Seattle

Did you know Seattle was the first city in the world to play a Beatles song on the radio? And did you know it is illegal to walk about in public in Seattle if you have a cold? And did you know Seattle built the first revolving restaurant in 1961? And one more thing, did you know Seattle sells more sunglasses per capita than any other major city in the nation?! (Kind of funny for a city that rarely sees the sun.) And what about this one, according to Elliot, if you were to fall asleep and suddenly wake up in Washington, you'd really think you're in Norway. I didn't know all of that either but what I do know is that Seattle is one energetic, fun, jazzy, beautiful city. Caleb and I were so lucky to get away for a few days with our bcff (best couple friends forever) to go see Caleb's good friend/mission buddy get married. We stayed in the Waterfront Marriott and the word "waterfront" couldn't describe the hotel any better, it was literally right on the ocean. I was also able to catch up with some cousins who I hadn't seen in years. We were long overdue for a vacation so it was so nice to relax, listen to music, tell stories, laugh, and explore a place we had never been before.

The first night there we ate at a seafood grill right on the ocean. From where we were sitting we could watch the ferry boats load and unload. It was the coolest thing to watch. People would be driving on the city streets one minute and then drive right on to these boats the next minute. I hadn't ever seen that before and I'm sure most people in Seattle would think I'm a freak but it was so cool! Maybe they would think snow plows were pretty cool if they came to Utah.
Our peeps. A bunch of Layton boys came up to Seattle for the Real game, so it was fun to see some of them in Seattle.
The handsome prince charming, Ben, and his lovely bride Katie. Katie Holm is now her married name and if you didn't catch it, she is married to a ben, pretty sweet I think. Their wedding was so beautiful and they are such a cute couple. Easy to see they are happily in love.
Ben and Caleb were nicknamed "the twin towers" on their mission... can you see why?
A wedding isn't a wedding without dancing. You know it.
Space Needle.
The cutest couple in the world, jtlyk. Photo courtesy E&E photography.

Our drive home consisted of this. Everyone who knows me knows that I despise nothing more than snowy, slippery, cold driving weather! Caleb drives way too fast in this type of weather for me to stay at ease, thus I did most of the driving. At one point my average speed was 15 mph. Caleb put our hazards on because I was going so slow. Once he suggested that we might get pulled over for going too slow, I tapped on the gas a little harder.
Despite the Idaho State Police having nothing better to do than to give the man and I EACH a speeding ticket - merry christmas to us- we had a great time! Emily and Elliot are famous for making us laugh. It's always a good time when we're with them and we're not looking forward to them moving away next year. :(
And because we have had several requests, I need to post these pictures. Sorry they're only a month late. On boo day this year, Caleb's dream came true, he became black. Caleb and I hosted our first real party, a murder mystery dinner date night. It was a great night with the friends we love most and look forward to the many more parties to come.

Princess for a day... again

I'm back, jtlyk (just to let you know) and jtlyk my husband made that one up and it is totally spreading like wild fire so you should use it too, but back to the first jtlyk we don't have internet at our home right now. And the school district internet service filters out tons of stuff including pictures on blogger, so here I am sitting at UVU finally writing. So, do you all remember the story about my wedding photographer?! If not then let me remind you... he got paid bucco bucks and did a horrible job! Yes, we got some good pictures from our wedding day, but the whole story is just plain ridiculous to say the least. So here's the deal, from the very beginning. My man and I decided to have our reception at The Chantelly Mansion in Layton. The very first time I went there to meet with the coordinator, I fell in love with a wedding album that was displayed there. Head over heels type thing... cover to cover the book was filled with anything a girl could ever want in her wedding album. The pictures were perfect. The coordinator went on to tell me about how that album won "Utah Wedding Album of the Year" and continued to blabber on about how wonderful this photographer was. WAS IS THE KEY WORD IN MY LAST SENTENCE! So I meant with this photographer. I told him I loved candid photos. His reply was something like oh great we have a package that works perfect for you. (Total salseman looking back!) Grrrr. And in this package my assistant, who is a great photographer, will be the peson on your wedding day walking around capturing those "candid" moments you love. So along comes our wedding day and guess what, no assistant! I had to remind our photographer we paid for the princess package which covered the cost of a 2nd photographer. He then handed a camera to his wife! In addition, Caleb and I did the whole pre-shoot thing, totally reccomend it, and at this pre-shoot thing we were supposed to do my bridals. Somehow my photographer "forgot", and when I asked him when we were going to start shooting bridals he said he had another appointment he had to be to in 20 minutes! Lame! And I won't even get started about the pictures being pixilated in our wedding album. So, luckily Caleb has a best friend named Sam, a friend who knows how to take really really REALLY good photos, and a friend who was kind enough to let us take a whole Saturday away from his life to do a shoot! So here they are.

P.S. Every girl deserves to be a princess for a day again. There's just something magical about putting on that white dress and getting all dolled up.

Caleb told me to work the camera, I tried.

I prayed so hard, and it worked, the sunset was perfect.



Need a photographer?! Call Sam. He did soooo great. These pictures are jpg format, so not the clearest/greatest resolution. Sam gave us a c.d. with over 500, yep I said that right, 500 pictures on it. And the fastest way to get all 500 on a cd is by uploading them as jpegs, so once I narrow down my favorites Sam will do the whole touch up thing and the pictures will be better quality. Maybe just a reason to post them twice. :) Totally kidding. And Emily a deal is a deal. I updated now you get to blog! Welcome to the blogging world! Also, did everyone see Nie Nie on Oprah and ball like I did? She's amazing.

And one more thing, the first couple out of our gang had their baby! Max is his name. He is super super cuter. Caleb is already jealous of him because he came out one little toned (toned in the muscle areas that is) dark haired, cute, handsome boy.

We got to see him when he was only a day old. Congrats to Danny and Jessie and thanks for the picture (again).

Hold it, hold it, hold it........Danny Stinks

I am sorry to any other viewers of my wife's blog. I will only bash my friend once and then be a gentleman and keep to my own blog. (http://lamegreen.blogspot.com/ trust me it is awesome)

Anyways, Danny McKinnley gets on his "Wife's" blog and makes an absurd comment about my grammar skills. I will say I am not the best, but "School House Rock Boy" when did you become King of grammar and listen to everything I say? (You might notice that is a run-on sentence, what's the song for that School House Rock?)

Secondly, the blog off was for the trip that we took like 2 months ago. You blogged and put pretty pictures and everything. I didn't blog about that. I blogged about more important issues at hand. Oh and sorry if there aren't any pictures or coloring books on there. I will keep that in mind for my next post for those who can't read that well.

Thirdly, I am going back to the first accusation again. When have you just sat there and listened to me. If you are talking about Text Messages this accusation needs to be deleted from the records. Who has good grammar in texts? I don't think any one does JTLYK! (Just To Let You Know, I made that one up. Tell your kids. Use it its, oh sorry School House Rock, it's awesome!)

Lastly, I want to leave a good part of this post because my sweet loving awesome beautiful princess school teacher wife will probably want to delete this if I dont have anything nice on it. (I so want to punch you right now Danny. Hooks AWAY!)

On Saturday Lauren and I woke up with the determination of buying a car. We have been wanting to get a Cross Over for a while and we just haven't been able to make it work. So after talking to one of my friends at work, I knew how we could get the car we wanted.

We went over to Ken Garff Nissan "Last of the Little Guys"... wait... wait for it... "We Bend Over Backwards". (Maybe I don't know). Anyways, we went there and started to test drive the Muranos that they had there. We fell in love almost instantly. None of them were black :( You know how Lauren is about having thiings that are black. Black car, black shoes, black toe nail polish, black husb... Moving on. We looked at a few and then crunched the numbers and walked away as owners of our Sweet New MURANO! It isth stho awesthome! Like OMG. (That's Oh My Gosh Danny and not a Typo!) But I am sure you all want to see a picture of it. Well in spite of Danny I will not post one for him... Only Jessie and Max can look. CLOSE YOUR EYES DANNY!

Ok Ok sorry to dissappoint. (You're so lucky Danny that my wife just got home and I can't seem to post a picture that fast!) Picture will come soon. You stink so much danny I can smell you from Centerville!

sMiLe

Today is Friday and I am leaving my job with a smile on my face. Yes I love my job and I love what I get to do everyday. If I had to do any job in the world without pay, I would be a teacher, a Health one of course. My students have changed my life and already made me a better person. There is so much I want to tell everyone and soon I will. But for now just know that I leave my job a little better, a little happier, a little more humble, and yes I leave with a smile on my face. A smile which reminds me that the next day I get to wake up and do it all again. And that makes me, soooo lucky.

I'm Officially Mrs. Perkins for 8 hours of the Day!

Yep Mrs. Perkins. I'm still not used to that, I even introduced myself a few times to my students as Lauren. Oops, I'm working on that one. So ready or not, school is here! Tonight was back to school night, and I survived! Wahoo. Tomorrow is the first day of school and I am actually really excited! All I want to do is make a difference. To me, health is life. I hope to teach my students how to make wiser, healthier decisions. I want to help them contemplate the "is it worth it" factor of life. Is it worth it to wear your seatbelt? Is it worth it to get in the car after you had a few drinks? Is it even worth it to drink? Is it worth it to get high? Is it worth it to hang out with that certain group of friends? My classroom, thanks to my bff, is really starting to come a long. I have a before picture, and almost an after picture. Oh and the cute little dancers who think I am some awesome dancer who gets to be their instructor, bless their hearts. They made me nervous because they all probably dance better than I do, but I am choosing to have the Tigger attitude on the situation and make the best. Heck, how lucky am I to have my dream job?! Enough said.

Caleb and I were fortunate to have one last little getaway with his family before the big year starts. We went up to the beautiful Bear Lake to meet his family. We stayed in a condo at ideal beach and had a grand time. Despite the cold weather, and the even colder water, yep it was like winter but in the summer, we did have an ideal time. Thanks to his whole fam for the awesome chit-chats, delicious food, raspberry shakes, fun games, funny jokes, and great memories. (Sarah did you know they make maple syrup?! Ha ha.)

And one more thing. Today in my faculty meeting, Mrs. Ungerman showed this video about Stephen Covey's philosophy of the 90/10 principle. This is exactly what my mom has taught me my whole life. I would recommend watching it. Attitude is powerful and at times it can make or break everything in life!

Cabin Getaway

Caleb and I were able to put work aside and take a much needed vacation to spend a few days and create new memories with our greatest friends. Lucky for us, Emily's parents were kind enough to let us crash at their cabin for a few nights. Each night was spent playing games of ticket to ride, developing even more game hate towards each other, story telling, and of course laughing until our stomachs hurt and tears were coming out of our eyes.

Here's a picture of pretty much the coolest people in the world.
Danny McKinley and his cute pregno wife Jessie, Braden who will only be womanless for a few more weeks, Elliot and Emily Hales, us, and Dave Wangsgard and his cute girl Sarah.

Boys will be boys and find joy in...
Shooting paintballs at each other, hot pink ones I must say.

Jumping off the dock to test how cold the water in the lake is. I guess there's nothing exciting about simply putting your hand in the water to see how cold the water is... great photo opp taken by Jessie

Showing off for the ladies. See the tennis ball?! Awesome photo thanks to Jessie again.

Taking their wives out to dinner at Chili's. Funny side not. I asked our waitress to take this picture. After the picture she turned to me and asked, "Are you two together?" And I guess I looked at her with a confused look and said "What, am I with him?" as I point to Caleb. Obviously she meant Caleb considering he was the only person I was sitting by. But the question caught me so off guard because we're married, and I thought maybe the rings, the arm around the shoulder and us paying together on the same ticket pointed towards a theme. Maybe not? She probably thinks I don't want to even claim my own husband as mine. Hello, I love to show my man off any chance I get. Kind of funny though. We laughed.

So she took this picture of us, because "we're together." :) Like Caleb's shirt? It says smoking is toxic, I've taught him well.

Kissing snakes, but more importantly finding an opportunity to show
off their muscles.

Showing off some more. Yep, that's a kneeboard, hence the word knee, Dave didn't understand. He turned the thing into a feet board.

Caleb also found time to show off. He was trying to be all cool by standing in the canoe. His friends like to say he does that because it sinks or tips over when he sits down. I'm beginning to think they are all right.
Here's the before...
And this is always what the after picture looked like. Just kidding, Caleb was fine standing in the canoe, it was when people came by on the waverunner to create big waves, that the thing would tip over.

When walking downtown in Jackson, Caleb found the perfect snack for himself.

Other highlights of the trip included the float down the Snake. I stayed back with Jessie and Emily to have some much needed girl talk. I think there's a reason why most people sit in a fishing boat or float in a raft to go down that thing, they came back with blue lips, goose bumps, and shaky knees. This picture made me laugh, they were all trying SOOO hard to get the air out of the tubes. They kept finding new ways to sit on the tubes to push the air out, but their methods just weren't working too well.

As you can see, we didn't have fun at all. Totally kidding. This was one of those trips where you couldn't wait for it to come, and then it came, and went away way too fast. Driggs is a beautiful place. Palasades, the lake we went to, could be called Paradise. That was the lake my dad grew up by and is the lake where he spent is boyscout days learning how to ski. I told him he is in so much trouble for never taking his children there, and he better take us all there soon. Living in a one stoplight town would be so hard, and I could never do it, but having places like Victor, Idaho that you can visit to get away from life with some of the people you love most is so nice. Who ever knew that people in smalltowns serve icecream with square scoopers rather that circular shaped scoopers?! Now we know. Despite the bees, my ultimate fear, and mice, my other ultimate fear, the cabin was great. Yep that's right, mice. Caleb, Jes and I saw a mouse in the cabin. Danny heard a scream and thought it was a girl, but nope it was Caleb. Caleb grabbed the fire sword thing to stab the mouse, but Danny beat him to the punch. He hit the thing with a box, looked at it, and the mouse went into seizure mode, feet in the air, body shaking, and it died. Suddenly the mouse that grossed Jes and I out, made us feel sad that it died like that. It must be a girl thing and being able to kill a mouse simply by looking at it must be a guy thing. :) The boys cooked the entire vacation. And by using the word cook I'm talking, pancakes, waffles, hasbrowns, eggs, barbecued chicken, steak, potatoes and the list goes on. We ate better meals on the trip then we have all summer.
Palasades, a.k.a. Paradise
She loves him, he loves her.
Thanks for the memories babe!

Indeed they are heroes!

As you can all see below, Caleb thinks I need to post more about our lives. I agree, but unfortunately we are camera cordless right now, don't know what happened to it, but I'm sure we'll find it soon. And just as a side note, I'm sure we will find it soon because we are moving soon, August 22nd to be exact! Wahoo! So here's my pictureless post for now.
Something got me thinking... Last week Caleb and I were driving down good ol' I-15 southbound near American Fork main street exit when suddenly a car coming towards us northbound flipped in the air, bounced off the barrier, and landed in the southboud fast lane. How did it happen? I don't know, but what I do know is those barriers don't always do their job, and unfortunately someone's life was probably ruined that night. Luckily we had just switched lanes and we weren't driving in the carpool lane anymore because we had to exit off the freeway to drop off Luke who was riding with us. Anyways, we've all been in situations like this. It was one of those moments in time that gives you the shakes, forces your blood to pump at 90 mph, makes your legs feel like jello, and your heart skips a beat or two. The first words out of my mouth were, "Caleb go and see if those people are alive." I feel extra sad Caleb and Luke had to see that and I know it brought back horrible memories. We said many prayers that night. Unfortunately Caleb and I have seen a few bad accidents these past summer months on the freeway. We now know it's never a good sign when you're driving on the freeway one way, and there is no traffic coming towards you the other way. That is a creepy kind of haunting feeling. We've seen lifeflight on the freeway 2 times in the last four weeks. So sad! So back to what I've been thinking. Last spring I finished my CPR class for school and now I have these cards that give me the the title of a certified first responder. I am trained to stop in situations like these and hold heads still until help arrives, give CPR if needed, reduce shock, and most importantly calm people down and try to make a very bad situation a little better. Uhh, I don't think I could ever do that. It takes a special person to do that! Someone who can step in and assure people that everything will be okay when their world comes crashing in on them. Anyone who knows me knows I don't deal well with bodily fluids especially snotty noses. I am also a very blunt person and I would probably say things that wouldn't calm people down, but rather make the situation worse. For these reasons, it's fair to say I'm kind of the black sheep of the fam. My blood must be different than my siblings and here's why. My sister and brothers have at some point devoted their entire lives to saving and helping other peoples lives. I'll start with Aubrey. Aubrey was an EMT for Farmington City Fire for several years. She went on several calls up Farmington Canyon, we all know what Farmington Canyon + Friday Nights + alcohol + ATV's equals. And then there's Mike. Mike who served as a police officer in Dodge City, Kanasas. Dodge city... the city that has a higher crime rate (per capita) than Miami, Florida. Mike who was the first to the scene to start CPR and comfort a family when a three year old little girl was backed over by a bronco in the snow-cone parking lot. And of course Andy, Andy whose whole life career has been spent and will be spent in an Emergency Room, helping people when their world is crashing down on them. And the best part about this story... they love helping others and they wouldn't want things any other way. They know how to take control and calm a situation down when all heck has broken lose. So here's to them. My heroes.
It's a pretty sweet honor to be called a hero. I googled the word 'hero' and here's what I found.

• A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life.

And I said this post would be pictureless, but I love this picture of Carlee and Tessa going to visit Andy at work in their costumes. Never knew skunks could be so cute. So here's to you Aubs, Andy and Mike, thanks for making really bad situations a little better. The world needs more people like you.