Basketball

Here are pictures of Matt playing basketball. He didn't have to ref this time he actually played. I am really trying to get a hang of my camera so I was screwing around with it a lot. Not sure what a lot of the things do that I was messing with. Here are only a couple of the dozens I took. Anyways they lost pretty bad. Matt had half the points though, no one else was playing well! Nothing was dropping. Its okay though Matt was just glad to play.

Matt found more flowers a sprouting Holly I think you might have some dud bulbs or you should start digging... I almort did! Hey Kristin how is the card growing? Haven't heard in a while! Enough to make a bouquet yet? Ha ha... Whelp I am off for a long weekend! I will post pictures when I get back!

New Beginnings

Last night was a VERY busy night! I had New Beginnings night which is to introduce the new girls to the Young Women program and to also introduce the new theme and review a lot about Personal Progress and For the Strength of Youth. NO Jeff its not a Maturation class... haha.

The theme was "It's a jungle out there", so we did the room like a Jungle and had the girls do a skit in a set up bedroom (My bedroom from high school). They loved it and really enjoyed doing it all the girls were saying "Ohh i wish this was my bedroom!". I don't think the parents enjoyed it all that much but that is Okay. Here are a few pictures.

I got to New beginnings at 6:30 and Matt came right after he took a test for Economics (hes been studying like crazy and says he felt confident in a lot of his answers) We got home around 10:30 and then put the whole bedroom back together.

Matt physically has a few dead give aways when he is tired and hungry. His eyes get SO blood shot and his skin turns yellowish green. He looked that way when he showed up last night. It's nice he is willing to help so much. He was so helpful last night with taking down everything. Thank you husband! You are the best thank you for being patient with me.

In other New Beginnings... okay that was bad but GUESS WHAT! Here is my liiiiiittttle flower growing growing growing! Are you so excited? I took a quick picture, Matt and I were running really late this morning so I didn't even focus it. BUT you can see it anyways.

Funny on-line show

So around here at work us women watch a fun little show on~line about motherhood every once in a while. Go to inthemotherhood.msn.com if you ever need a little chuckle and watch a few of the episodes. I have seen a couple and they are pretty dang funny. I know I am not a mother and no I am not expecting (Steve) but I can still relate to these stories.

They are real stories women write in about then women vote on the funniest one and they'll make it into a mini episode. Jenny McCarthy, Leah Remini, and Chelsea Handler are the mothers that act out the stories. Anyways so if you ever have about 10 minutes and need a laugh look it up.

Anyone here from Rose Point?

Matt went to go play Basketball last night. All the guys were standing around and one of the guys who is in charge of the stake men's basketball said "Is any one here from the Rose Point Ward?" Matt looked around and noticed no one else from the ward there, he was confused a bit and raised his hand. The guy then pointed to him and said "Okay you'll ref tonight then" Matt kind of chuckled and agreed. For those of you who don't know about church ball it get pretty dang intense.

Matt put the Black and White striped shirt on grabbed a whistle and along with 2 other guys who volunteer to ref for the good of the stake, the game started. Matt, when he plays pick up games himself, doesn't call fouls so why would he call a whole bunch of fouls now? These men out there thought they were in the NBA or something, thinking they should get every tiny call when they miss a lay up but when they do the same thing to the opposing team they get upset when a call is made.

Well Matt was jogging up and down the side lines spinning his whistle around his finger and such. One guy comes barrelling down the floor and takes out another guy, the guy who is the head ref made the call. Matt turned to me and all the guys sitting on the sidelines and said "hmm I probably should have made that call" then the guy who was taken out stands up and proceeds to give the red faced, stink eye, puffed out chest, tip toe walk situation to the other guy. I said "Matt do something about that!" he said "I wanted to see the fight"... he was kidding of course but it was funny. So when the guy was shooting his free throws because of the fowl Matt passed him the ball and said "Okay everybody play nice" All of us got a good snicker out of that and the game continued.

About 5 minutes later a player was going in for a lay up and the guy on defense decided to give the other player a hug to defend, not literally but that's what it looked like. Matt then proceeds to give his whistle a tiny toot and the guy who was on defense looks at Matt and says "NOOOOO WAYY" Matt took the whistle out of his mouth and sarcastically said "Oh sorry never mind then play on WHAT???"

It was SOOO FUNNY! Who would have expected a ref to talk back to the players when they are being ridiculous...

Matt only made one more call the rest of the game, which after the call was made and he got more complaining for making the call offered his whistle to the complaining player and told him to ref. I don't think the players bugged him all the much the rest of the night! It is insane how competitive these men get and how they loose every bit of sense they ever had when playing ball. Matt was never rude or demeaning to the players but I thought it was nice for a change to see the ref let the players know that he was not a professional and he would make the calls he saw...
After that game was over other guys showed up and Matt was able to still play a little bit.

On a different note, I FOUND SPROUTS!!! I found a few of my little bulbs pushing up through the ground, I ran inside to grab my camera then I realized that I forgot to unplug my charging battery at work... Tomorrow you guys will see pictures of sprouts.

Tonight is also Young Women New Beginnings the theme is "Its a jungle out there" I will take pictures tonight and talk more about it tomorrow. We decorated the whole Primary room like a JUNGLE it took a while but it looks cool. Until tomorrow, have a lovely day all those out in blogger land!

Civil War

Matt and I went to ANOTHER play at Hale Centre Theatre last night, it was called Civil War. Merrill Osmond was in it, I don't know much about the guy but he did a great job. He was the captain of the Union army, his voice was so much stronger then the guy who played captain of the Confederate army. It was so smooth and enjoyable!

Obviously it was a Musical, but a dramatic musical. It was really interesting it had little parts where the slaves were singing for freedom in the south, the soldiers who fought for the south and the soldiers who fought for the north. It was a good refresher of the war. I didn't know that to this day it is still the bloodiest battle America has fought in, 620,000 deaths (I think that what they said). Dang that is a WHOLE LOT of men that died! I think they may have skipped over that part in grade school.

It was Matt's favorite that we've seen over there. Now we want to go see either "Annie Get your Gun" or "Big the musical". My Co-Worker Bob is trying out for "Big", so if he gets a part in that then I'll go see him in it. He is a really good actor. ANYWAYS, just thought I would let you all know of the culture Matt and I experienced last night. Tonight is getting ready for tomorrow nights Young Women New Beginnings... busy busy...

P.S. no bulbs coming out of the ground yet.... dang it!

What do you do in the winter time?

Oh what do you do in the winter time when all the world is gray,
do you go to the show,
or bake some cupcakes,
or watch all the snowflakes fly!
Is that what you do?
So do I.

Oh what do you do in the winter time when all the world is cold,
do you read a good book,
or do your homework,
or look out the window and sigh!
So do I.

Snow Snow go away come again some other.... year.
I am tired of cold.
It is supposed to be warmer this week!
I want to go home today and see the hundred bulbs I planted last fall pushing up through the cold ground. Showing a glimmer of hope that spring will come soon, that warmer days will come, and that burning cold lungs will be in that past after a long jog outside. Although I must say Saturday morning it was foggy outside so I HAD to go for a jog outside it reminded me of Oregon. I miss my Oregon...I love Utah in the summer, spring, and fall, winter I can do with out. Is there a place on earth like that? Vibrant Autumns, Nice hot summers, Beautiful colorful springs, and VERY MILD winters? If anyone knows of such a place let me know and I'll be living there some day...

Lately I have been looking around a little at craft stores to find a little "Spring" project and I have yet to be motivated ( I still have my frosty up its SOO appropriate), hopefully in the next few weeks I can figure it out.

Becoming Jane

Matt and I watched "Becoming Jane" last night. I am so facinated by her life and how she wrote all of her novels, the language, the story, and the location it's all so exciting to me. It was interesting that during the movie of her life you could see themes from all of her books coming out in the movie and of course my favorite book Pride and Prejudice was one of the most prominent themes.
I am just glad that as a women now I can decide who I want to marry, when I want to marry. What I want to do for a profession and make my own decisions about my family. It is amazing the types of things that men and women worried about 200 years ago versus now. The best thing about Jane Austen as a writer is that she appealed to readers 200 years ago just as well as she appeals to readers today. She understood human emotion so well and was able to put it in writing better then I have ever read. Amazingly enough she never got married but was propsed to 3 times! That is crazy back then! Anyways enough of that, just thought I would share a little about one of my LOVES in life... Jane Austen novels.
I really need to get my hands on that book that Bobbie suggested... the Pride and Prejudice from Mr. Darcys view what was that called again? Kristin says she tried to get it from the library but it was reserved 4 times over... eesh... I need to buy it what is it called??

RIP #45

New School record! Yippee!

Rise, all loyal Cougars and hurl your challenge to the foe.You will fight, day or night, rain or snow. Loyal, strong, and trueWear the white and blue. While we sing, get set to spring.Come on, Cougars, it's up to you. Oh!

Rise and shout, the Cougars are outalong the trail to fame and glory.Rise and shout, our cheers will ring outAs you unfold your vict'ry story.On you go to vanquish the foefor Alma Mater's sons and daughters.As we join in song in praise of you our faith is strong.We'll raise our colors high in the blueAnd cheer our Cougars of BYU.

The Game was awesome and those Utes put up a fight. The fans were crazy and we really enjoyed ourselves. Jimmer Fredette freshman phenom vote him for president that is all I have to say, okay I am kidding but that kid is a ture freshman and he kicks trash man!

BYU vs UTAH

Tonight is the big game, BYU vs Utah. It starts at 8 pm. Should be a good one. I am pretty sure BYU will win. They have the second longest home winning streak in the nation with 44 games. That also ties the school record. Lets make it 45 games eh? I am very excited! Here are pictures of the team... haha Lee Cummard is my favorite, he thinks he has the best body on BYUs campus! HAHA Anyways Oh and lets not forget our 6th man fresh of the bench Jimmer Fredette who is also AWESOME. Sorry no picture he didnt have one...

So yeah thats pretty much what is going on with Matt and I tonight. We will heard down and meet up with Will and Kristin this evening eat dinner and be off to the game!

What did we do all weekend?

Well alot of junk that doesnt need to be mentioned... but we went to the BYU vs UNLV basketball game and it was AWESOME! BYU killed them and the crowd was insane. We got to the Marriott Center at 5:30 thinking we would walk right in, get our Utah tickets for Wednesday and then leave to go get some food before the game started at 7. Well that wasnt the case! The line was ALL THE WAY AROUND THE BUILDING in order to get in and get Utah tickets! So in all the confusion Kristin was just going to go in and save us a place and we would stand in the insane line and get the Utah tickets for everyone.. So we picked a short line and they scanned Kristins allsports pass then handed her a Utah ticket! Shocked, Will walked in as well and got a ticket for himself then sprinted across the building to go get Matt who was on the other side still waiting in line while I stood in the back of the MUCH shorter line... Matt got there, we walked in and then Kristin traded for seats next to us and we went and got our seats and just ate there. We ended up getting okay tickets to the Utah game and if you ask me I think it is a stupid system they use for the big games. This was all an hour before the game started! It was so crazy but the game was great, even though Jason was just crawling all over Matt the whole time. Weird... Here are some pictures from the new camera! Check out that zooooom!

I forgot one...

So Sorry guys but I forgot one more picture that I was going to post yesterday... I like these pictures because they remind me of a couple things.

1. That spring isnt just a dream and it ACTUALLY comes in month called March that seems so far away... (these were taken in Oregon by the way).

2. That at one point in my life I had seen the sun and had a tiny bit of color, I ALMOST look more tan then Matt, which is next to never.

3. Our smiles are so geniune in these pictures! We really do love eachother :)

Matt and I really are just grown up kids (uhh kind of) and married. We help take care of eachother and dont really feel like grown ups yet. Well except for when the house payment is due along with all those other bills. Or when we have to worry about insurance premiums, deductables, investment portfolios, retirement plans... Uh so maybe we are grown ups that dont want to be grown ups...

Regardless sunnier (literally) days are to come and retirement is just around the corner right? Just about 40 more years of work... haha! So those are my random thoughts of the day.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day to all... Just thought I would share a little love. I especially love my husband he is my all time favorite and my best friend forever. I know I know... go gag or shed a little tear but it is true :)

Guess What!?

I did my taxes all ready! Is that a record or what! I told myself this year no waiting until April to do them so I collected everything I needed and just plain got it done. I am sending all the forms in today. I really am proud of myself, just thought I would share with all of you my little accomplishment.

Also, I have determined that I need to be a little better with my diet and work outs. Lately I have been a little lax in my regimen and now that the sun has come out I think hmm maybe you should get out a little more! So no more junk food (except for tomorrow) and I HAVE to get working out! I mean I have always my cardio but its time to firm up! My bum has been dissapearing.... anyways just thought I would share.

Side note: for those of you with BLOGSPOT does your Spell check work? mine doesnt work anymore... So sorry if i spelled something wrong.

NEW CAMERA!!!!

Regular Picture Supposedly "Soft Portrait"

Yay! We finally went and got the NEW camera! It is soooo cool. Except it doesnt make me look any more tan. I AM SO PASTEY! There is a soft portrait function that is supposed to help with really white people to not make them washed out and it DIDNT! Arg! Okay yes I know I need to see some sun. It is supposed to be 50 degrees today I might be eating my lunch outside today! Oh and yesterday as I was messing around with the camera Matt decided to learn a new song on his guitar, he was also the only person I took pictures of. He didnt want to be in many so I snapped these 2 and then left him alone.

HAPPPPPPY 25th BIRTHDAY!

Sorry, I dont have any pictures of just HD and just Kristin so spouses and children involved will have to do. Have a HAPPY HAPPY Birthday guys! :)

Better Business Bureau Novel

Matt and I learned a valuble lesson yesterday about purchasing things online. It may be convienient and you might be able to find it a lot cheaper BUT it may not end up the way you want it too.

Back to the camera, Matt was purchasing it for me for Valantines day. Since it was more expensive then the one that he got me for Christmas he was adding together the Christmas and Valentines day funds to get me this other one that I want. He went ahead and ordered it for me then he got an e~mail asking him to call in and confirm his order. He called in and they confirmed his order and they started the whole "upsale" junk. These people positively wont take no for an answer on the upsale. They push and push and say "okay how about i knock off 30 dollars or upgrade this etc...". After a while Matt ended up falling for the upsale scam. Dont ask me why usually he is way better then that. He then turned around and called me to see if I really did need all the stuff that they were sending in addition to the camera. I said "No I dont want all that call back and cancel the upsale but keep the camera."

He called back and said "Hey I just spoke with my wife and she says that we all ready have most of the stuff that you are sending in addition to the camera. So can I cancel the upsale and you can go ahead and still send the camera." Matt was treated so poorly and rudely after he said this! They said in order to cancel the upsale they would have to cancel the whole order. (Side Note: This company is based out of Brooklyn so thier accents are unmistakebly annoying anyways, you feel like you are talking to mobsters) Matt then said, still trying to work with these people, "Okay well then lets cancel the whole order then i'll re-order just the camera" Not a word was spoken and he was instantly transfered to the "Manager". Peter gets on the phone and says "okay to cancel your order its gonna cost you $70 in cancelation fees" Matt says "Uh okay where does it say that on your website?" Peter responds with " You ever been to school kid? You teacher doesn't do your homework for you its on there find it yourself" By then Matt was appalled and confused about what to do. He continued to try and reason with Peter and Peter eventually hung up on him.

Our order went from 228.00 to 294.00 because of this stupid upsale but now to cancel the order it would cost 70 bucks.

Matt called me back all upset so I decided I should bust out the "Mama Bear" and get things done. So I called and the guy he was yet again SO RUDE! I asked if I could speak to his manager and he told me he was the owner of the company AND I QUOTE "You could talk to my secretary if it will make you feel any better but I only pay her 12 bucks and hour and she doesnt know anything" This is the kind of service they gave. I said " Well fine I just want to cancel the whole order" He said "Well that will be 70 bucks" I said " What is this 70 bucks based off of? " He said "Look lady I'm not here to argue with you, if you want to argue with me have your lawyer call me" So I said "Okay well let me think about this and i'll call you back." He was so rude to me that I was shaking when I got off the phone. What he doesnt know is that I have 2 lawyers in my office that LOVE to work with these kind of people. I spoke with one of our lawyers and he suggested the BBB. I looked up the company on the BBB and here is the review of the company. http://search.newyork.bbb.org/reports.aspx?pid=44&page=1&id=79450
I found that the company is run under many different names and that Patrick is in fact the credited owner of the company and that Peter is not.

So by now I am enraged and scared that these psycos now have our credit card info. I was determined to cancel the order. So I call them yet again with about 6 of my co-workers around me wanting to hear for themselves how AWFUL these people are, and in a VERY NICE tone of voice said "I would like to cancel my order."
They said "Well its all ready on the truck to leave at 7 am and you cant cancel it"
So I say "Okay what company is delivering it?"
He said "UPS"
"Well what is my tracking # then?"
"I dont have a tracking # for it yet"
"Then how is it on the truck ready to be delivered if you dont even have a tracking #? Let me talk to Patrick please I have spoken with Peter who claims to be the owner of the company but on the BBB it says its Patrick."
"Uh hes not here anymore you'll have to call back tomorrow"
"What is his extention and I want you to transfer me over to him now so I can leave him a voice mail and cancel my order"
He put me on hold, then comes back about a minute later and with a totally different tone says "Uhh this is still Eddie, how about we knock another 10 dollars of yours order, would that make you happy?"
I responded "Thank you that is nice of you but frankly, I dont want anything to do with your company, and I want to cancel my order."
"Why do you want to cancel your order? You know I am only making 10 bucks of this deal lady?"
"Honestly, the customer service is terrible, the company has AWFUL reviews on the BBB, and I feel like I am being scammed, please just cancel my order."
"Fine lady i'll try"
The guy hung up on me... So I called Matt and he called Wells Fargo to put this to rest.

Wells fargo was very helpful and wanted to get the company on a conference call to confirm the order was cancelled. The CS guy from Wells Fargo clicks over from Matt to get them on a Conference call and comes back about 10 minutes later laughing because they hung up on him too!!!! Now the guy at Wells Fargo is determined to help and he tries again and spoke with someone in billing who was very kind. He came back to Matt 5 minutes later and said they cancelled the order completley and assured us that NOTHING will be charged to our card and if they tried they would have to deal with Wells Fargo not us... WHEW! Glad we got out of that one. Those people were CRAZY!

My advice is look up on the BBB the company BEFORE you order anything online and stick to companys like Overstock or Amazon not these little cheapo places that will rip you off!

I am lucky to be alive today!

On Wednesdays since Matt has classes late, meaning to 8:30 at night, we drive separate. He left around 7:10 and it wasnt all that bad out. When I left around 8 ish it was snowing heavily but it wasnt horrible on the roads. Well driving in I was listening to KSL talk radio and they were saying how there were 20 accidents in just Salt Lake county, so I-15 would be slow. I thought okay well then I'll just take a side road, then right as I thought that they said and dont try and go on a side road the snow plows havent even started on them yet. SO i picked the "Parking lot" Interstate.

Well I got to about 10600 South passing an accident or two, the roads were really starting to clear up so I turned off my 4 wheel drive and decided it was probably okay to start going 35 instead of 15. Whelp that was a bad idea. Maybe about 5 minutes after I turned of my 4 wheel drive I slipped on black ice in the far left lane stil going 35 ( promise) and didnt get my Jeep back undercontrol, I didnt slam on my brakes and I was turning my wheel the way I was sliding. Jesus DEFINATELY took the wheel on this one. I ended up doing 2 and 1/2 spins across 3 lanes of traffic ending up facing the on coming traffic of on the side of the road. I thought OH MY GOSH HOW DID I SURVIVE THAT! Then right as soon as I realized what happened I looked over my shoulder and there went another car sliding seconds behind me on the same patch doing the same spins and ended up about 50 feet away from me. No one hit her either! WOAH talk about a miracle.

Then I waited for a minute and got out to run over to the other car to see if she was okay. She was fine but there was no way she was going to get out of that snow in her little Mazda6. So she was calling 911 to have someone come get her out. I was okay and I could have just put it in 4 wheel again and got out of the snow but with the traffic I didnt have enough room to spin around and get going again. With in about 5 minutes a cop showed up and shut down a lane for a minute so I could get out of the snow and I get going again. I thanked the COP and Heavenly Father for not letting me die this morning. I finally got to work about and hour and a half late. Yeesh it was a crazy morning but I am surprised with the composure I had through the whole thing. I remember specifically everything that happened while I was spinning and am very thankful nothing worse happened.

I Voted!

Matt and I woke up early to vote this morning on this "Super Tuesday" You all should go vote if it is your states turn to vote! Here in Utah we get a nifty "I voted" sticker and if I have that sticker here at my work my boss will buy you lunch!

My mom and Colton left this morning, pray that they can make it home safe. They have a LOOOOOONNNNGGGG Drive ahead of them, 140 has been closed since Friday. Lets all hope it is open today or else they will have to drive all the way down to Sacramento (or somewhere close I think) then up from there! Good Luck guys!

Another snow storm is coming in soon, Wednesday they say,... We need to plan a trip soon! Oh wait we are going on one in May! Not soon enough man it is TOO CHILLY around here.

What the snow is going on!

I am so STINKING tired of snow! See how high that was just in our walkway? I should have taken a picture of our driveway it was even worse because of the drifts. I went out to shovel around 1 or so and came back in at 3. My arms are so dang tired! All this happened on Sunday where Matt woke up at 7 to a phone call saying he needed to go up the church and start digging. So he got the snowblower out up there at the stake center to get ready for 9 o'clock church and after about an hour and a half of digging the stake presidency cancelled church. So he came back to our house and slept for a while then did his homework. He got all caught up! Yay! I actually like shoveling snow but not that dang much! It took me so long and now my arms feel like they are going to fall off. I got a good work out lets just say that! This is our front lawn... I just hucked the snow shovel out there in the snow just so you guys could see how much is there. Yeeesh! So Saturday Kristin had her cookie party! It was great fun even though I burned my first batch of cookies listening to President Hinckleys Funeral. The second batch turned out much better. I got 3rd (I think) for best taste. Not too shabby! Steph had a camera at the party so maybe she got some good pictures. Check her blog maybe soon.

After the party we went over to (where else) BYU to watch No. 1 ranked Mens Volleyball play CSUN ranked No. 6. It was SOOO CRAZY! BYU won the first 2 matches then CSUN won the second two then BYU pulled it out in the end on the 5th match. IT WAS CRAZY FUN. Matt and Colton were going crazy! Poor Cody #5 on CSUN... he was a brat and Colton and Matt picked up on it quickly so by the end of the game our WHOLE side was taunting Cody... or shall i say Sunshine HAHA... Ironically Cody was the one who lost it for CSUN too. It was a good day.

Now its monday and it is DUMPING down snow so my mom wont leave until tomorrow.

Correction

So my correction is the fact that Matt does everything with me when I say "I" need to clean that means both Matt and I clean, and all of the other things i mentioned. He generally does his own laundry I just tell him how to seperate and so on then he will help me fold all of mine and his and put it away. I realized later that it sounds like I do all of it. I dont really I guess i just like the credit!
On a side note:
I am done with snow that is FOR SURE. Why do I live in Utah and live about 30 minutes away from my office? The drive turns into about an hour drive in the most perilous of conditions. We almost died on the way to work ofcourse a car almost hit us from behind while we were about to hit the car infront of us.

I forgot my lunch at home too... good thing someone bought bagels for everyone this morning I guess that is what I will be having for lunch! :) I am getting depressed lets hope the snow stops soon...