Monday's Memories: I wear my heart on my tagline

Its Monday, again.  Today was a much better Monday than last week.  Mostly because I didn't have to go into to work.  Love me my holidays! Instead...Brett and I slept in, went to breakfast at Kneaders to eat our weight in french toast, hit up the stores for some Memorial Day shopping, and attempted to hit some golf balls at the driving range before the rain/sleet hit. All in all, it was a great day.

In my free time tonight I decided to re-read some of my blog entries from the blog I kept prior to becoming a Mrs.   In reading the posts I decided I want to try something new.  Here is my plan, its called: Monday's Memories.  I think Flashback Fridays sounds better, but alas, today is Monday not Friday.  I won't make any promises on how long this will last or how entertaining it will be for you guys, but I'm pretty excited about it.  It'll give me a chance to read though my old posts and reflect on how I have (or have not) changed.  Some posts will be simply a quote or paragraph from the old writings. Some will include new commentary or perspective.  As I said, I don't promise anything and we'll just see where this goes.

To start things off I'm just going to copy over a couple paragraphs from my firsts blog post ever.  Its kinda long, but had some good stuff and re-taught me some things.  You can read the entirety of it here.  The post was entitled I wear my heart on my tagline. 

The picture shows the boy reaching for a heart. And, if you know me at all, you know I can be dramatic, and needy, and love sick etc etc (especially late at night which is when i found this picture... and probably why i liked it so much). However, I would like to expand this concept to more than just the idea of unreachable love. I think the item that is just out of reach could be anything. Recently I've talked to a lot of people who would give just about anything to have some more sunshine and time to play in it. Seeing as I spend most of my days in the library, this shared dream is just out of reach for me. Sure I could quit my job, decide school isn't really important and be able to appreciate the daylight hours and the sun (assuming Utah decided to actually continue the nice weather). but as appealing as that sounds, its not really what I want. And so life goes on. A dream set on hold, an ideal waiting to be reached, and all of this done with the hope that someday it will all work out.

That feeling of hope is an interesting feeling. Some days I feel it strongly, and I KNOW deep down that its true. That eventually everything will work out. But then some days.. some days its not so easy. Stress builds up, country songs put ideas in our heads, and our vision gets clouded. Its days like this that I find myself dreaming and wishing and not feeling any better. What we need to do is learn to appreciate what we have and not get stuck always reaching for something that is just out of reach. And so I end this post with a personal realization that I do know life is great. And I do know that I can be happy with what I have. And I do know that someday, all my dreams will be fulfilled. And until then... I will hold on to this hope that I have. Because its this hope that will keep me from reaching for what is just out of reach. 


Isn't it funny that sometimes we learn the same lessons over and over and over again.  Reading this today was very timely as it reminded me, yet again, that I can be happy with where I am today.  And, you know what, I am happy.  I mean, why wouldn't I be?  I have a husband who loves me despite my imperfections (yes, I am still dramatic and needy at times) and who I love more and more each day. We have 2 great extended families who support us in everything we do.  We have jobs that provide income allowing us live comfortably and save for our future.  We have a warm house to keep us out of the elements (which lately has been a lot of rain).  And we have the Gospel in our lives to remind us that we are not here on this earth alone or without a purpose.  I'm sure my list could go on and on, but my point is that life is good and its time to start living in the present.  Its kind of funny that I needed something I wrote over 3 year ago to remind me to live in the present.  But it worked for me and I hope it helped remind you too!  

It always seems impossible... until it's done

This quote by Nelson Mandela about sums up my feelings about work this week.

quote card: from http://www.thegirlinthecafe.com/2008/01/21/it-always-seems-impossible-until-its-done/

I'm grateful for checking things off an endlessly long to do list and for looking back and realizing that I can do tough things.

Monday nights are for loners

My Monday Night Schedule: 
7:00- get home from work
7:05- sign into facebook chat so I can chat with Brett while he works
7:15- eat leftovers for dinner
7:30- 10:00- entertain myself on the computer by reading blogs, listening to NPR, listening to Pandora, and occasionally getting messages from Brett via facebook
10:00- realize its bedtime but avoid going to bed alone
10:30- follow Brett's direction that I need to sleep
10:35- lay awake in bed wondering how I ever slept alone
11:15- fall asleep
12:15- get waken up by Brett and try to carry on a conversation in my dazed state
12:30- fall back asleep

Yes, that is my Monday night schedule for the next few months.  Kinda pathetic, I know.  After a long day of work there is not much that I want to do aside from relax.  And after Brett had a long day around the house there is not much left to be done.   (He works the 4-midnight shift answering phone calls and chats from LDS.org at the MTC, so he has all morning/afternoon and is much better than I at staying productive.) 

Sure I could work on one of my "to-do" crafts-- but that would require organizing my craft supplies that became SUPER unorganized after my last craft splurge.  Or I could complete one of my "to-do" chores around the house (like organizing my craft supplies)-- but that would require being away from the computer which is my best connection to the husband I won't see all day.  Or I could call up a friend or family member and catch up- but lets be honest, for some reason I don't really like talking on the phone. And so here I sit.  All alone but avoiding anything productive.

Its almost like I don't know how to be alone any more.  How did I do it when I was single?  I find it so hard to motivate myself when I know Brett will be at work for a long period of time.  It doesn't help that I know he will pick up any of my slack.  

I realize it is different, but am I different too?  

When I was single.... I lived with 5 other girls, spent late hours in the library, had an endless to-do of homework that I could not ignore, and had a boyfriend/fiance that I spent any other spare minute with.  I simply had less time to waste and as such had to be more productive with the time I did have.  

Now that I'm married.... I live with one boy (who happens to be the love of my life), try my hardest to be home from work by 8:00 if not earlier, try to leave my work at the office and have no "home-work" (although I am all call every night this week and have to keep my phone on me all night), and I have a husband who I'm lucky to get any free time with due to conflicting schedules.  Sure, work takes a lot of my time and certainly a lot of my energy, but I don't have the same kind of obligations and I used too.

Have I changed?....I hope that my overall laziness on Monday evenings isn't due to a change in my personality.  I hope that I haven't become too reliant on Brett to pick up my slack.  And I hope that he knows that I appreciate all his hard work for our little family.  Most days I don't feel like I am avoiding important things.  I simply feel like I have done everything I needed to do for the day. 

DISCLAIMER #1:  Now don't get me wrong, I do NOT need more to do.  I feel adequately stressed with everything that is currently on my plate.  And some days I day dream about when I was single because looking back, things seems a lot more simple (although I'm sure I would not admit it at the time). 

DISCLAIMER #2:  I don't want it to sound like I wish my life was back the way it used to be when I was single.  I would not change my life for anything.  Sure I'll day dream for a few minutes to escape reality, but never wish it to change. Because, yes, sometimes I get cranky when I come home to an empty house.  Yes, sometimes I miss having 5 other females/friends as roommates.  Yes, sometimes I miss the excitement of dating Brett.  And yes sometimes I even miss the familiar routine of college classes and homework.  But I repeat, I would not change it for anything.  Because I know that after a long day, week, month I will always have the love of my life there waiting for me. 

Well, its officially 10:15 and I just got the first "aren't you supposed to be in bed" message from Brett.  I guess its time for me to start trying to convince myself to go to bed. 

What happens in Vegas...gets written about on the blog.

Brett and I were so lucky to be able to get away for a weekend and go to Vegas.  We are blessed to be at a point in our lives where we have the flexibility and the means to take trips like this.  We are trying to take full advantage of it because we know it won't last. The occasion for this trip was our anniversary.  What a great excuse to take some time off work and go have some fun!  As is my nature, I took lots of photos to document the trip.  Brett and I joke that if i don't take a picture of it, I won't remember it.  Settle in for a lost post, full of picture and fun memories.  I had lots of time while Brett was at work all day to get this all done in one shot.

The Drive Down

The weather was perfect for a Road trip. 

 Brett and I were both in a great mood on the way down (not so much on the way back, for reasons that will be explained later).  Not even the 6 hour car ride could dampen our excitement to get to Vegas.  We often take road trips up north but had yet to travel south together, so we enjoyed the change of scenery.  Neither of us like to stop while we drive.  One quick stop for food and that is all.  That means we get places nice and fast, but it also means most of the pictures were taken out the window of a moving car.  Please ignore the reflections from the window in a few of the pics. 

Ready to hit the road again after some yummy Cafe Rio in Cedar City

We loved as the rocks started to turn more and more red

The beautiful red mountain

The Temple in St George, hard to get a good shot from the car, but it looked amazing all white and magnificent against the red rock

Made it to Arizona! 

Seeing the rock up close as we drove through the canyons

Check out that MUDDY river

Quoting Brett "its like God came down and cut the mountain with a machete"

Sorry its blurry, but we made it into Nevada!

Vegas Day 1

We spent Friday and Saturday night with a great friend of mine, Brittany, and her husband Rob.  They moved to Vegas about a year ago and we haven't seen them, or their adorable baby girl, since they left.  It was so much fun to be able to catch up with them and play with Kylie.  It was also super nice to have tour guides to show us around.  We were able to go out on the town Friday night with Brit and Rob while Kylie slept the night at grandma's house. We ate dinner, walked the strip, played at ESPN zone and saw the Bellagio Fountain show. 

Brit took us to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner.  It was an neat restaurant with a fun atmosphere and good food.  It was decorated like a rainforest, complete with regular thunderstorms!

Just chillin' with the Gorilla

At the MGM hotel we saw the large lion statue....

.... and a few actual lions! 

We ventured over to the M&M world where Brett was a great sport and posed with Mr Red for me

 We spent quite a bit of time at the ESPN zone where we played over sized arcade games.

Brett and Rob shooting some hoops

Kirsten getting ready to bowl with a mini bowling ball

Brett dominating the football game

Kirsten threw a couple, but it was harder than it looked!

Rob boxing

Some target practice

Brit and Rob taking a shot (get it, a shot)

 After playing around we walked down the strip for a while, a long while.  It was worth it though!

We got to see lots of pretty lights

We ended up at the Bellagio hotel to see a few of their fountain water/music/light shows

Our amazing tour guides showing us where to go

We watched two shows/songs.  Viva Las Vegas, and God Bless the USA.  Both were great!

With the flash on the camera, the water almost looks like it is on fire! 

After the show we walked all the way back to our cars.  We stopped and ate some frozen yogurt (always delicious) and then went home and crashed.  It was a great first day!  

Vegas Day 2

All buckled in and ready to go

Saturday was a little bit more relaxed.  We slept in, ate a great breakfast that Rob made for us, and then packed everyone in the car and headed back down to the Strip.  This time Kylie got to come play with us!  Our first stop was the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop.  You may think this is an interesting "tourist" choice, but Brett and I love watching the History Channel show Pawn Stars, and had to take the chance to visit the store the show is based on.  Unfortunately, since it was a Saturday none of the main people were working. 

waiting in line to get into the pawn store

With a name like Chumlee, how can you not like the guy?

Brett checking out all the old guns, including a sweet antique pistol for $5,500

A Babe Ruth Autographed baseball priced at $13,000

A stack of sports championship rings

 After the Pawn Shop, we headed to Cesar's Palace to get some shopping in.  Brit took us (read: me) to the largest H&M store, it was 3 floors!  I did some damage there before heading home. 

At the fountain/mural in Cesar's Palace

We took a break at the giant fish tank.  We waited for the "feeding time" but it didn't happen

Kylie was such a trooper! 

 We headed back to the house so Kylie (read: all of us) could take a nap and rest up for a while.  Later in the afternoon we headed to Rob's parent's house to relax in their Spa/giant hot tub.  The weather turned kinda windy, but it was still fun to sit around and chat for a while.  After we were fully turned into prunes we grabbed some dinner and then spent the night in playing on Brit and Rob's Kinect. Neither Brett nor I had played the Kinect before and we had fun trying to run fast, bowl, box, and play table tennis.

Our stay at the Luxor
On Sunday we went to church with Brittany and Rob and then packed up and said our goodbyes.  We spent Sunday and Monday night at a hotel on the Strip. We took a detour on our way to see the Vegas Temple.  The ground were very pretty and it is always fun to see how each temple take on the style of the location.  We spent quite some time watching some Hummingbirds in the trees but couldn't quite get a picture of them. 

We decided Palm trees can be very pretty is properly groomed, if not they can be very ugly.

Contemplating life

I love to see the Temple! 

 After the temple we ventured back to the strip....talk about a drastic change!

We stayed at the Luxor hotel on the Strip, aka Las Vegas Blvd. 

The Luxor is the classic Pyramid shaped hotel with a Egyptian type theme

In the Egyptian themed lobby

Our room complete with slanted "pyramid" walls

 When we left Brittany's house I was starting to feel sick.  By the time we got checked into the hotel all I could do was lay weakly on the bed.  I'll spare you the details but within a few hours I had lost my lunch and could barely move.  Brett was a sweetheart and went and got me extremely overpriced medicine for dinner.  We spent the night in the hotel; me sleeping and Brett watching TV.  Now don't start thinking I'm pregnant ... unless pregnancy sickness is contagious.  By the morning Brett was plagued with similar symptoms.  We had the flu.  :(  Brett was on a 12 hour delay from my symptoms which meant for a long 2 days. Luckily we had splurged to get the Spa room, the warm jets felt great on our sore achy muscles.  Our room was an odd shape, but quite spacious.  It had a slanted wall on one side due to being part of a pyramid.  It was fun though to have a unique room!

We studied the hieroglyphics while we were stuck in the room

 The only plan we had for our stay was to see a Variety Show at Planet Hollywood on Monday night.  I was feeling better enough by that time to be getting cabin fever and Brett is a trooper and a good sport and agreed to go out with me to the show (although he was still in the throws of it).  The show was actually pretty good and surprising clean but funny.  It was a variety show with a juggler/comedian as a host and different acts such as an impersonator, acrobats that flew around the room, and different comedy acts.  I'm glad we put the effort in to go see the show! Although the quick trip out sucked all our energy so we went straight back to the room and crashed. 

Tuesday morning we decided to try our stomachs at the breakfast buffet.  We hadn't eaten anything substantial (a few ritz and saltines) since Sunday.  At least we saved lots of money on vegas priced food.  Although we weren't feeling great, we enjoyed the buffet and eating food.  On our way back to our room we had to walk through the casino and decided to put a dollar into a slot machine.  We pushed the button and WON!  We doubled our money!  I didn't have our camera and wanted pictures so I made Brett cash out and walk with me back to our hotel room. 

Doubling our money with one easy button

 After we got the camera we headed back down to the casino to play with our 2 dollars. 

Brett at the machine

Rubbing it for good luck

 We played a few different penny and quarter machines.  We lost some and won some but never made it past our $2 mark.  At the end of the day (about 10 minutes) we had lost all our money. 

We had to cash out from the quarter machine when we only had 6 cents left

 Luckily we limited ourselves and we only lost a dollar, not our life savings!  On our way out I had to grab a picture of the pool.  I was really looking forward to spending hours soaking up the sun in Vegas but alas, that was not in our cards. 

Sunny pool at the Luxor

Leaving our Luxor Vacation, feeling a little cheated but glad to still have each other

 Our Trip Back

The trip back was mostly uneventful.  We didn't even stop to get food, we weren't hungry and just wanted to get home.  6 long hours in the car made our bodies tired and our muscles ache.  We did get to watch our odometer change to 7000 miles. We sure do add miles up fast on our little Corolla.  After taking the picture I realized we were going (almost) 70 MPH and it was 70* outside.  Maybe we should have headed back to Vegas with out lucky number 7! 

Lucky number 7

Provo welcomed us back with an abundance of rain and clouds. 

Not quite the sunny Vegas weather we left, but it felt good to be home.  Our 2nd Anniversary trip sure was one to remember.  Overall we had lots of fun with Brittany and Rob and were able to see lots of cool things in Vegas.  I'd be lying if I didn't admit that when I was tired and sick I felt very cheated and mad that we got sick and felt like it ruined our anniversary weekend.  Luckily for me, I have an awesome husband who helped me remember all the good things we did get to do and the fun memories we made.  After-all, it was only a few days out of 2 full years (and counting!) of a wonderful marriage!