t-minus ten.

TEN minutes until I shut everything down and bust out of this joint.

Today feels like it has been the longest day to end the long week of my life.

Not sure why. Nothing tramatic, pressing or stressful has happened this week.

... it just crawled.

I made a discovery about myself today.

I'm pretty obsessive over checking our online bank account about, oh... fifteen times a day.

Anyone else have this problem? Checking it once a day is good. It's healthy... but fifteen?!

I've got to get a hold of myself.

I don't know why I feel the need to log into wellsfargo.com, like the second (or thirteenth)

time won't reflect the same balance. I think that, subconciously, I'm hoping that the next time

I log in I'm going to see an unpected $500 dollars deposited for no reason at all.

I don't know... I must be expecting some change in what I see, to be checking it so neurotically.

It's a good thing I sit in front of a computer for 9+ hours a day, huh?

Anyway, I'm excited for this weekend. A grilling sesh with some good friends, cheering on a

family friend in the national wagon race tomorrow, annual green dinner with the Nelsons,

a goodbye party for the Stephens and a relaxing Sunday. All is how it should be.

Happy Friday, everyone!

grateful.

To say I'm grateful for the abundance of great women around me would be an understatement.

I am beyond grateful. The past couple weeks I have taken a good, hard look at my life; namely people I have let into it. I cannot believe my "luck" in the women I have come to associate with throughout my life, especially recently.

           Thanks to two good friends- Jade and Kylee -who both individually blogged about their daily experiences with gratitude, I have decided to take on the challenge. For the month of March I will focus daily on a specific thing that God has blessed my life with and to thank Him for it. With every passing day I have had no trouble coming up with a different blessing to express gratitiude for. What I thought of this morning has struck a chord and I feel the need to share it. I am so grateful for the many wonderful women I am lucky to call friends/family. I may not have the pleasure of seeing most of them on a regular basis. I may never have expressed my admiration and thankfulness to them aloud. I may have known them since childhood, met them in Gamma, at church, in class at the U or on a plane. (Okay, maybe not a plane.)

          Thanks to those of you who have commented here at one time or another, I know that nearly every wonderful woman that comes to mind reads my blog. Those women who have influenced me are smart, considerate, educated, funny, opinionated, talkative, driven and giving. I think the qualities that you all embody says something about the woman that I want to be. I surround myself, as I think most people do, with those already possess qualities that I want to develop. I don't mean to leave anyone out of the following comments but these are the quick examples that come to mind: No one makes me laugh and enjoy life quite like Breauna or Candace. Amy, Sammy and Christine are women I look up to as beautiful, bright mothers(or soon-to-be) who are unwavering in what is right. I stalk Jade and Kylee's blogs on the daily because they are such beautiful writers and deep-thinkers. Bekah and Liz are ambitiuous and opinionated women. Hannah listens to me, really listens. Casey, Amanda and Sarah (individually) are pure entertainment for me with some much witt and personality, those ladies. Missy and Kelsey are probably my soulmates. When I'm with Meagan, Meli, Ashley, Chelsey or Kimberly it's like no time has passed and we could talk forever.

           I am so grateful for you ladies, the ones I publicly recognized attributes of and those whom I have yet to. I feel like I barely touched the surface here. Each one of you makes me better and how can I not somehow acknowledge that? If you're interested, I would encourage you to take this gratitude challenge!  It has helped me to envy less, compare less and feel so overwhelmingly loved by our Lord and Savior. I needed this and I'm just disappointed that I didn't do it earlier.

Our Eats.

This post is devoted to our favorite SLC hole-in-the-wall. Tasty Thai.

I mean, just look at how happy Mike is right here! It has nothing to do with sitting across from the love of his life -after a long work day- and being able to stare into her dark green eyes for endless hours.

No, it's because we just ordered our usual (except, they still don't recognize us

so we can't just say "We'll have our usual.") which is the Pad-Kee-Mow and Gang-Dang.

and daaaang, it is good!

If you love spicy food, sweet curries, sticky rice and veggies... THIS IS THE PLACE.

Seriously, it's some of the best thai food we've ever had...and we've tried thai food in nearly a dozen cities.

This  most recent trip ended with dessert (we never get dessert there!)

and now we will always end our meals with dessert.  Always.

This is the fresh coconut ice cream with peanut topping.

I die.

This stuff is the best. I give it 6 out of 5 stars! Yes, six! It was that good.

Tasty Thai is located in the Liberty Park area, probably one of our favorite parts of SLC.

It's right by Park Cafe (great breakfast joint with beautiful wall art by a new friend of ours),

paddle boating, Cummings Chocolates and Emily Jayne consignment.

Okay, so we wouldn't buy a home in the area because it can be a little sketch.

(note: "sketch" areas in Salt Lake City are not like "sketch" places in, say, the Bronx.

Basically, there are a lot of chain link fences and unkempt yards.)

Five or six blocks east in the Harvard/Yale/13th East area wouldn't be too shabby though.

I've gotta say, from the moment I moved to SLC I told myself I wouldn't be here very long.

But with every year, I love it here more and more. This city offers so much.

We're not considering putting down roots soon. But when we do, this city is on the list now.

Funny how time changes everything, huh?

Picture taken from Tasty Thai parking lot.

Goodbye October. Yes, October.

We got rid of the pumpkin. Finally.

If you came over to our place any time in the past 5 months, you'll know what I'm talking about.

At the beginning of October, my grandma and grandpa hosted a halloween/fall party.

The guys decorated pumpkins. Mike got a little creative and ended up with Jesus on his pumpkin.

We referred to it as the "Jesus pumpkin" from there on out.

(Blasphemous? I hope not. Then again, that would be in true Mike fashion.)

The pumpkin sat on our porch from October thru February.

Disgusting. I know. But that's how little we open our side door.

Finally, after a little nagging on my part(hello! I wasn't going to do it.),

Mike rid us of the pumpkin. Yes, it was nasty and Mike was screaming in agony the whole time.

I tried to take a good picture but he was running to the trash can. Fast.

I coaxed him to stop for 5 seconds so I could snap this.

You're probably not even looking at the pumpkin. Sexy morning hair, huh?

Glad that's gone. I'm thinking of making a wreath to adorn our porch.

But it will have to fit both spring and summer... because we know it'll be there for at least 5 months.