Tuesdays with Lindsay

Baby Hat!

2012-01-27T20:23:00.001-08:00

I warn you that it is entirely possible that the next several posts on this blog will be titled "Baby ____". I'll try to get a little more creative but I make no guarantees...

Anyway, I have completed my next baby craft project! I'd really wanted to knit or crochet a little hat for baby to wear home from the hospital (hopefully sometime in February...). So I went to this super cute yarn boutique near my house (Blazing Needles), picked up some yarn and even bought a pattern. I made it oh, 30% of the way through the pattern and didn't like it so I pulled it apart and started again using the same measurements and shape, but just using some basic crochet stitches instead of the weird stich from the pattern. Well, I made it 100% through that time, didn't like it, so I pulled it apart and started again. The same week I happened to attend a beginner's knitting class at Blazing Needles to freshen up my long forgotten knitting skills and so I decided on my third attempt perhaps I would knit.

I really like to crochet but I'm continually frustrated by a few things. A) I seem to crochet very tightly so that the end product is stiff instead of soft and cuddly, and B) I hate having to count stitches and keep track of different parts of stitches (front loop, back loop, etc.) and so I usually try to wing it and eventually end up with ragged edges. Knitting seems to give me neither of these problems...at least not as long as I stick with the basic knit, purl routine. One day I will try something a little more fancy.

Anyway...back to my hat. So the third time was a charm and I finally bring to you...baby hat! I'm mildly concerned that it will drown the child, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

Baby Legs!

2012-01-15T11:06:00.000-08:00

As I've already mentioned, I received a sewing machine for Christmas from my mom. She told me that she was really worried I wouldn't want one but decided to take a risk. She hit the jackpot!!! I absolutely love it. I sat down and read all the instructions and it really isn't as intimidating as I was expecting. It helps that now all of the controls are electronic and there are convenience features that my mom's really old machine just doesn't have. I'm really just so excited.

Here she is in all her glory. I haven't named her yet but feel confident it will become apparent in time.

Anyway, I wanted to start out with a ridiculously easy project to build my confidence. I knew just where to start. Baby Legs!!! I'd seen them on Pinterest and they are so ridiculously cute and so ridiculously easy. You basically just cut off the foot of an adult pair of knee socks and then hem up the raw edge.

Here is the original "pin" that piqued my interest:

Aren't they just adorable! I didn't want to spend much money on them, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to find any cute socks, but the other day I was at Shopko and decided to just drop by the sock section in case and it was my lucky day. Tons and tons of knee socks on sale for $2/each!!! I kind of got carried away and pretty much bought a pair in every single pattern. It didn't help that all the Valentine's socks were out too, and well, I'm pretty sure baby girls can wear Valentine's patterns all year round!

And here they are!! More Baby Legs than one baby could ever wish for!! Good thing I also have a pattern for bum covers because it is seeming like that combination is going to be a staple of my child's wardrobe. Let's hope she has chubby legs so she can hold them up!

Of course Lucy wanted to try them on to make sure they were up to par. She walked a little funny in them but ultimately decided they were worthy.

This is what Andy does while I sew. He was very nice about admiring each pair of Baby Legs as I completed them. He also wanted to make sure I point out that he does not approve of the term "Baby Legs". He thinks it sounds like something you make a soup out of and that's just wrong.

Now that the Baby Legs are complete I have new project to work on this weekend. Curtains for the nursery!! Still a very easy project but a little more work involved. I can do it!!!

Holiday Break 2011

2012-01-01T15:15:00.000-08:00

A few years ago I started an awesome tradition of taking the week off of work between Christmas and New Years. Its been a great time for me to decompress and get a good handle on the year to come. I generally do some serious household organization and also get plenty of relaxation. This year has been those same activities....times by about 100. I believe the official term is "nesting". And I've come down with a very serious case of it!

At the beginning of my break this year I started by writing a list of all the things I wanted to get done. There originally were 47 tasks on this list. I venture to say that now, one day before my break is over, roughly half of the tasks have been crossed off. It had some small easy tasks like "buy carseat" and "hem living room curtain", but it also had some huge tasks on it like "organize". That could mean any number of things, but only I know that it indeed means going through every single cupboard, closet, and storage space to declutter, organize, and get rid of junk. I just feel this overwhelming need to have everything in my life in order before this baby comes so I don't feel pressured to do anything but focus on her when she finally arrives. Good thing I still have a month or two to get the rest of these things crossed off!

One of my least favorite things on the list has been "register". As in baby registry. The same thing happened when we got married. Except this time its even more difficult because I have no idea what I need! I love receiving gifts so you'd think that it would be fun to pick a bunch of items for people to buy me, right? Absolutely not. Its torturous. But I'm told it must be done. At this point I've still got a very bare bones registry but at least it exists.

Anyway, my break hasn't been all work. First of all, I've been getting a ton of sleep! Its actually starting to freak me out just a bit. For instance, several nights this week I've gone to bed around midnight and woken up around 11AM. And most nights I'm really fighting to stay awake that late so Andy doesn't think I'm a total weirdo. Then I'll wake up in the morning, get a few things done and then need a break because I'm starting to tire. My break of choice has been watching an episode of Frasier on Netflix, which more times than not has resulted in me taking an hour long nap. Guys, what is up with that?!!! Nobody needs this much sleep! I'm getting a little worried about returning to work on Tuesday...what will I do without 10 hours of sleep plus an hour nap each day?!!

I have had some fun as well this holiday season. I kicked it off with Maryanne by getting pedicures at the Kura Door. Very, VERY relaxing but the nail polish was sub-par due to their insistence of using all natural products. I've also been to a number of holiday dinners this year which I absolutely LOVE. I'm very annoyed that I only took pictures at one of them though. Lucky for you I wore the exact same outfit at most of them (how many holiday dressy maternity outfits can one girl be expected to buy?!!). :) So you can just imagine me with the different groups of people based on the one picture. :P

First we went to Carver's with Libby, Jay, and Melissa. The restaurant had a pretty cool atmosphere. The food was pretty good too, but the service was underwhelming for what we paid (Andy and I have officially decided we're becoming restaurant snobs). And of course the company was fantastic!!

The next fancy holiday meal was actually in Portland for Andy's holiday work party. It was at El Gaucho so you know I was excited! I thought the food was fantastic, and it was great to visit with Andy's co-workers (many of them also family) that I don't get to see too often. Our private party was in the "vintage room" pictured below. The only disappointment of the evening was that I didn't partake of the cherries jubilee after the waiter informed the group that not all of the alcohol burns off so it might not be appropriate given my "condition". Thanks, doc. I did steal a bite of Sara's though and I've been craving more ever since.

While we're on the subject of our Portland trip, I should also mention that we stayed at a really great hotel (thanks Kari!)! The Nines is located right across from Pioneer Square right in the mix of all of the holiday cheer, and the hotel itself was so neat. The rooms were very nice and decorated in very modern and bright decor. Right up my alley!

Even though the Portland Mercer office is only a few blocks away, I took full advantage of my pregnancy excuse and opted to work from the hotel room for 2 of the 3 days. :) Just the walk on that first day left me with 2 blisters and disgustingly swollen feet! Maybe I've just gone soft but I blame the extra 25 pounds I'm lugging around (and possibly my choice of shoes...). Anyway, I enjoyed taking my lunch and coffee breaks (or in my case, cider breaks) in Pioneer Square.

My two recent visits to the Pac NW have once again left me really disappointed in the food scene in Salt Lake. My two specific complaints this time are 1) take-out pizza and 2) made from scratch pie (this time I mean the dessert). Andy loves pizza and honestly the best take-out/delivery pizza we've been able to compromise on is Papa John's. Why don't we have anything like Pizza Schmizza (Portland) or Pagliacci's (Seattle)?? The funny thing is, I think a lot of Portlanders don't even like Pizza Schmizza...probably because its not hipster enough. :P Anyway, all of the local pizza joints here in Utah I find disappointing. And where is all the homemade pie?!! I'm even more shocked by this one because a good pie just seems like one of those things that the Mormon culture should have down pretty good. So where are they selling it? And if anyone suggests Marie Callendars I will punch them in the face (although without any better options that is probably where I will go).

We also got together with our Portland pals for dinner one of the nights, and as luck would have it they picked Departure, the restaurant at the top of our hotel. In keeping with the hotel, the atmosphere was very sheek and modern. Even the food was what they call "modern Asian." I opted for the Japanese curry noodles, which were tasty and very rich. Next time I'm going for the Bibimbap which looked amazing. The real specialty though is probably all of the signature cocktails which everyone else enjoyed while I nursed my authentic ginger ale (and loved every minute of it).

Afterwards we headed out to the balcony and took in all of the festivities happening down below. Such great views! I shamelessly stole this pic (along with all of the others...) from online but it is very similar to what we saw...

Once we were home from Portland it was just a few days till Christmas. On Christmas Eve we did the traditional dinner at my Grandma Barnett's house with all my aunts/uncles/cousins on that side, and from there we went to Casey's apartment for the second part of our traditional Christmas Eve, which is game night with just our immediate family. This year we played Apples to Apples and had a really good time making fun of each other. It was fun having it at Casey's place instead of my parents this year.

The last couple of years we've had Christmas dinner at my house, but this year I just wasn't feeling up to it, so my mom volunteered. So Andy and I woke up to a nice leisurely Christmas morning. I made Banana Streusel muffins which were majorly DELISH, and we just relaxed until it was time to head over. Did I mention that we didn't even put up any decorations this year? I think Andy and I were both just feeling like this was our last year to be lazy in that regard so we took full advantage of it. Anyway, my mom really outdid herself with a 5 course dinner!! We all brought contributions to the meal and it turned out pretty awesome (except for my homemade rolls which I thought were sub par). Anyway, so mad I didn't take pics! We had tomato bisque, crab cakes with remoulade sauce, italian ice pallet cleansers, and then prime rib with mashed potatoes for the main course. YUM. Between this meal and all the other holiday dinners I don't think I'll be needing any more red meat for years to come. But it was delicious!!! And of course we all got some great presents!

Since then we've been focused on checking things off our list and relaxing. We met up with some of Andy's MBA friends for brunch one morning up at the Silver Fork Lodge, which I've been dying to try for at least a year. And it didn't let me down! I will definitely be adding it to the weekend brunch rotation. :) It was nice to get up in the mountains where there was at least SOME snow (albeit not very much). Where is all the snow this year?!!

We also met up with Chris and Becca at the Trolley Wing Co. which they had given us a giftcard to for Christmas. We stayed and chatted for a few hours with them which was really nice. We rarely get to see them without the rest of the fam around!

And we did have one more holiday celebration when the Corlisses dropped into town...it was quite a doozy! Kali and I decided that it just wasn't fair that we'd both had the pleasure of dining at La Caille before but neither of our men had, so we just HAD to take them there. It was only fair. Nobody does Christmas quite like La Caille!

And finally I broke out my camera for the first time this season. Here we have the group shot with me in my one holiday maternity outfit. I love my tights and red belt (and coordinating red earrings that you can't see)! And of course I love Kali's dress.

What a cute pair of girls in coordinating holiday outerwear... ;)

Of course we had a ball. The food was very good (the lobster bisque was the highlight of my meal), and Kali's irish coffee (that they light on fire) was also very fun. But here I think its more about the atmosphere than the actual food itself. I don't think I'll be visiting again anytime soon (as long as I'm paying, that is), but its an experience I think every Salt Lake City-ite should have at least once.

And then just like that it was New Years Eve! We'd originally planned to head to the McCarthy's for fondue and game night, but I woke up with a sore throat and bad headache so we decided to lay low and stay in this year. We made spagetti and had "Super New Years" by watching the first two Superman movies...tonight we will finish up by watching the third. My expectations were low because the movies are so old, but they were quite entertaining! Now that we're entering the kid years we're trying to think of a fun family tradition for New Years Eve. My idea was to have a slumber party and make forts and watch movies. But I guess you could do that any night?? Luckily we still have a few years to figure it out as I don't think a baby will care much. I would also like to have a good tradition for New Years Day itself because it always seems like such a bland day...no way to start off a new year. Any suggestions?

And well, tomorrow is my last day off before I head back to work and into my busiest work month of the year. In some ways its good because it will go by fast and closer to my due date! As you can see, we've had a very busy and very fun filled holiday season this year. It really has been memorable and I've loved that we've had so many different outings with all of the people in our lives. Of course with all of the baby prep and holiday dining it has taken a toll on our wallets and waistlines (oh who are we kidding, I don't have a waistline!) so I think Andy and I are both looking forward to the return of our normal routine (at least for another month or so...), but we sure have enjoyed it! I hope everyone has had a wonderful season as well. Here's to 2012!!!

To the New Year: 2011 edition

2011-12-31T12:24:00.000-08:00

What a...unique year. Unique in a good way, of course. And next year? Well, I've never gone into a new year having less of an idea of what my year will be like. Definitely a new chapter. Or maybe even a new book (in the same series, of course). Anyway, I'm soooooo freaking excited!!

The year of 2011 was definitely split into two distinct phases...before I was pregnant and after. The first half of the year started out not so much different than any other year and was actually pretty darn great. And it was in this phase that I accomplished most of my 2011 resolutions. If you'll recall, this year I set quite a few resolutions for myself. So, let's see how we did:

Lucy: I had a goal of improving Lucy's off-leash behavior. This has been an enormous success!! Honestly, I think a lot of it just has to do with her age and maturity, but we definitely have been training as well. She can now be trusted off leash at the park (dogs or no dogs) to return on command. She can also go by herself between the house and car with no problem, and even if she happens to escape from the house she's not very much trouble at all to get back. So, way to go us and way to go Lucy!! :)

Here she is frolicking after a bath...

Home maintenance: this one has gone...okay. We've taken care of some things, but it'll take time to make all of this part of the routine. I still have the calendar I created this time last year, however it hasn't been used in months...

Yard work: this one has gone great! We got a brand spanking new irrigation system in both front and back. Our lawn was nearly dead when we did it, but within a month of having the new system it looked awesome! At the same time we ripped a ton of lawn out of our front yard and shaped it into what will be some beautiful landscaping. We've put two new oak trees in so far, and the rest of the plants are waiting for springtime. As far as the veggie garden (that didn't exist this year at all), it has been all set up for drip irrigation! Can't wait!

"Before" pic:

"After" pic (after pulling up some lawn and putting in more dirt...but still before adding the two new oak trees)

Physical health: I was basically on a maintenance plan for 2011 and it was going pretty darn well pre-pregnancy. Mid-year I did decide I had 5-10 pounds I could lose so I went on the 6-week body makeover and lost 5 pounds in the first week....then in the second week I found out I was prego and that was that! Since then, the term "physical health" has taken on a whole new meaning and just kind of makes me giggle a little so we'll have to revisit this one in oh...7 or 8 weeks from now. :)

Emotional/Mental health: this time last year I was trying to curb my bad habit of worrying about things that are totally out of my control (economy, state of the world, etc.). I do think I've seen some improvement, although it has involved pretty much cutting myself off from pretty much every news source that exists. So I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing. I still generally don't feel good about some of these issues, but I've been able to adopt a more "in the moment" attitude. Rather than worrying about future possibilities, I try to live each day to the fullest. I try to make the best decisions I can with the information I have at the time, and we'll work the rest out if and when we have to. I really think this change in focus has had a good impact on my life and I hope to keep it up!

Budgeting: this has gone well! I set up a new way of budgeting for us and we've stuck to it and are on track for paying off some loans in 2012. Hooray!! And its a good thing too because then we'll have to start saving for college...yikes!

Random 1: Grocery bags. I think I made it at least a month without getting a single plastic grocery bag. Then it started tapering off...and once again I'm back to hardly ever remembering to bring my reusables. I won't call it a success but I will say progress!!

Random 2: Alarm clock. Ummm yeah. Not sure how this was going in the pre-pregnancy phase, but at this point I'm taking every spare moment of sleep I can get and I've never been happier about it. Strangely, I've been waking up a little earlier on my own (probably because I've been falling asleep so early), and I love it!

Fun!!: yes we had fun!! We did go on a couple of great trips this year and had a blast on all of them. We had a lot of good times with family and friends. But most importantly we just had fun in our daily lives doing what we always do. We laugh every day (usually many times) and we are happy. Success!!

Here is our annual holiday self-portrait. Getting a decent photo of both Andy and I plus having Lucy look at the camera and try to get at least part of my belly in the shot proved to be impossible and this is the best we got. Lucy is staring intently at a treat in my left hand. :)

And now for the 2012 resolutions! I started out thinking it would be smart to not have resolutions this year as our lives are about to be flipped upside down, but as I thought more about it I realized that's just dumb. There are definitely things I'd like to do, and with all the changes coming up I don't think it would hurt to set up at least some structure to ensure we come out of it alive! I really liked what I did last year by setting up a "personal inventory" of sorts and going through the different aspects of life and describing a few areas that I was planning on focusing on.

Hobbies: I consider this to really be part of the mental/emotional category. This year it will be important for me to try to find and maintain balance in my life between home/work/fun/me/family/etc. I've never been a person who struggled with having enough hobbies, but this year I'd like to take on even more! P

For years I've wished I played an instrument (in particular, a piano). Well, this year Andy and I got each other a digital piano for Christmas and we are going to learn! I will be taking official lessons and then trying to teach my knowledge to Andy each week.
My mom surprised me this year at Christmas and got me a sewing machine! I never thought I cared much to sew but now that I've got a machine of my very own and have learned all the cool things it can do, I couldn't be more excited! It comes with 4 classes which will hopefully give me some momentum. I've already got a really easy project lined up (curtains for the nursery), but hopefully I'll do several fun ones so I can call this resolution a success at the end of the year.
Crocheting (can you tell I've gone completely domestic?? I'm scared!!): I've known how to crochet for years but have only done a handful of super easy projects. Lately I've had the urge to start anew (thank you Pinterest) and have a couple of cute ideas for baby.

Physical: this one isn't too hard to guess. Once baby is out I want to return to my normal self ASAP. I'm hoping that this can be accomplished by eating sensibly and returning to my old gym routine. I miss my classes!

Yard/Landscaping: this year will be a success if I have a vegetable garden, get the front landscaping completed, get shutters on the front windows, new storm doors in front and back, and get the rain gutters in the back fixed (from when we ripped out the awning like 3 years ago...).

Home: I would like to continue making progress on the chore list that I set up this time last year. I can do it!! :P

Cooking: of course I have to have a cooking goal! It would just be too sad not too. This year I'll try to make it do-able. I would like to 1) organize my recipes and 2) can food! A few summers ago I learned how to can and loved it. This summer I did no canning. I would like to make a tradition of it and at a minimum make raspberry jam and maybe pickles or something. I have all the equipment and a huge recipe book to pull from. Even if I don't have all the fixins from my own garden I figure I can use the farmers market as backup. Anyone want to join me one Saturday in August?

Lucy: I love Lucy a lot. I pet her and cuddle her and whisper sweet nothings to her all day long. But what I don't do a lot of is play with her. We're talking chase, tug-o-war, fetch, those kinds of things. And every now and then I'll look outside and see her "playing" with inanimate objects in the back yard as though they are her imaginary friends. Its really funny and cute but it also makes me feel just a wee bit guilty. Luckily she'll only be an only child for a few more months! Of course I don't think baby will be playing chase with her for at least another year or two. Until then, my resolution is to just play with her more. Watch out Andy, there's a new "fun one" in town!!! :P

Baby: as I thought through my "personal inventory" this year it seemed kind of silly to not put any baby resolutions up being as baby will pretty much rule my life in 2012 (and beyond). But then I realized how that might be a bad idea because I honestly have no idea what to expect. So this year will be all about learning and I'm sure I'll have plenty to add to the list for 2013. :)

Everything else: As I think through the remaining aspects of my life that might typically receive a resolution (relationships, daily schedules, etc.) I kind of feel the same way as with the baby stuff. I just have no idea how these things are about to change. So, this year I'm going easy on them!

And with that, everyone have a wonderful New Years Holiday!!! Let's have an amazing and unforgettable year!

Port Orchard - November 2011

2011-12-04T22:46:00.000-08:00

If you recall, last year we had the brilliant idea of DRIVING to Port Orchard for Thanksgiving, the same time as the "great blizzard of 2010" was pulling into Utah. The drive was a big fat pain in the you-know-what. This year we thought better and flew there and the trip was amazing. Very relaxing and we got to spend time with people we don't get to see nearly enough. I've been super exhausted lately so I didn't even remember to pull my camera out except for on one of the days. :(

We got to Sea-Tac midday Wednesday, and picked up a rental car. As usual, I demanded that we hit a few places in T-Town on our way to Port Orchard. I had ordered some pies through the Metropolitan Market on Proctor...man I love that place. I would be in big trouble if I lived around there. We also stopped by UPS (I hear we're supposed to be calling it Puget Sound instead of UPS now...lame) because I wanted to pick up a Loggers onesie for baby. :) Then we dined at Goofy Goose and reminisced for a bit.

We then made it up to Port Orchard, stopped in to say hi to the Juniors for awhile, and finally made it to our home base for the trip, the Smith residence. Why didn't I take any photos?!!! The twins are about 15 months now and mobile. They are a handful and so much fun! Its amazing how different they look and act from each other. Within the first five minutes of our stay, Andy had made them both cry...but they warmed up to us before too long. I of course picked Kayte's brain clean of even more baby advice...I'm sure I'll have even more questions later.

Update: Andy was smart enough to snap one as we were headed out the door back to the airport. Here the little cuties are enjoying their breaky bright and early...

Thanksgiving came and since the Godsey family is so big they had decided to hold it at the church down the street from Andy's parents house. Andy had a great time playing volleyball and basketball with everyone...I went the lazy route but had a lot of fun playing card games with Jennifer and Betsy. And eating, of course. A lot of that. Some of the kids also put on a production that included singing, dancing, and a few karate moves. I love a good holiday production!

Friday morning we went to brunch with the Smiths and Byron at Uncle Dave's Cafe. This is one of my all time favorite breakfast joints. So so so so GOOD. From there we went back "home" to the Smiths and had a nice walk with the fam around the lake. Did I mention that their home is right on Long Lake and has a spectacular and most relaxing view? Most of the time when we were home I just sat in their glider chair and gazed out the window. Again, kicking myself for not taking a pic!! Port Orchard really is such a beautiful place...its a pretty small town and compared to Salt Lake it feels very remote and sheltered because of all the huge towering evergreen trees that line all of the roads. Even driving around in the neighborhoods I always feel more like I'm going camping...its just a very neat atmosphere. Watch out for coyotes though!!

Friday evening we went over to Kim's to say hello and meet her new puppy Shyla, an Old English Bulldog. Here is a pic of Shyla and Simon that I stole from Kim's Facebook. Shyla is maybe about 4 months and already weighs more than Lucy. She's very solid little girl!!

Then we all met up with the Ben Godsey clan for dinner at Puerto Vallarta. I know I know, even more food!! And that's not the end of it...

Saturday morning we headed back down to Tacoma to meet up with Kali & Eric for lunch at the Ram. We also stopped back at the Metro Market (lucky me!) to pick up a few things, and this is where the first pic of the trip was taken...

After that is when things got VERY exciting because I was headed to my very own baby shower!! Jennifer had planned a shower for everyone in town and well, I was basically beside myself. Receiving presents for the baby made it VERY REAL. I'll leave it at that for now...for full coverage of the shower and all the pics you'll have to visit the baby's blog. I loved every minute of it and had such a great time!

Here are the pics of the attendees...my mother-in-law, several of my sisters-in-law, and Kayte:

From there we were all headed to Ben's house for game night. One thing I love about the Godsey's is that there are always people playing games! On the way there we had the pleasure of chauffeuring Madison, who had a lot to say! I particularly enjoyed learning about her job as a librarian at school. She stays in from recess to help out and all she gets paid is a piece of candy!! Once we got to her house she took me up to her room to show me all of her cool stuff. It was nice getting to spend one on one time with her...doesn't happen very often!

Here is the gaming group playing some Texas Hold'em. The little guy there on the right is the youngest member of the Ben Godsey family, little Hudson. He is such a great little baby! Pretty much just sits there quietly smiling until he falls asleep. Let's hope our little one got some of those genes!!

We played for a few hours and then headed back to "town". We have to say that because Ben and Nicole pretty much live in the middle of the forest. Really. They have found bear droppings in their driveway before.

On the way back we had the pleasure of chauffeuring Betsy and Logan. Logan also had a lot to say and it was very entertaining. I knew we were in trouble when on the way out to the car he asked if he could have some Chips Ahoy. His first request once in the car was for a drink, which of course we had none and were setting out on a 40 or so minute drive. At what age do you learn never to eat cookies if you do not know where your next glass of milk will be coming from? Luckily we were able to distract him by asking him if he knew the definitions of some very difficult words. He is one smart guy!

Sunday we woke up and headed to Bainbridge Island for brunch at the Lum's. They recently moved into a new house and it is absolutely GORGEOUS. I told Alison I thought if Ina Garten lived on Bainbridge, she would live somewhere like their house. Just so quaint and perfect for entertaining. Of course as soon as we got home to Utah Andy was inspired to hit the real estate websites searching for "the one." Anyway, Alison astounded us once again with her amazing cooking and then we hit the road back to Port Orchard.

That evening we finally got to spend some one-on-one time with Andy's parents. We went to their place and had Andy's favorite, sour cream enchiladas! We also tried to recreate the Taco Time crisp bean burrito, but I think there was a mutual agreement that it just wasn't the same. We stayed for several hours just hanging out and chatting, and it was really nice. Can't wait to see them again when baby comes!

And then we woke up bright and early Monday morning and flew home. We were very excited to pick up our doggie...and then I believe I napped for the rest of the day. :) Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving 2011! I know we sure did!

Enough is Enough

2011-12-04T13:52:00.000-08:00

Two months since my last real post?!! I am so disappointed in myself. But I guess its not that shocking considering that I've for the most part been a recluse these last two months. During October I really had to get serious about studying for my actuarial exam that I took the first week of November. Man those things are tough! I will find out if I passed in mid-January. I'm also in my busiest time of year at work which has been difficult amidst everything else (major understatement). All the while, my strange pregnancy allergies/eczema have been raging out of control and making me very antisocial and extremely emotional. I've seen three different doctors about it now, and tried a few different treatments. One worked great for a week and then didn't work anymore. This week I'm on a new plan which has given me hope again. Here's to feeling great by Christmas!!

But looking back I see that I have managed to have a little fun this fall so I'd like to try and focus on that...

We've had several houseguests at Casa de Godsey (Jennifer, Jevon and Missy, Julia...not all at the same time). I'm so glad our friends and family feel comfortable enough at our house to want to stay here when they are in town (even if its not really to visit us, per say).
I visited Red Butte Garden for the very first time when Jevon and Missy were in town and was impressed. I got tons of ideas for the garden that I will try and implement next spring.
I made homemade bread for the first time ever without a bread machine!! Something about the whole rising/kneading process had me very intimidated but Libby gave me a recipe that seemed do-able, and it was AWESOME. We ate almost a whole loaf of French bread with our soup that night, and the other one we made into French toast the next morning. AMAZING. And yes, the only photo I have of any of these events is a picture of the bread. Typical.

Feeling baby kick all the time and loving it!! Especially when I'm having a pretty rough day it makes it all worthwhile when I lay down and baby comforts me with a few loving kicks in the gut. :)
Maryanne and I visited H&M a few days after opening their first Utah store. The mall was jam packed and we had to wait 5 or 10 minutes just to get into the store but it was actually nice letting myself get swept up in the hype and I found a few good items for my wardrobe (and baby's). :)
Kelsey and I got pastries and pedicures one Saturday morning and it really hit the spot. Sometimes you just need some girl time to start the weekend off right!
Kali came to town and we spent a day crafting it up. I helped her pick out some fabric for a baby quilt she's making us, and I got caught up in it too and ended up buying some fabric to make my own burp cloths. Can't wait to see how it all turns out!
Hosted the Dinoround at our house with a "copycat" theme. I made Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana, and breadsticks. Mel made PF Chang Lettuce Wraps, and Libby made homemade Oreos. As always, we chatted late into the night and I was able to pick Libby's brain on some of my lingering baby/pregnancy questions. So nice to have a friend whose already done it all and whose opinion I trust!
Last week we made the annual Thanksgiving journey to Washington. It was soooo nice getting a few days to relax and hang out with family and friends up there. I believe it rained for all but about 10 minutes of our 5 day trip, but it was so cozy and festive feeling. Port Orchard really feels like another world compared to Salt Lake, which is kind of fun because its really just a short trip away! Anyway, more on that later as I'm dedicating a whole post to the trip.
Today Chris & Becca had us over for brunch and it was sooo tasty. She made an egg/potato/cheese casserole that was very light and fluffy, and she also made these amazingly decadent croissant french toast numbers that were filled with nutella, banana, and cream cheese. Umm YEAH!! Can you tell my appetite is back in full force?? I'm thinking that being in your third trimester right during holiday season might be a bad combination...

So, that's pretty much what I've been up to the last few months. Hopefully it won't be so long before I come back again! My goal right now is to make it through the next work week alive and then try and get some holiday cheer going around here...can't believe its December!!!

Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassidy

2011-12-03T09:52:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: this book is for 4th graders.

All growing up I had the impression that I was not a "reader". While my brother would read thousands and thousands of pages effortlessly, I would struggle to make it through one Nancy Drew book. I just didn't enjoy it. By the time I graduated high school I had a list of maybe 5 books that had truly made an impression on me. Then, probably after college, I finally realized I actually did love reading, I just had been picking all the wrong books. Starting all the way back with those Nancy Drew's which I will now willingly admit that I STRONGLY DISLIKE. But after all those years I still remembered one book I had read as a child that I had really loved. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember the name of it. But after finally having this epiphany that I did love to read, I felt like I needed to track down this book and add it to my collection as the first real book on record that I enjoyed. After discussing with a friend, I was inspired to put my mad Googling skills to the test until I found it.

And find it I did. I re-read it last month and can now happily put the crisis behind me. Behind the Attic Wall is a mysterious, somewhat supernatural tale of a young, troubled, orphan girl who finally comes of age with the help of some rather unusual friends. I'll leave it at that for now. But if you know any elementary schoolers looking to explore an edgy new genre, I highly recommend!

Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe

2011-12-03T09:12:00.000-08:00

Did you think I was kidding when I said the next book I read would be Rob Lowe's autobiography? Deadly serious my friends, deadly serious. And I really really enjoyed it! If you're intrigued by the Hollywood scene at all, it was very entertaining and a nice easy read.

Rob and I have had an interesting relationship, which is why I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. For years I didn't care for him for no other reason than he was just so...pretty. I really hadn't seen any of his work. I just kind of expected him to be annoying. Enter West Wing. I watched hesitantly at first but it was only a few episodes before I was hooked in BIG way. And Rob Lowe's character, Sam Seaborne, will forever hold a special place in my heart. After that I started watching some of the movies that made Rob big in the 80s...St. Elmo's Fire and About Last Night. They were good. Rob was good. He was in. Next show we watched was Brothers & Sisters and that pretty much sealed the deal. Rob made it to my top 5 (ok...who are we kidding, he was already there). Despite how crappy that show got toward the end, I just had to keep watching. It definitely was not Rob's fault and I don't blame him for getting out. I look forward to watching Parks and Recreation next which I hear is hilarious.

Anyway, the book. I was worried that if I read the book, my perfectly wonderful vision of Rob would be crushed. That I would find out he really was just a spoiled pretty boy completely out of touch with reality. I went into it with an open mind and was not disappointed. I learned all about his childhood in Ohio where he already had his eye on acting. Lucky for him, his family then moved to Malibu, California where he continued growing up surrounded by some very big names. He hit the big time in his very early 20s and has been carefully managing his career ever since. It tells of his personal struggles with partying and alcoholism, and how he managed to become a real person despite hitting sex-symbol celebrity status at such a vulnerable age. It was much more down-to-earth than I had expected, and I was impressed that he didn't take the opportunity to bash anyone publicly. Rather, all of the stories he told were of people he seemed to hold in the highest regard. I enjoyed hearing about all of his chance encounters with other blooming stars, and I definitely laughed out loud on several occasions. Overall, I thought he did a very nice job of doing just what he set out for with the title...making me feel like a friend. I'll take it!

Bossypants by Tina Fey

2011-10-06T20:24:00.000-07:00

I'm generally a fiction girl, and when I'm not, I'm very rarely a biography girl (not to mention AUTObiography), but after seeing at least 5 of my Facebook friends plug the book and state that they "laughed out loud" while reading it, I decided to give it a shot. I bought it on my Nook with the intent of "lending" it out, but was then angered to learn that not all Nook books are eligible for lending, including this one. LAME.

Anyway, I'm not sure I laughed out loud, but I did enjoy it. Very light and easy reading, witty, and really interesting to hear how Tina's career began, and the behind the scenes stories of SNL. I was comforted by her seeming ability to relate to non-celebrity women (which I'm not surprised by...this seems to be her gig in general), but it did make me more willing and interested to hear her thoughts on life. Perhaps I will give more biographies a chance...starting with Rob Lowe's!! Tee hee hee...

The Hunger Games (series) by Suzanne Collins

2011-09-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to reading this series that everyone has been talking about the last few years...and found it quite entertaining! Who doesn't love a nice creepy post-apocalyptic tale, complete with love story written for teenagers? I do, I do! Really though, it was a good page-turner and the love triangle was just enough to keep me coming back for more. The third book was my least favorite...just a bit over the top at times, but I was very happy with the ending. And that's that!

This one goes out to the one I love...

2011-09-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

Whenever I hear an REM song I think of Andy because several years ago, back when we were first getting to know each other, he took me to an REM concert at Bumbershoot in Seattle. I don't think he was overly impressed, but it remains one of my favorite concerts to date. But that is beside the point. Last week was Andy's 30th birthday and we had a big ol' bash to celebrate.

Every year I get so worked up trying to think of something to do for Andy on his birthday to make it special...most of the time we spin our wheels and end up doing this or that and I'm pretty sure he just doesn't really care (which is fine). I remember the first birthday I spent with him we'd only known each other a matter of months...it was his big 22. I was living with a bunch of roommates in this really ghetto house in Tacoma but somehow I managed to put together a nice meal of enchiladas (cooking wasn't exactly something I did regularly back then). I think he was impressed. On his 25th birthday I was living in Seattle and he was living in Bellingham. We got together and went up to Snoqualmie Falls. We were out hiking around when it started POURING rain. A really great memory and it also led to one of my all time favorite photos of us...

Just for memories sake...some other old bday pics I found. Why didn't I blog back then?!!

24th bday...Brandon and Amanda helped us celebrate. We made this SPECTACULAR banner!!

26th bday...we went to the Puyallup Fair with the Corlii and made this BEAUTIFUL cake. I can't remember at what point I convinced Andy to let me make something other than the chocolate eclair cake he had gotten every year growing up. I'm pretty sure Nicole (Andy's twin bro's wife) still has to make that...(not that it isn't good...its very good! But you know how I feel about making the same thing twice...).

This is all the evidence I could find of the 27th (Utah State Fair year? Gepeddo's?), and obviously I spoke too soon. This is clearly a chocolate eclair cake.

No evidence of the 28th. And last year was the biggest dud of all when I'm pretty sure we did absolutely nothing except maybe go out to dinner. I had the BRILLIANT idea of taking him to the Flowrider but its about an hour away and for some reason or another we just never ended up going. Very lame.

So this year I was determined. It was the big 3-0. That qualifies as something you can throw some money at if you can come up with an idea. So a month or so ago I sent him a list with several ideas...go camping, go to Moab, go on a surf trip, and I even had a few specific places picked out for him to select from. Days went by, weeks. He couldn't commit. Maybe the key is to not give him a choice. So with about 10 days to go, we decide to stay home and have a backyard party with our friends and family in the area. I immediately got started with the planning, and before we knew it the big day was here and over 30 people were planning to come!

His actual birthday was Thursday, so I'll start there. I had to be at a meeting in Ogden at 7:30 AM, which meant I had to leave the house by 6:30, so unfortunately my plans of making an awesome birthday breakfast were foiled. But when I got home around lunchtime, it was present time!!

I'm not one of those people who is known for being a really good gift giver. Sometimes I really struggle. But this year, I just knew. I was so excited and I had the gifts purchased weeks in advance.

Here he is modeling all the loot, which consists of a brand new pair of Rainbow leather flip flops, the book "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible!" by Jonathan Goldstein, and the mack daddy of the gifts, a very handsome Fossil brown leather messenger/laptop bag. There's something about a nice leather bag on a man that just makes them seem like they have their shiz together...you know what I mean? Definitely will be a lot more impressive on his business trips than the black canvas one he has been sporting.

After presents, my parents took us to Fats for lunch and gave Andy even more gifts! Then we went back to work and afterward Andy went to school, and the day was pretty much over. Friday we took off of work to relax and prepare for the partay. I had everything pretty well planned, but the weather was being a bit finicky. I finally made the executive decision to put all of the decorations and food inside. Then at about 7:10PM it cleared up and was gorgeous outside. Of course. The first few guests helped me move everything outside again...

I was running around most of the time so didn't take many pics, but here are the ones I did manage to capture. Of course I forgot to snap one of the food, which was: grilled bratwursts with all the fixins, bbq pulled pork in the slow cooker for sandwiches, chili queso dip with tortilla chips, macaroni shrimp salad, pineapple, and tres leche cake for dessert. We definitely had leftovers and it was all pretty tasty if you ask me!!

I was sure to get all 30 candles in the cake...

And Andy had no trouble blowing them all out...

He got surprised with a bunch more gifts.

He was particularly excited about this one...a Seahawks garden gnome.

Sharing a drink with some of his pals...

Once the sun was down my dad got a nice bonfire going in the pit (not exactly raging in this pic)...

And of course we let Lucy invite a friend to keep her occupied. She obviously chose her boyfriend Loki. They enjoyed getting muddy (whose idea was it to get a new sprinkling system that same week?) and running around with glowsticks on their collars.

And what is a party without a pinata?? I had a lot of fun thinking of things to put in an "adult" pinata, although most of them were shot down by Andy because he was worried people might bring their kids. Well, there was exactly ONE child there...a 4 month old baby. Soooo relieved I didn't put condoms in the pinata!! :P We ended up with a good variety of chocolate, glow sticks, decks of cards, car air fresheners, and packs of gum. I was worried nobody would want the stuff, but they did!!

Watching Chris mess with Andy while it was his turn to bat at the pinata was one of the highlights of the night. Andy would get it all lined up so he knew exactly where it was and then he'd take a big ol' swing, just as Chris would quietly move it out of the way. It was HILARIOUS. This must have happened 3 or 4 times before Andy figured it out. The pics are blurry due to the lights, but you can kind of get the idea...

And well, that was about that. We mingled and had a very merry time. We were surprised later that night to see a bunch of messages written all over the bathroom glass in dry erase marker (why didn't I take a pic?!). I think the party was a major success, and I had a fun time putting it on. I got lots of compliments on the food and gave away a bunch of the leftovers. Hopefully it was a great birthday for Andy. We are so happy that everybody came out and helped us celebrate!! :)

Drum roll....

2011-08-31T21:39:00.000-07:00

Ok ok...so that last post was just a test to see if anyone's really paying attention. Turns out a couple of people are!! It was just what I needed to summon the courage for a full blown announcement...baby Godsey is on the way!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!! We are so happy and out of our minds with excitement and anticipation. I will only give the basic details here, because the entire story (with far too much detail, in true Lindsay fashion) is being documented on a new blog just for baby. Figured I'd get him/her started blogging nice and early... :)

Due date: February 29, 2012
Gender: to be discovered in another month or so
Current status: 14 weeks...today begins the second trimester!

So if you're interested in hearing ALL about it, visit The Chronicles of Baby Godsey to follow along. I'm really torn about whether to keep it public or go private...so if you have opinions on the matter, please share!

Baby says hi...can't wait to meet you all!! :)

What would you do for $50??

2011-08-30T22:17:00.000-07:00

So I'm at the doc and they say..."Hey, are you interested in participating in our sleep apnea study? You have to wear a sleep pack tonight and once again in 5 months. But every time you wear it you get $50." Apparently I am eligible for the study (requirements unknown to me..as far as I know I do not have sleep apnea), and the results will be used to study possible correlation between oxygen levels during sleep and pregnancy complications. Sounds like a good cause to me! Of course I jumped right on it and agreed to participate.

It took a good 20 minutes for me to get all wired up. I had straps and cords and suction cups all over the place. Andy was kind enough to snap these photos of me before hopping into bed...

I imagine the pics when I have to do it again 5 months from now will be even more entertaining...

I fell asleep surprisingly easily considering the large battery pack on my ribcage. The worst part was definitely the prongs up my nose! And I made my finger monitor too tight so by morning my finger was pretty sore. Anyway, I hope they got some good info from me! :P

Netarts, OR - July 2011

2011-08-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

I've done a pretty crappy job of blogging lately. Along with cleaning the house, cooking, gardening, and most everything else. But the day I don't blog about a week long vacay to the beach is the day this blog is dead to me (maybe). So, I write.

Last month was the first annual (I hope) Godsey family reunion. Even though it really only consisted of Andy's immediate family (parents, brothers, sisters, and their kids), there were a grand total of 31 people in attendance (Kari, I'm taking your word for it...). And a few people weren't even there! It can be pretty difficult to get my extremely small Barnett family to agree on one day to meet for dinner, so I'm pretty impressed that the Godsey's made it a priority to all meet up for a week-long vacation. Its a family I'm proud to be a part of!

Between the 31 of us, we rented 4 beach houses. Three of the four houses were VERY nice, with updated and well-maintained decor, awesome bedrooms/bathrooms and kitchens, and plenty of space. Then there was the fourth house, MY house. It had a great view...and was very...cozy. If you think of it more as a cabin, its actually kind of cute. Except for the shower which I could only bring myself to use once because it was so extremely tiny and did not drain well. The other 4 days I politely accepted invitations from other houses to use their various showers. Other than that, the bed was small but comfy enough, the couch was super old, the kitchen pretty worthless because of its size, and there was no room in the bedrooms to even unpack your suitcase (no room for drawers!). And the floor was extremely uneven. On the plus side, there was cable TV and I learned to love the show Pawn Stars on the History Channel. Also, I should mention it is literally steps from the sandy beach!

I forgot to take pics of it, but here are the pics from the rental website. With the exception of the bathroom and the other bedroom (which is exactly the same but pink...), by looking at these photos you have literally seen every square inch of the cabin.

And just for comparison purposes...here are a couple pics of the kitchen/family area of one of the other houses. At least I could visit whenever I wanted (and I did...and ate all their food too). :)

Most of the houses seemed to be pretty reasonably priced on a per bedroom basis, and I would consider going back (in one of the nice houses).

During the week we did a lot of relaxing, Andy did some surfing, we went on a lot of walks, and hung out with the family. I got several games of Hearts in, which is always nice. I had planned on getting a lot of beach reading in, but with so many people to socialize with I never got around to it. I took hardly any pictures, and the ones I did take are of my dog (big surprise).

We drove up and brought Lucy as we were very excited to see if she was a beach dog. And she most certainly is. She could spend hours chasing seagulls right into the water, and she loves to eat dead crab. Yum.

The first day she even met another Wheaten Terrier. Too bad they didn't like each other.

I ate several bowls of clam chowder while in town, and I award the best chowder to the Pelican Pub & Brewery in Cape Kiwanda. The beach at Cape Kiwanda was so beautiful (albeit very windy...just like everywhere else). We also took a walk to Oceanside for dinner one day...which was a bit of an adventure because it was so windy.

On the last day we went on a hike and the views were breathtaking!

Then, way sooner than I was ready, it was time to hit the road home. Andy and I decided that we were just too close to not drive down past Heceta, so we took the long way home down the coast and through Bend and Sisters, Oregon. There are some pretty cool towns that way! It did add several hours to our trip (we didn't even make it to Idaho by the time we had to stop for the night), but it was nice to take a different route for once. Quick sidenote: on the drive up we stayed at the Shiloh Inn in Nampa, Idaho...and it was AMAZING...mainly because the free continental breakfast is actually just free breakfast at the diner next door. Hello biscuits and gravy!!! I highly recommend if you find yourself needing an inexpensive dog-friendly hotel in the area.

Anyway, back to the drive home. Of course, our first stop...the Tillamook Cheese Factory. For the first time in my life I was able to experience the phenomenon known as squeaky cheese. It was a wee bit salty, but delicious nonetheless.

Then, hours later...Heceta. We decided we're going to take a shot at this viewpoint every time we visit (this was the third time, including the wedding...which is weird, seems like it should be more).

We drove through our favorite stops in Yachats (and saw they've made some improvements...particularly at the pavilion we had our rehearsal dinner...now covered with plexiglass to shield the wind!!). It was really nice to get to visit and reminisce about such a special time.

And that's pretty much where the story ends. Many hours later, we were home. We still wonder if Lucy dreams about chasing seagulls at the beach. I hope so.

Denver - June 2011

2011-06-30T19:50:00.000-07:00

How is it that my first time in Denver wasn't until my 27th year? And for work, no less. The flight from SLC is like, less than an hour. Yet another perfect weekend getaway.

To be honest though, I've always felt a bit competitive with Coloradans. Its a rivalry. Our mountains are closer (and on both sides)...theirs are taller. Their ski resorts are cool...ours are cooler (hello Winter Olympics...not to mention Greatest Snow on Earth...hello). They have the Broncos, the Nuggets, the Rockies, the Rapids and the Avalanche...we have the Real and...the Jazz? They have Boulder...we have Moab. Their city is bigger...and more diverse...and well, ours is smaller and....more quaint? Less traffic? Anyway, you see what I mean. But I finally went there, and yes it is cool. I love any city that has numerous distinct neighborhoods that are all great in their own unique way.

It was weird to be in a city that felt and looked so similar to SLC but was so obviously not SLC. It had totally never crossed my mind that the next state over from Colorado is Kansas, and when you get off the plane, that's where you think you are. On the door to the women's restroom is a note confirm that it doubles as a tornado shelter. In Salt Lake we're used to living in a valley surrounded by mountains on both sides (but it is quite flat in between). In Denver they have the Rockies on the West, and absolutely nothing on the other side.

Anyway, I was only there for about 36 hours since it was for work, but I had a jolly good time. Monday night I met up with a good college buddy / housemate that is from Denver. Sharing a love for delicious food, he took me to a wonderful Italian restaurant in the Highlands neighborhood called Trattoria Stella. It has a great patio and the food is AMAZING. I had the Cherry House Salad with Red Wine Viniagrette and the Spaghetti Bolognese and both were fantastic. And of course we had some tiramisu, which was one of the best I've ever had, but Justin swears it is not very difficult to make...

Then we grabbed some tea in another cool neighborhood called Lodo (lower downtown). I believe the place was called Paris on the Platte? It was pretty cool and very busy for late on a Monday Night (full of hipsters of course...). Anyway, we had a great time chatting about this and that and the other.

And then it was back to work on Tuesday and I was back home in SLC by Tuesday night. It was a short trip Denver, but I'm sure I'll be back!! Thanks Justin for showing me around!

So. Cal. - June 2011

2011-06-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

As previously mentioned, Andy and I signed up to do a 10K mud run a few months ago. Well, despite our lack of training the day finally came. Friday night we flew into Long Beach, which was just over an hour flight and it was totally do-able for a weekend trip even without the additional Friday or Monday off work. We met up with the other 8 mud-runners in our group, and drove down to Oceanside. We grabbed some Mexican food and called it a night in preparation for our early morning.

Saturday we helped ourselves to the Days Inn continental breakfast and drove a few miles up the road to Camp Pendleton. Compliments of Chris, we were all donning our "I'm Surrounded by Assholes" team T-shirts. Long story....

You're right...when have I ever not told a story on my blog simply because it was long? Well, you see, our team name was "The Assholes". Again, thanks to our trip organizer Chris (whom I may or may not be related to...). I guess that's what happens when you have to pick a team name in the wee hours of morning on New Years Eve. And if you're Chris. Anyway, when I think of a big group of assholes, several of whom are in the same family, my mind immediately goes to one of the best movies of all time. Yes. Spaceballs. Have I ever mentioned that I practically had the movie Spaceballs memorized by the time I ever saw any of the Star Wars movies? Well that is beside the point. Anyway, so we were actually split into two teams pitted against each other...the Assholes and the Assholes 2. And when the two teams started trash talking over email a few days before we left, I joined right in with this....

"Chris, when I think of you I'm reminded of a certain quote:

Dark Helmet: Careful you idiot! I said across her nose, not up it!
Laser Gunner: Sorry sir! I'm doing my best!
Dark Helmet: Who made that man a gunner?
Major Asshole: I did sir. He's my cousin.
Dark Helmet: Who is he?
Colonel Sandurz: He's an asshole sir."

And our team theme was born. For those of you who don't know the rest of this dialogue, it goes something like this...

Dark Helmet: I know that! What's his name?
Colonel Sandurz: That is his name sir. Asshole, Major Asshole!
Dark Helmet: And his cousin?
Colonel Sandurz: He's an asshole too sir. Gunner's mate First Class Philip Asshole!
Dark Helmet: How many asholes do we have on this ship, anyway?
[Entire bridge crew stands up and raises a hand]
Entire Bridge Crew: Yo!
Dark Helmet: I knew it. I'm surrounded by assholes!

So Chris (who is indeed my cousin, making the quote freakishly relevant) had the brilliant idea to surprise us all with T-Shirts saying "I'm surrounded by Assholes". And the rest is history. Let me tell you, those shirts were a big hit. I had no less than 20 people comment on it throughout the race....everybody loved them. :)

Anyway, so the race was the race and it was pretty awesome. The rivers/lakes/mud pits that we had to get through were definitely a fun distraction from the fact that we were running a 10k in the summer heat. It was a lot of fun. I would absolutely do one again, however I'd probably be more excited for a 5K given my general avoidance of running. I know they have one in Utah so maybe I'll look into that next year.

When I took my shoe off after the race I found this surprise on my foot. Yes, its a giant blister.

The blister did make the rest of the trip a little difficult (I had to hobble carefully to keep my flip flop from squishing it), but it was not the worst part of my recovery. The worst part was my terribly sunburned face. Not only was I incredibly disappointed in myself for letting it happen in the first place, but it HURT. Not to mention I had a horizontal tan line going right through the middle of my forehead thanks to my headband (see first photo above). For three or four days I was in agony and it looked I'd had a botched acid peel or something. Wahhhhhh!!!!

Anyway, after the race we somehow managed back to our homebase and we were HUNGRY. We set out for the marina again, had some Italian and meandered around town for the rest of the night. Despite our tiredness we managed to have a really good time (except for when I almost got into a physical altercation with Zack over the salt and pepper).

The next day we went to Laguna Beach and hung out all day until it was time to head back home. The only detail I remember is that I was challenged to eat an en entire enormous calzone (I do believe cash was involved), and I totally could have done it but I stopped a few bites short because I'm a lady and I didn't want to make Zack feel bad.

Anyway, all in all it was a very fun weekend trip and I look forward to traveling with these assholes again some day! :)

The Wedding Chronicles: Daddy Daughter Dance

2011-06-14T21:11:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning out all the files on my desktop when I happened upon this video. The Wedding Chronicles just wouldn't be complete without it...one of the most fun parts of wedding planning was practicing for this! Make sure you watch for at least 45 seconds or so...

Weekend Report

2011-06-12T18:45:00.000-07:00

I've decided that haiku's are one of my favorite things. And so, a haiku to sum up the weekend.

Why so many weeds?
Summer is finally here!
Let's go have some fun.

Its been a great weekend. Andy's bro and fam are in town for a few days so we've had fun spending time with them and hanging out around town. One of Byron's "must-do's" was In and Out Burger. I'd only eaten there once before, in California, and to be quite honest I'm not quite sure what the big deal is. But it was a fun time, nonetheless. Afterward I convinced Bridget to help me pull some weeds and get some plants in the ground. My garden is out of control!

Saturday morning we got to hang out with Bridget for a few hours and we took her to opening day of the Downtown SLC Farmer's Market. We got balloon animals, played at the playground, ate a yummy lunch, picked up some "take and bake" empanadas for later, and did a little hula hooping. A very good time. Then, back to the weeds...

Today, I finally managed to whip out the camera for a hike with Byron, Andy, and the dogs. We all took a turn on the rope swing we found....

The dogs pretty much had the time of their lives. There were so many dogs on the trail and plenty of adventure to be had...

Even Mei Mei got in on the action...

Once we got home it was time for a doggie bath, followed immediately by a roll in the grass.

And then...the moment we've all been waiting for...we took the top off of the Jeep for the summer! I'm pushing for taking the doors off too, but Andy isn't convinced. Hopefully we'll have some good adventuring in the next couple of months!!

The dogs were ready to take her for a spin...so we grabbed some fro yo at the Shop n Go and cruised around up near Emigration Canyon.

I usually only allow Andy to get Pizza Hut on his birthday, but I made an exception because his brother was in town and they were having cravings for stuffed crust (gross!!). I am such a good wife.

Bridget demanded to eat hers on her brand new Strawberry Shortcake tray.

And that brings us to now! The weekend is almost over but from what I hear we may still have a park outing yet to come, and maybe some grocery shopping for me (which is of course, one of my favorite places in the world). The fun continues!!

Becca's Dirty Thirty

2011-06-10T21:52:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Becca hit the big one. The big 3-0. Is it just me or is that happening to a lot of people lately? I don't know why a twenty-something like me is hanging out with so many old farts these days...hehehe. :P

Anyway, we hit the town two nights in a row. And it couldn't have come at a better time because it was the weekend after my exam and I'd been feeling pretty crappy all week. Nothing to snap you out of a bad mood like a good party. Friday night everyone got together for drinks at the Poplar Street Pub. One of these days I would like to go there for dinner because waiters kept passing me with some good looking (and smelling) burgers. I also hear they do a mean Sunday brunch for a very reasonable price. We did get an order of their garlic fries, which are AMAZING. Anyway, no pics of that night but it was a good time, as always.

Saturday was girls only and we went up to Park City for the night. It was a wee bit chilly, but nothing a few glasses of wine couldn't cure. Jenny set us up with an awesome suite at the Marriott on Main, complete with full kitchen/living room and gas fireplace. Once we got up there we relaxed and hung out for awhile until dinner time.

Man I needed a haircut (I say this in the past tense because thank goodness I have gotten one since this photo was taken)...I also must remember that I HATE any of photo of me taken from below face level...

We wandered around Main for awhile until we finally decided on the High West Distillery for dinner. I was pretty impressed with the food and drinks alike, and would definitely go there again.

My leaning tower of pork...

From there it was over to the No Name Saloon and finally to Downstairs for dancing. It was weird because the streets felt so dead, lots of places were closed for summer, but then you'd finally go into a place and they were PACKED with people, which of course is very important for dancing. Who wants to dance alone in an empty room? Anyway, we had ourselves a good old time.

It was nice getting to hang out with two of Becca's sisters a bit. Considering I've known Becca since I was in...oh, the seventh grade?...I've only met her family a handful of times. I can definitely see a family resemblance here...

The highlight of the dancing portion of the evening for me was right before we left. We were all getting pretty tired, but then Don't Stop Believing (Journey) came on and MAN...there's no better way to blow some steam than belting out a great song at full lung capacity. Brooke and I were really in the zone...we're still reminiscing about it weeks later. :P Great way to end the night. Of course we had some good hair tosses in there too...

We were dancing right up where the DJs were...and they were having a pretty good time. Can you tell which one of them totally reminds me of Usher?

Anyway, before too long it was time to stumble back to the hotel for our beauty sleep.

Happy Birthday Becca, we love you!!!!!!

So. Utah - March 2011

2011-05-31T22:51:00.000-07:00

Part 2 of Corliss/Godsey Adventure 2011. Lots of pics...few words (probably because I've forgotten all of the stories considering the trip was two months ago!!!). We hit the road Friday morning. I think we were all pretty stoked to be getting out of crazy-town (aka. Vegas). Portions of the drive were pretty cool (mainly the 15 minute segment through Arizona). I'm still not positive, but we may not have taken the most direct route to Torrey. But its ok, because we had a jolly good time. At one point Kali and I learned that we share a mutual love for the Crash Test Dummies, which we celebrated by singing along to the entire "God Shuffled His Feet" album. We also listened to several podcasts (like a very interesting one about the science behind laughter) and learned that Eric prefers to listen to entire albums at once rather than just a random shuffle of songs. Oh how I love road trips. Anyway, for the most part, this part of the journey looked a lot like this:

When we got there it was quite a sight to see. We'd learned of the Red River Ranch from Kali who had stayed there before with her family, and it was decided that it would be a good venue to celebrate Eric's big 3-0 (poor guy...). The lodge was breathtaking. I think there are only 12 guest rooms, each unique with a different southwestern theme. Since we arrived in the very beginning of the season (several of the town's restaurants had literally opened that day for the first time since closing for winter back in October), there were only one or two other people there and we basically had the whole place to ourselves.

We had the equestrian themed room, and the Corlisses had the vintage room. Each room has its own fireplace which I think is pretty darn cool.

The common areas were my favorite though. There was a huge sitting room on the main floor, plus a little reading nook and a game room. All of them were totally decked out with antiques and hunting trophies...

It is a working ranch with horses and bison. And with the red cliffs just a few hundred feet away, we were quite impressed.

The white horse was nice and would always come over to socialize. The dark horse was very moody. The bison stared at us but otherwise had no personality (I didn't exactly try to pet them...).

And of course, there was the hot tub. And when there's a hot tub, I use it. Especially when its outdoors in a remote location...hello stargazing!!! Apparently not everyone feels the same way because by the end of the trip our group was known by the staff as "the ones who like to use the hot tub". Interesting.

And the hot tub came in very handy when it decided to snow. As Eric is demonstrating, it was so chilly outside that it was often necessary to dip your face in the water to keep it from falling off.

The 100 or so feet back to the lodge was a little more daunting in a soaked bathing suit in 30 degree snowy weather. Luckily we had our pink robes, compliments of the Lodge.

I think the horses found the whole thing quite humorous...

Anyway, we did venture off the property at some point. It was a little chilly for long hikes, but we drove into the park (Capitol Reef National Park) and did some of the shorter viewpoint hikes. It was absolutely beautiful.

We had to capture a shot of Whinnie in her natural habitat...

We saw some petroglyphs which I thought were pretty cool...(the question is, can you find them in the photo??)...

Then we started off on a longer drive deep into the park. At the beginning of the journey we were feeling optimistic. A couple hours in things started to look a little weird...like we were on a another planet. Still don't know what that place was but eventually we realized we'd driven straight through the park and out and the other side.

At this point we were hungry...and in the tiny town of Hanksville, Utah, all we could find was this (see below). We'd gone so far off course we were only like an hour or so from Lake Powell. Tempting, but no. So we picked up some snacks, vowed never to return to Hanksville, turned around, and headed back. Kali was so disappointed in us.

Luckily, we found some good adventure on the way back. Here's a nice shot of the group assessing the river situation. Assessing the river for what, you ask? Well, to see if by chance we might drive through it, of course!

Obviously the answer was yes, and boy was it exhilarating. There was much shrieking involved...mainly from me and Kali...mainly. (And I promise this activity was approved by the park...)

Andy having the time of his life...

The water came just about up to the side step.

And it was a good choice because it was super awesome. Oh, and we found some cool stuff on the other side too.

You can't see it in this photo, but on top of this hill there was a tall, man-like structure. It actually really creeped me out, like somebody looking out over the whole park and chanting or something. It actually reminded me of the Christ the Redeemer statue atop a mountain in Rio de Janeiro. I think we ultimately decided it was a large stack of rocks. Too bad this entire story is totally pointless considering you absolutely cannot see it in this picture. Oh well. Trust me, wherever we went, it followed us with its eyes...

Eventually we turned back to the river, and headed back for the main road. But we still saw a few more cool things.

We went on one actual hike that was probably a few miles long. The endpoint was a natural arch, which are always exciting. Pretty early on in the hike we stumbled upon this arch...

But we eventually realized that the hike was not quite over. The actual arch was much much larger (see below). But I thought they were both cool...

We eventually wound up back in town and settled in for another of Torrey's finest meals. I don't remember this place as being all that impressive but we did have a couple of decent meals on the trip. The one place Kali had raved to us about (Cafe Diablo) wasn't open for the season yet...oh well, guess we'll have to go back!

Even though Torrey is a ridiculously small town, I was a little surprised that the restaurants weren't better just because of the tourism in summer (random googling suggests roughly 750,000 visitors each season). I'm always shocked to realize how far away people come from to visit Utah's national parks. At one of the restaurants I realized that we were one of the few groups speaking English. While yes, Capitol Reef is one of the least visited parks in Utah (compared to Zion with 3 million visitors per year), I have a feeling the restaurant situation is about the same across the board. I guess you have to figure a large chunk of those people are camping (aka. roasting their food over a fire) and still others just aren't concerned about where they eat (are you trying to tell me these people didn't come all the way to Southern Utah for the food?!!), but still, I'm thinking there's a market there. This is something I will have to remember when I'm ready to dabble as a restaurateur...

One restaurant did try a little harder to cater to the foodie crowd, and with moderate success. Of course I don't remember the name of the place, but I do remember that this grilled artichoke with aioli was pure bliss after two nights of mushy spaghetti. But I can't be too hard on them, it makes the town even more lovable knowing it hasn't been overrun with snobs yet. So real. So Utah. YES.

Something in the artichoke gave me the giggles though because shortly thereafter I had a laughing attack, tears and all. Over what, I have no idea...

Every place around there has a spectacular view!

And well, other than that, we pretty much hung out, relaxed, and enjoyed each others' company. Kali and I chattered nonstop, I made an inappropriate comment or two (or three...blame it on the altitude!), we took lots and lots of photos, and pretty much had an awesome time.

(playing hearts next to the fire until the wee hours of the morn)

Where will the Corlisses and the Godseys go next? I can't wait to find out!! :)

Las Vegas - March 2011

2011-05-10T19:57:00.000-07:00

A few months back we planned a trip for a few days of rest and relaxation in southern Utah with the Corli. Then one thing turned into another and next thing you know we're starting the trip with a few nights in Vegas. It had been a few years so we were once again lured by the bright lights and dreams of hitting the jackpot...well, more like the delicious food and prospect of poolside relaxation but to each man his own. Since it was a two-part vacay we decided to drive. Turns out that when your used to driving up to Seattle, the drive to Vegas isn't too bad at all.

Funny mini pics of the strip...

At this point in my life I have learned a few lessons about Vegas. First and foremost...it is one of those vacations where you just save up the money in advance and once your foot hits the strip you never look back. Otherwise you will be crying yourself to sleep every night and your vacation will be ruined. And that's without spending a nickel on gambling (although spending five minutes at a slot machine for a free drink is the best deal in town). No matter what, that hard earned money will be gone so you might as well live it up. All of the restaurants are expensive, so in my opinion its worth it to pay a little more and actually go to a good one. But I think we all know at this point where my priorities lie...I'd probably choose to do absolutely nothing but watch TV the whole time as long as I was promised a nice meal out at the end of the day. :P The clubs aren't really for me either (especially their cover prices), but I'm usually willing to throw down a few bucks for a show on each visit. This time we had our eye on the Cirque du Soleil "O" show but we never actually got around to buying the tickets. Oh well, I'm sure we'll be back.

This naturally leads to lesson number two. Never stay in Vegas for more than two or three nights. Any time after that and you are sure to lose your mind in a tidal wave of despair and resentment. Vegas is just so unique in how its sole purpose is to "wow" people (and take their money). Talk about sensory overload. I think Andy is right when he says that if you're willing to take the time to find it, there is something there for everyone. For me its not that hard to find: crazy hotels, awesome food, incredible entertainment, and poolside laziness. Most of these things you can get in many other cities for a better value and with a whole lot more on the side (like the ocean, or an interesting culture perhaps?). But in no other city can you get so much of it, so close together, that is so over the top. It is really quite bizarre. And even weirder is how difficult it is to get from one place to another considering how compact it is. Practically impossible in heels. Lucky for me its just a hop skip and a jump away (otherwise known as a 45 minute flight or a 6 hour drive), so surely I'll be headed back that way much too soon.

And the lesson I learned this time: late March is still too risky for poolside weather. I think it was unseasonably cool, but I'd prefer not to take my chances next time. While we were there it topped out around 65. The very next week...90. Grrrrrr. We did get one day in the sun but we spent it mostly in the hot tub or lounging in our bathrobes...

We did get lucky with our hotel though. Eric and Kali were there for a business convention so we just got a room at the same hotel as them. Good choice. It was the Mandarin Oriental in the new CityCenter complex. Pros: it has only been open a year so is basically brand spankin' new and hasn't been run down by the hoards of people yet, the room was freaking AWESOME, and it has no casino. Also the spa looked INCREDIBLE (I say looked because I didn't actually go there but the next time I win the lottery I'll be sure to let you know how it is). Cons were that it was a wee bit snooty, as in the alleged dress-code in the lobby and other common areas (which are obviously not obeyed but just the fact that they exist is enough to make me gag). I'm guessing that most of the visitors don't even know about it, but I happen to be one of those hotel guests that reads all of the "literature" immediately upon arriving. Despite the snootiness though, most of the people there seemed genuinely friendly. All in all, the rooms were spectacular, but Kali and I agreed that next time we're more likely to stay at the Aria next door which is just as new/nice but a lot more inviting and youthful.

But like I said...that room was heaven. So much so that I was inspired to take photos. Upon entering was what I called "the closet hall". It was really nice having a separate space for all your bags so the inevitable piles of clothes didn't end up in the bed area. Also...the coolest thing. There was a "valet cabinet", which is that very first tall door on the right. So if you order room service or need your clothes pressed or something, you put it in that cabinet and then the hotel employees have a special key that opens it from the outside. And they ring a bell when they put something in it. So if you're just hanging out in your unmentionables at 2 in the morning but you decide you need a piece of pie ASAP...no wardrobe change required!! I think its just brilliant.

A little further into the room and you pass the bathroom, complete with awesome tub and bath salts, and hidden mirror/TV. Yes that's right, hidden mirror/TV. If you look closely at the left side of the mirror there is a darker rectangle...that is a small TV hidden in the mirror positioned just perfectly for someone lounging in the bathtub! I approve. You can't see it in this photo but there was also a separate shower and well, a toilet...

On the other side of the bathroom, the bed and lounging area. Very nice. Andy was having a good time controlling everything (lights, curtains, etc.) all with the TV remote.

And on the opposing wall was a desk and TV.

And finally...the view out the window.

To sum up the activities of the trip I would have to say...eating and shopping. On the first night, Andy I were stumbling about when we just happened upon Sur la Table, one of the most fabulous kitchen stores in existence. And not only that, but it was having a moving sale. Yes, that's right, every single item in there was 50% off!!! I already have regrets about not buying more...but I found that its actually quite stressful to spontaneously find yourself in that kind of a clearance situation. Had I known...I would have spent weeks in preparation!! It was quite pathetic really, I waited in the checkout line for like 20 minutes due to the hoards of people spending hundreds of dollars all to spend $30 on a set of Japanese dishes. But I do love them so! Then on the last day we took a trip to the outlet mall and stocked up on some wardrobe basics. I don't know where my wardrobe would be without the J.Crew outlet! Good times.

In the food category...one meal in particular really stands out. Carnevino. Literal translation...Meatwine. YES. :P We all know I like the Iron Chefs, and Mario Batali is no exception. Last time we ate at Bobby Flay's place, and this time I secretly wanted to eat at Carnevino but I didn't think it was likely considering the prices. But...when one of the Corliss's business vendors offered to treat the group to dinner...well you know what my suggestion was! Teeheehee. And we did not hold back...ribeye steaks all around, first courses of pasta and caprese salads, inordinate amounts of wine, and of course dessert. And no it was not the wine speaking...that really was the best chocolate cake I've ever had in my life!!! :D

Of course a few images of the infamous meal...yes, this wine glass was basically the size of my head (which as you know is quite large itself).

The wine sloshing around in enormous goblets taken in conjunction with huge chunks of meat attached to enormous bones really had me feeling like we were back in midieval times...

Of course we did eat other meals as well. The other one we (as in Kali and I along with our slightly less enthusiastic side-kicks) were really looking forward to was Bouchon Bistro. It was tasty, but I've decided that I'm not particularly wild about French food. I do recall the dessert being very yummy (duh), and it was interesting to hear about how the chef/owner had installed closed circuit television in the restaurant so no matter where he was he could monitor the activity in the kitchen.

Here we are just outside of Bouchon, in the Venetian.

Afterwards we wandered around and around...

...and ended up having a nightcap at a pub near our hotel. I tried the "Fruit and Chocolate" beer flight. Something about "flights" of things gets me all giddy and excited. There was raspberry beer, apple beer, apricot beer, and of course chocolate beer. The raspberry was my favorite.

And I guess that was about it! Friday morning we hit the road for part two of our journey...Torrey, Utah!! Until next time Vegas!

Stress Management

2011-05-05T22:27:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile, blog. I was really on a roll there for awhile. And then I went on vacation and when I returned it was study season again. No more reading books, no more fancy meals (ok, maybe there have been a few), no more blogging. I am actually in crunch-time mode right now because my exam is on Tuesday, but frankly, I'm feeling a little burned out. Ok, a lot burned out. I figured I could squeeze ten minutes in tonight to vent and share a few stories.

Like I said, I went on vacation. Full length post to follow...someday. And I did get to go to Chicago again for another exam-prep seminar. For a four day actuarial seminar, it was pretty fun. And I managed to work out a few times at the hotel gym...which I'm pretty sure is a first for me. My new workout regimen is the one thing that I have refused to sacrifice over the last few months. If I have nothing else going for me but an awesome husband (the best in the world, actually) and my new workout regimen...well, life can't be that bad.

Once my exam is over I'm looking forward to the following: preparing meals other than Campbell's soup, shopping for home decor and perhaps a new springtime outfit, gardening, getting back to my book list, getting my hair done, and having a clean house (note I am not necessarily looking forward to actually cleaning it...). I've actually been relieved that the weather around here has been crappy because that would have only made my exam resentment grow worse. Its much easier to study when its hailing outside.

Now, of course we have been doing a few things for relaxation to keep our sanity around here. Once our brains are sufficiently fried each night, Andy and I allow ourselves an episode or two of whatever our current show is. I recently blogged about my mourning over the end of West Wing, but was going to give Aaron Sorkin's other show, Sports Night a shot. TERRIBLE. Andy taught me never to judge a show by the pilot alone, but we just couldn't make it through two episodes. Then we discovered Brothers & Sisters. YES. And I promise it has nothing to do with Rob Lowe (although that never hurts...). And the good news is...its still airing! No end in sight!

Other little things that have kept me going in my moments of despair are a few of my new favorite blogs. In case you care to check them out, they are: Heart of Light and Young House Love. And the inspiration for this post is actually a video I saw today that had my crying I was laughing so hard. I would like to have it on the blog in case I ever need to watch it again...

Well, I should wrap it up, but I look forward to blogging again soon! Wish me luck next week. :)

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2011-03-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

When I started posting book reviews on my blog I didn't intend for them to take over! I guess it will be motivation for me to keep up on the non-book related posts as well...

Mel gave me this book for my birthday and it was a pretty good read! A historical novel about a small circus in the 1930s era. It had some dark moments, but overall it was a nice easy, enjoyable, and interesting read. I hear a movie is coming out which I will surely see.

Weekend Report

2011-03-20T20:05:00.000-07:00

This weekend has been a little busy for my taste (busy with work and studying...not playing), but we managed to squeeze in some fun too.

Friday night my oldest brother and his family were in town so we went out to dinner and played Farkle. Too bad Casey was in CA or I could have gotten a nice pic of all of the Barnett men. Next time...

Saturday was mainly full of studying but I did get a break to head to Provo for the first planning event for my 10 year high school reunion that will be happening next summer. Can't believe it! The meeting was fun though and it got me pretty excited.

Today has been filled with catching up on work and yes, more studying. I did have a serious pick-me-up though while I was putting away laundry and I found $80 dollars in my pajama drawer!!! Yes, 8-0!!! Talk about the coolest random finding of money EVER. I have absolutely no idea when or how it got there...and part of me thinks I must have put it there for a reason...but why? Oh well, whatever the reason is, it has been long forgotten because its in my wallet now!!! Hehehe.

But the coolest thing that happened today was Andy's handy-man skills. He got a circular saw for Christmas and ever since then he's been talking about making some stairs for Lucy to get up to her "perch." Her perch is this small table we cover in blankets where she likes to hang out all day while I'm working in the office. It props her up eye-level with the window and she just sits there all day napping and keeping an eye on the neighborhood. She discovered it when Andy was playing with her one day and put her up there to be funny and ever since she always wants to be there. The only problem is that she needs help getting up. Not anymore!! I'm seriously so impressed that he could just whip up some stairs like that! I guess I'll have to start thinking of some other projects... ;)

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

2011-03-13T22:06:00.000-07:00

What are there, three movies based on this novel? I've only seen the Will Smith version, which I thought was very good. I would love to see all of them eventually. I really enjoyed the book...I venture to put it in my top 10. It is very short, maybe only 100 pages or so, and very thrilling, but quite different from the movie (Will Smith version) in that it is more about the psychological effects of basically being the last human on Earth. I highly recommend.

The Big 27

2011-03-10T22:50:00.000-08:00

Well, this past weekend it happened. I entered my late twenties. But when I start to feel bad about it just remember that ten years ago I was still a teenager...and then it doesn't seem so bad. It also helps that tons of my friends lately have been celebrating the much bigger 3-0 so the fact that I still have YEARS of 20s left seems like a real treasure. :)

Usually I'm one of those people who has something planned weeks in advance and gets all excited for events and festivities, but this year I was feeling pretty relaxed about the whole thing. Maybe its because I was so busy in February that I really just wanted to relax and hang out. Andy of course spoiled me with gifts and attention but that just goes with out saying, right? In case you didn't know, he is a keeper. :P

We did meet up with friends on Saturday night and it ended up being a really great time. We started out going to the Copper Onion for dinner with some of the usual suspects.

And then met up for drinks with more of the usual suspects.

And then we were supposed to go to improv comedy but were just having so much fun that we scrapped those plans and stayed right there at Gracies until the wee hours of the morn (you know it ended on the dance floor....:P). It was truly a good time!

Sunday was my actual birthday and I enjoyed it with sleeping in, laying around watching movies, and finally meeting up with my fam for a yummy calzone dinner at Gepetto's. Perfecto!

Thanks to everyone who helped make it a special day/weekend! And that includes all of the nice Facebook wall posts that I've very much come to look forward to each year. :)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

2011-03-10T22:03:00.000-08:00

I am so glad I'm done with these books!!! I really didn't enjoy them very much. I didn't even know what they were about when I began but they seemed to be all the rage. Now that I've read them I honestly can't be sure why they were all the rage. The first book took so long to get going but for some reason I stuck with it and it did get kind of page-turning in the second half. I decided at that point I wasn't going to continue with the series as I didn't particularly enjoy some of the subject matter and I was moderately annoyed by the writing. But then I had a hard time finding another book and I knew that I could get the rest of the series at any moment for free on my nook (love the library!) so I started the second one. The second one I thought was a lot better, although was still riddled with way too much detail, ramblings on, and what I can only describe as product placement. Does that really happen in books? I can find no other explanation for why the author would ramble on about IKEA and iBooks to such an extent. The third book was over 500 pages long and I'm pretty sure would have been much better in half the pages. Anyway, for better or worse I read the whole series and am very much excited to read something else. Of course now that I've come this far I will probably also find myself compelled to watch at least the first movie. We'll see.

Seattle 2 - February 2011

2011-03-04T20:38:00.000-08:00

Man oh man, has it been a busy month or is it just me? I feel like I haven't had two seconds to think but it has been a lot of fun. As it would turn out, two weeks after my first Seattle trip this month I was back on the plane headed there again. Due to the timing of this trip I was only able to stay a little over 24 hours so it wasn't quite the same adventure as the first one, but I did have a really nice time and snapped a couple of pics.

Despite the very miserable weather I spent a few hours walking around Sunday afternoon, doing a little shopping. I only made one purchase, at Nordstrom of all places, but there's something about the flagship store that gets me all worked up inside... ;)

I ended up with these little babies, that I have been lusting after for quite some time and was finally able to justify as birthday present for myself. If I have to be in my late twenties, well I'll do it with some retro '80s flair! I was planning on going with the classic Tom Cruise black, but when I saw this style I knew...and oh how I love them so. More pics of them to come (on my face perhaps) in the sunny months ahead!

I continued my journey on foot all the way to Jevon's new condo in South Lake Union. Spectacular! Loved the style and loved that pretty much the entire west wall was covered in windows. Here is a pic I took of part of his view...

I relaxed with Jevon and Missy at the condo for awhile watching the Oscar's and then they took me out for a birthday dinner at Quinn's Pub in Capitol Hill. The food was extremely delicious and we tasted some very strange beers.

Then it was time to head back to the hotel as I had a very full work day to look forward to on Monday. And the next time I had the chance to blink I was back in SLC! As short as it was, I always love a trip to Seattle! :)

Green Eggs & Ham

2011-03-01T20:26:00.000-08:00

This weekend I bought these really exotic and expensive eggs from the market. This is what they looked like as I cooked them:

Just kidding!!! They are normal eggs. I was just messing around with my camera color settings again. I am so funny...

Here is what they really looked like.

And to bring it all together...the breakfast of champions.

Did I mention that a few weeks ago I successfully poached eggs? It was quite exciting (and delicious). We ate them on toast with avocado and Cholula. I can't believe I didn't take a photo.

I have been enjoying Saturdays so much lately. A little of this, a little of that. A little cooking, a little reading, a little studying, a little shopping, a little napping. You catch my drift. This Saturday we also got a little snow...

Hopefully we won't get much more of that!!

Julie and Julia by Julie Powell

2011-02-26T07:15:00.000-08:00

So, I've been reading more. And I like it. Yesterday I was asked by a colleague what were some good books I had recently read. And honestly I could not answer. I could tell him what I was currently reading, and I could tell him two of my favorite books (which I read years ago), but I could not tell him good books that I had read recently. Not because none of my recent reads were good, but because I honestly couldn't remember what I'd read recently. Of course I have an answer for him now that I've been thinking about it for a few hours, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't care any more. So this memory problem seems a bit odd and mildly concerning. I'll worry about that another day. For now I am going to start posting mini-book reviews on my blog as I read them.

So, here goes. Julie and Julia by Julie Powell.
Saw the movie when it came out and liked it. Tried to read the book last month and...not so much. She seems to have an attitude problem, and I get very annoyed with people with bad attitudes. Not only that, but the writing style didn't do much for me either. It made me realize that just because you can write a successful blog, does not mean you should write a book. The writing is totally different. On a blog it is acceptable to get lost on tangents. Do that too much in a book...just plain annoying. Anyway, my library e-book expired after 21 days and I was only about half-way done. I chose not to renew.

The one thing I did learn from the book is that I have no desire to cook French food. Most of the recipes she tried did not entice me in any way (except for boeuf bourguignon - I would like to try that one day).

Too bad I had to start my new book postings on a low note, but it really is the most recent book I've read (or tried to read). I'm into a new one now so hopefully that will be better. I'm also planning to review some old reads that are just too good to not post about. Kind of excited!

Happy Saturday everyone. :)

5 Years as a Working Stiff!

2011-02-21T23:11:00.000-08:00

Well, its official. I have worked at Mercer for five years. This brings me to a question: what differentiates a career from a job? Is it the type of job? Length of employment? Or is it just your attitude toward the job? I'm inclined to believe its that last option. Its all about perspective. The same "job" might be forever just a job to one guy, but a career to someone else. Although certainly some jobs are easily to see as careers than others...

Anyway, five years ago today (Feb 21st) I had my first day of full-time employment. At Mercer. In Seattle. And it was tough. I'd worked there the summer before, but this was definitely different and I remember that first day very clearly. I was living on my own, Andy lived two hours away in Bellingham, and there was no ending point. I was working with a lot of people I had not known during my internship and....well...somewhere in the last semester of school I seemed to have forgotten everything I even learned that summer before (unbeknown to my colleagues, of course). So to sum it up...I felt home-sick, alone, intimidated, and overwhelmed. But I made it and here I am five years later, still at it, and pretty much loving it. If things keep up I may just have a career on my hands (unless I get laid off tomorrow...in which case I withdraw the previous statement).

Five years is kind of special because 1) I'm now officially vested in my retirement benefits (as puny as they are at this point) and 2) I get a special 5-year anniversary bonus (don't get too excited, after tax it will be about enough to pay for a pair of jeans at the Rack...but hey, I'll gladly buy those jeans!!). I've worked a few jobs for four years, but this is my first time breaking five. And considering that those other "jobs" were typically 8-hours per week and this is 8+ hours a day...they aren't exactly comparable. As I see it, what better way to commemorate this momentous occasion than with an official spot on my blog and a walk down memory lane to see how it all got started...

So, before I launch into the story, a few basic facts: Mercer is a human resource and benefits consulting company (the global leader, if you must know...:P). There are many different practices within Mercer. I work for the Seattle office (remotely) in the Retirement, Risk & Finance practice. Us RRF folk are a unique breed. Most of us were math majors. Now most of us are actuaries. Its that "other" job for applied math majors who didn't want to continue going to school and then teach. What is an actuary you say? This is a big reason why I never talk about my job. NOBODY KNOWS WHAT IT IS. Not even those who I've repeatedly try to explain it to. After Googling it I've found a moderately concise definition:

An actuary is a professional who calculates financial values associated with uncertain events subject to risk, such as pension contributions or insurance premiums. A pension actuary is an expert on pension scheme assets and liabilities, life expectancy and probabilities, and calculates whether enough money is being paid into a pension to pay the benefits when they are due.
So you can bet that whenever there's a story about Social Security in the news, a retirement actuary has been consulted (hopefully). The nice thing about working in consulting (instead of insurance) is that I also get a lot of exposure to the business side, rather than just being a straight up number cruncher. Anyway, I could talk about it all day but I'm afraid that no one would read my blog again. :)

I will finish up by mentioning there are a few "pop-culture" actuaries out there...mostly in movies that don't exactly portray us in a good light. Jack Nicholson played a rather depressed, retired actuary in About Schmidt. Ben Stiller played a paranoid actuary in Along Came Polly. And I have had many arguments about whether the unnamed narrator/main character of Fight Club is an actuary. The answer is no, although whatever he does it is certainly related. Despite all of these terrible depictions, actuaries are regularly named the #1 career in America by various studies (CNN/Forbes/US News/etc.) based on factors like environment, job outlook, stress, and income. So, take that Tyler Durden!

I'd learned about Mercer and the field in general, when I was still but a freshman in college and they held a recruiting event at UPS. I'd just barely changed my major from english to math (could they be any different?!!) and I was determined to have a post-graduation game plan. At the time I thought it was a pipe-dream, but I basically had two years to get my resume together and make sure I was taking the right classes to prepare for a career in actuarial science. In other words, Mercer had me hook, line, and sinker...:)

So back to the story...I don't have very many pictures of me at work (does anybody?? other than models, of course...), but the ones I did find made me smile. Here I am in December 2005 about to head out for my interview in Seattle (for the internship). Don't I look spiffy? HATE my hair. Let's just say in 6 years of living in the Northwest my hair never did look quite right. Its ok though because I LOVE the shoes. I miss them...I think I had about 3 days to find a suitable ensemble which was tough on a college girl budget. But I think I did pretty good. As I recall, I returned the pants because after a few hours they had stretched to twice their size...and I still wear the shirt and jacket to a lot of my client meetings...still haven't ponied up the cash for a real suit. One of these days...;)I remember the day of that interview just as well as my first day of full-time (however I don't recall at all the first day of internship...how odd). I was uber-nervous not only for the interview but wondering how in the world I was going to get to it by 9AM, 40 miles away when I had no car (and at the time was totally clueless about public transportation). Andy's parents were nice enough to let me stay at their place so I could just take the ferry, which would spit me out right where I needed to be. I proceeded into the very scary and tall building known as One Union Square. The lobby smelled of bacon (which I would discover later is a regular thing thanks to the very delicious breakfast burrito cart on the ground floor), and up the long elevator ride to the 32nd floor, where I was greeted and then interviewed for three long hours by four different people, all of whom I still work with and are now some of my best buddies (Alison!!! from interviewer to wedding day coordinator...what a good story :P).

When it was all over I was EXHAUSTED. I somehow made it home and later that day Andy and I opened Christmas presents before I headed to Utah for winter break. I finally got called back in early February (yes, over a month later). And the rest is history...

Anyway, here is my very first cube. And probably my favorite. I only got it for the 3 months of my internship. I've had 6 cubes since then (not counting my office at home or my "guest" cubes when I visit the Seattle or Portland offices nowadays). One more in Seattle, one in Portland, and FOUR in Salt Lake City. My Seattle peeps put a limbo bar in front of the entrance on the last day of my internship. Very funny guys...
And here's me demonstrating my HP 12C calculator. I love that thing.
And here's a pic I took from the conference room of that first building. The Seattle office has since moved to a new building, but I will always consider this one home... :P
So I completed the internship, went back to Tacoma for my last semester and sometime around Thanksgiving got an offer for a full-time position. It was a pretty hard decision for me because by then I'd pretty much packed my bags to move back to Utah. I had nowhere to live after graduation but I knew I needed some time to decompress before entering the "real world". So I did move back to Utah for about a month or so....and then I turned right back around and moved up to Seattle. I know I've blogged all about that before so no need to do it again, other than saying...best decision EVER!!!

Back to the point! So I worked. And it was TOUGH. So much learning. Computer programs, and terminology, and business practices, and formulas, and client interaction skills, and time management, and so much more. It was painful at times being so clueless and having everyone around you knowing so much more and expecting you to know so much more. And honestly, even five years later that feeling continues, just on different things. Just as I master one concept, I am assigned a new and different type of project. It can be overwhelming at times, but on the other hand, it is the continual learning that keeps it from becoming monotonous. At least at this point I know what some of the words mean... :P

So to make a long story short...I am so grateful for all of the learning and experiences I've had as a result of my work, and most definitely all of the wonderful people I've had the opportunity to work alongside and call my friends. Its crazy for me to look back and see how each of these decisions has had an unimaginable impact for good on my life. Cheers to the last five years!!! :)

Seattle - February 2011

2011-02-19T16:00:00.000-08:00

The best thing about the flight from Portland, OR to Seattle, WA? 35 minutes gate to gate. The worst thing? PROP plan!! GULP. It is large for a prop plane (maybe an 80 seater), but even still, for someone who dreads flying those 35 minutes feel pretty darn long. Especially when you sit down and hear those infamous words from the pilot "due to the expected turbulence we're going to ask the flight attendants to remain seated for the duration of the flight." Double GULP. I've taken this flight several times now but it never gets easier. Its a palm sweater for sure.
ANYWAY, the flight turned out to not be that bad (as usual) although it was 20 minutes late to take off which is a bit of a drag when its only 35 minutes long and you've got a ferry to catch on the other side. So once I got to Seattle I decided to catch a cab instead of light railing it (saving me probably 20 minutes) and the decision paid off when I was still able to catch the 6:20 to Bainbridge with Alison.

Usually when I visit Seattle for work it is a whirlwind of a trip, I usually only stay one night, and hardly get to see anyone including a majority of my co-workers. This time I went another route. I didn't have to be there until meetings on Thursday, but rather than stay in a hotel I stayed with a friend, allowing me to take my sweet time and perhaps enjoy myself a bit. And it couldn't have worked out better especially since I was already up in Portland.

I'd been wanting to try it this way for awhile now as it has been close to 4 years since I left the Seattle office and I think I'd worked out of there a total of maybe 10 days since then. It seems like half of the retirement practice has been newly hired in that time, and I just feel like it is part of my duty as a permanent remote worker to show my face every now and then and remind everyone that I'm still a contributing member of the office. One thing I've learned in my job is that face-time, even if rare, is an important part of maintaining relationships. And so I did, and I think it went really well. I was able to get to know several of the new analysts and spend time with a lot more colleagues than usual, including some that I don't always work with on a day to day basis. Mission accomplished!

So, back to the story. Alison and Chris have a great home on Bainbridge Island and they were kind enough to let me stay a few nights and commute with them to/from work (Alison is a fellow Mercerite). It was a lot longer commute than I'm used to (you know...10-15 seconds from kitchen to home office), but it was a blast! Even when I lived in Seattle I never got to ride the ferry too regularly and the novelty of it all is still going strong. I didn't take this picture but for all the Utahns reading this, it gives you an idea...
Bainbridge Island is an incredible place. Only 30 minutes from Downtown Seattle but it feels worlds away because of the seclusion. It really feels like a small town. Well, a small town with amazing food and shopping. My kind of place! It is absolutely breathtaking (and of course I took no photos of it).

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that Alison is one of the BEST cooks I have had the pleasure of knowing. Every meal I've ever had there has been incredible, and between the two of them they really know how to wine and dine their friends. It is quite a treat. :) I was greeted upon arrival with yet another amazing feast. If they aren't careful I'm going to start visiting once a month! :P Anyway, whenever Alison and I get together we usually chat nonstop for about two hours before anything else can happen. This night was no exception and as usual, it was a blast. We chatted the night away until it was bedtime. I slept SOOOO well every single night I was there. I don't know if it was the bed, or the quiet, or what, but it felt AMAZING.

Its incredible how fast I can get ready when held to a schedule. I was under strict instructions that to catch the ferry to work we needed to leave the house no later than 6:40AM. And I did it! That includes hair washing and a blow dry and waking up at 5:55! I was very impressed with myself. It really wasn't that hard to wake up so early, probably because I slept so well (and I guess with the time change its really only an hour earlier than normal). We would head out just as the sun was beginning to come up and it was so beautiful. I got lucky with fantastic (albeit a bit chilly) weather most of the time, and it was an absolute reminder of all the things I love about Washington...the water, the fog, the trees. It was impossible to start the day off in a bad mood! Here are some pics I took from the deck of the boat as we pulled out.
This last one is pretty hard to see through the fog, but its a shot back at the dock and you can see another ferry in the distance. Very magical if you ask me...
The people who commute daily on the ferry are part of a unique subculture. I know you're all amazed that I am spending so much time talking about a mode of public transportation but I find the whole thing to be so fascinating and I loved being a part of it for a week. At peak times, the bathrooms are packed with businesswomen putting on their make-up and doing their hair. All of the regulars know each other and sit in the same spot every day. The Lums have their routine down to a science. Chris rides his bike on while Alison and I trekked on foot from the car, and once we were settled in we dined on cereal, croissants or yogurt, all of which they had packed up before we left. All while enjoying beautiful views of the Puget Sound! Such a way to start the morning.
The silhouette of Seattle at sunrise.
Arriving in Seattle we split ways with Chris as Alison and I started the brisk walk to Rainier Tower, passing many tempting shops along the way. Our building is unmistakable because it is the only one that is actually more narrow at the base. We would get in just before 8:00.
At lunch time I wandered down to Pike Place Market, one of my most favorite places in the world. When I lived near there I would go at least once a week, and its one of the things I miss most. If only I'd had a blog back then! I love seeing the people who work there, and the produce, flowers, and fish, and all the neat things they are selling. This time I had a specific goal in mind. I'd often regretted never buying art from the local artists, but now I finally had a home much in need of decor, so I finally did it. I've had a favorite watercolor artist there for awhile (Michael Eberhardt), and I got really lucky this time because he was there that day so I got to chat for a few minutes while selecting some pieces.

Here's a photo of the cheese-making at Beecher's Handmade Cheese Shop, where I treated myself to lunch. Or actually, where Mercer treated me to lunch. Thanks Mercer! :)
On the way back to Bainbridge that evening I had a chance to snap a few more photos at a perfect time of day, and experiment with my camera a bit more.

This first setting is supposed to make things look miniature but you have to be in just the right setting to get a good effect. I think it turned out ok in these shots, but I love the saturated color that the effect also provides.
And with such lovely sunset colors, it was a perfect time to do those shots with only one color. I totally love these.

Yellow.
Pink.
Purple.
I was so happy to spend a few days in the area and have the chance to actually tell people I was in town for once! A lot of Andy's family also lives on the west side of the Puget Sound and so we met up on Bainbridge on Tuesday night for a Godsey Girls Night Out. Andy's mom and four of my sisters-in-law met up with me for dinner at San Carlos Grill. Its still almost an hour drive for everyone to meet at Bainbridge, but I was so glad they wanted to. It was a blast hanging out and getting to spend some time with family. We had some good laughs, as usual. I'm so glad I got sisters out of the deal when I married Andy (I love my brothers-in-law too, but I'm so excited to have sisters!). I'd grown up always thinking I wanted two kids, but getting to know Andy's family and seeing how much fun they have I recently changed my mind and decided I want four (still a far cry from the Godsey nine...but still). Andy however, isn't budging from two. We will see...I guess we'll just start with one and see how that goes. ;)

As you can see, Nicole is expecting a baby this summer. We are all super excited!
The next day was also action packed. I had lunch with a few co-workers at Mod Pizza, a brilliant little place that makes personal size pizzas with any and all toppings you want for about $6. We even ordered online before we left so our pizzas were ready when we got there. And they were seriously delicious!

That night a bunch of friends met me for Happy Hour at Sazerac. This place is going on the list of faves for sure. Happy Hour goes until 8PM and the menu was fantastic! My favorite had to have been the dates, stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped in smoked bacon, and drizzled with a balsamic reduction. AMAZING. I also had my first experience with beef tartar as well as a whole anchovy. And the lemon drops were delicious! The only thing that made me happier than the menu was the company. Its so nice when you can get together with old friends you haven't seen in months and just pick right up where you left off. Thanks guys for an awesome time. :)
I attempted to take some photos of Seattle at night on the way home but with not much success. As you can see here, the short exposures are just lame, and the long exposures aren't exactly doable on a moving boat...
Thursday was jam packed full of meetings so I lunched at the office with the team. After work, Chris, Alison, and I were ready for a relaxing night in and ordered take-out from Sawatdy's on Bainbridge. Alison had worked there for years during high school and college, and they also catered their wedding, so I knew it was a must-try while on the island. And yes, it was DELISH. I remembered the crab/cheese wontons from the wedding so of course we got those, as well as yellow curry, sweet and sour prawns, and one garlicky noodle dish. I seriously loved them all. Of all of the Asian cuisines (and possibly all cuisines in general), I do believe that Thai is my favorite. Yum.

Afterwards, Alison informed me that it was time I experience the phenomenon known as Glee. Up to that point I'd only caught a few clips and frankly...I was a bit weirded out by what I saw. But she got me started on the right track with the very first episode...and I loved it!! We watched two and I could have kept watching all night. Looks like we'll be adding a new show to the queue...

And just like that it was Friday. One more day at work and time to head home. But of course, I did get one more yummy meal out thanks to Natalie's birthday! We went to Palomino and I had a very delicious salad that I'm already planning to [attempt to] recreate in my own kitchen. It was mixed greens with fresh pear, gorgonzola, walnuts, and an ever so slightly sweet maple vinaigrette. Very well done if I may say so myself.

And of course what trip to Seattle is complete without a Black & White cookie from Specialty's? Without a moment's hesitation, this is my favorite cookie in the world. I must not be alone because I found several pictures of it online that other bloggers had taken, including this one...YUUUUUUUMMY.
A few short hours later and I was on my way home. It was such a great trip! Another big thank you to everyone involved.

Of course I was very excited to get home and spend some time with these two, whom I had missed very much...

Portland - February 2011

2011-02-13T16:31:00.000-08:00

The last 10 days or so have been action packed. January was a nice calm month to settle in to the new year, but as soon as February hit its been crazy crazy crazy. Luckily in a good way. We decided to spend Super Bowl weekend in Portland visiting and hanging out. It did not disappoint.

I did a lot of experimentation with different photo settings so I apologize in advance that some of the photos are sub-par. It was worth it though because by the end of the trip I'd figured out how to use some really cool modes!

Anyway, we got in on Friday morning and went straight to our respective offices. After getting a little work done a bunch of my favorite Portland office Mercerites (ok, some of them are ex-Mercerites...) went out for pizza at Rovente Pizzeria. It was pretty good and VERY filling. I really indulged with a Cherry Coke. Mmmmm. I tried taking a pic with the crew but my camera died. :( Needless to say, it was really nice getting to spend time with some of my peeps.

We were staying with Greg for the weekend and that night a few of his friends were celebrating their birthdays so we got to spend a night on the town in a few very interesting spots on the east side. First we ate BBQ (my fave!) at Russell Street BBQ. The pulled pork, all the various side dishes, and the "fried pie" were quite delicious and again, very filling. I think you will see that very filling meals were a common theme of the trip...lets just say I won't be weighing myself until I get a good solid week in at the gym. ;)
From there we met up with the birthday crew at the Space Room Lounge. It was as cool as it sounds and I'm kicking myself now for not taking a photo or two. Luckily I found some on the great and vast interweb that kind of show the gist of things. The ceiling was decorated with tiny lights to look like stars, and though it was relatively dark you could see the neon glow on all of the walls of murals made to look as though an alien invasion had taken place and everything was deserted. Then randomly, there were various games scattered around on the tables...we ended up in a game of Outburst. Good times. Only Portland could come up with a place like this.
Before we called it a night we hit another quirky spot...Chopsticks Express. It was jam packed with people for Friday late-night karaoke. It was one of those places that has photos of previous guests plastered all over the walls...and once we found a table we were just looking around a bit and there was a photo right there of Greg and Isabelle from New Year's Eve. They must be cool. :) The highlight of this stop was a super cool guy who did an awesome rendition of "Let's Dance"...guess you had to be there.

So Friday was a very fun night. We slept in on Saturday and then set out for Super Bowl party prep after breakfast and coffee at Grand Central Bakery. There I drank the most yummy mocha I can ever remember having. I also had a breakfast sammy. It tasted good, but even more than that, it LOOKED incredible!!!
Three grocery stores and a nap later and you guessed it...dinner time!! I had a pretty tasty burger at The Old Market Pub & Brewery. The place was pretty cool...much cooler than the website that's for sure.

That night Greg hosted game night, a few friends came over and we all settled in for at least three rounds of Bang plus one game of Trivial Pursuit, 80's edition (Andy and I were definitely the losers of that one...).
And then, at long last, Super Bowl Sunday had arrived. Don't be fooled, I actually couldn't care less about any football game, but I do love a good party. Isabelle was definitely the MVP of this party...first by making the meanest (and most delicious) Bloody Mary I've had in quite some time. Then she made these...
Now don't be fooled. These are not donuts. In fact, they are full-sized donut cakes, with filling. They were SOOOOO good. There was strawberry (real pureed strawberries baked in, I might add) with cream cheese filling, and Kahlua/Bailey's chocolate with chocolate pudding filling. OMG. :)I took the easy road and got Costco jalapeno artichoke dip for my contribution. Anyway, the party was a lot of fun. I got a chance to catch up with Rachel on the joys of wedding planning. And I don't care what everyone says, I enjoyed the half-time show. Fergie does it for me, what can I say?

The game also gave me a great opportunity to do some photo experimenting. One of the settings allows me to pick one color and that camera will only show that color and everything else will be black and white.

So here we have green...
And red...
Pretty cool. I could definitely have some fun with this given the right setting. Anyway, then we just hung out for a little bit and before we knew it, it was Monday morning and time for work. I managed to snap a pic of some of my other favorite Portland food spots...the food carts!!
And lucky for us we got to spend lunch in some very good company. :)
We lunched at one of our favorites, the Blue Plate Diner. I SWEAR I have already mentioned this restaurant on the blog before, but I can't find it (I can find however, the Salt Lake Blue Plate Diner which is very different). I've eaten there so many times I guess it doesn't hurt to have another mention. Anyway, this place is super cool. Love the food and the atmosphere. I usually get the Northwest Sliders and Andy and I ALWAYS share the chocolate peanut-butter shake. Later in the week I learned that Andy's mom does not like chocolate mixed with peanut butter. CRAZY!!!!! :)

After a few more hours of work and we were on the Max headed for the airport. Andy was going home, I was going to Seattle for a few more days of fun. You'd better believe you'll be hearing all about it on the next post! Portland was so much fun and I'm very glad we decided to go. Thanks again Greg for being an awesome host, as usual!

Happy Birthday Dad!

2011-01-30T20:41:00.001-08:00

This past week my dad turned the big 6-0. We all think its a bit weird. But it's quite the milestone no matter how you look at it. And we had BIG party to celebrate. We had around 60 people show up and we had dinner, cake, drinks, and dancing.
And we had party beads (if you know my dad...you know why). Casey was in charge of making sure everyone got some.
I should also mention that the party was a surprise. The first surprise party I've ever planned I'm pretty sure. That last hour was pretty darn stressful. The conversation between my mom and I went something like this about every 5 minutes "has he left work yet? is he en route? where is he? what if he recognizes our cars? how will he know to go upstairs? how are we going to know when he's here?" Anyway, when it was all said and done it couldn't have gone any better. He was definitely surprised.

I didn't quite catch the moment on camera, but here is a few seconds later.
We were at the Point After, which is a sports bar/restaurant really close to my parents house so its become one of their hangouts in recent years. We had the whole upstairs to ourselves. Tons of family and my dad's friends were there, from all different times of life. It was pretty cool.
We had ordered a buffet dinner for everyone that was pretty tasty, and we had my dad's favorite flavor of cake. Vanilla with vanilla icing and vanilla filling. If we'd had ice cream, it would have been vanilla too. But we didn't.
Here he is after we all sang Happy Birthday.
And a nice family shot.
It was around 9:30 that the dinner phase was over and the dancing phase began. This also meant we had to share our area with the other bar patrons because the official Saturday night DJ had arrived. This also marks the point in the evening when I had my first bar fight. Ok ok, so more like my first bar verbal altercation. Yes, I will share the story, but it will be difficult using blog friendly language (mostly in the description of my opponent).

So there was this girl. She was a serious B-word, if you know what I mean. So Casey and I started noticing her lurking about around 9 o'clock. We wondered if she was an employee because we kept seeing her talking to the manager and the kitchen guys, and we noticed she was helping them clear away the buffet area just as the DJ was arriving. Well, no, she is not an employee. Apparently she's just a crazy twenty-something bar dweller that is very possessive of her turf and wanted to know why she wasn't being allowed onto HER dance floor until 9:30.

So we had all of the pieces of uneaten cake sitting on individual plates on one table towards to front of the room. It is important to note here that there are at least three other empty tables around the room and all of our coats and purses are hanging around this one. Somehow she decides that this is her table and she walks up with a garbage can and starts throwing entire plates of uneaten cake into the trash one by one. Little does she know, Lindsay "Passive Aggressive" Barnett Godsey is standing not three feet away at the next table. So I whip around with a very sassy "WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING???!" My inner B-word was officially tapped. This doesn't happen very often (as far as I know), but when it does it is quite a sight to see. Anyway, we screamed at each other for about 10 seconds and I seriously considering throwing a piece of cake in her face, but luckily her friends persuaded her to go to another table. The waitress proceeded to give her a good old-fashioned talking to. Apparently she didn't realize it was her against me and 60 of my friends. Good thing the music was on and I don't think anybody apart from my table even knows it happened. I honestly don't know what her deal was. Serious entitlement problems, among others I'm sure. She was one classy lady. Strangely, cake-girl stuck around most of the night so I had to keep glaring at her against Andy's wishes. The whole thing was quite exhilarating.

ANYWAY, the night wore on and slowly my dad's friends started trickling away and were replaced by Casey's friends. We continued to dance the night away.

This is what happens when you get all four Barnetts on the dance floor at once. I think my dad is having some kind of religious experience.
You might notice at this juncture that there is a pole in the middle of the dance floor. You might be thinking "how awkward" or "who in their right mind would try a stunt on that thing while surrounded by others, especially their FAMILY??" I assure you that no one is safe from the allure of the dance pole after three hours of dancing. NO ONE. Except Andy. But that's ok because he took pictures.

And here is just a small sampling of the photographic evidence.
It would appear Big Mike really got some air.
At one point we decided it was a good idea to all take a swing on it at the same time...
Well, we pretty much shut the place down. After we danced we took turns on the punching bag machine to see who had the best follow through. I did surprisingly well.
And then we headed home. Events took a turn south when I arrived home to discover that Lucy had destroyed a beautiful pair of brown leather Mary Janes that had been purchased not hours before. She's gotten a lot better about not chewing random items considering she's still a wee pup, but I was just asking for it to leave out leather shoes...that's a mistake that will NEVER be made again.

Anyway, all in all it was a pretty cool night and I think my dad and everyone else had a really good time. Happy Birthday Dad!!! :)

Out and About in Salt Lake: Coffee Shops & Bakeries

2011-01-05T18:26:00.000-08:00

Its been awhile since I've reported on my wanderings about town, but I assure you the wanderings continue. Lately Andy and I have been trying new bakeries/cafes for brunch and/or a midday treat on the weekends and we've found some real goodies. There are still many places waiting to be tried but I have to get these out before my head explodes!

Carlucci's Bakery & Cafe - this place is conveniently located right across from the Downtown Farmer's Market which happens during the summer, and right next door to the amazing Italian market Caputo's, so what better way to start the weekend with a fresh ham and cheese croissant at Carlucci's followed by shopping for even more fresh awesomeness to sustain you through the weekend? This assumes of course that you aren't planning on devouring any of the delectables at the markets themselves, which is in my case is certainly not the case. Carlucci's was pretty cool though and in addition to breakfast and coffee they had the prettiest cakes and cookies! I will keep in mind for my next special event. And I must add that I am thrilled to announce that a second location of Caputo's has opened within walking distance from my house! I see bounties of pasta and cannoli in my future...
Tulie Bakery - this is a more modern place in the 9th and 9th area and I LOVED it. Definitely a good place to stop if you have a sweets craving as I'm not sure they had many savory options. I believe I had an almond croissant and a vanilla soy latte, which are my staples at any good bakery and I wasn't let down. This place is also on my list for next time I need a special occasion cake (as you can imagine I have many more places on this list than reasons for buying one...). There are a lot of other cools shops and stops near Tulie's but I'll have to save them for another day.
Banbury Cross Donuts - I've never felt particularly strongly about donuts but being as I've driven past this place no less than 500 times and I've only heard wonderful things I had to give it a shot. Its a pretty simple coffee-and-donut kind of place but I can attest that their famous cinnamon donut is quite scrumptious. Also it was refreshing to get a half dozen donuts (it wasn't just Andy and I, OK?!!) for under $10. If you are a donut-nut (hahaha), I stumbled upon this blog while googling for a Banbury website (which doesn't seem to exist). All donuts, all the time. Kinda cool.
Salt Lake City Roasting Company - yes the coffee is good. But what I think about the most is the ham and cheese croissant. Man its good. One day I will be able to try one of the many other yummy-looking baked goods. And the place is pretty cool itself located right next to the Downtown Library with two levels and lots of good people watching. And as with any high quality coffeehouse, it has free wifi.
Red Moose Coffee Company: this is one of Andy and I's newest favorites. Its pretty close to our house so we love to go there on Sunday morning and relax in the "lodge" surrounded by up-close photos of bears and moose and the like. So far every item we've had is delicious from the ham and cheese croissant, breakfast burrito with homemade pico, pumpkin muffins, and all of the creative Sunday morning specials. Yum!
Sugarhouse Coffee - ok so I haven't actually tried the food here yet, but the coffee is good and the place is just so gosh darn cool that I had to add it to my list. They have an art gallery and live music pretty much every night. I'm willing to bet the food's good too and don't you worry I will find out eventually!
Les Madeleines - oh man I think this is one of my faves. Its a cute little place tucked behind the library next to an an antique shop. The pastries and desserts are amazing and the egg sandwich is awesome. And the beignets and the panna cotta and the tarts, the list goes on! The Food Network even stopped by to feature their Kouing Aman which is kind of like a croissant in that it is soft and gooey on the inside but it has a carmelized toffee on the outside giving it more of a sweet crunch. They are good...
Gourmandise - I've been to this place only for dessert a couple of times now and I've decided that I'm just not that into it. Everything is super sweet and they have too many weird things that I have zero interest in trying (like 5 different kinds of bread pudding). They do have one thing going for them though which is that they're open until something like 11PM.

Pierre's Country Bakery - I'm finding I'm running out of things to say about bakeries...anyway, this is a little french place that I certainly enjoy stopping at if we're headed nearby. :)

I was about to put Bad Ass Coffee on the list but then I deemed it unworthy because it is a nationwide franchise...and if ever a coffee franchise were to make it on the list it would be Tully's, if for no other reason than they sell the same pastries as Diversions Cafe (where I worked for 4 years) and they have the most spectacular mocha Oreo shake that could ever be imagined (I generally blame this shake for my freshman 15...well that and the chocolate fluff at the SUB). Anyway, they don't even have Tully's in the state of Utah so clearly I'm just rambling now...adios!

First post of 2011!!

2011-01-01T18:28:00.000-08:00

So here I am to pick up where I left off last night on my toast to the new year. Since then I have been reminded of one other favorite thing from 2010...

If you haven't seen it yet on Andy's blog, here is the best video of the year:

Lucy's Day Off from Andy Godsey on Vimeo.

It also came to my attention that I never talk about my work on the blog, despite the fact that it occupies an enormous amount of my time and energy. So surely it should be featured in some way or another if the blog is to even remotely give an accurate representation of my life. I will have to think about that...suffice to say on this my annual goal setting post, that I ~~have~~ get to set up a bunch of goals for work every year too at this time so just because they aren't here doesn't mean they don't exist!

So...now for the resolutions. I've got to warn you, this isn't going to be very exciting. The fact of the matter is that I must write them down or there is no way I will remember them throughout the year. And the best place to write them down is here. So exciting or not, it must be done. It must!

Around this time I like to do a "personal inventory" of sorts where I look at all the different aspects of my life and see which of them I have interest in developing during the year. Sometimes I like to learn new things or hobbies. Last year I kept it simple with one important goal. All I said was I wanted to cook more. That I have done. I think I actually had advance meal planning in mind, which as I mentioned before still isn't really a strength of mine, but I still consider the resolution a success because instead I found a system that works for me. This year I want to focus on solidifying some good habits. This means I have a pretty comprehensive list, but hopefully none of them require such a dramatic change that I shouldn't be able to work on them all at once.

Here goes...

Lucy: this year I would like to make progress on Lucy's off-leash training. Specifically I would like to be able to call her in an open environment with other dogs and have her consistently obey. We often will take her to the park to run around but getting her back on the leash can be quite a challenge. We've recently started training on this and as a good omen for the year, today was the first time ever she has come when called at a park with other dogs. Off to a good start!

Home maintenance: in the last two years of home ownership I have learned about some things outside of the usual chore list that need to be taken care of for maintenance and well, some of these things don't always get done in a timely manner (changing various filters, cleaning the outside of the house, conditioning the leather couch, etc). In the last few days I've set up a calendar to make sure everything gets done when it should. Not very exciting, but necessary.

Yard work: okay, so this year our yard hit an all time low. The lawn was practically dead, apparently because Andy and I didn't have the mental wherewithal to water it. So not only do I hope to keep it alive this year but I would like to landscape the front yard with some nice plants.

Physical Health: this category is on a maintenance plan in 2011 since I'm actually doing pretty good right now. Keep up the healthy cooking, keep up the exercising. Last night Andy and I were in the right place at the right time and we were able to sign up with a team for the Camp Pendleton Mud Run in June. It sold out in a matter of hours! I'm very excited and think this will be a great way to make sure we keep fitness as a priority throughout the year. I don't want to let my team down!

Emotional/Mental Health: I feel weird having this as a category and I don't want anyone thinking I'm a total nutcase, but it is a very important part of life and something that must be carefully maintained! As I mentioned yesterday, I suffer from excessive worry warting and it is something I would like to work on in conjunction with being able to maintain a positive attitude. I'm going to try a few different ways of tackling this so we'll see how it goes.

Budgeting: With Andy in school and just having bought a new car, it seems we have a lot of bills lately. So I'm going to set up a budget to make sure we're saving and putting the money where it needs to be. No fun but it will feel good to get rid of some of the debt.

Random 1: I really want to start remembering to use my reusable grocery bags! I have like six of them and I ALWAYS forget to bring them into the store with me. I'm one of those people who has "consumption guilt" and a little part of me dies with ever bag/jar/plastic container that I throw away or even recycle (REDUCE is the first R people!!). So of course I have to keep every plastic bag, which I justify by using them as Lucy's poop bags, but let me tell you I think we have enough plastic bags at this point to last several doggie lifetimes. Andy suggested we take them to the parks since the poop bag dispensers are always empty, which is a great idea, but I also love the idea of just bringing less of them home since I do own several reusables.

Random 2: I think I have had something like this on my resolutions at least half of the years of my life. It has to do with my alarm clock. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I set one. Probably for my exam. Andy's goes off every morning and I have mastered the skill of ignoring it. I usually get up on my own at a reasonable hour, so its really not that big of a deal, but I would like to be more proactive about it this year so maybe I can get some things done before work (like walking Lucy or making lunch for Andy to to take to work).

Fun!!!: It just wouldn't be right if I left this one out. Of course I need to make it a priority that Andy and I are having fun and enjoying life. My favorite way to do this is of course...trips!! I don't think we're going to do anything too crazy this year (aka. international), but I've been hankering to get out and see more of Utah as well as the other states, and if all goes as planned we've already got FOUR adventures on the calendar! I'm betting more are to come considering that a certain husband of mine is having a very big birthday this year (as well as several other people I know...wink wink). My dad is having an even bigger birthday this year so I'm currently in brainstorming mode for that. Its in less than a month! I've also been thinking about doing something dramatically different to my hair at some point....we shall see my friends, we shall see.

Clearly I've got my work cut out for me but I just have this feeling its going to be a phenomenal year! You can bet your bottom you'll be hearing all about it right here on the old blog. ;)

Once again...Happy New Year everyone! Let's make this the best one yet!

To the New Year: 2010 edition

2010-12-31T15:30:00.000-08:00

Well, well, well. Here we are again. I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes:

Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes. - Andy Rooney

Hopefully I'm not getting too close to the end, but I can tell you it is going by faster and faster. I'll just chalk it up to having too much fun! :P

Looking back on the year I'd say it was a really good one, with a few challenges here and there. The year started a bit rough but toward the second half we made some changes that have really helped us take control again, even if it is just a state of mind. Andy went back to school, we bought a second car, we canceled Direct TV, and I switched gyms. All at the same time! Suddenly we have a routine that seems to be working smoothly. And if there's one thing I believe, its that a healthy routine makes it a lot easier to maintain a good attitude and cope with day to day stress.
My new gym is soooo close and easy to get to, and with the new car I can now go there whenever I want! Not only that, but it is located directly underneath my grocery store which means I only have to pry myself out of the house once and I can check off the gym and groceries on the same trip (yep I'm one of those gross sweaty post-gym grocery shoppers now...). This time last year I hardly ever went to the gym because it was located in a super busy area that I dreaded, parking was a nightmare, and I could only go when the car was available. I grocery shopped maybe once a week which didn't really work out because I'm not the best at planning meals ahead. So I ended up with stuff I didn't need and not the stuff I did need. Now I go to both the gym and grocery store stress-free 4 or 5 times a week and am totally loving it. I feel a lot healthier not only because of the exercise but because we're eating healthier due to my more frequent grocery store visits. Instead of having huge grocery shopping events, now I just buy a few items every day. I'm probably spending more on food now, and I know I am at the new gym, but its worth it if I'm actually getting the things I want and using them.

Andy is extremely busy now, but I think going back to school has been really good for him on several levels (in my opinion...). As opposed to his undergrad experience, this time around he knows what he wants to get out of it and is really taking it head on. And on top of that we've finally been able to meet some new friends in the area which always makes life better. Last week he finished his first semester (with extremely good grades he wants me to add...) so is now about 25% done. WOO HOOO!!!

With Andy so busy I decided maybe a little hard work would do me some good too and took another actuarial exam. I studied for about four months and finally took it in early November. The pass rate is generally around 40%...I find out the results in a few weeks so keep your fingers crossed! Its been so long since I took it I can hardly remember if I thought I did ok...but I do remember it was really hard!

I've also find myself exploring forgotten hobbies...like reading! I think in the last 6 months I've read more books than I have in the last 2 years. It would probably be 3 years if it weren't for that damn Twilight series last year. Anyway, I'm loving it! We still get our TV/movie fix through Netflix a couple of times a week but since we're so busy with other things it feels more like a nice way to unwind before bed than something we just do out of habit.

The hardest part about 2010 for me was the emotional stress. I am a worrier. Things like the economy and other external stressors do take a toll on me even when I'm not directly affected by them. I worry about the housing market, the job market, the war, Andy, my parents, my brothers, etc. etc. If I let myself get carried away then I start having a harder time coping with my basic functions like cooking, cleaning, waking up, working, etc. etc. As I mentioned, getting into a good routine has really helped and I hope I can build on the progress into 2011. In general I'm a really happy person and it basically boils down to the fact that I'm willing to do almost anything to maintain that status overall. I know there will always be hard times, and part of it is just getting used to the responsibilities of adulthood (I'm 26...how much longer can I use that one?), but this is one area that I'm going to look closely at in 2011 and make sure that I am well-balanced. Aside from the personal benefits, I can only imagine that if I ever become a parent, the worry will shoot out the roof so it would be nice to have a good and balanced emotional foundation so I don't turn into a possessive over-protective mother and/or crazy and impossible-to-deal-with wife.

Of course one of the things I will always worry about is finances, but I am proud to announce that as of TODAY, I have officially paid off my undergraduate student loans! Almost exactly 5 years to the day after I finished my last final. Of course we still have Andy's undergrad loans, not to mention the graduate loans he is currently racking up...but hey, progress is progress!

ANYWAY, enough of that gooey nonsense! So before I close the book on 2010 I of course have to go through and relive some of the good memories. My first thought is trips. This was a great year for trips! I know they only occupy a small portion of my time but man they make it all worth it.

I got to go to Chicago twice this year and finally got to see the city a bit. I did a whole post on the first one, but I only took one picture of the second one (probably because I was alone and it was for work), but it was a great trip too. I spent most of the time at a seminar outside of the city but I had a really good time hanging out with colleagues from across the country. One night a group of us rented a limo and headed 40 minutes into downtown for some deep-dish pizza and beer. Who knew actuaries could be so much fun?!! :P

It was early October at the time and I was quite pleased with the view from my hotel room, so here's that one pic I did take with my phone...
Then there was Mexico. Seriously one of my favorite vacations ever. Of course I did a whole post about it in case you've forgotten...
Then Andy and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary with a yurting adventure which just goes to show that you don't have to go very far from home for a good vacation...
And then we had the chance to celebrate Brandon and Amanda's wedding in Hawaii. What will I do when there are no more weddings???
And of course we got to go up to the Pac NW a couple of times for whatever reasons we could come up with (...but for some reason I never take any pictures, I will try and work on that).

We also went on a few other short escapades around town, hiking and cruising in our sweet new ride. Boy does Lucy love a good adventure...
On one such escapade we visited the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island for the first time ever (photos courtesy of Jevon)...
It was amazing how far out they could walk and still only be in a few inches of water...
We also did some more work on the house...
And watched Lucy become a real dog in front of our very eyes (although she still does behave a bit oddly at times)...
And we had lots of good times with our friends and family. Unfortunately most of the rest of my photos from the year were lost in the Great Computer Crash of 2010 and so I'm going to have a much more difficult time remembering them on the spot. Suffice to say, many good times were had!

I do have some resolutions and thoughts on the new year that I would like to share, but man, I need a break and its time to get ready to party tonight! So...resolutions will just have to wait till tomorrow.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Andy and Lindsay Godseys!!!

Holiday Reminder

2010-12-26T11:05:00.000-08:00

A Note on Hollywood

2010-12-13T20:21:00.000-08:00

Today I realized that for the first time in my life I know the name of a Hollywood writer. Aaron Sorkin. That fact alone must mean that he is good at his job, but I can now say that two of my most favorite TV shows of all time were created by him.

Most of the movies/TV that Andy and I ever watch are from Netflix, and since most of that stuff is at least a few years old we have the pleasure of starting from the beginning and watching entire series from start to finish at our own pace with no commercials. It is bliss. Anyway, most of them I don't really care about (as much as I try to care about Weeds and Arrested Development they just don't do it for me), but every now an then I find myself engulfed in the web of an epic drama. The first time it happened was Battlestar Gallactica. Man, that show was depressing. Just hearing the opening music could probably bring a tear to my eye if I let it. Yet every night I relentlessly begged for episode after episode. Eventually it was over and I went through a period of mourning.
Then we hit a bit of a dry spell where all we really had was Weeds. Yeah, its ok, but boy can Nancy be an idiot at times...let's just say we had no trouble going to bed on time during this phase. Oh, and I can't forget about Entourage. Yes it has some lovable characters (my personal favorite is Ari). But still, my life was left unchanged.

Then came the West Wing. My first Aaron Sorkin. Man oh man. We're still in the middle of this one but I'm already having mild anxiety attacks when I think about reaching the end. Its not nearly as emotional as BSG (thank goodness), but something about it just does it for me. Great acting, interesting storylines, laugh out loud comedic relief, amazing dialogue, YES. People criticize it for being too idealistic. News Flash: I DON'T CARE. Please just entertain me!! Although I am willing to admit that if you harbor conservative political leanings you may not share my love for the show. Needless to say, its important to mention that I have now added both Rob Lowe AND Bradley Whitford to my "list" (you know what I'm talking about)...
Since the West Wing is "DVD only" that leaves several nights open for live streaming. Enter Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Aaron Sorkin #2. I was devastated to learn that it was canceled in the middle of the second season. But boy did I enjoy those 22 episodes. Its like the West Wing plus love stories. YES. And since several West Wing cast members overlap, I'm all in (read: catapult Bradley Whitford to Numero Uno on said "list"...). I guess I'm just an all dialogue kind of TV viewer, because that's what it is and I just eat it up (and for the record, so does Andy).
Anyway, now its over and yes, I am mourning. We've been dabbling in Dexter, but I just find most of those characters to be soooo obnoxious! Not to mention I find it a wee bit scary and graphic.

But good news. We have learned of yet another Sorkin. Sports Night. I admit I'm not thrilled that its apparently sports related. But I'm willing to give it a shot. Let's hope I love it as much as the other two!

And just to tickle your excitement...I did a little Wikipeding after learning about the magic that is Aaron Sorkin and learned that he wrote some of my favorite movies as well. A Few Good Men, The American President, Charlie Wilson's War (based on a book by George Crile), and The Social Network (based on a book by Ben Mezrich). I haven't actually seen the Social Network yet, but I surely intend to.

And that reminds me, there are so many movies I want to see right now! Too much to do...too little time!

Cartoons

2010-12-10T21:08:00.000-08:00

I always like to keep a few of my favorite random "clippings" (you know, pictures/quotes/postcards/whatev) pinned up to a corkboard in my office to look up at every now and then to remind myself how awesome life is. For years I had these two Far Side cartoons up in my bedroom which I considered prized possessions, which is why I panicked when Mel reminded me of one the other day and I realized I had no idea where it was. A few minutes of rummaging and there they both were, safe and sound, along with numerous other treasures that I may have to blog about later. Now not only have they reclaimed their rightful place on the corkboard but they can be forever immortalized on my blog...

Thank you Gary Larson for expressing so simply how I feel on the matters of life.

This one really speaks for itself. I distinctly remember having quite a good laugh the first time I saw it on my Far Side 365 days of the year calendar which I believe was a Christmas present at some point during high school. I guess those really do make good gifts!! :P

This one is a lesson for all those people out there still asking the question. Anyone with even a shadow of a doubt has a serious perspective problem if you ask me.
Hey look, a relatively short post! Gold star for me!

The Wedding Chronicles: Wedding Day!

2010-12-07T22:33:00.000-08:00

I know, after a four month blogging sabbatical, how lame is it that I start back up with a Wedding Chronicles post? Honestly, I just want to get this done. Its getting a bit ridiculous! But I refuse not to finish....no detail left behind! :)

August 22, 2009. We woke up at Heceta to a crisp, slightly foggy morning.
Heceta is one of my favorite places in the world. Seriously. And I bet it would stay that way had I actually seen the entire world. When Andy and I were dating we went on a trip to Southern California. We were years away from even being engaged but but somehow the topic of "the ideal wedding location" came up. Outdoors had always been a no brainer for me, but that still leaves so many awesome choices. Under a large oak tree in an open field...in a garden...in the mountains...at the beach...the list goes on. We were driving through the California hills somewhere near Carmel and suddenly we both agreed that indeed, the best spot would be on "a precipice overlooking the ocean". At the time I remember looking at the wild hills and thinking "easier said than done" and wondering if there were actually such a place that would meet my expectations. Turns out there was. :)

The funniest part about it is that I had long since forgotten about this conversation by the time I was actually engaged. And Heceta wasn't actually the place I first chose to have my wedding (of course I hadn't been aware of Heceta at the time...). At first we picked Rosario, a historic mansion and water-front property on Orcas Island that had been converted to a resort. We were months into the planning and had already paid Rosario when Alison read in the news that it was going out to auction. Not good. I was pretty heart-broken at the time but didn't want to take any chances so I took the opportunity to cancel and get a full refund. Looking back, I'm glad it happened because I'm fairly certain the wedding at Heceta was better than what would have been at Rosario. I don't think a wedding could be much more private than at Heceta...there certainly were no other weddings happening there that day! :P

Andy and I once again went into full search mode. I felt like I had scoured every single wedding spot in the states of Washington, Oregon, and Utah. We were very close to putting a deposit down with the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird, but something about it just didn't feel right for us. Andy was doing some Google searches and ran across an image of Heceta something like this:
I was very intrigued and we decided a visit was in order. I was of course in love with it, but I was hesitant due to the logistics and potential expense involved due to its remoteness (lighthouses aren't generally found near major cities...). Where would people stay? How would they get home from the wedding safely? Where would the flowers and cake come from? So in typical Lindsay fashion, I stressed for a few weeks. But when push came to shove we decided we would figure out all those details because this is where we wanted to get married.

I like good food. And food is certainly one thing that cinched the deal with Heceta. It is no ordinary Bed and Breakfast. In addition to the ideal positioning on the Oregon Coast, each morning of your stay you are treated to a seven course breakfast crafted by the two chef owners using local ingredients purchased from the farmers market that week. And on your wedding day, they are the caterers. All I can say is...umm YEAH!

So...finally getting back to the actual wedding morning...my friends know me so well they remembered to take pictures of all the food from our seven course feast. Being only six guest rooms, we had the whole place to ourselves...
Here are some of my favorite dishes from the two breakfasts...first up cheese blintzes!!!
Crab cakes!
Mango frappe...
We also had fresh berries, quiches, fresh breads, sausage...the works! I am looking forward to visiting again one of these years. I don't think I have any photos of the wedding food but in my opinion it was outstanding. For appetizers we had bacon wrapped scallops, stuffed mushrooms, and a spicy artichoke dip that was AMAZING. For dinner we had grilled salmon, pan seared pork tenderloin, fire roasted veggies, and garlic herb potatoes. I was very happy with it to say the least.

After breakfast I had some finishing touches to put on my wedding vows and so I took a few minutes to relax and take it all in. And then it was go time!! While I was doing my hair and getting ready, everyone else was bustling around me to get everything set up. I had pretty much pre-arranged everything and then my amazing friends put it all together that day with Alison as the master coordinator. Alison, Chris, and Jevon had driven the flowers and bouquets all the way down from Seattle and were putting the arrangements together...
Boy had I agonized over what to do for flowers. There weren't too many options for florists in the area and I just felt it was so expensive for what it was, plus I had a friend in Seattle who was a pro. So we decided that she would put together the bouquets in Seattle and then we came up with a very simple centerpiece arrangement that Alison could put together day of. My main concern was just that there was a splash of color on the table that filled some space. I wanted a natural, garden look, mainly consisting of peach, ivory, and light yellow roses. And that's exactly what I got.
My bouquet was absolutely perfect and exactly what I wanted. I loved it. :)
Another fave of mine was the design of the cake. I'd made a last minute decision change on the design the week before the wedding and I think it turned out so beautifully. The only thing I'd really told her on design was that I wanted three tiers, smooth ivory frosting (NO FONDANT), and a fairly wide gap between the bottom and second tier that was filled with "a mound of the wedding flowers". I could just stare at the cake for some time. And you have no idea how long I searched for the right cake topper...:)
Another piece of the table decor were the party favors. This is one thing that I had decided at the very beginning and never changed my mind on. A book of poems. I knew it was fate when I found one that had a cover design that matched the wedding theme. :) Of course, I had to buy these books twice because the first time they were destroyed when our basement flooded. Luckily they were only $1.50 each.
Obviously my colors were midnight blue and a soft peach. I am still in love with them. I just think the dark blue was so fitting for the location and the peach had such a nice soft contrast. I was going for a classic, soft, romantic, yet natural atmosphere and I think the colors were perfect. Strangely, these were not the same colors and theme I had decided on for the wedding at Rosario. I would have to say that after planning a wedding my advice would be to pick the wedding venue first and let that decision guide everything else. Our location was so spectacular that we really didn't have to do much else as too much other decoration would have just taken away from the setting. Everything I did was try try and complement what was already there, even down to my dress. Certainly a bedazzled ball gown wouldn't have quite fit the scene...so instead I went for a simple, soft dress that's sheer layers would blow in the sea breeze.
The only other thing I did for decor really was rent a back-lit drape to hang on the inside of the tent to add soft-lighting and a romantic finishing touch. It kind of matches my dress....:P
Back again to the actual wedding day (as I write this I'm starting to wonder exactly how many random tangents I'm going to go off on)...We had photos taken and before long the men had arrived and I was sequestered to my room until the ceremony.

I love this picture because of the ocean in the window. It looks like we might as well be on a ship drifting out to sea.
Once the ceremony began it all happened so fast. It had turned into a beautiful clear day, but it that breeze was COLD. Luckily the tent was heated, but I think everybody was pretty chilly during the ceremony. Strangely I didn't feel cold until an hour or so into it when we were taking pictures, and you can see that my fingers are a bit purple.

I'm fairly certain we had the cutest flower girl there ever has been.
Then the ceremony happened. It feels weird to blog about it in great detail but suffice to say that we were very pleased. We wanted a very personalized ceremony which we achieved through writing our own vows and asking a close friend and mentor to be our officiant (which included his getting ordained on an online ministry site...). "Pastor Lee" as he's now known has become quite a legend and he's even been asked to marry another couple! He was the perfect choice.
Everything after that was pretty much a blur. We had food, toasts, cake cutting, garter tossing, the works. Andy and I did our first dance to "The Book of Love" by Peter Gabriel, which we had been practicing for a month or so in our basement. But what we'd been practicing for MONTHS was the Daddy/Daughter dance. It was pretty darn awesome, in my opinion. If you didn't happen to see it all you need to know is that there was moon walking as well as sparkly white glove...
After all of the scheduled festivities we proceeded to dance the night away into the wee morning hours. It was such a blast, much thanks to our good friend Greg for being a superb DJ. We danced until we couldn't dance anymore and then the wedding day was over. Shuttles took everyone back to their hotels...I heard there was a great rendition of 99 bottles of beer on the wall to keep everyone entertained.

And with that we come full circle. Clearly, I am quite in love with my own wedding (as every woman should be). I had such a blast planning it and really threw myself into every detail (which is yet another reason I needed an 20 month engagement!). I am so amazingly lucky to have wonderful friends and family who all pitched in to make it just so. I know I will be looking over these blog posts for years and years with a big smile on my face. Its true, I could probably continue to spout of details that have gone missed, but I believe its time to move on with our lives. So you can all take a deep sigh of relief because my friends...that is the end of the Wedding Chronicles!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Lucy!

2010-09-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

This last Thursday Lucy turned one! She had two days of visitors that spoiled her with treats and toys. I got her a few bandanas, mostly for special occasions, so here she is sporting her birthday bandana.
Loki and Lucy were playing in the dark but I had to take a photo or two anyway...As you might be able to tell, they are the same breed and Loki is just about 5 months older than Lucy, and he weighs about 20 more pounds than her. Loki lives a few blocks over from us and he was actually the way we even found out about wheaten terriers because his owners would walk him past our house. We basically fell in love and decided to get one too! Luckily his owners are super cool too and now we have doggie play dates and drink beer together. Lucy and Loki are in love. :)
Friday Lucy was sooooo tired after two nights of fun that she slept the entire day. Seriously, she woke up once to go out and that was it...the entire day!

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post some pics of Lucy's first year. Well, the ones that aren't already up, that is. I just can't believe how fast dogs grow in their first year...

Here are some photos the breeder gave us of when she was a brand new puppy. She was the second of three puppies and the first girl out of two in the litter. She is an AKC registered wheaten terrier. Lucy is her call name, but her registered name is actually "Saltnsea Magic Dream". Apparently most show dogs have names like this and its kind of a family thing. Lucy's mom's name is "Saltnsea Dream Weaver" (aka. Kimber) and her dad is "Andover Mayhem Magic" (aka. Hammy).
She looked like this when we first got her:
At the time she weighed 8 pounds and now she weighs about 28. She'll probably get a little bigger before she's full grown.

Here is is reading her card that the Godseys sent when she broke her leg.
Action shot in the snow...
"Sitting Down"...
After a good blow dry...
Napping furball...
I'd like to see YOU leave the house with this face watching you all the way down the road...

Hamming it up for the camera...
Practicing her "tip-toe" trick...
Please play with me...
Sweetest face in the world...

As you can see we love our dog. We'll probably keep her. And she is possibly quite spoiled. I won't admit it but I won't deny it. Here are some fun facts about her first year (yes, we document her life like a human child...so sue me! :P):

Nicknames that seem to have stuck:
Lucy Bear
Brown Bear
Stinky Magee
Stinky Macgyver
Lucifey
Devil Dog
Lucy Busey (you know, for when she's acting crazy)
Hamburgler (there is most definitely a story involved with this one involving a full pound of raw ground beef that was supposed to be for my chili and instead became the best meal of Lucy's life)

Her number one favorite thing to do is play. She runs to the window and cries if she happens to see a dog out there. She loves to get the mail. When she hears the mailman she starts jumping around and running in circles until I go out and get it. She definitely knows all of her commands and she's even getting better at listening to them in an unrestricted environment. However, if she senses freedom she still bolts for it and runs straight to her friends' houses to see if they can play. Her neighborhood friends are Loki, Shuksun, and Blackberry and Blueberry. She loves to play in water but only if she can see and touch the bottom. Despite being thrown in numerous times now, she refuses to swim. She is a good hiker and does pretty good off-leash. Her favorite human friends are my mom and Melissa. She absolutely cannot contain her joy when they come over and all manners go out the window. She loves going on car rides, especially if she gets to hang out the window. Thank goodness she does not show any interest in sleeping on our bed. However, she doesn't hesitate to wake us each morning by jumping up and licking our faces. But if we ignore her she'll go right back to sleep and sleep in late with us on the weekends. She continues to have bursts of energy each day involving running around at high speeds and jumping over things. She'll even do it outside while she's alone and I'll just happen to see it from the window. She can probably run 3 or 4 times faster than Andy or I and its quite fascinating to watch her break loose at a park.

That's all I can think of for now. Better post this bad boy before I decide to put more pics in. Happy Birthday Lucy!!!!

The Wedding Chronicles: Rehearsal Fiesta!

2010-09-19T09:52:00.001-07:00

Ok guys, its time to get serious about this. I have scoured Picasa and re-downloaded all of the "lost" wedding photos so I can wrap this up! We've come too far to not finish!

So...we're back to Friday, August 21, 2009. The day started the same as the others...a lazy vacation day on the beach. I even remember making some whale sightings off of the deck of our house. A few friends stopped by to say hi and we all just hung out and relaxed. Then, suddenly, real life struck and the events leading up the wedding were in full force and wouldn't stop until it was all over. I remember it all changed so suddenly from relaxing and doing nothing to suddenly having to hurry and get ready so I wasn't late for my own rehearsal!

We all met up at Heceta where I officially handed the wedding responsibility to Alison, my amazing and talented friend who lucky for me also has a successful wedding planning/coordinating business. She did such an incredible job...I literally didn't feel an ounce of stress the entire time because she handled everything with perfection.
Here she is teaching Bridget about her flower girl responsibilities...
And telling Casey and my Mom what to do...
And soon everyone was in position...
My dad and I taking our practice walk down the aisle...
Andy getting a little greedy on his practice kiss...
And married!!! Not really...
And then a break to watch even more whales...
And then it was time to celebrate!! I had really stressed about what to do for the rehearsal dinner. We really wanted to invite everyone who had come so far to celebrate with us that night, but we didn't really have it in the budget to do a second catered dinner for everyone. So we got creative and decided to do a more casual event...a rehearsal fiesta!!! We pitched the idea to Karen and the Godsey clan pretty much took care of the rest and did a spectacular job. We reserved a great picnic spot in a Yachat's park and they battled the winds and decorated it with bright fiesta colors. We wanted to feature Andy's favorite food growing up which is Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas, and so each of his family members pitched in and made some. It turned out sooooo good. I'm pretty sure my dad went back for like 5 servings of food. There were enchiladas (they'd even brought all the stuff to keep them hot at the park!), and Kari had made not one but THREE different side salads which were all very yummy (caesar, asian linguine, and mexican chopped), chips and salsa at every table, and all kinds of desserts. Andy's family really saved the day. :)
We then had the ceremonial sacrifice of "Andy, the Bachelor". It only made sense that I would take the first shot at him...
He turned out to be a pretty tough fella and after several kids and adults had taken a swing or two, my cousin Sara finally decapitated him. His guts were immediately devoured by the ravenous children below. Andy the Bachelor was no more...
Next to the picnic area was a field so we put together a game of kickball that everyone seemed to enjoy until it was just too dark to play any longer...
We thought it would be cool to end the night with a bonfire at the beach so the men found some wood and that's exactly what we did...
I love this picture of Casey staring at the fire like a true Eagle Scout... :P
Nothing better than a good bonfire with friends and family. Especially at the beach!
And this is pretty much the coolest picture. Taken from the road above.
And then it was time to call it a night. I have no idea how I got back to Heceta...but I did, and so ended my last day as an unmarried woman. :)

Hawaii 2010 - part 2

2010-09-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

Ok so where was I...Sunday morning! The big day! Us ladies had to be up at 8:30 to get our hair and makeup professionally done. I was a bit nervous because in my non-professional experience it doesn't take much eye makeup for me to start looking like I belong in drag show (its the eyebrows...they are a force to reckon with). Being the only non-Asian in the entire bridal party, she congratulated me on not burning myself to a crisp thus far on my Hawaiian vacation...that would not have looked very good. I promised her that despite the fact that my nose was bright red, it was not burnt and in fact it looked like that ALL. THE. TIME.

All in all the experience was very fun and I think turned out pretty good. After that we finally got to put on our dresses which is what we'd all been waiting for!

And then...Amanda was the last to be ready...and she looked so gorgeous!!! Seriously, she looked like Hollywood. The hair, the makeup, the dress, it was all so perfect!!

I LOOOOOOVED her hairpiece (from Etsy!). The contrast of the hairpiece against her dark hair and then the white dress and tan complexion...it was stunning!
And then of course we had some photos taken and the butterflies started to build until it was time to head down!! It was a great ceremony, my favorite part was at the end of each of their vows the officiant threw in some funny personalization that I'm pretty sure not even the bride and groom were expecting. It was hilarious!

The reception was beautiful...they had a photo booth for everyone to use, the food was amazing, and there were so many people (300!!) there who were so happy to share in the celebration. I was one of the two emcees (gulp), meaning we kept things moving along in the program and told stories and stuff like that similar to what a DJ does but there was no DJ (live music!). Kevin (my emcee buddy and a groomsman) was really funny so that made the job a lot easier for me. Some things I thought were really cool were that they requested that instead of clinking glasses to get them to kiss...you had to go up to them and serenade them with a song. And so many people did it!! It was hilarious and very memorable. Then, as Brandon is Japanese and Amanda is Chinese they each had relatives come up and give traditional Japanese and Chinese toasts.
Finally, at the end, instead of dancing they had a kind of open mic where people played the guitar and ukulele and sang. One of my other former Hawaiian housemates (not in the same house as the others, randomly), Lars, is an EXTREMELY talented guitarist and he was kind of the ringleader of the music. Very impressive. He even dedicated a few DMB songs to me...ok ok, to Andy too since we all went to a concert together in Washington and he knows I love me some good DMB. :O
Another thing I thought was really cool was the traditional 1000 paper cranes. I don't know much about the tradition, but Amanda folded 1000 paper origami cranes and then there are places you can take it to and they design a display for you. Sof if you look up close at this picture, the red and silver things are tiny paper cranes...
And something I do know about...centerpieces!!! And I loved these!! The flowers are beautiful of course, but the winning factor is the awesome fabric on the vases that pulls it all together. YES!! :P

And then of course we had our traditional Loggers photo for the Arches (the University of Puget Sound alumni magazine). There were a lot of Loggers! That reminds me...I still need to send my wedding Loggers photo to Arches...
Brandon was quite the go getter at UPS. Senior year he was not only the President of the UPS Chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi (business fraternity), he was also the President of the Hawaii Club (which was no small task considering that Hawaiians make up a decent portion of the student body)! Of course it was his sense of humor that made him such a good housemate...
Thanks Brandon and Amanda for inviting me to celebrate in such a wonderful occasion!!

After the festivities we were EXHAUSTED but we had a big day planned for the North Shore the next day so...onward!

So we wake up Monday and I'm thinking to myself "ok...driving to the other side of the island...road trip!!". We pick up Jack in the Box breakfast (why oh why is Jack in the Box not in Utah???) as we get on the freeway...and no kidding not a few minutes after we finish our food is our road trip over. And that's when I realize..this island is SMALL. I admit, I had I mild panic attack when I realized I couldn't just drive for hours (unless of course I was going around and around the island). It seriously took like 40 minutes (no traffic). I was talking to one of Brandon and Amanda's Hawaiian friends about it that night and she never went to the mainland until she was 21 years old for a vacation to Las Vegas. She said the second they flew over land her eyes were glued to the window in amazement because the land just kept going and going and going and going. I just find the whole thing so fascinating! What different perspectives we have...

Anyway, when we got to the North Shore, not surprisingly we found extremely flat surf. But we'd come all that way so we took Andy's picture in front of Pipeline just for the hell of it.
Its hard to believe that this same spot in the winter time looks like this...
But we got to see all the famous surf spots and it was pretty cool! Then of course we had to grab a Matsumoto's shave ice...
Yes, the best snow cone I've ever had in my life. Softest ice ever. The sweetened condensed milk didn't hurt either...:)
And then we headed back for dinner at Brandon and Amanda's just like the good old days. Everybody was there for potluck and it was a great time. And let me tell you...check out the view from their living room!!!
Yes, that is Jim and Lindsay sitting on the couch. Not only does Lindsay have a very cool name (spelled correctly), but they have the same anniversary as Andy and I (but two years earlier..)!! Anyway, what I was really talking about is the spectacular view of big blue and Diamondhead!! WOWWWW!! :)

Well, the next day Andy and I headed home and here we sit stuck on Hawaiian time wishing we were still there.... :)

Hawaii 2010 - part 1

2010-09-12T20:51:00.000-07:00

Over Labor Day weekend this year Andy and I got to go to Hawaii for Brandon and Amanda's wedding. I don't know about you, but I love a good wedding and in my opinion there's no better excuse for a vacation. And this time was certainly no exception! It was a whirlwind of a trip...we left on Thursday and came home on Tuesday and it was chalk full of tons of wedding activities with all my old college pals. I'm jealous because some of our friends stayed until today but Andy and I had already burned through most of our vacation days (and its only September!). Too many places too little time!! But the whole trip was such a blast seeing everyone and hanging out like the good old days, and the wedding was amazing.

We were able to snag a direct flight from SLC to Honolulu (and using frequent flier miles too...SWEET!!). Thanks to the movie selection the 6.5 hour flight wasn't as bad as I was expecting. The nice thing about this trip was that we didn't feel compelled to do much other than eat and hang out because we'd been to most of the big attractions (Pearl Harbor...) when we'd been there with my family a few years ago. Andy's older bro gave us a few recommendations from his time at BYU Hawaii and our first stop was right by the airport...Byron's Drive-Inn which was like a local fast food hole in the wall but was pretty darn tasty. Gotta love mac salad!

I had the honor of being one of Amanda's bridesmaids, so from there we went straight to the Bridal Boutique so I could try on my dress. And might I add...how did people get around before Iphones?? I mean seriously...Anyway, I was nervous because the wedding was only three days later...and sure enough the dress needed alterations. But they did a great job and when I went to put it on for the wedding it fit like a glove! :P

Here I am with some of the other beautiful bridesmaids who are also my former housemates in T-town...
From there we checked into our hotel, the Hawaii Prince Hotel Waikiki, which is also where the wedding took place. When we'd planned the trip we debated whether to stay there or try to save some money on Hotwire. I'm kind of addicted to the thrill of Hotwire (if you haven't tried it you should!!) so we went that route but chose the same neighborhood and we ended up at the same hotel but which a much lower rate. I was very pleased with myself! :P

We then went on a walk down Waikiki beach and through all the shops to get our bearings for the rest of our trip. The hotel is situated basically at the top of Waikiki and on the other side is the Ala Moana shopping center which I remember back in Tacoma hearing all my Hawaiian friends say they missed so much...

Thanks to the 4-hour time difference, come 7 PM we were already getting pretty tired so we attempted to go to the pub next store for a quick dinner before we relaxed for the evening. However, we accidentally went in the wrong entrance and ended up at the super fancy restaurant ABOVE the pub. We rationalized that several of our meals would be with the wedding so we could splurge on this one...five courses later we were stuffed and very sleepy!!! :) Ahhh I love good memories.

Its a good thing we went to bed early because at 6AM next morning we had a date with Brandon and Amanda and some other Loggers (UPS mascot...) for a hike at Diamond Head. Here are some pics I shot on our journey...
Andy with downtown Honolulu backdrop...
Me and the groom...
And the bride with big blue, I'm pretty sure this was taken during the classic "how far out is the horizon from this height" discussion...
Later that morning we grabbed some breakfast at a diner and I was insanely jealous of the guy next to me who ordered fried rice with an over easy egg on top. Boy did that look delicious. Then some pool time until it was time for our next meal (don't you just love beach vacations??) so we headed down the beach again and ended up at Duke's. I got a spinach goat cheese pizza which was pretty tasty, but as we've recently learned, nobody makes a spinach goat cheese pizza like Andy...
Anyway...that night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Here is Amanda and her dad doing their practice walk down the aisle.
The rehearsal dinner was AMAZING. You only need to know two two things that happened...sushi and crab legs. YESSSSS!!

Brandon and Amanda's engagement story is really cute. They are both avid runners and a year or so ago participated in the Disneyland Half Marathon. Right before the finish line Brandon cut in front of her, got down on one knee and proposed. So that story kind of became a theme of the wedding and Saturday morning they held a "wedding run" around a local park and everyone got a free T-shirt. There must have been 50 or so people participating and I basically thought the idea was brilliant.
After that a few of the crew headed out to the water to surf (kind of difficult considering it isn't exactly surfing season right now), but at least Andy was able to get out there and paddle around for awhile. Poor guy, I promised him our next Hawaii visit would definitely be in the winter.
From there Andy and I parted from the group because we had a date with a parasail. Oh my goodness. Coolest experience. I wasn't really nervous until we were actually on the boat and they let the chute up and it was HUGE. And just being on a fast boat out in the ocean was pretty exhilarating and I started to wonder just how scary it would be up there. But literally moments after they let go of you and you can no longer feel the movement or hear the sounds of of the boat it becomes very peaceful and serene. It felt surreal, like Andy and I were sitting perfectly still and everything around us getting further and further away in perfect silence. Then when gusts of air came we would get momentary feelings of weightlessness which took your breath away. For most of the time I just felt so amazed but then when we hit the highest point and the winds became stronger I finally noticed how high we were and had a moment of controlled panic. It was sooooo awesome. I definitely recommend.

Sorry for all the pics of the same thing but I just find all of the shots of Andy and I as little dots in the sky to be very amusing. Here we are just before the wind picks us up...
Going...
Going...Gone...
When they bring you back in they give you a complementary dip in the water. As you can see I was expecting the shock of cold water but of course it was perfect and very refreshing.
That night we went to Ala Moana with the whole UPS/friends crew for dinner. There were so many of us that we decided the only way for us all to eat together was at the food court. And let me tell you...best food court meal ever!! I had Thai yellow curry and sweet sticky rice with mango and it was DELICIOUS. I'd happily trade it in for Sbarro's and Hot Dog On A Stick any day...

Afterwards we headed up to the suite and Amanda gave each bridesmaid a gift. They were these really nice canvas totes with our initial monogrammed, full of beach goodies. Of course we had to do a fashion show...
Ok, this is getting really long (big surprise)...guess it will have to be a 2 parter!

The Wedding Chronicles: First Anniversary Adventure!

2010-08-22T12:42:00.000-07:00

When I started the Wedding Chronicles, my goal was to get through them all so the first anniversary would be the last post. Well, the whole hard drive failure kind of set me back a bit. So now I'm going out of order and posting the first anniversary before I've even chronicled the actual wedding day. Get over it. We're close!

For the last few weeks Andy and I have been hemming and hawing about what to do for our anniversary. We both wanted it to be special, but we didn't want to go too crazy this year since we've already had tons of trips and well, we didn't want to set the bar too high for all the years to come :P. We settled on going out to dinner at this cool place I've had my eye on for awhile, maybe even dressing up. Then like 4 days before, we ditched the plan and decided to rent a yurt for two nights. Most yurts book out way in advance, but luckily we got a newer (and therefore lesser known) one only about an hour away in the Uintas. We've been trying to get out and see more of Utah lately since well, we live here and we hear its super cool!

We set out after work on Friday. Lucy of course came with. When she's on the road though, she prefers to go by the name Bullet.
We got there in just enough time to walk around the grounds and get our bearings before the sun went down. It was nice and cool up there (you know...80 degrees) but once the sun went down it got pretty chilly!
Andy got straight to work building us a fire in the wood stove. Those Mongolians really had it figured out because it got nice and toasty in there. We will definitely be going back this winter with our snow shoes!
Princess Lucy was a little out of her element and paced back and forth for a few hours growling every time she heard a twig snap. Eventually we gave her a bully stick to help focus her anxiety which worked like a charm. Andy and I on the other hand settled right in, played some cards, snacked on trail mix and fell asleep nice and early. Despite our early bedtime, all three of us managed to sleep in unusually late until about 10. From there, I made us a true mountain man's breakfast over the gas stove.
It was pretty tasty with the exception of the bacon which was a little TOO crisp if you know what I mean...
After that we set out into the wilderness...
We've recently added a fifth member to our family, Whinnie the White Wrangler. This is the third weekend we've had her, and the third weekend we've taken her out for an adventure. This of course was the biggest adventure so far, and we took this opportunity to take her down pretty much every dirt road we came across. We were all pretty much in heaven with the cool air blowing through and the amazing vistas we stumbled upon.
After cruising around for a few hours we headed back to the yurt for lunch and to contemplate life as one must always do when spending time in the wild.
Soon we headed out for a hike that started close to the yurt. As we would find out an hour or two later, it also ended very close to the yurt which was very convenient...

This is our friend the deer. We either saw several deer on the hike, or we saw this guy over and over again, we're not quite sure. Strangely, Lucy was oblivious every single time, which was actually a relief because she surely would have chased him. Back at the yurt we saw some kind of ferret looking creature. Thanks to Wikipedia I've now decided it was a weasel. We also heard some kind of giant creature late that night, but technically we never saw it because what I thought it was turned out to be a large boulder the next morning. Sigh.
At one point in the hike we were going through a very dense grove of aspen trees. Naturally, we stopped for a pic. :P
Once we got back we had a yummy spaghetti dinner and glass of red wine.
And for dessert...the top tier of our wedding cake! It took a good five minutes to get it out of about 30 layers of tin foil and plastic wrap...but underneath it all was a fine piece of Mexican Chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting just as I'd requested oh so long ago. It was surprisingly tasty and moist after all its been through...and very rich!! We each ate a tiny piece and had to put it away. I told Andy we'll eat a slice a year and see how long it lasts. I think he actually believes me!! :)
After that I think its an understatement to say we were all exhausted. I have honestly never seen Lucy that tired in her life (all 11 months of it). Eventually she curled up under one of the bunk beds and didn't make a peep for the rest of the night.
Andy and I played some more Golf and then fell asleep ourselves...until about 3AM when we woke up to the sound of rain. How romantic. Well it would have been had we not realized we'd left the top off of the Jeep!! So we went on a little midnight walk and wiped down the leather seats and covered her up. Oops!! :P

This morning we had another fine mountain man breakfast (this time with perfect bacon) and headed home. Today is our actual anniversary but we're still pretty pooped so we're just hanging around and preparing for the week. We've decided that the one thing we know about year two of our marriage is it will be BUSY!! Andy's back in school getting his MBA and I'm back to taking actuarial exams, so work and studying will pretty much be the name of the game this year. And we say...bring it on!!! Of course there will be a few adventures here and there too. :)

And for those of you who want to relive the emotions from a year ago today (ME!! even though it feels like it was yesterday...), here is the link to the slideshow...

http://corlissblog.com/slides/lindsayandy/

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

2010-07-17T21:33:00.001-07:00

That is a question Andy loooooves to ask me. And as a personal policy, I always take the bad news first in the hopes that the good news is better than the bad news is bad. Why there always has to be a bad news is out of my control, but we seem to have had our fair share lately. Luckily for you I'm only sharing one relatively minor piece of bad news because if not for my blog this news would have actually been much much worse.

About a month ago the hard drive on our iMac failed. You may be thinking "no big deal Lindsay, I'm sure you're smart enough to back all your photos up, right?" Wrong. All of them gone. Many of you may not understand but you must know that I am an extremely sentimental person and my photos are one of my most prized possessions. Much to Andy's dismay, I have cried several times over this loss. First when it initially happened, again when the Mac guys gave us false hope that the files could be restored, and finally again when we finally got the computer back again and it all became starkly clear that they were all gone. Every digital photo I have ever taken since Freshman year of college was on that drive. Luckily I have the oldest of them on my old desktop computer that for some reason we haven't gotten rid of, plus I have prints of a lot of them up to 2008. Its the photos taken since 2008 that are really in question. Let me remind you of a few minor events that fall into this category....WEDDING....oh, and HONEYMOOON. Not to mention Lucy as a little puppy as well as several awesome vacations. The other thing that really burns me is that I know there are photos that are gone forever that I will never remember again. I won't even remember that they're gone. How depressing.

That's where my blog comes in. Its funny because a few days before it happened I had started writing a post about how much I love my blog. Maybe soon I'll finish it, and I'll have a lot more to add because of this experience. So basically, every time you upload a photo to your blog it saves a copy in Picasa. In other words, all the photos I have put up here I still have access to. Remember all those ridiculously looooong posts about my honeymoon? I remember at the time being mildly self-conscious about them but I was just too excited to not post every detail. I AM SOOOOO GLAD I DID. I'm kicking myself now for not posting more pictures of some of the other events (like that last post about Yachats....where I distinctly remember limiting myself on the number of photos I put up). What I am really glad about is that I wrote that post about Yachats when I did. It was maybe three days after that the computer died, and Yachats was the last of the wedding events where most of the photos were my own, and not from friends. I will hopefully be able to get more photos back from them, and of course I have all of the "official" wedding pics on a DVD from the Corlisses (I mean Corli).

I still mourn the hundreds and hundreds of photos that are gone forever but I am just so so glad for the ones that I will hopefully get back. The one thing I know is that the blog will continue and there will be LOTS of photos. And the lesson for us all...back up those files and do it often!!

Lucy's First Haircut

2010-06-30T17:16:00.000-07:00

Well we did it. We cut her beautiful locks. She was just getting SOOOO hot and her tangles were getting harder and harder to comb out. Wheaten Terrier's don't shed; their hair grows like human hair and gets longer and longer and needs to be brushed regularly to keep silky and smooth. And of course, they rely on a good summer cut to keep cool in hot weather.

Dropping Lucy off at the groomer was very difficult because I knew the Lucy I dropped off I would never see again. Even though her hair will grow long again, the dark brown puppy hair will never return. She's slowly turning white and then at around two she'll be at her adult "wheat" color. Anyway, I was expecting her to be completely white after the cut (like around here face in these pics) but surprisingly she still had a good amount of brown left on her back and only her arms and legs had fully turned. Fine with me!
When I came back to get her I couldn't believe my eyes. Literally, I would have been unsure which of the dogs was mine except for the fact that she was the only one jumping all over me with excitement. I probably would have cried except for that I also found the whole thing to be quite amusing. Luckily within a day or two she didn't look quite so funny and it ended up being pretty adorable. Given how much easier it is to take care of, we might just keep it short all year round.
You can see why her new nickname immediately became "lambchop". Her legs are actually quite long and graceful! :P
If it were up to our breeder, Lucy would have a traditional Wheaten cut, like you see here. If you find yourself thinking "there is no way Lucy could like that!" I assure you she could. This photo is of her sister, Autumn. Interestingly enough, Lucy was originally Autumn but when we changed her name they renamed her sister Autumn (originally Amber). Anyway...Lucy would have been a great show dog (Autumn here has already won a few championships, as well as both of her parents and pretty much every other dog on her pedigree), but we weren't really up for it. But its still fun to tease her... :)We'll probably grow her beard and fall out to have the more distinctive Wheaten face, but keep the body short. And I don't think I'll ever bring myself to getting her ears shaved!

I can just imagine her frolicking around the farms of Ireland with her native relatives...too bad she's stuck on a 0.14 acre lot in Salt Lake City, Utah!! :P

So nice to see those cute brown puppy eyes again... :)

The Wedding Chronicles: Yachats!

2010-05-18T22:57:00.000-07:00

Well, the bachelorette party was on a Friday night...and it was timed perfectly because it was also my last day of work for three weeks. Definitely in the mood for fun. I can't really talk about it without sounding insincere, but the week of the wedding was honestly one of the best weeks of my life. Leading up to it everyone had warned me that I'd be so stressed out I wouldn't be able to enjoy it, but they underestimated me because I had every detail of this wedding armed and ready. From the second I stepped on that plane I was in a state of bliss and I was ready for fun!!

So this post is dedicated to those few days of vacation before the official wedding events began on Friday (because of course, those events get their own post...). We flew into Portland on Monday, picked up our rental car (apparently this was one of the two "upgrades" we weaseled into by dropping that we were headed to our wedding...but I think they were just saying they upgraded us because the car was nothing special). Anyway, from there we headed to the Multnomah County marriage office to pick up our marriage license and I had to decide once and for all what my legal name would be after the big day. And then a few errands...Tiffany's to give my engagement ring one last cleaning (no my ring is not from Tiffany's but they will clean it for free...what better excuse to go in?)...Byron's house to pick up the surfboards...and finally we were on the road!! It takes maybe 3 hours from Portland if you go down the coast, which we always do because of the view and so we can get ice cream from the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

We pulled up to our vacation rental just about dinner time. We'd gone in on it for the week with Andy's two best men and their ladies and it was AWESOME.
The view looking the other way...
The housing arrangements where somewhat reminiscent of about 4 years earlier when about 10 of us had piled into a one bedroom condo in Maui for Kyle and Kayte's wedding. But I guess times are a changin' because this time we not only had our own beds, but our own bedrooms. It could be due to the fact that Tristan and Elizabeth had their second baby like 3 weeks before...and all four of them came all the way from New York City! Seriously, we are friends with some amazing and generous people.
We cooked in a few nights and each couple got to show off their culinary genius. It was fun going into town and shopping at the little market when we needed stuff. I'm a sucker for little markets. And one night it was Elizabeth's birthday so we filled the place with balloons and Tristan surprised her with a cake and candles and it was pretty cute...
In the daytime we headed to the beach where I flew my kite and the men surfed. Every day more and more friends and family trickled in from all over the country. Most people were staying in nearby beach houses or hotels...we were all easily within walking distance of each other. It was so cool. I heard from a lot of people that there were some really good restaurants around but the only one we went to was the Green Salmon. I still remember...lox and bagels and a mean Mexican mocha. Mmmm.
The tough thing about the Oregon coast is (as my poor bridesmaids soon found out) is that one moment your tanning in the sun and the next moment you're bundling up against the not so warm breeze. If there's one thing I learned in the Northwest, its to never go anywhere without your hoodie...even "laying out" on the beach.
One day we hiked up to Cape Perpetua, which I believe is the highest point on the Oregon Coast.
Looking the other way we got a birds eye view of the tiny village of Yachats. :)
We also went to Devil's Churn which is also just south of Yachats and is a narrow inlet where the water splashes up over the rocks and gets all foamy and...well...churny. It was kind of eery there with the mist and fog all around. Very cool.
Wednesday night we decided it was time to hit the town. We tried going down the street to a bar with live music but the lady was so rude! It was clear she'd hoped to shut down early that night. I honestly couldn't believe it. So we left and headed to Waldport...best decision EVER. I'm pretty sure that night changed lives. I think I have a hundred photos of just this night. Chris, Becca, and Craig even came and had a good time after driving straight through from Utah that day.

The Flounder Inn Tavern. Karaoke. Tristan. Its only fair to mention that Tristan works in the entertainment industry. But boy did he start us out right with Mack the Knife. He clearly had it memorized and was prancing all through the bar getting the whole place roaring to go. It was a sight to see. Elizabeth later told us that he's been known to frequent karaoke dives at home in NYC...
After that they couldn't keep the people away. EVERYONE was karaoking...

I believe this is when I was being personally serenaded by the boys to "I'll Make Love to You" by Boys 2 Men. Classy...
Even my parents got up there. After their duet my mom sang "Mother In Law" to Andy...
At first I was concerned that the native Waldportians wouldn't be welcoming to a large unruly group of tourists but boy did they love us. Several times they asked one of our group to join them for a duet, and the ringleader Jan even asked Andy and I to dance while she sang the first dance from her wedding. Those Waldportians are crazy but they sure showed us a good time!
Thursday was Andy's official Bachelor Party. Who knows what all they did, but I know it included four-wheeling at the Florence Dunes. Lee caught this pic of Andy catching some air...
Did I mention our house had a hot tub? Oh yeah baby.
At some point Andy gave his groomsmen their gifts...belt buckles. Here are these three...not sure where Byron, Ben, and Casey are but rest assured they got their belt buckles too.
Anyway, while the men were off doing their thing, some of us girls got together and headed up to Newport. I'd always wanted to go whale watching, so Becca had gone ahead and booked us a trip complete with a champagne toast! Oh my goodness, it was so neat. It was pretty darn cold out there on the water, but we were so excited. The captain told us all to look out in all directions and if we saw a spout of water to point at it at yell at the top of our lungs "BLOWHOLE!!!!" so he would know where to go. And that is just what Kayte did. She made the first sighting and it was soooo exhilarating! We were basically freaking out and screaming and then everyone was shouting "BLOWHOLE" all over the place. I wasn't willing to risk missing a whale so I never pulled out my camera, but they were so amazing. Just seeing their backs turning in the water, it was breathtaking.
Once we knew what to look for, we realized we had whales all around. We'd see them out in front of our house, and we even saw some at the rehearsal out in front of Heceta. I love them. :)

Afterwards, we stopped at the Rogue Brewery for lunch and beer tastings.
And then back at home we settled in for nice night of Taboo...
We certainly had some good laughs...
By this time pretty much everyone was in town. I was kind of sad because once things got crazy on Friday they never slowed down again so I never got the chance to go see where a lot of people were staying or spend any quality time with anyone. I am still just so blown away that everyone was there and so happy to support Andy and I even though the circumstances weren't exactly convenient. I will never forget the feeling of so much love for our families and friends. I really believe it is what made the trip so amazing. Well, that and getting married to Andy. :)

Stay tuned for the Rehearsal Fiesta!!

The Mystery of the Shaggy Rug

2010-05-17T21:33:00.000-07:00

Andy and I have a small shaggy rug. Lucy loves it. Lucy is not allowed to play with it. Every now and then I leave the guest bedroom door open and she slips in to get it and then prances around with it as though she's won the lottery. This happened tonight while Andy and I were watching 24 so rather than putting it back where it belongs I just threw it onto the poker table out of her reach. A few minutes later I noticed her with it again. "What? I thought I put that away?" So I toss it onto the table again. Again, fifteen minutes later and she's lounging with it in the corner. "Ok. This is getting weird I KNOW I put it on the table." I toss it onto the table AGAIN. And a few minutes later I see it with my own eyes...

Andy didn't believe me so we pretended not to pay attention and caught it on video. Notice how she watches and waits until we're watching TV again. The little rascal is a daredevil! I remember when she was too small to get on the couch...