Basement Living

Most days I am fine living in a basement apartment. We have good landlords, the rent is cheap and our apartment is good size but on occasion I have a little bit of a breakdown and those occasions mostly occur when I have an encounter with a spider. For instance, I was just in the bathroom brushing my teeth for bed and I look to find the HUGEST (no sarcasm) spider on none other but Dane's towel. So I have to calmly think how am I going to kill this ruddy thing before it runs away. No way was I doing the tissue method, I am always afraid they are going to jump and I hate feeling their bodies crunch under the tissue so I opted for the shoe. I called to Dane to bring me a shoe and he came quickly. I took all my strength and slammed down with the shoe on the towel and then the spider fell to the floor. I look down to see him still wriggling, Dane didn't believe how big it was until he saw it too! Sick! I followed it up with a second swipe of the shoe and then picked him up with a tissue and down the toilet the carcass went. I then look at the towel because I was going to put it promptly in the washer and I see there is a leg from the spider on the towel and it is still twitching! Like I said, most days basement living is fine but when Spiders come into my life that is when I am ready to move ASAP!
PS-Anyone know why there are still spiders, it's too ruddy cold for me let alone them!

I will post our Christmas news later, I still need to upload our pics :)

Wilcox Family Christmas

Tonight was the Wilcox Family Christmas Party and it was so fun! We also got to celebrate a little because Nita and Wayne got their mission call just a few days ago! So exciting! We had some delicious dinner and then traded White Elephants, some pretty good things showed up like a copper statue of a guy picking his toe nails, a fur thong, an enema kit and a 'Hope on a Rope' which was a soap bar on rope that was shaped like Jesus. :)

PS-Happy Three Year Anniversary to us! YEAH!!

Smiths...

Today we went to the grocery store, I know we are nuts because it is the Saturday before Christmas, but we had a few things to get so it was a must. We went to wait in the gigantic lines (Dane tried to take a picture with his camera phone but it didn't work but I am sure you can imagine just how long the lines were) there was no pushing your cart through the front of the store because the lines were running into the tops of the isles. Anyway, the manager shows up passing out fun size candy bars to everyone waiting in line! I have never seen that before and thought it was really nice so I am giving a shout out to my local Smiths Marketplace!

Officially Snowed In...

Well the massive storm rolled into town about 10ish and with it out went our power! We wrapped all our Christmas gifts and at that point we were starting to get pretty cold without heat and my mom called to meet us for lunch so we decided to go. We went out to the cars and outside was already white and snow covered. We decided we better move Dane's car into the driveway so if the plows come it doesn't get hit and with that came a lot of shoveling, slipping and getting stuck but alas we finally got it in. Then we got in my car to go and one turn was enough for us to know we weren't leaving anywhere. Luckily our nice neighbor let us move my car to his driveway to wait out the storm since we couldn't get Dane's in far enough to park behind. That leaves us in our little non-four wheel drive cars...SNOWED IN. This is one of the days that I am super glad I work from home and don't have to worry about the commute in this mess! Good Luck to anyone else out there driving in it! I'll post some pics once the snow stops so you can see just how much we get. (I know you are jealous Stacy and want to see :) )

Stanfield Family Christmas

On Sunday we had our Stanfield Family Christmas Party and it happened to also be Haydn's birthday so we got to have a double celebration. We had some delicious food and opened lots of fun White Elephant gifts. It was really fun to get to see everyone again!

Winner, Winner, Winner and lots of Turkey Dinner!

This weekend we went down to Vegas to celebrate Thanksgiving with Dane's family. It was lots of fun and really warm! I was pretty jealous that Lynette was still getting tomatoes on her plants! Unimaginable here!

Thanksgiving was delicious on Thursday, everything tasted so good, thanks to Lynette slaving away in the kitchen all day! :) Then we mapped out our shopping excursion for Friday, we looked through all the ads and figured out what we needed and where we needed to go. Amazingly enough the deals we wanted to hit, the stores didn't open until 8 so we got to sleep in until 7! Since we got to sleep in a little, we decided to try and hit the outlets that opened at Mid-Night on Thanksgiving. Dane and I headed to the outlets on the North end of the strip and we came to a complete stop on the freeway. We were stuck on the freeway for about 45 minutes and I could see the parking garages from the freeway and they were packed and cars kept circling so we decided to bag it since we weren't going for anything specific anyway. I can't believe how nuts that place was!

On Friday night, we met up with Rob and Eric for dinner and a little Bingo. I got my steaming hot chocolate (free drinks when playing Bingo - anything to keep you in the casino gambling :) ) and I sat down at our usual table ready with my dauber! There was a new game since the last time we played so that was kind of exciting! It was a duel daub halfway through the other bingo games. Bingo gets started and like always I have no plans on winning because it has never happened before and we pretty much go planning on giving our money away but then on the third game (double hardway bingo), I won! I was so excited but then nervous because I knew everyone would be looking at me so I shot my hand up in the air and yelled BINGO! A little crackily because of the nerves and they say into the mic "possible winner" the game pauses while the lady comes to verify my card and sure enough I had daub'd correctly and I won! $50! WAHOO!!! Now that I have felt the win, I am addicted and ready to gamble all our money away! (just teasing Lynette :))

It was a really fun weekend and I was really sad to have to leave and come back to ruddy work today but oh well, I have to get the paycheck so I can go play more BINGO! (do you think I can petition the UT Government to start allowing Bingo in the state?)

Back to School, Back to School so Daddy Doesn't Think I am a Fool

First and foremost - Name the movie (from the Subject line)!? I need to watch that movie again, it has been a long time. I believe it has been since Freshman year with McCall :)

Today I met with an advisor at SLCC, I was super excited to go and figure out just what I needed to finally get an Associates Degree and move on from SLCC. We had a nice little chat about how I had moved away for the last three years and now I am back and ready to finish. She prints my transcript and proceeds to tell me I have 4 classes left - that is all! HOORAY! I am screaming that in my head as she is still talking. She lets me know that after I finish registering for my classes for Spring 09 I need to fill out a graduation application so I can get my degree in the spring. Again, shouting HOORAY! I thought I had a year left for sure at SLCC but only one semester!
I get home and tell Dane my great news and am all excited to jump online first thing on Dec 1st to register. Then around 5 or so tonight I get a call from SLCC to let me know that since I have been an inactive student for 3 years I now have to re-apply. BOO!! They are now going to make me pay my application fee for four classes and the fee for my graduation application. I try not to dwell on that part of it though and just focus on the fact that I am finally moving on with my education!


PS - Cross your fingers that they accept me back - what if they don't! EEEK!!

Current Weather Report....SNOW!

Normally I get really excited when we get a really good snow for the first time. I think it might be the thrill of changing into another season but alas, as I look outside right now, all I am feeling is longing for the warm weather of Vegas. :( I think that Dane and I will become sun-birds like Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Bob. We are already excellent Bingo players so we would fit right in! And we have not 1, not 2 but 5 bingo daubers of all different colors to play with! That means we can play five cards at once and not get confused! Sign me up!

PS - Congrats to our new President and please Oprah with your on-going Obama support, send your personal dresser to the white house to help out our new first lady. All I kept thinking last night was she just wrapped a rug around her, tied it around the middle to keep it in place and put a nice jacket over it.

The Check Came...

For those of you who don't know, here is the back story...When Dane and I were in Vegas we would get calls daily from a collector called Allied looking for the people that had our number before. It was just a recording that said to call them back so I would never answer but Dane called them back and told them we now have the number and we don't know the previous people. They said they would remove our number from the list within 48 hours, then we didn't get a call for about two days and they started again. Sometimes they would call more then once a day and one particular day they called after 8 pm (which if you didn't know, is a HUGE no-no in the collection world). Dane tried to call them back again that night to tell them we don't know the people they are looking for but he got an after hours message over and over and the vm box was full so he couldn't leave a message. Long story short, this went on for a while and Dane talked to them at least three times asking them not to call anymore and would get the same 'your name will be removed within 48 hours'. The last time Dane called and got the same reply he told them that he has been given that answer every time he calls so he wants to know what more he needs to do so they won't call anymore and I kid you not, the guy came back with the same reply 'your number will be removed within 48 hours'. Dane being my cute but a little nerdy husband then hit the Internet to browse for anyone else that had maybe had the same problem and knew how to fix it. He went to google and typed in Allied Interstate and the first thing that popped up was a company that sounded like it was pretty much devoted to shut Allied down so Dane clicked on it, filled out a little questionnaire and not even 15 mins after he was finished filling it out we got a phone call from an attorney asking Dane all sorts of details about our experience with Allied. The attorney said if we would like they will send Allied a Cease and Desist Letter and if we still get phone calls they would proceed to a lawsuit. Well it ended up going to a settlement and the attorney asked for $2000 our share was $900 but free $900 for us, sweet deal! All we cared was that the annoying calls stopped and they did and then we moved shortly after :) The other day (ok it has been a while but I finally put the picture on our computer) we got the check so I figured I would let everyone know!

This Is The Place Park

I know I haven't updated the blog for awhile and we have had a lot happen that needs to be updated but I have to tell you about tonight. We decided to go to This Is The Place Park because they do a haunted village through all the old pioneer houses and we heard it was really good. (http://www.thisistheplace.org/events/thv.html) Lindsay went over the weekend and told me how much fun she had so I decided to suck up my nerves and go. I will proudly admit, I am one of the biggest wimps when it comes to scary stuff. I haven't been to a haunted house since high school and it was easily my freshman year if not before. Anyway, as the it grew closer for the time for us to go, I was starting to get really nervous and there were some major butterflies in my stomach. My Mom, Dad, erin and James met us and we all went together. The first house we went into someone jumped out at us and I have never heard anyone scream as loudly as I did when I heard erin! And she just kept screaming and telling the person to go away. This continued on through all the houses and the park. One of the houses has a butcher that went toward erin and she was freaking out, then he kept following her outside the house and crept into the next house and jumped out at erin again. Then he ran across another field to the next house to scare erin. At this point we were all laughing including the 'butcher' and he even said to my parents, "I couldn't help it, I had to scare her one more time" :) It was so much fun and they did a really good job. The best part is at the end you have to ride on a train back to your cars and the train driver was telling us about all the spooky real things that had happened to the workers there. Like doors slamming, radios turning off or getting unplugged, in one of the houses the worker heard a clock chime and there wasn't a clock in that house. It was kind of spooky, but I will never go to another haunted house without erin because then I don't get as scared...Thanks erin! :)

The Great Flood

For those of you who didn't know, our move came a little early and unexpected. I woke up early Saturday morning (9/19) to the sound of rain pouring. I got super excited because it never rains in Vegas and I always love it when it rains that I jumped out of bed and headed to look out the window. Instead I found a waterfall in my kitchen! I called my in-laws because I didn't know what in the world to do and they headed over to the apartment to help me. I also called the apartments emergency line to get someone to get over to the apartment. I knocked on the resident's above me front door and got nothing. That left us just waiting and watching the waterfall get worse and worse. In one of the below pictures you can see a brown rubber storage tub thing, we had to empty that three times! I thought the leasing office opened at 8 so right about then we walked there and found a maintenance worker. He came right over and got the see a portion of the ceiling come caving in. Luckily none of our stuff got damaged and we were able to move things out of the water fast enough. Since we had to get everything out of the apartment anyway we decided to just get a truck and move up. Mike, Rob, Rob's dad, Jim and Katie came over to help us get everything boxed up (ok really they did all the work while I left to go get the truck) when we got back with the truck mostly everything was packed. THANK YOU EVERYONE!! Jim did a stellar job packing up the truck and we were completely loaded up by the time Dane got there around 1. McCall and Bones flew down with Dane to help us out and it was much needed!! We were able to get all moved in with the help of my parents, McCall and Bones and all the Wilcox's! THANK YOU!! Below are some pictures of the flood and a video I took of the waterfall :)

Finally...Disneyland Pictures!

I am just starting to learn this cool collage thing with pictures so comment away on anything that needs to be changed, like if it is too hard to see certain pictures or something.

Disneyland!!

So our trip had a rough start which you have already learned but we still made the most of it and had a blast! After spending the day at the beach on Friday we were ready to hit California Adventure on Saturday morning. We decided first thing that James, erin, Dane and I would get fast passes to Tower of Terror then meet up with my parents and Lindsay and Haydn for California Screamin'. We headed toward Tower of Terror and got our fast passes but also saw the wait was only 5 mins so we four of course jumped on the ride! Oh how I love that thrilling ride! You never know what exactly is coming and I think that is the best part! Dane had never been on it so it was fun to see him on it for the first time and he loved it! After that we went to California Screamin' which is also one of the greatest rides. We spent the rest of the day in California Adventure and hit all of the rides, it was so much fun and for being Labor Day weekend the longest we waiting in a line was 30 minutes which is pretty good. After California Adventure closed we headed over to Disneyland to go on Pirates and the Haunted Mansion. We walked right onto both rides - it was so great! I hadn't been on Pirates since they re-did it and to see Jack Sparrow in the ride was pretty amazing, he looks so real! After that we were pretty beat so we headed to CA Pizza Kitchen for some delicious food and a little relaxation. We were seated waiting for our food when Dane took a drink from his lemonade and kid you not the bottom of the glass just fell out! It was the weirdest thing we had ever seen! At first I just saw lemonade everywhere from the corner of my eye and couldn't figure out how Dane spilled but then I looked over to see him holding a glass with the bottom of it on the table! It was the talk of all the waiters and waitresses for the rest of the night :) The next morning we decided to get up early and be to Disneyland right when the gates opened knowing it would be pretty crowded. We decided to fast pass Indiana since that line can get pretty long and what do you know, we walked right on it! Then we headed to Splash Mountain which we walked right on and the worker even said it was 'busy' for a Sunday. Pretty nuts! The rest of the day continued in that way and we hit every ride and some of the best ones twice and three times! Our longest wait was Peter Pan. I did lose our camera on the Tea-Cups so I sadly don't have any pictures to post yet but Disneyland called Dane yesterday and said someone had turned it in so my parents picked it up for us and I will get pictures posted as soon as I can. It was a really fun trip even though we ran into a few incidents/bugs and I am counting down the days until we can go again! Maybe we can go before James and erin leave us for dental school, one last WHORAW!! :)

Goodnight, Sleep Tight, Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite

We got to California pretty early on Friday afternoon ready to hit the beach. We checked into the hotel, changed into our suits and headed out. Of course we stopped for lunch at the In-N-Out then headed to Newport Beach for a day of relaxation. I love the beach, I count down the days until I can live by the ocean :) We spent a few hours there then when the sun started to go down we decided it was time for some delicious dinner at the Joe's Crab Shack. We stuffed ourselves full and headed back to the hotel thinking we would get an early good night sleep before hitting Disneyland the next morning. erin, James, Dane and I all shared a room and we were all tucked into bed pretty much asleep when all of a sudden Dane jumps out of bed and says I just got bit by a bug. I jump up of course and flip on the light so we can kill that sucker and that's when I saw my pillow...I had bed bugs swarming all over my pillow and Dane's. James and erin looked at their bed and it was the same thing. I don't know if this is lucky or not but my parents and Lindsay were in an adjoining room so I ran right over and told them so they flipped on the light and sure enough, bed bugs in their room too. Luckily I had done some research on bedbugs not too long ago so I knew how to handle them and what they do. Their bite looks just like a mosquito bite where it just gets red and itches but doesn't do anything so that is the good part. The bad part is they inbed in anything fabric. Haydn and Dane ran right to the front desk and told them the news then walked down the street to find us another hotel to stay in. The front desk crew come into our rooms and first thing he pulled the mattress off the box spring on the bed Dane and I were sleeping on and it was covered. I had to leave the room to not dry heave. As they are checking the rooms, we are throwing all our belongings into our suitcases so we can leave as soon as we can. Then when erin and I are alone in the room he tells us he is going to move us to some other rooms - Yeah Right! James walked in right about that time and told him we are just checking out. Haydn and Dane came back a short time later and said they got us a couple of rooms at the Marriott a block down and it had a laundry room so we headed out. Since we were all infected we didn't go up to our rooms until we had done at least one load of laundry so we had something clean to put on. We were up until about 4:30 washing all of our clothes and blankets that night and we lysol'd everything that had been in the room. Although we continued to be itchy all night, we were officially bug free :) erin sent me this and said her work gave it to her because they find out bug escapades hilarious so I would attach it.

On the Road Again

For those of you who didn't know Dane was furloughed not too long ago by Vision. Furlough is a fancy pilot term for laying pilots off when the company can't afford to keep them on but the company is required to contact the pilots they layed off previously first if they ever start hiring again. Sadly, Vision sounds like it has all but closed up it's doors so I don't think Dane will be hearing from them any time soon.
Dane had a job interview with Westminster on Friday morning and they offered him a job to be a flight instructor and he starts Monday! Super fast but it will be so good for him to be flying again. That does mean however that we are packing up once again and moving back to Utah. This time we will be in Salt Lake rather then Logan so it will still a new home for us. I do laugh a little though that we picked to live in Vegas for the hottest time of the year and we are leaving right before the great weather months. The news keeps talking about how they are counting down the days until October because that is the perfect month here.

Lake Mead Fun!

Last weekend Dane and I headed to St George to see Les Mis at Tuacahn with my mom and dad. It was way good, but I might be a little biased because that is one of my favorite plays. I am sure if you ask Dane he wouldn't say the same thing :) It was a little freaky though because the bats kept flying around the stage, I was just waiting for one to land in one of the actor's hair :) The next morning we got up super early and headed to Lake Mead where we met up with Mel, Jim and Katie. It was pretty windy so we weren't sure how the day was going to turn out but we launched the boat and headed out to look for some good water. Jim found us a little cove with great water and we did a little wake boarding which is always fun! My dad did suffer a minor injury that day though when he was tossing Dane the rope he took one step too far and fell off the boat where he got a nasty bruise/cut on his leg. It was pretty funny to see him go in though and he didn't even lose his hat or glasses...impressive! That night we headed back to our apartment for a nice shower and some dinner then went to Trader Joe's where my dad got his favorite green olives and black licorice (yuck!) The next morning we got to sleep in a while which was kind of nice then around 12 we hit the road to head to the lake again. We met up with Jim, Mel, Katie, Blake and Todd this time and the water was much better. Jim found the best smooth water that was on the lake and everyone went skiing or wake boarding (whichever they wanted). When the sun started to go down we headed back to the dock and discovered Jim had a flat tire so they (no I didn't help at all :) ) had to change the tire and then we were off. We went to dinner that night and tried to hit Bingo but we were pretty beat so we just called it a night. It was a really fun weekend! Thanks mom and dad for coming to visit! Thanks Jim & Mel for letting us come boating with you! Below are some pics of our adventures! I am counting down the days until our Lake Powell trip next year!

The Vanity Plate

Since moving to Vegas I have noticed a MASS number of vanity plates! I kid you not at every stop light there is at least one but usually two. I have never understood the Vanity Plate, myself, but to some people it is their whole life written on a metal rectangle kindly made by the local prison and for just a small fee you can speak volumes! One thing that has always bothered me about the Vanity Plate are the ones that don't make sense. Or it takes you the entire stop light to figure it out. What is the point in having a License Plate that is supposed to be shared with the world if the world doesn't understand it ??

SLC Trip

This weekend we went on a quick trip to SLC to see my niece, Zoie, get blessed. We left Vegas around 2:30-3:00ish on Friday and I can't even describe how hot it was. My car ran out of A/C juice about half way to St George and it would get warm then cool itself off again. That's when you know it is too hot! :) We got to my parents house and played an intense game of Hand and Foot, of course Dad and I beat Mom and Dane :) Saturday morning Andrea cut my hair (which was in dire need) and I got to see her cute house and all of her chickens she has running out back :) We then headed to our old home of Logan. I needed to drop some stuff off at work and Dane wanted to stop by the airport and say hello to some friends. It was really fun being back in Logan, I do really miss that place especially in the summer, come December/January I probably won't at all :) We had some lunch and one of the best sandwich places ever...Logan's Hero's then headed up to campus to get some delicious Aggie Ice-Cream! YUM!! Sunday morning was here before we knew it and my sister's ward starts at 8:30! WOW!! Haydn did a really good job with the blessing and then everyone headed over to their house for some breakfast which was also delicious! Dane's Grandpa Vance's birthday was on Sunday so we went to their house to wish him a happy birthday and see how they are doing then we headed home. On the way home, we stopped at the Maverik for gas in Ceder City and I was going to the bathroom in one of the stalls when I hear a mom and her two girls come in. She is yelling at them about everything but who am I to judge it was probably a long car trip and if they acted like Lindsay and I (complete angels :) ) they deserved to be yelled at a little. The mom sends the two sisters into the handicap stall and she takes the other one. Of course I don't hear any covering of the seat which made me sick but to each their own I guess at least I wasn't getting any of the germs. Then I wash my hands and dry them and as I am walking out of the bathroom I hear them right behind me. Yep, the mom and the two girls sure didn't wash their hands. Now that's what put me over the edge! Talk about spreading disgusting germs everywhere!!

Pedicure Day!

Lynette and I went to get Pedicures yesterday and oh I do love them. I love to just be able to relax in the message chair, read my celebrity gossip magazine and let someone rub my feet. I will say that I always get a little scared of how clean they keep their tools and water (thanks Keri :) ) Yesterday seemed to be pretty good and I came out with fashionable red toenails! Every time I go into a manicure/pedicure shop I picture this video in my head because it is so true and cracks me up. Stacy introduced this to me, probably about a year ago now, and every time I need a good laugh or a stress break at work I watch it. I don't know how to attach the youtube video in my blog because I am not that savvy but below is the link...Enjoy! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsWrY77o77o

They're ALIVE!!

Recently Lynette bought us or should I say Herbie some live Crickets to eat! This was a first, we had never fed her live crickets before and sometimes Herbie likes to not have to work for her food so we weren't sure how it was going to go over. Dane put the bag of crickets in front of her cage to eye and sure enough she just stared them down. So we dumped them in and honestly we have seen Herbie move fast but it is very rare but she was moving like lightening! Dane and I watched in awe (yes apparently we feed our turtle for entertainment :) ) Yesterday Lynette bought us some more crickets when she was at Petsmart since they were such a big hit and she wanted to watch the action and I grabbed to camera to document it. Sure enough Herbie moved like crazy to go after those crickets and I got it all on video. I don't know how well you will be able to see it but below is the video. (I do have to admit that as they crawled on her back, it would give me the chills...cause let's face it, bugs are nasty!)

The Dark Knight

On Friday, Dane and I met up with Mike, Greg, Tom and Eric and went to see the Dark Knight on the IMAX screen, it was awesome! I will have to admit it has been my favorite action movie so far this year. Granted I haven't seen Iron Man or Hancock which I heard both are really good so we will just have to wait and see when those come out on DVD. After the movie we were all starving (Tom complaining that he had only had eggo's that day :) ) so we went to Cappriotti's which is the BEST sandwich place I have ever been to and is definitely one of our favorite eateries in Vegas. It lived up to it's greatness that night and tasted like gold in my mouth, as Dane would say. After that, we introduced the boys to Bingo. We thought our chances were pretty good at the 11:00 session since there were six of us, but sadly no winnings again. We'll get them next time though!

BINGO!

On Saturday, Dane and I decided to go play a little Bingo at the local Redrock Casino. They have a session starting every two hours and if you are a real Bingo die-hard you can hit the 9 am session and get some free doughnuts :) We however opted for the 9 pm session. People started lining up to get their cards at 8:30 but the cashiers didn't open for another 10 minutes or so. We got in line and got up to the cashier and we pretty much said this is our first time, what do we do but of course Dane and I first had to show some ID to prove we were old enough to gamble :) The guy tells us we can get 6 pages of cards (6 cards on each page) for $4.00/person and if we want to pay an extra $1 we can get an extra 'double' card that is played for $1000 winnings against all the Stations casinos, we decided why not. We then had to purchase the official ink blotter because if you call BINGO and your card isn't stamped with an official ink blotter your win doesn't count. I went for a classic American Flag with a tribute to Abe Lincoln himself on it. Dane on the other hand decided to be lame and get the Redrock blotter. When his dropped out of the vending machine though, it was purple. (Thankful our friend Rob was with us so I got some help making fun of Dane for that one :) ) We sat down and we were a little confused as to how it was going to work we had 6 pages of cards but didn't know when to play them, what game to play and what we were supposed to do with the extra game card we bought for a $1. Rob asked an older guy next to us what we do because he was a regular (you can pick out all the regulars). Looking around we realized too that if you didn't want to take the effort to use the paper cards and the ink blotter you could use a computer that does everything for you, so all you have to do is sit back, relax and call BINGO when the music starts to play on your computer. There were some hard-core players that were using a computer and paper to up their odds. We had everything figured out and were ready to start Bingo. You can't believe how intense it gets in the room when the numbers start to get called. It is dead silent until someone hits Bingo then everyone groans :) The session lasted about an hour but none of us won sadly but we had so much fun we decided to play the 11 session too. The 11:00 had way less people so already our odds were higher so we were ready to win. We went to get our new cards and our free drinks, Dane ordered us a Pepsi and a Mt Dew and I kid you not, they carded him. No alcohol but he had to show ID, go figure :) We sat down for another round and sadly none of us won again. You can bet though that this is going to be a regular activity for us! It is pure entertainment for $10! You can't pass that up - cheaper then a movie!

The Big-O Saga Continues...

They stole my hubcap!

Creepy Old Men

Last night I went to drive to the Post Office and found my tire completely flat! I guess the civic doesn't like the heat too much :) I took it over to the Big-O today to get fixed and as I am waiting an old man comes in. I had the complete aura of don't bug me, I had my book out and was reading intently but no that was not a big enough clue. He started trying to guess my age then said I shouldn't be married at such a young age. Then made me guess his age and I am just trying to be polite but he wouldn't give up until I guessed it so I said 50 knowing it was younger then he clearly was. He said nope you are wrong I am 78 wouldn't have guessed it looking at how young I look would you? He then told me he was married for 23 years then escaped because she was crazy and how I need to get divorced so I can be happier and that way I would be able to run off with him. Luckily (I don't think I could have wished any harder) they came around the corner right then and said my car was done! I think the creepiest part of this whole encounter is that he had super long fingernails! That is just wrong! And as Dane knows my stance still remains about the Big-O, I never have good things happen there!

Wings!

I am going to brag for just a little bit about how proud I am of Dane...today he got his first set of wings! He started flying passengers and everything went smoothly. Here is a picture of him in his pilot gear looking pretty cute! I tried to get an up close picture of his wings but the camera wouldn't focus on them for some reason but they have a picture of the Grand Canyon on them. Pretty exciting stuff!

HELP!!

Alright I am throwing this out there for anyone who has any advice...I accidentally washed my nice white (with a green trim) bath towels with a red kitchen towel so they are now ugly pale pink. Any ideas on how to remedy the situation?

We're on our way...

Dane and I were driving around yesterday and our local gas station has gone up .10/gallon in less then a week! The cheapest gas is now at $3.99/gallon! We will soon be over $4/gallon! I didn't ever think I would see that, I thought for sure that price would stay in places like Hawaii, California and Florida but here we are! I really have tried not to focus on the cost of gas because it irratates me so much but the little civic hit $40 the other day to fill. That's not just a pair a shoes but a NICE pair of shoes that I just put in the tank! I am thankful that I am working from home so I don't have to drive across town everyday. Dane on the other hand does so we will soon see the effects of that when he drives back and forth more regularly. I just hope we start to see it come down but sadly I don't think that will happen

Indiana

On Saturday Dane and I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie and loved it! I have loved Shia LaBeouf since Even Stevens and he cracked me up in this movie too! It was crazy to see Cate Blanchett with black hair, it didn't even look like her. I have to admit it was a little weird of a story line but really what Indy movie doesn't have a weird little twist? I would recommend it to anyone that hasn't seen it!

First day over 100 Degrees

Well today is the first day in 2008 that we have officially gone above 100 degrees in Vegas. Today was a high of 104 and in Logan that is as hot as it ever gets. I am in for a long summer but I just have to focus on how nice this winter will be and I won't have to scrape my car or drive on ice covered roads. Dane and I hit the pool to cool off as much as we could, I think that pool is going to be our new best friend. I also decided to add a count of how many days we break 100 this year, just to see :)

Moving Day

We are officially moved, well let me be technical, we have moved into our new apartment but we are still unpacking boxes and trying to get settled. The new apartment is great, we will be able to really spread our wings here, literally :) This is our first two bedroom apartment and our first apartment that we will be able to have all of our clothes in the closet instead of Dane's out in the family room and rotating our winter/summer clothes. On Friday Bones & McCall came to Logan and helped us finish most of the packing at the apartment. On Saturday my parents and Chad came up to load the truck then we hit the road. We got to our new apartment Sunday afternoon and started unloading the truck when Dane's friends (HUGE SHOUT OUT TO MIKE, BECKY AND ROB), family and one of our new neighbors came to help us unload. The unloading went pretty fast and we got to relax for a little bit and watch the game (Wahoo go Jazz!) Thanks everyone who helped us move, we really appreciate it!! Below are some pics from the move...enjoy! :)

Moving Day Pics

Welcoming....

She's here...little Zoie is here at last. Lindsay had her yesterday (yes a Cinco De Mayo baby) around 7:00 pm. I am so glad she came before we moved, I thought for a while there she wasn't going to. I got to hold her yesterday and I hope to some more before I move. She has tons of blond hair! Oh and just a side note...today I wore my shirt backwards to work. I know you are probably thinking I noticed pretty quickly and changed it, but sadly no, I noticed at 3:00! What?! That was almost the entire day! I told my friends that wasn't very nice of them to let me walk around all day with my shirt on backwards :)

The Zoo...

Last week I got to take some time off work and spent it with my sister (who is ready to pop I might add :) ) On Friday Lynette was taking the boys to the zoo and since Lindsay and I hadn't been to the Hogle Zoo is a long time we decided to go, plus it would be fun to go with the boys. We arrived around 11 and when we pulled in, the parking lot was FULL! We couldn't believe it, the only thing we could think was that it was the first nice day of the year so everyone wanted to get out and do something fun. It took us about an hour to get tickets and get in the zoo but once we were in Bryce wanted to go on the train. I have to admit I remember the train ride being a lot cooler but I am sure it was just because the last time I was at the zoo was in elementary which was many moons ago :) The boys loved the train so it was fun to take them on it. Then we walked around the whole zoo and saw the elephants which I don't think Tyler wanted to leave :) We say the 'Ghost of the Bayou' and he was pretty cool. If you don't know he is an all white alligator and he almost looked fake! The only think I was sad about was that they didn't have any lions or hippos! That was one thing I remembered from the zoo is that I always thought I was going to fall into the hippo water and I was interested to see how the hippo house would be when I'm older but no such luck! We almost put Lindsay into labor that day but sadly still no baby :)

Missing Logan...

As I am enjoying my GIANT glass of delicious Chocolate milk from the local dairy, I have come to the realization that there are a lot of things I am going to miss about Logan and have decided to start making a list (shown on the left). I will add to it as I think of things instead of trying to do a mental list :)

Missing the Muscle...

Ok I know I have posted a lot tonight but I have to tell you what just happened. Being home alone I was rummaging through our cupboards to find something for dinner and all I could find was Spaghetti so I boiled the water and was getting ready to heat the sauce and of course I couldn't get the jar open. I tried and tried and finally had to go to the neighbors and ask for their help. I realized tonight how much I miss Dane :)

San Antonio

I got home yesterday from a weekend in 85 degree weather in San Antonio TX and this morning what do I wake up to...SNOW! Take me back! Vegas is starting to look a lot more appealing as the hours of snow continue! :) Dane and I left for San Antonio early Friday morning; we met up with his family at the airport then headed to the hotel to check in. I may live a sheltered life but I have never seen a toilet like the one we had at the hotel. Here is a picture...there were two different flushes, one more powerful one for solids and one less powerful for liquids. It made Dane and I smile. After we checked in and left our bags we went downtown to check things out. We walked on the Riverwalk which is Awesome! I truly think if I lived there I would walk it everyday, it was really pretty and everything was landscaped nicely. Saturday was the two final four games that Dane and his dad went to, it was as big of a shocker to them as I think it was to everyone that Memphis and Kansas won and not only won but blew NC and UCLA out of the water! :) On Sunday we went to the Alamo, which make fun of me all you want (trust me Dane has :) ) but I didn't know what the Alamo was. I had heard of it and knew it was significant but didn't really know anything that went on there. Dane told me a little bit about the history but I learned most of it walking around and reading all the information they had about it. It was really interesting, and really cool to see. This is the nerd in me coming out but I am always amazed to see buildings or anything that was built a long time ago and know that it is still standing. The Alamo was built 300 years ago and it is just unbelievable that I was walking on the same floor that Davey Crockett and the other men who lost their lives in that battle. Sunday night Dane and his dad flew out because Dane was starting his new job on Monday. After we dropped them off we went to a little ice cream place and had the most delicious ice cream. I had Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwich flavored, which I know sounds gross but it was delicious! I just should have added some Bananas like I do on my real sandwiches! Lynette at Mexican Vanilla and it was made with real Mexican Vanilla so it had a lot sweeter of a taste and was way good too! The next day Lynette and I did a little shopping, which I found my new favorite store called Francesca's (http://www.francescascollections.com/) and I found out they have a store in Henderson! Again, Nevada is looking more and more appealing :) That night Lynette and I went to the final NCAA Basketball game of the season, Kansas vs Memphis. It was so awesome!! According to Haydn, I didn't deserve to go, but I still loved it. :) I do have to say that when Kansas nailed that 3 pt shot to take them into overtime; that is the loudest I have ever heard a stadium and that is saying something because the Spectrum gets LOUD!

Pics from San Antonio

The Loganites are becoming Las Vegans!

Dane came home from an interview with Vision Air yesterday and he got the job! That's right the Loganites will be officially moving to Las Vegas very soon! Dane starts work on 4/8 so he will be there right away to do training. More moving details to come but wanted to let everyone know the great news!

It's Time to CELEBRATE!!!

He did it!! Dane did it! He just got home from his last test as a student of USU and passed, earning him his MEL (Multi-Engine Land) Rating. That means he has now officially graduated from USU and we can fill his good looking diploma frame with a diploma! We will have to take a picture and post it once he gets it. I am so excited I figured I would share the news with everyone!

Easter

Dane and I had a pretty quiet Easter, Dane had to get a lot of flying done so we stayed in Logan and cooked some delicious pulled pork (thanks cafe rio for the recipe) burritos. They were way good and of course it made a ton so we invited some friends over. The Easter bunny was way nice too and had us go to the store and pick out our favorite candy and then Easter morning there it was! I of course got some delicious Peanut Butter M&M's and the best Easter candy ever...Cadbury Mini Eggs! Dane got some Reeces Peanut Butter Eggs which is another delicious treat! We also got a special package delivery left on our back porch with some V-chocolate eggs! Thank You Mom! It was sadly the first Easter in 25 years that I didn't dye any eggs which is which brings me some tears but I just keep thinking Easter came way too early! They need to have it stay on a certain Sunday every April and none of this following the moon non-sense :)

a weekend apart...

This weekend Dane went to San Diego for a job fair. He shook a lot of hands and passed out lots of resumes so I guess we will see soon what the future has in store for us. The more reality is setting in to me that we are leaving the more I think I will miss little Logan. I do hate how cold it gets in the winter still but I love it in general. I think it has the perfect fall and spring seasons. Maybe one day when we are old we can come back here to live or have a second home, I think we would probably like that and Dane would always be willing to got see his Aggies play in the Spectrum again :) Hopefully by then too Target will have moved in :)

I went to SLC this weekend for our girl-play day at Hale Theater. This one I was a little nervous about because I didn't know if I would like it. It was called the Civil War and I hadn't heard anything other then it was by the same composer as The Scarlet Pimpernel and I am not a big fan of that one (could be because I had to watch it in Jr high and need to watch it again to really judge it). I ended up really liking it. The music was awesome, the story was great and all of the performers were right on! Honestly it was probably one of the best I have seen there. Here is a link to some of the pics from the play...http://www.halecentretheatre.org/gallery/civilwar/

And the Campbells are defeated...

Last weekend Bones and McCall came up to visit and play games. We decided to play a nice fun game of Hand & Foot and since Dane and I had played before we decided we wouldn't be partners. Bones and I teamed up and McCall and Dane were a team. About half way through the first round Bones pointed out that we should have never let the two Campbells be partners because they always win but it was too late for that. We played a good round and right at the very end Bones and I went out with flying colors! We caught both McCall and Dane in their Foot! It was awesome, we ended up being up like 3000 pts after that round and there was just no coming back for them after that total domination! Bones and I were pretty excited that we can say we finally beat the Campbells at something...just don't challenge us to Monopoly against them :)

That's odd...there aren't any urinals!

Dane's good friend Mike was in Logan visiting from Vegas a few weeks ago. After a long day of snowboarding we decided to go to dinner at Wingers, one of our favorites - how can you not love the free popcorn?!? Anyway, we finished eating and were just sitting around the table gabbing when Dane headed for the bathroom, randomly enough we were at a table that was right outside the bathrooms and got to see the whole thing. Mike looks up and suddenly says, did Dane just go into the girls bathroom? I was like I saw the girls door swing close out of the corner of my eye but I don't know if it was Dane that went in. So we all turned and faced the door to see if it was a girl or if it was Dane and we could all enjoy in a good laugh. Sure enough a few seconds later Dane comes strollin out like no big deal. We all start laughing of course and after we point out to him that he was just in the girls bathroom he kind of chuckled and just said I wondered why there were no urinals! :)

February...

Alright since I haven't updated the blog for a LONG time I will just talk about everything that happened in January & February all at once...it snowed non-stop :) Ok so February so far hasn't been quite as bad with the storms as January was, I think we got some form of snow every day in January or pretty close to everyday. Dane and I have a little bet on how long it will take all of the snow to melt in the backyard. I got dibs on May; today was so nice though it melted to my shoulders so we have more to go but with nice days like this it might only be until April to get it melted. My birthday was on the 11th and Dane spoiled me; we went to Park City and did some shopping which is always fun and went to dinner after. I took the day off work and to be honest it is the first time I have ever done that and I loved it! I recommend it to everyone! Although i was kind of lucky because it fell on a Monday this year which meant i got to enjoy a 3 day weekend! Valentine's was later that week and Dane surprised me by sending me flowers to work (it was truly a surprise). I didn't think we were going to do anything then VWALA (anyone know how to spell that word or is it even a real word?) I have flowers on my desk. That same day I got a little change at work. The President called me into his office with the VP and started by asking how everything was going blah, blah. (I do have to admit I was really nervous and I know my face was bright red with those beautiful rashes i get when i am nervous) Then he says 'do you think you are in trouble'? What kind of a question is that? I had the deer in the headlights look and just said I don't think so but i am not sure now. He laughed and said I wasn't which made me feel better but my stomach was still in knots. He then told me they sent a letter to one of our larger clients and asked for their National Contract but the client wasn't quite ready. The President asked me to take over the clients account, which would mean I would get a whole new team and we would all be handling this portfolio. I of course said I would and these last few weeks i have been starting to learn what i am going to be dealing with. I am really nervous but I guess all i can do is take it one step at a time, right? As for Dane, he has been flying, flying and more flying (that is when the weather permitted). He has a lot of students now and keeps getting more which is good. He hit 500 hours this week which is a HUGE milestone and is the minimum for some of airlines. His good friend that he has been in the same classes since his freshman year just got hired, yesterday in fact, with ASA which is based out of Atlanta. It's exciting to think Dane is getting closer and closer to finishing everything. (I just hope he flies me to Jackson at least once before we leave Logan :) )

Some December Pics

Busy December

For us as I am sure for everyone December flew by without us even realizing it! We had three big celebrations this month. We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary, Dane's birthday and Christmas! On the 19th we headed to Vegas to spend the holidays with Dane's family. I have to admit it was really nice to wave goodbye to the cold weather even if it was for only a week :) Friday was our anniversary so we went to see the 2nd National Treasure (way good, if you haven't seen it yet) and spent the night at a hotel. Funny thing about it is it ended up being the same hotel the BYU football team was staying in for the Bowl game they were playing in on Saturday. We even were on the same floor as them :) We were able to meet Bronco Mendenhall and get his autograph - amazingly enough he is a REALLY quiet talker, all I thought to myself was how in the world can you couch football and speak so softly :) My experience from watching Friday Night Lights has taught me all football couches yell. Monday was Dane's birthday, he opened presents, had a delicious turkey dinner and got to blow out all his candles. Later that night we headed to the strip and watched the water show at the Bellagio, it was to Christmas songs - I didn't know they did that until that night. We were a little hungry after that and we had to make a special trip to In and Out for Bones dad so we finished our night with a good fattening snack :) Christmas was exciting and relaxing. Dane was lucky enough to get his big Christmas present in October (USU season basketball tickets) and Dane got me a really cool picture that is 1/200 and signed by the photographer! We drove home from Vegas on the 26th and got a day or two to relax until back to work. Other exciting news that happened this week - Dane got another pilot rating. He got his CFII (Certified Flight Instrument Instructor) he can now teach students for their instrument rating. Fun Stuff!!