Clint, Jen and Jax Meeks

Up-date of Summer

2011-08-17T08:38:00.000-06:00

Well a couple days ago I was going to post about how I'm finished with school and that we have been enjoying the summer, and then I realized that summer is almost over and I start school again in two weeks! Where does the time go?

I finished up all of my pre-reqs for Dental Hygiene school and I'm PROUD (sarcasm there) to announce that I have been accepted to Salt Lake Community College for their program for Fall of 2016! No that is not a misprint. There is currently a five year wait list! YUCK! They say that on average students have been waiting 2-3 years, but they can't guarantee anything. The really crappy part of all that is if I have to wait till 2016 all of my pre-reqs that I have worked so hard and long on will expire and I'll have to retake them. I'm planning on applying to a few more schools this fall, but my chances of getting in aren't the best. So for now I'm just taking things one day at a time (no planning here because we all know that our plans get ruined if we do plan ;)).

So why am I going to school in the fall if I'm done with all my pre-reqs? Because I am only 14 credits away from getting my Associates. Dental Hygiene is only an Associates degree so hopefully I'll have two AS's by the time I'm done, but just in case DH doesn't work out I want to have at least one. So I'm taking it REALLY easy and breaking up the 14 credits into 6 this semester and 8 next semester. I'm hoping things will be WAY easier for me now than they have in the past since the classes are basic generals.

Now back to what we have done this summer. This summer has flown by! We really haven't done that much but some how it's almost over. Some of the things we have done are, helped out with Grandma while she was still alive, had Grandma's funeral, went to Vegas, had a family reunion, went boating, celebrated my 31st birthday, I picked up 10 more hours a week at work, and Clint has been working like a mad man! Two nights a week he works till 10:00PM. On those days he averages about 12 hours a day! I don't love it (I REALLY hate it), but he says he has lots of stuff to get done and working after hours really helps him focus and get stuff done. I'm proud that he is willing to work so hard so that we can have a good life. Thanks Clint, you're the best!

And that about covers our life right now. Nothing too exciting, just a long list of "To Do" items that I had planned to do over the summer and only half of them got done. Please tell me that's how everyone works so that I can feel a little better about myself. I hope all of you had a fantastic summer with lots of accomplishments, sun and FUN!

I'm a Good Friend Now!

2011-08-05T11:03:00.001-06:00

OK after this post I don't want anyone accusing me of not being a good friend. Even though my only true friend is Shantel Schow (OK that's defiantly not true because I have so many of you), I am just a little peeved that non of you have told me about this AMAZING cooking blog before now. Those of you who know about this, it's going to take a lot of repenting to me and showers of gifts for me to forgive you, but for those of you who have never heard of Our Best Bites, must check them out IMMEDIATELY!!! I have only experienced this new form of heaven for a month now (this coming from the girl who FINALLY realized that browsing the internet can actually be great if you are using the right browser like Fire Fox or Chrome and not the icky thing they call Internet Explore), but since I've found out about it, it's changed my out look on life, or cooking that is. I tell you that I am addicted to their website! For the past three days I have done nothing but read their posts, OK maybe I've done a few things but I seriously have been so fascinated by what they have to say about cooking, tutorials, entertaining, life and anything else they have to say for the day. They have SO many great recipes (most of them I haven't had time to try yet, but by looking at the pictures and seeing what ingredients are in them, I know they are all winners). So if you are ever in need of an idea for dinner, check out their website, they will keep you on the straight and narrow, plus they are great writers and really funny!

I also bough their cook book a few weeks back and have made quite a few things out of it. Yes I'm an OK cook (not great, OK) and I did OK with out their help, but since I've been making things out of the book this is the response I got from Larry Veenker (my dad), "This is so good, when are you going to open your restaurant?" If you know Larry Veenker, that is a pretty great compliment and VERY shocking only because he DOES NOT give complements out very often, if ever!

So by now you must be thinking that Our Best Bites must be paying Jen to write all this great stuff about them, but sadly no -- I just really want to be a good friend and pass on this most important information to all my friends out there, so that one day I don't loose a friend because I didn't share with them the secret to life (OK maybe it's not that good, you be the judge). So there you have it, I'm a good friend now, sorry I wasn't before, I just didn't know this valuable information yet.

Williams Family Reunion 2011

2011-08-02T10:15:00.004-06:00

Every three years my mom's side of the family has a reunion. We have done it at my parents cabin for the last little while because number one it's a lot cheaper than going some other place and number two it's hard to find a place for 80 people. That's right, this year we were kind of small in numbers and only had 80 people. A week and a half before the reunion my dad had gone up to the cabin to remove the snow from the roads so that we could get in. By the time the reunion came there was a few snow patches here and there but for the most part things were nice and dry. Since we can't fit 80 people in our cabin our nice neighbors allowed us to use there cabin, plus with people using their trailers, no one had to sleep in a tent. It was great because Clint and I would have had to sleep in a tent, it would have been FREEZING this year!

The first day was a little rainy, but by the next day the sky's cleared and we were able to spend our time out side. We had a great time riding 4-wheelers, canoeing, pinewood derby, rockets, Zumba, visiting, crafts, swinging, snowmobiling (no that is not a misprint), games, visiting some more and just enjoying what God created, family and the outdoors.

Yes there are a MILLION pictures, but you're lucky, I cut back and only used the best ones.

See I told you we snowmobiled. On July 1st we took a few snowmobiles to the top were there was a little bit of snow. It was more to say we snowmobiled on July 1st than it was to have fun and go on big rides. In one of the pictures my cousin is in her flip flops, now that's a new one I've never seen!

To end the reunion some of us went to Stadium of Fire. David Archuleta and Brad Paisely performed. It was seriously an awesome night! Such a good show with the fireworks, singers, dancers, sky divers and everything else they had! Plus we got half off tickets which made it even better in my opinion!

Vegas

2011-08-02T09:55:00.000-06:00

The forth week of June Clint had a conference for work in Vegas. He drove down Thursday with some of his coworkers and then I was able to come down the next day after work to meet up with him. I didn't want to drive down alone so I convinced Andrea and Scott to drive down with me. We got there about 6:30, perfect timing since Clint's conference had just ended. We checked into our hotel and then went to dinner at one of the buffets in town. We stayed at an Embassy Suite off the strip, we REALLY liked it and there wasn't the craziness like there is on the strip, plus it was MUCH cheaper! At the buffet the food was GREAT but it totally wasn't worth the money. Non of us could eat more than 2 plates so we didn't really feel like we got our money's worth, Oh well, you live and learn.

After dinner we headed over to the Belagio to check out the water show they have. I have always wanted to see it and never have, so it was a priority for me this trip. It was really fun to see and really amazing what they can do with water, air and music. We were pretty tired after the Belagio so being the old boring people we are, we headed back to the hotel to sleep.

Saturday we spent some time by the pool and by we I mean Andrea and me. Clint and Scott lasted maybe 30 minutes and then couldn't stand being cooked anymore so they went back to our room. After we got ready we headed back to the strip and went to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum . That was A LOT of fun. I can't believe how real they make the stars look. I don't think the pictures do a very good job at making the models look real, but if you are up close and personal with the stars, the detail work is AMAZING! I really liked going and I would recommend it to everyone. Just make sure you get a coupon, they are all over the place if you look hard enough.

After dinner we went to a Variety show. It was OK, there was some cool stuff but I am so glad we didn't pay full price. We had a buy one get one free tickets and I would have been TICKED if I would have spent full price. But really all the shows in Vegas are SO expensive so we did pretty good paying as little as we did.

Again we were pretty tired after the show so we walked the strip a little (only because we were looking for the M&M factory which doesn't exist on the strip, there is a store, but no factory), and then we headed back to the hotel.

The next morning Clint and I slept in while Scott and Andrea went to visit one of Scott's mission companions. After they got back we packed up and headed home. It was another quick trip but we had a good time and it was nice to just get away, even if it was just for a couple of days. Thanks Scott and Andrea for going with us, it made it a lot more fun!

We won't go into detail on this one, let's just say Andrea had a little struggle with the window on the Jeep and her middle finger. OUCH!!!

One of the pictures above is the temperature. It was SOOO hot, the hottest that we ever saw was 109. Thank goodness it was dry and not humid like it is back east!

Grandma's Memorial Service

2011-08-02T09:15:00.001-06:00

Like I mentioned in an earlier post my Grandma Jo Veenker passed away May 29, 2011. She had been living in Utah with us but her real home was in California, so naturally that's where she wanted to be buried, next to her husband. The whole Veeneker clan, minus my brother Doug's family (they were in the middle of moving), took a VERY quick trip to the June Lake area for her funeral.

We left Friday around 9 and followed the hearse (which happened to be my dad's excursion, kind of a weird thing but they got permits to take Grandma across borders and my parents didn't mind having a casket behind them while driving, so oh well). After we got to my Uncles house in June Lake we had dinner and caught up with cousins and other family members that I haven't seen for a very long time. It was so nice!

Saturday we had the funeral service at my grandma's grave site (my grandma wasn't LDS) and then...we got to watch as my cousin's, dad and uncle buried the casket. You see the area she was buried is a VERY small town, and there aren't any funeral homes near by so we had to do pretty much everything ourselves. It was kind of fun and now we'll always have that memory. After the burial we had a little wake at the community center near by and we were able to celebrate my grandma with friends and family. It was so nice.

Later that night we had another BIG dinner at my uncles house. There were so many people there and we just had the best time talking and visiting with family.

The next day we left! Three day trip and two of those days were spent driving. It was very quick but totally worth it. We love and miss you Grandma, but thanks for your wonderful example in life!

Bringing Grandma into the community center

At the community center before the burial.

At the Grave Site

See I told you we had to do it all ourselves!

The Wake

Wake

Dinner at my Uncle's

Dinner

We had a BLAST driving with Scott and Andrea. Jax even came and did so good in the car!

Before we left on Sunday we stopped off at some of the look out spots and took pictures of June Lake

Scott and Andrea could be models! So cute!

Veenker Family Photo's

2011-07-29T11:10:00.001-06:00

My amazing sister-in-law Katie took family pictures of my side of the family a little over a month ago. Katie hasn't been taking pictures a little over a year and I am SOOO impressed with her! She is getting sooo good. If you are looking for a reasonably priced photographer in the area, you really need to check out her blog and giver her a try. I hope you enjoy some of the pictures she took of my family.

I love this one of all the nephews. Unfortunately the nieces didn't get a picture, so hopefully next time we'll get them.

Mai's Here!

2011-07-29T11:00:00.000-06:00

Our Amazing friends the Jensen's had their first baby. Remember I did a shower for Teresa a couple of months ago? Well Mai came in May and being the awful aunt that I am I can't remember the exact date. Sorry Teresa. She is such a doll and we are just so happy for the Jensen's. They have been waiting for a LONG time, just like us, to have a baby. I think that's one reason we get along so well. We have lots in common and when it came time to do something on the weekend we could call them up a few minutes before hand and have a night of fun.

Mai is such a good baby. She doesn't really like to be held all that much and is totally content most of the time to just laying on the floor and playing with her rattle. It's been so much fun having a fifth person added to our group. I'm sure it would be a lot more fun if Clint and I had someone we could add to the group, but I guess it's not our time.

So Congrats Robin and Teresa, you're great parents, great friends and we are just so happy that you're in our lives!

I just love Robin's face in the picture on the left. He wouldn't look at me normal when I took the picture, so just for that Robin, the whole world will get to see your goofy self!

Mother's Day

2011-07-29T10:15:00.000-06:00

This year we spent mothers day at Patti's house (Clint's mom). It was a great day filled with yummy food and good company.

The boys cleaned up, nothing could be better than that.

And just a few family pics.

Liberty's Baptism

2011-07-28T11:45:00.001-06:00

My cute niece Liberty was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints in May. It was a great day and I'm so happy that I got to celebrate with her on her big day. I'm so proud of you Liberty! You are such a great niece and I love spending time with you, you're sweet, nice, caring, funny and just an awesome girl! Love you tons!

Below are some pictures at the yummy luncheon after the baptism.

Cousin Mya

I'm so happy that I took this picture of Libby and Grandma, it was only a few weeks later that we lost Grandma.

I LOVE the look on her face, priceless!

It wouldn't be a picture of Chris if he wasn't posing!

Cute Girl Cousins, McKinsey and Lexi...we missed you!

McKinsey and Prom

2011-06-14T21:57:00.000-06:00

How do you know when you're old? When your oldest niece goes to prom. My niece McKinsey went to prom a month ago (or longer) and I got to do her hair. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of her all dressed up with her dress and everything, but I did manage to get a picture of the hair. We didn't do anything fancy and crazy, but I think it turned out pretty cute, anything on her would look fantastic.

McKinsey has turned out to be such an amazing young lady, she's cute, smart, talented, always mindful of other's feelings and doesn't let trials get her down. Thanks for being such a great example to me and everyone around you Kinse, I love you!

94!

2011-06-12T21:21:00.001-06:00

I'm now starting to figure out that maybe school wasn't the reason why I can't stay updated on blogging. But if school wasn't the problem, then what is? It just might be that life is crazy and sometimes everything we want to get done, doesn't always happen. Anyway, no excuses from now on, if I blog yippee, if I don't, I'll get to it someday.

On May 23, 2011 my Grandma Josephine Verplank Veenker turned 94! Pretty big accomplishment if you ask me. The day before we had a big family party to celebrate it along with Lexi's, Afton's, Zach's and KyLee's birthdays. It was the typical family party, Dinner, visiting and a little show put on by the girls. We also took a quick family picture with Grandma and her posterity and it's a good thing we did because a week later Grandma returned home to live with her Heavenly Father.

My mom and Grandma. She's getting ready to blow out the candles.

Afton and Lexi blowing their candles out.

Everyone getting ready to dig into some very yummy cupcakes

The show put on by the girls

The Veenker clan minus my brother Craig, nephew Stockton and sister-in-law Katie (she was taking the picture). I'm no expert but that's a pretty good posterity just from one son! The Utah Veenker's always doubled if not tripled the family gatherings when we would get with the California Veenker's.

Grandma was so vibrant and funny this day. She made a couple jokes, visited with grandkids, ate food and was her typical self. That night my mom came down to my room around 2:30am and told me that they had found grandma on the floor and that she was freezing cold, shaking and mumbling. They thought she was dying right then and didn't think she would make it through the night. We don't know for sure but we assume that she had a stroke either from falling or a stroke caused her to fall in her bedroom. After my mom and dad found her on the floor they put her in her bed and stayed with her the rest of the night where she soaked through a couple of nightgowns from all the sweating she was doing.

The next two days she was able to get up, walk around, go outside, and eat but her speech had definitely been effected. All of the words she spoke were slurred and nothing made sense. She could still read and the words she read were very clear. She slept more than she usually did during the day, but we just thought that she was tired from her hard night on Sunday. We called hospice on Monday and they brought a bed in for her and got her all set up with anything she might need.

Tuesday night my mom was helping her upstair to bed and when they reached the top of the stairs Grandma's legs gave out and she had no strength to get back up. Unfortunately no one was around to help my mom get grandma in bed. My dad was at church meetings, Clint was at work, I was downstairs sleeping because I was going to be taking the night shift with grandma and couldn't hear my mom yelling for me. My mom said a little prayer and asked for strength to get Grandma into bed and she did it! After she showed me what she did to get her in bed I know it was the Lord that gave her the strength and idea to lift a 100 pound women into a 3 foot high bed! It was A miracle!

Wednesday we thought we were going to loose her, she didn't get out of bed, wake up or eat. The color in her face was gone. My dad had asked some of my brother's to come and give her a blessing. In the blessing my dad asked that if it be possible to wait until his brother Bruce came (which was going to be on Friday), until she passed, it would be nice. Right after the blessing she WOKE up, ate some food and the color in her face came right back.

Thursday we moved her hospital bed down stairs in the family room so she didn't have to be upstairs all by herself. I gave her a hair cut, we changed her nightgown and even though she didn't have enough strength to do anything on her own or stay awake for more than a minute, I think she enjoyed being pampered and being around the family.

Friday my uncle Bruce and cousin Jodi came. They spent Saturday with her at her bed side and then left Sunday morning. Grandma ended up passing away at 5:10pm Sunday May29th with my mom and dad right at her side. It is sad to have her go, but the last week of her life she seemed like she was suffering from pain and was in such confusion that it's good that she didn't have to suffer any longer. She was a fighter though, there were several times after that Wednesday night that we thought we were going to loose her, but she would all the sudden wake up with a determined mind as if she was saying, "I'll go when I'm ready!"

I'm sure her reunion on the other side was amazing, she finally got to see her husband Louis Veenker, who had died 25 years earlier, I'm sure her mom and dad were there along with her two brothers and two sisters. Thanks Grandma Jo for being such a wonderful example in my life of what a true Christian person should be like. She wasn't a member of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, but I know that when the time comes she'll except the Gospel. I love and I'll miss you Grandma, thanks for sharing your last 5 weeks of your life with me!

Here is one of my favorite pictures of my Grandma and Grandpa Veenker in the Summer of 1984. Aren't they just adorable!

Grandma Jo Veenker

2011-05-23T16:29:00.000-06:00

I think I mentioned this earlier but this deserves its own post. My dad's mom, Josephine Verplank Veenker moved in with Clint, me and my parents on April 25, 2011. She broke her hip about 6 months ago and has been in a care physicality in California since then. Mentally she has declined since she broke her hip, so my parents decided that it would be better for her if she was living with family.

I get to help take care of her a couple times a week and I'm so thankful that I have. She is such an amazing person and even though she can't remember who I am, I still enjoy spending time with her.

In spite of her mind not being all the way there, she still has her personality. I'm sorry to break this to all of you ladies, but that paranoia of your weight will never change, even when you're 94. The other day we were trying to get Grandma Jo on the scale and her first concern was that we were going to be weighing her with all of her clothes on (all 104 pounds of her). Then once we got her on the scale she yelled at my mom, "Oh Carlene, don't hold onto me, you'll make me weigh more!" It was so funny and also a little depressing. I hope that if I make it the the age of 94, weight will be my last concern. I want to enjoy all that I can at that age.

The next funny story happened on Saturday. We were at Los Hermanos to celebrate Grandma's 94th birthday. Earlier that day I had asked her how old she was going to be and she said that she was somewhere in her 70's. So I was telling my dad this story when we were in the waiting room. My dad turned to my Grandma and asked, "Mom how old are you going to be?" And she looked at him and said, "In front of all these people?" As if that was the rudest question someone could ask. She has a lot more funny stories and we've been keeping track of them so that we can make lots of money from the funny things she says.

So it's been wonderful having Grandma here. I didn't get to spend a lot of time with her growing up since she lived in California and I lived in Utah, and even though I don't get to spend time with the "Real" Grandma Jo, I have enjoyed being able to help my parents out and especially Grandma Jo.

Mya's Violin Concert

2011-05-23T16:05:00.000-06:00

My niece Mya had a violin concert to show off her mad violin skills. She had completed book one of the Suzuki Method so she played the entire book cover to cover.

My mom and Mya doing a duet.

For Intermission my other niece Afton showed off her skills on the piano. Both girls are amazing!

Easter 2011

2011-05-19T19:00:00.003-06:00

For Easter this year we did the usual. Had dinner at my parents house and a little Easter egg hunt. My aunt and uncle and some of there kids from Canada were here so it was fun visiting with them. Nothing too exciting happened, it was just nice being with family and seeing how excited the kids were hunting for eggs.

Our child looking for eggs.

I had to throw this picture in of Andrea because she is always saying that I pick horrible pictures of her to put on my blog, so here you go! ;)

Waiting to be let out side.

It's so fun seeing Jax and Yogi play together. Jax is such a giant compared to Yogi, it's crazy!

The nieces and nephews love playing with Jax. Here is Collin pulling him around.

And Brit.

Clint and Yogi

Brit thought it looked fun and wanted in on the action.

Yogi

2011-05-19T18:57:00.000-06:00

We have a new addition to our family, Yogi Bear. No he's not our dog, he' my brother Scott's, although I tried to keep him. One day we were at Petsmart buying Jax some treats and they had a pet adoption going on. Well Clint and I have wanted to get another dog so Jax would have a buddy, so we brought Yogi home for the weekend to see if he fit in with us. Well my mom was not happy about having another dog in the house, so we had to find another home for him (we couldn't take him back to the store, we already were in love with him). We searched and searched and finally my brother Scott and sister-in-law Andrea took him.

It's really fun to watch Jax and Yogi play. Jax usually doesn't want anything to do with him (unless Yogi is chewing on his bone). We have to trick Jax into playing with him by first having a human play tug-a-war, and then have Yogi hold on. It's really fun. Yogi tries and tries to get Jax to play with him, Yogi will run around the table at a million miles an hour barking at Jax, but Jax will just ignore him. Whatever one of them has, the other wants and will stand guard until the other dog gets bored of his bone or toy and leaves it behind. Then the other dog will chew on it for a while until he leaves it and the vicious cycle continues on and on.

You may have thought that Jax was small, we did too until we met Yogi. He is almost half of Jax's size! Yogi is so tiny and hardly weights anything. The good news is, now that Scott and Andrea have taken him, they have toughened him up quite a bit and he seems to be more muscular.

It's fun having another dog in the family and the nieces and nephew just love having dogs around. Yogi is so good with kids and doesn't mind if they pick him up or pet him (unlike Jax, he's kind of spoiled that way). Once Yogi is fully potty trained I'm sure my mom will like him more, he struggles at times with training, but he's getting better!

These pictures are when we puppy sat for Scott and Andrea while they went to Moab. It was fun, but Jax sure is happy when Yogi leaves and our full attention is back on him.

Teresa & Mai

2011-05-19T16:05:00.000-06:00

I was able to help throw a baby shower for one of my best friends, Teresa Jensen. Robin and Teresa have been our friends since we got married. They, like us, have struggled having children. I think that's one reason we have become such great friends because we understand each other. When we found out Teresa was pregnant we were so EXCITED for them! I couldn't wait to throw the baby shower for her. We had yummy sandwiches, salad, fruit and a really yummy cake. It was a fun day getting to meet some of Teresa's family and enjoy a girls day in and watching Teresa open presents. Teresa had (she had her this last Saturday May 14, 2011) a baby girl who they named Mai (My) Emi Jensen. Congratulation Robin and Teresa, we just hope that Mai will still allow you to hang out with us!

Here are a few pictures from the shower.

I made my first diaper cake and I think it turned out pretty cute.

The lovely mother-to-be, Teresa

The guests;

Opening presents

The yummy cake

This is kind of a funny story. Hilary's cousin made cake pops. Hilary asked her to make them look "girly" and she did just that. If you can't see it, good for you (by the way the cousin didn't make boob pops on purpose, they just turned out that way ;))

The whole Gang

Jen + School + Shampoo = Hives!

2011-05-11T14:23:00.000-06:00

I can't believe that I am posting such ugly pictures of my self, but it's all about documentation and I wouldn't want to forget about this, ok maybe I would. So in the middle of April I broke out in these really red painful hives on my face. It was really bad where my bangs laid and then slowly moved down my nose. After a couple of days of them not going away or getting better I went to the doctor. He thought that I was allergic to this antibiotic that I had been taking, but I didn't think that was it since I've taken it for years and I've never had a problem with it. My suspicion was stress from school or this new Hair product line that I tried. The doctor gave me a million drugs to get rid of it and with in a few days my face was nice and clear.

Three weeks later I tried the shampoo again just to see if that's what it could be, and I broke out again. This time was worse though, It felt like my entire forehead had been burnt and I had bumps and redness all over my face, not very attractive. So I went to the doctor again after a week of it getting worse. It's been 6 days since I started the steroids and I'm still red and peeling, but I'm getting much better. Thank goodness for medicine! Now my leprosy is not as bad and I can be let back into the social world!

You can't really see it very well with these pictures, but just imagine it ten times worse than it looks here.

I'm not sure if school had anything to do with it or not, I kind of think that the stress of school didn't help, but the main culprit was the new shampoo and products.

The meds that the doctor had me take. Wow, it was stress enough just to remember to take everything!

New Computer

2011-05-11T14:07:00.000-06:00

In our family the rule has always seem to be that I get the hand-me-down's as far as electronics go. I've gotten all 3 of Clint's ipods after he has gotten new ones. Not a big deal but just for once it would be nice to have a new electronic where I am the first one that gets to use it. Clint was given a computer to use at work which left me with his old laptop (hand-me-down again). This left us with 3 computers, the work computer, his laptop and our iMac. Come on, who really needs 3 computers. Well my lucky day finally arrived. One day Clint went into Simple Mac and they were having a trade-in sale. So we took our desktop and Clint's old computer and got me my very own laptop that no one has ever used before. The anticipation of a new electronic was well worth it! I LOVE IT!

I LOVE MY NEW MacBook Pro!

Pinewood Derby 2011

2011-05-11T13:24:00.000-06:00

Did I ever mention that Clint and I are the Webelos Leaders for cub scouts in our ward? Well we are and it is actually a pretty fun calling. On March 23 we had our Pinewood Derby. It was such a fun time and the boys all did such a great job. We have this AMAZING family in our ward that has this really nice professional track that makes things so easy (for the spectators and boys at least). The same family also likes to make hot dogs, popcorn and nachos', just as if you were at a real Indy race (minus the beer of course). It was fun to see all of the cars and all the people that showed up. Here are a few pictures of the event.

The Winners!

3.90!!!

2011-05-11T13:17:00.000-06:00

What is 3.90 you ask? Well it was my GPA for Spring 2011 semester. All my hard work paid off. Four A's and one A- equals one happy Jen! I'm officially done with prereqs for Dental Hygiene school (until they notify me that I missed something)! I will apply for Salt Lake Community College this week and then in October I'll apply to Dixie, UVU and Weber (even though I know those are all long shots). The sad news about SLCC is that the wait list could be 3-5 years! What am I going to do with my self for that long?!?! I'm still going to put my name on the list and just wait to see what happens. It just feels so good to finally be done for a little while and have a little break! Now I don't have any excuses of why I'm not blogging. But I'll try and do better!

March Cabin Trip

2011-03-16T15:00:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago some of the family was going to the cabin. It had been since New Years since I'd been and of course Clint didn't want to go (he's crazy and doesn't like it up there), so I decided to take Jax and go by myself. I'm so glad that I did because I had a BLAST!!! On Friday the weather was perfect and my dad and I went on a great ride and we were pretty much the only ones on the entire mountain. The sun was out, the snow was perfect and you would have had to try really hard to get stuck.

When I was in high school I use to love to go snowmobiling with my dad and brother. I was pretty good if I do say so myself, and could always keep up with the boys. I wasn't crazy and didn't do the massive hill climbs they did, but I still could go pretty much anywhere they went. Well now that I've been married for 9 years I don't really get the chances to go like I use to because now I'm an adult and have responsibilities and Clint just doesn't like going so I would rather be with him. I proud to say that after 11 years of not really doing much riding other than the occasional ride hear and there, I still got the stuff.

I forgot how much I love to snowmobile. If you have never done it, you should, there is something about it that is just so thrilling and exciting, plus you get to go anywhere you want and see so many different areas of the mountains that you wouldn't usually get to see. It's just wonderful being around God's amazing creation.

Here are some of the pictures I took while I was there.

My mom was babysitting my brother's girls that weekend so they came. Here is Mya and Afton enjoying some cheese nibs and a little TV.

Afton was in love with all the snow she could eat. She went around collecting clumps of snow and saving them for later incase grandma didn't have food she liked to eat.

My dad after the ride we went on.

Here is the cabin, there was SO much snow, you had to walk down to the cabin when usually you walk up the stairs to get to the cabin.

My dad told me that I wouldn't need to keep the heater on in my room on all night, so I didn't (dad's are always right, right?). Well this is what I woke up to in the morning, 55 degrees. Burr!

The day before my mom had a little accident so this is my dad trying to re-inact what she looked like when he found her. The only difference is that the bottom ski was resting on her neck and helmet. She was going up a hill and didn't give it enough gas so she was trying to turn it around only instead of turning, it tipped over. She rolled down the hill and so did the machine. She wasn't fast enough because the machine caught up to her. Her body stopped the machine and somehow the ski didn't smash her neck. She was stuck and couldn't move at all. Luckily my dad was able to lift the machine up enough for her to crawl out. It was pretty scary.

Here are some of the snowborders. They like to get these massive kite thingies and have the wind pull them all around. Like wind surfing, but on snowboards. They were all over this one particular hill.

Some of the gang at the top of the hill. As you can see the second day we were there the weather wasn't quite as nice as the first day, but we still had fun.

Jax had a good time playing in the snow. Isn't he just the cutest dog you have ever seen!

My nephew Chris liked having me take action shots of him playing ping-pong

Not the best picture of me, (ugh) but I love the look on Jax face, "mom stop smothering me!"

Chris found a new friend.

Two of my nieces Hailey and Afton, they enjoyed their time playing in the loft.

Picture of Chris from the loft

Me taking the girls on a little ride.

Chris pulling some of the girls on a sled with the snowmobile

My happiest moment was when my niece Ellie (standing on the chair) started liking me. I've been working on her for a year and half and it's finally happened!

If this ever downloads, this is me trying to drive and take a video all at the same time. It's harder than it looks considering I have to hold the camera in my left hand so my right thump can press the gas.

Spring Break!

2011-03-16T11:20:00.000-06:00

Spring Break 2011 has officially started! What are my big plans? Vegas, Hawaii, Florida, day at the spa, I wish! Instead this is what I have planned:

Wash the windows in the front of the house,

Do a 16 week course of Nutrition in 3 days,

Go to work everyday from 8-12 like I always do,

And Sleep.

Sounds fun uh? Not really but it will be nice to have a break from school (well at least class) for a few days. I just wish that UVU had the entire week off instead of just 3 days, but a break is a break so no complaining allowed.

Half Way Finished

2011-03-02T09:35:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I've made it to the half way mark of the semester for school. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time getting motivated to do anything that has to do with school this semester, but I am! It could have something to do with the fact that I am ALWAYS extremely tired and would much rather take a nap then study, or that I know that this is my last semester of pre-reqs and I just don't really care how I do (which is bad because if I don't get a B in Physiology it won't be my last semester and I'll have to retake it in the fall). I've already made it half way through this semester, I just hope I can make it half way through the rest of the semester. Not that you're interested, but let me tell you about the classes I'm taking.

Zumba - I like this one, but for a one credit class and an Elective PE class, we have quite a bit of homework to do so I don't like that too much. But it's nice to get my work out done during the day so I don't have to worry about it later.

Chemistry Lab - This as well is a one credit class and there is WAY too much to do for it. Every time we go to lab we have at least 3 things we need to turn in, sometimes 4 plus a quiz. Ridiculous, and it's not even that fun. You would think you get to mix all sorts of cool chemicals together and see them do amazing stuff, but it's pretty much just taking measurements of things and writing down boring data. But I have to take the class, so I guess I'll have to suffer through it.

Physiology - I go to class one time a week (very nice) for 2 1/2 hours (not so nice) and I really enjoy the subject and LOVE my teacher. Studying and understanding the concepts I don't love too much, but so far I'm doing OK in the class, there is room for improvement, but good luck with that with the little amount of motivation I have.

Physiology Lab - I have the same teacher as my physiology lecture so I of course LOVE her. This class is OK, nothing too exciting, but it's required so I have to take it.

Sociology - It is so nice to have an easy class again. This class is CAKE! Attendance is required so that kind of sucks, but we have 4 tests a semester and on test weeks we don't have to go to class (I usually go to it two times a week). Then you can miss 4 times with no consequences so when you add up the amounts of time you actually have to go to class in a semester it's only like 18 times! Plus the test are SOO easy. I bought a book for the class (big mistake) and haven't opened it once. Everything we need to know for the test is given to us and the end of each chapter. I had a test yesterday and studied for it for about 30 minutes, took the test and got a 37/40. Not perfect, but it's still an "A" so I don't really care!

Nutrition - I can't say much about this one because it's an online class and I haven't done one thing with it. OK, I have done an introduction paragraph about my self and a small paper about nutrition (only because there were deadlines) but here I go again, no motivation to get it done! I'M IN TROUBLE! I still have half the semester to finish it right :).

Anyway, now you can kind of see why I have been slacking on Blogging again, I'm kind of busy. But only 8 more weeks and I'll be free again! Hopefully.

Happy 100, Happy Valentines, and Happy Jax!

2011-02-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

It's all about the Happy Today! Today is my 100th post (hard to believe since I'm a terrible blogger). Back when I was around the 59th post I thought to myself, "When I reach post 100 I'm going to make it an awesome post with give aways and really cool stuff." Isn't that just how life goes, you dream big and then when it comes down to it, you're either too lazy or too busy to make a big deal out of it. So I apologize to any one who reads my blog, there is no give aways today, maybe at number 200, if I can think about anything worth while to give away.

Our next happy is a very Happy Valentine's to all of my loved ones. I hope you have a very loving day and feel very special because you are! I'm pretty excited for our Valentines plans tonight. We are having the annual Veenker Adult Valentines Dinner with prime rib, shrimp, pies, and anything else that you can think of that is really yummy! I can't wait for the prime rib part. Every time I open the fridge the huge massive chunk of meat is staring at me with all of it's yummy seasoning saying, "Eat Me!" So it will be nice to have it out of the fridge tempting me.

Did you know that about me? I LOVE meat. I don't know why, but I sure do, and I don't mind looking or handling raw meat. Some people go crazy and can't stand it, but I don't mind. It might have to do something with watching my dad cut deer up when I was little. I could watch him butcher deer for days, such an interesting skill seeing how they take a animal and turn it into food. You're probably all throwing up by now so I'll do you a favor and stop.

Our last happy is pretty funny. This was from Christmas time but I'm just getting around to downloading the video and posting it. This is a present from Clint to me and Jax pretty much opened the whole thing because there was some smell in the present that he wanted. Have a look, it's pretty cute.

Hope you enjoyed my Happy 100, Happy Valentines and Happy Jax post!

Have a HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Is our Luck Starting to Change?

2011-02-11T08:37:00.006-07:00

Well I'm not sure if our luck has changed completely, but when you're down at the bottom of the barrel, the only direction to go is up. I'm a little leery about posting this, because it still seems too good to be true, and I'm afraid that if I announce anything it won't come true. I know what you're thinking, they're going to have a baby. No, we haven't reached that section of the barrel yet. It's not a baby, but it is something pretty great I think.

On Wednesday we started to climb up the barrel a bit. Clint was promoted to Project Manager at Property Solutions! He'll be managing the development of custom websites for clients, including a team of developers in India! Pretty much working with software stuff that I don't understand.

He is excited, and hopefully the raise will help us get back on our feet. I'm so proud of Clint for being patient and sticking with things and not giving up when things were bad (life in general). I love him so much and appreciate how hard he works for our family! He's so smart too! The other day I was having problems understanding concepts from my Physiology class. He read a few pages of my book and was able to explain things to me in a more simple way. Wouldn't that be so nice!

Anyway, back to being at the bottom of the barrel. I don't mean to sound like we don't have anything, or that nothing good has happened to us because we are SOOO blessed! We have amazing families who support and love us no matter what. We have the best, cutest, funnest, funniest dog in the world. My parents have been BEYOND helpful and do what ever they can to help us out. We have AWESOME friends who make us laugh and keep us going all the time. And most importantly, we have the Gospel. It has been such a blessing to me, and has helped me get through SO many good times and hard times. I love The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I KNOW that it is the true church.

So ya, that's our most recent news, pretty big and exciting, and I can't wait to see what happens next! Congratulations Clint!

Update Overload

2011-01-30T21:44:00.006-07:00

So I FINALLY took all day and updated our blog! I'm sorry I haven't updated things for the last 7 months of our life. I got so far behind that catching up seemed way too time consuming, and trust me it was, but since I consider this my Journal, I knew I had to do it.

So I finished up last semester and did pretty good. Not a 4.0, but good enough grades that I don't have to retake any classes, that's a bonus! Sadly Christmas break was way too short and I've already started a new semester that is going to be quite challenging. So warning, it might be another 3 months until I update the blog again.

Anyway, if you don't care to read the next 22 post, I won't be offended. Enjoy and I hope you're all doing great. We sure are, things are going great for us and as soon as Clint can find a higher paying job, things will be even better.

Jealous Jax

2011-01-30T19:20:00.003-07:00

A coule of weeks ago we baby sit my nephew Collin. It was a great time but....we had one jealous dog! Jax doesn't usually demand my time, but he sure wanted it when I was giving attention to Collin. It was SOOO funny.

Anytime I would change Collin's diaper, Jax would come and sit in my lap. Anytime I took Collin he wanted to come too and got really mad if I didn't take him. Anytime I fed Collin, Jax would bark like crazy until I gave him something to eat. No joke, he gained over a pound the week Collin was here. That's like 1/5 of his body weight. If I would play with Collin, Jax would bring me his ball and want me to play with him.

Collin loved to open the fridge and look for food and every time he was in the fridge, Jax would be in there too making sure he got food as well. It was a fun week, but I'm afraid if we ever have kids Jax is going to have a hard time adjusting to not being the baby. It was so funny to witness! We sure love you Jax!

Can you see Jax in my lap? This is when I was reading stories to Collin, Jax came and wanted the good spot on my lap! Such a funny dog!

Party with Friends

2011-01-30T19:19:00.005-07:00

Our friend Andrew had his birthday and we tagged along with the group. We had dinner at Smashburger's and then went and watched the movie True Grit. It was a great night and we of course had a ton of fun!

In case you are wondering what that tube thing is, it is this really weird tube that you get in and wind blows like crazy. Don't ask me why Robin loves this so much but he does.

New Years at the Cabin

2011-01-30T19:19:00.004-07:00

Like every year we went to the Cabin for New Years. It was SOOO cold, when we got there it was -4 degree's fahrenheit. Some of the other family had gone to the cabin on Tuesday and it was a blizzard the entire week. We went up on Friday and it was snowy when we got there but when we woke up on Saturday we had nothing but blue skies, we picked a good time to go. That is why I only have pictures of the night because we were out side most of the day on Saturday snowmobiling and other stuff and I forgot to bring the camera with me. Oops. We had a great time eating (like always), playing games and watching movies.

Merrry Christmas 2010

2011-01-30T19:18:00.002-07:00

Christmas this year was wonderful like it always is. Everyone but Scott and Andrea were at my parents. Scott and Andrea were in Peru with Andrea's family. Andrea's dad took a job in Lima so they went down to visit him.

Anyway we started the day off with my family with breakfast, presents and the Nativity. Such a great day.

After we were done with my parents we went to Clint's families house. Everyone but Coleton was there, he is working in Georgia right now, we sure missed y0u Khol.

We spent the night there having dinner, opening presents and enjoying each other. Thanks for a great Christmas everyone!

Clint's Present

2011-01-30T19:17:00.006-07:00

Clint got the present that he always wanted this year for Christmas. A HUGE poster of Jacob from Twilight. His work had a secret santa exchange and someone there must know him VERY well!

Christmas Eve 2010

2011-01-30T19:17:00.005-07:00

Christmas Eve was a GREAT night. We went to my sister Lori's house with lots of food and games and just had a blast!

Opening Presents

2011-01-30T19:16:00.007-07:00

After Scott and Andrea got home from their honeymoon they came over and opened presents. It reminded me of how much fun it was getting so many presents. I wish we could have a reception every 5 years so that we can always have new fun things. Don't you agree?

Thanksgiving 2010

2011-01-30T19:16:00.006-07:00

Scott & Andrea Veenker's Wedding 11/2/2010

2011-01-30T19:15:00.004-07:00

November 2, 2010 Scott and Andrea were married in the Mount Timpanogous Temple. It was such a beautiful day and we were so happy that we could celebrate it with them. Congrats guys, you're going to be an amazing couple.

Bradley's Baptism

2011-01-30T19:15:00.003-07:00

I can't believe that my nephew Bradley is eight! In our religion when you turn 8 you are baptized and become a member of our church. We had a great time celebrating his specially day with him and our family. Congratulations Bradley, we love you and we're so proud of you for making this decision.

Corn Belly's 2010

2011-01-30T19:14:00.002-07:00

What do you do in October? Of course you have to go to the corn maze at Corn Belly's. We got a big group of people together and had a blast! Thank goodness our friend Mary had a phone with a picture of the maze and once we had her to lead us out, we were fine, otherwise I think we still might be there. It was a hard one!

Andrea's Showers

2011-01-30T19:13:00.002-07:00

Here is my new sister-in-law Andrea, love her to death! Here are pictures from her different showers she had.

This is her first shower. We did a "Pampered Bride" shower for her that turned out great, she got lots of fun stuff and we had a lot of fun. Thanks for those who came.

Andrea's sister Angie threw her a bachelorette party. We kept it PG-13, and it was STILL a blast! Angie had yummy foods, great decorations and of course we had a ball embarrassing Andrea, great night!

For her last shower me and my sister's threw her a family shower so she could meet some of Scott's aunts and cousins. We had GREAT food, good company and amazing presents that Andrea didn't want to share, oh well, it was still fun.

Clint Turns 30!!!

2011-01-30T19:12:00.002-07:00

September 23, 2010 Clint's turn came to turn 30. We had a small little get tother with the Jensen's and my sister and brother-in-law Lori and Kyle. We went to Carrabba's (Clint's favorite restaurant) and then came back to our place and watched the Office and had birthday cake. It was a fun night!

Veenker Gomez Party

2011-01-30T19:11:00.004-07:00

In September my mom decided that the Gomez family (Andrea's family) needed to meet the ENTIRE Veenker family so we had a little dinner. Of course it was fun and I'm sure the Gomez's thought that we were a bunch of crazy people, but we REALLY like them so it doesn't really matter. Thank you Gomez's for being such amazing people and sharing Andrea with us, we LOVE her!

Scott & Andrea

2011-01-30T19:11:00.003-07:00

Here is the happy couple hanging out one day. Scott was washing Andrea's hair and I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Meeks Family Photos'

2011-01-30T18:57:00.006-07:00

In August Clint's brother Coleton came from Georgia for a visit so had family pictures taken. My sister-law Katie took them and I think that she did a FABULOUS job! Thanks Katie.

Check out her blog, she's amazing!

http://katieveenkerphotography.blogspot.com/

Out Night With Veenker Siblings

2011-01-30T18:54:00.002-07:00

Back in August most of my sibling their spouses and my parents got together and went to dinner at Costa Vida and then headed to the movie theater to watch Inception. We had a great time! Thanks everyone!

Jen Turns 30!!!

2011-01-30T18:48:00.007-07:00

Yes it's true, I am no longer young. On August 6, 2010 I turned the big 30 and you know what, it was great and I really don't feel as old as I thought I would.

First off for my present from Clint. He had taken my wedding ring into the jewelers' at got it all spiffed up for me. It looked SO nice and I was so happy to have it back and wearing it instead of the cheap one I had been wearing from Walmart that started to turn my finger green. Thanks Clint, too bad now it's 6 months and it needs to be done again.

Clint threw me a party and a few of my nice friends came. My friend Robin had the most amazing creative mind and came up with a game for me called "That's Jentertainment!"

We had six different categories we competed it.

1.Jen shaken...not stirred and on the rocks

2.Could you please pass the Jen's favorite food.

3. Jen the bread winner

4.Jen on high school night. (In side Joke, Robin wanted to go to studio 600 and FINALLY after nine years Teresa (Robin's wife) and I agreed to go. Unfortunately (for Robin, not me) it was high school night and there was NO way we were going to hang out with a bunch of high school kids.

5. Jen in bed, kind of

6 Jen and Jen

Here is the poster with the different categories.

Ok #1 - Jen shaken not stirred (no picture sorry). So my favorite drink is Diet Coke with Lime. So Robin had 12 different drinks everything dark and carbonated from Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Root bear and everything in between. So Clint and I were competing against each other and we had a 12 cups filled with all the soda's and who ever picked the "Diet Coke with Lime" wins! Less than 5 seconds I had it picked!

#2 Could you please pass the Jen's favorite food. So if you have ever been to Magleby's Fresh you know that they have the most AMAZING syrup for there french toast. Well one day we took the healthy Robin with us and he loved it until he found out that it was made with butter. Anyways, since I like the syrup, Robin of course thinks that my favorite food is Syrup and Butter. (It's not by the way!) In this competition we had to come up with a a picture made out of butter and syrup. I won, mine is the bottom left. I had no idea what I was doing, but it ended up looking like the scream character and since Robin loves anything to do with movies, mine one.

#3 Jen the bread winner. Well all of you, or most of you know that my first career is cosmetology. So Robin bought wigs and Teresa and Tamsin had to cut the wigs while the boys were wearing them. I had to judge and it was a very close call, but the Norths won. It was so hilarious watching!

#4 Jen on High school night. So I've been doing Zumba since June and absolutely LOVE it, if you haven't tried it out yet, you really need to. It's the best way to work out, don't be intimidated, just try it! Anyway, for this competition, I had to be the Zumba leader and everyone had to follow me exactly, and if they didn't do it exactly, they were out! Super fun!

#4 Jen in bed kind of. This one was quit interesting. Well like most women, I like to read cheesy romance books. Then the next part was an other inside joke (lets face it, the whole game is based on inside jokes). A couple years ago we were at Robin and Teresa's and I asked for a blanket, Robin went and got it for me and by habit (because he does it for Teresa), he started "tucking me in." Of course we laughed for ever about it and still do.

Anyway so for this one, Nick and Tamsin had to swaddle me up like a baby and ready me passages from a cheesy romance book.

#6 Jen and Jen. So I admit, I like Jennifer Anniston. Robin of course thinks she is my favorite actor and is always giving me a hard time about it. This competition he was going to prove to me that I have seen all of movies. I'm sorry I don't remember exactly how this competition went, but I think that Teresa and Clint had to name movies of Jennifer Aniston's back and forth and who ever could come up with the most won. Then Robin had a list of all of her movies and no surprise, I haven't seen half of them. Robin on the other hand can't say the same thing.

So after cake and ice cream and a movie that was it! The big 30 had come and gone, it was a great birthday and I want to thank Robin and Clint for putting it together. I had a great time!

The guests, Robin and Teresa Jensen, Clint, and Nick and Tamsin North. Thanks for coming!

Creepy picture of me I know, my eyes are all weird, but it's the only one I had with the cake.

Scott's Engagment

2011-01-30T14:10:00.000-07:00

My Brother Scott proposed to my new sister-in-law on August 4, 2010 and of course being the amazing sister I am helped him out a bit, with Clint's help.

Well he Definitely didn't pick the best day, it was pouring rain, tons of lightning and thunder and a few times it started to hail, but did he want to wait, OF COURSE NOT!!!

Scott and I had previously gone up American Fork canyon the week before and picked out a location that I would set things up. So CLint and I went up an hour before Scott was suppose to be there and set up a table with candles and sushi (Andrea's favorite). Of course it was raining like crazy so we had to use an umbrella but that still didn't stop things from getting soaked, especially Clint and me.

I really wanted to get pictures of Scott proposing so we hid in the VERY wet bushes waiting for them. Scott took a little longer than planned because he was waiting to see if the rain would let up, it didn't.

So they finally got there and he proposed and then Clint and I left the happy couple alone while they ate and we walked through the wet bushes to the car. By the time we were done, we didn't have a dry piece of clothing on us, but it was worth it seeing the smiles on Andrea's and Scott's faces.

Congrats guys! Even though it's now been 6 months and you have now been married for 2, oh well, better late than never!

So I have video's of the event, but they aren't downloading, so that will have to wait for another time! Sorry.

Happy Birthday Mom, 2nd half.

2011-01-30T14:01:00.001-07:00

Well after the helicopter ride, my mom treated the whole family to the pool to celebrate her birthday. Should have been the other way around, but I guess when your a grandma you can do whatever you want. So here are some pics from the pool.

Mom's Birthday!

2011-01-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

On July 30th my mom turned...well I'm sure it was somewhere around 35. My dad, I don't dare say Finally, but he gave her the present of her life time. It was so great that now she expects it each year from now on. Clint just happened to be working with a guy who owns a helicopter business. My dad asked Clint to see what the cost would be for him and he was SO nice and said, it's on me, just bring her down. So my dad woke my mom up at 6:00 am, they got in the car and headed down south to Spanish Fork. My mom just thought that they were going to the cabin, so she didn't expect anything until they pulled into the airport. Needless to to say she LOVED it. The pilot took them on a ride up to the cabin. They couldn't land at the cabin because the air was too thin, but the top right picture is looking down at the cabin, you can't see it because of all the trees, but trust me, it's there. Good job on the present dad, I know she loved it!

24th of July

2011-01-30T12:50:00.000-07:00

For the 24th of July weekend we headed up to the cabin for a fun weekend of 4-wheeling, s'mores, games and spending time with family.

You can't see it very well but the bottom right picture of Clint and me is us COVERED in dirt after a really long, fun ride with Scott and Andrea.

My niece Lexi wanted to show me her amazing photography skills, so the above photos are all by her. She hasn't quite figured out the option of holding down the button and waiting for it to focus. Oh well, she had time to figure it out.

Best Reaction to a Surprise!

2010-12-17T09:05:00.002-07:00

So my uncle gets the best husband award for the year. He found a truck in Utah to buy for my aunt for Christmas and her birthday, then he had my dad drive it to California for him. Then he waited 2 or 3 weeks (I could never keep a surprise that long), and then gave her the keys when there son Jason was in town. Even if you don't know my Aunt Kandy, it's still so much fun to watch. So enjoy and be jealous that you aren't get a new truck for Christmas. P.S. She's from Texas which explains some of the excitement for a truck.

Still Here Part 2

2010-12-03T09:12:00.004-07:00

Sorry for the inactivity on the blog part, but I've been so busy doing this...

And a lot of this...

that I haven't had any free time. Eleven more days, 5 more test and then I might be able to think about blogging. Thanks for being patient and plan to hear from me in two weeks!

We're still Here!

2010-10-06T09:24:00.002-06:00

So you may, or may have not noticed that I've been quite the slacker on blogging, but I do have good excuses for my laziness. So let me just give you a quick update on what we've been up to.

I started school at UVU at the end of August which keeps me really busy. I'm STILL working on finishing my pre-reqs for dental hygiene and I'm happy to announce that after 3 years I will FINALLY be finished with my pre-reqs next semester, if I can pass my courses this semester and next semester. This semester I'm taking Microbiology and Chemistry. Both are difficult but thankfully I'm only taking these two classes or I would be really drowning. So far I'm doing ok and hopefully I can continue to do well in those classes.

I have also been working part time for my Dad and Uncle at their metal casting company, Intermountain Precision Casting. I LOVE working there, I just wish I could get some more hours, but all is well. I do receptionist work and other random duties to keep me busy.

Clint got a job at Property Solutions In August (maybe it was the end of July, I can't remember). It is a software company that makes software for management companies like apartments and stuff like that. He works with customers on getting their website set up and helping with software problems. He likes it, but just wishes it would pay more. He is currently working on trying to find a part time job so that SOME day we can move out of my parents house and go back to school, so if any of out there in the world needs a smart, reliable, great worker, give him a call!

We also have been called as the Webelos leaders in our ward. Working with the 10 year old's has been lots of fun (most weeks). They are great boys and have already earned a lot of badges. We meet once a week so it's not too time consuming, which is good because I feel like we are already short on that.

My little brother Scott got engaged in August so I have been able to throw Andrea one shower and have one more in a couple weeks. We just LOVE her and couldn't have been happier with Scott's taste in picking his wife. She kind of likes me despite me being very rude to her the first time I met her :). I wasn't trying to be rude but I was asking her all of these questions about herself and was amazed at how wonderful she sounded and I said, "Andrea I think Scott is too good for you!" But what I meant to say is, "Andrea, I think you are too good for Scott," but of course my "Jen" brain messed up and she was rather shocked that I would say something like that to her. Well after millions of apologies I think she has forgiven me and not we are BFF'S!

And that foke's, is how we have been spending our time for the last 4 months that we have been in Utah. Now of course there has been other things like how Clint and I both turned 30, but those things will have to wait for a day when I have access to my pictures and a spare minute. Thanks for being patient and hopefully you'll hear from me soon!

Blake

2010-09-10T20:17:00.003-06:00

After we got back from Bear Lake we had some extended family come over so we could say goodbye to my cousin Blake who was leaving on a mission to Johannesburg South Africa. It was good to see him and spend some time with some of our family that we don't get to see too often. Good Luck Blake and we'll miss you!

Bear Lake

2010-08-31T12:00:00.011-06:00

For the 4th of July weekend our friends the Jensen's invited us to Bear Lake with them for their family reunion. We had a great time and even though that water was ice cold and you couldn't stand to be in it, we still enjoyed the sun and company.

Robin has been going to Bear Lake with his family since he was young so we had to make stops at all of his favorite places. Le Beau's was our number one stop. I was shocked to see Robin eat a milk shake and greasy food because normally he stays very far away from that stuff. It's amazing how tradition doesn't keep you away from the naughty stuff.

Robin and Teresa in front of the cup.

Clint and me in front of the famous cup.

For some reason it's not as cute any more when our husbands feed us. They aren't quit as nice as they were when we were dating.

He was trying to shove it in my face, point proven!

Us with a gorgeous sunset.

The four of us.

Here we are half way on our drive around the lake. We were on the north side of the lake humongous lake.

Sunday potluck dinner.

Robin eating! AMAZING!

The girls relaxing on the sand bar on the beach.

Before he froze himself.

Clint and Robin were really brave and actually got into the Lake. This is them diving in! Burr!!!

Here they are afterwards looking for Clint's glasses that had fallen off after the dive. Good thing the water is so blue and clear so that they could see.

They came in shortly after this.

Teresa enjoying the rays.

Teresa lost one of her flip flops, so Robin was kind enough to carry her back.

View from behind. How sweet!

And us carrying all the crap we took down to the beach.

Taking a nice walk.

I was really bad at taking pictures the first few days. We also went in the canoe a bit and I tipped Clint over in the water. He wasn't too happy with me. We rode our bikes into town and had pizza. Rented wave runner's (I have pictures on my phone but I don't know how to get them off :))Read books, watched movies and watched the worse Firework show I have EVER seen. It was such a fun time getting away and just enjoying ourselves.

Moving Day # 2

2010-08-28T12:16:00.005-06:00

After we got back from Utah we were kind of lost. We didn't really know what our life was going to look like for the next couple of months. Since Clint had to take a medical leave he couldn't go back to school until January and we were really having a tough time finding jobs. We had thought about going back to Utah until January, working, and spending time with our family and friends that we REALLY missed, or just staying in Ohio and hope that we both found jobs.

Well about a week after we got back my dad called me and said that if we came back to Utah that I could have my old job back working for him. So we talked about it and decided that Utah is where we wanted to be. We had such a good time while we were there and we were the happiest that we had been in months so in a weeks time we packed up all of our belongings and were on our way to Utah.

Here are a couple of pictures of our apartment in the disaster that it was in. I've decided that I hate packing and moving, but we are getting REALLY good at it.

We had everything all organized in two rooms. One room was stuff that would be put in storage so it needed to go in the back of the truck and the other room was stuff that needed to be with us while we were living at my parents so that was at the front of the truck.

We left on June 9th and made it to Lindon Utah on June 11th at about 6:30pm. Since we left Utah in May for the first trip and by the time we went back in June, we had put over 6000 miles on our little Jeep. Of course a couple weeks after we got here the water pump went out, but can you blame it with all the use we put it through? If you are really interested in hearing about our boring drive you can check out my earlier post, "We made it!" There isn't any pictures because we were too busy driving to worry about that, but it's there if you're really bored.

I started work right off the bat on Monday and Clint started intently looking for a job. It took him some time but about a month later he found a one! He is working for a company called Property Solutions. It is a software company that makes software for apartment management companies, hotels, and lots of other companies so that people can bay bills on line and all sorts of stuff that I don't understand. So Clint's job is to help customers with problems and questions with the software and help them set up their web page. He seems to like it and we both LOVE having income again. It's not much and we still feel poor, but it's better than nothing.

I'll try and post more about some of the things that we've been up to since we've been here, but for now, so long!

Cedar Point

2010-08-28T11:54:00.004-06:00

Before we moved to Ohio I checked the area out on line and found that they have an amazing amusement park called Cedar Point that is about an hour and half away from us. So I was really excited to go check it out. When we got back we decided to pick a day and go because we knew there was a possibility that we wouldn't be staying in Ohio for the summer and I really wanted to go. So we went on June 1st. It was a perfect day because school hadn't gotten out yet so there wasn't a ton of people there. Now granite it was High School day so there was quite a bit of teenagers, but not the loads of crowds that could have been there.

They have SOOO many rides there and a ton of big fast ones too. Unfortunately we didn't even get to go on 1/4 of the rides because their was too many. Also when we reached the other end of the park there was one of those old wooden roller coasters that is really shaky. Well after the ride Clint could barely walk because it hurt his back so much and I'm pretty sure I had whip lash, so we decided to just leave because there was NO way we were going to be able to do anything else.

We had a good time though and I'm glad we went. Hopefully we'll be able to go again, I'll just have to make sure we don't go on any of the old wooden roller coasters.

This ride looked supper fun but Clint was too big of a chicken to go on it and I didn't want to go by myself. But it pretty much goes straight up 420 ft at 120 pmh and straight down. Doesn't that sound like fun! Maybe next time I'll get to try it!

Trip from Utah to Ohio

2010-08-25T15:06:00.015-06:00

On the way back to Ohio we decided to take a different route than on the way out to Utah so that we could see a different part of the country, and so we could stop at some of the church history sites in Missouri. It took us a lot longer, but was worth it.

We left on May 24th and this is what the weather was like, pretty crappy. Thankfully, by the time we hit Price everything had cleared up, and we had blue skies most of the way back.

We couldn't have picked a better traveling buddy. He is SO good in the car. He just goes in the back and sometimes sleeps in his kennel and other times in his bed. He doesn't even whine to go potty. We needed more breaks than he did. Isn't he just the cutest!

After we left the pretty mountains of Utah and Colorado this is what we saw after Denver. It was nice and green but boy was it FLAT!

The first night we drove until we couldn't drive anymore, and ended up in a small town in Colorado called Statton. Not too exciting.

The next day we drove to Independence Missouri and got there around 5:00pm. We checked into our hotel and then decided we would head off to the LDS Visitor's Center in Independence.

Across the street is the Community of Christ Temple.

Here are a couple of pictures inside the LDS Visitor's Center.

We made it there before the busy season and pretty much had the place to ourselves. The parking lot was so dead we thought they might be closed, but they were happy to see us and share their testimonies with us.

The next day we headed off to Liberty Jail.

I can't even imagine what it must have been like to live in a tiny cellar for 5 months and not even be able to stand up straight.

I had been to Independence two other times, but Clint never had. He wanted to go through the Community of Christ Church the night before but they were closed. So after Liberty Jail I said that we really need to go back so you can see what it's like.

We had Jax with us so we couldn't leave him in the car on such a hot day, so Clint just toured the temple, and Jax and I walked around the block and took some pictures of the area.

Important intersection.

This is where our temple will be some day.

After Independence, we took the long drive north-east to Far West.

Jax liked it because he was able to run around the fenced-in area where the corner stones for the Temple are.

And our last stop was Adam-ondi-ahman. It's such a peaceful and pretty place.

By this time our day was almost up, I think it was about 3:00pm, so we knew we couldn't get too far, but that's ok because we weren't in any hurry to get home.

One thing about going east is that the gas got cheaper and cheaper. This is in a tiny town near Adam-ondi-Ahman. It was a good 80 cents cheaper than it was in Utah.

The first time that I went on a church history tour with my parents we went to Hannibal Missouri where Mark Twain grew up. Here is Clint in front of his house, and the white washed fence he convinced boys to paint.

Becky Thachter's place. We didn't get to go in because everything was closed by the time we got there.

Here is a view of the Mississippi River from Mark Twain's house.

Some pictures of us and the river:

That night we made it to Springfield, IL around 2:00am. We were SO tired!

The next day we made it home. We stopped for a bit in Indianapolis and took a picture of the house my sister moved away from a couple years ago. They were pretty excited when we texted them the picture of it.

Right before we reached Ohio we hit this massive rain storm! I was driving and was going about 10mph and could barely see in front of me. I just kept following the truck's lights in front of me and hoped we wouldn't crash.

We finally made it home to Akron around 9:00pm. It took us a day longer than planned, but we also go to see so much more! Thanks again to my family for putting up with us for two weeks!

Miss Veenker Pageant 2010

2010-08-17T18:11:00.001-06:00

So while we were in Utah we decided to have the anual Miss Veenker Pageant. I didn't put this in the previous post because it's SO special that it deserves a post of it's own. The girls did a great job as alway and I was so happy to be there and see how cute the girls are. They LOVE the Miss Veenker pageant and look forward to it every year. I have to say that I love watching them share their talents love how much they get into it.

This year we did a "sports wear" round. Here are the girls during the modeling competition.

Talent Portion.

Evening Wear

The girls all together.

Mya - Picture Perfect award

Libby - Smile-a-mile award

Brooklynn - One-in-a-million

Hailey - Puppy Love Award

Afton - Dancing Finger's Award

Alexis - Shake it till ya Break it!

Ami - Miss Sunshine

Ami is Scott's girlfriend Andrea's sister, we thought it would be fun to invite her to our party. She did GREAT!

McKinsey - Miss Queen

The group after being crowned.

Afterwards we had a great time. Andrea is a Zumba instructor so she taught us a few songs. Such a fun thing, if you've never done it, you have to!

2nd Trip to Utah in 2010

2010-08-17T17:23:00.010-06:00

On May 7th, 2010 we headed off to Utah for a good 2 week plus trip. (Thanks to my family). I had a final at 1:00pm and we left right from the school at 1:30pm. It felt great to have school over with and a couple days later I was ecstatic to find out that I had gotten a 4.0 with 13 credits. That's never happened before so I have to kind of brag about it. We were so excited to go home to see our friends and family and spend some time with them.

The first night we drove to Davenport IA, and stayed with Clint's cousin Liz and her husband Nate. It was great to see them and spend a short time with them. Once we got Jax and there dog Penelope not to attack each other it turned out great. They even sent us off with an amazing breakfast the next morning. Thanks again guys! You're the greatest!

Taking a picture with the Wall's before we left.

On Saturday we had a REALLY long drive, we drove 14 hours to Larmie Wyoming before we just couldn't go any more. The next day was Mother's day and we REALLY wanted to be there for that. That's why we drove so far on Saturday so that we'd have more time on Sunday's with our moms. Clint's mom didn't know we were coming so she got the best Mother's Day gift when she answered the door and we were standing there. She just screamed, CLINT! What are you doing here! I think it helped make her day special.

While we were in Utah we had a PACKED schedule FULL of fun things. Some of those things included...

Going to my niece's dance festival (she's the one in the tidied ;))

And my other niece's dance festival. It was Convenient that it was at the same place.

We went Miniature golfing with the Jensen's

Can you tell where Clint is?

I was able to attend my niece Hailey's preschool graduation. SO CUTE!

We got to meet my new best friend and she was also my brother's girlfriend at the time. Andrea Gomez (they are now engaged)

We took a much needed family picture

And then a couple day's later my sister-in-law Katie took pictures of just Clint and me. She is amazing at taking pictures! I am so impressed with her. She's only been taking them since December and she looks mighty professional to me. You MUST check out her blog if you're looking for a great photographer who is very reasonably priced.

We of course had the May birthday party while we were there.

We also got to go to the Aquarium in Sandy with Clint's sister Mariah's kids. Way fun!

Three of the Grandkids had gone to EFY the week before we came so they gave us a family home evening on what kinds of things they learned and what they did. It was fun and reminded me of the days that I went.

We finally decided that we needed to leave (although we REALLY didn't want to, and at the time we had NO idea that we would be back in just a couple of weeks) on Monday 24th. Patti (Clint's mom) wanted to take us out to breakfast before we headed off.

Thanks again everyone for making our trip to Utah for the second time in 2010 a fun and memorable experience.

Elder Verite

2010-08-17T16:51:00.004-06:00

On April 27, 2010 one of our favorite Elder's was living our area, so we had the missionaries over for dinner so we could say goodbye to Elder Verite. He is such a great missionary. Always so happy, funny and has such a strong testimony. We sure miss you and hope that life goes great for you!

Kirtland and Cheesecake!

2010-08-05T22:04:00.002-06:00

Now that's not a post title that you see too often.

So I can't remember why we decided to go here but we went to Kirtland to take a tour of the area. It's such a pretty place and SO amazing hearing all the stories that happened during the time the saints lived there. It was really nice living so close to this sacred city. So beautiful.

One our way home we stopped off in the Beachwood area and ate at the Cheesecake Factory. It's one of our favorite places, Yummy!

And the was the end of our exciting day! (April 2, 2010)

Time Out For Women

2010-08-05T19:09:00.004-06:00

So the one good thing about not updating your blog till months later is that when you finally blog about an event, you get to re-live the experience in a way.

On April 23, 2010 my friend Jen Anderson and I took a 2 hour drive down to Pittsburg, PA and met up with Rachel and Jessie for Deseret Book's Time Out for Women Conference. It was such a good uplifting conference and since my life at the time needed a lot of hope it's exactly what I needed (that was the conference theme). We got there on Friday night and listen to a few speakers and then headed to the hotel where we had some headaches about a canceled room that they said they weren't going to refund. Thankfully in the end everything worked out.

Saturday was another great day of talks, lunch and more talks. It kind of made me feel like I was back in Utah being around so many LDS women. Such a great feeling!

Here are a few pictures that we took.

The four of us posing in front of the sign.

It was so much fun running into my friend Kim Walker. We served together in Young Women's in our Orem ward and she is living in West Virginia supporting her husband through Medical School. It was great seeing you Kim! I miss you tons!

Some of the Akron 1st Ward women posing in front of these weird statues.

And finally Jen and me (and other's in the back ground) eating at a hole in the wall that turned out to be decent.

Thanks Jen for inviting me and driving down with me. I had a great time and it was a desperate need in my life. I miss all of you Akron Ladies! Hope you're doing well.

Spring Break 2010 - Florida

2010-07-27T13:31:00.010-06:00

Spring break was in the middle of March and by this time in the year we were DYING from not being able to see the sun. It was so depressing that we decided that we HAD to get out of the state and find some place with a little sun. We found an amazing deal to Florida. Our wonderful friends the Anderson's babysat Jax for us so we could enjoy our time and not have to worry about him.

They have a dog too and just LOVED playing together all week. They were both pretty sad to be with out a friend the week after we got back.

We were gone 6 days and were busy the whole time doing things. I can't believe how much there is to do in Florida. So much FUN!

Our flight got in really early Saturday morning so we decided that before we checked in we would head straight East to the Kennedy Space Center and take in some of the sites. It was really neat and Clint has always been interested in space so he really enjoyed it.

Do you ever find that when you're on vacation you always seem to run into someone you know? Well just as we were leaving we ran into the Barretts. They live in Clint's mom's ward in Utah. What are the chances that we would both be there at the same time and come from totally different states? It was fun to see them.

The next day was a VERY long day at Epcot. We had a good time but by the end of the day we were ready to go to bed!

Monday was the Magic Kingdom. I love that Disney has the fast pass system, but even with it, we still weren't able to get to all the rides. But that's ok because we went back on our last day.

On Tuesday we took a break from the parks and went to Cocoa Beach. The weather was nice but not warm enough to swim, so we just enjoyed ourselves laying on the beach for a few hours. We had to soak up as much sun as possible since we wouldn't be seeing it once we got home.

Wednesday we went to the Animal Park. It was pretty good but the best part about the whole park is the ride Expedition Everest. It is seriously one of the funnest roller coasters I've been on. It seems like 1/2 of the ride you're going backwards in a really dark place. SO FUN!

Thursday we went to Hollywood studios and had a GREAT time there. That seemed to be a little bit more adult friendly and they had some (2 or 3) pretty good rides as well. My favorite was the Rock' n' Roller Coaster. Also they have this really cool stunt car demonstration that is worth seeing. I was pretty sad because the studio back lot tour was out of commission. But we lived and hopefully we didn't miss too much.

Friday our flight left at 6:30pm so we went back to Hollywood studios to ride the Toy Story ride because there was no way we were going to wait in line for 3 hours to see it (the fast passes were gone) the day before. We also went on the Rock' n' roller coaster. We left the park at about 10:30 and then headed off to the Magic Kingdom to ride Space Mountain one more time. (I love that one!)

After that we had about 2 1/2 hours to kill so we decided that we would try and see if we could go on a swamp tour boat ride. I put in the address on the GPS and it said it was going to take an hour to get there. (Later on we found out that there was a closer tour). Once we got there we waited for a while and touched and held a baby alligator and then just was we were about to get on the boat we wanted to make sure that the tour was only going to be a half hour. To our surprise the tour guide said that it would be an hour. Since we were suppose to be to the airport in an hour and a half we decided that we wouldn't have time and didn't get to go on the tour. Now once we got to the airport we found out that our plane was a half hour late and that we would have had plenty of time to make it. Oh well, I guess we'll have to save that for next time.

All in all we had a great time. We got to see a different part of the county, spend some time together with no school interruptions, spend some much needed time in the sun and just kick back and relax. Clint says that he doesn't know if he'll ever go back, but I have a feeling that once we have kids, he'll change his mind.

CASA

2010-07-25T22:55:00.004-06:00

Back in January Clint took a class to become a Guardian Ad Litem for the Akron area. The course was about 6 weeks long and it was an all volunteer thing. He really enjoyed the classes and was looking forward to helping out the kids in the area. Unfortunately when he was put on a case he got sick and was unable to help out. But hopefully when we go back he'll be able to did it again and finish what he started.

Here are a couple pictures of when he was sworn in. Great job Clint, as always, I'm proud of you!

Valentines Dinner 2010

2010-07-15T17:25:00.006-06:00

So I am tempting to update my blog and I've done pretty good today. Keep scrolling and you'll find quite a few posts. Enjoy!!!

Every Year my mom throws this AMAZING Valentines Dinner for her kids. We had Prime Rib and potatoes and so many other yummy things. I was happy that I could be there this year, but unfortunately Clint wasn't there. We all missed him so much but I was happy that I could be there.

My cousin Tyler had been talking to Scott about his mission and he mentioned that he brought home this drink called Mate and Tyler was just SOO excited. He had gone to Spain on his mission and would drink it and he said that he hadn't had a good batch for a long time so they pulled it out and tried it. It was ok, it kind of reminded me wheat grass. Not a huge fan but it was good to try.

The family that could be there.

Elder Scott Veenker Comes Home From His Mission

2010-07-15T16:43:00.006-06:00

On February 17, 2010 my brother Scott came home from his mission from Argentina. It's kind of weird to be writing about this because of my bad blogging habits it is now 6 months later and if feels like he was never gone. Anyway I was able to fly home to Utah so I could spend some time with him and it was great to see the family. Clint had school so he had to stay home so I got to fly by myself which wouldn't have been so bad except for the ordeal I had to go through.

So I was suppose to fly in on the 16th and then go up to the airport with the family, but again, life can't be planned so plans changed. I left Akron at 3:30pm, or at least I was suppose to.

That day we had a terrible winter storm, school was even canceled. So I got to the airport and they said that the plain was delayed. I started to freak out a little bit because my lay over in Detroit was only 50 minutes. But the people at the gate didn't think I would have a problem so 30 minutes after my flight was suppose to leave, we boarded the plane. I figured if I ran from one gate to the next I would be fine until, the plane stopped to be de-iced. Ok I would have to run real fast, but I might still be ok.

We were on our way until the plane stopped again because it was snowing SO much that they couldn't plow the runway fast enough for us to take off. So we had to wait 45 minutes until the snow let up. Needless to say by the time we took off my connection flight was boarding. I did NOT want to be stuck in Detroit all by myself so I was praying that there was going to be some other way to Utah that night because I did NOT want to miss being able to see Scott in the airport.

Once the plane landed I ran out of the plane only to find out that I had missed my flight by 5 minutes. ARG! So I went to the Delta help center to get a new ticket and they said that the next flight I could get would be the next day at 12:00pm and Scott was coming in at 11:30am. I was about to cry at this point, then I called customer service and this lady said that I would have to stay the night but there was a flight that left 6:30am and would get me to Utah by 9:00am.

I was so excited! Now I just had to figure out the hotel things. So I stood in this hotel comp line for about 1 hour not wanting to have to pay for a hotel because we aren't the richest people when we are both in school. When I get up there some of my prayers had been answered and my hotel was going to be paid for along with 2 meal tickets.

So I headed to the hotel and got there around 11:30pm. I needed to get up at 3:30am so that I would have time to get ready and make it to the airport an hour early. Well unfortunately I didn't sleep at all the entire night! I was so exhausted the whole rest of the day, but it was worth it.

Anyway the good thing about having to spend the night in Detroit was that I could stay in the airport and see Scott at the gate when he came in. So I was the first one to see him and I think that my mom and dad were really jealous. But I think I deserve it after what I went through. He was surprised to see me and it was so good to see him.

Here is his plane landing.

This isn't the best picture but he is the one walking under the door in the very back.

There he is with someone's head right in the way!

He was very nervous by this time, he was about to see his family.

This is what we saw when we got to baggage Claim. Bad picture but the entire area was FULL of people. There was like 12 missionaries coming home at the same time as him so there was a ton of families there.

The sign they made, my name even got on it!

This is what was in the front of the house when we got home. So GREAT!

This was pretty funny. Britt started crying when Scott was holding him so he tried to give him to his mom, but unfortunately he gave him to the wrong mom.

Just hanging out after we got back. Waiting to be released.

Our First Big Storm in Ohio

2010-07-15T13:19:00.005-06:00

So on February 5th we went to bed with no snow on the ground, it had started to snow a bit, but not enough to prepare us for how much snow we had in the morning. It has snowed at least a foot and it was so beautiful and fun to play in, I LOVED IT!

One thing you might not know about me is how much I love snow and the cold. I mean I wouldn't want to live in it 365 days a year, but I'm really happy when winter comes because I just love it! I love to drive in it, (I'm crazy I know), I love to ski, play, sled, fight and snowmobile in it and just walk around in it. I don't know if it's ones of those childhood experience things where I had a good experience in it once, or if it's just in my blood, but needless to say, I was very happy this day when I woke up!

Here are a few pictures to prove it.

The only way Jax could walk in it was if there was a path for him. It covered him completely. Could you image walking in snow that was taller than you? Neither can I, now that wouldn't be too fun.

ABC Weekend

2010-07-09T21:37:00.010-06:00

Back in January we were very bored and wanted to have a little excitement in our life so I suggested that instead of just going to dinner and movie we try something new. We decided that through the weekend we would work on completing the alphabet one letter at a time doing one activity to go with each letter. We had to get really creative on some letters and some might say a little desperate, but that's ok, it made it more fun. Here's what we did!

First off we went to Applebee's

and ate

Buffalo Wings

Cheese Quesadilla's

and Spinach Dip

Our next stop was to the Exchange (which is one of those used movie and game store),

Where we bough the Firm (which we did not do :) it was suppose to be a fun weekend!).

For "H" we of course had to Hug.

Ugly picture I know, but we did some Jumping Jacks next.

Ahhh... Kissing was next ;),

The next day we started it off with Lunch.

And we of course couldn't do anything else for "M" other than a Movie.

During the movie we ate Nerds

We then Opened the door (can we say desperate?)

We kind of went out of order but during the movie we ate Popcorn as well.

After that we had a moment of silence being Quiet.

We were getting kind of sick of thinking of things to do next so we started looking at cities from the GPS and found Ravenna. Now for those of you who live in Ohio you're probably wondering why we would put ourselves in danger like that but there is s reason we went. My Psychology teacher would always make fun of Ravenna and the people that come from there so after all of his talk, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Let's just say that we're lucky we didn't pick that part of the city to live.

One of the ladies that I visit teach was moving that night so we headed to Staples,

And bought some Tape.

Again we replied on the GPS for our next destination which was Valdes Avenue.

After helping Angel move we stood under the Umbrella for a bit.

When we got home we played the Wii.

Yawned

And then did a little zzz's.

All in all it was a really fun weekend and fun to do something knew where we had to use our heads and creativity to come up with things to do. Next time you're trying to find something to do, please copy us, it's a lot of fun!

Oops I forgot X and I. For X we took an x-ray picture and for I...sadly I can't remember, oh well. Thanks for picking up my mistake!

"Ski Resort" Visit

2010-07-09T21:24:00.003-06:00

One day we were out for a drive and happened to drive past a "ski resort" that was a couple miles down the road from our apartment. As you can see I put ski resort in quotations because to my standards it looks like a sledding hill. I know that pictures don't do it justice, but you get the idea.

It's located in Boston Township so I had to take a picture of the sign for my niece Boston.

This is it! Pretty huge uh? And the funny thing is, is that they have like 4 lifts in this really small area. It gave us a good laugh though.

Plus the other bad thing about it is they pretty much have to use all fake snow. Yes it snows there, but we're only at like 1000 feet above sea level so if we have a warm day, bye bye snow!

Rock Band at the Maas's

2010-07-09T21:20:00.003-06:00

After we got home from Utah and before school started we had a great night playing Rock Band with our friends the Maas's. We got really good it and had a great time playing with them. Thanks guys, we can't wait to do it again.

We Made It!

2010-06-17T09:52:00.002-06:00

Well it's been almost a weeks since we got to Utah. Things are going great, I've been working at my dad's shop doing Secretary work and Clint has been busy getting us settled into our room at my parents house. We like things so far and can't wait for Clint to get a job. Other than that we really haven't done much. We haven't even seen our friends yet, but hopefully by Friday that will all change.

We ended up leaving on Wednesday at 11am after cleaning the apartment and loading the cars. Tuesday night we had the missionaries and some wonderful people from our ward help us load the moving Truck. We couldn't have done it with out them! Thank you to everyone who helped!

On Wednesday we only made it to Chesterton IN which is about 6 hours away. We didn't get any sleep the night before so we were pretty tired by then and didn't want to get hurt. Thursday we had a REALLY long day! We drove to North Platte NE which took us about 16 hours with stops! Let me remind you that I was driving the Jeep and Clint was driving the moving truck so that is 16 hours all on our own. I don't recommend it!

Just before we got to North Platte there was this really cool lighting storm happening. There was so much lighting from all directions that the sky was pretty much lit non stop. Little did we know that the storm we were watching could turn into a tornado any minute. When we checked into the hotel the people at the front desk told us to hurry and take cover in the bath tub until the warning passed. I was so scared! Luckily the tornado didn't touch down where we were and we were safe along with all of our junk.

Friday we drove the rest of the way home which was only 12 hours. Much better than the day before. We moved in the necessities and then headed to bed around 10. Then the next day we unloaded the rest of our stuff at the storage place and attempted to set up our quarters at my parents. I have to say we're pretty comfortable at the Veenker's and they have been great to us.

Now we can't wait to see what the future has in store for us. We miss all of our friends Ohio but already we have met a lot of great people in our new ward. I think this is going to work out!

LIfe just can't be planned

2010-06-04T22:41:00.003-06:00

So since I have been very bad at blogging, most of you have no idea what we have been up to in the past few month, well we have had a lot going on so here is a quick update.

Back in April Clint got really sick and had to be admitted to the hospital for 4 days and his recovery time was quite lengthy. Well since he had missed so much school and didn't feel like he could catch up we decided that he needed to take a medical leave from school. So what did this mean? Well since he didn't finish his last semester of his first year he has to wait until January to retake his classes since the classes he needs to take are only offered in the spring. Kind of sucks but we're dealing with it.

Luckily we picked a school that is amazing. They have been so willing to work with us and have bent over backwards doing what ever they can to help. The aren't making us pay for the semester he'll retake, plus if he keeps up his grades they'll still allow him to keep his scholarship. I really am impressed with how kind they have been and we truly feel like we made the right choice in the school we choose.

Originally we had planned to go to Utah for the summer and Clint would do an internship at a law firm in Orem, but since he didn't finish we couldn't do that, so we decided that we would stay in Ohio, work and save money so we could live next year. That was the first plan. Now we are on plan number 7 and this is what we are doing.

We are currently packing up our things and moving back to Utah until January! We will leave on Wednesday and hopefully be in Utah by Friday, but since we know life doesn't always go as planned, we're just going to take it one day at a time and see when we get there.

I'll miss my friends in Ohio but I am SOOO excited to get out of the humidity and be with our family and friends in Utah. We'll be staying with my parents, which is wonderful of them to be willing to keep us. I'll be working for my dad again and hopefully find another part time job. Clint will be doing...TBA. Hopefully he'll find a job soon, because you would never believe how poor you can be with no work and no money. :)

So ya, kind of big news and totally something we didn't plan on, but I think I have finally figured out that life doesn't go as planned. We're good though and Clint is doing great. We can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us in Utah, maybe we'll get lucky and we'll have a few months challenge free. I know - ya right, but complaining doesn't help, just praying. Thanks to everyone for your support, love and friendship. To our friends in Utah, we can't wait to see you, to our friends in Ohio, God be with you till we meet again. Love you ALL!

Christmas Break #2

2010-05-31T19:50:00.020-06:00

For the past 7 years my mom and dad have come over to Clint and my place for dinner and a night of fun. Since we were staying at there house they couldn't really do that so my sister Lori invited those that were staying at the Veenker's house to come over for a night of fun before Santa came. Since my sister Wendy and brother-in-law John only had their daughter Hailey home for Christmas (Brooklynn and Chris went to their dad's for Christmas and I think John's boys were with their mom) they were invited too.

We had a great time of food games and fun!

Playing Win Loose or Draw

Decorating cookies

The kids before bed. The only night they didn't mind going to sleep so that Santa could come.

The group that was there.

Since going to Utah was our Christmas present, Christmas morning was a little different because we didn't exchange gifts. But when Clint woke up he was very surprised that Santa had left a few things in his stocking.

Jax was jealous.

Christmas morning at the Veenker's:

As always everyone came over to my parents where we exchanged gifts, ate a yummy breakfast, and called Scott who at the time was on his mission in Argentina. My mom makes the BEST cinnamon rolls so of course we had those along with this really yummy breakfast casserole and of course oranges. Christmas wouldn't be complete with out them.

Hayden and Stockton looking very excited.

Hailey got this really cool Cat. When you pet it it purrs and it will move and lick it's paw and does all this other crazy stuff that makes it look just like a real cat.

The girls with the dolls that they got. Yes Libby got a real live baby instead, Britt.

Dad got a supply of Candy Bars for his break time at work.

I was very excited that I finally got a rolling pin! Weird thing to get excited about, but that's what happens when you get old, things like that are so fun to get.

Part of the mess we made.

Christmas at the Meeks:

This year at the Meeks was a bitter sweet moment. It was great to be with the family, but it was the first year with out Jim. We all missed him terribly but had a great time spending time with each other.

Boston and Roman must have been very good this past year because they got loaded with gifts! It was so fun to watch them open gifts.

Dinner time.

Boston hiding.

New Years at the Cabin:

Most years we go up to the cabin for New Years. This year was no exception. We had a great time snowmobiling, sledding, playing games and of course eating.

So of course pictures don't compare to the real thing. This is a massive sledding hill that my dad grooms with his snowcat. It is really long and by the time you get to the bottom you are flying. We don't like to sled the old fashion way of going down a hill and then climbing back up, nope we have the snowmobiles take us back up. Much better! The funny thing about this hill is that there is a ski resort just a few miles from our house here in Ohio and this hill is bigger than that.

Zach loves Jax! He is such a good cousin.

We played a lot of games at night including a mean game of Heads-up Seven-up! So much fun!

We also had a really fun game of spoons going on.

Clint, Jax and me in front of the cabin.

We had a great dance concert, I video taped it, but it won't download to my computer. But the girl in the black is Lexi and let me just say, she has major moves! She can shake those 5 year old hips like no body's business!

Afton sang for us. I'm so lucky!

Some of the nieces and nephew that would take a picture with us.

Family Home Evening:

The night before we left we had a big family home evening with my family.

I made spaghetti and wasn't sure how much noodles I would need. You would have thought that we were Italian with all of the noodles we had!

Caleb made me feel good and filled up his plate.

The kids enjoying the food.

Singing

McKinsey gave us a really great lesson on missionary work.

We then wrote letter's to Scott (who was on the miss) and folded the paper like a shirt and then added a tie and a name tag. McKinsey and KyLee's idea. Super cute and Scott loved them!

Clint and I with most all of our nieces and nephews on my side. Minus Ellie, she must have been sleeping.

Wendy remembered that one of her favorite FHE activities was trying on my dad's glasses. Luckily my dad doesn't throw anything away and he still had them! We all took turns trying them on and we looked GREAT!

McKinsey

Doug

Todd...Classic

Chris

Brooklynn

Craig

Caleb

Clint, not a big difference from his normal glasses :)

Libby, she even pulled up her pants for us.

We had a great time and it was hard leaving but we will and did see them all again.

Christmas Break 2009 # 1

2010-05-15T00:39:00.019-06:00

So I know I'm a few months behind on posts, but all I can say is it's better now than never. So after finals (which by the way went great, I was so proud of Clint, he's going to make a great lawyer some day) we headed to Utah for 3 weeks for Christmas. It was honestly the fastest 3 weeks of my life and we had a great time spending time with our family and friends.

Jax had fun at Grandma and Grandpa's and had lots of people to play with all the time.

Here are some of the things we did...

Lunch with the Meeks (Kneaders, yumm it's good! Miss it tons)

Met one of my new nieces, Finnley (spelling? I know terrible aunt!)

Spent some time at Mariah and Enrique's playing the Wii

Jax was very interested in Finnley.

Boston liked spending time with Aunt Clint. Yes I said that right.

We went to a million Christmas concerts. Here is Libby's.

Dinner at my sister's house before her kids left to Arizona with their dad.

Brooklynn doing an awesome kick.

And Chris...not so awesome :).

Got my own violin concert from Brooklynn and Hailey.

More Concerts!!!

Brooklynn

Boston

Visit to Doug and Katie's.

Met another new niece Ellie who by the way isn't a huge fan of me. That's pretty hard for me because all the nieces and nephews love me! I've given her sisters strict instructions to tell her all about me so that when I go home, she won't be so scared of me :)

Clint and Afton

Afton gave us a piano concert

Mya gave us a violin concert

Spending time with friends:

We of course couldn't go to Utah with out seeing our friends the Jensen's and North's.

Got to love Pirates Island before our movie.

More Concerts:

Lexi's dance concert.

Cousin Carly's Wedding:

Salt Lake Temple in the cold foggy night.

Joel and Carly Goodman

Lights and us

Inside the Joseph Smith Memorial building.

View from above

So they did a really cool thing. They gave us all these massive sparklers and then the newly weds ran underneath our tunnel we made for them. I couldn't get a good picture.

Night at the Meeks:

Williams Christmas Party:

Every year we have a great Christmas party with my moms family.

Tyler playing the candy bar game.

The Nativity Scene, of course.

Surprise, more concerts!

Lexi

Bradley, can you guess which one he is?

Night at the lights at Temple Square and the Melting Pot:

We went with my sister Lori's family and my mom. Super fun! And COLD!!!

YUMMY!

My Nephew is Awesome...Here is Why!

2010-05-02T21:01:00.003-06:00

So my sister wrote this on her Facebook page and it was just so good that I had to share it with the world. It's one of the million stories that is going to make her rich one day when she sells her book about her kids.

Meet McKay

Here is the story.

Okay, funny story I would like to share that happened today with this child and his 4-wheeler. If you are not intimately familiar with this child, you are definitely missing out. He is the source of much adventure in our home. He came to this earth very upset that he had to begin life as a baby. Did not know this was in the plan and has spent the last three (well almost three) years letting us know he is not happy about it. Today Kyle got him ready for church in his new navy blue suit. #3 child was very excited to show me how handsome he looked in hopes I would realize that now he is grown up, just like dad and his big brother. Kyle finished getting ready and left for church with child #1 to save seats for us. Child #3 was NOT happy to not be included in the seat saving event and really threw a fit when they left. Our church is just down the road and on the way, Kyle realized he probably should have taken a little more time to get himself ready because he noticed he was wearing navy blue suit pants with a black suit coat. He dropped off #1 child at church to save the seats and headed back home to change into something more suitable (and matching). While he changed, #3 child saw his chance. He went into my garage, got out my garage door opener, opened Kyle's garage, hopped on his 4-wheeler, and headed off to church. To get to our church there is a VERY busy road and when Kyle caught up to him he was driving right down the middle of this road in his suit like he belonged there. He had gathered quite an entourage on his travels to the church, a lovely neighbor girl had seen him and was chasing after him, as well as our former bishop who, on his way to church, seen child #3 and thought something was not quite right. After Kyle finally go this child to pull over, he sternly reprimanded him and drove him home then conveyed the story to me, between bursts of laughter. Oh boy are we in for it with this kid! By Lori Christensen

Dinner Gone Wrong

2010-04-21T15:58:00.003-06:00

No unfortunately I'm not here to update you on things, instead I have a funny story.

So tonight the missionaries were coming for dinner but the Devil must have not wanted them to come, because it seemed like everything was against them coming.

First off they were suppose to come at 5:30, well then Clint's Doctor asked him to come to an appointment at 6:00 instead. So we called the missionaries and they said they could come at 4:30, great no problem with that.

Then I needed to study with one of my friends for our Chemistry test tomorrow, so I wouldn't be around during the day to make sure everything was ready to eat by 4:30. Luckily there is this great invention called a Crock Pot, so I threw some chicken in before I left so that it would be ready to shred by the time I got home. I was planning on having Cafe Rio Chicken Salad. I hadn't made the dressing yet so Clint said that he wouldn't mind grocery shopping and making the dressing. Great, one less thing for me to do.

So I'm at the Library studying and decided to call Clint just to make sure the chicken was looking good. He looks in the pot and says, "It looks like some of it's still frozen!." Just then I realized that I had set the temperature to low, but forgot to plug the Crock Pot in, Dumb me!!! I thought, no problem, we can just put it in the oven and cook it faster, it won't be as good but will still work.

So I finish studying and get home at 3:45, only 45 minutes to get the rice, beans and everything else we needed ready. I trust Clint with a recipe but I'm one of those cooks that doesn't follow the recipe, so I wanted to taste the dressing to make sure it was alright. So I tasted a tiny bit, and something was off, I couldn't figure it out, but it was really spicy and just didn't taste too good. So I thought, maybe it needed more garlic. (Here comes the funny part.)

Clint said that he had used all the garlic I had. At this point I was thinking to myself, I swear I had more than 2 garlic cloves in the fridge. Just then Clint says, "Two garlic cloves is two whole garlic's right?" I busted up laughing because I realized that he had but it 2 whole garlic bunches in the dressing when he was only suppose to put in 2 cloves! No wonder it tasted so bad! Sadly we had to throw that batch of dressing out because there is no way I was going to let the missionaries talk to people the next day knowing that they had just eaten 5 months worth of garlic.

So I then I had Clint run to the store to get more stuff to make another batch. As he left I took out the chicken to shred it and it still was not done so I said, bag it, we're getting pizza, and that's just what we did. The missionaries showed up at 4:35 and we had the Pizza, Salad and dessert all ready for them. After that everything turned out good and the pizza was defiantly not the best, but at least they won't stink tomorrow.

WARNING!!! Ring Around the Rosy is DANGEROUS!

2010-03-28T19:23:00.003-06:00

Ok so I know I promised a post, but this week was not the week to do it, you wouldn't think that it would be such a big deal to update my blog, but when I think of everything I have to update you on, I get too stressed and just forget the whole thing. But today something in nursery happened and it was such a dramatic thing that I have to share it now before the adrenalin of it wears off.

So we were trying to pass the time in Nursery today so I decided to get a group of kids together to play the good old rhyme of "Ring Around the Rosy." Everything was great and the kids were loving it, until we got to the "we all fall down." And instead of going straight down, one of the boys thought it would be much more exciting if he jumped up in the air first. Well just as he did that he hit my tooth REALLY hard. I was fine but I wanted to make sure Johnny was ok, so I grabbed his head and he started bleeding like CRAZY! You know how heads bleed way more than any other part of the body. Well me and one of the other Nursery leaders held his head so he didn't bleed all over while one of the other girls ran and got his mom. Of course she was quite panicked and wanted to rush him to the ER as quickly as possible, but our ward is AMAZING and we have all the medical help that we would need right at our finger tips. So two of the doctors checked him out and the wound finally stopped bleeding after one of the Doctors tied his hair together to close it. (Isn't that a great idea? Where do they come up with things like that?)

Well while all of this was happening in the foyer I just broke down and started crying, probably more because of the week I've had and just couldn't take it any longer and probably because my Sympathetic Nervous System finally had a chance to calm down leaving my tears close to the surface. It's a great thing that I have such great friends in my ward to give me hugs and let me know that I'm not a terrible person and that I won't get fired from Nursery.

So there you have it, my exciting news for the day. I never thought the Nursery could be so exciting and cause such a commotion. Just goes to show that you should go to church every week because you never know what could happen! :)