"i will survive"

before heading out for our summer selling alarm systems i had many pre-concieved notions of what to expect. i told myself, "i will survive" cause apparently i seem incapable of occupying myself. everyone was feeling boo-hoo for me. well hello to you guys- i proved you wrong didn't i?! cause i was bomb at this! i was even the last wife standing- all the other had given up {not on their marriages, just decided to go home}. but really why would we feel sorry for someone that gets to do WHATEVER they want WHENEVER they want. literally. i just got to hangout, go to the pool, check out new places, read books, take long baths, etc etc... i bet some of you wish you were drinkin on my kool-aid don't cha? uh-huh- thought so. anyways. i told myself that i would survive this summer with a smile on my face and i have- with a hop, skip, and a jump even in my step! and now i am going to tell you exactly how i did that and how you can too!

so here it is. how you too can survive, well a lot of different things.

-summers selling alarms systems

-working honey in an unknown town

-living in hotels {or motels in my case}

So far I am sort of, no I am totally professional when it comes to spending a summer selling alarm systems, having a working honey in an unknown town {um these are small towns guys, like 4 stop lights}, and living in a hotel. i'm just gonna come out and say it.

PRO-FESS-IONAL.

-Stay positive in every way; if you are negative you will not last, and your honey won't be successful. {this can and should be applied to basically ANY situation}

-get a library card. yay for free books and movies!

-kinda sorta become friends with his co-workers {not too friendly now. i learned this the hard way... JUST KIDDING, but really- not too friendly}. This will eliminate many possible awkward situations like when you step out of your room, only to find co-worker also stepping out of their room, both obviously going to the elevator {not going to the elevator now just because they are only makes for more awkwardness}, both obviously going to ride the elevator. Kinda sorta knowing them makes this whole process so much better.

-only buy food that will last you a week. cause sometimes you are only somewhere for a week. we sort of learned that the hard way. moldy smelllllllllllllllly food. yum.

-have projects. lots and lots of these.

-don't sleep with the bedspread. some 60 minutes about how hotels NEVER wash them. and i can guarantee they don't at motel 6.

-have 3 or 4 books to read or 25 movies to watch, the time conversion seems about right..

-Keep in touch with home for more reasons than one. 1. your Mom will be sad if you don't 2. you realize many of them are just working and going to summer school- and let's get a yee-haw -glad you're missing that eh?! and 3. It's crazy how surprising and entertaining gossip seems since you only hear the juicy good stuff.

-get an iPhone. Just kidding- that's just what we did.

-get a dog. Just kidding again. but we kinda did that too.

-scour the free brochures, magazines, and newspapers for all the FUN fun fun going on without you even knowin! like when the rodeo or fair is coming to town, or even farmers markets. {sometimes though the fun can be hours away. because everywhere we have stayed has park city brochures. and we have been 5, 9, and 7 hours away from home}. and i'm pretty sure there are museums in every town.

-ummmmmmmmm have fun. don't let your day begin when your honey goes to work -boo, no fun! and don't let your day end when he comes home at night. go on walks, get treats {we're really good at that one! my tummy says so}, um..."snuggle," rent a movie, and hello ask him about his day- and then brag to him about yours, watch FNL {yeah this is different than renting a movie because FNL is that awesome}, celebrate successful days and of course holidays, and get jiggy with the wives {if there are any} because chances are they want to have fun too!

and just so you know what good travel bunnies we are.

we have lived or visited all of the following.

-fort collins, colorado

-loveland, colorado

-wellington, colorado

-denver, colorado

-cheyenne, wyoming

-gillette, wyoming

-rapid city, south dakota

-wheatland, wyoming

-guernsey, wyoming

-hartville, wyoming

-jackson hole, wyoming

-riverton, wyoming

-thermopolis, wyoming

-lander, wyoming

you could say we are just a cowboy and cowgirl travelin. yee-haw!

Riverton, WY

the last two weeks we have been living in riverton, wy. and then yay, we come home! but before that we wanted to soak up all there is in riverton.

probably the only thing you are taking away from these pictures is that my fro yo obsession has only increased, we are bad at remembering our hotel keys {front desk hates us!}, and we are single handily supporting motel 6 {we've stayed at a motel 6 for the last 3 weeks and when all is said and done, we will have lived there for a month. i'm almost positive vivint has some kind of a pact with truckers}. oh and yes, our dog is cute. even "a beauty" we have been told.

last but definitely NOT least... let's just take a moment and study this hotel and what it has to offer...

-how do you spell rendezvous? really? this has been up for a week now and hasn't been corrected.

-do they really have to advertise having color tv? isn't that pretty standard?

-and why would you stay anywhere that didn't have air conditioning?!

bye bye riverton! i'll be en route to slc tomorrow!

my very first laundromat experience!

and to be honest. i didn't like it very much.

i miss my parents washing machine!

oh the freebies of parents!

a silly little town called

the rest of this says YOU. If you were wondering. And Yes. I have become one of those people who thinks their dog is a child. Hence the Mother hip pose. I'm gonna be such a bomb MOM!

On Sunday we discovered Moby's biggest fear. Heights. Walking him across this bridge was not going to happen. He started out pretty good and then no more. He would slowly bend all his legs and just crouch.

We all know how much dogs love sniffing and I think that he was definitely in HEAVEN because these hot springs were fragrant! And I'm pretty sure it was some sort of and Indian Preservation.

The drive there was pretty, it was along a river and railroad tracks that reminded me of that level on Donkey Kong. And the honey got lucky. We drove my car and since I recently roadtripped solo I grabbed a lot of CD's to listen to, when were CD's popular? Oh yeah, in High School. How fun to listen to meaningful deep highschool boy drama, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, BSB, N'Sync? Um, it's way fun. You should try it. It will also open up great conversations of old stories. Highschool stories. Old Boyfriend stories. Like I said, the honey got lucky.

Now we are getting our snuggle on in the Motel 6, listen to the motorcyclists on their way to Sturgis smoke and drink outside, and watch Friday Night Lights.

TimRigginsissohot.

Homebound for a min

We took a little detour HOME this past weekend... it was a fun little surprise since we didn't tell anyone. And of course we pull up to my house at 1 AM, trying to be sneaky and slip into bed without waking up my parents and out walks my Mom from the backyard. She was gardening. Of course she was. Jeff's family screamed when we saw them. I thought Sara was going to have her baby then and there. We're kind of a hit at home.

We had some friends come over, and Sam (my red headed friend) acted like she had never seen an iPhone and went a little steroid on the picture taking. I chose just a couple.

We were planning on staying for one day. Which stayed the same for honey, but turned into 4 days for me. But I got to stay for my nephews little birthday party!
How funny are those cups!?

I went on my first solo road trip! And it was pretty impressive. Apparently I'm entertaining enough. Most of the drive was on 2 way highways- so I got really good at passing. Which is kind of scary (I swear Jeff doesn't even do it).

The only tired that happened was my face. I told Jeff that my face muscles were soo tired from singing. I was belting all my tunes.

First Anniversary

We celebrated our first Anniversary just the other day!

Since we were in the small town of Wheatland where the luxurious hotels are sparce and the we were already living in the motel 6 we decided to be all 'north face' and go camping!

Judge all you want on whethere this classifies as a fun romantic anniversary or not- but you know we handled it- it was both fun and romantic!

We drove to Hartville, which is a little historic town in Wyoming for dinner. It was so fun, and Jeff claims it blew Ruth's Chris out of the water!

And then we went camping, and it was too dark to set up a tent... so we decided to sleep in the car and I got realy cozy with all the buggis!

It was so pretty and an experience we will never forget! And we also set the car alarm off twice! Once at 1:00 AM and couldn't find the keys and again at 7:00 AM. Yay for wake up calls! We drove home and stopped for yummy breakfast on the way!

National High School Rodeo Finals- Gillette, Wyoming!

We were fortunate enough to be in Gillette the same time as the National High School Rodeo Finals. Which is a huge event bringing in cowboys From the U.S., Australia, and Canada. There have been different events going on all week, but we decided to go on Saturday which was the last night.

These people are true cowboys, we also sat in the Utah section and cheered for our people. And we even got to see one of ours win the National title- for something rodeo... It was pretty amazing!



Yeah we love pizza.

































I was sad that I didn't have my yee-haw gear.. But I sort of tried. I was in jeans and a plaid collar shirt, and braids. So I pretended as best I could.

It was really fun that we were able to go. We just have so much working going on with Jeff that it was good do something different and unique to Gillette. Since it's a high school event it was very family-oriented and everyone was cheering really loud and no one was drunk.

Moby + Jeff

Incase you didn't know this is our pup Moby... Also, if you didn't know then you must be very new to my blog- because lately he is a hot topic. And it's kinda sorta all that I blog about-my life is way cool k.

So anyways.
This is a relationship that I truly envy. Even though I know Moby loves me and probably more than Jeff. I can't help but get jealous when Moby sometimes picks Jeff. It's pretty obvious the bond these boys share.

Jeff always gets so mad when he's laying with Moby and I come and take away his blissful comfort and pull him over by me. I can't help it- I'm uber jealous.


Whenever I go in the car I take Moby with me... And sometimes Jeff doesn't have a ride home and I generously offer to pick him up and bring Moby with me. Moby now knows to look out the window when I say "daddy" (yeah I'm one of those pet owners).

I found this so funny so one day I decided to film it.

Whenever Jeff is laying on the bed Moby choice is right on his chest.



And this is how they ride in the car.





Love love love

Mt. Rushmore

So we stopped at Deadwood and saw Wild Bill's grave. The cemetery is actually amazing and was really neat and historic. It is up on the mountain side so all of the trees and multilevel graves was different. Funny side note: unnammed graves are those of prostitutes.. ha. I didn't get a picture of any, but there were a lot.

Oh you Wild man you!

Deadwood Overlook

Yeah, you know we did it National Treasure Style...

But really we decided that we cannot be this close to Mt. Rushmore and not visit.

What kind of Americans would we be? (probably still not very good ones since it was during the World Cup... way to support).

But we radio'ed it...

We ventured on a road trip with Chris and Kayde.

here is my asian tourist pic.

Anyways.

It was really rad. I have been there before, but Jeff never has. And Jeff was almost convinced (not by me) that seeing it from the road was sufficient. Wrong, and he sees the light now. And thinks that mt. Rushmore is kinda of awesome. Which it is. We are super glad that we went. When are we going to be this close to it again?

Will it Blend?

I discovered maybe a real life "lifesaver" a Blentec

Those of you who know me, maybe not even well, know that I do not like fruit.

I never have. I refused to eat it when I was little, etc. etc...

Before this bad boy- I might have been the most unhealthy person you know. How I am not 500 lbs is beyond me. My diet consisted of a few basic things... ice cream, candy, peanut butter, bread, and noodles. It is a huge joke in my family that I am on the "white diet." And my brothers say that my anti-fruit attitude has now become an identity and a way to get attention. B.S.

It is never fun to be at a shower, in your honor, and literally play with your food...

Shower food is my least favorite- its always like very very small appetizers. Rolls and salad. And then treats in abundance or fruit platters... It's my struggle.

Luckily, I have this great friend, who acts as an assistant and we sort of switch off with the fruits, for example I'll get strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple- and she won't. And then slowly she eats mine and then Ta-Da! It looks like I ate it! We have been tricking people for years.

Anyways. back to the Blendtec...

The problem for me with fruit is the texture. So when my Mother-in-law introduced me to this baby I was smitten. This magical blender can blend up ANYTHING! (yes, this is the one on youtube where they blend an iPad, watch here). So my Mother-in-law was being all healthy and I was jealous so I wanted to get in on it, so I tried one of her fruit and veggie creations.

I told my parents about this blender that can make all your dreams come true, (I told them it would be the perfect going away present ha) and I think that they were pretty impressed with my argument and the fact that I was consuming fruit. That my sweetest Dad surprised me by packing our car for Ft. Collins and hiding a Blendtec in there. I didn't even notice until we got to Ft. Collins. And was screaming in the parking lot.

We are major Blendtec users and have one every day! We have used our bad boy 134 time to date.

So I truly think that this has put 5 maybe 10 years back on my life expectancy... and has definitely help prevent diabetes. Lifesaver.

(sorry for the overload of picture- but when after 22 years you start to eat fruit it is sort of a huge deal so you take a lot of pictures and send them to people to show them what's up)

people in wyoming don't dress up for HP!!! what?!

This year was my first time not seeing Harry Potter at midnight. It was a little bit sad. The two theaters that Gillette has; one is closed down for the season... And the other doesn't pre-sell tickets. So by the time I got there to buy them they were sold out. So i got them for a later showing and we went the very next night.

And I was truly the only dressed up person and a little boy who Jeff claims dressed up when really I think he just has glasses.
My costume wasn't super great but for ten minutes and not much to work with I felt good about it. Do you like my straw of a wand??

Animal Cruelty?

ANIMALS

The other day a couple of us wives were at the park and heard kids saying they had seen a turtle. So we went over to the lake and were looking everywhere for the turtle and then hello turtle. Apparently they are snapping turtles so we couldn't go pick them up.

...and yes, I filmed them.

In this tree is a little black bird, that looks kind of like a miniature crow. This bird attacked me three times. I couldn't get close enough to get a picture.

Story.

I have been running on this little lake path a couple times now and I have noticed these birds that are uber loud- black with orange spots on their wings (useless information).

Anyways, today I was running and it was sort of windy so the first incident I thought was obviously an accident. But when it happened two more times...

This bird swooped on me and squaked at me!

I heard wings flapping rapidly and looked up and saw it saw it a foot above my head, then it flew away. Thought that was the accident.

Then on my second loop it was following me by trees. And came at me once literally almost landed on my head and then came at my again. So I sprinted away!

Oh and this is ferret. One of Jeff's co-workers got a pet ferret. So we went over to see it. I have never held a ferret before- it was a fun thing to do. They are actually pretty cute.

also, funny story- Jeff got attacked by a dog on Saturday.

An hour after he left, he came back all flustered with a dirty mud shirt, a hole in his shorts, scrapes on his arm, hand, and stomach.

Apparently sheep dogs aren't very nice and force you into a run and then a fall down an uphill rocky driveway. Don't worry no dog bites or stitches. Just some tender loving care helped him out and he was back on his way.

Poor babe with his battle wounds.

did I just make this blog rated R for posting blood and guts? oops sorry.

And then we discovered this little precious underneath a car, kinda. It was actually up in the engine. After a long time of "here kitty kitty." she was finally rescued. Then lost again, and chased through the parking lot, then rescued again. I decided to name her Gillette. Even though Ashlyn, five years old, wanted to name her Elise... Tomorrow we are takin her to the animal shelter. She is totally cute and will hopefully get adopted... By me.





Yeah, I dunno- the lady at the front desk wanted to give her hot dogs??





To read more on our tender hearts and my deep love for animals look here... don't worry this isn't like a link to the Humane Society. haha

Obviously I'm doing my part to stop animal cruelty... are you?

S'mores

I have this silly problem where once I get an idea in my head it HAS to be executed.

Anyone who knows me knows this is very true. Especially about food... or treats.

Sometimes I catch Jeff being careful what he says.

Just the other day he said he would bring me home a BIG HUNK after work. Since we didn't have enough time to get one before work.

Well he didn't forget but he did go to three stores to find one. And then when he came home empty handed... and I had waited all day for one- we both got in the car on a mission and finally found one.

So there are some examples of my silliness. But I guess you could look at it as determination right?

So this week it has been s'mores. And when I wanted to roast them earlier this week- he said it would be more fun to roast marshmellows this weekend when other people are there and it can be a little party with everyone. So the week drags on slowly and I keep looking forward to s'mores. And then Sunday comes and I'm pretty sure Jeff forgot and thought I had forgotten but no- s'mores were devoured. And we were creative and patient and did them on a grill.

...don't worry I'm still married- I just forget my ring sometimes.

Walking

If you guys were wondering what I do in Gillette I have mastered the art of walking. I'm really good at it. Walking with my dog, walking on grass or cement, uphill or downhill, etc.

Also, I'm good at taking pictures...of myself. Jeff isn't around (sounds like he left me) and I know you guys wanna see me! So I make do. Mirrors work really great for that- the people of myspace taught me that.







This is a look out point at a local park. Where you can really see alibis Gillette! Isn't is beautiful. Behind me are some mobile homes. Which seems to be a lucrative business here in Gillette. Everyone loves em!

en route Gillette, Wyoming.

We were very sad to leave Ft. Collins. We have really enjoyed our time there and everything that the fun little college town has to offer. We would love to go back and visit (it was like a mission for me).

but how hot is Jeff in this picture? Woo

 We truly were spoiled here! Is it a little sad that our favorite part was the washer/dryer. It was magical.

And we're off... 

It was so nice of the hotel to recognize Moby as a person and give him his own bed. Either that or they assumed that we were "having problems" as a couple and would need two beds. I don't know if I'm appreciative of their thoughtfulness or offended. And we do have a little kitchenette. And I did make eggs in a tea kettle- they worked out fine.

First things first.I spotted a Maverick on our way in and was in such a state of joy- I immediately fed my addiction and inhaled a delicious DC. And I was so happy to see the same summer deal as in SL- $1/Large Drink!

Also, I have had one of these every day...

Jeff? or Big Hunk?

...uh-oh...

Oh, Gillette.

So far, so good.

Being in a hotel has actually served me well- because I do not like to be kept in one room that somehow manages to be a bedroom, living room, small study area, and kitchen all day I have kept quite busy staying out and about. Its basically a condensed house.

Um, Rec center... aka awesome place to spend time has been super. This largest place ever has a huge rock climbing wall, free tanning, tennis, racketball, basketball, running track, full gym, lap pool, waterpark equipped with 2 outdoor waterslides, and foodcourt. This place is so large it amazes me. It is bigger than the Delta Center (what's Energy Solutions?)

I also love the view from my "house." Fields of amber followed by Kmart, Walmart, and KFC.

I have enjoyed my long showers filled with small sprinkles from the watering can shower head. However the hotel does compensate with 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner. That saves a little time.

Oh my phone service! You have altered my iPhone appreciation by miles. In Ft. Collins my phone would be dead at 10 am from searching for service. It sort of worked outside, but mostly it just worked best downtown. But here I can actually play around with my phone- Can you imagine getting a new phone, and not just any phone but an iPhone and not even being able to experience it? I think those following me on instagram and twitter have all noticed my comeback. I also think that my iPhone obsession shows in my post lately- every photo has been instagrammed..

The restaurants here are fun... I told Jeff I love to look around at the different businesses here to see what it's all about. There is actually a Pizza sign advertising a Pizza place that doesn't exist- that makes me sad. I was excited when I saw the sign. There is also a Fresh Donuts sign with no store attached to it either.

Tonight we went to a "nice" restaurant. And it actually is really nice and was quite delicious. But the waitress kept calling me "girl." Which doesn't sound that weird until I put it into context "Can I get you anything to drink girl?" "And what would you like girl?" "Here is your food girl."

It was so weird. But she did totally botch my order, gave me chicken instead of salmon... How do you do that? And when we asked her if the house was taking care of it, she didn't even respond. So we had to talk to the hostess. Don't worry we got it handled. There's $20.00 kept in our wallets! It was entertaining and delicious and we will probably go back!

The people of Gillette have some pretty sweet style- Three of Jeff's sales here have asked him if they get a free hat? Now, Jeff likes his hat so much that I couldn't even find a picture of him wearing it- but I took one of me in it for you! haha- I love that they want a hat. He actually already gave one away.

Anyways... We are only in Gillette for a couple of weeks. But I really want to get my honky tonk on while I am here- I am going to buy a cowboy hat and wear it like I was born here. The other thing I could do it buy liquor since people do that a lot here and need like 20 liquor stores- so I'll get on that too.