The Barclays

Summer 2011

2011-09-19T18:15:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the things that we did this summer: Bagpiping, stake girls camp, hot air ballooning with crazy client Tim, Courtney and Ted's wedding, trip to the Zoo with Tara and crew, Lake Powell with girlfriends and hubbies, the arrival of football season and consequently season Utes tickets, Call family reunion which we have now changed to Family Festivus, and many other not very exciting things. Below are pictures of just a few of those...

Me and Jeremy in Provo before our balloon flight

Ballooing

Fireworks with Emery

Lake Powell

Family Festivus

WAITING...

2011-02-23T12:32:00.000-08:00

We've had a lot of questions about our adoption status lately and although we really appreciate the love and concern, it's kind of irritating. Now let me clarify. It's NOT because we hate answering but because the answer is the same as the last time everyone asked. I've decided that the Lord thinks I need to learn a little more patience. Why I don't know because I am the most patient person in the world! Okay, everyone can stop laughing now. So here's the update.

In December we had our in-home visit and everything went well. At that point we were just waiting for our case worker to get everything typed up and approved. After being informed that we wouldn't be approved till after the first of the year we sat back and enjoyed the holidays. The second week in January we were told that we would need to get new physicals since they expired the first part of January. Here's how that went...

I for one was super excited to be prodded and poked again since I haven't had that done enough in the last 5 years. Jeremy was a little less enthusiastic. After the required 15 phone calls to my doctors office we had our appointments. That day I went with trepidation and irritation to said doctors appointment and quickly realized that the P.A. I was seeing went to high school with me! She is a few years older but I know her sister. After a lengthy discussion as to why I was there, again, she did a few breathing checks, asked general questions about my health and then filled out the needed paperwork. I was ecstatic! No probing, prodding or general uneasiness. Before I left I told her thank you and told her that Jeremy would be coming in to see her the next day. This was the best possible result for having to have a physical again and told Jeremy my experience and that he had nothing to worry about. The next day Jeremy went to his appointment at 3:30 and I didn't hear from him until 5:30. I was confused. What could possibly be taking so long? Oh, don't worry, she not only gave him a COMPLETE physical again (including checking his toenails) but they then spent a solid hour squirting water in his ear to dislodge a small covering on his ear drum. When he told me all of this I laughed almost as hard as the day he went to work with two different shoes on and didn't realize it until I called him at 3:30 in the afternoon! Classic.

After all that we turned our new physical papers in and are waiting. It's crazy how "the first of the year" has turned into near March. There's not a whole lot we can do about it besides be patient and wait so that's what we are doing. Thanks for all your love and support! We really do appreciate it! Hopefully we'll have some good news in the next week or so but until then, we're waiting.....

FAMILY PICTURES 2010

2010-12-06T22:05:00.000-08:00

We finally got some new family pictures taken! It took us applying for adoption and needing newer pictures for us to do it. We're so grateful to my client Jen Gibson and her willingness to take these for us. I think the turned out great! Here's a few of my favorites.

5 Year Anniversary - Maui!

2010-11-29T19:12:00.000-08:00

For our 5 year anniversary I talked Jeremy into going back to Maui which is where we spent our honeymoon. It was so much fun to take some time off and just hang out with each other. It seems like that doesn't happen a lot lately. We were in Maui for about 4 days and it was fantastic! The weather was awesome, the water was warm, the food was good (mostly) and it was so fun to just be together. When we got there we rented some snorkel gear for the week and spent most of our time doing that and just relaxing. I had a client tell me that there are "vacations" and "sightseeing". This was the definition of a vacation! Loved it all especially my sweet hubby for taking me!

I'm Still Here

2010-11-22T15:14:00.000-08:00

It's been a crazy few months but Jeremy and I are still alive. As a little update Jeremy got put in as 1st counc. in the bishopric, I'm still the primary chorister, we went to Maui for our 5 year anniversary in October, we both still work alot and we're a couple of weeks away from having all of our adoption paperwork done and being up online. The last is probably the most exciting news as of late. I'll try to keep everyone more informed as things get rolling. Love you all!

Mary Ann & The Giant Squash

2010-08-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

This year we decided to plant a garden. We had a small 8x8 spot in the very corner of our yard that I planted a few tomato plants, cucumbers, pepper and a few squash plants. After planting them I pretty much forgot about them and didn't fertilize, water very much or weed. After a few weeks I noticed that the squash was doing REALLY well despite my neglect. Well, by the middle of July the squash had literally taken over the garden and the surrounding area. It reminds me of Jack and the Bean Stalk! I had my mom come over to look at it and see if we could figure out what kind of squash I bought because it clearly isn't what I thought it was. My mom has had a garden her whole life and grew up on a farm so she is well aquainted with veggies. Well, I wasn't prepared for her amazement at the size of the squash plant. She said, "Oh, my goodness....what did you do?" That's just it. Nothing! Well after multiple people coming over and looking at it we decided I had planted 2 banana squash plants. Banana squash grow to usually 10-20 lbs but can get as big as 70 lbs! Ummm, ya. We will now refer to this summer as the summer of the squash.

What the ???

2010-03-09T22:26:00.000-08:00

So Mindy tagged me on her blog to open your first picture folder and find the 10th photo and tell the story behind it. Who comes up with these ideas? Anyway...

Yes, that is me and yes I am holding a shot of some apple liquor. This was from last May when Jeremy and I were in Poland for his MBA trip. A bunch of us went to a local restaurant to eat and most of the group drank so much beer the owners decided to treat us all to free shots. Jeremy and I didn't drink ours (of course) but the others were happy to take them off our hands.

10 Random Things

2009-11-27T16:52:00.001-08:00

As per Hilary's suggestion here is a list of 10 random things about me. Just remember that there is no judging on this site and those who do judge me from my list will be blackmailed. I know something secret about everyone.

1. I love to shave my legs. Not just having shaven legs but actually shaving them.

2. I'm addicted to crime shows. Not just CSI and stuff but shows with real stories about people, like American Justice and Cold Case Files.

3. Whenever I drive down Parley's Canyon I think of things I would do if my brakes went out and I was past the runaway truck ramp.

4. I hate grocery shopping.

5. Most of the time my left leg is 1/2 inch longer than my right. I wasn't born this way, it happens when my bones shift in my hip and my sciatic nerve acts up.

6. If I could have any calling in the church I would be the Primary Chorister.

7. I really don't like scrapbooking. I think it's overrated and I'm not very good at it.

8. I can type really fast and pretty accuratley.

9. I absolutley hate being late to things.

10. I use to eat snow with maple syrup on it when I was really little. My neighbor taught it to me. Gross.

Sweet sweet honey.

2009-09-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

Back seat of our "paid for" Nissan Altima.
Cloth seats and accompanying seatbelts.
7 lbs of spilled honey... yes 7 lbs.

How do you even begin to clean that up?
I'll tell you... a ladel, a big bowl and lots and lots of soapy water.
Our back seat is still crunchy.

The Bird

2009-08-17T20:19:00.000-07:00

When I was younger, maybe 5th or 6th grade, I got a Cockatiel for Christmas. His name was Piper and he was a sweet bird. That is he was sweet until Steven and Brian tortured the poor thing and turned it against everone. If you think I'm kidding you should ask them, they still laugh about it. Anyway, Piper did a lot of interesting things. Once he ate a black pearl after bending the earing it was in while still attached to my moms ear. Another time he flew away and ended up landing on a neighbors bald head while he was outside in the garden. Finally he met his demise when left outside in his cage one night. He got eaten by a raccoon. There are differing accounts as to what really happened but he was dead. Well...

Today Katherine and Natalie and I were leaving my salon to go home. As we stepped into the parking lot a hear a bird and it sounded familiar. I looked down and there was a Cockatiel in the parking lot! Just chillin', hangin' out. Flash backs from my childhood swarmed through my head and me having a soft spot in my heart for animals and not wanting it to meet the same fate as Piper, we tried to catch it. It took a few minutes and a piece of chocolate cookie but I got him. He was squalking and trying to bite me. Poor thing didn't realize I was there to help him! So we have this bird, now what do we do with it? Of course, there's a pet store right around the corner! They'll surely take the bird. We walk into the store and this girl tell us they can't take it because they don't know where it's been and it could disease the other birds. Whatever. So what did we do? We left it in the Bird World parking lot for some other person to deal with. Yep. Serious. Now I have guilt.

Moab 2009

2009-08-13T11:44:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Jeremy and I went to Moab with the Barclay's, Steven & Tara and some friends. Jeremy's dad works with a guy who got a permit to run the Westwater seciton of the Colorado River. A 17 mile section of river with a series of 17 rapids. Of course we were in the smallest raft. There was lots of rowing, lots of sun and lots of water. The first few rapids were pretty small. I thought "if this is as bad as it gets, we're good". Boy was I wrong. We went through some pretty amazing rapids. The one that I have the best recollection of was called Skull Rapids. Ya, the name really instilled a sense of saftey for me. Well, the 6 of us in our little raft (that included a guy who's run the river a lot and was our "guide") headed into the rapids and after we hit the first big one we got thrown over to the right and pinned against a rock wall. The raft went up on the wall and we thought it was going to flip and we'd all fall out. Instead Jeff (my brother-in-law) fell into me and I in turn fell into Jeremy and Jeremy and I both fell out! It was pretty scary. Luckily I was right by the raft and could feel the side of the raft. I kept reaching for something to grab onto but couldn't find anything. I was still under water and couldn't get any air. Suddenly I was ripped out of the water and was back in the raft. Literally ripped. In the process I got a huge bruise on my leg somehow. Jeremy on the other hand had gotten sucked down when he fell in. Finally he came up and was right under the raft. He finally got out after being under long enough to feel "uncomfortable". When he popped up the other rafts in our group were yelling at him to swim left. We finally made it out of the rapids, picked up Jeremy from another raft and tried to calm down. It was at this point that our "guide" told us that 3 people have died this year in that exact spot. He didn't tell us before so we didn't freak out. Overall the rafting trip was AWESOME! Definitely scary in spots but way fun!

35th Annual Scottish Festival

2009-06-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Jeremy performed/competed with the Utah Pipe Band at the Utah Scottish Festival at Thanksgiving Point. Friday night was the tattoo and Saturday was the competition. The UPB placed 3rd out of 12 competing bands in both the timed medley and the quick march medley. The main reason I go is to see my hubby in his kilt! Oh, and I guess the sweet piping that they do isn't bad either!

Masters of Business Administration (MBA)

2009-06-14T20:57:00.000-07:00

grad·u·a·tion; (n.)
- Conferral or receipt of an academic degree or diploma marking completion of studies.
- A ceremony at which degrees or diplomas are conferred; a commencement.

2 years of study, countless late nights, 1 trip to Europe. Lots of money.
Finally being done with his Masters degree. Priceless.

Trip Pictures

2009-05-26T21:57:00.001-07:00

Europe 2009

2009-05-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

In lieu of the fact that there is no way I could possibly share all the experiences we had on our amazing trip to Europe I am going to list a few key things that stick out and let the pictures do the rest. That's if I can ever get this blasted slideshow to work.

Poland/Czech Republic 2009

Number of flights: 5
Hotels stayed in: 3
Overnight trains with moldy cheese in them: 1
Days of chronic coughing: 10
Amount of money spent on bathrooms: Lots
Amount of money spent on drinks with no ice: Lots
Number of people in our group: 30
Favorite place visited: Prague
Weirdest food I tasted: Pork lard spread on bread... Yummmmm!
Days spent being grateful I'm American: 10
Most sobering place: Auschwitz
Favorite moments: When it was just me and Jeremy walking around exploring.
People who wouldn't sell us ice cream: 1
Friends made: Many
Hours on a bus: Numerous
Miles walked: Countless

Don't let this list fool you. Even the things that may sound negative were so fun.. well, everything except being sick the whole time. I could have done without that. I'm sure I'll have more to say once I get everything organized.

Snow, snow and....more snow

2009-02-18T21:03:00.001-08:00

Microclimate (n); The climate of a small, specific place within an area as contrasted with the climate of the entire area.

I have learned two things in regards to the recent accumulation of snow here in Layton.

First. Don't try shoveling the snow off a huge driveway unless you want to employ a chiropractor and a massage therapist. Whoever said 'lift with your legs, not with your back' has obviously never shoveled a driveway 15" deep in snow. Because I DID lift with my legs... and my back... and my arms and every other muscle in the human body. In fact my jaw is sore from clenching my teeth while lifting. Crazy.

Second. Before you buy your next house check out the neighbors and make sure you have some good ones. Our neighbor Dusty gets the award for best neighbor this year. Although we do have a snow blower, it's a hand-me-down and doesn't work. Dusty, however, has one of those industrial snow blowers that can suck up small cars and turn them into rubix cubes or something like that. He generally beats us to our driveway and saves me from any shoveling at all. I must admit that last Monday when we also got dumped on he didn't come and snow blow our driveway. I was kind of irritated that he would leave me to do it myself...heaven forbid. Well, yesterday when I was out there shoveling again he came over when I was half done and helped finish it. We got to conversing and he told me how sorry he was that he didn't help on Monday. He wanted to but couldn't because he dislocated his shoulder! Wow, I'm a jerk!

AND THE WINNER IS...

2009-02-17T14:55:00.000-08:00

As many of you know Jeremy is in his last semester in the MBA program at Westminster. One of the requirements for the Masters program is that he take a trip to study business internationally. He was given a list four locations and had to pick which place he wanted to go. Choice #1 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; could be interesting but there's no real desire to go there. #2 Mexico City, Mexico; might be fun but guaranteed to be very dirty and hot. #3 Ireland; you might think this is a no-brainer and the obvious choice. However, that is one place we will probably visit someday due to it's close proximity to Scotland. You all know Jeremy's Scottish right? That leaves us with #4 Poland & the Czech Republic. It may not be an obvious first choice, however, the likely hood that we would choose to go there on our own is pretty slim. So that's where we're going. Yep...WE! It just so happens that there was extra space in the group so spouses can go if they want to. Thus, April 29,2009 we will be flying to Warsaw, Poland where we'll start our stoic journey. Next on the itinerary is Krakow, Poland. Last but certainly not least (I'm very excited to go there) is Prague, Czech Republic. In the coming months we have lots to do to prepare and to be honest I'm a little bit anxious about it! So if any of you have any information about any of the places we're going we'd love to hear about it!

THE BIG 30

2009-01-13T20:44:00.000-08:00

The other day I was reading a section in a fashion magazine about skin care for different age groups. As I was reading the section on skin care for women in their 20's I realized that I wasn't in that category any more! I got bumped up! I'm now officially in the 30+ category.

In honor of turning 30 I'd like to list 30 things that I did or that happened on my birthday:

1. Woke up at 6:30 and attended a Cosmetology conference all day.
2. Ate a delicious mushroom burger at lunch with Jeremy.
3. Listened to an old lady yell at her husband at the restaurant. She kept yelling, "no more beer!"
4. Got The Office season 4 from Jeremy.
5. Had my mom sing me a song on my voice mail.
6. Had my dad sing me a song on my voice mail.
7. Went to dinner with my parents at Mimi's Cafe.
8. Ate a homemade cinnamon roll from Christina.
9. Drank some Dr. Pepper.
10. Pulled the "it's my birthday" card.
11. Got a really unique bread bowl from my parents.
12. Figured out how to work a GPS.
13. Watched an episode of The Office with Jeremy.
14. Laughed a ton!
15. Watched a lady drive down 6th South the wrong direction on a one way street!
16. Went through a whole small bottle of hand sanitizer.
17. Watched the history channel.
18. Made fun of Christina.
19. Had Christina make fun of me.
20. Listened to two women fight about state cosmetology laws...interesting.
21. Got calls from MOST of my family and friends.
22. Talked about sex and saran wrap with my boss...she's was talking, I was listening.
23. Shared my iPod with Jeremy for a few minutes.
24. Made more fun of Christina.
25. Talked to Jeremy on the way home.
26. Drank some more Dr. Pepper.
27. Talked to a guy who lives in Argentina but works in Calgary.
28. Received 5 calls from Kristen. (She really loves me!)
29. Didn't win a thing from the drawings at the convention. Shocking.
30. Kissed Jeremy good night!

Wow, that was a lot harder than I thought it would be! I'm so grateful for all that I have and who I am!

ESPN

2009-01-08T08:57:00.000-08:00

Check out this article on ESPN. What more can we say.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3815656

13-0 Baby!

2009-01-06T09:20:00.000-08:00

We were so lucky to go to New Orleans to see the Utes play in the Sugar Bowl. It was a long journey...driving to Las Vegas on New Years Eve and then flying to Houston and then New Orleans on New Years Day. Here's a few of the things we experienced while we were there.

Saw the mighty Mississippi & got our shoes shinned by a guy named Dan the Shoe Shine Man.

Ate really good oysters on the half shell.

Got ID'd at Harrah's Casino. They didn't believe I was 29 and Jeremy is 31.

Saw TONS of Alabama fans. They had lots to say before the game and not very much after.

Visited a planation and as luck would have it it was POURING rain so we bought some ponchos and it promptly stopped raining.

Visited the French Quarter and ate beignets (french doughnuts).

Made a one time drive down Bourbon Street...no wonder New Orleans flooded!

Listened to Jazz.

Visited a cemetery where all the plots/tombs are above ground because of the water table...weird!

WATCHED THE UTES DOMINATE ALABAMA IN THE SUGAR BOWL AT THE SUPER DOME!!!!

The energy at the game was amazing and it was awesome seeing the 71,000 Alabama fans just sit there while the 14,000 Utah fans yelled and cheered! What a way to end the season! Go UTES!

Christmas PJ's

2008-12-29T19:09:00.000-08:00

As with many families, Jeremy and I have started giving each other pajamas on Christmas Eve. This year he killed two birds with one stone... I got pajamas and a dog (on the pj's that is)!

365 Days of Happiness

2008-12-01T19:36:00.000-08:00

This post is dedicated to all those Utah fans who now have a reason to be happy for the next year. I guess it could be to all the BYU fans who will be unhappy for the next year as well. Jeremy went from 730 days of misery, complaining and defense analyzation to a projected 365 day high! I am particularly happy since this means an inevitable trip for us to whichever BCS game they get to play in! We were able to go to the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco 3 years ago to see them play and since Jeremy has been an exceptionally good boy this year I thought it only fair. Last time I suggested not going Jeremy told Lucky the Elf all he wanted for Christmas was to go to the bowl game. I will never make the mistake of suggesting we/he not attend again since last time I did I went through 365 days of hell!

THE BIG GAME!

2008-11-22T10:38:00.000-08:00

It's game day! The leaves are falling, the air is crisp and it's time for the annual duel! It's a winner-take-all game and it may be to stressful for me to watch!

A Piper is Down!

2008-11-18T21:41:00.000-08:00

This past August Jeremy competed with the Utah Pipe Band at the Jackson Hole Highland Games. Since we were going to be headed up that way we decided to make a vacation out of it. We attended a session at the Idaho Falls temple, drove to Jackson and stayed for a few days then finished off relaxing at "The Farm", Grandpa and Grandma Barclays farm house in Menan Idaho.