The Wonder that is Black Friday

So I had NO idea how fun/exciting/amazing Black Friday is. Seriously. You get insane deals, you wake up early so you really aren't ruining anyone else's plans, and almost EVERYTHING you need will be on sale somewhere. People were actually really nice. The old lady at the Best Buy even told me how cute she thought my bead watch was and acted like it was no big deal to be working that morning. The lines are a little crazy and the stores always lie about when they are opening. The Target ad said 5. 5 am people! I did see a little tidbit about giving out bags to the first 100 people there at 4am (like a fool I thought we might possibly get one!!).
So we get in at 5 and I can't find the TV or the Xbox I was supposed to be buying. I was staring to think what a rip off this all was, until I found a bigger TV! I was on cloud nine even as I tried to carry a 50+ lb television with my bare hands across a bridge to the car (we eventually grabbed a cart)! Kim was a total star! Not only did she help me shuffle the TV through the 52 minute line, she was stoked to keep shopping!!! At one point I even took her car to unload so we could continue the madness at the Mall.

I think more than anything, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that there is NO annoying Xmas background music playing. It was so NICE to just sit in line, talk with people around you, and enjoy the "queue". Plus it is one of those days you can completely brace yourself for the crowds. You already know there is not going to be anyone who will help you. You already know you are going to have to circle the store 4 times to find a DVD or that special something. And you can usually bet that someone will eye the items in your cart and just maybe reach in. Plus it is early enough in the year you don't have any family telling you what they want; they just get whatever you buy that is on sale!

Maybe it was just because we were in a "smaller" area. Maybe it is because that "smaller" area has 2 Walmarts to distract the "hard-core" shoppers, but I had such a WONDERFUL Black Friday. I'm actually a little rue-full to shop on other days, the crowds are just annoying. :|

Gingerbread Contest

Please see the following Gingerbread Houses and leave a message with your votes. The creators of such magnanimous houses will remain anonymous until all the votes have been tallied (or until Jan 6). I will tell you that one of the houses has retractable awnings and is 100% biodegradable, but don't let that sway your vote!

Thanks

House 1:




House 2:



And House 3:



The whole Line-UP:


Note: all participants were give the same amount of supplies and had the same time limit (as long as you wanted!). No animals or people were severely hurt during the production of these miniature homes.

My Imperfectly Perfect Timed Vacation.

So I needed a break. If you can't tell by the fact that my blog currently focuses on a couch, my life is getting boring/work focused (cuz I refuse to blog about work... much). The swine flu has been running rampant in SF and I ended up being the grunt worker to stayed to help with what few vaccines we received at the clinic. Well by Wednesday (like two weeks ago) I realized I was going to be pretty darn close to 40 hours by like... Thurs afternoon. So Sean and I decided to pick up and head south.

Can I tell you how stressful it was to leave? And yet how perfectly timed it was for my stress level? I ended up skipping out on like 3 church events, the telephone system at work crashed while we were in the parking lot of Zions, and Sean wouldn't stop asking, " You're really going to answer your phone right now?". But it was wonderful!!! The gospel kept going, the people at work weren't even slightly miffed when I got back, and Sean and I had some really good together time. We did two awesome hikes:

First Angel's Landing. I really fun 4 mile round trip hike. You go up 22 switchbacks called Walter's Wiggles, and that isn't the hard part. I wish I had taken some better pictures, but you hold on to a chain and hike another .5 miles going up a very dangerous ridge. It is very cool but a little nerve wracking, not one you take the kids on.

Next day we went for Observation point. This is a pretty cool but not well known 8 mile round trip hike that takes you up to the rim of the canyon, and you look down on everything, and I mean everything. You get up past all the red rock into what I call the white layer and basically feel like you are on top of the earth when you are done. I'm not sure I would do it again, it was a little long for us at 3.5 hours (they estimated it would take 5 !!!). But it is fun to go through slot canyons and see some really sheer cliff face up close. Anyways, here are some pics. Angel's landing.






The Rim


Pointing out Angel's Landing from the Rim


Slot Canyon and Walter's Wiggles.

I Tried!

Ok, so I really tried to get pictures of the couch. And then I realized, RC Willey has pictures all over the web. So here is a link to our couch. Keep in mind that although it looks regular, it is 10.5 FT long! I realized just a couple of days ago we could have gotten a similar looking one for 100 cheaper which would take up less space, but oh well. Anyways we love the couch and will be keeping it when we move. If we move to Japan we will store it in SF, or we will have whoever is living in Gma's house take care of it (which makes me nervous). But I am really hoping to move soon. I know I haven't been here a terribly long time, but working full time is alot, and SF isn't exactly the most happining place. Sean has promised me that we will move next Fall no matter what, if all else fails and we don't get admitted to anything, we will pick a med school and try to get residency in that state! Really, I love a lot of things here, but can't wait to get out of this transitory state.

Which brings me to.. I think we really are going to try to move to Japan! We are looking at applications for teaching for a year and lets just say that I am super nervous, but willing to do whatever. I'm not sure it is any less of a transitory type job, but at least it is change, it is progression. We want to work in a city called Sendai because that is where Sean's family is (and lets face it, we feel good about not paying rent if possible). I think that I would be an awesome teacher in general, but am not sure how the Japanese people will take to some of my more outrageous teaching styles. My biggest concern is church. They don't have English speaking wards in this city (I mean they only have like 4 branches for over 1 mil people). Anybody got ideas of what possible calling I could have? I mean really. I wish for my own sake I knew how to play the piano, it is the only none speaking calling I can think of. Maybe the chorister... ???

Pathetic Blogger

My blogging is really quite pathetic... but I still find great joy in posting, so here goes:

Firstly, more family members have been coming by and seeing the couch. Sean's oldest uncle saw it today (although he has been in the house a couple times this visit). He looked, took a couple steps back, looked again, and simply said "Wow." He only touched it with a couple fingers then said that it looks comfy. Maybe it is just me, but he had that look in face like "Why do you people need a couch?" when he asked who the couch belonged to. I promise I will post a picture of our massive microfiber covered couch, but I have to wait until I have some spare time during the sunlight hours.

Secondly, We may have killed the TV! So this beast weighs probably close to 100 lbs, and we were trying to put it on a desk that is against a wall. Well... Ok it was my fault, but while we were moving it I kind of dropped it faster than Sean did. Exciting results: Sean got a blood blister for the first time in his life... he wasn't sure what was wrong with him (hahahahahehehe). Once I reassured him that I got my first when I was like 4 from my older brothers shoving me in small pinchy places, and that he would live, we got around to testing the TV. I SWEAR it worked fine when we turned it on. REALLY. But now we sort have have "dilemmas" when turning it on. Sometimes we just have to keep powering on and off with the remote like 3 times, and then other days I spend literally half my lunch break trying to power up "What Not to Wear." Sean put it quite well when he said today that the TV was just having a bad day; hence, I blog.

Moral of the story: don't move huge things that aren't yours. Even if it was going to break anyways, you will feel like you did it. It may not even be your fault, and no one may know about it (hopefully) for another couple of months... but you will still feel like it is your fault.

Oh and I guess the other moral is blog when you can't do anything else. You may feel surprisingly productive for updating others about your days/flaws!

Memories...

You ever get that little nostalgic feeling where you miss your roommates? Don't get me wrong, love my current roommate, but every now and then I think... what happened to those people in my life who would just pick up and run to Vegas, Mexico, or even one long trip through Yellowstone? Where are the girls who let you order whatever you want at 5 Buck because they were going to order their own pizza? I miss rides up the canyon to see the leaves. Talking late at night (and yes about other things than boys). And having a crew of at least 15 to play soccer on any given summer night.



Kay... well maybe you don't, but obviously I do.

Updates

1. We bought a couch.

This caused somewhat of an uproar. Sean's Aunt (who is easily into her 50's) walked in with a shocked face and said "Wow. The layout of that room hasn't been changed since I was in High School." So like 30 years easily of the same outlay! Grandpa Ludlow didn't really care because it was easier to get his wheelchair in the room (and I'm not sure he fully comprehended what was going on).And Grandma just keep asking, "What do you need a couch for?". It is 10.5 ft long, which is why we bought it, cancelled, and then bought it again. The only way it fits in our(grandma's) large 17X16 playroom is to change the layout, and it acutally is really pretty.

2. Pictures of Redfish














3. Pictures of the BYU Game

good thing

wow... good thing I picked a fall color scheme for my blog because apparently I have become the worst person in the world at updating.

I FINALLY WENT TO A BYU GAME!!!

Sadly Sean and I rarely make it to the games, as we are too cheap to get season tickets, and too lazy to think ahead to buy tickets to the good games. Thankfully a super sweet neighbor/wardy had 4 tickets to the BYU v. CSU game that they couldn't use. Without even asking Sean I told her, "Yes! We want them all." Almost immediately I went to get them from her (extremely adorable by the way) house, and Sean started sending out texts to see if anyone would like to come with us. We have this little dilemma of not really making friends. So it actually was quite a stretch for us to fill the seats (seeing as both male brothers of ours already had tickets), but Ryan, Becky, and baby Davin came with us and we had a great time watching BYU slaughter. It was awesome to physically be at the game, in the mood, and watch some of the really cool turnovers. It was also kind of refreshing to be around others who could commiserate at the ever present Max Hall PIC. (Sadly, there is always at least one a game.) I miss the cougs, and I miss being a coug. I always had friends who said they wanted to stay in high school forever, and I really didn't understand... but sometimes I think I would like to stay in college/go back forever. But going to the game was AWESOME.

Thanks again for the tickets Rebecca!!!!

I didn't blog in june!

oh my gosh! I didn't blog in June. I actually feel a little guilty for this. I mean, what is the point of having a blog if you don't even update it every month!? Alright... so here's my lame excuse:

I legitimately have a job! And I am actually kind of useful in my job. It is kind of weird having a real position that requires responsibility. I mean as a TA I was basically in charge of the kids' grades, but if I screwed up, graded too hard or too soft... it wasn't like the professor really knew or came after me. He wanted the average to be in a certain place and I ensured it got there. Now if the grass dies, the phone stops working, or the maintenance guy disappears, it is kind of my fault. I really like it, but I was walking home for lunch today (trying to get my 6,000 steps for the day) and I was thinking, "Wow, responsibility feels weird." I mean I always tell people in interviews and stuff that I am a good leader, and that I handle responsibility well, but usually you don't actually have to worry about it much when I only answer the telephone. I really enjoy that I have opportunities to take charge and learn some skills.
But it sure is busy!

Other than that in June I... well I think I went home teaching (I hope I did). I went to Idaho to run 2 extremely fabulous races! First I went home to run the 19th annual Bone N'Back (I will have to put some pics up later). The race is a forty mile relay from Idaho Falls to a little city called Bone. There are 8 legs so each person runs 5 miles. I got the stretch that goes almost completely downhill and ran it (astoundingly) in 39:40!!! Then the next weekend (technically July) I went to run the Fourth of July Firecracker 5K. My family really entered this one! We had a 6 man family, and sadly my 55 year old father beat me... again; which, by the way, was my only goal this year. He is a beast and I really love racing with him. I will not be posting my time for that race until I actually can beat my father, so you can just keep guessing at my speed.

I have now run about 5 races this summer. I think it was a smart choice to kind of spread my fun and money over the whole summer rather than blow it all on one triathlon. I still really want to do one, but have to make sure I will feel good while doing it/ get in better shape before I try. We haven't gone hiking at all becuase it is so ridiculously hot here in Utah. Not that I see the sun much because I work indoors, but the heat and crazy rainstorms have seriously hindered my weekend plans. Sean says we can start camping more in the following months... we will see.

Well I will hopefully get some pictures up, and of course blog about my fabulous vacation to Redfish (!!!), later.

ARCHES!

For the first time in my life, I went camping ALONE with a boy!

OK, it was just my husband. We went down to Arches National Park and discovered we really like hiking together. Enough that I may even try to weasel one in at Redfish (sorry guys)!

The landscape was fabulous and it was surprisingly easy to hike most of the trails in our quick 2 day adventure. I HIGHLY recommend it, even if you aren't big hikers.

We did run into trouble trying to find a campspot, and this time it was Sean who was about to turn the car around and head back home. I got a book from the Rangers and after tonz of calls we found... well I want to say it was an open spot at a campground. In reality it was a field with no water access and one port-a-potty. But we made a little fire and had a great time! I may not have been clean, but I was still smiling!