Christmas Time

Wishing you a very merry Christmas!

xo. Steve and Liz

{sigh}

i apologize for my lack of postage...

with the holidays, a week of sickness and a death in the family {my dear aunt melodee}

my mind has been racing when it should be resting, which makes me super tired and also uninspired. thus, no blogging.

like, a newborn, i need at least 1o hours of sleep a night.

but... i have noticed that as my sleep levels decline, my annoyance levels go up.

which means...i have complied a list of complaints for your reading pleasure.

To Whom it May Concern,

I realize right now times are tough, economically speaking, but as an employee of your company I do expect a certain amount of consistency, respect and etitquette.

For example, do not give your employees a paid holiday year after year then, one week before said holiday, tell them they will no longer receive that day off. And just so you know, telling them "we will close at 3:00pm instead of 5:00pm that day" does not soften the blow.

Another bit of advice, don't threaten your entire team with being fired on a weekly basis and tell them "there are plenty of people lined up for your jobs." That does not necessarily make me want to work harder. I'm just saying.

Finally, I know that "the company" can't really control this last complaint, but maybe there is something that could be done. I have a hard time working with someone that I just saw zipping and buttoning up his pants, while walking out of the restroom into the main hallway.

And just one more thing, as a side note, if someone could invent some sort of teleportation device, that would make my life a lot easier.

Sincerely,

All Employees Everywhere

if i had a million dollars

my first stop would be here. no question.

then of course, i'd give the rest to charity. i promise.

happy veterans day

veterans day facts:

• U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed an Armistice Day for November 11, 1919
• In 1953, an Emporia, Kansas shoe store owner named Al King had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who served in World War I.
• The holiday is commonly printed as Veteran's Day or Veterans' Day in calendars and advertisements. While these spellings are grammatically acceptable, the United States government has declared that the attributive (no apostrophe) rather than the possessive case is the official spelling
• I passed 39 american flags on my drive to work this morning.

i have a deep gratitude for those who have {and still do} serve our country. i have gained a greater respect these past few years as i have learned more about all the sacrifices that are made in the pursuit of freedom.

all the recents events, including Fort Hood and the Afghanistan War casualties, make me so sad... i think of all the families losing loved ones....people who are willing to give their lives for others.

that's heroic.

i believe in love

this week i've been thinking a lot about how grateful i am for my {excuse me if i sound "seriously so blessed" here} wonderful and amazingly hot husband. one year ago, november 8 2008, is the day that steve asked me to marry him. in a photobooth, in kmart. it was so perfect.

you can read about the actual proposal here.

i will always remember how happy {and slightly shocked} i felt in those beautiful moments that happened all too fast...

thank you baby, for asking.

"the way i fell for you, i'll never fall that way again"

xo. me

halloween {observed}

i lovelovelove halloween at work. it reminds me of elementary school.

also. am loving this webcam.

so much.

happy halloween weekend!

the trouble with facebook is...

most people don't know how to use it.

or...maybe most people are just not very smart.

falafelz

steve and i eat really healthy these days...minus the after dinner twinkies.

that steve makes me share with him.

okay, OKAY. so we are pretending to eat healthy. but in my efforts to pretend, i found a falafel recipe from this blog and we tried it out last night.

we LOVED it!

we put the falafels on a bed of spinach then topped with fresh tomatoes and homade hummus {my sister's recipe...yumm}

fortunately, we "shared" our last twinkie the night before so we were fresh out of temptation. instead steve made some fat-free brownies. that tasted like cardboard... {no offense love}

so...they ended up on someone else's doorstep. :)

a work story

about 4 little evaluators.

who sometimes get bored between the hours of 8 and 5.

they start out the day happy because they are excited to work very hard. then the phones begin to ring and emails fill their inboxes. and that makes them sad...

and they want to run away.
usually at some point in the day approximately 1-4 evaluators sneeze.

but only rarely all at the same time.

and sometimes they get caught playing with the webcam.

then they quickly get back to work.

the end.

look what i found

i discovered that i have a webcam on my laptop at work!!!!!!!!! i cannot tell you how excited i am about this. i feel like a whole new world of opportunities has been opened up to me.

i am making a commitment, here and now, to be a better blogger and this new discovery (in honor of columbus day) will help make my posts sooo much more interesting and frequent.

this is me in my cubical. i work very hard. every day.

also, my hair is brown now. as you may or may not be able to tell in the above photos. i can't decide if i like it yet or not.
only time will tell.

peace out homies,
see ya on monday. :)

Kittens, inspired by kittens

i'm bored, aren't you?
i am too.

watch this. :)

the time is 5:25

A.M.

this is when my alarm first goes off. (only monday - friday, thankfully).
then snooze. 10 minutes. snooze again. and sometimes...i snooze until 6:00 AM. okay, let me re-phrase that, usually i snooze until 6:00 AM.

but, on the off-chance that i actually pull myself out of bed after the first snooze i then stumble into the bathroom, brush my teeth and head downstairs for my 20-minute Shred .

after that its a mad dash to shower, get my face on, blow-dry the hair, pick any outfit (which tends to be the most time consuming for some reason), make my lunch and be out door by 7 am.

then i hop in our darling silver corolla and drive to SLC. woot woot. all the while listening to npr . which i never thought i would love so much. the listening to npr part, not the driving part.

next i work for approximately 8-9 hours. during this time i review college transcripts, catch up on blogs, review transcripts, listen to pandora, review transcripts, watch/listen to the "michael jackson moment" video (sent to be by andrea)...and that's pretty much it.

after the work day is done i drive home. listening to "all things considered" and/or talking on the phone. it usually takes me approximately 45-75 minutes to get home, depending on traffico.

when i finally get home i am greeted warmly by my honey/baby/lover/sweetie with a big hug and a tender kiss. {i am so grateful and especially blessed for this part of my day.}

we make dinner together, watch a show or something...who knows where the "after-work" time goes. then we pray, read and go to bed. usually by 10.

i have to say i do love the feeling of accomplishing so much in a day. i really feel like i'm finally contributing to society and to my little two-member family. i love the feeling of just falling into bed at night and having a rill good dose of REM sleep cause i'm just so exhausted. i love getting a paycheck! i love learning about new processes, like the inter-workings of the college transfer system. i love being awake early when the rest of the city is still asleep. (though the actual waking up part, i hate). and i love the people i work with...

but...remember when i use to not have a job. i see the awesomeness in that now too. :)

Delicious

watch this. i promise you will like it. :)

after 11 months...

i have a JOB!

hurrah! we thought the day would never come.

this is the place:

Western Governor's University

my official title is Transcript Evaluator

this was my first week and so far, so good.

the one downer is:

it's in Salt Lake.

which is kind of a drive for me. boo.

i miss the pool...

this i believe

last month i read this book for book club... This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women. which was based from a radio program on NPR.

i really loved reading it. basically it's a collection of essays written by people from all walks of life. teenagers, receptionists, college professors and movie directors. even einstein. one of the things i loved about it though, was that they were all so different. although maybe some of the basic beliefs were the same they each had a different way of expressing it. and then there were some that were just completely different (than my own beliefs). but, there's something to say about letting people just say exactly what they believe. pure, honest, raw feelings. that come from experience. which comes from just living life....

so it got me thinking about what it is that i believe...

of course, i immediately think of my religious beliefs. my belief in God. my belief that i belong to Him. He is my Father. but then i was wondering why? why do i believe that? what makes me believe that i truly am His child.

i believe that because of experiences in my life. not only do experiences help me to make sense of it..but they help me to feel His love. i feel it when i am sad in the form of a silent moment of peace and comfort. i feel it when something starts to make sense in my mind in the form of clarity and understanding. i feel it when i am looking back at the past in the form of gratitude. i feel it when i am connecting with someone in the form of friendship and love. all these things create experiences that remind me that i am loved in big ways and small ways and sometimes even sideways by Him, who created me. and i am not just another pawn, what happens to me matters. it matters to me and it matters to Him. so i trust.

and you know what else i believe?

people need to be reminded of this. often.

sometimes i forget that. i forget that i have the power to strengthen and lift others...
which makes me sad that i keep to myself so much of the time.

now tell me people, what do you believe?

camp lizzie

i just LOVED having the little dudes at my house every morning at 7:30 {ish} and playing with them all day until 4. we did so much and had great fun though i'll be the first to admit there were moments of "errrrrr" and "ahhhhhh" and according to steve, way too many "no's"....but heck!

i never said i'd be good at this.

nevertheless our week was jam-packed with laughs, smiles and big big hugs.

we played blocks in our jammies.

we went swimming everyday. even if we never dared to leave the steps.

we drew chalk pictures on steve's nice clean driveway.
we took naps. very badly needed naps.

we played hide and go seek.
we went on time-out.

we watched movies and ate popcorn.
we jumped on steve!

and we went on little walks.

we had such a blast! and then i woke up on saturday morning and realized...they aren't coming anymore...i was so sad.

i miss their little voices, their giggles, yousef's active imagination, and ammon's tight hugs.

there were so many times during the week that yousef had me rolling. he's such a silly and clever little boy...

and now i leave you with some of my favorite yousef quotes:

i told yousef, please don't touch the tv because steve likes his tv very clean with no finger prints on it. so he took his hand off quickly and said "oh, okay." a few seconds later he looked up at a picture of steve and i by the tv and said "steve's looking at me...he looks grumpy."

both ammon and yousef were sitting at the bar eating lunch and ammon wanted to get down. he couldn't because our chairs are high. so i noticed yousef give him a little push as i was trying hurrying over to help him. ammon fell to the ground but was okay. i said "yousef you can't do that to ammon, he's too little he needs an adult to help him get down, okay?" i must have sounded mad because he just looked at me and then said "you hurt my feelings." i totally started laughing and walked over to him to try and explain that i wasn't mad but i couldn't even talk i was laughing so hard. then ammon hit his head on the corner of the chair and started crying and yousef sighed and said "now what?!"

but my all-time favorite was this..."lizzie, when i have my next birthday, i'm going to marry you. and then when ammon turns 14 he can marry you too."

awww..i miss...

my posse

my very talented sister is teaching arabic classes at BYU and well since i have yet to find a job, i volunteered to watch these little dudes during the days all week long.

they call it "Camp Lizzie." i love it.

i don't know who will be more worn out by the end me or them. :)

my day

i love june 11th. it's my favorite.
and steve just made my day the best.

first i awoke to this little birthday box outside my house.
2 little elves must have dropped it off. 2 little elves that i used to live with. :)

then steve gave me some sweet gifts. too many to even name. but one...one was a book with tickets to LAGOON inside!! my steve took the day off to spoil me and take me to Lagoon.

i am the luckiest.
but before we went off to the glorified (and over-priced) fair he made sure i had a yummy breakfast. my favorite breakfast, in fact. eggs benedict! soooo goood.
we got there and rode a few of our childhood favorites.
then it started to rain. like down pour. so we waited out the rain in poineer village checking out all the historical museum stuffs. this actually turned out to be so awesome...since obviously neither one of us had spent the time to check it out during the stake Lagoon days of our youth.

well after the rain delay, we started really hitting up the rides in true teenage Lagoon fashion. unfortunately after a few spinny, twirly, whirly rides like this...
and this
and this

we felt like this...

so we decided it was time to bid Lagoon adieu.

nevermind the tummy ache. i still had such a great day.

thanks lover.

Italy

the wait is finally over...here are some pics from Italy for your viewing pleasure. steve took about 500 pictures. literally. so these are just a few of my favs.

Roma

the Colosseum

the Arch of Constantine (not the Arch of Titus)

part of the Forum

Marcus Aurelius equestrian statue

Martime Prison - where Peter and Paul were held

the Pantheon

the Sistine Chapel

St. Peter's Basilica

outside St. Peter's

me threathening steve outside the Castel Sant'Angelo

the Colosseum at night

views from the top - on the Victor Emmanuel Monument

Venezia

standing on the Rialto Bridge

cruising the Grand CanalSt. Mark's Square

Cinque Terre

hiking through the 5 towns

watching the Giro D'Italia time trial. we saw Lance Armstrong (above).

w-o-w!

Firenze

view of Florence

Pointe Vecchio

a fake David

Santa Croce Church

for more pics and more details check out steve's blog here.

loved this trip so much. Italy's got to be one of my favorites places. and being there with steve. that was my favorite too.