Working at Home . . . Sort of

After having such a rough go in 2007, Todd and I decided that I had earned the right to eliminate some of the extra stresses in my life. Since I'm married to such a great guy (who supports me in all that I do!), starting on January 7, I am officially cutting back my work schedule. Hooray! After talking with my boss, I realized I was going to be needed in the office more than I'd originally thought (I'd wanted to work from home 4 days a week). However, she thought there would be no problem cutting my hours to 30 instead of 40. So my new schedule, you ask? I will be working Mon, Tue and Thu for 8 hours in the office. I will work at home on Wednesdays for 6 hours, and the best part—I have Fridays off! I wanted a little better set up at home so that things felt more official and so I wouldn't have to sit on the couch in the family room or at the bar in the kitchen while working. So, with that said, we've set up a really nice "office" in the corner of our living room. We purchased a desperately needed computer, got a desk that I could spread my work on, and a nice big book case so I'd have somewhere to put everything.

I also want to say that I am so fortunate to have a really great boss who not only cares about me, but also cares about what I want. I hope that with my new schedule I'll be able to take better care of myself physically as well as emotionally, and that by doing so, I can have a life that seems, at least a little bit more, stress free.


Here's my new office! I love it!

Happy 5th Engage-iversary!

Five years ago today, Todd proposed to me in a secret spot at Temple Square. We didn't have our usual Sunday dinner plans today, so we decided to go to Temple Square and see the lights and visit our "spot" to sort of celebrate. We bundled up so we wouldn't freeze, and Todd made his delicious hot chocolate and poured it into a thermos for us to enjoy once we came back to the car. We had a lot of fun walking around and trying to take cool pictures of all the lights. I thought I remembered there being a lot more lights when I was younger, but wasn't sure. Is it because I'm all "grown up" now and things don't seem as big? Let me know if any of you agree! Either way, everything looked pretty all lit up and the company was definitely good. I love Todd very much and am so happy to be married to him! I'm also lucky to say that he's made me smile (or at least tried!) every day of the last five years too, and I'm always so happy to see him and just be with him.

It's finally done!

Hooray! We are officially finished with our bathroom remodel! Well, except for a few spots of touch up paint, but besides that, we are DONE! I finally felt like we could take some pictures so you all get an idea of what the bathroom looks like, but honestly, I think you have to come see it in person because the pictures don't really do it justice. Todd did a really great job, especially considering he had to try and figure out a lot of stuff on his own that he had never done before. It wasn't 3-day Kitchen & Bath, but now that it's all over, it was definitely worth the wait! I especially love my tall cabinet in the corner. It's 2-feet deep and has two roll-out shelves on the bottom half and three shelves on the top. Look how pretty!

O Christmas Tree

Last year we were not the brightest and did some damage to our Christmas tree as we put it away. Some how (I'm too embarassed to say what happened exactly), we bent some of the branches on the bottom half of the tree. I was worried we'd possibly done something to the lights as well, mainly because that part of the tree always has issues with the lights when we put it up, even though it's only 4 years old. Anyway, it's our tradition to put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving, but I couldn't remember how much damage we had actually done last year. We woke up pretty late on Black Friday, about 10:00 a.m., which we haven't done for a very long time (I have to say that I had previously been sick and was still recovering, so I was pretty tired. I have no idea how Todd slept that late!). I was sad because we had decided not to wake up at 5:00 a.m. to go stand out in the cold and go shopping, and I wanted to go! I suddenly remembered that we might need a new Christmas tree and jumped out of bed and made Todd go grab our tree so I could test the lights. I found the plug and plugged it into the wall and NOTHING HAPPENED! I panicked! How could all the lights not work? Then I remembered that Sears (which opened at 4 a.m.) had a really nice looking tree for $99 and so we jetted off to see if we could still get one. Of course, on Black Friday at 11:30 a.m., most of the doorbuster items are long gone and the lady at Sear's just laughed at us when we asked if they had any trees left. So we went home to see if we could salvage our poor tree. We set up the bottom half, and amazingly, the branches we thought we had broken, seemed fine. They just needed a little help being propped up with some strategically placed paper. Now the next test was the lights. Todd found the plug and pulled on it just enough for us to discover that when I had plugged it in earlier that morning, it had been attached to absolutely nothing else. Sooooo, we plugged in all the little extensions and, TA-DUM! Our tree worked! It was a Christmas MIRACLE! We (and when I say we, I really mean I) decorated the tree and the house and all was well. We are so excited for Christmas!

Apple Pie and Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving at my parent's house. With a few cousins missing, it was smaller than it has been in years past, but it was still fun. Since my grandma was in charge of bringing pumpkin pies, we were told to bring any pie but pumpkin. We decided on apple. We'd never made an apple pie, so Todd did a bunch of research on how to make the perfect crust and how to get the filling just right. (He's so funny about things like this!) So, on Thanksgiving morning, we worked together to make our very first double crust pie. It actually turned out really well and not only tasted yummy, but was pretty too. Todd did a great job with all of his reasearch, and we now have a favorite pie recipe that we can proudly say we created together! I was also in charge of making my family's traditional Thanksgiving dish, Indian Pudding. I know this is very un-p.c., but that's what we've always called it. It's a yummy corn casserole that really only me, my mom and aunt like. Everyone else always goes for the "regular" corn and would probably never miss Indian Pudding. I'd be totally sad if it was forgotten because, for me, it's a tradition--and I will always make sure it's on the table for Thanksgiving. Finally, I want everyone to know how thankful I am for Todd. I am blessed to have a husband that is so loving and giving, and also willing to put up with me and all the silly things I do. Every day is a good one when he is by my side. We've been through a lot together and I just can't imagine my life without him. I love you Todd!

I've Been Tagged!

My cute sister-in-law Amanda "tagged" me, so here goes . . .

Rules: Write 7 facts about yourself...silly, serious, random - you decide. List who tagged you and then who you will tag at the bottom. Leave a comment on their blogs and let them know you tagged them.

1. OK, so I know this is totally weird, but I love EASY CHEESE! I could squirt that yummy preserved, high-sodium processed cheese straight from the can into my mouth. Don't worry though, I refrain and just eat it on Reduced-Fat Wheat Thins instead. That way it's not so bad right?

2. For some odd reason, SPIDERS are strangely attracted to me. Most of you know of my many spider "attacks," and these spiders appear in the strangest places. Spiders hide in my bathroom towel, in pants at Costco, in our exercise room, and they drop from the ceiling in my office at work.

3. Basically, everything STRESSES me out. I can't even give you examples or you'll all think I'm absolutely crazy.

4. I love, love, love the original STAR WARS films! I know most people don't realize I'm a sci-fi/fantasy geek, but I totally am when it comes to movies. Please don't judge me!

5. One of my favorite things in the world is to have my back TICKLED or my hair played with. It is so soothing and just feels really good!

6. My secret guilty pleasure is watching THE BACHELOR on channel 4 Monday nights. I know it's not the most wholesome of shows, but I just love watching all these silly girls scramble and act so ridiculous just to get the guy! It really is way funny.

7. I get totally ANNOYED when people walk around with their iPods in their ears all the time. I think it's extremely rude that their music is more important than all of the people around them. I think people should be courteous and look at each other and say hi or smile!

I tag Randee, Jenni and Robin!

An Explosion in the Bathroom!

Well, I know the title of this post sounds like this could be a very gruesome little story, and honestly, it kind of is! But this is a story that cannot go untold. Many of you know that Todd and I have been remodeling our main bathroom located on the second level of our house. It's been a long road, and we're almost done! In fact, in a matter of a few days, we will have a fully working bathroom that will just need some little bits and pieces of finish work done. Obviously with a bathroom remodel there is a bit of a "mess" that accompanies the process. So after tiling and painting and sawing there is usually a need to dispose of the mess, right? Most of the junk is usually swept up and dumped into the garbage can, but unfortunately, a lot of it seems to find its way into the bathtub and down the drain. We both recently noticed that our shower has not been draining like it should and you end up standing in several inches of water by the time you finish. Fortunately, Todd remembered that we could empty the "trap" and that would most likely help with the problem we were having. So last night, we went into our bathroom in the basement, which is located under the bathroom we have been remodeling. We'd cut a hole in the ceiling of that bathroom so we could install the bathtub upstairs, and luckily the trap was right there and all we needed to do was unscrew it and hold a bucket underneath it at the same time to catch any "gunk" that might fall out. Todd climbed up on a step-stool to unscrew and I was standing on the toilet with bucket in positiion. Todd began to unscrew, one turn, two turns, three turns and then the EXPLOSION happened. After the third turn of the trap, masses of black watery gunk poured out completely covering the two of us, the walls, the toilet, the towels, the shower curtain, the rugs, and obviously the floor and anything else that happened to be in that bathroom. We both stood there, somewhat shocked and covered in gunk. What just happened? No way did that just happen! Needless to say the explosion was a complete disaster, but we couldn't help but laugh at the same time. Of course this just happened! Why wouldn't it? No other part of the bathroom remodel has been easy, so why would this be? We were both dripping and couldn't risk tracking the gunk through the rest of the house, so we had to strip down and carefully carry our rugs, towels, clothes, shoes and my favorite slippers into the utility room and start washing everything. Then on to the walls and floor and shower and toilet—I scrubbed until everything was again clean. During the whole process I thought I'd recoginized the smell of hair-dye in the watery black gunk and was worried everything would be stained. Luckily it wasn't and our clothes and rugs and everything came clean. The only thing that I couldn't restore was our floorboards, which are now a nice grayish color. I guess we'll be adding "paint downstair's bathroom floorboards" to our ever-expanding list of things to do!

P.S. The shower now drains!

Go Broncos!

I'm sure all of you know how much Todd loves football. He's been wanting to go to his first NFL game for a long time, and he was finally able to go this last weekend. Todd, Adam and Nate (who happens to be the most faithful Bronco's fan ever) made the drive to Denver last Saturday and spent the weekend there prepping for the huge Monday night game they'd all been waiting months to attend. They all had a great time and did some hiking, had some good food and, of course, got to see the Broncos take on the Packers in a game that went into overtime. All in all it was a successful trip, luckily only two speeding tickets were received (one on the way there and one on the way back), and the boys made it home safe and sound and probably smiling the whole way. I hear they are already planning to go to a game next year, but that the girls will be invited to tag along. They missed us and thought the next trip would be even better if the wives were there too. Hooray!