Let's play catch up!! 2010 in one nice post!!!

2010 started out with me still being unemployed, in school, STILL a teacher in the Primary, and STRESSED about financial matters!!! But... I was finally the proud owner of a Bachelors degree in Psychology!!! December of 2009 I had finally completed all the requirements and received my degree!!! What an accomplishment for me!! In May, I read a friend's Facebook post about a Scenty party she was having at her house (in Montana) and I decided on the spot that I could go to Montana if I wanted to!!! I talked to Marcia about having some of her kids come up to Logan for a visit and told her that I wanted to go to Montana and if the kids came we would go to Yellowstone (I've never been). So the first weekend of June, John (my brother), Monica (niece), Shannon (niece), Landon (nephew), and I packed up my car, programmed the GPS (Sean) and were on our way.
However, a couple of things may have thwarted our trip. First, the day before we left I became sick with a cold; which only progressed as the trip went on!! Second, the weather was rainy and wet!! Once we reached Idaho I thought we were going to float away; the rain was coming down so heavy!!!

We debated about skipping Yellowstone and going right on to Montana, but in the end we decided to chance it going to Yellowstone and right when we arrived at the West end entrance of Yellowstone...the rain stopped!!!

Yellowstone was fantastic!! We didn't see very many animals though...except the bison!!

We spent about four hours driving through Yellowstone looking for animals, seeing the waterfalls, sitting in traffic since they were doing road work, and generally having a GREAT time!! As we left Yellowstone, I stopped to take a picture of the exit signJust as we were driving under the arch, the rain started again!!! How lucky we were to have such a great time without worrying about the rain!! After Yellowstone, we drove to Bozeman, Montana where we stayed the night at the Come On Inn!! Catchy isn't it!!! :)

The next day we drove to Harrison where I got to visit with my friend Jamie Taylor!! It was so fun to see her again since it had been 13 YEARS since we had seen each other. Thanks Jamie!!!
We then drove back to Logan and collapsed from exhaustion!!! The very next day we drove to Hooper because my niece Taylor Michelle was being blessed and Monica, Shannon, and Landon were going back home.
In July, John (who was living with me while he goes to school) and I had to move out of the mobile home we were living in. Luckily, we only had to move across the street and around the corner to Aggie Village!! Man, a person really finds out how much stuff they have when they have to move!!! I have decided that packing to move is THE WORST!!! Thanks to Bobbi and Aunt Luie and Uncle Doug for helping out!!! John and I lived in 17 Aggie Village Apt E for 5 months; until December.
Which brings us to the present and all caught up for 2010!!! On December 17, 2010 I completed all of my class work to receive my Masters in Family and Human Development!!! Despite my best efforts and having applied for over 100 jobs and having several interviews, I remained unemployed through the whole year of 2010 which added STRESS, FRUSTRATION, and a dab of DRAMA to the events of the year!!! :D And after many days and nights of crying, praying, and pleading with Heaven that there could be an alternative...I moved back to my parents home in Payson.
However, a bright spot in all of my sadness was my friend Steph calling me and asking if I would want to go with her to Las Vegas to pick up a friend from the airport. Of course I said YES!!!! So December 22, Steph and I drove down to Las Vegas and stayed at the Excalibur hotel. Now, my feels of Vegas can not be adequately expressed in this blog post, so I will just say 'Sin City' is an accurate nickname!!! Despite my dislike of Vegas, we had a TON of fun!!! I mean, where else in the world can you meet an orange Santa??

To be fair, in the morning light, the Santa on the left wasn't as orange (skin tone, tan) as he was the night before!!! Before we left on our trip, Steph had decided that we should go down the night before Leslie's flight came in so that we didn't get lost trying to find the airport!!! In a HILARIOUS twist of fate, the Excalibur is roughly a 1/2 mile from McCarran airport and we could see and hear the airplanes coming in and taking off from our hotel room window!!! Steph and I joked all night that we should call Leslie and tell her to walk toward the Excalibur and we would just met her somewhere!!! But Steph and I decided to be nice and on the 23rd we drove to the airport and picked up Leslie. I realized that you know you have a true friend when you haven't seen a person in about 10 YEARS and you can pick up right where you left off!!! We went to New York, New York and rode the roller coaster where I thought my head was going to fall off from banging side to side!!!(they need softer padding for the head and shoulder rests!!), then M&M world (not as exciting as I had hoped :D) and the Stratosphere where Leslie and I rode the INSANITY!! I have to say that that was the HIGHLIGHT of my trip to Vegas!!! It was so fun, we had to ride it a second time!!!

We then went to the Luxor and walked through an Artifact Exhibition of the Titanic. What an awesome experience to read about the people on the Titanic and to see actual items that have been recovered from the wreckage!!! We even got to see an ACTUAL side piece of the Titanic, there was still glass in the portholes and you could see pieces of the beams where it was riveted to the rest of the ship. On Christmas Eve day, we drove back to Utah!! Even though I have a strong dislike for Vegas, those three days were a MUCH needed rest and relaxation vacation!!! Thanks Steph and Les!!!! I had TONS of fun!!!
So...as 2010 comes to an end, I am forced to reflect on the good and the bad that has occurred over the past 12 months!! I am truly proud of myself for completing a Masters degree and I am most grateful for the WONDERFUL, AMAZING family and friends that I have been blessed with!! I continue to be unemployed which is currently the BAIN of my existence, but I look forward with tentative hope to 2011 and the adventures that the future holds!!!

PARTY!!!!!!!!!! No pictures though!!

So today is my oldest and bestest friend Wendy's 30th birthday!!!!!! Although, if you ask her, she hasn't aged a day over 21!!! :D I tried to tell her that she should embrace 30, enjoy 30, give 30 a hug, but no dice.

Anyway, her fabulous husband Shane planned an elaborate surprise party for her and enlisted my (and several other people's) help in making sure all the friends I know of Wendy's were invited to the party. Well, I walked into the RS room of the church where that party was being held and the entire room was covered in PINK, pink balloons, pink streamers, pink drink, pink cotton candy, pink birthday crowns, pink frosted cupcakes, pink candies.

I said to myself, 'Wendy doesn't like pink'!! I began to wonder just how well Shane really knows Wendy!! So I was discussing how Wendy doesn't like pink with our friend Tracey and she was thinking the same thing!! But, apparently the whole pink thing is a joke that Wendy has with some other friends of hers, so we were in a sea of pink for the night!!!

The whole night was a lot of fun!!! Shane had called the bishop of their ward and asked him if he would call Wendy and ask if she could come in for an interview!! Well, Wendy had a fishy feeling that something was going on so Shane asked the bishop if he would give Wendy a REAL interview so that would take up more time and Wendy would hopefully be less suspicious!!! Even with the 'REAL' interview Wendy was still suspicious but she was suprised as well!!

I got the chance to see so many people that I haven't seen for quite some time, so I was really glad that I made the trip down from Logan for the party!!! However, I was really bummed that I had forgotten my camera so I was not able to get any pictures. :(

What do you get when you have 11 kids under the age of 12 and 14 adults!!!

PARTY!!!!!!!!

September 26th, we had a family party for my dad's 67th (un)birthday!!!


There was cake:


And presents:

Since my dad is from Cache Valley, Suzanne had the GREAT idea to go to stores here in Logan and get items that were made specifically in Cache Valley. What a fun time we had going to the different stores!!! As we were leaving the house Suzanne said, "I wish we could find something that had Dr. Pierce's barn on it, (Dr. Pierce's barn is a old barn here in Logan that has been around for years and belongs to my dad's family, it is quite famous for the advertisement on the side of the barn) maybe we can find a postcard." So the first store we went to is a sock store called All About Socks. They sell all kinds of different (you guessed it!!) socks. Anyway, we went in and I turned to my left and saw a rack of socks that said USU Aggies, in the middle of the top row of socks was a tan pair that had Dr. Pierce's barn on them!!! I couldn't believe it. I walked over for closer inspection and just had to laugh. I picked up a pair and turned around to show them to Suzanne. She and I both laughed and could not believe our find!!!

Was Dad excited for the socks???

Probably not as excited as Suzanne and I were to give them to him!!!

Of course no party would be complete without the fabulous food!! There was dutch oven potatoes (who knew lighter fluid could be so much fun!!!) , ham, salads, chips, and of course a LARGE variety of desserts!! Basically, if you went away hungry it was your own fault!! Great job Mom!!!

There was swimming for the little kids:


And the big kids!!!!:

But don't even think about getting Uncle David wet!!!!

As a special treat! Grandpa Greengo and Marge came down to party with us!! I am not sure...but they may not want to come back!!!

The kids also had a treasure hunt and played volleyball (have you ever played volleyball with a three year old?) The adults got to play the 'Number game' where a variety of strange and fun prizes were won by all!!

After the party was done, we were all VERY exhausted and some of us had to take a nap!!!

The party before.....

Every year around Labor Day weekend (early this year), my dad's family has a family reunion. Since my dad is from Cache Valley, the reunion is almost always in Millville. When we were kids, we would come up the day before and spend the night at grandma's or the aunt's/uncle's. Now that we are all older; our new 'tradition' is camping the day before the reunion. Okay, now, I am the first to admit that I am not an avid camper!! I don't mind sleeping in a tent for ONE night or staying in a camper. I have no problem getting my hands dirty and using the woods as a bathroom. :) However, I draw the line at camping in the rain!!! Every time I go camping, it rains. When it rains, ALL of my stuff gets soaked!! But I try my hardest not to complain and I go camping anyway and have a good time! In fact, one of the smells that I love is the smell of a campfire, so camping isn't all bad!!! Anyway (ranting done), for the past four years our new 'tradition' has been in full swing!!! The first two years we camped at Hyrum Lake State Park. Last year the reunion was in Clinton so we decided to try something new and went to Cherry Hill water park in Kaysville.

Crazy Campers!!!!

Some fun pics of Cherry Hill (2008).

This year the reunion was in Millville; so once again we decided to do something new and we camped at Box Elder Campground in Mantua (man-a-way), 5-ish miles East of Brigham City in Sardine Canyon. So....last week (Aug. 7-8) I went camping. Like I said before, EVERY TIME I go camping (ok, last year it didn't) it rains. But this year I was sort of lucky, it actually didn't rain until early Saturday morning. Although we were missing some people, we had a lot of fun together!! My niece Megan was sick so my oldest sister and her family didn't come. The kids were bummed!!! But, viola!!!!! Aunt Jamie to the rescue!! I was down at my parent's house the week before so I offered to take Monica and Shannon with me and my parents (who were coming up) could take them back with them. So Monica, Shannon, and I slept in my brother's tent.'Home away from Home'
(I would not make a good Pioneer!)

I don't know why but every time I go camping, I am never as prepared as I think I am!! And, you would think after living in Utah my ENTIRE life, I would know how cold it gets in the mountains at night!!! But, alas, I must block those moments out of my mind. So, we scrounged through my brothers trailer and found all the blankets they had and used those!!! Luckily, Michelle had stocked up on blankets and the 'tenters' were able to keep warm. :D

Monica and Michelle using their Girl Scout 'fire building' skills!!!

Sami was DETERMINED to help build the fire!!!

For dinner, we roasted hot dogs and Polish sausages and had yummy cabbage salad and some chips!! Then we played the 'numbers' game!! Such a funny game, especially when the guys get the 'girly' items!!! Unfortunately, I didn't know my camera batteries were dying so I didn't get any pictures after the fire building adventure!! In the morning, with the rain pouring down, we decided to go into Logan and make breakfast at my sister's house. We had pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs, juice, and milk!! I am so lucky and blessed to have such a great family!!! We have a great time together and there is never a shortage of laughter and craziness when we get together as a family!! :D

Smarter than the blog

So I figured out how to delete the previous posts!! So my first post is half-way obsolete!!!

Oh well, you get the point!!

Two posts for the price of one!!!

Aren't you all just the luckiest people of all!! Now that I am blogging, I may not stop!!! :)
Here is a quick catch up on my uninteresting life!! I have lived in Logan for just over 2 years now!! I lived with my sister for the summer when I first moved here and now I live in a small mobile home that I bought!! I lived alone for almost a year and then my younger brother John moved in with me. I am attending school at Utah State University where I am working on my Masters of Science degree in Family, Consumer, and Human Development. Crossing my fingers and hoping really hard, I should be graduating December of 2010!!!

Right now, I am unemployed and going crazy!!!!! But I am hoping that my employment situation will change soon!! Despite being unemployed, I have had quite the busy summer! I am doing an Internship at the Child and Family Support Center here in Logan and that has kept me REALLY busy. I also completed training to be a CASA (court appointed special advocate) and now I am working with the juvenile court on a case of child neglect. Also this summer, I have had 2 of my nieces stay with me!! Monica came up and stayed for two weeks!!

She helped me with a project that I had to do. Unfortunately, 2 days after she came up, I came down with a cold so Monica went and stayed with my sister for a week!! After I was feeling better, Monica and I went to the Willow Park zoo here in Logan. Yep, surprise, surprise....Logan has a zoo!!! It is a small zoo with just a few animals, but it was still fun!! When I took Monica back home, I traded nieces' and brought Shannon back with me!! Shannon only stayed four days and she also stayed with my sister for a few of those days. The day before Shannon was to go back home, we also went to the zoo!! Hey, it's free!!!

This was my most favorite exhibit at the zoo!!

We were also lucky enough to see a peacock with it's tail feathers fanned out!!!

In a few weeks I am going camping so stay tuned for more!!!

Ignore the previous posts!!!

Since I moved here to Logan away from my family and friends, I have been thinking about starting my own blog. I decided that I was too boring and had nothing to blog about, so I didn't start a blog. But, I kept thinking about it and again I decided that I was too boring and I didn't have a digital camera to make my blog more exciting, so once again I put the idea out of my mind!!

Then, last semester one of my class assignments was to create a blog about a family or social policy and blog about the topic through the whole semester. This is fantastic!! I thought, now I have a blog and I can just keep it going after class is over!! However, I couldn't figure out how to change the URL without creating a whole new blog, soooo......what I have will just have to do!!

So welcome to my blog, I hope you enjoy your time here!!! :D