Jet Lagged

We got back from our Florida trip on Tue night, it was such a long night. It was a really fun trip and we did a lot and I have gotten my fill of Disney for a little while. We went to the parks 4 days straight, walked at least 9 miles each day and stood in countless lines. It was the first time I had ever gone to the animal kingdom park, not really missing a whole lot. The only rides there I cared for was Everest Experience, Kali Raft and the safari ride. I did realize that I do prefer Disney Land. Disney World is cool but all the cool rides are spread out between 4 parks and to get to 2 of them you have to take a bus from Epcot and thats at least 45 min out of your day. Disneyland you have the two parks and they are right there, you cross a small plaza and you are at the gate of the other park. But all in all it was fun. Friday was our first day in the parks and it rained off and on all day, which I was ok with cause it was warm enough I didn't need a jacket and there really wasn't any lines, and the only time we had humidity was when we got off the plane on Thursday. Actually, most of the time the lines weren't that long, the worst was Sunday, which was expected, but other than that we really didn't use fast passes all that much.

Before leaving on the trip, and since we booked it in March, Ross has been saying how he hates Disney and he will go for me but he won't enjoy it and he won't go back again. He said he did have fun and would be willing to go again, just not in the next 2 years. Can't complain about that. He also got some bonding time with my nephew, which was really cute. But it is good to be home, I don't think I have had a restful vacation for years, always go go go and sleep a little here and there. I will add some pictures, I put the slide show up of all the pictures from the trip, we did a lot of self portraits and playing around with cameras.

Oh, yeah, so we flew into the Salt Lake Airport about 10:45pm on Tue and I was so exhausted, I think most of us were, and then we had to go to my parents house to get the car and on the way home, about 12:15am, we got pulled over and Ross got a ticket for an expired registration. Luckily they didn't impound the car and we actually got home and into bed before 1 but def not the ending to the trip we wanted.

Our plane leaving Denver was delayed about an hour and Nathan had fun with the camera and making faces.

I don't know if this video will work but its Ross, Jeff and Nathan on the teacups.

Bitter Sweet

I have been excited all this week to take my trip to Florida and the "happiest place on earth" and all of us that are going are counting down and psyching each other up. Then this afternoon around noonish I ran into my dad in the hall at work and he said he got a voicemail from my aunt and my grandma was in the hospital. If any of you know my grandma this isn't a very good thing (I guess being in the hospital is never a good thing). She is a tiny tiny almost 96 year old lady. She still walks a couple miles a day, takes care of most of her yard by herself and does all her own house work, volunteers at pretty much any welfare assignement her ward gets and goes to the temple as much as she can, she is not one to sit by and watch people work. I guess sometimes I forget how old she is and how fragile she has become. My dad got the call and called my aunt back. My grandma broke a tiny bone in her pelvis that holds the hips apart. They don't know how she did it, with her age and her bones she could have done it rolling over in her sleep. She was hurting last night and it sounds like she didn't sleep most of the night as the pain in her leg got worse, she was waiting for a decent hour so she wouldn't have to wake my aunt up. They took her to the ER around 5:30 this morning and they did tests up until 2ish when they found out it was a tiny broken bone. There isn't a way to fix it by surgery, they just have to let her heal. Thats part of the bad part, after being in the hospital for 2-3 days they will send her to an after care facility or rehab facility (fancy name for a nursing home) for 6-8 weeks. I am really concerned about her going there and having nothing to keep her going. Ross and my dad were able to give her a blessing when we went to see her, but I still am concerned with the seriousness of this. That and she will be in there for Thanksgiving and possibly Christmas. We were discussing ways to break her out for the holidays. I also found out that my uncle loves hospital food. I found that so odd, who likes hospital food?!?! Sometimes when him and my aunt are going to eat he suggests going to a hospital for dinner. Kind of funny. So, I am still excited for Florida but its dampered by this.

Official

So its official. I am now Britney Dawn Hall. I am waiting for my new social security card but I got it officially changed. I am surprised at how painless it was, and by painless I mean simple. I thought the wait at the office would take forever and that they would take forever going over the documents and the forms but I only had to wait like 10 min and they just took my form, looked at my wedding license and sent me on my way. The tricky part was all that was required for my passport. I decided to get everything done for all the name changes at once, except for my drivers license. While I was in Provo I stopped at the marriage license and the passport office to get an extra copy of my marriage license, to get passport photos and to make sure I had everything filled out and done correctly on my renewal form since I have to mail it in and didn't want any delays in getting it back. That was the confusing part and the instructions I got off the internet didn't explain it all and very clearly. But the people in the office helped me get it all straightened out and I now have that in the mail. I feel like I got quite a bit done on Friday. Now its just dealing with the drivers license change when I get back next week.

Ross not Brit

Whats up everyone this is Ross writing on this for the first time. I know Brit is usually the one that writes on here, but I decided I would give it a go and let people hear from me even if you didn't want to. So I'm sitting here at work and I'm sooooooooooooo burnt out on online Settler's of Katan. I think I have played that game way to much. Stupid bots are always cheating and playing unfair. I dont know that I will want to play for awhile. So as MOST of you know we are going to Disney world on Thursday the 23rd. I dont get peoples obsession with that place. I understand why you take your kids there, but other then that forget I dont get it. So Metallica is coming up in 18 days It's been like 4 year since the last time I saw them with Brit. OK so where has this year gone because now its already the end of October. We will be skiing before you know it then Brit, my mom and I will be in Europe then we will be in New York. Uh ok so I'm done.

Work

As I am sitting at work today grading emails it kind of struck me as kind of interesting that I am grading emails on grammer, spelling and punctuation but I suck at that kind of stuff, as you can probably tell by my blog. I did good in English when it was all literature but when I had to point out the adverb and adjective and things, thats when I didn't do so swell. I had a hard time with mad libs when I was younger cause English doesn't make a whole lot of sense, other than nouns, thats easy. I just thought it was interesting that I am supposed to grade on these things and I am not the most knowledgeable. Luckily its usually simple and if its harder I have the internet to help. I do find some comfort that I am not the worst one.

On a bright note, I finished thank you cards last night. I am so glad to have those done and never want to see another thank you card ever again. I just hope that I haven't left people out but they are finally done, just have to drop the last of them in the mail.

Guys have it easy!

In my boredom at work while my systems were down I decided to print out the applications I need to change my name with various government agencies and man do they ask you to jump through hoops. One form said I need to have 3 different forms of id, stand on my left foot and recite the alphabet backwards. Ok, so not that bad, but pretty close. The forms for changing my passport are the most confusing. Hopefully I have the right forms and they don't decide to keep my old passport cause I used the wrong form and then I have to start all over and then I don't get my passport and I can't travel. I thought it would take me a while to get to the point that I was ready to legally change my name but I am ready and its time. My only dilema is I have had the last name Hillhouse for . . . . well a couple of years, and I am not sure if I am ready to drop that totally and I am not going to hyphenate it. At first I thought I wouldn't like going from Hillhouse, where its a rare name and anyone you meet is related, to Hall, where there are quite a bit more, but I am more than ok with that. I already think of myself as Hall, except for a few slips (it was weird at church to be called Sister Hall). I also want to keep my drivers license cause it still says under 21. So, yeah, I am rambling and just need to get it done. I just haven't decided if I am going to keep Hillhouse as part of my middle name or drop it altogether. I just need to decide cause I need to get things going as soon as we get back from Florida. Then there are all the little tiny places that I need to change my name with and remembering all the places won't be easy.

1 Month

So, we have officially been married a month. Its been a long/short month. At times it seems so short that its hard to believe and at times it seems like its been very long. It has been a very busy month but its also been fun. We have gotten our apartment mostly clutter free and organized so that we can live there without stepping over piles, we have gotten some much needed furniture, we have been to Mexico and Louisiana and still had time to go to work. Its been a lot of fun and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

SNOW!!!!

Today I woke up to the best thing ever. I got up and came out to the living room and Ross was there and told me to look outside. It was snowing really hard and there was already quite a bit of snow on the grass. It was so cool. It kept snowing through most of sacrament meeting. Ross and I tried to stare out the doors during the whole meeting, just mezmerized.

2 Weeks

I am getting really excited, 2 weeks from today we are going to Florida. I haven't been to Disney World since the 9th grade and thats been a couple years. I think it will be a lot of fun and I wish more of my family were going, its just Ross and I, my parents, 2 of my brothers, a sister-in-law and a nephew. I am still excited. I love to travel and I thought after the past month I would be done with it for a while but I am still very excited. Its the last trip for a little while. I promised Ross I wouldn't try to plan anything else since he doesn't get as much PTO right now.

I don't usually do this and I am usually not a gusher but I have a very amazing husband. I wouldn't trade him for the world. So, yesterday as I was leaving work I got a phone call from him saying there was a problem at home and I needed to hurry home. Def not something that I wanted to hear and he wouldn't give me any info on what is going on. I had two thoughts, either there is a big problem (he did sound concerned) and its something he has to show me like our apartment flooded or something or it was a good thing and he was just pulling my leg to try to get me off work earlier (sometimes he trys to convince me to leave work a little early). So I head home wondering what could have gone wrong and could it be a good thing. When I got home there was a pile of stuff in the middle of the living room with one of my bridal pictures leaning up against it. I by passed that trying to find out what was wrong and Ross directed me back to it. I started moving things and there was a pile of things that he had got for me, some things I really really really wanted. He had gone after work and got me a bunch of surprises, one of which is Daiblo 2, which I have been wanting so I can play with my brothers. Just out of the blue he surprised me with all these great things. He is the greatest and has always been. He is such a kind hearted person and would help almost anyone out if they needed it. Best husband ever. He makes me very happy and I do all I can to make him happy. So thats my little bit of gushing and bragging. I am just really happy and wouldn't change anything about my life with Ross.

Snow on the Mountains

So it rained most of the weekend, which I loved cause I got to wear my warmer cozy clothes. (typical weather in Utah for General Conference weekend.) I was getting very excited as it rained hard most of Sat and the mountains were covered in clouds and when they cleared Timp has snow all over it and I hope its going to stick. Then I checked Alta's site and they have some snow, not enough to start counting yet but they are on their way. We also got Ross some ski boots this weekend which is helping to get me excited. I love the winter and as much as it sucks to chip ice and snow off my car at 6AM I am looking forward to it. Its a nice change from the very hot and very dry summer we had. I just hope the ski resorts can open earlier this year than they did last year. Yeah, I know, I am addicted to skiing.


So Ross and I spent the weekend cleaning and organizing our little apartment. With all the stuff that was thrown away its amazing we still have stuff left. But its a lot cleaner and we found room in closets for most of the stuff we won't be using for a while so now our living room is livable. Next great task is our bedroom, but the rest of the place looks really good. And I was able to try out our new vaccuum we got from the wedding, which actually turned out to be really gross. The people that lived there before us must not have been too clean. But the place is very clean now and much more tidy which is a big plus, not a fan of clutter.


I do have some of my bridals and as soon as I get wedding pictures I will add those too.

A Few

I can't believe its October already. Man this year has gone by fast. At the first of the year and especially after we got engaged the time seemed to be going very very slowly and I never thought that Sept would get here. Then in Sept looking back the time has really gone fast and now its October. I love this time of year, its starting to cool down, the leaves are changing and Halloween is almost here and that starts off the holidays. I am really excited for the holidays this year, its the first year in the 5 years that I have known Ross that we will be together for Christmas, he has always gone home for Christmas. This year we will have Christmas in Utah and every other year we will to go Louisianna for Christmas, which I think will be fun. But I am rambling. (I'm trying to work and write and talk to Ross at the same time, so my mind wanders.)

Yesterday was a very exciting day for us. Monday we went to a couple of stores and they were all sold out but yesterday we finally found a place that had Wii's in stock so we got one. Then we had to rush home and put it together to play. I don't know if any of you have played Wii sport, it has bowling, tennis, boxing, baseball and golf. It also has this "fun" feature that you do some workouts and it tells you your Wii age. I went first and I thought I did really good until it told me my Wii age was 58. Talk about a bummer. I will work on that one. I think Ross' was 51, so he wasn't that far behind me. I need to work on it so I can be younger than Ross.

People have also been asking to see pictures from our wedding and I am still waiting on the majority of them to be processed and touched up etc. One of my brothers sent me a couple and I will put them on here. This first one was of when we cut the cake. Ross is really proud of this moment. I had frosting so far up my nose it took a lot to get it out.

The next ones are from the temple after the sealing and then at the ring ceremony.