give thanks: 5,6,7

Days 5 and 6 got skipped because apparently I can't blog from my iphone.
Day 5: it snowed Friday night. I am so grateful for the snow not sticking. And being able to drive down the HUGE hill without dying. But I'm glad it is starting to feel like the holidays are finally coming.  My Christmas wish list is in the works.

Day 6: Daylight Savings, remember? Well, our clocks got turned back 2 hours. We slept  so much yesterday - sleeping in for forever, a nap after we got home, and early bedtime. You'd think I wouldn't be sleepy today, but I am. But I am so happy we got [2] extra hours :)

Day 7, today!: We got to spend the weekend with family and friends (even though I was a party-pooper and fell asleep on the couch. Sorry, Laura!) and as we were leaving, I was sad that we can't just do that all the time. How come school and work and life just get in the way?? I am excited for the upcoming weeks!

ALSO. just got my schedule for Thanksgiving and I actually get the whole weekend off! oh man. Monday is turning out pretty good.

give thanks: day 4!

Guys. This is big. I've made it 4 days in a row of sticking to this series.
I'm on David's computer right now (I'll sign out, babe. I promise!) and he has all of our official engagement/wedding pictures on here. And occasionally, I like to look through them. (All of these were taken by the wonderful Whitney Lewis.)We are not very good photography subjects, so there are a lot that look silly. Here are some of my favorites:

Apparently, we both close our eyes when we laugh.

David claims he doesn't like to dance. I disagree, and this photo is pretty good proof that he does.

This one was actually on purpose, don't worry. We're not THAT bad.

I actually really LOVE this one.

Anyways, this has nothing to do with the pictures, but I'm grateful for the weekend!

give thanks: day 3

for some reason I can't get pictures to work on my touchpad, sorry.

Last night as we drove home, there was a squeaky noise that we heard once or twice. We didn't really think anything of it and decided we would worry about it later. But as I got out of the car,I heard another noise. Dripping, and not just the slow one-drop-at-a-time kind. It was fast and it was coming from our car. NOT what we wanted to spend our night worrying about.
After some investigating and a lot of catching the dripping liquid and pouring it back in and catching it again, etc., we knew it was coolant and that we had a bad leak somewhere, or worst case would be a crack in the engine block.
David's dad is really good with cars and it wouldn't have been very expensive to fix it up at their house. Unfortunately, there was no way our car would even make it up there. So off to a mechanic we go.
Mr. Mechanic tells me what it would cost to fix our leaking/broken water lump (hooray! It's not the engine!). Then tells me what it would cost to additionally fix the thermostat that is usually fixed when the water pump breaks. Just under $1000. Oh man. We'll just go with the water pump, we said. A couple hundred dollars later, our car is back in our coolant-stained driveway.

I am grateful my car is working again and I don't have to miss anymore work because of not having a way to get up there.
And I am grateful for Mr. Mechanic not making it completely unaffordable to fix our much-needed car. And also for balancing my tires for free. Definitely still a fan of your shop.
I am also grateful to David's dad who spent lots of time on the phone with us to help us when we were in trouble.
I think mostly I am grateful for trials that the Lord knows we can overcome. On our drive home, we were discussing our car (after hearing the squeaks) and one of us commented on how this car has been good for us and that it will hopefully last us for a long time. How funny that as soon as we get out if the car, something goes wrong.  It definitely was not a good day for it to happen because we had ToNs going on. But we overcame it, and our day will be just as good, if not better.
Time to go make some chicken pot pie now that I have an unexpected day off and can actually cook dinner. Another blessing in disguise :)

give thanks: day 2

you can read day 1 here
After I graduated from BYU, I got a job that I thought was perfect for me. It was even related to my major. But after a couple months at that job, I realized I dreaded going to work every day. I would even have bad dreams/nightmares about it occasionally. So I decided to quit and then unexpectedly soon, I was unemployed. I'd been looking around for another job for a little bit before I told my employers I was quitting. We were so incredibly blessed because my last day of work at that job was a Thursday; by the next Monday, I had a job and started on Tuesday. (I know lots of people who had a really hard time finding a job around then as well and I felt so guilty when I got one. But I guess unemployment just wasn't meant to be one of my trials.)

Today is my one-year anniversary of working at this job.
 (Hooray! I'm now eligible for a 401k and short-term disability.)
This job has been a good thing for us. As much as I dread getting out of bed, and the awful traffic both ways, and having days where I wish I was doing something more fulfilling, it has been exactly what I/we need. Especially as we are going through David having to search for an internship/job for our future, I am even more aware of what a blessing this is.
Today I am grateful for having a job.

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HALLOWEEN!

I married someone who doesn't really like Halloween or dressing up. He says he is going to be the kind of dad who takes their kid trick or treating and is just on his phone the whole time. So when I saw this idea, I jumped on it because it was easy and cheap and we each get a new sweatshirt out of the deal. I think this is the closest David will come to "dressing up" for Halloween. I loved these though, so that's all that matters, right?

  2 sweatshirts

+

felt

+

thread

+ 

fabric stiffener

+

lots of poking myself

=
SHARKS!

 

Idea from here!

give thanks: day 1

I work at a doctors office. It's a great job for me (other than the nasty commute some days) and for where we are in life right now for a lot of reasons.Most of the patients and their families are wonderful, fantastic people. But every once in awhile we get a couple interesting ones.

such as:
Like this one night, as I was working the closing shift, we had a patient call who had taken his own blood pressure and it was soaring through the roof. The nurse and doctor were both in with patients and he asked what we would have him do. We told him we would have him go to the ER. If he came in here, we would just send him there and then that would be a wasted copay. He argued with us about it for a couple minutes, then told us that he had already called the cardiologist for their opinion. I was shocked. You say you called your HEART DOCTOR and he told you to go the ER? And then you decided to ignore him and call us hoping we'd say something different?! It's called common sense, buddy. C'MON.

Also, we have a patient from Bosnia who has only come to our office once or twice to see the doctor. He came in to drop off a form. And because I was the one that helped him, he gave me a candy bar. A candy bar the size of my head. Then another (smaller, but still huge) one when he came to pick it up. Delicious chocolate from Europe. Hello there, new best friend.

Today, I had a patient who called to get some information and asked that I fax it to him. He read me the number, I said okay, printed it, faxed it and then promptly forgot about it. A little while later I got a phone call from him very angrily asking me to not fax his information ever again. WHAT?! I was quite confused.

So, day one of November. Today I am grateful for the examples that others set of who I want to become and who I do not want to become. There are so many good people who have wonderful characteristics I hope to have some day. And there are others that teach me that I do not want to develop certain traits. In this on-going process, I am continually learning and growing and hopefully it is in good ways.

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.

My lifestyle change.

Let's talk about weight. No one likes to talk about it right? Other than in school and moaning/groaning about what youwish was different/better...which I definitely do.

I was a little... I guess naive is the word I'm looking for in high school. I didn't pay attention to all the girls who talked about spending time at the gym, running, yoga, and doing the Atkins diet (oh man. there were so many on that one) or whatever else was trendy at that time. All I knew about exercise was that I should do it and that I didn't really do it. 

My high school. gorgeous, huh?  ViaYou'd think working as a lifeguard for 5+ years would make you self-conscious about how you look in a bathing suit, but I never really paid attention. I always knew the other girls were "smaller" but they were also usually way shorter than me, so logically, I would weigh more because I was taller. (WHICH IS TRUE! C'MON people. Not everyone can be model-esque.) 

I played sports in high school and pretty much counted that as my exercise. Volleyball was in the fall, lacrosse was in the spring (with training starting mid-January). I figured I was set. 

We didn't have a scale at home (or did we? I can't remember having one that worked.) so I never paid attention to what I weighed. Naive, I know, but it was kind of nice to be ignorant.  I definitely liked having a team workout though. Having other people doing sprints, long runs, pushups and crunches with me was fun. It was easy for me when I could do it with everyone else. I loved all those girls so much. I'm a team player at heart.  

(I just realized I have no pictures of volleyball. How did that happen?!)

circa 2006 -I'm the nike shoes on the right side of the picture.

But then came college, and with it the "freshman 15" (I think mine was more 10, but still...). I realized what was happening, but I didn't really know what to do to stop it. I exercised/ran sometimes, but never consistently and never very intensely. It was mostly a sense of "oh, let's go exercise, even though you don't really know how." My weight increased, but I wasn't really paying attention. 

Hiking the Alpine Loop in 2007.

Bridal Veil Falls - 2007

One semester I think I decided I needed to be better about exercising so I went to the gym every day for a month and a half - I think mostly to prove to myself that I could stick to a program after a long history of quitting things. (I guess we'll save those stories for another day.)  

I went through 4 years of college not really being disciplined about what I ate, when I ate, how often I exercised, blah blah. But I did love the classes that talked about exercise/nutrition. (One of my favorite non-major classes was weightlifting - I felt so empowered.)  My major was exercise science and I took tons of classes that involved exercise and the body - kinesiology/biomechanics, physiology, athletic training, anatomy, etc. But I never did the normal exercise. I just did the extreme, fun, occasional  kind. 

go-carts in 2009 - ok,ok not that extreme.

Skydiving 2009! SO Incredible.

Hiking in Hawaii. I'm not sure what camera this is from but it was 2009, not 2006.

Then I got married! And if possible, I exercised even less. Being with David is way more fun than getting to the gym and onto the treadmill.  I got a gym pass and went for awhile. Then hurt my leg and quit. Then I cancelled my gym pass to save money. But I was still doing the "extreme" stuff. Like going camping/hiking. My pictures say that's what we do that the most.  Hiking is fun because of the challenge behind it and the scenery at the end. (Backpacking 17 miles was by far the hardest thing I've done this year and although I never wanted to do it again when it was over, I'm ready for another one!)

Uintas 2010 - read about it here

Unitas - 2010.  Clyde Lake. This was only a 3 mile backpacking trip? I don't remember.

Hiking in Escalante 2011 - read about it here

Bridal Veil 2011

Ryder Lake 2011
Ryder Lake was the 17-mile hike up in the Uintas. read about it here.

Fishing. It's extreme too. Don't laugh.

Other than these occasional adventures, I haven't really been doing tons of exercise. We have P90 and P90x, but I'm never consistent with those. But after working at a doctors' office and having lots of time to think about unhealthy weight, I'm thinking I need to do things a little differently. Over the past couple months, I've been trying to focus on being healthy more - paying more attention about what and when I'm eating, and if I'm eating just to eat (which I do A LOT) or if I'm really hungry. And this alone has helped me lose a little weight - BONUS! because I wasn't even trying - I was just going for "healthy". 

Especially as Thanksgiving and Christmas get closer, I'm going to try to be aware of what I put in my mouth. (My work is starting to get all the goodies/treats and lunches from patients and drug reps. Not good news for me.) I'm also going to try to exercise more - starting small. One of the running blogs I follow is doing a Pile on the Miles challenge - "to encourage us to pile on the miles instead of the pounds..." Sounds fun, right?  (I'm signing up today, if anyone else is interested in being my walking/running buddy.)

Basically, I'm trying to make lifestyle changes which I'm hoping will help me lose weight. BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, I'm trying to get healthy. I'm telling you because I need to be held accountable for it. If anyone else has advice/wants to tell me their story/wants to join me, let me know! (Hello, team player here!) Or go on a camping/backpacking/hiking adventure. I'm good at those too. :)

My Baby........

..........Blanket!
In case you didn't know, I have an incredibly talented cousin named Rachel (go look at her beautiful blog and her darling baby)!

She had a crotchet-along where she taught her readers how to crotchet. 

My older brother and his wife are having a little girl in February  (I'm getting a niece!!) and I wanted to make them something. 

Using her instructions on how to start crocheting, her FAQ and this original tutorial, this is what I made: 

[Try to ignore the corner that has gone all weird. And the foot feeling what the bobbles feel like.]

Semi -close up: 

I LOVED making this blanket.

(I haven't gotten up the courage - or the spending money - to start anything else.)

"Loved" meaning I was addicted to working on it every chance I could - at work, at home, during conference, etc.

I didn't think about how big it was going to be because I was paying more attention to not messing up than to how long I made my initial chain. Yeah. Problem. It turned out huge. But I think I like it that way. And next time, I don't think I'll be doing the stripes. Too much work and I think the one-color ones look so good.

 I very seriously considered keeping it at work because I get so cold here (hello, air conditioning in OCtOBER). But I decided the baby would probably want it more. 

So if anyone wants a blankie, I now feel like I can conquer the world with these, 

one adorable blanket at a time.

Plus it gives me something to do at work and I love being busy there.

Anyone?

I am also in the middle of making our Halloween costumes right now and I'm pretty excited about how they are turning out. 

Pictures to come.

Linking up here today!

The BEST things about FALL!

(This might be a little late, because it's been fall for awhile, but it finally feels like fall here in Utah. We got lucky with the warm weather.)

* Football! (we root for the Cougars, of course!)

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*changing leaves! The mountains look so pretty and it makes me miss NY's gorgeous colors.

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-*PUMPKIN anything. 

My very favorite recipe is for these pumpkin rolls.

 I'm pretty sure I have eaten can eat a whole one by myself. 

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*colder weather. (also, why does my work have the air conditioning running?) 

-*boots. I already wear mine too much. scarves. I have a whole drawer full of them.... gorgeous jackets!! these are some of my favorites:

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*Countdowns!  for Thanksgiving and Christmas specifically.

*Christmas shopping!!! Oh man. My lists are getting good. Shopping for other people is hard, but when you finally figure it out, it is awesome! 

*Family I am really looking forward to being with family. We are here for Thanksgiving. David's family has what I think is a great tradition. They play bingo after Thanksgiving dinner. It is always so fun to sit and talk while we play. All the prizes are just candy and things from the dollar store, etc. But it still exciting to win! It feels just like winning the lottery. (okay, maybe not...)
After Thanksgiving, I feel like Christmas is so close! We actually leave for NY 8 weeks exactly from today! I haven't been back for a year and a half, and I am getting so excited. Last time we were in NY for Christmas, we took these pictures:

Fall is so full of wonderful goodness and it always seems to be over too soon.

Maybe I should put a camera on my Christmas wishlist so I can remember it? (I have one, I am just coveting a nicer one...)

Anything else I forgot about Fall??

blind date - part deux

want to read part 1? click here

after that awesome date, i can remember thinking something along the lines of "do i have to count that as my first date ever? shouldn't it not count because it was a blind date?" i think i tried to convince myself i still had a chance to make good memories. (which i did - just not with him on my very first date.)
he's from connecticut, i was from ny. we never were in the same area/with the same friends, so i was good.
mr. first date walked away from my house and away from my life.... or so i thought.

fast forward a little over two years. hello, college! hello to living on my own two thousand miles away not knowing anyone, except my older, about-to-be-engaged brother close by.
oh wait. NO. mr. first date goes here too.
byu has an enormous campus and tens of thousands of students. but it is funny how often you see the same people over and over again. (it happens other places too)
and i used to see mr. first date everywhere freshman year. and then only occasionally the rest of the time. i saw him often enough, i realized that a) he danced on the ballroom team b) he wasn't married/dating anyone seriously and c) he didn't go on a mission.
i never had a class with him or anything.
but seeing him always made me think of that date and the smell of chlorine.

i've always wondered if he remembered anything at all about that fateful night.
i didn't think so because of how often i saw him at byu and there was no response.


then i got married and graduated!
end of mr. first date random sightings.

oh wait. NO. 
a little background: i do plasma. (i say do because i get paid, but saying i sell my plasma just sounds awful wrong) i don't have any problems with needles, and the cash makes great spending money. i started doing plasma sophomore year and then quit for awhile.
i started doing it again back in april (?)
and guess who works there.
yep. mr. first date.

the other day at plasma, i think maybe he might have realized he knew me somehow.
he has never checked me in or done my screening or anything like that
until last time.
he checked me in like normal, dotted my finger with the ink and then i walked away.
then i heard "natalie, are you from connecticut?"
....
.....
what would you have said??

this is my next project for all my scraps of fabric!