Awesomely Argyle

Yes, it's true. It seems that the argyle print has taken over my life. I wear it EVERYDAY. No this is serious people. I wear it everyday. Whether it is my cute closet full of new argyle sweaters or it is my argyle printed socks... I am wearing it. Is it a problem? You be the judge. I am going to take photos for the next two weeks and post what I wear everyday. Even though the photo below is NOT in my collection, I have some that are similar. So, the journey begins. I hope you enjoy the next 7-10 days.

Jaala

We're Almost Rednecks

We spent the day at the Strip at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway at the NHRA nationals drag races. (NHRA stands for National Hot Rod Association by the way)


These are the Top Fuel dragsters which go the fastest and also are the absolute loudest. I talked to my Dad this morning about going and he tried to express to me how powerful the cars really are. He (and Jaala) said that you could feel the rumble in your insides. I thought I understood what that meant, until I actually witnessed them racing. The starters were pretty loud and fast, but then when the top fuel guys came on, it was true: you could feel the rumble of the cars in your guts. When they drove by your vision blurred and you HAD to wear ear-plugs if you wanted to have all five senses at the end of the day. They were incredible! And if you'll see below, the times of two of the cars are posted above their respective lanes.

That is a 1/4 mile track, and the dragsters are running it in 3.8 seconds. Most run-of-the-mill cars run a 1/4 mile in around 12-15 seconds and that includes Ferraris and Lamborghinis and stuff. The other number on the boards is the top speed the car hit in the run, in MPH. You read that right, 312.21 and 313 mph respectively. Hella fast.





This guy's main job seemed to be to remove debris from the track. He can be seen here removing a blown drive belt from a top fuel dragster's engine. It's basically like a huge fan belt, and this one just ripped right in the middle of a run, which pretty much disabled the car.






This is a photo of the pre-run burnout's all the cars do to warm up their tires. There's a lot of smoke.



These are crew members from all the teams walking the track to make sure it is up to their standards of cleanliness and such before their drivers go nearly as fast as airplanes on it.



Here we begin the weirdness of auto-racing crowds. This couple of potatoes could not stop kissing outside the bathroom. They weren't french kissing or anything just very forcefully pecking over and over and over and over.



This guy is normal. He just seems a little old to be racing a motorcycle that goes nearly 200mph with no seatbelt or straps or guarantees of not flying off. Crazy guy.



Just one of the pro-stock race cars. These go a little slower than the top-fuelers (280 mph)



This lady was on par with several other women, at least in amount of skin shown. The difference here is her advanced years, and the dark stain on her left breast.....what is that?


Ike the Vike.....it was Halloween afterall.



This was a charming site really. The little guy was really into the races.



Nellis Air Force Base is practically right next to the speedway so this large cargo plane landed while we were there. Pretty neat.



This was the hottest chick at the races.



And the best looking fella.





And this was the fastest speed I noted for the day. 318.47 mph. That is some fast shiz.

My new favorite beauty product!

So, I have a new job which requires me to be professional at all times... which means I need to have my make-up done and clothes ironed everyday. Well... my new favorite beauty product is Clinique Touch Base for Eyes. I put it on before I put my eye shadow on and my eye shadow stays on ALL day! No joke. No joke at all! It starts to melt after about 12 hours... but hey... 12 hours is awesome. I have very oily eyelids and so this has been a miracle product. So here is a link (clique here) to get some of your own... it's only $14.50 and it should last at LEAST 3 months. Anyway, I thought I would share with you my new finding.



PEACE

Lots of new things... so much to update!

As you can see from these photos,we are very happy here in Las Vegas. Just before I "officially" moved to Las Vegas (after being a stay-at-home-mom for a week to my nephew and nieces) we had a photo shoot with a former co-worker of mine, **David Daniels. He has such an artistic eye for photos and it was a no brainer that we had him do us the honors of taking our first set of photos since our wedding (almost 5 years ago). By the way... we were featured on his website this last week... YAY (details at the end of this post)

Harrison is still loving his job. He is working with at-risk youth (teenagers) in the valley as a mentor to help with their social skills. After lots of prayers, resumes, applications, and searching (I sent about 90 applications in all) I landed me a job. I have been in my job for about a week. It is very busy but I believe it will be very rewarding. I got a job at Feller Orthodontics as a Treatment Coordinator. I am the one you see when you first get to the office for your consultation. YAY. I am also doing some Marketing/PR/Events stuff (which is right up my alley). It is going to take me a little bit of time to learn the technical side of this new field but I am sure I will be fine in another couple of days.

No news on a new house yet. DANG IT!!! The house that we put an offer on in July is at a halt right now due to some things that are out of our control. We have put offers in on some other homes as well and so we hope that something turns out positive for us before the tax credit deadline (cross your fingers).

Well, I think that is our updates for now. The weather is starting to cool off in Las Vegas.... DANG. I am still in shorts and flip flops during the day but I need a light sweater in the morning. I heard it already snowed in Utah, so I am thankful we got out of there in time to miss all of that!

I will post more photos of our photo shoot later as well as more updates.

LOVE AND PEACE TO ALL!!!!

**If you would like to learn more about David's photography or have him photograph your family/event/or other stuff... here are his links:

http://www.daviddanielsphotography.com/blog/

http://davidweddingphotography.com/

Every tooth in a man's head is more valuable than a diamond.

... This is exactly what I thought when I saw the total bill for my braces. Woah. $4200 for straight teeth?? Are you kidding me? No, the orthodontist was not. So, in November of 2007 I signed up (laid in a chair rather) and had orthodontic appliances put onto my very crooked and very gnarly teeth. I needed braces for a myriad of reasons, but Harrison and I decided that this simply could not wait any longer.

22 months later, just about a week ago, I had my braces taken off. After almost two years, I couldn't even remember what it was like to NOT have braces. I hadn't bitten into an apple for ages nor had I chewed gum for that long either. I went into the orthodontist very anxious to get the dang things off. All he did was snap them one by one with a pair of pliers. WHAT?? That is all it took to take them off? It took about 45 seconds. I took a look in the mirror and in true Jaala fashion, started to cry! I could not believe that my teeth looked that good! HOLY CRAP! Straight teeth in Jaala's mouth. A miracle to me.

For any of you who read this and are thinking about getting braces but are worried about the cost, pain, maintenance, hassle, blah blah blah... I am here to tell you that it is TOTALLY worth it. Go get those braces. I thought I was "too old" for braces, but my orthodontist specializes in mainly adult orthodontics... so they made things quick, professional, and my braces were as discreet as braces could possibly be... and then I started to notice that there are TONS of grown-ups with braces on! Its awesome!

Here is a time line of before, during, and after photos of my orthodontics history!



I am so happy with the way my teeth turned out. They are beautiful. I can't believe it really. Harrison is really happy too. He tells me everyday how beautiful I am (not that he didn't think I was beautiful before, but I think I really just shocked us both at how good my teeth look). I get compliments left and right on my teeth. Thanks for those (and thanks to the total strangers who give them to me to).

OK, Im done for now :)

Facial hair

Howdy folks,
Harrison here, just wallowing in the all too expected loss of BYU to FSU....Not really, that was pretty much a given loss. It is funny when speculation about games is on TV. Shouldn't a game between a team that is ranked #7 in the nation and a team that is not even in the top 25 teams in the nation be a non-issue? Unless of course everyone knows that that #7 team doesn't really deserve to be ranked so high. And as such it becomes fun to discuss who will win said game, which it just so happens was the team that was not even ranked....hmmm.

Anyway on to better things. On the note of BYU let's discuss why I am actually writing this post. After I graduated from BYU I felt the need to grow me a Grizzly Adams-type beard. Which is what I did.


Shortly after this photo was taken I trimmed my beard and along with it, my hair. (because a smaller beard made my hair look a little gay so long).


I personally was very disappointed with this haircut because I told the lady to leave it 1in long on the top and 1/2 in on the sides, but it came out the same length all around. Of course it was impossible for her to put the hair back on my head so I told her I was satisfied and promptly left. I got used to it though and I had to keep better tabs on my beard length as it seems to grow much faster than my normal hair.

But today I finally felt like my hair was a good length on the top so I could get the sides cut down again. So I went to Supercuts and got me a trim.
Along with this trim I have been contemplating a beard overhaul to prepare for some official photos Jaala and I are getting taken next weekend. So as always I decided to have a little fun with it for a minute.



minutes after this photo I finished off the beard and left some somewhat conservative "chops" reminiscent of our newly married days.



I am satisfied with this look. But I do think the beard makes me look older and the non-beard makes me look younger. Plus the beard made me look a lot tougher. Right?

Las Vegas - my favorite desert mirage.

Well, I have arrived ALMOST permanently in Las Vegas (I still have a couple of trips to make back to Utah for logistical stuff). I came down here with 4 suitcases full of clothes and shoes (the essentials of course) and "moved in" with Harrison. We are staying with some friends until we know if the house we are under contract with finalizes and we are able to close (yes ladies and gentleman... we STILL do NOT know if we got the house yet).

I have been spending the last 2 days filling out job applications and submitting resumes here in the Las Vegas valley. Harrison asked me just this morning how many applications/resumes he thought I had submitted. I estimated about 40. Yup, 40. Nothing has come of any of them quite yet, but I haven't lost hope.

The weather here in Vegas is wonderful.... HOT HOT HOT!!! Just the way I like it. I am, as my mother-in-law told me once, a desert iguana. I am very happy to be with Harrison, though I already miss Nick and Joy and the kids. I wonder if I can persuade them to move down here to The City of Sin??

We appreciate all of the concern and love that we feel from a lot of you. I know that we have a lot of family and friends that read this blog and I know you pray for us often. We appreciate it. Please keep us in your prayers as we try to close on this stupid house (I didn't mean stupid... it is just getting frustrating) and pray for me as I try to find a job to help pay the bills.

So, it seems that is where we are at right now. We are stuffed into a little basement bedroom with way too many clothes (I just couldn't leave them behind until the REAL move) and we are loving it. Its good to be together again, although it is proving to be a little harder than we may have thought to get used to sleeping next to each other (more for me maybe). But I am so happy to be with Harrison and to be able to talk to him face to face instead of over the webcam or over the cellphone (which always proves to be frustrating since most of the time the reception is always bad).

OK, that's all for now. Shoot us a comment. We love hearing from people who read our blog. Family, friends, strangers.... whoever! Let us know you read :)