Saturday Picnic

Between helping with Enrichment in the morning and helping with our stake's dinner before the Relief Society Broadcast in the evening, I had a few hours. So Rog and I went on a picnic! I hadn't seen the addition to the Tanner Building yet, so Roger took me on a tour. And then we found a nice tree and had lunch. I must say that going up to campus is much more enjoyable now that I'm graduated.

Goodbye Betsy

On Wednesday I had another ultrasound of my lovely cyst. For a few weeks I have been having many of the same symptoms I had when we first found out I had a cyst, so I was fully prepared for what we found. Yup, she's still there. She started out at 7 cm, got down to 3 cm, and now 6 weeks later, she is 4.5 cm. It appears that she just doesn't want to go away on her own. So this coming Tuesday we will say goodbye to Betsy for good.

It's a little frustrating that I have waited and waited for this cyst to go away on its own and now I have to have surgery anyway. But at least it will be gone. It will be a laparoscopic surgery which means Dr. Jacob will make 3 small incisions, blow my abdomen up with carbon dioxide, and then remove the cyst. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but I do know I am not excited about this whole blowing up my abdomen part. It just sounds weird. Good thing I'll be asleep! It's a same-day surgery and I'm told I should be back at work by Thursday as long as everything goes well.

So if you don't mind, keep me in your prayers. The only surgery I've ever had is the standard wisdom teeth, so I'm a little nervous. Good thing I have a Rog to take care of me!

SYTYCD Tour!!!

About half way through the So You Think You Can Dance season, Ashleigh Adkins and I started watching the show together every Wednesday night. So when I found out that the tour was coming to Utah, I convinced her to get tickets with me. Rog would have come if I had begged him, but I thought Ashleigh would probably enjoy it more.

The show was AMAZING!!! You know how sometimes you go to something and you say it was good, but you're really thinking, "Ehhh.... I'm not so sure." Well, this was DEFINITELY not one of those times. I was sooooooo glad we went! I took a few pictures during my favorite dances, but the really good pictures we took on Ashleigh's camera. As soon as I get those from her, I'll post them. But for now here are a few from my camera.

A busy week for us Phillips

Well it would appear that school is in full swing now. Rog had two tests, a group case, and an accounting project this week. The accounting project is due at 10:30 tonight and yes, he's doing it right now. Because I don't know how to so much as look at an accounting problem without doing it myself, Rog told me I have to blog while he does it. Aside from the fact that I would probably love doing his assignment for him (I'm not being sarcastic, I really would love it!), I'm not complaining too much because I've been so busy this week that I haven't had any time to post.

Monday was laundry night and grocery night... Tuesday was the So You Think You Can Dance Tour... Wednesday we had the Kaufmans over for dinner and I had tap practice... And Thursday I worked in the temple all night. Phew! Good thing it's the weekend and I can finally relax a little. I say little because tomorrow should be a pretty busy day with Enrichment in the morning and the Relief Society Broadcast at night. As some of you know, I'm the Relief Society Secretary in our ward, so I get to help out with both!

Why I have been banned...

...from having water on my nightstand. Two Saturdays ago I spilled the cup of water I had on my nightstand on our wireless router. We did our best to dry it off, but in the morning our internet didn't work. So we used a nearby unsecured network for about a week while we waited for the router my mom found on eBay for $30 to come. (Thank you mommy!)

Unfortunately the next Sunday that unsecured network stopped working and our router hadn't come yet. Monday it came, but we didn't know how to set it up and Rex, our personal tech support, didn't answer when we called. Tuesday we were busy... Wednesday Rex and Roger got it installed, but for some reason it wouldn't work. Thursday Roger finally was able to get it working after many calls to Veracity Communication (our internet provider).

We were both annoyed with the lack of internet in our apartment, but Rog was a little more annoyed because the internet has become pretty essential in everyday college life. So I have been banned from having water on my nightstand at night. This may seem a little harsh, but it wasn't exactly my first offense.

Two years ago I did the same thing, except with my laptop. And a few months ago I did the same thing with our router, but that time it survived. This time, it was not so lucky. So if I die of dehydration one of these nights, you now know why.

Logan Temple

As part of our "All Things Utah," we are visiting every temple in Utah! Because we don't know if we will make it all the way up to Logan again in the next few years, we went to the Logan temple after the marathon. We did sealings and we told them we only had about a half hour. But it was a good experience.

Top of Utah Marathon!

Saturday Roger ran his third marathon. His first marathon he ran with his brother-in-law, Irving. Then his second marathon he ran with me. He had always wanted to run one on his own, so when I had to drop out because of my cyst and knee problems, this turned out to be his opportunity. His goal was under 4 hours... And his time was... drum roll...

His actual time was 3 hours, 59 minutes, and 7 seconds, but I was a little slow snapping the picture. I was sooooooo proud of him! Here are a few pictures from just a minute or two after he finished.

I waited for almost 3 hours at mile 24 and then after he passed, I booked it to the finish line where I took this footage of the last tenth of a mile.

Because I had already paid for the marathon when I had to drop out, they allowed me to run the 5K. The past few months I have been doing more biking than running to hopefully allow my knee to heal, so I wasn't in my top condition. This race wasn't my worst time, but it definitely wasn't my best time. But because all the "real" runners were running the marathon, I took third place in the 5K! It was fun to actually place in a run. Here are the posted results and me with my ribbon!

Why I love Autumn!

Autumn is my favorite season. For the past couple of days, I have noticed signs of Autumn all around us! So I have been thinking about my favorite things about Autumn. Here are the 10 ten I came up with (in no particular order).

1. Being able to wear a sweatshirt and flip flops in the same day. It's cool enough that you need a sweatshirt, but not cold enough that you have to wear regular shoes.

2. Slippers. Who doesn't love lounging around the house in slippers? It's finally cool enough to justify pulling them out of the closet.

3. Long sleeve tshirts. Maybe I'm weird, but I love them. Especially Roger's long sleeve tshirt that I have taken possession of. If I had a good picture, I'd post it.

4. Being able to sleep with our comforter. And being able to sleep through the night without waking up because it's way too hot! If you have lived in Union Square or most apartment complexes in Provo during the summer, you know what I'm talking about.

5. Crisp morning runs. I like bundling up for my morning run and walking out to the crisp, cool air.

6. BYU Football!!! Enough said.

7. Halloween! I love coming up with a costume and dressing up for the night. And I love trick-or-treating. I went 3 out of the 4 years I was in college. Unfortunately, I've decided that now that I've graduated, I'll have to wait until I have kids to go again. But you bet I'll still dress up!

8. Pumpkin deserts. Roger and I started a tradition last year that I make a different pumpkin desert every Sunday in October. We love pumpkin deserts and my Aunt Tracy gave us a cute set of Autumn desert plates for our wedding. This tradition uses both!

9. Crunching leaves. I'm convinced BYU has the best leaves for crunching, so I'm gonna have to head up to campus for some quality crunching when the leaves are falling in full force.

10. Watching the leaves change colors. As I drive home from work, I have a good view of Y Mountain. And I can tell you, the leaves are definitely changing colors!

Yay for Autumn! I'm so glad it's here!

Tagged!

My friend Krista tagged me, so here goes! (For those of you who don't know what "tagging" is, I am supposed to answer the questions Krista did on her blog and then tag people to do the same.)

Four random things I love about my husband:
1. He makes me dinner. As part of my sugar mama agreement, he's the house husband (like house wife). So most days he has it ready when I get home from work.
2. He has tickle wars with me.
3. He has the most beautiful blue eyes ever.
4. He makes me a better person.

Four jobs I've had:
1. Staff Accountant - APX Alarm
2. Junior Core Grader - BYU School of Accounting
3. Payroll Intern - APX Alarm
4. Accounting Clerk - BYU Wilkinson Student Center Support Services

Four movies I have watched more than once:
1. Enchanted
2. Wedding Date
3. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
4. Hercules

Four TV shows I watch:
1. Friends
2. The Office
3. So You Think You Can Dance
4. BYU Football (Not really a TV show, but I don't watch much TV, so I'm counting it.)

Four places I have been:
1. New York City
2. Disneyland
3. Hawaii
4. Oklahoma

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Cake
2. Oriental Chicken Salad from Applebees
3. BBQ Chicken Salad from Zupas
4. Taco Soup

Four places I would like to visit:
1. Niagra Falls
2. Forks, Washington
3. Paris, France
4. The Sacred Grove

Four things I am looking forward to in the coming year:
1. So You Think You Can Dance Tour - this coming Tuesday (Sept. 23)!!!
2. Meeting my nephew Aiden (He's almost 9 months and we are finally meeting him Conference Weekend!)
3. Christmas with the Riries (It will be Roger's first Christmas with my family!)
4. Visiting as many Utah National Parks as possible next summer!

Four people I tag:
1. Ashley Lee
2. Emily Galbraith
3. Megan Burke
4. Rachel Martinez

You wouldn't pass it up either...

Monday night has become our official grocery night. We plan what we are going to eat for the next week and then buy all the groceries we need. We usually go to Maceys around 7:00. And it just so happens that Maceys puts the left-over donuts from the day on sale for 25 cents each around 7:30 every night. We first discovered this by accident, but now we consciously or subconsciously try to be there at 7:30, so we can each get a donut for a quarter.

This probably isn't the best habit for us to be forming. But how can you pass up a donut for a quarter? The only thing better is a free donut! When my family lived in Sandy while I was growing up, we used to do the same thing except it was at Smiths, so technically this addiction to discount donuts is in my blood.

So if you're ever at Maceys around 7:30, listen for them to announce the sale over the loud speaker. But if it's a Monday night, you'll probably have to fight us for the best ones!!

MmMm! A donut and a glass of milk... Now that's love!

Is the church still true at 3:00?

3:00... yeah that's right, our Sacrament Meeting is at 3:00 in the afternoon. Our church starts at 1:00 with Sunday School, then we have Relief Society/Priesthood, and finally at 3:00 we have Sacrament Meeting. If you haven't already guessed. I'm not so much a fan. I've never had church in that order. And I think the last time my church started at 1:00, I was about 10. Since then I've had times ranging from 8:30 to 11:00 and just about every half hour in between. And yes, I have gotten quite used to that schedule on Sundays.

Of course the church is true no matter what time your meeting is, but it kinda makes your Sunday short when you get home around 4:30. That's all I'm saying. I'm sure I'll get used to it, and I know people who live an hour or more away from their chapel have it much worse. But for now I'm gonna complain.

Victory by Slaughter!

In the days leading up to the UCLA game this Saturday, one of the anchors on ESPN picked BYU as the most over-rated undefeated team. I guess he's feeling pretty silly right now!! In case you missed the game, it went something like this... Touchdown, touchdown, turnover, touchdown, turnover, touchdown, blocked kick, turnover, touchdown, touchdown, missed kick by UCLA, touchdown, field goal... Not necessarily in that order and I think I missed a few turnovers in there. But you get the idea!! It was freaking AWESOME!!!

Going into the game, pretty much everyone thought it would be a close game. Last year UCLA beat us on the road and then we blocked the final kick to beat them by one point in the Las Vegas Bowl. My dad thought we would lose, and although I thought we would come out with a win due to our home-team advantage, I thought it would be close. But our defense stepped it up big time and our offense didn't do a bad job either! It was a great day to be a cougar! And even a great day to be Cosmo because it was much cooler than the season opener. Here are some pictures from the slaughter!

59-0!!! OH YEAH!

How do they do it?

Yesterday Roger and I baby sat for the Guests. Rebekah (the mom) had to have surgery on her shoulder and Bill (the dad) was with her. So we watched Jessica (2) and Bradlei (9 months). It was quite the eye opener! Jessica was great, but Bradlei cried nonstop almost the entire time! We are told that she is a mama's girl, so I am attributing the fact that she wouldn't stop crying to her wanting her mommy and not to my lack of mothering skills. Let's hope for that anyway or our kids are in trouble!!

I have always wanted to be a mom and when people would ask me what I was going to do with accounting, I would always say that I wanted to work a few years and then stay at home as a mom (maybe doing some accounting from my home). But I'll be honest, I kinda always thought it would be easy. So our experience was a definite eye opener for me as to how hard it can be! Granted we were just thrown into it yesterday and when it's our child, we'll be able to learn as the baby grows. And hopefully my babies will like me, so I'll actually be able to make them stop crying.

So I just wanted to thank my mom and all the moms out there for all that you do! It really is a lot harder than it looks! I love you mommy!

Because we were a little busy, we didn't take any pictures of our adventure last night. So I thought I would include a picture of me and my cute mom. Here we are on top of a volcano in Hawaii at sunrise.

Sometimes the little things make all the difference!

I saw this over and over today... For the past 4 months that I have been working at APX, I have not had sound on my computer, a decent calculator, a 3-hole punch in my office, or a good stapler remover. This is not because APX can't afford these things. Trust me, I would know. I code the American Express bill every month and it is always for millions of dollars. The reason I haven't had these things is because my manager has to order these things. And while he is a very nice guy, he is SUPER scatterbrained.

Finally today Toni and I decided to take things into our own hands. Our toner was running low on our printer, so we emailed desktop support to come replace it. While we were at it, we told them that our computers needed sound so we could listen to our voicemail. Voicemail at APX is emailed. Fancy, I know... Now, have either of us ever received a voicemail? Heck no, we're not that important. I don't even think our voicemail is set up. But it was the valid excuse we needed to get sound. About 4 hours after sending that email... Voila! We had sound! If you're wondering why we would need sound, you obviously have never entered in a 400-line journal entry! As much as I love my job, some of the tasks we do can be a little repetitive. Enter music...

About the same time we were getting our sound installed, we heard from the receptionist that the summer offices had sent in all their office supplies and they were down in the warehouse if we needed anything. So of course we booked it down there and got a 3-hole punch for the staff accountant office, calculators, and a replacement for my crappy stapler remover. Sure these things seem trivial. I could bring in my iPod to listen to music, there is a 3-hole punch in the copy room, my computer has a calculator, and my crappy stapler remover got the job done... But these little things made all the difference. Yay for office supplies!!

Now for one more example of how the little things make all the difference from today. (This will include some accounting talk, but understanding the details isn't important, so just ignore that part if it doesn't make sense.) Every month I do the payroll accrual, the commissions accrual, and the tech pay accrual. Over the summer we pay our sales reps and techs a portion of what they will get paid for their sales/installs, and then in October they get a backend check with the rest of their pay. So we have to estimate how much we are going to have to pay and accrue for it because of the matching principle.

In June and July, I did the payroll accrual after I did the commissions accrual and the tech pay accrual. But after giving it some thought today, I realized that by doing it in that order I had over-accrued by 1.6 million dollars on the tech pay accrual alone! After talking to the controller, I was able to fix this large oversight, but it just got me thinking. The little things really make all the difference!

We love the Zoo!

Saturday we commenced our "All things Utah" tour by going to the Hogle Zoo! When I was growing up I think we went every summer with my Grandpa Ririe and my cousins. So I practically had the layout memorized...or at least I knew exactly how it was when we would go when I was little. Well, as is usually the case, time changes things. Some of my favorite things were gone and other things had been changed, so I was a little disappointed. But we still had a good time.

Rog cracking out of his egg and me being a turtle.

Some Hogle Zoo classics

Haha... See the resemblance?

Elephants and Giraffes

The cougar had to be the coolest part of our zoo trip. As soon as we got to him, he woke up and started growling at something no one could see. I told Rog he knew the Cougars were playing and he was just giving them his support! GO COUGARS!!

Back to Tapping!

When I came to BYU, I started taking tap classes offered through the Dance Department. I took beginning, intermediate, advanced twice, and even was a T.A. for intermediate. I am now dancing with an independent tap company started by the tap director at BYU. We had the summer off, but Saturday morning we started practicing for a show we are doing in November. More information about this company can be found here. Friday night our otter and puppy did a little tap dance for me. I thought you all would get a kick out of it, so here it is!

Clap your hands everybody...

Everybody clap your hands. We're HHS above the rest; the best in the land! Up Down Up Up Down Up Down Up Down Up Up!

So a few months ago Emily asked me what the beginning of the cheer that ends in the up downs was. We asked Aubrey and she couldn't remember either. Finally today I thought about it while I was at work, so I wrote a quick message to Gina (one of our captains senior year), and she wrote back with the beginning of the cheer. I was so glad to have that mystery solved! When I told Roger about it, he said I had to blog about it. I'm sure he was just kidding, but I figured Emily and Aubrey would get a kick out of it.

For those of you who didn't know me in high school... Yes, I was a cheerleader. But I wasn't one of those dumb cheerleaders. I was purely in it for the dancing! Anyway, I figured while I was on this trip down memory lane, I might as well post some pictures. They're all from my senior year because that's when pictures started becoming digital. Enjoy!

This picture is my proof (along with a video I have) that I could do a back handspring at one point. I definitely cannot do one now, so don't ask. (I'm on the left towards the back.)

This is my song squad competing at Nationals. Song is a form of cheer that is kind of like drill except with only 6 or 7 people and it's a lot cooler than drill. (I'm 3rd in from the right.)

This is one of my favorite pictures. We (Song) got 4th and we were NOT happy about it!

And finally this is Aubrey, me, and Emily cheering at a football game. Love these girls!

Ta Da!

Here are the bowls we made at Color Me Mine. Rog thinks his is cool, but we all know mine is cooler! The first two pictures are my bowl and then the last three pictures are Rog's bowl.

Sometimes I call Roger "Honey Bunches," so that is why his bowl says "Honey Bunches."

Back to School

Today was the start of Fall Semester at BYU. Rog only had one class today - Humanities, but tomorrow he has a bunch. He's taking Accounting 210 which was probably my favorite class at BYU and MCom 320 which I was pretty dang good at, so it looks like I'm going to be his personal tutor.

I thought it would feel weird not going back to school with everyone else, but it feels normal, even wonderful! There was about 15 seconds when I was a little sad, but that was it. Rog called me after his class and told me how everyone was back on campus and I thought about how the space between the JFSB and the library looks on a beautiful sunny day with students walking between classes and I was just a little sad, but then I thought about homework, papers, tests... and for some reason any sadness I had felt completely disappeared!

Back to School also means no more work for Rog and the start of my official sugar mama status. We decided that my salary is enough to support us, so Roger is just going to focus on school for the next two years. And I was sick of the MTC hours! No more work for Rog means no more overnighters at the front desk, no more nights as a teacher, no more 7 am Thursdays to meet the new Elders, and no more Saturdays!!! And it means I will actually get to see him after I get home from work. Hopefully he will be able to get a good majority of his homework done during the day, so we'll be able to play at night!

So good luck to everyone going back to school! Enjoy it as much as you can because it really does go by pretty quickly....

Here is Rog headed back to school wearing his A++++ shirt! He actually wasn't going anywhere when I took this picture. His class was at 12, but I had to take it before I left for work.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Yesterday morning we woke up to rain, rain, and more rain. We checked weather.com and it said it was going to be raining until 5. So we decided to postpone our zoo trip until Saturday. We went grocery shopping and to Rog's favorite store, Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft. By then the sun had come out and it was looking like a beautiful day. But we decided that it was too late to go to the zoo and we had already planned to go to Color Me Mine with Diana, Jason, and Jason's sister, Brittany.

We stopped at Sonic for Happy Hour and then headed over to Color Me Mine. Brittany, Rog, and I painted bowls. Diana and Jason painted a cookie jar. We went to Zupas which is becoming one of our favorite restaurants, did our laundry, and saw Indiana Jones in the dollar theatre. I liked Indiana Jones until the very end... It was just a little too far fetched even for an Indiana Jones movie. Although the day didn't go at all as we had planned, we managed to have a great time. Everyone pray for a beautiful day Saturday, so we can go to the Zoo!

This is us painting our bowls. Notice how beautiful it is outside. Ahh... if only we had know! I'll post more pictures when our bowls are done, so you can see the finished product.