To Move Or Not To Move?

I don't have a clever idea for a blog today. I feel like all my friends blogged about the first snow, and how they introduced their adorable babies to snow for the first time. Whatever, no cute baby to put in a puffy coat...sadly... maybe someday soon but not now!

I woke up a little bit grumpy, my carpal tunnel hurts, and I miss my husband.

It's true. I mean, how could you not miss this cute face? Mind you, it's been less than 1 day and I realize this. Wow, do I sound like a newly wed or what?

Seth's in Tacoma for another job interview and apparently once again being wined and dined. Well, not dined, but his hotel room did have fruit and cheese waiting for him when he got there. I can't help but feel a little bit bitter about this because that sounds great. Sadly, we accrue our time off at work and I don't have the time to take. Lame.

I feel like all I talk about lately, think about, or worry about is our "limbo" status. Everyone wants updates on where we stand, so here you go. Truthfully I am tired of talking about it.

1. Corvallis - Like I mentioned before we loved the place but are not sure about the job. We were notified that Seth is in the final 2 and they are making a decision by Friday. Yikes! We aren't saying no, but we aren't saying yes for sure. Cross your fingers. I have looked at houses there and we could afford a place like this. So cute! Sorry the picture is fuzzy.

2. Minneapolis - I like to say Minneapolis because it sounds so much cooler than Minnesota. Seth interviewed at a clinic outside of Minneapolis and they really like him. They want to hire him. It is a top option for us, but we aren't 100% on it yet. I wasn't too sure if I wanted to live there until I saw this...

Those of you who know me know that I love big cities (especially my boyfriend New York, who I became obesessed with because of Sex and the City). This looks awesome. Plus, if we live there I can wear this...

Awesome. I would become a vikings fan! Whenever they score I would blow one of these...

It's the little things in life people.

We already have been snooping for houses there and found a most precious yellow house that we love. Oh, and one other BIG plus about Minneapolis is working for the Make-A-Wish chapter there. They have an opening for a position that I am VERY qualified for. So that would be great. I applied yesterday, just to be safe. How cool would that be to walk into a job for an organization that I love?

3. Tacoma - Tacoma feels like a long shot. Apparently licensing takes like 3 months there so Seth may not be able to start working for a long time. Also, the cost of living in that area is crazy. BUT, it's near my 2nd favorite city, Seattle. Sigh, Seattle. Look how amazing it is...

I really wouldn't mind living in such a beautiful place. Oh no, not at all. Plus I could easily find a cool nonprofit job there.

4. Montana - Havre, Montana is near the Canadian border. I think there are 11,000 people there. They are very interested in Seth. This place makes me more nervous than any place. What would I do there? Would we make friends? Would people have any desire to visit us? The perk here is that for the first 2 years you work there, they will pay off $25,000 of our student loans...per year. That's $50,000 on top of his salary. Um, I think I could almost live anywhere for 2 years. Except Texas, or Florida. Cause all the crazies live there. It's true.

5. Utah - There are still a couple of options in Utah. We are waiting to hear back from a family practice in Bountiful, as well as an oncology job at LDS hospital. There are a lot of perks to living here. First, family. Second, friends. Third, my amazing Make-A-Wish job. Fourth, Seth's house. We won't be disappointed if we end up here by any means. It would be kind of nice. BUT the thought of moving away from Utah for the first time in my life is really exciting.

So that's that people. Those are our options. I am really tired of NOT knowing. Hopefully we will know in about 2 weeks what we are going to be doing.

Sometimes it feels good to just put it on paper, or should I say "sometimes it feels good to just put it on the blog."

Things I Am Hating Right Now

Ok, I warned you. I can only have positive posts for so long before I delve right into things I am hating right now. I have to admit, this was harder than the things I am loving list. Who knew!? Maybe I am full of sunshine and giggles afterall.

1. Being In Limbo - This trumps all the things I hate right now. I hate being in limbo. I hate not knowing where Seth and I will be living in a month. We could still be here in SLC...which has its good and bad things (aka, awesome Make-A-Wish job, family and friends close by, etc). OR we could be in Corvallis, Tacoma, nowhere'sville Montana, etc. We just don't know. And I hate it. I hate that we are newly weds living in our parent's basement. Not that my Mom & Wally haven't been total saints and incredibly sweet to us, because they have. We just want our own place. We want our own kitchen (with our awesome new dishes and other wedding gifts!) We want our awesome memory foam bed. We want to start our lives and right now we totally feel like we are on hold.

Dear Job Market - you suck. We know you have the perfect job out there for Seth. Please help us find you. Sincerely - Becky & Seth.

2. Poor Grammar - Oh man, where to start. This is driving me up the wall. The following are examples of things I have seen/heard recently that make me want to punch someone!

• I seen him over there.


• Your so nice!


• Oh that looks real good.


• He did good, I don't feel good, etc.


• You are to nice.
  

Need I go on? People, I am going to continue correcting you. Because when you say stuff like that, it makes me think that you should look like this guy....

And no one, I repeat, NO ONE wants that.

3. Dark Mornings - Is it daylight savings time yet? Seriously. When my alarm goes off around 7:00ish (depending the morning) and it is still dark, it sucks. It makes it nearly impossible to get out of bed (until I remember that I have peppermint creamer). Now I know that the "change" will mean dark at like 5:00 at night, but whatever. I don't care. I can go home, eat soup, watch Glee, maybe clean out some pumpkins and sit by the fire. Just give me some light in the morning. Please! Ps-how awesome is the picture below? Obviously the hand of God is in daylight savings. And I love it.

4. Bluetooths - Do you want to look like a douch bag? If the answer is "yes", then wear a blue tooth. If the answer is "no" then, well don't use one. Seth and I spent 20 minutes at the airport making fun of "bluetooth guy". You know exactly who I mean right? The guy in first class that is acting all important, talking much too loudly on his bluetooth.... "Well, my stock option is looking much better, I made millions...yadda yadda yadda" (please read in Seth's "rich man voice". Guys, just don't do it. The only time...and I repeat ONLY TIME that a bluetooth is ok, is while you are driving. In any other case you look like 1. A total douche 2. like you are crazy and talking to yourself and 3. a total douche.

Don't tell me I didn't warn you. I am saying this out of love. The end.

5. Big Trucks - Things that I hate #4 and #5 are often seen together. People, I hate big trucks with a hate that is pure and true. I hate the white-collar workers that you see driving to work in their ridiculously large trucks. For one thing you look like an asshole, for the second thing, you are hurting the environment, and finally, you make everyone think that you should be wearing a bluetooth. Unless you are a construction worker, landscape worker, painter, etc...please don't drive a big ass truck. In fact, when I see people driving them I always say something mean in response. Now, I realize they may be really nice people driving them, but I still will make a rude comment. Always. Here is a picture of an actual truck I saw in New Orleans...

And another one that I had to deliver a "gift" to.

I know, I am a crazy liberal. But don't even get me started on Hummers.

6. No Timms - Sarah Elizabeth Timm Thompson moved this week to Georgia. This does not please me. She and I have been friends since sophomore year when we would sing Les Miserable duets while running around the track. We lived in the same dorm, she lived with me while Jason & I were seperated, and we JUST lived together before we both got married. Now I know we'll stay in touch but I am still depresssed. Boo! That is all. This is how sad we were the night that we said goodbye. I mean, that is SAD!

7. Glenn Beck -

Please do not listen to him, watch him, or read this book. There is no need to say more.

8. Not Sleeping - I haven't been sleeping well. I think this is a result from the above 7 things on my list. But I also think it has to do with the FULL sized bed Seth and I are sleeping in. A full sized bed is just TOO small. It is. Also, Seth doesn't like to sleep in sheets so we have been sleeping with 2 seperate blankets. I get all twisted in my blanket and it doesn't work. Oh and when Seth turns over I swear he jumps 2 feet into the air and flips over like a pancake. The sleeping thing just isn't working for us. I miss our memory foam matress that is currently being held ransom in our storage unit. This could easily be remedied if we could solve #1 on my list.

The less sleep I get, the longer this list gets. Just sayin...

9. Lack of Money - While we are in limbo and therefore we don't have much money. I know how fortunate we are. We aren't hungry, we have a warm bed (although a small one), we have cars and clothes on our back, etc. BUT I really love shopping for fall clothes. I do, it's true. I look forward to it every year. You know, new jeans, warm sweaters, cute tights, scarves and cute coats! I can't spend money right now because I am supporting Seth and I. Which I am happy to do being a good wife, and I know Seth hates this limbo thing as much as I do. But it certainly is taking some getting used to! I mean, look at the cute outfits I could be purchasing.

10. Draper - I went to Zupas last week (which is a good restaurant) and was shocked at the Draper women. Wow, I have decided that the further south you drive in the Salt Lake valley the bigger the hair gets, the bigger the cars get (grrrrrrrr), the more makeup I see, and the more sparkly the clothing becomes. It was a strange thing. I am still scratching my head. Wow, it's like a crazy group of cloned women hit Draper by storm. From now on, if I eat at Zupas I will not be venturing to 12300 S. but will go to the Old Mill location, just to be safe. I don't want to be sucked into becoming one of them. I wanted to take a picture, I really did. This will have to suffice. You know exactly what I am talking about.

Ok, thus ends the list. I apologize for offending some of you. But I have to say, this was really therapeutic!

10 Things I am Loving Right Now

This post is dedicated to some of the things that make me happy right now.

1. Free vacations! Seth and I had the chance to go to Corvallis, Oregon over the weekend for a job interview. It was awesome. Free flight, free 2-bedroom Hilton hotel, free meals that cost nearly $200. AND we spent some time going to the Oregon Coast. We love Corvallis! It was beautiful, it was quaint, it was charming...but the job...maybe not so perfect. Time will tell if we'll end up in our Oregon paradise.

2. Dexter. Guys, if you aren't watching Dexter, you are crazy. Seth and I don't have Showtime but we rent the seasons. Season 4 just started and I have to say, it's good. Dexter is a hot serial killer who MAY just be creeping into my top 5 (to be discussed on another blog post). The show is funny, quirky and creepy and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Please watch. I beg of you.

3. Carving Pumpkins - holy crap I love this. The SMELL alone is enough to make me smile. I love sticking my hands in and pulling all the seeds out. I love roasting the seeds too. But I don't love CARVING them. So really #3 should say "Cleaning out pumpkins for other people to carve". That would be more appropriate.

4. Babies. No, I am not pregnant but the babies in my life are killing me right now. They are so damn cute and they make me happy. Check out my ridiculously cute nephews Oscar and Drex.

And my dear friend Meili's baby Calvin, who has the brightest eyes and the sweetest smile around.

Finally there is Daniel. I love this kid and I don't see him nearly enough. I love his sweet voice and his hilarious personality. Thank you friends and family for having so many cute baby boys that I can be happy about.



5. Peppermint creamer. I am not lying. This is one of those things that you can only find from October-January and I love it. Every morning I roll over, angry that it is time to wake up, and then I remember....coffee with peppermint creamer and happily get out of bed. It is great. You may think it's stupid but it's not. Cause I drink something that looks like this (that's a lie, no whipped cream and no sprinkles but it tastes good).

6. Glee. Wow, 2 of the things in this list are tv shows. Glee is something that makes me so happy. Wednesdays are great days because of Glee. Are you guys watching? The songs are awesome, the humor is hilarious, the subjects are touching (gay teens coming out to their parents...good stuff). Anyways, again you should be watching if you aren't. It's just that good.

8. Steve Colbert. Crap! Another TV reference! I can't help it. I love Colbert. I love his satire. I love how much he has been making fun of Glenn Beck (aka...the silver gopher). I love his perspective. I love that when he introduces guests he runs up to the stage and waves. Anyway, love you Colbert and your awesome Colbert Report...but I mainly love you making fun of the Silver Gopher.

Totally the silver gopher right? Please do not buy this book.




9. The Utah Jazz! Oh, I love the beginning of the season when I can claim that I love the Jazz. I do. This year is their year! (again, not true but a girl can dream right?). I love you Okur, I love you Andre, and I love you Deron. I don't love you Boozer....

Here's too a good season!

10. Last but not least, Seth. I love being married to this guy. I love how snuggly he is. I love his high-pitched laugh, I love his fritas voice. I love how patient he is being right now and how hard he is working to find the best job and location for us. Love you babe! You are what I love above all right now. It's true, I love you more than peppermint creamer and Memot Okur. :)

Stay tuned for 10 things I hate...coming later. This is my "positive post" of the week.

A Morning With Seth

Good morning blog readers. I want to tell you about my morning with Seth. 7:30 am, the alarm goes off. We both get up to start our day. For those of you who know Seth well, you know that he loves to sing.


Loudly....

No matter what time of day....

Or if my mother is sleeping right above him....


And he often sings horribly cheesy songs....


He sings in the car (and doesn't stop at traffic lights like I d0). Not just sings, rocks out. He plays the drums on the steering wheel, dances and uses hand motions (see below).








He sings while running, he sings in the shower, he would sing during PA school....he just LOVES to sing.

So this morning he starts singing this super awesome (and by awesome I mean terrible) song by Glenn Mederios. It's a high song, and Seth was NOT holding back.

You may think you have no idea who this is, but you do. Glenn sings that really great song "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You."

If you don't know the song...please click this link.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLxTEV5vpyg

I really need to figure out how to imbed videos into my blog because you all need to see this video, it will change your life.

Back to the story...Seth starts singing this song. But the lyrics didn't seem quite right to me. Seth was singing, "Nothing's gonna change my love for you. I wanna tell the world how much I love you."

The following conversation then took place.

Me: Babe, not only is that song horrible but those are NOT the lyrics.

Seth: What!? Yes they are!

Me: Oh no, I am pretty sure they are not.

Seth: Well what do you think they are?

Me: "Nothings gonna change my love for you....yadda yadda yadda how much I love you"

Seth: You don't even know the lyrics! At least mine make sense!

Me: Well I don't know what they are, but I know what you are singing isn't right.

Seth: Wanna bet?

Me: Yes...go look it up and we'll see who is right.

(bet takes place...I won't discuss the terms here)

I continue getting ready while Seth gets online to discover that he was WRONG and that the lyrics are in fact:

"Nothing's gonna change my love for you. You oughtta know by now how much I love you."

HA! Victory! I win!!!!

So then I start singing more of the song (cause I totally think I know it) and sing,

"One thing I can be sure of, I'll never last the morning with your love."

Wait...

That doesn't make any sense....

Which Seth quickly points out to me......

The lyrics are in fact "One thing you can be sure of, I'll never ask for more than your love."

So the moral of the story is....

80s love songs are awesome....

And Seth and I really don't know the lyrics to the songs we are excited to sing.

Swine Flu Terror!

Guys, the Swine Flu is here!!!

Seriously, it's here.

And I am scared.

Have you ever had the full-on flu? I am not talking about the times you feel sick, or achy, or feverish...I mean influenza! Well I have, and it is NOT fun. I had two different strains at once, Influenza A and Influenza B. I have never been so sick. I was literally in bed for 10 days. It was terrible. I have had pneumonia twice, gastritis, etc...but never felt as bad as I did when I had the flu. The only relief that I found was when I took a bath, but even then I had to rest my head on the side of the tub. I was that sick. It was terrible.

So, it is no surprise that when the Swine Flu hysteria hit, I was hysterical. It's true, I was hysterical. I started washing my hand compulsively. I was posting all about it on Facebook, I was glued to NPR, etc. I was freaked out about this.

Let me tell you how my lovely friends at Make-A-Wish responded to my hysteria.

This was probably during the first 2 weeks of the outbreak. We were discussing as a staff what we could do to make sure that we were prepared if any of us (or our wish families) became infected. It's important that we keep a clean building because our wish kids come here with really terrible immune systems and we didn't want to cause any problems.

Back to the story...

Every morning we have a small meeting in our workroom. It usually lasts just 5-10 minutes and pretty much gives everyone a chance to talk about what they have going on that day. Well, this particular morning, I was late (which I never am). I walked straight into the workroom to find all of the staff members wearing masks.

My first reaction was that this was a joke. In fact I said sarcastically "Oh, phew! Thank goodness! Now we are safe!"

No one laughed.

Then, Christine said, "No, Becky, this is real. The Health Department came by this morning. We had a wish family here last night that just came back from Mexico. As a precaution they want us to wear these masks."

I believed them.

Why wouldn't I believe them!? They all kept a straight face...ok not true they were all smiling under their masks but I obviously couldn't see them.

I quickly grabbed my mask and put it on. For the next 3 hours I wore the damn thing. I wore it at my desk. It was uncomfortable, I felt short of breath, etc. I wanted to take it off buy everytime an office member would walk by me, they had on their mask. I didn't want to put anyone at risk!

By lunch time my lovely coworkers couldn't hold it in any longer. They told me it was all a joke. Apparently they started an email chain talking about how they wanted to "get Becky". Krachel's husband brought home the masks and they were all in on it.

I totally got punk'd by Make-A-Wish.

And that is why I:
1). Am scared of Swine Flu (totally desperate for my vaccine)
2). Love my co-workers.

But don't worry, I totally deserved it. I got Frank and Mike about a year before, so this was my payback.

Yes, that is some of their office supplies in Jell-O.

Scorpions and Why I Am An Awesome Wife

Seth made a good point when he indicated that for a blog titled "My Life as a Youkstetter" I haven't mentioned nearly enough about Seth & I. So, this one is for you babe.

Last week I was a stress case. Sometimes when I am stressed I try and do something productive. This often leads to cleaning rampages or the creation of lists. That night I decided to tackle some more wedding thank you notes. So I crawled into bed next to Seth and started writing. Seth, on the other hand, was enjoying his "one show".... Fringe. It should be noted that while Seth only has 1 show, I have at least 6....so there's that. Fringe is a newer show on Fox, a crime-drama of sorts but with a sci-fi twist. Definitely not my cup of tea, but Seth loves it.

I wasn't paying much attention to the plot but I do know this...it involved some killer part human, part scorpion creature that would grab people into holes in the ground, and kill them. Riveting...I know. I turned to Seth and said, "Wait a minute, this reminds me a lot of Tremors!"

You remember Tremors right? That awesome 80s movie about these large worm looking killer monsters that lived underground? I always thought that movie was so cool because the only safety they could find was on their roof tops. And roof tops are cool when you are 10...as is Kevin Bacon's hair in that movie.

Anyway, back to the story.... The episode ended soon after that and we decided to go to bed. Seth did mention how "creepy" Fringe could be and then we fell asleep.

Skip ahead to 5:30 am the next morning. I wake up because Seth is shaking next to me. He would shake, and then stop, shake hard again, and then stop. I woke him up and said "Honey, are you having a nightmare?" The following conversation took place.

Seth: What? Oh yes, I was having a nightmare.

Me: What about?

Seth: I was dreaming about these giant flying scorpions chasing me.

Me: Oh ya?

Seth: Ya, and I kept trying to get away but they wouldn't leave me alone. You know how sometimes bugs just won't leave you alone?

Me: (trying not to laugh) Yes, I know how bugs can be like that. So what finally got them to go away?

Seth: You came along and got them to chase you instead.

pause.....

Me: Well, that's just the kind of wife I am.

Seth then snuggled into me and fell right back to sleep. The best part is that when my alarm went off a couple hours later, Seth recalled the dream, but he didn't recall that I was the one that saved him for the horrendous flying scorpions!

And that my friends is why I am an awesome wife. No one messes with my man....

My Sister, the Rock Star!

This past weekend I drove down to St. George to see my sister run in her first marathon. Marathons are hard you guys. Like, ridiculously hard. 26.2 miles should not be an ok distance to run. However, lots of us think that we need to do them at least once in our lives.


Here's a picture of me running my first (and only) marathon in 2005.

I thought I was going to die. This was at about mile 23. Seth said to me "Babe keep running you only have 3 miles to go!" I remember wanting to cry (probably did) and thinking "you have GOT to be kidding me. I can't do it. I can't run 3 more miles!" But I did. I finished in 6 freaking hours, but I finished. I do want to say however, that my knee was bad. After about mile 8 I was in pain. So, I could have done better. I really wish that I would have had a good experience with my marathon, but I just didn't. But what the hell, at least I can say that it is something that I did.

Before the marathon I couldn't run a mile without stopping. But, it was Spring, I had just seperated from my ex husband and decided, what the hell....and began training. It was really good for me. It helped me channel some emotion and anger into something other than my divorce. It was very therapeutic. I am so glad that I did it.

Ok, moving on to the awesomeness of my post. My sister. This is how SHE looked after running 26.2 miles.

See how happy she is? I am so proud of her. She was smiling and laughing as she crossed the finish line. ROCK FREAKING STAR!

Now for those of you who don't know my sister...let me just say...this was her in the Summer of 2006. (I hope she doesn't kill me for posting this)

Shortly after this time my amazing sister decided that she wanted to lose some weight. And she did. I mean, a lot of weight.

Heather lost her weight the right way. No funny pills, no fad diets, no crazy gimmicks...she lost it through diet and exercise. I am not sure the exact pounds lost but I am thinking it is between 110-120 pounds. She worked her ass off (literally) and began to change her life.

My sister is my hero. She is an inspiration to me every single day. She has fought and fought to become who she is today. It has been amazing to watch her transform. She now bikes, runs, freaking does triathalons, etc.

I am so happy for her. I am so happy for her HUGE accomplishment on Saturday. She was up and walking when I was sleeping and limping after my marathon. She was all smiles. Sis, I promise I will do another marathon with you....

But only the New York Marathon.....

So we better try our luck....

You are my hero! Thanks for being one of my best friends and CERTAINLY one of my biggest inspirations. Love you!