We're alive!

Yeah, so...I personally haven't posted for an entire MONTH! First, I was at my parents house in Oregon for a week, then I was moving INSTANTLY after that...yep, we bought a house! Which actually consisted of a WEEK of prep work before we could move in such as: cleaning, painting, replacing floors, and random things like lights, blinds, toilets, etc.Then we moved in and it has taken us all week to get stuff KINDA in order. I basically only have books and decor to put away/up. The books...well, we needed a bookshelf becuase all the places we've lived have had built in bookshelves. Trully. We did. So now I have all these books with no home. Thank goodness, Patty just so happened to be not needing one of hers! Hoorah! The books will be put away tonight! During all of this we still work full time, take care of Dante, take Dante to puppy school (which he is ROCKING at, by the way), go to Chiropractor (I am trying to heal my back), obsess and get excited for New Moon (okay, that was just me), GO to New Moon (details on that next)....anyway, we've been BUSY! I promise I'll have a few pics later. I can basically only handle words for now. I have looked at blogs at work occasionally but haven't really commented on ANYONES. So, don't feel like I've shunned you.

Going to Oregon was GREAT! It was soooo great to see my Mom, Amy and Megan. It was nice to see Greg, Mike and my Dad....but let's face it. It was GREAT to see the ladies. Amy and I kinda just bummed around watching tv and stuff. It was perfect. Poor thing. It was hard to see what a hard time she's going through with the Chemo, but I was so happy to be there and help in any way I could. Which was basically just sitting there with her! She is amazing. Even with everything she is going through she always has a smile and happiness about her. Megan and my Mom were moving stuff most of the time I was there. My parents moved, so they were working on that. But I did get to spend some time with them, not as much as I would normally like, but it was great seeing them.

We love our house. Both Clay and I can't really comprehend that we are actually homeowners. It's still surreal. We always just look around and smile.

Well, today was pretty much a rockin' day. Why? We saw NEW MOON! Holy Freakin Smokes, it was amazing. I LOVE LOVE LOVED IT! Even as much as I tried to keep them low, I went in with high expectations, and they were met above and beyond. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it was wondrous. Acting, filming, effects, EVERYTHING was sooooo much better. Jacob is smokin, his and Bella's chemistry is PERFECTION, the wolves rocked, the vampires rocked- the volturi? AMAZING! I want to go see that movie again. Right now. Clay, I'm pretty sure he won't get upset with me for saying this- loved it. He has read the books though. I have read and heard a lot that those who have read the books LOVE the movie, but those who haven't think it's slow. I think it's because they honest to goodness stay way true to the book. There was only ONE part....ONE, that lasted about 10 seconds...where I thought- 'oh please, just stop. That is way too embarrasing to watch'. For those who have seen it, the part where Bella and Edward are wearing clothes from the 50's and are running through the woods? Yeah. No thanks. They could've done that way better. But seriously? That was the only part that I cringed at. The rest was prime. Now I'm just way excited for Eclipse! Which comes out in less than a year!

I only work 3 days next week. This is a heavenly thought.

It feels like there are SO many things I wanted to blog about...but I'm tired. And I can't remember anything! I know I am excited about LOST, Jake on the BACHELOR, and AMERICAN IDOL to start in a few months. I'm super excited for Christmas. And I'm super excited for life to go back to normal...as in non-move mode.

Dante drives me more crazy every day...but I also love him more every day. I can't IMAGINE how much love I'll feel when I have kids. This always happens. I always thought that with my nieces and nephews, how could I love anyone more? I feel that same way with Dante. Sometimes I get these surges of love for him, that are crazy wild, where I just think- oh my gosh, kids are going to be awesome. Because I just love him so much! Like I said, he drives me INSANE sometimes, but a lot of times, he is soooooo stinkin cute and sweet that I just want to hug him and cuddle him on the floor. Yes, hug and cuddle a dog. He can just be the sweetest thing. I have changed so much since we got him. I used to HATE dog stuff...like shedding, slobbering, etc. Now I just don't care. I have just accepted that no matter what, my pants are going to be dirty by the end of the night with dog slobber. I don't even care. It's crazy. He slobbers on my newly painted cupbards in the kitchen and gets some sick-nasty mix of slobber/grass/dirt on them...and I laugh. I LAUGH! I don't even care. I just wipe it off. Anyway. He's awesome.

Alrighty. Love you all. Miss you all. I will be back to blogging regularly soon.

Halloween

This is Clay just uploading some pics for yall to view!

Our first Halloween with Dante, the Great Dane at 4 months.






Father and Son.

Patty and Dante.Waiting for his treat.



Makayla and Dante.



Such a stud...


Here we have...

Gracie: The late Cinderella!

Anna: The Amazing Ice Queen!

Aliese: The Ever Curious Goldy Lox!

Hope you enjoyed them, we have other pics of our costumes that Danielle will post soon I'm sure.

Yeah...so I'm thinkin I need a suit

as in a professional, big-wig, accountant-like suit. Why? Because NO ONE TAKES ME SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!! They see a freakin 21 year old face. If you're wondering if that is actually the face that belongs to me, the answer is yes. However, I am a college-freakin-graduate, with a 4-year degree in accounting, and I'm about to close on a house. As in, a house with walls, roof, floors, plumbing, property taxes, you know- the works. Whether or not I look it, I am a RESPONSIBLE ADULT! Let's start from the beginning.

We are buying a house. YES! Exciting. I know. I'm just not going to go into too much detail because I'm still a little on the anxiety stage because I just fear something will go wrong and it wont happen. I doubt that anything will happen, but still- better keep quiet until the keys are in my hand...SO- with buying a house, you have to talk to lenders, insurance agents, etc...to get everything figured out. Lets start with the lender.

She's a woman. Everyone raves about how great she is. We've been reccomended to her from multiple people. WELL- Clay and I walk in and talk to her, and she talks to Clay. As in, chair turned, body turned, eyes turned, ONLY to Clay. She only talks to me if I ask a question or make a comment. Then half the time she answers to Clay- when I ask a question. Cute. I love it when I'm ignored. ESPECIALLY when I am the one that does the number crunching in our family, I'm the one that makes financial decisions, I'm the one she should be talking to! Now, of course I wouldn't want her to ONLY talk to me, like she was doing with Clay. Clay and I are equal partners...it's just that she was acting like I was a complete MORON anytime she did look at me, that I was a little put off. So then there's the insurance agent.

We'll call him John. Why? Cause lets face it, that's his name.

John invites me in his office. He too, looks at me like I'm a child. Clay isn't with me, by the way. I tell him about the house, answer his questions...I tell him, "Yeah, we figured we'd try you guys first becuase we have Auto through you, and so we were assuming we'd get some sort of deal- but you know, we just want the best rate"- he says, "So...I'm guessing your lender has some sort of range she wants you to stay in"- I say, "Yeah, she kinda told us the average price for homeowners insurance so that we wouldn't get ripped off or anything, but she just told us to look around"- He says, "So I'm just curious, how much are you expecting to pay?"

Now I will tell you what I thought, not said- but thought: Do you think I'm a freakin idiot? Like I would ever tell you an actual number- what, so that you can run the numbers, and hike it to whatever price I tell you? I think NOT!

I say, "I don't know, we'll see"- He says, "You don't have any idea?" And gives me the classic, "You're so young and naive-do you know anything?" look. I again say, "Yeah, I don't know, we'll see- so you'll let me know the amount?" Then he says- as if I am no professional, "Yeah it will take a few hours to process...so hopefully I'll be able to call you and let you know within a couple hours". I think, "hm. A few hours? I know for a FACT that you will enter the numbers in your software on your computer, and know within seconds. Don't play me like a fool." But of course, what did I say? "Well, I'm kinda on a time table here, so the sooner the better." He says again, "Well, maybe an hour, but we'll see how it goes". YEAH FREAKIN RIGHT! I work at a place with software on my computer. I know how these things work. It doesn't take two hours to enter in his computer that we are buying X house at X price with X bed and X bath. So, here was the clincher- I stand up and say goodbye, the SECOND, and I mean MILI-SECOND I stand up, his eyes are instantly on my mid section. I hurry and look away, because that's usually what decent people do in a situation like that. You know...then I look back, and he is STILL STARING AT MY REAR-END. No lie. I can promise you that he was staring for 7 straight seconds. I decided I did not want to exaggerate this, so I counted in my head, "one-bananna, two-bannana, three-bananna, four-bannanna, five-bananna, six-bananna, seven-bananna" and by that time, I was out the door of the office so he had no opportunity to keep staring. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Who does that? Obviously this married idiotic man who treats me like a child, but stares at me like I'm 40. Psh. Yeah- I am soooooooooooo done with that. However, he quoted at a GREAT rate, so we'll stick with his business.

So then I go to our lender to give her all our paper-work crap. I'm not with Clayton. I ask her a few questions Clay and I had, and she looks at me like I'm an imbosol. Seriously. I'm not imagining this. It happened. I was so furious by then.

I go back to work, complain to my boss and co-workers, like I always do. They laugh, of course- probably like you are while you're reading this. And my boss says, "You just look young. Because you are." Then he laughs. Then he says he thinks we should make some business cards with my name on it with CPA behind it. I said, "YEAH right". I don't do that. He said that'd make them respect me. I'm pretty sure he was joking. But anyway, he doesn't think a suit will help. I'm pretty sure it will. So......I just might be taking a trip to the DI tomorrow. That's right, the Deseret Industry. If that doesn't work out, Ross. You know why else this all matters? Clients treat me different too. I've been asked if I'm my boss's DAUGHTER. Daughter. As in, his teen-high school daughters. I say, actually no- I'm an accountant here. I just graduated BYU-Idaho in July. They always look shocked. They always think I'm a secretary, and barely EVER trust me. Always asking for others. It is getting better...but not to where I want it to be. At first it didn't bug me...but after today, I think it is going to bug me. I'm pretty sure I deserve respect around here. I just re-read that sentence. I am such a brat. Yes, as in the- 21 year old in her own world BRAT. blah.

Well, on to other things. Dante is freaking HUGE. As in- ginormous. I'm a little nervous for when he's like...up to my chest because he is already getting STRONG. Thank goodness he respects us...for the most part! We went to Salt lake to get this HUMONGO dog crate. It is soooo big. I could sleep in there easy, and barely have leg cramps. If I were homeless, this would be a GREAT home. I'm not even joking. I'll have to post some pics sometime. It was a good deal, and so we had to go and get it...

My back is dying. It hurts from 3:00 on ever stinking day. Sometimes it hurts so bad I just go lay in bed. I need to make an appointment with the Chiropractor. Our even covers it...I'm just too lazy to look up the phone number I think. Isn't that the saddest thing you've ever heard? I think I'll make an appointment tomorrow.

Clay went to Iowa today. It sucks. He was gone last week too...........then I leave on Saturday for Oregon. I am SO excited to go to Oregon, it just stinks being away from Clayton for so long. It's funny- I never feel like it will be bad...but I find that when I drop him off at the airport, before he even steps out of the car I miss him. That is really cheesy, but the SERIOUS truth. It makes me happy that I miss him though. You know? It would probably be bad if I didn't.

We started watching Heroes. Talk about gory. Sawed off sculls with missing brains. However, it is really intriguing...so, we keep watching. What I don't understand, is how Clay can't stand to watch Grey's Anatomy- because of blood...but he has absolutely NO problem with sawed off sculls with missing brains. I'm trying not to think he is demented:)

Well, I wrote this post yesterday and forgot to post it, because I got distracted and did something else. Anyway. That's all!

Mmmmm

The Holidays...

This always seems to happen to me. July hits, and I really honestly do think about Christmas...and how it's about time for Christmas to come by...but I soon get over it and go swimming or something. Then October hits- and I don't even have to see the Christmas decorations in the stores (which I haven't yet), but some internal switch goes on that says, "Let's just skip Halloween and Thanksgiving...and go to Christmas". Today it started. Today it happened. I played my favorite Christmas book on the piano. It always starts with the piano. Then of course, I can't stop there. I have to listen to my Christmas playlist on my zune...pop in my NSYNC christmas CD...watch "White Christmas" a couple times...and before you know it I'll have the tree up the first week of November. Will I always be like this? I don't know. All I know is the Christmas season is WAY too short. As I was thinking this while playing "Over the river and through the woods" on the ancient piano in my in-laws living room, I thought- but wait a minute....if it were longer than a month--none of this would be that exciting. I wouldn't get SO excited everytime. It's the limitation that makes it so wonderful.

Yet, I'm still going to play my Christmas songs. Don't worry- I will wait until Thanksgiving week to put up Christams decor. Hopefully we'll have a house to even put stuff up in.............argh.

So Clay went on his first "business trip" if you want to call it that...this last week. His office went to Boise for a training meeting or something like that. Well anyway, he had to be at the office to leave by 6:50 am- YIKES! And didn't get home until 10pm. Well, I've decided I like it when Clay goes on business trips. Why? Because he brings me home cheesecake from the cheesecake factory. Oh, how I felt like a couple on those movies...you know- when the hubby goes on a business trip, and brings the wife home something--and she jumps with joy and hugs him. Usually it's like a diamond necklace or something like that- well let me tell you...I had just as much, if not MORE joy than those women with diomand jewels when Clay popped out that slice of cheesecake for me. Yep, I think I could get used to these business trips. He is going to Arizona for 3 days in a week or two...for training...and then he is giong to IOWA for 4 days I think...for training...only like 30 people in the country get to go and it's supposedly a privelage of some sort...anyway- Clay got picked to go- he has no idea why, but either way he's excited. But both of these business trips happen before November...and then the first week of November I am going to Oregon...so we are basically going to never be around each other for a few weeks! Poopy. Oh well...we'll survive. I'm sure of it.

Can I ask you something? Did any of you read Catching Fire? The sequel to Hunger Games? Did you like Catching Fire as much as Hunger Games? I didn't. I liked the first a lot better. I'm really hoping the third isn't on the same track...you know- worse than the second. Cause if that's the case...it won't be that great of a book. Catching Fire was good, I really liked it- but it just dragged in a lot of places. Just sayin...

Did you hear that JK Rowling is writing something? She said something like, "I am busy putting pen to paper...and it's not Harry Potter related"- soooooooooooo I'm pretty excited. Anyone who can be brilliant enough to write 7 brilliant books- Harry Potter- is probably bound to write some more brilliant stuff. You have to say "brilliant" when talking about Harry Potter and JK Rowling...cause it just sounds so brittish.

Soooooooooo...let me tell you- David Letterman drives me insane. I HATE the fact that he tried to act noble and crap by publicly admitting to affairs...but turned the affairs into jokes. And I hate even MORE that his ratings have gone up since he admitted his affairs. I have never liked him- because his jokes seem to be more sexually and crudely centered...in comparison with the others (they all do crude jokes and stuff...but letterman seems more than most, to me) and then this happened and I just couldn't believe it! The man drives me mad. If you don't know what I'm talking about- I have to ask...have you been living under a rock? Go to google news...yahoo news...and you're bound to see it.

I have to say- I am really lucky my metabolism is really high still. There are treats in this house 24-7. I am not kidding you- if my metabolism wasn't so high--I would be EXTREMELY overweight. 1) I don't exercise...at all...2) I have no self-discipline, restraint, you know...I never HOLD BACK...3) The treats are ALWAYS good- whether it's homemade baked goods, store-bought treats, nutella, whatever... it's a rarity that a treat is bad tasting around here. I keep telling myself I should exercise...but really? It's kinda not very fun sounding. I do dance all around the house...quite a bit. I always have songs in my head and I can't help but dance to them...so maybe that works off a bit:) There you go- I'm fine. I'll just keep dancin.

Well- I guess that'll be it. I need to blog more. It makes me happy. I need to write a book. I know it'd be stupid and boring- and you guys are like..."uh...hun, I barely made it this far in your BLOG- how could anyone read a book of yours?" but, think about it. Nicholas Sparks, his first book "The Notebook" gave him a $1 million contract. Can you believe that? His FIRST BOOK he ever published. I'm pretty sure I could handle something like that. It's worth a shot:)

Speaking of treats...as I am typing- Patty JUST came in and handed me a treat she just made. Oh dear.

Dante is good. He's kinda in his terrible 2's right now I think. He listens super good sometimes, but then super bad other times. He gets really cranky and acts up A LOT when he is tired and needs a nap. Seriously, he is acting INSANE and not listening to a word we say...we put him in his crate...and he is snoring within a minute. NO exaggeration. None. After we discipline him...like give him a time-out type thing, I get scared he's gonna hate me, but right when I let him go he comes up and cuddles me real quick- I think it's the equivelant of a hug really- he can be the sweetest dog in the world, yet the most hyper crazy dog...overall- he's great. We love him so much. He is so cute. And so big. I keep wondering if I'll think he's so cute when he's full grown. I'm sure I will, but in a different sort of way.

I'm so excited to go to the Coast. I haven't been home in almost a year. The last time I was there was for Christmas. It'll be wonderful to see everyone. It's an added bonus that I won't have to work for a week! That'll be GREAT.

Well- I suppose that's all. Another great thing about the holidays- I found the perfect gifts for my Mom and Patty- lets face it...those are pretty much the most important gifts right? For the mothers? That's how I feel anyway- so I'm pretty dang excited. I'm pretty sure I'll be that type of mom that gets her Christmas shopping done by thanksgiving just cause I get so dang excited so early! I'm sure it'll be different once I have kids and am way busier. I know, I know...I just don't understand yet...

Aight. Peace ouuuuuuuuut.

Dogs...dogs...dogs...and some other stuff too:)

Well this is the best I can do. I know it's hard to tell in the pics, but he's grown a ton! He gains a pound a day. Within a month he'll be double the size. Just look at the pictures of the first day we got him a couple posts ago, and the ones I post today...and he is so big! He is completely potty trained now, and a pretty good dog. He sits, stays, and lays down when we tell him to. He comes pretty well but it's definitely not his forte. He's pretty cute. Thank goodness.



We have another dog in the family too! Rebecca and the girls got a dog from the pound! Her name is Riley, and she is as sweet as can be! It was so fun watching them. They all are totally inlove with her. Gracie calls her "sweety". She says, "Sweety! Come here sweety! You want your bone sweety?" Or she calls her "little girl" or "doggie"...she also calls her Riley too. Riley follows Rebecca EVERYWHERE. Clay says that it's because Rebecca's a good pack leader and that she is taking control, so the dog just automatically wants to be around her. She's a really good dog. She sits and follows commands pretty well. She doesn't bark or jump either...she's just great. Her eyes really are golden. In Rebeccas words, "Don't they look like Edwards?" hahahh. If you don't know that refrence- SHAME ON YOU! Go read twilight.

I'm off....oh yeah. I read the Hunger Games, and Catching Fire. They were so good. I read Hunger Games in literally one day. I couldn't put it down. Catching fire was more like...4 days. We have a bunch of kids here right now and they make it pretty hard to read...they ask questions like...every 5 seconds if your in the same room with them. If you like to read, GO PICK EM UP! They were SUPER good. Did you guys here that "The Host" is going to be a movie? I can't wait! It'll be great. If you don't know, Stephenie Meyer (author of twilight) wrote another book that is different from twilight series, called the Host. I LOVE the host. So so much.

Oh yes- these are crappy pictures, but they are burp rags I've been making for baby showers. Two of my really good friends just had babies. One a girl, one a boy. I made these for them. I love them. They are cotton on front, flannel on back, bias tape bordering around it. They are way harder to make then you'd think.

Basically...I think I might die of anxiety

For this:



Please...let November 20th come quickly.