Wedding Reception

Both my Grandmas. I love them tons.

It was awesome that Nate was there.

My Uncle Jeff and his Fiance Nancy (they are getting married this weekend).

Aaron and Rachel.

My best friend Cara and her husband Ken. They just had a premature baby who is thankfully doing really well. These guys are amazing.

Dad with Martin, our former neighbor who was the bishop before dad. I miss their family/

Some old friends from the ward I grew up in.

This is Mike's mom and their pedicurist. She is awesome and has been a good friend to them.

Love my parents.

Jamie was one of my Theta sisters. And the baby is her son, Winston. It's funny how trendy old fashioned names are these days.

These two had so much fun running around together.

My friend Rosie from high school.

Pretending to be "Uncle Mike". Keegan stole Mike's hat and ran around telling people he was Uncle Mike.

My cousin Will. Such a funny kid.

My awesome friend Liz made our cake. It was amazing. One layer of red velvet with raspberry filling and one layer of key lime. And butter cream frosting. Because fondant is nasty, even though it looks pretty.

The center is supposed to be heart shaped. You can sort of see it.

Maybe, Finally, A Little Catch Up

Okay, I have been saying I would post pictures of various things for a few years now. I don't know how much of it I will post. But I will be posting, right now, this very minute, some wedding pictures.

So, here goes. These are the temple shots. I will do a separate post of the reception.

One of my many favorites.

Both families. And one of the last pictures of Keegan's Zeebee. He lost Zeebee at the Cincinnati Zoo later in the summer.

He was so grown up. And I look at him now and he's even more grown up. I can't believe he'll be five this year, my little buddy.

Another favorite.

You can't even tell this is the middle of the parking lot.

Mike really wanted a view of the valley. And the photographer actually convinced him to dip me.

Keegan was pouting in this shot. I know at one point Zeebee was thrown into the parking lot. 

Festivus

The house has felt very empty this week.
Last week, after months of debating, Mike decided it was time for us to put his dog Festivus to sleep. It was a really tough decision to make. He was a pretty old dog. Twelve, I think. He seemed to be in a lot of pain. He spent a lot of the last several months whining for most of the night and day and getting sick. It was the best decision to make, but Mike really struggled with it.
This is the first real time I have been around to see the aftermath of a pet dying. Our family dog, Cookie, died of old age my Freshman year of college. It was my first day of school when my parents told me she had died and I was devastated. I had picked her when we got her as a puppy and named her.
All our other pets growing up I had not been super attached to. We had hamsters and gerbils and I was always kind of sad when they died, and we had a cat named Ducky who ran away when mom, Elyse and Wesley and I had left him alone with dad for the weekend. But that was different.
This was the first time I have actually been there, in the room, when a pet died. 
I wasn't super attached to Festivus. He wasn't really my dog. He was always a good dog, even when he drove me nuts with his whining. I knew it was going to be a hard week for Mike because he scheduled the appointment for Saturday and it was Tuesday when he called. He left a message for me and I could tell he was crying. He's a pretty tender hearted guy when it comes right down to it.
When we got to the vet's office Saturday morning, I decided spur of the moment that I was going to go back with Mike and his mom. I had thought I would just wait in the lobby, but it seemed like Mike really needed me there. The people in the office were very sweet. They took him to get a catheter put in and then let us spend as much time with him as we wanted to before we called the doctor in. She explained what would happen and also let us know that we could spend as much time as we wanted to in the room after.
It wasn't at all how I expected it to be. I was more sad than I thought I would be. Partly because I have a hard time seeing people I love hurt and not be able to do anything about it. And partly because he really was a good dog.
Even though we still have Mike's mom's little dog Dieter around the house, I notice the absence of Festivus. It has been very quiet and Dieter looks around the house for him.  Mike gets emotional from time to time. Sometimes, though, it still feels like he is here. Watching out for us. And I like to think that maybe he is.

New Year

Things have been pretty smooth lately. Christmas was nice. I wished I could have seen more family, but we spent some time with Mike's family which was a good thing I think.

Christmas Eve we spent with Mike's mom and sisters. I had to work but got downtime by 9:30 and was home by 10. It was nice. I had a chance to take a nap and get some last minute things picked up for the home made pizza we were going to make.

Everyone was at our house by 5:00 and we got started opening presents. I got some nice Aveda lotion from Allison and a cookbook from Trish and Tristan. Mike made everyone matching scarves that we all put tassels on during the night. Then we watched the old SNL Christmas special from the early 90s that had stuff from the 70s and 80s. Mike's family watches it every year. We made and ate our pizza, which was very delicious. I think my favorite thing we did this year was actually a few days before Christmas. There was a manger craft in the Children's Friend that we made and it helped me feel more in the Christmas spirit.

We went to my parents' house later that evening and spent the night. Then we got up and did Christmas morning there. I got some really nice things, but I was really just happy to be with family. Around 10 we Skyped with Elyse and Adam and Keegan and Keeley. It was hilarious to watch Keegan with his new haul. The one thing he wanted this year was a Jessie doll with real hair (well, real yarn hair, not plastic) and a hat that he could take off. It was the only thing he wanted. He toted that and the Emperor Zurg that he got with it around the whole time. I have enjoyed the videos Elyse posted on Facebook. If you haven't watched them already, you should.

Then in the evening we went over to Mike's dad's house and had prime rib and played "the game" which is really just turning on the satellite radio and guessing the artist of the song first. It's fun, but I suck at it. Mike got to hold his step nephew, who is a pretty cute little guy. I kinda hope it softened him a little to the idea of having one of our own some day. But I am trying not to push it.

New Years was low key but fun. We just played Disney Infinity and watched a couple of Doctor Who episodes and made home made pizza again. And then we went to my Friend Elisha's house the next night and made dinner with her and her husband and played Ticket to Ride. It was lots of fun.

The only thing I am sad about is that the holidays made me miss having time off to spend with Mike. I wish we got to see more of each other. Sometimes this whole working opposite schedules thing really sucks.

Now

Life, as always, has been interesting lately.

I got the position at work that I have wanted ever since I started there. I started Monday and so far it is everything I hoped it would be. It's easier to laugh at people and not feel like they are attacking me personally when they get upset and I said no to something. Actually, I feel like it's easier to say no. I had a hard time with that on the phone.

I think my favorite thing about not being on the phones all the time is that I can start listening to music again at work. I have missed that about my job at the bank the most. You can't really listen to music when you are talking to people. It just doesn't work. I might be tempted to buy more music is the only problem. I have a wish list of songs and albums I want really badly.

Mike applied for a supervisor position at work. Then they decided to hold off on hiring a supervisor. I thought that was lame. But what can you do? He said he is going to apply the next time they post it. I think he would be a good supervisor. He knows a lot about the different machines they run and he is fair and listens to other people. He doesn't just assume his way of doing things is the only way, he will take suggestions. And he knows when he has made a mistake and works hard to fix it. I think those are qualities of a good supervisor.

I have decided I have a really hard time Christmas shopping. Either I have no money and can't afford to get people things I want to get them or I have absolutely no idea what to get them. I always think that maybe this year I will make gifts for family members... and then I wait until December and have no time to do it. There are so many things I have pinned that have seemed like good ideas but I just don't know when I am going to have the time.

Well, there is my update for now.  I am going to start trying to do better. And maybe get around to posting pictures. That will be easier if we ever fix our wireless internet. Mike set up such good security for it he doesn't even know how to log on to it and when we tried plugging in an ethernet cable it wouldn't let me access it still. So who knows... maybe it's time for a new router and starting over.