This is my new niece, Savannah Marie Cook. HOW CUTE! Check out those cheeks. She is a very good baby, not a lot of crying but lots of drooling and smiling. Check out her onesie:
"Crawling is for Criminals" courtesy of Bikers Edge.

The Family Tree

So, I will preface this blog by saying that it may come off bitchy, rude and ungrateful. Now it being Thanksgiving and all, I should be writing about things that I appreciate. However, I have only begun to realize the things that I am not grateful for. I understand that family is blood and that you should always appreciate family. But I often question if I am adopted. Not that I think that I'm better than my family, but I just wonder where all of their brain cells went. I just don't feel like I know them at all. I've spent 23 years with these people and I still don't know them. I don't know how they think, why they think that way, or who they are. A part of me blames them but another part of me blames myself. I have conditioned myself to be annoyed every time I am around them. But there is some desire to get to know them, as people.
A part of me is very grateful that I do have them in my life, because they do keep me normal.

My Honeymoon

Sunday - We left late in the afternoon and planned to just stop in Reno to sleep and then driving the rest of the way to San Francisco. Well, I had never driven this route so I was very interested. Some things that I noticed: Wendover sucks. It's like 2 miles and I don't even know if there are more than 2 gas stations. However, the salt flats are awesome!!! I'd never seen them before and they were completely mesmerizing. Reno sucks too, but I think most of Nevada sucks, unless you're in Vegas. I'm pretty sure everyone knew that already and if you didn't, you do now!

Monday - Left Reno and went the long way through Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe is very pretty, and very yuppie. We stopped off for less than 15 minutes and walked on the beach, it was cold. We then continued on to our destination, San Francisco. The drive was pretty short, and apparently we passed a lot of wild fires (I was asleep, Tyson told me this). We finally arrived in San Francisco and Tyson almost killed us a couple of times because he was staring at the bridges that we were driving over, while he was driving. We got to our hotel and unpacked a little. And we realized that we were staying in a handicap room (that story later). Then we decided to go and walk around Fisherman's Wharf. Which is a complete tourist trap! It's completely ridiculous, I understood then why locals hate that place. But we did go over to Pier 39 and ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp. It was really good! We then walked back to our hotel and got harassed by some bums. Tyson was keeping a bum count the entire trip!

Tuesday - Today was really fun. We mastered the bus system and went to the Golden Gate Park, which is about the size of Salt Lake City. We walked through the Japanese Tea Garden, which was very relaxing. And I introduced Tyson to Nan Nan's, yummy chocolate thing with cracker sticks. Then we went and looked at the Lobby and outside of the de Young Museum, it was really cool architecture. We also walked through the Conservatory of flowers which definitely wasn't worth paying for. We then rode a bus over to Haight Ashbury and looked at all the hippy stuff, that was kind of fun, but it seemed like a bunch of really expensive stores with crap. We rode the bus downtown to Union Square, which is just more expensive stores. And of course, we rode the cable cars, it was fun to watch Tyson act like a little school boy. He always wants to know how things work. THEN, Tyson had to push me up Lombard Street to see the curvy top of it. I was VERY tired at the this point because we had been walked A LOT. Finally we went back to the hotel and watched a really cool tattoo documentary. Apparently there is a guy that is obsessed with Disney characters and has over 1000 Disney characters tattooed on his body. Weird.

Wednesday - Today we woke up semi-early and rode a little outside of San Fran to go to Six Flags. Six Flags was super fun! Tyson's hair got pretty crazy and we had fun riding the rides. The lines were awesome because they were REALLY short. We then drove back and relaxed in our hotel for a little. Then we went to a Pizza Place that was next to our hotel. Now, the pizza was okay, but it was the WORST service EVER!!!!! I'm not kidding, the girl didn't even come and refill our drinks, Tyson had to walk back into the kitchen to get his drink refilled. Then once we received our check, she never came back to get it! I had to walk back behind the counter and give it her. I was so pissed! Tyson was pretty mad too (yes it happens) so he left a 15 cent tip. OUCH!

Thursday - We had to wake up early today to catch a bus to one of the touristy tours that we arranged for ourselves. We went on a bus ride to Muir Woods, which is just outside of San Fran with the big redwood trees. And these trees are HUGE, it was so amazing and quiet. I think I would have liked to stay somewhere quiet instead of in the city, but it was still really fun! After the woods, the bus drove over to Sousalito, which is a small bay city. It is so beautiful! But it's definitely a rich place to be!
After that we went back to the hotel and hung out. And then we walked down to Pier 39 and met up for the Sunset Bay Cruise. There were incredibly loud asians, whom I wanted to kill. I hate loud people, especially loud asians.

Friday - Today was a lot of walking and traveling around in the city by public transportation. I love big cities, because public transportation kicks ass. First we went to the Exploratorium. This was a children's museum for adults! It was a lot of fun, but definitely bring some hand sanitizer because it's kind of nasty. Then we rode the bus to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). It was a lot of fun to see art and hang out with my husband. Then we WALKED to a restaurant called the Stinking Rose. This place was awesome!!! And it was delicious!!! I love garlic, so this was my heaven.

Saturday - Today was pretty chill, we hung out with each other for the most part of the day. Then we went to a little place called, The Aquarium of the Bay. This was lame, but there was a little kid that was completely CONVINCED that we were actually under the Bay. It was hysterical. And then we sat in line for the Alcatraz night tour. This was probably one of the highlights of our honeymoon. Alcatraz was a lot of fun and had a lot of history behind it. It also was a damn good idea, however, VERY expensive. The night tour is the best tour because you get to be on the island at night and it's an extra long tour. Even though there weren't a lot of deaths in that place, it was pretty creepy just to be in there. But it was a lot of fun!

Sunday - Time to go home!!! Yeah - fun!! As we drove out of California, we stopped at the Jelly Belly factory!!! It was a lot of fun. We did a tour through the factory (where pictures are not allowed). And we got TONS of jelly bellies at a discount! There are also these one jelly bellies that do not make the "jelly belly cut" and are packaged and called Belly Flops! They are retarded jelly bellies!!! HAHAHA.... they are awesome!!


That was our honeymoon!!!!

07-07-07 - The Wedding

It finally came. After all of the crazy things that went on (see below, Bridezilla) and many more that was not on this page, the day came and went. I wouldn't say that everything went perfectly but I think that it went very well.
I started my day off by going to the hairdresser and getting all of my hair curled and put into boby pins on top of my head. I then went home and packed up my things for the night and the day after. I didn't have very much to take care of because it had been taken care of by my mother, father and soon-to-be husband. I simply loaded up my car with the simple things and started to drive up to Snowbird. On the way I called a couple of my friends that would be unable to make it to my wedding (Emily!!!).
Once at Snowbird I met up with my parents and checked into my room. I was bored and I couldn't just sit in my room so I decided to start unload and help set up the event. I'm glad I was there because there were certain things that I wanted and it worked out perfectly, sort of.
It was about 4 when my bridesmaids were suppose to arrive. I started getting ready. I was about 10 minutes in getting ready. And it's a good thing because a car was in flames at the bottom of the canyon!
The ceremony was beautiful. My flower lady did such a wonderful job with taking what was in my head and creating a ceremony that was even better! My veil was bothering me almost the entire time and I wanted to rip it off my face. However, Tyson said I looked pretty. The ceremony went beautifully and smooth. The judge did talk a little too much for my taste, but at least he didn't say anything to make me mad, and to be honest I really don't even remember what he did say.
After the ceremony we took some pictures. And I really just wanted to make out with my new husband, but I guess that would have been a little inappropriate. The pictures turned out great but while we were taking them I just didn't want to take any and I wasn't in the mood to be in front of a camera. However, during the cocktail hour my hors devours were great and they looked wonderful. Some people felt a little apprehensive about the whole cocktail hour thing, but there wasn't even any alcohol!
The dinner was great, however, I've learned that I don't like to eat anyone's salmon except my own. I make the best salmon ever!!! Although not a lot of people danced, the cake was great and I had fun. Tyson and I are very good hosts and I can't wait to start having dinner parties!!!

Trying to be professional in an unprofessional profession

The mental health industry is the most unhealthy and unprofessional work a person can work in. It is a job that is driven by emotion and is completely illogical. Of course this is completely expected among that people that are receiving treatment or therapy. However, it is quite surprising when this comes from the people that are supposedly giving the treatment or therapy.
I've worked in this industry for 6 years and the one thing that I have learned is to always say that you trust someone but never actually trust them because it will 9 times out of 10 backfire on you. People in the mental health industry are driven by emotion. Emotional people are dangerous. Emotions make people do stupid things not to mention unprofessional things.
In a REAL business if there is a problem with employees they are expected to work it out and if they can't work it out then they go to their boss or whatever, and apparently the boss is supposed to be unbiased. However, in the REAL business world, most of the time people do one of two things, they either work it out or get over it and move on with their lives. I think that in the mental health industry people will automatically hold a resentment or grudge against that person, even if they say that they work it out, they will still hate each other. I think that it's ridiculous that in the mental health industry people are supposed to be teaching others how to live a healthy lifestyle and how to work out their problems but they can't even seem to do it themselves.
Many people say that people that work in the mental health industry are pretty unhealthy themselves and need therapy. I've decided that they are correct. Anyone that really wants to work in an area like that must be crazy. They can't deal with problems in their own lives so they decide to fix someone's life from the outside. I don't really know what that says about me, do I have a messed up life? Do I need therapy? Or am I one of those people that actually have good idealistic intentions to touch someones life in a positive way? I guess we won't know.....

Lullaby

Hate to break it to all of you Chuck fan's but guess what? This book wasn't so great. I compare every Chuck book to Survivor because I think that was one of his greatest books ever!! Lullaby is basically about a man and woman with secrets. I think that we all have secrets and I must question whether or not having these is a bad or a good thing. Secrets can sometimes kill a person, but sometimes they can make you stronger as well. So what are my secrets? Are they my doubts? Or my thoughts? I'm the type of person that usually says what's on my mind so I don't know if I really have any secrets or not. If you define secrets as something that no one else knows. I consider my secrets to be my thoughts that I don't say out loud, the thoughts that often consume my time. The time that I should be sleeping, or working, or showering, or driving. So I'll admit that my thoughts are pretty random, and could be considered my secrets. By reading my blog I guess you are also being a witness to some of my secrets.
Book Rating Scale: 1

Miss Universe

The Greatest Moment in pageant history has taken place this evening. Miss Universe 2008 was a very entertaining pageant! I will first give you an overview of what took place and then I will give you some pictures for your viewing pleasure.
The night started out boring with the same opening number as Miss USA, and then the girls were in cages on stage doing a little dance! That was again, terrible.
Top 15 were called(of which I rightly guessed 9 of them):
Venezuela, Thailand, Denmark, Nicaragua, Angola, Slovenia, USA, Brazil, India, Mexico, Japan, Ukraine, Tanzania, Korea and Czech Republic.
The swimsuit competition was great, the lowest score was Ukraine with a 7.900 and the highest was Japan with a 9.599.
The Top 10 were called (I got 8 out of 10)
Brazil, India, Japan, Angola, Venezuela, USA, Korea, Tanzania, Nicaragua, and Mexico.
Now the greatest moment of ALL pageant history was when Miss USA fell right on her butt!!! I have never laughed so hard in my life, I had tears streaming down my face, my stomach hurt, it was the best ab work out I have ever had.
Even after all of this, top 5 were called, (I had 5 out of 5) Venezuela, Korea, Brazil, USA, Japan. When they called Miss USA into top 5, the great Mexican crowd Booed!!!! I know I shouldn't be laughing about this but it was hilarious!
After Miss USA was booed during her entire final question, here is how it ended:
4th runner-up : Miss USA
3rd runner-up: Korea
2nd runner-up: Venezuela
1st runner-up: Brazil
Winner: Japan
Brazil and Venezuela were robbed, but oh well. I could have cared less who won, after seeing this:






Yes ladies and gentlemen, on her ass, in front of about 90 billion viewers! Go USA!!!!

Thank God for Random Play All

As I was doing my one good deed a week as a house wife/girlfriend (doing dishes and making pizza dough), I was listening to my mp3 player and I decided that my Zen is psychic. 95% of the time my mp3 player can predict what I want to listen to. Now, I don't know if that is because I get a sense of nostalgia when I hear certain Green Day or Tori Amos songs and so I don't mind these songs playing, or if my player is actually psychic and can read my emotions and thoughts. No matter what it is, I have decided that with my 1468 songs, I'm very grateful for the Random Play All button.
Sometimes I feel that my life is on the Random Play All setting. I feel very up and down and it seems my mood changes every 3 minutes, just as my songs on my Zen do. At one point I think that I am stable and that I have a niche. However, I soon realize that all of this is not true and I am still unstable in my job, my life and my music.... So the question is, how do I take my life off of Random Play All?

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

My review of Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. First of all, I do not claim to be a professional writer, nor a professional reviewer person (is there a name for that?). When I began reading this book I was aware that I was reading a memoir. My favorite kind of books to read are memoirs, auto-biographies, and biographies. This book seemed very interesting to me because it was about a child who grew up in unique and different circumstances. I like these kinds of books because they make me feel normal... haha
However I began to realize half-way through the book that this author seems to have no emotion about his life. I guess that's the reaction one must make when faced with such difficulty. However, it is normal to have emotion when looking back on it and writing about it. The author began to describe his pedophilia boyfriend (whom was 20 years older), his crazed mother who left him to her shrink, and his best friend that began giving blowjobs when she was 12. Now I realize that I have read worse books, I guess I just thought that it was going to be better, considering that it was made into a major motion picture. Usually books that have movies made about them, are pretty good.
I am glad to say that I did finish the book, in fact, I couldn't put it down. I don't know if that is because I wanted to get to the point or because the author actually had me interested. Whatever it was, I will say that I enjoyed the book, it is a 3 on a scale of 1-5.

Bride Zilla

Planning a wedding is a nightmare. At first it is something that seems fun and interesting, but once you get half way through, it starts to eat at you and nothing goes right. To begin this roller coaster story, we start with booking the reception/ceremony location. Since I was small I have always wanted to do my wedding at the McCune Mansion in Salt Lake City. So I went and had a look around and realized that our guests (mostly Tyson's family) would not be accommodated at this place, it was just too small. So, I began looking around Salt Lake City. We wanted our ceremony to be outside and a sit down dinner for our guests, and of course a reception with all the desserts and dancing. (I say we, but I think I really mean me). I decided on a reception center up Millcreek Canyon. I called and penciled my name on their calendar, and spoke to several people about what I wanted. I then called a couple of months later because I hadn't heard from anyone, and came to realize that someone else had called and taken the date and payed their deposit, therefore kicking me out.... I was very sad. I felt that this was a sign that Vegas was calling my name. Then I moved on to a different location, The Grand America Hotel. Now I knew that I was setting my sights high, however I was NOT aware that it would cost us $4000 just to get in the door. So that was down the toilet as well. Finally we decided and signed a contract for the Golden Cliff & Eagle's Nest at the Snowbird Resort Hotel, The Cliff Lodge. Two days after I signed the contract I got a call saying that they had double booked this location and that I was being kicked out AGAIN. This one definitely broke the camel's back and I was just devastated. I cried for a whole day and felt again, that I should go to Vegas (which now I realize I should have). They gave me the option for a ballroom, or the Atrium, a restaurant at the hotel. I decided to go with the Atrium, however I was still very upset (and still am for that matter). Since then, the Snowbird faculty have informed me that they are going to be unable to seat all of my guests, that I can not get in to the restaurant to set up until 4pm (my wedding starts at 5) and that they may or may not be able to give me the food that I have requested.
So after all of this (and it's not over) I have decided that planning your wedding ahead of time, doesn't make it any less stressful. All it does is give you the idea that you have plenty of time and you put things off until the end. Also, a big fancy wedding really isn't necessary. Well, I guess I can't really say that because it hasn't happened yet, so I don't have an official position, however the way it's going I can say that it's not the best thing ever.