Christmas

Here is a little recap of our holiday season. It was nutty and fun and full of joy.

12/24 - Lunch with my family and the Plaizier's at Joy Luck in Bountiful
Mike & Mary's party that night with family and friends (and my family included)

12/25 - Open presents with Plaizier's at 7:30. Holy iPad, Batman!!!!


Church at 11 a.m. - even though it made for a logistical nightmare, I really enjoyed Christmas on Sunday to remember the true reason of Christmas.

Dallin and I open presents with Maggie at noon - she LOVED her stocking! Santa spoiled her. She wanted to play with all her new toys and eat her snacks immediately.

Christmas dinner with my family at 2:30. Brett decides to call at 2:30 instead of 4:00 so we made him call back because we were starving! Opened presents while waiting for him to call back.

Skype with Brett and chase Maggie around my parents house

Get home around 7:30 p.m. and are exhausted!

12/26 - Party with Dallin's family at 1 p.m. and the Moore family at 5 p.m. I decided to save the falling green bean casserole (right out of the oven) with my non-gloved hand and burned my palm and middle finger royally. PAIN. I cried. But luckily the green beans were good and I guess worth the save. Later that night I also did some Christmas returns. Much less crowded than in the daytime.

12/27 - Mission scrapbooking with my mama. Made me super emotional reading letters from my now-deceased grandma. Lots of good memories. Had another family Christmas party that night.

12/28 - We decided to cancel all things that day so we could have a day to just relax and do "nothing." We went to the mall and wandered around. That night we took a sushi making class at Harmon's. I gave this to Dal for Christmas along with a sushi kit. It was so much fun! The class was about 2 hours and we learned how to make the rice, cut and pick the fish and roll. I was most nervous about rolling because it looked the hardest and most technical. It actually wasn't too bad and our teacher commented on how our rolls were "perfect" and we didn't need to be in the class. I don't like fish so I made veggie rolls. :) The grossest part was cooking the shrimp and having to peel their "little punkin legs" off, as our instructor told us. Then de-veining. I refused.

12/29 - Movie Marathon Day! We met up with the Plaizier's, my brother and sister, my uncle and cousins and went and saw MI:4. LOVED it. Super entertaining. Right after, we headed into Sherlock Holmes II. It was pretty good but I started to doze during the second half. We headed to dinner afterward and I met up with my neighbor friend for a late-night showing of Breaking Dawn. Super fun day!

12/30 - Our vacation was winding down. Boo! I was to meet up with my last mission companion for lunch. She's from Guatamala but lives in Cali now and was in Utah for the holidays. She was about 90 min. late so I didn't have too much time with her since we had another engagement. Met up with my friend Jess, from work, and her boyfriend at Olive Garden downtown to celebrate her birthday!

12/31 - Went to Sizzler for lunch with my gramps and cousin. Gramps had me run him on some errands to visit the cemetery and pick up his Rx. Came home and we decided to have a low-key New Year's Eve since we're old. We went to the Smith's and got take out and watched a movie. I ended up falling asleep around 10:30 p.m. and waking up at midnight to the cuckoo clock. Happy New Year, I'm going back to bed. But you know what, it was nice!

It was really hard to go back to work on the 3rd. Even though I love my job, it was so much fun to stay home and play. I'm grateful for my job so even though it was hard, I was happy to be back. Happy 2012!

Cheer

Ok, I've been a sucky blogger lately. Lots of stuff going on with the holidays and the pup. She's doing alright, by the way. She's just been having small, focal seizures where her faces twitches or she walks around like she's chewing gum, so we're messing with the medication to see what helps to completely eliminate them, but she's doing alright.

This past Monday I went to the David Archuleta concert with my mom and sister. It was a great show and really got me in the Christmas spirit and the Spirit was so strong. We got an awesome surprise when David announced he'll be serving a full-time mission (see video above - I didn't record it, my recording was a bit further away). I have so much respect for him and feel this "sisterly" love toward him. I reflected on my own time in the mission field and the growing experiences that I had who shaped me into who I am today. He is so lucky he gets to experience that. There is nothing like serving the Lord as His missionary. I am amazed at his courage because of how hard this decision probably was for him. He is not only giving up his family, etc. but potentially a very lucrative career and millions of dollars. To follow the Spirit and have the trust in the Lord to do what he feels is right really shows you his character and where his heart truly lies. I am so excited for him and his experiences and am sure he'll touch many more lives than he already has with his music.

We've also been partying a lot around here. We had my work Christmas party, that I helped plan, at the Commander's House up at the U. I think it was a great success. The venue, food, entertainment, White Elephant, was all so much fun and everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves. I'm now off work until the New Year and am so stoked to finally have a "vacation." I didn't take any vacation time this whole year (except my 6 weeks of unemployment which I don't think counts) and it's been fun to spend time with Dal and Mags.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.
O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Challenge

This week we've had a really ruff time (pun intended). I'm sorry if this is just always about Mags but a lot of you ask about her so I thought I'd give an update.

Maggie woke up Monday and was acting weird (she wouldn't eat, that has NEVER happened). I suspected a seizure so I had my neighbor check on her at lunchtime and she was acting weird again so I ran home on my lunch break and found seizure evidence. I took her to the vet and put her on seizure watch. I picked her up that night because she'd had no problems throughout the day. That night she had a couple seizures so we met the vet down there for emergency treatment. He sedated her and got her situated and she spent the night. It was kinda nice for us because we were able to relax and get some sleep.

She stayed there Tuesday on seizure watch and had a little one that morning. Luckily the doctors were around and able to give her valium. That afternoon she did well so we picked her up. Again, around 9:30 p.m. she had another seizure. This time I had the valium ready and gave her a shot. ME. Putting a needle in something. My adrenaline was off the charts. I called the vet and I took her to bed with me. She had another one around 10:30 so he met us down there around 11 p.m. and we did the whole sedation and hospitalization thing. They kept her Wednesday and she did really well and they had me leave her overnight and all day Thursday again so they could keep an eye on her. She did well so she's been home since Thursday. She had a mild seizure that night, only about 10-15 seconds and just a little leg twitching. She has had some mild "face" seizures where she breathes weird and her face twitches. It's strange because those little ones take a while for her to snap out of but the larger ones, she snaps out of quickly.

For a while, we were thinking the worst. We upped her meds again and are hopefully on the mend. She's been doing alright. She's quit eating her food, I think she hates it because it's the healthy kind, little oinker. But she's really been filling a huge void for me and the thought of losing her nearly made me go out of my mind. I was a wreck all week. Dal had his moments too. So we're just trying to enjoy our time with her and only time will tell what the next step will be. We still have the option of the potassium supplement but that will really bring on the side effects and she just might not be the same and we don't want to lose her cute little personality. So keep a little prayer in your heart for Mags.

Cheer

What we've been doing to celebrate:

Decorating the tree. Maggie's been eating off the pinecones.

Festival of Trees. (Go Utes!)

Successfully humiliating Maggie.

Changin' Winds

Thursday was unreal. We knew a wind storm was coming through but had no idea it was going to be a hurricane minus the rain! We woke up at 6 a.m. to howling wind that had kept most of our neighbors up at night. As Dal went to get in the shower, the power went out. So we went back to bed for a while. I found our flashlight and luckily had some juice in my cell phone to at least find it.

Dallin manually opened the garage door and I called into work to let them know I'd be late as I waited for the power to come back on so Mags didn't freeze. Plus, she's terrified of the wind. The gusts of 102 mph rattled the garage and I thought the window in there was open but now, it was just drafty.

Did I mention it was garbage day in our neighborhood? Our garbage can blew away and I have no idea where it went. One (that wasn't ours) ended up on our doorstep so we kept it. I cranked up the fireplace and around 10 started on my way to work. I couldn't even open up my car door the wind was blowing so hard and I had to keep my eyes closed so debris didn't fly into them. When I made it on the road, I'd wished I'd just stayed home.

I got to the top of Park Lane and there were semis tipped over, traffic lights dangling, no street signs and my car was shaking so bad I thought I was going to blow over. There was hardly anyone on the freeway which made for some picture-taking opportunities. Davis County was hit so hard, the freeway was shut down northbound.

When I got to work they thought I was crazy because the wind wasn't that bad in Salt Lake. I showed them the pictures and we read the news stories. Someone even said the yellow lines on Legacy Freeway were even blowing off. I left work early as Facebook posts from neighbors said their windows were shattering from the wind and headed for home to assess the damage.

Luckily our house was spared any damage. The windows, garage, roof and siding were all fine. A huge shout out to the neighbor kids. The stay-at-home moms had all their kids out in gloves cleaning up all the trash. Yesterday a lot of people were out putting the the wood chips back in place.

Today church got canceled so we could help with clean up efforts and prepare for the next wind storm that is supposed to hit tonight. This one isn't supposed to be AS bad (only 75 mph winds) but we know where our flashlight is and feel prepared. Some poor people STILL don't have power and may not get it if this storm is bad. We were luckily only without power for about 5 hours.

It's just been so weird. It looks like a war zone. I lived in SLC when the tornado came through and this even seemed worse. So strange. Signs of the times, eh? Everyone stay safe and warm!

The card

Paws And Lights Holiday Card

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Thankful

A little update on Mags. She seems to be doing really well with her seizures. We are so grateful. Her legs are slowly getting back to normal, almost all the way now. She just has a little limp when she's really tired or starts jogging. We are so grateful and hope we've found the "sweet spot" on her medicine and we can get these under control.

For this post about Wednesday, if you get queasy, which I do, it's probably best not to look at the pictures, or just skip this all together. For some reason, because it's my "baby" I was able to not end up flat on the floor. Just saying...

Dallin got a call from our next door neighbor telling us that she's never heard a peep from Maggie, EVER, but could hear her like she was shrieking and it just sounded like pain. We were both at work and I was about to head into a meeting so Dallin called his mom and she offered to go over and check on her with my sister-in-law. While I my meeting I get a text from Dal, "I'm heading home, call me when you're out of your meeting." My anxiety went through the ROOF. I knew something bad must have happened.

I called Dal after being completely useless in my meeting and he told me that Maggie had somehow got her jaw stuck in her crate. When she dislodged, she was bleeding and they couldn't tell from where. I guess she was stuck when Mary and Allie got there and they were trying to help her get unstuck and she got so excited that she just ripped her face out. My quick-thinking, RN of a sister-in-law grabs her and picks all 65 lbs. of her up and takes her upstairs and puts her in the bathtub so she doesn't get blood everywhere. All the while my angel mother-in-law is downstairs scrubbing blood off my walls and floor. I was mortified.

When Dallin got home they'd got the bleeding under control and went to take her on a walk. As they went to put her leash on, it swung down and hit her in the face and opened everything back up and she started gushing blood again. Since Dallin was in his work clothes, my sister-in-law AGAIN throws Maggie over her shoulder and hauls her upstairs to the bathtub, all the while getting blood all over her shirt, but making sure my carpet didn't have a drop on it.

They got the bleeding stopped again and Dallin took a nap with Maggie. I'm sure she was exhausted from not being able to sleep all day because she was STUCK and panicky. The only theory we can come up with is that she went sideways to chew on the vertical pole of the crate and tried to get out but her bottom teeth are so long that she was stuck and turned her head and got herself lodged. Some fluke thing. But we hadn't been to the vet in 2 weeks so I guess we were overdue! Luckily, I inspected her owies and determined if the oozing didn't stop by the next day, I'd take her in. It did so now we're just watching to make sure nothing gets infected. She has a gash on her chin, a small cut on her tongue and a hole behind her big bottom canine. We thought she may have pulled a tooth out but it doesn't look like it. Luckily the wounds should heal themselves and we're serious, even though it looked like Jack the Ripper had been through her bed. We could tell she was in so much pain but the only plus about the whole thing was that we got snuggles all night. I hope she can catch a break soon and just be CALM.

So this week I have been SO thankful for wonderful neighbors (the one who took a chance and called, and my sweet, dear neighbor-friend who came and checked on her Thursday to make sure she wasn't bleeding everywhere, and has been my go-to gal for Maggie checks) and my mother- and sister-in-law who I could never repay enough for their kindness in dealing with a crummy situation and refusing anything in return. I've just been overwhelmed with gratitude for the terrific people who surround me and that everything turned out alright (and that we have pet insurance!).

Table

If you ever see Dallin and me at a restaurant on a date, don't sit at the table next to us. We have this terrible/hilarious/awesome habit of listening to other people's conversations while we're at dinner. Before you go judging us on our obtrusive habits, maybe you should feel bad that we're boring enough that we HAVE to listen in. HA!

Today we had probably the biggest doozy of a conversation at Olive Garden. After the table was done eating and had paid, the younger couple got in an argument with the man's parents about them being intrusive and offending them, etc. The long and short of it is, I, luckily, can never picture having that conversation with Dallin's family nor him with mine. I feel so very blessed to have married into a family who loves me as much as if I was their own and I love them back. It makes me sad that people have such horrible relationships with their in-laws when it can be one of the most rewarding. Who doesn't need more family around? In the end, they're the only ones who'll drop anything to come to your rescue...which leads me to a Maggie update...

Weekend

This weekend has been so hard. Friday I came home from work and was offered full-time work at my job (wahoo, right?) Well, there was some negotiating to be done which didn't really go my way so I was a bit disappointed. Kinda put a damper on the mood and a precursor to the rest of the weekend. I do start this week though, wish me luck!

Saturday morning Maggie woke up at 5 a.m. and then I had her come to bed with us and she had a seizure around 6. It was a pretty mild one (and she hasn't had one in a really long time, but I had seen seizure evidence Thursday when I got home from work but I didn't know for sure). At 1:15 p.m. she had another one and then another one at 1:45. Of course the vet closes at 1. I had his cell phone number from the last time she had a cluster so I called and he answered, and told me if she had another one to bring her in. At 4:20 she had another one, and being the angel that he is, came down to the hospital to give her a Valium shot and gave me 2 Valium suppositories to give to her if she had more episodes. The drugs put her totally out of it and she kept flopping all over my back seat and falling off, etc. Made the drive kinda scary.

My parents and grandpa game over to watch the Utah game while Dallin was at the Real game. I was supposed to go but thought it'd be better to stay home with Maggie. About 15 min. after they left she had another seizure and I push the Valium. Man, was my adrenaline going! About 10 min. later she pooped and I'm pretty sure she pooped it all out. She laid on the couch and had another mild seizure lasting about 15 seconds then she fell asleep for a long time.

We made her bed up in our room to keep an eye on her and around 1 a.m. she had another Grand Mal. I pushed the Valium and she tried to push it out but luckily most of it stayed in. She was able to rest for a few hours then around 9 a.m. she had two really close together and the last one left her legs almost useless. She'd stand up and walk a few steps and they'd just give out. I have never felt so horrible for a creature in my life. I called the hospital and luckily a vet was in and told me to bring her in right away, so I did. He gave her another shot of Valium and a shot of sedation to relax her, relax her brain, and kick it out of its seizure pattern.

He spoke candidly about the many options we still have to explore but if we can't get the clusters under control, maybe look at putting her down. I LOST it. I think his bedside manner isn't the best because we still do have lots of options. Her levels barely just came in range so now we can mess with dosage, different combinations of drugs, etc. So I feel grateful that we still have many options to explore but having that little doubt in the back of my mind has made me a mess.

She's been in the hospital all day being monitored. They're going to keep her there tonight and while I'm at work tomorrow. I feel grateful for that because I didn't know what I was going to do with her. Maybe I'll be able to get a little sleep too. You know how everything seems so much worse when you're tired?

I just feel helpless and hate to see her suffer. I hope we can get it figured out soon so we can all get a little relief. She's just become my little buddy, I can't picture my life without her. Our house feels empty with her at the hospital. I hope she knows we're doing everything we can to help her and get her better. You know what I love most about her? We'll take her on a ride and she'll stick her head out the window and look at people and every single one of them grins at her. She makes them smile and makes them happy. I love my little pup. Please keep her in your prayers.

We Came, We Carved, We Conquered

For FHE last week we did pumpkin carving. I found a cute little bulldog pattern on Better Home and Garden and Dallin (being the patient, pumpkin-expert that he is) decided to tackle it. It consisted of carving and scraping away and lots and lots of guts. I picked a simple pattern. Easy enough that I ended up carving the whole thing. Haven't done that in years.

Dallin seemed disappointed with how his bulldog looked but when you turned the lights off, it looked AWESOME. So his jack o' lantern was a tribute to Maggie, I love it! My mummy wasn't nearly as cool.

What a Nerd

Maggie has always liked to chase her foot. Now that she's chunkier around the middle, this is what it ends up looking like. Sorry you have to tilt your head! What a nut.

Winner, winner, piggie dinner

I took Mags to Petco's Halloween costume contest this last Saturday. We had her dressed as a piggie because if you've ever seen her eat, there is no explanation necessary. I toiled between a bumble bee and a piggie this year and decided on the piggie because it's so hysterical. There are velco straps around the belly and neck to keep the pig head/hood on. She hates it. Surprise. She'll shake her head and paw at it until it falls off. Once the pig ear even fell forward into her face and she started gnawing on it.

Her little friend at the spa was supposed to be a judge but when they saw Maggie they had to get someone else because they knew it'd be unfair. This girl even went out and bought a bulldog she is so in love with Maggie! Ok to be honest, there were only 4 dogs in the whole competition! LOL I may be biased but I think she deserved better than 3rd place! The dog that won was a little Daschund dressed as a "senorita" which entailed a weird little poncho thing and a flower. Romeo the Golden Retriever puppy took 2nd in his bow tie and cuffs around his paws. He did look cute. I felt so bad for the Chocolate Lab puppy who took 4th. The little kids with her were devestated she didn't place. Luckily everyone got a little gift card and toys and treats for participating. That Lab was dressed up as a bumble bee and thought it was so adorable! I thought it should have won. I'll take 3rd though, we got a $5 giftcard to Petco too, which is awesome since all I had to do was show up. They dragged it out for an hour so Maggie was starting to get hot and thirsty and lose her sense of humor. I had to keep bribing her with treats. I was glad when it was all over and that it wore her out.

Next up with the festivities is Trick or Treating to our neighbors! They have a new little dog so we got treats for him to come Trick or Treat and they said they have something for Maggie. We love our little piggie!

Wow

Just wanted to share a crazy cool story of what happened to us last night. We were driving on a dark road back home from my in-laws' house. I was chatting away about work and Dallin interrupted me and told me he just had a feeling that I needed to slow down. No one was around so I laid on the brakes and started slowing down a lot. Not even 5 seconds later, a raccoon darted out in front of our car.

Now hitting a raccoon probably wouldn't have caused any major damage except that I would have felt really bad. But you never know. I was so grateful to my husband for being in tune to those small little promptings and for voicing it. He was very humbled by the experience and my heart overflowed with love for my dear husband who was worthy and who wasn't afraid of the still small voice in his heart. Not every time does the reason manifest itself so quickly, but we have to show that we'll listen and act and in this case, we were blessed to see the actions of our obedience.

Weight/Wait

Just and update on Maggie. I took Maggie to the vet and got her blood drawn and her levels were at 14 (still too low). They ended up losing/breaking a sample so I had to take her back again and this time they were at 19. They still thought it was barely in range so they upped her medicine again. One pill in the morning, two at night. It makes her really sleepy at night, which is awesome. As a sidenote, she now weighs 62 pounds! 62!! And she's even on weight control kibble and she's put on 10 pounds in the last 2 months. Not sure what we're going to do about that. I can barely control her anymore she's so hefty! Good thing she's going to be a piggy for Halloween. Guess that's not much of a stretch.

One

I can't believe our pup is one. We've only had her 8 months but wanted to celebrate this momentous occassion, especially since 7 years have passed for her in 365 short little days. We welcomed Maggie to our home with a sense of excitement and trepidation. I'd never had a pet before and didn't know anything about taking care of them. After lots of hard work, and lots of poo, we're definitely a family.

Maggie is the epitome of enjoying life. She's always excited to do anything and meet anyone (except cats). She makes you feel love continually and will kiss you all over your face. She's taught us patience, love and made us have an extra tender heart for little furry creatures (except cats). Every time we see a dog we stop to say hi or pet it and miss our little bulldog. She's a head-strong one, but you couldn't find one more loveable.

She's silky smooth and she likes to cuddle when we take naps. She love to play and wrestle with her dad. Her health issues have given us a scare recently but we're so grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord that I was there when the worst happened and was able to get her the help she needed. Reminds us of the scripture that God loves all creatures.

We're thrilled to have her in our home and she definitely makes us feel more complete. We love our Mags! Happy Birthday Puppy!

We celebrated with a BBQ of hot "dogs" and cupcakes with family. I tried my hand at some orange cupcakes and chocolate peanut butter (and Funfetti from the box). They turned out so great!

We feel so blessed to have so many people around who love Maggie as much as we do. She was tired before the party even started! She loved that so many people were around and played, and played and played. We only fed her half her dinner because we knew she'd receive many scraps from the table. We tried to get her to wear a party hat but she hated it. She'd shake her head to try and get it off. It was hilarious to watch her try and paw it off her head because she couldn't reach it. She provided us a lot of entertainment through her humiliation.

We brought out the cake for her and it took a minute for it was soften up a bit where should could take a good bite out of it. I ordered the cake from a dog bakery in San Diego. They were great to work with and it got here in one piece and was absolutely adorable! I couldn't have been more pleased. Maggie was also spoiled with gifts of treats and toys. We gave her a ball and she popped it in 5 minutes. Good thing it was only $5.
She was so exhausted after all the festivities she could barely walk up the stairs. I had to lift her into the car. But she still woke up at 1:45 a.m. wanting to play with her new toys! I finally put her back to bed at 2:45 a.m. since she was making so much noise I couldn't sleep and she was back up at 6 wanting to play! What a fun day for her!

Off the Charts

Monday I woke up to go to the gym and heard Mags and ran down and she was having a seizure. She was all foamy and her legs were giving out and she was disoriented. I got her out and wiped her mouth (which made her jump) and she started frantically panting so I got her some water (which she wouldn't drink) and she was wandering around. We went upstairs and I tried to get her to lay down and relax and she kept wandering so I called Dal to tell him what was going on and she sniffed the wall then her legs gave out and she started shaking a little then more violently then had another seizure. She started choking on her foam so I was watching her struggling to breathe and it was just awful. I told Dallin I was taking her to the vet and got in the car. I unrolled the window and she stuck her head out like normal then she curled into a ball and seized while I was driving. So I had my hand back there to keep her from falling off the seat and she foamed my car big time. So at the vet she was way out of sorts and NOT happy to be there. She kept trying to jump off the platform so I got her in face so she could smell and see me and she calmed right down. The vet was impressed that she was so coherent right after a seizure, especially 3 within 20 min. So they kept her for observation in case they needed to push Valium because they really didn't want her having another one.

They did blood work and it came back that her levels on her current seizure meds were only 12 and they have to been minimum 15-45 to be therapeutic. So the medicine for the last three weeks really hasn't been helping her that much. Probably because she's 58 pounds now! So they decided to double her dosage and recheck her levels in 2 weeks. The vet has been so great to show concern, take time to answer my questions, so understanding and even gave me his cell number in case I needed to call him after hours if she had a seizure. I think she had one Saturday and Sunday morning because I found her laying on the ground with a wet belly. I thought it was pee but now I realize it was actually foam. I'm so grateful I was home on Monday to help her and go get her some help.

My dear, sweet, neighbor has been coming over multiple times a day this week to check on her and give her a treat, then text me how she's doing. It's helped SO immensely because my anxiety has been out of control with all this. And I'm SO busy at work that I need to concentrate but can't because I'm thinking about Mags. So she's helped alleviate that. Dallin and I haven't been sleeping well at night because every little sound she makes sends us into a panic so by midnight, I usually just go get her and bring her to our bed so we can relax. But then she sleeps sideways and I don't get much sleep anyway, but at least I know she's safe.

We love our little (big) pup and hope she's on the mend!

On the Strip

My work sent me and my 2 coworkers to Vegas to Photoshop World. I was really excited to go because I've been itching for a change of scenery for months and I've always wanted to go to this conference. The conference was cool, I learned a lot of new techniques and got a lot of new ideas. Once I have a chance to put them to use, I'll post some of the coolness I come up with, lol. About 75% of the classes I went to were worthwhile. There were a couple I just played Angry Birds during. I'm exhausted from the conference though. For some reason the guys wanted to meet at 7:15 every morning when the conference didn't start until 8:15 so they could get a good seat. UGH! The classes also went until 7 or 8 at night so we'd be eating dinner around 9 - my brain was fried!

This trip to Vegas entailed my first trip to Trader Joe's. So cool! I went to dinner with my cousin and his wife and their kids Tuesday night. It was so fun. Their kids are adorable. Randomly, my brother ended up spending the night in Vegas with his friends on his way to the USC game so I met up with him! Wednesday during our long break, I walked 1.5 miles down to the nearest H&M in 100+ temperatures. That wasn't too smart so I shopped then took a cab back. I was a little disappointed I didn't find anything that great, just a few things. Thursday I took the tram then monorail down to Caesar's Palace and found some AWESOME things at H&M. I got the cutest coat. But walking through all these casinos, they're deceivingly huge, my legs were sore! I also stopped at the Coke factory and was bummed they didn't have Passion Fruit Fanta anymore but I tried the Orange Coke which wasn't that great and settled on a Cherry Vanilla Coke which was AWESOME.

Friday I went to the Titanic Exhibit at the Luxor. It was sooooo cool! I'm so glad I went. (My coworkers didn't want to do anything so I did all this stuff by myself). They had jewelry and dishes and all sorts of stuff recovered from the bottom of the ocean. I was amazed at how well they preserved it. They even had a large piece of the ship and it was not even 1/100th the size of the whole side - incredible. They also had an iceberg you could touch that was warmer than the water was the night it sank and the iceberg was FREEZING. They had the grand staircase all recreated, I thought Leo was going to come walking down the stairs at any moment. Too bad you couldn't take pictures in there. There was a plaque that said a 3rd class ticket was $40 back then which was equivalent to $900 today and a 1st class ticket was $1200 which is equivalent to $103,000 today. Can you imagine?

I got home late Friday night. Maggie seemed a little scared of me at first, I think I just smelled different (like casino). Then she warmed up and licked my face all over - constantly! It was a fun trip and I learned a ton but I'm glad to be home!

Over the Hill

The birthday celebrations continued with an ice cream cake to celebrate me and my sister-in-law's birthday on Sunday.

Maggie helped me open my presents on my birthday. Dallin got me a Kindle which I'm very excited about. I also got $ to spend at H&M on my work trip to Vegas!

On Labor Day, my actual birthday, we bummed around until our 2 o'clock tee time at Bountiful Ridge for 9 holes of golf. Afterward we met at the Cheesecake Factory and stuffed ourselves silly and of course, some cheesecake. It was so much fun to celebrate over a few days and do all sorts of things I loved doing with the people I love.

Old

Why is it when you ask a little kid, "How old is old?" They always say, 30? Not 40, 50 or even 90, but 30. I was that little kid. Now I'm on the other end of it feeling "old." Even though my life is not everything I thought it would be by the time I was THIRTY, it's so much better than I ever could have imagined.

We kicked off the birthday celebration by me getting my hair done. My roots were in desperate need of a touch up. Dallin was a sport and came to the salon with me and worked on some loans. Afterwards we met up with my parents and headed up to Swiss Days in Midway. It's been YEARS since I've been to Swiss Days. It was HOT and crowded but we went to almost every booth. My mom bought me a birthday present there. it's a wood block NOEL that matches my Christmas tree perfectly! I'm so excited for it! I also bought some Toe Tats which are like stickers that adhere to your nails for up to 8 weeks. I got a cute red and white pattern for my toes. I also got some wrapping paper.

After enjoying the booths and the guys enjoying 9 holes of golf, we headed to Spin Cafe in Heber. It was soooo yummy! They even had gelato. It was an exhausting but fun day!

Today I went to the gym then headed to Massage Envy for a massage. The therapist was really great and I enjoyed the massage but the front desk girl was trying to up-sell me on everything and it really bugged. Whenever I'd say no she'd ask me why and I wanted to tell her it was because she was annoying me! So much for my relaxing mood. I headed to Cold Stone to pick up me and Allie's cake and went home and got ready while Dallin watched the BYU game. We headed up to Taggarts Grill for my birthday dinner with my family.

No one in my family had ever been there and we enjoyed their yummy bread, chicken enchiladas, fish and chips, and of course, they're humongous and delicious desserts (to go, of course!). It was a fun celebration. Even though I'm not doing anything BIG and CRAZY for my 1st anniversary of 29, I'm doing things that I love with people that I love and that makes it just as special. Stay tuned for more birthday happenings...