Halloween!

This year is my work's second annual Trick-Or-Treating event. We have all of the employee's kids come in for a few hours to go trick-or-treating around the office. The admin girls at my work all dressed up last year and now again this year. There are a few more people dressed up around the office, so it is going to be a good day!

Here are some pictures so far:


Stephen was kind enough to compliment my outfit by being a "greaser"! That is a pack of cards in his sleeve... not cigarettes! I love his hair!

The great girls that I work with (or should I say "grills"?)

My new card

I need to get some holiday cards designed and put on my website! I came up with this one tonight. I love the little girl on the right, she is so cute. Whenever Stephen sees her on one of my cards, he immediately starts to laugh, it is great!

liFe is gOoD!!!!

Do you like our new blog look??? I love it!

We have had a couple of interesting weeks recently and I haven't posted a lot so here it goes...

This past Saturday we went to the BYU football game with our friends Sarah and Clayton. They were recently engaged, so congrats to them. It was a lot of fun, we won't talk about the actual game but the experience was fun. Sarah had most of the pictures on her camera so there is just this one!


We went to Mississippi to visit Stephen's family. It was supposed to be for his 10 year high school reunion (I know he is getting old! j/k) but that got moved to next May, so maybe an 11 year high school reunion? Anyway, we already had the trip planned and the tickets so we went. We got to meet our new sister-in-law Judy. Stephen's brother Glen got married to Judy in February of this year. We just found out they are expecting a baby so that is pretty exciting! Here are some pictures from this trip. I just love Stephen's family, they are awesome, it really was the perfect trip!

These pictures are a little out of order but oh well...

This is Stephen's grandparents old house..... well where it once stood before Katrina. Good thing they lived in Texas during the storm. It was crazy to see that things haven't all been rebuilt, but when we went for Glen's graduation 2 years ago, there was still debris in the trees so it looked better than that I guess. Still sad.

We went to Stephen's high school's football game after having dinner with some friends of his from high school. It was fun!

There are little geckos that are on the bathroom windows at night. They were really cool to see. Patti (my mother-in-law) said they sometimes end up in the house but they aren't harmful they are just tiny little things!

A lot of the houses near the coast are built up on stilts kind of, like this picture. Especially the new ones, it seems pretty smart in that area.

Here are the kids, L-R, Judy, Glen, Stephen and Me!


Mom and her boys!

Stephen and Al! Great picture!

He is hilarious, right?

I just love this one. He makes me laugh, and oh so happy!

Here is one of Stephen sleeping at the hotel after the big ALABAMA game!

At the University of Alabama! My first college football game

He is a very happy man!

It was raining like crazy. I have never seen anything like that, it just started gushing out of the sky and there was no hope for it. We had ponchos but at that point it was too wet to do anything. I felt really gross the whole game and my clothes were so wet, my pants weren't dry like a couple of days latter. It was still a blast and we will never forget that experience! Stephen, of course, did not have a voice after the game was over! They one, because they are awesome!

Stephen is growing out his hair and I have to tell you, it is quite entertaining. Here are some pictures of the styles he is trying out. I don't think they do justice to the real thing but it is pretty hilarious. It is a little longer now too and when he dries it with an actual blow dryer, it is huge he looks like wolverine! I love it!

I feel like all I ever do is an "update" post but that seems to be all that I have time for now. I remember the good old days were we just sat around and watched TV all weekend and I slept half the day on Sundays and sometimes didn't get dressed in real clothes on the weekends... but we are just busy all the time and we don't even have kids yet. Although Royce is pretty close and it is amazing how much he has changed our world in the short amount of time we have had him.

Things are going well. It is recruiting season at work so it has been very busy but it is going well and I am grateful to have a job and be where I am at right now, that is more than some have so I am happy with that. Last night was the big recruiting event at our work. It is actually called "The Big Event", very fitting name. It took a lot of preparation and planning and my feet felt like they were going to fall off last night but it was successful and went well so that is good but what is even better, is that it is over! It is like planning a wedding for months beforehand, the day comes and it goes by so quickly and just like that it is all over and all of your hard work gone and left only to memories... okay maybe not the same thing but event planning is like that! Again I am very happy that it is over but it will come around next year so something to look forward to!

We had our friend's Sarah and Clayton over today for back to back football games (BYU and BAMA, of course) they both won so that is good. Sarah and I made mashed potatoes and there was a ton left, but they were good! Stephen and I made two strawberry pies before they came over and they are delicious! It was a good day!

We are going to visit Stephen's family in two weeks and we are very excited! We are going to an Alabama game while we are there so Stephen is really excited about that. We are going for Stephen's High School reunion but he hasn't even really mentioned that part in a while it is more about getting out to see his family now!

Royce is doing well and growing. He is so freaking cute and fun to be around, we really do love him! Here are some pictures of him lately.

Wouldn't you agree that his is awesome?

This is my favorite. We were at Old Navy and as we were walking out the door we saw that they had a pet section and they had almost exactly the same shirt that Stephen was wearing, for a dog so we just had to get it. Maybe this will be something we can do for Christmas cards this year???

I think this was his second bath, but he does not like them at all! Gosh I feel like a new mommy or something the way I show this off, but oh well that is our life!

Okay I haven't loaded pictures on my computer from our camera in a while and those just about covered all of the new ones! We love Royce!

Hectic Week

So to recap our last week... last Friday we got a puppy. His name is Royce and he is 8 weeks old, and cute as can be. His mom is a Pomeranian / Jack Russell mix and his dad is a Chihuahua. We will see how he turns out! My husband is just great and finally let me get one! He is a lot of work so far but we are excited to have him in our family! I already feel so attached to him! I keep telling him that I am his mommy! He is fun!

Monday I had my surgery to remove my gallbladder. I don't know what I was expecting but I was out all week and just beat. I think I had it in my mind that I had to be home for 5 days but that I could still do things, but I was in bed most of the time. I just can't wait to get back to 100%, I am on my way but have some time to go for sure. I have been watching a lot of HGTV this week and have some great ideas for my house and especially my yard, I can't wait to get them started! The nurse that did my IV didn't do it right the first time on my left arm so she had to use my right arm. Now there is this huge bruise on the left arm. Then on the right arm where the adhesive part of the band aid was, there is this blister like thing. It didn't really start bothering me until yesterday when it turned red and stung and itched like crazy. It is really weird and I am sure you wanted to know all of that, but hopefully it will go away soon.

Stephen has been feeling quite sick in the mornings lately. Last Sunday we took him to the urgent care and he had an IV and they did all of these tests but couldn't find anything, so hopefully it will just pass. Since he wasn't feeling so well, especially in the mornings, and I had to be to my surgery at 5:30 am, I stayed at my mom's house and she took me to the hospital and Stephen planned to meet up with her a little later in the morning. Well on his way to the hospital, he got in a car accident. This car rear ended him in the fast lane on the freeway while they were going like 65 mph. The bumper of my car was smashed in and it looked like there was quite a bit of damage to the exhaust pipe. Luckily no one was hurt and it was the other guy's fault so everything will be covered by his insurance but it was just a bad day all around. We took the car to the repair shop and got me a rental to use when I return to work until my car is fixed. The whole situation could have been a lot worse so we are lucky but I think we can both agree we would have been just fine without all of it. BTW Stephen is starting to feel a little better but he is not 100% either but he will make it!

Today we saw Harry Potter, which was great. It was really nice to get out of the house and to get dressed in real clothes not just sweats! Hopefully we don't have anything else too exciting happening to us in the near future!

Gall-EE!!!!

This has been a tough and painful couple of days for me. Monday night I woke up in the middle of the night with an awful pain that I thought might be in my chest but I had a stomach ache too and felt nauseous and bloated. It lasted for quite a few hours. It started to calm down a little by the morning so I decided to go to the Dr. instead of the ER. My doctor ordered an ultrasound to look at my gallbladder but told me if they didn't find anything and I kept having symptoms they would need to stick a scope down my throat and look at the top of my stomach to see what was wrong. Yikes! Luckily (well I guess you could say that), they found that I have gallstones. The hospital sent me home and told me that my Dr. would call me to discuss the results. Shortly after I received a call from my Dr.'s Secretary setting up an appointment with a surgeon and the secretary told me my Dr. would call me after the appointment was set up. No call from the Dr. It was quite frustrating because I don't know anything about this stuff and I am supposed to live with this until next Tuesday when I see a surgeon? Good thing for me, my dad is a nurse and was able to give me some tips on what to do to avoid another "gallstone attack". He told me no fatty foods and to drink a lot of water... he didn't mention dairy and I didn't think to ask, needless to say I had another attack Tuesday night. We were supposed to go to Kansas on Thursday morning but my loving husband told me my health was more important and that he felt it was better to stay close to home in case something serious happens. I have been watching what I eat very closely. I still feel pretty icky but I haven't had another attack in the past two nights so I am very grateful! Hopefully things stay that way!

Vitamin Deficiency

I found out this week that I have a vitamin B12 deficiency. Guess what the cure is for that? Shots, my favorite thing! My doctor started me out on 5 daily shots and then we will go weekly and then monthly, she made it sound like it is a very permanent thing, which is no good for me. Luckily the shots don't hurt but it is going to get old quick. My awesome husband took me there today so I could get injected! It was truly a bonding experience for us. My doctor said that once I feel comfortable and am doing just monthly shots I can give them to myself at home. I think I can handle that but we will see. That is all the exciting news I have this moment!