Bittersweet trip to Pasco. Ok... it was pretty sweet.

Last week Clark and I went to Pasco for my grandfather's memorial service. It was touching and sincere; a great celebration of life. He will be deeply missed.

In addition to the service, Clark and I got to spend loads of time with family and loads of time on the farm. We actually flew in on Wednesday June 9th, 12 hours after my sister gave birth to her third child, a sweet girl named Teya Grace!

I've never held a 12 hour old baby. It was awkward and exciting all at once. I love my sister, she is such a good mother and I'm so proud of her for having her third child without an epidural. In her opinion, it wasn't worth it. Her advice: ALWAYS get an epidural. Sounds like a plan to me.

Katie and Ty and Teya Grace. Ty HATES pictures. I can't belive I got a 1/4 smile out of him!

Sisters.

My Dad's sister made this sign when she was in elementary school. He now has in on the farm.
Cute Cole enjoying whipping cream.

Dad was nice enough to take us on a fire engine ride. Clark and I have never been in a fire truck. We were as excited as kindergartners.

The Eltopia fire chief himself.

A beautiful Washington sunset from my parents house. I just love this farm.

Scott and Dagmara have an indescribable affinity towards IHOP. So of course we joined them for breakfast one morning. Or was it afternoon?

Baby Teya sleeping.

Tiny little fingers!

Taking Cole for a "Mo-mo" ride.

Scott's a little nervous...

Lucky Teya, everyone wants to hold her.

Dad taking us for ultralight rides.

What a nerd ;)

Clark taking a ride.

Grandpa's Memorial Service.

Cousins Kyle and Megan, and Kyle's fiancee Christina. It was so SO good to see my extended family!

Really, Cedar?

Trying to look sharp.

My Dad with his three sisters and their cousins.

Clark striking his famous pose near my Dad's tractor.

Enjoying the company of family.

Enjoying the cute little ones I wish I could see every day.

Enjoying a taco truck late one night. Dagmara was circumspect of the surroundings. When we drove up she said, "We're not going to get shot, are we?"

I wish I could see my sisters every day.

Cole is such a happy little guy.

Family picture! It took many a try for everyone to be looking. Except Cole. He decided not to look when everyone else did.

Active child.

Scott and Cedar having a height-off. I think Scott still wins. Sorry, Cedar.

Teya and Mom.

Enjoying over sized marsh mellows during dusk.

Chase was able to conquer two.

Cole yelling "Cheeeeeeeese!"

At least our next visit will be under better circumstances. I love seeing my family and I love the peacefullness of the country. Sometimes distance is tough but I honestly cherish the times I get to spend with my family. It's unfortunate that both my family and Clark's family are scattered all over the place. Why doesn't everyone just move to Utah?

Just kidding.

Not to be materialistic...

but I have found the best jeans EVER! Does anyone (males excluded) get that "ahhhhh finally," feeling when they pull on a fantastic fitting pair of jeans, or is it just me? It is just so hard to find jeans that fit properly in the waist, butt and thighs. But I have found the magical style... oh yes, I have.

Wa-bam! Express has barely boot cut jeans that are simply amazing. I couldn't just purchase one. Well I could. I did. And then the first pair fit so well that I had to get a second. And I got them both for $30 a pair. On sale, of course. I'm not gonna lie, I am one frugal lady. The only time I have ever spent a relatively significant amount of money on jeans was at Urban Outfitters during my junior year of college. My roomies talked me into spending my birthday money ($90) on a pair of Calvin Klein trouser jeans and Clark still won't let me live it down. So now I have to ask:

***What is the most expensive pair of jeans you have ever purchased?***

Great, I just got up from the computer to get some water and found cat barf. This cat throws up all the time. I wonder if she gets partial bowel obstructions sometimes...

Odds and Ends

With my grandfather's funeral scheduled for next Saturday, Clark and I get to travel back to Pasco. Though I wish this visit could be under brighter circumstances, I will get to see my entire family. My sister is due to burst forth with child any day now, my big bro will be coming in from the west side of WA, and my little bro and his wife will be flying in from South Korea! Oh, and Chase and Cole, how I miss those boys! In addition to seeing my parents and siblings, in-laws, etc, I will be able to visit with relatives I haven't seen in 5-10 years. If anything, this funeral is definitely bringing family together. I just know that my grandpa is very happy knowing that we are all gathering together to celebrate his life. Let's just hope the funeral is more celebratory than glum and that there is no family drama to deal with.

Things we are excited for in Pasco:

-family

-Clark meeting extended family

-meeting my sister's newest little teeny tiny addition (hopefully she pops out soon!)

-Griggs

-taco trucks galore

-Viera's Bakery

-the river

Things we aren't excited for in Pasco:

-the funeral (I've only been to one funeral before, and that was 12 years ago)

-sad faces

-wind

-possibly running in to people from high school that I don't care to see (can anyone else relate?)

Clark wanted me to let everyone know that he is junking out: he recently sold his childhood AMF bicycle and his tires/rims. He sold the bike almost immediately and is still getting emails about it--nearly a month later. Lesson learned: start high in price and decrease as necessary. He could have gotten way more than $40 for that bike. But at least we have extra space in our apartment.

Lately I've been trying to ameliorate my vocabulary (it's working!). I bought this box o words and started going through them last week. I'm about 1/5 the way through. Hopefully I'll be ready for the GRE this fall! I've had a huge fear of standardized tests since high school. The NCLEX went extremely well so hopefully I'll fare well on this one, too. But knowing my luck, I won't see a single word I study on the test. Go figure.

Words I want to start incorporating into daily life:

-castigate (different from castrate...)

-bevy

-abstemious

-amalgamate

-burgeon

-convoluted

...just to name a few. As you can see, the words all start at the beginning of the alphabet...I haven't gotten farther than the "D" words yet. (And yes, I have heard these words before, but it is so nice to now know their meanings!)

Here are some mugshots we had taken for an upcoming language test...they crack me up! Clark's neck is thick football playa style and he really looks like he just got into trouble. And my hair is all scraggly and I have a somewhat confused look on my face. I sure wish they would let you smile for these pics. (If you think this one is bad, my passport photo is even worse.)

So the other day Clark and I decided to "hike" the "U" that overlooks Salt Lake and the U of U campus. We were in for a shock. The "hike" was maybe 100 yards in length and basically started in someone's backyard. Anticlimactic for sure. So of course we took some pictures proving we hiked the "U".

That's about it for now folks. Clark is at work and I'm all alone...and I can't watch Man v.Food without him...that wouldn't be right. What to do, what to do?

Man v. Food

Does anyone watch this?

If you care to know our opinion, we think it is fantastic. For those of you who know nothing about this show, Adam Richman travels to various cities throughout the U.S. and highlights the best restaurants in each city, tasting the menu items at each stop. He also performs one food challenge in each city, hence the name of the show. Sometimes man wins the challenge and sometimes food wins, but it is always entertaining. I'm not sure Adam is exactly a connoisseur of food (I'm pretty sure he just likes to eat) and he uses the words succulent and creamy as descriptive terms too often, but he is fun, the food always looks amazing and the food challenges he conquers are always impressive.

For those of you with Netflix, you can watch season 1 and season 2 online as an instant play. Do it! Do it now!! Each episode is only 21 minutes long...at least give it a chance!

This should be our last food dedicated post for a while. I just felt the need to advocate for Man v. Food.

A moving article in commemoration of Memorial Day

I read this article the other night...moved me to tears! Such a fantastic thing these women do to honor the men and women who have served our country. The link is below:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37416579/ns/us_news-life/

Chicken and...pancakes?

I think most of us have heard of chicken and waffles. Quite a delicious combination.
Since we missed church today we decided to nourish our souls with some soul food.
Clark wanted chicken and waffles but we don't own a waffle maker...yet.
So Clark decided to make chicken and pancakes. Pancake and waffle batter is the same, after all.

Taste testing.
Oh my yummy.

Complete with a giant dallop of whipped cream.

We really do need to stop frying chicken. It is soo soo good, but I don't even want to think of how it may be transforming my arteries.

My post work treat

I had a rough night at work last night. Luckily, I came home to see this:

That husband of mine...he is just so sweet!

And then there was this rose blooming out in front of our apartment:

Pretty soon the whole bush will be blooming!

Lo Mein

Last weekend Clark attempted Lo Mein. He made it with both wheat noodles and rice noodles. The question is, which noodle is most authentic for this dish?

Here is the lo mein with wheat noodles...

And here is the lo mein with rice noodles...

Here is the chef himself.

So... is lo mein typically made with wheat or rice noodles? Anyone have any idea?

Three days

is all it takes for us not to be able to use our faucet.

Dang, a dishwasher would be really nice right about now.

Meet Darby

We have the most friendly, outgoing cat that patrols our neighborhood. I am very jealous. She is, what her owners call her, the Queen of 6th Avenue. Yes, she sure is:

Everyone loves her. She comes out from under her gate to greet anyone at any time of the day. She often falls over on her side so that people can pet her belly. She is so sweet and I wish she were ours. Instead we are stuck with this Gretchen Doodle. And though sometimes she'll cuddle and let us hold her, (please don't judge me by this photo. I know that normal people wear sweaters--I wear a robe. My Mother would be happy to know that it is getting a lot of use!)and sometimes she'll sleep in really cute positions with her front legs drawn in and her right foot crossed over her left,she's still skittish and hides whenever company's over. But when I look at the above picture I can't help but love her. She's getting so fat and round and I've always wanted an overweight cat. We (I) chose her and now we're stuck with her. Is that how parents sometimes feel about their children I wonder??

On a side note: more beautiful tulips! Is it bad to covet your neighbor's flowers? I so want to uproot these and plant them by our mailboxes. Spring can stay forever, the temperature has been perfect. In fact, 80 degrees was a bit too warm on my run today...

(Right now I am enjoying this nice Italian soda whilst I finish this blog. YUM. )

I hope everyone has an enjoyable rest of the week. Our work week starts tomorrow and we can readily admit we are not looking forward to it.

***And a big shout out to Ashley and Cameron Treu. Thank you guys so much for having us over for the bbq! Such good food and good company. It was so nice to see Brian and his wife Carly, and meet all the little ones. We've got to do it again! Orange chicken extravaganza, here we come!

Drive By Truckers

My oh my, this show ROCKED my ballet flats off. We love this band but never had the opportunity to see them in Phoenix. Whenever they came through AZ they would bypass Phoenix (why?? I can only speculate) and head for Tucson or Flagstaff. And I was always in school or working or running and Clark was in school or working...so we never could make the drive to their shows. Thank goodness they don't bypass SLC. But I wonder if they'll stop touring through SLC since there were three fights in the crowd during their show. Seriously, drunk a-holes treating it like punk rock show. Not. Cool. Anywho...

We just had to get a picture with the marquee :)


I had to have my own personal picture with the marquee. Rock on.


Can you tell we were super stoked?!



Anticipation!

Let there be rock! Truly there is nothing like good old Southern rock and roll. And I would know. I've been doing some family history and loads of my ancestors came from Tennessee. SO I think that qualifies me to know the good old Southern rock and roll from the bad.

I love Shonna Tucker. She is so talented. Plays a mean bass and has a beautiful voice to boot.

Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley doing their thing.


Cooley for President!

Ahhh, seeing a fantastic live show is so refreshing. I am so lucky that Clark and I have the same interest in music and that we enjoy live shows just as much as his orange chicken.