This weekend, the 'rents came and spent Spring Break with 4 of their cool kids in Utah. We all had a great time and hope they'll be able to come back soon! This morning, we went to Temple Square and saw Music & The Spoken Word at The Tabernacle with Aunt Karen and Uncle Arnie who are serving a family history mission. The program was so great, and it was really fun to see them. Another fantastic part of the day was that there are flowers blooming! We even saw a few tulips! I'm so excited! We're just a few days away from lots and lots of tulips which is my very favorite time of year. Too bad it has since snowed and probably will again tonight which will make tomorrow's commute super fun, but we're heading into to warmth and sunshine!

Janae and Jordan got some pretty cool shoes this weekend and we had fun modeling them. We laughed a lot!

Thriving Ivory

A few posts back, I posted a video of Angels on the Moon by Thriving Ivory. Well, last night, I got to meet them! In my prior post, I said that I may or may not be in love with the lead singer, Clayton Stroope - well, I definitely am! It was such a fun night. Shannon drove down from Logan and we met up at The Murray Theater for the show. I'm so glad that she loves doing crazy stuff with me! Three bands opened (It was so very long. We stood in the exact same place for 6 hours! I'm exhausted.) The opening bands were good, but I'd never heard of any of them. My favorite was The State of Shock. We also met them after the show and they were super cool - crazy, but cool. I liked their music too. It's a little too heavy metal for me, but good.But the definite highlight of the night was the Thriving Ivory performance. I've said if before - but I just love seeing people live their dream - especially when it involves music and performing and it's something that I enjoy watching. Aside from the normal crowd issues (a really, really tall girl kept moving to stand right in front of me and we saw a couple people there we know and would rather not have seen)...but aside from these unfortunate events and the fact that our feet were on fire from standing so stinking long, we thoroughly enjoyed the show.

After the show, the band hung out to meet their fans. We stood in line (and got yelled at by the stupid security guys. Seriously, what is our deal with ushers/security people? We weren't even doing anything wrong...this time). But, I was so mad at the guy that told us that we couldn't take pictures with the band. Hello? Do you know me at all? Apparently not. So, Shannon and I were pretty close to the front of the line when the guy yelled to everyone to have something ready for the band to autograph. Crap. I didn't have anything (other than my body...so not appropriate)...except my ticket stub. I felt like such a loser but would've lost my place in line if I had gone to get a t-shirt or something. So, I had each member of the band sign my ticket stub and apologized to each one for being so lame. They were really, really cool and completely adorable.

The videos I took won't upload so here's a taste of the band live.

I just love this kid. Here's more of John Allred. He's playing a show and re-releasing a CD in Provo on 4/18 if anyone is interested in going with me. He puts on a fantastic show.

I've never really been a huge fan of John Mayer. A lot of my friends think that he's super gorgeous and they love his music, but I've just never really gotten that into him -- not until I saw him on Ellen the other day, and now I think he's adorable.

Just tell me that this isn't one of the 'cutest' things you've ever seen:

Jennifer Aniston is a lucky, lucky woman.

The Good and Bad of Monday

So, the most exciting part of today is when I jumped on my scale this morning (kinda unwillingly because I was prepared for the worst) and I have lost 15 lbs! About 5 weeks ago, I started working really hard so that there will be a little less me to love :) Actually, I just want to be healthy and, even though the above picture isn't very realistic for me (pretty sure that my skeleton weighs more than that chica), I am very excited about the changes I can already see. Like biceps. Who knew I could be so excited about biceps? I mean, they're small (thankfully), but I'm getting really strong. Results are definitely motivating! I have become a regular at the local Gold's Gym and am being moderately to super careful (depending on my mood and if there's chocolate in the near vicinity) about what I eat.

Which brings me to a bad part of today. Let's talk about how stinking hard it is to get my butt out of my super comfortable bed at 5:15 a.m. (okay, sometimes I sleep in till 5:30)...now let's talk about how hard it is to get up that early the day after Day Light Savings Time begins. I'm telling you, getting to church by 8:30 a.m. yesterday was a struggle but yesterday got nothin' on today. Geez. I'm such a whiner. But, I got up and had a great workout which made my day more bearable...until about 4 pm this afternoon when this happened:

Seriously Mother Nature? We've already "sprung" forward. Honestly. Let's just be done with snow already! Rain is fine. If we need moisture, please just send rain!

Another good part of today was my weekly lunch with my good friend Jen. She's so great and we set aside lunch on Monday every week to help us survive this beloved day and get the week started off right. Plus, she also works in insurance, so we totally understand each other and can vent as needed. Another bad - actually horrible part of today was an email I got saying that the HBO show Big Love is going to air the endowment ceremony of the temple. For those who may read this who don't know about LDS temples, they are a very important part of our religion and worthy members go there to make sacred covenants with God. Read the following for more information:

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=8ce7efe64dcee010VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1

I think this is ridiculous and this disrespect saddens me. However, I know it will all work out in the end.

When I finally made it home after a long day at work and a treacherous drive through the lovely spring blizzard, I watched Ellen on Tivo. I just love her show. I think laughter is very important and I laugh out loud every time I watch it. My roommates think I'm crazy. Here's my favorite part of today's show:

She's just hilarious. Also a great part of today was the season premiere of Dancing With The Stars (no, my life doesn't revolve around TV - most days). I have to say that I'm excited for this season and even more excited to have Tivo this time around so I can skip over the stuff I don't care about.

It was a good day.

Brian Regan in Logan

So, remember when I said that I was too old to drive to Logan and back in the same night? Well, last Thursday, I took the trek up and back to hang out with my great pal Shannon and see Brian Regan - who, even though I don't know him - is one of my favorite people. He's so dang funny! Shannon got me a ticket to his show for Christmas - best Christmas present ever! I wasn't actually too sleepy driving this time. The fact that there was an all-out blizzard in Sardine Canyon both going and coming helped me be alert. We had dinner at Iron Gate Grill which is in my top 3 restaurants. I just love their food - especially their french fries. But, I'm off junk food (basically anything good) so I didn't get any, which was the hardest thing I've done in a while! My pal Bryan joined us for dinner and it was good to see him. (He said he was upset with me because I came to Logan to see the wrong Brian).

Brian (Regan)'s show was, as always, fantastic. It was the 3rd time I've seen him live, even though I think I've seen his DVD like 100 times. The only downside was this nazi usher who wouldn't let us take any pictures - or text. We were far enough away that I couldn't really get anything good anyway, but she would yell at anyone who got their camera or phone out. "You're totally ruining Brian Regan night!" I didn't yell at her, but I wanted to.

Thanks for an awesome night Shannon! You're the best!