A taste of Halloween

On Halloween I dressed up as Lavender Brown for work (a character from Harry Potter) and John dressed up in his dad's lovely 70’s polyester clothes for his chemistry class.  I guess they talked about "esters" and everyone who dressed up got extra credit.  John even won a prize for being in the top 

3 favorite outfits for his class!  Probably because he kept posing like Ron Burgundy from Anchorman.  

I should have pulled out my braids for the picture because that was probably the best part of my costume.

For work all of the tellers decorated pumpkins for display in the lobby.  This was my mummy pumpkin.  Turned out looking more like a volleyball with eyes, but that's ok.  It was fun to see everyone's creativity!

Football!

 This past weekend was so much fun for John and I.  On Friday night we went to the Skyline game where my dad won his 300th high school football game (in his coaching career).  It rained... well sprinkled during the entire game so I wish I had taken an umbrella or a hat, but it was still fun with the family.  We were so excited for him and they wrote some good articles in the paper about it!

Way to go Dad!

 

Dad and Sons (except Johnny)

After the game they had a little reception for him in the press box with cake.  A lot of his old players also came to congratulate him.  John and I left the celebration a little early to go to John’s family’s house to watch the new x-men movie on blue-ray.  It was fun getting the whole surround sound package....Lately when we watch movies it's just on our laptops.  The movie was pretty good and we enjoyed spending time with the Southwicks!  

Saturday night we drove down to Provo for the BYU game to watch my dad get honored.  They had him light the Y before the game and they read a short bio about him. While that was going on, our entire family got to go down on the field and watch the team warm up and be a part of the tunnel.  It was a lot of fun!  John and I even got our picture taken with Cosmo!  Part of John’s sister’s family was also at the game and we just happened to see them before everything started and ended up sitting kind of close to them.  To top it off BYU won the game 29-16, so it was awesome. 

August

6-Month Get-a-way!

At the beginning of the month we celebrated our 6-month anniversary.  We celebrated this great feat by going up to Logan and staying at The Providence Inn.  The inn is basically like a cheaper version of The Anniversary Inn, as it has themed rooms.  I heard about it from a friend in Logan and have wanted to stay there ever since.  So we booked our rooms and were excited for our first vacation together (not counting the honey moon of course).  When we arrived we were kind of nervous because the building was pretty old fashioned and quaint so we didn’t really know what to do with ourselves.  It almost felt like we were in the Bed and Breakfast episode on The Office where Jim and Pam go and stay at Dwight’s Beet Farm.

Jim:         “Mmm... I'd say one in six.”

Pam:         “What?”

Jim :         “Oh I thought you asked me what our chances were of being murdered here tonight.”  

Anyway, after we talked to the guy at the front desk, things were less awkward.  While we were checking-in he told us about the movie library, how breakfast worked out, and other odds and ends.  As we headed up to our room, John and I also noticed that they provided freshly baked chocolate-chip-cookies for guests whenever they passed the main hallway.  Yeah, that was probably my favorite amenity. 

The first night we were there we stayed in the New Orleans room.  I don’t know if these pictures do it justice, but you can get the idea.  In this room they even brought breakfast up to us, so that was pretty sweet. 

The next night we stayed in Duck Mill.  It was a little less expensive, but still fun. 

While we were in Logan we visited my sister, got Blue-Aggie mint ice cream at the creamery, went to firehouse pizza, walked around campus and had a good time just hanging out!  We thoroughly enjoyed not having too many plans so that we could do a lot of relaxing.

In other news... WE MOVED!

 That’s right ladies and gentleman, we no longer live in my parent’s basement! We had a great time living with the familia, and we will miss having them around, however we’re excited to be a little more independent. Our new basement apartment is located in Taylorsville.  John’s aunt owns the house and is kind enough to let us stay with her.  Upgrades in our new residence include, but are not limited to:

  A separate entrance

·      A kitchen with a dishwasher

·      A living room with an old school big screen TV

·      A showerhead that John actually fits underneath without having to crouch. 

·      A piano and organ that we have access to at any time

·      And so much more…

Pictures to come some day!

Quotes I try and live by:

While moving I found a stack of inspirational quotes I had hanging in my room at college.  As not to lose these babies again I figured I could add ‘em to the blog to look back on.  I tried to document who originally said them, but for the most part I at least wrote where I heard them for the first time.  Enjoy! 

• “Self-interest is always in the race.” –Anderson (My public speaking teacher)
• “Endure joyfully to the end”
• “Ability is what you’re capable of doing, Motivation determines what you do, Attitude determines how well you do it.” –Lou Holts
• “The best source of self-esteem is Service and Caring for Others” (Courtship and Marriage)
• “It’s not how smart, rich, or beautiful you are, It’ how you make others feel when you are with them.” (Courtship and Marriage)
• “Sadness, heartache, and disappointment are events in life.  It is not intended that they be the substance of life.”  –Richard G. Scott
• “When Criticized see if it’s true.  If so change it, if not ignore it.” (Courtship and Marriage)
•  “Before speaking ask yourself: Is it kind?  Is it true? Is it necessary?” (Courtship and Marriage) 
•  “When we want to speak to God, we pray.  And when we want Him to speak to us we search the scriptures.” –Robert D. Hales
• “Will it meet my needs over time?” (Courtship and Marriage)
• “To all of you who think you are lost or without hope, or who think you have done too much that was too wrong for too long… this conference calls out Jehovah’s unrelenting refrain.  [My] hand is stretched out still.” –Jeffrey R. Holland
•  “Don’t try and find the right one, Try to Be the right one.” –Bro. Fife
• “You can’t save a drowning person, if you are treading water.”
• “Seek to console, love, and understand rather than receive such.” (Courtship and Marriage)
•  “Under promise, Over deliver” (BADD Club)
• “Let selflessness dominate your actions” (Courtship and Marriage)
• “Treat individuals as if they’re having the worst day of their life.” (Rappin’ ’09)
•  “People don’t care what you know, until they know how much you care.” (Danny)
•  “Good things never happen fast!” (overheard someone say that on their cell phone on campus haha) 

P.S. A real blog is coming soon 

July = Perfect Month!

So many fun things have happened this month. We haven’t had a lot of time for updates but here are some of the things we did.

Harry Potter

         One way or another I talked John into seeing the midnight showing of Harry Potter with me.  It’s not that John doesn’t like Harry Potter, it’s more the fact that it was at midnight and he usually wakes up around 5:30 or so for work.  But I just think it’s so fun seeing all the crazies dress up, having that feeling of excitement, and knowing everyone in the theater is just as pumped (or more pumped) to see the show as soon as possible! We loved the movie, and I’m super sad I didn’t take any pictures of other people there… I really wanted to, but I couldn’t get over the fact that I would be taking pictures of strangers.  Oh well. The entire building was so packed before midnight.  There was barely any room to even stand before going into the actual movie theater because so many people were there.  The afternoon after the premiere I read an article on KSL that said that Jordan Commons was the highest grossing theater for Harry Potter in the U.S. the night of the premiere, closely followed by Jordan Landing and the Gateway.  Funny that the top 3 theaters were all in Utah and we were watching at the busiest one!  I guess Utahn's really do love HP.

Park City DuPaix Bash

         From the 10^th-16^th the DuPaix side had a reunion up at a condo in Park City.  Two of the families from out of state were able to come up for the reunion, so it was really fun getting the family all together again.  In park city we rode the gondola’s, went swimming, played games, and just had a lot of fun hanging out. One of the favorite parts was going to the Olympic Park and riding down the Alpine Slide!  Here are some pics of our adventures!

Almost the entire Fam!!

Sad that this is the only picture of John and I, my eyes are so squinty!  Haha

I'm not really sure what's going on in this picture, but it was too awkward to keep it from going on...
Mostly because of Christian :)

Classic DuPaix Picture

The nephews LOVE John!

Sister Picture!

My mom REALLY wanted a picture of everyone in this blue color, haha :)

Boating

         Pioneer day weekend we were invited to go boating with some of my friends and it was SO MUCH FUN!!!  Unfortunately John had to work.  He thought about taking time off to come, but he had already taken off time for some of the other things we did, so he couldn’t justify another Saturday off.  Of course I missed him, but I’m not going to lie, boating was fabulous.  We went up to East Canyon Reservoir and the water was perfect.  The Olson family provided the boat and basically planned the entire day!  They were perfect hosts and made sure everyone had a good time.  I have some pics, as follows, however I don’t have pictures of the best part.  They had this giant tube… well not really a tube, a flotation device that had enough room for three people to lay down on their stomachs and hold on to straps in the front.  It was hilarious to watch and ride.  After the first group went out on it, they caught a wave and got so much air that it made me so nervous to even try it.  I was just convinced that two people were going to slam heads and give each other concussions, but luckily I got over my fears quickly and nothing that tragic happened. 

Good times with Badminton!

Pioneer Day

         The day after boating, we had been asked to help with a couple sacrament meetings for our friends from This is the Place.  I guess the most ideal way to celebrate the holiday would be to dress up as Pioneers, tell pioneer stories, and sing pioneer songs, so that’s what we did!  Not going to lie, it was pretty awkward being in our Pioneer Outfits during a sacrament meeting…. I think it could have been more acceptable at a fireside, but hey I guess it’s over now!  During the meeting I gave my presentation on Emily Woodmansee and two other people presented on Mary Goble Pay, and Ephraim…. I forget his last name, but he’s the one who saves the pioneers by bringing them buffalo meat.   After presenting at two sacrament meetings we had a little luncheon together.  It was fun spending the day with our TITP friends again! 

Southwick Bash        

         This past weekend we had a bit of a Southwick Reunion/Birthday Party!  It started on Friday afternoon with two big blow-up toys and BBQ in the back yard.  The one blow up toy was a batting-cage of sorts, and the other (more popular of the two) was a huge water slide!  I didn’t get to the party till around 7:30 because of work and packing, but everyone had a great time!  John and I decided not to go down the slide, mostly because the sun was starting to set by the time we were seriously considering it.  I definitely regret it now.  I won’t pass it up next year ;)  That night we also watched family videos, roasted smores, and almost everyone slept over!  On Saturday morning we started off with a "5k" run around the block.  I volunteered to push one of the nieces in a stroller, and that way I was ok with John running way ahead of me.  He ended up keeping up with his 15 year old brother for about 3 blocks!  Way to go John!  After the run we had an awesome biscuits and gravy breakfast, talked, played games, went for snow cones, played the wii, ping-pong, the ukulele and so much more!  John and I even stayed a bit longer and watched the adjustment bureau and enjoyed cheesecake!  Perfect way to end the month :)

Dedication

At the end of June we were able to do a little singing at up at This is the Place as the Heritage singers.  (Some of you may remember that we sang as Carolers up there around Christmas.)  We sang at a dedication for one of their new buildings called “The Garden Place.”  It’s basically a really large Barn-looking facility that holds enough room for approximately 20 round tables…So kind of like the building we had our reception in, but bigger. Anyway, for the dedication, they invited a lot of religious leaders from all over the valley to represent the religious diversity we have in our state, and come together to approve and dedicate the building.  It was cool because although it wasn’t an LDS dedication, it was very religious and faith focused at the same time.  All of the speakers expressed their gratitude towards the pioneer forefathers. Some fun “Utah Celebrities” who were in attendance included: Elder Ballard, Ellis Ivory (who conducted), The Governor of Utah, and of course Carol Mikita (the lady who always does those specials in between the general conference sessions).  The dedication was all-in-all pretty short.  There were a couple musical numbers (including ours), a couple talks, and the dedication prayer given by The Most Reverend John C. Wester, Catholic bishop of Salt Lake City. 

The song we sang was called “Go West” and was written just for the occasion.  An awesome soloist came up to sing the song with our choir.  His name is Dallyn Bayles and if you want to listen to the song you can go here: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150225349407303&comments&set=t.504008100&type=1

John’s favorite part of the day was getting to shake Reverend Wester’s hand.  He was so excited.  I kept asking why, and the only reason he gave me was, "I love Catholics!"  My favorite part was being able to sing with my sister, my husband and so many friends :)  

Us waiting to go on

Singing our little hearts out

Becca and I afterwards

John and some of the guys... They obviously didn't know the picture was being taken, haha

     For the fourth of July John had to work a lot of the day, but for dinner we went to a BBQ at my brother Joe's house.  It was really fun just hanging out with the fam.  On Friday John's friend Nate got married and we were blessed to be able to go to the sealing.  Afterwards, I was unable to go to the luncheon because I had to go to work, but the reception along with the bride and groom were absolutely gorgeous.  Because Nate doesn't have any brothers, John and his friends took the initiative to help decorate the car.  Happy July everyone!

Our Busy Weekends!

It feels like ages since I last blogged, so here we go on the catching up!  Last weekend, John and I both had our work cut out for us.  After John finished up his regular appointments and I got home from work, we drove up to Peoa to volunteer for the Ragnar, a race that John’s sister, brother-in-law, and little brother were all running in.  

Because of my work schedule we ended up having to volunteer for a late night shift from 10:30 p.m.-2:30 a.m.…. So yeah it was a little extreme.  We prepared by bringing some snacks, our camp chairs, and light jackets thinking it wouldn’t be too cold.  When we got up there we were instructed to start setting up some cones next to these marshy grass lands so that the vans wouldn’t park out there and get stuck.  It was a simple enough task and we joked around with other volunteers about cars getting stuck in the marsh.  After a while our Team Captain showed up and instructed us on what we were going to be doing the rest of the evening.  John and I were in charge of a water/powerade station up in a different area.  

After driving up there and setting up with our other group members, we realized that we were on top of a hill, next to a body of water, where the wind graced us with its presence.  

This geographical situation equaled guaranteed Air Conditioning all night long….  So much for thinking light jackets would do the trick.  Our little fingers were so cold from passing out the drinks.  I kept thinking, “If only we had packed gloves…”  Then around Midnight I realized that I had a pair of gloves in the glove compartment of my car!!  Victory.  However, because there was only one pair, John and I had to take turns wearing them, but it was better than nothing. 

Throughout the night we were entertained by glow sticks the other volunteers had brought and the crazy decorated vans and trucks that passed us by.  My favorite was a Christmas Van that was adorned with tons of holiday lights and a lit up Christmas Caroler Statue-the kind that people put out in their front yards in December.  It was really amusing with just one, lone, Christmas Caroler instead of the usual 3-4 you usually see.  The runners that passed us were also awesome!!  They had to run up that hill to get to our station and still had about 2 more miles before they were able to swap out.  Talk about endurance!  Around 2 a.m. the next shift volunteers started showing up and we were so excited to give our station up to someone new.    On the way home John was pretty exhausted from so much work so he slept all the way and we didn’t end up getting home and going to be till about 3:30….  It was the latest I’ve gone to bed in a long, long, time.  After sleeping 2 hours, we both had to wake up at 5:30 to go to work on Saturday.  John had his usual appointments, and I was off to a Youth Trek up at This is the Place. 

The trek went well for me. The youth group was from Bountiful and although there were about 200 people on the trek (which is bigger than usual) they were well behaved and things went smoothly.  John was thinking about coming up for the trek after his morning appointments, but our boss decided not to let him because of all the work and lack of sleep going on.  This was the first Trek I had been on for the summer (last summer I did about 4 or 5) so with that in mind and the fact that I had only received about 2 hours of sleep you might understand the fact that I forgot to bring a water bottle, sunscreen, my inhaler, and spf chap stick.  But the lord blessed me.  I didn’t haven any asthma issues, I borrowed some sunscreen from one of the other workers, and I grabbed a plastic cup from the break room before we headed out…  My lips definitely suffered the most.  This whole week they’ve been pretty gross with being burnt and peeling…  They’re doing better now, but I learned my lesson pretty quick.  When I got home John was already gone to his night shifts, and I felt like a walking zombie.  My brain had stopped functioning with only 2 hours of sleep and all of that work.  I tried to communicate with my mom about a couple things, but it was really hard coming up with the words, haha.  However, I didn’t want to go to bed without seeing John, so I took a shower and tried to do some things around the house to keep me awake.  Finally he got home around 10 or so and we were both exhausted. 

On Sunday, John was able to come to Sacrament meeting, which was fabulous.  I miss him so much when he has to work through church.  For fathers day we were in charge of making dinner for the Southwick family.  However, since neither John nor I know how to BBQ his dad ended up helping cook a lot of the meal.  After we ate with them John had to slip away for work, and I headed home to spend some time with my family.   I just love Sundays. 

This weekend was almost as busy as the last one, and John and my schedules were really conflicting.  He went to a bachelor party on Friday night, and I think my parents pitied my lonely night enough to take me out to Five Guys for dinner, so that was nice of them.  On Saturday he woke up early for work, and then I went and worked a catering event for Culinary Crafts with two of my sisters and brother-in-law.  The event was at the equestrian park in South Jordan for a fancy polo-tournament.  It was definitely a new experience and now I can say I’ve seen people play polo, and also observed the people who watch Polo (which could be considered even more entertaining)!  I’ll just say there were lots of women who own fabulous hats.  We served all sorts of food from macaroni-lobster, to chicken with scalloped potatoes, smoked salmon egg salad panini’s and of course Gelato!  After the event was over, we were going to be able to leave early because we lived so close, however they needed more help, so we ended up being almost the last people there.  By the time I got home of course John was gone again, but luckily he was back home around 9, so we had a couple of hours together in which we ate gelato I brought home. (Someday I'll write a blog called the Gelato Experience that describes how I managed to get it home with me.)  

Today I taught primary as usual and I think the kids are finally starting to respect me.  John worked all morning.  His most interesting (as he described to my parents) was a guy he has to give two enemas to.  After the enemas went in, the scooping of the poop began.  And I’ll let your imaginations fill in the rest of that story!  I don’t know how he does it everyday, he’s amazing.  This afternoon we went and visited John’s cousin who had her welcome home today.  It was really fun seeing her again and some of the rest of the family and that’s about it for now!!  Have a good one everybody. 

Hello June!

Happy June everyone!!  As usual life has been busy this month, mostly because John and I have both been working a lot.  Thursday and Friday John and I were probably in each other’s presence (besides when sleeping) a grand total of 2 hours.  But, we just passed the 4-month marriage mark which is awesome!  With all of this in mind I’ve been realizing how much I’ve learned about John since we got married and how much he does for me.  So sorry this is all mushy, but here we go:

1.  He fixes my glasses when they break, and I lose my patience within 1 minute of trying.

2. He makes awesome quiche and other fabulous meals for dinner when I don’t get off work early enough to help.

3. He buys me chocolate when I have bad days and eats it with me.

4. He works so so so hard, wakes up early, and stays up late to support our little family.

5. He hogs the blankets all night long (which I'm ok with).

6. He’s the most restless sleeper I know, I hope it's not my fault he tosses and turns all night long.

7. He makes me laugh. A lot.

8. He keeps old conference talks on his iPod, and LISTENS to them sometimes too!!

9. He’s really great at doing service for others, especially family members.

10. He’s my best friend and I couldn’t ask for any one better to spend my life with!

In other news, last night I was able to spend a lot of time with my friends at a baby/bridal shower.  Even some of the girls who live in Idaho were in town so it was fabulous to see them too!  Highlights from the shower included playing bachelorette catch phrase, pin the binky on the baby, giving gifts and even doing a c-section on a cake to find the rubber baby….  Which was actually a dog toy.  Never boring with my friends!!!   Love them :)  

       

Bride to Be!

Awesome Pirate Decorations! 

       

 Our Awesome Game Planner!  She really out-did herself this time :)

     

Our medical credentials are top notch.... especially with the T.P. face masks.   

Expecting mother Melanie was rightfully traumatized.   

We're still not sure what it is we brought out of that cake....  but till next time!

    

AFCU

This month has been crazy busy, but lots of fun.  The biggest change of the month is probably that I got a job as a teller at America First Credit Union.  I had training last week, and have been at my branch for about 5 days now.  I still ask tons of questions everyday, but things are going pretty well.  The most eventful thing that has happened at work was when I set off the burglary alarm my very first day…basically I was swinging back and forth on my chair, and my finger went right into the button not to push.  My supervisor had to run around like crazy calling and telling people it was a false alarm… Good times.  At least it was still my first day so I can use that as an excuse, right?

But anyway, I really love the company I'm working for.  They have great core values and have everything structured really well in order to learn things quickly and be successful.  I'm also learning all kinds of financial things about credit and different types of accounts, so that'll help John and I start out on the right foot I'm hoping.  Having this job also means I'm getting PAID Yay, Finally!!!  I am sad I'm not doing a therapy job right now.  Some weird miscommunications happened between my old supervisor and I, so nothing really happened with the job I was hoping to get.  But to be honest part of me has always kind of wanted to be a teller... probably because I get paid to take holidays off, but I really like doing customer service jobs and having an awesome sense of teamwork with my staff.  Anyway, we'll see how long this goes.   It's nice because they have great benefits, so hopefully I can do this until a music therapy job becomes available or something.  We'll see :)  

Other than that, John has been busy working really hard.  Along with his CNA job, this last week he helped his dad rip off the roof, and has sunburns to prove it.  His favorite is probably the burn on his back between his shirt and his pants.  I say “favorite” because it’s the one that hurts him the most.  He really is amazing.  Last weekend when it was supposed to be the "end of the world" we celebrated by going up the canyon with some of my friends and roasting hotdogs and smores.  It was an ideal way to spend the evening, especially because the weather was so nice!  It's been so raining these past couple weeks, but I don't mind, I love the rain. 

My sister Debbie had her baby last week as well.  His name is Lance Andrew and he came about 3 weeks early.  When he was born he didn’t want to take any breaths, so they put him on the oxygen machine for his first 24 hours or so.  (I don’t know a lot of the specifics.)  He is still in the NICU right now, but they’re hopeful to be able to bring him home this coming week. 

My sister's baby