Someone thinks I'm hilarious

***Note for those of you who only read the email & don't go to the link, you miss out on all the pictures***

It has been confirmed this past weekend that I am funny, well at least to an 18 month old little girl. I went to visit Amber, Scott, & Ashley this past weekend. Life has thrown me some curve balls lately and thus the main purpose of the trip was to go on a trip where I didn't have to think about being social, my job, or anything else.

Most of my time was spent entertaining Ashley. Although she hasn't quite learned the "sign" for Jen I feel I am quickly becoming the favorite aunt. A couple of my favorite moments with Ashley involved "hiding" from her around the corner, scaring her and then chasing her. Even after 20 times in a row she thought I may have been the funniest thing ever. I also learned alot about which animals call the barn home. FYI, it is not the elephant....LOL! We also had a great time playing the piano. In fact she taught me some tricks by using her feet. It does add an extra 5 "fingers" which when I'm playing the piano it seems I don't have nearly enough fingers to actually play what I want to play. Leave it to the toddler to come up with the solution.


This weekend was also a sad reminder of how much Amber can accomplish in one day. Seriously there may be something wrong with her!! Has she been granted more than 24 hours in a day?? Perhaps she has access to a secret genie?? Or maybe she is just Mary Poppins (I'd better keep an eye out for an umbrella). Seriously, I don't do half of what she does on a daily basis and I am single. I definitely learned that I do not know how to cook, I can't even pretend. Now I knew this before I got to Logan as my meals often consist of peanut butter (from the can), cottage cheese (again from the can) or something the Olive Garden or Cafe Rios has made for me. However, after trying to "help" Amber cook I now know that it is even worse then I thought. It isn't a good sign when you have to ask how to use a rice cooker, burn the pie filling on the stove, and then just give up & play with Ashley. Let's remember that I'm the older sister.....shouldn't I be teaching her? I was definitely well fed this weekend, from BBQ pizza on the grill (thanks to Scott), Hawaiian Haystacks, and an awesome raspberry pie. The McAllister's know how to host a guest. I refuse to step on a scale until next week though :)

Maps are important

Maps are important to have in your possession and more important to read. I learned this the hard way this weekend. Nicole & I had decided that we wanted to hike Timp. One of us who shall remain nameless (not me...LOL!) had hiked to Timp before and was positive that you hiked past the Timp Caves & then continued on to the top of Timp. So we woke up at 6am (to avoid the heat) and started our hike to Timp Caves. As we reached the additional 2000 ft in elevation to Timp Caves the trail abruptly ended. After consulting with the park ranger we were informed that the trail to the top of Timp started 7 miles further up the canyon and not at Timp caves. Sadly we then hiked back down to the bottom of the caves, drove 7 more miles and then started our ascent to the top of Timp. We began hiking at 9:30am instead of 7:30am. The trail is beautiful and a not too challenging, however it did get rather hot as we were hiking in the middle of the day. Don't worry, I was kept cool by my soaking wet sweaty back. Seriously, it was so gross, good thing I was not trying to impress anyone.

Needless to say, Nicole & I were done hiking about 3 hours before the trail said we were done. It was a long hike down. We ended up hiking 17 miles in one day. However, I do feel pretty cool that I know I have hiked to the tallest peak around these parts (11,000+ feet). As a result I have never had such sore calves in all my life and my toe nail is coming off. So sad.

Maybe I am a camper.....

Maybe I am a camper.....

Last week I let it be known that I was not a camper, however after receiving my new vacuum this week I have determined that not only am I a camper, but you might as well call me a "mountain woman" with all the dirt, dust and hair I have been living in for the past year within the walls of my own home. I'm not sure why I even bothered to shower this past year.

After going through 2 vacuums in the last 3 years I determined that the time had come to bite the bullet and invest in a good vacuum. After doing some research online, with friends and going through some test runs at Sears I was sold on buying a Dyson. Consumer reports rated it #2, but since I don't care about cat hair (we all know how much I hate that Ricky) I didn't think cat hair removal was a huge selling point for me. I found a refurbished Dyson on Overstock for $329 which is $110 cheaper then buying it new. The big selling point for the Dyson is that it never loses suction & you don't have bags, belts or anything to replace.

I received the vacuum on Monday. Since that time I have spent hours (yes, hours) vacuuming everything I can see in my house. The suction on the Dyson is just as amazing as the marketing ploys say it is. The best thing so far is that it sucks up hair. As a girl this is very, very important. My previous vacuums have just had the hair get stuck on the brushes or worse....pushed it around into a nice little ball for me to then pick up. The Dyson actually sucks the hair up into the dirt bag.

Overall I would tell everyone that having a great vacuum is a must buy. Fork out the money & buy a good one. It is well worth it. It is like a bed, you shouldn't be cheap when you spend so much time in it.

Kumbaya.......

As expected this past week was much less eventful then the previous week. However, this weekend did remind me of one particular thing.....I am not a camper!

This weekend was our ward camp out up in Kamas, UT (near Heber). As a member of the activities committee the ward camp out is much, much more then showing up & setting up your tent (although you have to do that also). We had been advised to plan for 200 people so our fun began Thursday night when we got together and put together 200 tin foil dinners. Let's just say that I would prefer to not cut raw chicken for a very, very long time. We packed up our stuff and headed to the campsite which was really some undeveloped land owned by our Bishop, but near a chapel so we had access to the restrooms (very handy). Once we arrived we then had to cook the 200 tin foil dinners we made the night before, which went surprisingly quick. Once that was complete I was able to socialize & enjoy the company of those around me, although their numbers were more like 100, not 200. We sat around the campfire, had "girl talk" and looked at the stars. I am constantly amazed by the quality of people in my ward, especially the girls. Once it was time for bed I had to blow up my pool floaty for my mattress and then I was ready to sleep, too bad not everyone was ready to sleep as tents do not have the same types of walls as are in my home. So after 4 hours of sleep, we awoke and made breakfast at the church (breakfast burritos), cleaned up camp, and headed home. Needless to say I find camping more work then a vacation. Although it is relaxing I'd rather have someone else make my food and clean up my room.

Other notable or not so notable things that happened this week were:

• I nearly died of smoke inhalation. Lung Cancer may be just around the corner......
• I saved $1900 by having a guy in my ward fix my floor drain instead of a "professional" who wanted to charge $2000. I had it done for $100.
• The wasps no longer have a home in my home. Their homes have been filled with foam. I'm sure they are very upset.
  
• My NuSkin girls softball team is one win away from the championship. We are currently undefeated.
  
• I continue to run and I'm still waiting for running to become fun or make me super skinny (neither of which has happened yet).
  
• I attended "Taco Night" with friends in the ward. It was your basic "stand around" as we like to call them.

Let Freedom Ring!

Well I have now officially entered the world of blogging. I figure this might be the best way to let the family know how I'm doing on a somewhat regular basis. I guess that I have my computer nerd brother-in-laws and father to thank for this. Don't get used to this long of an entry since my life is mostly boring, but when a holiday is involved it gets a little more exciting.

This past week was the 4th of July. This year for the 4th of July I had the crazy idea to run the 4th of July "Freedom Run" 10K. Now let's remember I'm an aerobics girl, not a runner, but have been trying to become a runner. I figured there is no better place then running on the parade route for all of Provo to see me becoming a runner. I ran the 10K with Jana & Nicole and some other girls in our ward. Nicole was kind enough to keep her speed down & run with me. This came in very handy when I almost died running up 900 East. I knew I must be struggling when Nicole's comments switched from being about our lives (boys, work, etc) to comments such as "We're almost there," "You can make it." I must have looked like death was right around the corner. When all was said and done I ran 6.2 miles in 1:02 which is exactly a 10 min mile. I'm not going to win any gold medals, but I did finish and ran the whole time (no walking!) which is a major accomplishment for me.



The rest of the 4th of July consisted of a BBQ with 30 or so friends and going to the temple with the rest of Provo to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks. It was a lot of fun although I was super tired since I had gotten up at 6am to run the 10K.

Since the 4th of July was on a Wednesday I found work extremely unappealing. I attempted to work for 4 hours on Thursday and then decided I was done for the week. I promptly went home and awaiting the arrival of the "Wasp Killers" to get rid of 9 lovely wasp homes in various parts of my balcony and house. I was very impressed that exterminator came and just swatted at the wasps as if they were flies. Quite a skill since I normally run when I see just one wasp.

This week I also purchased and used my first BBQ. Although it was 100+ degrees I cooked some steaks (more well done then I would have liked) and my roommates and I had family dinner before we went to see Les Miserables at the Pioneer Theatre company in Salt Lake. Les Mis was very well done and well worth going to see.

Since I am becoming a runner Giulianna (a friend in my ward) convinced us to run another 5K with her called "Lavender Days." It was described as a little piece of Italy & you run through the smell & fields of Lavender. Maybe I'm imaging Italy much greener and prettier then it actually is, but we ran our 5K through lavender sagebrush, not fields, although it did smell like lavender. It was a nice work-out but at 5:30am I wasn't so excited to be running in the middle of the desert nor was I thrilled when a 14 year old girl cut me off and I literally fell on my face as the race began.