Sweet Belle

Belle
October 3, 2004 - March 25, 2014

Two weeks ago, we were forced to make the hardest decision of our lives and say goodbye to our girl.

She was home, where she was comfortable with the people who love her, snuggled up in her bed with her blanket and her toy.  She went peacefully.  She was ready.

I can honestly tell you that the nine and a half years we spent with this dog, were the best years of our lives.  She made us laugh on a daily basis, whether it was her inability to catch anything you threw to her, or watching her shake her toy around like she was the toughest dog in the world.  She was funny.

I may be a little biased, but she was the best dog.  Ever.

Belle loved everyone she came in contact with, dogs and humans alike.  She was great with little kids, and didn't have a mean bone in her body.  Sure, she would bark or growl here and there, but it never lasted more than a few seconds before she was excited about whoever was on the other side of the door.  You always knew when she was happy, too, because her nubbin would wag like crazy.

She loved car rides and spending time outside basking in the sun.  Every morning when we left for work, we made sure the window was open for her to look out at the world.   She was so curious about the cars and people passing by.  She was always just so happy.

As much as my heart aches, I know that she is at peace.  I just miss her so much.

We love you sweet girl.

Home

2013 was a busy year, and had a lot of monumental milestones for us.  Hence my absence here for almost the entirety of it.  I tried to make myself sit down and write, but inevitably, something else always got in the way.  I'm hoping 2014 will allow me more relaxation and time for myself.  

The biggest, and most exciting of those milestones, is that we bought a new home.  We had been living in a basement apartment of a family member's home for the past six years while Brett finished college, so this move was extremely exciting for us!!

We are not only in our own place again, but closer to our offices so our daily commute time has been cut nearly in half.

We already have a lot of projects planned out, and things we are hoping to improve as time goes by.  It's actually not at all the style of home we were looking for in the beginning, but once we walked through it with our agent, it just felt right.

I've already had the opportunity to do some entertaining, and it has been fun to be able to have the space to do that.  I can't wait for summer, when the snow will be gone, and we can take advantage of the back yard some more.

Even though 2013 was a good year, I'm glad it's behind us.  I'm looking forward to seeing what 2014 will bring! 

Happy New Year.

And the worst blogger award goes to.....

Me.

I feel terrible that it has taken me so long to get this post up, because I should have done it weeks ago, but I am hoping that my Secret Santa will understand!

I was absolutely thrilled with the gift she sent!! It was very thoughtful and the package contained some great things!! Here's what she sent:

A ball for Belle.  It's even her favorite kind....squeaky!

A journal for me.  I love that it has the quote from the top of my blog 

on the cover.  I can't wait to start writing in it.  

The package also had the board game version of Words with Friends, which I didn't take a picture of, but I am very excited about it because that happens to be one of my favorite iphone games.  

Thank you to my secret santa!! Once again, I had a great time participating, and look forward to doing it again next year!! 

My version of heaven

Moab, Utah 2011

I cannot wait to be back there again.

We need a vacation, and Moab is right around the corner. I couldn't be more excited. I sit and reminisce about last year and look through our pictures, and it brings a smile to my face that is wider than the Grand Canyon.  

Basking

Belle takes her toys very seriously. They are her babies.

She absolutely loves to sit outside in the sunshine and enjoy its warmth. Since we are fully taking advantage of the fact that there is still no hint of snow in sight at our house, she gets to spend time outside when Brett is home between classes. Today, she snuck her baby out with her so that it could enjoy the sun, too.

Thank you secret Santa

The secret Santa gift exchange this year was once again a success!  I had so much fun deciding what to send to my recipient, and I hope that she enjoys it! She had my name last year, and I absolutely loved the gift that she sent me so I was really looking forward to sending something fun to her and repaying the favor.

My secret Santa this year really paid attention! I was so stoked to open my package when it arrived to find this:

A bottle of Sparkling Moscato, a pink and black wine case and a pink and black corkscrew.  Seriously awesome.  Thanks to Sun Child for the great gift! I have already polished off the bottle, and it was delish! The case will come in handy quite frequently, and I appreciate that you took the time to make sure that you would send something that I'd really like!! 

Thank you Pserendipity for arranging the exchange again this year, it is so much fun and I am definitely looking forward to next years exchange. 

The contents of my weekend

It was a busy one, that's for sure.

I spent Friday night with Brett trying to help me figure out how to melt chocolate. I know that sounds fucking retarded, but if there is one thing I can say about myself, it is that I don't really know my way around a kitchen. He is a much better chef than I am, so I would not have been able to do this project without him. He was able to figure out what we were doing wrong, and set us back on the right path.

I was making four dozen Oreo truffles for a cookie exchange the next morning, and when the chocolate wouldn't melt right I almost had a mental breakdown. They had to be done that night, because if not I would have nothing to take with me to the party.

Brett had spent the majority of the day, in the midst of finals week, building me the display for my cookies that I had dreamt up the day before and sprung on him like a total asshole. He did it though, and it was so much more amazing than I could have imagined it. Because of him, I won the award for best display at the party:

My vision was Santa's sleigh on a rooftop, being pulled by Reindeer. I'd say he nailed it. 

Then after the cookie exchange was over, Shay and I (FINALLY!) went to see Breaking Dawn, part 1. I had heard mixed reviews about it, so I didn't really know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. As usual. I have really enjoyed the film adaptations of these books and watching them come to life. Now I just have to wait a year to see the next one.  Damn.  

December snuck up on me fast this year

The only snow we have had thus far in 2011....fine by me!

I know that it's December, and there's nothing that I can do about it, but I'm just not ready yet.

I'm not ready for snow. It was supposed to bombard us yesterday, but it didn't come. I can't tell you how relieved I was when I woke up this morning and looked out the window. The fact that there was no snow on the ground meant that I had ten more minutes of sleeping to do because I didn't have to go out and clean the snow off of my Jeep. I'm not going to be happy when it finally does start falling, because if it's held off this long, I have a feeling that means it's going to be a rough winter.

I'm not ready for Christmas. I am usually so excited for Christmas to come that I just can't stand it, but this year for some reason, I'm just not. I didn't put up my tree, instead I am using the wooden tree that Brett built me last year as a cookie display. This year my heart is just not in it. I'm not sure why.

Who knows, maybe I will come out of my funk.  One can only hope.

And I was like, Emilioooo!!

There has always been a special place in my heart for the comedic combination of Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan. There is just something about the two of them together in Night at the Roxbury that makes me laugh constantly for the entire ninety minutes. They are the ultimate dynamic duo. I have seen it a million times, which probably explains why I can recite almost every line in the whole movie, and it still never gets old. 

Brett, on the other hand, has never really been a fan of the show. In his defense, I don't think he had ever actually seen it all the way through until the other day. We were hanging out at home a few days ago, and I convinced him to watch it with me. A few minutes into the first scene, I noticed that Brett was laughing a little bit under his breath. I was a happy to see it, but figured that it wouldn't last. However, a few minutes later I noticed him laughing again. This continued on sporadically throughout the whole show, and during some parts he even laughed out loud.

Needless to say, I think we now know what Brett and Chaz are going to be for Halloween next year.

In Time

As someone who loves to write, I find myself noticing that there are more movies than not that are a repeat of some other story that is already in existence. It's very rare to find an original storyline, so when I do, I get pretty excited.

Going into this movie, I wasn't really sure what to expect.  The previews were just vague enough that you didn't really have a grasp of how intense the plot was going to be, but it drew you in and peaked your interest. I had this whole other idea in my brain of the direction it was going to take. I think that is part of what I loved about it though. As we were watching it, I had no idea what to expect so it made things that much more exciting for me.

The only criticism that I really have, is that I wish the leading lady was not Amanda Seyfried. I'm not really a fan of her acting, and that wig just looked ridiculous. I would have much rather watched him get naked in the ocean with Olivia Wilde who, oddly, was cast as his mother instead of his love interest. I would've done it the other way around. Everyone else, in my opinion, was cast brilliantly.

I love it when a movie challenges my brain like this one did. I can only hope that there will be others just as good.  I am not looking forward to the day when time is our currency.

Have you seen it?  What did you think?

Who dunnit?

This year's Halloween party was a Murder Mystery dinner. It was a lot of work to put it all together, but in the end it was worth the effort. The costumes turned out amazing, and everyone did a great job with their characters. 

The hostess of the evening:

Shay's character was Countess Bathory, a 16th century mass murderess.

As usual, Shay went all out on the decor, and it turned out so beautiful:

Here are some pictures from the evening:

 Kaylyn and Shay

 Amber and Kaylyn

 Teri and Kaylyn

Kaylyn, Brandi and Kate

 The guys - Danny, Chaz, Mike, Brett, Ryan and Nick

Kaylyn, Shay, Jen and Kate

The company that we ordered the party kit from was a little disorganized, so a lot of work went into rewriting the clues and the format in which their questions and answers were set up was a bit scattered. I really enjoyed writing the character stories though, and I am seriously thinking about making my own Murder Mystery dinner party business. It would be a great creative outlet. 

Overall, I am so glad that we opted to go with the Murder Mystery theme, and I really do think that we will do it again next year. 

I want to send a special thanks to Chaz and Shay for always hosting these great shindigs!  Maybe next year we'll live closer and I can host so that you two can take a break. 

I am the luckiest girl alive

If it wasn't for him, I'd be completely lost.

He has done so much for me in my life, and has made so many sacrifices for us to better our situation.  He is the most thoughtful person I know.  I've never met anyone who works harder than he does. He would go to the end of the earth and back to help someone that he loves, and he would give anyone the shirt off his back if they needed it. 

It's hard for me to imagine what life would be like without him.  I have known him for almost half of my life, and I can't even remember what things were like before he was here. I don't want to.  He is my number one fan, and he encourages me to be the best person that I can be. He supports anything I do, and that means the world to me.

The best thing about him though, is the incredible amount of fun we have together. I can't even begin to tell you how often he makes me laugh. I love spending my days off with him, even if we are just hanging out at home.  He is my favorite person in the whole world!

I love him completely.

Happy birthday love!  I hope that this one is the best one yet.

The evening of the enchantress

It has become a tradition for us to attend Witchapalooza at Gardner Village each October, and this year we actually went on Witches Night Out.

I have never seen so many grown-ass women in costumes in one place.  It was amazing.

If you live in Utah, are a fan of Halloween and have never been to Witches Night Out, I highly recommend it for next year! You see so many awesome costumes, the shops are incredible and if you choose to go to the dinner show, there's also great food and entertainment!

There are some professional witches, who go all out on their characters:

Then you get to see a bunch of amateur witches:



I could not believe the effort that went into some of the costumes we saw this year! I would love to be a professional GV witch! Thanks to Shay for making it possible! Every year she orders our tickets way in advance to make sure that we have good seats for the show. I love that we have found this little gathering, and hope that the tradition continues!

Dearest Shay,

Today is a BIG day!!

Today you hit a milestone.

Today you turn 30!!

I am sad that I can't be with you guys today, but I am happy that you are spending your big day in the happiest place on earth!  I know that there is no where in the world you would rather be today, and that makes my heart happy. A little jealous, but happy none the less.

I know Chaz isn't quite the Disneyland companion that I would be, so I have to apologize for that, but I know that you will be able to forgive me for not being there. There's always next year.

When you get home, as you know, there are great things for us to look forward to in celebration of your new chapter in life, and I cannot wait to experience them with you! You are the best friend that I could have ever hoped for, and I love you more than you will ever know.  I am so lucky to have you in my life, and I don't think that you realize all that you do for me. 

Happy birthday buddy!  I hope that this is your best birthday yet!! You totally deserve all of the happiness in the entire world.

Love,

Kaylyn

You can't hide from her duck feet

When friends converge and there is alcohol involved, it's inevitable that someone will take a photograph.  It's never really a surprise when you flip through the camera the next morning, because you are doing so expecting to find some incriminating evidence. 

Today, while I was examining the contents of my phone, I found a new avenue for capturing some of this glorious content.  Audio.  My phone came with an app, that until this weekend had never been used, called voice memo.  Apparently during the period of time that we were all inebriated, I discovered this app and decided to record my good friend Kate babbling from the bathroom floor.

I must say, most drunk people slur their words to the point that they are not even recognizable.  Kate doesn't have that problem.  She is the type of drunk whose words you can hear clearly, it's just the content and the way that she mixes it all together that makes no sense. My personal favorite was the two minutes that she spent telling us all how we couldn't hide from her duck feet. 

I'd like to send a special thank you to Kate for entertaining me tonight while I sat at work, listening to this new found audio, waiting for my phone to ring.

If the zombie apocalypse happened tomorrow

I was looking back through my archives today, and I have realized that I don't take pictures anymore. I used to have my camera with me everywhere I went, which in turn gave me a lot more to post about.

I used to be fucking snap-happy.

What the hell changed? I still have a camera, so that's not the issue.

I think that I need to try and motivate myself to start taking pictures again. If I do that, maybe the content on this blog won't be so boring or sparse.

In the spirit of Halloween, I recently downloaded an app for my phone that turns people into zombies. Maybe that's a good place to start.

Zombie Scotherns:

Zombie Schlange's:

Instagram

I recently stumbled across this new app for my phone that I am loving. It's a photo sharing app that allows you to add effects to your pictures, as well as a social networking type of photo sharing. As far as I know, right now it is only available on the iPhone, but they are in the works for apps that will work on other phones as well.

I'm not too interested in gaining followers or following others, unless they are people that I know, but I do love how great the pictures look when you add the effects. Have you tried it? What do you think?? 

Here are a few of my favorites that I've played with so far:

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Sunset near my house

Indian Paintbrush in Moab

The stage at the U2 concert

Belle

Brett and I on the beach in Carmel, CA circa 2007

Mardi Gras 2011

Indian Paintbrush

My mom absolutely loved wildflowers. If you had asked her what her favorite flower was, wildflowers would have been her response. She loved anything that grew wild in nature.

Her favorite wildflower was the Indian Paintbrush.  Whenever I see one now it reminds me of her, and I think about all of the memories that I have of my childhood when we would stop to pick one anytime we saw them.  It didn't matter if we were camping or driving through the canyon, she would always stop. Her favorite thing to do was take them home and press them, but the first thing she would do was take a small piece of the flower and stick it behind my ear. Every time.  

In Moab, the desert is sprinkled with Indian Paintbrush. Every time I saw one while we were out on the trails I had an urge to get out of the Jeep and take a picture.  After the first twenty, I started to realize that it was a little excessive, so I stopped.  It's funny how the little things in life make you remember the ones that we've lost.  To anyone else it's just a little red flower, but to me it's so much more than that.  It's like having a little piece of her there.

Music in my soul

Last night we met up with Chaz and Shay downtown for the U2 concert. 

When we walked into the stadium, the stage was so massive that it took my breath away.

Not only was their stage enormous, but the colors on the whole thing changed for every song they sang and the big circular screen in the middle was on tracks moving up and down for the latter half the show. The visual of it all was so amazing.

Mashed Potato

We went on a trail called the mashed potato on our second day in Moab.  I thought that it was a really fun trail, but the ass end of my Jeep would probably disagree with me.  There were so many steep spots to go down, that I had a hard time not slamming my hitch on the rocks as we would come off of them.  I even got a small dent in my tail pipe.  I've gotta tell you, when we bought this Jeep we had every intention of making a rock crawler out of her, but it made me cringe every time I heard the sound of metal grinding on rock.

I will learn to get over it, I'm sure.  

I know that I have said this about twelve thousand times already, but the pictures just don't do it justice!  Watching Chaz maneuver over these massive rocks was purely amazing.  I cannot wait for the day that Millie can do half the shit Culpepper does.  I was in awe the whole time we were there about what these vehicles are capable of.  

A friend of Mike's came down with his girlfriend, Newland and they rented a Jeep for a few days.  He looks just like Dexter, and that is all Shay and I were calling him the whole time they were there.  To this day I can honestly tell you that I have no clue what his real name is.  Is that rude?  Sorry Dexter.

Also, do you have any idea how hard it is to get a picture with 8 adults looking at the camera at the same time?  It's impossible.  That's why one or more of us is looking the wrong way in every attempt we made.  This was the best we could do.