YIKES!

Gosh, there has been so much going on and I haven't been posting anything!!! I'm going to try to post pics and lay off the writing... can be hard for me at times!
Last weekend was pretty fun... we went to a dueling piano bar with our friends Brandi and Jim. I'm sure the waitress was pretty stoked when we all ordered diet cokes of course with grenadine (we are crazy!) Trav was stoked that they were using the same piano that we have!



The next day Trav's school had a fun BBQ. I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but his school is in the biggest ghetto. There were a couple of sketchy cars that would be parked by the field, then would quickly drive away. We also got some really mean looks by passerbys. Why do they have to be so mad, we would have let them join us.
Some of the crew

They had a fun softball game going on, so of course I had to show my mad skills (I'm getting rusty!)

Here are the boys playing, and a cool shot of the city right behind us.










Ahhh my sister is forcing me to post pics of me and my belly in different stages, and I'm a little embarrassed, but this one is for TC.
13 weeks here. I'm getting a little pooch!










I have to mention something about the biggest storm I have ever been apart of. Last Thursday there were tornado's! The sirens actually went off... so what do you do when the sirens go off? Do you duck and cover or do you turn the news on or do you go outside and look at the sky? We chose the latter and watched the amazing storm (probably not too smart but hey we survived). The worst part was at 2 am when we heard the loudest pounding on our windows from the rain. We looked out and the sky was full of lightning. I've never seen anything like it! We turned on the news and our area was clear for tornado's, so we went back to bed. But when we woke up, this is what happened about 20 miles north of us.



Lastly, we are starting to pack up our boxes. See that picture above? Well we are moving about four miles from there into a townhouse. We will probably move the first part of June, so we are getting some things put together. We will really miss Overland Park, but its only 25 minutes away so we will visit often. We are looking forward to Riverside, it is in Missouri, so we will soon be Missourians.

"pack it up pack it in, let me begin... ..."

PS I stole a lot of pictures off of Brandi's blog, she is always prepared with a camera... I felt guilty not admitting. Thanks Bran!

SPUD

Remember a couple months ago when I was whining that whenever someone who is married says they have news, people just jump to conclusions and say... "are you pregnant?" Well you can go ahead and jump to those conclusions...
We have news... .....
To answer your question, YES! We are having a baby!
This blog entry has been a long time coming. I have known for about two months and have kept it a secret to most people. This week has been great because we told our parents and some friends. It has been a range of emotions to tell people because it doesn't feel real to me. A) I still look like I am in high school (and sometimes feel like it) so it doesn't feel like I am old enough to have a baby B) Travis still looks like he is in high school so when I start showing people are going to "assume" things C) I seriously don't feel motherly right now. Don't get me wrong because this is exactly what we wanted (this was no accident). It just feels weird to have that title. But we are really excited!!!

If you are wondering about the title of this blog; we call the baby Spud right now because Trav thought it was cliche' to call it a peanut or anything like that. Here is the first picture you will see of Spud.



Trav said it looks like a cockroach on its back; how sentimental.
So ever since I have been telling people about the baby I have been getting the standard pregnancy questions. I will go ahead and answer some of those questions. If you don't care than stop reading:

Q) Have you been sick?
A) Surprisingly enough I have not been sick at all. I did get nauseated here and there, more right before bed actually. I really never felt that sick though. The biggest thing is feeling extremely tired and Trav will probably say that I'm moody too. Whatever dude.

Q) How far along are you?
A) I actually just started the 12Th week yesterday. I am due on October 29Th. I love that it is so close to Halloween because seriously think about the fun birthday parties this kid will have.

Q) Are you fat yet?
A) I feel a little fat, but you can't really tell yet. My clothes are getting a little tighter and Trav says he can tell that my body is preparing. What does that mean? Are my hips widening or something?

Q) Will Travis deliver the baby?
A) I have strict orders that Travis will stay north of my belly button for the delivery. He has other ideas... I'm not a science experiment! And I don't want him to see that side of me... it isn't pretty in that situation.

I think I have covered the basics so far. I'm sure you got more than enough info. But now I may need some info from all you mothers out there. K how the heck do you know what you are doing when the kid comes? (see I sound really motherly) I have the book "what to expect when your expecting" but I'm not really concerned about the pregnancy part... take your prenatals... don't smash the kid... can't be too hard. What do you do when they are out and you have to raise them. If you have any good book recommendations or web sites please tell me. I figure I should probably start educating myself while Spud is cooking. Thanks for every one's support! We miss a lot of you and wish we could be closer!

Green races, eggs, pelvic exams and Sid

Did I grab your attention? Well I have a couple little things to talk about and the above title outlines the agenda...

We are going to go on a trip back to St. Patricks day. I realize that was almost a month ago, but things have been busy (and I was waiting for Trav to write about our wonderful getaway to Arkansas, so its mostly his fault). We (that is right "we" meaning TRAVIS and me) ran in a four mile St. Patties day race with our friends Sarah and Jim. It was a pretty cold day, in fact it snowed earlier on, but the die hards all made it out. I was kind of glad it was cold because Trav and I sure didn't want to fork out 30 bucks each to run in a race anyways, and the cold meant people would be wearing lots of layers which would hide the running numbers that you pin on that we didn't have. So, maybe we are cheap? Anyway it was a fun day, it was in a cool part of town, and we finished. Then we accidentally partook of the free food for the runners after, again don't judge, we were spent and there was plenty!


There are always freaks at each race.



Changing topics, I wanted to mention a fun tradition we have going on. This was the 2ND annual egg dying contest. For the past two years we have dyed Easter eggs with our friends Alisha and Orson Bangert and Rob and Britney Graham. I'm so mad I didn't take any pictures (I have been such a slacker) but it was a great night. My egg won for being the ugliest, Trav's won for being the most suck-up to the judge who was Orson (Trav painted a muscle guy on the egg and called him Orson) and Britney won for the best overall. Its funny because none of us have kids which is usually the reason people dye eggs... we just enjoy it! The next Sunday was Easter and the Easter bunny made a killing. I dropped many subtle hints that all I wanted was mini cadberry eggs, I even bought two bags just in case the Easter bunny forgot, but he didn't and we ended up having two huge freezer bags full of candy. Gross!

The next thing and probably the thing that really grabbed your attention in the title is pelvic exams. No, I'm not sharing a personal story that happened to me. Since the day Travis started school we have heard about this day that would be coming... the students call it "vagina day." This is when the students perform their first pelvic exams on real women. The day finally came and Trav made it through. He said he survived but is wondering if he needs to talk to his bishop now?

Last but not least my dad, Sid, came to visit us this past weekend. It was a fun little visit we had with him. We mostly ate a lot of good food, watched some conference and watched a little basketball. Its funny how you want to impress your parents by showing that you are all grown up with your own clean place and your life in order; when in all reality they lived with you your whole life and know that deep down you are a slob! We had a lot of good talks and laughs. Its really fun seeing family and friends (hint hint, come and visit!)
They are intently listening to conference.

Eureka Springs, Arkansas

So yeah, it has been a quick two years. A couple of months ago, Milli realized that we haven't been on a trip just the two of us, for....two years! So we decided a trip was in order. It just so happened that my spring break was the week before our anniversary, and since our first honeymoon burned down, we felt we deserved a second try.

Milli found out about a nice place nestled in the Ozark "mountains", called Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Now, if you can somehow manage to reconcile the fact that the natives here pass off these glorified rolling hills as mountains, if you look around, you might find that the Ozarks are indeed beautiful. I guess you could say it felt a bit more like home than Kansas City.

So we hopped in the car for our uneventful trip to Arkansas, and when we arrived, we checked into a cozy little cottage for two. It's name was "A Taos Sunset". If it looks small in the picture, don't be decieved.... it's smaller. But it was perfect for us.



We stayed for a day, and had a great time. On Saturday night, we had decided to enjoy a little bit of southern cookin' (Milli wouldn't let me eat at Pizza Hut), and we ventured to "Grandma's Cornbread and Cobbler". When we walked in, we immediately saw the only two employees in the place hunkered over the cash register, trying to figure the thing out. Maybe Grandma just found out about cash registers? We stood in front of them for a long moment before finally being noticed by the older employee. She explained to us that they couldn't make it work, but she would take our order and when they got the "dern" thing working we would get our bill. Of course, I had to order the cornbread and beans, which ended up tasting like it had been cooked by some outlaw in the wilderness about 150 years ago. Good thing I got that hotdog, because I would have been miserable without it, what with Pizza Hut only just across the street and all.

Nearing the end of our meal, our nice old waitress brings up our bill (they got that dern thing working finally), and apparently we owed them 24 dollars for some nasty beans and cornbread, a hot dog, and a salad. By my count, we owed them about twelve. So, after the meal, I asked her to itemize that bill, and they realized their folly. So she went to work on this calculator (the cash register couldn't add, but neither could she). She comes out with a new wrong number, and after a few tries, I volunteered to walk her through all of the calculus. We finally got the right number (it was twelve something)!

Here comes the best part. I then mentioned to her that we wanted two orders of cobbler (which actually turned out to be quite good), and asked if she could add that onto our bill. So she whipped out her trusty calculator again, and quickly added up the new numbers , and she said, "OK, that brings your total to $8.50." Are you laughing yet? I almost payed her right then and there, but I ended up doing the right thing and re-working the bill with her to a nice round number of $15. As I prepared to pay her with my debit card, she told me that their debit machine wasn't working, either. I ended up paying the lady everything I had in cash, which was $10 even. So we caught a break on that nasty cornbread. Is that what southern cornbread is supposed to taste like, anyway? They should just stick to cobbler I think.

And that was just the beginning of our evening! After we left the grandma's place, we went to an ole' fashioned Ozark Hoe-Down, complete with some seriously cheesy comedy and impressive musicians. I mean, we're talking keyboard, guitars, steel guitar, banjo, harmonicas.... it was my kind of show. Of particular note was the coolest version of the "Dueling Banjos" I have ever heard and an awesome keyboard version of Lionel Richie's "Stuck On You". It turned out to be a great program, and I highly recommend it to anyone that finds themself wandering the Arkansas wilderness.

I must stop, this post is getting ridiculously long. We had a great time in the Ozarks. Milli is a great road tripper when she doesn't have the scoots. I wouldn't have any other navigator before her. The only bad thing about our trip was that we forgot to take our "dern" camera! So sorry about the lack of real pictures, but you've seen us before, and we still look the same, so stop complaining.

If you are still reading this, I applaud you for your stick-to-it-edness! Good night, all.

Two Years!

We have made it to two years and counting! It has gone by so fast and it still feels new. I just quickly want to list ten reasons why I am still married to Travis :)
10) He has mad baking skills. He makes the best desserts. I don't even compete with him in this category so therefore I don't bake.
9) He tickles me more than I tickle him. What can I say, I'm kind of needy!
8) He is so endearing. If anyone watches LOST, Travis is like Sawyer in the nickname department. He is always coming up with cute little nicknames for me and I love it.
7) He is so passionate about sports. I love this about him most of the time except when he gets in the "zone" and totally ignores everything I am saying.
6) He is amazing at the piano. It is one talent that not a lot of people know he has but he can sure play.
5) If anyone knows Trav you know he is amazing with kids. He loves them and sometimes I get jealous when we are around kids because he ignores me and gives them all the attention :) He will be an awesome dad!
4) He is so smart! He is in the top 30% in his class.
3) He makes me laugh. He is goofy and corny and sometimes perverted and I love it!
2) He loves to surprise me. He is always so coy with upcoming birthdays and events. I am a very anxious person, so usually I am not up for surprises but he won't change and its kind of cute (and most of the time I figure out that something is going to happen... I'm a detective)
1) He still looks at me the same as the day we got married and I hope that never goes away because I love that!

Love you Trav!

Some Funny Stuff!

Not too much has been happening around these parts so I don't have a lot to blog about; however, there have been a couple of funny little things that have come my way that I'd thought I would share:

1) Travis had a really tough week last week. He had a couple of finals that really drained him. He actually looked like a real 30-year old man instead of his young boyish looks. I don't even think he shaved, showered or changed his scrubs for that whole week come to think of it. So his finals are over and and its his Spring break so he gets a whole week off from school. So what does he do? You may be thinking sleeping in, breathing fresh air, easing your mind. No. He woke up at 6:30 am on Monday morning so that he and his school mate buddies could have a Lord of the Rings marathon.


They watched all 3 movies in one day. These aren't just the normal DVD's, these are the director's version which means it adds another hour to these never ending movies anyway. I got home from work and he didn't return till about eleven that night. They are seriously the biggest dorks I know! I guess I'm sort of a dork myself though because he called me a couple of times to check on me and every time I would answer, I would say "my precious" in Gallhams voice and then laugh and think I was really funny.

2) At work I just found out that Dwight and C-Spark also got disinvited to the obesity conference because the doctor realized how expensive it would be for him. What a freakin' cheap wad! I did have to laugh because I guess I'm not the only one who gets the shaft. Love the drama!

3) I never really realized how gifted my husband is at Dance Dance Revolution. He could almost be a black man! OK I'm going way too far but seriously the guy can really move. I'm not going to say he looks the most graceful, but he killed everyone on Saturday night by a huge margin boys and girls included. So that is another thing he has going for him if the medical school thing doesn't work out.

These little funny things keep me entertained and happy and I think in order to keep my sanity I have to look for them everyday.

Fun in February

I hate February!!! It is seriously the worst time of year. The weather is horrible, the Holidays are over so there aren't fun things to look forward to, the Holidays are over so I am fat, and the weather is horrible. Last week it was my birthday. Again, I hate February so much that I have been advocating to celebrate my birthday on my unbirthday which is Aug 8 (I was a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland when I was a kid, hence the unbirthday). It has taken a lot of years but people are starting to come around with my unbirthday idea. Anyway, back to my real birthday. Travis is such a cute husband. He surprised me with a new dresser for our room. You may think, big deal a new dresser. Well let me tell you the story of my old dresser. It pretty much was a piece of wood, actually it wasn't even made out of wood, it was particle board. I have had it since I was 12. It was white with flowers all over. When I got married, I decided to paint it a different color so I wouldn't feel like a 12 year old and so Travis wouldn't feel like he was a pedophile. My mom and I had the most brilliant idea to repaint it an old antique color, then beat it up so it looked like it had aged. Camille did this with her dresser and it was awesome looking. Again, the dresser was not made out of real wood, so it sure didn't take on the cute antique look as Camille's did. It actually looked sort of like a space ship. And to be honest, my mom must have had some real rage going on inside of her because she beat the crap out of it. Now after a year and a half of being married, the drawers started breaking. The bottom two drawers actually didn't have a back to them anymore so I put clothes that I didn't wear to often in those drawers, pretty sad. When Travis surprised me with a new one I was delighted. He also planted little presents in each drawer. Later that night he surprised me with a homemade birthday cake with 25 candles on it. He brought it out when we were with our friends. I call him "the sneak" because he had a really "busy" week staying late studying at school but really he was out shopping, assembling and baking. Come to think of it, it would be really easy for him to have a girlfriend on the side by using the "I have to study late tonight" card. Hmmmmmm....
Oh and something else about birthdays. I love how random people call and text you on your birthday. I felt way loved that day so thanks to everyone!


I also wanted to add a picture of our Valentine's day. He is a full time student so we are really poor so we just ordered a heart shaped pizza from Papa John's and stayed in wearing our sexy pj's. It was $20 bucks and barely fed us, but the idea behind it was genius. Hope everyone had a good V-day!

Work It Part II

I don't know what it is but I have had another crazy work experience. I don't think this story is as traumatic as the first one, but I had to share (sorry if you have already heard it.)
Another duty I have at work is that I get to draw blood on patients. I LOVE this part of my job. Ask my college roommates, they think I am so weird, but sometimes I would make Denae (who worked in a hospital and also we took a medical assisting course together in high school) steal a couple of needles for me. No, not to shoot up with, but to practice sticking each other. Don't knock it till you try it, there is some sort of weird adrenaline rush with being able to do this. Anyway...
So on my schedule is a new patient who hadn't started doing our program yet (hence being very overweight and on the old side... no offense if you are either one of these conditions). She needs to have lab done but before this I talk to her more about the program and she seems like a decently nice person. I take her into the lab and take a look at her veins. She has no visible or feelable veins in her arms, so I look at the hand. Oh... she has the old lady roly-poly huge hand veins. These kind of veins can either be your best friend or your worst nightmare. For me, they were my worst nightmare. I stick the needle in her hand and as soon as I did, her vein rolled over to Texas, there was no way I was digging that far to try to find it. I apologized and explained what happened. She wasn't too amused, but she said, just do my other hand, she was still pretty lucid at this point but starting to breath in a deep way. I try the other hand and the same exact thing happened. I have to make a small disclaimer that no matter how good you are at sticking, sometimes you just can't get it, and with her I just couldn't. I have a policy with my patients, it is two and out, if I ever miss more than twice I will not try again, and will get someone else to do it.
Back to the story... so she sees that I can't get the vein. At this point I again apologize and start to say that I will grab someone else to do it. Before I can utter these words out, she starts breathing were-wolf heavy. She says to me, "is there someone competent here that can get my blood?" Ouch. I already feel dumb that I have missed now you are going below the belt. I wanted to say "sorry that you have fat old lady gross veins", but instead I try to calm her down. I ask her if I can get her some water and if she is ok, etc. She ignores me then starts with the weird heavy breathing again and tears are coming and she says "you are pathetic, my primary care always gets me on the first stick" mind you that this isn't in a mild tone, she is yelling at this time. I seriously wanted to grab a needle and stab it through her hand at this point but instead I left the room to grab Dwight for some help. He, along with the whole office could hear what was going on. He had already started to make his way in to save the day. I caught him in the hall and told him what had happened and that she is freaking out! Then from the end of the hall we hear this non-human cry shouting "$*%-Damn her... my hands!" ... Whoa! Okay, I will be honest, yes it hurts to get poked by a needle, but from the way she was acting, I couldn't tell if I missed her vein or if I killed her only son. She was crazy!!!
I decided not to show myself at the crime scene. I let Dwight take care of it. I did hear from him that she is never going to let me touch her again. I'm ok with that. Infact I don't really want to ever see her again.
This experience hasn't scarred my love of drawing blood, infact I had another "stick" I had to do about an hour later and was successful. I just think it is so weird how some people react and treat others. This incident has actually made me want to be a better person. I will never ever treat a human being the way she did, no matter what... ... I guess unless they have killed my only son that is.

Everything you are dying to know...

I got tagged by Tara and thought what the hay, so here it goes
ALL ABOUT HIM...


What’s his name? Travis Brandon Charles

How long have you been together? Um... ... I don't know where you start counting. We've been kissing for 3 1/2 years, but probably have been "official" for 3 years. (we did things in reverse... he he).

How long did you date? Again, where do you start counting these things? We were really good friends for probably a year, then really good friends went to friends with a little bit of benefits (cause why not?) then it evolved to marriage. It is a beautiful love story. I'd say we were seriously dating for about 9 months before we got hitched.

How old is he? the big 3-0. Old man.

Who eats more? Travis has been known to pack it down. He is learning that his metabolism isn't what it was 5 years ago, so he has asked me to lessen the portion sizes for dinner. I probably eat sweets more frequently though.

Who said I love you first? He did in a different language; I think it was Russian? But then he finally manned up and said it in English.

Who is taller? He is the perfect height for me. I can wear heals and he still is taller but not too tall.

Who is smarter? Wow,not even a comparison. Travis. Sometimes he uses words I have never heard before and I just look at him with a blank look (and its usually when we are arguing which makes me even more mad)!

Who does laundry? I do. I'm too afraid of what he will shrink. I probably enable him.

Who does the dishes? Its probably pretty even. He inherited a good trait from his dad. Thanks Papa John

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Lying down, he does.

Who pays the bills? I do. We would be evicted if he did.

Who mows the lawn? You know, we have never owned our own lawn. That is one hoop we haven't jumped through yet (hopefully soon).

Who cooks dinner? I usually do although Travis makes a mean kraft mac n' cheese. I swear he has a secret method of mixing the milk, cheese and butter. It baffles me.

Who drives when you are together? He is insanely sexist in this department and forces me to sit in the passengers seat. He is the least controlling person ever, but with this he is crazy.

Who is more stubborn? Surprisingly, I think he is. He is more passive aggressive with his stubbornness which to me is the worst kind of stubborn.

Who kissed who first? He totally was pervin' on me one night and he made the first move, then he didn't call me for a week. PLAYA!

Who asked out who first? He did (this is where his passive nature comes to play). He found out that I am deathly afraid of spiders so he rented Arachnophobia and invited me over to watch it just the two of us. So I think that was kind of a date. We "kind of dated" a lot.

Who proposed? He did, again, in a different language. This time it was Spanish and it sounded prettier, but again he manned up and resaid it in English. It was cute.

Who has more siblings? He has 3 and I have 2.

Who wears the pants in the family? Pretty much I do if I'm kicking and screaming. But again, the passive side of Travis sometimes drives me into submission. He knows exactly what he is doing.

I tag Lauren, Tater, Anika, Sarah & Jim and Brandi and whoever else!

Work it

So a couple people have requested me to post an experience I had at work last week. It is a little embarrassing, but I should probably confess my sins.

If you weren't sure, I work as a nutritionist at a doctor's office. My day consists of seeing ornery, hungry, irritable people (Ok, i'm over exaggerating, I love a lot of my patients but some are evil) and discussing with them diet plans and their health. I'm sort of the peon of the office. There is a medical doctor who loves charging people a ridiculous amount of money and is not too concerned about it; kind of a typical jerk doctor (i'm training Travis to not be like that). Luckily Dr. T is only in the office twice a week. We also have a male Nurse Practioner, aka Dr. Wannabe who not kidding, is basically a Dwight (from The Office). He is a butt kisser know-it-all. Then we have a dietician who has a four year degree (which I have) but two-year internship (which I don't have thus downsizing my credentials), and then there is me... the lonely nutritionist.

A couple of weeks ago our dietician (we will call her Sparky), who I really like but sometimes her intensity can really get to me, comes into my office and says that there is this really cool obesity conference in which Dr. T said we could all go too. Sweet, I finally get to feel important. WRONG! The following week I get an email from our office manager Anna (a very cool girl who shares the same feelings about our supervisors). The email is a forward from Dwight saying that Dr. T actually only wants Dwight and Sparky to attend the conference, and pond scum Milli can just stay back and work. This infuriates me. Snubbed again! The cool thing about where I work are the girls I work with. We all send each other emails all day long ripping on our authorities. After receiving the forward from Anna, the moaning and backbiting begins. It feels good to have all of their support. There is name calling, badmouthing and silliness in all of these emails. The "team" decides for me that I should email Dwight and tell him how I feel about my un-invitation. So I did.

I send Dwight the forward that Anna sent to me adding to it an explaination of how I felt, yadda yadda yadda. It was actually a genius piece of work, and I feel great about it. After I send it to him, I forward the copy to my girls. In the next instant, I can hear Sparky say "Milli is this the copy you sent to Dwight?" Thinking she would totally toot my horn with how awesome it sounds, I answer "yeah, why," she goes on to use a few choice words that I will edit from this post. She points out that along with the email I sent him; I also forwarded him the emails that we all had been sending each other. Various quotes from those emails are; "he is such a freak" and "we can't wait till he goes to the conference so we can have a day of fun without him." I immediately start sweating profusely in my armpits. Dwight luckily was in his office with a patient, so he hadn't had a chance to read the email i sent him, but the email was there just sitting inches away from him. I ran into Sparky's office and just kept saying "he can't read that email, we will all get fired!!!

Dwight's door opens, he is done with his patient. By the grace of Heaven, Dwight walks out of his office, leaving his computer alone and goes to the chart stack. I punch Sparky and say "go distract him, I'm going in his office and getting rid of that email." She jumps up and goes to him and starts talking about the benefits of soy nuts while I run into his office. At this point, my heart rate is nearing the numbers of 250 at least and I can actually hear it beat in my ears. I get on his computer and click on his email. His email is not formatted the way mine is, so it was hard to tell if he had read my email or not. "He couldn't have read it because he was with a patient" I keep telling myself. Even though my hands are shaking I somehow manage to right click and push 'delete' on the implicating email. Then I sprint straight back to my office and pretty much have a seizure. I hurry and copy and paste the same email to a nice fresh email and send it to Dwight just in case he had happened to glance at his computer and see an email from me in his inbox while he was seeing that patient.

Time was ticking, and I was eagerly awaiting a response, when I realized, crap, I didn't delete the bad email from his deleted folder. He still has a chance of reading it. As I was thinking this, I heard the dreadful "ding" the noise of a brand new email. It was from him. This was either going to be very good or very bad. The email was actually polite and apologetic. He had responded to my nice email. I actually pulled it off without getting the whole staff fired! He had no clue!

Luckily it was close to lunchtime and he leaves for lunch, so the second he left the office, I re-snuck in his office to do my final destruction of deleting the deleted file. The email was not in there. I looked in all of his files and could not find the evidence. To this day I have no idea if maybe I double deleted it, or if he actually read it, or if it is just floating around cyber space.

I still am not invited to the obesity conference. But at this point I don't really care. All that matters is that the true me was not revealed. He still thinks I am sweet. I know I should go on to say that I learned a lesson, and that I should never talk behind somebody's back, but to be honest, how can you not make fun of Dwight? The days are funny and it makes work go by fast. I may be justifying myself to Hell, but instead of learning my lesson and trying not to talk bad about him I made a rule to always read an email from top to bottom before sending one.

Flight of the Conchords- Business Time

Just something that Milli and I have been laughing a lot to lately...enjoy

For the love of MUSIC!

I just have to apologize for the Ashley Tizdale crapola song. It just came with the slide show I picked. I kind of feel like it is a violation of my freedom of speech because there is no way in heck I would really choose that song (sorry if you like it I guess its not that bad :). So if any of you computer hackers out there want to show me how to get the song off it would really help me out. It truly is for the benefit of us all (again I apologize profusely if you like this song... probably Allie he he).

Speaking of music, I love music. I listen to all kinds of music. From country to Alternative, I like a big variety. I can say that Coldplay is my alltime most favorite band (at least for right now.) Music has been there for me when my boyfriend has treated me bad, or my girlfriends wanted to rock out. I think half the reason why BYU softball was so fun was because we were always singing or dancing to the coolest stuff. Lately though, I have been feeling out of the loop with music. I haven't been able to get the "high" off it like I used to. I don't know if it is because my life is pretty stable, so I don't relate to the sappy/cute love songs like I used to or what. I think maybe I need something new. A lot of you have been big music influences to me. Mandy has brought me Ben Folds from which I formed an actual religion to, Erin instilled a deep understanding of MJ, Allie has kept the light FM100 flowing, Lauren deepened my testimony of Rascal Flatts, Tamara, I haven't told you, but when it is slow at work, sometimes I will listen to your playlist on your blog, Stacie, I still have a CD you made for me in college Incubus for life, TC, those Pacetter songs will never die in my heart, I have to thank Clay Aiken for truly getting me through one of the toughest break ups of my life, Trav thanks for introducing Mason Jennings to me along with some good old classic rock in which I really do like (minus the Beejees, they do not sound human); I just give you a hard time because you likes the same stuff as my dad, Katy Barnes and the SOJO gang got me into Ben Kweller and I have never been happier. Anyways, if anybody out there is in love with an artist or a new song or what not I would love to know about it. It has been way too long since I have had a meaningful heartfelt rock out session.

The stuff we do...

I just wanted to mention a few fun things we did this last weekend... bit first I have to apologize about my last post; it was ginormously long. I will be brief as can be!

On Thursday I went with my girlfriends and saw P.S. I love you

I think I have cried in about 3 movies in my life (one of those is the Lion King), but I bawled through the whole thing. The movie didn't get really good reviews, but what do those stupid critics know anyway? They are way too analytical. It was a very meaningful story and I recommend it.

Then on Saturday morning we went to Paola (a city way out in the boonies) and shot guns. That is right folks, you heard me. Just another thing us Midwesterners do on the weekend. We went with the Oman's because Sarah and Jim both got new guns for Christmas and were itching to try them out. There were a couple other people who came as well; we definitely got our jollies off of the gun shooting.

I'm pretty sure this is what we were shooting, and other cool guns. Don't even mess with me. I learned how to load the gun, and learned other gun safety measures such as not pretending to shoot at anyone EVER!

On Saturday night we met back up with the same group and we played the funnest game ever. The new Rock band game on X-BOX 360 is off the hizook! Its just like guitar hero, but the whole band is involved. There is a drummer, guitar, bass and a singer. My eyes were getting so dried out because I was too afraid to blink thinking I would miss a note thus getting booed off the stage.

I just had to laugh as I was playing the game. I looked around at what we were doing, and what we had done earlier that day with the guns and just thought of the randomness of the weekend. I was thoroughly entertained!

17 days of Christmas

Where do I bloody begin! We have been out of town for the past 17 days. Ya gotta love the holidays because it seems like the whole world just takes a break whether you worship God, Buddah, Michael Jackson or Allah. We were exctatic to get away from school and work for two lovely weeks. Travis's finals always end a week before I am able to take off from work so I always give him the option of going home early without me instead of waiting around. I had to laugh because last year being newly weds he wouldn't even consider leaving me, but this year he took that offer and ran and left me all by myself for a week! But absense makes the heart grow fonder right, (or is it out of site out of mind he he). I could tell he missed me a lot when he picked me up from the airport, he was really cute and klingy, I missed him too. Anyway, how do I even explain everything that we did without writing a novel (which I have kind of started to do)? I will just briefly list the highlights of the trip.
-Leaving KC to Utah at 6am, I was late for my plane and my luggage didn't make it... bummer (I guess I'm mentioning low-lights too). We stayed at the Charles' that night. It was so fun to see everyone! The kids are growing like weeds.
-Going on a hot date with my brother-in-law Wes. Travis was going to join us for half day skiing but it didn't end up working out. I just have to tell you that we only went down 6 times, not because it was crowded but because we both kept getting stuck. The first run we went on, Wes decided to take the scenic route and and I just stuck to the trail. I got down and waited and waited then 20 minutes later Wes arrives claiming he got stuck in some wild powder. We go down the same hill, but this time I followed Wes because he convinced me that if we go a different way, we will avoid the hard part. So I follow him and he is gone, and I keep falling in 6 feet deep powder and then getting up and falling. It was so deep I thank heaven that I had my ski poles. I once got so stuck that I couldn't even lift my skis. One ski was pointed north and the other was pointed south. It was so frustrating. I was trying to unclick my skis but couldn't get it to budge. I finally got out of my skis, but then realized I had to hike down a ways to the packed down part. I kept falling and it was so darn hard to get up. Wes actually called my cell phone to see if I was ok. When I finally made it to the trail, which was extremely steep, I could not get my skis back on. The crappy part was that the ski lifts were right above me so all the skiers were watching me and shouting out advice. I was so red hot with anger and embarrassment. When I finally got my act together I had no strength to ski, but I made it down to Wes. Then that crazy man wanted to go down the same hill so we tried it again minus me because I just went down the safe part, and he got stuck! I was again waiting for him for another 20 minutes. We were pretty retarded, but we had fun.
-Going to one of my bestest friends, Niki's wedding dinner at Tucanos, we hung out with Katy Barnes and her boyfriend Danny and had a blast!
- Travis leaving me once again to go down to Vegas to watch the cougs beat up on UCLA (kind of a lucky win, but we will take it). I couldn't (and didn't really want to) go because I was a bridesmaid at Niki's wedding.. She was so beautiful and it was fun seeing Tiff and Dave and a lot of my good highschool friends. Her reception was where my reception was. It was neat because I actually got to eat stuff from the chocolate fountain which I didn't even touch at my own wedding. I went to town on it.
-Visiting my grandparents. I love them so much. They always want help with their internet when we go over there so I tried to show them how to go to my blog, so if you are reading this Grandpa you are so technical savvy.
-Christmas Eve- what did we do?... .... Oh yeah we actually did some last minute shopping, helped prepare the big dinner, and wrapped a heap load of presents. We ate like kings, it was so so so good! Then we decided to open the adult presents (that comes off kind of kinky sounding, maybe I should rephrase it as the presents for the adults) Tracie had my name and she went to town on me. I loved it. She bought me accessories, hats, vests, etc. It was super generous and stylish.
-Christmas... woohoo presents! Watched all the kiddies open up their truck load of presents. It was nuts, but they were so cute!
-Hanging out at my parents and watching movies was awesome, also having Christmas dinner with all the crazy extended family.
-Travis seeing his good buddy Miles and spending the day playing games and snow football.
-Our annual party with my highschool friends, no words can describe that one!
-Erin Wardle's shower. I think I developed a 6-pack from laughing all night, it was a blast!
-Going to the temple to see Erin take her endowments out. It was good getting back. Our closest temple is 3 hours away.
-Playing games with the Charles's and Grandma Helen.
-Going sledding at Soldier Hollow.
-Playing fusion frenzy with Wes and Rachael.

I probably missed a lot of other things, but mostly I was gratefull that I was able to see the people who I love. We truly miss everyone, and sorry if we weren't able to spend too much time with you, I wish we could have a whole month to be there!

This was the first half of the trip, the second half of the trip we went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with my whole family! Again I will try to list the highlights... sorry i'm not doing a good job editing.

-Getting to PV and stripping off the 7 layers I have been wearing all Winter. We stayed right on the beach and it was beautiful. Our view rocked!!!
-Seeing my neice Anabelle for the first time. She is so so so cute! I hope I have a baby as calm and good smelling (minus the gross stinky diapers in which I can proudly say I changed) baby. I knit her a cute hat with a huge pink flower on it and I must say that was my most favorite present to give.
-Seeing the crazy boys who I cannot get enough of.
-Going to the beach and just hanging out. Jack and Brayden are polar oppisites. Jack jumped in the ocean and loved the waves, but Brayden was afraid and preferred the sand in which he burried Sadie.
- The photo scavenger stocking hunt on the beach. The marathon seemed like a breeze compared to the physical agony of this contest, but we (Travis, Brayden and I) won this year!
- Pina Coladas (oh virgin that is) and I think I had ice cream everyday!
- Taking two busses to the city and walking 2 miles to get to the flea market just in time for it to close!
-Reading a book on the balcony of the hotel just taking in the sea breeze.
-New Years Eve... nobody I repeat nobody except Trav and I stayed up till midnight. We snuck down to the beach and laid on our backs in the sand and watched the fireworks right over our heads. They don't have strict regulations in Mexico with the fireworks, so we literally were yards away.
-Having fun dinners with the fam.
-Spa day with the girls. I love hot rock massages. They are the best!
-Bike riding with Travis and Sadie and seeing the ostriches that Travis is obsessed with. We might have to get one of those one day.
-Going kiaking in the ocean.
-Going on the zip lines in the jungle with the crazy Mexicans.
-Eating at La Kliff the coolest restraunt I've ever been too. It just sits overlooking the ocean.

Yikes, again I could go on and on but I have to remember that there are actually real people reading this and not really caring! I just have to thank my parents for the amazing trip, we all had so much fun! We love you.

Well after getting home and having the airport lose our luggage (again) we are finally getting settled. It is good to be back in our element. I hope everyone had a great holiday (notice the politically correctness of that last comment) and a great New Years.

P.S. I have to give a special shout out to John and Erin Mayfield. Congrats on your marriage. I really wish I could have been there. Love you guys!

Insomniac

I cannot sleep tonight for some reason unknown!!! It is 3:30 am and i'm tossing and turning. Usually I am a grade A, never have a problem, have awesome dream sleeper but apparantly something is up. So instead of fighting it I will just post random thoughts:

1) The weather out here in the midwest is crazy and not only is it crazy, but the people are too. As I said in the earlier blog there have been ice storms. Ice storms are basically what you imagine an ice storm to be. Instead of nice fluffy white snow, we get freezing rain and slush that immediately settles on the ground as ice. I was driving home from work when this started and as soon as the moisture hit my car I would hurry and try to get my windshield wipers to wipe it off but it would already be frozen to the windshield. Defrost can be such a saver sometimes. But some of the people here are freaks. I have lived in Utah my whole life and despite the feet of snow that can come in one night, church has never been cancelled. I have lived in Kansas for going on a year and a half and it has already been cancelled twice (ps I'm not mad) and also last Tuesday everything just shut down, every school minus Travis's mind you, my work, all my friends work, it was basically a snow day, or ice day, for everyone. The thing is, and this is why I think some people are a little whacky, the roads were honestly not that bad. Most people didn't stay in, I know there were tons of shoppers that day; heck we went to a movie. The thing that is kind of cool about this is that all the trees have literally iced over and they look like crystal.


2) Last night Trav and I were watching TV, his phone rang in the other room. He went to go and get it, but I was messing around with him and I was trying to hold him down so he couldn't get it. He got up and I grabbed around his waiste so he couldn't go (sometimes I try to be funny). Well, he is a stubborn person so he was trying with all his might to get to the phone. Getting to the point, I was hanging on him, and accidently tripped him. His knee landed right on my hand which was faced in a wierd way and my ring and pinky fingers on my right hand were hyperextended and crushed. It hurt SO bad! Tears started rolling down my face and he immediately ran to the fridge and grabbed some ice for me. He felt so bad. He wanted to take me to the hospital because my fingers were swelling so much and they were already bruising. I knew they weren't broken so didn't want to go. I just wanted to say how thoughtful and caring Travis is. Little instances like that, although painful, just make me realize how much he really loves me and cares for me. My fingers are going to survive, I just have a man hand right now (plus they can't be that bad if I am typing away right here.)

3) I was going to have a post for this particular matter but never got around to it. We had some news awhile back. Usually when I start off with this phrase people immediatly jump to conclusions and say... "are you prego?" What is it about people just assuming just because you are married any news you have means you are pregnant... okay tangent... anyways, no that is not the news. The news was about a month ago we found out we were going to have to move to Warren Michigan. Travis will be a third year student next year which means he will be doing rotations in the hospital. His school doesn't have its own hospital, so they usually rotate the students through the hospitals in Kansas City. Since his class is so big there aren't enough spaces in Kansas City; so they have to sort of kick some out. The way it works is almost like a lottery. You write your top 3 choices of where the school has other hospitals set up. Most of the places are in the midwest and east. The closest to Utah was Casper Wyoming! So our top 3 choices were Kansas city, Warren Michigan, or Casper Wyoming. We didn't even really think it through too much because we had such a small chance of actually having to move... but we were among the 14% that didn't get their first choice and were planning on getting shipped to Michigan. I was so sad because we really have settled here and have made some way good friends. I told Travis that I was done making friends! So we were both bummed. There was a small chance someone would switch with us. Chances were looking really small as the deadline to switch was coming up. The day before the deadline, Travis surprised me and told me that someone decided to switch with us. I was so pumped that we didn't have to move! So that has been our big news for the past month, sorry not too exciting! It just really made me appreciate KC and the people we know here.

Okay now that I have expressed all of this I am going to see if I can catch a couple of hours of ZZZZZZ's. Please please please let me sleep!!! I know I'm going to reread this tomorrow and be so mad at myself for the lame post... don't judge me!

Tagged Again!

So today is Sunday and there is a major ice storm going on right now so church got cancelled!!! I would be lying if I didn't say I was a little excited to be able to just stay in my PJ's all day and not go out in that cold weather. The bummer part about it is that Travis has a huge midterm this Friday, so he is studying all day long. So boring! So far I have watched the Holiday, finished a book, knit a scarf, and now I'm blogging, but I'm not compaining at all, I just miss Travis sometimes even though he is sitting in the room next to me. Anyways, I was tagged twice by my friends so thought I would follow through. So here is it.
A) Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Nutritionist
2. Customer Service Rep at 1800contacts (couldn't have done it without Allie there I miss Teej)
3. Waitress at Joe's crab shack
4. Hot dog on a stick girl... and was proud of it. It runs in the family.

B) Four movies I have watched over and over:
1. The Notebook
2. Dumb and Dumber (funniest movie ever)
3. The Holiday
4. The Princess Bride

C) Four places I have lived:
1. Overland Park, KS
2. South Jordan (for a second, but loved it!!!)
3. Provo
4. Draper

D) Four TV Shows that I watch:
1. LOST
2. House
3. 24
4. American Idol (and sometimes America's next top model... I got addicted even though it is such a dumb show)

E) Four places I have been:
1. Puerto Rico
2. Hawaii
3. Puerto Vallarta
4. Jamaica (for seriously 15 minutes... that story goes along with the burnt down cruise... maybe I will do a blog on that one some day... its a good story)

F) Four people who e-mail me (regularly):
1. Papa John (you can count on about 3 a day)
2. Brandi
3. My friends at work... they are hilarious
4. My mom

G) Four of my favorite foods:
1. Thai food
2. Cafe Rio salads
3. Cookies
4. Cheese... I eat it with everything!!!

H) Four places I would rather be right now:
1. In Utah
2. In Phoenix
3. In Hawaii
4. In Thailand (always have wanted to go there, do you still want to go Erin?)

I) Things I am looking forward to in 2008:
1. 2nd year of med school to be over with... can't wait... most of the studying will be over and i'm SICK OF IT!!!
2. Summer trips
3. Doing fun things with my KC friends
4. The 4th of July... best Holiday ever!
Ok, now that I am done I have to tag a couple of friends. I tag TC, Lauren, Mandy, Tam the Gram, Camille, and Travis. Good luck Y'all.

Lots of stuff

Due to being lazy and forgetting my camera, I have been a slacker and have missed some really fun events. Here is a recap:


Why don't we take a trip back to Halloween! Our friends Allie and Matt really got us into carving pumpkins. If you know these guys, they are pretty much professional pumpkin carvers. Last year I did Austin Powers and Trav did Bob Marley. This year I attempted Dr. Evil, but to my dismay his face caved in. Since I was pretty upset that all my time went to waste, I decided I was not going to do another professional job, so I just carved an amateur spider from a pattern (lame). But Trav stuck to his guns and went all out and carved this little piece of awesome. Do you know what it is?

If you guessed the Death Star then you can call yourself correct (and you can also call yourself a bit of a dork, its from Star Wars if you didn't know... I didn't).
The cool thing about this baby was that it won 1st place in the pumpkin carving contest at Travis's school (there were only two contestants, he he) but we won $40 to the Cheesecake factory! Its good to know where all of our tuition money is going.
On Halloween we hung out with a bunch of our good friends. We ate soup and experienced a really scary haunted basement. The theme was to dress up like famous couples.

I don't know what the crap they are! Sarah and Jim kind of just do what they want.










We were the best parents ever, Brit Brit and K-Fed


Moving on to Thanksgiving... Travis's parents came to visit and have Thanksgiving with us. We kind of had to cram them in our little apartment for a whole week, but we had a lot of fun. Travis's mom is a really good cook so I knew I had to have my "A" game on in the kitchen. But before the cooking fest went on we of course had to play football! We met up with a bunch of our friends and played for a couple of hours. It was fun but it was frickin' freezing!!! It definitely got our appetites going.

We own you Oman's!


I did the turkey (which we named Bill), with a lot of help and supervision from Mama Kath, it turned out really good! We really enjoyed our little intimate dinner with just the four of us. Then Papa John didn't surprise anyone with downing two ginormous pieces of pie. He probably had pie for breakfast and dinner the rest of the week. How is he not a diabetic?
Bill the Turkey


Travis the Turkey
This is what they do while we slave away in the kitchen.

Just kidding... they helped a lot.
After Thanksgiving, we went and saw a lot of church sites such as Independence visitors center and the RLDS temple, etc. We also joined the masses for black Friday for a minute, we couldn't control Mama Kath with all the sweet deals!And of course we watched the Cougs thrash the Utes. Thank heavens above... we would've had two ornery fans for the rest of the trip if they would have lost. Thanks for hanging out with us Charles's!


And finally the start of Christmas! I can't believe it is already here. We had our first Christmas party of the year at the Hastings house. There were about 9 couples. We had tons of fun. We had dinner, then of course did the famous white elephant gift exchange. We took our pinata that we never used for Travis's b-day party back in September, full of candy I might add. It was definitely a hit. After that game we played Christmas pictionary. The girls kicked the boys bums! I think I got my first whiff of the Christmas spirit and am way excited!

Bachelor Drama

Okay. Travis is going to kill me for posting this, but I had too. Did anyone watch the finale of the Bachelor? I about died. First of all, I usually don't get into the Bachelor that much, honestly it is a pretty dumb reality show. But for some reason I got so absorbed in it. The way I would justify watching it was that I would work out during the show and watch it as I was on the treadmill. It sure made the running go by fast! I thought this bachelor (Brad) was super hot! I also liked his personality, although sometimes it was a little too formal. I liked Jenni the best. She had such a sweet and real personality (and she is from Kansas... woohoo). But I thought he had a stronger connection with DeAnna. Anyways, I was watching the finale on Monday night, I felt bad because my in laws flew in that day to see us for Thanksgiving, but I made them watch it with me. The cool part was that they totally got sucked into it as well. My father-in-law (who is a retired social worker/counselor) was so funny because he would analyze the relationships, and we would pause the Tivo, and then we would chat about it. I almost threw my shoe at the TV when Brad didn't pick either of them. I can understand not feeling ready to get married and not wanting to propose, but couldn't he just say "hey lets date exclusively and see what happens?" Instead he just dumped both of their "A's" I think this guy definitely has issues. Kind of reminds me of how stressful dating life was back in the day. Okay I'm done thinking about this because I have already wasted enough of my life on this trash. Can't wait till next season (did I say that out loud)

Homesick!

Beware... I am whining. I have just been feeling a little homesick lately. I don't know if its because the holidays are coming, or if it is because daylight savings happened (which makes things a little more depressing due to the fact that when I leave work it is dark) or if it is because a lot of fun things are happening back at home. I kind of feel like a baby because its not like I haven't visited. We were home for 10 days last Christmas, I went home again in January for my Grandma's funeral, I was home in May for the Charles's reunion and then again in August for my cousin's wedding. Looking at that, I can't believe I am venting about being homesick! I guess the fact that I wasn't there when Sadie had Annabelle and that I still haven't seen her makes it worse, or that all of my neices and nephews are growing up so fast I worry that they won't remember Trav and I (parents you better be showing them pictures of us nightly or so help me), or the fact that so many of my friends are getting married... 5 good friends have or will be married in the space of 3 months and I will only be at one of the the weddings. I despise the fact that we miss so many family get togethers and traditions such as Draper Days, the 4th of July, the Halloween family party, going out on dates with siblings and their spouses, etc. And a lot of my friends have had babies who are growing so fast as well. I wish I knew Ryan and Cannon better. I really miss my grandparents too. I love them so much and although they are very youthful and healthy, I never know how much time I will have left with them. I can't even imagine not having my Grandma Gladys. So anyways... I just want everyone to know that we think of you often and miss you tons. Don't forget about us and please please stay in touch. That is what really keeps me going. Relationships are the best things in the world. I have been sad to have lost connections with people from the past, but have learned so much from everyone I have come into contact with. Whoa, I'm going off. Don't get me wrong, I think this experience is great. I have always wanted to move away and have an adventure so I am grateful for this opportunity. All I wanted to say was that I am homesick! We are coming to Utah the 20th to the 29th of December so I hope I can see everyone. Love you all!

Its all about the wings!

I just had to share this experience. I played on a slow pitch coed softball team this past Summer and Fall. Our season ended and we took first place. So of course we had to celebrate... no not Disney Land... Hooters! Our team consisted of the typical beer drinking, potty mouth guys who actually had wives... who could actually play pretty well. I was a little hesitant to go but my coworker, who also played on the team, insisted that I go. So I did and I invited Trav. And he went. I was expecting this crazy wicked place with gross men and bad things everywhere, and was ready to shield Travis's eyes the whole night, but I was pleasantly surprised. The outfits really weren't that revealing, just short shorts and tight tanks and the atmosphere was almost a family type atmosphere. Don't get me wrong, there was definitely beer drinking and loudness to the place, but I looked around and saw lots of woman and men there just hanging out on a Wednesday night. Apparently that night, there was a big trivia game going on between all the different tables. It was really fun and we got into it. Oh and let me tell ya the wings.... well they were... .... .... not that good. I had so much fun that I was thinking that maybe I could pick up an application to work there... but then I looked down at myself and thought that they would probably only allow me in the back with the cooks. Oh well.