Happy Leap Day! (and more about me)

Happy Leap Day!!

Below, I've gotten this from a few people in e-mails, so I thought I'd share more about me (and I wanted an excuse to write something on Leap Day!) :-)

Four things about me:

Four jobs I have had in my life:
from most recent....
1. Backstage Library Works
2. LabelTec (a label making company where I was the 'gopher' so I was only there for 1 1/2 years before finding my current job)
3. Sandstar Family Entertainment (for 3 1/2 months at the same time working part-time at LabelTec and the ONLY telemarketing job I've had and will ever have)
4. McDonalds (yes, I worked there when I moved to Utah, but for only about 4 days 'cause I couldn't handle it... that's my only fast food job that I will EVER have)

Four movies I could watch over and over:
hmmm, tough one...
1. Enchanted (LOVE that movie!)
2. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3. The Sound of Music
4. Anne of Green Gables
There are more movies that I could watch over and over, but these 4 are off the top of my head.

Four places I have lived:
1. Tooele, UT (when I was 1 and then my parents moved to Missouri when I was 2)
2. Granby, MO
3. Provo, UT
4. Pleasant Grove, UT

Four TV shows I watch:
I hardly watch TV, but 4 TV shows Jeff and I have watched on DVD...
1. Full House (cute show)
2. 7th Heaven (good family show)
3. Sliders (Jeff got me into that one)
4. Heroes (Jeff got me into that one, too... we borrowed season 1 from his sister and it's almost too intense for me)

Four favorite places that I have visited:
1. Disneyland! (for our honeymoon and I really want to go back!)
2. West Edmonton Mall (world's largest mall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, with over 800 stores and an indoor waterpark and indoor amusement park)
3. Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA (can you tell I love amusement parks?)
4. New York (when I was a teenager, my family and I went to the Statue of Liberty, along with other places there, and even was on top of one of the twin towers)

Web sites I visit daily:
1. Blogs of family
2. Blogs of friends
3. Facebook
4. Gmail e-mail
I couldn't think of a 4th one I check every day, so I split up #1 and #2 :-)

Four of my favorite restaurants:
1. Olive Garden
2. Training Table (Utah's original!)
3. Whistle Wok (a place in American Fork Jeff and I go sometimes)
4. IHOP

Four of my favorite things to do:
1. Spend time with Jeff
2. Spend time with his and my family
3. Go to Disneyland!
4. Sleep (I need more of it!)

A Clean Dresser!

A week ago today, I cleaned off our dresser. Before I cleaned it, it was full of clutter (mostly receipts, other small pieces of paper, dust, and a few other things). But I decided to clean it off and dust it and leave the pictures and our ring boxes on it (I even dusted the pictures). Now I have to go through what was on it and throw things away or put things away. I think I'm going to do that to all areas of our condo... a little at a time. And eventually, our condo will look very nice. I work full-time, so it's hard to have the energy to clean sometimes. I've also been sick and very tired over this past weekend, so I haven't felt like continuing my cleaning. Here's a picture of our newly cleaned dresser ....


We got the Christ picture as a wedding gift (I don't remember who gave it to us). The other 2 things were given to us from Jeff's sister (who is now 19). She took a picture of our rings on our wedding day and put it in a frame and she did a cross-stitch of our names, our wedding date, the temple we were married in, then the words "Together Forever", and put that in a frame, too. We love all the gifts on our dresser.

I just love how our dresser looks right now... so clean! Maybe seeing this picture on my blog will motivate me to clean other areas of our condo. We'll see if it works. :-)

Anyway, my cold isn't lasting too long. I still feel a tad bit under the weather, but I'm feeling a lot better than I did over the weekend.

And lastly, Jeff started his new job today! I hope his first day went well and I can't wait till he comes home, so I can find out how it went! I will need to have him do a post in the near future.

Being Sick = Not Fun.... and guess what....

I am sick! Jeff caught a cold earlier this week... I must have caught it from him. I started feeling it in my throat yesterday afternoon. My colds almost always start in my throat. And I feel the worst when I first wake up... my throat hurts really bad and my throat and ears hurt when I swallow. When the day progresses, my throat feels a little better, but I can still feel that I'm sick. And I'm extremely tired because I'm not getting the sleep I should be getting and my body is fighting this cold.

I hate being sick! Last fall had to have been one of the worst. Around the end of September, I caught a cold. Then I started getting better and Jeff caught it. Then I caught another one, which was followed by a lingering cough. Then in mid-November on a Sunday afternoon, I started getting achy muscles. Later in the evening I became VERY cold, to where even a jacket, 2 light blankets, and the heater on wouldn't warm me up. Then I threw up that evening and again in the middle of the night. All the symptoms I was getting seemed like flu symptoms. But then the next afternoon (Monday), I noticed my skin getting red... some parts looked like a rash and others looked like a sunburn. When Jeff came home that evening, we immediately went to an InstaCare place. They said my white blood cell count was double what it should be, but they couldn't do all the blood work that the ER could, so they sent us there. They gave me fluids and antibiotics through an IV and I also got a prescription for some antibiotics. We were there till after 3:00 a.m., I think. It turned out to be a staph infection. Yes, NOT fun! But the antibiotics helped a ton and the only good thing that came from that was that it got rid of my lingering cough from the colds before. :-)

Anyway, I think I need to take vitamins more often. And get more sleep. Hopefully this cold won't last too long. Since I worked on Monday, I'll have a 3-day weekend to hopefully recuperate... and spend time with Jeff since he has today and tomorrow off before he starts his new job. I also get to leave a little early today because I worked a little extra a couple other days.

So.... I came up with a conclusional equation (or equational conclusion?, hehe... I just made those 2 phrases up) ....

Being Sick = Not Fun

I have a good job.... and Jeff will have a good job starting Monday!

I deleted a post I typed at work yesterday. I was bored at work because I couldn't work for a few hours because of server problems, so I was just typing about how I couldn't work. I re-read it and it seemed kinda boring, so I just deleted it. I'll just say how grateful I am for my job. Even though I get burned out sometimes and it gets stressful sometimes and I'm tired a lot, staring at computer screens all day, it's been a good job.

I'm excited for Jeff to start his new job. His current job can get stressful at times, so I'm hoping his new job will be less stressful for him. At least tomorrow is his last day at his current job, then he'll have Thursday and Friday off before he starts his new job on Monday. I made Jeff a contributor to this blog, so hopefully I can get him to post about his new job and what he does (since I'm not exactly sure). Anyway, I worked yesterday (on Presidents Day, which is a paid holiday), so I could have Friday off to spend with him. I can't wait! :-)

My Sweet Husband!

Okay, now I'm stealing this idea from both my sisters, Melissa and Rebecca. :-) But I like the idea, especially on this Valentine's Day. I'm also using a different title than what they had (one used Wonderful and one used Awesome... and although both those words fit my hubby, I decided to use Sweet). This picture was taken almost 2 years ago, on our wedding day. I have a lot more pictures from that day, but want to save them to post on our anniversary.


* What is his name? Jeffery Bruce Hoggard
* How long have you been married? Almost 2 years (on Mar. 4)
* How long did you date? If you count engagement, exactly 10 months (not counting engagement, 7 1/2 months)
* How old is he? Just turned 34 last month (Jan. 14)
* Who eats more sweets? I do!
* Who said I love you first? He did... because of my broken hearts in the past, I wasn't ready, but then I did soon after (not sure how soon after, though)
* Who is taller? Jeff (as you can see in the pictures I post)
* Who can sing better? I sing around the house more than he does, but I don't like my voice and I think he's better
* Who is smarter? I think Jeff is (but he keeps saying I am, too, although sometimes I think I'm not)
* Who does the laundry? Mostly me, but he does some, too
* Who pays the bills? I do (Jeff puts me in charge of our finance stuff 'cause he says I'm good at it)
* Who sleeps on the right side? Depends on where you are... if you're standing at the foot of the bed facing the bed, I do, but if you're in bed lying on your back, he does
* Who mows the lawn? What lawn? We live in a condo! Actually there is some grass and the maintenance people (whoever they are) takes care of that
* Who cooks dinner? Both of us (but once Jeff gets paid more at his new job to where I can work part-time or not at all, I'll be doing most of the cooking)
* Who drives? Who drives where?... I drive to my work. Jeff drives to his work. And it's about half and half if we drive together (sometimes he'd drive us, sometimes I'd drive us)
* Who is more stubborn? Probably me (gotta work on that)
* Who kissed who first? I can't remember... but it was this one night and we knew it was going to happen, but I kept stalling because I didn't want to get my heart broken again... but after I quit stalling, it happened and now look where we are!
* Who asked who out first? Funny story... our VERY first date was about 2 years before we starting dating... we went out once and didn't really hit it off. I don't remember who asked who out then, but we had each other on MSN Messenger and said hi once in a blue moon, then about 2 years after our first date, we were talking on Messenger and I was saying how we were having a hard time finding a date for my brother and Jeff said something like "i can so empathize" and then I said something like "i'm available", then after that, we started going out (first slowly 'cause he was finishing up a semester, then more often)
* Who proposed? Jeff did! I knew it was coming since we had picked out my ring, but I didn't exactly know when. We went to Jeff's work Christmas party at Thanksgiving Point. It was a nice dinner and dancing and it was semi-formal (we just wore our Sunday best), then I think we drove through the lights up there, then went to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple and we walked around to the back of it and he proposed to me there. It was a sweet moment that I'll never forget!
* Who has more siblings? We both have the same amount, even the same amount of brothers and sisters... I have 1 brother and 2 sisters and he has 1 brother and 2 sisters
* Who wears the pants? When we go to church or to the temple or some other thing where I have to wear a dress, Jeff wears the pants... any other time, we both do :-) (actually we both do now)
* Who is the most affectionate? Most of the time, he probably is, but other times, we both are!
* Who cleans the house? Read the answer to 'Who cooks dinner' above (except substitute the word 'cooking' for the word 'cleaning')

Even though we both have our little quirks, we are both very patient with each other. I'm grateful for Jeff and how patient he is with me. I love being with him and the fun times we have together. I'm grateful how hard he works at his job and that he got this new job (that he'll start in 1 1/2 weeks) that will hopefully make it to where I can work just part-time or not work at all for when we start having children. I'm grateful that he wants to make enough for me not to work and to support the family that we'll have. I'm grateful that he works so hard in his church calling (as Elders Quorum secretary)... the Elders Quorum President has said that he's grateful for Jeff and all that he does. I'm grateful that he has such a wonderful family. I'm just grateful for Jeff and the wonderful man he is!

Here is another picture from our Disneyland honeymoon trip from almost 2 years ago....


I love you, Jeff!!!

Jeff got a new job!

Jeff was going to school and working part-time last semester, but he's taking this semester off because we can't afford it. We paid for last semester, but we need some sort of loan or financial aid (or something!). He went back to full-time at Dentrix (his current place of work for a couple more weeks) so we could save more money and because we needed his benefits... Dentrix has out-of-this-world benefits and if we had had his benefits this past November when I had a staph infection and had to go to the ER, we would have paid about $100 something instead of $800 something (without my insurance, it would have been $1,200 something). Anyway, sometimes Jeff gets stressed at Dentrix. The Elders Quorum President in our Ward works at this one place (I forgot the name of it) where there was a job opening, and a month or so ago he told Jeff about it. Jeff applied and went in for an interview a few weeks ago. He was told he'd make about $12 (or $12 something) an hour and that they'd be moving from Lindon to Draper in about a month. He wasn't sure about commuting from Pleasant Grove to Draper. Plus, he wasn't sure about their benefits (since Dentrix has awesome benefits). He got sent an application through e-mail to print out and fill out and he took it back earlier this week. Well, to make a long story short.... wait a minute, it's already a long story, so never mind the short story. :-) A couple days ago he got 2 e-mails, one from the lady that interviewed him and one from Brandon (the Elders Quorum President). Brandon just told Jeff a couple more things about the job, that it would actually start at $13/hour ($2.25/hour more than what he has been making), what the benefits are (which aren't bad at all), and that maybe 2-4 weeks out of the year he would get to go on business trips, even international. The lady that interviewed him said he was accepted for the position and that he could start whenever. It also sounds like maybe it would be a lot easier to move up in the company than at Dentrix. After praying about it and getting a strong impression that he should take this job, he called yesterday morning to accept it and he starts on the 25th. He also put in his 2-week notice at Dentrix yesterday. We're both very excited for this opportunity of Jeff's! And we'll see what happens with this new job. I might make Jeff post an entry on here one of these days, saying what he does for the company (and the name of it). :-)