For Aunt Gayle and any other blog stalkers out there

Aunt Gayle this one is for you...

So its been a while since Haley or I have taken the time post an update. And to be honest a ton of things have happened since then. I honestly don't even know where to start. Lets make a list...

1 New Job (Haley)

2 Promotions (Me & Haley)

1 New BBQ

2 Trips to AZ (1 in August, 1 coming in November)

1 Major Change in Life's Plans

3 Callings (1 Haley 2 John)

1 Sewing Machine

1 Taffy Puller

2 New Tricks (Blue)

So this list is not cronilogical or in any order... so here we go...

Haley started working at Conservice with me at the end of August. She started as a "Utility Processor" which is just a fancy name for data entry in the SyNERGY department. She didn't love the job or having to work Saturdays but we did enjoy the added income. She was quickly promoted to the Exceptions Team where she gets to use her math and stats background to help analyze variance in utility expenses for apartment communities. (Just smile and nod like you know what I am talking about). She has really enjoyed the change in routine and best of all not having to work Saturdays. Oh and she got a raise, we both love that!

Sometime around the same time Blue came to live with us I got promoted as well in the Billing Department to Team Lead. I originally had 4 direct reports but that number has grown to 6 which for this job is quite a few. I also was transitioned to a special team dealing almost exclusively with one of our biggest clients. This has meant a lot of overtime and late nights at the office but has been a great experience for me. One I have really enjoyed being part of some changes that have made the team work more efficiently but also it helped open my eyes about not loving overtime.

So why is it a reward that I figured out how much I do not enjoy overtime? Well I have spent the last 10 or so years planning to be a Doctor. While I didn't always make the best choices to make this an easy road I was on the road none the less. And 3 years ago I didn't think I would mind working 60-80-100 hours a week as long as I got to be in the OR. Well those of you that can do the math 3 years ago is when I met Haley and started thinking that maybe there is something better than being at work all day everyday. This job as a TL really opened my eyes to my not wanting to be away from her all the time. SO I made a choice, I am no longer planing on being an MD. I now am planing on being a DPT. That's a Physical Therapist for those of you that aren't up on your medical abbreviations. Its a three year doctorate program that I hope to start in 2012. More updates on this will be coming soon. (And by soon I mean someday in the next 6 mths ;-) sorry Aunt Gayle)

Where are we on the list? Oh somewhere in there I got a new grill. I opted for a charcoal grill this time. Mostly because it was cheaper to start out with that than a gas grill but its been a ton of fun this summer. I am in the process of perfecting BBQ Ribs. I think they are getting pretty good.

We went to AZ in August to pick my sister up and bring her back to USU where she started her Grad program in Audiology. I also visited AT Still and Midwestern University to check out their PT programs. We will be making the drive back down in November for Thanksgiving, which I am excited about given the recent spell of cold weather around here.

Haley and I were called to be Primary Workers back in May and have been teaching the 8 and 9 year olds. I recently was called to the Elders Quorum Presidency as the 2nd councilor. Both callings have been a great blessing and we have learned a lot in both positions.

Haley just got a new sewing machine this weekend. A Brother Innov-i's 80. I will let her post about it on her own. Needless to say she is playing with it right now.

Tonight I built a Taffy Puller. More to come about that I have no doubt. Christmas Candy is coming soon!

Blue also has learned a few new tricks. Bang and Knuckles. Videos will get posted eventually as well.

Well I think that covers the list and its dinner time so I'm going to cut this short. Hope this fills the urge to blog stalk us. Leave us your comments we love to know people are reading. It will probably nudge us to post more often.

Puppy Love

It's official, I'm a horrible blogger! I successfully (and finally) finished my college degree! I really can't believe that I never have to go back to school again, since school was pretty much my life since I was 5. After learning all I did in college, I keep feeling like there is so much more for me to learn, and maybe one day I'll end up going back to school.

A few weeks after graduation, we went to pick up our puppy! We were so excited to be able to help Spencer surprise Candace with a puppy of their own! It has been so fun to be able to swap stories, and watch both puppies learn. We have learned a ton of patience from our Little Blue and only lost a little sleep. He is finally getting to the point where we can trust him not to pee on everything (thank goodness!)

It was really rainy and cold the first weekend we brought him home, and even though we both swore we would never put clothes on our dog, we had to buy him a sweater so he would stop shivering when we took him out...Let's just say we didn't have much of an emergency-sweater selection...

He HATES having baths, but having a white dog makes it hard to avoid them.

In the past 6 weeks, I may or may not have googled all of the following:

• how stop a dog from chewing carpet
• dog scared of vacuum
• dog barfing
• dog crying ALL night long
• how to make a dog drink more water
• how to stop a dog from humping
• homemade dog toys
• Greenie's dog treats
• how to keep a sleepy puppy awake

It's been a good 6 weeks :-)

Mother's Day

Haley got an early Mother's Day gift last night from Blue. She wanted me to put it up here for all of you to see.

More pictures of Blue

Hey everyone we got a few new pics of Blue. We are planning a trip down to Mona for next weekend so hopefully we will have lots of pics and vids to share soon!

Puppy Update

Hey everyone! Just a quick update on the puppy. We have decided on the name Blue. Yes in honor of our Aggies here at USU. Below are some pictures that we got from Jeannie, the breeder, of Blue with his eyes open. Kind of an awkward gangly stage in my opinion but Haley will probably smack me for saying so :-). She is still in love with her little puppy and talks everyday about how she wants to bring him home!

Operation Code Name Wilson

John:
So be warned this is our first attempt at joint blogging. Haley and I are writing this post together. There maybe at times interjections from the other party. We will do our best to notate who is speaking.

Haley:
So basically, for the last week, John has been super mean!

John:
By "mean" she means I have have been very caring and planning a special surprise for her. Or as it is called in our house a "secret sooprize."

Haley:
Yeah so he was keeping secrets from me! How rude!

John:
Thank you Stephanie Tanner.

Haley:
No problem. All week he has been giving me this face like "I know something you don't know! Hehehe [evil laugh]."

John:
My "evil laugh" sounds much more ominous than that. It sounds much more like "mauhaha" but I digress. Can we get on with the story now?

Haley:
He kept telling me that he had this secret sooprize. He's never been able to keep a sooprize secret from me. He always slips up and tells me before he's supposed to.

John:
No comment.

Haley:

I guess we should probably go back a few weeks for this to make sense...

John:
Spencer, I know you will read this at some point and I am officially going on record. I still hold you personally accountable for this entire mess.

To the rest of you the reason Spencer is at fault here is because he set me up. We have been good friends with Spencer and Candace for quite a while now. Because we hadn't been able to get together for quite sometime he called me up and said we should get together and play a game and catch up. We had a conversation for several minuets about if they wanted to come over to our apartment or if we should go to their place. Spencer played the whole thing aloof and finally ended the discussion with, "Would it be okay if you guys came over to our place?" We of course didn't mind, but little did I know he was planning my ultimate down fall!

Haley:
You act like this is a bad thing! We showed up at Spencer and Candace's, and they had a little visitor for us to meet! Just cause she was the cutest thing you've ever seen doesn't mean she was your "ultimate downfall." You couldn't help but love that white fluff ball of a dog!

John:
So if you haven't figured this out yet, S&C had a puppy staying with them for the weekend. A fresh from the litter Bichon Frise. Spencer's mom had just got the pup a week earlier form a breeder in Michigan. And I will admit she was pretty cute and was a lot of fun to play with. To make this long story short. Haley fell in love. We had been talking about getting a dog for quite a while and had recently decided that we would not get one. I had wanted a hunting dog but knew that I would not be able to give it the attention that it would need once I went back to grad school. That and while our new townhouse we are moving in to, to be blogged about later, would allow us to have a larger dog we had just decided that we would wait. Now after meeting Gracie, Spencer's mom's Bichon, things looked as if they were about to change.

Haley:
So now you have a little bit of background. Back to John being mean. He had been talking for a couple of weeks about how he couldn't find a breeder for these dogs anywhere near Utah. He even had his parents looking in Arizona. But he LIED!

John:
That is such an ugly word. How about we just remember that sometimes a surprise requires an altered version of the truth.

Haley:
He LIED! He had connections through a friend, and had come in contact with a breeder in Mona, Utah, just north of Nephi. He told me that I would get to find out what my secret sooprize was on the day before Easter. It was a long wait, but I had plenty of homework to keep me busy during the wait...like truckloads of it.

John:
Okay now that we have painted to picture of your evil husband... can you please get on to the part of the story that paints the picture of how sweet and caring I am?

Haley:
Ok, ok! Here:

John:
See I am not quite the evil monster she had made me out to be am I?

Haley:
I guess... So after I figured out where Mona was, I had to wait a whole hour and a half before I would even get to see any puppies! That was a long car ride to the middle of nowhere. Once we finally got there, I got to meet Jeannie, who John had been talking to on the phone. She had two litters of Bichon puppies for us to choose from. One litter was a week older than the other, but the older litter had a smaller mother, so the puppies were smaller. She brought out the puppies from the younger litter first, and then she showed us the last puppy left from the older litter.

John:
Cue sappy chick-flick music, we had another moment of love at first sight.
The pups all looked the exact same. They were only two and a half weeks old! His eyes still haven't opened up just yet and he literally didn't even fill up one of my hands! But I knew the minute Haley started to hold the last pup from the first litter we were done. After an hour of talking with Jeannie and her husband Kevin, the receipt was written out and the money paid. Haley had herself a puppy.

Haley:
We're still working on names for this little guy, but we can't wait to bring him home!

John:
See I'm not a crook!

Our new little guy in Haley's hands

The little man's eyes still aren't open

A girl and her new best friend!

My New Hobby

So I'm not really sure why, but I have always LOVED making cakes and decorating them. John and his family have been feeding this obsession of mine by giving me tons of cake decorating books/pans/frosting stuff. Maybe one day I will find the time to take some classes and learn how to properly decorate cakes, but for now I have the Wilton website, and this:

Here are a few pictures of things I have made:

Football helmet cake for John's Birthday

Moose Cupcake

Football cake for Superbowl Sunday!

Owl Cupcakes

Lately :)

We completely fail in the blogging department. Last semester brought the craziest 4 months of our lives, and we're still working on recovering. With John working full time and me taking 15 credits of graduate level math classes, teaching a statistics recitation and tutoring, we had our hands full! I honestly think I only really cooked dinner about 5 times in 4 months, and our apartment was constantly cluttered, always with a sink full of dishes. We are now professional at our "10 minute clean up," which had to take place anytime we found out someone was stopping by, in order for me to not feel totally embarrassed at the mess. We can de-clutter, take care of the dishes and vacuum our living room in no time flat.

We also went through the adventure of buying a new car. The poor Jetta had a new problem every two weeks, and we needed a more reliable way to get around, especially with all of our trips through Sardine Canyon to get to Salt Lake. We were able to find a 2004 Acura MDX that was in great condition for a really good price. We have lovingly named him Winston. It has been so nice to have a reliable car, and one that John actually fits in haha.

My grades turned out really well last semester, and we were lucky enough to spend our Christmas break in sunny Arizona with John's family. The new semester is going really well. I only have 12 credits and will graduate with my bachelor's degree in Math and Statistics in May! I am also teaching two recitations this semester for Math 1050, and enjoying it very much. John is still working, and has taken up raquetball as his new favorite activity. He has had me play with him, and I'm horrible, but we have fun.

I have been thinking a lot lately about finding ways to be happy. Last semester, I had a really hard time being happy because of all of the stress and busyness that was going on. I always felt like I didn't even have time to breathe. All I could find happiness in was the fact that I would be graduating in May, and that I only had one semester left to get through before I could finally have time to do what I really wanted. I have thought like this my entire life. In junior high, all I wanted was to be in High School, and once I was in High School, I only wanted to be in college. I have always wished that I could be in the next stage of my life, and once I got there, where I was just wasn't good enough.

"Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey, and share our love with friends and family. One day each of us will run out of tomorrows." - President Thomas S. Monson

This quote came as an answer to my prayers. I needed to find a way to be happy NOW. Not when I graduate, or when we're finally able to buy a house of our own, but right now, while I'm still in school, living in this little apartment. This has helped me put things into perspective and focus on what is really important. Even though things aren't perfect, and I don't have time to get everything done that I want to, I can find happiness in the fact that I have an awesome husband, a place to live, and that I am able to get an education. I have so many reasons to be happy, and I wouldn't trade the place I am in now for anything :)