Memorial Weekend / Wilson Family Reunion

Last weekend Jeph and I went to Idaho to hang out with my family for the weekend. It was tons of fun and crazy as always. Some of the highlights include the drive through the City of Rocks, well known as a great place to rock climb, however, only Jeph and Joel were brave enough to climb to the top of Bathtub Rock. It was quite rainy that day and made the rocks slippery, so the rest of us used that excuse.

We celebrated my brother Spencer's graduation from college. After 10 years of marraige, four kids, working full time all 8 years he went to school, Spencer finally graduated. We're all very proud of how hard he worked and all the other things he accomplished a long the way.

The family threw a birthday party for everyone who had birthdays within the last few months and Jeph because we missed the last birthday party so we had to wait til this one. Happy Birthday Jeph, two and a half months later!!!

I think the biggest shocker of the weekend was that Jeph and I actually helped milk the cows. (Growing up, I was always the one who wasn't tough enough to be a farm girl and the family agreed with me when I said 'I am really a city girl born in the wrong place,' so I married a city boy!) But they actually left us there without supervision to run the facility for awhile. We were pretty successful, I must admit, all those years of pretending I didn't know what I was doing to get out of the work seemed to catch up with me and I found I knew more than I let anyone think. Unfortunatly I didn't take my camera out with me so I didn't get any pictures of that event and my family probably still don't believe it really happened because there is no physical proof. I figured it was better that way. (This is a picture at our farm, just not Jeph and I milking)

Besides our wedding, this was Jeph's largest exposure to the Wilson family, which could seem a little overwhelming with almost 40 of us there, but he seemed to handle it very well. It is always fun to get to be with my family since some only get to come home once or twice a year. We love 'em all!!! (Sadly not everyone made it for this picture but, what could Kami do, she is in the Philippines, and Laurie's family of 8 showed up a few mintues too late for pictures. But we still love and claim all of them!!!)

The dream is over

Tonight, the Jazz faced the LA Lakers and even with the completely embarrassing first half, managed to take the game down to the very last seconds. In a rare home loss, the Jazz were eliminated from this season's Playoff competition. It was a good run and the Jazz should be proud of what they accomplished this year. Although it was a heartbreaking end, it was well faught and there is no shame being eliminated by the MVP and future 2008 NBA champions.
Anyway, now to the real post. We were able to get some fairly cheap tickets to game 3 of this series and had a blast. It was initially Venita's idea to go (I think to see David Archuletta sing the national anthem) but I couldn't turn down such an opportunity. The game was great, we got free shirts and Venita caught some weird paper clapper thing. After the game we decided to go down to the lower bowl to listen to the post-game interviews and we were allowed to have our picture taken at center court. I was very excited and as we were leaving we ran into former player Mark Eaton. I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a picture.
Anyway, the season is over and now I must look back at the fond memories of the season. Watch out though, next year is ours!!!

Venita is Pregnant - Part 2

So as you may have read in the previous post, Jeph thought he was very clever making everyone else think I was pregnant. Well, last weekend Jeph got a taste of his own medicine. After all this joking around about me being pregnant, I just so happened to wake up sick Saturday morning with what we assumed was just the stomach flu. I basically lived in the bathroom all day Saturday and Sunday. Monday rolls around and I am still not feeling too well so I took the day off and again spent the majority of the day being very sick. When I called in to work, my supervisor jokingly said, "You know what it means when someone from this office gets sick with the stomach flu for more than two days: it generally isn't the flu." We laughed, I assured him it WAS just the flu and that I would be in tomorrow. I told Jeph this funny joke but he didn't think it was funny. As the day went on and I failed to get better, Jeph became increasingly worried because the flu does not generally last that long. Jeph wasn't concerned as much for my health, because he knew I would get better, as he was that the rumor he had spread wasn't as funny when the joke is on him. Finally around 11:30 pm, as I was reassuring Jeph there is no physical way I could be pregnant, I jokingly suggested going to Walmart right then to get a pregnancy test to help him feel confident that we have nothing to worry about. The next thing I know we are both staring at a stick, waiting for the results. Jeph finally took a breath as the minus sign became prevelant. I think out of everyone that might have thought even for a second that I might be pregnant, Jeph had the best reaction. Little did he know the joke would come back to get him.

Another little side note about Jeph, I think he is pretty great for finishing his first year of school! We still have a long way to go but I can't help but be proud of how well Jeph has done in school this year. Jeph flew through his classes ending two semesters with only one B and the rest A's. Way to go Jeph!

VENITA IS PREGNANT!!!

Well, not really. Every once in awhile, I will send random texts to an old friend (we'll call him Nick Dall) but to my disappointment, he never writes back. A few days ago I decided that he needed to stop ignoring me and that something needed to be done. I came up with this genius idea to text him and tell him that Venita was pregnant and that we had decided to name it after him. I thought he would definitely respond to this one! For a few days I never heard back from him and got a little worried that maybe he had a new number that I didn't know about. Fearing that maybe such a rumor might spread around to other friends, I eventually decided to write him again saying that she really wasn't pregnant and that it was just a joke. Well, he finally replied to that one feeling a little foolish because he had told his whole family that Venita was pregnant. They were all so excited for us, especially his grandma! He now gets to explain to his family what had happened we just get to laugh about the whole story.
Venita really liked this story and wanted me to post about it with a title that might trick a few of you as well. Sorry, Karla if we got your hopes up, it was her idea!

You're a WINNER (part 2)

Not too long ago, Venita posted about the fun prizes that we recieve when we get those flyers in the mail from the local car dealerships. So far we have recieved 3 MP3 players (they have made great gifts) and our running tally is now $20 dollars to Wal-Mart. On Tuesday when I got the mail, we had another flyer in our mail box from a dealership I had never seen before. On this one though, it didn't say what prize we won after we scrtched it off but had a number code that we would have to match up at the dealership. This afternoon we went down there and they of course tried to make us all comfortable and offered us drinks, had us sit down, etc. As I looked around though, I saw the sign that had the prizes with their respective number codes. I looked at our sheet to see which one matched and it was the 3 day/2 night vacation getway!! When the salesman came back, I decided to humor him for a little bit and let him show us about why Haundai is such a great car company and whatnot. After a few minutes, he took us over to the prize desk and both employees there were excited to see that we were the big winners. They handed us our information packet and with a few congratulations, we were on our way. Later, when I had a better chance to go through the packet, I saw that there was an extra voucher for a 7 day Florida vacation/cuise package!!! Needless to say, with the free flights that we are supposed to be getting from T-Mobile, we are very excited about the possibilities for this summer!!!
Moral of the story, if you live somewhere where they send out these promotional offers, don't just throw them away! Either go check it out for yourself and you'll recieve a prize and a great experience, or if you live in SLC, give them to us!!!

Tourists in Salt Lake City!

Last weekend we got to hang out with my little brother David. He was kind enough to come visit us for the day and even bring his cute girlfriend so we could meet her before she went home to Texas for the summer. We had a great lunch at Rodizio Grill and then to see the sights at Temple Square.

We had to take the typical pictures in front of the temple and also in front of the Home of the Jazz - Energy Solutions Arena!!! (Unfortunately we all forgot our camera's so all we have are cell phone quality pictures.)

To end our day, we headed over to the Dodge dealership to collect yet another MP3 player. Since we decided to let Kimberly have the player this time, we let her and Dave go inside to collect it. Jeph and I had a good laugh as the salesman tried to convince David he needs more than just the MP3 player. Good Job David and Kimberly!

Home Sweet Home

Thanks to my sister Lynnette for sharing this awesome clip with us. I just wanted to pass it along to all of you who don't read her blog. I remember many mutual nights spent Christmas Caroling and delivering bread and fruit baskets to the lovely Idaho Youth Ranch homes since it was technically within our ward boundaries. More exciting, however, was to hear of the kids being on the run because that's the only time the neighbors within a ten mile radius locked any doors whether it be cars, houses, tractors, barns (sheds).... Gotta love them small towns!!! Here's to Rupert and the goodness that exists therein!!

Al Roker lends a hand

YOU'RE A WINNER!!!

I'm sure that all of you have received one of those classic postcards in the mail from the local dealerships saying you have won a prize at least once in your lives. Well, Jeph and I must be pretty lucky because we get about one per month. And I am sure most of you look at it, see it they are just trying to get you to buy a car and throw it away. Well not us! We always take our card to see what we've won. Jeph loves to walk in tell them we are not interested in buying a car and that we are only here to collect our prize just to see the disappointed look on their face and one last attempt to talk him in to some great sale they are running right now! So far we have won three Walmart gift cards (each worth $5, so we're going to keep saving them up til we can make a big purchase), and two 1gb MP3 players.

Someday we hope to win one of the bigger prizes, like a vacation, or the $2500 Walmart giftcard, or the $25,000 cash reward. Luckily they keep sending them to us so we'll see what our luck brings us next month. In the mean time, both Jeph and I already have MP3 players so if anyone is in need of a 1gb, be sure to let us know, I think we could find a way to spare one or two of ours.

Anyone Noah Plumber???

Monday morning as I was just about to walk out the door to go to work, I heard the sound of water running somewhere in our apartment. Much to our surprise, it was raining. Unfortunately the rain was not from the clouds outside, it was from the upstairs neighbors’ toilet overflowing directly into our bathroom. So for most of the morning we stood under our rain cloud catching as much of the brown water in our buckets as possible to prevent more damage then necessary. For some reason the plumber thought it would help to keep flushing the toilet to unclog whatever was causing this problem, but it really only increased the flow of water into our apartment. In the end, we were informed that a piece of carpet had somehow found its way into the drain pipe which had been creating a dam sending all the flushed water back up the toilet and down into our apartment. After a morning like that, I decided to take the rest of the day off and clean up a little. Though it was an excuse for a much needed day off, it is the last thing I would have chosen to do if I didn’t have to go to work.

You're Simply the BEST!!!

For Jeph and I, there are quite a few holidays to celebrate this week: we’ve been married for 6 months now, Jeph celebrated his 22 birthday, and then of course Valentine’s Day. In honor of all the holidays I decided to come up with 10 of my favorite memories from the past year spent with Jeph!!!

10. Las Vegas: Last March we took a few days off to go down to Las Vegas and meet up with some old friends. We got so lost while we were driving around and it was all my fault. Jeph now hates Las Vegas but the good news is that we did find Simmons Street while we were wondering around. As for the rest of the vacation, it was filled with two very exciting Dave Matthews Band concerts and hanging out with friends we hadn’t seen for a while.
9. Clean checks: At the beginning of last year I lived in the college apartments in Provo. As we all know college apartments have wonderful clean checks before you can check out at the end of your contract. Well the last day that I was to live there my key to the apartment ended up missing and I hadn’t done any cleaning and some of my stuff was still in the apartment. So come 9:00pm when I finally got off work I went to check it out and there was Jeph with my key in my apartment finishing up all my clean check assignments. What a sweetheart!
8. Engagement: Jeph and I had talked about getting married last year and August had come up as our planned date. Well, the months just kept passing and it kept getting closer to August and still no proposal from Jeph. I was starting to get worried because after all it was June already. I finally told Jeph that I would have a summer wedding so either it was now or next year, but he’d better let me know as soon as possible because this was ridiculous. He gave me assurance that we would get married this summer but that I needed to be patient. He knew my sister would be in town and that would be the only chance I would have to go shopping with one of my sisters so he gave me permission to go look around with her. We looked and somehow we found a great dress at a great price and couldn’t resist. I bought the dress and yet I still had no ring to prove that I needed it. Well luckily that night Jeph took me on a special date to the Jordan River Temple grounds where there was a picnic all set up and he finally proposed.
7. Jeph’s return: Just two days after Jeph proposed he and his family left for their two-week vacation. They would be gone until the end of June, leaving us just 5 weeks from the time he got back until the wedding. Well, I did as much as I could over those two weeks to keep myself busy with wedding plans and work but I still missed Jeph more than anything. I think one of the most glorious days from the past year was the day that he finally returned. I was so happy to have him back and I didn’t want to let him out of my sight. (And he looked like such a babe!)
6. Wedding: Of course, it would not be a good list if our wedding didn’t make it somewhere on here. What a great day! It was so beautiful and we were surrounded by family and friends and everything went so well. It was simple and beautiful, just like I wanted. And of course how great is it when you get to marry your best friend for eternity! (I’m not going to lie though, the sealer had me lost for a good portion of the ceremony, asking all those questions that I didn’t care about at the time, all I wanted was to get married but finally he got to that and I was happy!)
5. Gorge: Our first family vacation. Though this trip had its rough spots, overall it was very enjoyable. I would also like to thank Mike and Mike for the fine entertainment on the ride there and back. We got to stop in Missoula, Montana to see Beth and Andy and also witnessed Trevor proposing to Marianna. And the highlight for some would have been the Dave Matthews Band Concerts but for me it was great company, my first camping experience in the last five years, and Mike laughing so hard he threw up.
4. Coffee table: When we finally got our cable all set up, I became addicted to HGTV. I love it!!! They are always fixing things up and doing way cool projects. Well Jeph and I decided to embark on our own little fix it up project. We went to the DI and found a cool coffee table but unfortunately it was painted this green color that we didn’t like. We decided it would be worth it to buy the table, strip the paint and repaint it. Well after days of stripping the paint and repainting the thing, we finally finished, unsure if the adventure had been worth it. The table is far to big for our small living room and might have been better left at the DI for someone else to find and love. But in the end, it doesn’t look that bad and we had fun completing the project.
3. Christmas: Jeph spoiled me this year!!! We set a limit on how much to spend and Jeph spent way over the allotted amount. I ended up with a keyless entry / remote starter for my car, which has proven to be one of the greatest inventions ever, and a cool ZUNE MP3 player, and many other great treasures. It was fun to get each other presents and to just spend the holiday season together!
2. Tire day: See previous post!
1. Jeph’s birthday: Because Jeph had gone all out for me on Christmas, I wanted to do something great for him on his birthday. I thought about the things that he loves most in life: Dave Matthews Band, Utah Jazz, and me, and decided this year would be a Jazz year. I got us both Jazz jerseys, Korver for Jeph and Boozer for myself, pretty decent tickets to the Jazz vs. Chicago Bulls game the day before his birthday, and dinner at Benihana’s. It was fun to take Trax downtown (which reminds us both of Russia so it is tradition that we only speak Russian while riding) and totally surprise Jeph with both dinner and the game. And then topped off the night with a big hug from Marcus and a few rounds of roller-skating. Happy Birthday Jeph!!!

Jeph, thank you for a wonderful year full of fantastic memories! я тебя люблю!!!