Alan's turn :)

So... If I knew how to post a picture of myself so everyone knew it was me I would... but I don't so I won't. Anyways I never read Marisa's blog, but today I did, I know... ASTONISHING. Actually the whole going to Park City was the best idea we had in a long time. It was a blast! Also before anyone blows a gasket and thinks I'm a wonderful husband... in my defense when I made her breakfast (sorta in bed) it was only because I went for an early morning run and needed to eat, and the flowers, well I hate to see things sit on a store shelf and go to waste when I could use them to decorate the house, you know... make it cute :). These simple meaningless gestures have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I'm so in love that I can't stand to not see Marisa smile at the simplest things I do... or the fact that she means more to me each day that I have no actions to back up the emotion I feel... or even the fact that I am so blessed to be the luckiest man alive to be married to such a wonderful person... because I am.

When life gives you lemons....

So, the picture is kind of scary, but you get the idea. We had a nice anniversary Monday and thanks to everyone for the shout outs. I'll be posting some of the pictures later, but wanted to write a quick post to, well, vent. Not complain, just vent. When I got back to work on Wednesday I found out that the company I work for is being sold. It's a family run business and the president has decided to retire. Instead of letting the kids run the company like they have been for the past little while, she just wants completely out. I don't blame her....less stress and a nice chunk of change. What does this mean for me? Most likely I'll lose my job, ugh! The same kind of situation happened at the last company I worked for and it's pretty scary. That was over three years ago, now it's downright terrifying. As far as I know there haven't been any serious offers on the table yet for the company. They think the time span could be anywhere from 6 months to a year. At least I have a heads up this time, although, the job market isn't really too promising right now. I've been looking the past couple of days and there's pretty much nada. Lucky for us Alan carries the insurance, so at least that is taken care of. We also have some time to work things out, which is actually pretty helpful. So, to all those of you out there who are worried or stressed about their jobs, I hear ya! But, (and this needs to be my daily motto) things happen for a reason. I traded up from my last job, so who knows where this will lead? Just need to keep thinkin' the positive vibes! How does that song go..."every new beginning starts with some other beginnings end." Side note...I'm totally diggin' the signature at the bottom! I know, I'm weird!

Happy Anniversary Bubs!

As of 40 minutes ago (it's now 11:20am and we were married at 10:40 am)Alan and I have been married for eight awesome years. I'm not going to post too much as we're going to a bed & breakfast just outside of Park City and I'm sure we'll have some pics to post (no, not those kind!), but I wanted to tell Alan how much I love him. The past eight years have been fun, stressful, challenging, emotional, exasperating, educational and wonderful. It's funny how your love grows the longer you've been married. I remember the day we were married I thought I was SOOOOO in love, which I was, in a passionate, rose-colored glasses kind of a way. But, now it's a different kind of love that grows and deepens over time and through challenges. So, we're off to spend a fun couple of days relaxing, eating and shopping (and going to the Draper Temple open house tomorrow). Oh, and I also got some flowers and breakfast in bed this morning, how's that for eight years?

V-Day gifts for Fam & Friends

For work this year I wanted to hand out something for Valentine's that wasn't too time consuming or expensive as we're going bowling later in the month. I the pattern for these flower cut-outs on another blog (the U-Create blog listed in my favorites) and thought they would be perfect. I went to Michael's (yes, I know, I live there) and thought it would be cute to put the flowers in a pot, fill with red-hots, some twinkles, and voila, a pretty dang cute hand-out. We also went up Thursday night and heart-attached everyone's office. Ahhh, I love my job!


Of course, since I was doing some of these for the office, I thought, why not make some for family, on a bigger scale? So,


I just painted the pots, added some ribbon, threw in the suckers and red-hots, made some cards to go in the back (didn't take a pic, sorry) and then made some rice-crispy treats in the shape of hearts, put them on a stick, decorated them (found that idea on No Fuss Fabulous, also in my favorites) and wrapped them up. It was actually pretty easy, just kind of time consuming. Sorry out of state fam....I was going to send you a treat, but these would have been pretty much impossible to ship! Maybe for St. Patty's Day!

All in all, a pretty crazy but fun past two weeks. Now I need to figure out what do for St. Patty's Day - oops, no, I've got it! Just got the greatest idea! Light bulb! Hmmm, now for primary.....

Valentinte's Gifts for our Primary kids

I wanted to do something different for our Sunbeams this year and thought these were adorable. Michael's had the shovels already put together, but of course when we got out there, they were gone. So, Brooke and I got online and found more shovels through e-bay and then just bought stickers to put on the "I Dig You." I think the finished product turned out pretty cute and I'm sure the kids will probably love them (I hope!) My friend Brooke made these for her son's V-day card to pass out at his preschool. Super easy...

Congrats to Danny & Jess

I had to post a pic of the wedding present we gave to a friends of ours last night. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the blues and greens, so adorable! One of the guys Alan works with (Danny) got married yesterday and we're pretty good friends with both the brides and grooms families. Last week I was at Michael's (shocker, right?) and happened to wander over to their dollar bins. They had the cutest spring stuff and I found the recipe box in the blue and greens. Then I found the cards that went inside, a cute coupon holder, weekly planning meal and grocery list that matched the recipe box. So freakin' cute! I looked in some of the other bins and found measuring cups & spoons, whisks, and spatulas in the same fun spring colors. So, throw that together with a cute mixing bowl, a cookbook, some personal recipes in the holder and of course, a gift certificate to the Olive Garden (for those nights you just don't feel like cooking) and you have the cutest gift! I was making a card for Britt's baby gift, so I just used a lot of the supplies I had left over to make the card, which just happened to match the gift. It was a fun present to put together and not too expensive, perfect! Congrats Danny and Jess, you guys are the cutest couple!

Crafts, crafts, crafts....

It's been such a busy past couple of weeks and I'm so glad Valentine's Day is over (well, craft wise, I guess). I was busy trying to finish up Britt's baby shower presents and then Alan got sick and we didn't end up going. On top of that, I started working on something for my office for Valentine's (I'm in charge of the monthly activities) and for family. Of course, knowing me, it always turns into something more elaborate than originally planned. I'm going to post a couple of the different gifts we gave out for Valentine's this year because I thought they turned out dang cute and it might give others ideas.

Happy Love Day!

Happy Love Day to all you Valentiner's out there! Although I'm a HUGE hum-bug when it comes to V-Day, here's wishing you a dozen red roses!

It's on....finally!

Well, I did it. I've been thinking about it for a while and just decided to go for it. I've started a weight loss blog - I know, nothing too exciting, but I'm hoping it will get me motivated. With Alan starting to really train for the Ogden Marathon (after he gets better - he went to the doctor on Saturday and we found out he has bronchitis, ugh!) I thought I would train with him. I'm not going to sign up for the marathon, but hope the training with speed the process along. I'm also going to start weight-watchers again. I don't mind weight-watchers, it's just hard at first to write everything done and figure out all the points. I'm just going to do it on my own with Alan weighing me in on Monday mornings. Do I REALLY want my husband to see my weight? Um, no, but again, a great motivator! This has been one of several New Year's goals - I know, shocker! I think everyone has the same goal ever January, lose weight. Maybe that's why I waited until February? To get totally disgusted by myself before actually doing something about it? I'll have to look around for some 5ks to get me going and then slowly move up. I'm hoping by May I can run at least a half and then work the training up to the full. Hopefully next year I'll be able to run the full St. George marathon with Alan and some other friends. We're all planning on registering, if anyone wants to join us, let me know! Anyway, let the weight loss journey begin. Actually, not so much of a weight loss journey and a get healthy journey. Since I know I'm not the ONLY one with the whole weight loss goal, what are others doing?