A quick break down on our Cruise since I said in my last post that I'd put this up right after.

We flew out to Tampa in business class, I don't think I can fly anything less ever again. The seats and the food and the drinks. Good way to start a vacation. We spent the first night in Tampa at a Marriott I think. Nice part of town but nothing special. The next morning we took a cab to the ship and waited in a VERY LONG line. I guess this was the first time our cruise line, Norwegian, had ever left from Port of Tampa. Not only that but Tampa is notorious for being an awful port (we learned that later) and the ship we were getting on had had a break out of the Norovirus on the cruise before us so everything had to be deep cleaned. Once on the ship we just explored and Jason taught me to golf swing on the top of the ship. That night I was really seasick. The weather the whole trip was kind of overcast and surprisingly windy and cold. The next day we spent at sea, Jason played roulette in the casino and made $20, we watched the always hilarious newlywed show (there was a couple there that had been married 70 years!) and just laid around and explored. The next day was Honduras. It was beautiful, on our trip to the beach we met another couple named Catalina and Anthony from California. We ended up hanging out with them a lot during the trip. In Honduras we snorkeled all day. The snorkeling was AMAZING, standing calf deep in water I had fish running into my legs. We got lots of video that I posted to my Facebook, one really great shot of me actually swimming in a school of fish. That night we had dinner with that couple and then went to the Majority Rules game show, and won it. Basically we had to answer really random questions but the catch was that our answer had to be what the majority of answers was. We got playing cards as a prize :l The next day we were at sea so we went to a magic show that was ok, what you would expect on a cruise ship. Did some country dancing, I made Jason slow dance with me, then a hypnotist show that Jason was in. Jason, of course, stole the show. The rest of the cruise and even on the plane home we had people stop us to tell him how hilarious he was in the show. He ate up the attention. Then had dinner at the 24/7 restaurant. Next morning we took a tender to Belize and then an hour long ride to the spot where we get our gear to go cave tubing. Btw, not recommended with so many people, with the hour drive there and back and how crowded it was, we were not impressed. After walking through the rain forest to the caves we floated the river with Catalina and Anthony and went down through the caves and saw bats and some really gorgeous rain forest. Unfortunately with the weather etc, it was kind of cold. When we got back on the ship Jason was in a ping pong tournament- I think he took fifth? Then went to the Perfect Couple game show, which was also funny. Ill mention here that our overall experience with the cruise ship and line was pretty awful. Because of the restrictions on the ship the first three days we had really slow service, just so-so food and the activities were not impressive. The DJ in the only club on the ship was outdated and had no idea what I was talking about when I requested a couple of current top 10 songs. After the restrictions were lifted everything was still just so so, a little easier because we could get our own food and drinks but still just, well we won't cruise with Norwegian ever again. Let's see, yes so that night we just did some dancing and met some more people. We engaged a lot on this cruise. The next morning we went snorkeling in Costa Maya for half of the day, it was pretty good but not like Honduras, however I did get a couple of great sea shells. The rest of the day we sat at a little beach hut in their swings at the bar and just hung out. The next day we were at sea again and Jason had to go to medical to get a deep sliver taken out of his hand. We didn't do much that day except eat and hang out, oh and Jason had a very interesting dance with Catalina. The next morning was Cozumel where we went scuba diving! Getting certified was so worth it for that one day of diving. The first dive I sort of freaked out, the dive master had to hold my hand. We did an hour at 80 feet where we saw a turtle chowing down on coral and swam through a cave. Then we took an hour break for lunch at a beach. How do I even explain, this beach had big conch shells just littering the beach, I mean tons and tons of them. I was in heaven of course. We went out for a second dive, again at 80 feet for an hour and on that dive we had a stingray swim up to us, a nurse shark swim right past us, a 6 foot moray eel just sitting on the sand under a rock edge, and I saw a huge lobster. We were part of a group of bikers from Houston haha that dove with us, they were really nice and offered me a lot of tips. After that we did some shopping in Cozumel and got back on the ship. Jason played in another ping pong tournament and that night we went to a specialty restaurant, Teppanyaki. The staff brought out a white anniversary cake and sang a love song to us. It was really sweet. That night was the White Hot themed party where we danced and just relaxed. The next day we were at sea so we played shuffle board with another couple and watched movies then had dinner with two elderly couples. The men were brothers and one of them bought wine for the table, they asked us a lot of questions about Utah. That night was the Elements show, pretty much a dance and lights show all about the elements. The last thing we did since this was the last night was go to the Quest game show. That was an audience scavenger hunt, it had us jumping over tables and all sorts of stuff I really don't want to tell my Mom about haha. And we won it also. The couple we teamed up with were just as crazy and outgoing as Jason and I so it was a pretty easy win. The next morning we flew home (coach) and passed out for two days haha.

All of my pictures and video of the trip are on my Facebook page.

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

My tagline for this blog is soooo appropriate.

*Warning: This entry swears- I just let it roll this time.

SURGERY x2

Surgery dos was a breeze compared to the first one. I was down about a week. they cut along the same scar, I have the plate and screws in a bag, and that's the end of that story...almost. I'm still harassing the insurance company about my settlement but I'm not really worried about it yet. The next two weeks will tell me if I need to hire someone.

FLYING PLANES

So this isn't really an event but just for posterities sake. Along with loving cars, Jason loves planes. But planes are a little big for him to play with right now so he flies RC planes. Christmas of 2009 I got him this super cool, dont know why it's the best but I bought it anyway plane. So during the summer and fall Jason makes me get up Saturday morning to watch him fly the plane at the park. Used to be that when he landed it wasn't really landing it was like a less awful version of crashing, but with his now two years of experience he can land and take off like a champ.

SUNDAY RITUAL

Again, not really an event, just record keeping. Almost every Sunday my Dad, brother and sister come over to our house and do dinner and play the Wii. Well, the kids play the Wii, Dad makes chocolate cake. I don't really know why this has become tradition, we should probably use this day to see the family we don't work right next to- oh well. I like Wii and cake.

DUSTIN

Ew. Ok heads up this paragraph is going to be full of beliefs and 'stuff' and venting. I see it, I don't care.

Originally Jason ran a website called pricematchedparts.com, but after about a year of doing this he had so many requests and saw such potential in working on the cars themselves he went to a shop location at which point we changed the name to PMP Motorsports. At first he had a small 3 car shop and one of his friends Jeff Liddle (who had just finished GL training) quit the job he hated to come be mechanic for Jason. (Jason refused to turn wrench himself, he HATES working on cars that are not his own project.) At the time it seemed like a great idea- who else to work with but the friend who was all fired up from training? Weellll, what we didn't really consider was Jeff didn't have any real previous experience turning wrench. And after about six months (and every car he built coming back in) it was apparent this wasn't going to work. Our reputation in serious jeopardy, Jason decides to team up with another guy named Dustin who had a solid background in mechanic-ing and was known for doing good work. At the time Dustin was working out of his driveway, he had a client base that kept him occupied but he was looking to become a business and get a shop. Jason and Dustin decide to work out a deal. They moved to a larger shop and split the overhead costs. Dustin uses Jasons lift, welder etc etc and in return Jason sends all of his jobs through Dustin and gets a discounted labor rate. In the end it was two businesses out of one office and it started to get messy. Dustin became resentful that he was being called Jasons employee and he felt that he should be charging Jason full price. Jason was frustrated that Dustin wasn't keeping his time commitments on getting his jobs done, leaving Jason to hang as the bad guy to his customers. (If it had been this clean cut it wouldn't have been a big deal- unfortunately Dustin is very dramatic so everything was a fight.)

Ok so Dustin decides to move out to his own shop location. Him and Jason are good with splitting ways. (When they had moved into this bigger shop they had to repair some things and had decided to split the costs, Jason owed Dustin about $300 for the repairs.) Moving day I get a call from Jason telling me that Dustin just told him that if Jason didn't pay Dustin that $300 by the end of the day that Dustin was going to be taking the materials he had paid for with him. Ha. Meaning, if Jason didn't pay Dustin was going to rip the electrical wiring out of the walls and take doorknobs etc. I was shocked. Jason didn't have a problem paying him the $300 but didn't have an extra $300 laying around to give him, especially now that Jason was taking over the full payments of the shop. So I was shocked at such a dick move. I asked if Jason had offered to pay like $100 today and then $200 next week or something and he said yes and that Dustin wouldn't do it. Jason decides to call his Dad and learns that Dustin legally is not allowed to remove anything from the building because it is now the property of the landlord, that reminds Jason that he and Dustin got two months of free rent from the landlord because of the repairs they had done to the shop. Jason calls the landlord to make sure that was actually why they had gotten the two free months and after it's confirmed he let the landlord know that Dustin was moving out.

Alright so Jason gets off the phone and Dustin comes back from dropping off his first load and Jason tells him the bad news of, I'm not paying you and you cannot take any of the things you are threatening. Ha well Dustin becomes so upset that Jason calls the police while Dustin calls the landlord. So both sheriff and landlord come down to the shop and the landlord says, I own anything that is mounted or bolted, that stuff stays here and the sheriff backs him up. Well Dustin tried to fight with the sheriff and got no where and as he (and the six friends he had called over) finished packing up his things every time he passed Jason he said, "Fuck you Jason." Haahahaha. I get so upset telling this but I also laugh because if Dustin hadn't pulled such a move and just let Jason pay him the next week, he would have made money and gotten to take any of the things he wanted that were bolted. Karma.

Now I have to put this or Jason will get on my case. Jason doesn't hate Dustin, and actually has attempted several apologies about the way things went down. Dustin though is not over it, and still bad mouths Jason and PMP on Facebook. (Though not blatantly enough for me to slap him with a slander suit.) Maybe someday I will be as big a person as Jason is....maybe.

SAN DIEGO RSA/ QUITTING ZRII

On to better topics. I did my last event with Zrii, yes I said last. I also gave my 3 week notice to Zrii before the event. I was sad to leave. And not. There was too much baggage with that place. Just read Ambers blog- you will know what I'm talking about. Honestly I had the BEST co-workers there. I loved 95% percent of them and sometimes I still miss them when I have crazy stories to tell. I need to go visit....

Anyway RSA was pretty much like all the other RSA's though I was on stage a lot this time because it was my first event as Recognition Coordinator. Also, I have to say this, I did a fucking awesome job pulling the recognition together for that event. Like really, I rocked it. So well in fact I went out that last night and drank with the events team, breaking one of my rules. (NEVER drink around coworkers.)

I work at the shop with Jason now. That was really my main purpose in leaving was to come run PMP with Jason. It was the right choice, I am where I want to be right now.

HALLOWEEN/JASON IN VEGAS

There is this auto show every year in Vegas called SEMA. It's the largest auto expo in the world and the largest event in Vegas. To go you have to be an industry professional so it's not open to the public. Jason decided to go this year and took his best friend Bryan. This was my first time meeting Bryan, I was a little nervous. It went well though. He flew in on Halloween and we had a crazy party at our house that night and then he was at the shop with Jason on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday they drove to Vegas did the meet, had some very 'The Hangover' moments, and then came home in one piece. Friends were shocked that I was so ok with Jason going to Vegas for a week with his friend from out of town, I am very fortunate that in my marriage Jason and I do not have doubts about each other like that.

THANKSGIVING

A new favorite perk of working with Jason is that we can go on vacation whenever we feel like it. Well sort of. For Thanksgiving we went to my Dads sisters house in Washington, we call it The Smith House. My first time in Washington. There was so much effing snow. The drive there was 5 hours longer then normal and the drive back was 6 hours longer then normal. It was soo nice though to get to hang out with family that was ok with just doing nothing. We ate, played on our electronics and played with the dogs (and cats). Oh and ate.

DOGNAPPED

If I get a free shot at anyone in the afterlife I think I will go find this guy. Friday afternoon we let Nina out to play on the lot where our shop and Dads shop sits. No big deal, she always runs around chasing Turbo in our parking lot. But this Friday we noticed her missing after about an hour of her being outside. We searched Friday night and Saturday morning, called the local pounds, placed a missing ad etc. I was a mess, Jason actually took me shopping to get me to stop crying. Saturday night Dad gets a voicemail from a guy who says he found Nina and is wondering if there is a reward for her. I called him back to get details and the guy tells me he found her eating out of a dumpster and says he thought she might be lost so he took her to his house and called us. (She is tagged.) He asks if there is a reward, I said no there wasn't but how about $20 for finding her. He says he was thinking more like $50- whatever I said ok whats your address? Yeah he is in Springville. 20 MINUTES AWAY! I get off the phone sort of confused and tell Jason about it, Jason gets upset and tells me about people that steal dogs and then return them for the reward money. Luckily we are with a group of guys so we all head down to Springville and call the cops on the way there. Jason gives them the address but doesn't wait for the cops to show up to go in and get Nina.

Jason and Jesse (our best friend) go into this guys trailer, yes trailer in an RV park and the trailer was one of those aluminum twinkie looking ones. The guys says he collects and sells scrap metal and while he was searching for metal he found Nina here, (and pulled out a map he had drawn up before we got there to show Jason where he found Nina.) Yeah he took her from OUR PARKING LOT. Jason says ok thanks for finding her and starts to walk out the door with her. The guy said to Jason, "What no reward?" and Jason responded, "No. You fucking stole my dog." This guy started to sort of defend himself by telling Jason what a bad owner he is and stuff but Jason walked out. As he was handing me Nina and I was getting in Jesses truck with her the guy came out I think to follow Jason and Jesse but then he saw there were several of us, so he said stopped and said, "So you think I stole your dog huh?" and Jason said, "Yep." He went back inside. The cop showed up after that and Jason told him what happened and said I don't care about pressing charges about my dog but he has other dogs in there that I don't think are his. The cop told us to leave and he went in to the trailer. We don't know what happened to the guy but we haven't seen him back around the shop. I hope he rots.

CHRISTMAS

What a weird Christmas we had this year. I now have five separate sets of parents. My mom, my Dad, Susan, Brett and Cat. Dad isn't ok with being in the same room as Mom yet. This year it went like this: Christmas Eve with Mom at our house, Christmas morning with Dad at our house, Christmas afternoon at Susans house, the day after Christmas we left to Jackson. I will never do it like that again. It was fun but stressful and busier then it needed to be. Here is your heads up family, next year we will be at our house. We would love you to come see us on Christmas. I got an iHome and Jason got me a board/boots/bindings that I love, Rachel got a red Wii, I got Mom tickets to the Judds, Jesse got us Linkin Park tickets...uhh I don't remember it all but it was all good. I love Christmas.

NEW YEARS

I'm putting the post about the Jackson trip with this one. This year Brett got all us kids Grand Passes to the resort in Jackson. So every day between Christmas and New Years Jason and Brett hit the mountain. I only made it like 3 of 5 or something haha. Anyway it was awesome, we will for sure be getting snowboarding passes down here next year. There were some AMAZING spots up on the mountain and I watched Jason do the half pipe (so attractive, my husband is hot). At the Casper Lodge there was this actor but for the life of me I cannot place him, he was in a chick flick thats all I remember. That week we went to The Bird, a sports bar and then on New Years we went out with Brett and Cat to a martini lounge called Ignight. That was probably the best New Years party I have ever been to- and I didn't really even know anyone haha. Maybe that is why it was better.

NATE QUITTING

Ah so we are 0 for 3 in the mechanic department. After Dustin left Jason hired a guy named Nate that he knew from working at the Mitsubishi Dealership. Nate knew his stuff and for the first couple of months was awesome....and then shit hit the fan. We've learned it's our pattern with mechanics. Nate just quit coming to work. He disappeared for a week and more then disappeared- he would hang up on Jason when Jason would call, and Jason even called his wifes number (who is crazy- that is a WHOLE 'nother story), but she would pretend she couldn't find Nate. So finally after about a week of nothing from Nate he texted Jason and said that he couldn't keep working for Jason because the shop wasn't busy enough but that he would be willing to do 1 to 2 days a week. What? There was always work for Nate to do- it just wasn't jobs he liked doing. Jason's response was, "No thanks I was only getting about 1 to 2 days a week from you before anyway". So strange. That was a month ago and Nate still has not come to get his tools etc from the shop. Though Nates wife has texted Jason a ton to find out where his last check was and where his w2 was... Jason has quit responding to her- how do you deal with crazy? The plan now is Jason is flipping cars and we are only taking jobs Jason wants to do and then continuing to sell parts. Thank heavens, it took me telling Jason that I don't think having an employee is in alignment with what he actually wants since the result is we can't seem to keep them around for him to realize it. I'm glad, being a manager is not really Jason's thing and we are having way more fun at work now.

SICK SICK SICK

I despise being sick. As I am writing this I am fighting the worst sore throat I have had since high school. Hence my sentences and spelling being all mucked up. Jason started it, well actually he caught it first up at the Gwilliam house and then gave it to me. Flu and cold and strep all rolled together.

JESSE

We have this really good friend, well he's more of a brother now since we are with him so often, named Jesse. He met Jason through car stuff and in the last year just showed up a lot. Last month he went through Part 1 and 2 though he stopped before 3. I am actually coaching what would have been his Part 3 group. It's hard wanting to go deep with him, especially with Great Life stuff since that is such a huge part of our lives, and not really being able to because he hasn't finished. Hmmmm.....

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=615854495

CHERRY

Cherry is the name for my new car. She is a beautiful red 1991 3000gt that is in 'cherry' condition lol. Also she has this sticker on her bumper that has been nicknamed the tramp stamp. I am excited to finally have my own 3K.

Photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=579155214&aid=622498

COACHING/STAFFING/CAPTAINING

Well when I first started this post I hadn't started coaching yet. But now that I am in the middle of it I realize it deserves its own post- I have learned that much. I am coaching group 274, Jason staffed Part 1 for 275 and is captaining Part 1 for 276. I'm thinking by March we will be pretty Great Life'd out haha.

Surgery.
Surgery went as well as surgery goes I guess. I hated coming out of the anesthesia it's a horrible wake up. I ended up spending the next two weeks on the couch on some serious pain meds, working from home and then going into work still all doped up. I’m told I was very entertaining- I don’t remember.
I have a really unawesome scar from the incision, but I have full function of my shoulder so that's good and I go back in on September 8th to get the plate and screws taken out. Luckily I had full coverage on the Jetta so they paid off my car and then covered Jason and Rachel’s health expenses. Mine they covered $3,000 of and then after this second surgery I send them all of my costs and bills and they are going to give me a settlement. I’m a little nervous about that part because I’ve been switched case workers and the second one sort of blew me off when I brought up the settlement but luckily I have an email from the first girl confirming I was getting a settlement. We’ll see.

Brett’s wedding.
Jason’s Dad Brett got married again. I’m not sure how to explain this one- it was fast for us. It sort of went:
“My Dads engaged.”
“Oh? I didn’t know he had a serious girlfriend?”
“Yeah, the wedding is next month.”
“Serious?.... you are serious. Oh…..Well did you meet her?”
“Yeah, she’s cool I guess. I wasn’t with her a lot. She has seven kids.”
“Ha! So we are Yours, Mine and Ours now?”
“What is that?”
“Never mind. Are any of them your age? Boys? Girls?”
“All girls.”
“Wow…. so are we supposed to be at the wedding?”
“Yeah I think so.”

Her name is Catherine Gwilliam and she lives in Jackson Hole, Brett is living part time up at their house in Jackson and part time down here in SLC. On our way up to the wedding, which was in Jackson, we were anxious. It felt very fast and unplanned. Also, I was nervous about a house full of girls. In my previous experience anything more than three girls in a house was nightmare. Anyway, we get up to Jackson and stay in the guest house with Chan, Kelci, Amber and Ambers boy at the time, Nick. We met a ton of people and the wedding was the next day. It was cute at a lodge and all of the kids walked down the aisle in front of Cat, which was kind of a riot to watch. We didn’t get to play with the kids a lot there was so much going on but it ended up being fun. And then we left the next day. I walked away going ok, that wasn’t so bad. I wasn’t totally on board yet but at least the kids were cool.

Ok so since the wedding though we have hung out with the Gwilliam girls quite a bit and really love them. If you are part of our Facebook circle you will see that most of the comments become like a full conversation- hilarious because everyone in our family comments once and it’s already a really long thread ha. And just recently we did a Haward/Gwilliam family part one staff and last weekend Jason, Amber and I went up to Jackson and everyone went camping. The best part of all of it though is the way Brett is showing up for Jason. Somehow I think Catherine is changing Brett and he is stepping into the father role that Jason has always wanted. Yeah, in my experience so far, Brett is someone I want to be around now because of the change in him since marrying Cat.

My family rocks. Moving on.

RSA.
At Zrii I have several roles, I am the Recognition Coordinator, meaning I give recognition when our distributors hit certain sales levels. I also am an unofficial assistant to the Events Manager so every time an event such as RSA (Rising Star Academy) rolls around I am pulled onto the ‘events team’ and as of the moment that I am writing this post I am also the unofficial receptionist. My work likes to hire and pay someone for one job but then give them several other jobs too- according to my bosses this is because of the economy?

I digress, so every year we have a miniature convention called RSA which I have written about before. This year it was in Las Vegas at the Venetian. I won’t go into all the details because unless you have put on an event for an MLM it won’t make sense, but it was four days of no sleep, no eating and most of the time I was in three places at once. Didn’t know that was possible did you? It was awesome. I love doing events. And I hate doing events. It’s an events thing. I met Ali Larter and Hayes MacArthur- that was cool but I couldn’t get a picture with her- the CEO would have killed me. My favorite was being on headset with the A/V team, next time you are at a show or some event watch the people on headset, they are connected to a totally different reality even though you are in the same room.


Truck build.
One of the reasons I married Jason is because he is a dreamer, he likes to do stuff that has never been done before. Sometimes though, I don’t think I thought that through very well. Jason decided to take two different motors from two cars and merge them together to make a really powerful motor and put it in the Dodge D50- because no one has ever made a hybrid of those motors before. Brilliant and stupid of both of us. Long, long story short. We lived at the shop for two straight weeks to build this truck and though it’s cool. It wasn’t worth the time and money we lost doing it, not yet anyway.

Wyoming for the fourth.
We went to Wyoming again for the fourth of July, we being Dad, J, C, R and the Smiths. It was a lot of fun. I like escaping to Cody where I have no cell phone or internet. Playing with the Smith kids of course was fun as it always is. You know it doesn’t matter which of the kids we are with, it always ends up being the best time. Brendan’s one liners though make my life. I think he is the only family member I have that I quote on a regular basis. We did fireworks of course, went to the parade and went to the Stampede Rodeo. Hm, I think when I’m rich I’m going to buy the Dobson Cody house from my Dad and sibs and just keep it as a vacation home.

Moving.
When Mom and Dad divorced Mom also filed bankruptcy and surrendered the house. She had warned me that we would be moving out of the house in the next 6 months but I was not a happy camper about losing my childhood home that I had helped Dad build. It was awful having to pick through my treasure boxes and throw some of it away. It was coming with me to an apartment and I didn’t have room for all of it. It was also awful watching my little sister cry as she packed up her room. I think that was worse than my own stuff because she isn’t quite old enough to get why Mom getting out from under this house was a good thing. I’m proud of Mom though, making a clean break and loving herself enough to let go of the material things that were keeping her stuck. Dad unfortunately is still not over why Mom had to surrender the house.
The new place Jason and I moved to is perfect! It’s on 800 N not too far from the shop and it’s a cute two bed, two bath on the bottom floor. And the pool here is freaking awesome. It seems like since we moved there we have someone over every night, and sometimes they stay and use the extra room for a couple of days. I’ve learned recently that the thing I want most in life is connection, (Though frankly I am still judgmental about who I should and shouldn’t connect with. I’m working on it.) So having lots of people over all the time is awesome.




Staffing part 1.
My family on both sides is very involved in a life training center called The Great Life Foundation. Jason’s dad is a trainer there and my dad has enrolled and coached a lot of people. This place quite literally saved my life- but that’s a whole nother story. In it there are three main classes and these classes sometime require people to handle the logistics of the room, chair setup etc. For which graduates that have been through like to go back and help and also get to sit through the class again for free. Ok so at this point all of my family has been through and we get a kick out of going back together and staffing. It’s our version of a family reunion ha. This last time in August it started with Brett training, Catherine captaining, Jason co captaining and then it was me, Chandler, Kelci and Mary G. Other unofficial extensions of our family included Apollo Leonidas, formally known as Ryan Rieger.
I was a small group leader this time so I have seven people who are going through the training that I coached. Boy was that eye opening. I learned a lot about myself as a friend and leader. It’s interesting how some of the people in my group I really connected with and others I didn’t. I’m proud to say that I still talk to several of them even though I’m not their coach anymore, and writing this reminds me of the ones I want to call. Taking time out of my life to connect to someone else’s is very hard for me, I’m a to do list girl and if what I’m doing isn’t crossing off the things on my checklist then I get frustrated. Like I said, I’m working on it. Favorite part though? Loving another person I don’t know much about so completely that when I would tell any of them I love them I was almost crying.

Jackson trip for anniversary.
We went to Jackson for our anniversary and hung out with the G Wills. It was pretty neat, Jason and I pontooned down the Snake River with Brett- I got hella sunburned, and then everyone went camping. I hadn’t been camping in forever, and I sort of remembered why ha. The girls were so sweet, they decorated Mary’s room where we were sleeping for the first night, with flowers and happy anniversary cards.

So I think that catches me up. Sort of.

The Great Car Wreck

I had listed my Jetta for sale the Monday before we headed to Wyoming for my grandpa's funeral and had 3 people that were going to come look at it the Monday we got back. I coulda saved my energy.

Jason was driving, I was passenger in the front and Rachel was passenger in the back behind the drivers seat. We were on highway 120 30 minutes from Thermopolis and 30 minutes from Meeteetse when a deer jumped on the road in front of us. Jason swerved to miss it and we ended up in the ditch (note: when we tell people this story they say oh your supposed to just hit the deer. My response to that is if we had I'd be dead. There is no way my Jetta was going to just take that deer out without it coming through the windshield and hitting me.) A witness says we rolled front end over trunk 2-3 times before stopping upright. I'm not sure if I believe that because looking at the damage to my car, there is no damage to the front or rear bumpers and that would take an enourmous amount of air and speed.

Anyway, when the car stopped Jason was out immediately to Rachel who was ok except that she hit her face on something and it cut above her eye and left her with a black eye. Jason didn't know until he got to the hospital that he also had a black eye and his shins had gone into the dash scraping them up. I however had broken my right collar bone from my seatbelt keeping me from going through the windshield.

Now I agree that you are always supposed to wear your seat belt, and believe me Jason and Rachel caught hell from the cops, the hospital and every other person we ran into for not wearing theirs. But for me, I'm glad this time that they weren't. Both of their wounds have pretty much healed up but I'm going into surgery and I'm positive if Rachel had her seatbelt on too she would have broken bones instead of just a black eye. (This is my little warning to everyone that if you bring up the seat belt thing to either of them you might be the one with the black eye. I'm just saying.)

Anyway because we were in the middle of nowhere both cities we were close to dispatched ambulances to us, we had 5 show up. When they arrived Rachel was sitting in one of the cops cars with the heater on high all wrapped up in a blanket because she had started to go into shock so Jason had carried her over and put her in there. Jason was running around trying to help and I was sititng in my seat still, not moving. I knew my collar bone had broken, I felt it pop but while I sat there waiting my neck had started to cramp up pulling my head down to my shoulder. That was probably the worst part of the pain at the scene. The EMTs put me in a collar, gave me an IV- which really hurt, and strapped me to a board and drove back to Thermopolis. On the way one of the EMT's got a cell phone call. After he said hello he looked at me and said, "Are you related to the Christophersons?" I laughed, only in Wyoming would my relatives be able to find me in the middle of nowhere after a car accident. I said yes and he held the phone up to my ear. I told Myron Christopherson, who was the one that had called, to find Nolan Dobson and tell him I would be at the Thermopolis hospital in 10 minutes. Jason had called Dad at the scene and told him already but just in case I figured I'd spread the word through the extended family too. I didn't know this at the time but Jason and Rachel had also been put in an ambulance and strapped down and were caravanning behind me.

We get to the hospital and one of the nurses asks me what my moms name is and if she can give out information about me. I said yes, I guess Mom had been calling for 45 minutes and knew more then the nurse did anyway. So I get my xrays and my blood work done and I hear Jason and Rachel come in but I can't see them because I'm still strapped to the board. I hear my Dad's voice, and then see him walk up next to my bed his eyes all red and I said in my mom voice, "Have you been crying?" He shrugged and said, "You know me, I'm a softy." Then my Aunt Louann and Uncle Larry walked up and filled me in on Jason and Rachel.

I am glad Louann and Larry were there, Larry is an OBGYN so they were watching the doctor and nurses making sure they did their job right. The board they had me strapped to started to really hurt because it was causing me to lose circulation to parts of my body but the hospital couldn't take me off it until the radiologist cleared that my neck had no injury to it. I ended up moving my body around underneath the straps anyway to get blood flowing to the parts that hurt.

Anyway, so much happened during all of this I could go into tons of detail.

Ok so they release all three of us and give us all painkillers, which save my life because I can't hardly move my body before I take one it hurts too much even today. But there was one big problem for me, they didn't have a figure 8 brace to hold my shoulders back to keep my collarbone aligned. They did give me a sling though. (According to the orthopedic surgeon there is no literature out there that says a brace is better then a sling which is why it wasn't a big deal to the hospital that I didn't have a brace.)

The next morning we were troopers and showed up for Grandpas funeral service but had to leave early as Jason, Rach and I were hurting and really needed more sleep. After everyone else got home from the services I called the Cody Hosptial Emergency Room, because we were staying in Cody not Thermopolis, and asked if they had a brace. They did and we went in and got it. However, the girl that put the brace on me I think wasn't really a nurse because she didn't pull my shoulders back or anything so I ended up wearing the brace kind of loose and incorrectly the rest of the week. None of us knew any better at the time.

The plan originally was for Rach, Jason and I to come home Sunday night so we didn't miss work or school but because neither Jason or I was in any shape to drive we stayed in Wyoming until Wednesday and then rode home with Dad and Chan.

Thursday morning I go in to my doctor here in Utah for a follow up and I tell him I'm a little concerned about the medical treatment I got in Wyoming because, bless their hearts they were really nice, but something about my body just didn't feel right. My shoulder had like a sunken in feeling to it. He had my shoulder xrayed and guess what. The bone pieces are seperated by like and inch and hadn't been doing any healing while I was in Wyoming.

My doctor sent me to an orthopedic surgeon who said yep you need surgery or that will never heal. So I go in for surgery next Wednesday to get my shoulder cut open so they can put a metal plate and screws in to hold my bones together and then in four months I get to go back and have the plate and screws removed.

That is it so far. It's such a big event that this is only really a summary of everything that went on which is why it's kind of impersonal.

I'm grateful for the way the whole situation played out, being in Wyoming where I'm related to everyone, having my doctor uncle with me, only being an hour from Cody, not rolling on the sides of the car, having full coverage on the car and good health insurance.

Birthdays and funerals

This is my first weekend in 6 weeks I get to be at home with nothing happening. Can I get a hallelujah?

It started with Valentines, Jason and I went to the Melting Pot for dinner. It gets a thumbs down from us, the quality of food was not worth the money we spent. We actually were really dissapointed. But then we went to the Hampton in downtown and stayed the night. That was fun.

The next weekend I had to go to Vegas for work. One of our big leaders in the MLM I work for had a meeting so we went to take photo and video of the event. That was kind of cool getting to hang out with my supervisor Melanee, we talked a ton on the way down there and found out we are really similar.

Me with Melanee my supervisor at the hotel in Vegas.

The next weekend was Jasons birthday. We went up to speed street go cart racing with some of his friends and raced around on the track and the two of us went to Red Robin, his favorite restaurant and also Clark Plantearium and watched the laser light show.

PHOTO -I can't find it right now ha.

The next weekend was my birthday. We went to dinner at PF Changs and then stayed in a really fantastic Hyatt because the next morning we went up to Park City and did outlet shopping all day.

The next weekend we went to Wendover with a bunch of friends. Jason had been practicing his poker for this trip to make some money. I still don't really love Wendover but I was excited for Jason to try his hand at the poker table. He did really well but lost it at the end. He went all in with a pretty much clutch hand but the last card that flipped over gave the win to the other guy. Just the nature of the game, it's called betting for a reason. But now we know he is a really good poker player haha.

I thought that was going to be the last of the trips but then my grandpa, my dad's dad, died on the 14th. He had been sick in the hospital for a long time so this wasnt a huge surprise but later that week I did end up having a good cry in bed with Jason about it. Last weekend we went to his funeral. Well, sort of. I loved seeing my cousins and being in my grandparents house. It was all so comforting and safe. It was a nice safe place to hide away with my family for a little while. I am really going to miss that part of my life- we used to go up to Wyoming and stay at my grandparents house and then drive out to the ranch every day to take care of cows. Especially branding over Memorial weekend.

This whole thing brought up that feeling of enjoy every moment now because who knows how long it, or they, will be there for.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Sheesh time to catch up.


The last 4 months have been a bit of a nightmare, every time I went to post something I sounded so depressed I scrapped the post, but now I've got good news.


I have been on the corporate yoyo about a job promotion from the call center into the marketing department since June 09. I'd get all excited about being moved and then crushed when finance decided it isn't worth the cost or Bill, the owner, didn't see a need for it. I was really pushing hard to get put into marketing as the Event Coordinator. I'd been bugging the marketing VP everyday about it but one day after a meeting with the CEO I realized the marketing VP was not going to be able to help me because he is in hot water himself.
So I went to the sales director and explained how I've been working a job in the call center and a job in marketing for 6 months without a pay raise but for a promise of a promotion that wasn't being fulfilled and that I had started looking for another job because I felt taken advantage of by Zrii and asked if there is anything he could do. He said yes he could but that it might be more of me being moved into the sales department but sitting over in marketing so that I could be a connecting point between the two departments (Sales and Marketing though they have almost the same job responsibilities do not get along and therefore don't communicate). I sort of threw my hands up and said whatever you think is best I'll just follow your lead.
A week later I was promoted into Sales as the Recognition Coordinator! My responsibilites are ensuring that our distributors receive their recognition items such as pins and certificates at certain sales levels, creating a retention program by recognizing field leaders and doing the recognition bit on stage at events. And then as a sub helping with events since I've got experience. I was told to keep my place in Marketing since my job is so entwined between the two departments and act as liasion. My job rocks. I'm very happy with the career part of my life right now.

Next.


Jasons business is now OUR business. I've always felt like it was his thing because I didn't do much with it- until recently when we realized Jason can't run an office. I don't mean can't like isn't smart enough, I mean can't like he sees a pile of paperwork and melts down. It would be like me looking at an engine and being told to take it apart- melt down. So I've taken over. I do the taxes, the bill processing, the budgeting and misc stuff like filing a lien against cars we never receive payment on. And I'm damn good at it if I say so myself.
Me taking on this part of the business seems to have had a ripple effect, Jasons sales are going through the roof. ( Ok ok, maybe I'm giving myself too much credit, I don't control the spending habits of others.) But really the debt hole in the business is getting smaller and even our personal finances are improving, it's looking like I will be able to pay off all my debt except my car loan when I get my tax return. We are being very careful right now though because this is about the part we usually crash and burn because we start spending. :S


Next.


The parents are getting the divorce again. Wait, before you start feeling sorry for me let me tell you something. It bugs me to no end when I say yeah my parents are getting divorced and the response I get is, 'Oh I'm so sorry.' You shouldn't be. I'm not.* I have great parents but when they were together it caused this dark energy in the house because they want different things. Dad moved out to his own cute apartment about 1 minute drive from home and Mom is giving up the house- which made Rachel sad but I agree with because this house is much too big for just Mom and Rachel.


*For my family that reads my blog I want you to be assured that Chan, Rach and I are ok. We aren't much for talking about all of it to anyone, though we appreciate the reaching out you have done.



Next.

Have I told you about Nina the worlds cutest dog? Jason and I bought her (against Moms wishes ;) on Dads birthday for Dad. She is a teacup chihuaha mixed with something. I'm glad we got her though, she hangs out with Dad and Jason at work and keeps Dad company at night. Here is a picture of her.






















Next.

Holiday update. For Thanksgiving Jason and I drove down to Phoenix with the Harward girls and played with his family. It was a lot of fun, we did our first black friday shopping ever and got tons of stuff and I bought Jason an RC plane called a Trojan P 21 or D 21? I can't remember. I don't know if I've mentioned yet Jasons new obsession with RC planes. He flies almost every day at lunch.
For Christmas we stayed in Utah. We went opened presents in the morning with my family and then went to Susans where we met Brett and the boys and did breakfast and presents and then came back to my parents to play and have dinner. Jason, being the sneaky bugger he is, bought me all of the accessories imaginable for the Nintendo Wii and a ton of games and wrapped them individually so it took me like 15 minutes to open everything that morning at my parents but then he told me he didn't get the actual Wii console because he spent so much money on the accessories but when we went to Susans the Wii console was there. I really believed he had bought everything for the Wii but not the console. The rest of our Christmas break we were glued to the TV playing Wii sports and MarioKart.

.....Ok I think thats everything for now.

My career choice

I have found what I want to do with my life. I want to be an Event Planner. Or rather a CSEP. Certified Special Events Planner. In June I helped at work with our yearly convention, I ran the registration desk, worked on the sales floor. Played bouncer for the VIP events. It was all chaos and noise and long hours. I loved it. Three months ago I got to help again with one of our regional coventions in Anaheim. It was smaller but I'd say way more fun then the big event and I realized on the flight home that I could that over and over. There is something supremely satisfying in watching an event go from ideas on paper to an experience for other people. Since then I have been harassing the Marketing department to let me on as an assistant to the Events Team and finally this week I really got somewhere. My involuntary mentor Carly pulled some strings and did a little political maneuvering and got me part time in the department training for an actual promotion that is meant to happen after 30 days of training. Ironically the event we are working on right now is in a month. That will be kind of like a job interview I imagine. To even start to get certified I need to have been in the industry for at least 3 years so the sooner I can get an events title the better.

Jason let his mechanic at the shop go and started focusing again on his sales and then taking smaller jobs in the shop and has been turning quite a profit thankfully. There is a light at the end of the tunnel for the business debt.
I might as well mention this here. Last weekend we took a trip to Idaho and picked up a Dodge Stealth Jason bought online that he is going to part out and use to get his car running. He is really excited to turn the $500 he spent in getting the car into the projected $3100 he should get for parts. My lesson learned in that weekend excursion was that we need a truck before we do anymore trailer towing. Time to get rid of the Jetta and get me 4 wheel drive I think.















August Anaheim Convention
Amber, Christian, Mickey, (world of warcraft character), Carly, Me, Chase

*While we were at the Anaheim Convention Center there was another Convention for the makers of World of Warcraft. We snuck in and ran around taking pictures with people in costumes and going to the Ozzy concert.

A wedding and funeral

3 weeks ago my aunt shot and killed her two sons and herself in a murder suicide.
The shock you are feeling after reading that sentence is a small portion of the shock I felt when my parents sat us siblings down and told us. Surreal is the best word to describe it. We found out Sunday, and by Wednesday everyone including Jason was loaded into the minivan headed to Phoenix. There was a memorial at the boys junior highschool that night. It was weird sitting in the auditorium listening to these little people talk about the grief they are feeling and how much they loved my 2 cousins. It made me realize how little I actually knew them. The grief and regret I felt in that hour was pretty horrendous. Unbearable actually, as I was in denial until..actually I might still be in denial.
That Friday morning September 25th was the funeral at 11 am. At home my best friend Brittany got married in the temple at 11 am Utah time. I was supposed to be there celebrating with friends and family on the temple grounds getting my picture taken in my bridesmaid dress, not staring at caskets. Life felt really unfair. Sometimes I get angry that my aunt took my cousins but I know that she loved those boys more then anything so I think in her temporary insanity she must have thought she was doing the right thing. Protecting them maybe. She had found out the night before my uncle wanted a divorce, the sheer mental pressure of that and other life challenges must have made her snap. I think everyone has hit that point at some time where they would rather sleep forever then face another day.
Jason and I went to the funeral service at the mortuary and then Dad hustled us over to the airport to catch a plane so I could go to Brittany's reception that night. A funeral and a wedding in one day. It was sort of an ultimate low for me.
Brittanys reception was awesome. Wadley Farms is a cute outside reception center with a garden and gazebo right by my parents home. Brittany did lollipop center pieces with pictures of her and Jeremy glued to them and a candy table, cotton candy and ice cream center. Sugar Sugar. She had a cupcake cake. I had to stand guard to make sure no one took any of the gourmet cupcakes from the wedding cake stand. When they cut the cake they chased each other around the garden trying to smear each other with a cupcake. It was cute. A happy ending to a hard week. She went to New York the next day for the honeymoon. :)

The Wyoming... adventure -Pictures

Here are the pictures in follow up to my last post. Enjoy.

The Wyoming...adventure

Last weekend we went to Cody, Wyoming for vacation and to see family. My Dads side is from Wyoming and so it is kind of my childhood playground. However, the trip turned into....an adventure.
We were meeting with my cousins the Smiths in Idaho because they were coming from Washington but they only had one driver and their trip is about 13 hours, ours is only 8. We decided to meet in Pocatello and have one of our 4 drivers (our car held me, Jason, Chandler, Rachel and my Dad) hop in their car to give my aunt a break. Unfortunately our journey didn't start til about 8:30 that night so when we met it was like 1 am. Everyone except Chan and Jason were really tired by the time we got to Rexburg. My Dad and Aunt decided they wanted to look for a hotel room for the night so that we didn't show up in Cody wiped out. But fate had other plans.
All the hotel rooms in Rexburg were full because it was graduation weekend. So we decide to carry on and have Chan and Jason drive the next 6 hours there.
Now if you know the area you know that to get to Cody from Idaho the shortest trip is through Yellowstone Park (I think I've been to Yellowstone at least 50 times, honestly.) A couple of miles outside West Yellowstone (that is a city and the gate entrance to the park) Dads van bent a rod. Something about it being on cruise control hitting a steep hill trying to accelerate too much or something. Dad decides to drive into the city and see if we can get a hotel room for the night and figure out what to do with the car in the morning as it is about 4 am now. No luck again, every hotel, and note there are 75 in the city, is full. My poor aunt went everywhere looking while Dad called triple A to see about getting a tow.
Triple A tells us that our towing range is 100 miles and we were at 120 miles from Cody so we would need to get closer or pay the extra fees for the tow. We decide to sleep on it. So from about 5 am to 8 am everyone (so thats 5 in our car and 5 in my Aunts car) sleeps in their seats. No fun. At 8 am my Aunt wakes up our car, she couldn't sleep) and we drive into Yellowstone praying the car will make it at least 20 miles. It makes it about 50 and then the engine quits. So Dad waited for a tow truck and the rest of us pile in my Aunts car and go to Cody.
While we are there we go to a canal that is at the ranch with some of my cousins that live on the ranch in Cody. This canal is a fun place because it has what is called a weir. That is where the water goes under a bridge over a cement bottom and then drops like a water slide. Jason has never done this before and I forget to give him the run down on how he is supposed to go down. I'm out of the water on the side taking pictures. He decides to go down this little water slide standing up! Any sane person in my opinion would have sat down to go through. As Jason hits the bottom of the slide he hits a part of the cement that has been beaten away by the water and is now rough and broken. He completely eats it tumbling through the rest of the 'ride'. Poor kid when he gets out he has gashed his hand and seriously scraped his knee, down to bone. Good thing he was last to go, my little cousins have never heard the words that came out of his mouth.
Now the trip is over it's time to leave and we have to figure out how to get the van home. Let me explain the van. It is an Astro which is a equipped with a V8 and truck frame. It's a truck with a van body really. Dad calls up Uhual to rent a truck and a flatbed to take the van home. But it's Wyoming and the only truck large enough to move the flatbed in 100 miles is a moving van. Which only has 3 seats in the cab. Instead of renting another car Jason and I just sit in the back of the van, up on the flatbed, with the windows open because we can't get A/C in a broken car, for 8 hours. Not so bad except when we went through construction, which blew dust and gravel into the car and in the rain. That felt good at first but then combined with the construction dust and no real ventilation it became miserable. By then end of the 8 hours I felt like I had been in a box hauled around by UPS.
I'll post pictures up later.

Jasons hospital scare

The last couple of months have been hard. I have a hard time writing when I don't think I have anything fun to post.

The business is wobbly right now, we had a couple of fraud charges come in over the internet that, coupled with some big equipment purchases we had to make, has created a ripple of being behind on money. What a pain in the A that is-many hard lessons from that. Things are slowly turning around but it amazes me how easy it is to get into a hole and how long it takes to get out of it.
You may have seen my facebook status about Jason being in the hospital over the fourth. That was a crappy weekend, Jason was having stomach pain on Monday and by Wednesday it had progressed so much that he was doubled over in pain. By 4 am that morning he woke me up and said he needed to go to the hospital. Well we get him in there and the doctor gives him morphine, does an xray and tell us he thinks he sees intestinal blockage. They give him an enema and it helps but it doesnt fix it he is still in pain. So then they do a cat scan worried its something serious but that comes back clean so they do bloodwork and that doesnt pull anything up either. 7 hours into all this they tell us they dont know what it is and to take percocet and come back if it doesnt go away in a couple of days.
Thankfully it went away about 2 days later but we still don't know what it was. It was terrifying sitting there watching my husband writhe in pain and not be able to help him or help the pain. Go prescription pain killers.

Jason, in a gown, with morphine.

My new goal

Blogging via phone is my new best friend. I'll be on here much more now.
So Jason and I are all moved into my parents basement (huge thanks to my family for their help with this task.) and the move went surprisingly smooth with a few fights of me trying to get Jason to do manual labor :P. For those of you who haven’t heard yet my parents are getting divorced and Jason and I decided to move into the basement so as to help financially with the split and so i can be with my youngest sister. It’s been nice so far being at home. Also, Jason’s shop is going really well, he is picking up a hoist this weekend so no more jack stands. We have enough referrals now that people are stopping by because they heard someone talking about us. J gets a real kick out of that, our conversations after work usually start with, "So I had 2 guys stop in the shop today..." I nod and smile and am excited for him.
I have been learning some hard things about marriage the last couple of months. A couple of nights ago I had a meltdown- I have really been struggling with the transition to wife. I didn’t think much would change since Jason and I lived together before the wedding but wow. I’ve got a lot more respect for ‘wife’. I didn’t naively think that getting married would be a fairy tale and I felt prepared walking down that aisle but man. Anyway during my crying I kept wondering why I was so sad and I realized I was having a hard time loving myself. I felt down on myself because I am not working toward anything and do not have a clue what I want to do with my life. I work and go home and do it over again. Luckily I have Founders training in 2 weeks, I’m hoping that will light some type of fire but I have also set the goal not to be so hard on myself. Does anyone else have this goal?

My 21st and moving

Quick run down on my birthday. It was the big 21 on the 5th.
I ran errands with Jason in the morning and hung out at the shop for awhile. Then that afternoon I went to Platos Closet and my best friend Brittany foot the bill for my shopping spree (she is store manager there so it worked out nicely for both of us.) And Jason gave me a $150 gift card to Forever 21, that I haven't used yet. That night Jason and I went out to dinner with Brittany and her boyfriend Jeremy at Chilis and then played arcade games for a while at Miracle Bowl while we waited for a lane to be open. It was a pretty fun day. Also, Susan paid for me to get a hair cut at her salon which I used the next day,my new hair is so cute. It's not shorter but it has layers and long sideswept bangs now. And then that Sunday we went to my parents house where my family sang me happy birthday and my Dad made my birthday cake. (Mom gave me another gift card to Forever 21, score, and Dad gave me money.) So I guess it was more like a birthday weekend.

Other then that things have been fairly quiet, we are settling in to the new shop and getting ready to move out of the apartment. Right now as I write this Jason is at a car meet for all of the Mazda enthusiasts in Utah.

I'm human ok?

Sometimes I write a post and then forget to post it because I will write it and then feel 'wow this is really lame I'll just save it as a draft and edit it later and post it.' Well thats what I did with that last post so I am doing a more updated one right now, this is why I am posting twice in one day.

So yes last week as most of you know by now was Jasons 23rd birthday. I can't believe we met when he was 19..... Anyway, I threw him a surprise party which had to be one of the scariest things to do ever because I knew it would mean a lot to him but I was so worried that people wouldn't show up and instead of feeling how loved he is he would feel bad that a lot of people hadn't shown up. Thankfully of the 25 people I invited, 30 people showed up! My parents kitchen was super packed. Here is a picture of his cake, it's kind of dark:

I am giving myself a pat on the back with this cake because I designed the picture that is printed on there and it was such a hit, a lot of our friends were shocked that I had designed that. I feel pretty good about myself looking back at that picture lol. My parents got video of the party so when I get that from them I will post it too.

I was really pleased the night was such a success, Jason kept saying I can't believe everyone was there, I can't believe how many people were there, I can't believe that all my friends showed up- after a while I was like ok ok I get it. I did an amazing job haha.

Also, this last weekend Jason moved into his first shop!! I am so so so so soososososo thankful he has this place now because the car parts in our dining area were really starting to cause problems with my feelings towards him.
On a more relevant note, it is starting to bring in a lot of business. Jason said the other night that he didn't realize before how much more credibility a shop would give him. Before we started moving stuff in we had to seal the floor using that garage floor paint and omg I am so sick of painting. If I have to edge a floor ever again I think I'll die. I'll post pictures of the shop later because there isn't much to it right now.

PS My birthday is this Thursday so feel free to leave me a note about turning the big 21! ;)

And life speeds up

Let me tell you about our month. Two Tuesdays ago I came home from work not feeling so well, not really sick but more like achy, like I had had a long day (which we always do at Zrii eh Amber?) Anyway, I get home about 7 and at about 830 I got really tired, couldn't keep my eyes open, I thought 'Ill lay here for a bit and unwind'. Well I woke up the next day at 2 pm! Somehow that morning I had managed to call into work to let them know I wasn't coming in but I don't really remember what I said. And man did my body hurt. It was an achy and a sniffly and a foggy feeling. From Wednesday to Friday I stayed home and over the three days I'd say I slept about 40 to 45 hours. I could not stay awake! Until Friday afternoon, what I think was my fever, broke and just like that I was up. I took a shower and was good to go. It was the strangest illness I have ever had. And even today when I was running errands I could tell my reasoning skills aren't all the way back yet, I kept forgetting to shift or I would stop on green lights.



Jason on the other hand has gotten very little sleep this week. He has some big events coming up with PriceMatchedParts (that I am not allowed to post about until after they happen) that has him swamped. We have had customers and business associates over every single day this week, sometimes 6 or more stacked into our little apartment. He had his biggest day last week doing over $6,000 in sales!! It was so cute when he added it up that night because he procceded to call everyone in his phonebook and tell them how much he had done, including my parents lol. I am so proud of him.