I just wanted to say...Happy Halloween!

Yea for Halloween...that's all I can say! It's always fun to see people get dressed up, gorge out on treats, and watch scary movies (if it is the only day out the year we actually do). Matt and I enjoyed a very fun-filled day starting out with a yummy potluck at my work (which I made delicious cookies of course!). It was nice to introduce everyone to my hubby (those of course who haven't seen him in the almost 3 years I've worked there). Everyone brought tasty food and we had a good time. After work we got all dressed up (well about as dressed up as we do) and headed down to my Dad's house to visit and catch up. After visiting with my Dad we went to my Mom's house for our traditional "Pizza on Halloween Night"! We ordered yummy Fat Jack's Pizza (our favorite) and enjoyed visits from a bunch cute trick-or-treaters. Overall it was a very good Halloween!

(Matt of course is a gangster/mobster from the 30's and I am a karate ninja girl)

(My Dad's wife Annette, My Dad, Me, & Matt)

(Mobster Matt with suspenders, a nice black suit and shirt, a bright red tie, and pin-striped fedora...all he needs now is his tommy gun!)

(Trying to look all ninja like and I don't think it worked. For some reason I just don't look all that threatening and I couldn't stop laughing...lol)

(Mom as just one of the 'pumpkins')

(Austin was a little nerd...he pulls it off smashingly well!)

(Austin and a couple friends, pretty spooky kids huh!?)

"Voting is a civic sacrament." ~ Theodore Hesburgh

So last night Matt and I had the opportunity to go vote and it was amazing! In Utah we have early voting from Oct. 21st to the 31st and we decided to jump on it before election day and avoid some of the crowds and lines. We went down to the National Guard building in Spanish Fork after I got off of work at 4pm and still had to wait in line but fortunately it was only about 45 minutes (which I hear is really good compared to some of the other locations around here). After playing a game of LIFE (via our cell phone) while we waited it was time for us to vote. I had voted before in the 2004 elections so it wasn't my first time but it was still a really neat and eye opening experience. It felt good to make my voice count and take part of something bigger then myself. I think it is SO important to vote. Not everyone has the opportunity and privilege to vote for the leaders of their country and I don't think we should take advantage of it. If you are of age and registered, then go out there and vote! Need a reason to vote? Vote for your family, vote for the principles and values you find important, vote for the men and women over seas who are fighting for your freedom, vote for the women that fought for their right to vote and be heard, vote because we can make a difference if we unite as a country and demand change!

Complete with a glass of cold milk!

I have been getting a lot of friends asking if I make any other cookies in addition to my yummy Sugar Cookies and the answer is YES! Though my sugar cookies are my trademark I make delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies and tasty Snickerdoodle Cookies! For prices and how to order check out my cookie webiste Sprinkles 'n Frosting. Thanks!

Hmmm....

Something is off with this pic, yet I can't quite figure it out....j/k! After 2 and 1/2 years Matt decided to see what he looked like under all that scruff, and I have to admit he is pretty dang cute! I've known Matt longer with facial hair then without so it was quite a surprise to see him clean-shaven. I think I prefer the goatee a little bit more but either way he is a very cute hubby!

Introducing...

Resca "Resley" Bergera!

Last night Matt and I went to my mom's house for dinner and my sister and her hubby Wes brought over her brand new puppy Resley. (The story behind the name is in the first picture they saw of Resley she was standing next to a can of Fresca but you couldn't really see the F so it looked like a can of resca, thus the name Resca was born. To make it easier and cutier to say they call her Resley) She was such a hoot to play with! She is so little and fluffy and just a ball! She makes a very cute and fun new addition to our family!

Such a cutie! (Talking about the dog that is...hehe)

My sister and her little pup.


Resley with her little pink bone.

The proud parents!!

Her toy is almost as big as her!

Attack of Resley!

I think this is the cutest pic I got of her! (And it's not easy taking a pic of a puppy!!)

Matt isn't quite sure he likes her...

...ok he really does! It was pretty cute seeing her snuggle up on Matt's lap.

Such a stinkin cutie!!

Just needing to vent a little bit...

I am sad to say that I think the most exciting thing that has happened all week is that Matt hasn't worked past 10pm which is actually pretty amazing. Sadly enough though that ends tomorrow. Today is Matt's day off which is nice. He is going to the doctors (for a follow-up from a previous visit) then he is going to swing by so we can grab lunch then just relax the rest of the day (which he deserves after driving down to Richfield yesterday...about 2 hours south of here, on his day off might I add...for training which he informed me was completely useless). Tomorrow starts the work week and he works 12-10 tomorrow and Thursday and then Friday 10-10, and the rest of the week (until Tuesday, his next day off) 7-5. Oh and did I mention he doesn't get overtime? Not fun! It gets really hard for both Matt and myself having him work so hard, so many hours, and with little to no appreciation.

He should just quit right?! We wish! It's just so tough (as I am sure it is for a lot of us) with needing a paycheck, health benefits (which are like gold), and a steady, stable job during this economic crisis. I vent a lot about Matt's work so those of you that are hearing this for the millionth time I apologize. Venting helps me a lot though, helps me sort though the frustration I am feeling and help me feel not so alone.

There are suppose to be some changes taking place with Matt's work this coming year (chance for higher pay, paid overtime, etc) which all sound really good but I've come to point where I don't believe it until it happens. Hopefully once we can get Matt on my health insurance (starting January '09, yea!) and after he gets his bonus (around March) we can look for a new job for him with steady hours (you know like around 40...instead of 70!) and a job that can accommodate him going back to school, heck a job where I could see him on holidays would be nice!

I try to be positive and up-beat about the whole thing but it's really hard. Seeing Matt come home from work frustrated, annoyed, ticked off sometimes can really get to me and get me feeling as gloomy as he does. I feel like there is a bigger picture here I am missing, a reason why we are going through this. I strongly believe things happen for a reason and most of the time if not all the time the reason is to make you a stronger person. I'm really trying to be a stronger person but if you knew the person you loved was miserable where they worked you would be pretty frustrated too right?!

Well I better stop before I get too wound up. Thanks for letting me vent, it helps more then you know. To quote one of my favorite scriptures, "...and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good." - D&C 122:7

You may not know this but...(five things most people don't know about me)

1. I love watching TV while I eat! I know that’s bad (or so they say) but ever since I was young I can remember my family having dinner around our coffee table in our TV room. I remember being surrounded by my family, watching some silly movie or TV show and just feeling content with life. Now when Matt and I get dinner ready it doesn’t feel complete until we turn on the TV, relax in our comfy chair, and enjoy some delicious food while basking in the warm glow of our TV set. Ya it might be weird but I like it!

2. I absolutely love cleaning my house (aka apartment) when I know I have guests coming over. This also stems from childhood memories. Whenever we would have family or friends over my mom would always have us do a “deep” cleaning of the house, vacuuming, sweeping, moping, dusting, organizing, straightening, toilet bowl cleaning, windexing, weed pulling, and even lawn mowing! Though cleaning is not the funnest thing in the world knowing that our house was spik and span was a good feeling. Even know I love taking the day before anyone comes over to clean up the house and just make it look nice. Makes me feel all warm inside.

3. I am a text message-aholic! (ok so maybe a couple of you know that)I am a little more subdued then I use to be but I absolutely love text messaging! It’s so nice to ask someone a quick question with a simple text rather then call them up make light conversation, hope you aren’t intruding on anything, and blah, blah, blah. I’ve calmed down a lot from my early text messaging days when I would get bills for $200! (Thank you very much unlimited text messaging!) I just love how when you’re bored you can just pull out your phone, text a couple of people, see who replies first (it would be a tie between Matt and Allie) and see how quickly it takes away from your boredom. I love it!

4. I had my ears “gauged”. I know my family knows this one but I don’t think my fellow bloggers do. I started to gage them I think the summer of 2005. I wanted to do something different and kind of “rebel-ish” (if that’s even a word). I had always wanted to a get a tattoo but the fact that is permanent scared the crap out of me! I then thought well I guess I could gauge my ears?! When I first started doing it, it hurt so bad! You are literally stretching your ear lobe in ways it wasn’t meant to stretch and it took time to get use to that. I actually didn’t get them too big, I had met Matt soon after I started and we were started to think about marriage. I couldn’t see myself going to the temple with big old gauges in my ear so I took them out. It also worried me to think of myself as an old lady with huge earlobes that wouldn’t shrink back to normal…gross! So I took them out and luckily my ears returned to normal. It was fun while I was doing it, people asked me about them, asked if it hurt, thought it was cool, but I am glad I don’t have to worry about being an old lady with huge holes in my ears coming down to the my shoulders or something grotesque like that.

5. I made my own TV show. When I was sixteen my younger brothers and I took my dad’s video camera and made our very own TV show called, “The Colors Return”. It was sort of like a Saturday Night Live or Mad TV with parodies and sketches. My brothers Ryan and Austin were the actors while I was the cameraman. All three of us were the creators and directors and we even had a total of six guests stars (my cousins Tara, Kenzie, and Zach, and friends Mitch, Janea, and Nathan). We did it through out the summer of 2001 and used up 3 different VHS tapes. No one but family really watched the ending results but that was ok with us, it was amateur, no special effects, very cut and paste, but it was ours and we loved it! From brainstorming ideas, to actually filming (and the various cues we had to make up from “we’re rolling” which was a single point of the index figure to “and cut” which was a hand slowing closing into a fist) we had a blast! I would really like to take the tapes and try to edit them a little, add some fun features, and get them put on a DVD. Good times, good times!

Well there you have it! If you stuck around to this point then I applaud you!! Now you know five things about me you probably didn’t know before! I tag anyone who wants to waste a couple of minutes to post five things about you that most people wouldn’t know.

My hubby is all grown up!

Well sort of...Matt celebrated his big 3-2 yesterday and the day was amazing! My favorite part...sleeping in! Well no, actually my favorite part was spending the ENTIRE day with Matt...then it was sleeping in!

We began the day by just lounging around the house. I ordered Matt an Edible Arrangement and was told it should be arriving at our apartment by 11am so I had to keep Matt busy until then while also not letting him know that I had something up my sleeve (not too easy I found out). So I decided it was perfect opportunity to open some presents! I woke up a little bit early (but still managing to sleep in...I must stress this point!) and made Matt some yummy blueberry muffins (his favorite). I then arranged his presents on our kitchen table with the muffins right next to them for a nice surprise. As soon as Matt woke up (after a couple of nudges from me of course) I told him he had a surprise in the kitchen and I don't think I have ever seen him move so fast in his life! He was pleasantly surprised to see the muffins and presents and I think he really enjoyed what he got. I got him new crocs for work (pretty dang comfy!), a couple new shirts (a nice button down shirt and a "Iron Man" shirt just for fun), new jeans and new khaki shorts, and a new game for his Xbox 360. I think he was thoroughly pleased!

(Matt's presents...)

(...with his favorite blueberry muffins!)


(Matt doing his usual "evil" look...he's such a kidder!)

(LOL...this pic makes me laugh)

(The B-day card I got Matt and some gift cards to our favorite ice cream place Sub Zero)

(I am Iron Man...the funny thing is right after this we watch Iron Man...lol)

(What could be inside?)

(Crocs!)

(The Xbox game I got Matt...hope he likes it!)

(This is the Edible Arrangement I got Matt with a cute birthday balloon, what a spoiled boy!)

(Tasty! The fruit was SO good!)

(Us just being goofy)

(This is the other b-day shirt I got Matt)

After opening presents, snacking on some yummy fruit, and taking some silly pics we headed up to Salt Lake City to have lunch at Rubio's! We LOVE Rubio's! We really wish they would build one closer to our house, we don't usually drive up there just for food but for Rubio's we make the exception!

(For lunch we went to our ALL-TIME FAVORITE restaurant, RUBIO's! It was AMAZING!)

After lunch we ran a couple errands, went to the bank to cash a b-day check for Matt and went to get register to vote! After we headed to the Provo Mall to do a little browsing (Matt and I each bought each other Christmas presents...ya they wont be a surprise but it was really fun getting a little early start on the holiday shopping!) we headed to Best Buy where unfortunately Matt didn't end up spending any b-day loot but it was still fun!

(Matt trekking off to Best Buy to spend some of his birthday cash!)

By the time we got all the shopping done we were pooped! We went back to the apartment and relaxed for a little bit (after doing a little fall decorating) then decided to go to McGrath's Fish House to grab a bite to eat.

(We were trying to get a pic of us at McGrath's but it didn't really work out)

(Matt looking so mysterious...and so cute!)

(Debating on what to order...hmmm...fish and chips or a fish sandwich?)

(Hehe...they made Matt where this crazy fish hat while they sang to him, it was too funny!)

(They even took a photo of him and gave it to us it was really nice! This is my attempt to take a pic of the photo they gave us. Too freakin hilarious!)

I hope Matt had a good birthday...I definitely wanted to spoil him! I know I had a good day, spending the entire day with Matt is pretty rare and I am so glad I got the chance! I can't truly explain the happiness Matt brings to my life, he brings so much humor to my life all I can say is...I LOVE THIS MAN! This is the fourth birthday I have been able to share with him and I look forward to many, many more! I couldn't ask for a greater, more adorable, sincere, loving, cute, silly, evil, caring, fun, optimistic, kind, AMAZING man to spend the rest of entirety with! I love you baby!