Wow, it's been awhile...

Yes, I have decided to finally blog again. We have been busy since...October. Oops. We are still having fun with our puppy, she is crazy but really smart. Steve is teaching her all sorts of tricks, but my favorite is "play dead" which I taught her. And she is SO good at it! Anyway, we have been doing lots over the past few months. We attended our 5th annual Diabetes Walk here in Las Vegas. It was very different from Logan, more people, obviously, but we enjoyed it. Well, I did, and Steve looks thrilled.


We have been home several times, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Leslie's Wedding! They were all fun trips, and it is so nice to go back to visit. Steve has been doing really well in school, and presented research at 2 conferences. One in LA and one in SLC-YAY! I went with him, naturally. Here we are riding beach cruisers on the beach at Santa Monica. It was so much fun, I LOVED it. And I think Steve is so sweet to agree to do this with me. But we did fight over the pink bike ;)


We went to a restaurant in downtown at The Standard hotel, and it was so cool, I had to take pictures. The walls were textured and it was very modern and very yellow. They also gave me a small packet of Nutella, so I was in love. And they had this organ sitting on one side of the lobby so I made Steve take my picture by it. I thought it was pretty sweet. If I ever own one, I think I would like one like this.


We also celebrated our 3rd anniversary. Steve surprised me with tickets to go see the Phantom of the Opera. (I have really wanted to go). And here he is getting all dressed up because I wanted to. But he looks so nice, I'm glad he did it! And it is a wonderful show. I will go again when you come and visit me.


And earlier this month, my sister got married so we got to visit home again. Congrats Les and Shayman! It was a busy week. I was part of the decorating/floral team for the reception. It was so fun, I got to hang out with my buddies Denise and Julie. And I will post some pictures when Leslie sends them to me. I didn't take any because my camera isn't that great, so I left that task to my sister Kaylie and the wedding photographer. But Les looked so beautiful and her reception was lovely too. Yes, I am saying that we did a great job. Thank you.
Well, I will try to update more consistently from now on. Ya, I always say that...

Our New Puppy

So I finally gave in and let Steve buy a puppy. He has been begging for awhile. Her name is Elliot/Ellie (whatever we're feeling that day) and she is a Welsh Corgi. It has been fun and I think she likes us.
She loves this squeaky toy.

We think this is funny, she likes to relax like this. Haha!

Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner

At work the other day, I was checking up on some flower arrangements at one of the restaurants and they happened to be filming for the show Next Iron Chef. I've never watched it, but it was still exciting. I thought they would make me leave the restaurant, but in the spot I was they told me it would be fine-as long as I stayed there. So I kept working but right before they said "Ok people this is for real!" (yes, they really say that) the director made sure I was going to stay put... in the corner. Nice.
Anyway, here are a few pictures of this particular restaurant. I get to go there almost everyday. It's an authentic Spanish restaurant where I am able to increase my Spanish vocabulary :) And a fun fact about this restaurant is that in the restrooms, the music is very soft so they can play a recording of a woman teaching lots of Spanish phrases like "What's your name" and "I'm hungry". Haha, it's fun and I think I'm almost fluent.


This is a picture of the wall tiles. "Very Colorful"..."Muy colorido"
These are cool bubble dividers hanging from the ceiling. "This restaurant is beautiful"..."Este restaurante es hermoso".

This is the other side of the restaurant-it looks fancy with those chandeliers. "Check please!"..."La cuenta, por favor!"


These are the budvases on every table. I have to make sure all 62 of them look amazing! There are more arrangements too, but no pictures yet, sorry.

Happy V-Day!

This was actually the first year in like 7 that I haven't had to work ON Valentine's day, so I wasn't really sure what to do with myself! Just kidding, I knew exactly what to do...be with my Valentine of course! It was fun, even though we were both sick. We stayed in mostly, but we got take-out Chinese and had a (candlelight) picnic on the floor in our living room! I love you Steven! I'm glad I get to spend all my Valentine's with you.


This is also the first year that I have celebrated Chinese New Year. Weird, I know, but apparently it is a big deal in Las Vegas. I guess all the Chinese millionaires come to gamble, but they are very superstitious about it. They love flowers-but only in specific shades. Certain flowers symbolize good and bad luck. All white flowers-bad. Cherry blossom and bamboo-good. and on and on and on... Seriously, those are just a few of many, but who wants bad luck when gambling? So, our flower designs all changed this month to incorporate these beliefs. The hotel looks really cool with Chinese lanterns, statues and characters. But despite all the particulars involved we, (my partner Yoko and I) made some really cool arrangements with lucky bamboo this week.







Most of these are on the top floors in the hotel Villas, where I've been working lately. You can see cute orange trees in the background, they really go all out! (Sorry the pics are blurry, but I took them really quick on my work phone). But it was fun, and I learned it is the year of the Tiger. It depends on the year you were born, but both Steve and I are Tigers. This year is supposed to bring us good luck, happiness and success! Woo Hoo!

2010

So Steve and I enjoyed our first New Year's in Las Vegas. Downtown gets really wild and crazy because of all the parties going on, so we stayed in and watched the fireworks from the hill behind our apartment. They were actually really cool, sorry about my pictures. They lit fireworks off of the top of some casinos on the strip at midnight. We had a pretty good view.



Things are going good though. Steve is in school again, and I work all day. But we try to explore on the weekends. This afternoon we drove to Lake Las Vegas where all the millionaires winter homes are, and we planned to drive around, but the private neighborhoods wouldn't let us in. Steve said we looked too poor, haha. Oh well, it was a nice drive there and back, and we caught a glimpse. Well, we miss everybody, so come visit and we'll find some more things we can actually do!

December

So we safely moved to Las Vegas NV, and it is exciting and scary for us. I started my job at the new Aria resort. It's pretty cool, very stressful and I've been working very long hours! But the hotel is beautiful, there are so many cool things to see. Since I work all day we haven't had any free time to go see much, (except for the Target down the street from our house!) but hopefully we can soon. We REALLY miss everyone, I hope that we can come home for Christmas but we're not sure right now. I love Christmas time, and that makes me even more homesick! But if you're ever coming down to Vegas, please call us. We're pretty fun sometimes :)

Halloween.......................................09

So, this year Steve and I dressed up as Eric and Ariel from the Little Mermaid. It is one of my favorite movies-just ask my parents. I can sing just like her and they know it! (I wish). But our costumes turned out pretty good. I think it would have been really funny if Steve was Ariel and I was Eric. I don't think he would have gone for that though. Oh well, it was fun. We had trick-or-treaters starting at 4:15!, went to fun parties, and ate lots of candy. Thanks for being a good sport Steve...I love Halloween.