Lucky

While my dear friends Leesa and Tim are out of town, I get the wonderful job of watching their dog Lucky. (That wasn't suppose to sound sarcastic either as I love spending quality time with Lucky. We have a lot of fun together.) Thursday after work I swung past to pick up Lucky. She was very excited to see me. We ran around and played for a minute before heading out to the car. She was running around the front yard excitedly until I opened the car door and called for her to get inside. She was suddenly nowhere to be found. Oh no. Please don't tell me I lost Lucky. I am the worst friend/dog sitter/dog lover ever! After only seconds of panick, I see Lucky laying in front of the car. She isn't very fond of car rides. With a little coaxing she slowly crawled across the driveway/grass and hopped in the car. I turn the car on and Celine Dion was playing. Celine is Leesa's favorite singer, so I thought this might soothe Lucky as if Leesa was driving. We get to my house, and Lucky is ecstatic! She jumps out of the car and is sniffing everything. We go into the backyard where she meets my dogs. None of them knew quite what to think of eachother. Lucky and Sierra probably walked in 20 circles trying to sniff eachother. Once they got use to one another, Sierra just sat and barked. Sitka followed Lucky barking because she wanted to play. Nikita is older and can't move too fast, so she tried to sniff Lucky as she zipped by. I kept Luky in the backyard to play with my pooches as I mowed the front lawn. Lucky sat by the fence and sadly barked at me. I think she thought I had dognapped her. Once I finished the front and moved to the back, Lucky was so excited! She ran and explored the whole yard. She even found 2 soccerballs and 1 volleyball which I had no idea we even owned. By the time we left, her sweet little paws were stained GREEN! I loaded her up in the car (She showed more enthusiasm since she knew she was going home.) Michael called me on my way back and invited me and Lucky over. We stopped by his house where he has 2 Shiba Inus. Lucky went through the rounds again of sniffing a new place and having 2 dogs follow her around. Mike's dog Isis is eye level with Lucky's wagging tail, but didn't seemed to mind getting slapped in the face with it as it didn't stop her from following Lucky around. We sat down to watch a Wolverine cartoon and Lucky was just pacing the room. I tried to get Lucky to lay down, but she wouldn't. I asked Little Lucky why she didn't want to relax when Michael chimes in, "Probably because Odin and Isis keep invading her personal space." Sure enough, every time Lucky tried to lay down, the dogs were next to her investigating. Slowly we all ended up falling asleep. The next thing you know it's Michael and I squooshed onto his bed with Lucky, Odin, and Isis. Needless to say, it was a very long "cozy" night until Michael ended up kicking Odin and Isis out of the room.

On Friday night, I enjoyed a nice quiet evening with Lucky after having dinner and seeing Wolverine with my sister and her husband. I was looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday, but I think I slept in too long for Lucky as she panted in my face at 8:30 a.m. When I rolled over (and away from her hot dog breath), she jumped on the bed and laid on my legs. It made me smile.

Today we enjoyed watching tv and relaxing as it rained outside. Tim's Brother, Travis, came over for a bit and tortured Lucky by eating Fast food in front of her. He made it up to her by tossing her some chicken then playing with her afterward. Since the rain has cleared up, I came home to get some things done. I'll be back to play the "Flashlight Game" with Lucky tonight. I am very excited about it! Who wouldn't be excited about the flashlight game?!

I love Lucky!

WICKED!!!!!

Michael is wonderful and surprised me with Wicked tickets as my Christmas present. We went and saw it this last Sunday and it was fabulous!!!! The performers had beautiful voices. Every time Elphaba had a solo I got the chills. Oh, it was just so magnificent. The picture to the left is before the play from our sweet seats in the Orchestra. How pimp is that dragon? (The dragon above, not the devilishly handsome dragon on my arm. Rarrrr!)
This picture to the right is during the intermission. Yes, that is me beaming! Elphaba just finished singing "Defying Gravity" and it was beyond spectacular! I love how she hovers over the stage with the lighting. Oh mann.. LOVE IT! Oh and how nice of you to notice. Yes, I am wearing green eyeshadow. Just my little homage to Wicked for the night. Good eye Blogger Reader... Good eye!

These next two pictures are from when the power went out right before the song, "For Good". Those poor girls. Elphaba grabs Glinda in the middle of their dialouge and everything goes dark! The emergency lights come on over the stage and the girls kinda stand there for a moment before testing to see if their microphones works. They don't. The crowd applauds, and the girls do an awkward little move before running off stage. They dropped the current but had everything going within 5 minutes. They recovered flawlessly and "For Good" was perfect! The first picture was taken with "no flash" the 2nd was on some kind of night setting. Whoa.... You know those girls who can make goofy faces and yet still look adorable? Yeah, I'm not that girl.

Here is the end of our magical evening. I was sad to have it over, but I will remember every moment! I feel so blessed to see such an amazing production in London and again in Salt Lake. Thank you for such a thoughtful gift Michael! I loved it!

Swim Lessons

I have never been fond of the idea of swimming. Ever since I was a kid I just didn't quite trust being completely enveloped by water to then emerge alive and breathing.
As you can imagine, I was teased considerably (mostly be my siblings) for never learning how to swim. When I say I don't know how to swim, let me clarify that I dont know how to swim. I can't do the doggy paddle, the floating in water thing or really being submerged at all. It just plain terrifies me. I decided it might be a good idea to conquer a fear and build upon my self-esteem a little bit. After many hours of "shopping around" I signed up for swim lessons. I know... terrifying right?
Today was my first day at 7:45 on a Saturday morning! Now that's dedication! When I first got there, I'll admit I kinda questioned what I was thinking. I was first instructed to put my face under water and blow bubbles. I was pretty pleased with myself until my instructor, Ezra, said, "Let's try to go a little longer, about 10 seconds worth." Is he crazy?! I can't even say how unnatural "breathing" under water is. ::shudder:: Once I kinda got use to that, I was surprised how quickly I was able to progress. During that 1 hour I was able to float on my stomach while blowing bubbles in the water. With the assistance of a kick board I could swim on my belly blowing bubbles once again. At the very end of the lesson I was full on swimming on my back! I swam about 5 laps on my back until the session was over.
Dude, I rock! I am so proud of myself and can hardly believe it. If anyone would have told me a year ago what I would have accomplished today in such a short session I would have laughed... LAUGHED right in thier face.
So I have additional swim lessons over the next few Saturdays and I am very excited about it... although I still hope I don't die. That would be a major bummer.

Hadley 2008 Video

My dad made a video of the Hadley Family with pictures from 2008 set to some music. You can see it here. I love my family!

God Bless America

I applied for my passport on January 31, 2008. I know people were experiencing problems getting their passports in a timely matter. The man who assisted me was extremely helpful and said they are caught up with Passports and have seen the designated 3-8 week turnaround.

So imagine my surprise today when I had a package in the mail which contained MY PASSPORT! Seriously! A week and two days and it's here! That is the coolest thing ever! I am so stoked. I can hardly concentrate today because I keep thinking of all the cool places i'm going to experience with it!

AWESOME!

Natural High

Due to a late application and meeting with my school advisor, I was registering for my Fall semester classes the week before school started. I was getting pretty frustrated because, of course, I couldn't find any open classes that I wanted to take (if any open classes at all). I really wanted to do a Yoga Class, but was struggling to find one. I finally stumbled across a Kundalini Yoga Class that worked with my schedule. I signed up for it, not fully understanding what it was. I just knew it focused on breathing techniques and meditation.

My first day of class I stood around with all my classmates as we waited for my teacher. It was about 10 after when my teacher showed up. She is about my height, if not shorter, dressed in all white - including her white turban wrapped around her head which allowed little tuffs of gray hair to sneak out. Around her neck she adorned a long necklace with a crystal attached to the end which she will hold onto from time to time. Along with her boom box, CD case, and bag containing books and papers, she had a great big smile attached to her. She just had this most wonderful spirit about her.

As the semester has moved along, I have come to truly love that class. It's amazing not only the physical demand it takes from you, but the mental and spiritual demands also. The best thing about it all, is no matter what you put into yoga, it will give 100 times back to you. I just absolutely love it.


Tonight we were learning a new set which focuses on the renewel of your Nervous System and build Stamina. This was one of the more challenging sets I have learned to date, but it was sooooo cool! We went through a couple of poses that were quite difficult and hard to sustain fully. I was pretty light headed after the 2nd one actually, but managed to feel pretty good. We ran 2 more poses which were equally as difficult. At this point we sat in easy pose (the basic pose- sitting Indian Style with a straight spine) and just relaxed. We sat for a couple of minutes and just focused on our bodies and everything that was happening inside. My teacher said, "Some of you might be feeling this Natural High right now." And I'll tell you what, that's exactly what it was. It was so awesome! There was this incredible energy buzzing throughout my body which seemed to originate right at my chest. I felt so at ease and at peace. The best part about it? I felt complete and utter self acceptance of myself. This is something I have never felt before. For the last few of months I have been working on seeing myself more clearly and not believing all the negative thoughts I have poured into myself over the years. It's been a hard process to change. Tonight was the first night where I was completely within myself and liked being there. I didn't want to leave myself to only return back to the dance room my class takes place in. It was truly a neat experience.

After this we had our next pose, which is BY FAR my FAVORITE pose in Kundalini thus far... well... if you can call it a pose. You actually just stand up, with your arms over your head and dance to Bangara music. Oh mann... it was so freakin' cool! We had this sweet eastern music (Which reminded me a lot of The Darjeeling Limited Soundtrack I just bought and love) piping throughout the room, and we just all danced for a good 8 minutes (as it's necessary to do so after we opened up our diaphrams in the set thus far). Your arms had to stay above your head the whole time. And I will admit I had never grooved to sounds of the Bangara (whatever that is)! I had a smile on my face the whole time. I just absolutely loved it!

It's kinda crazy how things all work out. If it were up to me I would have taken a Yoga+Zen class. I'm sure that class would have been fine and I would have really enjoyed it, but I can't believe just how marvelous this Kundalini class has been for me.

We have a similar situation with my nutrition class. My adoration for that class will have to wait for another time because... mann... I just don't even know where to start with it. That class has been such an immense blessing in my life. Love it!

Here is a Kundalini website that breifly explains what it is. There are many websites you can go to if you're interested in learning more about it. I highly recommend checking it out!

Halloween at the Office

Our work had a costume contest for Halloween and the 3 categories were Scariest, Funniest, and Group* costumes. Our department all dressed up as Spa Princesses. So we have on Robes, Slippers, with our hair up in towels, and face masks. All while sipping on a little bit of bubbly.

Not gonna lie... I'm loving this! I am sooooo freakin' comfortable! I am enjoying my mud mask too. It's all soothing and smells good. Everyone in my department is currently in the bathroom washing their masks off. I chose to leave mine on a little while longer and benefit from the aromatherapy.

Everyone went out to the reception area where we were judged and had pictures taken. Ha ha, we were all lined up in a row posing for the camera when I heard a little chirp in my ear say, "Pretty bird!" To my surprise I turned around and saw a stuffed talking parrot on the receptionist counter. "Why thank you!" I replied back to the bird, "You didn't have to say that!" After my group got our picture taken, we stood off to the side and I was standing next to a very funny girl in our office. Her name is Andrea and she has the flair for theatre. She was sitting down in a chair dressed up like a fireman - she even had a mask on as to be a fire man, instead of a fire woman. Sitting atop her lap was a blow up doll. She....er I mean "he" looked at our group and started making cat calls. I was standing right next to "him" when he tossed the doll aside and pulled me onto his lap. He was making little oohs and ahhs to me, then grabbed the blow up doll again and put her on his other knee. I took a sip of my drink, looked at my new (very friendly) friends I was sitting with and exclaimed, "Well this is quite the party!" We all had a good laugh. I got up and needed to fix my towel as it wasn't staying in place. I bent over to rewrap my hair, when my little fire fighter buddy gave me a pinch. Oh mann, that just about killed me! Guess that's what you get when you present your goods right in front of a guy.

*My favorite group costume was actually a group of girls who did Spice Girls. Very cute!

The winners were just announced and our group tied with the Spice Girls for best Group Costume. The prize is a pizza party. The girl in charge said, "Okay, we'll just check with the Spice Girls and see if next Friday works for them." Ha ha, We're having a Pizza Party with the Spice Girls. I enjoy that.

I just added some pictures from the email sent out. The first picture is of everyone. (Notice the fireman and his buddy behind the nuns) Then we have the Spa Princesses (Kara, me, Lindsey, Stephanie, Cheryl & Socorro), next is the Spice Girls. Last, but not least is me sitting with my buddies.








Our picture is missing Kathy who was on a phone call, and Katherine who couldn't make it into the office today. Stephanie took the blow up doll and we put her in a robe with her little tiara, slippers and cold eye mask and put her in Katherine's chair. Lindsey took a picture of her so i'll have to add that later. We were laughing pretty hard when we had to tie to blow up doll to the chair so she'd stay. It was awsome.... and today is not so much a productive day in case you were wondering.

She lived. She laughed. Her downfall was a horrible sunburn.

This weekend was fun. Very busy, but very fun. I have already posted about the sweet BYU football game. What I failed to mention was sitting in the stadium for 4+ hours in the merciless sun. This wouldn't be a big deal for most people, but it takes it's toll on this pasty white chick. You think I would have learned my lesson today (Or from my past 24 years experience, Whatever.) when I sat in the sun for an additional 5+ hours at a Sheep Dog Herding Championship and Car show (which I will post on later). Yeah... didn't so much learn and I am sooooooooooooooo fried! My eyes haven't swollen shut... yet. But the day is young. I wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't be opened by the time tomorrow morning comes around though. I am definitely feeling it mere hours later via nausea and headache.To give you a little better of an idea- After the BYU game I was slathering on the Aloe Vera. My shoulders were very, VERY burnt. So burnt that not only do they look sore, but it is painful to have my clothes rub against my skin. After today, my shoulders look like nothing (they were covered) compared to my forearms and face. It's... bad! I hurt, I feel sick and I just plain need to go to bed. And that my friends, is why the post on the Dog/Car shows will have to wait for a later date.

Don't be a bum. Protect yourself from the sun.