Fun at the Zoo

Yesterday was one of the most fun days I have ever had. Our friends, Nick and Chelsea, helped us set up Chris with Chelsea's friend/co-worker Abbie and we went on a triple date to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. We got there just before 10 AM and it was a bit on the chilly side but we stood and watched these kids perform a sing and dance routine before heading to the gift shop. We looked around, warmed up a bit, and David bought a walking stick that was pained with tiger stripes and had a tiger head carved on the top. It was pretty cool. Outside they had a bunch of hats so we tried a bunch on.

Nick and Chelsea

Chris and Abbie

After that we went on, we saw some turkies running wild and then saw some monkies and then we saw the "Ghost of the Bayou", which is a rare white alligator. Here is a picture of him. He was pretty content just chillin' out. We walked around the zoo for the next few hours, just taking pictures of all the animals. I was bummed a little because there was construction going on in the middle of the zoo and the one exhibit that was inaccessible was the Kangaroo exhibit, which is one that I really wanted to see. We did see camels, elephants, and lots of monkies, however. The giraffes were cool, too, which is where the skin for our new header came from. I just zoomed in as far as I could and shot this of the mama giraffe's body. After that we saw the tiger and leopard and some other cats. After that we headed around the saw the Zebras and bears. Then we saw the penguins! They were so cute! Most of them were hanging out in the shade but there was this one that was perfectly happy just swimming around all by himself. He was pretty carefree and fun to watch. He looked like a duck when we swam on his belly! We also went through the reptile and small animal house. The best part of that were the maras. For those of you who don't know, Maras are rodents that resemble large rabbits. Anyway, there were two of them in this pen area with two birds that looked like parrots, but I'm not sure. Anyway, the birds were sitting together up against the wall and the two maras would try to get close and the birds would run at them and chase them away! It was so funny, we watched them for a good ten minutes or so. Anyway, we then went and took our group picture in front of the big elephant. We asked this lady to take our picture and right as she was about to take it her cell phone rang so she took four pictures of us while talking on her cell phone. What a trooper! After that we headed to the other side of the zoo where there is a playground area for kids. We took a bunch of pictures just playing around on the animal themed playground equipment. This area was surrounded by train tracks because there is a train ride that the zoo runs for a buck a ride. Anyway, there were these sheeps and goats and one of the sheep went and stepped onto the tracks and just stood there for several minutes. I snapped a picture and we kidded around about the "suicidal sheep." After that we went on the train ride, which is short but fun. It would be way cool if it went around the zoo and showed more of the animals but it was OK for what it was. After the train ride we went back to the gift shop to get the things we saw earlier but didn't buy because we didn't want to carry them around. I got a meerkat stuffed animal and a picture frame. This is the mara.

By then we were pretty hungry so Nick suggested we go to this place called the Mayan (it's called Mayan Adventure actually). It is in South Salt Lake and it took a bit of time to get there but was well worth the wait. Talk about atmosphere! This place completely transports you to ancient Mayan culture. It had elements that reminded me of the Mexican Exhibit at EPCOT Center at Walt Disney World. There was a cliff that was two or three stories tall with a pool at the bottom and the seating was on four or five different tiers. We were seated on the top level. Every 20-30 minutes these cliff divers come out and do dives into the pool. On top of all that the price was awesome! David and I ate for about $32.00. It was good food too. I also got a smoothie but it was way overpriced. It tasted good but I didn't think it was big enough to be worth the $5.25 we paid for it. Anyway, we had an awesome meal. Then we left and Nick, Chelsea, Chris, and Abbie went and dropped Abbie off at her house because she needed to get to work. Then they went to Chelsea's to check on her dog and then headed back and met us at our apartment. We were going to go to a 7:30 movie but we all fell asleep and woke up around 7:30. Oops! We ended up going to a 9:05 movie instead, just the 5 of us. We saw "21". It was a decent movie. I was entertained the whole time but it was a little unbelievable. It was something I think my dad would like, though. It had elements from the Ocean's movies. The only down side was that I was really nauseated the entire movie. When it was over we went and got some chocolate milk. For some reason that helps.

Next month we're going to do another date, probably a photo scavenger hunt. Sweet!

To Work or Not to Work?

I filled out this questionairre for Officeteam that I THOUGHT was anonymous, but apparently it wasn't because they called me this morning to talk about it. Had I known they were going to wake me up the next morning I wouldn't have bothered to do the stupid thing. I basically said that I wasn't super impressed because they haven't really found me any good work. My first job was great but the communication between Officeteam and Griffin was sucky at best and I was the one who suffered because of it. Then they gave me this one day gig that after taxes paid twenty bucks and I was almost insulted by the work load. They offered me another one but I turned it down because it is not worth it to me. I don't know, the whole time I was talking to them I just felt so....annoyed, so uncomfortable. I have a freaking college degree and I have tested off the charts for the kind of work I do and I can still only find ten or eleven bucks an hour? I am worth so much more than that! I don't know, part of me wants to work, make money, etc, but part of me just wants to stay home and take care of things here. Maybe I can even enjoy some free time before I have kids because hopefully that will be soon. I feel in a way that this is my time to read all I want, play Euchre on Yahoo! or whatever else strikes me. Maybe I'm just holding out for this church job that won't ever come. I don't know I just feel so confused!! I don't know what I want, I just know what I DON'T want. Thoughts?

Do Wishes Come True?

I wish one of my rich friends would just decide to be an angel and anonymously donate $500 so I could get to Ohio (on a direct Delta flight) for my friend's wedding without having to worry so much about bills!! I'd consider not going but she's one of my best friends in the whole world (after from David, of course) and I'm 50% of her bridesmaids. Besides, I promised, I really want to, and when push comes to shove, I could probably afford it without going completely broke. I just get scared because all I keep reading is how prices are going to keep going up. I know I have time (the wedding is July 19) but I like planning ahead. It just makes me sick that there are people who could drop thousands for stuff like this and not think twice. Lucky stiffs.

No News

I have been trying to clean my apartment for the last two days. I have every intention of working I just can't seem to bring myself to do it. I have no idea why I am having so much trouble getting motivated to do anything. Ben and Misty are going to the temple today and so we're babysitting. I have to go over in a few hours. I watched the Indians game on ESPN yesterday and was throughly disappointed. We were leading the entire time and we could have held out but then they took out the pitcher who was doing well (was it three or four strike outs?) and put in the pitcher who gave up the game-winning, 2-run home run to none other than the peacock himself, Manny Ramirez. *sigh* It is just annoying because I know we're better than that. David got me another potential job. I'm excited to have something to do and make money (30,000 a year) but I just can't get really pumped up about it. Deep down I just want to stay home and take care of my family. The problem is that I don't really have anyone to take care of during the day while David is working so I just try to keep busy and end up being bored a lot. Maybe I just feel like if I start working than I'm somehow admitting that I'll never get what I want. I know that sounds stupid.

Sometimes I feel like my life is stuck in pause.

Pictures!

I posted these on Facebook AND Myspace so I only want to put some of these on here to try this out...

You probably recognize this as our profile pic...This is one of the best pictures of me and David around. We haven't had a good picture together in a LONG time.

Basically we spent Friday night at Ben and Misty's because I had a headache but they wouldn't stop bugging me so I told them I'd only go and watch the movie if I didn't have to get up and go home when it was done. We watched "I am Legend" and I didn't think it was so great. Why does the dog always have to die?? I HATE movies like that. Anyway, we got up Saturday morning, got showered and dressed and went to Salt Lake City. We did a session at the temple and had some initiatories done that we needed. Then we went to Michael Carey's and he took us to this sushi restaurant that he swear by. I had a rice bowl (if it swam in the sea, it's NOT FOR ME, right Jon?) with just veggies and chicken. I DID, however, try a piece of non-seafood sushi. It wasn't awesome and I probably wouldn't ever eat a whole roll of it, but I've tasted much worse things. I was proud of myself for trying it, even if it was just mango, a touch of asparagus, and cream cheese. We had so much fun just talking and planning for when Michael's family comes from Ohio for his graduation. We wanted to continue the fun with a movie but we couldn't find one we all liked. We went to Target to get an air can because Michael's car (which we left at his apt) had a flat. We went back and dropped him off then headed home. I read some more of my Book of Mormon and then we decided we wanted to hang out. We tried to do something with our friends Nick and Chelsea but they were busy so we just took off. It was a beautiful day, clear skies, warm...so we went up and took some pictures, which is where these all came from. Then we drove to the Riverdale Deseret Book because Ben and Misty had paid us for some babysitting and we wanted to go shopping. There was a beautiful sunset but I couldn't get a good view for a picture. David got a painting and I got myself a movie as well as some things for mother's day gifts. I also upgraded to a platinum rewards member so now I get double points! Yay! So far I have enough points for 23 dollars of store credit. I promised myself I would save up 20,000+ so I can get all the Work and the Glory books. It'll will probably take me a few years or so but I'm excited to work up to it. While we were there Ben called and wanted to borrow our Pirates of the Caribbean movies so we went home, got them, then went over to Ben and Misty's house. We were going to drop them of and then go to IHOP, but we ended up talking for over 4 hours (until almost 2 am). While I was hungry, it was SO nice to just sit and talk as adults without the kids distracting us and pulling attention away from one person or another. Today we went to church and now I'm here, updating my blog. Yay! I should be getting pics from my birthday soon...since that was almost 2 months ago...LOL.

This is me and Chris goofing off.

Still Picture-less, but Good News Nonetheless!

Let's give a quick weekend recap:

Saturday we woke up and talked in bed for awhile about everything, then we got up and watched the first session of General Conference. Then I started making spaghetti and meatballs but David took over because I didn't cook the noodles right. We ate and watched a few old reruns on ABC Family while we waited for the next session. Our friend, Nick, called and wanted to hang out, so he came over and watched the second session with us. About a half hour before it was over his girlfriend, Chelsea, got here and finished the session with us. After it was over she left to meet up with a friend and David and Nick ran to the store to get some snacks because we had all decided to meet up after the Priesthood session and watch a movie. While they were gone I started making a "Welcome Home" sign for Ben and Misty, who were getting home the next day. Even with Chris's help, it took about an hour. We got it done though and I got everything together. Nick and David came back and Nick went hom to change for the session (he was going with his dad). David and Chris changed and they took me to Ben and Misty's before going to the stake center. I hung up my sign, cleaned the counters a bit, put everything away, reconncected the Wii to the VCR (it worked this time, of course....grrrr!), and washed the few dishes we used. Then I emptied the trash and got ready to go. I took their van and drove it back to our apartment, where I dumped the trash. When I got inside there were messages on the machine, which is rare, we get MAYBE 3 legitimate calls a WEEK. NO ONE calls us, LOL. Well the first message was a hang up, but the second was from a guy named Randy, letting David know that HE HAD A NEW JOB!! I was SOOOOO excited that I wrote down the number then accidentally deleted the message! Oops! Well I called Randy back and told him David wouldn't be back for awhile. He told me to have David call Steven the next day. After that I got online and played some Euchre until David and Chris got home. Chelsea came over shortly thereafter and we showed her some of Nick's mission pics that we had on our computer until Nick got there. He was later than we thought because there was a miscommunication and he was at home waiting for Chelsea to call. Oops again! Well he got there and we all got some soda, where I announced we needed to toast...David's new job! He was so excited, it was awesome. Then we popped marshmellow popcorn and watched "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and went to bed when Nick and Chelsea left.

Sunday we got up around 7:45, showered, and got dressed in our Sunday clothes. Then we grabbed some food and things and left for Michael Carey's. David and I drove Ben and Misty's van and Chris drove his car. We got there just before 10 and watched the first session of conference from his apartment. We had an oven pizza for lunch then he took us to Salt Lake City and dropped us off at the Conference Center. We were there a bit early, but our seats were in the balcony, which means it was general admission. We were only five rows back since we got there early enough, which was nice. David and I played electronic Yahtzee while we waited. The session was great, President Monson was soooo funny! I had a little trouble though because I had a bad headache. YUK. Anyway, after the session we found Michael and he took us back to his place. I still had a headache so I ate some food then fell asleep. When I woke up Chris was playing Guitar Hero. I played a little and we watched Michael beat one of the bonus songs on Expert. It was CRAZY! Then Ben called and said their plane had landed, so we left for the airport. I went in and helped them get everything out to the van. I didn't realize how much I missed them until I saw them all in the airport. The kids were excited to see me and it was soooo cute!! Joey let me hold him all the way out to the van, which is saying something. Then we got in our car and they got in the van and we all drove home. David had trying to call people and figure out who Steve was all day, but he finally got a call back from Randy when we got home and he told us that he didn't know Steven either, he had meant Dave. HAHA.

Today we got up, David made some calls, filled out some paperwork, figured out where to go and left for work. I'm so happy for him, this is a good job. He's working for a little company that does IT Support for other companies. He has to travel a lot but as long as I'm not working it's OK. When (if) I get a job we'll look into another car if we need. He's making more than he was at his last job, though, so I feel less pressure to work, although I want to because I get bored. In other news, I am working on my sewing projects and my book, although both are coming slowly. I'm finding it hard to be motivated. Oh well. Chris met a girl named Christine whom he really likes. Hopefully we can meet her soon, it will be nice to have another couple to hang out with. I think Chris will feel less awkward.

Well that's the latest and greatest from Utah............ta ta!

Oh, I'm getting the pictures from my birthday and David's birthday soon, so maybe I can put some pictures up.