Only in my Dreams...

...do I have a phone that never drops calls. A phone that doesn't get fuzzy. A phone whose speaker phone goes louder than a mouse. A phone that maybe even has a keyboard and a bit of internet :) The Google G2 seems pretty awesome to me!

Today.

Today was QUITE the day.

I took the day off work.

Veracity (our internet provider) told me I was the first client of the day.

After 8 months of NO INTERNET on my mac, I was finally going to be home on a weekday so they could come solve the problem.

Well I waited and waited and waited.

I took a (literally) 30 second shower, and blew dry my hair in front of the window, to be sure i wouldn't miss the tech.

I didn't listen to any music, or put on any movie while I folded the laundry and did dishes, so as not to miss the doorbell...

I could go on and on.

Well, after dealing with incompetent call center person after person, I found my way to Jennifer, the VP over residential accounts.

I told her my dramatic sob story, and she began texting with the tech directly and giving my updates every 30 minutes. Apparently the tech came to "my house" but nobody answered the door so he moved on to the next job. What's funny is that I specifically informed the 3 people I spoke with at the office that 24 NORTH Clayton Court is often mistaken for 24 SOUTH Clayton Court, and to please make a note on my ticket. Well, you better believe the tech went to 24 south :(

So the tech finally came at 2:30pm. That means that I was watching out my window for a full 6.5 hours straight. I scheduled ahead so that I could be early in the day, thus freeing my rare day off work to run errands and do things like go to the gym and go visiting teaching. Maybe even meet my husband for lunch! As you can see, I am very worked up about it.

It's too bad I didn't have a change of heart earlier, but when I realized at 11:30 that I was doing all I could, I decided to embrace being housebound, and I hung frames, assembled my CHRISTMAS PRESENT (more on that later) and got ahead on my valentines.

Have you ever gotten frustrated with a vendor/service? How do you keep your cool?

Much Love,

Stefanie the mac blogger :)

It was SUNNY!

One of Scott's bold U-turns got a BUNCH of rocks/gravel in the front right tire/break pad? I'm not super sure on the details. All I know is that the boys got really tense and took the wheel off and made me go for a walk. I was asking too many questions. Oops.

Our pre-hike meal. I am so SO proud of Katrina for doing all this at 4.5 months pregnant. Wow, impressive!

And there it is: Angels Landing. (Thanks Josh and Katrina for the hiking/ice pole. It helped a LOT.) I was surprised how easy this hike felt. Perhaps the Bryce hike the day before prepared me for this one. Usually I would have been TIRED OUT with all those switchbacks and the steeeeeep paths. But it was weird, we all kind of just chugged along!

On the way down one of these switchbacks (called Walter's Wiggles), I told Scott "I'm gonna just sit and slide down this!" Right at that moment, my feet slipped from under me and I went down on my bum whether I liked it or not! Good think I had already accepted it :)

Really a beautiful view! Have any of you done Angels Landing? I had no idea what I was getting into- it is treacherous up there! There are just breaks in the chain when there are sheer cliffs on both sides. It was terrifying. I haven't been that scared in a long LONG time. It was especially scary with the ice, but I would probably have been almost as scared in normal weather. Whew, kinda glad that is over!!!

A Weekend of Memories

This time we left for our weekend adventure early Saturday morning.

Scott with his new GPS planning out our routes and mileage. He LOVES that thing. It has come to bed with us all 4 nights since he got it on Friday.
I wore my mesh tennis shoes (not for tennis, what word should I have used?) for the looooong hike in the snow/mud. Freezin on the way back to the hotel!
Here is the famous Thor's Hammer. We were so lucky to have such blue skies!!! Wow. We were sure we'd taken a wrong turn and had hiked well past the 3 mile Peekaboo loop. In reality, hiking in snow just takes a lot longer and is much harder. I've heard that hiking in snow counts for 2x as much as on regular ground. Is that true? The funny part is that the Peekaboo loop was just a side trip from our planned route, so maybe that's why it felt extra long.
Here is what the trail looked like. With literally only 4 other people in the park, it would have been easy to follow animal footprints instead and get off track!
Double arches!
Scott was getting a litttle fiesty...


Let me tell you how great it is to get

OUT

and walk around. and breathe fresh air. and love your life.

It is Great :)

We LOVED doing this in the winter to enjoy all the snow capped hoo-doos! So fun!

We went to a star show where enthusiastic Ranger Joel encouraged us to have star parties with our friends. His hour long presentation was perhaps 50 minutes too long. The highlight was looking through his trash can sized telescope at the end. The lowlight was when I volunteered to hold his play-doh sun, and when I wasn't holding it close enough to the moon, he punched me in the face with the grapefruit sized ball. You better believe the audience could tell it hurt my jaw. Turns out Bryce Canyon is the 3rd darkest place in North America (read: a VERY great place to see the stars!)

We were lucky to have Josh and Katrina come along with us. They are super fun, and the car drives always FLY by with them around. We went out to dinner, took a dip in the hot tub with some "couch surfers" (super cool network!) and then I guess chatted the night away. I write "I guess" because I wouldn't know, I was asleep in about 1 minute and 10 seconds I would estimate.

Stay tuned for jumping pictures from Bryce canyon,

and to learn about hiking

ANGELS LANDING

mid-January.

But you won't get to see the video clip of me scared stiff on the top of the cliff.

It's pretty embarrasing.

But very true.

Until tomorrow!

This should be illegal...

But I still haven't posted about our amazing Christmas morning! Here are a few pics to sum it up:

Scott's favorite gifts were probably this robe and the automatic shower cleaner. He uses both daily. I take it back, the industrial indoor/outdoor vac was a huge hit. Thank you Santa :)

Oh, and from the Christmas Eve gift exchange. LOVE the fancy nuts!

Until Christmas 2011!

Scott and Stefanie

That Guy...

So, yesterday morning was kind of rough. Scott got distracted, and for some reason, I didn’t get up until 7:20. We rushed to shower, dress, grab something to eat and get to work. Since my hair drying/make up process takes a bit longer, we agreed that I could take the Vibe (read: car parked in the garage/car that doesn’t need to be scraped). In the flurry of getting out the door, Scott forgot his wallet.

After work, Scott stopped by Home Depot to pick up one last piece of wood he needs for his current man project. The piece of wood only cost $2. But without his wallet, he called frantically asking where I kept the emergency money in my car. I had none. He managed to scrounge up $1.12 in coins between the middle console and the glove box, but he was still 88 cents short.

He brought the wood up to checkout, and asked the orange-aproned woman if his $1.12 was “close enough?” She laughed in his face. He then replied, “Are you really going to make me go beg for the money?” She gave him a look of disbelief, wondering if someone would really do that.

Scott took the challenge. The first man he asked looked pretty poor, and Scott believed that he honestly didn’t have money to spare. Next, he narrowed in on a woman with a dog in her purse. She had money for SURE. But, she was pretty creeped out and denied him. Finally, Scott found a guy about his age and phase of life… the stranger gave Scott a whole dollar!

VICTORY!

Ten minutes after arriving home, Scott was changing out of his work pants and found a $5 bill in his pocket. Wow babe. WOW.

Sushi night at the Ricks'

Here are all the fixins:

From (vinegar)rice to crab and shrimp to veggies and ginger, we had it ALL!

Rachel gave Chris a sushi making kit for Christmas,

and we were the lucky guests :)

Thanks for the fun times Rachel and Chris! Eating Asian-style on the floor was the best part!

1 year Anniversary

This last week we celebrated our 1 year anniversary!

Welcome to La Jolla Groves.

Photo credit: Restaurant website

We had a lovely evening reminiscing on the exciting, fulfilling, sometimes challenging, yet perfect year we have had together. We have both learned a TON about each other, and learned more about love than we ever knew. It has really been an amazing transition to lose our selfishness and truly do everything for the other person.

Being married to Scott has shown me in a way I haven't understood before the beauty of the Plan of Salvation.

"Love is what inspired our Heavenly Father to create our spirits; it is what led our Savior to the Garden of Gethsemane to make Himself a ransom for our sins. Love is the grand motive of the plan of salvation; it is the source of happiness, the ever-renewing spring of healing, the precious fountain of hope. As we extend our hands and hearts toward others in Christlike love, something wonderful happens to us. Our own spirits become healed, more refined, and stronger. We become happier, more peaceful, and more receptive to the

whisperings of the Holy Spirit."

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "You Are My Hands," Ensign, May 2010, 70, 75

P.S. I'm lucky to have such a BABE. Sheesh he is awesome!

P.P.S. The atmosphere and food were both AMAZING and at a price point of $8-$13, it was the perfect place for us to try!!!

The Christmas Party!

Here is the whole Hathaway crew. Everyone came over around noon to eat and party.

The highlight of the party was this seated volleyball game in the backyard. Staying in your chairs really evened things out- the game was suitable for every age. We only had 2 fall/roll out of their chairs, but everyone was okay in the end.

Love Nancy. She gave me this cute hat/scarf/mitten combo! I'm so glad she was able to make the trip to Seattle for our wedding!

And how could we forget Miss Betsy Skaggs! The corona boys and their families all came over Sunday where Betsy was the total star. She is such a little gem :) Scott was very excited/honored to help bless her Sunday. ( I got to hold her through most of Relief Society too!) So precious!

nursery dresser

El Torneo de Mexicana Campiones!!!

We had a series of contests to complete during our week in Laguna Persebu, Mexico! We thought John Jr. won BIGGEST FISH Until Scott caught a SANDSHARK at about 11pm!
The next contest was Clam Digging. We had 5 minutes to collect the most rock clams (of a declared size or larger) John Sr. won, Scott 2nd, and at least I placed :) Margene was very sad to lose- she thought this was her best chance at winning!!! We gave her senior citizen points and she was very appeased :) The fish taco eating contest was definitely Scott's fav. Although, SueAnn and I decided we prefer the SHRIMP taco to the fish! Dennis ROCKED the quad barrel racing event. See how his tires are off the ground? Yeah, he was fast!!! 1st place won 4 points, 2nd place 30 points, 3rd place 2 points, and participants got 1 point per event! Even though I didn't catch anything, I still got my participation point! If you've never had a LOW COUNTRY BOIL you should probably give us a call. Scott has the HUGE pot/colander required, and it is a dang good time. As much seafood as you can handle! But we did NOT like the clam marguerita Dennis ordered in town. I was sure at least one of us would be sick... but nobody had any repercutions!

Scott was nice to heat some water to wash my hair ~ day 3.
(This photo has not been edited whatsoever. Pretty impressive!)

November 2008. "Just Friends" December 2010. Married 1 year!

A big THANK YOU to the Taylors for having us!!!