Protect Insurance Companies PSA

Protect Insurance Companies PSA

I'll keep my opinions to myself at this point since I'm really supposed to be working right now. :)

-Emily :)

Hot Pockets!

We're going to see Jim Gaffigan for Ash's birthday on Friday night. Oh yeah...so excited. He freakin' cracks me up. Hopefully my expectations aren't too high.

My favorite schtick he does...makes me think of my friend Suzanne every time. :) But just the hot pockets part...not the other gross stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9c9lAfXQHs

-Emily :)

Safer Than the Sidewalk

So today I'm driving home from work on a fairly busy street in downtown Salt Lake and I see a skateboarder riding along in the middle of the road - taking up an entire lane of traffic. Then I remember that earlier today I witnessed a scooter (not an eletric one, either) doing the same thing. So, I think to myself, this is weird...does Utah have some sort of law that skateboards and non-motorized scooters can share the road like bicycles can? You know, because Utah's so strict with other laws, they probably have lax traffic laws to compensate. So, I pass the skateboarder on the left, and then call my Utah-native/work friend Gina to ask if she knows if it's legal to ride a skateboard in the middle of the road.

So, I'm on the phone with Gina asking her about this (she says it's illegal, by the way) and all the sudden I look back and skateboarder dude is signaling to change lanes. He's in the right lane, I'm in the left beside the turn lane, stopped at the light.

All of the sudden, BAM!, skateboarder dude HITS MY CAR and falls into the street. He's dazed, skateboard broken in half. I hang up the phone and roll down my window and ask him if he's alright. He says he's really sorry and that he's fine. I say, "You know, you probably shouldn't ride your skateboard in the street like that."

His response: "You know, it's actually safer than riding on the sidewalk."

Ummmm....right. You just slammed into the back of my car on your skateboard. You're the epitomy of safety, dude. You're lucky you're not dead right now...especially since you weren't wearing a helmet.

And I say, "You need to either walk or get a car, buddy."

-Emily :)

Three Musketeers

I feel like at this time in our lives Helena and her cousins are at such a cute age. Trying to capture as much as I can when we're visiting everyone.

Such a little cutie....but look out! He's a wiley one!

Helena and Kane have a little bit of a love/hate relationship...as in Helena likes him as long as he's not messing with her program. :) Helena's still taller than Kane, but he outweighs her by about 5 pounds.

Bubble machines are the bomb!

Lying in the grass after playing a little too hard. Helena wants to do everything Ellie does...so sweet. They're going to get in so much trouble together when they're older.

Sweet little Ellie turned 4 (!) last week...Happy Birthday Ellie Belly!

Emily :)

Two Ash's in the House!

I'm behind in blogging about certain life events...my apologies. I do my best. :)

Ash's dad came to visit the end of August-- his first time in the SLC -- and we had a great time showing him around and he had a great time chilling with Helena (and us too).

Ash and his dad went fly fishing the first day he was in town. Didn't catch much, but definitely wore themselves out enjoying the great outdoors in some extra hot temperatures.

We hit up Snowbird ski resort for a tram ride up to Hidden Peak and the Oktoberfest they had going on that day.

Ash & Helena watching the yodelers at Oktoberfest.

We also drive up to Bingham Canyon Copper Mine, not far from our house to nerd out a bit in the mining scene. It was really cool, I have to admit. And I think those mining trucks were officially the biggest pieces of machinery I've seen since Big Brutus.

Helena was a little coy during her Grandpa Ash's visit, but perked up just as he was leaving to get on the !AIRPLANE!. Actually hopped right up into his arms and was ready to go flying with him.


Thanks for visiting, Ash! Come back anytime!


-Emily :)

Rain! Panic! Head for the Hills!

So today it rained in Salt Lake City. And not just the normal, drizzly, spotty rain...but a real live thunderstorm. I'll admit that this is one of the things I miss the most about Kansas...a good old storm cloud rolling in once a week or so with thunder and lightning to boot!

As I've mentioned before, I can pretty much see the entire salt lake valley from my office window. Perfect locale for viewing storms when they occasionally come through. So today it was stormy out, and you could see there's some pretty intense rain and a little bit of lightning coming our way.

And here's where the craziness begins. I get a text message from the University of Utah saying the following: "Emergency alert from U Admin. Severe storm expected. U will not close. Take necessary precautions and find shelter."
(Sidenote: after the Virginia Tech shootings, the University of Utah, like most universities developed an extensive emergency alert system to communicate emergency instructions to students and faculty quickly when warranted).

OK, fine. A little overzealous, I think, for your standard severe thunderstorm, but we don't get these much around here so...OK. Then, the buzz around my office is that since it's a severe thunderstorm that means there's a tornado somewhere. Wow, I decide that someone logical definitely has to step in here. I put on my midwestern know-it-all hat and eduate them about the meterological warning system and how there's clearly not a tornado involved in this situation. Jeez.

Then, in the next 10 minutes I also get an e-mail, two voicemails and a message at my house about said severe thunderstorm from university administration. Lord. Calm down people.

The storm passes, we get a few wind gusts and it rains hard for maybe 10 minutes. No hail, very little lightning. Definitely no tornado.

Do you think they could save these emergency alerts for maybe, I don't know, A REAL EMERGENCY? Like an earthquake, a shooting, a campus wide gas leak....yeah, something like that. For god's sake it could snow 5 feet in two hours with traffic deadlocked all around the city and they wouldn't say a peep!

Regional differences. Gotta love them.

-Emily :)

I know, the suspense is killing you...

Sorry for the cryptic post last week, but I had a secret to keep. Ash & I decided about three weeks ago to take advantage of some decent airfare prices to fly to Wichita for Labor Day weekend to see my family.

Since it was fairly last minute, I decided to try to surprise everyone (minus my mom, my dad and my brother for various reasons). We had planned to mainly surprise my sister, who had mentioned she was upset that she wasn't going to see us until Christmas awhile ago. So my mom set up a breakfast date with her at 'the grill' on Saturday morning. My sister, ever the cooperative one, calls last minute to say she had had a little too much fun the night before and wasn't up to going to breakfast. OK, so the original surprise plan wasn't going to work. So after my dad and her husband Justin made her mad berating her to go to breakfast, we decided just to ambush her at her house.

We walked up on the porch and she looked out the window and was totally shocked. Her face was hilarious! She was so excited...so was Ellie. Later she told me, "That was so cool...I don't think I've ever been surprised in my whole life." Yay! Mission accomplished!

We also successfully surprised both sets of my grandparents and my Aunt Jodie and her family who were visiting from New Mexico.

We had a great time hanging out with everyone. Also got to see Aimee and Micah, and Michelle and Andy on Saturday night. Thanks for coming to Burrton to hang out with us, guys...all the great laughs were so therapeutic.

-Emily :)

My Walmart Sells.....

I'm not sure if these are really available at my Walmart,
but it wouldn't at all surprise me.  I'll look the next time
I'm there.  Some people take modesty WAY too seriously.  I
think it's more obscene to wear this than a normal swimsuit.

(Thanks for the tip, LA!)

Hope everyone has a great long weekend.  I'd tell you what
we're doing, but it's top secret.  Yep, we're that cool.

-Emily :)