Just when you thought it was warming up…

I’m sick of cold. I was so mad this weekend when I had to turn the furnace back on. Angry eyes.

Other than the cold weather, we had a delightful week and weekend. Wednesday we were finally able to take family pictures. Stay tuned for them, they should be ready in a couple of weeks. In the mean time, check out our photographer’s blog – Stacy Marie Photography. Stacy did all of our wedding pictures and I didn’t want to ask another person to do our family pictures too. She’s so cute, I feel like we’re going to hang out with one of my friends and take pictures at the same time when we see her. Plus she’s super affordable. I thought about having someone up in Ogden do them since the puppy was going to be included, after looking around, I couldn’t find someone that was less than 10x what she charges for an on location shoot. Plus, who am I kidding, she’s totally worth the drive. We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day and the puppy was actually pretty cooperative. I guess his never ending desire for attention has finally come in handy. Thanks Stacy!

Friday night, The Sweater Friends had an awesome show at Kilby Court. This was another show Jake picked the bands for and it was an absolute delight. I seriously don’t want to play another show with bands that don’t relate to us – It just can’t compare. Despite the slightly rainy weather, Kilby Court was lovely, not too hot and not freezing cold. We got to play with Mindy Gledhill and Josaleigh Pollett. Both are singer-song writers and are truly talented. Josaleigh was feeling a bit under the weather but her voice still sounded like velvet. I love her songs, they all are just so honest. She manages to make you feel like you’re having a conversation with a friend instead of watching a show. Mindy Gledhill was headlining the evening with her big band – okay, it’s a normal size band but when you only have two people in yours, it seems big in comparison. She’s an absolutely adorable person and her band was a blast. They took a break in the middle to allow the keyboard player (Lamar Holley) to play his own song. I can’t wait for his CD that’s due in May. He’s a 6th grade teacher by day and has a CD of educational songs he’s written. We traded CD’s so Shad and I listened it on the way home. Check it out if you have kids, it’s not annoying like a lot of other children’s CD’s I’ve heard – plus it’s educational. His CD coming out in May is just regular pop songs if you don’t like to learn while you listen. If you haven’t heard of any of these musicians, seriously check them out! After Friday’s show I left with a renewed hope for the music scene here in Utah, there are still super talented not jerky musicians out there that just want the time to express themselves.

Saturday morning I got up in the rain and went tutoring. After tutoring Shad met me for lunch at our favorite Chinese place in Layton, then it was off for a couples teaching massage at the spa next to it (Shad got me a gift certificate for Christmas). The teacher took things a little too seriously if you ask me but it was a delightful way to spend an afternoon. I’m just hoping now when I ask Shad for a massage, he won’t try to massage my bones instead of muscle (ouch!).

After the massage, I went home and tackled the spare bedroom we have upstairs. Since we moved in, it’s been full of boxes of stuff from our office. The new office is just on the other side of the wall so we’ve been lazy about unpacking that stuff. I boxed and labeled the things we don’t use often, cleaned out the trash and organized a few things. You can actually see the carpet now!

Saturday night we went out for Italian then we saw Monsters vs. Aliens. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it, I hated The Incredibles and wasn’t too keen on seeing another animated superhero movie. I was pleasantly surprised. It was great. My favorite line was the stab at Al Gore and global warming – “It seems like the globe is warmer, that would be a very convenient truth.” I think I’m the only one in the theatre that got it – I was certainly the only one that laughed.

Sunday after church, Shad took Dublin on a very long walk up a trail behind our house, I took the time to pay the bills and make real mashed potatoes for dinner. When they got home we headed to my friend Jen’s house for Sunday dinner. She made a homemade chicken pot pie, it was delicious. After dinner we were able to stick around and play a board game. Jen let me pick so we played the Game of Life, one of my favorites that my siblings would never play with me. Jen had the new version, so we all struggled with some new rules. My least favorite new rule was the lack of betting your money at the end to win it all, I always did that when I was younger – I don’t think it ever worked but I went for it every time.

Bar = Late night

I think that’s a sad fact I have forgotten as I don’t visit them often. The Sweater Friends had the pleasure to play a quaint location called The Woodshed this Saturday night. This is the first time we’ve played a bar. It was fun, the bartenders were nice and there music guy really liked us, my only complaint was the 10:00 start time. It’s way too late to make for a good show. And we were only the first band, which meant by band etiquette rules, we had to stay for the band after us (they asked us to play). I was so tired Shad and I started talking about teleportation on the way home. We could have used it Saturday night.

Because I had 3 week days off this week from coverage, I had a really eventful week. Tuesday night a group of my girlfriends went to Britney. It was amazing. Thanks to Kelly at Chili’s we missed half of the Pussy Cat Dolls show. I was a bit disappointed but the parts we did see were pretty good. I expected them to be stronger dancers though. Maybe they were tired. Then came Britney. As I’m sure many of you have read, her show is based off of her single Circus. She had all sorts of circus performers entertain before the show actually started, and then they participated all throughout the show. It was great. There was always so much going on and so much to look at. I think I could have ignored Britney for the entire show and still been super entertained.

Wednesday, I was able to wrap up a bunch of stuff around the house. Shad commented to me when I’m home during the day, it’s like a scavenger hunt when he gets home to see what I’ve done. I put the guest room back together and decorated it a little bit, hung some shelves in the living room and painted a table and chair from the office. I then finished it all up with some tutoring. Pretty good day.

Thursday I did laundry and cleaned the bathrooms. Then I went and got my makeup done for our family pictures that afternoon. When I got up that morning, it was cloudy but I was hoping it was done raining for the day. I got home and gave Dublin a bath so he could be all clean and shiny for pictures. He actually climbed into the tub himself this time and sat down before I even had his stuff out. I wouldn’t go so far to say he loves baths but he doesn’t hate them either. After his bath I let him out to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately there was a bird in the yard. Dublin hates birds. He will try to chase a bird on the ground, in a tree and even on telephone poles. Luckily he’s nowhere near fast or stealthy enough to come close to catching them. Maybe that’s why he hates them. This particular bird was standing in the mud where the swing set used to be. So of course my nice clean puppy charged full force after the bird only to land empty handed in the mud. After his second bath for the day, I took him out in the back yard on a leash. At least one of us learned a lesson. Sadly all of this effort was in vain. As we were driving down to SLC, our photographer called to say it was raining and we would have to reschedule (again). We will get it this Wednesday, I'm sure.

Friday night we drove up to Maddox for dinner then went to the hot springs. We didn’t last very long at the hot springs, it was still way too cold to go down the slide and the hot pools were overflowing with 13 year old scouts. Such is the hot springs on a Friday night.

Sunday after our late Saturday night, I was excited to get a nap. Shad took Dublin for a walk so I might get to sleep. They returned just as I was drifting off. Shoot. Shad of course laid down and was out in 5 seconds. Dublin laid down too but didn’t go to sleep. Once again just as I was drifting off, Dublin had the uncontrollable urge to get up and lick my face and hair (I was laying on the floor). I resolved a nap just wasn’t supposed to happen and watched leatherheads instead.

Pushing buttons in more way than one...

It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon and I find myself at work. Good times? At least today I feel like we're making some sort of progress and I have things to do which is alway nice. In fact the day has flown by compared to my night shifts this week when I had nothing to do. It's been a delightful day except for one person.

How many times would you press a button, and it didn't work before you determined it wasn't working and pressing said button was a waste of time and annoying the person next to you? I would guess I would push a button three maybe four times before I would come to a conclusion that it doesn't work and I should stop pushing it hoping for a different outcome. It's like asking you mom for a treat, if she said no the first time, she's still going to say no the twentieth time. Plain and simple.

There's a guy from staff here to help us out. He's supposed to work on glue so maybe that's why he's not so bright about machine things. I don't know. He seriously pressed a button that wasn't working on the machine a good 100 times while I was standing next to him. I finally told him to stop and to go tell and electrical guy it was broken so he could fix it. I thought I was doing pretty good not to slap his hand and tell him to go sit in the corner. After the button incident, he's continued to annoy me today. I'm not even the shift lead, shouldn't he be annoying him? I don't know anything about glue, don't ask me what the temperature should be, that's why you're here. I have no problem throwing out a random number but when your adhesive system doesn't work, blame yourself (the glue expert) for listening to a process engineer that really doesn't care about glue. He better not be here tomorrow. It will be war.

Surgery and Night Shifts

As another weekend has come to a close, all I can think about is that I'm tired. Okay it might be because I'm sitting at work, in the middle of the night waiting for a mechanic to fix the machine I'm working on. He couldn't tell me how long it might take, I think when you get an ETA like that, you should be able to say - I'm going home to sleep, call me when you're ready. It's a bad sign when I'm this tired and it's only midnight. I think the Rockstar will be consumed earlier than usual tonight. I really don't mind back shifts when you're busy. The time flies and you're good and tired for bed. Tonight is not one of those nights. I think I'm done ranting now. I'll update on the rest of our weekend.

Friday was a big day for Dublin - he got fixed! I went into work late that morning so I could drop him off at the vet at 7:30. He was so excited to go to the vet - he gets to meet new people and they have to pay attention to him - his two favorite things. I had to pin him down just to give the tech some chance of getting his name tag around his neck. She asked me if we had done any obedience with him yet, when I said yes and she acted surprised. She should have seen him pre - trainer. Then she might appreciate the significantly calmer dog he was that day. I can't help it that he really loves new people - new people that can't follow the no touching rule because they have to put a name tag on him. He'll get better at it, I know he will.

I went back to pick him up around 3:30. After the tech finally dragged him close enough to the room I was in to see me, he was so excited. I guess he wasn't to keen on the vet after the whole surgery thing. He was bouncing around the room so much, the tech commented that she was sure he would be fine. I responded I was almost positive surgery wouldn't phase him. I got him home, then the real fun started. He was tired so he pretty much slept until Shad came home. Because of the meds, we couldn't feed him until 6 that night, and only a little bit in case he threw it back up. That's his normal dinner time but since he hadn't eaten since the day before - he was hungry. Shad and I have come to dread when he's hungry. We experienced it while we tried to get him on a set eating schedule. He gets cranky and nothing can really calm him down. Since Shad woke him up when he got home, Dublin was suddenly reminded how hungry he was. After letting him out in the backyard and watching him devour every dandelion head he could find, I knew we were in for a terror. By about 5:30 I had had it, he hadn't puked the dandelions up yet so I took that to be a sign he could eat. I gave him 1/4th the amount he normally gets for a meal (doctor's orders!). When he finished he looked up at me like, you've got to be kidding me. About a half hour later to prove his point, he got desperate. He went and picked up his food bowl and brought it to me. When I didn't respond, he took it upstairs to Shad when Shad didn't respond, he sulked for a bit. Since we took away his food dish, he drank all his water and then brought that bowl to me. I finally gave in then, he hadn't thrown up yet and he was so persistent, I gave him another 1/4th amount of food and he finally settled.

Saturday morning I got up and went tutoring. There weren't a lot of kids there because of conference but I still had some unruly children. I blame the weather. I came home and did the laundry, cleaned and went shopping while listening to conference. My sister and her husband were coming up to spend the night so I wanted the house to be some what clean. Dublin was exhausted after spending the morning helping Shad with yard work so he napped the rest of the day.

Kristen and Mitch arrived a few minutes before Shad got home from priesthood. We chatted for a few minutes and I showed them what we've done to the house since they had been up last. We went to dinner at the Bistro and then came home to watch Ocean's Thirteen. Delightful. I only managed to stay up until midnight though - probably one of a few reasons why I'm so tired right now. The next morning we got up and had breakfast and they were off before the first session of conference. I'm so glad they came up. Nothing really compares to a fun night with your sister and our husbands. It makes me wish we lived a bit closer to SLC so we could see them more.

After they left, it was Shad's turn. He was off to the airport to catch his flight to Oklahoma. This just left me with Dublin to worry about all day today. I was a bit nervous how he would be with Shad gone, he tends to search the house if one of us leaves and he's not in his crate. He didn't even look for him. Maybe the luggage was a dead give away. So far he's been good. He napped all day on my lap while I watched conference. I hope this cuddly puppy sticks around even after his incision heals.

He is asleep in this picture - he just has too much loose skin so his eyes droop open. I think he started barking because of a dream not too soon after this. Adorable in a really creepy way.

Garden Treasures

We've survived yet another weekend that has been chock full of excitement. After having a week of coverage trying to get my module lined out to start up, we were all pretty exhausted. Since the safety system for our new machine was not operational as of Friday, our manager told us to go home at noon on Friday. You don't have to tell me to go home early twice. At 12:30 I was headed home to get my cleaning and laundry done a day early. Ideal. I think I got the grocery shopping done. I'm not sure when it happened, I just know it got done.

Friday night we signed up to do sealings with our ward at the Ogden Temple. It was the first time I had been to the Ogden Temple. For not being an attractive temple on the outside, I was a bit worried about the inside. I shouldn't have been, it was wonderful. It was fun to spend some time with a few of the older couples in our ward too. They're pretty spunky. The sealer was great too. He took every moment he could to teach us something about the ordinance. After the temple we went to the delicious Thai place down the street. It had been awhile since I had eaten some curry. Fantastic!

Saturday morning started off with tutoring as usual then it was home to brainstorm ideas for the personal progress activity I'm in charge of this week. When I got home I found a very happy puppy playing in the pile of stuff Shad had found in the garden area.

To give Shad a break I took Dublin on a walk in hopes of tiring him out before I headed off to the General Young Women's Meeting. The meeting was good. Hardly any girls showed up. They didn't get a very good reminder from the presidency so I can understand that. The meeting was good - everyone talked on virtue which was awesome. I left the meeting with the perfect plan for our personal progress activity. Now we will see if the girls show up.

When I returned home, Shad and I went to dinner then we went down to the basement to dance for awhile. We hadn't been dancing in a very long time and since it's too far to drive to the MAC, we figured the cement floor in the basement would do. To spruce it up, Shad went and got balloons. After we finished, we thought it would be fun to see what Dublin would do with them. I think it's safe to say he likes balloons. He's so cute.

The French Guy is Gone!

The peace of my cubicle has once again been restored. The loud French guy was not at work this morning. I can only hope he's returned to Wisconsin where I'm pretty sure he came from.

In other news, we survived our house warming party this last weekend. It was a total blast. I'm super grateful to all our friends that made the drive up here to come celebrate with us. I was totally shocked at how many people actually showed up. I wasn't even sure we knew that many people but I guess we do. I was also delightfully surprised to find everyone fit pretty well too. The house didn't seem too crowded at all. There will definitely be more parties to come.

A couple of my coworkers gave us an adorable puppy kit as a house warming present. Since we could tell what it was, we thought it would be fun to let Dublin open it. Here's a video. He's a bit slow at first - I'm hoping with practice, he'll get better.

Because Saturday was spent getting ready for the house warming, we didn't really do too much else this weekend. We went to church on Sunday. After I took Dublin on a very long walk to wear him out - he was still pretty wired from the party. I got home just in time to change and head over to the stake center for the temple dedication.

The Dedication was fantastic. I was thinking about the last one I went to - I'm pretty sure it was the Nauvoo Dedication. It was a little sad to think President Hinckley wouldn't be the one doing it but I really do love President Monson. He makes me laugh like President Hinckley did, just in a different way.

After the dedication, we made dinner and then we opened the rest of our presents. Thanks to everyone that brought us something. It was so not necessary but very much appreciated. After that it felt so good to sit on the couch with my husband and just relax. I don't think we've done that once for the past 2 months.

I'm pretty disappointed by the weather today - we were supposed to go down to Salt Lake to take family pictures today. We will just have to try again next Monday. Pray for sun!

It's Done?

I think it's safe to say we're in the home stretch of home improvement things and I am so grateful. I was in a meeting yesterday at work and the topic of how much I do during the week came up. Between church, work, tutoring, husband, house and a new puppy - I'm excited to cross something off the list. Not that I don't thoroughly enjoy all of the things I'm involved in, and I'm not happy unless I'm busy, I'm looking forward to warm evenings where I get to cook a decent meal then take a walk with my husband and puppy or (gasp!) make it to the gym again. Those will be good times. It was funny to hear an observation from one of our non-LDS engineers that "the engineers that don't drink really seem to accomplish a lot more with their time." I was pretty entertained by that. Apparently even occasional drinking and productivity have direct correlations.

Aside from home improvement tasks, we still had a very full weekend. Friday afternoon we had the insurance nurse come and take blood for our life insurance. That went well and I was happy not to have to fast anymore. Plus I found out my husband really doesn't like needles, which was a bit entertaining to watch. I'm a mean wife. While having my blood taken, I received a call from RC Willey that they would be there to deliver our couch from 6:30 to 8:30 that night. Which would had been nice but we had a wedding reception in Salt Lake to go to that was from exactly 6:30 to 8:30. After discussing it, we decided I would go since they technically were my friends and Shad could get some painting done. We headed to dinner in the mean time since we were both starving. Just as I was about to get into the shower, the phone rang. It was RC Willey saying we'll be there in 5 minutes - a half hour early! Ideal. The couch was delivered and we headed down to SLC for the reception. It was beautiful and I'm so excited for Bryce and Lina. They're so cute. After spending 20 minutes at the reception we turned around to drive the hour home. Totally worth it for those two!

Saturday I got up and went tutoring in the morning. Before I left I gave Shad explicit instructions to get the bedroom painting finished and meet me in SLC at 7 for the Sweater Friend's show. After tutoring I went down to SLC to attempt to learn the song my sister and I were singing in her ward the next day. That went okay. We were able to practice it a few times together. I then proceeded to Jake's house for a few hours of band practice for the show that night. In between I went to my parents to lay down for 15 minutes to get some energy back for the show.

I left for the show which was at an ideal establishment called the Blue Star Cafe - it's on 2300 East and about 2700 South. It's a really sweet laid back coffee shop/bagel place. We hung out there until it was our turn to play. The show went pretty well. After 4 hours of singing prior in the day - I was just grateful I still had a voice. My hubby wasn't able to make it down for it because the painting still wasn't done so I headed home right after we finished.

The next day we went to our ward for young womens and sunday school then went home to walk Dublin so he would sleep while we were at my sister's ward. We took him down with us for family dinner so he could meet his uncle Scott. I think he loved him. The song in Kristen's ward went really well and I'm excited that it's over.

All and all it was a very busy but rewarding weekend.

P.S. Do French accents bother anyone else? A French guy showed up at work today a few cubicle's down. After 20 minutes at my desk listening to a loud phone conversation, I wanted to bang his head into the wall. I hope he's not staying awhile. He might beat the loud guy with the Wisconsin accent that sits next to me. He hasn't been at his desk a lot. It's been nice at mine. Weird.