Honk For My Birthday!

The countdown for my birthday starts Christmas day. It’s exactly 6 months away from Christmas. I love birthdays – especially mine! They don’t call it your special day for nothing. Gordon knows how much I love my birthday. He claims he heard about my birthday on our first date (which I don’t think is true…although I wouldn’t put it past me. Our first date was in December). He always makes sure I feel extra special. Before I had a chance to tell the dogs it was too early for breakfast, Gordon’s alarm went off, he took both the dogs off our bed, and then the next thing I remember was him waking me up to tell me he was headed off to work. Usually I have to shush the dogs a few times after his alarm, then sleep for what see ms like only seconds, then shush the dogs some more. Not this morning!

So I was already feeling pretty special because of that. Then my alarm went off, I got up, got in the shower, then went to the kitchen to feed the dogs (which had already been done and I didn’t even know it! Awesome!) and had this surprise…

He's carrying on his family tradition...we have a birthday sign!

My new 120GB iPod that already had some great tunes on it

(my older iPod froze almost a year ago...I sure have missed all my sweet tunes)

I got all teary eyed, then the tears started flowing when I saw this…

I was off the charts on feeling special! I called Gordon to thank him for making me feel so special on my day. He said I was welcome, and then told me to hurry up because he was sure I was running late (no surprise there). I didn’t think anything of that until I opened our garage door and saw this...

All the happy, cute feelings that I was feeling about Gordon and how thoughtful he was went away (OK, NOT really, but seriously…this…) He said that I always want everyone to know it’s my birthday, this way they would. And everyone could help him celebrate it. Cleaver. I was embarrassed all the way to work this morning (all 40 minutes of it!). Because I am always running late I didn’t have time to stop at a car wash and remove it. Of course today it ISN’T supposed to rain! Gordon did ask if I could stop on the way home and wash it off. What, he didn’t want to drive to dinner in it with all the writing?!

I guess I should expect this sort of thing…last year it was the cake, this year was my car…there’s no use in guessing what he’ll do next year!

I’m so grateful for my family and friends for all the phone calls, text messages, and birthday cards wishing me Happy Birthday, my work friends for a surprise break with the best lemon cake with strawberries on top (Melba, you’re the sweetest!), my mom and sister for taking some time for the girls, and Gordon for being so thoughtful and sweet on my special day.

Pre-Birthday Fun

I never celebrate my birthday in just one day. I have what I call a birthday week (Gordon would say birthday month). To begin my birthday celebrations, me, my Mom and sister had a little girl time and pampered ourselves with pedicures. We talked and laughed a lot. I felt bad for the spa workers. I'm more than positive we were annoying. But we had a blast. It's always a lot of fun getting together with just us girls to spend some quality time.

Apparently we were all in a red mood...

at least we chose different shades of red,

and had a different flower put on as our design.

Thanks Mom and Tanna...you gals are the best!

Crazy Long Days

I can’t blog at work anymore. They have blocked blogspot.com. I hate to be on the computer when I’m at home because I’ve looked at a computer all day at work, why would I want to sit on my butt and stare at a computer screen while I’m at home too. My blogging amounts have taken a turn for the worse. Usually I can type up my blogs while I’m at work and email them to myself to post when I get home, but I have been so busy planning our county’s 5K, starting up a new self-management program, training to become a car seat technician, editing our senior scoop publication, and finding youth volunteers for a summer of service project that I haven’t had time to do much of anything at work but work (go figure). Now I get to play catch up. Warning: there are many posts…you don’t have to read my posts, they are for my personal use anyway (my blog is my journal…I will eventually make a book out of them once I find the time to do that).

Congratulations Are In Order

A whole new herd of health educators graduated this May. And one of them is my good friend Katherine Purser. We were so excited to celebrate her day with her. We went out to eat to a new yummy Mexican restaurant Sonora Grill (yes, I actually thought the food I got was yummy…the salsas weren’t my favorite, but my dinner was delicious), then went back to their apartment and hung out with some more friends. Congrats Katherine! You’re one of the best health educators I know!

Just A Little Off The Top

I feel a bit negligent when my dogs look like this…

But it cost so stinkin’ much to get their hair trimmed that waiting this long becomes necessary.

But after it’s all said and done I sure do love them freshly trimmed. Well worth the money.

Let Our Summer Begin!

Nothing starts off summer quite like a camping trip for Memorial Weekend. The rain came down hard up in the Uintah Mountains (which is nothing like last year when it snowed). My mom and Tim are always so generous in sharing their humble abode with us. I don’t think I would have had as much fun sleeping in a soaking wet tent each night. We did the typical Uintah camping activities: rode four wheelers, went on long rides in Tim’s big ol’ truck on trails meant for four wheelers, watched movies, played games, and ate ‘til we were sick. It was a great time and got us ready for more camping trips this summer.

Gym Partner Wanted:

Although I’m so excited for this new adventure Jodi, my sister in law, is embarking on, I’m taking the selfish road because she’s not going to be working out with me as often as she use to. She’s moved to the big city, her pilates reformer and all! And I’m left going to my gym classes alone, running the track alone, and talking about how crazy I am about calories ALONE! So I’m on the look out for a new gym partner. Requirements: Attend my gym with me at least 4 days a week (5 is preferred), be willing to go to random classes because they look fun (and then complain afterwards because they were much harder than they looked), have marathon nights because our favorite show is on and what better way to watch it then while working out, and also be able to create ‘projects’ to reform ourselves (which include a confidential file to keep track of our progress). Other requirements may be required upon demand. Oh and if your name could be Jodi, that might help ease the new partnership along.

'Go Me'...Oh I Mean 'Go Team'

The results are in…my team won the Active for Life challenge at my work and I was the top participant in my department! I won a free Jamba Juice, and received two gift cards to Target. For once, my craze for exercise is paying off in monetary rewards!

Scared To Exercise?

Gordon had definitely brought out the adventurous side of me that I didn’t know was there. Before I met him the closest I came to rock climbing was hiking; the closest thing to real camping was sleeping on my friend’s trampoline in her backyard; the closest thing to mountain biking was…nothing. So a year ago when he decided to take up the sport of mountain biking I couldn’t pass up the chance for me to get a real mountain bike that wasn’t black and pink and said Huffy on it. He got a screaming great deal on both of our bikes. He used his more that summer than I did (go figure). The most I used it was on our trip to Bear Lake where I actually woke up early each morning to go for a bike ride and then I used it for my transportation to get milk shakes and pizza. But once again Gordon has brought out the adventurous side of me (and our new location next to the mountains didn’t help) and I have now taken up the sport of mountain biking too (going two times in one week categorizes it as a new hobby, well at least for me it does).

I didn’t think I was scared of heights. I have hiked up high peaks, looked down to the bottom of the earth from the top of the Grand Canyon and not been afraid. Mountain biking was different. There’s something about being on an unstable two wheeled mode of transportation on a narrow trail heading up and down a mountain side that my mind and body didn’t love. I found myself off my bike more than I was on it…OK probably not really but I did feel like a big baby when I did get off my bike to walk it around sharp turns because I was afraid of riding/falling down the mountain side. I was much more adventurous the first bike ride than I was the second. I held Gordon back both times which is something I’m not use to. I consider myself to be a very physically fit person. I was wrong. My body was not conditioned for this type of exercise. I was out of breath before we even reached the trail. I had burnt 60 calories in 15 minutes!

Will I be going again? You bet ya! I love a challenge, and it gets me out there exercising with my husband. I’m not excited to ride over a lizard or snake however. Gordon has done both of those things this summer already. Yuck! Bike adventures here I come!