Sheri's Wedding

We went home this last weekend for my sister Sheri's wedding. It was a lot of fun to go home and see my family and spend time with them. It was a lot hotter than I remembered. Ryan and I had a hard time adjusting to the heat and humidity. But it was well worth it to be there with my family and with my sister for her wedding. Everything turned out really nice. I took a bunch of pictures and had too many favorites that I couldn't narrow down so you're just going to have to look at them all.

We went out to eat at the Olive Garden. Here's my mom and dad. Aren't they cute?

Here's my brothers John and Neil, and my sister in law Ashley.

Here's one of my mom, Ashley, and my nephew Madoc while we were at the temple. I love this picture.

This is my absolute favorite picture of Sadie and Ryan. They are so cute!

Here's one of Sadie and Madoc. You can tell I love my niece and nephew.

And here is the happy couple right after they walked out of the temple.

Here are some pictures of our backyard for the reception. These pictures don't do it justice; it looked amazing.

Even though it was a bit hectic and I got 16 mosquito bites on my ankles, we had a lot of fun. We're so glad we could be there. Thanks for getting married Sheri.

Fixin' the car....

Well, I've had a small oil leak for the past 2 years....but I just recently found out where it was coming from and got up the energy to fix it. Apparently its a pretty common problem in VW's. I always feel so proud of myself when I fix stuff, so I thought I'd brag.


I replaced the valve cover gasket. Oil was seeping out of the side where the gasket had worn out.

Took off the intake and valve cover, cleaned it all nice. Yes, that's the camshaft....pretty cool, eh?

I put some Ultra Gray RTV on the corners to seal it up nice and good and to help me sleep better at night.

Stupid crappy old gasket! I hate you.

Put everything back together (along with a new intake manifold gasket) and torqued it down to spec.

So far no more oil leaks! Hooray! The parts cost me about $17. This costs around $150 at the dealer. If it weren't for my trusty bentley factory repair manual and http://forums.vwvortex.com/ I would have never had the courage to do this.

After I finished, I came inside and told Katie that I fixed the car. She responded, "Didn't you fix the car last week?" Yes.....yes, I did. This is what happens when your car is assembled in Mexico and is 13 years old. Things just start wearing out. The monthly repairs are no where near a car payment and hopefully I can keep it that way till I'm done with school.

I Made This

So, for the last month or so I've been working on designing and making a test fixture to test part of the tool my company is developing. A few weeks ago we went out and did the testing. I'm pretty proud of myself so I'm going to show you pictures. Here's a picture of us setting everything up.

The test fixture tests the compass part of the drilling tool so it needed to be able to spin at different angles so we can measure the exact position, (in all three directions). Here are just three of the angles that we tested at.

I've done other stuff at my job before now, but this was the biggest project so far and I did this almost all by myself so I was pretty excited when everything worked out. And I get a bonus next week for finishing this so I'm even more excited now that it's done.

I got tagged!!

Okay, so I know these things are really pretty dumb, but a friend of mine said that you don't have a real blog until you've been tagged, and then I made a big deal about not having been tagged yet, and then I did get tagged and so now I have to do this. Sorry, you may skip this if you want to.

A = ADVOCATE FOR: Nerds. You might think they are awkward and socially inept, and some of them are, but I still think they are great. I think it's totally okay to be a nerd.

B = BEST FEATURE: My eyes.

C = COULDN'T DO WITHOUT: My husband Ryan, and the internet.

D = DREAMS AND DESIRES: To have children, for Ryan to graduate and get a good job, and to buy a house with a yard.

E = ESSENTIAL ITEM: Chapstick and Lotion.

F= FAVORITE PAST TIME: Watching Movies, Reading, and eating. If eating can be done while reading or watching movies, that’s even better.

G = GOOD AT: Cooking. And Making Lists, I make lists for just about everything. I love lists. And it’s not even about crossing stuff off the lists, (in fact I hardly ever cross stuff off lists, unless it’s a shopping list), I just like making lists.

H = HAVE NEVER TRIED: Deviled Eggs. I refuse. I know that’s ridiculous, but I know I don’t like mayonnaise, and I really don’t like mustard and mayonnaise together, and I can only barely tolerate the taste of hard boiled eggs, so I just don’t see the point in even trying them.

I = IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS: Obviously I would use it for the things in the dreams and desires section, and put a lot into savings, but I think I would go on some nice vacations, and maybe pay for family to come too.

J = JUNKIE FOR: Home remodeling shows on HGTV, ice cream, and Dove chocolates at work, (I always have some in my desk drawer and I pretty much eat them non stop between lunch and dinner, and sometimes before lunch if I get really hungry).

K = KINDRED SPIRIT: My sisters. We are all very different but we have a lot in common and we get a long surprisingly well considering our age differences. We love to hang out and watch chick flicks together and make yummy things to eat.

L = LITTLE KNOWN FACT: I honestly don’t think there are any little known facts about me. I tell people everything, even the embarrassing stuff. I have a really hard time keeping secrets and I love to talk about myself so…

M = MEMORABLE MOMENT: The first time Ryan and I talked about getting married. I was so excited. We talked about everything, like when and where we would get married, how many kids we wanted to have, where we would like to live after he graduated, etc. It was like a 2 hour long conversation and I just remember being so happy and knowing that it was the right thing to do.

Also, (this one is more funny), Ryan loves juice, he chugs it like it is water. So last week he poured himself a whole glass of pomegranate juice and he drank almost the whole thing before he realized how tart and strong it was, and then he shuddered and practically had a seizure when his body reacted. I laughed for like 10 minutes. I think he’s still mad at me.

N = NEVER AGAIN WILL I: Run as a form of exercise. Maybe if it’s for a good cause, like raising money for cancer, and probably if someone is chasing me trying to kill me, but otherwise, I refuse. It is so overrated. I’ve never believed people who say they love running. I think they have either been brainwashed or they are lying. Or they have no feeling in their bodies.

O = OCCASIONAL INDULGENCE: Shopping. I try to keep this an occasional thing but sometimes I’m not very good at it. I love shopping. It changes my whole outlook on life. If I buy something, I’m happy. If I go looking for something to buy and I don’t find anything, I’m in a bad mood for hours.

R = REASON TO SMILE: Little kids.

S = SORRY ABOUT: Telling everyone about your pomegranate juice incident, Ryan.

U = UNINTERESTED IN: Being an Astronaut. I remember being a little kid and everyone wanted to be an astronaut and go to outer space. Not me. I don’t even like being on skateboards, no way am I getting on a rocket ship.

V = VERY SCARED OF: Bees

W = WORST HABIT: Cracking my knuckles.

X = X MARKS MY IDEAL VACATION SPOT: Hawaii or somewhere else tropical. I love the ocean.

Y = YESTERYEAR DECADE OF CHOICE: I think I like living right now. I’m way too attached to the comforts of life right now to really be happy living at any other time. But if I had to choose I’d definitely say during the 1800’s, but I’d have to live in England and I’d have to be rich. I’m sure I would have enjoyed sitting around sewing and talking and going to balls and parties every night.

Z = ZODIAC SIGN: Sagittarius

Summer Time

I’m so glad that it’s finally summer time. The weather is warm and everything is turning green again. It’s times like this that I really wish I had a house of my own so I could landscape and plant a garden. There are so many things about summer that I love. Vacations are my favorite thing about summer; we’re still trying to decide on what we want to do this year. Another thing about summer that I love is going to baseball games. I don’t really enjoy watching sports on TV, but I love going to games and baseball is probably my favorite. On Monday we went to a Salt Lake Bees baseball game. It was a lot of fun. It was raining at the beginning of the game so we got really cheap tickets and we got to sit like 5 rows back from first base. They weren't very good though, the Bees lost. I miss being in St. Louis and watching the Cardinals play, those are some fun games to go to. Here is a picture of Ryan and me at the game.



This summer we got season passes to Seven Peaks. That’s another thing I love about summer is going swimming. We love going to seven peaks and lounging in the lazy river and going on the water slides. It’s nice having a season pass because we can go for a few hours and still feel like we're getting our moneys worth. We went this last Saturday and my sisters Sarah and Julie came along. We had a lot of fun. All three of us sat on one inner tube together at the same time. It was great till Ryan tipped us over. Here is a picture of me and my sisters.

Another favorite summer activity is barbecuing. I've already been to 4 barbecues so far this season. Hamburgers are probably one of my favorite foods. I think that was one of the reasons that Ryan decided to marry me; he knew he'd be able to keep eating out at burger places. Today we went to my aunt Heather's house and we had barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs. Here is a picture of all of us enjoying our dinner.

And here is a picture of my adorable cousin Dayton enjoying his meal.

There is so much fun stuff to do during the summer. Now I just have to figure out how to get away with not working so I can enjoy it even more.