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There are a few of my bloggy peeps who aren't on Facebook...so I'll share the fabulous news with the couple of you that may not have heard otherwise:

After a bazillion years (I swear it feels like it) and multiple fertility treatments Rhett and I are finally expecting our first in June! We're crazy excited and thrilled that we finally get to embark on this wild adventure. Crazy thing is that none of the fertility treatments worked. Once we gave up and started talking about adoption we got pregnant on our own! Strange how it seems to work that way. That's what happened the last time we got pregnant. Maybe next time we'll just head straight for the adoption line!

Crazy Eights

I've been tagged...

Eight things I did today (yesterday):
1. Drove in to town for work to attend a prep meeting for training that ended up getting cancelled.
2. Went to the doctor
3. Had my blood drawn
4. Visited my mom at work
5. Got frustrated with a loved one
6. Stopped by Baja Fresh on my way home so I wouldn't have to fix dinner
7. Called a good friend I hadn't talked to in awhile
8. Had thoughts of killing a neighbors pet (don't judge me! If you're woken up each day at 3:30 from a dead sleep because your neighbor insists on keeping a rooster you'd be cranky about it as well!)

Eight things I'm looking forward to:
1. The day I'll have kids of my own
2. Thanksgiving
3. Christmas
4. The birth of my nephew
5. Hosting Bunco in a couple of weeks
6. Seeing my cousin on Saturday (Thanks Laura, for hooking us up with tickets)
7. Having three PAID days off this month!
8. Eating a yummy Trader Joe's dinner tonight

Eight of my Favorite T.V. Shows
1. Fringe
2. Project Runway
3. Desperate Housewives
4. Ace of Cakes
5. Most anything on HGTV
6. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
7. What Not to Wear
8. Nitro Circus

Eight of my Favorite Restaurants
1. Cheesecake Factory (mmmmm)
2. Olive Garden
3. Memphis BBQ
4. Cafe Rio
5. Benihanas
6. Outback Steakhouse (big fan of their lobster)
7. Panda Express
8. Las Lupes

Chicago

Last week I had a conference in Chicago and had the opportunity to stay a couple of extra days to see the sights. Of course the first day was pouring rain and the second day was a high of 40 degrees with 50 mph winds. I could have done without the weather, but I still saw as much as I could see in such a short time period. One great thing was that it gave me practice time on my camera. I've had it for a few months, but it still feels new to me. Mainly because I don't know how to use it. So I decided to not take a single picture in "auto" and push myself to learn about the aperature, shutter speed, and ISO. I'm so glad I did this. Because I was alone on this trip, I didn't feel rushed to get it figured out. I took my time and stood in one place, taking the same picture multiple times until I finally got it right. Not that there really is a "right" or "wrong", but you know what I mean. When a picture comes out completely white or black...it's probably "wrong".

Because of the wicked weather, I spent quite a few hours inside the Shedd's Aquarium. That was a great place to test out my photog skills. It's not easy getting the right amount of light and trying to capture moving objects at the same time. I still don't have it down perfectly, but it was fun trying out different things.

I could have stared all day at this octopus. He was SO active...moving constantly. And he was HUGE. He had me captivated.

A cute little clown fish

This was a pretty cool eel that was quite active as well. He was swimming all over the tank.

As much as I love and respect the octopus, I literally could stare for the rest of my life at the jellyfish aquarium. Oh how I love to watch these animals. They're like a living lava lamp.

Shout out to the turtles

And a great school of fish.

This is Chicago. Looks beautiful, especially with the leaves turning colors and the ominous clouds. Don't let it fool you people! It's not called the windy city for nothing. It was October and 40 degrees and FREEZING with the winds.

The famous "jelly bean". Everyone calls it that, but technically I think it's called Cloud Gate, or something like that. I never heard anyone refer to it by its proper name, though. So it's the bean to me.

This was a picture I took from the third floor of the cultural center. You can see a bit of a reflection from the windows, but I thought it looked pretty neat.

That concludes our tour of Chicago...hope you enjoyed your tour.

Halloween Party

I haven't dressed up for Halloween in years! But when we were invited to the Rodger's Halloween party, we were excited to throw on some wicked cool clothes, do our hair just right and make a night of it.

The lovely hosts for the evening, Tracy and Ken Rodgers:

Our cute little family:

We've thought about becoming polygamists for years, so why not try it out for a night to see how it goes? After a few hours we decided it wasn't for us. It takes WAY too long and WAY too much hair spray to get my hair to do that. O'well. I guess it'll just be Rhett and me after all.

Bryn's Baby Shower

Thursday after work I headed up to Utah to hang out with friends and family and to go to Bryn's baby shower on Saturday. It was great to see so many of my friends that I don't get to see all too often. The shower went very well and I was also able to check off another one of my 101 goals: Design and sew a baby quilt. Thanks Laura and Ryan for letting me stay with you guys, you're the best!

Bryn, her mom Jan, and her sister Ashley

The baby quilt I made for Bryn.

Bryn's having a little baby girl!

Lake Powell Take II

We finally got a boat that could handle Lake Powell, so we had to take it out before the season ended. The weather was perfect, but the water was a bit chilly. Since this boat has a cabin (with a bed) we were able to sleep on the boat. It was nice to not have to spend extra money on a hotel room and take the boat out each day and put it back in each morning. It was a great trip.

Meet my new dog

I swear...life is more about cake for me. But I've been doing all these fun classes and I'm so excited about all the stuff I'm making that I can't NOT share. So...here is my most recent cake. The body is made from cake, the head and legs are Rice Krispies and the rest is fondant...yep, you can eat the entire thing!

My Cake Final

I can't believe it has already been 4 weeks! My cake classes are officially over!!! As much as I enjoyed getting out and learning and meeting new people, I am SO glad that it's done. Two nights a week I was driving to Henderson for the class and then two to three nights outside of class I was spending my entire evening baking, making buttercream, icing cakes, making flowers...it was a part time job. Only I was paying THEM! So now that I have a good foundation, I think I just need more practice until I'm really comfortable with everything.

This was my final cake:

A whole lot prettier than the fish cake, if you ask me. It's a four inch cake, covered with buttercream and fondant with gum paste flowers. I'm pretty excited about it. I love how the marbling turned out. And that just kind of happened by accident. I love when accidents work out even better than the original plan.

Pillow Give-away

Wanna win a fabulous new pillow? So do I! Check out Jori's give-away and enter for a chance to win a new pillow.

The Subway

I have seen pictures of "The Subway" in Zion National Park for years and always thought it looked like a pretty cool place. So when my friend Tosha got a permit and invited Rhett and me to go, we were pretty excited. It's 9.5 miles and took us just under 8 hours to complete and it was absolutely worth every sore muscle that I have today. A portion of the hike is through water and some parts you have to swim, so I brought along a waterproof camera (that doesn't exactly take the best pictures). I would have LOVED to have had my nice camera there, to capture the amazing colors and feel of the place. But I would be too paranoid that it would get wet somehow. Here are a few of the passages throughout the hike:

Fish Cake

So...I finally decided to do it. I've been wanting to do it for years, but it has just never worked out. And now that I'm living much further away and have even less spare time, I decided that there's no better time.

So I called up my local JoAnns (which is an hour and a half away) and signed up for TWO cake decorating classes! Each Monday in August I'll be learning how to decorate with fondant and gum paste and each Tuesday I'll be learning basic cake decorating (mainly with buttercream icing). I pretty much already know the basics, but the instructor has so many useful tips and tricks and it's great getting together with others who share the same interests. It makes for two very long nights each week, but it's only for a month. I can handle that. The instructor has been decorating cakes for 20 years and owned her own bakery for years. She even holds advanced lessons at her house. This weekend she's teaching how to do a topsy turvy cake. And in September she's teaching how to carve a cake, add rice krispies, and then cover in fondant. Plus she's going to show us how to use an air brush to add cool colors. How awesome is that?

Last night we learned how to do transfers. We traced our image with piping gel on wax paper and then transferred it to the cake and then outlined it and filled it in. It was simple enough, but I had never done it before.

Trapped

Do you ever have moments when you feel stuck?

Stuck in a job because the pay is good, or it's close to home, or the hours are flexible so you can manage your family life better. You don't love what you're doing, but there are certain aspects of the job that you can't give up and you're afraid that nobody else will be as accommodating?

Do you ever feel stuck at home because of your kids and/or husband? Not that you don't love them, but they don't allow you to explore the potential you.

Do you ever feel limited by your finances to really achieve your dreams? Can't take that vacation, buy your dream home/car/boat/(fill in the blank here). This also includes doing the job that you really want because maybe it doesn't pay enough. Or you can't start your own business because you don't have enough capital.

Do you ever feel stuck in the town you're in? Again, it might be a great place for many different reasons, but maybe it doesn't provide very many opportunities to help you achieve your full potential. Ever want to take classes, get a new job, or run a particular errand, but the town you're in doesn't have what you're looking for?

Do you ever feel trapped by your own life?




...Ya, neither do I.

Xander's 2nd Birthday

Happy birthday beautiful boy. Xander is such a sweet, fun, intelligent boy. I wish I lived closer to snuggle with him more.

Jori was off to the side, making him laugh as he was eating his cake and ice cream.

Trevor with ice cream all over his face.

I think Trevor could have played all day with the tape measure. He thought it was the coolest toy in the world.

Greg was showing us his house and when we got to his closet, Trevor wanted to climb up the shelves. But he couldn't do it himself and nobody seemed to be paying attention to his wimpers for help. So I set him on top of the safe and he thought it was the coolest thing ever. When Greg asked him to jump in to his arms, he was not inclined to oblige. So little Gregory volunteered. He is such a cutie. He loves the camera and the camera loves him right back. He has such a happy, fun personality. It's kind of hard to tell, but he's shreaking with joy as he's leaping from the top of the safe in to dad's arms.

Ha Ha. This one just cracks me up. The kids found this Batman mask and when I took a picture of Gregory, he had one eye open and the other mostly closed. He's too funny.

Xander opening his presents.

The girls were being stinkers and didn't want their pictures taken. O'well. They're usually the hams, so I'm sure I'll get them later.

Happy Birthday Xander!

Lake Powell 2009

Thursday afternoon Rhett and I headed to Lake Powell with our friends Shaun and Jalee for a long (wonderful) weekend. The weather was perfect and Lake Powell was just as impressive this trip as it was last year. We chose to see different parts of the lake and we found some really cool spots.

This is a cool bat cave we found (without the bats). There are arches and things like this all over the place, but none of them are actual caves. We drove up to it and found another boat in there. It was pretty big and super awesome inside. We had to jump in and play around for a couple of minutes before leaving the other boat their privacy.

This is the view from inside the cave.

This was a pretty cool cove. On the left were a bunch of etchings on the rocks and on the right there were vertical lines on the side of the cliff.

Isn't he cute? We stopped every so often and jumped in and cooled off.

Meet Shaun and Jalee. We love hanging out with them because they always provide a lot of laughs.

Caden's One-Year Photos

For the fourth of July Rhett and I spent the weekend at Mammoth Creek with a bunch of friends. We were in a cabin in the mountains with perfect weather and a creek out the back door. It was gorgeous. I also had a chance to play with my new toy...my camera. Since I was out there taking a bunch of pictures anyways, Tosha asked me to take her youngest son's one-year pictures. Once again my computer isn't cooperating and wont let me download as I wish, but here are a few of the pics:

Isn't he adorable? Thanks, Tosha, for letting me get pictures of your cute little man.

Canon Rebel T1i

So, I FINALLY got a new camera last night. After almost 3 months without a decent camera and I broke down and bought the Canon Rebel T1i. I just opened it this morning to charge the battery so that after work I can play around with it a bit. I'm quite excited, but very nervous. I've never spent this much money on something that has the potential to get lost/stolen/damaged so easily. But I'm excited to take my skills to the next level and I think this camera will really help out quite a bit. Yay.