Day Off From Everything....

Going with the Governor's order that all state employees work 4-10s, I now have Fridays off. To be honest, I think this is the first Friday that I have been at home just chillin and watchin cooking shows (nothing is on at 2:00PM in case you haven't had the leisure to check it out, so you're not missing much!) Earlier today I met Jon up on the BYU campus and got my official spouses card! How exciting right? Well, I'm not a converted Y fan yet (I vow it will never happen) but I am excited to have a free gym. However, it made me ponder on some serious differences between the good ole U (the REAL school ;) and the Y
1) What is the deal with gym issued shirts?! I hear it's an improvement from having to buy a uniform but still, who wants a stinky used shirt?
2) Posters around the school about dress code, hair length, and clean shaven
3) Prayers at the beginning of intramural sports (not that it's a bad thing)
4) Housing! What a nightmare! I don't think there is anywhere else in the world that has men's housing, women's housing, and married housing! And trust me, there are not a lot of married options--if it's nice, married folk probably aren't allowed
5) Men having an electric shaver on hand before intramural games or tests
6) Men with mustaches (it's making a point, but it's ugly!)
7) I realize I was only campus for short time, but it seemed like there were less minorities. I could be completely wrong on this one, but just a thought.
8) No one walks on the grass
9) Two old friends running into each other, only to find out they are getting married three days apart
10) No smoking! (The behavioral sciences building, where MOST my classes were, was a smoking haven right outside the door. I would always have to hold my breath to get past)

Evil Landlord

So, Jon and I moved to Provo the end of June. We moved from a rather spacious, nice apartment in Bountiful to a mediocre, very small apartment in Bountiful. When we went to sign the contract, the manager was slightly chaotic. I tried to read through the whole thing very carefully so that I wasn't signing anything I would later regret. I was slightly bummed when she said that the rent was going to go up in July and now tenants had to pay gas/electric. It had previously been included in the contract. Still, we decided it was a pretty good deal and signed. We had come to the conclusion that we had a pretty good deal. It's small but it has a dishwasher and sometimes our neighbors fight in the parking lot which makes for some exciting neighbor watching! Well, last week our landlord (who shall now be called the evil landlord) decided to drop the bombshell. Please notice the timing on this, after school has started and ALL married apartments (because there aren't many anyway) in Provo are full. They left us a note stating that we now had to pay a $25/mo communication fee, as well as $25 for a parking sticker. I was so mad that night that I could hardly stand it. It's not even the fact that our landlords are completely breaching their contract and trying to rip everyone off but where is the integrity? It makes me more mad that we're being taken advantage of than that we are starving students and that same $25 a month could go to a date night, groceries, car insurance, gas, phone bills, etc! Well, the story is much longer and aggravating and crazy but I just thought I would share my landlord woes. My lesson learned...Request a contract in advance so that your future landlord isn't staring you down while you try to quickly read for loop holes and crazy ways your crazy landlord can try to rip you off.

Jon is pointing at a red ant hill he "took care of" by
sticking a wooden spoon down the hole

Jon and I finally went back and finished the trail by Goblin Valley. We camped out next to the red cliffs and then did the hike first thing the next morning. We had a lot of fun, did some hiking as well as some shooting.

The trail started out pretty open but about a half mile in, it closed up and was sometimes really narrow. It was scorching hot but the canyons walls kept it cool so it was really nice. Jon and I are hoping we'll get a chance to go back and finish the trail before the summer ends.

I have been trying to eat healthier lately and have found that the hardest thing to be healthy about is snacks. Occassionaly I crave chips or something salty but usually it's just straight sugar. So, I have been on the look out for healthy snacks. Jon told me about this one. You slice tomatoes and mozzarella cheese and layer them. Then you add olive oil and whatever spices you want. You can dip or drizzle and it's really good! I don't really even like tomatoes but I love this!
PS- canola oil works if you don't have olive oil (like us our first try) but it doesn't taste that great.



The other snack is one I learned from Kim in Ecuador. Fresh avocado smeared on toast with salt. It's amazing!


Those are my only two great ones right now though so I am really posting this to get everyone to share their healthy snack recipes.(NOTE: EASY TO MAKE! NOTHING GOURMET HERE PEOPLE!)

This picture is old too but yet another I had just missed somehow. This was from when Jon and I took Micah, Sam and Breann to the Rec Center in Bountiful to go swimming. We had the kids all ready to get in the water (Micah was actually in!) before they told us that open swimming didn't start until noon. These are the looks we got when we tried to explain that we couldn't go swimming yet!

I just found this picture of Clay and I think it's so cute so I had to post it. It's at least a month old, from when Steph and Ryan were babysitting that kitten. Clay loved that thing and chased it all over the place. This was from one night when we went to visit. He's a pretty cute kid.

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK! So the other day I was looking for "healthy" snacks at the grocery store. I got this string cheese because it was the kind on sale at Smiths. But, it is seriously the best string cheese I have ever had. It's actually stringy! I love it. So, if you are also a string cheese enthusiast, you should try it because it is only one point (whatever that means!)

PROVO

So it's official. Jon and I are Provo-ites...gulp!!! I finished up work in Bountiful and transfered all my cases to a new worker, my last day was June 26th. Jon finished training the new hire for his position that same day and we kissed it all good-bye. Jon started school June 23rd and is loving every second of it ;) Today was actually my first official day in the Provo office. It was a piece of cake day and I only wish it would stay this way. I only have two cases right now. I had heard a rumor that caseloads were lower in Provo but such is not the case. They're the same. Boo Hoo.

But good news!!! Jon's family goes to Lake Powell every year over the fourth of July with some family friends. We thought we weren't going to be able to go this year but since school is out Friday, and Jon can miss his study group Thursday, we decided to head up around 2AM Thursday morning to meet up with the group. Matthew and Laura are going to go down with us as well so it'll be quite the trip. We're really excited for the break and who doesn't love Lake Powell?!

New York

Jon and I finally made it to New York! Even if it was only for a few hours. We took a red eye there and the last flight of the night home! We both loved it. I got a knock purse and we saw all the big sites of Lower Manhatten in record time. We saw the Statue of Liberty (from a distance, talk about a line!), Ground Zero, China Town (cheap purses!!!!), and anything in between. The Empire State Building was our last stop. We started to go up inside until we realized there were lines the whole way up the thing and we would miss our flight! I think we made it to the second or third floor though :) It was a lot of fun either way. This ended up being our last flight together. Jon took a day trip to D.C. but I wasn't able to get out of work. We'll miss our flight benefits for sure! But I guess we have to get back to reality and on to bigger and better!

That tiny little line in between the two of us is the Statue of Liberty. :)

Jamaica!!

The sunsets were amazing!

Lynette was waiting for me to join her.

The fish and coral were incredible... too bad we didn't have an underwater camera.

We mostly just lounged about on the beach the whole time.

Lynette was thrilled to find a starfish. We also found crabs, stingrays and high Jamaicans.

Walking on 7 mile beach.

She was turning heads the whole way.

This was our view of the beach off our balcony in Jamaica. The bar/restaurant straight ahead had a nice jacuzzi on top.

One of the most beautiful sites in the world... there's also a pretty sunset in the background.

Dinner at Margaritaville.

We had an easter egg hunt and Micah dominated in retrieving the lost eggs. However, the tree was too scary to approach and the egg wasn't worth the risk.
Clayton took on the evil tree and courageously took the egg without any fear.

Lynette soaking up the sun on Arashi Beach in Aruba

View from the California Lighthouse. Aruba is very flat.

Snorkeling at Baby Beach

Nothing like the Carribean water!

Aruba!!

Inside Alcatraz looking at the cells. Yes, there are two cells in the picture, not one.

This is where the Raiders and the A's play!!

Lynette putting her photography skills to work. This is off of Pier 39 near Fisherman's Warf in San Francisco.

This is the view of San Francisco from Alcatraz.

This is Lover's Beach and our ship in the background. We went snorkeling here, it was the longest I've ever snorkeled without drinking a gallon of water!

This is the archway to the Pacific Ocean from the Sea of Cortes. We had to take a water taxi to get to Lover's Beach and they took us out to see this too.

This is on the tender from the boat to Cabo San Lucas. That's our ship in the background!

Kind of nuts that Jon hates spiders but he'll let that thing wrap around his neck