Utah Trip! Part One!

So October 9-11 Brian and I spent a few days visiting good old Cedar City, UT. It was so amazing to see all of my friends again. It's hard living in Wisconsin because I really don't have any friends here, minus the dear boyfriend, and I miss having girl time with the girls.

We flew into Las Vegas super early Friday morning, got our rental car, and headed off to Utah. We made a pit stop in Mesquite, NV to grab lunch (Del Taco woo woo), and I decided I'm going to move there someday. This was also Brian's first introduction to seeing a mormon church on every corner and I think it weirded him out a bit. When we got to Utah and crossed the border I started to get super excited, and once we got close to Cedar I started freaking out!

We checked into the lovely Hampton Inn, only to learn it was also the weekend of the High School Shakespear Competition. Needless to say, our hotel was overrun by high schoolers, as was the majority of the city. I always hated this weekend when I lived in town. Poor Brian, I wouldn't let him rest because I immediately made him come with me to visit Bulloch Drug (I worked there for 3 years). I got to see a lot of my favorite people, and I got some chocolate covered cinnamon bears (the one candy I can't find in WI, also I can't find uncooked tortillas, but I digress...). Then we went and surprised Cami at work!! She didn't know we were going to stop by, and I made Brian go in first and I hid behind him. She freaked out when she saw me, and we spent a few hours at the music store catching up. That night the three of us went to the Pizza Factory for dinner, and then Brian was nice enough to let Cami and me have a girls night. We watched Mamma Mia, colored, drank fuzzies from Brad's Food Hut, and ate chococlate covered cinnamon bears. It was totally what I needed, and just spending the few hours with her made me feel like my old self!

The next day Brian and I went up Cedar Mountain and drove to Cedar Breaks. It was gorgeous and windy! We took a lot of pictures, so here is a small sampling of some of my favorites:


Snow! I got to see snow! I love snow!

We also drove to one of the lookouts, and there were chairs randomly set up with an aisle between them leading to the edge of the outlook. We concluded it was either a wedding (hence the aisle) or people scattering someone's ashes since it was a super windy day and a lot of the arriving guests were wearing black. While at this lookout a nice man took pity on my bad self-portrait skills and took a picture of us together. I adore this picture, and it really is my favorite picture of Brian and me ever.



I really miss having mountains in my backyard, but I do suppose living in the flatland makes me appreciate them more when I am able to see them. My one regret while being in Utah again was not making the time to go hiking in Zion National Park. I suppose though a full on Utah trip is now in order so that I can get everything done that I want to do!

I'll continue with part two of our Utah trip tomorrow so y'all better be excited for that!

Majorly Needed Update!

Holy cow I can't believe it's been two months since I last blogged. I kind of got out of the blogging mood so that explains the update. I still have to blog about my awesome trip to Utah and Vegas, but that I will save for another time.

Life for me is going well, but work is crazy as we're gearing up for Holiday 2009! Woo woo! Ok not so much. I wouldn't mind work so much if people were in better moods and I didn't always feel like an idiot when I'm there. I'll learn to deal with it though. I do have an application in for a job I really want, but I won't jinx it by saying what it is. Needless to say, if I were to get it I would be the happiest girl alive! There are some fun things in the future for the Gap and Gap Kids so keep your eyes peeled for some pretty sweet sales and other fun things.

My mom had her surgery at the beginning of last month and her vision is back to normal, minus the fact she needs a new perscription for her glasses. I'm so glad she can see again because she is definitely back to her more cheery self. I seriously wouldn't know what I would do without my mom seeing as she really is my best friend.

Other than that I just get to hang out with Brian a lot, which is super fantastic! We're still watching all of the seasons of the West Wing, and we've managed to make it to Season 3 in the 15 months we've been dating, but really it's a great show :)

Sorry this update was really pointless but I just wanted to let whomever reads this blog know that I wasn't dead yet :)

Downgraded to a tankini...

So needless to say, the bikini I posted about months ago will definitely not be on my body in October for my Utah/Vegas trip. I haven't lost a single pound all summer, which totally bums me out. I have changed my eating habits majorly towards the healthy side (for the most part), so despite not losing any weight I do feel that I made some progress.

Seeing as I really dislike my old bathing suit (moreso because an ex-boyfriend picked it out for HOPE tour, which I never wore on HOPE tour) I really needed to find a new one. The ones that I found left in the stores around here were either really skanky, or really grandmaish. While I was up late one night I remembered how cute the swimsuits were at Christensens in Cedar City, and so I looked at a few websites and finally found a cute new tankini! It was a splurge at 70 dollars, but I found a 25% off coupon at retailmenot.com (best site for online coupons!!!), so in the end I didn't feel too guilty about it. And since I know you're all curious now, this is my super cute new swimsuit!

It's black and white gingham with little red (or pink, I can't really tell) roses. It's also a halter top that ties in the back with a big bow, and I love that the straps are so thick. It's rouched on the sides so I'm hoping that will make me look thinner ha ha, and I am super in love with it. Hopefully it will come soon, and hopefully it will fit! Thanks to Layers Clothing for making fun swimsuits, and for the picture that I used for this post :)

Cruiser Bruiser!

So this post is being written only two weeks post-trip, but at least I'm finally getting around to writing it. Two weeks ago Brian and I took a road trip to St. Louis for his cousin's wedding. It was such a fun trip! We drove in my car, and my goal was to stay awake for the entire car ride since I am notorious for falling asleep really easily while riding in a car. Towards the last few hours of the trip I had to find ways to occupy myself beyond reading Cosmo (side note I was so disappointed to see how sexually focused that magazine was until I tried finding a worthy article to read and discuss with Brian! They were all about sexual things, so needless to say no worthy articles were found), doing crossword puzzles, and finding hidden words in word searches. I then came up with the brilliant game of Cruiser Bruiser! Basically the first person to find a PT Cruiser got to playfully hit (obviously we're not violent people or anything ha ha) the other person. I dominated at the game, but Brian says that it's an unfair game to the person who is driving. I say he just doesn't like to lose.

Upon arriving to St. Louis we stopped off at Union Station for food! Union Station is a really neat place that is a collection of a hotel and a ton of restaurants with like a little pond surrounding it that you can enjoy. We chose the Hard Rock Cafe for food, and it was delicious. Here are a few pictures of Union Station for you to enjoy:



Obligatory "self-portrait" that I take everywhere we go:


Once we checked into the hotel (Brian's parents were nice enough to let us stay in a Suite with them, so in the end I got to be roommates with Brian's sister Jenny) we found that Brian's family was all congregating in the hotel's lobby. I got to meet a majority of the people I had never met before, and it was fun to do so since my family is so small and Brian's is so large.

The next day was his cousin's wedding, and it was held in the church on St. Louis University's campus. It was a gorgeous church, and a great ceremony. They tied in some cool and unique traditions that I think have a Spanish background. I know I'm not a great photographer, but here is a picture of the outside of the church:


Here is another obligatory "self-portrait" of Brian and I waiting outside of the church between the ceremony and the reception:


The reception was held in the basement of the church. Now I was curious as to what that would be like since usually church basements are dark and drab and very cement like. This church basement however was GORGEOUS. It was made to hold receptions and it was very well lit and bright and just awesome. It was a good time, and I even made Brian slow dance with me once. After the reception was over we went back to the hotel and ordered a pizza and played Phase 10 with Brian's cousin Rob and his wife Anna.

On Sunday we trekked our way back to Wisconsin, and stopped off somewhere in Illinois to mini-golf and ride go-karts. It was so fun to mini-golf and I only lost by 2 strokes! The go-karts were fun too, but Brian kept getting bumped and turned around by some jerk so that was not to great. I'm just glad I was tall enough to ride them :)



All in all it was a great trip, and I can't wait for our next vacation to Utah/Las Vegas!!!

12-Month-A-Versary!

Yesterday was Brian's and my one year anniversary of dating. It's been the best year of my life, and in some ways I can't believe it's only been a year that I've known him, and in other ways it seems like it's been forever (in a good way ha ha).

We had originally tossed around the idea of going out of town for a night or two, but seeing as we're going to St. Louis next weekend and that Brian's friend from Florida would be in town this weekend, we scrapped that idea. We ended up having a great day and it was the best 12-month-a-versary ever.

First Brian was out by me visiting some clients of his in the mental hospital, and surprised me by saying he was free for lunch! I let him choose between Pizza Hut (one of his favs) and Mexican food (which Brian loves, but its one of those things I'll eat, but it's not something I crave or anything). He chose Pizza Hut and so we went and had the podunkiest buffet ever...which is sad since we've had some Pizza Hut buffets in some pretty podunky towns in Northern, WI. It was still fun cause really I enjoy any time spent with him.

In the afternoon he had to go back to work, and I ran errands around town. When I got home there was a ginormous box on my porch addressed to me! I love getting mail of any sorts, but seeing as this was a giant box I was extra curious. Upon opening the box I found these:



I was extremely shocked that Brian sent me flowers!! Not only that but they're my favorite flowers in my favorite colors. I was so surprised and happy I cried. I took this picture right when I took them out of the box so it doesn't do them justice at all. After being in water for a few hours, plus my mom doing her expert arranging, they looked much better.

Brian told me that we had dinner plans that night but wouldn't tell me to where. I got all cute and dressed up, and mi madre wanted to take a picture of me dressed up with my flowers, so here you go on the picture of that cause I really like this picture ha ha (I'm so vain):



We ended up going to dinner at The Melting Pot, which really was awesome! We had the three course meal with a mexican cheese fondue, a wine based fondue meat course, and then a chocolate crunchy peanut butter dessert fondue. It was so yummy, minus the fact that I tried lobster for the first time and I wasn't a fan (side note, in the span of a week I tried crab legs, duck, and lobster for the first time and hated them all, but at least I tried). We kept laughing because the people in a booth near us talked the whole time about how their waitress had so many similiarities with a soap opera tv character, and literally talked about soaps and the soap network the whole time.

Here are a few pictures I took during the meal. The first one is of the aftermath after we ate all the meat, but you can see the creepy lobster tail shell that the lobster was served on. I made Brian turn it over at one point so I could see the underside, and it creeped me out so bad I almost threw up ha ha. I know its a pointless picture, but I think its fun for posterity's sake.



The second is an attempt at a self portrait that I cut myself out of...but I think Brian looks cute with his cheesy smile so here you go.



It was a great night, and a great way to celebrate the past year. I'm so happy and grateful to be with Brian, and he constantly makes me feel like the luckiest girl alive. He's awesome, and I'm so proud of all that he's accomplished with his law business and other things. Yup, I say these things a lot, but it's only because I mean them and I can hardly believe how wonderful life is sometimes.

I won't be a Blue Angel afterall...

So like two posts ago I said I was going back to school in the fall, and unfortunately that isn't the case anymore. I didn't get any federal financial aid due to the fact I already have 2 bachelor degrees and very little assets. I would have to take out $60,000 in private loans to pay my tuition for the 3 years, and after factoring in interest (for a grand sum of $50,000) I would then be over $100,000 in debt. So, I decided that it wasn't really worth 100 grand to get the dietetics certificate, especially when the ADA is considering requiring you to have a masters degree before taking the RD exam.

Someone told me today that I should just be grateful I am able to live the life I have and that I'm healthy, not living off the government and food stamps like so many unemployed/underemployed people, and I have a family and boyfriend that love me. I have to agree with that, so for now I'm going to be grateful for all I do have.

30% off coupons!!

So I posted this on facebook, but I have 30% off coupons for the Gap/Baby Gap/Gap Kids/Banana Republic/Old Navy/Piperlime. It is our friends and family sale at the company, and 5% of the proceeds go to the employees charity of choice. The charity I chose was Feeding America, which "provides low-income individuals and families with the fuel to survive and even thrive. As the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief charity, our network members supply food to more than 25 million Americans each year, including 9 million children and 3 million seniors. Serving the entire United States, more than 200 member food banks operate 63,000 agencies that address hunger in all of its forms." So not only are you buying great clothes for you and your kids, you're also helping people all across the US!

If you want one of these fabulous coupons (delivered via e-mail) please leave me a comment with your e-mail so I can send you one. The coupon is good for July 30-August 2, and there are already tons of fall clothes to purchase for when the weather gets cooler! Oh and you can use the coupon online or in the store or at the Gap or Banana Republic outlet.