Surf City, USA

Jimmy & I spent a relaxing...wait...I spent a relaxing... weekend in California (while Jimmy was attending a work conference). I laid by the pool for two whole days with my two favorite pool buddies: Jude Deveraux & Judith McNaught-y and managed to actually finish both books!!! Impressive!?!? (Not to worry Mom, I DID take SPF 15...not the 55 that Dr Odell gave me after removing one mole TWO different times...I needed more Vitamin D than the 55 would allow!!!) At night, Jimmy & I ventured into to catch up on our favorite places! Duke's of course - best Calimari IN THE WORLD!!!
And we tried Sugar Shack for breakfast on Sunday Morning but everyone else in HB seemed to have the same plan... so we didn't quite get there!! BUT... we DID happen to see quite a few other very impressive sites:
"Jesus", wearing a robe with a red sash, saving a "damsel" from the "SIN BIN", a Bulldog that could Skateboard (Cutest thing... didn't grab my camera in time, dang it!!!), a long-boarder with 24... count them...24 bottles of Beer on the front while he rode behind them (only crashing once...but at least the bottles seemed to be unharmed - oh, and the boarder too!!!), and last but not least, almost saw a crazy guy hammer a nail into his head!!! I say almost because his spiel became SO long that Jimmy & I walked down the pier toward Ruby's, took some pics, watched the surfers (which J & I will someday learn to do!!), then came back and he STILL hadn't done it...I don't have that kind of patience!!! We also saw the Huntington Beach mascot: A cutie little old "woody" car that is SO Surf City USA. If only it had a Surf Board on top it would have been able to pull off the full Mascot look!!!
All in all, it was a wonderful little get-away that I would so do again in a heartbeat!!

Our Little Princess!!

We had my family over the other night for dinner and while the adults chatted in the kitchen, little Anna was playing in the front room with my jewelry box. Occasionally we would go in an check on her or sneak over and listen to how she was playing... I love to listen to little kids play... the things they come up with is priceless!!!
So on one of our sneaky spying moments we watched her put some rings on her head like a crown, unfortunately she couldn't keep her head still long enough so the would just fall off!! So then James goes in to chat with her and she happens to mention to him that she can't find her princess crown....so what does my sweet husband do?? Make a crown of course!!!



It was so cute, he cut it out of paper and had Anna color it then he stapled it together... all primary school style... and she LOVED it!!!



I am so blessed to have the sweetest husband ever!! Only James would think it would be so fun to figure out how to get this cute little princess a crown!!!




This weekend I spent at the Utah Dental Hygiene Association Annual Convention! The Hygienist at Dr. Van Leeuwen's, Amy Carpenter, is the President-Elect of the UDHA so she asked me to help out! It was actually a lot of fun and I learned some new things about dental hygiene that is so crazy!! Research has been finding for the past little while that Periodontal Disease is linked to not only diabetes & heart disease, but that it also can increase your chances of getting cancers like lung & pancreatic cancer by 54%!! YIKES!!! So to all of you my wonderful friends and family... make sure your hygienist is doing periodontal probing at least once a year and if there is any bleeding that is a sign of infection in your gums and you need to get it taken care of and cleaned out of there!!

Off my dental soap box now...

I did hear one thing at the convention that I thought was cute (and maybe a bit dental-geeky) that I wanted to share with all of you... it was just clever!!!

Mahatma Ghandi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time which produced an impressive set of callouses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail, and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath.

This made him....

A Super Calloused Fragile Mystic Hexed with Halitosis!!!

(thanks for laughing Lydia... I knew you would appreciate that!!!)

Come on Over!!

I love having a house that we can entertain at!!! I didn't realize how much I missed having people over because this summer has been so crazy! It is still a little cozy but we had plenty of room to have a few couples over to watch the Utah vs San Jose State game!



Now that we have officially broken in our new house for entertaining more than one couple at a time I am thinking of all the other parties I have wanted to have for the last few years that we couldn't at our old house!!! Yeah!!! Do I hear a Fourth Annual Halloween Party??? or Hot Chocolate Tasting Party??? (Who needs Wine & Cheese when you have all the flavors of Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows?!!)

Thanks for coming over and cheering our Utes on to Victory (although a sketchy one the first three quarters!!!) Go Utes!!!

Ladies Night!!

Yesterday me and Melissa went to a Sex & the City & Cosmopolitan night with our favorite work-out buddies!!

Erin & Cindy put it together and we were all supposed to come dressed up in something Carrie, Miranda, Samantha or Charlotte would wear!! I figured I would wear my cutest skirt that I fell in love with in Liverpool England... It seemed like the perfect Carrie skirt... unfortunately I didn't have a fabulous belt to wear like she would have!! Melissa came in a fun flowery and colorful Charlotte dress!! And of course we all had to wear our most fabulous shoes....


(mine are the pointy red ones on the right and Melissa wore her bright pink ones!!!)
It's fun to dress up and get together with fabulous ladies!!! They even had the bartender make virgin cosmos for me & Melissa!! They were fabulous!! I think we were the only ones not totally tanked by the end of the night!!


Thanks Erin & Cindy for the fun girl's night... we should make it a tradition!!!

August Rush!!

August flew by and I can't believe it is already Labor Day!! August was spent finishing getting settled and celebrating all of our August Birthdays...
Starting with mine, then Jimmy's, Bree's,
Steve-o's, Austin's (even though his was celebrated in Vermont...) & also an early 90th birthday for my cute Grandpa Nix!!

My mom spent many hours putting together my cute Grandpa's early birthday party. And even more hours making his cake...

He turns 90 in December but since it is always so dang cold my mom and her siblings decided on a beautiful warm summer day...just 4 months early!!


Happy 90th Grandpa!!

Now the partying is over and it is time to get back to school and, of course, that means Utah Football!!



Thanks Stevie for fabulous seats and for letting us use them every season to cheer on our Utes to hopefully another bowl game...I would be totally cool spending another New Years in a fun city!!! Go Utes!!