i love that feeling

I love that feeling of finishing a book
When you first pick it up you aren't really sure what to expect
As you read most likely there are parts you predicted
And parts you never could have imagined
Sometimes you laugh out loud, cry, get angry, or chills of happiness
Those last 50 pages you can't seem to get through fast enough
I love that feeling of finishing a book.
I just finished one today and can't wait to start another...

What are you reading?

Thanksgiving celebrations

I am so grateful to be surrounded by so much family, especially during the holidays. I know that down the road there's a good chance we won't be so lucky, I am really trying to take advantage of all the opportunities to be at family events and really enjoy all the time there

(sometimes it can be overwhelming).

This Thanksgiving season I have so much to be thankful for... so many of my blessings come from the wonderful family that I have. Both the Richards and Peterson's bless our lives so much. We love each of you and are so grateful for the countless blessing you are in our life.

We were fortunate enough to have 4 turkey dinners.

Our first feast was with our Young Men/Women. Our ward has the tradition of the youth making dinner and delivering it for the elderly in the ward. We all gathered together a week before Thanksgiving to make and package dinner and then delivered them. I wish I could have been there, unfortunately I got the sickness of the season and couldn't help, but it was a huge success as we blessed the lives of those around us. I love being in the Young Women's because of all the opportunities I have to serve those around me. As I serve those around me happiness fills my life. It's a kind of happiness that can't be purchased only experienced.

Sunday we went to the Richards Thanksgiving Feast.

Ella, Preston and Luke were our Indians during the program.

Here are some crazy pilgrims

Enjoying the thanksgiving turkey

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we enjoyed a fabulous Cook Thanksgiving dinner at the Willow Creek Country Club, thanks to Rich and Kerri for hosting this wonderful tradition. Every year the Cooks get together for dinner and bowling.

Mark jumped in on our picture, we love hanging out with the aunts and uncles.

I hope I'm as cool as they are one day

Our final Thanksgiving was on Turkey day itself. We joined my family for dinner and games. We love playing banana-grams, Ticket to Ride and Acquire. We spent every night with my family this weekend because my brother was able to join us from Ohio where he's an orthopedic resident. He couldn't be there Thursday so we had another big dinner on Friday. And a final 'get the tree ready for the festival of tree party' on Saturday.

This is a picture of about half my nieces and nephews they are all so cute and so fun. I can't believe how different one is. They are always making us laugh.

These two year olds are my favorite. They have a love/hate relationship.

Of course this weekend brought Turkey bowls, black Friday shopping, family pictures and so much more. I'm not looking forward to sending Sam back to school this week. Friday night we were filling up the car and he decided to clean the windshield. He got the brush from the ice water and started scrubbing down the windshield. He never stopped to think that cleaning it when it was 19 degrees outside wasn't such a great idea. After he froze our windshield he had to get out the scrapper and scrape off the frost. He's so much fun to live with!

Last on Saturday we layered up and headed to the Utah vs. BYU football game. I should have known not to even bother going until the 4th quarter. It always comes down to the last second, literally. Our jaws are still dropped in awe that we won.

Thanksgiving weekend has always been one of my favorites.

I love gathering with loved ones

surrounding yourself with good food and no place to go

I hope that you all enjoyed a nice weekend.

Happy Holidays.

snow?

The buzz at work today was the snow storm that was approaching

Worse storm Utah's seen in a hundred years

Temperature going to drop 20 degrees in 20 minutes

Tonights low 6 degrees

Go home early, stay off the roads

University of Utah classes are cancelled

etc. etc. etc.

Well the storm was supposed to come between 3-6

Our boss told us to leave at 2.

With talks of the power going out I came home and cooked

I made a delicious vegetable soup

along with homemade hummus

Now I'm waiting for the storm.

I didn't want to go to gym in case the storm came while I am there and I'd have to drive home

so I did the wii fit instead.

(can't believe I admitted to doing the wii fit as a form of 'exercise')

Side note, whenever I ask a patient if they exercise regularly and they tell me they do their wii fit everyday I laugh to myself... wii fit is a great form of activity but doesn't compare to going to the gym and taking a class or exercising there.

Anyways, now I am waiting for this storm.... where are you storm??

maybe I'll make some muffins. ..

grateful

I'm grateful that God created the beautiful sky. Every day this week he has blessed us with a gorgeous morning sun rise and sun set. It simply takes my breath away each time and invites peace into my mind and soul. I'm grateful he took the time to create the beauty to the Earth for us to enjoy.

temptations

I am a sucker for a sale.

Have you ever heard of groupon?

Today's deal is a steal.

For 25$ you get 50$ at Nordstrom Rack

It expires December 31st.

Do I need anything from Nordstrom Rack?

No.

But do I want to buy one or two groupon coupons...

of course!

Here's another example.

Sam and I want to go to Europe,

we were thinking of going in between spring and summer semester.

Well this week I found this awesome deal

You have to travel by March(spring break would work)

You fly from NYC to London stay for 3 days

Chunnel to Paris and stay for 3 days

Train to Rome and stay for 3 days

Then fly to NYC

You get your flight, hotel, trains and breakfast for 1200$

What a dilemma... What should we do?

I know that 1200$ isn't pocket change but that's a great price for airfare and hotels.

All we'd have to pay for is food once we were there.

I need some expert advice or a friend to join. :)

Luck of the Irish

We took a quick break from work and school to go to the Notre Dame vs Utah football game this last weekend. Of course it was a total disappointment for our Utes to get creamed again. We are still asking ourselves, "what happened to our Utes??" But the trip was still fun because we got to experience Notre Dame. It's located in a small little place called Southbend Indiana, about 2 hours from Chicago. The school itself has only about 10,000 undergrad and graduate students. But their stadium holds 80,000 and it feels up game after game. They have the oldest band in the nations history, and it's huge, powerful and awesome to watch.
I think there are more band members than football players.
This mural of Christ is right behind one end of the stadium, directly behind one field goal post
It's the famous, "touchdown Jesus"
Here we are in the quarter realizing that the Utes are going to lose again. We are trying to be really sad.
And here we are happy because the game hadn't started yet.
The trip was short but a great experience. We even squeezed in a quick tour of Chicago thanks to my cousing Linsey Rose. I have now added to the long list of places we need to go.

why do we struggle?

In attempt to entertain ourselves on the bus ride from Chicago to Southbend, Indiana for the Utah vs Notre Dame game we tried to get one decent photo of us together.

chin down Sam
Nice rolls Sam
Squinted eyes Sam
"Sam push your chin out a little bit on the next one"
and this is what we got.

Making your bed

A while back I was watching one of the morning shows at work in our cardiac gym. They were giving 6 ways to start your day right. I can only remember one out of six

MAKE YOUR BED

I remember this one because afterwards I had a conversation with a patient about how if you have time to make your bed in the morning it's a sign that you had enough time to do everything else you needed/wanted to do. Which I totally agree with.

Sam typically leaves the house before seven which means it's up to me to make the bed. I love making the bed. It's so rewarding to walk into your room at the end of the day to a nice fluffy bed waiting for you... doesn't get much better.

Today I had an clinical orientation at the hospital. I thought it didn't start until 9 when my co-worker texted me at 8:03 and said it really started at 8. I read the text in my towel with my hair still wet and had just finished my make-up. Making my bed wasn't going to happen. Which definitely was an indicator of how my day was starting. Lucky for me Sam made the bed before I had walked out the door.

**Making my bed is even more rewarding because I just bought the bedding in the picture above, in a gorgeous jade color. (gotta love ebay).

holiday shopping already?

Here's an invitation to one of my favorite holiday boutiques

It's hosted by a former young women leader

It features hand made crafts from people all around

Jewelry, clothing, shoes, cake stands, baby apparel, frames, books etc etc

Perfect for that hard to shop for person

I'll be attending if you'd like to join me, just let me know.

Ever since I was little I have loved re-arranging things. My sister lizzy and I could entertain ourselves for hours taking apart our playmobil houses and putting them back together again. As embarassing as it is I find myself watching my nieces and nephews in the "dollhouse room" setting up a house perfectly just for it to get wrecked minutes later.

Having more than one room to re-arrange has been a dream come true for me. If you have never been to my place than you should know every room is really odd shaped, which doesn't leave much wiggle room for moving stuff around. But, since we've lived here I have frequently moved this to that room and that to this room etc. as much as I could. Now more than two years later I feel like almost everything is in the right place. I worked hard, with Sam's help to get the living room and kitchen just how I liked it, a new couch was the finishing touch. But lately my focus has been our bedroom. The finishing touches are coming together and I couldn't be happier.

One of my favorite additions to our bedroom are these lights on both sides of the bed. Since the room is so long there isn't room for any sort of night stand or table. So we found these sweet lights that are perfect for reading and mounted onto the wall. They are a true luxury.

I love what spray paint can do! I recently painted this dresser to match our bed. I found some simple but really cute knobs that I couldn't be happier with at a hardware store in Holladay. The hardware was the finishing touch and I love how the entire wall turned out.

The bedroom is almost completely done. I've been looking for inspiration for some kind of hanging over the bed... if you have any fabulous ideas please pass them along.