this last week

this week went pretty quickly and then not quick enough. monday i blogged that i had gone swimming. tuesday jonathon & i went biking the ogden river parkway. we did the whole thing...8 miles round trip. perhaps though we may have taken a wrong turn because when we finally found a map, it had weber river parkway on it. oh well. it was still a nice ride. then i went to the 'boys like girls' concert with lis, mary, and lisa. it was a lot of fun. the music was good, but the language between songs was not great. and i could have done without seeing weird people jumping off the stage to crowd surf and then flashing the crowd when they jumped. and i could have done without seeing the guys in the band kiss eachother. that was just plain gross. but other than that, it was fun. and we got frostys after the concert.
i am totally stoked for the 'secondhand serenade' concert on july 25. wednesday i went to institute with erin. it was a really good class. we talked about the war chapters in alma and how it applies to us today. thursday i went to the park and read 'the princess bride' the abridged version. it was such a beautiful day i couldn't pass being outside. so why not go to the park and put a blanket on the grass and read. i read the entire book. i am not that fast of a reader...at least i don't think i am, but it was a fairly quick read. i got done and went up to lis' house for a lia sophia party she was having. i was good and didn't buy anything, but i picked out what i would like to buy next time. friday i got my laundry done and a got a good start on 'crime and punishment' then i went to the institue water party/bbq at forest park. i only stayed for 45 minutes. i didn't know anyone, and i just people watched. i know i should make more of an effort to get to know people, but i really had no interest in meeting anyone once i got there. so i came home and went to bed. i know, i am lame.
but i got up early this morning for it being saturday. i was up at 630 and dressed for biking with lis by 7 so i could get up to her house by 730. she was still asleep when i rang the doorbell. oh well. we did the trail behind weber high school. i don't remember the name of it. we went for about a half hour one way and then turned around. coming back, i somehow had hit something and my back tire went flat. i had to walk my bike back the rest of the way. i felt bad that lis had to ride slow, so i tried running a bit with my bike. let me tell ya, it is not as easy as it looks. i will live though. i put air in my tire at the chevron, and it stayed full when i got back to my place. hopefully the slime will find whatever caused the leak and seal it up so i don't have to replace my tire. i will check it again before i ride on wednesday. and that is my past week.

july is here already?.....

july is here! holy cow! it is 6 days into july to be exact. and a fair amount has happened this last week of june and first part of july. i last left you before i was going hiking with jonathon. well....that was totally awesome! we started in ogden canyon and hiked what we both believe to be called the indian trail. it went up and up and switchback and up. the hike up seemed a lot longer and father than coming down. jonathon and i had a good chat coming down. hiking up, we were both so out of breath, or maybe it was just me, that we didn't really say much. it is really a beautiful trail and i think everyone should at least get out and try it. we didn't go too far because jonathon had other things he needed to do and it was starting to get dark. i am not really sure anymore about where jonathon and i stand. our chat coming down the mountain was more serious and open then what i have ever discussed with jonathon before. not that we are getting serious about us, at least i don't think we are, yet. but i have decided to just let bygones be bygones and see where the game of life takes me. we still went mountain biking on wednesday, and for some reason, i was a major pansy and couldn't get up the hill that i had done in the pouring rain a few weeks ago. i think maybe in part it was because we went a little earlier in the day than we usually do, and i may have been dehydrated, and i had also gone swimming on tuesday. so i was a pansy and felt terrible, and still do, that it took us...well me... an hour to get up some of the mountain and only 10 minutes to get back down. jonathon is a much better mountain biker than me. i slow him down.
anyway....so monday i went hiking with jonathon. tuesday i went swimming at the gym. wednesday i went mountain biking with jonathon. thursday i was lazy and did laundry instead of running. and friday i drove to dolores, colorado. saturday i spent the day with brooke, chris, chandler, and all of chris' extended family. (they have basically adopted me into the family) we watched the parade in rico and then explored old mines and just laughed and relaxed a bit and had fun enjoying each others' company. saturday night we went back to rico and watched the fireworks. for a tiny little po-dunk town of maybe 40 houses...the fireworks were AWESOME!!! the fire department puts on the firework show all from donations. they light them off on one mountain across the highway (the only paved road in rico, probably because it is a federal highway) and the spectators watch on the other mountain across the highway. so really, the fireworks are blowing up in your face and echoing across the mountain valley. it is super awesome! sunday i went to church in cortez and we all had lunch then it was time to hit the road. i tell ya, 6 hours isn't that long of a drive, but when you are by yourself, it gets boring quick. i can only talk to myself for so long. oh well. i am back now and this week should be another good week, i am hoping.
today i went swimming and did a few good laps before i felt my heart was going to jump out of my chest. so i slowed it down a lot and just took it easy. i need to start getting used to not swallowing water but breathing air when i come up between strokes. tomorrow i am going mountain biking with jonathon (since he can't make it on wednesday he asked if we could still go tomorrow) and then i am going to the 'boys like girls' concert with mary and lis. (i think) and then wednesday i think i will go to institute with erin since my usual plans got rescheduled. and thursday i am not entirely certain what i have going on, but i think i have something. friday i am not sure yet either. and saturday...ok, really i just have through wednesday planned. but it works for me. i am going to end here so i can go get public pool water smell off me.

catching up...

last week was a fairly quick one. i can't believe july is almost here... in two days. it's crazy! ok, so this past week hasn't been that exciting. i worked 4 days of about 10 hours each so i could have friday off for jessica's wedding. jess got married friday, june 26 to chris in slc temple. the ceremony was at 11am, but i took the whole day off work so i wouldn't miss anything and so i would be able to be a slave for mike & debbie. as it turns out, i wasn't really needed as a slave, but i still tried to be useful where i could be useful. and now i am ahead of myself. oh well.
monday was just another day. not much happened. my boss and some co-workers went and bought harry potter tickets to the midnight showing. i am excited about that. wednesday will be an extremely long day, but hey...i'll live and i am still mostly young. tuesday i ran a 5k for south ogden days. i was on the macey's sponsored team, meaning they paid my entry fee. i ran the 5k in 30:05. so thirty minutes and 5 seconds. i placed 12th in my division. i don't know overall where i was, but i am quite proud of myself. it was the first race since the marathon. wednesday was a very boring day. i got home from work and just slept. i was going to go to erin's institute class with her, but i was passed out cold. (sorry erin) thursday...not really anything happened on thursday. esther came and spent the night with me so we could get up early friday and make it down to salt lake on time.
friday was a lot of fun. the wedding i didn't get to see since i am not endowed yet, but i hear it was really good. i did get to party it up with everyone after. we ate and ate and ate. and laughed and laughed and laughed. and then we partied even more at the reception center. we danced and laughed and ate and danced and just had a grand ol' time. then es & i came back to my place since we didn't really want to go clear to logan after all that partying. es did have to be back to logan by 11 for work.
saturday morning was here too quickly, but i couldn't sleep past 7 anyway. i stayed laying in bed as long as i could, but then my phone went off for a text. it was jonathon wondering if i was up in logan. i replied that i would be up in logan. he asked if i wanted to join him for an army luncheon. i apologized that i couldn't make it because i would be up in logan. jonathon then said that it was up in logan and i should come. so es & i gathered our things quickly and headed up. i had her drop me off since we were about 5-10 minutes behind jonathon.
we played volleyball with the guys, and they split jonathon & me up. i was with the 'old guys' and jonathon was with the 'young guys' and we (the old guys) whomped them...just barely. so the 'old guys' got and ego and had to play more 'young guys' so they kept me and we beat every team that came against us. jonathon tried to rescue me, but they told him that i was a winner, not a loser so i had to keep playing. it was quite funny. they also teased jonathon that his girl could hit and serve better than him. he took it well and joked back with them. when another guy asked who i was and if jonathon and i were dating as boyfriend/girlfriend or were married or something, jonathon replied, "not yet" and smiled.
after the luncheon, we went cruising logan canyon in jonathon's 1977 rs chevy camero. it's a convertable. needless to say, i got a little toasted. we cruised for a while, but had to turn around so i could go judge a diaper derby for es at stork landing. but first, jonathon insisted that we get root beer floats at a&w. they were delicious! then he dropped me off at stork landing and we made plans to go hiking today. i am excited to get out and moving. jonathon was out of town or something last week so we didn't go biking. and after the diaper derby, i went back to the house and helped brooke & chris get the yard looking a little nicer so hopefully it will sell quickly. and sunday i hung out with es and then came back to ogden. well, that's me catching up.
this week looks to be a pretty good one. i am hiking with jonathon today. and we are mountain biking on wednesday. friday after work i am driving to cortez. (anyone want to come for a weekend?) and that is all i really have planned for this week. but hey, i do a lot of random sporadic things, so who knows what else will and can happen this week. hopefully i can stay somewhat busy so i don't think about ryan too much. he is gone for the month to fort lewis for army national guard training.

my birthday

so after i left you saturday morning, i hurried and went to the store to pick up steak for dinner. ryan said he would rather cook something than go out to eat. i agreed and have been craving steak, so i told him i'd get the steak if he got the side dishes. i absolutely love the burgundy steak macey's marinades in a vacuum type machine. it pulls the marinade through the meat, tenderizing it as it also flavors it. most delicious! tragically, they didn't have any. so i had one of the meat guys, jerry, pick out two of the best steaks that were out on the shelf. jerry then offered to season them for me. (special seasoning for me for my birthday) it is called montgomery seasoning. which actually turned out to be most scrumptious and ryan jokingly said he might just eat both steaks and not let me have any. they were about a pound each. YUMMY! and i am not a steak person. so anyways.... after i got my special seasoning on my rib eye steaks, i drove up to logan.
don't tell ryan, but i think he forgot what time we said because he texted me an hour before and asked where i was and if i had even left ogden yet. then when my reply was, "i am in the canyon. didn't we say 1?" he answered, "yep. i was just checking to make sure you were coming." i really think he had forgotten...but don't tell him i told you. ;) i arrived at ryan's apartment and he was finishing up cleaning the kitchen. so i helped him. then we talked for a bit waiting for some of his friends to come over. (a nice married couple, chris & amber?) and then the 4 of us went to the 'club house' at the complex. it has a pool table, foosball table, ping pong, air hockey, big screen, tables & chairs, a poker table, and a movie rental machine. ryan whooped me in foosball, but then we got annoyed because the table wasn't put together correctly. so we were going to play pool, but the 8 ball was missing. and then air hockey, but the pucks were so badly beaten that they didn't float across the table. so we finally settled on ping pong.
i am terrible at sports and hand eye coordination things. ryan was very patient with me and explained the main rules of ping pong and how to properly serve. then we played a bit and then the 4 of us played. ryan & i won the first round. then we played girls against guys. um, yeah, the guys won. and sadly chris & amber had to leave. so ryan & i went back to his apartment and watched a few episodes of scrubs before we couldn't handle the noise from our stomachs growling to feed me. so we went to the store (ryan forgot to get side dishes.... oh well) and also bought ice cream....which we forgot to eat because we were both stuffed. and then ryan cooked the steaks on the grill at the 'club house'. he likes his steaks medium rare, so i just had him cook mine the same. i don't really know how i like my steak because i don't really eat steak.
after dinner, we fat dogged for a bit. i totally fell asleep for a while. ryan thought it was cute, but then asked if i really was just going to sleep or if i wanted to play some halo 3. i told him he couldn't laugh at my lack of video game skills. so we (ok really just ryan) played halo 3. he was once again very patient with me and explained how to use the controller and was giving me instructions as well as killing all the bad guys. but hey, i did get my bad guys killed (maybe 10). weirdly enough, the video game started making me a little motion sick, so we turned it off and went down to the hot tub and pool. yes, it was raining, but who cares. you are going to get wet anyway. and we swam and sat for a while until we were both very prune like. don't tell ryan i told you this as well, but he totally forgot that it was my birthday. i'd mentioned it numerous times and even just after i got to his apartment, but he still forgot. it was funny. oh well, he is a boy after all. but he is still very much a gentleman. ryan let me borrow his shower and i got the pool water rinsed off me. then we watched a movie. it was late by this point, so we said goodnight. i won't get to see him for a month....army training at fort lewis. but when he gets back, we are eating the steak i wanted to get originally. but that won't be until the end of july. and that was my wonderful birthday.
now, i have to vent for a second about today... i went to the park to read and enjoy the sunshine. no one was there when i arrived. then little kids started coming and playing. so i got off the swing and sat/laid on a bench. out of no where, this little girl starts yelling at me. "hey you!, hey you in the black!, hey you with the book!, hey you with the ?polka dots?" i ignore her. first because she shouldn't be talking to strangers, let alone yelling "hey you" at them. and secondly because i was just trying to enjoy reading my book outside. so then this other little girl comes over to me and stares at me for a minute. she came a little closer then asked, "are you a girl?" what kind of parents does this little girl have? to let your kid come to the park without you, talk to strangers, and then ask a perfect stranger if she is a girl. so i looked up from my book and answered, "yeah." the little girl then said, "well, that other girl is calling your name." i almost wanted to say, 'my name is not hey you.' but i bit my tongue and went back to reading. but it got me thinking....what if i were not a good person? i could have taken that kid, or done something to that kid and no one there would have even noticed. what has happened to society? why are little kids talking to perfect strangers? where are their parents? anyway, i almost wish i would have asked the little girl to point out her parents or go get her parents to ask why they don't care that their daughter is talking to me or why she has no supervision. honestly people! but i guess that's why i am a good person and would never do anything like that.

week in review

this week has gone by fairly quickly, but also kinda slowly. monday was not that eventful. tuesday wasn't either. wednesday i went to an institute class with my roommate. and then i went to body jam. oh, i guess monday i did go to body combat. and tuesday i went swimming. but still, not that exciting. thursday i was a lazy bum. and yesterday i did a lot of things.
first i went to work. then i was going to do my laundry, but the four other people there took up all 26 machines. so i went to SLC. i got registered for massage school!!! i am going to utah college of massage therapy! i start august 3. and the best part: i got financial aid!!! i got a pell grant and a subsidised loan, and an unsubsidised loan. so what that means is: i got school paid for, and i don't have to pay it back until 6 months after i graduate. life is going to be interesting for the next year. i will work in the day (cause i still have bills) and go to school at night. i may or may not be a walking zombie. work is from 6am-2pm M,T,Th, & F and W are 3am-1pm. and school will be 7pm-10:30pm M-Th & saturday or sunday (hopefully i can get saturday) for clinicals. and then when i am all done with school...who knows what options i will have open everywhere for me. there will be a lot (ucmt assures me). now i just have to get my butt in gear and study, study, study. anyone want to be a dummie? i am sure you all would love it.
so then on to the rest of friday (last night). lis & mary took me out for a girls' night. since i figured out one event earlier, lis had me put my eye mask on as we drove to the restaurant we were eating at. i was really lost until we walked in the door. and the instant my heels hit the tile floor, i knew we were at the marriott. chef was there and we talked to him for a while. he was in a suit and it looked weird on him. of course, i have only seen him in his chef outfit, but the suit was still just weird. after some food problems, we all finally got good, cooked, food. mine was perfect the first time coming out. lady's was still bleeding. lis' just tasted like feet to her. oh well. it's all good. after dinner, we went to salt lake to go clubbing at studio 600. the crowd, this time around, looked to be a little older than last time. the problem....there were toooooo many people there and the line to get in was not moving and was around the corner. so we turned around and drove back to ogden. we went to lis' house and watched "man in the moon" with reese witherspoon....a very, very young reese witherspoon. it was an interesting show. i didn't get home until 3am. and i couldn't sleep past 9am this morning. so here i am blogging. and trying to waste some time before i go up to logan. i am spending the day with ryan. :) i am not sure what we are doing, but it is going to be a fun day. and that is my week. until next time...when i tell you how today goes. cause it's my birthday!!!

what's new in my world

this last week hasn't been that exciting. i did go mountain biking with jonathon on monday and wednesday. monday was muddy and wednesday was in the rain. it was totally awesome! this week is kinda going to suck because jonathon is not going to be in town so we can't go mountain biking. on the good news side, lis said she may be getting a bike here soon, so we can all go mountain biking. tuesday i went to a bridal shower for a friend of a friend. it was alright, but by the end of the evening, i was ready to shoot the other girls there. i was on edge so much that when i got home, i vented to erin for a second and then had to take a walk. i went walking in the rain. it was a good way to calm down so i could get to sleep for work early wednesday morning. i am not sure why, but i really just can't stand 18-22 year old girls, especially the ones that are so, "wo is me. i'm not married in utah and i'm 19." it drives me insane.
um, let's see.... monday was work and mountain biking. tuesday was work and bridal shower. wednesday was long day at work and mountain biking in the rain. thursday was work and the oquirrh mountain temple open house with the ward. it was absolutely beautiful. i was amazed at the little details that make everything work perfectly together. it really is The House of the Lord. i think my favorite part was one that i didn't expect. in the more main hallway area, there is a picture of the Savior surrounded by white sheep. in His arms is one small black sheep. i can't explain why, but i started crying. i couldn't stop looking at the painting and thinking, "Heavenly Father loves ALL His children. and i am included in that." it was truly remarkable. i want to find a smaller picture of that painting and put it where i will see it everyday and remember the spirit i felt in the oquirrh mountain temple. i also didn't expect to start bawling when we entered the sealing room, but from the second we walked into that room and sat down, i was bawling. i miss my mom so much. it will be 13 years next tuesday. and deep down in my soul and in my heart, i know she is in heaven waiting for me. i know it is selfish, but i want her here now on earth with me.
friday was a pretty fun day. i went to work, came home, got my laundry done, went to body jam, and then went to the grand opening of the frozen yogurt shop 'spoon me' in ogden. i had just found out thursday night that my friend jake and his band, 'avenue of embers' was going to play. the frozen yogurt was really good. and then i went to lis' house and spent the night so we could get up early saturday morning. lis asked if i would help her with engagement pictures. the couple was incredibly cute, and the weather wasn't too bad. then we went to body jam. after jam, lis held a lia sophia party. and then we went to her family ward party. and that was my week in review. i didn't get to see ryan this weekend. he had drills with the national guard rotc. i think i will get to see him this coming weekend....for my birthday :) afterall, i still have his favorite hat.

odd date, air show, picnic in the jeep

i didn't have to work on friday. it was glorious sleeping in. i actually slept until noon. WOW! i never sleep that long. ok, i didn't get to bed until after 2am thrusday night. we did a movie night at lis' with the projector. then i came back to my place and chatted with erin for a few hours. so anyways, friday i slept in. took my time getting ready for my date with lance. went grocery shopping for my date saturday with ryan, and then took a bit more time and did nothing. i may remind you that i am not one of those girls that likes to take soooo much time getting ready. it was awkward and i still had time to spare. i was fairly certain i knew where i was meeting lance, so i didn't leave quite as early in case i got lost. my garmin took me right to where he said to meet him, pei wei asian diner. only, lance wasn't there. so after a phone call, we realized there was more than one pei wei asian diner in slc. he was a gentleman and came to find me.

it was really good food. i ate all of mine and then felt like a pig when i saw lance hadn't eaten all of his. at least he paid, right. oh well, whatever. after dinner, we went to play laser tag. we played three rounds. it was a lot of fun, but not quite so much for a date when you don't really know each other at all. i hadn't played laser tag in forever so i forgot that you get code names and go on a "mission" each man (or woman) for himself. we couldn't decide what code names we wanted, so the nice people behind the counter let us draw from a bucket. i drew for lance, and he drew for me. he drew out cupcake, and i drew out playdough. so i was cupcake, and he was playdough and off we went to go 'kill' the little kids having a birthday party. then finally on the third round, it was more adults, or at least older teenagers. ps...lance is 21. after laser tag, we went to chilli's for molton chocolate cake. again i felt like a pig as i consumed probably 3/4 of it while lance barely touched it. it was rather late at this point, so lance took me back to my jeep. we talked about another hour and then we both drove away. i think lance would be cool to hang out with again, but i don't see another date in the future. and i am hoping for something more with ryan.

so on to saturday..... :) i got up at 6am (sleeping in for me) and went to work at 7. work was quite nice and i got a fair amount done. i left at noon and came home to get ready to go to the air show with ryan. he was running late because he got to go play paintball and they got a late start. no worries though. we had all day to get to the air show and look around at all the planes. it actually worked out better for me with him running late. i got to get myself all cute and got our dinner ready for after the air show. ryan was a kid in a candy store with all the airplanes. i was fascinated as he told me what he knew about each one. we sat in the pilot's seat in one of the black hawks they had on display. ryan showed me which airplane he has jumped out of for the army trainings. we tried to get in it and look around, but there were too many people. then we watched the thunderbirds do their maneuvers. i never realized how close they really are to each other. it was crazy! ryan really got excited when he found the exact plane he wants to buy. it was a sr22 something or other. i can't really remember. but it is a sweeeeeet plane. he made the comparison that this plane is the sports car of cars. it can go out in freezing conditions because there are special breathing holes on the wings that cry deicing fluid. we couldn't find the owner to discuss more about the plane. we did get to look at some cool helicopters and talk with those guys. they run a business out of ogden airport and will let you fly for a half hour for a hundred bucks. and when i say you fly, i mean you get to take the controls and they instruct you while you fly the chopper. i think when i get an extra two hundred, i'll take ryan.

when we finally decided to leave, we got stuck in traffic. it took us just over an hour to get out of hill air force base. then we stopped back at my place, grabbed the food, switched vehicles (we took ryan's truck to the show), and went to meet mary & james at a park for a picnic. the weather turned rainy at this point, so we all climbed in the back of my jeep and finished our picnic. yes, yes, four people can sit in the back of my jeep and have a picnic. it was funny. i felt bad for james because he wasn't quite as little as mary, ryan, and me. but we still had fun.

after we ate, we were going to play frisbee or volleyball or something, but the weather really didn't want to be nice anymore. so ryan & i went to wise guys comedy club and mary & james did something else...... not sure since i wasn't with them. the first comic wasn't that funny, but the other two that performed were pretty good. the show ended earlier than we had expected, but it was still a long day for both of us. i got up early to go to work, and ryan got up early to go paintball. poor guy didn't eat breakfast, and he skipped lunch to hurry to get down here to see me and we didn't finally get dinner until 8 ish. so he was exhausted, and i was tired. we came back to my place and were about to fall asleep so we said goodbye. ryan invited me to come paintball monday evening. he left his hat here at my place...not sure if that means i have to take it to him now or if i get to keep it... it's his favorite hat i may add. so all in all, i think things are going good places with ryan. i like him a lot. and he is always a gentleman.