The Price of Love

Hello Seattle

2011-12-04T22:55:00.006-07:00

What? You thought we had disappeared 2 years ago??? Well call off the search party...we are alive and well!

So, I'm not the best at keeping up with our blog...who knew? But I believe in the grace to change, so I am making it a priority to do so :)

LOTS and LOTS of changes since I last posted on Ryan's 25th birthday. Ryan is now 27, of course, and has so much more to show for those last two years! More so then me, I guess...I just seem to get older, doing the same old thing!

We finished up Ryan's degree at BYU-Idaho, and were lucky to have his mom and both of my parents come out for graduation in April 2011. Technically, he didn't fully complete his degree until July because he had to complete a 3 month internship before they would give it to him, but he was able to walk in April. At BYU-Idaho, during commencement, they tell you not to shout out to your loved ones, but wait for everyone to walk across the stage, and then cheer at the end. I was SOOOO disappointed with this announcement, since I've been dreaming of this day to cheer on my hubby for 3 years, ever since we went to my bro-in-law's graduation (Matthew) back in AZ and got to cheer for him. I envisioned the day of watching Ryan get his degree, and I whispered to Ryan that I couldn't wait until that was him, and how proud I would be, and surely tear-filled! So when they said we couldn't cheer, I was pretty upset, to put it lightly. But as students started walking up to get their diploma's, every once in a while you would hear a proud wife yell really loud for her husband. At that point, I didn't care anymore. I saw Ryan whispering to his friends seated next to him, with a big grin on his face, and I KNEW he was telling them that he figured one of us (either his mom or I) would be yelling for him. I couldn't let him down after I knew he told them that :) So I asked my mother-in-law and parents if they would disown me if I broke the rules and cheered, and with both of their go-ahead nods, I was DOING it, dang it! As soon as they called his name, I let out a HUGE,"WOOOOO Ryan!!!!". He stopped on stage, turned back towards us, and grinned. I knew I had just made his night :) We enjoyed our weekend with our parents, and celebrating. My parents stayed around for a week to visit us, which we loved, but Ryan's mom had to get back to work, so she made it a brief visit, which we were glad she could come out.

A week after graduation was over, Ryan and I also got the gift from my bro-in-law to use his flight miles and come out to visit my sister and her family, in which I hadn't seen in over 2 years, since they moved to North Carolina! Kids grow rapidly, and I was anxious to see my 4 nephews. We stayed for a week, and even spent the night with them in an awesome beach front hotel in Myrtle Beach, SC. We went to the Carowinds Amusement Park one day, but made it a brief visit when some of the rides made some of us sick, and Ryan had the unfortunate experience of splitting his shorts down his back pocket :) Embarrassing for him, but a saving grace for the rest of us to have a reason to leave after we didn't feel so well. We stopped and got some fireworks in SC, and put on a show in the cul-de-sac that night. We took a small hike/walk on Sunday after church, saw Rio in the theater, and I had lots and LOTS of Chick-fil-A :) It was a fun trip, and good for Ryan and I to get away. And, as expected, my nephews WERE huge. Man! Miss them all so much.

Ryan got an internship as a Business Analyst with a Rexburg company, Avercast, that specializes in supply chain management software. He had some great ideas there that the company was really interested in, and that helped shape out his resume. They wanted him to continue on with them, but due to some questionable stability with my own job at the time (we were worried they were going to close down the Rexburg office...turns out, they were just getting bought out), we wouldn't be able to survive on the low hourly pay they were offering him, and also I saw how unhappy and miserable Ryan was on a daily basis there because work came in waves for him. He needs to be busy, and feel utilized to stay happy and fulfilled. This wasn't what he ultimately wanted as a career, so we started looking elsewhere.

Thankfully, we heard back immediately from Safeco Insurance in Seattle, Washington, on a Product Analyst position we had applied for. It was a bit of an interviewing process (phone interview with the recruiter, phone interview with the hiring manager, then them flying him out to Seattle to have a face-to-face interview with 4 managers) but after a month, they finally extended him the position! Lots of people applied for it, so it was a huge compliment to Ryan and his skills that they wanted him to work for them. We were excited because Ryan had been saying for the year prior to this that he thought he wanted to move to Seattle. He had never even VISITED Seattle before...he just felt right about it for some unknown reason at the time. He did visit Seattle in March as an intern expedition with BYU-I, and that just solidified his desire to move there. He loved the people, and felt like he would fit in culturally, with their quirky attitudes, and low-key lifestyles. Ryan accepted the job with Safeco, making a great starting salary for a kid right out of college--and giving me the ability to stop working--and we were set on moving to Seattle! Another compliment to him was he was called back by Farmer's Insurance in Woodland Hills, CA for a Product Analyst position, but we had already accepted the Safeco job. How likely is it for a new college grad to get called back by TWO companies that quickly? We were certainly blessed, and Ryan is very talented :)

We came out the end of August to apartment hunt, and found the perfect place for us on our second appointment. It's such a QUIET complex, with beautiful landscaping, and right on a main road. The thing that sealed the deal for us was that there is a bus stop RIGHT in front of our complex, with a straight shot to downtown (no transferring buses, and he gets there in about 25 minutes) in front of Ryan's work! Ryan was going to have to take the bus because parking in downtown is at least $10 a day. We felt great about the apartment, got approved to move in, and decided we would come out Sept. 9th. Quick turn around to pack up our house back in Rexburg and move out!

Both Ryan's mom and my dad flew out to Rexburg, ID to drive with us in our cars and U-Haul in the trek to Seattle. Everything went smoothly on the drive, and we were excited to be in our new apartment. My dad had to make it an EXTREMELY quick trip (flying home the next morning), so we were grateful for his generosity to spend so much money on a trip where he did nothing but WORK and DRIVE. Ryan's mom also had to get back to work, so she made it a quick weekend trip...and again, so grateful she took the time/money to come out to help us.

We did some furniture shopping at Ashley Furniture and got us a new dining room table, bed frame and dresser, computer table, entertainment center, and couches. We had a hard time with the couch thing because of the way our entry to our apartment is laid out. There is an overhang outside our door, with a wall, so you have to stand the couch up on it's side and push it in. Well, the couch we wanted was too tall to fit under the overhang (didn't find out until it was trying to be delivered!), so we had to settle on getting the love seat and a chair & 1/2 with ottoman. Didn't get a couch to sit on until about a month of being here :) I greatly enjoyed receiving those items, FOR SURE!

We love our new apartment, love the complex, and think we will stay here for several years. We feel very safe and undisturbed here, and love the feel of our apartment/home. I have to say, I'm quite proud of my decorating skills, and how it looks on the inside. :)

Ryan picked out the cream place mats for the table...I think they go GREAT with the color of our table!

These are pictures of the view out front and out back of our apartment.

We absolutely L O V E Seattle/Washington. SO pretty out here, with the green trees, water, and mountains! The beauty and splendor of Washington makes up for any grey days out here. On top of that, when the sun DOES come out, there is no better sight, and it makes us more active to get out and enjoy the weather.

As for Ryan's job...he loves it! He was on cloud 9 for the first several weeks working there. He has a desk at work that raises up and down with the push of a button, instead of having to adjust your chair up and down. He felt cool about that. He is loving learning about the insurance industry, and they all seem to love him. We were given tickets to their box seats with the Seattle Mariners, and I was able to meet one of the managers that interviewed Ryan during the hiring process. He told me he had great expectations for Ryan, and that he was even going to borrow Ryan from his manager to work on a project for HIM. That was nice to hear coming from a higher-up. I was proud of Ryan for making a great impression. The box seats were AMAZING! The Mariners lost, but the game/experience was fun.

Ryan has his ups and downs with the learning curve, and him expecting too much out of himself when he is starting out in a brand new industry to him, doing things he's never done before, as this is his first professional career. He always wants to look and do his best in front of management (which I can appreciate), but has a hard time being patient with himself while learning. He's working hard on "being kind" to himself (as I tell him to do each morning as he goes out the door :) He forgets all the good he's done, and focuses on the times he struggles.

Some good things he's accomplished so far are: a project that he helped work on with someone else got impressive reviews by upper management; during a public speaking seminar that he had to take at work, one of the SVP's was in the audience, which made Ryan REALLY nervous...he came home that night fretting all about it...then the next morning his boss sent him an email saying that the SVP stopped by his desk and told him what a great job Ryan did on his speech; he got chosen to work on another special project for a different manager that he doesn't even report too; and he just recently got asked to take on a project from his boss to make sure the company's system gets corrected because Ryan and his mentor found some incorrect calculations on people's policies (the system wasn't able to calculate correctly for policies over a certain dollar amount in one of his states). He's excited to work on that project. He's finally enjoying LEARNING and taking these opportunities to grow. I'm proud of him. I love hearing about what he learns each day, and how much knowledge he is gaining about the insurance industry and how it works. There is LOTS of upward mobility in his company, so we both plan on staying here for a good long while. He loves the culture and the people, and getting to work on the 31st floor of a high-rise building in downtown, overlooking the Puget Sound!

(Ryan's building is in the very center of the picture below...the square brown building in the back center, nicknamed "The Box the Space Needle Came In" since it is in the shape of a tall box :)

As for me, when we came out here, I was able to keep my job and work online from home. However, our company got bought out in October, and the new company wasn't so thrilled about the telecommuting idea, so I was let go. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do at that point (go to school, find another full-time job, stay at home, or heavily pursue fertility treatments), but was just grateful that we had planned ahead before moving out, and made sure all of our bills would fit under Ryan's income only, just in case this experimental scenario didn't work out for me. So when I lost my job, we both were able to not worry over the money aspect of it. That was a blessing, for sure.

I have sent out a few resume's, and search job listings almost every day just to see what is out there, but am not looking actively. I really felt like (and still do) that my place needs to be at home for now, helping Ryan get off to work in the mornings. He has a hard time waking up, so we've gotten in to a routine where I wake up first, go make him a hot breakfast, deliver it to him in bed (LUCKY!), pack him a lunch, iron him a shirt and then lay out his clothes on his bed for him to change in to, get him his IPod or Galaxy Tablet ready to take with him on the bus, and get him out the door by 8:00 a.m.! It's worked well for him :) I've been blessed with a husband that wants me to do whatever I feel happy with. Being home has given me the opportunity to keep up on the house work (a FIRST for me since being married and working full time), run errands, grocery shop, and make dinner in the evenings instead of eating out. It's been good for us, and I actually enjoy it.

However, when we were at a church linger-longer (dinner after church) last week, upon hearing that I was just a stay-at-home wife, a young mom at our table, that is new to our ward as well, mentioned they were looking for someone to be paid to watch their 3 year old daughter part-time during the week while she and her husband worked. They have a CUTE little girl, and we had a fun time with her this last Friday and Saturday. She's full of energy, very smart, and imaginative! She loves being chased and tickled, and galloping like a horse! Her favorite thing to do at my house so far is to play a Dora the Explorer memory game and play with a hot wheels stunt track that Ryan's mom had sent to Ryan as a joke birthday present, where we make the car fly through a ring of fire (and sometimes shoot it out and up into either the toy box or at Ryan's leg :) tee hee). She's adorable, and we love having a kid in our house and hearing the cute things she says. Now a saying Ryan and I have back and forth in our house with each other is, "YOU have to WAIT!". HA. She would have me get the car all wound up and set in the launcher for her, ready to go, then told me,"You have to say 'On your mark, get set, go, then tell me 'YOU have to WAIT!'". When I would start counting "On your mark" she would hit the switch and send the car flying, then want me to tickle her tummy and say,"YOU have to WAIT!". So cute!!! hahaha. We did this over and over again! We took her on a walk, looking to see if we had a playground (never found one) and she decided to chase a squirrel up a tree. HA! It made us laugh, but sent me chasing her cause I was scared the squirrel was going to be rabid with my luck, and jump down and attack her as she stood and giggled at it under the tree! HAHA! I have a fear of animals attacking, ok???!! Don't even ask about my fear with hummingbirds...just cover your eyes when they are around, that's all I'm sayin'! Anyways, it looks like this is going to become my permanent gig for now, which I am happy about! They are a cute family, getting through school, which we've been and done before! Happy to help them out.

I can hardly resist the cute dishes I bought for her to use...you know I need a kid of my own when THIS sight below makes my ENTIRE YEAR! So cute...

I still have school on my radar, and am hoping to be able to go back to school next year after I've established residency here. In the meantime, a friend out here mentioned looking into testing out of some of the gen-ed's this year while I wait, so I'm looking into that! Want to go back to school to get my Psychology degree!

I took the plunge and sold my baby...my Ford Escape! Since Ryan takes the bus to work, we NEVER touched one of the cars. It would just sit in it's parking space that we had to pay extra for in our complex. Since the transit system is pretty good out here, we decided to sell my car, use the money to pay off a credit card (woohoo), and save money on gas (the hills out here are HORRIBLE on my Ford's gas mileage), parking, and registration (which was due this month!). I was sad to sell all of the "memories" in that car, but really, you can't sell memories, so I got over myself and am doing just fine without it! Now "my" car is Ryan's Toyota Corolla, which does GREAT on gas. I'm the primary driver whenever we go anywhere out here in Washington :) Pay back for all the years Ryan was.

Ryan had his birthday in November, and I made plans for his birthday, only to find his car with a flat tire that morning (he knew it was getting low, but kept putting off getting it fixed), and my car with the brake light on. The idea of driving my car in the hills here with a brake light on did not thrill me (turned out to be running low on brake fluid, which I figured out by getting online), so I decided on getting Ryan's tire fixed. After a consultation phone call home to my Dad, I was able to change Ryan's flat tire (only took an hour....) and get it over to the tire shop. They found a small nail in it, patched it up for free, and sent me on my way!

I picked Ryan up from work then headed over to Fry's Electronic to pick up parts to a new gaming computer that he wanted to build, then went to dinner at our favorite pizza place in Renton (The Rock). We came home, and I surprised him with two new pairs of jeans that he needed (they have jean Friday at work, and Ryan didn't have any) and a copy of Twilight done by Rifftrax, where the guys from Mystery Science Theater make fun of the movie. It's his favorite Rifftrax, and one of my co-workers from Rexburg burned a copy and mailed it to me for free. So nice. We watched the movie, and ate his favorite cake that I baked for him (rainbow chip). I surprised him that weekend with a tour on Bainbridge Island, just north of Seattle. You take the ferry out to the island, which Ryan LOVED, and were met up with the tour guides. We enjoyed seeing more of the area, and learning about Chief Seattle, and just being out with other people! There was a great view of Mt. Rainier that day! My favorite part: the sea lions. Ryan's favorite part: being captain of a small electric boat during part of the tour.

Thanksgiving was just small but perfect here in our little apartment. I made mashed potatoes (with cream cheese as the secret ingredient...Ryan said it was the best mashed potatoes he's ever had!) with gravy, green bean casserole, steak (per Ryan's request), yams with marshmallows, and a pumpkin pie. Ryan was so loving that day, and kept telling me all day how much he loved me. It was nice. He loved the dinner, and said it was perfect. I appreciated him making me feel good, and I enjoy being able to do nice things like this for him.Ryan finished buying his parts for his computer, and spent Thanksgiving putting it together, and playing with his friends online. The graphics are SO much better, and the speed is SO much faster then our old computer. Ryan is a happy camper these days now that he has it! He's been wanting a new computer for over a year now.

We love our church out here in Seattle, and feel the most welcomed and at home that we've ever felt since being married and going to church (even more so then when we lived in Arizona!). I think it's because there are so few members out here that it's easier to make friends because there aren't a bunch of cliques already with neighbors. That, or the people out here are just so easy-going that it's easy to make friends :) We both look forward to Sundays and going to church, and I've been able to go out with a few women and make new friends! We both got new callings in our church, and I now teach the 12-13 year old boys and girls Sunday School class (love them!) and Ryan is in scouting (a foreign concept to him, so it's met with trepidation, as Ryan was never a scout) and also a substitute teacher for the men in Elder's Quorum (which Ryan loves).

I was also lucky enough to have a close friend from junior-high/high school (Sarah Herrera) live out here as well with her husband and kids, so I've gotten to see her a few times, which is fun.

Ryan's mom is coming out for Christmas, so we plan on seeing some more fun things with her while she's here, like the Space Needle, some Christmas lights (one house out here in West Seattle does the whole Christmas lights timed to music thing), Pike's Place, etc. Should be fun! No snow out here yet, and I'm ok with that :) But it IS chilling up!

That's about the latest and greatest for us out here in our new life in West Seattle! We love it, and plan to make it "HOME" for the rest of our lives, if we have anything to say about it ;)

Ryan took today off of work and made secret "plans" for us today, so I'll keep you posted on what adventures we head off to today...

Happy 25th Birthday, Ryan

2009-11-09T23:37:00.002-07:00

Ryan just had one of *hopefully* many milestone birthdays to come! His big 2-5 on November 3rd!

The story goes that he came a few weeks early, and was a FAST delivery...so fast, that his mom didn't even have time to get any of the "good stuff" to take the pain away :) She delivered all natural, and he came at a lightening speed pace within 2 hours! They were scrambling to find his mom's doctor, who finally came running into the delivery room in her soccer shoes!

Ryan knew what he wanted for his birthday, so I wasn't able to surprise him with anything. I bought him a nice new backpack for school (he did LOTS of research for finding the PERFECT backpack, and finally decided on the Ogio Politan...after stalking other students backpacks at BYU-I for weeks!). It is such a great backpack, and honestly feels like nothing is in your bag, which helps Ryan's back out a lot! It also has a separate protected pocket for his laptop.

He also requested Beatles Rockband, so his mom and I split the cost on that (we had gotten rid of our drum set when we moved to Idaho and were trying to pack lightly!). It's been fun to play...and fun to be able to play Rockband TOGETHER again (we still had our guitar...but no other instruments).

Since I wasn't able to surprise him with gifts, I decided to just surprise him with the day. So, I decorated the garage with "Happy Birthday" streamers, and bought one of those white pens to write on car windows...writing things like,"I'm the BIG 2-5", "Happy Birthday", and "Hooray for cheaper insurance!" on his windows. I also bought the Seinfeld Scene-It game (he is a huge Seinfeld fan), wrapped it up, and set it on the hood of his car. I bought him a couple fun birthday cards, bought him some "Birthday Booty" (matched one of the cards sayings, with pirate loot) which consisted of Starburst Sour Gummies and a Mr. Goodbar (a few of his favorites). I made a yellow cake with rainbow chip frosting, and put some candles on it for him to blow out. He was definitely surprised by his car being decorated, and I think it made his day to feel like someone was thinking about him :) After school/work, we went out to dinner with his mom at Red Robin for some juicy hamburgers, where his mom "slipped" that it was his birthday to the waitress...so of course he got a birthday song, a sundae, and some balloons...he he he...

During dinner, one story came out about when Ryan was born. He came out with Jaundice, and so he had to stay under the lights, wearing these little goggles over his eyes, almost like he was sunbathing! He couldn't be discharged from the hospital until he had his first, ahem, bowel movement, which was supposedly causing the disruption in his bilirubin levels. His mom said the nurses were all pleasant towards her, until one day, his mom walks in to see Ryan and gets a scowl of a look from the nurse. Marji had no idea what the matter was, and asked if everything was ok. The nurse said Ryan finally had his bowel movement...to which Marji replied that was excellent! Ryan would get to come home now! The nurse shot back,"Yeah, that's great unless you're the one that has to clean it up! He filled up the whole bassinet with it!" HA! Apparently, Ryan was a MUCH happier baby after that day :)

After dinner, we headed over to the mall in Idaho Falls and bought Ryan a new beanie/hat for the winter! He's been wanting one of those beanies with a rim on it, like he had when he was on his mission in Illinois.

We came back home and had the cake, which turned out FABULOUS (I must admit :), and some peppermint ice cream that Ryan requested for his birthday.

It was a fun night, and I'm so happy that my little Ryan is growing up :) Helps me not look like so much of a cougar since I can now say he's in his late 20's...well, at least in his MID 20's :) And it helps that he has some grey hair that is "thinning" on top. His height helps me out too...he doesn't look like the 6 years younger that he is!

I'm proud of Ryan, and all he is accomplishing in his schooling, and what he hopes to accomplish with his life. He is a very honorable man, and is so good to me. I'm so grateful that I get to go on this journey in life with him, and I'm excited to see what is yet to come!

Happy Birthday, Buckwheat!

Vegas Vacation!

2009-11-07T02:40:00.009-07:00

Ryan and I got to fly to Vegas the last weekend in September to go visit one of my best friends (and old roommate for 3 years, before I got married), Jen! She just had her cute baby girl a few months before that, and lucky for me, one of the cheapest flights you can get out of Idaho Falls is to Vegas, where Jen lives! PERFECT!!

Ryan and I stayed at Bally's hotel, and we had a blast getting to see Jen and her husband, Anthony, and their cute little baby girl, Emmerson.

I love seeing Jen, cause she is like the little sister I never had, and I miss her SO MUCH!

Things we did while in Vegas:

We got THE MOST delicious Frozen Hot Chocolate from Serendipity 3 (outside of Caesar's Palace). Seriously, yummy, and a must have if you are in Vegas! They cost about $9, but totally worth it! It has small, chopped ice pieces in a blend of several different kinds of chocolate, and topped off with whipped topping and chocolate shavings (it's more of a chocolate milk kind of taste with the ice bits that make it that much better). We splurged, and got some on two different days! Mmmm....

We saw Penn & Teller (Ryan loves magic, and it was a buy one get one free deal....however, he decided that we won't ever see the same show in Vegas twice, cause it was EXACTLY the same show of theirs that we saw back in April...almost word for word. Not fun when you can anticipate the whole show! Ryan used HIS money for it though, so I was ok with it :).

Got to see the inside of The Venetian for the first time. VERY nice hotel.

Had a BBQ at Jen's house! Got to play with cute Emmerson. I think she got tired of all the flashing lights from my camera :) Ryan kept getting mad at me for taking her picture so much; he was VERY protective over her...very cute. She did really good with Ryan as he held, fed, burped, and had her fall asleep on his lap. He's a dad in the making!

This is the start of the "grump-grump face" from Emmerson, after picture upon picture taken by me :)

Followed up by giving me the "bird" and a shaken fist!

But really, she's a sweet and beautiful baby!

Went to the top of the Eiffel Tower in the Paris. Watched the Bellagio water show from up there!

We had a blast, and it was a nice get-a-way weekend for us. It was SO good to see Jen and her cute family, and we appreciated how gracious they were to me and Ryan (picking us up from our hotel and driving us back and forth to their house, cooking us meals, and letting us just hang out and talk with them!). Can't wait to see them over Christmas break back in AZ, hopefully!

Jellystone Park

2009-11-07T01:30:00.000-07:00

I was reminded by an old roommate the other day that referring others to our blog to see what we've been up to does no good when the said blog is only updated a few times a year ;) I started this particular blog entry back in the beginning of September, but never finished it because I tend to get long winded in my entries, and run out of time to finish before the hubby kicks me off of the computer so he can use it. I wish I could be like those mom's who can write just a few sentences and then post 50 pictures of their kids and be done, but I'm not. I guess writing is cathartic for me...I can get my thoughts out clearly on paper, and I'm much better at communicating there than in person! Or, I guess I just feel more safe writing on paper, than speaking my mind out loud. It's MY chance to talk about what is going on, because I rather let other people tell me all of their problems or talk about themselves when I am in person with them. I'm a very good listener. But after THIS entry, I think I just might try doing short and sweet entries to see if I can keep it more up to date on a regular basis. I'd love to turn our blog into one of those cool hard bound books that are all the rage these days among blogging moms...

Anyway, Ryan's mom invited us for a quick family trip during Labor Day Weekend to go see the Bar J Wranglers perform in Jackson Hole, WY on Saturday night (a cowboy singing group where you come and eat a big "cowboy" meal and then enjoy their singing performance). Since she knew I've been really wanting to make a trip out to Yellowstone this year, she booked us a night in a suite at a beautiful lodge right there in Jackson Hole so we could make a day trip to Yellowstone on Sunday!

(This is Ryan outside the lodge, in front of the ski lift area...and another of him near the restaurant where we had breakfast in the lodge)

WOOHOO! I've really been wanting to take advantage of the many beautiful areas that surround us here in Idaho, so I was way excited to finally get to see Yellowstone! And more importantly....see some animals!

Our first stop was at the Bar J Ranch on Saturday afternoon/evening. This is a family regular for Ryan and his mom (they've been numerous times!) and only my second time...we came out and saw them last summer before we moved out to Idaho. It's such a fun show. Before the show, Ryan and I walked around and found a little "outdoor museum"....and we had a little fun with it!

(Ryan's growling face to the bear)

(OOOO...scary bear...and scared Pam!)

(Ryan getting held up)

(Taking a quick break for a dance)

(Giving the bear a little TLC, due to all the persecution he was facing)

(Ryan at the Bar J Wranglers, waiting for the horse wagon to come pick us up for a ride around the Outdoor Museum we just walked through ourselves :)

The next morning (Sunday) we woke up and headed up through the Grand Teton National Park on our way up to Yellowstone. At one point, there were tons of cars stopped, so we decided to stop and see what was going on, and found this....

A moose and her baby! How awesome! This was by far, the highlight of my trip. We just stood there watching them for about 10 minutes. I guess they had been in this pond for over an hour while people kept stopping to watch them. Very cool.

"Moose, you say? What moose?"

We drove past this....The Grand Tetons...on our way up to Yellowstone...

...and saw all the highlights of the west side of Yellowstone....

We lucked out and walked up to Old Faithful about 5 minutes before she went off! No waiting for us...it goes off about every hour.

I was hoping (more like wishful thinking) that I would see a bear in Yellowstone, but all we really saw were the staple Bison :) They were still really cool to watch though. Massive beasts...

And just as I was complaining to Ryan that you always see these pictures of Bison stopping traffic at Yellowstone, but we hadn't seen any yet, and I thought that was just a fluke thing that photographers happened to see every once in a while...we pulled up to a back up of cars. At first, we were all assuming it was because of the section of road that they had closed for construction. As we slowly crawled by, we were pleasantly surprised (or not so pleasantly, as was the case for Marji...my mother-in-law...who was driving...) with this huge guy just cruising down the road by himself in the WRONG LANE (going head-on TOWARDS traffic). Boy, was I glad we just had to drive past him instead of stare at him coming face on to our vehicle!

As Marji was panicking as we had to drive past him, she tells me she is NOT stopping for pictures :) And as her driver side window went up as we got closer to him, mine went down a crack to try to get a close up on him...and I just caught the "tail" end :)

Yellowstone was absolutely beautiful, and I can't wait to go back again sometime next year, and hopefully see more of the park! My family needs to come visit me so we can go together...hint, hint...

On the way back to Rexburg, we went through the small town of Island Park. Ryan's Grandpa Price helped found this city when Marji was young. They were one of the first families to build a cabin and live there, and then Marji's dad was a realtor for the area. On top of that, just a short ways from their house, her dad built THIS store/gas station:

Marji worked in this store (along with her siblings) when she was young, but it had been so long since she had been here, that she couldn't remember the exact location...but she COULD remember that it was an A-Frame building. So we would stop at all of these gas stations along the way that had an A-Frame to see if it was the old store her dad owned. She kept running inside and saying if she went inside, she would know whether or not it was THE store. I wondered what she was looking for, and FINALLY, after one stop, she came out and said it was the right one! We went inside, and she pointed to these, and said THIS is how she knew it was the right store:

Her dad had put those looping ropes up in the store. It was so neat to see the ropes, and associate it with Ryan's Grandpa. He passed away when Ryan was young, so I never met him, but have heard wonderful (and funny) stories about him. I had always wanted to have my own Grandpa, and hoped that my husband would have one to share with me (mine both died before I was born and one immediately after I was born). While I never got to have my Grandpa, it's been fun to learn about Ryan's, and was even more fun to see things that he actually touched and created himself. Marji was so nostalgic in this store...it was fun for her to reminisce about the old days in there with her family. I was excited for her.

We also got to go drive past her old house/cabin behind the store. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of the house, but she told us of some fun stories, like the time a bear had wandered up to their cabin, her dad tried to scare it away I think by hitting his nose with a piece of wood or something, and instead, the bear got angry and decided to come up the steps at him! Luckily, his gun wasn't too far away, so he shot the bear dead right on the steps! Yikes...

The short weekend trip was a blast, and I can't wait to go again next year! Crossing my fingers I'll see a bear catching fish next time ;)

Way too long....

2009-07-26T22:50:00.013-06:00

Wow. It's been way too long since I've updated our blog. I guess there hasn't been much to blog about, so I let it go for a while.

To bring you up to date since the last time I blogged, here's what we've been up to:

1) Ryan and I went to Las Vegas to meet up with my best friends in April! Janae came from Arizona with her boyfriend, Jimmy, and we met up with my other best friend, Jen, and her husband Anthony, who currently live in Vegas. I hadn't ever met Janae's boyfriend, or Jen's husband, so I was excited to meet the "men" in my girlfriends lives. They both got my seal of approval :) This was Ryan's first time being in Vegas, and he was like a kid in a candy store. He got wide eyes with the bright lights, and fun decorations at the casinos. It was cute. Ryan is a huge magic fan, so of course we had to stop off at the Penn & Teller show while we were there. We had a blast, and even got to meet and take pictures with them after the show! That was the highlight of Ryans trip :) I was sad when I had to leave my girls behind and head home.

2) Ryan's mom's (Marji) boyfriend, Rory, got baptized in April. He flew out here to Idaho (he lives in Washington) and had Ryan baptize him.

3) May brought excitement and disappointment as I went to the OB/GYN to talk about fertility options. The doctor gave me some Clomid to take to help get pregnant, but I mentioned to him that I would like a blood test just to see what my Triglycerides were doing since I had been off of my Triglyceride medicine for the last 6 months (I have a history of VERY high triglycerides along with high cholesterol). He took a blood test, and sent me on my way. The very next day, the nurse called back with my results and said my Triglycerides were again EXTREMELY high, along with my cholesterol, and the doctor did not want me getting pregnant yet as I would be a high risk case, so I wasn't to take the Clomid. I was devestated as I was really hoping to get this ball rolling. I'm getting older, so I hate waiting and waiting to get pregnant. He wanted me to go on an extreme diabetic diet to try to lower my lipid levels. Ryan and I did really well the whole month of May, and we BOTH lost 10 pounds. Unfortunately, we let go of the rigidness we were in May, and didn't lose any weight this last June or July. On the brighter side, we didn't GAIN any of the 10 pounds back either :) We just stayed the same. We are going to try harder starting in August, to lose more weight. I want to be a healthy mom, and want to start healthy habits in my life to give back to my kids. It's hard because Ryan is a muncher...I haven't munched so much in my life! So I try to keep both me AND him in line :) It's hard work, but we want to both get healthy. I have PCOS, which is caused mainly by Insulin Resistance. The doctor believes if I get my insulin levels under control, I won't have a problem getting back on to a regular cycle and getting pregnant. Crossing my fingers...

4) June...I went to Lagoon for my first time ever, with a couple girls from my work. We had a blast, and I loved getting to know these girls better. I've been blessed with some good girls to work with at my new job. Love them.

5) July 4th, Ryan and I went BACK to Lagoon (he was jealous over my girls trip, so I wanted to go with him too). We went out on the morning of Friday, July 3rd, and spent all day on the roller coasters. We had a blast! We spent the night in SLC, and went back to Lagoon the next day on their "Bounce Back" special, where you can go back a second day for $9 bucks! We decided to do Lagoon-A-Beach (swimming park) that day. While Ryan and I were sitting in our tubes going around the Lazy River, some kids inner tube fell into the water from off of the deck, so Ryan, being the great guy he is, picks it up and throws it back out to him...........and in the process, loses his wedding ring in the water! We searched and searched, and other people searched with us, but we never found his ring. The current from everyone going around must have been too great, and the ring was gone. That kinda tainted the rest of the night for us, and it was kinda sad to lose a piece of "our history". He would never have the same ring that we got married with again! In other news, Ryan is excited to purchase a new ring, and THIS TIME I get to propose to HIM. I plan on making it fun :) We'll see what I come up with!

6) Ryan JUST finished his spring semester at school! He did awesome in all of his classes and got straight A's! Hooray! He's currently on a 6 week break from school until his fall semester starts.

7) I'm STILL waiting on our license at work to open the Rexburg branch...after 5 months...so I drive to Idaho Falls (30 miles one way) every day. I hate the driving, but love the people. I'll be sad when the Rexburg office finally opens up and I'm all alone at the office, and don't get to see these ladies on a daily basis. On the other hand, I'll be ok without the driving and gas I spend going to IF everyday! I like my work, and love the people.

8) I just started learning how to crochet as something to do with my time! Ryan likes to play World of Warcraft online a lot at night (his way of unwinding from his day) and I'm tired of surfing the internet to kill my alone time. So I decided to do something domestic that I might enjoy...and so far, I love it! (Well, that's once I finally get the stiches down...it drove me crazy at first!). I'm about 1/3rd of the way done with a "Larksfoot Baby Blanket" that I am working on. I'm excited to do something that is relaxing while I listen to the T.V. or something on YouTube :) Ryan wants me to make him a hat for the winter....

9) A lot of my friends are having babies right now! My best friend, Jen, just had a baby girl this week. I'm so excited for her. Ryan and I were planning on going out at the end of this year to visit her and see the baby (they live in Vegas), and another friend decided she wanted to get all of our old "group" together and make it a reunion trip to Vegas! So 3 other girlfriends are coming out from Arizona to meet us in Vegas at the end of September! I'm excited to see everyone! Vegas is one of the only flights we can take out of Idaho Falls for pretty cheap...Allegiant Air has some direct flights to Vegas for great deals when you also book a hotel with the flight. Can't pass up that deal.

Not much else is going on for us. Ryan got his classes all figured out, and he will be graduating in July 2011. Only 2 more years left! I think the rest of this year will fly by...I can't believe it's almost August already!!! Once he is done here, we are going on to get his PhD...I would prefer at ASU so we can be back by my friends and family, but we are also considering WSU in Washington. Who knows where we'll end up! Could be neither one of these schools...and watch us end up on the east coast somewhere!

I think that's about all the "excitement" going on here in Idaho....the weather is actually really nice right now. I don't miss the AZ heat at all.....but come winter time, I won't know what hit me when the snow comes! :)

All good things come to those who wait.

2009-03-17T22:55:00.000-06:00

It happened. After 2 1/2 months of waiting. It finally happened. I FINALLY landed a job interview....and what's even better than that, I actually GOT the job! Hooray! I'm so thankful and relieved. I had applied to numerous jobs, turned in resume's to banks that weren't even hiring, and even desperately applied at Wal-Mart, all to the sound of deafening silence....the silence that tells you we are in a tough economy right now, and I live in a small college town.

In telling my story, I'm mostly telling it in detail for my family history aspect of keeping a blog...for my posterity. So if you get bored with the details, bare with me just this one time :)

I wrote in my last blog about hoping to hear back from on a job with a hospice company. Well, a few weeks had gone by after turning in my application, so I pretty much wrote that opportunity off, figuring they went with someone with experience in the medical industry. However, I applied for a job as a secretary at a rehab counseling center and they had called me back! I was so happy to have a call back about an interview, even though this wasn't the job I was really hoping for (which was the hospice job). This job was a piece of cake job, something I felt I could do in my sleep, and was definitely far below my skill level. BUT, it was a job. A cheap, easy job. Beggers can't be choosers.

I set up an appointment for my interview, and started preparing for it. They only were calling a few people back from the applications, so I felt lucky to be one of them. That very same day that they called me for an interview, I got ANOTHER call from the HOSPICE company! Holy cow! I all but almost forgot about them since it had been so long. I quickly felt like I had a dilemma with two interviews coming up. What would I do if one offered me the job, but I wanted to hear back from the other company first before accepting from the one? Numerous scenarios went through my head like this. After the wise advice given to me by my mother-in-law, I quickly realized I could use this opportunity of interviewing THEM for the right position for ME. They surely were interviewing other people than just me, so I could do the same and interview other companies than just one.

I really wanted the hospice job, but didn't want to count my eggs before they hatched, and would take either job just to HAVE a job at this point. However, the hospice job seemed more challenging and a better opportunity for growth...and, honestly, paid much more. But I mostly wanted the job because I thought it would be a whole new set of learning skills for me to use in my life. A great experience for me, plus having the opportunity to do something great within the community.

The morning of my scheduled interview with the secretary position (the job I didn't really want), I got up early, went over some mock interview questions/answers, got dressed, and tried to relax a bit before the interview. Thirty minutes before my scheduled interview, I got a call from the company, telling me they were sorry but they would have to cancel my interview for that morning...they had already filled the position. GET REAL! One more shot at a job, down the drain. I felt a tinge of bitterness as the feeling of not even being able to GET an interview ate at me a little bit, before I realized this just gave me more time to prepare for the interview for the job I actually WANTED. So I went right to it, and thought of all my skills/experience to draw examples on during my interview. I prepared ALL day. Before I went to bed that night, I said a prayer and told Heavenly Father how I had done all I could to prepare myself for this interview, and would he help me to speak eloquently, to say the things I needed to say to show my talents/experience, and that if it would be his will, that I might get this job. I put in the effort, and needed his help to go the rest of the way...I knew I couldn't do this one on my own.

The morning of my interview, I got up, got dressed, and rehearsed my answers. I even came up with dumb little songs to remember some of them...and even got Ryan singing them after a while :) I said a prayer again, and off I went to my interview. When I got there, I discovered that this was going to be a panel interview. SERIOUSLY. I have NEVER had a panel interview before. This made my heart jump for a minute. But I calmed my nerves, and sat at the head of the table with two people on each side of the table of me (a total of 4 women interviewers). They went around in a circle each asking a question of me...this went on for about 16 questions! But I was on top of EVERY question. No pauses, no hemming and hawing, no stupid answers. I had the best answer/examples for each question asked of me. I could tell this interview was going EXCEPTIONALLY well. By the end of the interview, they had told me that they had gotten STACKS and STACKS of resumes for this job as Office Manager (I eventually found out it was about 50 total applicants) and they had narrowed the interviews down to 12 applicants, and I was the final interviewee. I thought what a great way to end an interview session....I had slam dunked this thing! Obviously, I was very confident in how it went :) They told me that now they were going to choose a select few to call back in for 2nd interviews, and then they would choose the final candidate. I knew I would be one of the few to get a second interview. I was sure of it. I let my references know that they might be getting a call about me. Sure enough, my best friend and old manager called me up and told me that they had called her to check my references already. I thought this was a good sign since they were checking BEFORE my second interview. They were really serious about me to go that far already! My friend told me it went really well, that they said they were very impressed with me and how I carried myself in the interview, and how personable I was. My friend recommended me for the job and said she thought I would be a great fit for it.

My 30th birthday weekend was that week, and I found out that Ryan had the following Monday off of school for the holiday (President's Day). I was feeling good, and also was reminded during my interview that it was now or never to take a vacation before I was logged down with a job (they had asked me in my interview if I had any big vacations planned for the year...also a good sign). Originally I was only going to fly home if I heard back that I got the job (so I would feel okay about spending the money to fly to AZ) but I said SCREW THAT! I'm going no matter what...so I booked a flight back to AZ for me and Ryan. The very next day, I got a call back from the company.............only, they weren't calling me back in for a second interview. No, instead, they were OFFERING ME THE JOB!!! Holy smokes! I gladly accepted, flew home that weekend for a fun birthday weekend with my family and friends, and came back to start work on Tuesday.

I know that I only did as well as I did, and spoke as eloquently as I did because of Heavenly Father's help since I did my part in preparing my best for it. I think this job will be such a great benefit to me in my life, and I can't wait to see how much I learn and grow from it.

What the job entails is opening up a brand new branch of Creekside Home Health & Hospice in Rexburg. There are currently offices in Pocatello and Idaho Falls. It's part of Alpine Home Health & Hospice in Utah. I will be the only person actually working in the office all day, while the nurses and therapists come in and out during the day to drop off paper work, etc. Eventually, once I get this office up and running and we start getting busy, I will be able to hire on additional office staff to take on some of the jobs that I will be doing (I will be doing the job of what 4 other people do at the Idaho Falls branch!). This is such an exciting opportunity for me as I get to challenge myself, and will be able to see my own accomplishments first hand as I watch how my large participation will help our business to thrive in this city (I handle the data entry of admitting patients, creating and keeping the patient charts, payroll, human resources, handling referrals and intakes, marketing in the local area, and also tending to ordering any office supplies/nursing supplies, planning lunches and meetings, etc). It's the job of Data Entry, Accounting, Compliance, Human Resource, Payroll, Admin Assistant, Office Manager, etc. So many opportunities here. And, the best part, I don't even feel like this is a JOB. I enjoy the work, enjoy the people, and have not felt one ounce of stress while training! It's a nice break from the financing world :) But I'll admit, it's strange to work at a place that doesn't have one single adding machine :) Not used to that...I was accidentally shipped some adding machine tape the other day from Office Depot, and the first thing I thought was,"What the heck am I going to use this for....we don't even HAVE adding machines here!" :) I'm so excited, and so grateful for this opportunity. It was a long 2 months, but it was worth it in the end. I'm having a fun time setting the office up from scratch right now (literally) and decorating it. Everyone comments how good the office looks since I got there...that makes me feel good. It changes every week with new stuff (either pictures or office supplies or furniture!). I like making it an inviting place for the nurses/therapists to come and do their office work inbetween home visits.

Ryan is doing well at school, and recently came up with the idea (as in he figured this out YESTERDAY) that he is going to continue his schooling past his bachelors degree all the way up to a PhD in Economics! He had some very inspired thoughts come to him yesterday during school (a conversation in his mind that lasted over 4 hours at school...) that brought him to the conclusion that he should continue on to get his PhD. He's not sure where yet, but one of our good friends is going to go to Washington State University to get his PhD in Economics after he finishes up here at BYU, and they have a great program that lets you get your Masters and PhD together, and you even save a year by allowing you to count some of your Masters credits in with your PhD. That sounds appealing to Ryan...but he still wants to look at some other schools. He doesn't have a lot of wants in his life, except to be able to provide for his family and to eventually own a Toyota 4 Runner. Simple enough ;) In talking with other guys in his Econ Society Club that he goes to every Thursday, he learned that a PhD in Economics usually STARTS OUT at around $110K, you get to be the leader of the research groups, you are widely accepted as someone who is to be used as a great source of knowledge in the business community, and you can pretty much teach at any of the universities. Ryan would like to do consulting for several years after he graduates, and then would also love to teach Economics at a university some day. He's excited about this new idea, and probably more relieved than anything to just have a plan for himself. He feels like the reason he is getting a Minor in Journalism with his Major in Economics for his Bachelors is to help him with the writing he will have to do during his dissertation for his PhD. Lots of his ideas are coming together full circle now, and he's piecing them all together. I'm happy for him. But, that leaves us with more schooling after we are done here at BYU-Idaho....but I think it will be the best place for Ryan, and will put our family in the best place when he is done. And then Pam can retire :) I'm just grateful that Ryan is willing to go through all this schooling for our benefit. He's getting the highest grade in several of his classes, if not all of them. He tends to get too hard on himself about grades, but he is doing great!

We are loving Idaho more these days, as the snow is finally melting! Hooray! You can see the grass again! Although, it has been extremely windy the last several days...that is no fun. But the highs have reached the 50's a couple of days this last week...that is fabulous :) I never thought I would say that the 50's were perfect weather...but it is pretty well close to perfect! I love it! I've acclimatized to the weather a lot more than Ryan...he still shivers :) I can't wait for late spring/summer comes around. It's going to be beautiful out here...I wish I had a really great camera to take cool pictures of all the trees. That is one thing I will splurge on once we start a family...I can't wait to take really amazing pictures!

Speaking of starting a family...we are working on that....but nothing to share as of yet! I hate this part...all the wishing, and hoping, and waiting, and spending tons of money on negative pregnant tests. But it's still early, so I can't get upset about it yet....we've only been trying for about 3 months now. I have PCOS (Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome) which can make it a little more difficult. One of my friends out here in Idaho told me she has it too, and it took her a year and a half with her last pregnancy....BUT, she just had twins from it :) She had to start fertility treatments, but she was successful after the first month! So even if it takes a while for it to happen, I know it will eventually happen. Plus, it will probably be best to get all moved in to our house at the end of this month before I'm pregnant, cause I tend to over-do myself when moving things...I like to think I'm She-Ra! I am going BABY CRAZY though...Ryan is too. We hear the baby that lives in the apartment above us all the time, and it makes me want one so bad. If Ryan had his way, we would have twins too :) We've ended up having two different friends (one in AZ and one out here in ID) that have boy/girl twins. He thinks it's all fun and games :) Well....he can be the one that gets up in the middle of the night with both of them then... he he he...

Ryan will be done with his first semester of school the second week of April. To celebrate, we are spending a weekend in Vegas! (Easter Weekend). I've been to Vegas twice, and really don't care for it all that much. But Ryan's been dying to go for some reason (I think cause he likes CSI-Vegas...who knows) so I thought it would be fun to go since he has only a week break before he starts up his next semester of school. He loves magic, so we are going to go see Penn and Teller while we are there (they are playing in the hotel we are staying in...The Rio All Suite Hotel). That is what I am most excited for! One of my best friends, Jen, (my old roommate before I got married) now lives in Vegas with her new husband, and I haven't seen her for over a year, so I'm excited to see her! She's going to come to the magic show with us, and do my hair while I'm there (she's a hairdresser). AND, my other best friend might be meeting us out there will her boyfriend as well! So all of us will go to the magic show together. HOW FUN! I can't wait...this will be a great time.

The house is ALMOST done. It looks great. Papers get signed on March 27th, and we have to be out of our apartment by the end of the month. It will be so nice to get out of this apartment. I'll post pictures of the house when we move in.

Oh, and my new favorite game is Ticket to Ride...in case any of you cared :)

25 Random Things About Pam That You Wish You Never Knew...

2009-02-12T09:23:00.002-07:00

25 Random Things About Me:

1. I've been to New Zealand...and it has to be one of the most beautiful places on the Earth!

2. I've also been rafting down the worlds largest raftable waterfall...which happens to be in New Zealand. 25 foot drop in an 8 man raft! I took my anxiety medication before hand.

3. Before I was married, my initials spelled PAM (Pamela Anne Meyers). Now they spell PAP, or as some say "PP". Neither of which are very attractive...

4. I seem to have some obsessive compulsive behaviors that I've noticed in life...like re-reading emails over and over again (especially before I send them...but even AFTER I've sent them...I try to figure out what it sounds like to the other person...I've read this posting already about 4 times). Also, if I clean, I have to clean EVERYTHING spick and span...I deep clean when I do clean...which makes cleaning not happen very often because I don't have time to deep clean...but I hate leaving things half undone, so I rather leave it ALL undone. Don't ask. I have no idea.

5. I really...really really....want a baby right now. Like, right now. And my husband is just as bad...

6. I am the baby of the family (5 kids). And while I don't show it in my dealings with people in general (I'm EXTREMELY independent...my parents were too poor growing up to spoil me too much) I do show it in my family relations. I like to bug my family...and while my siblings got to get away from my pestering, my poor husband has to endure it for eternity :) He would say "Oh Joy" right about now...especially when I keep him up at night poking him or blowing air from my CPAP on his face.

7. In reference to the above, I use a CPAP Machine (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) for Sleep Apnea. The first time any of my little kids decides to sneak in our bedroom at night, they will be pleasantly surprised (or scared!) to see a mask on mommy's face...I will tell them all mommies wear them ;) j/k. But, I don't snore anymore, much to my husbands delight.

8. I have panic attacks...and have since I was a little kid.

9. I hate when I feel out of control in cars...like when you were little and your dad would jerk the stearing wheel back and forth to make the car swerve for fun...yeah, I HATE that. Ryan likes to fish tail out here on the ice, and I yell at him EVERY TIME that it is NOT funny.

10. Macayo's Red Corn Chicken Taquitos with Baja Sauce is my FAVORITE meal. And I am having some on Saturday when I go home to AZ...Oh how I've missed my Macayo's out here in Idaho...

11. I wore flourescent socks when I was in elementary school (around 1st grade). The first impression my best friend from elementary school can remember about me is seeing me walk down the halls in my flourescent socks.

12. I once allowed my oldest sister to lock me in the trunk of her car. I don't know why I thought it was a great idea, or what I thought she was going to do with me...but she started backing out of the driveway, and I immediately went into a full blown panic attack, pounding on the trunk and screaming and crying. She stopped at the end of the drive way and finally let me out. I can still remember the horrible feeling today...

13. I've been to Oahu, Hawaii.

14. I love, love, love CSI (Vegas). My favorite show, and I own all the seasons.

15. I think I really want a Magic Bullet for my birthday...my husband is aware.

16. I'm not one much for diamond jewelry or expensive gifts. My husband bought me some diamond earrings for our 1 year anniversary in December, and he found out I rather have had the latest CSI Season out on DVD :) (which he ended up buying for me for Christmas instead). He also bought me a $400 bracelet last year for my birthday and Valentines day...I LOVE the color of it (different shades of blue all around) but I've only worn it about 5 times. That same V-Day last year, he bought a $300 Massage for me, that I never ended up using. When I went to use it before we moved out here, I found out the business closed down due to the struggling economy. I'm a simple girl, and also an anxiety ridden one that didn't want to go to a well-to-do salon all by myself. BUT, as he mentioned the other day, he is actually relieved to know I'm not big on fancy presents (or even presents at all...I really don't care) so he doesn't have to stress over V-Day this year. See, I'm a great wife.

17. I am completely out of debt. And proud of it.

18. I played the violin growing up. I haven't touched it since I graduated high school.

19. I hate E.T. I remember watching E.T. in the movie theatre with my family when I was only 3 years old...probably one of my earliest memories. I sat through the movie with my moms hand over my eyes, and I would space out her fingers every once in a while to peek through. To get me over my fear of E.T., my mom bought me a plastic E.T. doll where you pushed a button on his back, and his neck would raise up. Probably the worst idea my mom has ever come up with. I ripped off his head and threw him in the garbage. My brother wanted to keep him for himself, but thankfully, my mom wouldn't let him since I didn't want it in the house. I still hate E.T. to this day. Especially when he gets sick and turns white. My husband thinks he is going to get our kids hooked on watching E.T. just to mess with my mind.

20. I have the longest Uvula (the thing that hangs down in the back of your throat) you have ever seen. It's fat, and long, and touches my tongue. Thus, the reason I snore...

21. I hate any kind of food that comes out of the ocean. Fish, seafood, you name it. No thanks.

22. I LOVE eating tomatoes whole, like you would eat an apple...but don't like them sliced on my sandwich. I'll pull them off.

23. My husband was my first real boyfriend. And I was his first kiss (I wasn't TOO far ahead of him here...).

24. I have a love/hate relationship with rollar coasters. I love them, but they scare the crap out of me!

25. I like Ketchup on my tostadas (beans, sour cream, cheese, and ketchup on top!), burritos, and on my tacos. And even used to put it on my Macaroni & Cheese when I was little. My parents used to tease me that if I could, I would live off of ketchup alone

They say patience is a virtue....

2009-01-27T21:08:00.017-07:00

Here I am. Nearly two months of living in Rexburg....and not much to talk about. Well, I guess I always have something to talk about, just not much to make note of.

December was rough. The weather in Rexburg can be BRUTAL at times. Sub-zero weather cuts right through your skin. The snow was pretty at first, but after a few times of shoveling our cars I wasn't as thrilled! Thankfully, Ryan *says* he enjoys shoveling, so I let him have all the honors :)

After a few weeks of rough December came a calm January. AWW, relief! We had 3 good weeks of beautiful winter weather, and NO snow! I was just beginning to think I could handle this, when along came this week...with more snow and ridiculously COLD weather. For example, all the schools were closed today because it was -25 here! Ryan had a rough day walking around campus! :) This is the only time I am grateful that I don't have a job yet, so I can hibernate inside all day, everyday :) We went out last night to grab some food, and I quickly remembered the same cold feeling from December...and the reason why I hated it so much! BONE CHILLING! My car windows were frozen shut so we had to open the door to get our food through the drive-thru! And who knew your nose hairs could freeze the second you step out your door....

As far as the job situation (or lack thereof), it's been depressing and exciting all at the same time. Every time a job situation comes and goes, I get depressed for a day and then move on to my next option. Wells Fargo has turned out to be very disappointing when it comes to helping you find a new job within the company. I now know what another one of my co-workers was going through when she moved to CA. The job that I was excited about right after Christmas that they had posted on their internal website ended up being a big disappointment. It was THE EXACT job that I did in Arizona for 6 years, so I anxiously applied. Once the position closed, I emailed the hiring manager to bring his attention to my application, and come to find out, he had filled the position with an employee already in their office PRIOR to posting the position...he just posted because Wells Fargo's human resources requires it. The best part...HE TOLD ME ALL OF THIS! Guaranteed the person he hired didn't have as much experience as me. I'm pretty sure this could be a huge HR issue if I had decided to bring it to someones attention, but I decided it wasn't worth it.

I also had applied to two Teller positions with them, and got a generic email back from the local recruiter saying that they hired someone more qualified for the position, and to talk to my manager about finding jobs in the company more suitable for me. GET REAL! If they can hire kids right out of high school, I can do a teller job...I have cashiering experience and accounting experience. After that letter, I've written Wells off as a potential employer. If they won't hire me as a teller, there is NOTHING out here for me to do with them.

I have been applying to other jobs as well, of course, but there aren't that many! Living in a college town of 20,000, and with the failing economy, finding a job here is IMPOSSIBLE. I was even so desperate that I applied at Wal-Mart! But....they aren't hiring. I finally figured that I had to find a way to make money at home...so after a LOT of research, I found the "legitimate" way that women work from home (not one of those get rich quick scheme's...FAR FROM IT). It's called Virtual Assisting....where you work at home (virtually) and help small businesses with their back office work, etc. Lots of women are becoming successful doing this, and I figure I have plenty of office experience to be able to do this on my own. I've become really excited about the option, and am finding all the information I can about it. I'm in the process of creating my very own website, reading books about it, downloading different types of software to help me, coming up with a business plan, joined a virtual assistant website that posts hundreds of jobs from small businesses that they have researched to verify they are legitimate, etc. It's not easy...it's a LOT of work. I know going this route will be a long, hard process in the beginning. But I feel really good about it, and about the opportunity that I could stay home with my kids someday and make us some extra income, which I plan on saving away. I came up with my company name (after banging my head on a wall about it for a while!). Sunny Palms Admin Services. I even have my domain name bought on the web under SunnyPalmsAdmin.com. WHOA! Craziness. Now I just have to figure out how to make a webpage....

Ryan's doing great at school. BYU-Idaho is a great fit for him! He's going to school to major in Economics, and finally decided what he wants to minor in....Journalism! Not something he expected or planned on, but he feels really good about it and how it fits into what he wants to do...be a Research Analyst and report on what he finds! I think he'll be great at it. Here's a picture of Ryan heading out on his first day of school (Jan. 7th). Even though being out here has been a challenge for me, I know it is the right place for us to be...and that Ryan will be well on his way when we are done!

I'm trying to be a LITTLE more domestic since I have time on my hands...and actually cook for Ryan more often :) Here's the best creation so far...Chicken Taquitos! I made them myself! I boiled chicken, shredded it with a fork, then boiled it in some chicken broth to give it more flavor. I rolled it up in corn tortillas and fried them! Put them on a plate of lettuce and added Baja Sauce on top (based off of Macayo's sauce...but I still have some perfecting to do!), cheese, and tomatoes (on mine only...Ryan hates tomatoes). They were GREAT! Ryan loved them :) I thought they looked pretty....

The house is coming along nicely...here's a picture I took last week. They are painting and bricking it next. All the dry wall, plumbing, and electricity are in! It will be nice to be in a house...Ryan's mom is generous to include us in this! The basement apartment is going to be great! I'm mostly excited for the garage (to stay out of the snow) and the fireplace in our basement :) Oh, and the hot tub on the porch out back! Oh, and the jetted tub in the house! This house is going to be rockin'!

We had a nice Christmas at Ryan's aunts house in Boise, ID. I hadn't met her or her family before then, so it was good to meet more of Ryan's family! They were fun. This is Ryan's cousin's son, Ethan. He's 3 years old...I played with him all Christmas day...he was my little buddy! So cute. He was so excited about this shark he got for Christmas and held it ALL day.

I also got the chance to go visit my old salesman from Wells Fargo that I worked with for 5 years...Karle Armitage! He lives in Boise down the street from where we were, so I stopped off at his house and met his family. They were all very welcoming and fun to talk to. We only got to stay for about 30 minutes cause it was on Christmas Eve and we STILL had shopping to do before dinner, but it was a good visit! We'll have to stop by again the next time we are out there. I miss working with Karle.

That's about it! I need to write blogs more often so they aren't this long...but I feel like I don't do anything but sit here all day, every day!

Anyways, I love and miss you all....especially Arizona :)

Love,

Pam

I-DA-SNOW

2008-12-14T15:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-26T23:10:00.000-06:00

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

2008-09-13T17:30:00.000-06:00

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

2008-09-03T23:37:00.000-06:00

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

2008-08-05T20:14:00.001-06:00

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....

2008-07-26T22:49:00.000-06:00

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

2008-07-20T11:22:00.000-06:00

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?

2008-07-17T18:22:00.000-06:00

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?

2008-07-15T23:00:00.000-06:00

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....

2008-07-14T22:48:00.001-06:00

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

2008-07-13T18:32:00.000-06:00

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

2008-07-13T18:30:00.000-06:00

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

2008-07-13T18:28:00.001-06:00

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

2008-07-13T18:26:00.000-06:00

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)

2008-07-13T18:24:00.000-06:00

**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)

2008-07-13T18:23:00.000-06:00

**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)

2008-07-13T18:20:00.000-06:00

**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)

2008-07-13T18:15:00.001-06:00

**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)

2008-07-13T17:57:00.000-06:00

**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)

2008-07-13T17:53:00.000-06:00

**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.

The Day of the Glorious Barbecue (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

2008-07-13T17:48:00.000-06:00

**NOTE--I had emailed Ryan at one point and mentioned to him that he may hate me for saying this, but I don't like Thanksgiving Dinners....I don't like Turkey and Cranberries, and all that. I told him one of my sisters and I had agreed a long time ago that we would have a barbecue for our Thanksgivings cause we much rather have a hamburger off of the grill than a piece of turkey! To my surprise, Ryan told me that made him love me that much more cause HE felt the same way about turkey! He had also planned on barbecuing for Thanksgiving dinners, cause he had all the turkey he could take out on his mission.** PAM

Sunday, July 01, 2007

One of my favorite things is backyard barbecuing-- I have always enjoyed eating burgers fresh off the backyard grill. The summer air, being with friends and family, root beer and lemonade all around. Ahhh, it's magnificent. The funny thing is, all my life, I never barbecued. Strange, but true. I never had a dad growing up and my mom doesn't know how to barbecue. So you can imagine how much I looked forward to summer vacations when we would go and see relatives because they are all barbecuing fiends!

Well, the day of the glorious barbecue is a special day in the barbecuing history of my life. It took place on Monday April 23rd 2007--which is also Michael Jordan Day for those of you who know me really well. The picture that goes along with this story is already in my mission pictures and has the corresponding caption...sadly, it is one of the few (two) pictures I took that day. So without further adou, I'll tell you about the barbecue :)

Spring had finally come to Dubuque, IA. I had been in that area all winter long and at the end of April, the weather was finally beginning to show signs of life. At our missionary apartment we had a porch, and on that porch we had a very tiny charcoal grill. All winter, I had stared at that grill...and, consequently, it stared back at me... It was nearing the end of the transfer, and all the missionaries in our district were predicting that I would be leaving. And rightly so, I had been there for 6 months and it is nigh unheard of for a missionary to stay any longer than that in one area in our mission. So I (being the District Leader, I get to do these things) started planning on having a get together with our district for our last Pday together before transfers, and it being Michael Jordan Day only made it that much more special.

We were planning to have the Clinton Elders come up to Dubuque (The DeWitt Elders were busy with other things) and we were going to throw down some serious Phase 10 and Apples to Apples--The two staples of a missionary Pday. The Sunday night before they were supposed to come up I was doing a little bit of cleaning to make the apartment look nice. As I was cleaning, I happened upon a bag of Kingsford Charcoal in our storage basement. Immediately, the little grill sitting on our porch popped into my head! I ran back up stairs, called up Elder DeGraw and said, "Elder, we're gonna barbecue tomorrow for lunch and I thought I would call you and tell you that you can bring shorts to wear if you want since we won't be leaving the apartment and it's supposed to be 70 degrees tomorrow!" He was down with that.

Monday is B-day! Elder DeGraw and Elder Shunn drove up early and got to our place around 7 am. We went out to Wal-mart and bought some hamburger patties, chips, soda... you know, a barbecuer's necessities. After doing our e-mail down at the library we were now ready to play some games and fire up the grill. But leave it to my companion, Elder Gregersen, to rain on the parade. "Does anyone actually know how to barbecue?" The other Elders were silent and looked as if they just lost a golden investigator. "Elder, I was born to barbecue!" I said authoratatively. "Yeah...but you've never actually barbecued..." he stammered. "Pfft! All you gotta do is light up the coals, throw the meat on, and flip it around until it's black. Piece a cake!" I assured him. "I'm scared..." Elder Shunn squeaked. "Elder Price's got this, no problemo! He's our fearless leader!" At least Elder DeGraw was on my side.

After changing into my shorts (I thought I looked good with my shirt and tie still on... see picture) We were ready to grill. Elder DeGraw and I piled the coals into the little grill and proceeded to squirt half a bottle of lighter fluid onto them, no joke, half a bottle. Then we lit 'em up. We had poured that much lighter fluid on because we wanted to see a huge fireball that might burn our eyebrows off. Yeah, nothing happened. We played through a few phases of Phase 10 while the coals heated up. Then it was time to grill.

We had a little blue recliner in our apartment that I drug out onto the porch to sit in while I watched the meat. I wasn't sure how to grill, so I just wanted to be there to keep an eye on it. Elder DeGraw and I sat out there and chatted while the other two Elders got all the fixin's ready...that's midwestern for condiments and other stuff. It was a BLAST! I don't mind saying that the burgers turned out fabulous by the way.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing this wierd card game that elder Shunn had called, "Bang!". It was hilarious! Somehow we got into yelling BANG! at each other and talking like Sarge from Red vs. Blue and drinking root beer like there was no tomorrow (we had bought 4 bottles). It was probably one of the most absolute funniest days of my life!

and now you know why it is called the Day of the Glorious Barbecue.

A Hair Raising Tale (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

2008-07-13T17:33:00.000-06:00

**NOTE--Ryan DOES really have unruly hair when it gets long :)** PAM

Sunday, July 01, 2007

By popular request I shall tell a story about my hair. It really is quite touching, some of you who are more sensitive should take this moment to go and fetch a box of tissues, you will need them. For your enjoyment I have also added a few photos that go along with this story. They are in the folder marked "My hair" and they are in chronological order with this story.

I have never been all that good with getting my hair cut on a regular basis. I'll cut it short for a while, then I'll let it grow out for a while, then back to short...it's a vicious cycle where I just can't seem to find a happy medium. Then when I do find a happy medium, I forget that my hair grows and it ends up growing out long again. Why do I not manage my hair more carefully? Ha ha, that's a good one. My hair is like some sort of wild, untameable creature. I get comments from the stylists everytime I go to get a haircut about how crazy my hair is... no seriously, they ask me how I want it cut, and I say, "Do whatever you think looks best" and they reply, "Well, there's not really much I can do... it's pretty bad".

It's like going to the doctor for some illness and you ask him, "How bad is it doc?" and he laughs and says, "Well son, you're gonna die in about 30 days...There's really not a whole lot I can do". It's just awkward.

While I was serving on my mission, our time is planned out down to the hour. I just never got around to getting a haircut. Infact, I didn't get my first haircut until I was six months out! At first nobody noticed because my hair just kept on curling around and around. It never really looked long unless it frizzed out. I took care of this with lots and lots of hair gel. No one could tell.
Then I remember one fateful day. I ran out of hair gel. I did my best to comb it down, but as the day went on... it just kept on poofing, with a vengeance even! We had dinner that night with Jordan Kelly a guy in the branch who was our age and loved to be around us. While we were eating he looked at me all wierd and said, "Elder Price, your hairs pretty long there for a missionary isn't it?" "I ran outta hair gel this morning" I replied sullenly. "You look like Bob Ross!" he laughed. "Shut up!" I shot back. He then told me that he cut hair, and that he would be more than happy to cut mine. I declined and told him that he didn't know what he was up against. My hair makes Godzilla look like a toy dinosaur. He then threw down the gauntlet and said that he was gonna cut my hair sooner or later.

A few weeks passed without incident. I got more hair gel and no one was the wiser. Then came the day of my 21st birthday, it was glorious! My mom had sent me a huge birthday package that included a great cake mix! I was so excited that I took a picture with the cake mix that morning. You will notice that I had not yet done my hair (picture 1)...Yeah I know, I look like freakin' Bob Ross :/ But when I put gel in my hair, it stayed down liked a whipped puppy! (picture 2) and I didn't look half bad.

Later that night, the Nelson's had us over for dinner. I won't tell you what they did to my cake--that's another blog for another time--and Jordan was there. He said it looked like I had gotten a hair cut and it looked good... I just smiled and said "Suuuuuuuuuure". Then later we went over to the Ferree's and again, Jordan tagged along because he liked Kori Ferree. Sister Ferree made a comment about my hair and how my new haircut looked nice. At this point elder Beauchamp piped up said, "What are you talking about? He never got a haircut, but needs one more than anything!". That was all Jordan needed to hear. He ran and got the Ferree's electric razer and pulled me into the bathroom before I could make it out the front door (I tripped).

Half way through that horrific hair cutting, Jordan stopped and said that my hair looked exactly like Kramer's from Seinfeld. That was the best news I had heard all night! So we took a picture. (Picture 3). When all was said and done, I had lost a lot of hair. It was unbelievable! I don't think Big Foot would have lost more hair if we had shaved his whole body! (Picture 4) In hindsight though, I would have to say that my hair looked pretty good. It was quite possibly the best haircut I have ever had.

So now you know a little bit about the untamable devil that is my hair. I have more stories about it. One time I was shaved bald for a summer... I will never do that again! Then of course there was the time when Schuyler Quinley used rubber bands to put little pony tails on every square inch of my head... That was my homecoming date if you can believe it. Sorry, I don't have any

pictures of that one.

Under Construction (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

2008-07-13T17:29:00.000-06:00

**Note--Ryan would probably die if he knew I posted this gushy blog...but I'm not posting it for anyone but our kids anyways...I just want it to matter to them.** PAM

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Two of my favorite shows of all time have been Seinfeld and M*A*S*H. One of the reasons that I love these shows was thier willingness to experiment and look for new ways to tell a story. For example, no one thought it would be good television to do an entire episode about waiting in line for a table at a busy chinese restaurant, or film an entire episode from the first person perspective. Sure, when one explores new ideas one can fail miserably but on the flip side, one can also find something really great!

No doubt, everyone who has read my blog has wondered at some point, where in the world did that come from? That's a very fair question... so I'll answer it.

I am still very new to the blog scene. Thus, I am still exploring and experimenting with different writing styles and techniques. I haven't become as entertaining or profound a blogger as Kyle...but I'm working on it ;)

I love to write about me and Tom. You all know Tom as the founder of Myspace. To me, he's a composite of real people that I have associated with during my lifetime. And contrary to popular belief, the Tom and me stories are mostly true...Occasionally I like to share things that I have learned from my own life experience in hopes that it might be of benefit to someone else. Sometimes, I just like to sit here and free write. I'll turn on iTunes and write to the music. When the song changes, the subject and tone change as well. As is the case right now :)

I really enjoy having a creative outlet to express myself. Sometimes I'll draw or paint something. Once in a while, I'll film a movie--which is not very easy when you are by yourself I might add. But lately, it's fun to blog. It really helps me keep things in perspective and remember that I'm ok.

I would encourage anyone to find something creative/artisitc to try. And don't even say "I'm not creative" or "I'm not an artist". That's horse hockey! Art is whatever you want it to be: Anywhere from photography to cooking, or legos to singing in the shower. The only "rule" (I use that term loosely here) is that it has to be you. All that really matters in art is that you enjoy it. When you find something you enjoy, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks because it's you and you can be proud of that.

Remember the little kid who brings home artwork from school to his mom? Nobody can really tell what he's drawn, but the fact is, he drew it and that makes him and his artwork special.

So go on, do what you want to do--just don't sit there and do nothing. Don't be afraid to explore and experiment. The whole thing is a learning process to help you learn about yourself and that means that sometimes you will fail. I'll keep looking for my niche in this whole blogging thing, and that means that sometimes you might read something that's a bit goofy. I admit some of my stuff is dumb, but I am learning... and that's the point.

Remember, when you create something you are special. And whatever you've created is special because you made it. We're all in this together, and I'm pullin' for ya :)

Tom and me go to the movies (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

2008-07-13T17:22:00.001-06:00

**Note--Movies are definitely mine and Ryan's favorite free time activity together.. Also, Tom would be Ryan's mom in this story...he went to see the movie with his mom that night :)* PAM

Saturday, June 30, 2007

I wanted to write something else tonight...but I have writer's block.

Tom and I went to go see the new movie, "Live Free or Die Hard" with Bruce Willis--who after this movie is definitely a man's man. The movie was pretty awesome. I thought that it was just going to be a shallow summer destruct-o movie, but I was pleasantly surprised. It had tons of action, an intriguing story, and it was pretty dang funny as well. But you didn't come here for a movie review, I'll leave that stuff up to the guys over at Rottentomatoes.

Instead, I want to tell you about the people we saw at the movie theater. And we saw all kinds! Most likely some of you have run into these kinds of people in your own movie going experiences. Before I go on, I would like to point out that I am not trying to insult anyone. These are embellished generalities, and strictly a joke! No one should take offense to this, and I apologize to anyone who does.

The Enthusiast: These people fascinate, and worry me all at the same time. These are the individuals who become so engrossed in the film that they think they are a part of it. There is nothing like having the lead character present a solution to the terrorist threat on screen and then have the enthusiast yell out, "DO IT!" When things are looking grim for the heros, you can always count on the enthusiast to lend support, "Don't die McLane! You can do it!" Then there is my personal favorite: when some amazing feat is accomplished onscreen and he/she bellows "WOW! Did you see that!?" No, I didn't, I'm in a different theater watching a different movie--of course I saw it!

The Nit-Picker: No matter what movie I go to, there always seems to be one these on hand to ruin a good show. Tonight there were two. These are the worlds foremost experts on everything. Commonly heard phrases from the nit-pickers include: "There's no way he could fall that far, it would break his legs!" or "That doesn't actually exist!". Tonight I kept hearing behind me, "Oh please, that would so kill anyone!" First off, it's not just anyone, it's Bruce Willis and he's invincible and you're not. So get over it!

The Interrogator: These people couldn't follow a movie if it was leading them by the hand. You've all dealt with it at one time or another. The person next to you doesn't have a clue what's going on. "Who is that?" "What are they doing?" "Why did they just kill that guy, wasn't he with them?" "He's not with them? Well then who is he with?" WATCH THE MOVIE! Gee whiz they haven't even finished the credits!

The Excuser: These types are why the middle seats are so treasured among movie goers. The Excuser comes into the theater armed to the teeth with a tub of popcorn, enough soda to fill a swimming pool, and a two year olds ability to sit still. Every ten minutes: "Excuse me, I gotta get a refill" "Excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom" "Excuse me, I have to call home and check on my dog"... I think it would be great if these people had reserved seating on the outside of every row.

I love the movies. Sometimes I love seeing the people as much as the movie :)

Hermits Suck (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

2008-07-13T17:17:00.000-06:00

**Note--Ryan's mom had moved to California from Prescott, AZ while Ryan was away on his mission...so he came home to a new state with no friends. And with being stuck in doors after his back surgery, he was going nuts!!** PAM

Thursday, June 28, 2007

I really miss all my friends. I never thought that being all by myself could be so lonely.

I mean, I grew up by myself. I should be used to this. All my life I have been able to keep myself entertained. I like to draw and paint. I used to build worlds out of legos. I've built an entire squadron of WWII model airplanes in my lifetime. Not to mention, being alone, I've played a lot of video games.

Don't get me wrong, I've always enjoyed being with my friends more than anything. As a kid I remember going around the neighborhood asking, "Can so-and-so come out to play?" But I never really got down if the answer was no. I would just go home and play in the dirt. There was always a hole that needed to be dug and covered with weeds in the hope that I could catch that pesky neighbor girl. I guess what I am trying to say is, all my life, I never minded being alone.

When I first got into the mission field, you can imagine that it was quite an adjustment for me. Going from having no one around to having someone by my side 24/7. It was an adjustment to say the least. But as time went on, I really valued having someone around. There was always someone to talk to, someone to ask for advice, someone to play pranks with. Having a companion at all times was most likely one of the most difficult yet, most rewarding things of my mission. It really gave me the opportunity to learn that everyone has value. I learned that other people have hopes and dreams like me, and also fears and shortcomings like me.

I am still learning how to be a social butterfly--unfortunately, Barnes & Noble doesn't carry "How to be Cool: for Dummies" anymore. I am still deathly afraid of crowds, I just hide it better now. Two years didn't take away my awkwardness, but it certainly helped me realize that everyone experiences it to some degree. Which helps me out tremendously, seeing as how I feel like I am the only person in the world who......nevermind, I might be...

Now that I am back home, I value the company of others immensely. My time here in California is interminable! There is nothing worse than being stuck here with Ryan day after day...He's driving me NUTS! I want to go hang out with someone else for a change. I appreciate all my friends very, very much! Thanks for dropping a letter here and there. Thanks for all the text messages, phone calls, and comments! Especially Pam and Kyle! You're both awesome!

Having such good friends reminds me of a line from Red Green: "Remember, we're all in this together, and I'm pullin' for ya".

Growing Up (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

2008-07-13T17:16:00.000-06:00

**NOTE--Ryan Blog Excerpt

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

When I was a kid, I always dreamed of being a knight and standing alone before hordes of demons and monsters. There would be thousands of them all lined up, ready to destroy me and everything I was defending. Knowing that I was the only one standing in thier way, I would lift my sword and charge headlong into the fray.

As an illustration, one of my absolute most favorite scenes ever in a movie comes from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Near the end, when Sauron's army is advancing and it appears that gondor will fall--a fleet of ships arrive supposedly carrying reinforcements for the orc armies. Then comes my favorite part: Aragorn leaps over the side of the boat, surveys his surroundings, lifts his sword and proceeds to charge headlong into an ocean sized army of orcs! The best part of that scene is that Aragorn is not alone! He is supported by an endless army of undead warriors who are near invincable and ready to destroy anything that stands in thier way. How cool is that?! I'll tell you how cool it is, cool enough that I bought a replica of Aragorn's sword, Anduril. That's cool.

Oh but wait, there's more! I am learning for myself that growing up is not always a breeze. Often times the odds are stacked against us, and sometimes it can look like a sea of demons ready to destroy us. It's true, I saw it in a movie once. But that's ok. We can have the courage to charge straight into the mess with confidence when we realize that we do have help on our side just as Aragorn did.

One of my favorite scriptural events is when Elisha the Prophet is standing alone with his servant looking out over an army of thousands, waiting to destroy them. Understandably, Elisha's servant is a little concerned and he asks Elisha what should be done. I love Elisha's faithful and confident reply, "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." At this point, I envision the servant thinking, "Elisha, you ok man? Maybe you're a little older than I thought you were...". At this point Elsiha does the best thing, he prays and asks the Lord to show the servant the assistance that Elisha sees. The servant's eyes are opened and sees legions of angels standing by ready to help. Picture the Lord of the Rings scene, but with an old man and his young servant. Now that's really cool!

The promises given to Elisha and the rest of covenant Israel are still available. However they are conditional. The Lord chooses them that choose Him and enter into a covenant with Him. It is this promise that gives me the courage to take up my sword, stare the enemy in the eye, and charge in because they that be with us are more than they that be with them. In other words, they don't stand a chance!

So life, I say give me your best shot! I've kept my covenants, and the Lord will keep His. I can take whatever you throw at me.

My Computer Thinks I'm Gay (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

2008-07-13T17:15:00.001-06:00

**NOTE--Ryan Blog Excerpt

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

So I log into to myspace to do my usual thing (post a random blog reflecting the ordinary events of my life) and I am greeted by an advertisement. All of you are familiar with this. Myspace bombards all of it's users with advertisements. How else is my friend Tom going to pay for his roller coaster addiction? However, the advertisement on this particular occasion freaked me out! It had a picture of a guy who looked like Tyson Ritter with his shirt off and he was holding a pink surf board. The caption in the advertisement read, "Wanna Hook A Hottie?"

Seriously folks, who wants to "hook a hottie", and what makes Myspace think that I want to hook some femme surfer boy! HONESTLY! Have they no shame! Where has the world of advertising gone?

I long for the good ol' days of watching Terry Tate punish office workers for thier lack of productivity. The subtle punchlines involving an old lady yelling, "Where's the beef?!" at a Wendy's knockoff. I want to see the 3 Nextel guys dancing in thier office. How I cry when I think of Fedex and thier silly Shatner impersonations. *sniff* I miss them so. And where have all the real men of genius gone? It seems to me that all our heros are dying out. It won't be long before the Pilsbury Doughboy is thrown into an oven and turned into cupcakes! ....*uncontrollable sobbing ensues*

I want memorable, entertaining, and smart ads back! I'm lovin' it Mcdonald's, and yes, beef is what's for dinner USDA cattle ranchers! I do got milk and the power of cheese dairy farmers of America! Yes, I can hear you now creepy Verizon Guy! And I can save 15% or more on car insurance by switching to Geico! But do the advertising execs hear me? Have they stopped thinking outside the bun? Clearly, the answer is yes because if they could, I wouldn't see ads asking me if I'm a flirt!

.......Hmmm... am I a flirt? What constitutes a flirt, and how does one know whether or not he/she is a flirt? That might be good to know .....

AHHHHHH! NO! Give me the Travelocity Gnome or give me DEATH!

A man, his radio, and a long drive home (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

2008-07-13T16:47:00.000-06:00

**Note--Ryan had come out from California to visit me this weekend...yes, just a week after we first met..and we had a good time, and went to the Visitors Center to watch the Joseph Smith movie. On the way out to the car, Ryan asked if he could hold my hand. And for those brief 30 seconds that we were holding hands, he (and I) was on top of the clouds. This email below came after his drive home that weekend. He wrote it using names of songs (you'll probably recognize a few). See if you notice any references to a certain "girl". (and I don't mean the drunk girl in the beginning :)...I know I sure did when I read it! And I knew EXACTLY who he was talking about! As a girl, I loved this blog! :)** PAM

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

I was getting ready to drive out when I saw a Drunk Girl standing there with an Umbrella. I admit that she startled me and I might have squeaked like a girl, I'm not sure. She told me that she could be my Girlfriend. WEIRD! I realized she couldn't help herself. After all, when I wear my glasses I look just like Buddy Holly, and who can resist a guy standing In The Garage? I told her, "Look weirdy, I don't know you and quite frankly I don't want to. I am heading Back Home. So I am just gonna get in my car and Drive Away ok?" Awkward! So I left driving down the Boulevard of Broken Dreams. I'm sure she'll be fine because Big Girls Don't Cry.

I decided I better grab something to eat so I could Maintain Conciousness. So I stopped and had Breakfast At Tiffany's. It was a fabulous diner, their cheesecake is The Sweetness because in The Middle it has The White Stuff that is just to die for! Thnks Fr Th Mmrs! With food in my tummy, I figured I had better hit the road and get myself home. Of course, I did get a little lost, and I really wished I had a map with me for the ride, oh well, I had to do it By Myself.

Traffic wasn't too bad in Phoenix. Of course, there was this one guy that kept bugging me! He was driving a Big Yellow Taxi and kept tailgating me, and everytime I would get over, he would just follow me into the same lane. He was a real American Idiot! Just when I thought that I Can't Take It, he finally passed me and I noticed his goofy little bumper sticker that said, "Everything You Know Is Wrong". I thought to myself, "Dude, you're a Basket Case! You need to Change Your Mind!" I'll Leave Out All The Rest.

Anyone who has driven from Phoenix to L.A. along I-10 knows there is this long stretch of road that is perfectly straight for like a bazillion miles and there is nothing but desert, and the road is usually pretty open. It was about this time that I hit that part of the drive. I started thinking about All The Small Things. How I met this Girl At The Rock Show, and our First Date. It was awesome! Whenever she's around it's Another Perfect Day. Uh Oh, it sounds like we have a Man Overboard!

I was glad that Al was willing to come along with me and keep me company on this Night Drive. We talked about all the important issues-- Which Backstreet Boy is Gay, Darth Maul, and how It's All About The Pentiums. He told me this long and boring story of how he was Trapped In The Drive-Thru... I wanted to die! He made up for it by showing me this Alf alarm clock that he had bought on Ebay. Then we joked about how we were White and Nerdy.

Finally, I could see it! California! The weather was nice with a High of 75. At the border, they welcomed me with 99 Red Balloons and one Black Balloon. I was greeted by The Black Parade which was lead by Helena, She's A Rebel. I stopped and thought I could check out all the Lights and Sounds. In the parade I saw Miss America, St. Jimmy, and Superman. Then I saw Stacy's Mom! She really did have it goin' on. It was pretty cool. I filled up, said goodbye to everyone and set out on my way again.

By the time I reached Indio, traffic was pretty backed up around Ocean Avenue. There was a Head On Collision involving Clark Gable and Whatsername... it was pretty bad and I thought I could just sit, maybe sleep since nothing was moving. I rolled down my window and yelled to the guy next to me, "Hey, will you Wake Me Up When September Ends?" He said he would, so I sat there and zoned out for a little bit. Again, I thought about the Girl All The Bad Guys Want.

I was almost home! It had been a long drive. But I made it without any harm or incident :) I cranked up H! Vltg3 and rolled into Riverside like an All Star because it Doesn't Remind Me of anything. Not to mention it's fun to Be Yourself. It was a good Holiday. Not to mention, I learned How To Save A Life. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

I am a child of God...(Ryan Blog Excerpt)

2008-07-13T16:45:00.001-06:00

**Note--Ryan wrote this the same night he wrote about his vegetable nightmare. I loved that he could be silly one minute, but serious the next.** PAM

Saturday, June 23, 2007

2nd of two blogs (this one is more serious)

A friend of mine just reminded me of some of the most important things in life.

I am a child of God.

Perhaps one of the most empowering phrases ever to be penned. Naomi Randall was most definitely inspired. It tells me that God really is my Father. And because He is my Father, I can take comfort in the knowledge that He loves me, as any good father would. This does not mean that He gives me everything I want on a silver platter. Infact, it's usually quite the opposite. The most difficult things in my life have taught me more and meant more to me than anything else. It never ceases to amaze me as I look at my own life, or when I hear of other people's experiances, just how much our Father in Heaven loves us. He knows us each individually, inside and out, and has prepared for each one of us a personal plan of salvation.

I would just like to take a moment to share one experiance that helped build my faith in our Heavenly Father and the Savior, who is Jesus Christ, and helped me come to a more excellent knowledge of just how much they are watching out for us. The experiance I had was my service as a missionary. Now, let me say that I cannot do justice to how great of an experiance this was for me, nor can I even begin to list all the blessings. I am only going to be listing one (the timing of it) and I don't want to go into knitty gritties. I am just trying to express how grateful I am for the gospel in my life...and I don't quite know how to say it.

My mission was filled to the brim with wonderful, spiritual, fun, and faith building experiances. There are simply too many to even attempt a partial list here, and some are too personal and sacred that I would not even consider listing them here. Instead, I would like to share how I got on my mission in hopes that it might be something positive for someone else.

Growing up in the Church (the LDS church) I was always taught, and I looked forward to, going on a mission. There is nothing better that a young man between 19 and 26 can do than to dedicate two years of his life to the Lord. Naturally this was my goal. As I grew older, some of the things necessary to prepare for a mission were difficult and long, but I made those preparations so that I could go and serve.

In high school I played football and basketball. It was in football that I sustained a back injury. It later required surgery after I graduated from high school. The surgery I had was not successful. My mom says it was because it was done on Halloween. I had to have another surgery a couple months later. These surgeries came at the time when I was supposed to be getting ready to serve my mission, I even spent my 19th birthday in the hospital! The recovery from them was long and difficult. If I was going to be able to seve a mission, I would have to wait at least a year, and even then, I probably would not be able to go for health reasons.

It was during this recovery time that I became very discouraged. I had worked hard up to this point, and it seemed to be flying out the window! I also got really scared of what being a missionary would entail. I never have been very good at talking to people and I'm so flippin' shy all the time--there was no way I was going to be able to carry on a gospel conversation, let alone knock on some random person's door! It got so bad that I didn't even want to go anymore, even if I was cleared. I began to attend college, thinking I would just go on with life. It was there that a friend of mine, who was not a member of my church, encouraged me to go. She told me, by word and example, that I should always follow through with what I believe in. Otherwise, I shouldn't believe in it.

That stuck with me. I did believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. I believed that I was a child of God and that He loved me and continued to watch over and help me through His servants the prophets and latter day revelation including the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. So I thought I should follow through with that.
After a long rehabilitation period I was cleared to go on a mission. I was called to serve in the Illinois, Peoria Mission, and I served honorably.

What amazes me most out of all that, was the timing. The time in my life at which I served could not have been better. I thought I was I ready to go at 19, but the Lord saw something different. I cannot even begin to imagine how my mission would have been different had I gone at 19 (or not gone at all). Everything would have been different--that long list of experiances I mentioned earlier, would never have happened. The Lord knew exactly what I needed, and he knew exactly when I needed it. The things I saw and learned, the people I met...EVERYTHING! The good as well as the bad. I would not trade it for the world. Oddly enough, I am very grateful that I had to have a couple of surgeries, not only did I learn from those experiances, but they got me into the mission field at the best time. You see! Our Father in Heaven is aware of us! Our Father in Heaven loves us, He is our Father. The Savior also loves us and He will never forsake us because He has engraven us upon the palms of His hands. And even though we go through trials, they are always for our benefit and our experiance because of this perfect love.

Bad things happen to good people, it's true. But through it all is the love of God.
Faith: Trust and confidence in the Savior and that He loves us
Hope: Confidence that all will work out in the end. Hope also conquers disapppointment.
Charity: the pure love of Christ, it never faileth

Those are three of my favorite attributes! I invite anyone, regardless of your faith, to learn of them, study them, and apply them in your own lives. They have helped me tremendously in my own life and I hope that they can be a blessing to you in yours.

I gotta go to bed! Good night!

Vegetable Nightmare (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

2008-07-13T16:40:00.000-06:00

**NOTE--This blog absolutely CRACKED ME UP when I read it...I thought Ryan had the most imaginative ideas. I loved his writing style. This is probably one of my favorite blogs ever from Ryan** PAM

June 23rd, 2007

I'm up late tonight, it's true. I won't bore anyone with the details, rather, I'll tell a story. Often when people are up this late, it's because they had a nightmare, or have serious mental issues and they need help and lots of medication. Tonight, it's the former. Most of the time when people have a nightmare, it involves some hideous creature or a common phobia (i.e. being covered in spiders or cotton balls). Recently I had a nightmare of a slightly different nature. Heck, most of the things I experiance are of a different nature! Let's face it, I'm peculier and proud of it. No, really I am, I even have a sign in my room to prove it. But I digress. My recent nightmare dealt more with the brutal nature and depravity that a person could sink to more than some alien with periwinkle skin and 32 eyes who could beat me at every game of chess (maybe another time).

In this particular nightmare, I was sitting on the floor playing shoots and ladders with my "friends". Which consisted of: A cucumber, some baby carrots, and a good size head of broccoli. We were having a great time! I was winning because they didn't move much, and I was telling them all about my day and the things I did. Now what would have made this a really good nightmare was if my so-called friends would talk back and interact with me. This was not the case. The cucumber and broccoli each sat on thier own plate, and the baby carrots occupied some trendy tupperware from Target. They did absolutely nothing, they were just like normal vegetables!

Usually I embrace these types of things, I think their kinda silly. But I was mortified at the thought of having no one but vegetables to hang out with, heck, you might as well be a vegetable if you are that bad off! It only gets worse! To celebrate my winning of the great shoots and ladders contest, I went to the fridge and procured a bottle of Hidden Valley ranch along with some creamy Kraft Caeser dressing. It was all down hill from there.

I won't go into the specifics of the horror that ensued as I proceeded to enjoy the oh-so-yummy combination of my favorite veggies and favorite dressings. It's mortifying! The idea that I would eat those that I just played with! The whole ordeal gave me a new perspective on when my mom told me to never play with my food. I felt so bad.

All in all it was, in every sense of the word, a nightmare.

Disneyland vs. Disneyworld (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

2008-07-13T16:28:00.000-06:00

**NOTE--The funny thing about this blog was that Ryan had never even BEEN to Disneyworld to even compare the two. Where did we end up going to for our honeymoon? That's right...DisneyWORLD! And where is Ryan's all-time favorite vacation location now? That's right...Disneyworld...hands down. :)** PAM

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Of all the important issues we face in life, this is probably one of the most insignificant. Disneyland vs. Disneyworld. Which is the better the themepark? What are the attributes that give a park the "land" classification and how are they different from a "world" ranked park. Please join us on a deep sea adventure that is both strange and pointless, as we pit Disneyland against Disneyworld. Before we begin, allow me to say that Disneyland is way better than Disneyworld, this is not an unbiased study.

1. Location: Disneyland is in California, and Disneyworld is in Florida. Who in thier right mind wants to go to Florida?! California is the obvious choice here folks. When the Eagles needed to write a legenday song, which stately hotel did they stay at--California! When the Beach Boys dreamed about girls, they were California girls because East coast girls were only hip! Seriously, what does Florida bring to the table? Oranges and hurricanes? We hear about California all the time: Movie stars in court, police brutality, peoples houses falling into the ocean, Steve Jobs. California has it all. This place is so hot that every summer half the state is on fire. West coast-1 East coast-0

2. Park Attractions: Nothing is more memorable than "It's a small world". Anyone who has riden this ride knows what I am talking about. It leaves such an impression that when you hear small children singing you experiance symptoms of post traumatic stress syndrome. The only thing that Disneyworld has that can even compete with that is Epcot. Every year golf enthusiasts gather to summon the Spirit of Tiger Woods to come and send that giant golf ball fying into the Bermuda Triangle. That is the only reason people go there.

3. Florida is chock full of old men wandering aroud without a shirt. Need I say more?

4. So what if Disneyworld is a "world"! that doesn't amount to hill of beans in this world--the real world. When Pirates are out sailing around and they find a coast to plunder, what is thier clarion call? That's right, it's "land ho!" because no one cares if there is a "world ho". Infact, the only reason it's called Disneyworld, is because Disneyland was already taken. Disneyworld has little brother envy.

5. Lastly, Disneyland has always been hailed as the "Happiest place on Earth" and "the place where dreams come true". What is Disneyworld? "Something for Everyone" give me a break!

Honestly, Disneyland is the better choice for family vacations, marriage proposals, and losing gobs of money on the cost of concessions and souveniers. Next time you wish you were somewhere else becasue you got busted for peaking in your friends medicine cabinet--wish you were in Disneyland.

Tom and Me (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

2008-07-13T16:24:00.000-06:00

(Posted by Ryan on Myspace)

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

I remember this one time when Tom and me were in college, we were taking a Shakespeare class together. I don't remember much of the class, but I do remember the day Tom tried too hard.

On the first day of class Ms. Fisher put us into groups. My group consisted of Tom, Ashley, Shane, and myself. Poor Ashley, all alone in a group of nerds. Ms. Fisher might as well have thrown her to the wolves. Shane started giggling to himself while a little dribble of drool slid out of his mouth. Tom just stared but you could see the wheels turning in his head. And me? Well, I am always too nervous to do anything smooth. I just stared at her cool knee-high boots and asked her what her favorite toothpaste was. It was Crest.

We all took an instant liking to Ashley, especially Tom. Everyday, he would talk about how smart she was, Ashley this, Ashley that. You couldn't shut him up! As the semester went on and we worked together on projects in our little group, we all got to know each other pretty well. Tom was constantly making mental notes of all of Ashley's likes and dislikes. She was quite the character, Tom's dream girl. Vampires, Linkin Park, poetry, and plays were among Ashley's most favoritest things.

That Christmas, Ashley was in a production of "A Christmas Carol". Tom saw his chance to impress this gothic angel. On opening night, Tom stood second in line. He colored his hair red (to match Chester Bennington) and wore a shirt that said, "Vampires Suck" which was 3 sizes too small. I was first in line! I had gone out and bought a pink sweater for the occasion. And seeing as how pink sweaters are hard to come by, I had to buy a women's sweater. It even had a zipper down the back. I thought it was quite lovely.

I didn't know what Tom was up to that night. If I had, I never would have gone. After the play, Tom jumped onto the stage (you can do that sort of thing in Prescott) and asked for everyone's attention. He proceeded to scream out a vampiric rendition of "I got you babe" by Sonny and Cher. I recall that he changed the chorus line to, "I'll bite you babe" to really impress her with his creative use of vampires. He thought it was romantic. She wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

I don't think that Tom has ever tried so hard to impress a girl since.

Adventures in Physical Therapy (Ryan Blog Excerpt)

2008-07-13T16:13:00.001-06:00

**NOTE--Ryan had to come home from his mission a month early due to an injury he aggravated in his back playing basketball on his P-Day. It was pretty severe, and he had to be flown home immediately to have emergency back surgery. We met a month after his surgery...bowling, as noted in the previous blog...he had to go to physical therapy after the surgery, so he was outlining his day at PT in this blog. At this time he was still living in California with his mom...he would come down on the weekends to take me on dates.** PAM

June 19th, 2007

Today was exciting! I headed out to Loma Linda for my physical therapy, just like any other Tuesday, but this would be no ordinary visit. I knew this would be the case when I had pulled into the parking and was greeted by an illegal immigrant trying to sell me a balloon for my girlfriend. I politely explained to him that no woman in her right mind would even consider being my girlfriend and that he would have better luck selling balloons over at McDonalds. Honestly, do I look like someone that would buy a balloon in a hospital parking lot? Come on!

Today they had me in the pool. Which meant I had to go to a different building. This is never good. I wandered up down different hallways for what seemed like years. By the time someone notcied me, my clothes were all raggedy, my beard reached to my waist, and I put Tom Hanks from Cast Away to shame becasue I was talking to my swimsuit.

So I finally found the pool, and it was time to change. Now, I am no Matthew Mcoughnehey, but when I stepped out onto the pool deck in my swimsuit, a couple 60 year ladies whistled at me. Yeah, watch out ladies, grrrrrr. After striking a few poses for my fans, it was into the pool for the hard stuff.

The hard stuff kicked off with walking from one end of the pool to the other. Step, step, step...whew, it's rough. After 10 minutes of that, it got worse! Sidestepping *cue scary music*. Step, step, step...You know, sometimes life is difficult, but hey, what can you do?

After warming up and doing some stretches it was time to pump some iron...err...foam. Pool weights are made of foam. I am no stranger to lifting wieghts, so I thought it would be easy. I was dead wrong. I not only had to lift weights and focus on my own excersises, but I had to keep an eye out and dodge an old curmudgeony man that looked just like Pintel from Pirates of the Carribean! He was like a misguided pervert whose soul purpose was to bump into people. That made weight lifting quite a harrowing ordeal. Fortunately, he never touched me :D

Then that was about it, after using the "weights" ... I think they are more like floats, it was time for me to do a few more excersises, then shower, change, and go home. I barely made it out alive. I get to do it again in a couple days!

Bowling (Ryan Blog Excerpt from when we met)

2008-07-13T16:06:00.000-06:00

**NOTE** I'm going to be posting some of the blogs that Ryan did on his Myspace page after we met for the first time, and the ones he posted after we started dating. He loved to go on Myspace and post blogs for me to read, and sometimes, posted them to see where we stood...like whether or not he should tell me he loved me! :) In an effort to keep these postings for our future posterity (meaning our chitlins someday) I'm posting them on our family blog so I can print them out and save them in our family journal. And I'm sure his mom hasn't read any of these either, yet...I thought she might get a kick out of them. I loved reading Ryan's blogs...I hope you do too :)** PAM

This first blog was written by Ryan 3 days after we first met at a bowling alley with some friends...

Monday, June 18, 2007

Bowling is perhaps one of the most misunderstood sports of all time. The game involves a ball the size of your head, ten pins that vaguely resemble punching bags (Could this be the result of latent stress on behalf of the inventors?) and a lane. Legend has it that the orignal game of bowling did not involve a lane. Instead of rolling the ball toward the pins, prehistoric bowlers launched the bowling ball toward the pins shot put style. The lane was added by a scrawny Irish man who wasn't able to lift the ball over his head.

A common misconception about bowling is how the game is played. Most individuals (I was one before I saw the light) believe that the object of the game is to use the ball to knock down all the pins. This is not the case. Along with the ten pins there are two gutters that run along the sides of the lane. The odds that you will hit a pin vs. a gutter make it quite clear that the goal of the bowler should be to hit the gutter. 10 vs. 2...Hello, do the math!

Since the goal of a good bowler is not to knock down all the pins, one must ask, what is the purpose of bowling? The legendary Fred "Twinkle Toes" Flintstone asnwers that question. His unique style shows us that in order to bowl well, one must bowl with style. Yes, style is the key to being a good bowler.

Now we all know that I bowl with style. The last time I went bowling, I managed to achieve a style score of 12,567,924.23 points while only scoring a 58. That takes skill! Skill that I have spent almost none of my life perfecting. Inspite of that impressive show of athleticism, I got showed up! Pam dominated the bowling scene with unsurpassed ability to hit gutter after gutter with smoothness and precision. It was incredible! By the end of the night I was begging Pam to let me at least use her ball so that I might salvage some of my reputation. She was nice enough to let me borrow it for a few frames :)

All in all, Bowling is awesome, as long as you bowl with style. The pins are just a gag meant to distract you from what is really important.

It's always sunny in Arizona...

2008-04-24T22:52:00.001-06:00

So, tonight, I'm on my own. A lot has happened since our last posts in February...to which I will outline below, eventually...but right this very moment, I'm lonely. So I thought a great way to temper that loneliness would be to update our blog :) After all, there's a lot to talk about...it's just finding the time to write it all down! So now is the time...

The reason I'm so lonely tonight is that Ryan has taken on a new job. Well, an old job for him, really. He's working back at Best Buy. A place he once knew so well before his mission...and has returned to what he loves. You might be wondering why he's working at Best Buy...well...quite honestly, University of Phoenix isn't all it's cracked up to be when it comes to a young 23 year-old guy, who has the opportunity to go to a ground campus. Online learning just wasn't for him...he didn't quite feel like he was getting the education or knowledge from his online classes as he would be able to get going back to a campus (Ryan excels at learning, and the kind of teaching/learning they do at UoP isn't the kind of intellectually stimulating courses he is used to in a classroom). And his job wasn't much better (as many people who have worked at University of Phoenix can probably attest to). After talking and thinking it over, we decided to send Ryan back to MCC for his Associates, and on to ASU after that. We figured he could get a part-time job, while going to school full-time. We felt good about this decision for him to quit University of Phoenix, as I would continue to work full-time until he got out of school in a few years.

Well...the very week we decided to send Ryan back to school (which was such a completely random idea for us), his mom was offered a position teaching at BYU-Idaho (we had called to tell her of our decision, and found out about her job offer). She hadn't decided on taking the position yet, and had done some of her own soul-searching/praying over the matter. While she was mulling this decision over, it seemed almost like divine inspiration as we called her and told her of all our happenings and decisions that week. She mentioned to us that Ryan would be granted free tuition as her son, if she took the job. All three of us had a lot of thinking/praying to do over the situation. This would require ALL THREE of us to move from our respective homes and jobs (she from California, we from Arizona) to the small town of Rexburg, Idaho...home to cold weather, snow, and a very small community! But as soon as we got off the phone with his mom, it made great sense to me and Ryan that this would be a great opportunity for him, and for our future. It's not like the old Ricks 2-year College it once was...this is now a bonafide 4-year college, really making a name for itself, due to it's current President...a man who was the Dean of Harvard Business School. He has brought a lot of great opportunities and internships to the college, due to his notoriety in the business community. This is such a great opportunity for Ryan to really find something he enjoys, and get a good jump start on a career. While neither Ryan or I ever expected to go to one of our religious schools (yes, we gawked at the idea of ever going to BYU-Utah just a few months before), for some reason, this opportunity feels SO right. It's amazing how Heavenly Father seems to always find a way to get us back on the path that is right for us, and how aware he is of what we are experiencing and what we desire in life. Even though things might be scary (I won't say I didn't have any hesitation about leaving my beloved Arizona, and my job I have made for myself, which keeps us taken care of) he has a way of letting you know everything will be ok, if we just take that step of faith into the darkness...the light will soon follow, and we will eventually see why we have taken the paths we did in life. I truly believe this will be the case with Ryan and me. Some day, years down the road, we will see how the paths were prepared for us, to reach our ultimate destinations. It's exciting to think that our lives are really just starting as a married couple, and this is the first big journey for us. Who knows...while I always said I could never live in the snow, I just might come to love it...and small towns :) And maybe, just maybe, Idaho could become our permanent home. But there is always the possibility that Idaho is just the beginning of our life-long journey. That's the exciting part.

So, December 2008 is when we are planning on packing all our stuff here in Arizona, and heading to the deep cold of Idaho. Ryan's working nights at Best Buy, and attending both summer sessions at MCC, as well as the Fall session, to get really close to finishing his Associates degree. I'm proud of him. And of his desire to gain a great education, and ultimately take care of our little family :) He is ambitious, and I love that about him. He's just getting started...I can't wait to see what he becomes when he really gets to where he wants to be. He'll be amazing at whatever he chooses to do.

As for me, I can't wait for December to come soon enough, so we can get out to Idaho, get me set up on insurance out there (I'm going to try to transfer to another Wells Fargo, if they have any openings when I move out there...) and start trying for babies :) I think Ryan is more excited about the babies than anyone :) He's cute. He'd have one now if we could. And quite honestly...so would I.

It's so weird how fast life can change...especially after life staying completely stagnant for 9 years! It's hard to wrap my mind around it sometimes. But it's exciting for change, too. I always said I could never be one of those girls that just picks up and moves to a different state out of the blue...with no job or anything...but here I am, doing just that! It's kind of empowering :) I like seeing that I have more courage than I give myself credit for sometimes...

It's getting late...Ryan should be home in about 30 minutes (he gets off at 10 p.m.). I need to go find my way into the kitchen and make him something for dinner...he never takes a break at work, so he's usually exhausted and HUNGRY when he comes home :)

I'll leave this for now, and tell you all how much I love and miss you...all my girlfriends are moving on right with me! Which it's good for all of us to be preoccupied now with our new lives, but sad that we lose touch. We've made some good memories together as single women, and have so many more to make with our new loved ones/friends/family members. So tonight, this blog is for you, girlfriends :) I miss and love you.

Pammy

A Quick Getaway From Homework

2008-02-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

I thought that I would post a few words to let the world know that I am not a cute card-board cut out.

I am currently very busy with working full time and going to school full time. Any time that is left over is spent with my Pam. I am getting acclimated to this kind of killer schedule, and I look forward to graduating with my bachelors degree in a little over two years!

I am working and going to school at the University of Phoenix. Because I work in admissions, I recieve a 100% tuition waiver, and I only have to pay $40 per class for books... Not too shabby! I have chosen to persue a dregree in marketing and I have the long term goal of becoming an economist... which means I'm going to be in school for a long time.

Other than that, there isn't a whole of excitement in my neck of the woods. Pam and I are getting along famously, and I enjoy her company every hour of the day. She has been tremendously supportive of me while I have been in school. I also appreciate all the encouragement she gives me... It's nice having my own personal cheer leader :)

Well, I have some homework that I am avoiding, and I better snap to it!

Thanks for checking in,

Ryan the Great

To work, or not to work...that is the question.

2008-02-05T13:46:00.000-07:00

So, I got this cute blog invite from one of my good friends the other day on the latest and greatest news of her fantastic family...and I thought to myself, "WOW...that is such a good idea...". I know we have several family and friends across the states that we don't get to see very often, so this is the perfect way to keep them informed of what we have going on in our newly married lives :) And today seemed like the perfect day for me to start it, since I have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING on my desk to do. That's right...I'm caught up on ALL of my work, for once in my life. So here I am...blogging...for you...in this 5 foot high cubicle enclosure of mine. And life couldn't be better...writing is my get-away in life...

Ryan and I are going on 2 months now of this thing they call "marriage". 2 MONTHS! Man, how time flies when you are having fun. We're finally getting adjusted to our daily routines, and dealing with the opposite sex :) (Please note, this is the first "real" relationship for BOTH of us, so neither of us have had to know the in's and out's of the opposite sex, and why they do WHAT they do :) Ryan's learning the "emotional" side of women, and why women need their own "girl time" sometimes with other women, and I'm learning about men and their need to want to fix everything! You never realize just HOW MUCH work marriage takes, until you are IN the situation, despite hearing this saying over and over in life! We're learning that communication is absolutely essential, trying not to read into things too much is important to keep from getting hurt feelings (especially during this beginning part where we are both super sensitive :), and learning each others personalities/jokes/sarcasm is something that has to be tread through...some adjustments might have to be made in our own personalities to keep from hurting the other. But I think we're finally coming to the emotional end of the first part of our marriage, and learning to understand each other more and more everyday. Ryan is THE BEST guy to talk things out with, and the MOST WILLING to fix things that need fixing...he really genuinly tries to understand the things I tell him, and tries to understand the things that I tell him I need as a woman, even if he doesn't understand why. I love that the most about him. He helps with everything, 50-50, in the house....cooking, cleaning, food shopping. He STILL opens my car door for me...my favorite guilty pleasure as a woman. I love it when he does that. He even tries to help me find video games for me to play on the XBOX :) That's a good man.

We're trying to get our daily routine figured out now...Ryan just started school on Tuesday. He's going for his Bachelors in Marketing at the University of Phoenix. He eventually hopes to get a Masters/Doctorate in Economics (probably from ASU, but that's not set in stone) and possibly become a Business Economist...he's really found his passion for it with the recent political campaigns going on (the campaigns have been a hot topic in our home for about a month now :) Ryan is definitely a DEVOTED student. That is one thing I know he got from his mother :) He is constantly checking up on the website (he is doing online schooling) to see if there are any new assignments or postings. The class seems to be going TOO SLOW for him. He excels at schooling, so he needs the challenge of a challenging class! He currently also works at the University of Phoenix, and on top of his good pay, he gets free schooling as well. We feel blessed with the opportunity for him to continue his education while making a good living for our family. This seems to be the ideal situation for us right now (as I also get an 80% discount on tuition from his work, so I'm going to start working on a degree in Psychology sometime soon). We all know I LOVE Arizona (born and raised!) and we hope to hang out here for as long as we can until a job or schooling eventually pulls us away. But until then, we are just enjoying ourselves in our apartment in Tempe. I'm lucky enough to work approximately 1.5 miles from my work...it takes me about 5 minutes MAX to get to or from work each day. I'm spoiled...and I love it :) Ryan's drive is A LOT better too...before we got married, it would take him about 1 hour to get to work everyday! Now, it just takes 15 minutes. We are both so close to home, that we have the great luxury of going home and having lunch with each other everyday...something most couples don't get to do! We like to eat and watch "Blind Date" on t.v....another guilty pleasure of ours ;) I'm just working at my current job as a Loan Processor for Wells Fargo (they bought out my previous employer "The CIT Group" last July, so I now work for the bank!). I'll keep this stint up for as long as our family needs the money (we're sitting quite comfortably as of now, and have almost no debt...so it's a good time for us to furnish our home and get everything paid off so we are set up both financially and with material necessities for our home before I ever quit), and until a little one happens to come along...but we aren't planning on starting the process for any additions for about a year :) We're trying to get Ryan a little further in both school and work before then...but we'll both admit that seeing all the babies at our family ward each Sunday, and seeing our friend's twin babies, we get the bug to have a cute kid of our own all the time :) It gets hard, sometimes, to resist the temptation, but we both think, in the end, it would be better for us to wait just a little longer. We'll see what the future holds :) We would make some pretty FINE looking babies...HA!

Until next time...XOXO

Pam