Preparation

For the last 6 weeks they have had Health & Wellness brown bags once a week here at work, to promote healthy living. In the last few weeks they have talked about the Salt Lake City Marathon, Half-Marathon, 5K, and Bike Tour. They encouraged us to sign up and participate on April 19th, so in conjunction with my newfound relationship with the treadmill, I signed up for the 5K. If you want to sign up, it's not too late! You can sign up at the link below (for any of the events).

http://www.active.com/framed/event_detail.cfm?EVENT_ID=1461582&CHECKSSO=0

I believe the following experience was to teach me 2 lessons: 1st--Judge not lest ye be...punished and 2nd--I may not be ready for the 5K. So here is the story....

I work on the 12th floor, and having some errands to run on the 9th and 2nd floors, I hopped in the elevators (okay, I didn't really hop, I just got in the elevators...) and pressed the button for the 9th floor. The elevator immediately stops on 11 where 2 men get on the elevator. They promptly get off on the 10th floor. Now, here comes the first part of lesson #1. I thought to myself, "Why don't they just take the stairs?? It's one floor!" In fact, this is a thought I have frequently here at work--why people get on the elevator to go down one floor. By the time you have waited for the elevator to come pick you up, you could already be at your destination. So I get off the elevator on 9, conduct my business, and just to prove to nobody, that I'm not above taking the stairs even though it is 3 flights, I enter the stairwell. I walk up to 12, and can't get out. It's then that I realize I'm in the wrong set of stairs. You see, there are two sets of stairs in our building. One is for the convenience of exercising your legs, and one is for the sole purpose of exiting in an emergency. "Oh Krap" (I spelled it with a "K" mom--that means it isn't really a dollar word) I think to myself. So I trudge back down to 9, in hopes that I will be extremely lucky, and be able to exit there. Not true. I roll my eyes at the blasted Utah weather because, despite the fact that it was beautiful and sunny at the moment I was trapped, I walked outside to an inch of snow and a steady fall of fluffy flakes Thursday morning. So of course I had to wear my boots (as you may remember--I ride the bus)--my dressy boots that have a beautifully painful 3-inch heel. (OK--not too painful). So, I'm trapped in the emergency stairwell, on the 9th floor, kicking myself for not bringing my cell phone so I could call for help. So I begin the long descent to the dungeonous space below the building. I stopped at every floor that we have people on and tried the doors, having no success at all. Here is the second part of the lesson. I was punished because I thought I was better than the people that get in the elevator and go down 1 floor. So, to continue. After the 2nd floor, the stairwells continued without numbers. I must have gone 3 or 4 flights deeper. Every descending flight was accented with the pungent odor of mold, and a serious lack of lighting. I thought pretty soon Harrison Ford was going to jump out and hand me a fire stick and push me out of the way of a giant rolling boulder. No such luck. I got to the place where finally, I saw a sign that said "Exit" and wasn't preceded by "No". Instead, it just said "Emergency Exit ONLY". I panicked. In order to save myself further embarrassment (by setting off a fire alarm), I turned around, whimpered, and began back up the stairs. The odor lifted, and the light began to flood in again, and I soon arrived back on the 2nd floor. My legs were on FIRE!!!! So I just stood at the door and peered out the window just waiting for someone to pass by. After about 5 minutes, a man walked by and I started knocking on the door. He kept walking but did a double take, and realized I was trapped. Thankfully, he breached security and let me back in. Also, lucky for me, I had business to conduct on the 2nd floor, so I finished my business and took the elevator back up to the 12th floor. I went to the gym last night and nurtured my relationship with the treadmill, followed by a little iron-pumping. This morning when I got up, my thighs again, were on FIRE!!!! Methinks I may not be ready for the 5K after all (Lesson #2). I suppose the treadmill will be seeing more of me than it would probably like (and more than I would probably like too) for the next month as I prepare for the 5K. I guarantee I won't be running the whole thing. I think that would kill me.

So, if this hasn't completely discouraged you from joining me, click on the link above and register and come with me! It sounds like it will be quite the celebration. And remember, the next time you think a mean thought, Just Hum Your Favorite Hymn (which, by the way, I was singing), Sing Out With Vigor and Vim, You Will Find It Clears Your Mind, Hum Your Favortie Hymn. This will prevent severe punishment from following!

Downtown Rising

As you may know, I work right in the heart of downtown Salt Lake, Construction Capitol of the State (probably pretty close to World though...). It seems there is nowhere to park for more than an hour, fewer good places to eat, more cranes, LOTS of orange, and smaller sidewalks. I have often wondered what our good city will look like when the cranes pack up and leave, construction workers start being "laid off", Nordstrom returns (yay!), and the buses can once again pull up on State Street right next to the new Key Bank building. Today in our company meeting, my expectations were exceeded (one of Deseret Mutual's Core Values). Members of the City Creek Rising Inc. spoke to us about the changes we will be seeing here downtown. They talked about Residential areas (right next to work? sign me up!), new restaurants, shopping, etc. aided by colored diagrams and computerized blueprints (if you will) of what areas of our building will look like. Then, as I said, they exceeded my expecations. There was a virtual tour of what the finished product is expected to look like. I'm very excited about it. City Creek is going to run right through it, there are retractable glass roofs (not just on the two-story skywalk either), retail stores, a food court (hopefully better than what we have now) with 12 vendors, and on and on and on. So, I'm exceeding your expectations (that means you can nominate me for an award at work...) and putting the link here in my blog. Watch the conceptual tour. (It starts at Temple Square and goes down through Main Street, circles around "Richards Court" and winds its way around from there. I'm also extremely excited about the new Harmon's grocery store (some 50,000 sq ft) on the Southeast side of State Street. Here it is:

http://www.downtownrising.com/city_creek/

It reminds me of other big cities you only see on t.v. or on fancy vacations. The City Creek Rising Inc. representatives mentioned that 25% of people from outside of Utah were expected to move in to the residential areas originally, though that figure has significantly increased since the beginning of the project. This alone is enough to keep me in Utah. Oh, and the best part is, while the final completion date is set for 2012, parts of it will be complete late 2008-early 2009. If only the building doesn't fall over into the 55-ft deep hole they are digging out of the now Food Court. For a time, there will be a good 9 cranes on our block. Hopefully the operators don't want to play "Chicken" with the cranes and take out a few buildings in their wake.

Happy 2nd Anniversary!!

Even though we take our family pictures yearly, they are not necessarily on our Anniversary. Last year I decided I wanted pictures of us every year on our Anniversary, so here is this year's contribution. Yes, we're gorgeous, I'm aware. We just got back from the gym when we took these.
That's right! It has been 2 full years that we have been married. It's hard to believe it's been that long already! It was a fun-filled day full of full-time jobs (we left our house together this morning at 5:50 a.m.), school--full of midterms, Relief Society activities, and our nightly date--the Gym. We just got home and finished dinner, (I still have some crunches to do...) and are catching up on some time together. We're both trying to figure out how to keep our eyes open today (I almost resorted to using toothpicks to keep my eyelids open...) as last night was typical, work, school, gym, dinner--all laced with bouts of heavy studying for the lengthy assessment of how much our brains are absorbing--and can regurgitate in a timed session of class. I used half of a package of index cards for my test. It seems everything I see, read, or hear, comes right up to the processing center of my brain (I'll spare you the physiological and anatomical details...) and bounces off! Anyway, we're happy to be together, and look forward to many more years of fun, studying, and

Livin' on Love....

Notice how in this picture I'm stretching as far as I can, and he isn't reaching at all(I think we need to watch Hitch again: "You go 90, she comes 10). I think it was mostly a reluctance to let me take more than one picture...

One Year Older and Wiser Too!

So yesterday we went to a Higbee Family Birthday Party. It was a lot of fun! We celebrated birthdays for Chris (Josh's Brother), Abby, Jaxon, and Blake (Chris and Karen's kids). It was a lot of fun. Everyone turned one year older (except for Chris who is going to be 26 for another year), and hopefully wiser too! Abby and Jaxon both got bikes, and since Blake is 16 now, he is still hoping there is a mode of transportation hiding for him somewhere too! Jaxon fell in love with his bike. He would just sit on it and shout, "Bike! Bike! Bike!". Abby also got a t-shirt that says "Anything boys can do, girls can do better!" We got to meet Blake's girlfriend Kendra, and were reacquainted with Leegan (he came to our family reunion this last year)--Blake's friend from Tooele. After opening presents, we all had pizza, and watched the kids beat a Spiderman Pinata with a golf club (Grandpa Higbee practiced his swing in the front room, and Josh was mindful of his head around the club--we don't want anymore Emergency Room visits!) After the pinata we enjoyed a Spiderman Birthday Cake, and Neopolitan Ice Cream. There was reminiscing as we sat in the front room and enjoyed each other's company. We talked about the "No Trace" Scout Camp in New Mexico (are you sure they make you drink your dishwater after you wash your dishes...? At least you don't have to carry out the toilet paper...), we exchanged war stories of scars (Temaire-you were there in spirit, both boys pointed out scars they have from your nails--but don't worry, I think Chris beat you out when he recounted how he accidentally "stabbed" Josh), emergency room visits, broken bones, etc. Abby was entertained with her new Princess books, "cds" and "movies". Josh helped Jaxon stay entertained as they played "catch" with Spiderman (the figurine from the cake). Jaxon has an impressive throw, but more impressive--his stamina! I'm posting a movie of the two of them playing catch. My favorite part of the movie is the very end, where Jaxon is anxiously awaiting another pass from Josh. He taps his little fingers--it's awesome! (Also, if you listen carefully, you will receive a lesson on the different colors of the epilets on Scout uniforms--don't worry, I don't really know what that is either...). By the way, I apologize that the movie is sideways. I don't know what happened there!

This picture cracked me up. I laughed so hard today when I was putting these pictures on. I made Josh look at it, and he laughed really hard too. I got some funny face pictures. This was one of my favorites!

Can't you just hear her saying, "Hey! What you doin? You're so silly!"

Our cute hostess and the birthday host. They threw a fun party.

All those people blowing out candles! Jaxon was not thrilled, not even with the singing.

This was Logan's Pinata... bonnet?

It was apparently a night for funny faces. Logan was not camera shy!

That's right Jaxon, it's always best to keep an eye on Uncle Josh. You never know what he'll do next!

Again with the funny faces!

At least one of them is having fun! Jaxon was much more excited about his bike, than the pinata!

Jaxon's face in this picture absolutely cracked me up. It made me chuckle. If you look at it closely, it looks like a "Joey Tribiane" face..."How you doin'?"

Bike! Bike! Bike! Bike! Bike!

Despite the plethera of treats, Jaxon was still not very happy with the pinata!

Blake and Kendra. I had the hardest time getting a picture of Blake!

After I took this picture, Abby insisted I show it to Grandma, Uncle Josh, Mom, Grandpa, etc. This is my tribute to her!

Abby and Grandpa looking at her brand new present! It was a box of Princess entertainment. There was a "CD Player" and a "Movie Player" (a viewfinder thing), and some books.

Abby--assisted by Grandpa--taking a whack at Spiderman!