My Poor, Ignored Blog

Well helloooooooooo.

It's fall break! I have a minute to say hi! Hi!

Yeah, so, where does the time go? Last I checked it was August and I was frantically trying to get organized and ready to go back to school. It's now mid-October, and I'm already half-way through my first semester of graduate school. It's great! Super busy, but great. I pretty much work part-time, go to school and study. Mark works, makes dinner, does the dishes, the laundry and the grocery shopping. Hmmmm. I should have gone back to school a long time ago!



In spite of being very busy, I am enjoying my classes and learning a lot. Mark has been a huge help - I couldn't have asked for a more supportive, wonderful husband! Mark has been spending his free time keeping a wary eye on the stock market and watching some baseball playoff games. I spend my free time going to the gym and going to an occasional lunch with family or friends.

In other news:


In August, our friends Larissa and Shawn adopted a darling little boy! Five-month-old Christopher has already got those two (and everyone else) wrapped around his little finger! Check out those beautiful eyes!

On September 20th, Katie, Mark and I went on a hike up Mt. Olympus. It was so fun, but that was one hard hike! Well worth it, though. It only took us 3 hours to get to the top!

Last week, I had a the opportunity to go to the Body Worlds exhibit. It was amazing. I highly recommend it.

Fall break has been wonderful - I've been reading novels (Breaking Dawn, for one) and have been able to catch up on some homework. Mark and I took a trip to Wendover, NV last night. While Mark played Texas Hold 'Em, I worked on a scrapbook project. It was fun and relaxing. I know that these next several weeks will go by so quickly, with school and the holidays fast approaching. I will certainly try to check in at least a couple of times between now and winter break, but I'm making no promises! If not, Happy Halloween and Happy Thanksgiving! Ha!

By the way, the journal from my last post - I found it at Barnes & Nobel. It is currently sitting on the shelf collecting dust.

Wasatch Back Relay

This was a crazy, hot, freezing, exhausting, challenging, fun (yes, fun!) time! Our 12-person team, The Blisters in the Sun, ran 180 miles from Logan to Park City in just under 30 hours. Go team! Just to give you an idea of how we compared, the winning team won in about 17.5 hours. That's super fast. We were super slow. But we survived, and I think I'll try to do it again next year.

Van 1 Team Members: McCall, MaryEllyn, Pete, and a few others

Van 2 Team Members: Frank, Jason, Me, Tammy (our driver!), Sam, Brandon & Jody

Here's a hill I "ran" up. There's a small body of water just to the right of center...that's about where I started.

The big finish!

The past few weeks

Hello again! It's crazy busy around here. I was out of town the past couple of weekends. Where did I go? Let me tell you.

Two weekends ago, Mark and I took a trip to Capitol Reef National Park to celebrate my birthday. We traveled with some friends (Larissa and Shannon) and enjoyed perfect weather and beautiful scenery. Hiking, spending time with friends...gotta love it. I love being able to get away from it all by just by driving a few hours away from Salt Lake City. There are so many fun places to go right in our "backyard". One of our hikes was in Muley Twist Canyon - the desert plants were blooming, and it was all very pretty.

Another hike was to Upper Calf Creek Falls. Simply beautiful!


Last weekend, I went with Katie, Larissa, Shannon, Eileen and Grace up to Logan for the Little Red Riding Hood bike ride, an all-women's cycling event. Usually, this is a great time. Last weekend, however, was just a tad cold! I was so freezing! It ended up being quite miserable for me. On the plus side, though, our group did win the costume contest!

Today I attended a bridal shower for my friend, Hailey. She's getting married this August, and I'm so happy for her!


And next weekend is the Wasatch Back Relay! I'm so looking forward to this event...being over. Yikes. My goal is to survive.

Since I'll be starting school at the end of August, I'm planning the rest of my summer - a few weekend trips and some projects around the house. I'll be sure to keep you updated on these very exciting events!

L

Key Bank Building Demolition

This is a bit old, but I'm experimenting adding video to our blog. This is from last August, when the Key Bank building was demolished as part of the downtown mall project. We had a great view from the roof of our building. Enjoy!

M

A Photo A Day in 2008

I'm working on a project, a photographic journal of my year. Taking one picture everyday - showing everyday-life stuff. It's been fun, but sometimes it's hard to come up with a subject to photograph. There's a link at the left to all my pictures so far (on Flickr), and you might see there are a lot of food pictures. On the days when I leave for work at 6am and get home at 8pm...well, that doesn't leave a lot of time for that "one shot" that sums up the day - and I can't really take pictures in the OR. So, I snap a picture of dinner! Anyway, take a look if you want. I try to update the photos weekly. So far, I've only missed one day. Have a good day - it's almost Friday!

L

National Jelly Bean Day

Did you know that yesterday was National Jelly Bean Day? Me neither. The whole Earth Day thing seems to have a larger advertising budget. And perhaps a bit more social awareness. Maybe next year, I'll campaign a little on behalf of the jelly bean. But for now, I do happen to have some of these...

L

Jumping In

Finally. Were we the last two people ever to start a blog? Okay, maybe not, but it sure seems like many of our family members and friends have blogs already. So here we are, ready to share our lives with...well, everyone it seems. Our goals are to entertain, inform and provide a truly meaningful blog experience for those who visit.

A format issue: Posts will be signed one of three ways: M&L = Mark & Lori - both of us reviewed, signed-off on, critiqued for grammar, spelling and punctuation, and agreed on content prior to posting. M=Mark's posts. L=Lori's posts. Actually, Mark hasn't seen a single word of this one, but I'm fully intending to use the combined "signature". I mean, I'm not taking all the blame for this.

And, for our first post, a photo. This is the view from our condo. Not today, thank goodness. It didn't snow that much the other day.

M&L