You've Had A Birthday Shout Hurray!

Here's to the second best birthday I've ever had! I'm not sure that anything can top my last birthday, getting engaged was pretty awesome for a birthday. And two years ago, Scott gave me a New Kids on the Block CD, a John Wayne movie collection and a "date I would never forget". Scott is really good at the birthday thing. He's always made me feel special.

My birthday started out with Scott keeping me awake until midnight on Tuesday night so that he could give me his present. He bought me this plant, a Braided Money Tree. It's supposed to bring me a lifetime of good fortune which is great since we're working on our "Total Money Makeover". Luckily this tree is pretty hard to kill so hopefully I won't kill it like my flowers. It's so fun to have some color in the house, and he went around to all the flower shops in town to try and find it. They had to special order it in. It made me feel pretty special.
Unfortunately I had to work that day so Scott brought dinner at work. We got to eat Arby's. We don't eat out in Price, ever, so this was a big treat for us, but it makes us appreciate fast food a whole lot more. We had a nice picnic.

When I got home that night Scott had another treat for me. It was an awesome ice cream cake from Cold Stone. He had remembered last March when it was Amber's birthday, that I told him that we always bought ice cream cakes for each other on our birthdays. So he knew that this birthday wasn't going to be quite the same, but he made it so great. By the way, it's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream cake, my favorite!


I really have the best husband ever. He is so good to me and I count myself the luckiest person alive to have him. Way to go honey!

So You Think You Can Dance?

This is more of an outlet for myself more than anything. During the summer I only have one show that I watch on a regular basis and that's So you think you can dance. This season has been great so far, but I have to tell America that they got it wrong! Will should not have been voted out last week. He was by far the most talented male dancer in the competition and maybe should have won the whole thing and then this week Chelsie gets voted out? Come on American, are we going on talent or popularity? Chelsie was by far the best female dancer on the show this season. So, now I've been disappointed with So you think you can dance and American Idol, all in one year. Ok, I feel better!

I love to see the temple

I love this temple, to me it looks like a castle and inside is just as gorgeous as outside. Yesterday was ward temple day and we got to make a 2 hour drive to Manti to attend a session. This required us to get up at 5:30 in the morning (which is the middle of the night for me). This was only the 3rd time that I had been to this temple but it is probably my favorite Utah temple along with the Jordan River. The first time I came to this temple was 2 years ago with my favorite cousin Laurel. We took a Utah temple trip to the Manti, Monticello and the Vernal Temple. It was such a fun trip and so spiritual. I went to the Manti Temple again a couple months later with Scott. I had had my birthday a few weeks before we went and he gave me a couple gifts along with a coupon for "a date you will never forget". This was only our 2nd official date and it was a surprise. He took me to the Manti Temple and then we went to his grandparents cabin a few miles away and spent the afternoon there with some of his family. We had a really spiritual talk when we went there and we were able to talk about some great principles found in the temple. After that day, that temple had a special meaning to me. If we had gotten married in Utah, that's where I would have chosen. The spirit of the pioneer heritage is very strong there.

You hear stories of people having to travel many hours to get to the temple and we got to experience a tiny bit of that yesterday. We left at 6:30 a.m. and got home at 3:30 p.m. I know that's nothing compared to what some people have to do but we used to live in a place with 8 temples within a 2 hour drive (soon to be 10 temples). And I don't think that we realized how lucky we were or how important it was to take advantage of that. We had a really good turnout from our ward and many people spent the day doing temple work. We feel really lucky to be in such a great ward with so many faithful people. And we do feel lucky and blessed that we only have to travel 2 hours to attend our temple. We are really excited to have Manti be our temple.

Oh Baby!

Saturday we had a baby shower for sister-in-law Rhonda. Her youngest just turned 7 and she is having boy after having 2 beautiful girls. We are so thrilled and can't wait to see what this little guy looks like. Here are some pictures of the shower.

Rhonda's mom made a cloth book for the baby. It's about the jungle. They are doing a jungle theme for the baby's room.


We had a breakfast shower at a restaurant. We only had moms, sisters and grandmas at the shower. It was so nice to have an intimate setting where we could talk to each other. Thanks to Michelle and Laurel for putting in the work for this.

I'm also excited to be getting a niece on Scott's side. We wanted a boy for Rhonda and a girl for Sandra, so I'm hoping that it will be that easy when I have a baby, to just wish for the gender.

Also thanks to all for the sympathies. As time passes on, we know more and more that we did the right thing. Being home was so different without Lady, and there is this void in the house. Cosmo is a little depressed but it helped to have us there with him for the weekend. You can tell he's feeling down, but we're hoping he gets over it soon.

A Tribute to our Loving Dog Lady

I haven't blogged for a little while because I'm trying to get my emotions in check, I've been having a hard time with some things and the main thing that I've been thinking about is the life of my sweet dog Lady. Lady turned 12 years old last month on June 18th and that's pretty good for a dalmation. Lady was diagnosed with kidney disease 2 and 1/2 years ago and was given a maximum of 1 year to live. My wonderful mom made sure that that dog had the right kind of food and the right vitamins to help sustain her life for as long as possible. Lady has recently gone blind and she has a hard time walking. In the last month, she hasn't been able to keep much in her system and they warned us that when this happened that the end was near. As a family we've struggled and fought the decision to put her out of her misery. She's been such a great part of our life that we didn't want to have to make that decision whether to end her life. After much thought, and prayers asking Heavenly Father to just take her in her sleep, we finally decided that there was no need for her to suffer any longer. On July 15th, 2008, she peacefully fell asleep for the last time. My dad and brother were with her and they said it was a very peaceful experience. She was so tired and she was to the point where she couldn't walk to get outside without collapsing many times or walking into walls.

Lady was one of the sweetest dogs in the whole world and she wasn't even supposed to be in our family. 12 summers ago at this time we lost another pet Bandit, who was sick and had to be put down. My parents claimed that we would never have another dog. My brother's friend had puppies and he asked my mom to come and see them with him, so she went and saw them. I went to youth conference for a few days and when I came home, I walked in the door and there was a pile of dog poop on the floor and I knew that my mom had caved. I'll never forget going into the backyard and seeing that dalmation puppy sitting in the dog house wagging her tail. She was there for me through so much in my life. She never left my side after having 2 surgeries in high school or anytime I was sick. She would lay by my bed and if I went anywhere she would follow and wait for me. She stayed by my side through many heartbreaks. She was there when a friend's dog tried to play with me and jumped on me and she got in between us and growled at the other dog (that was the only time I have ever seen her growl at another dog). When the grandkids were babies she would stay by there side when they cried, laying by their cribs, or laying outside of the closed bedroom door where they were. She was such a gentle dog.

Lady was very active and loved to play. You couldn't say frisbee, walk or leash without her getting all excited to go out and play. She was so good and obeyed every command when you would take her out.

Later into life, Lady's territory got invaded by another pet. I bought Cosmo 2 months before Lady was diagnosed with kidney disease. At that time, Lady slept in my room instead of in her own bed. She loved being in the company of people, it comforted her. When I brought Cosmo home, she would have nothing to do with my room for 3 days. She wouldn't come near it and wouldn't even sniff Cosmo. As Cosmo grew older, he naturally wanted her as a playmate and he would egg her on until she would cave and play with him. Cosmo lived for these moments when she would play. There were times when Lady would playfully open her mouth and put it over Cosmo's head, his cute little head could fit in her mouth but she never hurt him. Cosmo had this thing with chewing on her ears and she would let him. Lady was so much more active after Cosmo came along and we believe that it prolonged her life to have a friend. As Lady got sicker, Cosmo took care of her, he would go and visit her in her bed everyday and clean her, he would kiss her all over, trying to make her feel better. Every once in a while Lady would get up and get into a pouncing position and Cosmo would run up and down the hall and loop around her and down and up the hall again, pouncing on her, to try and egg her on. Sometimes we would be downstairs watching a movie and you could hear running up and down the hall as they chased each other back and forth. I'm going to miss that and I know Cosmo will too. As they took Lady today, my mom said that everyone was crying and Cosmo just wailed as they took Lady away. I think he knew what was going on and I hope that he will be ok without his best friend.

Lady was our pet, friend, protector, comforter, playmate, companion, and one of our family. She will be so missed but we know that her spirit is still alive and that she is running and can see again. We will miss her so much. We love you Lady, thanks for being such a great dog!

I've been tagged.

Laurel has tagged me and since I love, adore, and admire her so much, I will do it.

3 Joys

• Scott
• Cosmo
• Being home with my family, eating good food, playing games and laughing with them.

3 Fears

• Dying young- There's so many young people dying lately that have young families. And my greatest fear is not being able to fulfill all of the goals that I've set for myself regarding my family.
• Spiders- It's breeding time here in Price and we get BIG spiders in our house, not little wimpy ones. Scott's going to compete in a spider killing contest.
• Ghosts- I have always been scared of ghosts. And Scott totally believes in them. He's had an encounter with one before.
  

3 Goals

• Exercising at least 4 times weekly and eating better.
• Reading my scriptures.
• Putting my full trust in the Lord. Sometimes it's hard to follow a prompting when other things seem more logical. I'm working on it.

3 Current Obsessions

• Guitar Hero- I'm still on easy but I'm trying to perfect the songs. I'm about half way through that and I hate medium, it's hard!
• Finding another job, I think about it all the time.
• Peanut butter and chocolate (which is an all the time obsession, not just current).

3 Random Surprising Facts

• I watch Animal Cops on Animal Planet at night sometimes when Scott is busy and I cry when I watch it, seeing the poor abused animals.
• I'll be 26 this month. 4 more years until I'm 30.
• I don't like hamburger of any sort, not in any shape or form.
  

Now that you know my soul ;) I tag Kenzie, Christi, Shannon and Emily.

Strong Bad Email #167 - The Movies

I don't know how many of you have ever been on the website www.homestarrunner.com, but it is so funny and they have these things called Strongbad emails. Strongbad is a character and people can write emails to him and he will answer them. Well, this one is pretty high up there on my favorites because it has so much truth to it. I hope that you enjoy! I laugh at it everytime.