Changes..

Change...

This is the word that has been used in our house A LOT the past couple of months.

My husband has been wanting to go back to school for a long time. We never really thought much about it until recently. We had been talking a lot about options to make this a possibility. He has been looking into many different fields that he might enjoy rather than going back just to get a general degree. While looking he would come to me with ideas here and there but there was nothing that really caught his eye. This was until he started talking about options in the medical field. When he started talking about different options he began to light up and get really excited about going back to school. As all of you know anything in the medical field takes what seems like FOREVER to get in and out of. We needed to figure out how to make this a possibility for him to do what he wants. Many of you know that he has been a police officer for 6+ years now. Even though it has been a wonderful career for him, he realized it is not something he wants to do for the rest of his life. In all of our talking we considered the option of having him stay in the career while he returns back to school. We then remembered how time consuming school especially in the medical field will end up being. There was just no way for him to get in and out of school as quickly as he would like while continuing his current career. 

During all of this crazy school/career talk, we started looking for other things we could do that would make school not only a possibility but a reality. 

We came across a really wonderful opportunity. My husband decided that he wanted to test it out before jumping into something brand new. He did some training and a trial run a few months ago. He was very successful for the short amount of training and trial time he had. After he returned home we realized that this may be the thing and opportunity we had been looking for to help him get back into school full time.

So, here is the point of all this....We have decided to take this opportunity so that we can get him back into school full time. The job requires that you are willing and able to move over the summer. So, this summer we are headed to Ft. Worth, TX. Once the summer is over we will head back to good ole Lehi and the hubs will start school up for the fall and the winter. 

We have looked at this in so many ways. The wonderful thing about it all is we have the choice to change things up in life. Yes, it may seem risky because we have a solid job. We have realized though that it would be more risky if we had kids and it was years from now that he wanted to change things then.

As we have been working through the whole process of changing jobs things have just been falling into place. It has been a wonderful experience for us, and we feel really good about our decision. We will miss the police dept greatly. They have been absolutely wonderful to us. We are sad to leave our friends for the summers but we will be back to share the nasty cold winters with them. =)
Change is a scary and exciting thing. We are so blessed that we have the opportunity and choice to be able to change things up and try new things. I don't imagine it being an easy journey, but it will for sure be worth it in the end.
And don't worry, I will still blog and keep you all updated on our life in Texas!! =)

Fail...with a Capitol F

I am sure you all are perfect and have never gotten the bad wife award. 

This week I got it. 

Since you all are wonderful and have never gotten this award I think I need to explain what exactly it is. 

It is where somehow all the laundry piles up. All the dishes pile up. Stacks of papers start forming what seems to be like everywhere in your entire house. The pantry is practically empty. Oh look the fridge is pretty empty too! 

And then you hear a voice from the kitchen 

"honey.....who puts an empty jug of milk in the fridge???!!!" 

You think to yourself 

"I swear I still had milk left, I swear there was no laundry to do yesterday, I swear I just did the dishes etc etc." 

and then you realize...Epic Fail! 

None of that was ever true.

Watching Smash, Modern Family, Mindy Project, The Walking Dead, The Ultimate Fighter, and New Girl happened instead. Not to mention that you spent way too much time playing Candy Crush Saga and Words with Friends. 

My husband after last nights empty milk carton question he proceeded to VERY, VERY kindly inform me I had been slacking on some wifely duties. Don't worry folks, I told him I was a bad wife and had been slacking before he said it. He just repeated what I had said back to me. Oh, and half the time he does the laundry and the dishes...he's a fab husband and just sarcastically, jokingly, but serious mentioned the wifely duties thing. 

So, here I am blogging. 

I did load the dishwasher, and there is a load of laundry in the washer and another in the dryer. I am hoping to redeem myself a little bit by getting some things done. Maybe I'll even throw some dinner in the crockpot! A little Overachieving can't hurt right??

Time to go make the hubby a sandwich...

Oh shoot! I never pulled the sandwich meat out of the freezer.

EPIC FAIL.

Hopefully next week is better.

:-) 

A little bit of February

This past month has been a little crazy. 

Even Gus wanted to get outta town!

He didn't end up getting out of town though. 

Only the Hubby and I did. 

First things first though. 

This month I put on a baby shower for a really good friend of mine. 

It was Jungle Themed for a Boy. Here are some pictures from the fun event!

The It's a Boy Banner I made. It turned out so darling!

My first diaper cake that I have ever made.
It was square instead of round, and turned out wonderful. 

Homemade Lion Sugar Cookies. (Yes, I did frost those myself)

The Monkey cookies

And my personal favorite...The Elephants.
 

A little Instagram to help piece all of the pieces together.
If you can't tell, I am really proud of my cookies. :)

Don't worry, there were other fun decorations. We had lots of yummy food to eat. Great company. Fun games to play. I thought it was quite the success for being the first time of throwing a baby shower. 

Now, onto our trip. Last weekend we had the awesome opportunity to go to Las Vegas with some other really good friends of ours. 

We left on Valentine's Day after the Hubby got off work, and our friend got out of school. 

We got there, checked into our hotel rooms and got all dressed up to go out to dinner at the yummy Max Brenner's.

All ready to go! For our Valentine's Dinner.

It was so much fun to get all dressed up for dinner with our friends. If you ever go to Max Brenner's there really isn't anything on that menu that you can go wrong with getting. Especially if you order the Mac'N'Cheese. It is delish! I got a pizza, and it was super yummy. 

The following day the hubby and I walked the strip. The weather was pretty nice. It was SUNNY! With a slight breeze...but so much better than the yucky cold weather in Utah. 

I decided that so far Vegas is probably my favorite place ever to people watch. There is always so much going on. So many different types of people. Yeah, it was pretty cool. After walking down the strip we met back up with our friends at the hotel and decided to go see a show. 

We ended up choosing Cirque Du Soleil's "O". It's their water based show.

It was absolutely beautiful. There was so much artistry that I can't even describe. There were parts that I literally thing I held my breath for long periods of time. 

*That's because the beauty took my breath away ;-) *

It was defiantly my favorite part of the whole trip.

Then we came home to nasty cold weather again. :-/ 

Oh well! It was extremely nice to get away even for a few days!

Other than that we have just been doing the same ole things. I am sure there are things I am forgetting to write about. oh well! I'll save them for next time!!

Winter

Winter: the coldest season of the year..
the days are shortest and the nights are longest.

What a silly thought. Coldest season along with the shortest days.

It has been awhile since I wrote a blog post. Let's just say I have been in hibernation. 

Okay, not really because I would still be hibernating if that was really the case. 

In the winter "the Man" likes to do outdoor activities in the snow/cold.

I am not the same way. If I had my choice I really would go into hibernation for the winter months.

This year has been a really brutal winter. We have had really low temperatures, with an inversion that will NOT go away. For those of you that do not know what an inversion is don't worry. I had no clue what it was at first. I have created my own definition of it. 

Inversion: Living in a bubble of smog and freezing temps.

If you get claustrophobic, an inversion is not for you.

Forget about seeing the sun...it doesn't exist.  

If you have asthma, prepare to not be able to breathe.

If you don't have asthma, prepare to not be able to breathe.

If you use the mountains as a compass, forget it. YOU CAN'T SEE THEM!

Basically....Inversion sucks and avoid it at all costs.

Here is a slight example of inversion. Minus the poor breathing and freezing temps.

As you can see, the sky is a nasty gray color. The sky stays that way for days and days.

Yesterday, was crazy. 

We had almost clear skies. The sun came out so all the snow in our front yard melted. 

It didn't last for long. 

Today, we have a complete white out. 

4-5 inches of snow, and it is still falling.

Let's just say, I am excited for the summer. (Spring doesn't really exist here).

I know, here I am writing a whole blog post about the weather.

Maybe because I can't thing of anything else to write cause I feel like life has been kind of boring lately.

How about a quick update on us...

Christmas was good. New Years was good. My mom came into town recently and that was good. Some of my students had a show and that was good. "the Man" is sick right now and that is bad. Our dogs are happy and healthy and that is good. So, basically life is pretty good.

Until next time.. =)

Red M&M's...

I am going to tell you all a little funny fact about me. 

I don't eat RED m&m's

In fact I once did this with my M&M's

This may seem crazy and I should probably stop this odd quirk. I have actually tried to, and cannot.

You may be wondering "How did this all Start??" 

Don't worry... I am going to tell you.

When I was maybe 9-10 my friend was picking red m&m's out of her mixture.

I was confused and of course asked why she was doing this. 

Her response was "I don't eat red m&m's anymore". 

I was confused and let her explain. She told me that she had found out that the red dye in the m&m's was made from ladybug shells. Yes, that's right...Ladybug shells. I think she also said beetle shells but that's besides the point. At this point I knew she was just making it up but I wanted to be cool just like her. 

(You know we are all like this when we are 9-10 yrs old.)

When she first told me about it she had me try all the flavors. We discovered that the red ones tasted different. So, we began to pick out all our red m&m's. 

Years passed by and we were still picking out red m&m's. We would pick them out of large bags, we would throw the red ones away that were leftover in our bags, we would even pick them out of m&m cookies!!! There was no eating RED m&m's.

To this day...I do not remember the last time I ate a red m&m. 

It is not an easy task to always pick past the red ones, especially at Christmas. 

You have the mint m&ms that are amazing and the colors consist of Red, White, and Green. 

You have the wonderful and new peppermint ones that consist of Red and White. 

You have the plain, peanut, peanut butter, and pretzel holiday ones that all consist of Red, White, and Green.

That means Christmas time I lose 1/3 and even 1/2 of the m&m's. 

Luckily, my husband rolls his eyes and eats all of them for me. 

He gets tired of all the red m&m's though. 

This is a dilemma that I can't quite seem to get past.

I know the red ones aren't made from beetle or ladybug shells. 

I know the red ones don't taste funny.

For some reason though I cannot seem to muster up the "courage" to eat a Red m&m. 

Is this a bad thing?   

Should I go on having this weird quirk about me? 

Should I continue to let these red m&m's the outcasts? 

hmm...

It has always been an interesting conversation starter...

Maybe I'll eat one another day. 

Just probably not today.

:) 

My Christmas Breakdown

This year everything is a little bit different, and very new. 

This is our first Christmas married. 

We had gone to Kansas last Christmas to be with my family. 

This year though it is just The Man and Me. 

We aren't going anywhere, we don't have anyone coming into town, it really is just The Man and Me. 

Christmas has always been a very special time for me.

I have always been at home for Christmas. 

I am used to spending lots of time with my family, especially with my mom. 

My mom and I usually do a lot of the last minute Christmas shopping together. 

We make and put together lots of goodies for all of our closest friends. 

The goodies never really get to anyone because they all get eaten first. 

All of the family helps in putting up the Christmas decorations in the house, and so much more!

 Last year though, my mom and I found a very special place and created a wonderful memory. 

My mom wrote a blog post about it... 

That special place was under the Christmas tree.

We both laid under the tree and laughed for what seemed like hours. 

In the post my mom wrote she goes into lots more details as to why. 

You should check it out. :)

With all these wonderful traditions and memories I knew that this year would/will most likely be hard.

For the past few weeks I have been looking for things that I could decorate our house with to make it feel like Christmas was really here. 

Thinking of all the great decorations my family has had in the house since before I can remember, I felt discouraged because I couldn't figure out anything to have in my home. 

The Man and I went out on a little shopping trip to try and find somethings to help liven up our house. 

After going to numerous stores for many hours and having pretty much no luck, we both began to get cranky, hungry and tired. 

That is when I had my Christmas Breakdown.

I began to cry. I just cried, and cried. 

I felt like I had been defeated. I felt like I really wasn't going to be able to make our house beautiful and decorative. I had so many feelings that were extremely discouraging. All I wanted was to run to Kansas and steal all of the decorations from the house.

After eating some dinner (which always helps) and having a talk with the hubby (which also always helps) we began to reevaluate our previous shopping trip. We were looking in all the wrong places and we both had the wrong attitude about it all. I also realized I did not need all the things from Kansas because it is no longer my home. 

I realized that my real home is now here. 

It was time that My hubby and I began making our own traditions and memories. 

Traditions and memories that we will share for the rest of our lives. 

Traditions and memories that we can hold close and dear to our hearts. 

Traditions and memories that we can pass on to our future generations. 

So, we went to one last store that same night and filled our basket with all sorts of fun items. We had so much fun finding new things for our home. There was love, peace, and joy. 

There was the spirit of Christmas.

We got home and spent lots of time working on our home to make it look like Christmas. 

I have realized something really important though...

You do not have to have it look like Christmas. 

It just needs feel like Christmas, with or without the decorations.

And with that I have some pictures to share. :) 

Thanks for reading!

The Snowman Wreath we made for our front door!
This is one of my favorite things we have!

The mantle with garlands that have cute things in it. 

Can you tell I love snowmen yet??

Our amazing live (I grew up with fake, he didn't) Christmas tree
with the fabulous Top Hat Christmas tree topper!

Decorations The hubby grew up with. He thought he didn't have them anymore
What a surprise it was when he found it in the garage.
Let's just say it was an extremely happy moment!

Super easy to make and gorgeous to look at. Glitter light bulb center piece.

The annual Shop with a cop.
What a neat experience it is to participate in helping needy kids each year. :)

And Then...

 ...And then I got a nasty computer virus

Days ago I had thought I really needed to write a new blog post. 

The last post was more about my dogs than about the things going on in my life. 

I was going to write a post 

..And then I got extremely sick.

I was going to write a post

...And then I needed to grocery shop for Thanksgiving.

I was going to write a post

...and then I made sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and a Turkey for Thanksgiving at my sister-in laws.

I was going to write a post

...and then 

(starting to get the picture?)

we had some black friday shopping that we wanted to do.

I was going to write a post

...and then I had to get a bunch of groceries because I had family coming in town for my Grandpa G's 90th birthday.

I was going to write a post

...and then all the family came in town, and I had people staying here on and off.

I was going to write a post

...and I decided to do all my Thank You cards in one day. (not such a fabulous idea but...they got done!!!)

I was going to write a post

...and then we had a Christmas tree to go get, along with a bunch of other errands.

I was going to write a post

...and then that brings us to my first line of this post...

I got a nasty computer virus. 

That was when all my "going to write a post thoughts" came to an extreme STOP. 

A computer virus that was sent through my email, and was extremely legit. 

Only because I do a lot of online Christmas shopping. It truly is the best kind. 

The email was from "UPS" and had all the logo's and everything inside the email. I felt so stupid that I got the virus, but with such a nasty and clever way to send it (not to mention great timing) 

I was stuck and there seemed to be no way out. 

Luckily, my friendly geek squad at my nearest Best Buy were able to help me out. Come to find out, my computer was filled with around 95+ viruses. 

Go Figure.

My computer is now fixed.

I was going to write a post

...and then, I actually did!

Hope your holiday season is going well! 

P.S. There were many "and then's" that I didn't include. :)