Virginia to North Carolina and Back

March 7: Eric and I left Virginia in the early morning hours to make the drive to North Carolina, to his old stomping ground.
He spent a chunk of time living and playing in and around Havelock and Morehead City while in the Marines. He's been wanting to take a trip back for a long time and it seemed as good a time as any.

Once we arrived, he was surprised to see that base housing had been upgraded significantly from the hole he'd lived in. After touring his neighborhood and town, we drove to Atlantic Beach. It wasn't super warm, but warmer than we'd had so far on the trip, so we rolled up our pants, took off our shoes and socks, and walked along the shoreline.  It was a pretty empty beach.......just the way I like it.

We soaked in the sights and did some shopping and then drove further south to have dinner with Eric's cousin Dusty. I don't know Dusty too well (really, at all) and it was fun to talk with him and see a different side to Eric's family than what I know. Certainly, we will make another trip that direction and spend more time enjoying family and the sites.

Here are my favorite pictures, but the rest of the shots can be found on Flickr.

Five Years Together

Yesterday, Eric and I celebrated our fifth year anniversary! CRAZY! Time flies!!

We went to the Anniversary Inn in Logan and stayed in the room: Arabian Nights. I can't say enough about how much I loved that room! It was so peaceful and calming! I loved the water fountain and the colors of the room. I think I might have to redecorate our own bedroom. LOL!

Of course, I took pictures.

I Love Eric

Eric doesn't like his picture being taken and I do my best to respect his wishes...but once in a while, I can't resist.

Yesterday we were looking up information online and the lighting was perfect and I couldn't resist. Here's my favorite portrait of my wonderful (and handsome) husband.
I just wanted to post it cuz I love it. He still makes me smile.

Four Years and Eternity to Go

Eric and I reached our whopping four year anniversary on Tuesday, January 27. It's crazy how fast the time has gone by.

And, even more incredible, is that I love Eric more today than I did that day. Who knew that was possible? He is the love of my life.

He is my best friend. We play video games together. We chat politics and religions and work and everything else you can think of. I feel like I am truly free and completely myself with him. I love that!

Anyway, I wanted to post some of my favorite pictures from the day we got married.

Catching up on Videos

I've been stocking up on family videos for so long that it's time to post them here.

In August, Sandy, Elida and baby Mason came to Salt Lake for one of the more heart breaking days. While here, I got this video of Mason being fed. I just loved the way he's distracted. He's so cute and I can't wait to see him a a few weeks (as well as my sisters, of course).

Yup! That was Mom in the back ground watching some medication commercial. I get such a good hearty laugh at her comment.

Evan and Kirsten welcomed their bundle of joy to their family at the end of August. Adorable Chance is featured having his diaper changed. You can see how much he enjoys that experience. I just love his little infant cry.


A few weeks ago Karlyn came into town for a visit. We all drove to Kamas for a visit with Richard and the kids. (Cynthia was working) The kids jumped on the trampoline and had a wonderful time. I have video of Elise losing it and being sent to bed, but that will be black mail material for later in her life. Here, we're all having a pleasant time.




Sunday was Andrew's fourth birthday. We took Mom to Kamas for a nice birthday dinner.
I love the way everybody is so easily distracted by the toys. Watch Collin move around and Andrew lose interest in answering questions. Hilarious.


I just liked watching Marcus giggle with the noises of the toy and to see Eric playing with them, which he did all night, but his wonderful wife was very careful to keep him out of the videos.


So I've avoided politics and economic chatter here, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a major focus for me.

Happy Birthday to Eric

Tomorrow is Eric's Bday and I'm excited to give him his present....I, of course, can't say what it is, but I know he will be surprise and very happy with it.

I saw that it was delivered to the house today so I might (might) let him open it today to help aleviate some of the pain for losing Tom Brady to a knee injury in yesterday's game. So disappointing and we hope for a speedy recovery.

So to Eric I say:

Sweet Boxers

Sandy is visiting us for a couple of weeks and we are HAPPY about that! (We being me, of course.)

Yesterday I got this video of Sandy and April's dog Bruno (yes - he was named after Bruno from Cinderella). You can see Beanie in the lower right hand corner.

The whining, barking dog is Dante.

Bomb Scare

So today there was a bomb threat at the University Hospital. I was training, but we were on break when my manager came out and told us she'd received a "code yellow" page - a bomb threat at the hospital (by the way: it should have been a code purple). We've had so many drills that our first reaction was, "is it a drill?" Within seconds we knew it was real due to various phone calls.
I work in the billing office building downtown, so I was away from any of the lock down, but I called Eric - he works in the school of medicine and the last thing I want is to lose my husband to some fanatic on a rampage over who knows what. AND it's my employer. AND there are patients!
Here's the info as sent to us in an email from administration (it came around 12:30):
"At 9:21 a.m., University of Utah Hospital experienced a bomb threat. We have activated the Command Center, and all precautions are in place.
A second sweep of the internal patient care areas and all other areas of the hospitals and or clinics has been completed. Law enforcement is working to complete a sweep of the external facilities using K-9 assistance. Facilities continue to remain on lock down. There is no vehicle access to the Health Sciences Campus."
Around 2:00 we were told that everything had been cleared. It will be interesting to hear how Eric's perspective was from the hospital.

It seemed an odd coincidence that it's also the day of the press conference announcing that the billing records that had been stolen (about a month ago) had been recovered by police this morning. This morning Shadd Hartman was arrested for stealing billing records from some loser's car. This loser was supposed to have delivered them straight away to some secure vault, but instead took a detour to his house and took a nap. Loser boy left the records, which were on some kind of tape, in what looked like a cash-box on the front seat of his car. Shadd broke into the that loser's car and stole the records off the front seat.

I'm happy to know there was an arrest.


I'm most happy that all is well and safe again at the hospital and that I will be able to pick Eric up from work and that he his safe.