Day to Day.

So life has been crazy busy for Matt and I. Words can't even explain.

However, being a fanatic list lover I had to take advantage of the opportunity to write THIS list.

Things I'm grateful for this year:
1. matt, he has been such a strength to me this year. I love him lots. he gets me.
2. my job. we just completed our fourth round of layoffs on thursday and i am still employed.
3. great families. we are so blessed to have such a wonderful support system.
4. our health.
5. the hope provided by our knowledge of the gospel and the plan of salvation

Sike!

This isn't really a post. Ok, I am posting, but really I just wanted a few songs to listen to at work that were in my head and needed a place to drop the playlist...

Point Of No Return

It's here. Snow. Cold, miserable, terrible snow. It's not even November yet, what's the deal? I'm just really struggling with this. Can it just be summer for a few more months? Please!

This is our 4th winter here in SLC and I can honestly say that winter gets harder every single year. I'm trying to have a positive attitude, but knowing that today marks the start of another long, dreary winter is really getting me down. What's that saying? When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. I guess when life gives you snow, make slurpee's! Anyway, here's a couple Calvin & Hobbes comics to help you (and me) get through this...

Qu

I know I've been blogging a lot about music lately, but I just had to do a quick post on the new CD by Sherwood called "Qu". I kind of stumbled across it when I was listening to the radio on iTunes (another great discovery I made this week, idobi radio is the best!). I heard one of their new songs and surfed over to their web page to see if the new CD was available and to my surprise it had come out just the day before. But even better was when I read a post on the web page that said they were doing a two day online sale for the whole CD for only $2.99! How could I pass it up? I felt like I was practically stealing it. Anyway, I've been listening to Qu non-stop ever since Wednesday and absolutely love it. If you get a chance, check out their myspace page and you can listen to a few of the songs because I couldn't find any songs off the new CD to post on here. However, I did find a few older songs that I think are fantastic too. Enjoy!

I WON!

This is kind of a follow-up for that last post.

Yesterday we pinned up all of our final project photos and cast votes on who we thought had the best photos overall. To my utter shock and surprise, I won! Weird. I was expecting maybe last, or possibly second to last, so needless to say, it was pretty awesome. Also pretty awesome was the $50 gift card I got to Pictureline for winning! Sweetness!

Photography

As mentioned in the last post, I've been taking a beginners photography class (and getting masters credit for it!) this semester. I haven't been posting any photos because all of the assignments have had to be done in black and white film with a 35 mm camera (the camera above, actually my dad's old mission camera), and I just haven't scanned any of them yet. Anyway, for our final assignment this week we were allowed to use digital and we could choose between color or b&w. I decided to do color and I just chose a random block down town to take all of my photos at. So, here are a couple photos from that.

*Remember, this is a beginners class, so don't be expecting Ansel Adams...*

Awesome!

Here's a couple things I think were awesome this last week!

1. Stretching. I've been running a lot lately (for work, like I would run if I wasn't getting paid for it...) and have been REALLY sore. I've found that stretching pretty much solves all muscle aches and pains and it has been making my life a lot happier! Now if I could just get rid of those shin splints...

2. Warm Weather. Today was the official last day of summer, so enjoy this lovely weather while you can because it's going to be getting nasty pretty soon. Seriously, it's so nice outside right now, I really need to spend more time outside instead of just looking at it through my window.

3. My Photography Class. Yep, I'm taking a masters level into to photography class! I can't believe I'm actually getting credit for it, especially since I'm even getting 3 whole credits for only 7 weeks! Hooray for retiring teachers! (it's usually a full semester class, but he didn't want to teach it that long) Seriously though, I am loving this class and our teacher has some great stories and insight into photography (like real film photography). Hopefully my pictures will start improving soon!

4. The Day Off. I magically got the day off last Friday and got to go to the dirt jumping finals at the Dew Tour. I didn't think I was going to get to go this year, but things worked out and I got to see my favorite event from the front row! Great jumps and great riding this year!

5. Turkey Pastrami. I love this stuff. Is that bad? They sell it at Walmart for like half the price of regular turkey ($2.80 vs. $6.50) and it is SO GOOD. To get the full effect, get a pita, apply a generous portion of cream cheese, turkey pastrami, and some mozzarella, and then stick it in the George Foreman for a bit to get crispy. These have pretty much been my staple food for the last month. Thank you Walmart for bringing it back!

6. Tips. Do I really have to explain this one? I make like $2 an hour, so people that leave generous tips are my best friends.

7. Registered Truck. Having my truck registered and running is such a blessing now that school and work are going full swing, especially when my group designated me as the person in charge of hauling all of our materials for the site model we're working on right now.

8. Ashley. Ashley is pretty freaking awesome. She's in Fresno this week, so I doubt I'm going to make it to class on time until she gets back... Dang...

9. Hair Cut. I think hair cuts are pretty much the best thing ever. I can't stand having my hair long at all, so I'm very happy to have it cut again.

10. Gift Cards. Ashley and I got to go out to Olive Garden this last week and it was pretty awesome. I can't remember the last time that we went out to eat together and it was all made possible because of a gift card I got for my last birthday from aunt Mitzee (probably didn't spell that right...). Thank you! Great food!

11. Mark on a Mission. Can you believe he's on his mission finally. Pretty crazy if you ask me. He's doing great and we're so happy for him. You can catch up on things by checking out his blog at http://eldermetcalf.blogspot.com/.

12. Shoes. I just got a great pair of running shoes (for work) for a steal. I'm so excited because the skate shoes I've been wearing have really been hurting my feet. I guess I have flat feet, so I'm excited to finally have some arch support.

13. Ben & Jerry's. Have you ever tried Ginger Snap? Holy cow, that is some good stuff! If you like cinnamon, caramel, and solt ginger snap cookies (the way they should be I think) then give this one a try before they retire it because I think it's a limited batch (or so the container says). So good... Wow...



Well those are the awesome highlights from last week. Of course there were a lot of not so awesome things too, but the things on this list helped me make it through a really long and tough week. This week is looking to be longer and even more tough too. Oh well, life is good. Just happy to be where we're at, have jobs, be in school, and get some occasional sleep. Hope everyone else had a an awesome week too.

Random

I thought it was about time we did a real post. Truth is, we've just been really, really busy this summer, and especially these last couple of weeks. So, I'm just going to give you the Reader's Digest version of things over the last little while...

1. North Family Lake Powell Trip. We had a blast and it was the first time that we've all been together for quite awhile. My dad came and we were able to take the house boat out for a few days and found a great beach. The kids had fun and even did some skiing. Chelsey posted a lot more pictures from the trip here.


2. New York Trip. Yes, we went to NYC. We didn't really tell anybody because it was a really quick trip and we didn't want to hurt any feelings, but the cat got out of the bag, so oh well... We basically just went to eat. I made a map with a list of restaurants and food stands on it, and we just walked and ate for 3 days straight. A couple of food items that made it on the list: John's Pizzaria, Levain Bakery cookies, Magnolia Bakery (twice), Crumbs Bakery, Caffe Dante (best cannoli ever), Stand (toasted marshmallow shake and pistachio and ricotta cheese shake), and Wall Street Burger Shoppe. Yum-O! Here's the map:


3. I got a job! Yes, you heard right, I finally got a job. I've been working for the last few weeks as a valet attendant. All I can say is that it involves a lot more running than you would think! For those of you that have been following this blog for awhile then you know that I'm out of shape and could use the exercise, so I think that it's a good thing. Anyway, if you need your car parked, give me a call, I'm your man! And don't forget to tip, that's all the money we make! (sorry, no picture)

4. School again. Yep, back to school. Already had an all-nighter. Already stressed out. Already working on new projects. Just two more years though and I'll be done. Hopefully there will be more architecture related jobs by then.

5. Last but not least. These songs are kind of random, but I've been hearing them on the radio lately and really like them. Some of them definitely aren't my usual flavor, but I guess now that I'm getting old (as Ashley likes to frequently point out) I should probably branch out a bit right? Quick story about the first song. I was telling Ashley about this song as we were driving home and how much I like it when I decided to turn on the radio and try to find it. I flipped on the radio and immediately said "no way, this is it!" I was totally joking at first, but sure enough it really was it. What are the odds?