Pictures from Utah

My family always has the prettiest bulbs growing in the front yard.
If only I had that kind of green thumb. I swear I could kill a
weed if you asked me to keep it alive :p

The Hutching's dog Skye wearing a tiara. She is so well
behaved, even though you can tell she's super excited
to see new people. We had a fun time bonding together that night :)

Aimee & Amy. And yes, mine is the correct
way to spell the name :p Love ya Aimee!

Me and Jonathan (21 yrs old). Jonathan just got home from an LDS mission to Arizona. Ever since he got taller than me, I startedcalling him "shortie". He calls me "giant" and always remarks thatit looks like I've "gotten taller" since he saw me last. Love ya Jono!

Thomas (18 yrs old) and Me. He just got
accepted to go to BYU Provo for the fall.
I can't believe how much he's growing up. He's
a really talented artist and writer, I look up to him a lot.

Amy & Kyle (12 yrs old). Kyle is the "baby" of the family.
The only reason I'm slightly taller than him in this picture
is because I'm wearing shoes! Sigh...I'm the shrimpiest
of my family :(

Amy & Matthew (22 yrs old) Matthew and I have
grown much closer over the years. We may have
tormented each other as kids, but we have
so much in common. Love ya bitty!

Andrew & Scott (15 yrs old) with Amy. I purposely didn't take a picture standing up with them because they're nearly a foot taller than me! I swear they grew 5 inches since I saw them last year. Good lookin' boys I say. I had to have them help me remember which was which so I didn't label the picture wrong, lol. I swear I never messed it up when I lived at home. Sorry guys :(

Scott (15 yrs old) and Me. I have such a fun time
hearing about Scott's busy life and how he's doing in school :)

Andrew (15 yrs old) and Me. He's my "initials" friend
(our initials are both "ASB"). I can't believe
how fast he's growing up!

**pretty weak picture turnout, but I'm glad I have the memories I do. I'll update and post a few of the good family pictures once I get the proofs on CD**

Utah!!

In accordance with my utter faildom, I can honestly say I really didn't get many pictures while I was in Utah. I took a few pictures with my brothers and with Aimee, but that's about it. I had all these ideas about asking Shawn to borrow his camera, or borrowing an old family one so I could capture moments, and I didn't do it :o( **sigh** I'll try to keep my wall of text to a minimum, since there are no nifty pictures to interrupt the boringness :)

Shawn took me to the airport early early Tuesday morning and I got to Salt Lake around noon. I got to spend most of that first day just with the fam. It was precious to see my younger school-aged brothers reactions when they got home and saw that I was there. Being a big sis is good for your ego, I highly encourage it :) We had dinner as a family (Lasagne my fave) and I crashed.

On Wednesday my mom, Jonathan and I went to work out at the gym. I really wanted to be as good as I could on my vacation so I wouldn't get back to Texas all lumpy and out of shape. It wasn't nearly as good of a workout as when I workout with help, but I'm glad I did it. After washing up, my mom and I went to get Pedicure's together for a Belated Mothers Day Gift. I ♥ Pedicures, but it was my mom's very first one. After seeing me just about kick the pedicurist (is that a word??) in the face because I'm so ticklish, she wonders WHY I do this to myself so much. I had a lunch day with my work friends Kathie, Cherie, Candace, and Marianne from Bank of American Fork Murray Branch (where I used to work), but on our way up there we stopped by Day Murray Music. I picked up some fun piano music and a violin piece I'd been looking for. Now if only I had a piano to actually practice huh??? :)

It was way fun getting to see my old work friends. Being there made it feel like it was just another day at work with people I love and miss. I had dinner at my Aunt Janice's house in Lehi that evening. I feel bad that we only started really building a close relationship AFTER I moved a bazillion miles away. She was a great support to me during all the divorce stuff, and I had a fun time with her family and their cute dog Skye.

On Thursday, my friend Melissa from BAF picked me up and I got to spend a few hours over there with old friends. It was a fun treat too because Pattie Seguin (one of my coworkers from Murray that quite arond the same time I did) happened to be making a deposit at the same time! That evening my family all went to Wheeler Farm to take some pictures together for the first time in two years. I haven't gotten the pictures back yet, but I'm hoping they turned out well. I was wearing 17 inch-too-long pants which I had to constantly roll up them and then down. I'm sure there were a few pictures where I didn't remember to roll them back down so I'm sure I'll look super hot in those :p

After pictures we all went out to eat out at Red Robin. That's not something that you do very often in a family of 9, so understandably my brothers were--excited? I feel bad for our waitress because she was constantly refilling soda's and bringing more endless fries. My dad's saying "Food is meant to sustain life, not to fill you up" was kind of ignored :P

On Friday my life got pretty crazy up until when I left to go home. I met Rose (coworker/close friend) for brunch and some shopping, had a few hours break to shoot the breeze and nap between events (something I started doing a LOT). Then that evening I met Nate, C.C., Jess and Todd at Wingers. It used to be a fun gamer hangout tradition of ours to order a bazillion wings from Wingers and pig out! After dinner I got to spend the rest of the night with my brother Matt up at his place. He has really nice roommates and friends. I didn't get a really good nights sleep because there was lots going on around me though :(

Saturday morning my dad came and picked us both up so I could meet Aimee (Ovard) Waters for lunch. OMG it was so nice to catch up! I'm pretty sure the last time I'd seen her was once up at UofU on TRAX but that's been like 6 years ago! I wish we'd had more time together, but I booked my time a little tooo closely and had to be back to meet another friend :o( Have to make more time next time I'm in town, I loved our fun talks!

Jill Taylor (BAF coworker) and her daughter came all the way from Tooele to visit me (now that's beyond the call of duty!) We went to Great Harvest, got some frozen yogurt and got to chat for a while under a tree at Draper Park. Ahh fond memories :)

I had a half an hour or so once I got home to take a power nap before getting to see Marianne (friend from BAF). I am pretty sure I was a complete bum because I was completely worn out and exhausted by then, but I'm still glad I got seconds of Mare :) I called it an earlyish night and tried to just get some sleep.

Sunday morning my family and I played "Shower Wars", which is our explanation of what happens when a family of 9 all needs to shower and get ready to be anywhere on time. We all headed off to my family's home ward to hear my brother Jonathan speak in church. It was so much fun getting to catch up with old neighborhood friends, and then the extended family at the luncheon afterwards. No one got an accurate headcount, but I'm sure there were upward of 70 people in my parents house. Not too comfortable when the AC isn't working ya know. I used to be able to brag that I knew all of my cousins names, but right around the time I went off to college I stopped keeping track :p

My plane left at 4:45 and I BARELY made it to my gate on time. We hit some traffic/road closures on the way there. Maybe it was my parents "funny" way of trying to keep me around, lol. I slept most of the way to Denver, but then from Denver to Austin there was this toddler who screamed bloody murder the entiiire time. Not even my ipod full blast was enough to even mask the sound. Ugh.

Since I fail at taking pictures AND posting them on blogs so they don't mess everything up, I'm going to post them right after this. Stay tuned!!

T Minus Something in Counting....

until I will be in Utah. My flight leaves at 7:45 on Tuesday May 12th. Even though I a) strongly dislike flying and b) strongly dislike layovers/switching planes, I'm going into with a positive outlook. I'll be there for about 5 days instead of the short 34 1/2 hour time I was there last June which will give me a lot more time to see good friends and family members. So far I haven't double booked any social engagements either.

It's kind of a bummer that I actually have to even go into work tomorrow. When I originally booked my flight when I was working in Leander, I couldn't take Mon-Fri, just Tues-Fri due to scheduling issues. Now that I'm at my new branch it would have worked just fine, but I didn't see the point in going through all the hassle. So I'll spend tomorrow (hopefully) catching up, so there's no issues while I'm gone.

Happy Mothers Day to all of my friends that are motherly!

8 is enough tag

My friend Janna has tagged me in 8 Is Enough.

8 Things I am Looking Forward to:
1. Getting off work for the day in 2 1/2 hours
2. Going to the gym after work
3. Getting my hair done on Saturday
4. Spending time with Shawn this weekend
5. Seeing my family back in Utah
6. Seeing my freinds back in Utah
7. The Fall (yeah I don't look forward to summer time)
8. Sleeping in this weekend

8 Things I did Yesterday:
1. Went to Starbucks
2. Caught up on some filing at work
3. Took Bailey for a walk and avoided Psycho McPsychoson Neighbor
4. Filled up my car at the gas station
5. Cleaned out the fridge
6. Fixed Manicotti for dinner
7. Watched American Idol and the Ultimate Fighter
8. Tossed and turned and didn’t get a good night of sleep! (ditto Janna!)

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
1. Be in a perfectly comfortable bed with a marvelous pillow, amazing blanket, and just the right amount of air circulation to allow for a comatose nap
2. I wish I could buy a piano
3. I wish I could justify buying a new-to-me car
4. Stay in touch with good friends better
5. Be more social and go out and do things more often
6. Not lose so many bobby pins
7. Make my goals/incentives at work
8. Make my perfect weightloss/healthy lifestyle goals

8 Shows I Watch:
1. American Idol
2. Fringe
3. Lie to Me
4. The Ultimate Fighter
5. The Office
6. The Soup
7. Parks and Recreation
8. (I've kinda run dry on some of the shows I used to watch--sorry!)

Now I'm supposed to tag 8 people to do this
1. Kristina
2. Crystal
3. Candace
4. Marianne
5. Stephanie
6. Aimee
7. Josh
8. Melanie

April for Amy

I can't believe Easter has come and gone already. I realized it's been at least 10 years since I properly colored Easter Eggs which makes me kind of sad. I remember bartering with my brother Matthew for parts of the egg. I only liked the whites and he only like the yolk (aka "the suns"). As enforced by my mom, we could only decorate what we would eat. I think we had it figured out right.

Speaking of family...I get to see them in about a month! I'll be flying into Salt Lake on Tues May 12th and flying home on Sun May 17th. It'll be the first time our family has been together in 2 years. My brother Jonathan comes home from his LDS Mission to Arizona the week before. I'm always in denial that my brothers are growing up as much as they are and that I'm now the "little" big sister :o) I hope I can get together with some friends I haven't seen for a long time too. My last visit was a short one and I could hardly fit in any socializing.

My workouts have been going well. I'm not weighing myself yet, but I can tell I've been losing inches. I love how much more comfortably clothes are fitting :o) I need to be better about commiting to preparing my food for the next day earlier in the evening. If I wait until bedtime I'll slack off and not make as good of choices.