Summer 2009 (so far)

I was thinking the other day that summer is almost over and I felt like I haven't done a lot, but the more I thought about the more I realized I have done a lot this summer. Hopefully I will be able to do a lot more things with whats left. So far this summer I went to Moab with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, which was a blast and I can't wait to do that again. We were supposed to go for Memorial Day weekend, but I told my sister-in-law to book our hotel the last weekend in May (usually Memorial Day weekend is the last weekend in May) so she did. A couple weeks before we were going to go she checked up on our reservation and noticed it was for the wrong weekend, we tried to change it but they didn't have any vacancies so we decided to keep our reservation. We are glad we did because it was probably not as busy as it would have been the weekend before.

(I took a lot more pictures, but it will take all day to upload so I will figure out how to do a slideshow).

This summer we went camping a few times with friends and family. We hiked the wind caves, which is an awesome hike to go on. We went to a sealing for our brother in law and sister in law and their 2 little girls. That was such a neat experience. My other brother in law got married and for their honeymoon they came up to Logan, so we got to spend time with them. We floated the canal, which froze my behind. We went boating at Flaming Gorge (I didn't get any pictures). We went to the George Strait concert. We've gone 4-wheeling several times. We sold one of our cars, and bought a dirtbike, but still don't have a truck to drive it around in. We went to Cove Fort Days, which was suprisingly fun. Oh... and we are the proud owners of our own home. We bought a townhome and we love it! It's nice to know that we are building equity instead of throwing our money away at rent. So far we have had a good summer, but there is still a month left!!

Happenings!

Like I have posted before I am a procrastinator, I take forever to post and I always put it off. I also hardly ever have time (good excuse huh?) to write down what is going on in my life. Luke and I both have been extremely busy with life which can be stressful, but we are enjoying it right now.

I have been snowboarding for a little over 12 years now and last week I decided to try skiing (I did ski before I started snowboarding). I must admit that I did a pretty good job. I am so use to riding a snowboard that switching to skis was a little of an adjustment, but I got the hang of it and was even doing turns on my first run. I did stick to the bunny hill all day which was kind of a bummer because it was an amazing powder day and Luke bragged about the knee deep snow in some areas. I wished I was out there with him, but it was nice to hang out with my dad while he taught me to ski (he is a ski instructor). I had such a good time that I think next season I will try skiing some more however, I will not give up on snowboarding.

I also have some great news!!!! I got promoted at work with a big pay increase. I will now be an employment counselor for the youth at DWS. This is such a good opportunity for me to learn and to advance, but I will miss the team and supervisor that I worked with. My supervisor was absolutely amazing and I will miss having him as a supervisor, but I am excited for this new position.

Getting this promotion will make it so much easier for Luke and I to get into a house this summer which is really exciting. We are planning on buying in June and we are so excited to get out of Aggie Village. We are most likely going to be buying in Logan or somewhere close because Luke has decided to go back to school this fall. I am excited for him because he has taken time off to get me through school so I am happy that I can work to get him through school. I have promised Luke that when he graduated we will go to New Zealand for his graduation present, so hopefully he graduates soon ;)

Sorry this is a pretty random post, but it will have to do.

I Love Weekends!

It is really nice to work 4 ten hour days because then I have 3 day weekends. Anyways, last weekend was Valentine's Day so Luke and I went to Downey, ID and stayed the night at Downata Hot Springs. We stayed in a yurt, had a candle lit dinner, and went swimming in a hot springs. It was a lot of fun, and it was really nice to have a relaxing weekend.

This is the Yurt we stayed in.

The inside of the Yurt
Our Candlelit dinner

That same weekend we went up to Arimo, ID to hang out with Luke's friend and fiance, Jeremy and Shelby. They live in the middle of nowhere, but it was a lot of fun being there. While we were there Jeremy suggested going swimming at Lava Hot Springs, so we drove up to Lava and ate dinner and then went swimming. The pools were crowded, and it was snowing like crazy, but we had a lot of fun. Luke and I are looking forward to the next time we can go up there.
This most recent weekend Luke and I decided it was time to go home to Salt Lake to spend time with our families. I love Salt Lake and miss it when we are away too long, so we usually go there quite a bit. The weather was great this weekend so we went 4-wheeling with my parents at Grantsville Reservoir.

(I didn't bring any clothes to go riding in so I am wearing my mom's sweat pants with her hiking boots and my dad's coat! LOL, I didn't want to get my clothes dirty)

My brother, Jantzsen and my Dad fishing

My brother, Breylen and his wife, Quichee

My parents on their "toys"

My sister, Tristan with her roommate, Emily, and friend, Aldrin

It was pretty muddy, but we had a lot of fun.

That night Luke and I went to a Grizzlies hockey game with a couple of his brothers and his brother's fiance. We had pretty good seats and we won which made the game a lot of fun. There weren't very many fights which was a little disappointing but it was still a good game. As much as we love being in Salt Lake with our friends and family we had to come back, so we drove home Sunday night to get ready for the work week :(
I can't wait until next weekend!

One Year Older

Yesterday I turned the big 2-3. I feel like I am starting to get old jk. It really is crazy how life goes by so fast. Well, Luke and I were planning on going to Salt Lake to hang out for my birthday, but then he had to work over the weekend (they didn't tell him until last minute) it was really upsetting at first. I got over it and we ended up having a nice relaxing weekend. On Saturday we went to a movie and dinner. We saw the movie "He's just not that into you." I thought it was going to be a romantic comedy, but I don't think it was that funny. It may have been cause I was in a bad mood, but I thought the movie was pretty sad (not a good sad). It is one of those movies that make you lose faith in love. If you are going to watch it I would recommend Red Boxing it so you don't waste the money. Actually, it really could have been a good movie but since I was in a bad mood I didn't like (so don't take me word for it). After the movie Luke took me to Hamilton's for dinner. It was nice, but nothing compared to Johnny Carino's ;) Yesterday on my actual birthday we really didn't do much except go to church and veg around all day. It was pretty relaxing and laid back. While we were chilling Luke suprised me with a heart shaped diamond necklace. I was really excited because I have always wanted a real one, and my fake one broke while we were on our cruise. I had no idea he was going to get it for me, so I was really pleased. He is the best!

House Shopping

Luke and I have been trying to figure out what step we want to take next in life and buying a home is one of our options. We are sick of paying rent and we would love to live somewhere that is bigger than Aggie Village! If you have ever been in the apartments in Aggie Village you know what I am talking about, they don't even have a full size oven. We have decided that it is time to upgrade so we went and looked at townhouses today. It was really fun and I am very excited at the idea of owning a home. After looking at a few different townhouses I have realized that I am pretty picky, but I figure that's a good thing since I will be living there for awhile. The home we buy must have a big master bedroom with a master bath and a walk in closet, a dishwasher, 3 bedrooms (we might be able to get away with 2), and a living room that is big enough that we could have more than 2 guests over. I can't wait until we buy because then I can paint and decorate everything the way I want!

Right now is the perfect time to buy so I hope can we can get into something soon, but we will see. There is a $7,500 tax credit that is available for first time home buyers that we could take advantage of or there is talk of a $15,000 tax credit that would be available to home buyers if the bill passes. We would rather have the $15,000 credit to use towards a home so we will see what happens within the next couple months.

Randomness

25 things...

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you. Or I just want to torture you.25 things about me, In no particular order:

25. I love to travel. I have a whole list of places I want to go and I will get to all of them eventually.
24. I love my job right now, but I would really like to be a financial counselor one day.
23. I am a very stubborn person, and I like to have things done my way.
22. I'm waiting to see if I got a job offer in Italy, if my current job becomes permanent, or if I am going to move to Salt Lake. It's a stressful situation!
21. I collect movies! I have so money that there are still a lot that I haven't even opened.
20. In high school Luke was one of my best friends, and I never would have imagined then that we would be married now. I am so happy that we are!
19. One day I will get my doctorate degree.
18. I am a very sarcastic person and have probably offended people because of it. (If I have offended you because of my sarcasm I am sorry.)
17. I love moving, well I hate the actual act of moving, but I love the change from moving. I have moved 22 times in my life and I can't wait for the next one.
16. I have been snowboarding for 11 years now, and you would think that I would be really good, but I'm not. I can hold my own, but the park kills me.
15. I have a degree in Family Consumer Human Development with an emphasis in Finance and a minor in Sociology.
14. I love talking about money and how to budget/save/spend it. I track where ALL of my money goes and I love trying to find new ways to save more money. I'm a little obbsessive.
13. I don't like to cook so Luke does it most of the time. He is so amazing!
12. I hate doing the dishes with a passion!!! The next place we live has to have a dishwasher.
11. I hate when it snows or rains and the bottom of my pants get wet, it's one of the worst feelings. When it rains or snows I have to wear boots and tuck my pants into them.
10. I love popcorn from an airpop popper. It's the best!
9. I am scuba certified, and have only gone scuba diving at Catalina Island, but I have several other places that I am planning on going.
8. I can't live without my planner!
7. I love making to do lists! I have a to do list for everything and I love being able to cross things off the lists.
6. I still have printed out my wedding pictures, and I got married over a year ago.
5. I love going to the Aggie Hockey games, they are so much fun and I love seeing us win!
4. I really love to scrapboook, but haven't done it for over 6 years. I have a lot of pictures that I need to catch up on.
3. My favorite color is pink (I don't hide it very well).
2. One day I hope to be independently wealthy so I can travel the world.
1. It might not seem like it, but I use to be a cheerleader in high school and sometimes I really miss it.

Procrastination

Procrastination is one of my worst habits! I literally procrastinate with everything. I have even put off blogging for a little while. I am going to work on getting things done in a timely manner including writing in my blog. I feel like I never have time to write on here so from now on I will do better.

So far this year has started out great; I graduated in December so I didn't have to worry about going to school. I have a good job with the Department of Workforce Services with really awesome supervisors and manager (they won't read this so I'm not trying to brown nose). I got to go on a cruise for my graduation present, which was fantastic. I will have to post pictures from it as soon as I can. Well, thats all I feel like writing for today so I will post pictures in my next post