happy mothers day mom and mom

i just have to take a moment to thank the two most incredible women that i get to call mom. i don't know why i was blessed with them in my life, but i am thankful for their love, support, example and mainly friendship.

i was born into the coolest family with so much emphasis on love and family. a lot of that passion comes from my mom. she would do/give anything for my happiness. she is one of my best friends. i love being around her. i hope she knows that she doesn't have to spend money for me to appreciate her. my favorite things about her is her smile, enthusiastic and spontaneous personality, loyal friendship, willingness to do something fun or to just relax, openness to anyone and their ideas, and her killer back tickles. she is beautiful. i am so grateful to her for all the fun things she planned for my family to do and continues to plan for us--i know that all my great relationships with each of my siblings and with my parents is because we had annual family vacations and family parties. my mom is very talented. she is so creative. her parties are fabulous. her home is incredible. i love my moms testimony of the gospel of jesus christ and in the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. through her love and example came my own personal love and testimony. as i grow older, i find myself doing things or acting like she does--many times as a kid i would roll my eyes at these things--but now i laugh. i want to grow up like my mom--so there.

i basically married nick because his family was awesome and i wanted in. :) i love my mom monson. i had no idea it was so easy to love and be loved by two people (mike and kris). it has been so natural to think of her as mom. my favorite things about her is her zest for life, runs marathons--therefore i run marathons :), always on the ball and one step ahead of the game, active personality, photography, thoughtfulness (nothing gets past her, i love the phone calls, cards and packages), her food, and raising the most incredible guy. she is beautiful. she is so talented. she has become one of my best friends. i hope that i can become like her and achieve the things that she has.

i love you both so much. thank you, thank you, thank you. i know i haven't been very good at calling--but i want you both to know that you mean so much to me. happy mothers day!

recognize anyone?

this is a website i worked on at work. we hired some extremely attractive models--recognize anyone? this website is for a grocery store here in des moines that has been around forever and hasn't changed much. incredible customer service and business ethics--like you are dealing with a grocer from the 1900's. a difficult design because they have an interesting choice of branding. this website works for them and looks like them. enjoy.

check out these links:
fareway homepage
fareway meat section
fareway fresh foods

funny thing

i woke up this morning and looked around the kitchen to find that nick and i seperately went to HyVee last night and bought the exact same stuff--a bag of pink lady apples, bananas and cereal. i laughed a good 10 minutes about it. i keep hoping to walk home tonight and find that we are wearing the same thing.

Africa

So, I survived my rumble in the African bush and now I am here to write about it (This is Nick by the way...not like John Bytheway, more like Nick pause by the way). It was an incredible experience with lots of memorable moments. In the short time I've been back, everyone wants to know favorites of the trip, but I can't really put my finger on them. Everything was unique and awesome. I can say that the trip down to Capetown and Kruger National Park/Graskop were huge highlights.
In Capetown we surfed a couple of days...in the same ocean that a day later we tried to go do a great white shark dive. The dive never happened since we had to turn the boat back after about 5 minutes because the waves were coming over the bow of the boat. Woosies. We did get to go and play with African penguins...funny story: We were told the best way to see the penguins was to not pay at the front gate of the penguins breeding grounds and get the boardwalk tour from a distance, but to go around and climb a fence. Sounded down my alley, so we jumped a fence and probably ruined the penguins' breeding cycle for a couple of years since we were right in the midst of them. Woops. Thought it was a great idea until someone called 2 of my buddies over from the other side of the fence...and he wasn't happy. Since the man hadn't seen a few of us, we ducked under the rocks and thought it would be smart to belly our way through some bushes and climb up onto the boardwalk nonchalantly like it was no big deal. Other than seriously confusing some tourists when we emerged from below, it was dynamite. So that's my up close and personal penguin story.
We also went to Cape Point where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet, really pretty stuff. It turns out that the most beautiful beach I've ever seen is right on the Atlantic side there, but the water temperature is significantly lower on the Atlantic.
Kruger National Park is Africa's Yellowstone where you can take safaris, stay in grass roofed bungalows and explore the terrain (in your car only). When we first got into the park we were giddy as could be every time we saw an elephant or cape buffalo. After a while, we saw so many elephants that we didn't even stop anymore. The wildlife was everywhere! We did a night safari drive and saw some amazing things, but no lions. We heard the lions roaring because they had just caught dinner, but we weren't going to be able to see them. We decided that we had better wake up early and go to the nearby watering hole if we wanted to see them in the wild. It made waking up at 5 worth it when 2 giant males trotted in front of our rental car the next morning.
After my first African safari, we drove into the jungle of South Africa and found a 220 foot free fall giant swing. It was an absolute rush. The setting was next to a massive waterfall with a rickety wooden platform set up next to it. You stand on the edge of it and fall backwards doing a huge free fall until the rope catches you and swings you off to the other side of the chasm eventually landing near the pool at the bottom.
The day we left, we spent the morning at a privately owned safari reserve. They had a lot of lions on their land which was pretty cool to see so close, but the highlight was playing with the lion cubs. We knew a person who knew a person, you know the story, and they let us into the cubs cage to play with them. Never thought I'd be doing that, but probably in the top 10 of coolest things I've done in my life. The cubs were like giant puppies, rolling over so I would scratch their bellies, nipping at my fingers and grabbing my arms with their big paws/claws. They definitely weren't out to harm, but we all left with a few scratches, some holes in Jed's shoe, and respect for their adult sized parents. Eat that Siegfried and Roy.
The medical part of the trip was mind-blowing. They use a socialized medicine system that made me grateful for the headache of ours. People would have to begin arriving at around 4 in the morning so they could be seen by a doctor that day, and often they would still have to come back again the next day. South Africa was a confusing mix of 1st and 3rd world. The hospital wasn't entirely horrible, but the patient care made us drop our jaws quite a bit. That made for a good time for us as the nurses frequently came up to us to take care of the patients. I did everything from resetting bones in orthopedic surgery to sewing up stab wounds to treating an insecticide poisoning. HIV was rampant there with somewhere in the 60-70 percent range of people in our province having the disease. I definitely saw things that most people have only been able to read about in textbooks. I'm pretty sure I made it home HIV free, despite having a hole in my gloves on several occasions while sewing people up. No promises that I don't have tuberculosis though, that's okay, that one is overrated. It felt good to be taking part in health care in a country where it was desperately needed.
South Africa is a definite must see for anyone. It was beautiful, fun, and super friendly. The dollar stretches a lot longer there, and now that Obama is our president, every African is stoked to talk to you. I had so much fun, but being back home with Michelle beats any day there. I sure missed her while I was gone, so I guess next time, I'm taking her with me!

i heart zay

he has new videos! grab some popcorn and prepare to be inspired.

zay creative

one week down : three to go

nick left last saturday with three friends to do a rotation in Polokwane, South Africa. he will be there for a full month. i suppose the purpose of this post is to let the universe know that i miss him. nothing like having someone you love gone, to realize how much you need them. i need nick. he is my best friend. i have had a lot of fun this past week--but if i start to think about nick, i feel as if i start to thaw and my heart starts hurting because half of it is missing.

so universe, bring him home safe and without aids.

this month, nick and i will be celebrating four years of marriage. awesome. i don't know if you know this, but i married my dream guy...

i was attending utah state university and walking down the taggart student center with a friend, jill. all the sudden, the crowd parts and this dreamboat starts heading toward us. yes, i had noticed him before. he was beautiful with his own sense of style--impossible to miss. he knew my friend Jill and they talked and i kept walking and thinking "wow, jill knows him. she would know him" [ jill is beautiful ] and then i started to comfort myself telling myself that it was his loss to not know me or want to know me--lets be honest, i knew i didn't have a chance.

a couple days later i was hanging out with my best friend mare and her current boyfriend, wayne wheeler. wayne talked me into going on a blind date with his friend that he thought was "perfect for me". i agreed, but when the date came--i didn't even bother getting ready for the date, because i was not anticipating anything special.

so, i sat and waited for my date on our stairs that was facing our front door that had a window. the door rang and i looked up, and lo and behold my dream boys face was in the window. i freaked out. couldn't believe my eyes--my dream boy was going to be my date. i said a prayer of gratitude and realized that i better live it up, because it was a once in a lifetime night. who knew that it was going to be a dream i would live forever. thanks wayne. thanks mare. fade memory...

four years. wow.

happiest moment: our first day being married. we walked around salt lake city hand in hand and i had never experienced such joy. nick was my husband and we were married in the temple for time and all eternity. i had goosebumps all day.

one of the many funny moments: doing the sister act from "white christmas" together for the ward christmas show.

our song: sleeping at last--hurry

favorite meal to share: cheesecake factory's bacon cheese burger

greatest adventure: last summer we went back to nicks mission, veracruz mexico, with his parents and my dad. incredible.

greatest purchase together: our dog soba--however, i did love our rides in our scooter with a sidecar

greatest project: remodeling our house

greatest feat: lets just say nick and me on a billboard in sunnyvale california

best date: surfing in california followed by a counting crows concert

random job: nick managed a team in california for dish network and i worked the office

scariest moment: driving through sardine canyon at night and we stopped for a girl on the side of the highway. she had jumped out of her boyfriends car and claimed that he was around and carrying a gun.


i love you nick. i could go on with this list and how much i love you, but i will save it for when you get back. plus, i am sure marci is begging me to stop--that is if she even made it past our "greatest feat".

be safe.

freaking out

what are you doing may 31st? i just signed my life away to the minneapolis marathon--less than 15 weeks away.

nothing like signing up for a marathon. i believe they purposefully make the race cost so much to test your dedication right at the start when you sign up--when i pressed the submit form button, i felt my left arm spazzing and my IT bands began to hurt.

so what are you doing may 31st? join me. you are welcome to come and run or come and hang out and we can party before/after in minneapolis, or as my mom calls it--minneanapolis.

do it.