[.good girls are just as bad as bad girls, they just don't get caught.]

Last Friday Lance left me again for the deer hunt at Strawberry Reservoir.  That night Jenna, her mom and I met up with Tori, Myrna, Jenny and Kari at Kingsbury Hall to watch the Odyssey Dance Theater perform Thriller!

I flippin' LOVED this performance!  They did such a stunning job!  The entire time I was wishing I was just that talented and just in awe.

Jenna and I wanted a picture with one of the creepy girls.  Right after this picture was taken the girl swooped her head in my direction to snort in my face!  I'm pretty sure I screamed a little.
After the show we went to the Cheesecake Factory for Tori's birthday where we all thoroughly enjoyed stuffing our faces.

We went home afterward fully satisfied.


I woke up the next morning and packed my stuff to get ready for

I left and went to pick up Myrna so that we could ride up together.
Once we got there it was rainy.  It pretty much rained the entire time until Sunday night.
I did go with Lance a few times to go look for deer.
Since it was raining we spent most the time inside but it was still nice to just sit back and relax without even thinking about school or work.
Sunday night came along and I was getting ready to leave.  I really didn't want to go.  I was dreading the drive home and quite honestly just wanted to stay another day, but I had a test in class I couldn't miss.  So around 7:30 I left to go home.
I was telling my friend Josie that I just wanted to stay and was joking that she should just take my test for me, but that wouldn't happen!  Then she suggested that I go up and surprise Lance Tuesday day and she'd take notes for me.  So, that was my plan!


Monday comes along and I get a text from Matt and Lance!
Deer on!!! 4 point!!!

Lance called me up to tell me he shot a deer!
He was SO ecstatic!  You could hear the smile in his voice!
Once we hung up phones I realized that I would no longer be able to go up Tuesday because they would be coming home that night!
He's been working his tail off preparing all the meat for us.  Thanks to everyone to also helped him:)
Last night we started our first batch of jerky!

Let's just hope it turns out!!!

[.one of my new favorites.]

So I heard this song last week... I can't believe I've never heard it before because I have totally fallen in love with it!  It reminds me a lot of Lance and I - besides the fact that our eyes are green and not blue.
I couldn't find a video that I liked on youtube so I made my own:)

enjoy

I find it ironic

...we met after we turned 18...

...we met in May so it had just gotten warm...

...I asked Lance to come to a dance with me...

...our second date (sight) was this dance where I had fallen head over heels for him...

...and quite frankly he really did know nothing of romance...

[.Its up to you what happens next.]

Last Thursday on October 21st Jake had the opportunity to go through the temple.  Before hand, Jake told me that he was going to ask Lance to be his escort.  I realized at that time that Jake saw Lance as a brother, and not just his sister's husband.  It was special for me to see some of the most important men in my life both able to worthily enter the temple.
I will admit that I did get teary eyed but tried to cover it up before Jake could see me.  I didn't even get teary eyed going through with Lance.
(although the feelings were still similar they were completely different when going through with Lance for my first time)
I felt the spirit a different way than I normally do when going to the temple.  Not that the other times are ever bad, I will just definitely always remember my last two (Thursday and Friday)times at the temple.
[sorry - not sure why the quality of the pictures are so low!]

I love this picture:]  The only thing I wish was different was that you could see Jake giving Jenna's brother-in-law Terry a hug in the background.

Once the session was over we met my mom, Kevin, the kiddos and Jenna out in the waiting room so we could go get some Cafe Rio for dinner to celebrate.

 
.some of Jenna's family at dinner.
_____________


Jake had asked me earlier if I'd want to go to the 1:30 session at Bountiful Temple with him.  My Grandma and Grandpa would be conducting the session so Jake wanted to be able to go with me before he left.  I accepted the invite so after class on Friday I called my boss to ask for the day off.
I must say it was an awesome experience.
So happy for you Jake, you are such an example to me!

[.a lost generation.]

saw these the other day and thought they were pretty cool

this is why I LOVE my major



so happy the weekend is here

[.If I rub Preperation-H on you would you become less irritating and shrink?.]

Last Thursday the hubs and I went to Big 5 to get me my Adidas bag I've been wanting!  Not to mention the fact that we also looked at every other item in that store wishing we had all the money in the world!
As we were pulling out of the parking lot I saw a little place called Zeppe's.  I've never heard of it before but I saw that it said "Italian Ice", so I hurried before Lanced turned and yelled to
"GO THERE!"
"WHERE!?"
pointing.."RIGHT THERE!! ZEPPES!! THEY HAVE ITALIAN ICE!"
So, instead of turning he went straight through all 4 lanes and we went to Zeppes.
Ever since our Honeymoon (yeah, forever ago) when we went to Rita's, I've been craving Italian ice ever since!  In we went!
We both got the kiddy pina colada.  Once our cups were full we headed on over to watch Jake's basketball game.  I'm pretty sure Jenna and I talked the ENTIRE time, because it went by so fast!  But we did see a few good plays and shots!  Afterwards Lance wanted to get home so that he could start packing for the hunt!
Since Lancer is out trying to get us some meat I have been home only once.  I decided Friday morning that I would just stay up at my mom's house until Tuesday night to at least have some company while the hubby was away.  Not to mention it's also right next to my work and half the commute to school!  So Friday after work I met Jenna at the gym.  We were there for almost an hour and a half.  An hour working out and the other half relieving our frustrations to each other.  Then I decided to go get some shopping done so that I could make some homemade jam with my Gma Neilson the next day.  You heard me right!  I was domestic!  I went over to Sam's Club to get me eight pounds of strawberries!  As I went to check out the lady guessed I was making jam.  I'm not surprised!  It was EIGHT pounds!  Then shortly after headed over to wally world to get some jars and pectin!  Pulling into my mom's drive way I look for my purse so I can go inside. Yeah..not seein' it!  I was freaking out a little, or a lot because I had just realized that I left it IN THE CART, in the parking lot!  After all, it is Walmart we're talking about!  I call up the store and ask for the lost and found!  Thank goodness someone had just brought it in!  I sped back over to go get my purse!  It was there.. and it had everything in it! I must be doing something right don'cha think!?
Poor thing must feel rejected I leave it EVERYWHERE!  Luckily Lance wasn't there this time!  This time may have just caused him a heart attack!  First Evanston, then VEGAS, now Walmart!  Well, it must love me because it's still sticking by my side!  I've finally gotten to my mom's house, purse in hand, and go inside.
I turn on the lights and go downstairs to talk to Jake.  Oh wait, nope,  he was at a corn maze with Jenna.  Go back upstairs and realize my mom is at work.  So I text Kevin to see if he had Ty and Brooke and he did.  Next I text Lance,
"So babe, I come to my mom's so I'm not lonely and here I am..Lonely."
Right as I sent it off, my sweet little boonis comes up to me and hops on my lap!
What a man!  He sure knows when I need him most!
I took him back into my mom's bed, started Dear John, and went to sleep!
And since I actually had a night to go to bed early, my mom was calling me, lance was texting me, Kevin was texting me and Jake and Jenna were both calling and texting me.  Can't a girl get some sleep!? Sheesh!
Well the last two texts were from my mom.. one at 11:45 and the next at 12:53 am, telling me that she had bought two tickets.  One for me and one for her for the Rachmaninoff symphony at Abravanel Hall at 8:00.

Apparently it didn't matter that I had other plans for Saturday night because the tickets had been bought.
Besides that, it was actually very nice to have some peace and quite while watching a chick flick!

As my mom was getting home around 7 am my alarm was going off to get my butt out of bed and to the gym!  Once I was done I went back home to make some breakfast and to get ready for work.
I actually made (I must be on a domestic streak or something!) my breakfast from scratch!  I made banana pancakes and ones that are very healthy for you!
I ended up being able to get off at 4 instead of 5 so that I would still have time to make jam.
Here's how it turned out!

.just looking at this makes my mouth water.

The recipe we used made 3 batches.  So i ended up with 12  1/2 pint jars and then 3 bigger jars because I didn't buy enough.  Looks like I'll be investing in some more here pretty soon.
Thank you Gma for teaching me!  These little jars will soon get the best of me and become my midnight snack!
Once we finished lidding the jars and cleaning up I went home to quickly shower and get ready for the symphony!  Luckily I had packed a skirt for Sunday so I could wear that to the symphony.
We hurried on our way and made it in the nick of time to get in our seats on time.
I guess you really have to have an appreciation for music to even like going to these things. I bet if Lance were to take me it would probably be because I somehow bribed him into it.  Actually knowing Lance, he'd probably take me only cause I'd want to go.  But still, he probably wouldn't enjoy it near as much as I do.  People here are very proper.  I almost felt disrespectful pulling out my phone, so I quickly put it away and enjoyed the show.
At first it was just the orchestra playing and then a 16 year old, Conrad Tao joined in on the piano.  He truly is amazing.
This wasn't from that night but it is the same kid.

I just sat there in awe the entire performance.

We weren't allowed to take pictures so I took them during intermission.

Also, one of my good friends Dereck returned home from his mission in Arizona last week!  I wasn't able to make his homecoming talk but I did get the chance to visit with him afterward.
I sure missed him.
Any girlies wanna go on a date?  I can hook you up!

[.updated.]

I finally got the video of Jake opening his call, thanks Jenna!  See below...

[.special people go special places.]

I was so excited to leave work on Wednesday!  Actually I didn't want to even go to work at all!  All I wanted to do was go to my mom's and sit with Jake by the mail box waiting for his mission call to come.  Tuesday night I could not sleep, I felt like it was Christmas Eve and I was waiting for Santa to bring all the presents so  I text Jake to see how he was feeling.  He told me he couldn't sleep either and that he was way excited. He also let me know that the night before he had a dream, and this dream just proved how excited (in reality) he really was.  His dream was that he was playing basketball with LeBron James.  If you know who LeBron James is and if you know who my brother is, than you must know how excited he was in his dream.  Jake said that that is just as excited as he was to be getting his call.

So 2:30 came along and he text me telling me that it was official and that it had arrived.

Right that moment I wanted to go get in my car and drive over there to open it!  But I knew the time would come soon enough.  At 5:00 everyone met over at my G-ma and G-pa Neilson's house.

The time came where we were all sitting downstairs in a circle around Jake.

Incase you can't read that ;)

Jake will be serving in the Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission!

He leaves January 5th and gives his farewell talk on his birthday (December 26th), what an awesome birthday present!

It was so cute while he was reading it!  He actually got teary eyed but you could tell how happy he was.

I've been told that,

special people go to special places.

And I truly believe this.

I'm so happy for him and know that he will be such an amazing missionary

Love you Jaker!

[.you'd think I was a college student or something.]

First off, for a quick moment, lets picture what my car looks like on a daily basis.


My car contains 2 pairs of flip flops, 1 pair of gym shoes, gym shorts, socks and a t-shirt (I really need one of these), a pair of heels, my dress pants, a different shirt to wear to work, a new pair of socks for work, my smelly paces pants, my smells paces shirt, and my greasy paces shoes (luckily these mostly stay in the trunk for the sake of the "new car smell")  my make-up bag, my hair spray, elastics, bobby pins, a comb, my phone and my ipod.  Did I forget anything?  Probably.
Oh yes I did..it also contains the very important items of things like, my purse (which all in itself is a whole different story), my backpack (which contains 4 folders, 3 books, a calculator, mints and gum, etc.), and my lunch box, because lets face it ... when would I have the time to actually go out to eat.
Also, about once a week my car will allow me to bring 3 hampers full of laundry along for a joy ride.
Anyway, by the look of things one would most likely think that I am a disgusting slob that doesn't know what cleanliness is.


Truly, the fact is.  I live out of my car.


So now, imagine what my life would be like if I was perhaps missing one of these items.
Oh yeah, you guessed it.  It starts with an H and rhymes with fell.


Well, that wasn't quite the case this morning but it was close enough.


Normally on Tuesdays and Thursdays I am up to school at the gym by 7:30 to meet Josie to get our workouts in for the day.


Well today we both had our appointments up at the school at 7:30 to get our REE taken.  REE is a test that tells you what your Resting Energy Expenditure is.  For this test you are supposed to be..well.. rested.


I didn't think it would be a big deal to get there on time since that's the normal time I'm there.


So 6:50 comes along (the normal time I leave), I'm wearing gym pants and a tank top, my hair is still damp, and I can't find my stinking t-shirt!
Frantically going through every item of clothing in our house I cannot find a dang t-shirt (which really is odd because I have a ton of them).


About ten minutes later I decide, "Fine, whatever, I'll just grab an old one out of my car!"
Gross I know, but I needed something to wear.
I run out to my car (mind you my hair is still damp and I have no shoes on) with my keys, backpack and purse in hand, ready to go once I knew there was a t-shirt in the back seat.


Scrambling through the back seat, the passenger seat and the trunk I still can't find one!
I run back inside the house and just put on a normal shirt, mad at myself because I knew I'd be uncomfortable the entire workout.
After I was now somewhat dressed (still no shoes), I ran back out to the car and left!  Maybe..just maybe I'll make it on time, if I'm quick!!
 As I'm driving I'm also digging through my purse trying to find my phone (Yes Lance, I was multi-tasking but don't worry I wasn't speeding, yet.)!  Seriously!?!?!?!  Are you kidding me!?!?  I had to flip a B to go back and get my phone.  Cause honestly, we all need them don't we?
Getting ready to turn onto our road back to our house my phone vibrates!  HA!  It was in my pocket this ENTIRE time!  Who knew!?  I flipped around again and was now on my way.
While I was sitting at the light I looked at my phone.  Oh hey, it's Josie!  Look at that, she's running late too!  And yes, we're supposed to be there (at WEBER) in 25 minutes!  Did I mention we live in BOUNTIFUL!?  Not necessarily the quickest drive!


Hurrying myself as fast as I could I try and oh-so-carefully put my shoes on to save every minute I can once I'm to the school.  Eventually I caught up to Josie and over the phone we were discussing how crazy our mornings had already been and how we had been frantically running around.


We arrived at the school 7:28, quickly parked, gathered our items and got ready to run!  As I was getting out of the car I realized I had only ONE shoe on, and not only that, it wasn't even tied!  So with one shoe on I searched the rest of my car for the other shoe.  LUCKILY it was there!
Now we were ready to run!
Trying to catch our breath, we walked into our appointment at 7:31.  The teacher then asked how our morning was.. The first thing I said to him was,
"Ask me if I'm rested?"
Needless to say, we proceeded with our test and went to start our workout shortly after.


Driving back to work after class I realized, I forgot my lunch!
Wonderful, just wonderful!  Good thing I was on my way to my mom's to change outfits (for what?  the second time already today?) because it's always good to mooch some free food.
I don't know how, but somehow..I survive.
Probably only cause I laugh at myself

[.If women came with instructions, nothing would change. Men don't read the instructions anyway.]

Like I said, I was stoked for Saturday night.  As I should have been, because it was a blast!  First of all I got off work at met Lance at my mom's house so I could get ready.  Because ya'll know that the smell of paces is just delightful.  Well as I got there I realized there was no blow dryer.  And we had to leave in 45 minutes, so I had no idea what to do, then I thought, hey Jenna lives close by, I'll call and see if I can use hers.  So, luckily she let me use it, and brought it over so we could both get ready before we had to leave.  Jake finally got home from East Canyon so now we were ready to leave.
We were all a bit starving so we stopped for food on the way.
Once we got there we put down all our blankets to save seats for everyone.  Jacinda, her fiancée Matt and son Austin arrived shortly after.  Then I met Josie at the gate to give her and her date Tyler their tickets.  Of course while we were waiting, Jacinda and I had to take pictures.  So, let the fun begin..

I do have an explanation for this I promise.  So, you girls know how this goes..before each picture we all make sure we know what faces to make, right?


Jacinda:  "Okay, lets make funny faces"
Me: "Got it!"
Jacinda - clicks to take the picture
Jacinda again, "Oh wait! No! Sexy face!"
So, there ya have it folks.  There is my sexy face, ain't it a keeper?

Alright, much much better!

jacinda.austin.matt

.waiting for it to get started.

During the middle of the derby they played the macarena song.  I knew my girls would get up and start dancing.  So I got up and went to Jacinda, then Jenna, then Josie and asked if they'd dance with me.  Well, Jacinda and Jenna got up to shake their booty with me.  Josie said she would have, but there wasn't much space.

..mmhmm..

Besides the fact that they were filming a movie during the middle of the derby, it was tons of fun.
I even had my own truck :)

[.life is to short to worry what others say or think about you, so have fun and give them something to worry about.]

Last night we celebrated Tyden's 7th birthday.  I really can not believe he is already that old!  To celebrate we went to Chuck E Cheese and played the games for a while, ate pizza, had cake, and opened presents.
G-mas and G-pas came to visit while the cousins came to play.  Heck, what am I talkin' about, I went to play!


So my uncle Chet and his family have been in town for the week for a wedding.  I wanted to get a picture of their entire family before they left, but that's not looking possible.  Anyway, I got a couple pics of 2 of his 3 cute kiddos.  First there is Keelie, she is seriously darling and so pretty and is such a good big sister.  Then there is Corbin.  Oh the Corbster.  He really has a mind of his own and doesn't care one bit what others think.  He melts my heart and he doesn't even know it.  I wish I could just take him home with me and I would never be bored from his oh-so-entertaining personality.

 Tyden and Lance absolutely LOVE this game.  I think it's called like fire finger or something, but the objective of the game is to carry the dots all the way through the maze before the time is up.  I swear it cheats because the last 6 seconds go by in a matter of 1.5 seconds and you lose!  But it's still very addicting.

One of Brooke's favorite "games" is the booth that takes your picture and Chuck E sketches the pictures for you.


Once the kiddos were done playing their games we turned in all the tickets and got them their prizes for the night.


Happy Birthday Tyden McKay!
I seriously love you to death.  I love your laugh, your smile, your 2 hand squeezes, your unconditional love for me, your sweet sweet spirit and the way you make me want to be a better person.


on a different note...


I am constantly being reminded by the fact that I'll soon be a widow for the month of October.
Lance has been "preparing" his gun for the hunting season.  Even though the gun shown is not necessarily his, he somehow tells me that it'll help him get us some meat this year.
Our friend Doug has been teaching him some new skills, so hopefully that'll also help.

And on a similar note..
This man's man of mine has been more giddy than a little school girl by the fact that our friend Doug will be going hunting with him.


I'm more than positive that they will be absolutely stuffed after every meal.  And isn't that what makes men happy?
I'm also sure of the fact that I will get a lot done around the house while Lance is out having the time of his life.
So that'll be a nice thing to get checked off my list of things to do.


Did I mention that I am freaking stoked for tomorrow night!?  Well I am.