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Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

What kind of music do you like?

Does anyone struggle with this question as much as I do?! I never know what to say! I am soooo opinionated when it comes to music and I listen to it about 90 percent of my day, every day, yet I still have troubles answering this question!

"I love anything, except for Country" is usually my response.

Which is lame. I know.

Yesterday I decided to conduct a little experiment though, to see if I actually preferred one type of music more than others.

I put my iPod on shuffle and noted the first 20 artists where I actually listened to/enjoyed the song. Here they are, in order:

The Police
Cat Power
From First to Last
Academy is...
Eagles
The New Amsterdams
System of a Down
Busta Rhymes
Just Surrender
Queen
Usher
Poison
Pinback
Taking Back Sunday
Jewel
A Change of Pace
Disturbed
Korn
Led Zeppelin
Jaymay

Well, the only thing that really proves is my "I love everything, except for Country" statement is pretty accurate, as boring as it sounds...

Speaking of music...American Idol was pretty good last night. I'm starting to realize that this year, I "don't like" more contestants than I actually like where as usually, it's the exact opposite...My two favorites *killed* it! As usual...




Crystal Bowersox

and...




Andrew Garcia



Can't wait to see what they come up with next week! I'm really hoping these two go far! (Even if it's not through Idol) I'd definitely rock out to their albums!




Monday, March 29, 2010

Trip To Wendover!

We went to Wendover the weekend before my *Grandma's surgery. It was a nice, little getaway! What we came home with was even nicer, though!! Check out the pics :)

*More on that later.




Auntie Tammy drove, Grandma played the "frontseat, backseat driver." Kass, Auntie Krisine, and I all sat in back and played as the actual "backseat driver's" Auntie Tammy must have loved it! ;) Who could ever be so lucky?! Other than that, we kept ourselves occupied by *games that every road tripping individual should be aware of.

*"Snaps" is or is not the name of the game, ABC--Movie Game, and I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing...game. Google these if you have time, they are worth it!




I'm just now realizing that most of these pictures were taken while in the car and most likely driving. :S. Don't try that at home, kids. That's a bad example.




TA-DAH!! This is what Auntie Kristine and I brought home! Poker was good to us that particular weekend :)...Next time I'll have to take "how to hold money and not look like a retard" tips from Auntie Kristine before we attempt a picture. I promise I'll work on it. For now, please ignore my oddly shaped fingers.




Sunday, March 28, 2010

The following may or may not be true...

In preparing to shop for a new deck (stereo) for my car today, I called the Best Buy close to our house.

I know, good idea, right?

I was calling to make sure they had an opening to install it for me after I purchased it.

After the following conversation however, I decided it may be best to find a *different* Best Buy to purchase my stereo at. I couldn't bring myself to go into the store after this little Blonde moment.

"Thank you for calling Best Buy where your blah blah blah and we can blah blah blah, my name is Eric, how can I help you?"

"Yeah, can you please transfer me to electronics?"

"Uh..what type?"

"Oh, right. Um Car Stereo please."




Friday, March 26, 2010

"Lucky"

***This post has been saved under "Draft" since March. Unfinished. There's been so much going on since then, and I didn't finish it. I think in the back of my mind, I was waiting to post it when I could end it with a happy ending. Isn't that how stuff is supposed to end anyway?

I think now however, it is necessary to post this. (I will want to know the details years down the road.)***

Monday 3.22.10 was filled with waiting, hoping, wishing, texting, praying, thinking, and researching. Oh, and working.

Knowing at that very time, my Grandma was with someone extraordinary. Someone we will never forget. Someone she probably won't remember much as far as that day goes, but in theory, will never forget. Not the kind of special-extraordinary person you would hope for anyone to have to be with, but the kind that you are glad when they are with them. Well, after the hoping, wishing, praying parts anyway.

Can you guess who it was?

His name is Dr. Ott, and he is one of the best surgeons in the West.

We couldn't have been more blessed to have him dedicate his Monday (or at least the first 7 hours of it) to be with my Grandma.

A few weeks ago, we found out my Grandma had pancreatic cancer. (If anyone prayed, that's what you were praying for ;).) I just didn't have the words at the time, or really the desire, to put it out on my blog. It was/still is such a shock. Life can be taken so quickly. I can't imagine how my Grandma and Aunt felt walking out of the room after receiving the diagnosis, and hearing that is generally only permits 6-12 months of life.

Can't even begin to imagine.

We were lucky though. Truly lucky.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the fastest growing cancers, with minimal to no symptoms, out there. Usually when someone starts to have symptoms and gets checked it's too late, and the cancer has spread.

...

I'm not going to finish that. I'll just finish up with the catch up. If I can get through this all today. Who knows. Maybe this will sit in Drafts for a few more months.

Grandma had the surgery, and everything went very well. Dr. Ott said over and over her recovery was going great. Towards the end of her hospital stay, she had a minor setback: During the surgery, one of her lymph nodes was accidentally nicked, causing lots of bleeding/leaking. Ott informed us the easiest way to fix this is to keep a drain in Grandma and have her go 2-3 weeks without eating. She would have an IV running 24/7 with enough nutrients to keep her well. It's not something she necessarily needed to stay at the hospital for, so she checked into a Nursing Home (only because a RN had to do the IV stuff). She was doing great, walking a little more each day. She looked fantastic! After 3-4 weeks (I believe) she was able to come back home. At that point, she started to walk less, and never really felt better from the surgery.

A few weeks back, she went in for her CT scans to make sure the cancer was gone, and figure out when chemo could be set up to prevent it from coming back.

On July 6th, we got the results of the CT Scan.

There is no pretty way to say this so I'll just be blunt.

The cancer has come back. In fact, they think it was there the whole time (just not big enough to be visible to the eye). It is now Stage 4 Pancreatic cancer and there is nothing that can be done. They've given our Grandma, Mom, Aunt, Cousin, Best friend "Months, not years" to live.

I've never had news as hard to grasp as this. It's really taken a toll on me, and my whole family. As for now, we are planning visits for everyone to come from out of state to see Grandma, and taking every day as it comes. I've not wished for the weekend to come quicker since. I hope these next few months are the longest of my life. I cherish every single second with my Grandma and truly hope they last forever.

After we thought we were so lucky. We thought we caught it in time and were so fortunate. As it turns out, I guess we are lucky...just not in the way we'd ever, ever imagined. We're so lucky to have had Grandma as long as we have. She has changed, and blessed our lives and will continue to do so forever and ever.

We love you so much Grandma. We're "Lucky" to have you.







Monday, March 22, 2010

Thank you McDonald's, for my new obsession.

...what a fine choice in song. I'm obsessed.






Thursday, March 18, 2010

Dog Bliss.

Our rug *finally* shipped in today!

Due to this, Trey has been a busy boy. He has sniffed every inch of the 8x10 bit of goodness and has laid on about half of it, and so far,he seems to approve.

Glad we have his vote too!






St. Paddy's Day

For St. Patricks this year, we (Auntie Kristine, Kass, Auntie Tammy, and Myself) all went to Piper Down!! Little did we know, being as it's an Irish Pub, we would only be able to stand in one place and take pictures. There was basically NO moving around space! We still had a blast though! We met lots of people and listened to some live music :)

Auntie Tammy displayed her photogenic side pulling out a whopping 9/9 on good pictures. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the rest of us. Well, at least for myself anyway. It's not very nice to tell someone else they didn't take a good picture...

So, kudos to Auntie Tammy who represented well and enjoy the pics!!







Monday, March 15, 2010

VEGAS BABY!!!

"Vegas Baby" was BY FAR the most used phrase on our trip! But what else is there to say?! We were in VEGAS BABY!!

I took TONS of pictures but I'll let a few of my favorites do the talking!!


The drive was...well...a reallllllllllly long one!! We were all so excited to just get there, and maybe a little irritated because we decided to just pull an all nighter and leave Wednesday night so we were tired *and* anxious! Once we saw the lights though, we were all pumped and ready to begin our Vegas vacation!! (At this point it was 5:30 am!)



Where I live in Utah, there are no palm trees! However, I ADORE palm trees, and lucky me, they are ALL OVER in Vegas! So, once I got over my obsession, I was able to take pictures of other things...it was a really hard habit to break though!! Who can resist taking pictures of giant *what looks like* pineapples stuck in the ground?! I mean c'mon...that's a hard pass up!


Out of ALL the exploring we did, we never actually came across the plain "Welcome to Vegas!" sign, this one worked though! We flipped a you know what and took tons of pictures. Sadly enough, the guys took the girls' picture by the sign. You can probably put two and two together to figure out why it's not posted here. (If you're stumped...it's because Mari was looking down, my eyes were closed, and Erica was still stepping up on the rock. Or something like that.)








The Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay was awesome, awesome, awesome!! Unfortunately my camera died halfway through the aquarium, but I was able to get a few good shots! The biggest shark in the aquarium was 11 feet! We also saw a HUGE sea turtle, and a unicorn fish, jellyfish, little sharks, nurse sharks, sting ray's and basically anything else you could imagine or desire to see!! It was fun!



My first favorite thing about Vegas was the people!! Meeting people who didn't even KNOW where Utah was, was pretty awesome. I met people from ALL over! I talked to a guy who was from some part of Alaska where it is negative 45 degrees in November!! I played poker with some guys from Germany! I met someone from Ireland and well...that's really all I know about him because his accent was so strong that I just had to nod and pretend I knew exactly what he was talking about, but I bet he was cool!

My second favorite thing was night-time in Vegas! It looks so rad with everything all lit up, I loved walking the strip and seeing all of the people, it was good, good times!!




On our first day(s) there, we stayed up for 39 hours straight and walked and drank shopped and played and talked and gambled and took pictures and just ABSORBED Vegas!!













Babe, I love you SO much, I want to get married in the "I Do, Drive Thru" I hope you feel the same about me.



We stayed in a (slightly less appealing)hotel really close to the MGM.


When you have been walking ALL. DAY. LONG. and you take a 5 minute break and you are fresh out of a mirror, this is how you check your eyelashes.


Mari and SpongeBob in an exhausting picture taking session.


As I said earlier, we met a TON of people, from all over...as the nights progressed, we met and took pictures with people from all over!






By the end of our *night out* we were done with shoes. Except Mari, she was hardcore heels the entire time!! (Insane!) Apparently some people feel the same way about their bras by the end of the night?!


It was such a fun trip!! Many, many memories! I'm glad I took a good amount of pictures, and now I know...Vegas is nothing like anything I've ever done before...just like everyone says!! The time there went so slow, which was nice! By the end of the weekend, we were all Vegas'd out and ready to come home but I can't wait until it's Vegas time again!!

OH! And last but not least...I don't have a picture to show for it, but I won $700 playing poker!!! So, basically this Vegas vacation cost me roughly $60. I'm especially ready for another one if they all go that way!



Oh, the joy.

Key:
Tommy- Grandpa
Kristine- Aunt
Lilly/Lilian- Cat
The 42"- Grandpa's TV, left on and blaring, in his bedroom down the hall.

Kristine (Trying ever so hard to crack a joke, with an inside request)- "Dad, is Lilly in there watching your TV?"
Tommy- "Oh yeah, I like the TV real well!"
Kristine- "No, I mean is Lilian in there watching it?"
Tommy- "Well, I'm not too sure where Lilly is. I haven't seen her all day!"
Kristine- "Dad, is there a reason your TV is still on and turned up louder than the TV out here?"
Tommy- "Oh. I thought Mama turned it off."




Wednesday, March 3, 2010

*Heppy Birthday ME!

*Heppy was a typo. It's still early, what can I say? It seems like a fun word to *say though, so we'll go with it.

*Not like I said it enough times to decide it's fun to say, and I know you didn't repeat it a few times too, just to make sure. Who does that??

*I'm done using *'s now.

Yesterday was a great day! First of all I wanted to thank everyone for the birthday wishes! An especially big thanks to those of you (lots!) who texted me early in the morning. See, I'm not a morning person and I don't think that I ever will be...so, yesterday morning, just like the rest, my alarm was going off and I was snoozing. Okay, I won't lie...I have two alarms and they were both going off and I was snoozing both of them at the same time.

Side note--This is a pretty involved task, in case you were wondering. I set the alarms about 20 minutes apart and then have them go off at different times, so basically every 3-4 minutes, something is making noise.

Another side note--My neighbors probably hate me, and Trav isn't a fan but I honestly don't hear them as well as others do. Every morning I make up some crazy way to add the noises to my dream and that way I don't even know they're going off. I've cafefully constructed a way to simply press the snooze button without moving anything except a few fingers.

So anyway, yesterday I not only had two alarms that I was avoiding, I also had all of the texts from you coming in about every 2-3 minutes.

Needless to say, I finally got up. So, thank you :)

I came to work to some pretty rad *new color* sharpies. Boring to some, but very high on my top birthday presents list!

Also, to a cute card, and some convenient post-its in a cute little case to keep in the car, or wherever I want to keep them! (Thanks Jenn!)

Later in the day we had a little cupcake/ice cream party. They were the cutest cupcakes I'd ever seen...they have TONS of flavors and make all sorts of pretty little designs! They're from a place called "So Cupcake" if anyone wants to check em out!



After work I tried to squeeze in a little shopping before Vegas. Me (plus) a *little* bit of shopping (equals)not a good idea. So, I plan to do some more shopping today. After all, I have plenty of time. We leave at 5 in the morning, tomorrow.

On a much more serious note...The next part of my birthday is something I would have never thought/hoped I'd be doing and I'm not quite ready to share exactly what the reason is yet...but I've decided I will share a little because we really need the prayers. At 7 last night, my Grandma had a blessing, because she is sick. Again, not a whole lot of information, but if you could take it and include her in your prayers, it would be sooo appreciated. :)

Then, after that, I went out to eat with Grandma, Grandpa, and Kassi.

It was a wonderful birthday! Thanks again everyone!




Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Just use the other door.

Here's the thing...I understand the need for a handicapped door and I have nothing against the purpose. At all. I do, however, think they should serve as both a handicapped door, and a regular door. If you'd like the door to open for you, awesome...press the button and there you go. If you'd like to open the door yourself, then it should allow you full access.

See, I'm a door swinger. This means when I open a door...I *open* the door with a little umph...

My strength seems to backfire on me each morning as I'm walking into work because for some reason 1)I never remember to just use the other door and my problem will be solved and 2)The handicap door lets you attempt to swing it open with umph but halfway, it's like a dead stop and then it s l o w l y opens, and 3) I'm so sure of my timing that as soon as I swing the door open, I walk right in...

With the combination of 1, 2, and 3...I'm left, standing halfway through the door, looking like some idiot who just walked into a door.





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