I'm from Vegas, What's your excuse?

Some of you will appreciate this-- I found it on a Facebook group.

You know you're from Vegas when...

1. You have no idea what a scarf does, but think it looks good

2. You know how to get to any casino on the strip without taking Las Vegas Blvd

3. You know where the natural history museum, art museum and zoo are.

4. The last time you went to the strip, your cousins were in town last summer

5. You know the seasons: Really hot, 2 weeks of nice, not so hot, 2 weeks of nice.

6. Your favorite chocolate is Ethel M. (Desert Chocolate means something to you)

7. When you go to different cities, you're amazed things aren't open after 9pm (and that there are no flashing neon signs to direct you!)

8. You've never seen a closed gas station

9. When arriving home from vacation the slot machines in McCarran are comforting (or you get to other airports and can't understand why they are so quiet!)

10. You are still asked "smoking or non?" when you go to out to eat.

11. You laugh at people playing the slots at 7-11

12. Your most prized possession as a Nevadan is your blue and white license plate

13. You know the spaghetti bowl has nothing to do with food

14. You know never to merge right when driving north on I-15, it'll end anyway.

15. You think a pile of rocks is a nice lawn

16. The term Lake Las Vegas doesn't seem redundant in the slightest.

17. You remember the ugly lion

18. You need to walk through a casino to see a movie.

19. You go in circles through McCarran on purpose

20. You can spot a tourist from 3 miles away

21. Limos are an everyday sighting

22. You laugh at people taking pictures in front of the "welcome to las vegas" sign

23. You don't own an umbrella

24. 70 degrees is cold enough to wear a jacket

25. You've never HAD to pay for parking.

26. You get completely lost whenever you go to another city because you always navigate town based upon the Stratosphere.

27. You've seen more local building demolitions by the age of 18 than most people will their entire lives.

28. You remember saying "Stupak's Tower? More like Stupids' Tower."

29. You were devastated by the loss of the marshmallow factory in the PEPCON explosion.

30. You park in the shade no matter how far you have to walk

31. A bowling alley not attached to a casino frightens and confuses you.

32. The pool can be warmer than you are.

33. You've had a second degree burn from your seatbelt.

34. You leave a bottle of water in your car for only 30 minutes, and it's boiling hot.

35. When buying a car, a/c is not a luxury! and leather seats are not an option!

36. 4 minutes of sprinkling is considered a rainy day.

37. You have no idea what snow boots are (or ice scrapers! ha ha)

38. You are amused by people who do not wear flip-flops year round

39. You've gotten a tan just by staying inside.

40. You drive straight to the top of a casino's parking garage...you know that 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th...and so on floors are all taken so there's no need to waste your time or gas.

Girls' Night Out

Yesterday Melissa, Asher and I went to the "What women want Expo" in Sandy. It was a room full of people giving out samples and doing drawings for free make up, massages, tupperware, recipes, ect. I won a book with recipes, a dieting tips book and $40 in free mary kay product as well as a free eyebrow waxing! Asher loved it since she got candy at almost every table! We even took pictures in a photo booth! 

This one is my favorite!

Last night was the General Relief Society Meeting as well and this year I was lucky enough to get tickets to be in the conference center! I went with my friend Liz and we were both excited since we don't know how often how often in our lives we will have that opportunity. The site was amazing--the conference center was full-21,000 women of all ages! The spirit in the meeting was amazing. After we continued girls night by meeting friends who were also at the conference for dinner at Z tezas. Luckily, not many of the other women had that idea-- all the other restaurants in the area were packed, but not this one! 

Also this weekend, my cousin Wendy was in town from Vegas. So today after church we ran up to Ogden to see the Grandparents. I am really excited to be so much closer to them since I have not known them much throughout my life. Grandma is in pretty poor shape. At one point she grabbed my hand and asked me how long I had known Sid (my grandpa) and told me he was quite a catch. Then she asked if I lived at the house we were at and that she had to get going because her family was going to start missing her. Yes, Grandma, we miss you, but it is sure good to spend time with you now even if you don't know who we are. I made a promise to myself that my kids will have a relationship with their grandparents before "papa" and "gandma" are too old to know them when they visit. 

Vegas Time!

This past weekend I went Home to Vegas with my older sister. We had so much fun on the way down blasting our music as if we were teenagers again... and we were reminiscing about high school so it was fitting! We pulled into our parents house about midnight to us and felt bad because they wanted to talk to  us, and we just wanted to go to bed... and our ears were ringing for some weird reason ha ha! Friday was a great day! we got to relax and hang out, I went to lunch with a friend from high school and then we went to the temple as a family to do sealings for family names. We have heard these names our whole lives and finally got to do the highest work possible for them, and be together as a family doing it. It was a great way to start a weekend. That night melissa, me, leslie and mom went to Time Out for Women. We have had tickets since February, but it was the same weekend as President Hinckley's funeral so it got post poned. Well worth the wait! That night we heard from Hilary Weeks (who I have loved for awhile and even more in person! she is so funny!) and also the Nashville Tribute band that I love! They do a tribute to Joseph Smith and also the pioneers. They did songs from both CD"s and told stories about how the songs came to be. The lead singer served his mission in Vegas too so he was way excited to be there. Saturday Leslie had to work so Lauren came with us and we heard from Virginia Hinckley Pearce on the power of prayer, and Pam Hanson on liking what you see in the mirror, Amanda Dickson on how to deal with a messy life, and two other speakers whose names have escaped me at the moment. It was a long day, but gave me lots of things to think about and work on. 

The weekend prior was Leslie's 20th birthday--yay!! no longer a teenager!!  For my birthday this year she took me to see Phantom Las Vegas, so now it was my turn to treat her to a show, and her pick was Jersey Boys. This is the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and how they came to be famous. It was great music and interesting to see all they went through. Just be careful of the "authentic Jersey language" should you see the show!

It was a busy weekend, but come Sunday I was ready to head back to my new home. Always good to see the family, but even though I have lived there nearly my whole life (and only been in Utah a month!) Vegas didn't feel like home any more. Maybe another sign that I am where I need to be at this point in my life!

Favorites

I think this pretty much says it right...

What Your Favorite Color Pink Says About You:

Blissful --- Content --- Romantic Idealistic --- Expressive --- Artistic Funny --- Quirky --- Individualistic

What Does Your Favorite Color Say About You?

Vegas Migraters...

This has been a long week and I have not had much time to blog! But, it has been exciting nonetheless. I have been here three weeks now and am starting to discover more friends I knew in Vegas that have moved here as well! Last weekend I was able to go to dinner with Jamie Gardner who was in my ward back home and now lives in Sugarhouse (her roommates are also from Vegas!). That was great because I still don't know a lot of people here and she showed me around Salt Lake. I had a little bout of homesickness too and she was able to help me through that. I also was able to hang out this weekend with my friend Holly who made me start thinking about moving here in the first place! We went to a Kareoke bar... ok that's not true... we are in Utah.. so it was a kareoke... center? I don't know, but it was fun! She even got me on the stage! We went with some of her old friends from Vegas that now live in Midvale.  While there, we ran into Paul Pederson--my piano teachers' son that also dated my sister years ago! Small world! He and his wife now reside in Pleasant Grove. Tuesday night I was up at the U for an institute class and was supposed to meet Jamie again, but there were about 200 people there so I didn't run into her, but I did run into my friend Emily, also from Las Vegas. She is now in North Salt Lake. And lastly, today when I went to conference it was with Shayler, who I also know from Vegas. Oh, and I can't forget my sister is here too! There are others I know are here, but I just haven't run into them yet, but it sure is fun to know that I am not the only one who has migrated to "the motherland." 

Conference and Buffalo

Today was amazing! We had a regional conference held in the conference center under the direction of the First Presidency! WOW!! How often do you get that opportunity? I was able to go with a few friends I have made here and we were all in awe. President Hinckley's son spoke first and shared a memory of his father last fall when he was sealing the 24th of his 25 grandchildren in the Salt Lake temple. He said he had just realized not only had he sealed all of his 5 children, but now 24 of their children as well, and how in his 97 years that was the greatest thing he had ever done. We also were blessed to have President Monson address us. He was funny too sharing memories of President Hinckley and Faust. He said one time during a conference he was conducting President Hinckley leaned over to him and whispered "Tom, if I start to doze will you just nudge me?"   and President Faust echoed that plea. He said well, during the meeting I looked over to see both of them dozing, and wondered how do you wake the president of the church when dozing in a meeting? so to solve the problem I tapped him and said, "President" while pointing to President Faust-- President Hinckley in turn elbowed Faust in the ribs and said "Jim, Jim-- wake up!" ha ha I love hearing stories from these great men!  it was an amazing conference and all three of us were glad to be in attendance. I hope I don't come to take that for granted being so close to events like this. I am so glad to have the knowledge that I do of this great church and the testimony that these leaders are called of a loving Heavenly Father. 

There were 72 stakes involved in the conference. That's probably more than there are in the whole state of Nevada! Since so many were involved we had to park quite a ways from the conference center. We were actually up by the Capital building (how have I never been there in all my Utah excursions?) As we were walking down to the center we saw these randomly placed Buffalo along the path, and they totally reminded me of North Dakota! My friend Liz is from the Dakota's so she understood my need for a picture!

Mountains of Laundry!

I haven't done laundry in the three weeks since I have been here so I decided tonight I better stay home and get at least some of it done! The good part is my complex has a laundromat so my thought was to throw it all it a couple machines and be done in an hour or so. I had two overflowing laundry baskets I drug down three flights of stairs, and across the complex into the laundromat and got two machines ready to go--including soap-- before I realized the machines only take cards. Luckily, I had my debit card on me so I tried it, and it didn't work. So... I found a machine that distributes prepaid laundry cards and tried to buy one.... but the machine was out of order! So... needless to say my mountain of laundry didn't get any smaller, and I ended up rinsing the soap out of those two loads in my bathtub! It was like a flashback to the poor mission days! I definitely got my arm workout ringing out my clothes, and laughing the whole time! 

Creamy Creations

Tonight was my first FHE in my new ward. Tonight we did ice cream sculptures! I had no clue what this was when I arrived, but just like it sounds! There were many creative ideas-- one team did a volcano, another did a turtle, one did Hansel and Gretel's cottage, and we did Sponge Bob Square Pants!! I wish I got pictures of all the creations, but I didn't so here is ours--which won Funniest Creation!

Sisterly Bonding...

Last night I spent the night at Melissa's since Jaman and Curry were on a father/son's camp out. We had lots of fun! Melissa is very crafty so this morning we got up and spray painted a few mis-matched items from my apartment. Here are the results:  

This table used to be an oak color (see my post about my new place!)

This chair used to be dark green

we also did the frame for this picture to go in my cow kitchen!!

I wish i could get a good picture of my arm right now too because at one point I sprayed myself pretty good... I look like  I have a disease on my left arm!  But other than that I am quite pleased with the results!