It's been a while...

Wow, it has been a while!  not that I have anything earth shatteringly (yes, its a word, I just invented it) amazing to write about, life has been too stinkin busy.  Between work, Gav starting grad school, family and projects on our house there hasn't been a whole lot of time to stop and take not of some of the life's bigger moments for us so I'll just give you some highlights. :)

First, and probably biggest, is Gav starting grad school up at Westminster in January.  After shopping around for schools I'm glad that he got in, it was my first choice after attending their MBA Open House.  Unlike most of the schools we looked at it is a "professional" program, which means everyone attending is a working professional who can't swing things until evening.  A lot of schools had good programs but all of their networking events and most of their classes were during the work day.  Two semesters in and it has been a great experience for him.

Second, Baby Syndee!!! My brother Geoff and SIL Dez had their 3rd on May 7th (if I had a pict I'd upload it but I'm currently shirking my work responsibilties to write this, shhhhhh)

Lastley, just adjusting to a new house/job/ward/neighborhood etc.  We've had a truck load of changes in quick succession.  We bought our house, I started a new job, Gav started school, not too mention all of the never ending house projects, all with very little down time in between. 

In all the craziness I know I need to be better about taking a second to appreciate the wonderful life I have.  To quote Ferris Buehler, "Life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop and take a look around every once in a while, you might miss it."

Doin' the new job dance!

About three weeks ago I applied for a promotion at the Sugarhouse branch of Zions Bank.  They called me and I went in for an interview.  It all went really well and, while I left feeling like I had given a good interview, I also got the feeling that they didn't want to have to train someone because of some of the managers scheduling. Still, considering I knew I was a jumping the gun a little on applying and didn't have a couple of the trainings I had wanted to have, I was pretty content with a good interview and the knowledge that I was starting to get my name out there.  Well last Wednesday   I walk into my branch at 11 for the start of my shift and low and behold I get a phone call from Sugarhouse offering me the job!  Mind blown...a little.  Not only did I get the job but they got special permission to have me start a week early, so starting July 1st I'm there.

Why did it take me a week to write about this?  Well besides the fact I'm kinda terrible at blogging, I've been trying to cover as much of those pesky trainings as possible before the 1st.  It's a bit ridiculous :)

We bought a House!!

Gav and I have now joined the club, we have purchased our first house!  Its a little fixer-uper that will provide all sorts of projects for us to do.  I'm rather looking forward to it actually :)

Our little ones found their Fur-ever homes!!

A little over a month ago Gav and I started working with the non profit rescue Rescue Rovers Dog Adoptions (here) as fosters.  And our last two babies got ADOPTED!

 We will miss them, but we know they went to good homes!

Adventures in the ER

Tuesday night was a rather long one.  As in 7 hours at the emergency room long.  Now, neither Gav nor myself are strangers to hospitals, between nieces and nephews, accidents, sports and a mother who worked in one (on my part)we've seen our fair share.  This was a whole new experience.  Gav went up snowboarding with my brother and sister-in-law.  About half way through the day he took what my Dezaray described as a "massively epic fall" and landed wrong on his arm.  Thinking it was just a deep bruise he boarded down to the first aid station and chilled.  After many hours of the pain not subsiding and not being able to get comfortable I picked him up after work and we drove to the U.  Turns out it wasn't a bruise, or a broken bone.  He had managed to dislocate his elbow.

Should be an easy fix right? Wrong.  Turns out because it had been popped out so long that it took 2 bottles of  propofol(and another drug I can't remember the name of), portable X-ray, 3 nurses, 2 doctors(one an ortho specialist), and two rounds of pulling to pop his arm back in. 

We were finally discharged at 12:30 in the a.m. After more X-rays and a semi solid splint was wrapped around his arm.  The upside to this little adventure...Gav says really funny things when he's drugged.

New Years Catchup

Yes, I am an enormous slacker at this blog, it is an admission freely given.  And now that that is out of the way...

The last few months have been very busy for Gav and I with big changes in work dynamics and holidays and vacations and the list goes on and on.  The holidays, yes all of them (including Halloween) we busy days filled with lots of family adn festivities.  And right in the middle of which we recieved a much welcomed respite to seriously warmer climates.  We both went on our first cruise ever!  It was amazing!  Really, I could go on and on but that is not the purpose of this post, and that's just way to many words to expect someone to read on a blog.

Not long after New Years we had my sister and her family move in with us while their house is being gutted and reformed into something awesome.  I think this has probably been a bigger adjustment for her and her family than for me (but then again I lived with 15 people in London in a flat that really wasn't much bigger than our house) at least when it comes to the no furniture rule she has for her dog.
This rule is not enforced at all.

Wow, the year has gone by fast

This last Sunday Gav and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary (I have to specify wedding because we've actually been together closer to 2 and a half years, and I'm just a bit neurotic :))  We celebrated in pretty typical Amber and Gavin style, not a whole lot of fanfare and spent mostly around family.  We didn't have church because of stake conference, which we probably should've gone to but didn't.  We had a relaxing sleep in and yummy waffles with, still slightly frozen, berries on top.  We then proceeded to be lazy lay-a-bouts before heading off to the dog park up the road.  We met my mom, her dog, and my two youngest nieces there.  Gracie had Gav and I laughing as she swam like a fish, when just a few short months ago she was afraid of the water.  We were all really impressed with Piper and Payton, who not only walked the whole, roughly, 2 miles by themselves but did so with the only round of crying coming after Piper had her feet swept out from under her by the dogs who were tied together.  That night we went to Gavin's parent's house for dinner, taking along the top of our wedding cake.  Yes, it was still good and still entirely too rich lol.  We managed to eat about half of it between us all.  The other half was succinctly dispatched by Gavin's co workers yesterday.

With all of the blessings and changes we've had it's hard to believe that a year has gone by.  We've been asked quite a bit lately if it feels like a year and the answer is, no not really.  For me at least, it is a bit of a paradox because while it doesn't really feel like we've been together that long, it also is as if there has never been a time when we weren't together.  I found my life, and while I am aware that I was in fact alive before we met, and it is better than I anything I could've come up with on my own.

Way to go Ry!

Gav and I are going to be seeing a lot of high school football this coming season.  Or, ok let's be honest, the next four years.  (probably six, Breaden will be at East in two years) we found out on Saturday that my nephew Ryan made the varsity team at Highland, and the coolest part...he's a FRESHMAN!!!! He's worked his tail off for it and it paid off for him.  Big congrats's for him.  The team did publicity some publicity photos and I'll post them as soon as I can figure out how to get them off my iPad because, apparently, you can upload them from just about everywhere except an iPad.

Our dog is apparently trying to poison herself

Having a sick dog is a very scary thing.  I imagine that the feeling of helplessness is pretty akin to having a very sick toddler who can neither tell you whats wrong or if something you've tried to alleviate their illness has helped or made it worse.  We got to experience this twice with Grace the last few weeks.

In the six months we've had her we've become quite accustomed to her puppy chewing habits and for the most part have found ways to curb them, for example, she will chew through power cords but not if they are plugged in, only when they are just left to lay on the floor.  So we have learned to not be lazy and just leave things like cords and the occasional shoe on the ground and to close closet doors at night.  But over the 24th her stomach was bothering her and so she, in typical dog fashion, ate some grass to help her get rid of whatever it was.  Only one problem, Gav had fertilized the lawn just the night before.  Poor puppy was sick and throwing up every morning for the rest of the week.  Luckily, my parents were willing to keep an eye on her the days when it was really bad.  After a little research I felt a bit less worried about her when I found out that it is a very common occurrence and that because she's not super little her system would just work it out.  Then, just a week after getting over that round of food poisoning, it happened again only this time it was truly frightening.  I got home from work this last Thursday to a nice pile of regurgitated food, gross I know, and after cleaning it up we found a mangled and punctured AA battery on the floor.  Even though the oils in common batteries aren't as strong and concentrated as the acids in, say a car battery, they are still very acidic and can cause burns and even ulcers in a dogs mouth throat and stomach, plus they contain a very scary concentration of lead.  She continued to throw up and be extremely lethargic for the next hour and a half.  We inspected her mouth and there didn't seem to be any burns and with a lack of battery acid even on the battery  let alone the floor or her fur, we concluded that it must have been dead, luckily.  As we debated whether a trip to the emergency vet was necessary we managed to get her to drink some milk and pepto to help neutralize whatever acid she did ingest as well as some peanut butter covered bread to help coat her stomach and throat and provide at least a little barrier. 

When she finally stopped throwing up we decided to wait on the vet trip and see if she would bounce back.  Thankfully all it took was the milk and pepto and then an hour or so of a good deep nap, closely monitored by my nervous self, and she obviously felt much better.  By the next morning she was back to her old self, as if the previous night had never happened.

Summer is only lazy when you're a kid

Oh wow, have I been a slacker.  No posts since April, yeah I should be fired.  I shouldn't be too surprised though, considering just how much stuff we've had going on between then and now, and how many posts I started but didn't get a chance to finish.  So here is a quick summer recap.

In April I started working at Zions Bank, originally I was going to be one of their Peak Time, or floating, tellers but the branch I was training at decided they liked me so on my last day of traing they hired me and after 3 weeks of floating I started work there on May 22.  And I have been working full time there ever since.

At the end of June we went with Gavin's family down to Disneyland.  It was a super fun trip!  We went to an Angels game and then  Gav, Maddie and I blew through both DL and CA in a day and then went to Newport to play on the beach the next day.  My extremely white self got stupidly sunburned to the point it was difficult to walk and I still have a solid tan line a month and a half later. 

July was a month of holidays and family.  Gav and I finally made it to Seven Peaks on our passes and I didn't feel quite as guilty about not using them until July as soon as I found out that regular admission is $30.  The Fourth was a day of family and fireworks.  We went to his families neighborhood breakfast and when the boys went to play golf I met my mom and we went to the Sugarhouse street fair, followed by dinner and swimming at Geoff and Dez's.  After that we got cleaned up and went over to my parents.  They live about 5 blocks north east of Sugarhouse park and you can see the fireworks from their back yard.  Poor puppy Grace was a nervous wreck the whole time, a combination of all the loud fireworks and the presence of my brother's dog, Miley, who is the sweetest dog you'd ever meet but is also the only dog Gracie does not like at all.  The 24th Gav had to work so the night before I took the dog and went downtown to camp out at the parade route, something my family has done for at least 20 years.  Afer the parade, per family tradtion, we hit up the water park.  Ususally we go to Cherry Hill but this year with having the Seven Peaks Pass of All Passes, we went there instead.

So that about does it.  Summer has been quite a bit of go go go for us around here but now with the approach of fall maybe, just maybe it will slow down just a little bit.

Hey all,
I just wanted to let y'all know about a really fun event for a good cause.  The teacher is amazing and it is a great way to come and have fun and exercise at the same time.

Puppies are funny things

Our Garcie keeps us constantly laughing with all of her antics, here are a few we thought we'd share.

She just can't understand why cats wont play with her, but she knows a couple of kids who will.

She's not entirely sure about what to do with large soda bottles either.

A Great Weekend in Chi-town

So I know I'm like two weeks late on this post but oh well, things have been nuts since we got back! Over the 17th Maddie, Linda and Myself all jetted off to Chicago to do some sightseeing. My particular favorite piece of scenery was Gavin, who'd been there for 5 weeks.

We packed a whole lot of stuff into our four and a half (you can't really count the day we landed since we got in at 7) days that we were there. We decided to buy CityPasses and that was definitley the way to go. Not only did it let us in to 5 very cool places for free but it also let us bypass most lines and go right in.

We went to 5 different museums in 2 days. All of them were enormous and we could have easily spent a day each on most of them. The Field Museum of Natural History was incredible and has the most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found. The Aquarium was way fun with large underwater viewing areas where you could watch whales and sharks. The Art Institute was enormous, it covers about 2 city blocks and is a three storied maze of beautiful works (including the 2nd largest collection of French impressionism in the country). We all got mildly motion sick on the Skydeck, even though you couldn't really feel the building swaying. And lastly, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry, sounds really boring but OH MY GOSH!!! It was awesome! Definitely a must see, especially if you have kids. It was so big that most of it is between 3 and 4 stories underground. It had full sized trains, tractors and antique fire engines. One whole wing was devoted to weather and natural phenomenon so there were avalanche and tsunami simulators, a giant wind tunnel that generated a small tornado. Plus an actual German U-Boat in the basement. It was way cool.

Saturday, when Gav was with and not at work, we went on a tour of the old Chicago Theater and then went over up to Lincoln Park to escape the press of green people who had come out in force to show chi-rish pride for St. Patty's. We walked around the park for an hour or two then headed back to the city. We did a little shopping on the "Magnificent Mile", a large high end shopping district, and then went to Navy Pier. We sat on the end of the Pier and then walked down and had dinner at Harry Carrey's Tavern. It had really good food and had a small sports museum running through the middle of it.

Sunday, we had to leave for the airport at 2 so we decided to go on the Untouchables Tour that Maddie had found in a magazine the night before. It was a two hour tour and it was really interesting to hear some of the stories and history from the cities most infamous time period. We definitely went through some parts of the city that we wouldn't have gone to, and I don't recommend you go to them outside of this tour. Sadly most of the sites were no longer there, the only two sites that really remained standing were the Holy Name Cathedral and the movie theater where John Dillenger was shot.

It was such a fun trip and we saw so much! Including the Chicago river dyed bright green (they take they're St. Patty's very seriously). On the whole a great weekend and a place I'd definitely recommend.

A New Addition

Yesterday Gav and I added a new member to our little family. Meet Gracie, our year old cockapoo, whom we intend to spoil rotten!
When we first started talking about getting a dog Gav teased me that the dog wouldn't get super attached to him since he's going to be gone for so long. But I can now roll my eyes with a snort because she follows him EVERYWHERE! She's a super sweet baby who loves everyone, kids and cats included, we were lucky to get her and are so excited to have her!!

New Year, New Job

It's official, Gavin has joined the Scotts (or the Swedes if you ask his sister Maddie). Starting February 8th Gav goes to work for the Royal Bank of Scottland Group (think smaller version of Goldman Sachs). He gets to kick off his new career path by being shipped back to Chicago, at probably the worst time of year poor guy, for training.

New Years Resolutions...NOT!!

So fully realize that its been a lazy start to the new year on the blog front but, to be quite honest, I'm not really surprised by that fact.

This time of year everyone is talking about resolutions and goals they have set for themselves, most, if not all, of which will be broken by the end of next month. Then follows the inevitable and irritating feelings of guilt and self pity. Most years I avoid this completely by simply not making any resolutions. This year though I ran across an idea that I really liked and decided to give it a shot. Instead of a list of, lets faceit, usually wildly unrealistic goals I've decided to go with a broad, general mission statement for the whole year. By making it general and then finding specifics within all the pressure, and eventual self loathing, is magically gone and it makes actually wanting to accomplish things easier. Now, my mission statement is still far from complete, and in truth I'll probably still be adding to it in August but here are the two main catagories:

1. Live a fuller and healthier life
This catagory includes getting back in touch with friends, being more active and living an over all healthier lifestyle (ie cooking more at home and choosing water over soda, etc.)

2. Be better about making the Spiritual stuff a priority
Pretty self explanitory

Like I said, its a big umbrella for life improvement and I'm sure I'll probably fall short on many of the specifics but that ok because they roll over easily. And besides, its all the little things that really count :-)

A Wonderful Weekend of Christmas

Merry Christmas!!! A day late granted, but really who's going to have time to blog on Christmas.

This year was awesome!! and jam packed with loads of family togetherness. As far as juggling families the first Christmas, Gav and I rocked it. And managed to do it not just one day, but three. We're awesome.

Friday:
It was my dad's family's party, where we managed to make out like bandits with the bingo prizes. (see previous post)

Saturday:
I had to work, which kinda sucked but since Gav still needed to do some shopping its was ok. He picked me up after work and we went out to meet his family, cousins and all, at Chin-Wah; a yummy chinese place in Sandy. We had to wait a while to get seated but there was like 25 or so of us so it was kinda to be expected. FYI the walnut shrimp, Fantastic. After dinner we went back to his parents house, no cousins this time, for a small gift exchange. His family everyone draws a name and gets a gift for that person. This year, since we're going to Boston next summer we were told to do inexpensive, preferably home made gifts. I drew his dad this year, and after racking my brain for a long while I had a stroke of brilliance and made him a putting green. His sister Lisa had my name and gave me a home made heat rice bag and two matching hand warmers. I've used them pretty much constantly, they make life so wonderful. Gav got a case of Frosties sodas and we had great fun taste testing them! Orange soda is the best one in case you were wondering.

Sunday:
CHRISTMAS!!!!!! I don't know why but neither of us slept well, and by not well I mean we were both awake around 2:30 in the am and couldn't go back to sleep. Gav finally fell back asleep around 3:40. I, however, was awake until about 5 and then got up and got ready just after 6. Hurray for holidays on no sleep. Before we left for his sister's house Gav and I opened our presents to each other. I totally won the present lottery. As a combined Christmas and birthday I got a spa day, which I'm so excited to use!!! He got a new hat and a super warm jacket that I might have to "borrow" on occasion.
The rest of the morning went by quick. We had breakfast at Emily's house. And got some great entertainment watching her and Maddie try to kill themselves on Austin's new motorized scooter and watching Greg try to figure out how to use The Force (also Austin's). After that we went over to Lexi's and went to church with her and Curtis. Things calmed down after that because we just went back to his parents house and helped get lunch ready. Around 2:30 most everyone had gotten there and so we had a yummy lunch, Gav and I unfortunately had to pace ourselves because we were going to dinner at my families at 4. After everyone else got there we sat down to do presents, I wasn't really expecting that part so it was a double surprise when I got handed mine. Gav got a new driver and a box of D2 golf balls and I got a bunch of books and a very cute pair of boots. I'm very proud of the boots because Gav and his dad picked them out by themselves with the only female input coming from the shop girl, I was impressed. Then we, together, got a movie gift card from his aunt and a bag of goodies that included a chocolate cookbook that has some seriously yummy looking recipes in them. And then all the adults got different Red Sox shirts to wear on our trip.
After that we drove over to my sisters house to have dinner with my family. Again, way yummy but we couldn't eat as much as we might have like. Dinner was followed by another round of presents. There's so many people in our family that we do gifts by the individual family, instead of people. This year we had my sister Brit, and by luck of the draw she had us. It made it very simple. We got them a board game, a couple movies and a bag of treats. Their gift to us has made it so we have no excuse to be unsociable. We got a bowlful of homemade caramel corn in a super cute bowl that my niece, Shannon, painted by herself. Oh, FYI, most of our gift Shannon came up with, and rocked it. We also got a fondue pot, a gift certificate to our fav pizza place, season 4 of the Big Bang theory, and a game called Banangrams. I'm sure I'm forgetting something but I'll add it in when my brain is functioning better. From my parents we got Dominoes and Utah Pass of All Passes. My dad gave all the guys one of his favorite books and the girls got their traditional figurine, except this year it was a dragon instead of a fairy. After presents games got broken out and the night ended with an impromptu dance party in the living room.
Christmas is by far the best time of the year for a lot of reasons, but family is by far number 1.

Let the Family-ing begin

Last night was my dad's family Christmas party. This party is always pretty exciting and something I look forward to every year. This year it was especially nice because my aunt and uncle who moved to Missouri two years ago were there and a couple other cousins whom I haven't seen in years were there too. There's always good food (and wassail, the best hot drink ever!!) and a lot of laughs. Because there are well over 30 adults (not to mention their kids) we don't give gifts, instead we bingo for them. Every one brings 2 small gifts and sets them out on a long table. My dad is our traditional bingo caller, complete with a plethora of really bad puns, but apparently the years of calling have taken their toll and so, since I can easily be louder than anyone else, I started calling half way through; but not before snagging myself a few good prizes. Between the two of us, Gav and I made out like bandits.

Since only the adults get to play bingo Santa brings little gifts for all the kids. Usually my brother in law, Stew, is Santa but this year his work party was the same night so this year, after much pleading, cajoling and ordering from my aunt Cindi, my dad got to play the big guy in red. The only trouble was that once he put on his glasses he had a hard time keeping the beard on and it had to be tightened several times. All in a great and successful family party.

Adding a little spirit to the holiday season

Last night I went to a live nativity with my family. It was fun, FREEZING, but fun. Everyone was way into it. They even passed out dates and pita(unlevened) bread to everyone as we waited in line, and hot chocolate once we got inside.

Shephards with their flock, their sheep are behind them a little higher up.

Obiviously the baby Jesus

The Camel; a big hit

They were passing out hot chocolate and bagels

The chicken lady, another big hit

The Festival of Trees

This last Saturday Gav was working late so I went to the festival of trees with my mom (My mom is the holiday decorating equivalent to Yoda). I haven't been to the festival since I was really little so it was fun to go and see all the awesome trees (and get a little inspiration for next year!). We didn't realize you could take pictures until half way through because you used to not be able to but once we realized you could we snapped a few.

White Collar Tree: My favorite!! But that could be because I have a bit of a crush on Neil Cafrey.

Denver Broncos Tree: This one was for my nephew, Braeden, who is a huge Broncos fan Girlie Tree: This explosion of pink, blue and green reminded us of three of my nieces.