BORED

I was on ichat with my brother yesterday at the office (productive work day I know), and we were messing around with the facial effects and i came up with these. There are many more but to save myself from too much embarrassment, I will only show a few. Happy Friday and have a great Memorial weekend!!

Roller BLADE!

Last week I got the inspiration to go rollerblading on the legacy pathway.

Why? I have no idea.

I put on my decade year old rollerblades that had cobwebs all over them and rolled away from Center street in North Salt Lake heading towards Parrish Lane in Centerville.

I was moving pretty fast and thought this was the greatest thing! I couldn't believe I had picked it up so well after all these years of absence.

Little to my knowledge did I recognize the tail wind I had. Because of this I went further than I realized or should have.

I was running out of energy and my feet were slightly starting to hurt so I turned around to head back to my car when I realized what my future held.

DEATH!

The wind was so strong that each push with my leg was tripled with force working against me. I made it half way back to my car when my feet were throbbing uncontrollably. I tried to keep going but in defeat I sat down on a bench in tears.

Did I mention I had no water?

I had no water to drink and was parched!

I called sweets and asked him to come find me somewhere along the dreary path and drive me back to my car. Shocked at his response to actually leave work and get me, I quickly mustered up the courage to not give in and replied I could make it to my car and that i appreciated the option.

I started back on my rollerblades and made it 1/4 mile before the wind, dehydration and my feet stopped me again.

This time I took off my rollerblades and and saw 2 giant blisters on the insides of both feet. I new I was in trouble.

Underneath my arms I carried my rollerblades and walked/hobbled, what have you, 2 miles back to my car. I sat in the drivers seat for about 20 minutes with the AC running on my face while drinking warm water out of a bottle that was left in there from some time ago. I vowed I would never put rollerblades on again!

That night I emptied the 2 blisters and bandaged them up. They hurt to walk on and get wet. It was by no means the great experience I was hoping to have.

This morning at work I looked down to itch my ankle and through my shoe I saw the scars from those 2 blisters. Even after all this time I still have to wear the painful memory with me!

Dog gone it!

DOG GONE IT...

"for those who feel they want to abandon their dog at our house unannounced and never pick them back up for weeks at a time without leaving food or toys or beds for them to play with and not paying or compensating us back in some way for the long long long duration of time that we watch them while checking up on them never to see how they are as they destroy and rip apart our yard and home so nicely in the rainy and snowy weather"

CAMP!

Weston and I have been running a dog camp for the last 2 months at our home. We have had 3 dogs at our house almost the entire time. Koda, Bear and Tahoe. We are not sure how we ended up with this new occupation, nor are we sure how to cope. Usually, when someone dog sits you are compensated somehow or make money. However Weston and I have noticed that we are losing money in damages to our cute quaint sugarhouse home. We have lost 2 dog beds, 1 food bin, all our flowers, 1 hot tub cover, 1 pooper scooper, 2 towels and 1 squeaky turkey toy. Not to mention that we have a few holes dug in the yard and the emotional distress of taking care of 2 rowdy dogs and 1 lovable dog. If you recall the weather lately, it has been raining the whole month so the dogs have been drenched in water and mud. We tried to put them inside before the rain hit a few times but quickly realized that our carpet, rooms, furniture and sanity were getting destroyed! If any of you have a dog that needs to be watched please call someone else. Unfortunately we are full for the time being! Thank you!

(ha ha)

today...

Woke up.

Heard "Merry Christmas" from sweets.

Confused.

Gazed out front window.

Gasped.

SNOW falling.

Shiver.

Dog wagging tail.

Stumbled for bathrobe.

"Merry Christmas".

He's ALIVE

Weston went in for his first surgery (not including wisdom teeth) today for a nasal septal repair. All in all, things went well and he is recovering great!

The pre-op in which he had to spray his nose with something that didn't do anything or work at all.

I hung out here while he was in surgery.

In the recovery room sleeping!

In the midst of his waking up and wanting water, he mustered the breath to say

"I am a freak of nature"

before he passed out again!

Get better soon

Love you

B.C. anyone?

Children

Bees

Chickens

Dogs

What do all these things have in common?

...Jules and Westy...

Last week we had the fortunate opportunity to babysit our three nieces and their dog for eight days! What a treat! Oh, and did I mention we had to babysit their swarm of bees and their bundle of chickens? In the craziness of it all (watching kids, farm animals, insects and dogs (Tahoe included)), we managed to still have fun and break nothing! Besides the doggy "runs" on the carpet in the middle of the night and the massively clogged toilet, I think it was a total success. However, this should probably not be attempted in your first few months of marriage! Here are some pics of our fun week -

We took the girls to the Boondocks for their first time and drove the cars...

and played miniature golf.

Bowling at FatCats came later in the week after they both passed their spelling tests!

Olive Garden so Ella could eat her Mac & Cheese and be happy!

Tepanyaki to celebrate Weston's 31st year young Birthday!

Happy Birthday sweets! I love you -

Thanks mom for the wonderfully yummy lemon poppyseed cake!!!!

We miss you girls and hope to see you soon.

I YIKE this a lot

I found this on the Internet during my ever-so productive work day!

HAHAHA - watch out Sweets! Here comes your birthday present!

WATER smarts

"Do you think you are smart because you drink SMARTWATER"?

This was the question of the morning for me at work, and quite frankly Y-E-S! I am smart for drinking SMARTWATER!

You see, I am or was, addicted to the nectar of the Gods a.k.a. Dr. Pepper. I would drink it daily and maybe even sometimes two or three times a day. I loved it! I loved the refreshing taste of 23 flavors all piled into one soft drink! I loved how smooth it felt swishing back and forth in my mouth before babbling down my throat! But, as of May 1st I have not had my "fix". I have resorted to drinking water instead. My goal is to make it to June 1st.

Apparently soft drinks are bad for you and thus I challenged myself to drink water, in which i really dislike. I am doing well so far but its not easy. I am very picky about my water and what kind of water I will allow into my beautiful body. Dasani water is purified and tastes like minerals and metal...GROSS! Arrowhead water comes from mountain springs and tastes like old soapy tap water...YUCK! I don't know where Aquafina water comes from but it tastes too much like plain water...BLAH! However, SMARTWATER is delicious. It is vapor distilled so it is the purest of its form and tastes like electrolytes. The label says it is "purity you can taste and hydration you can feel". I couldn't agree more! I honestly can taste a difference in water and know I am smart for choosing the "smart" water to drink.

I really can't help but think that maybe I am getting smarter for drinking SMARTWATER!

HUH-

What is BPPV...

As I woke from sleep 2 months ago i was overcome with an immense hit of dizziness and nausea. I thought that it would go away as the day went on but it only worsened. I laid down the whole day but felt the room continually spin. Usually when I get faint the room starts spinning for a few seconds and then stops. After I eat something and lie down for a little bit I start to feel better. That night I was tossing and turning and the room kept moving non-stop! This definitely was not normal. I called my doctor the next day and they didn't know what was causing this but told me to take it easy for a few days and relax. (So not the medical advice I needed). After a few days it luckily went away. I was back to work and driving and sleeping.

However, I woke up this past week again with the same dizziness. I fortunately had a physical therapy appointment this morning and asked my therapist casually about what maybe could be the problem. I told him my symptoms of nausea and dizziness while laying down and moving suddenly, and he said that most likely I have BPPV. He gave me the number of a doctor that he knows at the University of Utah that would be better at helping me diagnose this problem. I sure hope this goes away soon and we can get to the bottom of it. It is the worst feeling! EVER!

For those who don't know, me included, this is BPPV-

BENIGN PAROXYSMAL POSITIONAL VERTIGO - "BPPV includes dizziness or vertigo, lightheadedness, imbalance, and nausea. Activities which bring on symptoms are almost always precipitated by a change of position of the head with respect to gravity. Getting out of bed or rolling over in bed are common "problem" motions. In Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) dizziness is generally thought to be due to debris which has collected within a part of the inner ear. This debris can be thought of as "ear rocks", although the formal name is "otoconia". Ear rocks are small crystals of calcium carbonate derived from a structure in the ear called the "utricle" (figure1 ). While the saccule also contains otoconia, they are not able to migrate into the canal system. The utricle may have been damaged by head injury, infection, or other disorder of the inner ear, or may have degenerated because of advanced age."

WHAT...I'm an athlete!

This was the news Weston woke up to this morning-

"We hope you are excited to hear that your application HAS BEEN SELECTED. YOU HAVE A SPOT IN THIS YEAR'S LOTOJA!"

I am so proud of my sweets for wanting to do this grueling bike race/ride for the THIRD time!

He has such passion for biking and living life. He is an amazing man who is self motivated and thrives off challenging himself to victory. His perseverance is incredible when he puts his whole mind, body and heart into something. I have no doubt that he will succeed and come out on top with his best ever time!

Spiritual Confirmation

What a testament of the truthfulness of our Gospel and the blessing that come from reading and studying the Book of Mormon.

You da ho? No, I da ho

Weston and I spent the weekend in Boise Idaho witnessing the baptism of our niece Anna and the baby blessing of our nephew Charlie. Both of these cute kiddies belong to my brother Matthew and his wife Amy. My whole family (minus Christian and Marie and their children who were in St. George competing in the Ironman) road tripped to Idaho. It was SO much fun and everything went well with both events. We sure are blessed for such a wonderful family! Congrats Anna for your choice and welcome to the world Charlie...we love you both!

Anna is on the right

baby Charlie sleeping in Westons arms

The Gardner and Mecham clan

We also went through the Boise temple and it was awesome. It was small but very pretty and extremely interesting (wink wink)!

We played around on the Rino and took some sweet jumps, along with riding the motorcycle in which Sitani and I need more lessons!

Overall, it was so fun and such a neat place to live and visit.