Back at it...

Brittney and I began again with our early morning regimen. We are taking it slow and starting with the Wind Cave hike in the Ussery Mountains. It was so beautiful this morning. There were already tons of wildflowers blooming up there. It is going to be a spectacular spring with all the rain we have had.

It was so nice to be out in the fresh air this morning and clear the mind. It really made appreciate the splendor we have access to here in the Valley. For such a big city, we sure have a lot of nature to enjoy.

If you live here in the Valley, and you have never been to Ussery Mountain Park you should definitely give it a try. It is easy to access (North East Mesa) and there is hiking at every level. You would not find anything too difficult or extreme but it is still a good jaunt.

We Won The Lottery!!!!

The Lottery I won is actually costing me money but very exciting nonetheless. Jarrod, Brittney, Gladriel and I put in for the non-commercial Colorado River trip lottery. It is extremely hard to get and two of us were actually picked. This means in about a year and a half from now we will be rafting down the Colorado River from Lee's Ferry to Lake Mead. It is about a three week trip. So long vacation next year... However this is the trip of a lifetime!!

Had my cake and ate it too...

Well not really; I had Mint Brownie Trifle instead and it was fantastic. Last night Christi had several of our friends over for the most delicious dinner for my birthday. If I ever hear Christi say she is not a very good cook again I am going to hop on her scale and prove her wrong.
Wow, it is going to be a hard adjustment not be taken out to lunch and dinner ever day to celebrate. My birthday celebrations started about a week before my birthday and ended about a week after. Last night was so fun. It was great to spend the evening eating, drinking and being merry. The best part of the whole night was watching Christi lose at "Ticket to Ride". I was not playing but it is always great when Christi looses because she is always taking everyone else for a "ride". Just kidding Christi, I am always so happy for you when you win. :)

The Economics of Gold-Digging

Many of you may have seen this before. It has been circulated through email a couple of times, but I just got it again today and thought I would share it with any who may have missed it.

The Economics of Gold-Digging - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog

Feels great to be forty!

Okay so I am not forty, but if I were you would think I looked great for forty wouldn't you? I thought maybe if I start celebrating my fortieth birthday now then it won't look so bad when it actually comes. :)

Tuesday night I had a great dinner out with Jayne and Christi, Wednesday night Arian and Christi came over for dinner and last night the "Old Landmark" gang went out on the town to celbrate mine and Marcie's birthday's. How wonderful to fill so much of my time with the company of great friends. It is worth having a birthday every year just to catch up with everyone.

Last night we had fabulous Thai food at Malee's on Main and then we walked around down town Scottsdale and enjoyed the Art Galleries. Hillary, Jen and I all decided we could easily reproduce some of the over-priced art we saw. So next "Mormon Monday" as Maribeth calls it, we are going to bring out skills and the extra junk we have lying around the house, slap it all together and sell for thoudands of dollars to those Snooty Scottsdale suckers.

I have been so blessed to have so many wonderful amazing people as a part of my life. What a wonderful gift you are all are to me!

Basketball, Basketball, Basketball...

First things first... Let me get my pride out of the way and declare that the object that was knocked down in my front yard two nights ago is in fact called a Basketball Goal. See the following link; http://overstocks.basketballgoalstore.com/?c=slamdunk&gclid=CL-X6t3a1ZECFQISYQodXVmLZA. Well maybe you don't even need to pull up the website, just note the name is Basketball Goal Store... Thank you very much Ashley and Kelly. Just so you know they do sell hoops as well which as far as I can tell is the top part of the goal.

Next, how about those suns?! Yes, I know we had a loss last night but overall played a great game. I am feeling like we are going to get ourselves a championship this year!! I know many of you have been skeptical about Shaq but I really think this is going to be just what we need to win this season. Now if we can just figure out how to either defend the Lakers or outscore them...

Go Suns!!!

Sun and Snow...

What a great combination; It was a wonderful weekend of Sun and Snow in Colorado! Amber, Tanner and I spent the weekend doing our favorite things skiing and eating! We spent our first day of skiing in Telluride. Amber had never been there and absolutely loved the atmosphere. Tanner loved it because they have a huge freestyle park and lots of half-pipe and jumps. The second day we skied in Durango. I love that place! They have great runs that are really long and a lot of variety. We just had a great trip overall. It could not have been a better way for Amber and I to celebrate both our Birthdays!

So last night I am in my kitchen making myself some green chili chicken noodle soup and I hear this huge crash in my garage. My heart started racing and I just knew someone was breaking into my house. so I ran out the front door and thought I could catch them from the front. I see that one of my neighbors is parked in the street with his truck and a huge trailer carrying a sand rail. Apparently there had been two cars on the truck but the second came flying off and ran right over my basketball goal and into my garage door. I just started laughing. Another neighbor came running over, as she had seen the whole thing. Eric, the owner of the cars, said his heart was pounding. He was so thankful no one was hurt and that it missed my car which was parked only a couple of inches away. When the basketball goal fell over it hit my roof and knocked off some roof tiles and then went crashing into the garage door creating only minimal damage. It was pretty funny really. Eric said he had just driven four hours home from the dunes on the freeway. What a miracle that it happened in our neighborhood and not on the freeway.

My Little Valentines

Yesterday I had my primary class over for a little valentine party. We decorated heart shaped cupcakes and made cards for each childs parents for valentine's Day. It was so fun! They are just absolutley adorable, as you can see. It was great to see how creative they were with their cupcakes and the cards. I loved seeing how each of them was wither so concerned with making enough cupcakes for each member in their family or about eating them themselves. It was hilarious to see how they would adorn their cupcakes. Quite frankly most of them did not look to edible after all the extras were added but they seemed to think they were perfect and that is what counts. I sure love these little four year olds! It is kind of the best of both worlds; I get to have all this fun with these great kids and then I can send them home for all the work. Who knew life could be this perfect!

Happy Birthday Susan!

Today is Susan's birthday. As you can see she is still young and beautiful! I met Susan almost nine years ago when I began my career with Landmark. We became fast friends through our shared love of sarcasm and intellectual wit. Although, we know who is really the funniest between us, there have been a few times I have let her think she got the better of me. The one thing we can always agree on is that we are definitely funnier than everyone else in the room. Susan was the assistant to the V.P. of Sales and Marketing and I was working in the Home Essentials Division. Two years later I was managing the division and Susan wanted to do something different she came to work with me in Home Essentials and eventually took over for me when I moved to the executive suite. When we worked together some of the guys at work thought it was funny that we were such good friends because we were so different. They would tease that we were like day and night; I was day and Susan was night. :)
She is one of the most talented, intelligent and truly magnificent people I know! (And yes gentlemen she is single) Susan is the kind of friend everyone needs to have. She has been encouraging and supportive through every triumph and every difficulty. I know if ever I need ANYTHING she is there in a heartbeat. Love you Susan and here’s to another great year!

My parents came out to visit this weekend and we had a blast. We began our time together with a bang by attending the Suns game! My friends Jeremiah and Jayne were being honored at center court by Banner Hospitals as The Family of The Year. I have attached picture of them and their sweet quadruplets on the jumbotron.

It was a great game (we won of course!) and my Mom and Dad really enjoyed their very first NBA game. I have also attached some pictures of my friends Ryan and Bryan who are obviously democrats from Vermont
Okay maybe I am just a little bitter that Ryan chose to sit in those seats with Bryan and not me!!! Do you see how close they are to Grant Hill… Oh, excuse me while I daydream!!!

Saturday I drug my parents out to the Ussery Mountains to hike. Dad and I hiked up to the Wind Cave while Mom walked around in the park and visited with people and worked on a crossword puzzle. It was an absolutely beautiful day!! Late that afternoon we decide to go see The Bucket List. I did not know much about it and thought it was a comedy but it is serious. It was really good except that the language is really bad, well for me anyway.

My parents brought my birthday gift which I am VERY excited about! They got me a Cricut! I have already created tons of fun projects for my primary kids and anticipate a lot more! LOVE IT!! Thanks again Mom and Dad!! You are awesome!Love YouThen of all the wonderful things, Christi invited me over late last evening for an early birthday! I could have died when I opened my present and saw not just any camera but a PINK camera. Christi, you know me so well!! I am so excited to have a brand new Kodak easyshare 8MP. AWESOME and just in time for my trip to Colorado… Thanks CeeCee!!! Love you tons!!!