dust, dust, dust

I know it's been forever since I've posted. And I don't have any pictures to upload today because I'm at work!!
Life has been complete and utter chaos. I'm sure it is the same for everybody, but I just whine a little more than everyone else. Over Thanksgiving break, we decided to have travertine tile put in the kitchen and our fireplace. I thought it would be a two days of a mess, but well worth it. The tile guy showed up Wednesday and worked until 1 a.m. clear until Sunday. Garbage, dust, mud, and more dust were everywhere. We had all our appliances in the middle of the living room. We have spent all week trying to avoid the house. I can't stand messes - especially those ones!! But I'm happy to say it's over and the stove will go back in the kitchen tonight. I've never felt so white trash as to have it in the living room. That's almost Nascar! :) j/k
The tile is beautiful and I will post pictures later. I just hope you all had a wonderful, RELAXING, CLEAN Thanksgiving!! I am grateful for the new tile, to say the least!

Once Upon a Time

This weekend was FABULOUS. My dear sweet sister, who still seems like she's six to me, got married to the love of her lifetime, Jake Coleman (AKA, Jake #2 or the evil Jake). We had such a good time having the whole entire family together. It was a beautiful wedding and a gorgeous day. I am having problems uploading all the pictures I want to, but these are pretty good.


Here are the rest of us sisters waiting for Erica to come out of the Logan Temple after the ceremony. This is the FOURTH wedding, I can hardly believe it! I just hope it's a long time before the next one. Carrie - you're only sixteen!!

Instead of a reception, Erica had a wedding dinner at the Bluebird. I loved it!! It was so simple and so much fun. Did I mention a BUFFET??!! Here we are, starving, in our cute bridesmaid outfits.

Here is the happy couple!

Here we are, another happy couple. It's hard for me to take in all of this, especially that it was just about three years ago that Jake and I went through this. It was a good reminder of just how special these weddings are!!!

Petersen Parties!

Yay Yay Sista Jay! This weekend was wonderful. On Friday, Jaylene came home from the Phillipines for Erica's wedding next week. She moved over there in May with her husband, who started up a Western Watts call center. We have all missed her very much. Becca and I went down to pick her up in Salt Lake. And as smart as we always are, we waited an hour in the wrong terminal. We had to sit next to two high school girls who were kissing and putting their hands where I just didn't want to see them.. The first thing Jaylene wanted to do was eat Mexican, so we all went out to lunch. She kept freaking out, seeing things like sidewalks and drinking fountains, and it made me realize how much I always take for granted!
Later that night, we all went to Becca's. I think I came from the mailman, after seeing her make this beautiful cake. Then my wonderful, good old friend Julie *Curtis* Lewis came over and gave me a much, much needed haircut. I have hated my haircuts since I was married and have been struggling with what to do. I cut it pretty short, but so far I really love it. Thank you genius Julie!
On Saturday, Erica went through the Logan Temple for her first time. I can't believe she is getting married next week. She is marrying a wonderful guy and we are really happy for her. It really took us awhile to get over it.... she's young and we're all protective older sisters, but we all know this was meant to be. Here are some pictures from dinner at Firehouse afterwards...
Erica and her Jake #2. At leastI have the original.
Me and my man. Can you see the haircut??
Here we are, the four old ones. I love my Petersen family and am so grateful and proud of all of them!!!

TAGGED!

I've been tagged by a few people, so I figure I better do at least one. I didn't attach a picure this time, though.... the last one was scary enough.

NOW AND THEN

Favorite Clothes:
THEN - Oh, I loved clothes... I would die for anything Guess, Girbaud, or Hammer pants. I liked the tight, tight, TIGHT stretch pants that were tye-died. And I remember asking for a glittered speckle shirt with a matching belt for one of my birthdays. Let's not forget the BANGS - biggest friggin bangs in the school! We measured.
NOW - What I like to wear and what I actually wear are quite different. Because of my job, I find myself in dress pants and button up shirts or sweaters every day. When I'm not working, I just go with what's around.... I love my Big Stars, hoodies, and slippers.

Favorite TV Shows:
THEN - Oh, I miss these shows - Saved by the Bell, Punky Brewster, Charles in Charge, Boy Meets World, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, to mention a few. My mom only let us watch like 1/2 hour every day... I dedicated it to Saved By the Bell. Yes, everyone is jealous, because Zack is my boyfriend!
NOW - I'm completely addicted to Grey's Anatomy, and I never hear the end of it from Jake. I even dream about it :) I also like The Office, American Idol, Trading Spaces, and So You Think You Can Dance

Favorite Music:
THEN - Oh, my first tape ever was MC Hammer. Hamma time, da da da da da da!! I even made up dances. (My poor, poor mother never knew where I came from). I also liked the early alternative bands (Green Day, Weezer) that made me think I was cool.
NOW - My tastes haven't evolved TOO much. I still like Green Day, Incubus, Linkin Park, Snow Patrol, and even go as soft as Norah Jones. But I gotta be a LITTLE punk to keep up with Jake.

Favorite Food:
THEN - Oh, I was always a pig so it's hard to narrow it down. I was so fat I think my parents put me on a leash. I have always loved fruit from our gardens, and root beer. I drank so much root beer that now I HATE it. Same think with ham and sausage. Blech!
NOW - I LOVE fish, especially halibut. I love cheesecake, fresh pineapple, popsicles, and PUDDING. I even paint my face in it!

Fears:
THEN - I think most girls were afraid of the same thing I was - boys. :) I was also really afraid of being kidnapped, heights, and of ghosts. I still am. When I was dating Jake, we stayed at his parent's restored house..... I couldn't sleep the whole night because I knew the house was haunted.
NOW - Did I mention, ghosts?! I think a big fear is not having kids (seriously, I'm getting old) or not feeling like I succeed, but most of all is to lose my Jake.

Woop, there it is yo! Now I tag Julie and Di, and I want Jake to do it because his blog is so manly and boring....

Halloween Came Early

So I woke up this morning, thinking it was going to be a perfect day. It is Columbus Day, and so I get the day off... one of the few perks for working for the State. When I looked in the bathroom mirror, I screamed. I think Jake beat me in my sleep.... my eye was bright red everywhere. It has gotten better as the day went on... so I hope I don't go blind! (I know, I need to wax the eyebrows...gross)

I'm only here for the food!

You should all know that my mouth is one of the biggest on this earth. Part of that is that I love to eat... everything! One of these days the be-dunk-a-dunk will catch up with me, but what is life without food? It just seems odd with my inability to cook!
Every time I have an opportunity to get with friends, dinner is the thing we do. I LOVE going out to dinner. Maybe it's because we never went out growing up,... Last week I got together with Kisty, Kristen, and Carrie. I love these girls and I miss them!! It was so good to go back and think about what we did when we lived together and the craziness (tents, balloons, albino neighbors) that we had. I have honestly not been as happy as I am now, but there are things I do miss about still being in college and the fun I had. I have had so much fun with every new set of roommates and wouldn't trade the experiences for the world. I wish I did better at keeping in touch ... I love all of you!


Then the next day after that dinner, we got to have a conference down in Ogden for work. I stayed with Kristen the night before, then went over to the Marriott. I guess one of the only perks of the job is having these conferences, which can be pretty entertaining.... especially the sleep-overs in the hotels. The girls I work with and I went to Applebee's (same place as the night bef0re) and stayed up way past my bedtime!

Yeah, I'm in serious need of maturing... don't know if that will ever happen!!

Attack of the Killer Cake

So, since I'm half of 50 now, I've been on this kick of trying to improve myself and learn new things. I've just been feeling so stuck in life lately that I want to do new things. First, I'm almost positive that I will be applying for the MSS program (Master's of Social Science)... if no baby comes. ( I know Jake is cringing if he reads this). Next, I want to learn German. Why German? Because they get to hock and spit a lot when they talk, and I LIKE it. And one new thing is also cooking. I've been blessed to have such a wonderful husband who does a lot of the cooking, and I've been spoiled. So far, in the almost three years we've been married, I have only cooked a total of like 10 different dishes. I usually don't even get home until after 7 so it makes it hard to want to make something complicated.So I made a goal to cook one new thing a week.

Last week, it was cake. I HATE cake, I've always hated it. Jake's favorite thing in the WORLD happens to be yellow cake with chocolate frosting (I just don't get it). It's so funny - on his birthday in the past, I've made him bake his OWN cake because I hate it so much. But I decided to try and be domestic and an actual wife, so this was my attempt. I even was adventurous and tried to make it TWO layers. I am blaming it on cold frosting. I know the good cooks of you out there are cringing (yes Di, I didn't learn).... The funny thing is that Jake ending up eating this mess.

Weekend Fun

Lately the work-week has been so stressful we've been living for the weekends. It's nice to be able to sleep in and actually see each other than more in just passing, now that Jake's back in school (last year, people!). Jake and I pretty much go pretty mental and crazy when the weekend hits. I swear, we got more immature the longer we're together.

Here are some pics from this week...
Melissa and Jeff came up with their cutest Macie. We had a barbeque and I tried to not cause TOO much permanent damage to cute Macie. I think I scared her more than she's ever been. I have this weird thing where I have to growl at babies... Isn't she cute??

Then, later on this week, Jake's good friend Jordan left to go live in the Netherlands for a month. Netherlands? Yeah, he tells us they speak some weird language called Flemmish. Sounds like what happens with a cold, or when Jake wants to gross me out! Anyways, we went to dinner with Jordan and Jake's BFF Rob. I'm proud to say that I ate more than ALL the men.

Fam-Ramily

So here's my beautiful family!!! Sometimes I wonder where I came from:) I LOVE these people. We've been so lucky that the older we've gotten, the better and closer we get. I have to admit it, I was a stubborn, pig-like, butt-headed teenager. (That's why I have to work with those kids now - payback). I like to think I've outgrown most of that in my old age now, although Jake probably won't agree with you. I can't believe that the majority of us will be married. Erica's hitching with her Jake number 2 next month!! Smooch!!

I need to post more often and get some more pictures up. The issue is that I do this at work where I don't have the pictures. The minute I get home the computer is the last thing I think of, with all there is to finish on our house. When I'm here at work, it's like an escape. Goodness knows I need a lot of those escapes. Speaking of the house, it is getting awesome. I want people to visit lonely us and come see it!! I'm so proud of us for once. I actually did stuff with power tools. Luv it!!

Wet and Wild

So recently Jake and I took a white-water rafting trip up past Boise on the Payette River. Yeah, we're all cool and wid it yo!! The look on my face is not planned (on the front right, with my mouth WIDE OPEN). Everyone always gives me such a hard time for being a spaz. I know I am, but this look proves it is natural.... I didn't even know a picture was being taken, and that's how I look. I thought we were going to die the whole time, but it was awesome. So much better than the Snake River. I have such a big mouth!!

It was absolutely amazing. We decided just to take a little trip to spend time together before Jake left for school this summer, and we spent the days sleeping in and eating what we wanted to. The bad thing about vacations is that they make me want to vacation EVEN MORE!!

Now I'm here at work, which is SOOOO busy since school started again. The summers slow down when all these freaky deaky teenagers aren't congregated, but now they're back to getting in trouble. I'm seeing everything from public mooning to beating people up with baseball bats!! Yeah, I'm not ever going to be ready to have my own!! :)

So hopefully it will be a relaxing weekend, which we haven't had in awhile. Jake has worked his way up to having his panel truck in the Peach Day's car show. He's been working on it since High school, and I'm so proud of him!! I will hopefully add pictures soon!

Nooget

It's a slow Sunday, and I can't believe I'm posting again so soon! I woke up with one of my famous freak headaches..... and have been lying around like a sack all day. Yes, a sack!

I thought I would add some pictures of my recent trip to Switzerland with Jake, since I haven't shown them off yet. Jake's blog has so many more, but these are random ones. It was seriously a dream come true to go, and a week wasn't nearly enough time. Really soon, when we're so rich that we will use the money as toilet paper, I think we will do this stuff SO much more. I loved it all, except the food. They had a lot of pig.... and the cheese tasted like stale, dead, reesty underwear... I was grateful to come home for turkey sandwiches! You will notice that I look like crap the whole time - they lost my luggage and I went without make-up, a blowdryer, and I even wore my husband's deodorant!! It was awesome... and a little smelly.


This first picture is the first place we went when I flew into Zurich. It was in a quaint little town, and was the top of a cathedral that was hand-carved and painted.
The third day we went to Zermatt, which is right next to Italy. The Matterhorn is behind me. The day we came, it was POURING rain (try that with no coat and a hoodie), but this next morning, the sun came out so clearly. It was gorgeous.
This is from the Rheinfalls on the Switzerland/Germany border. Seriously, one of the most amazing things I've seen. There's a boat you can ride that will take you in the middle of the falls so you can touch them.
Here are Jake and I at the FLUGHAFEN (airport) in Zurich. Yes, I'm wearing poops.
This picture was taken on the day before we left in Lucerne, which was one of the prettiest cities in all Switzerland.
There you have it. I'm tallying up the country list - 7 so far! By far, Switzerland has been my favorite.

Tuxedo T-shirt

I
AM
JAKE.

I
AM
THE
HUSBAND.

SHE
LOVES
ME.

I
LOVE
HER.

- Jake

Wienerschnitzel??

So I gave in = finally started a blog, like all these young kids are talking about.... Sure don't know quite what I'm doing in my old age.
So here I am! Finally an Idaho resident, as was always my dream, to be among the potatoes and the lottery tickets. I have my sweet Jake with me and we couldn't be more happy. Again, in our aching old age, we are looking for new things to do and maybe blogging will be where it's AT, yo!! And by the way, I am lonely. Please visit.