Paul, Tania & Co.

October.. so far

2011-10-18T22:26:00.001-07:00

It's kind of funny that nothing motivates me like craft blogs! And it's not just motivating me to make more crafts either (although it definitely does that!). It makes me want to finish some of the half-done projects I've got kicking around. It also helps me keep my house in decent condition because I think, "If these super-women can keep their houses spotless and put together a new craft and tutorial every day, then I can do a lot more!" I feel empowered. :D
Paul's birthday was a great day! We had some extra time to be together because of his class schedule that day. He got some great presents that he was hoping for and one that he didn't know that he desperately needed it until he unwrapped it. He didn't get his cake until the day after. Adilee signed "Happy Day" for him... actually I don't know that she ever did both parts for him... but she was signing it for me all day! :)
I know there's more to October, but I'm tuckered out and Paul's going to be home soon so we can go to bed!

Before Adilee wakes up!

2011-08-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd put up a post quick hopefully before Adilee wakes up, because if I do it after it will be MUCH more difficult! She loves to play on the computer when she sees me typing.

Anyway, life is good! Adilee is not really a baby anymore. She's really starting to get the hang of walking. She feeds herself almost everything and is getting better each day at using a spoon and fork. She's getting down to one nap! In some ways it's exciting because when she does do one nap it's a lot longer and it's SO easy to put her down. In other ways it's difficult because some days she still needs two naps so it's hard to plan things because I don't know if she'll be tired by 11 or 1:30. And if I try to put her down too early it's just frustrating for both of us! My dear little toddler! What a fun stage of life!

Paul is turning into quite the runner! And he's helping Kostya burn some energy while he's at it. He's going to be doing a 5K for his work's Corporate Olympics. We're both really excited! He's been doing so great building up his stamina the past couple months. I'm so proud of him. And he's happy that he's finally rubbing off on me. :D I started on his running system today and it thoroughly kicked my butt. It doesn't make me want to do it any less though. It starts off "easy" (which just shows me how out of shape I really am!) and gradually increases. I think I'll be at "week 1" for at least 2 weeks, but I'm feeling very motivated.

I've realized that I am a total extrovert... well I knew that before, but I'm re-realizing it. :) I really need to be interacting with other people to charge my batteries. I think I'd really like to take a dance class or aerobics or something like that. That way I have something scheduled each week where I know I'm going to see other people (other than Paul and Adilee), not have to worry about Adilee for a little bit, and get some exercise that doesn't feel like exercise! I don't know how to work it out after the semester starts though because I'm going to become a school-widow with Paul working his buns off at school and work. I'm sure I can find a way.

Wow! Adilee's still asleep!

Budding Entrepreneur

2011-05-02T15:13:00.000-07:00

So for a while now Paul and I have been dreaming of doing a booth for different festivals around Utah. We LOVE to go to them and see all the different, clever ideas that people come up with. Paul has been pushing me for a while to sell some of the crafts that I've made. I've kind of twiddled my thumbs until my wonderful sister-in-law, Shasta, said, "Hey! Lets do a booth!" I'm a "thinker" and she is a "do-er" so now that she's in on it we're actually going to do it! :) My Mom and sister Tia are getting in on the action as well. I think it's going to be great. I think I put it off because I knew there was a lot that goes into it. We're trying to get together what products we're going to do, what to do about money, making products, and every other thing that we might need to do. I'm excited! Our first we're doing is the Scandinavian Heritage Festival in Ephraim, UT on Memorial Day Weekend (May 27-28). I'll try to post some pictures of what we're going to sell. And you can check out the Growth Boards and the White Board covers (actually she might not have that on it yet) on Shasta's blog MyHappyHobbies.blogspot.com.

Wish me luck!

P.S. Yes. I had to look up how to spell "entrepreneur". :P What a weird word!

April so far

2011-04-22T21:28:00.000-07:00

April has been pretty good to our family so far. Now that we have a schedule for Adilee (albeit extremely flexible) she's doing a LOT better with sleep. There are so many things with being a mother that you can have a hundred people tell you, but you don't really get it until you try it and work it out for yourself.

A couple of things that I wish I would've worked out sooner are:

-sleep "training"

-a schedule

-not microwaving meat baby food for more than 10 seconds at a time (YUUUUUCK!!)

A couple of things that I still need to work out:

-baby-proofing my apartment

-a quicker way to change a diaper without Adilee wiggling

-taming the "Addie Tornado"

Well, that's all for now folks! Adilee's slumber has ceased. It's time to go retrieve my darling wiggle worm!

Fresh Start

2011-03-31T11:08:00.000-07:00

Paul said goodbye to Amsco Windows on March 3rd. It was a good job that really was a blessing for us in a lot of ways. As we were driving out of the parking lot for the last time he got a little bit emotional. He didn't think he would miss it at all, but he learned a lot of good lessons there and made some great friends.

Paul said hello to Nutraceuticals on March 7th! He's now a "Lead" (supervisor) for the swing shift. He's got a little bit more time at home now, although I still feel like I never see him! And most importantly he's able to sign up for day classes so he can finish his degree.

People ask me how much longer Paul has to finish. I always reply with something like, "Forever." I know it seems that way to him sometimes too, but I'm SO proud of him for sticking with it. Last semester (Fall 2010) was one of the most busy times in our lives, but he managed to get a 4.0! And he wasn't just taking cake classes either! Lately I've been feeling pretty unmotivated, but I have to look back and tell myself that it's not as bad as it has been.

Adilee is such an adorable, wonderful little wiggle monster! She is constantly moving! For a while I thought the only time she was still was when she was sleeping, but she's proven me wrong. She even moves in her sleep! She is pulling up to stand with the couch, coffee table, chairs, Mommy and Daddy's legs, the side of her bed, shelves, and has even tried pulling up on Kostya a time or two! Adilee is also picking up little things (mostly choking hazards) from the floor and shoving them into her mouth as fast as her little arms can move. She finds bits of newspaper, leaves, and even found a dried out piece of carrot. I know I'm not a great homemaker, but I never realized how nasty my floors really are. :( I'll put that on my huge list of stuff to work on.

January-May 2010

2010-10-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

I'm SO behind so I'm just going to recap whatever I can remember of 2010 so far.

January

Around the 10th I felt Adilee move for the first time! It was awesome! I was convinced it was going to be twins because most women don't feel movement with their first pregnancy until like 17 weeks or something and I was only at 14 weeks.

My parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary on the 28th. I don't know if any of my other siblings realized it, and my parents didn't make a big deal out of it. It was a big deal to me. I'm so grateful that my parents stuck out the hard times and worked together for 30 years! That's a very big accomplishment and I'm very proud of them.

February

The olympics were February 12-28th. Paul and I spent WAY too much time watching different events. Each night we would watch one or two events together and usually ended up going to bed around midnight or later. It was a blast though! I had my second ultrasound I think on the 22nd and we found out we were having a darling baby girl (we didn't know just HOW darling until she was born, of course). She was folded in half during the ultrasound and her feet were touching her forehead! We also found out that I had a very short cervix. I think it was about 1.5 cm at the time and it was supposed to be anywhere from 2-4 cm. I went to the specialists at Maternal Fetal Medicine the next day. They told me that I could go to work, but I had to be on what they called a "modified bed rest". Basically I couldn't get up and walk around a lot, I had to take the elevator whenever possible, and I couldn't take Kostya out for walks or do household chores anymore. I was heartbroken that I couldn't do dishes anymore (haha!!). Paul was such a good sport. He took care of SO much while I just laid around and did nothing. We also had SO much help from family!!! I honestly don't know what we would have done without our Mom's coming over about once a week to vacuum or do dishes (with no dishwasher! Our Mom's are SAINTS!!) and bring us food. And my sister Tia also brought us several HUGE amazing dinners that always lasted us a couple of days. I know many other people helped us out, but because I put off writing this for so long I can't remember specifics. I really am so grateful for all the help though!!

March

The 18th was my birthday. I can't remember what we did, but I'm sure it was AWESOME. My birthdays usually are.

Every week or every other week throughout March, April, and into May I went to Maternal Fetal Medicine to have the length of my cervix checked with an intravaginal ultrasound. Now doesn't that sound like fun? :S I think at 25 weeks they gave me steroids to speed up lung development just in case she came too early.

April

I usually love to do April Fool's Day jokes, but the only thing I could think of was to tell people I was in labor, but because it could've actually happened it didn't seem very funny.

We celebrated when we reached 27 weeks because Adilee had a 90% chance of survival. I think we even went out to dinner!

On April 23rd I was put on strict bed rest and could no longer go to work. It was very hard to see it at the time, but this was a blessing from Heavenly Father. I was planning on going back to work for a little bit after having Adi. Going on bed rest helped us to realize that 1) she would need her Mommy there to take care of her especially if she was premature, and 2) we could make it financially without me working, 3) we have such amazing families (that description doesn't do them justice, but words can't describe how great our families really are). I think we might have known these things, but they didn't seem as real or important to us as they did after I had been on bed rest for a bit.

It feels weird to put Adilee's name in when I'm talking about being pregnant, because she wasn't really Adilee yet.

May

I don't remember much from May except that I finally got sick of being on bed rest on Memorial Day weekend and all I wanted to do was be outside on the grass eating a roasted hot dog and potato chips and drinking an Icee/Slurpee. Paul, the great husband that he is, brought me back a hot dog and some chips from our ward party. And a couple of times he ran down to Maverick to get me Icees. I remember spending a lot of time on baby registries. I really don't know why I didn't take a few hours to update my blog. :D I also crocheted a bunch of blankets.

December 2009

2010-04-14T19:19:00.000-07:00

The 5th was another important day on the Baby Calendar. We went with Paul's parent's Janice and Phil, to Lee's Mongolian Barbecue in Ogden. It's a pretty cool restaurant. I think I would have appreciated the food it more if I didn't feel so sick! Anyway, we announced that their first grand baby was on the way! They were very excited and properly surprised. We walked around New Gate Mall after because we weren't done chatting at dinner. Paul and Phil got trapped at one of the kiosks talking to some chick from Jerusalem (I think) about a $2 nail buffer she was selling for $70. Janice and I managed to steer clear of the trap. We got in a little shopping/window shopping.

I had my first doctor appointment on the 8th. I got to see the baby (...looking more like a fuzzy peanut than a baby) on the ultrasound and hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time.

The very next day I visited another doctor in the ER. I had a really scary migraine. Luckily there wasn't any pressure built up in my brain. They gave me a crazy concoction of pain medicine that sounded scary for the baby, but the nurse assured me that it was safe. I never ever want morphine again even if it is ok. It was horrible. The pain went away, but I felt out of control, stressed, confused, and like my skin was crawling with bugs or something. Terrible.

We had a good time at my work Christmas party at The District movie theater on the 18th. It's always fun to see my co-workers out of a work situation and be able to interact with their spouses/significant-others.

The Carey Family Christmas party was a blast as usual. Paul's Aunt Christine snuck the secret out of me! I kept it from my sister-in-law Shasta even though she asked me constantly, but I couldn't get it around Christine. Santa came, like he always does and he kissed me!

The next day we went to the Christmas Sing-Along at the Energy Solutions Arena. Even though Paul was waiting in line for free food for half the time, we still enjoyed ourselves and got some great free stuff!

Christmas Eve. So my family got together on Christmas Eve for a big dinner and party. After dinner we gathered everyone to sing Christmas Carols to entice Santa into visiting us. Just before we started Christmas Carols I noticed that my sister-in-law Steph was wearing a printed t-shirt. She and my brother often have funny shirts so I looked at it more closely and noticed the picture was of a bun in an oven!! I just started laughing, partly because I got it, and partly because Paul and I were about the break the news that we were expecting too! Anyway, we coaxed Santa (who kind of had the same twinkle in his eyes... and the same eyes... as Paul) into coming with our beautiful singing. So the kids (except our niece Avery, who was VERY freaked out by Santa) sat on Santa's lap, then it was the big kids' turn. Steph sat on his lap and sure enough told Santa that she wanted a baby, but not for Christmas, a little bit later... in JULY. Everyone was very excited and gave hugs all around. Then I was up to sit on Santa. Santa said he had a special gift for me in his bag. I looked in and pulled out a diaper bag, on the inside there was a paper that said "July 12, 2010". Everyone erupted! It was awesome! Steph kept apologizing for stealing our thunder, but it really made it that much more exciting.

Christmas Day. We opened our gifts from Santa and from each other here at home, then exchanged gifts with my family, and then headed down to Alpine to share some more fun with Paul's family. We found out on our way there that Paul's brother Matt was calling from his mission an hour early. Luckily we had planned on getting there early! We got there just a minute or two after he had called. We talked a little about how we were all doing and how the San Bernardino mission was going. Then we passed the phone around so we could each have a turn to ask a question or share whatever. Emily and Jeremy went first. They had a gift for Phil and Janice. I knew exactly what was up. It was a story about Emily and Jeremy's relationship. The end of it said something like, "First came love, then came marriage, here comes the baby in the baby carriage!" Everyone was screaming and hugging. Then we got our turn. Paul told everyone about our gift from Paddywack (our Christmas elf) that had instructions to open with family on Christmas. He slid the wrapping paper off a long slender picture frame picture by picture. 1st frame says "Coming Soon to a Family near you...", 2nd a pic of Paul and I on our first date, 3rd me as a baby, 4th Paul as a baby, 5th a morph of the 2 baby pics, 6th a baby ultrasound, 7th said "July 2010". Everyone exploded again! Jill and Cody were after us and they said, "We're not pregnant yet, but we're trying!"

We got a new calling in our ward in December. We're Valiant 9 teachers! We LOVE our class SO much! It's truely been a great blessing. I've learned and remembered a lot about the Old Testament and my testimony of the gospel basics has been thoroughly fortified.

November 2009

2010-04-14T18:22:00.001-07:00

Yes, it's April and I'm going back to November. I've been a little busy and I also can't access blog spot from work anymore. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Wednesday, November 4, 2010. This was a VERY momentus day in the Greenhalgh Family. On this day I took a very important test and it was positive!!! It has been such a wonder, amazing ride! Paul made me wait to take the test because I had a hint of a monthly gift coming a day or two before, but it was just a trick. I was amazed that after over 3 years of preventing pregnancy we succeeded in our first attempt!

We had a fun time hanging out with the Greenhalgh side that weekend (7th - 8th). We watched a BYU football game (v. Wyoming), laughed at crazy youtube videos, and watched an episode of the TV show Lost. It wasn't super eventful, but I love just hanging out with my awesome family!

On the 14th we took my parent's to IKEA for breakfast and told them we were going to be adding another grandchild to their collection. They figured us out before and they already had a present waiting for us in the car! It was still fun though and I appreciated that they acted surprised. It was good to be able to ask my Mom the hundred questions that had been on my mind.

That night we tried to make it to the Provo Temple with Paul's sister Emily and her hubby Jeremy, but we were running late so we went to a BYU basketball game and had dinner at their place instead. It was a lot of fun!

On the 19th I went to see the midnight showing of New Moon with my Mom, my sister-in-law Shasta, her sister Colette, and her sister's friend. We kind of got shafted by the theatre and had to wait in the hallway way later than any of the other theatres. It was a blast though! I'll see if I can put the pics on here! Shasta and I dressed up as Volturi and we were super hot!!

I really can't remember much about Thanksgiving. We went to my parent's house for a big dinner. My sister Tia worked on the turkey for days and everyone agreed that it was pretty much amazing. The food was really good, but I couldn't eat very much because I was nauseous. I was pretty much nauseous for the whole month. :) We also visited Grandma and Grandpa Greenhalgh for some delicious Sour Cream Peach Pie. Now that I've eaten it I don't think Thankgiving would be quite the same without it.

On the 29th we went to my Aunt and Uncle's house to put together a doll house. My Nana and Papa made a doll house for their girls one Christmas, and that was always something that we loved about visiting their house. The dollhouse was so aweseome! It was everything a little girl dreams of! We were able to find a family with 3 little girls to give it to.

September / October 2009

2009-11-02T12:49:00.000-08:00

September

On the 10th I celebrated 2 wonderful years working at Bear River. I've really loved working here. It's definately been my longest job for a reason. Great people, great work, great benefits. It's just great!

I got to go to my cousin Shanay's bridal shower. It was fun to see family I haven't seen in a while.

Paul and I put together some fun packages to send to family. We sent 2 to missionaries, Matt, Paul's brother, and Cole, my cousin. And one to my brother, Tyson, his wife, Steph, and their 3 kids. That was a ton of fun to put together and think of things that they would enjoy.

We've had a chance to go to a couple of BYU home football games and it's been such a blast! I love the game and I love being able to be with family. We've been able to "adjust" our seat to sit in the student section with Emily (Paul's sister) and her husband Jeremy. They're great football buddies. I'm pretty sure Emily knows more about football than any girl and 1/2 of the guys I know. I love it!

We had a family fast for me for the cyst on my brain on the 27th. We have such a humble, in-tune bishop who gave me and my family some great comfort and council. I'm so grateful for the gospel and the leaders of the church.

October

General Conference weekend I went to "Wee Witches Night Out" at Gardner Village. It's set up for younger girls and Mom's and it was the same night as the Preisthood Session of conference... great timing :). I dressed up as a witch and partied with Paul's family and some extended family from his Mom's side, and also my family and some extended family from MY Mom's side :D. Some of the costumes there were pretty much just amazing. If I had a witch costume like theirs there would be no sense in EVER dressing up like anything else!

We were able to go to my cousin Shanay's wedding in St. George on the 10th. I tore it up on the dance floor with my cousin Aubree while our husband's went to the BYU vs UNLV game. Jon (Aubree's husband) is a trooper. He's a HUGE Ute fan, but he still went with Paul to the game.

Paul celebrated his birthday (the 11th) while we were driving back up to Salt Lake! We went to In-and-Out Burger to celebrate. He opened presents at a pit stop in some small town while we were all huddled in a van to keep warm. It was a fun adventure.

We missed my family's annual Pumpkin Carving to go to the BYU vs TCU game. The second event I missed to go to a BYU game and both times they lost! Maybe next time I'll miss the game just so they can win :)

We exercised our right and duty as citizens of North Salt Lake and we voted early. We had a chance to go to our Meet the Candidates night and I'm SO glad we did. We really got a sense of who each candidate was and what they were really all about.

Paul won the Best Chicken Award (even though it was Turkey) at our Ward Halloween Party with nothing less than authentic San Pete Barbeque Turkey. It just doesn't get any better!

Tyson, Steph and their kids TOTALLY surprised us when they showed up to my parent's house to trick-or-treat! I couldn't really see them and I just thought, "Aren't they a little old to be trick-or-treating?" Then I realized what was going on and I cried... of course. I'm SO happy to see them!! I wasn't expecting to see them until Christmas, but I'm SO SO SO glad they surprised us!

July / August 2009

2009-10-29T12:46:00.000-07:00

July
July was filled with fun and Apartment hunting. We went up to Brigham City to see family and fireworks for Independance Day.

I went to a Reading party with some girls from work and had a blast! We ended up watching Harry Potter because I hadn't seen it all the way through. I love the people that I work with. They're SO awesome!

I'm pretty sure we did something fun for Pioneer day because I got off early the day before. I can't remember now what we did though. :(

Paul and I both had adventures at the dentist. They told Paul that might have perio-something-or-other and had to have a procedure done where they basically scrape his teeth to pieces (I'm only slightly exaggerating). I have to have 2 crowns done. One of them I had done right before we got married but they did it wrong. I'm not at all surprised after the crap I went through at that dentist. Oi!

August
We started August with a great get-together with Paul's friends from Brigham. I'm so glad that he had great influence growing up and throughout school. And they're just great people! I was worried that it would be awkward because I was 1 of 2 or 3 there that weren't really part of the group. It was so fun though!

There were some bridal showers for Jill, Paul's sister, that were a lot of fun and I hope it wasn't too embarassing for Jill :).

Paul had a great friend and mentor, Randy Wilde, pass away and we were able to attend his funeral. He was Paul's Scout Leader and a definate influence in his life. He will be missed by his wife, daughters, Scout troops, and litterally countless others.

I went bowing for Bear River's Corporate Games and I got 2 TURKEYS!!! Woot!!! My good friend and co-worker Amelia was bowling like the day before she was due to give birth. Amazing. It definately drew some attention. She's awesome. I hope I can do that some day when I'm 9 months pregnant!

My work did a great training program called QBQ (Question Behind the Question). I learned a lot about Personal Accountability. If you ever have a chance to go through the training or read the book DO IT! I promise it will only change you for the better.

We moved into our new apartment in North Salt Lake and we're SO happy to be there! The apartment has more room and another bedroom and we're paying about the same. But that's not the AWESOME part! We have the BEST ward!!! The first week we were there we felt SO welcome. It was seriously like going home. I'm going to get choked up just writing about it, but it was so great. Not that our other wards were bad by any means!! This really just felt like we were being welcomed home.

I had an MRI on August 24th to see if there was anything they could see on that that might indicate what is causing my migraines.

Jill and Cody Branch were married on August 28th for time and all eternity. What a great blessing to have Cody in our family. He's such a great guy, and it's so fun when best friends become eternal companions.

That same day I got the results from my MRI. They told me I have a pineal cyst on my brain about a centimeter around. Scary. It was a humbling experience. I went later to a consultation with a neurosurgeon to see if it needed to be taken out. It doesn't and it's most likely not a cause of my migraines. I'm so grateful to my wonderful family for their prayers and fasting. I was truely blessed by my Heavenly Father with comfort and understanding concerning this. It was a great testimony builder. I know that prayer works and blesses your life. I know fasting works and can truely bring about miracles. Every concern I had about the cyst was relieved. We have a great bishop who is truely inspired.

I don't have time to finish September and October because my lunch break is over!

June 2009

2009-07-08T12:52:00.000-07:00

June was a pretty fun month! At the very start of June Paul took a road trip to Nashville with his cousin Thomas, and Thomas' cousin Alex. He had a great time on the road (even though they got pulled over!), and also in Nashville. My favorite part is that he doesn't really hate country music anymore! YAY! I LOVE country and Paul hated it, but now we listen to it together every once in a while :).

Paul's brother Matt went into the MTC on June 3rd and was with the first batch of missionaries to get sent off to the MTC curbside. We weren't able to go, but they said that it was still a good experience. Matt is doing great and we're so happy for him and for the people of San Burnadeno!!!

Paul's grandma Louie celebrated a momentus birthday (29 again! lol) and we had a great time. I'm so happy to have such a great extended family!! We went to see "Up" in 3D with Paul's uncle Mark, we had MSG-free chinese food (MSG gives me migraines so they asked them to leave it out!! How thoughtful!), and some great family dinners to celebrate.

I passed my Negotiation Skills test at work so now I'm Pro at Negotiating :). Go me!

We went to Lagoon on the 26th and then went to the Zoo on the 27th! It was SO cool to see all the animals. They were SO active. Paul looked the cougar in the eye and he was pretty psyched about that. And we saw the Fossa!!! From Madagascar (the country and the Movie) I was amazed that it's one of the most dangerous predators in Madagascar and it's just about the same size as Kostya, our American Cocker Spaniel! It's as fast in the trees as it is on land too! It was SOO cute :). I want to go to Madagascar SO bad! It's such a beautiful place and a wonder of God's miraculous creations. I've got to get back to work now, but I hope someone reads this one this month!!! :) haha!

April/May 2009

2009-05-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

In April I chopped my hair off! Jill, Paul's sister, is going through hair school and she kindly did me the honor of cutting 10+ inches to donate to Locks of Love. My goal is to be able to donate 6 ponytails of hair because that is about how many ponytails it takes to make a wig.

That same weekend Paul and I took Kostya and headed down to Four Corners, where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona meet. I think it was the very next week that the news broke that the actual place where the states meet is like 100+ yards away. That doesn't really matter to me because in all actuality the monument is not really in any state, it's in the Navajo Nation. We have fun pictures that hopefully I'll figure out how to post :) We have one with Kostya where he has one paw in each state!

April was chock full o'birthdays! We had Josie and Carson, our niece and nephew, on the 19th and 21st. Emily, Paul's other sister, was in between on the 20th. And Teagan, my little brother, was the next week on the 26th. And also a very important holiday, Administrative Professionals' Day (formerly Secretaries' Day), was celebrated on the 22nd. I didn't really do anything on that day, but I was proud of myself for being an Administrative Professional. :)

On May 8th my company had a community service project. I was able to go to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Dio, who are an elderly couple, and help with some cleaning and weeding that they were not able to do themselves. It always feels SO great to be able to help someone out. It also helped me to remember that it's very important to be a good receiver. I know how hard it can be to accept help when you feel like it's something you should be able to do yourself. But I think when you are unwilling to receive help it's like being given a nicely wrapped gift (with a big bow on it) and throwing it on the ground and stomping on it.

This last weekend we went up to Paul's aunt and uncle's cabin near Heber City and spent some time with his family for his brother's birthday/last hoorah before he leaves on his mission to San Bernardino, CA. We were able to go to the Girl's Camp in Heber City and we played sand volleyball for a few hours. It was a BLAST! The married-children team won (that was my team in case you were wondering :D)! We played best of 3 and each game was very intense and too close.

Yesterday I went to lunch with a few friends from work and it was a ton of fun! It's always fun to get out of the office and associate with people outside of the work setting. I work for a GREAT company with GREAT people!!!

I'm sure I'm leaving fun stuff out, but that's all I can remember. I'm sure Paul remembers more, but he doesn't post things so you'll never get to hear about it. haha! :D

February/March 2009

2009-04-07T12:13:00.000-07:00

Ok. So I'm a little (and by that I mean a LOT) behind. :) I don't really remember what happened in February other than Valentine's Day. We had a blast! We did a fun/fancy dinner with Paul's family at his Grandma and Grandpa's house. We had a gourmet meal prepared with waiters and everything! I held strong with my no-soda pledge, even though I was tempted with tasty Sparkling Juices. I surprised Paul with tickets at Hale Center Theatre and we picked out The Scarlet Pimpernel (even though the show doesn't start until August!). Paul got me some beautiful flowers too.

March is the birthday month! Hooray!!! My Dad's birthday and our dog Kostya's birthday is the same day. Although, believe it or not, they are quite a few years apart. ;) Paul's Dad was born 2 days after my Dad (same year and everything!) We had fun celebrating with both families.

My company has an annual meeting that's always on the first Saturday in March. I got some much appreciated overtime for helping out with that. And it's always a good reminder to see what a great company I work for!

The next weekend we trecked down to St. George to attend the temple with Paul's brother Matt. He got his mission call just days before to the California San Bernadeno misson. That was so cool to have all of the Greenhalgh family members together in the temple. What a blessing to have all of your family gathered in the temple! Phil and Janice have done a wonderful job raising their children. We have great examples. Hopefully we can follow their example.

A few days later it was (drum roll please...) MY BIRTHDAY!!! I took a half day from work and I got to take a much needed nap :) haha. My most awesomest birthday present was a song that Paul wrote for me. It's AWESOME! I'll try to find a way to record him playing it so that everyone can hear it.

I'm sure something else that was fun happened in March, but I don't have it written down on my calendar at work so I don't remember. :S We've been SO blessed the past few months and hopefully we'll keep improving ourselves to be worthy of continued blessings.

Anyway, we hope all is going well for everyone who reads this, and also for all of our loved ones who don't!!!

January 2009

2009-01-28T14:59:00.000-08:00

Well so far so good! My big New Year's resolution this year is to not drink soda. It's a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. It's not that I crave soda or anything, I just don't realize how often it's available. We sat down to dinner at Paul's parents house and they have this delicious grape juice that is SO good with a little bit of sprite in it. So I poured my grape juice and I had the sprite in my hand about to pour it when I remembered my resolution. :( So I had plain grape juice instead. Also I HATE lemonaide and most restaurants only have lemonaide and water as an alternative to soda. Oh well. I love water and I'm learning to hate lemonaide less. Paul and I have both been a lot more active since the beggining of the year, even with the terrible air quality!

Happy Birthday to my brother and sister (twins), Taylor and Tia, and my friend Serria! Happy 29th Anniversary to my Mom and Dad!!! Keep up the good work! And Happy Anniversary to my brother Tyson and his wife Stephanie! And Happy Celebration to whoever I forgot! :)

Sick!

2008-12-05T12:29:00.001-08:00

I got a cold. Dang it. And I think Paul's getting it too. I have a roll of toilet paper at my desk and I think I've used about half of it today. :) I think I'm getting better already though (whether I really am or not I'm going to keep thinking I am!). I'm kind of sad about it because I've tried SO hard to not get sick. I wash my hands frequently (but not obsessively). I even tried to use hand sanitizer every time I heard someone cough or sneeze at work! I'll bet if I ate a little healthier it would help. What do you do to keep from getting sick? Does it work?

Stolen!!!

2008-10-25T14:17:00.000-07:00

Our car got broken into on October 12th. It was kind of lame. Our passenger's side window was busted and they took Paul's internal frame backpack (a big hiking backpack) that had 2 small tents in it and they also took Paul's Camelpack. The lamest part about it is that they didn't take our stereo face plate that was in the glove box (which would have been beneficial to us because the stereo we have doesn't work). They took just enough that it's probably just under our deductible for our insurance and it's not stuff that we need. So because we're kind of tight on money right now we won't be replacing it.

BUT great blessings come from unfortunate events. I can't tell you how humbled I was when our new neighbors (who we had only just met a few hours before) dropped a letter and some cookies on our front door to "sweeten" our day. The letter explained that they had also been victims of a recent theft from their storage unit and they had found out earlier in the day that they were not going to have to pay a $100 deductible with their insurance. When they found out about our problem they decided to share their blessing with us. Included in the letter(and I'm still getting choked up when I'm writing about it 2 weeks later!) they gave us a check for $50. I am truly humbled and grateful that they would so willing to do that for almost perfect strangers. How blessed we are to live right next door to such wonderful people!

Shakin' it up

2008-08-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

We just moved from the house we were renting in West Jordan to an apartment in West Valley. I can't believe how much STUFF we have! I think we definately took advantage of the space we had with just the two of us and our little Kostya living in a 3 bedroom house. It's nice to have something a little smaller now though. It's not nearly as much to maintain and that's a plus.

Another change we made is that Paul is no longer working with Ken Garff Southtowne. He is going to school full time at Westminster and working part time as a Job-Hunter ;) haha. I'm still working full time at Bear River Insurance and I'm loving it. It's such an awesome company to work for! They're great to their employees as well as their customers. I'll have been here for 1 year on September 10th. Yay me!! :)

Car Problems

2008-08-19T12:59:00.001-07:00

So we have had the BEST luck when it comes to cars (in case you don't know us very well, I'm being sarcastic). On Tuesday, the 5th, our Tercel (that's almost as old as I am) broke down on the freeway after a few parts came flying off of it. We decided (for the second time) that we'll pay to have it fixed this one last time and then we'll just let it die. Then on Saturday, the 9th I lost the only set of keys that we have for our Altima! If you have a 2000 Nissan Altima it is impossible to get a set of keys made. The Nissan dealership (that luckily was a hop, skip, and a jump away) wasn't able to pull up the cut shape with the VIN number so we had to have a locksmith come out and get the shape of the key, then we had to take it to the dealership to have them make a different key that has a microchip in it. Is that lame or what? So $750-ish later we can drive both of our cars.

I just decided that I'm not going to have any more major car problems. I'm pretty psyched about it. :)

First Post!

2008-07-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

This is Tania. I'm tired of not knowing what's going on with everyone so I'm starting a blog! Apparently it's what all of the cool kids do so I'm hoping on the bandwagon. Paul and I are living in West Jordan right now. We're renting my brother (Tyson) and sister-in-law's (Stephanie) house right now, but we'll be moving the end of August to somewhere else in the Salt Lake Valley. We don't know where yet so if anyone knows of a good place (that allows small dogs) let us know! We love our family and friends and we hope to keep in better contact with you all!