Bryce Canyon

My parents came down to our neck of the dessert for Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.

All the parks in Utah were free for the holiday weekend so, we went to Bryce Canyon. 

I had never been there before and it was beautiful. It was a pretty nice day too. Blue skies with patchy clouds. A little windy and chilly for our tailgate picnic but it was fun and the food was SO good!

We saw 6 bald eagles and one golden eagle in one little area. There was a fresh carcass right by the road. See if you can find them in the following pictures. 

There is one in the picture below.

There is one in the picture below.

There are two in the picture below. Here I'll make it bigger for you.  Can you see them?

There were two more that flew across the road and far away when we stopped. Below is the golden eagle flying away. I also had a picture of the golden eagle gnawing on the carcass...but, I left it out because as I mentioned it was fresh.

Below we were at the little visitor center.

This is were we had our tailgate picnic.

Marley loves to be outside...even when it's cold.

The hole that Marley is in was already there...we put her in it and she thought it was hilarious.

The food: Turkey and avocado sandwiches, my favorite. I know, you're confused because I don't like turkey but, slices of roasted turkey breast is perfect on an avocado sandwich. I like the texture and I can't really taste it. It's perfect.

Oh and there were yummy chips. My favorite are the cheddar & sour cream ruffles.

So, Marley did eventually ask if she could get in the truck, too cold. Grandpa too, see him in the front seat? And as usual Grandpa rolls the back window down for Marley when she has free reign of the back seat.

Mom and the blue blue sky. AND her famous pink hat. I think that hat is as old as I am.

Dad and his camera and the blue sky.

I LOVE THE BELOW PICTURE.

Me.

Dumpster Chicken. That's what we call the ginormous crows that are often found in and around National Parks.

It got colder as the day went on.

Look at this crazy tree. It was in an area that had been burned. My mom spotted it as we drove in and said, "Oh! We just passed a tree that you need to take a picture of on the way out." Sure enough we found it on the way out. High Five.

Mom and daughter.

And mom and daughter.

Marley and her camera, which she got for Christmas from Grandma Nette and Grandpa Pete.

Marley asked if she could take a shower (in the run off from the roof). It was our last stop so I let her.

If you had a ranch, wouldn't you love to have an entrance arch like this one!?! I would!

I love blue skies and white fluffy clouds!

Here's a old abandoned mill or something. This was either just north or just south of Antimony.

I really like this one. The texture of the wood that was painted red. You can see the stairs in the windows. The corrugated tin awning at the bottom.  And the cylinder to the right.

 

I think that's enough pictures. Don't you?

Thanks mom and dad for another fun adventure!

The End.

Look what you made me do MOM!!!

I am working on getting another picture up as my header. My mom said the other one was too long/tall, so every time she checked my blog she had to actually scroll down to see if I had a new post.

Nevermind, RSS feeds and such. 

She's of an "older" generation so I cut her some slack and made the effort to change me header....for her.  But, this is why my header looks absolutely totally skiwampus.  And I'm too tired to try to figure it out tonight....who knows when I'll back to it.

image borrowed from

 I wish the blog fairy would fix it for me in the night.

The other day....

While I got lunch ready, Marley says in a high-scratchy voice:  "Where's my brother?"

Me (laugh):  I don't know?  Where is your brother?

Marley same voice: I don't know?

Me:  WHO is your brother?

Marley thinks for a few seconds, sees Daddy and says in the same voice:  My brother is Daddylayna!

We all laughed.

Later that day he became Dadlayna.  We haven't heard of him since.  Yet a few days later we heard about Momlayna but not sure if that is Mom or a sister? 

Last night Marley was distributing Rumicub pieces to each of us as we all watched a TV show. She likes to play with those tiles, a lot.  During one of the rounds of distribution she put a stack on my leg and said quietly, "This is for sister."  I said, "Sister? Who is sister?" And she quickly and quietly corrected, "This is for mommy."

Marlayna is giving us small hints.  Don't you think?

I have to say....today was a good day.

Marley was sick (puking) most of last week.  She is feeling much much better!

I worked out this morning.  Yes, exercise.  I found a nice 30 minute workout in a magazine at the laundromat.  Yes, I ripped it out of the magazine and took it home (so naughty, I know).  Yes, I was there because Marley had thrown up on my beautiful comforter that makes me feel like a queen...but, not when it has puke on it.  (the huge washer was $5.00!!!!! the huge dryer was $.25 for every 4 minutes!!! Crazy huh? That was not such a good day.)

Back to the exercise thing....if you didn't know but are interested, I have a weight loss blog with my cousin. You can go check out our progress. 

The weather is BEAUTIFUL today.  Marley and I went for a two mile walk/stroller with blue skies and lots of sunshine and big white fluffy clouds.

Nathan had a job interview over the phone.  Any day he has a job interview is a GOOD day!  The day he is offered a position will be THE BEST DAY OF THE YEAR!  =) 

Nathan will start working for his dad in about a week.  It's just a part time merchandiser job (for Pepsi) but, it will be nice to have a little bit more income while he continues the search.

My sista Julie, is going to have a baby girl this week! She has been pregnant 8 times and this is only the second time she has been able to carry the baby full term.  So, this is a BIG DEAL. The other success....Sam will be 10 in May and he is so excited to finally have a sibling...a sister.....Lola Joy!  I can't wait to see her and hold her!  But, I'm probably not more excited than Julie, Matt and Sam. =)

********

Not such a good day....Nathan isn't feeling well.  He hasn't puked and Aunt Didi (diarrhea) hasn't come....yet.  But, his tum tum hurts. 

That's all.

"How is your job going?"

A lot of people have asked me this, so I thought I would just answer everyone all at once.

So, impersonal!  I know! But a lot of people have asked me, "When are you going to start blogging again?" and I don't know?  But, you got the halloween costumes and now here's "How is your job going?"

Answered.

My job is going great! The orthodontist I work for is so so nice. All the ladies I work with are really nice too.  I usually work 2 days a week but the past two weeks I've been able to work 3 days per week.  I also had my one month review and got a raise. 

In the job interview the Dr. was explaining how he would start the person out at $* and after a month he would have an interview with them and see how things were going for both sides and at that point he would most likely give a $1 raise. Then three months after that he would sit down with them again and have another interview and at that point he feels like keeping a person on at that point is the investment, and he would give another $1 raise.

When he offered me the job he said the wage was $*  ($.50 less than he said in the interview) and within about 5 seconds I had a huge debate in my head about whether or not to negotiate or just take the $8.50 as a blessing.

I just took it. 

I regretted not at least mentioning that he said $* in the interview.

The day of my one month interview I was so nervous because I wanted to ask for more than $1.00 raise.  I prayed that I would have help in knowing what to say and knowing IF I should say anything.  The interview came and he asked me a lot of questions about my expectation of the job before I started and how it actually is and about communication in the office and policies and procedures and stuff like that.  He asked for recommendations and asked me to be aware of certain situations so I could give more insight on how it could run better.

I gave him a lot of feed back and all my insights and then I said that I had just one regret. He made a sad face, he is so nice and caring.  I told him that he had mentioned $* in the interview and so I was expecting that if I got offered the job.  But, then when he offered it at $* I regretted not trying to negotiate and asked him if he would have negotiated with me. Sort of asking as a learning experience rather than can I have a $1.50 raise. I was also prepared to negotiate and ask for $1.25 this time and next time and then by the time I have been here 4 months I would be up to the pay I had expected and wanted.

He said it was an over site on his part to say one thing in the interview and then offer another and would be happy to put my pay at $* ($1.50 raise!!!).  He went on to say that he thought I would be a great worker as soon as he read my cover letter and resume.  He  is so please with my work and everyone in the office has commented to him at how quickly I catch on and what a hard worker I am.  He asked if that would compensate me enough.  I was so pleased I said, "Absolutely."  I didn't think he should back pay me for the "underpay" because I totally should have at least mentioned it or tried to negotiate. I think $1.50 raise is an awesome blessing.  The next time we sit down for another interview and raise, at the end of January, if I'm still here that's another $1.00! 

Part of me hopes I'm still here because it is a great place to work with really nice people, but a bigger part of me hopes we are somewhere else, making a lot more money than that!  ;-)

Update on Nathan's job hunt:  No update.  He is still working hard at applying to many many jobs, throughout the country.  He has had promising interviews, but no offers.  He has been told he was in the top 3 or top 5 or top 9 of 100 or more applicants.  That is encouraging, but it would be nice to be the top 1!  ;-) He will be...soon. 


Thank you for caring about our family and our life. We care so much about you and your family and appreciate your love and support.  All of you!

BOO!

 Marley was the cutest witch you ever did see.

 Nate was Jack Sparrow.  Again.

 Here is crazy Jack from PoCIII.

 Marley loves this pumpkin cat. And doesn't he look like he loves her!

 Grandma Nette put sparkles on the cutest little witch.

 I was black and red for halloween.

 Grandma Nette also painted the cutest little witch's nails, green!

 I was making hideous faces in the back seat and taking pictures of them.

 This is Marley's hideous face.

 Bobbing for donuts.  Marley's new favorite thing.

 She tried....

 so very...

 hard....

 and wouldn't...

 give...

up.

 No. Not her.

 So after we laughed at her efforts for a good ten minutes....

We told her she could use her hands. 

 She was very proud of herself for finding "Spider sucker!" on the table.

 She did a cupcake walk and had to eat her cupcake right away! Even though she had just eaten that whole glazed donut.

 I wanted her to pick the chocolate cupcake with candy corn pumpkins on top. But, NO!  She had to have the green one with a nasty sugary icky pumpkin on top.

 She waited patiently to go fishing!

 So cute!

 She got an itty bitty triangle.

 And a watch.

 Every time she found a new Halloween decoration she would look at it and whisper, 

"Mom! Spooky!"

 She was a pro at the bean bag toss.  She got a little 7up can from Grandpa Pete.

And at the end of the night, Marley was the messiest littlest cutest witch. 

Grandpa Alger and Marley have a strong tradition of saying, "Boo!" to each other. So, on Halloween Grandpa called to say "Boo!" to Marley. She was outside with Daddy so I told Grandpa that we'd call him back.  When Marley called him back the first thing she said was, "Boo!"