We are HERE!!

Wow. Why has it been so long since I have posted? Probably because I can’t do it from work anymore ;o) Anyways… I guess I should take a minute and get everyone up to date. One disclaimer that I would like to make is that Marshall and I just got a new computer and I have been using a PC my entire life and Marshall talked me into an iMac so to avoid me throwing it out the window it may be a while until I post again because it is going to take a while for me to get the hang of things.

Marshall’s summer project.

While I was studying, Marshall found a project to keep him busy. This is the left side of our house BEFORE:

AFTER:

We moved the fence up about 30 feet to add more room to our backyard, built a retaining wall flush with our neighbors yard, added rocks and a few plants out front and bod a bing bod a boom!

Addition to the family #1.
Long story short. While in college, Marshall’s roommates got a dog. Marshall’s roommates moved out and left the dog. Chris adopted and cared for the dog with Marshall’s help. Chris moved to NY. Chris’ parents adopted and cared for the dog with Marshall’s help. Chris’ parents adopted a new dog. Chris’ and Marshall’s love child dog came to live with us.Why hasn’t this happened before? Well, you see, I am NOT a dog person. Especially not a dog that lives in the house. Ever since we have been married Marshall has wanted his college dog (Archimedes) to come live with us. When we were in the apartment it was not a problem because they didn’t allow dogs and Marshall knew it was not smart to keep him cooped up all day and in an itty bitty apartment. Well, since the day we started looking into buying a house the topic of Archimedes coming to live with us has come up once or twice (a week). I have been trying to get myself prepared and let the dog join our family and stop acting the part of the wicked witch of the west and to be honest I was not ready when he finally came but I will be the first one to admit that I was WRONG about dogs living in the house. It has been a total joy with him! He is amazingly well behaved, I feel safer when I am alone and it has made some amazing changes in Marshall. The only thing that bothers me is the shedding but since Marshall knows this was a huge sacrifice for me he is totally on top of the hair business. He vacuums at least twice a week, the dog is not allowed upstairs or on the couch, and he dusts the furniture items that may collect the hair. It has made things a lot easier for me to say the least.

And there is more...

Addition to the family #2.

Well, things with Archimedes had been going so well (1 week in) and I thought… well, the poor little guy is left home alone all day and having a dog inside has been nothing like I thought it would be, why not get him a little friend? So I started looking… I have always loved Yorkies but never though I would get one because they have to be house dogs and I never thought I would have dogs in my house. Since that was no longer an issue… we got this little delight!Brynlee Kay

The minute we saw Bryn we both knew she was coming home with us. We did however resist the temptation and go home and really put some thought into it but you can all see the outcome.
It has been so much fun! She is super smart and catches onto things pretty quick, especially for being only 13 weeks old. We got her when she was 6 weeks and she would fit in one hand, and she loved sleeping there ;o) she has more than doubled in size and also in personality. She has been a TON of work but Marshall and I came together and have been getting through it with minimal stress. Even though sometimes she drives me a little nutty I do not regret bringing her into our family for one second. We absolutely LOVE our new life.

Unfortunately, Archimedes, wanted NOTHING to do with Brynlee. He growled at the very sight of her. A side we had never seen of him before and we were quite worried. But a revelation happened a few weeks ago…Brynlee was getting a drink, when Archimedes came over she moved, let him drink, then she finished her drink when he was done. And since that moment they have been getting along MUCH better. And now, almost 2 months later, they are the BEST of friends...

Yeah, so big changes. We went from being a little family of 2 to a family of 4 in 2 weeks! Good times. And I could not help posting this picture...

Halloween.
Simply put. This lasted for the length of the picture.

One last disclaimer... I know small dogs have a stereo type attached to them and pictures of her in a sweater don't help that but she has hair, not fur so she gets really cold and if it is super cold outside she won't go out to go to the bathroom but the sweaters take care of that problem so don't judge the sweaters man, you would wear one too if you had to go outside to go potty!

Repelling

While Chris and Ashley were in town we decided it would be a good and much needed break for me to get out and do something that would take my mind off of studying. And what better way than to repell down a waterfall.Looking downGetting instructions from Chris. As you can see, I am listening very attentivly. Marshall starting us offHere I go...You can hardly see me but I am there at the top

Unfortunatly I don't have any pictures of Chris & Ashley but they rocked out too. It was so much fun and after the first time going down and getting the initial scare out of ya you just want to do it over and over. It was a great release.

Reply Letter

Dear Jennifer,

We are concerned about you. Where have you been for the past 7 weeks. We haven't heard from you or seen you and we are genually worried.

Sincerely,
Your concerned friends and family


Dearest concerned friends & family,

I deeply appologize for the dissappearing act. I am in fact alive and have not run into any sort of trouble over the past 7 weeks. This is what I have been doing...

STUDYING! For the new job I had to get my Series 7 & Series 63 licenses so they were kind enough to provide the above material in exchange for my LIFE.

I lost 8lbs over the past 2 weeks (test time) due to the fact that I couldn't sleep and night nor did I have ANY kind of appetite because I was so sick to my stomach all the time because if I didn't get these licenses I would no longer be employeed...no pressure, and Iwent through 2 ENTIRE notebooks full of paper.

But ALAS, I took my last test this morning and now I am back and ready to resume life. If I can remember how.

Sincerely,

Your haggard, tired, exhaused friend & family member Jennifer

Updates, getting robbed, Corporate America, our new hobby & a little trip

So, it has been a while and boy has a lot happened. I am going to do five posts in one so here it goes.

First of all - Updates...

We have been doing a ton to our house lately but these are a few of the things I have pictures of so I will post more later.

One of the biggest things that I wanted to do was replace the carpet. I saw this special on 20/20 once and ever since carpet really weirds me out, especially living on carpet that was somebody elses. You see a stain and have no idea what it is, how it happened or where else more are that may be hidden. EWE. Even before we moved in I told Marshall I wanted new carpet even though the old carpet really was not it that bad of shape.

BEFORE:I don't know who's bright idea it was to have like a cream carpet but I found it to be pretty stupid. Especially since this is the highest traffic area of the house because the garage door is to the right of those 4 stairs. So we did away with it and while we were at it, we added some tile in front of the back doors because it doesn't make much sense to have carpet their either.
AFTER:
We also added a super thick cosheny pad to our family room so it is way cozy. We LOVE it! For the stairs we got the short carpet because the shag just wears so quickly on stairs and looks terrible.

Next, we added a tile a back splash. That came out quite nicely I might add.
BEFORE:AFTER:
SECOND POST - Getting Robbed:

Yes, I got robbed. Our garage door was left open for all of 45 minutes on day and some little punk decided to help themselves to all of the electronics in my car. 2 iPods, our GPS and my folder. The kicker is that I have been working on compiling a list of all of our accounts for Marshall in case something happens to me, well, yeah, it was in that folder. It had all of our accounts and the log in and password for each.

As soon as I realized my folder was missing I got online and on the phone changing our passwords as fast as I could but I was not fast enough. As I was changing things I got an email that said my transaction was completed from PayPal. As if my all my stuff wasn't enough they tried to transfer money from my paypal to theirs. Luckily I got onto PayPal as soon as I received the email and canceled the transaction. Then the next day I got an email from our bank saying that our password was locked for too many incorrect attempts.

What a nightmare! We took fliers to our neighbors warning them that there was a thief among us but we don't anticipate anything will happen and we will most likely never find out who it was or get out stuff back. LAME!

THIRD POST - Corporate America:

I am super excited because I finally made the next step in my life and got a job in my career field. As overwhelming as it has been studying for the Series 7 exam I am really looking forward to being part of Corporate America and beginning the next phase of life. I have every intention of climbing this ladder and achieving great success in the financial world. I actually got offered the job at the end of February but my old employer and I worked out a deal for me to stay through tax season because it is their busiest time of year and when I told them I was leaving I think a few of them wanted to cry. I left on great terms and they made it really hard for me because they were a great company to work for the past 5 and a half years. But since I waited so long to switch jobs it didn't really hit me until the last day, it was way weird, sad, happy and seriously weird...

Anywho... So I have been waiting 2 months to get started at my new job and this past Monday that first day came. It feels so right. It is pretty serious stuff so I am in training for 5 weeks then I move onto training for another 5 weeks for a doosey of test that I have to take at the end of August. I have started studying and it is a TON of material. Good thing this is not my first rodeo.

FORTH POST - Our new hobby

Marsh and I love to do things together but it is sometimes hard because he thinks I am an Olympian and can do things on his level. Well, he is wrong. But we finally found something that we can do together and that we both enjoy and if I am a little slower than him it doesn't really matter.

We picked me up a new full suspension Mountain Bike and wasted no time putting it to use. We headed out to Antelope Island a few weeks ago for a little adventure. I though we would be taking a nice ride around the island but instead we took a hell of a ride UP the island. All in all we had a good time and I didn't puke like I though I was going to the entire time so that is good. I cannot wait for it to stop raining so we can go all over and play with my new toy!
And last but not least - A little trip

Well, somehow, I have no clue how, but it just so happened that I had a week off between my old job and starting my new job... weird how that happened since I am the one that picked both of the dates... Anyways, we all know that I am not good at sitting around and I figured what better time to go on a little adventure, especially since I don't know when the next one will be.

So, the minute my friend Gabby heard I had a week off she had the same thought I did and she has been begging me to go on a trip for the past 5 years but I just never had the time and well, now, I had the time. So we decided to go on a cruise to the Bahamas. We visited 2 of the islands, Nassau and Freeport and it was friggin' amazing! Especially since when I left Utah it was snowing, ha ha ha.

Atlantis in Nassau
The flamingos just hang out at this little park/zoo thing and although I was a little apprehensive because they are a pretty big bird and I though they might flock at me and peck me to death, I went against my greater judgment and jumped in with them for a little picture.
The government building of the Bahamas
Our ship

We took a jeep tour of the island of Freeport and it was beautiful. We stopped at a little cove and saw dolphins jumping in the ocean. It was breathtaking.

Some little shops in Freeport
One of the coolest parts about the Bahamas is that any beach you go to, the minute you step on the sand a guy comes up to you and tells you he is your "beach assistant" anything you need he is at your beckon call, I don't see one down side to that.

Just because I don't post doesn't mean I haven't been as busy as ever with things to post about. I will try and keep up a little better in the future ;o)

Marshall must be feeling blue...

He must be feeling BLUE POWERADE!!! This guy goes nUtS when it is on sale.
The last time it went on sale last year we bought 5 cases and stacked them on our deck. When we moved we had to move 2 of the cases... not cool. This year we got over 100 BLUE Powerades. Only blue.

Did I grow up under a RoCk???

Back in December when our bestest buddy Chuck-diggs was in town he decided to make us a tasty snack one night. I was hesitant to try it because the only other time I had seen someone eat one was my old roommate and quite honestly it did not look very appetizing. But good ol' Chuckie talked me into it and I tried my first Artichoke.I really really liked it and we ended up making another one right after we devoured the first one. Now, I have not made a habit of eating them simply because the trick that makes them so delicious is dipping them in melted butter and I am just not into eating a lot of butter let alone drenching something in it.

Well, the other day Marshall and I were watching The Amazing Race and they were in China and they were talking about how that is were we get most of our mango's. It was then that I realized that I have never had a mango. Weird. So when we were at the grocery store the other day I decided to pick one up and give it a go and I LoVeD it!! In fact, I bought 3 more the next time I was at the grocery store. I have been enjoying them the past few nights and as I indulge I wonder, why did it take me 26 years to discover this wonderful fruit?One thing that my deter me from continually getting them is how hard they are to cut. That core is a bugger man!

Funny now, not so funny then

Last night when I was washing my face I realized that I was out of one of the products I use. I remember that I had bought an off brand of it once because I read that if you wipe it on your arm pits it will make you sweat less... WRONG, the same magazine told me that if you soak washcloths in tea and keep them under your arm pits for 20 minutes a day for 7 days it will help with sweating... WRONG and my roommate probably thought I was a total wack job for walking around with hot rags full of tea under my armpits. Maybe I should not get my health advice from Cosmo anymore. Anyways... so as I was using said product I remembered this fun little adventure...

When we were preparing for our trip last summer I went to bed bath and beyond and bought a bunch of travel items, i.e. lotion, Q-tips, funny story about Q-tips, Marshall always tells me that if he could go back and invent on thing it would be the Q-tip, such a great invention he says, easy, practical and used by everyone and probably the most simple invention worth billions. ha ha. Now, back to the story, anyways I also bought some face wipes. I have a brand of face wipe that I prefer but it is way pricey and I quit buying them but since then I have only bought one other brand and it made me break out so I shipped those babies off to the ol garbago cano. Well, I was hesitant to buy more because of my last experience but I could just not spend the money on the MAC ones so what they hay, I bought some at BB&B. So, we take our trip and the first hotel we stay at has this face soap that is awesome so I started collecting them and using them throughout the trip. It just so happens that I run out the first day of our cruise, no big deal, I have the face wipes I bought at the ol' bed bath and beyond. So, I use one the first night, everything seems okay. The next day I was out in the sun all day and got a little burnt so when I used it the second night I though nothing of it because nothing happened the first day, right? WRONG! When we were out and about the third day Marshall was sitting across from me at a table and he said, "Jenn, there is something seriously wrong with your forehead!" I looked in the mirror and it appeared to be badly sunburned and almost blistering, it was nasty to say the least but what could I do, I was in a foreign country and I had aloe on the boat so that would fix it by morning, the foreigners would just have to deal with it. So I used another face wipe that night, smothered my forehead in aloe and went to bed! The next morning I woke up and there was clearly something wrong, this was NOT a sunburn. So I headed out to find the doctors station on the ship. I am sure like 3 people have any idea that there is a doctors station on a cruise ship, let alone where it is and I guess I am just one of those lucky 3. I had to see the flipping doctor and he told me I was having an allergic reaction to something and he asked me if I had done anything out of the ordinary in the past few days...thinking...thinking...thinking... THE BLASTED FACE WIPES!!! So he gave me some benadryl which was outrageously priced but what was I supposed to do, I was on a boat in the middle of the ocean, they could charge a hundred bucks if they wanted too and i would still have no choice, dang CROOKS!

Anyways, the next day it was significantly better, luckily. So alas, I probably paid for the next renovation of the ship with the amount of money I spent on those pink little miracle workers. Good thing I was not allergic to benadryl like my mom... that woulda been bad... really really bad!!