The Summer That Was

I still can't believe it's already October. I feel, again, like this year has just flown by, and especially summer! Like really, where did it go? Here are a few more randoms from the end of our summer.

Greg sometimes goes out to eat while he's at work, and then he'll come home and rave about how amazing these different places are. Luckily, he's willing to take me to those place to try them also. This time we went to Mundos, which is right on campuss across from the football stadium.

 Super yummy Mexican food. The burritos are huge and quite delicious.

 Our park decided to put in speed bumps....again....right in front of my house. Awesome.

 Just a lovely night in Cache Valley.

 How we spend our weekends. We are quite the party animals!

 National Bacon Day

 Our absolute LAST TRIP to Hastings...Did I mention it's closing? If I haven't, it is, and Greg is super bummed about it.

After many,  many, months of our toilet being dumb, we FINALLY replaced the big ball floater thingy. Can I just say that it was MY genius that got it fixed? Greg just did the work!

 And just a cute little Greg sleeping in what has to be the most comfortable position.

Here we are at Hastings for the LAST TIME (again!).

We started Fringe on Netflix, only to find that it was leaving Netflix. We have really enjoyed the show (despite the crazy dreams I've been having since watching it), so we went to Hastings to see if they had the seasons. We were able to get all the seasons for about $50. Win, win!

That's about how we've been spending the end of our summer. Watching Fringe, which is actually pretty good. It's been a nice time-waster for sure.

Again, it's crazy that summer is over, and we are almost in the middle of October. I definitely need to do better at this blogging thing, so our timelines don't get messed up. (Oh Fringe...the things you've done to me! William Bell, Timelines, Other Universes...)

4th of July with Pop-Its

Kandyce, Clay, Liam and Myka came over on the 2nd (my birthday) to say hi. They are always so good to come visit when they're in town, and I really appreciate it. I shared my cupcakes that mom & dad had given me, then we went outside for a bit.

 We sat on the swing, then I remembered that we had gotten some pop-its for my birthday celebration at work, so I grabbed them for the kids to play with. We had a lot of fun with them. Myka was the cutest. She's hasn't been one to be very warm towards me, but she was this day. She would go sit on the swing and tell me to come sit with her. She's just a doll.

Liam was a beast. He's such a cute kid. He was pretending to be a dinosaur, and spitting all over. It was pretty funny though.

I forgot that Liam doesn't like loud noises, so I think the first one I threw scared him a bit, but after that he warmed up and had fun popping them.

Here is a cute little video of them playing with the pop-its.

When we were out of pop-its, we decided to play in the sprinkler. Liam was a bit more hesitant than his sister, but Myka just went right in there and stood while the sprinkler got her soaked. It was pretty funny. Then Liam would grab my hand and pull me into the sprinkler, then say, "Stay here," while he would run away.

It was a lot of fun spending time with these two, and playing around, and hearing them actually talk to me. I can't believe how big they are getting. Myka just is more and more grown up every time I see her. I'm thinking it's time for another niece or nephew to come along.

And one last video of them playing in the water. It was lots of fun!

The Boring Lately

I'm so behind on posting. I always say I'll do better, but then I don't. Therefore, I give you the boring lately.

This summer just kind of flew by. I had a few family events which I will post about later, but the rest of summer was filled with work, a few Coldstone runs, and pretty much more work. It was a good summer though. I can't wait for the time when I get summers off with Greg so we can go spend 3 months in California or something. But he stayed busy working a bit from home, doing a few things around the house, and conquering evil or whatever he plays on the Xbox.

We watched Netflix quite a bit: Alphas. Undeclared, Supernatural, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Psych (me for the 3rd time), New Girl (me), Young & Hungry (me), and Friends (me).

Like I said though, I feel like the majority of my time was spent at work, which is fine, because I love my job and my coworkers. I've been staying a bit busy with quite a few different 'projects'. As we have a new manager, our area manager has been coming up to Logan a bit more than in the past. He is awesome. I've had the opportunity to sit down with him and talk about various work related things. One of the more recent things has been web apps. About a year ago, Donna and I were asked to help with loan applications that were submitted online. At that time we had just switched to a new online banking system, and holy moly the calls that came in were ridiculous, so we were asked to help out. I loved it. I was still new to loans, so it was a great learning experience, and I was able to get quite a bit done.

As the year progressed and the call volume decreased, we slowly started getting less and less until we were finally given none. It was a nice break, but I have an issue with other people doing things, and not doing them right. So I would bug Steve and tell him to tell Mike to let me do web apps. Last month when Mike was here, he called me in to talk with him, and we had a great talk. I told him that I really wanted to help out wherever I could, and that I was more than happy to help with web apps, or whatever. Being in Logan we are at a disadvantage because we aren't able to be 'promoted' or do different tasks like people down in the Salt Lake Area, were our corporate office is, and the majority of branches. It's been quite frustrating, and especially with the recent changes to our branch that did not go the way it should have.

Anyway, as we were talking and I was expressing my willingness to help with whatever, Mike paused for a minute, then said, "I don't know if anything will come of this but...." then he explained that the branch that was currently doing the online membership applications was losing an employee and weren't sure if they would be able to continue with the load of the online membership accounts. The original plan was to give it to another slow branch, but then he asked if I were given the task, if I would do it. I told him, "I would love to do it."

Now he told me beforehand that he didn't know if the final deciders of this would agree to it, but he said that he would talk to them and let them know that I was interested and would be willing to take it on. The next week I got a call from him letting me know that I had been added back to the loan apps queue, which was awesome. He said he had passed the word along about the membership apps, but hadn't heard anything back. He actually said it was a very slim chance, which I assured him was fine, and thanked him for the opportunity anyway.

I got a call from Mike the next Monday letting me know that I had been added back to the web apps queue, and that he hadn't heard back about the membership apps. Later week, the guy above Mike  was at our branch, and called me in to the office with my manager. I figured A: He was going to tell me they had decided to go with the other branch; B. They were going to have be do them; or C: I was fired. Strangely I was leaning more to the last one, because I can sometimes be a bit sarcastic and my big mouth often betrays me, but he actually asked if I would be willing to help. Of course I said yes. It made me super excited.

It's been a lot of fun to be able to do them. I've done them for about a month, and have had about 75 or so apps, when I was originally told 5-6 / week. Lol. Week 1 brought me 40, so that was exciting. I hope I can do well at it. I've seen some success, and have really enjoyed the opportunity. It keeps me busy, which I love.

So, that's awesome. Haven't really been up to too much else.....I'm sure I'll post again soon, since I've been so bad at posting more.

Water Balloon Fun

I've got a few minutes before I have to start getting ready for work, so I thought I would post briefly about some of the fun I've had with my niece and nephews this summer.

My little brother Kennan got his mission call the end of May, and went through the temple the end of June. My sister and her kids were still at my parents so they came down to go with him. Greg and I got to watch the kiddos.

It was so dang hot outside. Seriously. But we walked to the park that's just on the other side of the block. It was too hot, so the kids (and Bre) only lasted a little while.

After dying of heat at the park, we walked back to our house where we had shaved ice and cotton candy. A LOT of cotton candy.  (It was mint flavored, so that's got to be a bit more healthy, right?)

If anything, they at least love us for all the junk we fed them.

After that we just kind of sat around trying to decide what to do. It was still really hot,s o we went outside to sit on the porch. Our sprinklers were on, so we told the kids to go run through the sprinklers. Then I remembered that we had a bunch of water balloons in the house, so we got them out. They were a huge hit! The kids had so much fun. Alex kept saying, "This is the best day ever!" Of course, when you're 6 you don't have many days to compare to, but it was pretty great.

They had fun throwing the balloons at each other, but the best was throwing them in the air and having them burst when they hit our awning. It would rain all over all of us. They thought it was hilarious.

We did that for about an hour and a half. They are such fun kids, even if they can be stinkers. At least being an aunt, you know you can love them, spoil them, discipline them if necessary, and if you get sick of them, you can send them home! ;) JK. They are the greatest.

They thought Greg was hilarious. Aidan kept saying, "Uncle Greg is funny."
I think even Greg had fun.

The First Half of June

Since my last real update, not too much has been happening.I feel like June just flew by, and now it's already nearing the end of July. I made a goal to update weekly, so starting today...at least weekly updates.

Work has been going well. Same old stuff day after day. Try to have as much fun as possible. My co-workers are seriously awesome though. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned how Cole likes to collect sticky notes. Well, one day I was at the new accounts desk, and I noticed there were two sticky pads, so I left Cole a nice little note. I come back the next day to find an additional sticky pad with this message from Cole. He's a dork. Don't get me started on the time there were FIVE stick pads at that desk, which I took back and counted in front of Cole while he was helping a member through the drive-thru...

I've got a business card, so I'm pretty legit, though I wish my title would have been something more exciting, like, "Knower of all Things" (even though apparently knower isn't a word!), or "Expert in All Things", or something equally awesome.

Just a random inside joke that we all had a good laugh at.

The 13th of June was our annual company party. I went with Steve and his wife, and we had such an amazingly okay time. They chose to go to a Bee's game, which I thought was a strange choice, but we had fun. Kim and her fiance Eric were also there, and Caleb who ditched us for "better" things was also there. So we all hung out together and caught up. It was good to see Caleb. We miss him quite a bit. Our occasional IM chats just aren't the same.

Anyway, so baseball. Only the third non-high school game I've ever attended. (I went to a BYU game once upon a time, and a Rockie's game when I was doing a volleyball camp in Colorado five hundred years ago.) It was as expected. It was more fun to see people, and to win $50. Yes, I did. It was awesome!

I do complain about it a bit, but I do love the company I work for. No, I don't always agree with what they do, in fact, I very rarely agree with it, however, I do what is asked with minor complaints (ha!), and it has been the best place to work. I never thought I'd be there for as long as I have, but I can't imagine myself being anywhere else....with the exception of California....

Halfway Through August

I kicked off August in the hospital. I had a Right Heart Catheterization that you can read all about {here}. That was an exciting adventure. It was quick, easy, and I got to lay in a hospital for about 5 hours. I survived with just a tiny stab wound.

One of our August highlights happened late at night, as Greg and I were reading before bed I noticed a spider on the wall. Now, let the record show that all I said was, "There is a spider." I did not freak out, or scream. I literally said that and it was done. Greg is the one who shot up and then proceeded to strip the bed in search of Mr. Spider. We had to take the entire mattress off before finding the little guy and giving him a swirly. It was late, I was tired, but it was funny.

Greg got to start school early. He actually started going in towards the last part of July, but I officially had to start dropping him off, and picking him up about two weeks ago. I can't believe it's already school again. What happened to summer?

So, as you know, I love my job, however that doesn't mean that sometimes I get extremely frustrated and just want to quit. The reasons for me being so frustrated probably wouldn't make any sense to anyone, so who knows if I ever get into it. I might over on my Sclero-what? blog, but I don't know. I'm still torn as to how I really feel. Love my co-workers, and the job itself. Just.....frustrated!

Anyway, after one of our morning meetings, I was ranting to Greg about it, and since he very rarely just lets me complain, he sent me this text:

He's the best!!

I've spent a lot of time this summer out on our porch swing. I spend so much dang time indoors, and it's quite difficult for me to do anything outside alone, so the porch has been a great place for me to go and relax. Of course, I still have to have Greg nearby as I can't quite get out of the swing by myself. It's been great though.

This last Thursday we had our Relief Society activity. We did an ice cream social to celebrate the end of summer. We had a decent turnout, which is always nice. It was fun talking with the older sisters. They have some great stories and personalities.

And Greg got to be my big helper this activity. Thanks hun!

Let's see. Controversial topics coming soon...
How to properly raise your children.
Breastfeeding in public
Leggings

Just kidding. We'll have to see what type of mood this week brings, I do have some thoughts on motherhood that I'd like to share....