BPW: connecting. + sunday/monday

like i mentioned in this post here, i'm participating in blog positivity week! (BPW) so... this week, i am making it a point to be positive, talk about my favorite things about the blogosphere, and encourage all other bloggers to do the same.

so first of all, yesterday was Sunday. and we went to church for the first time in 3 weeks. because those past 3 weeks, at least one of us was terribly sick. which is a problem when you're calling is in the nursery. but today, we finally got back to church, and it felt so good. i feel like i never notice how much i have missed the uplifting feelings i get from church each weeks until i don't get them... so i was all smiles. even when nursery was a full 2 hours of wiping runny noses and trying to explain to the 2 year olds that throwing big, plastic cars at each other is not a good idea. they are adorable anyway. we had 10 kids in nursery! that's a lot! they were all great. all of them. so cute. it was so great to be at church. i should really stop taking that blessing for granted. not only do we have an amazing ward family to spend each sunday with, but we live 2 houses down from our church building, which is another blessing.

today, was great. it consisted of:

doing work at work. (I don't mean that as in actual work, although i did do actual work at work... that's why i go there... but I mean it in the boy way. Like... I really showed today who's boss, and I went to town on that work day, and I made it my b... you get the point.) i got a 100% of a recording. which is a big deal to nobody but my co-workers who know what i'm talking about. but it's really cool, and i'm really proud of myself. it pretty much just means i am doing good at my job. 100% good. which is goooood.

going to CPK with Devin (he was a first timer). it was delicious and weird. as usual. 

mall browsing. which was only at trade home (my secret shoe store that nobody else seems to shop at), macy's, the weird game store (which had no games we wanted, or knowledge of the games they did have...), and express. 

grocery shopping. we went to target. they've been remodeling. i thought they would leave grocery alone. i thought wrong. they moved basically everything all over. UGH. whatever. i had that store DOWN. i did work on that store. and the very second I am totally completely 100% confident with my target knowledge... they switch it all up and move practically EVERYTHING. grocery shopping is always entertaining. i think Target might just make up for this switch though. they're getting a starbucks?? if i can get a vanilla bean frappuccino (my computer keeps saying that's spelled wrong... but google says it's right. all of you actual coffee drinkers, correct me. because i only pretend. it's only vanilla bean, after all...) in there, i will be a happy girl. and probably get one every time i go there.

finally freaking finding out who A is. and that "finale" didn't solve ANYTHING. especially at the end. who the heck is Mona talking to??? who was in the black dress??? why is mya dead??? is she even dead??? ugh. i never finish an episode feeling satisfied. so i guess the people behind the show are doing their job. 

the voice. which is one of our favorite shows. 

>>>

also, each day this week, i want to share a different thing about blogging that i love. so today?

connecting.

the majority of the blogs i follow are my friends and family. i've been lucky enough to live relatively close to all of them, but as you grow up, and get married, and have families, it gets a little harder to hear all the details of all the stories from all the people! blogging has been a fantastic way to stay in touch and in the loop with my friends and family. like, for instance, my mommy-to-be bestie, Val, recently moved into a house and has done a ton of renovating, and baby preparing, that we've both been too busy to catch up on in person (which i realize is sad, but it happens). so it's nice to be able to hear what she's up to, even when i don't get to see her every single week. same goes for my family. even though i live 5 minutes from my parents, i still love reading my younger sister's blog, because she's a high school senior, and never home anyway! i love that blogging allows me to connect/stay connected with the awesome people i have surrounding me.

blog positivity week

have you heard of this yet? if not, go here. if you want to participate? also go there.

i think this is a good initiative, because i have expressed several times how much i want blogging to remain a positive thing for me, and everyone else. 

so this week? 

happy thoughts

week in review

monday.... we had dinner with Ryan and Danica at Red Robin.

tuesday... i don't even remember

wednesday... also don't remember

thursday... got trained on newer, cooler stuff at work! i spent the evening with chelsey, stefani and loni planning val's shower

friday... lots of shower preparing, dinner with ashby family (pizza!), then movie night to watch Larry Crowne at our house with Amanda & Jason and Sean & Chloe, complete with root beer floats!

saturday... baby shower! spent some time with Kylee. met up with Kelli and Sean at Red Iguana in SLC, then to Gourmandise for dessert, of course! 

it's been a good week. 

we haven't been to church in 3 weeks (that's how sick we've been!!! :( boo) but we can't wait to play with those nursery kids! we've missed them. 

oh, baby!

i teamed up with one of my best friends from high school, Chelsey, to throw our other best friend, Valeri a killer baby shower (maybe that's an inappropriate term...) we had a build-a-library shower for little baby girl jones, and it was a smash (i figured i'd just keep going with the inappropriate terms...). i have never spent so much time at Pebbles in My Pocket in my life! not even for my wedding! and it was great. and worth all the work!

for starters, i put my amateur skills to work on an invitation. (another thing to make note of: this entire shower could have easily been sponsored by pinterest.com...). and I've gotta say... they turned out darn cute. i hand stamped every single little triangle, one at a time. and even though it was tedious, it went by quickly, and i'd do it again! i love how they turned out

next, the actual party:

I was put in charge of the cake. which turned out surprisingly well, with the help of my husband (who knew i married a baking-emergency expert??). a pintereest idea, for sure:

chelsey and justin had made sugar cookies, chelsey's amazing mom, Cindy had made delicious raspberry lemonade, and there was also a fruit bowl I put together, and Loni/Stef made lemon bars:

we kept the bunting banner theme going with the other decorations, including this banner (which I made at Pebbles in My Pocket) and the onesie banner.

these were the first girls i ever met in high school, and we've stayed so close ever since! i love them!

lots of girls came, and we had a great time getting TMI from val about pregnancy (which is typical. and expected.)

we played a hilarious game where Loni put different foods through my food processor and Val had to guess what they were... we were mostly nice...

and I put together some little bags of popcorn as party favors with chelsey. turned out great!

it was such a great time. Val got loaded up with cute clothes and books, loved her Addison Renee Boutique headbands, and we all had a fun time! obviously, the colors were pink, yellow and grey. yellow and grey, because that's just Valeri, plus Bayli's nursery colors, and pink... well because, she's a girl, of course! I was so happy with how this turned out and was proud of how well everything came together! There was also a cute picture line of all the sonograms of Bayli, that I didn't take a picture of. She has huge lips and she's gonna be SO PRETTY! I can hardly wait. Valeri is progressing perfectly, and could have this little girl any day now and I am so giddy! I love Val, and am so beyond happy for her. To watch her be a mother is going to be so much fun! She will be amazing, so I'm glad she's going first so I can learn how to do it!

wife-ness. or lack thereof.

there is something about the combination of a new job, being sick for weeks on end, and changes in the weather, that makes me seriously neglect my role as a homemaker. 

i literally do not remember the last time that i cooked a meal for my husband. he cooked some pork chops for us last night, and i made some rice-a-roni as part of our sunday dinner for his family... but i'm not counting that. 

i don't think i've ever eaten out so much in my life! just tonight, we had some Cafe Rio, and we've had countless other meals out including j-dawgs, in-n-out, mcdonald's, shoots, carl's jr, ernies... just to name a few. 

and as much as i'm a sucker for food cooked by anyone other than me, especially that of my favorite restaurants... i am feeling slightly pathetic. and my poor, poor husband. i had set the bar so high the first 9 months of our marriage, and shot that all down with the month of march. oops! i'm thinking april will be a better month for my wife-ness. 

on a slightly different but also related note: i was trained on a whole bunch of new stuff at work today. now, instead of just filing applications over the phone with clients, i actually go over all their paperwork, make any corrections and all that jazz, and get it prepped to be sent to the SSA. it's a lot of responsibility. i mean, this is the federal government, guys. i feel like there's a lot over my head, but in a good way, mostly. i am loving this job more and more every day. and i'm so grateful to have a desk right next to an awesome, helpful, and hilarious supervisor, that has yet to be annoyed with my constant questions and "can you just double check this? to make sure i did it right?" 's. she's pretty much the coolest. my whole team is. i'm a lucky legal assistant, that's for sure. and our firm is the bomb. who knew the law could be so much fun? definitely not me. definitely. 

also? i spent a good chunk of the evening with some of my favorite people, Chelsey and Stefani. we finalized all our plans for Val's baby shower, which is going to be beautiful and hilarious and so girly and cute. i can hardly wait. it's going to be a good time, come saturday. 

my wonderful husband, on the other hand, has had a miraculous recovery from his ailments (at least, for the time being), and i don't think i've ever felt more relief. he is healthy and happy. and even better? he's been out on his bike TWICE this week. a good 17 mile ride on his felt is pretty much all he needs to break up a busy week of work. that and march madness (my tv has seen nothing but basketball for the past week, and shows no signs of stopping...). i love that he's out and riding, but now that i'm made the decision that i want to start cycling, too, it just makes me jealous that i don't have a bike yet to be able to ride with him on! next spring, i will hopefully be the owner of a pretty road bike. 

also? i had every intention of making this a short post. but i failed. obviously. i also wished i had a picture to pair with these boring words, but haven't pulled out my camera since i discovered devin's little fiasco earlier this week (he's the best.) 

so instead, i will leave you with this:

this is probably only funny is you're really tired, or have the right sense of humor, maybe.

it's mostly the accent. 

and the fact that he's in his car... with giant headphones around his neck

and the fact that he never once cracks a smile. 

hilarious.

impulse

this is almost exactly how the conversation went between devin and i tonight:

d: "i want to build something again. like a simple book shelf. and sell it on ksl. so i'm thinking of going to home depot later and just seeing what lumber there is..."

k: "okay.:

d: "you wanna come?"

k: "mmm.... when?"

d: "like... 15 minutes?"

k: "okay."

we go to home depot.

we leave with tons of lumber.

we grab devin's drill out of his work truck.

this is my view for a good 45 minutes:

and about an hour after we got home from home depot... there is a finished book shelf in my living room:

i sure love that man.

and his impulsiveness.

oh, plus also, instead of selling it on ksl, we are selling my crappy bookshelf from college, and keeping this one to replace it. until devin builds a different one he already drew plans for.

oh, that devin ashby.

EVEN BETTER:

when I plugged in my camera to upload these photos, there were a few treasures on there from my awesome husband:

he's so great.

a disclaimer

i love my job. 

i've already said that. 

it's still true.

last week, we had a sexual harassment... seminar? whatever. anyway, they mentioned blogging specifically, and how important it is to make this clear:

I am an employee of Myler Disability. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are not necessarily the views and opinions of the company. 

(doesn't it go something like that? they are also not meant to be correlated with the company.) anyway. you get my point. so as long as that's clear, we can move on. 

lots of funny things happen at work. I also want to make clear, that I am not trying to make light of any situation, if there is a situation to begin with. but let's be real. sometimes, you've just gotta shake your head and laugh it off, right? so when people misspell things, or word something funny... we get a kick out of it in the office. my boss, Dana has this sort of "wall of fame" with funny things people have said or written, and it's pretty entertaining. I've gathered quite a list myself in my short time here so far, and my good friend Danica, convinced me to share the wealth. 

so prepare yourself for some good laughs. maybe even a new weekly series (since i'm always so consistent with those...). Either way, be prepared. just like the boy scouts. I'll do my best to keep it discrete, because I don't mean to offend anyone. I'm just looking for some comic relief.