Home Equities, Laundry, and Rick Steves

Saturday began like any other...I got up around 8:30 and did some light house cleaning and got in the shower. Unlike other Saturdays however, I had plan to go with my sister to a wonderful land with endless knowledge, most people know it as....the library. I love salt lake county library. They have sooo much stuff and they usually have all the new movies,music, and books. Cort and i got right to work looking in the travel section for some good European travel books. (I had decided that i would plan a little bit while I'm recovering from surgery) Cort pointed out Rick Steves and said, "that is who Jalaire really likes." Considering that 1) I really take Jalaire's advice to heart because she is super smart and has traveled a lot 2) I'll be traveling with her and 3) I'm assuming she will use the same book when planning things. Cort and I put a bunch of stuff on hold. The downside of the library now....because I'm not a salt lake county resident, i had to pay $40 for a six month pass.....it really sucks because i paid plenty of taxes and fees not only to county but also to the library before i moved down here. I decided to just get over it and go for it. They have also cracked down on security at the library. There are things that look like metal detectors and when i first walked in to renew my card they immediately knew that i live now down in Utah county....freaky. (and no my drivers license was not updated, they get their info from the US postal service) After that adventure Cort and i went to get lunch together. By the end of lunch i was tired and in need of a nap. 

I think i stated in a previous post that Adam and i decided to put money into our house since we have the time and more money than we will have once we have kids. So we put in for a home equity. It's super stressful because you never know what the appraisal will come back at even though i did a ton of research at work on comps in the area....it's just more nerve wracking when it's your own loan. lol We got credit approved and are ready to go once we know what the appraisal comes back as. They are supposed to call to set up an appointment which I'm hoping they will do when I'm laid up so i don't have to take any additional days off. 

It's also stressful because although we try to keep our house very clean sometimes when you work full time you just don't deep clean as much as you should. So Adam and I made a list of the things we should get done before the appraisal (and my surgery) We got a lot done, but I'm always thinking that laundry will never end. How is this possible. Adam and i wear clothes for work and i put on PJ's when i get home....it's not like we change all the time and there are only two of us, but SERIOUSLY there is always laundry. 

Hopefully the stress will be worth it and we will get to re-do our yard and basement. 

Goodwood and Dr. Visits

So my right knee has been bothering me for a while now, but I didn't want to say anything since i was on a really good no surgery streak for the last couple years. But when i could no longer put weight on my right leg while i did my hair and make-up in the morning....i thought it was about time to get it checked out. I love my orthopedic surgeon. He fixed my left knee in 2009 and was so great about explaining things to me and making sure i felt comfortable with the procedure. When I went in to see Dr. Brady today he was as friendly and nice as ever, but of course had to give me the bad news that I would need surgery again. You know you have a good Dr. when you can say, "it kinda hurts in this general area" and he is able to push right on the exact spot of origin for your pain. After I stopped crying I asked him what he thought. (I already knew the answer since this was the exact pain I felt in 2009 just on the opposite side of the knee and on my right knee now rather than my left. He told me I had two options. 1) he would send me in to get an MRI and confirm what he and i both know, or 2) he can schedule my surgery and avoid an additional cost. I asked him if there was anything else that it could possibly be, to which he replied, "its either the tear in the meniscus or you have torn cartilage....either way i have to perform surgery to fix it." Since my left leg is sooo awesome now and i never have any paid i decided to forgo the 500.00 MRI and scheduled surgery for Thursday of this coming week.
 After that I was feeling really sad, because although i know that outcome is amazing (saying this as I move my left leg without any pain) I remember first off how scary being put under is and second how BADLY it hurts while it heals and how BADLY it hurts when you go to physical therapy. So I decided to stop and see my sister. We quickly decided that we should go to dinner and away we went with one niece, one nephew and my hubby to goodwood. The food was delicious and I drank like 6 or possibly 7 sweet teas (man those are amazing) before we decided to call it a night. I'm now in bed super tired and just really ready for this day to be over.

Never Like to Say Goodbye

 When I was little I never liked people to leave. It didn't matter if it was my friends that i would see the next day or my grandparents that i wouldn't see for another year. It was so hard for me in fact, that I one time i hid my friends shoes thinking, "if he doesn't have shoes then he can't go home". This did not work since his mom just told us that she would pick them up tomorrow when we saw them, so i gave up the charade and gave him his shoes back. This strategy did work when my grandparents were getting ready to fly back to Salt Lake from California. I stole my grandparents plane tickets out of my grandmas purse. I actually hid them between the slots on my bunk bed. When my grandparents started to panic for fear of missing their flight, my mom sat me down and asked me very sternly if i hid my grandma's plane ticket. I broke down and told her where they were but i remember she told me that if i did those things they would never want to come and see us....although this was a major scare tactic....it worked. I never hid anything again from people when they were trying to leave my house.


I then just moved on to major fits of crying uncontrollably until my grandma Lucy (different grandma) told me that it was ridiculous how sad i got when i had to say goodbye to people. (she is not a very affectionate or emotional woman) She once got one my case for crying at my grandpas funeral in publish (because this is not a lady like thing to do).....sorry different story and getting way off track. The point of this blog is this...I had to say goodbye to my sister tonight. She is moving to Prague and although I know that it is not the last time i will see her nor talk to her, i never like to say goodbye.

I was super proud of myself for not crying immediately once i hugged her, but then my husband took way too long to say goodbye and so the tears began. I got in my car and then began my uncontrollably sob. Luckily for me, my husband is a normal human being and let me cry while holding my hand asking me if i was okay. Although in all reality it is actually his blood sister and she is my sister in law, i love her the same as if we shared genes (would be really awkward though considering I am married to her brother). I will miss her very much but am confident that I will get to see her sooner than maybe some of the others. My husband has said that we will go see her in Europe and this made my cry last just a smidgen shorter than some of my others.


Basically I just need to say please God bless my sister in her travels and her new journey, please let the time between seeing her again seem like the blink of an eye, and let her love her new home a lot but not so much that she never wants to come and see us here. I love you Jalaire, and now I'm going to end this post before i start crying all over again.

Beyond Glazed

 Today was a very glazed over day. Although I worked today, I spent most of the day talking to Adam about boats. We decided that we want to buy a boat. Last night we went through KSL and found a couple that we liked. Today when i should have been working i spent my day running insurance quotes, finding out boat weights and values, checked on what our nitro could haul. We were really getting excited and geared up to be boat owners, but then we found out our HOA does not have any spots available to store our boat...this was an expense that we were not planning on, since you know, we pay our HOA and that is part of it, but apparently some people have multiple rv's and store them over there. SOO we are now on the waiting list for an rv slot.
 After coming down from our boat tooth high, we started talking about what we could do with 10k and realized that it would be awesome to finish the backyard and the basement. SOO now we are exploring other options and although the boat idea is not off the table we are going to put it on the back burner for now.
Between ALL of my hard work at work, i decided to call Beyond Glazed to pre-order a dozen specialty donuts for our 24th fun event. When i went to pick them up i decided...hey why not get two more. So now we have 14 donuts sitting in our house which are pretty tempting. YUM, I cant wait to try them.
I've also decided today as i was making potato salad, spinach dip, and dinner (pork nachos) I thought....hey it would be kinda fun to do a cooking blog since its one of my favorite things in the world to do.

Sunday Dinner

 Nights like tonight always make me feel overwhelmed with happiness. I go through bouts of depression but being around the family always reminds me of how truly blessed I am. I got to spend a lot of time with my nephew tonight, and although he was having a rough night, i am always so happy when he says my name or holds my hand. At dinner i got to listen to my father-in-law tell us a little about his life which is always entertaining. I try to soak up as much information as possible because i don't think children ever realize just how amazing their grandparents really are. I feel so blessed that my children will without a doubt have the best grandparents from both sides of their family and they will be so loved by such an amazing family. We also got to watch sister wives with my two sisters and make plenty of comments and jokes about what Kody is really thinking, and about how the wives complain alot about things they could have easily avoided. My favorite thing i learned tonight involved our favorite family aunt, Janice. I almost started crying because a world without the Taylor family would be so terrible. I am always so thankful that mom Taylor decided to have one last one, Adam, my life would be so empty without him and all the family members that come with him. Although this is a super sappy blog today, i just have to put it down so that hopefully my family will realize just how amazing they all are.


Sunday dinners are what bring and keep families together. I am so lucky to be part of such wonderful families.

A long but fun filled week

I think we shall begin with why this blog was created... Although I find my life to be very normal and not very eventful, my sister-in-law (who will be henceforth referred to as "my sister") stated that she didn't care if i thought my life was boring because she loved to read what is happening with the family. Since I love my sister so much and faced with the fact that she will be leaving on a very fun life adventure in a couple more weeks, i thought the least i can do is write about my life with her amazing brother. Apparently I am an old lady so i needed her to explain how to use my new laptop and she convinced me to update to chrome....thus why this blog was created and i am now able to use it.

 This week was actually a busy week. I got sick on Arctic Circle ice cream on Sunday and it honestly felt like a demon was in my stomach!!! I vowed to never eat arctic circle ice cream again, this however did not fix my current problem with my tummy. I had to work first thing in the morning which was not very fun since i was up multiple times in the night making a very close bond with my toilet. I ended up toughing it out most of the day on Monday but came home at four instead of five.
  Tuesday I got up early to be at the BYU golf tournament which was held at Fox Hollow in American Fork. Anyone that knows me, knows that i get lost anytime i go anywhere new in a car. I was very prepared by entering the directions into my navigation in my phone. I thought i was free and clear when i got to the last "turn right" from the navigation...the unfortunate thing is that it continued to ask me to turn right. after further investigation i realized that my phone was stuck. I tried to call one of my employees, my husband and my in-laws to try and find out what i needed to do, however my phone was not working at all. I re-started the phone and received a phone call from my employee as soon as the phone came back up. Needless to say, I made it to the gold tournament and although it was extremely muggy, it was a great day out of the office.
 Thursday I was in charge of conducting during manager meeting at work, which means i am expected to post a slide show about my life and introduce the presenters. I was really nervous but made a lot of people laugh (which is super good) and got through the meeting without passing out or throwing up. Right after the meeting i had to run back to pleasant grove in order to participate in my first event that i had prepared as a manager. We were part of the pleasant grove promenade which is where local merchants, farmers, and restaurant owners come together to meet each other and offer their products to the people in the community. We were there for an education book which was a lot of fun, but boy was it hot. After that was over i had to rush home to make potato salad and guacamole. These activities were not over until about 12, which was a real shame since i had to get up at 4:30 the next morning.
 Friday was a day spent boating with my family. We went to Rockport in Park city. I have to say it was one of my best memories of time with my family from the last few years. We went out on my grandpas boat which was very fun since i have not been on the boat since my grandpa had passed away a few years ago. My mom got out on a tube which never happens so the whole day was awesome because there was no fighting and just a lot of fun. After we got all cleaned up we went to World War Z and ate dinner at the theatre. Adam and I both got sunburned on the tops of our feet and i also got sunburned on the top of my thighs. Yikes, it hurts very much.
 Saturday we got up earlier to make it to the American Fork parade. My favorite part was seeing the dinosaurs at the very beginning. I also loved seeing our friend Jon since we have not seen him since he moved to Dallas. We got to spend a lot of time with my Nephew Kolt which is also so much fun. Then it was off to a sisters dinner which was awesome because i have never been out with that many of my sisters before at once. I missed Jodi and Kylie very much but i understand why they were not able to go. We were also very blessed to have mom join us as well. By the way, if you go to the brick oven, just get the market buffet, it is so worth it. I then got a crash course on Google Chrome, Blog spot, and flickr.


Such a busy week can sometimes be hard, but i love that i have so much family and we are all so close to each other.

This is a test

Jalaire should not be suspicious