Hello??

Wow.

My last post was on July 30.

I began my 30 day challenge on April 1o.

I'm a bad person.

Honestly I have been so busy the past few months that I never made time to sit down and talk about everything that's going on. Here's a quick recap.

1) I started working at Pier 1 Imports in July. It gets me out of the house and is generally a fun place to be. Sometimes I feel really dumb though because I feel like I'm not using my degree at all. Also, I hate working Sunday nights to set out holiday items.

2) I'm up to 5 flute students now. One of my favorite students is 69 years old. She just decided this fall that she wanted to learn the flute and man, is she dedicated. She does absolutely everything I ask her to do and she is progressing so quickly! Also, today in our lesson, she brought me freshly baked homemade bread. I'm eating it right now with butter and honey. Delicious.

3) I started working at an accountant's office last month. One of my dear friends/high school tennis coach offered me a job doing data entry and payrolls for his office. Honestly, it's much more stressful than I thought it would be and I feel really stupid most of the time, but I'm learning new things every day. The hours are really flexible so I can work around my teaching and Pier 1 schedules pretty easily. I'm working a lot between all three jobs so I'm constantly busy. I feel like I'm never home, because I really am not.

4) I have become a gym rat. Before I started working so much, I was going to the gym 4-5 times a week going to various classes. Right now I try to go 3 times a week and it's fun! I finally feel like I'm getting some muscle tone and I feel much better about myself.

5) My Grandma Hazen passed away two weeks ago. Even though I was really sad to lose my Grandma, I was relieved that she wasn't suffering anymore. She was diagnosed with cancer back in February and although she fought really hard for a long time, the cancer finally overtook her body. She wasn't herself at the end, didn't want to see anyone, wouldn't eat, couldn't see, etc so I was relieved to hear the news that she had passed. My grandpa is lonely, but he seems to be doing ok.

6) I applied for the position of Principal Flute of the Utah Symphony. It's only my dream job. No big deal. I was so nervous to send in my resume and I still am. I won't know if I get an audition until sometime next week I think. They have to review all the resumes they get sent in and decide who they want to hear from first. The audition is in February and there is easily three hours worth of music on the list. I feel like everyone expects me to win this, but no one (outside the music world) really understands how competitive it is to win an audition. I don't want to let anyone down, but I don't really have anything to lose by doing it. I have a lot of practicing to do.

7) My puppy is still adorable. She is almost potty trained, but for some reason loves to have accidents in the dining room with white carpet. Of course. Here is a picture to prove her cuteness.
That's all for now. I will try to post more often, but I make no promises.

Day 27 - A person I love

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you... Bryce Olsen.

Day 25 - A place I love and Day 26 - A child I love

I figured I would roll these into one because we spent the 24th of July at my family's cabin in the Ogden Valley. Maren and Kevin invited us to come spend the night Sunday and then we came back yesterday. It's always a fun time up there. Growing up, I would play outside all day with my cousins. We would ride 4-wheelers all over the mountain, play in the dirt, swim in beaver dams, and get really filthy. Bryce didn't have the greatest time, however... We went on a 4-wheeler ride up the mountain, and halfway down a steep hill on our way back, the brakes went out. Luckily, Bryce is a quick thinker and we were able to stop safely, but I definitely let out a really nice scream. He also got chewed out by my great-uncle Joe, fell in the river when he went fishing and busted up his hand, and got eaten by mosquitoes. Poor guy. Hopefully I can convince him to go up there again.

My nephew Shaun is officially a toddler! He has been taking a couple steps here and there, but up at the cabin he was walking all over the place. He's such a cute little stinker. I didn't take any pictures of this trip, but here is a link of his 1-year pictures that Bryce took: http://bryceolsen.blogspot.com/2011/07/shaun-one-year-ogden-ut.html

On the way down from the cabin, we stopped at The Oaks for dinner. We thought it would be funny to give him a lemon wedge and see what happened. The following video is for your enjoyment.

Day 24 - 5 Things you love about Summer

1) No School!!!!!! And after 19 years of school, I am officially done forever!

2) Days are longer. I love that the sun decides to stay out a little longer in the summer. It makes me happy inside.

3) Warm summer nights. I love being able to sit outside on a blanket and hang out with my family. Last night was the Weber State fireworks and my sisters and I along with a couple friends sat outside on a blanket til 11:30. It was awesome.

4) Tennis. Growing up I always took tennis lessons in the summer and I always had the best sock tan lines. 3 of the 4 grand slams are in the summer as well and I love to watch me some professional tennis. It inspires me. Unless the person playing is Maria Sharapova, then I vomit.

5) Going to the cabin. My family has a "dirt cabin" in the mountains that has no electricity. Growing up it was one of my favorite places to go and still is. We would spend all day four-wheeling, digging in the dirt, or swimming in the beaver dams. Now we have a second cabin up in Island Park, Idaho which is a lot of fun as well. It's such a laid back atmosphere and I love to spend time with my family.

Day 23 - Share a favorite memory

For some reason this story popped into my head...

8 years ago (wow has it really been that long???) my family went to Seoul, Korea to pick up my brother after he served a faithful two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. None of us had ever been to Asia before and it was a really cool experience, despite the humidity and feeling sticky all day long. We stayed in a pretty fancy hotel with a very fancy toilet. This toilet/bidet had many buttons that performed various cleaning functions. One night, my sisters and I decided to play around with them to see what they did. We all huddled around the toilet and started to push buttons. Nothing too exciting happened until we pressed this one special button. I don't even remember what it was called, but I do remember the stream of shooting water that went up over my head and hit the bathroom door. The three of us just about died laughing in that little bathroom. I seem to remember that Maren went into the bathroom after that to play around with the toilet by herself and hearing some interesting squeals and giggles coming from the bathroom. To this day I can't think of a bidet without thinking about this story.

Day 22 - A photo of my family

I'm tired of apologizing for my slacker-ness. I'm determined to finish this dang 30 day challenge in 100. I'm so bad! I have a hard time just picking one photo of my family so instead I will share some pictures of our recent trip up to Island Park, Idaho where my family has a cabin.Shaun all ready to drive to Idaho!

Nicky just wanted to chew on my mom's yarn.

My dad and Bryce are avid fly-fishermen. Every night they would sit at this table and talk about which flies to tie and where they were going to fish the next day.

My adorable husband and puppy.

All ready to go on a walk!

This kid loves Doritos.

He also loves Uncle Bryce

Maren and I made a few wreaths while we were up there. This one is a balloon wreath for birthdays. It turned out so cute.

The only picture of me from the trip. These two yellow balloons were stuck together. We giggled...


We found Shaun asleep like this one night. His face pressed against the mesh of his pack-n-play.

Close up look at him. It was hilarious. I wonder if he woke up with lines on his face the next morning...

We had a lot of fun on this trip. Going up to Idaho is always really relaxing and fun. While we were up there my parents celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary. Someday that will be me and Bryce! Even though we missed those of my family that couldn't come up, it was great spending so much time together. Next time Angie and Kevin will be able to come for the Hazen family reunion but we'll still miss J.C. and Jordan. Someday we'll get the whole fam dam up there!

Day 21 - A travel story

At the rate I'm going it's going to take me 90 days to finish this blasted challenge. I'm really good at things like this...

We are now getting settled in our new place. I'm not sure who doesn't know, but we're living in a family member's mother's home who passed away like 15 years ago. The family has no intention of selling the house, and they haven't removed practically anything from it. All of her furniture, kitchen utensils, and many of her clothes are still here. I need to take pictures of everything and show everyone what a time warp this house is. Think 1970's grandma house and you'll have a pretty good idea of what we're dealing with. It's a great house though.

Back to the challenge. On May 25, we packed up all of our belongings and put them in an ABF truck and prepared to drive halfway across the country to Utah. We slept on an air mattress that night in our apartment and left bright and early on the 26th. I had planned on taking two days for the trip, but Bryce was determined to do it in one. Austin to Ogden is 1380 miles. That's a long way to do in one day. But we did it. We each took turns driving and sleeping in my little bug so we both felt pretty good the whole day. Once we got to Moab, UT though, I was starting to fade. By that point we had been in the car for 17 hours and it was completely dark. My butt was exceedingly sore. We rolled into my parent's house at 1 am after 21 hours of constant driving.

We decided to stay at my parent's house for a few days until we got settled into Granny's house. My mom told me to go sleep in my brother's room in the basement instead of going up to my old room, which is right above hers. She said that she didn't want to get woken up. I thought that was kind of weird, but didn't really think much of it. The next morning, my mom woke us up at 9 am and plopped an adorable red puppy, the same breed as Penny, on me. I squealed with excitement and joy and maybe had a couple tears. Just maybe. I've been wanting a puppy for soooo long. Bryce and I had been saving our spare change in a jar on our dresser to save up for one. My mom told me that her name was Nicky (short for Nickel) and that we would have joint custody of her. She paid for her and I will take care of all the vet visits, food, and everything else. My mom has been really lonely without Penny around, so having a puppy has been so good for her and for me. Nicky stays with me most of the time, but my mom is always around to puppy-sit.

I can't believe that everyone was able to keep this a secret from me for so long! My mom had emailed the breeder at the end of April about getting her! I was totally surprised. Nicky has been so much fun to have. We just love her. She is the snuggliest and most loving little puppy. She loves being held and is constantly climbing in my lap to cuddle. As I type right now, she's chewing a bone in my lap. Everyone that meets her thinks she is just the cutest thing ever. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.Our puppy fund all rolled up. Grand total was $269.50
Nicky! Bryce is going to take some nice pictures of her, but I just had a couple on my camera. Don't you love our bedspread and matching headboard??? Sleeping on a king size bed after sleeping on a full size for 2 1/2 years has been a strange adjustment. Bryce seems so far away!

She loves to snuggle.