merry everything and happy always!

ahhh, we are in the home stretch now. christmas is just a day away:) i can't believe it's been almost a week since i last blogged. seriously, time flew by. let's see, where to start...i went to my first ever festivus party. you know, like on seinfeld. it was pretty fun. we aired grievances, attempted to out-do each other in feats of strength, paid tribute to the aluminum pole, and successfully ended the holiday when the head of the household was pinned!

earlier this week, i went to an all male, all acapella christmas concert. so fun! had a date with my sister and we ate at biaggi's in the gateway. so yummy! and then saw voicemale. we went last year and loved it so much we had to go back. i'd definitely recommend it.

unfortunately work was less than fulfilling this week. i think more people cancelled or didn't show up than those that did. ugh, i hate weeks like this. when am i going to learn to just take the holidays off. seems like when people get busy, therapy is the first thing they "forget" or just plain blow-off. i get it. just would be nice to be courteous enough to let your therapist know in advance!

anyways, i'm hanging out with my lil sis tomorrow (we're going to see black swan!) and then it's on to brandon's super extended family christmas party/family reunion thing. the after party is at our house with brandon's parents. christmas day we will be making the trek to st. george...hopefully we don't get washed away from all the rain! yeah, it's finally here!! hope ya'll have a wonderful time with your loved ones:)

so tired, so busy, so excited!

i absolutely love this time of year. everything about it is festive...except traffic and long lines at stores! but, i'm in such a good spirit that those things rarely bother me:) anyways, tonight we had some friends of ours over for dinner and games. i was all domestic diva and made honey spiral ham and creamy potato soup. i get so nervous when i make things for people. i so desperately want them to like it. but, i think it turned out well. i thought it tasted good and there weren't many leftovers, so i think that's a good sign. i took a pic of the pretty table but i'm too lazy to go get the camera to load the pics. sorry! either way it was a great time.

tomorrow i've got plans to continue the domestic divaship by doing some holiday baking. i'll be making fudge (white chocolate and regular chocolate with walnuts), scotcheroos (a rice krispy type with a chocolate/butterscotch frosting), puppy chow (amazingness, melt in your mouth, i can't explain what it is you just have to try it, goodness!), white chocolate covered pretzels, and caramels. this will be my first time making caramels so i'm hoping they turn out. the recipe doesn't seem too hard but we'll see. what's even better is my lil sis is stopping by to help out! i think that's the best part. we can catch up on all our recent gossip while making sweet treats for our mens. ahhh, did i mention i love this time of year?!?!

update

ahhh, finally got the christmas card ordered. now i'm hoping it will look as good on paper as it does on the computer screen. i'm kinda skeptical but we'll see. i'll be stuffing envelopes and addressing them tomorrow so people will hopefully get them before christmas!!

as far as fantasy football...i won in both leagues this past week! that means i'm going to the playoffs. woot woot!!! i'll be playing against brandon in one league and some guy i don't know in the other. wish me luck!

christmas card frustrations

pretty sure i just spent the last hour trying to upload photos to the snapfish website so i can design and order our christmas card. it's a no go. i'm extremely frustrated. and christmas is getting closer so i really needed to get this done! excuse me while i go scream into a pillow now.

FFL

every year since brandon and i have been together (and even before that) he has played fantasy football. he loves it and dedicates many hours each year to perfect his team. this year, since it's the first football season that i have not been in school (crazy, huh?!) i decided to give it a whirl too. i've joined two leagues, one with a cousin of mine and his friends and another with some people we go to the dunes with. brandon is in like 7 leagues, which is actually low for him. normally he is in 10+ leagues. i wanted to join only a modest 1 or 2. anyways, it has been a lot of fun and sparked some interesting "debates" between brandon and i...especially the weeks that we've played each other. JUST FOR THE RECORD, I HAVE BEATEN HIM EVERY SINGLE TIME WE'VE BEEN MATCHED UP TOGETHER!! THAT'S FOUR WINS TOTAL!!! this is pending the win this week which i've pretty much got wrapped up. i've held the #2 spot in one league the whole season and i've gone from #2 to #5 in the other league. i'm still trying for a spot in the playoffs in the latter league. next week starts the playoffs. i'm nervous and sure that i'll get beat in the first round. but, i'll know after tonight's games if i'm in....fingers crossed!

time

time is a funny thing. it controls so many things. i find myself being ruled by the clock so often. but instead of talking about how crappy time is i want to focus on the times when time doesn't matter. it doesn't happen very often for me but when it does, WOW! i feel totally free. free from everything. free from obligations, responsibilities, pressures, etc. it's almost as if the demands of life stop when time is irrelevant. i guess you could say that my favorite time is when i don't keep track of time. when anything is possible and nothing is rushed. you can just be. it usually happens when i'm camping or vacationing. and some weekends when i've got nothing planned and just do whatever whenever. i love it. need to do more of it. ya'll should do it too!

it's mail time!!

some of you already know that i dearly love walking down to the mailbox, looking into it with much hope in my heart, and pulling out anything that might be in there. it's one of my simple life's joys. and as you can probably imagine, between thanksgiving and christmas is the most exciting time. CHRISTMAS CARDS!!! not only am i getting the usual, bills, advertisements and solicitations (which i enjoy), but i'm getting wonderful well wishes and family updates. it's truly a very exciting time for me. i'm immediately in a good mood when i grasp in my hands, a festive looking envelope hand addressed to me!...and brandon too. the feeling is indescribable.

what's even more exciting?!? brandon and i scored free tix to the judds concert tonight. woot woot! shout-out to my in-laws who desperately wanted to go but have to forfeit their tix cuz they don't feel well:(

starburst: faveREDS

seriously thinking that starburst fruit chews knows my number cuz i found a box in the store today that has just the "red" flavors. watermelon, cherry, strawberry and fruit punchy goodness! i tolerate the orange ones but absolutely despise the yellow ones (lemon?). the really good news is i don't have to pretend with this box. i don't have to fake it with this box. no, with this box i can be the real me. i think i'm in love.

re-focus

do you remember when i said that i keep a small list of personal goals?!?! well, lately i've been slacking on some really important goals i set for myself about 6 months ago. and i didn't realize how poorly i was doing until recently. i was doing really well for awhile and people were actually noticing a change and making wonderful comments, but the past few months have been a gradual descent into old ways. it makes me sad and regretful. i wasted a lot of chances to improve myself. there were times when i made the wrong choice even when i was telling myself not to. and then there were the times that i didn't realize the errors of my ways until well after the opportunity had passed. here's a quote from the movie "hope floats" that i've always really liked: "it's the worst kind of extravagance, the way you waste your chances." well, i don't want to live so extravagantly. i want to re-gain control and be all i can be. only not in the army. in my little life.

ahhh, it's 'bout christmas time

so, i've been feeling it (by it, i mean christmas) these past couple days. yesterday i put up most of the christmas decorations, except the tree which is going up on friday! today was the christmas luncheon at work and tonight i saw "white christmas" at the theater. i'm really excited for christmas now. almost all of my christmas shopping is done and by shopping i mean going around to different places to buy gift cards. i've wrapped the two presents i actually have in my custody. and i've been listening to christmas music ALMOST non-stop for a couple of weeks. woot woot. christmas is a wonderful thang! except that it was warm enough today to melt all the snow. that makes me sad, BUT i hear there is more to come in a couple of days:] anyways, just thought i'd bore you with a little of my christmas spirit.

19 wonderful, joyful, peaceful days to go!

p.s. brandon expect to be extra helpful on friday.

brian head: the finale

actually, this wasn't in brian head. it's the parowan petroglyphs. on our way home i made brandon drive out to the spot where american indians carved these diagrams into the rock walls of a gap in the mountains sooo long ago (date is apparently unknown).

didn't you just come through the line??

i was a little embarrassed when i had to go through the line again (at cafe rio, yummmm!) to take some home for brandon and one of the guys preparing the meal said, "again? didn't you just come through the line??" why yes, yes i did. and thank you for noticing.

btw, for those that don't know cafe rio salads are that good that you could eat there more than once a day. ah-mazing!

brian head, part deux

neither of us had ever been to cedar breaks national monument so we weren't sure what to expect. but this (look below) appeared out of nowhere. we had intended on hiking there but did not know of the snow and since we didn't have, like, appropriate gear, we had to settle with driving through it. nevertheless, it was quite amazing to see.












so, we went back down the canyon to do some hiking where the leaves were still changing and ended up hiking to a waterfall...after a slight detour due to the amount of wrong turns we took.




the waterfall. yes, brandon got in the water. yes, i took a pic. yes, i will spare you the image...and brandon the embarrassment.


so, a funny story about how this pic happened. i hung the camera from a log and positioned it just right. i then put the timer on pressed the button and ran over to where brandon was to pose. it was quite comical, and took a couple tries before it actually took a decent shot!


the view from our hotel room of brian head peak.

Brian Head, Utah: Part 1

brandon and i took off to brian head to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary. it was one of the best weekends we've had together. there are too many pics for one blog so i'm dividing the trip into three parts...here are the pics from part one (we did a lot of hiking that day so the pics are all from our hike):


i loved the way the yellow tree and red rock stood out against the green trees.


we found this piece of wood with the interesting pattern in it. must have been some sort of burrowing insect. the bark had fallen off in one piece next to it and had the image imprinted on it.


brandon with his walking stick. he was on a mission to find the perfect walking stick. he did end up with some pretty good ones.


this was found on the henderson hill hike near parowan, utah.


this tree had a weird smooth spot. nature is so interesting sometimes.


a view from vermillion's castle.


another view from vermillion's castle. brandon said i need to be smarter about picking places to hike and look for hikes with names like "flat meadow" instead of vermillion's castle.


me posing my a small cavey thing on the way up to vermillion's castle.


brandon hiking vermillion's castle.

that night we enjoyed a nice dinner and the steam room/hot tub to soothe our poor muscles from all that hiking. it was heavenly.