rainandrainbows.

Absolutely

LOVING

This

Rainy

Friday night.

Continued...

These are the same flowers outside of our house, except for I took these pics with my camera :)
















Trey was jealous, so I took a few of him.





Stud. Fa. Sho.

B-E-A-UTIFUL.

I've decided one of the greatest things about moving into a new place is when Spring comes and a ton of flowers and rad plants start popping out everywhere!!! I went picture crazy today. These are my favorite :) I spent way too long fixing these pictures up however I am going to do the same thing tomorrow because these were all taken from my cell phone. I forgot my camera at work :(

Anyway, enjoy!









There are 2 fantastic things about these pictures...
1) They are all either in front of our place, or on the side.
2) You can see raindrops on the flowers.

= greatness.

Memorial Weekend...

...consisted of white marbles falling from the sky, (I have NEVER in my life seen hail this size. I was completely amazed. In the midst of being scared for my winshield and car's lives, I actually enjoyed watching it come down. I still cannot get over the size of iceballs falling from the sky. Wow!)
lots and lots and LOTS of rain,

and someones bright idea to do construction on a two-lane canyon on Memorial weekend-making a two hour trip home into a 3 1/2 hour trip home...
It was fantastic.

Other than those minor things, our Memorial weekend was great! We had planned on going camping, as we usually do. Travis's birthday is on May 23rd so it always falls on or around opening weekend for camping, which is fun...most of the time!

This time we were only able to camp for one night mainly because of the rain and partly because we were camping at Scofield in Price and I'm not going to lie, that place sucks!! Our tent was about 20 feet from the lake which at any other lake would have been great. Mostly because any other lake would contain fish. This one did not. I literally had my pole in the water at LEAST 20 hours and pulled out ONE fish. one. dinky. little. fish. In fact...I was so excited to reel this baby in and take him off of the hook that I forgot to take a picture of said fish. Travis had his pole in the water for about the same length of time and caught NO fish.

We ended up packing up camp and heading back to Price. We stopped at a little river on the way back, no luck.

We decided to go to a kiddie fishing pond in Helper. A fish is a fish, right? We didn't care about it being a kiddie pond!! We were just ready to catch some fish!! If I had a waterproof camera, I would have taken pictures but I cannot even explain the amount of rain that was coming down. So, for my cameras sake, she stayed tucked away in her case. It was so crazy!! What was even crazier was the amount of people fishing at the kiddie pond IN this rain, not even just kids either!! Maybe everyone was at Scofield and resorted to the kiddie pond...We got our hoodies and coats on and cast out into the water. I caught 4 or 5 fish before Trav even had a bite, lol...I always feel bad when that happens. I tried to give him my pole when I had another one biting and he refused to take the pole that "I" had just casted out! Fine!! He eventually got his first one, yay :) and the weather cleared up a little, which was really nice. We stayed there for about 5 hours. I caught around 10, and he caught around 6. It was a good end to a pretty crappy weekend. I love having someone who loves to fish as much as I do. We would look at each other at the same time, say "You ready" answer yes, and then both of us would cast back out.

haha, I forgot about this but when we first got to the kiddie pond, we went to the closest spot because we didnt really plan on staying very long because the rain was seriously coming down!! We agreed to each catch one fish and then peace out. It was SUPER windy and the wind was coming toward us, making it really difficult to cast out. I casted out and it didnt go very far, but I didnt care. I was cold and I knew the wind was going to make it really hard. So, I left it there. Travis saw how close to the shore it was, laughed at me and said "Let me show you how a pro does it." He then gets in his casting stance, releases his line, and steps back and BAM! slips and falls on the rock he was standing on to cast. hahaha. It didn't hurt anything except for maybe his ego. The awesome part is because it is such a small pond, a guy fishing on the other side of the pond watched it happen and yelled "Are you okay??" lol, so if anyone is wondering how a "Pro" casts in the wind and rain, ask Travis. He knows. He'll even demonstrate.

Pickyness...

I'm not sure if "Pickyness" is a word, and if so I'm not sure if I spelled it right but it fits so perfectly that I must use it.

I, once again, have looked through every layout on thecutestblogontheblock.com as well as delightful dots and I just cant find the one I'm looking for. I loved my blue and orange one but it didn't seem very spring or summery so I have been in search for one that does seem spring and summery. This is the one I am going to go with for now but I dont know how much I like it. It could change very soon! (Definitely around July because they have some SUPER cute ones for the 4th!!)

In other news, lately I've felt like there is something missing in my life. I feel this every single day when I wake up, non-refreshed. Today I figured it out. I really, really, REALLY need football season to hurry up and come. I can't use my Saturdays to be excited that my boys play the next day. I can't watch ANY football on Sunday and I'm having serious withdrawals. I can't look up highlights from the games on Monday and I cant be excited to go home Monday night so I can watch Monday night football at home, on my own TV. Most importantly, I can't talk crap show excitement that the Vikings won. I can't spend a day during the week to pick which teams I think will win and which teams will lose and on top of that, I can't brag about the fact that all most of the teams I picked to win/lose actually won/lost like I said they would. I have figured out that this missing portion is consuming at least half of my week. I vote for a longer football season, shorter break. Any seconds? C'mon...they make millions. They can tough it out.

Final Poker Tournament

This will be my 4th post today of things which all happend this weekend!! Definitely proof of this post.

I enjoy playing poker and it is something I do every once in awhile. I play for an organization called "Wasatch front Poker Tour" and every quarter (3 months) they have an "invite only" final tournament where you can only play if you have done well over the 3 month period and built up enough points to be able to play.

I participated in the final tournament this last Saturday.

There were 90 total people who were playing, the top 8 would be payed. 1st place would get $900. I would have obviously loved to come in any place in the top 8! Eigth place paid out $60. (It is a $5 buy in tournament) HOWEVER, I placed 10th. That is something we call the "bubble" basically I came SO, SO, SO close, but not close enough to make the money. It is a good thing, that I made it to the final table out of that many people, but to go that far, and all for nothing, was kind of lame.

Oh well though, there is always next quarter.

Fresh out.

"Out of gas, out of road, out of car I don't know how I'm gunna go"

Travis and I used to always joke that these Modest Mouse lyrics fit Kassi perfectly. For awhile there, she was calling, almost weekly because she ran out of gas.

As much as I DON'T want the lyrics to apply to me, they did this weekend.

Trey and I were on our way to the gas station, after leaving the park and because I have a really bad habit of letting my gas light come on before I get gas, we ran out of gas in the middle of pulling out of a parking lot. We were halfway in the parking lot, halfway in the street and my car would NOT go any further :(.

I called my Grandma first thing to see if she would be able to bring a gas can out...and a *funnel and she told me she would be able to do that and would be on her way.

In the meantime, I decided that I should put my car into neutral and try to at least push it back into the parking lot so it was out of the way, and so that people would stop pulling up right behind me and honking because I was taking forever to turn. Hello people. I have flashing blinkers. What does that mean to you?? I tried my hardest and failed in my attempt to move my car by myself. So, I got back in my car and just waited.

A guy pulls up. I judge him right away. He looks dirty, has kind of a lot of facial hair, I'm kind of worried, hoping he doesn't ask if I need help. I roll down my window and he asks "Is everything okay?" I answer "Yeah, I'm just out of gas, everything is fine :)" He says okay and pulls off.

About 5 minutes later a lady pulls up behind me and walks over asking the same question. I provide the same answer and she asks if I would like some help in moving my car into the parking lot while I am waiting for someone to come. I tell her that would be fantastic.

I get out of the car and we both go to the front of the car to start moving it and that guy pulls up again...

I look at him kind of confused but thinking...maybe he just feels bad that he didn't offer to help move the car, so he was coming back to help.

I was wrong.

This guy (let's see if I can do this without tears this time) went to the gas station, filled up his gas can, brought it back to me, and put the gas in my car.

Wow.

I handed him $5 , thanked him over and over and over and told him that he didn't have to do that and the only thing he said was "Well, I did have to. I have to be a good Samaritan."

How horrible of me to judge such a great guy.

He really took the time out of whatever he was doing, went to the gas station, and brought me back gas. What a lesson I learned. I love finding these types of people out there. What a nice guy. I will definitely pay it forward! :)

Friday was such an eventful day!! I pulled up to the gas station to get gas, put in my debit card and it said that it was unable to authorize, see cashier. I walk inside and tell the lady that I need to put $35 in pump 2. Simple, right? It took around 5 minutes of her trying to get it to work before she finally asked me if I would mind moving to the pump behind it because for some reason, that one was having problems. I said that would be fine and she said okay, go ahead and enter your pin. I look up at the price and it says -Amount $435, correct?- Yeah, she accidentally over charged my by $400!! It's a good thing I caught it. I was as nice as I could be considering I had just been crying the entire way to the gas station and felt bad about anything and everything, lol but that was crazy!

*I've got a fairly funny story related to running out of gas and a funnel that I will share one day. Remind me ;)

Trey and I go to the park

Friday after work I went into my room to change and saw Trey doing this:

haha...I took it as a hint and got him ready to go to the park. It was quite the eventful trip to the park...of course it was...do I ever have trips that are un-eventful? Very rarely.

Unfortunately Fortunatley I do not have pictures of what I am about to talk about as it might have been one of the dumbest ideas I have come up with. ever. in my entire life.

So, some of you may or may not know that, for the time being, Travis has moved back to Price to go to school for welding. It has been really rough finding a job down here so we decided it would be best. That being said, I am now making trips to the park alone with Trey. When Trav and I would take Trey to the park, we would bring his ball and play fetch with him so he is able to really run around and kinda strech out. I never worried about taking him off of his leash because Travis was there and he listens to me, but I have to admit (hopefully Travis doesnt read this...he can't know that I am admitting to this :)) that he definitely listens to Travis. Travis definitely is the pack leader in Trey's eyes so it only takes him one time to tell Trey something it might take me 2 or 3 times to tell him, unless it is shake, other one, sit, or high five, you know...the important stuff. Anyway, so here we are at the park. With the ball to play fetch, and our retractable leash and I'm contemplating letting him off of the leash without Trav so we can play fetch. I look around and see 1) TWO soccer games going on, 2) At least 10 other dogs walking with their owners, and 3) 96 kids at the skate park. I decide that I should keep Trey on his leash. He's just a little too friendly for all of the action going around.

I still wanted to play fetch because he needs his excersize. He is a dog. He needs to be able to run around and play. So, here comes idea numero uno. Why don't I just sit on the bench and throw the ball about 20 feet out, where I will be able to keep him on his retractable leash, and he will be able to still run out and get it? That will be perfect...it's a win win situation :).

We played that game for approximately 5 minutes before Trey gave me a look like really? Are you kidding..you want me to run for 5.4 seconds to get a ball and bring it back? C'mon now...

This is where idea number two comes into play. I decided that I still shouldnt take him off of his leash so what I was going to do planning on doing was throwing his ball as far as I could, like we usually do, and let his leash retract while I am, in the meantime, running along with him to get his ball.

Sounds like a fantastic idea, right?

Wrong.

Apparently dogs run at speeds much, much, MUCH faster than Jessica's running speed. (This proves that I can only run 12mph on a treadmill, when forced...but that's another story in and of itself)

The result: Jessica continuing to have a death grip on Trey's leash, knowing she is not making enough steps to keep up with Trey, and falling down about 1/3 of the way to the ball.

Unfortunately Trey is a trooper and CONTINUED to go for his ball, dragging me along. haha. That was definitely the first and last time we will try that trick. I am sure the soccer kids got a kick out of that one.

After that, I figured I have used all of my resources and that I am just going to trust Trey off of the leash. He listens to me, don't get me wrong...but you always have to worry when there is just so much going on.

So, we continue on our walk through the park.

Stop at what seems to be doggie marking domain heaven.

and start fetch off of the leash. It (thank goodness) went very well. He was distracted by other dogs a few times but they would come and say hi and he would get over it and we would get back to fetch.

One time I threw it and he ran (very quickly) to go get it and stopped all of a sudden, looking kinda confused. I'm thinking...what is he doing?

I catch up to him and this is what we are both staring at:

Yeah, that's his ball. In the middle of the river in the park.

Trey has NEVER willingly gone into any sort of water. (Yes, he tries to fight the water coming from the hose, and I do lift his 47lb body into the tub) He looked at the ball for a few minutes, really confused. Finally after me telling him to go get it, he decided to give it a shot. He did the following pose, in combination with pawing at the water for about 5 minutes before actually getting in.
After he finally got in, he loved it!! It was hard to get him out of the water! In fact, he acted like he owned the place after about 10 minutes. He wasn't down with the idea of sticking his face down in the water to get his ball so again, confused look. He would try to move it around with his paw but realized it wasn't going anywhere OUTSIDE of the water. It was a pretty awesome experience. I had to keep saying "Trey! Get your ball buddy :)" Everytime I said that, he would move it a little closer to my reach, finally we got it under control and I was able to pick it up out of the water and we were back in business. After we got home, I started a *project and Trey slept. It was a fun day, minus the bruises on my leg from the fall and slide. ;)

*I will post about this next.

TBS in SLC!

**Updated**
Actually, I am thinking about this --I will totally be the 63 year old at their show one day.-- section of my last post and I clearly wasn't thinking straight. If I am 63...that means they are probably 70-73...I hope they are able to rock shows at that age, but I just dont know if they are that hardcore. I guess only time will tell :)

OH MY!! Nothing is making me as happy as this yellow box right now. I cannot wait! TBS is an absolute favorite and has been for a long, long time. I will totally be the 63 year old at their show one day. But this time...I will be one of the many 22 year olds. CAN'T WAIT!!

Who needs keys?

What did I do yesterday, you ask?

Oh, you know...the norm.

1) Went to work
2) Came home, did the dishes, swept and mopped the floor, dusted
3) Started dinner
4) Ate
5) Got in the shower, got ready
6) Gathered my things and walked out the door
7) Remembered to lock the door because I am great at locking things
8) Didn't remember to grab the keys off of my kitchen table
9) Rememered that I remembered to close the bathroom window and lock both doors
10) Said "are you kidding?" outloud. To no one.
11) Called Grandma. Who was eating noodle soup. AND watching American Idol (Her fav)
12) Waited on the porch, outside, for 46 minutes while waiting for Grandma to drive downtown from Sandy. On State street.

Yeah...nothing spectacular except for I added another reason to the ever-growing list of reasons why Jessica should not be allowed to have keys. :)

You can find other documented reasons here and here.

In fact. I think I might just add a "Keys" label to all of my other labels. I feel like once you have at least three posts that would fit into a label, it is time to create that label.

The weekend!

Remember this post?

I'd like to proudly say that I've been keeping up with it. :)

I started my blog in September of 2008 and here it is April of 2009. Seven months and 50 posts (Yep, you guessed it...this is my FIFTIETH post!!) later, here we are!

I am going to figure this out to see just how good that is. So, 50 posts in 7 months...that means roughly 7 posts a month, which means around 1 post a week plus some! Not bad at all :)

Well, I don't have anything super fancy for the 50th post...just the norm talk about the weekend.

It was an exciting weekend though, if that makes a difference...

Started out working on Friday. After work, we (Kassi, Me, Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Tammy, Uncle David, Chase, Alexis, Kendall, and Megan) all went to watch my cousin Katie perform her Duo at a dance competition at Kingsburry Hall at the U. It was tons of fun, she did fantastic, and took second place!! Afterwards, Kassi, Katie, Megan, Grandma, and I decided to go to Grandma's and play games...which is always a good time!

Saturday, woke up and Grandpa cooked a delicious breakfast! Grandma, Megan, and I played a few games after cleaning up and then I went home to get ready for another dance competition. This time, Katie was dancing in two group dances! Again, she did phenomenally! After the competition, we all went out to eat and then a few of us went to my house to get ready for the night. Kassi and I ended up hanging out with some friends who came down from Idaho (Danny)and some friends we havent seen forever, who are in Provo (Lysha)! It was great times :) We woke up Sunday morning to Danny saying "Here's the thing. I dont know where we are." hahaha...

Sunday morning we drove back to Salt Lake, from Provo (Danny and his friend had to catch a flight and were in a really, really big hurry because we kinda slept in) once we got back to Salt Lake, we took a little nap and then went over to Grandma's to make salads for a BBQ and of course, play games. It was a really busy, but fun weekend!!

Here are some of the pictures I took, although I should have taken lots more!!


At the comp, waiting for awards.

Cousin Megan.


And again.

Cousin Alexis and her boyfriend Chase.

Driving to the competition.

Kassi trying to avoid the picture, Chase doing the opposite, and Alexis checkin out what is going on.

Getting ready to start awards.