Meet my EMPA Class Teammates

So after three years of attending class with these jokers, my time of going to class has come to an end. To celebrate, we went to In-n-Out for dinner on the way home and I took this picture so I can remember them forever! Good, good people. Fun too - hence the "jokers" comment.

Left to right: Josh, Chris, Daniel, Eric, me, and Wendy

A Little Spring Repelling

Lindsey and Rob wanted to meet Mike so we planned a little double date of repelling at the Red Ledges in Diamond Fork Canyon. We had a blast. And Lindsey really liked Mike. And.... that means I have pictures of Mike to share! :)

Me and Mike

Rob at the top of the repel

Mike going over

Lindsey and Rob

Mike and me

Ruby's New Accessory aaaaand Her Surgery

This past weekend, Ruby got this new accessory - another bike rack! I can now haul 4 bikes on my car. That calls for a road trip for me and my besties!! ... As soon as Ruby is recovered from the surgery she's undergoing as I write this post....

.... for 2.5 oil leaks (one head gasket, one valve cover, and pitiful oil filter issue - that's the half). Sad day. This will be the first time I've spent some really big bucks on any of my cars for repairs.

Mike (I'm transitioning from his SMike nickname that he doesn't know about FYI ha!) has come to my rescue and greatly relieved my stress about my car being in the shop for so long: he's lent his truck to me for the week so I can get to and from work without begging for rides. Oh {heart]. I like him. A lot. (Oh yeah - he has two vehicles: a Subaru Outback and a Toyota Tundra.) Driving his truck is like driving a cushy tank. Ha! Speaking of Mike, today is his birthday. We went to dinner at Los 3 Amigos and to see The Hobbit last night to celebrate. I tried to pay for dinner, but Mike wouldn't let me ... in light of the big bucks I'll be forking out for Ruby. {heart}. Again. :)

March in Review

Well, March flew by with nothing occurring that made me thing, "Oh. I need to blog about this." So, I can sum March up pretty quickly: lots of school and homework, some cross-country skiing, some road and mountain biking on good weather days, lots of going to movies, a little bout with the stomach flu, and quite a bit of time spent with SMike. Yep. Bachelor #4 from this blog post is still around. So far so good. I'm liking him. And I think he likes me, which makes him a smart cookie! Ha ha! We're just having fun and getting to know each other. No pictures yet. Maybe some day. Until then, these pictures from cross-country skiing with Janie and one of me and Charlotte, Lindsey and Rob's little girl, will have to do. :)

Sisters Ski Weekend!

This year's sisters ski weekend was the 8th year since Robyn and I started it up! At least, we're pretty sure it has been 8 years. We remember going to see Tristan & Isolde in the movie theater the first year we did it and that movie came out in 2006. Kind of crazy! This year we went to the Hotel Strong in Logan and skied the Beav with Teri and Kelly. And even Jen came up with me and went skiing! We had a blast. Friday night we chatted and put the "Find My Friends" app on everyone's iPhones and laughed about following each other on that. Then we skied on Saturday, went to dinner at Noodles, and watched Move Over Darling - a Doris Day movie that Jill gave me for Valentine's this year. Then we all took off on Sunday. After I got home, I got on my Find Friends app and saw that Robyn and Jill were in Mountain Home by then so I texted them encouragement that they were almost home! Ha ha! Such a hoot. Some day we've gotta get Joni here for this tradition .... :) Thanks for the good times! 

This pic celebrates the fact that my Subaru could pull into Teri & Kelly's driveway with this much snow - see how deep the snow is?! 

My Very Own Bachelorette Show

One of the beautiful benefits of making my blog private is I can now be more open about all my dating dramas! Aren't you so excited?

At the beginning of this month, I had my very own bachelorette show going on. There were four bachelors: LA-Mike, Texas-Ken, Patrick, and Springville-Mike (aka SMike).

#1 LA-Mike came on fast in January. I met him at the Fire & Ice mid-singles retreat over New Year's Eve. LA-Mike even flew out to Utah over Martin Luther King weekend to visit fiends and take me out on a date. We ended up going out on two dates that weekend. He really impressed me. A lot. I'll admit, his fast-comings-on was a little much on New Years Day, but I quickly converted after seeing how direct he was, how much he seemed to like me, and how impressive he was. Sadly, he weeded himself out. I haven't heard from him in more than two weeks.

#2 I met Texas-Ken at the same midsingles retreat too - but very briefly and then I never saw him there again. Through a coincidental circumstance, we reconnected via my old hairdresser and Facebook. He immediately friended me on Facebook and sent me a message asking for my number and for a time when he could call me. Well it didn't work out to do so until February 9. We chatted for only a few minutes ... and ... I'm not feeling it. We're not a match. So I'll be weeding him out if he calls me again.

#3 I also met Patrick at the midsingles retreat. We went snowshoeing and cross-country skiing there and spent a good portion of the gala dancing in the same group. He asked me out for a weekend in January but the roads were terrible because of a winter storm warning and he had to drive down from South Jordan ... so he cancelled and asked for a raincheck. Well, he made good on his raincheck for February 9 even though there was another winter storm warning that night. But.... that date was a group date with all his friends .... not the best for a first date, but it was fun and he is nice.... and I didn't really feel like it was a match but the jury could be still out. I doubt I ever hear from him again, so consider him weeded out.

#4 SMike was a blind date set up by my old stake presidency counselor (from back in my single stake days in Provo). We went out on the blind date on January 24 and he scheduled the whole date over email since that is all the contact information for me that Pres. Mecham gave him. But at the end of the date SMike didn't ask for my number so I thought that was done - even though it was more pleasant than I expected it to be. But he surprised me by emailing me saying he wanted to take me out again. The first attempt to take me out again was a little rocky, but he made up for it with a fun geocaching date on February 8 (starting to see a pattern here? all three of these guys had to do all their business with me on the same weekend: February 8-9! That was a busy weekend). Since then he's been in touch with me nearly every day and we're going out again tomorrow night. So he is the last bachelor standing!

SMike might be the last bachelor standing, but our date tomorrow night is only our third date (maybe fourth - if you count the 15-minute Banff Film Festival intermission date we had. ha ha!). So the jury is still out on him ...

I'm really glad this bachelorette show has simmered down. I was beginning to make demands that if I had to endure all this dating drama that a marriage had better come out of it! But now I'm not demanding that to the same degree since the drama has gone down. Yay!

Annual President's Day MTB Weekend

Great friends + red dirt + blue skies + warm weather + knobby tires + 5 rides + 42 miles + 3700 feet climbed + lots of giggling + side trip to Zion National Park + too many of Jenn's "chest" photo ops = just what the doctor ordered.