Crazy 6 days!

Brady and I had quite the week a couple of weeks ago (yes I know i'm slow). Brady's mom owns a business and was invited to attend a housewares show in Chicago. She was short on help so I had the wonderful opportunity of picking up the slack and going with her and the rest of Brady's family to Chicago. Originally Brady was not going to be able to go because he wasn't part of the "business trip" and therefore wasn't paid for. I was debating rather I wanted to use my vacation days and be gone over my birthday without my babe. However, he checked his sky miles and he had just enough! Yeah! He did however have to leave a little earlier and came home earlier.

It all started Friday morning at 3:30 in the morning when we left the house to take Brady to the airport. I turned around, got ready and then took myself back to the airport. We arrived, checked in at the hotel and headed straight to the convention center (we got there two days early in order to set the booth up). We set up that night until 9:00! The next day, we started early at 8am. We were all very surprised when we left the hotel to find that everything was closed, including mass transit. The streets were lined with people, all dressed in green. This is the Saturday before St. Patricks Day fyi. They were however celebrating St. Patricks Day already. Apparently it is a week long celebration there - Saturday till Saturday. It was absolutely crazy. They die the Chicago River bright green, change the lights on the skyscrapers to green and have a huge parade.

All of us worked very hard while at the show. Brady constructed, Roger made food runs, I ironed and Jeen made it all come together. It was a long two days of set up - about 18 hours!

The show started Sunday morning and would run through Tuesday. After the show ended on Sunday, we went to dinner for my birthday. I was actually able to go to my all time favorite resturaunt, Maggiano's, on my birthday which is saying a lot considering we don't have one in Utah. I even splurged and got Creme Brulee!
Brady left early early early Monday morning so he could get home for work and school that day. Brady picked me up Tuesday night and took me home to some great surprises. He had decorated the house all cute with birthday stuff and had the table all set up with my gifts. He kept saying the whole time in Chicago "I wish you present would have got here before we left" I understood why when I opened it. It was a NEW CAMERA! I have been wanting one so bad. My family also went all together and got me an amazing lamp to go by my cute chair. I love it! I have the greatest family and the best husband ever!

For St. Patricks Day I made one our favorite foods - fettucine alfredo! I died the alfredo green, had green breadsticks and green salad. I am such a sucker for holidays - thanks mom! What a week!

Newest Addition!

I finally gave into my desires and bought a chair - completely for decoration! Insanity? Probably. It was just so cute though!

Weird Phobia or Crazy Habit?

This is a picture of Brady's night stand! Each of these bottles (7 of them) have about an ounce of water left in them. It is something he has done since we got married and it makes me histarical (unless i'm in a bad mood)! So, is it a phobia of drinking all the water (he claims that by that point all that's left if backwash), or is it just a habit of getting a new one out each time he walks by the fridge? Who knows! All I know is that I love him to death and it's all because of these crazy little things he does!

Quarter of a Century - 2 Years!

This last weekend we were able to celebrate two fantastic things - Brady's birthday and our 2nd anniversary. Wow - how the time has flown!

In Brady's words, he is now a quarter of a century old! He would have to find some creative way of saying 25 - that's why I love him! We went to dinner with Brady's family at Benihana - his favorite resturaunt! We love getting together with everybody, especially our two little nieces. I would like to say that we have pictures, but we are on a bad luck streak with cameras (we ruined one while four-wheeling this last summer and we apparently left the battery charger on the cruise ship for the other one). I have finally given up on finding it and ordered a new charger so hopefully it will be here soon!

Our anniversary fell on a Monday this year and considering we are both in school and working, we didn't have much time to do anything. Brady would not have that as an option though - he said we at least had to go out to dinner somewhere. I mentioned that I wanted sticky fingers from Wingers and he said "No, way! I'm not going to be that guy that takes my wife to Winger's on our anniversary" So, we went to Thaifoon instead. It was so good! The best part of the day was that we came home and did absolutely no homework - we watched a movie instead! Probably not the most responsible thing to do, but definitely more enjoyable! Brady surprised me with two bouquets of flowers! I am so greatful to be married to him. He always makes me laugh, he treats me like a queen and life is just better with him. Thanks for the last 2 years babe and i'm looking forward to many more!

Great Deal!

As many of you know, my grandparents have a tradition of taking the family to the Stadium of Fire every year. Last year, due to the Miley Cyrus ordeal, we were not able to get enough tickets for the family to go. This year the ticket office handled the ticket "lottery" the same and the Jonas Brother's are coming. We thought for sure that we were not going to get tickets again. So 6 of us logged on trying to get tickets and low and behold, WE ALL GOT TICKETS! Unfortunately, grandpa has 14 extra tickets at $51 a piece that we do not need. If anyone would like these and know someone that would like them, we are willing to sell them at or even below face value just so that cute little grandpa doesn't lose ALL his money. Even if you don't like the Jonas Brothers, the fireworks show is worth every penny of that money - trust me!

Everyone please read this!

I am sure that most of you know that a little over a year ago I was held at gunpoint twice. Both incidents were a desperate attempt by the gunmen to obtain Oxycontin. As a result, I had to quit my job, get a lot of mental help through counseling and i'm still not the same. It truly changed my life. My father is really good friends with a family that lost their son to this drug. They have put together a petition that anyone can sign in hopes of getting this drug taken off the market. Their letter reads:

Dear Family and Friends,

We are writing to you and asking for your help to stop a killer before it claims more innocent lives.

Since Oxycontin was approved in 1995 hundreds of thousands (and likely many more) of lives have been destroyed and lost due to this drug. Many of these people were prescribed this drug by their doctors to treat moderate to severe pain. Others, believing the drug was safe because it is FDA approved and prescribed by doctors, use it for non-medical reasons. The results are the same, addiction, overdose, heroin use (heroin is the pharmaceutical cousin to Oxycontin and they are interchangeable) and death. NO ONE is immune from this monster invading their lives! It does not discriminate and crosses all socio-economic, religious and age barriers.

As many of you know, our family has experienced first hand the devastating effects of this drug. Our son (and brother) Josh was prescribed Oxycontin by his doctor on April 13, 2004 for two herniated discs in his back. Four days later he overdosed for the very first time. From that point forward Josh plunged head first into the grips of this "poison pill" that wouldn't let go of him no matter how hard he tried. On this first overdose the nurse in the emergency room was so angry that any doctor would prescribe this type of drug to a 22 year old for back pain. She said that this doctor almost ended his life before it had a chance to begin. How prophetic her words turned out to be. Sadly, Josh lost his battle and passed away on September 30, 2006, one day after his 25th birthday from a lethal combination of prescription drugs - all prescribed to him. Our lives will never be the same!

As heartbreaking as Josh's loss is to us it is only one of thousands of stories that are playing out every single day in homes all across the nation. Prescription drug overdose deaths in many states claim more lives now than automobile accidents (Utah is one of those states). That is why we need your help now! We have a petition that is calling for a ban on Oxycontin. We are going back to D.C. the end of this month and want to take with us as many signatures as possible to prove to the FDA and Big Pharma that the American people are sick and tired of greed being placed above human lives.Please read the petition and sign it (it costs nothing even though it sends you to a donation page after you sign - just ignore that) and then send it on to everyone in your address book. We are also asking for anyone that has a MySpace, FaceBook or Twitter to post the petition there (our kids all know how to do this). We can all stand up and help end this plague that is sweeping through our nation.

Thank you all in advance for your help!

In memory of Joshua Sam Kresser 9/29/1981 ~ 9/30/2006
"May his memeory be eternal"
Layne, Sandra, Jake, Carrie, Amy and Alex Kresser

The link is http://www.banoxycontin.com/

This is a cause that is very important to me. Abuse of this drug changed my life even though I was not the one abusing it. This is the case for MANY people. Thanks for all your help!

Another One Bites the Dust!

On Wednesday night we had our last final of this semester! One more semester done and one step closer to being done forever (I wish it was less steps than it is, but we will look at the positive side I suppose). We are really looking forward to this next week and a half before Summer Semester starts on the 18!