New York, New York

After an accidental missing of stake conference last Sunday, we decided to make the most of the day and check out Manhattan. I've never been there before so I think it was most exciting for me. This is Trey and I in time square. This is usually where the naked cowboy hangs out but unfortunately for us, it was much too cold for him.Trey has always wanted to get his picture drawn on the street by a one of those street artists so we decided to splurge since it was only $5 per person. The guy drew us in about 10 minutes but neither of us were super pleased with how we turned out. Trey looks super gay and I just look weird. You can kind of see how huge he made my butt in the picture below. It was fun though and definitely entertaining for those 10 minutes.

Jersey Girl

Well after the worst road trip I've ever been on, we finally made it to New Jersey 3 1/2 days later. Our van was definitely worse off than I was however. After about 4 hours of driving, the van started really struggling going up hills. He wouldn't even do more than 40-50 on some of them. We rode it out and made it to North Platte, Nebraska, where we stayed the night and tried to do our own little fixer upper in the morning. That clearly didn't work so we made it a few more hours before pulling off and getting a quote from an auto shop in Omaha. They told us it would cost $1181 to fix the fuel pump so we left angry and decided to tough out the issue. By this point, we were lucky to get up to 60mph on flat ground and even hit 31mph uphill! So we drove all day and stopped in Davenport, Iowa for the night. The next morning we went to an auto shop and they told us it would cost $175 to fix the van...lucky we didn't get ripped off at the other place. So it took about an hour to fix, meanwhile it's freezing outside and nobody will let Walter inside anywhere. We got kicked out of Burger King and the mall unfortunately.

After the van got fixed, we got back on the road and we could actually drive 80mph now! After cruising along like we were unstoppable for about 5 hours, this happened...
Luckily we had to remove half the packed van to get to the tools and spare. That was awesome.
What was also great was that this happened right around 5 which meant that all shops were closed for the night. We were able to convince a kid with a swastika on his arm to hook us up with a new tire. So about an hour and a half later we were on the road again and only had to spend another $60! We camped out in some town in Pennsylvania that night and made it safely to Jersey the following morning. Needless to say, we were very happy to be done with that trip. Now we get a 5 month break before we get to do it again.

The Good Ol' Days

I've spent the past week packing up our house and decided to take a little break. We leave for New Jersey on Saturday and besides packing all the stuff we're taking, I've had to pack up all the stuff we're not taking because we're having some friends live in our house while we're gone. So needless to say, I've been extremely busy but now my house looks spotless. All the cupboards, counter tops, closets, etc. are completely empty. I found this picture while I was sorting through some stuff...
I don't remember being this age but I definitely remember my dad being into origami and making us crazy hats all the time like the one Ashley is wearing. He used to teach nursery so he got an origami book and the kids loved it. I have another picture somewhere of me wearing an origami graduation hat my dad made when I graduated from nursery. I also found this lovely picture...
I feel like maybe we were all too old to be naked in the bath together but I guess we were best friends so it's okay. Ashley and I were a little more modest than Jenna, who was not afraid to flaunt what she did not yet have. I still can't fathom the reasoning behind three grown girls taking a bath together. Maybe we were poor and had to save water. But at least we were tan.

Anyway, I just thought how funny it is when you're trying to clean or organize something and get completely sidetracked. It usually happens when pictures or old junior high love notes are involved. That happened to me today when I came across these pictures, but now I must get back to work.

P-Town

I got to go home with my sisters last week to Pasco, WA and for some reason it was the funnest trip ever. We all decided we're much funnier there. I think it's because we got to act like kids again, with my mom taking care of us and no husbands...I dunno. I just wanted to share some highlights of the trip...


In the above picture, we were walking to our gate, which was about as far away as it possibly could be. We thought our seats were pretty close to the front (row 9) but apparently when you fly into a small airport, row 9 is 2 rows away from the back. Ashley nearly had a panic attack in the airport (I think it was her first time flying with Taya), but luckily Jenna and I were there to calm her down and wait with Taya as she ran back to security to get her phone.

My dad is building another egg farm in Pasco about 2 miles from our other one so we went to visit the new chickens. It was their big debut being Easter and all. All the white dots/circles in the picture are probably flecks of chicken manure floating around. I probably should have gone home and showered afterward but sometimes I guess I don't believe in being that sanitary.

My dad was kind enough to give us a tour of the place. This coop is not yet finished so we got to see it all nice and clean. It's two levels, 10 cages high...very big! I am really proud that I got to grow up on an egg farm. There probably aren't too many people in the world that can say that.

You'd think they'd get claustrophobic. I know I would.

Working Girl

Call me crazy but I've officially decided to knock doors this summer in Trey's office. I've always told him I wanted to be dropped off just to see how I would do cause I've knocked with him plenty of times and know exactly what to say. So last night after hanging out with another couple (the wife sells too) who is going to Jersey with us, I was convinced that this is definitely something I can do. She sells 200 every year and if I'm only half as good as her I'm still better than the average at Pinnacle.

Don't get me wrong, this is not going to be easy or fun by any means. I've knocked with Trey enough times to know that the job sucks, probably more than 90% of the jobs in the nation. But it pays unbelievably well and that is my one and only motivation. Trey does well for us on his own, but he's a tight wad and I want some of my own money to spend on clothes and vacations. I told him the other day that he should buy me a Mercedes G-Wagon with all his money but he said, "No, I will buy you financial freedom." I say, "Eh, that's not as fun."

March Madness Is Right

Besides Fantasy Football, this time of year is my favorite time for sports. I have already filled out 11 separate NCAA tourney brackets and plan to do many more before Thursday is locked in. I wanted to extend the invitation to everyone to join the group I created at espn.com. Search for "The Jami Warner Group" password: jwoo.

As I've been doing some research and learning more about the teams in the tournament, I also found an interesting fact: As college basketball's NCAA Tournament begins, workers around the country will be taking timeout from their jobs to fill out the brackets. Some studies show that companies could lose nearly a billion dollars worth of productivity during the three weeks of March Madness.

I can 100% attest to this statement, as I have now been at work for 4 hours and have done 0 hours of actual work. I can only imagine what hours other fanatics put into it. It's a time consuming activity to get involved in but it is well worth the effort when those games get started. And since I'm on the clock, I'm getting paid to do it :)

My one hope this time around is that BYU will do their best not to choke as they usually do. Even though I'm a huge fan, I picked them to lose last year and sure enough, they did. This year I have a little more confidence in them to win the first game, but after that it's not looking good. I will bite my tongue if they become this year's Cinderella team.

(My favorite BYU player: Lee Cummard)

Under Pressure

After much pressure from the rest of you bloggers, I finally gave in and decided to start one up. I have a facebook account and a myspace account but as one of my married friends told me, those are for single people...blogs are for married people. And since I am a "married people" I decided to jump on the bandwagon.

My only hesitation in starting a blog is the lack of excitement in the daily lives of Trey and I. Most people use their blog to tell funny stories about their kids and post pictures of them as they grow day to day. I am a mother to a boa constrictor (Phyllis) and a maltipoo (Walter) only, and even the boa is a stretch...I haven't touched her in months. And I don't want to be one of those dog people that thinks their animal is a human and talks about them as if they are. So, at best, this blog will cover the most exciting events and thoughts that occur in our lives. If that happens to be Walter at the time, so be it.