It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To

Birthdays are always great, but I have to say that my birthday this year "takes the cake." This year my birthday fell on a Saturday which meant I didn't have to go to work or partake of any non-birthday, normal routine-ness. We had the whole day to celebrate ME! ::wink:: What really made this birthday exceptional though was everything Michael did from sun-up to sun-down.

There is absolutely nothing better or more nostalgic than waking up to the smell of delicious bacon frying in a pan somewhere within the confines of your home. That was the fantastic aroma that floated into my room and forced my eyes open on the morning of my birthday. Michael fixed me a yummy breakfast of all my favorite breakfast items. Cinnamon toast, sausage with syrup on it, bacon, scrambled eggs and orange juice.


He asked me if I wanted my gift now or later, so of course I said "Now!" So he took out his phone and showed me the cutest pair of boots. He had taken some pictures I had on Pinterest of boots I liked and searched all over the mall to find ones that were the most similar. My jaw hit the ground almost immediately. Michael doesn't just hate shopping...he loathes it! It is the vain of his existence. So to find out that he had spent a couple hours doing nothing but searching every store in the mall for womens boots was the best gift of the day by far.

Michael then forced me to go take a relaxing shower and get ready while he cleaned the entire house. It was amazing!!! When I finally exited the bathroom my house sparkled and smelled so clean. It was like I had some super awesome self-clean mode on my house....or a really sweet husband who worked really hard :) Then he had me relax and watch TV while he cleaned the bathroom and shower and got ready himself.

Next, we went to the mall and I had the sweet gratification of getting the boots my little heart so desired without having to do all the work and annoying searching. I also got a new pair of flats for work because it was buy one get one 1/2 off and Michael was very persistent that I must need a second pair -lol-

(These are my beautiful new boots)

After that he took me to GameStop and I got to pick out a new game for the Wii! So I picked Epic Mickey. Equally easy and artsy...equaling a very Sarah-esque video game.

(notice the paintbrush in his hand?...like I said, it's a very Sarah game)

He was very cute about the whole thing. He wouldn't tell me where we were going when we were inside the mall. He just kept looking at the mall maps and pulling me along. He would even fake me out by passing a store and then yanking me around back into it really quick. Then we got me some new lotion from Bath and Body Works and afterward went to the coolest candy store ever. I can't remember the name, but they have all these fantastic candies I remember from when i was a kid like Milk Maids, Root Beer Float Barrels, those Caramel and Creme German candies and every other kind of candy you could ever imagine. You take a little basket and put however many of each candy you want in the basket. Then when you're done they weigh the candy and you pay per oz...kind of like all these yogurt places nowadays, but with CANDY!

For lunch we went to Jamba Juice which j'adore or for those non-French speaking readers, "I adore". Then I played my new video game with Michael for a couple hours whilst we sipped away on our smoothies. I even wore my new boots the whole time because I didn't want to take them off! Once I got the hang of it and was okay to be left alone Michael slipped off into the kitchen to make my surprise dinner. I wasn't sure what he was concocting in there but I knew I smelled Worcestershire sauce and garlic, which you can basically put on mud and I'd be a fan of it. But of course, being the magnificent chef that Michael is, the meal was way better than mud. We had delicious steaks, lemon and garlic asparagus and herb roasted potatoes + sweet potatoes. It. Was. So. Yummy.

I was then forced to continue playing my video game and to pick a movie to rent while Michael cleaned up. Knowing the chances for me to watch a chick flick without hesitation are far and few between I picked "Something Borrowed" for us to watch. After going to Red Box to get the DVD we came home and put candles on a tiny carrot cake Michael got for me (my favorite), sang Happy Birthday and ate our cake with Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.


I don't care if everybody else in the world thinks those things are disgusting together, but I enjoyed every bite because they are my favorites!! The movie was surprisingly good and if had Jim from The Office in it so of course Michael and I were fans. In the middle of the movie I got one last birthday surprise which was my favorite snack in the entire universe...homemade guacamole. Mmmm. I think I gained about 5 lbs on all the stuff Michael fed me all day, but it was so totally worth it.

I know that was a very long and rambling blog, but the jest of it is this. Awesome husband = Awesome birthday. The best part was that he had thought out every little part and that's what I really love most. Is telling that someone really thought about you. Thank you dear for the best of all 24 birthdays I've ever had :)

Bewitching Women of Faith

So I have been really bummed recently that I haven't gotten a calling in mine and Michael's new ward...even AFTER dropping some not so subtle hints to the Bishop. However my hint dropping did get Michael a calling as Sunday School Executive Secretary...so at least one of us has been utilized -lol-

Anyways, the Relief Society session of General Conference a few weeks ago got me thinking that I need to make Visiting Teaching my calling. And I don't think there's a time more opportune than now to do so. In the past my handouts have just been little quotes and such, but when I think back on the Visiting Teachers I really liked I remember that it was because I could feel a distinct effort in their lesson and little treats for me each month.So in an attempt to emulate that, this month I made my own unique little handout and am making my girls chocolate chip pumpkin cookies...complete with a festive jack-o-lantern plate.


Anyways, I didn't know if anyone else might want to use this handout I made, so I figured I could put it up for people to copy/download. I made it at 300 ppi so it should be large enough to vary any size handout you like.

Hopefully I will have something fun each month like this to post that others can use :)

ALIC Presents: Clippety Clobbered

I really enjoy my job, but going through the same motions day-in and day-out can get incredibly monotonous over time. So I am always looking for things to break up the day and make me laugh. One of the most consistent sources of success in this endeavor is reporting claims. I work for a workers' compensation company, so we cover employee injuries that happen on the job. Part of my job is reporting the claims we recieve to a national database for statistical reporting, rate adjustments, etc. To do this I get to read how each incident happened and the nature of the injury. I then assign it a bunch of standardized codes and total how much money we paid out for each aspect of the claim. In doing this, I often come across bizarre circumstances that can't help but make me laugh. Here are some recent ones that I just had to share.

(To maintain confidentiality I will not name names or companies in these incidents)

1) An employee was feeling nauseated so they ran to the bathroom to throw up. While over the toilet they fainted from disgust and fell onto the toilet, lacerating their head. They were later discovered passed out next to the toilet by a coworker. (Kind of sad, but pretty funny.)

2) An employee was carrying a box and slipped on ice. The box flew from their hands and smacked a coworker in the head. Two claims, one incident aka: two birds one stone (or box).

3) An employee working in a warehouse area was wearing a baseball cap and hoodie, with the hoodie pulled up on his head. Due to his restricted vision, he didn't see a large beam and walked straight into it,causing a laceration on his face.

4) (This one takes the cake.) A glasswork employee was trying to break a piece of thick plate glass. To do so, he removed his shoes, stood on the glasswork table and stomped on the glass, resulting in multiple injuries and lacerations to the feet. (I want to know what this guy's thought process was. And I want to fire him for idiocy.)

What Happened To My Goat?!

Working in the creative industry opened my eyes in a way that is both a blessing and a burden. What am I talking about? Well why don't you just ask Michael what it is like to watch a movie or TV with me?

"Green screen!" "That's totally c.g." "This scripting is horrible." "Was this ad made in 1992?" etc. etc.

Alright, maybe I've turned into a bit of a marketing/movie snob. So sue me!

Anyways, we usually watch Netflix so I am not burdened with the 9 out of 10 bad commercials every break, but I have been watching Hulu and am cursed yet again with commercial viewing. Every once in a while there is something that is totally freaking awesome, but most of the time they're just a waste of time off of my TV show. Why do I only get 43 minutes of Grey's Anatomy istead of a full 60? I feel totally jipped. When commercials come on I feel the same way I feel when I get a giant wad of newspaper in my mailbox full of useless ads to "Current Resident" or a "**S@tisfy Your L@dy!" spam email. (By the way crappy marketers, I'm a woman who doesn't care about satisfying other women.)

I'll stop ranting and raving there (because I could probably go on for ages) and move on to the reason for this post. My recent Modern Family marathon on Hulu has been continually interrupted by my painful viewing of this ad from Heifer International.

So let me get this straight:

Someone donates their goat (which I don't know about you, but we just have too many around to handle these days) to a family. This goat then provides the family with milk and wool and eggs (??...perhaps it was a goat/chicken hybrid that awesomely lays eggs AND is a goat) and they sell their products which then makes them money. {yay!} Then their goat has a baby (via immaculate conception?) and they now have two goats. So now that nice family gives the baby goat to their neighbors, and eventually everyone in town has a goat. (Which according to the numbers in a village with say, 15 families and factoring in that the baby would have to mate with it's mom and for the sake of ease saying that only girl goats were born and there was one boy goat AND that immediately after being born the goat then conceives that same day...it would take just over 2 years). Then everyone will have goats, consequently enabling the supply & demand principle which means the price of wool and milk and eggs (?) would get driven down. The lack of profits and income would then drive everyone back into poverty, requiring them to eat their goats to survive.

I think I will just send them the money that it would cost to ship a goat halfway across the world instead. Thank you for wasting 30 seconds of my life Heifer International. And if people like this are in charge of saving third world countries, I'm seriously skeptical if we will ever be able to pull them all out of poverty.

Eyebrows

Getting up at 7am and being alone in the bathroom while I'm getting ready often leads to my mind wandering. This morning I had a particularly interesting thought, "Why do you think God gave us eyebrows?"

So I thought about it, and came up with these three reasons.

1. "He wanted us to be able to show emotion with more than just our eyes and our mouth."

2. "Maybe He thought our face was too blank with just a forehead and eyes, so He needed one more thing to put there."

3. "He knew that some day, girls would want to wear makeup, and they needed a line so that they knew where to stop."

I think that all three of these answers are correct and have complete validity.


Also, what does it mean that God DIDN'T give Whoopie Goldberg eyebrows?
(Stop trying to suck up to Him, Whoopie. He's already made up his mind.)

He Got Down on One Knee

Ok, so I thought I'd do a little bit of catching up, although everyone already pretty much knows this stuff it's good to get it written down. For posterity's sake, right?

Obviously a lot has happened in the past months. Michael and I got married and I am now Mrs. Sarah Nelson. I am absolutely head over heels in love with my handsome, amazing, supportive husband. He makes me laugh and love life every day. Basically, I love my Michael like a fat kid loves cake :)

Here's the beginning of our story....


Our Engagement

Michael and I had known we wanted to get married for quite a while, and I knew he had the ring...but it seemed like I had to wait FOREVER for it to happen. Ok, maybe not forever....but that's how I remember every day feeling :) Then on March 8, it was Michael's birthday. I had a whole scha-bang planned out. I surprised him at work with balloons and his favorite ice cream from the Creamery, Raspberry Cream Cheese. Then I went to his apartment and decorated it with streamers and Happy Birthday banners. That night we went to Texas Roadhouse (steak is his favorite) and had a scrumdidlyuptious meal. Then I gave him some headphones and new shoes he was wanting. After all that we went back to his place and had a party with friends and Cold Stone ice cream cake. I thought I'd done a pretty good job...

After all the chaos Michael took me back to my place and we decided to take Toby on a walk because he'd been pent up inside all day and night. We walked over to the duck pond near my apartment and sat down to talk. I asked Michael if he had a good birthday and if he'd gotten everything he wanted. And he said "no"!! I remember thinking he was such an ingrate...what else could I have possibly done besides hire a plane to write "Happy Birthday Michael" in the air over Provo?? He said there was one more thing he was wanting, and that he needed me to answer a question..then he got down on one knee and said "I'd be honored to have you as my wife. Will you marry me?" Suddenly it all made sense...and apparently he had the ring out for quite some time before I even noticed it. I was too excited and barraged him with kisses.


We were engaged for 3 months and married on June 10th. More info on the wedding and some lovely pictures to come. Until then, enjoy this typographical interpretation of mine and Michael's story that I made for our wedding website!

Kayak to China

So my friend Luke and I were talking at work about biking, and I told him I bike way more than him...but on an elyptical at the gym. In fact that I could have probably biked to China by now via elyptical. He said there way no way that was possible, and okay, maybe it was a slight exaggeration on my part. So to debate this we got onto Google maps to see how far away China actually is by getting directions from the United States to China.

So Google Maps gave us 133 easy steps to get to China. But a few weren't so easy.

Steps 1-30: Drive all the way up to the Washington Coast.

Step 31: Kayak across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii.

Step 32-46: Drive across the Hawaii islands?

Step 47: Kayak across the rest of the Pacific Ocean to Japan.

Step 48 - 104: Driving all over Japan until you get to the southern tip.

Step 105: Jet ski across the Pacific Ocean.

Step 106-133: Drive to the center of China.


....I don't know about you, but I think I'd rather dig to China than spend 38 days and 2 hours going 11,329 miles which includes Kayaking and Jet Skiing across the entire Pacific Ocean.


My directions, 2 steps.

1: Drive to closest airport.
2: Board plane to China.


On the positive side this google search was so entertaining that it distracted Luke from proving me wrong about my elyptical track record :)