The Not So Chocolate Chocolate Bar

Last night I was all excited to try this fancy "chocolate bar" from Spain. I pulled by 1/2 of a chocolate bunny out of the fridge and I was going to compare Spanish chocolate to Rexburg chocolate. After a few bites of the Rexburg chocolate my Mom called. I let her sweat for a minute and think that I didn't know she had sent me Janae's package and that I loved all the things she had sent. Somewhere in our conversation she explained to me that she had not sent chocolate but that it was a bar of soap. In my defence the label is in Spanish and reads,
Jabon Natural
CHOCOLATE Y MENTA.
I assumed I was going to eat some all natural Chocolate and Mint bar. Apparently it isn't safe to just pick out a few words and go for it. So thanks again Mom! This time for keeping me from eatting soap. :)

Thanks Mom!

I was very excited when I checked the mail today and saw that I had a package waiting for me at the post office from my parents. I had no idea what it could be. To say the least I wasn't expecting this.

Once I tried on the 'tank top' that Mom had knit it occured to me that it was a lot closer to Olivia's size than my own.

There was also a chocolate bar and a brightly painted plate from Spain. Thanks Mom!

Our Battered Puppy

Chris has been doing lots of bike rides with Stark. There is a great trail going out of town that is long and flat so he can go for miles and miles. The other day I got a call from Chris saying he needed me to pick him and Stark up. He had ridden about 15 miles and Stark had fallen behind a little and was running slower than usual. He came to a street crossing and waited for Stark to catch up. Once Stark had caught up Chris noticed blood on Starks front paws. So he looked at the bottom of his paws and saw that Stark had been running with two split open paws. So Chris stopped and I picked Stark up and waited for me to come and pick them up. This is the second time since we have moved here that Starks paws have gotten torn up from running on pavement. I think we are going to have to find him some puppy running shoes.

The New Do

I've been wanting to do something different with my hair and since I work at a salon I had many anxious hands ready to help me try something new. Chris took these pictures of me yesterday after I did my hair myself. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to style it very well but I think I did alright.

Crater Lake

On Sunday Chris and I took a quick trip to Crater Lake. After a beautiful drive at sunset to get up there we got out of the car, climbed up on the bank of snow and looked at the lake. We snapped a few pics and were both ready to go after a few minutes. It was chilly and we could only go a few feet off the road with out snow shoes. While the trip was short it was beautiful. We are looking forword to going back in the summer when we can explore more.

This gives you an idea of how much snow is still up there.

One of the cute cows from the drive home ... There is a story but it isn't G rated.

Too Much Homework

The other day Chris had been doing homework (writing code) at home for a few hours straight. I asked him if he wanted me to refill his glass of juice and his response was, "Yes, can you compute a refill please." Luckily for me he caught what he said, I'll know he's really lost it when he just starts speaking in code.

20 Laps

On Friday I ran my first 5 miles in around 7 years. I had run on the track the day before to get my time for the relay race but only had time to run 3 miles. I kept an 11 minute mile pace and was proud of that. I wasn't sure if I could keep it up for 5 miles and didn't want to round up on my entry form because then I would run at the rounded up time. So though I was sore from my 3 mile run the day before I went back to the track motivated to run 5 miles in 55 minutes. I usually don't listen to an ipod when I run because as they say in Bride Wars I try to be comfortable with my own thoughts but today I was needing the extra umph. I turned on Fall Out Boy and ended up dance-running my way around the track. I kept the 11 minute mile pace with my 5th mile being the fastest. I was very proud of myself for making a goal and keeping it. It helped me realize I spend most of my day limiting myself because of fear and lowered expectations. It reminded me that I have been blessed with an able body and that I have many more miles to go.

Feeding the Ducks with Friends

We got to hang out with our friends tonight and because we are both saving our pennies we did a cheap date night and fed the ducks at Veterans Park. It was so fun getting to spend time with Nic and Alli, it helped break up the monotony of doing dishes and watching Chris do homework.











This is Alli's favorite duck.

Nick the goose whisperer. Luring a goose in to eat him.

Alli feeding Stark bread.

And the boys wadding up pieces of bread and bombing the birds.

As you can tell we all had fun:)(it's called bird battleship)

Passed

Proof that I passed and of coarse treated myself to some ice cream.

"Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?"

So, lots of long stories short, I did pass my massage board test and have been able to find work at Avalon Salon. I had looked at the web site before moving down here and really wanted to work here. Everything has been working out perfect so I am doing massage and front desk/sales work also. I love working here. Everyone I work with is wonderful and it is a great environment. I feel like I will be able to learn and expand my skills a lot by working here. BTW there is a buy one service get the second one off special going on right now ;)

So, we have lived here for about 5 weeks and we have had the Cops at our door twice now. Yeah. The first was a week ago at 2:45am because we had some teen runaways hiding under our back deck because they were running from the Cops. Last night's episode (around midnight) was because our neighbors had some things stolen from their place. The situation was a little fishy but Chris saw a guy pull in between the houses that evening and the neighbor came over to ask Chris questions so the Officers came over as well. They looked through our very messy house to make sure we were not the thieves (they said this was "standard protocol") and then went on to search the neighbors place. So, paranoid, techie, Chris has priced out some security cameras ext. to install. Ugh, can't these criminals start working regular business hours so I can get my beauty sleep?