Friday, August 31, 2007

The girls..



My brother came back from Alaska to live in Utah again and with him... he brought his camera!!!! I am so happy to finally have a great camera and take photos again.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Just more of the same.

1. Everyone's had the flu except us and I think it's hiding just around the bushes, and coming.
2. I might vote for Hillary. You know, spice things up.
3. Medical claims, scanners, and $8 bucks an hour should have never been invented.
4. I love my little online journal here. Goodbye private thoughts, hello not only public lists, but COMMENTS. Welcomed, addable ones.
5. Edward is such a good man. I dream of him. Thank you, Stephenie Meyer.
6. Why Why WHY did I move one block from Cafe Rio? Their $2.50 fresh chips and salsa will be the reason for completely losing what my body once was.
8. I can't count.
9. They're holding open auditions this week for the Lehi Chorale. Anybody??
10. If I had a bunch of money, I would spend it on fresh food, a piece of forest, and beauty treatments.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

It's just the way I am.

I am one of those people who constantly embarrasses themselves. I have tact about 80% of the time. The other 20%, I say too much, without thinking, too soon, too late, too loud. And for nothing but a good laugh. Or I stand up in testimony meeting and am so nervous that instead of getting to the point, I start telling funny stories. Not good. Jacob knows this and tries to help me and also has his own little spells of the same.

Telling people embarrassing stories about myself helps me heal. Because usually people don't say what they really think, they say things like, "That's really funny", or "Sarah, you're the best", or "Ya, I've done that before, too", and it helps me feel better about myself, even if it's not true.

A couple of things: You never want to guess if the older of two ladies is a grandmother or a mother. You never want to assume someone's pregnant. You never want to be in the Relief Society Presidency, sit up in the front of R.S. every week facing 40 women, and take role during the opening prayer (or sneak fruit snacks out of your bag during the lesson). Not good. You never want to lie to your neighbor that you're too busy to watch her kids, and then play at the park right next to your house. You never want to be at the grocery store checkout with screaming kids, using WIC coupons, and buying a pregnancy test.

Alright, enough about my past. Something that I did a few weeks ago: I got to church 15 minutes early to play the organ (I have so many embarrassing organ stories, it's ridiculous). I start with the prelude music. dum hm hm dum dum da dum, nice and slow and pretty. At about five minutes til the hour, the bishopric is seated on the stand, the deacons are in place to pass the sacrament and our ward has an eager 40-50 people already seated for Sacrament meeting. I reach over to my bag and pull out my granola bar. It's the nutty kind, with chewy honey and oats and almonds and peanut butter stuff on the bottom. The Costco ones. I'm taking chomp after chomp in between hymns and looking down, I can feel lots of eyes on me. But come on, people, a organist has gotta eat. No one knows when I'll eat next and I can feel it will probably be in about 4 hours when church is over. So I'm meeting gazes with a smile and plugging along to Joseph Smith's First Prayer with my mouth full. I finish and take a swig of my water bottle. Yum. Breakfast completed and all done before 9a.m. The service starts and about half way through TESTIMONY MEETING I realize it's Fast Sunday. DUUUUUUUH.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Anniversary

Zee Flowers

Dork 1

Dork 2

Dork 3

The Inn


Six years. Six year of joy, laughter, vacations, children, some throbbing pain, some indecision, some over-decision, some rainbows, some under-eating, some over-eating, some cherishing, some taking-for-granted, some absolute moments of truth, a stupid purchase here and there, lots of real estate, some extended family, and most of all: lots of tender tender love.

I met Jake at UVSC one day when he sat with my friend at the lunch table. I went to talk to my friend hoping Jake would check it while I walked by him. I put on my best "Super cute, funny, flirty Sarah". No takers. He was very unfriendly, unnoticing and super boring. I couldn't figure him out. He must have thought he was way too cool for me. When he started working at the place I worked (Modus Media in Lindon, UT) he was confoundingly friendly and very very funny. I asked him if he remembered me from our meeting at UVSC. I learned that no, he didn't remember. ("HE DIDN'T REMEMBER ME??") He had been hospitalized with a concussion from a Snowboarding accident and the six weeks following the accident, he was angry and non-motivated and couldn't remember much (yes, definitely him at the lunch table). I thought, well, alright, if there was any excuse to use it would be that one.

So we were friends for about 6 months before we started dating (how did we hold out so long? He had a girlfriend). We couldn't leave eachother's sides after that, so we would be found sleeping on the floor of my apartment, in the car, on the front porch, in his apartment in a sitting position. We would just fall asleep trying to be together until 4 or 5 a.m. The first two weeks of dating I had to drop 12 of my 15 credits and only kept my Creative Writing class because it was at 1pm. He would take me to school, and wait for me outside my class. We would walk to the car together, and would have to go our separate ways to work waiting until the LAST minute possible. After work he would come to my house and we would be together for many hours. I remember one morning at about 3 a.m., we were falling asleep and we decided we needed something to keep us awake (so he didn't have to go home), so I spent an hour or two in the living room of my duplex teaching him how to do The Worm (it's a breakdance move).

He proposed on the top of Snowbird Mountain Resort in June of 2001. I gave him an emphatic yes. We were married in the Oakland Temple August 14th, 2001. Those were such tender memories. We had our reception in my hometown of Eureka, California and were on our way to the Florida Coast the next morning for our Honeymoon. I can't live without him and find myself in awe of him in so many small moments in our lives.

He graduated from the U of U in December 2004 when Gracie wasn't even two yet, we moved to Arizona for a year, and came back to Utah last spring.

He's the kind of person that says things like,
"Sarah, I promise to make you laugh every day of our entire lives... .... [awkward silence]........ ........... ...
C'Mon, LAUGH!!"

Friday, August 10, 2007

I love Flashbacks !! August 2006 . . . . .



And the winner is.....

Jake and I tried to find the funniest picture of 2006. Excluding the normal kid photos (naked bums, snotty noses, toddler food fights), this is what he chose. Jake and his dad making a "funny scared" face. Which, is not the funniest part. The funniest part is that an hour after the Smylie family photo shoot started, we all saw a strange animal moving in the waves just close to us. Not a shark. Not a seal. Not a sting ray. It was an Alligator the size of a barge. Which was discovered AFTER Austin (needing to carry on the Steve Irwin saga) jogged into the ocean wanting to "get up close to the dolphin". Which wasn't a dolphin.
So much for letting a picture speak for itself.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Grace's "Dance Recital"

"Sashe"

"The Fall"...

"The Looking at my Underwear and The Tackle"...

"The Solo"...

Sunday, August 05, 2007


Lots of kissing going on...

p.s. does anyone know a good video website? I have tried to upload Grace's dance recital videos to google and youtube, but they are too big I think...

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Achieving Poetic Excellence

OH MY GOODNESS I might just post more than once a week- it's a MIRACLE. Actually, it's 2a.m. That's the miracle. So I work from home late into the night, usually, because that's when things get quiet enough for me to start working. I do this boring medical coding stuff... and my brain swells with intelligence. It's MIND STIMULATING. Kind of like, "how many pieces of red licorice can I eat per coding batch?", or "how fast can I run downstairs to get a glass of ice water while stopping to take Ruby to the potty and then run up, clean the bathroom and rush back to the computer before my screensaver pops up and I have to enter my password again and realize I forgot my water in the bathroom so run to get it and then sign in again and start working?".
I should be banned, banned, banned, from the computer past midnight. This is a ramble and a half.
I went to the hospital tonight to see a friend who was sick. I must watch too much Grey's Anatomy... I was seriously having these weird day dreams while walking down the halls... like, where are all the surgeons hiding? I know they're here somewhere. And Denny's ghost? Must be here around me. And where's McDreamy? The one time this whole year that I've been to the hospital, I can only assume there must be something scandalous happening...
Went to a concert in Provo afterward with some girlfriends. We walked for a block in the rain to this old place that used to be called the "Wrapsody". It's come a long way and lost one of its bathrooms along the way, but the music was good and it brought back some memories. The Utah desert smelled rainy tonight. It's a bitter smell like wet metal, and asphalt, and dusty rain. It's nice. Then I came back to finish my work for the night. And here I am torturing the lining of my eyes once again. I'm going to hate myself in the morning.

The girls usually wake me in the morning with requests for juice and waffles and lots of general whining that I cannot pretend to ignore else I eventually erupt in bad-mom-ness. If I answer at first request, they don't become as obnoxious, so that will be my target.
Speaking of Target, found a great polka-dot skirt there today. They were out of all the good sizes (apparently summer is almost over), so I had to buy two sizes too big, but that gives me more room for dessert now, doesn't it?