The Perks of Life!

Dear Grandma Great,

2012-04-30T21:45:00.001-06:00

I've been thinking A LOT about you lately. Maybe this is because you loved this time of year. You loved the warm air and the fresh, newly mowed green grass. Your favorite chair quickly became the rocker on the front porch and we would stay up many nights way past bedtime watching the light fade into the night. I miss you so much it hurts at times, but I smile when I think about you and Grandpa together again. I can't believe it's been a whole year since you last sat on the porch and laughed with us. I wish so badly you were here to hold and cuddle Oaklee and Fisher, you would've loved them so much. They are such cute, sweet HAPPY babies. Perhaps that's because you were the last to kiss them goodbye before they joined us here. Lucky me I had the sweetest dream with you in it the other night. You were happy and I knew you were happy. And then I woke up the next morning and my mom reminded me it was your birthday. Thanks for the present on YOUR birthday. Don't know why but I feel you so close at times I think maybe if I squint a little harder, I'll see you. I even sometimes wave to you when I run in the mornings and I like to think you wave back. :) (I probably look pretty silly to my running partner, but anytime I see a yellow butterfly (so many yellow butterflies I lost count last run, true story) I know you're there somewhere.) Caleb, mom, dad and I had such a sweet experience in the temple the other night doing your work. But I'm sure you know that too. I'll never forget it. Keep sending those butterflies. Love you MORE. xoxoxo
Lauren

P.S. This was the view as Caleb and I walked hand in hand around the temple the other night. This almost looks as pretty as a Kansas farm sunset. We laughed and talked about you. The longer you've been gone, the more I seem to appreciate the woman you became. Miss you!

friday night date night- i love you lots...

2012-03-30T21:50:00.000-06:00

...especially when I get to break out the spring clothes for the first time in a long time.
And even more so when the cheesecake factory is involved.
And a way over due catch up night with great people is in the mix-up.
And when I feel like Sunday was the last day I played let's have a real conversation with my man- oh time where do you always go?! It's okay if you decide to stand still for tonight!!

So Long 2011

2011-12-31T19:23:00.005-07:00

I seriously can not believe another year has come and gone. I still remember New Years Eve 2000 like it was yesterday. I had a rocking sleepover with all the neighborhood besties. We stayed up all night waiting for the world to end, ate pickles, and banged all of my mom's pots and pans. Who does that?! Oh man were we cool. :) I love the end of the year. I feel like my life hits a pause button for a small moment to reflect on all of the happenings of the past year. And as much as I thought my life was bliss as a 13 year old girl back in 2000 (which it was) I now realize my life is more perfect than it has ever been. I am one lucky girl. Here's to all of the should have been blogging moments of 2011. (new year's resolution 2012, show some much more needed blogger loving)

Girl's Favorite Things 2011. Epic this year. D went all out and reserved a condo in Midway. I'm pretty sure we'll have to fly to Bora Bora next year to beat this year's weekend.

Mom's favorite thingssss = hand crafted jewelry keeper frames, charming charlies, shower spongie, and the list goes on.... She forgot we call it a favorite thing and not things party, I think we'll just call her Oprah now. D's favorite = Tommy Girl and a yellow butterfly magnet. Tender moment. Aubrey's favorite = 101 things every kid should do and a journal to track our doings. So fun. Erin's favorite = Gorgeous framed vintage photos of the temple. World's greatest thrifter at her finest. Love the picture! Shay's favorite = super cute earrings that every girl in my school wants. My favorite = Purse with a copy of the parable of the purse, and a love letter from our lovers to go in our purses.

We loved this house so much that we wanted to pose in front of it. On a side note, we saw a lot of deathly looking runners go by as we were snapping away. I asked my mom if we should offer them a ride home. Then we found out they were on mile 99, yes 99, of a 100 mile race. I was humbled. And I don't know why they turned down a car full of cute girls but for some reason they opted to finish the race rather than get a ride home.

The best husband in the universe scored some serious bonus points for writing this letter. My mom asked us to share our favorite sentence without getting emotional, yeah right!! And yes his cursive is better than my typed papers.

Life changing experience. So lucky to be a part of Oaklee's grand entrance. Enough said.

Friday, February 18th, 2011. 7 days before she found out heaven is for real. I totally agree when people say you don't know what you've got til it's gone. This was the happiest I've ever seen my Grandma. Too bad the night had to end, but wow I am so so grateful that Caleb and I for whatever reason decided to spend our entire Friday night in Grandma Great's room. Not even all the riches of the world could buy a night like that one.

The husband's wish for me to have a little more fun with Halloween came true. He even let me pick out his costume. My intent was for us to be Jesse and Norman from A River Runs Through It. Caleb's new wish is for me to never pick out his costume again. My bad.

I ran the ~~hardest~~ most fun races of my life.

Caleb figured out why my childhood vacations to Kansas really were as good as I say they were.

My job has exponentially increased on the DILY scale. Best job ever.

Porter showed his killer bball skills to my kids. They dubbed him the next Harlem Globetrotter in the making. My students still fight over who gets to play with the personally autographed yellow Porter basketball. He's that cool.

Caleb is definitely the favorite around here. For some reason whenever I show up alone I instantly get the where's Caleb question kiddo attack.

And he is thinking of switching his major to expert wood crafting maker person. I think he should opt for the host of what not to wear.

All of my family in the same picture. Say what?! Oh wait, we've added two more since!! Freaking love all of them.

Went to the game wearing one color, came out cheering for a different. Still so fun though.

Caleb and I thought it would be so cool to give Emry a bunny for her birthday. I don't know if her dad thought the same. He babysat that bunny while Emry was on vacation, and meanwhile the bunny died. Emry has since told Caleb and I over and over that if she ever goes on vacation again, we get to babysit her bunny. Want cool presents for your kids?! Invite us to their parties, you'll love us so much afterwards. Just kidding Mike, you really aren't that bad of a bunny babysitter. Some things just take time. :)

I saw Seth a.k.a. my most favorite cousin ever twice in the same year. This blue knight is the bomb.com.

I overly loved living only five minutes away from the sister's house. Starbuck's vanilla steamer cravings and baby snuggling wishes love it too.

And best of all, I got to spend another perfect year with the man of my dreams!!

2011 you rocked!!!
And I am so excited for 2012. Bring it!!

Great Friends!

2011-11-06T21:46:00.006-07:00

Halloween weekend was celebrated with some of our great friends. Sam and Penny Yarbrough invited us up to the Yarbrough Manor at Fish Lake. Until we actually got there I, Caleb, didn't think it existed because Sam always conveniently invited me when I couldn't go. :) But this time we were able to go and it was awesome! We got to catch up with the Wangsgard's as we carpooled together. It is always great being around Dave and Sarah, except for when Dave thinks I'm hitting on his wife. I can totally see why he would be intimidated by me though, so I can blame him, hahaha. Anyways, we also go to see the McKinley's who we haven't seen for ages! It was so fun to see their son Maximus Primus and their baby girl Avery. They have such an awesome family and I am very jealous of them. I got to entertain Max during breakfast the first morning by throwing grapes as high as I could and catch them in my mouth. Max loved it, but what he loved even more was when I taught him to throw grapes at his Dad :), I need someone to pick on Danny when I'm not there. Oh and there is a beautiful stream that flows right past the cabin and so Max always wanted to go and see it and I would walk out there with him and this is one of the pictures I got of him. It was mid smile. He was frowning when I told him to smile, and then I was trying to make him laugh and caught the transition face. Oh well, he is still a very cute kid. Good job Jessie!

We had a lot of fun playing Quiddler, having Ticket to Ride tournaments (luckily Jessie didn't win any of these, I think she lost her edge), and Penny surprised us with a Micheal Jackson dancing game for the Wii. Surprisingly Dave was pretty good at this. Even when it wasn't his turn he was off in the corner practicing his moves so he could compete with Danny and Penny. Sam on the other hand was the same old Sam who loves to dance no matter if the game tells him he is good or not. (just playin cowboy.)

The guys were able to get away here and there and play some fuseball. I have to admit that I was a charity case in that game and that Dave was kind enough to accept me as his teammate. Danny is abnormally awesome at fuseball, Dave is an awesome defender, and Sam would just rock my face on offense. We had a tournament with fuseball and Dave and I ended up loosing the last game after many great comebacks.

Lastly, we got to go out on the lake and do a little fishing in the freezing cold weather. I guess there is a part of the lake where the mountain dips and it is called the saddle. Sam said we would catch some fish there and Dave was able to catch a humongous 10" rainbow trout. Unfortunately we threw it back in and didn't eat it.

It was such an awesome weekend to just relax and enjoy the company of many great friends we have made. Thanks Sam and Penny for putting that together. We love you guys.

This past weekend Lauren and I finally hung out with our long lost friends Billy and MacKenzie who just got back from Houston, Texas a year ago and decided they wanted to hang out :). It was so fun! We went to Zupas and then did what we do best, just talk the night away. We were able to catch up on their lives in Houston and they convinced us even more that Texas would be a great place for the future Perkins' family. It is always great when you can have friends that you don't see for over 2 years and pick up like you just saw them yesterday.

We played the game Quiddler with them, which is like a scrabble card game, and I ended up loosing by a lot because I challenged the word "zoon" and lost quite a few points. Besides me loosing again, it was a lot of fun!

Also we hung out with Trent and Erica who are hilarious. They have an awesome house, and an even more awesome dog! Bry is a boxer and is two years old and absolutely cut! His muscles bulge everywhere and so Bry, the dog, has inspired me to start working out a little more. Let's see if that happens :) We hung out at their house talking and wrestling with Bry. Lauren learned what a boat that paddles is called, a paddle boat :). After talking for a bit we went to go see Moneyball which turned out to be a pretty good movie. I might just watch an inning of baseball now.

Anyways, we are very grateful to have the friends that we do. Anywhere we go we can count on great friends to be there. Hopefully we can be friends until we're 50, then from there on who knows :) right Dave.

Good Hail! I ran 26.2 and liked it.

2011-09-18T22:15:00.009-06:00

Mom I wrote EVERY detail, and then some, just for you. Missed you. :) And please don’t ground me permanently even though somehow both camera batteries were dead. Caleb’s phone does just as good as our DSLR right?!

Friday was crazy. I thought running against schools like BYU and Boise State was scary, I guess I didn’t know what scary was back in my college days. My pre-race-jitters hit an all time high and I think the people around me could sense those feelings. Everyone was trying extra hard to show me the love. Mr. Herzog went out of his way to make sure EVERYONE knew what I was doing the next day (great, no pressure at all to finish) and he counted down the hours more than I did. Thanks. All 930 students wished me good luck. Somehow the staff was also informed, couldn’t have been Herzog, about my madness and they gave me a super cute running jacket- maybe they knew what was to come the next morning, or maybe they just jinxed me... Some students also showed the love by bringing me way too many candy bars. I’ve taught them so well about pre-race fuel, or maybe I was really grumpy and they know how to give me a cheerfulness fix, or maybe they just wanted extra-credit. I have no idea who would’ve ever told them they would be my favorite students and get bonus points if they brought me candy. ;)

Friday night Caleb was being sooooo sweet to me. I feel bad now because I’m pretty sure I was ornery. And we all know what happens when I’m in a bad mood, no bueno. We drove up to Logan to pick up my packet. Caleb made me sphagetti for the 25^th night in a row, I drank enough water to stay hydrated for an entire year, and all I wanted at this point was for the race to just finally begin.

My dad called me a million times through out the week, or maybe his extra nervous first-time marathon runner daughter called him a million times to get some more wise words of advice, I can’t remember now, but Friday he told me he scored big at D.I. and found the perfect clothing bag for me to keep all of his sweats in. Yes, his sweats. I love mine too much. Heaven forbid I might loose some of my ten year old, bleach stained, torn sweats. So I turned to the next best thing, my dad’s sweats. I am so nice to him, no wonder I'm his favorite. He brought me the bright orange trick-or-treat pumpkin bag with his sweats (which was the best idea ever because it took us all of five seconds to find that bag at the finish line), I popped some sleep meds, and zoned out.

Fast-forward to 3:15 am. I slept like a rock, and only dreamed one bad thing, the stick on the trail turned into a giant Rattlesnake that bit my ankle and I died. I woke up and was delusional. I heard something really loud outside, RAIN!!! But I was so confused because it NEVER EVER rains like that in Utah. GREAT!!!!!! Notice my dad's mountain man jacket he let me wear?! He must have really liked our Halloween costumes from last year.

Caleb drove me to Logan and I got right on the bus. The only thing I was thinking about on the bus ride was the huge need to go pee feeling I had. I swear I was going to pee my pants. Seriously, enough fuel in my bladder to hydrate your mom’s cow… The bus ride up the canyon seemed like 52 miles, definitely not 26, and the long ride was not helping the mental note that I knew I was about to run down what we just drove up. The old man next to me was really tired and didn’t say one word. We got to the start and the bus driver stopped the bus and everyone just sat there. I was so confused because I knew we were at the start but no one was getting off the bus. I was at the back of the bus and was the first to stand up. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy because I stood up, I yelled to the bus driver something like hey I am about to pee on your bus, can you please open the doors so I can get off?! I got off the bus and realized the bathrooms were a quarter of a mile up the road, I guess that’s why no one was getting off because they knew eventually the driver would take them to port-a-potty land. I peed in the bush and made my way to the heated tent.

30 seconds before the gun went off, the skies thought it would be funny to pour an ocean on all the runners. It lasted long enough to get my shoes soaking wet, and went away. Glad you cared. Right then I decided that if I wanted to have a positive experience, I couldn’t let the monsoon bring me down. I turned on my music and started dancing. (Dancing in the rain, bucket list check.) I was completely SHOCKED when I ran past the mile one sign because it felt like I had been running for 60 seconds. Then all of the sudden there was mile 2, and 3, and 4…I was pleasantly surprised at how fast the miles were flying by. I got to mile 6 did a double take with the course digitial clock and my time, thinking there was no way I was really running sub 8 minute miles. OOOPS!! I was feeling sooo good but knew if I kept up that pace for much longer I would either die, or I would be hating life come Mile 18, so I slowed my pace. The canyon was so beautiful and peaceful. At mile 8 the rain hit really hard again. It continued for, don’t even worry about it, TEN MILES.

After I got over the fact that my hair was ruined, I was cold, my shoes now weighed at least 20 lbs. each, I couldn’t see, my ear filled with water and ruined my niece’s left-ear head phone I was wearing, it felt like I was wearing a swimming suit, I couldn’t feel my legs because they were so cold, I made the mental note to be the Tigger in life that my mom always taught me to be. And started thinking something like, the faster I run, the faster I finish, the faster I get to be with Caleb, the faster I’m out of the cold rain, the faster I can go back to bed, and the faster I get to take a hott shower. Mile 13 was at the bottom of the canyon and my time was right around 1:45ish. I was feeling good and knew that if I kept my pace I would be in good shape for qualifying for Boston. This was a good motivator to keep moving. At mile 14 I saw my dad and sister and couldn’t have been more happy. My dad must have been really worried about me cuz he kept asking me if I was okay and really wanted me to put on his jacket. He seriously has been the best coach through this entire process and he was more worried about the rain, coldness and hail than I was. Bless his heart I've caused him a lot of stress and anxiety the past 7 days. At mile 15 I saw Caleb and was freaking out!! Then I noticed the scenery and road I was running on looked very familiar, it was the exact road I ran on for my first leg of Ragnar, freaking out even more. I wanted Caleb to know he had a super hott sexy wife even in the rain, so I picked up my pace again. BUT I guess my spirits needed a humbling fix, almost as much as BYU needed a humbling fix after they scored their one and only touch-down yesterday and were cheering as though they had just won the superbowl, they lost 5,000 to 10, or something like that, boy were they humbled, so back to my running, it started hailing!!!! I was humbled and slowed way down.

Andy and Shay, Caleb personally made this video just for you two.

I continued to see my cheerers every few miles and was feeling good. Then it happened, I hit the wall at mile 18, and tried to ignore the fact that the entire mile was a hill. I may or may not have walked all of it. :/ Somewhere a long the run a lady runner next to me told me she could hear the water in my shoes sloshing around!!! Oh my luck sometimes, it's okay to not be jealous. Eventually I made my long way to mile 21 and ran into Caleb and Caitlyn.

Caitlyn was a complete rockstar and drove all the way to Logan to pull me a long the last five miles. She seriously was my saving grace. She just did a marathon this summer and so she knew the exact feelings I was having. We carried on and met up with Aubrey at mile 23!! Wahoo another person to pull me a long!! I think the race people got confused with their distance calculations and I’m pretty sure the last 3 miles was actually 10 miles. Eventually I finished and was quite emotional, in a good way, crossing the line. I loved the marathon so much that despite my muscles screaming bloody murder when they come close to stairs, I can’t wait to do it again. My time was right around 4 hours, and if your math skills are any better than mine, you know more than I know that I slowed way way down the last few miles. But oh well, I feel good and I know I gave it my all.

26.2. Whoo whoo!!

Thanks to everyone who’s had to put up with my race anxiety for the past 90 days. It was well worth it and I can’t wait to do my next one!! And a special thanks to these people! Best motivators, coaches, supporters ever. And as a side note, my dad told Caleb and I a few weeks ago that he heard a song on the radio that he really likes. He started singing it and it's Beyonce's Single Ladies song. No joke! Caleb and I have since been making bets on what radio station my dad listens to. Apparently it's the same radio that plays LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem because all he kept saying was to just keep shuffling. Everyday I'm shuffling... Which was funny because I lost track how many times I listened to that song on repeat to get pumped for the race, before and during...

I wait all year for the 4th...

2011-07-11T14:43:00.010-06:00

If there's one day in the year that I seriously know how to "live it up", it's definitely the 4th.

And if there's one holiday that completely deserves a double x-l long post, this one is it and I didn't disappoint.

I freaking love everything about the holiday.

I especially love fast and testimony meeting during the month of July. (I'll never forget how Sarah Stelter hit it home for me this year.)

I love taking the time to think about what freedom and being American really means. thank you chris.

I love waking up to run an early race, cheering at the parade for who knows what just to get that one piece of taffy, barbecuing and pooling it in the afternoon, playing and acting as though no one is watching as the sun slowly fades into the dimness of the night, the anticipation for the first big boom and lit sky, the smell of smoke in the air (yep I really just said that), and of course the grand finale- the kind that in this case the city of Bay Village spent way too much money on- but was well appreciated.

Really though, I.freaking.love.all.of.it.

It's on cold long winter days that I dream and wish about the 4th.

So when it's here, I kind of feel like it's deja vu, the entire day, and I hate it when the day comes to a close.

This year was especially fun.

Caleb and I flew to Ohio again.

Nothing beats fireworks over the lake and chasing cute kiddos who we definitely don't get to see enough of.

And extra bonus, Andy had the entire week off to entertain us, or more like make fun of someone just because they forgot how to spell the word rink. Oh wait who won that Qwiddler game?! That's what I thought.

Playing and waiting for that first big boom. Totally feel so lucky that we got a group shot.

A NORMAL picture of the chief and me. Say what?!! Yep, normal, it is possible.

I seriously love my brother so much and feel like it's an honor to claim him as such. I loved being introduced at church as Andy's little sis.

Maybe one day I'll be half as cool, kind, wise, loving, hard-working, super-heroish (any person who saves other people's lives on a daily basis should be called a super hero right?) and funny as he is.

Love her.
Can we please be neighbors?! No more of this 2,000 miles away crap. Texas needs doctors too.

And we had fun attempting to get a picture of me and all the spunkiness that surrounded us for 6 days.
Notice how Caleb rocked it on the face painting this year.

Hottness. end of story.

And even more hottness.
It boggles my mind that we are standing in front of a lake, not an ocean.
Caleb thought Jaws was going to be in full-attack mode any moment because the lake is just that big.
And we decided that lakes in Utah are way too over-rated and should be called puddle hoppers.

Marin. Couldn't get enough of her.
And please don't ever burn your fingers again. Your mom and I might just have a heart attack.

We loved us some beach time and humidity time. And Tessa and Carlee loved them some mermaid time.

I love summer nights. The feel of being content and knowing that life is good. Porter feels the same way, especially when Caleb is around.

And it ain't no 4th of July without some funnel cake loving, horse riding, money wasting, carnival sporting, good time.

I loved this trip. It was the perfect summer recipe.

Caleb is still wishing Tessa could've been our lap child on our flight home. She has a good time telling Caleb your mom jokes. We forget that she's just two.

Buffalo wild wings, Quiddler, Settlers, and the food was a hit, just like always.

Thanks Andy, Shay, Porter, Tessa, Carlee and Marin for adding the perfect week to our summer.

And yes I'm already counting the days til next year's 4th.

Proud to be American are we.

365 times 3

2011-05-15T00:40:00.014-06:00

caleb and i celebrated three years.
i will never forget the first time i saw caleb- i had major butterflies and became a true believer in love at first sight.
i wanted him so bad.
apparently caleb wanted me too, so thanks to his friend's smart thinking, caleb's keys were chucked at me and we exchanged numbers.
i then went on a date with the man of my dreams and thought about him every second of every day.
we went and saw pick-a-dilly-cowboy and kissed, and i was head over heels.
i started skipping class for this crazy boy- something my mom couldn't ever get me to do on days "she was bored" when i was in high school.
i cut myself from the track team, cuz suddenly, hanging out with a cute boy was way cooler than running for three hours everyday.
we bought air soft guns, went on slurpee runs, hiked the Y, dressed up as if we were going to the prom-only to find out we weren't (thanks elliot and danny), sat hand-in-hand at general conference, cooked dinner together, became a frequent visitor of "the park", tripple-dog-dared each other to do the stupidest things, danced in the moonlight under the stars, sang our hearts out to "You have Stolen My Heart" by Dashboard over and over with the windows rolled down, stayed up way too late, hiked the hot springs, cheered proudly at the BYU football games, told stories of our past, had fun living in the moment, dreamed about our future, and best of all, fell in love!
never in my life had i wanted anything more than for him to be mine.
after a year of dating, the stars aligned, and my fairytale wish came true.
had i known then, what i know now, i would've wanted him even more, and that is something i didn't think was possible.
may 1, 2008, he became mine for forever.
and because of all this, i am the luckiest.
we celebrated by going to vegas, again.

escaping just the two of us is the best thing ever- even if all we do is master the art of sleeping and eating.
caleb even figured out the best time to go to the buffet...
10:30. you can get your fill of breakfast food, then if you wait long enough, they will bring the lunch food out and you can eat lunch in the same sitting. we definitely worked the system. and i'm pretty sure we both ate enough calories to not eat for an entire year. gotta love vegas buffets.
caleb is beyond the best husband i could've ever dreamed up.
he makes me dinner (more than i make him dinner), never misses a friday night date night, works super hard in school (15 credits of engineering this semester often turned into a 60 hour week for him), listens to me, gives the best advice, makes me laugh all the time, makes me feel safe, helps me clean, lets me buy another pair of running shoes just because they're pink, wins the favorite uncle award every sunday, will one day, hands down, make the best dad in the world, and my most favorite thing...
he loves me no matter what.
i thank my lucky stars everyday that he is mine.
and here's one picture from the special day.
it's not the best picture from the day, but in a way, it's one of my favorites because we were so happy... and it shows in this picture.

and that happiness continues to grow more and more each year.
happy three to us!
love ya babe!

I wonder... are krispy kremes free in heaven?

2011-05-08T13:09:00.000-06:00

Anyone who knew my Grandma knows she loved Krispy Kremes.
In fact it was one of the last conversations I had with her.
It was back in February and my Grandma had just fallen.
The hospice nurse who had been so graciously, honorably, and delicately taking care of my Grandma's tired body knew her time was short.
So my mom encouraged me, and all of the siblings, to spend some last precious moments with the most amazing grandma a grandkid could ever dream up.
I will forever be grateful that I listened to the wise words of my mom and I will always cherish those last moments.
I climbed into her bed to help keep her warm- the same bed that I sat on just a week prior to for the weekly bachelor roundup party where my Grandma told me her oh so sure prediction of who Brad would pick- and we carried on a spacious conversation.
It was clear to me that a piece of Heaven was close to her.
She kept saying there were too many people... there's just too many, she said.
I asked her if she had seen Grandpa yet, and she excitedly, but quietly said not yet, I keep looking. (It seemed like she knew she would see him soon, and that thought makes me so happy. No one ever deserves to be a widow.)
My Grandma then tried to sit up in bed- something she hadn't done in almost 24 hours- to get her krispy kreme.
So I tore off a tiny bite sized piece of her all time favorite treat/ breakfast meal and placed it on her tongue.
She then said ewe, what's that?! Maybe if I knew how to make her a cup of coffee, it would've tasted more normal to her.
It was then, that I knew we were losing her...
So last week she had a birthday.
Her 87th birthday to be exact.
As I drove past the Layton Hills exit I was talking to my dad on the phone and he told me I had to stop and bring some home in hopes of brightening the gloomy day for my mom.
The only reason I ever got off that exit was to get the grandma great her krispy kremes.
Something I tried to do at least once a week the last few months.
I ordered six doughnuts, rather than twelve, to share with Caleb, my dad, and my mom, knowing that the other six could be shared in Heaven.
I pulled up to the window after ordering and waited, and waited, and waited.
Finally after five minutes of sitting there an older gentleman opened the sliding window and asked how he could help me.
I told him I ordered six doughnuts and wanted to pay.
He then closed the window and came back with twelve doughnuts.
He handed me the box and said, these are on me today.
I then got a little teary eyed because it was one of those moments where a- I was already emotional because I had been thinking about the grandma great all day, b- he had no clue why I was even there, c- I get extra emotional when people do something really nice when I'm already emotional- especially when it's someone like an old man- shouldn't i be doing the kind act for him?!, d- that pill does crazy things to me, and e- getting something for free is so sweet when you live off a teacher's salary :) and f- I totally knew my Grandma so played a part in this.
It's just too ironic how it all happened.
The poor guy probably was wondering why he gave such a crazy person twelve free doughnuts.
I told the gentleman that my grandma was his bakery's #1 fan.
I also told him that she had just passed away and today was her birthday.
He simply replied with, bless you and your family.
I love this story.
I love the little things in life that help keep the memory of those who we love and have lost, alive.
I keep thinking about "You never know what you got til it's gone."
Yep, I love my grandma great more and more everyday.
My turn, Love you more!
In memory, we celebrated.

Happy Wifey Day

2011-05-08T12:48:00.000-06:00

The day that Lauren and I got married Lauren's brother let me know that even if my new wife and I didn't have kids yet I still need to celebrate this day for her because she is the future mother of my children. Well to celebrate our anniversary and Mothers Day we took a nice warm trip to Las Vegas!
We have been enjoying just laying around:) Lauren said yesterday, after our three hour nap, "We are so lame to drive 400 miles to just sleep and be lazy!" Although it may sound like we are lame it has been a much needed break. I just got done with finals and she has been working very hard with track and normal work.
Any who since the only reason I ever blog is to retaliate to dumb seminary teacher friends in Nephi about my bad grammar (eat up all that beamish Danny, yep brammar, bad grammar!), I decided to tell my wife how much I love her.
Lauren you are a very hard worker. I cannot believe how much you will dedicate yourself to your work and now coaching track. I know that you apologize for venting to me about your days but it does show how much you care about your students and the success of your school.
You are such a sweet girl. Watching you childhood videos really helped me realize even more how soft your spirit is and how much you care about others. (even if you did have your hair cut like a little boy:) )
And lastly, ( I have to wrap this up because your are getting suspicious of why I'm in the bathroom this long) I love you so much because I know when you are the mother of our children that you will do anything that you can to make sure they are happy everyday, that they are mindful of the gospel, that they look the best they can everyday, and that they will succeed in everything they put their mind and heart to. Lauren you are beautiful, you are amazing, and I am so glad that you are mine!
Happy Mother's Day!! I hope you continue to enjoy Vegas!

Love you...

for all the "Kicking Cancer in the Butt" people...

2011-05-04T21:51:00.016-06:00

Yesterday I read a quote on fb that really made me think about life...

All of us have a thousand wishes, to be thinner, to be bigger, to have more money, to drive a cool car, to have a day off, to have a new phone, to date the person of our dreams.

A cancer patient only has one wish, to kick cancer.

Quote via Denise Evans.

So when a staff member was struck with the sickening and heart breaking news that cancer will soon end his life, the entire school pulled together- to kick cancer in the rear. We are trying to raise $30,000 to give to the family who will soon- much much too soon- lose a husband, a friend, a chaser away of monsters in the dark, a handyman, a financial establisher, and one great dad.

Cancer sucks, that's all there is to it. Part of the fundraiser activity allowed for the students to buy a ticket to place their names into a drawing in super high hopes for the chance to pie a teacher. The school raised a ton of money doing this. Perhaps this sends a not so good message about all us teachers. I volunteered to be pied and here's the result... Thank you to my iphone this image was captured, and thanks to my iphone this image is blurry. So it goes.

Mom I promise you succeeded in teaching me the importance of making sure my socks match when I put them on in the morning. I don't know how I ended up with one pink and one white. But don't worry, Mr. Herzog said there are at least 30 white socks in the lost and found in the boys' locker room and he can find me a pair that matches.

I can only imagine how many p.e. kids who hate me for the fact that I make them run one class period each week- cuz heaven forbid we should exercise once in a while- were wishing and dreaming they were this kid at that moment.

The pie rubbing culprit was nice- everyone at school said he was too nice.
Granted I threatened this kid's life, or maybe just his P.E. grade, if he got the idea of rubbing the pie in my face as if I were a baby being lathered with lotion. I think he comprehended well.

Back to the cancer thing... I don't fully understand the disease- it's too sad to fully comprehend it in my opinion. I can't imagine being a doctor having to tell an 8 year old girl that she has a brain tumor that is inoperable. Even more so, I can't imagine having the tables flipped and being the one to hear such news. This topic and conversation has been discussed multiple times in my health class. It's a topic where the bell rings too soon and we- for just a small moment- contemplate what it would be like knowing we were living our last days. Life is much too often taken for granted. Everyone needs to watch an episode of the buried life on MTV. It puts things such as life into a good perspective. (I fully understand that the words good and MTV shouldn't be used in the same sentence, but "The Buried Life" is that good, that I am allowed to break the rule of using the two words together.)

What would you do if you had three months to live? I would hold on to Caleb and never let go.

With that being said... if you have nothing to do with your life this Friday night the 6th day of May, come to Roy Jr. (5400 South 2100 West, Roy, UT 84067) for a spaghetti night (5-8 pm) in the honor of this lovely family. Plates are just 5 dollars or 20 dollars for a family. The kids at my school needed so much extra credit that we now have enough spaghetti to feed well over 6.000 people. So come!!!! Please and thank you. And let's all continue to kick cancer in the butt!!!

Ombre and The Gimp

2011-03-03T22:48:00.007-07:00

First things first, Happy birthday to my cute SIL Andrea!!! Considering it's close to 11:00 pm, I wanted to give her a shout-out rather than call her and wake the likely sleeping baby.

I didn't know what the word ombre meant until my hair stylist used the word to define what I was describing. I showed her this picture, (picture via D, we are super huge L.C. fans around here, and my sister knew exactly where to go when I told her I wanted the "melting" look. ) and so my hair stylist did exactly just that with my hair. She really is a miracle worker, every time I tell her what I want, she gets my hair to do just that. If only she were available every morning around 6 am, life would be bliss. I said goodbye to my nasty zeebra looking roots and hello to my hott "melting" roots.

The ends still have tons of blond, which I love, but the top doesn't look zeebra-y.

And just for the record, my hair is getting longer. I keep thinking it is NOT growing because I know for certain that my hair doesn't grow past my shoulders, it doesn't think it's possible or something like that. I am trying to retrain its thoughts by taking multi-vitamins, but I don't know if it's working. And Brooke, the greatest hairstlyist ever known, a.k.a. my hair stylist, told me again today my hair is getting long. (You have to understand long for me, is much different than long for someone else.) I didn't believe her but then Caleb reminded me of this picture and the emotional day I had once upon a time where I literally chopped all of my hair off, I cried...

Moving on... meet Mr. Gimp. Caleb and I were just talking a few weeks ago about how we have worked hard our entire marriage to try and always have medical benefits. (I knew for certain that if we ever dropped our benefits, we would get pregnant that day, and I would be super stressed because I strongly believe timing is everything and plus babies cost a pretty penny without benefits. Me plus stress equals huge mess.) In fact, up until I got a teaching job, it seemed like most of our paychecks went towards benefits(JetBlue, not to name names or anything), and they were benefits that we never used. Knock.on.wood. I should've known we cursed ourselves with that stupid conversation. Here we are a few weeks later and we have since paid five co-pays (and become "frequent-flyers" at the Instacare, exact words of the receptionist) in the last seven days for various things. But now more than ever, I am so grateful that we have paid every single month for the dang benefits, because things have happened and finally I feel like it's payback time. Things such as Caleb trying to beat up his friends, which caused a major carpet burn, which then got infected, which then led to a major staph infection, which then led to me thinking Caleb's leg would soon be chopped off. Don't worry, it has not been detached yet. Then Caleb got the marvelous idea of wanting to run blind on the treadmill. Brilliant right? He took one step which led to him landing flat on his butt, flying off the treadmill, which then caused his leg to get caught in between the wall and the belt, which led to a huge burn on his ankle, which then made the Staph. infection super happy because it had that much more room to grow. I'm sure you all wanted to hear that. But wait there's more, Caleb was being super nice despite me being really ornery and he took it upon himself to demolish the garbage truck sized box the treadmill came in. A few stomps on the box later and Caleb landed on his hand with his arm locked in place causing his radial head bone to be crushed. Ouch!!! Suddenly our $1,000 dollars off on the treadmill sale isn't so sweet anymore, j.k. I love my treadmill, I treat it like it's my baby just so ya know. (And according to brother dr., you're more likely to break a bone if you land with your arm straight rather than bent, so word of advice... bend your arm!!!) but still I thought there was no way in heck that my husband's king-kong sized bones could/would ever break... Yep I was wrong. Caleb:1, Me:0. In fact I had zero sympathy for Caleb when it happened, and he knows it too, remember I was ornery. It was a bad weekend. So we meant with a good ol' orthopedist who said we should say our prayers and hope Caleb's bone heals properly otherwise we know what he'll be doing with his spring break. So fun.

So here's the hott cast with my even hotter husband.

And one last thing, because my Grandma went home to finally be with Grandpa again this past weekend, we are reminiscing about her life this coming weekend. Which means the Ohioners are flying in. Can you say freaking Wahoo!!!!! I can't even tell you the last time my entire family was sitting in the same room... Remember this picture???!!!

I get to do this again... but this time she'll look more like this...

Lucky freakin' me.

More about the most loving, funny, amazing grandma later.

Christmas is too far away...

2011-02-21T23:07:00.007-07:00

Pretty much my husband rocks.
Tonight I didn't have to pack extra clothes for the gym after work tomorrow because Caleb came home with this today.... (I think my English teacher taught me that that the words tonight, tomorrow, and today should not be used in the same sentence, but you get the vibe.)

(And yes 95% of the time I wear gym clothes to work, but due to the fact that it's 9 million degrees plus one inside Gold's, I change into clothes that aren't exactly jr. high gym teacher appropriate.)

Which means when my alarm goes off at 5 am, I get to walk right down the hall to the next bedroom and pound out my run. Caleb knows me too well, and he knew that there was no way I could wait until Christmas to get this precious baby. All he's heard about for the past while is this dang treadmill, so when he saw it was discounted quite a bit for the holiday, he came up with a plan, one that scored him extra big bonus points in the husband department.

Caleb was trying so hard to be all cute and surprise me but I wasn't having any of it. He walked in with a new water bottle and said it would come in handy for my new treadmill. I didn't believe him for one second that he actually went and bought me a treadmill. I laughed in a not so humorous way and told him I didn't appreciate him trying to be funny and play a cruel joke on me. My bad for not being very nice.

I finally caught on and understood him when he asked if he could borrow my dad's truck to go pick something up. And I couldn't be more excited!!

This treadmill freaking rocks... Thanks to I fit live and google maps, I can pretend to wake up in Paris and run the streets of Paris, or I can even run Heartbreak Hill in Boston and watch the course while the treadmill adjusts to the intensity of the course. And the best part, the treadmill doesn't time out after an hour which means I don't have to start all over on my time and mileage. Beat that Golds... no bitter feelings towards you at all. Your days are over and our friendship is being replaced starting tomorrow.

P.S. That Caleb of mine is quite the guy, it was his birthday last week but yet I'm the one who is getting spoiled. Thanks babe!!!

Faces

2011-01-26T12:53:00.003-07:00

Caleb and I are constantly trying to make the best "Tessa face". We can't get enough of this little girl and her faces. She is so cute at the age she is right now. I hope I never forget her personality as a two year old. We just wish she didn't live so dang far away. I bet you can't find the same face twice...

And my absolute all time favorite Tessa Face...

I sometimes wish time could freeze this little angel so she could stay like this forever, or at least until she moves closer to Utah. She is so sweet and loving. Her faces make me laugh. Sometimes through out the week I see a certain face on someone and then I am reminded of a Tessa face, and I can almost hear her say "Guess what LaLa" in that oh so sweet and cute Tessa voice. I love you Tessa!!

Life...

2011-01-17T15:41:00.009-07:00

I am really good at not blogging and then blogging a huge post... so with this post I'll continue my oh so famous trend. Here's a look back at the past six months.

Caleb and I took a much needed break at the end of August to the Caribbean. I'll never forget my first experience snorkeling in the ocean at Sting Ray City. I've seen lots of pictures of the crystal clear blue water, but never imagined that the Ocean could really be like that in real life. Go watch Finding Nemo and put yourself in the movie. And bonus, the water was warm!! I remember the water in Cabo from our H-moon was cold, so the warm water was so nice.

(I know the quality of this picture is horrible... it was taken with an underwater disposable camera and then I scanned it into our computer. Beats paying $60 to the guide for his picture.)

I freaked when we first got in the water and saw the dozens of sting rays swimming around us and the only thing I could think about was how the crocodile hunter died... and then our guide told me the only dangerous thing to do around these animals would be to freak, so I freaked out some more because I couldn't stop freaking out when they would swim right against my body, but somehow I survived and can't wait to go back.

Here's a picture of our table. The babe and I totally lucked out with who we sat with and have since made 8 new facebook friends. Wahoo! No really tho, these people were a hoot. We will probably plan another cruise reunion with the same crowd. And bonus, the two couples behind us just happen to be from North Carolina, and just happen to be LDS... so Caleb and I weren't the only ones on the ship who didn't drink the night away. We became pros and meeting for midnight cone runs and boggle throw-downs. And funny story... these fun and crazy people also went to Sting Ray City when our ship ported at the Cayman Islands. However, when they got in the water they saw ONE sting ray (member how C and I saw dozens?!) and it was bleeding...well their guide proceeded to tell them that just meant there was a shark in the water close by! Right, just a shark. Good thing we didn't get stuck with that group, I would've had a heart attack right then and there, seriously.

Caleb pays for a cruise to do this all day and all night. Sit on the deck and watch the waves go by. He loves the Ocean.

And I pay for a cruise to get me some chocolate melting cake. And two cups of ice creams is so much better than one.

And everyone knows I can't talk about our cruise without posting a towel picture. And don't mind my lovely fried skin. And just in case you were wondering, I finally faced my fear and went to the dermatologist this week. Thanks to a story from KSL, and my idiotic epidemiology professor, I thought for sure I had skin cancer and was going to die. Just ask my mom, bless her soul it has been quite the drama filled week thanks to me. But long story short, I do not have skin cancer. Moving on...

The week we got back from our cruise, the whole job thing went down. Now that one semester's down I can honestly say I'm living my dream job. Love going to work everyday. Plus chasing 7th and 8th graders all day is a good way to burn calories. Bonus! We may or may not play tag some days for P.E.

Cindy snapped this picture right after I got off the phone with the boss and accepted the job. Talk about being on cloud nine...

Then Haloween came, I know I know, you've already seen this, it's not like I just posted about Halloween two posts ago! :) But I figured since Caleb is so proud of his job well done, I'd score bonus wife points by posting his lovely work for a 2nd time. Love ya babe!

And then Thanksgiving came. We spent the day with the Perks and it was lovely. We played Indians and Pilgrims. My new favorite food is sweet potatoes. I never liked the orange potatoes (potatoes shouldn't be orange) with marshmallows on top growing up, but for some reason this year I couldn't get enough of them! Thanks Sarah for the picture.

And sometime between then and now, Caleb made this lovely cake for Luke and Sarah. It's CandyLand, but I'm sure you could tell. After all, Caleb calls himself a pro. now and you better not call him anything else. Cake Boss has nothing on him.

On Friday December 3rd, I turned 23! I don't know why I put an exclamation mark because 23 feels old. I spent the day at work. My cute sister Aubrey made a poster with pictures and gave it to Mr. Endicott, who is in her ward, to hang on the gym doors. By the time I saw the poster, everyone else in the school saw the poster and the word was out. So pretty much, I was wished Happy Birthday 888 times that day. Best birthday ever. (Yes, Roy Jr. has 888 students right now and I know because that's how many newsletters I print off...) When I got home I felt like crap. I think a case of Pneumonia hit me. I went to bed and didn't get out of bed until the next Tuesday. Caleb was bummed that I was such a bummer on my birthday that we celebrated my birthday for pretty much the next two weeks straight and then Christmas came. So you could say being sick (which has happened way too many times this winter, negative of being a teacher) finally worked in my favor. I was definitely more than spoiled this birthday.

Here's the only picture I snapped of the celebration. My mom took me shopping and to Cheesecake Factory a week before. Which makes the celebration three weeks long. I love some just me and mom time. Really I tell her everything and am always asking her for advice, because her advice is like no one else's. She knows everything there is to know and she's always right. I am so lucky to call her mom.

Then we celebrated Christmas. #1 perk about being a teacher, summer, #2 perk, Christmas break!!! I loved being lazy and hanging with the fam everyday. Santa came again this year. This guy doesn't say a word as a school bus driver, but once that Santa suit is on him he comes alive. I laugh about that every year. The nieces and nephews are lucky to make memories like this, and I am lucky to watch. It really is so magical.

Caleb spoiled me again for Christmas. He got me an I-phone. Poor guy tried so hard to surprise me but he forgot the small fact that my parent's cell phone account (yes I'm still on their account, please don't judge) is linked to my email. No matter how hard I try to act surprised when I know the truth, it doesn't work. But I did pull a sweet surprise off by getting C an I-pod touch. He had no idea and he loves it. We spent Christmas Eve at Sarah's and then slept at my parents. I loved every minute of the holiday. Caleb also got me a hot pink electric razor scooter. This one was a HUGE surprise. Caleb did get bonus points for this present. My dad has a red one and said C could borrow it this summer. I dream of the day when it's warm enough to ride our scooters and get some snow cones or ride to the parade on the 4th. Oh summer...

And then New Year's was here. Caleb and I went to a party up at the Cowboy's (a.k.a. C's bff, Sam Yarbrough) condo in Park City. I was dreading the party because we've done this in the past and I wasn't a huge fan, but this year it was great. This isn't a picture from the party, (forgot camera for the 1,214th time) but you get the idea of what our midnight looked like. :)

And now it's today. Martin Luther King Jr. day and life is grand.

-My Grandma, who is slowly slipping to the "other side" and is officially now on Hospice, still finds a way to make us laugh by wondering why my sister D would buy her two-year-old shoes that have bud light on them. (Buzz lightyear apparently sounds like Bud Light when you're close to 90 years old...)

-My niece Tessa called and is expecting her mom to come pick C and I up so we can go to nursery with her on Sunday. Don't worry Shay, we only live 2,394 miles away, and I know because I

once drove every single one of those miles. And if you're ever bored, go here and look at pictures of Tessa. Caleb and I spent an hour doing this the other night. Every face she pulls is different. And her smile kills me. I just wish you could hear her laugh or say Caleb's name. Miss her.

- Caleb is putting his mad engineering skills to use by rebuilding my parent's kitchen. He has been there a lot, which means I have too. So much that my mom used the word "freakin" the other day. I chuckled inside. Love it. And mom sorry in advance for posting this.

-I finally switched my Provo gold's membership to the gold's up here in L-town. Which fyi, I now pay close to twice as much! Gold's is such a rip off. But paying that much every month sure is a lot of motivation to go to the gym. Plus, I'm preparing for this and would love for someone to join me in the crazy journey... http://www.laytonmarathon.com/register.html.

hint hint to all you runners out there. You know you want to.

- And the greatest news of all, Caleb and I have seen the true power of what fasting and prayer can do. Caleb's dad will finally get to come home this week, after spending more than 40 days in a California hospital, and being "paralyzed" (term the nurse used when Caleb answered the phone back on Dec. 9th). He is kicking Guillan Barre Syndrome's butt. Go Paul!! We love you!!

-And I now remember why I hate writing freaking long posts. Here I am 2 hours later, 10 proof-reads later, just finishing. I thank Mrs. Haslam, senior year English class, for my OCD-ness of perfecting my blog. The end.

- And P.S. I always have a hard time finishing a blog post!! Anyone else struggle with this? I feel like I need to say amen or something... It just feels weird ending, like I am writing the end to my life's story, cuz we all know our blogs are pretty much our life's stories. So I'll end with this...

-The end... :)

for this i am grateful

2010-11-29T22:17:00.004-07:00

The man, my most favorite person in the world (obviously), and for his ability to make me laugh everyday.

The parents. My next most favorite people ever. I say a prayer of thanks everyday because they are my parents. Seriously, I am blessed.

The other parents. For their wisdom and love.

And a few others... my crazy fun loving siblings and sibling inlaws, my health, my running shoes- and all of my shoes for that matter, my job, the sun, summer time, vacations, memories, my knowledge, my faith, and my life. :)

Happy Holidays 2010!!! So happy that the fun is just beginning...

It is a Small World After All

2010-11-15T09:55:00.003-07:00

Just want to document the ironic-ness of this past weekend.

Situation 1...On Friday night, Caleb and I had an In-n-Out/ game night with our sweet friends Dave and Sarah at their place in Salt Lake.  Throughout the night we were talking about all of our scattered friends and what's going on in everyone's life. We got the low-down on Brayden and his new fling. Caleb was quite upset that he had to hear about Brayden's dating situation through the grapevine so he proceeded to text Brayden. Brayden didn't respond to the text- which I don't blame him because Caleb's initial text wasn't very nice. Anyways... a few hours later we decided to walk to 7-11 to endulge ourselves in this season's first cup of gas station hot cocoa. As we were standing outside of 7-11, guess who pulled up... Brayden. Brayden who we hadn't seen in weeks, who we were just talking about, who lives in Provo, pulled up to a random 7-11 in the middle of downtown SLC at 11:30 at night. I couldn't stop laughing because the randomness and the timing of the situation. So crazy.

Situation 2... On Saturday I went to a bridal shower for one of my besties from college.  I lucked out and had 5 of my 6 classes my last semester with Kristen.  She is so much fun to be around and I look up to her in many ways. Kristen has told me all about this guy whom she has fallen head over heels for. It's been a lot of fun to hear all about their love story and this Andrew guy whom I had never actually met- so I thought- just heard lots about. The bridal shower was so much fun and I love getting together with the "fab five" as Kristen calls us. Kristen told everyone the very creative and very cute way Andrew proposed. This guy is such a charmer. So the night went on and Andrew showed up to the house at the end of the shower. He walked in and I was caught off guard because I totally know him, but never put the two and two together that Kristen was marrying "that" Andrew- the Andrew who lived next door to Caleb at Raintree. In fact one of my roommates married one of his roommates. My apartment was constantly playing pranks on his apartment. Saran wrap on the toilet, sardines in the celing... Pretty crazy that here we are four years later and he is marrying Kristen. Love it! They are such a cute couple and I couldn't be more excited for them. I couldn't get over the ironic-ness of this situation and continud to laugh all night. Especially since the one story I remember Andrew telling was the first story Caleb said when I brought up Andrew's name.

Situation 3... After the bridal shower, I called one of my roommates to tell her the crazy story.  It had been quite a while since I talked to Ashley, but I had to call and tell her the craziness of the night because I knew she'd understand the level of craziness. I talked to Ashley for a few minutes and then our call ended. 60 seconds later I was driving down University Avenue with Caleb and we got stopped at a red light. I looked over and guess who I saw sitting in the creamery... Yep, Ashley. Here again timing is everything.

Caleb and I have been getting a kick out of these situations because it's so rare that things like this happen, let alone three different situations in just 24 hours.

So for the record I had to write these stories down so we can look back and hopefully laugh some more.

Ohio

2010-11-10T21:27:00.004-07:00

Pictures say it all...

So I'll start with this one, and make it extra big, because I love Carlee's extra big grin, and Porter's cute dimples.

Caleb knows how to rock it on the haircut. And I so wish that the picture of Tessa and C had sound. Her laugh kills me.

I spy 3 cups of Malley's Hot Fudge. Yep, Porter drank (or drunk, IDK...) all three of them. That doesn't include the fudge that was in his sundae.

Caleb was willing to drive to Vegas for this moment... but lucky us, we got to go to Ohio instead.

Love her.

Tessa's famous face with our amazing hostess.

Maybe they have an announcement to make?! Or maybe they each just downed 48 wings.

Totally Shay.

Love Porter's grin.

See Marin's dimple. I miss her.

Carlee wanted to go bowling on her birthday, but was so sweet and decided to wait for us so we could join in on the partay. I've never seen someone as excited to go bowling as her.

Caleb and I fell in love with little Miss Tessa's personality. 2 going on 20.

Despite his super hectic schedule, Andy is a great dad and always makes time for the kids. They are lucky.

One of our many many dessert outings.

And that's how the tip-toppiest apples get picked.

Caleb always showing the love.

The glitter fairy brought glitter to Carlee in the middle of the night so I could do glitter toes with her.

Proof that I'm not the only one who cuddled Marin and fell asleep doing so. I truly believe that there is no way to get closer to Heaven than by holding a newborn. Speaking of... I had a dream last night that we had a little baby girl. Why do we have to wake up from those dreams?!

Us... until next time. Such a fun trip, already looking forward to the next one.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-30T18:45:00.003-06:00

Last night was the annual Coil Family Halloween Party. I'm usually not all that into dressing up for Halloween but Caleb is trying his best to change that. He desperately wanted to do my make-up, so I let him. He said he was going for the Dead Lumber-Jack Skeleton look. Right... I'm sure you caught on to that.

My dad apparently got Caleb's memo. Minus the make-up-ness of it.

P.S. In T- minus five hours... my family will be at the airport with signs and open arms welcoming home Chris from his 2nd tour of duty to the Middle East. Bless his wife and children. It's been a long year, but they made it and the end has finally come!

The Picture...

2010-10-26T21:43:00.011-06:00

... speaks for itself. First time holding Marin.

And I'm in love with her. The rest of the pics will be up tomorrow.

we be trippin' in ohio

2010-10-20T19:22:00.018-06:00

All days of the year I definitely wish Andy and Shay lived in Utah. There family is just too dang cute and we have way too much fun when we are with them- and we are also famous for staying up way past bedtime when we get together. However, for all those days we miss them, it sure does make it 'that' much more special, exciting, fun, magical, memorable when we do get to see them. Caleb lucked out this year and had an entire week off from school for Fall Break which just happened to fall over my UEA break. So what's a couple like us to do with that much time off?! Fly to Ohio of course. (You have to say Ohio just like how it's sung in the fifty-nifty states song because that was always by far my most favorite state in that song to sing. It's also the part where all kids yell, rather than sing.... and D, I bet you totally just broke out into singing that song so you can see what Ohio sounds like. :))

It has been quite the fun adventure to follow Andy's family around from Maine to New York and now Ohio as the eastern U.S. isn't something I was accustom to until his first year of med school. Something I've learned from all of the trips out East is that Utah has NO trees, and the East is just one giant forest. I've seen this forest before, but never this time of year. I was in awe. Seeing the colors on the huge tress from the plane and ground is a site I'll never forget. So on to the trip...

We arrived Tuesday around dinner time. Tessa couldn't wait to tell me how she didn't ride a horse and Carlee did. Which is something she proceeded to tell me me at least 15 more times on the ten minute drive home from the airport. Each time getting more and more excited as she said "Guess what Lala?!" Her mature talking skills kill me. She wasn't shy at all, which is something I was concerned about being that she's only two and hasn't seen us in a while. Kudos to Skype for helping us with that one. Carlee was the first to hop out of the car at the airport and greet us with a big bear hug. I keep thinking she can't get anymore pretty, but it just keeps happening. And Porter couldn't wipe the ear-to-ear grin off his face, dimples and all, the entire trip. (Minus Friday night at dinner when he broke down in sadness and worry that Caleb and I only had one more day left before we were on our way back to Utah. He had been counting the number of days and bless his heart, he hates saying goodbye! Probably more than I do, which is A LOT! This made me cry. Oh how I love Porter for his sweet, tender, and sincere heart. I know he's only six, but seriously, whoever gets to marry him one day is a very lucky girl. Luckily he was off by a day and we had one more day than he thought so we were done with the tears and ended the night with building a fort for him to sleep downstairs with Caleb and I.) When we arrived home from the airport I went straight for Marin. Oh. my. heck. Kind of ironic, but I'm pretty sure birth control creates motherly hormones (do those even exist?) in me that make holding a newborn so magical, but holding her was so great I don't even have the words to describe it. She is the absolute PERFECT baby and Shay is lucky to have her as the fourth child of the family. You could say my trip consisted of holding Marin, napping with Marin, rocking with Marin, sleeping with Marin, staring at Marin, smelling Marin, playing with Marin's soft crazy-cute hair, pretending Marin was awake so I could take her out of her crib (sorry Shay), and holding her some more. She never cries and is so content. She loves laying on her belly which made for some great snuggling time. Let's just say she did not help my baby hungry-ness at all. She is so cute and is at the stage where she is beginning to coo and her dimple shows every time she does so. She also smiles anytime you make eye contact with her and talk in that high-pitched soft baby voice. Too bad I don't have the mechanics yet to feed her, otherwise I just might have taken her home with me. Caleb played with Porter, Carlee, Tessa, and Molly 24-7. He is now a champ at "playing" littlest pet shops, painting fingernails, cutting Porter's hair, piggy-backing on the scooter, sleeping with Molly (the dog), lifting Porter up to reach the tip-toppiest apples in the orchard, wii of course, bedtime stories, tutoring Porter's 1st grade class, downing 50 wings from Buffalo Wild Wings, squeezing his giant self inbetween two car seats because his nephew and niece want to sit by him that bad, and the list goes on. For whatever reason, we were on a huge sugar kick this trip. Did you know it's possible to get high off of fudge?! Just ask Porter. He drinks the stuff like it's water and the Malley's owner supported him in doing so. He also thought that anytime we hinted at a word that started with an "F" that we were talking about fudge. Definitely Grandma Kaylee's little grandson. The joke of the trip turned into where are we going for our pre-meal dessert, our during meal dessert, our after meal dessert, and our late night dessert. Shay has also been listening to Katie Perry's "Teenage Dream" song too much as she was living back in her teenage days. She wanted to prank call someone. That idea didn't work so then she wanted to create a music video. It didn't happen either, but she may or may not have laughed so hard until she snorted thinking about ideas and songs we could do. Andy and Shay are known for introducing Caleb and I to addicting games. This time around it was Quiddler. Super fun and super addicting. We stayed up til the late hours of the night playing and coming up with words like "qua". Yes that is a word and it has something to do with a President's position. Good times. This trip was perfect and visiting the Coils in Ohio gets better and better each time. Andy even had time off of work. He always makes me laugh and is a great brother to turn to for advice on anything. He's so smart and I feel so lucky to know that if I ever have a question or a problem, he's there with the right answers. He sometimes tells disgusting gross E.R. stories at dinner time, like the size of a bread loaf type of stories (inside joke), but I forgive him. He's a great brother and I've ALWAYS looked up to him. I blame him for my nacho and slurpee addiction because he was good at taking his little sis for a drive just to talk, but somehow we always managed to end up at 7-11. One day, we'll all be within a day's drive distance from each other. But until then, saying goodbye never gets easier. In fact it is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard. It always makes me question why we go, because really, it's that hard. Typing this makes me cry. Looking at our pictures makes me cry. And whether we hit a deer or not on our 4 o'clock am trip to the airport and destroy the front end of Shay's car, going back home makes me cry. Getting on the airplane to leave those sweet little kids who I love so much makes me cry. I just miss them. We all do. And gosh dang it all, if the trip wasn't soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good, then it wouldn't be soooooooooooooooooooo hard to leave. But it is what it is, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity we had to visit once again even if we had to have a "see ya later" moment. Memories were created and I will forever cherish the days we get to spend with the Ohio Coils, even if it is literally only a few days each year. Because those days are magical. And I definitely think all the coil siblings who haven't seen Ohio need to try really hard to make it there within the next 18 months. Just saying...
Blogger isn't allowing me to upload pictures so I'll post those soon!

MIA

2010-10-02T12:25:00.005-06:00

I've been MIA for way to long... so here it goes.

THEE job...
Some friends have been asking me about how the whole job thing worked out so here's the infinity long version... just warning ya in advance.
I guess you could say my dream came true this past summer as I didn't have a job for the first two months of summer. I became way too accustomed with day-dreaming in the lazy river at Lagoon, having time to work-out every morning, sleeping in, chilling with the sisters, becoming the favorite aunt, learning how to be a chef (for the first time I can actually say I enjoy cooking when I have the time), staying up way too late watching netflix, and doing a whole lot of nothing. But the time soon came when I started to worry about the whole job thing. By mid-July, I realized there were tons of people applying to the not so many jobs that were available. I had a couple interviews each week and was often told there were several hundred overly-qualified applicants that applied for the ONE position that was available. (As a side note, I wasn't looking for teaching jobs as I was in one of my many stages of not wanting to teach because I was fed up with the whole idea for several reasons.) Anyways, by the end of July, lucky me, I found a job. I was working as an office manager for a PT office in Salt Lake. I loved the atmosphere, loved the people I worked with, and loved the duties of the job. It was an ideal job except for the pay... I was frustrated that I had worked so hard my whole life, graduated High School with a 4.0 gpa, earned a full-ride scholarship, finished college early, blah, blah, blah... only to be working at a job that paid a little more than minimum wage. Don't get me wrong, so grateful was I to actually have a job, but oh so frustrated that my hard work only led to this. I never thought that the reason I went to college was so I could be a receptionist. I thought that was something you could do without having a degree. So why'd I go to college?! You get my vibe.. Then one night I met up with my college girlfriends at Cheesecake Factory. We talked for hours about teaching and about the job market. One of the girls was lucky enough to find a teaching job. She was so excited and her pay sounded a lot better than my job. And we all know teacher's make next to nothing, which means, I was pretty much making nothing, but enough to pay for the gas to get me to my job, seriously!... So the next day the man and I were lucky enough to escape to the most pretty place I have ever been to on Earth, the Caribbean (which I still haven't even posted about, oh man, so behind). Due to my conversation with the ladies from Cheesecake Factory, I thought a lot about teaching while we were on the escape. Which leads to the main point of my story, I'm getting there, promise.

I told you this story was infinity long...
So we return on Thursday August 19th. Friday the 20th I start looking for teaching jobs again. I make the usual round to all of the district websites and one job catches my attention. Roy Jr. High for the SECOND time had a job posted for P.E. and Health. (I remember seeing the job posted back in May, but didn't apply because, well, I was going through one of my "phases".) I casually called Aubrey, the sister who lives in Roy, and told her the news. I told her I applied but didn't have my hopes too high as I figured they had already found someone and just hadn't taken the job posting off the site yet. For all I knew, school started the very next week! Aubrey being the way she is, was ecstatic, she must have known what was about to come, I sure didn't. So fast-forward to Sunday, Aubrey is sitting in church and talks to one of the English teachers from the school who lives in her ward. He informs her the job is indeed for a female teacher to run the girl's locker room and the school still hadn't found anyone yet. Monday morning comes and I am at the jr. high by 7am to physically and personally hand my resume to the principal. I get to the school and am told he's out buying breakfast for the faculty meeting. Great, just my luck... The secretary said she "didn't know" if they had hired someone yet (kind of weird I thought) but was told I could stay and wait for the principal to return. Considering I had been MIA from my new job for an entire week, I knew I couldn't be late to work which started promptly at 8 in SLC. I asked the secretary to please give the resume to the Boss and I would call later that day. So I speed down to 5300 S in SLC just in time to make it for work. Get to the office and find the situation a little ironic. No cars in the parking lot, office is locked, lights are turned-off, no one is around. I found this all a little weird considering we always had patients at 7 am on Mondays. Great just my luck again... I so could've been sitting in that principal's office right about now, but no, instead I'm just sitting in the empty parking lot getting a little frustrated. 45 minutes later I proceed to drive back up north. I am now thinking this situation actually might work in my favor. If I had the day off, then I could go back up to Roy. At 9, my phone rings, it's the PT office calling to say I needed to come back to work because we did indeed did have patients that day, but not til later. You think?! Thanks work, glad you keep me posted on life. I drive back down to SLC and call back to the jr. high on my way. The same secretary answered the phone and I told her I was the gal who dropped my resume off at 7am. I asked her if she knew if the school had done interviews yet for the job, she told me they had. Huge bummer! I figured it was over, until she asked me to hold. I was on hold for what seemed like forever. So forever passes and she comes back on to tell me the principal would love to interview me! I was excited and a little caught off guard. So now I had to ask for time off from my new job, sticky situation considering I just got back from a week's vaca. But what the hey, they didn't even try to inform me about the morning situation, so I figured they owed me big time. I told them I had an "appointment" Tuesday afternoon and they said that would be fine. So Tuesday afternoon comes. I interview at 3:30... And things went great! One of the most comfortable interviews I had been in. Which I had been in quite a few this summer, so this is saying something. The principal told me they had interviewed several candidates, but I was the last they had interviewed, so they would make their decision with the next 30 minutes and call me! How crazy is that?! 40 minutes passes, yes you better believe I was watching the clock like a hawk, and no call. I figured I didn't get it. My phone rings, it's the principal, and he offers me the job!!! What in the world?! I really couldn't believe it. School was starting the very next day!!! I was freaking out. But there was a catch. I technically am not qualified to teach P.E. as I am not fully endorsed in the subject. And Weber School District law states that if the principal wants to hire someone, but interviewed a candidate who is more fully qualified than their top pick, they have to fore go their top choice and hire the more qualified person. This all stands UNLESS, the person you want to hire can offer something that no other candidates can bring to the table. Back to my interview, I was the ONLY candidate who offered to help coach. The school was looking for a girl's track coach, but didn't tell their candidates this, and I led them to believe I was just their girl! (It boggles my mind that out of a dozen candidates for a Health and PE position, no one else even offered to coach. But how lucky for me!!! And I'm so glad those three hour daily track practices in college finally paid off...) It was now 5 and I knew I had to make it back to SLC by 5:30 to tell the Physical Therapist I wouldn't EVER be back to work. This was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Just not the type of person I am.
But five weeks later, I can honestly say I haven't thought about that night in the P.T. office since then. I LOVE my job. It's a complete turn-around from my experience last year. The teachers are super nice to me and have done nothing buy try to get to know me and help me in anyway they can. The principal is always checking up on my needs and has gone completely out of his way to help me. This is so unlike last year. And on top of all of this, teaching PE is like the cherry on top for me. Teaching PE is a very low-stress, but very exciting job. I teach all 7th graders, boys and girls, yes all 350 of them, and love it! On Mondays I run with every class period, and by the end of the day, I run a total of 12 miles, and I get paid to do so! Love it! So I guess you could say my days are spent running around playing ultimate frisbee, kickball, flag football, you get the idea, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
This experience has been one of those times where you look back and say "Oh, I get it now." And for all of those times I was shot down in the teaching field, stopped looking for a teaching job, or even wondered why I had gone to college, I get it now, and someway somehow it all works out and it just makes sense. If only I knew this six months ago. But that's life and my life is grand.
And just in case you are wondering, my nephew Porter who lives in Ohio has been super busy because his days are consumed of being too excited for his favorite aunt and uncle, Caleb and Lala, to arrive. 11 days we get to escape again. And for the first time I get to meet precious little Marin. And I. Can't. Wait!!!
Life is beautiful.

Never Too Old!

2010-09-21T21:17:00.007-06:00

So I am jumping in here to write a quick post about my parents adventure at iFly. This last Fathers Day it was also my mother's birthday. All of us kids decided that we would pitch in and get Grandma CiCi (Cindy) and Poppy (Paul) tickets to go to iFly in Ogden at the Solomon Center. I knew that my mom would be excited to go because no one is too old in her family to do anything. :) (Quick side note. When my grandmother was alive we all went to a cabin to ride snowmobiles for a family vacation. My grandmother was living with us at the time and she insisted that we not rent her a snowmobile because she wouldn't be riding one. All of us began to laugh and then she proceeded to say, "What? You don't think I can ride one!"... she was 83+ years old and wobbled a lot.) So that explains why my mom was ready to go. My Dad on the other hand is "Strong Like Bull" and can do anything he wants :) Later they both caught on that it was a two sided gift, they got to try something new together, and we got to watch and laugh. Nevertheless, it was very fun for all of us when we went on Labor Day to iFly.

Enjoy the pics & videos :)

They are smiling now :)

Putting in earplugs for the wind noise I guess.

P.S. My wife's eyes make the stars look like they're not shining. And when she smiles, the whole world stops and stares for a while, cuz she is amazing!!!

In Love

2010-08-20T21:38:00.007-06:00

In love with this little girl that is. And when the opportunity arose to watch her overnight Caleb jumped at it. In fact he was willing to battle against my mom over who was going to take her for the night. He won. Amelia received VIP treatment from the greatest uncle ever. Wow is she loved! After giving her a bath, Caleb painted her toenails and fingernails, fancied her hair, read her a storybook, and rocked her to sleep. They both loved every minute of it, as did I. Lucky am I to be married to this man.

And lucky were we to spend a week on this ship. More about the cruising soon.

Lucky #13

2010-08-10T22:04:00.016-06:00

Marin makes # 13 on my side! She is beautiful and perfect in every way. All I think about is wishing I could squeeze her. Too bad she is 2,000 miles away, but that doesn't make me love her any less.

Images via.

Already you can tell the Coil fam wouldn't be complete without her. And they thought they were done after three. Looks like that ought-oh turned out to be one of the most precious gifts. The big man upstairs definitely had a plan, and a great one indeed... Now if Caleb and I can just do some little convincing with #5, all will be well. :)

In other news...
- I love my new job and feel blessed to actually have a job. I have reaffirmed my love for carrying on conversations with the elderly.
- Caleb's man Dave Sparks tied the knot yesterday. Of course his wedding wouldn't have been complete without all of the groomsmen and bridesmaids jumping in the pool during the last dance. And to top it all off, Dave threw Ashley into the pool in her dress. Yep that's Dave for ya, and one wedding we'll never forget. Lovely. And just in case my family remembers what Dave said at my wedding luncheon about Caleb... let's just say things are even now and Caleb probably didn't help Dave's father-in-law feel anymore confident in Dave marrying his daughter. But Dave so had it coming...
- In 72 hours Caleb and I will be leaving on a much needed vaca! Even after watching shark week we are still excited, but might bag the planned snorkeling. Sitting on the warm beach with my man sounds mighty fine to me. Our flight is a red-eye on friday the 13th. Ughh... let's hope that lucky #13 really is lucky.

-Peace & lucky #13.

so long

2010-07-30T17:25:00.004-06:00

Wednesday was bitter-sweet.
We had a party with this gang.

And at the end of the night we had a "see ya later" moment with Elliot and Emily. They are moving clear across the country so Elliot can attend Cornell Law School. Emily and Elliot pretty much became family when Caleb and I lived in Provo- a long with most other people in this picture. We spent many fun nights battling at ticket to ride and settlers. We often talked about how we all met and and how lucky we all are to be such great friends. Suddenly it seems like everyone has grown up- notice the TEN month old cute baby Jessie is holding, yep we're all growing up. Good friends have moved away and we all have to be adults now and live in a grown-up world. Sigh.... Caleb and I feel like these good-byes have been happening more often then we would like and we hope they stop soon! But we do have a lot of great friends who live in really cool places. Maybe one day we can visit everyone.
Billy & MacKenzie Oslund- Dallas
Ben & Katie Holm- Chicago
Danny & Jessie McKinley- Nephi
Elliot & Emily Hales- Ithica (I don't know how to spell that.)
Caleb & Lauren Perkins- Layton...
It has kind of become a joke that everyone moved to these new adventurous places and Caleb and I ended up in Layton. But I'm happy and happy to know that where ever life takes us, we will always have these great friends whom we can remain close with and look forward to the times when we'll be back together!

-Peace and 'oh the places you'll go'.