30!

Way back in November, my darling sister and husband and friend, Andrea, threw me a 30th birthday party. It was so fun to have my friends and family gathered around me to celebrate. My parents graciously offered their home for the party. Cat and Andrea organized my friends to come and all the food and decorations. And Johnny, bless his heart, tended Charlie the whole party because our babysitter bailed last minute. (I called 14 people trying to find a replacement!) This was all the night of our first huge snowfall of the season. Driving conditions were horrible, and half of our neighborhood (including our street) was without power. I was amazed that anyone came at all! 

Me and my Georgie

with Catherine

dear friends, Courtney, Scott and Charlotte made the trek across town for the party

Liz and Kristi did, too (from Bountiful and Murray)

Brooke and Mark, another pair of ward friends (and high school friends) that came out in the snow

Andrea and Liz's daughter, Savannah

I requested doughnuts instead of a birthday cake. Elizabeth seemed to like that decision. 

My dear friend, Caroline, who I used to nanny for. 

Jenni and Joseph

Party planner, Andrea

High school pals- Suzanna (and baby Beck), Liz, me, Andrea

Sue, John, me, Kate, Rick

Richard and baby Mark

It was a lovely time, and many people brought gifts and helped, and I was just thrilled to start my 30th year off with a bang. I welcome 30 wholeheartedly, no sadness about leaving my 20s behind! Bring it on!

Three years!

John and I are just now beginning to tip the scales- from now on, we will have been married for longer than we dated! It's so funny to think back on all of our adventures together- it is pretty rare when we think of a story from our past that happened before we met. We have been together for over six years and things just keep getting better! I'm glad we waited as long as we did to have a baby because we learned so much from each other. I am really looking forward to the next chapter of our lives and to watching John become a dad. Happy Anniversary, babe!

Oh my lawsie goodness sakes!

Guess who just won the Pioneer Woman's "Give That Photo a Name Contest?"

Out of 1470 entries, guess who made Ree laugh and giggle?

Guess who she chose to caption a hilarious photo of her dog, Charlie, with his eyes droopin' and tongue a-waggin'?

If you haven't guessed me by now, then you must be asleep at the keyboard! IT'S ME! Not only am I beyond thrilled and honored to have been chosen (she likes me!! And thinks I'm funny!!!!), I've been getting delightful new visitors to my blog all night! And I won a very generous prize to Amazon.com! (Hello new camera... oh, hello Nintendo Wii... oh, the things I could buy!!!)

Most of all, I feel legitimized as a blogger. I have arrived, people! I even got Mr. Computer Scientist next to me on the couch to finally get on creating me my own custom website!! Internetz, here I come!

Here's a picture of my goofy grin! (And yes, that is my bathrobe).

My crazy week

Well, I feel like I'm finally coming up for air. :)

The legislature adjourned Wednesday, March 5th at midnight. So Wednesday was a very long work day for me (it was also my last day of work). It began with one of the Legislative interns proposing to his girlfriend on the House floor. I helped coordinate the media for that (including this story on ABC4) and take pictures of the very touching proposal. Then the rest of the day was spent coordinating last minute press questions, running what turned out to be a very heated press conference, and writing the accomplishments of the session in a press release.

Emily, the Speaker's assistant, and my new BFF, was in charge of a last night party which included "roasting" the Majority and Minority leadership playfully. It was a lot of work and I helped write the jokes and think of funny stuff to give the legislators. The funniest thing give that night was from the Democrats, who are the minority in Utah. They poked fun at the fuss over Mitt Romney dropping out of the presidential race by gifting everyone with "What Would Mitt Do?" buttons.

We finally went home that night around 2 a.m. The next morning, I reported for babysitting duty at 7:30 a.m. to tend the W's for 4 days. They have 4 adorable and well-behaved children (ages: 7, 6, 4, and 11 months) but 4 days with 4 kids is still pretty tiring!

I also squeezed some fun nights out which Johnny took full responsibility for all 4 kids so that I could get away. I went to my darling friend, Dana's bridal shower at the most incredible historic mansion in the Avenues right across the street from my elementary school, Lowell. It was so fun to be in this house I'd always imagined about and super fun to be with Dana and all her fun girlfriends. Then Friday night, Catherine and I went to the Rascal Flatts concert! It was amazing!! So much fun! They are so talented, of course, but we were blown away by their fiddler! INCREDIBLE!

So I've had an action packed week, and I'm just now getting my life back together. I have some time on my hands now that my job is over so I'm looking forward to getting my house clean, cooking dinner more often, and getting ready for summer school.

I cannot for the life of me find my camera's mini-USB cord, so hopefully I will soon, so I can download the MONTH's worth of pictures, soon!

The quest for (less) stuff

The past few days, John and I have been rearranging furniture and reorganizing our little apartment (different couch, moved the table, etc.). This means that right now we have a TON of stuff in disarray. As many of my friends know, I am messy. (I'm trying to be better every day, but most days its a losing battle). John is messy, too. To compound this problem, we are both "savers" as opposed to "purgers". We tend to hang onto stuff FOREVER. So we live in a one bedroom apartment and we have probably 4x as much stuff that could comfortably and cleanly fit into our space. Pretty much every weekend recently has been spent trying to purge. We systematically get out some of our boxes of stuff (that we store in my parent's basement- thanks, guys!) and try to eliminate it. We have trash piles, D.I. piles, Ebay piles, put away piles... it's pretty funny to see some of the stuff we have kept. Then, we run out of steam and we are left with *fewer* boxes but boxes of stuff nonetheless. This battle for a simpler, more organized life has led me to have STUFF on the brain. I came across two great posts that kind of touch on consumerism (which is a big part of it all.) C Jane from C Jane Run writes about the vortex of online shopping and the case of "I want" that it gives you. Quimby at Feminist Mormon Housewives writes about her Year of Non-Consumerism. I've also been reading some organizational blogs for ideas...

Mostly, I want to be more mindful of what I buy and bring into my home. I can feel the tide starting to turn... now that our life is in a more normal schedule (no more campaigning) we have been able to really organize and use our small space efficiently. The kitchen, bathroom and bedroom have been completely reorganized. I feel that we will be able to pare down to the essentials soon. I feel like we need to get OUR stuff together before we even think about adding a baby and all of THAT stuff to the mix.

Anyway, long post, but what are your thoughts on conquering clutter and organizing stuff? What's your biggest challenge in staying tidy? (Mine for sure is laundry and papers!)

Thinking about some goals

-Making an effort to actually SEE my friends (not just read their blogs). John and I have a very comfortable habit of just hanging out alone all the time (which we LOVE) but we need to be more balanced because our friendships enrich our lives, too, and we're going to miss out on those connections!

-Committing to a healthy lifestyle. Not a crash diet, but a true change of mentality to committing to healthy eating and regular exercise. (This includes my new (two days down, 363 to go) commitment to not eating sugar or desserts. It makes me sad.)

-Stepping away from my "caretaker" mode every now and then and doing something that feeds my creativity or imagination.

-Saving my money and paying off debt.

-Work on my personal study habits (reading the scriptures on my own, not just with John, preparing and pondering my lessons in advance, keeping up with the lessons in Relief Society and Sunday School).


Care to share some of your goals??

TWO YEARS!!!

I can hardly believe that John and I have been married for two years! Time has just flown by! John's kindness, intelligence, sense of humor, and love are all I could ever hope for in a spouse. He always tells me, "At the end of the day, every day, I love my wife." It's his affirmation that no matter what kind of day he's had or I've had or if we're going through a hard time, that there's no where else he'd rather be. I feel the same way! Whatever obstacles life has presented to us, we have tackled them together and come out the other side stronger for it. I know we will continue to grow and learn and struggle and succeed together and I'm looking forward to it!



I love you, Johnny, and I'm so happy that I'm married to you!

It's fun to work at the Capitol!

When I came into work today, there was a cute little customized cream soda waiting for me! All of the staff members and legislators got one. It has the Capitol on it! And my name!! And it was super fun to walk around with a brown bottle all day- all the interns thought I was getting sauced at 9 in the morning...hee hee hee.

Name tag

Normally, I don't respond to "tags" (otherwise known as "meme"s in the blog world, because they're all about me) but I saw this one on Rachel and James' blog and I thought it was pretty fun. So what the heck, here I go (I will also attempt to fill it out for John, and when I don't know the answer I will feel free to make it up.)


YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: [first pet & current car]
Barb: Sheba Sentra
John: Sunflower Element
YOUR GANGSTA NAME: [fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie]-
Barb: Vanilla Gingersnap
John: Cookie Dough Sugar
YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: [first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name]
Barb: B Tho
John: J Tho
YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: [favorite color, favorite animal]-
Barb: Chartreuse Penguin (??)
John: Purple Monkey
YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: [middle name, city where you were born]-
Barb: Lynn Columbus
John: Howard Holladay
YOUR STAR WARS NAME: [the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first]-
Barb: Thoba
John: Thojo
SUPERHERO NAME: ["The" + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink]-
Barb: the Pink Crystal (light)
John: the Black Doctor (pepper)
NASCAR NAME: [the first names of your grandfathers]-
Barb: Harold Floyd
John: Loile Wayne
RISQUE NAME: [the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy]-
Barb: Delicious Starburst
John: Burberry Snickers
WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: [mother's & father's middle names]-
Barb: Jean Harold
John: Bailey Howard
TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: [your 5th grade teacher's last name, a major city that starts with the same letter]-
Barb: Bleazard Boston
John: Potter Pittsberg
SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: [your favorite season/holiday, flower]-
Barb: Autumn Tulip
John: Arbor Dogwood
CARTOON NAME: [favorite fruit, article of clothing you're wearing right now + "ie" or "y"]-
Barb: Apple Cardigany
John: Peach Jeansy
HIPPY NAME: [what you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree]-
Barb: Oatmeal Willow
John: Enchilada Maple
YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: ["The" + your favorite hobby/craft, favorite weather element + "Tour"]-
Barb: the Photography Rain Tour
John: the Music Storm Tour

New job

I've started my new job and it's already pretty exciting. My official title is Media Relations Coordinator for the Utah House of Representatives Majority Caucus. Whew.

I have an ID badge that gives me access to all sorts of cool, secure rooms in the Capitol. My favorite so far? The kitchen with the built in fountain drink machine. Yay! I'm in a very nice, HUGE office that is really meant for two people but for now, it's just me. My office is on the fourth floor of the Capitol and overlooks downtown Salt Lake City. There are tours of legislative interns roaming the halls, getting acclimated to their new surroundings. Every now and then, I'll see a Representative or Senator. Mostly, though, everywhere I look are workmen and painters trying to finish the last minute "punch list" items. The Capitol is beautifully restored, but it's a huge space with such minute detail everywhere, so often I'll see shiny, dark wood, built-in cabinets... with no hardware to open them or blue tape on the walls marking where the paint needs to be touched up. Oh well- six more days until the Legislative Session starts- hopefully it will all be ready by then!!