Embracing Cache Valley

So, first, a little history. Six years ago I decided to go to Utah State, and I figured I would go to school for three or four years and then I would probably be in graduate school or get married or something, so then I would move away from Logan. Six years ago, when I first came to Cache Valley, I loved it and I felt so blessed to be here. As most of you know, my sentiment has recently changed. I want you to know, I have nothing against Cache Valley, I think just because of my mindset, I've been ready for a change for quite some time now, and the longer I'm here, the more I think I may never leave. So one of the girls that I work with said that she has decided that she needs to start embracing Cache Valley instead of being bitter about being here. The same thing could be said about me a thousand times over. So this week I went on a hike with Lacey, that same girl that I work with, on Friday and I also went on a hike with Josh on Saturday. I realized there are quite a few things to embrace about Cache Valley. (These pictures are totally out of order and I don't even care!)








Josh and I at the Wind caves
















Lacey and I hiked to the top of the China Wall, and that is me on top of it. I know, I should stop my whining because, seriously, there aren't many places where two hikes like this exist minutes away from your house!

Catch Up

Okay, it has been a very long time since I posted, and there are a few reasons for that, which you will hear about later on, but I don't want to ruin the surprise! But, lots of things have happened, so even though it's been a month, I don't want to forget these events, so read on-or don't. If you're bored, and give up, I understand. First of all...

March 28th: I already said that my birthday was March 29th, and I told you about my Twilight surprise, but Josh wasn't done with just that. On Thursday night (the 26th actually) Josh told me that he had given up on trying to buy me birthday presents, so he wanted to take me shopping on Friday night. He gave me what he was able to pick out on his own (a running shirt, Nike + (which is an IPOD running program), and flip flops.) (I told Josh that I wanted clothes, and I should've known that since that is all Josh would wear if he had a choice, that's what I would be getting. So Friday night, we went shopping, went out to eat, and saw Monsters vs. Aliens. But we still weren't done celebrating (I'm so lucky!) Josh had told me all week that he had planned something for us to do on Saturday but he wouldn't tell me what it was, because I love surprises! So Saturday morning, Josh woke me up and told me that we were going to go snowboarding with his friend Jonny. I was excited because I love snowboarding. So we got all our stuff together, and started driving toward Beaver. We pulled into the parking lot where we were supposed to meet Jonny, but instead of Jonny, my friend Hope and her husband Dustin were in the parking lot with their snowmobiles!!!!! I thought that was a very good birthday surprise, and even though Josh probably didn't have to prepare as much as Hope and Dustin, I was very pleased with his ability to keep the secret. We had a lot of fun, and the picture on here is not any of us (although I'm sure we all would have looked that cool!) Thanks Hope and Dustin and Josh!

Now jumping ahead a little. On April 16th, I went to see the play Wicked with some of my family. I thought it was good, but I wasn't super familiar with the songs or the story before I went, so I was a little confused (and you'll see more why I was confused in just a minute.) But since we saw it, I haven't stopped listening to the soundtrack, because I LOVE IT!!!!!

The Thursday before we went to see Wicked, I did something that I have been waiting to do for a VERY VERY VERY long time. I got my wisdom teeth out.

And, as you can see, I swelled up. Sadly this actually wasn't even the worst of it. But I really can't complain too much. I went in Thursday and had an oral surgeon take them out, so I was asleep for the worst part, then I was swollen till about Tuesday, but eating pretty normal foods by Monday. My mouth isn't all the way back to normal but I got to sleep like 15 hours a day for 4 days straight, eat pudding, and watch movies on the Love Sac-so pretty much what I've always wanted. But since we saw Wicked 2 days after, I was still on pretty heavy pain medication, so I'm sure there's quite a bit from the play that I missed.


Last of all...

On Tuesday of this week, I went into work and they said there was a package there for me. I was sure it was something that was for the center, and someone had me as the contact person by mistake. So I opened the box, and the box inside said that it was a Mac Book. I still thought there must be some kind of a problem. But nope....


Sure enough, Josh bought a Mac Book for us and just had it shipped to my office because they needed someone to sign for it. Josh's laptop broke about a week ago (it's been on it's last leg for awhile) and I've been trying to convince him to get a Mac for awhile, but I had no idea that he was going to buy it. (Josh is all of a sudden AWESOME at surprises!) So, of course, I was pretty excited. (The girl that I work with said I was like a 5 year old on Christmas morning.) I don't know anything about Mac's so I' m still trying to get everything figured out (and by "everything," I mean how to make the internet window bigger, and open a word document-you know the really complicated computer stuff.) But I do know that there's a program that will teach me how to play the guitar on here, so what more could you ask for from a computer!

Surprise!

Sometimes I find myself, as I'm sure many of you do, talking to my coworkers or family or friends about Josh only when he's done something wrong, or when I'm complaining. I do realize on a daily basis how awesome Josh is, I promise, and I had to give him credit now, because he scored some pretty serious points this weekend.


First, I have a somewhat embarrassing confession, which most of you probably already know anyway. I had a small obsession with the Twilight series-not so much the movie, but definitely the book. And when the movie came out, before seeing any of it, I knew that I would like anything that had any resemblance of the book, even if they completely slaughtered the book. I know, embarrassing, but I realized a long time ago, and have accepted that there will always be a part of me that is a 17 year old girl that loves Dawson's Creek, NSYNC, and black finger nail polish.


Well, the movie came out this weekend, and my birthday is Sunday the 29th. I told Josh that if he wanted to get the movie for my birthday, he could, but he had to give it to me the 21st, because I couldn't wait any longer than that. If he didn't want to go out and buy it the day it came out, I would buy it myself, but then he couldn't count it as one of my birthday presents. Make sense? I know I sound really picky, but I promise if I didn't set guidelines for Josh, he would say that the socks that I bought in January were for my birthday.


So Friday night, Josh and I watched a movie, and I fell asleep. When it was over he went upstairs with me, and when I went to get in bed, he said he was going to check his basketball brackets on the computer. The next morning, he woke me up several times asking if I wanted to go eat breakfast. (I am not a morning person) and finally he broke the last straw at 8:45. I said, "I am going to sleep until 9:00 and I don't see why fifteen minutes is going to make a difference!" So he went downstairs and I slept until 9 as promised. When I went downstairs, there was a Raspberry Texas Coffeecake on the counter. I told him thank you, and I was so relieved that I didn't have to make breakfast. We watched TV for a little bit, and finally, he said, "I can't believe you haven't noticed!" I looked at the TV stand where he was looking, and this was sitting on top of it.

I was so excited and thought that he pre-ordered, and it was just delivered that morning, but no. He went out at midnight and bought it on Friday night, along with the coffee cake. He even left some clothes downstairs, so that I wouldn't wake up when he was changing while I was sleeping. To make it even better, he was even willing to watch it with me that night! I have the best husband in the whole world.

Weekend Trip

Since we've been feeling the winter blues for quite awhile, Josh and I decided to take a short trip to Vegas. We went to a time share presentation about a year ago, and going to Vegas was part of our reward. I have to say, I really hate time share presentations. Josh thinks they are great, but I hate them. However, I have to say that we made out pretty well this time. We figured that if we hadn't gone shopping, we would have actually made money on the trip! They sent us a check in the mail awhile ago which was more than enough to pay for gas, our hotel was free, and they gave us $150 vouchers for food. If we had had more time, we could've gotten free show tickets too. So, it's always fun to travel for free. Like I said, the trip was very short. We got there about midday on Monday, and left Wednesday morning, but it was nice to get out of the cold for awhile. I thought that our hotel was pretty nice, (especially because it was free.) It's a pretty new hotel that's about 3 miles south of the strip called South Point.
One of the things I was looking forward to the most about the trip was swimming. Sadly, it was warm outside, but not warm enough to heat the pool, so we swam a little in the warm pool on Monday, but this giant pool was freezing cold, and I couldn't talk Josh into trying it out with me.
Like I said, we ate a lot of free food. I told Josh that (sad as it is) this is probably one of the nicest restaurants we've eaten in (it was one of the cheapest we could find in Ex Calibur. It's called Diego, and it's a Mexican restaurant. Josh liked the food, I liked the decor!

Of course, a must, the conservatory in the Bellagio. The flowers were so pretty and I came back with some serious spring fever! (I wore flip flops to work today even though it was like 17 degrees outside!)
We ate at a buffet on Tuesday, that was nicer than the average buffet. By that time, Josh was too stuffed to enjoy too much of the food, but how can you be upset with a buffet that has cotton candy as a desert option!

Besides eating, shopping, and walking around on the strip, we actually did a little bit of gambling (gasp!) but not to worry, we only did because we got vouchers to play some slot machines. At Casino Royale they gave us a hundred dollar voucher, but said that we could only cash it out if we won $4000. We got to $3700 and finally got sick of waiting for the money to disappear. Of course, there was a man sitting next to us who was happy to take our spot. I told Josh that I was more worried that we might win and I would feel guilty spending the money on anything because it's dirty money. Josh said he would have been fine, and put it toward the jeep :). Anyway, it was a good trip, good to get out the cold for a little while and now I am definitely ready for spring!

Update

Life is good. We really have been enjoying life lately even though I haven't blogged anything too exciting for awhile. I kept waiting for some big event that I felt was blog worthy, but if I'm waiting for our next vacation, then I may never blog again. :) First update-for Valentine's Day, I took Josh to a play called Cash on Delivery. I was in the play when I was in high school, so when it was playing at Hale Center Theater in Salt Lake, I thought it would be fun, and I went to enough of Josh's football games, that I figured he owed me at least as much. We went to a matinee with my parents and sister and brother-in-law. The play was really good, and it brought back a lot of good memories, but also made me realize how bad my memory is, because even in a play that I rehearsed how many times, and had to memorize lines with people that I went to school with for 3+ years, I couldn't remember almost anything. Seeing it jarred my memory a little, but wow. Most people can write losing their mind off to pregnancy or old age, but I have neither excuse yet. Anyway, the play was good, and even Josh admitted that he liked it. After that, we went to eat and Winger's because we didn't have reservations anywhere, and there surprisingly wasn't much of a wait at Winger's. Then we went home, made cheesecake, and just basically relaxed which is what we both wanted to do for Valentine's Day.

Second update- A few weeks ago, the long awaited day finally came... This was a day that Josh and I have looked forward to since we got married, and the longer we waited, the more excited we got, and the more we anticipated its arrival. Josh and I have been married for almost three years, and we have never, ever, ever done our laundry in the comfort of our own home. And boy, are we deserving now.

We bought a washer and dryer on black Friday-in November. We were signing our names onto a waiting list, and asked the salesman when we should expect them to come in. He said, "Probably December." Josh and I both hesitated, thinking whether we would be able to wait that long. But decided it was worth. Then when we were at the register, and the same salesman was ringing up our purchase, he leaned over to the guy behind him, and asked, "When are the dryers supposed to be coming in?" That guy said, "Probably February." Josh and I left the store that minute, because we were hesitating waiting until December. And, we thought when we asked originally that "December" meant for both the washer and dryer-a package deal. Honestly, who wants the one without the other? So we home without purchasing a washer and dryer, Josh went to work, and I went back to sleep. (Remember this was black Friday.) Josh called me several times during my nap debating whether we should get them or not, and finally, he made me drive back into Logan, and pay for a washer and dryer that we wouldn't even see until well into the new year. I was frustrated to say the least. You do not want to mess with me when I am short on sleep. So we waited patiently for our purchase to arrive, until about February. Then when we called into the store, they started saying that they may not come in until March! Eh, what's a few more months when you've been waiting years. Luckily, they called and said that an extra set had come in, and since we had been so persistant, they asked if we wanted to come them. We arranged to pick them up, and when we got them home, and Josh started setting them up, he found that the dryer hadn't come with a chord. We knew they were cheap, but seriously, it didn't even come with a plug? We called the store, and found out that that's normal, because there a different chords and different outlets. Silly us! We've never had a dryer before. So after all the waiting, we have been loving doing laundry whenever we want. We're still working out a few kinks. At first, the faucets were leaking like mad, but I think Josh has got that fixed, and when we have the washer on high spin it sounds like a jet engine is about to take off in our apartment, so we put our food storage on top of it, and that's been working well. Oh, the many uses of food storage. So, after all that, I can say, it has been well worth it!

Last update-A couple weeks ago, I got together with some of my friends from high school, which I was SO excited about because I am not very good about staying in touch with people, so even the people that I thought I couldn't live a day without for so many years of my life, I haven't talked to in years. Isn't it crazy how that happens. We always say that we'll stay in touch, but we let life get in the way. It was so fun to catch up with what everyone has been doing, and so great to see how happy everyone is with their lives. Amanda and Dana are on the left, and I've been friends with them since elementary school, and Amy is on the right, and we've been friends since Jr. High. We promised that we'll get together again in like six months rather than six years this time. I love you all!

Other than that, we've pretty much just been living the dream. We work everyday, watch The Office and Biggest Loser, then party all weekend-you know, the usual. Hopefully next blog will be super exciting to make up for all the months that it hasn't been!

Ode to Logan

Well, we haven't posted lately, but sadly, this is the best I can come up with right now. Because sometimes- especially lately, I wonder why out of all the places in the world, Josh and I have chosen to live in Logan. Don't get me wrong, I love Cache Valley, and right now, it's really the only place that I could think of as home, but the longer winter goes on, the more I wonder.



So Josh sent me this email awhile ago-it's similar to Jeff Foxworthy's "You Might Be a Redneck..." but this is
"You Might Live in Utah..."

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September to May, you live in Utah. (It's true! the only one in Cache Valley is currently closed.)
If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you might live in Utah.
If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you live in Utah.
If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed the wrong number, you live in Utah.
If "vacation" means going anywhere south of Salt Lake City for the weekend, you live in Utah. (Hello! Story of my life!)
If you measure distance in hours, you live in Utah. (I didn't know there was any other way to measure it.)
If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you live in Utah. (Hitting deer is a weekly occurrence in Josh's family!)
If you have switched from "heat" to "A/C" and back again in the same day, you live in Utah.
If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you live in Utah.
If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you live in Utah.
If the speed limit on the highway is 75 mph--you're going 80, and everyone is still passing you, you live in Utah.
If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow, you live in Utah.
If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction, you live in Utah.
If you find 10 degrees "a little chilly" you live in Utah.


And I've added a few of my own "Only in Logan..."
Only in Logan does your car door freeze shut to the point that you have to climb in through the window. (True story, happened to me last week, and it didn't unthaw until like noon.)
Only in Logan is a traffic jam caused by a tractor.
Only in Logan does it take an entire county's police force to issue one speeding ticket.
Only in Logan is an inversion so thick that I can't see 1 foot in front of my car caused by cow manure.
Only in Logan can your nose hairs freeze inside your nose in a matter of seconds.

I will be the first to admit that there are really good things about Logan and Cache Valley too. Sometimes it's just hard to think of them when it is 7 degrees outside, I'm late for work because I'm scraping inches of ice off my windshield, and I'm dreading driving 20 minutes in the FOG!

Snowboarding!

After weeks of begging, Josh finally took me snowboarding. We went snowboarding with Josh's brother Jared, and wife Amy on Saturday, and as always, I loved it. I'm not very good about taking pictures when we're snowboarding, so luckily, my bindings came unscrewed from my board (if you can call that lucky), so most of these pictures were taken while we were fixing them. Yea for snowboarding!