I got my white Christmas!!!

Its been a very busy and full couple of days, which I won't complain about, they have been fun days and a lot has been accomplished. The holidays started on the morning of Christmas Eve when we did our traditional Christmas Eve ski, but this year it was just Jeff, Daren and I. Ross really wanted to go but had to work and wasn't able to get out of it. It snowed constantly starting the Friday before and didn't let up very much, so there was a great base depth. When we got up there it was pretty empty, which is always good, but the wind at the top of the mountain was horrible. At one point on the lift up it was so windy I couldn't hear the others on the lift talking and the seat was swaying big time. At one point it was going front and back but then started swaying side to side, kind of un-nerving. When we were going down the hill the wind was so strong and picked up so much snow I could only see people in front of me from the waste up. I tried to get a picture but by the time I got my camera out it wasn't so bad. But with few people out it was easy to get quite a bit of runs in. My big disappointment for the day was not seeing Santa. I have seen him every year, but usually on the other side of the mountain and because of avalanche danger couldn't get there.

After skiing we had our Christmas Eve dinner. This year my mom was able to get the Mutual Dell lodge, its a lodge up American Fork Canyon that a couple stakes in PG own.

We had the upstairs to our selves, which was good with the amount of people we had this year. Jared and his family was able to come up for Christmas this year and it put the count to 20 people. No way we could have fit comfortably in my parent's house. Plust it had plenty of room for the 6 grandkids to run and yell and not get too annoying. We started a new tradition this year and I made a pinata. The kids had a hay day with it. The younger ones didn't quite understand why we were hiting this present hanging from the cealing but got into it.

After playing a bit we sat down to dinner. It was so nice being able to be all on one table in one room instead of a line of tables that goes into the living room.

After dinner we cleaned up and then had a surprise visitor. Much to the delight and excitement of the little kids Santa showed up with a bag of gifts for everyone. I dont know that the 2 youngest kids understood but caught on to the excitement of the older ones and once they saw presents were really excited.

Poor Sierra, she was the very last to get her presents from Santa. I don't think she quite understood, she just saw all the older kids standing there with their hands out waiting for presents and as they got them they went to open them and she was left standing there for a while with her hand out waiting to get hers. Then didn't quite know what to do with it when she got it :) All the kids got a coloring book and a pair of pajamas from Santa, which they had to run and put on. They were all so cute, all the boys in race cars and the girls in flowers and lady bugs.

After wards they got to sit on Santas lap and tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. Celeste, almost 8 years old, told Santa she needs a lap top and Jackson didn't know what he wanted. Its def a whole different experience at Christmas time with little kids around. They had such a great time and told my mom that they want to do this every year for Christmas Eve, my mom will have a hard time topping this.

It was Ross and I's first Christmas together and I really enjoyed it. We got up about 6 to open our presents and I think we both did really good this year, I got him a traveler guitar he has wanted and some excersize rings and a couple shirts and he got me a jewelry box, new set of scriptures and an ipod shuffle. Then at 9 we went to my parents house to do family gifts. I got this really amazing picture from Jeff this year. It was one of the pictures I took when we were in New York, it was in central park at night. He blew it up, made a frame, cut a matte and put it all together. It looks really really nice.

It was nice to take some time for just Ross and I to relaxe and enjoy the day. We watched a movie and then took the little kids tubbing. Its still hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone for another year. Time goes by so fast and soon it will be Christmas again. I am already looking forward to it next year. Next year we get to spend it with Ross' family in Louisianna, I have never had a green Christmas before. Now its time to get back into work and life until the next event.

Yesterday we went skiing again. It was just Jeff, Ross and I this time. It was really a lot of fun. Ross is doing so much better with skiing and he even went off a jump at the end of the day. I forgot my camera so we didn't get pictures but it was such a good day to ski, not too horribly crowded and not really that windy.

2 days!!!!

The closer to Christmas it gets the more excited I am getting. Ross has no clue what most of his presents are and he has a surprise for me so there is def something to look forward too. And we are for sure going to have a white Christmas, its been a while since we have been dumped on like this, it makes me ansy when I have to sit inside and it snows like that. On the down side I have had to work. I know thats the adult thing, the responsible thing, but I miss Christmas breaks. Luckily I have a very understanding boss who isn't really into working this week and isn't too concerned about our output this week, not to say that I am not working. I am just ready for 6 when I can take off for the week.

Work

Sorry but I have to vent before I implode. My job has become increasingly frustrating. First I have all of my work to do, which needs to be done in my 40 hour work week. Sometimes I finish early and do audits and such on agents that really need to be fired because they clock in for 8 hours and only work 4 but their supervisors are too lazy to do the work necessary to fire them and replace them so I continue to have extra work to do that is pretty much pointless busy work. Then the last couple of weeks a couple other people have given me some of their projects to do. They are above me and had my supervisor ask me to do them so I can't really say no, as tempted as I have been. This extra work has been taking me 2-3 hours a day to complete, which has to be done daily and sent to this manager. Then when I am done with their work, I have to hurry and get mine done and completed. So I have been having to work extra hard to get everything completed and done on time and its a little stressful and not even so much as a thank you, I don't think I ask for much. Then a manager who is above my supervisor is realizing that my supervisor isn't quite following through with his obligations and neither are any of the other supervisors. These are the supervisors that are too lazy to make their employees work or fire them, again, causing me extra work. So, this upper manager has been asking me questions about my audits and how nothing gets done from the supervisors, asks about my supervisor and his lack of follow through, tells me its between him and I and his boss, tells me not to say anything to my supervisor. However in the process of him asking me questions my supervisor walks by and so this other guy stops talking, kind of obvious that we are discussing him. Later my supervisor asks me what it was about, but I can't say anything about it so I am kind of stuck. Then, this higher up hears that my supervisor is asking me about what him and I talked about and wants to know what I told him. (very junior high) So, I have to go behind my supervisors back and if he finds out I will loose his trust and it looks like I am just going behind his back to get things done instead of to him. Doesn't look very good.

The clincher, the proverbial straw that broke the camels back, I just found out they have discontinued the promised raises in Jan. They have been talking for months about the raises we will get in the beginning of Jan and do them every 6 months. Today I just found out they are giving us a bonus for the first time ever, however, they are not doing our raises in Jan. They have been talking about how the company is doing better than ever before and making tons of money and we have reached and passed the 1 million subscriber mark and then they tell us they didn't put our raises in the budget. We get about a 5% raise but they are giving us a 2% bonus. I figured it out and my bonus is $1,000 less than what I would have made with my raise. They say if the first half of the year is good they may give us our bi-yearly raise in July but I don't have much faith in the company these days. I feel a little like Clark Griswald.

This may not make sense and may be rambling but its good to get it off my chest.

Finally Finished

I am excited for a couple of reasons. I woke up to about 2 inches of snow this morning, def can't complain about that, and its still snowing. Alta is getting dumped on and we might actually have a white Christmas, Ross' first. I have realized that as it gets colder I watch weather.com more closely and discuss the weather more. I love winter and the snow, I just don't like to be cold.

The other great thing is I am done with my Christmas shopping. Man, Ross is so hard to shop for. I have been listening to hints and racking my brain since Sept to get ideas thinking maybe it would be easy. No, not at all. I want to surprise him and he has no idea what he is getting. Then yesterday I was talking to his Grandma and she suggested I just get a rock for him for Christmas, its something he enjoys and makes giving gifts very easy. I think I will save that idea for his birthday or for Christmas next year.

Ski Season

So the ski season has started for us this weekend. We did the ski free after 3 at Alta. Friday it was me and a couple of my brothers, it was alright but some places still had rocks sticking out and some weeds and grass. On Sat it snowed all day so when we go there there was some fresh powder, they had 10 inches since morning and it was still snowing. It was a lot of fun, everyone else went with us on Sat and Ross got to try out all his new gear. Ross pretty much had a whole new thing going on, new coat, gloves, boots, ski's and poles. I got some pictures but realized this ski season I won't be in much of them since I will have the camera. Still quite a bit of fun, until Ross dropped his poles from the lift and I had to hike uphill in knee deep snow to get them, I was so tired after that.

We look like a couple of bank robbers but it was quite cold and between the balaclavas and our goggles everything was covered but our noses, but we were warm.

This is Ross going down a hill off the groomed trail. For his first time out this season he did pretty good, we even got him to go down a black diamond.

Hot Husbands

Friday was my company Christmas party. We rode up to the party with my parent's and Bre and Jordan, it was in athe Zermatt resort in Midway. It was actually fun, they had a casino night and food from around the world. We spent most of our time at the black jack tables, it was fun cause i was actually doing pretty good. I never do that good in Wendover. They also have an open bar, which tends to make things interesting. While we were at the black jack table we could see the CEO's secretary making the rounds (she has quite the reputation of getting drunk at these party's and being out of control). She stopped by our table to chat with us and see how we are doing. She looked over at ross and said "man, you are hot. Where is your name tag?" I pulled out our name tags and she was like "oh man Ross you are hot." I told her I agreed with her and she had to look at my name tag to make sure I was his wife. Ross ran into her a couple times that night and she kept reminding him that he was hot. A little while later we saw her with another chick that was hanging all over her, drunk herself, giving her kisses. My friend was telling me its ok to kiss other girls as long as its not intimate. Its always very funny to see the people I work with at the Christmas parties drunk. Every time I looked at some of them they had a new drink in their hand. Makes for a very interesting evening.

Spiders!!!!!

So today I was very bored at work. An assistant manager had just left my desk, needing help on a project he is doing, I was sitting there with my headphones on enjoying some Big Bang Theory while reading/grading some emails, when I looked over and saw this large white spider coming at me. I do have a few other things on my desk that might be more interesting for a spider but it was running pretty fast towards my arm. Thank heavens I saw it before it crawled onto my arm and really gave me a scare. I don't mind spiders but I don't like it when they run at me or surprise me when I find them on my person. I played with it for a while before deciding what to do with it. I have a carniverous plant terrerium on my desk. I am attempting to grow some venus fly traps and some cobra pitchers and some other things, been waiting about 4 weeks and its not showing growth yet. It would have been a great time to have mature plants to feed the spider to. I did put it in the terrerium so it would be out of my way but it managed to crawl out the tiny air holes at the top. I didn't want it to come after me again so I had to euthanize it. I guess its better than all the other spiders I have had at my desk. Those like to go from the ceiling to my hair then dangle on a web in front of my face. I don't understand why I have all these spiders at my desk, I keep it pretty clean and I don't have any plants around. That is one of the reasons for my carniverous terrerium, hopefully it can keep the spiders away from me.