Halloween Costumes

Just a quick post so that you can see the awesome Halloween Costumes we made for work.  Amazingly enough we made it to the top 3 of the group costumes :) so I was really happy with it.

The Count Down

Waiting for my trip to Hawaii. . . . . I think it has become one of the hardest things to wait for.  I am SO very excited to be able to get out of here and go on a vacation.  I can't wait to get to see my awesome family in Hawaii and get to spend some time with them as well.  Mostly I am just excited for a full week of not having a schedule, getting some much needed r&r, and enjoying the beaches in paradise.  However, I am pretty sure that the next two and a half weeks are going to last much longer then I would like them to.  I do have plenty to fill my time though.

Today I had to meet with one of the members of our Bishopric and I now have a calling.  It has seriously been bugging me for the last few weeks that I was the only one in my group of friends without one.  Well, I guess I got what I asked for. . . I am now the Mingles Committee Co-chair.  So in to the wonderful world of Mix 'n' Mingles I shall dive.  I don't really know how I am feeling about the calling right now, but hopefully it will be good.  One of my good friends was sitting behind me in Sacrament meeting today when the sustained me and all he could do was laugh at me. . . .maybe I will have to rope him in to helping me out ;)  Anyhow, it should prove to be somewhat interesting anyway.

I also have the task of making 6 Halloween costumes before the 29th of October.  There is a group of us at work that have decided to do something as a group for our annual costume contest.  It should be a lot of fun and we are hoping that we could win us a prize.  If not though, we will have had a good time at least.  However, I really do need to get started on making the costumes, although they shouldn't be too hard.  And yes, I am going to keep it a secret for now, because it is going to be a surprise at work.  I will post pics later so you can see what kind of fools we make of ourselves.

And last, but not least, I do still need to finish getting ready to leave for Hawaii and I have that daunting task of packing ahead of me.  Packing is my very least favorite part of vacationing, but it is oh so worth it when you get there.  For the cause of Hawaii I have now purchased 2 new pairs of flip flops, 2 new beach towels, several new books (have to have reading material for the flight), and all sorts of odds and ends.  Hawaii has just been on the brain for weeks and it is only getting worse the closer it gets.  Oh and for those that are unaware, I also got a new position at work, I started on October 1st.  I am now scheduling appointments for one of our sales reps . . . and the best part is, everytime he signs on a new contract, I get a commission.  It rocks!!!  I am absolutely loving my new job. . .  I really enjoy it and LOVE not having to take calls anymore.  It is GREAT!!!!

The Fall Travel Bug

For the last two years I get this random need to travel somewhere.  Last year I decided I wanted to see Disneyland at Halloween time.  My best friend Hilary and I then booked it and spent 4 fabulous days in California at the Disneyland Resort.  Well this year the travel bug has hit me again. . . .

I went to get a temple recommend on Sunday and my Bishop was telling me about his recent trip to Hawaii with his wife.  I told him that I had a couple of cousins that live there and he asked me why I hadn't gone to visit them, that it was a great excuse to go.  Well this is what started it all.  I went home and started pricing airfare, hotel and car rental and then posted on my facebook account that I was thinking about planning a trip to Hawaii.  The next day when I looked at my facebook account my cousin's wife had posted that she would love for me to come visit and that I could stay with them if I did.  Well we started sending messages back and forth, basically me double and triple checking that she wouldn't mind if I crashed at their house for a week and if I could bring a friend along as well.  She also told me that the temple open house was scheduled for Oct. 20-Nov. 13, which did me in.  I decided I NEEDED to be there for the temple open house.

My next goal was to find someone to go with me.  I had talked to my other best friend Christine earlier in the week and she had told me that she was going to Orlando with her brother, so I figured she was out.  So I decided I was going to make a proposal to Hilary about it.  I did my research because I knew that she would ask about prices and everything.  I ended up finding airfare for $507 round trip with only 1 layover, which I thought was an AMAZING deal.  When I calculated everything I found that it would cost about $600 for airfare and car rental for a week.  (My thought was how can I turn that down?)  So I talked to Hilary and she looked to see what she could do.  Unfortunately her answer was no, :'(  which honestly bummed me out quite a bit.  I was in a bad mood the rest of the day.

The next day I was talking to Christine again and told her that I had talked to Hilary about it and that I couldn't find anyone to go with me.  I was telling her how I had even got the pricing info and everything.  Well by the time I had told her the entire story she said, "Cindy, let me think about it".  Later that day we talked about it a little bit more and that evening she text me and said she was in.  This seriously made my day.  I'm not even kidding when I say that I did a little dance and have had a permanent smile on my face ever since.  So on Thursday I booked our airfare and we are now going to make a visit to my cousins house on the beautiful island of Oahu.  I am soooooooo excited to be able to hang out with my cousin's amazing wife (he is in the Navy, and is gone right now) and get to see Hawaii.  I cannot wait to go!!!!!!  Seven weeks and Christine and I will be in Hawaii, enjoying paradise. 

FHE & Air Hockey

For those that didn't know, I am in a new singles ward that got created about 5 weeks ago.  They combined a couple of stakes together to make a bigger and better singles ward for our area.  I was so ready for a change because I was getting quite bored of the small branch that I was attending, although I was a bit nervous for this new ward.  However, I am absolutely loving the new ward.  I love that they are going to have fhe every week and that I get to see all my friends and meet new people. 

We had our first fhe activity last night and it was SO much fun.  We had a little lesson and then had a bbq and then played games.  After dinner the first game that we played was Catch Phrase.  This was a lot of fun and we had some pretty good laughs with each other.  When we got bored of that we played air hockey in the bishops basement.  It was a blast!!!  I don't think I have laughed that hard for several months.  It was very much needed and I really enjoyed hanging out with the guys.  For the first 20 minutes it was just me and three guys playing.  We had so much fun and I seriously impressed the guys with my air hockey skills.  After a while we accidentally got all three pucks stuck and the Bishop had to come take it apart to get them out.  It was pretty funny because the guys were telling the Bishop that they were either stuck or that I hit them so hard that they evaporated. 

I am so glad that they created this new ward and that I am making better friends with some of the guys in the ward and making new girl friends.  It is a lot of fun and I am excited to see what the future holds.

Also as a side note, sister #2 got married on Saturday.  The wedding went very well and turned out beautiful.  They are very happy together and I am very happy for them.  I will post their wedding video as soon as they put it up.

Awesome Concert

Lately I have been on a huge country music kick.  That is all I want to listen to and I have been pretty addicted.  It all started when my sister got me addicted to Lady Antebellum.  I absolutely love their music and have been listening to their cd's in the car a lot recently.  When I found out they were coming to Salt Lake I wanted to go to the concert really bad.  However I have never really listened to Tim McGraw and that is who they are currently touring with.  I debated buying tickets for weeks before the concert and finally decided not to do it. 

The day of the concert (Friday, July 30) I was telling my dad while driving him home from work how badly I wished I was going to the concert.  Then about an hour and a half later I received a text message from one of my best friends.  She said that they had an extra ticket to the show and wanted to know if I would like it.  I was absolutely thrilled.  Needless to say, the concert was GREAT and I am now a fan of Tim McGraw music as well.  Here are some pics and a little video clip of the concert.  It was a blast and I would love to see both Lady A and Tim McGraw again.  The pics of Tim aren't that great because we weren't close at all, but the video of Lady A sounds pretty good.

Butterfly Kisses

(The title will make sense I promise)

Today we had a bridal shower for sister #2 to get married.  My Aunt did most of the work for the shower for which I am very greatful.  She is absolutely wonderful and did such a great job.  I am so thankful for her and for all of her help and love for us.  We had a great time at the shower and my sister got a lot of really nice gifts.  She was spoiled.  She did get an awful lot of lingerie today too. . . . apparently we all had a lot of fun buying it for her. 

I was in charge of the dessert for this shower too, just like the last one.  Everyone loved the cupcakes I made last time so I decided to do cupcakes again.  However I was a bit more ambitious with these cupcakes and put a lot of time and effort into them.  I am also VERY VERY greatful for one of my best friends for staying up half the night with me last night helping make all four dozen cupcakes.  My idea was to turn all of the cupcakes into butterflies.  I know you are all probably wondering what butterflies have to do with a bridal shower, but if you think back I bet you have all heard the song "Butterfly Kisses" by Bob Carlisle.  I thought it was a good fit. . . idk.  So after slaving away all night last night and for an hour and a half this morning this is what the finished product looked like. 

(yes, there are 4 dozen butterfly cupcakes there)

I thought that they turned out pretty cute and luckily they didn't melt during the car trip to the shower.  Everyone seemed to enjoy them too, especially the little girls.  I don't know that I will be that ambitious in the future, but I am glad that they turned out well. 

Now we are all done with bridal showers and just have to finish planning and preparing for the wedding.  Only three weeks from today and we will be having another great wedding day experience.

4th of July Weekend

Sorry about not updating in so long.  Life has been crazy and hectic so I just haven't had the time. 

For the 4th of July weekend we went to the Murray Parade as is the tradition.  My sister and I got up at 5:30am to go sit on State Street and freeze our rear ends off saving seats for the parade.  Good thing my little 2 year old cousin enjoyed it or else I would say it wasn't worth it.

I also was lucky enough to get to go to the Stadium of Fire down at BYU.  Carrie Underwood was the performer this year and I was very excited to go.  Carrie did an awesome job and I really enjoyed the show.  The fireworks were amazing too, I can't believe how loud they are when you are inside the stadium like that.  I think my favorite part of the show was when Carrie sang the national anthem, including the fly over at the end of the song.  I had a lot of fun with my best friend and her brother and I am really glad we went.

On Sunday my parents, sister and her fiance, and I drove up to join our other sister and her husband at their campsite.  We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and Starbursts (they are the best) and had a great time laughing and talking.  We all were able to fit in the trailer and had a lot of fun laughing before we all fell asleep.  After breakfast on Monday morning we drove up to Willard Peak.  Some of the ride was a little bit scary as there is still snow up there and a lot of the road is very very narrow.  However, the scary ride was seriously worth it, the view from the top of the mountain is breath taking.  I felt as if I were on top of the world.  You could see everything up there.  I am glad we went and had fun as a family. 

Yes that is snow.  People were actually having snowball fights at the top.