I-DA-SNOW

Well, we've officially been here, in Rexburg, Idaho, for one week now. It's starting to feel more like "home" now....or should I say, more like I know I'm not going back to Arizona, and this is not a vacation :)






(we took this picture tonight, on our way back from checking out the progress of the house...it was snowing when I took this!)



But I like Rexburg, in it's small, quaint little town way. It's slower here. Literally. The speed limit is usually around 25 miles per hour, 35 when we are lucky. And when it's snowing (like today) you go about 10 miles per hour slower than the posted speed! At night, they have Christmas lights lit up going down Main Street. You don't see things like this, or as pretty as these ones, down in the Valley of the Sun.

(this picture is the start of Main Street coming IN to town...but the lights aren't turned on for the night yet...it was only 4:30 p.m....and all the snow makes it look even MORE small townish than it is....I guess it's about 40,000 people right now. We have Walmart, Applebee's, JB's, Frontier Pies, Taco Bell, Taco Time, Arctic Circle...who has the best fries EVER, and the best Fry Sauce to go with them!....Pizza Hut, Dominoes, McDonalds, Sonic, Dairy Queen, Subway, Gandolfo's, Burger King, Walgreens, Cold Stone, Wingers, Bajio, The REX Movie Theater, Kmart, local chinese and mexican restaurants, Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Papa Murphy's Pizza-Take & Bake, and ALL the banks you could possibly want)








The people....they are SERIOUSLY what make this small town so great. Everyone is so nice. People offer to help you with things like moving, or for you to use their snow scraper on your car :) They are very welcoming at church, and you feel at home, even when they know we will be moving in 3 months, once the house is done being built. For example...someone just knocked on Ryan's mom's door....it was two men from our church coming to help Ryan move our couch into our new apartment. Ryan didn't even call to have them come over! They just showed up, willing and able. That is nice. I t's neat (there's a word I picked up from Ryan over the last year) cause the two couples that live above our apartment are both in our ward. Both of them have really cute babies that we love to watch at church :)


(this is a picture of snow flakes on my car window today)




Two days after we got to Rexburg, we had our first snowfall. Mom and Dad had driven with Ryan and me up to Rexburg to pull a small U-Haul trailer for us with all of our stuff in it (which was a HUGE help to us, and we really appreciated). Mom called me Monday morning, before they were getting ready to come over to our hotel and say goodbye, and asked me,"What's that white stuff outside?". I had told her the night before that I had jumped up that morning out of bed to look out the window to see if there was snow (which there wasn't). I just anticipated it now that we were in "snow country". I had forgotten all about looking out the window that next morning until Mom "surprised" me with snow :) It was fun to see, and exciting since it was only the second time in my life that I had actually SEEN snow fall (the first being in San Antonio, many, many years ago....like when I was 12). I didn't drive in it at all that day cause this Arizona girl was NOT ready for it. I am too scared of sliding around. The snow started to melt a little by the end of the day, but remnants of the first "real" snowfall for the city of Rexburg were left on the ground in peoples yards for the rest of the week. I was so grateful that it waited until after we had gotten moved in before the winter REALLY started.

(Do you SEE how deep that snow is? It was about 3 inches this morning when I took this picture outside our apartment)



Friday brought us a couple different things. The first was we got to move into our apartment! We had been living out of a hotel for a week until the apartment was ready. So that was exciting to have a place of our own. It made it feel more real that we are staying here vs. feeling like we were here on vacation, visiting Ryan's mom and staying in a hotel. SOOO nice. The apartment is bigger and better laid out than our old one in Tempe. And thankfully has a nice, BIG laundry room, cause anyone that knows me KNOWS one of the biggest messes in my house is my clothes...so I'm glad I have somewhere to wash, dry, iron, hang, and leave my dirty clothes hamper in, instead of in my bedroom. I think this will help me be more organized. Our kitchen has a LOT more shelf and counter space...it's lovely. I already had the whole thing decorated the first night we moved in! I was THAT excited....


(That is our bedroom window to our apartment, with pretty trees beside it, next to the walkway to our cars...and Ryan shoveling our sidewalk after church today)








The second thing that happened on Friday was our second snowfall. AND....Pam drove in it BY HER SELF. That's right folks, I went out that night to pick up some things at Walmart during a pretty heavy snowfall. I didn't like it very much cause it was heavy, my windshield wipers didn't work too well (I need some new ones that don't just smear it around) and it was DARK outside, so I couldn't see the street turnoffs or lane markers. But, I made it home safe and sound. Ryan had me drive out to the house today, and I experienced my first sliding experiences while driving, but nothing bad :)

Friday's snowfall seems to have brought snow on for the winter! It snowed yesterday and today as well....and they are expecting snow all week except for maybe Friday or something like that. AHHHH. When we got up and went to church this morning it was 2 degrees outside! It is SO cold. Our windows get frozen shut on our cars so we have to open our doors when going through a drive thru :) We bought our own ice scrapers/snow brushes for our cars, as well as a small shovel to keep in our cars for emergencies, in case we ever have to dig our cars out :) I can't believe I'm even having this conversation.....



(This is Ryan brushing off my car, and then a picture of my Escape this morning before church)

The snow is beautiful, I will give you that. But it definitely is going to wreck havoc on my Arizona wardrobe. I'm going to have to find a whole new fashion sense out here that is snow friendly. My heels won't work out here very often...

I absolutely LOVE the trees they have here. I'm partial to these kind of "pine" trees, and various other trees that we don't have in Arizona. Seeing them change color for the winter is fabulous.

(These are some trees outside of our apartment)

(And a red tree that I found down Main Street....I love these red trees)

I had a job interview with BYU-Idaho over the phone with the Human Resource lady last Wednesday. It went really well, but she said it will probably take about 2 to 3 weeks until I hear back from them on a formal interview. She told me not to lose sleep over it....it takes a while for this kind of stuff to go through the education system, not to mention it's Christmas time. I'm hoping to hear back from them. It's as an Office Assistant for the Counseling department (like the Psychologists, not counseling for students registering for classes). I'm really excited about this position, because my ultimate desire is to get a degree in Psychology, and become a counselor for women in the church. I can't think of a better job for me than this, to prepare me for what I want to do as a career later in my life. They have seminars and stuff all the time, that I would help prepare for with the Counselors. They just did one a few weeks ago where they had some well known guest speakers come in and give seminars to the students on Eating Disorders. This kind of stuff gets me excited....cross your fingers, and say a little prayer for me. I would love it if I got this job. The HR lady told me I was a top candidate for the position. She was very impressed with my resume and all my experience, and wanted to know if I would be ok with the salary they were offering (wasn't bad for coming out here with no debt and a lower cost of living...$25,400...definitely a lot lower than what I WAS making, but this position is something I really love, and that makes it all worth it!), as well as wondered what was making me switch professions. She remembered me from an application I turned in to her about 3 weeks ago (she said I was a top candidate that time as well), but since I was still living in Arizona, they didn't follow through with me on that job, but now that I'm in Rexburg, she said she hopes to talk to me again soon. Sounded like she was pleased with our interview. I hope so...

The house started getting built more quickly this week, as the builder is wanting to get it completely built up outside, so they can work indoors during the winter snow. They had to wait for the trusses to come, so it stopped the last few days, and when we went out there to look at it this afternoon, it looks like they didn't get the roof on as hoped. And it also looks like they will be doing a LOT of sweeping tomorrow to get the snow out of the house :) They are estimating a February completion date. Only one more move....thank goodness. I'm tired of rotating boxes around.

(And here's a picture of our neighborhood to the North of our house)

My saving grace this week was driving into Idaho Falls two times to go clothes shopping at the mall out there. Idaho Falls is about 25 minutes from Rexburg, and is a fairly big city. It's nice to drive there when you need a little bit of the city feel :) The mall is just like the malls we had in Arizona....at least the older malls in Arizona, like Fiesta Mall :) It has Macy's, Penney's, Sears, Dillards, and all the other normal clothes stores in the mall. I got some GREAT deals at J.C. Penney's Friday night.

We have plans to drive to Ryan's aunt's house in Boise, ID for Christmas. We are leaving the Monday before (I think Dec. 22) and coming home the day after. That will be fun to see what Boise is all about.

(This is Ryan too chicken to get out of the car in the cold weather while I looked at the house)

And the last big thing I will leave you all with is..............dun dun dun..........no, I'm not pregnant. BUT, Ryan and I are celebrating our 1 year anniversary tomorrow (15th)! HOLY SMOKES! I can't believe it's already been a year. It's been a good year. If they say that the first year is the hardest, we should have smooth sailing ahead! It's been fun to get to know Ryan better this year, and for the man he is. Every day just gets better and better, and we had the opportunity to have some really neat talks on our drive up to Idaho that I wouldn't trade for anything....having a chance to dig deeper into ourselves and really let the other person in. It's a fun experience. Hopefully, in this next year if we are so blessed, we might be able to continue on with our learning experiences by adding another little body to our family. I've got to find me a job and some insurance first though. But you all will be informed of any such events when they transpire :) Here's to all my girlfriends who didn't think I would last a full year of resisting the urge to have a baby....neener neener. :)

I miss and love you all....and my warm Arizona!

Love,

Pam

California Dreamin' with a CPAP

AHHHH!!!! Someone slow the time down, please! There are officially 40 days left until Idaho. I'm getting into countdown mode, and trying to make sure we have everything in place. And yes, that includes anxiety medication! I started taking Zoloft again a few weeks ago to help with the anxiety/depression and also to keep me calm during this move, and in learning a new job and dealing with all the changes out in Idaho. It's helped me a lot. I haven't had any panic attacks for several weeks now.

The anxiety medication also helped cause I had to have ALL 4 of my wisdom teeth removed a week ago! I wasn't really nervous for the procedure, but more for the IV :) Everything went great though...they gave me a IV anesthetic, but didn't put me out all the way since I have sleep apnea, so I was awake during the whole thing (although drugged up enough that all I really remember is him telling me he was done! I don't remember him being in my mouth at all!). He also gave me a local anesthetic in my mouth to numb it up. The only incident we had was when they called Ryan in to the room to get me, and they started explaining to him how to change my gauze in my mouth, he got REALLY dizzy :) He said he started thinking about HIS experience with getting his teeth removed, and remembered all the blood that came out when he went to change his gauze...the thought made him weak in the knees! He told the nurses he didn't feel so good, so they took him to the other room. As he was headed for a chair, he blacked out and fell to his knees right in front of the chair. He came to quickly, and was trying to remember what he was doing...."oh yeah, I was going to sit in the chair". :) I was in the other room all by myself as all the nurses rushed in there with him. I heard them yell out for the doctor, but didn't know what was going on. The nurses came back in with me and asked me who was going to drive us both home now :) They gave Ryan a Slim-Fast Shake, and eventually he made it back into my room, a little more embarrassed :) Poor Ryan. But we got home, and he helped me all weekend with getting my prescriptions filled, buying me food and juice, and helping take my medicine, etc. He was a great help...I love him. My recovery was pretty easy...a swollen face, and some pain in my jaw, but nothing horrible. It was all very tolerable. Overall, I don't know why I put it off so long...I always envision things being worse than they really are. How could I complain about this situation? I had good drugs, a cute doctor, no pain, hardly any blood, and no infections afterward. That was a successful procedure :)



The other inquired about topic by some of you....how goes it with my CPAP? Well....as you know, the first several weeks I really wanted to throw it out just to get some sleep! Here was this thing that was supposed to make you feel refreshed in the morning, but instead, I was even MORE tired from the lack of being able to sleep with something different on my face! I really was scared that it would never get better, despite most peoples warnings that it took up to a month or more to get used to it. HOWEVER, I'm so glad I didn't give up on it (I really was determined to make it work) cause I'm here to tell you that I have officially become inaugurated into the CPAP Hall of Fame. I'm a life long user. I am used to sleeping with it now, and can fall asleep right away like I used to. I sleep through the WHOLE night with it, besides one or two wake ups, but I immediately fall back to sleep. I used to wake up every other hour or so when I first started wearing it. But now, I NEED my CPAP to fall asleep and I have dreams ALL NIGHT LONG! Having Sleep Apnea, I used to always wake myself up before I got into the deep REM sleep cause I would stop breathing, so your body wakes itself up just a little bit to get oxygen again...so I hardly EVER had dreams before :) And the even BETTER part? I don't snore. That's right, Pam no longer sounds like a growling bear (per Ryan), and in return, Ryan sleeps better, too :) I now wake up, and can focus at work. I don't have the fogginess that I used to, where it took people repeating things several times for me to catch what they were saying. I feel smart and capable. AND, I don't have the overwhelming urge to come right home from work and nap! :) YAY! I can see the benefits already, and I'm told they just get better and better as time goes on. I am PRO-CPAP! It was worth the several weeks of getting used to. Yes, I even took it with us to California....they tell you to make sure you even use it for naps!

Ryan and I had the opportunity to go to San Diego, CA two weekends ago for a friends wedding in the San Diego Temple. I lucked out cause my recommend expires at the end of this month, and I had forgotten to check the expiration date! I would have felt so bad if I had missed it. It was a beautiful wedding, and a true testament of change and the happiness that can enter our lives.

Couple other incidents while we were out in Cali....the first is we almost ran out of gas on the way to San Diego. YES. Pam's WORST FEAR actually almost came true! And guess who was driving???? ME! I screwed up. Normally, on the straight drive to LA using the I-10 we can get there on one tank of gas. However, the drive to San Diego is different with more mountains to go through, using up more gas. Stupid Pam misjudged it, and as we were getting to the end of the drive, the tank was getting lower and lower. We had to stop a few times in the mountain for Border Patrol check points, and after the last check point, the gas light came on. OH CRAP! Sitting in the middle of the mountains, without civilization around. We came up to an Indian Casino, but all I saw was the casino! Ryan made a short mention of "Maybe we can get gas at the casino?" I guess as his cue to me to get off....but I looked over and just saw the casino, so I kept going. We kept driving, and I could tell Ryan was getting really nervous as he would keep making comments about "hopefully we can get somewhere without running out", etc. This just bugged me cause talking out loud about it wasn't going to solve the situation! So I would turn up the radio as my cue to him to be quiet, and told him that "I'm saying a prayer", and I meant that quite literally. I had no other option at that point other than to pray that we would get to a gas station in time, leaving it in Heavenly Fathers hands as I coasted down the mountains, trying not to use as much gas as possible. And my other option would be to deal with the running out of gas situation when and if it actually happened. It wasn't going to do me any good if I sat there and worried about it. I figured if worse came to worse, we would use one of those emergency call boxes to get help, or call 911. We weren't THAT far outside the city that someone couldn't get us help within a reasonable time, and there was plenty of traffic. Of course, I rather NOT have that situation :) I kept praying and praying, and pleading and pleading. And low and behold, a gas station appeared up a hill ahead. Ryan had gotten a little upset at me, but mostly out of fear cause he said he didn't know what he was supposed to do if we ran out of gas...so that fear put him in a defensive mode :) But he later apologized as we were back on the road with a full tank of gas (we had .2 gallons left...we were almost on fumes!), and I let him drive the rest of the way so I could have a good cry and get out my fear and anxiety from the situation! I hope that never happens again. We got gas in Yuma on the way home :)

The other thing was we went to Scripps Aquarium. It was much smaller than I remember. It was interesting to see, but I have to admit that I like the Long Beach Aquarium better....it has WAY more things to see. The weather in California is COOOLLLL. Ryan would say it was cold :) He froze the whole time we were there! The weather in Rexburg has already cooled WAAYYY down, so we are in for quite the shocking surprise when we move :)

We also went to see the movie "Express" at the theater in Cali. It's the football movie based on a true story about the first black man to get the Heisman Trophy. It was a really good movie. Highly recommended. We enjoyed it....

Lately I've become addicted to watching CSI over and over on DVD. LOVE it. I watched several episodes on our laptop to and from California in the car :) The other thing we have been watching lately (and probably will be for some time, considering how many episodes and seasons there are) is Stargate SG-1. Ryan has all of the episodes, and LOVES that show. After a lot of pleading, I finally gave in and watched some with him (I always avoided it cause I assumed it was like Star Trek). I actually like it! They have sarcasm and humor in it that I like, and the story lines are pretty good.

The other thing I'm addicted to is reading the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. It's that series about vampires written by an LDS lady. I'm on the third book, and I'm making Ryan go see the movie with me when it comes out next month :) I can't decide who I like more...Edward or Jacob. I have a feeling there are a lot more twists and turns to come as I keep reading :)

Just a BLAAAHHHHG

September! Already....

This last month just flew by! And we are already half way through this month. I have a feeling that the next 3 months we have left here in Arizona before we head out to our new adventure in Idaho are going to go by very quickly.

I don't have anything cute to share for this past month (happens when you don't have anything but a husband right now :) No cute kids to speak of, or take pictures of). But a few things happened for us.

I went to the doctor earlier this last month for chest pains. I've been having these sharp pains in my left side of my chest. After one full night of nothing but pains, I decided to go to the doctor just in case (I have high cholesterol and triglycerides, so that worried me a little). While I was there I also asked if I could go in to get a Sleep Apnea test done. I've snored ever since I can remember (at least from the age of 10...I have a rather long and thick Uvula...you know, that thing that hangs down in the back of your throat? Yeah, my siblings used to tease me that I had a long "hangy").

The first set of roomates I had, I shared a room with one of them. After several months of living there, I noticed my roomate walk in to our bedroom super early in the morning. That's when I clued in that she had been sleeping on the couch for several weeks cause my snoring was so loud she couldn't sleep. I felt SOO horribly embarrassed, and slept on the couch myself for the next several months until our lease was up. I decided at that point that I would never share a room again with roomates to avoid that embarrasment and situation. I was often teased at girls camp for snoring (I think that's one of the main reasons why I never made it past my 3rd year at girls camp...you always hated that dreaded question before the first night of,"Does anyone snore??") and have a horrible memory of being teased by my mean boy cousins when I was 12 years old when I was visiting them in California and they were sleeping in the living room with me and my sister. I woke up and heard them in the kitchen making some kind of concoction to pour down my throat while I slept since I was snoring. I looked up and one of my cousins had come out of the kitchen and was standing over me to see if I was still asleep. They ran and got back in bed when I turned and looked at him. The next night when we were getting ready for bed, one of them said,"Don't snore like a freaking pig again tonight", really rudely. Needless to say, my snoring has always embarrassed me, but it was something I could do NOTHING about. It wasn't cause I was overweight, or something that I could control. It had to do with the make up of my throat! Man, it has always been such an anxiety creator for me if I knew I had to sleep with someone in the same room that wasn't my immediate family. I always dreaded getting married cause I didn't want to have my husband hate me for keeping him up all night. Thankfully, Heavenly Father must have known this was one of my worries, cause he gave me Ryan, who is the soundest sleeper there is. But over the last several months I've thought I needed to go get checked out for Sleep Apnea cause I wake up often feeling like I had stopped breathing, and am tired ALL DAY LONG, can't focus at work, and have a hard time pulling words out of my brain when having conversations. It really affects my whole life every day.

Anyways, the doctor set me up with a Stress Test (where you have to go run on a treadmill and they take an ultrasound of your heart to see if there is any blockage) and a Sleep Apnea Test.

I went to the Stress Test first....and I'm happy to report, that my heart is as healthy as it should be. No problems there. The cardiologist sent me on my way....but it WAS cool to see the ultrasound of my heart pumping :)

Then I had my Sleep Apnea Test. I wasn't nervous going into the test, and they have the room set up like a mini hotel room. It's very nice and relaxing, except for the fact that you have about 20 electrodes hanging off of your body and head, and there is a camera in the ceiling so they can see which side of your body you are laying on during the test. Anyone who knows me knows I suffer from anxiety. And I guess the idea of being somewhere different, with the camera, and that someone was monitoring me all night long was too much. I literally slept maybe an hour the whole night. At least in that hour, they were able to tell that I had episodes of Sleep Apnea.

They requested I come back in and get tested wearing the CPAP machine (little air mask you wear while you sleep so the air keeps constant pressure going through your throat at night, which stints your throat open so it doesn't close up and you get fresh oxygen to breath). They sent me back in with an Ambien to try to help me sleep this time. I'm not sure the total number of hours I slept that time (it still felt like it wasn't a full night, but definitely more than the first time...I remember I dreamed a little). I just got the final report back from my doctor, and they did diagnose me with Obstructive Sleep Apnea, and I have to pick up my very own CPAP machine to try at home. I told Ryan he could start referring to me as an Elephant :) I'm only 29, and I'm looking at having to use this machine for the rest of my life....but if it helps give me back a quality life, I'm all for it. I just want to feel normal and not in a daze all the time. They also say that Sleep Apnea can cause anxiety, so I'm hoping that some of my anxiety might go away too...wouldn't that be nice!!! I'll let you know how it goes once I start my CPAP therapy here at home.

The other BIG news is that Ryan was officially accepted to BYU-Idaho!!! That was our final step before the big move...making sure he could actually attend! I'm proud of him and am excited to see where BYU-Idaho leads him in his future career endeavors.

We are just getting geared up for the move. I'm sure it will be here before I am ready. I need to start packing boxes and throwing things we don't need away! I still have stuff sitting at my parents house that I need to go through! EEK. Not fun. But it must be done....

Rockband 2 comes out on Sunday. Ryan is planning on running down to Best Buy first thing Monday morning to pick it up. We are excited for it, and the new songs we get to play!!! YAY!

I've been in kind of a depressive funk lately, and I'm hoping I come out of it soon. I think the move, and leaving my friends and family, is part of it. I think my medical stuff lately is another part, and being anxiety ridden about the fact that I have officially been TOLD I stop breathing while I sleep (I can't WAIT for that CPAP machine, just to stop worrying about it!). And I think the fact that I've gained 15 pounds in the last 9 months that I've been married (after staying at a decent weight for 3 years while I was single) and can't fit into any of my cute clothes anymore, and my hair color looks like crap ever since my best friend moved to Las Vegas last year....it's all just piling up. And the sad thing about depression is once you are in it, you can't do anything to fix the problems you are complaining about cause you just don't feel like doing ANYTHING! I hate this cycle. Hopefully it will pass soon...I usually get into a depressive funk a few months every year...and this is my time this year! I'm hoping to get out of it before we get out to Idaho, cause I want to start trying to have a baby soon after we get out there, but if I can't get out of this funk, I'll ask to get on some medication...and I don't want to be on that medication when I'm pregnant (they prefer you NOT to be). I think if I could motivate myself AT ALL to start exercising, that would be half of my battle. Now if I could just do that..............

Sorry, I didn't mean this post to sound negative or anything. Things are going good for us! We are getting all our debt paid off before the move, are enjoying our time together as a married couple without kids, and are both looking forward to what lies ahead for us and our family.

OH, AND we got a new calling at church as Primary Teachers for the Valient classes (age 9-12). Ryan does good teaching them about the scriptures. He had to teach all 10 of them by himself last Sunday while I was having my last Sleep Apnea Test done. I was so proud of him and how he handled it. He enjoyed teaching them.

I got to go out to lunch with two of my sisters today, Candy and Kristen. I'm trying to spend as much time with my family as possible before I move, and it was fun to go out with them. We also went and spent some money together at Target, clothes shopping! I still had some gift cards from our Wedding, so I bought myself a treat with a few new clothes. I needed them! :) We had fun together.

I'm also addicted (no pun intended) lately to that show on the A&E channel, Intervention. It's about families who are surprising their family member with an intervention for their drug or alcohol abuse, to send them to a treatment center to recover. I find it interesting to see where people come from in their lives that bring them to that point. They all have stories, and they usually are full of abuse or dysfunction. It's interesting to see how we all really have two roads we can travel in life, when dealing with hard things growing up. Some people will choose to go down one path and keep their lives going in a positive direction despite what has happened to them, while others take what was done to them and spiral out of control down the other path. I love the psychology of it all, and quite honestly, the sympathetic/compassionate side of me aches for these people who have experienced so much tragedy in their lives, and makes me yearn for their happiness and success. I want to help and save them all, but I can't. As I want to do some sort of counseling later in my life for women dealing with abuse, I am interested in learning all I can about how people end up in these situations, and figuring out what the best way to help them out of something that seems hopeless to them, keeps me watching.

That's about it for me today! I'll try to have some fun news to share later this week to off set this plain old blog :) I can't pull my creative Pam out today, but I'll do that soon!

One Word Questions

One word. That's all you can write as your answer. Can you do it? Not as easy as you might think. Change the answers to fit you and post! It's hard to only use one word answers!

1. Where is your cell phone? .................... Purse
2. Your significant other?....................... Ryan
3. Your hair?.................................... Poopy
4. Your mother? .................................Caring
5. Your father?....................................Works
6. Your favorite thing?..........................Food
7. Your dream last night?........................Interesting
8. Your favorite drink...........................Pepsi
9. Your dream/goal?..............................Mom
10. The room you're in?..........................Living
11. friends?.....................................Funny
12. Your fear?...................................Death
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years...........House
14. Where were you last night?...................Home
15. What you're not?.............................Organized
16. Muffins......................................Crumbs
17. One of your wish list items?.................Perfume
18. Where you grew up?........................... Arizona
20. What are you wearing?.......................G's
21. Your TV?.....................................Sony
22. Your pets?...................................Roaches
23. Your computer? ..............................Laptop
24. Your life?...................................Anxious
25. Your mood?...................................Tired
26. Missing someone?.............................Jen
27. Your car?....................................Useful
28. Something you're not wearing?................hmmm....
29. Favorite Store?..............................Clothes
30. Your summer?.................................Hot
31. Like someone?...............................Yes
32. Your favorite color?.........................Brown
33. Last time you laughed........................Today
34. Last time you cried?......................Saturday

Winning Streak

So this last weekend proved good for me...

My good friend, Tera, that used to work with me before she ran off and had twins, invited me and Ryan over Friday night so I could play with her and her Bunco group (Ryan hung out with her husband, Jeff, and had fun of his own by going out with Jeff and buying a really expensive video game without talking to me first ;). It was her turn to host Bunco night, so she thought she could invite me :) I've never played Bunco before, but heard it was a lot of fun. All these women seem to get addicted to their Bunco groups. I figured why not give it a try? It's a dice game, sorta like Yahtzee, where you each take turns rolling dice and you get points if you roll the right number (this is a very condensed description :) Anyways, about 12 women showed up (all married, and most with children)...and Tera, I must add, was a gracious host and supplied dinner for everyone (yummy Chicken Enchiladas) and homemade guacamole and bean dip...YUM! The first round of playing I had NO idea what was happening. I trusted my teammate to keep track if I was supposed to keep rolling or not, and if I got points :) Finally, after a few rounds, I quickly caught on (it's quite easy, but VERY fun...it also has to do with the sociality of it all, that makes it so enjoyable). And guess what???!!! I WON! That's right...I had the most wins at the end of the night (see attached proof) and as the winner, I got this lovely crystal bowl from Tera! WOOHOO!

I loved the Bunco group idea so much, that I hope when I move to Idaho I either get a group started on my own, or find a group to join! It's so much fun to get together with a group of friends and play games!

ALSO, the other big win in my life....last night, Ryan and I went bowling down at Apache Lanes for our Family Home Evening together. Generally, Ryan and I both suck at bowling. It's not our best sport. Our night bowling is usually spent down the "Walk of Shame" (you know, that really embarrassed/defeated walk back to your seat when you roll gutter ball after gutter ball, and you have to pass all of your friends? That's the Walk of Shame). We decided to play 3 games together. The first two games stayed true to who we are...and that sure ain't bowlers! I broke 100 on the second game, and Ryan came up at 60. Well, something must have changed in the air, cause on the 3rd game, miracles started happening. Yes. Miracles. I'm up first....and I start off with a BANG! It was a STRIKE! Then my second bowl....another STRIKE! WHAT IS GOING ON??? Third bowl....you guessed it....A TURKEY! STRIKE! Amazing! Of course by the 4th bowl, I had to take a break, and didn't get the strike...5th bowl...STRIKE! This went on TWO MORE TIMES! I got 6 strikes total! AND a spare! 7 out of 10 aint bad folks! I had already hit 100 points on my 4th frame, and by the end of the game I got a 186! Holy cow...that's nearly 200! Ryan was in utter disbelief (as was I). I kicked everyone's butt that was playing around us...it was awesome :) I think Ryan being the man, took a hit to his ego a little bit, and the Walk of Shame seemed a little more painful for him in my glory...but he was a good sport as we left the building and he told me how good I did and that he was proud of me :) I have to journal this event, cause heaven knows it might not ever happen again :) Truly amazing.

Nothing much else new going on...we got a letter in the mail today from Ryan's old employer. When Ryan quit his job his boss didn't process his paper work, so Ryan got automatic deposits into our bank account on two paydays AFTER he quit. I finally had Ryan call down there and tell them what was going on so they would stop. But we still had his paychecks in our bank account, and obviously had to return the money ($2050!). We were smart enough not to spend it when it got deposited, so we cut a check and sent it back. They sent us a letter today saying they received our payment, were very appreciative of us taking the initiative to send the money back, and ended it by saying how Ryan's honesty was "admirable". That was a nice end to our day. Trust me, saying goodbye to $2000 to a couple getting ready to move to Idaho and are trying to save as much money as they can, wasn't the easiest...but it was the right choice...I couldn't have lived with myself knowing we had money that didn't belong to us.

Anyways, I'm off to make Spaghetti. Ryan called a few hours ago saying it sounded really good, and wanted me to make it and bring it down to him at work for dinner...he tends to get wrapped up in his computer game he plays before work, and doesn't eat. I'm sure he's starving by now! At least Spaghetti is something I can't really ruin, can I?

Garage living....

So, while I was home for lunch last Monday, Ryan's mom called and told us about her final plans. She is going to build this house (only probably not so much of the wood on the inside walls) and build on the attached three car garage with an apartment above it, for us to live in. The garage will be attached to the back of the house where the mechanial room and cedar shower and tub are, and our apartment will be above that, next to where the loft is. We can either go in and out through the garage (our own private access...she's building stairs through the garage, which will be nice in the winter) or through the door in the loft. She's also going to have the gazebo out front more swung around on the side of the house, and she is putting a hot tub on the gazebo! YAY! She thinks the grandkinds will like the little "Bonco" area below the loft, where they can read books in their own little nook.

We thought this was a great idea for her, first off, because it is a TON LESS than building an UNFINISHED basement for us to live in. And she will have an extra apartment that she can rent out to relatives (nieces or nephews, but the grandkids stay for free!) in the future if they want to go to BYU-Idaho...or a place for us to come stay at when we come to visit in the future, so we don't have to stay at a hotel. The only outstanding debt she'll have is her house, which she will pay off within 15 years (when she turns 65...perfect for retirement age). I thought she made a great decision to set herself up for retirement :) I think it will be a great investment for her. The builder likes the design so much that he thinks he can get away with building it in a REALLY nice subdivision, even though it will be far smaller than the other houses. He thinks the architectural integrity of the house will let them get away with building there. Which will also be a good investment for her to have the smallest house in a very prominent neighborhood. Should be easy to sell if she ever needed to.

Anyways, should be fun! She says if we start having a family while we are there, she would even switch us for the house/her in the apartment, since she has two bedrooms, and we'll just have the one bedroom in the apartment. I told her she wouldn't have to do that (it makes me feel bad!) but she said it would be plenty of space for her to live in while we finish out school there...I told her we would figure it out when the time came :) I'm alright putting any little ones in the living room for a while, while we finish up school there. We'll see what the future holds. But it's getting more exciting the more firm our plans get, like mom getting a house built! YAY!

http://www.eplans.com/craftsman_house-plans/HWEPL55632.hwx
http://www.eplans.com/traditional_house-plans/HWEPL64436.hwx

Sleep Talking

Ryan is a sound sleeper. Which is good, cause honestly, I snore...not a little bit...but A LOT. So I've always appreciated that I married Ryan cause he sleeps right through it all.

The other thing I appreciate about him is that he sleep talks. AND he's one of those who will respond right back to you. Usually he doesn't remember anything he talks about when I ask him in the morning.

Well, this morning, around 7 a.m. I wake up feeling the whole bed shaking. I look over at Ryan and see a HUGE grin on his face. Ryan is laughing hysterically in his sleep (yet completely out loud). This wasn't just a small laugh, it was a full-on hearty laugh, as if we were having a conversation and he was laughing. I decided to play with it a little bit, so I asked him what was so funny. He chuckles a little and says,"1-800-STINK!" and then busts out laughing again. :) Crack me up.

When I talked to him about it this morning, he actually remembered saying 1-800-STINK, but can't remember what in the world his dream was about. Too funny.

What can brown cookies do for you?

Late last night, Ryan decided to make our chocolate chip cookies. These are the type of cookies that come in a package, and all you have to do is add eggs and butter.

Not much to it....just the way I like it! I was so proud of Ryan cause he was in the kitchen making them all on his own...when he puts in his first batch of cookies in the oven and says,"I don't know....we'll see how these turn out....things turn out weird whenever I make them, especially baking." I wasn't sure why he was so pessimistic about it all (Ryan is generally a VERY optimistic person...enough for both of us, cause I am on the pessimistic end of things). As he was coming out into the living room to wait for them to bake, I decide I need a bite of cookie dough! How can you NOT take a bite of cookie dough when making cookies?? That's the best part! So as I pass by him and tell him I need a bite, he gets this kinda weird look on his face and says he hopes they turn out ok. As I go into the kitchen and look into the mixer bowl, I see this:

BROWN COOKIES!!!! WHAT??? These were just normal chocolate chip cookies....nothing brown about them, except for the chocolate chips! I was SOOO perplexed! I asked Ryan WHAT happened, and he said he didn't know! He said the mix was white when it came out of the package, but brown when he stirred it all together! HUH??? I just couldn't understand this, or why it happened. I SWORE he was lying to me, and just trying to play a joke on me. I kept bugging him over and over about what happened and what he put in it. I thought he might have put some cocoa in it or something, just to make me freak out or something. He promised me he did nothing to the cookies. The dough TASTED normal...it just didn't LOOK normal. The cookies were pretty flat, which we didn't mind, but they didn't rise very much. And after they were done cooking, this is what they looked like (and they WEREN'T burned...far from it!).

So weird!!! I'm still so confused as to what happened to the cookies...but they taste good :) Does anyone know what might have happened?

Ryan works tonight, so I'm off to clean the house to keep me busy until he gets home around 10 p.m. We are so excited cause Batman comes out this weekend! We're planning on going to see it Saturday morning (when it's cheaper and less crowded!). We can't wait! :)

Why does Walle have a roach as a friend?

I hate the summer in Arizona for numerous reasons...not only is the heat enough to melt your skin off, but the monsoon season brings more than just floods...it brings sewer roaches! BLAH! Seriously...I walked into my bathroom last night around midnight to get ready for bed, and as SOON as I turned on the light, my eyes gravitated to something dark sitting right next to my bathroom toilet...


"RYAN!!!!!! Help, I need you!!!!!" I yelled, while shaking my hands wildly and making noises like,"blahhhhhhh blahhhh blahhhhh". I was in a predicament. Stay there and stare at the huge roach, who must have felt my eyes baring down on him so he was scared to move an inch, and almost looked dead....OR run away and lose eye contact with him, which would lead to a roach disappearing to the unknown...if I did this would he end up in my bed? My clothes in the laundry basket? Where would he go? So many thoughts and questions, and choices that needed to be made. After standing there for a minute, full on knowing Ryan couldn't/wouldn't get up right at that minute cause he was in the middle of some quest in the game he was playing on the computer, and knowing that I wasn't going to actually APPROACH the roach myself (ha! I just said appROACH the roach) and didn't feel like standing there and staring at it all night, I took the chance that he might remain still for a bit longer, and I also might be able to coax Ryan away for a minute. So...I did it. I LEFT the roach. I went to the spare bedroom and kinda talked about how gross it was again to Ryan, hoping he might think it was really nasty too so he would come kill it, but no such luck. Ok...I'm gonna have to suck it up and kill it myself. I happen to have some Raid in the house from when we had an ant infestation a few months ago after Ryan picked off all the pineapple from his pizza and left it in the pizza box on the floor. The ants went CRAZY and must have been able to smell that sweetness from outside! Ryan woke me up around 2 a.m. and told me we had ants in our living room. Our solution that night was to vacuum them all up, since we have a bag-less vacuum. Worked quite well. We had about 3 different ant lines coming in our house that time...not fun. Anyways, so I decided to Raid this roach! I could do it! At least I had something to spray on him, so I didn't have to get close. I got armed with my Raid, and headed into the bathroom...only to discover, he was gone!!!!



I KNEW IT! I knew he would leave! AHHHH!!!! That created MORE screaming and flailing of arms and running back to Ryan. CRAP! Now I have a roach on the loose somewhere in my house. Ryan "protected" me by keeping me in the extra bedroom with him until he was done with his quest. I went on the couch and fell asleep until he was done, so we could go back to the bedroom together, and he could make sure there weren't any roaches in my bed. BLAH. I hate roaches. More than anything.


I pulled my free credit report today. My one free credit report that the government so graciously allows us once a year! I'm happy to say, I have great credit, and no one is stealing my identity :) YAY!


So tonight, Ryan worked, and I met up with one of my old friends, Trisha, for dinner. I hadn't seen her since before I got married too. She cracks me up...so many stories! We ate at Sweet Tomatoes (MMMM.....) and talked for 2 hours! It was nice to get out and be with someone, while I waited for Ryan to get off work.


Ryan just walked in, so I better go and hang out! Jay Leno is on, so we'll probably finish watching this. Ryan's surfing the fridge for dinner. He hasn't found anything he wants, but he did find our cookie mix, and we've decided to make cookies tomorrow :)

Ryan and I have been married for 7 months as of TODAY!!! Can you believe it? 7 months!!! Happy 7 month Anniversary, baby! I love ya! Time flies when you are having fun....

Monday, Monday....

What is there to say about Mondays? Your weekend is over, and it's back to work! The hustle and bustle of the world comes back into your life. I'll admit, I wasn't thrilled about going to work this morning...and I could hardly keep myself awake all day! But all in all, it was an ok day for us today!

I got up and left to work, as my cute husband got to lay in bed...ahhh...jealousy ensues...I brought a wheat bagel and some fat free cream cheese to work for breakfast today, trying to eat a little healthier and save some money by not going across the street and getting it from the cafe next to my work. As I told my salesman today when he asked how it was...it was fat free...how do you think it tastes? :) Can't even compare to the fresh bagels next door, with the mound of fully-fat cream cheese they put on it, but those bagels next door might also be contributing to that weight gain I was referring to a few blogs ago :) I thought it best to start eating my own :)

I text Ryan around 9:15 a.m., still expecting him to be in bed since school doesn't start until 11:20 a.m. I asked him if he could try picking up the living room a little bit, and load the dish washer since the repair man would be coming today to fix our air conditioner. To my surprise, he text back almost immediately saying he was already in the process of doing that :) YAY for my husband! I thought that was so good of him to already be on top of that....and I much appreciated it. (As a side note, he found out today he got a 91% on his math test! Good job, babe! I'm proud of you...summer math is NOT easy....).

I came home for lunch around 1:30 p.m., just as Ryan got home from school. The repair man came promptly at 2:00 p.m. to fix our air. A process I expected to be long and drawn out took the man merely 5 minutes top to fix. 5 minutes!!!! He walked in and knew what to do the second he came in. Wow. Apparently we had too much gunk in our bathroom sink (toothpaste, etc) that it was clogging up the pipe that also drained the water from our air conditioner (who knew it was attached to our bathroom sink! So much for cleaning the living room....the man went into our master bathroom! EEK :) It wasn't too bad, but we weren't prepared for him to have to walk through our bedroom to our bathroom. At least nothing embarrassing was laying out...

So...we now have a fully functioning air conditioner! YAY! No more pot, and no more leaks :)

Today was my nephew, Brandt's, 8th birthday, so Ryan and I went over to my sister Michele's house with my parents and other sister for cake and ice cream! Woohoo! Ryan and I stuck around for an hour, and then we took off to go get some dinner (around 8 p.m.). We made a stop first at a Whole Foods store to find a new grain that we were introduced to when we visited Idaho...it's called Spelt. Never heard of it? Don't worry, neither had I. It's a sort of wheat/oat type grain (looks like wheat until you cook it, and then it opens up into an oat type look). It's really healthy, and REALLY, uh...cleans out your system. :) We thought we would try it again and see how it makes us feel, since both of us are trying to eat healthier.

As we were getting back into our car after leaving Whole Foods, I heard about 6 loud "pops". Being from the valley, I knew EXACTLY what that sound was....Ryan, on the other hand, had never heard those sounds before, and didn't know what it was. "Get me IN the car! Those were gun shots!" I eagerly urged Ryan. He was casually like,"Was that what that was? I've never heard gunshots before" :) We drove over to Qdoba in the same plaza to get something to eat. As we were finishing up at the cash register and looked out the window, we saw an ambulance and several cop cars on the other side of the plaza. Holy Cow! I didn't realize it was THAT close...freaked me out. Can you say ghetto? EEK. I won't miss that part of Arizona when I move to Idaho :)

Ryan ordered a burrito for dinner...but made a HUGE mistake. One thing about Ryan, he HATES tomatoes. I mean absolutely HATES tomatoes. He cannot swallow food if it has tomato in it...his tongue is super sensitive and he can taste whenever there is tomatoes in something...he can even just taste the left over FLAVOR if there WAS a tomato on something. It had been a while since Ryan had been to Qdoba, and forgot what salsa was what. When he asked for mild salsa, he didn't realize it was pretty much pico de gallo. Yes. LOADED with HUGE tomato chunks. As soon as he saw the lady putting it on his burrito, he panicked, realizing what he had done, but felt it was too late to say anything. As we first sat down to our meal, I had a distraught Ryan on my hands, where he felt like he couldn't even eat his burrito, and thought his whole night had been ruined.

So that's when the operation began. With fork and knife in hand, he sliced open that burrito straight down the middle, pulled it apart delicately, and began removing the tomato pieces. He had steady hands, and was able to remove all of the bad tissue :) After about 5 long minutes of diligently hunting through the burrito, he sewed his burrito back up and all that was left as proof of his hard laboring efforts, was this mound on the table:

Ryan was able to enjoy the rest of his burrito, besides that ONE time when he stopped cold in his chewing, and leaned over the table...I panicked for a minute, asking him if he was ok cause he looked like he was choking or something. He barely got the words out that he wasn't ok, so I continued to be a little worried, when finally he squeaked out that he tasted tomato in his mouth (mind you, this was just the FLAVOR of tomato...no actual tomato was in his mouth). :) Oh, my little Ryan. I love you. After a swig of his drink, he was back to normal, and finished up his burrito.

We headed back home, singing to Weezers new album, and then got in our nightly positions with me on the laptop in the living room, and him playing his game on the computer in the spare bedroom. Ahh...life is good.

P.S. Did you hear about the Indymac Bank closing, and tons of people losing their hard earned money they saved for retirement? So sad....I couldn't imagine what it would feel like to lose the money you saved to keep you going throughout your life. That's why it's so important to DIVERSIFY, DIVERSIFY, DIVERSIFY your funds!

Pam's Fantabulous Saturday

I was getting dressed yesterday afternoon to meet up with some girlfriends for lunch and a pedicure, and as I was doing my hair in our extra bathroom, I kept hearing dripping. This was odd, I thought, because we never USE the extra bathroom for showering, EVER...so I didn't know why dripping would be going on in there. As I checked behind the shower curtain I FOUND.....nothing. What the heck? So I walked out of the bathroom to head to our bathroom to check if the shower was dripping in there (after all, I HAD just gotten done taking a shower). As soon as I walked out of the bathroom, I felt something wet hit my head! Huh?? I looked up, and saw water dripping out of our airconditioner unit in our hallway. GREEEAATTT....only a few more months living here and things couldn't wait to break down AFTER we left. I put a pot underneath it to catch the drips, and asked Ryan if he would go open it up to see what the problem was. "Sure", he said, while playing a game on the computer..."It's probably just condensation or something". After several more minutes of asking him to check it, cause it was REALLY dripping...a steady stream of water...not condensation...and I was worried it might cause water damage, and heaven forbid, a pipe break that is going to flood our house or something (this is my over dramatic worry-wart part of my mind) I finally got the folding chair and our screwdriver out, and hopped up to open it myself (of course this finally got his attention where he knew I meant business, so Ryan finally came into the kitchen...funny how that works :) When I opened it, you could see water streaming out of a VERY rusted pipe where the water flows in to the airconditioner. Every time our air is on, and water is pumping through, it comes out the pipe. Great. So, we are trying to keep the air off as much as possible (thankfully it's not that hot here this week, with all the rain, but it IS humid). We'll go down to the office tomorrow morning to have maintenance come change the pipe. Hopefully this is an easy fix, and not something that drags on. As for now, this is what we are using for protection:



And this is our rusted out airconditioner...if you look closely, on the right, you can see water dripping out:







So I finished getting dressed to head out with some girlfriends I haven't seen since getting married (almost 7 months ago!!!). We ate a late lunch at Applebee's down on Gilbert/Baseline. It was fun to catch up on gossip from our old singles ward, and find out who is dating/marrying who! :) Afterwards, we went to Diane's Nail Salon (or something like that) just down the street on Gilbert & Southern, in the northeast corner of the plaza. This was where my friend I was with goes at least once a month for the last 3 years! They all know her by name there :) They were all SUPER friendly, the place is clean, and they rub your legs and feet FOREVER! The lady I had had to work on my feet a little longer to remove all my nasty calluses...one of the down falls of wearing heels all the time. I got a nice French Pedicure, and the lady did a great job...so great, that she even (and I'm not sure if I should share this or not) TRIMMED the hair on my big toes :) HA! I thought that was great. While I was over drying my toenails, she came over with some cream to give me a BACK MASSAGE!!! It was heaven! I think it was quite honestly the best shoulder massage I've ever gotten. And the cream was the menthol kind, that kept on going after she was done. So fabulous. And that was all free of charge, and standard there. Can you believe it? I've never been to a place that does all that, just for a pedicure. Here are my cute toes:



After that, I dropped by my parents house (Ryan had to work yesterday night from 4-10 p.m., so I was looking for company) but they were out to dinner, so I headed over to Walmart to do some grocery shopping. Ryan and I hadn't been in almost 2 weeks, and we were literally on our last two sheets of toilet paper, last blob of toothpaste, last drop of contact solution, and down to bread and water in our fridge :) It was time. On the way out (after an hour and a half of shopping...I hate grocery shopping, especially when I don't know what I'm going to do for dinners) I picked up my girly splurge by getting a Star Magazine....I love gossip magazines! I get to tell Ryan all the gossip going on, like they are all our best friends. He loves it just as much! Plus, Star has crossword puzzles in them, and Ryan and I like to do those together :)




I came home, had some cereal for dinner....

(my favorite meal...even on our honey moon, when Ryan went down to Downtown Disney for both of us after a long day being at the theme parks, I had him buy me a bowl of cereal to bring back up to me at the hotel, from WOLF GANG PUCK'S EXPRESS. HA! Here is this world renowned chef, and I have Ryan come back with a bowl of cereal. Poor kid, he said the guy at the register just looked at him like,"REALLY? Are you really buying cereal?" Hey, the way I look at it, why serve it there if you aren't trying to sell it! :) I really wanted it! Of course, once we discovered Wolf Gang's 4 cheese macaroni and cheese the next night, we were hooked on that instead :)



I finished my magazine last night, Ryan got home, we watched some Mad TV and Saturday Night Live (switched between the two, depending on who's skit was the stupidest or not), and fell asleep. It was a good day.....

WIIIIIIIIIIII

Ryan and I bought a Wii Fit today! YAY! It seems pretty fun so far...I definitely could get used to using it on a daily basis for some exercise. We are both determined to lose about 20 pounds. We'll keep you posted on how it works out for us :)

6 Random Things About Pam

I had a friend that tagged me to list 6 random things about myself...so I'll give this a try.

1) I went down the worlds largest raftable waterfall (25 feet) in New Zealand. It was an 8 man raft, with a 50-50 chance of flipping on the way down. I'm happy to say, we didn't flip! :)

2) I absolutely love to eat tomatoes whole, like you would eat an apple, but hate them sliced and on my sandwiches/hamburgers.

3) I played the violin all growing up, and was even 1st Chair Violin in my Junior Year in high school.

4) I was ambidextrious (sp?) until I broke my left arm in Kindergarten, falling off of my older sisters (too big for me) bike, and was forced to use my right arm for 6 weeks, while my left arm was in a cast!

5) I am absolutely TERRIFIED of E.T. Yes. You read that right...E.T. As in Extra Terrestrial. I saw that movie in the movie theater with my family when I was only 3 years old (probably one of my earliest memories...I can actually remember this). I sat through the whole movie with my moms hand over my eyes, and I would spread her fingers every so often to see through until I got scared again. My mom bought me an E.T. action figure to help me get over my fear. You could push a button on his back and his head would raise up. I ripped his head off, and threw him away. That's how I deal with my fear. And yes, I'm still scared of him to this day. I refuse to watch that movie, but Ryan says he is going to get our kids addicted to watching it over and over again just to torture me.

6) When I'm watching something very emotional on t.v., like a story on babies, or family or something, and my eyes start welling up and I want to cry, I start laughing instead. I guess to counter act the crying, I laugh to diffuse the tears. It's the weirdest thing. All that emotion gets built up, and laughter comes out to relieve it.

That's me in a nut shell....I'm a mixed nut at that. :)

I-DA-HO

Gall, it's been forever since posting on here...nothing new ever happens, and since I don't have any cute kids to blog about yet, I run out of things to say! I figure once we make the big trek to Idaho, I'll have a whole sort of new adventures to blog about, and to keep up with everyone I leave in Arizona!

Ryan and I made a quick trip to Idaho last month with his mom. We decided I had better visit it while it's warm and pretty, before moving in the depths of winter :) Wow. What an eye-opening experience. Idaho has the landscape I like...tons of greenery and mountains/hills. I will admit, as much as I LOVE Arizona, I don't care for the desert scenery much. So I am welcoming this new change to greenery. On the other hand, the part of Idaho we will be living in is SMALL. I've never lived in a small town, and thought that I never WOULD live in a small town...I'm a big city girl at heart, although, keeping an open mind, I've never EXPERIENCED small town life. I could, very well, come to appreciate it MORE than city life. We did a lot of house hunting in our short weekend...and it looks like Ryan's mom is more than likely either building a twin home or a house with a completed basement with kitchen and seperate entrance through the garage, out in Rexburg, ID. That's where BYU-Idaho is, so with the gas costs, etc. these days, Rexburg just made most sense.

(Below are some pictures on our way to Jackson Hole, WY, which is only 2 hours from Rexburg...Yes, that's snow on the mountains in the middle of JUNE).

We got to meet some family friends of Ryan's mom, and it was good to at least meet more people in Idaho that I will be able to feel like I can "do stuff" with...so I won't feel alone. They were so nice and welcoming, and quite honestly, down to earth, which I love.

The closer I get to the "move", the more I realize that I WILL miss my family. I thought it wouldn't be a problem for the most part, since I'm so independent, but just KNOWING that my family is not at arms reach is a little sad for me. But moving on to this new part in our lives as OUR new little family, is exciting too. And I think I'll like the safe/clean/down home part of Idaho that you can't get here in the Valley. It's a totally different atmosphere. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll have some of my own immediate family move out that way in a few years...so I can get the best of both worlds ;) One of my other sisters is more than likely moving to North Carolina in the next month or so, with her 4 boys and husband. It feels so weird that our stagnant life is yet again being shaken up in all sorts of directions!

Right now, we are just trying to save money, get all our debt paid off by the time we leave, and head to Idaho with a little bit of savings. Figuring out what to do with all of our stuff is the next big step...sell it and buy new stuff in Idaho, or rent a U-Haul for over $1K (not including GAS). We'll get it all figured out eventually...I'm just trying not to worry too much about it right now :)

The other thing on my mind most lately is how unforgiving marriage has been with my weight....good golly. I've stayed the same weight for at least two years straight...not that it was my IDEAL weight, but it was a manageable one, and one I could live with. But almost 7 months after marriage, and WOOOAAAHHH NELLY! I've gained almost 15 pounds!!!! Not pretty. As any girl can understand, that can really wreck havok on a girls self esteem. I've felt SO not pretty lately, and my look and attitude can attest to it. I'm very self conscious of how I look and feel right now, and quite honestly, I'm a little depressed about it. Stuck in a rut, and going through the cycle of negativity about it in my head. Making dinner for TWO people is so different now (I was ok eating cereal every night as a single girl, but that doesn't work for Ryan :). I'm going to try to get determined to LOSE the weight before moving to Idaho. Not only for myself, but to also prepare my body the best for hopefully having babies once we are out there. My cholesterol and triglycerides aren't at their best. I've got a lot of work to do...I'm just hoping I can do it. I'm at a loss for meal ideas, and controlling the snacking that goes on at our house. Blah, blah, blah.

Anyways, that's about it for us. Nothing new yet, but I'm sure more will come in the next few months. It's late, and I have work in the morning...so I'm off for now!

Sweet dreams,

Pam

Glorious! (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

**NOTE--Sadly, this was the last post Ryan has ever done...once he lived here and we were "steady" I guess there was no more need for the computer romancing :) HA! We got engaged about a week and a half after this post (2 months after we started dating), and were married 4 months later on December 15th, 2007 (total of 6 months dating time). And last month marked our year anniversary of when we started dating each other! WOW how time flies...For those of you just joining in, I have posted all of the Blog entries that Ryan ever wrote on his Myspace blog while we were just starting to date, mostly for our own family history purposes. If you want to skip over them to see what we are currently up to, feel free to do so :) Our feelings won't be hurt**PAM

Sunday, August 12, 2007

The past couple months have gone by in a whirlwind!

I have returned home from my mission. Had my third back surgery. Moved to Arizona. Got a new job at the University of Phoenix. Best of all, I met the most wonderful woman of them all.

It hasn't been easy... It's all been new, exciting, and a little nerve wracking at times. However, it's all been good. I am grateful for all of it!

Thanks to my friends Kyle and Jen... Pam, I loves ya!

With all the shenanigans and goings on... you'd think I would be ready to settle down and slow down and just chill. Quite the contrary, things are only going to get crazier! I'm excited!

Survey says... (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

**NOTE--Ryans intellectual side coming out....**PAM

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

I don't get many things right the first time. In fact, I am told that a lot.

Can one be predispositioned to fail a given task? Why?

What happens if a person doesn't quite measure up to the standards of a peer?

Which is better: The effort, or the end result? Why?

What reaction from peers should one expect for lacking knowledge on any given subject?

If a person is called "dumb" often enough, does that mean they are dumb? Why?

How does one know the difference between a cutting or kidding remark?

Is a person allowed to have feelings, or is it better to be invincible? Why?

Is a person allowed to express thier feelings?

If yes, can they do so without reproach? If no, why not?

A Few Observations (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

**Note--One of my roomates had dated (briefly) a guy named Callous at the time of this blog. Thus the reasoning for his definition of Callous :) **PAM


Tuesday, July 17, 2007

People who play piano cannot be punks. To prove my point, I reference the music video, "My Favorite Accident" by Motion City Soundtrack. He's not rocking out, he's having a seizure!

Callous: (adj.) Insensitive, indifferent, unsympathetic. Consequently, it's a bad name for a child.

MoHawk and Mullet. A waste of two perfectly good "M" words.

Pam's hot.

I love and support art. With that said, there sure is some sucky art out there.

I lost my train of thought... I'll have to continue this another time

Id vs Ego. An Exercise in Free Hand with My Psyche (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

**Note--This blog (as well as the one I will post next) crack me up cause of how smitten Ryan was at that point...you can tell with the "Pam's hot" remarks :) Oh, what he didn't know what he was getting into! ;) Just kidding...I was just as smitten, thus the reasoning I always had to jump on to see what things he wrote in his blogs each day :)** PAM

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Id: Look everybody! It's a blog!

Ego: Where?

Right here.

I don't see it...

This IS it you nincompoop!

Hey, there's no need for name callin'... and there's still no blog here.

This is the blog... don't you get it?

Get what?

Our conversation is the blog. I am blogging everything we say.

What do you mean "we" white man?

Ummm... We, as in, you and me, us, together forever in the daffodills.

First of all, there is no "we", "Us", or "you and me". We're the same person! And of all the flowers in the world, you picked daffodills? nothing spells G-A-Y like daffodills homo!

Ha! You said "we"!!! you admit it!

No I didn't.

Yeah you did

Ummm... no I didn't.

You said, "we're the same person"! Admit it, you and I are a team!

I am in no way associated with you! You shouldn't even be in here... You know what... I'm just gonna leave. see ya!

Wait! You can't leave me here!

Yes I can.

No, you can't! What will I do?

Hopefully fall off a cliff...

Dave... will I dream?

Oh for cryin' out LOUD! You are retarded!!! You got that from a movie... and a stupid movie at that! You aren't even a computer!

I know you are but what am I?

That... that doesn't make sense.

shoot... Hey... I know...

What now?

Pam's hot.

Oh yeah! for once in your life, you're right about something.

Yay!

Shut up. I'm going to bed.

G'night Ego! I love ya!

Oh, what I wouldn't give to sock you in the mouth right now...

Cooking the Casserole (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

**NOTE--This is somewhat of a special blog :) Ryan and I had been dating for a month now...and he FINALLY was living here in the valley (he moved down a few weeks prior to this blog). At the end of every night, I could TELL that Ryan wanted to tell me that he loved me SOOO BAD! He would say things instead like,"I really like being with you", etc., instead. Finally, on this night, I had just gone home from his house for the night. When I got home, I got on Myspace to check out what was going on, and I found this blog instead! I knew EXACTLY what Ryan was hinting at. He was using the characters from Mystery Science Theater 3000 (some of you may remember that old show, where they would watch old movies and make fun of them the whole time). Both of us loved that show, and had somewhat of a connection with each other because of it. I knew that his analogy was wondering if the time was right for him to tell me he loved me or not. The best part is that when my roomate read it, she had NO IDEA what it meant :) She didn't understand how I got all that from his blog, I guess cause she couldn't read into the analogy. Ryan said that was good, cause he knew if it was time for him to tell me he loved me, he knew I would understand the blog, but if it wasn't, I wouldn't get it....the blog was written just for me to understand...not others. OF COURSE I got it...I was so excited reading it! I'll post MY response to HIS blog at the end of his blog below :)**PAM

Friday, July 13, 2007

"How do you know when it's ready?" Tom asked wonderingly as he stared at the casserole in the oven.

"Well, that's the trick...This casserole is very special, and no one knows exactly how long it takes to bake". Joel replied.

"It smells good. We should just pull it out now!" Crow declared.

"No, no, no, we can't risk that" Joel said.

"I really don't understand this casserole or why it's so mysterious... If this stupid casserole is so dang hard to make, then why in the heck are we making it Joel?!" Tom was beginning to get frustrated.

"Well, let me explain some of this to you guys...even though you probably won't get it because you're just robots and the mads won't let us go home". Joel stood there as he contemplated how best to explain it.

"Everybody loves a good casserole. It's comfort food, and it makes a person very happy..."

"This is really lame Joel..."

"Don't interrupt me Crow! One day you might have to make this casserole, and you need to know why it's so good. Anyway, where was I? Oh right..."

This particular casserole is the BEST casserole that a person can make because it has only the favorite ingredients of whoever is making it. And because everyone uses different ingrediants, no one knows exactly how long it needs to cook. Usually they take a little while to cook. Once every so often one is ready just minutes after you put it into the oven. You just have to pay attention and do your very best to pull it out at the right time.

"So is the right time now?" Tom asked pointedly.

"I think it's pretty close... I'm just afraid to ruin it..."

"Ah Joel, what's the worst that could happen? Let's just pull it out- it's smells soooo good!" Tom was starting to sound desperate.

"Hold your horses mister! Haven't you heard the phrase, 'good things come to those who wait'?" Joel shot back.

"But if you wait too long, that's just as bad as pulling it out too early..." Crow definitely had a point.

"I know, I know. I'll do it! Just a little bit longer, I just want to make sure it's ready. Ok guys?" Joel said.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE END OF RYAN'S BLOG---Now, here is Pam's response:

"**DING** Casserole is DONE! :)"

In which Ryan replied:

"Most definitely! :)"

The very next night, sitting on Ryan's couch, it got quiet for a moment, and then Ryan blurted out,"I love you, Pam!" :) It was cute, cause with how much energy it took when he blurted it out, you know how nervous he really was, and how relieved he was to just finally say it!

Welcome to the Road Kill Cafe (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

**NOTE--And this is probably one of Ryan's GROSSEST Blogs ever...and most infamous moments we don't like to talk about...so nasty!!! But, it is COMPLETELY TRUE! Believe it...all of it.** PAM

Monday, July 02, 2007

When I was only two weeks out on my mission I had an experience that will forever be burned into my psyche. I was serving in the town of Hannibal, MO with my trainer, Elder Fairbanks. Hannibal was a great area! I later learned that it was a very popular area among missionaries because the dinner calender was always full--a rarity and a treasure to missionaries. One such family that signed up for dinner twice a month was the Lair family. They were interesting to say the least.

The first time I had dinner there, I was a little nervous because I was a new missionary and my companion dreaded going there. They lived in a trailer that stood 30 feet in the air on stilts right on the banks of the Mississippi River. The house was overrun with all sorts of your standard barn yard animals, not to mention enough cats to put on a Broadway play...It was quite a scene. But hey, we were there to have dinner with Lonnie Lair. It couldn't be that bad could it?

Lonnie Lair was paralyzed from the waist down, years ago he had had the opportunity to do serious physical therapy and most likely regain the ability to walk, he opted out. So fast forward to present day, Lonnie is a man who is confined to a hospital bed, and I usually didn't have much of an appetite when we ate with him. He laid there shirtless and had several tubes in his chest and one large feeding tube that went into his belly button. If that wasn't enough, his hobby was to grow out his fingernails as long as they would go on his left hand. When I was there they were about 9 inches. He enjoyed this hobby and said that his nails made great conversational pieces.

Sitting in a house that was soaked in cat urine next to a guy with tubes going every which way and nails that made Wolverine look like a weenie was starting to make me a little nervous about dinner. However, my mind was put a little more at ease when his wife announced that we would be having Hamburger Helper that night.

YES! I thought to myself, no one can screw up hamburger helper--it's a self contained meal in a box! The only thing they had to do was add meat... and that comes sealed from the grocery store and they have laws about quality...

Well that's was I was thinking, I had a big smile on my face and no reason to worry. So I happily dished up a mighty portion and after the prayer, I dived into it. It tasted a little weird. I think they just added a few spices of thier own, I said to myself. Nothing to worry about. However, the more I ate, the worse it tasted. Soon I noticed that it was unusually greasy and it was really starting to taste like garbage smelled. I finished my plate and put it aside.

Lonnie piped up, with his deep redneck hickerbilly voice, "Howdja like dat helper?" he asked with a big toothless grin. "It was pretty good" my companion replied, "I noticed you didn't use hamburger though, was it deer meat or something?" Lonnie laughed, "Nope, good though ain't it?" "Suuuuure" we both replied in unison. Lonnie smiled again, "I bet you never woulda guess that possum tasted so good huh?" "Possum? Your kidding right?" Elder Fairbanks squeaked. "Nah, it's true, we love it! Ain't that right honey?" "Yup, and it's best when it's fresh" his wife chimed in. "What, did you buy it at the store this morning?" I said as unsarastically as I could. "No, I hit it on the way home from work" she replied.

Yup, I promise it's true. They fed us a roadkill possum in the form of hamburger helper. I'm burned, scarred even, for life.