Long Absence

Holy cow its been a long time! Lots has happened since I last wrote I'll give a list of things that have happened. Not in any particular chronological order:

• Sam got a job in Provo working at Slate Canyon Youth Center. He works nights at a youth correction facility
  
• Moved to SLC and in with my in laws on Feb 5th, 2011
• I got a job at Myriad Genetics
• Went on our anniversary trip to Midway/Heber/Park City. We went all those places on our honeymoon and still absolutely love going there.
• Went to Lake Powell with my family and a bunch of family friends for a weekend. It was fantastic!
• Went to Snowbird with all the in laws. Had a great time just relaxing.
• Sam and I saw a dietitian for over a month and got healthy. My cholesterol and blood sugar levels were sky high! Our dietitian put us on a high lean protein, low carb, low fat and low calorie diet. Sam lost 30 lbs and I lost around 20 lbs!! I haven't been this light since middle school! I dropped my cholesterol levels 100 points too! :) Now we're in maintenance mode. Gotta keep the weight off and build muscle now :)
  
• Walked through over 100 homes while looking for a house to buy. We put our agent through the ringer.
• Found and bought a house in Murray! We have been moved in for a month. We have been working our butts off getting the basement apartment painted and updated and found renters that are moving in on the 15th. My family came up for Conference weekend and helped us paint all the trim in the house! They're amazing!

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. We're still up to our eyeballs in painting projects for our house but we are so happy to have a place of our own! We're hoping to get a dog next spring when we'll be able to put a fence in. Sam has a buck tag for the deer hunt this year and will be going with my male family member to hunt at my ranch. We're hoping he gets a monster buck! :) Any ways, that is us in a nutshell. I'm hoping to get back on the blogging band wagon now that we have internet for the first time in our marriage :) Hope you all have a great day!

Whit

Day of Fatherly Celebration

Everyone is posting about Father's Day so I thought I'd better follow suit. We got him four York peppermint patties (one of his favorites) and I made his some Snickerdoodles because that's what he asked for. :) I love my dad so much! He is an amazing man and such a hard worker! He always told me growing up "You can be anything you want to be." and not in a cheesy way but in a dead serious, matter-of-fact way and I have learned over the years that it is 100% true. Somethings I admire about him: He doesn't take life too seriously (see him photo-bombing another family's photo?), he enjoys the simple things (blowing bubbles), he can sleep any where (he was seriously asleep waiting for the rest of us to kneel for prayer) and he's just an all around great dad. I love him for all he's taught me and for all the patience he has with me and everyone around him. I truly couldn't ask for a better father and friend! LOVE YOU DAD!!


The man below is my future baby daddy (no time soon, calm down people). I love him with all my heart. He is the love of my life and will be a great father to our children. Love you muchly Sam!

3 Years of Marriage!

(Sorry ahead of time that the pictures aren't spaced right. Blogger sucks at photos.)

May 10th was our 3rd anniversary! To celebrate we went to Midway/Heber/Park City. We stayed at The Invited Inn in Midway for one night.

We stayed there for part of our honeymoon and loved it so much we decided to go again. We drove up through Parley's in rain and a little snow and got there in time for hors d'oeurves and some yummy hot chocolate. We took a little drive around Heber until dinner time and went to Tarahumara for amazing Mexican food. When we got back to the bed and breakfast we played Yahzee and Boggle for a while then enjoyed the luxurious room.

It has a huge jacuzzi tub, a sauna and a steam shower as well as a king size bed. In the morning they served us a homemade, gourmet breakfast of individual german pancakes, turkey sausage and fresh fruit with orange juice. Being spoiled rotten is always fun. :)

Fritz the cockatiel kept us company in the sunroom. After the lovely breakfast we headed to Park City for the day. We wandered up and down Main Street looking at the galleries and shops. We hit up McDonald's for internet and lunch then went to the Outlets where we fell asleep in the car. After a nap in the sun we went to a few stores and then went and saw Atlas Shrugged. Acting is below poor but since its based on such a great book Sam insisted we see it. We went to the Spin Cafe in Heber for dinner and it was delicious! I got brisket and pork spare ribs and Sam got a buffalo burger. They had gelato that they make themselves which was my favorite part of the meal. I got rice pudding flavor and Sam got pistachio. Mine even had rice in it. So very good. Oh! On the drive back from Park City we saw a cow kneeling down on its front legs but standing in the back and rubbing its face in the grass . . . Funniest thing I've ever seen! I had a laugh attack when Sam imitated it later that night. I had tears streaming down my face and I couldn't breathe. I got Sam laughing really hard at me because I was laughing so hard which started a brutal cycle of laughter that left me clutching for Kleenex to sop up all the fluids on my face. We stayed in a sketchy motel the second night just for somewhere to sleep and watched AFV and Deadliest Catch for most of the night.

The last day we went to McDonald's again for breakfast (may my waistline forgive me) and went to the park to play frisbee. Sam wanted to go down the big slide and didn't see the muddy puddle at the top so his butt got wet and muddy.

Luckily it dried while we played frisbee and you couldn't even tell. We went to the bowling alley and played two games (both of which I won).

Then on to Park City for some more wandering around. Sam had found a Groupon for Leger's Sandwiches and that's where we went for lunch. The bread was homemade, thick-cut, and so soft and tender I wanted to die! So so yummy but we couldn't have afforded it without the coupon. Haha. Then it was time to head home and take a really long nap. It was a great trip. I can't believe I've been married 3 years! Love you SO much Sam!

Mustache March by Sam

Does anyone read our blog? Let me know, it would be nice to know if we're typing into space or if someone, even one person, is reading what we put out.
Here's the update on my mustache march attempt that my beautiful wife mentioned last time. It came as a complete shock that she wanted me to grow facial hair since she lead the world's "Women Against the Advancement of Facial Hair" movement last year (that's only a slight exaggeration, but she really does not like facial hair, or so I thought), but I thought I could give it a try since I had her blessing and all. The result was not good, lets just say that I am not yet a man of manly hair.
I was the kid who when I turned 12 just dreamed of the day when I could grow out a big burly beard. I was sure that THAT was the thing that would get me the ladies. Too bad for me my facial hair is more than laughable, even now. While good beards grow thick like a chia pet, mine grows more like a cactus. With a chia pet you don't actually see the structure of the ceramic pet, what you see is the lush green herbs; however, when you see a cactus you see the cactus, not the spines. I am a cactus. Not only are my facial hairs spaced out too far to cover my face they are no darker than the hair on my head, which if you know me is quite light colored. The result was about the same as it would have been when I was in the 5th grade. I thought maybe it would get darker the longer it grew but after a week or two I was too embarrassed to leave the house and almost called in sick for work, sick with embarrassment. I would sit in the dark corners at work so no one would see my shame.
Anyway I finally came the conclusion that this mustache challenge put on me by my beautiful wife was a direct assault on my manliness and an evil plot by her and her evil plotting WAAFH members and I would not stand for it. Thus, I shaved it off. It was a good feeling.
I read that some men who take testosterone supplements gain an increase in facial hair. The problem with that is while testosterone helps facial hair, it is a natural enemy of the hair on one's head, and I already have enough problems with that hair trying to escape. I just did not win the the hair department.
P.S. For anyone who is interested, I am starting a union of my own called "Men for the Advancement of Facial Hair for Men Who Suck at Growing Facial Hair" or MAFHMWSGFH. Please send in your applications and membership fees. We will prevail!

Sister's Weekend

I just got back from Daniel, Utah. I'm sure no one knows where that is off the top of their heads. Its a little town next to Heber. I was away for 3 days with my sisters in law and my mother in law. We had SO much fun! We were sad one of my sisters in law couldn't come but it gave us an excuse to plan another sisters weekend very soon so she could come! We stayed at a beautiful house, ate lots of yummy (that's synonymous with healthy right . . .?) food, talked about everything under the sun, watched movies and just had a wonderful time. :) We went and say The King's Speech yesterday and went out to dinner at The Snake Creek Grill which was good. We told lots of stories, learned lots about each other, laughed, cried, reminisced, and just relaxed. It was much needed girl time and I can't wait till our next one!

Thoroughly pleased,
Whit

P.S. I've convinced Sam to unofficially participate in Mustache March. He's sporting a goatee that isn't really visible but I'm glad he's trying it. He thinks his wife died and was replaced by someone else because I usually have such an aversion to facial hair. We'll see how it goes. Now we're off to look at houses for sale! :D

Bountiful Baskets!

Well we've been living in SLC for just over 2 weeks now and its been going well. Lots of time with friends up here and getting used to the city. Yesterday I tried Bountiful Baskets for the first time and loved it! Here are pictures of everything we got:



1 cabbage
1 bunch of spinach
2 bags carrots
3 summer squashes
9 sweet potatoes
9 Jerusalem artichokes
2 mangoes
1 cantelope
5 cameo apples
10 forelle pears
7 bunch of bananas
1 lb box of strawberries

That's tons of produce! We've eaten some of it but we're glad Sam's parents will be home tonight to help us eat the rest. Jerusalem artichokes and forelle pears are something I'd never heard of so I'm going to have to learn how to use them in recipes. We're very pleased with Bountiful Baskets and plan on using them regularly. :)

It Is Official!

WE'RE MOVING!!!! Sam got a job in Provo at the state youth corrections facility! He'll be doing exactly what he's doing right now but just in Provo. We will be moving in with my in law's in SLC for a short stint while we look for a place to live. In other good news I GOT A JOB INTERVIEW! I haven't had a job interview in ages and none that I have ever had to prove that I earned my degree. Its a job in a genetics lab and if I get it Sam's job and my job will be 52 miles apart . . . . yeah. So we're going to be looking for a place to stay in the Draper area because that will be right in between. We're moving on Feb 5th because Sam starts work that night. Any one that wants to help us load our trailer can come over Thurs, Feb 3rd at 7:00 pm. Anyone that would be willing to help me deep clean the apartment on Fri, Feb 4th would be my new best friend. :) The more the merrier! Gotta get it spotless for inspection.

Sam and I are excited and nervous for this new chapter of our lives. We'll be closer to his family and almost all of our married friends. Cedar has been good to us but its time to move on. We'll miss our friends here but will have to visit whenever we head south. Things are looking up!

Packing, Cleaning and Praying,

Whit

Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year! Sam got Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off so we went down to my family's house for 5 days. We went four wheeling and visited cousins. Christmas Eve we had a great dinner with my family and my grandma, step grandpa and uncle. The Honey Baked Ham my uncle brought was the hit of the night. SO good! All us kids acted out the Nativity as my dad read Luke 2. Then we all piled in the car and drove around looking at Christmas lights. This is probably my favorite tradition of Christmas. :) My little brother panicked a little when we didn't have cookies to leave out for Santa but we used a piece of pumpkin pie and left a glass of milk. We got spoiled this year, as always. Santa got us a new set of plates and bowls from IKEA, he got me Inception and Sam Invictus. I got a neck massager, leg warmers (that i desperately wanted!), a bracelet from my father in law that he hand engraved, another set of plates, a puppy/kitty calendar, and best of all a SEWING MACHINE! I LOVE IT! I took it over to my brother in laws and used it for the first time with his wife's help :). Sam got a RC helicopter that he absolutely loves, a new Sunday shirt and tie, a Kholster concealed holster for his hand gun, The Secret, and more but I can't think of anything else. Haha. We had a really great Christmas and hope everyone else did too!

Whit