I'm back! And Idol...

So, sorry if you thought this was going to be a real update about me. That's on my to do list, but I'm not there yet. Right now I'm helping Jared out:

He just got his American Idol book accepted by a publishing company! They're scheduled to publish it in just a couple of months so that doesn't give him a ton of time to get the word out about it. He has a personal goal of getting it on the New York Times best sellers list, so I want to help him out. The book is called "Your All-Access Pass To American Idol" and is a must have for any American Idol fan. (It has stuff about "Where are they now" and how well their albums did, tips on trying out yourself/how to change up a song/what songs you have to choose from, interesting stats on the type of people that win, an analysis on Simon's wardrobe, and a ton more!) But even if you're not a fan yourself, can you please help us spread the word to those who are? Just check out his site www.idolology.com to find out how to help. He's having a contest for those that help him get the word out, you could win a free copy of the book or an iPad! (Details are on his site.) The book,at this point, is scheduled to be in stores in February 2011, but if you enter your email on his site (top right corner) we'll keep you updated, plus you'll get at least one free chapter of the book emailed to you to "test drive".

Feel free to email to email this to anyone you think
might be interested, or blog about his site, or do a Facebook status update. Whatever you think will help. Thanks for the favor!

I need some motivation to blog...anybody?

June 2009

So here's what up...everything below the dotted line I wrote quite a while ago (except for some of the stuff that goes with the last two collages) and I won't edit it. I didn't know at the time that I wrote this that I was writing about the last trip I'd ever take with my Dad, or the last time I'd even see him. (The collage of 06/10/09 below has pictures from 06/12/09 which is the last time I ever saw my Dad.) I was really close to posting this when I found out that my Dad died! I'll post more on that another time. I just wish I could have got this posted so he could've seen it before he died. He would have liked to see all of the pictures and hear about how much fun we had with him. I'm just so glad we got to take this last trip together. We had such a nice time.

*****************************************************

05/31/09-06/05/09 Jared and I invited my Dad to go on a trip with us to Yellowstone! I thought we were pretty much going to see Ol' Faithful and a few deer, but I saw so many things that were unlike anything I'd seen before or even imagined. I didn't realize that 1/2 of the worlds geothermal features are in Yellowstone! The park is over 2 million acres, and is covered in geysers, waterfalls and colorful hot springs. Be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them.

-Day 1 in the park-
*Old Faithful*Bald Eagle's nest*Elk* Huge herds of Bison*Bison on the road and swimming across the river*Continental Divide*Tons of hot springs, boiling mud pits, and hiking*

-Day 2 in the park-
*Waterfalls*Yellowstone Grand Canyon*More hiking*Mammoth Hot Springs*Bacteria Mats*
Look at how colorful the canyons are! (Bottom middle)


-Day 3 in the park-
*Geysers*Bacteria Mats*Waterfalls


Besides the park we played a ton of games, watched movies, hot tubed, and made lots of yummy food. Jared had a great idea of bringing our slow cooker, so we'd throw something in before we went out and when we were done exploring we had Potato Soup or a Pot Roast waiting for us! We stayed in West Yellowstone at the WorldMark resort and it was soooo nice! We took the scenic route on the way home so we could pass by the Grand Teton Mountains. We had a really good time. I'm so glad we got to go and that my Dad got to come with us!

06/06/09 Aaron, Jamie, and Nathan came to visit! (Jared's brother) We had fun chatting, playing games and we watched a movie. It was really nice to see them!

06/10/09 We got the cutest little invitation in the mail that my nephew Jackson made to invite us to his piano recital. He played several songs and he did so well! We're so proud of him. Also in the collage below are pictures from our last game night before dad went back to WA. = ( I love the bunny ears Jackson put on Ryan and Ashley. = )

06/20/09 Periodically Christine, Allie, VeNicia, and I get together for a girl's day/night. Allie and I carpooled to VeNicia's house. We stopped and picked out some way cute fabric on the way. We all brought really yummy food to eat. (Avacado bean dip, oriental salad, artichoke dip, 7 layer dip, etc etc. Mmmm!) VeNicia worked on some stuff for girls camp and got a few things done around the house, and the rest of us made trash bags for our cars, and these really cute purses/bags. Christine 1st sewed her bag into what looked like a huge tank top! We had a lot of fun, but there was a good amount of seam ripping that night. They turned out really cute though. I LOVE my bag! Sometimes I just like to stare at it.

06/25/09 For my sister RaNae's birthday the rest of us sister's flew her out from Indiana so she could spend it with us! We had so much fun! We went to Marie Calenders for pie, we had a game nights/bbqs with the rest of the fam, and the night before her birthday....

06/29-30/09 .... us 4 sisters went to a cabin up little cottonwood canyon for a slumber party! We made really yummy food, and then just talked and talked. We did manicures, we took a personality test and went over out results. And the next day we went to Park City. We ate at Main Street Pizza and Noodle, and went to the outlets. I got a couple cute shirts. Then we met up with RaNae and JaNel's mom, Carole, and RaNae's daughter, Kaley, at Olive Garden for RaNae's birthday dinner. She probably wouldn't want me announcing this to the world...but she turned 51! Can you believe it!?! She's the one in the blue/green shirt blowing out the candle. She doesn't even dye her hair! She makes 51 look very doable.

May 2009

04/30/09 began the trip of little sleep. VeNicia, Christine (our old roommate) and I drove down to San Diego for our old roommate, Melissa's wedding! We left after VeNicia got off work on a Thursday and didn't get in until about 3am on Fri! We were up early to pick up our friend (and another old roommate) Erica from the airport and then headed to Disneyland! Erica was a good friend and decided to stay behind and help Melissa get ready for the big day, so it was VeNicia, Christine and I. We went on all of the good rides (all the ones with the little symbol that means 'don't ride this if you have heart problems'). Space Mountain was by far my favorite. We had so much fun!

05/02/09 We didn't leave Disneyland until pretty late, and then we had a long drive to our hotel. Then we were up really early again and headed to the beautiful San Diego temple for Melissa and Jeremy to be sealed. The ceremony we beautiful and so was the reception. It was a really fun trip! It was nice to spend so much time with some of the ol' roomies!

05/08/09 I didn't have time to unpack before VeNicia and I were off again on another road trip! This time we had our sister JaNel along, too! We headed down to stay with my brother Brett so we could attend his graduation from UNLV. Brett and Nancy took us all out to breakfast, and just outside El Durado was a fun little outdoor art market. It reminded me a little of the Saturday Market in Portland. It was there that I found the perfect metal gift for our 7 year brass anniversary. K, I doubt it's brass, but the guy didn't know what kind of metal it was so we'll call it brass. It's got colorful metallic flowers. It's just what I was imagining for our porch! I love how it sparkles in the sun!

My camera died right before the graduation ceremony so I don't have a ton of pictures of that. But here's one I got with my cell phone. (VeNicia add that to the list of pictures I need from you!)

Brett Aurich - Information Systems Management
Congratulations!

We had a party afterwards with yummy food and then a bunch of us went bowling at Sunset Station. Rita, JaNel, VeNicia and I wore our cute socks Nicia got us. = ) It was a fun night. Lots of goofin around, and high fives, even though only one person on our team even broke 100! (Nice work Neesh!) Then we stayed up and watched 7lbs. The beginning was boring then it was interesting but way too sad. We had a fabulous breakfast before we headed out the next day. It was a fun trip, I'm glad we got to go!

05/14/09 I got these pretty flowers from Jared (yellow) and my Dad (pink) for Mother's Day! I think it's nice that Dad sends me flowers when he wants to send them to my Mom. We miss her so much.

05/16/09 We had a fun BBQ with our friends before Sam and Lori Burkman moved away. Our friends have the cutest kids! It was nice to spend time with everyone. Good luck in WA!

05/27/09 My Dad came to town again to go on a trip with us (more on that in my June post). He got here just in time to go to my niece Sarah's high school graduation! She's the little red dot at the top right of the collage below. (Don't forget you can click on the pictures to enlarge them) I wish we could hung around later to get some better pictures and go to her party after, but the ceremony didn't start until pretty late, and it was all the way up in Ogden. I'm glad we got to go for what we did though! We're proud of you, Sarah! Also, I got to meet my great-niece Lily there, she's such a cutie!

Well that sums up all of the main events from May. Besides the above was swimming with friends, tennis, I played my flute in church, worked, and did a TON of accounting homework.

April 2009

04/11/09 Our friends, Adam and Wendy, invited us to go to the BYU Alumni Ball with them. We ate dinner at our house (lettuce wraps…mmm) and then went to the ball. It was in the new Hinckley Building. It’s a beautiful building. The hors d'oeuvres were really good. There was dancing and singing and other entertainment. We ran into some old friends there and chatted with them. I really liked Wendy’s dress. I wore my red/black dress with the beads that I found when I was wedding dress shopping over 7 years ago! (I get easily sidetracked when I’m shopping “Wedding dress, wedding dress, ooh! Prom dress! Wait I won’t have any more proms…oh well it’s cute.”) Anywho, it was a really fun night!

04/18/09 My sister VeNicia’s birthday was on the 18^th, but she prefers to have a birthday month instead of day. = ) She, JaNel, and I went to Main Street Pizza & Noodle in Park City and then to the outlets one day. On her actual birthday we met up with Paul and JaNel and VeNicia at Mazza’s. It’s a middle eastern restraint in Salt Lake. It’s really nice. I gave VeNicia her present I’d been working non-stop on since I got the idea, which was only a couple of days before her birthday. I contacted a bunch of her friends and family through email and facebook and had them write a note to VeNicia, saying what they admired about her etc. I got back over 25 notes, and I made them into a book. The notes were all so nice, they were perfect! Many of them made me cry and they weren’t even to me! Anywho, she seemed to really like it. After dinner we went to SpeedStreet and raced go-carts! It was so much fun! (Thanks for sharing your gift certificates, Neesh, even though it was YOUR birthday! = )

Yet another VeNicia b-day event. = ) Jk, I enjoyed all the excuses to get together!
Happy Birthday Month Neeshy!!! = )

April was Lindsay and Michael's last month here. In case you wondered why you never saw us it's because we were hanging out with them! We played a lot of tennis. I loved it! (Sometimes Lindz would just watch when she was feeling sick....because she's pregnant!!!) We miss our tennis partners! (We've had to buy two more rackets just to get other people to play with us!)

Below are pictures of our Last Red Robin Supper (you see a typical meal of Nachos -sub guac for avocado- and Cajun Clucks), Lindsay's good-bye party with a few of our Red Robin friends, and pictures outside the Hibberts apartment. We just finished playing some tennis, they were getting ready to move and needed to get rid of some of their food so I went over to pick it up. There was a ton!! We're still trying to finish it all! (Thanks again guys!) The bottom middle picture was just after that. It's the last time I saw the Hibberts. I started crying right about after that picture. I really miss them a lot. Can you guys move back now?

Towards the end of April I wrapped up my winter school semester at BYU. Apparently I over-studied because I got 97% on my Physical Science final!!! I was so excited! And I think I already told the story of finagling an A out of my Anthropology class.

04/27/09 Happy 7th Anniversary to us!! We played some tennis with Michael (Lindz had to work). Jared made me a fabulous dinner....loaded mashed potatoes & really yummy steaks using an Applebees marinade. We went to the mall and ate my favorite dessert at Red Robin (the Mudd Pie), and said hi to Lindz. Then, like we do every anniversary, we took our picture in the booth at the mall that "draws" you (see middle below). Then we shopped a little, but couldn't find anything copper, brass, or wool we wanted. (That's the traditional 7th year gift. We later ended up getting this really cool metal flower art piece for our doorstep. I love it!) Then we went to Ozz and shot some pool. It was a lot of fun spending the day with Jared. I really am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband!