Cephaloblog

Day 1: View

2012-02-01T21:26:00.001-07:00

I'm doing the photo a day challenge on instragram. I figured I might as well post it on my blog too.

My view is the side of Ollie's face while I'm nursing him. I get this view during the day about every 3-4 hours for 40mins at a time (20mins on each side). I have been nursing him for 6 months now. I'm proud of us for sticking with it. For the pumping at work, sacrificing not being away from my baby for long periods of time and when together not going out somewhere where I can't feed him in 2 hours. Nursing is a huge commitment. Bigger then I initially thought, but I'm happy to be doing it. So much planning is involved! It still works for Ollie and I and I will continue to nurse him when he's done or if he hits a year or if he bits when his teeth come in. :)

Twins!

2012-01-28T20:42:00.001-07:00

I'm lucky to have the best husband and cutest baby. Im also lucky that this family loves stripes so much that it's easy to match!

I love that josh completely loves being a dad. He is so cute and funny with Ollie. He was very happy they were matching today. Ollie loves josh and always has the biggest grin when josh walks into the room.

Family

2012-01-27T21:12:00.001-07:00

It has been so nice having my family by me. 7 years of living about 1,000 miles apart was hard. I am very close with my family and I'm excited that Ollie will get to have the same grandparent experience that I had growing up. Which means lots of time spent together and lots of spoiling!

Today my mom and Michelle came over. We went to lunch, played with Ollie and hung out. Later my dad came over and then josh came home. We all dined at Pei Wei for dinner and called it a night.

Oprah

2012-01-26T22:05:00.001-07:00

I think it would be nice to post something positive everyday. I'll try it out for a week starting today.

I have a weird fascination with Oprah that started last summer. I watched her behind the scenes show from her 25th season. It was so interesting to learn what goes into an episode. All of the work, planning and team work.

What I love about her was the way she treated her employees. TV production is a stressful industry. Sure they showed the great stress free moments and the magic of the show. But they also showed the chaos. I was pleased to see how she dealt with people and the situations. She treated people with respect and dignity no matter how bad the problem was. She also gave praise for their hard work. I think CEOs and presidents could learn from her example. She could have the biggest ego in the world, but she doesn't. It was so refreshing to see people happy doing their job and wanting to do their best.

If Oprah is hiring I want to work for her!

I think we can all learn to take a moment and not get all crazy when something goes bad and treat people with respect.

Merry Christmas 2011

2012-01-15T21:06:00.002-07:00

Neighbor/Josh's Co-Worker Gifts

Gnarly, always curiously watching what we make in the kitchen

This christmas was a lot of fun. We were able to spend it with both sides of our families! The Ormonds invited my family to come up and spend Christmas with them, which was so nice of them. My family had a great time. I love that it was Ollies first Christmas too. We didn't make too much of a fuss over presents because he is set right now in the toy dept so we/Santa gave him some books and the Loin King. We need to start building up our Disney Collection.

To kick off Christmas we all headed down to temple square to see the lights. It was crowded, crazy and cold as usual.

And Josh has a beard. I want it to go away.

Wallaces

Hansens

Wyrick/Ormonds and Carrie . . . not sure what happened to the big group photo!

Christmas Eve we did the traditional reading from the bible of the Christmas Story while the kids acted it out. Ollie was baby Jesus. This was his 3rd time.
Side Story: Our family was asked to be in the ward christmas play. It was performed once at the old peoples home and once at the ward christmas party. The story was a modern take on the birth of Christ. I was super nervous about the performances (I don't like public attention and I'm not an actress), but it turned out great and now I can say I have been in a christmas play.

Josh also made a nice presentation highlighting each family's highlights from the year. It was cool to hear about what everyone had been busy doing all year and all of the change that occurred.

Christmas was on a Sunday this year so that meant we went to Church. We had Michelle's Over Night French Toast when we got back and then opened presents.

Michelle Excited to open presents!

Ollie sported my Christmas outfit that I wore as a baby. Good thing its gender neutral! It fit him perfectly and he was a very cute Santa baby.

Max and his Captain America mask we got him.

Ollie just wanted to put everything in his mouth.

Ollie was worn out. All of those presents!

I got Josh a new Classic ipod and he got me a new 27" iMac. It was time for an upgrade. I am so totally in love with my new computer.

Our Dads

Love his face!

One finger in Mouth at all times.

Uncle Daren or "the Closer." He put Ollie to sleep like a pro. Ollie loved hanging out with him.

New Years! Yes Ollie stayed up.

We went to the Macoroni Grill downtown with my family and Kristen. Then we came back to our house for fondue and Just Dance 3. Fun night! 2011 you were great!

Ollie and I hanging out after church. We like to have fun.

Dec Update

2011-12-15T11:58:00.003-07:00

Us today. 2 spitup episodes later....

Dear Blog,
Sorry you have been neglected, but I have been busy! Where to begin . . .

Ollie is now 4 months old. This has definitely been "the longest, shortest time" for Josh and I. Parenthood is a rollercoaster, but as long as Ollie keeps giving us his cute smiles I think everything will be fantastic. Oh I miss you sleep!!!

We endured our first natural disaster as a family a few weeks ago. Almost every single pine tree was down in our street. The winds were recorded ar 111 mph! Davis County was called a State of Emergency. I didn't leave the house that Thursday in fear that I might blow away. My parents lost one of their pines and their fence and they didn't have power for 4 days! They were going crazy. We only lost power for a few hours here and there. Davis County looked like a war zone. Fences, trees, signs, siding, you name it, it was gone. On Sunday our bishop declared our ward in a state of emergency because the winds were coming again that night. There were trees, branches, trash, fences, etc. scattered all over our neighborhoods. So all able men, women, teens and even some children worked tirelessly from about 8am - 6pm cleaning up the debris. Now thats service! I couldn't help because I was taking care of Ollie, but when I looked out my window and saw about 150 people on my street cleaning up debris I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I love how our church teaches self-reliance and how people put that teaching to work.

I made the plunge and got myself a new job. I have been wanting to leave MM since I was pregnant back in Dec. However, I wanted my 3 month maternity leave and vacation time so I stuck it out. Work has never been the same since the lay offs about 2 years ago and then the ones preceding. I went from a design marketing team from 5 to 1(me). I was always swamped with work and I felt I was never given any appreciation for my hard work, dedication and talent. Oh and I was never given a raise since I started. It was hard to make the plundge because I loved working with so many of my co-workers and have made long lasting friendships with them. It's fun to work with friends and people you enjoy. Especially when you are there for 40 hrs a week. Plus our company was sold and we gained new owners. In the process we were promised more resources and raises. Which didn't pan out. WE were then told to wait atleast 3 months before asking for a raise. Let me tell you, I had already waited patiently for 3 years. I was done waiting! Sigh, if only the upper management could have got their act together. So I decided to put myself out there and look for other employment opportunities.

I have been doing extra freelance work since May in hopes that I could gather enough clients/consistent work so that I could stay home and work. As you know that didn't happen and I had to go back to MM. Meanwhile I had been apply and interviewing at a few jobs. Nothing was the right fit. Then my friend recommended me for freelance work at xxxxxxxxxxx (for names sake) where she works. It turned out that they liked me and my work and offered me a full time position. The perk is I get to work from home 3 days a week and 2 days in the office. Several good things are coming from this job. My most fav things are more Ollie time, mo money, and working from home. This has been my first week at home and I have loved it. My stress level is much lower.

Enough about that. Here are some Ollie Photos!

Ollie @ 2 Months

western family

complete with pistol

badge

Ollie 3 Months

Thanksgiving- it had been 5 years since we had Thanksgiving together

Yummy food and drinks! Italain soda and cream soda

Ollie 4 months

He loves is mouth

Maternity Leave

2011-11-02T14:09:00.001-06:00

My maternity leave ended last week. It was a really sad day for me. After having Ollie all I wanted to do was to be his mom and devote all my time to him. These past 3 months have been life changing. I had the best time and some not so great times. Being a mom is awesome, but it's really hard. However I feel blessed that we were able to save up 3 months worth of my salary so I could stay home and have the time with Ollie.

Ollie and I had a good thing going. He slept through the night. We would get up for the day around 10. Then we would get ready and eat lunch. After lunch we would usually visit with my mom and Michelle, run errands, do housework, play, relax, have feedings, diaper changes, naps, crying fits, lots of smiles and then Josh would come home. It was great to just focus on him. I knew that would all end so I tried to treasure the time as much as possible.

What is it like being back at work? It's ok. My job is a little weird right now, but more on that later. I miss Ollie a lot and our routine. Being at work feels like I never left because most things are the same. For some reason I thought everything would be different but it's pretty much the same. Since I have started back at work Ollie doesn't sleep through the night. He has only done it once (and it was a wonderful night). He doesn't go to bed till around midnight then wakes at 2 then 5 and then at 7 I get ready and I wake him at 8 to eat. I'm hoping he is just off because of the change in his routine. Poor little guy. So I average 5-6 hours of sleep which I absolutely hate! I'm exhausted and it's only a matter of time before I get sick. Plus I have to remember to pack so many things in the morning: my purse, lunch, pumping supplies, diaper bag, extra clothes and his car seat. I am overloaded when I leave the house!

But we are really blessed. My mom watches Ollie and I don't have to worry about him at all because I know he is in good hands. He finally took the bottle right before I went back to work. We both have jobs and are able to provide for our family. Most of all I feel blessed to have Ollie as my son. I love him so much!

I just wish this was easier. I just need to remember nothing stays the same and things always work out eventually. Sorry if this is a bummer post. I just wish this new chapter of being a working mom was better.

Here is Ollie on Halloween as a Sheriff. He is the most adorable sheriff ever. He costume is complete with spurs and a hand gun. I will do a Halloween post later with more details.

Ollie is 7 weeks

2011-09-28T23:19:00.001-06:00

Time has been going by so fast. He is on somewhat of a schedule now which is great. The routine is eat, change diaper, awake/playtime then nap time and repeat. The tips from Baby Wise have been working. I am so glad i have stuck to it because it has been beneficial. He has figured out nighttime and will sleep anywhere from 3-7 solid hours. His nighttime routine is change diaper, eat, and sleep. When I put him back in his bassinet at night he goes back to sleep. It's so great. He has been doing that for about 3 weeks now.

Breastfeeding has been going good. I was fully prepared for it to be this horrible thing but it has been the opposite which i am thankful for. Not all horror stories happen to me! He loves to eat and keeps growing! He feels heavier everyday.

Alright let's talk about me. I have lost half of my pregnant weight thanks to breastfeeding. 500 calories a day is awesome! I can't wait to fit into my old jeans. I haven't tried for 2 weeks because I don't want to be disappointed but tomorrow I'm going to try again. I hope I can go back to little size 3 again. I'm pretty sure my stomach will never look the same again but we shall see. I'm just happy to not be pregnant because I can do all the old things I used to do and I feel great!

This blogger app for my iPhone is going to be great. I will be able to blog more because I can hold Ollie and blog (just as I'm doing now).

Blessing Day & First Month

2011-09-22T22:09:00.002-06:00

Ormonds & Wyricks on September 4th for Oliver's Blessing

The first month flew by! Oliver was blessed by his Dad on September 4th which was just shy of him being 1 month old. It was so great to have family and friends there that day. Oliver did great during the blessing. Not only did he look adorable in his outfit that my mom made, but he was asleep and kept his poo inside his diaper! Josh blessed him with several great life achievements.

So we got through the first month. What a crazy month. We felt like Zombies. I am so glad Josh got to have 2 weeks paternity leave. It was nice for both of us to have that time together to figure out how to start being parents. I pretty much didn't leave the house. I didn't want to either. I was so sad/scared to have him go back to work. I didn't feel capable of doing it all on my own during the day, but I got through it.

I love my sleep and I didn't think I could be so sleep deprived and live! I knew I would be up all night, but I didn't really think I would. Oliver thought night time was day time. There was a lot of walking around the house, rocking, swaddling and then repeat like 50 times to get him to sleep. I felt like I won the gold medal when he would go to sleep. It has been nice having the bassinet by our bed at night. So when he is hungry I can just pick him up and feed him.

At his 2 week appt here were his stats:
Weight: 9lbs 3 oz. = 64%
Height: 21 1/4 = 72 %
Head Circumference: 37 = 48%

He is one big baby!

Birthing and What Not

2011-09-22T21:49:00.000-06:00

Oliver

It all began August 7th when we arrived at the hospital at 9:30 PM. We went to the 4th floor desk and they asked me for ID, insurance card, and blah, blah, blah. I remember thinking, "This is it, I'm going to have a baby!" I was beyond nervous and stressed out, especially when we walked into the delivery room. Hospitals make me anxious.

I had to pee in a cup (BTW I'm a pro at this now) and put the gown on. They strapped bands which read the baby's heart rate and tracked my contractions. Then the nurse tried to give me an IV in my right hand. It felt like she had a miniature shovel and was yanking and digging out my vein. I yelled and I cried. Then she tried the other hand. Same searing horrible pain, same yelling and crying, but this time she made got it in. I was sobbing. I remember thinking, "This is horrible and this is only the beginning of it all!" My IV hand hurt for the next 24 hours.

Shortly after I got the IV Dr. Macy came in. I don't think she was very happy with the nurse. She is a no nonsense doctor when it comes to proper medical care and I love that. So, this is where I got induced. I was still at a 1 when I went to the hospital. My feet go in the stirrups and I am shaking because my hand is killing me and I'm super scared and it's never pleasant when your legs go in the stirrups. Luckily Josh was right there holding my good hand and reassuring me. So Dr. Macy put the dreaded speculum in. Then she put the Foley catheter tube in and then pumped it with Saline to put pressure on my cervix. The Foley helped me efface and dilate. Then I took a pill every few hours to help the process along. The worst part was the gauze she used to stop bleeding. It felt horrible.

It was 12:30 AM and I was so tired, in pain, and ready to be unpregnant. They had asked if I wanted an Ambient so I could fall asleep and a shot that would make my cramps go away. Stupidly I said no to both of those. I now know when they offer you meds take them. 20 mins later I called the nurse back in to give me both. I slept really weird. Ambient makes you dream crazy stuff. I felt like I was looking at the world through a kaleidoscope. It was trippy. The cramping kept me up but it soon trailed off. Plus I had to pee and I was connected to an IV bag, I had the balloon tube thing coming out of my girl area and had the contraction/baby heartbeat bands connected to me. Getting up to go to the bathroom was a task that needed 1-2 people to help. Even though the nurse really messed up my IV she did make sure I was comfortable in the bed (which is no easy task when 9 months and a week pregnant. Plus I had all kinds of things poking out of me). She did bring me what I wanted to drink, so she kinda redeemed herself. But only just slightly.

The next morning I woke up at 7 AM. I was so tired and drowsy. Around 10, AM Dr. Macy came back and took out the Foley tube balloon thingy. I was dilated to a 5 by that point. She also broke my water. It felt like 5 gallons of water came gushing out. Josh said it smelled gross. He said a lot of things smelled gross, which is why he was chewing gum the whole time. After she broke my water the contractions started to come.Big time.

Ok, contractions. They are the worst pain ever! I mean ever. I thought I was going to die. I felt them for about 45 mins by the time I got the epidural. I had to get out of bed after my water was broken so they could clean all that soupy stuff up. Standing and having contractions is horrible. I was leaning into Josh and telling him in a loud voice "You're not helping!" I'm not sure exactly how he was supposed to help, but I thought he should know. I tried doing my breathing techniques and focusing on that, which helped a little, but I was still in pain.

The anesthesiologist came in. I laid on my side prepared for the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. First he gave me the numbing shot. Which hardly hurt. He then told me to curl in a ball. I was so huge and in so much pain I really couldn't move. I did my best, which I guess wasn't that great. I held my breath and then he gave me the epidural shot. I didn't feel a thing! It was wonderful. Afterwards the anesthesiologist told me he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to get the epidural in because my back wasn't arched enough. I'm so glad it worked out! I then felt so nice and pain free. It was great.

Oliver was still posterior and he needed to be anterior. I had to lay in different positions on my side to get him to turn. It was weird not being able to feel my legs. I could still kinda move them. I remember being extremely thirsty at this point. They gave me a Popsicle and ice chips. I wanted a huge glass of water. I tried to let the ice melt towards the end, but it wasn't doing it for me. So I just tired to sleep. A few hours later it was time to push.

Ok, here is where it gets good. In my opinion this was the easiest part, because I didn't have any harsh pain to deal with and it was the end of being trapped with my pregnant uncomfortable body. I had to hold my legs up with the help of Josh and the nurse. Side Note: So remember my horrible IV? Yeah it still was throbbing and holding my leg hurt my hand. I was still super annoyed about the IV.

During all this I had to wear an oxygen mask because Oliver's heart rate was low. It was super annoying to wear it because it kept slipping off my head after every push and I had to keep fixing it. So it was a lot of fixing.

Now I am dilated to a 10 and ready to push. We had to wait for a little while for Dr. Macy before I could really push, but once she got there I was so ready! I think I pushed for about an hour and a half. I wasn't allowed to press the button for more epidural juice because they wanted me to feel the pressure of the contractions to help me push. As it got closer to the end of pushing I could really feel when to push. The contractions didn't hurt, I could just feel tons of pressure. The nurse put a mirror in front of me so I could see the top of Oliver's head. The mirror lasted about 15 mins and then I decided I did not want to see what was going to happen next. And that was a good call.

The whole time I was pushing I got a lot of positive reinforcement. "Good Job!" "You're doing great!" "Almost there!" I had no idea how I was doing. I couldn't exactly feel where I was pushing, but I was doing a good job. For some reason it was the best thing to hear that I was doing a good job. It also turns out Josh is an awesome labor coach. He was so supportive and sweet. And super sexy in his euro bikini bottoms. Ok, he didn't wear the bikini bottoms, but he was still cute.

Pretty soon Oliver's head was out and Dr. Macy said, "He is going to be a big one!" Then I gave one more big push and Oliver was finally here on 8.8.11 @ 4:20 PM! Josh and I both cried and kissed. We were so happy. Our dream baby was here! I felt such a huge feeling of love and accomplishment. I didn't get to hold him right away because he was lethargic. His head was in my cervix for awhile because he was so huge.

My eyes were glued to the nurses helping Oliver get some life into him. I couldn't wait to hold him! I was getting stitched up during my waiting. I had 3rd degree tears. Good thing I had the epidural!

So finally they brought him over to me. I was in love. I knew I had the cutest baby in the world and he was all ours. I was in amazement that it was finally happening. After about 2.5 years of waiting, our baby was here. I just felt like so much went into this miracle. Of course I cried again. I did a lot of happy crying over the next several days. Plus he was so so so so so so cute.

They then weighed him. 8lbs 13 oz. Dr. Macy said I was an over achiever. I couldn't have agreed more. Who would have thought little me would have such a huge baby?

Then my family and Josh's family got to meet baby Oliver Wyrick Ormond. They fell in love fast! I was still really thirsty and they slowly brought me baby cups of juice. I got moved to my postpartum room around 8 PM and I was starving! I hadn't had food in 23 hours! If you haven't noticed, food and drinks are kind of a big deal to me.

I think it was finally around midnight by the time the nurses were done checking me and Oliver and helping me feed Oliver. I was so tired and so ready for sleep.

That was the day my life REALLY changed. Welcome Ollie to our life and your life.

The BIG Wyrick Move

2011-08-04T20:39:00.002-06:00

It's official, my family is in UT for good. 2011 has been a eventful year for my family. My dad retired, my parents sold their Chula Vista home and then bought a home in Kaysville. They managed to pack up their home of 25 years and fit it into 2 pods and a Uhaul truck.

The packing, moving and selling had a lot of highs and lows for my parents, but in the end it all worked out. Talk about a few months of being under tons of stress! It's amazing how things just work out and how blessed my family has been. They love their new house, neighborhood and ward. Everyone has been very friendly and welcoming. The house is really nice too. I think it's about 3x the size of the CV house which they are really enjoying being able to finally spread out!

I have lived away (Idaho and Utah) from my family for 7 years and it is really nice to have them close by. Especially with this baby coming any day! it's so nice to have my family stop by and to go visit them, go out to eat, go swimming, run errands. It's like old times. I love my family and I have really missed not being able to see them as much as I would have liked. 3-4 times a year didn't cut it for us! I am so glad they are here.

One of my favorite parts about the house is the POOL! Its beautiful, warm and wonderful. Lugging around this baby and the weight that comes with being preggo has been a shock to my body, but the pool is the perfect place to have the weight disappear!

Jessie & Trevors BIG day!

2011-08-04T20:19:00.002-06:00

Yep, Jessie and Trevor made it official June 18, 2011. It was a beautiful wedding at the Cactus and Tropicals in SLC. Jessie and Trevor are perfect for each other and make a great couple. Their a

nimal babies are really cute too. Polly was a beautiful ring dog. Their kittens were represented through photos. A lot of our friends were there too. It's always fun to get together and laugh. We are lucky to have such awesome friends.

The best part for us (not Jessie) was Jessies dads speech in which he announced that Jessies womb is screaming! The look on Jessies face was priceless. I'm not sure I would have been able to not die right there on the spot of embarrassment. It's not a good wedding unless there is an alcohol influenced speech! She has assured everyone that her womb is not screaming. :)

Congrats to Jessie and Trevor!

It was also really fun having Kate, Dustin and Taylor stay with us. We made it to Burges Waffles for brunch (of course) and then we went to the car show in Bountiful.

Josh Turned 29!

2011-08-03T19:53:00.002-06:00

Josh is all grown up! We celebrated like a new 29 yr old and a pregnant 25 yr. old should celebrate. We went to Pats BBQ and ate some ribs. Then we went to the movies and saw a movie. I would tell you what movie we saw, but I can't remember which is embarrassing. This is why I should blog more often.

The next day we went to Joshes 10 yr HS reunion in Pocatello. It was fun to see who he went to HS with. He helped plan the reunion since he was Senior VP. I'm still not over the "semi-formal" attire that really translated into wear-whatever-you-had on that day. Idaho dress standards are really different from what is normal. I thought it was a fun and successful reunion.

Mandy & Mikes Wedding

2011-06-16T21:32:00.002-06:00

Last weekend Mandy and Mike got married for all time and eternity. I love family weddings. We are really excited to have Mike join the family. They were both beaming all day. I love it when people are in love and even more when they get to be sealed together. It was a beautiful day and we were glad we got to share in their joy. Plus all of the Ormonds were in attendance and it's always fun to be with everyone.

I am feeling VERY pregnant lately. I'm 33 weeks and it's not fun. Everything is a hassle. If I was an Amazonian I think this whole being pregnant thing might be easier. Instead I'm "petite," or as I feel right now and umpalumpa.

Now I'm going to complain because I just really need too: Braxton Hicks contractions are no fun, standing makes my back and legs want to fall off, sleeping is an ordeal (I have to sleep with a body pillow and a pillow on my back and occasionally a cat will decide I'm comfortable too), I also love peeing every hour and having to wake up and get out of bed during the night to pee, waddling is cool, trying to shave my legs is fun, getting out of bed in the morning is painful, by the time I'm done with my morning get ready routine I feel like I need a nap, eating 15 snacks a day is annoying, not being able to breathe here and there is great, having to "rest" after going to a store or just doing anything is depressing, I cry over the dumbest things, I can't wear cute heals . . . I'm going to stop now. This is seriously a lot harder then I though it was going to be. I wish I didn't have to go to work and I could be a stay-at-home-wife.

Don't get me wrong. I feel very blessed that I get to be pregnant and have a baby boy, but this has definitely been a rough road for me. I'm looking forward to having this baby and being able to move around and not having every little thing I do be such an ordeal.

2011-05-27T17:17:00.002-06:00

My sister and mom love me. They flew me home last weekend and threw me a baby shower! It was so fun to share the excitement of this baby with family and longtime friends. So many people came! We counted 38 and others came by earlier to drop off gifts. This baby was spoiled by everyone!

I made a collage of photos instead of doing them one by one. They are photos taken by me and Michelle. Of course I didn't get any of the actual party (my mom did) I was too busy socializing but, I managed to take photos before and after.

It was sooooo nice to be away from rainy UT and work. I needed a little get-a-way badly.

I am now 30 weeks along. 10 more weeks and this baby is coming!

Update: Osama is dead, I'm really pregnant and Josh loves Soccer

2011-05-04T21:35:00.005-06:00

It's been about a month since I have updated and a lot has gone on. My family came for a visit last month. They put an offer on a their "dream home." It has a pool, jacuzzi, great view and its a pretty house inside and out! If/when they sell their CV home they will be moving to UT. It was a quick and productive visit for them. I love this picture of Michelle because I can tell shes telling Josh a story and is about to laugh.

It was Easter too! Josh and I went to 5 grocery stores the day before Easter and the 5th store had the eggs. Josh has a year supply. He bought 8 bags!

We have had really depressing weather the last two months. Lots of rain and snow. But look how cute my Hello Kitty umbrella is that Mandy got for me from her trip to Thailand.

Is she pregnant?

Boom! Um . . . yes! Oh and Gnarly is hungry too.

This was Joshes last game. He had a lot of fun playing soccer with his co-workers and is looking forward to their next league.

I did a Mutual night where the girls made a banner with all of the YW Values. It was a lot of fun.

On April 29, 2011 Josh and I celebrated our 5th anniversary! It's hard to believe that it has been 5 years. That is a long time. I made Josh a little book/folder thing where I put a card in for every year with our highlights. I started it from 2004 and it was pretty fun to look back on our life together so far. It will be interesting to see what the n

ext 5 years will bring because the first 5 were so jammed packed!

I love how Josh wraps presents and I love even more when he writes me cute love notes.

One of the things we did on our anniversary was register at Babies R Us. We were in there for 2 hours. Turns out, babies need a lot of stuff! I was so tired from walking by the end. Registering for things is pretty great. It reminded us about registering for our wedding 5 years ago and how Josh broke the gun at Target. Boys will be Boys.

Now we have to share the same day with William and Kate. Their wedding appeared to be pretty magical, but nothing still compares to Josh and I's wedding day! :)

My Work

2011-04-04T20:47:00.006-06:00

M-F, 9-5 I design cute stuff. A HUGE product line just went into Michael's on Friday that we have been working on for a year. Yes a YEAR! I forget to post my projects because most of the time by the time they are released I'm completely sick of them. But seeing the final product in a store makes it worth it.

I designed the logo, packaging, packaging colors, key, magazine ads, blog, catalog, trade show signage . . . basically any of the marketing that has to do with the program, I designed it! We have separate designers who designed the product. Other people come up with the copy and I come up with the design. I also designed this Blog for the program (it still have some kinks that the programmer is working out).

Bravissimo! is an awards and recognition program. I know what your thinking, "I thought she works for a scrapbooking company?" I do. This is another way to craft and make people that you care about happy. Click here for the overview.

So go to Michaels and buy Bravissimo! so i can have a job. :)

The Day to Day

2011-04-02T23:00:00.002-06:00

I have been slacking with this blog lately. But we have been busy, I promise! Here are some of the things we have been doing that I have documented thanks to my iPhone.

One of my neighbors gave me several boxes of baby clothes and accessories last week. It was fun going through all of the stuff.

Cheesecake Factory! We never dine there because the wait on the weekends is seriously 3 hours. But last Saturday we were in the area around 4:30 and we got a table at 5. It was delicious and they have a Receses Peanut Butter Cheesecake. It took me 3 different settings to down the slice and Josh even contributed on one of the settings.

Baby Yetti. She loves her naps on our laps.

YW Dodge Ball is so entertaining! This was their last game. They use these soft squishy balls. When I was tortured into playing it in elementary school we used these hard rubber balls. I HATED dodge ball. What is fun about being the smallest girl in your class and having your fellow classmates (especially the crazy boys) try and slam a ball into you? After you have the air knocked out of you, Dodge Ball is the worst thing ever. But anywho, I think I would have enjoyed playing it if the balls were soft like the ones the YW use.

Spring is here! Yeti and Gnarly were ecstatic when I opened up the window. Can you tell by Gnarlys face? She is saying back away, there are birds out here, and I don't want them thinking I'm soft. I even feed them their canned kitty food, which they LOVE and they would not leave their post at the windowsill.

I have been thinking about this tasty, tasty waffle for weeks! I love Bruges Waffles and Frits!!! The waffle is vanilla with vanilla cream, fresh strawberries and Beligin dark chocolate. Did I just describe my food heaven? Yes, I did.

This weekend is conference weekend. Instead of sitting on the couch and trying my best to stay awake, Josh and I have found things to do while listening to conference. We stay awake, take in the messages and get stuff done. Today we cleaned the yard up by raking up 10 bags of leaves. It was a bit crazy to have that many leaves, but it snowed by the time we could finish raking them. Thanks to live streaming we listened to it from Joshes Droid.

Happy Conference Weekend!

Boy Parts

2011-04-02T22:58:00.002-06:00

Look at how cute his little face is!

As the ultra sound tech referred to his boy parts as "his pee-pee and bits" (in a lithuanian accent)

The past 2 weeks I have been explaining why we are now having a boy instead of a girl. Here is the scoop.

It's a BOY!!! A baby Boy! We went and had another ultrasound done about a week and a half after our first one. During our follow up appt. my Dr. said the ultra sound tech did not put the babys sex down. So she said go get another one.

I'm so glad we did. It was a much better experience. We got to see our little boys profile and facial details for several minutes. They gave us awesome photos and the ultra sound tech loved his job.

He guessed it was a boy right off because the babys hands were in between his legs (which is a sign that it's a boy). When it got to the private parts discovery he was like, "it's a BOY!" Josh started cracking up. I was in a bit of a shock. I thought I was growing a baby girl for almost 2 weeks? The funny thing is during that week and a half I bought nothing for the baby. I couldn't do it for some reason. All along I thought I was having a boy and then they tell us its a girl? I'm so glad I trusted my pre motherly instincts about this. Not that returning anything is a big deal, but I'm just glad I stuck to my initial feeling.

Little Monsters

2011-03-26T11:07:00.003-06:00

For a night Jordan and I got to be some of Lady Gagas little monsters! Our friends Aimee and Jerry gave us their tickets. Here is how the concert went.

Before the concert. We did a lot of people watching. It was amazing people watching. About 40% of the little monsters dressed up in some way. We felt a little out of place.

We had awesome seats!

Best Dressed! Where do even buy this outfit? How do you come up with something like this?

Worst Dressed. Jordan decided she came up with this on her way to the concert.

Just Dance! Was her first song. We did a lot of dancing and singing. It was fun because everyone was doing the same.

Overall it was a fun night. When was the last time Jordan and I went out and did something with just the 2 f us? No one knows! I'm lucky to have fun friends. It would have been even more awesome if all of us college friends were there. Can you even imagine?

Gaga is crazy, talented and a little inappropriate. I loved the sets and how dramatic everything was. She closed with my other favorite song Bad Romance.

It's a BABY . . .

2011-03-13T22:27:00.004-06:00

GIRL!

Last thursday we had our first ultrasound. It was so exciting to see our little girl for the first time. I wish we had a photo of her face. That was my favorite part. I can't wait to meet her.

As Josh said good news is we "don't have a baby lizard." I cracked up at this. Josh always says funny perfect things. So everything is measuring on time and looks good. She was moving around like crazy. I can feel her squirming around more and more each day.

We don't have an official "it's a girl" or "face" photo because the ultrasound tech was a crab, but here are the photo's we did get.

This is me at 19 wks.

This is how I feel at 19 wks. And YES I know i'll get bigger.

This is what it's like trying to blog on a Sunday night with a needy/cute Yeti cat.

Adjustment Bureau

2011-03-07T20:45:00.003-07:00

"On the brink of winning a seat in the U.S. Senate, ambitious politician David Norris meets beautiful contemporary ballet dancer Elise Sellas - a woman like none he's ever known. But just as he realizes he's falling for her, mysterious men conspire to keep the two apart. David learns he is up against the agents of Fate itself - the men of The Adjustment Bureau - who will do everything in their considerable power to prevent David and Elise from being together. In the face of overwhelming odds, he must either let her go and accept a predetermined path... or risk everything to defy Fate and be with her."

I loved this movie. Not just because Matt Damon is in it, I thought the story was really intriguing. This is because I love to think about how all of these little things that I have done/not done in life have brought me to where I am today. Fate is an amazing thing. We are all placed on this earth to accomplish and experience different things. Some things are meant to happen. Some just don't happen. Sometimes we change our course in life which opens up new opportunities for us.

How is it that a girl from San Diego and a boy from Pocatello fall in love and find each other? There were a few ways it could have happened. Joshes parents could have stayed in SD after they were married and Josh and I could have lived in the same Ward or Stake. We could have meet at a Stake Dance. Who knows?

How is it that we both went to BYU-I when there are tons of colleges we could have went to? I didn't get into BYU so BYU-I was the next option. When Josh was on his mission his mom sent an application for Josh for BYU-I and he got in.

I think about how we could have missed meeting each other on campus. Josh hated the school and was on his last semester before he was about to transfer to Boise State. I never would have bought a meal plan since i was living in an apartment, but my parents didn't want me to starve. It was a good thing I didn't schedule classes during Joshes 3 hr shift or else he would have never tried to woo me with extra meatballs during lunch.

I thought it was interesting how we kept running into each other. I saw him skateboarding to school so I tired to be "cool" and try to catch up with him. The amazing thing was he was doing the same. He saw me all over school after that because we kept running into each other.

Eventually we went on our first date and were inseparable. Two years later we got married, then finished out school, then moved to UT, started our carriers, bought a house, adopted 2 cute baby cats, and now we are starting our family. All this has happened over the past 7 years. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world! I'm glad "Fate" or the "Adjustment Bureau" somehow brought us together. I personally believe it was determined before we came to earth. I just think it's pretty amazing, somehow through two peoples decisions and environment, two people can be brought together who were made for each other.

16 Week Appt

2011-02-24T20:06:00.003-07:00

Last week I had my 16 week appt. Everything is checking out good and on schedule. I never thought it would be possible to weigh this much in my life. I have almost gained 10 pounds! We got to hear the baby's heartbeat again which is oh so cool! Josh recorded it on his phone so now I can listen to it whenever I want. It is just so reassuring to hear the heartbeat!

I got my blood drawn for a test as well. The old Natalie, 2 years ago, would have freaked out if she knew how many times I would be having my blood drawn during these past 2 years. I have become friends with Charles the Phlebotomist. He is the best! It barley hurts when he draws my blood. I like him because he's awesome at his job (not like the other girl that works there, she is really bad at finding veins), he once had a twilight poster hanging in the room and he's a little snotty (but never with me). He has told me that I'm dramatic, but I just can't look at the needle when it goes into my arm! Anyway, it's a big deal for me that I finally feel comfortable having my blood drawn.

Other news, March 10th is the BIG day. 2 Weeks away! It's the day when we find out if little baby "O" is a girl or a boy. It will be a surprise. I sometimes think I know what i'll be having, but then I have doubts. So we will have to see. I can't wait!

More and more people are finding out that we are having a baby. It kinda baffles me for those people who are around me. I'm pretty sure I look pregnant. When have I ever looked like this in my life? Come on people!

Things that have changed:

I no longer feel life barfing all the time! Whoo-hoo! Week 15 was a good week.

I had food poisoning twice and I seriously thought I was going to die. Josh was even scared.

My sciatic nerves are really mean to me and hurt me sometimes.

I have had a headache for the better part of this week.

I can eat chicken again!

I am hungry a lot.

I crave artichokes all the time.

Whine, whine, whine

2011-02-22T22:12:00.003-07:00

I like hanging with Gnarly, she never whines!

Sometimes I just want to tell people, "STOP. I don't want to hear your complaints." It's like, in my personal life I am a customer service agent for anyones complaints about their lives. I know this sounds insensitive, but some people just annoy me with how much they complain!

Now I like being a good supportive friend by giving a listening ear and offering compassion. I also understand we all have bad days and we need to vent. I participate in venting as well and I am in complete support of it. I am talking about the people who find something to complain about each and everyday. It drives me crazy! The whole woe-is-me-my-life-is-so-hard-and-it's-never-going-to-get-better attitude irritates me.

I believe that you can't really complain or be disgruntled when we make certain choices in our lives where we know what the outcome will be. Yeah life is hard. Everyday, life is hard. Things change. Things happen. It is up to us to choose what type of attitude we will have and how we will react.

Sorry for this rant. I just feel like my whole life people come to me to complain and sometimes I just get sick of it and I don't want to hear it. I try everyday to be in a good mood. It doesn't always work, but I try to be conscience of others around me because they shouldn't have to suffer because I'm upset. I know I get in a bad mood when the "woe-is-me-my-life-is-so-hard-and-it's-never-going-to-get-better" people complain. This doesn't mean I don't want people to share their trials and hardships with me, I'm just tired of the heavy whiners in my life.

iPhone

2011-02-13T12:18:00.003-07:00

My iphone has been a long time coming. I have waited patiently since June 29, 2007. Who knew I would really wait that long? I remember when Apple made the announcement. I was so happy to hear about its latest product as I am a BIG fan of Apple. They just make products that make sense, don't upset you and they make the world a better designed place.

So when I heard it was finally coming to Version I got ready and then registered for the iPhone. Since my mom loves me she let me use her upgrade. The iPhone came earlier then expected (last monday)! I had it delivered to my work and my co workers were all really excited for me. Opening that beautiful box was amazing. I felt pretty special because I was in the first wave of people on Verizon to get the phone. Finally after 3.5 years of waiting!

So I have had the iPhone for a week and it has been a beautiful week. The phone and I have bonded and it has made my life easier. I like that I can check and manage everything from my phone which is great because I always have to use the internet for everything. I feel like the technology part of my life is finally complete!

It's Week 14 and NO Baby Ticker Yet???

2011-02-01T20:59:00.004-07:00

I know you are all concerned about this. Josh and I had the talk of, do we have a baby ticker on our blog or do we not? We had this talk months ago and decided no. They are creepy, weird, cheesy and poorly designed. Just not my thing. Below you will find examples of why we don't have one.

It's ok if you have one or if you like them. I'm not judging you. I promise! It's the graphic designer in me that has me critiquing these funny things. It would be like a high end chef buying food at McDonalds for a dinner party. I just can't do that!

But come on, these are so cheesy!

Is this real life?

2011-01-26T21:21:00.002-07:00

I had the worst morning of my life. I found out, it is possible to give your self a bloody nose! Here is how this morning went down.

I woke up ready to start another day. Upon standing up I realized, "Oh no, I feel like throwing up." So I just take it easy and start my morning routine. I was at the part where I condition my hair and then wash my face.

I start washing my face and then BAM! All of the sudden my index finger is slicing the inside of my nose. I say, "Ouch!" Then I touch my nose look at my hand and my hand is covered in blood. Side note: I don't do well with "medical things" that have to do with "unplanned bodily fluids." I was not expecting this morning to have blood all over my hands. As I said I was already nauseous and the gushing blood sent me over the edge. So I try to stay calm and rise off my face off and then I touch my nose again and there is still blood.

At that point I realize I'm going down. Either I am throwing up or passing out. So I try to breathe and stay calm and then I sit down while trying to not let the conditioner run into my eyes while holding my nose to make it stop bleeding.

Meanwhile Josh comes in and is like, "WHAT happened? Why are you sitting there?" I explained how I cut my nose. So naturally he wants to see it. Then it happens, he touches my nose with his finger. His finger smelled like the worst thing ever. I can't even describe how bad it smelled. And I'm sure Josh wouldn't want me to describe it. My gag reflexes go off and I start dry heaving and gaging! I really thought this is it. I'm going to barf in the shower and I'm going to barf all over myself because I'm sitting down.

Luckily that is where the story ends. My nose stopped bleeding and after eating breakfast I felt better. It is a funny/not so funny if you are right there in the moment. But I think its comical now.

To top the morning off I spilled my breakfast drink packet on the kitchen floor and then watched Yeti scratch at it making it a bigger mess. Then I was using the apple cutter and as I was pushing down on it I rammed my head into the cupboards. At that point I thought I should just go back to bed and cry. But I didn't I went to work.

The End

2011 Resolutions/Goals

2011-01-25T21:17:00.003-07:00

(Chris Carabba, me, Josh and Julie. Accomplishing concert going in 2011. It was awesome!)

I haven't really been motivated to do much in the way of being productive after I get home from work. Remember, it's because I'm growing a baby? But I have been thinking about all of the cool things I'm going to accomplish this year. So here is a list.

Design

- Work on design projects for me

- Seek out freelance work

- Continue making cute things

- Set up that Etsy shop I've been talking about

Home

- Save money

- Eat out less

- organize down stairs big room

- clean out office

- get the baby's room ready

- do something about all of the scuff marks on the hardwood floors

Family

- read some parenting books

- be the best mom in the world once the baby is born

- be a better cat mom

- be understanding of Joshes 5 million hobbies

- really read scriptures daily (even if it's just a few verses).

- own an iphone (thank you verizon for making my dreams come true on feb 11th)

- Still do fun things with Josh, like concerts

Yard (depending on HOW pregnant I am and HOW hot it will be outside)

- water the plants every other day in the summer

- plant new grass by the fruit trees

- beautify the ugly corner by the apricot tree

- or hire a gardener for the summer if I really can't do any yard work

I hope I accomplish these. Some of these will change once the baby comes, but I have a few months to get some of these things going.

Side note: I'm really tired of feeling sick and pretending (yes I'm an actress from 9-5, m-f) to be a-ok. Thankful that I haven't thrown up yet, but just really tied about feeling lousy, tired, nauseous, having a bionic nose and being unproductive.

Post no. 201

2011-01-23T19:34:00.004-07:00

I can't beieve this is post no.201! The responsible thing to do would be to get all nostalgic about the last 100 posts and make a new blog header. But I feel lucky enough to be motivated to blog. So that post will have to wait for another day. Maybe a day when I don't feel like throwing up.

Speaking of feeling like throwing up . . . it's not fun. I feel like this almost all of the time minus 2 beautiful amazing days this week. Those 2 days were such a nice break. I don't mean to complain about being pregnant because I am super thankful and happy that I am, but I am so TIRED of feeling like this. I feel like I am so dramatic, but this is not an exaggeration. The other thing the has happened in my 12th week (this week) is my new bionic nose. I can smell EVERYTHING. I can probably smell your breath as you are reading this. Smells that used to be no big deal make me dry heave such as: chicken, trash, peoples breath, bacon, garlic, our garage, smoke, canned soup with beef chunks, nacho cheese, etc. I can't wait to not feel nauseous and have my bionic noise go off at the same time. People tell me the constant nausea will go away in the next few weeks. I am looking forward to that. The above photos are from month 1, 2 & 3. Sorry if looking at the pee stick makes you feel weird.

I don't want to make this blog into everything about being pregnant and then babies so i'll add something else too.

Eyelash Extensions. Love them or hate them? Me personally I think they are kinda weird. They look like you put too much mascara on like Cholas do (Remember I grew up in Chula Vista, I know these things!). They are all the rage here in UT. I think fake eyelashes looks prettier and fuller. But in the end its whatever makes you happy. They are just not for me.

First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage, Then Comes . . .

2011-01-09T11:13:00.005-07:00

Yes it's true. Josh and I are having a BABY!!! We couldn't be more excited. This has been a long time coming. It feels a little bit like, finally we get to be pregnant. We have been trying for 1.5 years. There has been a lot of praying, fasting, hoping, love, discouragement, sadness, blood tests, weight gain, more praying, then some more sadness more blood tests more weight gain, "lots of practice" and then FINALLY a positive pregnancy test.

It has been quite the rollercoaster, but we are happy that it is finally happening. Our prayers have been answered. I have been feeling super tired, nauseous and moody these past 10 weeks. I have to take a lot of naps and eat every 2 hours or else it's bad news. This past week we got to hear the babys heartbeat. It was really surreal and yet very real. After going to our first appt. it was such a relief to hear that my pregnancy is going as it should be going and everything checks out. I can't wait to meet this little baby!

The poster above was used to announce our BIG news to our families. Since we were in San Diego we skyped with Joshes family on Christmas Eve and they all opened their posters together at the same time. It was really fun to announce it all at once and have everyone together. My family opened theirs up as well. On both sides there was a lot of smiling, crying and celebrating. It makes me want to announce things more often.

Since getting pregnant took us so long it has made me very grateful to be pregnant. I was discouraged at time that it would never happen. I'm glad Josh was always so positive. he is the best husband. We weren't the people who just "got pregnant" ( Josh and I decided if you are 16 and a hillbilly you have better chances at getting pregnant fast, this was our research from MTV's 16 and Pregnant). It was a journey. Being petite, weighing 104 lbs and having irregular periods makes is difficult to get pregnant. I'm so happy things got on track and that we are going to have a baby! :)

Merry Merry Christmas.

2011-01-09T10:52:00.004-07:00

Christmas went really, really fast this year. Which also means December went really, really fast. It was hard to keep up with all of the activities. We went to some fun parties, decorated the house, shopped for gifts and spent quality time with family.

We went to San Diego for Christmas. We were gone for about 10 days and had a relaxing time. From what I remember I slept a LOT. Growing a baby makes me tired. I was also pretty nausea so that was fun trying to figure out how not to be. Despite not feeling my best, we managed to do a few things and still have a fun time with family.

Christmas was nice and relaxing. Josh gave me a ping pong table which I'm pretty excited about. He really spoiled me this year. My other fav thing was a REAL hair straightener. It gets through my think mane and actually does it's job! It's wonderful.

We also visited the zoo. I love the zoo! They added a new enclosure for the Cheetahs which pretty much made my day. They are my favorite animals. Seeing a massive, fast cat just makes me happy.

Visiting the Midway was also cool. Navy ships are massive, but have very tight quarters. Oh and really steep stairs. I don't think you could be over 5'5 and comfortably climb the stairs all day.

The highlight was doing some temple work for my moms side of the family. It was a very emotional and joyful experience. Knowing that Grandma Bee and Pa will be reunited and their parents and grandparents too is so comforting. So many great things have happened in the San Diego Temple for my family and I.

100 Things

2010-11-21T19:57:00.004-07:00

Since it is the season of Thanksgiving I decided I would make a list of 100 things (in no particular order) that I am thankful for. This might be a challenge, but I think I can do it. Whenever I feel down I play this game in my head where I list my blessings. It usually helps me to snap out of my bad moods. So this is a way to put it down on paper or I mean the internet.

Thankful I wasn't a pioneer. I don't think it would have made it to the West alive!

1. My Husband Josh

2. Testimony

3. My house

4. The Yard

5. my baby kittens Yetti and Gnarly

6. America

7. Utah

8. San Diego

9. Mom

10. Dad

11. Michelle

12. All of my in-laws

13. Good Health

14. Apple

15. the internet

16. email

17. Facebook

18. My job

19. My BFA degree

20. My Car

21. My Car's heated seats

22. Gloves

23. my jackets

24. jeans

25. H&M

26. food

27. Target

28. Crate & Barrel

29. Prayer

30. my Calling

31. Friends

32. People that care

33. Temples

34. The Sun

35. Summer

36. Snowboarding

37. Burton Feather

38. Sundays

39. Friday Night

40. fate

41. water

42. dove dark chocolate

43. Lolita's California Burritos

44. In-n-Out in Centerville, UT

45. Jesus Christ

46. The Scriptures

47. Movies

48. TV

49. Skateboarding

50. Art

51. Graphic Design

52. Organization

53. Proactive

54. Clinique

55. Ice Cream

56. Books & Stories

57. Heavenly Father

58. Sleepy Cats

59. Kids

60. The Elderly

61. Glasses

62. Beach

63. Body boarding

64. sea shells

65. Fall Leaves

66. apple "z"

67. shift apple "z"

68. blonde hair

69. maps

70. sleep

71. bonfires

72. parties

73. guacamole

74. freedom of religion

75. freedom of speech

76. doctors

77. knowledge

78. choices

79. missionaries

80. baptism

81. the color green

82. shorts

83. laughter

84. looking on the brightside

85. rock and roll

86. concerts & live music

87. legs and walking

88. towels

89. fleece

90. purses

91. humor

92. sarcasm

93. snow

94. service

95. games

96. charm

97. grandparents

98. 3 meals a day, everyday

99. smiling

100. hugs from josh

Once again no particular order. This shows how jumpy my thoughts are. I bet I could have gone to 200!

This concludes 100 Things Natalie is thankful for.

The Facebook

2010-11-18T21:28:00.003-07:00

Josh and I went to the theaters last Monday and saw the Social Network. I loved this movie. I'm not afraid to admit that Facebook is a big part of my life (you so know it's a big part of yours too). I loved how it went through the making of Facebook, through the lawsuits and most of all the genius of it. The script was awesome.

Facebook initially was set up as a social network for Harvard students in 2004. It then grew to include other universities. I remember when you had the have a college .edu email address from a list of schools that Facebook approved. When BYU-I was added to the list I signed up. It was pretty cool back in 2005 when it was exclusively only for certain colleges. Now anyone can join. So I can basically say I was an early pioneer of Facebook.

I love Facebook because it allows you to stay connected with your friends and family. I would have lost touch with tons of my friends if it hadn't been for facebook. I love how easy it is to stay in touch with people and find out whats going on in the world. Plus you have to love some of your friends status updates!

If you haven't seen the movie, go see it! As much as some people don't like it, Facebook is changing the way we interact with each other. I believe its an important part of life today. Think about how many conversations start with, "did you see what So-And-So posted on Facebook?"

Rockerween (Halloween 2010)

2010-11-07T17:26:00.003-07:00

Halloween was a blast! Cody and beth did a halloween party at their house and it was so much fun!

Josh and I were members of the band Falcon Quest. Falcon Quest is our rockband band. I made us custom Falcon Quest shirts. Forever 21 and a few other odds and ends did the rest. We had a good time putting our outfits together. I laughed so hard when Josh donned the blond wig!

Yoda and Princess Leia. This was Yodas first halloween party and I think he handled it pretty well. In my opinion he was the best dressed baby!

Kate & Dustin. Dustin stayed in character the whole night. It was awesome.

The Ericksons in their Star Wars costumes complete with light sabers!

Us and Dr. Horrible (who won best costume).

Josh Rockin the drums.

Cody and Beth.

Rockband. What would a party be like without Rockband?

Do you love my lace gloves?

Eyeore and Trevor or I mean Trevor and Jessie.

2010 Halloween was a success. I can't wait for next years!

Fall Fall Fall!

2010-10-25T21:42:00.003-06:00

Where is the time going? Why are all of the leaves already changing? Why did it snow in the foothills last night? How is Rockband 3 coming out tommorrow? These are all important questions. The blog is in need of an update.

Here are the important events I haven't wrote about.

Kate & Dustin got married at the end of August! It was such a fun wedding. Josh did their ring ceremony and he did a great job.

In September we went to the Dew Tour. It was really cool to see all of the pro skateboarders and their skills. Oh and RYAN Scheckler too!

Also in Sept I had dinner with my old friends from the Chula Vista Stake. It was so fun to catch up with my friends after so many years. It had been since our Senior year of seminary that we have all hung-out.

The Big news in October was that In-N-Out opened up in Centerville!!! Which is only about 6 mins from our house and .5 miles from my work. All of my co-worker friends and I went to lunch on opening day and it was wonderful. We didn't even have a line to wait in because we went at 11 am. An hour later (and the rest of the week) they had the cops directing traffic.

We went to Pocatello to Celebrate my father-in-laws 70th birthday. We went on a hike on the mountain behind their house, had a BBQ, cake and lemon meringue pie. The best part was the birthday/fav memory video all of the kids, spouses and grandkids made for Errol. I have a pretty awesome father-in-law.

Last weekend we went to a Dinner Mystery party for Cassie's 25th b-day! It was so fun. I loved that it was Halloween themed.

Josh and I are pretty excited for the Halloween Party in 1 week. We have our costumes ready. I don't know why I like Halloween so much. I think it has to do with costumes, decorations and parties. It's a holiday I can get behind because it's so silly and fun. More on that next week. Stay tuned!

Cha-cha Changes!

2010-09-26T17:50:00.003-06:00

For the past 2 years Josh and I have been serving in the Primary as the CTR 6 teachers. We have loved our calling so much. Teaching 6-7 yrs olds is a lot of fun. We lucked out and have had a really good group of kids to teach. Josh and I have called Primary 2 hours of fun and entertainment (and learning too)! Such as today during singing time Josh was asked to dress like a "celebrity." We are practicing for the Primary Program next month and him and 2 others were the "guest celebrity judges" to critique the kids on their songs. The kids went crazy for Joshes outfit. It was hilarious!

So now for the change. I was given a new calling to serve in the Young Womens. I am going to be the Young Womens Secretary! I am so excited!!! I love the YWs program so much. When I first joined the church I started out in YW. I feel like I gained so much from being a part of such a great program during my teen years. I had great leaders who I looked up to and made great friends. I don't know how I would have survived my teen years without it! It is going to be a lot of work, but I really look forward to this opportunity. I hope I will do well in my new calling!

We are going to miss our Primary class so much! We had the cutest kids. One of our students came by our house this afternoon with cookies and a handmade card telling us that she will miss us. It is always great to feel loved!

Narco

2010-09-22T21:37:00.002-06:00

Narco might be one of my nicknames. I'm really good at falling asleep so it is pretty fitting. Do you know what else is pretty fitting for me . . . this hoodie! I'm pretty sure it was made just for me!

I was browsing the web yesterday and I can across this! The perfect sleep ready hoodie. Perfect for the girl who always falls asleep. Who thinks on this level of wardrobe/lifestyle functionality??? Burton does! I am already in LOVE with Burton and now I am even more.

I always fall asleep in the car (but never when I'm driving, don't you worry) and this would be perfect. Pillow, and eye shield included!

So maybe if I'm good this year, Santa will give me this for Christmas.

6th Annual San Diego Summer Stay

2010-09-20T21:49:00.002-06:00

Every year, for the past 6 years Josh and I have been spending a week near the end of summer in San Diego. We get to spend time with my family and do summer the real way (my way!). This year was one of my favorite trips. It was relaxing and fun. I have a million pictures of the trip, but I put then on Facebook if you want to see them. I'm getting tired of posting everything in a million spots. Do you ever feel this way? I'll break down the events.

Friday: Arrived at night . . . 11 hr drive!

Saturday: Mission Beach - Not an ideal beach day due to it being cold, but still a good time. Then we went downtown to the Embarcadero and check out the "tall ships." Dinner @ Anthony's.

Sunday: Church

Monday: Drive up to LA. Went to the Burton Store, Carl's Jr. Skate Plaza, and visited where my mom went to design school @ FIDIM. Checked into the hotel (a really nice and perfectly modern Holiday Inn) and spent the night at Downtown Disney.

Tuesday: Spent the day at CA adventure. Michelle rode on a lot of new rides which was really fun for me. The highlight for me was the World of Color show. Words can't describe the awesomeness and Disney magic!

Wednesday: Disneyland! It was so fun, but when has it never been fun for me? Josh had a lot of fun too since it was spilt into 2 days and it wasn't crowded. We walked on all of the rides and had a leisurely day at the park. I was thinking how I have been to Disneyland around 30 times which makes me smile.

Thursday: Back to San Diego. We went to the Mormon Battalion Center. It was inspiring to learn more about their sacrifice.

Friday: Went to PB with Josh and had a perfect beach day. Warm sun, fun waves and spending time with Josh. Then at night we went to H&M.

Saturday: We had our second annual Beach Bonfire/BBQ at Coronado. It was really windy, but it was still great to be at the beach with my family and friends.

Sunday: Did the drive back to our Utah life. Why does it always seem longer on the drive back from vacation?

We had a really good time. I'm always a little sad when summer is. I love warm weather, being outside, bbq's, bonfires, going to the beach, swimming, wearing shorts and not having to wear a jacket. Fall is almost here. Josh and I have had a crazy fun summer. We did so much! We are definitely taking advantage of being two young, married, successful people who are living our lives to the fullest!

Good Bye 2010 Summer!

Natalie's Quarter of a Century Birthday Bash

2010-09-02T19:32:00.003-06:00

Josh and I really like having parties and Josh wanted to do something fun for my 25th. So we had this party and had a lot of fun!

Josh got cupcakes from the Sweet Tooth Fairy. The Vanilla is the best and Josh is the best for making sure we had an awesome dessert!

Blowing out the candles!

Julie and Tara with their cute girls!

My Ghost friends. The newly weds Aimme & Jerry and Jordan, Ryan, Ella and little baby Kyler. I wish I could have taken a better photo.

My work friends!

The coolest couple in our ward, the Carters!

Our food spread and the back side of the Other Josh. I was happy that I made my most favorite punch.

Jenny Weston and I. Jenny is pretending to be short.

I made 3 of these pendant banners. I only used 6 sheets of 12x12 paper per banner. I then sewed them together on the machine. They looked really cute!

I was happy so many of my friends came out to celebrate with me. Thank you all who came. I was happy we were able to have the party outside because I have always had outside b-day parties. It's one of the perks of an August Birthday!

Being 25 is weird. I have been thinking for the past several years that I'm still 21. It's going to be a transition getting used to 25!

Cats & Yard

2010-09-01T20:55:00.006-06:00

I took some photos of the baby cats and the yard a few weeks ago. I'm pretty amazed at how our yard turned out this summer versers last summer. This summer it looks a million times better. More on that after the cat photo shoot.

Gnarly was being so cute. I took these photos after I passed my UT drivers test. I let the cats play outside to celebrate with me!

Yetti the jungle cat.

Apricots galore! Again, we had tons of apricots. They were really tasty for the first part. But then you have to pick up the fallen ones and they are squishy and gross.

This is my favorite part of the yard. Back in June my parents came out we did a lot of yard work. My dad is a yard master and showed me the ways of yard wrangling. We pulled weeds, fertilized, pulled more weeds, trimmed plants, pulled more weeds and watered like crazy. Having a big yard is a HUGE responsibility. I learned that last summer and was pretty disappointed that I couldn't make the yard look nice. I didn't have to knowledge of how to take care of it all.

This year I watered and watered and watered. The grass became really green. Only parts of our yard have a sprinkler system so I had to do a lot of it by hand. My dad helped me start to set up places for sprinklers around the yard. I have tweaked and modified my sprinkler placement and I really have a good system down.

The front is really green. Josh and I bought some weed killer that ended up killing our lawn and the weeds. It looked like a dog and peed all over our yard. I was soooooo annoyed at the person at Loews who recommended the weed killer! I planted some new grass seeds and now you can't even tell!

And our street is under construction so don't mind the cones!

There are still some dead spots here and there, but for the most part it is 100% better then last year. I have spent hours sweating out in the yard this summer after work and on saturdays. I'm pretty proud of the outcome. Josh mows and weed wacks the lawn and a few times he pulled some weeds with me. Mostly this yard was all me because I decided this year, if I want it to look good I'm going to take care of it! Next year will be even better because I know exactly what to do to take care of the lawn. Lots of our neighbors and friends commented on the progress of the yard and that made me feel pretty good too. :) Hard work pays off!

Chicago: Monday

2010-09-01T20:34:00.000-06:00

We started the day off right with breakfast at the Bongo Room.

I had Red Velvet Pancakes. I'm not exaggerating when I say this was the best breakfast that I have ever had!!! Red Velvet pancakes with a white chocolate syrup and walnuts sprinkled on the top. It was one of those meals that you do not want to stop eating. I thought about that breakfast for the next 2 weeks.

Josh had a similar experience with his breakfast. Carrot Cake Pancakes, white chocolate syrup and Pineapple on top. He was in a food induced coma for most of the day.

We then hopped on the "L" and went over to ohh and ahh at The Bean.

It was pretty cool. Who doesn't like looking at yourself in weird angles?

I loved the architecture.

This was a possible Bansky piece. He is a street graffiti artist and this looked like his work.

Ah, H&M. We like big cities because there is a guaranteed H&M. We didn't go too crazy this time.

See only 1 medium sized bag! BTW Chicago is a really clean and beautiful city. It is as clean as SLC which is amazing for a city of its size.

In front of the Art Institute.

We then headed over to our last City Pass stop. The Museum of Science and Industry. We wanted to stay here for an entire day. There were so many great things to learn about. This is an ENTIRE captured German Submarine from WW2 inside of the Museum.

Kitchen in the submarine.

We both had family who served in the military. My Grandpa Jim was in the Navy so it was pretty cool to see what Subs looked like back then. That bed was barley big enough for me!

Tons of retired planes and locomotives in this section.

We then had to head back to the air port to catch our flight. It was a fun and quick trip. We jammed so many things into only a few days!

I am going to leave you with why I love Chicago:

- Great Lakes. It looked exactly like the ocean and I love staring at the ocean.

- Clean City

- Awesome Shopping

- Great Places to Eat

- Tons to do

- Really nice people. Whenever we were lost (which was frequent) someone would always come over and help us out.

Bye Chicago!

Chicago: Sunday

2010-08-30T20:16:00.011-06:00

Side note: I'm writing this in the dark. Well kinda. Our office light bulb died and it hasn't been replaced yet. So im using 2 desk lamps and the light from the closet. Wish me luck!

Sunday morning we rode the train into the city. We then took a really long walk to our hotel to drop our bags off. We did a lot of walking.

Found China Town on our walk.

Dropped the bags off and kept on the long walk movement (not the best idea in humidly).

We purchased a City Pass which gave us the above tickets. It was half of the cost if we had purchased the tickets individually. The best perk was passing all of the lines because we got to go straight to the front of all of the lines It was great to be able to hit up all of the major museums too.

Found this cool fountain on the long walk.

Found the Bears stadium on the long walk.

Finally arrived at our destination, the Field Museum.

Sue, Josh and me. Most complete T-Rex. I would be pretty scared if there were dinosaurs walking the earth!

Sky line.

Shedd Aquarium. I could have stayed here all day. Well any of the Museums we could have stayed for hours, but time did not permit us to do so. I had to take this photo. Josh and his arch nemesis, dolphins! Look how un happy he is.

Dolphins! This museum was phenomenal. It is the largest indoor aquarium in the US. There were so many large tanks. This is one of them that had cute dolphins swimming around.

Sea lion. I love hearing them bark.

Beluga whale! This tank was huge too. When ever I see a beluga whale I think of that Raffe song, Baby Beluga.

Mom and babies.

Sea Turtle. The are so fun to watch.

Penguins! Ever watch Dirty Jobs? They came here once to clean their enclosure.

I loved the lake. It gave me a an illusion of the ocean.

We then went to the Museum of Science and Industry. We were pretty much over museums at that point. We were in a desperate need of a nap and we really wanted to go swimming at the hotel pool. We got smart and took a cab back to our hotel. Sometimes the 7 bucks is worth it!

On top of the Sears Tower. This was my second time and I was glad we went at sunset.

Pizza again! We weren't planning on it, but we were starving and tired of trying to find another place to eat at. This was Giordanos. I liked their pizza the best. You can tell because I downed 3 pieces and Josh ate 2. The sauce, the cheese the crust, so yummy! I now like pizza a lot but, only if it's from Chicago.

It's hard to believe we did all of this in one day!!! We were so tired. We rode busses, trains, cabs and walked and walked and walked. Did I mention we walked a lot? I thought Chicago's subway system was going to be more like NYC where you could ride it anywhere. I learned it was not, oh well!

Chicago: Friday & Saturday Night

2010-08-30T19:13:00.003-06:00

Josh flew into Chicago Friday so we could have the weekend to be tourists together. It was both of our first times being in Chicago. Friday night our friend Johnny and his gf Gretchen came and meet up with us. We ate some amazing pizza at Lou Malnati's and caught up with each other and then got incredibly lost thanks to Google Maps. It was a fun night! This was my second time in just 3 days of eating deep dish pizza.

View from my hotel room in Rosemont where we stayed during the trade show. I was amazed at how green everything was. It was beautiful! My two favorite colors in nature to see are green and blue.

Saturday was the last day of the consumer show which at night I was officially FREE! Josh and I rode the subway into the city. We meet up with the Mulcocks. Caitlin's family has been long time friends with the Joshes fam. It's always funny hearing the stories. They showed us around the Magnificent Mile and then we went to Navy Pier to watch the fireworks. It was a pretty awesome firework show. Complete with music!

Chicago: Thursday Night

2010-08-30T18:30:00.000-06:00

I don't know if you know this about me but, I love Target. One of the many reasons why I love Target is because they have Free Thursdays at certain art Museums throughout the US. I love that they support the arts!

After CHA some of my co-workers and I headed to the city to the Art Institute of Chicago. We had only 30 mins to explore the before the museum closed. We ran to the Seraut painting Sunday Afternoon on the Grande Jatte first. This is one of my all time favorite paintings. My mom had this painting on a coffe mug growning up and I have always loved it. I have always thought it would be cool to be in this painting. It's always magical, yes magical, to see favorite works of art.

Look at the amazing detail!

Monet

Me and Vincent Van Gogh

The Nighthawks. Another painting that I want to step into.

American Gothic

Outside of the Museum.

After the Art Institute we headed over to the Sears Tower. This is what it looks like when you are at 103 floors. It's pretty cool to be up this high.

The glass bottom viewing areas.

Me sitting on the bottom. One of my work friends dared all of us to jump on the glass part. We all did of course and it was scary.

By this point we were all STARVING!!! Nothing was really open because it was almost 11pm. A local told us to eat here and so we did. I had fantastic fish and chips. We all had fun on our spontaneous and spur of the moment Chicago night out. I'm lucky to have fun people to work with.

Chicago: CHA

2010-08-24T20:53:00.005-06:00

This summer I was invited to go to the CHA Summer show. We do 2 big shows a year. I have been doing the booth signage for the past several shows and I have never seen everything all together. It was pretty exciting to see my hard work come to life!

The Vintage Groove jewelry wall. I love our jewelry!

The Girls at the Show

I Meet Suede from Project Runway! I LOVEd meeting him.

I designed these bags. It was pretty awesome to see ppl sporting them and loving them!

I had to sneak a pic with my fellow BYU-I designer Lindsay!

The Clarkes

2010-08-12T21:14:00.003-06:00

have left to DC so we had a goodbye party a few weekends ago. It included pizza, fireworks, Rockband, fun and laughs! We will miss them not living in UT, but are excited for their new adventure. Plus now we have an excuse to go to DC. :)

Our Friend Family Photo

The Comprehensive Guide to Street Skating Spots in Pocatello

2010-07-27T17:43:00.001-06:00

I don't have a blanky. Don't hold any lasting affection for a G.I. Joe set I once owned. I tell you this to say simply that I'm not a sentimental guy by nature. Things have just been things to me since before I can remember. Not that I didn't enjoy, play with, or love my things, I did and I still do. But I'm not the guy that keeps a thing around just because. Those people are of a different kind.

The sentimental well is dry when it comes to things, but places, that's a different thing all together. I'm really attached to places. The Oregon coast where we vacationed as kids, our cabin in Ashton that had grasshoppers the size of small cats, the mountain that stands behind my parent's home that was the finest lizard hunting ground in town. Those are the things I get sentimental about. I have a lot of places that are special to me.

While visiting my parents some weeks ago, I decided to take Natalie out to see some of my special places. Skateboarding is a big part of the mixture that makes up Josh Ormond, so I took Natalie to all my favorite skate spots around Pocatello. These spots were my friends. Like, for real. It's weird, it's funny, it's crazy, I know. But they were. Each one had it's own personality and I treated these spots as my friends.

Taking Natalie to these spots was a lot of fun. I found myself driving the exact routes I did as a teenager. Coming in from the back alley or the parking lot across the street so I wouldn't raise suspicion and get rolled out by the cops. It was totally unnecessary of course, but habits die hard. Every spot had its own set of memories and just being in those spots let me relive them. I tried to describe the highlights to Natalie, but I'm not sure she was all that interested in how long it took Dustin and I to get this one curb to actually grind right. Being in these spots was like being with old friends, some had changed, some had passed away, but most were the same as I remembered. So here's a list with some pictures of my favorite skate spots in Pocatello.

Simplot Square

Pocatello was divided into three distinct skate zones. There was old town made up of Pocatello High School, various banks, and Simplot Square: the university with tons of rails, stairs, drops, bumps and curbs; and miscellaneous, which covered pretty much everything else we could find that was interesting and skate-able.

Simplot Square was the nexus of the old town skate zone. It wasn't even in the center of old town, but some how every skate session would start and end there. It has curbs aplenty. A sweet step down. Shade, water, and seclusion from cops. It was rare to get kicked out of the Square. It's one of my favorite spots to this day. On any given day you could roll up and find the place packed with skaters.

The skate park has taken it's toll on Simplot Square. Ever since it opened, kids have skated real street less and less. The Square shows its neglect. Previously buttered curbs, now dry as a bone. When I arrived on the scene to take these photos, there wasn't a skater in sight. It was rare to have a moment to yourself in the Square. I made the most of it and took some laps over the step down.

(The Simplot Square step down. Lots of tricks were learned over this thing.)

Key Bank Parking Lot

Also part of the old town skate zone. This spot had a good mix of features. There was a large round rail that ran on the side of the drive-through on the far right of the picture. A manual pad on the other side of the drive-through (not pictured). And ample room to do flatland tricks (it's a parking lot after all). But most of the action centered around this little curb. It's a parking space with a concrete peninsula. The peninsula was great for all kinds of grinds and slides. And if you were feeling really creative, you could throw some flip tricks over it. It was a great little spot. And Simplot Square was right across the street so it was in the perfect location.

I remember skating there one day with a huge group of like ten people. We were like a swarm of skateboarding energy. My good friend Jared, who wasn't all that good a skateboarder, was with us and trying to ollie up this side walk. He finally got up on it but lost his balance and looped out. Well he did something weird in the air and when he landed he broke is ankle. That was the first broken bone I witnessed while skating. There were more to come. Mostly mine.

Now, like Simplot Square, all the wax is dried up, no one skates there, and it's gone back to just being a parking lot. I had to snap a quick ollie over the peninsula just to stick it to the man.

City Bank Manual Pad

Directly across the street from the Key Bank spot was this little gem. It's essentially a sidewalk in the middle of a parking lot. But we used it to show off our tech skills. We would manual (that's skate lingo for doing wheelies) this thing for hours. That's all there was in this spot, just the manual pad. If you had really good balance, you would manual it the long way. I was never all that good at manualing so I never made it to the end the long way.

This spot was pretty fun. It was right off main street and cops would drive by all the time. I never remember being kicked out of the place. No one seemed to mind that we were just jumping up onto a sidewalk and then off the other end. The City Bank Manual Pad wasn't something you went to exclusively, but it was always part of the old town circuit.

The Bump (RIP)

The first reported casualty. This was nothing more than a heave in the sidewalk on the south side of the City Bank Manual Pad. Two segments of sidewalk came together and like tectonic plates neither wanted to move backward, so they moved up. It made the perfect natural launch pad. This is where we honed our flip tricks. It wasn't uncommon to see chest high kickflips thrown over this thing. For awhile we had a safety cone stashed behind some dumpsters in the adjacent alley way. We would set that up and throw everything we could think of over it.

Now it looks like the city finally got the funding to re-pour the sidewalk on that block. The bump is now a driveway. I was pretty bummed to see that it was gone. It was a great spot. It was out of the way, stayed in the shade for most of the day, and above all was really fun to skate. Rest in piece Bump. I'll be shredding you in the Celestial.

(Like standing atop a grave.)

The Blue Round Rail

The big wall you see behind me is my high school auditorium. And just to the left is my seminary building. This rail was skated a lot. It was one of the more technical rails to skate. You had to be totally committed to what you were doing or the Blue Round Rail would own you. The side walk was all rutted out from years of frost and melt. It was like a river rock wall turned on its side. The black top wasn't much better. It was rough and if you went down on it you were guaranteed a good shredding. Plus the rail itself wasn't all that smooth. It had dents, dings, and kinks aplenty. But that just added to its coolness.

You could start your grind from the blacktop and transfer over to the sidewalk. That was crazy fun. The rail was built to go around the perimeter of a credit union and the drive-through window ladies wouldn't take kindly to us shredding the Blue Round Rail. We would get two or three grinds in before they would start yelling at us over the PA. So the Blue Round Rail was a night mission spot, which added to the danger factor. You had to rely on the street lights from the school. So everything was covered in shadow. This is a good skate spot.

(It doubled as a decent chair too.)

B-Side

Well this one is more of an institution than a spot really. It was on the border of the university skate zone, but really it was the middle of the Pocatello skate scene. B-Side was a little duplex turned into a skate shop, and it meant the world to us. The owner was a guy by the name of Brandon Flyg. He was a local skater, born and raised, that dreamed to open a skate shop someday. Brandon actually taught me how to do my first pop-shove-it years before he opened B-Side. We loved this shop. We were devoted to this shop. One of the guys I used to skate with actually got the address tattooed on his arm. Brandon converted the front curbs into the perfect ledges. He put angled steel caps on the longest curb and it was awesome. I'm sitting on what remains of our skate sessions there. The curb to the left is the end of the long angled steel curb.

Brandon eventually moved his shop into old town because rent was cheaper. By that time I was on my mission. I returned to find the shop in a deteriorating condition. Inventory was at a bare minimum, no one was around. It was empty. Zumiez had opened and the skateboarding naive abandoned the institution that put skating on the map for Pocatello. Brandon was forced to close his doors. He moved to California and took a design job for a skate company there. I still drive by the old shop and reminisce. That shop was our connection to the rest of the skate world. It made us feel apart of something bigger than ourselves. We were skaters and we weren't alone. That's a big deal to a bunch of kids that felt like they were on the outside.

B-Side was a force for change in the city. The Pocatello Skate Park Committee formed there. We got ourselves organized, lobbied for support, and raised a quarter of a million dollars to build our own skate park. And it all started on B-Side's front porch.

Fast side story. The building to the right in the image is a Kinkos. We used to get on the roof and ollie off it into the parking lot. Yeah, it was stupid. But I'll tell you what, when you can roll away after jumping off a building, you're the baddest dude around. The only thing that could make that cooler is if the building exploded behind you.

University Library Bank

The university skate zone was massive. There are too many awesome spots to list. But this one was one of my personal favorites. Well my favorite that still exists anyway. It was in the back lot of the university library. It was a bank that went from about knee high to waist high with a set of stairs in the middle. We used it as a quarter pipe and pulled some of the craziest tricks on this thing. Plus, there was a manual pad and curb across the parking lot, a loading dock drop, and one of the heaviest stair gaps in town just around the corner. This spot had something for everyone.

The one problem with this spot and all the university skate zone spots was security. University public safety were always around and always anxious to kick you off campus. As a result, we could never stay in one spot for very long, fifteen, twenty minutes tops. Public safety weren't cops, cops we could handle. Cops would roll up roll down a window and ask us to leave. No big deal. Public safety liked to make a show of force. They would screech into a spot in their cars and bicycles and just start screaming at you to "Stop what you're doing and line up against the car." Seriously, public safety would come out with two cars and four dudes on bikes. At best they would only take your name and kick you off campus for a day, week, or life. (I was banned from campus for life several times.) At worst they would slap cuffs on you, take your skateboard, and threaten you with jail time and huge trespassing fines. But the spots were worth it. Public safety bozos were the price we had to pay for the spots. And we paid it gladly.

Quick story about this little shed. One night Kyle and I were skating the bank. Kyle happened to glance over at the road that runs along side the bank just as a public safety guy drives by. We know that if one public safety car sees us, the bike patrol isn't far behind. So we bolt and hide in this little shed. Now Kyle's like 6'4" and I'm like 6'2"-ish give or take a foot (What? I'm only 5'9"? whatever). We were crammed in this shed full of hoses and lawn equipment and we can see out into the parking lot. As soon as we get the door shut, here comes the public safety car blasting around the corner. Then we see two public safety bikes zip by from the opposite direction. They're all just standing in the middle of the parking lot looking for us, and me and Kyle are trying so hard not to loose it. After about ten minutes the public safety guys gave up the search and moved on. Me and Kyle booked it to B-Side and shared the story about how we got away. It was epic.

So there you have it. Those are some of my favorite spots. The places I get sentimental over. In retrospect it isn't the places themselves that hold sentimental value to me. I guess it's the friends and experiences associated with these places. I'm still close to most of my skate friends. And their friendship never depended on a place, but I'm glad we had these places to share. We grew up together, met the world with each other, and I'm grateful for it.

I called these spots my friends, and they are. But really they're echos of actual people that I have the actual pleasure of calling my friends. I hope these spots remain for as long as my friendships do. Because when I'm in these spots I'm fourteen all over again. And when I'm with my friends I hope I'm the same fourteen year old kid that they trusted with their friendship. Now that, I can get sentimental about.

The Epicness Comes

2010-07-27T16:29:00.003-06:00

Tonight brings forth a new post.

Tonight a craggy word peak will blast forth into the world.

The unicorn dance party in heaven is about to get down.

July Summer Weekend

2010-07-25T17:38:00.005-06:00

Last weekend was fantastic. Weekends are always pretty great for me. I get to hangout with my BBF/husband Josh and we do fun stuff. But some weekends are better then other weekends, like last weekend.

Friday night we dined at Lonestar Taqueria. It is Utahs best Mexican food. I'm more of a fan of fresh beach mexican food then sit down "fancy" mexican food. Naturally I am so in love with this place!

Then we went to the Gateway to see Inception. Awesome movie with a great story, actors and action.

Saturday morning we did yard work. I have been working on clearing out/cleaning up an over grown lilac tree corner and I finally finished it! Plus earlier in the week we made $250.00 from the power company because our trees were up in the wires. So they paid us to cut down and remove the trees. It was a win win situation! So now that back corner looks nice and organized. Josh snuck this photo of me watering where my dad and I planted new grass seeds. The grass is totally growing back!

It was already in the 90's when we were outside working. We decided to go swimming. We went to Pineview lake to cool off. It was so refreshing to be in the water. Summer to me means beach time and this was the closest thing to a beach. There was even sand and baby waves. I had a lot of fun!

Later that night our friend Scott was staring in the King and I. It was a really fun play and Scott did an awesome job. It was outside in this really cool cutout grove of tress. Perfect temp.

Sunday we had President Monson in our ward. Which you can read about in my last post. Jackie came down and spent the night and we had fun with her too.

It was a great summer weekend. The weekend that I had just now was great too. I will be posting about it soon.

P.S. Yetti is so cute!

Surprise Visitor

2010-07-19T22:09:00.004-06:00

This is not the "epic" post, but it's pretty epic if you ask me.

Most days at Church on Sunday are pretty routine. It's the way Church is done. You can attend any LDS Church anywhere in the world and they will be doing the same things as any other LDS Church in the world. So yesterday to my surprise it was nothing, but routine. After the opening announcements and Hymn was sang people started to slowly stand up. Standing up during church doesn't happen until after its over. So I was thinking what is going on, is someone hurt, did I miss something? Then some people opened the side door, which is out of routine as well. Then people came in though the side door.

You will never guess who came through the side door . . . Thomas S. Monson! The Prophet of our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I could not believe it. The Prophet was joining us for Sacrament Meeting. It was so surreal.

His great granddaughter was being blessed. It turns out we have relatives of his in our ward. This was by far the best Sacrament Meeting, besides the first one I attended. The Spirit was so strong in the room.

President Monson spoke at the end of the meeting. He spoke about his own family history since the theme of the day was on the importance of families, temples and eternal families. He mostly talked about he and his wife Francis' history. The story of how they meet and dated is so cute. When he joined the Navy her told her she could date anyone. He then said how dumb of him it was to say something like that. He laughed about it. In the end it worked out because they eventually were married. He also said he is a night owl. He stayed up till 1 editing his latest biography. He said he doesn't need much sleep, but others do like his Francis. He then told her to wake up. He chuckled again. It was fun to hear him speak when its not at general conference. He really spoke from the heart. Not that he doesn't do that already but it was more spur of the moment from the heart type of talk.

He also said to always trust in the Lord and to not give up on Him. The Lord is there to take care of your plan here on earth for you. He told the men to treat their wives like the angles that they are. In his final remarks he left a blessing on the ward and said the ward will prosper and that we will be blessed for the way that we conduct ourselves. He also said again to always trust in the Lord and to not give up on Him. The Lord is there for us.

It was a pretty fantastic to hear from the Prophet. His words of counsel were just what I needed. It was quite an honor to be in the presence of the prophet. I will always remember the Sunday when the Prophet joined us for Church.

It's Coming...

2010-07-15T16:50:00.004-06:00

Prepare your minds because they're about to be blown.

An epic post of such galactic epicness that all the unicorns in heaven will simultaneously shout hallelujah.
The jubilation jubulates soon.

EPIC!