To teach, & preach & work as missionaries do!

This is me and one of my oldest and best friends Britney Chugg..

(this was the oldest picture of us I could find at the moment since my laptop crashed :( This is us at EFY when we were younger..and yes, I know... not exactly my best picture...haha)

(Junior Prom 2004)

Anywho, I am feeling nostalgic because Britney just left on a mission to FIJI!

(We have way too many pictures that look just like this one. Haha)

Britney and I became best friends when we were in 7th grade.
Since we were ALWAYS together, we were a lot a like. We walked the same, talked the same, our hand writing looked the same, and even though we pretty much look opposite (besides both being just over 5'8 and having long hair) everyone thought we were sisters. In High School, our teachers always got us mixed up and were asked more than once if we were twins. haha

(Our first semester of college)

(Me and Britney at my wedding, she was one of my maid of honors)

It's sooo weird to me that she is going to be gone for so long. But she is going to be a great missionary, and I'm sooo excited for her!!!

Labor Day Weekend

We have been working our butts off for the last 2 months, and decided that Labor Day was the perfect invite to take a break and do what we love most.

So we went up to Blakes grandpa's cabin and rode our most favorite horses everrrrr...

1. Catching the horses.

My girl Zurry

2. Saddle 'em up!

3. RIDE

4. Say goodbye :(

Blakes horse Meg always rolls around like this after she goes for a ride. Haha

The End

Wow.

Last night I woke up at about 2:30 AM with horrible pains going from my left elbow, down my arm, to my hand...it was like a dull constant pain, kinda like...ya know when you hurt your finger and you feel like you need to crack it? But then you keep popping it till it won't pop anymore and it just makes it hurt worse? It was like that, only it was going through my whole arm...and more intense than that...haha (I know that sounds really weird..)

Anyway, I got up and stumbled to the bathroom to get some ibuprofen. I was expecting to turn on the lights and see my arm swollen and bruised...or maybe cut off or something...however, it somehow looked the same as always.

So, I took 3 ibuprofen and I went to lay back down. I laid there for a while half awake praying it would stop hurting. After about an hour, I guess I dozed off for a second, but reawoke at about 3:30 AM feeling horrible and I guess moaning which apparently woke up Blake.

Now, first let me say that Blake is the deepest sleeper you will ever meet. If you were to try to wake him up in the middle of the night he never really wakes up. Sometimes you can get him so stir, but he will rarely ever really wake up. It's usually just him sleep walking/talking, and he never remembers it the next day.

But for some reason this time he was wide awake saying "babe what's wrong?!"

(Maybe I was crying out louder than I realized?)

I told him my arm was hurting and that it wouldn't stop. The ibuprofen hadn't done anything. (This story is longer than I'd intended, but it's coming to an end soon I promise)

Anyway, I couldn't sleep it hurt so bad. Blake got up and got me some ice (why hadn't I thought of that?) and 1 more ibuprofen. I also insisted on taking 1 Benadryl. I wanted to go to sleep so badly so that I wouldn't feel my arm anymore, and Benadryl is the one thing that always knocks me out. (I know I shouldn't take medicine like that, but I was desperate at this point).

I don't even know when I started crying, but after that we went back to bed and he held me while I cried and tried to sleep. For some reason, just having him up with me helped it not hurt as much.

This morning I woke up with almost no more pain and feeling very grateful to Blake for taking care of me.

Then I got to work and found this http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/ through my sisters blog. I realize that most of you are probably familiar with this blog already, but I'd never heard of it until today.

If you haven't read her blog, I'll tell you a little bit about it.

If you go back to 08/15/08 on her blog, Stephanie (She goes by Nie) writes one of her regular posts as a 28 year old fun-loving mother of four. Then, two days later her sister wrote a post telling that Stephanie and her husband were in a private plane accident and had serious injuries. Her sister continues to update Nies blog for those who read her blog. Finally on 01/16/09 Nie blogs for the first time in 4 months. After having been in a coma and dealing with severe burns on 85% of her body, she starts updating her blog and sharing her experiences about her recovery.

I read through her blog in tears and was in awe at what a strong woman, wife, and mother she is. Reading about the constant pain she's been through for the last year made me feel pretty wussy for crying about my arm hurting last night!

Along with that however, I read about her sweet family and her husband. They both work so hard together to get through their trials.

It made me think about my own sweet husband who works SO hard everyday and who will wake up in the middle of the night and do anything he can to help me feel better.

I am feeling SO grateful for all the blessing Blake and I have been given.

I went for a jog last night...I CAN go for a jog..whenever I want. She wrote right after she was released from the hospital about how she longed to be able to get up and run again. I will never take my jogs for granted again.

Anyway, I read this blog and am now feeling very humbled.

& very much in love with my sweet husband who takes such good care of me.

Lots of Changes

Right now I am driving from Riverton to Provo ev-er-y daaaaay.

I work at a company called Strategic Insurance Agency. We do mostly commercial insurance and I do pretty much all the paperwork for all 7 producers. It's been a very busy, but over all a pretty good job...

Howeverrrr, once apon a time (about a week or so ago) it was a day that I was feeling very frustrated with my drive to Provo.. (particularlly with all the awesome drivers out in Utah county..seriously people out there are crazy) That and along with the fact that that same week that my boss had decided that everyone at Strategic would be required to take an hour lunch break. An hour lunch break everyday drops me from 40-42 hours a week to 34-36 hours a week. Which I guess isn't horrible, but we just bought a house and I don't want to start dropping my hours now! I wasn't having the best day.

However, my day was about to change! (I know this is an intense story)

My good friend Mae instant messaged me while I was at work, we chatted for a bit, and she mentioned that her job was hiring and that I should apply.

So..I thought what the heck!

& I applied.

& I got it!

They made me an offer on Monday, and it has actually ended up turning out even better than we thought it would. I feel like it is exactly where I am supposed to be right now and I cannot WAIT to start!!

Thanks for telling me about it Mae! I'm really excited that we get to work together! :D

Blakers

This is my husband:

When he's not looking like a model or posing in cowboy get up, he spends his days at work from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM. From there, he goes to school at the University of Utah from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, and ends up getting home around 9:30 PM exauhsted physically and mentally.

School doesn't last forever though.. .... . ..

Right?

..RIGHT????

Blake,

I need to tell you thank you for working so hard all the time...EVERYDAY. I am so grateful for all that you do.. I love you sweetheart!!! I hope I can be as good of a wife to you as you are a husband to me!

Hard at work

Heyyyy everybody!

We've kinda disappeared for a while tryin to get the house all done. We closed officially on my birthday! (Last Wednesday) Right now we are redoing the floors and painting the whole thing...alotta work! I'll put up some pictures when it's all done. I actually really thinks it fun! But I am pretty anxious to see the finished project. :) The goal is to have it all done and be moved in before school starts at the end of the month...we'll see! We finished priming the whole basement last night and we're hoping to finish painting the whole basement this week.. so we're getting there! We'll keep ya updated. :)

Change of plans!

Alright, we have a change of plan!

Me and Blake decided against the condo in Daybreak.

We found a townhouse in Herriman that we fell in love with...As soon as we saw it, we felt really good about it & everything kind of just fell into place!

So, we made an offer... and they accepted it!

Front:

Back:

These aren't the best pictures, but you get the gist! We are soooo excited! One of the best parts is that it's already built, so we don't have to wait till October for it to be done! We are going to make a few changes before we move in (flooring and paint) but we should close no later than my birthday (August 5th) and then we'll probably move in a couple weeks after that.

Wahoooo!