this week so far.

I schruted it. No, I didn't screw something up in a really irriversable way, I just ate beets for dinner. They were fresh from my mom's garden. And they were gooooood. It made a huge mess of my kitchen though. I had to clean up all of the beet splatter after I cut them and I felt like a CSI.

I thought I would try wearing all black for one day. Not because I'm gothic, but because sometimes I see people pulling off all black and looking classy. So I'm wearing a black shirt, black capris and black shoes with some turqoise jewelry. I just feel gothic.

We decided to quit caffeine! Mostly because of how much we spend on Diet Dr. Pepper. And secondly because it's bad for you. I'm slowly weaning myself off of it though :) I had one yesterday and the day before, and today will be day 1 of NO caffeiene. Wish me luck. The headache is already coming on.

yessssssss.

Oh man. I'm so excited. I love Harry Potter.

finally.

I've been a slacker on our photo blog ever since Sean got home from Italy. He took so many pictures! I kept putting it off because I knew it would take forever. Yesterday, however, I was pretty bored because Sean didn't get home until 9:30. He went to see Batman {yes, that was his 3rd time} with Brandon, hoping that the traffic mess would be cleared up by the time the movie was over. Unfortunately at 9:00 it was still backed up! It took him 30 minutes to get home from the Gateway. Anyway... so during that time when I could have been reading, cooking, cleaning... or any number of useful activities, I updated the photo blog. So for anyone interested, you can check out Sean's pictures of Italy here, here and here.

a few of our favorite things.

Movie
Sean: Back to the Future. 1.21 gigawatts of electrifying fun!
Ariel: Roman Holiday

TV Show
Sean: Lost. If I was stranded on an island, Sayid would by my second choice for a companion (Ariel would be first).
Ariel: The Office

Song
Sean: Livin on a Prayer, Bon Jovi
Ariel: How could I possibly pick one? I do love My Sharona by The Knack, though.

Band
Sean: Still love the old stuff... Aerosmith. The Beach Boys are close.
Ariel: The Hush Sound, Nickel Creek, The Rocket Summer

Quote
Sean: "Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy. Both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me." -Michael Scott
Ariel: "It is our choices...that show who we really are, far more than our abilities." A. Dumbledore

Scripture
Sean: Mosiah 2:41
Ariel: Matthew 11:28-30

Place
Sean: It used to be Jackson Hole, but Heber City has passed it up.
Ariel: Bear Lake at sunset

Vacation
Sean: My honeymoon to Hawaii, Banff with the boys, Italy
Ariel: Hawaii, DC

Memory
Sean: Definately my wedding day. There were so many good memories that day!
Ariel: Watching the summer olympics together when we were first dating.

Book
Sean: Angels & Demons, Dan Brown
Ariel: Frankenstein, Pride & Prejudice, Ender's Game, Beauty... way too many to name!

Day
Sean: Sundays! Naps and football. Need I say more? Oh yeah.... and church!
Ariel: Sundays. I get to hang out with Sean aaaall day long.

Month
Sean: November. I love Thanksgiving.
Ariel: May or July... or October.

Athlete
Sean: Steve Nash... that white boy is amazing.
Ariel: I like all of the Jazz players that hardly ever play, like Fesenko. He's my favorite!

Restaurant
Sean: Joy Luck. Ariel has introduced me to so many good restaurants to name just one.
Ariel: anything Mexican. yum.

Member of N'Sync
Sean: After watching the ESPY's this year, I have a new found respect for Justin. He is funny.
Ariel: well, back in the day I was a huge fan of JC. He's a far better singer than Justin, in my opinion. Justin has a nasaly voice.

Youtube Video
Sean: This changes daily. Today it is this one.
Ariel: This is an oldie and a goodie :)

Pizza Toppings
Sean: Meat lovers, but it's too much for me these days. So just pepperoni.
Ariel: Pepperoni and all of the vegis. Especially fresh tomatoes.

weekend part two.

First of all, this is the buck that greeted me every morning. Isn't he handsome?
Sean and I took a ride on the only working 4 wheeler {which was no longer working by the end of the day...} around the area. Sean wanted to stop and skip rocks at this lake. He's a kid at heart :)
And here I am looking awesome. That hill was so hard core...
The hosts. We had some friends up on Saturday. Here we are on the hike we took along the snowmobiling trails.This is my favorite picture! Here they are, all lined up. Following the leader {me}. We had such a fun weekend with family & friends!

holiday weekend.

Sean and I spent the 24th with his family up at the cabin. Kelty & Teagan wanted us to play with them on the slide & the swings all day. Anything to keep them off of the trampoline, I say. Trampolines are fun when you're young and flexible... not so much anymore. I am amazed at the energy these kids have! They wore us out... but we had fun with them. We had a big bbq on Thursday night and told some "pioneer stories" about ourselves, which turned into camping stories. Seth brought his "friend" up and we had to initiate her with a round of Loaded Questions. She passed with flying colors... :) Also on Thursday, Sean and I went shopping at the outlets in Park City and bought him a {much needed} whole new wardrobe. It took us about 30 minutes and was the most painless shopping experience I've ever had with Sean. I think we're turning a corner in our relationship :)

consider this my postcard.

Well hello, fellow bloggers. I thought I would drop a line since I am the only one awake at 8am here at the cabin. I'm pretty much always the first one up.... except for maybe the families that have babies and toddlers. But I don't hear them yet :) I love getting up early... so let me take a moment to tell all of you sleepers what you're missing. First of all, it isn't blazing hot like it is from 10am-7pm. And the sunrise is amazing up here. But before the sun comes up and it's starting to get light outside {dawn? dusk? twilight? I get them all mixed up. I think it's dawn.}, there are always deer and other fun creatures roaming around in the yard. Yesterday & the day before, I saw a buck hanging out behind the cabin. I like to think it was the same one both mornings. He was pretty fearless. I was standing right there on the deck and he kept walking towards me and then just plopped down and sat in the same place for over an hour. This morning Ispotted 2 deer and a buck {definately the same one from yesterday}. I can't help getting excited when I see wildlife :) Even if it's only deer. Anyway... that's what you're missing, lazies!

We've been having fun up here! I'll probably post about it when we come home later today. And there will be lots of pictures, as usual :)

holiday.

We're headed up to the cabin and won't be back until Sunday! Hope everyone has a great Pioneer Day!

found in my desk.

So I just got a new scanner at my office and it is changing my life. I seriously LOVE it. It makes my scanning 100 times easier. Plus it's fun. Here are some random things I found in my desk and scanned. Yeah... I came in too early and I'm bored... sorry I don't have anything better to post! Here we have the card that came with my flowers on Valentine's Day. I think this was from last year?
Here is a lovely bookmark that I found in the depths of my bottom drawer. I have no idea where it came from.
This is a book that I've searched high and low for. It's the best children's book EVER about a bear who is friends with a family, but ends up eating them all. {mom's handwriting}
This fascinating specimen is a scrap of paper from the magazine on the airplane that I was using as a bookmark.
And here is something I picked up at The Book Garden. I like that quote. I'm going to have to put it on my reading blog. Mkay, well I hope you all enjoyed that. And now I have to do some real work.

for sean.

{you're cool}

feet.

I'm beginning to notice a trend in the random pictures that I take... and it's kinda weird. Here are my feet in the back yard.
My feet by a weed at the cabin.

Here are our feet at the bowling alley.
Here are our feet at the Bountiful Temple grounds.
Here are my feet at the park, contemplating walking in the sand.
Annette, Heather, and Ariel's feet at the parade.
My feet in the car. And there are lots more where those came from. Is this some sort of a sign that I have a foot fetish? Or that I'm in love with my feet? Or that I need psychiatric evaluation??

home.

Well first of all, I have to say that I'm impressed that Sean actually posted on the blog while I was away. Way to hold down the fort for me, Sean :) I don't think he missed me too much. Apparently he's taken up golfing and spent Friday & Saturday working on his game.

I got home eeeeaaaarrrllly this morning from my short trip to Boise. Basically I flew in late Thursday night, spent Friday and Saturday in the seminar for 8 hours, and flew home first thing today. I literally went outside twice during my stay... once to the pool and once to the parking lot :) Let's just say that I'm a big wuss about doing things by myself in an unfamiliar city. So I didn't see much {any} of Boise. But it was a good seminar with a fun group of people. I always enjoy getting to meet people from all over. I won't bore you with the details, but here are a few highlights:

All the travel went super smoothly {this never happens to me}.

The hotel was overbooked. I think they had given my room away and they wanted me to stay in another hotel on Thursday night in exchange for 2 free nights. I didn't want to do this because I needed to be in the meeting room early to set up {and I had a reservation! doesn't that mean anything??}. SOOO they put me in a suite :) It was pretty nice. I only wished that Sean could have been there to enjoy it with me! I actually got kicked out of the suite on Saturday, but I had two nights of luxury.

I started & finished a book.

I caught 2 of the catering workers at the hotel stealing candy from our meeting room. I was sitting in the back of the room reading before everyone came back from lunch. 2 of the workers came in and one was like "I'm totally taking some of this candy." and he proceeded to take a handful and started chowing down. And then his friend noticed that I was sitting back there, "Dude... she's sitting back there..." and then they giggled nervously and all but ran out of the room :) It was pretty funny!

I'm starting to realize that this is really boring... so I'll stop!

a lovely cheese pizza, just for me.

Kevin says it all with this picture. I'm home alone!! And yes I did eat a pizza tonight, but it was pepperoni. And I only had 3 slices. (Need food for the rest of the weekend!) Usually I go with Ariel when she goes to these seminars but because of Italy I was unable to go to beautiful Boise. With Ariel gone for some reason I decided to go to the midnight showing of Batman tonight. The thought of staying out all night, hanging out with buddies sounded appealing to me. It is now 11 @ night and i'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open. What is happening to me?? Anthony and my other friend Dr. Pepper promised to keep me awake during the movie. Day 1 is over!

later.

I'm off to Boise tomorrow. I'm kind of nervous to travel by myself for the very first time, so wish me luck! Sean will be getting a little taste of what I went through while he was on his European vacation. If only I was going to Italy instead of Boise... Stephanie, I think Arbinger should consider Rome as a possible location for the 2009 schedule :)

Happy weekend!

{Sean just told me that he would be willing to let any of you bring dinner to him Thurs-Sat night}.

{fly away with me, amamabear}

ns-blogs.blogspot.com.

Who are you?

heber.

Sean and I went for a little drive up to the cabin last night to make sure everything was in working order {and because we love Heber and we wanted to!}. I get a little over-excited when I see wildlife and I wanted Sean to pull over every time I saw a horse, sheep, squirrel, deer, etc. We saw a buck, but it was hiding from us. We hung out for a little while up there, stopped in at Dairy Keen, and headed back home. Sean wants to move to Heber so our kids can live in a "small town". I'm pretty sure Heber isn't considered a "small town"... I mean it has a Taco Time. I am content just to visit on our way to & from the cabin :)
I never noticed this sign before and I love it! Why does smokey have a shovel?

actual food, flat tires, spiders.

Sunday we had a fabulous time with some friends {dave & kirsten were there too... but they don't have a blog for me to link to!}. I was glad to have people over for dinner... because it actually motivated me to cook something other than mac & cheese :) Also, it was established that should Sean ever become a boxer, he would like to walk out to the ring with Mr. Sandman playing. An oldie but a goodie, apparently. Sean's a real tough guy.

Heather and I went for a bike ride today. Don't ever ride your bike with semi-flat tires. It makes it much harder. At least my upper thighs got a great workout.

When we got home from our bike ride, there was a MASSIVE spider on my kitchen floor. We think it was camoflaged on the rug and Heather stepped on it... because when we noticed it, it was missing several legs. I should have taken a picture of the device we used to trap it :) Basically it was the lid to one of my pots, but I was too scared to get that close to the spider so I tied some string to the handle and carefully lowered it on top of the spider. Once it was contained, we waited for Sean to get home to get rid of it. I don't do spiders.

Happy Monday!

date night.

Last night we had lots of fun with our friends Kess & Ryan. We had yummy chinese food at Joy Luck and then went to the Millcreek Movie Night at Big Cottonwood Park. We met my little sister Annette & her date at the park. The movie was City Slickers which was kind of funny... and kind of awkward! We didn't get to see the end though. Halfway through the movie the sprinklers came on! As soon as I heard the water starting, I dove on top of my camera :) I felt so bad... the huge inflatable screen, projector & speakers all got soaked! Luckily we were on the side that didn't get wet :) After our movie was crashed by the sprinklers, we went back to our house and played Fusion Frenzy with Annette & Brad. And as a team, I'm pretty sure that Sean and I kicked their trash :D It was a super fun night! I want to go do the movie in the park again. Great idea Annette! Not really sure why Ryan is strangling Kess in this picture....

useless.

Sooooo. {I think I often start my posts with a long "soooo" or "ok...." or "Ok. so..." .... I'm going to have to stop that}.

Anyway. Sooooo. Last night Sean went to play basketball at 8:15ish. I was kind of excited for the free time this would give me to get some stuff done around the house. It's been waaaaay too long since I've deep cleaned the house. All of the floors needed to be swept & mopped or vacuumed. The pile of laundry was getting high. The fridge and pantry were a mess. etc. etc. etc. After Sean left the house, this is what I actually accomplished:

I watched about 15 minutes of "The Recruit" starring Colin Farrell, Al Pacino & Bridget Moynahan. This movie is on tv constantly. You know how some movies are on tv every day for like a week? Well this movie is on tv every day for like FOREVER. I transferred my latest pictures from my camera to the computer. While I was already sitting at the computer, I looked at blogs, checked my email, etc. for probably 20 minutes. I went downstairs to pick up the living room and decided that I didn't like the way things were arranged on my entertainment cabinet. So I spent a few minutes rearranging. When I was putting a book away into my little basket of coffee table books, I found my Encyclopedia of Useless Information. And this is where I waved goodbye to all of my high hopes of cleaning the house. I filled my brain with useless information for probably an hour. And then Sean came home and we went to bed.

So those two hours were a big huge waste of time, but I did learn some pretty interesting useless information:

According to research published in 2002, English speakers say "um" before a long pause and "uh" before a short one. No U.S. president between 1940 and 1996 uttered a single "uh" or "um" in his inaugural address.

The glass slippers in the Cinderella story were originally fur. The change came from confusion among translators between the midieval French vaire ("fur") and verre ("glass").

In Bangkok, in October 1996, a wedding celebration costing $34,000.00 was held for two cats called Phet and Ploy.

In 2000, George W. Bush became the first right-handed president since Jimmy Carter: Reagan, Bush senior & Clinton were all left-handed.

Giraffes can not cough or swim.

Forty is the only number which, when spelled out in English, has its letters in alphabetical order.

In the United States, 25% of Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors ice cream sales are for plain vanilla.

WOW. Maybe I'll start a new column on my blog. Friday can be "Useless Information Day".

wanted.

A dependable and motivated exercise partner. Must be a morning person, willing to walk/jog/run with me from 6am to 7am in the North Salt Lake area. Must be willing to drag me out of bed when I'm feeling lazy {Don't worry. I'll do the same for you}. Interested persons must promise to overlook my out-of-shape-ness and my morning hair/face {again... I'll do the same for you!}. Partner needed Monday-Friday mornings. Saturdays optional. Comment if you're interested! Come on, you know you want to get up at 6am every day! Any takers?

my girls.

i MISS you girls! we need to play soooooon {that includes jamie, morgan & tiff, whose legs aren't pictured}. let's have a girls night.

p.s. someone needs to get over tanning... it was march, for pete's sake!

sean's visual dna.

i made him do this :) apparently sean is a wild cat.

my visual dna.

thanks for the idea, kim! i love how we both picked that picture for friends... because i promise we have about a billion pictures of us like that :)

feeling like country today.

1. the fox, nickel creek
2. it just comes natural, george strait
3. would you go with me, josh turner
4. every little kiss, sara evans
5. stay with me, josh gracin
6. tied together with a smile, taylor swift
7. forever & ever amen, randy travis
8. helplessly, hopelessly, jessica andrews
9. truth no. 2, dixie chicks
10. green & gray, nickel creek
11. stand beside me, jo dee messina
12. indian outlaw, tim mcgraw
13. carlene, phil vassar
14. cold as you, taylor swift
15. starts with goodbye, carrie underwood
16. long trip alone, dierks bently
17. even god must get the blues, jo dee messina
18. tiny dancer, tim mcgraw
19. backseat of a greyhound bus, sara evans
20. somebody more like you, nickel creek

{heartland}

dateline addict.

So..... I looove watching dateline. We tivo all of them and I have to BEG Sean to watch them with me. He isn't as fascinated by the secret life of a soccer mom as I am :) We watched an episode today about 10 unforgettable 911 calls. One guy called 911 from inside a garbage truck where he was trapped {see here}. How does that happen? It never explained and I was kinda bugged. I've ruled out the scenario that he was a homeless person looking for food, because he was calling from a cell phone. I don't know. I was really disappointed in dateline for not giving me the full story.

loves.

1. there is nothing i love more than watching fireworks with sean. what is more romantic than that?
2. i have been wearing this ring on my finger for 3 years. time flies. and i have loved every second. i still think my ring is the most beautiful i've ever seen.
3. i am deeply obsessed with traditions. i kind of hate the kaysville parade... but at the same time, i love going out in the sweltering heat every year because it's tradition! fireworks at davis high... another tradition i don't think i'll ever be able to break away from :)
4. i love crepes. especially when stuffed with wild blueberries and a combination of cool whip & boston cream pie yogurt. yummmmmm.
5. i looooooooooooove my new camera. i finally got a new memory card so i can take 4,000 pictures instead of 15. hooray!
6. i love the food that i grew up eating, no matter how weird some of it is. fake crab salad. frog eye salad. stuffed green peppers. zucchini pancakes. home-made mint tea.
7. i love our families. it was so fun to hang out with them yesterday. and i really love how close they are to each other.
8. i love sleeping in after a loooong day & late night.

happy 4th!

feeling like all kinds of piano today.

1. in other words, ben kweller
2. die bekehrte, dawn upshaw & richard goode
3. the boys are too refined, the hush sound
4. brightest, copeland
5. so much love, the rocket summer
6. liz on top of the world, pride & prejudice soundtrack
7. the secret life of daydreams, pride & prejudice soundtrack
8. dreaming with a broken heart, john mayer
9. what we hate we make, the rocket summer
10. shadowboxer, fiona apple
11. unsafe safe, the hush sound
12. soledad, yo-yo ma & octavio brunetti
13. jesus once of humble birth, mindy gledhill
14. lied der mignon, dawn upshaw & richard goode
15. run to you, the rocket summer
16. the heart asks pleasure first (nyman), jean-yves thibaudet
17. piano concerto no.2 in c minor (rachmaninov), jean-yves thibaudet
18. andante spianato in g major (chopin), the pianist soundtrack
19. 2 arabesques, L 66- arabesque #1 in E (debussy), kathryn stott
20. living life, ben kweller

{piano more}

lazy + uncoordinated.

equals Ariel. So a couple of years ago in the dead of winter, I bought an aerobics dvd. I must have been depressed about the frigid weather outside to do such a thing. Anyway... I popped in the dvd and watched some really fit ladies doing lots of crazy moves that I could never make my body do... and realized that I'm extremely uncoordinated!! That actually wasn't the first time I had realized that I'm not coordinated AT ALL. Example: gym class from elementary through high school :) Gym was torture. I can't express how glad I was when I hit my senior year and no more gym was required! I just don't do sports/dancing/aerobics/yoga without looking like a total fool! So if I want to exercise, my options are A.walk B.run C.ride my bike. That pretty much sums it up. Well this morning I realllllly didn't want to get on the treadmill, so I thought I'd dust off my aerobics dvd and give it another shot. Come to find out.... this is shocking.... I'm still uncoordinated! I watched those fit ladies again for about 5 minutes and gave up. And then I grabbed a diet dr. pepper and came upstairs to blog. Thus the "lazy" in the title :) I'm making record of this so that next time I think I want to try aerobics, I can look back on this and realize that I will only be setting myself up for failure. Don't do it, Ariel. Get on the treadmill.