The company I kept yesterday while working from home.


Snowy mountain. Hank.

Puppies at work are a great idea

Everyone, meet the newest member of our family, Hank. Hank, everyone.

Working from home



One of the best perks (believe me, there are many) about my new job is that I work from home 2 days a week. As a designer, being in the office is important of course. But being in the office everyday? Not as much. Thank goodness my employer feels the same way. Among the perks of getting to work in my pajamas, I also get to sleep in an extra 30 minutes since I don't have to drive into the office. The couch is my workspace (the couch, people). I have very little distractions. And I get a nice view of the mountains all day long (but, honesty in place, I do have a pretty great window set up at work -- I will need to share in photo form). I have journaled my day for you in the photos above.

1. MY WORK UNIFORM: YOGA PANTS, UGG SLIPPERS (THANK YOU FOR THE CHRISTMAS PRESENT, TY), AND MY HUSBAND'S GREY WOOL SWEATER.
2. MY VIEW FROM THE COUCH INSIDE.
3. MY VIEW FROM THE COUCH LOOKING OUTSIDE.
4. THE COMPANY I KEEP (TY AND I PLAN TO ADD THIS TO THE COMPANY I KEEP ON MY DAYS AT HOME VERY SOON).

Yay winter!


I don't know if I'm alone in this, but I am really really glad winter has finally decided to show it's face around here. And while it might be sunny and clear today, this is what my world looked like yesterday and that makes me feel good inside.

Thailand & Gratitude


Today I am swooningly jealous over this woman's trip to Thailand. The temples. The food. The cooking classes. The beaches. It all looks so amazing it has me craving a trip of my own. One thing the author mentions in her trip log is how grateful she is to have been able to spend two straight weeks with her husband; in fact, she sites it as her favorite part about the trip. And it got me thinking about just how fortunate Ty and I really are. I see my husband all the time. We work a total of 3 miles apart so we carpool daily. We spend our evenings together. We go out at least once a week. And I absolutely love it. I mean, he's my best friend; what's not to love about spending all my time with him? And her little expression of gratitude made me remember just how grateful I am that, despite busy schedules, my husband and I still get to spend a good part of every single day together. So blessed.

New Years hiking



Ty (mistakenly) thought he had to work January 2nd, so Kates and I decided to take us a little hike to ring in the new year. I personally was hoping to do a bit of snowshoeing in the New Year, but strangely Utah has been as dry as a bone this winter; barely any snow anywhere (so weird and sad and weird).  So, after arranging our hike the night before, Katy and I showed up in normal hiking gear and rung in the new year with a nice little treat of a 2-hour hike, which, at Big Springs is more like a slightly inclined walk in the mountains. But, I tell you what, I definitely do love me some mountainous inclined walking, so it was a great time to be had.

Arriving at the trail head at 11am meant the canyon woke up and warmed up around us as we hiked, and it was so so lovely. Ice formations around the springs and tiny ice crystals on bridges frosted the wintery canyon we enjoyed all the morning, and not even the trail turning to ice halfway in deterred us and our enjoyment.

YOU CAN SEE PHOTOS OF OUR SAME ADVENTURE TAKEN VIA SNOWSHOES TWO YEARS EARLIER HERE.

Tree leftovers


Tuesday night Ty and I hauled our massive tree down the stairs and out to the street for the garbage man to pick up the following morning. Upon returning, however, we found that a fair amount of the tree decided it didn't want to leave the house yet. In fact, it decided to stew itself about so as to occupy as much of the condo floor as possible. Rude. The defiant tree pieces were no match for my broom and dustpan, thankfully, but I still have need to vacuum the stairs (which has obviously taken quite some motivating as it's still not done.) I'm thinking it may take a few more days of self motivation to get the oomph to make that happen though. I mean, let's be honest, who on earth likes to vacuum the stairs? No one...that's who. (EXCEPT FOR MAYBE MY FRIEND JESSICA. SHE SWEARS SHE HAS A SUPER VACUUM THAT MAKES THE CHORE QUITE THE DELIGHT.)

New Year's resolution


It's taken me a few days, but I've come up with my one and only new years resolution: Make more bread. I figure I'll do everything else I want to do without making a goal. I hope you all had a great New Year's celebration! I think New Year's can kind of be a flop sometimes (a real wha-wha), so hopefully yours were surprisingly delightful. This year we rang in the new year with ice hockey with some close friends in Midway! And some of our neighboring celebrators even let off suitable fireworks and asian floating lanterns. Hello 2012, glad to see you.

YOU CAN SEE MORE SHOTS FROM OUR NEW YEAR'S CELEBRATION RIGHT OVER HERE.

Christmas with the Clarks


Happy New Year everyone! We traveled to Colorado for our Christmas holiday this year to spend time with my lovely family, the Schmidts. I took a whooping two usable photos from the trip (taken right outside of church to capture our matching Christmas outfits), so I'm sorry for the lack of Colorado representation. Our Colorado Christmas visit, despite pictoral representation, was just as I like it though -- lots of face time with the family I love (besides Andy and his family -- we missed you, brother!) playing cards, doing puzzles and eating copious amounts of tasty food.

Before heading out of town, we were sure to decorate our abode so we could enjoy it for a few weeks before the formal festivities. Tree decorating went per the usual -- I decorated while Ty sat back snug as a bug in a rug and took photos. This year we picked out a 9.5 feet noble fir (whoa momma!) after visiting no less than 5 Christmas tree lots to be sure we found just the right tree, so I recruited some stools to help me in the decorating. I think I'll be adding a garland to the tree next year -- this year's tree seems to scream "give me a garland!" and so, indeed I shall.

Hope you had a warm, festive, happy holiday season with you and yours! Christmas really is the best way, in my opinion, to wrap up the year. Here's to a new, exciting 2012.