Working from home

Did you know that working from home is not all that bad?

A couple months back my work was trying to get a bunch of people to work from home.  I had never really given it much thought beforehand.  So when I told my manager that I was thinking about it she strongly encouraged it.   She told me that it would be really good for me to work from home. You see, she thought a lot of the issues I was having was because I talked too much, so of course I'd do better at home right? :)  I will be the first to admit that, yes, I like to talk to people, but I personally don't think that talking was causing all of my problems.  Anyway, when I told Chase that I was thinking about working from home he worried that I would go crazy without being around people.  I too worried about that but we decided that I'd never know unless I tried.  So here I am working at home and I actually love it.  I'm surprised myself :)  I think what saves me is that I told Cierra we had to work out each morning before work.  We did pretty good but still have work to do :)   In other words, we both have a really hard time getting out of bed!

Even though some mornings it's made me really tired, it gives me the opportunity to get out of the house and be social.  Hopefully that's enough social interaction so I don't go crazy being cooped up inside all day by myself.

Ok so the story of getting my office furniture:

Since I was going to be working from home we had to get a desk and chair.  I tried buying a desk from some guy on ksl.  His desk had been listed for a week which to me meant go ahead and ask for a lower price than its listed for.  So I offered him half, mind you be was only asking $50 anyway.  So I offered expecting him to counter offer with a different price.  Nope he didn't.  Instead he started off by calling me a dude, uh I'm not a dude, I'm a dude-ette doesn't he know better, sheese.  We'll anyway he told me that even though its Provo his asking price was reasonable.  Bad idea buddy.  I was already in a bad mood, so I have gave him a piece of my mind.  So since he pissed me off and Chase and I were so sick of shopping for chairs and were starving, we decided to just buy this little desk we found at staples.  So with my chair and desk both being on sale, we were able to get them both for under $150.  Yeah for shopping deals, boo for how cranky it made me.

I work in our storage room haha.

So if you ever stop by my apartment during the day and see my car in the parking lot but I'm not answering the door, it's because I'm working.

Snowbird

Crazy or not somehow Snowbird always makes its way into our year.  Which we don't mind at all.  Snowbird is pretty awesome.  Maybe they should pay me or something for dedicating this post about them.  That would be nice, but I know I'm dreaming.

Anyway since Chase and I have been together we've tried to make our way up to Snowbird each year for Oktoberfest.  We haven't always made it, but it's been fun to go.  It gives me a little taste of "all things" German.  I say "all things" because I know that I'm not getting a true feeling of all things German.  I think I would need to go to Germany to truly experience it.  Maybe, hopefully, wishing that one day we'll get to go.

This is right down the street from an apartment Chase lived in during his mission.  Oh and I don't claim this as ours, I found it on pinterest one day.

You are probably wondering what do you do up at Oktoberfest?  Well first things first you find a place to park in their jammed packed parking lots.  Luckily they have a bus that will take you from your car to the fun.  Lets just say parking is crazy, but don't let that scare you away.  The activities, on the other hand, consist of drinking beer (or in our case, root beer), eating yummy food, like brats, waffle on a stick dipped in chocolate, candied nuts, and I'm sure lots of other things we didn't have.  Other activities are the zip line, the alpine slide, riding the lift up to the top of the mountain, going through all of the booths, a rope jungle gym thing for kids, and last but not least live entertainment.  Oh and drinking more beer.  I'm kidding it's not that bad.

Each year we've done something different and have always enjoyed ourselves.  The first year we rode the lift up to the top and froze our behinds off.  It was so cold!  We didn't have a jacket and were in lederhosen.  It was funny wearing our lederhosen because we got some funny looks from people.  I don't know why, don't they know that it's normal German attire, well maybe not for me but for the boys it is. This year we just ate food, walked around to the booths and enjoyed each others company :)  Chase wore his lederhosen and I left the other pair at home.  They are a little short and I didn't have time to buy leggings to go underneath. 

This is an old photo but this way you see us both in lederhosen :)

Next up on Snowbird's fun activities, family movie night.  This was a blast!  I mean seriously who wouldn't want to watch a movie outside in the summer in the mountains.  We made this activity into a double date and enjoyed our company.  They were really sleepy :) and I think they slept pretty much the whole movie, haha.  That's alright we can forgive Chelsea because she had just gotten back from London.  Todd on the other hand, we don't know his excuse.  Don't worry though because when they were awake they were a fun couple to hang out with.  After we had dinner we drove up to Snowbird with a bunch of blankets and started our journey.  We weren't exactly sure when the movie was going to start because Snowbird only tells you that it starts at dusk.  Well we got there early, but that's alright.  We found ourselves a good spot, got snuggled up and comfy and waited to watch our movie.  It was really cool.  If you have ever been to Snowbird they have this big open area right by the tram which is where they had the movie.  Plus let's don't forget that were watching the movie outside, awesome!  Even though the movie was weird (the boys picked the Gremlins) it was still fun!  We will definitely be doing that again :)

Oh and let's not forget that skiing/snowboarding is always fun to do up there :)  We've enjoyed a few runs up there as well.

Thank you Mike for the picture

So there you have it, Snowbird is a place that's full of fun activities.  We will be visiting again sometime.

Oh and p.s. if you have to scroll your screen because the pictures are too large please let me know.  Thanks.

Teaching Young Women's

So on Sunday I taught the very first lesson with the new curriculum that we have for the youth.  I was really scared being the first one to teach, since my ward wasn't doing any training beyond what the church website provided I freaked myself out.  How are you supposed to teach a lesson if you don't even know guidelines to doing it.  Luckily my mom-in-law's ward had multiple training's and since she is also in the Young Women's, she invited me to one of her training classes.  I'm so glad that I went.  It really helped me as I prepared my lesson.  Which by the way was a week long preparation not a night before deal like I used to do.

Anywho the whole reason I brought this up is because my girls along with myself made it through the lesson!  Wohoo.  However I do have one regret :(  I was asking one of the girls a question about a scripture we read.  I unfortunately was not articulating myself very well which confused her and most likely made her feel awkward.  It wasn't until one of the leaders spoke up and told her that it's a confusing scripture and it's okay if she doesn't understand it.  Well duh!  Why didn't I think of telling her that!  So to my young women, I'm really sorry that I made it awkward.  I vow to be better and it's probably a good thing that I don't teach again until May.  Lot's of preparing coming my way :)

Now if you are wondering what lesson I taught you can find it here.  I decided to teach on "How can I know my Heavenly Father?"  I loved the lesson and I learned a lot as well.  At the end of class I challenged the girls along with myself to pray morning and night and study the scriptures.  I know it is kind of a tall order if this is not already a habit, but I truly know that if we all make this part of our daily habit that we will come to know our Heavenly Father better.  What a wonderful thought that is.  Who wouldn't want to know him better?  I also showed a video that when I watched it, it gave me the goose bumps.  Which I know was the spirit telling me that the girls needed to watch this video over the other one.  I hope in any way that my girls got something out of the lesson and that they will continue working on building a relationship with their Heavenly Father.
Oh and in case you wanted to watch it as well here is the video.  It's good I promise.

If you need to take anything away from this post take these two thoughts.  First, it's okay to make mistakes as long as we can recognize and learn from them.  Second, we need to come to know our Heavenly Father better and some of the best ways to achieve this is by praying to him and studying the scriptures.