General Conference Weekend

I always love General Conference weekend and this one was new and different. We were still able to watch it on tv at my parents, but there was no option to actually go to the Conference Center, fight traffic in and out of SLC, and wait for the cold weather to start. Basically the last time I was in SC for General Conference I was in high school and I had to go to the church. (I take that back, in the past 11 years I was here for 1 of the 22 conferences!) Anyway, it was really good and I stayed awake through all of the sessions. Sometimes it is difficult for me to stay awake, but I was really listening hard and trying to absorb every word. Zack knew everytime that Pres. Monson went to the podium, and he loved saying "Amen" after every prayer and talk! Blythe joined us at my parents house for most of the weekend, but evidently my parents are sick of us b/c they went to Myrtle Beach. In fact I know they are tired of us, and they are wearing on me too. When you are an adult and have your own family it is so hard not to have your own place. We are in negotiations on a house at the moment, so hopefully soon we'll have a house.
For now we are preparing for our trip to FL for the Freeman family cruise (minus Michael, Cheryl, Ashleigh, and Justin :( it won't be the same w/o y'all!) and after that our Disney World trip. (My parents should be happy-we'll be gone for 12 days!) Yes, you can all say it b/c I'll say it too: Zack is so spoiled b/c he's going to Disney World and he's already been to Disney Land this year. Actually, Matt and I will be celebrating 5 years of marriage (yeah-it's really been that long!) right after the cruise so we decided to treat ourselves. It's our gift to each other (Zack is free into the park until Feb)! Back to the "scariest" place on earth! Zack is really excited to go to see the "Pirates" again and go to Disney "Land" to see Lightning McQueen. I just hope that they have something there with the movie "Cars" or else it might not be pretty! Definitely more to come...

Not much going on...not really...

Just a few little updates...we went to Shealy's BBQ for Labor Day with my parents, my Grandma LaVon, and Blythe. Matt ate so much I don't know how he walked out of there! It always has such good food: bbq, hash and rice, ribs, fried chicken, country veggies, etc...mouth watering...mmmmmm!
We're still looking for a house, but now we are also considering the idea of building...lots to think about.
We are so happy that football season is back! Matt was able to go to the first game with Shane. It was his first USC game and he loved it. I can't wait for the rest of games. We were a little sad b/c we don't have the college game day package this year, but living here we have pretty much all of the games we wanted anyway!
I finally had a girls night out for the first time in years last Friday night with my hoochies Ginger and Ashley. We saw Mamma Mia and I thought it was pretty good. I had seen the musical in Las Vegas a few years ago, so I was familiar with it. I wanted to stand and dance and sing at the end, but the girls have gotten more mellow with age...I think I'm going to have to make them a little crazy again now that I'm back!

The Hoochies!



Happy to see each other!
We were able to meet our friends Charles and Deanna and their baby Azure last Saturday. They moved to Savannah from Utah just a few months ago and we are happy to be near them again. I introduced them to Rush's (one of my favorites) and hopefully they liked it. They ate it so I'm assuming so! They were recently in an accident and so I was so happy to see them in one piece.

Zack has been sick this entire week. It started as allergies, and it got progressively worse. Snot out of the eyes and nose, then some coughing, not pretty! Hopefully the drugs will kick in soon. He seems to be improving. He looks like he's been beaten up: a bruise on the forehead from falling down some of the stairs (due to his dizziness from being sick), an almost black eye from the infection in it, a raw nose that is so red it looks like it's bleeding from wiping it so much. I couldn't post a picture b/c he really looks bad and I feel bad for him. Speaking of sickness and medicine, I have to mention that he is the devil when it comes to taking medication. My parents said it's payback, and I do remember vividly spitting out my medicines as a child, but I think Zack takes the prize. We have had to fight him every time. We started out giving him allergy medicine, tylenol, advil, eye drops, and then the amoxicillin for the sinus infection (that was the diagnosis-his snot was green and smelled like bacteria-thank you microbiology degree/job for all of those years of that smell!) and cough medicine to break everything up. We are now only giving him the required eye drops and amoxicillin (and every so often cough syrup) because it was just too much to deal with. We were really sad that Zack was sick this particular weekend because we had planned on going to NC to see our family there (Matt's brother just had a b-day last week), but we decided it would be best for Zack to stay home and finish getting better before we let him back in public.

First Official Day as a SAH mama...

August 25, 2008

I'm not going to lie...we rolled out of bed around 10 am. You have to remember we haven't been able to sleep in for a while. While we were getting ready Zack told me he had to go potty, so I had to hunt down the potty in all of our stuff and take him to the bathroom. He made it in time but wasn't very accurate. I spent a little while cleaning up pee off the bathroom floor. (I haven't really been pushing the potty issue since all of the moving, etc.) After we were ready I called my friend Ashley who then called our friend Ginger and we were able to hang out all together with a total of 6 kids. It wore Zack out! I loved spending time with them and catching up. We're all from SC and were roommates at BYU and have lots of good memories together. We are excited to be closer and have our kids know each other. Since y'all know I am using my mama's computer, I'm going to refer you to Ashley's blog to the right of my blog if you'd like to see pictures of us. (on her blog it is "Look Who's Back") I've got to go change a diaper now!

Update...

Well, there's so much going on I don't know where to start. We sold our condo and within 2 weeks we left Utah. I left my job at Nature's Way and I'm officially a stay-at-home mama now. I am happy to be with Zack, but I have to admit it is different from getting up everyday and going to work. It's a totally different kind of work. I officially worked 3 years and 6 days at Nature's Way, and it was great. On my last day I cried, said my goodbyes, etc. My boss Jackie made an awesome cake and I'm going to get the recipe as soon as I can. It was incredible. So, my last day was on Monday, August 11, and the next day we packed the entire condo with the help of Matt's entire family (many thanks) and left Utah on that Wednesday morning at 6 am. It about killed me. Lee (Matt's dad) drove the moving truck which was also towing Matt's car, and we followed in my car. Zack was an angel driving across the country. When we stopped he was pretty good, except around dinner time when he just wanted to run everywhere! I was really surprised at how well he did. It probably helped that we had driven to CA just a few months prior to this big trip. We have literally been from coast-to-coast this summer, and I'm tired! So now we're living with my parents-I literally would like to kick my own butt for this one-I swore I never would, but what can you do? We are now looking for a place in Fort Mill, SC so that Matt will be close to his appointments that he has in the Charlotte area.
The first week we were here Matt had to go to Winston-Salem, NC where his brother lives. We were able to see Kirt and his wife Karen and their 4 cute kids (Hannah, Taylor, Blake, and Lacey). Zack loved playing with his NC cousins just as much as his UT cousins. We went to a water park one day and we had a blast. We saw the 3 younger kids at their gymnastics classes, and they are so good. Hannah and I discussed the Twilight series. Karen has a lovely home and the kids were so much fun, and Kirt is the same old Kirt. Karen and I get along great and it's like Matt and Kirt have never been apart for these past few years. We are so excited to live so close to them and be able to visit more. We have already made plans to see them soon.
I am so slack b/c I didn't take any pictures on the entire trip from Utah to SC to NC and back. It was all too much at the time. I plan on taking some when I can. Right now I'm using my mom's computer until I break down and go get my Mac! Bear with me, at least until I get a house!
Speaking of, our project now is looking for a house. I can't wait to get a house with a yard, except I'm not excited for all of the signing and money that goes with it. Hopefully everything will work out as it has thus far. Lots of faith, right? Again, thanks for all of the prayers to help to get us here.

Breaking Dawn

Yes, I was a geek and went out Friday night to buy the book. I just went to the Walmart by our house at 11:30 and I had to stand out the door! I felt like the oldest person in line, and I can only hope that I didn't look like the oldest one there. The line got even longer behing me. Evidently there were huge lines everywhere out here. Matt came along with me and was a good sport about it. He tried to say things in line like "Edward dies, Jacob is the best", etc. He's never read them. Anyway, I finally got the book at about 12:30 am and read until 2:30 am. Then I read all day Saturday. I finished it Saturday night, and I have to say I didn't like it as much as the other three. Oh well, it was still a good book and I'm not sure what I would have done differently. Hope everyone else enjoyed it!

Good news...

We sold our condo here in Utah, so we will be moving to SC in the next 2 weeks. Good thing my house has been half-packed since May!!! Thanks for all of the prayers to help us to get there. I am scared but excited to be moving back home. Can you believe I've been living in UT now for 11 years this month? It's just never been home to me though...Also, this past week I celebrated 3 years at Nature's Way. It has been such a great place to work, but now I'm finally moving on. Ironically, I was only planning on working there 6 months, but sometimes what you plan on and what actually happens are 2 different things. I'm very grateful for the people I've worked with there, and the help and kindness and prayers they've done for me too.

CONFESSION!!!

I love to read, but it has been a really long time since I have had the time to do it. Y'all know how it gets. Anyway, I saw all of these people reading the "Twilight" series by Stephenie Meyer, and I was curious as to what this fellow BYU grad could come up with. WOW! I know these are books meant for teens and they are fairly easy reads, but I LOVED them! I can't wait for the fourth to come out this Friday. This in a nut shell will tell you how much I enjoyed them:

Friday, July 18: Bought "Twilight" after work and began reading it.
Sunday, July 20: Finished "Twilight" (around 500 pages).
Monday, July 21: Bought "New Moon" after work and began reading it.
Wednesday, July 23: Finished "New Moon" after work (500 pgs) and bought "Eclipse" and started reading it.
Thursday, July 24: Pioneer Day=no work in Utah so I read all of "Eclipse" by the end of the night (600 pgs plus the 1st chapter of "Breaking Dawn").

So I wasn't a really good mother or wife for a week, and my house wasn't that straight, but every once in a while MOTHERS NEED A BREAK from the everyday reality of life. And I took full advantage...by the way, Matt already knows not to bother me this coming weekend b/c I'll be reading again...