baby Pyper!!

Ok, so this post is named after Pyper, but there isn't a picture of her to be found on this post... Oh well.

Last weekend, we got to go see baby Pyper! She is a cutie. I don't have the pictures of her, but you can see them on Hayley's post.

We decided to head down Saturday morning, and got to take Rylie and Taylor with us. They stayed with their cousins an extra day and we picked up Rylie at Jared and Liz's and met Darren with Shelby and Sarah to pick up Taylor in Lehi. Those kids travel pretty well. You could tell they missed each other. Taylor went right for Rylie to give her a hug as soon as she got out of the car, and then they talked about all the things they did during the week. And then they napped a little in the car through the canyon. They're sweet girls.

When we got to Wellington, we had a great afternoon with the girls. Camryn showed me all the lights in the basement and made me turn them all on before playing in the kitchen, getting me a plate of eggs, and countless cups of drink. (she called it drink, not tea. I thought it was pretty cute.)

Also in the basement, we noticed a HUGE black widow spider. I took a couple pictures with my phone before Garth went outside and killed it as we watched in the basement. It was freaky.

Make sure you click on the pictures to see how huge she is!

I got to play a lot with Tori's girls. They LOVE the trampoline! Camryn loved it. I got a little video of her jumping. She even put her hands up high!

Thanks again, Tori, for letting us crash at your house all afternoon! Pyper is adorable, just like the rest of your girls!

and the thing is, we're busy...

So work has really picked up lately. We have tons to do and not a whole lot of time to dilly dally... but that doesn't mean we don't make time for an occasional fit of non-work. Case in point: Mike G's white board.


Now, Mike's white board has been used for non-work-related items in the past. But today is a special day. Today we found out that two employees have been confirmed as carriers/recipients of the swine flu. So of course, when Mikey tells me he's suddenly feeling cold, I automatically respond, "YOU'VE GOT SWINE FLU!!!" and tell him he's gotta get outta the office, pronto. The joke continues on, allowing ME to leave work as well, as long as this area of the office is quarantined.

If you didn't see Mike's whiteboard clearly, here's a little better shot.

Luckily for me, Andy had already put the sweet purple car with the "G" hood ornament on Mike's white board before I got there to quarantine the place. Oh, and earlier today, I labeled the car "The Veganmobile" because Mike is, unfortunately, a practicing vegan.


But he's not preachy about it. He doesn't want to blow up mink factories or anything. He doesn't tell me that I'm eating his friends when I have a burger. (If he did, I'd tell him his friends are quite delicious.) Doesn't even ask me to go to meetings either... And with the Veganmobile on the white board, it looks like the Vegan superheroes of the world are trying to save us all from swine flu. but I digress...

Because some people are genuinely worried about swine flu (and rightly so), but may not have the same sort of morbid sense of humor that I do, I added an asterisk to the "Quarantine" part of the sign. Here's the footnote.


Because you can never be too careful. Ok, back to work.

And the best show on TV is...

30 Rock.


I. Love. This. Show. Wanna know why? here, try these on for size:

- "What the Frak?!"
- "Blurg!"
- "I want to go to there..."
- "What the WHAT?!"
- "I'm gonna have to talk to some food about this."
- Liz: "Are you wearing a tux?" Jack: "It's after six, Lemon. What am I, a farmer?"
- "Suck it!"
- "That place can eat my poo!"
- "I'm lizzing! I'm lizzing!"

Ok, if you don't watch the show, you may not really think most of the things above are funny... but the thing I like about this show is that it isn't just the overall story that's funny, there are funny bits throughout the whole thing. And not cheesy, Full House type funny, but actual smart-funny jokes throughout an entire episode (not that "... eat my poo" is a super smart joke, but those take a little longer to explain... and they happen so quick!). And right after they make the joke, the plot just moves on. I laugh almost constantly while watching this show. It may be a little shocking to some of you to hear it, but 30 Rock has totally taken over as my favorite show, even over LOST. I know, it sounds nuts, but I can't help it. It's so good! So get on the band wagon and go watch it. If you have a sense of humor, you won't be disapointed.

In other news, Tori had her baby! She's a cutie and I can't wait to see her. Also, I'm aware I haven't posted with pictures in a while, and this post may be a sorry excuse for my lack of pictures. If you need to see a few pictures, check out Hayley's blog. She's been posting quite a few lately! And the new Transformers movie opens next weekend! I'm so frakin' excited!

ten years...

Ten years ago--I think this month, maybe May--I graduated from high school. Pretty crazy, thinking about what has happened in that time, and what I thought my life would be like when I was a recent high school graduate. It got me thinking so much about it, that I went back and read my old journal and found a couple entries that illustrate my thoughts at the time. This first one is from December.

December 3, 1998
...I think about going on a mission and about how much I don't know and I don't want to be so unprepared that I can't teach anyone. Man, a mission used to be so far off. But now I'm 18 and have already voted! Before you know it I'll be 80!I'm real worried about my future. I don't know what I want to major in in college yet. I just know that I want go. It's a little scary, but I just think I'll do like a semester of generals and then go on a mission and pray about it and stuff and see what happens. I wish I knew everything I was meant to do down here, but not knowing is part of the point, right? I kinda want to get my handwriting analyzed. I don't know what made me think of that. Well, bye.

Guess my ADD from high school has still stayed with me. And no, I never actually got my handwriting analyzed... Here's a few of my thoughts the summer after I graduated.

June 23, 1999
Well, school's out and I'm finally graduated! Wait... I graduated. I wanted to graduate? I'm going to college? How confusing life is. Well, I'm going to college at SUU and I'll be rooming with Matt Dearing, Kyle Jenson, and Trent Olsen. Psycho, huh. I still don't know what to major in. Well, high school is over. I think moving out will be good for me....

To be completely honest, I was surprised at how much stuff I wrote about the gospel and my feelings about God and the Church--there was a whole lot more from my journal I didn't post here.

I'm glad I read that journal. I go back and think about how nervous I was to go on a mission, and even with that on the near horizon, everything seemed pretty carefree. I have a journal entry that says one of my paychecks was $280, and how awesome I thought that was. Holy. Crap. I can remember how awesome I thought I was in high school. I remember having no idea what I would do in college, but not really caring too much, because I was living it up--especially that first year. But I'm glad it all happened. As it turns out, I had a pretty good head on my shoulders then. While I thought $280 bucks for 2 weeks of work was pretty great, and didn't care to declare a major, I still kept the important things in mind.

Things have really changed, and I have really changed and grown into who I am now. Ten years doesn't really seem like a lot of time, but man, thinking about it all has kinda put it in perspective. I'm so blessed to be where I am now. I'm so happy I found Hayley! She is the main reason for my happiness. I am glad to be where I am today and so blessed to be on the journey of life with Hayley. Here's to another 10 years!