It's Time to play Catch-up.

I am currently living about 20 miles southwest of where I grew up. We bought this cute house 3 1/2 years ago and thoroughly love it here:

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I married this sweet guy 6 years ago:

It might sound cliche, but he absolutely is my best friend. He makes me laugh every day and has taught me to reach beyond myself. He challenges me to be a better person, whether it's something trivial like FINALLY having the courage to get behind a boat on a wake board or something important like being brave enough to finish school despite challenging circumstances. I am really lucky!

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I graduated from BYU in 2005 and I am currently working at a medical center (ironically) across the street from where I went to high school. I work in the transfusion department which, as anyone who knows me well, is really funny because I hate the sight of blood and I hate even more seeing gross and gory things! Somehow, though, it is such a perfect job for me. I like challenges and this job certainly provides a lot of challenges! I have great coworkers, too.

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My hubby is living his dream as a firefighter for a local fire department.

He got his badge in May (I'm pinning it on during the badge ceremony in the picture above) and has seen his share of chest pains and car accidents, but no REAL fires yet!

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We are the proud caretakers of these two.

Billy, a slightly overweight narcoleptic purr-ball whom we adopted 3 years ago from a coworker of my husband's who was suffering from cat-related allergies. She originally found him as a stray 3-4 week old kitten wandering near her house:

And Mally (short for Mallassezia furfur, a type of fungus--hey, I'm a Microbiology major), a wiry tabby who suffers from chronic anxiety. She's the original kitty and she makes sure that we don't forget it. We adopted her 4 years ago from another one of my husband's coworkers whose parents took in a stray cat, only for it to have kittens a few days later. Sadly, the mom died when the kittens were only a few weeks old. Mally was one of those kittens:

They might "just be cats" but they provide us with hours of entertainment and affection. They really are a part of our family!

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I LOVE to scrapbook. I always scrapbooked through high-school but somewhere amidst the countless papers and endless studying that comes with college, I got out of the habit. I have a very supportive husband who encouraged me to get back into the practice (he says it was because I had too many boxes of pictures just laying around). I tell him he created a monster! Now the question remains: do I love to scrapbook more or buy scrapbook supplies and organize them more?

Either way, it's too much fun turning this:

into this:

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I also love to spend time outdoors and traveling with friends and family. Every year we go camping here:

(Note: I shouldn't question whether or not it is wise to put a firefighter in charge of the campfire, but that campfire got REALLY big and those trees behind us were REALLY dead.)

And we try to go camping/boating here (though our hectic lives don't always allow it):

And I NEVER get tired of going here! (I got back from trip #5 to Disney World 2 weeks ago):

(The hubby says that there are parts of the U.S. that exist outside of Florida. I don't believe him.)

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And if I'm home, I spend as much time out here as I like:

Gardening is rewarding. It's GREAT being able to walk outside my back door and pick one of these babies for dinner:

This time of year is bittersweet. While fall is my favorite season of all, it is also sad to say goodbye to summer and spending time outside.