Tackling 101

There was a little game that took place on Saturday that caused me anxiety and stress for at least half of it, but in the end it was a beautiful outcome. In case you weren't able to see just how the game was won, I wanted to share a picture with you. They say that a picture is worth a 1000 words, and that is definitely true about this one. Enjoy!

Please help the homeless children in Utah County

This is a much different post than my normal "this is what I have been up to" posts. This time I am hoping that the 5 people who read my blog will talk to the 5 people who read theirs and then 5 more people after that and you get the idea.

I am a member of the Safe Kids Utah County chapter and each year we pick a service project to do at Christmas time. One year we gave out carbon monoxide detectors to families in need. Another year we made emergency kits to put in classrooms at elemetary schools. This year we have chosen to partner with the Nebo School District (this is the part of Utah County that is south of Provo) to provide socks and underwear to the 1700 homeless children in that school district.

Yes, you read the number right, there are 1700 children in Nebo School District alone who qualify as homeless!

The homeless standards include a child who meets one of the following:
a. Student shares housing with other persons due to loss of housing or economic hardship
b. Student lives in a motel, hotel or public place, abandoned building, substandard housing
c. Student lives in emergency or transitional shelter
d. Student lives in a car, park, camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate shelter.
e. Living in a place WITHOUT adequate facilities (running water, heat, electricity)
f. Student is a migratory child or unaccompanied youth (a youth not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian) living in conditions described in previous examples.

If you or anybody you know, or a company or church group would like to help out, we are looking for new socks and underwear ranging from 3t to XXL. Or a cash donation that can be used to purchase socks and underwear would be wonderful also. One girl on the committee is going to ask family members who are coming to her house for Thanksgiving to bring a donation with them!

Even if you are not able to donate, please take time this year to help out someone less fortunate than yourself. It is times like this that I realize just how blessed I am. I have running water, heat, lights, food not only when I need it, but also whenever I want it. There are so many, especially in light of the current economic conditions who don't even have adequate heat for the winter. If you don't live in my area of the world, I would encourage you to contact your local school district and see what kind of help you can provide. If the numbers are this high here, I imagine that you will find similar numbers in your area.

If you are able to donate anything, I need them before December 1. You can email me at aleciarichey@gmail.com. Thank you so much!

What I have been doing for the last month

Well it has been a while since I have posted. School has kept me pretty busy. I love it, but it is an adjustment getting used to late nights and economics from 7:40 to 10 p.m. is pretty much a killer! I wouldn't recommend trying it for fun anyway. Unless you like to torture yourself, then it is a pretty good thing. :) Last week we had 5 hours of econ, and I thought it was going to be so horrible. It ended up not being as bad as I thought it would be. Part of it was because my team had to do a presentation. We decided to do a spoof of "A Christmas Carol" and instead did "An Economics Carol". We spent a couple of weeks coming up with what we wanted to do and then 4 hours the night before finalizing everything. It ended up being pretty good. Despite our lack of acting talent. And the professor even seemed to enjoy it. Here is a picture of me afterwards in all of my "ghost" style! I was the Ghost of Governmental Grants. Pretty exciting title I know.

That has been mostly what I have been doing. Tyler and I have had some adventures. We had another sleepover a couple of weeks ago. He has been going through a stage where he doesn't want to leave his mom, so I had to tell him that we were going to Walmart (he loves shopping, Home Depot is his favorite store). Then after Walmart we went to my house. Once he was there he didn't want to leave. The next day when I was getting ready to take him home he said that he didn't want to see his mom or go home. Auntie still has the touch! :)

Then about a month ago he taught me how to take a bath when you have a hurt foot. Apparently just sitting on the side of the tub splashing and playing with toys is ok. Washing his body and hair was a bit of a challenge though.

And on a very fun note, my parents came down the middle of August with the youth in their ward and Elder Ballard spoke to them for a while. It was a good talk and a great experience for all of them who haven't ever been to Salt Lake or seen an apostle. We then got to take a picture with him after he finished speaking. He was my dad's mission president, so that is why we were so lucky to see him.

Morbid thoughts and celebrations

I think I have done this for a very long time, but I just started noticing it. Sometimes when I am organizing something at work or at home, I think "would someone be able to understand this or find this if I was gone?" And the only type of "gone" that would mean I wasn't able to help out would be if I was dead. And then I will try to set things up so people could figure it out. I also do it when I look at something very messy, like my desk drawers are right now. What does this say about me? I am definitely not suicidal or even thinking about death on any sort of regular basis, but these thoughts just pop into my head every now and again. Does anybody else do this, or I am just weird and creepy?

On to more exciting things, I had a really good birthday. I took off a couple of hours in the morning and went to the dinosaur museum with my sister and nephew. It was great. Even the standing in line for an hour to get in was fun. Tyler just loved it. The whole time he kept pointing at things and saying "look, wow"! They also had balloon cutouts all around the lobby and I told Tyler that they did it for my birthday. So when we were finished he said that he wanted to go to my birthday party now. We distracted him with some cool toy dinosaurs in the gift shop! After a full day of work I went out to dinner with some friends. It was nice because there was a wide variety of friends there, from people I have known for years, to very recent friends. And my roommate made me pumpkin pie for dessert! It was wonderful. I really do like being spoiled every once in a while! It is weird to think that this is my last year in my 20's. Oh wow, I just actually realized that. Where did time go? I feel like I just entered my 20's and now they are almost over. Oh no, I am back to more morbid thoughts...

Birthday festivities have begun!!

Let me start off by saying that everybody should have a best friend as wonderful as mine! I will get back to that in a minute.

My birthday is coming up, but this year the celebration is longer than just one day! My mom sent me my birthday present last Friday and it was some material and a pattern to make some aprons. (I am learning to sew.) So all last week was spent sewing aprons.

Then on Saturday the festivities began. I spent pretty much all day with my best friend and her family. We played games, ate good food, and she taught me more about sewing. It was amazing! I spent Saturday night at their house because Sunday was my "birthday", at least to celebrate with them it was.

It started off with breakfast in bed and all the kids sang to me and made me birthday cards. Then I watched the kids so my friend and her husband could go to the temple dedication and the kids and I had our own primary. I must say, they were amazing. I just kind of organized it all, but they were in charge. We had a talk and singing time and a lesson and an activity. I was in charge of treats! :) Then my friend and I went for a drive. It was great to have some uninterrupted time to chat. Then home for more wonderful food. Man does she know how to cook! Then I went to the dedication with their oldest daughter. Then home for more great food. (Do you see a pattern here??) Presents followed along with some party games. We played "Pin the Crown on the Princess", "Penny, penny who has the penny?", and the color game.

Then it was time for cake. Once again amazing. A tradition in their family is for my friends husband to tell the kids' "birth" day story. Well since he obviously wasn't around for mine, he just makes it up. This year I found out that my mother was a dragon who turned into her human form and got impregnated by a human. This is where the story got a little bit tricky. At one point I was in an egg for 2 years before hatching, but at another point I killed my mother in childbirth because I was part dragon (He has read just a few fantasy books in his day!). Regardless, it turns out that my skin glistened when I was born and that is how they knew that I was part dragon. And apparentely, when I experience true loves first kiss, I will turn into my dragon form and be a good dragon who goes and destroys all the bad cities! Who knew??? Their 6 year old daughter asked if it was true. :) I almost can't wait for next year to hear more about my birth.

And now it is time to go back to work and enjoy being 28 for a few hours more! :)

Little Cooper

A couple of summers ago I spent a lot of time with my friend Elizabeth's family. Through this association I met one of the sweetest little boys, Cooper. After the first couple of meetings, he decided that we could be friends and whenever he saw me he would sit on my lap or walk by my or just give me one of his cute smiles. His dimples are so great! We even took to calling him my little boyfriend. Well on Friday he tragically passed away. It really hit me yesterday sitting in church and I just wonder how people make it through these kinds of experiences. I guess it is more that it is a miracle that they make it through. Especially those that don't have the gospel. Thankfully his family does have the gospel and hopefully that will help them through this time, but even then, I can't imagine the pain that comes with losing a child. The only thing that I just keep thinking is that Heavenly Father loves his children and because of that love he has given us the sealing power. So little Cooper is sealed to his family and they will see him again. But it still hurts.

Here is a link to a blog posting about him with a letter written by his oldest sister.

The Nephews (in pictures)

Owen loves me and he really wants to crawl, he just hasn't figured out how to get the hands and knees to work together!


Eli did this all on his own, I was just lucky enough to catch it on camera. Doesn't he just have the biggest eyes ever???


These two monsters had just come in from playing outside and were hot and sweaty, what did they want to do, but put on halloween costumes! Crazy boys!

Marcus loves his brother Eli

Tyler was so excited to see the hot air balloons taking off on July 4th

Owen sporting his moves. This is how he used to get around before he figured out the whole stomach thing. He would push off with his feet and scoot backwards while looking upside down!

They are true blue cougars!

My brother walking with Marcus and Tyler

I survived!

Thank you for the suggestions, we actually did most of them, or a variation of them!

Well I made it up to Idaho and back again. I can't exactly say that it was without problems, but at least Tyler was actually pretty good. We got on the road later than we had planned, but Tyler was doing pretty well. He slept for a while. At one point he had been quietly playing for a long time, so I turned around to see what he was doing and he had emptied out the plastic box that he had toys in, had poured water into the box and was playing with his cars in it. I didn't feel like having him soaking everything on my floor, so I took that away. If only that was the worst of it. Later in the drive, we were rocking out to "Joshy" (Tyler loves Josh Groban), and we heard a pop. It sounded like something hitting the metal on the bottom of my car. Then we heard another pop and both of us asked what that was. I pulled over and it turned out that my tire had blown. Thankfully it hadn't gone down to the rim yet. I was about 20 miles from the nearest town and an hour and a half from my parents house. Although I had never changed a tire before, I was pretty sure that I knew how to do it. So I started. Then a nice family stopped and the dad helped me finish it. I was very grateful for that. They even drove slowly with me following to make sure that I was ok. Then through the networking connections of my father, I was able to get a brand new tire for really cheap. It helps to know a guy who knows a guy!

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. I had a great time with all of my nephews and celebrating my sister in law's birthday.

On the drive home, Tyler slept for the first hour and a half and then he was awake for the rest of the drive. He was a good kid for the most part. We both were done driving before we had even gone 3 hours. But the last hour or so of our drive was spent with Tyler saying things like, "I eat cat" followed by my response of "Ewwww" or "yucky". Then he would laugh really hard and move onto something else that he was going to eat. It was pretty entertaining, especially for a 2 year old! Oh well, it kept him entertained at least.

I did realize that I hate driving, my body gets sore and I get really tired. I need to get a job that pays lots of money so I can start flying everywhere I want to go and then also pay for the rest of my group to fly also! :) Any suggestions on the job, let me know.

Help!! I need some ideas

Because I am the greatest aunt in the world, I am taking my nephew on a 5 1/2 hour drive today to go see Marcus (his cousin and one of my other nephews). Well we are also going to see Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Kay, Tim, Katie, Baby Owen, and Baby Oli (that is how Tyler says Eli). But really, the only person that matters to Tyler is Marcus. I haven't quite told him that he won't be seeing Marcus until tomorrow. I am hoping that the joy of seeing Grandma and Grandpa tonight will keep the tears at bay when he discovers that Marcus isn't there.

Anyway...as this little adventure gets closer, I am starting to get nervous about driving that distance with just me and a 2 year old. He actually likes to go for drives, but his idea of a drive is about 10 minutes and then he is done. Side note: last week I went for a drive with my friend and I left from my sister's house. When I was getting ready to leave Tyler asked me what I was doing, I told him that I was going for a drive with my friend, he then said that he wanted to go for a drive with friends too and even grabbed his shoes to go. When I told him that he couldn't, he got these huge alligator tears and cried for about ten minutes, precious! Back to my plea, what do I do for 5ish hours with a 2 year old in my car while I am driving??? I don't have a portable DVD player, so that is out of the question. I am planning to have lots of books and crayons and snacks and some toys, but he likes to throw them on the ground and then want me to pick them up. If only I had go-go gadget arms!! Although I am pretty good at just letting him scream or cry. But after 30 minutes of that, I might be tempted to throw something out the window.

Do any of you that have traveled with children have any ideas for me? Or even if you haven't traveled with children, any ideas from your childhood. I was the 2nd child, so I never went on any road trips without another child in the car to fight/play with.

I hate goodbyes and for that matter, change!!

I often try to tell myself that I really don't mind change. And truthfully, there are some changes that I don't mind. I like getting a new job that is better than the last one, I like moving to a new place or even rearranging a room. I like meeting new people and developing new friendships. What I don't like is change that makes my life more complicated or takes people away. And right now, my life is full of both!

I got accepted to grad school, so starting on September 2 (and every Wednesday after for 3 years) I will not be around or available. Well they are nice enough to give us July and August off each year. I will be in class from 5-10 every night with only a ten minute break in there. And that doesn't include the 45 minute drive each way. And then there is the homework and papers and tests...what am I getting myself into???? But I keep telling myself that in the end it will be worth it. Feel free to remind me of that also if I start complaining to any of you too much! :)

In addition to that, there is just so much going on, family stuff (which isn't all bad, just busy), work, friends, and trying to enjoy my summer which seems to be slipping by too fast. And on top of it all I had to say goodbye to one of my best friends last night. He is headed to Iraq tomorrow. Well actually to Texas first, but then to Iraq. I don't think I even realize what his friendship means to me. We have only been friends for a couple of years, but whenever I have needed to talk to someone, I know that I can always count on him. When I have boy issues, he will always listen and then tell me that the guy is an idiot. :) Which may or may not be true, but still makes me feel good. He gives the best hugs and really great massages. Ok, so now my back is hurting...this is going to be a long year! And he is always able to make me laugh. Thankfully he will most likely have internet access the whole time he is gone, so it isn't like I can't talk to him, but it just won't be the same. And I know that even though I will try not to worry, every time that I hear about a bombing in Iraq I am going to worry. As I was typing the title for this entry, the words to a song popped into my head. *This is a warning for those that don't want to read something cheesy, just move onto your next blog to look at.* The phrase was "I try to keep it simple cause I hate goodbyes". It took me a while to figure out what the song was, but it is "I Will Remember You" by Ryan Cabrera. I have it on my SYTYCD mix from last year. :) As I read through the lyrics, I realized that it describes pretty well how I am feeling right now. The part I will put on here says:
"I try to keep it simple cause I hate goodbyes and I try to keep it simple by telling myself that I, I will remember you and all of the things that we've gone through. There is so much I could say but words get in the way. So if we're not together, I will remember you."

The moral of the story is, I hate goodbyes. So if any of you want to leave, don't even think about it! Or at least don't say goodbye. Of course then I may be really mad at you for a while, but at least I won't start crying!

I am becoming the best Mormon housewife ever (minus the house and wife part)

Wow, two posts in one day. This should keep a certain person from complaining that I never post! :)

Without even trying, I have been working on my amazing domestic skills lately.

In a 24-hour period, I made jewelry, homemade bread and planted some flowers. If only I had also sewn something I would have been complete. But I didn't have time to pull the sewing machine out. Maybe next time.

Well the accomplishment I am the most proud of is my new love of gardening. For the first time in the 4 years we have lived here, I planted some flowers in front of our house. We don't have very much room, but when I heard about purple daisies, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to plant some. My favorite color is purple and my favorite flower is daisy, PERFECT! So last weekend I planted some. We also found some cute red flowers and planted those on the other side of this massive bush we have in front of our house. After the flowers were planted I decided that the bush needed a haircut, so tonight I tried my hand at bush trimming. I definitely need to improve that skill, but it looks better than it used it. Here are some pictures of my first attempt at developing my green thumb.

Before...

During...

After...


The red flowers


My purple daisies, I love them!

Why everybody should have children in their life

Those who know me know that I love children, well most. As long as they aren't spawns of Satan, I can usually get along with them pretty well. And if they are related to me, or the children of my friends, there is usually an even better bond. For instance, my best friend has 5 children, and even though I don't see them as often as I used to, they all still love me and even the 18 month old was very good for me when I babysat them for a weekend.

Here is a picture of all 5 with my nephew Tyler.

Speaking of Tyler, we have an interesting relationship. Most days he really loves me and gets so excited to see me, but on occasion he doesn't like it when I tease him. For some reason a few weeks ago he started thinking that I was going to steal his chair when I would come over, so he would come and open up the door when I pulled up and stand in the doorway very excited to see me, until I got out of the car and then he would say, "my chair, no Aiya" and run and sit in it. Even after I explained that I didn't want his chair, he still wouldn't leave the chair for fear of me stealing it.

But then days like Monday happen. My sister and bro-in-law were going on a date and their babysitters weren't able to make it into town in time, so they brought him over to me. Tyler was so excited to be coming to my house, he even asked my sister if he was spending the night at Aiya's. Sadly no, but still nice to know that he wanted to. When they pulled up, the first thing he said to me was, "Aiya's house. I went wee". Let me explain "wee". Where I live we have underground parking, so to get to my downstairs you have to drive down a little hill. He loves it and will put his hands up in the air and say "wee" when going down it. So then he comes into my house and says, "Aiya's house, wow". And as he continued to walk around, he kept saying "wow"! I guess I have a nice house. Then he walked into my kitchen and had to look at the "wee". A little bit later a firetruck drove past and it was really loud because the firehouse is across the street. So he looked at me and very excitedly said, "Nee naa, nee naa. Firetruck Aiya." He was in heaven! After we ate dinner, we left to go to the store and he continued to talk about the fire truck. He told me that the firetruck has water. I then asked him why the firetruck has water. He thought about it for a second and then said, "for a bubblebath." I had never realized that, so I asked for some clarification. He then told me that the firetruck had a bubblebath is now all clean. Who knew?? The things you learn when driving with a child.

Tyler is also into running these days. Now instead of us taking walks, we go running. Well he runs and I mostly walk fast. But he loves it. He can run probably about 1/4 of a mile without stopping. His little legs just keep going and he doesn't want it to end. I now take him for a run if he is getting upset and won't calm down. It has worked every time so far.

I also flew a kite with him for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I bought him a Cars kite for his birthday and on a really windy day we took it to the park by their house and flew it. He laughed so hard and wanted me to keep flying the cars in the sky. My sister will someday post the pictures of it (hint, hint).

And last but not least, the kid has some good taste. I got dressed up to go to the symphony with my friend and Tyler was there when I was getting dressed. When I walked out in my dress, he looked at me and said, "Aiya cute". Who am I to argue with a 2-year old???

I should be flattered???

Well just as I start to get excited that the school year is wrapping up and my job will slow down for the summer, all kinds of craziness begins.

On Wednesday one of the deans at my place of employement asked me to come to her office to talk to her. I must admit, it made me a little nervous because I had no idea what she wanted to talk to me about. It felt almost like getting called to the principal's office! She stared off by telling me that the conversation was off the record. Then she explained that the main secretary in her side of the building is leaving in the summer and with the current hiring freeze they will only be allowed to post within the university. So she wanted to know if I would even be interested in applying. Now this job entails working from 8-5 everyday and working directly with the students and faculty doing all kinds of really lame stuff. In my current job I work from 7:30-4 and get to leave early pretty much every Friday because I end up at least a half hour of overtime each week (today I get to leave at 2:15). And in my current position I rarely have to associate with the professors (note: lawyers as professors equals a whole lot of obnoxious, pompous behavior) and the law students. And my bosses are so laid back and wonderful to work for. Needless to say, I very promptly responded with "No thanks, I love my job"! I guess I should be flattered that they thought of me for the position, but there is no way that I would ever want to work over in that side of the building.

Another "flattering" experience happened yesterday. I was put on a university committee in December when a girl left after having her baby. This committee does an annual conference for all university administrative and staff employees each year (meaning a lot of people). By coming in in December, I was thrown into my assignment about halfway through it and had to figure a lot of things out as I went. Thankfully the conference was great and everything worked out. But I decided that for this next year I would ask to be put on one of the easy sub-committees (making the handouts or being in charge of the luncheon). When I submitted my request I was informed that they were actually sending me a letter asking me to be one of 2 vice-chairs on the committee. Really, why me??? I of course accepted, because I just can't say no. My boss said that I must have done too good of a job. I told him that I tried not to! The one good thing is that this will look good on my resume for graduate school!

Speaking of graduate school, I will be sending in my application for the Executive Masters of Public Administration program next week (hopefully). This will mean that if I get in, in addition to working full-time I will also be going to school at night for 3 years and doing all this other "extra-curricular" stuff! But the program is specifically for people who are working full-time so they understand our time contraints. Anyway, any positive, good luck vibes you want to send my way will be greatly appreciated!

So I just realized that this blog is just a lot of complaining! Sorry about that. On a happy note, I only have 10 more minutes of work and the sun is shining today and melting all the snow outside! I love you sunshine!

"I have been changed for good"

{Paul, his wife Lynette, and litte Eden}

Monday night I had the opportunity to attend one of the most amazing concerts I have ever attended. What made it amazing wasn't just the great performers (although they are some of my favorites: Peter Breinholt, Colors, Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband, David Tolk, and Steve Sharp Nelson)but it was amazing because of who and what it was for. (For more pictures of the concert check out my sister's post.)

The concert was titled "Living for Eden". It was a benefit concert for Paul Cardall who has had congenital heart disease since he was born and last August he had heart failure. He is now on the list for a heart transplant and has been on it for over 200 days. He is 35 years old and is married with a little 3 year old daughter Eden. Paul Cardall is an amazing pianist also and all these performers came together and donated their time and talents to raise money to help the Cardall family offset some of the medical costs they are and will be experiencing with the heart transplant. To learn more about Paul's journey, his blog is http://mytricuspidatresia.blogspot.com/.

Just prior to the start of the concert Paul walked in carrying a portable oxygen tank and looking very tired but also very happy. I was just amazed that he was there.

The performers all did a wonderful job. During the concert they talked about a little girl who just died last month from complications from a heart transplant. Gracie was only 11 months old and Paul met her at Primary Children's Medical Center. They showed some clips of her while performing and it just made me so sad to see the pictures of her short life with her family, but it was also inspiring because for one so young, she was smiling so much in the pictures and videos they showed.

And then as the concert was coming to an end Peter Brienholt invited Paul and his family to come up on the stage to say a few words. Peter had said that they had been hoping he would be able to do this, but they just weren't sure until right before if his health would allow him to. As Paul and Lynette were talking (and Eden was running around dancing) I was so inspired by their love for each other and also their gratitude and humility for all the people who took part in the event and all the people who came to the concert. Then after a few minutes of talking Paul told us that he wanted to play a song on the piano. He hasn't played any concerts since August and has actually only written one song since then. This was the song that he played. It was a song that he wrote for little Gracie. It was such a beautiful song. Kimberlie recorded it.

Prior to the concert I knew who Paul Cardall was and I have a couple of his cds, but I mostly went because I wanted to see the performers. But by the end of the evening, the only thing that really stood out was the life that Paul lives and hopefully the long life that he has left to live. Because of my experiences last night, I truly have been "changed for good".

Confession....I am a Catholic Mormon

I figure that it is time for me to admit to the blogging world that I am a Catholic Mormon. Now this might not be a surprise to all of you, but for those that don't know, I will explain. I am a Mormon, with Catholic influences. I could also be described as a cafeteria Catholic. I only choose some Catholic practices to subscribe too. This first began a few years ago when I started working with a woman named Debra. She was Catholic and after a little while we discovered just how much we had in common. So through time she became a Mormon Catholic and I became a Catholic Mormon. My Catholicism mostly comes out about this time of year. On the day following Mardi Gras (or Fat Tuesday) comes Ash Wednesday. This is the start of Lent. Lent typically is a time when people will begin a 40 day fast of something that they enjoy. It lasts until Easter and is a way for people to remember the 40 day fast of Christ. Sundays aren't included because Sundays are to be a feast day. Well I give up the same thing each year for Lent, sweet treats! So after this Wednesday I will no longer be eating sweet treats. Wish me luck, the first 2 weeks are the hardest. The best part is that when the 40 days are done, I often can last another couple of months without eating too much sugar, but then I usually go back to my ways, so by the time Lent starts again, I am addicted to sugar once again and have to go through withdrawls. My goal is to someday not get addicted again, but that probably won't be for a little bit.

Ok, now that my confessions are done, here are some updates on what I have been up to.

I recently discovered a new blog, Normal Mormon Husband. This has become my new favorite blog to follow. If you have a few extra minutes, look it up.

I also have gone to the Draper Temple Open House twice. I first went with my friend Debra (see the Mormon Catholic above) and we went on a Friday afternoon. It was not very crowded, so we were able to go slowly so I could explain all about the rooms that we were going through. It was great. Then I went last night with my sister, bro-in-law and 2 year old nephew. There were about 12 million people there (ok, so maybe not quite that many, but it felt like it). It took us about 2 hours total versus the time before when we only spent about 45 minutes total. And the 2 year old didn't exactly want to be quiet and reverent during the tour, but we had him look at all the pictures of Jesus and kept telling him that he would get to ride on a school bus after we were done (he loves buses and calls them all school buses). So for the most part he wasn't too bad. But it was still great to go see the temple again. I haven't been to a temple open house before, if you get a chance, go, it is so beautiful. The celestial room is so wonderful. I can't wait to go back and do a session when it opens.

Me and Debra after touring the Draper Temple.

Me and Tyler before the temple open house.


And because I just can't help myself, here is a picture of Tyler that I took tonight. After his bubble bath (and he had to have bubbles) he wanted to wear his Elmo costume and I put his Elmo slippers on too.

I am prideful and ok with it!

I typically try to avoid talking about things that make me sound prideful. Not that I am not prideful, but I would rather not let everybody know that I am. :) However, in this case, I just don't care because I am so excited! So if you don't want to read my prideful entry, just go on to the next blog that you are checking, I promise not to be offended!

Not long after I started working at BYU I discovered that they do a thing called Y-Be-Fit. Basically this is a 3 month training program which includes an initial evaluation and a final evaluation. And the in between includes weekly meetings with a trainer to determine areas of my health that I want to work on. And the best part of all is that as an employee I get to do it all for only a $20 copay!! So in October I decided to do it.

During my initial evaluation I did a pretty good job on everything. I was within the normal/healthy range on my weight and body fat and measurements. And aside from being really inflexible and not doing that well on the back health testing, I was pretty fit.

For the next three months my trainer put me on a program that is basically P90X (somewhat less intense though). It was a lot of fun actually and a lot of the exercises I can do from home so that has been happy. I was feeling pretty good (aside from eating so much during Christmas)!

And then yesterday I had my final evaluation. They first tested my body fat, while my weight stayed basically the same, I lost 3% body fat! Which basically means that I am a lean, mean muscle machine! I also lost 2 inches on hips, which is great, but because my waist stayed the same, it doesn't exactly help with my desire to have some sort of curves! In everything else I improved also. I was even able to go 3 more inches on the sit and reach test. Which for me is amazing. I am about the least flexible person in the world. And the fact that they were all really pleasantly surprised by my results was great!!

So what did I do last night??? I ate some ice cream and a bowl of my favorite sugar cereal, Blueberry Muffin Tops. Those things are so great!!

And now I am done talking about myself...well at least for now. So if any of you are able to take advantage of Y-Be-Fit, I highly recommend it!

Why I should never be allowed to leave my house...

Over the last few years many a persuasive paper could have been written about this topic. I don't know why it is that although I played outside and sports a lot growing up, I didn't get badly injured very often. I had never spent a day in the hospital until I was almost 23. Well since then, I have had many a stupid injury. I think that most of you will recall the breaking of the collarbone a few years ago while playing Ultimate Frisbee. And the sprained thumb a few months ago from volleyball. Not to mention the many minor injuries in between. Well because it had been a few months, I guess that I was due for something else. Before anybody gets too nervous, this isn't as bad as a broken collarbone!

The day after new years I went sledding with some friends at one of their cabins. Well the cabin community is very kind and they plow the roads down and leave just enough snow on the road so people can go sledding down the road. Now mind you, this is a very twisty turny road and quite steep since it is going up a mountain. Also keep in mind that I haven't gone sledding for a couple of years. So we went to the cabin and had some yummy food and then decided to go sledding. The first run I was freaking out and didn't really know how to steer, so I ended up crashing twice, but didn't get too hurt. Then the second run I was feeling a lot more confident. I knew that I could make it down without crashing. I now knew how to use my body to help the sled make a turn and to drag my feet to slow me down. I am cruising down and a couple of times I almost crashed, but I pulled it out and made the turns. My confidence was increasing. I was coming up to the last turn and just when I thought that I was going to make it, I crashed. Now try to imagine this road, it is very slick and what you have to crash into is a very frozen snow bank on the side of the road. My sled hits and abruptly stops which gives me about a foot to fly before also abruptly stopping. I layed there stunned for a minute and then realized that nothing was broken, but my back and neck were killing me and I could tell that my face already had freezer burn. And I realized that my leg was hurting really bad. But I still had to make it the rest of the way down, so I got back on my sled and went very slowly the rest of the way down. I could feel a bruise forming on my leg, and it wasn't until I got home later and looked at it that I realized just how bad it was. I should have taken a picture a couple of days after it happened, but it was very disgusting, so here is a picture taken yesterday (1 week after event). Also, sorry for the fact that you all have to look at my pasty white thigh. Needless to say, I am not planning to go sledding anytime soon.
So if any of you need to write a persuasive paper for a class, feel free to use me, I have plenty of examples! :)
I don't know if you can tell or not, but the bruise went quite a way up my leg and pretty much covered the whole width of the thigh!
Here are some pictures of the good times from the cabin
.Dan showing us the winter use for a swing.
This is how some of the sleds were brought back up the mountain.
Aw, aren't they cute!
My dear friend Amy and I.

Christmas and Update

Well my Christmas was great. I spent the night at my parents (yes,I went through major withdrawls from the twins and Marcus but at least I had Tyler there). I didn't sleep that well, so I was pretty much awake from 5 on. I started to finally fall back asleep by about 6:30, but by that point I could hear people upstairs. So I decided to get up, but we were going to wait a little while to open presents so I decided to shower (who doesn't want to look at least decent in pictures that will be around forever!). And then we had breakfast and then went and opened our presents. We had Tyler take the presents to everybody and once he realized that he could help to open them, he would hand the present to the person and then turn around and sit in their lap to help them! The only problem with Tyler helping is that he only rips off a little piece of paper at a time. We eventually started distracting him with his presents and opened our own so we could be done before dinner! It was a lot of fun and I got a lot of great things. Thanks everybody!
Tyler and I with his Elmo book that I gave him.
My mom made me this great apron. It has adjustable straps so it actually fits me!
Well the day came a couple of days after Christmas to come home. These next two pictures were taken of me with the 3 nephews who I was leaving.
An S.P. of me and Marcus J.
Eli is on the left and Owen is on the right. Oh, how I miss these little babies!

Well on a completely unrelated note, this weekend my best friend and her three daughters came down to have a slumber party at my house. It was great. We did pedicures and watched a lot of movies. Worked out (of course, who doesn't do that at a slumber party! :)) and ate a lot of good food. And we made some headbands. I bought this really neat headband for way more than it was worth, but I decided that I could figure out how to make my own, so my friend who is amazing taught me how to use my sewing machine and we made some headbands yesterday. I am still perfecting being able to stitch in a straight line and also to be able to stitch evenly! So if I perfect this, then you all might be getting headbands for Christmas and birthdays, let me know what colors you want! :)
My sewing machine and first three headbands!