The Only Good Laker is a Salt Laker!!

Wahoo! Go Jazz! Ryan and I were lucky enough to have been given tickets last minute to the game tonight. It was a nerve-wracking one but a great one, so thanks Gary! We had the family over this morning for breakfast and the kids played. I will have to get some pics of that up later. Ry surprised me with a new point & shoot camera--loooove my Rebel XTi but sometimes it is too big to carry around. Now I have an itty bitty one I can carry in my purse. Happy mom's day everyone!

Where, Oh Where Have My Blogging Days Gone?

Alright, so I have just a snippit of time to catch up on my blog tonight. As you may have guessed from my lack of posts lately, I have gone back to work. My first day back was April 28 (Monday) and since then, it has been super crazy. I have had a ton of projects with a due date of next Monday so my brain has been entirely consumed with trying to come up with new ideas. One may not believe this but yes, it can be a huge stress coming up with cards and scrapbook pages. Anyway, my first week back was a bit rough. I could barely make it 5 hours some days and I would come home, crash on the sofa, get up to eat some dinner and go back to sleep until I had to wake up the next morning. It is going to take time for me to get my stamina back. This week has gotten easier thank goodness. Otherwise I don't know how I would make my deadlines. I have finished all 6 projects plus 2 more today and now I have one left. PHHEWWW! Oh well, at least I have stayed fairly caught-up on the Bachelor (hoping for Chelsea), American Idol (loving little David Archuleta), Oprah DVR-d (Tom Cruise episodes), which are all very important to me right now. Ha ha! So, I will just post a few pics--some of the happenings the last few weeks.

My desk when I came in the office on Monday. Cute huh? This is just where I check my email and do computer work (which is not that often). My art room desk is in another room where I spend most of my days. I'll have to post that fun one another time.

My friends Julie and Melissa. These gals are just the best friends a girl could have. I have known Julie literally forever. I have tons and tons of memories growing up with her--from making home movies all the time, doing fashion shows in my living room, sleep-overs, trying to sell things in my front yard that we'd put hours and hours into making and never actually selling any of it! Disneyland and Vegas, Obon festivals, the list goes on and on. I even have in my posession a cassette tape when my dad recorded the two of us when we were 3 years old!! (That is how old Bentley is! Crazy!) We have stayed close since then and I feel so lucky for that. Thanks for the trip down mem lane, Ju! Anyway, these gals are awesome and I am glad we got to go to dinner and talk and laugh. We stayed at Chilis until close and could have stayed 3 hours longer!

Luckily, I took the video IPod for B and Kaden. They watched Little Mermaid (Sorry Melis) and were so good! Then the night ended with a sweet hug and kiss for those two love birds. Actually, with all of the little women competing for Kaden these days, I am thinking he is gearing up for a season of Bachelor star-dom 25 years from now!

We also had an opportunity to have the Martinez family join us for dinner last week. This was a family in Ryan's mission who he got to know well and Jared's parents came out to visit he and his wife and little boy.

Bentley loves to come home after playing at Narda's because then she gets to play even more with the neighbor kids. We love the Miles and Barnard's and are so glad to have them living next door. They are great kiddos and B just loves playing with them. It is going to be a fun summer! Here they are enjoying thier ice cream from the ice-cream man. (Now that we bought once from this rickety old truck, the dang thing comes chiming by every dang day, hoping we will make another purchase. It was a bit creepy, but oh well...they loved the experience.)

I also want to add that mom is doing well. She has not returned to work yet, she plans to go back in a couple of weeks. She continues to go twice a week for labs and so far, those look good. She has an excellent doctor who keeps in close contact with her so that her levels and meds are where they need to be--there are little adjustments each week.

Lastly, (and I don't have a picture but you'll thank me for that) Ryan dislocated his finger this last Monday night. We quickly went to the ER where they had to cut off his work glove (he was doing yard work), give hime 2 shots in the finger, and then pulled it back into place. SICK! He was in quite a bit of pain sitting there when I suddenly looked at him and said, "You're complaining over a jacked-up finger? Try donating a vital organ!". Of course I was kidding but, anyway....so there ya go.

Dinner at Imamura's

In 2003, Ryan and our good friend Brody put together a team for a flag football league that plays at West Jordan Middle School once a week. Many of the guys were Ryan's football & track friends in high school and a couple of years ago, Zane G. joined the team. Through the years, we girls would go sit on the sidelines and cheer on the lame sounding "Air Terror", "Fat Astronauts", "Armadillos" and currently "Renegades" (team names seemed to get better as the years went by). However, the guys remained ever so dedicated and took home the championship a couple years ago. Yes, this is a flag football league but you must understand it is taken very seriously. Whenever our team lost, we wives would give each other looks saying, "Good luck on the drive home and the rest of the day for that matter" (ha ha). We could expect some silence and pure disappointment from our guys who would be thinking of ways they felt they could have played better. I must say however, I always felt a sense of pride being one of the wives of this team. These guys have the best sportsmanship on the field and are very respectful to each other--plus they are awesome to watch! It's no wonder we showed up on the coldest of days (bundled up in parkas and blankets) and the hottest of days (under the big blue canopy with cold water misters). At least, that's how it was until we all started having kids...

Halle (love her face of pure anger because we took her away from the toys), Bentley, Kennedy, Carter (the ladies man here), Taylor and Brooklyn (soon to be a big sis).

Keri, me, Tamarynn, Kristen, Rosa and Jess

Though some of the team mates have come and gone, many still play however it is hit and miss which of the girls will make it. Life sure gets busy after these little ones come! So, this last weekend, Nate and Jess had us all over to their place for a get-together. It is so fun to see the kids growing up. They are just too cute! The house was full of kiddos running around--crazy that they are ours!

Look at these little munchkins!

Little Miss Neat

Mom and I took Bentley to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point last week. We hadn't been there before so it was fun for all of us. Bentley's favorite part was playing in the sand/water--we could have stayed in that section for hours. Well, I was worried at first because she put one finger in the sand, realized it was "messy" and decided...nah, I don't want to take part in this! My first thought was, "Nooooo...I am wearing off on my child!" After a few minutes though, she was really enjoying it, even though the intensity in her face would say other wise. Mom pointed out her personality and that even though she was playing in sand/water, she managed to play so "neat and precise".

Again, she decides to sit on the step while playing in the dry sand so as not to get the pants dirty.

Lunch With My Peeps

My good friend Angie (behind me) called me up the other day to say that a bunch of them wanted to meet for lunch. I was so excited to see all my friends from SU! I miss them a ton. I have mentioned this before but I absolutely love who I work with. We have the best times together in the art room, at lunch, and traveling. Sometimes I laugh so hard my stomach hurts (Jaron I already know what you are going to say about that one). Anyway, thanks for meeting up with me everyone. Its was good to see you. Watch out! I am coming back in 2 weeks!

Johnston's Pet Care?

Last night I asked B if she wanted a pedicure. She got all excited and was telling my mom we are going to be doing "Pet Care". Uhhh, not quite Miss! Anyway, we had a fun girls night getting our toesies "sandal-ready".

May I just add (as Jim Carrey says on Bruce Almighty) today is B-E-A-utiful! Thank goodness mom and I are feeling better. I got the flu for a few days and then mom got it a little. Yuck! We have not been in the mood to do anything but sleep. We went to Gateway today and spent an hour or so there by the fountain and had lunch at Taifoon. It felt good to be out in the sunshine.

Mom continues to improve...the flu obviously set her back a bit, but so far things are looking good. She goes in 3 times per week to have labs drawn and sees the transplant team every Wednesday. She has 2 tubes still attached from the surgery because for some reason there is still fluid draining. We will find out Wednesday what they plan to do about that. Enjoy this awesome weather!

Our Girly Girls

My sweet friend Emily brought us lunch the other day and we hung out. She has two adorable little girls, Caitlin and Mayci. Caitlin is around the same age as Bentley so they play well together. It was fun watching them play dress-up and tea party--so girly, I love it!

Emily is so creative and talented--I get a lot of inspiration from her. Good luck with the boutique, Em! Your paper-clay creations are to die for!

I just love this baby...so chubby and cute I could squish her!

Enjoying a little snack before Cait had to leave. Come play again soon!