i'm a sickie today

as you all can tell, i have not been in the blogging mood lately. but i thought i'd bust one out tonight and let you all know how miserable i am. somehow i caught a viral cold thingy and all i can do is wait until my body fixes itself naturally. i hate it. my nose won't quit leaking (which doesn't help when you are trying to sleep). i have to turn over every 30 minutes or so, so i can relieve the pressure on the one side of my nose. i have had a perma-headache since yesterday morning. and my throat hurts. it's been a sad, sad day:( apparently, this viral cold thingy has been going around lately. thanks for the warning! what a great way to spend the last week of my last summer vacation! hope it's almost over...blah!!!

long time, no see

well, i'm back...finally. brandon and i have been sooooo busy working on the house, our computer crashed (obviously, it's back now:), and some of my family from ND came for a 5 day stint (including my birthday!). now that things are settling down some i thought i'd blog a bit. truthfully, i'm not really in the mood so i'm just going to do a little update:

• i was working...reception work and then sales type stuff. not my thing, but it was nice having the extra money around. it was a good feeling to know that after this summer i will (hopefully?!) never have to work a job like that again. from now on i will be therapist extraordinaire, starting with my 1000 hour internship working with perpetrators, victims and witnesses of domestic violence. i start in exactly 2 weeks (when the school year officially begins...my LAST school year!!-can't believe it, never thought i would be so close...still so much to do!:).
• our home is much closer to being finished. don't get me wrong there is still A LOT to do but it feels good to have some major projects finished. we even christened the backyard saturday night when we hosted our first backyard bbq (in our new home-we've been here for almost 2 years:) for my 25th birthday.
• one of my grandmas and two of my aunts came for a visit. i showed them around salt lake and had a great time taking pictures of crazy things. since there are so many pictures, i'll do another blog about what we did and all that jazz.

anyways, i've got 2 weeks to get things around the house where i'd like them since i never have time to do much around here after school starts AND i absolutely have to make a lot of progress on my thesis. but, i will be making a trip to st. george this week for some R & R.

so, now that you've all been updated i'm done for now. ttfn!

surprise!

brandon wanted to surprise me last weekend so he planned a getaway to salt lake's mini-vegas to the west, wendover. we love going out there and used to go a lot but then we stopped getting free room coupons so we haven't been for like 3 years. anyways, brandon doesn't usually plan anything let alone surprises so when he does it's really kind of special (awww, how tender!). not only did he arrange the night away but he got tix to the pat benatar concert there. i totally heart her and her music. it was great to hear all my favorite songs of hers live. too fun! plus, it was really entertaining to see some "older" women drunk and dancing with the "younger" ones. so anywho, these pics are backwards since that is how they uploaded and i'm not about to change their order. here is mrs. pat benatar. btw, she loves to play air guitar:)

we went to the west end of town and watched the sunset. very nice shades of pinks and yellows.

us, watching the sun go down. before we gambled away our stash of cash. oops;)

this sign used to be right at the stateline but they moved him to the other end of town. for those of you who don't know, the summer before we moved to utah (in 1996) we stayed in wendover. it's kinda how we were introduced to salt lake. we went back to nd for a week or so to pack all of our things and come back. as a 12 year old about to enter junior high i wasn't too thrilled about this, as you can imagine, but that's a different story...:)

some artist created this...ummmm....well....rather strange sculpture about 20 or so miles from wendover. i'm not really sure what it's about and it's always made me curious so, i wanted to share it with those of you reading who haven't seen it.

the salt flats.

the weekend of the fourth

this is what mamma did all weekend (not that it differs from her normal routine though!):

us at rocky mountain raceway.
not sure why this pic is soooo blue but one of the mini cars flipped over and skidded across the track. they had to send him to the hospital in a helicoptor. watching accidents happen freaks me out! rmr put on a fireworks show after the races. it reminded me of watching the races in wishek, nd on the 4th and staying for the fireworks after. ahhhh, happy childhood memories!

the next day, brandon and i went riding by strawberry reservoir. it was so incredibly beautiful and pretty empty. we hardly saw another person all day, although we did see a bunch of gophers.

strawberry reservoir.

a weird tree we found. quakies are so weird, they will grow in any and all positions. it's interesting to see the shapes they take. this one just looks like it broke, but it still caught my eye.

us, on our ride.

at the lookout points you could see FOREVER. here's brandon admiring the scenery.

some pretty wildflowers. there were so many up there. it was still pretty wet and the temperature was almost perfect (it was a little cold without long sleeves). but, that's weird for july in utah normally it's HOT HOT HOT.

i want a cabin next to this lil' pond, it's picturesque.

can you see the oompa loompa face in the tree?!?!

brandon's new pet.

this pic did not take very well but it's of an eagle's nest off the highway. i had to zoom a lot so it's really pixelized and i don't know if you can tell but there is an eagle in it! i'm not sure i've ever seen one in the wild before. brandon drives by it everyday when he is out making his deliveries. he's a lot better at noticing wildlife than i am.

the saddest movie i've ever seen

i went with my very own sister to see this movie and WOW!, i bawled the entire time. i even cried for some of the previews (like the time travelers wife!). it was just so emotional i couldn't help but cry. i haven't read the book yet but think i may because i heard the ending is very different and i always love a good book. this may be sick and sad but i love reading books/watching movies that are really sad. even moreso, i love crying at them. i never used to cry that often about things like that but ever since i got married (hmmm, i'm sure there is an interesting analysis there:) i have started crying at the stupidest things. like when i watch a baby story on tlc, i always cry when the baby is born and the parents are holding him/her for the very first time. or, if i'm waiting at the airport to pick someone up and i see all the happy people greeting their own loved ones. it's like the joy overcomes me and i feel so happy for them that i cry. I LOVE TO CRY! there i said it. my friends and family make fun of me but i don't care cuz i love it. absolutely, without a doubt, love it.

~HAPPY 4th OF JULY~

The 4th is one of my favorite holidays and I want to wish all of you reading this Happy 4th of July. To be able to celebrate this holiday means a lot to me and I'm proud to be an American. Freedom is something that I hold dear to my heart and I feel it's one of the most important values in our society, even though it is threatened frequently (both from foreign as well as domestic policies/affairs). Even so, I am really grateful for the many people who fight for us, in all kinds of different ways, to be free.

Thank you all!

salt lake art fest 09

went with some friends to the art festival downtown. it was cool to see such a variety of art. there were so many different forms of art, like in this pic:

he was rolling over a mold with ink painted on it and it turned out like this:

pretty cool stuff. then we watched the belly dancers. it was cool but they danced for a long time and it was pretty much the same thing over and over again.

after the belly dancers the brazilian dancers came out. they were really cool. the type of dance these guys were doing is called capoeira. it's like an artistic dancing fight type thing. they don't actually hit each other, one will kick and the other will flip backwards and stuff. it was really cool and there was a little kid probably about 5 years old that was doing it. he was so cute and pretty good too.

dancing with fire.

some of the things these girls did i was sure they would burn themselves but they seemed to make it through their routine without any injuries. it was awesome!