Saturday, November 29, 2008

Giveaway

If you have a little girl (or if you want to win this for my girl!), you should check out this giveaway for a really cute bow holder!! I keep thinking I'm going to make one for Abby, but it hasn't happened yet...

Friday, November 28, 2008

Thanksgiving

So, we went to the White's house for Thanksgiving. It was fun! They also invited Ray (their district mgr) and his family, and Jake's parents were there. It adds up to 8 adults and 6 kids. Having Thanksgiving with a bunch of people raised in the Midwest included foods that we Southerners aren't so used to! :o) Our menu included:
*Turkey
*Ham (I brought it!)
*Mashed potatoes/Gravy
*Butternut squash
*Stuffing
(I've never had stuffing, but it was pretty good)
*Cranberry sauce
*Rolls
*Pear jello salad
*Pies
(Apple, chocolate mousse, mincemeat, pumpkin)
*Cute little reindeer cookies
(Sugar cookies with Reeses cups bodies, Reeses pieces feathers and licorice waddles. CUTE!)
I feel like I'm missing something, but this covers the basics. Zac tried the mincemeat pie and said it was "interesting." He ate the whole piece, so it must have been a good interesting. I stuck with the chocolate mousse and reindeer cookies.
After dinner, Sarah and I went to find a newspaper...took a little bit of driving, but we got one! While we girls perused the sale ads, the boys got comfy on the couch:
Jake and his Dad are on the couch by the window, along with Shelby the dog. Ray and Zac are there on the right. None of the boys even moved when the camera flashed! Sarah and I ended up going to Shopko and Michaels to looks for some Thanksgiving Day sales. Didn't buy anything - but it was nice to get out of the house for some Mommy Time.

The kids had a good time playing. Jake & Sarah have a HUGE basement that makes a great playroom. Abby came upstairs and pulled on Jake's pant leg to show him her newest toy discovery:

She's taking her OSHA heritage very seriously. hahahaha And of course, she was sporting her Razorback cheerleading outfit. Woooo, Pig Soooie!!!

So, we had a pretty fun Thanksgiving. Very different - only my second Thanksgiving being away from family. How was yours?

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Holiday favorites

Zac and I got an invitation to have Thanksgiving dinner with the White family. Jake is Zac's manager and his wife, Sarah, is my new buddy. So we are trying to decide what we want to take to dinner and it got us started on our favorite holiday foods. I will try to post recipes on my Excellent Eats blog in the coming weeks. We don't care for a lot of the traditional holiday foods like dressing (I know my MIL is reading this and probably just had a stroke) but there are still lots of foods we do like. Some aren't traditional at all...but still good.


**My fruit salad (my nephew, Dylan's, favorite!)
**Meemaw's Oreo ice cream
**Sheila's pecan cobbler (Holy crap - this stuff will up your blood sugar to 1,000,000 but it is SOOOO GOOOOD!!!)
**Mamaw's pound cake with vanilla sauce
**Hope's sausage balls
**Hope's sopapilla cheesecake (Zac saw me type Hope's name on the sausage balls and told me to add this one pretty quickly)
**My dad's fried turkey
**My pineapple & brown sugar glazed ham
**Aunt Donna's layered salad (this is a new one, it's yummy)
**My homemade rolls


I'm sure there are more and I will probably add to this list. What are your favorite holiday foods?

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Giveaway

Heard about this giveaway on Jennifer's website. Her friend is giving away some fun makeup stuff....check it out!!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Stolen from Rikki's Facebook

Stole this from my friend Rikki's Facebook...I'm retarded and love these things. Feel free to steal it for your blog/Facebook!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi my name is: Sarah Leanne Elliott

Never in my life have I been to: Boston

The one person who can drive me nuts is: My husband (but there's nobody else I'd rather put up with!)

When I'm nervous I: Tend to get easily overwhelmed and semi-freak out

The last song I listened to was: one of Michael Buble's songs...can't remember which one

My hair is: Free of silver streaks, at least for the next few weeks

When I was 5: I was in kindergarten

Last Christmas: Was our second one with our Abby Punkin

I should be: In bed asleep

When I look right: I see a little girl asleep in the recliner who should be in her bed.

I'm looking forward to: Seeing my hubby next Saturday. I miss him!!

If I were a character on Grey's Anatomy: I wouldn't know who to be; I've only seen half of an episode...

By this time next year: I might be pregnant again....??

My current annoyance is: Clutter.

I have a hard time understanding: How people can be ok with abortion - It disgusts me.

There's this girl I know who: Is the cutest thing ever and is asleep in the recliner right now. :)

If I won an award, the first person I would tell would be: Zac

I want to buy: The Cricut Expression

If you visited the place I'm from: Your sinuses would be going crazy.

I'd rather hold a cockroach than: A mouse.

The most recent thing I've bought myself was: Getting my hair colored.

Most recent thing someone else bought me was: Admission to my nephew's football game on Friday night.

In the mornings: I'm a little retarded.

Last night: We drove to see my nephew's football game - looooong drive.

If I were an animal I would be: A bear - hibernating sounds fun.

Tomorrow I am: Going to church, then hanging with my in-laws.

Tonight I am: Sharing a bed with my toddler. :o/

Monday, November 10, 2008

Flying

By the time most of you read this, Abby and I will be on our way to Little Rock, via Chicago O'Hare.  Zac gave us both blessings and so I know everything will be ok.  But, if you find some space in your thoughts, think a little prayer for us - especially for my patience and my nerves!!

Thanks, love ya!!!

Saturday, November 08, 2008

SNOW!!

Tuesday night was bad.  Abby woke up around 2:00am and, after time in the bed with  Mommy and on the couch with Daddy, didn't have a lot of luck going back to sleep.  Finally, around 6:30 she fell asleep in the bed with me.  (By the way, this is not normal for her; once she's asleep, she generally stays that way.)  After all that, none of us woke up until after 10:00.  Abby and I woke up when Zac yelled, "Holy crap!"  I nearly jumped out of the bed!  He came in the  bedroom and said, "Look outside!!"



About six inches of snow had fallen during the night.  Zac went out  around 10:00pm Tuesday night for McDonald's french fries (we binged on fries because we were mourning the election results) and it wasn't snowing at all.  So all of this came in the middle of the night.  By the time we got up, though, all the roads and sidewalks were  cleared and kids were in school.  Totally not the way it would have worked in Arkansas!

So we got some breakfast, got dressed and headed to the nearby park to play in the snow.  Besides the playground area, there's also a huge field that they use for various kids sports.  It was so pretty to see the snow everywhere!



Abby and Daddy couldn't pass up the chance to slide, even in the snow!


And then, of course, we all had to swing.




These are just a few pics of our awesome neighborhood park.  Here's the Little Tykes playground set.



And this is the big playground set.



And a picture of the skate/bike park.


So, we were the only dorks out playing in the snow because people here in Utah just don't appreciate it.  lol  But I can get used to that...




Halloween


"Sarah, you're posting about Halloween and it was over a week ago...."

Yes, I KNOW!  But we've got to get this stinking internet line fixed.  It makes posting pictures a real pain the booty.  Zac's been up to the office once, and that was after I went up there once.  So I'm going to leave it for his honey-do list to get it taken care of before I get home.  lol

Our Halloween week actually started the Monday before (Oct 27) at the Draper Haunted Hollow.  It was little community family event and it was pretty fun.  We met up with Jake, Sarah and their kids (Jake is Zac's new manager) and that was fun.  Their little boy, Tate, is 3 and Abby adores him.  But these pictures were all taken before the Whites got there.  Here we go...


Things got off to a rough start at the Draper Haunted Hollow....


...because Abby was NOT fond of this guy.  In her defense, aside from the scary mask, he was wearing platform moon shoe things and was about eight feet tall.  I'd be scared if I was only three feet tall...


But then he gave her a sucker and all was right with the world.  :o)


After getting the sucker, she was a little more inclined to be civil with this nice lady.  (Man, I look like a dork...)


They had lots of booths set up with different games and things.  At this booth, we used colored glitter glue to make pictures.  We made a picture of three little "punkins" to take home.


Another booth tied doughnuts to strings so that the bigger kids could eat them without using their hands.  Funny to watch.  The little kids just got to eat the doughnuts.  To the best of my knowledge, Abby hasn't had more than, maybe, three doughnuts in her life.  She devoured this one.


The kids all had little cards that they got signed/stamped after they did a game.  Then they could turn in their cards (even if they weren't complete) and get a free pumpkin from the historic Sorenson home.  (Not sure what this place is all about, but they do a lot of stuff there).  Abby picked out a cute little pumpkin with a nice handle for carrying.  :o)

Then we met up with the Whites, hung out for awhile at the Haunted Hollow, then ordered a pizza and brought it back to our apartment.  We watched the new Indiana Jones while the kids played.  Woo hoo.


And so we got to Halloween day.   Long story short - some things happened that made me very upset with Denver Matress.  But because Jake is awesome and because my sweet hubby loves me through all my craziness, it all worked out.  

Halloween was a gorgeous day until, of course, about 6:00 when it started sprinkling.  I already had Abby in her costume.  So when Zac got home around 7:00, we braved the sprinkles and went to about 15 houses in the nearby neighborhood.  That was enough for Abby and we were able to get some good pictures!


Early in the afternoon, Abby decided to dress up as the Tin Man...


Eating a healthy dinner to prep us for all the candy!
(Thanks to Aunt Christine for the cute Halloween shirt!)


In full Abby Cadabby ("Abby Abby") ensemble.  Of course, she had to have some fruit snacks ("foo nacks") after dinner.  The girl's addicted...


Walking around the neighborhood with Mommy and Daddy.  
Rich neighbors = good candy!


Deep in though..." 'Trick or treat'...I can do this..."  Really, she didn't say trick-or-treat at all, I had to say it for her.  But she DID say "thank you" every time, which is more important anyway!


Everybody thought Abby Cadabby was so cute and usually let her pick out an extra piece of candy.  


At home, (almost) naked and eating a Tootsie Pop....who could ask for more?


Happy Halloween!!







Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Our other blog...

If you haven't checked it lately, I've posted some new recipes on my other blog. I'm having a lot of fun putting up the new recipes. Now if I can just keep a camera charged, I can take pictures as I cook them. But that's not at the top of my to-do list right now...if dinner's cooked, we're doing good. :o)

Monday, November 03, 2008

Political soapbox

Anyone that knows me can easily figure out (I think) which side of the political fence I'm on. If you don't agree with my politics, you might skip this post. It's basically a rant.

Zac has an obsession with Fox News. I would rather, especially right now, watch Food Network or a stupid soap opera. Anything to get away from all the craziness of this blasted election. Right now they are streaming live from NObama's rally in Florida. And I just can't make sense of all of this....

"I'm going to give teachers higher salaries!!
I'm going to make sure everyone has insurance!!
Insurance will have to cover all of your problems!!
I'm going to tax big business!!
Businesses have to use clean energy!!"

And, while doing all of this.....

"I'm going to lower taxes!!"

HUH? Maybe it's just the mathmetician in me (there isn't much of one..) but I don't see how that works. And if you tax all these businesses and insurance companies, don't you figure they'll have to pass the buck to somebody? Hmmm...

Now, I'm John McCain's biggest fan. I kinda think this election is the lesser of two evils, as most elections are. I just don't see how people can really believe the promises that any politician makes. 2+2=4, not 3. And they just can't seem to get that.

The biggest thing that keeps me on the right side of the fence is abortion. How can you have a child, want a child or love a child and think that abortion is ok? I have too many friends that can't have babies and WANT them. And people think that those precious baby lives can just be thrown away. I just can't wrap my brain around that one.

Yes, I think that certain people should be helped. My grandmother depends on her social security - we need to protect that. My nephew is covered by a government sponsored insurance. But really - the rules are too loose. As a bank teller, I cashed too many government aid checks for PERFECTLY NORMAL PEOPLE - my faith in our government is a little jaded.

But, I've voted. I cast my vote for the people that I think will do the best job and will uphold the values that I've been taught. And that's my civic duty.

I'm off my soapbox now. I promise to post a happy, upbeat Halloween post as soon as Zac gets his camera out of the car. :o)

If you're interested in seeing my adorable daughter proclaim our political views, check her out on YouTube.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

CHEEEEEEEESE!!!



Now, I might be a tad bit biased. But isn't that one of the cutest things you've ever seen in your whole, entire life?

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Civic Duty



Well, it took an hour and half, but Zac and I (with Abby, of course) early voted today. Even though she's only two, I think it's important for kids to see their parents vote. My parents always took us with them and would talk to us about how important voting is. My dad served four years in the Air Force, is a government employee and one of the most patriotic people I know. He's definitely made it a point to instill patriotic values in all four of us kids. I hope to do the same for mine.

So...I'm not watching the news anymore until November 5. I can't do any more about it - except pray that everyone else makes the right decision. :o)

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

the TRAIN!!!

Last Saturday night, we rode the Trax to Salt Lake. The Trax is basically an above ground subway - a train. Abby loooooved the train! She wants to take the train to Wal-Mart, to church, home and she wants to take everybody on the train - Hope, Nana and Megan should all make plans to ride the train. :o)

Our reason for going to SLC was to visit The Gateway. Here's the description from the website:

The Gateway is
Salt Lake City's only open-air contemporary destination that delivers the ultimate in shopping, dining, and entertainment. Shop and dine at over 130 stores and restaurants.

Visit the beautifully restored 1908 Union Pacific Depot featuring early French Renaissance architecture and original artwork. Also, enjoy the Olympic Legacy Plaza featuring the "dancing waters" of the Olympic Snowflake Fountain that is overlooked by a classic clock tower.

It's pretty cool. Going on our neighbor's recommendation, we ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. It was yummy. Very fresh tasting. We had Avocado Club Egg Rolls and the Buffalo Chicken and California Club pizzas. Abby ate chicken and broccoli - two of her favorite things! It took us longer than we'd planned to get to the Trax depot, so we were late getting there. By the time we got there, a lot of the stores were closing. So we just walked around and looked. It's a reeeaaallly cool shopping center and it's so HUGE! We got cookies for dessert at Ben's Cookies. Abby thought it was pretty cool to have a big cookie all to herself.


That was pretty much our evening. Just hanging out and seeing some more of our surroundings. I figure we'll pretty much be tourists for the next year or so. But that's ok - we're having fun. :o)

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Cooking...

Don't get me wrong, I REALLY love our apartment. It's very nice. But I have one complaint.


I HATE ELECTRIC STOVES!!!!!!



Especially the ones with the coil tops. GRRRRR. I miss my wonderful gas stove that was in my house. :o(

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Weird...

I finished posting the Apartment Tour post. But (I guess) because I saved it and then went back to it, it posted in its original spot. So scroll down, please...

Monday, October 20, 2008

Upcoming plans

Ok, this weekend I got griped at more than a few times for not updating the blog. By e-mail, on Skype, on the phone.....so I figured I'd better get on it. I was waiting until I'd posted about our whole trip before I posted current stuff - but I'll just do regular updates and post the whole story once I get it written out. I'm working on typing it in my journal (ldsjournal.com - it's awesome!!) and then I can post it here with pictures. I typed up a Tour the Apartment post, but my computer is being retarded and won't upload pics. So I'll have to do that one later.

For now, I will tell you how EXCITED I am to be going home to visit next month. I'll be 'teenager sitting' for Zac's little sisters while his parents go to Baltimore. Not the whole time, just the last half of my visit. But so far, I've got a lot of plans coming up. I'll be gone Tues, Nov 11 - Sat Nov 22. Here's what I've got going so far:

Thurs, Nov 13
The kids are out of school - I think Kirsten and Michelle may have plans for me :o)
A baby shower for Natalie and baby Tyler!

Fri, Nov 14
Sherry is off work and Hope is taking off - spending the day with my sisters!
Scrapbook night at church (unless Christine comes in...)

Sat, Nov 15
Hopefully Christine can make it to Little Rock...

Tues, Nov 18
If I can make it, it's Relief Society Night at Church - also the day my in laws leave for Baltimore

Friday, Nov 21
TWILIGHT MOVIE!!!! I can't believe I forgot this one - thanks for the reminder, Jennifer!!

And of course there are all the visits to see the grandmas and all that good stuff. A busy trip! Abby and I will miss Daddy while we're gone, but we're excited to see all the family!

Apartment tour

The story of finding our apartment....this will jump you ahead of what I've posted so far, but that's ok...

We got into Draper on Friday, Oct 3. We spent that evening and Saturday looking at apartments. We looked at a basement apt on Friday, but decided against it. The older man who was renting it was super nice, but it was sooo small and didn't have a bathtub, just a shower.

Saturday morning we called TONS of places. Zac and I went to look at a few while Mom stayed with Abby in the hotel. We looked at the Adagio apartments first - it's right across the freeway from Zac's store. The price was higher than we wanted, but so was every other place!

We drove to Riverton, the next town over, and looked at another apt that was about 10 miles from the store. It was a 3 bed/2 ba for what we're paying for a 2 bed/2 ba; we figured an extra room would be great for scrapbooking stuff and possibly a future Elliott addition. (NO I'm NOT pregnant - we're just planning ahead.) But, when we got there, we just weren't terribly impressed. We asked if there were any 2 bedrooms available and the lady said, "Actually, I just had one open up. The stove caught on fire, so the people are moving out and it'll be open after we do the repairs." Hmmm. At this point, my father-in-law (who works in fire/water restoration) probably would have had a small stroke. We managed to hide how appalled we were. But then, while we were standing in the 3 bedroom model she was showing us, her knee bumped the bar and the edging fell off!!! "Oh, I'll get that fixed," she said.
Oh, we'll find another place, we thought.

We went back to the van, said a prayer and felt really good about living at the Adagio. We love it. The apartment is slightly bigger than our house was (1052 sq ft) and we are reeeaallly loving having a second bathroom!! So, please excuse the mess and allow me to show you around....



That's our front door on the right. It's a very open floor plan, which we love. I'm standing in the hallway taking this - the living room is to the right with the dining space there on the left.





Standing at the front door, taking a picture of the living room. We have Abby's slide on the porch and there's a storage closet out there. It's packed. :o)





Walk down the hall and look left. Abby's bathroom to the left, her bedroom straight ahead, the master suite (I love the sound of that!) to the right.





Abby's disaster, also known as her room. This child has too much stuff. I'm in the process of weeding through it.





Abby's bathroom. We are so excited about having two bathrooms! Mom and I picked out the bright shower curtain and got a matching purple bathmat and towels.





Part of our 'suite.' hehe I'm not going to show you our bedroom - it's a disaster. But our walk-in closet (!!) is to the left, the sink/mirror on the right, and the toilet and bathtub straight ahead. We're not used to all this room, but we LOVE IT!!





Down the hall, turn right and you'll find our (indoor!) laundry room. For those of you who didn't know, the laundry room at our house in Arkansas was an attachment that had been built off the back porch. So I had to go outside to get to it. Granted, I was grateful to have it....but I'm currently grateful for my indoor laundry room. :o)




I hope you enjoyed your stay! If you're ever near Salt Lake, we'd love to let you come in and visit. We really are excited about being here, although we do miss our families. Now that I've got the computer running, I should be updating more frequently. Love you all!!!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Videos

Here is a video of the girl. (My first video uploads - hope they work!) Don't worry, I'll finish posting about our trip - it just takes forever to write it all out!

This video is when Mom and I were going to Salt Lake City on Friday. They were predicting storms for Saturday and we wanted to make sure Mom saw some things. In this video, Abby will tell you where we're going and that she wants to talk to Hope and the Elliott family.






There are two others I want to post, but the computer is being retarded...be on the look out! :o)

Friday, October 10, 2008

Our move to Utah - Part One

In an effort to document our move to Draper, here is part one of the story. I will add pics soon and the remaining installments. :o) My apologies if it is kind of jumbled...I did my best! Love you all!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It all started on Friday, September 26. Zac was off work and had spent some time with Abby, picked up Kendyl from a field trip and was at home (Meemaw's house) with Abby and Kendyl. Zac got an unrecognized phone call and answered it - Ray Marshman, new district manager, was calling to talk to him about the Furniture Row (Denver Mattress) opening in Draper, Utah. While he was on the phone, Sheila and Kirsten came by to pick up Kendyl. When I got home, he told me that he had interviewed for the asst mgr position in Draper and thought the interview went well. We were running late to meet the Calls and Tualas for dinner, so we headed out to meet them. We had dinner at Macaroni Grill (YUM) and filled them in on Zac's interview.

The next day, Ray called Zac at work to tell him that, while he couldn't officially say anything, he was sending Zac's name through the HR dept and would get back to him on Monday. We spent the weekend telling family and friends that we might possibly be moving to Utah. When I got to work Monday morning, I told my manager about the possibility. I told him that IF Zac got the promotion, it would be a quick move but that I would keep him updated as well as I could.

Monday afternoon, Zac went to Sonic to get drinks for him, Shawn and Carl. He was gone for awhile because the slush machine at the Sonic close to Denver Mattress wasn't working (as usual). When he got back, Shawn told him that Ray had called. Zac called him back and got the official job offer as the asst mgr in Draper.

Meantime, back at US Bank, I was out balancing the ATM with Tracy. When I got back in (around 4pm), Nic told me that Zac called and told me to call him at work asap. My heart started beating fast as I called up my hubby. When he answered and knew it was me, he said, "Hey. Quit your job." While this was, to some degree, music to my ears, I started to cry. I was supposed to have a farewell party, not just walk out! He said he would be stopping by later. I went in to Nic's office and told him. Then I told Willie, my mgr, and then made my rounds across the teller line (lots of shocked reactions - "You're *@#%*@# kidding me" courtesy of Bryant) and back to my desk to tell Will. I was crying, laughing and in a general state of shock the whole time. Will told me to stop crying, because this is what I wanted. (He's pretty good at just laying it out there). I was scheduled off at 4, but ended up being there till 6, trying to get all of my stuff together. Will earned a couple of loans and lots of maintenance! ;o) Zac made a brief stop in and I told him to go ahead and go, because I would be awhile. He said we were meeting family (both sides) at Casa Mexicana at 7.

Once I finally left the bank, I called my friend Leigh to ask if I could drop the Church nursery keys off to her. I stopped by and talked to her for about 30 minutes. She helped me be excited about the move and was a great help to me, as she always is! Then I headed off to meet the family at Casa. On my way I called Sherry ( who didn't know yet!) and she called Mom & Dad so she could ride with them to Casa. Hope wouldn't come because she didn't want to cry at the restaurant!

Here's who came to dinner: Meemaw, Pa, Rick, Sheila, Kirsten, Kendyl, Mom, Dad, Sherry, and of course, Zac, Abby and me. Kendyl had two friends with her. I had my favorite dish as Casa, the Grande Chicken Quesadilla. We also got queso and sodas - no low cal dieting that night! Kendyl bought us some candy and bubbles and a ball for Abby. (Those came in handy for our stops!) After dinner, Zac went to Meemaw's to start packing and Abby and I went to my parents house to get some pics of Abby and Megan (Jeff brought her over). Then we went home, too. I wasn't much help in packing - I told Zac that my brain was exhausted and I went to bed pretty early.

The next morning (Tuesday), Mom and Dad were our saving graces as they helped us pack and run errands. I HAD to get to the doctor to get some refills on my meds. Mom packed a little and watched Abby while Zac and Dad picked up the U-Haul (thanks to Steve G. for getting us the hook up!) and loaded our storage unit into it. After my dr appt, Juanita stopped by to say hi. Mom and I got locked out of Meemaw's because I'd given her my key the night before. So we waited on Dad and Zac. Then we spent the afternoon packing up Meemaw's house. (It kind of made me sick to see how much ridiculous crap we have. Insane. We're working on a huge donation to Deseret Industries out here.) I found out that U-Haul wouldn't let Zac pull his truck on the trailer and that we would pull the van and drive the truck. So I told Zac we had to get the brakes fixed and Dad and I took care of that at Sears.

That evening, I went with Mom to pick up Mamaw and take her to Mom & Dad's for dinner and a final hangout with my siblings. When Zac got there, we ran over to Annie's to say bye to her. Zac had a hard time telling her bye - she is so special to him and I know he feels bad that we didn't spend enough time with our grandmas.

When we got back to my parents' house, Hope had cooked some of the casseroles I'd made for our freezer. We had lasagna and my famous green chile chicken enchiladas. YUM. The whole crew was there, except Jeff, Matthew and Jennifer's family. I cried, talked to everybody about how excited/scared I was and just hung out. We took lots of fun pictures. Matt and Natalie B. stopped by, too, to bring us some yummy homemade cookies and a bag of our favorite trail mix, the Sam's Choice Indulgent Trail Mix. Yummy. I cried when Todd and his crew left. Zac and I walked Sherry and Megan to their car, on our way across the street to see the Elliotts. I bawled while I hugged/kissed Megan and Sherry. Abby and Megan hugged (too cute!) and Megan gave Uncle Zac hugs and kisses. Sherry said, "Is this payback for when I left for California?" I told her it was and that it sucked. I hate crying - my faces swells and I look like such a freak.

And so we headed to the Elliott house. It was probably one the best nights Abby has had over there. She was quite a ham while she played with Kendyl. Kendyl taught her to say, "Heeey!" and "What?!?" It was hilarious because she would say them together and get really loud..."Heeey. what?? What?? WHAT? WHAT?? WHAT???" We were laughing our butts off. She loved on everybody, which was great. Lots of tears and hugs when we left there. More swollen face and freakness for me.

By the time we got back to my parents' most everyone was asleep. We laid Abby down and Zac and I tried to get a few last things together before we snoozed in their living room. Wednesday morning came waaaaaay too soon.

Saturday, October 04, 2008

We're heeeeere!

We arrived yesterday around 3:30pm in "Papers, Oootah." (That's how Abby says it - too cute!) We are staying at the Ramada Inn and Zac and I are getting ready to go look at a few apts this morning. Yesterday we looked at a basement-type apt that I think used to be this older couple's garage....the price is right, but it is SO small and they don't have a bathtub, just a standup shower...not good for a toddler that is scared to death of a shower spray. Mom picked out our dinner location, Noodles & Company. It was YUMMY!

Well, I better get back to the room. I'm using the hotel's Business Room computer - thank goodness for those! Hope to hear from you all soon!

Love,
Sarah, Zac & Abby (and Sandra, temporarily!)