Palmers

Things for the new year...

2012-01-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

I feel like it's been forever since I actually posted. You know, last year I made quite a few resolutions/goals. But this year, I don't really want to make any resolutions. I mean there are some things that I definitely want to try or accomplish. You know, like get pregnant. That's something that I can't put on a list and hope to accomplish that. It either happens or it doesn't.

Here is my list of things I want to do.

1. Running the Dirty Dash! June 2!
2. Running a half marathon with Alli
3. Running at least 2 5k's this summer
4. Running at least 1 10k

...and pregnant or not I will run the dirty dash. :) If you haven't heard about it. Or would like to run it. Our group is "Things that are dirty!" :) We love the game "Things" and I'm glad our group chose that name.

Side tracked.

5. I also would like to do well with the classes I am taking. I am only taking two while working, that really is the most that I can take. I am taking an Intro to Physical Therapy, and a Developmental Reading class. The only reason I am taking the reading class is so I can take a more advanced Chemistry course, next semester. I have thought long and hard and even prayed about what I should do. Every time (not even kidding with you here) I even thought about applying for the nursing program, I would get SUPER anxious. The real reason I wanted to be a nurse was to become a midwife and help people.

That's really all that I want to do this year. I'm sure I'll come up with more things that I think I can do. I first have to start running again. I stopped because it IS too blasted cold. I also have been getting up super early and it's way dark and cold and I just would rather stay in bed. :)

Here's some things that went on the past 2 weeks:

I got my hair cut again.

Here's a picture. I have also dyed it too, but the picture isn't showing it.

The IUI and a Happy New Year

2011-12-31T18:59:00.001-07:00

It was a Thursday morning in October. I woke up and ran the fertility monitor (pee on a stick). It said I was medium for ovulation peak. Later that day I called the doctor to ask him if I should do an Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) the next day, because we were using a different method than what he tells his other IUI patients.

Rewind to a few months ago after texting a friend, I was kind of convinced that Chase and I should at least go talk to the IUI doctor at our doctors clinic to see what he had to offer. It was great, he answered all of our questions, and knew exactly what he was doing. Later in the month I had my visiting teachers over and one of them used to work in that clinic. She said Dr. C is a great doctor and that he knows what he's doing. That was the assurance I needed to go through with this.

So we were planning on doing it the following month. Then we ended up taking Hurley into the Vet several times which cost us the money we were going to use for the IUI to pay for him to get better. So we skipped that month and decided to do it in October.

Fast Forward to that Thursday... Dr. C said we should come in with a sperm sample the next morning at 8.

So Friday we drop off the dog, Chase called his boss and his boss said to take the day off! YES! The nurse took the sperm to be cleaned and gets it ready for the IUI.

Almost an hour later they call us back. In my head I was thinking if I really wanted to do this or not. Was it going to work? Would we have just paid $300 for nothing? Would I get pregnant so easily? Is my uterus a hostile environment? A lot of questions to be thinking about for one simple procedure.

So I get undressed from the waste down, you know like a normal pap exam. I'm all ready to go. Then Dr. C comes in and they forget to put in the stirrups. These aren't the normal birthing stirrups. They don't have any place to rest your feet so it just hooks under your knees, and your feet dangle. Dr. C didn't use the normal speculum either, it was bigger. So once Dr. C is all situated he couldn't get the syringe with the rubber thing on the top (not sure what it's called) so he THEN had to use a tenaculum (yes one of those pincher tools) for my cervix (I even told Chase the day before that Dr. C would have to use a tenaculum). After everything was set (and he injected the spermies) he left everything be, and let me lay there for the longest 10 minutes of my life! I cried for the first few minutes because I was SO uncomfortable, and in a lot of pain. Yes, I know I have never given birth, so I don't know what that is like, but it was really painful. Thankfully I had an amazing husband who could see the amount of pain I was in, and hold my hand and stretch out my legs so that they wouldn't fall asleep (even though they did anyways).

After 10 minutes he came back in, slowly took everything out and said "Okay, we'll know in two weeks". I asked him if there were things that I should or shouldn't do, and he said nope. We left and I cramped the rest of the day. Like period cramps.

The waiting period was horrible! Two weeks really?! I have had weird cravings, loss of appetite, feeling exhausted the first week. I told a few of my friends, but no family. We were determined to keep this a secret so that we could surprise them. Each of them said they would keep us in our prayers and we prayed ourselves that the IUI would work and we could become parents. We were also hoping that if we prayed enough we wouldn't have to go through with another IUI.

The Monday of the second week I started spotting. At first it was really light, no clots so I thought it was implantation, seeing as I had heard that some women spot during that time. Then by Wednesday or Thursday the amount of spotting was increasing and clots were coming. I didn't even try a pregnancy test, because I knew that this was the beginning of my period.

I cried for several days after because I knew I wasn't pregnant and it was heartbreaking.

Fast forward to the beginning of December (yes we waited because of $$ issues, I mean who wouldn't have $300 every month to spend, right? Or am I the only one). We decided we were going to do another IUI. Same thing as before saw medium on fertility monitor call the Dr for an appointment the next day. This time was a little different. I started freaking out the day before we were supposed to go in. Bad anxiety, stressing because I didn't want to go through the same pain that I went through for the first IUI. I asked Chase for a blessing. I knew and had faith that I could be calmed down by that, and that things would work out. It is amazing to have a husband be able to give me that.

The next day, Chase could tell that I was a lot calmer. I felt better. We get to the Doctors office and things ended up going better. My cervix was straight and he was able to easily put the syringe in. This time there wasn't NEARLY as much pain as the first time, I was SO grateful!

The Dr. said the same thing as before, 2 weeks waiting. This time we told a few more friends and asked them to pray for us. This time we fasted (because it happened to fall over the first Sunday) and prayed harder. We still didn't want to tell our family or many friends hoping that it would work. I also tried several times to forget, so I could focus on other things and not stress on something I had no control over. I had a friend (this was the first time I told her about the IUI) who asked me several times the first week if I could feel anything different, which defeated the purpose of not stressing over something I couldn't control.

The second week came and I started cramping Monday and then Tuesday morning before I flushed the toilet I noticed there was a little teeny thing that wasn't blood but transparent in color. I cried all morning, because I knew that I had either miscarried or the IUI didn't work again. I cramped bad the rest of Tuesday and then Wednesday and Thursday I started cramping with light spotting, until it was my period once again.

About a week or two ago we felt like it was time to tell our family. Or at least our parents, actually my dad doesn't really know yet, maybe I should tell him. haha We sat down and told Chase's parents that we had done two IUI's. Chase's parents were actually starting to wonder what was going on, apparently one of our friends had sort of spilled the beans at a baby shower that Chase's mom went to. Both sets of parents are more than supportive and will do anything to try and help. Which has made it more bearable.

This past week we tried another IUI. It was kind of last minute. The day before the IUI the fertility monitor said that I was at a low. Then the day of the IUI it jumped to a high. That day we called the doctor and they wanted us to come in as soon as we could. Not like it has to be done in the morning, our Dr. just sees other patients so it's best if we come first thing in the morning. This time it went a lot better. I took it easy the whole day, tried keeping my feet up or at least sitting. Chase and I were able to take the day off and we spent it relaxing. :)

I know this is a long post! I have been wanting to tell all of my friends, but I wanted to wait till I was either pregnant or we told our parents what we were doing.

I kinda have been making a joke about the IUI, that "you know what we were doing..." :) it's really lame I know, but it makes me laugh. I sometimes feel that asking for prayers is being prideful or vain, because I know there are lots of people who could use prayers more than us. If you are able to pray, please do. I know we would never make it without your prayers. :)

I hope and pray the new year brings us pregnancy! I know it's in the Lord's timing, but it can be hard at times to know that we are doing everything we can, and we are still not seeing this blessing that we have been praying for.

Happy New Year

The 2011 Christmas Card

2011-12-19T06:28:00.000-07:00

I haven't sent out my Christmas cards yet this year... I am going to do that this week. I had to figure out what picture I liked best from a photo shoot Chase and I did with Taylor Jay Photography. This is our card.

Like I said before I am sending them out this week so they should be arriving soon, hopefully... :)

If you can't read it it says:
In 2011: Chase is still working at SecurityMetrics as an Account Manager. He has been working for them for a little over 3 years now. Tedi is working for a company called Steal Network. She took a semester off from school but will be starting back up in the Spring. Hurley, our dog, turned 3. Still loves chewing bones and digging, like any normal dog, and has mastered the trick "cover."

Here are some other favorites from our photo shoot. Just wish I had gotten some more head shots of us. Next year...

It was really really cold outside!

The First Presidency Christmas Devotional

2011-12-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

Last year I really wanted to go do more things on Temple Square or church related things for Christmas. Well around October you can sign up to get tickets to Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert and also the Christmas Devotional along with other concerts and such. I wanted tickets so I signed up for them the day they opened. They put you in a drawing (because so many people want tickets) and if you are one of the people drawn then you get sent tickets!

I didn't really understand where we would be sitting. It said Plaza 1. Well we got SUPER close! Like amazingly close! These all are taken with my phone so sorry if the quality is poor.

We were able to see a ton of the apostles come out and take their seats with their families.

Chase and I

After we went and walked around Temple Square. I think everybody had the same idea.

There were some really cool trees! This picture looked cooler on my phone.

Did you know... At Temple Square they start setting up lights in August, and then start taking them down in March. Pretty sweet right?

This one is my favorite!

I'll probably post more pictures when I get them from the other couples we went with. :)

The Heart Burn

2011-12-02T10:28:00.001-07:00

Cleaver name. You'll see why.

I made this cute frame for Valentines Day. Yes I know it's not Valentines Day, but I never get around to crafting when the right month is around. :) Just how I am... Plus I forget and then say to myself I need to get to crafting...

I decided to craft this:

I have looked to see where I have copied it from and I can't find it anywhere. I thought it was super cute.

I started gluing all the pieces on then I was on my last one (the bottom right) and I was trying to turn it so I could stick it to the paper... it totally fell out of my hand and I burnt myself really really bad! Like 2nd degree burns. It was all on my little pinky finger. It has been hurting really bad tonight and I went to go get some burn cream, and that didn't even help! So I now have a fear of my glue gun and we decided that we shouldn't be friends. So that is why I have all this "Heart Burn."

Look at that big bump! Kinda blurry sorry... Can you tell I had been crying? Puffy eyes.

The Canning Experience

2011-11-29T09:43:00.001-07:00

I went to my mom's house a while ago and we finished picking all the vegetables in her garden. Which meant a TON of green tomatoes! I found what looked to be a yummy salsa verde recipe off of pinterest. The recipe called for tomatillos but I used green tomatoes instead, and decided not to roast the green tomatoes, but it ended up turning a darker color because I cooked the salsa before I put them in the jars.

Husband came home and was tired, but sure was excited that I made salsa! :)

My pot would only allow me to do 3 at a time. See that lovely rim of white in the pot? Ya that's calcium and magnesium build up from our hard water.Gotta love it! :S

Once the canning process was done (and after calling my mom for help 3x) we removed the jars and let them cool off. They were pretty much already sealed when we took them out. Definitely a good thing!But the bad thing was they had that lovely build up all over the lids...

I highly recommend getting jars and getting proper canning tools. It helps a lot! And maybe a bigger pot than mine! :)

The Husband is Amazing

2011-11-28T15:19:00.000-07:00

Yup, it's true. He was so bold to tell me that I should do a post just on how great he is.

He took time out of his busy schedule to help me switch up our blog design. It took a while, and after so many tutorials he just started playing around with it and then... WHAM! It was fixed. :)

So that's why he's such a great husband. Plus many many many more things.

Costume Contest

2011-11-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I have entered the Iron Man costume into a Costume Contest!

I need everyone to take a minute to vote for my costume.

Voting is easy:

1. First, you just need to click on this link: Hand made Iron Man costume.
2. Click on 5 stars.
3. Leave a comment.4. If you have a Facebook Account, click "Like".
5. If you have a Twitter Account, click "Twitter" to get the word out.

Thank you for all of your help!

The Tram at Snowbird

2011-11-11T11:11:00.002-07:00

Happy 11-11-11 at 11:11am. :) :) :)

So I subscribe to a lot of blogs that help me save money. That is one thing I can do to help our family get more for less. Plus it's a great accomplishment for me each time I can only spend $1-2 on product worth $10-20. Well one of the blogs said that Snowbird (one of the ski/snowboard resorts) was offering a free tram ride with a food donation. They were only doing it on the weekends and for a few weekends in October and then ending the first weekend in November.

I had been wanting to go for the past month. We were planning on going the weekend of October 29, but we checked that morning we were planning on going and Snowbird said the tram was getting a new paving (not sure what that meant). So we weren't able to go, sad day for me. Well after our exciting weekend with the Holyoak's and Ogilvie's for Halloween. Chase and I decided to invite them to come and ride the tram with us. Heck it was free. :)

It was cold, lets be honest. Snowbird had a sign that said at 11,000 feet it is 11 degrees. Guess where we were riding to?

I kept trying to get his picture on the tram but he would either blink, or move.

Me being really really cold!

See what I mean? seriously every time.

Going up

I was trying to get pictures of our "crew"

Look at how freaking cold it was~! Seriously!

Once we got up to the top the tram driver said he would give us 20 minutes to walk around and take pictures, and also asked us kindly to not play around because it would take a long time to get help if someone got injured.

Us girls in the warming hut

Freezing our bums off! :)

The Guys just chilling! :)

Then a few of us

See, again with the eyes. He must have been too cold! :) but then again I look like I'm in pain. haha. I actually was in pain due to my toes being frozen. Seriously 11 degrees!

Super cold

If you look closely you can tell it says 10 degrees!

Then finally a picture of the tram on our way down.

After the tram we all went and got hot cocoa and then went to our house and had games night. Played Rock band, and then played the game "Things". Pee pee and poop were a hot discussion. :) :) :) :)

If you haven't played it I HIGHLY recommend getting it! Seriously you will have a laugh attack. My face still hurts from laughing so much. :)

The Cone of Shame

2011-11-10T11:48:00.001-07:00

Too many laughs and giggles are coming from me at this moment. Not that he happened to forget his badge today, but the picture on the badge. :)

The Election

2011-11-08T18:09:00.000-07:00

This November, 3 city council seats were up for election as well as a bond to fund more schools in Alpine School District. Yup you guessed it! I totally voted! It seriously is so important for us younger folk to get out and vote. It is usually all those older people that go and vote. Nope not me. Ever since I was able to register to vote I have voted (except 1 election). I have realized how important it is to state how I feel. Voting for the right people in office (whether it is a democrat or republican- though some will argue with me on this) is what our country needs. Too bad nobody listened to me for the presidential election ;).

Here's proof today that I voted (yeah I guess the hubs did too, but he didn't want a sticker). So here's to me!

Hope you all voted! If you didn't make sure to get out and register for next year. Ya know it's gonna be a big one! :)

The BYU Doggie

2011-11-07T16:49:00.000-07:00

Remember how I went to Swiss Day's (back in September) and found Hurley something pretty sweet but I needed to save it for it's own post? Well this is why...

We got it from woofware.com. They were so nice when I bought it at their little shop.

P.S. Does anyone know how to get rid of animals green eyes in photoshop? I have tried several tutorials and it looks super funny every time I finish. Please let me know if you do! :)

The Iron Man and Pepper Potts Photo Shoot

2011-11-04T23:09:00.002-06:00

Yup.... That's who I got to be... Pepper Potts. 'cept I didn't have any red hair. But I tried to be as much like her as I could be. Our good friend Steph (Alexa) was kind enough to do a photo shoot of my "man" and me. Plus some other couples too, but I'd like to think that it was all for us. :)

The 4 questions people have been asking about his costume are:
1. Can you see out of it? Yes, he can see out of it, there are little slits.
2. What is it made of? High Density Foam (EVC Foam, PVC Foam, are some other names)
3. How long did it take? He says 6 months with the foam. I say since last November starting with paper, since he's pretty much been absent since then. ;P
4. Did you make it yourself? Yes he did. He is VERY proud of what he did and is going to be doing War Machine (Iron Man's buddy) next year. He won't start that till January... Hopefully it won't take him as long.

I'll add more photos when I get them, so please check back!

Oh and don't forget to vote for Chase's costume for a costume contest he entered: Hand made Iron Man costume

With the lights. Yes they all lit up, except the inside of the hands.

Chase giving me a weird look

...and then we got to hang out with the Minions. :) Silly minions! :)

You better comment on this one Mom Palmer! :) :) Since you're the one who wanted me to post this... :) :)

The Cougar Run

2011-10-31T21:35:00.000-06:00

Logan convinced me to do another race about a month or two ago. Well it happened the second Saturday of October. It was for BYU homecoming. We got to run the parade route.

All the BYU fans with their families were sitting along the parade route. As we were all running the kids would stick their hands out for us to slap them as we would run by. It was so cute! There were a lot of people that kept saying "keep going". It was very motivating.

Right before the race started, it was super cold that morning!

Raydad was cold.

Hurley was shivering the whole time!

Logan was way ahead of me.

After Logan finished he started walking back the race route so he could finish with me. The whole way running (by this time I had picked up my pace) he kept talking to me telling me that I was going to pass all these people, and to keep going. Which helped, but then I started pushing myself a little too much and started getting sick to my stomach, almost as if I were going to throw up. Logan wanted me to pass this older couple, but they started speeding up too. I beat my time in August by 2 minutes! I was so grateful that Logan came to run with me, it was nice having that motivation.

Hopefully by next year I'll be about 30 minutes for a 5k. That would be super nice! :) I gotta keep at it. I might need to start working on my stride more and it would be helpful to invest in a new pair of running shoes.

That same weekend I had been battling a really bad aching jaw. If you were to zoom in on this picture you would see that I wasn't even able to bite down all the way. I couldn't chew for almost a whole week. I had been cooking soft foods so that way I wouldn't be in so much pain. Thankfully my wonderful chiropractor that I have been going to since I was 16 was able to get it all worked out. I only ended up going twice and after leaving the office the second time I could actually bite down without it hurting. I am seriously amazed at what he can do. I don't even think the actual doctor could have done that. The doctor probably would have referred me to my chiropractor. But the downside is I still have to wear my blasted mouth guard. All because I like to grind my teeth when I sleep. :(

The Super Goggie

2011-10-29T15:13:00.000-06:00

Here's a picture of Hurley's costume. We saw it at Petsmart (it was also 75% off with your petperks card). Next year we have some better ideas for him. We'll be making it next year. No he's not going to be optimus... :)

Super Goggie to the rescue! :)

P.S. Post sometime next week with mine and Chase's costumes from a party tonight!

The Electrons Sharing an Orbital

2011-10-26T13:29:00.000-06:00

I was going through our hard drives that we have, and noticed we had a bunch of school stuff still hanging around. I saved this picture when I took Chemistry (the first time) and emailed it to my teacher when I saw it. I thought he would love it, which he did.

I cannot remember when or where I got this picture from. I thought it was perfect for learning about chemistry and how two electrons can share an orbital. :)

Hope this helps those in Chemistry. :) and to also secretly get a laugh! :)

The Ward Halloween Party

2011-10-23T20:31:00.000-06:00

So Chase and I went to the ward Halloween Party last night. It was fun. They did a lot of the same things last year. If you didn't know Chase and I were heads of the Activity committee for our church (until they changed it in the manual that they send out to all bishops and stake presidents) for Halloween and Christmas. For those of you that don't know what that means... We were in charge of planning an activity for 300-400 people. Yes our ward is THAT big.

So Chase and I did a room in our church for the kids. We did pumpkin bowling. It was fun. This is Chase and I after the kids were done with bowling.

Pretty sweet right? Sorry no costume for me!

Then this morning Chase made these for me (all because I told him he should make them)! Oh they were so good! Easiest way of making "cinnamon rolls". They were cinnamon roll pancakes. So yummy!

I found the recipe on pinterest.This is where the pin took me. If you want to partake of this amazing-ness!

Don't they look so good? I mean all that's left?

The Visit from Aunt & Uncle

2011-10-19T11:59:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago my Aunt Lydy and Uncle Terry decided to stop by for a visit. They were headed through town and wanted to stop by for a little while. Got some pictures:

Story to remember: The last time I saw Lydy and Terry I was driving across the U.S. with my friend Krista and her parents. I remember we had gotten into Souix City, Iowa, super late. I got Lydy's number from my mom and Krista went with me to their house, which was across town from where we were staying at the hotel. When Krist and I got to their house we left our cell phones in the car and Krista's parents had been trying to get a hold of us for the past hour or two. Krista's mom finally called my mom in Utah and asked for Lydy's number. They were really scared that something had happened to us. All the while I was learning more about my cousins Joy and Terry.

I also remember Lydy looking and sounding like my mom, yes I missed my mom (I had been gone on vacation and driving across country for 2 weeks) so maybe that had something to do with it.

Aren't we all so cute?

My mom and Lydy are 14 years apart. There is some resemblance as sisters right? :)

Just Family, except M because he was still at work. :(

I spy with my little eye a family picture. :)

The Test Kit

2011-10-17T10:22:00.000-06:00

A while ago I signed up for a site called Expo TV. Where you can upload videos of you reviewing products. I did a video of Hurley doing his speak trick.

They also have what they call Tryology. Where they will send you a product, you try it out and then upload a video to their site. Well I got it in the mail a little over a month ago.

It is the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor. It came with the digital monitor and a pack of 30 test strips as well as 1 pregnancy test.

I'm still debating on whether I actually like the product or not. It was frustrating for me at first because it has you put in the start of when your period is (only goes up to day 5), instead of the day that you are on right now. So if you miss the beginning of your period (to day 5) then you have to wait till the next month. The other downside is, if you are interested in this product then you have to have buy the monitor ($140-$160) and then the test sticks which are like $30-$40.

I hope all women know that the start of their cycle is the first day of their period.

I have used ovulation kits in the past, and they work, just don't buy the cheap ones! It does work the same as an ovulation predictor kit. It also gives you low medium and peak times of your LH hormone. Which is cool, because it seems like you have more chances of pregnancy then just waiting for the line on the regular ovulation kits. That line only tells when you have ovulated.

The Hurley and the Bump, Bite and Stitches

2011-10-08T17:31:00.000-06:00

These past 2 months have been crazy! Chase and I have been to the Vet every single week for the past month (going on 2 months). All for different reasons. I sometimes feel as if something is telling us to not do something, because we have spent a lot of money on our poor Hurley.

Week 1
We first went to take him because 1. He needed his shots updated and 2. He kept shaking his head, but it wasn't his normal shake off, and he had weird bumps on his ears.

Conclusion: The Vet said that something had bitten his ears, either mites or mosquitoes, or something else. They put him on antibiotics and gave him some antibiotic cream for his ears.

Week 2
It was Wednesday and I started noticing something on his belly it started getting bigger, and I was concerned. I went onto our Vet's website and you can ask questions. So I asked a question and then sent some pictures. Here's what I sent:

On Thursday the vets office said to bring him in. So I called and made an appointment for the next afternoon since I would be at Swiss Days. We also wanted to take him in because his anal glands were acting up and we had the vet express them the week before.

Conclusion: The Vet said that it could be a hernia or something more extreme. He also said to put some of the antibiotic ointment that we had for Hurley's ears on the sore and hope that it decreases. The vet also said to come back next week for a recheck on the ears and also on his tummy, and on his anal glands.

Week 3

We took Hurley back in for a recheck. Nothing new was present and no signs of the ear mites coming back.

Conclusion: looking better, but keep an eye on things. They also showed me how to do an internal anal gland expression (TMI?). Lets just say it really really really really stunk in that exam room. :( and poor Hurley wanted to be out the door quick. He really hates having his anal glands expressed.

Week 4

Tuesday I decided to give Hurley a haircut (you know where this is going to lead right?...) I wanted to clean up his feet and just make him look comfortable before it starts getting colder. I was almost finished and noticed I missed a spot near his back right leg. I tried getting to it, and nicked him REALLY bad. It seriously looked like there was a hole in his skin. The kind of hole where you can stick your finger in it. Well I wanted to wait until Chase got home to determine if we should take him to the vet or let it heal on its own. Wednesday morning comes and both Chase and I look at it, and sure enough it looks like it's getting infected. So I called the vet and set up an appointment for the following day (Thursday) because I wanted Chase to come with me.

Conclusion: So we take him in, and sure enough the vet assistant looked at the hole and asked if Hurley had eaten or had anything to drink, nope. So they gave us an estimate on how much it will cost to sedate him and stitch him up. Seriously?! So they were going to have to reopen the site and then stitch it back up. Then he would need to take some anti-inflammatory medicine, and another round of antibiotics. He can't jump on anything (seriously? you're talking about our dog Hurley the one that likes to jump and sniff and play- A LOT) can't take the stairs and shouldn't run for 2 weeks. Here's some after pictures of his stitches:

I was talking to Chase after it happened and said man that was a $300 mistake. He told me not to think like that and he knew that it was an accident, and doesn't want me to feel bad. Honestly I do feel bad! Hurley has gone through so much these past few weeks, and he's never gonna wanna go to the vet again.

He is however very popular with the vet and vet assistants. After his surgery he still did his newest trick, "Cover".

All I have to say is there better be a dang good reason for all of this to happen. Cause man my wallet sure feels pretty empty! :(

Yes Hurley is laying down with his head on Chase's lap with a paw up. We still love our goggie! :)

Week 5

Took Hurley in for a recheck for his stitches. Everything looked good but the vet wanted to wait until the following week to remove stitches. Just to be safe. Showed the vet a little bump that Hurley had on his back. The vet said it might be a cyst, nothing to really worry about unless it keeps getting bigger.

Week 6

Took Hurley in to get stitches removed! YAY! Hopefully this will be the last for Hurley until he gets his shots next spring.

The squash...What not to do...

2011-09-20T13:41:00.002-06:00

About a month or two ago we got a squash in our bountiful baskets. I thought I would give it a try in trying to cook it. Like saute and grill the squash. I found a recipe that I liked and was determined to use it.

I thought it would be easy trying to cut it up and peal it... YEAH RIGHT! It is a relative of the pumpkins, I believe. So that means it was SUPER hard to cut. Maybe it was me, but maybe it was my knives.

This is me trying to cut it. Lets just say my muscles were sore the day after. See 3 knives! It looks like a pumpkin and definitely felt like one too!

Then it was a mess! Trying to peal it. I didn't give up, and it tasted alright. I personally don't think I will be eating this again anytime soon.

It kinda makes me wanna gag. ewww...

After all is said and done, I think in the future I will just leave it on display like Mom Palmer has. :)

The Iron Man Costume and Chase

2011-09-20T11:25:00.000-06:00

This is what Chase has been up to... He wants to win the costume contest at SecurityMetrics in October, so he has been working hard to get this done.

He first started doing pepakura using paper and glue. That took forever. He was able to make an Iron Man helmet, but in the process of hardening and sanding it broke into 3 pieces. Sad day for him. Then he was going to do the whole set out of paper and then harden and sand. Well that is just too much work. Chase made a friend in our ward who does pep stuff too. They have been working together to make a Iron Man suit, and he (the friend) took the suit to Dragon Con.

Here are some pictures from the process. I won't show the actual suit until its finished because I don't want to give him away if there are people he works with who read this.

This was taken December/January of '10/'11. The hardening stuff stunk so bad, and we wanted to protect Hurley from smelling it too so we put a mask on. The house stunk for several hours.

That is different than what his costume is. He was making this for my brother for Christmas 2010. Any guesses on what it's from?

Chase outside sanding and hardening.

He must love doing this right? :) Show of thumbs please.

Iron Man helmet after hardening. The outside is a glaze thing that is supposed to help with the hardening process so there are no leaks.

This is what he was doing. Taking card stock and creating a shape with it. It's pretty cool but was taking a lot more time than he had anticipated. So he started doing it a different way.

This time out of foam, like the foam mats that can come together.

This was taken with my phone so its not the best. This is how Chase stores everything. He stores all the arms and legs and stuff in the chest piece.

He was kind enough to dress up for me on what he has done.

He just casted the helmet on Saturday. Its hard as a rock.

Here's a video from when they were casting the helmet on Saturday.

I'll do a post on the full piece when he's got it spray painted and finished.

Here's his friends video link from Dragon Con. Pretty sweet if you ask me. That is what it will look like when Chase is done. It lights up which is pretty cool.

Swiss Days 2011

2011-09-12T13:18:00.000-06:00

I have never been to Swiss Days before and Mom Palmer decided to invite me to go with the ladies. It was a lot of fun, but I was too scared to pull out my camera to take a few pictures (am I the only one that has a problem taking pictures and people giving me weird faces?). Here's the only one I was able to get and it was from Marie.

Can't wait for next year. The only thing I bought was for our goggie! :) Definitely meant for another post. You'll see why too!

Another Run...

2011-09-06T10:30:00.003-06:00

This past weekend our Stake was having a Family Fun Fair. Well it started off with a 5k at 7:30 in the morning. I ran with my friend Karen and her husband and kids. It was fun but exhausting. I think it really does matter what you eat/drink the day or days before the race. I'm glad I ran, but wish I could have gone a little faster, especially at the end. Here are some pictures that Chase took.

Before the race. I'm the pink shirt with a braid in the back.

My friend Karen, her husband and her kidos

Then there was me!

Yes that boy is running faster than me! That's not stopping me!

Chase was mad that he kept getting shots of me with my eyes closed. They weren't closed, just looking at the ground. It also looks like I have something growing from my head.

Almost to the finish line.

The Elders Quorum 2 President told me that we had like 18 people from our ward run the 5k. After I was done the race I went home, so I'm not exactly sure what my time was. But I'm pretty sure it was the same as the last one. Oh and it wasn't a full 5k, but pretty close to one.

Over the weekend Logan (BIL) convinced me to run in another 5k (which at first he thought was a 10k) in October. Should be super fun, and glad that it will be starting at 9:30 instead of 7:30.

Basket Case Dog...

2011-08-31T14:36:00.000-06:00

I thought Tia was the basket case cat... But I guess Hurley has taken her place. :)

What is weird and silly about this, is Hurley is terrified of the laundry basket. How he got in there I don't know. It's probably cause he's part bunny too. :)

Here's the straight up dog!

Star Burst Mirror/Clock

2011-08-29T16:18:00.001-06:00

I have these endless craft projects.. One of them was this. I have seen these all over blog land, and thought I would do my own. The reason I chose to not do a mirror is because we already have a huge one in our bedroom. Thought it was a waste to make another mirror.

It started with cutting out strips of cardboard from cereal boxes. Then I started gluing the cardboard pieces together and then glued them to the cd that we have no use of.

Oh glue gun, I love you! :)

Looks pretty cool right?

Rocking Chair

2011-08-24T14:31:00.001-06:00

So last year I bought a ton of old stuff thinking that I would have time that summer to revamp them and make them look better. Well me having tons to do... haha I didn't get to all of them. I did however finally finish this awesome chair! I repainted it and made it so it can be used outside or inside. Sadly, I don't have anywhere to put it and am trying to sell it. I'm asking $50 for it. If you want it shoot me an email or if you have a better offer, that's even better! :)

Another Year Older...

2011-08-23T10:28:00.001-06:00

This year, Chase will be 26. Closer to 30 rather than 20. I can't believe we're getting so old! 5 months till I'm 26!

I've been trying to make different cakes for Chase. Chase really liked the one I made last year. I wanted to do something different... So I found a pretty awesome recipe and helpful tips on how to make your own ice cream cake. If you want to learn how to make one like Baskin Robbins here's the site. Ice cream cake is my favorite and I remember getting them for my blizzard birthday's when we lived in Maryland.

We went out to dinner with his family for his birthday dinner, and knowing me I forgot to take pictures. It was really yummy, Chase's favorite, Red Robin. Plus he got a free burger! :)

I knew that the cake I made would last us a long time and we wouldn't even be able to eat the whole thing by ourselves. So I invited the family over on Saturday afternoon for a ice cream cake/birthday celebration. It was fun. Everyone enjoyed the cake. Chase even asked me if I would make it again next year. :)

Happy Birthday to the love of my life! Hope this year is better than last!

Remixing my closet

2011-08-22T09:39:00.000-06:00

I have been trying to remix my closet. Not buy clothes unless I need a specific thing. I learned about remixing from Kendi Everyday. She does 30 for 30 remixes every once in a while where you choose 30 items from your closet and you can only wear those 30 items for 30 days. Sounds pretty fun right?

Anyways I have been trying to put together different stuff so I can feel like I don't have anything in my closet to wear. So I came up with a few outfits (or the top half anyways - still not good with coming up with shoes to wear with stuff like this). I was going to wear earrings but my head was a little achy all day. Plus one of the massage therapists at my Chiropractors office told me once that wearing earrings can give you a headache.

Enough of me saying random stuff that I might regret. Here's my pictures.

I really love the colors.

So this is me trying out the outfit in my wonderful bedroom since I didn't have someone to take a picture for me.

Here's another outfit with the same cardigan

I have worn this a few times since putting this together. But now that the warmer weather is here in Utah, it's time to get rid of the cardigan, until fall.

The Big Race

2011-08-17T17:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday was the race I have been waiting for the whole summer. It had only been the previous week since I had started actually running 3.1 miles. I was a bit worried because I knew that the first part of the race was uphill. Well Saturday morning we get there around 6:40am and my mom tells me that they've changed the route. It starts up the hill a bit further but then went down through Lindon Park and followed the horse trail. It was pretty fun. Here's the route if you want to see it. My time was 35.50, which came out to be about 11.45 a mile. I was worried because when the people in charge said they were changing it and they said it would be down to that park and back I knew it would be downhill the first 1.5 miles and uphill the last 1.6 miles.

Us just a few feet from the starting line just waiting. It was quite cold outside before the race.

Nice and tired! and cold. Michael couldn't race because he had hurt his knee and him being so old (he will probably say something to me about this) he didn't want to hurt himself any more. :( I SO would've beat him anyways! :)

David running ahead. Got a good pace! He ran it in 26 or 28 minutes. I can't remember.

This is us all smiling for the camera.

Enjoying ourselves! Maybe ask us that after the race and see how we feel. :)

My friend Jen ran the race too. I told David he should probably keep up with her, and he did!

Even after tripping he still caught up to her. David took 5th in his age group. Maybe he'll want to beat all those other boys at another race. He's pretty fast.

Blurry for action right? :)

Got lots of cheers while running. Even when I was on the horse trail there was a family outside watching the runners and I turned and waved to them and they gave me encouragement and started ringing a cow bell. Funny!

Eyes closed, nice one Chase! :)

Gotta be breathing!and listening to my pumping music!

We started cheering for Carolin and she started running faster! YAY!

She was about 10 minutes behind me. That was the same time I had my first race.

The day before I had talked to Mom Palmer and knowing that Logan was running his 1/2 marathon I thought both Raydad and her would be going to support him. Well she said one of us will be at your race and the other will be at Logan's. That made me happy. Only wish my dad would have been there. He doesn't read this so I can say that I was mad he wasn't there to show his support. All you DeArmon's out there can push him around a little for not coming, just tell him I said so! :)

Carolin had a few problems while running. She had gotten into a car accident a few months ago and during the race (maybe from all the stress??) her chest started hurting really bad. Like the same way it felt after the accident. So she wasn't able to keep up with me. :( Next time I hope! There will be a next time right, Carolin?

After the race Chase told me that he had been worried that I wouldn't be able to make it. Like I would have fallen down or something. Well the only person who fell was David. I think he tripped.

I am running another 5k here because our stake is putting one together. 7:30 the gun will sound. We'll see if I can beat my time.

4 things you didn't know about me...

2011-08-15T10:09:00.000-06:00

I saw this on my friend Paige's blog and decided to copy her. She even said I could.

4 current shows I watch:
1. Hoarders - I know what you're thinking.... eww gross... It really makes you want to get rid of your own stuff and see that you may have hoarding tendencies. Oh wait was that just me? :)
2. Numb3rs - starting from the first season
3. Ghost Whisperer - starting from second season, trying to get caught up
4. Bones - if we had fox I would watch it every week. dang antenna!

4 things I'm passionate about:
1. Sleep! If I don't get it then I'm a grump!
2. Spending time with my man! :)
3. Saving Money
4. My Dr Pepper fix.

4 phrases I use a lot:
1. Are you sure?
2. I love you
3.Are you okay?
4. Yeah

4 things I love to eat:
1. French Fries - cooked in the oven. Learned too many horrible things in my Pathophysiology class...
2. Pizza
3. Strawberries
4. Naked Breakfast Burritos! they're just naked cause they have no tortilla. Nothing gross I promise.

4 movies I could watch over and over and over:
1. Phantom of the Opera
2. Star Trek - the new one, love the music
3. How to Train your Dragon - love that movie!
4.Tangled

4 books I love:
1. The Twilight series
2. The Harry Potter series
3. The Hunger Games series
4. The Book of Mormon - Just cause

4 bands I never get sick of:
1. Relient K
2. Paramore
3. Switchfoot
4. The Fray

4 places I'd love to visit:
1. Brazil
2. Italy
3. New Zealand
4. Hawaii

4 things I'm looking forward to:
1. 5k in August
2. Thanksgiving
3.Getting the TEAS test over and done with! and applying for the nursing program.
4. Possible getaway for an upcoming weekend. :)

Scar

2011-08-11T10:50:00.001-06:00

A while ago Chase went in for his yearly physical (yes, guys are supposed to get yearly's too). He had this "mole" on his back. It didn't stick out or anything, and kinda looked like a weird freckle. Well after talking about moles and skin cancer in my pathophysiology class, I was kinda worried about it and thought that he should get it checked out. Turns out wasn't anything bad, but it was close to being all of the ABCD's of moles. Asymmetrical, Borders, Color, and Diameter. Here's a picture of the scar. Sorry I totally didn't take any of the before or even after the stitches were taken out.

Pretty big right? It looks like a kiss. The doctor took a little more than an inch off, and did what is called a running stitch to get it sealed up. It looks a lot better now, but still pink.

Sorry

2011-08-09T14:50:00.000-06:00

Oh my goodness! I seriously can't believe I forgot to downsize the pictures! No one told me either! :( Man!

I fixed them. So they should look pertty again...

Less than a week till I go running in a race. I saw this race on a blog earlier today and decided that it would be the most fun in a long time! Just need to make sure you wear googles! :)

What's a post without a few pictures. (Plus I'm too lazy to take a few of my own, trust me- you don't want to see me today).

Thank you pinterest!

Definitely want this color of a swimsuit! I seriously love the ruffles!

Love this chair too! Have no idea where I would put it in my house, but I'm sure I would find somewhere.

Gotta have something to give me motivation today to get running and maybe studying... Yes I retake the TEAS test in a matter of 2-3 weeks. I run a race in less than a week!

Then I definitely want to make some of these. Homemade Pizza Pockets! Yum! I bet these can be made healthier too.

Blanding 2011

2011-08-01T10:00:00.001-06:00

Chase has been wanting to go back to Blanding Utah (of all places) to visit and have fun. I have not wanted to go because it was never fun. All anyone wanted to do was play card games. I could really do that at my own house, ya know? But, most of Chase's extended family lives there. Grandparents included.

We found out sometime last month or the month before that the Palmer side of the family was going to have a family reunion. Chase really wanted me to meet the Palmer side. He still needs to meet my mom's side of the family, but since the reunions happen to be in West Virginia every summer, it's sometimes hard to get to... You know $$$ can be an issue.

Chase asked his uncle Eric if we could stay with him. He was so excited to have someone stay with him in his big house! :)

Anyways the reunion happened to be at a pavilion all day, and the nearest bathrooms happened to be (what seemed like) a 1/2 mile away. seriously... AND the seating was hard and rough. They did serve us breakfast lunch and dinner. Which was good.

The night before we visited Grandma Kartchner and Raydad and Mom P were there as well as Chase's uncle Eric. Earlier in the day they had found these 3 kittens in the backyard under several pallets.

It seems the mom had either left them there or had possibly gotten eaten by a coyote. So sad. After getting home we found out that the 2 black ones had died. :( So sad. That's something you don't want to hear about. We at least tried to keep them alive by giving them food.

Mom P playing with other kittens that Grandma had just adopted. This one loved to cuddle.

Here's everyone at the pavilion just before dinner

When we arrived in the morning there was this big puddle under the swings. Like huge. Maybe it was more like a little lake. By the afternoon ALL the kids were playing in it. There was another reunion at the next pavilion to us and a lot of their kids were playing in it. It was pretty gross and muddy.

I just had to get a picture of the kids playing in it.

This is the park where we had the reunion.

After breakfast we went back to G-Ma K's house to go potty and to meet Eric so we could go jeeping to find some geocaches.

The first one was a bit of a hike from where we left the jeep! Sure glad we had a jeep and not our car. We have already high centered the car and also burned the clutch a little from geocaching. Too much on that car.

Apparently this is where the scouts go camping. They all hike in and then lower their stuff and camp in there. Pretty neat if you ask me.

The cache was hidden in these rocks somewhere. I didn't want to hike down and possibly hurt myself because I was only wearing capris and chacos.

This is me waiting for them to climb back up.

After we went to another one that was right off one of the roads.

The jeep

The loot

It was hidden in a rock by the tree

Pretty cool view

After we headed back to town (me and my bladder became better friends), and then headed out to Reservoirs. There are 2 small ones and then a huge one called Recapture Reservoir.

Us headed out there, on lovely dirt roads.

So blue, and inviting!

I SO wanted to swim.

Back of the head shot. He's got a nice head, right?

Me in the back. Loved the "AC" that was given to me! Good thing my hair was pulled back!

Us going up a HUGE hill. Love jeeping!

After we went up one and came back around I told Eric, now it'd be cool if you could go up backwards. Guess what he did?! Oh you're right, he totally went up in reverse! Totally fun! Probably not for Chase, but more for me! :)

Later when we got back I snapped a picture of G-Ma K and her yellow house with the kittens outside.

Then got a picture of Lily (I'm pretty sure that's her name) She seriously wanted to lick my face off. Good thing I didn't let her... She is known to pick up dead animals and chew them. Jordan (Chase's cousin) was really grossed out by it.

Once we were all back at the pavilion for dinner we sang to Grandpa Palmer because his birthday was on the 24th.

A Picture of his cake!

It was actually really really good. I held back from getting seconds!

Then I just had to snap a few of these 2! :)

They had a good talk. It was so good to see them! We haven't been able to see Grandma and Grandpa Palmer for a few years.

I'll just say that this trip to Blanding was SO much better than the other 2 trips we've had. Maybe, just maybe, I'll be coming back to Blanding another time. Only if we can do more stuff like that and get out and enjoy what Blanding has to offer!

Lions, and Tigers and Bears... Oh no Just an Anniversary...

2011-07-29T14:47:00.001-06:00

So you saw my post last week of us being married for 4 years. Well Chase happened to be in charge of our fun plans this year. The last time it was his turn we went to San Francisco. You can read all about it here.

This year he had a hard time coming up with stuff. We didn't want to spend a whole lot of money, and we couldn't go away for the weekend or anything because Chase had his work party the Friday before and he was moving into his new building the day after our anniversary.We decided to use our awesome groupons for fandango.com and went to see Harry Potter. I thought for sure there was going to be a line and that we'd be waiting for at least an hour. HA! No line.

Then after we went over to 5 guys in American Fork which just recently opened. Yum!

After eating we headed up to Salt Lake to go to the Hogel Zoo! I haven't been since I was 6 or 7. I remember going with my class when we lived up in Salt Lake. It was a lot of fun! We had train tickets, and were going to do that before we left. Well we get out from seeing the monkeys and it just starts pouring rain! We waited over an hour after that to be able to ride the train.

Chase riding the train and recording it too

Us by the elephants

Camel

Chase with the Giraffe

Feeding time

This bird (fake, really it was fake, can't you tell) Was just sitting there, maybe it was to scare the giraffes so they wouldn't leave, I don't know.

The girls

Look how tall they are?!

Can you see that massively long tongue?

There it is again, long tongue.

Bald Eagles- ever seen these in the wild?

They were also doing a thing called zoorassic park. Where they had a ton of animated dinosaurs. Some of them squirted water too

Posing with the jaguar

alligators I think... Or are they crocodiles? I can't remember

King Julian from Madagascar - they also sat like Hurley. Or Hurley sits like them... Hard to tell...

Lemurs

Cute little elephant named Zuri

All the kids loved this. It would start singing/blowing a tune then it would sneeze and then blow air out of it's trunk.

armadillo

Watching the elephants

Waiting for the rain to stop. the dinosaur in the background of this picture was the one that squirted water

Waiting for the rain to stop. Nice and humid!

Waiting for the train after it rained

Once finished the train ride we left the zoo and drove to Buca di Beppo by the Rose Wagner Theatre. It was yummy! They serve dinner family style, like PF Changs. Our server was great! She was really funny. We will definitely be going back! Yum!

The 4th

2011-07-19T10:00:00.003-06:00

It's really amazing how much we change after 4 years.

It was a Thursday morning I picked Chase up and we drove to the temple. We had to be there an hour early. We had everything we needed; witnesses, family, friends, a photographer, even a videographer, oh and a marriage license. It was the scariest day of my life. Our sealing together for time and all eternity was taken place at 10am at the Mount Timpanogos Temple in Utah.

Some of the things I remember... The sealer (bless his heart) had married Chase to my father - twice. :) One letter difference in our names. Then the last time he got it right! YAY! I honestly don't remember any of the advice that he gave to us. I remember I didn't get married in the dress that you see in the pictures. I did get married in white.

I think one of the saddest things for me that day was not being able to have my dad there to witness the sealing. But lets not dwell on that now. It was the happiest and scariest day of my life. My bouquet was amazing, my dress was perfect, and my family and friends were there. Plus I just married a pretty hot guy, and felt confident that I had made the right decision.

It's amazing to me how much we have grown together over the last 4 years. We have had some pretty tough trials that we have had to face. Thankfully they were together and we love each other just as much if not more.

I can't believe it's been 4 years. I love you so much and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you!

Happy Anniversary!!!!

AND

a special thanks to this guy who helped get us two together! :)

2011-07-15T12:43:00.000-06:00

I'm really liking this new site called pinterest. It is SO addicting! Here are some of my finds from there. If you would like an invite shoot me an email.

From Quotes, that I like

Source: dancingtonight.tumblr.com via Tedi on Pinterest

Source: strawberrie-heart.tumblr.com via Tedi on Pinterest

To funny photos

Source: onelatenight3point14.blogspot.com via Tedi on Pinterest

to things that go on the end of your pen

Source: clearperspectives.tumblr.com via Tedi on Pinterest

To yummy foods, like baked donuts (going to try them eventually), and watermelon cake balls

Source: alisaburke.blogspot.com via Tedi on Pinterest

Source: cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com via Tedi on Pinterest

To anything really... transformers decal...

Source: paperworks.wikidot.com via Tedi on Pinterest

and taking a bar of soap into 2 liters of liquid hand soap. Pretty cool right?

Source: savvyhousekeeping.com via Tedi on Pinterest

You know it's just a collection of stuff that I love. ahhh so very addicting!

A Video Worth Sharing

2011-07-11T09:02:00.000-06:00

This video explains it all. It's so simple yet so true.

If you want to know more in what I believe visit this site.

Article: Busting Excuses to Avoid Exercise, No Matter Your Size

2011-07-04T14:40:00.001-06:00

This article really spoke to me. I keep feeling like all the doctors and specialist are telling me that I HAVE to work out 3 times a week for 30 minutes. Well this article really changed me. I sometimes can't find 30 minutes to go running or even an hour to go work out! What the author of this article is saying is that it's okay if you only have 10 minutes to go work out. That's better than nothing. Even if it's shoveling the walks or walking down to the driveway and back 5 times.

I always like to post it here so that way people who don't want to open a new window can enjoy it here. Here's the link to the article.

Remember this was written from Beth, not me!

"By Beth Donovan aka ~Indygirl

I used to think I had to have a goal of running a 5K or working out for at least a half hour a day to get any benefits from exercise. I was dead wrong. Every little bit of moving we do adds up and studies have shown that even daily broken up exercise routines work to reduce health concerns. SparkGuy himself sets a modest goal of 10 minutes a day, which he usually surpasses. I followed his lead and although at first I wasn't able to do a full 10 minutes, I broke it up into a few minutes a few times a day. Something happens after 10 minutes though, and I find myself reaching for that 11th minute, the 12th minute and more.

If you haven't moved in awhile, start slowly and ask your doctor what exercises might be right for you, especially if you have chronic pain or a disability. I started my exercise routine with sessions of in-home physical therapy because I was bedridden at the time. Wherever you are at with your fitness level, accept it and find the best workout for YOU, not for your friend or favorite celebrity. Just moving at all for some people is a workout, while others might need more vigorous training. You need to find your personal fitness level and build on it. When looking for a workout routine, remember it needs to be something you will enjoy. Try different things until you find what suits your tastes. Here's what works for me:

Set modest goals. Don't burn yourself out before you even get started. If you haven't worked out in a year, starting with an hourlong walk a day might not be practical and might burn you out or leave you injured. You might start with a 10-minute walk for a week, then go to 15 minutes the next week depending on your fitness level. My goals usually change each month. I'm very slow to progress, but I do progress. If I progress too quickly, I suffer from too much pain and start to dread working out. When that happens, I slowly find reasons not to exercise. The trick is to not let that happen in the first place. To avoid the problem, I make my goals as easy to reach as possible. I want to succeed, so I make them attainable. Making them impossible or too challenging would serve no purpose for me.
Music can be extremely motivating. My playlist is something I try not to listen to unless I'm working out. Why? It's my reward for working out. I get to hear music I like when I exercise and I make sure the music is downright addictive to me so that I want to hear the next song. That way I will keep working out so I can listen to the music.

I get motivated to go to the gym by people I meet there. I'm very social most of the time. If you are like me, a gym might be a great place to make friends by taking a class or showing up at the same time each day/night. If you like exercising at home or alone, having an accountability buddy might work. My friend Tina and I call each other and brag on our exercise or good choices throughout the day. It keeps me motivated and wanting to make more good choices.
Workout clothing makes me feel motivated, too. I never thought I would say that, as I always considered myself inactive. When I dress in workout clothes, they make me feel like moving. The problem with being large is that finding cute workout clothes isn't easy. Lately I've had a lot of fun shopping at Goodwill for my workout clothes, something I was never able to do before. (For more tips on workout clothes, equipment and more, check out: Solutions to the Challenges of Living Large or Less Mobile)
If you just aren't the indoor exercise type, take it outside. Enjoy the scenery, no matter what season; there is something to do, even if it is just to march in place or shovel snow. Walk to the mailbox to get your mail if that's all you can do or make a few trips up and down the driveway. Look into dog-walking programs at the local pound if you enjoy animals. Some nursing homes have buddy programs, too, or you might be able to befriend a senior and exercise at a slower pace together.
Make a dream list of activities you would like to do in your fit life. Using that dream list to motivate yourself to train for those activities might be another way to get excited about exercise. Personally, I would like to walk through a water park again and swim in the wave pool. I would also like to walk through Disney World and Epcot Center again and along the beach in Florida with my husband. To do this, I am strengthening my legs as much as I can via use of my walker and cane. I also do cardio on my arm bike, pushing the resistance as far as I can to get resistance training at the same time.

These are the ways that I stay on track when exercise seems tedious or too difficult. I hope these tips help you as well. Remember that before you start or change an exercise plan, you should discuss it with your doctor.

What are your dreams? What could you strengthen to reach them"

What are your thoughts?

Recipe: Lemon Chocolate Chip Muffins

2011-07-03T12:46:00.001-06:00

These have always been my favorite growing up. I tried making them a few weeks ago and they honestly didn't turn out the same as I remember them. Probably because I didn't follow the directions. The thing that I tend to forget to spray the tins with cooking spray. Even when I do remember to spray the tins they STILL stick to the pan. Man I must be doing something wrong. Next time I'll also line the tins with flour. That seems to work wonders for me! Here's the recipe if you're dying to try them! I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of lemon, but it gives this just enough flavor that it tastes really good.

Trip outside = fun findings

2011-07-02T10:24:00.009-06:00

A long time ago (like months) I decided I was going to go to go to a place that I hadn't been before called World Market. One my way there - cause it was in Salt Lake, I thought I would go to Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's and Michaels. Well when I go shopping I usually don't know what I want to get. Horrible, because I tend to spend a little more money than is needed. Well I knew what I wanted at Michael's and JoAnn's but when I got to Hobby Lobby I thought I wanted some fabric, but then I decided that I didn't want that. Anyways I walked around the store for over an hour. While I was walking around I found these two beauties, and thought Chase would LOVE to have them!

After Hobby Lobby I made my way to World Market. I had been seeing these ALL over blog land for a while now, and they had a bunch of these there for $50!

Did Chase really Make these?

2011-07-01T10:33:00.002-06:00

Yep! Yes those are cinnamon rolls.

Looks Yummy right?

This One's for Carolin...

2011-06-29T10:06:00.000-06:00

Yearly Y Hike

2011-06-28T17:30:00.000-06:00

So the weekend before we had traveled to Moab. Then we thought that since it was nice weather we thought we could hike the Y.

Matching smiles haha

Long way down!

All of us

Such a happy googie!

Moab 2011

2011-06-27T17:40:00.001-06:00

Last month Chase and I went down to Moab. Here's some pictures! We had a TON of fun! We totally missed our little goggie! He seriously would have loved to go with us too! :(

"Lets start from the very beginning..." No I'm not going to break out in song. Any guesses on what movie that's from.. Just popped into my head as I was writing this.

So we stayed at the OK RV down in Moab. It's on the south south side of Moab. Like almost leaving Moab south.

Just imagine a tent there. Okay? I remembered after we had it all set up the day we arrived, but then totally forgot to take a picture.

Yes that is totally a cocoon

Look at all them caterpillars! On our tarp! The lady warned us before we even signed in. She said "I hope your not afraid of caterpillars! Cause there seems to be a lot of them this year." Yeah, thankfully we didn't eat any. We found I think 5 or 6 or 7 (maybe more I can't remember) cocoons on or around our tent! That's WAY too many!

First Day:

We went to Balanced Rock

See its falling over... lol

The first things you see when you head into Arches:

Tower of Babel I think that's what it's called

Pretty sweet right? The Three Gossips

My okay! Chase and his brother used to say this when they were little. We say it now in our house, it's kinda funny. Anyways this is called Turret Arch, I think.

Chase loved getting photos of me. By the time we reached Delicate Arch I was tired of him taking pictures of just me. Not that I was tired or anything. These were all pretty easy hikes.

While Chase was setting this picture up another guy asked if he could take our picture for us. Chase said no thanks, then after Chase said that the guy said the last time they were here his friend did the same thing and his camera blew away, and smashed. Thankfully that didn't happen to us.

We had an Italian couple take a picture of us. They were able to understand me asking them where they were from, and they said Italy. I asked where, and they didn't answer. I hope my english isn't that bad! lol

Another picture of me alone.

Then I got one of him!

Don't worry I was having a fun time. The picture doesn't do me justice.

And another one of him

And another, mwahahah

Day 2: Saturday
We decided Saturday that we were going to take it slow in the morning, and then be able to hike to delicate arch by the afternoon/evening so we could see the sunset.

We first hike to landscape arch, not a bad hike

On our way back to the car it started looking gloomy - the forecast was supposed to be scattered thunderstorms. :S As we headed out we stopped at Sand Dune Arch

It was really windy love the hair right?

Feet in the sand! Oh it was nice and cold!

Then we stopped to get a picture at Fiery Furnace Viewpoint and it started sprinkling a little. After that we went to go eat back in Moab. We were both tired, and Chase wanted to find a geocache. Well we walked on the bridge hoping to find it, and no luck. But I got some pretty neat pictures.

See the nice brown Colorado River?! Wouldn't want to go swimming in that!

Then we headed back into arches, taking our sweet time. Filled up our water bottles, trying to get ready for the hike to delicate arch.

Me at the Upper Delicate Arch Viewpoint

Giving me tongue

Hiking to delicate. Almost there! Seriously right around the corner and up some rock stairs

So pretty!

It was my very first time hiking to Delicate Arch. I have only been to Moab 1 other time and it was when I was like 8 or 9.

Us under it, huge right?!

Just can't get enough of it! I loved it and it was so pretty and huge!

We were going to stay till sunset, but my bladder decided to disagree with me, so I about ran the whole way back to the icky bathrooms... aka pit in the ground!

Chase and I had a lot of fun being together, and I think we'll make this a tradition to go camping down in Moab. We'll most likely do it again when the weather was cool like it was in May. Seriously it was perfect weather. I don't think I would of enjoyed it that much if it had been any hotter. One thing Chase learned from our time at Arches is that, we need to enjoy it because one day it won't be there anymore. Who knows when delicate arch might fall down or any other arch. It was so great to be able to take time to visit the park.

Love this advice from Modern Rust

2011-06-25T22:24:00.000-06:00

Lovely Advice from Modern Rust, you can see their original post HERE.

Health:

Drink plenty of water.
Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
Live with the 3 E’s – Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy
Play more games.
Read more books than you did in 2010.
Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
Sleep for 7 hours.
Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:

Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
Don’t over do. Keep your limits.
Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.
Dream more while you are awake.
Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others.
Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
Smile and laugh more.
You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Society:

Call your family often.
Each day give something good to others.
Forgive everyone for everything.
Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
Try to make at least three people smile each day.
What other people think of you is none of your business.
Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:

Do the right thing!
Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
However good or bad a situation is, it will change.34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
The best is yet to come.
Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

Random Food - Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup

2011-06-23T19:33:00.000-06:00

So it's been a while since I took these, but I made these for March 17 - St Patricks Day. There was green cauliflower in our bountiful baskets one Saturday and so I thought it would be fun to make this. Wisconsin Cauliflower soup. SoO good!

Hmm... Makes you wonder....

2011-06-22T15:17:00.000-06:00

Makes you wonder what they are putting in a lot of foods. This was just comparing better Mac N Cheese to the icky Mac N Cheese.

Sorry it's been a while again. I thought I was getting back in the swing of things... But nope. A few things we've been doing...

*Bought bikes so we can go riding
*Worked for a management company for 1-1/2 months
*Started planting beans and trying to plant bell peppers (haven't come up yet)
*Going to run in this 5K with my sister, brother and possibly step father
*Chase working on his Iron Man Costume! He'll have to create a post for that! :) It's awesome

Ya in the past month that's about all that we've been doing! Pretty boring right? :)

Carolin: Sweethearts and Graduation... OMG!

2011-06-01T08:20:00.000-06:00

So my little sister (really not little anymore) decided she was going to do more activities while being a senior in high school. She did a lot. She competed to be a "sweetheart", was in a drama play called Finding Hardwick, and then last but not least... She graduated. She also hurt her foot during her play and has to wear a boot for 6 weeks (we're guessing, the doctor never said) because she broke part of her toe. She also was in a car accident a few days before graduation. We feel really bad. Here's some pictures:

The High School

This is a lovely picture of Carolin eating some cake, she had a really pretty yellow dress

Then a few months later, my little sister decided she was going to graduate from Seminary, AND also High School. Here are a few pictures for documentation purposes.

Here's some of Carolin's Seminary Graduation:

One with just the parents

One with everyone minus Chase

Then one with just us - yup me without make-up.

Then onto Actual Graduation:

On the big screen!

Walking to get her "diploma"

Facing Michael to get a picture taken

So after graduation we were planning on meeting Carolin on the main floor, well they told us that we had to meet them upstairs. While we were taking forever, Carolin decided she was going to go get her diploma, which meant she returned her gown. When I saw her in the hall, I was so upset. Everyone in my family could not understand WHY I wanted pictures with Carolin in her gown (I mean seriously it's graduation, a big step in being an adult- you must have proof that she did graduate right?). So I made her go and try and "give back" her diploma so that she could get a gown. Well the guy that was in charge of the gowns let her borrow one and told her she needed to be quick. How nice of him! These next few pictures are proof that a big sister knows best! :P

I just want to also say that it's too bad they switched from guys wearing blue gowns and girls wearing red gowns to a custom gown. I couldn't let my sister borrow mine. :(

Zipping up her gown, and she's still kinda mad at me for making her go back and get it. You can totally see it in her smile! ;)

Got her diploma

Proof that she's the only one (who rented) and got a picture with her actual diploma

Dad and us kids - yup I am officially the smallest in the family, David has outgrown me!

More pictures

The whole family - minus Chase

Carolin being funny, only I'm smiling for the camera

One with the parents, awww so dang cute! :)

Thumbs up cause she's been graduated!

One with Chase and me

She loves to make this face a lot

Finally got one with Michael smiling

One with friends and a dress she got at Savers and is VERY proud she only spent 4 bucks

Holding up her graduation gift from Mom and Michael

Chase and I got her a envelope system like I made for myself a while back. Her's is WAY cuter! But like me I totally forgot to take a picture of it. grrr

Happy Graduation Sister Carolin!

Been a while eh?

2011-05-19T16:14:00.000-06:00

Sorry it's taken me SO LONG to create a post. People probably think we've gone and decided not to blog any more... Well that ain't true! There are many reasons why I haven't blogged in the past month! (crazy right?!) Lets see there were finals (a really hard one in fact), I started a new job, I took the TEAS test, turned in my nursing application (story for another day), and went on a trip to Moab with my wonderful husband! :)

I do have some good news and bad news to share.

Which should I give first? The good news or the bad news?

Most want good news first so here goes...

Good news is we started doing infertility testing. Got the basics done, you know blood tests, pelvic exam, sperm count. Those are the basics. Everything checked out almost normal.... which leads to the bad news.

The bad news is we have a problem getting pregnant (which you obviously knew seeing as it's taken us almost 2 years of trying with no success). The doctor told us that we have 2 options, do what's called an IUI, which is $300 a pop is about a 30% of getting pregnant (we did research online to see what the chances are for getting pregnant doing it this way), or keep doing what we're doing. I don't want to hear from anyone else that we should somehow magically get $300 so we can get it. It's a 30% chance! That is LOW! I've had many people tell me that we should try it. Well to be honest, that is 70% of it NOT working. What frustrated me the most is the fact that a lot of those people telling us we should try it weren't listening to us. They were trying to fix the problem rather than listen to our emotions. I mean we were just told that the only way of getting pregnant is to get an IUI, not getting pregnant like how God intended for it. If you want the details, great shoot me an email and I'd be glad to give it to you. It's just our blog is available for all eyes, and it's kinda something you don't want to tell the whole world you know?!

Dinner and a Movie? I Think Not!

2011-04-15T13:14:00.000-06:00

This is what Chase and I did the other night. I got the idea from This lovely blog.

***Warning*** this post contains lots of kissing photos!*** ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)

This is the invite I gave Chase early in the morning. I hadn't told him what I was planning only that we'll be doing something fun!

This is what it said inside. So he had something extra special to look forward to all day.

Then when he got home I gave him this cute little card.

This is what it said on the back.

I had been wanting to see the movie that was the theme to this date. The Tourist. I went shopping earlier that day and planned on getting it on my way home. I went to every redbox on my way home and I could not find it! I finally called up Chase and asked him to get it for me. He said 3 times he had tried reserving it on redbox.com and someone always beat him to it. He FINALLY was able to get it the third time! WAHOO!

Following the blog that I got the idea from I got pizza. But we both were so hungry when Chase got home that we ate it first then went out to do our "date" and then came back and watched the movie. I totally forgot that we had bought ice cream too. Anyways...

The next thing we did was follow the little paper that said "oh the places we'll go" It wasn't exactly on "the list" but I've been wanting to go ever since Chase went there with Logan.

Chase thought this would be a really cool picture to take. Then after I saw it I totally agreed!

He had to get one of me. :) After I signed the log book at this site. :)

The next was to get some pictures in a field. Right? Since we were so close. Then Chase wanted to take another funny one.

After we drove around trying to figure out where the best place to take pictures was, but without people seeing us and wondering what crazy people we were. :) Aren't we?!

We drove clear out to City Center (like a 5 minute drive) to get this picture

and this one too. After we found this Chase was looking for another park with swings. We ended up finding the park where they have the rodeo.

And found "swings" here. hehe we budged it a little.

Then he found this cache.

Then took this picture in a "tree" to hide from the fact that he was logging the cache.

We went back to this spot and got this picture, and...

this one, and...

this one. By this time Chase and I were super cold and decided that we were going to go home. But first...

Got this picture in our doorway. Looks like we have our own house doesn't it? Oh nope just a door, among many other doors.

I sure hope Chase had fun too! I had fun and really enjoyed watching the tourist. Chase mentioned that this could've been one of those movies to buy and watch. He really liked it.

Thanks The Dating Diva's for your great ideas!

Come join me at Camp Floyd!

2011-03-27T19:46:00.000-06:00

This is what we did yesterday for fun-ness!!!!

My Mom, Michael, David, Chase and I went to Camp Floyd to attend a Geocaching event! We started at the Gift Shop, paid our dues and got the first coordinate. It took us to this tent.

I know the pictures aren't great, but Chase didn't warn us.

Then we got sent to the old school.

It was really pretty on the outside.

After the school it took us right back close to the beginning.

We found the real cache right behind this statue.

After getting the coordinates for the next one it was about 3400 feet away. So we got in the car and drove to the Camp Floyd Cemetery which was about 3400 feet away.

We then went out of our way to go to this cache! I was the one who found this one. Apparently my Dad telling me I had a good eye has really paid off over the years! ;)

On our way back to the car we found this one which was SUPER easy.

After we entered the next coordinates it took us to the Camp Floyd Hotel. We entered in the next coordinates and we walked around. Sadly no pictures. :(

We then went to the Fairfield Cemetery which was the next cache. While Michael and I were entering in the coordinates for the next cache, Chase was off looking for this real cache. But I was the one who found it again. :) Be careful of the electric fence! They warned me as I was holding onto the barbed wire. No worries no injuries!

The coordinates that were entered at the cemetery led us to Camp Floyd Pavilion. Then it took us back to the Gift shop and we ended our geocaching event. :)

Thanks Michael, Mom, and David for coming and joining us!

Contest!

2011-03-25T09:37:00.001-06:00

Yup! That's right! You can enter a contest to win a trip of your choice through a company called Impel Clothing. They have such cute clothing! If you don't want to enter the contest that's fine, but at least go check out the cute clothes they have! Gotta love cute things right?!

Here's the link! Try it out yourself!

All About Hurley

2011-03-24T12:06:00.001-06:00

Hurley's List of Tricks
1. Sit
2. Lay Down
3. Puppy Push-Ups
4. Roll Over
5. Dance
6. Jump
7. Kisses
8. Play Dead - he still struggles with this one
9. Bow
10. Speak - Loud and Soft
11. Shake - other paw
12. High Five/Ten
13. Say Your Prayers
14. Crawl
15. Which one? It's like a game, he loves it!

Everyone's favorite trick to watch is "Speak". Chase and I can get him to do loud and soft by saying "Shhh"

He loves getting into bed with us! We do not let him sleep with us at night, but allow him to sleep under the covers after I get up. It's probably his favorite spot! When he was a puppy he just wanted to sleep right in between Chase and I, like a person. Now we scoot him down by our feet.

Here's some pictures of how funny he lays for your enjoyment.

Man he looks like an old goggie in this picture! He definitely needed a shave! I guess he just wanted to grow a goatee! :)

One day I was just sitting on the couch doing who knows what and look over and he's just laying on the floor.

If you want a good laugh:
Go to THIS SITE if you want to look at more adorable pets and funny tag lines with them!

This one is definitely my favorite!

Finally one from when he was a puppy!

Hope you enjoyed learning about our goggie! :)

P.S. Giving my mom a shout-out for her birthday today!
Love you Mom!

A New What?

2011-03-22T11:25:00.000-06:00

Dishwasher is finally here! After over a year of doing dishes by hand we finally have a WORKING dishwasher! YAY!

Where the old one is until Chase decides to get some men to take it to the dumpster!

Colors definitely don't match. We'll be buying new ones eventually

Sledding - Soldier Hollow

2011-03-17T11:10:00.000-06:00

We had a fun date this past weekend! I bought tickets to go sledding at Soldier Hollow off of Screamin' Daily Deals site a few months ago. Usually Soldier Hollow charges $20 per person for 2 hours. I got it for $20 for the both of us, THEN since I had signed up a while ago I also had a $5 credit. So it only cost us $15 for the both of us! $7.50 per person! That is definitely a "screamin' deal!" :)

This was our last picture it started raining soon after we took this and decided that was our last run, don't worry that's not the hill behind us. The hill was behind the guy who we asked to take our picture.

They had a really cool pulley system where it would pull your tube up the big hill! Thankfully we didn't have to walk up it because it was quite steep!

I was first in line in this line! Look at all those people!

That's the hill. It was steep but because it was a warmer day no one was really getting all the way down the hill. Except maybe Chase. :) He was able to on the last run because it started cooling down.

This was our first time up the hill. We only got to go down the hill 5 times. It took us about 20 minutes to go up with the pulley and come back down the hill.

We had a lot of fun and really hope that Screamin' Daily Deals does another deal like that! Next time we will definitely go up earlier in the winter. Chase was saying that the week before people were going all the way down and running into the nets down at the bottom of the hill to protect the tubers from going in the parking lot.

Soldier Hollow also had a place where you could go cross country skiing, and it's where they had the cross country ski races during the Olympics. I think I have been there before when I was in high school. I remember I was super slow at it and was not in very good shape! :)

After Chase and I went to Dairy Keen in Heber. We love that place! Especially since they can make the orange creams! :) Those are my favorites.

In-Laws New Bedroom

2011-03-14T20:10:00.001-06:00

***WARNING***

THIS IS A LONG POST!!!

Mom and Dad Palmer have taken on a new project for the year, and Mom Palmer asked me if I would create a post for her so that she could show all her friends and family. I've been kind enough to do just that! :) I'm sure I have some before pictures somewhere locked up... Well actually Mom Palmer told me that she didn't have any of the before pictures because she was embarrassed to show anyone. Lets just say they've had their old bed for at least 20 years... Enough said, right? :)

chase's yummy bum! ;)

Having problems with the floor. Raydad said the wood sucked!
We found a lot of pieces that we just crappy!

The awesome nail gun. I was too afraid to use it, doesn't it look intimidating?

Nail gun in use.

Look at those floors before the wood floor. Particle board, yummy

More particle board and unfinished windowsill.

These pictures were taken after the floors, baseboards were on, paint finished:

Isn't that floor pretty?

Cool shadowboxing. Doesn't it look pretty cool?

This was a really cool window trim (not sure if that's what it's really called) but its able to be molded any way it needed to. Like wider or smaller. Pretty cool, cause usually the pieces of wood doesn't move.

Love the fan!

Thought this was a really cool picture.

Window before

Window after

This is the after with the furniture:

Isn't this bed amazing?!

Dresser with mirror

Zoe, the female dog of the house was having a hard time jumping onto the bed. So they bought her this cute little stepping stool so she can jump onto the bed.

Look at the tassels and the bed skirt!

Love the cute little tassel

Look at the texture.

The Closet:

They'll be putting in a new closet kit, but till now this is what it looks like.

200

2011-03-10T17:30:00.000-07:00

If you are reading this, then this means you're reading the 200th post. YAY!

President's Day - Little Late

2011-03-08T08:19:00.000-07:00

President's Day Chase got the day off and we decided to spend it at home doing what we always do... nothing... Anyways Chase loves to go geocacheing and since it was a super nice day he wanted to go do a few that we haven't been to. Let me tell you there are TONS of caches everywhere! There are at least 2 in our complex. We only had our phones to take pictures! So sorry if the quality isn't that great!

Chase found this travel bug in Springville and it said that since it was tribute to a soldier it needed to be transferred to a military cache. So Chase found one and we put it in there.

Chase also found this one after the military cache

Chase found this cache, but I wanted a picture of me holding the stuff! We got another travel bug of a little froggy. There was also one of those wooden coins that had a family stamp on it. Apparently Chase likes to collect those.

It was a nice walk and we had fun, but I definitely needed to go home and get into bed! Instead started watching Grey's Anatomy on netflix!

Are We Crazy?!

2011-03-04T12:32:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was such a nice day that we did a little of this:

and more of this:

then chase had to do this:

and then we were smiling in our helmets happy.

Valentine's Dance

2011-02-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

The Friday before Valentine's Day Chase and I decided to go to a FREE dance held at Utah Valley University's Institute. The fed us potatoes and salad! YUM! They had a live 20 piece band - Awesome Trumpet player... Dr Shively. The dance was supposed to be a date dance, but there were several guys there who went stag! Lovely... The only reason we went was because Chase and I are taking a Marriage and Student Seminar class that is held once a month, and they were combining with the actual institute to have this dance. Honestly we did not have any fun. I think if we would have had another married couple that we both knew there it wouldn't have been that bad. So besides the fact that we didn't have any fun, Chase was kind enough to dance with me (YAY!) and then the band said they were going to play a cha cha cha. Not kidding you... EVERYONE who has ever taken a social dance class went on the floor! They never learned how to watch their surroundings when dancing. Something that only experienced dancers know, and something that I've been told by Chase too. After Chase and I got hit so many times, Chase finally said "that's it we're done!" How sad is that! I only got one picture from the whole night and it was taken on my phone!

What I wore to Church

2011-02-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

There are a few blogs that I subscribe to that have to do with fashion... I am no where near "fashionable". I do TRY (try being the keyword here) and thought that I might try taking some ~~awful~~ great pictures of myself... So here goes.... I wore this outfit to church about a month ago.

Please don't mind the messy house and dog locked up in the background!

Saturday Date Night - Guess who we saw???

2011-02-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

A few Saturday nights ago we were offered free tickets to go see Logan dance at the Conference Center in Salt Lake. We first went out to eat with The Palmer's and Kartchner's to Chilies.

My favorite part of chilies! YUM!

Raydad, Jason, Jackson, Landon, Lora, Chase, Me, Mom Palmer

It was super yummy.

Then all of us headed over to the Conference Center. While we were sitting in our seats waiting for the show to start we get a call from Mom Palmer who was sitting a few rows up from us. She told us to look down towards her and yup you guessed it, we saw Elder Bednar. He was there with his wife and another couple. They blocked off a few rows behind him and the entire row they were on, the ushers were very strict on not letting anyone walk past them. No worries, just the fact that I was a few rows behind him is awesome!

Sorry the picture is a little blurry. Chase zoomed in as far as he could to get a good shot of him. All I can say is they definitely do a good job at making him look younger during general conference.

Thought this was cute!

2011-02-14T08:00:00.009-07:00

My friend Paige did this cute little fill out survey for her lovey dovey day, and I thought it was too cute to pass up! And thought it would be perfect for Valentines Day!

1. Where did you meet? At A BYU football game sometime in October, but didn't go on our first date till December 16.

2. How long did you date before you got married? Dated 3 months then got engaged for 3 more months.

3. How long have you been married? Three and a half years!

4. What does he do that surprises you? Empty the dishwasher or vacuum. I really love it when he does that.

5. What is your favorite feature of his? Love how blue his eyes get on certain days and in certain lights, and he definitely has a cute butt. :)

6. What is your favorite quality of his? I love how excited he gets about the cutest things (like transformers), and how he knows exactly what the right thing is to say - he definitely has his way with words.

7. Does he have a nickname for you? Gooch, Hot Sexy Tedi Wife, Monkey Face...

8. What is his favorite color? Blue, yet he has asked me not to have a blue room...

9. What is his favorite food? Red Robin, he always gets the Banzai Burger.

10. What is his favorite sport? Football

11. When and where was your first kiss? January 1, 2007, we were just standing there - not really doing anything except looking into each others eyes... in the parking lot by my car and I couldn't handle waiting any longer so I kissed him, short but sweet. He thought it was so cute, but didn't tell me till after we were married.

12. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? We love watching tv shows like bones and the former Lost. We love sci-fi stuff like star trek and star wars. We also love riding the motorcycle any chance we get.

13. Do you have any children? None yet and if you view this post you will see that we want children but may not be able to have them right now. We do however, think our dog is our child. I know silly right? Chase holds Hurley like a toddler and Hurley actually likes it.

14. Does he have a hidden talent? He does video, and photography. It was his business for a VERY long time. And he's really good at teaching me to ride the motorcycle. But I don't think that's very much hidden talent.

15. How old is he? 25

16. Who said I love you first? He said "I think I'm falling in love with you" Does that count?!

17. What's his favorite music? The old rock stuff like ABBA, Styx, but also likes a lot of my favorites like Switchfoot, and Relient K.

18. What do you admire most about him? How smart he is. He really thinks that I am smarter than he is, but he's definitely better at math, and I look to him for all my problems.

19. Do you think he will read this? Yeah, but he doesn't ever comment, and I would love it if he did. Even though I know this is partially his blog too.

Before and After

2011-02-11T15:30:00.001-07:00

I just sold this... FINALLY! It's taken me a few months. Here are some before and after shots. I didn't really have a before so I found the picture on ikea's website.

This is what it was when I bought it. I had no use for it in our condo, but wanted to try my skills at distressing or making things look different. Whatever you want to call it... I think spray painting it would have gone a lot faster, and looked a LOT nicer.

This is what it looked like afterwards. I'm not super happy with it, but it was my first try at it.

It was my first try at doing something different. I know I will get better at it down the road. You should see what I'll be working on as soon as the weather starts getting warmer.

Goals for the new year - A little late

2011-02-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

I decided this year to break up the goals so they wouldn't be hard or forgotten. So far it's not been that bad. These are my personal goals, and Chase and I have come up with a few together as well. Funny story, I found our goal sheet that we had made up LAST year and sure enough some of the same goals on there I have for my personal goals and we have for our together goals.
Daily
1. Read my scriptures
2. Drink more water
3. Do my chores

Weekly
1. Write in my journal
2. Blog at least twice a week
3. Workout at least once a week
4. Take fun pictures and do more things with photoshop

Monthly
1. Read 1 book a month - Still trying to finish up January's book. This also includes reading a financial book, and a strengthening marriage book. Plus a lot more fun ones.
2. New hair do... I really want to start trying to do my hair differently.
3. Attend the temple with Chase
4. Attend the temple on my own
5. Plan 2 fun, cheap dates
6. Scrapbook 1 page - I'm super behind, and probably will forever be SUPER behind... But this will help!
7. Put all extra $$$ towards our debt!

Some of these things will probably be a struggle for me. You know like the whole workout thing. I keep telling myself its something I WANT to do NOT a HAVE to do. I really liked what my friend Chrissy said about goals for the new year. Even if you miss one or more times of doing something it's not a failure, just a set back.

What are some of your goals that you have set for the new year?

P.S. Sorry there are so many posts without pictures... I've been trying to be better at studying the past week so I will hopefully be able to get some pictures up soon!

Dietary Dangers - Really?

2011-02-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

Haven't had a good nutrition post in a while...

I know this list I am about to show you will shock pretty much everyone. I was even shocked. All I have to say is tell me where to go to buy ALL of these healthy products. Oh and Chase told me he'd divorce me if I went by everything on the list. I got the list from THIS website, and it all started because I was looking at THIS site.

Here you go. I would like to see what you all think of this list.

Don't eat commercially processed foods such as cookies, cakes, crackers, TV dinners, soft drinks, packaged sauce mixes, etc.
Avoid all refined sweeteners such as sugar, dextrose, glucose and high fructose corn syrup.
Avoid white flour, white flour products and white rice.
Avoid all hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats and oils.
Avoid all vegetable oils made from soy, corn, safflower, canola or cottonseed.
Do not use polyunsaturated oils for cooking, sauteing or baking.
Avoid fried foods.
Do not practice veganism; animal products provide vital nutrients not found in plant foods.
Avoid products containing protein powders.
Avoid pasteurized milk; do not consume lowfat milk, skim milk, powdered milk or imitation milk products.
Avoid battery-produced eggs and factory-farmed meats.
Avoid highly processed luncheon meats and sausage containing MSG and other additives.
Avoid rancid and improperly prepared seeds, nuts and grains found in granolas, quick rise breads and extruded breakfast cereals, as they block mineral absorption and cause intestinal distress.
Avoid canned, sprayed, waxed, bioengineered or irradiated fruits and vegetables.
Avoid artificial food additives, especially MSG, hydrolyzed vegetable protein and aspartame, which are neurotoxins. Most soups, sauce and broth mixes and commercial condiments contain MSG, even if not so labeled.
Avoid caffeine-containing beverages such as coffee, tea and soft drinks. Avoid chocolate.
Avoid aluminum-containing foods such as commercial salt, baking powder and antacids. Do not use aluminum cookware or aluminum-containing deodorants.
Do not drink fluoridated water.
Avoid synthetic vitamins and foods containing them.
Do not drink distilled liquors.
Do not use a microwave oven.

The one that gets to me the most is #16. I couldn't live without my Diet DP or my Chocolate that is needed very much around that time of month...

So what do you think? Are you amazed at the list like I am? Is there anyone that reads my blog that follows this list? One more thing to add to questions, is how do you provide food storage for a time of need by also following this list?

This is why I don't play scrabble...

2011-02-04T09:44:00.000-07:00

Especially against Chase...

Just look at the arrow and then look at the circle...

Things to do THIS Summer

2011-02-02T19:54:00.002-07:00

I was inspired by my friend Becky for creating a list of things that she wants to get done this summer when she has all the time in the world. Plus I have all the time in the world this upcoming summer... These are in no particular order.

1. Go swimming at our pool and get some great Vitamin D! 3x week! This is more for me because I LOVE the water!
2. Go to Moab and see Delicate Arch - DONE
3. Hike the Y - DONE|
4. Hike the G
5. Go backpacking up American Fork Canyon
6. Go to a Drive-In Movie
7. Go to a baseball game either UVU or BYU - DONE!
8. Do a session at the Manti Temple
9. Get CPR certified - AGAIN
10. Motorcycle rides through Alpine Loop and Mt. Nebo Loop - Bought new motorcycle and it decided to break on us... So couldn't do this! :(
11. Do a session at the St. George Temple
12. Visit Topaz, UT
13. Go hike the place where we got stuck one Sunday in E.M. and watch the sunset
14. This one's for Chase... Go GeoCaching!!! - DOING

I think I'll stop at 11... Now I added a few more that aren't too bad. This might be too much for us to do this summer! I just know we wanted to get out and explore more of what beautiful state we live in. Instead of staying inside all summer long! YAY!

PF Changs = Family Love

2011-01-28T10:29:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I got a call from my Dad saying that my Uncle Don was going to be in town and wanted to see if we wanted to go to dinner with him. Well of course whenever my family comes into town we love dropping everything to meet with them! We had a fun time at PF Changs and really loved the "better than sex" shrimp! ;) Thanks Don for taking us to dinner!

Our Birthday? Who Knew...

2011-01-25T16:13:00.000-07:00

January usually has 2 birthday's mine, and my sisters. Remember this post from last year? Well my baby sister turned 18 on Saturday! A few weeks ago The DeArmon side of the family took me out to lunch/dinner at The Olive Garden! It was SO yummy! My dad also bought me flowers the day before and had them sent to me! Then the following week we went out to dinner with Chase's parents plus Logan to Chilies to celebrate Mine and Ray's birthday. Chase let me go pick out my own presents. :) I got a cute jacket and a cute beanie. Just what I wanted! :)

This past Sunday we celebrated Carolin's birthday by having all of her favorite foods. Hmm... Look Familiar? We had Orange "Chicken", Sweet and Sour "Chicken", Lo Mien, Fried Rice, Lettuce Wraps, Egg Rolls and we were going to have 7-Layer Salad but it never got taken out of the fridge! lol I also made her a Coconut Cake and had ice cream. I totally forgot the candles and mom was nice enough to tell me to NEVER forget candles at our kids birthday.

Laughing at what Chase put in as a "candle"

Blowing out her "candle"

This was a present from Chase and I. Hello American Crafts!

The look of "I can't believe you got me THIS!"

Now for the smiles... She got a cool rotary cutter and mat. Now she can do craft projects too.

Rockin' Socks!

Then the present from dad...

Yup, she got a kindle! Now she'll be able to take a bunch of books on a trip without the weight!

Then this present... I made it look so cute. Carolin was worried that I was going to give her this again...

But who knew she would get such a CUTE hat!?

A Little Late - SM Christmas Party

2011-01-19T08:00:00.003-07:00

Last month, Chase and I attended his work Christmas party! It was a lot of fun! They had yummy food, dessert, a DJ, photo booth, and lots of games. Most of the games are for the employees, and whoever wins that particular game gets $500. You would say heck why didn't Chase participate in the games. Well SecurityMetrics has grown to about 300-400 employees over the past 2-3 years. So his chances for winning at a game decrease. He did, however, judge badminton and got a small reward, which is good still! :) Anyways I have some pictures from the photo booth! Love that thing! I seriously could have gone in like 100 times or more! :) Since I don't have a scanner anymore I could only take pictures of a picture.

My Friend Brittany and I

I kept looking down at the screen instead of at the actual camera

Earring Stand

2011-01-17T09:02:00.000-07:00

I made an earring stand a while back, with the help of my husband. He did the stapling part though that was it, the rest was all me! :)

Here's where I got the idea from

Of course I did mine a little differently. I bought a frame half off from Roberts a long time ago, it didn't have glass or anything. AND it was black. Gotta love black. I did also try to distress it because that's the look that I have around my house. Before Chase and I got married he had made me this candlestick holder using his dads lathe. But it wasn't exactly even. So I took some sand paper and desperately tried to make it the same. Let me just say that I actually never did even it out. But it sticks up against the mirror in the bathroom that it doesn't wobble. Anyways I spray painted the wood piece black (of course) and distressed it. Now I'm realizing that one is shiny and one is not. Maybe I'll do a little mod podging later today. :) Plus it will make it heavenly to clean. :)

101 Things that Make me Happy

2011-01-12T15:51:00.002-07:00

There's a blog called Maven of Savin that I subscribe to. I mostly use it for coupon help. Recently I have been having low self-esteem, in fact I have had it my whole life. This is how I feel... I hate my body, I hate my wardrobe, I hate how my hair flips out, I hate my eyelashes, etc. You get the picture... I just happened to be checking out the email that she sent out, and on the very top of the list it said "Self-Esteem: Stripped NAKED". I was like this isn't coupon help, I want to check this one out. I read it and it seriously changed me! I honestly can say that it was an answer to my prayer. One thing Lynn mentioned in her post was 101 things that make you happy. She'll be doing two a week, but me I wanted to get on top of it! So here is the start of my list of 101 things that make me happy! I'll keep adding to it throughout the year.

1. Being a Latter-Day Saint (if you want to know more about what my faith is you can visit this site)
2. Laughing my butt off over something that really wasn't supposed to be that funny
3. Reading a good book - like Mocking Jay
4. Visiting Pawley's Island
5. Thanksgiving
6. Doing the laundry
7. Shopping for a pair of pants at Maurices
8. Shopping for a new bra at Victoria Secret - especially when they are having their Semi Annual Sale
9. Sleeping in and cuddling with my husband
10. Reading my Pathophysiology book, and actually understanding what is being said
11. Sitting by a warm fire reading a good book - wish I could be doing that right now! It's super cold!
12. Taking a drive through the Alpine Loop
13. Having a little googie named Hurley cuddle with me
14. Watching Dancing with the stars - then thinking that I am a somewhat better dancer than they are! :)
15. Taking a nap
16. Making sweet treats
17. Getting taxes done early
18. Listening to the dog howl because he loves his squeeky toys!
19.Me and my DP! :)
20. Getting a good deal while out shopping, then sharing it with the husband even though he doesn't get AS excited as I do!

Gingerbread Houses

2011-01-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

These are 2 of the houses we made this past Christmas! Chase's parents wanted to start a tradition for the first Sunday in December. So we decorated gingerbread houses, and had a ornament exchange. We got some pretty cute ones, too bad my Christmas decorations are put away now. Well I'll take pictures next year. Sorry for the Christmas stuff still coming. I think I have one more then I can start blogging for the new year!

What I came home to...

2011-01-07T15:38:00.001-07:00

This is what I found Chase doing after delivering our Visiting Teaching messages to our ladies last month!

Temple Square at Christmas time

2011-01-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

Every year Chase and I try to go up to Temple Square to see the lights. It reminds me of seeing the lights at the Washington D.C. temple. SO pretty! We went with our friends, Brittany and Dillon. We had fun! We walked around Temple Square for a while then went to eat at the Gateway. Thankfully it wasn't too cold a few days before Christmas, now you don't even want to go outside because its 10F, and the dog wants to go out to do his "rounds". :) We were supposed to go sledding that day, but the cost was SO much for both of us, that we thought this would be the cheaper route!

Love this place!

This was taken inside the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

If you have never been to Utah, I highly recommend coming here and seeing what is all about the LDS Church and visiting Temple Square.

Happy New Years Eve!!!!

2010-12-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

So I really had to share this before I totally forgot.

Chase and I went out with Chase's parents, the Raymond's and the Tanner's Well the guys went to go park the cars and we went to go buy the movie tickets to watch "true grit". I had a free movie voucher from buying something a few months ago. Well the guy at the counter said "this is cool where'd you get it from?" Me being the person that I am said "oh I got them from buying tampons." :) he said oh, but how did you get that, and I said by getting a Catalina. And seeing that he wasn't married i figured it probably embarrassed him. Poor guy! After it happened I had to share with everyone i our group!

Happy New Year!!! Wish everyone well and travel safe!

Merry Christmas - Christmas Day

2010-12-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

Chase and I have a tradition every year, and that is wake up. Open our own presents together. Drive down to Chase's parents have Christmas breakfast with them, eating yummy sticky buns (sorry no picture, just have to imagine their goodness). Open presents, watch a movie that we got. Then drive to my mom's for Christmas dinner, eat and then open presents and watch another movie! Here are some pictures to share the day.

First off, let me talk about this picture below. Chase has been wanting to do something nice for his parents for a really long time - get rid of their entertainment center, and put up a flat screen tv. Well we bought a tv before Thanksgiving with the help of Brad and his family and Logan. Chase knew that Raydad wouldn't set up the tv and get rid of the entertainment center by himself and that we needed to help him get rid of it. We had heard from a little bird (Mom Palmer) that Raydad was thinking of taking a 1/2 day or even working from home on Thursday (The day we were going to set up the TV, as an early Christmas present), so that meant we had to do it a day early. We got it all set up within 2 hours, thanks to the help of Mom Palmer and Logan. We even stayed late so that way we could see the reaction on his face. It took him a few minutes to realize that we had even taken down the entertainment center. Crazy right? We got a good picture of him posing the nice tv on the wall.

We sort of figured that Hurley would love a big bone! So glad we didn't get the biggest one! He is sort of having a hard time eating it now.

With all the stuff he got for Christmas. A sweater, a new leash and collar and a bone. He's enjoyed himself!

I tried doing something new for us this year to try and bring down the price of everything. So instead of buying just whatever we had 4 categories. WANT, NEED, WEAR, READ. I can't remember where I got the idea from, so it's definitely not my own. Chase really liked the idea - besides forgetting one of the things... I guess I will be getting that.

Chase got the 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime figure. He definitely was not expecting me to get it for him! He loves it! Plus now he can put it with the rest of the pack of transformers. You would think that it would be made of plastic like the others but it is made of metal and plastic, so it's really heavy!

This was my want, white watch with diamonds around it. I LOVE IT!

So after our Christmas together we packed everything up and headed to the Palmers for breakfast and presents. One of those big presents was Chase's fridge that he got for his office. Now he can take all the drinks he wants and put it in the fridge. :) He's way happy about it!

This was Mom Palmer's new nativity set she got this year. She wanted me to take pictures for her. Hope this helps.

Then we headed to the DeArmon's for dinner. I didn't get a lot of pictures. In fact I didn't get ANY pictures of people! How sad! Here's the table where we ate dinner. YUM!

This is my mom's Christmas tree. It's a fake one - so glad they got a fake one! I can't remember how much they paid for it, but they got it at a yard sale! Pretty sweet right!? We are in need of a taller one.

On our way home there was massive fog! Here are some pictures of it!

Eternal blackness!

So gross right! It was definitely quite eerie outside! But I am glad that we were able to get home safe!

Thanksgiving - Over a month late...

2010-12-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since Thanksgiving but here's what we did! We had dinner at The Palmer's, since TedDad, David and Carolin were flying out to Maryland to have Thanksgiving with the relatives. We had a lot of good food, and lots of fun playing the Wii. I totally forgot to get a picture of what the table looked like! It was so pretty!

Here are some of my decorations for Thanksgiving

Merry Christmas - Christmas Cards

2010-12-26T19:42:00.000-07:00

I made cards to send out to family, but I didn't make quite enough. Sorry to those who did send me a card and I wasn't able to return the favor! Next year for sure - cause I made a list this time! So here's what they looked like. I got the cool design from Becky Higgins site. We took this picture while at the Salt Lake Temple, when Chase, my mom, Carolin and I did baptisms there.

We also did a black and white one too. Chase liked the color one better, but I liked it in black and white. So we made a compromise I did 1/2 color and 1/2 black and white to send out to our family and friends.

This is what I glued on the back on a piece of paper! I know I'm original, but hey at least I mailed them before Christmas! teehee!

Palmers - 2010

This year has been quite relaxing! No seriously!

Tedi had a fun busy winter and fall semester attending Utah Valley University. She switched majors from Nursing to Exercise Science during the summer. After a boring fall semester, she decided to switch back to nursing, but will try and attend a different school.

Chase has been working at SecurityMetrics for the past two years and has moved up to be an Account Manager for many banks. He took a business trip this past September to Baltimore, MD with the Vice President to meet with a bank called Global Payments. He loves his job and wouldn't want to do anything else!

We moved last Christmas to Eagle Mountain City, and love it! Especially Hurley! He definitely loves having more room to run around, and play. Since we live about 20 minutes away from jobs and school we have made it a goal for the next few years to follow Dave Ramsey and become debt free! We still love spending as much time with each other and can't wait to start a family!

Happy Holidays!

Love, Ted and Chase

P.S. Be sure to check out tediandchase.blogspot.com

Bedroom Curtains

2010-12-15T15:08:00.000-07:00

Don't mind the mess in the picture...

I picked these up (or my mom did anyways) from a freecycler. They match pretty good, and it's better than anything I could find at Ross or Target. Plus it was totally free! If you want to sign up for a freecycle near you just go to freecycle.org and search for a group.

What do you think of the curtains?

Halloween Dinner

2010-12-12T10:52:00.001-07:00

My friend Cassie and her Husband, David, invited us over for dinner and to carve pumpkins the Friday before Halloween. Chase and I had a lot of fun, and I had a lot of fun playing with their baby girl, Naomi. Here's some pictures.

They were concentrating too hard, didn't want to smile for the camera.

I feel bad that I didn't get a picture of Chase's finished pumpkin

All I did was clean mine out, never got around to carving that night, too tired and wanted to play with baby! :)

Still concentrating

Cassie and baby! Aren't they both adorable! :)

Stinky Face!

2010-12-10T10:30:00.001-07:00

Just sayin'

Bountiful Baskets

2010-12-07T10:40:00.001-07:00

I finally signed up for bountiful baskets about a month or two ago. This is all I got! I highly recommend doing it! It's well worth the $16.50. Here's their site.

Here's the picture for all the produce I got for that awesome price! We now just don't have enough mouths to eat all of it up!

Very first basket ever!

Salt Lake Temple Trip

2010-12-03T10:30:00.001-07:00

My mom has had names to do baptisms for a while now and at Carolin's request we did them at the Salt Lake Temple over fall break. David, unfortunately, had a campout all weekend (I think he would've like to stay home anyways, he wasn't able to get any merit badges I think is what he said), and wasn't able to attend with us. So it was just Mom, Carolin, Chase and I. I hadn't done baptisms since before Chase and I were married, so it was fun (plus I like the smell of chlorine, I know weird right). Chase was also allowed to do baptisms and he hadn't done them since he was 12. Here's some pictures of us after around the temple. Gotta love how beautiful it is outside and wish it was like that now! :)

It's that time again! Yup, AGAIN!

2010-12-02T18:11:00.000-07:00

I posted about this last year, but got invited to the event by one of my old co-workers yesterday.

It's the annual American Crafts Warehouse Sale.

I don't work there anymore, but saw this flyer on Mandy's blog and thought I would tell ya about it again. I'll probably go one of these days. Can't wait to get all the new stuff! Better hurry in for the best selection! :)