It's been 10 months since my last update soo this is a catch up post.

GREAT LIFE

When I posted last I was in the middle of 'life coaching' for Great Life. It was an incredible experience, I feel like I got more out of coaching, learned more things about myself, than the people I was coaching did haha, but I guess I'm very biased. The next month after I got done coaching Jason and I captained and co-captained a Part 1 training. Before we started the training the trainer asked me what it was that I wanted to get from my staffing experience. Why was I there sacrificing my time and money to be there for people I didn't even know? I said I want clarity, (which was a very vague answer) so he pried a little more at me and got down to I wanted to feel like I was in control of my life. Right there he changed the staff and made me captain and Jason co-captain. If you know Jason and I you can imagine how the rest of it went. Jason had a very hard time with me telling him what to do, I had a very hard time with him as one of my worker bees. It was a BIG stretch for our marriage, we were so used to the roles we had picked as leader and follower. And I got what I wanted, I came out feeling like I was more powerful and in control than I ever thought I was.

For record keeping sake- that was the last Part 1 in the Great Life building and as the Great Life Foundation, it changed and was taken over privately right after that Part 1.

RACE CAR

At the beginning of the summer Jason bought an Eagle Talon shell from Jesse. This was a completely stripped and caged car shell that was meant for drag racing. As a move for marketing for the business we decided to build a drag car that would run the 1/4 mile in 9 seconds. If only I'd known. It took several weeks of late nights and lots of money to get the car ready, the first handful of days at the track here, Rocky Mountain Raceway, were working out the bugs and tightening up the motor and replacing weak parts. Jason got in several good runs in the 12 second range but the motor was having this electrical issue. When the car got into boost (when it was making really good power, 650 WHP) something in the electrical would send a message to the engine and kill it. So just as the car would get into history making range it would just die. We tried everything to fix it. And I mean everything. Two months worth of diagnosing, and in the summer that is a good chunk of the season. We never did figure it out and ended up parting it out. More about that later. Jasons best run was an 11.4 1/4 mile with a trap time of 117 MPH. What's really impressive in the 1.50 60 foot- which means he launched off the line very, very, very fast. He made a video of racing using clips from inside and outside the car here:

TRUCK/TRAILER

Well to tow the race car to the track we bought our first large vehicle. It's a 2002 Ford F250 (we bought it used from the owner for $1,500 and had to do some engine work, no car payments for us and it runs like a charm) and we also bought a car hauler trailer (again, used from the owner so no payments for it). Jason was like a little kid at Christmas. We sold Cherry- I was very sad, and now we just have the truck.

BOAT

The other reason we had for picking up the truck was we bought a boat. One night Jason was browsing the classifieds and saw a boat listed for $100. Clicking into the ad he found out it was water worthy but had a blown motor and had been left outside so the interior was shot. Curious we called the owner and it was his wife that was selling it because the husband was not working on it and she wanted it out of her driveway. Well we went and picked it up haha. We first replaced the carpet and then built the motor and bought a new outdrive for it. Then later in the summer I replaced the worst of the interior- it wouldn't have needed replacing except the boat was previously parked next to another boat in the marina that caught fire and the heat from the other boats fire melted quite a bit of the vinyl. It took some troubleshooting at first but it runs great now. We were going out at least every day if not twice a day taking friends/family. I learned to drive the boat and tow others, I learned to wakeboard, wake skate and knee board, and I'm a pretty awesome tube puller haha.

JASON KNEE

Might as well put this after the boat. Near the end of the summer Jason was wakeboarding and did a back roll. (He is very good, he jumps and flips and all sorts of crazy stuff on the wakeboard.) Well when he landed that back roll he tweaked his knee, not thinking much of it since it didn't really hurt he did a big jump and when he landed that his knee really hurt. Later after several doctor visits it was decided he probably has a torn meniscus (the cartilage in the knee) but to be sure he needs and MRI and surgery. Not having the money for either of those expensive things he stayed off it for awhile and has learned how to adjust so as not to inflame it. He still has not gotten it fixed, luckily its not a very urgent thing, but he is unable to do any heavy playing on it, like basketball that he loves so much, though he was able to go back out and wakeboard etc by the end of the summer. More on that later as well.

GARRETT VEGAS

We had a good friend turn 21 during the summer and went to Vegas with him and 'all the boys'. I was the only girl actually haha, it was a lot of fun. Many stories to blackmail each of Jasons friends with later.

ALEX

I mentioned in the last post I think that Nate our employee quit on us. Jason tried to go it alone without a mechanic but just hated it. He ended up hiring another employee Alex, who was great. He worked for us until we closed the shop. More on that later haha.

DAD and NANCY

Dad got married. As bluntly as I just stated that was as bluntly as I found out. Dad had been dating a lady named Nancy who is from Idaho for about 3 months. One weekend they took off 'to spend a weekend in southern Utah'. Three weeks later Dad casually informed us kids that he actually had eloped to Vegas that weekend with Nancy and was now a married man. You've probably picked up from my tone that it did not go over well. Not that we didn't like Nancy. But it hurt that 1) one of my parents had remarried already, 2) that he left us out of the whole thing, 3) that he so casually told us a whole three weeks later. I've since made it clear to Dad I feel like he really fucked up the way he handled that. I, and I don't think Chan or Rachel, cared that he eloped- his wedding his way, but we don't like that we were left out of everything leading up to it and everything after it. Now though things are fine. Nancy still lives in Idaho so her and Dad just commute while she figures out how to move her business (she's a massage therapist, Doterra healer etc etc.) down to Utah. She has three children, two girls and the youngest a boy.

MOM

Well since I'm on parents... I'm really proud of my Mom. After the divorce she got independent and started getting into the things she wants. Also she has chilled out a lot. She's been in school and got a job in a medical center- the field she wants- and has been dating a guy named Ronald. Well I guess now I should say she is engaged to a guy named Ronald. They are just waiting for the letter from the first presidency saying its ok and they will get sealed in the temple. It could be as soon as Thanksgiving which is in just over a week. Mostly I like Ron, Jason does too, he's kinda different in that he's definitely a techy, WOW personality type. We've only met two of his kids, the youngest girls. Rachel will be moving with Mom into Ronalds house. I'm kind of skipping the details of the family and new siblings because I have a family tree at the end of this post.

SUSAN

Jasons mom Susan has been dating a guy named Doug. Actually I've known Doug for a bit from Great Life. We really like them together. So far they've just been dating (well so far as we know, they could be secretly married too I guess). It's really nice to see them together being all cute, Kelci and Amber like them together also, I think. I don't remember how many kids Doug has but I know he has a grand baby. Hey maybe we will get lucky and all of our parents will be married by the time we have kids. Four sets of grandparents= good Christmas haha.

BLACK LIGHT

Chan and ReAhna started this party trend of cleaning out Dads shop, hanging up black sheeting, installing black lights, playing techno-ish music and giving partiers neon paint. I giggle as I write this because we've done this twice now. The first for ReAhnas birthday and the second for Chan and Rachels birthday and it has been a huge hit, and hilarious. Another Vegas-like, good times, great blackmail.

REAHNA

I don't think I've written about her yet. ReAhna is Chandlers girlfriend of- a year? I think. Think Chandlers perfect female half. That's a pretty close description of Re. She nannys and they live together with their two dogs Marley and Ayla. We like her and Jason and I hang out with Chan and Re a lot. I'm thinking marriage is in the near future for them but don't ask them about it. They don't give any solid answers haha.

AMBER WEDDING

Jasons sister Amber got married this last summer to her missionary Scott. They dated before he left on his mission and then when he got home they wasted no time tying the knot. We really like Scott as well. We don't see them much as they are both in school and work a lot, well, and they are newlyweds so I think we will see more of them after a year haha. The wedding was super cute and incredibly packed, a nice family reunion on Jasons side.

CRUISE

About three months before we went on the cruise is when I booked it. At the time of booking I had no idea how ironic the cruise I picked would be. It came right after we decided to close the shop but right before we actually started doing it. Honestly my experience was like a 8 out of 10. I'm going to do a whole post with pics and more detail on it right after this but I'll say that the ship itself was meh and the ports were fun. I got scuba certified just for the trip and I LOVED it. I love diving. But you know, a cruise is hard to really ruin so we had fun.

HALLOWEEN

For Halloween we got invited to a party at a friends house. Well not a house, a mansion, eh actually villa is a more appropriate description. A family friend of Jasons has this house up on the mountain that is HUGE. I don't even know the specs I just know I was there for four hours and was lost almost the whole time. I went as a pirate (I know, new costume next year) and Jason went as 'the whole package'. Meaning he wore just a box around his waist, his humor is like that haha. It was a HUGE hit. He had people that he'd never met posing with him for pictures and still we run into people that were at the party that have to bring up how hilarious it was. He won the costume category 'LMAO' of probably the 200 people that were there. And of course he just ate up the attention haha. I walked around half embarrassed half crying from laughter.

CLOSING SHOP

I kept saying more on that later so here it is. Jason and I decided to close the shop. And not just the shop but the website as well. It was kind of a combination of things that all happened at once but really it boils down to we're tired. Running a business is so much work and the industry has become an ugly one. Jason hates working on cars now and the cash flow and the health insurance and the stress etc etc etc. We were no longer going in the direction we wanted. Also working together was really taking it's toll on our marriage. For the last month or so we've been in shut down mode. Selling everything off and cleaning out the shop- I just yesterday got the house put back together, it's been sad and liberating and scary. As of right now we are both unemployed- and doing good. Everyone asks whats next, well I am finally going to do web design for real. I've been doing it forever as a side hobby but I like it enough to do it for free, getting paid will just be icing haha. I hope. I have my sort of site up- jocelynndesign.com. Now that were done with shop stuff this week is my week to hit it hard and really get moving with my new career choice. I'm excited and scared. Jason is going into sales. He is a gifted salesman, I don't know if he was born this way or what but he reads people so well when it comes to sales. He wants to go into something higher end with a way to make tangible results and get paid highly for those results. Unfortunately his resume is a little short on experience since he has been running a business the last five years haha. He is thinking used car sales at first to get some experience and obviously he has a ton of knowledge so making some quick cash is no big but from there he has big dreams. We will see.

So coming up for us we have Thanksgiving is being held at our house with the Smith family, my sibs and Dad and Nancy, getting going in new careers and of course the holidays. I wonder where we will be the next time I get around to posting.

For pictures of all of these things-

Cruise: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150886188015215.757609.579155214&type=1&l=f7145a3dd8

General: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.196211365214.258387.579155214&type=1&l=8f3876c8c9

Cars Toys: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150404931020215.622498.579155214&type=1&l=9ea3377814