biking to work

so i finally got out of bed in time to ride my bike to work. i headed off with my red messenger bag over my shoulder and my ipod shuffle jammin in my ears. all was going well until i approached the taco bell on center street. their sprinklers were on FULL BLAST and watering more sidewalk than grass. because i was riding on the sidewalk on the side of the street with traffic coming at me {i know i know} i couldn't just jump the curb and ride on the road, i would get hit! so i just barreled through hoping i would get wet...how dumb. not only did the sprinklers soak me from the waist down, they got me in the face, soaking my hair, glasses and shirt. luckily i am good at riding one handed now {thanks to spin classes} and i wiped my glasses off on my shorts, only to realize that it didn't do much good because my shorts were wet too. then when i got to work my boss didn't realize i was at work because my car wasn't in the parking lot and proceeded to frantically call my phone {which i didn't have because i forgot it at home}. only after 45 minutes did she come downstairs to ask where i was and found me sitting at my desk. phew. if you're looking for excitement ride your bike to work.

visiting teaching

i can be somewhat of a procrastinator at times. this is especially true with visiting teaching {i know, i know}. even though all it takes is a couple of phone calls, i just never seem to find the time {or make the time rather} to get it taken care of before it's the last minute or even too late. it doesn't help that my companion could be considered a VT-hater and probably cringes every time she sees my name pop up on the caller ID {since i'm the one who calls her} so yesterday i decided to give my companion a call to see if maybe she could squeeze some time into her busy schedule {she's a stay-at-home mom} to go visit teach for an hour or so. she told me how her week was going to be crazy and so i felt dumb for even calling her. i told her i could just make a couple loaves of banana bread and drop one be each of the ladie's houses with a message. she said that would be great. before saying goodbye, i slid in the fact that we needed to go early next month so this doesn't happen again. we'll see. but anyway, i made banana bread {for the recipe go here} and when chris saw me wrapping both loaves up to take away, he was a little distraught. "you're taking BOTH?!?" i explained that i was taking them to the ladies i visit teach. he just rolled his eyes.

ps. is you're slow on getting your visiting teaching done and don't have an ensign like us, go here and print out a copy to tape to the loaf of banana bread

late

last night, i decided that i was going to {finally} ride my bike to work. i figured as long as i left 5 minutes earlier than i usually do, i could gauge the timing on my bike to see if it's faster or slower {better to be early than late} i slammed my alarm clock off when it beeped at 6:45 this morning and didn't wake up until 7:22 {yikes!} i jumped out of bed and hobbled to the shower { i HAD to shower this morning because 30 minutes of running and 60 minutes of spin class don't look or smell very good on me} at 7:45, i still had to put my makeup on, eat breakfast, and, oh yeah, get dressed. "you're gonna be late" chris mumbled at me from under the covers. "yeah, looks like i'll be driving to work today" luckily at 8:05 when i pulled up to work i was only the second one in the parking lot.

Flight of the Conchords- Business Time

this video is absolutely hilarious. chris and i watch it over and over and laugh hard every time.

breakfast buffet

when we finally woke up {11:00 our time} on saturday, we were all starving and decided to eat at a famous vegas buffet for breakfast/lunch. we decided on the tropicana {we were seeing an exhibit at the tropicana later}. at $16.25 a pop, since it was saturday, we felt like we had to eat our fill. and man did we ever. from fresh made-to-order omlettes {i had mine with sausage, green pepper and mushroom}, to petite belgian waffles, to eggs benedict {chris didn't like this}, to shrimp, salad bar, french fries, sausages, pancakes and deserts galore {mini fruit tarts, pies of all flavors, ice cream sundae bar, carrot cake}

vegas baby

when the cedar city basketball tournament was cut short, we decided to make the short drive to vegas. {becca had never been and why not?} we saw the lights of the strip around 10:00 pm {our time, 9:00 vegas time}. after driving around the strip for almost an hour looking for parking we settled on a spot on the side of a sketchy street {it was right under a street lamp} a couple of scary looking mexican guys watched from the dingy nearby apartment complex as we moved all of our valuables {laptop, ipods, purses, etc} to the trunk. we were all a little uneasy as we walked away from the car, hoping it would be there unharmed when we returned. by the time we made it to the actual strip, brandon decided to find out how much it cost to park under one of the casinos. it turned out to be free so him and chris ran back to the car, finding it unharmed, and moved it to a more secure locale. we wandered around the strip for a few hours, got lost in cesar's palace {where we saw new meaning to word cage dancers}, and watched the show at the bellagio fountains {twice--opera and singing in the rain as background music} it was around 2 am our time when we decided we were all completely fatigued. we trekked back to the car and drove around for another hour looking for a place to sleep. we ultimately stayed at the first place we inquired about {a somewhat below par comfort inn that cost us $50 each for a shared smoking room--yuck!}. luckily we only paid $50 each after tax, as the room was supposed to cost $120 {before tax}. it was a fun, albeit expensive, little jaunt to vegas.

wives {and wife-to-be} club

this past weekend we went to the utah summer games in cedar city. chris played with a bunch of his friends and a few guys that played for BYU and SUU. the competition was fierce and we didn't get to play as many games as we payed for {although i think chris was glad for that}. us girls always enjoy watching our hubbies out on the court. we cringe when craig falls to the ground after a hard hit, brace for impact when a bad call is sent brandon's way {he's a fiery red heat for sure} and mumble "shoot, darnit, crap" when chris' shot bounces off the rim...but we're all there cheering when a great rebound is made, or there's a nice drive to the inside or a long shot three is drained. even though we didn't advance to the finals this year {they played in the collegiate division} they still rocked and played super hard. the wives club couldn't be prouder.

living in a tent, down by the river

chris and a few of his basketball friends rallied together on a basketball team to play in the utah summer games this weekend. in order to avoid the expenses of staying in a hotel/eating out, we decided to bring our camping gear and camp instead. we went down to cedar city with brandon and becca, who had been to the tournament the year before. we ended up camping just off the road by a river. we took the malibu offroading so we didn't have to walk back and forth with our things each time we needed something in the car. luckily we didn't do any damage to the bottom of the malibu but there were a couple times the back wheel was off the ground {i know this because chris made me follow alongside the car while he drove} in between the games on friday we headed back to the campsite and lounged in the river {the boys said it was like sitting in an icebath, perfect for their aching muscles}

swim suit

i finally got a new swim suit {hurah!} i have a weird body shape and finding a cute, modest, not frumpy bathing suit has always been a huge challenge for me. i picked up this little number visit layers for lots of really cute options. {i couldn't upload a picture, but you can see it here} a funny thing about this suit, when we went swimming in cedar city with everybody on the basketball team, angeli, craig's fiancee and i were wearing the same suit!

movie review: BREACH

last night we watched the movie "breach" with quinn and lex. it's based on a true story and involves the biggest breach in american intelligence in history. the ending was good but the entire movie went very slow. we were all sitting there wondering where in the heck this movie was going. i think a big part was that we were expecting some intense suspensful film and this movie just wasn't that at all. i think i was more confused through the entire thing because i had no idea where it was going. i wouldn't recommend it but our friends dan and kelli really enjoyed it...maybe it was the mood i was in, maybe i wasn't paying close enough attention.

can't decide

i'm registered to take calculus next term {which starts monday} and i'm kinda wondering whether or not i should take it. the class is required for my major and i kinda want to get it over with sooner rather than later, but it's every day {except friday} for 2 hours. i didn't think it would be a problem but chris was saying that a class that late every day would get in the way of our social life {i know, what social life} i need to decide before the end of the week if i wanna stick it out or not. one nice thing--if i do take the class now, it would free up some space in my final semester, giving me a chance to take some "fun" classes outside my major that i wanted to take. but is it really worth it?

thacker reunion

chris and i drove out to moon lake in easter utah for the thacker family reunion over the weekend. it was a nice time. i was definitely grateful andra {chris's sister who is my age} and sharlie {his cousin, also my age} were there. i got to know them a little better which was nice so i didn't have to hang out with all of chris' aunts. my favorite parts about the reunion? i would have to say it was a tie between the bracketed horshoe tournament {this was the march madness of horshoes}, and peeling 3 5-lb bags of potatoes for our part of the "big dinner". just kidding. i really did have a great time, though, especially when chris and i woke up early and rode our new bikes up to the lake damn a few miles from camp. we saw where the water was flowing out into the river. chris started throwing rocks into the water rushing out of the damn and it was so cool to watch/hear it get pushed by the water. it almost sounded like a shotgun going off. all in all it was a fun weekend and we definitely stayed warm in our little {chris would probably emphasize little} 2-man tent.

bocce bowling

last night we had a little going away BBQ for our friends dan and kelli. they are leaving utah for boise at the end of the week. chris grilled hamburgers on our new "Weber Q" and we enjoyed classic BBQ food {chips, potato salad, baked beans, fruit} brandon and becca brought popsicles for desert--yum. after we had feasted we enjoyed a rousing game of bocce ball. for those of you who haven't yet experienced the thrills of bocce ball you are really missing out. there are four colors of two balls each {perfect for us because we had four couples} there is a smaller "mouse" ball that is thrown and then each team follows by throwing their balls to try and get them closest to the mouse. whoever is closest gets 2 points and the second closest gets one point. we played that the first to 12 wins. quinn and lex were the victors, but after the winning toss we did another toss just for fun. we had to "bowl" our balls through the conrete picnic area and land it on the other side of the grass. it was funny seeing everybody's balls hit the picnic tables and poles to the shade structure. i was lucky enough to get it through the picnic tables and onto the grass on the other side closest to the ball. too bad the "real" game was already over.

orem library

i was so proud of myself last week. i made a list of books i wanted to read by the end of the summer. here are some of the titles:

1. twilight {stephanie meyer}
2. secret life of bees {sue monk kidd}
3. kite runner {khaled hosseini}
4. the secret {rhonda byrne}
5. the time traveler's wife {audrey niffenegger}
6. the memory keeper's daughter {kim edwards}
7. the snowflower and the secret fan {lisa see}
8. water for elephants {sara gruen}

there were a few more, but their titles are really long, and i'm kinda lazy. anyway, so i went to the public library after work, excited that i would be leaving with all of these little gems {or at least as many as i could check out} i plopped down at the library computer and typed in the first title. every single copy was checked out. i reserved a copy only to find that i was 135th on the waiting list...great. i typed in the next title. same thing...all copies checked out. i proceeded through my entire list and found one book, ONE! that had not been checked out. a grabbed it {water for elephants} along with some other random finds, and headed to the checkout desk rather annoyed. so, if anyone has a free alternative to library books let me know because i don't think i can wait for my number to be called if i'm 135 on the list {summer will be long gone!}

slow

i may be a little late jumping on the bandwagon, but i'm obsessed with this game. i bought a book of them at the beginning of the summer when i started working full time and i do a bunch {probably more than 5 or 6} each day at work in between calls and random tasks. if you haven't jumped on it's not too late.

new bike

i am the happy owner of this little baby as of friday. i la-la-love it. so far we've rode to the moon lake damn in altamont, and along the provo river trail to springville from our house. we clocked the trail from our house to deer creek damn and it's about 10 miles up...i'm thinking tomorrow after work...

fun at lake powell, come hell or high water

we recently took a trip to lake powell with my dad's side of the family. we left work tuesday and drove the four hours to bullfrog marina to meet my parents. due to extrenuating circumstances, we weren't able to get away as early as we had planned and were an hour late meeting my parents at the dock. we loaded our things into the boat in the dark and i was unaware of the breeze blowing pretty forcefully...until we got out into the channel. the wind was blowing EXTREMELY hard and the waves were HUGE! {think 5 times the wave pool waves} we had to go fast because the minute the boat slowed down, water came spilling over the bow and into the boat soaking us all. i sat up front with my cousin jess who was holding a giant spotlight to watch for rocks and bouys. dad had mapped the course back to the houseboat on his handheld GPS and was too busy making sure he was on the right course to watch the water in front of him. a couple of times jess would yell out "ROCK!" and my dad would either let off the gass completely {meaning buckets of water would come rushing into the boat} or turn around sharply {which would cause us to get off course} there were moments were i had no idea which direction we were headed. i held onto the seat where i was sitting real tight {my hands were sore the next day} and i wished i wasn't sitting up front where i could fall out of the boat so easily. of all the times i have been to lake powell {there are pictures of me there while still in diapers} i can only think of one time where i was even close to the level of scaredness i felt as we drove to the houseboat that night. when we finally made it to the houseboat, i was exhausted. we made our bed on the roof of the houseboat and bid everyone goodnight. what a good night it turned out to be! the wind blew so hard all night, we had to hang onto our sheets, sleeping bags, pillows for dear life. at one point during the night one of our sleeping bags almost blew over the edge. chris sprung up to grab it and as soon as his head was off his pillow it flew into the water. by morning we had managed to drop both pillows into the lake {don't worry though, each were recovered and have since been cleaned} the wind continued to blow all the next day and didn't stop until around 9 pm the next night. we spent the majority of that first day in the houseboat so when the next morning rolled around chris and i were ready for a nice morning ski ride. the rest of the trip proved to be another great one {lots of playing in the water, eating good food, and not to be missed when with the jones clan--hiking on the red rocks}