JUNE?!

I can't believe it's already the end of June! I feel horrible that I haven't been on here to blog since March! It would be okay if I was going well at writing in my personal journal but I haven't been. Thats time of my life that I will never remember! My memory is awful and if I don't have the documentation then it's gone. :( boo hoo and hopefully lesson learned. Hopefully I have more time now as well. I was working a 2nd job a few nights a week and even though it wasn't much it seemed to take me away from a lot of things that I find important. I love the job and sad I had to quit but such is life. Now I am back and will have time to take care of business. :)

Need your input

While in the break room warming up my lunch I was asked by a woman "are you married?" My response was "ummm, no" "oh okay!" she says "I was wondering how you always have time to decorate your cube, craft, and cook those meals! I barely have time to go home and fall asleep at night"

QUESTION: Does getting married make you incompetent? What does being married have to do with the fact that I cook, craft, and decorate? haha. I didn't know what to say to her. So I smiled and said "well I use a crockpot and cook while I sleep."

BBQ

I FINALLY bought a BBQ grill. It has been on my list for quite sometime. You want to know why I never bought it? Because I was afraid I would blow it up. I was afraid to turn on the gas. I was afraid too much gas would come out and I would open the lid and it would explode in my face.
Well life is all about facing your fears?? Consider them faced in the face! :)

HIKING 2011

I love hiking. It really does make me happy. I don't understand how some people don't like it. There is something special about knowing that you conquered a mountain. That you walked up the FACE of a mountain. You left your sweat and tears on that mountain. okay so maybe not that extreme, but I do love it. :) It's the fresh air and the crickets chirping. The good company makes it amazing as well. I love my friends. Pinch em by the cheeck great aunt style.

This is how Dave gets to the hike. haha . Poor guy was a good sport about riding in the back.

Firehouse Subs

Have you been there? EVER?

It's my favorite sub place in da world.

I used to think subway was cool but i was DEAD wrong.

First best thing is the way they greet you when you walk in.

WELCOME TO FIREHOUSE.

They yell at you when you walk in the door. It's a little overwhelming at first but it grows on you.

Then instead of 6 inch or 12 inch they offer 8 or 12! 6 was just never quite enough for me.

Thennnnnn they have a entire gallery of hot sauce. every flavor. my favorite happens to be Womens Scorn.

SO TRY IT IF YOU HAVEN'T!!

MAKE HASTE!

To future Mern

Dear Future Mern, There are a few influential choices you will make in your life. Some of these you have already made and many are yet to be upon you. I know you think you have a good head on your shoulders, but looking back at some of your choices it appears it wasn't always as straight as it needed to be. Sooo looking towards the future I am sure this may be the case again. Sometimes when wrapped up in circumstances we don't see the full picture and need to rely on the wisdom and love of others. You know what I look forward to? A Priestood member inside my home. ohhhh how I am excited for that. Not just so I can hold the priesthood, wink wink, but so I can have it easily accessible. I want to be able to wake up in the morning with morning sickness and ask my husband for a Priesthood blessing. I want to be calm when my baby burns his hand because my hubby has the power to bless him. When my son gets the Priesthood I want to be able to trace that back to HIS EARTHLY FATHER, not some other man. That other man may still be an important person in my sons life, but it's not his Daddy. The man he thinks is the greatest thing in the world. I think you had a small idea of the importance of this when you were dating that boy when you were 23. He was such a nice guy, fixing your car, making you feel beautiful, always being thoughtful. He never went to church with you though. He didn't even want to. Maybe he would have if you asked him to, but would it last? Staying with him would have been more of a gamble than you are required to take. If he is meant to get his life on track it will happen, and it's not up to you to help him get there. If it's in the cards for him his Heavenly Father has a plan for him. SOOOOO don't ever regret that decision to move on. Never feel hopeless that since you didn't take the opportunity with him that you are destined to live with awesome female roommates for the rest of your life. Your Heavenly father has a plan for you and it will be perfect and wonderful in it's design. You just have to trust, and have faith, and WAIT. Love, Present Mern.

GO GO GO

I am going and I am lovinnnnng it. I am just waiting for my face to break out from stress and for my shoes to fall apart. I will be the first one to tell you that I am not particulary fond of schedules. A free spirit maybe? Well I am diggin this busy schedule. It is wearing me down a bit but it feels good to be busy and productive. I have tried really hard to stick to a schedule and make sure to schedule in time for fun. Fun like game nights and cute boys and camping. CAAAAAAAAAMPING. sigh. Friday. Just make it till friday. You can do it, you can do it you can zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

It is happening again

Is it possible for winter to make one feel claustrophobic??

I am feeling it.

chest collapsing

hard to *gasp* breathe.

sweaty palms. drip drip

I want adventure in the great wide somewhere. I want it more than I can tell.

You know those endorphins that are released with the anticipation of a grand trip? They get stronger and stronger the closer the date arrives. The air feels different, the sounds sound different. ahhhhhh. I crave it. That is my drug. I need an intervention from my anti-drug.

I don't need this adventure to happen right away. I don't have time for it in my schedule right now anyway. It just needs to be planned. penciled in. on the horizon. just give me a little taste.

It has come out of hiding.

THE CAMPING COUCH.

I had thoughts that maybe it needed to be burned. Maybe it wasn't worth storing in the garage. UH HELLO MERN WAKE UP! You love this couch. Don't be a sell out. So it will stay and we will have many more adventures together.

This time it came to the drive-in to watch The Yellow Hornet, or something like that. We invited Chuck along for company.

Too bad he can't keep his eyes open.

Let's try this again.

Nope, Still can't

CHUCK, Quit doing this >_<

And finally we got it right!

Ta Ta For Now

Thanksgiving

Just before Thanksgiving mom had a little too much excitement. She had a stroke and was flown down to Mesa to get the best possible care. It was a long 2 weeks but as you can see she had plenty of good company. We have so much to be thankful for this year. She is doing great and recovering well.

DRIVE IN

I love love love the drive-in movie. Don't tell my secret to anyone, but sometimes I go by myself and cuddle up with a blanket and watch a movie. not this time though. This time Christi went with me. we had gone just a few weeks before with a group of people and it just turned into a disaster so we decided that less is more.
As I was getting ready to go I remembered I happened to have 2 pairs of this Amazing Christmas Pajama. haha so i forced Christi to wear them. Memories memories.

And like always we took the camping couch! :)

We watched unstoppable and it was INTENSE. Such a good movie.

Thatch-nasty trip.

Katie got married in the gila valley temple so I headed down to attend. I wouldn't miss supporting that lady for the world. She is such a sweetheart.

I stayed the whole weekend and got to visit Lovely Natalie. She is so sweet. She gave a great lesson in RS while I was there. She is the Relief Society President in her college ward. It was such a good lesson on self worth and virtue.

Halloween 2010

We wanted to do something different for Halloween. We aren't so much into the big halloween groupie parties. We headed up to Grandma's house to chill, enjoy the fall colors, shoot some guns, and watch movies.

While we were there we went to the Halloween carnival the high school choir puts on. It was fun and really put us in the halloween mood.

Who doesn't love winning a slinky??

Matt you are such a stud.

Dallin dresses as a whoopie cushion. He was going to get a fart machine but then we reminded him he could fart on demand. What a talented little boy.

He let me help him in the fishing booth for a bit. :) Making little kids dreams come true one stupid toy at a time.

Jakeb and Matt dominated the cake walk!

Getting the awful face paint done. lol. When she asked if she could practice her butterfly on me I was imagining something a LITTLE smaller.

Zac Brown Band

Can I just say that Zac Brown Band is WAYYYY better than Brad Paisley? OMG it was a fantastic concert. I am starting to like the lawn seats at cricket pavilion. Nothing like stretching out on a blanket on the grass and listening to jams with good friends. Keara and Daryl Greer came down from Eagar.

It was fun to hang out with Keara again.

Whitney was the one who inspired that we go to the concert. She is a gem from St. Johns, please, don't hold that against her. :)

Whitney and Josh. Aren't they the cutest!!

Zac himself

The brown band.

SEDONA

There's nothing like a sunset in Sedona. :) For Trisha and Brynn's birthday we went to Sedona to spend the night and do a little hiking. Well we got a lil lazy and didn't hike but we sure saw some pretty country and left very relaxed.

UHHHH has anyone ever notice how tall I am? Am I freakishly tall in this picture? lol. Look at that beautiful country behind us.

It's pictures like this that I can't wait to look back at when I am in my 60's. I think I will be taken back to all the wonderful memories that I have filed away in my mind. Arizona sure does make me happy.

See that lil white dot in the sky? Thats the moon. :)

What a great picnic we had.
I am pretty sure we fell asleep right on that picnic bench.

ring ring. this is Mern calling on my banana phone. I just wanted to invite you to Sedona next time we go! We would love your company. Ta Ta for now.