Memory Lane

This a fun little post I found on my friend Star's blog. What you do is, leave a comment on my blog and leave one memory you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a lot or a little, anything you remember!
Then, repost the instructions on your blog. I tag all ya'll.

Bummer Alert

I'm having a hard day. I don't feel like doing much. Here's the proof.

Number of items on my work to-do list today: 33
Number of items on my work to-do list that have been checked off:10
Number of blogs I've looked at today: 20
Number of wasted tax dollars spent on my paycheck today: Not that many because I don't get paid much anyway.

Nevertheless, sorry for wasting your tax dollars today folks. I'm just not in the mood for helping families and kids I guess. I'll be back tomorrow. I'm going to Maverik.

And so it begins...

Seth started 3rd year, which means he is now in the hospital doing rotations. Monday was his first day and ended up having to stay through the night until 2 pm the next day. Seriously. His first rotations in Pediatrics at Primary Children's. The first three weeks he'll be working in Inpatient. This means every fourth night he will be on-call and will have to stay at the hospital. Monday night as I was bored home by myself and scared going to bed by myself I thought, "This year is NOT going to be fun." It's the fourth night since Monday so I'm in bed right now, again by myself, trying to think of things to make me so tired that I won't even care that I'm home alone. I think next I'm going to watch Friends until I fall asleep. I feel super bad that Seth is going to be up all night and still through tomorrow. Good news is he will have Sunday off so he'll have a day and half to recupe. Wait, that isn't really good news. Only a day and half of a break? Seth's had a super good attitude about not getting sleep, which is a little surprising because he's a total stickler about getting 8 hours of sleep a night. When I came home from work on Tuesday Seth had just woken (is that a word?) up from a nap. He was still in his scrubs and I couldn't resist but take a picture, he totally looks like a doctor, don't ya think?

Happy Birthday Lanxie Jo!

Today is my sister Lauren's 19th birthday! She totally rocks and here's why:

1. She was born during Wimbledon. My mom was watching a tennis match up until she had to deliver.

2. She's the middle child and always the peacemaker as most middle children are.

3. She started playing soccer when she was just 4 or 5.

4. She couldn't say her "R"s for quite a while, like until 1st grade, or fuwst gwade. She was in Ms. Gwegowy's class and her best fwiend was Mawtha.

5. When she was little she lived off candy and bread. "Carbo Canx"

6. She is way good at any sport she tries.

7. Growing up she always had lots of guys friends who would invite her to play sports with them.

8. She loves to ski.

9. She plays soccer at Utah Valley University.

10. She has an academic and soccer scholarship.

11. She definitely got the best grades out of anyone in our family.

12. She was a prom and homecoming queen candidate in high school.

13. She's been a great role model to teammates, friends, and family.

14. She was asked to give a prayer at a church-wide broadcasted fireside for the youth! She got to meet President Hinckley and received a thank-you letter from him after.

15. She has a rock solid testimony of the gospel and has very high standards.

16. She is super sensitive and really cares about others.

17. She once broke her ankle by jump-roping backwards down our driveway.

18. She is really good at giving you the silent treatment when she is mad. (Which is rare by the way)

19. Kids LOVE her. She is naturally so good with kids and they are drawn to her.

20. She was voted Most Gangsta by her Senior class. "Lanxsta Gangsta"

21. She is my parents favorite child. For real.

Those are just SOME of the awesome things about my sister. Happy Birthday Lauren, Baisey Banks and Biddle, Laurie Lanx, Jinkin Janx, Lanxie Jo, Stinky Stanx, Skanky Kanx, Carbo Canx, Candy Canx, Grumpy Ganx, Lanx!

Love you lots!

(p.s. I didn't put anything on here about your well-endowed chestal area like you thought I would. oops, now I did.)

Run, Sleep, Repeat- Part Tres

This was my third year as a Wasatch Back Relay participant. The first two years I did it with Seth and a team of random friends and acquaintances. This year I wanted to put together a team of all girls. Every year while doing it I have thought, "Why am I doing this?" but then somehow I find myself loving it and keep going back for more.

Mandz at the starting line!



Jamie and me at after our firsts legs. Look at our cute shirts!

This year was a blast, although we had a few minor mishaps the week prior and one minor incident during the race. Also, during the two hours we were able to sleep some random person kicked me (I was sleeping on the grass) and then some ladies came and stood over me and told me I needed to move or else I was going to get run over.



Working Girls-Amber, Abbie, and Me-We all work together at DCFS. We dressed up in Diva attire to cross the finish line.


For all of you who are unfamiliar with the Wasatch Back, it goes from Logan to Park City, about 180 miles. You have a team of 12 and starting from Logan you always have one person running until you reach Park City. Each team member runs 3 times with an average distance of 3 - 8 miles. You literally only get about 2 hours to sleep, but somehow this is fun.



Abs passing the baton off to Kacey. Abbie totally rocked this race. She had super hard legs but did way awesome. She's a little drenched in this pic, but it's not sweat. Diva's don't sweat, they glow.

This year our team name was "The Diva Dozen" and we had super cute shirts made by one of our team mates, Amanda Ogaard.

I forgot to mention that last minute we had a team member drop out (we actually had two drop out last minute) but this particular member was going to provide one of the cars. Luckily, my dad knows really awesome people like Tom LaPoint, yes that's right, of LaPoint Ford. Mr. LaPoint hooked us up with a way nice truck to use for the race for FREE! If you ever are need of a Ford truck, definitely go to LaPoint Ford first!

Half of the Dozen-Jamie Johns, Me, Kacey Ludlow, Abbie Ogaard, Amanda Ogaard, and Nicole Jamie's Roommate (I don't know her last name)

The other Half Dozen (not pictured)-Jade (Smith) Pew, Sierra (Smith) Pugh, Amber Rudd, Amy (Robbins) Petersen, Ashleee Andreasen, and Jessica LifeSaver (not her last name either, but she was our last minute girl who saved the team!)


I'm thinking I will take next year off, but that is probably a lie because I said the same thing last year.

Here's a special little treat from this guy:

Post-Boards

Seth survived the boards and this is what he looked like when he got home. He said he thinks he did okay, but thinks he now has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because of it. All week he has been thinking of questions he may or may not have missed.

The Boards

Seth takes the boards today and man, does he seem nervous. He's been studying for the boards since he started Medical School, but has beens studying like a maniac for the past 5 weeks. Don't worry that he set 4 alarms this morning so he'd wake up on time. I've never known Seth to sleep through an alarm, but he just really wanted to make sure he didn't sleep in. I laugh because he gets so nervous, but always does well on tests.I am so excited to see this book thrown away! Not to mention the bazillion flash cards we have around our place. I admire Seth, I could never study this much, for this long. Heck, I couldn't even comprehend one flashcard, it's honestly like reading Japanese.

Thanks to all the friends and family who have encouraged Seth and wished him good luck on this big day! We'll let you know how it goes in about 4 weeks!

Weekends should always be like this

This weekend was awesome. I ran a 10K with my dad, had lunch with friends, had date night with Seth, and got new carpet!!!




The awesomeness started with waking up dark and early Saturday morning to run the Crack of Dawn 10k with my dad in Emigration Canyon, downhill of course. I finished under an hour and thought I was pretty cool for doing that. I passed a bunch of people on the last 2 miles, which NEVER happens, so I thought I was even cooler for that part. I have experienced getting passed on many a races, but have never really experienced the pleasure of making others eat my dust. I thoroughly enjoyed it even if the people I passed were double my age. It was a rainy and cloudy day Saturday morning, so the Crack of Dawn thing didn't really pan out. My dad did awesome too, but he would deny that. We treated ourselves to the always delicious Einstein's bagel afterwards.




After the race I waited for our new carpet! Such an exciting moment in my life as a home owner. It was a little awkard however because there was really nowhere for me to be because all of our stuff was crammed into the living room while the bedrooms were being carpeted. I kinda just sat in a corner and pretended to work on my Sunday School lesson/watch t.v. The carpet looks awesome and our apartment is starting to smell less and less of old people.




Saturday afternoon I went to lunch with my dear old friends, Jamie and Amber. I've been friends with Jamie since the first grade. That's 18 years folks, yes, 18 years. I have so many funny memories with Jamie. I'll have to dedicate a post to that. Jamie, Amber, and I became BFFs from choir class in 7th grade. I think Jamie and I thought Amber had cute clothes or something and decided we should get to know her. Ha! The three of us went to lunch at the most wonderful restaurant in the world, Trio. I am totally obsessed with the place. I rode my bike to the restaurant with gas prices being like $50 a gallon. It was only a like 6 or so blocks away, but it's really hard to ride a bike with a big purse. We ate amazing food and talked for like 2 hours and I didn't want it to end. I love getting together with old friends.

Saturday night Seth and I went to the temple and then went to dinner at The Garden at JSMB. Seth decided the restaurant felt like a cafeteria and decided we shouldn't ever go there again. I thought it was okay, but our server wasn't the nicest. I think she was mad because I only ordered soup and therefore she figured I wouldn't leave a good tip. Loser.

Dearest Uncle Sam,

WHERE. IS. MY. MONEY?! I've tried to wait patiently, but I just can't do it anymore. I've had your generous gift earmarked for some fabulous IKEA flooring and I would really like to purchase it as soon as possible.

Now, I am just a lowly state employee and as you know I get paid beans. You can imagine my excitement when the news of a stimulus package came about.

I've been very good this year, please send me my money.

Sincerely,
Heidi

Happy Birthday Times Two!

Happy Birthday to two fabulous Herway women, Anita and Mel! I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful mother-in-law and sister-in-law! I definitely lucked out on the in-law department. I hope both of you have the best days ever and that you are spoiled and pampered to death, you definitely deserve it. Can't wait to spend time with both of you this summer and now in December too! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Weiners and S'mores

I know I just barely complained about not getting to have fun this summer, but Seth and I were actually able to get away a couple of weekends ago. We went down to southern Utah for a little weekend vacation. I use the term vacation loosely since my idea of "vacation" does not usually involve camping. It was however, a vacation from the daily grind. Seth wanted to go to southern Utah to get ideas for a business venture that he has been dreaming, thinking, and talking about for the past several months. Stay tuned for details in the next several months.




We took the long route to SoTah (Southern Utah). Here's Seth in Panguitch, enjoying a Sanguitch.

We made a stop in Bryce Canyon National Park and bought an Annual National Parks pass for 80 bones. Turns out it's not such a great deal since you can get into a lot of National Parks for free. We're going to make the most out of this pass by visiting as many of the National Parks as we can within driving distance. We're living on the egde.



We spent our first night at Sand Hollow reservoir in Hurricane (pronounced Hurricun by locals). We didn't really fit in with the rest of the crowd since we forgot our ski boat, truck, 54 foot RV, 4-wheelers, and dirt bikes. The scenery was beautiful though.


We spent the next day in Zions National Park and hiked Angels Landing. I had fun freaking Seth out by standing close to the edge. I thought it was funny, Seth did not.




By the way, Euros LOVE national parks! We saw a lot of them in both Bryce and Zions.

That night we camped along the Virgin River and had a traditional camping dinner. Weiners and S'mores. We were very unprepared and didn't have any cooking or eating gear. We roasted our weiners the good old fashioned way with sticks we found.



Sunday we stopped by my grandma's house to visit. This is what prompted my "wo is me" post from a couple of weeks ago.

We had a really good time and it was so great to be in the great outdoors for a couple of days. I was pretty impressed that I went two days without showering and handled it like a champ.

We also took the long route home and stopped by the Mountain Meadows Massacre site. Did anyone else that grew up in Utah think that it was a massacre of Mormons, not the other way around?

23 days til my next vacation and I can't wait!!!

She's 50 Ladies and Gentlemen!

My lovely mom turns the big 5-0 tomorrow. I am so grateful for my mom and totally look up to her in so many ways. Here are 50 wonderful things about my dear ol' mazsha.

1. She was born in Chester, Pennsylvania.
2. Grew up in Wilmington, Delaware.
3. She claims she could do pull-ups "forever" (we're not sure if we believe her)
4. She won a beauty contest as kid (or a Halloween costume contest, either way she was dressed up like a beauty queen).
5. She was horseback riding as a kid, and spooked her horse by screaming. The horse took off with her on it.
6. She first heard about the LDS church because she was in love with Donnie Osmond.
7. On a family trip to the West, they stopped at Temple Square. My mom filled out an information card.
8. Later that fall, 2 missionaries showed up at her front door.
9. Before she was baptized, she went to early morning seminary for a full year!
10. Her first day of church at an LDS ward, she wore a huge cross necklace around her neck. She couldn't figure out why everyone knew she wasn't a member.
11. She was baptized at 15 years old.
12. She was a homecoming queen candidate.
13. She found a great group of friends from her ward, and is still good friends with many of them to this day.
14. She graduated early from high school and went to college at BYU.
15. She did study abroad in Israel and got to go again a second time. Again, she made great friends there and is still friends with them too!
16. On her way back from Israel the first time, she toured Europe. She even visited her missionary boyfriend who was serving in Sweden. Ha!
17. She likes to bend the rules and push things to the limit.. (I love that about her!)
18. She met my dad in a student ward in SLC. My dad asked her out by sending her flowers and asked her out in the note that came with the flowers. My dad was really shy back then and never called my mom to follow up for the date. My mom had to call him to make sure the date was still on.
19. On Dec. 5th 1983, she became a mother to her favorite child.
20. She is a fabulous homemaker.
21. She makes world-famous mint brownies. They are in high demand at any family function or work party. It's funny though, because nobody in our immediate family likes them, not even her.
22. She makes the BEST missionary care packages. My brother was totally spoiled in El Salvador, I was spoiled in Russia, and she has also spoiled cousins who've served missions.
23. She loves watching my sisters play soccer.
24. She is her kids' biggest fan.
25. She loves tennis, both playing and watching. Lanx was born during Wimbeldon, which is probably why Lanx is my mom's true favorite child.
26. She lovews laying by the pool and getting tan. Mother like daughter.
27. She makes the most wonderful Sunday dinners. She loves having people over on Sundays and feeding them until they pop.
28. She loves a nice, cold Diet Pepsi.
29. She is very artistic and creative. We always had the best projects in school, because my mom practically did them for us.
30. She is a fabulous interior designer.
31. She's won awards at Parade of Homes.
32. She now is an interior designer for LDS temples.
33. She did the Nauvoo Temple.
34. She is a super hard and efficient worker. She can get things done 10 times faster and better than most people.
35. She's ultra-organized.
36. She is genuinely interested in other people.
37. She extremely empathetic toward others.
38. She cries in movies, while watching tv, commericials, and reading greeting cards.
39. She once missed an entire day of work to get caught up on episodes of 24.
40. She did the best braids in our hair when we were little.
41. She threw great birthday parties for us.
42. She took us to the pool practically everyday of the summer and has lots of dinners with fresh corn on the cob.
43. She's a movie buff. Loves, loves, loves them. Especially with movie theater popcorn, no butter please, but lots of salt.
44. She a talented seamstress. Pete and I have matching outfits to prove it.
45. She is a thoughtful gift giver.
46. She is always down for a pedicure.
47. She is beautiful and classy.
48. She always has gum.
49. She had a crush on Luke Staley's calves.
50. She stays in touch with old friends.

oops, too many great things, guess I'll keep going.

51. She loves Josh Groban.
52. She is often praised for the wonderful job she does at work.
53. She is very selfless
54. She has a strong testimony of the gospel and lives it everyday.
55. She's the #1 mom, sister, aunt, friend, daughter, mom-in-law, and wife!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I wish I had a picture to show you all my cutie mom, but luckily, most of you know what she looks like .

My New Fave Craze

Bikram Yoga. The hardest thing I think I've done. First off, I'm not very flexible so yoga is hard anyway, but when you turn the heat up to 110 degrees and ad 40% humdity, well that's just insane! I started going to Bikram Yoga (also known as Hot Yoga) last week and have gone three times since. It's awesome, everyone is in as little as possible and sweats like crazy. You wouldn't think it'd be that hard but it is. My first day they gave me a little orientation..."Make sure to breathe in and out through your nose so you don't pass out." "If you feel like you are going to faint or throw up, just kneel down, or lay on your back." "Have fun!" Knowing there was a very good possibility of puking or passing out, I was a little nervous. I didn't barf or pass out, and ended up loving the class! It's 90 minutes long and at the end you feel such a sense of accomplishment and you feel like you lost 5 lbs. in water weight. The only bummer is it's way expensive. I signed up for an intro. pass which was super cheap, but a regular pass is like $300 a month! It's pretty clever of them to charge you a super cheap intro package, get you to absolutely love it, then charge you an arm to continue! I highly recommend trying Bikram if you already haven't. There's one in Sugarhouse and Sandy.

No fair.

I came to an awful realization over the weekend and it hit me even harder as I was driving to work today. This is my first summer as a full-fledged, 9 to 5, working class adult. I'm a tad devastated about the whole thing. I realized this over the weekend when I realized that most people had just finished their finals and were starting their Summer of Fun 2008.

The past two summers have been some of the best summers of my life!! The summer Seth and I were dating we went to Seattle together for his BFFs wedding, then to Coronado to meet the Herway fam, then to Hebgen Lake, then to San Francisco with my family, then back to San Francisco to watch Seth compete in an Ironman competition. (I think that was the order they went in). Then the first summer we were married we went to Havasupai, Greece, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, and England. I know that I was VERY lucky to do all this fabulous things, but I think I got a bit spoiled because now I expect summers like this every summer!

I also have been very nostalgic today thinking about spending summers at my grandma's in St. George and going to the pool everyday and eating THE BEST lunches afterwards.

Now that I have to be a grown up and be responsible and Seth has to study for boards, all we get is a measly (sp?) 4 days of summer bliss. I'm at work right now and all I can think about is how bad I wish I was going to the pool everyday and eating Otter Pops. I can see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel though, because eventually I will have kids and I will be able to introduce them to the wonderful world of summers at the pool eating Otter Pops all day and playing night games at night.

Happy Birthday Fwiz O Biz

Today is my sister Taylor's 17th (weird!) Birthday! For some reason I don't have any recent pictures of her on my computer so I had to use this one from dinner last night. She refused to make a normal face, but this is pretty typical for her. Here are 17 things about Tatsie:

1. She's a way good soccer player. She plays on a great Comp. team and will be team captain of her high school soccer team this coming fall.
2. She knows the lyrics to like every song, even the rap songs.
3. She is very non-judgemental.
4. She is a friend to everyone and is interested in all types of people.
5. She is our family's comic relief.
6. She loves You Tube.
7. She makes me feel good about my clothing style by every Sunday asking, "I borrow?"
8. She LOVES CPK pizzas.
9. She is a great listener and always seems interested in what you have to say (except when she's texting).
10. She's obsessed with text messaging.
11. She's BEAUTIFUL!
12. She's very humble and doesn't like attention. (except she went through a phase of flexing her biceps a lot)
13. She drives a blue VW Bug with a Yo Amo El Salvador sticker.
14. She is way good with kids, they love her.
15. She worked a burger place called Take 5 for a few weeks. Someone ordered a Fresh Lime. She didn't know that a Fresh Lime was a drink and handed the guy a lime.
16. She has a ear for the piano. She took lessons for several years but can play a lot of songs by ear.
17. She has an eye for photography and is very artistically creative.

I have a couple more...
18. She had surgery when she was a baby to remove a big lump above her eye. Her nickname then was Lumpy Keeg.
19. She was super scared of spiders and tornadoes when she was little.
20. She is easily embarrassed by her family.
21. She is a GREAT sister!!

Happy Birthday Tay, Tay-Tay, Fwiz, Fwiz o Biz, Biz, Biznatch, Tatsie, Lumpy Keeg, Sqeak, Taylow, Taylor!