My hunny is 30!

Yesterday was Matt's 30th birthday (although if you ask him about it, he will deny it). But anyway, we had a fun birthday celebration. On Saturday night, we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Mmmm! It was great. And if it's your birthday you get free ice cream and you get to sit on a horse saddle while the waiters give you a big birthday yee-haw.

Sunday morning I made him a lovely birthday breakfast of eggs, hashbrowns, pancakes, and juice. Yeah, my face got sunburned again during our Saturday run.

Here he is with his presents! I even made him a whole tub of cookie bar (his favorite dessert) and one of those cheesy candy bar posters.

His main present was his new bike! He is so excited about it! He couldn't stop smiling when he came home from the bike shop. The bike wasn't supposed to be for his birthday but our tax return and what he got from selling his old bike wasn't quite enough, so he got the rest for his birthday.

I also got him the movie, The Italian Job and a new church shirt. (Boring, I know...but I wanted him to have stuff to open on his actual birthday and the bike was a lot!)

The best present of all though was that we didn't have to teach Primary!!!! Since it was the 5th Sunday, the bishopric took over the Primary so we could all go to Priesthood and Relief Society. What a great idea!

Later that day we went to Matt's family's house for a birthday dinner. Here he is educating his nephew about the Costco cake. Apparently it is a tradition in Matt's family to get a Costco cake for everyone's birthday. Matt was so excited about it that he leaned over to me in the middle of church and said, "In just a few short hours we will be partaking of the cake."

Between that and our chorister, Verna, who is about 80 years old and is the most animated chorister I have ever seen, I had a hard time not laughing during sacrament meeting.

He was kinda disappointed that he had to share the cake with his sister and grandmas instead of getting his own. I'm not quite sure what he would do with his own entire cake! While they were lighting the candles, Kyle was so concerned and wouldn't let Matt get his hand close to the candles because he was afraid he would get hurt. It was so cute!

And here is Matt partaking of his beloved Costco cake!

I hope he had a most wonderful birthday because he is the most wonderful hunny! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT! I LOVE YOU!

13.1 and then some

So last weekend was our Moab 1/2 marathon. We decided to make a weekend of it so we took Friday off of work and drove down. The weather was AMAZING! I loved being out in the sun so much. I have missed it dearly.

Matt of course had to stop at every bike shop in town. Even the Poison Spider bike shop, which was weird because he is deathly afraid of all spiders. We strolled around town, ate our pasta for carbo loading, and just enjoyed being away.

We couldn't find a hotel ANYWHERE in Moab, so we ended up staying in Green River, which is about 45 minutes away. We still made it on time to board the very last bus to the starting line.

We made some friends on the bus, in the bus line, and in the potty line. That's what these races do to people. Automatic friends. It's great!

The course itself was fabulous. We ran down the canyon next to the Colorado River and then through the streets of Moab. It was really nice. I forgot my knee braces, so about Mile 9 my knees were hurting pretty badly.

But I kept going. Matt stayed with me the whole time, so we both crossed the finish line after 2 hours and 42 minutes. Matt could have finished a lot faster, but it was nice to run together. I only had to stop once at a porta potty, so that was pretty good. There were also these ladies playing the bongo drums at about Mile 10. That was cool!

The weather was gorgeous. Some people thought it was too hot, but I thought it was perfect.

We had to check our times. And then we had to crash on the grass for awhile. Running 13.1 miles is not an easy task! We saw a couple friends there from our ward and old ward, and I saw some of my students.

Then, as if running a half marathon wasn't enough, we decided to go to Arches National Park. We were in Moab after all and it's not like we get there very often. So we took a lovely little drive through the park and saw all the cool rock formations.

We saw some rock climbers on this cliff and just watching them was making me hyperventillate! I don't know how they can do stuff like that.

These rock formations are so cool! How do rocks do that? And how did all these arches form?

I thought it was really cool that there were these snow-covered mountains off in the distance.

After driving around for awhile, we decided to hike to Delicate Arch. Matt had never seen it and it is a Utah icon. So we hiked the 3 miles to the arch.

OK, it was more like hobbled the 3 miles to the arch. But we made sure to wear our race shirts so people would understand why I was limping. One lady even had the nerve to tell me that I looked as bad as she felt!

I did look pretty bad though. I had this gross, scaly cold sore on my mouth and I was limping the whole way since I had hurt my knee during the race. Oh well!

Delicate Arch was pretty cool though. I'm not sure it was the best idea to go there after running 13 miles, but it was still cool.

We drove around a little more, but by then we were pretty much beat, so we drove back to the hotel and crashed.

We did see a lovely sunset though. We were too tired to go get anything to eat so we ordered pizza and then promptly fell asleep.

Sunday we (ok, mostly I) was pretty sore. But by Monday I was back to normal. All I have to say is I have got a long way to go until I will be ready for the full marathon. Yikes!

Bottom of the totem pole

I'm probably going to get in trouble for writing this, but it's on my mind and I'm gonna say it. Some people will probably say I'm selfish and rude, and maybe I am, but it's still bothering me. So you can stop reading here if you don't want to hear about it.

Sometimes I feel like I'm at the bottom of the totem pole to those around me. I'm usually a pretty easy-going person and I don't get upset very often. I don't really care about a lot of things. By that I mean that I pretty much just go with the flow on most things. However, once in awhile when something is really important to me I can have a strong opinion about the matter. When that happens, I usually voice my opinion to whomever is in charge of that particular situation.

What bugs me is that the past several times I have done that, my opinion has been disregarded and I have basically been told that my opinion doesn't matter. I realize that I am not the most important person to everyone. And I don't expect to be. But I'm tired of being the least important person to everyone. It doesn't feel very good to be told that people don't care what you think or that they would rather upset you than anyone else. Or that the way you feel about something is wrong and you'll get over it.

I really try hard to be mindful of how my decisions affect those around me. Maybe I don't always do the best job, but I really try. And so it hurts when my feelings and opinions are overlooked. Even though something might not be important to someone else, it doesn't mean it's not important to me. And I just want to be respected for that.

But anyway, life goes on and I do get over it. But sometimes I just want to feel important and like my feelings and opinions matter.

You know you wanna...

I've seen this going around and it looks like fun, so I'm gonna play. And besides, I've been in this mood to create so this will be a good project for me.

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. However, this offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It’ll be done this year. (translation=you may be waiting a little while)
4. You have no clue what it’s going to be … I don't even know yet!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
6. I will mail it to you if you live far far away. But I can't mail out of the country.

Let the comments start rolling...

Leprachauns

I hope everyone had a magically delicious St. Paddy's Day. I don't know why, but I really love this holiday. It all started back in high school when Anne called the green shirt I was wearing a leprachaun shirt and we decided to have a party. Now I just have to celebrate every year. I even get a special new green shirt. This year I decided to make my own. This is sorta what I started making...

...but then I decided I wanted to change it and I haven't finished yet, so no new shirt this year. :( I'll have to get a move on and finish it for next year.

We did have a great time celebrating last night with some friends from our old singles ward. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera so I have no pictures of the festivities. But, Garrett & Hayley, Tyler & Almarie, and Josh & Rachael came to dinner with us at The Pub. Then we all came back to our place and had some lucky ice cream and leprachaun cookies. Anne, Allen, and Caron joined us for treats. We never did get around to doing our traditional drinking games though. Darn! We'll have to save that one for next year too. Kinda hard when the celebration falls on a week night.

Hope you had a great one too, and did some heel clicks in celebration!

Fun in the snow

This weekend we went up to my family's cabin. It was really fun and nice to get away for a bit. Here we are just lounging around...which is the best part of going to the cabin. In fact, on Saturday morning when people were itching to go for a snowmobile ride and I was still laying on the couch with my blankie, someone was telling me to get a move-on and I said, "Do you know how long it's been since I've just lounged about?" And Matt said, "It's because you never let us!" Ha ha! That's probably true...I am always running around doing something.

We drank lots of hot chocolate and ate lots of donuts. And lots of other stuff too. Oops! Matt seems to find joy in taking pictures of me playing with babies.

Matt came in second in the pull up contest. My uncle has this strange obsession with making all the boys see how many pull ups they can do on the cabin's ceiling beam. Nathan beat him by only one pull up. Way to go Matt!

We went for a lovely snowmobile ride. Luckily we did not die even though I thought we might after we halfway rolled the snowmobile going up a hill. And when we were going down through a scary gully.

I know we look just lovely in this picture, but it was the only one I got of us.

It was a beautiful day, and I have the raccoon sunburn to prove it. Don't you just love it when your whole face gets chapped?!

We also went sledding, which I did not get any pictures of. It was a blast! Allison almost fell in the river. It was a great day for sledding...we were going so fast and far. And the best part...snowmobiles to pick you up at the bottom of the hill and take you back to the top. It was a great time.

So last night one of our Primary kids came over with her dad to bring us some cookies. I was just telling Matt how when we have children I am going to make them write thank-you notes to their Primary teachers and bring them treats. So it was nice that one of them really did that. She is the best one out of them all though. She is not the one who makes us hate Primary. But it was nice to get a little thank you for all our hard labors. And now we get a break...we don't have to teach for 3 whole weeks!!! Oh what a glorious day!

One more week til our Moab half marathon. Ya'll are invited to come cheer us along this Saturday!

Date Night

This weekend for our date night I decided that I was in the mood to create something. So we went to Target to find one of those art kits where you make or build something. We found 0ne where you get to paint your own mugs. So we purchased it and went home to unleash our artistic whims.

It was very fun. Now we have two really tacky mugs in the cupboard that we will probably never use. But at least we had fun. Plus, when we were at Target Matt found a new bike...

He rode it all down the aisle carrying a piece of chocolate cake. It was hilarious! Then on Sunday we decided that we needed to dye some Easter eggs. I know it's early, but it sounded fun. And besides, we can always dye more than one batch!

Matt made a triathlon egg, an orange egg, and a West Jordan/Utah football egg. I made a starry night egg, a flower garden egg, and a two-toned egg.

I love dyeing Easter eggs...it's one of my favorite traditions! Here are our lovely creations.

Help!

I’m in need of some advice. My life has gotten way too busy. Take a look at my schedule….

Monday-Friday
5 a.m.: Wake up, go to the gym, get ready for the day
7:30: Leave for the bus station
7:45-8:45: Bus to Provo; read scriptures & do homework
8:45-5 or 6 p.m.: Work
5 or 6 to 6 or 7: Bus back home; do homework
6 or 7: Make dinner; clean it up; talk to Matt for 30 minutes
9 or so: Go to bed

Plus, on Wednesdays, I leave work early at 3:15 to make it to class at the U by 4:30. Then I have class from 4:30-9:30, and get home around 10.

Saturday
Sleep in
Exercise
Clean the house
Do laundry
Go grocery shopping

Sunday
Sleep in
Read the Primary lesson
Go to ward choir
Go to church
Come home, de-stress from the Primary experience
Make dinner or invite ourselves to dinner at the family’s
Go to bed

So basically I have like 30 minutes on the weeknights free, plus Friday and Saturday nights. We usually do something fun on the weekend nights, but the weekdays are killing me. And I’m often so tired from the week that I am too worn out to enjoy the fun things on the weekends. It’s not just physical tiredness. I feel mentally exhausted.

I love my life. I really do. I have everything I ever wanted. A fantastic husband. A good job. Opportunities. An education. Knowledge. My health. Good family and friends. But I am just too busy to have the time and energy to be me.

So I need to simplify. I’ve thought about dropping out of school. I really just want to be a mom anyway once we have kids. But I know that if I do need to work, this is what I want to do and I need the masters degree for it. Plus having a masters degree opens up a lot of possibilities of working from home, like teaching online classes or something like that if the need ever arose. Plus, I have just been feeling like I shouldn’t drop out. I’ve thought about trying to get a job closer to Matt’s work so we can move and eliminate the commute. But I’ve checked and no one is hiring right now because of all the budget cuts at all the schools. So pretty much I don’t know what to do. But I know I need to do something. Any suggestions?

Someday his prince will come

So Matt has been eyeing this new bike--A Pinarello Prince. He has been vigorously trying for the past few weeks to figure out how he can be the proud owner of one. He's been looking at them online because he was under the impression that they don't sell them in Utah. Well, I encouraged him to look harder because I thought he needed to test ride one before he spent all that money.

Well, Saturday at approximately 5:19 p.m. he found a bike shop that said they had them!!! The shop closed at 6, so we hightailed it up to SLC so he could test ride his dream bike. Matt was so giddy all the way there that I couldn't help but laugh. Anyway, we made it to the bike shop in time and he was in heaven. He could hardly wait for them to put the pedals on the bike so he could take it for a ride. They require you to leave a driver's license or credit card or something as collateral (you'd think his wife standing there would be collateral enough!), and since he was so excited to ride this bike, he just left his whole wallet.

He went for his test ride and loved it. He's now even more in love than before...and even more determined to figure out how he can buy it. He was so excited about it that we walked out of the bike shop with smiles on our faces...and no wallet. Oops! Hopefully they still have it! I love him so much!