Easy 925

My salon Christmas party was this last weekend and I had a blast! An excuse to get all dolled up is never looked down upon in my books and with all the people I love that I work with it was just perfect!

The party was at a lounge in Danville called Easy 925 and after making fun of it for weeks and pulling up to the shack that night, it was actually really nice inside and a lot of fun.

Me and Nate boy... He was a great sport for the evening heaven knows how uncomfortable he was all night (beautiful women, strangers, alcohol, and dancing?)

The Receptionists (Kelsey and I)

We pretty much rock

Denica, me, and Jamie

These are the owners and I love them dearly... such beautiful people

Amazing Rouhi, the momma of our salon, and her son busting a move.

Dana and her crazy mom Debbie (who is not like this at work!)

Just some of us Salon 4062ers

We're thankful for the UTES!!

We did make it home for a whole week for Thanksgiving.... originally it was only going to be for four days but since our Utes have done so well we couldn't possibly miss the big game!

(I know same pic as last year, just longer hair)

And that's it...

REALLY though..

I have no more pictures from our Thanksgiving Break.

We spent half the time at Nate's parents and the other half at mine... lovely visits and good to see family but Utah definately is not home anymore strange enough. It's weird both Nate and I feel like we have two lives; One here in California then the one we left in Utah. So it was kind of strange being home for that long and not really having ties or things to do. BUT here's a few... I am thankful we we're able to be with family for the holiday. I am SO thankful for family (particularly husbands, moms, and sisters) I'm thankful that we are both happily employed in this economy. I'm thankful for our dogs. I am thankful for the Utes.

*Just as a preface for this post.... I am really only posting because my momma keeps nagging. I am a little dis enthused with blogging due to 1) No time anymore 2) I take horrible pictures 3)We're kind of uninteresting (work? yeah....)

So I made it home for Poppy's birthing and I must say... she was very obliging. Brooke was to be

induced on Monday November 10th so I flew in late Friday (11/7) night and was to fly home Tuesday night. Incidentally, Poppy was born Sunday afternoon making perfect time for me to spend time with her mom and properly meet her.

-THE LAST SUPPER-

Brooke decided Saturday night would be her proverbial "Last Supper" so we all met up as Osaka for some delicious Japanese food.

This little gem I adore... seriously Minie has the funniest personality. Lucky for me she decided to learn how to walk while I was in town!

Me and Robyn stayed at my Mom's and had so much fun having sleep overs every night! Love my sisters!

-AND NOW Brooke Will Perform Her AMAZING Birthing Illusion-

Brooke had so kindly invited all her sisters and mom into the delivery room. Robyn was invited to take picture... Kennan because she's a C-section Diva... My mom cause she's amazing... and me because I think Brooke wanted me to be baby hungry :) well mission accomplished.

Well the amazing birthing began at 12:30 and ended by 2:30

We arrived, went to the cafeteria to get some lunch and she was already pushing by the time we bought our food!

Here's us waiting for our invitation into the room trying to finish our lunch!

Me and my Dadday.. I know terrible picture of him... sorry Dad I know I take terrible pictures:(

AND miss amazing herself... Poppy Louise Jackson.

My sister and her husband so graciously let me be a part of this amazing experience and it has changed me forever. Thank you, thank you, thank you...

Prop 8

Well its about time we wrote about the past 2 months and especially the past three weeks regarding the highly controversial proposition known as "Prop 8". I'm sure by now everyone knows exactly what this is and what the results are. The weeks leading up to Election Day we both volunteered to the Yes on 8 campaign and stood on corners during heavy traffic hours holding signs showing our support. Most of the response was well received but we did get the "F off", "Bigots", "Bleep Bleep Bleep", and even rocks thrown at us. We also made phone calls which was very uncomfortable and awkward but we volunteered and thats what they asked of us. I went out and placed over 250 signs with some guys from our ward all over the major highways and roads. One of our friends gave us the name "Prop 8 Night Ninjas". It was crazy how we would go out at 11 at night and by 6 am the majority of the signs were gone. I really think people just followed us everywhere we went. I have a small bumper sticker on my car that say Yes on 8 and on election day I was at a stop light and looked in my rearview mirror to see 2 girls flipping me off. Later on in the day anothe car honked at me then got in front of me by cutting me off and drove slowly so I could see The No on 8 painted all over his car. We both can understand the other side "a little bit" but all the accusations and protesting after we excercised our right to vote and won is getting on our nerves especially mine. The protesting at the LDS temples is a sensitive topic to me and all the garbage, signs, and grafitti they are putting on our temple grounds is a true sign of who really is the "Intolerant". The fact that there was a website that targeted mormons who donated to prop 8 and it was their goal to ruin their lives or careers. One man who owns his own company had an email sent to all of his employees from an anonymous sender saying they worked for a bigot who discriminates against those with a different lifestyle. Another man runs a theatre where major productions are played at in LA and one of his heavy backers has told everyone to cease working for this man and in result his employees have quit and production is at a halt. Now he has resigned. My brother and dad have been targeted and put on the antigayblacklist that names anyone that donated for the Yes on 8 campaign and is designed to try to shut their business down.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=4226712&cl=10653267&src=news‏

Im sure if the No Campaign would have won I would have marched all down town calling people names and telling them they were taking away my right to have my family raised in a society with values that have existed since the creation. It amazes me how God is being taken out of our society more and more. We used to be such a God fearing society and now everyone is becoming so tolerant of things that we are now embracing them as the norm. That is how it happens. First we are appalled then throught time we slowly begin to tolerate and then we embrace it. Elton John said it best."I don't want to be married. I'm very happy with a civil partnership. If gay people want to get married, or get together, they should have a civil partnership," John says. "The word 'marriage,' I think, puts a lot of people off.
"You get the same equal rights that we do when we have a civil partnership. Heterosexual people get married. We can have civil partnerships. The word marriage puts alot of people off." They claim we are categorizing them as second class citizens beucase we are taking away their rights. The fact is they just can't call themselves married but they enjoy every single right I enjoy. Marriage is between a man and woman. Civil Partnership is their form of marriage. They are a bunch of whiners, whatever they cant have they will protest for. The way I see it is like me protesting to be able to have a child because its not fair only females have that gift. The government should invest in a way to make this happen because its just not fair. Okay dumb example but you get my point. Accept the fact that the majority voted and your propisition didnt pass. What was the point of the vote if all you were going to do was cry and moan about it until you get your way. I have had sympathy for the no on 8 supporters because frankly I dont care what they do its the consequences that will affect our society that frightens me. Why not go to the hood and protest in front of the black neighborhoods because 70% of African Americans voted Yes but you know if you protested at their church or neighborhood you would get shot. I have said enough and could say alot more. If you disagree that is fine and I respect your opinion but agree not to discuss it with me because I have had enough.

Fishing Trip

This past weekend Nate went back to Utah for the brothers Annual fishing trip at Strawberry. Afterwards all the boys went to see Grandpa Jack. We love you Jack!!

GO UTES

Last Saturday we went to the Dublin Sports Bar and watched the Utes remain Undefeated. It was a quite painful game but the Utes stayed on track for this Thursdays BIG game against TCU. We cant Wait!!

Halloween at work

As it turns out work at the gym was the extent to my Halloween partying. We combined all our classes on Friday together for one hour of instruction between Christina and I AND only 3 girls showed up. But I went all out and bought some Dalmatian gear. I know soo HOT.

Me and Christina (the other tumbling instructor)

The three owners ( Lindsey, Stacey, and Donna)

And all of us together. Those white shoes are totally hot on me I know... Anyway, it was nice to have at least one hour of Halloween festivity and something to finally post!

My First and Only Post

SO this is my first attempt at a post on our blog and it will be my last. Paige is at work and Im still laughin at this video. I watched this as it happened and laughed for a few minutes and then saw it again and laughed just as hard. Anyone who enjoys football will like this. Sorry I dont know how to post videos.


Edit
Gamecocks - Garcia tackled by ref
Source: www.youtube.com

Where have we been?

Well you may be wondering where we have been and yes we just got back from a romantic, high adventure three week vacation!

Not really..... it's called work people and it has eaten up all our time and energy. Three weeks ago my second job began... and although I barley working over 40 hours... I am so drained... And of course Nate is basically at work 24/7 cause he just lets it follow him on home.

But here's what my day m-f looks like.... It begins with the morning shift at this lovely salon....

This job has become addicting to me... it's easy, I get lots of hair products, free hair services, pretty environment, and fun people.
Then I go home for a couple of hours and head to the gym. This is kicking my butt... turns out teaching 20 girls between the ages 5-8 takes it out of you. But here is a link to a little youtube action the owners put together.

http://www.youtube.com/user/valleycheeranddance

And then it is home to sleep. I have Wednesday nights off and I've stopped working Saturdays at the salon... so those are the days I play house still, I am just not as good as I was 3 weeks ago. But all in all life is VERY good. We are getting more settled in our new home and working a lot is good for me to not think about all the things I think I need. I am so excited for this weekend to hear conference... I love the gospel and the difference it makes in my life. The role of the gospel in my life has changed so much since we moved to California and I am enjoying the change. Hopefully we'll have something 'real' to post soon!

Home Sweet Home

This last weekend we got to make it back to Utah for a VERY short visit (36 hours for me:()
However, it was some much needed family time (well I only saw my parents and my Brother's family but any was acceptable). It is funny because I kept saying all week to people "I'm going home this weekend" and everyone kept correcting me and saying ..."don't you live here"... Well yes we do but it doesn't quite feel like home yet...

Saturday I treated my mom to a belated birthday lunch up at Sundance.... it was so nice and such a beautiful drive...

I love the mountains and miss them like crazy!

Isn't my mom beautiful? My sisters Brooke and Kennan ditched me this weekend for other activities so it was just me and my mom. I was bugged about it but truthfully I still had a great time having my mom all to myself.

It was so nice to spend some time with Brad and his family though! It is amazing how fast babies grow up, especially when you live out of town! I couldn't believe how grown up Gabi was and Bella is getting so full! Me and Gabi had some serious Halloween talk going on this trip and she was even nice enough to let me paint both our toes the same color :)

Cute cute Bella!
(don't look at me it was Sunday AFTER church)

And miss Gabi herself... love her...

(if you're wondering where my guy is... we split ways at the airport. He went to his parents for Football games and golf and I to mine for momma time. We reunited for Sunday dinner at my parents, but come on? 36 hours.... how much visiting can you do?)

Raider Nation?

So we went to the Raider's game this past week (cause it was their one and only Monday night game) with some friends from our ward. Let me just say one thing... let us all hope there is never a raider nation.
Besides the fact that the Raiders suck (42-14 Denver) their fans are the most ghetto, trashy people ever. You always are amazed at what type of people come out of the woodwork for Lagoon, trust me the Raider game was 100 x worse. All you hear is the slow, monotone RAI-DERS the whole game and then once we started losing so badly the fans resorted to fighting one another for entertainment. There was more alcohol and weed at the game then a frat party.

Snuggling up at the game... it was really cold.

Our friends Taylor and Lisa

If you look really close, you can see Nate's friend John Madsen. He had one or two catches, way to go Mad Dog.

It was actually really cool to go to an NFL game, I mean where else was someone like me going to see two chicks fight, two fans fight, and a drunk guy fall down the stairwell all in one night? I guess only at a Raider's game...

The BIG HOUSE

After enjoying the wonderful hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Teachout we headed for Ann Arbor for some tailgating and the game. We gathered around the Crimson Club party and I got to say hi to the few Utah cheerleaders I still know (forgot to take pics) and then we headed into the stadium 45 min early.

Boo Yeah!

So Teachout bought all the tickets and ours happened to be 3rd row in the opposite end zone from anyone red. Sweet seats.... just a little scary.

So we we're pretty close to the aisle... but you would have no idea. This is a pic of the aisle. Yup people just standing in it. Apparently the Big House fits a little over 107,000 people (used to be 110,000) and there were 108,000 + people attending that game.

Although our trip was planned around going to the game with Teachout, he opted to sit by his family so Bracken and his girl Beth and us sat together. Needless to say we were the only red shirts in probably 25,000 people. (Notice the red belt of Utah fans on the top rows of the opposite end zone, boo yeah Utah)

Game over :) Bracken did have a Utah shirt on but switched once the game was over to avoid being beat up.

Fun trip... I like being Utah Super fans... and what a great season so far!

Michigan

Now that we're Utah alumni we've transcended to the level of "super" fans so when Nate found out the season opener was at the Big House it was a must... especially since his bestie is from Michigan and a HUGE fan. Nate and Christian we're the official travel planners so the itinerary went like this. Day 1: Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH
Day 2: Game day, ALL day

Day 3: Fly ALL day to save $250

So this amusement park was 3 hours away from our final destination but it was a definite in itinerary.

Christian and his friend, Jackie

There were some seriously amazing rides and it wasn't busy at all... most lines were only like 10-15 min. wait. This was the tallest roller coaster in 2000 and it was amazing.

Before....

On the way down the free fall was awesome but ... shortly after Nate lost his hat :(

This one was the favorite though... and the one with the long (45 min)

Kinda puts Lagoon's Wicked to shame

425 ft tall

0-125 in 4 seconds... best ride ever...