Happy Birthday (a couple of weeks ago)

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago. My dad came down a couple of days before my birthday to take me out to lunch. I let him choose the place because he can be pretty picky. Guess where we went?!? IHOP! :) Yes, IHOP. Happy Birthday to me. It was fine and it was fun to visit with him. Just not the place I would have chosen.

The next night a few of my neighbors went out to dinner with me and then back to their house. My neighbor had even made me a beautiful cake! Isn't it pretty?!
We enjoyed visiting and playing with the kids. The night of my actual birthday, a friend took me to Macaroni Grill. Yummy! I chose that specifically because they give you free chocolate cake for your birthday. It's the best chocolate cake I've ever had! It is covered with hot fudge and nuts.

I'm so grateful for friends to help me celebrate!

Hot Summer

I must admit I was enjoying the cooler weather than brought us into June. Now it's very hot (I'm not a big fan of the heat). A long time ago, someone told me about doggy ice cream and I found some at Wal Mart. I thought my boys deserved some tasty cooling off!
Bully has definately loved it! I tried to get him to like it out of the cup as I held it, but he was too afraid (he is such a wimpy dog). Rocky loves the ice cream too, but he can't eat very much -- it makes him sick (which I don't like to clean up).

Tax Rebate

Last year I decided to spend my tax rebate on a new bed. I've wanted a new bed for quite some time. I decided on the intelligel bed because it is supposed to be good at reducing pressure points. With the shoulders I have, I thought it would be best. After I bought the bed, I realized that I hadn't thought about a frame. Oops! Well, all my life I've wanted a tall bed with a nice frame. So, I splurged! Here are some pictures of the finished product (on a day the bed was made!).
I already had the bedding. When I was living in Kaysville, I was sleeping on my parents king sized bed so I bought the bedding then. My dad wanted to take it with him, but I wouldn't give it up.

To go with the new bed frame, I also bought a night stand and a dresser. After all, I want things to match! :)

I'm not the only one that loves the new bed.... Bully likes to climb up on the pillows and curl up.

Ben & Kelly's Wedding

I'm a little slow in posting about the wedding. It was very nice! The night before the wedding we had a BBQ (they were getting a grill as a gift so they decided to get it early). They had a bunch of chairs set out for people to sit on and visit, but being with only one usable arm, I thought it would be easier to sit on the porch. It became the "kids" table. I thought this picture was funny. The littlest girl (dark hair) is Dana, my friends daughter. She wanted to sit by me, which is how it became the "kids" table.

I took a bunch of pictures on the wedding day. The wedding was in their back yard. It looked very nice. This is their wedding cake. Isn't it beautiful?!

Here's a couple more pictures. The first is with Ben and Kelly, the newest happy couple and then Jill and Bao with their kids Dana and Reid. Jill, Bao, Kelly, and I all went to graduate school together. I'm grateful we still keep in contact!

Finally, I wanted a picture with them as well. I can't say I'm looking my best, but oh well. There's only so much I can do with one arm!

Grateful

Well, I'm here in Montana for a friends wedding.  It is beautiful up here!  Today a lot of her friends and family were at her house helping and just hanging out.  As we ate lunch, I was talking to some of her family and soon to be in-laws.  They were talking about how there is so many more natural disasters and wars in the world today.  They wished they knew why it was happening.  I kept thinking, duh!, it's a sign of the times.  The scriptures tell us all about it!  Well, none of them are LDS, though some are very religious.   I just don't think they think about things happening in the world along those lines.  I sure am glad that I have many friends and family who share the same beliefs as I do.  Though I love my friends who are not LDS, there is something about being able to talk about all things!

Side Note

Ok, so my lack of sleep last night really kind of surprised me because at 9:00 pm, I took a muscle relaxer AND a lortab (my shoulder really hurts at night when I try to sleep).  Needless to say, I didn't anticipate still being awake 3 hours later when I could take my next lortab.  Around 1:30 or 2:00 am I was nearly in tears knowing I was soon approaching the next dose.  Somehow my body processes these drugs very well.  I took 2 valium before my surgery when I had to have an MRI (I'm clausterphobic).  It did NOTHING!  I was hyperventilating in the MRI machine.  The tech kept asking me if I was ok.  :)  I did survive!

Tonight the drugs seem to be working a little better.  Let's see..............

Anyone Know Where We're Going?

Ok, so my friends and I headed out on Wednesday to go to Montana for another friends wedding.  I reserved the hotel rooms so I thought it was only right that I figure out how to get to them.  We decided to split our trip into two pieces (my friends have two small kids), which left us staying the night in Idaho Falls.  The Pinecrest Inn was ok and we had a decent night (at least if you call falling asleep at 2:00 am and waking up everything 30 minutes a decent night -- but I have sleeping issues anyway).

Well, today we headed out towards Bozeman, Montana, our destination.  We have all been to Bozeman before, but it has been a while.  So, after we have been in the car for about 30 minutes or more, I asked if they knew how to get to Bozeman.  Hmmmmmmmm..................  I erroneously assumed (yes, I know what happens when you assume) that the driver would have a map and would have figured out where we were going.  Nope.  They asked if I had a map.  Nope.  So, I called our friend that we were coming to see and in the midst of laughing, I asked her how we were supposed to get to Bozeman.  She asked if we spent the night in Idaho Falls. Yes.  Have you already started on your way.  Yes.  Well, I think Idaho Falls is where you need to go to get to West Yellowstone.  Oops.  We had been going long enough to make it silly to turn around and go back.  Our friends fiance called us back and told us that it really would be best to go through Idaho Falls, but that if we went up to Butte and then cut over, we could still get to Bozeman, though it would take longer.  Well, not enough longer to make it worth turning around!  We kept pushing along and actually made it to Bozeman in about the time it would have taken the other way.  It just wasn't as pretty.  We are here safe and sound.  Yea!

Amazingly, the kids did quite well in the car.  We did have a few crying spells, but they were pretty minor compared to the length of the car rides.  Going home on Sunday will be interesting since we are going the whole way that day.  We may have to stop a few times....

Anyway, tonight we went to a bridal shower for our friend, Kelly, who is getting married.  We are so excited for her!  The wedding is on Saturday.  I feel bad because I'm not very helpful in getting her ready for the wedding (she's doing pretty much everything herself).  It's really inconvenient to have only one functional arm (due to shoulder surgery -- a story for later).