I'm THANKFUL for my health...

There has been a lot of talk about the H1N1 flu this year. Flurries of e-mails regarding free clinics distributing the vaccine to this particular flu strain. Then there is a debate on whether or not this is a safe vaccine yada yada yada. As I listen to the different thoughts surrounding this topic it has caused me to reflect on my own health. I have been so blessed over the past 10 years at lease to really never be too sick. I mean once or twice I didn't feel well and missed a day of school/classes. But I never was really sick. Last year I spent a total of a little over a month taking care of sick kids (the ones I nanny.) I was fortunate enough never to become ill from tending to them. Mike even got sick and I stayed healthy. It has been a huge blessing for me to remain health. It has allowed me to study, work and take care of the things that I need to get done. Not to mention skipping the whole feeling like death thing. So today that is what I am Thankful for, my continual health. May it continue over the up and coming flu season.

I'm THANKFUL for modern technology...

So with Thanksgiving fast approaching I would like to mention something I am grateful for. Today for the first time I discovered the gmail video chat. I was able to see and talk with my mom, dad, brother and 2 sisters that are home in Ohio. Now I know many are way advanced and have been doing this for a while but this was my first time. I was so amazed that I could see them, see the paintings on the wall, the piano and the other random pieces of furniture in our "schizophrenic" room (we call it this because its a piano room in one corner, living room in another corner and computer room in the remaining 2 corners. Its all over the place and not sure what it is.) I had fun talking with them and actually being able to watch their facial expressions. Then I thought back to a time when phone calls were just this monumental. Actually being able to hear their voice when once only able to read what was written in a letter. We have made some amazing discoveries in technology and though I can't imagine any developments better than this I know their will be. So it was a lot of fun and although it made me a little homesick I was so thankful for this new form of interaction. Tomorrow night we are having FHE together!! Crazy huh?!?! I love it!!!!

STOP! WAIT!! TIME-OUT!!!

HAULT!! A HORRIBLE INJUSTICE HAS BEEN MADE! In my haste and half awake state of mind when I posted my extremely long blog today I made a mistake of disastrous proportions. I failed to recognize the presence of a true American classic at the Halloween party. Since I did not get a solo picture of the smashing couple I forgot to mention them. Our fantastic friends Lindsey and Jared came to the party as Sarah Palin and Joe sixpack.... with a baby Wagamont in tote. In this picture you can see Sarah in the stunning black and white tweed blazer and Jared in a festive yet classy rock guitar print black button up holding 1/2 naked child ;)

Thought corner for this day's post by Mike: The Stokeys have meant many things to me in my life. They have given me hope and inspiration during the rocky waters of life. I have found myself stranded on the waves of uncertainty at various points in my existence with nothing but a paddle and a widdled down watercraft. The Stokers have extended me floaties and a life preserver to keep me from sinking into the abyss. Lindsinator, Stokey, and K-dawg your portrait will forever grace the wall above the TV.

I too would like to express my deepest love and gratitude for this truly dynamic trio. I can only say it as good as Chicago when they said "You're the meaning in my life, your my inspiration. You bring feeling to my life..." Linz had been a true inspiration to me. She has giving me a new hope for my botchi skills as I watch her dominate the men, she is a most dedicated cat sitter as she even cleaned up cat poo. Not to mention the time she immolated the Savior by feeding me while my husband was out of town. Stokey is just as wonderful for as I said in the kitchen on accident 3 months ago he is my "sweetheart." His kind words and gentile demeanor when we play acquire is something to be noted. Thats not even counting the peaceful dreams I have of him the night after we play acquire. I also love how his takes my husband off my hands for me multiple beautiful summer saturday mornings as they go play golf for 5 hours ;) We can't forget sweet baby carrot who lights up a room. From her booty dance to "Don't stop believing" to her mischievous smile as she learns new tricks she is a cutie!

For reals they are a great couple who we feel truly blessed to be friends with.

Only October.. and then some..

So I'm just going to first say that this whole post is backwards. I forgot that you have to put the picture you want on first last and the last picture you want first. I'm to tired to start over so this is just how it is going to be. That what happens when you blog when you should be taking a nap.

So October wizzed by and now we are only 2 weeks and 2 days away from Thanksgiving. We had a busy end of september and October.

-My mom and Sisters came to visit for a few days at the end of september while Mike was out of town at an investors conference in Utah.

-The first week of October we went to Utah for Mike's great friend Dave. We had a blast and were sad to go home. We has something to do every hour of the day.

-I enjoyed multiple baking experiments

-Carved pumpkins

-Celebrated HALLOWEEN!

We went to a FANTASTIC Halloween party at our good friends Josh and Colleens house.

Lucy and Ricky Ricardo (I love Lucy)

Sandy and Danny (from Grease)

Happy Reindeer a few weeks early.

Pimp and pimpette

Shot gum wedding Hillbilly style.

Getting crazy in the dance floor.

Fingers made of cheese sticks/green peppers/cream cheese.

Witches fingers in the veggie dip.

Frankenstine, Ghost, Spider brownies.

Frank, Spidy and Casper.

Minnie Mouse pumpkin

Our pumpkins!!

Spooky face and Skull and cross bones

Happy carving

Into the task at hand.

The corn maze we went to had donkeys

Pumpkin patch.

Victory at last!

Trying to cut corners.

Really lost...

My fantastic fall cookies!

Mike and Bobbers (Dave)

Boo-Bear and Bobbers.

Fun Friends

Mike and I in front of the Salt Lake City Temple.

Cousin Brett/Nicole, US, Kip and Crystal.

Its all ball and chain from hear on out.

The Best buddies from High school and respective wives (children.)

My Wonderful Mother-in-law

Girls day out at Gardner Village with sisters/nieces

My first BYU game ever!!

Rise and Shout!

Saturday Morning session of conference!

Adorable Nephew!

Cutie pie Nieces.

BEAUTIFULLY pregnant cousin Allie

The happy couple!

Gorgeous Sisters.

KT and lizzy

This is what Liz did the whole time. Make my apartment kitty heaven.

Loving on Rosalie

Sisterly love and Elizabeths 9th Birthday!

For Sale?!?!?! I think not!

While at the wedding of our good friends Dave and Alissa we were made aware of a corupt plan to sell our kittys. A good portion of Mikes friends enjoy giving him "crap" for having two cats. This has been the root of many jokes and even second thoughts on Mikes part. So anyways we find out that Dave a week before his wedding, when he had plenty of OTHER things to worry about, put our cats up for sell on KSL. I was appauld to hear of this misdead and even more distraught when I saw the AD!!! This is what it said.

$15.00
Epps and Rosalie
centerville, UT 84014 - Sep 24, 2009

We have 2 adorable cats but cannot keep them because of my husband's inability to adapt to his new companions. I have found him calling them "cat" or "hey kitty" which I realize can lead to long-term psychological damage. I realized I couldn't put the cats in that type of abusive environment. I only wish I could post my husband on KSL ;)The older cat is named Epps. Epps likes to jump and take walks with his pink sequined leash.Rosalie is the little multicolor wonder. She has special feline abilities. Rosalie can predict when the pop-tarts will pop out with a very distinct meow right before they pop. She also can predict the outcome of game shows and reality T.V. I knew Chris was going to win A.I weeks in advance!As you can tell these are very special kittens.

They have had 208 view in less than a week and several e-mail. Probably becasue they are selling for $15... they are worth so much more than that. lol. Anyways the ad came with 4 seperate pictures he stool off of my facebook.

click here to check out the actual ad!! http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=678&ad=8035267&lpid=&cat=112

(and no we will NOT be seeling these cats to anyone. lol)

60 seconds of pandemonium.

So on Sunday I was sitting in Sunday school. We were all prepared to be spiritually feed. The prayer had been said, the teacher was concluding his object lesson when I hear the tune to Nelly's "No matter what I do" going off as someone's ring tone. I quickly start looking around to see who had done the unthinkable and not turned off their cell phone. Obviously it was not my phone the ring tone was not mine and I would NEVER leave my phone on during church. As I hear the phone continue to ring I notice there is something familiar about the ring. I think perhaps it is my friend Lindsey's phone, I was sitting by her and maybe thats why it was familiar. I look to my left where she is comfortably seated looking around for he noise just as I. At this point I feel like the whole room is looking over to my corner demanding an answer to the mystery of the ringing phone. It is at this point I conclude the noise is coming from underneath my chair. I look to see only my gargantuan purse beneath my seat. At this point I realize I have the girl I nanny for phone in my bag. I quickly grab the bag and plunge my hands down into its depths frantically searching for the still ringing phone. When I finally maneuver well enough around the lip glosses, receipts, pens and nail file I unearth the phone that is still ringing. I quickly start running my fingers across the keypad looking for every and anyway to silence the phone. The screen flashes "locked" and my attempts are in vain. Then I have a brilliant idea, take out the battery. I whip the phone over, ferociously slide the back-panel off the phone and rip out the heart of the finally silenced phone. It was over. I had won. Or had I? The phone did go off for about 60 seconds. I slumped down into my seat with a bashful grin as I watched the burning eyes of the crowd slowly remove themselves from me. I then concluded 1) to get a small purse and 2) no more phones at church for me.

What a weekend

Two weekends ago Mike and I decided to go DC. Its moments like this that we truly love our central New England location that allows us to take weekend trips all over the east coast. We left after work on Friday so that we would have all day Saturday to enjoy a small portion of what DC has to offer.

We started our day with a tour of the capitol building. We didn't get to see the rooms that the House and Senate occupy because it was the weekend but the tour was still pretty interesting.

This is the mural on the top of the arch of the capitol building.

Each state sent in two statues to be displayed in the capitol building. It is no surprise that Brother Brigham was one of Utah's.

After we went on the tour we went to the library of Congress, but we didn't get to see anything too cool in there.

While we were there. We were able to participate in the Conservative tea party. It was actually really cool. The energy was amazing and it was nice to be around people who share my disapproval with the government and don't worship our President like he is the messiah.

There are mixed reports on how many people where here but I think 1.5 million is accurate.

Read everything on this movie poster. Its funny.

BAH!

After we made our way out of the sea of people we walked down the national mall to the Washington Monument.

Then we walked down to the White House to meet our mutual friend Nina for lunch. She just started an internship and graduate school in DC so it was fun to have her catch us up on her crazy new life.

After lunch we checked out the Smithsonian's.

My favorite is the Museum of American History.

Then we walked down to the national archives to see historical documents like the magna carta, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, and even court documents like Mayberry vs. Madison and Roe vs. Wade.

While waiting in line to view the documents Mike thought to tell me that his 5th Great-Grandpa signed the Constitution. I couldn't get the picture the right way so if you look at it sideways he is the last person in the New Jersey group, Jonathan Dayton. Petty cool. Since Mikes middle name is Dayton we'd already decided to name our first boy Dayton, so know its even cooler.

After all that we met up with one of my best friends from College, Sarah, who is living in DC. We went with her to the WWII memorial. My grandpa fought in this war.

O-H-....

The Wash. Monument's reflection in the Vietnam Wall.

Honest Abe!

Korean War memorial.

We headed up to Georgetown for dinner and some shopping that night. Very cute and classy.

Our friends Ryan and Brooke Naylor were kind enough to give us their spare bedroom while we were there. It was good to see them and catch up.

Sunday morning we were feeling ambitious and decided to break up our 4 hour trip home with a stop in Philadelphia.

We naturally had a Philly Cheese Stake for lunch. I was not personally a fan. I didn't like all the meat and cheese I felt like I gained 5 lb. by just eating it.

After lunch we went to see the Liberty Bell. I loved it! I learned so much about the freedom Bell!

A statue exhibiting the excitement that went along with the signing of the Deceleration of Independence.

Independence Hall

The room where the Constitution and DoI was signed. The freedom of our country was drafter here! Sooo cool.

We were home by 5pm. It was a great weekend we feel so lucky to be able to go to see all these cool places.