Our Year

I made this as a Christmas present for parents. Unless you want to click through 100+ pictures of us... do not watch it. I had to save it somewhere to get it to burn... do not ask, stupid computer programs make me irate on Christmas.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

My Desire

I usually do not like to do this. But being bored this evening while Avery watches football I found this.
The Salt Lake City Temple (where we were married) in letterpress.



Have I told you how I secretly adore letterpress. How I desperately want to learn how. Oh, and how I also have this secret obsession with Type. Words, letters, the bits and pieces of writing and stories.

It is too beautiful for words. I want it, I need it. Avery says I cannot have it. He is the logical one. So why do I feel like crying? Someone else buy it for their home so I can come stare. Found here.

My Bloody Mess

During sacrament meeting (yes, I do pay attention) I turn to Ave and say, "Look. Look at my veins. They are blue. See inside me, it is blue. But when it comes out and I show it to you, it is red. Then it is red Avery."
He sort of looked at me funny.
"See Avery. I have blue blood on the inside, but then I bleed red. Get it?!" Wide eyes at this moment help to transmit my meaning telepathically.
"So you are saying deep down you are a BYU fan, but you will be a Utah fan for me."
Sarcastically shake my head, "No, Avery I am a Utah fan all the way."


Which to choose, which to choose?


To both sides... nice battle.

Avery is right. For BYU having their highest scoring QB and RB they sure did not put up much of a fight. And for Utah having a newbie team, they held up there own. Plus, I think the ref's were idiots. Was it there first time ever? 'The play has been confirmed.' What is that?!


He sure did not appreciate my joke after the game. I was drinking a V8 fusion (good stuff) it went down the wrong tube and I started coughing. Ave first questioned if I was dying, then asked what happened.

"I choked Avery. Kind of like how Utah did tonight."

My Gratitude

My parents do not do the whole go-around-the-table-saying-one-thing-you-are-grateful-for thing. I will have to wait and see if I employ some sort of the tradition with our own chiildren. Considering it is Thanksgiving I feel I must give thanks in some form to my Maker. As holier than thou it is of me to blog about it... I just really like writing.
After being sick all day today... it always seems to be on a holiday... I will start out by saying I am grateful for good health. It is amazing how you take it for granted until one day you do not have it. I am grateful for my husband. Our relationship has definitely been a growing experience, but no matter what my husband loves me. I cannot take that fact for granted. To be loved. And the opportunity to love. It teaches me. I love my Avery with all my heart.
I am grateful for family and friends. I seem to have collected friends from different times in my life and each adds a new dimension to my growth. I can turn to my friends at any time for anything.
I love good food and flavors. A good book, movie, and music puts a smile on my face. Dancing, even in the kitchen for the puppy dogs, brings joy to my heart no matter what.
The gospel of Jesus Christ fulfills what I know in my soul and lightens my burdens. My Savior brings hope to my weaknesses.
All in all, life is good. I am grateful for the experience of it, even when it is hard. Even the challenges we are experiencing now, I am thankful for. As much as I wish more than anything I could be pregnant right now; growing, planning, and glowing, I am not. And from that I am learning empathy and appreciation for the miracle that is life. One day, hopefully sooner rather than later, when that little double line appears, I will remember with fondness the time I had to prepare. And I will be grateful to be a mother.

My Cosmetic Work

I have recently made some big changes in my appearance. Can you tell? Here is the after...

Can you tell? Do you see it? No, it is not the haircut. I have been better about sticking to one style at a time. No!!! Jeez, how do you see that?!





I will give you a hint. Here is the before.

Bwahaha! Suckers! I had braces for 21 months and some of you had no idea. You see how sneaky I am, in that I never load photos where you can really tell. Mwahaha!
Enough of that, but do they not look fantastic. I am thrilled and can safely say, now that I am past that point, it was worth it. Most of you are probably akin to my husband, in the fact you did not think I needed braces in the first place. I can only contribute it to the 'curse of what I do for a living' (that would be a good zombie movie). I knew I could fix my smile. I knew it needed fixing. Who wants to come get braces when their assistant's teeth are not perfect. Now they are!!! Plus sides, my smile has widened and my TMJ related headaches are a thing of the past. It was not all just for vain, cosmetic reasons here folks. Lookie at the real, real before.

Can you not see the drastic improvement? Okay, maybe not, but I can, and that is all that matters. Now to just work on my other half. I know he is already ridiculously good looking, but I could make some slight improvements.

My Viral Outbreak

This past weekend at our house we had an episode with the H1N1 virus. It sure made for a fun holiday, let me tell you. Of course my dad would bring it home first, stupid sick patients (KIDDING). It went through every member of the family and all healed quickly, except for one. Austin started acting kind of funny. Apparently the high fever affected his brain more than the rest of us. He started experiencing swelling, which caused some strange symptoms. He would stagger through the house, mumbling to himself. He started ignoring his personal hygiene (started...hehehe). Probably the most noticeable was his sudden request for raw meat for dinner. RAW! He just gobbled it straight from the fridge, bloody raw meat. He loved it! Started mumbling 'Flesh' all the time. Good thing I am work during the day because I would not want to be around him all day. Then Saturday, the rest of us had gone out to lunch to celebrate our new found health, again. We came home to a strange sight.


We at first concerned for Austin's safety. Especially, when after we walked through the house he was no where to be found. Then the neighbor's came over, they were all asking if we had seen their dog... cat... child etc. What in the world was going on? Where was Austin? Later that night we found him hiding in the yard chewing on a chicken. He looked just awful!

We posted signs throughout the yard "Beware of Zombies" but all night could hear the screams of small children. Apparently, they were not old enough to read yet. Finally we came up with a plan. Dad had been working on a cure all week and decided it was time. We cornered him in the yard, sprayed him down with the hose to subdue, while father sprang with the injection. Austin howled but soon fell asleep. We were able to carry him inside, shower him off, and soon he could be found munching on Snickers bars. Far better than flesh. He has been doing much better, thank you. Looks like he will be back to his old self in no time. Thank for your concerns!

p.s. We deeply apologize to our neighbors for any inconveniences/dismemberments Austin's illness may have caused.

My Own Rules

Today I opened a lovely cardboard box from Amazon. It contained my newest book purchase.

(POST EDIT: Sorry no, not an announcement. I am not pregnant. I wish. But no, I realize I worded it oddly. Which made it seem like I was. That has been edited. Sorry! Keep praying though!)
I like the title. It suits our circumstances, not yet having children. Yes, I realize there is the possibility our future child will be a girl, but I have my doubts. I bought it to keep on hand for WHEN we do conceive as maybe a present for Avery (first father's day?) but I ended up looking through it first. Oops...

*Anyone else love the smell of a new book? Or the way the pages crack as you break in the binding for the first time? I love a new book! Call me strange, I am sure I am.*

It is written from a father to a son, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is simple pages of one liner lessons such as "When in doubt wear a tie... Learn how to dance... Talk to your mother. She is cooler than you think...Write down your goals twice a year." And other such lovely snippets. Just classics. I also enjoy the mustard yellow cover, and in my mind's eye picture it on the shelf in our non-existent nursery.

It caused me to relfect on some of my own rules for my life, or at least one's I would like to incorporate. Dance in the kitchen...Only buy clothes that fit well. Not necessarily the latest style...Learn how to save. I am in the midst of compiling a list. Any suggestions?

Coming next in the cardboard box of wonders...

the previous purchase reminded me of the review I once read for this, and thought they would make a good pair. The subtitle is '20 things my son needs to know.' I must be on a new kick.

What life lessons do you wish to pass to your children?

My Date Night

My date night usually consists of a few of my favorite things...
*take out yellow curry*


*the latest crappy redbox movie* this time it was 'Year One' Do not recommend.


*And a few fuzzy faces to cuddle with*



*and Avery* but his fuzzy face would not let me take a picture of him last night

p.s. He was laughing (laughing!) at me while I was taking pictures...
"What are you doing? Why are you taking a picture of the movie case? Are you making fun, are you making fun of our date night?"
"I'm not making fun. I'm documenting," I was trying to explain to the man.
"Awww... It is so cute, look at our date night. You want to remember when we were poor, ate take out, and rented a movie every weekend. Awww... look at our poor college days in the scrapbook!" he was laughing the whole sentence.

I wish you all a great date night!

My close encounter of the moose kind

Alright I know, this is a lot of posts but I have been jerry rigging blogspot to post my pictures (still having issues) and I have all these backed up posts I wanted to put pictures up for. Last one, I promise.
Ave had an elk tag this year. For a spike, which I am proud to say I now know what the heck that is. He literally went five separate days, hiked hundreds of miles (maybe tens of miles), and never got a damn thing. He was mad. Poor Avery. I was mad because he spent a lot of money on game bags, ammo, camo gear, and the like for this dumb hunt. Which, I was never quite clear why he felt he had to go in the first place. What would we do with an elk?! We do not even own a freezer. We live with my parents!! But he had to be a man, I guess.
So after the first weekend was a bummer he wanted to go back the following monday. He was skipping school to go hunting. Ask me how I felt about that? And he did not have anyone to go with, so he was going to go alone. I was not about to let that happen, so I went with. ON MY DAY OFF. Yes, I am crazy at times, as his uncle Kent so kindly pointed out while handing me an orange vest. I dragged my butt out of bed at 4:00 AM and hiked in the snow... yes snow... for five hours!! It sucked. I do not see the appeal in hunting... at all. We heard some bugles, that was freaky and cool at the same time. But never saw anything. Granted the scenery was beautiful and it was good exercise. But when he went again the next weekend, he went alone. I just resigned myself into deciding whether I would cremate his body or not when he died. Luckily, I did not have to go through with it, he lived. But never got anything. He is very sad. Do not mention it to him.
"There's always next year," he's says.
"Not if I have anything to do with it," I say.
Oh, and did I say we did not see anything on 'our' hunt. I lied.

We saw a family of him. This is the daddy, and there was a mommy, and a baby. And I was peeing my pants. Avery was throwing snowballs at them. Remember how I have said he is a genius, apparently it comes and goes. He got all excited because all of sudden there were tracks. Big tracks, not the deer tracks we had been seeing all morning. So he whispers, "Those are elk." Which by the way why do we have to whisper? Are the elk that hard of hearing? Anyways, nope not an elk because not ten feet in front of us is a moose. It made some wierd noise, like a whine and then wandered down the trail to the... oh look... two other moose, and one has huge stabbing antlers!!! Moose have antlers right? Is that what they are called. I am not joking when I say they were standing on the trail right in front of us while I am clinging to a tree because Avery just said that they cannot go around them quickly so it is the safest place to be. I have heard stories of scary moose chases, including my bestie Hanna who had one chase her into the girls bathroom at girls camp and try to tear down the stalls. I am re-telling this story to Ave (he has heard it before, whenever someone mentions a moose attack, what can I say I have no stories of my own, I live through others, until now) and picturing this moose wildly swinging meanwhile Ave hands me the rifle and walks closer... yes, there goes the genius again. Trying to shoo them off the trail so we can walk by. He throws rock and snowballs at the moose(s) *I know the plural of moose is in fact moose but I want you to picture three of them staring back at Avery trying to hit them with a snowball, If they were not so ornery looking I would think they would just be thinking, "Oh how fun! I want to play too!" Eventually, they climb up the hill and watch as we walk by. The whole time I keep checking my tail because I am picturing Mr. Moose getting pissed and taking off at me while I am not looking. "Watch this Moose Jr. This is how you kill a human when they are not looking." They don't. We were safe. YAY! Avery went by himself, and did not die, and did not see anymore moose. Next year he needs a moose tag.

My modern day cattle drive

I forgot to mention what we saw on the way down to moab. In spanish fork canyon...


Can you believe it?! There were hundreds of 'em!! And about ten real life cowboys, on the highway. Giddy up.

My UEA weekend

Ave had the weekend off; playtime! We have our system. On school breaks ie: UEA and spring break, we get to go on an "Avery vacation". Which usually revolves around four-wheelers. Then for our big gifts ie: Christmas, Anniversary; we take a "Jenn vacation". So this past weekend, Moab. I love moab, good memories, good fun. My family and I used to go a couple times a year to bike or four-wheel. It's been awhile, since my birthday last year that we have been. It was about time. We hit some good trails, rested up, ate some good food, and had WAY too much family time. Living with my family full time definitely does not cause me to want to spend vacation time with them. But hey when we can stay in the RV for free... and rides my parent's four-wheelers for free... and eat yummy food for free... we'll get over it.
It was fun... check it out.








And yes the dog does ride on the four wheeler. He loves it. Sometimes he runs beside us, but usually he just rides in the back.

My Life's Frustrations

Blogspot has not liked me lately. I have tried to post and attach photos three seperate times. Will not work. It is annoying. Not really anything special going on, just life. But I like being able to muse on my blog. And whine. Now is some more whining. Stick with me here.
The baby thing has not been going so well. I will just say that. And that we are pretty sure I had an early miscarriage last month. So that is always disappointing and slightly sad. Though I told a few of my friends that in a way I was happy about it, because it means I am ABLE to get pregnant. Being in the medical field I know the stats and I am way more willing to have my body make the decision. I would rather have a happy and healthy baby. Not saying I am not getting to the point where I just want a baby. I have to remind myself to relax and not to stress. Going on six months... it is hard not to stress about something you want so badly. I need to remind myself it happens on Heavenly Father's time, He is looking out for me. It will all work out.
In other news Ave is back in to the swing of school. Which I will say the late night studying and homework does not help the baby process. He received an invite to the Golden Key Honor Society. Which means he is in the top 15% of his class. YAY! My husband is a freaking genius. He has also been trying to hunt. He got an elk spike tag and keeps going to a few spots but has not got one yet. I actually went with him up American Fork Canyon the other day. In the snow... On a five hour hike... And then did not see anything. Hunting is lame. I do not see the appeal.
My work is great. I really love it. And for the first time in awhile we are fully staffed. Which of course makes my work load even better. And I am really excited my doctor is opening a satellite office in Park City starting in November. He will do really well up there, and we get to go shopping after work. Good all around!
The being at the parent's house thing is going well... yeah, well. It is frustrating. And I am REALLY bummed not to be able to decorate for halloweeen. I keep seeing all these great ideas online, that I just have to save. Boo! But it still has been the best decision, I do not know how we would have survived. Once again reminds me He is looking out for us.
Everything will work out.
Thanks for listening to me whine. I can recommend some good cheese if wanted.

My Best Friend's Pedicure

What do you do when you are painting your toes... you finish... you want to keep painting... but don't have a baby to paint? Look at your ginormous, fuzzy dog sitting next to you on the couch and go at it.

My Motto

"Knowing is half the battle."

If you remember this as fondly as I do, you'll enjoy it.

My Seventh Month of the Year

Having received some complaints (Okay, only one. Thanks for caring Audra.) I dragged out my camera cords and downloaded some photos. Being as far behind as I am I will summarize July...

We went to the Stadium of Fire thanks to Ammon being a stage manager, and Dad for letting Glenn Beck chill in his RV (or his Trailer, as we movie people call it.) Awesome show! Great emcee! Not a fan of the Jo Bros but the screaming and crying preteens were entertaining.

Hilarious little girl dancing the entire time.We were on the field like 6 rows back, so we had alot of ash rain down on our heads. Good thing no one there had PTSD.

Then I had baby shower(s).

My cute friend Shelby expecting her first, a girl. And my former co-worker/friend Melissa expecting another girl, her first as well. I did happen to win a $50 gift card prize at this shower. Yay me!

My brother Austin turned 14 years old. Wierd!

We didn't have any birthday candles, so he to blow out a couple real candles and a lighter.He scored a DS-i and a slip 'n' slide which he proceeded to break the next day but not before him, the dogs, and I got some fun out of it. (Word of warning, any females out there beware the slip 'n' slide and diving full onto your bosom. Painful! Luckily this one came with an inflatable boogie board, made it fun again for me.)

Avery and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary. We went out to dinner (mmm Carrabas) and later went up and spent the weekend at his familiy cabin four wheeling, eating smores, and watching Dexter season two. I know it sounds lame, it kind of was considering, but we're broke as joke, so we had to make our own fun. What went from a San Diego anniversary went to Las Vegas again, went to St. George again, went to Anniversary Inn for a night, went to up the cabin (for free) for a night. Yay for free! At least there wasn't any internet to distract us.Obligatory wedding photo to prove in fact we did get married.

We did get to go see Kenny Chesney in concert. We had the nosebleed seats and the sun baked us till it went down, but 'when the sun goes down' we had a blast.I think Ave's favorite was someone down below gave Kenny C. a University of Utah hat that he switched from his cowboy hat into when he came a did his encore. Like 10 songs!! All not his, different bands from U2 to the Eagles, all sorts of fun, like one big party. Great night!

It's been busy, Ave's been working to save for school. Expensive! I've been working to pay our bills. It's nice getting him around more when school is out but I think it's about time to go back. I want to feel better about getting another year out of the way. We are all settled (for the most part) the our basement bedroom and it's working out as well as can be expected. Every month we are anxiously awaiting seeing this...instead of the opposite, which we have been seeing. Boo! Waiting sucks. But I feel a sense of relief in the no longer 'waiting to try'. At least at this point it 's out of my hands. Anybody got any extra prayers lying around, one can come our way. August will be a good month I can tell.

My transition period

Moving in with your parents sucks. Really, no matter how you look at it, it's never a positive thing. You feel almost like a failure, can't make it on your own. Even though that's not why we're moving in... it sort of feels that way. No we didn't have a massive financial crisis, it's just best for now. Still make you feel sad. Especially when you tell people, "Oh, that's nice." We left our little one bedroom apartment of two years, to a one bedroom basement suite to call ours. Not much. Trust me I know it's for the best. I'm very grateful to my family for all their hard work renovating our little suite. Still packing all my kitchen stuff that I won't see for years, sucks. I'll admit I cried to see my little dishes disappear. I like my stuff.
Enough whining. I am terribly excited, as is my husband. We get to move on with our lives, as in start a family. YAY!!!!!!! =) Biggest grin ever on my face. My parents are amazing for giving us our space and volunteering their future time. It's the only way it could work out and we wanted to do it. As much as it sucked. I like my stuff.
Considering I haven't bloggged it... it still happened. Avery had his 26th birthday and I had my 25th. That makes me feel old. I'm not exactly a spring chicken anymore. It's amusing to watch expressions from people's reactions from when I used to say 21-23, "Oh you're still very young you have time!" To now 25, "Oh, honey. It's probably a good idea to start thinking of a baby." What?

Do you want to see what I did for my birthday?

No I didn't get drunk. But I did get to go to Vegas with some good friends. We went to Wolfgang Puck's for dinner, Bellagio fountains shopping at HM, chick flicks, and sugar. MMMM.... Way fun! Kiitos ystavat! Makes a girl feel young to be a girl. 25... I am officially in the middle and officially on my way to growing up.

My sweet tooth

Saw this online today. I must find these!!!!!

Ammon's Graduation

I just wanted to offer a congrats to the newest Lehi High School graduate. Congrat Ammon! Welcome to the real world. For family who wishes to know, his plans are to work and take a few online classes in preparation for mission next spring. I really cannot wait to see where he goes... crossing my fingers for Finland. =)

Also a congrats for my cute SIL Chelsey, who graduated from Timpview High School. We hurried and ran to her walk ceremony as well right after Ammon's. But I left my camera with the parents to take the cute photos of Ammon. This is her trying on her prom dress my cute cousin/sister/friend Heidi was kind enough to lend her. Congrats Chelsey! Good luck at Snow!!

Luvs to you both!

A chance to use my new zoom

I come home today to this...

Aves smacked his head on the side of the RV. He and my dad were in the midst of trying to decide if it needed stitches. It did. Awesome!! I'll get my camera.

I've got bunches more, but people might have a weak stomach. I love my macro settings though! and my husband, poor baby.