I know I am terrible at updating, but I do have a smattering of fun pics from Christmas.  Christmas was good...but hard.  Just...so weird not having mom there, and sad.  But much of my family was together, and we were there for over a week!  It was so nice having a good chunk of time "back home" and being together.

...And because I am super lazy, please check out the pics which have been uploaded to my facebook - just easier than doing the whole thing again here (:

www.facebook.com/album.php 

Hope you enjoy (:

For those not familiar with nerd speak, "RRoD" means "Red Ring of Death."



Which means our XBOX 360 had an epic fail. And we have to send it away to get it fixed, which will probably take about 2 weeks.

Which totally. sucks.

I am terrible at updating, so rather than taking time to reupload a bunch of pictures, check out our Halloween pictures on my facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35591&l=986a0&id=525909732

Things are going well. My dad's surgery on his stomach went smoothly, and he's gearing up to start radiation for his colon cancer in a few weeks. My mom is on her new treatment plan - she's having some difficulties with her lungs/shortness of breath, but hopefully they will pinpoint what's going on soon and get her feeling better. Life just keeps plugging along (:

Labor Day Weekend: Went home to Colorado from 8/29 - 9/3 since Mark was going over there for work anyways. Super awesome. I always love going "home." Thumbs up!

Sunday, Sept. 7: Mark comes home after being in Denver for 10 days (I saw him once while I was out there). Thumbs up!

Monday, Sept. 8: Mom has a biopsy done on a lump in her neck that's been bothering her, despite great results from her PET scan just recently. Biopsy comes back positive...which, contrary to the nature of the word, is bad news. Positive means malignant. This means they will have to figure out a new treatment plan (she's been on chemotherapy as a "preventive" measure the past 1 1/2 years or so). Major Thumbs down.

Tuesday, Sept. 9: My Birthday. excellent day, with lots of thoughtful well wishes/gifts from family and friends alike. Actually got to spend my birthday with Mark. Melting Pot for dinner. Huge improvement over Monday. Thumbs up!

Wednesday, Sept. 10: Mark leaves for Australia until the 21st. Super jealous. Kinda in the middle (sad/lonely when he's gone so long, but also excited for him to experience it all)

Dad finds out his prostate cancer is a more "aggressive" form, and radiation seeding won't be sufficient. Treatment plan established to be hormone therapy in conjunction with 8 weeks of daily external radiation. Prostate cancer = Major Thumbs down.

Thursday, Sept. 11: 9/11 a sad/downer day in general. Thumbs down.

Start crying at work. Thumbs down.

Mom comes to Utah for a visit through Sunday. Thumbs up!

Friday, Sept. 12: Lunch with mom, Mel, Liz, Mike, Dee and Sandy at Joe Bandito's. Thumbs up!

Cheesecake Factory for dinner with good friends. Thumbs up!

Fiona is born. Thumbs up!

Saturday, Sept. 13: Baptism for 3 girls in our ward. Thumbs up!

Spending the day with mom and the family. Thumbs up!

Today: Mom headed back home. By myself again (at my house, at least - mom stayed with me since Mark is gone). Thumbs down.


Just had to get this craziness written down somehow!

One of my most favorite places in the world.

We were up there over Memorial Day weekend, and since then I've been meaning to post a few pictures from up there, but just haven't taken the time to do so. It was so nice being up there. My parents were there the first night, My sister Mary was there for a night and most of the next day, and "Chrissay" was up there the whole weekend with us. It was seriously the perfect getaway, and I wish we went there more often (we hadn't been there in 2 years!) Just a few quick memories I want to remind myself of...

- Our issues with the new hot tub. They recently remodeled the exterior of the building where my parent's condo is, and put in a new hot tub. New hot tub does NOT equal better hot tub. New hot tub is smaller - fitting 3 people in there almost overflowed the thing. The temperature controls make zero sense...literally. It was a stroke of mad luck that I figured out how to, you know, make the hot tub start getting hot again (rather than it's kind of chilly 92 degrees at the time). Thankfully, the "clubhouse" has a nice big hot tub, but it's only open til 8. Not good for those 9:30 needs.
- Talking with Mary. It had been a while since I had just sat and talked with her, and I know she has a lot going on in her life right now. So it was so nice to just sit there in the hot tub (we got in a lot) and talk. I miss being around her more.
-Locking ourselves out of the condo. Just me, Mark, and Chrissay. Funny thing is...we literally had 3 keys to choose from. 3! And none of us grabbed one. Stupid. Totally had plans to go get a fun dinner, and ended up settling for Taco Bell so we could wait for the maintenance guys to let us in. (Ironically enough, in the 10 minutes we were gone to Taco Bell, they showed up the first time. We were told they would call. They did not. So we sat around another hour.)
- The electrical substation explosion. Holy. Crap. Weird, and freaky. All because of a curious raccoon...poor buggah'.

Ok, on to a few pics!

( Clicky! )

So, I stopped over by Lou and Diana's tonight, planning to watch the office. However, Diana ended up getting called in to work a game last minute, but I ended up staying a while and talking with Lou about video games, and then Diana got back so we were all just chatting for a while. The topic of "blacking out" came up, and I mentioned my issue I've had the last few times of getting stomach flu/severe nausea of blacking out.

No joke, like...20 minutes after this conversation, I'm getting ready to head out, and I am suddenly hit with this overwhelming dizziness/feeling like I'm going to pass out. No nausea before or anything, just out of no where. Cold sweat and all. So I sit and chat with Diana while having a glass of juice, until I am feeling back to normal after about 10 minutes. It was just...bizarro.

Who knew that just talking about it could elicit such a strong physical response? ;) Seriously though...no idea why it happened.

That was weird.

So...apologies to Diana (and Lou) for my weird little "sode" there before I left, and thanks for the juice! It actually really helped, so thanks to Lou for the tip!

The leader of my church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), President Gordon B. Hinckley, passed away this evening at approx. 7 PM.

He has been president of the LDS church since I was about 12 years old...so he has been a comforting presence to me for many of my formative years. I have always had such tremendous love and respect for him, which I think can be said for virtually all members of the LDS church.

I'll miss you, President Hinckley.

Church Statement on his passing

Just took a quick little random typing test thingy. I type faster than I thought!

140 words

Touchtyping

So...for those of you who have known me for a while, my hair has always been some shade of blonde, pretty much. Sure, I started highlighting a couple years ago to brighten my fading natural blonde, but yeah...really don't get too adventurous with my hair. Well, I got it cut today for the first time in like, 6 months (yikes..), and thought, why not - let's go dark. And reddish. And because our camera is in a semi-broken state, I had to go with Photobooth on the mac. So don't mind the crappy lighting and such. Anyways, here's a few pictures to show!
( Pics! )

So yeah...thanks for humoring me. :D

So Mark and I went to Wal-Mart late last night, in hopes that we would be able to get this game (without having pre-ordered it). Surprisingly, when we got there, we were one of the first people there, and thus able to get on the list right away. So just after midnight, we were walking back to our car, ginormous box in hand, and ready to rock. Well, at least try it out before bed.

For those of you unfamiliar with this game, I'm guessing at least most of you have heard of Guitar Hero. Guitar Hero is a music game you play using a controller that's actually shaped like a guitar, and it's a lot of fun. Rock Band takes that idea to a whole new level. The bundle came with a guitar, a drum kit (picture below), a microphone, and the game. You can also use another guitar controller to do bass, thus creating 4 playable "instruments." You play with your band, either together in the same living room, or you can do online quickplay with anyone else who has Rock Band. Most of the songs are pretty well known, or by well known bands, with a few obscure ones thrown in. Anyways, long story short - this presents you an opportunity to pretend like you are in a band, and rock out hard in your own living room. It's ridiculously fun, even though it may sound silly. Trust me - it's addicting.

So yeah...Mark and I had to try it out last night, and thus...I am very tired this morning. But I can't wait to play more!! Hooray for joint Christmas presents. :D

These past couple of weeks have been pretty busy, and I've been feeling kind of a general "burn out" as it is.  So yeah.

Anyways, looking forward to Thanksgiving this week!  Mark's mom is coming out on Wednesday, so it will be good to have her visit.  Last time she was out here was for my Graduation in April 2006.  We're actually breaking dinner tradition a bit, and having a roast instead of Turkey.  Either way it should be tasty.

This past weekend was a busy, but fun one.  Friday night we went out for sushi with our friends Kent and Cynthia (and baby Kent).  It was so much fun!  We play D&D with them every other weekend, but really hadn't done anything together outside of that, so it was fun to go enjoy a meal and conversation with them. (:  And the sushi was delicious - I hadn't had it in over a year.  Saturday, the morning was spent cleaning, and then we had our D&D group that afternoon and evening.  It's a really fun group (2 other guys in addition to Kent and Cynthia), and we've been playing for hmm...I think just about 2 years now.  Yesterday was church, and just kinda kicking back.

Mark and I ACTUALLY made it to the gym this morning.  It actually felt great - I was up earlier, didn't feel rushed, felt like I was doing something good for me, and it was fun to spend some time with Mark before work.  I hope we can be consistent with it.  We are going over to Kent and Cynthia's a few times a day until Wednesday to take care of the their 2 (awesome!) Dobermans while they are off to California for the week.  So the need to get up early to make sure the puppies are doing good will help us get up earlier this week - we just need to stick with it after that ;)

Other than that, nothing too much that I can think of to talk about.  My life is either boring, or consisting of things most people who read this would find boring.  Like getting an XBOX 360.  And going to get Rock Band for it this week (yes!!).  But hey, really - I need to be better about recording the little details like that, for me.  My memory is pretty abysmal - so keeping track of even the every day goings on would do me well.

Also, sorry for the lack of pictures.  Still no camera.

Hope everyone is having a great day so far!

If anyone is looking for a simple way to do some good this holiday season, check out Child's Play. It's put on by the Penny Arcade guys, and they currently have 45 partner hospitals around the globe they are working with to bring some happiness to sick kids during the holidays (with more hospitals likely adding over the next few weeks). A lot of the hospitals have "wishlists" you can shop directly from through Amazon, or you can send money directly to them. They have items ranging from less to $10 to over $100, so if you have a little extra money, this is definitely a charity I support this time of year. (: Last year, over 1 million dollars worth was raised.

Anyways, just thought I would put this out there for anyone who might be interested!

Soooo....I've continued to be a lame blogger.  I can't promise that things will be better (though I always have hopes it will be).  I think it comes down to laziness, work being consistently busy (taking a quick break now to update), and not a whole lot of computer time at home.  And nothing really exciting going on in my life.  So here's a few random thoughts for those of you still coming around this dusty little corner.

-Our heater at work isn't working at the moment.  The thermostat is currently below 60 degrees.  I hope my fingers stay attached to my body.  Maybe I should get some of those fingertipless gloves...but then again, those always kinda exude creepiness to me.

-My parents and sister are coming into town tomorrow, and Mark is leaving town on Wednesday.  At least I will have family here to keep me company for those few days!!

-Our camera is pretty much broken, and we'll probably need to get a new one.  It sucks, but hey - new and shiny could be nice.  It's just a matter of the money.  Stupid money.

-Is anyone else loving the change in seasons?  I love fall/winter/spring time.  Notice the exclusion of summer.  Once the temp gets about 85, it's not fun anymore.  Except for swimming.

-I'm playing a video game right now where the characters are SPACE PIRATES.  How cool is that?

-....I should probably get back to work now.  

Some exorbitantly drunk guy just broke into Mark's car.....and sat there.  And has now been arrested in our driveway.

At 3 AM.

I'm glad Mark woke up and knew well enough to call 911 O___o

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/31/technology/31NBC.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

I really, really hope this doesn't happen.  D:

So Mark and I spent the last weekend in Seattle for the 2007 Penny Arcade Expo.

I don't think the word awesome is strong enough to describe just how much fun it was.

We flew out there Thursday afternoon, and met up with 4 friends Mark knew from his working at Gamestop days - Jason, Matt, John, and Brandon. And even though I had never met 3 of the 4, I felt so comfortable, and had so much fun hanging out with these guys. I didn't feel out of place at all, even though I was the only girl in the group. Needless to say, it was so fun getting to hang out with them, and of course Mark, during PAX. (:

PAX was basically the epicenter of all nerddom. And wow, what a broad spectrum of nerdliness exists. Seriously...I mean, I am pretty nerdy. But I can't hold a candle to some of the people I saw out there. And oh, some of the odors that assaulted the senses at times. Like Foot Man. I think you can gather what that means.

Anyways, we had the chance to see a lot of new games coming out, test some of them out, sit in on some fun panels/demos, go to a nerdy music concert (The One Ups and Freezepop!), eat some delicious food, share some HILARIOUS moments (watch out for Guy #3), and overall, just have one amazing time. I really, really hope we are able to do it next year. Just...need to not spend money.

I shamelessly stole a few pictures from Matt's MySpace, since he got a lot of good ones. Unfortunately, our camera battery was dead the first day (we discovered this after leaving the hotel), and it's been having some issues anyways, so we didn't get a whole lot. But I thought you guys might like to see a few. So without further adieu...

( PAX )

Hope you guys enjoyed the all out nerd post! Here's hoping for PAX '08!

So...life has been extremely busy this month. I've been wanting to make some updates, but really have not had any time to do it. I just had to make a little written reminder for myself to update later. About all sorts of fun stuff. I just flew back this afternoon from San Francisco, and Mark and I are heading out this Thursday for Seattle (hooray for PAX!), so hopefully after that I will be able to make a proper update!

I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.




Well done, J.K. Rowling.

So, Mark and I had to give away 4 of the 6 baby bunnies July 3rd. Needless to say, it was really hard to do. I had grown really attached to all of them, but I knew that there was no way we could keep 7 bunnies at our house. Luckily, we were able to keep 2, along with Toffee. So that's a lot of fun. (:

Anyways, I just thought I would post a couple of updated pictures, since you guys haven't seen pictures since they were like this!



Here's some updated ones, taken just before we gave most of them away:

( Cute! )

Transformers is awesome. Go see it.