Cabin and Other Things

I can't remember if I mentioned this earlier, but our good friends/neighbors, Bret & Am moved. (sad day).  And.. they're expecting their first baby very soon!! (yeah!)  -So, we decided we needed to get one more trip up to Bret's families "amazing" cabin up by Strawberry Reservoir.  We  went over Memorial Day, and a great time as always.

Jordan loves an excuse to shoot his guns.  We hung up ridiculous posters all over the property and shot to our hearts content.  (Jordan looks so much like his Dad in this picture.  First time, I really noticed the resemblance.)

This picture makes me laugh so hard.  It's pretty hilarious, but I needed to document Am's darling 8 month pregnant belly.  She is the camping queen.  Who camps when they're 8 months pregnant?!!.. And... being that we were the first one's up to the cabin this year, we ran into a few broken water pipes, making this a legitimate camping experience for us all.  Out house and all.  Hahaha

I wasn't kidding when I said Jordan likes to shoot his guns.  Here he is shooting Bret with his air soft gun, and Bret tries to run across field without getting shot. 

The boys made us wake up at 5am to go fishing since we didn't catch anything last year.  So we woke up at the crack of dawn, and it was FREEZING!! Beautiful as ever, mist on the lake as we watched the sunrise, but so so sooooo cold.... And yet we still only caught one fish.  I guess we were destined to only catch crawdads. :)  Yep, we caught a bunch of crawdads to lift our spirit, and then being the animal lovers we are.  We tied them up with fishing line, dangled them from the trees back at the cabin and shot them one by one with the guns.  Gross?... A little.  But Fun?... Most definitely. 

We had a great time, and will miss Bret & Amberly so much when they make they're big trip to Lehi in a few months.

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In other news... Guess who's going to be a Wild Cat again?!... Yep.  Jordan got accepted into Weber State's MBA program this weekend.  He is beyond happy about this.  His classes from Westminster will transfer over, and he will start classes the end of June.  He's hoping he can finish up in 3 quick semesters.  So hopefully he'll be done with school for good next Summer.  I'm so proud of him, and wish him luck with his new adventure.  So thus starts the Summer of Jordan.  We're going to live up June as best as possible.  Hopefully we can squeeze in a little fun in the next few weeks.

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-Also, Jordan bought me a road bike for Mother's "Wives" Day this year.  We've been riding bikes a lot lately.  And I decided I'm officially a horrible bike rider.  We rode 13 miles the other day and I honestly think running that distance is easier.  Am I out of shape or what?  Never a dull moment at the Harrison Home :)

Mom's Retirement Parties

After 25 years, my sweet Mom finally has decided to retire.  My Dad's been retired for a few years now, and I'm excited for them to be home together now. 

(I made these invitations, and insisted that we have a party in her honor.)

The whole family, minus Julianne & her family- We always miss them. The Grandkids are so happy Grandma's going to be home more to play.  Look at those smiles.

 

Mom's family is always so supportive.

We timed the party just right so that Dad's family could make it too.  My Aunt LaRae & Uncle Wayne left 2 days later to serve a mission in Honduras.  So everyone was down to say their goodbyes.  It was nice to see my Dad's siblings since we don't see them near enough.

Her school also threw her a retirement party.  It was so nice.  So many people showed up to see her.  TONS of students past and present came by, tons of past co-workers, and lots of friends and family.  It was such a nice party.  You could tell she was truly loved.

My Mom is amazing. She was an incredible teacher, and touched so many lives. She loved teaching, and taught strong till the end.

 I'm grateful to say I was able to have her as a teacher long ago in Pre-school, but even better then that is that she's taught me every day since then.   I love her, and I'm so happy for her to embark on a new adventure.

Our First Half Marathon

On May 19th, Jordan, my Dad, and I ran the Ogden Half Marathon together.

It was Jordan and I's first Half Marathon, and we had a blast.  Dad was awesome, and stayed right with us the whole time.  The course was absolutely gorgeous, mostly downhill, and so nicely organized.  I'd run it again in a heart beat.

 All smiles at the finish line. 

 Our time was 2:10:22.  Probably Dad's slowest race ever, but who cares.  We had a great time together, and I'm proud of us.  13.1 miles...We Rock!! The next question is, which race to sign up for now?

The last few weeks

We've had an eventful/fun last few weeks in the Harrison neck of the woods.

First off, we had a work party for my office at "Get Air", the new trampoline park in Kaysville.  I was so excited, because we came here a few weeks earlier for young womens, and had a blast.  I wanted to show Jordan and all my work buddies how fun it was.  So... we were having a great time, until we all started taunting our sweet friend Erin to jump off one of those carpeted blocks to another one.  She was nervous, so we applied a thick coat of "peer pressure" and convinced her to try it like the rest of us all had.  Well... I bet you can guess what happened next... 

 Yep, first jump and her leg snapped right in half.  Poor thing.  She was such a trooper though.  No tears, cussing, yelling, etc.  She was amazing.  Her husband wasn't there, so Chauny & I took her to the Instacare thinking it was just a small break, but as you can see from the x-ray below it was a very extensive break.  So we headed off to the Emergency Room for surgery. 

 Here Erin lies on the stretcher bed in all her glory, awaiting surgery.  They ended up putting a titanium rod down her bone and securing it with screws behind her knee and ankle.  Ouch!  I can't even begin to say how bad I feel about this whole thing even happening.  I feel responsible, and spent the day of her surgery sobbing, feeling so awful.  She has been so positive, and actually said she still likes me :)  Love this girl.  Happy Healing Erin!!! 

On a happier note, that also involves a cute girl, my baby sister McKenzie had her Sr. Prom a few weeks ago.  She looked gorgeous!!! 

  Then...I hosted a little get-together with my darling friends I grew up with last weekend.  These are all the girls I went to Primary with, and I love that we've been able to get together a few times in the last little while.  It's so fun that we still all get along, and have so much in common. 

Another fun thing we did was this last Monday, our great friends Nick & Casey invited us to the Jazz Play-off game 4 against the Spurs. Of course, the Jazz lost, but... we had so much fun, and had amazing seats!!! Thanks friends.

** A few other fun things that have been going on in the last little while that I don't have pictures of are...

*I hosted a baby shower for one of my best friends Amberly.  She's having a baby girl in July, but she actually moved out of our neighborhood two weeks ago.  Her hubby got a job in Lehi, so they needed to move.  Jordan & I are so sad to see them leave, and hope we'll be able to stay close friends no matter the distance.

*We've been running like mad in preparation for our half marathon that's just around the corner.  We actually ran 13.1 miles last weekend, and now know we can do this thing!!

*The weather has been amazing, and we've taken advantage.  We expanded our garden, planted shrubs & trees in our new flower bed, and planted flowers and the rest of the garden this weekend.  Pray the weather will stay nice, so my new plants don't die.

*Jordan & I signed up for Tennis lessons this summer.  We're so excited.  It's an 8 week adult class, and I can't wait.

*My Mom had her retirement open house at school this last week.  She had such a good turn out, and it made me realize what a wonderful teacher/woman she is.  People love her.  So do I.  We're having a big party for her later in the month, so I'll post more pictures then.

*We recently had a Relief Society meeting this month about Emergency Preparedness.  I really came away thinking Jordan & I need to step it up in that department.  We made a list of things we want to do to get more organized and prepared, and have been working on it already.  I already feel so much better about us.  It brings peace of mind, just having a plan.

*Just wanted to mention that I had the rudest patient EVER this month.  She was just akward to begin with, and the only thing she said to me the whole appointment was, "I just need a really good cleaning" (in a demeaning voice mind you.) I wanted to say, "Are you kidding me?  Do you think I do a half job on people I don't like?  Seriously, I'm a professional.  I'll clean your teeth, and I'll do it right. RELAX!!!"  So... anyway...I cleaned her teeth, and did a good job (not to toot my own horn or anything, but I did.), and then I walked her up front to be nice, and asked if she needed anything else.  She then told me she wanted a discount because I didn't do a good job cleaning her teeth, and that she felt like she needed to go somewhere else and get them cleaned again because they still felt dirty.  I wanted to SCREAM!!!! I hate this woman.  But love the people I work with, because they all stood up for me.  Long story short... she didn't get a discount, the doctors confirmed to her that her teeth were indeed "cleaned", and hopefully I'll never see that woman again.  SERIOUSLY... SOME PEOPLE.

*On a more positive note... I wanted to mention a person that I love.  Jordan & I have the greatest neighbors ever.  I love the Farnsworth family.  Even though we probably have a 10 year age difference, we've become great friends, and I feel like I live next door to my sister.  What a blessing.

-Life is good.  Sometimes, wild, busy, and crazy... but sooo good to us.-

Vegas Vacation

Jordan and I took a little vacation down to Las Vegas this last week for our Spring Break. We had a wonderful time, enjoying the sun, relaxing, spoiling ourselves, and just spending time together.

I was a little jealous of my parents and McKenzie though. They spent the week down in AZ with my sister Julianne and her family. Oh how I miss them. Her kids are seriously dolls. And... Julianne announced she is pregnant with baby #4 this week too!! I am so excited.

Anyway... back to our trip. We stayed at the South Point hotel, at the very south end of the strip. It was really nice, minus the smoky casino part of course. (Are people seriously still smoking?!!... It's really gross.) We had a great time sight seeing, and just wandering the streets of Vegas. Jordan fell in love with all the art galleries, and wished we had 2 million extra dollars just sitting around, so he could invest in beautiful art that would look ridiculous in our house. :) haha

One of my favorite parts of Vegas is all the flowers and beautiful landscaping, at the different hotels. Love it!

Another one of my favorite parts is that we were able to see the movie "Hunger Games". I loved all the Hunger Game books, and was so excited to see the movie. It didn't disappoint.

One thing we were both really looking forward to was walking through Caesar's Palace, to get to our favorite restaurant, "Cheesecake Factory". Mmmmm Red Velvet Cheesecake never gets old.

We had an adventure one day and discovered Red Rock Canyon, which is just 20 miles west of the strip. We went on a little hike, and climbed all over the red rocks. So fun.

We spoiled ourselves royally and went to a few shows while we were there too. We both LOVED Phantom. It was seriously awesome.

And then we went to Gordie Brown, a musical impressionist. He was really good, but it might have been a little funnier if we were about 20 years older. We'll blame it on the fact that Jordan's 50 year old co-worker suggested this one to us. haha It was fun anyway.

It was nice to just get away together. And the last time we were in Vegas just the two of us, was on our Honeymoon. What a happy 4 1/2 years we've had together.

Destiny's Baptism

Jordan's niece, Destiny, was baptized last Tuesday. It was such a special day for our family to be a part of. Destiny is almost 10 years old, and decided she wanted to be a member of the church. Her family has been having the missionaries over, and Destiny decided she wanted to be baptized. We are so proud of her, and happy for their family. One of the neatest things is that Destiny's Dad, Brandon, has been working hard with the missionaries too, and was able to baptize her. What a great thing for their family.

She was just glowing, and so excited to be baptized as you can tell.

Since Destiny had a "convert" baptism, she was confirmed on Sunday in Sacrament Meeting by her Grandpa. It was a great thing to be a part of, and yet again, I was proud to have a husband that can use his Priesthood.

What a cute family. Jordan's sister Chelsea is such a great Mom.

I gave the baptism talk at Destiny's baptism, and hope she knows how much we love her.

We're a proud Aunt & Uncle, that's for sure.

March Update

Nothing too exciting happening around the Harrison home these days truthfully. But I felt like I needed to document a few little details for personal journaling reasons.

First off, Jordan applied for a job working at the OCC as a bank examiner. He really wanted this job. I wasn't so sure if I wanted it. It would've entailed a lot of travel, but a lot of great benefits. He found out this week that he didn't get it though. He might reapply in the Fall. So we'll keep that it the back of our minds. But... because he didn't get the job, he'll stay at the bank which is just fine. He likes it there, and so do I. His boss wants him to "job shadow" one of the commercial loan officers for a while, and work on becoming one himself in the near future. Good thing about the bank too is that they have agreed to pay for Jordan's Masters Program if he could prove it would apply to his job. He took off this last semester of school to work on "proving" it applied, and to make the bank pay for tuition verses us starting in the Summer. Now Jordan just needs to decide if he's going to stay at Westminster or transfer to Weber State. Weber State is interested in him now that he's "proven" himself by going to Westminster and doing well there. Weber State is closer, cheaper, and a shorter program, so it would be nice. But Westminster is good too. He finds out in May if he's "offically accepted" to Weber, and then will decide where he'll be finishing his Masters Degree.

-Sometimes I wish things would be more cut and dry, and easier to make decisions about. I feel like there's so many variables with Jordan's work and schooling, but I do know that things happen for a reason. Jordan has really matured through this whole process, and I'm realizing how smart he really is. I know that wherever we end up job and school wise, it'll be the right place and thing to do. I'm grateful to be married to a man that makes wise choices and always councils with the Lord and me in decision making.

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Next up... we got our tax returns back today. Jordan and I decided we should put all the money towards our Mazda car payment. Then Jordan called me and suggested we just pay off the entire car loan and eliminate the debt completely since we have the extra money right now. Talk about a weight lifted off the shoulders. It feels so good to know that the only debt we have now is our house. Hooray!!

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We had a fun Spa Night for our Young Women's activity the other day. The girls in our ward are so cute. I just had to post this cute picture of them. The youth is our ward also put on the sacrament program last week. They sang the most beautiful song together, that brought the spirit so strongly. I'm finding out the longer I'm in this calling how much I love the youth. I want them to succeed, and know how special they are. The youth program in the church is sooo important.