Thursday, March 12, 2009

Catch Up

It's almost a month after my last pathetic attempt at a post, so I figured it was time for another one. I even plugged my camera in and uploaded all of the new pictures. So here they are!


A dress Emily and I tried on at our favorite way out of our budget store. Just 'cause you're not going to spend close to $400 on a dress doesn't mean you can't try it on!


Yes. That is Guy. This is the proof that we went to Pat's B-b-q.



Bulleted ListThis isn't a very good picture at all but this is the only picture I have of the new perm. To be honest, I haven't even been curling it lately to even take pictures of. Not that I don't like it, I just get ready really slow and would rather sleep in a little longer than do hair.

Maybe I'll do a better job with this blog thing. I'm staying up a little later these days (past 7) so there is hope! There should actually be a lot to report on this weekend. Today we got a head start on the weekend productiveness by moving the tv stand downstairs and rearranging the living room, because...

***Drum Roll Please***

Tomorrow we will get A NEW KITCHEN TABLE!!!!!!! I am pretty excited about that. Our old Ikea table will not go to waste. We are turning it in to a computer table where we can begin organizing all of the office type stuff. So, by Monday, we will be able to...
  • Have more than 1 person over before we have to move the party to the couch (1 chair was broken and is not yet repaired),
  • Sit at a table to do computer stuff,
  • Get the modem off the floor, AND
  • Watch tv from a comfy couch instead of having to sit on the floor!
Oh happy day! I also have big plans to do normal weekly cleaning stuff, cut Nate's hair, and start cleaning out the back yard, but we'll see how ambitious I really get.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

An American Institution

I haven't been very good at blogging lately. I have lots of pictures to post, such as the (not so new) perm, the beginnings of our Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives adventures, and random other stuff. I just plain-o haven't felt like doing the whole picture upload process. Just sounds like way more work that I'm willing to do right now. But, tonight was a late night for Nate at work, and on late nights we always go grab something to eat. I had the brilliant idea of having breakfast, so decided to go to Denny's (Mmmm!). "It's an American Institution!" (Name that movie!) I love that cheap food can be so yummy!

Friday, February 13, 2009

25 Things About Me

I finally got around to this. It's been an ongoing project for weeks.

1. Sometimes I really miss Hawaii a lot. I miss lots about it then remember how expensive it is to live there and how expensive it is if you decide you want to visit the mainland. That’s when I’m glad I’m where I am.

2. I like working hard. Slow days at work are never as gratifying as the busy days. Busy days make you feel good.

3. I am getting better, but I spend way too much time on the computer.

4. I like trees. Trees make me happy. If I had been a pioneer and saw how icky I’m sure Utah was before they brought in more green stuff I probably would have turned around.

5. One of my favorite Hawaii memories is sitting on the beach at night with friends just watching the reflection of the moon on the waves as they roll in and break across the reef.

6. I sometimes have to think when people ask me what my name is. It’s a tricky question these days. Dixie Butterfield, Annah Butterfield, Dixie Dixon, Annah Dixon, etc.

7. I love looking at houses and house plans. Growing up we would look at house plans and say what we would change about it, just for kicks. I even go on walks at work to the near by developments to look through their model homes.

8. I HATE the terms “prego” and “pregers”. I just heard someone say “prego” and it annoys the crap out of me. Pregnant women are not a brand of spaghetti sauce!! Let’s be adults about this. If you don’t feel comfortable saying “pregnant”, say “expecting” or “going to have a baby” or “with child”. Really. How old are we?!?

9. I am very opinionated about some things. :) (And not at all about other things).

10. I recently developed a dislike of junk food.

11. I love the beach.

12. Painted toe nails in the summer make me happy.

13. I have a really hard time picking a favorite anything. My favorites change depending on my mood.

14. I make a daily to do list at work so I can remember what I was working on the day before.

15. I also set lots of memory jogging appointments in Outlook. The last 3 were “Johns Office – 2:30”, “Look for bill in car – 5:30”, and “Teddy shots – 1:00”.

16. Apparently I have a really bad short-term memory.

17. I am REALLY ready for Spring/Summer. If I had to pick my 4 favorite seasons, winter wouldn’t even make it on the list.

18. I hate shopping for shoes. My feet rarely fit into the cute shoes.

19. I love Nate! I pretty much lucked out on the good husband thing. He’s amazing!

20. Occasionally, getting out of Utah becomes a need. Sometimes you’ve just got to leave! The mountains start folding in on you and the valley starts getting smaller, and smaller and it becomes difficult to breath and you know you’ve got to get out or you won’t survive the week.

21. I’m a tight wad, so previously mentioned expeditions usually get canceled and the money goes to more useful things like getting out of debt. Even still though, going somewhere is worth every penny.

22. I listen to a lot of soundtracks. Soundtracks make whatever work you’re doing fly by. It’s almost like watching a movie at work (or in the car – long trips are also a very good time to listen to musicals).

23. The only bone I’ve ever broken was my baby toe. I did that while swing dancing bare foot.

24. My favorite massage lady’s name is Allison. My work place is nice enough to bring in 3 wonderful massage ladies 3 days a week and give everyone a 10 min massage. I’d love to get a whole hour massage from her, but we’ve already established I’m a tight wad. I am grateful for the weekly 10 min one though. She’s works miracles in those 10 min!

25. It took me a really long time to finish this. And by really long time, I mean WEEKS. I’d start, stop, forget about it, get bored, start again, etc

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

January

I haven't blogged much this month. I don't know why. So, due to a lack of blogging, here's the month in review.


We bought Teddy a new toy 'cause it crinkles like paper and squeaks. I personally like the new toy. I thought it was really cute, so I took a picture.



Teddy learned to shake when I stayed home sick on Monday. Now that' all he'll do when people try to pet him.

Yeah. I was sick this past weekend. Not fun! I tried REALLY hard not to get this nasty cold thing but I did. I think all my resistance paid off a little though. I'm getting better a lot faster than everyone at work that's had it. So, if you start to get this cold that's going around take a whole lot of Airborne, take Zicam as soon as you start feeling sick, do the NeilMed Sinus Rinse thing, and drink lots of water. Hopefully it'll work for you too. So far it hasn't turned into a sinus infection. If I get all the way better without a sinus infection it's the first non-Hawaii (salty, humid air) cold that hasn't turned evil on me for as long as I can remember.

When my wonderful husband made a trip to the store for orange juice and Zicam he bought me flowers! Isn't he cute?! I love them in the beautiful vase he won for being a wonderful employee. I think they're beautiful and that I'm a lucky girl to have such a good husband that will go to the store for me, clean the WHOLE house, do the laundry, play with the puppy, and take care of me while I'm sick.


The vase is really pretty and HUGE.


I love flowers!

Lastly, I got a perm! My hair isn't straight anymore! As soon as I take a picture, I'll post it.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

My New Calling!

Yesterday I started my new calling. I am now a co-teacher for the Sunbeams, the 3 year olds, at church. We had a 'meet your teacher' activity where everyone sat in their new classes and we played games and colored lots of pictures. If all of our kids show up, we'll have 16 in our class. Busy, busy! Today we had 8. Eight 3 year olds makes you stay on your toes. They are pretty good though. Most are very well behaved all the time and the rest are well behaved most of the time, so it's a good class. If nothing else it's entertaining. We had everything from kids crying over leaving their mommies classes, to the little girls in the class giving an "injured" classemate hugs, to them being just plain funny.

During sharing time we were learning the first verse of "I Lived in Heaven", which says:

I lived in heaven a long time ago, it is true;
Lived there and loved there with people I know. So did you.
Then Heav'nly Father presented a beautiful plan,
All about earth and eternal salvation for man.I'm pretty excited

With a drawing of what was supposed to be heaven in his hands, the singing time guy asked the class Junior Primmary where we lived a long time ago. Someone from a slightly older class in primmary said "I used to live in Orem!!!" Not quite what he was looking for, but funny.

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with that many kids for a whole 40 min lesson, but with entertainment like that all around, I am pretty excited about my new calling!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Who needs a paper shredder?

Since we got married we've been thinking about how nice it would be to have a paper shredder. You get all of these credit card offers and even worse, credit card checks in the mail. Without a shredder, what is one to do but rip it in to tiny shreds all by yourself? After watching Teddy rip apart important pieces of paper and wrapping paper we thought to ourselves "We should put those skills to use." So here it is. Teddy earning his keep.



Our Cookie Jar Runneth Over



I guess I haven't summoned the courage to go through all of the pictures and then post them, hence waiting so long to get to it. Even now, I'm just proud of myself for doing this much. Since I spend my whole work week on a computer (or two, or three) at a time, when I think about vacation time I think about spending considerably less time staring at a computer monitor. Not that I spent my whole Christmas vacation without the internet, I just thought doing more than Quicken, checking email, and a little Facebook fun was much more computer time than necessary. Anyways, here are some pictures from Christmas.

This year we decided to stay home instead of visiting family. We both missed seeing our families during the holidays, but it was SOOOOOO nice not to have to worry about traveling in the horrible weather that came at Christmas time. I'm not sure that we would have made it if we had tried, to be completely honest. With just the two of us and Teddy it was a really quiet Christmas.

Christmas Eve we prepped for Christmas day then made a Christmas Eve roast. We had a lot of fun making an assortment of traditional Holiday goodies from each of our childhood Christmases. Knowing that there is only two of us we tried to limit how much we made. We even halved recipes and picked a couple of our favorites out of the plethora of things we would have like to have. Even still, we had WAY too much food!!!! It was fun though!




Nate getting ready to read the Chirstmas story.
(The lamp is crooked and I'm REALLY excited to get it back in the corner where the Christmas tree is sitting. It's not as noticeable in that corner. And you don't want to know how many times I've tried to straighten it since we put it there.)


Teddy has found a new favorite spot to sleep. Right next to the warm ovens.


Nate with his stocking Christmas morning.


Teddy really enjoyed the wrapping paper, boxes, and his new ball rope.


Teddy in a box :)

Santa brought us a nice tilt head 5 qt Kitchen Aid for Christmas. He must have thought we lived in Europe though. When we took it out of the box to make Christmas dinner we discovered a European plug (The kind with the two huge grounder prongs). A little confused, we looked for a converter then turned to the mixer handbook. With only help numbers for people in the U.K. and Australia/New Zealand, we decided to take it back to an obliging store the day after Christmas. We ended up getting a nice profesisonal Kitchen Aid (the kind with the arms) for $50 cheaper than the smaller motored mixer. Oh happy day!!

For Christmas Nate got me a pair of pretty earrings, I got him tickets to see Celtic Woman when they come in the spring. I love my husband and how he enjoys stuff like that!!! From our families we got clothes, a trip to Disney World, a knife set, a marble rolling pin, a dutch oven we can use on our glass top stove, and lots of other fun stuff.

It was a wonderful Christmas. Nice and quiet and fun to start establishing our own traditions. I'm already getting excited for next year!