The Glass Castle

Book club time again! This month we read The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls. The book was basically about this girl, Jeannette, and the hardships she went through in life. They lived in this shack in West Virginia for the majority of their childhood and had to pretty much fend for themselves...scavenging food in the garbage, working to support their parent's and siblings, etc. Throughout the book I was appalled at times at how the parents could treat their children. There was one time when the kids had been literally starving, like skin and bones, and the mom was sneakily eating a chocolate bar under the covers and had been gaining weight for a while! Holy cow, what a wench!! Anyway the story was pretty depressing, but still worth reading! That's convincing, right? But really...worth the read.
It was held at my house this month and we all had a super fun time! It's so fun just to hang out for a while and chat. We took lots of fun pictures and we even talked about the book for a few minutes! We didn't get everyone in a picture, but those in attendance were: me, Steph, Shelby, McKayle, Carla, Liz, Brooke, and Keelee. Thanks everyone for coming to my house!!

I think this is my fave! Keelee, you look HOT!

Dinner with the Girls

We finally got to get together with Angela (and her baby) again...It's been so long!!! We had a good time at Training Table hanging out and chit-chatting...

AVP

Jenny got me some tickets to the AVP Volleyball tour for my birthday. The event was on Valentine's day at the E-Center. Michelle and I went and met up with Janelle and Bryson there. If you don't know about the AVP, it's a beach volleyball tour with some amazing people! Some of the olympic players were there and it was so fun to watch! We loved it! I know this picture quality sucks, but it's all I got! This is Jake Gibb...and some chick.

Arches

So, I've lived in Utah for 19 1/2 years and guess what? I have never been to Arches! Or Moab for that matter. Since we were in Moab anyway, I decided that I wanted to at least drive through Arches. We were super sore, so we didn't want to hike but I think we got to see a lot of cool stuff.

This was just some random dog in a hoodie that we saw on the way home. Too funny!

Volleyball Rocks!

My volleyball team and I went to Moab for a tournament. We have wanted to do it forever, but it's just never quite worked out until this year. Camille's team goes every year, so we decided to head down together. We got on the road on Friday afternoon and arrived at around 4:00 that afternoon.

Amy & Me

Stacy & Michelle

We started playing pool play Friday night at about 7:00 p.m. Our last game Friday night was at about 10:30 p.m. and we played on Saturday morning at 6:00 a.m. Pool play went until about 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.

During one of our games on Saturday, Kim went up to hit a ball and the girl that was blocking on the other side landed under the net. Well, as Kim came down from the hit, she landed on the girl that came under the net and rolled her ankle. The other girl didn't even apologize! Can you believe it? What a jerk! She was probably just mad that we CREAMED her team. Anyway, Kim was really hurt and had to have her ankle taped. I felt so bad but she still played really well.

After the pool play, they took a little while to put everyone in brackets. There were A, B, and C brackets. We did really well in the pool play and ended up in the A bracket! Yea us! Camille's team also got in the A bracket. We didn't get to play eachother, but at least we got to hang out during down time. We ended somewhere in the bottom half of the A bracket. Not too shabby!

Camille's team: Box, Camille, Janalee, and Kate (hitting)

Camille

Kate & Camille

Our team: Kim, Me, Katie, Stacy, Michelle, Amy

Michelle, Amy, Me, Kim

Amy & Stacy Stacy, Michelle, MeKatie, Steve, Kim, & Bryan

Vegas, Baby!

McKayle announced at the spur of the moment that she was getting married in Vegas, so of course we headed down there for it. I drove down with Kenny, Steph, and Kira. We had an awesome time!

On Friday night, we ate some In 'n Out, because it's definitely a must-do in Vegas! Then we went out on the town...we headed over to meet up with Brian and McKayle at the MGM then went to the New York, New York to go on the roller coaster...which is AWESOME! It made me a little dizzy tho.
The wedding was on Saturday at a cute place called the Chapel of Flowers. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so all you get is the outside! I wish I would have gotten more pictures of everyone there, but I didn't so oh well!
After the wedding, we went over to the Flamingo to their garden area to take some more pictures then off to the buffet at the Rio, which was HUGE! We headed back to the hotel and hung out in the casino for a while. I did alright out there, I ended up winning enough so the trip only costed me $10! Granted, I didn't have to pay gas and my portion of the hotel was small, but it was still pretty awesome! Thanks for letting me tag along! And Congratulations McKayle and Brian!!!

New Job!!!

I recently finished school and knew that once that was done, I'd be looking for a new job. I worked for my family before and it was a really good run. I enjoyed it and it was perfect for the time I was there (9 1/2 years).

Everything ended up working out perfect. I interviewed at a couple of places, but they just didn't feel quite right. I went in on December 2 to this company and got offered the job on the spot. I started on December 4!

It was kind of funny...the first thing the president of the company said to me was, "First of all, do you get offended easily?" Hmmm....do you know me? I said, "Um, ususally I'm the one doing the offending..." I knew at that point that it was probably the job for me! The rest of the interview went pretty well, so it was good news when he said, "Can you start today?"

I am now the HR/Payroll Manager at an HVAC company. The job is right up my alley. I think the hardest part is to get used to having to be at the office all day! Not that I wasn't at my old job, but I had a little more freedom! Anyway, I love the job and I love learning things about a business that is sooo different than the one I came from.