Wave to the Itch

I witnessed one of the funniest things ever in the Wells Fargo parking lot. Picture this...

I am coming around a corner only to meet another car at the exact same moment.

We both stop. Trying to avoid a collision.

I wave my hand (sideways) motioning for the man in the other car to go ahead.

He waves (vertical. like waving hello)

Man realizes he just waved at a woman that was not waving to him.

Slyly turns his wave into an itch of the neck and drives away.

I laugh out loud. Literally.

Stolen!

Someone stole my sticky notes.

I have not identified the culprit but believe me I was distraught as to why anyone would take the sticky notes of a girl who is freakishly protective of them.

Don't be too concerned though...I got some more...thankfully before too much hyper ventilating took place.

Weekend Review

I had a FANTASTIC weekend! For real...one of the best weekends. Check out what I did!

Friday:

• New niece and nephew were born (twins, fraternal)
• Waffles for dinner
• Temple
• Early bed time

Saturday:

• INTENSE cleaning
• Raked leaves at cemetery for a service project (weather was so nice!)
• Hot chocolate and chatting with fun friends
• Hot shower and greeted by Krispie Cream donuts (Hubby is SO good to me!)
• Neighbor shared homemade chicken noodle soup
• Visit from a wonderful mother-in-law
• Shopping trip to Kohls with Hubby to snag the perfect heels for only $12
• Stake conference. Sweet spirit and much needed enlightenment and encouragement
• Tried on new Sunday outfit. FINALLY decided I had all the pieces.

Sunday:

• Slept in till 8:30. Later then normal.
• Put on new Sunday outfit. Felt cute.
• Stake Conference. Once again very inspiring and uplifting.
• Left immediately after stake conference to drive to Kaysville
• Lunch on the road (yogurt, Cool Ranch Doritos, crackers & fruit snacks)
• Brother (soon to be Elder) and dad gave wonderful talks
• Short nap• Delicious dinner
• Visit to hospital to see the new babies!! (so adorable, check out the pics below

Had a most wonderful weekend and truly had a heck of a Monday coming off this one.

I am holding Ammon and Husband is holding Tru. The most precious little things I have held in a long time!

Tru & Ammon

Guest Posting!

I have been given the privilege to guest post on one of the coolest blogs ever! if i were really skinny (now often being referred to as IRS) has featured a post of mine with some of my thoughts on Thanksgiving.

Check it out here!

Have you ever...

...wondered why we say "you're welcome?"

To add to your store of useless knowledge, "you're welcome" means "freely granted" So basically you are telling the person that you freely gave/granted whatever it was you were giving.

Consider yourself smarter.

Weekend Review

I totally just published this post with nothing written.

Note To Self: Don't press enter after putting in the title. This will publish your unwritten post.

I am bit behind on my weekend review but here it is anyway.

Friday: [Just want to say how I never remember what I do on this day. Takes a lot of remembering]

• Dinner made [second meal out of two for the whole week. I am a slacker]
• Laundry
• Relaxing
• Visiting with newly wedded brother and sister-in-law.

Saturday

• Lesson planning
• Cleaning
• Grocery list making
• Family pictures [will share once I have some]
• Pre-Thanksgiving dinner [Lil bro is going to serve a mission and is leaving before the real Thanksgiving so we thought we would have one before he leaves]
• Late night drive back to Provo

Sunday

• Lesson given
• Lunch with neighbors [Have a new sandwich to try out!]
• Much needed nap
• Dinner with neighbors [We got taken care of on Sunday which was truly wonderful because we didn't make it to the grocery store on Saturday and we had NO food whatsoever]
• Peanut butter bar making [The lack of food never occurs in the sweets area. I am ALWAYS prepared]
• Movie watching/cuddling with hubby [Love comes Softly Series, I am quite liking them so far]

Have you ever...

...noticed that the handicapped stall in public bathrooms places you on the throne right in the crack of the door? Someone did not think that one through that one very well.

Just thought I would share

Weekend Recap

It was a really good weekend, holiday's tend to make weekends a tad more exciting and I definitely think Halloween made ours a bit more exciting. Here is what Husband and I did...

Friday

• Halloween party at work & won best costume!
• Watched Gilmore Girls
• Fries & a hamburger for dinner
• Read/Blogged/Relaxed

Saturday

• Slept in with Husband (love this!)
• Chores
• Laundry
• Made traditional Halloween stew & scones for the first time. It was DELICIOUS!
• Lit all our Jack-o-Lanterns, including my crafty ones
• Shopped for shoes
• Ate cupcakes
• Treated some trick-or-treaters
• Watched Gilmore Girls in bed (are you noticing a trend? more to come on that later)

Sunday

• Wonderful meetings. Including the sharing of member missionary experiences that Husband and I have had recently
• Testimonies
• Reading
• Napping
• Taco stacks
• Sipping hot apple cider on balcony, looking at the almost full moon
• Chats with family
• Pillow fight
• Cereal eating on the counter (somehow we both fit) and a REALLY good laugh!

Halloween Happiness

Just want everyone to know that I kind of, sort have, may have won best costume at my Halloween work party today!

Boo-yah! Scored Husband and I a sweet gift certificate to Guru's by once again using my crafty cathy skills. Want to see the winning costume????

Check it out...

I was my Zinch profile. Pretty sweet huh!? Thanks Rachel for the awesome idea!

Crafty Cathy

Yesterday I had the opportunity to be a Crafty Cathy [my mom likes to say things like this so I am just following suit] at my fun RS activity.

I crafted, talked, ate a yummy pumpkin muffin, talked, crafted and talked. It was FABULOUS! I am so proud of my cute Halloween decorations!

Check 'em out!

I made a cute Trick or Treat sign and some sweet tin can jack-o-lanterns!

Here is a close up. I tried to get the glowy effect. The pic doesn't do it justice. It looks so cool and I had so much fun turning out all our lights and seeing their fun faces!

Here is a close up of the sign. I love the cute/spooky background. This was super easy mostly because everything was provided for us! Now I am hoping for a Christmas decorating making activity!

Training Wheels

I stopped to chat with our IT guy at work today (one of my favorite co-workers) and we had a quick little conversation that made me laugh/feel good.

Here is how our conversation went...

Me: Hey IT guy!

IT guy: Hey Marisa!

Me: I haven't seen you in awhile.

IT guy: Yeah, I guess that could be a good thing.

Me: I know! I don't have to come and pester you everyday with a billion questions anymore.

It guy: You don't need the training wheels anymore do you?

Me: Nope! I'm riding on two wheels!

The End

Weekend Recap

Overall I had a good weekend. As usual it went too fast but it is always good to get back into my routine. Here is a recap of the festivities!


Friday:

- Picked up package from UPS
- Took myself shopping to Target. Got this killer cute jacket!
- Ate popcorn & chocolate and watched Saved by the Bell in bed with my sweet hubby!


Saturday:

- Cleaning/Laundry (I was lucky to get washers this weekend)
- Temple
- Payless Shoe stop. Cute shoes, jewelry and purse all for cheap!
- Quick Wal-mart trip
- Finished my living room wall project (see pic below)
- Dinner at Gloria's Little Italy with Husband
- Last minute work needed done by Monday

Sunday:

- Church (ward conference. I was the chosen benediction giver)
- Training (starting a new program I am SO excited about. Pursuit of Excellence)
- Nap
- Dinner (never making country fried steaks EVER again, did make some yummy mashed potatoes though)
- Games at ward members house. Husband and I are pretty good at Cranium (at least the creative ones)
- Pillow talk

One of those days...

This weekend I went to pick up my package at the UPS store.

[I purchased a 2 person 72 hr kit! I feel so much better now that I know Husband and I can prolong our lives 72 more hours in case the world comes to an end. For real though I do feel better now that we are prepared for an emergency.]

I went in told the lady my name and she brings out my fairly large package. She checks my licence, fills out some info on her HUGE calculator looking device and then has me sign. I signed and something triggered in my brain saying "all done" so I turned around and started to walk out. The lady called after me and reminded me that I might want to take my package, you know the WHOLE reason I was even in the UPS store.

I was a little embarrassed, blamed it on being "one of those days" and confirmed that I would go home and go to bed, since my brain had obviously already done so.

POST-IT

I woke up to 10 of these precious little notes all around the apartment from my sweet husband. I love him so and appreciate his thoughtfulness SO much!

Note: Just want you to note that the post-it says that I cook AMAZING dinners. (According to my husband)

Little gift from Zinch...

I got handed one of these at work today. Can someone say "happy day?" What shall I ever do with it?? Any good suggestions?

Weekend Recap

It has been all too long since I last posted and to be honest blogging just hasn't been front of mind. Gilmore Girls has taken its hold on me.

I am determined to do more blogging though. So here goes a quick recap of the weekend...

Friday:

• chilled
• watched a movie with friends ("New in Town", I now have overwhelming urges to talk like I am from Minnesota)
• went to bed late because we could (No LSAT practice test Sat. morning!!!)

Saturday:

• watched lil sisters soccer game (made me want to play again)
• chatted with mom
• laundry/cleaning
• grocery shopping (Worst Walmart trip of my life. I have vowed to never go to the Orem Walmart EVER again)
• curtain hanging (Husband did this for me. They look good!)
• filling out law school applications

Sunday:

• early church
• napping
• reading
• cooked first roast ever
• tried this new cookie recipe
• had enjoyable conversation with the love of my life

It was a great weekend and I am looking forward to another one!

Long time no write

So much has happened in the last...two weeks since I last posted. I won't try and catch up on everything but I will mention a few of the highlights.

First of all I went rapelling! So fun and so adventurous of me...don't you think?? I wrote a huge long post about this, then my internet wigged, I lost the whole thing and now I just don't have the desire to write about it anymore.

Me rapelling! The wall wasn't as fus as...

...the free falling! Love this! Tiny bit scary at first but so cool!

Me and my cute mom who was so kind as to invite me to their Enrichment activity so I could rappel!

Another highlight the last two weeks was that Spencer, Husbands brother, got married to his now beautiful wife Wendy! So excited to have another awesome sister-in-law! Here are few pics from the day.

The Bride and Groom.aka Spencer & Wendy.

The cute church they got married in

The Leavitt brothers (minus Tyler he wasn't there yet)

Me and Husband! Doesn't he look handsome?

Husband and Blair doing their gangsta signs. Saying "WORD!"

Me and Ellie's shoes. The girls had the cutest "princess" dresses and were the most adorable flower girls ever!

We had a great time at the wedding and both Husband and I are so happy for Spencer and Wendy!

The last and final highlight is that Husband and I had our 5 month anniversary on Thursday September 24th! Can you believe it has been 5 months already? We have almost been married half a year! I love married life and I love my husband even more! He is truly a blessing in my life.

duzy of an employee

My mom and I seem to have the most fun doing the most mundane of things. While I was home over the weekend mom and I went and did a bit of late night grocery shopping.

We were headed to Smith's and on the way we were reminiscing about how much of the time during my growing up years we had gone to Smith's. My mom mentioned that she hadn't been to Smith's in a really long time as she usually goes to a grocer closer to home.

Our experience once inside Smith's was definitely one to remember. The purpose of going to Smith's was to purchase some cinnamon bread that no other grocer carries. My mom was going to "stock" up. Well of course because she came to "stock" up there were only two loaves left and as my mom put it "this will feed our family for one meal."

Needless to say some more loaves would have been nice. So my mom decides to ask one of the girls working near the bakery. Here is how the conversation went...


Mom: Do you by chance have any more loaves of this bread in the back?

Teenage punk girl: I have NO IDEA! [said with a hint of valley girl and a little too much attitude]

Nice helpful boy: You know they might. I will go check.


[I just want to point out that one of these two paid attention in customer service training and the other did not. I'll let you take a guess on that one.]


Nice helpful boy: Sorry, there weren't any back there.

Teenage punk girl: [Now decides to share her wisdom about the cinnamon bread] Yeah, they bake that fresh everyday. So once its gone its gone.

[Thank you teenage punk girl. So glad you told us this AFTER you claimed to have "NO IDEA" with what was going on]

I may or may not have re-enacted this a couple times, one of which teenage punk girl might have over heard and decided to try out that thing they call customer service.

The fun didn't end there though. We went to check out and my mom asked about the Fresh Values card that Smith's offers. Specifically my mom just wanted to know if it was free. The girl filled us in and graciously allowed us to have the discount without having to sign up that day. Then we get to the humorous part. She then proceeds to ask...

"Did you just move here?"

What!??????? What kind of question is that? Do you just assume that if we have the nerve to not have a Fresh Values card that we must be from out of town? It had to be the weirdest question I have ever been asked. I wanted so badly to know what her thought process to come to the conclusion that it would be a good thing to ask us that.

We left Smith's vowing never to return.

it's your lucky day!

Today after work I came home and there were a bunch of green fliers on some of the cars in the parking lot. I was curious as to what they were advertising. This is what they said...

"It's your lucky day! To get a valid parking sticker."

Oh yay! I am so excited it is my lucky day! Now I get to fork over more money for a little parking tag so that I can have the PRIVILEGE of parking in my very own apartment complex parking lot in which I don't already pay a fortune to live in anyway.

Seriously, I want to meet the person who made that flier and find out why in heavens name the phrase "lucky day" came to mind.

[A quick side note: Documentation of all you pay for can save lives! Or save you $25. I was able to prove to my managers that we already paid our $25 parking sticker which she told me we had NOT paid for. A little paperwork can go a long way. The end.]

park city

Husband and I had a great labor day weekend. Although we didn't spend all of it together we certainly enjoyed the time we did.

I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at home with the fam while Husband got some serious studying done. We had a delightful Sunday dinner with my family and then Husband and I drove back to Provo.

Now Monday is where the fun begins. First of all no work no school life is already good. Add in some good breakfast and deep cleaning and you are already at a great day! Then Husband and I drove to Park City to have a little adventure on the zip line. True we had to wait in line for a little while but it was so worth it. Afterwards we did a little shopping, came home at some delicious frozen pizza and fresh fruit. It was a WONDERFUL day!

Not to mention we now have a short week. So nice. Here are some pics from our labor day activities.

Getting ready to be let loose on the zipline! What a rush!

This is what it looked like from the bottom. We came down line from the top of the mountain. So sweet!

Husband and I did a little looking in the ski shops. I am in search of a sweet ball cap but Husband thought I would look good in this one. I think I could make a good cow girl!

summer blues

...or rather summer ending blues. This week everyone went back to school, except me. Or at least it felt that way. So let's be honest I really miss school sometimes and especially when everyone else is beginning a new year.

I have now been working full time for a year and this was the first time that I wasn't either going back to school or having something new and exciting happen (starting a new job last year) and I struggled a bit. And then to top it off the summer months are almost over and the cold is coming and I am just not ready for it!

I decided I need something to look forward to and I am on the hunt to find that something. I will let you know as soon as I find it. If you have any great ideas please share!

hole in the ceiling

I just have to talk about something that has really creeped me out lately. At work we have a single women's bathroom and in that bathroom their is a hole. A hole in the ceiling, and I have paranoia about that hole. I may sort of kind of worry that someone may have made their way into the rafters and that they are going to spy on me through the hole.

But don't worry I am getting over it. [I stare at that hole until I am good and ready to leave the bathroom]

So I am sure that hole won't bother me for much longer. [It is going to bother me till the day I quit using that bathroom or someone covers up that hole]

Just wanted to share how I am overcoming my little paranoia's : )

Mission Reunion

Husband and I went to his mission reunion last night. It was so nice. I had a lot of fun meeting Husbands old companions and also meeting one of his two mission presidents. There was a lot I didn't understand (lot's of portuguese speaking going on) but I recieved a lot of translation as well.

Here are two pics from the evening.

L to R Husband, President Quatel and Spencer Frye

Past missionaries from 2002-2005 that served with President Quatel

Warsaw, Poland

My baby brother is all grown up and just received his mission call to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in WARSAW, POLAND!

So crazy. None of us were even close with our guesses. I am SO excited for my little bro. He is going to be an amazing missionary.

Love ya Cars!

Blue

I have been a negative Nelly today. Subsequently I have felt a little blue. Don't worry though I have determined to get out of my hole and be positive. There is so much power in the mind and I know that if I simply focus on the positive it will have a huge impact on my mood. So I am going to write 5 things that were good about my day.

1. I got an ice cream sandwich at work
2. I had a nap at lunch
3. I have a cute mouse pad
4. I had all the ingredients for soup (I successfully put off going to the grocery store yet another day)
5. I received a love text from both Husband AND a bestest

From here on out instead of negative Nelly I am going to be positive Polly! : )

First Day

I made it through my first day of work. Whew! I forgot how completely overwhelmed you feel the first day, the frustrations of not totally understanding everything and wanting so badly to just be able to sit down and do your work and not have to rely on someone to tell you what to do.

I am optimistic though that this will be a good learning opportunity for me. I will get the hang of things eventually. It is just going to take some time and patience.

Mostly I just want to blog about the wonderfully sweet husband that I have who had this sweet love letter and some flowers (picked from our very own flower box) laid out for me when I got home. He is such a sweetheart and has been such a great support to me. I love him so!

P.S. He also got tickets to a concert put on through BYU for us to attend later this month! I am super excited! : )

Productive Day

I had a very productive day. I love productive days. I am a list/task kind of person and so when I accomplish all my tasks/list items I feel very good about myself. I get somewhat of a high out of crossing things off a list. Weird I know. I am probably borderline OCD. Anywho...can I just tell you what I got done!?

- Cleaned our apt. (dusting, vacuuming & disinfecting)

- Washed all our laundry including sheets (I am really looking forward to going to bed tonight!)

- Went to my appointment to get my wedding album started (4-5 months until we have a proof!)

- Did a return at Target & got an amazing deal on my all time favorite hairspray

- Picked up a pair of shoes for Husband at Ross (I LOVE Ross)

- Dropped some DI items off

- Cleaned out our trunk

- Changed our vacuum bag (I say this only because it needed it badly!)

- Organized under our bed

And last but not least I organized our cupboards that were jam packed with what looked like a bunch of junk. It was driving me crazy and I finally got around to organizing it. I wish I had a before picture so that you could really appreciate the after picture. But here are a couple photos of my newly organized cupboards.

Now I have the rest of the evening to do whatsoever I please knowing that everything is clean and orderly. Ummm it feels good!

Zinch

I would like to make a exciting annoucement here to the 3 people that read this blog.

I have a job! (and the crowd goes wild!)

[Did you notice that rhymed. Anywho...]

I have been very fortunate and blessed to have been hired by a company called Zinch Inc. This is an awesome company that I think has a great business idea. These guys are helping connect students with scholarships and the college best suited for them. It is match making for students and schools. Cool huh!?

I am really excited about this new opportunity. I am anxious to begin work and to dive in head first. Getting through the learning curve of a new job can be difficult sometimes but I am hoping that I will survive and come out on top.

I want to thank all my wonderful friends and past collegues who helped me get things together so that I could put my best foot forward as I searched for a new job. I couldn't have done it without you!

Here's to a new job and new opportunities!

I am contemplating...

bangs.

For the last little while now I have found it to be way too much fun to brush my side bangs to the middle and pretend to have full bangs. Much to Husbands dismay I might add.

I am extremely picky when it comes to my hair, so much so it prob isn't healthy, so making such a hair changing decision is a big deal. I am currently trying to grow my hair which is so painful and I think that my fetish with bangs might be because I am longing for something new. Something to change it up a bit.

So courtesy of my camera phone I am providing a "what could be Marisa with bangs" picture. Let me know what you think. It may not even matter though because if Husband isn't digging it then we may have run into a problem.

Did you know?

The last two days I have had a twitching problem. An eye twitching problem that is and it is REALLY annoying. Husband kept telling me that it was because I was dehydrated and so finally out of pure curiosity I looked up the cause of eye twitching and this is what I found.

Eye twitching is caused by an abnormal functioning of certain nerve areas located at the base of the brain which control the coordination of muscle movements. In the majority of people it appears without any real known cause.Frequently, the signs and symptoms of dry eye occur right before or along with the appearance of eye twitching.

Other common eye twitch causes include:

• Stress
• Irritation of the Cornea or Conjunctiva
• Fatigue
• Lack of sleep
• Prolonged staring at a computer screen or television
• Nervous system disorders

At this point I think my eye twitch is being caused by prolonged staring at a computer screen or maybe stress although I don't think I am that stressed. Anywho...hopefully the twitch will go away soon because it is really starting to bug.

All my eye twitching information was found here.

Boredom Cure

Being currently unemployed as I am, I have found myself to have quite a bit of time on my hands. A normal person would think that this must be a wonderful thing and it is until after the first day you have run out of things to do. It also doesn't help that shopping is completely out of the question because obviously the funds are lacking. So what I am trying to get at is that being home alone with nothing to do all day long gets old really fast.

To remedy this problem I decided to take myself to the park! It was so delightful that I was able to take some of the reading that I wanted to get through, sit in the shade of a big tree on my oh so cute picnic blanket. It was so nice. I enjoyed being outdoors, getting a little sun and I had a much better attention span than what I do at home.

All in all I had a very enjoyable time and I think that as long as I am a "stay at home wife" I might as well take advantage of these beautiful summer days.

Time for a SERIOUS update

I know that I have totally dropped off the face of the planet for awhile but some pretty big changes have occurred recently and also a sweet vacation.

First of all just about two weeks ago I was laid off from my job. For obvious reasons I am just now writing about this. It was a bit of a shock but I am doing well. It is a tough economy out there and everyone is feeling it. I find comfort in the fact that I am not out of job because of a lack of performance on my end but that business is business and sometimes things have to be done for the sake of the business.

I am doing well though and keeping optimistic about the future. I have had an interview and I am just waiting to hear back...so keep your fingers crossed. I think the hardest part about being laid off is not seeing the people that I had become such good friends with. I miss seeing all my colleagues and friends at Connect. They have been a great support and I am so glad that I had the chance to get to know them.

Now onto much more fun and HAPPY thoughts! Husband and I took a sweet vacation to California to Mammoth Mountain for the Olson family reunion. Here are a few of the low lights and highlights.

Low lights:

- NINE HOURS IN THE CAR WITH NOTHING TO LOOK AT!
-One night on an air mattress
-Mosquito bites
- NINE HOURS IN THE CAR WITH NOTHING TO LOOK AT!

Highlights:

- Beautiful scenery and cool sites (AFTER we got to Mammoth)
- Relaxing (for the most part) bike ride with Husband down a road that anyone would be happy to ride down.
- Delicious dinners (pulled pork, Hawaiian haystacks, lasagna)
- Tennis (Husband and I almost beat the brothers...one point...so close)
- Swimming/Sun bathing/Reading
- Hard core playing with two of the most adorable girls in the world (hide and seek, freeze tag, spinning, lot's of spinning, swimming and Go Fish)!
- Zoning by mother-in-law and a glorious nap
- Skit performed with Husband's family (stole the show, we were a total hit!)
- Service project picking up trash around a gorgeous lake (adventurous husband jumping in lake)
- Family pictures (with 9 siblings and their families present this got REALLY interesting)
- Game of soccer in which yours truly scored a goal for the other team (on accident) but made up for it by making 3 goals for MY team! So much fun and so tiring (someone is VERY out of shape)
- Hot tubbing
- Saved by the Bell
- Good conversation
- Quality time with Husband

We had a wonderful time on our vacation and will cherish the memories we made. Below are a few pictures from our Mammoth adventure.

On the way down it was BRUTALLY hot so I made a contraption to block the sun which ended up also blocking the AC so it really didn't work out that well. This is basically what we looked at for the nine hours while we were driving. Absolutely NOTHING!Driving into Mammoth we saw the most gorgeous sunset. This picture doesn't give it justice but it gives you the idea.

Blair and I on our site seeing adventure.

Ellie Bellie and Blair Bear as we often call them posing for a pic. Ellie gets distracted sometimes while taking pictures : )

We saw some really natural hot springs which made the water this cool blue color.

Husband, Blair & Ellie swimming. Ellie is the most fearless little girl ever! She was game to do anything in the water.

Cute picture of Husband and Blair.

All the Leavitt boys minus Spencer who couldn't make it to the reunion.

Little Rory. One of the cutest babies you will ever lay eyes on!

G & G Olson and all their grand kids!

I was set on seeing something cool like the biggest ball of yarn but unfortunately there is NOTHING in Nevada except this huge rocket looking thing which I like to refer to as the "Torpedo" I made Husband stop so we could get a picture because it was literally ALL that was out there. Oh and one mailbox.