Merry Christmas!!! (Only a few days late...)

This year Drew and I got snowed into Logan for Christmas. It was a very leisurely Christmas morning since we don’t have any children. We slept in and watched previously recorded Christmas concerts on the BYU channel, had hot chocolate, and then emptied our stockings. I’m so glad that we have The Bob’s as such good friends. After dinner they let us come over to their house and play a game while their family was visiting. Thanks for being our friends!


The other Christmas miracle this year was our tree. Because we went to sunny San Diego for about 10 days (Post Pending) we didn’t want to buy a tree, just to have it dry up, and fuel a fire in the apartment. This wasn’t a big deal until we found out we would be in Logan for Christmas. But, thanks to a very kind co-worker, we had a tree. She had decorated a live tree and given it to a very good friend of hers who was leaving Christmas Eve and won’t be back until after the New Year. Because it was going to be garbage in the street, we adopted the tree and were thrilled to put a few of our own ornaments on it.

What a weekend...well 5 day weekend

So most of you were a big part of our weekend so all of this isn't new but I want to go over some highlights. First off I want to mention how great my fishing trip was and that I was grateful for Dave Burgess and his willingness to come with me. He made a fine net boy and it was nice to have someone to talk to. Here are some pictures of the catches and from what Gromo and Dave Roska had to say it was good eats! This one was the smallest one.

This one was the medium.

And this one is bigger than Alden or Logan!!!

After fishing we went back and we ate dinner with Papa Clark at Cafe Rio it had been a while since we had eaten there and it was pretty good. Afterwards we went bowling and I sucked it up but Andrew and Kristi did pretty well. Ethan was funny to watch and we all had a good time.

Next day was Thanksgiving and we went to Ren and Susan's house (that is Tahnie's mom). Dinner was great and we went back to Brad's had pie and watched Hancock...it was okay but not what I had expected. We split and then went and hung out with the Clark Clan where we watched "A Christmas Story" and played games. It was really nice to see everyone.

Friday we did the shopping in the early morning and we got some great deals! I am very excited for all the presents we got. The rest of the morning Emily and I slept. We got up went and hung out with James and got him some birthday presents. It was really nice to be with him and see how much he has grown up. We then had a Chinese themed dinner were Aaron almost burnt down the kitchen! (Sorry no pictures) That was really awesome. We watched Kung Fu Panda which was really fun and we all hung out on Gromo's bed.

Saturday we went to Brynner's birthday party which wasn't as good as it could have been because the little guy had an ear infection and was pretty upset the whole time. After we left they took him to the doctor and they found the problem, he was a lot better after that. We gave him a little boat and from what Brad says he likes to try and sink it. I am just glad he plays with it. We went and did some more shopping and found more presents and we headed home. It was great to be around so much family and get to enjoy a little piece of everyone.

Drew is A Wesome

'Nough Said.

Most quoted Roska ever!!!

So the reason why I am doing this is because over the years we have gotten some pretty memorable quotes out of Elliott. And I don't want to lose any to forgetfulness. Now this disclaimer is for Elliott or the American badness! Look dude you know as well as everybody who reads this that you have some great quotes and they should not be forgotten, so be proud of who you are and I love ya! If you have any quotes you can blog them yourself or send me an email and I will post them. Here are some of my most favorite.

All of these were said while playing catch phrase:

Word: Tunnel.
Elliott: rhymes with funnel with a T

Word: Bath tub gin
Elliott: You do it on your honeymoon it's romantic... (All of these are said while he is motioning his hand this is supposed to help you get it.)

Word: French-Indian War:
Elliott: Brad! Where did you serve your mission
Brad: France
Elliott: All right.

Word: Scotch
Elliott Buttersco.... come on guys butterscot...

These are just random memories I have of the kid:

Elliott and Kent came over to spend the night and Curt had come over to hang out. Everybody was razzing everybody and there was a lull in the razzing and Elliott out of no where and said; "fine why don't I go outside and freeze myself!"

Brad and I took Elliott to priesthood for his first session, before we left he asked two questions first was if he could bring his digi-draw and the second was if we could stop at Reams and buy some candy before we went. After the 2 hour session we were walking out and only in Elliott fashion he says at the top of his lungs, "Man how long were we in there?" Brad and I vowed never to take him again.

Brad took Elliott and Kent to an amuesment park that had bumper cars and slick track racing. Brad Kent and Elliott were racing along with some other kids when Elliott slammed his car into another kids car. The guy running the ride gave him a warning. Elliott proceeded to hit the kid again and the guy gave him another warning and once again Elliott slammed the kid and the guy told Elliott to pull over Brad was coming around and saw Elliott throw his helmet into the drivers seat and ask the guy, "WHAT KIND OF BUMPER CARS ARE THESE???" The guy then pointed out where the bumper cars were and hopped into that line.

Brad and Tahnie I know you guys have a lot of these and I don't want to claim all of them so send them to me so I can put them on or put them on your blog!!!

Emily's story: When I met Drew's family for the first time Kathy offered me a drink. I chose grape juice. Someone mentioned it probably wasn't cold enough and the little helper he is, Elliott went to the freezer grabbed a handful of ice and dropped it in my glass. The rest of the family went nuts but I didn't think anything of it.

Now I realize how unsanitary that was. He was young and...well...Elliott. I love him.

Confessions...

First off: A buna buna is a motorcycle according to our nephew Ethan. But Drew still needs to get on it before someone else does. Hint hint.

Now for the confessions. Confessions are mostly personal and I don't mind that you read this. I hope you do and that makes me more accountable for my actions.

The other night I was trying to sleep and started to think of my family and friends, as I often do. Then I realized that I don't do much more than that. I think of you often, wonder how your life is going, if there's anything new and exciting, or something that troubles you that I don't know. I am so sorry.

I have let distance between us grow in my life. I realize for some it's a physical distance that I let myself justify the lack of contact, for others that live in my own neighborhood it's simply mental. I make excuses or put it off until another day. This year I want that to change. I want to say more thank you's and I'm sorry's and be more honest.

Now I've confessed. Now everyone knows. If you ask me how it's going I promise an honest response, so be prepared for more than a monosyllable answer.

Buna Buna or Bust

If you'd like to know what this is about leave comments. I think Drew needs a kind nudge to get this blog up and running.

P.S. We're alive and well. Thanks for reading.

No Alcohol Needed

These look like some fun pumpkins but we don't need alcohol to be fun people.

This is a stab at Drew saying we are a boring married couple. Let me name a few of the wildly fun things we have done in the last week or so.

We walked to a local restraunt and had doughnuts and hot chocolate for breakfast. Then we made our way to the gardener's market and mingled with the local growers. We made people at church laugh. We have tried two new delicious recipes and shared them with our friends. We upset the baseball fans at Iggy's and this weekend we get to meet our brand new niece.

How awesome are we?!

Note to our readers: I didn't plan on Drew posting again before I placed my rebuttal so I'd appreciate it if you'd comment on his pictures. I am impressed with his camera phone. It's way better than mine.

It's time for another exciting round of Drew took that with his cellphone camera

So I must admit that with these first few pictures I have never been a big stop and smell the roses kind of guy, I have never even really paid much attention to any flowers. With this landscaping job I have had my eyes opened to a wide variety of plants and flowers and there are a few I would like to incorporate into my landscape. These first set of picture are called obedient flowers. You can bend them in the middle so it looks like they are broken but then you can stand it back up and it is like nothing happened. I took these because we found some bumble bees that had spent the night on them.

I also liked these different flowers the first one is called a flax, most people let this grow and about half way through the summer it dies but if you cut it back to the ground you can get a late blooming and it is just as good as the first one.
The next ones are called asters they come in a variety of colors and if done right they will take over a large area.

Here are some pictures I have taken of wild life. The picture of the fox I took while golfing with Brad, the others I have taken while at work.

Why are married people so boring?

So Emily and I have had the opportunity to Have my friend Dave Burgess over to our house several times since he moved up here and I have come to the conclusion that we are boring. I would say that he ends up falling asleep while with us about 3 out of 5 times he comes over. And the odds increase the longer he stays. Now in our defense Dave isn't very good at staying awake through anything, I have watched him fall asleep during a temple wedding several times. But I do feel for the most part we are boring.

We usually sit by ourselves at church, I think it's because we are considered the old grumpy couple and we really have nothing in common with the younger folks in our ward... they should have a ward for those of us who waited until they were 24 and need 6-7 years to finish our bachelors. I have considered trying to keep up with the current fashions but I am pretty sure I would look terrible in skinny leg jeans, plus I need things to flow off of me when running to the bathroom (this is a common Roska boy problem). The white rimmed glasses would make me look more like a bug than I already do and red is as about as bright as I will go.

I have also considered joining some sort of league but I have found I am not willing to give up some of my favorite shows to be a part of said leagues. I want to put in a very minimum effort but I want really good results. Does anybody have any ideas for us and no, I am not willing to give up The Office, Earl, Heroes, The Big Bang Theory, The Biggest Loser, AFV or Wrestling so that is pretty much Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings.

Dont cry for me Argentina

I must make this request before I blog. I don't want anybody telling me how bad this sucks. I already know. I had to take a test this semester before I could take Stats 1040. I took the test several times and studied as hard as I could but I wasn't able to pass it. I needed to get into stats so I could apply for my major this semester and since I did not get in I am not able to apply for a full year so I have to take a year off of school. So I am taking this semester off and I will return in the spring and take a full load of classes and I will then take stats in the summer and take the following fall semester off as well. It's ok I feel fine it was hard to accept but I am willing to take it. It means I have more time with my wife and we get to go on another vacation this winter so it will all work out. so if you must cry I understand but know we are both doing well and we look forward to the time together

Mountain Lion....Perhaps...

Emily: Hmm..My lip is burning.
Drew: My whole nose is burning.
Emily: Did you touch it after chopping the green pepper?
Drew: I must have.

(5 minutes later)
Drew: This REALLY hurts!

Drew puts ice on his nose and cheeks. It's a little messy, his face melts the ice.
Running water...
Emily: Maybe you should try milk.
Silence...

Emily walks to the kitchen to find Drew with his face in a bowl of milk.
Drew: It's not working very well.
Emily opens the fridge: Yogurt or sour cream?
Drew: Huh?? Sour cream.

Finally Drew has some relief from the physical pain. Too bad they watched that History channel special about large cats and Emily can't stop laughing.

Old but not forgotten....

The news is old but not forgotten, my car was old but not forgotten, and I am getting old and I'm reminded by my mom that my age is not forgotten. Thanks mom! ;)

This happened nearly one month ago but I need to share. Pictures will follow.
The funniest thing happened on my lunch hour...

Drew picked me up and we decided to go to the Old Grist Mill for lunch. Mmmm. As we entered the store our upstairs neighbor call Drew on his cell phone and stated "There are a couple of guys from a scrapyard checking out your red car in the driveway. Can I give them your phone number?" So when he hung up Drew relayed the message and said "500 no less?" Well yeah I'd love to have $500 but it doesn't run and I know it's not worth that much. The guy called and offered $100 and Drew used his negotiating skills to get more but in the end the guy had $200 cash and that's what he could give us for it.

There was talk of is that a good deal? will I be able to give up my TercelEZ after all this time?could we fix it and sell it for more? In the end we decided it wouldn't be realistic to keep it. We won't be able to fix it. Donating it would give us $0 cash. We called him back after about 10 minutes debate and told him he had a deal. We forgot about lunch, went home, cleaned out the car, took a few pictures, and said goodbye.

Drew and our friend, Dave, let me get in the driver's seat and drive the length of the house and grass while they pushed behind. The guys came, hooked her up, paid us the cash and took her away. I like to think they don't mind giving us 200 because they are going to fix it and sell it for more. That way she'll remain on the streets, with the wind whipping her hood, where she belongs. Car heaven.

It wasn't easy and I cried. I'm sorry that all of you couldn't take a moment to feel the steering wheel or the gear shift between your fingers. Or that we couldn't go to the Sev and get Super Big Gulps and pile in like we were taking an adventure. That would have been the proper goodbye. It was a great car and it took us a lot of places. (Mostly the Sev. cause she could take us there herself, no steering needed.)

PS Tomorrow is 7-11 and there should be free slurpees at your local Sev. :D

all in a week

So since Emily is no where to be found in the blogging world it looks like Drew must take command and try to keep this thing updated. For those of you who don't know I have taken up working outside and I have quickly realized how difficult it is. I guess some of the perks is that I am learning a lot about different weeds and bugs and I am getting a great tan! I have actually started to use the camera on my cellphone for things other than goofy pictures of me and my wife. Here are the stories behind the different pictures.

BO-JANGLES

Is my little mouse friend I found string trimming at south farm. He was no ordinary mouse, he wasn't afraid of me at all he maybe ran 2 yards away from me before turning around and staring. I watched him try to jump up on a step but he was a little too robust for that so to try to scare him into it I threw a little rock at him... it was an underhand throw and it hit him in the butt. He then started running on his side in a circle before stopping and kicking his little leg. I thought to myself there is no way I just killed this mouse. I didn't even throw it hard enough. So I poked him with the string trimmer and he kicked his leg some more, I did it again and kicked more than he stuck out his front teeth. I went back to what I was doing and turned to check on him and he was sitting on his butt with his two feet in front of him just watching me. It was really weird. I wanted to show my boss how cool he was and poked the string trimmer at him and he stood up and grabbed the edge. I pulled it back and poked it at him again and got the same result. My boss thought he was weird too. We went to break and came back and couldn't find him so I went back to string trimming and didn't see him until the end of the day. I guess my boss didn't see him when she ran over him with the lawn mower... poor Bo-Jangles I was able to take a picture of him before his accident. This is in memory of my little friend.

Horned caterpillar

We were pulling weeds around these ornamental shrubs and we found this caterpillar. He was really cool. They mostly hang around tomato plants and do damage to those but since we didn't have any we couldn't justify killing him.

Memorial for Curt

A couple years ago Emily and I lost a very good friend in the USU rollover accident. They have recently commissioned an artist to make a memorial for the 8 students and professor who died in the accident. Curt raised pigs in High school and won several awards for doing so. So in his memorial they have a prize winning pig with ribbons on it. The artist is doing an amazing job and trying to get the families to participate in the memorial so he had family members come and add texture to the ceramic tiles that will later be cast in bronze. We added texture to the pigs ear and the ribbons. One of the tiles was completely finished when the parents came to visit, according to the father the tractor that was in the tile was the one and only tractor the young man hated. so the artist didn't hesitate in taking it out and starting over on the tractor.

Those were the days

Emily and I have had the opportunity to spend time this weekend with Andrew, Kristi and the always entertaining Ethan. Watching the little tike this weekend has made me think of the good old days.

We were at the ever popular Pepperidge Farms outlet and as we were leaving there was a big puddle in the parking lot, all of us adults seemingly bypassed it without a second glance. Ethan on the other hand made a beeline straight for it just as Kristi did her ahhahah he pulled back and continued on.

Later we were fishing and the kid was all over the place, throwing rocks in the water gradually getting larger and larger until he was told to tone it down, he then would find a stick and start splashing and the splashes would get larger and larger until he was asked to tone it down, he then would run around and get closer and closer to the water until finally falling in and getting his pants wet.

Later we were watching Finding Nemo at our house it was on one of the local stations and every time a commercial would come on he would freak out and say I want to watch Nemo. And every time we would have to explain commercials (tivo has ruined the kid!!!)

All of this made me think back to when I was a kid and I was the kid running around splashing in puddles. I remember when I was in grade school and it was winter and everything was covered in ice. All of the kids were outside sliding on the ice. I wasn't talented enough to slide on my feet so I went on my butt. I guess it's a bad idea to slide on your but when wearing corduroy pants. I tore them to pieces. I remember it being so exhilarating until I realized what I had done to my pants.

It also maybe me think of Saturday morning cartoons wrapped up in my Grandma Henderson quilt still in my whity tighties with a big bowl of marshmallow maties watching tiny toons, teenage mutant ninja turtles and the all time classic looney tunes. Not the Saturday morning crap they have now.

My point is we get to caught up in our everyday lives to "do work" on a puddle that needs someone to jump in it. We don't stop to see how big of a splash we can make with rocks, sticks and sometimes our pants. I think we could make our lives easier by stopping and watching a line of ants march back to their home, playing a game of eye spy next time we are waiting for a bus or in a room sitting with 20 people in awkward silence or maybe even stopping to pick up a seeding dandelion and blowing on it until they are all gone. ( I call it job security)

Camping Treats

I would like our readers to suggest some of your favorite camping treats. Drew and I love to go camping and I have a few good camping recipes but I'd like to hear some of yours. What do you find easy or especially tasty in the wild outdoors?

Old News

I haven't said anything about the 5K in April. I'm sorry if it's boring because it is old news but it is something I'm proud of and enjoy remembering.

April 19th I participated in my very first 5K. One of my co-workers found the event and I knew that if I was going to be serious about it I needed a training partner. I invited my brother Andrew to train with me and convinced Aaron it would be a fun birthday celebration.
I really enjoyed training with Andrew. Sometimes I forget how funny he is and how much he gets my humor. One night at the track we decided that the right side of my face is more attractive than the left. Hear me out. This particular evening when we went to jog the direction had changed from the other days. (Clockwise vs. counter-clockwise) This particular night the boys playing basketball and tennis on the inside of the track intentionally threw balls in my path. One nearly hit me in the head. I knew those boys were just making an excuse to say hello and be noticed. We decided that the only thing that had changed was the view of my profile and thus we concluded that the left side is much more appealing to the young men. ;)

The week of I was really bummed to find out Drew had to work that morning and that he would miss the main event but I knew he was proud of me too. It was a great surprise when I reached the finish line and my co-worker told me my phone rang and that she had answered it. She said Drew called, was going to ride my bike, and should be here really soon. I had a sip of water, rested my legs for about 60 seconds and as soon as he was within an eyes view I headed back down the street turned into the parking lot and back through the finish line. I saw him and he saw me and I told him how excited I was that he could be there to see me finish. Too bad I told him the truth. All the same it was super sweet of him to do all he could to be there for me. Thanks Drew.

parades...who knew they could be fun!

I never got into the whole parade jazz and so when Emily would tell me how much fun they are I wouldn't get as excited as she would. But I do have to admit they can be fun if you follow a few simple rules for making them fun.

1. Always look to see who owns the float or (in most cases up here) who owns the truck pulling the boat trailer. Once you know who it is you must enthusiastically cheer their name and be excited like you are here to see them. This will guarantee you lots of candy or tooth brushes or Frisbee's.

2. Always have a cute kid with you who has mastered the little guy wave. The more kids you have the better the results. Make sure they are dressed nicely cause kids in whitetrash overalls will not work.

3. No matter how cute the girls on the floats are, do not wave unless under the age of 12. Otherwise you just come off as a creepy fat guy. Smile and give the head node.

4. Sit at the front of the parade, the people on the floats or boat trailers have not learned how to conserve the candy so they give it out more plentifully.

5. Don't ever leave candy in front of your seats. People think you have had enough so they will not throw as much. Once you get a plethora of candy hide it behind the your seat.

6. Don't give kids bags to put their candy in. It looks tacky and don't let them run into the streets after it, people get turned off by that and will probably not throw a second handful.

7. Find some shade, you don't want to sit through a 2 hour parade with no shade but make sure you are visible to the paraders, it's very important.

If all these steps are followed properly you will get a lot of free stuff and your trip to the parade will be a happy and successful trip.

I know I'm lucky cause...

Drew makes me laugh. It's a lot of little things he's done in our time together that keeps things enjoyable. From the very first day we met he's had me rolling on the floor laughing. This month it was because he was on the floor that I was smiling.

Drew decided one day that if he blocked the doorway then I couldn't return to work after my lunch hour. It worked. I called my co-worker to tell Drew to move and my plan backfired when she told me what a slow afternoon it was and how I should stay home. It's nice to know that after all our time together Drew still wants to hang out with me on a weekday afternoon. I love that he did it and that he continues to threaten to do it again.

Last night we went into our yard and flew $3 basal wood airplanes with wind up propellers until the rubber bands broke so many times we could no longer repair them. It was great fun and a good reminder of how good the simple things are. Tonight we're going burnin' with Andrew and Kristi. (It means we'll go up the canyon, start a fire, and roast hot dogs and marshmallows.) It's one of our all time FAVORITE things to do. Hooray!

Too much sugar

Emily and I have had the privilege of being so close to Andrew and Kristi these past 4 years which means we also had the chance to watch Ethan grow into the little man he is now. This weekend we had them over for dinner and Ethan was a little hyper. He was also in a singing mood.

The one I have on my cellphone has a little more of him and Daddy barking. As soon as I figure out how to post it I will.

For the Love of Pots

One of my favorite things about Drew and his pottery is getting to know other potters, their styles, their strengths, and their personalities. The Ceramics Guild held a pottery sale and Drew and I took the opporutnity to invest in other talented artists.
Tom Knight:
I'm grateful for their differences and that there is much to choose from and at the same time it made it hard to choose.
Cory Brown:

Visiting Artist

One of the things I will miss about the ceramics department is the visiting artists. The ceramics department gets to have a wide variety of visiting artists because we're able to pay for them with our guild sales. The latest visiting artist was Mark Hewitt. He is potter from North Carolina and he supports himself entirely from what he makes. I was really impressed with him and his abilities. I missed a class just so I could sit through all of his demonstrations. He is very talented and his pots are very expensive. In an eight hour shift he make over 200 mugs at which each mug sales for 40-50 dollars.
He makes these large potting jars at which he sales those for 8,600 dollars and he can make 20 of those in a week. My favorite thing he made were these ice tea vessels. He used less than a pound of clay to get it about 12 inches high the walls on the pots are no more than a few pieces of paper thick! I also like these plates he made here are some pictures with a slip added to them so when they're fired they come out the color he prefers. The amazing thing is he uses hardly any clay for his projects. He mad a couple of 1 gallon pitchers with almost 2 pounds of clay. To get an idea of how hard this is, this semester we had to make 12 inch cylinders with 4 pounds of clay, most of the students could not do it and at times I struggled with the assignment; now imagine him throwing well over 12 inches with 2 pounds of clay and making it large enough to fit a whole gallon of water in it. All I can say is that I was amazed! For our assignment in class we had to make 2 foot jars, here is the one I made not as good as Mark Hewitt's but I haven't been doing this for 20 years either... Sorry to say it but this is the only way anybody can see my 2 foot pot. I pulled it out of the kiln this morning and it has cracked out the flame was too intense and it wont survive, I will be making more this summer.
Sorry if these pictures are not crystal clear I had to take them with my camera phone.

Roska's Pottery

It's up and running for anyone to see. Visit http://www.roskaspottery.blogspot.com to see what Drew will have for sale starting Tuesday, March 25th.

Feel free to look and drool but the bidding will not begin until Tuesday morning. We hope you like it and if it works well we might do it again.

It's Official

We will be holding the Pottery Extravaganza on March 25th - March 31st. Please have your bids in by 7pm. There will be pictures and measurements available. If you don't live in Logan (or Utah) we will arrange for shipping. Thanks for your love and support! This is the best selection so far!!!

Please post a comment if you never have before, so if you have any trouble we can resolve it before the 25th. Thanks again!

For those of you who need eye candy

Here are some pictures of my latest work!

I Need Input...From Our Readers....If there are any...

This semester I am taking the intermediate wheel throwing class again and I am about to have a huge problem. Just after spring break we will have our first critique of our work. This will include over 95 pieces I have made so far and Emily and I have no room for them in our house. Last time I took this class we had Emily's graduation hoopla and we sold them there. Since I am not graduating soon and it was hard enough to get everyone there last time we decided we might do an online silent auction from our blog.

We have several readers that live outside of Utah and we'd be more than happy to ship them where ever. (All of the old potters have mastered shipping them through the mail.) Since this is my last semester doing ceramics in school and since people have asked how to get some of my pots, we thought this would be the easiest way to do it. But I need to know what people think. I think we would probably put the pieces online for 2 weeks let everyone bid on what they liked and close it out and go from there.

I don't want people to think that this would turn into a blog where we ask you guys to buy stuff all the time, I just don't see any other options. I do have the option to put them into the Ceramics Guild sale but I have to mark them up a lot more than I regularly would because they keep 30%. And for you guys outside of Utah you're kind of out of luck. So let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions. I will also post pictures of what I have made once I get them glazed fired.
And for those of you I promised to make you something and never got it to you, I don't want you to think I forgot I just huh... So I forgot. shoot me an email and I will take that into consideration;)

Fishing,quilting,eating,rollingover and tons of elk

Last week I went fishing on Saturday morning with a friend of mine and we caught a tons of fish. This crazy old guy told me I needed to try a spinner on my line as the weight, it seemed to work well for him and I was amazed at how well it worked for us. We caught over 30 fish (most of the perch)and my buddy kept most of them. Emily stayed home and put together a quilt with the leftover fabric from the one she made for Brynner. I really like it and called dibs but I know how artist work and if they dont want to keep something or had other plans for it there is no conviencing otherwise. It was a beautiful day one not meant for staying home and watching the Dew action sports tour or sking at deer valley so we split. We went to Iron Gate Grill for dinner and afterwards we decided to drive up to Hardware Ranch to check out the elk. Half way up we watched a very young couple roll their jeep.(a week after we watched a girl get a nose job by slamming her car into a van) After running up and checking to make sure the couple was okay and seeing them dangle from their seats I instructed them to stay where they were(nobody found it funny but me.) A couple of other people stopped and we rolled the jeep back over and found that the young man had a small cut on his hand and the young girl was fine. Both were a little shaken up but nothing serous at all. Emily went and got a blanket for them and the young man took it and said thanks and wrapped himself up. (I don't think she'll stick with him for long) The young mans dad was up looking at the elk and came down about 15 minutes after it happened. The Jeep was still running so they decided he was going to drive it back down the canyon so Emily and I finished our trek up to the elk and it was awesome here are a couple of pictures we took.
and here are some of just the elk we got lucky and saw two of them fighting!!!

Dear Future Self,

The other night I was rummaging through a bunch of papers and cards that I had kept. There were a lot! That's not the point. I found the answer to Aaron's question.

Around my birthday I mentioned what I need to do before I'm 25. Aaron was intrigued and asked what it consisted of. I really didn't think I had a list but I was mistaken. I found a letter to myself of what I expected my life to be at 25 years old. It makes me laugh because I realize now how old I thought 25 was.

"The year is 2008 and you are now 25 years old..." I asked myself about dates with my husband, my one child, my dog Happy, and my cottage in the country. I remember writing this letter (I have the Swensen memory) and being conservative in writing about only one child. I would like a child but I don't think it will happen by my birthday. I want a dog but the only reason I'd name him Happy is because of this silly letter. Besides my "cottage" in the country won't allow for a pet.

Drew and I had a good laugh about it and I thought I would share with all of you.

My Pole in the Water

Drew took me ice fishing only after days and days of begging him. ;) This was the first chance I had to try out my new pole from Christmas and the first time I had actively participated in the fishing of ice fishing.

I got a couple good bites on my line and fought with one fish, only to have him "Houdini" on me and jump off the line at the last minute. Cause I was so popular with the fishes Drew asked me how far my line was in the water. As I pulled it up to show him it caught the eye of a beautiful trout. Apparently he followed my lure up into the hole. I looked down just in time to see him flop his body around and dive back in the water.

I didn't get any fish that day but I consider it successful. Neither of us got wet and the fish were biting enough for hours of excitement. Not to mention the scenery was amazing.

Beauty Salon Weekend

Aaron and Julie came to visit us not too long ago. It was a nice surprise and a good chance catch up. We went to the store, played games, and had a steak dinner. Julie and Anna both got makeovers.

On Sunday they came to church with us. It was good to have a crowd that day because we received a new bishopric. Thanks for coming!

Finally!

Emily and I had the opportunity of going to my best friends wedding last month. I have known Jake since the day we walked into the lunch room at Granite Park Junior High, one lanky and the other stalky. We were rejects from all other social groups so we sat at our own table and we ate lunch together everyday all through our senior year. Jake and I went through a lot together; high school football, nick names, English reports, awkward dating years, missions, Dave Burgess, Mike Zito, Granite High, my first date with Emily and much more. Seeing him get married was awesome we had a chance to meet his wife when they came up to visit family in Logan. She is very nice and suites Jake very well. We're happy for the both of them and wish them the best of luck.