FINALLY!

After a long four years I am finally graduating with my Bachelors Degree in English. I am happy to say that I am done with these books from my last semester. YAY!

Washing Machine Nightmare

This morning was an absolute mess! I decided that I would put in a batch of laundry just before I left for work this morning, so I did the usual. Gathered the clothes from our laundry basket in our bedroom, transported them downstairs to the washer, and put them in the washing machine. About an hour later, I realized that the cycle had finished, and I thought I probably should put the wet clothes into the dryer just before I had to go to work. I opened up the washing machine's lid, and I noticed that there were a lot of white clumps all over our dark wet clothes. Now, occasionally the laundry detergent will clump up and not dissolve into the wash. I thought this was the case, so I went to the kitchen, grabbed a pitcher, filled it with water, and poured it over our clothes in the washer to dissolve some of these clump. As I poured the water in, I noticed that none of the clumps were dissolving. I reached my hand into the washer and picked up one of these clumps. Sure enough, it wasn't laundry detergent, it was PAPER!! Yes, my friends, we had a washing machine full of dark clothes and tiny pieces of wet paper everywhere! It was caked on the side of the washer and our clothes. I started to pull out the clothes and the paper was on the inside and outside. It was a mess to say the least.

I'm sure that all of us have accidentally forgot to take a piece of paper from our pocket, and washed it. It gets every where inside of the pocket, right? Well, times that by 1000 and that is what the inside of our washing machine looked like. If I had to guess, I bet there were 10 sheets of paper bundled up in our laundry when I put them in the washer. Where did they come from, I have no idea. Emily was on the couch doing some homework, and I told her to come look at this mess. Both of us couldn't believe it, and Em started to laugh about the situation. We put all the wet clothes in a laundry basket, took them up to the bathroom, and dumped them in the bath tub. We had to rinse every piece of clothing individually inside and out. It probably took us about 45 mins. to get 95% of the paper off our clothes. After we were done rinsing our clothes, we put them in the dryer. I had to leave for work (which I was late to), and Em had to leave for school. So we don't really know what our clothes are going to look like after they are done drying but we are hopeful that it won't be bad. Anyway, that is what happened this morning.

Running 26.2 miles was almost the death of me

Last Saturday I ran my first marathon, and it was quiet possibly one of the hardest things I have ever done in my entire life! About 5 months ago, Emily and I decided that we wanted to run a marathon together. We kind of set up a training program for ourselves and started running. About three months into it, I didn’t know if I was even going to be able to run in it because my legs hurt so bad. I experienced shin splints that killed. After taking about 3 weeks off from running, I started up again, and my confidence of finishing a marathon grew as I was able to run my long runs. The longest I have ever ran in my life was about 5 miles before I started training. About a month before the marathon, I was able to run 17 miles without any problems. (Except the occasional moment where I had to go to the bathroom and there were no toilets for miles) I had mild shin splits, but as long as I gave myself enough rest in between runs, I was perfectly fine. Emily trained for about 3 months, and her knees kept giving her major problems, so she wasn’t able to run with me.
Anyway, last Saturday in Logan was the day that I ran 26.2 miles, and it was almost the death of me. Here is kind of play-by-play of the day’s events. At 4:00 am, I woke up and drove to Logan. We stayed at my parent’s time share in Bear Lake which is about 45 minutes from Logan. (If I had to do it again, I probably wouldn’t stay that far away from the race) We got to Logan about 5:00 am. All 2,500 runners met at a park in Logan where we got on a bus, and they drove us to the starting line. At the park, I waited for Bryan, my brother-in-law, and his sister Heather-they were also running the race. Bryan ran the St. George Marathon last year, and Heather has ran about 5 marathons before this one. At 5:45, we got a school bus and for about 45 minutes-that is how long it took us to get to the starting line-we anxiously awaited the long run ahead of us. They dropped us off at the top of the canyon that we were going to run down.


At 6:50, they let the people in wheelchairs start. Yes, apparently you can run a marathon in a wheelchair-I guess you wouldn’t say “run” when you are pushing yourself with your arms, but I looked at Bryan and said, “The course is almost all down hill? That doesn’t seem fair, does it?” We just laughed and waited another 10 minutes before we could start. At 7:00 am, the gun went off, and the race was on.


Bryan and Heather were going to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon. To do that, they would have to run an 8 minute mile, so when the gun went off, they started on a full sprint, well it seemed like a full sprint to me! I decided that I was going to try to keep up with them as long as I could, and for the first 13 miles, I kept up with them pretty good. In fact, I was running at a 7 minute 30 second mile, which I hadn’t done throughout my entire training, and I was feeling really great. This feeling of greatness would soon change around mile 13 or 14. At mile 14, I started to feel a little light headed, and every time I looked up-I always run with my head down- everything started to become blurry. I thought I wasn’t getting enough oxygen and water in my body so I started to drink as much as I could at each aid station and breathe a little deeper. It also didn’t help that I was starting to hit my “wall” at mile 14 either.


At mile 16, I started to feel like I was going to pass out; my vision was blurred; I was having trouble running straight, and I was feeling exhausted. At mile 18, my conditioned worsen, and I really just wanted to quit. I couldn’t believe that I had 8 more miles to the finish line! I started to walk a little bit to see if it would help my situation. Miles 19 to 25, felt like I was walking/running the hallways of death! Never have I felt this way in my entire life! I started to envy the people on the sidelines watching all the runners, and how I wished that I was the one watching and not the one being watched.


At mile 25, I thought, only 1 more freaking mile, and I am done! As I stumbled across the finish line, I thought I was going to finally pass out. I made my way over to the water table, drank some water and tried to stretch my legs. I kept drinking cups of water thinking that it would help. I collapsed to my knees, and realized I might need to see a medic. I stumbled over to a medic table and sat down. For 3 or 4 minutes, no one knew I was there. I finally tapped one of the medics on the shoulder and said, “I think I am going to pass out.” He looked at me and said, “You look like you are going to pass out.” They took my blood pressure, which was high, figured out that I was dehydrated, and put me on an I.V. For 30 minutes I laid on the table just resting and soaking in the fluids. I looked up at Emily and said, “Never let me do this again!” I will say that I am really glad that I ran it, just for the sake of accomplishing such a daunting goal, but my body hurts so bad because of it.

Yard Sale Mania

It is sad to think that summer is pretty much over with now that the temperatures are starting to be in the 70s. I mean, just last week, we were still having days that would get in the mid 90s. Oh well, what can you do. And what would a summer in Utah be without a good old yard sale? Yes my friends, about 2 weeks ago Emily and I experienced our first yard sale as a married couple, and what an experience it was. It was actually a combined yard sale with my sister, Kiffin, and my mom. And I bet none of you knew that my mom is the “Queen” of yard sales, or so she says she is. She probably called herself the “Queen of Yard Sales” about 25 times, and that is no exaggeration. She had everything planned out to the “T”. If any of us gave our opinion about how to improve the yard sale, she quickly told us a story about past garage sales, and how her yard sales are the best in Utah. Let me give you a day-by-day plan the week before the sale.
Saturday, my mom had to put the yard sale in the paper because that is what draws all the people to the house. (Here is when one of my opinions was shot down.) I asked my mom, “Who looks at the newspaper anymore? It would better if we just put it on the internet.” Her response was, “TJ, I know how to run a yard sale. And we need to put it in the newspaper.” I said, “ok mom.”

Tuesday, Bryan brings over a trailer full of junk to my moms house to sale.

Wednesday, I put an ad on the internet about the yard sale.

Thursday, Em and I bring a trailer full of our stuff over to the house, and my dad and I went to the church and picked up 10 tables.

Friday, Kiffin brings over another trailer full of stuff, and all of us stay up until midnight pricing our items. I think Kiffin was done around 1:00 am pricing her items because she had way more stuff than any of us. All of us where getting a little annoyed with everyone because it was taking so long pricing our items, and we had to do it my mom’s ways.

Saturday morning at 5:00, Em and I woke up and headed over to my mom’s house to finally have this yard sale, and what a day it was. We had stated in our ads that we were going to start the sale at 8:00. Well, my mom decides to put yellow caution tape in front of our yard to stop people from looking at our stuff before 8:00. The caution tape didn’t really work. People just went over it or under it, and it was so funny to see my moms reaction. As soon as they crossed the tape, Trina was telling them that we don’t open until 8:00, and we are not letting anyone look at anything until 8. At times, it was a little awkward to say the least. We convinced my mom to start the yard sale at 7:45 because there were about 10 people crossing over the caution tape ready to purchase our used crap. Our stuff went like hotcakes. By the end of the day, we were very pleased with how much we made. The yard sale ended at 2, and all of us were ready to close up shop except Trina. I told here that she can stay out here and sell her stuff, but I am done selling our stuff. The day ended with a lunch at Café Rio and a quick stop at our local DI with a trailer full of junk.

Kiffin and Em being the yard sale cashiers.

Kiffin and Em accepting money for our junk.

Trina organizing the tables to make it look perfect.

Me and Aspen hanging out. Don't mind my skinny legs, and a sneek peek at my garmets.

Bryan wondering, "Who is showing up now?"

A weekend at the Cabin

Last year, my parents bought a cabin up near the Skyline Drive Trail. If you don't know where that is, then it is near Fairview. Now, Fairview is a little town with a population of about 10,000 people, so I bet that not a whole lot of people know where Fairview is. Well, it is about 30 miles north of Manti (another pretty small town) or it is about 30 minutes up Spanish Fork Canyon, take a right at the Thistle exit, and drive another 40 minutes. If you can't guess, it is kind of in the middle of no where, but it is in a prime location as far as cabins go. My parents bought it from a previous owner who had partially built it. The outside of the cabin is finished with logs, and they had done some framing in the inside, and almost had the outside deck up. Well, most of the cabin wasn't up to par with my dad's standard, so we have been taking things done and putting them back up correctly. It still isn't finished, but we make progress every summer. My dad usually goes up every Saturday, but being a Bishop and running a very successful construction business, sometimes Saturdays aren't always free. Last Saturday my parents, me, my brother-in-law (Bryan), and his son (Daxton) made a trek up to the old cabin to do some work. It usually turns out to be a long day. I usually have to wake up at 5:30 on a Saturday morning because my dad like to get a FULL days work in. The progress is slow, but the quality of workmanship is excellent! On Saturday, I help take a heavy wood beam off, then put it back into place. I used the mini-ex to move some concrete pillars, and caulked in between the logs on the inside. Here are some pictures of that eventful Saturday.

Bryan and I taking a wood beam down.

Bryan and I putting the beam back up.

Dax and I moving concrete pillars with the mini-ex.

Our Busy Month

So I know that it has been forever since our last post. I use to hate it when other people wouldn't update their blog, and now we have fallen into the trap. We don't have the Internet at our house, so we have to create a post at work, school, or my parents house. It just sometime doesn't fit into the schedule. We also had a pretty busy July. The first week of July, we went on vacation to Oceanside, CA with Emily's parents. They rented a beach house for an entire week. It was so relaxing and fun. I read a novel for the first time in a long time. It was Deception Point by Dan Brown. It was a pretty good book. Has anyone read it. Em and I also sat by the beach a lot and did some body boarding. I got sunburned the first day which was a miserable experience.
About a week and a half after the California trip, Emily had a big family reunion up at the Zermatt Resort in Midway. I met all her cousins, aunts, and uncles from Arizona. About a week and a half after the reunion, we went up to Bear Lake with my family where again I read another novel Digital Fortress. Em and I also sat by the beach and went waverunning. Emily also adventured out and tried knee boarding!! She gets nervous when it comes to water sports so it was a huge step for her. We also saw the movie Get Smart, which I thought was hilarious! It is definitely a movie to see. Anyway, here are a few pics of our trips.

Some things I hate...

I have been trying to post for at least a week, but my computer wasn't cooperating which leads me to my post today. I don't want to sound like a pessimist, but I have to get just a few things off my chest. Here are a few things in this world that gets me so mad!
First, I hate it when my computer is not cooperating, and when it is slow. Don't get me wrong, I love technology and how it has enhanced my life, but when it runs slow or when you try to post an article on your blog and it won't let you or the computer just turns off in the middle of something important.

Second, I hate going to the dentist! Don't get me wrong, the dentist I have now is probably the best I have had, but I just hate going. Here are a few reasons why. I hate the metal instrument that they use to scrape off the plaque from my teeth. The sound and the feeling is like scratching my nails on a chalkboard. Oh, I can't stand it! And, it doesn't matter how much I brush and floss my teeth, the dentist always finds a cavity. You know what that means, another appointment, a few shots in the mouth, a lot of stuff going on in my little mouth, and half my face is numb for about 2-3 hours. I know that every time I go to the dentist, money is coming out of my pocket even with good insurance.

I hate taking my car to the mechanic! Again, I have nothing against the mechanic, I mean, I have known him for over 20 years. Glenn Mitchell is his name. The Warner’s and Mitchell’s have been on numerous trips and camping outings. We go to Bear Lake every summer, and we still celebrate Halloween together by eating chili and watching a scary movie a couple days before the holiday. I love Glenn; I just know every time I drop off my car, it is going to cost me more than $200. Just the other day, my great little 97 Nissan Maxima wouldn't start, and it had been occasionally misfiring. So I take it in, and I get the dreaded phone call-what the problems are and how much it is going to cost. They told what was wrong and that is was going to cost $825. My chin dropped! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I knew it was going to be expensive but not $825. There was no way Emily and I could afford that. I told them to do only the important stuff with the cheapest parts which lowered the price quite a bit. I paid the Sav-Mor Auto, and I took my car hoping that I would have to return ever!!

Top of Utah '08

Last year, Emily and I saw my sister, Kiffin, and her husband, Bryan, run across the finish line at the St. George Marathon. (Well, we didn’t actually see them cross the finish line, and I won’t go into details because it is a long story involving Trina, my mom.) The year before that, my other sister, Kaycee, and her husband, Taylor, ran the Top of Utah, a marathon in Logan, UT. Being the competitor that I am, I decide, along with Emily, that we could not just stand by and let my sisters and their husband show us up, so we decided to join the Warner’s running club. Emily and I are registered to run the Top of Utah Marathon in Logan, UT on September 20th. We both have been training for the past few weeks, and I am having some serious issues. Throughout my entire life, I have been able to get up and run at anytime any distance and have no injuries. Sure, I would have the occasional soreness in my legs but nothing big, but these past few weeks has been brutal! Here is a list of my injuries in the past month and a half. First, my back killed for a week. I could barely stand it hurt so bad. Second, I swear I had a stress fracture on my left foot because it hurt to but any pressure on it, and again, I could barely stand. Third, my calves, actually just my left calf, has tighten into this ball of steel. I tried to massage it, but I stop because I wanted to cry. Forth, my left shin kills! But it only hurts when I run. Halfway through my 3.5 mile run this morning I wanted to hitch a ride home because it hurt so bad. I know that you are all thinking to yourself, “Toughen up TJ,” or in the words of Tuff Hedemen, “Cowboy up!” But seriously, this has never happened to me before. I have never felt like this. I am blaming it on my shoes, but Emily thinks that it is my age. Anyway, I thought it would be kind of fun to track our progress of our running on our blog, and I am going to ask everyone’s advice on how I can prevent these painful injuries.

The Wii

I was introduced to the Wii about a month or so ago at Emily's house. Emily's Mom and Dad decided that this little machine would be great tool to have quality family time with everyone. What they didn't count on is my competitiveness. It has become a tradition now to play tennis on the Wii every time we go up for family dinner. With my natural athletic ability, I soon became the best Wii tennis player at the Staples household. Every one wanted to beat me, even Mark. Then Jordan, Emily's brother, decided to show me up. Holy Freak! I can't win against him! I swear he plays tennis hours a day just so he can watch me suffer defeat in front of the whole family. Those that have played the Wii, then I think you can understand the intense soreness to my entire right arm the following day. Every single time I play it, my arm is so sore. I never thought a Nintendo game and a little white controller could cause so much soreness and pain!

We are Pregnant!!!!

Emily and I shared our 2 year anniversary last month on the 22nd, and it has been a fun and exciting 2 years. Since we have been married the people have been asking us when we are going to have a baby, namely Ashley Quist, Emily’s sister. We keep telling everyone that we are going to start trying next year. Well, today I am letting the whole world know (just the few of you that read this post) that we are going to have a little one running around in 7 ½ months. We went to the doctor yesterday, and we found out that Emily has been pregnant for about 5 weeks. Can you believe it, after two years of marriage we are going to be blessed with a little TJ (we don’t know if it is a boy or a girl yet, but I am guessing it is will be a boy). Now, I hope that I have your attention. Do you know what today is? Well, today is April 1, 2008, or sometimes known as april fools. If you have read this far, then I want to thank for taking time to indulge me in this joke. It has been very satisfying. Sorry it has been so long since our last post, and sorry for the joke. We hope to have some pictures of us on Easter and our little one in the next couple of days. We hope all is well to everyone that reads our blog!

I can't stand Paula

With some of our recent blog post, most of you know that Emily and I occasionally watch a little TV. Sometimes, Emily and I will watch American Idol. We aren’t huge fans that have to watch every episode every week, but we like to watch it once and awhile. And if there is a Mormon on the show, we tend to watch a little more. Go Mormon Pride! Well, we were watching American Idol a little last night, and I cannot stand Paula Abdul. Every time she opens her month I want to stick my head in the TV screen and say, “Shut up Paula!” It is now to the point where she has no creditability in my opinion. She will tell the performer that they did a good job even if it wasn’t. If she ever does say something negative or constructive, she follows it up by 20 compliments to make sure their feelings aren’t hurt. She will then tell them that they have a huge fan base, and they should never give up on singer and to keep following their dreams. Why? It is so annoying! Does anyone else feel that same as Emily and I???

Sunday Dinner at the Warner’s

Since Emily and I live pretty close to both our families, we switch off every Sunday for dinner. One week we will travel up to Fruit Heights to eat with the Staple’s, and then the other week we will go to my family’s house. Well, yesterday, it was my family’s turn, and a few funny things happened that I thought I might share. (However, some things are better left unsaid!) The first thing that was funny is when my Dad indirectly called Emily a dog. It was pretty funny! We were all talking about exercising, and Emily mentioned that she has started to run. She also said that it doesn’t matter how long she runs, she never sweats (which was one reason why I married her). That’s when my Dad decided to say, “You know, dogs don’t sweat either.” We all looked at him and started laughing because we all had the same thought, “Did you just compare Emily to a dog?”

The second thing that was a little on the scary/funny side; if any of you know my sister Kiffin, you know that she has a pretty mean punch, and she can pinch you until blood starts coming out. Occasionally, Kiffin will start punching me, and we will start to wrestle a bit. Well, that happened yesterday, but the outcome was a little bit different than usual. We started wrestling a little bit, and I wrestled Kiffin into the bean bag. All of the sudden, I felt rapid punches on my back. I look up to see what is hitting me, and I was face-to-face with an angry, screaming, four year old. It was Kiffin’s son, Daxtyn. Luckily, Bryan, Kiffin’s husband, saw the anger in Dax’s face and saved me from a brutal beating from a four-year-old. It was kind of cute to see Dax defend his mom, but it was also kind of terrifying to see a four year old’s face while beating up on a twenty-seven year old. Needless to say, I probably won’t wrestle my sister again!

Season Finale!

As I mentioned about a month ago, Emily and I are pretty "hard core" and "devoted" Prison Break fans. Every Monday night for the last few months, we have been glued to the TV. for at least an hour watching the nail-biting episodes. Last night was the Season Finale, and they finally broke out of Sona. The show ended with just enough foreshadowing I can't wait for the next season. For those of you that aren't up-to-date, I won't spoil the ending. With Prison Break out of the way, Em and I can start having FHE. Just kidding, well kind of. Don't you hate how some of these shows can completely take over your life? You start rearranging your schedule just so you can make time for the shows, but they are just so good, you can't miss them! Does anyone else have this problem?

Just For Laughs!

So you know those emails that just make you laugh. Well, here is one of them that fits that category. The title of the picture is "Government Health Warning; DO NOT SWALLOW BUBBLE GUM!!!"

BOOK OF MORMON IN 97 DAYS

In honor of President Hinckley, we are going to read the Book of Mormon in 97 days. I heard about this from a friend and I thought that it would be a great idea. This means you have to read just under 6 pages a day and we will finish around the 10th of May. We started today and are excited to do it.

"When can you come for dinner?"

So as many of you know, Emily and I moved to American Fork in a little townhome back in July. We started going to the ward a few weeks before we moved in. It seemed like a real nice ward from our first impressions. We also noticed that there weren't too many people that were our ages. It seemed that most of the ward members were in their early 30s to their mid-40s. After about a month there we were called to be Primary Teachers for the 8-10 year olds. We have found that once you get called to the Primary, you really don't get to know to many adults in the ward, but we know every primary child that are the ages of 8-11. Having said all that leads me to my story. Emily and I have our certain Sacrament Meeting spot. (It seems that in the Mormon Culture, if you set in the same seats for two consecutive Sundays, you basically claim those seats as yours every Sunday.)
Anyway, Emily and I claimed the first row of the overflow. (Yes they are hard seats, but it gives you so much leg room.) Last Sunday, we ventured out and decided to set in a different spot, and we arrived about 5 minutes early. As we were waiting for Sacrament to start, a couple, probably in their early 30s, sat in the pew in front of us. The only thing that we knew about this couple was the guy is the Executive Secretary in the Bishopric, and the only communication that we had ever had was when Curtis, the guy, asked us to say the opening and closing prayer for Sacrament awhile back, and if we had signed up for tithing settlement back in December. In fact, I don't think we have every formally introduced ourselves either.
Here comes the meat of the story. Seconds after we said Amen to the closing prayer, Curtis turns around, and asked "What day can you guys come over for dinner this week?" Both Emily and I were a little taken back from that question for two reasons. One, we had seriously never introduced ourselves! We had no idea what the wife's name was, and they only reason I knew his name was because it is always on the Sacrament program to make appointments with the bishop. Second, there was no intro to the question like, "How are you guys?"; or "How do you like the ward so far?"; or "We are Curtis and Krystal Read, and we would like to have you two over for dinner sometime?" Just, "What day can you guys come over for dinner?" We decided on Wednesday at 7:45, and as Emily and I were walking to our class, we both looked at each other and said, "Well, I guess we have a date this Wednesday with people we don't even know." We actually went searching for a ward list after church to find out what their names were. Anyway, we went to dinner on Wed., and we got to know a couple more people in the ward.

An Amazing Example

What an amazing example President Hinckley was to us! We are forever grateful for his life that he gave to this gospel and church. He was a man of great love and someone we should all look to pattern our lives after. I am amazed at his perfect companionship he had with his wife and his incredible testimony. His testimony helped mine grow leaps and bounds and will continue to do so. Although it is sad that he has passed on, I am sure that he is enjoying a little rest with his wife:-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOEL!!

It was Joel's (TJ's dad's) birthday yesterday. He turned the big 53. Trina decorated their house with signs and balloons and went to lunch with him, and made him a big breakfast. Carson called Grandpa Joel telling him Happy Birthday... so cute! Trina, Kiffin, Dax, Aspen, Joel, TJ, and I all went out to dinner at Brick Oven in Provo. SO GOOD! All seven of us were squished close in a small booth, but that is how Joel likes it :-) He received shirts, fishing gear, ties, air freshners :-) and push-up bars to work his pecs! Way to go Chief!

Re-Cap

Well, I decided to finally participate in life! I thought that since we entered so late into the blogging community I would summarize what we have been doing since we were married. We were married over spring break in the Salt Lake Temple on March 22, 2006. We honeymooned in Cabo San Lucas Mexico, where we had to hitch-hike to the resort! (SO FUNNY!)

After finishing the semester, we moved to Apple Valley Minnestoa for the summer to sell for Pinnacle Security. We had a hard but wonderful summer. Riley Warner (TJ's brother) left on his mission for the Munic Austria, Germany mission in May. After returning from the summer, we moved into the Warner's basement apartment(which was pure luxury) while we put some more school under our belts. TJ and I were both going to school at UVSC (soon to be UVU). TJ was heavily involved in student government and I was also working for Pinnacle security. TJ graduated with his Bachelors of Arts in History, and I received my Associates Degree in English. TJ started his new job with Wells Fargo as a Personal Banker, and I continued to go to school through the summer and also worked for Pinnacle Security. We went a a couple of fun vacations one was to Bear Lake with the Warner family. We had so much fun camping, swimming, hanging out at the beach, and spending time together. We had quite the event in a large storm on the lake, lets just say it was one for the books!! Thanks Warner's for an amazing time, cannot wait till next year!! The other vacation we went on was with the Staples. We went back east to see the church history sites in Kirtland, Palmyra, also Niagra Falls in Canada, and New York City. We had a wonderful time.

In the middle of these vacations, we bought a townhome in American Fork, UT. WE LOVE IT! After we purchased it we spent a month fixing it up. Lets just say the people that lived there before us didn't clean for two years. So we... washed everything, put in new carpet, new paint, new blinds, new tile in the kitchen and bathrooms (thanks honey!), bought furniture, decorated, and cleaned...cleaned...cleaned. We had a great time!! Thanks to every one for their help it was greatly needed; and thanks to my hubby for all of his hard work. We spent the rest of the summer and fall spending time with each other, with friends, and a lot of family events. This pretty much brings us to TJ's entries.

Now for the most recent items of business... Ashely Quist (my sister) had her third girl on December 28th. She is so cute! Her name is Claire Lula Quist.

We went snowmobiling with the Staples at the beginning of Jan. We went to Bear River Lodge for two nights and had a blast! This was our last little family vacation before Tanner left on his mission.

And last, Tanner (my not so "little" brother) left on his mission to Paris, France. We are so excited for him but will miss him a lot! Love you Tanner! Well, thanks for reading our life history!

Prison Break

So, after two months of waiting, Prison Break is finally back every Monday Night! Emily and I have a pretty good Monday routine. During lunch, I go to my parent's house to eat, and to make sure that Prison Break will record on TiVo. After work, both Em and I meet at mt parent's house around 7:30, and we start watching Prison Break. The funny part about this routine, is we were able to convert Trina and Joel to be Prison Break-watching-addicts. (I knew we could get my mom hooked, but I couldn't believe that my dad got hooked.) Anyway, the first episode was exciting. I won't share details incase you didn't see it. I don't know what it is about this season, but I get nervous almost every episode. For those that want to join the Prison Break club, you can watch it on Monday at 7:00 pm.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Happy 2008 everyone!! I hope that everyone's holidays were as good as ours...a lot of a family, a lot of treats, a lot of presents(well maybe not a lot of presents but a few), and a lot of happiness and love. Here is what happened:

• December 23-We dressed up like Shepard's and Wise Men at the Staples home, and we image what it would be like if we were "Back in Bethlehem" at the time of the savior birth.
• December 24-We spent most of the day with the Warner's, and Emily experienced her first Pyne Christmas Eve party. Which involved a lot of yelling, food, racial comments(courtesy of Trish), and singing! We also saw for the first time Grandpa Pyne play the trumpet, and Taylor sticking a whole pen in his nose!
• December 25-This was the first Christmas in our home and completely by ourselves. We started the day off by giving each other our presents. Then, we went to Kiffin's house for breakfast, and we opened up our presents from my mom and day. At 1:30, we headed up to Fruit Heights to spend the day with the Staples. We were also privilege to see Mark and Jana dress like punk rappers and freestyle an awesome rap about the family!
• December 26-Em and I worked.
• December27- Em and I worked
• December 28-I helped at a wrestling tournament and Em spent time with her family and our new niece, Claire.
• December 29-I helped at a wrestling tournament and Em spent the day at the house.
• December 30-We went to 2 homecomings, 1 baptism, and a lot of food.
• December 31-We worked and spent the new year laughing hysterically with friends, drank at least 5 gallons of Sparkling Cider, lit fireworks, and caught up with our old friends the Fitzgeralds.
• January 1-Spent the whole day at the Staples. I watched football, and Emily cleaned.
  

And that is a wrap!