The Bowen Family

Beckett Flynn

2011-08-30T15:03:00.000-07:00

Beckett Flynn

August 11, 2011

7 lb 1 oz

19.5 inches

Happy Easter

2011-04-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

We had our Easter feast at Scott and Annette's place in Riverbend. (Taylor's aunt and uncle) Your eyes are not deceiving you...that is in fact a photo of Taylor wearing bunny ears and smiling at the same time.

Commencement

2010-07-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

Anybody who knows my father in law Mark, knows that this is a common expression of his.

Stanford got the coolest speaker ever for commencement. Her name is Susan Rice and she is the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Needless to say, she is a really good speaker!

My Girls

2010-06-06T16:54:00.001-07:00

Today was our last Sunday in the Valparaiso ward:( Although we are stoked to be moving back to Boise, I am a little bit sad to leave the Young Women. Here is a photo of about half of the girls after I taught the lesson today as my send off. We laughed so hard when I saw some of the girls/leaders went out and heart attacked our car during Sunday school.

Kelli's PROFESH Baby Shower

2010-06-05T15:22:00.001-07:00

Ok, so before you go congratulating me for throwing this beautiful party you should know- I didn't. Kelli's friends from her ward threw the party. As you can see this baby shower was more like a wedding reception or something. (they did in fact call and ask Kelli what her colors were). When Kelli and I said that the flowers were nicer than either of us had at our weddings, the ladies laughed and thought we were joking... we weren't. Well that's California for you.

Shib's Graduation

2010-06-03T15:01:00.001-07:00

Well baby Shibby graduated this week and we can't believe that the last child is done. This means that we no longer have choir concerts, sporting events, seminary, or calling the attendance office to excuse absences! The only people missing were Taylor and Brother(who is still on the mish). Smart little Shelby is of course pictured with her smart person cords which the rest of us pretty much only dreamed of.

Mormon Helping Hands

2010-05-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

Well thanks to my friend Liz, I was able to steal this photo and post it. Last Saturday our ward participated in a state wide service project called Mormon Helping Hands. Wards all over the state of California spent the day cleaning up, weeding, and beautifying public parks and recreational areas. As you see we were fortunate enough to get to wear sweet yellow vests- which totally reminded me of the ones we had to wear during P.E. in middle school...yah.

Happy Birthday to Taylor

2010-05-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

You know, I'm not sure why I even have this blog. Everybody that looks at it has probably already seen all of my updates on Facebook. Anyway- Taylor turned 26 on Friday April 30th! He feels like he has passed through the "young adult" phase into the "adult phase", and I have to agree. Graduating with your masters degree and getting a real job sounds pretty adult to me. (how depressing)

To celebrate the passing of youth, we took the train into the city for a Giants game. The train was an experience to say the least. I was thinking that it would be like the trains in New York...wrong. It was a double-decker, jammed packed with boozing screaming Giants fans. When I say boozing I mean people busting out 12 packs, passing around flasks, smoking joints(seriously), doing body shots, and puking all in full view. Note to self, do not take trains into the city on Friday nights. At least the Giants played a great game. However, the highlight was the over zealous fan that jumped onto the field. He was of course body slammed to the ground by an enormous police guard about .5 seconds later, but it was pretty sweet none the less.

Happy Birthday honey- even though you're an old man, at least you're a hot old man. That makes all the difference!

Dickson Family Visit

2010-05-01T14:42:00.001-07:00

My Family came to visit and do the Stanford tour last weekend. The parents stayed in a hotel across the street, while Heather and Brooke were lucky enough to get to sleep on a blow up camping mattress in our HUGE apartment:) So here we have various photos of the Friday night sleepover party. Saturday the parents went golfing with Taylor and the girls got shopping and sweet pedicures(courtesy of the Deborah) Hooray for parents who still pay for their grown up children!

Here we have some typical photos. Me trying to rouse H&B and them pretending like they can't hear me. I finally just jumped on their mattress.

It's that time again...

2010-02-22T09:01:00.000-08:00

Friends and fellow citizens,

Well I am speaking in church...again...much to my dismay! And the topic is actually a very hard one for me; Fasting. I am not exactly the most qualified to speak on fasting (i.e. I don't exactly fast much!)

So as usual I am posting this in hopes that someone out there will help me out and send me some advice/quotes/stories or anything at all that might be of use. And usually when I ask for help with this sort of thing NOBODY responds! (probably because I am anti-social, sorry about that) But please, please, please, if you can think of anything that would help feel free to post it.

Much Obliged,
Courtney

Just Love

2010-02-03T14:05:00.000-08:00

In honor of Valentine's day I am posting some of my favorite love songs of the moment, from some of my favorite bands. For anybody who may need a little V-day inspiration or just some new songs on your ipod, give a listen.

Love,
Courtney

On Fire- Switchfoot

My Heart- Paramore

Miserable at best- Mayday Parade

Rescued- Jack's Mannequin

Inevitable- Anberlin

I swear this time I mean it- Mayday Parade

Air Traffic- Owl City

Forever & almost Always- Kate Voegele

Welcome Home Elder Bowen

2010-01-18T10:37:00.000-08:00

Hooray, McKell came home from his mission last weekend! The whole family was in town so we had a Bowen Family Fiasco. The weekend was spent getting everything ready for Kel to leave on Sunday for Utah State. The semester started a week before he came home, so Emily went to all of his classes and took notes for him(talk about a nice sister!) My job was to take him to the mall and purchase an entire new wardrobe in less than 2 hours. (clearly my mother in law knows where my talents lie!) During all of the mayhem it was also Mark's birthday on Friday, and Ann's birthday on Saturday(and Kel's birthday is this week). We had a great time seeing everybody since we weren't able to make it home for Christmas. Since stake conference was on Sunday, Kel's homecoming talk is on Jan. 31 for anybody who might be in town...we won't ;(

Calling All Friends: Work Out Tunes

2010-01-13T12:05:00.000-08:00

So today I finally decided that I had absolutely HAD IT with the holiday body. This was enough to actually get me out jogging for about an hour(gasp) I know Kelli and Aubrey...you can't believe it. Anyway, I have to run with my ipod and my super slicked out, tricked out Nike Flow ear buds or I can't stand it. Which brings us to the part where I need y'all...tunes. I am starting to get sick of my "Move it" mix and am wondering if everybody will kindly post all of your motivational loose 5 lbs tunes. I will list mine below in case anybody else is needing some new ones. Thanks!

"Courtney's Move it to lose it mix"
1. "Light up the sky" Yellowcard
2. "Hips don't lie" Shakira
3. "Show me the money" Petey Pablo
4. "Supermassive black hole" Muse
5. "Dirrty" (the Redman mix version) Christina
6. "Invincible" Ok Go
7. "Shake Remix" Elephant Man
8. "Calabria 2007" (club mix) Enur
9. "Check yes Juliet" We the kings
10. "Dance, Dance" Fall out boy

Early Christmas

2009-12-19T20:09:00.000-08:00

So we recently got home from our early Christmas in Irvine. I put Brooke in charge of photography, hence I have about 100 photos just from opening presents. Anyway, here were my favorites. Photos of note are: Taylor opening his coat in a Victoria's Secret box, Heather and Brooke being "Super Kawaii" (a quote from Harajuku Girls by Gwen Stefani), dads reaction to his Stanford tree club cover, Taylor biting into his super sized gummy bear, and Heather in her Snuggie. We wish you all a Merry Christmas!!!

A Stanford Thanksgiving

2009-12-16T11:05:00.001-08:00

Well, now that is almost Christmas I am finally posting our Thanksgiving photos. We stayed in Stanford this year since I had to work the day before and after Thanksgiving.That being said I got SUPER domestic and ordered our entire Thanksgiving dinner from Marie Calendars! (and I have to say, it was SO good that I am tempted to never make my own again!) Mark and Ann flew in Thanksgiving day and spent the weekend with us. As usual it was WONDERFUL to have my in laws visit since they buy food, clean, take us out to eat, and took us Christmas shopping while they were here.

Ann always insists that we pose for her photographs. They normally end up looking something like this since we like to annoy her!

This is Taylor's favorite "artistic structure" on campus

Mark and Ann visiting the Cactus Garden

We drove to Half Moon Bay post turkey and walked around the coast

It feels so funny to me wearing a coat to the beach

The handsome dudes at the Monterey aquarium

Here we have several photos of Ann trying to get into the freezing cold water

This photo is typical Bowen Boy material. Here we have Taylor and Mark mocking the Unstable cliffs warning.

Curiouser, and curiouser...Halloween

2009-11-05T11:23:00.001-08:00

Darling baby Claire!

Cute baby Louis

This is my VERY good friend Ashton. Ashton is 6'4" and quite the presence! (she played volleyball for 4 years at the Y) Here she is pulling off the last second missionary costume!

Ok I thought that it was very clever of her to be Victoria from Twilight, since she has the red curly hair

Funniest girls ever! Katie & Jasmine as old folks

Cute Violet...she even got the hair in the face

Me as Alice

Me and Mummy as Austin Powers. Ok so she wasn't going for Austin Powers exactly, but I thought she totally resembled!

Queen Shibby Kathleen!!

2009-10-10T13:49:00.000-07:00

Hello all! So my little sister Shelby was just announced the Homecoming Queen @ Rocky Mountain High. Here are cute photos that were in the Idaho Statesman. I have to say that I have NEVER known anybody who deserves this honor more. Shelby is the sweetest, most kind, most friendly girl in the whole world. She makes friends with all types of people and includes everybody in her circle. Congrats Shib...You are awesome!

Go Cardinal!

2009-09-21T18:12:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody! Well, we are finally here in Palo Alto, CA. We have spent the last week riding our bikes ALL OVER Stanford campus and trying to figure out where everything is. Here is a list of interesting things so far...

1.) Nobody is white.

2.) Nobody speaks English unless forced.

3.) An old lady already told Taylor off because he did not fully yield and give a pedestrian the right of way. (it was hilarious and terrifying all at the same time!)

4.) We are too politically correct to have an "official mascot", so instead of offending any minority groups we simple cheer for the color "cardinal" and we have a silly tree that dances around at football games.

5.) Our band is INSANE! I repeat...our band is INSANE! You have never seen anything like them. I don't even know where to begin, but lets just say they are the rebel band nerds of the whole world:)

6.) There are black "killer" squirrels all around campus. Taylor thinks that they have been genetically altered by the labs at Stanford to promote diversity among the squirrel population.

7.) We call our oven the "easy bake oven" because it is about 12" high and 6" wide.

8.) Taylor's new best friends are named Mapolo and Gogurt...you think I am kidding, but I am not!

Ok so I can't think of any others at the time, but I will do more later!

JM/Fray Concert

2009-07-20T10:56:00.001-07:00

Since we have been living in different states this summer, Taylor and I have been doing some "extreme dating" on the weekends. Since we only have about 48 hours together every week we cram every activity we can think of into those 2 days. This weekend was a prime example. As soon as Taylor arrived in Logan Friday night we went out to dinner at a new place that we have been wanting to try. Saturday morning we went to the first matinee of the new Harry Potter movie. (which I was a little bit dissapointed with...I dont think it lived up to the hype, but it was still good) Next we had lunch, went out for snowcones and Taylor tutored me on my math homework. Around 5 we went out to dinner and drove to Salt Lake for the Jack's Mannequin/Fray concert. The show was AWESOME! It was like 100 degrees at this outdoor ampitheater when the show started, however this did not seem to phase Andrew one bit. I could not believe how good he was live! For the entire hour that Jack's played he was jumping all over the stage while singing ALL vocals, playing the piano, and at one point playing the piano with one hand and the harmonica with the other in between vocals during "La, la, lie". It was CRAZY- the man wasn't even winded after 12 songs. I have to say that I am now an even bigger fan and Taylor (saint that he is) didn't even question me when I ran to purchase my second JM shirt and wrist band. The Fray was also pretty good- we only stayed for their first 4 songs (since we still had an hour & 45 min drive home) but their stage setup was sweet, the whole place was on their feet and dancing. It was an awesome 48 hours, but I am glad that we only have two weeks left of our current arrangment!

HUSBAND OF THE YEAR AWARD!

2009-07-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to take this moment to let everybody know that my husband is AWESOME! I just went to check our mail and was surprised to find tickets to the Jack's Mannequin/Fray concert in two weeks!
In case you couldn't guess by my tunes on the blog, Jack's Mannequin is my FAVORITE band. I pretty much worship Andrew McMahon for everything he has done with Something Corporate & Jack's. I am so excited I can hardly wait!! What a sneaky sweet husband I have- thanks honey, you're my hero!

Brother Bear

2009-06-29T20:26:00.000-07:00

Hey, for all of you that know my brother, I thought that I would post the latest photo he sent. He is currently serving in Ashland, OH and loving every minute of his mish. He is such an amazing missionary! He is the most disciplined, serious, hard worker that I know(except for my hus of course...he's also pretty intense!) Maybe I am a little bit biased because he is the only boy in the family, but we are all SO proud of him!

Happy Birthday Shibby!!!

2009-06-20T19:06:00.000-07:00

Rachie and Shib while shopping. I bought Shelby the shirt that she is wearing for her prez

Well Hello...

The ladies...do you love how my 17 year old sister is a foot taller than me?

Cake made by Mummy of course

Hooray for Birthday's at Corona Village...sick

What the Moab?

2009-05-11T22:06:00.000-07:00

How hot is my hus?

Neat-o...oh so delicate

This was everybody at the top of the Delicate Arch hike...Ann was freaking out at this point

Here I am looking happier than I really was

This is our favorite photo of the trip. Note Kolby participating on the left...how cute is that?

Taylor's Graduation

2009-05-05T21:03:00.000-07:00

Taylor graduated Cum Laude in Civil Engineering from Utah State on May 2nd. It rained cats and dogs all day... so we all look a little bit melted, but it was a super fun day anyway! The Bowen's all came of course, and my dad flew up for the occasion. As Taylor was too cheap to purchase his own graduation packet (cap, gown, tassle, honors cords) he borrowed all of Emily's gear the night before. So we all laughed when we realized that he was the only one wearing an '08 tassle! Oh well, gotta love it.

Christmas Eve Cookie Making

2008-12-30T09:30:00.000-08:00

Hello friends! Hopefully everybody had a good Christmas. We went to Boise and stayed at my parents house for the first time ever! (We ususally stay at the Bowen's but they had a bit of a bathroom remodeling crisis go on)

Anyway, at the Thornton house we always make and decorate sugar cookies on Christmas eve...this year was no exception. My favorite photo is the one of Pop and Taylor in their aprons! hahaha

Christmas Time is Here

2008-12-07T12:19:00.000-08:00

Hello friends...hope that everybody is having a great December. Taylor and I are busy with grad school applications, testing, letters, essays and to top it all off Taylor has finals all next week. So it has been a major process, but we are both so excited! We have narrowed our list down to four schools, but we won't find out where we are going until February. We will be sure to keep everybody posted.

We spent Thanksgiving at my dad's house; all of the kids came home except for Kristin so it was a full house. We are currently in Boise for the weekend; last night we went to a Christmas party downtown...it was a lot of fun. I have decided that i don't get to dress up enough; I miss prom! hahaha

Eric's Mission Farewell

2008-11-17T07:11:00.000-08:00

This Sunday was Eric's farewell. He did such a great job speaking; his talk was an explanation of the atonment. It was really cool because Eric has a lot of non member friends that came to hear him speak. It felt like he was doing missionary work already. He reports to the MTC this Wednesday...it is a little sad, but we are so proud of him!

THE GIRLS VISIT!!!

2008-11-05T12:37:00.000-08:00

Kelli came to Utah to visit Aubrey and I this week. I was only able to go and play Sunday and Monday, but we had a great time. We tried to watch a movie Sunday night but we hadn't talked to each other in so long that we ended up just talking on the couch for about 5 hours! You don't realize how much you miss your best friends until you are with them again :) My favorite photos here are Kelli's Pre-weave and Post-weave...she waits until I can do her hair, and sometimes it is a while!

I am definatley not used to being around 4 little kids...it was a little bit crazy! (how Aubrey does it I have NO idea...but she is SUCH a good mom!) Love you guys~see you at Christmas!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-05T12:27:00.000-08:00

Hi, just thought I would post some photo's of our pumpkins. I am way into carving pumpkins; and I force Taylor be festive with me every year(although he still refuses to do costumes). He is actually quite good! Last year he definitely beat me in our "carve off"... but this year I would say I am clearly the winner. Take a look and tell me which one you like better :)

SPEAKING IN CHURCH...AGAIN!

2008-10-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

Ok...calling all friends; I have to speak this Sunday yet again! I have had to speak 3 times since I have been married! My topic for this sunday is "How do you show your love", I have already gone to the church website and looked up the obvious talks. I just wondered if any of you had any stories, or personal insights to share? I love having help with stuff like this! thank you!

p.s.
My birthday was fab; thanks to all friends who sent emails, cards, or left me messages. You all made my day! My husband sent me flowers on Wednesday and took me shopping in SL all day Saturday and to PF Changs for dinner. (I of course ordered the Great Wall, my personal fav...anybody who has never had great wall needs to order it next time you are there!) My favorite presents were my new red bowls from Anthropologie(thanks mom!) and my new Jessica Simpson boots from Nordstrom(thanks dad!)

Baby sister's first dance!

2008-09-29T07:08:00.000-07:00

So Shelby Kathleen went to Homecoming last weekend. Here is a cute pictures of the blessed event.

My mother in law came to Logan for the weekend and took me birthday shopping...it was fabulous! My presents included; a new pea coat, shoes, shirt, various items from the awesome cooking store , a new book, a new CD, new temple dress...the list just goes on and on. She is kind of out of control...which is so nice on one's birthday!! Thanks so much for coming Ann-it was a blast!

Opening the Call

2008-09-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

Ok so here are some pictures of my brother opening his call. It was hilarious because he had me on one phone, Ashlee on another, and Rachel on another. We were all on speaker, so we could all hear each other talking...so we all started talking to each other...Ashlee had to get off the freeway and pull over...Shelby had run to a friends house, and we were all waiting for her to come back...and he tried to get everybody to shut up for like 5 minutes before he could read his call. My mom thought that this was so funny that she had to capture the moment.

MISSION CALL!!

2008-09-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

My brother Eric got his mission call yesterday....he will be serving in Cleaveland, OH. He leaves for the MTC on November 19. I can't believe that he is old enough to serve a mission!!

Bye Bye Baby

2008-08-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

Well today is a little bit sad. We are leaving Boise and heading back to...yep you guessed it, my favorite place ever LOGAN! (9 more months and I never have to go back again!!!) I am a little bit depressed to go back to work, and leave my baby. Here are some photos of Ethan; I have been his nanny for 4 months now and am very sad to leave him! Now I will have to resume living vicariously through all of your children:)

Company Trip

2008-08-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

Well we went to Oregon last weekend with Taylor's company (Mcmillian Engineering). The owners had just finished their new cabin up near Wallowa Lake. About 30 employees and their families came and camped out. We lucked out and got to stay in the new cabin, which was beautiful! The highlight of the trip would be the gondola ride up the mountains; there is a cafe up there where you can have lunch at the lookout point. Here are some photos of the beautiful scenery.

Park City

2008-07-20T16:13:00.001-07:00

Hello all! Look at me updating my blog...much better than some people I could name as of late(cough...fullmers, cough) We just got back from a fun filled family trip to Park City. It was so much fun! We stayed in a gigantic "cabin" where each suite had it's own private bathroom...for real, I will never camp again!

Taylor showing the children how it's done on the mini backhoe.

Linsey and Andrew on the ziplines(Linsey being clearly in the lead)

The whole fam (- McKell, + Nana & Grandpa)

Me kissing Taylor for participating in pictures!

We went up to Oympic Park and caught the ski jump team during practice. It was really cool to watch; I was unaware that they can practice on wet turf. You probably can't see the jumper in this photo, but he is over the snowflake.

Me & Lins

Andrew & Colby riding the carosel.

Eric's Graduation

2008-06-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hey all...my brother graduated from good old Meridian High a couple of weeks ago.

Here are some photos of the blessed event!

Shelby's Sweet 16!!

2008-06-20T18:13:00.000-07:00

Hello to all 3 people who actually check this blog!! Today the baby sister turned 16!! We had a lovely party which included the following noteworthy events:

1. My mom has been mispronouncing the word "conundrum" her entire life, and just figured it out.

2. The theme of the party was high school musical...and Shelby recieved an "I love Troy" notebook:)

3. Please see photos of Shelby's birthday shirt...she will be wearing it until she gets a date(preferably with David Archuleta, whom she will be seeing in concert in July).

Freakin Snow

2008-05-01T06:35:00.000-07:00

Happy May 1st...there is currently a blizzard in Logan...further supporting my theory that Logan is a God forsaken wasteland.

Taylor's 24th Birthday was yesterday. Unfortunatley Taylor's birthday always falls on finals week, so he had an exam yesterday. However, we went to dinner in Salt Lake at "Happy Sumo". If you have never been I highly reccomend it! The atmosphere is really neat and they have about 50 different "americanized" sushi rolls to choose from...very fun place to go. Taylor is pretty stoked about his birthday gifts. I got him new skis and his parents did a very expensive overhaul on his motorcycle. He is in the big Idaho City race in about a month; so apparently his bike has to be in top condition.

Today is my last day at work and Taylor's last day at school before we move this Saturday. We are very excited for a change of pace/scene. It will be so nice to be back in boise for the summer; if anybody is going to be there, let me know so we can play!!!

SPRING BREAK!

2008-04-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

As promised...here is the much overdo update!!

I just got back from a trip home to visit my CA family... it was so much fun to take the week off of work play! Poor Taylor has finals next week, so he had to stay home and study :(
Heather and Brooke had no nanny for a week, so my parents flew me down to "work"(in Newport Beach, what a joke!)
So we had a fun filled sister week doing the following:
Shopping
More Shopping
Shopping again
Getting manicures/pedicures
Eating out
Hanging at the beach
Watching several episodes of "What not to wear"
Going to See's almost every day
Blaring "Harajuku Girls" every time we were in the car
Running errands for the parents

It was a tough job being the nanny, but someone has got to get paid for it right? Here is a random asortment of our "high school style" hold the camera out and squeeze in pictures :)
TOP WEEK LADIES, TOP WEEK! Love you guys-see you soon

Ok, So I am the suckiest blogger who ever blogged...I know!

2008-03-17T11:35:00.001-07:00

Friends and fellow citizens....(hahahaha Kelli/Aubrey, do you guys remember that term from growing up??:)

Alright so here's the deal, I have no pictures so I never want to blog. My husband is a picture-phobic. However I am going on a trip to my dad's in a couple of weeks to play with Heather and Brooke while they are on Spring break and I shall take LOTS of pictures. And since Heather and Brooke are probably 10 times more computer savy than I am, they can update my blog and make it all cute and stuff.

As an update for now...we are doing well. We have moved twice since we sold our house three weeks ago! So I am pretty much going nuts! We are moving to Boise for the summer on May 3, because Taylor has an internship with an engineering firm. Hooray I get to be lazy and let him work full time!! He is way stoked because he will get to go riding with his dad every week...so I won't feel too bad shopping and lounging at the pool :)

Ok-stay posted for my cutsey updated blog in a few weeks!

MERIDIAN WINS STATE!!!

2007-11-19T11:40:00.001-08:00

(Capital High punter Bruce Caleb Walden and Meridian High's Eric Thornton go for a lose ball Friday night in the 5A state football championship game held at Bronco Stadium. The play resulted in a safety for Meridian. Meridian won 44-14.)

I just thought that I would post a little shout out to my freakin amazing brother...who just finished an undefeated season by taking state on Friday! This picture is of one of my favorite plays of the game. We drove down for the game, even though we are driving to Boise again on Wednesday for Thanksgiving. So two Boise trips in one week for us! Hopefully I will see you all this week!

Hello Everybody!

2007-10-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

So I figured I should probably provide an update as I have not "blogged" for like 2 months or something. Between my new job, moving into our house, Taylor taking his FE exam, and filing a law suit against our insurance company...our life has been so nuts!! We seriuosly come home at the end of each day and are too exhausted to do anything!

But I check your blogs all of the time and see all of your cute kids! Maybe when I have cute kids to post pictures of I will be better at blogging?? Maybe. Ok so here is the update...

1. New Job
I work at this company called Icon Health and Fitness, which is the largest manufacturer of fitness equiptment in the world. I am an assistant to the regional corporate sales manager of the western region of the USA. So it's kind of cool because my boss handles big accounts like Walmart, Target, Shopko, Sports Authority, Big 5, Costco...all of the big companies have accounts with Icon. So I sit at a desk all day and solve problems about orders placed by these big companies. It's not the most fun job in the world, but I stay so busy that the days fly! And it pays well, has good insurance, all of that stuff. So although I am sad that I don't work at the salon anymore, I still do hair all of time at night.(which sometimes feels like too much, but oh well!)

2. New House
We moved into our new house on 10/13, and it is alot of work to move into a new house! There is dust everywhere, appliances are hooked up wrong, the guest bathroom only has HOT water, etc. So we have slowly been making progress and putting everything away. We can't sell the house until 3-1, so we have a little while to live there. Hopefully we get some offers soon!

3. FE
Taylor is taking the FE exam on Saturday. (the fundementals of engineering exam, which is required to graduate) It is a dang expensive 8 hour exam! So he goes up to campus every morning at 7:30, I pick him up at 5:00, feed him, and then take him back up from 7-10. So we are excited for it to be over, and then maybe he can be home at night!

4. Stupid dishonest insurance company
As you all know I had those 2 surgeries a little while ago. It is covered in our insurance plan, and we called for preauthorization...but guess what? They decided AFTER my surgeries that this was going to be considered a "preexisting condition". So we now have thousands of dollars in medical bills that they don't want to pay...lovely. So my dad, who is a medical defense attorney (AKA he usually defends big insurance companies) Is now filing a law suit for us against the insurance company. It has been a tremendous headache, but I think we are now to the point where the insurance company is going to back down and pay the charges. We are hoping that they will decide that they want to keep this out of court, because it will cost them more money to fight us then to just pay now. I will let you guys know what happens!

On a brighter note, we are very excited for halloween since we now live in a real neighboorhood. I am so excited to have cute little trick-or-treaters, and carve our huge pumpkins. I love you girls, and hope you are all doing well. Your kids are adorable and I am jealous! Shelli- are you still planning our girls trip to mexico??? I am so there!!! K bye for now!

New House

2007-09-02T22:43:00.000-07:00

"It seemed like a good idea at the time...", famous last words of a new homebuilder. Our new house is for all intensive purposes finished. This puts an end to a year of laborious scheduling, rescheduling, and then follow-up phone calls to figure out why the subcontractors didn't show up as scheduled.

So now what? Well, we plan on moving in for a couple of months until we can get it sold. However, based on previous experience things never go quite as planned do they?

Here are a few pictures. Landscaping coming soon!!!

FINALLY BETTER!

2007-08-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I am officially out of bed, showered and even wearing makeup again. Don't worry it has been almost an entire month since I could say that! Let me give you a review of my month....

AUG 6- In Boise, have tonsilectomy(which has a two week recovery period of taking serious narcotics every 4 hours...yes during the night too)

AUG 18- I finally am allowed to go home to my husband!

AUG 19- Wake up with internal bleeding, have to go to the ER and have two different attempts to go down my throat and burn the blood vessels to make them stop bleeding...WHILE I AM AWAKE!! (if anybody wants to discuss pain and agony with me some time, trust me this one takes the cake.) However neither attempt worked(just cost me tons of money) and they had to send me up to have surgery all over again.

AUG 20- Back home, so weak I can't even lift my head off of my pillow. Mom drives up to stay for two days.

AUG 22- Dad flys up to stay for two days.

AUG 23- Caught the flu, had to go back to hospital for testing and IV. Puked all over poor unsuspecting husband several times(the man is a saint, seriously)

AUG 24-28 Home in bed, cursing the day I was born...well only for like 2 days of it.

HOORAY NOW I AM SEMI BETTER!!!!:)

And there you have it. Taylor started school again on Monday, which he is very happy about since he got to quit his job. I am not going to go back to current salon, because the booth rent is just about killing us. So hopefully I will be able to find a new job next week when I am allowed to leave the house again. That's all for now, hope you are all excited for fall like I am!:)

2007-08-12T19:04:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from last weekend. We had a Bowen family ride in Baumgartner,ID. (yah don't worry i had never heard of it either!) Good time had by all.