Our Christmas Festivities

Wow, I can't believe it's come and gone already! It seems like I only just put up the tree!
Sorry there aren't any pics of any of this (at least not yet), but here's a little of what we did...
The Monday the week before Christmas we went ice skating with Jer's family, then to the Pie for some yummy pizza. Every year we go ice skating, and I love that tradition of theirs, it's so fun to get all bundled up and attempt to glide around various ice skating rinks and watch the nieces and nephews. We also had an office party with Jer's brokerage where they did a white elephant gift exchange, and we ended up with a 24 oz can of beer, it was quite a shock to pull it out of the bag!
The Monday before Christmas was a party on my mom's side, it's usually really fun, but there was some unexpected/shocking news from one of my cousins which sorta ruined the party for many of us and really upset me, but it gave me some extra bonding time with my grandma (who's dying of liver cancer) and one of my aunts who has gone through what Jer and I are going through now.
Christmas Eve we were expecting to end up with Jer's fam at his Aunt Shirley's but my family decided to do a last minute Christmas Eve dinner, so we went and hung out at my parent's house (since we don't do as much with my side as we do with Jer's), had a nice ham dinner, and enjoyed each other's company. Jer also had me open a present, it was "Sleeping Beauty", which I'd asked for a few months ago, I was so excited to get it!
Christmas morning was lazy for us. We got up around 8:30ish and opened our presents. Jer got "X-Files: I Want to Believe", "The Dark Knight", and "Pirates of the Great Salt Lake". I/we got a Wii Fit (I wanted it REALLY bad, but Jer plays on it too). So far I've really enjoyed having it, and it's been fun learning yoga and working out on it.
After opening our stuff at home, we went to Jer's parent's house and had a big Christmas brunch there with some extended family. When it came time for the presents, the kids went into the usual frenzy, and the family room was covered in wrapping paper and boxes. It came time for the adults, strangely there was only 1 thing under the tree for me and nothing for Jer. Turns out my mother-in-law had hidden our presents because they were too big to wrap.... Jer got a telescope (yay for him, it seems really nice), and I got a KitchenAid standing mixer!!! I almost cried when I saw it I was so excited. I was up until 2 a.m. making a cake and the frosting decorations for it (pics to come eventually) because I was SO excited. After we settled down from that, we headed to Jer's step-grandma's to give her her present-a hankie I embroidered her initial on, I think it turned out pretty.
The day after Christmas we went to Jer's family's cabin outside Oakley, and hung out with the family there and came back Saturday. I was sick when we got back, so Jer's first official day of being 2nd Elder's Quorum President he was flying solo at church (Oh yeah, I forgot to announce that...now you know, pretty crazy stuff).
So as you can see, it was a pretty busy month. Now all we need to figure out is what we're going to do for New Year's Eve.
Also, since I didn't get the one thing that I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted more than anything else, we're planning on doing our first try on insemination in January sometime, so wish us luck.
We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

P.S. Oh yeah, since I've been wanting a sewing machine, my mom told my grandma and she wants me to have hers... SCORE!

Just for you

Merry Christmas! We hope you enjoy our elf dances- and don't expect to see these moves outside of the computer!
Don't forget to pause the music at the bottom so you can get the most out of your viewing experience!

The Thornes

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The Thornes

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Funny video

My work friend, Cytel, emailed me this link.

The Dog House

I thought it was so funny, I HAD to share it with all ya'll.
Enjoy!
And I hope all you guys stay out of the doghouse this year!

What do YOU want for Christmas?

What's on your Christmas list this year? Seriously, I'm curious-but don't expect that we'll be getting the things on your list for you, and we won't expect the same in return.

Our list this year includes a lot of stuff, so I'll shorten it to the MAJOR things we REALLY want.

A Kitchen Aid standing mixer -I don't care what color, as long as it's not ugly(Jules)
A Telescope -one of the less expensive ones (Jer)
A Sewing Machine- a simple inexpensive, multi purpose one (both of us)
Misc. movies (both)
Misc. games (both)
Money (both)
World Peace, etc.
and last, and what I want more than anything else,
A baby
It's possible you could help us out with that last one, if you don't mind praying for us.

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season, and stay busy and happy with close friends and family!

Now that I've decorated/updated my blog, I need to do the same to our house!

Just a little

As promised, here are a couple of pictures of what I've made from what I learned in my cake decorating class. I'm planning on making a chocolate cake with peanut butter between the layers and chocolate frosting all over, then adding some flowers, vines, and dots. I'll make sure to take pictures and post them once I have gotten around to doing this-the problem is that I don't really have anything to make this cake for-but I guess I'll do it anyway.
Remember, these are just practice daisies and I'm a beginner, so please don't judge too harshly...
I was thinking maybe if I get broken off petals next time, I could place them on the cake like someone's been plucking them, or like they're just falling off like they do in nature.....

What's been happening lately?

We haven't posted for a couple of weeks, so I figured we should probably write something. The problem is, I have no idea what to write about. As I've stated in a previous post, our lives aren't that exciting, and we don't have a lot going on. Halloween isn't a big deal for us because all the stuff we go to is more geared towards little kids, so we just ended up making plans last minute with some neighbor friends.
I've had a bad case of the blahs the last little while, I'm not sure why though. I just have no motivation and I'm so sleepy all the time-it must have something to do with the time of the year. Do any of you have this problem, and if you do, what do you do to help it?
As for my cake class (Someday I will post some kind of picture of what I learned), it sort of ended up being a bust. I missed 2 classes towards the beginning, and after that I was going alone-so it wasn't as much fun as I'd hoped. It also ended up being a lot more expensive than I had planned (what with buying a kit, etc.), so I ended up not going anymore because they decided to change some of the curriculum, which meant buying even more supplies (in case you didn't know, money doesn't grow on trees, especially not in our house). Anyway, I did learn some techniques, and I can teach myself the stuff I don't know-or go to youtube and look it up.

Something exciting did happen this past week though, my good friend, Emily, who moved out of state came for a visit with her baby and we spent an afternoon at her parent's house making super cute and tasty strawberry-filled cupcakes. We had fun experimenting with the different decorator tips and the frosting (which we ended up with way way extra). It was so good to have girl time with her! I can't wait for her to come visit again for Christmas!

In other news, I went to a shoe party last night at my neighbor, Lara's house. I'd seen her at church, and we're friends on Facebook, but I'd never actually talked to her face to face (I'm intimidated by people most of the time). Anyway-the party was really fun, and I ended up buying stuff twice. By that I mean that I picked out a cute headband and necklace and paid for them, then after more inspection of the shoes, and much debating over a cute pair that I never thought I'd own, I bought those too. I think I'm really going to like them-though they are pretty high compared to what I usually wear. I call them my 'fancy shoes', although I've been informed that the more proper name for them is 'sexy shoes'.Today, I went to the spa to use a gift certificate I'd been given. I had the Deep Sea Masque done, and it was wonderful. I love going to the spa and wish I could go more often-yet again that money tree problem. I decided to stop by my parent's house to say hi on my way home, and found out my mom was at the exact place I had just left using the gift certificate I'd given her. We totally missed each other, and I thought it was such a funny coincidence that out of all the days in the year, we happened to pick the exact same day to use our gift certificates-like mother like daughter I guess. I just have to say, if you've never been to the spa before, you have to experience it-it'll make you a better person, I promise!

Hawaii!

Ok, so here's the deal: Jer and I went to Hawaii last week with almost his whole family, the problem is is that we are horrible at actually getting many shots of us on trips we take, we usually stick to taking lots of pictures of the kids and the scenery. We're doing better, but this trip we actually ended up taking WAY less pictures of everything, so you'll just have to deal with what I post.
When we left Salt Lake it was snowing, so that made us extra excited to get to Hawaii and enjoy the warm weather. We arrived on Maui on Sun. Oct 12 at night, and boy were we exhausted from our flight-although it was the best one so far. There were screens on the backs of all the seats and we could pick just about anything from the menu to watch for free. It was awesome!
So after gathering all our luggage, getting the rental cars, and picking up some groceries, we went to the hotel. It's the Marriott Maui Ocean Club (I think), and it's beautiful there. We made some sandwiches and then crashed. The only problem is is that just about everyone was waking up around 3 or 4 am because of the time difference (4 hrs behind us), so it was hard to sleep in (not counting Jer, he is a master at sleeping in).
I won't bore you with the details of each day, so I'll summarize instead. Every day we basically would hang out at the pool, then go to the beach, or vice versa. Then at night we'd go somewhere different for dinner. One night we went to Whaler's Village and saw a free hula show after dinner, another we went to a luau, etc. A few of the days we went to beaches away from the hotel so we could either snorkel, or watch surfers. My favorite part was riding/jumping in the waves, it's so much fun I could do it for hours!
Jer and my last day was a day before almost all the rest of the family, so we went and watched surfers, ate at a yummy organic pizza place (Flatbread in Paia), and headed to the airport with his sister and her family (they had to get back early). We were sad to leave before everyone else, but at the same time we got a head start on the long ride home, and this time we didn't even get the screens :( It was actually a really rough ride home because we were on the emergency exit row, and the seats don't go back AT ALL, and did I mention this is like a 5 hr flight and it was the red-eye? All of this equals exhaustion.
We finally made it back to Salt Lake at about 8:45 am (we stopped in LA both ways), and my wonderful brother, Rich, came and picked us up. It was sorta surreal to be home, but so nice at the same time. Once we got home Jer went to bed, and I unpacked and started some laundry, then took a lovely nap myself. The bed at the hotel was nice, but there's nothing like your own, and it was heavenly.
So, that was our trip, and now here are some pictures.
Don't mind how shiny I am in them, my skin has issues with humidity.

This was on the way to the luau
This was after the luau

Beautiful Hawaiian sunset

Us with the diminishing Hawaiian sunset
Hanging out with the fam watching the surfers. Notice my awesome fashion statement of glasses under my sunglasses.
These are just some of the many surfers that were out. It was a wonder they weren't running each other over there were so many.
This guy brought his dog surfing with him, it was so cute and fun to watch!
And since Jer is so on top of things, he recorded the dog surfing for your viewing pleasure...

Three!

Woohoo! We made it to 3! If you haven't guessed, today is our 3rd anniversary. I'm so lucky to be married to such a wonderful, creative, funny, loving, understanding man! We've been through a lot these past few years, and we've only become closer because of it. He is the perfect one to be by my side through all of life's ups and downs.
Here are a few pictures from the past....

Here are a couple from when we got engaged

This is one of our wedding announcement pictures

This is one of my bridals

and here are some shots at the temple

I love you Jer!

P.S. I will post about last week's trip to Hawaii later.

Ever wonder....

....what you'd look like way back when?
Well, Jer and I don't need to wonder anymore. I took this off of Lindsay's post, I thought it was too fun and cute, so I had to do it myself: I "Yearbooked" myself and Jer, enjoy!
Here I am in 1952:

I almost look like I belong in this hairstyle!

Here's Jer in 1952:

Only slightly goofy looking, I guess.

Here I am in 1966:

If it weren't for my hair's lack of body, I might be trying to pull this look off today,
too bad for all of you to miss out on such a sight! (j/k)

Here's Jer in 1976:

I must say, he looks P.H.A.T. (pretty hot and tempting),
especially in that turtleneck and hairstyle!

Here I am in 1994:

I guess I should feel lucky I hid all my 'real' pictures of me w/a perm from when I was younger!

and, last but not least,

here's Jer in 1990:

This makes me really glad that Jer doesn't have blond hair!

You can go try this out for yourself HERE, but I'm gonna warn ya, it'll suck up your time because you get so into it! Have fun!

I'm shocked, but flattered

Today in my internet surfing, I found THIS. You have to check it out or else this post won't mean much.
I thought it was hilarious, so I hope you do too.

Gilgal

When I post, I always seem to forget something, so I had to post again today.

Jer and I went to the Gilgal Gardens yesterday. I've been there before, and over the weekend we tried to see it, but it got too dark too fast, so we had to go back. That place is crazy by the way, very different art-work, etc. Plus, you get really hungry walking around because it's right by the Wonder bakery, so you're smelling yeast and bread baking, and it almost drives you crazy. I guess most of the statues/art have something to do with different scriptures, and LDS beliefs. This type of art isn't really my style, in fact it sorta creeps me out (especially when it's dark), but here are some of the pictures we took and what they're named....Captain of the Lord's Host

The Sphinx

The Monument to the Trade

The Monument to the Priesthood

Daniel II: King Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

There are a lot more sculptures in the garden than I posted here, and the story behind them about the artist is actually pretty interesting. You can see and read more at the website if you click HERE.

After checking out Gilgal, we went to the Gateway to the Apple store, then Office Max, then to Old Navy. This was a big sacrifice for Jer, mostly because he doesn't like Old Navy (not sure why, too preppy for him?). I got some new jeans and some REALLY cute tops. Thanks Jer for letting me shop and for going with me and enduring without complaining! He's so great!
That's all for now.

A mish-mash of events

I haven't posted for awhile, so I thought I would write about the YW activity we had last night. It was really fun, very much looked forward to, and well-attended. We had 3 YW come! Well, technically 2, 1 of them won't be 12 for another couple of weeks, but we invited her along anyway. We met at 4:15, left after 4:30 and drove downtown to see the Joseph Smith movie in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. After finding out about ticket information (they don't do tickets anymore), we wandered around the Mezzanine level where there's a chapel with an organ which has it's keys switched (white ones are black, black ones are white), and the President's room (which has pictures of all the Prophets in it). We needed to head back down to the theater, but started talking to a sweet old couple, and the older gentleman left to go somewhere and we heard him fall. We were all a little freaked out. Apparently he missed a step or blacked out or something and fell on his hip, I was afraid he'd broken it. He got up after a couple of minutes, seemingly fine, just a litte out of it. After making sure he was fine, we made it to the theater to see the movie. I've seen it before, but it's been awhile and let me tell ya, I think it hit me harder this time than the last. I was crying and sniffling (trying to hold it in a little), but at least I wasn't the only one. It was so hard to watch what he went through, and to know that it was so much worse than the movie even made it look. One of the girls was pretty emotional for awhile, it was so sweet to see how much it touched her.
When we left the movie we took the girls to the top to see the view, then out to find some food. We took a couple of pictures by the reflection pond, walked around a little (and found out the ZCMI center food court was closed) and went to Crown Burger to get food. I was starving, but burger grease makes me really sick, especially when I haven't eaten for awhile, so I didn't get anything and endured the ride home until I could get some food.

On another note, I went last week with my friend, Denice, to Ikea and I bought a TON of stuff to decorate our home more. I got a set of large canvas squares with different pictures of Orchids and put them above the bed. I switched the order from what's pictured below, though.From the picture, you'd think the orange would be too much, but they totally calm down our room (the bedding and curtains are red, not relaxing at all, but Jer's choice), Jer isn't so sure about them, but he's getting used to having them up. His exact words when he saw the pictures was, "flowers? why'd you get flowers?". This made me feel pretty bad, but I figure it's my room too, so he needs to just get over it and enjoy the feminine influence. I also got a cute apron for cooking, bedside table lamps for our room, new throw pillows and cases for our couch, coasters for our coffee table, and a couple of other odds and ends.

On yet another note, tomorrow I start my cake decorating classes. I'm SO excited, I can't wait. I'm going with an old friend, Charlotte (who I went to Middle and High School with and we were in the same home ward). It'll be fun to get out and learn about this, I've been wanting to for awhile, so I'm hoping I'll be at least a little good at it. If not, Charlotte pointed out that at least we'll be able to laugh about it. It'll be a good distraction, and it'll give me more to blog about, I'm sure (maybe I'll even include some pictures).

An update

I guess I should have done this a week or so ago, but you know how it is being busy with life outside of the internet, right?
Anyhow, I had been emailing with my specialist's nurses about different concerns because of pains in my lower abdomen. They told the Dr. and he decided he needed to see me, and while we're at it, why not get Jer tested. So Jer's now been tested and I've been seen and this is the situation. Jer's pretty much fine, and the Dr. figures that since we're still not pregnant, even after charting my temperature, doing ovulation predictor tests, and keeping track of all our 'activities' and following the directions that he and the nurses have been giving us, that the next step is insemination. Jer and I aren't really wanting to jump to that just yet, especially since it's $300 a try and the Dr. said there's (only) a 6-10% success rate.
Now through all of this temping, etc, I've gotten a little stressed and frustrated, and it's pretty much all that's ever on my mind. So I asked the Dr. if it would be ok if we quit temping and tracking and testing and just live our lives and see what happens. He said we can try that, so it's the plan for now. I'm currently trying to figure out how to change my mindset to enjoying just being me for awhile (not being a hormone-crazy monster from pills or pregnancy) and to being more selfish. Yes, selfish-I really am not sure how to be selfish, but I figure maybe it'll help take my mind off of wanting a baby to take care of. Jer's very impressed with my plan, so we'll see how it goes. I just need to de-stress, or like my friend, Tori, said, 'distractions'.
Oh yeah, and the Dr. gave me a note to give to Curves to discontinue working out there because of my lower abdominal pain-apparently all the exercise I should be doing is walking. I'm pretty frustrated about it because I feel like such a slacker now.
Well, that's it for now, we'll see how this all works out.

The Birthday Post

I've seen other people do this, so I thought I would too.
Today is Jer's birthday. That's right, on September 11, 1980, Jeremiah Virgil Thorne was brought into this world. Here are some of the things that make him him and so lovable.

1. He's good looking, I mean just look at him!

2. He loves me and puts up with me, which isn't always easy.

3. He's a hard worker and puts his full effort into things when he's put his mind to it.

4. He loves kids.

5. He's understanding.

6. He's generous.

7. He takes good care of our little family.

8. He has great taste in music and is always finding new, cool bands.

9. He's incredibly creative.

10. He's like a little kid in so many ways-it's endearing and sweet (not at all bad, don't take it that way).

11. He's handy to have around the house. He fixed our toilets when they were having issues.

12. He knows lines and lyrics like you wouldn't believe.

13. He's in good shape, and works to keep himself that way.

14. He's fun to be with.

15. He's funny and can always make me laugh or smile.


16. He's adventurous.

17. He's easy to talk to.

18. He likes driving, even in bad weather(unless it's so bad you can't see), so I basically have my own personal chauffeur.

19. He has nice hair-he won't be going bald any time soon!

20. He's good at calming me down.

21. He's helpful.

22. He's easy to get along with.

23. He's very random, which makes life really interesting.

24. He does what he can to make me happy.

25. He has good taste in clothes (most of the time).

26. He has a good heart.

27. He's really good with words. Some of the things he writes blow me away.

28. He's the most wonderful guy I've ever met (which is why I married him).


I love you Jer, I can't wait for 70 more of these (give or take)!

Question Time

1. Do you like bleu cheese? I don't know. I would probably say yes because I like just about all cheese.
2. Have you ever smoked? No, I prefer to be addicted to my wife.
3. Do you own a gun? No, but I know a pretty good NRA joke. More of a handshake actually.
4. What flavor Kool-Aid was your favorite? I'd have to say fruit punch or cherry
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? It would depend on what the appointment is for. Physical checkup when I was 15, oh yeah.
6. What do you think of hot dogs? I actually like them. Super easy to prepare. I ate them for a couple weeks straight on the mission. That is when I became converted to mustard.
7. Favorite Christmas movie? I grew up watching and quoting Christmas Vacation.
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? I have this breakfast drink that I make. It's got Carnation Instant Breakfast and then I decided to put a banana in for more substance. To top it off I drink it with a multi-vitamin. I'm getting healthier by the day.
9. Can you do push ups? Yes. I can do 50 pushups fast, but started doing them slower for the muscle growth. It's such a deep burn. I usually do 100 of them.
10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? I am getting more used to my wedding ring. I wear it now to cover the tan lines.
11. Favorite hobby? I like finding new bands to listen to. I love to create story ideas and write them down. I also love to be creative whether it's with plastic cups, toilet paper, or just thoughts that come to me. But hugging Julianna would have to be the best thing, especially when I'm creative with her.
12. Do you have ADD? If I don't have my iPod, our computer with an internet connection, or my writing notebook, I'll probably get bored. I need to keep my mind occupied.
13. Do you wear glasses/contacts? Yes. It's crazy that a little piece of plastic or whatever it is can go on my eye and instantly make me see.
14. Middle name? Virgil. I hated it when I was younger, but it's my Grandpa's name and I have grown up and heard many good things about him.
15. Name three thoughts at this exact moment. I'm excited to start learning how to design and maintain websites. Netflix seems like a good idea, and I look really good right now. "Hey everyone! Come see how good I look!"
16. Name three drinks you regularly drink. Water, Milk and Soda Pop if it's around.
17. Current worry? I'm worried that mean jerky people won't get what's coming to them.
18. Current hate right now? I hate people that are know-it-all's about any topic. Whatever your specialty is, they know more than you and always will. They should run for king/queen of the world and tell us how to live our lives.
19. Favorite place to be? If I have accomplished something great or have a good story idea, I don't care where I am.
20. How did you bring in the New Year? I had some major computer questions for my friend Chris and our wives had some girl time. Later we watched The Office.
21. Where would you like to go? I would really like to go to Heaven. But for now I think Wimbledon or Wendover would be cool.
22. Name three people who will complete this. Chris Maguire, Justin Crossley, Mike Chadburn.
23. Do you own slippers? No.
24. What shirt are you wearing? A bright yellow Dole Hawaii shirt. It represents fun times in Hawaii.
25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? I don't know if I ever have. I've heard that they're heavenly though.
26. Can you whistle? Yeah.
27. Favorite color? Blue.
28. Would you be a pirate? I'd dress up but I wouldn't BE a pirate. Dealing with a bunch of stupid guys on a pirate ship would get really lame.
29. What songs do you sing in the shower? Just about everything. Mainly in a high falsetto voice.
30. Favorite girl’s name? Yasmeen.
31. Favorite boy’s name? David, but only if Hasselhoff is attached to it.
32. What’s in your pocket right now? Nothing. Probably lint. I got robbed today.
33. Last thing that made you laugh? Probably something funny. Very funny.
34. What vehicle do you drive? 2007 Nissan Altima. I have gotten 540 miles off a tank.
35. Worst injury you’ve ever had? When I was attacked by two dogs at the same time on the mission.
36. Do you love where you live? How could you not love Eagle Mountain? The price is great.
37. How many televisions do you have in your house? Three - one in the family room, one in the bedroom, and one in the spare room. I got one up at college years ago, we got one from Wal-Mart because of the DVD combo, and I secretly got the family room TV, but later kind of got in trouble.

Quirks

We were tagged by the Bohmans, so here are the rules...

• Link the person(s) who tagged you.
• Mention the rules on your blog.
• Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
• Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them.

This is a hard one, I don't know how to pinpoint our quirks, but I know we have them.

1. Jer takes a notebook and pen to church every week, but he doesn't take notes. No, he's constantly writing stories and coming up with new ideas. I'm sure people look at him sometimes and think, 'Wow, he must be really religious, taking notes and all,' but nope, that's not the case.
2. Jules has this thing about even numbers, though it used to be a million times worse when she was younger. Bites of food that she puts in her mouth have to be an even number, down to the amount on each side of her mouth (or each side has to at least get the same amount). Steps she takes usually have to end either in an even number, or each foot has to have stepped the same amount of steps. Weird, I know.
3. Jer talks in his sleep, usually early in the morning when Jules would get ready for work. It's always funny, and makes no sense, and always would startle Jules making her think something was wrong.4. Jules breaths loudly when she sleeps. No, it's not snoring, it's just loud breathing. The snoring only happens when she's stuffy. Back in college, her roommates heard this really loud breathing and they couldn't figure out where it was coming from, until they followed their ears up the stairs and into the room where Jules was napping, they all thought it was pretty funny.
5. Jer is crazy amazing with quotes from movies and music. When people have a question about who said this in what movie, or what song did these lyrics come from, Jer is usually who they go to for the answer because about 98% of the time, he'll know the answer. It's crazy.
6. Jules can't snap her fingers. No matter how many times or how many people try to 'teach' her how, she still can't do it. The only noise that she makes is like a muffled/whispery sound of a snap.

So those are our quirks...now I tag the McGuires, the Crossleys, the Arthurs, the Loughmillers, Becky, and T&D Johnson!

The Dark Knight & Crappy AC

Julianna hasn't posted anything for a week or two so I thought I'd add something of my own. The last couple weeks have sucked as far as our AC goes. Last summer, our AC decided to not work. When I say not work, I mean it was blowing out air, but not cold air. It was the oddest thing. I would check the air filter and it was fine. I know as much about AC units as the next ignorant guy and so I would look at the compressor and pretend that my staring would somehow teach me all I need to know about AC and what makes it work and not work. Anyway, we would tell people about our "problem" and the first thing they would all ask is, "have you changed your filter?" That's a standard test, but unfortunately a completely clean air filter will not filter the cold air from coming through the air vents while letting the other air pass through freely. Our AC went out during the hottest week of the summer and when we called the guy to come look at it, he did the convenient thing and came a week later, at which time the AC was working fine. That's actually what he said too, "You're AC is working fine. There's nothing wrong with it." I wanted to say, "well it is now, but I actually called you last week when it wasn't working." he went on his merry way and eventually our AC started working. This summer, we were dealing with the same problem and called another AC guy that we actually trust. He came out and ran a bunch of tests and actually spent a good 30 minutes checking various things and then gave us his best diagnosis. We needed a new compressor which was still under warranty, but he would charge us for labor. The funny thing is that if the guy fixed it last summer when EVERYTHING was still under warranty, we would have saved $789. I have secretly wished upon a star that the guy hired from the builder to install it and service our AC unit will have eternal problems with his own AC unit. And his problems will involve WAY more than the air filter.

In other news Julianna and I went to see The Dark Knight one night and we both enjoyed it. Usually visible makeup on guys gives me the heebidy jeebies, but the Joker's makeup was very attractive...for a psycho! I actually wanted to see it on the IMAX and so I did just that on Tuesday night. It's been a long time since I saw a movie twice in the theater and liked it just as much the second time; it didn't work for Transformers. I also got to see Julianna's celebrity crush, Christian Bale, for the second time. Quite the leading man. By the way, it's been out for only 3 weeks and has cracked the top 10 movies of all time.

Flickr Mosaic

I took this tag from Adiel's blog, I thought it was pretty cool....

The rules of the tagging:
- Type your answer to the questions into Flickr search.
- Using only the first page, pick an image.
- Copy and paste each of the URLS of the images into the mosaic maker.

1.What is your first name? Julianna
2.What is your favorite food? BBQ Chicken
3.What high school did you go to? Riverton High
4.What is your favorite color? Purple
5.Who is your celebrity crush? Christian Bale
6.Favorite drink? Water
7.Dream vacation? Europe
8.Favorite dessert? Dark Chocolate
9.What you want to be when you grow up? Happy
10.What do you love most in life? Family
11.One word to describe you? Interesting
12.Your flickr name? I don't have one, so I put in 'none'

The result: (click on it to make it big and easier to see)


1. Julianna, 2. BBQ Chicken By Chef Jerry Jr., 3. 20080425_Riverton vs Bingham_013, 4. Purple fingers, 5. Forearm, 6. water droplets in the shower - o.k. bokeh, 7. Oldest wooden bridge in Europe, 8. Chocolate Chip Muffins Step_5_READY TO EAT, 9. I Love New York, 10. Joy of life, 11. Call of the Raven (formerly Nature's Special Effects), 12. Sunny Side Up

News!

Sorry about the double post today, but I forgot to write about this last week.
In the last month or so, I've been wanting to change positions at my job to work in home for many reasons, but when I'd apply for positions that I'd find, I wouldn't hear anything. Finally, I was able to apply quickly enough to interview, and I got the job!! I started training this morning, and will continue training in office for the next 4-6 weeks, after that, I'll be home! Jer and I are both pretty excited about it.

Memories Anyone?

I saw this on my old roommate's blog, so I thought I'd do it too. It can be about either Jer or myself.

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you!

LAKE POWELL!!!

Jer and I just got back from Lake Powell. We went down and hung out with his family, it was SO fun. I was initially nervous about going because of the heat and being dirty and gross lake water, but I got over it...plus it wasn't unbearably hot-except for at night. Jer got a lot of writing done, and I did some reading, on top of playing in the water. I went out on little kayak rides just about every day by myself, and Jer and I went out on the wave runner a couple times too. I learned to drive one, though I'm not that great at it, hopefully someday I will be.
Jer jumped off the boat, and I was going to, but once I got close to it, I started freaking out because of my fear of water and heights. Jer was trying to get me to jump, so I freaked out more and started crying and hyperventilating. Yes, I cried, I admit it. I cried in front of my nieces and nephew who had just jumped before me, I'm such a wuss and had a bit of a break down. I was shaking for a half an hour afterwards. Eventually I did jump, I ended up jumping 5 or 6 times actually. It was scary every single time, but at least I can say I did it. It doesn't look high, but it felt it. The slide was a lot easier and more fun to go down, that's for sure. Here's a video Jer's mom took of us jumping off the boat...




Here are some pics of the lovely views.....



Here's a video of Jer falling off while tubing, he's on the far right...




He tried an air chair too, but I don't have anything of that. Needless to say, he fell off tubing and the air chair enough to be pretty sore, but he's a trooper, and super tough.