Insperation...

Fall down seven times, stand up eight... - Japanese Proverb

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." - Albert Einstein

"Don't cry because its over, smile because it happened." - Dr. Seuss

"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control at times and hard to handle. But if you cant handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." - Marilyn Monroe

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough" - Mae West

"There are only two ways to live your live. Once is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. " - Albert Einstein

"Peace begins with a smile." - Mother Teresa

Crazy Life

Ahhh Its been way too long since I last posted... one day I am really going to find the time to get on here and blog more often. But if life stays as busy as it has been for the first part of the year, I don't see that happening any time soon! As I was just reading my last blog post, I realized I never wrote a follow up post to my vacation last month. It was a BLAST it was a super short, very busy and fast vacation but still so much fun. Next time we are only down there for 2 days we are most def flying. 20 hours of driving for 48 hours of visiting time is NOT the most ideal ratio of how I would like to spend my time! But this time we did check out a book on CD for the drive and it really made the driving time fly by! We got "The Shack" it was amazing, If you get the chance to read it, you really should. Its one of those big life perspective/eye opener books for sure.

Here are some things that have been keeping us busy for the past month...

• Got Garrett (well we are married so I guess its mine too) a new car/suv. Its a Nissan Xterra and we LOVE it... so much better than the G35!


• Taking growing Duke for LOTS of walks and hikes.


• Hosting a bridal shower and bachlorette for my beautiful cousin Myshele.


• Working as a slave to our yard almost every weekend and free weeknight, trying to whip it in shape. The last people who lived there really let it go, and I am not the kind of person who can have a ghetto yard!


• Visiting Lowes I swear 7 times a week... the people who live there must think we are crazy!


• Lots of hanging out with best family and friends in the whole world!


• Being a Bridesmaid in Myshele and Alex's amazing wedding..... and lots lots more!

Life is crazy, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I would much rather be running around like a chicken with my head cut off than sitting at home twiddling my thumbs being bored! So here's to another busy week... And hopefully really warm weather! Happy Monday everyone!!

See ya Later

I have been avoiding this.

I think I am still in the "burry my head in the sand" stage right now, so I am going to make this

simple and sweet. Just the way she would have liked it

Grammy, Gram, Ma, Grandma Rochelle, Rockey, GGma-

I love you.

I am going to miss you.

You are the most inspirational woman in my life, you taught me strength and power in a way that no one else ever could or ever will. I am a better person because of you. I will cherish every moment we had together and all of our crazy adventures. There was never a day together that you didn't tell me how proud you were, or how much you loved me. You made sure that we all knew how much you loved us!

I love you. I love you. I love you.

Its never goodbye, I'll see ya later...... :)

I'm tired

I am one of those people that NEED vacations. It does not have to be big or fancy or to some tropical island in the Caribbean. I just need time away from work, and dishes, and laundry, and everyday stress. I need time to relax and breathe a little.... After the past few months I need to get away!

With that being said ....

Its California time again! Ahhhh... I cant wait for warm weather, (ps I heard it might rain and I am pissed and pretending I never heard that) and shorts, and flip flops, and family. Right now I really need family. My mom said this the other day and I liked it... I feel strength in numbers. Sometimes it hard to handle the sad by yourself. But when we are all together, dealing with things is somehow easier. I miss that little crazy old lady a lot lately. The other day I flipped my calender open to June to write something down for my cousin Myshele's wedding and there it was.... June 18Th all squiggled and highlighted... her birthday. I bawled. I hate the fact that her birthday is going to come and go and I wont get to see her. IT SUCKS!! CANCER SUCKS!!! I HATE IT!! (insert 3 year old temper tantrum here). I have this sense and feeling that it probably isn't going to get easy any time soon. But I am hoping I can do a little healing this weekend being surrounded by my loving, crazy, loud, fun, my kind of people, hilarious family.


Strength in numbers!!

It will just be a quickie long weekend trip this time for the old geezer Uncle Mike (frank)'s birthday. They are doing a huge 80's themed party and its going to be a blast! I finally have my outfit all together now... I am going Madonna- black lace everything, huge hair, and tons of pearls. And Gar is going with a short tank top and cut off jeans with bright yellow vans and a neon pink baseball hat! It's going to be so much fun! I will post lots of pictures when we get back!

Double Dos Birthday

This last weekend was the Mr. Husbands 22nd birthday!

It was a super fun and fast 3 day weekend.

We started off our early weekend taking Friday off for his actual bday. Gar got to sleep in while I of coarse was up at about 7 and could not fall back asleep. So I got up and made myself useful and decorated the house! I don't care how old Gar gets, I will always decorate the house for his birthday, I cant help it! Birthdays are so fun! And then I made him a fancy birthday hat. I crafted it myself out of a cardboard crown and lots of ribbon- which p.s. he loved and wore all morning long. :)

Then I decided then that he needed breakfast in bed. But right as I was getting ready to leave the house to get the food, I heard him coming down the stairs. So I about tackled him to the ground to keep him from getting all the way down and seeing the decorations. Then sent him right back upstairs into our bedroom and told him to pretend that he was still sleeping. haha

Since the birthday boy was trapped in our bedroom pretending to be sleeping, I realized I didn't have enough time to cook breakfast. So I ran to Carl's Jr and got him a Breakfast Burger and then surprised him with breakfast-sandwich in bed. We used to get them all the time in high school, and they were freaking delish!

Well bummer... they were freaken nasty this time.

But Gar being the good sport he is ate the whole thing and pretended to love it!

After breakfast we headed up Butterfield canyon and had a relaxing walk up the trail with duke!

It was so pretty and quiet and the sun was so warm, it almost felt like spring.

We met up with Garrett's Mom, Brother, Sister, and Brother-in-Law for lunch after our hike and had a tasty meal at La Puinte. We sang happy birthday and he got crazy birthday hat # 2. The restaurant made him a sweet viking hat out of foil! It was so funny =]

Then that night we met up with some friends and family at Keys on Main. Its a piano bar in Salt Lake. If you haven't been to a piano bar before, you HAVE to go. It was a blast! Its 2 guys dueling on pianos. You pay the piano players to request the song you want played. And depending on who tips most that song gets played. If you hate the song they are playing you can tip them more money to get them to stop and play the song you want. Its crazy how talented they are, they can play and sing ANY song you request.... seriously anything. At one point they were singing that song from the hangover about "trying to find their best friend Doug". Haha it was soooo funny!

Saturday morning we slept in and met up with some friends at a restaurant call The Blue Plate for breakfast, it was delish! We got Chili Verde omelets and I ate almost every bite!

Then it was birthday present time! Garrett has been planning this tattoo that he has wanted for the past 4 years, since his 18th birthday. And when I got my last tattoo he really loved my artist and loved his portfolio, so he decided to go with Ian at Lost Art.

So to Lost Art we headed... and Garrett spent the next 3 hours getting his tattoo and making a few "ouchie" faces here and there. He is getting a complete half sleeve on his left arm of a Koi with water and cherry blossoms. Its going to take a few sessions, but it already looks AMAZING!

annnddd... I think it is supper hot :)

Sunday we had a little family get together with his moms side for a Easter/birthday party. Per is request instead of making a birthday cake, I him made homemade heath brownies. Wife of the year award? I think not... they were awful.

His whole family told me they were good, but I think their faces were saying otherwise! haha Oh well I can try again next year!

I want this...

Does anyone look at the amazing yard in Better Homes and Gardens magazine and think, "that's what my yard is going to look like! "

Well I do.

But now that I actually have a big yard to work with I am actually starting to realize how hard it is going to be!

I want my yard to look like this:

But I have money for a professional landscaper that looks like this:

But... I have been reading my trustworthy Better Homes and Gardens magazine and have found out you don't have to hire a landscaper to have a fancy yard! You just need to have patience and a a bit of a green thumb. I really don't know if am a pro in either of those areas. But somehow I am going to figure it out!

I even bought some cute pink gardenign gloves.

I am even thinking of getting a big sun hat. :)

If anyone has any special secrets for a greener grass or how to not kill a plant in 5 days please do share.

Wish me and my yard luck!

Crazy Life

I have been absolutely awful at blogging lately! I really need to start getting better, but we have had a whole lot going on lately that's been keeping us super busy. 2011 has already been a crazy roller coaster and I am so excited to see what the rest of the year has to offer. We have experienced some pretty exiting highs, and some hard lows- but this is life and I love it nevertheless!



Last month Garrett's family was rocked pretty hard by the unexpected passing of Garrett's awesome cousin Brad. He was only 28 with a beautiful wife and sweet 3 year old daughter. It was so hard to see his family grieving, but it was amazing to see how many lives Brad touched in the short 28 years he was alive. I can honestly say I have never seen SO many people come together to celebrate someones life at a viewing and funeral- Literally 20 minutes after the viewing started there was a line around the block of people wanting to come see Brad and his amazing family. And the line never shortened for 4 hours strait! And it was one of the most beautiful funerals I have ever been to. ... I know its weird to say that a funeral could be beautiful. And I think its even weirder for those words to be coming out of my mouth, I hate funerals (but honestly, I don't think anyone is a fan of them). But it honestly was so beautiful, not just the looks of the funeral but all of the amazing speeches and prayers; they were all so meaningful and touching. There was one particular part of the prayer that Uncle Doug (Brads Dad) gave that really affected me. Doug said that he and his family had no regrets, he said that if they could have Brad back for even just a little while, they would do nothing different. That Brad had lived his life to the absolute fullest and there was nothing he could have done differently to make his life better.



I thought that was such a powerful statement. Even just thinking about that part of the prayer still gives me chills today, and makes me wonder if I were to die tomorrow, could I say the same about myself? Am I living my life to the absolute fullest that I possibly can? Am I pushing myself the hardest I can in every aspect of my life? I don't know why it takes something awful like the passing of a loved one to help you put your life in order, But it really has for me. Since the funeral I have really been thinking about how precious life is and how much I am taking every little day for granted. It has really pushed me to put things into perspective and to look at the big picture, instead of wasting my life away stressing over the little things. It has also given me a much clearer idea of what I really want in life, and what is really important to me.



I am making a promise to myself to stop procrastinating. If I want something in my life, I need to go out there and work hard to get it. And to start telling the people that I love how much they really mean to me. And to really appreciate Garrett and everything he does for me. Because in the end we really never know when our, or our loved ones final day will come.



Which brings me to my next big topic.......



Dukester!!! Garrett and I have been so excited to get a puppy since the day we got married! (excited is an extreme understatement on Garrett's part haha) But both of us hated the idea of having a big dog in a little apartment, we wanted our dog to have a big yard to play in. So once we got the house, we knew it was on! But I just kept procrastinating, and making excuses for not getting a pup.... like its winter and it will be hard to train, or we have all new furniture and it will get ruined, or we don't have the time. But like I said above, no more waiting for tomorrow to do the things I want to do today!



So last weekend we went and found our newest family member Duke!! He is a sweet little 5 week old (now 6 weeks old) baby Brown lab with bright blue eyes and he is our baby!! Literally.... haha I think Garrett thinks he actually gave birth to this little guy! We love him so much and I cant wait for him to get a little bigger so we can go on lots of fun adventures this summer. It's going to be so much fun!!



I will post some cute pictures of him on here soon!