A Boy & His Dog

We were up at Bear Lake for part of the Thanksgiving weekend and I took this picture of Ben & Roxy in the back of the truck and thought it was awesome. These to are tied at the hip. She sleeps on his side of the bed, sits by the toilet when he is in the bathroom, lays outside his office door when he is on the computer, takes Sunday afternoon naps with him and gives him the cold shoulder when he goes away too long. You really can't get a better dog than Roxy. She has been good since she was a puppy and she really is "man's best friend".

Happy Halloween.....a little late

Halloween brought with it our regular fun traditions, Carving Pumpkins with the Cassity's and the Annual Twede Halloween Party. We had a blast with both families.

Mike & Pam's Pumpkins

My Old Witch Pumkin and Angie's happy Jack-o-lantern

Ben's Stitch & Spider Pumpkin

And the clear winner of the Cassity Pumkin Carving is Mike Lee's tribute to Michael Jackson. Pretty amazing pumpkin carving skills Mike!!!

Brayden, Taylor, Candace & Brielle at the Twede Halloween Party

Bethany, Brielle & Ben

Ben and I were in charge of games for the Twede party and we saw this fun idea on Food Network. Its made by Jelly Belly and called Beanboozled. Its got a mix of all the great Jelly Belly flavors but has some of them disguised as terribly nasty flavors and you don't know what you are going to get . Its amazing that they can make jelly beans taste like boogers, vomit and skunk spray. We had everyone taste the identical jelly beans at the same time and it was hilarious to see the reactions of those who got the bad flavors. The worst ones I got were booger and earwax. if you are brave enough they sell them at the Sandy Super Target. It was still fun despite all the gagging and dry heaving!

Are You For SCUBA?

About a month ago we had the opportunity to take a beginner Scuba Diving class with Ben's family at Dive Addicts in Draper. Ben has been wanting to do this for a long time and it was on my list of things I never want to do. Anyone that knows me well, knows I have a fear of water and don't swim well. Taking a class where they add weights to you in order to make you sink and breathing through something other than my mouth and nose didn't sound so appealing. But we did it and loved it! It was definitely scary at first (well for me at least). I think the worst part was when she told us we were going to take the aspirator (what is allowing me to breathe....hyperventilate) out while sitting on the bottom of the pool and learn how to clear water out of it- this is if it ever gets knocked out of your mouth. We went down 12 feet deep and got to play around on the bottom of the pool for about 30 minutes. Ben was a natural and loved every minute of it as well as the rest of the family. I definitely need more work on swimming with flippers. All in all we had a great time and it was an awesome experience!

My New Hobby

I was never much of a reader growing up, in fact I hated it. But as I have gotten "older" I have really learned to love reading---maybe because I am no longer doing it for a grade... Thanks to my sisters and sister-in-laws I have had some great recommendations of books to read. Lately I have a book with me everywhere I go. I just finished my last book a couple days ago and I am eagerly anticipating the Hunger Games sequel that comes out next week. If you have not read the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins I highly recommend it. The Hunger Games is also going to be made into a movie but not set to come out until 2011. Here are some other books I have read during the summer that I have loved...



This is a great adventure series. The first 6 books of the series are available in the U.S right now. It is young adult, but good for any age. Everyone in my family that has read it loves it.

The title is a mouthful, but this book is really good. My sister-in law Dasha let me borrow it, and I loved it so much that I bought my own copy. It is all written in a series of letters so the story is told from a really unique perspective. It is currently on the bestsellers list.



Fablehaven is an amazing series, and as exciting as Harry Potter. There are 4 books currently out and I think there will be 1 more to complete the series. Brandon Mull is a local author and already has a movie contract for the 1st book. He has also written "The Candy Shop Wars" which is a great read as well.

July 4th

Over the 4th of July we spent another great weekend with the Cassity's at the Lake. We got in some good relaxation as always, 4 wheeler rides, hanging out on the beach, and watching fireworks.

Ben on the 4 wheeler


Roxy, Moka, Sunny and Lola enjoying the beach

The water level is really high after all the rainfall. Getting to the beach is a little bit of challenge. This is me knee deep in the mucky water trying to make it to the beach.

We've missed this place....?

I guess a good way to start off the month is a trip to the Emergency Room. Just the other day I was saying the last 2 years of our marriage had been free of trips to the Emergency Room....I spoke to soon. But this time it was not for his stomach.
Yesterday Ben was helping tear up some carpet at his parents house when he bent down and felt a snap in his back. When he tried to stand up he collapsed to the floor, and his Dad and little brother had to pick him up. By the time I was able to get home from work he was in intense pain and couldn't stand up or walk on his own. We got him in the car and I immediately took him to instacare and they told us to go to the Emergency Room---they wouldn't even let him get out of the car. Ben was a "little" stubborn and I couldn't find my insurance card so he wanted to tough out the night at home and just go to his doctors appointment in the morning. Needless to say we didn't last long at home. We got him in bed and when he tried to get himself up to go to the bathroom a couple hours later, he collapsed on the floor again. It took us an hour to get him up off the floor because he was in so much pain, and I am pretty weak...upperbody strength is not my strong point. At this point we decided he needed to go to the Emergency Room like we were earlier advised. When we got there some nurses helped him from the car into a wheelchair and got him all situated in his nice little curtained room. We were there for about 3 hours in which they checked all his vitals, and reflexes with the finale being 2 shots in the but of morphine and some perscription for pain medication, muscle relaxers, and a referral to a spinal center in Salt Lake. They think he has a hurniated disk in his lower back. We didn't get home until 4 am, and he is now sleeping doped up with pain pills and muscle relaxers. So here we are at home having a sick day---I know that in and of itself is amazing for me. He can't really do much on his own and we go see a spinal therapist Thursday.

Waiting for the doctor. He sat like this for over an hour. He couldn't stand up or lay down until he got his shots to take the edge off of the pain.

After he had the 2 shots in his butt. He asked for them in the arm and the nurse just laughed.

January @ Bear Lake...

It seems like the only time we take pictures is when we are at the lake, maybe we just need to venture out a little bit more. We spent another cold weekend at the lake last week, but loved every minute of it. I love the lake in the Winter almost more than the summer. This weekend was filled with lots of walks on the beach, watching movies at the cabin, and shooting guns up on the mountain (my first time).

Christmas & New Years Catch up

The holidays went by way too fast so here is the update of the last month. We had a great holiday season and hope you did as well. It was full of fun traditions and time spent with the Twede's & Cassity's.

Annual Girls Night Out with the Cassity Women. We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory followed by Christmas shopping at the Gateway.

Baking Christmas Sugar Cookies and Candy with Grandma Schofield

The Pettingill Family Christmas Party. One of my favorite family traditions over the holidays. The best part is singing the 12 Days of Christmas with about 80 other people

Pettingill Family Christmas Party

Making Ornaments at the Cassity's. This is one of my favorite Cassity traditions. Every year we make new ornaments to decorate the tree. They started this tradition in 1984.



Our Christmas Tree, and yes there are one section of lights out!

The view from our house Christmas morning. On a clear day we can see all the way across Utah Lake to Pleasant Grove. It was a little snowy this morning.

Christmas Breakfast at the Cassity's

Ben & I wearing the scarfs made by Grandma Schofield. She made over 200 scarfs this year for all her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Christmas at the Twede's. We missed having the Clarks home this year, but they were enjoying the 80 degree weather in Dubai.

New Year's Day all the Twede girls (that were old enough) went to see Twilight together. It was a blast!