Thursday, March 20, 2008

Night Moves

















I went night skiing for the first time last night at Brighton with some friends and it was awesome. I LOVED it. I'm not a a great skier but for the most part was able to hang with these other kids. All of the runs that are open at night are greens and blues. There was one pretty steep hill that took me a while to get down but oh well. The other kids were all pretty good. Andy would oftentimes do a 180 and ski backwards and it totally looked like rollerskating backwards. Nate & Andy had some pretty awesome jumps and Jen is amazing on a snowboard and Jocelyn & Ash have inspired me to get better. Now, all I need is a pair of goggles and I'll fit right in. I didn't break anything and I didn't lose anything-I'd say it was a pretty good night.













This is taco-freakin-bell. WTH? (Thanks Joc for a good laugh)

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Arkansas

So two weekends ago, I headed down to Bentonville to visit Amy & Chris and the kiddos. I hadn't seen them since July so I was excited to be there. I got in pretty late on Thurs night and Amy came and picked me up. Delta cancelled their direct flight so I had to stop in Minneapolis. My connection was really tight so it really was no surprise that my bag did not make it. The kiddos woke me up early the next morning and we jumped in the suburban to take the older two, Jackson & Melanie, to school. There was a definite system to the elementary school drop-off. It made me think of the scene in Mr. Mom where he doesn't know how to do the drop-off system and all the other parents get mad. Anyway, Amy, Allison and I enjoyed a pretty easy morning and afternoon running errands and shopping and lunching. We even saw a real red-hat society group at lunch-pretty entertaining. We picked up the kiddos after school and we played for a little while until dinner. Amy & Chris wanted to check out the new Ruths Chris so they went out for the night and I was the babysitter. Saturday, Phil and Marilyn came and the kids were soooo excited to see Grandma and Grandpa--it's probably because Grandma always has presents. We made bracelets and "sewed" some paper animals. Jackson put together his Star Wars lego set. It was a kid heaven. The rest of the weekend went by pretty quick and before I knew it, the whole gang was dropping me off at the airport Monday afternoon. Here are my top 7 highlights: 1. Amy's orange cookies 2. Allison calling me Emily all weekend 3. making bracelets with Mom, Melanie & Allison 4. the 3 trips to Walmart 5. watching multiple animated movies. 6. Melanie & Allison's swim class. 7. Jackson reaching the wall (He threw a football from end of the gym and hit the wall at the other end) Anway, it was a fabulous weekend away and the kiddos are just the cutest.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

in tha mix

it's a little random but i've completed my new mix and here is the final list:

1. Say-John Mayer
2. With You-Chris Brown (also my current ringtone)
3. If I Could-Blue Merle
4. In Love With a Girl-Gavin DeGraw
5. No Air-Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown
6. Between the Lines-Sara Bareilles
7. Superstar-Lupe Fiasco (I'm a big fan of his--check out Kick, Push & Daydreamin' off his old album)
8. Is it You-Cassie (From Step Up 2: The Streets)
9. Cirlce-Edie Brickell
10. Bleeding Love-Leona Lewis
11. Imagine-David Archuleta (American Idol week 2)
12. Dance Like There's no Tomorrow-Paula Abdul (I'm prepared to take grief for this one)
13. Outta My Head-Ashlee Simpson
14. I'll be Waiting-Lenny Kravitz
15. Hot Stuff-Craig David
16. If I Had Eyes-Jack Johnson
17. Hey Baby-Omarion & Bow-Wow
18. Only Fooling Myself-Kate Voegle
19. Hollywood's Not America-Ferras
20. LUV-Janet Jackson

Alternates:
Shawty-Lil' Mama
Pocket full of Sunshine-Natasha Bedingfield
Your Love is a Lie-Simple Plan
Long Road to Ruin-Foo Fighters
Bad Girl-Danity Kane
Always Be-Jimmy Eat World

Monday, March 17, 2008

you're about a 6

i didn't realize it's almost been two weeks since I last posted. Where has the time gone? I had a great little vacation in Arkansas (I'll post with pics later this week) with the fam but it's nice to be back. Work is going fine and we even had ski day on Friday at Deer Valley. I love skiing at Deer Valley. It was beautiful weather and the skier's buffet at Stein Eriksen Lodge is definitely worth the trip. However, I am sad to report that Deer Valley has claimed yet another one of my phones. This is the 2nd blackberry I've lost at Deer Valley in the last 4 months. UGH. Oh well. I ordered a new one today. My dad thinks I should buy the insurance ($5 a month) to safeguard against losing another but I'm determined to not lose this one. I never really lose anything. I'm very good about keeping track of things. And I live on the edge--I don't need phone insurance :)

We've had a bit of a scare with Grandpa J. He went in for emergency surgery for his stomach but he's had a hard time with the recovery. His stomach is okay but he's had a rough time breathing on his own. I don't think his heart and lungs could handle coming off the anesthesia. Les and I scooted up to Evanston Thursday afternoon and before we walked in, Les turns to me and says--we need to be rocks--Grandma needs strong kids right now. It was pretty upsetting and I didn't do very well. It was hard to see Grandpa in his state of unravel and it was also hard to see Grandma so upset. I'm not sure I've ever seen my grandma cry--she's usually one tough lady. I tried to keep it together but I wouldn't exactly say I was a rock. On the ride home, Les informed me, "you were about a 6". She gave herself a 9. I'd probably agree. He's doing better and we were able to spend some time with him yesterday. Hopefully Grandma will be able to take him home soon. The more he becomes aware of what is happening, the more he wants to go home. He's still pretty strong and he's tried to escape a few times. Yesterday, after I refused to help him out of his chair, he quietly mumbled for Matt. I think he was hoping he could count on Matt to bust 'em out. Dad flew into town as well and it was nice to have him out for the weekend. I think dads have this innate need to help their daughters with car stuff so it was nice of him to slip me a $20 to help pay for my oil change and tire rotation. Thanks Dad!

This week should be pretty uneventful but it is our annual investor meeting at work. All our investors fly in and we give them an update about how our portfolio companies are doing. We feed them a meal or two, hand out some sort of logo-ed item and give them a pass to Deer Valley to go skiing if they want. standard operating procedure. oh yeah, and I do have tickets to the Jazz game tonight. Oh great-gotta find a date. awesome.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

It's a BOY!

So Lesley and Matt just came from the doctor and are proud to announce it's a boy! We're all very excited, especially since now we can do some shopping :) This is grandkid # 4 for Phil and Marilyn and grandkid #1 for John and Linda (Matt's parents). Congratulations to Matt & Les! I'm so excited to be an aunt again...

And speaking of being an aunt, I am headed to Arkansas this weekend to visit my nephew and two nieces, who i haven't seen since July. It also happens that Phil and Marilyn will be there this weekend as well so we should have a pretty good time. I've already been tagged to be the babysitter on Friday night so Chris and Amy can go out. I'm very much looking forward to getting away and to spending some time with the fam.

The weekend was pretty fun. I took Friday off and spent the day with Emily and Lesley running around town. After we had dinner, they headed home and I met up with some friends for Brad's 30th birthday. Happy Birthday Brad! We went to FastTrack and raced go-carts and then ended up bowling. Saturday morning, Les, Matt, Em & I headed up to Evanston, Wyoming to visit Grandma and Grandpa Johnson. They're getting up there in years but they were in good spirits and glad to see us. We had a little lunch and visited for a while. I also learned that the very first JC Penney was in Kemmer, Wyoming and that my grandpa and his parents were friends with the actual JC. Who knew? That's one of my favorite things about going to visit G & G Johnson. I always learn something new about them or pick up some treasure from Grandma's closet. She was quite the fashionista in her day and I love taking home a dress or a coat. After we got back to town, we headed down to a favorite stop in Provo-Magelby's Fresh-for dinner. We attempted to walk around the RiverWoods (an outside mall) for a while but it was quite chilly and we lasted about 2 minutes. I headed home and ended up at another birthay party. I stayed for a little bit but had to head home to work on a lesson for church the next day. The rest of the weekend was nice and quiet and Monday morning came too early. It's so cliche but Mondays are hard. I definitely had a case of the Mondays.