Fifty Free Christmas Cards!!!

Hi again! A couple of days ago, I was checking our blog (to see if anyone had commented or read the new post). I didn't really want to go to bed, yes it was late, so I was just blog surfing. I would click on the next blog up in the corner and just see who I would get. Well I landed on a family blog where the writer (the Mom) was advertising 50 free Christmas Cards from Shutterfly. I was like, "what?" so I read about it. I also decided to sign up. What is going on is that shutterfly is doing this promotional blog thing. If you sign up at this site http://bit.ly/sfly2010 you get all the info. What you have to do is send in your email, write up a blog post about how cool this is (by the way I think it is way cool! 50 free cards from Shutterfly?!?! and the cards are way cute). You also have to share some favorite links to Shutterfly. Here are mine: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery ; http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards ; and you can't forget new years (some of these are cute too) http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/new-years-cards . They also send you some links to stationary and other cool stuff. I was soo excited when I read her blog that I signed up right away. I have been spending all morning looking at Christmas cards. I hope you guys take advantage of this way cool offer!!! Well, I have to go clean now, but I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Goals

Hi again. Sorry for the insane long delay in updates. You see, Rob and I live a very predictable life, and little happens that falls under the "wow, I should tell someone that" category. But since it's been so long since I wrote, I will try to update you on the new news of our little family.
Rob is finishing up (as in over half way done) his graduate degree. He plans on graduating in August of 2011. He recently submitted a paper to the American Astronomical Society for a conference they hold in Breckenridge, Colorado. This conference only accepts about 1 in 4 submissions, and they accepted Robs!!!!!!! I am so excited for him. What this means is in February Rob is going to Colorado to present his paper, which is a mini thesis, to a bunch of PhD's and professional Rocket Scientists. He's a little freaked, I am way proud!
Rob's work at the Space Dynamics lab is keeping him busy as well. Right now he is helping test a sensor for a UAV for the Air Force. He loves it. He told me that he was able to find a flaw in the design his team is working on, which, if not found could have cost them at least 2 weeks backtracking, and lots of money. Go Rob!
As for myself. I am still working at the USU Bookstore. It's...well let's just say it's a job. I have started a diet that seems to be working really well, it's called eat healthier and exercise. Amazing concept isn't? I have used a diet book, the Five Factor Diet, for recipe/meal ideas, but I (meaning Rob and I) are figuring it out that fat/calorie thing for me.
My best friend Susan convinced me to try this crazy self competition called NaNoWriMo. What it stands for is National Novel Writers Month. Basically you challenge yourself to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. Susan is doing great, me... well I am trying.
Recently, as in the last couple of months, I have realized that I haven't really developed my self Intellectually, Physically, Emotionally, or Spiritually. Some of this comes from graduating school I think. I think I thought that I was done growing. I have come to realize that if you stop yourself from growing, you literally damn (as in a water damn) or stop yourself. It's not a fun place to be in. Rob is helping me grow physically, with the diet and exercise program we do together. I am trying this writing thing for the intellectual. (This is going to seem like a jump) My house is a mess, and emotionally it hurts to be ashamed to have my husband have to come home to it. Part of what I think keeps me from cleaning is the accessibility of easy entertainment, such as a Wii, a DVD player, a television hooked up to the internet or Netflix, or just the computer. SO, here is the goal. I am going to unplug the wii and have Rob hide the power cord. I am unplugging the tv and unhooking the cable. I have asked Rob to put a password on his computer and to hide the laptop. I know this sounds extreme and supposedly I should be able to just shut myself from all these distractions. But the last couple of months have proved to me that I have to try something drastic. Once I gain back my self control, then I will be able to ignore the distractions until appropriate. Rob told me he was proud of me, and that he thought that what I am doing is wise and courageous. I hope so. That is for the Emotional. As for Spiritual, I haven't figured out a goal as of yet, it's the next one after I find out if the cleaning goal works. One step at a time, right?
Well, that's about all that is new in our lives. LLAP

more to come, I promise

"I'd like to append to them the fact--and this is a true gospel verity--that everyone in the church who is on the straight and narrow path, who is striving and struggling and desiring to do what is right, though is far from perfect in this life; if he passes out of this life while he's on the straight and narrow, he's going to go on to eternal reward in his Father's Kingdom.
"We don't need to get a complex or get a feeling that you have to be perfect to be saved. You don't. There's only been one perfect person, and that's the Lord Jesus, but in order to be saved in the Kingdom of God and in order to pass the test of mortality, what you have to do is get on the straight and narrow path--thus charting a course leading to eternal life--and then, being on that path, pass out of this life in full fellowship. I'm saying you don't have to be perfect to be saved. If you did, no one would be saved. The way it operates is this: you get on the path that's named the 'straight and narrow.' You do it by entering the gates of repentance and baptism. The straight and narrow path leads from the gates of repentance and baptism, a very great distance, to a reward that's called eternal life. If you're on that path and pressing forward, and you die, you'll never get off the path. There is no such thing as falling off the straight and narrow path in the life to come, and the reason is that this life is the time that is given to men to prepare for eternity. Now is the time and day of your salvation, so if you're working zealously in this life--though you haven't fully overcome the world and you haven't done all you hoped you might do--you're still going to be saved. You don't have to do what Jacob said 'Go beyond the mark/' You don't have to live a life that's truer that true. you don't have to have an excessive zeal that becomes fanatical and becomes unbalancing. What you have to do is stay in the mainstream of the Church and live as upright and decent people live in the church--keeping the commandments, paying your tithing, serving in organizations of the church, loving the Lord, staying on the straight and narrow path. If you're on that path when death comes--because this is the time and the day appointed, this the probationary estate--you'll never fall off from it, and, for all practical purposes, your calling and elections is made sure."
-Elder Bruce R McConkie, The Probationary Test of Mortality

Why ninja's don't carry cell phones...

Today is a beautiful day. It is in the eighties here, and has a slight breeze to help you stay cool. A perfect day for a picnic. A perfect day to surprise your husband with a picnic. :) I called Rob to find out what time he was coming home from studying, so I could get the food ready, pick him up, and "kidnap" him on that perfect picnic I had in my mind. Little did I know when I called him that he was already on his way home. Kink in the plans. I didn't have time to get the food and surprise him. I asked him if he thought a picnic was a good idea, he did. I then asked him where he was on his walk home, trying to estimate how long he would be before he arrived. He informed me that he was just off. Well, the mischievous imp that wanted to surprise my husband was still upon me so I decided to walk out and meet him half way. I figured a walk would be nice in this weather, and Rob didn't know I was coming. I grabbed my keys and my cell phone, in case I missed him, and started off. I could see in my mind's eye his surprised face when he saw me walking towards him. I started to play it out in my mind. Should I run to him? Should I walk and act surprised to see him? Or should I try to sneak up on him? I had these questions in the back of my mind as I walked through the cemetery that separates Aggie Village from the main campus. I knew that I would have to stay sharp in order to find Rob in the cemetery. I started walking the route I thought he would take. In a few minutes time, I saw Rob walking on a perpendicular path about a hundred yards in front of me. Throwing yet another kink into my plans, Rob didn't turn when I thought he would. Decision made, I would sneak up on him. An impish smile shown through as I started to cut across to get behind him. I did really well too. I stayed in the shadows, kept quiet, and moved as quickly as I could. It's hard to be quiet while you run, but the birds in the trees were noisy enough to cover my footfalls. I started running a little faster, and when I got about fifteen feet from him, my cell phone fell out of my pocket and crashed to the ground. I froze in place, Rob turned. I screamed in frustration, "ARRRRRRR!!!" and Rob smiled. We kissed and continued the walk home together.
It's not the phone ringing that gets you, it's gravity. This every child and ninja knows.

2 posts with in one month's time... please don't die of shock

Hi again. I know, I am writing again relatively soon for me. It's a miracle. :) Anyway, there actually has been a couple of things that have happened with in the last month that I wanted to share. I have found a new hobby. I love to cook! I have always known that I liked cooking, but the task always seemed somewhat daunting to me. Well, lately I have been doing better and have found that I love it more than I thought I would. This epiphany came to me a week or so ago when I had no idea what to cook for dinner. I hadn't been feeling well, so Rob and I had gotten fast food for the past couple of nights. I felt guilty and wanted to cook him a good homemade meal. Now, I have always envied my mother's ability to look into a fridge and see a meal. I look into a fridge and see eggs, milk, cheese, ranch dressing, etc... Well this night I looked into the fridge and actually saw a meal. I threw some chopped chicken, tomatoes, carrots, onions, broccoli, and seasonings into a frying pan and voila, I had this...
Looks good doesn't it? I enjoyed it, and so did Rob. That was a good night.
Recently I bought a crock pot cookbook. As students, Rob and I don't have a lot of time, and I thought a couple of crock pot meals could help out. Well I have decided that I am going to cook my way through this book. (yes I have seen Julie Julia, but I had this idea before I saw the movie, and I am not using Julia Child's cook book) Well the first recipe from this book that I cooked was a pot roast. It was sooo good. It called for brisket, but I had to use a different meat (I think I landed on a London broil) The recipe was way spicy too. I like spicy but this was almost burn my mouth, Rob LOVED it. It was really fun to do. I had to fry in a crock pot, didn't know you could do that, but I did. The next meal we had was barbecue baby back ribs. YUM! again, didn't know you could do ribs in a crock pot. So far I am loving doing this. I'll keep you updated on the good meals. :P Well that's everything for now. I hope you are not too hungry after this post :)

And We're Back...

Hello again. I am sorry that I haven't kept this blog up to date. For those who still check to see if their faith in me is worth it, this blog will reward their never ending hope. Lots of pictures. Pictures are fun, at least I think they are fun. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I am really going to have my say this post....

Well, here's Dad and Nancy. This picture was taken at General Conference last year. I don't think that their engagement was generally known. The reason I love this picture is because my Dad has a genuine smile on his face. He has grinned occasionally in the past years, but they were few and far between. This picture shows how happy he is now. I would have loved Nancy for just that smile, but she is AWESOME! to boot. This picture shows how truly loving and kind Nancy is (it's in the eyes and smile).

This picture was taken at Thanksgiving. We went to a dinner that was hosted by Rob's mother's family. Taylor is just chilling with Grandma.

I really like this picture (I guess I really like all of them) but this picture is special. To me it looks like Laura's angel status is showing through to the camera.

Story time: Rob and I have a street lamp right outside our bedroom window. For the few couple of months our bedroom was REALLY lit up at night because of this lamppost. So, we devised a way to hang curtains to cinder block. The cloth we choose (we made the curtains ourselves) was a thick denim. We thought that the denim would not only keep out the light but also provide some insulation during the winters. The curtains do keep out the light, but they exceeded out expectations in regards to insulation. The following picture is of our bedroom window. Rob looked out it one winter morning to see what the weather looked like, and this is what he saw...

the crystalline structure you see is about a half inch of ice on the inside of our window. Yes, you read that right, the inside. The curtains worked well.... :)

This last winter I graduated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's play Where's Juli...

The following pictures are from Spring break, just this last week. Rob and I both had to work, and Rob had a lot of homework, so we decided to do things around northern Utah, and on the weekends instead of during the week. The first Saturday we went down to Ogden/Roy area and went to the Hill air force museum. We met Dad and Nancy, Dave and Becki with Mags and Josh, and Nancy's Dave and family. It was a lot of fun. Rob informed me that he had never been there before, so it was something new and interesting. It was also fun to go with Dad who knows so much about planes. Rob enjoyed it a lot.

This picture is of Mags and Josh (with Dave and Rob being headless in the background). It was a cold rainy day, but we were able to look at the outside planes before it started to rain.

Dave and Rob.

Rob was getting annoyed that I was taking all the pictures and was therefore not in one. This was my attempt at appeasing him. Silly me...

I really appreciated how big the planes really were. Rob and I and Dave and Becks were constantly picking up Mags and Josh to help them see inside.

The wing is a good four feet off the ground. So helping the kids up was a interesting exercise. And then both of them wanted to look in the windows. It was fun.

I like this picture as it shows the size of the airplane in comparison to my favorite person. He's short.... :)

Latter that day my Dad asked Rob if he would help seat a toilet. We of course said that we would help. Dad and Nancy had put in new linoleum (it looks really good). Well, we got to the house and found out that there were a few things that had to be done before the toilet could be put it. One was painting over old stained grout near the toilet (I got that job, it wasn't bad) and the new baseboard had to be painted (Rob got that one) As we didn't know that we would be painting, we didn't bring grubby clothes, so Dad let Rob borrow a one piece jumper. I loved it, and couldn't stop laughing...

I know, it's not that bad, but it still is funny to me.

The following Friday we went down to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. Rob's siblings and Mother were able to join us. It was a ton of fun.

There's the boys of the group.

The museum also had a learning hands-on room that you could go in and play. This first picture is of that room. The tube had air running from the bottom to the top. A piece of paper or a scrap of something could be slipped in and would shoot up to the top. That's why everyone is looking up.

The dinosaur museum had a cave like structure at the beginning that the younger of our group could play in. I think it took a while to get them out.

Rob LOVES his dinosaurs. We took a different car down not because there wasn't room, but so that Rob and I could stay longer and take more time at each exhibit. Rob has this amazing memory for all things dinosaur. I think Rob had more fun than anyone else.

I was a close second... :)

Taylor takes third.

We all seemed to love that Protoceratops (of the same family of the triceratops)

I just loved this picture for the size comparison. When we were walking past the T-Rex's I said that they looked small to me. Rob thought I was weird. I was comparing them to the T-Rex in Jurassic Park (probably not the best source of correct information) but I was looking at them from a higher point. Once we walked down by them, I conceded that they were big. They also had a skeleton of a baby T-Rex. It was interesting.

Well, that's all of the pictures. I hope you enjoyed this post. I know I liked making it, but that is not a promise that I will keep it up in a timely manner. I am still getting the hang of being married. Thanx for your patience. Love you all!