one week down, one more week to go...

Christmas was great. it was of course, too short, but still was great. zach & i went up to my dad's house in idaho. there was tons of snacks and a really yummy ham. esther car pooled with us. mary, dj, and the girls came down from rexburg. so it was quite a house full. i love my nieces, but when the twins wouldn't stop crying and it was about 130 in the morning, i was ready to shoot them. christmas day was much better after they got back from their other grandparents house. maddy is warming up to me and showed her younger sisters that aunt beanie can be tons and tons of fun. i am pretty cool to hang out with if you aren't screaming in my face. the twins are getting better, but they still cling to mommy a lot more than they should. lily warmed up quite nicely to zach. she was running around and tickling him and laughing and when he grabbed her and started tickling her, she didn't throw a fit. she just laughed and tried to get away so she could do it all over again. all 3 girls attacked zach at once and he only has two arms. i should have got video, but suddenly, i was being attacked by zach. he didn't think i should be left out of the tickle war. i have no idea as to why.... oh well. it was fun until all the big people were worn out and couldn't tag team it anymore. then we had to drive back to ogden. blah. too short of a vacation.
i suppose i should post what i got for christmas. my dad gave me a tent, a propane cooking camp stove, and propane. i think this is mostly because the taylor family reunion in july is going to be a camping trip. he knew i didn't have a tent. i actually got a 2 man tent at labor day down in hurricane, but unless zach & i are officially married, we need separate tents. my dad got me a nice 4 man tent. i just hope that i can make it to the reunion. and zach too.
um, lets see. i got a nice pink tool set from my aunt joyce & randy. zach got me very nice portable speakers, closet organizers, and a shoe organizer. zach's sister (becky)& bro-in-law (hyrum) got me a princess frog. and zach's parents (ken & joyce) got me a beautiful glass nativity of the baby jesus, mary, and joseph. it was a wonderful christmas.
backing up a bit.... the week of christmas was a very busy and slightly stressful one. i had massages scheduled not everyday, but ended up having one on monday. one on tuesday. and 2 on wednesday. i am sure if i had packed my table to idaho, i would have also had one on thursday and one on friday. anyway, one of the ones on wednesday was to a 34 week pregnant lady. i haven't done side line draping since they showed us in class the one time. it was kind of intimidating, but i did fairly well considering i had only my memory & a few pictures in my book to look at. she said i did really good and that she hasn't felt that comfortable since she started showing. that made me feel really good. i am glad i could bring some relief to her. i haven't heard anything since, so i am hoping that no news is good news.
i am not really looking forward to going back to school, but i am. i know that doesn't make much sense, but it does in my head. i have really enjoyed being able to not worry about driving down to class and homework. i have also really loved the time that i can spend with zach. (although he has had to work later in the day these past two weeks....) oh well, i still have been able to see him a bit more often than when i was in class. i can't wait to be graduated. i am looking forward to having some free time, although i know it will be filled somehow. i would like to run another marathon. 2011 ogden marathon to be exact. and i know that vacations out to california, new mexico, southern utah, and colorado will be made as well. i can't wait to be able to have time to travel a bit and see everyone. i am so disappointed that my break from school wasn't longer and that zach & i didn't get hardly anything done that we had planned. (vacations to see his family)
my clinicals start in february. i know that seems so far away still, but really it is right around the corner. goodbye weekends. i hope that i can skip a few here and there. otherwise i am going to get so burnt out that i may just loose all my hair. that is, if i don't loose it in the next 2 weeks. work is going to suck!
we were informed that we will be getting a new store manager as the current one is moving up in the corporate chain. also, my boss's husband is going in for surgery on the 7th. with the new year & all, price changes are going to be huge. i think last year we did about 4,000 in one day and averaged that for about 2 days. i don't remember specifics, but i know it was a lot. well, she is going to be gone helping him. i am left in charge. we got a new printer that is supposed to be working and ready to go before the end of the week. no big deal, we just got trained on it today. only problem...it takes forever to print. i don't have time to wait for it. i have to pull price changes, print the tags, sort the tags, work in other price changes, make signs for displays, change prices for managers, and make sure my people stay busy and don't make more work for me. not to mention; the new ad and the old ad tags and signs and sorting them for the night people to hang. well, then my boss told me today that corporate is going to have a special meeting next thursday that i will have to attend. she doesn't know how long it will be, just that i have to be there since she isn't going to be. thursday is our major price change day. hopefully my people can do their jobs. i know that i have 2 reliable people, but i also have 2 unreliable people.
it gives me a lot of headaches and worry. i have talked to my boss about it, but the conclusion most often arrived at is that i need to be more patient. so i just keep my mouth shut and tell people who come to me about problems to just go talk to my boss. it is out of my hands. we shall see how this next week goes. i also will have homework to schedule back in. goodbye sleep.
i should just be happy & stop complaining. i really do try hard to stay positive. it just gets extremely difficult when i have more work to do because other people can't do their simple jobs correctly. i am going to make the most of what is left of my vacation/break and am not scheduling things that i can't easily work with. well... i think i am caught up for a minute. so Happy New Year! i hope that all is well and will be wonderful with a new year & new beginnings!

Chirstmas is comin' and the goose is gettin fat...

holy cow. finals just about killed me. i think, and i can't say for exact certain yet, that i passed all of my classes for this last quarter. i am not sure of my grades, as they were not posted when we left on thursday the 17th. i can say that i am quite excited to be able to go to bed at 8 o'clock at night if i so desire. wow either i am getting old or just worn out from all the running around everywhere. Christmas is on friday. that is exciting and also intimidating. i have only been sucessful at giving one of my gifts to my best girl friend, lis. i bought one thing for zach, but i can't tell you all what it is because i think he does read my blog every now and then. i hope he likes it. i do have a few other things that i want to pick up for him for Christmas. i know he will like the one, but i am not sure if he will just laugh at the other or think i am just a bit bizzare. oh well. he will still love me.
i have my brother, adam for christmas this year. if ever there was a more difficult person to shop for...it's him. he says i could just buy him ammo, but i was informed that leagally you can't mail it. he won't be able to come down from wyoming for christmas. i didn't have his present ready at thanksgiving. so i will have to mail it to him. i keep thinking perhaps i should just send a gift card, but what is out in wyoming that is also here in utah? if i were smarter, i could just do an online gift card thing. but where to? and will he appreciate my lack of a real present? meh. it will just have to be one of those things.
i am excited that i get to officially start my two week break tomorrow. i do have two massages lined up monday afternoon/evening. and i have one lined up tuesday afternoon. it will be good practice for me. i can't decide if i want to try and schedule other massages in the rest of the week with it being Christmas and all or if i just want to relax and enjoy. i do have several people that have requested time from me, but won't actually coordinate a time. it gets very frustrating. i think i will be needing a planner/schedule book for my sanity of scheduling. it is slightly harder with me still being in school, but if i plan ahead, i can make things work.
on a way exciting happy note....lis & i got our visiting teaching done before the end of the month! we felt really bad about the last few months as we have not been good visiting teachers. but we got it done today! hooray!! and zach was able to come to all of church today! he has been scheduled every single sunday since he started at best buy. because of it, he has had to miss all or parts of church. but today he got to come to all of it! yahoo!!
zach and i had a date last night. we went grocery shopping. he made us go up and down every single aisle. and some we had to go down a few times because we missed things. it was rather funny. i don't think zach likes shopping with me though. i think this because last week we went to the store and i kept saying, "it's cheaper at maceys. why are you buying that here?" "why get that one that costs more and is smaller package when you can get this one that has more for less money?" i think he was getting annoyed with me. so finally i said, "fine. do what you want with your money." he is still really patient with me. sometime this week we are going to go Christmas shopping. i hope that the crowds aren't too bad and the deals are amazing. i need to find something for adam and zach is going to look for stuff for his family. then we have to stop at the post office to mail the presents. it will be nice to be able to spend time with zach in the evenings when i am not exhausted from work & school. well...i can't think of anything else that is exciting at this moment, so i will sign off. Merry/Happy Christmas!!

it's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!!

i put my tree up last week after thanksgiving. it is slightly pathetic since i only have 4 ornaments, but it looks really cool all lit up. zach & i put candy canes on it last night so it looks a lot better now. i will have to take a picture a post it. anyway it is now 5 days into december. right now it is snowing outside. it is cold, but i like the feel of the christmas with snow.
thanksgiving was really fun. the drive to southern utah was not the greatest, but zach & i made it and had a wonderful time. the food was amazing good and the company was even better. i love zach's family. they are fabulous people. i am excited to develop our relationships as zach & mine grows. the visit was too short but worth the long drive. i feel bad that i couldn't stay awake to help zach drive. he says not to worry, but i do wish i could have been better help for him. i drove most of the way back to ogden so i don't feel quite as bad now. he still loves me :) and i love him too! :)
school is coming to finals week for the quarter. i am nervous and thrilled. we get a two week break for christmas/new year. i am trying to figure out if zach & i can get all the things in that we want to do. erin & greg want us to come over for dinner some time. most likely that will be after christmas. we will see. scheduling is hard. my captain and his wife also want to go on a double date. i have a lot of people that have asked for massages during my break from class. i would like to go out to california, albuquerque, and perhaps even colorado. too many things to get done. not enough time. i would love to just be able to see everyone and make the rounds for a nice long visit/vacation. two weeks will fly by and then i will have to give up my weekends for clinicals.
i keep thinking about how scheduling is going to work around everything zach & i have going on. it is so crazy and i don't really want to think about it, but know that if i don't want the stress later, i have to plan ahead.
christmas is in two weeks. that is exciting. also scary...i have not done any sorts of shopping. i think i know what i want to get everyone, but i have no money at this time to get it all. bills and responsibility are no fun. i do prefer to be an adult though. i just wish that everyone would grow up sometimes. i don't mean that we can't laugh and have fun, but just accept that there are things you can't control. more specifically, other people's lives. let them announce their news, and not take it upon yourself to announce it for them. i won't name names, but i hope you know who you are. and i would like to you know that all things will come in time...and if it isn't on your schedule, get over it...grow up. and that is all i am going to say about that.
in funnier news....zach has taken it upon himself to tickle me until i can't breathe. he laughs harder at my giggling/gasping/attempt to tickle back and that makes me laugh even harder. then he starts pulling these funny faces and i can't not laugh. we play this game of "this is a serious moment" (brooke & essie do you remember this?) and i always loose. i think i won once and i did a little happy victory dance. this made zach laugh and that made me laugh. then he started imitating my dance and we just laughed even harder. zach makes me so happy. i love just being with him. honestly i just truly love my zacharoo! i am excited for the day that we will be our own family. he will be a good dad. not that we want kids right away, but it will be an adventure to see where our future will take us.
i laugh sometimes thinking about our conversations we have had about children and what we think we will do in certain situations. zach thinks our kids are going to be little firecrackers because we both have fiery tempers. and then other times we laugh because our kids are going to think their parents are the weirdest people ever. we shall just have to wait and see. first things first and that is the only way to do it. one thing at a time, one day at a time. i am looking forward to the future with zach. anyway....i do need to get going because i have a date tonight. zach gets off in a bit and i have to make myself all pretty and all. not sure what our date is, but i am ok as long as i get to spend it with zach.