Gratitude Month - Family and Friends

 

Today I am grateful for time spent with family and friends.

Gratitude Month - Girls Night

Today I am grateful for girl's night activities.

JeriAnn, Kate (and possibly Justin, but he is not a lady), and I are going to make dinner and watch North and South tonight.

No not this one...thank goodness.

But this one....

A delicious 4 hour mini-series.

From IMDB.com - "This series operates on many levels. At the heart of the series is the tempestuous relationship between Margaret Hale, a young woman from a southern middle class family who finds herself uprooted to the north, and John Thornton, a formerly poverty-stricken cotton mill owner terrified of losing the viability of his business. Around them are class struggles between the workers and mill owners and ideological struggles between the industrial North and the agrarian South. After moving North, Margaret's father befriends his student Mr. Thornton. Margaret has already formed her opinion of Mr. Thornton independently after seeing him treat his workers harshly. As the series progresses, she and we the audience begin to learn that his strict treatment is due to an overarching concern for his mill and by extension, his employees. John Thornton, on the other hand, is attracted to Margaret's independence and position in society as a well-educated Southerner..."

I know, I know it sounds boring. But if you like BBC period pieces, then you will love this one. Plus it is an interesting take on the times surrounding the industrial revolution in England.

Anyhoo, but enough about that. The point of this post is to say that I am grateful for time spent with good friends.

Gratitude Month - New Friends

Today I am grateful for new friends.

Friends in general are awesome...but there is nothing like that sparkly, fresh, exciting feeling you get from meeting someone new that you just know is meant to be an important part of your life...even if only for a brief moment in time.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I have to admit that I possess none of the cynicism that seems to be rampant around Valentine's Day. In fact I view the day much like I did when I was 6 years old, who cares if you are in a relationship or single - there is nothing wrong with a little love sharing every now and then. This year though, I had to restrain myself from buying little valentines, because I think I am perhaps the only one that enjoys giving them still. Most of my adult friends just look on them and me with a small smile of indulgence, but none of the sheer wonderment and excitement of getting a Hello Kitty valentine that I would like to see. Why does being an adult have to be so boring and tedious?

Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I truly hope that whatever your circumstances that you take a moment to just revel in the love. It is warm and squishy and fun, I guarantee it.

And though this has nothing to do with Valentine's Day, I thought I would post a few of my favorite pictures from my trip to the Czech Republic and also from Sundance.

This one is blurry, but it kind of turned out artsy anyway. I like it. It is the view of Old Town Prague looking through one of the arches of the Charles Bridge. The Charles Bridge connects old and new town in Prague and spans the Vltava River. The construction of the bridge was started in 1357. It is one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites (in fact all of Prague old time is a World Heritage site) and soooo beautiful. I crossed several times, but I think I could have spent a day just exploring the statues on the bridge alone.

This is the inside of the St. Nicholas church in Old Town square in Prague. It is a magnificent example of Baroque architecture and decoration. So pretty.

This is the inside of the St. Vitus Cathedral which is actually part of the Castle complex in Prague. It is in the Gothic style, which I have to admit I prefer. There is something just so imposing and grand about a Gothic Cathedral. The beauty and intricacy of the Baroque has its place, but I when I think about something that is awe inspiring, I always think of every Gothic Cathedral I have ever been.

If you look really closely you can see me standing in between the two guard stations at the castle. See there is at last one picture of me in Prague.

This is a view of the Charles Bridge with the Castle up above from across the river in the new part of town. (which really isn't all that new)

One of the towers on the Charles Bridge.

This is picture of me outside the Brno Police station when I had to go give my statement to the police after my laptop was stolen.

St. Peter and Paul Cathedral (my friend Rob kept calling it the Peter, Paul, and Mary cathedral - which amused us to no end) looking from the hill where Brno castle is located.

Just a cool moon picture in Brno.

This is a picture my friend Rob took of me at the top of the cathedral in Brno. We climbed up a billionty stairs all the way to the top where the bells are so that we could look out on the whole city. It was pretty cool. And I look so angelic don't I?

And finally I give you maybe the only picture that I kind of like of me with my friend Matt. See, I didn't make him up.

A brief history...

So...I don't blog so much anymore. Has anyone noticed? Probably not. Truthfully, you probably should be grateful that I don't blog as much anymore, because mostly I just want to whine about how stressful my job is and seriously who needs to hear that. Lately though I have felt the narcissistic stirrings to once again put my pictures on the web and maybe if you are lucky I will post some political pontifications at some point as well. Just kidding of course (the part about you being lucky).

And while it is true that I mostly just work these days, I have had the opportunity for some extra curricular activities as well.

Here are a few pics from June, July, and August to catch you up.

In June my dear friend Alethea came to Utah and we had alot of fun visiting English Tea Shops, and going to movies, and barbeques, and temples, and hiking.

Here are some pictures of our hike to Timpanogas Cave. (which by the way almost killed me, I beg to differ with the site that calls this a moderate hike. Moderate, my aching foot)

The heart of Timpanogas. As a side note, Timpanogas Cave is one of the only National Monuments in the National Park service to have a red light. I guess a few years ago they made a nation wide standard to only have white lights in national monuments and parks, but people were so upset about missing the red light in the Timpanogos Cave that they found a way to grandfather it in somehow. At one point in the tour they turn on a red light behind the heart formation and it makes it glow red. Cheesy? Maybe, but I liked it.

One of my favorite cave growths - Cave Bacon.

Alethea and I - after the hike.

After hiking to the cave I went to Thanksgiving Point to meet up with my cousins who were visiting from Reno. It was really great to see them. Here is a piciture of their three cute kids outside the Mayan. The Mayan is the place with the divers for those of you who have been there with me before.

Elizabeth - Keegan - Shannon

Shortly after my Sister's wedding, I went with my Grandma and Mom to Dallas Texas. We were tasked with going through the storage containers that my Grandma had been storing for the past 26 years in a Bekins warehouse, luckily for me they weren't ready for us the first day, so we just had to go site seeing. First on my list was the 6th Floor Museum.



This is the spot on the road where John F. Kennedy was shot.

Cute, cute, Jenny. Jenny who now lives in Dallas was able to come and join us at the museum, I was so happy to see her. Doesn't she look fabulous? I would like to mention that it was a VERY humid day, and I do not do well with humidity and neither does my hair.

After the museum we went to the cemetery where my Grandpa John is buried. He died when I was 10 and I was always sad that I didn't get to go to the funeral, so to visit his gravesite was fulfillment of a 29 year old dream. As a side note, and not to be morbid, but the funeral home director told me that alot of famous people are buried in this cemetery. Mickey Mantle, Tom Landry, Greer Garson (I think), and others. They were also responsible for arranging the funerals of Bonny and Clyde (who are not buried in Dallas).

We also went on a drive by of the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium, which is ginormous.

The National Boy Scout headquarters, where my Grandpa worked.

And the Dallas Temple.

All in all the Dallas trip was a success.

In July, Kate and I went hiking to Silver Lake. I know I always post pictures of Silver Lake, but it is really quite pretty, so please indulge me.

And finally, Kate, Justin, MacConnell and I recently went to a Real Soccer game in the new stadium. It was alot of fun. And the Real beat Chivas USA 4 to 0. Not too shabby.

We had really good seats, like third row sidelines. But I think we were in the drunk tank section. This guy was so loud and obnoxious all through the beginning. He suddenly got silent; Kate thinks he heard me making fun of him. Oopsie. I should remember to use my whisper voice.

At one point in the game, the drunk guy behind me yelled "hair club for men" really loud to the referee who was a little follicly challenged. This was really funny to me for some reason, and I accidentally spit pop corn residue on the shirt of the guy in front of me. Sorry bout that blue shirt guy.

Here is the aforementioned drunk guy photo bombing my picture with MacConnell. You know the peace signs over people's heads just never go out of style I guess.

So that's about it for now, I will try to be more prompt with my postings in the future. Although I can't make any promises as I am scheduled to be in Riverside, California from September 8 - October 2nd for work.

XOXOXO

The Wedding and Wedding Festivities

Yes I know that I have not posted in a very long time. Believe me I would have liked to have posted earlier but I did not have the energy to do so. You see...the past month has been super busy with weddings, and visits, and trips, and working. I work a lot by the way, too much I think.

So without further ado, here are some pictures from June 12 and June 13. We started June 12 with a trip to tour the newly finished Oquirrh Temple. Afterwards we tried to take a group photo, but as you can see it is hard to get everyone looking in the correct direction.

After the Temple open house we went to Murray Park to have a Barbecue. It was actually a lot of fun, and I think it turned out great. Thanks to everyone who attended.

This picture is of my Uncle Byron hiding behind some flowers, it amuses me.


My cute Grandma who flew from Micronesia to be a part of the festivities...


Just a shot of the food

After the barbecue a few of us went to the Scottish Festival, this is a picture of my super cool Henna Tattoo. This year they even put sparklies on the Henna while it dried. Delightful!

It is hard to see, but this is the Tattoo, which is not ink on skin but rather a group of pipe and drum bands playing in unison.

Here we have several pictures of the actual wedding day.

Kate and cute JeriAnn

Sisters

Family

Kate and Justin

Sassy green shoes

I love this last one; it is like Grant Wood meets Magritte.

The last 5 pictures were taken by Rachel Rehart Photography, I like them very much, so I "borrowed" them from her site.