Positive Thinking

I've been working on thinking more positively this semester in school.  After finding out I can't graduate for an EXTRA semester than I had planned...it's been tough.  Once finals are over I should have a more positive outlook and will resume blogging then.

Persistence

Ok confession... I am one of those annoying people who doesn't have kids but loves their dog like a baby and likes to share cute stories about her.  And really, I did not need to confess that, since you would all soon find out that I am that person after reading this post.  Anyway, this post is not only about my dog, but also about my dad.


I grew up always wanting a little dog.  My family was blessed with the world's best dog, Tennessee when I was in third grade but it just wasn't the same.  I needed my OWN, SMALL dog.  I begged and begged.  My parents always told me no.  Finally, after my first year of college they caved.  We started searching for a dog and my uncle actually found her for us.  The night I picked her up she was a demon.  Seriously.  The devil.  She snarled and growled and barked and shrieked at me.  I was advised to give her treats and after handing her a couple successfully, she decided I was getting to close and bit me hard on the hand.  I was distraught but we took her home anyway.  All I kept thinking was "My dad is going to hate this dog!".  Not only did she bark at anyone who came to the door, she barked at all of us unless we were sitting down and petting her with our feet.  A little background on my dad:  he hates barking dogs!  So...after a few days I was preparing for the news from my parents that she had to go.  But it never came.  I mentioned it to my mom a few weeks later and she said "He does not like the barking.  But he knows you love the dog and wants you to be happy."


Fast forward 1.5 years.  I still have the dog but she lives with me now in my apartment.  She is the sweetest thing and the joy of my life.  (Yes, joy)  I visit my parents a lot to do laundry and eat their food and this is what happens when I arrive in their home.  I walk in, set down my bag, sit in the recliner, sometimes receiving a short "hey" from a family member.  Then, in trots Izzy and I hear a squeal and "IZZY!  Oh my little sweetheart!  You little angel!  Did you come to visit grandma and grandpa?" said in babytalk.  They can seriously hear her breathing from across the house and come running.  When my dad walks in the room Izzy jumps up and down licking his pants and smiling. (Yes, she smiles).  She scratches on the door when he is in his room and cries til he lets her in so she can snuggle in his bed.   Seriously people, she loves my dad.  How did this all happen you ask?


After having this dog for about a year I began asking that same question.  Izzy does not do well with strangers, and it has taken a year and a half for her to warm up to many of my family members.  So why did she warm up to him?  I found the answer one night when I was chatting with my mom in her bedroom.  There on my dad's nightstand was a ziplock bag full of dog treats.  When I asked her about it she said "Oh yeah, he gives those to Izzy at night".  I also found that he sometimes carried them in his suit pocket so he was always prepared.  I caught him numerous times sitting on the kitchen floor talking to her in babytalk as he fed her Life cereal or Cheerios.  :)  All to make a little yappy dog like him.  That is dedication!


They are best pals now.  Izzy recognizes his footsteps and is thrilled when he comes home.  She sits at his feet for hours as he works on the computer, and when he is out of town she will find a pair of his shoes to lay on.  Hopefully when I have children they will have a close bond with my dad like my dog does :)

John's 23rd

On March 25th John celebrated his 23rd birthday.  We had a fun, eventful day beginning with breakfast.  Since everyone in my family had places to be by 8 AM we decided to have breakfast at 7 o'clock.  I made crepes, eggs and bacon.  It turned out really fun, despite the fact that our apartment smelled like bacon for the rest of the weekend!  John got a complete new wardrobe from my family.  They love buying him clothes!  He also got a subscription to ESPN magazine from my mom.  I gave him lower bowl tickets to a Jazz game, clothes, and an ipod touch.  I think he was most excited about the ipod because he was a little surprised.  I bought it just a few days before his birthday so he wouldn't suspect much.  His parents came to town to take him to lunch while I went to school and took two exams.  Luckily he was able to take a half day at work and we met back up at 6:00.  We spent the next hour or so looking for ipod covers and then went to dinner at Calloways.  After that we went and saw "Suckerpunch".  (John picked the movie since it was his birthday)  I actually liked it a lot more than I thought I would.  Not that I am into the whole slutty schoolgirl thing, but I thought it had awesome special effects and was a total "girl-power" movie.  I may have liked it even more than John.

The next day I made John a Jazz cake in the morning and we headed to SLC for the Jazz game.  Even though they lost it was still a lot of fun.  We went all out and bought pretzel bites, nachos, popcorn and a drink.  :)  

On Sunday we drove back up to Logan for my friend Chris Carter's welcome home talk and then headed back to Centerville for a birthday dinner with John's family.  It was fun to relax and get out of town for a little while since school has been pretty stressful as of late.  We stayed til around 9 PM and then drove back to Logan to begin another week of school.  

I have lots of fun birthday memories with John, starting with his 18th, but I think this was my favorite.  It is so nice to be married to my best friend and get to see him every day, even if it isn't for very long.  I love him so!  Happy 23rd babe!

Popping

My poor poor back.  I am in class right now and all I can think about is my dang back!  For the last few months it has been killing me and now it won't stop popping.  It pops when I laugh.  Pops when I breathe.  Pops when I sneeze.  Pops when I sit.  Pops when I stand.  Pops when I lie down.  Pops when I bend over.  Pops when I lift up my arms. Sometimes it even pops when I am holding still.  Is it a problem?  Probably.  Chiropractor?  Hopefully.  We'll see.

Viva Las Vegas!

What a fun spring break!  John and I headed down to Vegas to spend time with my parents, Ben, brother Nick and his wife and little girl.  We had a great time.  We got in around 2 AM and went to sleep (slowly, since we had some partying BYU fans in the hotel room next door driving us crazy).

We got up early the next day and went our separate ways.  John went to the basketball games with Nick and I went around the strip with my family.  That night we met up and saw Phantom of the Opera.  We loved it so much!  I loved that it was shortened with no intermission.  Haha.  Seriously though, it was awesome.  We were on the edge of our seats the whole time!

The next day we had a lazy morning.  John played basketball with my brothers and then we took a trip down the Lazy River (swimming pool with a current).  It was awesome despite the broken blood vessels up and down my underarms from the inner-tube.  :)  We had lunch at In N Out and then walked around the strip some more.  That night we saw the Beatles LOVE show which I had wanted to see for YEARS!  We loved it SO much!  It was seriously so awesome and I didn't want it to end.  It was fun to go with my mom, the biggest Beatles fan I know.  

On our third day in Vegas John and I kind of did our own thing.  We met up to see the lions at MGM with my family in the afternoon and then explored on our own some more.  I got carded at New York New York while I was standing around the casino and they asked me to leave because my drivers license was expired, even though I am 21.  Dang.  I got after John because he lost $10 in a slot machine earlier so I was not pleased to find him sitting at another slot machine when I came out of the restroom.  However, I was excited to see this...

241 big ones!  We were excited.  He pulled a few more that day and ended up with around $400.  Sweet!  That night we went to Bucca di Beppo with my family and then to the Aggie game.  It was so fun to all go to the game together and see the Aggies win the WAC championship!  

The place where the game was held was awesome!  It had a gigantic movie theater on the top floor so John and I decided to hang around and see The Adjustment Bureau, which was pretty good.  

The next morning we JUMPED out of bed when John realized that it was daylight savings and we had to be out of our room in 5 minutes.  So... we brushed our teeth and headed out.  We had seen just about everything we wanted to see with the exception of one store.  The famous Gold and Silver Pawn Shop from the TV show Pawn Stars.  It was fun.  Tiny little place, pretty ghetto on the outside but still fun to see.  John even got a souvenir t-shirt :)

After that we drove home, stopping in St. George to eat at Dennys.  We got home around 8:45 and played some cards with my siblings.  I am so worn out today!  Hopefully I can make it through all my classes.  It was such a great time and I am so grateful for my parents who helped us financially with the trip.  They are such a blessing.  I think it is the first time we had that many days where we didn't have to worry about school and work since we got married.  SO NICE!  I am looking forward to John having another break from work next month.  Hopefully we can get out of town again!

Happy Birthday To ME!

Though I don't have any pictures of the joyous occasion I decided to write about my birthday this past Sunday.  What a great day!  Simple, but good.  Mostly everyone in my family was out of town for most of the day Sunday but we did catch my parents and little brother for breakfast at 8 am.  I got some sweet presents including a couple of children's books for my growing library. (Frederick and The Very Hungry Caterpillar).  I also got a dress and coat I have been loving from Newport News which was a complete surprise.  My mom must have bought it 6 months ago!  My sweet husband got me a cute sweater and shirt from Downeast, a Hobby Lobby gift card, flowers AND a coupon for an hour long massage at the Sports Academy!  So awesome.  We took a nap after breakfast and then spent the rest of the afternoon watching a Cake Boss marathon.  John now wants me to be a professional baker.  (After we watched "The Coal Miner's Daughter" he wanted me to be a professional country singer :))  My sister Ester cooked us dinner that night and we had fun watching more Cake Boss and playing Ticket To Ride.  Though I didn't have a big party or anything, it was probably my best birthday to date.  I loved waking up to John and Izzy and knowing they would be with me all day long.  The only thing missing from this perfect day was a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" on my answering machine from my grandpa Israelsen.  That was always the highlight of every birthday!

About Time

Ok I don't really have any big announcement or any exciting event that has happened since my last blog but it's been a while so I thought I'd update.  I am officially on spring break and after one day I'm going INSANE.  Seriously.  I don't even know what to do with myself while John is at work.  I need to pick up a hobby to entertain myself next week.  I plan to decorate or at least clean our guest room which is currently a storage room.  John and I are also going to Vegas which we are excited about.  My brother and his family will be there from DC so it will be fun to see them and play with my niece.  Also, I turn 21 on Sunday.  Pretty crazy.  No big plans.  No small plans.  No plans at all.  March 6th is the most popular travel day in the Ballam family so almost everyone will be out of town, except one sister who will be working.  So John and I will probably watch Lost all day and wish we'd gone grocery shopping.  Haha.  Funny how things like birthdays don't mean as much once you're married.  Is that normal?  I dunno.  I've been shopping for John's birthday all week which has been super fun.  I got us some SWEET Jazz tickets for the Dallas game so that will be awesome.  


Well...that's about it.  Wish I had more to write because I am seriously SO BORED!