A little drive

A couple days ago, Jon and I decided to go for a drive. We hadn't planned anywhere in particular but we ended up going towards Mesa Falls. We didn't have a lot of time and the roads were closed anyway so we didn't make it all the way to Mesa Falls but it was nice to just go. Here's a picture from our mini adventure:



Too bad these roads made me soo car sick or it would have been even more enjoyable. I might add some more pictures later but it took me forever to download just one so that's all there is for now.

Victory

So, 2 months and 12ish pounds later, I've won the competition against my sister-in-law. We had an agreement that we had to put $1 in the "pot" for everyday we missed working out. Whoever missed the least amount of days, wins. It's hard for me to work out 5 days a week but the determined/stubborn side of me comes out when I'm in a competition I know I can win. I don't think anyone has beaten my stubborness. It's a quality that Jon finds endearing and extremely frustrating. At least I think he finds it endearing...frustrating for sure. It's sad that now that the competition is gone, my willpower goes drastically down. However, it's still a goal of mine to work out 3-4 days a week and now I know that the only thing that really works for me is running and lifting weights. And eating healthier, of course. I hate running but I love lifting weights so at least I can look forward to that when I go to the gym. Thank goodness BYUI gives spouse I-Cards. I also noticed how sad it is when I barely recognize 12 pounds gone. When I was in high school that would have been a huge deal but now it just means my "fat pants" aren't tight anymore.

Snow!

Guess what? It snowed! Everyone is cursing it and I'm loving it. Is it too early to play Christmas music?

So, I'm super excited about these next pictures. Preface: Derek got a little schnauzer last year(Jasper, who now lives with my parents) and he bought him a little sweater because it was winter and cold outside. When we got Abby, Derek gave us the sweater in case we wanted to use it. We found a different one for Abby but we still kept the sweater. Now Abby has a little boy puppy and I randomly found Jasper's sweater and decided to see how it looked on him. I know, I'm ridiculous. It's just a dog for heaven's sake. In my defense, I think a lot of married couples start treating their dog like a child when they don't have their own children right off the bat. I know we're not the only ones. Anyway, the sweater is too big but he looked soo cute I could barely stand it. I was oddly giddy about it which is weird...and rare. Jon would probably like me to mention that most of this stuff isn't his idea. He is super wonderful with Abby but I'm the one that takes a million pictures and dresses them up.




Isn't he cute?




He's gotten quite a bit bigger since I last posted pictures of him



On a non-puppy note: I'm developing a love of cooking. Up until now, I was pretty good at putting anything in a tortilla shell. Burritos, tacos, quesadillas...you name it. Tortilla shells were more of a staple for me than milk. But, I know Jon likes more than fake Mexican food so I've been venturing out. Lately, I've been on an Italian kick. We found a few different Olive Garden recipes that are super good, and my latest find, were the Italian nachos from Carinos. If I do say so myself, they taste as good from my kitchen as from the restaurant's kitchen. It's sort of become an obsession with me. If I taste something I like from somewhere, I want to figure out what they put in it, and how they did it. I think I'm doing pretty well with the Italian and Mexican food but honestly the hardest thing for me to cook is plain old meat and potatoes. Potatoes are simple enough but for some reason I don't feel like steak is cooked enough unless it looks like shoe leather. Jon's nice enough to eat it and say it tastes great but I know it's no good. Anyway, my next recipes to perfect/figure out are: lasagna frittas(just tried them at Olive Garden tonight-terribly unhealthy but incredibly delicious), pumpkin cheesecake and black tie mousse. I think the cheesecake will be the hardest. Cheesecake out of a box is...fine but not what I'm looking for. I've tried other recipes from scratch and they've turned out horrible. So, if anyone knows of an amazing cheesecake recipe, let me know. One that's better than what you'd find at an average ward party. It's a phase. I'm sure I'll get out of it but until then, I think Jon's sort of enjoying the bigger diversity in our diets.

Another week down...

Update for this week:


Jon and I worked. I know, our life is soo exciting. Jennah(the other employee at Ferguson Music Company) was out of town for the last half so I worked a little more than usual. Here was my day: teach a lesson in the morning, since Jennah was gone-I had to reschedule students, work till 6, eat, go to a rehearsal or a concert till 10ish. Jon's day: Go to work for 9-10 hours starting a 11:45 PM, come home and sleep till I got off work. Then we both eat dinner together, then I run to a different rehearsal. I come home, go to sleep, he goes to work. I know...you're all jealous. I mean, how much more glamorous does it get? On top of that, I needed to get my exercise in(I'm having a competition that I'm determined to win with Jon's sister) which usually happened around 10:30 at night until Jon went to work. Bad thing is they weren't as productive as before because I've been unusually tired lately. But, we found that it's really nice family time to take a walk/run together with Abby. She loves it, we like it, so I guess it was a blessing in disguise.


The reason for the extra rehearsals this week was because I got to play backup for Collin Raye. Now you can all really be jealous. He's actually a really cool guy. And, surprisingly, pretty talented for a country singer. Can you tell I'm not normally a country fan? However, last night I sort of felt like a country rock star and I really enjoyed it. That puts my celebrity gigs up to two. David Archuleta and Collin Raye. I think I've found my new calling in life. Being a celebrity. Totally kidding, but it was fun. The only disappointing part was that I didn't get a picture with him. Two nights ago we had a rehearsal and he was walking around talking to everyone but of course, I didn't have my camera. Last night I had my camera but he ran off stage right after the show and I was too shy to run up to his dressing room to get a picture after the concert. Go figure. Next time.

Another nice thing this week was that we've been getting some super nice weather which was soo great. Honestly, I'm not a fall lover. I like the color of the leaves, Thanksgiving...that's it. It's sort of sad to me because I am a summer lover and fall tells me that my summer loving days are coming to an end. It's also not quite early enough for Christmas but cold enough that it can't be summer. Don't get me wrong, I sort of like Halloween(ok, I don't really) and I really love Thanksgiving but I just don't like the cold. If it's cold, I love snow. So picky aren't I? Anyway, I think I go through this end of summer depression starting every September-Thanksgiving and then Thanksgiving cheers me back up. I'm glad Jon puts up with my weird, crankyness. He loves fall. He loves walking outside in a jacket and having it slightly cool and seeing the leaves change color, and everything that comes with loving fall. I envy you all who feel that way.


On a more domestic note: our puppy is learning to walk. He's soo cute while he does it. He's making a lot of noises and he pretty much grunts or whines if he can't move in a way he wants to. He also is making this bird noise that I can't describe. I never get tired of it. Jon knows I'm obsessed with the little guy so he recorded a video of him trying to walk a couple days ago. It really is adorable. If we get rid of the puppy, I think I'm going to struggle with that one.

Well, this is my first super long post that doesn't have pictures. I've had long posts before but they've had lots of pictures. This is just me writing my thoughts. Sorry about that. Normally, I hate people to read what I write so I guess this is good getting me out of my comfort zone. Please don't judge my writing skills.

More Schnauzers!



Abby had her puppy! We didn't plan on her getting pregnant so young, but sometimes it's hard to control animal instincts and...she got pregnant. Luckily it was with another schnauzer. We actually took her to the vet a couple days ago and he told us he didn't think she was pregnant, but...he was wrong. Obviously. Luckily, she only had one puppy that we think is a boy. We had to help her a little with the birth last night(which freaked Jon out a little bit...to put it mildly:) ) but besides that, everything went well as she's such a good little mother. I'm already in love with the puppy, which is bad because we really don't need another dog. Although, I could totally justify it if I need to. I'm totally an animal lover and I could be content just being around animals all day long. Particularly, baby ones. Anyway, the puppy was born on October 19th, and here are some pictures.



I know it's hard to see the puppy this is one of the best pictures we can get of him with Abby.



How could you not love that face?




I promise I'm not choking the puppy even though it looks like that. He started yawning as I took this picture. I can't get over how cute his little paws are.



Sleeping...which is something he does for a good portion of the day.

Traveling Adventures


This summer Jon and I got to go to Pittsburgh to visit his sister, Aubree and her husband Mike. Last summer it was Oregon for Erika's wedding, this summer Pennsylvania...I hope this trend of traveling continues. I think I said in my Lagoon post that I love car trips...I changed my mind. I love traveling but I hate traveling in cars. Everything we went to in Pennsylvania was a few hours away and I just have to say that Dramamine(I don't know if that's spelled right) became my best friend...even if it did make me drowsy and boring in the car. I think boring is better than puking though. Anyway, anyone knows me well, knows I'm not the best car travel companion because I fall asleep whether I'm drugged up or not. Soooo.....here are some pictures from our wonderful trip:


Jon and his sister, Aubree in the covered bridge



Really this is just a random picture of a butterfly near the covered bridge...a very cool, random butterfly.



I wish Rexburg was this pretty






The city of Pittsburgh is behind us. This was the first day right after we got off the plane.

Our computer is super slow uploading these pictures so that's all I'm going to post for today. I know our lives are incredibly important to everyone and you want to see more, but it will just have to wait. But don't worry, I'll try to post some more soon when I have more time.



These next pictures are of Niagara Falls. We went on the Maid of the Mist boat ride, which went right up to Niagara Falls, and the Cave of the Winds tour which went right against the mountain by a smaller waterfall. We got soaked.




This was before we went on Maid of the Mist. We wanted to show off our awesome ponchos.





I took this while we were on the Maid of the Mist.







The grounds around Niagara Falls




Cave of the Winds




These next pictures are of us at Palmyra. What a wonderful place! It's really true that there's a different feeling in these places. We had the opportunity of going to Palmyra and Kirtland. I wish we'd had more time so that we could stay longer.






Joseph Smith's house







This is a 1st edition Book of Mormon

I love this picture. I don't think there's a spot in the sacred grove that isn't beautiful.


The Sacred Grove.


Newel K. Whitney Store



Inside of Newel K. Whitney's house where Joseph Smith stayed for awhile


The room where the School of the Prophets was held. The feeling in this room was amazing. Before we left, one of the missionaries sang "Nearer My God to Thee," and the Spirit was soo strong. I really don't even have words for it, other than, the church is true.




Chocolate World!

Hershey, Pennsylvania is like the Disneyland of chocolate. If you love chocolate, I would highly recommend going here. :)



At the entrance



Lots of candy!


Outside, waiting to make our own candy bars



In our lovely getup, with my chocolate bar in the background

sand dunes


Karolyn had this great idea to go out to the sand dunes. Honestly, I don't think I've been out there since I graduated high school. Anyway, first we ate dinner and then played some good ol' frisbee.
Yes, I can catch a frisbee and this picture above is proof. Throwing, on the other hand...



And, so can Jon but he does it with more flair than me



Our good old boyscouts making a fire




If you haven't done it, playing frisbee on a hill, in the sand is quite the exercise. We all got tired after awhile and the obvious thing to do next was dig a big hole...Everyone likes to dig holes, right? Jon dug his soo deep that Erika could literally stand inside with just her head sticking out. Granted, she's not the tallest person in the world(I say that with love) but it was still pretty deep. Of course we had to bury her after she jumped in and then we had to take a picture.



I added this picture because we're just soo dang cute.

Yes, we use diapers in the Blackburn home

I have to give an explanation to these next pictures. I really haven't just gone overboard trying to make my dog into a baby by putting her in diapers. She just barely reached her "womanhood" and went into heat. We don't want...stuff, to get all over our carpet so the vet recommended dog diapers. I know it sounds crazy but it works. She looked so cute in them, I couldn't resist putting a couple pictures on here.

Graduation

Well, my parents can officially say all of their kids have graduated from college. Karolyn got her bachelor's degree at the end of this last July. I have to say that going to her graduation brought back memories of my own. When I graduated...I didn't want to be done. There's times when I still wish I could go back. Well, I wish I could until I see Jon doing homework and then that desire leaves for awhile. :) But, looking back, it was the perfect time for me to graduate-whether I was ready or not. Anyway, here are some pictures I took of her graduation. We also took some videos but I won't put them on here because I think Karolyn would kill me. Let's just say...graduates can go crazy when the pressure of school is finally off...

Mountains and Strings

This was the first year that I got to go to Mountains and Strings as a coach/helper person, instead of as a student. I had gone in 2001-2004 as a student in high school and loved it so I was excited to go again. It was interesting to be on the other side watching all the students and to remember back when I was one of them. Oh how life changes after high school! I got the opportunity to play in/coach the Schumann quintet which was incredibly fun.


The top picture is a panoramic view of where I got to sleep. The middle section is called the Scovel Center where we rehearsed and then the section on the right is a bunch of rooms where we stayed. The kids had to stay in the dorms which weren't too far away from us.



I think I saw a different looking weird moth everyday. These are two that were sitting on my window one morning. They aren't the coolest ones I saw but the only ones I had a camera for. I think the one on the top right is pretty interesting though.


These are pictures from our horseback ride. Everyone just rode through the woods on their horses in a single file line. It wasn't the most exciting thing of the week but it was pretty relaxing to just slowly ride on a horse through some really beautiful scenery.



The next to last picture above is a picture of my quintet. It's sad that I look about the same age as all of them even though I'm at least 8 years older. Anyway, they were really amazing kids and I thought our quintet sounded really good by the end...although, I had my doubts about it during the middle of the week. The last picture is just a picture of the chamber orchestra. We performed outside but it happened to be a really cold, rainy night. We had to keep stopping in between each song to hide under the shelter so that our instruments didn't get wet.