Thanksgiving 2009

We were spoiled this year for Thanksgiving... we got three yummy dinners! We celebrated with Matt and Cathy and family on Wednesday night. Dinner was DELICIOUS, and we had a fun playing "Guesstures", and "Imagine-iff". Thursday night we celebrated with Dan's parents and siblings...again DELICIOUS! After dinner we went and saw "Blindside" and played pool/ping pong. Saturday we celebrated with Dan's extended family...a third DELICIOUS dinner. After-wards, we lounged around at his Aunt Mar's house watching the football game and playing cards, and laughing at hilarious family stories. Our week was great, but I will be working my butt off in the gym this week to get rid of all the pie, stuffing, and mashed potatoes I ate! Here are some pics of dinner with the Brickey's:

David and his girlfriend Kim

DJ and Amy holding Tayler

Dan playing Guesstures
Cathy playing Guesstures

Tayler

Dan and Holly playing

I have so much to be thankful for this year. At times, I get caught up in all my wants and desires that I forget just how much I do have and how blessed Dan and I are. Here are a list of the things I am most thankful for at this time (not necessarily in order of importance):
1. My husband, who is the only man who can put up with me :)
2. My job. We have a steady income, free rent, and a flexible schedule so that Dan and I can both go to school.
3. Family, all of them! At times I get frustrated with family affairs, but when it comes down to it, family is who has helped me become the person I am today. They are there for me to lean on, to laugh with, and support me in what I do.
4. Friends. I have the best friends in the world! Many of them are considered family.
5. My health
6. My religion
7. The opportunity i have to go to school.

And many, many more things! These are just a few quick ones that came to mind. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and were able to think about all the things you are thankful for!

Cruel and Unusual Pet Owners

I saw this little outfit at Target for two bucks and couldn't resist....too bad for Yuki. Her reaction went a little like this:

1. Shock and disappointment

2. Anger and annoyance

3. and finally she gives in!

Aren't you glad you're not my pet?! :)

New Moon

When I heard about New Moon, I just knew I had to go see the midnight movie showing. I asked my sister Kelee to go with me because she is an even bigger Twilight fan than I am, and we always have a good time together. I was not sure how early we would need to show up; I am not too keen on the idea of camping out at the theatre all day, but I figured if I was going to see it I want dang good seats, and waiting in line forever would just be part of the experience...at least we got to wait inside!

Kelee and I got there at 7:30. The earliest fanatics showed up at noon.. that's right, noon! We played cards and got to know our neighbors in line. Talked about school, boys, movies, etc. The waiting paid off because we got seats right in the middle of the theatre. Now as for the movie itself, overall I was impressed. It was a huge improvement from Twilight, but Bella still blows. Seriously, she is the worst actress I have even seen. Plus she looked 12 years old in this movie. I gotta say, I was a die hard Edward fan, but Jake has one over a little piece of my heart. For those of you who saw it, what did you think?

"Twilight Junkies"

Halloween Shenanigans

Once upon a time there was a husband and wife who had way too much time on their hands, and a $1.69 face-painting kit. They decided to paint each others faces and begin their own fairy tale story. The wife became a feared, merciless pirate who plundered the seven seas with her ferocious, rabid rabbit from hell. Together they sailed the ocean in search of lost treasure. On their way they defeated many other pirates including Jack Sparrow (with one hand tied behind their backs). They slaughtered the Kraken and roasted him for dinner (wouldn't recommend, not very tasty). And they managed to sink Davy Jones' already underwater ship. They did it all, except for finding the treasure. After many years of searching they realized that the treasure was not actually buried gold, but the true treasure had been there all along, it was the love they shared for each other...And they sailed off into the sunset together in eternal bliss. El fin.

Arrr! You do not wanna mess with this.

Rabbit in the headlights

The rabbit showing just how rabid he can be

Carving Pumpkins

Tonight we were feeling the Halloween spirit, so we decided to carve us some jack-o-lanterns. It was fun, and super gooey. I think they turned out really good!

First, we had to clean out all the goo, or in Dan's case eat it

And... viola! Dan's frightening masterpiece


My spooky masterpiece

P.S. Any one have some suggestions for a couples Halloween costume that is cheap and easy to put together???

Dan beat me to it....

...giving birth, that is.

My husband sure is a trooper. His first kidney stone came back in April of this year, and then again in May, June, and July...we spent July 24th in the ER. Things were smooth sailing from July to the beginning of September. He hadn't felt the last one pass, but was sure it was gone because he had been symptom free for a few weeks. One morning Dan woke up to go to the bathroom when all the sudden his "flow" was blocked off, and was replaced by an intense sharp stabbing pain. He knew it was a stone because we could actually feel it in his urethra; it felt like a BB. He could barely urinate, it was more like a drip from a broken faucet.

After a few weeks of this, he realized it wasn't going anywhere so he made an appt. with our family doctor. She told him he could give it another week or so and try to force it out himself; the idea was that by pinching off his urethra when he had to pee until the pressure built up, then releasing it, it would force the stone out. Similar to when you fold a hose in half then release it. Well, unfortunately that did not work either, and he made an appt. with a urologist. The urologist figured that since it was so close to coming out he could go up there with a wire scope, which had a clasp on the end to grab the stone and pull it out. Dan was not put out, and was only given a "local" anesthetic (he was given a shot straight down the middle of his penis). Well this stone was just too stubborn, and too big; hence, that did not work either. They only alternative left was actual surgery.

This morning we went to the Utah Central Surgery center where Dan was admitted. They put him out, which I was grateful for, but let's hope I still feel that way when I see the bill lol! The surgery itself only took about 45 minutes. The stone looked like a cluster of granola. It was as big as my 1/2 k diamond, but overall has cost much more! Dan was a little loopy afterwards, but didn't say anything too embarassing. For the next three days he has a catheter in, and will be pretty doped up, but we are so grateful this stone is finally out, and that there were no complications with his surgery! Now we can take it in and have it tested to see what is causing them!

I have been alive for 8035 days and counting...knock on wood

Today I am officially 22, wow I am getting old. It was a great day, I went to my first class because I had a midterm review, but decided to take the rest of the day off of school and work! Dan let me take a nice nap! Later that night we went phone shopping; my old pink razor and I sure went through a lot together these last four years...but i lost it a few weeks ago so I finally had a good reason to say goodbye! I got a Samsung Gravity 2. It's sweet, but it will take me a while to get used to the keyboard texting.


We also went to dinner at Ruby River (yum!) with some friends, I am not the kind of girl that likes getting sung to by the Restaurant staff...even for free dessert, so I am glad Dan didn't volunteer that information! It was fun to visit with friends (we haven't seen most of you in months)! Thanks guys for celbrating my special day with me lol.

Most of the gang except Shawn and Jana got cut out and Casey was the photographer

Me with my super blonde hair, my hott hubby, and Courtney who must have been playing Pictionary in the background

My entertainment of the night...

...Was a police standoff. It was literally on our curbside. From what we heard the cops talking about, the blue van was refusing to cooperate arrest (not sure why he was pulled over in the first place), and he had a pipe bomb inside. The swat team came into our facility and made the tenants who were back there stay back there, and they shut down our entire road west of the freeway. I am probably the nosiest person alive, and Dan kept warning me to get back in case an explosion caused our windows to burst, but hey, I got a few cool pics. I'm sure in an hour or so we will hear the details on KSL, but until then you can read about it first here :)

One of the officers on our lawn

The driver refused to get out, how scary would it be for both parties!

They brought in this bomb defusing device robot

Masquerade

Last night Dan and I had an AMAZING opportunity to go the the 2009 Lord's and Ladies Masquerade ball. It was hosted at by our boss at his huge property in Lindon. His property is AMAZING... it is a full blown park with a huge Castle in the backyard. It was a charity event, and all the proceeds go to their charity "In Our Own Quiet Way" to build an orphan feeding center in Kenya. We spent about nine hours helping to set up for the event, most of which was spent draping the pavilion ceiling. But it looked AMAZING!

The night started off with a delicious dinner from Carabas. It was some kind of chicken with mushrooms, and it was AMAZING. My new favorite restaurant is going to be Carabas :) Then we had a live auction (Dan and I are way too poor to bid on anything that was up for sale, and it was too bad because they had a river rafting trip, and some really nice paintings that I wanted lol)! Then it was outside for an array of festivities. They had belly dancers, various different dance performers, a fencing demo, your own professional portrait, fire and knife jugglers, and of course a live band with tons of dancing. This entire event was AMAZING! You should all come next year! I wish I had been able to get more pictures of his property/all the events, but, of course, my camera died early on in the night.

P.S. No, amazing is not the only adjective I know, it's just the only one I wanted to use at the moment :)

Waiting for dinner to be served

oh la la

these were live human statues

this entire background is only a portion of the property



fencers, notice the pavilion celing lol

some ballroom dancers

a few of the belly dancers

inside the castle, this is also where our professional pic was taken, I can't wait to get it back, it should be pretty funny!

One Last Camp-out

So we decided to go on one last camp-out before the end of our Summer. It was just a short over-nighter up Payson Canyon, but it was still great fun. Tacy and Benny were in charge of dinner and brought gia-nourmous tin foil dinners and blueberry cobbler for dessert. Dan and I made breakfast and used our camp stove (that we got from our wedding reception) for the first time. Camping is the best excuse to just sit around a campfire and do nothing, I love it!

School starts in just two days, and although most people don't get too excited about it, I cannot wait. Being cooped up and home/work for ten hours a day gets pretty frustrating, so I will be glad to get out and off my butt and stay busy!

"Take me out to the ball game ..."

Going to Owlz games is something Dan and I have enjoyed doing this summer. Last night we went with Tacy, Benny, and Benny's sister Chelsey and her hubby. We got a steal of a deal behind home plate for only a dollar each. They played the Missoula Osprey...who the heck knows where that is??? Anyways, the Owlz beat them pretty easily. It was a fun night with friends. I didn't get any pics of Chelsey and Eric because they were sitting a few rows away from us.



No one does what I'm going to call "the benny face" quite like Benny...A+ for effort though Tac :)

now i remember why i fell in love with you :)

I have the best husband in the world, hands down. Tonight he had planned a surprise date night. We went to Comedy Sportz, which was hilarious. Seriously, one of the best shows we have seen thus far. If you have not been, go! We then went to a park and cuddled up under a blanke and watched the stars. We used to do this a lot when we were dating, but hadn't for a while. He packed some Martinelli's, wine glasses, and cheesecake. It was so romantic :).