Christmas 2008

Every other year, my parents have the opportunity of hosting Christmas at their place. All of the married kids in the fam have worked it out with their in-laws in order for all the kids to spend the holiday together at our parents every other year. So, this year my parents hosted 20 people at their house. Amazing! It was fun to have all 6 of us kids home and the 8 grand-kids. We ended up doing family pictures while everyone was here. It is kinda a tradition now when we get everyone together.

Anyway, this year was full of games, movies, guitar hero on the wii, a little playing in the massive amounts of snow, and lots of yummy Christmas treats (always a little dangerous). It ended up being a fabulous Christmas holiday! :) I hope you all had one as well.

Seven Pounds

Merry Christmas and tis the season to go see new movies in the theatre. :) Well...I did just that. I know I know. I haven't really given any other movie a chance since Twilight came out (hence the reason I've seen it 6 times). hehe However, I did break away from my vampire obsession and went and saw "Seven Pounds" last night. I had no idea what to expect with this movie. When seeing previews for it, I didn't really get all what it was about, but it looked intense and quite interesting and looked like something I might want to check out. So, going there with no expectations, I came away very pleased. It's one of those movies that really makes you think ya know? And....makes you think for days after. If any of you know me very well, you know that I don't cry all that much in movies, but this one moved me to tears. I know some of you think that I love every movie anyway and wouldn't take advice from someone that loves all movies, but I feel that this is a must-see for everyone!! It is one I will definitely see again.

I know there are a lot of fun movies coming out over Christmas, but if you're in the mood for something a little more serious and inspirational, you should definitely check this one out.

I Love you all and I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!! :)

So, last night was my old roomie's birthday. At first, we were just going to go to dinner and do a little celebration at the local Chilis. However, we were having too much fun to let the night end. So...we found a little po-dunk karaoke bar in town that she loves to frequent and let's just say I felt like Cameron Diaz in "My Best Friend's Wedding". The first time was awkward, but after I got used to the crowd a bit, it was just too much fun, I couldn't contain myself. Sherra ( old roomie) and I kept at it. We were pretty much up there every other round. We even got the whole club singing the "Happy Birthday" karaoke song to her. haha So...if anyone ever needs a night out to sing your little heart out, I have just the place! Hope you had a Happy Birthday Sher! :o)

This last weekend, I was privileged to see the MOTAB perform in an amazing Christmas concert. Every Christmas season, they put on a Christmas music spectacular to the public. It's held for 4 nights in the Conference center downtown Salt Lake City and can be difficult to obtain tickets. I was very lucky to get tickets this year. I took my good friend Amanda as my date. The concert was amazing and gave me a bit of Christmas spirit I was looking for this year. Along side the MOTAB choir, they always invite an amazing and talented musical star to perform with them. This year they invited Brian Stokes Mitchell who was a tony award winning broadway star. He was amazing. They also invite another pretty well-known individual to read a Christmas story. That was Edward Hermann. I'm not quite sure what else he's done, but I know him as the grandpa from the series, "Gilmore Girls". hehe

After the concert, Manda and I ventured down to the gateway. We weren't ready for the night to end and so we thought to ourselves..."what movie could be playing this time of night that we might be able to catch??" hmmm...you wonder. Wonder no more....of course we saw Twilight AGAIN!! OMG, it's kinda ridiculous how addicted I am to that movie and those books! I'm not even one bit embarrassed to say that I've seen it 5 times now! hehe No shame whatsoever! I told everyone that i'd most likely see it at least 10 times before it came out on DVD. You bet once it hits the dollar theatres that i'll be there most every night. hehe :)

Hey All! A friend of a friend has this blog where she gives away 1 new item everyday. Check out this sight and enter everyday for your chance to win. :)

http://giveawaytoday.blogspot.com/

Holidate

So, I moved out of my old place recently...and with moving into a new place, comes a new ward. Well, I haven't yet been to my new ward, but did go to my first ward activity last night. It was quite interesting actually, and fun! I don't remember the last time I had fun at a ward activity.

The activity was called "Holidate". It's kinda like a speed dating deal. You have 4 dates. Your first date is the ride to the party, the 2nd date you eat dinner with, the 3rd you eat dessert with, and the 4th is your ride home. The first 3 dates were already set for you. However, for the 4th date, they had all the guys drop their car keys into a basket and then at the end of the night, whoever's keys the girls picks out of the basket, that is who is her date for the ride home. Kinda sounds like a 'Swingers' deal to me right? haha

Anyway, it was way fun and with me not knowing anyone in the ward, it was fun to get to know a some new people and maybe a couple cute guys. :) Now, I might actually be excited to go to church on sunday. hehe

25 Things you may or may not know about me:

1- I hate creepy crawlies! That includes big hairy spiders and SNAKES!! I have even a bigger fear of snakes after watching the movie, “snakes on a plane”. I had nightmares of snakes for a month straight after that.

2- I have a secret love of certain instruments. Two of them are the piano and the harp. I just love the sound of beautiful piano music such as pieces by John Schmidt. Oh…and I’m in love with Edward’s song “Bella’s lullaby” that he plays for her in the “Twilight” movie. I could listen to that all day long.

3- I’m paranoid about keeping my car locked while I’m in it. I even check the locks when I’m in other cars. I’ve had some bad experiences on top of what I hear around about car-jacking and such.

4- I’m maybe too obsessed with Edward the vampire from the “Twilight” series! He occupies my mind everyday. It’s pathetic to say, but when I meet a guy now, I totally compare him to Edward Cullen, like we had dated or something. LOL

5- I love the High School Musical movies!! I often wish that I could sing and dance around throughout life like they do. It looks so fun!

6- One of my favorite things to do is cuddle up with a blanket on my luv sac on a Saturday or Sunday and watch Lifetime movies all day! Lifetime…television for women. Hehe

7- My favorite number is 4. I have no idea how I came up with it, but it’s always been that and I’m sticking with it. It seems to give me luck or the correct answer at times.

8- Two jobs I’ve always dreamed of are to be a chef in a fancy fun restaurant or to be a flight attendant so that I could travel a lot!! I’m working on getting there.

9- I’ve been to most every state. 2 states that I have not visited, but would love to, are Alaska and Hawaii!

10- I have a statue of The David on my desk at work.

11- I watch the Rachel Ray show everyday while I’m at work. It’s so dang nice to have a flat screen by my desk.

12- I absolutely hate the snow and cold! I do love to snow ski, but that’s really all the snow is good for. Other than that, it puts me in a sour mood.

13- I drink 8+ glasses of water per day.

14- I absolutely love lighthouses, waterfalls, and eastern coastal beach scenes with the cute little picket fences! I have always dreamed of going on a lighthouse cruise. Yes…they totally have them and I realilze I’d probably be the youngest on the cruise, but who cares. As long as I get to see my lighthouses and take some amazing pictures.

15- I love Photography! I’ve always had a passion for it. I especially love photo galleries. I have a couple of them I like to visit up in Park City, Utah. I think it would be amazing to have a job on the travel channel or national geographic and just travel and take photos.

16- Craigslist is probably my favorite website to check everyday. I’m into odd jobs here and there love to read up on tickets, furniture, activities, and personals that are posted on the site. It’s kinda fun. I tend to find a lot of interesting things.

17- I have found a random dogsitting/housesitting job on that sight and I love the dogs I get to watch!

18- I love playing ping pong. I wasn’t ever really that goodat it growing up, but once I started working at Del Sol and discovered the art of ping pong in our breakroom, I’m obsessed! I can actually beat everyone one in my family now that used to be better than me. Oh yah! That’s right~!

19- I hate potatoes! I do like French fries, but very picky about those as well. My fries have to be crispy and seasoned well or I have to have fry sauce to dip them in.

20- I hate fish as well. I do, however, like my dad’s salmon he makes with a special sauce. I think it’s because the sauce drowns out the fishy taste.

21- I’ve lived in 7 different states: California, Maryland, Rhode Island, Utah, Idaho, Florida, and Michigan.

22- I just got my ears pierced for the first time 2 years ago. I had never really thought about it much or cared, but once I saw all the cute earrings people would wear, I was sold!

23- I love energy drinks! I have to limit my intake of them of course, because I know how bad they are for you, but once in awhile when I’m ready for a night out on the town or I need a bit more energy, I turn to my diet Rockstar for some help!

24- I love to run races! I’m not one of those that go out and run everyday, but I do love to run and I love to run races. I’ve run 3 marathons and a bunch of half marathons and 5 a 10K’s. I just love the feeling you have when you cross the finish line. It is such a great accomplishment and I think everyone should run some kind of race in the future. My next attempt is a tri-athalon. I would definitely have to perfect the swimming part, but I think I’ve got the biking and running down.

25- I’ve played the Violin, Piano, and attempted the guitar and my goal is to pick up at least one of them again and perfect it.

OKAY ASH!! I did this list for you! You should be so proud.
I TAG Joy, Rachel, and Angi.

Hi my friends and family...these are some photos I haven't yet posted from a wonderful week of Thanksgiving that we spent with my older Brother and his family near Tahoe. We were only there for a few days, but we enjoyed our visit and ate quite A LOT!! One of the days we were there, we ventured into Tahoe to play the tourist for a bit. Did a bit more eating (not that we needed to), ice skating, and some sight seeing. We ate at the yummiest place called Fire and Ice. We are planning a trip back to Tahoe this coming summer and my mouth is already watering for that yummyness! love you all!

Okay, so i haven't blogged for a bit. Don't hate. Currently, my camera is out of commission, so I haven't been able to blog about my fabulous Thanksgiving in Tahoe. I should be able to this weekend, so stay tuned for those fun pics...

A fun night before my Thanksgiving excitement was celebrating my good friend Chelsea's 24th birthday! We had tons of fun. Took her up to Park City for a night out on the town, ate the yummiest Mexcian food at Baji Cantina and perhaps some carmel apples from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Then, we took the party back to Heid's place and slumber-partied it up! Love ya Chelse. Hope it was an amazing birthday for you!

OMG! 4 days since I've posted something? What's wrong with me! Well, it's been a crazy weekend. It all started with the midnight showing on thursday night for TWILIGHT!!! oh yah. Some girlfriends and I had planned this like 2 months ago. A group of us went to dinner, the movie, and then a few of us got a hotel room downtown for the after party. HollA!!! The scene at the Gateway theatre was pure madness with crazy twi-hard fans! prom dresses, red tutus, half-dressed Edward Cullins, and twilight shirts galore EVERYWHERE!! I almost wish I had photographed this crowd of madness!! It was amazing and quite entertaining.

I have to say the movie was as amazing as I expected. I didn't have high expectations because it's sometimes hard to make a movie as amazing as the book, but I thought it was well-done.

I won't disclose my favorite parts of the movie right now, because I don't want to spoil it for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of seeing it yet, but I will say I recommend going to see it soon. Even if you have already seen it and didn't really like it the first time...I suggest seeing it again. I saw it again friday night with my mom and sister and loved it even more and I've heard that from a couple others. And...I'm not ashamed to say I'm going to see it a 3rd time tonight. That's right! No shame!

Anyway, leave some comments. I wanta hear what you all thought of it!

What a great night for a jazz game! Good weather, good fans, good company!! My work has season jazz tickets, so once in a blue moon they offer them to a couple employees and I was lucky enough to get to go last night!! Plus...they are really good seats, so I got to really see my hottie jazz player, Kyle Korver, up close and personal. Okay, not that close, but I could definitely see the expressions on the players' faces. I loved Boozer's looks everytime he would miss the basket. It was kinda like a "whatever" look. "just another basket" look. haha love that guy! Anyway, I've included a couple shots that I stole from the paper about last night's game agains the Milwaukee Bucks for your enjoyment! Luvs!!

Okay. I know I promised a pic of a fabulous homemade fleece blanket from last night's "Sisterhood" movie night, but I've failed you. Joy and I did attempt this project, however JoAnne's Fabric was a big let down and we just didn't find what we were looking for. Sorry to disapoint. JoAnne's did inspire Joy and I to become a little more domestic though and perhaps make a skirt some day and some cute pillows. So, once that project actually happens, all my blogger friends will definitely know about it, since I'm probably the least domestic person out there. Til next time...

I'm back. This thing has sucked me in dangit! Day 2 of blogging. It's great. I'm pretty excited about it I guess, especially after getting some comments on yesterday's posts. I love comments! keep 'em comin and I'll keep bloggin. haha :) Deal?

So, you've all heard of the "Sisterhood of the traveling pants" series, I'm sure. Well, this is one of my favorite series and today the "Sisterhood of the traveling pants 2" movie has been released. I have to say i'm pretty dang excited! So, in honor of the movie release, I'm thinkin of making a fleece blanket. I know I know. Kinda random, but it won't be too hard. No sewing machine involved. That's how I like it! Just fleece, scissors, and a lot of tying. Maybe tomorrow, after it's all said and done, I'll post a pic of it. Yeah! I already having something to blog about tomorrow. This is going great! :o) Til tomorrow then...:)

GO UTES!!!! GOOD LUCK SATURDAY!!! TAKE THE COUGARS DOWN!!

Okay...so I'm not really sure about this whole blogging thing, but I thought I'd give it a whirl, since most of my family and good friends have blogs. Now, no more hasseling. I'm here today. It's done. Let's see if I will be here tomorrow. It may be a lot of work, but time will tell.

Not really sure what to start blogging about, but it is the end of the day and not a lot has gone on. So, maybe i'll have something a little more exciting to blog about tomorrow.

As I've told my friend Rachel...I love lots of pictures with blogs, so Im sure you'll get a lot from time to time with mine. That is...if I keep up with it. So, in honor of the "Big Game" between UTAH and BYU on saturday, I'll post a pic (if I can figure out how to) of who I'm supporting. Don't be haters...but yes UTAH will pull us UTE fans a win! GO UTES!!

Love you all...til tomorrow then.