Christmas, Christmas, Christmas!

Christmas was delightful. We have three families that we hit (not literally); My parents, Jordan's dad's family and Jordan's mom's family. I've never been grateful that my extended family doesn't get together for Christmas until I got married.

Last year was full of stress and much angst as we rushed from family thing to family thing, and we didn't even get to open our presents at home until late in the afternoon, and even that was rushed as we had to dash out for another family gathering. This year we had a better plan. And, miraculously our respective families had unintentionally planned their activities at the most perfect time for us to meet the needs of each party.

But, back to the plan.

Because my family was getting together at eight-bloody-thirty in the AM Christmas morning, that would mean that Jordan and I would have to get up around sixish to open our presents, shower and make it to my parents by 8:30. Yeah (humph) right. Christmas is to be full of joy and love, and me waking up at the butt crack of dawn doesn't exactly instill those emotions in me. So our plan was to open presents Christmas Eve. Coupled with the additional sleep this would provide and the fact that we were opening presents a good 9 hours earlier than we would have otherwise, I saw this as a win-win.

Christmas Eve afternoon (is that considered an oxy moron?) we went to BFE (that's my way of saying I can't even remember where we went) where Jordan's Grandpa (mom's side) was having a Christmas party. That was a lot of fun. We had also brought Jordan's mom's Christmas present with us to give to her. Jordan's brother rode with us, and also brought presents to hand out to the family. After we got to the party and had greeted everyone Jordan's brother got my keys to transfer presents from my car to pass along to Jordan's mom. After the party Jordan asked his brother if he had given that present we brought to his mom, and he said yup! So we get home and looked in the back seat and there is Jordan's mom's present! He rode home from BFE (a good 45 min) with it sitting next to him and didn't say anything! Good one Chad! :)

From there we went to my parents' house for Christmas Eve dinner, and I let it slip to my mom that we were opening presents Christmas Eve. She was less than pleased. She is very much against the whole idea of opening presents early. She made it clear that I was not to open presents early! But really, what is she going to do, ground me? HA! So after dinner my family was going to go look at some fancy schmancy lights in Lindon, and I declined saying I was off to go unwrap my waiting presents!!! Muahahahaha!!!

On the whole this was a brilliant idea 'cause we could relax and enjoy opening presents in our own sweet time. As we had finished my mum called. She said that they were around the corner, and asked if she could stop by. I looked over my shoulder to my shredded wrapper-strewn living room and said "Uh, suuuuuure." She laughed and asked if she caught me. Yup, she caught me red-handed all right. She then admitted that she was actually in AF. Trixy woman.

I had gotten Jordan a LoveSac for the blessed holiday, so we cracked that sucker out, and a DVD that I had also gotten him and enjoyed the rest of the evening sans stress.

Christmas morning we were able to make it to my parents in PG right on time and enjoyed a fantastic breakfast of waffles and then unwrapped presents from family, but had to leave right after to get to AF to drop off Jordan's mom's present in order to make it back to Orem in time to have brunch with Jordan's dad and family. After that we had just enough time to watch another movie and take a delicious nap and get over to Jordan's grandparents (dad's side) for dinner in Provo.

Phew, a crazy but fun and festive two days. We were able to make it to all the parties that we wanted to and had a lot of fun with all of our family. Although a small part of me wishes I married an orphan.

The Evil Creatures Also Known As My Pets

I'm not one of those people that can sleep easily. In fact, I'm more like one of those people that have a really hard time sleeping. I don't think it would be so bad, if it weren't for the pets.

Bella is in a constant state of freezing, she thinks the only place she can sleep is under the covers up against my legs. She also couldn't possibly sleep without licking every inch of my legs and every single toe sufficiently before succumbing to a blissful sleep. While having her there doesn't exactly make me comfortable, I've gotten used to it. What I haven't gotten used to is . . . The Hunt.

Kloe is our cat. She's fairly large, although I suspect most of it is fur and super saggy skin. Kloe has lots of hobbies. Her hobbies include, but are not limited to; sleeping all day, sneaking Q-tips from the bathroom, playing with her sister Kea, kicking Bella out of the heated beds, lounging on the bathroom floor, standing in the space her water bowl goes (so when you try to put it back after filling it you can't), standing on the bathroom counter so she can lick the water off your hands as you wash them, and sitting on the tub so she can watch you shower.

But her favorite hobby of all, is to hunt Bella in the night time. Although I don't see what she gets out of it, as it couldn't be much of a challenge; she knows exactly where to find Bella each night. She'll jump up on the bed, and wack the spot in the bed where Bella sleeps. Kloe wacks, Bella yelps, Kloe wacks some more. Then I ever so gently NUDGE Kloe off the bed with my foot. Don't worry, no kittehs are harmed, they always land on their feet, right? Right? Meh- it's dark so I don't know how she lands. That's what she gets, 'cause she doesn't do this when I'm wide awake, she only does this when I'm on the cusp of sleep, and in my half awake- half asleep state a loud WACK on the bed scares the poo out of me.

Never one to be deterred from any activity she enjoys, Kloe inevitably returns minutes later to start the process all over again. Getting sick of the games, a couple nights ago I decided on a softer approach. When the wack came, rather than push her off the bed I snatched her up and proceeded to subject her to some fierce cuddling. This plan backfired greatly. My assumption had been she would freak out and run away never to return again, aha! However, she put forth the world's loudest purr straight into my ear, and began to lick my hand like a puppy, methodically moving from one finger to the next. She continued her barrage of love by rubbing her face into my hair (atomic purring all the while), and rolling around.

Once Kloe was bored, or more entertained by something else, she wanders off, and in enters Kea.

Should Kea find me lying on my side, she finds the only way she can be comfortable is to stretch out on top of me, molding to my side like a fuzzy kitteh blanket. A blanket with claws to ensure she stays atop me should I make the grave mistake of moving. If you're curious, yes-breathing constitutes as moving.

Should this creature of mine find me not lying on my side, she carries out her most favorite of early morning rituals. When I say "early morning" I mean early morning. She loves to trot in at 5AM and nibble on my ear. Not the fleshy lobe part, but the upper part that has that curling lip that is apparently so perfect for cat fangs to grasp a hold of. This particular brand of nibbling seems harmless at first. That's what she wants you to think. She locks her vice-like jaws softly, and gradually increases pressure, slowly pinching until you're convinced she has just pierced your ear. And the worst part is she does not let go, and there is nothing you can do to convince her otherwise. I have tried to pull at her scruff, shake her (again, ever so gently) and pinch her so she knows how it feels and empathetically release but no- you simply have to wait until she thinks you have been willed into submission by her power. And then she releases, and skips along pleased with herself.

All the while we have Brighton. This boy is dead to the world when he sleeps. Observe:

Passed out on Jordan's shoulder, doesn't look so comfortable, but Jordan could get up and walk around, pick him up, put him down etc. and he wouldn't wake up until he's good and ready to. Keeping along with the tradition of particular sleep habits the other pets have, this boy can only sleep stretched out in between Jordan and I. I have tried to move him to the other side of Jordan, but the speed in which he frantically scrambled over Jordan back to the very center of the bed could only be described as motivated by fear. Perhaps he is concerned about intruders and feels the center is the safest.

The worst part however is should I move, he slides in closer to me. For example; if I'm on my back, and I roll over onto my side, he will slide in closer to me and stretch along my back. But then, I can't roll back over (without squishing him). So then I am forced to roll over to my stomach if I need to change positions, but of course he slides himself right on over and I am again blocked off from rolling over the opposite direction. Many a time I have woken on the very edge of the bed, Brighton pressed against me and a massive gap in the middle. I have tried to pick him up and move him, but he just lets himself slide right back up against me.

It's a wonder I get any sleep at all with every single patch of horror we have adopted into our lives. They're still cute though, so I will keep them.

I Have Solved the Mystery!

We all know that Hollywood is rocked with scandal and scrupulous people. Well I, yes I BreAnn, have solved a hollywood mystery. The oldest kind of scandal there is. . . twins (wait for it) seperated at birth! (GASP!)
I don't think these people know that they are twins. It's going to be embarrassing when they find out and realize that I knew the whole time.

The unknowing sisters are . . .

Maggie Gyllenhal

And

The girl from the Progressive commercials

Yes, now that you see the two of them, it's a pretty blatant resemblance, right? It's just a shame that they don't know they're sisters. . . yet. Perhaps I will write a letter exposing their sisterdom.

They'll probably write a haiku in my honor.

Public Restroom Woes Part II

It has been brought to my attention that I have left out some critical subjects that really needed addressing in my last installment. I also realized that there was some very serious material that needed to be brought to the public attention. If you missed part 1, don't fret, you can catch up by simply clicking . . . here! I've got your back.

The Rocket Poo- The big burly brother to the rocket pee. My sister mentioned that this needed to be included, and frankly I agree. How could I have left out the rocket poo? I am deeply ashamed. Perhaps I need to clarify for those that can't use your imagination; The rocket poo is where an individual (I'm not going to name names, although heaven knows I could) possibly has deeper gastro intestinal issues because there is more air than poo, and it is so loud there is question as to whether or not this person is taking a deep breath and pushing it out, and I'm fairly positive they are hovering a foot over the bowl by the effect of the blast.

The rocket poo is without a doubt a higher offense to the victim. "Victim" being defined as the person in the stall right next to the rocket pooer. Scratch that, "victim" could also be defined as anyone within ear shot.

The No Flushers- Heaven help us all when they get to the bathroom before you do. I didn't realize how difficult it was to push down the little handle. Perhaps I am jumping to conclusions, and there are mitigating circumstances I am not aware of. For example, maybe they don't have any hands. Or feet for that matter. Granted, I don't know a soul that enjoys putting their hand on a flushy handle knowing there is some weirdo out there that possibly flushed it previously with their hand caked in poo, but as careful as you are to avoid full contact with the handle, you'll always have the option to wash your hands one minute from the time you flush. The entire continent begs you to take that option regardless.

Then there are the souls that walk into a stall and see that the person before them had not flushed, and then they turn right around and hunt for a better, more adequately flushed stall. I like to think of myself as the brave one. If I don't flush that toilet, then that toilet could forever go unflushed. It's a simple matter to just go ahead and flush that bad boy, and consider yourself the better person for finishing what someone else started. I draw the line at nasty diarreah though, I walk into a stall with that and I can't get out fast enough.

To the souls that PEE ON THE SEAT: There are no words to describe my distaste for your kind. Needless to say, I will conjure a few for arguments sake. Once upon a time I was just a little girl and to be honest, I'm not sure how I learned this life lesson, whether my mom taught it to me or rather it was simply common sense from a very young age, but I learned long ago that peeing on the seat was not one way to count yourself as a successful member of society. I would go as far as to say if you manage to pee on the seat you've just matched the aim of both a three year old and a very very over-the-legal-limit drunk. Congratulations. You are also probably the reason people started to get the idea that you could contract AIDs from a toilet seat.

To the talkers: The cousins to the people on cell phones. I like to fancy myself sociable at work. There is a vast group of people that I could carry on a conversation with. However, there are times I consider "Bre times" and the bathroom is one of them. To those that have the urge to talk to me, know that I care about our friendship enough to say "Leave me alone!". Those that enjoy a good convo are generally of an older generation, so maybe it's something that was programmed into them subtly at school. Like brainwashing. Regardless of the method, or the age please know that there is a time and place, and "right now" is neither. There are even a couple people that I only run into in the bathroom. That being the case, perhaps we don't know each other well enough to talk through stalls. I even have my secret bathroom, this fabled place is in another building entirely, I have to walk through the freezing cold/blistering heat to get there, depending on the season. They still find me there. I don't know how they do it, but they are good.

There is a very real possibility that people may perceive me as mean to say such things, but those that I'm talking about will never read this (although I did have people admit to multiple offenses on the last list). Others may think that I'm a little weird to be addressing topics in this manner, but really, if I have gotten through to one seat-pee-er then my job here is done.

CAN we do it? Yes we CAN!

As mentioned in previous posts I'm on the Charitable Giving Committee here at work. Our latest project was called "Art for Hunger" and our objective was to create something out of canned food, and the food would then be donated to United Way's food bank. Being on the committee I was assigned to be in charge of the project for my department. If we can have an honest moment, I wasn't too excited about this 'cause I'm not exactly the most creative person on the planet, and I wasn't a fan of the whole project resting on my shoulders when I couldn't guarantee a good result. But hey, it's for a good cause.

Thus began the brainstorming. What the fuddilymudd do you make out of cans?! I had not a clue. One of our agents came up with the idea to make a big ol' tetris board. It was a noble and sensible idea, so I was on board (pun intended). Plus I didn't have anything better and didn't want to devote any additional time to thinking of a new idea. So we ran with it. A coworker and I went to the store to find cans with labels that had the colors that we needed while another coworker estimated how many we would need of each color.

The company gave each team $400 to buy cans with, and with that I was still concerned that we weren't going to have enough money to get all the cans we would need for our canstruction, as we had decided to do it 10 cans wide, 20 cans tall and 2 cans deep. We had gone to Walmart, and absolutely cleaned them out of various types of canned food and figured that we were probably 10-15 dollars over, but were fairly confident that we would be fine. Lo and behold we were SO GOOD that we have about $80 left over! I would like to say I acted like a responsible adult, but I screamed like a little girl. I was overjoyed, yes indeed. So we decided to stop at Maceys on the way back to work to pick up some cans we were lacking (as we had taken all Walmart had available and still needed more) and get some peanut butter 'cause although it wouldn't be able to be used in our structure we knew the food bank could use some serious PB.

Once we had all the cans we needed (and the peanut butter we didn't) we checked out. The total came to $80 and some change. I got excited and turned to Amy, said coworker, and said "We used all our money!" and the cashier was a bit shocked and asked "You want to use all your money?!" In this case, yes we do. Overall we spent $400.32, and I was happier than a pig in a Las Vegas Buffet that we got right on our target.

Turns out stacking 20 cans tall is less than easy; we had to cut out a row and stack it 19 cans high, and it was all we could do to get the top row on. Our finished Tetris:

Note: that I had to tilt the camera a bit to make the tetris look straightish.

Sadly, mere hours later someone knocked it down. Or breathed near it, as you can see it's not the sturdiest of things. It needed to be completed in 3 hours, and my team rallied together saying we could make it again! Considering it took approximately 8 hours to make, I was less than hopeful. I honestly was just going to leave it at that and then something inside me said "Golly, you're really going to give up?!" Not one to let my inner monologue get the best of me I came up with an alternative plan. We were going to make a Rubik's cube. It would have all the same colors, require about the same amount of cans, wouldn't take too long and it would match the title we had chosen for Tetris of "Solving the Hunger Problem".

In the next 3 hours my team and I worked feverishly and made it just in time!

 

We slapped the new sign in front of the old Tetris one (as it was super cute and weren't ready to chuck it). The new sign says "Tetris was solved, but hunger wasn't. Now we give you Rubik's". It wasn't the prettiest CANstruction the Earth has ever seen, but it sure had a lot of heart put into it.

Oh Boy, Here We Go Again . . .

I got another puppy!

Growing up my family had a dog. She was a black Maltese Poodle named Shado. She was the best dog you could have ever asked for. After 17 fantastic years on God's green Earth we had to put her down. That was extremely hard for me to do. I still miss her a lot and decided one day I would like to get another Maltese Poodle, Though it would have to be white, since it would be too hard and/or weird to have another black one that looked like Shado.

My sister, Britney, had been planning on getting a puppy the second she got a house and has been on the pup hunt. She found a litter of pure white Maltese Poodles that are so adorable that it's physically painful. Britney put one on hold immediately and I sent a picture to Jordan with zero hope that he would want another dog. We talked about it and talked about it, but in the end it was the pic that won him over. Like I said; so adorable that it's painful. So I put one on hold.

The next day Jordan changed his mind and I was having second thoughts. We were nervous about how the new pup would mix with our other dog, and our two cats. I drove with Britney and her hubby Ross to pick up their puppy, but, once I actually saw the puppies face to face I knew that it was mine. I sent the pic of me and the pup to Jordan (he was at work) and he was excited and said let's get it! Frankly, I was relieved 'cause I already did and was on my way home.

Technically Britney doesn't have her house yet, she moves in prob a week or so, so until then I'm babysitting her puppy. Which is nice for the pups 'cause they are brothers, and enjoy being together. They love to play fight. And they fight rough. I fear one will kill the other eventually, but such is life.

Britney named hers Havoc, which is quite fitting, 'cause he likes to wreak it. We tried on several million names, and none seemed to work. I've never had such a hard time finding the right name for an animal before. With my other pets they practically named themselves and sent it to me through osmosis. This little creature left it up to me entirely.

In the end I love the name we settled with. Meet Brighton:

He sure loves to sleep on his back, bless his soul.

And here he is with his brother:

As for Bella; The first night was really rough for her, she was such a nervous wreck that she started foaming at the mouth. It made me cry. At that point I had resigned that we were going to have to find Brighton a new home. But the next day she was much better, albeit still nervous. She was increasingly better and by Monday night she was playing with them and found a boyfriend in Havoc, although he is too young to know what kind of lovin' she was wanting from him.

Public Restroom Woes

There are a large number of no-no's when it comes to public restroom etiquette. I think I need to provide a training course for my coworkers on what this fabled list entails. Somehow I doubt they would appreciate my soapbox, however I'm confident no one at work reads this.  So, I will vent for all to hear um, read.

To the person on the cell phone:  How important can that call really be? You need to evaluate your priorities; do you need to talk on the phone more, or do you really need to pee? You can't, can't do both at the same time. Take your pick, and whichever feels more urgent, that's what you do. Talk about pressure-it's hard enough knowing some other random person can hear me while I do my thing, but I don't need said random person's significant other, bank rep, or roommate to hear me as well.

To the rocket pee people: "What's a 'rocket pee', Bre?" you may be asking. Why, I'll tell you, curious soul. A rocket pee, is when someone is apparently in so much of a hurry to pee that they force it out so fast that they could very well lift off. I used this phrase while describing the phenomenon to my hubby, and darn it all if it doesn't fit perfectly.

Heaven forbid I use a "stop and smell the roses" analogy at this time, as it is wildly inappropriate for the topic. However, I understand you may be in a time crunch with break time diminishing and all, but my thoughts are as follows: Can you really be that desperate to return to work? Let me repeat myself, because it's that big of a point, you are rushing through man's basic need because you want to hurry and why? The only thing waiting for you is work.

To the people that don't wash their hands: I genuinely have nothing to say to you. You are that dumb that I choose not to acknowledge your existence in this world, as I do not wish to talk to your kind for fear that you might touch me.

To those that come to work and do their hair and makeup in the bathroom: The whole point of doing your hair and makeup is so you don't look like a hoodlum in public. You are now in public in all your hoodlum glory, so what's the point? We've already seen you all splotchy so it doesn't really matter. We know what you look like fer reals now. Sure, I like to sleep in as much as possible as well, but what's the difference between being 15 minutes late, and not actually starting work until 15 minutes after 'cause you were in the bathroom primping?

To the individuals that bring their food into the bathroom: You deserve to die. Which is convenient, because that is probably what's going to happen to you with who knows what airborne settling silent and invisible into your Hot Pocket®.

To those that bring their drinks into the bathroom: You probably won't die. Congratulations! However, you're really living life on the edge, you should probably just leave it outside the door. Note: This is only if you have a lid on your drink. If you have an open cup: You're probably going to die, yes. And "lid" in this circumstance cannot be defined by a fountain drink lid with a straw. The straw is definitely the Achilles Heel of your drink, the "who knows what" as discussed previously is tricky and can get down in there.

Now you think I'm a germaphobe, but word on the street is airborne googalies (please don't ask me to define that, just use your imagination) can "leap" up to six feet from your toilet. True story.

Lake Powell! A Trip of Firsts

For Labor Day weekend me, Jordan, my parents, my sis and her hubby, my brother and his wife and their three kids all went to Lake Powell! We rented a houseboat, and recently Jeff and Brit went in together to buy a boat, so we brought that as well.
We didn't want to waste the first day we had our houseboat in just driving down there, so we camped the first night, and picked the houseboat up first thing in the morning. We launched the speed boat, and then loaded up the houseboat and launched that. We then met up with the speed boat, hooked it up to the back of the boat and took off. We stopped the boat for lunch, and after that we took off to find a place to just park the boat so we could play. It was so nice to be able to sit back and relax and read while we were cruising. Eventually we got to the canyons where we thought we might want to park the boat. Because the houseboat doesn't go that fast, and it was so large that we didn't want it stuck in some small canyon we couldn't turn around in, we decided to launch the speedboat for a reconnaissance mission.

Jordan and I rode with Jeff on said mission. We cruised up one canyon, and took all the different ways that canyon branched out on, but because it was Labor Day weekend, everything was packed. Beyond packed. We left that canyon, and headed on to another. By this time we were well ahead of the houseboat, and Jordan had been eyeing the kneeboard we had in the boat with us. He kept eyeing it for a while and said, "Can we do that?" I was surprised 'cause I had never seen Jordan on a boat before, and he never wanted to go out boating with the fam before so I didn't really peg him as one that would want to hop out and try the kneeboard. We borrowed the kneeboard from a neighbor so none of us had tried it before, and we weren't sure how to really get up on it. So Jeff, said why not, we're ahead of the boat by a long shot, so we might as well play a little. So Jordan-who didn't even have a swimming suit on that point-hopped in the water clothes and all and gave it a go. The houseboat radioed in for our position and the conversation went as follows:

Jeff: "Guess who's breaking in the kneeboard?"

Dad: "Of course you."

Jeff: "Um, that's impossible since I'm on the radio with you, and I can't talk on the radio while I'm in the water."

Dad: "Not Bre?!" (Thanks for your confidence Dad!)

Jeff: "Guess again."

Dad: "You're kidding-Jordan?!"

I guess my whole fam, like me, assumed he was not all about the water sports. It was great that Jordan was such a shocker.

After we let the house boat get ahead of us a bit we decided to get back to our reconnaissance and it was looking pretty grim. Never again will I go on a holiday 'cause it was ridiculously crowded. We hit a dead end in one canyon called Hansen's Creek I believe and as we were turning around we noticed that both boats that were on the beach looked like they were leaving. We didn't know if they were just going off to play, or if they were leaving and not coming back. We asked one boat, and they said they were leaving, and they said that the other boat was leaving as well. Hallelujah. We waiting for them to leave and claimed our beach. We were really lucky 'cause it was sandy, so it wouldn't hurt the boats to beach there and the kiddies could play in the sand. It was also very secluded, so we had the canyon to ourselves, and we still had a large area in front of us where we could practice skiing, kneeboarding, and just tube off the main channel, with no one around to laugh at us, and with no wake other than our own. It was perfect.

So we got the houseboat all anchored down and it was time to play. We were all excited about the waterslide off the back of the boat, but then we saw that it was about a good five foot drop from the slide to the water, so that made us slightly wary. All of a sudden before we could realize what just happened Jordan went down the slide. Which was another surprise. He just has to be the first to do everything! In fact I think he was the first to water ski too.

I think the best part was the fact that we had nothing planned, no schedule pressing in on us. We could go out on the speedboat, go fishing, sit and read, nap, or jump off the back of the boat and play there. We played it all by ear and it was very relaxing. I am desperate to go back, and can't wait until next summer 'cause we are already planning a trip. I'd live there if I could.

New Position

For the last month and half (I told you I was behind on posts) I have had a new position at work. I am the new Documentation Specialist. Which doesn't mean anything to you, so in other words I am the administrator for the Knowledge Base. Which also doesn't mean anything to you. Unless you happen to know what a Knowledge Base is. Basically it's the database where all of our help articles are, all how-to articles for the web site. So, I write articles, edit articles, code, format and post articles. I also manage the database in terms of cleaning it up and keeping it maintained.

I have really enjoyed this new position, and I'm excited to see how it evolves as I am able to take on more challenging tasks. It has been really cool to be able to learn new things, and I'm anxious to see what else I can learn.

We also just released a new and improved Knowledge Base. It's a lot prettier than the old one, and increased functionality.

Click Here to see our slammin' new KB!

California Part Deux

I had written this huge long post, was nearly finished and had to save it to finish later. When I come back, what's happened? Apparently it never saved. OMGeez, really?

Ok, here's round two of part deux!

The next day we were going to Universal Studios, and we were excited 'cause there were some new rides there that weren't there when I was there before and Jordan had never been there before.

The park opened at ten, but we decided to not stress about getting there right at ten. Our GPS said that it would take about an hour and a half to get there "with traffic". So, we left around tenish. Of course "with traffic" was a nice way to plan to be safe, we should have planned for getting lost, ridiculously lost. We lost faith in our GPS and decided to not follow it, and that was our downfall. In our defense Universal Studios is already impossible to find. I don't know why they don't make it easier, but they sure tuck it away into the most hidden away spot of land they could. Granted the lot was there before they built the park onto it, and I'm sure they weren't concerned about tourists at that time, but really- when they build the park they could have maybe put some signs on the road telling you where it was. I dunno- maybe we're just retarded.

So, we're driving around downtown LA and we kept getting stuck on one way streets, and couldn't make our way back to the freeway where we were supposed to be. We were sitting at a red light and I notice that there was a sign above a business written in Chinese. I thought that was weird, and then I was looking around and I was noticing that all of the signs were in Chinese! And we started to see that everyone out on the streets were all Chinese as well. I felt like everyone knew a secret that we didn't, and that I was in some Twilight Zone. Then we realized what I'm sure you had already figured out- we were in china town! It was like we had stepped into a whole different world.

It was about 1:30 by they time we made our merry little way to the park. Phew. Because the park closed at 6:00 (lame) we were majorly pressed for time. Right when we got there we instantly saw a ride that didn't have a line, which was exactly what we needed. We then found out it didn't have a line because they were closed. The guy standing in front suggested that Water World was about to start, and they would be back up and running when Water World got out.

Water World was awesome, I remembered a little bit about it from when I was a kid, and it was cool to see it again. After that we snagged some lunch, and was anxious to get back to the line-less ride before a line formed.

This ride was called "House of Horror" I believe. That should have been a red flag, but I think we both had in mind a ride like Haunted Mansion, or maybe it was a really scary indoor roller coaster. As we sauntered up to the door of the ride there was fog pouring out of the entrance, and as we got closer there was the world's creepiest man standing in the entrance in a very realistic mask, and a tux with white gloves and cape. He looked like that man from Texas Chainsaw Massacre decked out for the opera, and he was beckoning us to follow him. That should have also been a red flag, and while everything inside me was screaming not to follow this man, we plodded on.

Once we go inside there still was no line. You know how rides have the inside themed for whatever the ride was going to be? We thought that's what we were in; really creepy tight corridors fit for the theme of "House of Horrors". We kept expecting to hit the end of the line, when suddenly this evil man jumped out at us and scared the poo right out of me. It finally dawned on us, this was no ride. We were in a haunted house that you have to walk through. Talk about going into it blind. I don't want to go into major detail, I did that on the previous draft and it brought up terrible memories and I broke out in a cold sweat. Let's just say it's was the scariest haunted house I've ever been in. The blessed no line that attracted us was the worst part because we didn't have anyone in front of us screaming to warn us what was coming up, and there was no one behind us to give us a protected from behind feeling, and the idea that there could be some creepy man following us was horrible. And heaven knows I was too scared to look behind and check, afraid of what I might find. At one point I saw a guy about to jump out and I yelled "No!" and he jumped out and I yelled at him saying, "I said NO! You're mean!" It was traumatizing.

We made it out alive, but just barely. I was ready to blow off the rest of the rides and just sit on the steps in front of the ride and tell people NOT to go in!

Fast forward: The park closed, and as it was only six, we decided to explore the City Walk, which is basically a strip mall outside the park. We walked around, and perused the shops, got Jordan some sunglasses, and decided that we should go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, but had some time to kill until we were actually hungry. We had already been all over City Walk, and there wasn't anything else to keep us busy for another hour or two, so I suggested a movie. Jordan's wasn't a huge fan of the idea, as a movie is something that you can do anytime, and we were in Cali! But, my argument was a pretty good one, considering there really wasn't anything else for us to do, but see a movie. We saw Star Trek, which was good, and by the time we were out, we were very much ready for dinner.

Hard Rock Cafe was awesome. I have been to Hard Rocks in Salt Lake City, Orlando, Nassau Bahamas, Nashville TN, and I think Hollywood was my favorite. The atmosphere is always great, the food fantastic, and I got a souvenir glass, and we both got some souvenir clothes.

What a long fun and frustrating day! We got lost, loved ourselves some Universal Studios (minus the House of Horror) enjoyed the City Walk and we were exhausted, and ready to get back to the hotel and crash.

What the Flood?

Things have been kinda crazy lately, and I haven't kept up on my blog at all! So maybe I will hopefully be able to update it a little bit . . .

A couple weeks ago Jordan and I both had the day off, which is nothing short of a miracle, as he never has Saturdays off. I woke up with the possibilities floating through my head of all the many things we could do.

Then I got out of bed and the dream was killed. It took two full steps for it to sink in, or maybe for me to sink in. There was about an inch of water on my floor. My first thought was the water heaters. I opened the closet that had the water heaters, and sure enough that was the source of the water. I had a small panic until I realized that it was actually dripping down from the ceiling! I'd be lying if I said my first thought wasn't "Hurray, it's not our fault!" Assuming the upstairs neighbors' water heaters were directly above ours I thought something had gone wrong with theirs.

We got dressed and Jordan went upstairs to ask the people if their water heater was leaking. He came back down saying that they weren't home, and there was a lock on their doorknob. Great, they were moving, so how the heck were we going to get in touch with them? Obviously we're not the greatest neighbors in the world and don't talk to them, so we had no contact information, or even a name. I called my dad for advice and he suggested that we contacted the HOA president. But, I remember my realtor saying when we moved in that the HOA president lived above us. Perfect. My realtor lived in the same area, under the same HOA so I thought he might have the president's number, but I didn't have my realtor's number anymore. SO I called my mother-in-law (who used the same realtor) and got the realtor's number from her. I call the realtor, and he didn't have the guys contact info, but he had the HOA vice-presidents number. So I called that guy and he had neighbor guy's number! PHEW!!! I was finally going to reach the guy! Meanwhile our ceiling is still leaking. So I call neighbor guy . . . and get the voicemail. For real? Ok, granted if I saw an unknown number I probably wouldn't have answered either, so I left a voicemail, and tried not to sound like a bratty neighbor as I explained that my ceiling was leaking and that it was most likely their water heaters.

Luckily we didn't have to wait too long for a call back. Neighbor guy said that he had just replaced the water heaters, so that probably wasn't the problem. I wasn't about to count anything out and thought that we were about to have a confrontation when he said that he was at a family reunion and would leave now and should be there in about a half hour. What a relief.

He got home and said that it was his swamp cooler that was leaking, and said point blank it's his responsibility and that he was going to make sure that we were taken care of. I was floored, 'cause most people don't want to admit to being at fault like that. He was true to his word and got a guy over to check damages and clean the place up. We got the walls dried really quickly and decided that there was no damage in the walls, but the carpet was another story. We had lighter carpet and the water that was leaking was less than clean. To get the carpet dried ASAP he sucked up all the water and cut out the wet part and laid it out in the sun to dry. I was a little surprised he did this when I figured you could just lift it up and stick a fan under there, but hey- he was the expert I suppose.

Once the carpet was dry we put it back in sans padding (since the padding was a lost cause), and we wanted to cover the carpet tacks that were all over the floor so we could let the cats out (they were locked up all day, poor dearies). Overall we were really lucky that the damage wasn't extensive, We were able to dry the couch out and there wasn't any watermarks on it (only one got wet). We moved the DVD shelf out of the way since it was in the water a bit, and there was no damage to that, but it was a pain in the butt to take all our DVDs off the shelves!

A couple days later we had a guy come look at the carpet to see if it could be reinstalled, and taking one look at it he questioned why the heck this other guy cut it out, and said that he could have just stuck a fan under there, (interesting) and because it was cut and it was an older carpet he could put it back in, but there would be seam very visible. SO WE GOT NEW CARPET! I was very much pro-new carpet, and Jordan wanted to just have our current carpet reinstalled 'cause he thought it would be a pain to get whole new carpet 'cause we would have to move everything out and put it back. Of course it would be a pain (and it was) but it's also FREE carpet! Definitely worth the hassle. I pointed out that eventually we're going to want to sell or rent and we would have to get new carpet then, so we might as well do it now while it's free. So that's what we did.

I am definitely for seeing the silver lining in every tragedy. For example last year I got in a really bad car accident and my beautiful Jetta was completely trashed. That sucked horribly, but the car that I got after that saved in $150 a month in payments and insurance. So, I still say that getting in that car accident was the best financial move I've ever made. No one wants a flood, but- I got free carpet, so hurray!

I absolutely love my new carpet! And I leave you with a beautiful pic of Bella, and you can see the carpet in the background. It's a twofer.

California Part 1!

I've held this off 'cause I didn't have time to start a long story about the trip, and long it would inevitably be. So, I'm just going to do this in parts! To save me time, and you boredom!

We left Tue morning around 8ish and were making really good time, until we decided to stop in Vegas to have a look around. Vegas is not as exciting as I remember, that is for sure. So, we wasted about two hours or so walking around, and decided that we'd rather be driving and just get there sooner, so we hopped back into our faithful car, and we were on our way.

Vegas stop aside we still made incredibly good time, we got there about 7, checked in and promptly ordered "room service". But we just called it Dominoes. After some hearty pasta, we relaxed our stiff driving muscles in the hot tub. Phew, what a long day.

To explain further, we got the City Pass, which gives you three days park hopper (Disneyland and California Adventure) and one day Sea World, one day San Diego Zoo and one day to Universal Studios. Although we only had four days to play, this was still the best value since the whole pass was only $230. But we were set on getting the most use out of it.

We woke up bright and early for Disneyland, and were determined to be there right as it opened. Our hotel was three blocks from the park, so we decided to walk. Turns out they were the three longest blocks in the history of the United States. It took us a good 20 minutes just to get to the park. Once we were there, we were jubilant to say the least. We headed straight to Tommorrowland, not on purpose- that's just where our feet and the flow of traffic steered us. We then chose Star Tours as the first ride for the simple fact that there was no line, and we weren't wasting any time. Star Tours was a blast for two reasons. First, when we were all buckled in and the right was just about to start, I started to say "Oh, crap! Oh, crap!" over and over in a really panicked voice, and I scared the poo about of a little girl behind me, 'cause she saw how "scared" I was, she figured it was going to be a really scary ride. Heh heh heh. Second, I sat next to the world's frailest looking old lady. I'm surprised her hip didn't break on the way in. So halfway through the ride Jordan turns to me and says "Is that old lady still alive?" And I laughed my head off. Once the ride stopped the old lady humphed and said "We didn't even go anywhere, I think we just stayed in the same spot." And Jordan I marveled on the miracle of her making it through the ride without either dying or breaking something.

The next ride we went on (I'm not going to give a play by play of each ride, but the first two just happened to be the most memorable) was Space Mountain. This is my favorite coaster in the park (not like there are many to choose from) so I was excited. The line was also short, so it was an even better choice. We were walking through the line and Jordan was asking me what the ride was. Knowing he's not a big roller coaster fan, I inferred it was a lot like the Star Tours ride, where you stay in one place and you feel like you're moving. Then he started to notice the signs saying it's a face paced thrill ride, and basically warning the old, the pregnant and the faint of heart to not ride. But it was too late, he was already stuck in the line. Muahahaha. So, we get further in, and we're above the ride and he can see the cars below and everyone taking off and his fears were confirmed, that it is indeed a coaster. However, the highlight of the ride was actually in the line. The was last month in the thick of the Swine Flu scare, so Disneyland being a crowded public place I'm sure there was little paranoia. Jordan just happened to sneeze, and without skipping a beat he looks at his hands dramatically and says "Ah crap . . . My swine flu is acting up again . . . " The lady in front of us widened her eyes and surreptitiously distanced her self. The ride itself was a joy, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Jordan screamed, which just made me laugh harder, and made the experience all the better.

Overall, the day was grand. We went on almost every ride that we wanted (we didn't get to do the Finding Nemo ride, 'cause the line was so long, and there were no fast passes) and we were officially tuckered out. We hadn't even gone over to California, so we decided to hurry and go over and do Tower of Terror, which was another that we were really wanting to do. It surprised me that Jordan didn't want to do any roller coasters, but was excited about Tower of Terror. To me, that's the scariest ride in both parks. In line by us was a lady with her son, who was probably 7 yrs old or so. He was BAWLING like his puppy just died. His mom said if you're too scared, we can leave and you can go back to the hotel and go swimming. Of course the little boy can't say that he's too scared to he just stands there and bawls his eyes out. And mom, because he never said that he wanted to go kept him in the line. My personal opinion- Mom wanted to go on the ride, and if her son didn't she couldn't go on the ride. I saw this a couple times throughout the vacation. Wow people.

So, that was a glorious end to a glorious day. But wait- After an utterly exhausting day of walking all over the parks and standing in line, we still have to make the arduous trek back to the hotel. I wanted to die, I contemplated hiding and sleeping in the park overnight, I considered hitchhiking, and didn't rule out stealing a car. Nevertheless, achy bones, weary muscles and blistered feet aside, we made it back, and enjoyed another lovely dip in the pool.

Cali here we come!

For our anniversary we decided to take a trip to California! We are going to be going to Disneyland & California Adventure, Universal Studios, Sea World and the San Diego Zoo! I gotta tell you how excited I am! I used to go to Disneyland at least once a year, since I graduated that is, but I haven't been for two years, and I'm really excited to go back.


And because road trips are more fun with more people, Jordan's brother Tanner and his girlfriend Taylor are coming along, so it'll be really fun!

We're leaving early Tue morning so we have time to make a stop in Vegas to hang out and play around for a while before continuing on to Cali. And then we're coming back Sunday. So, hopefully I'll have many adventures to share when I get back! And the best part is missing a week of work! :)

Anniversary!

I can not believe that it has already been one year since Jordan and I got married! It's been a crazy, yet awesome year and it sure flew by fast! Which also means that we've had our condo for a year, and it certainly doesn't feel like we've lived there for that long!

Aw, time for reminiscing . . .

Jordan and I met through a friend of ours, a whopping five years ago. They both worked together at Wynnsong and became friends (how sweet). I heard people talk about Jordan Day this and Jordan Day that, and apparently everyone thought the world of him, but I thought it was weird that I had never met this fabled Jordan Day that everyone kept talking about (most of my friends worked at Wynnsong too and knew Jordan as well). I also thought it was weird that they always called him Jordan Day, and not just Jordan.

Well, I was hanging out at Wynnsong as all my friends were getting off work so we could go play. And this really hot guy with an amazing smile comes walking through and everyone was like hey, come play with us, come hang out, and tried very hard to get this guy to come with us, and he just smiled and laughed and said he had to get home, and left. I turned to my friend and said who was that guy? And she said that, was Jordan Day. Ah, so he does exist.

Todd (our mutual friend) would have Survivor parties every week where we would get together and watch the show, and bet on who was going to win. Jordan had started coming to those parties, and the first time he came (the second time I saw him) I was already acting dopey and nervous and pretty much stupid 'cause there was this guy there that I had invited from work that was super cute. Anyway, someone (not my fault!) had left a package of oreos on the floor, unbeknownst to me. A friend came in the door that I was excited to see and I ran up to hug her . . . and stepped on the bag of oreos. Jordan was very vocal about my slick move and made sure everyone knew that I had stepped on the oreos. "Does anyone want an oreo? Too bad, that girl stepped on them." "Oh, do you want an oreo? You could probably still get some off that girl's foot." "Gosh I could go for an oreo . . . Oh wait . . . " He kept it up all night. I felt really bad and was convinced this guy hated me. Although, now that I think about it, I don't think Jordan even cares for Oreos. Interesting . . . .

Well, Todd and I planned a road trip to California, and then later Jordan and his friend decided to come as well. Great, I thought- I'm pretty sure this kid hates me! Secretly I was excited he was coming 'cause well, I had a little girl crush on him despite the oreo debacle. So, Todd and I were hanging out and Jordan calls Todd's cell. They're chatting about the trip and finally Todd says something along the lines of "Do you hate Bre? 'Cause she's convinced you do." He assured Todd no no definitely not, that he did like me (although he has a funny way of showing it.) What a relief that was.

So off to the trip we go. It was a blast, we went to Disneyland & California Adventure, and the beach, and to a taping of That 70's Show (the very last episode Topher Grace was in- how cool is that?) and a taping of The Tonight Show. Oh yeah, and my car got broken into and everything from our gas money to my stereo and CDs were stolen- awesome. But that was an amazing trip. And after that we became good friends and hung out all the time in a group of friends. Todd had been trying to get us to date for about a year, and we both refused, and weren't that interested. Well, after Todd has officially given up the good fight to get us to date, Jordan and I decided to give it a go . . . And the rest is history.

We dated for about 2 1/2 years, got engaged, were engaged for 9 months and got married after dating for a little over three years, May 3, 2008. And what a ride it has been.

And now I take you on a small photographic journey of that fateful road trip.

Jordan at Huntington Beach.  Jana (the picture taker) just caught him checking out me bum, and this is his busted face!
 

California Adventure!

 

We got soaked from that ride that's like Rattlesnake Rapids, is it Grizzely Bear Run?  Not sure.  Probably not the wisest choice to do at night, but there was no line.

All of our awesome hates.  There was a valid reason Jordan got the goofy hat.  We all picked hats that fit our personality.  I'm Peter Pan :).

And of course the infamous Subway pic.  Yeah, we totally posed and everyone is looking in different directions.  We actually drew a crowd trying to get that pic.

A New Day!

A little late, but as promised, here are pics of the newest member of the Day family!
I knew she was going to be tiny, but when I saw her I was blown away by her size! I couldn't believe how ridiculously tiny she is. When she runs she goes all over the place so fast that I'm scared I'm going to step on her.

We picked her up early two Thursdays ago and she was scared just from the hub bub of the transfer, but once we got her to the car, and out of her crate she was ecstatic to meet us. We got her home and she was running all over the place exploring new sights and smells. She instantly found a cat toy and carried it around with her, and it's still her favorite toy. It's a good thing the kitties never played with it anyway.

We decided to name her Bella. Jordan picked it out, and it just fit her for some reason 'cause it sounded like a petite little name for her, and it means beautiful, which frankly she is.

We weren't planning on getting her a sweater, but all the books we read said that because they are so small, and their fur is so short they get cold really easy, so we did get something to keep her warm, and it's a good thing we did 'cause the poor thing gets so cold, and loves to bury down in a blanket to sleep. So that's why there's a million pics of her in her sweater. Now that it's getting warmer she doesn't need it as much, and hasn't even had to wear it for the last couple days.

We were training her to use a puppy litter box (I was surprised there was such a thing), but that hasn't worked out so well, so we decided to focus on pee pads, since she's already getting the hand of those, and when she's 100% trained on those we'll move the pad into the litter box and then eventually take the pad away. She's been really easy to train, and has done really well! The only trick is to not leave any blankets or jackets on the floor 'cause she thinks that those are her pad as well. She's definitely picked up the idea fast, and I'm very proud of her!

The sucky thing is I've had so much negative feedback about my puppy. I'm really getting sick of it. Everyone makes fun of me for getting a Chihuahua, for putting her in a sweater, and they're making fun of my pup. I'm so excited to have a puppy after waiting so long to get one, and it's really frustrating that out of everyone I know there isn't a lot of support just because of the breed I chose. I don't get why people care. When you guys get a dog, you can get whatever breed you want. As for us, there are so many reasone why this breed works for us, and if you don't like it, seriously keep it to yourself. You don't need to ruin my joy just to get your lame opinion out there. I'm serious- If you've got negative crap to dish out to me, then just keep it to yourself. When you love someone or something it's not fun to have it rubbed in mud, so to speak.

Now that I've gotten that rant off my chest, here are pictures already! :) She's only a little baby, probably two months old we think.

I'm Getting A Puppy!

If you've known me for more than five minutes you probably know that I have been desperately wanting a puppy for quite a while. Jordan has wanted one as well, but was a little more realistic saying that our condo is small, and we don't have a yard and such. He said we could get one when we move into a house, and who knows when that would be? However, I knew if I was patient enough, then eventually he would cave the second he saw a puppy in person. The idea of a puppy was enough for him to turn down, but the second he holds a puppy I knew he would be hooked. Since he works at a grocery store I knew it was only a matter of time before someone was sitting out front trying to get rid of puppies.

Such a thing happened. Sort of. It wasn't someone sitting out front, but a coworker who brought two chihuahua puppies in, and sure enough Jordan fell in love.

Originally I was excited; I couldn't believe that we were actually getting a puppy! I still can't believe it. Then I was thinking that while Chihuahuas are cute they're not my first choice of dogs, and am I sure this is the animal that I want to commit to? I talked to Jordan to make sure that this was what we wanted, and I think if I had met the puppy like he had I would be as sure as him. But now I'm right back to being excited. At this point I will take whatever puppy I can get my hands on, and I'm just grateful I don't have to push Jordan into it and that's he's just as excited.

Another reason why a chihuahua is a good choice for us, is 'cause since our condo is small, we do need a small dog. And we didn't want a dog that was going to tower over the kitties and terrorize them. This puppy will be a little smaller than the kits when full grown (we assume) and hopefully they'll all get along. I have unnaturally loving/cuddly goodnatured cats, so I've got high hopes.

We were going to pick her up over the weekend, but the weather was so bad we didn't want to drive to sandy where this coworker lives. Plus we didn't want to get her, and leave her home all week long. Jordan's day off is Thursday, so he's going to get her then and have the day with her, and then I'm going to (hopefully) take friday off, and have the day with her, and then we'll have the weekend with her, and after all that time with her, she should be comfortable enough at home that we can leave her to go to work.

So I'll be sure to post pictures when we get her!

Where You're At Right Now, Is a Great Place To Be

A little over a month ago I started to do yoga. To me, yoga had always been a very intimidating exercise 'cause I thought it was for the super skinny and flexible. While it certainly helps to be Ms. Gumby, it's definitely not what I had cracked it out to be.


It all started when a lady that I work with certified to be a yoga instructor and started teaching classes. She held an open house and said hmm, why not? Sounds like it could be fun. I was nervous, never having done it before, but I had a lot of fund, had a great workout and didn't even feel like I was working out most of the time. I just felt like I was doing a lot of stretches, and breathing exercises, so afterwards I felt all relaxed and not exhausted. It wasn't until the next day when my muscles were sore that I realized just how thorough of a workout it was.

Another thing about yoga that I absolutely love is the idea that you shouldn't push yourself. The ideals around exercising and other workout routines is that you need to push yourself further and further, no pain no gain. With yoga the idea is where you're at, is where you're supposed to be. You go as far as your body will allow, and don't push it past that, then the next time you will be able to stretch farther and hold poses longer as you naturally get better. A relaxing, no pressure workout definitely has my name on it.

So I started to go to my co worker's classes once a week with my sister, and really started to enjoy it so we kicked it up a notch and started going to classes at the Orem Rec Center a couple times a week. Those are a lot longer and high powered than I was used to, but holy cow, it sure works you out! When I thought of yoga, I always thought of it as just posing is crazy positions, but I never realized how hard it is. You're basically holding your own body weight and that alone works your muscles.

So, if you're looking for a fun new way to exercise that gets the job done and tricks you into thinking you're just stretching, then yoga is definitely something you should try.

Clever Little Kits

Remember that one time I posted a blog that said I was making a big push to update my blog, and then I didn't post anything for over a week?

I remember that.

I called in sick Friday and am incredibly behind on my work, not to mention it's a Monday, and really busy. Seems like the perfect time to post a blog!

As you may have heard (from the line above) I've been sick lately. Boo to that. Last weekend I had a monstrous toothache that caused my face to swell up and I looked like I had some serious botox injected into my lips. And this last weekend I've had the crud that apparently everyone has had. I swear everyone is sick right now. Perhaps it's an epidemic, or it's the beginning of a plague. I'm betting on not, but do you really expect a plague?

I have a bunch of things that I wanted to blog about, and now that I've got a blog rolling along, I can't remember any of them! What's the deal with that? But I would like to say how smart my kitties are. Sounds like I'm bragging, right? No- I'm complaining! You might be asking, "But Bre, isn't a clever animal a good thing, would you rather have a dimwitted lump of stupid?" I would originally have said no, who would want an animal that likes to eat it's own poo? Now I'm leaning toward a good mongoloid kitty. (Do those even exist?) Ok, maybe that's a little exaggerated.

Anyway, my kitties have a "thing" for Q-Tips, I would go as far as to call it a fetish. They quickly learned to get into the garbage. One day Jordan triumphantly came home from work with garbage cans for the bathroom and office (their garbage hot spots) that had lids on them, and foot pedals to lift the lid. We were jubilant for about two days. Then in trots Kloe right up to the garbage can, she then uses her nose to lift the lid, reach in and grab a Q-tip and skip off again with her prize.

This was easily managed 'cause it was one Q-tip every now and then, and we could just take it from her, or pick it up off the ground and dispose of it. Then Kea learned how to open drawers. Jordan and I were enjoying a nice evening in, and were watching a movie and we kept hearing the kitties rustling around in the kitchen. I went to investigate and found the kitties in one of the drawers. I was confident that I didn't leave the drawer open, it's just not a habit o' mine. I pulled the kits out, much to their chagrin, and went back to my movie. Almost right away I heard the same noise and I went back to the kitchen and there she was. Rooting around in the drawer with no one to take the fall. I couldn't imagine how she could get the drawer open sans-opposable thumbs. But where there's a will, there's a way, right?

Don't worry- I solved the mystery. One day I was sitting in the office, and had a good view of the bathroom. Here comes Kea- she walks calmly into the bathroom and unaware of prying eyes she puts her front paws on the lip of the middle drawer, braces her back legs against the bottom drawer, then pushes her back legs while pulling with her front. Perhaps if you're having a hard time picturing this, think of someone in a row boat pulling with their arms and bracing with their legs. I could not believe my eyes. She opened that thing and didn't skip a beat before she was inside it. Lucky for us (and unlucky for kits) we keep the Q-tips in the cupboard under the sink. Then again I was stupid to believe that they couldn't figure out how to get a cupboard door open if they could get a drawer open. I came in one day and there were q-tips everywhere- they have found the mother load. I picked them up and threw them away, assured I had gotten them all.

Then a couple days ago Kloe jumped up on the couch while we were watching a movie (Australia- very good) and starting rooting around in between the cushions. Five minutes before I was running from the kitchen to the living room, and Kloe was running in my cross path and she ran right into my speedy hobbit legs and got kicked into the couch (poor dear, I felt so bad) so her rooting around in the couch cushions I just passed off as the brain damage I was confident I gave her. After a while of her persistent squirming and nearly her entire body was wedged in between the cushions I asked Jordan what the heck she was doing. He assumed she was looking for something, which was impossible 'cause we keep the couch clean, and I make sure nothing is under the cushions. I pull Kloe out and start feeling down in the cushions and pull out a Q-tip. "What the heck, how did that get there?" I'll give you one guess. I kept up the search and pulled out quite a few Q-tips. Here's the assumption- Kloe realized that she can go through the work of retrieving the Q-tip, but Jordan or I would then take it from her, as cotton can't be good for her digestive system. So, she found a clever little hiding space to keep her treasures safe.

So again, I'm starting to think a little brain damage wouldn't be so bad after all.

Fantastic Moment in my Life

I would like to share with you guys one of the greatest moments of my life:I wish I had a video 'cause she was shaking her booty and dancing along with the music. It took all evening to get her to do it, but once she finally did . . . I can't even tell you the joy that it brought to me and my entire family.

Snowshoeing!!!

My sister (Britney) has been talking about going snowshoeing this winter, just to try something new, and last saturday we made that happen. I was excited because I had gone once before, and really enjoyed it. I was also incredibly nervous because that one time I was in Young Women's and in much better shape than I am now. But I decided to do it, 'cause I thought it might be fun, and heard it was a great workout. Word on the street is you burn 1,000 calories every hour. I was pretty confident I was going to suffer, but have fun and burn calories in the process so I was on board.

Turned out all three came to pass, but to higher extremes than I thought. I had an absolute blast, got the best workout of my life, and was more exhausted than I thought I would be. The weird thing was that it was easier physically than I thought it was going to be, but it was being out of breath that got me. I thought it was going to be pretty flat with a slight upgrade, but most of it was a pretty good upgrade, and a good portion I had to really dig in the spikes on my toes to get good leverage to get up the hill. So, while I felt a great burn in my calves, and could tell that my entire body was getting a great workout it was huffing up the hills in the cold air that really slowed me down.

The greatest part for me (treehugger alert) was the scenery. It was gorgeous!! Up in the fresh mountain air with nature and the fluffy snow all around, it was very quiet and peaceful. Although it was cold to start out with, I ended up sweating up a storm (TMI?). I brought my camelback and drained the entire thing. I started out all bundled up, but started taking off layers and didn't even need my gloves until the way down. I definitely want to do this again, and would one day like my own pair of snowshoes so I wouldn't have to rent each time. And if anyone is looking for a great full body workout, I highly recommend it!

I stole a bunch of pics from Britney and Jeff, so you can enjoy the beautiful scenery as well!

Huffing up the hill

The trail- very peaceful looking

Bringing up the rear.

A beastly hill to get up, and it felt like it was never going to end, 'cause it just kept going! Coming down was hard too 'cause I kept slipping, so I just sat down and slid on my butt all the way down. It was lots o' fun.


Jeff jumping across the creek. Or, for our southern friends "crick". I wish I could be that cool. I had to inch to the very edge and very carefully make my merry way across. I would also like to point out that the sides are pretty steep on each side, although it doesn't look like it from this angle . . .

So it's a good thing we can look at it from this angle as well, right?

In conclusion, ladies and gentleman; it was very fun, very exhausting and very worth $8.99 rental fee, and a saturday afternoon.

Christmas Upgrade!

So, this post is a little out dated and old news, but better late than never! Since I'm a little behind it's going to be a long one, sorry!

For Christmas we kinda went all out and gave our condo an upgrade! We got ourselves the Wii and Guitar Hero III (but we got that before Thanksgiving 'cause we were worried that we wouldn't be able to get our hands on one after Thanksgiving so that's yesterday's news). We thought we had gone overboard as it was, but we found a really good deal and so we got some couches. I love them 'cause our last ones were hideous, so we had covers on them, but the covers were a pain to keep on straight because once you sat down it would go all screwy again. Then, our TV stopped working for some unknown reason, and then when we got it working again the picture was all screwed up and we couldn't fix it. So, we went TV shopping and found another amazing deal, so we got a TV! And about a month ago I burned some popcorn in my microwave, and I mean we're talking smoke billowing out of the microwave, the house filling up with smoke, and the inside of the microwave being stained a gnarly yellowish-brown. And it was white. But, Jordan's dad got us a new fangled microwave for Christmas! Honestly though, if I had not ingrained burned popcorn smell into the last one, we would have needed a new one anyway 'cause the one we had was pretty crappy. Moving on . . . At my work Christmas party they had a killer raffle, and while they were calling out names, I was just saying to my group that if at least one of us wins something I would be happy, and then my name was called! I had won an iPod Touch. Which is awesome, but if you think about it, it's just an iPhone without the phone capabilities. I was going to sell it, and then I thought I could probably get more out of it if I returned it to the store. I then found out that an iTouch costs more than the iPhone, so i just traded it in for the phone, and had enough left over to get a cool case for it. SO, I got the iPhone Free! Pretty thrilled about that. So, I feel like my entire life got an upgrade for Christmas! And the best part is I didn't have to go into debt for it. Now if I can just get my house painted I would be beyond satisfied, I would be in bliss.

Christmas was great. Well, Christmas Eve was less great, but Christmas Day was awesome! Christmas Eve I went up to the Mutual Dell up AF Canyon. My mom had been trying to reserve it for about 5 years, so she was excited to finally get it this year. So, the kiddies could play in the snow and go sledding, and we all ate dinner in the cabin. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it. After dinner we were kicking back and relaxing. Well, the adults were relaxing and the kids were all running around and all of a sudden I hear sligh bells. I thought I was hearing things 'cause I was laying on a couch half asleep and it took me a second to realize that they were real. I then hear a jolly "Ho ho ho!" and am certain I'm not crazy. I sit straight up and go into the other room and sure enough, there is Santa! The kids had all sorts of different reactions. Celeste gave him a shy hug, and Savannah ran up to him and said "Look how fast I can run!" and took off in a circle. It was adorable. He sat down and passed out gifts for everyone. The grandkids (my neices and nephews) all got coloring books and crayons, and christmas pajamas. And dang--I got cute pics of the kids with Santa, and then in their pajamas, but I left my camera at home. Anyway, then each kid got to sit on Santa's lap and tell them what they wanted and he said he would try to set something aside for them. It was kinda funny 'cause right before he came Celeste was asking her mom where Santa was and she (not knowing Santa was stopping by) said probably in Europe right now. AND then he walks in the door. So, she kinda had an inkling something wasn't quite right 'cause she whispered to my sister that she thought he might not be the real Santa.

Christmas day was crazy and super busy. We woke up, got some breakfast and ran over to my parents to open presents. We got some great presents including some wii games and board games, and such. I got some new ski goggles which I really really needed, and they are awesome and my parents got me a gift card for Alta! Hurray! I'm pretty thrilled about it. Then we ran home and did our Christmas with just me and Jordan. This was my favorite part of the day. I got Jordan some super hot shirts, cologne and Guitar Hero World Tour. He got me the world's cutest hoodie from Abercrombie and a perfume that I wanted. Most importantly I got the Wii Fit! I was so excited, 'cause I wanted it really bad and I absolutely love it! It's pretty much the only thing I wanted for Christmas and my wonderful hubby totally delivered!

Then, we were already running late so we had to hurry and get dressed (we had just gone over to my parents in our pajamas, which was nice and comfy) and rush over to Jordan's mom's house where we had a delicious lunch, and then went to a movie. We saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I LOVE this movie! I hightly recommend it. It was really long though, and we were late to Jordan's grandparents' dinner. So, we had to rush over there and had dinner, and hung out for a little bit and then we had to go to Jordan's dad's house 'cause he had a stocking and presents there. When we were leaving there Jordan's car got stuck in the drive way (blessed snow) and we couldn't get out. I said I was going to get out and push and Jordan didn't seem to like that idea but I said it's ok, I'm just going to push! So, I skip out into the snow and start pushing and pushing. I didn't manage a whole lot of progess to be honest, I was able to rock it forward a bit, but we were pretty stuck. What I did manage to do was this- the driveway was really slick, and so were my shoes, so I was pushing along and my feet went up and my chin came down on the trunk and my knees his the pavement. I have been more thrilled in my life then I was at that moment. It wouldn't have been so bad, but I slipped and ate it in my parents driveway that morning. So, my knees were getting a beating that day. Anyway I bounce back up and my chin must have been the straw that broke the camels back 'cause Jordan was able to pull out.

We were relieved to get home, and our poor needy kits who have been stuck home all day were happy to see us.

Phew, what a Good Day! ;)