Made it!

We made it to Utah safe and sound. Our car ran great and we had no complications.  The 1300 mile, 2 day trip was pretty long and mostly boring but it is great to be here with family.

On day 1 of our trip we left Minnesota around 9 a.m. and made it to Mount Rushmore in keystone, South Dakota around 6 that night. We did stop along the way at the apparently "World Famous" Wall drug for some free ice water and an amazing homemade doughnut. We stayed at Mt. Rushmore for about 2 hours and then headed to our hotel in Custer, SD for the night.

The next morning we awoke and drove and drove some more. We stopped at Martins cove for a little bit and took in some church history, and finally pulled into the Salt Lake valley around 10 that night.  We were welcomed by my Grandparents with a plate of cookies, a gallon of milk for our fridge, and to Justin's delight, baseball on our big flat screen t.v. in our basement apartment.  

Our best decision made the entire trip was to download podcasts and listen to them on the way.  We downloaded most of them from "The Onion" and "Stuff you should know". It saved our sanity and we really learned a lot of interesting things like why orange juice tastes bad after you brush your teeth, bizarre ways to die, theories on deja vu, interesting facts about Thomas Jefferson, the vikings, when people think the world is going to end, etc....  It was very entertaining and I highly suggest to anyone that is going to be in the car for a long period of time to find a great podcast and download like crazy!

We are currently in Logan at Justin's parents house relaxing with family and seeing some movies. We saw Star Trek last night and it was better then I thought it would be, but there were some pretty nerdy moments.  I have no interest in anything Star Trek related but it really did exceed my expectations.  I think the super attractive people and awesome special effects may have had something to do with it.

I also went with my sister in law Brittany to see 17 again today.  It was SO good. I LOVED it.  I think it is one of the cutest movies I have seen in a long time. 

We took a ton of pictures and I am going to post them in a little bit.  Time is short but I just wanted to post quick to say that we made it to Utah and are happy to be here!

And we're off!

Well the day has arrived and we are heading to Utah in just a few minutes! We are saying goodbye to our lovely apartment, packing up the car and checking and double checking our list of things to bring!  

So long Minnesota.......... for a few months at least.

Dear Mom...

To my Mother Jane

Dear Mom-

I hope you had a great Mother's Day! I wish we could have been there to celebrate with you! I just wanted to thank you for all the millions of things that you have done for me throughout my life.  I do not know where I would be without you.  You are my best friend and I am so glad that we have so much in common.  I am grateful that I am turning into my mother more and more each day. I would love nothing more then to be the kind of mother that you were to me.  You have always been a great example to your children.  You have more strength then anyone I know, yet you are tender and comforting. Thank you for always cheering me on and supporting my hopes and dreams.  Thank you for always listening, no matter the subject, and thank you for always being interested.  You are the first person I want to call when something exciting happens in our life. I miss you every day and wish that we could spend more time together, but hopefully someday we will all be close again. You are my mom and no matter how old I get I will always need you.  I can't wait for the day when I become a mother and you can teach me even more.  Thanks for all you do for me and Justin.  We love and appreciate you so much!

Love, Jessie

To my Mother in law Carol

Dear Mom-

We wish that we could have celebrated Mother's day with you guys.  Skype will have to do for now, but only for one more week!  We are excited to see you guys soon!  I want to personally thank you for the amazing mother you have been to me the past couple years.  I also want to thank you for the amazing mother that you have been to Justin for the past 26 years.  He would not be the amazing person that he is without such a wonderful mother.  He is an incredible person who treats me with such love, kindness, and respect and those are things that boys learn in their homes, from their parents.  Thank you for being my mother and taking good care of me when my family was so far away.  During my first few years in Logan it was hard to not have my family around but when I met Justin I became part of yours and I thank you for that.  You are not just my mother in law, but also my friend.  I am so grateful that we have so much in common and that we have such a fun time when we are together.  We are so excited for the summer!  Thank you again for all you have done for me.  I love you so much!

Love, Jess 

Justin is off canoeing and camping somewhere around Canada.  He says he is going to prove his love and appreciation to you by conquering the great beyond! 

Happy (belated) Mother's Day! 

Bingo De Mayo!!

This is a little story of how we celebrated Cinco De Mayo.  

The day was uneventful and full of the usual same old routines.  Justin went to school and meetings and I went off my job until 9:30.  It did not feel like the festive, flavorful day that Cinco De Mayo should be.  When I arrived home from work to find Justin in his usual spot at the kitchen table working on homework (a.k.a reading baseball stats on ESPN) we both declared that we were indeed starving and deserved a night out in honor of the aforementioned holiday.  Now for those of you that are accustomed to our frugal ways you will not be surprised to learn that we headed off to TGI Fridays for the following reasons. 

1) We have a "give me more stripes" rewards card through them and therefore we were emailed a free appetizer for Cinco De Mayo.

2) They have an amazing deal going on where all of their full sized sandwiches and salads are just 5 dollars.

3) In there, "It's always Friday", and that is just the kinda scene we were in the mood for.

We settled ourselves in close proximity to the bar so that we could be close to the t.v's to see what game they had on. It was hockey on every t.v. There was an NBA playoff game on and we were watching hockey.  That is Minnesota for you.  We ordered the usual waters to drink.  After brushing off the deflated look the waitress gave us after ordering non-alcoholic beverages on this Spanish holiday, in the bar area nonetheless, we made things worse by presenting her with our coupon for our free appetizer. Lets just say that we did not see her again for 20 minutes.  I know this because I was staring at my watch and giving Justin updates every 5 minutes that went something like this, "I can not believe it has been x minutes and she is not back. This is unacceptable service and I should know since I have so much serving experience...........". Poor Justin, this went on until she finally returned after our appetizer (that was brought to us by someone else) had been long gone and our beverages were no more then ice cubes.  We gave her our order which was one salad to share.  Take that server girl. 

In all honesty I was irritated, and that is putting it nicely.  Her service to us should be no less just because we are trying eat out on a budget.  Our meal was finally brought to us, yet again by someone else, and we were ready for it, forks in hand.  

Now this is the part of our story where a little thing called Karma comes into play.

The night had not been great so far. It was almost 11p.m. and we were just eating our dinner, but just then a funny thing happened.  I found something in my food, yet again.  If you do not know what I am talking about, please refer back to this post. It was an expiration date sticker, and to make things even better the expiration date was yesterday.  Now to us this was no big deal.  It was a only a piece of paper and lets face it, we eat way more questionable things out of our own fridge all the time.  But when that "waitress" came to ask us how our meal was we let her know that there was a sticker in it.  For the first time all night I saw a glimpse of humanity spark from her as she apologized and went to get things taken care of.  Right after she left there was an announcement made that Bingo would be starting soon.  We LOVE Bingo. We suck at Bingo but we love it still.  A guy came over and asked us if we wanted to play, and when we discovered that it was free, of course we were in. 

Our waitress came back and explained that our salad would be of no charge and gave us a coupon for a free appetizer or dessert on our next visit.  We were still hungry so we ordered another salad.  By this time, bingo was starting, we were eating a fresh new sticker free salad and the world seemed right again.

Then Justin won bingo.  Thats right my friends, Karma.  And what was the prize? Cold, hard, cash.  It would've been 20 bucks but another person called Bingo as well so we won 10 dollars.  We were happy as could be with our great meal and prize money, could the night get any better?  Yes. Justin won round 2 of Bingo.  We couldn't believe it.  We won another coupon for a free appetizer or dessert.  We played 3 more rounds and even though we didn't win, it no longer mattered.  Like a 4 year old on a soccer team, we were just playing for fun.  

Lets do a little recap shall we?

Waters- Free

Appetizer- Free

Salad- 5 dollars plus sticker makes it free

New Salad- 5 dollars (I don't think she should've charged us for a replacement salad but I was beyond caring when we got our bill)

That makes a total of 5 dollars.

But wait...........

Free appetizer for sticker in salad

10 dollars in Bingo winnings

Free appetizer for Bingo winning

That makes a pretty nice profit if you ask me!

So don't worry kids, if you find yourself stuck on Cinco De Mayo with an awful waitress who shuns you for being cheap and refuses to refresh your measly waters, Karma will step in and strategically place a sticker in your food and then it will go the extra mile and allow you to win Bingo twice. 

Thank you Karma and happy belated Cinco De Mayo!

*Note from Justin* 

He is sorry he forgot to wish you all a happy Star Wars Day....

May the 4th be with you.

Get it? 

I Spy something in my food.

B I N G O

Winner Winner!

Wednesday's Read

Hello All! I hope you are all having a fabulous day.  Once again I am here with another book recommendation.  Today the book holding the honor is "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Borrows. What a name right, don't you just love it! I do.  

This novel is the story of an author who is looking for inspiration for her next novel and by chance becomes aquatinted with some of the residents of the Island of Guernsey.  The story is told through letters between the characters, but don't let that turn you off.  It is also somewhat historical fiction as it takes place shortly after WWII and makes references to the German occupation of the island during the war, but don't let that turn you off either. I know for some like myself, novels that are told strictly through letters are not my thing but this novel was different somehow. I enjoyed reading the letters between the new friends and the old friends too. I enjoy historical fiction but I know that some out there don't, but even though there are WWII references throughout the novel, it is a lighthearted read that is positive and that tries to look to the future after such devastation.  

This is a very charming story that is sweet and lighthearted with mild doses of inspiring moments.  There are also great historical references and very lovable characters.  It was not the most unique novel I have ever read, but it was a very enjoyable and witty read.  I really liked the main character, Susan Ashton, and found myself rooting for her. I also found myself wanting to move to Guernsey and join the literary society so that I could meet all the wonderful characters in person and discuss my favorite novels over a slice of potato peel pie with them.

The one word I keep coming back to to describe this book is Charming.  Read this if you want to read a book that makes you laugh, learn a little history, and that makes you realize why you love books all over again. 

The Last Hurrah

On Friday the 1st we had a BBQ at a park with our friends.  It was our last get together before we part ways for the Summer, some of us temporarily and some of us permanently.  It was a "little" chilly (okay it was a lot chilly) but that didn't stop the boys from running around like crazy and playing football.  Will was being a bear and having fun looking for sticks.  Most of us girls were trying to keep our toes warm.  

We have been very fortunate to have made such wonderful friends being far away from family.  It is so wonderful that being a member of the church gives you an instant connection with people who have the same goals and values.  These "MHA Mormons" have have been such a great group to be out here with and we will miss them as we begin to go our separate ways.  

Scott and Kara and their little boy Will are done with school and moving to Ohio.  We will miss you guys (especially Will's stories and animal facts) but we are excited for you.

Brian and Joni and their boys are moving to Boise.  We will miss them and their adorable boys but we are excited that they will be a lot closer to family and done with school.

Ryan and Angie and their baby have one year left and are staying here for the summer. He did the MBA as well.

Ryan and Annie C are also staying here for the summer and have one year left.

Dave and Natalie will be with us out in Salt Lake. When they come back they have one more year.

Ben and Melissa are headed out to Oregon for the summer.  He is also doing the MBA so they will be out here for 2 more years with us.

We will miss those of you that are moving away for good, and we will see you in the fall for those of us that are coming back.  Thanks for the good times guys!

*click to enlarge

The Girls- We are missing Kara and Joni :(

The Boys (it was harder then you may think to get them to take a good picture!)

Happy NSD!!!!

I hope you are all having a great NSD and doing something fun to celebrate!  Wait.... you don't know what NSD is?  It is National Scrapbooking Day! To celebrate my WONDERFUL husband let me do a little splurging and I got this

- Photos from the Quickutz Facebook page (yes I am aware that I am friends with a scrapbooking company on Facebook).

It is the "Reuse" limited edition Quickutz gift set and it is oh so cute! I also spent the day hosting one of the free projects at our "Make and Take" weekend at my work (Archiver's) to celebrate National Scrapbooking Weekend.  So if you have not done so yet, make something creative and eat a piece of cake to celebrate the wonderful art of scrapbooking!  

Now I actually want to eat some cake.

I LOVE cake!

p.s. Emma- The "Flirt" set totally reminds me of you every time I see it.  You have to check it out. Go here.