Christmas, The Jazz, and Skiing with Bobby

Christmas this year was celebrated 4 days early in order to have the entire family together. It was tons of fun to have everyone together. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures because my camera was taking crappy pictures. Anyways, here are a few from the day......

Ashley enjoying her present from her favorite Aunt Jen (her new princess dress and the Snow White book.

Sienna enjoyed opening every present she could!! Look at the excitement on her face.

Ashley and me (not the cutest, but all I have)

The day after Christmas I was able to benefit from the big x-mas day storm and went snowboarding. I went with two girls I used to work with and it was SO much fun. We stayed until 3:30 which is way longer than I normally stay but the snow was AWESOME and the sun was shining (most of the time). Besides the snow the best part of the day was skiing with Mr. Robert Redford. Okay, okay so he may not have known we were BFF's and skiing together, but we were! He got on the lift right in front of us so naturally once we were at the top I needed to see how he skied (not very well I might add). We followed him down the mountain and even snapped this picture of him (I promise it is him!). Anyways, it was fun to chase him around for a bit since I've never seen him in all my times at Sundance and I really love him. He is not quite as good looking as his younger days....he is an OLD man now, but still a little sexy :) I have to say at 70+ years old I'm impressed he can ski at all.

Mr. Redford is on the right (with his infamous orange boots)
**Picture taken with a crappy phone camera. Why didn't I have a better camera on me???

Then later that night my Dad and I went to the Jazz vs. Dallas game. Considering most of the Jazz players were hurt I was impressed they pulled out the win. It was tons of fun to go to the game with my Dad even though somehow they forgot to plow the roads on the way to SLC so we had to drive home pretty slow!

Sad Day...Mallet Finger returns

So over the past week my supposedly repaired mallet finger has continued to droop more and more. It doesn't hurt or anything, but it definitely doesn't look normal. I thought I'd better check back in with the hand doctor before I just live with it and sadly it appears I'm not like the other 95% of mallet finger patients who have a finger that repairs itself. I'm in the 5%. He told me I probably will need surgery, but I have to wait 8 weeks to get into the hand surgeon so I might as well wear my brace for the next 6 weeks while I wait for my appointment to see if it helps any. Surgery? Seriously? This can't be true.

So I have my brace on again until Feb 2. At least I'm seeing the "best" hand surgeon in the state. By then I will be going on 5 months with a splint. I should have just had surgery to begin with!

All for an iPhone....next time I'm letting it drop!

Bye, Bye Mallet Finger

After 12 LONG, LONG weeks I no longer have a mallet finger. I now have a very stiff, slightly swollen pinky finger that still appears a bit droopy, but I guess that is as good as it gets according to the doctor.

Don't worry, I will be extra careful when I pick up my iPhone....I know it is very dangerous and I have learned my lesson.

My mended pinky will be put to the test as I attempt to play the piano at Madi's baptism on Saturday. If I mess up I'm SURE it is the pinky's fault (LOL!!!).

Thanksgiving, Twilight, and shopping

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love being around family and of course EATING. This year all of the girls did Thanksgiving dinner since my mom just had hip surgery and it was delicious! Scott actually BBQ'd the turkey and honestly I don't think I've tasted a better turkey. It was so, so good. Now Scott will be in charge of the turkey every year (sucks to be him).

The rest of the day was spent playing guitar hero (being "boo'd" off the stage), watching Ashley and Sienna dance, putting up the Christmas decorations and just chatting. It was so much fun.


Here is Ashley in her new princess dress from Aunt Jen (aka...the favorite Aunt!!). Not the best picture, but believe me she LOVED it.

Then on Friday night my sisters and I went to see Twilight. Lara & I LOVED it, Stacy & Amber had different opinions than us though. I guess since I openly admit to liking High School Musical I know that any teen movie will be fine with me. Even though Edward was not the Edward I pictured I ended up liking him.

After the movie we went to Red Robin to eat and then shopping. We haven't all 4 shopped together in years and it was really fun (and hilarious) to all be in the dressing room together laughing as we tried on various good and bad outfits.

How do you know your old??

So how do you know your old? Oh well I'll tell you.....I've found it happens at age 33 when your birthday plans consist of the following:

- A phone call at 12:10am from a well-intentioned friend wanting to be the "1st to wish you Happy Birthday" wakes you up from a deep slumber & you try to not be upset as you attempt to fall back asleep.
- An early morning meeting at work, forcing you to get to work earlier than normal (remember #1 above.....)
- A very, very busy day at work with a million meetings and a million things to try & get done.
- A GMAT prep class from 5-9pm...good times, good times.
- Going to the gym after your class
- Watching "The Office" on TV (Okay, this is actually why I look forward to any Thursday)
- Going to bed early so you can get to physical therapy the next morning at 7am.

Yeah, the list of birthday fun above reminds me more and more that I'm an adult and not turning 16 anymore. The worst part about it is that I honestly didn't care about any birthday plans. I now understand how my parents didn't care about their birthdays growing up.

I did get to go to Chick-fil-a for my birthday lunch at work which was of course delicious. I enjoyed it even more since I get rejected daily when I suggest Chick-Fil-A for lunch. For some reason I'm the only one who thinks it is delicious.

I do want to say thank you to all my friends and family who called to wish me a Happy Birthday! Sorry I couldn't talk to everyone of you.....many of you called during the most exciting part of my day.....my GMAT prep class.

Logan

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but life has been super busy. Two weekends ago I finally made it to Logan to meet my new nephew, Andrew. I love going to Logan because it is always a low key trip, Amber & Scott feed me SO well and I have to admit that Ashley just makes me laugh these days.

Highlights of the too short stay included:

- Playing "superman" with Ashley and subsequently having "superman" (me) tweak her back. As Ashley kept saying "Superman broken!" Yes, Ashley superman was broken.
- Teaching Ashley that I also wanted to talk to Amber as she continued to say "Momma bye-bye" everytime Amber walked in the room & wanted to "play" with Ashley & me. Apparently she thought mom was going to ruin her fun.
- "Harmony Bear" (a Care Bear I brought Ashley) coming EVERYWHERE with us, including the bathroom.
- Watching movies with Amber and staying up too late!
- Ashley actually realizing that Scott made fun of her at the breakfast table...."Daddy make fun of me." We of course burst out laughing which made Ashley cry.
- Holding sweet little Andrew
- Eating, Eating & more eating - Such good cooks those McAllisters are!

Other than having to work for 4 hours while I was there the weekend was wonderful!

Here is a picture of me, Ashley & Andrew

"I know I can't dance".....but I'm happy others can

Back in my "glory days" I had no trouble putting on a short skirt and dancing for the entire student body at Orem High. These days I wouldn't dream of dancing in public on any level, let alone on a stage in front of people. I can't even bring myself to go to the hip hop aerobics class at the gym (mostly because I feel twice the age of the teeny boppers in that class). Let's face it I should have played sports, but instead I chose cheerleading....oh the lame choices I made.

Even though I have lost all dancing skill I once claimed to have, I still LOVE watching other people dance so I jumped at the chance to attend the "So You Think you can Dance?" tour. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show, it is a reality show with judges where real dancers showcase all different types of dance (ballroom, hip hop, contemporary, broadway, jazz, etc.). Once the show is over the Top 10 dancers go on tour and you can see your favorite dancers from the show perform live.

I went with Jenna and her friend Jennie from California. Our first stop was the Cheesecake Factory which I haven't been to since in opened in Murray. Dinner was of course delicious. Then we headed to the show. We had great seats (phew! I was nervous since I was the ticket coordinator). The show was awesome and lasted 3 hours. I couldn't believe they performed that many dances with pretty much no more than 1 minute breaks in between dances. I was pleased to see everyone of my favorite dances and many times I was flat out in shock with the sheer ability of these dancers. I can not believe what they can do with their bodies. Amazing. I can't dream of doing the splits anymore, but one of the dancers had no trouble leaping and being caught in mid-air in the splits. Seriously??? These dancers are amazing. It was a great evening and I can't wait to go again next year!

Me and Jenna at the show. Yep we took our picture in front of the sign along with all the teeny boppers.