To go to Chicago or not...

Goodness, I am in a pickle. For the past year, Chris and I have traveled fairly frequently. Granted, a lot of our trips have been paid for by extremely generous family members. And for that, we are grateful! We have been to Florida, Minnesota, Hawaii, we are headed to Texas in June, we have our annual trip to Vegas in July for a work seminar, the list keeps going. My birthmom has invited me to her niece's graduation in Chicago at the end of May, early June. The problem is, Chris and I are trying to win a 90 day contest at work that is based on a point system. The reward is a full expense paid trip to Mexico plus $1000! We want to win so bad! You get points for closings, under contracts, attendance, etc. There are 65 agents in our office and we have won awards before in the past so we actually have a shot at winning this. Maybe we aren't a front runner but we are optimistic. Anyway, by us being gone, we lose out on some points that other agents will get. We already know that we are missing out on some valuable points when we are in Texas for a week. There is nothing we can do about that. So to be gone even more is not good. It probably will take us out of the running all together if we ever had a shot. Plus another factor, is obviously money. Chris and I have a lot of committments already this year. I felt I made a smart decision to decline going to Chicago. Yes it would be great to see my new family. They all want to see me and meet me for the first time. But Chris and I have so much on our plate. Another factor too is that I am starting to work part time for the Census next week. It is only for 6-8 weeks but that runs right in line with when I have essentially 2 jobs. I don't actually feel much stress BUT I did after I received this phone call on Sunday...

It went something like this....
Peggy (my birthmom who just got into my life last June)- "I want to talk to you about Chicago. I know you said you can't come but I wanted to explain something to you. This is kind of a once in a lifetime deal. Kim (her sister) is moving to Florida in a few months. Jeannie (her other sister) just bought a house in Florida and she hasn't told anyone and she plans to break the news in Chicago. Dale's (her husband) family will be there. Randy and Paula (her other sibblings) will be there. It will be the only opportunity to meet all these people who really want to meet you. There won't be another event like this again." Then she said that her mother (my grandmother I guess) won't be alive for much longer....

Here is the part that bothered me...
"You owe it to her out of respect to be in Chicago".

She put major guilt on me. I was taken a back. I didn't know how to respond. I think I just said I will talk it over with Chris.

So I am trying to decide if I should squeeze in another trip into our already busy schedule. And money still isn't growing on trees....And now I might be feeling stressed!

Utes take 6th...

Utah kind of blew it on the second night of Nationals. They had a terrible beam outing. Ah well. At least they made it into the Super Six event. UCLA won and were unbeatable that night. The competition is so fierce these days! All the teams ahead of us scored a 197 or better!

Here are some photos of wine making with the ladies.... We are brewing our own wine! It should be done in 30 days. I will keep you posted....

Utah makes the Final Six

Honestly no one expected them to go this far. It is quite a surprise they are competing tonight. The Utah gymnastics team joins UCLA, Alabama, Florida, Stanford and Oklahoma in the NCAA Super Six team finals. The meet starts at 6 p.m. Eastern time in the O'Connell Center on the University of Florida campus.

The Utes, who are competing in their 16th (of 18 possible) Super Six finals, drew the bye before bars to start the meet. Their first competition rotation will be the uneven bars, followed by beam, bye, floor and vault.

Leading the way for Utah will be freshly minted 2010 All-Americans Daria Bijak (first-team all-around and bars), Jamie Deetscreek (first-team beam, second-team all-around and bars), Kyndal Robarts (first-team beam), Annie DiLuzio (first-team floor) and Stephanie McAllister (second-team bars).

Bijak, Deetscreek, Robarts and DiLuzio will all compete tomorrow in the individual event finals. The all-around competition was decided yesterday during the team qualifying round. Bijak, who tied for third in the afternoon semi, finished in a tie for seventh overall in the combined standings. The only championship awarded tonight will be the team trophy.

GO UTES!

Garage sale therapy...

Everyone has heard of shopping therapy- when you go shopping and spend money on something that makes you feel good. Well, I tried the opposite last weekend and it was wonderful! I feel GREAT! I had a garage sale both Saturday and Sunday. It feels fantastic to gather things that I don't need and get paid money for it. The first day we made close to $300. It was heaven!! And I seriously had concerns whether or not anyone would spend money on anything. That is how bad I thought my junk was. So after day 1, I realized what a lucrative business garage sales are... so I decided to dig even deeper for more crap that people might want for our Sunday garage sale. I put out a ton of new stuff on day 2. It was that second round of decluttering that really made a difference. Our garage is now so much more organized. Our closets aren't filled to the brim with purses, bags and clothes. Everything has been through round 2 of decluttering and it is the best feeling!! So yes the garage sale made us money but more importantly, it decluttered our life. I am breathing easier with less stuff lying around. I am still trying to sell stuff on KSL that didn't sell but if that doesn't work, those things have seen their last day with me. They are being thrown away. Hooray for garage sales!

Party for Matthew in the U.C. (Utah County)

It was a fun evening at Jason's. We had the most delicious tri tip ever. The key is to let it sit out for 4 hours at room temperature. That reminds me...I need the entire recipe. Anyway, we had a blast. Matthew had ding dongs for his bday cake. Whip cream was used for several drinks and made a splash so to speak! Matthew got some great reading material. And Jewels won $90! What a fun night! And I hopefully will get a kick butt glass piece of art! Jason's house rocks...

Utah Gymnastics

So the season is over for those of us that don't travel to Nationals. Regionals were here in Utah and they were so exciting! Yes we took second to Florida but we took a proud second. There was talk whether or not we would even compete at Nationals this year. So the fans were excited that we just made it. Anyway, here is the schedule for Nationals. Notice an ever all important team missing???

April 12, 2010

INDIANAPOLIS -
The Utah gymnasts received a No. 5 seed into the upcoming NCAA Championships in Gainesville, Fla. on April 22-24. It is the same seed the Utes had in 2008, when they placed second at the NCAA Championships.

The Utes will compete in the afternoon semifinal in qualifying competition on Thursday, April 22. The afternoon session starts at 1 p.m., with the second semifinal following at 7 p.m. All times are Eastern. The Utes drew the same rotation they had at regionals: floor, vault, bye, bars, beam, bye.

The two semifinals contain six teams each, with the top three teams from each semi qualifying into team finals on Friday, April 23.

Here are the semifinal matchups with seeds (based on National Qualifying Score):

1 p.m. EDT (Thursday, April 22)

1. UCLA
4. Oklahoma
5. Utah
8. Oregon State
9. LSU
12. Nebraska

7 p.m. EDT (Thursday, April 22)

2. Florida
3. Alabama
6. Stanford
7. Arkansas
10. Missouri
11. Michigan

YEP...Georgia did NOT make it to Nationals!!  Crazy!!

A fun trip to Wendover

Chris's first time in a black jack tournament resulted in $110 of free chips that he won from a random drawing, 2 free comped rooms in the hotel, free admission to the tournament, free food buffets and a really nice and FREE seafood dinner in the steakhouse restaurant!! Unbelievable! We had a free weekend to gamble. It was heaven. We brought our baby... aka Bojangles. It was nice to get away on the holiday weekend and just be by ourselves with no work.

I went to a hair salon in town during the day to get pampered. Mind you, there are no spas in Wendover. None of the hotels have a place where you can go get your hair and nails done. Geez luise! So I went to this po-dunk salon in town that was inside a home. They were so nice. They saw Bojangles in the car waiting for me and they insisted that I bring him inside. Well, I hesitiated a bit because Bojangles has a habit of marking other people's territory the first time he enters a new home. So I brought him inside and they immediately feed him like 5 dog treats. They were so nice and as I was thanking them BAM... he takes a poop right in front of everyone!! He has no shame. Here they are being so nice to him and he takes a poop right next to their couch in the middle of the salon. Oh I love my dog but why does he do this!! How can I train him to stop his one time pooping in other people's homes when he never does it in his own?? They were so nice even after this happened.

And to conclude my hair salon experience, the nice lady asked if I wanted a "bump". I said sure and thought how bad can a bump be. She then proceeds to rat nest my hair in the back and spray it with a gallon of hair spray. Lesson to be leaned, don't fall for the "bump" experience.