Happy Anniversary Baby!!

(look how hot he is! Can you blame me?)

Yesterday was our 3rd wedding anniversary! There was a lot going on so I didn't get to a post, but I hear that my mom managed one. Anyway, I just wanted to say a quick 'I love you' to my wonderful husband and let him know that I am more and more glad to be with him everyday. He has been extra good to me in the past weeks and months, and I only see good things ahead. Thanks for risking getting kicked out of the HHC for me baby! Love you always.

Lena

Tilt Shift Photography

A little while back I was introduced to a photography style called Tilt Shift. It is the ability to make a real life photo look like a photo of a miniature setting. I LOVE IT!! I desperately want to figure out how to do it, but I think you need a different type of camera than I have. Reading the directions it tells you to do things you can't do on my digital camera. Oh well. In the mean time How About Orange found a great website that will create the effect for you, with an existing photo! Here is one I made from a picture of the San Diego Zoo. I love it!!

Tilt Shift:

Original:

Angels and Demons

Before you read this, if you are excited to see this movie, like I was, just go see it. Read this later.

Ok, it was good. Not great. Good. I went with a couple friends who had recently re-read the book in anticipation of the movie. Apparently that was a bad idea. It was a couple summers ago when I read it last, so I was not as familiar with the intricacies of the plot. They changed a lot to keep the flow in 2.5 hours, which is understandable. But they changed the ending. I won't say what they did, but it worked. Just not like you wanted it too.

This was a typical Dan Brown movie as well (it saddens me to think that that term means anything but "stellar"), with the predictable twists and hidden bad guys. Is that confusing? Nik, having not read the book before, felt like he knew what each turn would bring. Plus, its Dan Brown, so you know that the way it looks like it is going to end is not how it really ends.

There was more gore in the movie that I was expecting. I always forget that this book was graphic. I seem to be able to glaze over it more when I am reading it. I will say that with all the gore, they did not re-visit it. They would show it once for shock value, then just imply the rest. But there were several scenes of "oh, gross!!". Also there is a lot of 'shaky cam' employed. Nik and I tend to get a little motion sickness when there is a lot of this, and it was border line. Don't know what I am talking about? Think 'The Island', or 'Quantum of Solace'.

I can't decide how this compared to Davinci Code. Some said it was not even close to as good, some said it was at least as good, and others said it was marginally better. I would like to say it was better, just because I liked the book so much more. But I just can't bring myself to do it.

Grade: B-

Thanks

To Tom and Liz for a great night in. It is always a pleasure to see them and their adorable little boy. Liz had a great dinner of left overs for us and we had a good time talking and watching tv. It was good to get out of the house, but not really have to do anything!

Real Quick!

Pigtails and Snails is having another quilt giveaway! I love her stuff. I am hoping to get some extra entries by blogging here, and to spread the word! Check it out and enter if you are interested!

More pictures

Here is the next installment of my pictures taken at my sister in law's house. These are of the landscape...so to speak.

More pictures!

I am doing my next group of photos in different installments. Here is the first:

My step-brother-in-law just got a cool old/new boat that I thought was so cool! I took a bunch of pictures of it, but none of them turned out as good as I thought. But here are a couple anyway. Also, Allie was so darned cute "driving" the boat, I could not resist!

Trip home from Cali

I know it has taken a very long time for me to post about this, but here are a few pictures from the last day in california.

LAX!! I was so excited for this big sign. I took several pictures out our car window.
Us on the beach!
Me on the beach:

Nik on the beach: (notice how empty the beach is? Maybe that is because it was 40 degrees outside that day)

Us on the plane home:

One of the many picutes I took out the window on the ride home:

Oh, and we have the few picutes Nik took at Lilly's wedding on Tuesday up on our gallery. Go to web.mac.com/nikenglish and click at the top on the Gallery Link.

Update (long)

I have been really slacking on the blogging front. I have had a few things in mind to put up here and it has just never happened. So here is the photo update.


We hosted a table at our Vacation Destination themed ward party, it was a lot of fun, and here are some of the highlights! My decorations:

The table:

Talina and David:

Our new friends (that I just found out are moving again):

Chris and Kim: the only ones to take my 'dress up' advice

Me and Nik! Notice that I won that poker hand!

At Enrichment a couple weeks ago they talked about container gardening and showed us this way awesome way of starting sprouts to plan later, that involved newspaper. We were given some sheets of news print, soil and some seeds and told what to do. I was so excited for this, but had little luck for weeks. I finally stuck them in a big Ziploc bad and put them on a shelf in my laundry room and for got about them. I remembered on Wednesday and pulled them out to see this:
Sprouts! I was so excited! I have to be careful now and take good care of them till they get their second set of leaves. Then I can plant them!

This beautiful frog was given to me by my Father-in-law and his lovely wife Kayleen. I have to say that she has some wonderful taste in frogs. She always finds the most awesome figurines. Thanks guys!

The adorable bear was given to me by a couple in our ward whose daughter makes them. I fell in love instantly! I have been hugging this little guy for days. He is so soft and so cute, I can't get enough!

I was lucky enough to go to dinner with a good friend of mine Auschel a few nights ago. We have been trying to for months to get together and I am so happy it finally worked out! She is pregnant with her first miracle child, a baby boy, and I could not be happier for her. She is such an amazing lady. Thanks for always being my friend Muffin!

Two Saturdays ago some of my bestest girlfriends and I ventured out in the middle of the Salt Lake Marathon to visit the Temple. It was a near impossibility, but we made it in one piece, and had a grand old time. While we were waiting for a trax train I took some pictures of our surroundings. I just loved the light! I would of have stayed another hour, but our train came.

And finally, the temple. I desperately wanted to stay and take pictures of the grounds, but we were all starving from our 4-hour session in the temple. So I decided to forgo the photo shoot for some food. It was a good decision!

I got this expert from my blog friend TStevens from Apples at the Chapel. It followed a book review about a young nun. He brought in his thoughts regarding his own religion and I found them to be close to my own. I hope this does not offend anyone, just help us all reevaluate our priorities.


"Anyways, when stopping for the beggar she did not receive the mythical “A”, rather she was berated for having too much pride. “Do you think you are the only one who could help?” “You think you are that important.” In a larger sense it strikes me as ironic that rather than obey the basic rules of the gospel, we overcome this by make more rules about the unimportant. It is more important how we dress, what hand we use in partaking the Sacrament, what color shirt we wear, what meetings we attend, what callings we have, etc. Ultimately I believe there will be some disappointed people one day who think helping out in Scouts, wearing a white shirt, avoiding diet coke & r rated movies, and their blind obedience to any number of Pharisaical rules will excuse their avoidance of the basics of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is love. That is like me creating my own currency then fully expect my local stores to accept it as payment.

And to those of the “I show my love by wearing a white shirt”, etc; I say Merde de Bulle!! You show your love with LOVE. Christ’s life was a mission to bring others equal to him – to have all the Father has. In trying to emulate Christ is your mission in life to have everyone have all that you have? I suggest this, when serving others do not follow the prescribed path of forcing your religion on them as part of the deal. Just serve them and the converts will take care of themselves. Help where you can help, give where you can give, sacrifice where you can sacrifice. In my very limited opinion that will leave you in a lot better stead than just looking "good.""

Happy Birthday!

To one of my bestest friends, Vivian!! She is finally as old as me and I really wish I had the day off to celebrate and tease her about being old! I did not have a picture of her on my web gallery (wait, that is a lie, I have one of her back, but it was not very flattering and I thought she might kill me for posting it) so I stole a good one from her most recent post.

I want to tell Viv how great she is. She is a loving friend, a wonderful mother, and an all around amazing person. In her last blog post she mentioned that she was very happy with her life right now. And I can't tell you how great it is to her one of your dearest friends say that they are happy. It made me happy for her. She has a hard working husband and one of the cutest (almost) 2 year olds I have ever seen. She just moved into the basement of her brother-in-law's house and got to paint the walls her own colors, and she has a great job with the Church.

You have a great life Vivian, and I hope you have a great birthday.

Just in case you were interested

This is sent from the VP of Marketing at Granite. I know there are some runners in our midst, so if you are interested, I would love to see everyone there!

Cancer is disease that touches many live, this year at Granite Credit Union we have been touched twice. Many of you may have heard that Lena English, at the Taylorsville office, is about to begin her fight. In an effort to fight back the cancer bug and do something positive for the many people that cancer touches Granite Credit Union will be participating in the Murray Relay for Life on June 26th and 27th.

The Relay for Life is a fund-raising event put on by the American Cancer Society. You get together a team of 8-15 people, camp out at Murray High and take turns walking or running around the track. Each team should have a representative on the track at all times, because cancer never sleeps. The Murray relay begins at 6 p.m. on Friday the 26th and end at 6 p.m. on the 27th. In addition to walking and running there is food and fun planned for your "downtime." If you are interested in participating on the Granite team please let me know. We will also need some help fund-raising for our team during the month of June so get your thinking caps on.
If you would like more information or have questions please call me.

Julie Morgan
VP Marketing
801-288-3024
Granite Credit Union

I WON!!!

So cool! I enter the giveaways all the time on Seriously So Blessed, but I have never won. Until now! And I won something cool too, check it out:


"The Oh Sweet Sadie (catch their show in Daybreak this Friday and Saturday!) gift basket (includes magnet board and eraser from TikaKids, Flashy Ashley kit, darling diaper cover from Olive Jane, Food Nanny Cookbook AND a Come What May and Love It poster): goes to Lena who said "Such cute stuff this time! I would be so blessed to win any of it!""

Sweet right? I am so excited!

Unintentional Plans

Last night I got home from work much later than I usually do. It had been a hard last couple of hours and I was glad to be home. It had been such a nice day and I had been stuck inside, so all I wanted to do was go for a walk. Of course all of my begging culminated in me dragging my feet for about 20 minutes, but eventually we did get outside. It was a tad colder than I hoped it would be but it was my own fault. We decided on a route that ended at our friends the Wills' house at the end of the street. We were every excited to find the home and even more excited to discover they had no plans for the night. We got to talking, and talking some more. Then they asked if we had had dinner...no we hadn't had a chance to eat dinner...so then we plan dinner. And eat dinner. Then talk some more. Then? It's 11:30 at night! When did that happen? We were just going to go for a walk! Oh well, it was a lot of fun to hang out with out friends, and I hope we did not keep them up too late! Thanks for the fun night guys!

Easter

Easter was pretty laid back this year. It was kind of nice. We went to church (some of us later than others), ate candy (Willey The Rabbit hid Nik's basket in the dryer and he was pretty stumped. But at least he got all that Reeces candy he wanted. Cadbury eggs for me), went to my parents house for an early dinner and went for a nice walk in very nice weather. I did not take more than like 5 pictures that day. And they were all on the walk. I have not even looked at them yet, so I don't know if they turned out.

I need to start walking more often now that it is a little warmer at night, if I am ever going to get some semblance of shape for the 5K. So very, very out of shape. So if anyone is interested in evening walks when it is warm, let me know. I am up for company.

Ok, now I'm complaining too

I spent most of March telling people to suck it up. It was still winter here in Utah, and you should stop complaining about the snow. IT HAPPENS. I hate the cold, and I hate the snow, but I have lived in Utah my whole life and I have the weather pattern figured out now.

Snow and cold from November to March

Nice, sunny and warm for about 3 weeks in April

HOT from May to August

Nice and Fall like in September

And yes, its Utah, and this changes a little bit every once in a while, but generally "its humid in Texas in August". Get over it.

But now? It's April. Time for spring. The tulips are coming up, there are buds on the trees, and every once in a while you don't need a jacket. No more snow. Rain, fine. Wind, sure. No more snow.

YOU HEAR ME!?!?!

San Diego Temple

On the way home from the Zoo we stumbled upon the San Diego Temple. Which is possibly the most beautiful building I have ever seen. I took as many pictures as the light and 40 degree weather (in a t-shirt) would allow. Here are a few.

I know, there have been a lot of pics lately, but you know me, I LOVE a good photograph!