Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Just keep swimming is what I have to keep telling myself! Between school, work (which Nolan keeps telling me to quit) constantly getting sick, trying to keep the house clean, occasionally cook a meal, keep Atticus from destroying the apartment, taking care of the puppies, trying to pack and figuring out the home-buying tango I'm surprised I haven't freaked out more than I already have! Nolan's been really sweet about almost everything and does an amazing job at talking me down from my emotional ledges.

To catch everyone up:

We're buying a home! Our offer was accepted on the condo in Tremonton. Now we wait for them to put the finishing touches so we can do the inspection and appraisal and the loan has gone in for the dreaded underwriting process. At the latest we will close the week before

Christmas but we're keeping our fingers crossed that it will happen sooner!

Next item, we have puppies! Jinx had two girl puppies on Halloween so they'll

be ready for new homes right at Christmas time! Any takers? It's been really funny watching Atticus around the puppies. He's very sweet with them so Jinx hasn't minded him sticking his head in the bed and licking them. It's so funny how he just watches Jinx and does what she does! Here's some cute pictures to tempt you into taking one home!

This one is my favorite! He looks like he thinks he's been busted!

Lastly:

Yesterday was Nolan's birthday! He's officially 27 years old. Wow. That used to sound old to me but it just doesn't feel like it. Apparently he doesn't think so because this is the only thing he wanted (or would let me get him) for his birthday.

Since the game came out on Tuesday I tried to tell him he couldn't play it until his birthday and that just did NOT fly. He took Tuesday through Friday off and has played Call of Duty almost every waking moment! We went to dinner last night at Chili's with his family and then we all went to the Ellen Eccles Theater to see Gary Morris preform. Nolan seemed to have a good time so I'm thinking he had a good birthday.

I'm still trying to keep my head above water with all of my homework but I'm down to 5 papers and a presentation left to do before the semester is over and then my last semester and the countdown to graduation begins in January! I apologize to all our friends and family who have been ignored this semester but I promise, it will end and then you can bask in the glow of our awesome company once again!

Our New Home???

Well we put an offer in on this condo over in Tremonton. We really like the layout and it has a fenced back yard which would be fantastic for the dogs. Here are a few photos.

It should be finished in about a week so we should get a nice new place that's in our price range and it has room for the dogs! I'm pretty excited about it! I'll keep ya posted.

Nolan Shaved His Head!!

It's not exactly a look I'm head over heels for but he shaved his head in support of one of his co-workers who's going through chemo.

Cathing Up, Nauvoo Trip

For some reason my mom and sister decided that they wanted to make a quick run to Nauvoo before school started and they invited me along. For those of you who've driven it, you know it's a long drive. We also decided to swing north on the drive and hit Mount Rushmore. We left after midnight the Saturday before school started. Mom drove all night while Jen and I slept and then we took over the wheel and she passed out in the back.

Mount Rushmore was just as great as I remember but it was chilly. I wasn't too thrilled because we'd been driving all night and day when we hit the monuments so this is me with car-bed head.

We still had fun goofing off.

We weren't planning on it but we decided to swing by the Crazy Horse monument since it was right there. It was kind of expensive to get in but it was very cool. The head of Crazy Horse is bigger than the entire Mount Rushmore monument. So far they've only completed the face and they're working on the arm, hand and mane of the horse. The Lakota people want a monument that will show their great leader since we've put ours up in their home. They haven't accepted any sort of government funding on the project which is why it's taken over 50 years just to get this far. The funding for the monument come from the park entrance fee and private donations so the chances are that it's going to take another 100 years before they finish.

It was also very cold here.

This is a statue of what the monument will look like when it's finished. The actual monument is in the background.

One of the snacks we picked up at a truck stop. Between the 3 of us we ate the whole thing.

Our second night out we stayed in a hotel and made it to Carthage the next after noon. Jen is sitting in front of the window that Joseph Smith fell through after being shot.

This is the view from the courtyard where Joseph landed.

The jail is a really pretty and peaceful place even though it is where something so tragic has happened.

We made it to Nauvoo that evening but it was after everything had closed up so we just drove around and read all the plaques and visited the Smith family plot. It was really cool to visit on our own. It's kind of weird because most of historic Nauvoo belongs to the LDS church but the Red Brick Store, the Smith family cemetery, the Mansion house and the Smith homestead belong to the Church of Christ so if you want to tour any of those places during the day, you have to go through with their tours. It's really disconcerting to hear about so many familiar things from their church's perspective.

The next morning we woke up and headed back to Nauvoo to take the tours. We got to visit the Gun shop (Woot!), the Newspaper office, the Cultural Hall, the Bakery (another Woot!), the Post Office, the Brick Yard, the Blacksmith's Shop and the Family Living and Learning Center. We had a blast! It's the end of the season so we didn't have to wait to see anything and there weren't a lot of people around. Jen and I found these really pretty flowers outside the living and learning center.

As we were leaving we passed this little tiny high school that had a gigantic statue of a Viking that Jenesey just had to get a picture of. I don't know how tall the statue is but Jen is 5'3".

We ended up driving the rest of the day, all night, and finally made it to Logan around noon on Wednesday. Do the math. We left Saturday night and got back Wednesday noonish. It was a very long, very quick trip.

To top off a great trip my sweet, wonderful, amazing hubby had a bouquet of Lily's and a box of Alvey's chocolates waiting for me!

Isn't he sweet!!

Why I almost shot Atticus today.

When I woke up this morning I thought Atticus was chewing on an empty water bottle. When I looked in his kennel I found this! He'd completely destroyed the first disc of my Firefly dvds. :-(

Later today Nolan and I made a quick trip to Macey's. We've been leaving Atticus out of his kennel for short periods of time because we want him to get used to being out while we're gone. Sadly he didn't do so well today. He pulled a book off of my bookshelf and destroyed it. We were only gone for about 20 minutes.

In one day Atticus destroyed one of my favorite dvds and one of my books. So ya, I almost shot him.

Quick Trips

I've taken two quick trips in the past few weeks. The first one was up to Island Park. My dad's side of the family has access to a great cabin up in Island Park and last year we all went up for the week so we decided to do it again this year. The problem this year is that the first week in July I took off for fireworks, the second week I had swine flu and the third I took off to make two wedding cakes. That left me with no time to take off for Island Park. I did manage to get Thursday off though so I woke up at 4 with Nolan, ran to Lewiston to pick up Lainey and then we drove to Island Park. We napped for half an hour when we got there and then loaded up onto the 4-wheelers.

Before:

During:

Dad in the fore-ground, the mountain we climbed in the background.

Dad frolicking in the wildflowers

Lainey spinning and singing about the hills being alive.

Me communing with my fellow yellow flowers.

We rode for 5 hours and went about 60 miles. It was a great trip and a ton of fun to hang out with my dad and Lainey. Once we got back to the cabin Lainey and I cleaned up, helped make and eat dinner, and then drove back home.

The next trip was a 3 day trip to Vegas and back with our friends Tony and Ginger. The night before we left I drove to Brigham to stay with Ginger since the guys had to work their grave shift before we left. We went shopping for road trip food!

Can you tell how concerned we are about eating healthy?

I get a discount on a hotel off of the strip through work so we got an amazing 2 room suite that usually runs for $899 a night for $89 a night! Our first night there we walked the strip and ate at a prime rib place that Tony and Ginger love. Our second day we spent shopping at 2 great malls. Nolan and I went into Build-a-Bear down there and I got this little guy!

Our second night there we went to Benihana for dinner and I actually got Nolan to try sushi. I should have taken a picture because I don't know if he'll ever try it again. We also decided to try out the Blackjack tables. The 4 of us sat down with $20 each and fully expected to lose it all but we each ended up winning around $50 a piece! We decided to quit while we were ahead.

Here's Nolan the next morning as we head back home.

Isn't he cute!!

The ride home was not so great. Nolan and I both got a bit carsick and then we had to stop at a motorcycle wreck in St. George. We probably would have watched it happen if we hadn't been behind a semi. The guy's tire blew out and he had his helmet strapped to his backpack instead of on his head. Nolan and Tony jumped out to try to help but he was gone as soon as he hit the ground. Definitely not the most fun way to end a vacation but what can you do?

Mr. Qwackers

We were at Bryan and Natalie's the other day for some yummy pie and family chit-chat when Bryan felt the need to mention that there was a little baby duck swimming around in the canal right outside their house. After that Nolan would not be satisfied until he had found and caught said duckling.

The kids couldn't stop petting it and Nolan wanted to take it home. I had to play mean wife and tell him no because we already have 2 dogs, one of which is quickly growing into a giant. As far as I know Bryan kept Mr. Qwackers overnight and then released him back into the canal.