What we've been up to!

There is a lot to report on but here is what we have been doing lately! We spent half of memorial day weekend in Utah and the other half Wyoming. Adam's brothers and their families came home for the weekend and it was hilarious to see the boys all together again! They decided they wanted to play ping pong, but not upstairs, so they moved most of the furniture in the family room and put the table in the middle. Needless to say, Monday was full of non-stop ping pong matches. They are all very competitive so Tress, Candace, Paula and I just laughed and then participated in the games when we were "allowed"....LOL


Adam and I went to a park in south provo for a bbq and games with a couple of our friends a few weeks ago. We brought our mini-grill, some frisbees and horseshoes. The food was great the horseshoes were fun, until one of them broke in half.... we really shouldn't buy things at Wal-mart:)...and the frisbee golf course was more extensive then we had originally planned! We didn't lose any frisbees but we skipped about 4 holes on accident.


One saturday we packed a pinic lunch and headed up provo canyon for a bit. Adam brought his fishing pole of course and I just came along for the food:) He had a good time fishing but was a little frustrated with my casting techniques.... I flip the pole like I would pull back a bat...whoops. We really enjoyed having some "couple" time!

My fisherman!

Over a month ago we ventured out to rock climb at The Quarry with Bekah and Greg. I hadn't been since I was sixteen and Adam had never been so it was pretty much a first for both of us! Adam loved it and I enjoyed it as soon as I conquered my fear of heights for the night!! LOL We will definitely be back soon to try out our newly gained skills again!

Here is Adam with his full manchu!!! It was absolutley disgusting to see in person... but he wanted to have some fun while he was shaving his beard. I told him that if he didn't shave all of it off, I wouldn't allow him to leave the house... it worked!

This was the first time we tried out our mini-grill and it was fantastic! We made shiskebobs (sp?) out of steak and veggies. They were delicious and we have since used the grill many times for dinner or with our friends!

What's up lately

Did I ever tell you all how much I hate finding a new job? grrrrrr I think it's more about having to look everyday and not being able to find very many people that are okay with me just being available for the summer. I try to avoid the question but it inevitable comes up.... maybe I'm silly but I can't seem to lie and say, "Oh yeah. I plan on being here past the summer." If anyone knows of a summer job I could do please let me know!
Plans for the summer: Adam and I are going to try and go to Vegas, since Adam has never been there!... shocked? I know, I was too. Don't ask him about it though because he'll tell you about how his family dropped him off at the MTC and then took off to Vegas without him:). We are also going to Seattle to visit Brooke and Andrew July 9th-13th! I'm so stinking excited! I call Brooke almost everyday to discuss what we'll do when we're there! I'm also thrilled that I get to see Bacon and Parker as well! No other plans so far though.
We had a date night tonight that was lots of fun! We ate at Outback Steakhouse, where I thoroughly enjoyed my sweet potato and Adam had some good steak (he prefers GoodWood BBQ but they don't have sweet potatoes:). Afterwards we made a quick stop to Costco and then saw "What Happens in Vegas". I must admit that I was worried it might be a little racy but it was really good and surprisingly pretty clean. It was like a cute, almost clean romantic comedy! Now we are watching the Jazz game..... boooooo.... I keep trying to tell Adam that he needs to remember that we are playing the LAKERS and so most everything isn't going to be fare. Does anyone else agree with me?
For a report from last weekend, here goes my condensed version of the story:

• We went to Evanston to visit Tress and Kevin. Wade and Paula came too.
• After we got there we ate a quick dinner and then immediately went out into the country to shoot at clay pigeons. I shot a couple of times and even hit one (!) but mostly I was loading the thrower, and very happy about it.
• We got ice cream cones from McDonald's and I must say that you that if you've never been to the McDonald's in Evanston you need to stop by! They have like 6 plasma tv's, even in the bathroom, and four or five wall fountains. In a word... it's very classy.
• We went to church. I made it through RS okay because they didn't talk about mothers too much but then came Sunday School. About five minutes into it one of the elderly bretheren in the ward passed out and had a mild heart attack. It reminded me of Briana falling over and I started to cry. Blah, the ambulance came, took him away and then the teacher announced that he wasn't going to teach anymore but wanted us all to share about our mothers. You can guess how that went for me....:( I made it until he mentioned that even though his mother had passed on years before, he could still honor her and wanted to know how we could do the same...... blah blah blah Adam and I left and he just let me cry it out and eat some of the chocolates I'd gotten in RS:). He's a great hubby and I'm so thankful that he'll always be there! I miss my mom everyday but the Lord has blessed me with Adam and many others to help when times get tough...
• The rest of the day was fun. We had a picnic for Tress and then played horse shoes. I did pretty well and Paula and I won over Wade and Adam! Props to Paula for being 7 months pregnant at the time!

Not much else to report on but life is good and I'll continue my job hunting! Wish me luck!

A Quarter Of A Century!

As most of you know, it was my 25th birthday on Wednesday and a wonderful one at that! I flet like the whole week was a celebration! Last Sunday we had two ice cream and cake appointments at my grandma's and my dad's. Then on Tuesday Adam took me to dinner at the Tango House for a what I thought would be a dinner for just the two of us. When we got there I figured out it was a surprise party because Lisa and her boyfriend were there and my sister was pulling into the parking lot:). Everyone else showed up a few minutes after that and we had a great time waiting forever for the food and enjoying good conversation! I've never had a surprise party in all my twenty five years but I'm so grateful to have such a loving and thoughtful husband who takes care of me and makes me happier each day!

On my birthday, Wednesday, Adam and I made chicken and rice, had Paula and Wade over for cake and ice cream and then headed out to find me a cardigan and an ipod charger. Thursday we met my dad, kathy, her kids, brooke and the kids, and coray and his family for dinner at JCW's in American Fork. The burger was pretty good and the shake was even better! Friday Brooke and I went shopping with the kids to find some new skirts for Tanner's wedding. Finally on Saturday we went out to dinner with our friends Cody and Chelsea at La Vigna in American Fork. It was a week of celebrating and lots of fun! As I was pondering my century status, I thought I would put down some of the things I have accomplished these past twenty five years and also what I plan to do in the next twenty five years! Here goes....

What I've done:

• Graduated High School
• Member of Seminary Council
• Spent one night a weekend babysitting Briana (what cherished time it was!!!)
• Donated blood at the Red Cross
• Served a mission in Spain
• Learned to play the piano
• Married Adam in the Bountiful Temple
• Received a 4.o each semester of my education program!
• Attended BYU-Idaho and UVSC
• Spent time with my mother
• Traveled to Spain with my parents
• Been involved in my wards
• Traveled to many places in the States, Canada, Mexico, the Carribean and Spain
• Helped with Habitat for Humanity

Things I plan on doing:

• Graduate from UVSC with my bachelor's in Elementary Education
• Teach 6th grade somewhere in Utah
• Obtain a Master's degree from UVU in Multicultural Education and ESL
• Have four or so kids.. we'll see how many actually come:)
• Support my husband through nursing and his masters degree
• Maintain my certification and teach after my kids are older
• Travel back to Africa and Spain
• Raise my children
• Buy a home
• Go on a Mediterranean cruise
• Strengthen my testimony of the gospel
• Do 100% visiting teaching every month
• Be involved in the Gang prevention program throught the district
• etc.....

Who'd a thought

Adam had the day off yesterday and decided that I should experience something new after work. We packed up his fishing gear and went up American Fork canyon to some random lake just past Mount Timp. I think I've been told that I went fishing when I was like 3 with my Great Grandpa but I have not recollection, so it's safe to say that I didn't know a thing about fishing:) Yet Adam was so excited for me to learn that I couldn't say no.... keep in mind that I still tried to persuade him otherwise...LOL The Fieber's are fisherman and so I had to give in.

It wasn't just fishing, but fly fishing. My first thoughts were, "Why in the heck do people like to stand/sit by the water and put a stick with a string in it?" After a few quick lessons and many failed attempts at getting the fly far enough out, I did it correctly! Adam's excitement was priceless. Even though I told him that I can enjoy it for an hour max I'm sure that he will hold me to more fishing expeditions in the future.

I can't resist a sale!!

Can you believe I have posted 3 times in one night? Well here is the last thing: Adam and I were flipping through the Bed Bath and Beyond add when I came across a sale they were having on complete bed sets and found this!!!!! It is a 22 piece bed set that goes for $199.99 but I had a %20 coupon so we got it for $170!!! Hooray! While I am still in love with my original bedding, we plan on keeping the new one in the closet for a few years when we decide to switch it out!

A Tent in our Living Room?

If you have ever doubted how much Adam loves the outdoors, here is a story to convince you. The tent you see on your left is the exact same tent the Adam set up in our living room yesterday. He had made up his mind that since we got it as a wedding present (thank you Renee) that it was high time we got it out of the bag. I left at 3:30 to do my visiting teaching and when I got home there was a tent in our living room:). He was so excited and couldn't wait to sleep in it. I told him that I could handle snuggling in it while we watched a movie but than I would like to sleep in my comfy bed. It was entertaining to see his excitement about the tent!! On an added note he also bought steaks, propane and set up our mini-grill in the next to the tent today while I was at work. We ended up not grilling anything but he is all set for tomorrow!!

Taxes are my friend!!!

Over the weekend Adam and I finally got everything ready to take over to H&R Block so that we could get squared away with Uncle Sam. I was very aprehensive about the whole thing because of my unique "job situation" last year. To fill you in if you didn't know: Mark paid me everything.... and I mean everything, so nothing went to taxes. I didn't really get that whole thing until I filed my taxes in 2006 and realized what had happened. (I know I'm very naive when it comes to things like this....LOL) Earlier in the year we had talked to some people about what I was going to owe in taxes and they totally freaked me out!!! He told me that I would probably owe about $4,000. What?!!! Welcome to reality Jamie! Then I found out that there were deductions for technically being self-employed but I still counted on owing taxes for 2007.
Now here comes the rest of my tax story. H&R Block had me count miles and a portion of my cell phone in order to deduct the proper amount. The lady filled in lots of spaces, included my education credits and then I started to phase out just waiting for the total amount we would have to shell out. All of the sudden Adam yelled, "YES!" I was so confused and then they filled me in on the good news. We would be receiving $1,000 from the IRS and $500 plus the $1200 economic stimulus!!!! Hooray for coming out ahead... even though I know this probably won't ever happen again:) I'm still very glad that I switched jobs so that my taxes come out each month and I can sleep peacefully at night. Anywho, just thought I would share that with you all and remind you to file before April 15th so you can get the economic stimulus too!! Happy April!