near death

this shouldn't surprise you but i almost died today. i was sitting here at my desk minding my own business and sucking on a salty licorice candy when all of the sudden, i inhaled it and it lodged in my throat and i could not breathe one little bit. it was scary. i knew i needed help because i could not breathe nor talk. (sorry about the artwork, but i needed pictures)so i reached over into my bag on the floor to get my access card to go get help from someone and i leaned too far and promptly fell out of my chair.

right when this happened, the elevator came to my floor and someone walked out and toward my desk. and also i landed right on my elbow and the licorice candy flew out of my mouth and i had to take a big, noisy gulp of air. tears were running down my face from lack of oxygen and he saw it all. of course. so he helped me up and picked my chair up and dusted me off and i sucked it up but oh man, it was humiliating, but i am alive!! hooray for that and i can laugh about it now.

ps

my cousin mauri hates my blog header. she thinks it is creepy but i love it and think it is sweet. my little brother took this picture in thailand.

my sweetie

see this boy? i like him, i like him a lot. he is fun and funny and sweet and tough and awesome and spiritual and i am lucky. he had a birthday on january 1. he is now 28 which sounds way better for me than 27. what a great guy i get to hang out with every day who makes me laugh and likes to do fun things. happy birthday honey! (hahahahahaha)
i wanted some pictures of mark and i so matt obliged and mark agreed. it was a miracle.

family pictures.

we took family pictures out on utah lake. it was bitter cold and we thought the kids would be horrible and whiny but you know who turned out to be the biggest baby of all: dad. so we only got a few good ones but oh well. thanks mark for snapping these and matt. good job on the composition and everything else.

crazy faces, i like how millie looks so scared in the screaming ones. oh and max, not really asleep, just not wanting to cooperate. haha.

some "normal" ones.

brief utah recap

this shouldn't surprise you but i am finally getting around to posting about my vacation home. it has taken long enough. i left for utah on the 19. one good thing about flying home is that i usually know someone on my flight. this time was no exception. i saw amber and mei li at the airport along with other people from langley. it was great. when i got to slc, i was picked up by my friends in slc. i used to be their nanny when i was going to school and i lived with them for 2 1/2 years. they are great and it was so good to see them. asa, zev and ezra are getting huge. i love those boys.
i love kirstie and micah too.
i spent the night in slc and then we went o park city for a class and some lunch and then marnae and millie came to pick me up and take me to p-town. isn't millie so cute?
on the way home, we stopped at the salon to meet mama and get our hair done. i was not so happy with mine so it got cut again by nakole and i get tons of compliments on it so thanks koley!

the brothers are pretty fun to hang out with. we went to church and then had a birthday party for one of our favorite friends and honorary family members, jody. we love her. she has the greatest laugh/cackle of anyone i know.
christmas eve was delightful. we had dinner that was delicious and then we had our "christmas program". we read the story from the bible and sing songs and i always complain because we are such lousy singers but i really like it. then we open our pajamas and christmas books and read them. it is a good night. it was fun to have mike and matt there for a sleepover.
mike is so excited about christmas.
on christmas morning, we get up and drive to marnae's house to watch the kids open their gifts. it is fun to see them so excited. then we head back to mom and dad's for breakfast and more gifts. fun times. then a lazy day with food, folks and fun.
also during the break i got to see some of my awesome peeps. brant was home from san francisco so i spent the night with his family. they are so much fun. i also spent some time in price with mark and his family and he came to payson for new year's. it was fun to be with him in utah and hang out with families.

for new year's eve, marnae and dave had us over for good food and fun.the best part was that dave wore this sweet apron the whole time. awesome! ade and emily and brant and mark joined the festivities and it was a fun, low key night. mormons know how to party it up! we took family pictures but they are going to be another post. then all of the sudden my trip was coming to an end and i didn't get to see all the people i wanted to see but it was great. on my last night in town, we met kole and mauri and adam fro dinner. fun times. it is vacations like these that really make me miss living closer to family.

leaving on a jet plane

this shouldn't surprise you but i am going home tomorrow!!! yeehaw. i am so excited. i need a break!anyway i will be home from the 19-jan. 3. so i hope to see some or all of you loved ones of mine. please call me. i will not really have much access to a car but i will try to do what i can. also, this weekend i saw a good movie called juno. go see it. it was good and sweet and funny. then end. see you all soon.

NYC

this shouldn't surprise you but we ventured to the big apple this last weekend. we had made plans back in august to meet mark's cousin and her family up there. ben decided to join us. we left work around 3 on friday and drove through horrendous traffic and finally made it to the hotel around 10. then we met up with our peeps, marilyn, steve, chris and daniel, and had a driving tour of the city. we saw 42nd street, times square, yankee stadium, broadway, central park, the east river, the guggenheim, moma, the mormon temple and other sights throughout town. then we went back to our hotel and fell exhausted into bed. the next morning we woke up and went to the train station (we stayed in secaucus, nj) and went into the city for breakfast at zabar's. yummy. then we went to battery park, saw lady liberty, hello lady.
there she is between our heads. (ps, mark makes fun of this hat.)

then we walked over to ground zero. it is amazing how big of a hole there is and what a huge construction site it is. it was surreal to see.

then we went to china town and little italy. holy hannah, there are so many people in new york. it is crazy. of course we bought some knockoffs and of course we had yummy italian food.
then we went to central park and looked around for awhile and we rested on this bench. here we are, me, marilyn, steve, ben, chris and daniel.

next we went to rockefeller center. again, so many people. i really wanted to see the ice skating ring but there were too many people crowding around so i saw the ice but there were no good photo ops. boo. the tree was fun to see though.

also there was a huge lake of pennies by the tree, so many pennies. i hate pennies when they are in my pocket or wallet or purse but they looked cool here. i read in the paper that there were over 10,000,000 pennies collected for charity.
then we went to times square and looked around. there is much to see and such good people watching.
then we headed back to jersey. while we were waiting for the shuttle from the hotel, ben decided he wanted to look like an old russian woman. endearing.
after a nice night's sleep, we rode the train in to the city again and we went to see cirque du soleil at madison square garden. here is mark sitting dejectedly on the stairs of the garden.

here is the smith family
i waited here for a miracle, none occurred.
and here we are so happy that we came to NYC. what a fun trip.

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas.

christmas decorations and snow??!! what more could a girl want?

thanks give revisited

so i got the rest of my thanksgiving pictures to upload and since i am OCD and want things in order, they are going up now before i post about more recent things. so here are some more pictorials of the other guests that made it to thanksgiving and other happenings.
annie came
so did maryann and kelli and cathie (annie's sister from boston)
amber. doesn't she look pretty?
the boys: ben h., dave, ben smith, jeremy and mark.
and crazy eyed brian came at the end. he normally doesn't look this crazy but i think he was hungry. now i feel better that thanksgiving is all posted about. onto more things...

h.e.l.p

how the h do i make my blog have a cute header. i would love some input or someone just to make me one. the end.

phew

this shouldn't surprise you but i know you are all dying to know about my weekend. well, i am here to keep you up to date but i am going to need your help this blog. you are going to have to use your imaginations this time. many of you know that mark has been preparing to take the lsat for quite some time (you know this because i whine about it incessantly). well saturday was the big day. so in order to prepare him for the big test, we went looking for the location of the test and then we had some korean bbq. i thought of adriane the whole time so these pictures are for her. ade, there was bulgogi (gogi)!! also, we went with mark's old boss who once made me sing karaoke. blech.
okay, now here is where your imaginations is going to have to come into play. i have no more pictures. i have seriously been slacking. okay so on friday, mark studied for a while and then we watched hairspray (insert picture of me grinning excitedly and mark looking skeptical.) it was super cheesy but i liked it. we had to stop it early so mark could go to bed at 9:30 for the big test (insert picture of mark yawning and me rolling my eyes.) so on saturday, i ran various errands with ben and joy and kelli and then mark was done!! much earlier than expected so we got to hang out with out the pressure of the lsat hanging over us. it was pure delight. we watched shrek the third (obviously our movie choices were a bit off this week). after our movie, we got to go the party of the year. it was jenica's party and it was a bacon, cheese and chocolate party.those are jenica's favorite foods. shelley was of course the one to combine all ingredients for a tasty treat (insert picture of shelley holding her muffins up in the air in triumph). there was good bacony food all night and we ate until we were stuffed. then we played games and laughed a lot. it was a good night. hooray for no more lsat tests and classes! (insert picture of me doing a jubilant leap in the air.) sorry for the lame post (insert picture of me looking ashamed.) better one next time, faithful readers (insert picture of me with a face resolved to be better.)