here we go, here we go again

Happy 2011!!!

I wonder how long it will take me to remember that it's 2011?  Occasionally it occurs to me how time comes and goes so quickly.  I still remember being in elementary school and calculating that I would graduate high school in 2004 (even at a young age, I was anxious to be out of school) and feeling like it was literally an IMPOSSIBLE amount of time and would probably never be here.  Since that time the years have passed and already I feel like I can't keep up anymore.  And I'm definitely not an almost-25-year-old in my own mind.

The holidays this year were a little different for us since we couldn't leave because of work.  But we managed to get time off for New Year's so we decided to head up to Washington to spend a few days at Zach's parents'.  Besides us, and his parents, both his sisters/brother-in-law/3 kids/3 puppies were also occupying the house, so it was more chaotic and, yes, dramatic, than usual.  And that's not to mention the drama surrounding us just getting there!

The night of the 29th when we left Utah it started to snow, a LOT.  Our flight was at 8:10 so we decided to leave shortly after 5 because of the weather.  Several times before we left and while we were driving we checked the status of our flight but it was still "on-time."  Bless Matt and Katherine for driving us... it was a loooong and treacherous ride to the airport, even though according to Zach, the roads really weren't "that bad," it was just the other drivers slowing us down!  (never mind the people we saw spun out in the middle of the road or off the side)  When we finally got to the airport (2.5 hrs later) we ran inside only to find out we could no longer check our bag- you have to check it 30 minutes before the flight and it was 7:45- we were 5 minutes too late!  So the man at that counter put us in line for the ticket counter to see if we could get on the next flight.  We waited there for a few more minutes, and when we finally got to the lady at the counter, she said "Too bad you weren't here 5 minutes ago, they just delayed your flight to 8:30."  We immediately launched in to protests that we WERE here, we WERE!  But it didn't matter, because our bag would have had to have been checked 30 minutes before, and it was now after 8 PM.  So we should have been there just a few minutes earlier... or later?  It still seems ridiculous to me.  Long story short we battled back and forth with the lady at the counter until we reached the conclusion that our only option was to get on the next flight stand-by.  It wasn't looking good for us since 9 people had to miss the flight for us to get on, but we had to check our bag regardless of whether or not we made it on.  So we sent our bag off and went to wait at the gate.  If we hadn't made it on that flight -the last one of the night- the entire next day was sold out, so we crossed our fingers and prayed and somehow... SOMEhow... we made it on, and got seats next to each other!  7 hours after we had left our house we finally made it to Washington.  It was a long night.  But what little miracles we have to be grateful for!

a merry little Christmas

Somehow, this year for holidays I've ended up with more pictures of food than people... and none of Zach and me!  Which is ok, given my current state, but still, I'm sentimental.  Bad planning.

Anyway, Christmas was good to us this year!  I am one of those pathetic people who thinks their pet should have a Christmas present too, and I was actually excited to give it to her.  We let Roxy "unwrap" her gift (= pull it out of the petsmart bag)

 and, she loves it.

Like I said I have no pictures of myself, but I got this from my sweetheart:

 pure love.  I was so excited to get this perfume... it's divine!

 And I got one of these -yay!- because I had the old old Nano, with the smaller screen, which they don't make anything for anymore, and I had no arm band or any way to bring it to the gym.  This little beauty clips on... genius!  Thanks dad, bro and hubby!  And of course, they got it for me in pink.  They know me so well.

 I also got Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, and Ice Age one and two on DVD from my dad.  I collect Disney DVDs so that my kids can have the same movies I watched growing up.  I usually get a few each year.  I absolutely love them!  And finally (am I allowed to say this?), Zach got me a little somethin from Vicki's... I was quite surprised, 1. that he still loves me even with a belly (it was good for my self esteem) and 2. that he would even pick out something like that, which he's never done before, and because it wasn't something I asked for.  Maybe some pregnant women wouldn't appreciate it, but he really did good and I thought it was cute of him.  (Hopefully this isn't blog TMI.  We're married, cut me some slack!)

But I was most excited to give Zach his present.  If you didn't already know, I am the best wife in the world, and got Zach a brand new TV for Christmas.  It was rough going since I bought it before Halloween and have had to hide it and keep my mouth shut ever since.  (I won't even bother telling the whole story here, it took a lot of planning)  But I think it was worth the surprise, Zach had no idea!  First I gave him his "normal" present:

 New basketball shorts!  Trust me, he desperately needed these, although he might try to tell you otherwise.

After he gave me a present, it was time to pull out the big guns.  I had to slide a sheet under this gigantic box in order to drag it in to the living room from a back room by myself.  It was slow going so I made sure Zach was blindfolded first.  Don't worry, I'm totally out of breath by the time I start the video.

I could have kept recording forever, he is still freaking out.  In some ways, my plan backfired.  I thought he'd be so happy with this that he'd stop asking me for a Playstation 3, at least for a long, long time.  Instead one of the first things he said was how he now needed a Playstation 3 to play on this sweet TV, and that we should now get HD, and then asked me if we could get an awesome sound system, and apparently I've created a monster.  sigh.  But! here's to the Willey, for helping me get such a sweet deal... and to the entire office of people that I work with, who convinced me to do it, and who have been as excited as I was to give it to him.  :o)

Unfortunately for Zach we didn't get to spend Christmas day playing with his new toy.  We went to my dad's for brunch (bacon, potatoes, cinnamon pancakes and eggs) and watched Muppets Christmas Carol and Quantum of Solace.  Then we headed up to his sister's for dinner (yams, rolls, turkey, green bean casserole and homemade stuffing):

And I had to get a quick pic of the niece and nephew in the new PJs I(we) got for them.

It was a great day.  We were really lucky this year that we got to spend time with so much family AND friends, since Christmas Eve we spent with my BFF Mauri and her family (they were so awesome to invite us over for dinner and games) and Christmas morning Zach's BFF Pablo came with us to my dad's.  Now the countdown continues to Wednesday when we fly up to Seattle for New Year's and more family time!  P.S. next year at Christmas time, we'll have a baby who will probably be crawling.  It just keeps blowing my mind!

an elephant never forgets.

That's about how I feel right now, and I don't think I'll ever forget it!!  I just got done stalking some other first-time pregnant people on facebook and am feeling pretttttttty humongous.  (Like, who doesn't show until after 20 weeks?!)  I thought I just wanted to be big and round and pregnant looking, until I realized I really enjoy being thin.  And now I'd like to get this over with!  I can't imagine that this is just the beginning!  sigh.  This baby better be worth it. ;o) 

p.s. I wish these pics were cuter.  They're always kind of an afterthought, especially the 16 weeks one which I literally just took and is actually 16 1/2 weeks because it's hard to find time on the exact day!  And my hair never looks good enough for this documentary.  I'm so jealous of all you cute thin pregnant women at the moment I could just die.

p.p.s. Sorry for the pity party.

freeeee stuff

So, when I went to this website to get the little countdown ticker for my bloggy blog, I inadvertently signed up for a bunch of emails.  And when I have time to read them, it's kinda cool!  I've started entering drawings to win free... um... everything!  Hopefully one of them pulls through for me.  But there's also lots of promos, and so far I've already got a baby sling with matching leg warmers, a breast feeding cover-up, and a personalized 2011 calendar all for free!  (Except shipping. Darn the mail system)  And I'm just getting started.  If you're interested in any of the above check here, here and here.  (I think the calendars end today.  These would all be great gifts, too!)

I thought it was pretty exciting.  I should really get paid for this.

I'm dreaming of...

a white Christmas?  sure.

But I'm dreaming more at the moment about leaving.  Sometimes I just get the urge to leave and start anew somewhere different and exciting, but mostly just different.  I think this has been brought on by the cold weather and our friends who GET to leave in a few months, because grad school is calling their names!  Not us.  We're stuck.  And it's magnified by the fact that I nevvvvvvvvver expected to be here for more than a couple years, max.  I've now almost lived in Utah longer than anywhere else, and when that day comes, I think I will be sad.  Plus I have this huge identity crisis about where I'm from, because what am I supposed to say?

In my mind, when people ask where you're from, it should be defined as where you went to high school.  Even though my family lives here now, if I were to say "I'm from Utah" people would ask where in Utah I grew up (I didn't) or who I knew (I don't, really... more of my friends are from out of state anyway!) etc. etc.  But if I say I'm from Colorado I can tell you all about my high school, my area, my home ward, restaurants and weather and things I miss.  And so, that's what I say.  (But now if I move somewhere else, do I have to say I came from Utah?)

Anyway, it seems like we've got reasons to go plenty of other places.  Like Denver, which will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart (plus my mom will always be there).  And we have friends moving back to Denver!

Or Arizona (which I've really never been to) but me and the sunshine would get along just fine, and I've got a bestie there, and we have friends moving there!

 Or Texas, which Zach likes, and they have beaches, and nice weather and affordable housing and ACCENTS (I would love to get one) and we could MAKE friends there!

Or I would even take gloomy old Washington because it's beautiful and because I am lucky enough to have in-laws that I actually want to live close to.

 But here we are in reality.  We've got school -lots of it- which pretty much requires in-state tuition and BYU which, gosh darn it, HAS to be an awesome school for Zach's major, and we do have some family here... and so we stay.  And maybe someday when we leave, I'll miss it.  But I would love to have the chance!

Someone remind me how to be grateful for the here and now!

P.S.  finally our internet and our computer are cooperating!  Took me a while to catch up on all the blogs I've missed, but I think I did it!

it's time.

First our computer was broken, then our internet went down (and still is!)  I'm realizing just how addicted I am to the internet now that I can't have it.  It's horrible.

Anyway I suppose I must make my big announcement now that the facebooking world already knows...

I'm pregnant! :o)

I am about 11 1/2 weeks now, thought I was going to wait until 12 weeks to let the cat out of the bag (let's face it I am a worrier), but after our first doctor's appointment last week went smoothly I decided what's a week, really?  Plus my belly was sticking out a little farther than I could really explain, so... here it is.  :o)  I copied the little ticker at the top of my page from a friend because the most exciting thing for me each week is seeing which fruit my baby looks like now.  So now you can all see!  P.S. the "what to expect when you're expecting" app on my iphone has literally been mine and Zach's favorite thing in the world... highly recommend it.

So, a 12 week picture is just about due, and if our internet ever comes back I promise to post it.

brief

I'm quickly writing while I have a chance.  Our computer is being shipped off to be repaired, but at the moment I'm watching BFF's baby Everett, who's napping, so I'm taking a couple minutes just to say that I'm still here.  (Don't act like you haven't noticed I was missing... ha!)  But don't worry, I'll be creeping around behind the scenes, cause I can still read all your posts on my iPhone.  Writing a blog post on an iPhone is another thing entirely.  Be back in a couple weeks!  Happy October!