Thursday's Thoughts

Cory's Thursday's Thoughts:

OPENING DAY 2011!!

San Diego's Cameron Maybin hit a 2-out solo home run in the top of the 9th inning to tie the Padres opening game up against the Cardinals. The Pads went on to win by a score of 5-3. Combine this with the Giants losing on national TV and you have yourself a pretty good opening day! It could have been better, though. The Yanks still won. 

Tomorrow morning I have an interview with the manager at the BYU branch of Wells Fargo. I'm interviewing to be a Personal Banker, which would be a super great promotion for me! I don't graduate for another 3 months, but they want to interview me now. I'm not sure why. But it's cool! My district of WF has tried hiring a part-time Personal Banker on a provisional basis, and it seems to be going well. So they might be trying that with me. But maybe not. Who knows? I'll let you guys know.

Softball is finally here. I have a meeting with the Orem City League Commissioner this coming Monday. Then it's only one more week until we're in full swing! It's all I've been thinking about lately! I can't wait. This is the year of the championship.

HA! Most awesome thing on the internet under 'Soccer.' Bree and I have our intramural quarterfinal soccer game tomorrow night. I'm super excited to play. I've decided that although I'm 26, I don't think I'm even close to being 'grown up.' I skipped the last part of one of my classes and changed into soccer clothes. I then spent the next hour and a half playing soccer by myself on the intramural fields. I was getting ready for our game tomorrow. I'll spend time getting the ball on my feet, but I can't resist a Reese's anything, so my net gain is zero. Better skills, fatter Cory. 

If UCONN wins their game against Kentucky, then I'll be the champion on the Lost Boys Tournament Bracket Challenge. Beating sports geniuses like Todd and Mark is enough to make me feel just terrific. Since this has been such a crazy March Madness there are only 2 brackets left that have even ONE team remaining. They belong to me and to Taylor. Tay has Kentucky, and I have UCONN. So if UCONN wins, I win the Bracket Challenge. If Kentucky wins, Tay wins it. So we have lunch riding on the game. GO HUSKIES!!

I can't stand to have my blog post end with "Go Huskies," so I have to say something more. Bree is my smart and beautiful wife. She is so cool to put this blog together and she keeps me involved with it. She's always making me delicious meals, and rubbing my feet and shoulders. I think all of us dudes did really, really well for ourselves. We all married way, WAY up. But I married the uppest of us all. I love Bree.

two dimes

So this week is Student Employee Appreciation week, of course! Every day I've gotten a different candy bar with some cute saying on it from my boss. For example, "You deserve a payday everyday!" and the candy bar is... a Payday! It's been great fun to anticipate the different candy bars everyday and it just makes me love my job even more. I have a great job. I not only get to walk down a hallway full of President Hinckley pictures to get to my office, but I also get my work done early and then get to do homework! (or I could do other things like blog stalk or plan Cory's graduation party-but more on that later.) So when I got to work yesterday and found a letter on my desk, I had no idea it could get better! But then I opened it to find this:

Yes! A raise! I didn't think that a $.20 cent raise could feel so good. I mean, it's only two dimes. And it's less than a quarter! But it's something. And it's awesome. 

There are a few things in life that are coming up that are very exciting! General Conference (Saturday and Sunday), Zander turns 16! (Saturday), Josie's birthday (Friday), Cory interviews for the Personal Banker position (Friday), and Saturday there is an event that involves this lovely thing...

Yes that's right! Rachel's bridal shower! I'm so excited for her and Todd to be married. I wish this Saturday was their wedding and not just some little shower... :)

it's in the genes.

Cory and I met in a volleyball class and, so I knew he was competitive before we started dating. I just didn't know how much! I, on the other hand, have always known how competitive I am. Very competitive.

Who would have thought that such a sweet girl would turn out to be so cut throat? Not Barbie!

 So last week when we had a co-ed intramural soccer game Tuesday night and I had a women's intramural basketball game Wednesday night and we both had serious competitive problems arise, I'm not sure why I was surprised! 

I blame it on my genes. 

This is my handsome dad holding me as a baby. Doesn't he look like Seinfeld? Or John Travolta?

And this is my dad now. See how mean he can get?

A story about my dear old dad involves him getting into a full on fist fight on the volleyball courts in college. Another example would be the fact that he didn't let having 3 girls before finally getting a boy stand in his way of helping us set up political yard signs in our backyard to use as practice hurdles. So basically, he's very competitive. He sends me videos of him doing some daring thing almost daily and he whoops my butt in any competition without even blinking an eye. In fact, his "woo-hoo" taunts show how not bad he feels about winning. 

On Wednesday night I had a flash of my Dad. I vehemently disagreed with a referee and called him out on his inability to call a fair game by noticing very clear fouls. We were down by one with 16 seconds to go and we had the ball down on our sideline. We managed to get two shots off and both had at least 3 clear fouls which would have won us the game had they been called because we were in bonus. I was irate. Shaking and mad. I may have said a few things in the ref's general direction as I walked out of the gym to try and calm down in the chilly Utah air. This ref followed me out asking what it was I wanted to tell him. (It was more like, "Hey! Do you have something you wanna say?" "Ya! You did an awful job!") I proceeded to drill him with the inadequacies that I noticed and how he was getting paid and that I think he did a terrible job hold a conversation with him about how he could improve his referee skills for the future! 

The funny thing was that just less than 24 hours before, my handsome husband had also gotten into a little argument with a referee in soccer and I had tried to get him to look at it in a more calm light and that he shouldn't be so upset. Thank goodness that he didn't try doing that with me. I wanted to marinate in my anger. So I will let him be mad next time. Maybe I'll lie a little about the ref to egg him on too! Who knows? :)

After these experiences I've dreaded the level of competitiveness that our children will have. 

This is very clearly our child.

Heads Up Seven Up will become like a day of Olympic sports to them. Other kids won't want to play two square or tether ball with them either! Poor kids.

Luckily our level of competitiveness is healthy for our relationship! :)

On a different note, one of Cory's Christmas presents finally came in the mail today! 

I'm not sure if I am feeding an addiction, or maybe this will make him not feel the need to always be on his ESPN app or watching all 3 ESPN channels. (P.S. Why do they need to have so many ESPN channels? They just say the same things. We all do just fine with one Food Network and HGTV!) This particular issue is the baseball preview and I think his heart may have stopped when he opened it. 

in time

In time we will get this whole blogging thing down and be able to fill you all in with what we've been up to. But it's just not yet! We had a great weekend in Arizona, and that will be coming for your reading pleasure soon! Meanwhile I'll just let you know that Cory is such a strong manly man. This is not something I just found out, of course (but there was a time when he stood crouched and quivering behind his friend, Skyler, as they confronted neighbors, but that's all in the past!), but last night he was able to prove it to me some more.

This picture is a part of his not so brave days. I made him ride the stratosphere with me, which I'm obviously maniacally very happy about. He did not like it one bit. Hahaha! It still makes me laugh!

We spent a little longer with our friends, Todd and Rachel, for our usual Modern Family night and got home around midnight. I went straight up to bed and Cory apparently had a couple of Fritos and then came up. After shutting off our bedroom light I realized that the entryway light had been left on. Being awesome, Cory went downstairs and shut it off. I asked him if the door was locked too, it wasn't so he said he would lock it. Then he must have gotten distracted trying to throw things through our little cut-out "Juliette" window thing that opens up our room to the downstairs, because it apparently did not get locked! This became apparent when he was awoken by the noise of a creaking door. But you know when you're sleeping and get woken up and you can't tell if you heard what you think you did? That happened. So as he laid there listening he started to hear footsteps and more noises. I'm so glad I wasn't awake. Since he's so strong and brave he decided to go investigate. I can just picture him turning every corner ready to ultimate punch/kick whoever was there. Then he found our front door wide open. I would have stopped right there just to go clean up the pee in my pants. But he didn't have to!

He is fierce.

After closing it and finally  locking it, he then made sure that nobody was in our house, came back upstairs, locked our bedroom door, and safely secured it by stuffing his two shoes under the door. I'm sure it would have thwarted even the toughest criminal. {wink!} I'm sure his heart was racing for another hour, but luckily it had just been the wind that somehow blew it open! I'm very glad he heard it (I'm dead once my eyes close not the lightest sleeper ever, so I never heard a thing) or else our door would have been open all night! Anyway, I think he's awesome. And so brave. Maybe I'm easy to please. Or maybe he's just really really cool. :)

a little perspective.

Well I am feeling much better now! Still have a nasty cough, but I'm getting through it. However, all of my little woes have been pushed aside lately as I am being forced to gain a little perspective in my life.
First it started with the tragedy in Japan. The more I read about it, the more I realize how lucky I am to have this roof over my head, food in my belly, and my loved ones all safe and sound.
Then today, more perspective came when I received a text from my mom with a picture of one of their cars top down on the asphalt. The whole front was smashed into the road with the driver's side window showing little resemblance of what it should look like.

The driver's side window.

 The text said "Marissa(my sister)'s accident-she's O.K." What?? What kind of message is that? "O.K." could mean any number of not okay things! My stomach immediately started hurting because a rock somehow got in there and dropped down. She then sent two more of  pictures of the car that were doing the opposite of making that feeling go away. I called Marissa and she told me a story of how she slid out into a ditch and flipped the car. She then had to unbuckle herself, pull the floor mat "down" from the floor to get out of the shattered glass window, and called our dad.

 Luckily she was totally fine, besides maybe some emotional damage (she's a hair school girl, so she has an abundance of emotions ;), but it really got me thinking. It could have easily been a phone call, instead of a text, that I got at work that let me know some worse news. Or she could have just forgotten to put her seat belt on! Anyway, it really was a reminder of how finite this life is and that I need to make sure my relationships and actions are what I focus on the most. So, although I'm sure it's going to be terrible for my parent's pocketbook, it was a great reminder for me. I'm glad you're safe, Babes! I love you!
On a lighter note, I saved a total of $43.77 today on groceries! I had to make two separate trips just because my day got so much better after the first receipt. It was awesome. It was so worth the 1/2 hour I spent (getting paid) at work looking up coupons and deals and such. I absolutely love deals.

Booyah! :)

 Cory is currently taking a test right now while I am watching I'm watching HGTV House Hunters. Love it. I thought I would also include a special treat for anyone who chooses to follow us (Lindsey's the best!), you'll get to see more pictures like these...  

Dun dun dun dunnn!!!! (He's not going to be very happy with me:)

Yes-that is a pore strip. If only that accounting book was a Woman's Day magazine.

This is what we do when Utah winters drag on too long...

So many to choose from, so little space! 

I'm so glad you all loved our little blog! The comments made me so excited!! It makes it easier to write more instead of feeling like I'm just writing to the internet Gods. So thank you!

Starting a Blog

I figured today was a good day to start a blog because...it's my birthday!!! Unfortunately, my day has been more of a . than !!!!! I'm sick. I woke up with a fever and pneumonia-esque chest problems. I couldn't believe it. Not only was it rainy and cold, but I was sick too! So besides trying to be tough and going to work earlier today, my day has pretty much revolved around staying in this:

Our sofa bed.

Last night Cory surprised me with a surprise birthday dinner/party! I'm so lucky to be married to such a sneaky, handsome, wonderful guy. Oh yeah! And to be surrounded by so many great friends and family members! :)

I blame my sickness on my lack of sleep this weekend. If anyone knows me, they know that I am like a Grandma when it comes to sleeping. I need 8 hours to function and at least 2 of those have to be before midnight to count. :) I know, pathetic. But it keeps me healthy!

However, it was worth it to lose the sleep because we got to spend some time visiting with Cory's family and his brother, Kyle, who just got home from his mission in Germany! Everyone was so proud of him. It made me miss my own brother who is serving in Nicaragua right now-he's awesome.

As un-festive as it's been around here today, there have been some things that have warmed my soul. I was sleeping soundly when I heard a bell ringing in my dreams. Then a knock. By the next ring I realized that it was the doorbell! I groggily got myself off of the sofa bed and made it to the door in time to have this lovely basket delivered to me!

My family is the best. I just loved getting this so much! Thanks Mom and Dad!

The other things that have made my day are:

This guy.

This DELICIOUS cake-even though I can't eat it today, it's still beautiful!

And this gem. From my wonderful friend, Rachel. I love her.

Now let's see if I can get Cory to tear his eyes away from ESPN and write a little note to our future readers... Oh wait. It's Family Guy. This may never happen.

Yeah, it was ESPN, but then the Lakers were winning, so I switched it. Now I'm watching an old Christmas episode of Family Guy. It's from the earliest seasons. It reminds me so much of all the hours and hours and hours and hours of time Blake, Skyler and I spent watching FG and memorizing hilarious lines and then using them in decidedly [in]appropriate social settings. Those were the days. I just saw the picture Bree put in here. I was very focused on accounting. A class that I do not like at all. I'm not doing well in it. Hmmmm.....well, I really want to see Limitless, because the movie was basically 100% my idea. I've been trying to design a way to be the best at everything I try. I don't like the old fashioned way of practice and study. Too time consuming. Swallowing a pill is good, though. I can do that every morning and still have time to catch up on the ESPN headlines. And then after taking the pill I'll go out and MAKE ESPN headlines of my own. In addition to all of this, I think Bradley Cooper is slowly (not very slowly) becoming the one dude on my man crush list. Pretty gay of me to admit, but I'm pretty sure my top 3 dudes on that list are Bradley Cooper, Justin Timberlake and Brad Pitt. My female celebrity 'list' consists of 1) Jennifer Aniston (of course. That should be a given on any person's list, male or female. It's like asking what the best fast food restaurant is. The obvious answer is In-N-Out, even if you are Melissa Sanders). 2) Reese Witherspoon and 3) Rachel McAdams. Obviously there is a number that is higher than 1, and that spot is occupied by my Angel, Breezy. It was her birthday today, but we're pretending like it wasn't, because she's been so sick. Okay, I'm going to let that be my full rant for tonight. Bree loves Family Guy. (I may have chuckled a few times, but that is because all of my sensible brain cells were burned today.)