The Pepper

I just want to give a shout out to my D.P. and all the good times it has brought! It's no big secret that I LOVE Dr. Pepper, but it's pretty sad how much I really enjoy it. Some say it's the caffeine addiction, but I beg to differ...there's nothing like the taste of that great nectar! For my wedding I had actually considered having a Dr. Pepper fountain. I'm also fairly particular about the 'kind' of Dr. Pepper that I let touch my pretty little lips. My preference goes in this order: Fountain, Can, Bottle. The sad part is you could blind fold me and have me do a taste test and I could tell you which was which. I crave the fountain..no lie. The bottle I can actually turn away. But it goes even deeper...I have my favorite places to get them to. For instance, Arby's has too big of a straw and for some reason that affects the taste and I just don't like it as much. Taco Bell, Wendy's McDonald's and Holiday gas station has some good stuff all around, taking in consideration all variables (location, taste and straw size as well as price!) When I'm deciding on where to go for lunch I will always take into consideration where this great sauce is served, and I could name every restaurant in the Anchorage area that carries it! But I have to say the all time, most consistent in taste and just down right refreshing is Sonic. They bubble up some good stuff! It's just too bad we don't have one here in Alaska.

Valentine's Day

We had a lovely V-Day this year. It's the first year we have actually celebrated because my brother was here last year and the year before Mike waited until after Valentine's to start dating me to avoid having to celebrate! :) On Friday Mike had these beautiful flowers delivered to me at work. On Saturday Mike took me to Campobello Bistro for dinner. I had a Halibut dish and he had Filet Mignon that tasted like Veal. We had an enjoyable night out.

Long Time

So I'm sure everyone feels as though life is a whirlwind at some point in their life, if not ALL the time, but I tell you what ...since getting married I don't think I've stopped running! It just seems if it's not one thing, it's another. Work is crazy right now. On top of being abnormally busy for a February we have been short staffed for a month, and although more is getting accomplished it does take a toll on me. Not to mention that we have been in constant training mode since August with people quitting and/or needing to be terminated (which as the Office Manager I get the privilege of doing :( ) Which has meant I've been working the last couple of Saturdays. And all of the staff is amazing and is helping out in every way possible, which I'm grateful for, but it's all still a little overwhelming at times! And then there is school. And then there is callings. My average arrival at the homefront is 8:30 p.m. And then poor Mike is the one who ends up having to make dinner, because he gets home earlier than I do and we wouldn't eat until 11 p.m. if we waited for me to get home! I believe I've had some sort of event every night this week, and I'm not as young as I used to be, so I don't bounce back quite as quick as I used to with less than average sleep! Oh...and I was asked to give a talk in Sacrament this Sunday so I've been working on that as well. I'm not complaining, because busy is good....but is it ever going to slow down? Even a little? I keep thinking that once I'm finished with school life will get slower, but I have a feeling that isn't so. Is there anyway to slow down this journey we call life?

Snow Day....Sort of

Today we are experiencing Anchorage's version of a snow day! Basically that means it's WAY to icy to travel on the roads. Monday we woke up and it was 15 degrees outside. We had been in the negative numbers for almost 2 weeks straight, so 15 degrees was a real heat wave. Yesterday it snowed for the first time since Christmas I believe. It'd been too cold to snow. Now it's warm enough to snow but of course it's still cold at night which turns the roads into an icy mess. There are MULTIPLE cars/trucks/SUV's/4x4's in the ditch along the highway. All of the schools, Elementary to University's, are closed for the day. And on top if it all there is no power at the clinic, so even if we did make it there safely we wouldn't beable to be very functional. So I took advantage of the situation and cleaned the house and am watching American Idol Season 7 re-runs!!

Callings

Mike and I have been in our ward 3 months now and we just got our callings. We did a good job of dodging the Bishopric! :) I was a little nervous about the callings we would get now that we are in a family ward. It's pretty easy to avoid Primary in a Singles Ward! I actually wouldn't mind Primary, but sometimes it's easier to get to know the other members in the ward in Relief Society. But with Mike being a fairly recent convert, and us being new I thought for sure we were Primary bound. I was pleasantly suprised. I have been called as an Acheivement Day's Assistant....I don't think it gets much better than that! So on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month we have an activity. They didn't have acheivement days when I was growing up so I'm rookie to it all, although I do have some funny memories helping Joanne when she was in charge a few years back!! She had a interesting group of girls though. We have 5 girls that come each time and I'm really looking forward to it. Mike and I have also been called as Ward Missionaries, another calling I'm looking forward to. I think my favorite part is that we get to go to church and just enjoy it! All in all we are pleased. And if you have any ideas for Acheivement Days don't hesitate to share!

Mike's Birthday

Mike's Birthday is Christmas Day and because birthdays are such a big deal, I didn't want his to fall through the cracks during all of the holiday celebrations so I suprised him with a birthday week. He had no idea and I had so much fun doing it!

DAY 7: Mike LOVES pistachio's so he received pistachios and whoopy cushions!

DAY 6: A Nerf Gun...which he proceeded to use me as a target. I'm not sure I was expecting anything less!















DAY 5: Movie tickets to the movie Valkyrie






























DAY 4: 4th Season of Lost


















DAY 3: MONOPOLY..he loves he game...I'm horrible at it!














DAY 2: Mario Kart for the WII















DAY 1: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE, Mike has a love for watches...he was really suprised! Mission Accomplished!




Happy Birthday, Mike! I Love You!

Lost

I have managed to lose my camera :( Of course it happens when I have lots of blogging to get caught up on! I'm in a state of distress. I almost feel naked with out it. Much like sugar is a staple in the kitchen...my camera is a staple in my purse. My house is going to get turned upside down, which I'm not looking forward to. I will search for another day and if it doesn't turn up I'll post with out pictures...it just doesn't seem like fun!

Snowed In

I was headed to church today and I walked outside to a bunch of white, wet stuff. It looked rather pretty, however, it became my nemisis. My car was trapped. Mike had left earlier in the morning for work and had no problems, due to a commodity called 4-wheel drive. But as I reversed I made it to the end of my drive way..no further. I tried go forward again and reversing faster but it got me no further. I tried going forward and reversing in multiple directions, but it got me nowhere. I dug out the snow from underneath the tires, in hopes that I got the car to turn sideways, hoping that if I went forward I would be able to make it over the hump, but to no avail. And all I was left with was this...

There is a little bit of a lift at the end of the driveway, and I believe that was my biggest obstacle. Just to give you all an idea on how much snow we were getting, I had cleaned all the snow off my windows prior to trying to escape my house! So, needless to say, I was homebound today!

What a Weekend!

So I have totally been slacking in the blogging department and I apologize profusely!! Life has been down right crazy here and unfortunately the blogging gets last priority. And although it may not settle down immediately it should get quieter soon! But enough of that...lets get some updates! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. We started our weekend on Wednesday and went to Blues Central for a anniversary party for one of the radio morning shows up here. We went mostly for the music, and we were NOT disappointed! A man by the name of Geoffry Castle came and played his violin and he was amazing. For all you musicians out there, I'm sure you will know all the technical terms for his equipment, but you'll have to suffice with my mere description! He had this pedal gadget thing that recorded different parts that he was playing, so he would begin the song and play the same thing for a bit, and then while the pedal thing was repeating it he would start the second part of the song and then the third and by the end he was playing all the parts of the song by himself. Anyways, enough of my lousy description...it was good!

Thursday we slept in a bit and then watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Afterwards we headed out to Palmer to my uncle's house for some good Turkey Day Food! We watched some football, visited and ate...it was lots of fun. We left there fairly early because the roads were wet and we were afraid it was going to be a very icy and slippery ride home. We went to our friends Shug and Paul and visited with friends. We then proceeded to our friend Forrest's house to play a game of rich man/poor man. Which then led to us needing to go home to sleep!

I had no intention of going shopping in the wee hours of the morning on Black Friday, but I purchased a newspaper just to see what was being sold and my mind was changed. They had some great deals this year and I do believe that 90% of my Christmas shopping is done!! Jamie Clarker RN and I woke up at 3:30 and were at the mall @ 4:00 a.m. we then went to Walmart, which was a ZOO, but I got what I needed and then we headed over to Fred Meyer for their Buy a board game get one free sale. We then headed home and went to bed! Mike worked until 8 p.m. and then we went and saw Four Christmases. It was pretty funny! I've been wanting to see it since I first saw the previews and I really liked it. The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. Mike has had to work everyday, I went to work for a little bit to get caught up on some stuff. But then I had to do all the grown up stuff of purchasing grocery's and cleaning house and such. I have enjoyed my 4 days off work and I'm really excited for this Holiday Season! I'm excited to get our tree and decorations up! It such a wonderful time of year!

Go Aces

The Utah Grizzlies were up here in the far northfor a 3 game series against the Aces. We thought it would be a fun activity and made a night out of it. We started at the Sourdough Mining Company eating none other than the infamous Korn Fritters. We then headed over to the Sullivan Arena.
We didn't make it there until the 2nd period, but we had fun nontheless. The Aces came out on top with a 4-1 victory. Although I don't really understand the rules to Hockey, it's the only sporting event we get up here, so it's fun to watch. There was only 1 small fight, which was a little disappointing for the fans :(.

Forrest, Abby, Roy, Gavin, Jamie, Wendy, Mike