some more yummy food, visited my Grandma Saunders, hung out with family, took some pictures out in the orchard, busted out the home videos, and had some cake and ice cream!

I love this picture!

My mama and I! Love her!

Sleepy Boy!!

More cupcakes!

Heaven on a plate!

It was a very relaxing birthday weekend and I'm so grateful for my amazing friends and family!! Thank you for all you do! I love you!!

Schedules!

If our lives weren't busy enough already, Lowe's has been over-scheduling Petey. This is what our work week looks like:

Kristin

Monday: 4:00pm-9:00pm

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: 9:00am-5:00pm

Thursday: 11:00am-6:00pm

Friday: 9:00am-5:00pm

Saturday: 10:15-3:00pm

Sunday: Off

Petey

Monday: 5:00pm-11:00pm

Tuesday: 1:30pm-4:30pm, 5:00pm-11:00pm

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: 5:00pm-11:00pm

Friday: 5:00pm-11:00pm

Saturday: 2:00pm-11:00pm

Sunday: 1:00pm-6:00pm

I pretty much don't have a husband this week :( So if anyone wants to kidnap me for a GNO, I'm totally for it!

In other news...my car started acting extra weird today. I know that my car has over 204,000 miles on it, BUT I NEED IT!!!!! Its having issues starting. I'm hoping it is an easy fix like having to get a new battery. The way our lives our right now, we need 2 cars! I've already had a freak-out expecting the worst, so I'm really hoping that everything will work out. Come on Ford Taurus, I need you and I heart you! I wish life would lighten up a bit!

A Fun Weekend!

The boy and I had such a fun weekend! We weren't able to do much on Friday because Petey had to work late, but the rest of the weekend was a blast! On Saturday, Petey had an early morning staff meeting (boo!) and I had to work from 10:00am-4:00pm. Worked DRAGGED on, but after that the fun began! When I got home from work Petey and I went to Olive Garden for dinner. We had a gift card so we splurged a little bit :) We even got some cheesecake dessert..and it was delicious!

After dinner we went home for a little bit and then headed over to the movie theater. We got to the movie theater an hour and a half early to wait in line for THE HUNGER GAMES!!! Petey hasn't read the books, but I've read all of them. We were excited! The girls we sat behind in line dressed up (which I thought was kind of weird...if you're going to dress up go to the midnight premiere, not to a showing of the movie 2 days later). While we were all nice and cozy waiting in line to be seated (thankfully we got there early enough to sit inside!) we heard the fanatics in front of us talking about how they had NINE more people they had to fit into the line with them. As more of their party arrived we all grew more annoyed. We'd been waiting in line for over an hour and they had friends just hopping in line right before we were being seated. We were happy when we got better seats than they did, that's what happens when you have to get an entire row of seats together haha.

I thought the movie was AWESOME!! I noticed a few details that the movie left out, so I explained them to Petey afterwards, but we loved it! I thought the actors did a great job and that the special affects were very impressive! The movie was exactly like the book, which I loved. I want to see it again :) After we the movie we came home and crashed. It was a long day!

On Sunday, we went to church and then came home and relaxed for a bit. Then we went to the Aggie Basketball game. The game was free, so we thought it would be a nice Sunday activity :) Plus we love our Aggies! The Aggies dominated Oakland University and they'll play for the championship of the CIT on Wednesday! After the game we had a BBQ with our friends. We've started hanging out a lot more with our married friends and it's been so much fun!! We had a delicious BBQ with chicken, shish kabob's, asparagus, chips, and cheesecake! It was delicious and a lot of fun! We have a lot of summer plans with our friends and we know we are going to have a fun-filled summer with them!

It was a great weekend!! We were able to have a very fun date night, spend some quality time together, and then spend some time with friends! I look forward to more weekends like these :)

9 months....

Hmmmm...what does the title of this post mean?

(It took me like 3 days to finish this post, don't judge haha)

It means that...Petey and I have been married for 9 months :) Whoot whoot!

I had last Saturday off of work and the boy and I wanted to make the day fun, so we trekked down to Salt Lake and hit up the Hogle Zoo. I always love going to the zoo. I don't care if it's Logan's tiny zoo, Hogle Zoo, or the San Diego Zoo. I love them ALL. The day was absolutely beautiful! Probably the nicest day of the year so far. Apparently everyone else thought the day was gorgeous too, because we weren't the only ones with that idea. The zoo was packed, it took us probably 15 minutes to park. Like I said earlier, I love the Hogle Zoo, but I was a little disappointed that they tore down their exhibit that had the butterflies, tropical plants, and birds in it. They tore it down and are building a cafe on top of it. LAME. They are starting to build an 'arctic exhibit' that will have polar bears and seals in it so that should be cool. Of course my camera had to die while we were there, but I was prepared with an extra battery....but guess what..that one was dead too haha. So here some of the few pictures that I was able to take before the battery tragedy happened.

He looks so sad :(

Baby Zuri!!

Lemur's

Some sort of kitty :)

The sloth. He was trying to scratch an itch

he had for a good 5 minutes. So funny! If

you've never seen how much the actress

Kristen Bell loves sloths, watch this video!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5jw3T3Jy70&ob=av3e

One of the tigers fell asleep literally a foot away from the viewing glass. He was sound asleep, it was kind of eerie being that close to an animal of that nature. We could see him breathe, see his teeth, and see every movement he made. Very cool. I'm not sure if we missed a wing of the zoo or not, but once we left I realized that we hadn't seen the penguins (which I love) or the zebra's.

After the zoo we went to Bountiful to visit Petey's mom for a bit. Then we headed back to Salt Lake where we met up with my parents and little brother. My little brother had been invited to come meet Salt Lake Community College's basketball coach, they are showing some interest in him. We all met up for dinner at the Blue Iguana before they went to SLCC. I was glad that we were able to meet up. I love seeing my family, even if it is one for an hour! My mom brought up some stuff of mine, including this beauty.....!!!!!!!!!!!

First class mail! Whoot Whoot!

*Pardon my 'I didn't want to get ready

today' look*

Opening up that expensive piece of paper!

Not going to lie...I thought it was going to

be prettier looking. Haha.

Yay Utah State!!!

After 3 months of wondering if I had actually graduated, my diploma arrived in the mail! Hip hip hooray!!!! I'm a college grad, cum laude style! :) So now that I'm officially graduated...what do I do now? Haha.

This past week as been spring break here at U.S.U., but Petey and I haven't gotten to do anything super fun :( I've had to work A LOT because everyone wanted to leave for the break (some girls went to Florida, Hawaii, Zions....I'm not jealous..) but the shifts still need to be covered...hence the me working a lot part. Even though I'm not in school, I still want a spring break! Oh well the $$$$ will be good. Petey hasn't had a fun spring break at all though :(

Petey worked at Lowe's last summer and recently reapplied there with the hopes of working there this summer as well. The good news is that he did get hired, but they wanted him to start working this week. I've struggled with this for a bit. Although I worked 2 jobs last semester and went to school (working around 30ish hours every week) it's different being on the other side of it. A couple days this week Petey worked 9+ hours, and I wouldn't see him until late at night. Plus adding school on top of this stresses me out because I know that he's trying SO hard to get good grades. I know that he'll be able to balance all of it, and I hope that I'll be able to deal with it haha. I know that he'll be able to get everything done and we can play in his spare time :) He'll only be working both jobs for like 7 weeks too....we can do it! I heart him and I'm very proud of him!! I'm just being selfish baby, I know everything will work out though!

In other news....WE BOOKED OUR CALIFORNIA TRIP!!!!!!!!! !!! We've been talking for a few months now about how it would be fun to go to California this coming summer. Our excuses for going are as follows A) I just graduated college and need a graduation present (haha) B) Our 1 year anniversary is coming up C) We want to, and D) It will be fun!!!!!! We are going May 13th-21st! We went to Cali last summer for our honeymoon, but this trip will be longer and we'll be FLYING instead of driving. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! We debated about driving but we found a good deal through Expedia by bundling our hotel and flight together. Plus gas prices will likely be over $5 by May, so we thought we mine as well fly. So far our plans include doing the Southern California City Pass (their website is awesome if you're going on a trip, they can bundle the prices of entertainment parks/famous sites together and save you some dollars!). The S. California City Pass includes 3 days at Disneyland/Cali Adventure, including 1 early morning admission to the park. SO STOKED!! 1 day at Sea World. 1 day at Universal Studios. We have the option to add on 1 day to the San Diego Zoo/Safari Park for like $20 a person too. Not too shabby. We don't really know what we're going to do the other 2 days we'll have free, but we'll find something :)

Less than 2 months!!!!!!!!

In other news Petey and I bought our tickets for this:

SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!! We are going to see it on Saturday! Petey hasn't read the books, but thinks that the movie looks really good. I however have read all the books and have been looking forward to this for a long time!!!

In some not so good news...I got a text from my parents a couple of nights ago saying that they were in the emergency room with Tanner because he hurt his ankle. Payson had a baseball tournament down in St. George this past weekend. Tanner was trying to tag out the opposing player at 2nd base. The opposing player slid into 2nd and slid right into Tanner's ankle :( I was so nervous that it was broken, but thankfully he just has a severe sprain!! Here is the picture my mom sent me of his ankle at the E.R.

This is after about 1.5 hours of ice, my mom

said it looked a lot worse earlier. We are SO

glad that his ankle wasn't broken!! We hope

he has a speedy recovery!

There is the long, picture-filled update on our life!!!! Love you all :)

Bittersweet

I was able to spend some quality time with my parents a couple of weeks ago :) I drove down from Logan on Wednesday, Feb. 22. Once I arrived in Payson my parents, my grandpa, and myself packed up our things and were headed to St. George for the 3A high school basketball tournament!! We were so excited and we'd been looking forward to the tournament for a few weeks! The trip to St. George was bittersweet because although I was really excited to have a few days off of work and to spend some time in warm(er) weather, Petey couldn't come along :( He would've missed 2 days of school, 3 days of work, and missed a mandatory staff meeting. I was really bummed that he couldn't come along, but he stayed and did what he needed to do. I love that boy!!

My family and I didn't want to have to pay for a hotel the 4 nights we would be in St. George, and we were fortunate enough to use my mom's-aunt's condo down there! The condo can sleep like 10 people, and was really nice. We even hit up the Dixie State vs. BYU Hawaii basketball game when we made it to St. G. The trip wasn't just bittersweet since Petey couldn't come, but the Payson basketball team lost in the 2nd round of the tournament :( They were a #1 seed and we knew they had the talent to win state, but the cards just didn't fall into place.

Payson lost to Cedar City in the 2nd round. Although my family is biased because Tanner (my little brother) is on the high school team, we really think that the reffing done at that game wasn't fair. At one point during the second half of the game the foul count was Payson 9, Cedar City 2. SERIOUSLY?!!! Tanner fouled out of the game with like 5 minutes left to go in the 4th quarter, which was just devastating! Another frustrating thing was that Tanner's first foul wasn't even his. The ref blew his whistle and then was looking around for the player that committed the foul. He called it on Tanner, which the whole Payson crowd and even Tanner started to freak out because he wasn't even near where the foul happened. After Tanner heard the foul was called on him he went up to the ref and told him that he called it on the wrong player. The ref looked at my brother and said "oh you're right, it was either on #24 or #33, I'll get that fixed"......low and behold the ref NEVER changed it in the book, so Tanner fouled out with 1 of foul he didn't even commit!! I still want to rip that referee a new one! Clint Bateman, another key player on Payson's basketball team fouled out in the 4th quarter. I started to lose it. Once Tanner fouled out I could see the disappointment and devastation on his face, it was heartbreaking! He and his teammates had worked so hard to win the state title and we had to sit and watch as their dreams were crushed. I hate seeing boys cry, especially my brother and his teammates. It was hard to watch :( Here are a few pictures from that game:




We took Tanner ice cream that night and he was still really upset. I was so upset after the game that I had a good 15 minutes cry-session. I'm so proud of Tanner and everything that he's accomplished. He's worked SO hard, and it's not over! He's going to go on to play college basketball and I know he is going to become even more successful! The next day Payson played Morgan high school (and the team who won that game played the next day for 5th place in state). Tanner had a spectacular game with 25 points, but Payson lost in OT. We are so proud of the Payson Lions, and especially Tanner! They had an amazing season! They went undefeated in region play, Tanner had an amazing senior year, and he was nominated as one of Utah's 9 All-American's for basketball! We love him!

Before we left St. George my mom and I went and took part in the Parade of Homes. We went and saw 11 homes, it was fun to have some girl time :) We looked at one house worth $1.8 MILLION dollars, but our favorite home we saw was a much more affordable (*cough cough*) $499,999. My grandpa and dad didn't really want to participate in the Parade of Homes, so my mom and I had to try and navigate our way around. If we didn't have the GPS we would've been in major trouble! If the GPS didn't recognize where an address was we skipped that house haha. My mom and I don't understand directions very well :)

We left St. George the morning of 25th. It was a somber ride home, but it was nice to spend some time at my actual house with my parents and brother. Being in Payson is one of my favorite places to be. I was happy to get on the road and head back to Logan though because I missed my hubs!! Petey has been working extremely hard at school and I'm so proud of him! Now that I've graduated its kind of weird because Petey will have to study at night, but I want him to play with me because I'm bored. I'm trying to let him study :) Petey and I are planning a vacation to California in May for my college graduation present, and for our 1 year anniversary :) !!

This past week has been crazy at my work. It's case lot and people are insane haha. It lasts through the 10th, so I hope I can survive one more week! The past few days have been crazy weather-wise also! I think Logan has gotten more snow the first 3 days in March than we had the whole month of December. This winter really hasn't been that bad, but now that it's March I'm ready for SPRING TIME!!! Go away snow!!! In Logan there is a gas station that put this up on their marquee...it makes me laugh:

(Dear Sun, Come Back)
This isn't a very good picture, but I think
everyone in Logan feels like this right now
Haha

The other day I came home from work and found this note from Petey on our T.V. stand

There was also a note on our computer that says" I love you boo, thank you for all you do!!" I sure do love that boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So ya...that was how my St. George weekend went and what we've been up to the past week or so. Not a very cool/entertaining post, but its an update, right? :)

Hello My Neglected Blog!

Hello Blogging world!

I need to stop being lazy and blog more often! Good heavens I'm sucking it up! I feel kind of lame that I'm going to be playing catch-up by blogging about Christmas during the month of February, but oh well :) Our Christmas was amazing! I had to work Christmas Even which really bummed me out, but as soon as I got off of work the hubs and I headed to Payson! When we got to Payson we were able to spend a little time with Tyler and Jennie before they headed to her parents house. I always love when our whole family can spend time together :) Before Ty & Jen left we exchanged our family presents. Here are some pictures of our Christmas Eve events:

Opening our stockings

The shirt I got Tanner. Go Bo Sox!

Present from my parents

Ty & Jen's couple gift from the parents! This is

such a cute idea! A chocolate box filled with

money and chocolates!

Our couple gift from my parents was a table and

a set of chairs! Now when people come over to

visit they don't have to sit in our glorious camp

chairs :)

After we opened presents we had an intense

game of finger basketball! The boys got these

in their stockings!

After our intense basketball game we moved

on to ping pong! I'm terrible, but it's always

fun to play. Tanner looks like he's having a

blast...

I love my kitty :)

Christmas morning we decided not to open presents until after church so we could get some extra sleep. After church Tanner decided to tackle his Christmas loot!

Look at all those gifts!

His biggest gift of all was this beauty!

Petey and I are way jealous!

Petey and I got my dad a $25 I-tunes

gift card, and we got my mom The Help!

Look at my dad hamming it up :)

After Tanner and my parents opened up their gifts, it was time for Petey and I to exchange our gifts! We sure got spoiled!!

Petey got 4 shirts, an amazon kindle

gift card, a new wallet, a HUGE stash of gum,

and the X-Men First Class dvd!!

Tanner being a dork

Petey got me an Aeropostale gift card,

my favorite candy, a USU sweatshirt,

the Ever After dvd, and the first season

of Criminal Minds! He did good!!

Smiling with some of our new clothes!

After we opened presents we went to our family

Christmas lunch. The food was delicious and we got

to spend time with our extended family. The best

part was that my Grandma was able to come

for a little while! We sure do love her!

Tanner got a basketball wall vinyl for

Christmas and my mom let him put it above

the stairs. She's such a cool mom :) However...

putting up wall vinyl is a pain in the

butt!!! It took us forever!!

It turned out awesome though!

I was able to get a couple of days off of work, so we were able to hang out in Payson on Monday and Tuesday as well! We hung out, ate yummy food, went to the mall, and just relaxed.

Lovies

Petey's gift to my mom was this

gigantic wall vinyl. It was quite the

process to get this one on the wall,

but the boys did a great job!

The final product!

Once again I love my kitty!

Spending Christmas with my family was awesome!! I love them so much! When we got back to Logan our crazy life continued. I was able to get off by 7pm on News Years Eve, so we went to Tyler & Jennie's to celebrate! We played the game The Last Word (so much fun!), watched the new Planet of the Apes, drank Martinelli's, and kissed our loves at midnight :) It was a fun night!

In more recent news we went to Vernal in January to visit Petey's mom. It takes FOREVER to get out there, but it was a nice weekend away! We also were able to attend my Grandpa's 80th birthday party! It was really nice to get the extended family together to celebrate my Grandpa. My Grandma was able to attend his party as well :) The Monday following my Grandpa's party I woke up during the night feeling crappy. By the morning I was throwing up and all of that fun stuff :( Petey started to feel sick too. By the end of the day there were over 20 people in my family that attended the party that were sick! Someone at the party must have been sick... and ended up getting a bunch of us sick! I had to call into work sick and I felt lousy all day. Fortunately. I felt better the next day and was able to work!

Petey's Grandpa Cook passed away in January. The funeral was very nice, but sad of course. Petey's Grandma passed away about 18 years ago, so it makes us happy to know that they are back together again! Petey's Grandpa is Quentin L. Cook's uncle, from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Elder Cook attended Petey's Grandpa's funeral, spoke at the services, and met us all. It was a sad, but peaceful day.

Petey has been working very hard in school this semester! He is taking the second half of Organic Chemistry, Statistics for Scientists and Engineers (sounds fun, ya?), Public Health, and Epidemiology. I'm extremely proud of him and all of his hard work!! I've been working a lot!! I really like my job, but, but I want to start looking for a job that applies more to my major and my goals :) We'll see what happens!

In other news...Tyler and Jennie are moving to NEW ZEALAND!!! Tyler is going to play for the Auckland Pirates basketball team!!! We are very excited for them to go on this adventure!! I'm very jealous too :) I'm proud of Tyler and I know that him and Jennie are going to have an amazing time in N.Z.!! If Petey and I win the lottery, or happen to stumble upon a $10,000 bill we'll be able to visit them :) Speaking of basketball, Tanner and the Payson Lions have gone UNDEFEATED in region play!!! I'm so proud of him! The state tournament is in St. George the end of February, and I know that the Lions can go all the way!! I'll be attending the tournament with my parents, which will be bitter sweet. Petey can't miss that much school, and he has a staff meeting so he won't be able to go with me :( I'm very VERY excited for the basketball tournament, excited for a little vacation, but sad that Petey can't go with me :(

Well there was a long update on our lives! We have lots of things to look forward to!! I'll keep you posted :)