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.

Weekend Review

Shocker of the century is happening right now...I am actually doing my weekend review on Monday like I am supposed to.

Friday:

I am in the midst of a HUGE iTunes project. I am trying to get all my music from my old lap top to my new one. iTunes does not make this easy. So I am re-importing a bunch of CD's and desperately trying to figure out how I am going to get much of my music (and frankly my more cherished music) from one computer to the other. This is ALL I did Friday night. I have made a decent amount of progress but still have a ways to go.

Husband wrote a paper. Lame for him. I felt bad. School ruins weekends.

Saturday:

Did all my regular Saturday activities. Cleaned, laundry and exercise. Then the highlight of the weekend. Husband and I got ready to go to the temple and then headed to Chadder's. Yep, I was craving a burger and fries and so we went and got ourselves the classic American meal. Burger, fries and a shake!

We drove to the top of the hill above the Provo temple and ate our delicious meal and it really was delicious! I would suggest it to anyone looking for a good burger and fries meal. The only downside is you have to salt your own fries. I do not eat fries without salt and so once the salt was added I was good to go. The strawberry & chocolate shake was also very good! Once we were sufficiently smelling of a burger joint I sprayed some good ole' body spray on and Husband and I both popped a piece of gum in our mouths and headed to the temple. It was delightful!

After the temple the dreaded grocery shopping trip began. Sweet Husband went with me and endure the awful trip as well. We did so good this last time. We divided and conquered! We did it pretty quickly and left Wal-Mart still in good moods!

Sunday:

Was really nice. We enjoyed church. I got called to be a RS Teacher! I am so excited! I loved when I got to teach up at college and I am really looking forward to another opportunity. After church Colter and Laura invited us over to have dinner with them. They spoke church (and did a great job by the way) and had a whole bunch of family over. We were delighted they invited us to be apart. It was fun!

Next, too much napping ensued and I learned a lesson not to sleep that much EVER again. I had a horrible headache when I woke up. Not cool. Then, for me, the highlight of the day was my family decided to come from Kaysville and visit us. We enjoyed scripture study, flat cookies and a couple of funny YouTube videos together. It was so nice to have them spend a little time with us. I miss Sunday's with my family so it was nice to get to enjoy their company for awhile.

After the fam left we spent a little time outside chatting with Colter and Laura and getting some fresh air. It was such a nice Sabbath and as always the weekend just went all too fast.

Thank You

I have one of the greatest announcements to make. This has been a long time in coming. A lot of work has gone into this project which is now FINALLY completed!

Yes everyone I have mailed my thank you notes! All 117 of them. I know it may seem really pathetic that it is almost 3 months after our wedding but it takes time to write a thoughtful note to someone and a 117 someones takes a lot of time!

Needless to say I am very relieved to have them finished and sent. I hope that my words will mean a little something because I really am so grateful to all who were so generous to us. I also need to give a HUGE thank you to my angel mother who printed out labels with all the addresses of the people I needed to send thank you notes to. She even printed out return address labels! This made the end of the process so much faster and I am SO grateful to her for doing that.

So it is official I am done with the WHOLE wedding process. Now I just get to look forward to sweet anniversaries!

Weekend Review Part Two

After the 5k we ate a tasty pancake breakfast and then enjoyed the West Point City 4th of July Parade! Here are a few highlights from the parade.

Of course there were tractors...

...and adorable old men driving them!

I just loved this old man!

There was a very tall man on a very tall bike.

I thought this was cool.

The missionaries were so in the parade and had

MoTab blasting out the back of their car.

It was awesome! What a way to preach!

Husband's brother Tyler is EMT and got to drive the ambulance in the parade

Husbands brother Trevor

Mike just lounging at the parade

After the parade we napped like there was no tomorrow! I was tired and needed some sleep! Once we were rested we went with Husband's family to see Ice Age 3. It was ok. I am not a big fan of movies 2 and 3 of anything. So I went in with low expectations and got what I expected. Biggest downside was we really only got like 3 quotable quotes out of the movie.

We left the movie theater to head to my house for a BBQ on the patio. It was so nice spending time with my family. Outside of family time the highlight of the weekend was the chocolate cake, topped with strawberries and hot fudge with a side scoop of ice cream. It was DELECTABLE! I was literally in heaven. My sweet mom made it pretty much at my request. Oh how I love her so!

We watched fireworks from our font yard and then quickly retreated to the indoors to escape the swarm of mosquito's that were attacking me. We had a lovely weekend and Monday came with a vengeance! Now I am living for the family reunion in California in a couple weeks! Yippee!

Weekend Review Part One

Boy did I have a FABULOUS weekend not to mention a LONG weekend! I did a pretty good job of documenting the weekend with photos so there will be lot's to look at for this weekend review.
My weekend began at 3:00 Thursday afternoon. As I like to say "They let us out early from work!" just like they let us out early when I was in Elementary school. This was the best way to start the weekend. Husband and I drove down to Kaysville and spent the night with my family and then the celebration weekend began!

Friday: We [meaning Husband and my family] got up early and headed to the lake. Pineview Lake to be exact. Husband did all our boarding things [he skis in the winter but we are determined to make him a summer boarder] including wakeboarding and surfing! He did so well and I was so proud of him! Here are a few pics from our adventures on the lake.

Husband surfing! This was his first time ever trying this! He had it down after only a few tries!

Looking like a sweet surfer!

Enjoying the sunshine!

My cute baby sister who isn't much of a baby anymore.

Husband getting some sweet air on the wakeboard.

He totally cleared the wake!

Carson is wicked good at surfing and can start going

off the back of the boat. Look he doesn't even get wet!

We had a little dance party on the boat. This is Carson showing off his moves!

Sorry about it being sideways I don't know how to change it.

After boating we went and enjoyed fireworks and family time with Husband’s family in good ole West Point. It was fun to be so close to the action yet still be able to get away from the crowds if we wanted. The fireworks were great! We were right under them and I thoroughly enjoyed snuggling with Husband.

Saturday:

We arose bright and early to run a 5k with Husbands brother. This particular is probably one of the sweetest boys you will ever meet. Mike was hit by a car when he was young and now has some physical and mental challenges. It is amazing how far this kid has come and the great things he has accomplished. He decided he wanted to run the race and began training. Husband and I agreed to do it with him. This race was probably the highlight of my weekend! Some classic comments from the race were:

Mike looking back at us as he takes off right at the beginning says "See you at the crossline! (meaning finishline). I was laughing so hard it threw my breathing off at first.

Mike telling us that he would "prefer not to talk" when he runs.

Mike grabbing a water bottle while running except he ended up juggling it and finally was able to get a hold of the bottle and then proceeded to dump the whole thing over his head.

The race was a blast (not to mention physically challenging, this kid was cruising). Here is a before, during and two after photos from the race.

Before the race. Looking a little tired. It just so happened to be 6:30 in the morning.
And they're off!

Mike collapsed on the groud afterwards.

He is ok, don't worry he got right back up after.

Here we all are a little more tired and a little more sweaty but feelin good!