A Little Update...

Sorry, for anyone out there reading this blog it's been a while....

To be completely honest nothing very exciting has happened...okay I take that back one thing has happened. Luke has officially declared his Major! For now....

For those of you who don't know I'll give you a little background on this decision...

The road has been a long and hard one, and not always fun. When I first met Luke he always told me he wanted to be a doctor. I have always told him I will support him in whatever he decides to do and I stand by that. When I first met Luke he was going to SLCC just doing generals, he was 20 years old going to college like a good boy should...and then I came along. I had the brilliant idea of getting married in October so there went fall semester...then he was working crazy hours at a crazy job...there went spring semester. Then he decided if he was really going to go through with this whole Doctor thing then he needed to go to a better school so we moved to Sugarhouse enrolled him in Westminster and he quit working. He did AMAZING and truly was thriving but financially we couldn't handle just me working at that point in time, so he started merchandising. Waking up at crazy hours in the morning, going to school and coming home and studying...I never saw my husband. The bills for Westminster were getting ridiculous and the true red started to shine through his skin....so he transferred to the U for fall semester. We moved into married student housing and life was great. Then his boss quit and they came begging Luke to take the position. 40+ hours a week, a huge pay increase, trips to Atlanta...it all sounded great but wouldn't work with school. We did a lot of searching and decided he would take a year off of school to pay off some debt and get comfortable. That meant moving so we headed back out to Bountiful since Luke was going to be gone a lot and I could be closer to family. Then after a while Luke was offered a position in Oregon....I would love to move out of state and it seemed like the perfect opportunity. But after much prayer and consideration, tears and frustration we decided to stay here so Luke could go back to school. He stepped back down to a merchandiser and went to school part time because we had to pay for school out of pocket for a little while because of some hold or something or other....That puts us to where we are now. After all of that transferring and time off...6 years later Luke is officially a Junior and working on a Bachelors in Business.

I am very proud of Lucas and I don't know what I would do without him by my side. He is an amazingly supportive husband and my best friend. We have been through so much and it's like seeing a light at the end of the tunnel :) For now he is planning on going to maybe be a dentist or architect after he graduates. But only time will tell for that man!

REAL Poppin fun weekend!

Well, we had another VERY fun weekend!

Friday: I was able to get off early from work because of working late previously....any weekend that starts with getting off early is going to be a good one. So me and Luke went to Mr. Poppers Penguins! YAY!!!! I've been so excited to see this, and it did not disappoint. Luke said it was good not great if you want an unbiased opinion.

Then we went to the Bountiful Car Show with my parents and the Larkins which was really fun and actually really good weather! We saw a lot of cars...some we wondered why they were even there but a lot of them were really cool! Then we watched the burn out for a little while and headed home.

Saturday: Our day was suppose to start with yard work before it got too hot...but instead Luke stayed in bed sick and I climbed in the truck with the folks to hit some yard sales. I am currently trying to find a bike, no such luck while we were at the garage sales. Then I came home and announced to Luke that we should go to a Real game...so we went to KFC to get the discount vouchers and then relaxed for a little while, deciding that it was still too hot to do any yard work. So then we picked up Joseph and headed out to Rio Tinto, first making a stop at Crown Burger to fill up and then heading to the game. Unfortunately...at first the Colonels Corner was full! Luckily they just moved us to the opposite corner and only a few rows up! So we got $40 dollar tickets for $14, I think that's a deal! It was a fun game even though I really don't understand the game. I'll let you on a little secret though. I love going to these type of events because I LOVE people watching. Luke says that's just a nice way of saying that I'm nosy...which may be true but I'm addicted. I just love watching everyone around me trying to figure out relationships, getting fashion ideas, and just listening to little bits of conversation. So even though I don't understand the game I'm still entertained.

Sunday: Happy Fathers Day! I'm going to get super sappy at this part so you'll just have to bear with me....I am so grateful for the Papa that I have and all that he does for me. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better dad. I've grown up by his side through thunderstorms, road trips to Idaho, fishing trips, crazy boat rides, yard work, Ute games, and just chatting on the front porch. I love all of his stories and how much love he has for all of his family. On the other hand I am extremely sad that I was never able to meet Luke's Dad. I've heard stories and seen pictures and I really wish I could meet the man that helped raise such an amazing man. I know he is in a happy place, but I really wish I could have known him. On our San Diego trip back in May we met some of the friends that grew up with the Beckstead boys and I got so jealous thinking that they got to know John, but I know it's all part of the plan. And who knows if I would have ever met Luke had it not been for the situation. Sunday was a hard one thinking of grandparents that have been lost and not ever meeting Luke's Dad. We don't really go out to the cemetery very often so we decided to grab Joe and head over to the cemetery to clean up the grave and remember him. It wasn't a horrible day, just a hard one. Then, we went up to Luke's grandparents house and I realized that they are my only surviving grandparents and I want to cherish every moment I have with them.

I hope you all had a great fathers day weekend!

This is My life....

Okay before I tell you my story I would like to give you background. I think that I have mentioned that I work at Secure Shredding place as an office manager. Every day people come and go out of my office and I have little conversations with them. The people that I have the most conversations with are the drivers. Their job is to simply go to all of our customers and switch out their full container of paper with an empty one. I have no windows and the machines that actually destroy the paper are extremely loud so sometimes I get a little anxious and ornery....but these are some conversations I have had today.

Conversation #3

Me: I heard you guys got done really early yesterday.

Driver: Yeah we were done so early it was a little ridiculous

Me: Well you won't be done that early today but it doesn't look like it will be too bad which is good for a Friday. :)

Driver: (while looking through his tickets for the day) Yeah it's just a lot of driving and walking around with containers......

Yup he wasn't kidding...I wonder what he normally does.

Conversation #2

Me: Hi!

Person in the hall: Hi Natalie, did you go to the golf tournament yesterday?

Me: Yeah I just went to help I didn't actually golf but it was really fun!

Person in the hall: Must have been exhausting, you look tired.

Me: (in my head) Yeah but not tired enough to punch you in the face

Conversation #3

Boss numero uno: Natalie are you really behind because of yesterday?

Me: (after snapping out of a daydream) No, why?

Boss: I need you to come look at something in my office....

After he leads me into his office and pulls up an excel spreadsheet he then rambles for at least 15 minutes about the spreadsheet he is working on, what he's done what he wants to do yada yada yada then at the end he says so you think about ways to make this simpler, is that okay?

Wow, I guess he thinks I'm an expert at excel...not so much I thought you were showing me a new language you had learned for the last 15 minutes.

Yes, I have a very exciting job and I really do love it for the most part, but I really am tired and anxious and ready to go home. Luckily I'm leaving early today....one hour and counting.

Best part of work today? I wore a penguin shirt without planning it...yes I am going to Mr. Poppers penguins right after work :D

Fun Weekend!

So we had a great weekend this last weekend, so I thought I would share all of you....if anyone is reading this. :)

Friday I was counting down the hours all day at work because I was just so excited to spend some time with the hubs! So, we decided to use the deal that Luke got on Groupon and use our movie tickets to finally go see Pirates of the Caribbean. We splurged and saw it in 3D because the tickets cost a total of 5 dollars even with the extra fee. First we went to NYPD pizza and had some yummy pizza and wings. Highly recommend that place! :)

Then we went to Tinseltown in Layton...which I don't recommend spending almost 12 dollars a ticket to go hear, it basically felt like the theater in Bountiful that costs 8 dollars...but the movie was amazing! We didn't go until 10:15 since we wanted to have dinner first so Luke was half asleep for the whole thing and ended up buying a 4 dollar drink to keep us awake. I highly recommend that movie! I love Johnny Depp and I think he's done an amazing job as Jack Sparrow in all of the movies.

Saturday we started out with doing some yard work in the morning, we thought we had gotten up early enough to beat the heat but we still got pretty hot and called it quits before we did everything we wanted to do. I did manage to shatter our neighbors van window while weed whacking, which I felt completely awful about! We told them we'd be willing to pay for a new one, but I am glad whatever flew out and hit the window didn't fly out and hit me! Then we relaxed and watched our current series addiction...Veronica Mars until it was time to get ready for the Bees game! I was so excited to win tickets on 101.9 the end for the game and that it was a night they were doing fireworks. So Luke, Joe and I all loaded up in the truck and headed to Downtown Philly for a sandwich before the game. If you haven't tried that place yet, you should! It's downtown by the Broadway theater, and I've never had a Philly from Philly but this place is delicious and supposedly very similar. Then we made our way down to the game and found our seats which were actually really good and not around a whole ton of people. Unfortunately eventually a group of people came and sat by us with sunflower seeds....which is fine it's a baseball game right? Not when they spit the seeds right by your feet, and some even landed in the ladies purse in front of us! EW! I really wish now one of us would have said something...but such is life. The game went on forever..I'm not even sure how many innings total but we stuck it out to the end so we could see the fireworks and I'm super glad we did! They were amazing!

Lastly on Sunday we slept in and headed up to Layton to see my awesome nephew get ordained a deacon. We are so proud of him! Then we headed home and just slept and relaxed the rest of our Sunday away. Other than of course watching Dallas win The Finals! I am not a huge basketball follower but I sure was happy the dream team heat didn't win. :)

Now if I can just get through 4 more days after today we'll be in another weekend and I have a feeling this weekend is going to include penguins. :) Happy Monday everyone.

Who Knew?

Okay, so yesterday I went to the Eye doctor with The Hubs and learned the following things...

1- You should change your contacts every 2 weeks

2- The Hubs has "robust" nerves in his eyes

3- Our insurance stinks

4- We love our eye doctor!

Want to know how I learned those things? If not then just stop reading....

So we headed into the doctor because both of us were out of contacts and our prescriptions were expired so we couldn't order anymore. Yup, why else would we get regular check ups right? So, we waited for a few minutes and then they took us on back after doing the freaky test that you look at the tree and then they puff your eyes...me? I had to get my eyes puffed twice each because as soon I know that's going to happen then I can't keep my freaking eyes open!

She examined me first because I had my contacts in at the time, I always feel so stupid when I look at the line of letters with one eye and then when you switch eyes you can see it better and realize that you were way off. She was nice though and didn't laugh too much at me.

Then I took out my contacts and Luke took a turn. She apparently was in love with Lukes eyes she kept on saying how perfect they looked and so healthy! Of course we spend a ton of money for him to be able to wear dailies and throw them away at the end of every night so that his eyes don't feel like a desert! She then told us that she had recommended last year that we get our eyes dilated...ew. So she gave luke the drops and told him she'd check him again after me.

Then it's my turn, she asks me how I feel my eyes have been doing. I told her sometimes by the end of the day my eyes feel a little blurry and they hurt but it's normally because I need a new pair of contacts. She then asked me how long I normally wear my contacts. (I was thinking the right answer was four weeks for some reason) So I told her that I change them once a month but I'm not perfect at it. So she then examined my eyes telling me that I have blood vessels where I shouldn't have them and that eyes do that when they don't have enought oxygen. This is normally a result of not changing your contacts often enough or using a generic brand of contact solution (which I also do) She then informed me that you should be changing your contacts every 2 weeks....OOPS! So she kicked me out of the chair and looked to see if Luke's pupils were big enough, sure enough they were huge! So we switched spots again.

This is when she really fell in love with his eyes. She was explaining that when she does this she can basically see everything in your eye including nerves, and your eyes are the only place you can do this. So the eyes are more than windows to your soul, who knew right? Wel she said Luke had VERY healthy nerves....she then went to say in fact she would describe them as robust! She was very excited lookin inside his eyes.

Then it was my turn again, she said that my nerves were very healthy as well but not robust...dang it! But we both got a bill of clean health other than my vessels showing up where they shouldn't. So she left to go get some trials for us and Luke was giving me a hard time for wearing my contacts for so long....I then informed him that I just said that because I thought it was correct, I normally go longer. In fact, my current contacts I had in were probably at least 2 months old.....Yup he got pretty upset and said he was going to tell on me. But luckily he didn't.

Also, the whole time she was talking to Luke about school, what she has to do and that he's welcome to come and shadow her if she'd like because he told her he'd thought about going into optometry..I hear a new one every day. She is very very nice and I HIGHLY recommend her to anyone. Her name is Dr. Keiser at the Sugarhouse Vision Clinic.

Then she got us our contacts, we paid our 70 dollars...yup that's ridiculous and we were on our way. I learned a lot! :) Here is some pics for your viewing pleasure of us in our dilated glasses....

What If? .......

Okay so my mind has been full of a lot of "what ifs" lately. Here are a few that bog me down....

What if I had started school right out of high school?

What if Luke was already done with school?

What if we had kids already?

What if we lived in another state?

What if we had more money?

What if we had a dog?

What if I had a different job?

What if I was skinnier?

What if I was a runner or a dancer?

Well, I've decided that instead of dwelling on the what ifs of the past I am determined to ask what if for the future and make my life a little more interesting! So I am going to set some what if goals for the rest of the 2011 year and maybe some for the next couple of years (most important ones will be finished this year since the world is ending in 2012). So here is a sneak peek to what I hope my life will become.....

What if I were to go back to school?

What if I lost 20 pounds by the end of summer?

What if Luke and I were to go on a camping trip for the first time?

What if I were to run at least 2 more 5k's this summer?

What if we tried to do something crazy and spontaneous once a week?

What if I went to the temple at least once a month?

What if I thought positively positive?

What if I were to enjoy my job to the fullest while I have it?

Here's to thinking towards the future and making it happen! :)

I aM dOiNg IT!

I am coming on here to solidify my decision. I am going back to school! It is VERY scary and we'll see if it lasts, but I am doing it. Ever since I was little and using the chalkboard that we had downstairs to teach imaginary school I have wanted to be a teacher. What kind of teacher is the next question asked when I tell people this. Well, I am not sure! I either would like to be a special needs teacher or an Elementary school teacher. I would love to just quit my job and crank out some insane school hours and just get er done. But that's not going to be happening right away at least. I plan on going to SLCC to get my associates and then if they'll have me I would like to go to the U. Any suggestions or comments from teachers, former teachers or someone that is also going through school for this would be greatly appreciated....but for now I guess I better actually get registered for school ha ha! I have bounced around with a lot of different options of what I would go back to school for including, office manager type stuff, nurse, a professional organizer/interior design and many other things. But the teacher thing just keeps coming back up and when I look deep in my heart I know that it is what I want to do. So the adventure begins.....

You just have to ride the ride!

Happy Memorial Weekend Everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your weekends :) I know I sure did, it was a very fun and busy weekend, but I loved every minute of it.

On Friday I was listening to everyone at work talk about all of their fun plans for their long weekend and I felt pretty left out. We weren't going anywhere because we had just gone to California last weekend. And I was on call so I couldn't really go anywhere anyway so I was kind of bummed. But luckily I have super sweet sisters and I ended up going to Cracker Barrel with Valerie, Mike, Jackie and of course Luke. It was super yummy and we had lots of laughs and good chatting :) It was a great start to my weekend.

Then on Saturday Luke and I decided to buckle down and finish our talks....sort of. Part of buckling down included a Pirates of the Caribbean Marathon because we had planned to go and see the fourth one on Saturday. So we watched the first one and got distracted and didn't work on our talks at all. Then I started the second one because if wanted to watch all three before we went to see the movie there was no breaks.

But, we decided we really needed two computers to both do some research for our talks so we decided to go across the street and use my parents computers...however we got distracted by Bones...and we didn't work on our talks STILL! Then when we had started the last bones before we had to go to the Pirates movie I got called in to work for a few hours...so Luke brought the computer and hoped to work on his talk for a while....no such luck. So by the time we got home from work it was about 9:30 and we only had a little done on our talks. So we decided just to write down some stories, scriptures and quotes and wing it on the stand. Now, to give you some quick background I have found out recently when I get nervous...it's bad I start to get all clammy and sweaty and feel like I'm going to throw up kind of like the flu. Recently this happened when I was standing in line with Luke to ride ghost rider at Knotts Berry Farm. But as soon as I was on the ride and after I felt fine....So as we were sitting on the stand I really felt like I was going to throw up, and I asked Luke if he thought it was okay if I went to the restroom even though the meeting was about to start. He said, what did you do to make yourself feel better for the roller coaster? I replied, well I just rode the ride. So he said with a smile, well you're just going to have to ride the ride. I love my Lucas! According to everyone else our talks went well and I'm sure glad that it's over...phew.

On Sunday night Valerie, Mike and Logan came down to spend the night at my mom's house and they wanted to see me do the 5k the next morning. I kept on saying that I wasn't going to do it if it was pouring since it was free and it didn't really matter if I crapped out. But on Sunday night Luke made me decide so I said no matter what I was going to do the race in the morning, I don't think Luke really believed me but I was determined! So we got up at 6:00 on our day off and got all ready and walked over to the park. It was pouring, hailing and cold but I did it! My first 5k and I did it in 47.:28 seconds. My family was nice enough to come and cheer me on.

Then we decided instead of standing in line for a breakfast at the park in the cold we would go to Dee's...it was super yummy and fun. Thanks again for coming to support me.

After breakfast and warming up a little bit we headed over to the cemetery to visit our darling Lexie's grave. We miss you!

Then we went up to the Roy Cemetery to visit Grandma's grave, I miss her so much and it still just doesn't feel right not to have her with us. I can't wait to see all of our loved ones again.

Last of all we went over to my sister Ker's house for a yummy BBQ and games. As you can see we all rock at Volleyball! :) All in all I am very glad that we have such a great family and we all live close enough to get together.

California 2011

Well, I survived a trip with the in laws :) Just Kidding, it was actually really fun! We didn't leave as early as originally planned because of some rental car issues but we really liked the car that we ended up with. This isn't the actual car, ours was a really pretty red but it is this model...

It was super roomy and actually got really good gas mileage so we were very happy! So we headed out in the pouring rain, yes POURING it was raining until we got to Arizona and it was horrible to pass the semi's on the road because every time I did their tires would spray me and for a half a second I couldn't see ANYTHING! Joe (Luke's brother) was making fun of me because I would grip the steering wheel really tight and go red apparently every time. But, we made it after 14 hours! We got there at about 12:00 midnight and we're apparently crazy because immediately we went to Denny's and chatted with Matthew (Luke's brother-the graduate) and his girlfriend, Kimberly until about 1:00.

So by the time we got to our hotel room, unpacked and got all ready for bed we were going to bed around 2:30 and they all wanted to get up early on Friday because it was our only free day to do some sight seeing....

So Friday morning we got up pretty early but by the time everyone was ready and we went over to Matthew and Kimberly's house it was pretty late by the time we got going. So we headed to lunch....we ate at a place called Besta Wan Pizza, it was super yummy! It was cool because they allowed people to come and sit on the deck with their dogs. And it was decorated really cool inside!

Then we broke off from Matthew and Kimberly and went down to the beach. It was such a beautiful day to play at the beach and the water wasn't actually as cold as we thought it was going to be. Here are some pictures of our adventures on the beach....

Then that night we went to a yummy Mexican place to eat dinner and we hit the sack early because Kimberly informed us that she would be at the hotel promptly at 7:30 in the morning to pick us up for Matthews graduation.

So on Saturday we went up to the graduation, which turned out really nice! He got a degree in Business Administration Information Management Systems (I think ha ha) and the graduation was outside and it was a really good day because it was overcast at first and then right as it started to warm up and get too hot the graduation ended. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures from the graduation because we were to far away and then in a hurry after because it was so hot. But we are super proud of Matthew!

Yes, we were kind of disappointed that he is in fact a cougar...but we'll forgive him this one time.

Saturday afternoon Kimberly's sister threw a really fun party at her house with lots of yummy food. It was really fun to meet some people from when Luke was growing up and hear their stories and visit with Kimberly's family who was super nice! After a while Luke, Joe and I decided to go drive around some and see some Cali stuff....but those of you who know Luke know that he is very passionate about....grass seed and all of his products.

So he really wanted to go to a Home Depot and Lowes to see what kind of product they had in the area. We did get to see a bunny in Lowes eating the plants so that was pretty fun :) Then of course for dinner we had to go to In n Out, which I have to admit that it was a lot better than the ones that we have in Utah....

Then on our last day there we decided to go hit up Knotts Berry Farm. I've never been there, but it was really fun! My favorite ride by far was the Ghost Rider which is a not so old wooden roller coaster. Then by the time we had dinner, and went home we had to get to bed so we could get up nice and early for our ride home.

The last highlight of our trip was stopping by Zion on the way home. Me and Luke have both been there before but Joe and Linda had never seen it so we decided the 3 hour detour was well worth it. Especially when we saw Joes face light up with everything and he was just too excited! We also saw some buffalo on our way out...and some idiots trying to get some pictures of them. We got home around 12:00 midnight and then had to clean out the car and return it so we finally got home and to bed around 2:00 but we were really glad to see our kitties! :) Hope you enjoyed this novel. Here are the pics from Zion....