Viva Las Vegas

Last weekend I had the WONDERFUL opportunity to have one of the greatest weekends ever. Some of the girls in my family headed down to St. George for a fabulous weekend. We did a whole lot of nothing, and I think that Amy summarized it best on her blog. I don't know how much more you can say about doing nothing.

The other highlight of my weekend was the opportunity I had to go to Vegas. The special reason for this trip to Vegas? Steve. With him being in California all summer, I have looked for any opportunity for us to see each other, and this one seemed to work out perfectly.

We arranged to meet in Vegas around 4:00, after Steve got off work and could get to Vegas. I made the 2 hour drive and was so excited to see him! We met up where I was staying and it was so good to see him!
Being in Vegas, we headed to the strip to check things out. We drove the whole strip down to Fremont Street just to get an overall view of Vegas. We parked and walked the strip, checking out some of the highlights: M&M Factory, Coke Store, The Fountains at Bellagio.

It was nearing 10:30 and I was starving, so we decided to hit up Hard Rock Cafe. Steve had never been, and it is always a fun destination on vacation. The service was great, the food delicious, and being there with Steve: spectacular.

Sunday we decided to fit everything in, and we did a pretty good job. Steve came over and we made breakfast (my place was like a mini-condo w/ kitchen), tried the pool (which was freezing), layed out for a bit, watched a movie, and took a nap. All before lunch!

We wanted to try a buffet and headed to the casino next door for the Sunday Brunch, which I think was closer to dinner than breakfast when we got there at 3:00.

When leaving my place, we noticed that one of my tires was a little low. We stopped at the gas station and my cute boy filled all my tires and bought me a pressure gauge for my car. All the while, I sat in the car drinking my Diet Coke he bought for me as well.

One thing I have never done while in Vegas is stop at the actual "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Sign." I was so excited that we stopped, it was just too bad we had an idiot take our picture.

To entertain ourselves while driving on the strip, we took lots of pictures in the car. Yeah, we are nerds.

The rest of the night was the Strip. Steve wanted to ride the NY, NY roller coaster and we decided to stop there first. We then decided it would be a good idea to walk from there to Treasure Island and back and visit all the casino's on the way back. It was A LOT of walking. WOW! By 11:00 that night I was pooped! I was ready for some food and to go to bed.

The next morning was the sad event when Steve had to leave by 6:00 AM to get back to a work meeting. Saying good-bye is never fun and I hated it. But I had to enjoy the weekend for what it was.

T-Ville Dayzz

Saturday night, Ashlee and I decided to venture west to "Taylorsville Dayzz." We were looking for something fun to do and this seemed like just the event for us.

Fairs, carnivals, festivals, bazaars, etc. are all activities that speak to me. Who doesn't love the food, fun, and people watching these events provide?
Food was the first order of business upon arrival. Ashlee was brave and ventured out to try some Peruvian food, while I settled for the classic corn dog and Diet coke (which was so good by the way).

The greatest, unexpected, entertainment was the "Neil Diamond Tribute." I had remembered reading about it and didn't think much of it. On the drive out there I told Ashlee about it and she didn't even really know who he was. I was floored to say the least. It then made me realize that maybe having a mom that idolized the man, made me a bit in the minority in my generation of someone who can attend his concert (or tribute) and sing a long with the songs.

This guy took his job very seriously. He pulled off the hair, the ugly wardrobe, and even the sound of the real Neil. I was surprised how much I loved it! I was singing along to the songs and loving all the memories that came with the songs. My favorite stretch was at the end with "Forever in Blue Jeans" (twice) followed by "Sweet Caroline" and then the crowning moment when he came back on stage to sing "Coming to America" while the fireworks ensued. It was a perfect moment!

Ashlee told me I should have informed her to brush up on her Neil so she could join in with me (and everyone else twice our age or older) for the sing-a-long.

After the fabulous beginning to the fireworks they continued for a good 25 minutes, with music to accompany them. It felt like the kick off to summer! I loved being outside on the grass, watching fireworks, listening to patriotic music, and wanting to just be able to capture the moment and re-live it again.

The fireworks ended, and thus began the mad dash to the exits. We sat in our car for over an hour just to move about 5 blocks. Lucky for us, we are two very fun people and we had some enjoyable people watching, even in our car.

I love when summer rolls around and there is always something to do!

Best Way to Spend a Day...

... spend hours on end, poolside, with my family. Check!
Once again, the Evergreen Swim Club was the place to be this morning at 11:00. I love that the invitation gets thrown out and so many people show up!
Our group is always a large one, and a rather busy and loud one at that.
Mom was LOVING the time with the grand kids, and who wouldn't? These girls are adorable...
I was the a last one standing by about 2:30, I stuck it out for about another hour and loved my nearly 5 hours by the pool!

I got a bit rebuked for my blog being so boring lately and I will try to work on it. Hopefully these pictures will help to spruce it up a bit. And with any luck, hopefully there will be loads of more pictures on here as I try to expand my horizons, move in to a house, and document all of the going-on's in my life.

House Update (and it's a good one!)

I feel a bit like I have lost my connection with reality lately. It isn't that real life has stopped staring me in the face, reminding me constantly of the ebb and flow of life, I have just felt a disconnect. Most of this has been from the ever changing situation with my house, but also my wonderful weekend (actually escaping reality) that I have yet to mentally come home from (more to come on that...)

The bank accepting my offer send my life into a bit of a whirl wind. My life span seemed to have shorten to only 30 days. The number of days I had to get everything in order for my mortgage, which if you have ANY idea what that involves, you can imagine the stress. I have had days with no hope of anything working out, constantly bugging the many wonderful and amazing people helping me, and small glimmers of hope. Everyday seems to provide a new challenge and something more to deal with. Who ever know getting a mortgage was so much hard work?

Sunny skies are just on the horizon in this little adventure. The clouds decided to break earlier this week and things are finally coming into place. After some drama (which is a too much to explain) I finally heard back from the mortgage company and got a "conditioned approval," which just means I am approved as long as I meet the 24 conditions they set on the loan. Yes, 24! Luckily, none of them have proven to be too difficult to meet and I have gotten everything I have needed back to them.

With this all finally in place, things are moving forward to close on my house on July 8th! That is less that two weeks away! Now that the dust has settled, I have allowed myself to finally get excited and realize this is actually going to happen! It has been a long, bumpy road but it is so nice to see the end in sight. 12 more days and I will be a proud home owner!

Thank you to all of you who have been my sounding boards, cheerleaders, support system, and endless sources of knowledge and encouragement. I have been extremely blessed to have so many great people working for me and making this all happen.

Adventures of Jill and Shannon

I think the title of many of my posts could be names the "Adventures of Jill and Shannon" and who knows what "part" we would be at, I'm just going to go with a guess and call this "Part #354." We haven't quite known each other a year, but pretty close and I am sure we have had enough adventures to add up to almost a years worth of them.

Friday night we decided to go to dinner to celebrate my offer being accepted. Shockingly we ended up at Chili's. I knew what I wanted before we even got there, and Shannon just happened to order the exact same thing when she ordered first. I took this as just another sign that we are bosom buddies and meant to have the same life. I thoroughly enjoyed dinner and the break it was from my mundane week filled with stress.

We were trying to fill our time for the rest of the night and stumbled upon our local Car Show and Crusin' event. We weren't quite sure at the beginning, but actually had a good time.
I found me a hunk of a fireman...

Shannon jammed out with the tuba player...

... and scolded the owner of this "Sexy Red Lady"

We enjoyed taking pictures with our favorite cars of the night...

While posing for my picture with this car, the owner asked if we wanted to sit in it. We were so excited because the whole night we had been wanting to get in one of the cars. He was even nice enough to take our picture...

Neither Shannon or I are car girls, but we enjoyed the walk amongst the Bountiful-ites and enjoying the feeling of old school cars, main street, and basic nostalgia of the whole event.

After the car show I introduced Shannon to the 80's classic movie "Teen Witch." For any of you who haven't seen it, you are seriously missing out. I have it if anyone wants to borrow it.

I had such a fun night with Shannon and enjoyed the break from my stressful life for just a night. I don't know what I am going to do when she moves in just a couple of weeks and I will no longer be only 4 minutes away from her. Sadness.

Accepted!

Yesterday I received word that the bank decided to accept my offer on the house. While this news is VERY exciting (and something I have been waiting for about 2 months) it has come with a lot of head aches.

With the market ever fluctuating the rates are, of course, as high as they have been in this whole house hunting process. With the rates up, the mortgage is the big question mark at this point. The rates going up means a higher monthly payment, which pushes the loan amount down to fit within my budget. So either the rate needs to go down or I need to put more money down to get it to go through.

The bank wants to close and have everything done by July 8! Yes, that is only 29 days away! This causes just more bumps. The underwriting process usually takes about 45 to 60 days to get a loan through to closing. You do the math, we are short about 15-30 days. But if we cross our fingers and they rush my loan, it is possible.

The next two weeks will be the critical part of getting everything to go through. Maybe we can all fast and pray for the rates to decrease or for me to win the lottery. I'll take either.

My Cute Boy!

I have been a little stressed lately, and that seems like the understatement of the year. There have been several things going on in my life lately (mostly having to do with the process of acquiring a home and the mortgage to pay for it) that have caused me a lot of stress. Normally I would say I don't get stressed out all that easily, but these days I have been more stressed out than I can ever remember being. Today seemed to be the worst day so far, as I was pushed to my stress limit.

Around 3:00 I got a call from Steve (one of the routine calls I get before he starts work everyday). He was high in spirits as always and I let my Debbie Downer attitude weigh down our conversation. We didn't talk for long as I was busy with tons of work and he had to go. A little while later I got a text fr0m this cute boy letting me know I had a free voucher for a spa treatment of my choice and it would be taken care of. Being as I was on the brink of an emotional break down all day, I nearly burst into tears. A trip to the spa sounded like the perfect escape from my worries and just what I would need to relieve some of that stress.

I decided on a massage and got an appointment for 7:00. Just enough time to head home and change into some sweats and get to my appointment. It was an hour of heaven! I erased all the cares from my mind and just let myself enjoy this time to take a step out of my reality. It ended all too quickly, as always, but I walked out of there feeling so relaxed and grateful for the thoughtfulness.

Life always has it's ups and downs, and it's little things like this that make even the hardest times bearable.

Thanks My Love!