The Apron Chief Made

Way back when I was still in my sewing class I bought the pattern, the fabric, and all of the notions to make this apron. But I haven't had time to finish it until now. It required a ton of fabric, so Rog kept saying that I was making a moo moo. Now that I'm done, he still likes to say that it's a moo moo, but he knows it really is an apron. Hmm... well, I guess that's all I have to say about that. Here's my apron.

A bad day to be Cosmo...

...But a good day to be a cougar! Yesterday was the season opener against Northern Iowa. For pretty much the first half of the game, the sun was beating down on the stadium and it was SoOoO HOT! I was dying in my t-shirt and shorts, so I'm sure Cosmo was ridiculously hot in his fur coat!! Luckily the sun went behind some clouds, so the rest of the game was a bit cooler.

I wasn't much in the mood for pictures because of the heat. But here is one we took when the clouds came out. I decided that I would wear my APX hat because APX is everywhere you look at the games. I'm sure we pay a ridiculous amount to advertise there. One day I'll come across an invoice and be shocked! Then again maybe not because I seem to be getting used to how ridiclous the executives can be at times. They'll do anything to recruit sales reps.

I love BYU football, so I'm way excited that the season is here. With our win yesterday, we are on the road to "The Quest" which we are pretty sure is an undefeated season... Anyway, GO COUGARS! Let's just hope the next game is a few degrees cooler (like 20).

Ward Campout

Last night was our ward campout up Hobble Creek Canyon. We did all the regular camping things... Roasted marshmellows, talked to friends, and slept on the ground. But we also discovered a talent; we are pro at Cornhole. Never heard of it? Well, we hadn't either, but we were undefeated all night until our last game against the Ogdens... We need a rematch! Basically you just throw bean bags at a board with a hole in it. You get one point if your bean bag stays on the board or three if it goes in the hole. Who knows if we'll ever get a chance to play again, but it was SuPeR fun!

TaDa!

Eating S'mores with the Ogdens.

Cornhole!

Translation

Ok, so Roger informs me that I need to translate the accounting language in my last post into English. I'll do my best. "Closing" is basically when the Controller pushes a button that makes it so no one can enter things into a specific month. Here is a simplified description of a month in accounting that might help.

As soon as the month ends on the calendar, Accounts Payable (AP), Accounts Receivable (AR), and Payroll can technically still enter things for the past month. For the first few days of the month, the Controller leaves those modules open, so AP, AR, and Payroll can enter any last minute things that belong in the past month into the correct month. When they get everything entered, the Controller "closes" the modules.

But the staff accountants can still enter journal entries that affect the past month. So we run reports that tell us what happened in each individual account, decide if it really belonged there, and make adjustments using journal entries to fix things that were entered incorrectly. After the staff accountants have looked at all the accounts (or at least all the major ones), the Controller "closes" the month, so nothing can be changed for that month.

And then he pulls the financial statements which are basically a summary of everything that happened in the month. Our lendors require us to give them our financial statements within a month. So for example, we had to give them the July financial statements by August 31st. (Well, it was technically the 29th for August because the 31st is a Sunday, but you get the idea.)

So yeah, that's basically what I do every month. And yes, I am a nerd. But at least I'm a cute nerd, right?

Excited for the Weekend, BABY!

I was going to wait to do another post until after this weekend when I will have something more substantial to post, but I'm pretty positive I'm addicted to this blogging thing (soon I'll have to join bloggers anonymous), so here I am...

Tomorrow just might be the longest day of work EVER! We finally closed July today which is a good thing because we have to get the financials out by the last day of the month, but closing is always bitter sweet because we can't start on the next month until that month is over. So we'll be in limbo... Luckily we have our August Accounting Picnic that Toni (the other staff accountant) and I were more or less assigned to put together. We're having a back to school theme complete with box lunches from Apple Spice Junction, a hula hoop contest, and a jump rope.

We are also interviewing a potential staff accountant to help out. Toni and I have mixed feelings about this because it will lighten our load which will mean we should close earlier which also means we will be in limbo longer. Ugh! And I probably won't even be able to get rid of my least favorite account because it is a payroll account and due to my internship in payroll last summer, I am considered the payroll expert. We saw his resume and from the dates of his mission, we figured out that he has to be 28 or 29... Toni is 23 and I am 22, so we don't know how we feel about that.

Tomorrow will also be a long day because I am super excited for this weekend! Friday night we have our ward campout, Saturday is the first BYU football game of the year, and Monday is Labor Day which means no work! My friend Krista at work told me about how this summer she did "All things Utah" with her husband. Meaning that they visited all the sights in Utah before they had to leave for Law School. I thought that was such a cool idea because I have lived in Utah my whole life, but I haven't seen so many of the things Utah has to offer. We still have at least 2 years left in Utah, but we decided to start our "All things Utah" tour on Monday by going to the Hogle Zoo and playing in the fountains at Gateway. I have been to the Hogle Zoo before (lots of times as a kid), but Roger hasn't and it has been far too long for me. And neither of us has played in the fountains at Gateway.

So horray for the weekend! I just have to make it through one very LONG day! Wish me luck!

Lil' Blue

I am told that Big Blue is a car Roger's family had while he was growing up. Lil' Blue is our new bike! For those of you who speak Bike and Rider (Haha...like Car and Driver for the bike world...well, I thought it was funny!), Lil' Blue is a Raliegh Mojave 2.0. Basically he's a mountain bike for riding around town and on paved trails.

In my training for the Deseret News Marathon and then again this year for the Top of Utah Marathon (before I was banned from running for a month), I discovered that my knees hate running long distances. I have what is called Iliotibial Band Syndrome. The Iliotibial Band runs on the outside of your leg from your hip to your knee. In some very fortunate people, such as myself, running long distances causes the Iliotibial Band to become swollen at the knee causing a great deal of pain. Horray!

So I decided that my career as a marathoner just might be over. For me the syndrome seems to kick in when I hit about 12 miles on my long runs. So I may be more of a half marathon person...we'll see. I love 5K's and 10K's, so I'll definitely continue doing those. But in my training for marathons I also discovered that I love going long distances. This is where Lil' Blue comes in. With Lil' Blue I'll be able to go long distances without my knees acting up. That is the hope anyway.

Here's Lil' Blue tucked away in his new home. I'm too protective of him to let him stay outside where he'll get rained on, snowed on, and possibly stollen, so at least for now he's staying in our living room. Surprisingly it doesn't bother me to have him there, but it does bug Roger. What a strange turn of events considering in our house Rog is "mess" and I'm "clean."

Little Duckies

While I was on doctor's orders not to go running, I still wanted to get some sort of exercise. So I would get up with Rog and go on walks while he was on his run. I felt pretty lame, but at least it was some physical activity. I discovered that there are some cute little houses in Provo that I had never noticed during our runs and I fell in love with the little duckies at the duck pond. I came home and told Rog that I want a little baby duck. He convinced me that it wouldn't be the best idea because our apartment wouldn't be a very good home for a baby duck! But they sure are fun to visit, especially when they are so cute and little! I took my camera on one of my walks and tried to get a good picture of the little duckies. Unfortunately they didn't turn out the best, but here is one of my attempts!

So You Think You Can Dance!!

At the beginning of the summer I decided that I was going to watch So You Think You Can Dance this season. I had watched parts of the other seasons, but never very religiously. I don't think I missed a single show... Some of them I had to record on TiVo (Thank you Rex and Edda!), but I watched them all! It was a great season and I think America did a pretty good job picking the winner. I was greatly disappointed that Will left so soon, but it was just because America doesn't understand technique. He wasn't the most entertaining dancer, but he definitely was the most technical dancer. I did think America got it right with Katee being the top girl dancer. She has beautiful technique and is very fun to watch. September 23rd the top 10 will be at the E Center and I will be there watching with my dancer friend Asheligh! OH YEAH!

Breaking Dawn

I like so many others was very excited for Breaking Dawn to come out. Toni, my fellow Staff Accountant, and I would check Stephenie Meyer's website every day and discuss the possibilities of the "Quote of the Day" in the weeks leading up to the release of the book. Unfortunately I couldn't go to any release parties because we were traveling back from our cruise. But I woke up first thing Saturday morning and had my dad call Walmart, Target, and Costco to see who had the best price. We headed off to Costco (they were the winner) and got 2 copies - 1 for me and one for my sister. Then while we drove from St. George to Provo, Diana and I read our copies while the guys did who knows what... It took me about a week to finish and I loved it! What a perfect ending to an AWESOME series! Now to look forward to the release of Midnight Sun (Twilight from Edward's perspective)!

Cruisin' California

We went on a cruise around California with my family the last week of July. My family has been on lots of cruises, but Roger and Jason had never been on one before. The cruise left from Los Angeles and stopped at San Diego, Catalina Island, and Ensenada, Mexico. Here are some pictures from our many adventures.

Rog and my dad on our bike ride around Coronado Island.

Me and Rog on the same bike ride.

The whole group in front of the Hotel Del Coronado.

Kids before kayaking on Catalina Island.

Rog flipping into the pool.

Dancing on the deck at sunset.

You are supposed to dress up for dinner which is one of my favorite parts of cruising, but it wasn't Rog's favorite part... By the last night he refused to wear nice shoes. Love the flip flops!

Happy Birthday Fred!!

On July 18th (I only know the date because it was the day after my dad's birthday), Fred, the car I have had since I turned 16, celebrated his birthday! He reached 100,000 miles! I got him when he had about 46,000 miles on him, so it's safe to say that Fred and I have had many wonderful adventures together. I was driving home from work and kept having to stop at lights, so I was able to take pictures. I know I'm a nerd. But anyway, here they are!

Betsy

For those of you who haven't heard... Betsy is the lovely cyst that decided to make a home for herself on my right ovary back in July. Here is the story. So on Saturday, July 12th, I had some pain in my lower right abdomen. Thinking that it was a kidney infection, we went to the Urgent Care, but my urine was clean. So the doctor said to come back on Monday when they could do a CT Scan to just make sure everything was ok. On Monday when we went back, the doctor said that she wanted to do an ultrasound instead, so she sent us to the hospital for that.

The guy doing my ultrasound said that there was a "mass" on my right ovary. So of course the first thing you think when you hear "mass" is, "Oh crap, I have cancer... I'm going to die." But after they had a radiologist look at it, they told me that it was a blood-filled cyst on my ovary which apparently is very common and very rarely is cancerous unless you are over 50. So they made me an appointment with an OBGYN for that Wednesday. Even though they said it was nothing to worry about, the wait to Wednesday afternoon was agonizing!

By Wednesday my pain had subsided a lot. We went to my appointment with Dr. Jacob and he said about the same thing... Don't worry, this is very common, blah, blah, blah... He informed me that it was about the size of a tennis ball which was why it caused me some pain. But he said that because the pain had mostly gone away, he was convinced it was getting smaller on its own and surgery would not be necessary. He scheduled another ultrasound for the coming Monday.

1 week from the day we found Betsy, we went for my 2nd ultrasound. This time it was maybe a centameter smaller... Dr. Jacob said that he really thought it was going to go away and that I shouldn't worry. I just didn't like the idea of it being there, so I definitely would have had him remove it right then, but he said he wouldn't let us go on our upcoming cruise if he took it out... So that convinced me to give it more time. He scheduled yet another ultrasound for 3 weeks from that day which would be 1 month from the unpleasant discovery.

When I went for that ultrasound, it had shrunk by about 3 more centameters to the size of a golf ball. It also had split into 3 small cysts which seemed to concern the lady doing the ultrasound and before Dr. Jacob looked at the pictures, he asked if I was ready for surgery. But then he looked at the pictures and compared the size to the size it was before and changed his mind. So right now we are waiting 6 weeks to do my 4th ultrasound. And we are just praying that it is gone or very significantly smaller!

The most annoying part of this whole ordeal was that Dr. Jacob told me I shouldn't run. I was training for the Top of Utah Marathon on September 20th, so I was greatly disappointed. But that's life, I guess! At my last appointment, he gave me the go ahead to run again, but by then it was too late for the marathon. Roger is still going to run the marathon because he had always wanted to do one on his own anyway. I will probably run the 5K that is the same day as the marathon... And at least I will be able to run in the Cougar Run in October. The Cougar Run was my first attempt at being a runner and this year will be my 5th year running it!

I always imagined my first ultrasound being when I am pregnant with our first child, but I guess these ultrasounds are just practice for the future. The last time we went for my ultrasound there were a few couples leaving with pictures of their little babies... I asked Roger why they don't give me pictures of my cyst. I told him we could put them on our fridge like all those couples were going to do. He didn't think I was very funny. Haha! My next appointment is on September 24th, so if you are interested, look for an update then. Oh and by the way... Sorry if this post was too much information for you. After all, I didn't force you to read it. :)

Celebrate the 4th!

We started our 4th of July by going to the balloon festival, and I honestly can say that it was the coolest thing I have ever done for the 4th of July! It started bright and early at 6:30 am, but it was sooooooooo worth it. We got to walk around while the balloons filled up, and then we watched them take off and fly around Provo. The balloons were so beautiful against the clear blue sky.

We also enjoyed the free breakfast at Maceys, the parade, dinner at Applebees, and the Stadium of Fire fireworks, but nothing could compare to the balloon festival. Seriously if you are in Provo for the 4th of July, get up and go to the balloon festival. You won't regret it!

The Reception

Diana and Jason had their reception June 28th in my grandparent's backyard. They went to a lot of work to get the yard looking just right. We all pitched in that day doing various last minute details and that night we were all busy little ants helping serve the food, take the presents, man the book, etc... I think that day I pinned more boutineres than I had in my entire life up to that point and I also solved a minor flower tragedy. Roger and I made sure that their car got decorated because we were VERY disappointed no one did that for us!

Pinning my bro's boutinere, with my mom and sister, and with my BFF, Amber.

Bridesmaid pictures (notice the dress I was supposed to wear...hence my sewing project).

Classic cake picture and the bride and groom eating at their reception (something Rog and I definitely didn't do at ours!).

Our lovely car job and the drinks they served (Rog isn't in any pictures because he was scooping sherbert all night! Bless his soul!).

The Wedding Month

My little sister got married June 21st in the Raleigh, North Carolina temple. Now looking back on June, it seems like all I did during that month was work during the day and then wedding at night! And I think all involved would agree... What did I do that whole month?... Well, my brother and I put together a slideshow for the luncheon and reception... I turned my bridesmaid dress into a skirt and found a shirt to match it (my sister didn't pick the most modest dress)... And mostly a lot of little things that took up a lot of time, I guess!

They got married in the Raleigh, North Carolina temple because Jason's dad is a Mission President in North Carolina. We all flew there Friday afternoon arriving late Friday night. They got married Saturday morning, had the luncheon that afternoon, and then we flew home Sunday morning. It was a quick trip... Here are some pictures taken on the temple grounds

The whole group... I think we look like the cover of Friends in this picture.

The three Ririe kids

Doing my duty as Maid of Honor

The Happy Couple

A New Addition to the Family

My last semester at BYU I only had 2 classes for my major and 1 religion class left, so I took a sewing class for fun. I had learned to sew a little from my mom, but I wanted to learn more. After taking that class, the $100 Singer from Target that we got as a wedding gift wasn't going to cut it! So Roger let me get this little beauty for my graduation gift. It was used of course because a new Bernina would have cost way too much, but it is still AWESOME! So far I have only had time to hem a few pants, fix a shirt that was too big, and fix my bridesmaid dress for my sister's wedding. But I'm working on an apron right now and I have plans for a few quilts. We named her Sarah Bernina after a friend I made in my sewing class.

Workin' 9 to 5...

...what a way to make a livin'! In May I started my full-time position as a staff accountant at APX Alarm. I worked there last summer as a payroll intern, so I already have friends, understand the accounting software, etc... Starting a new job is always a little hard to get used to, so I was glad it wasn't completely new. I never pictured myself working in the alarm industry and I definitely won't let Roger sell for them, but it's a good accounting job in Provo. What more could I ask for?!

New York City Aquarium

The New York City Aquarium is so cool that it deserves its own post. It isn't one of the commonly known sites, but it is AWESOME! If you get a chance to go to New York City, take a morning or afternoon and visit the Aquarium. Trust me, you'll love it!

These are some pictures of me and my new favorite animal, the sea otter!

Watch the sea otter swim around; I could all day!

Rog and his friend, the walrus, and then the ocean and boardwalk at Coney Island.