Our Christmas

Christmas this year was..beyond wonderful! I really got into it this year and wanted to make sure I got really good gifts for everyone, I think I did a pretty good job (although Larry did remind me of something he asked for months ago and I completely spaced, but just another thing to add to our list of new things to get still). I finally broke down and asked for a snuggie, and sad to admit it's amazing! ha ha.
Our Christmas day was planned so differently than how it played out I wish I would've slept in a little longer ;) We were going to get up, go to breakfast at my grandma's, then head to my mom's for our Christmas there, then come home to unpack, head to Larry's grandparents (for our usual ribs and poker fun) and then come home and do our private Christmas (I decided we'd wait to open our gifts to each other last because I wanted to make it last all day). What ended up happening is I set my alarm to 8 (I know, you're not supposed to set any alarms on Christmas, I just wanted to soak it all up as long as possible!). I got a text from my mom saying she had to take her poor dog to the vet because she ate turkey bones from our dinner at her house the night before. After finding out most of the family wasn't going to breakfast at my Grandma's Larry and I decided to just stay at our house and eat the breakfast being cooked there (Grandma-if you're reading this, sorry! I know it would have been awesome in your lovely new kitchen). Well my mom then informed me they were heading to Heber to pick up my brothers so we could have a full Christmas at her house, which I was a bit happy to hear because I wanted to see what all they got and be there when they opened our gifts, so we decided to stay in for a bit longer. So what was supposed to start at 9 started at 1 (ya see now why I wish we would've just slept in-Larry wasn't too pleased with me at that). But I'm glad we did end up waiting because we did our Christmas at my mom's then headed to my Grandma's and did that Christmas. It's so exciting to see everyone's face light up when they see what they're opening! I think I am to the point where I can appreciate that more than actually getting anything (am I actually growing up here??) It was fantastic! After all that fun stuff, we went back to my mom's to pack our stuff up and bring it home. It was really perfect timing because right after that we headed to Larry's grandparents. Even though they don't do quite the display as my family, I always enjoy going. His grandma got him a bat (they are now known as Louisville sluggers, but before it was Hillerich & Brasby-one of Larry's very very very old relatives), it was the coolest thing ever. Usually they just give him $20 cash so to see they got him something and something we could show our future possible children, it even has Larry's name engraved, it really was a great gift! We soon chowed down on some delicious ribs his uncles had cooked and then quickly started our poker game. We always play one fun hand with a lot of chips then a hand with real cash, I was about spent with the fun hand so I didn't feel like playing with the real cash one, but Larry has been practicing his poker skills night and day since we got back from Vegas, I wanted to be his sideline cheerleader ha ha. He played very well and was very intimidating, but ultimately his brother won all the money.
It was still a very fun night, I always look forward to these holidays where I can be around family. I have to admit I didn't wait until the end of the night to open our gifts, we opened some in the morning and then between my mom's and his grandparent's we opened the rest, but it was worth it to wait as long as possible! Now we get to clean the house and start our new years; I can feel in my gut that 2011 is going to be a great year for us, I'm so looking forward to starting it.

Some pics from our Christmas:

Before opening gifts-our lovely tree :)

Totally had to take the holiday picture!

Larry and Shawn opening gifts

Mom and Colby opening gifts

And Will opening gifts

The only thing missing would have been to have my brother, Andy, there. He is currently stationed in Hawaii serving our country, I miss him so much, but I know he's doing a great job where he is. Maybe next year we'll finally be all together again! Love you Andy!

Pics from our trip



View outside our room, yes that's Hooters to the right



Larry asleep once he didn't have to drive anymore :P

The open part of our room (I loved the couch) and part of Larry's leg

Our hotel sign, so awesome!



Yeah, everyone and their cousin were taking pics in front of this, I couldn't get a clear shot, but this was the first thing you saw when entering. It was so pretty.



The front desk decorations. They also had little trees everywhere.

First of the many lion habitat pictures

They played with all the half balls/full balls, they loved it.

Just like cats, they picked on each other too :)

They would rub their heads with the trainers, it was so adorable.

Yeah, okay, I'm a BIG cat person lol

This was what we saw while driving home.

This was outside my window. The snow was not pleasing!

Vegas 2010 pt 2

So Larry and I headed to Vegas back in February this year for Valentine's Day, he had come home for a visit from his military training and I, for once, didn't work the Saturday so we had decided to head out last minute. We had a lot of fun, but because it was last minute we felt we didn't spend enough time there and didn't really get to enjoy Vegas the way it was meant to be enjoyed :)
Well I just happened to request a few days off at work this month for the end of the semester/my birthday just so I could relax, I had no real intentions of going anywhere, in fact my only real plan was to organize my music (yes I'm a total dork when it comes to organization that I'd actually spend time off doing that, but that's a whole other topic ha ha). Anyways, Larry had already requested the Friday and Monday off so we thought why not take another trip down? We wanted to spend as much time as possible, so we left REALLY early on Saturday (like 3 A.M. early!) and drove through the rain all the way to Vegas, it was a tad scary, but when we got there I was SO happy to be in the 60 degree weather. As one of my friends pointed out, I'd finally get birthday weather I'd always wanted! Larry had been practicing his gambling online so he was just so psyched to start the Texas Hold 'Em tournaments they had going (which is why we had to leave so early since the Saturday ones start at 11). Well we got there so early we decided to stop at Circus Circus for some breakfast-Larry said it was the best buffet he remembered from being a kid, turns out when you're a kid, it doesn't take a whole lot to please ya! It wasn't the best, I'll say that, but was pretty cheap and we didn't care that we looked like we'd been up all night driving compared to the other patrons. Funny part was when we left, our car was locked in the parking garage (it SAID self park, how were we to know we couldn't actually park there??) So we had to be sneaky and I had to slip through some bars to get the car out-the perks of being a smaller person for those of you who made fun of me!
It was a pretty cool birthday though, after that was figured out. We went and checked into our hotel, they had THE PRETTIEST decorations for Christmas, it made me so happy to see it. Then I found out they had a lion habitat that they fed them twice a day at and I was so excited to check that out, so while Larry was doing his tournament I went to go see that (they said the feeding would be at 11:30 and I ended up waiting and watching till 11:45 and never saw anything-bummer). I ended up taking like a billion pictures with my phone, they were SO FREAKING CUTE! I also found out they do pictures with the cub, I SO had to get in on that, but had to shower before doing anything like that.
After Larry's tournament we decided to check in and go see our room, it was so pretty! We stayed at the MGM this time (last time was Planet Hollywood-of the two I'd recommend Planet Hollywood because it has a million shops, but if you prefer gambling over shopping MGM is MUCH better!). The only negative was the walls being super thin! There was also some sort of cheerleading competition (cheerleaders were EVERYWHERE!) so they would run up and down the halls yelling because they were just so flippin perky! I just wish they would've posted signs of what was going on and where, I probably would've gone to watch while Larry did his gaming. The only bad part is I'm so not used to the smoking and lights and loud noises so that night I ended up with a terrible headache, so we ended up going to bed early.
Sunday we went to the absolute best buffet at our hotel, it was a bit pricey, but so worth it. The service was nice, the fellow people were pretty nice, and they seated us next to the holy grail of dessert selections! It was simply amazing, I tried just about everything! Then we went and got our picture with the lion cub and then over to the casino where I tried some of the games they had and found out I LOVE electronic black jack, I only played the 25 cent games, but man oh man, you couldn't pry me away from those things. I literally sat at one machine for 3-4 hours until my money ran out because it was so much fun! Larry had another tournament that night so while he played I played and would go get a bite to eat and just come back to the machines, it was oddly one of the funnest things I've done (I say oddly because I literally played till I lost all my money, I didn't care if I was winning or not, I just kept going). After Larry's tournament we walked around a bit and he decided to get into this kind of practice tournament, it was a money game and you could just go until you go sick of it, Larry didn't get sick of it till 3 in the morning, but only because (as he informed me at that time) he lost $300! So needless to say he didn't feel like playing at all from that point on.
Monday we had plans to go to AdventureDome to ride their rides, but Larry seemed way too ready to go so we ended up checking out early and taking off. Turns out this was smart because we ran into really bad weather on our way home and it took us a bit longer than we expected to get home. I found out the next day there was a bad flood in Southern Utah that we just missed so we really lucked out! All in all it was a very fun trip, but I'm excited to go again soon so I can do more fun things, we didn't do any of the things I planned on doing, so I'd like to go out maybe for a bit longer next time ha ha.
And now I can't believe it's 2 days till Christmas! I'm so excited, but so not ready for it to be over with, but I will say I'm SO looking forward to the new year!!!

Oh how I love the holidays

Is it just me or can you just not be unhappy during the holidays? I mean everything is just so cheerful it's almost painful to keep smiling :) I just love it. Here's just a few pics from putting up our Christmas!

Building the tree

Decorating the tree

Didn't say these were recent ha ha!

All lit up, yes our star is NEXT to the tree instead of on top, it is too heavy :(

All those living in the basement's stockings!

Larry decorating the tree

Hope everyone is having as much fun as I am with these times! Before you know it they are over and we are starting another year.

Things to be thankful for

Of course this year has me counting the things to be thankful for. I have to publish these so as not to forget them!

• My boyfriend, Larry, who has really helped open my eyes to many different worlds. He's been with me for 6 years and I'm very surprised I haven't driven him completely nuts by now. We know how to make each other laugh and how to support each other when we're down. I'm so happy with our relationship and can't wait to see what many things come in our future :)

• My Family, without them I would never be close to the person I am. My mom has NEVER given up on me, and taught me so much. My grandparents and aunts helped grow with me and taught me how to be fun and to never give up on myself. To always go after what I want, work hard, and never settle for something I don't deserve. My brothers and step dad, who never let me forget to laugh! And, not to forget, my extended family: The Wilson's, I've never felt more complete now that I have even more people to share the love with.

• My cats, who help me unwind if I'm upset. I know it's silly, but they really make me feel good when I'm sad, always wanting to comfort me. The way they cuddle with us at night, and although they like to be chased, they never leave our sides when we're around.

• My friends, I think every girl needs a close group to help them when family or boys can't :)

• My job, my health, and my stable lifestyle. Who knows where I'd be if I hadn't had those along the way?

There's really so much to be happy about, I'm sure there's more than this, but these ones are definitely worth mentioning!

Thanksgiving 2010 Pictures

So this year I decided to create a new tradition of making French toast for breakfast, it went off pretty well and I think it'll be one I keep.

For dinner, we went to Cindy's and played some MarioKart on the WII, Larry kicked some butt :)





While the guys played, the girls gossiped in the kitchen, while eating pie

After that we drove over to Larry's grandparent's house where we played our usual game of poker (that's his uncle Darren in the picture), of course I forgot I had my camera till after everyone left, but Larry ended up winning the last game of the night on this too.



Halloween 2010

So I've been anti-Halloween for the past couple years, it still brings back bad memories from losing my Papa 2 years ago and being forced to still celebrate the holiday. This year however I was pushed into dressing up for work again and I have to say I had quite a bit of fun going out, picking out the costume and all the accessories to it, and then being able to celebrate it with a fun group of people this year. I hope they don't mind me putting up pics ;)




Dorothy, me, and Raggedy Ann

  




Hippie dude

















This year was also the first year I picked out and carved my very first pumpkin (with the help of Larry, of course) I'm REALLY looking forward to our very first Halloween in our own place, but until that day I figure we can still do little things here to show our holiday spirit! I was very nervous with the pumpkin since I hadn't done one before and only had minimal trouble with it. I even picked a 2/4 challenging outline pattern!




Pre-carved, just bought


 

Pattern on paper





Scraping gunk off the top

 




Larry helping me carve the pattern

 



All lit up!



I'm very excited, not to mention surprised, it came out as good as it did! There was still a bunch of the pumpkin guts inside, but it was clean enough to be lighting a fire around it :)

So far it has been a great Halloween, I'm looking forward to passing out candy to the little trick-or-treaters tomorrow night and possibly Sunday too (I know I'd take advantage of both nights!)

We also got a new addition to our little family, Dash-the fish-was brought home today since there were too many threats against his poor fish life at work (ha ha), we'll see how long he lasts with our cats! 

Welcome to our home Dash!

Happy Halloween to everyone out there! Only a couple more months till Christmas (yippee!)

Our family...

Now I know it's crazy to refer to pets as family members, I'm always making fun of those that call them their kids (I once saw a lady grab dog treats say she needed to get them for her grand babies!) but we do include our cats in our family, they are our first pets together and just like other cats they are spoiled beyond belief! I figured since we introduced how we met I'd introduce the stories of Oscar and Abby:

We got Oscar when we first moved into the house with Larry's dad, his girlfriend came home with a random dog one day so we figured if they could have a pet, we could too. We immediately got online, found a free cat, called them, and picked him up. He was really young and very adventurous and I think he somewhat loved being an only cat for a little while. He is just the funniest cat in the world! It isn't unusual to find him in this position. He LOVES to play, especially when Larry rough houses with him. He's also a closeted cuddler, he'll only do it at night when we're half asleep. He also absolutely loves to play fetch, which we love because, well, who else has a cat that fetches? He likes to pretend to be our protector, he's always waiting outside our door and watching the stairs for whoever is next to come down, I say pretend because once someone does come down he just runs away. He loves to be chased around our basement, but that's probably due to the fact that when we lived with my mom he was stuck inside a tiny room by himself. He learns very quickly. Instead of being pet, he loves when we pat his butt. He loves attention so much that if Larry and I are both on our computers he just has to be in our way (mostly laying on our laps burying his face under our arms). We have the most entertaining house because of this cat!

(Like I said...spoiled!)

Now Abby is a different story, she absolutely hates rough housing, she is the typical house cat in that she enjoys being pampered and adored and loved. She is really fluffy, which is what most people love right away about her. She loves giving kisses! We got her a couple months after having Oscar, also free online, figuring he would like a buddy around for when we go to work or if we have date nights. She is the lover of the pair, while Oscar is the fighter. She really is this dainty little innocent cat, she likes to pretend she's so girly that she'd never do anything bad, but if you turn your back on her she'll find her way into trouble. She only recently started loving being a lap cat. My favorite thing is she'll cuddle with us at night now too, she just loves getting attention, but only on her schedule. She hates being locked up, and boy do you hear it, if we go anywhere near a door she starts meowing real loud and reaching for the handles, but she's pretty small still so she can't reach it. She also, for some reason, learned to scream when someone is doing something she doesn't like to her. She doesn't meow, she full on screams! We have to keep our house clean because of her, she'll hide pretty much anywhere!

Both of them have learned how to let us know when they want down from being held. They both love playing with each other or just cuddling with each other, their moods change from minute to minute. I love having them all to ourselves for us to pay for them to be taken care of: vet bills, food, toys, but we also get to enjoy their entertainment and we get to play with them and say they are ours! They really do help when we've had a bad day or just need something to come up and love us no matter what!

My AHA! moment

So lately I've really been trying to figure out what I'm doing with my life. For the absolute longest time I've been focused on what I want to be doing in the next 2 years, 5 years, etc.,which is nice, but I've never been motivated on the here and now aspects of my life. I've always had goals, but never immediate ones. It's always been about next month or next year or something along those lines. But this week I've been thinking "what about today? What can I do today to make those goals achievable?"
I should mention that a few years ago I decided to study Psychology, I find it to be an extremely fascinating topic and it's taught me a lot so far. The only problem with it is that to get anywhere in that field you need a much higher degree so that means a lot more schooling than I had originally anticipated. With that in mind, I have decided that to help me achieve my long term goal I need to start working on a plan to get me into a similar field.
I looked into the medical coding and billing requirements at my school and the classes look really easy and it shouldn't take very long, not as long as my degree will take, and it won't be as expensive. I've learned a little about what this entails and I'm very excited and eager to get started. I still have to save up some money and wait to get some generals done for my Psychology so that I don't have to redo them, but I'm hoping I'll be able to get this all done within a years time. So now that I've got a plan I just need some luck and a little patience :)

Ramblings of discovery

So I read this magazine article earlier tonight that was supposed to "help you figure out the real 'you'" and it made me realize sometimes I have NO idea who the "real" me is. I don't know if it's just because I'm in my early 20s so I'm just not supposed to know yet or if I just took too long in some developmental stages so I'm just a tad behind...who knows. The thing is I remember being really young and seeing people who were my age now and I always thought they had their act together, I used to think people who were 22/23 were the coolest, they could drive, go out and meet up with friends, drink, vote, pretty much anything. I had a lot of pretty good influences in my life so it was easy to see the person I would have liked to grow up and be, but part of me feels maybe I should have reached that by now, why do I not feel like an adult?
I always thought when I had my first car I'd feel it, although that was a pretty awesome moment it wasn't as big of an "eye opener" as I expected, I didn't suddenly sit in the seat or sign the papers and realize I am now there! Or what about when I moved out on my own, lived with a boy...nope, just felt like I had a permanent sleep over and with a bonus because all my stuff was there for me to play with :)  Heck, even getting my first credit card didn't even feel like it was that big of a deal. I am glad it hasn't been intimidating or more than I can handle, but I definitely can't wait for the day I realize I am an adult, I have responsibilities, I OWN my own life!
But I also know it's not always about how you feel, it's you, it's how you react and act, it's how you take the ownership and accomplish your achievements. I believe it's about standing up for what you believe, not being afraid of it, embracing who you really are! Sometimes that's the problem though, how to I embrace it if I don't know what "it" is? I might be almost there, I know a little more about myself and how I feel and how I present myself each day. There are just so much more uncertainties that I'd like to know now, before I make too many mistakes or big, life altering decisions.
Sometimes I can contemplate these things for hours and I always wonder does anyone else feel this way? Am I the only one as clueless as I feel? I'm the QUEEN of awkward moments so I'm more than positive I've presented this uneasiness or being so unsure plenty of times in the real world, but I feel I'm the only one who has. I never really expect to get these answers, and they're more rhetorical questions than anything, but sometimes it'd be nice to know there are others out there as clueless as me :)

My new laptop-best boyfriend ever!

So a while ago, and by "while" I mean probably 10 months ago, I got a terrible virus on my laptop, but not having too much money I decided I'd just make do with what I could do on my current computer, and maybe one day I could afford a new one. It was terrible though, my Internet would stop working at times, I'd have random pop-ups as I started it, it'd freeze way too often, and it'd make it's own tabs and pop them up over and over and over, the only way to stop it was to force shut down my computer, it even got to the point that my CD tray wouldn't open because it had been dropped on and shoved too far into the computer, to open it I had to use a knife or some other flat, but strong object.I hated it! After a while I just stopped caring if it accidentally fell or my cats were walking on it or it wasn't cleaned out. Well after MANY complaints to Larry he kind of let it slip that he'd be getting me a new one for our anniversary, which isn't till mid-October.
Now let me go back a month or so, I had been bugging and quite possibly on the verge of nagging him to surprise me and have something planned for the night every once in a while (I mostly do the planning because he's one of those "I don't care what we do as long as we're together" sorts-which I have come to love). Well a couple nights ago I just kind of gave up and said it didn't matter anymore to me, as long as we could do something together I didn't need something planned every night. Well I get home today, and I didn't have quite as good a day as I was really hoping so when I get home I'm surprised to see Larry's waiting at the bottom of the stairs-which he normally NEVER does unless he has something to surprise me with or he wants to scare me-and he tells me to go into our room, shut the door, and not come out till he says it's okay. I'm thinking "well isn't the ironic? I finally say I don't need a planned night and he's in the middle of something special probably!" So I go in the room and decide to surf the Internet until he's done with whatever he's got planned, lo and behold I'm VERY surprised to see him walk in with a brand new laptop. I almost didn't get it at first and thought he bought himself another computer! But then I realize this is MY surprise! I'm so giddy about getting a new, and SUPER nice new laptop! I cannot wait to see all the fun things I can do with it!! Apparently he ordered it really early and didn't know where he could put it till our anniversary so I get it early :)
Do I have the best boyfriend or what??

Nights out

So last night Larry and I went out to celebrate my friend, Chau's, 23rd birthday. She had a bunch of us meet over at Sandbar in good ol' Salt Lake (though I claim to be from Salt Lake, I'm not as close to the actual city area of it). While Larry was gone in the military I went out quite a few times with some friends there and had such a blast, but Larry is more of a "I prefer to mix my drinks at home" sort of person so I was kind of nervous to bring him along. I thought for sure he'd hate how loud the music was, how you can't walk anywhere without bumping into anyone and spilling your-a bit more expensive-drinks all over yourself (that's happened to me quite a few times), or how rambunctious my friends, or even I, can get when we've had a few drinks, but once we got around people I was familiar with and I could introduce him to everyone we actually had a great time! We laughed about jokes and got to meet more new people and we even walked around downtown for a little bit.
The nicest part about the whole night was we got to be young! He and I have been together for a long time for people our age and so sometimes we can get into this boring old homebody routine, which is really nice at times, but I get into these moods where I just want to remind ourselves we're in our 20s, we should have fun while we can! I love coming home and watching movies on our couch while eating popcorn, and I love spending a day doing laundry and running errands or just plain grocery shopping with him, but at the same time it's SOOO much fun to go out with friends, have some drinks, and just let loose and not care about what's going on outside! So all in all it was really fun to go out and I can't wait to go again with him, hopefully sometime soon, but I also love that today we'll be cleaning our own little area of our home, but spending the time together while we do it!

Due West and an anniversary

So my mom has a customer, Doug, who has a son, also named Doug (Jr.) that is a kind of freelance musician, he tours with a bunch of different bands and plays for them. Well each year, Doug Sr., who owns a HUGE piece of land, has Due West (a country band) come and play courtesy of Doug Jr. It's a fun, free get together. Doug Sr. has hot dogs and hamburgers to cook and then everyone just brings a side dish or drink or dessert or whatever and you bring some lawn chairs, blankets, etc. and listen to the band play. They also sell t-shirts and cds and just different assortments of merchandise.
For the past 2 years I've gone with my mom to the show, but this was the first one I got to share with Larry. It's not his particular favorite music, but you can't help but enjoy the crowd who dances in the front to pretty much their own beat, you don't have to pay to join in, and you get free food that's really good, what more can you ask for? Oh and this also happened to be the same night as my parents 6th anniversary so I have to say Happy Anniversary to the cute couple! Below are just some pictures from the night :)

This is the band after I ran in front of everyone to get a good shot

Another closer up shot of the band

<3 The happy couples <3

One story, different versions

Her version:

Larry and I-Christmas 2008

"Ours was a traditional love story, boy meets girl, boy asks girl out, they fall madly in love-at-first-sight and live happily ever after...well that's not quite how it worked. I persued him for quite a while and finally convinced him to go out with me and that I was perfect for him, don't worry though, the constant 'I told you so's' are worth it ;) the real story goes a little like...while I was dating a boy during high school, I had seen another boy go down the stairs and into our common room, I had thought he was cute, but once I saw him sit down next to his girlfriend at the time (a scary looking girl I might add) I thought I would be out of his league. During the summer after our Sophomore year my boyfriend had broken up with me. Feeling sad, my friend, Kristin, had offered to let me stay at her house for the weekend to help cheer me up. Once I showed up I saw a picture of the boy I had seen long ago and told her that was the one I thought was 'totally cute.'  She found that to be funny because it happened to be her current boyfriend's, Tyler, best friend. I got excited thinking this was for sure my way to him. During that weekend we went over to Tyler's house and she told him I thought he was cute, his response: 'who doesn't think Larry's cute?' which I found to be funny. Once the school year had started Kristin called me up one day to say Larry wanted her to introduce him to other girls so he could date around, knowing I thought he was cute she asked me if I would be willing to go see a movie with him. I thought 'cute boy AND a movie? For sure!' So one night in September we went on a double date with Kristin and Tyler to dinner and a movie at Hollywood Connections and had such a good time. Towards the end of the night there was a mixup with dice and his friend somehow tricked me into saying I wanted to get married to him, we all got a laugh out of that. It wasn't until a month later that I finally asked him out. We've been together for almost 6 years now and it's been one filled with many more embarrassing but laughable moments."

Larry and I in Vegas 2010

His version:

"I was hangin out with my best friend and his girlfriend when his girlfriend said that one of her friends liked me and wanted to go on a date with me. I was like 'oh yeah? What does she look like?' and then they showed me a picture of her. I was like 'sure, I'll go.' and then we went on our first date to see Without a Paddle and on the way back she basically said she wanted to be my wife and I thought it was cute"