MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I know that I am not going to get a chance to post a Merry Christmas wish later on, so I am doing it today! I am going straight from work tomorrow to my house for Christmas Eve and then we are driving an hour home that night so that we can be at Ben's parent's house early Christmas morning. Whew! Good thing it's a holiday that practically encourages naps after presents and breakfast! :) I am also very excited for my busy season at work to wind down, I am exhausted! It will be nice to go back to my regular hours at the store too. Well, I want to wish all of you a MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope that your Christmas mornings are full of excitment and fun and I hope you have all been nice this year! Our love to you and enjoy your Christmases!!

Books!!

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes that most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed below.

I have bolded the ones that I have read all the way through. I have read 59 of these bad boys! And some of them I have read over and over, one of my all time favorite books ever is on this list! (#21). Well, that was my self esteem boost for the day. I feel so good about myself now! Plus, I think this post ties in nicely with my background. :)

1. Pride and Prejudice-Jane Austen
2. Lord of the Rings -J.R.R. Tolkein
3. Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series-J.K. Rowling
5. To Kill A Mockingbird-Harper Lee
6. The Bible (Old Testament, New Testament)
7. Wuthering Heights-Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four-George Orwell
9.His Dark Materials-Philip Pullman (Own it, but haven't gotten to it yet)
10. Great Expectations-Charles Dickens
11. Little Women-Louise May Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles-Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22-Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca-Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit-JRR Tolkien
17.Birdshong-Sebastian Faulk
18. Catcher in the Rye-JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveler's Wife-Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch-George Eliot
21. Gone With the Wind-Margaret Mitchell (Over and Over! I LOVE this book!!!!)
22. The Great Gatsby- F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House-Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace-Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited-Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment-Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath-John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland-Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows-Kenneth Grahame
31.Anna Karenina-Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield-Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia-CS Lewis
34. Emma-Jane Austen
35. Persuasion-Jane Austen
36. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe-CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner-Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin-Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha-Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh-A.A. Milne
41. Animal Farm-George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code-Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude-Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney-John Irving
45. The Woman in White-Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables-LM Montgomery
47. Far From the Madding Crowd-Thomas Hardy
48. The Hnadmaid's Tale-Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies-William Golding
50. Atonement-Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi-Yann Martel
52. Dune-Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm-Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility-Jane Austen
55. A Suitable boy-Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind-Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities-Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World-Aldous Huxley (I would read this one, but my hubby read it and HATED it!)
59. The Curious Incident of the God in the Night-time-Mark Haddon
60. Love in the Time of Cholera-Gabriel Garcia MArquez
61. Of Mice and MEn-John Steinbeck
62. Lolita-Vladmir Nabokov
63. The Secret History-Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely bones-Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo-Alexandre Dumas (LOVE this book!)
66. On The Road-Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure-Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary-Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children-Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick-Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist-Charles Dickens
72. Dracula-Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden-Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes from a Small Island-Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses-James Joyce
76. The Inferno-Dante
77. Swallows and Amazons-Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal-Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair-William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession-AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol-Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas-David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple-Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day-Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary-Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance-Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web-E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet in Heaven-Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection-Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness-Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince-Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory-Iain Banks
94. Watership Down-Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces-John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice-Nevile Shute
97. The Three Musketeers-Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet-William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and Chocolate Factory-Roald Dahl (I have read, multiple times, EVERYTHING by this author!)
100. Les Miserables-Victor Hugo (This book is another of my favorites!!)

I did it.

Well, I finally joined facebook! So, come find me, I need some friends! :)

Broken Neck

Okay, not really, but it really hurts! Let me back up. I woke up on Monday with a very bad pain in my neck, on the right side, at the base of my hairline. Thinking I slept on it weird I just continued on my day. It gradually got worse. I came home that night and applied a hot pad and my sweet hubby took care of dinner. Had a VERY hard time sleeping on Monday because it hurts any way I tried to lay down. So, Tuesday I was exhausted and in even more pain than before. The pain had also spread down my neck and settled in both my hairline and the top of my shoulder, it was a much more acute pain than before, so I took some Advil and went to work. At work I tried to lift a heavy box (not unusual in a bookstore) and had to drop the box and immediately sit down because I starting seeing spots and the pain shot down my arm. So, Tuesday night I applied ice for about 45 minutes and then heat for about 45 minutes. My sweet hubby took care of dinner AGAIN and then made me take a Loretab. We thought I must have pinched a nerve or something like that and thought the Loretab would help my body relax so that my muscles would let go of the nerve. Didn't help-I just got loopy. (Incidentally, watching late night TV is mcuh funnier on Loretab...) So, Wednesday morning I got up to go to work and literally couldn't turn my head. I was in so much pain! I had to turn my whole body instead of my head because the pain was so bad. Well, Ben called me in the middle of the day to see how I was feeling and I was on the brink of tears. He asked if I wanted to go to the doctor and I said yes-VERY unusual for me, I will kick and scream and fight my way out of going to the doctor every chance I get. Ben was surprised and started to really worry since I NEVER agree to a doctor! So, he picked me up after work (the advantages of his work being really really close to mine!) and we went to the doctor. He said that I have a bulging disc in my neck that is causing the pain! No wonder ice and heat didn't help! I am now on a pack of a cortizone/prednisone blend, extra strength Tylenol, perscription ibuprofen, and a little bit of Prilosec to keep my stomach from freaking out at the pill overage! I don't take pills very often for anything so this is way overlaoding my system! This morning I took 2 prednisone, a Tylenol, and an ibuprofen-all just at breakfast! I still have 9 pills left for today! Ugh. But, hopefully I will start to get some relief soon, I can still not turn my head very well and it really really hurts! I am glad that today is my day off from work so that I have a day to rest while the pills starts to do their stuff!

Bad news, and good news

Bad news:

Well, we found out a few weeks ago that my amazing mother in law has breast cancer. She has already beaten cancer twice (thyroid) so this is her third round. She has had a lumpectomy already to remove the tumor which they said was small so that is good news. They did find some cancer in her lymph nodes though so she is going to have to undergo chemotherapy. However, it still sounds like they caught it fairly early since the nodes weren't very hard, which is another good sign. The family has pulled together to support her and I know that we will continue to help her through this battle. I am so grateful for such an amazing family, I feel very close to my in-laws and I love them all very much. Please keep our family in your prayers.

Good news:

My brother in law is getting married! His fiancee (Hayley) is a sweetheart and I think she will be a great addition to our family! Ben and I are excited to have another married couple in the family. They are getting married on December 17th in the Bountiful temple. I got to go wedding dress shopping with Hayley, my mother in law, and one of my sisters in law which was a lot of fun and she is going to make a beautiful bride! She has a very unique dress that looks amazing on her, and I am sure their pictures will be beautiful. Congrats guys!

Exciting Work Project.

So, I know that no one else probably cares, but this is so sweet! These are pictures of my discount tables at the back of my store which are normally loaded to overflowing. Well, with Christmas coming up I figured that we needed to try to consolidate some space to make room for new books, Christmas items, etc. My employee was able to make this much space on my two tables! It was able to hold all of the items I was hoping it would hold and still have space left over! This is absolutely phenomenal for this time of the year, so I am doing a happy dance! This was an all day project what will have a dramatic impact for the rest of the busy season. Even if you can't totally understand the ramificaitons of my super sweet discount tables, be happy for me cause I think it totally rocks!!

Survived!

Well, we survived Ben's business trip, although it was really boring, at least on my end! Ben was so busy he barely had time to breathe, but that is nice since it makes it go faster. Ben was very sweet and sent me these flowers which arrived at my work on Monday morning! It was great timing since Monday was the "hump day" of him being gone. I LOVE my husband I am so glad he is home!!! Sorry about the poor picture quality, these were taken with my crappy camera phone. He really enjoyed the trip though, he got a Google TV and a new Droid 2 phone for free! And if he codes an application for a Blackberry in December he will get a free Blackberry pad too, he is pretty excited about that since his school stuff ends really early in December (I think his last final is on like the 5th!) and so he will have the time to do that! Anyway, there's the quick update! I should have pictures of Lake Powell (finally) and Park City posted soon, I think we found our camera cord!! Stay tuned...

Ben's Birthday!

So, Ben is turning 28 tomorrow, and so I thought I would share 28 memories/reasons I love him/fun facts about Ben! (I know he will kill me for this post later, but he's at work right now!) For Ben's birthday we are going to eat at Macaroni Grill (thanks mom and dad) and then go shopping at IKEA for a new DVD stand to go with our new sweet TV! It will be an interesting night though, Ben is working today (Thursday) from 8am-3am! So, it might be a short date night. Poor guy! The picture is from our wedding pictures (the ones 6 months later, not the actual day hence the tan and nice weather!) and I think it is very handsome! I love you, Ben!

1. Ben hates to be the center of attention. He would prefer to be on the outskirts of social gatherings which is perfect for me since I love the spotlight! (And it's also the reason he will hate this post, but bear it like a good sport.)

2. Ben is very romantic and constantly leaves me notes and flowers.

3. Ben is going out of town in a week for 5 days on a business trip and we are both dreading it, this is will be the longest we have been seperated since we got married. I don't know how we ever did the long distance thing!

4. Ben loves rock climbing, but hasn't been able to go for a very long time because he is so busy. One of our first dates was to go rock climbing (which I had never done before) and to impress him I also volunteered to do a repel, where you go down a rock face instead of climbing up. It about made me pee my pants, but he was impressed so mission accomplished!

5. Ben knows a lot about cars and enjoys working on them, especially if he can work on them with his dad and brothers.

6. Ben loves fresh fruit and makes faces when he eats store bought or canned fruit.

7. Ben can play the trumpet, guitar, and piano but hates to sing.

8. Ben planned out his very elaborate proposal two months in advance!

9. Ben enjoys reading, when he gets the chance, and one of his favorite books is To Kill a Mockingbird.

10. I am so grateful for Ben's patience. He NEVER loses his temper, ever! Any disagreements we have is usually him stating an opinion and then me getting all fired up and irritated! :) (I know, that is shocking to those of you who know me well!)

11. Going along with number 10, Ben's favorite nickname for me is "Spitfire".

12. Ben served a mission to the Philippines and is still exceptionally fluent in Tagalog. We have occasionally met people who are from there and he can converse with them very easily.

13. I love that Ben treats me so well, everyone who spends time with us notices how sweet and thoughtful and caring Ben is with me and I LOVE it! He is an amazing husband who I love with all my heart.

14. Ben does not like to be in pictures, which is why I had to go all the way back to our wedding pictures to find one of just him!

15. Ben really enjoys going to plays, we get season tickets to Hale Center Theater every year together and that has been awesome! Ben is very well versed in literature and the world of theater, so it's fun to have conversations about the plays we see together.

16. Ben is a very loyal person, he has a close knit circle of friends and family and he is loyal and protective of those in his circle.

17. Ben is really really handsome. (Again, I know he will shoot me for posting this, but it's true!)

18. Ben doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, instead of dessert after dinner (a must have for me!) he is good with a glass of juice. It's weird, but great since it keeps me from buying junk food!

19. Ben is a very hard worker, he is great at juggling school and work and puts a lot of effort into both.

20. Ben has absoluely loved his new job, for which we are so grateful. It's about time he works somewhere that appreciates him!

21. Ben is a total night owl through and through, he can stay up a late as anyone I know but he is not a morning person at all!

22. Ben is great at making me feel better after a bad day-he knows just how to make me laugh.

23. Ben hates food with nuts, banana bread, brownies, Toblerone, ice cream, you name it and if it has nuts in it he won't touch it!

24. Despite the nut aversion however, Ben LOVES peanut butter!

25. Ben is so cute with kids, he loves to play with our niece and nephews and can't wait to be a daddy. (No, that's not an announcement.)

26. Ben is a problem solver-whether it be finances, homework, programming, or just figuring out why there's no sound with the TV he loves to solve things. If he starts something at night, he can't go to bed until it is completely solved. This is a great trait for his line of work!

27. Ben really loves his wife, which incidentally, works out really well for me!

28. Ben loves football, he knows everything about it, and loves to follow it all. He is also very patient with his wife who just doesn't get it!

I love you, Ben, for all of the wonderful things that make you the incredible man that you are. I appreciate so much how lovingly you take care of me. Happy Birthday, sweetheart, love you forever!

Thank you!

So my parents generously gave us their old TV on Sunday, but before you go thinking this is just some old junky TV, it is a HUGE 43" telelvision! It is almost as big as our entertainment center which is awesome! The fact that it was free is even better! We got it set up on Sunday and tried out some of our favorite movies, and a couple of Ben's favorite games. He is very pleased that he can actually see and read the text on this new TV! I will post a picture as soon as we have the living room put back together, it is still kind of a mess right now, since the entertainment center can't fit there anymore I have a few piles of books and DVDs that need a new home. So, until I get that done I will leave you all in suspense. Thank you, Mom and Dad, we LOVE it!

Wow...

So, I am looking at my last post, and I STINK at blogging! I swear I had that all lined up perfect until I published it and then it moved itself! So, sorry that I refer to photos that are, by the time you read it, nowhere near the text! :)

So I have been wanting to post this for a while now, and today I finally had time! First, I really like my new blog background, don't you? I think it fits me rather well... :) Ok, here we go. So back in July I took a little trip to go see my grandparents in Colorado. I don't get to see my grandparents out there very often so it was a treat! My mom and sisters drove out there on a Wendesday and I flew out Thursday afternoon to join them. I flew ALONE for the first time in my life and it wasn't quite a scary as I thought it would be. Granted, it was only to Colorado, but I still had to catch a connecting flight which means I had to navigate the airport alone which is a pretty impressive feat for those of you who know how easily I get lost! (Lindsay...) Anyway, we drove home together on Saturday so it was a short trip but very worth it! We had a blast and it was fun to hang out with my grandparents and all the Roberts girls! (That includes you, Mom!) My grandparents took us to this park that had a huge stone circle fountain thing. I was really far away from it when I took this picture which shows you how big it was! It rotated and had a little wading area around it that we all went and walked in for a little bit. It was so crowded with little kids, and by the way they were acting you would have thought it was the best waterpark in the world! It was the only part of the trip I thought to take pictures on, so there you go! The top picture is of the fountain itself, from quite a distance-that was the only way I could get the whole thing in the picture! The second picture are my gorgeous sisters, L to R: Brittney, Ashley, Emily. The last picture are my sisters, mom, and grandpa walking to the fountain. Thanks, family, I had a blast! Also on this blog, I have finally included a couple pictures of our apartment by special request. You know who you are! We have been here for almost a year (can't believe it's been that long!) and we love it. We have a great ward and it's a nice complex-very small and much better neighbors than before! The living room picture cuts off one of my bookshelves, the whole wall is books, which makes it my favorite room! So, picture another bookshelf identical to the one in the picture on the other side of the entertainment center, also full. I love my kitchen too, I actually have counter space! These pictures aren't great since they are just from my cell phone but they give you the idea. So, there you go! A new background, a new post, and pictures to boot! Does life get any better? I will be posting Lake Powell pictures soon, I just need to find my camera cord...

Shocking

I know I know, I am ACTUALLY updating my blog! Sorry, I just don't get on the computer anymore! Here's the update:
Ben:
Ben got a new job! He is now a computer programmer for a company called School Improvement Network. They create teaching software and things like that. He LOVES his new job, he has a great boss and awesome co workers. He actually gets to work with one of his closest friends, Mike, whom he has know for most of his life so that is great. It is down in Murray area, which is a decent drive but he is part of a 4 person carpool so it's not too bad. He got this job in December and has already been promoted! The best part of this job is that it is a DAY TIME job! We LOVE being able to actually see each other! We get to eat dinner together now and everything! He loves the environment there, he doesn't feel like he is going to get cheated or thrown under the bus every time he turns around like he did at the old place. This has definitely been a big improvement for him! He also recently bought himself a grill. I will post pictures of it soon, (I will honestly try!) he bought this with a dividend to REI from our credit card, so it actually didn't cost us anything. It is a really nice grill that can collapse for camping and it works out wonderfully for that. He is excited, Ben LOVES grilling! Ben is still going to school at Weber, he is been doing a fair amount of online classes but this coming fall semester he has one online class and two night classes. He is going to be very busy with that many credits plus work! Wish him luck. We actually ran into one of his professors at Walmart the other day and he recognized Ben and started talking with him, it was fun for me to see that his teacher really liked and respected Ben for working and going to school. It's a sacrifice but if anyone can do it, Ben can!
Megan:
I have changed stores! I used to manager a store in the Brickyard area-over by Sugar House. But, I have been upgraded! I took over a new store by the Fashion Place Mall in October, and it has been awesome! I was very sad to say goodbye to my cute staff in Brickyard but I love my new store! It has its own set of challenges (namely low ceilings which make it hard to display artwork sometimes) but I have an amazing staff and I love my customers! It was a great move for me, I love my job! I have also added more and more to my book collection, which will be bad when we move again. Speaking of moving, we did! We are now in the Kaysville area instead of Clearfield which was a great change. Much better area, better neighbors, and most importanly, I have my washer and dryer back! I LOVE not having to use the laundromat anymore, it's been heaven! Our new place is acutally bigger than our old one and has a much better kitchen. It is a two bedroom two bathroom which is great for when we have company over.

Well, that is pretty much the update, we are so happy to be a regular married couple now and we love our jobs, our home, and our life! We recently took a camping trip with some good friends up to Monte Cristo above Pine View that I will try to post some pictures of that later. We didn't camp in a conventional camp ground, we made our own so we had our own fire pit and it was very secluded and quiet. It was in a sort of flower meadow area surrounded by aspen trees. Beautiful! Only downside was no bathrooms...not too big of a deal for me but I had to teach the other girl there how to "rough it" in the woods! It was quite hilarious...We tested out the new grill and had excellent food cooked up by Ben, we had lots of smores, played in the lake all day, and had a wonderful little vacation all about 45 minutes from home! I will try to post more often (don't hold your breath) and I will try to get some pictures on here soon. Honest!