Need a Laugh??

Before I start this story there is something that you MUST understand. I have CRAZY hiccups. If you know me, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, they've been described as everything from a pterodactyl, frog, a bird, the dog...you get the idea. And they are ridiculous!!

At the Pioneer Day activity we attended on Saturday night at the church, I sat next to a very clever and funny 10 year old girl. They announced that funnel cakes would be ready in about 20 minutes and we were all chatting about our favorite fried foods. Fried Oreos came up (I try not to think about them often...that's cruel and unusual punishment to myself) and this girl didn't seem very impressed by the idea. We talked further and by the time I finished, she seemed in favor of trying them.

I told her that I had a gift, that I could make ANYTHING sound good. Without ANY hesitation (and I'm still not sure how it all happened) she quipped back, "yeah, except a hiccup". Oh. My. GOODNESS!! Everyone sitting there was rolling with laughter!! To date, that is the best thing I've heard ANYONE say about my hiccups!! Amazing!

Free Advice

I'm pretty sure I've told you before, but I'm happy to tell you again. Don't mess with HR people. I promise, we're here to help you. If you come to me and yell at me, I'm irritated, but understand the need for getting everything out in the open. Often, that's when we get to the bottom of things and can find a resolution. I may not love it, but will overlook it, and will likely do whatever I can to calm you down. However, blaming me for your mistake will not help your case, though I'll still be willing to do what I can to help you. Accusing me of lying to you will push me right over the edge. In fact, it is at this point that I will go back through my emails over the last several months and will prove you wrong. HR actually stands for Humongous Records. If it happened (and we were involved), we have a record. Also, it is at this point that I stop thinking clearly and put my head down on my desk and make some sort of sound that is a cross between laughing and crying and talk very quickly to myself (it's not pretty, but it's how I get through).

So, you want to fight? Please, come and make my day. Just know that I am going to fight back, but will do so professionally. Because you refuse to call me and seem to think you need to have our conversation in writing, you have given me time to gather my records (and my thoughts) and I am ready to win. Tomorrow, it's on...and I will win (and you will thank me for my help - just prepare for it).

The moral of the story...be nice to your HR people. They will always help you, but will be much more willing to do so if you're kind to them. Also, bring chocolate...bad day or not. HR people need chocolate just to make it through. Trust me, it's cheaper than therapy.

I now return you to your life.

Thank you and good night!

Picture Randomness

So, it's been an extremely wonderful and busy two week since I moved to Georgia, and I'm loving every minute of it. One day I'll actually take some time to write, but today I just have a couple of pictures. Mostly, I just wanted you to know I'm still alive. Just busy living life instead of writing about it. :)

Before I left Utah, we went to this great little Boston-style pizza place called Nicolitalia. This is the sign posted on the drink machine. This falls under the heading of "only in Utah".

My company is wonderful and they let me take my job with me when I moved to Georgia. This is the view from my new office, and that would be the neighbor's house. So gorgeous and sunny here!

My Paco - so doggone tired! He was so tired he couldn't even roll all the way to his side.

My parents cat had kittens just a couple of days before I got home which makes them just barely two weeks  old! This is Shelly - she happens to be the cutest one and my favorite. Cute little angels - there are four of them. Also, if you want a cat, call us!! They're all going to need a home in a few weeks.

April 23

When I moved to Utah two years ago, I gave myself an out and said I would move in two years if I wasn't loving it, or if I was just looking for a change. I really didn't have any intention of sticking to that, but needed the option at the time. That was April 22, 2010. April 23, 2012, I arrived in Georgia. My advice, be careful what you say!

I honestly couldn't be happier. Saying goodbye and leaving Lori was the hardest thing I have EVER done. Forget surgery, forget firing people, forget it all...I left a piece of my heart with her, but I'm so happy and at peace here. I was talking with my mom last night as we made dinner (because that's what we do now) and I told her just how happy I was. There was a right decision, a big decision...I made it, I followed through, and here I am. There is so much to be thankful for...I am seriously so blessed and just can't get over it. Stay tuned for pics and stories from the road trip, the arrival, and more! (Not to give anything away, there are also going to be some REALLY cute pics of our 4 day old kittens...just saying).

April 11

It is here again, April 11th, my own personal holiday. In case you haven't heard, April 11 is my day. About 7 years ago I just decided I wanted to celebrate a holiday, just because. For whatever reason, April 11 is the day I chose. Every year, I do something fun. Some timesI take myself to dinner, or I go see a movie, or I take the day off work. Today, I was busy - I am currently sitting quietly in my apartment after having spent a couple of hours packing and working out. And, while it may not be what I would typically imagine for my own celebration, it has been perfect!
Happy April 11 - see you again next year!

It's Just a Dream

I had a dream a few nights ago…actually, it was just as I was waking up. To start, I have to explain my extreme fear of heights/falling. I’m okay going up things, but I don’t really like looking down for fear of falling.

With that in mind, in my dream I am with just about all of my family and friends. Seriously, I think everyone was there. We are at the top of the incredible tall mountain/cliff thing – it is a LOOOONG way down. The area that we’re all on is safe and has a rusty chain link fence on the edge keeping us “safe”. I was holding on to it because I was scared, but it shook every time I breathed. I got to the open part of the ledge and to keep going on the path to the next rocky cliff/mountain thing, you actually had to jump from one side to the other – nothing underneath you. Just typing it is making my hands sweat and making me nauseous. I kept standing there and kept telling everyone that I just couldn’t do it. Everyone is behind me, encouraging me, telling me I can take this jump.

Then, I woke up. I don’t know if I jumped, but the first thought I had was that I probably would have jumped if there were people on the other side to catch me. Instantly, I realized that I was probably nervous about “taking the jump” and moving to Georgia. I have so many people behind me telling me that I can do this, and I know they’re right…I have no doubts about that. But, unlike my dream, there are also people on the other side of this jump encouraging me. Pretty much, I have so many wonderful people in my life who believe in me that I’m pretty sure I could take any jump, I could do anything. It is so empowering.

Thank you to all of my wonderful friends and family. It is because of you that I am able to take major steps in my life. I’ll never be able to repay you for the wonderful support you have provided. 

And as for my dreams…I’ll keep dreaming them, and I’ll keep living them. Dream Big!

On the Radio

I went through this very strange phase about a year ago. It started one night and I was driving home from the temple with a few friends. We were approaching an intersection and a car coming the opposite direction turned right in front of the car in the lane next to us and BAM...accident! I pulled over, along with another vehicle. The guy in the other car checked the people in the accident while I called 911. Within a few moments, the police were on the scene (thankfully no one was injured) and we were on our way.
The next day, I was driving to work and I saw two more accidents. Over the next 6 days I would see 7 car accidents, though only a witness to one.
Just after this week of horror (seriously, it makes you question your judgement to leave your house with this kind of record) we were driving home from something else and our friend, Shelly, introduced us to "the radio game". You ask a question and then randomly select a radio station. You must find a song, but you listen to the lyrics and derive an answer. In this particular instance, it was my turn to come up with a question. With the events of that previous week in mind, I asked "Will we make it home alive?" Lori pushed the radio button and the song that came on, and the lyrics we heard first were "Take my breath away". It was at that moment I started paying a LOT more attention to the road because all signs indicated that we wouldn't make it.
Try the game sometime. Some favorite questions as of late have been:
Q: "Will Cristy really move?"
A: "I'm already there" (AKA - yes)
Q: "Where will Lori serve a mission?"
A: "(Spanish music station)" (Somewhere Spanish speaking)

Catch the Bug

The indexing bug, that is. If you aren't familiar with indexing, you are seriously missing out! By using the Family Search program, you can index original data records by typing the information into the on screen form.
Our ward recently started a guys versus girls challenge...surprisingly the guys are winning (but not for long). Additionally, our stake instituted a challenge among all 10 wards. We have all gone indexing crazy!! Last week alone our ward indexed over 1700 names, and this is just the start. We also received an awesome note from a member of the stake - I've included the coolest part below:

I received a call from the Family History Department this week. The Department sends their congratulations to our Stake. The person said we are one of the top Indexing Stakes in the Church and wanted to know how we are doing it. The stats for new sign ups as well as the significant number of members signed up is impressive. 

If you want to learn more about indexing, ask me, or for a more complete explanation, as well as instructions on how to get started, click here. Be warned...once you start, it's really hard to start. I sat down to do one batch tonight, and ended up doing 4. Totally addictive, but so rewarding. Try it...I know you'll love it!

A New Beginning

Every Wednesday I have a one on one meeting with my boss. We catch up on things that are going on and I tell her about any issues or concerns that I've been handling, mostly in an effort to keep everyone on the same page. Today, I went into her office and the conversation went slightly differently than anticipated. Instead of walking in and saying we have this issue, and this thing is happening, and you should know about this, she asked if anything new and exciting was going on. I made a fast decision and decided to tell her what was going on...it sounded something like:

"I've decided to move to Georgia. My last day will be April 18th."
And then I heard the Hallelujah chorus. And then we lost power, probably because I was so excited I zapped the electricity...or it was an omen - I choose option 1.

So, even though I won't actually move for just over a month, today, March 14 @ 10:00 was the first day of my new life. No secrets from the boss or co-workers (that's been the worst to keep), no worrying about people in my personal life somehow finding people in my professional life and spilling the beans too early (paranoid much?). I can go ahead and plan everything...and then when my plans don't go according to plan, I'll make new plans. Either way, tomorrow is a new day - one day less left in Utah; one day closer to actually settling into my new life in Georgia (by the way...this would be the anonymous "decision" referenced in many recent posts, just in case you hadn't caught that). I'm not entirely sure what my new life is going to look like, but I am thrilled at the chance I have to do this now. This has been in the works for months and it's great to see things falling into place. 

And, just for fun...when I moved here I jokingly said I would stay here for two years. I arrived on April 22, 2010 and will leave on April 21, 2012. Two years to the day (if you don't count leap day...which I don't because it makes it that much cooler!).

Sunday Drive

Sunday afternoon in Provo was BEAUTIFUL!! Sunny and warm (50's is warm here) and no snow on the ground. It was son nice that Lori, Shelly, and I decided to go for a drive up Provo Canyon to Vivian Park. We actually drove all the way to the end of Vivian Park. On the way we saw turkeys (most of them were in the road and we had to wait for them to move. By the time I remembered I brought my camera, most had hidden in the bushes on the other side of the road. But, you can see a few of them.

 (Why did the turkey cross the road??)

There is still quite a bit of snow in some areas up the canyon. On the drive up, I was telling Shelly of our family's tradition to run barefoot in the snow on New Year's Eve. I joking suggested that we should do it this day, having NO intention of actually doing it. While I was out taking pictures of the turkeys, Lori and Shelly got out of the car behind me and I hear Shelly and Lori say "well, here's a good a place as any". I turn around and they are standing next to a snow bank. I tried to back out, I used the excuse that I needed to be the photographer, anything that would keep my toes nice and dry (I can't say warm because we thought since it was so nice in the valley that we would be fine wearing flip flops). They weren't having any of it and the next thing I hear is "one, two, three...jump!" 

Since they made me jump in, I made them stand still for a photo.

 The evidence of our temporary insanity.

We had to stop a few more times for some beautiful shots. I love being in these mountains, even in the winter.

And, one last picture. As we're driving back down the mountains, Shelly calls out from the back seat "DEER". How she even spotted it I'll never know. Keep in mind this was taken at full zoom.

Spark

This weekend Lori, Shelly, and I went to this great little restaurant called Spark. It's this great, little nonalcoholic bar and lounge. When you walk inside, you feel like you should be in some big city like New York or Boston, or at least Salt Lake, instead of actually in Provo. This is our second time here. The first was for a bachelorette party a few months ago. Saturday was just girls night out...and we had a Groupon. **Side note: have you heard of Groupon?? You select the city you are in (or closest to you...or one you wish you were in) and then everyday they send you really great deals. The one that took us to Spark was $10 for $20 worth of food. How can you turn that down? Obviously I couldn't! Check them out! Back to the post.** We like going for the drinks...I go specifically for their habanero lime lemonade - AMAZING! We also tried their herb fries and I did something that I NEVER thought I would do...I tried something containing blue cheese. I made it so long in my life and I ruined my streak, but I think I'm okay with it...it was the dipping sauce for the fries and it was divine (and warm, which I think had to have helped it significantly).
So, if you're ever in downtown Provo and looking for a great little place to go, check out Spark. I'd tell you to tell them I sent you, but they don't know me...yet. :)

Snow Time

Friday morning I got a phone call at 6:30 AM. It was Lori telling me that I should get up right away since it had snowed the night before and it was going to take some time to clean off my car. I looked out my window and saw about an inch of snow...not too shabby. Since it was only an inch, I decided that wearing snow boots would be quite overrated, so I settled on wearing one of my regular pair of flats. I got outside and cleaned my car off (good thing I took the extra time...an inch of fluffy snow that brushed right off followed by a layer of solid ice I had to scrape off) with no problem. 

Driving to work took much longer than expected. One of the lanes on I-15 hadn't been plowed (how do you plow the other three but not the last one??) and the other lanes, though mostly clear, were a little slick. We maxed our speed for the journey at 20 miles an hour...hello 35 minute commute. The closer I got to my office, the more snow I realized they had. I spent the drive talking to my dad and as I was walking in to the building, I realized I had a problem. Where Provo (only 10 miles away) had 1 inch of snow, American Fork had received 6 inches...and I didn't wear my snow boots. It was a very cold, snowy and wet walk into the building, and dad had a good laugh at me. 

Here is a picture of our lovely Friday surprise. PS...it's March. Aren't we supposed to be done with this??

Wicked

I mentioned roller coasters in my last post and I HAD to include a video of one of my favorites. This is Wicked at Lagoon in Farmington, Utah. I would go to this theme park just to ride this ride. It is so thrilling...straight up, straight down, and lots of twists and turns. 

The Word Is...

Epiphany - a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something


I was talking on the phone with my dad the other day and I told him that I had had an epiphany. The conversation went something like this:
Me- "Dad, I had an epiphany"
Dad - "A what?"
Me - "Epiphany"
Dad - "A Tiffany??"
Me - "No - epiphany"
Dad - "Who's A Tiffany? Whose kid do you have?"
Me - "Not A Tiffany...epiphany - e.p.i.p.h.a.n.y"
Dad - "Oh...epiphany..."

We laughed and talked about my epiphany and the fact that I like to use "big" words in conversation. Then he said something like, "Don't use big words like that on your redneck father."

Which leads to the second word story. About three weeks ago I was talking with dad, again, and he was telling me a story about something that had happened. He was getting all worked up and was getting really animated during our conversation. At the end of the story, he said, "I can't believe he had the au...au...audacity to do that." The moment he finished this sentence there was an almost audible gasp as he told me he had used a "big" word (for clarification..."big words" aren't so much big as they are not used frequently).

I love you, Dad...thanks for the fun stories!

Popcorn

The other day I decided to treat myself to a bag of popcorn as an afternoon snack at work. I put my bag in the microwave and when I opened the door, this is what I found. 

Thankfully the popcorn that stayed in the bag tasted pretty good!

Road trip

I talk to my parents almost every single day. I talk to my dad on the way to work and I talk to my mom on the way home. It gives us a chance to fill each other in on the happenings of our lives and keeps us close, even though we are across the country. Randomly as we're talking I'll think of a memory and this is one that I had last week.
I was talking with my dad and I remembered the first time Lori was leaving for college. We were living in PA and had to make the hour long drive to the airport to drop her and mom off. On the way back home, dad and I were talking and he said that he wished we could go and see Uncle Tom in West Virginia. I said that it sounded like fun and didn't think much of it. That was the beginning. He was completely serious about his suggestion and so we called a friend to watch the dog for the weekend, we went home and packed on overnight bag, and we were on the road within the hour. We had such a fun trip. I think it was a 7 hour drive each way, but it was such a great trip. As an adult, I value that time I had with him and realize now what a treasured experience it really was.

Bucket List

For Relief Society we were to create Bucket Lists of things we want to do before I die. Some people came up with a hundred things they wanted to do. Me, well, I could only think of 20. Some may say I'm not that ambitious, but I'd like to think that I just haven't found all of the things I'd like to try. So, just in case you were wondering what I want to do before I die, here you go:

1. Learn to make French croissants
2. Ride in a hot air balloon
3. Visit NYC
4. Ride horseback on the beach
5. Visit Mackinac Island, MI
6. Read the standard works cover to cover
7. Visit Pike Place Market in Washington state
8. Learn to play the guitar
9. Graduate from college with a Bachelor's Degree
10. Go deep sea fishing
11. Walk 500 miles in one year
12. Participate in a humanitarian service project
13. See the Northern Lights
14. Adopt a child(ren)
15. Attend General Conference in person
16. Drive in all 50 states
17. Take a pottery class
18. Learn how to can/preserve food
19. Get something published
20. Learn to play chess

Fast moving...

Two weekends ago we were able to move into our new apartment. It is just the cutest place ever! It is pretty quiet, came with excellent furniture and is just us. Lori completed two wedding cakes this past weekend...she is amazing. We are starting a new blognjust for our cakes. Stay tuned for that information. Back to fast moving...thanks to wonderful friends and our excellent packing ability, we moved out and into our new apartment in less than 3 hours. I have determined that I am officially an adult now as I rented and DROVE a U-haul (may not have been the nicest thing I have ever driven, but definitely the biggest...and I like it!).
Our move in paperwork contained a list of all the wards and which apartments/buildings attended which wards. Unfortunately management had the wrong information...it took 3 tries to find our right ward. I walked in and met the bishopric, and met the RS president a few mintues later. Then the bishop came back and asked to talk to me. Oh, how naive I am. I thought it would be good news (well, it wasn't really bad news) and called me to be in the RS presidency. I kind of stood there dumbfounded. I had been there less than 10 minutes and already had a calling. This is a fast moving, get it done kind of ward and I am really excited to get here. Hopefully we keep loving it. Pictures of our new place, and info of the cake blog will be coming soon.

Also, today is Lori's birthday! We love you and are so excited you were born!

Let's Go Fly a Kite

Last spring I purchased a kite…I was so excited to fly it. I put it in my car just waiting for the perfect day to fly it. About 6 months later, we started hauling wedding cakes and so I cleaned out my trunk, thus moving the kite to our living room. It spent the next several months on the floor, just waiting to be used. Yesterday, the master of most good ideas, Lori, suggested we take it to the park. I immediately set to work assembling our friendly flier. We got to the park only to realize there wasn’t much wind. After making due for just a few minutes, we headed back to the car. As we were getting in, we got the brilliant idea of flying the kite out of the sunroof. We drove around for over half an hour enjoying the freedom of flight. We made a lot of people smile which I think really may have been the best part.


The only bad news is that I was talking to a friend about our little adventure and she informed me that this wonderful new past time of ours is illegal. Go figure!! Needless to say, we won’t be flying the kite from the car, however, I don’t think there is a rule about bikes…

Can you believe it??

Sam, Cherie, Lori, and I took a trip to an undisclosed location (yes, the same undisclosed location in which we released some fish) and you'll never guess what we saw!

Did you guess?

We saw one of their fish!! It's been about 3 weeks and at least one of them is happily adjusting to life in a new environment. We can't speak for the others because, well, we didn't see them, but this is great news!!

What did I learn from this little trip?? If  a poor little goldfish can adjust to big changes, I guess I can too!