January....YUCK!

A few weeks/months ago I wrote a post about it being cold. I now wish that I had that kind of cold instead of the cold that we have now! To say the very least, it has been EXTREMELY cold here. The high on Friday was only SIX degrees!!! YIKES! That was cold. Oh and the wind was blowing. It's gone way into the negatives at night too. (Being from Oklahoma, this is totally new to me!) The schools in the area were actually closed due to the cold. I thought it was funny that they closed for cold but not for a foot of snow!!! It has snowed just about every day this week....sometimes it's only been an inch or so though. Last night I think we got another 6 inches though! Life in January in Ohio is getting pretty boring. I don't enjoy sliding all over the roads constantly or being in the cold with the wind blowing! So, I have been pretty much staying inside. We haven't really been up to anything new. I have been working and Josh has been going to school and that has pretty much been our lives for the last little bit.

If you notice though, I am actually posting on a Sunday...Something I hardly ever do. But we don't have church til 1PM and..........WE GOT A NEW DESKTOP! That's right, we have an actual computer to use! How exciting is that! It's been something we have wanted for a while. We have been shopping around quite a bit and found a GREAT deal at Best Buy and couldn't say no to it. So, we now have a REALLY nice desktop/monitor/keyboard and everything! (Ok, the keyboard came with the computer, so it's nothing spectacular, but I LOVE it) I am totally excited about having the computer especially when Josh has the laptop when he is studying at school! I now have something to do!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!

The other thing that I have been doing this week is watching TV! I think I am a total addict now! But I have only found good shows to watch in the beginning of the week. It seems like there isn't anything good on on Thursdays/Fridays. Maybe that's a good thing though. The shows that I now HAVE TO watch are:

• The Biggest Loser---I have never watched it before, but I love it! It's very emotional though. Josh was making fun of me last week for crying at the end. But I couldn't help it!
• American Idol---I haven't followed this show since the second season, but I am totally going to get into it this season!
• The Bachelor---I always made fun of my roommates/sisters for LOVING this show, but I have now joined them and I really like it!
• Momma's Boys---It's almost over, but I think this show is HILARIOUS!
• Law & Order SVU---Can't get enough! I even watch old season on Netflix Online!

I better stop there or everyone is going to know what kind of total loser I have been!

Total change of subject, but I just thought that I could post about this! Yesterday afternoon, we lost our hot water! We still don't have any. Since today is Sunday, we took sponge/cup baths this morning. Hopefully we smell decent enough to go to church! We got a note on our door this morning that said that they are working on it, but we still have no hot water!

I hope you all have a great Sunday! And enjoy MLK Day tomorrow while I am still stuck at work...Yuck! I do plan on taking a few pictures today outside, so I will try and post those later, but don't count on it. Until next time that I decide to write something!

My Mom is Celebrating Her __st Birthday Today!

She would totally KILL me if I told the whole world how old she is turning today, so I decided to play nice! I did want to tell her Happy Birthday though! My mom is awesome! I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world....except for maybe a million dollars :)...Although she can be totally dorky sometimes, I know that she would do ANYTHING to help out her kids in any way possible! Growing up, she taught me that it was ok to skip school/work on your birthday in order to go shopping, which I still have done every year so far. (I just feel bad that she is actually "working" herself today.) She is a GREAT example to me too. As I have gotten older, I have learned quite a few things about my mom....some good and some bad, but one of my favorite things about my mom is that she is one of those "Secret Spiritual People." I'm not sure how to describe it, but she WAY more spiritual about things than what most people probably guess. She goes to the temple often, reads her scriptures pretty much everyday and when I go to her with a problem, her part of her solution always is something spiritual. I love you mom!!! Happy Birthday!

(At work and don't have access to all my pics, but here are a few of my mom!)

Vacay Part III

That's right Part III of my vacation! Who knew there was so much to write about! This is the last segment I assure you though.

Just like on my way out, I had lots of problems on my way back. Only this time they weren't from flying, they were from riding the shuttle! Here is the Shuttle Story:

First, the shuttle was 10 minutes late. No big deal, right? But once we are on the shuttle we wait for about ten minutes for a few people that never showed. Ok, stuff like that happens. Then we have to back track because the driver left people who were there at his last stop. So, before we even "get on our way," we are running 30 minutes behind. So, I am thinking "ok at least I am not trying to catch a flight, I am just going to spend the day with my brother and dad." At our next stop, the bus driver decides that he can go into the unplowed part of the parking lot and be just fine even though we are only picking up one person and that person is in the plowed part of the lot....and of course, we get stuck in the parking lot. After about 20-25 minutes of pushing and shoveling done by the males on the bus, we are freed and on our way again. I am now thinking "ok, we should be good from here on....what else can happen?" Well, we had to slow WAY down because of a snow storm. Then we had to pull over so the bus driver could clean off his wiper blades, then we hit stop and go traffic due to an accident. I was so ready to get off that bus after the hour and a half of DELAYS!! Thankfully, my dad and Logan were there waiting to pick me up!

I then got to spend the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday with Logan, Dad, Nola and Brayden! It was quite fun! And I am sooo thankful I got to see Logan again before he left on his mission. He actually reported to the MTC this morning! I love you Logan and will miss all your crazy text messages! Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Logan:

Logan and I

Logan again ( a cutie, huh!):

Brayden, me and Logan:

Brayden:

My dad and myself:

Vacay Part II

Our vacation did get lots better once we FINALLY made it to Idaho. We enjoyed great homemade food (something that we never get in our home), fun and laughter with family and being able to be completely lazy! On Sunday when we got there, we kind of just hung around for a little bit and then when to both set of Josh's grandparents' homes. There was tones of snow the whole time we were out there. It was really bad for a few days especially with the wind. Josh's brother, Andrew, and his family all came for the week too. I am not quite sure which day they came; you know how it is when your on vacation, you have no idea what day it is. But we did have a lot of fun with them. On Tuesday we went to Paige's (Josh's sister) violin recital! She did a great job and so did all the other kids. I think it was on Christmas Eve that we went to a museum that had tons of Christmas stuff on display. On Christmas Eve, some of Josh's extended family came over and we played a game then the younger kids acted out the Christmas story. Christmas Day was great. We got awesome thoughtful gifts and were able to stay in our PJs all day!!! Josh's family got a Wii for Christmas, so a lot of time was spent playing that! We also got to talk to Josh's brother, Chase, who is serving a mission in Des Moines, Iowa! It was great to talk to him and it sounds like he is doing a tremendous job out there! We really had a great Christmas and were very happy that we were able to spend it with family! I didn't really take a lot of pictures, but here are the ones I did take:

This is our niece, Rylee, and Josh's mom, Jill:

This is Rylee again in the Gingerbread house...She kept asking if she could eat the houses that were in display :)

This is Josh and his two brothers, Taylor and Andrew with the three wise men:

For Some reason I only get pictures of Josh when he isn't looking:

Rylee:

Rylee in her princess dress and shoes with Taylor:

What I thought was a beautiful sunset:

Rylee "smiling" and me:

Thanks Wray family for a GREAT CHRISTMAS!

Vacay Part I

Well, I am back from my FABULOUS vacation. But then again, what vacation isn't fabulous??? Josh and I did hit many bumps on the way though. Right now I am at work and bored out of my mind, so who knows what this post will be like ;) First, let me tell you how our vacation all started....(Once again, no pictures from the no computer at home problem. That should be fixed soon though)

Our plan was to leave Cleveland on Saturday the twentieth day of December. This did in fact occur, but not quite the way it was planned. Nola (my stepmother, no she's not wicked) had listed us on a flight from Cleveland to St. Louis that left at approximately 9:25 in the morning; it had a good 30 empty seats on it, so we should have totally gotten on this flight. I told Josh that we should be at the airport at eight in the morning. He insisted that we really didn't need to get there until 8:30am. So, of course we get there at approximately 8:30. As soon as we walk in the doors, we see this HUGE line and wonder which airline it was for. Of course, it was for Southwest! I get a little upset and say to someone "I told you so." So, we wait in line for quite some time. When we get up to the counter, there is something wrong with how our itinerary was set up. There actually wasn't anything "wrong" with it, it's just that our bags wouldn't make it. So the lady takes her time to help other customers and eventually fix the problem, mark our bags and get us on our way. She told us that she would call down to the gate and tell them that we were on our way there. We drop off our bags and attempt to go through security, but of course we are both "randomly selected" for additional screening. And the TSA guys take their time searching us and our belongings. Once we are cleared, we have about 10 minutes to get to the gate. I run down there as fast as I can. I get there with FIVE minutes to spare; yet, the plane was already gone! The lady that said she was going to call down, never did and the plane left early because "everyone" was on board. I tried asking the lady at the counter where we should try to go but she basically told me she was "too busy."

We end up going to Las Vegas with thinking that if we don't make a flight out, then we will just drive the rest of the way up. The flight from Cleveland to Vegas left about 2-3 hours later and was suppose to be a four hour flight. The four hours ended up being more like five hours from a high wind that was blowing against us. In Vegas, we have to go to the complete opposite end of the airport to get to the gate that the flight to Salt Lake was out of. We didn't make the first flight; it was too full, but we did make the second one! We get to Salt Lake and are completely happy to be there. Then we go to the baggage claim. Our bags are no where to be found. We have no idea where they ended up! Did they make it on the flight to St Louis? to Denver? to Vegas? Who knows?....no one does! Since we were flying standby, Southwest wouldn't ship our luggage to us when it showed up so we wanted to wait until the last flight came in to see if it was on it. That flight kept getting delayed and more delayed. We missed all of the shuttles to Idaho. We ended up waiting another couples hours for our luggage that never came and then staying the night without our luggage at Josh's aunt and uncle's house! It was quite nice of them! They even gave us toothbrushes! We got up in the morning and luckily were able to pick up our luggage and make the first shuttle to Idaho! We made it to Josh's parents house at about two in the afternoon. Wow! It was totally one thing after another, but I am so glad that we were finally able to make it and then enjoy a GREAT week/Christmas with family! More to come about our actual vacation...

A New Kind of COLD!

Not having a computer at home and being REALLY busy at work has made it quite difficult to blog, which is why I haven't done so! Also, nothing too exciting has been going on. We had a GREAT Thanksgiving thanks to Brady/Julie and everyone else who was there! I didn't take any pictures though...The last couple months a little Oklahoma girl, me, has been living in Ohio and has noticed many differences between the two different places. The one that I have noticed the most lately is that of what "cold" really means.

In Oklahoma, REALLY cold means:

• somewhere in the mid-thirties as a high for the day
• upper 20s as a low for the night.
• a nice winter coat is needed but not much else
• the sun comes out at least once a day

In Ohio, just plain cold is when:

• the temperature high for the day is only in the mid-twenties
• The lows are in the teens
• the wind is blowing snow into you
• a winter coat, scarf and gloves are all FULLY NECESSARY
• you NEVER see the sun, always cloudy

I am a little worried to see what REALLY cold is like in Ohio...I'm sure I will be fine, but I will say that this whole no sun thing can get pretty depressing. I always get WAY excited when I see the blue sky! Anyways, like I said nothing too excited is going on. I just thought that I needed to post SOMETHING and thought that my observations would be enough for now. (Oh and I do want to apologize to my brother in law, Taylor, who said I need to post more pictures and less text....hopefully next time, Taylor ;)

Picture overload!

Finally we have pictures! That someone did bring the computer home, but then we couldn't get the Internet to work at home for the last few days. So, Josh put them up on Wal-Mart.com while in class and then I took them off and put them on here! Crazy, I know! When looking at these pictures, please remember that I am not a professional by an means...and I was really just having fun editing them and they aren't suppose to look perfect. I did get lots more pictures, but I didn't want to totally bore you....So here they are!

Pictures of Karri and Jared:

Here are pictures of my nieces and nephews:

Emmi:

And random pictures of Logan and Christine:

Weekend in Oklahoma/Texas!

I had a GREAT weekend...I was going to post yesterday but someone left the laptop in their locker at school (but I'm not going to name any names here ;)) We even got our new power cord in the mail too! I can't upload any pictures from my work computer, so this post is going to be without pictures post, but I am going to try and post the pictures tonight or tomorrow if that someone brings the computer home today.....On to my weekend!

Friday: I got up at about 4:30 AM! Yeah, it was way early and I was WAY tired! I made all my flight just fine and landed in Tulsa at 10:10am! Pretty good, huh? Especially for flying stand by! My mom and oldest sister Christine picked me up from the airport. On our way home, we stopped at the best ice cream/burger joint out there, aka Braums! (The sad thing is that they are only located in Oklahoma and the surrounding states) My strawberry shortcake sundae with cookies-n-cream ice cream definitely hit the spot! Friday afternoon I pretty much just hung out with my sister, her kids (Stirling and Emmi) and my mom! Then we met the rest of my siblings and their families (minus Karri and Jared) at my favorite Mexican restaurant, El Vaquero! The food was good as always and it was fun to go with my family! After dinner, we went to watch the new James Bond movie! Shortly after we left the movie theater, Christine and I noticed that we had a flat tire! Logan and James were then our knights in shining armor and they fixed the flat tire. I was sooo exhausted at that point, that I just went back to my mom's, showered and went to bed.

Saturday:We got up quite early. We were suppose to leave at around 8am, but because of the flat tire, we had to wait around until like 9 or 9:30 in order to get the tire fixed...We made there in time to change into Sunday clothes and be inside the Dallas Temple at the appropriate time. Karri looked beautiful in her dress and even though she had green hair the day before, her hair looked beautiful as well. The rest of the day was filled with wedding activities! The whole day seemed very chaotic, but it all worked out in the end. I ended up staying in a hotel with my mom, step dad, brother and sister in Dallas. We took our time getting up; no one really got out of bed before 10am. Then they took me to the Dallas airport....It was hard to say goodbye to my family! I love and miss them so much! I can't wait til I can go back down and visit them all again. I sat around Dallas for a couple hours waiting for my flight and then sat in St Louis for an hour or so and finally made it home at about 10:30pm! It was a great weekend, but it definitely went by too fast.

Monday: Monday morning came WAY too fast that's for sure! I was totally exhausted, but work had to come but I did wake up to SNOW! I do love snow! It's soo beautiful (I'm sure come February or March I will want it gone though). I am totally not used to snow this time of year but I am enjoying it so far. The good thing on Monday was that Josh got up early to warm and scrape my car so I didn't even have to do it! Monday night, Josh went to a service project and what did I do? I watched Dancing with the Stars! I think I am totally addicted to this show! I REALLY like watching it! OK...well I better get back to work. I will post pictures soon though!

Excited!

Yesterday, I did something that I have been WAITING to do for a long time! I am WAY excited! This is something that will not actually occur until next week though....On the 20th/21st of November. Do you know what it is??? Yep, you guessed it! I bought my ticket to go see "Twilight!" I am pretty excited about it! I am now officially going to see the movie on Thursday night at 12:01! I have heard that a lot of movie theaters have already sold out on tickets, so if you haven't already bought yours, you might want to asap!

I was planning on uploading some pictures of some of the stuff I have been doing, but our computer broke! It's very frustrating...The computer itself is ok, it is just that the battery is dead and our power cord is broken. We did buy a new one last night on eBay (right before the battery died), we just hope that we bought the right one! Anyways, that's really about all I got right now! I was just super excited about "Twilight" and felt like I needed to tell the whole world!

Lame!!

I just realized that I hadn't posted anything new on my blog for TWO WEEKS! Time is FLYING by, which is a total good thing! This weekend, my sister is getting married in the Dallas Temple!!! I am way excited to be going home even though it will only be for the weekend. I have a plan though to fit in all my favorite restaurants that aren't here in Ohio! Another cool thing is that this will be the first time that all my siblings Will be in the temple with me! I am way excited to go home...hopefully I will be ok coming back to Ohio on Sunday!

Josh and I haven't been up to a whole lot...I have been finishing up and starting a few new crafty projects, I will have to post pictures later. Josh and I got cable TV this last weekend! For most, it's nothing that exciting, we really only have the local channels. But the local ones are better than nothing, right? Maybe it's not though...we haven't had TV since we have been married (seven months) and so we are perfectly fine not watching it. In fact, it has only been on once and that was to watch a football game...If you are wondering why we finally got TV, it was to watch football games! I am sure though it is only a matter of time before we are completely glued to it.

Another thing that will happen this weekend, is that is will probably be the last time I see my younger brother before he goes on his mission! I am sooo very proud my Logan! He really is the best younger brother that anyone could ask for...of course we fought constantly when we were younger, but today we are good friends. I have been able to watch Logan grow in so many different ways and he was grown a lot spiritually these last few months! He is awesome...the type that will drop and do ANYTHING for his family. I love you Logan and I am very proud of you!