One week down

AJ's been gone for a week and I haven't posted anything? Weird. Yep, he is in Pittsburg again, working 12 hour days working hard on that same project. No weekends off either. He'll be home this Friday, making it a total of 10 days I've had to be without him. I've been pretty darn good in my opinion though. Except for the fact that I'm getting all paranoid about EVERYTHING. Last night I heard what sounded like a cupboard door slamming shut, as I was falling asleep. Every once in a while there's creaking sounds. I know the place isn't haunted, but I'm a chicken, and I've been watching too many episodes of Ghost Hunters (okay even one is too many for me). I'm going a little crazy.

Luckily the other Frisbys have come to my rescue. Friday night I got to have Jordan, Bernie, Shelby, Debbie, Ashlee and Zoie stay at our place. Lots of people, but we made it work! It was really fun (and great timing) to have company stay with me. Saturday we went shopping and hosted a Lia Sophia party. It was a hard weekend for a few of my friends to come, but the ones who came made it fun. We had a great time. Jordan put on more jewelry than anyone else!

Okay, not really.

Here's a pic of Debbie, Zoie, and Shelby. I caught them in a cute moment so I had to grab the camera!



Saturday night it was just Jordan, Bernie and Shelby staying over, and we watched The Other Boleyn Girl. Bernie and I had been wanting to see it. It was okay. This family blinded by ambition to get high in society made their daughters try and get the King of England to "knock them up" with the chance of giving him a male heir. Everything after that just went downhill. It got weird, people.

We all went to church this morning. It was fun to be in the shoes of every other girl in the ward by having a toddler sit with me. I learned that Shelby has a great desire to partake of the bread and water. Haha!

So now I'm alone again. (tiny violin playing) It's pretty nice that today I didn't HAVE to get anything done though. I watched a movie, took a nap, and then finished Left to Tell, a book I've been reading about a woman's account of the Rwandan holocaust. Very sad, but inspiring. She survived and never lost hope or faith in God. She and 7 other women were crammed in a TINY bathroom for 3 months where they couldn't make any sounds, took turns standing, and hardly got any food. I highly recommend it. I'm surprised I didn't cry really– just got watery. Maybe it's the soundtrack to movies that makes me cry so much, because I feel like I cry in everything.

My sister and her husband are flying into Utah this weekend from New York, (good timing for AJ) and we're going to spend all that weekend with family. It will be really fun. My parents are coming up too, and hopefully my brother. We'll be in Utah part of the time with my dad's parents and Wyoming with my mom's to go rafting. I get to see my sister maybe twice a year, which is just ridiculous, so I'm excited!

Happy Father's Day!

Tis the season for Dads. Mine is the best by the way, I don't know if you guys knew that or not. My dad is hilarious and he doesn't even try. He just does funny things. I think a lot of the things your parents do turn into inside jokes between siblings. My sister and I had a fun time talking about all these memories we wanted to list for Father's Day. She's compiling a larger list for the family blog, but here is my portion of great memories:

* Watching the USA Women's world cup while our family room (recently-cleaned) carpet dried and then jumping on it when they won!

* Mouthing "pow" while shooting his trigger finger at Heather Lavezzo, while popping out of the boat like a gopher! (and scaring her/making her laugh)

* Motorcycle talk with AJ

* Getting a red card at one of my first (Rec!) soccer games, making him leave the game.

* Made me feel better about having freckles

* father's blessings

* seeing him tear up in our sealing room

* laying on asphalt and looking at stars

* helping us all across the rocks when we'd go hiking.

* if he'd say "i think thats a little heavy on the eye makeup" i knew it probably was, because he never really commented on hair or makeup stuff.

* "What's the homework situation?"

* When I'd go to his work, I'd always draw a picture of him on his whiteboard in his cubicle before we'd leave. Basic face with tufts of hair on the side, glasses, and a mustache. Did the trick every time.

* I remember sitting on his bed next to him and him teaching me how to draw a face. I think one of the first ones we did was a pirate. That's still probably what I draw better than anything else.

* Modesto A's games. I loved those baseball games and totally thought they were the big leagues. Later we'd go to Giants and A's games and it was even better. Gotta love baseball with dad.

* I remember when he'd play basketball with guys from church and he'd be the only one with those funny sports goggles. Before games I'd watch him do up his ankles braces and high tops. He was intense, man. I usually played under the bleachers :)

* My dad always made an effort to go to my soccer games, track meets, and cross country meets. It was so fun when I'd realize he'd made it that particular day. I may not have seen him come to the track meet, and I'd be at the starting line and I'd look up to him cheering me on and wishing me luck. I'd run down the soccer field and my dad would say "there she is!" and I'd be thinking, yeah listen to him and give me the ball! Haha. My dad gets pretty intense about sports and back in the day he'd get so riled up about my coaches if they didn't put me in enough. He's always been my biggest fan!

* Obviously I don't remember this because I was like 2, but apparently I'd only let my dad buckle my seat belt/car seat for me. I'd say, "NO! Daddy do!" What a brat.

* Dad really gets into playing Santa every year for the wards in our stake. Over the years he's upgraded his costume and beard and his rosy cheek technique. It's pretty fun to watch.


* When I was a kid I actually wanted to help my dad take off his shoes when he came home from work. I'd sit on the floor and loosen up his laces at the very least. Haha!


* When the other girls my age were dressing up as dancers and fairies for Halloween, my dad helped me make my roadkill costume. We got some old sweats and he ran over them with the car to make tread marks. Then he helped me put the fake "wounds" all over my face. I looked pretty disgusting...I mean...AWESOME!

My dad is so special to me (duh). Some people look like either one parent or the other, and I'm convinced I'm exactly 50/50 on everything. However, I got my skin type from my dad, hands down. It has set me apart from my siblings (they can tan) and it's the silliest thing, but it makes me feel pretty close to him, like I was the blessed pale child sent to him. Haha!

My dad is always my biggest fan, and I know when there is any small accomplishment in my life, that I can call him and he'll be there to cheer for me. When I think of my Father in Heaven I think of Him as a perfecter version of the great dad I already have. It takes great "earthly" dads to understand our Heavenly Father's love for us and I feel like my dad has provided such a great example of that.

I love you Dad!

Making sure Jeff doesn't look homeless.


Cool biker dude.

All tuckered out. One on my favorite Kodak moments.

This picture is pretty gross of all of us. But we were happy on our Christmas morning!


Here's a picture of AJ and I with our dads.

Biathlon Update: I didn't poop my pants!

Okay, for realz, I had two main fears going into the biathlon this morning: (1) I'd realize I was weaker than weak and not be able to finish either event and (2) That I'd have to go #2. Not the coolest thing to happen in the middle of 5 miles of running. I was good! Haha.

Apparently a biathlon is technically an archery event or something? But this was 5 miles of running and 16.5 miles of biking. Craig, a buddy from work, convinced me to do it. It was in Wellsville, Utah which is just outside the canyon on our side. I only had 2 weeks to train and I hadn't actually just gone for a run in probably over a year. A little soccer here and there, but not recently. I had actually not quite gotten to 5 miles in my workouts (again, way out of shape) so today was the first day to see what it felt like. It felt good! My main goal was to not get distracted by the other runners and just run at my own pace, and also I wanted to do it in around 45 minutes. Well I did it in 43 and felt pretty strong the whole time. I didn't place amazingly but that's okay.

Right after the run we got on our bikes to ride out 8-sh miles and back. Now, I had been training for the running part, assuming that the biking wouldn't be TOO bad, and I'd heard it was mostly flat. WELL there were a few HILLS! Yikes. There were definitely some "oh no" 's and "WHAT the" 's going through my head as I saw the worst one coming closer. I was considering wimping out and I just went for it. I did okay. My legs were troopers :) It wasn't really a burning pain, more of this weird feeling like a cramp mixed with that falling asleep feeling. I just got kinda bored and started thinking of what food I was gonna get after (haha) but I made it to the end!

These pictures are of me at the last stretch that Crystal, Craig's wife took. I'm not too cute on a bike. Oh, btw, I was one of maybe 5 people with mountain bikes, everyone else had road bikes, and a couple had those crazy hard core ones where the back wheel is all solid. Weird.





Overall the whole thing went great. When I was done my legs were all jelly-ish but not too sore (yet?) and I could breath fine. At least the altitude didn't get to me. I wasn't prepared for the biking but it was a great course to ride. Beautiful weather and farms, rivers, trees. I saw a baby horse and said hi to a couple doggies. hehehe I'm such a dork.

Me after the race.

Craig's baby Logan. This kid is a butterball! Adorable.


Showing off our rock-hard muscles after the whole thing. By the way Craig finished waaaay ahead of me. He did great. One of his boys asked if I was a winner and I said, "almost!" Yeah, not even close.

I'm sooo domestic

Lately I've been feeling crafty. I've been wanting to learn how to do...everything! I've recently learned how to make some jewelry. I need to buy some more beads and stuff, and in the mean time I've been wanting to learn how to sew. AJ's mom gave me her old sewing machine (THANKS!) and I've just learned how to use it. That's right. Young married female Mormon living in Utah, and I didn't even know how to use a sewing machine. Well my friend Blaire (she works with me too) loves to sew and has been doing it for years. While I've been anticipating my personal sewing lesson from her, I found this quilt pattern on my friend Kirsten's blog. I showed Blaire and she loved it, so we're going to try it out. It's pretty cool, because it's non-traditional and kinda funky. It's perfect because if I mess up a little it may not show as bad.

When I looked at fabrics, I just fell in love with all the baby boy patterns. They are just adorable. I decided that's what I'd want to do, but I need a better reason than "they are cute" because, um, I don't have any babies! It would be weird for me to have all these baby blankets and no babies. Then I had a "duh" moment. My sweet neighbor next door is pregnant with twin boys! Yay :) So I'm intending for the two quilts I make to be gifts for her, but after starting them last night, I wonder if that would be unkind. They're a little messy. Hopefully by the time I'm done the edges will all be even, and they will be pretty cute.



We started on everything last night. I messed up a couple times, but for the most part I feel like I'm getting the hang of it. I'm excited to be actually doing okay so far, and now I can say I know how to sew! It's about time. We've got two short people in one house and lots of pants that are too long.

AJ's Plane and Other Weekend Stuff

I know I've been horrible at posting lately, so this one's gonna be big!

Lately we've really been enjoying the warm weather. AJ bought an electric RC plane (am I the best wife or what) and every time the weather's nice we've been taking it out. There's a baseball field just a block away that's perfect for flying, except that we tend to get followed most of the time. By who else? The kids next door. If they were my kids this is what I would tell them : (1) Put some shoes on and stop running in the street in your socks (2) It's 7pm and you're still in your pajamas-what's wrong with you (3) Quit following strangers. They could be dangerous, and the next time we'd see you it could be on a milk carton (4) I never gave you permission to wander 2 blocks away. I could go on...

I have to mention the pajamas thing because you can see them on the kid closest to the camera. And yes, they're running to see if they can catch the plane. AJ and I were cracking up the whole time..."oh! you almost got it that time!" "just a little higher!" You get the idea.






I has to post this photo of him from a couple days ago. Doesn't he look like a cute little 8 yr old boy? Hehe. I think he's trying.



Today we drove out to Newton where there's a small dam, and on the back side there's a huge ravine where AJ could fly his plane low. He could do a lot more crazy things out there, which also meant the plane got super close to crashing a couple times! It was such a pretty day and we had a lot of fun. The first couple videos are at a different place on our way out of town. We spooked the cows a little :) I dunno what's up with the pink lens.



Changing the battery. Notice the mullhawk is gone. We shaved it off this morning so he'd look more profesh for his trip this week (I'll write about that more later).








Here AJ's throwing the plane. He didn't have much of a runway, and this looked cooler anyway.



That's the plane footage. Yesterday was really fun too. Our friends Richie and Lori came up from Salt Lake to go camping with us Friday night. We went to Bear Lake, but unfortunately none of us knew where to go exactly and it was getting pretty late so we had to settle for a KOA. It was fine, except for the fact that it cost us $40 to stay there! We could have paid for a hotel room (not that we would have). Saturday we went back to our place, showered, and met up with some of Richie's friends. They drove a jeep and we took AJ's 4-Runner up Providence canyon to go wheelin. It was soooo beautiful! I'm loving this weather. However, now I have my right arm a darker shade of pink that my left. Oh well.

After AJs hair started growing out, I trimmed it this last week, and here's a pic to show you how nice it looked. I was pretty much in love with it and sad to see it go this morning.



I'm trying to show our extreme angle driving up a pile of rocks compared to the mountains...didn't turn out that extreme in the picture.


This is at a rock quarry where lots of off-roading happens (hence the trails back there). It's pretty huge. In the distance the haze under the mountain is Logan.

And this is where we turned around. Slushy snow is only fun to a certain point. The guy on the left is Richie's friend Jake (and that's his Jeep stuck ahead of us) and the two guys in the middle are random strangers that also drove their Jeeps up that day (They were behind us). AJ's on the right. They stood around and talked about the trail before backing out of there. Fun. I stayed in the car.



During Memorial Day weekend (a week ago) we went down to the Provo area to help Matt and Andrea paint their new house. It was pretty fun. AJ and I were happy to paint because we've been itchin' to buy a house and paint it and fix it up and everything. It was good practice :) I had to post these pictures of AJ and Zoie painting her room pink. AJ's main job that day was the pink room. Hehe. What a good team we all were! Didn't Zoie do a great job taking the picture of AJ and I?




Oh yeah and I went to Ikea which was amazing. I didn't spend TOO much :)

SO we've been having fun!

AJ's leaving tomorrow morning to go to Pittsburgh! His company is putting together a project out there and there were some engineering issues, and since AJ's the best, they needed him to fly out. He'll be 65-ish feet in the air in a harness and basket welding away until Thursday. It will be tough being without him. I'm still at the stage when if we go out to dinner and they seat us across from each other, it feels too far away and weird. Haha! So let's hope everything goes well and that he won't get sunburned too bad. I'm curious to find out if I'll still cook dinner when it's just me...

Also in recent news, I've signed up for a biathlon. Not a tri. I'm not much of a swimmer. A guy at work convinced me to do it, and I think I just need the motivation of being committed to something to get my butt in shape. It's only 2 weeks away and I'll do what I can until then. Fortunately it's only a 5 mile run and a 17 mile bike ride, but I haven't done either one in quite some time. Wish me luck! I'll be on my mountain bike, but I'll survive.

That's us for now. If you've made it to the end of this post I applaud you.