Happy Thanksgiving Week!

The last two weeks have been a bit more hectic than I’m used to, so just now I’m starting to feel festive for the holidays. I’ve been holding back on listening to Christmas music, and when I realized that this Thursday was Thanksgiving, I thought I was justified (compared to last year at least, when the choirs I was student teaching were starting Christmas music in October) and busted out the Christmas tunes tonight. Our Thanksgiving this year is going to be a little quieter, but my parents are coming to Georgia, so I’m just excited to have them here!

The last few weeks have been good ones for us, we’re staying busy! We made another trip to South Carolina to go to the temple (I’m really excited for Christmas break, when we can drive 20 minutes to a temple), and it was a nice trip. On our way home we were going to experiment and see if we could find some southern place to eat…we stumbled across Lizard’s Thicket. They had great fries, but unfortunately that was it. But it had a funny name, so we thought it was enough for a picture for the blog.




Troy is still keeping busy with work and school. He’s working on some monster papers, but has a decent start and is making good progress so far. I started work two weeks ago and am enjoying it more each day. It started out pretty slow, because I didn’t have the computer access to the folders and things that I needed, but things are moving along and I’m getting involved in projects and learning how things work around the office. The lady who is retiring isn’t leaving until the end of the year, so it’s been nice that she’s there to walk me through things time and time again so that I can be more prepared when she’s gone. My coworkers are fun and helpful and I think I’m really going to enjoy it there.

We finally got TV, and splurged and included DVR for $6 a month more in our package. LOVE IT. Not only do I never miss an episode of What Not to Wear anymore, but when I don’t want to go through the trouble of finding something on, I just go to our trusty library of shows I know I like. And being able to fast forward through commercials? Let’s be honest. It’s going to be hard if we ever have to go back.

I’ve totally gotten into The Biggest Loser, I watched most of them on Hulu and just got caught up this week. Then last week we were at Walmart picking up a few things for a dessert to make, and when I was in the aisle to get whipped cream, I swear I saw Liz, one of the contestants. She has a really heavy southern accent, so when I wasn’t sure if it was her, I listened, and she did seem to talk the same…I was so excited, I felt like I had seen this huge celebrity, so I told Troy to be sneaky and go to the same aisle and see if he thought it was her…we never found out for sure, but I’m pretty convinced it was. Anyway, even though I’m almost positive I saw her in the grocery store, I’m mad that Rebecca went home this week over her, I like Rebecca a lot. Rudy has been a butthead the last couple weeks. Now I’m rooting for Danny or Allen.

The branch had an activity Friday night that we thought was a lot of fun. It’s a tradition they started a few years ago, and it’s an Oscar Night. Some people make movies, we all dress up fancy, and we eat dinner while we watch those movies. Then we vote on several categories, like best picture, best lead actor/actress, special effects, etc. It was really well done, the movies were hilarious, we thoroughly enjoyed it. They even had a red carpet and a backdrop for pictures, it was great!

We saw New Moon yesterday, and thought it was entertaining overall. Not necessarily breathtaking or riveting, and I honestly don't know if I would have liked it if I hadn't read the book, but still enjoyed watching it. But it did make me want to read the book again, so that's a mark of a decent job, I think. :)

That’s all the excitement we’ve got going on right now, I can’t wait for this week, to have the time off, to have my parents here…we’re going to have a great start to our holiday season!

Business

Shame on me...it's been a month since I've posted. I usually like to have pictures when I do a blog post, and I didn't have any until recently. I don't have many, but at least now I can justify updating you all on our business of the last month.

Baseball Business. We went to a Braves game several weeks ago. It was a lot of fun, Troy got some good tickets online for 7 bucks a piece, there were fireworks after the game, and we had plenty of photo opportunities but I forgot to charge our camera. Genius.

School business. Troy had a few weeks of midterm craziness. There were a lot of essays to write, a lot of reading, a lot of studying, and it all paid off. Of the three tests he had this last month, he's gotten two of the grades back and they were both A's, so he's getting the hang of his masters classes.

Work business. I started this temporary job and it's been a crazy ride. At first I didn't think it was too bad, pretty entertaining, actually. We're grading the Georgia High School Writing Test, a proficiency essay that all the 11th graders in the state have to take. In training I learned about the 5 point rating system that the state wants us to use to grade the papers, and when I started reading live papers, I thought I had the hang of it for a while. They monitor the scores pretty closely, and I wasn't doing as well as I thought I was. My team leader pulled me aside over several days and tried to work with me, but I just wasn't getting it. I got to a point where I almost pulled my hair out, pounded my fists on the table, and screamed in the really quiet rating room. Luckily, the last few days I've gotten the hang of things, and it only goes for another week.

Their 'prompt' is to write a persuasive essay. It says that over the last 25 years, the US government has spent billions of dollars on space exploration, and some people say it's a good use of government money, but other people say it would better be used here on Earth. Then they are supposed to pretend that they are writing a letter to their Congressional Representative. I can tell you that lunch conversation between raters is quite often about the hilarious things we've read. Some of these kids have a knack for writing, but we've also seen some really remarkable statistics given by some creative students. I was about to post some quotes, but we'll just say that there are some kids that get Neil and Louis Armstrong mixed up, Abraham Lincoln believed and was quoted to say that children's education is more important than space exploration, and some kids have a difficult time with percentages. Like really difficult.

Halloween business. I've never really loved Halloween. Mostly because I'm not very creative with costumes. And even less creative when we're not willing to spend money. So when the branch was having a Halloween dance this last Saturday, I knew we had to come up with something easy and cheap. I thought it turned out pretty well.

Hair dye in a can-$8 (we got two)
Bright blue t-shirt-$4
Glasses with the lenses popped out-$1
Nylons-$2

So for a grand total of $15, we spent an evening as Clark Kent and Lois Lane.

We tested the dye the night before to make sure that it would come out. Here's Troy doing the trial run.

Since it washed out easily, I decided I would try it too.

Superman.

Then we got home from the dance and while I was eager to get the crusty dye out of my hair (completely gone in three washes), Troy sat with Halloween candy and watched a little bit of football.

The last item of business is the Terry School of Business at the University of Georgia. Their Dean's Office has a new administrative assistant. ME!!! I finally got a job! I went in for an interview on Tuesday morning, they said they'd get back with me in about a week, and I had an offer Wednesday afternoon. Yay! It's my first real job I've had in a while actually, cause I don't really count substituting or rating essays for too much...so it's been a long wait, but this job couldn't be more wonderful! The building I'm in is on the same side of campus as the building Troy is in all day, we'll have benefits, and I start in about ten days. I'm SO excited and SO relieved. It came at a great time and I'm really looking forward to it! :)

By the way, it's beautiful in Georgia right now. Right at the time when a lot of trees are in my favorite stage of changing, with all the colors. The bright oranges are my favorite.

Life is good. We're happy. :) And our new blog background was made by our friend Cristi. She has lots more cute and festive ones here.

Working Our Way Up

We had a fun week this week. I finally got off the nasty stuff in my mouth that was covering the spot they worked on when I got my gum graft. Now I can almost eat normal, I almost look normal, and I can almost brush normally. The stitches are still there and I'll get them out on Friday. Now I just have to rinse every morning and night with a nasty mouth wash that tastes like liquid black licorice. They've told me that when they take out the stitches, they'll give me a baby toothbrush to use, and then I can gradually work my way up to a normal brush. Exciting, huh?

This week I also had an 'interview' for a short part-time position at UGA. It wasn't much of an interview, because the job is proofreading 11th grade essays for 30 hours a week, and instead of asking us interview questions or anything, we all sat in a room and worked on a worksheet, proofreading a paragraph, picking out the main point of an essay, and then writing an essay of our own. They hired 50 raters, and we start next Monday. We'll go through some training, then take a test, and if we pass, we're going to be reading 11th grade essays for at least 30 hours a week for about a month. It's nothing too fancy, but a decent start for now while I'm still looking for something full time. Hopefully it will help get my foot in the door for future UGA jobs.

This weekend, after a generous donation from my dad who wanted us to be able to experience an SEC football game, we went to the UGA vs. ASU game. It was a fun night!! Here we are, excited and dry, ready for some football!

The game started at 7pm, and we got there at about 12:30 to get a parking spot in one of the parking decks on campus that was free. There were already tons of people who had set up their tailgates in any spot they could find. We walked through campus and then went to a nice, quiet place and did some reading to pass the time. We passed the stadium and snapped a quick picture of Troy with his new school representation!

After reading for a little while, we decided to brave the crowds and go downtown for dinner. We found Barberitos, which made me miss Cafe Rio, but it wasn't bad. Their chips were good. So good, that I couldn't throw them away when we were ready to go, I grabbed the rest of them in my hand and finished them while we walked down the street.

We then made our way down to find some people in Troy's cohort, and on the way the rain started getting heavier...as you can see with the progression of wetness and the raindrops in the pictures.

We got to the stadium and found our seats about an hour before kickoff. By the time we found our seats, it was a serious downpour. Our seats were pretty high, but it made for an awesome view!

We had some time to kill, and at first we thought we'd sit there, but the rain got so bad that we had to go back under to wait for kickoff. We had some waterproof stuff on, but it seriously wasn't going to be enough. It was coming down the stairs like a flood, even though you can't see it very well in this video.

When the rain wasn't letting up, we broke down and bought ponchos, which ended up being real lifesavers!

We enjoyed the game. We could have done without the ASU fans screaming unnecessary expletives, and that the UGA team were cheaters, but we still had a lot of fun. Especially since we pulled off the win, it could have been pretty miserable up there if we had to make a walk of shame. Go bulldogs!

Simple Joys

Though I got especially frustrated this week with school districts and their websites and that for every type of position there is a new set of forms to fill out, I am grateful for so many things.

Monday I went in and spoke with Dr. Monson, who just moved from BYU's School of Music Director position to UGA's (the same time as us, how crazy is that?), and though he doesn't know of any job openings, he helped boost my confidence, told me he would write me a reference anytime, and I walked out of his office with my head held high. It was great.

Tuesday I had a minor mouth surgery, a gum graft. I didn't know what exactly to expect, but was pleasantly surprised. First of all, they did six teeth instead of the two they originally planned to do, and didn't charge us anything more. Then, after the first day I hardly felt any pain. I thought I'd be popping a couple pain killers a day, but haven't done that since the day of the surgery. I'm getting more and more comfortable with talking, smiling, and eating. I have a protective cover over the part of my mouth that they worked on, so I haven't seen it yet, and am getting anxious to get it off on Wednesday. I can chew some things with my back molars, but usually play it safe with the soup and Snack Packs that Troy brought home for me that day (I know--Snack Packs. He's the coolest). The only problems are that I have a little bit of a lisp, and if I talk to people for more than like 45 seconds I have to let them know that I don't have nasty gunk in my teeth because I don't take care of them, it's because it's healing. I've also made a discovery that whenever I drop something, apparently in my initial reaction I tighten the muscles in the front of my mouth really hard. So every time I drop something, I'm in pain for a good 30 seconds...and I apparently drop things A LOT when I do dishes. Who knew?

Throughout the week, I was admittedly more lazy than I should have been. I spent a lot of time reading, and finished book two of The Work and the Glory yesterday. I'm hooked. And instead of movies this week we've been watching some TV on DVD...some people like to watch Lost or 24 and keep up with the epic plots that throw you for a loop every episode to complicate the story even further. We like to go slightly on the lighter side, but by no means less entertaining. Think early 90's. Bayside High. Jessie Spano's caffeine pill breakdown. That's right. Why sit down for hours of complex twists and turns when you can have Zack Morris create a problem, get caught, and be taught a lesson, all in 22 minutes? Saved by the Bell already has a piece of my heart, and when Troy gets excited to watch it, especially when he doesn't remember what happens sometimes but I can recite the entire episode verbatim, I'm a happy girl. Unfortunately we only have season 5 (one of the best, in my opinion), but it has been fun to watch them together.

I also spent some time this week trying to clean up my computer. My laptop is a few years old and is starting to get really slow, and I think the amount of pictures and video I have on it hasn't helped much, so this week I went through and deleted hundreds of items. I came across some videos that I loved so much, I just had to share.

These first two make me miss Jordan.

These next ones make me miss my nieces and nephews.

They all make me smile. :)

Friday night we went to a little event that Troy had been invited to. He was there as a representative of the Honors Department and we just went to mingle a little bit. We went to several groups of people and this was the first time I've heard his shpeel about the Honors Department, and let me tell you, this boy is convincing!! He explained everything so thoroughly, including all the processes of applying and all the amazing opportuities the programs offer and makes it all sound easy. Something along the lines of 'yeah, all you have to do is send in or fill out this and this and this and if you're in the top 2%, you're automatically in.' Even the second or third time hearing this, I sat there thinking to myself, that sounds awesome...then I took a second and was like top 2%? In a program as competitive as this? Anything short of genius wouldn't get you too far. That's when I smiled and was proud that Troy is good at his job. And just to clarify, he doesn't decieve people, he's just good at encouraging everyone to give it a shot.

Friday was also a wonderful day because I learned that there is a JoAnn Fabric store in Athens!! I had been earlier in the week to Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and Hancock Fabric, and found all kinds of cute stuff, but I guess I'm just a little more comfortable in a JoAnn store. I went yesterday while Troy was doing a presentation on campus, and was impressed. It's pretty small, but they crammed a lot of stuff into a teeny little space. And it's a pretty good thing that we're on a tight budget right now...I could have justified my life away in there.

Today Troy got called to be the second counselor in the University Branch Presidency. We went to the branch today and are excited to get to know everybody. It certainly is smaller than a BYU ward and a tad different, but then again, there aren't many things here that are like things in Provo (the football team winning their first home game of the season, for example? Nevermind, we don't want to talk about it). Should be fun!

We're Alive...

We've been here in GA about a month now, and I've only posted once...that's not normally like me, especially after that crazy summer that we had, but things have calmed down, resulting in less eventful reasons, if any, to post. But here is an update on our happenings in Athens.

Troy is enjoying school and work. He's taking three classes and working 13-15 hours a week in the Honors Office. The Honors program here at UGA is insane. The program is much bigger and much more involved than any other thing I've ever seen. There are tons of awesome benefits for honors students, and the biggest scholarship you can receive is hundreds of thousands of dollars, which pays for researching, international traveling, living expenses, school fees...you name it and it's covered. Troy seems to like the people he works with and it's not a burden on his school schedule, which is a huge blessing! As far as school goes, he has enjoyed getting to know more people in his cohort and is getting used to large amounts of reading. He's home a lot more than I thought he would be, and even if he is doing homework I love that he's able to be here a lot of the day.

I'm still working on getting a job. After going in to several different offices on campus that I had applied to, I got an interview for a position with the UGA Athletic Association. It was one of the jobs I thought I would enjoy the most out of all I had applied for, and was really hoping that I would get it...after two interviews and lots of worrying, I found out they hired someone else. I was pretty disappointed, cause I had hoped my miserable time searching for a job had come to an end, but now I have to start over and work harder to find something. On days when I keep myself busy I can stay hopeful, but there have been a few days that make me feel like the last five years of my life have gone to crap, a bachelors degree doesn't seem to mean much out here right now. The day I found out I didn't get the UGA job, I shed a few tears, and when Troy had an evening event on campus, I decided I would sit back and watch Phantom of the Opera. I opened the DVD case to find it empty (that has happened with some of our movies, they've been lost in the last year or two...if any of my old roommates are reading this and you know where I might have left them, let me know), and I felt like I was being kicked while I was down. So I put in another movie and when Troy got home, he brought me things he knew would cheer me up.

Two bouquets of flowers, red cream soda, and peanut butter M&Ms. The tulips are my favorite, and have brightened my day every time I see them, they've opened up and are beautiful!

So I'm back to the drawing board looking for a job. Wish me luck and send me good vibes...I need all the help I can get!

Meanwhile, these are a few other things we've been doing.

A couple weeks ago, we took some cookies to our next door neighbor to thank him for helping us move our stuff in. He invited us into his apartment and we sat and chatted with him for a while. He's an awesome guy, incredibly nice, and we found out that he used to own some restaurants and loves to cook. We asked him what some of his favorite things to cook were, and he said that he enjoys making crabcakes and shrimp. He told us to pick a day and he would make us dinner. Without mentioning that I don't like seafood at all, we told him he didn't need to worry about that, but he insisted. Three days later he knocked on our door and brought over these lovely looking entrees.

Shrimp, mushrooms, lemons, crabcakes, tomatoes, lettuce, and even a small little garnish of parsley, complete with four samples of dipping sauces. We were so surprised he went all out! Troy said the shrimp was probably the best he'd ever had, and loved the crabcakes. As for me, when I say I don't like seafood at all, I mean AT ALL. But because he went through so much trouble, I thought I'd sample a piece of a crabcake and ended up eating the whole thing! Thanks to our awesome neighbor for a lovely dinner!

Last weekend was our ward temple trip. When we were getting ready to move out here, I thought it was going to be a good learning experience to learn to appreciate the temple more, because the closest temple is in Atlanta, a little more than an hour away, and that's the farthest either of us has lived from a temple. I had no idea how true that would be until we got here in July and were told that the Atlanta temple was closed that month for the next year and a half. Now the closest temple is in Columbia, South Carolina, about three hours away from our house. So we hopped in the car and took a small road trip. The Columbia temple is the smallest on I've been in, but it was still very nice and we're grateful we had the chance to go! Plus, now we can add South Carolina to the states we've been to. :)

We've been doing a pretty good job at being frugal in the last month, we're doing better at eating leftovers, we don't have TV service, I haven't gone fabric shopping once (props to me), and we don't eat out very often (props to Troy, cause that means he's a good sport on the days I don't cook). But yesterday we decided to have a nice date night and go out on the town. We haven't explored much of downtown Athens yet, and thought we'd make our first venture. Troy got a recommendation for a restaurant called The Last Resort, and it was fabulous! We loved everything there, from the homemade salad dressings to the killer marble cheesecake. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it now...

And then we decided that since today was the first home football game, we needed to get some Georgia Dawg supporting apparel. We saw a lot of fun things with the UGA logo on them, but got the best deals on a couple red shirts at department stores at the mall.

So all in all, things are going well here. Though some things are frustrating, we are loving being together through the ups and downs and we're happy!

Nicole's Wedding and First Week in GA

Our last couple days of living in the west were some good ones, we loved celebrating Nicole’s wedding with the Smith family. She made an absolutely beautiful bride and they looked so happy together! Our sister-in-law Erin did the flowers and they were all so beautiful. We enjoyed seeing a lot of family members all together at one time, it was a nice way to be able to say goodbye. Here are some pictures from Nicole and Michael’s beautiful day!

Erin working her magic with the flowers

The girls of the Smith family

The girls who married Smith boys

The bridesmaids

The most handsome guy at the party

This picture is to show how smart Grandma Johnson is. Troy has a habit of picking her up when he gives her hugs, and she now plays along with his little game by bending her knees so that he is no longer able to pick her up. Touche, Grandma Johnson.

The next day we hopped a plane to Atlanta. We made it to Athens late that night and got up early the next Monday to start the whole process of becoming residents of our new home. I took Troy to campus pretty early in the morning so he could get started with his orientation and everything, then went to check into our new apartment! The complex we live in is nice, it’s close to Walmart, and we like that it is separated from lots of commercial areas by lots of thick trees. I walked in and other than the ugly wallpaper in our kitchen that kinda slaps you in the face with its huge pieces of fruit, the place is quite nice! The carpets were cleaned, it’s nice and big, the kitchen is HUGE…my only worry is that we don’t have a garbage disposal. I know that makes me sound like a spoiled brat, I’ve just never lived without one before…and even though I called my mom freaking out, this first week hasn’t been too bad, so I think I’ll survive. Upstairs is pretty nice, too. The bigger of the two bedrooms has a closet that I wouldn’t exactly call walk-in, but it’s pretty big and that makes me happy. The first night we slept on a big pile of towels, our stuff didn’t come until Tuesday.

Last Tuesday, after taking Troy to campus again, the ABF guy showed up and put our trailer right in front of our apartment, basically blocking all the traffic around our building. Luckily there are plenty of parking spaces and other ways to get by, and because it was in the way, we unpacked pretty fast. The guy had come at like 10:30 in the morning and Troy was gone all day except for one little break between 5 and 6:30. Since I had nothing else to do, I started unpacking the truck…I don’t think I’ve ever sweat more in my whole life, and I'm a lot stronger than I thought. :) I made a good dent in the pile of stuff and worked all day, then picked up Troy and we had some very helpful ward members come help as well. We got it all finished, I took Troy back, and came back and sat for a while trying to figure out where to start.

The next couple days were spent trying to wittle everything down, trying to take care of all the utilities and everything…we debated on whether or not we should get TV service. I mean, really, football season is coming up, along with the Olympics…but we decided that whenever I get a job, we’ll celebrate by getting TV. So now we’ve been watching a lot of movies…our DVD repertoire seems to be getting a little smaller and our RedBox bill getting a little bigger…keep your fingers crossed for me that I can get a job somewhere. Soon. J

Friday afternoon we went to a luncheon in the department that Troy will be working in and got to meet a lot of his new coworkers. He is going to be working with some fun people, so we had a nice time there. We also went around campus so I could talk to some of the departments that I’ve applied to, and unfortunately didn’t have much luck. We went to the bookstore and got some of Troy’s books, and I couldn’t believe how much UGA stuff they have made! Stuff marked with the Georgia G were all over, the apparel department was 3 to 5 times bigger than BYU’s, they even had sweaters for your pets to wear to support the Bulldogs. They don’t mess around in this town.

This is the Honors Department building on campus where Troy is going to be working. Pretty, huh?

Sunday we had a nice time in our new ward, we’re excited to be a part of it and they are all so nice and willing to help us, there are a lot of students just like us, so we’re comfortable here!

Our apartment is coming together, bit by bit. The downstairs will be completely finished when we can find a Craiglist entertainment center for cheap and find the hardware to put our kitchen table back together. Our own bedroom is set, but the second bedroom is a disaster. It’s my last priority, but I’m anxious to work on some sewing projects, so it might be sooner than later.

That’s the deal with our Georgia adventures so far, we've been lucky with a lot of things! The weather is still something to get used to, I have never in my life wished for winter, but I found myself having those thoughts a couple days ago. To say I'm getting used to the humidity would be a bit of a lie, but at least I don't freak out when I walk outside anymore because the air is so heavy.

We still have yet to explore the town and get used to Athens, but with what we know so far, we like it here. :)

Mormon Night at Dodger Stadium

Our quick day in LA was a blast. We got to the ballpark around 5pm and met up with the rest of the finalists and their families. The park was pretty empty and we spent a few minutes watching some of the players warm up in their batting practice.

Once everyone got there, we went to a different entrance to the park and got to meet Elder Ballard and Elder Dalton. We took some pictures, I got to meet the other finalists and get to know them better, and they gave us shirts, our tickets, our prize money, $70 in Dodger dollars to use for souvenirs and stuff, and our passes to get out onto the field.

My parents, my sweet husband, my brother Jeric, and my niece Eden all came to be with me that night! I was so excited to have all of them there. And then all the finalists got a picture with Elder Ballard and Elder Dalton as well, and I'm glad that I wasn't the only one that wasn't wearing Dodger blue.

After being there for a while, we had a little bit of down time, and most of us didn't know what was going on or where we were going from there, so I was just standing there, and when I saw Troy standing a few feet away with a camera, I thought this would be a crackup.

But then I got a real picture.

Then we went down to the field. We had a lot of time to be there, while they were getting everything ready and while the two winners were getting ready and warming up. We took pictures, watched Elder Ballard and Elder Dalton warm up for the first pitch, and then I asked one of the guys who works there if there was any chance Manny Ramirez would be out by the time we were done, I knew my husband would love it if I got his autograph. He told me that he highly doubted it because of all the attention and being in the public eye so much lately. I was a little bummed, but I was still having a lot of fun down there on the field.

So I didn't hear much of what they said about the competition, what they said about it being Mormon Night, I just saw them taking pictures and I heard the introductions. Earlier in the week, when they asked me what they could say for my intro, I didn't know what to say because I don't have a job, I grew up in Vegas, just moved out of Provo, and haven't officially moved to Georgia, so we stretched a little, and they introduced me as a teacher from Athens, Georgia. What can ya do? Here's a picture Troy took when I was on the 'Dodger Vision' screen. :)

So our 30 seconds of fame was a lot of fun, it was way cool to be down there and be so close to the field, the dugout, and Elder Ballard and stuff. After watching the end of the pre-game stuff, they started escorting us off the field so we could go sit with our families. Luckily, we walked right by the Dodger dugout, and I was going down the line of players looking for one thing. When I saw it, I really hoped that there wasn't another player on the team that had a head of dreads that I was looking for. But seriously, there was no hesitation in my mind, it just came out in my shrill excited voice..."Manny, can I have your autograph?!" He was chewing something, looked at me, and did the kinda 'yeah-sure-ok' shrug and nod. At that moment, I couldn't have been more grateful that I uncharacteristically stuffed a pen in my shirt, just in case. They were quite adamant about keeping us moving and not stopping, even for an autograph from Manny, so a teammate of his came over, took my ticket and my pen, and then someone behind me had to get it back for me since they wouldn't let me stop walking. On the way to our seats, I could hardly contain myself, I was so excited to show Troy!!

The rest of the game was still a blast. We went and got souvenirs,

we ate Dodger Dogs,

and Troy helped Eden to participate in some of the game activities. She did the wave and sang in the 7th inning stretch.

Her dad kept her entertained too.

She even brought a sign for me!

We had an awesome time, I think the only thing that could have made it better is if Troy could have caught a foul ball. There was only one that came our way, but it was down a few rows and it actually popped some kid in the face. It was pretty sad, he was bleeding pretty badly, but he seemed to take it well from what we saw.

It was such a fun night!! An awesome way to spend time with my family before we leave Sunday, and now the next couple days we're going to have awesome ways to spend time with Troy's family with the wedding coming up tomorrow! Yay for busy, wonderful summers.