Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day Weekend, Malone and I caught up with is parents at Island Park and camped out a few days. We got there about dinner time on Friday night. His parents had decided to go to bed early so we did too. Saturday morning we went out and Malone's stepdad Eric taught me how to shoot a Baretta pistol 9mm. I've only shot guns once before, but I didn't do too bad! I was surprised how much kick a little gun like that has and it was really loud too. I got super close to the target, but never did nail it. After that we went to West Yellowstone and had a look around before we headed back and had lunch. Malone's sister Holly and her family joined us for the day, which was super fun! We all hung out and talked for most of the afternoon. Malone and I snuck away for a while and had a four-wheeler ride. I had one and he had one, and he rode behind me most of the time on these dirt trails... after the ride he was completely covered in dirt from my 4wheeler.

That night we had dinner and sat around the campfire. Tivo was with us, and there was one point when I looked over and he had what looked like a grin. Next thing I knew he puked all over!! My neice Hannah was holding him, and luckily it only got on his blanket. He puked a couple more times that night and you could tell he wasn't feeling good. I was a little worried about him, but I think he just had too much junk to eat that day. That night, while Malone and I were in bed, we heard a creature sniffing around our tent!! I'm not sure what it was, but it sounded smallish and made a snorting sound when it sniffed. I think it was probably a skunk or a racoon or something. Creepy though! The next day (Sunday) Tivwas feeling much better. We stayed and played a few rounds of settlers with Malone's parents, had lunch and split. It was a really fun weekend and I had so many Kodak moments! But I forgot my camera... dang! Starting to think I need a new camera cuz I dont like the one I have that much.

Monday (Labor day) I didn't have to work, so I stayed home with Tivo. I took Tivo out that morning, and I noticed he was limping! I couldn't figure out why though. I sat him down and looked at his foot and moved it around, bent his leg, felt around. Nothing. He limped like all day. Malone came home at lunch and he looked at him too, found nothing wrong. Later that day Tivo seemed to be feeling better ( or he had just been faking it all day) because he stopped limping suddenly. Weird.

Funny story: So that same afternoon, I was baking some banana bread. I had about 30 minutes left to bake and Malone and I decided to take Tivo for a short walk to the neighbor's to pick up some stuff. We all got to talking and I completely forgot about my bread in the oven! Right after we walked out the door of our friend's house, I suddenly remembered the bread in the oven! I had no idea how long it had been done, but we jetted home and pulled it out. Luckily it wasn't burned, but it was a little overdone on top. However, the bread turned out just fine for eating! I was relieved! That was pretty lucky, and kind of stupid too. lol

Stitches

Malone didn't want me to post this, but I had to! He cut his finger at work the other day and had to get 10 stitches! Luckily it wasn't too deep, but it looks so gross haha. Kind of a bad picture...

Super Duper Best Ever Fabulous Wonderful Weekend!

I managed to get through an amazing weekend without ONE picture... again. I forgot my camera.

This past weekend Malone and I had the opportunity to go to my family reunion camping with my family in Spencer, Idaho. We took work off Thursday through Saturday to go for the weekend. Thursday, we ran a few errands, picked up my parent's trailor and 4wheeler, and my Dad. We made it up to the campground around 4 or so. We all mostly just hung out that afternoon. At dinner, Malone cooked a bratwurst wrapped in bacon over the fire. It was a big hit, since all the guys had to compete for the best looking treat lol. That night Marshall had created a really fun activity involving us putting on some improv skits. It was hilarious and so much fun! I think I can speak for us all when I say that we were all impressed with how funny Dad was and his imrov skills. Go Dad! We actually caught it all on tape... that should be interesting later. The little kids and Parker were involved too, and they had so much fun.

The next day, Friday, was my Birthday! Chris and Dad put on a grand slam breakfast (yum!) And later Dad, Marshall, and Chris took the kids and went 4wheeling, Malone and AJ biked the trails, and us girls played cards. At one point after lunch, I took a fantastic birthday nap! We played Settlers of Cataan and some other games that afternoon. I forgot to mention that we took Tivo, and my parents took Teddy. They were both pretty good. The kids had fun walking Tivo around on the leash. Tivo was good even off the leash too, which was surprising. He just sat with us and walked with me around the camp. Tivo slept in our sleeping bag, which I actually didn't mind because he kept me warm! That night we had dutch oven potatoes and fried chicken, and dutch oven peach cobbler and cherry chocolate cake. Everyone sung happy birthday and I blew out the quickly melting candles in the peach cobbler lol. That night we played more games/skits. We had brought some starbursts with us to cook over the fire with our hot dog sticks. I was making one for my nephew when I had accidentally cooked it too long over the fire making it super melty and a piece dripped onto my finger. It burned a couple layers of skin right off! I had a hole in my finger! It hurt when it happened, but later it didn't hurt at all like a normal burn would, which is weird. Guess I'll have something to remember that camping trip by! The next morning we had a cold breakfast and packed up camp.

Malone and I left around 11:30. When we got home we cleaned up, unpacked, and gave Tivo a bath. That afternoon we went boating with our ward at blacktail in Ririe. We rode up with our friend Dan and his cousin who brought his really nice boat. Dan taught us how to surf behind the boat. My first attempts were a horrible failure, I couldn't get up. But my second attempt was better and I got up 3 times! I didn't stay up long, but I got up! I'm convinced if I had more time I could have gotten it though. Malone of course got up his first time and stayed up way longer than I did. He got up several times and did a wonderful job. I was proud! Later around 7 or so, the weather closed in and it just downpoured on us for about half an hour. All of us were huddled under a shelter waiting for it to pass. Luckily it did and we were able to pack up the boat and head home. It was an exhausting weekend, but we had a blast!

Today is Malone and my 3rd year anniversary! Not sure what our plans are yet. But I'll write about it tomorrow.

Lame Car, Lagoon, Lava Hot Springs, and Large Dogs

A few weeks ago, Malone got in his little red car to go to work and about a quarter mile from our house it suddenly just died. Unable to get it started again, he made a mad dash home and got the other car to make it to work (good thing it was a Saturday!). We took it in and it turns out the timing belt broke and most likely bent the valves. The repairs are most likely going to cost more than the car is worth, so we've been trying to sell it and just get rid of it. We've been car shopping and haven't had any luck yet. My parents happened to have a car they weren't using so I've been driving it to work until we buy a car. The car is a rusty buick I use to drive before we were married. Malone calls it the Leprosy car, because all the paint is chipping off and rusting underneath. Thanks, poor ugly car, for getting me to work and back everyday.

Recently, Malone and I had a little getaway trip to Utah for a weekend. Our anniversary is this month, and because of our crazy schedules we didn't think we'd be able to really celebrate it. So we celebrated early! Malone and I made arrangements to stay in a hotel in Ogden and go to Lagoon the first weekend in August. We got down there Friday evening and spent some time shopping for some much needed clothes. I got a couple pairs of shoes and some work tops, and Malone got a nice pair of jeans and a few shirts for school. We ate out at Red Lobster, which was delicious! I am finally making friends with crab!
We had a delicious buffet breakfast at our hotel the next morning and headed out to Lagoon first thing! It was a really hot day and it got pretty crowded, but we enjoyed being with just each other with no other worries. We got to cut in line a few times to fill seats on rides, which was nice! My ultimate favorite ride was the roller coaster Wicked. It scared me before I got on, but it was a blast! We rode it several times while we were there though. While everyone else took breaks to get lunch, we jumped back in the short lines and skipped lunch! By 5:00 we were both exhausted and starving, so we decided to just relax the rest of the day and grab some early dinner at Golden Corral. We swam at the hotel and just stayed in the rest of the night. Sunday we grabbed some breakfast and headed home! We had a great time spending quality time with each other, not to mention getting some well needed time off.

This past weekend Malone and I drove down to spend some time with my best friend Deidra and her husband Kacy. We drove out to Lava Hot Springs and swam for a couple hours. I don't think I had ever been there before, so it was a new experience! After swimming, we went to dinner at Golden Corral and ate probably way too much! Then we went back to Deidra's apartment and we hung out for a couple hours just talking. We had a blast hanging out with our friends. I consider Deidra and Kacy family, so it was seriously about time that we made it down there to be with them. We had a blast with them like we always do! I just wish we all lived closer so we could hang out more often.

Sunday Malone and I went to church as usual and after church we were invited over to a neighbor's house for birthday cake (it was his wife's birthday recently and they had leftovers lol). So we went over and hung out for a couple hours. They have two big great danes that are simply adorable! Huge dogs, but so loveable. Our friends invited us to go to this dog park down the street later that night. So after dinner, we got Tivo and walked down to this dog park. I guess the Village apartment complex put together a dog park there, which is so nice! It's all fenced in and even has doggie bags to pick up after your dog with. There were tons of dogs, all sorts of shapes and sizes. The great danes were there, as well as a few labs, and a bunch of smaller dogs Tivo's size. One little dog was a chihuahua and he was just Tivo's size! His name was Teego (sounds like Tivo, no?). We got to socialize with a bunch of new people as well as a few friends that were there.I guess this group gets together twice a week and do a kind of potluck too. It was so fun! And Tivo was so good with all the other dogs. So we will totally go again, maybe go tomorrow night and maybe even Sunday too. Thanks friends for inviting us!

4th of July Weekend!

Well, 4th of July has come and gone already. Bummer that it's all over, since it's the one holiday I always look forward to every year... but Malone and I had a good time!! Since Malone had to work Saturday, we waited until after he got off that evening to join his parents and sister's family in Island Park. They were camped out near the river, which was great except there were alot of mosquitos! Pretty thick too, but we didn't let that stop us from having fun! We had a delicious dinner, spent time together chatting, and Malone and I attempted to teach everyone how to play Mow with face cards. We're use to playing with Rook cards, so it was a little hard to adjust! But we all had fun and laughed alot. That night a few of us caught the Island Park Fireworks from our campsite. It was so peaceful, and the best part was the sound of the fireworks echoing against the mountains. We had the show all to ourselves since no one else was around. I think Malone really enjoyed that part! Parker and Malone throwing hatchets and knives

Tivo

A few of my neices and my sister-in-law's neice and nephew

(left to right) Ethan, Macey, Emily, Hannah, and Katie

My father-in-law Eric cookin us up some breakfast! The mosquitos attacked him the most... poor guy.



My neice Sarah, she's so cute!






Hannah

Macey and Katie

It was Tivo's first time ever camping. The mosquitos

bothered him ALOT. He kept barking at them, as if it'd scare them away. It didn't. He must have been really tuckered out because after we got home Sunday afternoon, he slept for hours and hours.

Despite our best efforts and spraying with bug spray, Malone and I were just covered in bug bites. It was pretty miserable for few days. Monday was the 4th, and of course Malone had to work that morning as usual, so I got together with my family and went to the Rexburg Parade. We had a great time! Marshall and Tiffany and the boys came up from SLC to spend time with family here in town, so it was great having them with us at the parade. Chan and Rowan were so fun to watch.

(Left to Right) Chandler, Mom, Parker, Ashley, Tiffany, Marshall and Rowan

Chandler squeezed in to sit next to his buddy Parker

Rowan taking pictures with his Mom's amazing camera

I didn't manage to take any pictures the rest of the day, but after the parade, we all got up to go home and suddenly Rowan puked all over the ground. Poor kid! Luckily we were right next to a building with a bathroom so Tiff could clean him up and I happened to have a plastic sack in my bag to put his yucky shirt it. Couldn't have been better timing really. He was fine later that day it seemed though. Later that afternoon after Malone got off work, we joined my family at my parents house and had a BBQ. We played games and just hung out talking and watching the dogs chase each other around. That night we caught the Menan fireworks, which were pretty decent! I like IF better, but that's okay. Next year maybe.

This week so far...

Well things are going well for Malone and I. Since my last post, I have been keeping a pretty good schedule of doing some exercise daily. I keep it simple and try not to overdo it ( which is what I have done in the past and has really discouraged me). Monday this week I did a run/walk for about a mile or so with Tivo, and afterwards I still had some energy so I did some crunches, leg lifts, squats, and lunges. I think I may have overdone it a little because I was so sore the next day! I could hardly squat down to sit on the toilet ( yes i had to add that). lol So I decided to take it easy Tuesday and not exercise. Today (wednesday) I am still really sore, and I know I probably won't feel up to running today so I jumped on the stationary bike at work for about a half hour during lunch and lifted some weights. It actually made my soreness not so bad, so that's a plus.

Malone has been working out too! He's been lifting weights at home, push ups, and all sorts of other strength exercises. He gets out and runs a bit too. We haven't been running together as much, I think I tend to overdo it with him around because I don't like looking like a panzie in front of him lol. Anyway, I am just happy to say that so far we are keeping up with the goal! I just had to share!

As for everything else, I honestly can't complain! I cleaned out my closet the other day. I put away my winter clothes and clothes I can't fit in to make room... I was a little shocked at how empty my closet was. It's sad really. But I told myself, if I'm good with this whole work out thing then I can buy cute fun summer clothes next year!

Work has gotten a little better. Working at Broulims doing the account payables has been a challenge, but I have come a long way in only a few weeks, considering I only work 2 days a week there. I am able to do the account payables for two stores and both their daily/weekly reports pretty much by myself in one day. Before I could only do about one and a half stores' payables in a day with ALOT of help. I do some bank reconciliations for my dad on Thursdays, which I have yet to master, but it's coming along. For the record, I have never done any accounting in my life, so considering that fact, I think I'm doing alright. Doing posters for Broulims a few hours a week has kept me busy! Everyday there's always new requests for posters. Yesterday I had about 10 new requests, and I did manage to finish most of them. I have a big order coming up requiring about 70 posters! Yikes! But I am enjoying the work. I enjoy being creative and working alone, which is what I do pretty much. Mobley's PT has been alright too. We're rearranging employees since one is leaving on a mission. We'll miss him! But business has been kind of slow lately, so the days feel long. I think everyone is out enjoying the lovely weather we've been having! I am so jealous!


Malone is managing to get through school and work this semester. He still has about 4 semester left after this one. His grades are okay, A's and B's, which isn't bad for him at all! We're hoping his GPA will be good enough for more scholarships, since we're not sure how the grant thing is going to work out for the rest of his schooling. But I am so proud of him. He works so hard! On top of school, he's also working about 30 hours a week, which isn't easy. He does most of his homework after class till about 9:30 at night or so. He has been working in a new department at Broulims and is able to be home with me at night, which is so great. I love having him home. He's been such a huge help. He's been so good about helping around the house, even when he's busy. I have such crazy hours during the week, I never know when I'll be home. He's done the laundry, the dishes, and makes dinner almost every night by himself. I am so blessed to have him in my life. He's a huge support and motivator for me. I love him crazy! Sometimes I can't help but think, what does he need me for? He's perfectly amazing all by himself lol.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great week! Love you all!

Goals

Malone and I have been talking about goals lately. I decided that for me, for a while I have been too undisciplined to ever stick to anything to accomplish a real goal. For example, I've had a guitar for 4 or 5 years and I have always wanted to learn to play it. Well I know a few chords, but that's it and I haven't really tried. Another example is exercise. I try a few times or a couple weeks with a new routine,and I end up getting lazy and slowly quit. It's happened millions of times. And lately I've been complaining to Malone about my weight and he's sick of hearing about it, so we decided to DO something about it. He and I both made goals to lose weight and get in better shape. I'm a little nervous about making this commitment because I just hope I don't quit!! But, because I know I dont' like to disappoint, I am posting it on here so everyone knows about it so I won't quit as easy.
I started an account with myfitnesspal.com and am keeping track of calories, exercise, and I have my goal set so I can keep track of where I'm at. I also added a little ticker on the blog here so everyone could see how I'm doing. So far, it's only about 4lbs, but it's a start I guess. Malone and I are trying to run a few days a week to help us get in shape. And I don't know about him, but it's a big struggle for me! I haven't had to run like that in years, so it's kicking my butt. However, I'm taking it slow for now and I'm working up. For now, I am working up to 3 miles or a 5k... maybe I'll enter a race sometime. I don't know yet. So we'll see how it goes. We decided that if I hit my goal, which is a secret right now, then Malone said we could go on a CRUISE! If that isn't motivation, I don't know what is! Wish us luck! Cuz I know I'M gonna need it haha.