New Job

So I FINALLY got a second job. I have been trying to get another job for quite some time now because Olive Garden is so inconsistent with scheduling and money. So it's really stressful for me not knowing how much money I will be making. Also, it's boring the weeks I hardly ever work.
Anyway, I have been wanting to get a job with IHC because I want to go to school for x-ray tech and they have tuition reimbursement and really good benefits. Unfortunately I wasn't having any luck because i literally have NO office experience. So I couldn't get a job as a receptionist anywhere. Even though I wasn't having the best of luck i kept checking the job postings daily and kept applying to a bunch. I figured eventually one would come through.
So one day i noticed a job for a catering coordinator at the IHC hospital in Murray. I was like "hey, i'm totally qualified for this one! And it would get me 'in' with the company!" So I applied, got called for an interview, annnnd got the job!
I am so excited to have finally gotten a job with IHC and to have job security. It's going to be soooooo nice to have an idea of what i'm making each month. I'm going to keep working at Olive Garden saturday nights for extra cash. The money I make there will pretty much pay for rent so that will be helpful.
I now have a "real" job if you wanna call it that. A job with benefits etc. No more seasonal stuff for me. Which is sad, but also kind of exciting. Now I just need to figure out this whole school thing and hopefully in the next few years I will be a licensed x-ray technician!! That's the plan! :D

Gracie

This post is dedicated to our crazy dog Gracie. She is definitely quite the entertainment in our lives. She is also probably one of the most spoiled dogs ever.
We try to get her out of the apartment as much as possible by taking her to the dog park, my parents house to play with her "boyfriend" Togo (their golden retriever) or by taking her out on drives with us. She loves being in the car, and will stand with her head out the window the whole time. I can't wait until the summer to take the top off my jeep and see how she likes that! She's good when we leave for work separately, but if we leave together and she's not coming with us, she FREAKS out!! It's like she knows we're going somewhere together and she doesn't like being left out.
She still hasn't quite mastered the idea of the game "fetch". She loves chasing whatever we throw, but will usually run up to it, sniff it, and then come back to us...without the toy. She is a pretty smart dog, when she wants to be. She's still a puppy so she has a very little attention span. Once we get her outside, her listening to us is out of the question. Too many smells!! She's getting better though and I'm sure one day she will be a very good dog.
She LOVES people. When we go to the dog park she has to say hi to every person before she even thinks about playing with the dogs. Luckily everybody always loves her. She's cute, and she definitely knows it. She also has one of the biggest personalities I've ever known a dog to have!! It's so funny.
She lays flat on her back like a human, and sometimes she'll chew on her toys and hold it straight above her head with her paws. It's so weird!
Gracie also loves the snow! The first time she saw snow was HILARIOUS. It was while Dan and I were still living at my parents house. I was letting her outside for the morning (it had snowed overnight obviously) She went running down the stairs to the back door as she always did, once I opened the door she stopped dead in her tracks and just stared outside. Togo was standing in the middle of all the snow looking confused and she gave him this look like "wtf did you do last night?" It was SOOO funny!! Now whenever it snows she acts like it's Christmas and runs around in it like crazy.

The other day I was sleeping on the couch and Dan was working. Well, Gracie decided she wanted to go outside. So her way of waking me up and letting me know was to come stand right next to my ear and bark as loudly as possible. Scared the crap out of me, but I guess it worked for her. Haha!!

Also, she is very good at chewing every single toy we buy her into a million pieces. For some reason the legs, arms, ears, tails, etc have to come off as soon as possible! She cannot keep anything in one piece. Luckily, she's started leaving our stuff alone and mostly just ripping her stuff apart. 

Anyway, we love Gracie. She is so entertaining and sometimes I really wish we knew what she was thinking. She's so funny and we're so happy we got her! Thanks to Karissa and Gerry for finding her for us :D 

Here are some pictures of her!

Dan had the sudden urge to dress her in a T-shirt one day....

Her favorite sleeping position

In the back of our friend Tron's jeep over the summer. She loved it! 

Summary of 2010

Okay, as you can all see i definitely got WAY behind in the blogging community. I seemed to have skipped the whole year of 2010. It was a year with a lot of ups and downs. So here is a recap of what went on.

January:

My amazing and beautiful grandmother Olive Joyce lost her battle to cancer on the 11th. She was so strong and never once acted like she felt sorry for herself during her battle. She was more worried about all of us after she passed on than she was about herself. I love her so much. She was such an inspiration to me to be a better person. I will always look up to her. Even though she is no longer with us in person, I know she is with us in spirit.

The whole family flew out to England for her funeral. It was really good to see all the love and support from everyone who came to her funeral to say their goodbyes.

I also met the love of my life Dan in January. Meeting him and having something good happen in my life was what kept me sane for the month of January. I love him so much!!

February:

A group of friends and I went to the Monster Truck show at the Energy Solutions Arena. It was a blast and ended up being a really fun night!!

We also went snowboarding for Paul's 26th birthday and then out for a delicious Indian food dinner.

Paul and I also took a trip to Northern california for our good friend Michael's funeral. Sadly, he didn't make it through his injuries in the car accident. All in all it was a good road trip. We spent a couple nights in Tahoe, Sacramento, and Oakland/San Francisco and saw a lot of really good friends of ours.

March:

On March 16th Dan officially asked me to be his girlfriend :D

Then on the 17th we had the usual St. Paddy's day celebration festivities. I wore a shirt Nanny and Bill had bought me and a hat that used to be Nanny's and a blow up glove/huge beer that Bill gave me (also used to be Nanny's)

For my birthday we took a short trip down to Lake Powell. It was fun to see friends down there and to show Dan what he had in store for the summer!

April:

The season at the Canyons ended mid april and we all moved on to our next adventures. Time to say goodbye to friends and to meet new ones! Dan and I, along with quite a few other Canyoners made our way down to Lake Powell anxious for the new season.

May:

May just brought a lot of parties and boating....and Park Service firing a bunch of people for stupid reasons.

We also went on a few desert excursions and discovered some really cool/pretty stuff!!

June:

We did a three day/two night camping trip at Lone Rock for Dan's birthday. A lot of people came out for it and it was a blast!!

We also got a puppy!! Gracie! She's a black lab mix and was 7 weeks old when we got her.

I also got a new nephew Jayson. He is adorable.

My parents and Bill also came for a little visit. It was really fun hanging out with them for a few days and taking them out the eat at the Rainbow Room. (The restaurant in Lake Powell I work at.)

July:

I celebrated the 4th of July by watching the fireworks from....work. Woo!

Gary, Dan and I had a fun adventure in Flagstaff. A fun little pub crawl. Ordering a drink and an appetizer at each bar to about 10 different bars. It was a fun way to see a lot of the cool little town and experience it.

We also took a couple offroading adventures up to "Alstrom Point" a really pretty overlook of some of the lake!!

August:

Dan and I went to Massachusetts to visit his family (yes, i pretty much met his WHOLE family, they are all really awesome) and to volunteer at the PMC. (Pan Mass Challenge) An amazing cancer benefit fundraiser event. If you've never heard it definitely look into it. It was an awesome opportunity for me and meant a lot to me especially considering Nanny had just passed from cancer earlier that year.

It was my first time out in New England and I loved it! I couldn't get over how many trees there are!!! We also got to spend a good chunk of our time there out on the cape. It was so fun! OH! I also ripped apart and ate my very FIRST lobster!! It was very tasty and entertaining for Dan's family i'm sure.

Dan also surprised me with a Red Sox game on our day out in Boston!

September:

Gary, Adam, Dan and I went on an awesome boating trip up lake. We found an sweeeeet cave and went all the way up to Bullfrog and back in the one day. Lots of fun!!

October:

We moved back up to Salt Lake City. And I got my tonsils out. Not fun.

November:

We moved into our very first apartment!! I love it! It's super nice :D And I got a job as a server at Olive Garden. Bill also came out for the holidays. It's always good to see him.

December:

We began the month by going to Temple Square with my best friend Krista and her husband Phil for Krista's birthday. It was a lot of fun. We rode trax downtown. Something I haven't done in a long time!!

The rest of the month was filled with lots of family activities and of course, Christmas!!

I got my very first niece Leanna. She was born about a month early and is cute as ever. I'm so excited to have a niece!

I decided to end the year awesomely by buying myself a 2001 Jeep Wrangler with 56,000 miles on it. Great deal! I bought it on the 31st :D

So that was my year. Lots of sad, happy, fun, and crazy memories. I'm confident that this year will be just as good if not better!