Dave, Kim, and Baby Olivia

A Post - Mostly About Olivia

2012-01-22T22:36:00.007-07:00

We haven't had much going on lately. Dave is still in recovery mode and Olivia is adorable as ever! Hopefully it will just be another week or two until we get some normalcy back. I'm continuing to work and trying not to lose my mind while also attempting to take care of the rest of the family and our house. Not sure how well that's working.Here are some more recent pics:

Cute baby Olivia.She is full of smiles and laughs, all the time!One of the few times she's been
able to sit with Daddy for a few.
Note the facial hair growth.
Looks pretty good, huh?The fun of having a girl - another
adorable dress for my pretty girl.

Despite all that's going on, Olivia is the best and makes everything better. As tends to happen, she continues to grow bigger and bigger. Needless to say though, absolutely love our little girl!

Slowly but Surely, Finally Getting Started...

2012-01-14T23:56:00.002-07:00

It feels like it's taken me forever to get started blogging this year. That's because it has. I have been going and going, trying to take care of Dave, Olivia, our house, and working. Busy, stressed, overwhelmed, anxious - just a few emotions I've felt during the last month. It has been a roller coaster, whirlwind of a time. I can say however, that having an easy baby has been a HUGE help! Olivia had her 3 month birthday this last week. This is a very brief entry, but once again it's late and I need to get some rest. So, until next time...

One For The Road...

2011-12-31T23:26:00.002-07:00

As we conclude 2011, I thought I'd get one more post in. Due to my immense lack of energy or brain power, this will probably be a condensed version of the end of the year. We have been home from the hospital for a week now. The first couple of days were rough. I believe the week has gone like we thought it would, a few ups and a few downs. However, all things considered, I think Dave has done remarkably well.

Dave got to go home on Christmas Eve. I didn't think it would make much difference if we were at the hospital or home for Christmas, but it actually did. We had a rather uneventful day, but just NOT being at IMC was a tremendous blessing! We have been behind on a number of things this past month, probably year. So we didn't get hardly any Christmas shopping done. (That's being worked on now.) Thanks to our amazing friends and neighbors, we had a Christmas. It was a good chance to explain a bit to Olivia about the true meaning of Christmas. While I'm not sure it was really a big deal at all to her, I appreciated being able to teach her.

I've been trying to take opportunities to help teach her about different things. She's been a lot of fun. Her personality continues to show more and more. Among other things, she has HUGE smiles and is laughing now. It has been really challenging for me to take care of her and Dave. Last week Mom and Dad Porter were here, which was an enormous help. This weekend has been a bit trying for me.

It seems I will be awake to ring in the new year. Here's to hoping 2012 is a good one!

Where We've Been...

2011-12-23T23:39:00.003-07:00

This will be an extremely short entry, but I'll try to catch up soon. The "highlight" being that we have not fallen off the face of the planet, but rather have been camping out here.

It's IMC - Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, UT. Dave had his surgery to remove a tumor in his lungs. Everything with the surgery went fine and Dave did almost too well during his brief ICU stay. It has not however been all rosy. Nevertheless, we are on the home stretch and hopefully leaving tomorrow.

A Bit of BAD News...

2011-12-06T21:41:00.002-07:00

After months of Dave coughing up blood and just not feeling well. We've learned he has a tumor in his lung. A biopsy was taken today to see if the tumor is benign or malignant, but we have been told by 2 surgeons that surgery is pretty inevitable. We will meet with the surgeons the next couple of days and determine a plan from there, but we're looking at having this done next week probably. I'll update as we learn more.

Turkey Day 2011

2011-11-26T21:55:00.005-07:00

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Cache Valley. We debated whether or not to go because of how young Olivia is, but in the end we decided it would be a good idea. I'm glad we went. Olivia got to meet a bunch of the Porter aunts, uncles, and cousins. We had 6 of the 8 siblings at Mom and Dad's. Of course everyone loved her. :) Here are some pics.Olivia, Kim, Dave, Mom

Porter, and Grandma Barbara (99)A group shotUncle Ben, Aunt Cheryl, Grandpa

Porter, Uncle Bob, and Grandma BarbaraAnother group photo

After lunch with the Porter family, we went to Thanksgiving dinner with Grandma Nelson and Grandpa Pat. It was a much smaller group, but excellent company. Olivia really enjoyed being able to see so many people and Mom and Dad liked letting other people hold her for a while.

Olivia and Grandma NelsonOlivia and Grandpa PatOlivia and Uncle Chuck

It wasn't a total picnic however. This was our first overnight trip with Olivia and it was a trying start. I kept joking that next time we'll start packing 3 days before, but I just might do it. We've done trips with Jack and Sadie, and while we knew it would be harder with a baby, we didn't realize just how much work it is to travel with a child. Once we finally got on the road we made it with only 1 brief stop. It was only a 2 hour trip or so, but that was more than far enough.This just goes to show how tough it was for Baby and DAD. ;0)

We had planned to stay until today or tomorrow, but it didn't work out. Dave has had some health issues, which flared up; so we ended up heading home yesterday. It may have been for the best anyway. We were able to get our tree up today. It turned out really well. Tree picture to be posted at a later date.

What Do You Know?

2011-11-18T22:35:00.002-07:00

Or rather, what does Dave know? Apparently a lot. Dave took a couple of tests yesterday, one on Excel and the other on financial principles, etc. The average score for the finance portion is 71%, and the average for Excel is 75%. So how did Dave do? He scored 80% on the finance, which isn't too shabby considering he graduated 6 years ago. He told me he got 100% on accounts payable, 90% on accounting, and 69% (not his best, although surprising lower than I would have thought) on accounts receivable. On the Excel testing, 100%! Congratulations Dave; way to go and I love you bunches!!

1 Month

2011-11-12T23:18:00.005-07:00

Happy 1 month birthday Olivia. It has gone by quickly, but not. We have had our share of good days, bad days, challenges and bright spots thus far. All in all, Olivia has been so much fun; she has got a lot of personality. She amazes us all the time with how alert she is and how much she can do. Despite her occasional "down" days, Olivia is a great baby and we love her! We look forward to continuing watching her grow and progress.

Dinner Winner!

2011-11-04T21:53:00.005-06:00

I entered an ongoing radio contest a while back, and then my radio broke. So I haven't been able to listen to anything in the car for a while. (Major bummer.) Anyway, I went to check our mail a day or two ago and had an envelope from Now 97.9 in there.It turns out I was a Free Pizza Friday winner. So I got 3 free pizzas from Papa Murphy's Pizza.I guess now we'll have for dinner on a busy night. :0)

10.31.2011

2011-10-31T23:58:00.003-06:00

Today was Halloween. We just bought Olivia a onesie this year rather than a costume. I put her in it a few days ago and she proceeded to spit up on it. So I did a load of laundry this morning and by the middle of the day she got it dirty again. Nevertheless, I think she looked pretty good.We had her (slightly late - Mom and Dad's fault) appointment today. We met her pediatrician, who was dressed up as a pirate. I think he'll be a good Dr. for Olivia, but I still don't know what he looks like really. It was fun though. We're so proud of Olivia. She's packing on the pounds. Since her last appointment 12 days ago, she gained 1 lb. Her stats say: ht - 3%, wt - 10%, head circumference - 25%. She's on the smaller side, go figure, but at least she made it on the charts.

Dave has decided to switch brokers. After several meetings, much deliberation, and lengthy discussions with his wife, he has decided to move to Prudential! We're excited about the change and both feel that it is what will be best for our family right now. Dave called to inform his new "boss" that he would be coming and we were invited to the office Halloween party. It was fun. Dave is excited to get started in his new ventures and his girls are very proud of him.

Gratitude & Blessings

2011-10-29T04:24:00.006-06:00

Wow! I have been amazed at the tremendous amount of generosity and support we have had because of Olivia. She is now about 2 1/2 weeks old and she's still being spoiled. (Something I suspect will be ongoing.) Dave and I were able to take her to my work this week to meet the rest of "Mom's family." It's just too bad that no one likes her at all! Yeah right...Olivia got so much attention in my office that it took us 20 minutes to make it to the nurses station. In reality, everyone loved her! But then again, who wouldn't? :0) We have been cautious in taking her out, but have made a few trips out and about for errands, etc. On Monday we have Olivia's 2 week checkup and we'll see how she's doing. We'll also finally get to meet our pediatrician.

It has been interesting to me to have so many people take an interest in our lives and for the service we've received. We have had a few dinners brought to us, which we greatly appreciate, and it seems the amount of food is meant to feed an army. I realize now that the next time I take dinner to someone I should send a 2 week supply. ;0) Also, several patients that I have worked with over the last few years have made blankets for Olivia. They are all adorable and greatly appreciated.Both Olivia and I have been very spoiled. We have been able to have Daddy home with us the last couple of weeks. Not exactly by choice per say, but it has been a huge help to have Dave home and just to be able to see him. He is an amazing dad and he just adores Olivia, which is evidently mutual.

First Few Days

2011-10-17T22:53:00.003-06:00

I'm finally getting around to a quick post. It has been a busy few days since bringing Olivia home. We have had some concerns about her eating and digestion. She actually is quite a good eater and has a decent schedule, but her diaper count has been behind and we've been concerned with a few incidents.

Since getting her home we have not gone a day without some sort of doctor's appointment. Thankfully they always say she's alright. While it may seem like we're paranoid or hypochondriacs about her care, I really think there have been some concerns. Dave was able to give his first father's blessing to Olivia this morning and I know that she has already been helped by that. In fact it's been beneficial for me as well. I've felt great comfort and peace today about her health. Our goal for tomorrow, which I believe we can hit, is to not see a Dr.
My mom was able to come help us for the first several days and now Dave's parents have helped us the last few. We are so grateful for all of them and their tremendous support! We really appreciate everyone's love and support. So thank you all.Love,
Dave, Kim, and Olivia

Welcome Baby Olivia!

2011-10-14T23:12:00.008-06:00

Nearly 60 hours old and counting. Wednesday, October 12, 2011 - enter the newest addition of the Porter family, baby Olivia! She came early in the afternoon after less than 9 hours of labor. Couple of stats: 6 lb 4 oz, 18" long, and lots of hair.
Olivia is such a mellow-tempered, easy going baby. She is remarkably quiet, almost scary how quiet she has been. During her initial assessment, shots, bath...barely a peep. We had a pretty good start to things with feeding, or so I thought. Apparently she wasn't doing quite as well as I thought in some areas, but excellent in other respects.

We only spent 2 days in the hospital, which was something of a shock to me. I always thought it was a little longer stay. On a completely random note, the food was amazing. We came home this afternoon and have already been in to see the pediatrician for some concerns. It was a PA that we visited with tonight, but we were there about an hour and got some really good information. I appreciated her taking so much time to answer our questions, concerns, etc.

Tonight will be a long night, hoping to get Olivia eating a little better - Dr's directions. I realized that there is so much I don't know. No surprise, but enlightening at the same time. It wasn't until we got to the pediatrician's office that I realized we hadn't even taken a diaper bag with us. Thought we were "pretty much ready" for baby, which we were, but now we just need to get back into general and "parental" thinking habits. Obviously we wouldn't and shouldn't know everything immediately. Lots of learning to do...

More importantly, Dave and I are so glad to have our little girl finally here. We love her so much and feel so blessed to have her in our family. Once again, welcome Olivia; we sure love ya!!
More pics coming soon. Stay tuned.

The End and Beginning

2011-10-09T21:21:00.004-06:00

Well, I can't believe it's taken me so long to register my lack of blogging on this. About a month ago, we closed Doc's! It has been a long year in regards to the business, but it's been GREAT to be finished. Dave did so much to make it work, and frankly I think he did an amazing job with it.

There was a couple of guys that wanted to take over our lease for another restaurant concept. We don't know what it is exactly, but it was beneficial to everyone involved. We got out of our lease, the new guys got a space (and equipment) they wanted, and the landlord has a tenant who can/will be able to pay full rent for the space.

With Doc's tied off, Dave has been able to finally move on to something else! Dave is now venturing into real estate. He was actually offered a job before he was licensed. Being able to focus on just studying real estate, rather than worrying about the business, has been a huge advantage. Dave was able to take and PASS his Utah state real estate licensing exam this weekend! Hooray! I'm so proud of him.

It was a huge accomplishment and great blessing to be able to get it done before our baby gets here too. Actually, Dave was the 1st to finish the test among those in the testing group. We don't know what percentage he got, but ultimately he passed, which is all we care about. Tomorrow he'll begin training with his broker.

Business...done. Licensing...done. Baby...we're ready for her; now we're just waiting...almost done. :0)

Baby Showers

2011-09-30T23:32:00.001-06:00

Our little girl is not going to be spoiled, at all...! I'm behind in logging this, but I had my work baby shower September 2nd and the Logan family and friends shower September 23rd. I am a little overwhelmed by everyone's generosity. Well, I don't know that overwhelmed is the word. Definitely grateful, but we ended up with way more than I would have ever guessed.

The princess will be set for some time! We have had very little to buy ourselves for her. As is traditionally the case, I believe, she already has so many more clothes, blankets, shoes, etc than either of her parents. :) She has some of the most adorable outfits and I can't wait to see her in them. I've been thinking a lot about this. I feel like I have some sort of idea what she may look like. We're down to 2 more weeks, although we think she may come a little early. (At this point it's something Mom would be okay with.)

I have pictures from both showers, but they aren't from my camera; so I can't post them yet. I also have some more up-to-date pregnancy photos, but I need to find the camera cord to transfer them to the computer. I'll get them on soon. Thank you so much to everyone for your support and tremendous outpouring of love and support! We love you all.

MA Dinner

2011-09-22T23:08:00.003-06:00

Tonight I got to go out with the girls...again. The MA's in my office try to get together, outside of work, from time to time. Since I will be going on maternity leave soon, we wanted to do one of these such outings. Tonight we went to The Cheesecake Factory.

I've only been there once prior. These days my stomach is so squished that I can't eat much at a time. I got some crab and artichoke dip and split some dessert. Dinner was good, but like always it was nice to just hang out outside the office. Once again I had my camera, but didn't get around to taking any pictures. :(

On another note, I am getting some contractions now. I'm not always sure if it's contractions or the baby moving, but I've had a few that have been fairly strong. I have an appointment tomorrow; so we'll see what the doc says. (We suspect she may not wait the full 40 weeks to make her entrance.) Tomorrow we're off to Logan for my family/Logan baby shower. I think this will be the last traveling we do for a bit.

Full Day (Kimmy firsts)

2011-09-17T21:34:00.005-06:00

Today Dave and I went to a 1st time mom (parents) class at American Fork Hospital. We did the condensed 1 day "cliff notes" version. I think that was the better way for us to do it. Some of what we covered I already knew, but I also learned a lot too. We are getting ever more excited to meet our baby!

This evening I got to go to my 1st girls' night. It was great! (Something I will need to do more of.)

I got to see some friends from high school, whom I haven't seen in far too long. We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory, yet another 1st for me. I rather enjoyed the food, and the company. We have a fabulous waitress, who spoiled me a bit because I'm pregnant I think.

We continue to make progress on getting ready for the baby to come, but still have a ways to go. Dave was able to get a lot done while I was gone, for which I am very grateful. Of course we hope the baby will stay in to finish growing, but we realize it could be anytime now. :0)

Remembering September 11th

2011-09-14T23:03:00.002-06:00

It's hard to believe it's been 10 years. I will be the 1st to tell you that I don't have a great recollection/realization of how time flies. On Sunday Dave and I watched a few documentaries/shows about 9/11, which brought back a lot of memories. Sept 11, 2001 I was a junior in high school. I remember that I had just got my 1st pair of contacts. I was trying to get them in and get ready for school when I heard about the attacks. I was in AP American history at that time. We spent most of the day watching the news, like most of the country I believe. Dave had just got home from his mission. He hadn't been in Utah very long. He was starting fall semester at Utah State.

Follow-up Pics to the 8/27/11 Post

2011-09-04T17:39:00.005-06:00

I wanted to put a few pictures on my last post, but just got around to downloading them. Here they are...

Kim and Dave at the Salt Lake Bees game 8/19/11.Richelle, Lynn, and Kim at the Bees game.

Sarah, Kim, and Emily
(Sarah and Emily hosted my shower.)

A Few Happenings

2011-08-27T20:54:00.002-06:00

Pregnancy has finally caught up with me. I was able to take off about a week (couple weeks ago) to try and get ready for the baby. We made some progress, but I spent a lot of time sleeping. In the last couple of weeks I've noticed a big change in my pregnancy. We're both still doing well, but energy level has plummeted and Mom can't breathe.

Last Friday we had my work's summer party. We were able to go to a Salt Lake Bees game. They lost horribly, but I made it a little more than 2 hours before we took off. It's always fun to hang out with the co-workers, outside of work.

Last Saturday I had my first baby shower. It was ladies in our ward that came. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but we had a light lunch - sandwiches, fruit, veggies, dessert. Baby Porter got some cute stuff! It makes us that much more excited to get her here. Still not actually ready for her, but we're getting there.

Today we had a ward 5k/1 mile fun run/walk; then a pancake breakfast. I'm on the Relief Society activities board, so I got to help plan, etc. We had a really good turnout. Several of us were told it was one of the best activities we've had. I was rather proud of myself. I did some stuff with bolloons, which is a big deal since I don't particularly like balloons - phobia. I also cooked sausage and pancakes, 1st time participating in helping cook for a ward/large group function.

September is going to be a BUSY month at work. I have 17 out of 20 days in clinic with a Dr. We'll see how well that goes. (Not looking forward to it.) We're into the "final push" though. Soon our little girl will be with us. :0)

Nanny's 90th

2011-08-12T22:37:00.004-06:00

It's been a couple weeks now, but my brother Charles, Dave, and I took a quick trip to Illinois. Quick being less than 48 hours in IL. We went out for my grandma's 90th birthday party. Even though it was a short trip, it was great to see my dad's side of the family. Love you guys! Here are some pics.

The birthday girl.Gift table and 1 of 3 picture poster boards.
1 of 2 cakes my cousin Leslie made.Dave and Kim
Charles and Kim
Cousins (Kim, Leslie, and Laura)
The whole family.

We had a family lunch, then an open house for Nanny. My Aunt Karen put a lot of work into the party, and it turned out awesome! There was also a good turnout of people to the open house. So again it was a quick one, but terrific seeing everyone. The next trip will be longer and we'll have a little one with us. :)

Pioneer Day Weekend

2011-07-24T21:19:00.003-06:00

We had a good weekend! Nothing too spectacular, but I felt like Dave and I got to spend some good time together. Yesterday Dave went in to the business, for a half day. Then I volunteered to do a half day to let Dave come home. Why did Dave need to be home? So he could meet with the a/c guy.

I've tolerated the heat pretty well, for the most part. Dave's been in the same boat. Since we finally made it to summer and HOT temperatures, we tried turning on our a/c. Unfortunately, all that happened was hot air was pushed around. We've had fans going and windows open, but it was time to get our indoor temperature out of the high 80's.

The a/c guy came out, took a look, and found that a rat (or some other rodent) had crawled in somewhere or other and fried itself, thus causing a shortage. As exciting as that was to hear, it was far more exciting to just get the a/c going again. It was better news than I thought though. We were afraid he was going to say we just needed a whole new system.

Last night we had an impromptu "fireworks block party". I guess 20 or 25 people from our community got together and all brought some fireworks. It was a lot of fun. Dave loves fireworks; so we generally have several. That is, we will buy them, but they last a bit. We set off about 1/2 of our supply and have several more at home. After the fireworks we visited with a couple that we hadn't talked to much, but had excellent conversations.

Being as it was Sunday today, Dave and I took advantage of our sleeping in day. (We always need it.) We went to church and had some good meetings, then we came home and made cookies - coconut chocolate chip. We hadn't made them before, but they turned out really well. They sure were tasty.

To finish the day, Dave and I took Sadie for a walk. It wasn't a long one, but it was nice to get out. A few people were shooting off their fireworks tonight. We got to see a few. I have the day off tomorrow, but the business will be open. Not sure how it will be, but we will see.

I get to do my glucose tolerance test in the morning. It's not something I'm especially looking forward to - haven't heard good things about it. At any rate, at least it will be out of the way. Our little girl continues to be a little squirmy worm, which is a good thing. She's nice enough to do it during the day, and not in the middle of the night. Until next time...

Long Week

2011-07-17T21:23:00.005-06:00

Last week was another long one. Both Dave and I had some ups and downs. Nevertheless, we've had a decent weekend. Friday night Dave was able to come home, only day last week, and we went on a date. We got some food from Chili's, accompanied with some leftovers, and went to see Pirates 4 at the dollar movies.

Saturday Dave spent a lot of time at the restaurant, big surprise. I spent several hours cleaning our house. I got a lot done, but we still have lots to do. Side note, today is the 3 year anniversary of us being in our house.

This morning I made my first quiche. It wasn't bad. I think it can be improved, but I'm proud of myself.

We had Navajo tacos for dinner, yum! (Thanks Dave for helping me with the frying.)

Here are a few recent pics. 25 weeks 26 weeks

07-04-2011

2011-07-04T23:00:00.005-06:00

This year Dave and I decided (very last minute) to get away and visit the fam for the 4th. We left Sunday afternoon and were able to have dinner with my mom and Pat. We had chicken cordon bleu, baked potatoes, carrots, and a couple salads. It was excellent!

Today we had a Porter family BBQ, burgers hot dogs, lots of yummy food. Dave's brother Ben and his girls were there, his sister Becky and her family were there, Mom, Dad, Dave and I. His sister Cheryl and her family were planning on coming, but one of her girls got sick. So they didn't make it. I managed to "sneak" a few pics. Dave and Dad My grillin' fool Mom (making sure everything's ready) Some of the fam chillaxin' The best lookin' two (and a half) there!

After the BBQ we headed home to go to the Pleasant Grove fireworks with our neighbors. They did a good show. It rained off and on and there was some wind; so we weren't sure if they'd cancel the show. Luckily we got to see them. It was a lot of fun. There were several people we knew there and it was nice to hang out.

This was a firework we took. It was just a little fountain, but we thought it lasted a decent amount of time. I did a few other video clips of the PG fireworks, but they're taking 5 years to download. So we'll try it another time.

Dave wanted to try an aerial firework. So we bought one. It was cool, but it seriously last about 4 seconds. Mr. I love fireworks didn't mind though. It would have been nice if it went longer, but he enjoyed it. Thanks Moms and Dads for having us this weekend. We are grateful to live in the U.S. and to have so many freedoms. Happy 4th of July!!

Laundry Luxury

2011-07-02T23:37:00.004-06:00

I was going to write a follow-up on our laundry situation, but then I registered that I never wrote the beginning. So 2-3 weeks ago now, our washing machine died. Well, actually it just broke. Dave tried to wash some aprons from the business at home, (maybe not the best idea,) and we thought a string had wrapped around the agitator. We took it apart, but to no avail. We decided it was probably a stripped gear or something.

Dave looked at replacement parts, which ranged from $20-$200 for the part we thought we needed. That might have been okay, but we really didn't want to put forth the effort to try and do it ourselves. Thus, it would have tripled the cost of repairs or more.

The washer and dryer we had was actually a set the previous owners had left when we bought our townhome 3 years ago. Who knows how long it was used before that? I finally broke down last weekend and tried to hand wash a small load of clothes in the kitchen sink. Are you impressed? I thought I did pretty well, but it really wasn't the same as having a machine do it.

My plan had been to wash laundry in the sink and throw it in the dryer. So that's what I did. I let the dryer run for an hour, only to pull out still wet clothes. Dave had been thinking about just getting a cheap used washer, but when we found out the dryer was having problems too, we looked into getting a new set. This is what we ended up with...
and I love it! These things are ridiculously cool! I did 3 loads of laundry this evening and it blows me away. They're energy efficient, have tons of cycles, are super quiet, and play music when you turn them on or they finish a load. Plus, we got them on sale for a great price, and the way I see it, with the "extra capacity" it should come in handy when our little girl gets here.

We've made a few "major purchases," in our marriage, but this was a 1st for us. So here's to modern technology, (they have some sensor that determines how much water should be used and how long each load should take ,) and not having to do laundry by hand.

Tragic Loss

2011-06-28T22:00:00.002-06:00

Here's my very minor tribute to a dear friend. I went into work a little late today. When I got there I did not get my usual greeting and I got the worst news! One of my co-workers and very dear friends, Cami, drowned in a rafting accident in Idaho last night. Needless to say, it was a very long day for everyone in our office.

I think a lot of times this is what we hear, but Cami was loved by so many people and likewise was such a bright spot in the lives of many. Cami was so positive and had a contagious smile. I don't recall her speaking badly of anyone. She also had an incredible amount of energy and love of life.

Words are never enough in these situations. This is a first for me, and I don't wish it on anyone. Nevertheless, Cami you will be missed greatly and we will be thinking of your family. I love you sweet girl!!

Daddy's Day 2011

2011-06-19T22:24:00.002-06:00

Happy father's day! This year I had a bit of a tough time without my dad here, but I'm grateful to have suck a wonderful father-in-law. Love you Dad! I'm also thrilled to get to celebrate father's day with my baby's daddy. I can't wait to see him with our baby.

I am very proud of myself. I was up a little after 9:00 AM this morning. On top of that I made breakfast. It's a big deal for me. I think it turned out pretty good. I even got the timing pretty close on finishing everything at the same time. Dave you are the best and will be an excellent dad!!

Beginning the Descent...

2011-06-12T21:56:00.008-06:00

At 21 1/2 weeks we've made it over the hump and into the 2nd half of the pregnancy. I'm feeling better, although it's still something of a day to day venture. During the last few days I've been able to feel the baby move, as has Dave. :0) I had it explained that it feels like bubbles or fluttering. However, I think our little one bypassed that phase and went right to more definitive jabs. I've also discovered that we have a hiccup baby. She's already got a schedule, at least for hiccup time.

In case you were wondering, the jury has been out regarding our little ball, but the verdict is... Daddy's little GIRL!!!!!During the ultrasound the tech tried to get a profile picture for us. These were a few of the best we could get. Our baby decided she wanted to roll up in a ball and didn't really want to do the profile shot. She spent quite a bit of time with her feet up by her head. At one point it looked like she was trying to kiss her knees.

This one is hard to tell, but when we tried to get a picture of the baby's face (front shot), she put her hands up and covered her face. I guess it will be a surprise.

Mom finally made it into maternity wear! Although not frequently, and when I wear my maternity clothes they're still a little too big. I had my first day with a maternity shirt and pants on Friday.

Lastly, it's not always so visible, but I had a good baby bump day last week, so here's a picture. Until next time...

New Calling

2011-06-07T22:49:00.002-06:00

After nearly 3 years of playing piano in primary, I finally got a new calling at church. I'm on the Relief Society enrichment board. Pretty low key. While I've enjoyed my last calling, it will be a good change.

Happy Birthday Dave!

2011-06-06T22:47:00.002-06:00

A couple days late on the post, but Saturday was Dave's birthday. Unfortunately it didn't make the top 10 or maybe even top 20 birthday list. Dave had scheduled a couple employees to work so he wouldn't need to go in to the business. However, being the uber nutso business owner that he is, we went in Saturday morning, with the intention of being there briefly. That ended up being a 2 hour trip, which in perspective was a quick trip.

We didn't really have anything planned for the day. So we went home to relax a bit and then we were going to go to dinner. At about 3:00 PM we got a call that the credit card machine wasn't working. After several lengthy attempts to figure out the issue, it ultimately turned out that our internet needed to be reset. Unfortunately, this was figured out after an unnecessary trip to Best Buy and 3 more hours at the business.

At this point Dave was just frustrated. Who could blame him? We didn't do quite as well with his birthday and keeping him away from Doc's. After much deliberation, Dave decided he wanted a bucket of KFC chicken for his birthday dinner; so that's what we did. Although it wasn't his best birthday memory, I hope he has a good year.

1 Year Older and Wiser Too...

2011-05-31T21:31:00.005-06:00

Okay, I don't know if that's true, but I've had another birthday. It was on a Saturday this year. My birthday itself was pretty uneventful. I went with Dave to the business for a couple of hours to get things started, then we did a few errands, haircuts among other things, and finally we went home and just vegged. I got to take a 3 hour nap, which I always appreciate being able to do over the weekend. Here are our new do's.

Sunday we went to church and I got to catch up on some more sleep. Monday was the best! Once again, Dave and I got to sleep in. When we finally dragged ourselves out of bed, we went to the business, only to realize we left the business keys at our house. We decided to close for Memorial Day and I don't think we missed much.

We went down to Springville and got some lunch at Dairy Queen. It was pretty good. We also went to talk to the guys we bought our hot tub from because there's a leak and Dave had a couple questions for them. They know us fairly well, so Dave told one of the guys that we are expecting. I was pleasantly surprised when he said, "how have you been feeling? The 1st trimester can be tough..." My reply was that I've been feeling better, especially since I'm actually about 1/2 way through the 2nd trimester. :0)

When we finished down south we decided it would be fun to go to a movie. We stopped home briefly and decided to go see "Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides" - this was my birthday present from Dave. We enjoyed the movie, actually liked it better than the 2nd movie.

Lastly, we went to Bed, Bath & Beyond after the movie and used a gift card we got from Christmas last year, along with a coupon, to buy a pizelle maker. That's right, a pizelle maker - my birthday present to Dave. We made a batch of pizelles and they were pretty tasty.Final note, I broke down and bought my 1st pair of maternity pants a couple weeks ago, capris. Thanks to the weather, and a lack of "baby bump," I haven't worn them...until now. I think it may be time to go invest in some more maternity clothes. I'm finally getting a little too big for all my clothes. Hooray!

Recap/Just a Note

2011-05-22T22:20:00.002-06:00

I thought since it's been a while I would just write a bit. Wow, I thought it was last weekend, but I guess 2 weeks ago was mother's day. I love my mom! She really is the best. My mother-in-law is pretty great too. I can't believe I'm going to be a mom soon too. Last week I got to do a quick trip to Logan. (Finally!) It was wonderful to see the moms.

Last week was my dad's birthday. It's been 6 years since he passed away, but of course I still think about him a lot. On his birthday I was working at LDS Hospital (ironic) and it briefly snowed! Yeah, totally blame my dad for that one. :0)

This weekend has been a lot of work. The business keeps Dave and I so busy. It's been such a learning experience. I worked in Salt Lake Friday and then decided to go to Doc's. I was just going to check and see how things had been for the day, but it turned out to be a good thing I did. We had a couple people out and we had our busiest Friday EVER!! We did $1100 in 4 hours, with very minimal staff. It was crazy, busy, and crazy to say the least.

After doing 6 hours at Doc's Friday night, Dave and I got home about midnight, then went back the next morning and essentially ran the day shift by ourselves. We had 1 employee there with us, but he was making dough for most of his shift. It wasn't nearly as busy as the night before, but it was steady and we did pretty well for it just being the 3 of us there.

Last thing, I have been an emotional wreck! I think that's due to, hmm... oh, maybe being pregnant! Yeah, so I cry at most anything. One of the worst things is listening to the radio. I've also lost some coordination and brain function I think. Oh the joys. I still don't think I look really pregnant at all, but the bump is coming along. We're in the day by day phase. Here's to beginning a beginning another fun-filled week.

Then & Now

2011-05-03T22:18:00.009-06:00

Here's some comparisons - with pictures!

Mom at (almost) 9 weeks
*Little tummy goingBaby at 7 weeks
*Barely there, my little
piece of rice...Mom at 15 weeks
*Not seeing much difference
from the above Mom pictureBaby at 15 weeks
*Looks like a person

By the way, during this week a co-worker told me that I had a bit of a "baby bump" showing, FINALLY! Then another co-worker promptly told me that the 1st was lying. You be the judge.

One more, non-baby, then and now...Taken 4/30/11...
see a problem with this?I didn't get around to the "now" picture
where you can see the ground and it's not all
white out, but it actually looks spring-like now.
Until next time, "bye" from Baby Porter.

Anticipated Expectations (Just another day at work)

2011-04-27T23:15:00.002-06:00

Today I took my 2nd day off in several months. I still work 4 days a week as a medical assistant, but I've been going in on my days off to make up some time. I told my boss yesterday that I wasn't going to be in and he being the good "dad" (for lack of a better title) that he is, asked if I was going in to work at Doc's. I told him no, which I had meant. Needless to say, that just didn't happen.

I went with Dave this morning to drop off my car for some work, then I planned to drop Dave off at the business and pick him up later in the afternoon. I ended up deciding however, that I should stay and help with the anticipated lunch rush... that didn't ever come. We have some really good employees; so I didn't have to do a ton, but I did try to help out.

The highlight of my morning, next to cleaning nasty dishes, was mopping up spilled pizza sauce in the walk-in fridge. Yep, I can now check that off my bucket list. :0) Oh the joys of being a business owner. We ended up being there 5 hours before we left, and again, anticipated that we were done fore the day.

Although I hadn't planned to, I ended up taking a nap for a couple of hours, which turned out to be a good thing. We got a call at 8:15 or so that a group of 50 was going to be coming in just before we normally close. We had 2 employees there, who I think could have handled things, but we went in to help anyway.

So another 2 hours to the time card, but we made it through. Actually, I think things went really well. We really appreciate our employees. This was the first evening we've gone in for some time. I definitely did some work today, but it was worth it. Now it's off to bed to do it again tomorrow.

Just in Time

2011-04-18T23:59:00.002-06:00

There's nothing better than mid-April. Lingering winter storms, late season colds (thanks to the lingering winter storms), and then there's the whole filing taxes thing. Can it get any better than that? Let's see...

We really have had some "freak" precipitation over the last couple of weeks. It seems it's either feast or famine. I also really have a cold and thanks to the small person developing in my tummy, drug options are limited. Best part, taxes. There always seems to be something that comes up, but for us this year it was quite the task.

Usually we would have filed months ago, had our return, and called it a day by now. However, this year we got to do business taxes with our personal, and we had to figure in some additional tax "quirks" from an inheritance of sorts that apparently was taxed in Illinois. A few highlights: Dave spent numerous hours working on the prep; we bought tax software that didn't work (complex return); talked to a few accountants, who were a little less than helpful; needed to get taxes figured out not only for the deadline, but because we ended up filing IL state tax, even though we live across the country; finally figured out the correct numbers, etc only to find out that we were out of white paper - needed paper to print IL state tax report because you have to have some form of IL issued ID to file electronically; borrowed paper from a neighbor and discovered ink was too low to print; got printer to work (miraculously) and had to find somewhere to get an envelope and stamp; went to a 24 hour grocery store, bought envelopes and stamps; and got to the post office around 11:10 PM. I do have to say that we went past the post office a few times and I for one rather enjoyed seeing all the people getting their very last minute returns in.

Another mega learning experience in the bag. Despite the challenges, I think Dave actually rather enjoys doing taxes. Not sure it's his calling in life or anything, but he liked figuring things out. Thanks Dad for all your help too! Although Dave gets discouraged from time to time, at least we know his tax prep skills continue to be utilized and improve. Way to go sweetie!

Poppy Seed to Grape to Peach

2011-04-14T21:27:00.002-06:00

...or medium shrimp. It's amazing what 13 weeks can do. Or maybe it's just impressive how much growth can occur. After almost 2 years of trying, Dave and I are expecting our 1st baby! We're so excited. This will be the 1st grandchild on my side, and #24 for Dave's parents. :0)

Admittedly it has been a tough go so far. While I'm not out of the woods yet, I'm hoping that things will get better soon. I've been a little nauseous, but more than anything I've hurt. Being pregnant has been painful. Trust me, I know that sounds bizarre, but that's the best way I can describe it. I keep hearing that it will get better around week 14-16 or so, and here's hoping.

Quick story - When I was 6 weeks along or so, Dave asked me when you can hear the heartbeat. I told him that technically it could be heard at that point, which was true. However, you have to have the special equipment and whatever to hear it. Nevertheless, Dave went downstairs, grabbed my stethoscope, and brought it back up and stuck it to my tummy. Poor guy didn't know it couldn't be heard with my little stethoscope at that time. And that's my favorite story thus far.

I'll get a couple pictures up soon.

Conference Weekend

2011-04-04T22:10:00.002-06:00

We were able to hear from our church leaders once again this weekend. As usual, I didn't make it through all of the talks, but the ones I did hear were excellent! Luckily, all of the talks will be available in the next month to read/watch/hear. Dave was able to go to the priesthood session for the menfolk, which I think was a great blessing for him. That however left me volunteered to "tend" the shop. :0)

The weather Friday and Saturday was fabulous!! Sadie and I were able to get out for a couple of really good walks. That was something I probably needed. I'm so glad we're into spring, but because it was conference, it also meant crazy, stormy weather. Right on cue, the snow, sun, snow, sun hit Sunday afternoon. We had planned to go on a walk with Dave, but that just ended up not happening.

Traditionally we have pizza during conference, but for various reasons we bypassed that one. We did get in our Sunday morning cinnamon rolls though. Mmm...so good! The conference addresses were great, but the weekend still flew by, far too quickly.

Mommyz and Poppyz

2011-03-28T20:47:00.002-06:00

Moms and dads are great! Last weekend, Dave's parents came down to help me clean our house. I thought Mom was going to help me and Dad would go help Dave, but they were both there for me. Admittedly, I was more than slightly overwhelmed at the thought of them seeing our atrocious house, but it ended up being a huge help!

This weekend, a couple days ago, Mom and Dad were back down to try and help Dave with some business things. They weren't able to get much accomplished this trip, but we really appreciate the thought and trouble in them coming anyway.

I love talking to my mom. We've always had a pretty good relationship, but now that I'm a "grown-up" it's even better. The only thing is that I wish we weren't so far away. It could be a lot further, but a 2 hour drive is just enough to make it so that we don't get to see our parents as much as I sometimes might like.

I am grateful for moms and dads and all that they do!! Love you Mom and Dad and Mom and Pat.

Horror Story!!

2011-03-18T10:53:00.003-06:00

On my way home last night I decided to stop at Wal-Mart and pick up a few things. That should have been easy enough, right? After spending about an hour meandering and putting serious thought into what I was buying, (for a baby shower and a few things for a friend,) I headed up front to check out. The cashier rung up my total and I swiped my credit card.

Conversation 1:

Cashier: "I'm sorry, there was an error. It didn't take your card."

Kim: (Thinking) "I'll try it again." So I tried it 2 more times, once myself, and once the cashier.

Cashier: "Do you have another card or cash with you?"

Kim: "No. I don't know... Let me run home and I'll be back."

I hopped in my car, rather upset at this point, that I'd have to drive 10 minutes home, only to go back to pick up my things. But, "oh well." I got home, grabbed my wallet with my other credit/debit cards, and went to head back to the store. I thought about trying to find some cash, but I really wasn't sure where to look.

I arrived back at Wal-Mart, in pretty good time. The cashier told me to go to the next lane and someone would get me rung up again. I tried using a debit card, which I didn't remember the pin to.

Conversation 2:

Cashier: "Sorry. It didn't take your card."

Kim: (Slight panic setting in; trying to remember the debit pin.) "Let me try it again."

Cashier: "It still didn't go through. Do you have a debit card? Maybe you could go get cash from the ATM."

Kim: "This one is debit, but I can't remember the pin." (Feeling rather flustered, tried a pin, which was wrong.)

Cashier: "Let me try running it. A lot of times it's our machine." (Still didn't work.)

At this point I was in tears. I had a couple other cards, which I hadn't activated. I tried calling Dave to see where he was, but he was still in Provo at the business. By now I was just sobbing and pretty much gave up.

Kim: "I'm really sorry, but I guess I'll just have to leave this here."

Cashier: "It's okay. This happens more than you think." (Didn't make me fell any better.)

So I left...bawling...without food...and SO embarrassed!! I guess these things happen, but I was mortified. Frankly, I'd be okay just avoiding stores for a while, but I really do need to go back and get a few things. So I guess I'll just have to step up and brave returning to a retail store.

Out & About

2011-03-03T12:52:00.009-07:00

This week has been awesome, as well as challenging. On Monday, Dave was able to get away in the evening and go to the Celtics/Jazz game. Dave likes the Jazz, when they are playing ANY other team than the Celtics. If it's Boston, there just isn't anything else. He got to go with one of his best friends, who had won the tickets at Christmas. The guys had fabulous seats. Dave told me that they were close enough "he could see the sweat" on the players!

It turned out to be a pretty good game. The Celtics ended up winning, but it was actually a close one. They also went to dinner at some Mediterranean place. Dave said it was alright. He was just glad to have something other than pizza or salad. :0)

On Tuesday we were able to sneak away to Cache Valley to visit the parents. First time since Thanksgiving we were in Logan/Smithfield. We had to do some things with the business before we could go; so it ended up being a short, short visit, but it was great to see our parents nevertheless.

We had lunch at Golden Corral with Dave's parents and dinner at my mom's. We sure love them all and were so glad to be able to go and see them. Logan isn't that far, but it has been ridiculously hard getting away from the business. We keep trying to move forward. I think Dave felt like we've taken a few steps back this week. Hopefully business will continue to go well though and Dave can see the progress we're making. I'm so proud of him for all that he's done thus far!!

Unstitched

2011-02-27T00:31:00.002-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Dave was at the business slicing onions. Unfortunately, he managed to catch his finger, and nearly took the tip off. I had come down from a partial day of work in Salt Lake, only to walk in and walk right back out. We spent a few hours at WorkMed, good times. In the end, Dave had to have 7 stitches put in.

The stitches stayed in for some time - 2 weeks. He was able to get them out Friday. Hooray! A couple of stitches came out early on their own. I was a little worried about this, but the PA said that all in all Dave's finger healed better than he had expected it to. Now, we just have to wait and see if Dave regains any feeling in his finger...over the next few months. :0)

P.S. I finally took down our Christmas tree!

Taking a Break!

2011-02-19T15:30:00.002-07:00

Guess who's home?! Me... and Dave! Can you believe it? It really is a rarity, but I've gotta say that I for one am super excited to be away from the biz for a while. Whether it's a few hours or "for the day," I don't care. I for one just need to get away sometimes.

It's nice to actually have something of a weekend. :0)

V-day 2011

2011-02-16T23:18:00.004-07:00

This year Valentine's Day came and went. That's not so new for us. I would ask that you all try to contain your envy over our day. In pretty typical fashion, Dave hung out at the business all day. (Didn't even get to break away to go to the dollar store and get me a flower, which I may have suggested at some point...) I worked in Murray at the day job; then went to work, with the hubs, at pretty much our favorite place, hah! We closed up shop, and then I picked up McDonald's on the way home. Excitement! Okay, again, try to contain yourselves. :)

The next day Dave actually did break away in the evening, a rarity. We were able to on a dinner date, which is something we haven't done for some time. Tried to go to Chili's, who ended up being closed for the evening; then went and tried a new Mexican place instead. It wasn't bad. So there you have it. A note about our big date and a post...finally...and it's (pretty much) not about the business.

Setting New Records

2011-01-23T21:54:00.002-07:00

This last week has been crazy! What's new? Last Monday we had our busiest day yet. We did 3-4 times as much business as usual, and we did it with just Dave, me, and 2 other employees. Tuesday night we spent the night cleaning. We did massive floor cleaning ,and a bit of painting. Pretty much spent the night - we left the business at 4 AM. :)

Honestly, can't remember much of last week, or the last couple of weeks. So, this will just be short and sweet. Until next time... (Whenever that may be.)

The Beginning and The End

2011-01-04T13:41:00.004-07:00

Due to the insanity of business ownership, I'm finding that I just don't have time and/or energy to do much of anything these days. However, I am off from the hospital today, hanging out (working) at the business, and it's slow right now. So, here's my blurb about the end of 2010; beginning of 2011.

The last week of 2010 proved to be quite busy at the restaurant. It was kind of a bizarre week, in that our slowest day was one of the busier ones, and the busy days were quite slow. Regardless, I think it was our best week to date - not hard to do since it was only our 4th week. :0)

Learning experience: We weren't sure what New Year's Eve/New Year's day would be like, but we thought we'd try being open and see how it went. Good plan, better teaching moment. What we learned is that nearly no one goes out on New Year's Eve, I think especially when it's in the single digits outside. New Year's day was good, but we won't be open the full day. Hardly anyone came in until 4:00 or 5:00 PM, but then we were slammed. It was good for business, but really stressful as it was Dave, me, and 2 other employees. We managed though.

We have done fairly well the first few days of January and are hopeful that we might be successful in this endeavor and in all that we do this upcoming year. Dave has hired several people, and I think we have just about got a full staff. At that point we can back off of the front lines and focus on marketing and other such fun stuff.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T21:05:00.002-07:00

This year Christmas came an went... way too fast! Dave and I spent most of the time at home. However, we were able to go have dinner and spend some time with Dave's sister Patty and her family on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas day we went to West Valley for the annual Bingo party with my family. It's a really short one, but that's about it for this year.

A Few Firsts

2010-12-24T23:31:00.003-07:00

Over the last week, I had a few firsts that I thought I would share.

* Went grocery shopping for the first time
in weeks - usually go weekly.
* Got lost in a Wal-Mart parking lot - couldn't find the car, had
to walk around for a few minutes.
* Was banned from going to the business - sweet hubby
said I couldn't go in to help.
* Took a nap.

Crazy Busy!

2010-12-20T16:49:00.003-07:00

This is the first time I've had in a couple of weeks to FINALLY post that Dave and I are business owners! Oh the madness. Yep, we bought a pizza buffet in Provo, called Doc's. (Not our name, already established as such.) I cannot tell you how insanely busy it has kept us. Although, I do think that with each day we're in there, it is becoming less crazy. Still plenty busy, but we can take it in now.

Over the weekend Dave and I figured out that he does about 80-90 hrs/wk at the business and I do 60-70 between my "day job" and my "night one". At last, I realize why we are so exhausted. :0)

Despite the stress and chaos of it all, we are enjoying it and it has already been quite the venture. We have found out a lot in the short time that we have taken over. Some good things, others not so much. I think we are starting to get a handle on things though.

Among other things, getting the right staff in has been helpful. The previous owners had 6 Korean speakers and 2 Spanish speakers. Luckily, I suppose, I know a decent amount of Spanish. Nevertheless, the language barrier has been trying, especially for Dave. It was very interesting when Dave was training with the previous owner, another Korean speaker, and he would translate "Korean English" to "American English". While he was doing that, I was going between Spanish and English. So when we tried to talk to each other we both ended up really having to think what to say and how to say it. That is improving.

I will try to get some pictures up in the next couple of days before we start remodelling. We are planning on painting to start and will be getting that under way toward the end of the week. So until next time...

'Tis the Season

2010-12-05T17:28:00.005-07:00

I'm so excited to be in the holiday season. We have really felt the Christmas spirit this year. It is so easy to get wrapped up in gifts, Christmas trees, and candy canes. While these things are fun and add to the holiday season, this is the time of year that we celebrate the birth and life of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

We have watched numerous Hallmark Christmas movies, each with wonderful messages. I have also been touched by holiday music. Amid stress, and hustle and bustle, it has been in these holiday tunes that I have felt great comfort and relaxation.

Of course, it's not to say that we don't participate in such holiday traditions as decorating the Christmas tree, hanging Christmas lights, and attending parties. We went to our ward party last night. It was nice to be with friends and get out for a bit. We have not done our family picture as of yet, but here are our lights and tree. Here are the new additions...

(present lights)

(snowman lights)

(holiday train)

Talkin' Turkey 2010

2010-11-25T23:34:00.002-07:00

Yello and Happy Thanksgiving! This year year Dave and I are up in Cache Valley...in the cold...where it's going to be -15...slightly chilly. :0) We got to spend some time today with both our families. So despite the more so bitter cold than bitter cold down south, it is well worth being up here.

We started with lunch in Smithfield. Dave's parents, his grandma, and his brother Ben and his family were all here. Originally we were going to have fewer people; so I was told we would be going out to dinner. I thought that was a little strange, although I have done it before. Luckily, I think, we ended up having the big dinner at mom and dad's. I know mom put a lot of time and effort into everthing. It was a wonderful meal.

Next we went to my mom's. It was my mom, Pat, Charles, one of my best friend's, Jenny, her mom, Dave and me. We were able to have another fabulous meal! Of course, I am pretty sure I ate too much, but it was just so good. Not that's it's so important, but I ended up having 5 plates between the 2 meals.

Thanks moms for the Thanksgiving meals. We are so grateful for all that we have been blessed with, but especially our loving families and friends.

Another Week/end

2010-11-21T15:08:00.003-07:00

Thursday, or Friday, Dave and I did something a little crazy. We went to the midnight (12:30 AM) showing of "Harry Potter." Now, don't get me wrong. We're not among the die-hard fans, but it was more of a we've never gone to a midnight "premiere" and I wonder if we could make it through a movie at that time. :0)

So Thursday night we were in bed 8:30 or 9:00, which is unheard of. We took a brief nap for a couple of hours then headed up to The District in South Jordan. We saw all the full blown "Harry Potter" fans, and in fact we sat next to one. The movie was good. Dave thought it was really a pretty sad one. Nevertheless, we did make it through the whole thing and it was just fun to go and try. We made it home about 4:00 AM and then I was off to work about 7:30. Also amazingly, I made it through the work day without completely crashing.

Friday night we were able to hang out with some friends, who we had not seen for a couple of years. They made us an awesome pizza and we watched "Family Man." We also got to meet their adorable little twins.

Saturday morning we did our primary program practice, and Sunday was our primary program. It was Dave's 1st as a teacher and my 3rd playing piano. I had a couple of mess-ups, but I think I did pretty well. I'm afraid however, that our bishopric may be catching on that I've been in my calling a while and it might change in the next little while. We shall see.

After the primary practice on Saturday I went and met my mom and 2 aunts in Salt Lake. We had lunch at Sconecutter and wandered around Tai Pan Trading, none of us had been there before. It was fun to spend some time with the girls and to visit.

We made it through Monday and have started back on another fun-filled week. Luckily, it will be shorter because of the holiday.

Grr!!...

2010-11-16T23:04:00.008-07:00

I tried to upload a couple of videos. It said it worked, but apparently not so much. This is attempt 2 at just getting a post up. Here are just a couple pictures of Jack and Sadie. We sure love 'em!

It was amazing that I managed to sneak a picture of Jack. Somehow he knows when I have or go anywhere near the camera, and he does NOT like it. Dave and Sadie sleeping, how could I pass that one up? And, we get the occasional mommy picture in too.

Quick Note

2010-11-13T23:30:00.003-07:00

I don't feel like I've had much to write about lately. I do have news however about the business. Our loan was approved this week! Another step closer to finalizing everything and calling it ours.

Yesterday Dave and I were able to go to the BYU basketball game. It was fun and the Cougars did awesome. We left w/ 5 minutes left in the game, but since they were up 35 points, we thought we'd be okay to take off. :0)

Today we helped with a benefit concert for one of our friends who was diagnosed and is being treated for breast cancer. I think it was a big success. The concert was wonderful and there was an exceptional turnout. I'm not sure how much we really did, but I'm glad we could assist, even if it was just a bit.

One more day of the weekend and then back to the grind. On a side note, we were able to get our Christmas lights up. (Wanted to do that before it got any colder.) I'm excited to be headed into the holiday season. We love this time of year!!

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T21:54:00.005-06:00

This year Halloween landed on a Sunday, which means several days of observation. Once again, I was Raggedy Ann at work. I had thought about finding a different costume, although nothing came to mind. A co-worker reminded me of something I apparently stashed at the back of my cranium. I ordered my Raggedy Ann outfit in 2008. The thing is that it arrived on Halloween day, a Friday, while I was at work. So, I threw it on briefly that evening, but I was a princess at work. I think it is safe to say that I really do need to figure something else out next year, as apparently this was technically year 3 of Raggedy Ann.

Moving right along, this year Dave and I participated in our first trunk or treat...ever! It was an interesting experience. The most interesting thing I think, is that Dave actually got into it! He's a good sport about his wife dressing up and such, but he's never done much for Halloween. This year it was encouraged to decorate your trunk and Dave sure took that to heart. It turned out well, although apparently there are some seriously die-hard Halloween decorating peeps in the neighborhood. Dave said that next year he will have to "step up" his game.

The one thing that Dave really enjoys doing is carving pumpkins. That's the thing that I think he likes more than I do. We bought 3 pumpkins this year, and I think they turned out well. We had a lot of fun carving them. This is how they turned out...As usual, we did buy candy just in case we had trick-or-treaters, although frankly I don't think we expected many. In the past we have always bought candy, but we've only had a few people come by, ever. So it was kind of a surprise this year. We ended up with maybe 50 kids or so that stopped by, a record. I was a little nervous about Sadie too. I don't recall how we did it last year, but she did quite well, all things considered.

No Pain, No Gain!

2010-10-23T20:37:00.004-06:00

Back in the day, i.e. high school and college, Dave was quite the exercise nut. Frankly, I don't know how he did it or why. Yes, exercising is very important and I know everyone should do it, but 3 hours a day?! Who does that? Well, as apparently tends to be the trend, once Dave got married... let's just say that the exercise frequency decreased and the waist size increased just a smidge.

Unfortunately, Dave (and I) just haven't been nearly as with it on the work out ship. However, about a week and a half ago, Dave went on serious hike/camping trip. I'm not sure this was the world's best idea. I love that he went, but he really hadn't been working up to it per say.

He and one of his good friends went up American Fork Canyon, on a Tuesday night - another who does that? They did a 4 mile backpacking trip up the mountain! It took the guys 6 hours, but they did it. I'm so proud of Dave. The maniac did this little funfest with a 30+ lb pack! Pure craziness! Needless to say, the menfolk were pretty tired by the time they reached there destination.

They had a grand time, despite the ridiculously cold drop in temp that night. The other issue was that apparently it was so cold that their water didn't stay hot. I think they had a hard enough time even getting it warm at all. In turn their food wasn't cooking quite like it should have. The guys only took 3 hours to get back down. They got home around 1:00 the next day.

I was glad Dave made it back in 1 piece, but I was even more happy to be the one at home, with the kids, in our nice, warm bed. Good job Dave!

Business Ventures!

2010-10-18T22:25:00.004-06:00

Last Friday Dave and I got some good news. No, it's not what some of you may be thinking. :0) Dave and I put in an offer for a business and it was accepted! We got a really good deal. It's basically ours, but now we have to get approved for a SBA for the deal to be "official." The business is Doc's Pizza Buffet in Orem. It's located on University Parkway, not too far from BYU. It's 1 of 2 pizza buffets in Utah county.

From the time I met Dave, I've heard him say how he's wanted to have his own business. We've been fortunate enough to be able to finally move forward in pursuing a business opportunity. There is definite room for improvement with the current set-up. We have some really good ideas. Since we're not 100% owners, I can't say too much.

We are thinking about changing the name of the business. I think we are planning on going for a more "rustic Italian" feel. If anyone has any ideas for the name, we'd love to hear them. We should know about our loan in a few weeks, hopefully. We'll keep you posted and tell you more as soon as we can.

Excellent Weekend!

2010-10-10T21:00:00.002-06:00

I got to have a 3 day weekend. On Friday we got some good news, which I'm going to post next time, sorry. Dave and I got to spend some good time together. We went up to the city and attended the fall home improvement show. We generally go to the spring home show, but this was the 1st time we've gone to the fall show.

My aunt has a booth that she does there. I got to help her for a little bit while we were there. Dave and I always like walking around and seeing things we can do, new products, etc. It's more fun since we have a house. The other part I like is entering the drawings and getting treats. (That's really my favorite part.)

Saturday morning I was up and out the door before 7:00 AM! I got to go to a cardiology update in Murray. It was pretty good. I always enjoy learning more about what I'm doing. I'm proud of myself because I'm starting to know some of what's talked about at these seminars, butI still learn though.

Today was fabulous at church. I was really able to feel the spirit. We had testimonies shared and it was just such a good meeting. As usual, we sat next to our neighbors with their cute little girl. We love our neighbors, but we especially enjoy playing with their cute little kids. One day we'll hopefully get to have cute little ones too.

Autumn Colors

2010-10-04T21:54:00.001-06:00

We went up Provo Canyon last week,
and this is what it looked like...

Prepare to be Amazed!

2010-09-28T20:41:00.000-06:00

Kim is reading a book! Hold the applause. I'm working on "Twilight," which I realize is a young adult book. However, if you know me at all, the fact that I am reading anything is pretty good. Seriously, I don't know that I've read a full book since graduating high school. I'm just not a reader. I will say that I'm enjoying "Twilight" and despite it being thick, it really is an easy read.

On an unrelated subject, Dave and I got new phones. It's been fun. We thought maybe we'd get with the times. :0) So now we have messaging phones, with touch screens. We redid our plan, which cut down our cost on our bill and now allows us to have unlimited texting. Thanks to my job I'm getting better at texting and thanks to the new plan, Dave is now texting as well.

As usual, really not too much else going on right now. All in all, we're doing pretty well. Dave continues to try to figure out what he could/should do to earn an income. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to share. I'm still hanging out at my job. I've really thought about switching to something closer to home, but have yet to do it. Until next time...

2010-09-14T22:26:00.000-06:00

Where has Dave been? Anyone? Here's a hint.

We've been starting a baseball card collection, which will hopefully become an online card shop. When Dave was younger he had a collection, but unfortunately he sold all his cards for all of $25! It's not up yet, but Dave has been working on a website, which is coming together quite well. I'm rather impressed with what's he's accomplished.All of these binders are full of cards. There are a number of other boxes of cards that I didn't take a picture of. Here's one more of the most recent "acquisition".So, if anyone would like any cards, knows anyone who might like some cards, or would just like to pass the word along, we would appreciate it. A lot of the cards are common players, but we'd love to sell them at $0.03/card (or make us an offer). Side note, we do have more valuable cards as well. Thanks!

Labor Day Weekend 2010

2010-09-06T21:17:00.000-06:00

Had some good dates over the long weekend.

Friday night - We went to Thai Village for dinner. In our last ward we had a friend from Thailand. She married a guy who had served his mission there, and we were able to have dinner with them a few times. She made excellent food! Thai Village was pretty good, although I think both Dave and I would prefer our friend's cooking. :0)

Saturday night - I "dragged" Dave to a Jon Schmidt concert at Thanksgiving Point. Now, I did ask him about going before I bought the tickets...a month or so ago. (He forgot.) It was at the gardens in Thanksgiving Point, an outdoor amphitheater. We both enjoyed the music and the interaction with the audience.

Monday morning - We hit the road at 8:00 (actually 8:15) and went hiking for 2 1/2 hours in American Fork Canyon. The weather was awesome, and we definitely enjoyed the company. It may be news to some people, but I really do enjoy being outdoors and doing "sportsy" things. I was really proud of Dave. He did a great job today. All in all, another good weekend.

I'm at a Loss...

2010-08-31T21:31:00.000-06:00

I feel the urge to blog, yet I'm really not sure what to write about. So, I guess we'll just start and see how it turns out. Recently, got to go to Logan and spend some time with my mom and my aunts. We went to lunch at the senior center in Logan (not bad) and we went to a Celtic festival. Sadie got to go with me, which made it a total girls weekend. Dave was going to go camping with the boys, but due to in climate weather, that didn't happen.

I'm feeling good about working and my job. My opinion changes from time to time, but I'm doing good now. Random note, I got a compliment (or two) from my boss, i.e. the Dr. that I work with. He had just mentioned to a lady he knew that it is not being just a medical assistant. He told her about how the MA's in his office do a lot and keep things going. While we hear "thanks for all you do" and that we are appreciated, it just seemed to be more sincere. So, thanks for letting us know that the work we do is noticed.

Last night I spent the night at American Fork Hospital...in the sleep lab. I did an overnight oximetry test at home, which showed my O2 level drops while I sleep. So my doctor ordered a full overnight sleep study, in which I got hooked up to I think around 16 wires and spent the night at the hospital. Evidently, I was rather nervous about doing the study. Once I got to sleep however, it went fine I think. I feel like it was my "typical" night's rest. The results won't be back for a week or two. I think it seems kind of bizarre that I have done a sleep test. In the event that I start using a CPAP or some other aid to help me sleep better, hopefully it will work. From what I've heard, it really can make a difference. I generally think of a CPAP as something used by "older" people; so I guess we'll just see what the results showed and go from there.

Well, I think that should be good and that's about all I've got for now. I'll write again soon and hopefully have some idea what to write about.

Hmm...

2010-08-20T10:14:00.000-06:00

Alright, so now that I've posted we're heading back to school, I already need to "update" my progress. I went to take the Accuplacer exam yesterday, which is one of those see how much you know, or don't know, type-tests. The results surprised me and they didn't. Ready for this?

Test & Score:
Basic Algebra 66%
Sentence Structure 99%
Reading Comprehension 52%

Recommendations:
Reading and writing 0900

Math 1010

The report I was given stated that most college majors require at least the ability to do Math 1050 and English 1010. I don't have a problem with that, except that I've already taken Math 1050 and 1060, as well as English 1010 and English 2010. Granted, it has been 7+ years since I've taken those classes, but I think enough said.

Making the Grade

2010-08-19T09:15:00.001-06:00

It's that time of year again - the beginning of a new school year. I have gone back and forth about going back to school for ongoing education, and up to this point I have kept putting it off for one reason or another. On a sporadic whim about a week ago, I ended up applying to Salt Lake Community College (SLCC). A couple of days later I received my acceptance letter.

Oddly enough, although I started out at a university, I have done more higher education at smaller schools. The irony is that I have had some pre-conceived notion that "tech schools" and colleges weren't as good as universities. Yet, I will end up spending more time in the smaller schools than I did at Utah State University. I am hoping to just do a few classes through SLCC over the next year to finish pre-requisites for nursing and then I will be applying for a LPN, nursing program.

Dave too is headed back to school. He has tried a few things since he graduated with his BS in Finance, but his latest one is web design. He's pretty excited about it. He is taking just a single course through a tech school to see if he really likes it first, and then if he does he will do a course to be "certified" in that. Wish us luck! :0)

Bittersweet

2010-08-08T22:34:00.000-06:00

I've hit a hundred grand! Well, Little ET (my cute little car) just crossed the 100k mile marker. It was bound to happen, and really I've put on a lot of miles. Sadly, my 2003 car has only a few 1000 miles less than Dave's 2000. The good news is that we've done some good work on both cars and they should be around for some time longer.

Quicky

2010-08-05T19:48:00.000-06:00

Tried once again to load pictures from the Florida trip, but it was a futile attempt. This is Dave and our neighbors at the Rockies vs Red Sox game. (Best part of our time in Denver.)

In other news, we had hail yesterday and our power went out for the 4th time in a week. Luckily, the outage last night was about the time we were heading to bed. Other, other news doesn't really exist at this point - not too much else going on. Hopefully we'll have more to report in the next post.

Out & About

2010-07-23T22:20:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago we were able to go to Smithfield for Mom and Dad Porter's 50th anniversary party. We did family pictures Friday evening, then had an open house/reception for them. It was beautiful and they had a good turnout. On Saturday we had a family picnic, which was also excellent! Here are a few pictures that we took. The professional ones aren't back yet.

The following week was my office's summer party. We went to a Salt Lake Bees game. There weren't a ton of people there, but still a decent group. The Bees won 5-2. It's always fun to see people outside of work.

This weekend is a Utah holiday, Pioneer Day - July 24th. The holiday was observed today by a lot of businesses, including mine. Last night Dave and I went on a date to Trafalga. We played miniature golf, which was awesome. It's been some time since we've done that. It turned out to be $3 Thursday, which was even better. The course really wasn't that great, but it was nice weather and great to just be able to get out.

We went to lunch at Romano's Macaroni Grill today, tomorrow we are getting up at 5:00 to paint the fire zones in our community, hopefully we'll go swimming this weekend, and see a movie. Hooray for long weekends!

End of the Trip

2010-07-17T16:32:00.000-06:00

We've been home a couple of weeks now, but here's the end of the trip. Friday and Saturday we played more at the Disney parks. We watched fireworks from the pool Friday night, which was cool. Sunday we started off for home. A long trip...

Before we left for the airport, Dave was getting out of the shower, when some siren went off and we were informed we should exit the building. We didn't leave, but it was just the start of our fun-filled trip ahead.

In order to make sure we got to the airport on time, we arrived 5 hours early. So we got to the airport, where we thought we could get checked in, etc. However, there was a sign that said they wouldn't be checking passengers in until 2:00, which was 3 hours before we took off. Finally got checked in, we weren't sitting next to each other, got our seats reassigned...next to each other...in the row in front of the emergency exit - no reclining.

Got in the air, got close to Denver, and were informed there was a tornado watch. Plane was diverted to Grand Junction, Co (1/2 way back to Salt Lake), and then circled around the Denver airport for another 3 hours of so. Arrived at the gate about 10:30 vs 6:30 PM. Hoped we would be able to start driving part way back to Utah, didn't happen. Finally found a Village Inn that was open at 11:50, restaurant closed at midnight. The employees were very nice and it was great to eat after 28 hours of fasting!

Almost done - stayed with Dave's sister in Fort Collins, then finally headed home. After all we had been through in our traveling, how could we finish without getting a ticket? Yep, speeding ticket through WY. I'm still working on the pictures. Think it's about finished, and hopefully I'll get them posted soon.

A Note on a Few Days...with a Few Pictures

2010-07-01T21:02:00.001-06:00

Last few days:

Tues - Epcot
Wed - Hollywood Studios/Epcot
Thurs - Animal Kingdom

Attempt 3 at pictures...Epcot

Teppan EdoYummy, yummy food and
our funny, funny chef

Rock 'N Roller Coaster

Dave in a line with Hollywood
Tower of Terror behind him

Tigers

Kim chillin' by the tigers.

Hippos

One of the walking trails

at Animal Kingdom

Progress and Resistence

2010-06-28T22:15:00.001-06:00

Progress: Things have been going better. We got to visit Wayne and Sandie and their family on Friday, then Sonja, Brent, and Brian on Saturday. We enjoyed our time with all of them and are glad we could visit and catch up a bit. We attended church with Sonja's family on Sunday, and then it was off to the airport.

We apparently cut it close; however, I thought we had enough time to get everything done. At any rate, we decided it would be best for us to drive ourselves to the airport. We got there with approx 90 min to spare. What we didn't foresee is that getting from parking and then checking in was going to be such a pain.

We flew on Frontier, which is definitely not my favorite airline, and "barely" made it. It wasn't too bad getting through security, although, Dave set off the alarm with his belt. Our bag was checked in late, but made it onto our flight with us. Hooray! We also learned that we weren't seated together. It was a mere 5 row difference, but it was 5 rows nonetheless. After 3 hours of flying time, we arrived in Orlando.

We got to our hotel around 11:00 and got a nice surprise. As we were checking in, I mentioned that we were on vacation for our anniversary, and we got our room upgraded for free 99...to a suite! (I'd like to find out, but I think it's about the size of our first apartment.)

Today we spent the day at the Magic Kingdom at Disney World and we had a great time. It was definitely hot, but surprisingly not as bad as I think I thought it would be. This is my first trip to Florida, and to Disney World. It has been interesting to see some of the differences from Disneyland. I'm looking forward to exploring the rest of the week. :0)

Resistence: Once again, I took pictures and have downloaded them. The issue tonight is that I can't get them to upload. So, I suppose there will be a somewhat lengthy picture post in the next week or so. The other challenge of the day is that I can NOT get the computer to let me type without everything being underlined. I guess it's all just that important today.

Let the Fun Begin!

2010-06-25T01:39:00.000-06:00

Happy anniversary Porters! And that's about as good as it got. We started our vacation today (or rather Tuesday night) and it went something like this...

Wednesday:
* Kim hoped to get off work a little early, left at 5:40 instead.
* Went to Wal-Mart to get prescriptions, took 45 minutes.
* Left for Logan around 8:00 PM to take Sadie to stay with Grandma Nelson; got home about midnight - still had much packing to do.

Thursday:
* Got up, later than we had originally planned.
* Took Jack up to the PetSmart Pets Hotel, got Jamba Juices, and dropped off some things at work.
* Realized we left a bag home and decided to go home to get it.
* Decided to try taking I-70 to get to Colorado - good plan until we got to the huge accident, not too far into the trip. (Highway was shut down.)
* Took the "alternate route" that was suggested, which led back to the same accident.
* Debated driving down I-15 and over to Price or up to I-80; decided to try taking Provo Canyon up to I-80.
* Made it to Denver in surprisingly good time, despite I don't know how many construction zones.
* Got to the Red Sox vs Rockies game, horrible lack of parking.
* Found a spot, didn't see any signs about not parking there and/or paying.
* Good game, Red Sox won 13-11.
* Went back to the lot to find our car missing... along with at least 3 other cars!
* Learned all of our cars were towed, hopped a taxi with several other people, stopped by an ATM to get cash to get our cars, and went to the impound lot - not so near to the ballpark.
* Took at least an hour to get the car released and $269!
* Finally got to our hotel, where we were put in a smoking room with lovely brown plaid curtains and 2 full size beds!

Definitely a good start to the trip I think. Hopefully we've had all of our "excitement" and we can actually relax and enjoy the rest of the trip.

P.S. I took a few pictures at the game, but seeing as it is 2:00 AM, I won't take the time to plug them in today.

Not So Surprise Birthday Party

2010-06-14T22:51:00.000-06:00

Here's the scoop on the birthday party. We just had family and friends down to a park in Provo for lunch. Maybe it's not too exciting, but I was proud of myself for getting it planned and for getting out of my "bubble" to call several people, whom I have never or rarely talked to - i.e. Dave's friends. We had excellent weather, good food, and great company. We're so lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives. Here are some pictures:

Sheldon, Stacey, Brandon,

Paul, Dave, Dave, and Dad Porter
Ben, Melissa, Jenna, and Dad PorterPaul and Becky

Pat, Aunt Ann, Aunt Terry,

Paul, Ginger, and Mom Nelson

Jenny and Kim
Hannah and Stacey
Sam, Rebecca, Dave,
Sheldon and Emily
Dave giving his speech...

(or nor really...)

Richelle, Jim, Thomas, and Kimberly

Dave, Mary, and Liz

Dave, Paul, Ginger (can't see her,

but she was in the shot), Mom and

Dad Porter, and EmilySheldon, Braydon, Dad Porter,

Mom Porter, Pat, Mom Nelson,

Aunt Ann, and Aunt Terry

Birthdays

2010-06-06T00:21:00.001-06:00

Last week we celebrated my birthday. I'm now 25! We got to have kind of a week of Kimmy celebration. On Tuesday I was able to go to a niece's high school graduation. It was interesting because she was part of the 1st graduating class of a new high school. After the graduation we went to dinner at Brick Oven Pizza in Provo. It was so good! To my surpise, Dave was able to get off work early and he ended up being able to go to dinner with us. When I got home, I went out with a couple ladies from church and had some dessert.

I had a work celebration Thursday, where I got my desk decorated and we had cupcakes. One of my co-workers wasn't going to be gone on my actual birthday Friday. When I showed up Friday a couple of my co-workers brought flowers in for me. We also had a cake for all the May birthdays. Dave bought me a box of chocolates and then we went to dinner at Los Hermanos. It was excellent food and we got huge portions.

Yesterday was Mr. Porter's birthday; he hit the big 30! He, like I, spent the day working. A few of Dave's co-workers were out of the office Friday, so they had their birthday lunch for him on Thursday - Cafe Rio. I got to surprise Dave and have lunch with him. I also took in an ice cream cake, but they didn't get around to having any. So we brought it home and will enjoy it soon.

Due to a long day of work, Dave opted to have Subway for his birthday dinner. We did go and buy him a movie - "Race to Witch Mountain," which we watched last night, and we finished with a dip in the hot tub. Today we had our not surprise, surprise birthday party, which I will write about in the next couple days. Until then...

P.S. I had balloons on my desk and I did okay. For anyone who may not know, I have a huge phobia of balloons. My quarter of a century goal is to continue working on the balloon fear. :0)

What's Up?

2010-05-30T20:09:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I've written, but here's what's up.

Work has been keeping us BUSY! It's been super stressful, but we keep plugging away. Dave and I have not been feeling great as of late. It turns out that Dave has an ulcer. It's not too big or anything, but it's there nonetheless. I have been in to see the doctor as well and I found out that I have some ovarian cysts. Again, nothing too serious, but they're there.

I had my 2nd pedicure and went for some bling this time. (Hee hee. ) We got one more "minor" snowfall last week. It didn't stick long, but I sure am ready to be going into summer/warmer weather. Dave and I are planning a couple of summer vacations. We are planning on going at the end of June and I'm super excited to get away for a while.

We spent another fun-filled weekend cleaning. The house looks good. The plan tomorrow is to go and play. Not sure what the plan is, but we're going to go do something fun.

I think that's about it for now. I'll write more again soon.

They Finally Got Hitched!

2010-05-15T23:52:00.000-06:00

It has been some time in the making. Almost 2 years in fact. There was some going back and forth on the decision. I don't think it was so much that he didn't want it to happen, but the financing (among other things) was a concern. Last weekend LJ got hitched at last, and he (and more so Dave) couldn't be happier!

Actually, one of my best friends from high school, Rebecca got hitched today. She had something of a long engagement, but I'm so happy for her. She is the first of my friends to tie the knot since I got married - nearly 4 years ago! Congratulations!*

*Left the camera home, no wedding pictures to post.

P.S. Random side note - got to do a girls night yesterday; went to see "Letters to Juliet"; way cute!

Weather Report

2010-05-04T22:09:00.000-06:00

In typical Utah spring fashion, we have gone from sunny 80's to snowy 30's or 40's. I haven't been able to make up my mind about whether I prefer the heat or the cold. Every time I think I figure it out, I don't, but this year I've been freezing regardless of the temperature. This isn't really anything new.

Last week it was in the 70's inside our house and I was cold, cold. Due to my immense refusal of high bill paying, I was not about to turn on the heater again. I was under a blanket and our cute little baby Jack came to the rescue. He crawled under the blanket and laid right on top of my hands to keep me warm. He was there for some time. Thanks Jack, Jack.

In other news, Porters have been a little under the weather. Both Dave and I have just not been feeling well. We've both got some upcoming tests to see what's up. I'll keep you posted. I don't think it's anything too serious for either of us. Here's hoping to warmer, brighter weather - seasonal and for Porters. :0)

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

2010-04-24T21:36:00.001-06:00

It was a girly girl day. Today was the spring Utah Valley Women's Expo, held at UVU. I saw an add for it and decided I wanted to go. It was only $5 to get in and there were quite a few booths/vendors. Dave got to stay home and work on his programming lessons.

I entered a bunch of the free drawings and of course got some treats while I was there. My favorite part though was that I got make-up done and my hair done up all cute-like. If you know me at all, you know that I really don't wear make-up. In fact, I didn't even put any on for my wedding. But I know Dave likes to see me get all dolled up occasionally and hey, it was free 99!

While it's not really my thing, I do enjoy getting to play Princess from time to time. All in all, pretty good day. :0)

The Wonders of Technology

2010-04-17T22:20:00.001-06:00

This morning Dave was trying to print some papers off for school. I have an older all-in-one printer, but it has been struggling a bit recently. Namely, it likes to feed 7 or 8 papers through at a time. Obviously that doesn't produce very good prints. After trying to work on classwork for an hour or so, Dave got fed up and decided that we needed a new printer. So we went out shopping.

Dave had researched some all-in-one printers online and found one he liked at Best Buy. We went to our local store and looked at a few others, but this is the one we ended up with...

We have already used it, and we really like it. It's a wireless printer that connects to our internet router allowing us to print from any computer on the network without having to first plug it in. The printer also has bluetooth capability; so we can print pictures from our phones to the printer.

A couple other features: touch screen, energy star rated, and it can print calendars, games, and various types of paper - music, graph, etc. Although we have grown up in a highly technological age, it is amazing to see the progression of technology during our generation. I can only imagine what future technology will bring.

VBA, SQL, RUBY, ETC.

2010-04-15T12:55:00.000-06:00

If you understood the title, you're already ahead of the game. It recently occurred to me that I don't often write much about Dave. He's referred to when I talk about "we," "us," and so on, but this will be a Dave Porter post.

The above noted letter combinations are names of computer programming methods, which Dave is/has been learning about recently for both work and for his own knowledge. I'm really quite impressed at how well he does program writing and how much he's already accomplished.

Dave was offered a promotion at Deseret First where he is now back at their operations center (definitely not the best part of the job - i.e. the commute) and he is writing programs to improve efficiency and fluidity of the credit union's operations. He is very excited about the work he is actually doing and he's enjoying it.

Along with the programming he's working on for his job, Dave enrolled in an online class to learn more about programming through a local tech school. He is absolutely loving that. The only drawback to his class is that he can't skip ahead. He gets so into what he's learning that he just wants to keep going.

Here a sample picture of the programming Dave is learning:

Weekly Update

2010-04-08T11:19:00.000-06:00

Once again I have meant to blog and it has taken me a week to do so. Nevertheless, here are just a couple of things that have been going on...

Last weekend we had our spring General Conference for the LDS church. What I heard of it was really good. I usually fall asleep during 1 of the 4 sessions, but I ended up sleeping through at least 1/2 of the 2 day conference this time. As we always do, we had pizza Saturday night. It was good. We didn't however, do our traditional Sunday morning cinnamon rolls, but it was still a good day.

Sunday was Easter of course. Dave and I had thought about going up to visit the parents, but ended up staying home and having a Chinese Easter dinner. No ham, we went for the Szechwan chicken - homemade.

(Not the exact recipe we made.)

We have recently been playing a game with our neighbors called "Dominion". It's a card game, which Dave generally doesn't like because it's sometimes hard for him to hold cards, but he really likes this one. In fact, he likes it so much that we bought "Dominion: Intrigue" ourselves.

Intrigue is cool because it can be played as a stand-alone or expansion to "Dominion". I'm not even going to try to explain it, but it's a lot of fun and if you're in the neighborhood, we'll gladly whip it out and play with you. Also, if anyone has any recommendations on other good board games, they would be appreciated.

No Foolin' Around

2010-04-01T09:56:00.000-06:00

The baby brudder is back! My brother Charles just got home from Afghanistan a few days ago and made it back to Utah last night. Hooray! He has been gone about a year. This was his first Army tour. We are all really proud of him for going and serving. His flight didn't get in until 9:45-10:00 PM. Since Dave and I now live in Pleasant Grove, (instead of Taylorsville, which is only 15 min from the airport,) we decided to just stay up in the city. It worked out really well.

We ended up getting to do a mid-week date. Yep, an "actual" date, which we haven't done for a little while. We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant called Chef Tom's, (also in Taylorsville, not far from where we used to live,) and we had a really good pizza. It wasn't too badly priced either.

After dinner we splurged. Being the big spenders that we are, we went to the dollar movies. And, we actually only paid $1.00 per person. It was awesome. We went and saw "The Blind Side" and really liked it. It's a great story and I think they had excellent actors to portray the various roles. Dave spoiled me and let me get some popcorn. Definitely the most expensive part of our night. I only got a small, but it was $5.00. As much as I like popcorn, I think we'll just stick with making it at home.

When we got to the airport, we were informed that family members of the soldiers could go and meet them at the gate. However, I didn't have my license with me; so we just waited for everyone else to come. I thought it was cool though that they let some people go up to the gate to wait. As you know, that's just not the common practice anymore. Genius left her camera home, and amazingly so did my mom. I do have some earlier pictures that I'll post soon.

Below is just a quick news clip about the batallion's return.

ksl.com - Utah soldiers return from Afghanistan

P.S. On our way in today, a small herd of deer ran across the road. It was fun to see.

Kimmy Go Boom!

2010-03-22T21:37:00.000-06:00

Do you suffer from short-term memory loss?....I can't remember. Kimmy whimmy stood on the bed, Kimmy whimmy fell on her head. Yep, minor concussion over the weekend. I was trying to lift a bag off the floor while standing on our spare bed and slipped. I'm doing alright, but I ended up going into InstaCare today just to make sure it wasn't something worse (under the recommendation of a couple of people).

My head's got a cute little banged up spot and I have a really nice bruise down my leg. A couple other fun little bruises and a sore back. Morals of the story: don't fall off your bed, avoid "stupid" moments; if you do fall, try not to land on a TV stand or exercise weights.

On a brighter note, I got my first pedicure last week.

Recent Cuts

2010-03-17T23:08:00.000-06:00

Recently I having been posting much. My "unoffical, personal goal" is to write at least once a week. I realize that I'm behind for March. I just haven't had the energy to do so. Now that it's like 11:00 at night, on a work night. This too shall be a brief entry.

Last weekend we (pretty much the whole family) went in for springtime shavings. Dave, who is very particular about his hair, finally reached his breaking point. Admittedly, it was getting rather long...for him. So, he was able to get his hair trimmed up.

Dave rather enjoys it when I do different things with my hair, i.e. highlights, curls, etc. So I whacked a ton of hair off so I could look like a boy again, like I did when we met. (That would be according to Dave.) Alright, I didn't whack much off, but I did get a perm. It took 4 1/2 hours to do! It was 2 hours of just rolling my hair. At one point there were 2 girls rolling, and I think 150 or so rollers were used. I've gotten a pretty good response from everyone with the results.

Sadie also got a haircut, which was more of a spring shaving. I'm not sure we intended to make it quite so short, but she needed a cut and we figured that she'll appreciate it in the summer when it gets really warm out. On a random side note, Sadie and I went out for a nice long walk on my day off. She really enjoyed that.

A Rare Occurrence

2010-03-12T15:32:00.000-07:00

A few days a year, Dave and I get to have a "work day" off together. This happened to be the case yesterday. I was definitely looking forward to it. Usually, Dave gets the Monday "banking holidays" off, but he is going in to work tomorrow to teller for half the day. So he got to have my day off for the week.

Unfortunately, I had one of my much needed sleep days. :( The poor guy. I was out most of the day. Seriously, I was awake 7 out of 14 hours yesterday. Not exactly the best ratio. We did manage to get to go to lunch together, which was great. We ended up going with one of our good friends to JCW's. (A first for us.) The food was awesome and the company was even better!

So while I didn't get as much quality Dave time in as I would have liked, I'm still glad that we got to have a day off together. Hopefully the next one my husband will have conscious spouse. P.S. I fell right to sleep last night. Despite my massive napping, I was not up all night.

A Brief Update

2010-03-04T10:33:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my very good friend Rebecca and her fiance Sam came down to visit. It was great to see them! We ended up going to dinner at the Bombay House (Indian food) and then back to our house where we played a few games and had some ice cream. It was a lot of fun.

We found out recently that Sadie managed to get Lyme's disease. We're just not sure how she managed to pick that one up. She only travels to Logan occasionally and that's not very often. It was discovered when she went in for a routine check-up. They were actually testing for heart worms, which came back negative. She's been taking an antibiotic and I think she'll be fine.

My brother should be coming back from Afghanistan pretty soon. I'm not exactly sure when, but I'm looking forward to seeing him. I believe that it has been a good experience for him and based on e-mails, I think he's grown up a bit. That in and of itself is just cool.

Other than that, just glad to be into March and headed towards spring/summer. I can't tell you how nice it's been to not leave work in pitch darkness. Occasionally it's still dark when we get home, but it's an improvement to see some light outside. All in all, we are doing well and just lovin' being just a couple of Porters.

Customer Service

2010-02-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

Couple of stories... We're lovin' the new bed, but here's our sad story. Last week Dave rolled out of bed and we heard a crack! That's right, a crack under the bed. After a little bit of investigation, we found that one of the boards had snapped. So, we went back down to the store to see what could be done. And, we really didn't get anywhere.

I stayed in the car with Sadie and Dave went in alone. He was told that they really couldn't do anything. The best we got out of them was some random board that's supposed to be the replacement. We haven't tried it yet, but I'm just kind of frustrated that we didn't get better help.

On a better note, last night I went to get dinner at Cafe Rio. I decided to splurge and orderes chips with queso dip. Unfortunately, they didn't have the queso done. I really didn't mind waiting. It wasn't that big of a deal to me. Nevertheless, while I was waiting they offered me a free drink, and since I ended up being there a little longer than they thought I should have been, they threw in a free dessert.

There are very few jobs where customer service of some sort or another is not used. I know that it can be tough to deal with difficulty people, siguations, etc, but as a customer/consumer I definitely appreciate getting better customer service and having people at least try to help make things better.

Holiday Weekend

2010-02-16T21:32:00.000-07:00

The month of February is American Heart Health month. In light of this, I suppose someone decided that Valentine's Day should fall in this month. :0) Okay, I'm sure that's not the reason why we celebrate Valentine's in February, but it is actually heart health month. (A few of our doctors have been/will be on 2 news talking about heart issues.) Moving right along...

In sticking to Porter tradition, Dave and I ordered a pizza for Valentine's and watched a movie. Nothing too exciting, but we enjoy it. I've been trying to plan a "surprise" trip for Dave's birthday. However, it came to the point where I decided I needed his input. I was planning on going to Boston, but due to a random conversation I managed to fake Dave out so he thought we were going to Hawaii. It turns out that it was a good idea to get some feedback.

Apparently, and somewhat to my surprise, Dave would rather go to Hawaii than Boston. So, that's the new plan. If anyone has any suggestions/recommendations on where in Hawaii we should go, they would be much appreciated. I bring this up because I had made Dave brownies - like the ones he made me when he proposed - and that was my Valentine's Day "present" to him. He in turn bought me roses, which I love.

On Monday we did some errands and then got together for dinner with some of our neighbors and good friends. We had a Chinese dinner, which we prepared. It turned out pretty good. Of course it was nice to just have an extra day off together as well. I always love spending time with the hubby.

Why I Married a Finance Major

2010-02-12T13:19:00.000-07:00

In case you might be wondering, we have not fallen off the face of the planet. I have had things to write about, and simply haven't done so. Nevertheless, I'd like to tell you a little about the reason I married my Dave.

First of all, I married my sweetheart for his car. Yup, '95 Ford Probe. Oh yeah. Just kidding. While I liked Betty Mac, she just wasn't my all time favorite vehicle (sorry) and I really picked Dave because he was a finance major. Do you have any idea what kind of perks come from that?! Beginning of the year when everyone is thinking about working on taxes, finance majors (or at least my financial genius) already have it done.

Yesterday we got our federal return in and a few days ago our state return arrived. In January, Dave would check the mail so diligently, hoping that W-2's, etc would come in. Well, needless to say, we did get all the paperwork in and a couple of weeks ago we got our taxes submitted.

That being said, as quickly as it came in, it has already gone back out. Several weeks ago Dave ran into a "curb" when he came to pick me up from work. This was due to less than exceptional tires and bad weather. Our Jeep took a pretty good hit. While we thought/hoped it was just the alignment that needed to be fixed, it just didn't work out that way. Dave managed to move everything under the hood over a few inches. It's all still functioning fine, but the repairs basically consisted of "re-building" a lot under the hood to get everything back in place. Thus, 1/2 the return went out the window...or I guess under the hood. :0) I'm not upset about it. I'm glad we were able to get it fixed. Now the Jeep runs actually better than it ever has.

A chunk of the remainder of the return went to a long-awaited, much anticipated, much needed purchase. Dave and I have been on my cute little full size bed...approx 3 1/2 years.

It has worked okay for us in the past, but we felt like it was time to upgrade the bed and get something a little bigger. We ventured out to find a queen set, but ended up with a king. I never thought that I would ever have a king size bed. (I think because I'm not all that big.) As we were out researching, it turned out that we got a better deal on the king than we would have a queen. So that's what we did.

Of course you can't just buy a new mattress, so we bought an entire bedroom set. It's so sweet! Actually, I think it looks really good and it's more "grown up" than our last bed. Surprisingly, we managed to fit our bed and 2 night stands in our room. We weren't sure all 3 pieces would make it in. We also have a dresser now, which I'm pretty excited about. We used to have storage under the bed, but the drawers were a lot smaller.

So pretty much our return came in and went right back out, but it was still nice to get something back. Returning to my original thought, I actually didn't marry a finance major for his car or for being a finance major. I married him strictly for his looks. Alright, that's also not true. There are a number of things that I love about Dave. Namely that he loves me and takes such good care of me. I'm grateful to have such a wonderful husband.

California 2o1o Pics

2010-02-01T22:37:00.000-07:00

Finally got the pictures downloaded. Here you go...

On the plane ride down to Ca.

A sunny Saturday in California.Screamin' California

Kim and Dave
Just a picture at the end of
the day. (Note the Christmas
lights were not all down yet.)Dave on the beach.Kim on the beach.Searching for oyster shells.Had to break down and buy rain
ponchos...due to the aliens...of
it could have been due to rain.There's a ride/game based off of "Toy
Story". Dave did awesome! He got like 250,000
points. So he got a medal from Buzz and the aliens
for his superb efforts and assistance.

Since we were already soaked,
we decided to go on some of
the water rides. It was great!
Just a cute couple of Porters.Kim's Donald Duck. Yes, I drew it.Eating lunch in the monsoon
with the cousins. At least it
had stopped raining horizontally
by this point. It was still coming
down pretty good though. We rode some rides with the cousins.And this was the best
"group" shot I could get.Disneyland around sunset,
the last day before we came home.

A Few Thoughts/Updates

2010-01-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

If you want to throw your boss off, try texting them about something going on in the office while you are out of town. For example, (speaking totally hypothetically of course,) let's say the boss stops at Taco Time to get some lunch. If you text him and say to enjoy his taco while you're in...I don't know, let's go with California, you will probably have a shocked and confused boss.

It's also great to (hypothetically) get back into town, stop by the office to pick up a few things, and leave a note on your boss's computer saying not to be so paranoid. The kicker is if you sign the note so that he knows it was you, not a co-worker who wrote the note. :0)

My tribute to "Singin' in the rain". One of my co-workers was in a community theatre production of "Singin' in the rain," which we (the medical assistants in ny office) went to see. It was a really good show. We had fun seeing this co-worker out side of her natural habitat. She did an awesome job. If any of you have seen "Singin' in the rain" you will probably recall Ms. Lina Lamont. She's the annoying, nasally one. Just for fun I thought I'd see if I could do her voice and I must say that I do a pretty darn good Lina.

In other happenings, we now have added security measures in our home. Jack has always been a huge people kitty. (At least with his mom and dad, not such a fan of other people.) He generally follows us around and likes to be where we're at. His latest effort to keep the family safe is to walk in to the shower each night, check it out, and make sure all is well. Don't know where he picked it up, but it's just what he does.

Oh yes, the vacuum died recently. We have kind of been looking around for a replacement, but have you seen the cost of a "cheap" vacuum cleaner?! Luckily, one of my friends on facebook posted that she was trying to get rid of her old vacuum. I think it was a fluke, but definitely a blessing I saw the post. She just lives a few doors down from us, and when we got home we had a vacuum sitting on our porch. Yesterday I got to use it. Can I tell you how excited I was to clean our floors! As a general statement, I actually feel like I had a pretty productive day yesterday.

Spring Trip (Early) - Part 2

2010-01-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

Monday was day 2 of Disneyland. Rain, rain. We wore jeans that got soaked and closed-toed shoes...that also got soaked. Nevertheless we had a blast. It was great for keeping people away from the park. With each day we spent at Disney the lines got shorter and shorter. By our last day we pretty much just walked onto all of the rides. Apparently I'm getting older or something because I kept feeling sick, even on "kiddie" rides. Oh well.

We discovered a pretty good joint, the French Market, in the Disneyland park. It was a little more pricey, but not too bad. The food was excellent. I found out that one of my cousins from Utah was at Disneyland the same time we were. So on Tuesday we all met up.

There was horrible rain in the morning! It was like a monsoon. We ended up going back to the French Market for lunch with the cousins. Not such a good experience. They put a few tables inside - since it was raining horizontally outside. Unfortunately, the fire alarm went off and they sent everyone out in the storm. Double unfortunately, Dave's tummy wasn't feeling so good and he needed a bathroom. He went to the nearest one, which had also been evacuated. He eventually found one though.

Tuesday afternoon cleared up and turned out to be quite nice. It was great because no one was there. We definitely enjoyed our time away, but honestly by the time we reached the end of the trip, we were ready to come home. We flew out Wednesday morning, which was probably a good idea. We had to be at the airport by 5:00 AM. That part was not fun. Since we got back to Utah at 10:00 AM Dave had originally planned on going in to work half day, but he ended up going with me to Logan to get the kids. (I appreciated) the extra time with him.

Sadie did really good while we were gone. Everyone loves her, but I was excited that she didn't have any accidents in the house at my mom's. Jack on the other hand had a really tough time. He just doesn't do well being away from home and away from his peeps. I sure got a lot of loves from him when we picked him up. He struggled the first part of the trip home, but did well the 2nd half. We missed the kids while we were gone and were happy to see them. It was awesome to get away for a few and I think now we're good until the next trip.

Spring Trip (Early) - Part 1

2010-01-21T22:09:00.001-07:00

Due to a lack of computer availability, this is a slightly delayed post. Nevertheless, here it goes. Last Friday Dave and I flew out to California for a much needed vacation. Yes, in all of the times we have traveled to Cali, this was the first time we flew. We took JetBlue, which we were rather impressed with. We flew into Long Beach, Ca. It was awesome! It's a tiny podunk airport. We got a loaded Chevy Cobalt - leather interior, heated seats, sunroof. Also, awesome. :0)

When we got to our resort we found out that we were on the wrong side of things. We stayed at Beso Del Sol, which we have stayed at before. However, when you check in on a Friday, (instead of Saturday,) you get the crazy bar side of the resort where nuts are out until late 99. Friday and Saturday nights were kind of long, but luckily the rest of the time wasn't too bad. The other issue was that we were right next to the Pacific Coast Highway. Noise, noise, noise...until late 99.

We spent the greater majority of our trip at Disneyland. It's just what we Porters do. We had 3 day tickets; so we were there Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday. Saturday was the busiest day at the park, but it really wasn't too bad. We were able to get a lot of rides in and we had a blast. The weather was in the 50's-60's our whole trip. It rained a lot while we were there, but it was much better than 30's and snow.

On Sunday we spent a little time at the beach. There were a few nuts out surfing...in the cold, cold water. They had wetsuits of course, but even still I wouldn't even stick my toe in the water to see how cold it was. We went up to Burbank Sunday night. We gt to visit my aunt and her family for a few hours and we went to dinner with them.

Blogger's Block

2010-01-13T20:40:00.000-07:00

We're off into a new year, and I have already struggled with things to write about. So while this may not be the most exciting post I've ever written, I am writing. My unofficial blogging goal is to get at least 1 entry in per week.

Random ramblings... I generally don't think we have much going on, but here are a few things that happened last week. My cute little eye "broke out" in blisters, as it tends to do from time to time. It was the worst it's been in some time, if not the worst ever. I took a picture, but I don't think you'd want to see it at its worst.

I had a dream that Steve Carrell and I were dancing down one of the halls at my office. Dave was so jealous! No, not really. We decided and got approval to go on vacation! Hooray. We're doing a quick, quick trip to California - leaving Friday night, back Wednesday morning. After saying numerous times that we would not drive anymore, we are flying down. We're going to Disneyland for a few days, because that's just what we Porters do. Really we are just so happy to be getting out of town, away from work, and taking a break.

Until the next (and presumably better) post...

Looking Ahead

2010-01-05T12:19:00.000-07:00

I for one am looking forward to this next year. Of course it begins a new decade, but we have a lot of big happenings this year. My mom, both of Dave's parents, Dave, and I all have "milestone" birthdays. Dave's parents will also be celebrating their 50th anniversary and my brother will be back from Afghanistan in the spring/summer. All very exciting stuff.

I got to see a brief video of my brother wishing us Merry Christmakwanzika. It was nice to see him. I think he looks like he has grown up some. If you're interested, click the following link, click continue, then select Nelson, Charles SPC. http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dvidshub.net%2F%3Fscript%3Dgeneral%2Fgeneral_search.php%26table%3Dgreetings%26type%3D%26query%3Dunit%3A187%26page%3D1%26perpage%3D50&h=818d70912d4ea7965e261c2c6f5f4a50.

Other than that, we have a few fun trips planned, we'll see about "expanding" the family, and possible returns to school, business buying, or career changes. Beyond that, we will just have to wait and see, but we are excited for the new year and we're looking forward to all the year brings. We wish you all the best for a wonderful new year as well!

Porter '09 Recap

2009-12-31T21:22:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that we have seen a decade come and go. I still remember Y2K. The year 2009 has been another good one. Every year we think about doing a letter or a photo card, but we have yet to do so. Maybe next year. :0) So this is our "sub" instead.

Porter Happenings of 2009:

* Dave tried a few new jobs at the beginning of
the year - car salesman, independent sales, and
he eventually ended up back at Deseret First.
* Bought a travel club membership.
* Took a trip to California using our travel
club, as a birthday/anniversary trip.
* Bought a hot tub.
* Dave's branch was robbed. The robbers were caught.
* Kim had her 3 year anniversary at her job,
a personal record...and still going.
* Did a few small home improvement projects here and there.

Here's looking to a great new year! Welcome 2010.

Funny Story, Not So Funny Story

2009-12-28T21:42:00.001-07:00

Funny story - I had planned on making homemade pizza for dinner last night. I.E. I intended to make my own dough for the crust in our bread machine. Good plan, I thought. The first time I tried the recipe it turned out alright. The second time Dave really enjoyed it. The third time...ended in an explosion. The "dough" mix was all over the interior of the bread machine. So what went wrong? Apparently 2 3/4 cups of flour is NOT the same as 2 3/4 tablespoons of flour. I wasn't convinced when I started that there was enough flour, but for whatever reason I let it slide and basically did a flourless dough/mush puddle.

Not quite so funny story - You may recall a few entries back I wrote about Porters and pens. Apparently I wasn't as finished with that entry as I thought/would have liked. Saturday morning we went to the mall and bought Dave new work clothes. (They are way nice and he looks really good in them. Plus we got a killer deal on all the stuff we bought.) When we got home I planned on doing laundry. It was a few of Dave's "old" work clothes, none of the new stuff, and a lot of my clothes. I checked all the pockets, threw the clothes in the washer, and then the dryer. Easy enough right? Of course not. I went to check on the clothes after they had been partially dried, only to find that the stem of the blue gel pen was still in the dryer! That's right, round two of blue spots. Needless to say, I was somewhat displeased about this and frankly a little baffled that it would happen again. I believe Dave may have to take over doing the laundry or if anyone knows where I can sign up for laundry 101, please let me know. :0)

Porter Christmas '09

2009-12-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

Well, this was Dave and my 5th Christmas together. We had a great day. We know that Christmas isn't just about the gifts, but admittedly we were pretty excited to actually have a few more presents under our tree this year. I got a new skillet and a blender, both of which are way cool. I also got a tripod for my camera, which I have already put to use. Dave got a table saw, which he plans on using to build a kayak and a gazebo in the spring. Dave's other wicked sweet gift was a picture of Fenway Park in Boston where the Red Sox play.

For the first time we just spent the day by ourselves. We have always gone up to Cache Valley and visited both of our parents. We love to see them, but it was nice to just relax at home and not feel so rushed. In the afternoon we went to my aunt's house in West Valley where we played our traditional family Bingo. Dave and I made out like bandits this year.

In remembering the true meaning of Christmas, we our very grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ - for his example and life. I enjoy this time of year and seeing everyone give a little more and show more patience and love. It is our hope that we, and everyone, will strive to carry the spirit of Christmas with us throughout the year...as the saying goes. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of our friends and family.

UHC Holiday Party

2009-12-24T12:21:00.001-07:00

This one is a few days late, but this year we had a Christmas party at my work. We usually do, but I'm pretty sure last year it just didn't happen. We had our holiday get-together at one of our doctors home this year. It was a first for me, but I guess they have done it before in the past. At any rate, it was a lot of fun. We weren't there a really long time, but I think it's always nice to see co-workers/friends outside the office. We had good food and just visited.

After we left, Dave and I went to my doctor's house. I made a Cache Valley gift basket for him and his family. Oh I wish I had taken a picture! I meant to, but then didn't do it before passing it off. It turned out Awesome! I put Cox honey, Gossner "squeaky cheese," flavored milk, Old Grist Mill cinnamon bread, Bluebird Candy chocolates, Pepperidge Farm goldfish and cookies, and some fudge and pickles my mom had made. It really was quite impressive and I think it turned out really well. (I was hoping that maybe he'd say thanks, but no thanks; and I could just take it home with me.)

Now we're only a day away from Christmas. I got to have the day off, which I needed this week. I ended up going and picking up a few last minute things. Now if only my Sweetheart could come home too. He's up at work for a few more hours, but then hopefully we can just relax and spend some much wanted time at home together.

Porters & Pens

2009-12-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

Last week was very trying. It was NOT a good week for Porters and pens. Last Tuesday, after 3 1/2 years, I sent one of Dave's gel pens through the laundry. Congrats to me! I try so hard to check pockets, etc, but I missed this one. So, all of Dave's work pants, a few dress shirts, some of my work clothes, and then a few other things...all came out blue. You would think that was the highlight of our week, but it gets better.

Wednesday, Dave was talking to one of the credit union VP's, telling him about what happened Tuesday. The VP started laughing, and Dave assumed he was laughing about the story. When the VP got up, Dave looked down to find that the pen he had in his pocket had leaked - leaving a lovely pen spot on yet another shirt.

On Thursday Dave was looking for some pants to wear. Lucky for him I had bought some dress pants about a month ago. Unfortunately the store clerk didn't remove the security clip when I bought the pants. (I didn't pay attention.) So Dave thought he could just take it off himself. If you didn't know, there is a glass cartridge filled with ink that breaks when if you try to remove the security tag yourself.

That was our week in a nutshell. We did actually manage to make it through Friday without any pen incidents. Hooray! I also got my present from my doctor, a gift card to JCPenney...to buy new clothes. We certainly appreciated it and definitely needed it.

Saturday/Sunday Summary

2009-12-13T17:18:00.001-07:00

Another weekend come and gone. It was sure a good one though. Friday night was our ward party at church, but we didn't make it. We were still up in the city at work. It was based around "The Polar Express," which we love. So I presume it was a lot of fun.

Yesterday I got to get together with the other MA's for our "annual" Christmas brunch and gift exchange. We all brought a part of the meal and a present for a pre-determined gift exhange. We did this last year and it turned out pretty well. So we tried it again. Another success! Next weekend we have my office holiday party. We're having it at one of our doctors house this year. I'm looking forward to it.

In Porter family tradition, once December hits we bust out the holiday movies. Some of them are classics and others are just fun. We've watched a number of Christmas movies the last couple of weeks, with several more to go. Since we got what I would call the first decent snow of the year this weekend, we got to watch "The Polar Express"...with hot chocolate. (One of our favorite traditions.) We love this time of year and the spirit of the holidays that comes with it.