Ode to Matchbox 20

Matchbox 20 released their newest single's video on YouTube today. I love this video. I love the song. Once again they have made a song I relate to. . . . the one you love who is so mean, yet you keep going back to them and you cant let them go. I love the playfulness of the band during this video. It is a perfect representation (to me) of how looking back at the relationship you can see what a jerk they were but while you were in it you didnt care what they did, as long as they called you 'baby'. My heart leaps when  X94 plays it here in Vernal. I cannot cannot cannot wait until September 4th when their album is released!  Oh that I lived in Australia who gets the release on Aug 31!

Dinosaur Round-up

Happy Dinosaur Round up Days! Vernal sports a three day rodeo starting July 12. The powers that be once again decorated ole Rex for the occasion. 

I have been working for Dr Turnbow in Duchesne one day a week. It is going very well. They keep asking me back and keep paying me as I leave. Right now Dr T is doing 1-2 days a week in his old office in Monticello. His Duchesne office was built with 4 opertories. Only 2 have chairs. His other 2 chairs are in Monticello. I anticipate that in a month Dr T will move his 2 chairs and I will be a permanent addition to the office staff. I would really like that. The hour commute is long but I have really enjoyed it lately due to the Vernal library's audio book selection! 

My only moments of uncomfortable-ness is when we have morning huddle and pray. I have been trying to decide if I like the morning prayer or not. There is nothing wrong with it; so why do I feel uncomfortable about it? Maybe it is my years and years of working with out morning meeting prayers. I know many dentists in Utah pray before they start their work day I have always found this to be odd. I think prayers should be offered in private. Maybe the public display of religion make me uncomfortable and I am ashamed of that. I am proud of my religion. I find great peace and personal reward living my life according to the teachings of the LDS church. I have been conditioned to keep religion out of many aspects of my life and that is not right. Anyone should be able to bring aspects of their religious practices in to all parts of life. I will embrace this practice of Dr T and take from it the most I can. 

Long hair is so easy to braid and pull back for working as a dental hygienist. My hair has gotten so long. I now work less days than I am off and I am tired of doing my hair. It is hot, the air is dry, the wind blows and making general hate of my hair. 

My hair is the longest it has ever been in my life. It is pretty boring.

I cut it off today.

I did not think about donating it and I should have. Looking at the pictures I cut a lot of my hair off. I know my hair is thin and dry and boring but it was healthy. I feel bad that I did not think about donating it until I saw the pictures and saw how much hair I did cut off. 

First of all I want to say how great the spots on my mirror are-sheesh. Next my hair looks flat and sad. When the girl styled my hair it was big and looked great. Then I got into my black car and melted. It was so hot inside my car-as always. I need to go buy a blow dryer today and some hair product. It has been a very long time since I have had to do my hair. . . but it is cooler and lighter and Scott loves it! I warned him I was cutting my hair off and he said 'whatever you have to do'. I know he prefers long hair so I was nervous for him to see my drastic move.  I was surprised when all night he kept complimenting me. Even this morning with bed head he made me feel sexy and attractive by telling me 'Mmmm that hair cut looks great on you,' and then kissing me and telling me to go buy a blow dryer. 

Scott does spoil me. He needs new boots for work and wont get them because they are quite pricey. Yet he lets me get whatever I want. I am so thankful he is so generous to me. I need to find a way to pick out a pair of work boots and hope they are the right fit and comfy and good for work. . . 

Superstar Chef, Family Reunion, New Look

I wanted to surprise Scott with a fancy manly meal and so I tried my hand at beef wellington. 

The golden pastry was very yummy and the mushroom layer between the pastry and the meat was very delicious even though I added too much garlic. And the meat was done to perfection! It looks raw but trust me it was hot and tender and completely wonderful. 

I was pretty proud of myself for making this top dollar dish.

Last weekend there was a Rust Reunion. My father's mother was a Rust and was raised in Altamont Utah--aka the Uintah Basin. What I find ironic is today I live in Vernal-aka the Uintah Basin. 

Having a reunion has been long overdue. My brother Daniel and his wife Hilaree came. The three of us represented my grandmother-Mable Jones branch of the family tree. 

Daniel and Hilaree stayed with Scott and I for the weekend. We decided to go to the dinosaur quarry inside Dinosaur National Park.

Scott constantly has something in his nose! I am not sure if it is a birth defect but it sure makes me giggle. Here we are on the tram waiting to be taken to the quarry.

Here we are at the quarry. Scott took a less than flattering picture and I look amazing and since this is my blog I chose the picture where I looked wonderful! Poor Scott. . . .He truly isn't a drunk ha ha ha

Oh the quarry and the tram both in the background.

The night before we went to the park I showed Daniel and Hilaree pictures (much to Scott's chagrin) of when part of the Jones clan went to the quarry in 1997 after attending a reunion/funeral in Altamont. The tram is the same! The quarry is slightly different-the old one was falling apart and recently went under a remodel in 2011. 

After going to the park we went to Fantasy Canyon. I have posted about this wonderful canyon before and only included one picture of screaming man. Can you see him?? 

Suzie update time:

She is 1 week shy of 5 months.

She loves kettle corn from The Red Barn in Santaquin

Her tail moves a mile a minute

Scott parted her hair down the middle the other day! 

This picture shows how mangy Suzie's hair was getting.

This picture is Suzie right after her first hair cut

Another shot of her new big puppy hair cut. Suzie is so much softer now and is more brown and black mixed. She is not sure about the shortness of her hair, she keeps rubbing and scratching. What a silly girl. I love her new look!

New Camera

Right in the heart of downtown Vernal is this T-Rex. Some entity decorates him according to the season. Christmas was a little frightening with Christmas lights on his teeth, but I like the fishing getup. 

Scott kindly and sweetly bought me a new camera.  It is a Panasonic-(click here for link) I love it. It is what I wanted. The only thing I have noticed is when I was posting this it took forever to load the pictures. I guess 16.1 MP makes a big file and it takes time to load. And if that is my only complaint I can live with it. I love the camera!

I was blanching some zucchini prior to freezing. One piece fell onto the floor. Suzie snagged it up quickly and ran for the safety of the living room couch. Once she knew she was save she proceeded to eat it. I hurried and took the picture as proof that this silly dog eats her veggies!

Suzie is such a good puppy. She does have selective hearing. She pretends she does not hear me telling her to get down off the bed but she listens quite well in the car when I tell her to get into the back. She loves to play fetch. Scott and I will go down the street to our Stake Center and throw a ball while we take laps around the baseball field. She loves it, more for the run than the guaranteed scraps of food at the pavilion left over from some activity.  When we get home after running her as hard as we can she usually crashes on the floor. I know you can imagine her puppy dreams and trust me those front legs get moving when she is dreaming! 

I have been working one day a week for a dentist in Duchesne. He built a brand new office. He did not buy any patient files or equipment. Everything is brand new. It is really fun working in a new office. One downer is that every patient is a new patient so lots of xrays, charting, and general paperwork need to be done. It can be tough sometimes. I am truly grateful that I have the chance to work for him. I am scheduled to work for 2 more weeks. He only has 2 opertories complete, the other 2 will be done soon. Once they are complete they will negotiate hiring me for real. I am glad for this trial time since it is such a long commute. I am glad to finally have some work I enjoy.  I am also thankful for my camera!

Let Summer Begin

Memorial Day is my favorite holiday. This year I went to the Jensen cemetery to visit Scott's father's grave. He has been gone for 30 years. My mother-in-law  (MIL) remarked that their children are older than their father when he passed. 

Scott was working on Memorial Day. Suzie and I played. I have given up keeping my slippers out of her mouth and she loves to play with them. Her other favorite toy is an $0.88 squeaky pink pig from the dreaded Wal Mart. I love her ears in this shot! She can barely reach the windows in the car and sticks her head out and those ears get going. I call her bat dog. 

Scott called and asked me to come ride with him for his last water pull. I cruised out to the desert and met up with him. I rode with him on the last pull. I was all sorts of anxious because last time I rode with him we got caught and Scott got into trouble. I did not want to repeat that. Since it was a holiday and at the end of the day, no one saw us. It is pretty fun riding shotgun with this man at the wheel!

After work we left to go camping. Due to a misunderstanding we had not planned on camping Monday night. So we tossed things together and got ready to leave. We needed a table. My MIL had one. We stopped by and to our surprise she had 2 steaks marinating and in zip bags, chicken fajita ingredients, elk sausage, hot dogs, and even a stick of butter, and a case of bottled water. We left her house with more food than we originally had and way more than we needed. She is such a sweet woman!

We got up the mountain and tent pitched by 11:30 pm. We immediately crashed since we had been up since 3 am. Tuesday was quiet since most campers were empty and everyone had gone home. We decided to go to the Flaming Gorge Dam. It was wonderful. I loved the colors of the desert landscape!

There is a dam tour and I want to go on it. Alas we got there just as 2 bus loads of kids arrived. We didnt want to wait for the next available tour so we left. I cannot wait to go back-with a camera!

I took this pic of the 3 of us seconds before the camera slipped and I dropped it-breaking my beloved camera of 6 years. It is so sad! It was the final straw of the most expensive month of my life! I am not sure when I can replace it. 

While camping Suzie had the time of her life. We did not have to leash her very much due to the lack of people. We went on a path/hike on the rim of the Gorge. It was beautiful-sad no pics. While on the path we leashed Suzie but for the most part she walked her self. She would take the loop into her mouth and walk. It was the cutest thing ever. Her little ears were flopping and she pranced like a big girl walking herself. 

Our camping trip was freezing at night (Suzie's water bowl did freeze) and hot during the day. I could not get warm at nights. It was pretty tough. Thankfully Scott was hot and radiating warmth. He was so wonderful to keep me as warm as possible. He even got the stuff out for hot chocolate so I would not have to get out of my cocoon of warmth. 

My Memorial Day was wonderful! I am excited that camping sites are so close to home and I have someone who will actually go with me! 

Let summer begin! 

Awww Otter Pops!

This month has been one of the most expensive periods in my life. It started off with unexpected lawyer and court costs from an ex wife. Then I was driving down the road Monday planning on hitting the car wash to scrub the bug guts from our trip to St George when I heard a ping and crack and shatter. I didnt know what happened at first since I was driving next to road construction. A few seconds later I realized my sun roof had shattered. I did not get to wash my dirty car, instead I went to body shops looking for replacement glass. This glass while not big is made of diamonds because it is pretty expensive! Even the body shop guy was shocked. I ordered the glass and as of today it had not arrived in Vernal-so the rain is causing me to have a garbage bag over the top of my car-poor WT car! 

We took the old Ford Explorer in for inspection and it needed new ball joints on the front axle. As expected this was more than a few hundred dollar job! Our poor bank account. . . sigh. Add to that Scott is still only working a few hours. He is at 18 for this pay period. Sheesh. I temp on Thursday for the same dentist I have been temped previous. He is so bad about paying that his employees will be 1 week late with their pay; I dont expect to be paid from him for a few weeks. 

I responded to an ad in the newspaper asking for house cleaners for a property management company. I have called two times in 3 days and both times I had to leave a message. I guess I am not even good enough to clean apartments-what a self esteem killer. I am grateful for the blessings Scott and I have had. We have somehow had ways to take care of our responsibilities this month. We have to postpone carpet for several more months now and while that is sad it is doable!

I was sitting here crocheting and Suzie wanted to be up in my business. She kept biting my ball of yarn so I put it up and went and got an Otter Pop-or Flavor Ice-I cannot remember what I have. As I was enjoying the refreshing treat Suzie was giving me the look. I caved and let her try it. She loved it!

Look at the tongue! 

What a way to end the day! A nice cool Otter Pop!

Daniel and Hilaree Jones

This is my brother Daniel and his fiance Hilaree. This was their announcement picture.

This is their exit at the St George temple on May 11

My mom and Daniel

Daniel looks happy in this picture. He has waited so long to find the right woman. He is such a good man. I am proud of him. The sealing was wonderful and the luncheon was delish and the reception was fun and perfect! I love that Hilaree had donuts and milk. It was such a wonderful day. It was killer hot in St G and I am not used to it. I love Daniel and Hilaree so much. Oh how I love my brothers. 

Scott and I went to Cedar City and stayed in a hotel with Suzie. She did great. She did not bark or destroy the furniture. We left her with some friends while we spent the day in hot St G. Suzie played with kids, dug weeds, was fed treat after treat, helped with dishes, ate food the kids dropped, ran and chased and had so much fun being a family dog. She was so wore out that she slept all the next day. Suzie is becoming a really good dog. Minus one poop at my mothers house she did really good. My dad introduced the laser light to Suzie. Scott wanted to go buy a laser right then. I said we had one-mom had given one to us in our Christmas stocking and it was in the 'junk' drawer. Scott grabbed the light as soon as we got home and has been having fun with Suzie ever since. 

I am thrilled for my brother and I am happy for myself (I am selfish). I finally went to a family event with my husband!!!! It was the first time. I loved having Scott there to support me and to meet my extended family-even though it was so intimidating to him and awkward feeling.  Scott was supposed to work. But due to Tribe disputes and greedy men work has been slow for Scott and at the last minute he was given the weekend off-Thank you Greg Mckenzie! Scott came home and said-hey how fast can we be ready to go? I was so excited! I booked a hotel, Scott gathered Suzies stuff (we now have a doggy bag the size of a diaper bag-sheesh) and off we went! I had been planning on going alone and was so thrilled to have Scott with me! I am thankful for this man in my life! He is good to me and spoils me daily.