It's a VERY sad day in the Spence house

The wonderful camera that Matt and I saved our money for months to buy and was my Christmas, Birthday, and Valentines day gift for the year has been lost. I lost it on the 18th hole of disc golf up at solitude resort up big cottonwood canyon. I realized it shortly after we drove the hour and fifteen minutes home and called every number I could find for up there. Matt and I also drove up there this morning to look for it to no avail. Either some little chipmunk has a really nice camera or some disc golfers behind us ended up with a really nice camera, personally I think it was the later. Now I know what you are thinking, "If I would have found it I would have turned it in!" I would have too BUT to whom ever found its benefit the disc golf center had closed about 30 minutes after we left AND the lost and found is only open Monday- Friday. I doubt they had any place to turn it in to! The only thing I can hope for is the person will bring it back because the resort now has my name and number and have promised to call me if its turned in. The chances of that I know are slim to none. Tears have been shed and I am VERY sad about it. It was the best camera ever and it will be sorely missed. I got it specially for football season for it's AWESOME zoom capabilities. Matt and I will now be scrimping and saving every penny we have to buy another of the exact same camera. Bummer how things like that happen... how depressing.

The Love Bug reincarnated

Last Wednesday I drove my Jeep to work. When it was time to leave I turned the key in the ignition and nothing happened. Well correction, something happened the engine would turn and turn but never start. So I caught a ride home with my Aunt and Uncle who live about a mile down the road. I told Matt about it that night and he said that he would look at it the next day after school. So we carpooled to work on Thursday and after school at about 8:30 we got to my car, it wouldn’t start again. Neither Matt nor I could figure it out. So we decided it would probably have to be towed somewhere. We actually left it in my work parking lot until Monday. (We were busy with the Family Reunion) I was worried about it being there but Matt said no one would steal it because Hello! it wouldn’t start so more power to them if they want to fix it to steal it. Good point right? So Monday after work I went to go pick up Matt and we came back to my work to figure out what to do with my Jeep. Matt has a tow strap and the mechanics shop was only 1/2 mile away so he thought MAYBE we could tow it. I was a little unsure of that idea but Matt said yeah I think we’ll do that. First he thought he would try starting my jeep one more time before we towed it ourselves.

He hopped out of his car and so did I. He left his keys in the ignition. I handed him the keys to the Jeep and he jumped in and tried to get it started to no avail. Right as soon as he stopped trying he heard his car honk. Both of us were out side of his car, with his keys inside the car, and we hear a HONK? We both knew what that meant. Matt tried his door it’s locked! ARG the car locked itself with the keys inside? Are you kidding me? So we had a broken Jeep that wouldn’t start and we had a Chevy that just decided to lock itself! We didn’t have another key for the car there so now we not only needed a tow truck but we needed a lock guy to come get into our car. I walked inside my work to call AAA cracking up while Matt insisted on staying outside. He started calling his car “Herbie” and kicking (lightly not too hard) the tire. He was convinced that the lock guy was going to come out and “Herbie” our magical car would unlock itself before hand and we would look like idiots. He sat out there for quite a while until I convinced him to come inside. The tow truck guy showed up about 20 minutes later and unlocked our car for us and towed the Jeep to the shop. Good thing we have AAA or that would have been on expensive incident!
It was all free which is great but here is the kicker. Yesterday I called the shop to see what the damage was $ wise on the Jeep and the guy at the shop asked me the weirdest question. He said “What was the problem with your Jeep again?”
I said “Isn’t it obvious? It will turn and turn and never start.”
He said “Huh well it starts just fine for me”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Both cars have turned against Matt and I one locks itself magically and the other one just decides to start whenever it wants. The guy at the shop thinks that it is probably a finicky sensor. It won’t be that expensive to fix so we hope that solves the problem. Bottom line is a car (or Jeep) is a big money pit, who take on a mind of their own and are good for nothing but getting from point A to point B, which unfortunately is very important. It’s a never ending cycle and I just want to break free!

P.S. Matt has been calling his car Herbie ever since!

Hello Hello ( just like Holly would have typed it) lol

Hey guys! Long time not post... oh wait not that long just seems like a long time. Now that I have a second I thought I would say hi!
Well now that I think about it nothing exiting or blog worthy has even happened in the last couple days...

Hmm... So umm because I have no story's or news to share I will type uhhhh 6 things about myself you may not know,

1. I can talk with my mouth completely closed and people that are standing next to me can hear me just fine.

2. I am set to graduate from U of U Spring of 2011... yeah you read it right (My twin sister who started the same time as me is all ready done!) I laughed when I heard my counselor say that,. let's hope summer school can fix that situation. Just take my advice and don't go to 4 different schools... stick to one ;)

3. I would actually like to go to beauty school one day and just learn for fun how to REALLY do everything I all ready do for people (nails hair etc...) Although I don't think I fit the Beauty School Girl stereotype at all.

4. I have found that I CAN successfully do two things at once with ease. For example listening and talking, typing and reading, walking and drinking. But if you throw a third thing in there? I am TOAST! For example talking, listening, and typing out an e~mail... none turn out very coherent and I don't end up hearing a word the person who was talking to me said. I think I need to work on that. Unfortunately Matt is usually the victim in that situation.

5. I still write important things on my hand so I remember. Right now I have two phone numbers written on my right hand. It used to bother my Dad a whole lot. Matt doesn't seem to mind at all!

6. My favorite singer is Tim McGraw, on the other hand my favorite band is Weezer. I can probably sing you every word to any song that either Tim or Weez have sang! Freak I know I cant figure out which type of music I like best! Depends on my mood I guess. I can listen to absolutely anything BUT Techno... man that stuff gets on my nerves.

So there you go hope it was an interesting read :) Until next time.... keep up the good blogging

I CANT WHAT? Warning this is a long one it might make your bum sore

First of all quick scoop on the new job at Investools. Matt LOVES it he is learning so much and he is excited to start all the programs that he now has at his use through their website. He is so excited to share his new found knowledge with me and anyone who wants to hear it its crazy! (Mike I am sure in a couple months Matt just might be the man to call about stocks:)

Now onto the sad part :

A piece of my soul has been ripped from me... Okay, okay, it's not that bad, BUT my boss Allan pulled me into a impromptu meeting yesterday that I had no idea was coming. Lately since the market slowed down, Meridian has had plenty of lay offs. I don't believe I have been on the the list ever but now it's to the point where good employee or not they might have to let all assistants go if we cant keep our order count up. Well that's great news considering I am an assistant! I don't think it will happen anytime soon so don't go freaking out about it... ( like I did yesterday lol poor Matt, he was all excited about his new job and all the AWESOME things he learned while he was explaining it all I was almost in tears lol crazy wife I am) So Allan reviewed the things he thinks I do very well and things I could work on.

Lets see strengths we talked about? I am a social person... I can talk to just about anyone on the phone (now in person that is a WHOLE different ball game) and I have made good friends with a lot of people that are our customers. A lot of the big shots that use our company for their title services LOVE me and tell the owners that, (again don't know how I got these guys to like me, maybe it's that I can tell when they are joking and tease them back. Doesn't everyone remember Coach Shawn? If you can get along with him you can get along with anyone lol heck I am just a likable gal right? ) Also, when there is a problem I take the bull by the horns and get is solved, the right way, as soon as possible. I don't shy away from that stuff or push it on to someone else. If I don't know the answer then I will track down somebody who does know the answer and get the customer taken care of, THEN I go back to the person who knew the answer and learn it myself so I know the answer next time. These are all things that Allan told me he liked about me.

Then he asked me what I thought my weaknesses were besides being a Cougar fan (he is a huge Ute fan) After a chuckle, so many weaknesses were popping in and out of my thoughts that I was kind of tongue tied. What I finally spit out was something to the extent of... "I don't stay on task" (hello am I in kindergarten? who says "Stay on task") "and I could scan more files." He said well your strength is also your weakness. You have a tendency to socialize a whole bunch and in order to fulfill that need you don't walk around the office and chat per say, but you blog like CRAZY! That's when a smile came to my face ( Allan wasn't upset he was just bringing this to my attention) He said NO more blogging at work or reading blogs at work. You may come in early and read blogs and blog yourself, or stay late, but you cannot read or write on the clock.

Now I wasn't necessarily blogging or reading blogs on the clock, I just never took a definite lunch so that during the day I could take little 5-10 minute breaks and read every ones blogs. WELLL apparently I need to start clocking out for a lunch and I cant even blog then because loading pictures takes up too much bandwidth. The other problem is that I got other ladies in my office obsessed and I was causing quite the sensation. If he banned me from blogging I am sure he figures the rest will stop because most of the women don't even know how to post with out me standing right next to them :) ha ha

All and all it was a good meeting but now, you unfortunate people, will not be updated every day on the happenings of the Spence family! I know you are all just dying inside... what will you do with that extra 3-10 (sometimes I get long winded) minutes that you spent reading my blog everyday!!! ha ha

Well I will still be updating at home as much as I can but if you refer to the previous post, in the fall I start a whole lot of stuff and don't know how frequent I will be.

So to all you fellow daily bloggers out there I bid you adieu... It was fun while it lasted but now I must say goodbye :)

Oh and don't worry about loosing the hits you got from me on your blog I will do my best to keep up with the readings (good thing for igoogle) in what little spare time I will have outside of work but I don't know how much commenting I will make. Sorry guys...love to all!

I MUST be getting old

When I was younger I never quite understood when my mom said that she couldn't sleep. She said sometimes its a REALLY good night sleep other times not so much. I remember asking her in high school when her lack of sleep started and she said sometime in her 20's. Well guys I don't have gray hair at all but for the last week I have NOT been able to sleep! I have narrowed it down to a couple things and I hope that once these are solved I can get back to the WONDERFUL sleep that I so dearly love.

1) Matt is starting a new job which of course brings a whole lot of uncertainty. Will he like his job? Will he make the kind of money that he wants to? Will this be a good step in his career to help him get into a top 20 MBA school (BYU)? Will they be flexible with school?

2) Speaking of school next semester I have 16 credits which is normally fine in my book BUT I have never had to work a full time job WHILE taking 16 credits AND be 2nd counselor in the Young Women's program in my ward. All of which are like a full time job. So lets see I am thinking I will be booked tight. Now mind you I spoke with one of my friends in my major who has taken all these classes and he told me that they were all REALLY easy classes but how easy are 5 "easy" classes going to be all at once?

3) It is STINKIN hot! Now normally I would NEVER complain about heat because I will take heat rather then cold ANY DAY, but lately? I have been SO HOT at night. I think its time to crank down the AC and get it cooler in our bedroom. I wake up at least 1 time a night hot and sweaty because Matt has thrown the covers off himself and essentially doubled up the covers on me. The problem is I have to sleep with a blanket over me its something about the weight and generally my whole body (besides a foot) has to be covered for me to fall asleep.

So there you have it, I hope in the next week or so all these feelings and the temperature will change in my home so I can get back to sleep!!

July 4th pictures!!

All right I know you all are jumping for joy! Just one week later I have them all up! Okay these are in no particular order... Matt got a hole in one... Then I got a hole in one...
Jason saw us taking pictures like this so he needed on too. He had a rough time on the mini golf course.

Sierra was totally AWESOME the whole time!
Kelly's ball was about to roll down the hill notice the hustle shown by the skirt flying.
As you can see Will thought it was almost comical that Jason was having such a hard time.
Suzanne has one screwed up leg from sliding into 2ND in softball.

Tanners first time ever playing mini golf! He was so cute trying to hit the ball. Here we are set up with towels and everything at Seven Peaks.
OK I cant take a picture, Sorry Nate! Tanner was saying cheese so I had to hurry.
Pre Jason fit....
I got 3rd by the way... I am horrible at mini golf but I played pretty well besides the distractions.
Sierra was so cute in the water.

Brothers... Nate is trying to be modest?
Dallin was asleep the WHOLE time! He was a good little kid.
Matt Suzanne and Shawn were totally loving the water slides.
As you can tell Matt LOVES the slides as shown by the hands.
S'mores on the 4th they were SO yummy.

They were messy for sure.
They were enjoyed by all...
More Seven peaks pictures.
Aww aren't they cute at the wave pool.
Sierra and Tanner didn't mind each other in the double stroller. It was SO HOT when we were Frisbee golfing!

Sierra was happy to play in the grass at the end.
Tanner still calls Matt Hi-ya sometimes its cute.
Guitar Hero at Shawn's house was so fun! We had it all set up on the HD projector.
Matt and I had to run to the store for a lot of little things so we rode the scooter a few times.

Doesn't Kelly look awesome for having a 3 week old? She was such a trooper pushing the little ones around in the stroller.
While we were waiting to meet up with Kristin and Will Matt and Tanner were swinging.
This is little Dallin in a close up. Hmmm who does he look like? I say he kinda looks like Braden? maybe?
The boys frolfing.

And there you have it! Pictures GALORE! Kelly, Kristin, let me know if you want me to e~mail you any specific pictures. Sorry it took me so long to post them! Today is Friday another weekend here we go!!! Yippee!

Man I am forgetful

So sorry I forgot my camera once again. I know, I know you are all anxiously awaiting my fabulous photography skills. Whelp better luck tomorrow.

Matt has been pretty nice while home. Its good to have a "Stay at home husband" for a week. He still has school so he didn't start any huge projects (like building me a bed) but he has been cleaning out the storage and organizing things. He has also been working hard on his homework, it's all for finals but it will be nice for him to have most of his major projects and assignments done before he starts his new job. He is also loving the sleeping in, for about 3 years now he has had to get up at at LEAST 6:50 every weekday. I love the extra sleep as well with out us having to carpool (because Matt doesn't go anywhere :) I can wake up at 7:30 and be to work by 8:30 its nice! He is almost bored though so i think come Monday he will be VERY ready to get back to work.

Hopefully I remember pictures tomorrow.

Sorry!

I forgot my camera AGAIN. I loaded all the pictures onto my computer at home but forgot to bring it here to work! So here you go one sparkler picture from the fourth. We had a really long fun filled weekend and I am wishing it were the weekend again! Tomorrow I will just pictures. It will be for you HD who doesn't bother to read any thing and just likes pictures :) ha ha Whew just by looking at the picture above I can tell it was a LONG day.

High Maintenance? I dont think so...

I wouldn't consider myself the high maintenance type girl. I don't need a lot of things to make me happy. But lately Matt has spoiled me! My straightener broke a couple months back so I have just been making due with my curling iron (like I did 8 years ago) and saving up pennies to buy a CHI brand straightener. They are basically the best money can buy and works wonders on frizzy hair like mine. Well on Matt's birthday he asked my why my hair was curled and not just straight I told him (for what I thought was the 40th time) that my straightener broke and I was saving to buy a CHI. He said well I like your hair straight sometimes too, so I bought you a CHI. I said A CHI do you know what that is? He said yes I ordered it for you off Amazon and it will be here tomorrow. I was SO excited. He had me look it up to make sure it was what I wanted and it was perfect! I have wanted one of these so a few years now. I have had it for 4 days now and I LOVE it! It is so nice taking 8 minutes to straighten all my hair and be out the door. Usually it takes quite a bit longer and its still somewhat frizzy.

ALSO, before we went on the cruise in May I had one of my co-workers do my toes. Mind you I rarely used to paint my toes unless Suzanne did them and never really cared what they looked like. But my co-worker uses gel to set glitters on the toes and it stays on for MONTHS. I don't think I ever took a picture of them but I had them on since May 4th or something and just took them off last night because.... I bought a UV lamp and the gel to do them on myself and anyone who wants them. It is really easy to do and like I said they stay on forever its so nice! I don't own any nail polish so I thought heck I'll just do this about 5 times a year and call it good!
So... not sure if I am high maintenance or not... I don't think I am but some times I like to have the nicer things of life! For the convenience factor more then the fashion factor.

Special Edition Matt Post: You can't Quit! You're Fired!!!

There's something wrong with a company who does not honor a two week notice as an agreement to finish the two weeks. I was called into my manager's office this morning and was told that there was not enough work to keep me on, but not to worry because I would have insurance through the 18th. Wait! What? I already put in my two weeks notice, just let me finish through next week. They said, "Well we just think your work flow has decreased." No, you just told me there wasn't enough work to do. Oh yea, and they were generous enough to tell me that they would honor my resignation and that I wasn't being fired, just allowed to not come back into work. (Oh, well that's better). They were also going to be generous enough to pay me through the rest of the day. So after a discussion with the H.R. department about how unethical and wrong I felt this was, they said they will give me pay through the week. So, I wasn't fired, I'm just not allowed to come to work next week. I will call it, unpaid, unethical, administrative leave. Well I guess this will give me time to really study and focus on only school for a week.
I must say, I did learn a very valuable lesson. I have been reading the book, "Drawing on the powers of Heaven," which I finished on the train today as I left my non-fired job. I decided to put my newly formed knowledge to work and exercise my faith. I tried to put aside the odd conversations and weird smells from the public transportation and use all the faith I had to receive an answer as to why I was not able finish the rest of the time a had planned for work. A strong impression came to me as I sat contemplating my current work situation. It was as if I heard the voice of the Lord say,"Now you know the fear and worry that so many people feel as they lose their jobs unexpectedly." I couldn't help but feel gratitude for having another job lined up. I also feel that there will be other lesson which I have yet to learn from this experience. Without sounding too preachy, I want to say that I believe the Lord is very aware of my small family, and our concerns. We will only grow stronger from this experience if we handle it the way the Lord has intended us to handle any experience, by turning to Him. See, so this isn't a bad thing, there's so much good which can come from it.

Where was I You ask???

Friday and Saturday I was at YOUTH CONFERENCE with the youth of our ward. We had the theme of S.W.A.T., meaning spiritual warriors after truth. In order to have the younger ones come we didn't have an overnighter just a BBQ on Friday night and an all day Saturday thing.

Friday night we ate burgers and hot dogs and played games in the backyard of the Young Men's president. We also had a guy in our ward come and speak (who is also the Gospel Doctrine teacher) about SWAT. He was part of SWAT for 7 years and related 6 things that we need to do to make sure there are no chinks in our bullet proof vests. He brought some of his gear as well. I think the youth responded really well to it how he mixed scripture stories with real life situations and quotes from the brethren as well. It was awesome! Emily then spoke (the YW President) about burying our weapons of war like the Anti Nephi Lehis did and how we should think of something that we wanted to bury and never do again. She explained that the following night we were going to bury our weapons of war.

Saturday we went to Camp Williams. It was an all day thing so we had all the youth bring sack lunches. In the morning our service project was picking the weeds around the barracks of the soldiers staying there. I thought the youth would hate it and complain but they weren't too bad! They went right to work. After we did that for a few hours we went and talked with the Sargent who would be helping us through out the day. He pretty much treated us like we were in boot camp! I had no idea it was coming so when the guy was yelling in my face it was uh interesting to say the least. We had to stand at attention the whole time and so on... after a while he lightened up so I knew it was more of a show but at first i thought some of my younger girls were going to cry in the beginning! We ended up playing a game with the Sargent. It was Sargent says not Simon says. It was based off of the different positions that the army guys know like attention, presenting arms, about face etc. I could not be in the ARMY, I was all turned around with in seconds! It was actually pretty funny to watch others try to do it. After the we picked more weeds then had lunch. I thought it was such a good idea to have them pack their own! We brought water and extra chips and things just in case but for the most part the kids had more food then the leaders!

We ate for about an hour and just relaxed before pool time. We then went swimming for 2 hours at the pool. I got a nice burn the weekend before and was pealing pretty bad so i didn't go. The kids had fun then changed to go rappelling. I didn't go of course ( I was the only baby who didn't out of EVERYONE) I just didn't want to! It was a mixture of a bad experience at NYSP, a fear of heights, and just plain not wanting too! The ARMY guys teased and teased and once that starts there is no WAY I am caving in! Even our 6o something year old bishop went! After all the youth went the ARMY guys showed off and did some mission impossible type rappelling that was pretty cool. I was a good Balay ( the person at the bottom that holds the rope to make sure you don't die) so that counted for something.

After rappelling we went over to the Leadership Reaction Course or LRC. Basically they give you different materials to get you and your team from point a to point b with out getting wet and following certain rules. Its really hard to explain but it was WAY cool for the youth. I want to go back for a family reunion that would be wicked awesome. The elders quorum was so jealous we were going that I think they are going to plan an activity out there as well. If you want to see pictures and descriptions go here: http://www.ut.ngb.army.mil/campwilliams/Downloads/operations/Current%20Downloads/Youth%20groups/LRC/LRC_Youth.pdf

or

http://www.ut.ngb.army.mil/campwilliams/civilian.htm#frequently_asked_questions

Maybe sometime when my parents are up we can go, Dad you would LOVE it!

After an agonizing 3 hours of hard work and brain power (poor Dan Lynn the ONLY priest we had on our team was used and abused) we left to go back to the YM presidents house for some dutch oven cooking that the Iversons had ready for us. It was SO good.... ahh after being in the sun for hours and hours it was nice. Then we played a game that I made called "Are you smarter then a SUNBEAM?" the youth loved it and we wrapped up by having the YM pres speak and we wrote down our weapons and threw them in the fire. I am really working hard on mine its rough but I think I'll be able to do it. We ate peach cobbler then left.

I am so glad its over with it took some serious planning (I made all the shirts Black with SWAT on the front) but all and all we had a great time!

Now you know why I was SO tired when Matt came home on Saturday. I think I fell asleep at 10 that is way early for a Saturday.

So what do you guys say? Next reunion go to Camp William's and do the LRC??? It would be AWESOME!

Oh and that was a long post I don't blame you if you didn't read it all. No pictures or anything! I'll get some later this week that i might be able to post...