Memorial Day Weekend

What did I do this Memorial Day Weekend? See for yourself!

My boys! Lincoln and Jared loved playing with me this weekend!

Goblin Valley was really cool!

I've never used a ladder before when hiking!

Natural Bridges National Monument was awesome! We saw 3 natural bridges.

I loved this sign! Especially the "Parents Control Your Children" part...we need this sign at the library!

A cute video of Lincoln. He's just recently begun saying my name! I've been coaching him on it for a while!

Adorable

This is my nephew at 4 months, isn't he cute! He's getting so fat! I love it!!

I can't wait to go visit him again in July!

Finished!

I just turned in my final and am now free from school for 17 days!

HALLELUJAH!!!!!!

Obsession

Hello, my name is Ann-Marie and I am a compulsive e-mail checker.

I knew I had a problem before I began grad school, but now it is a certifiable disorder. Especially working on group projects, I am checking my e-mail all the time!

It has got to stop! Fortunately for me, school will be over this week and I can take a little break from my best friend named gmail.

Double Take

I was leaving my house yesterday evening to go to institute and saw this as I walked out the backdoor...



My roommate got soaked in the rainstorm yesterday and apparently needed to dry out her backpack and shoes. It just surprised me that they were hanging on the back door. This image made me smile as I left the house!

New Roommate

I got a new roommate this weekend. She's really cool and I think we will have a fun summer together.

I was thinking how many roommates I have had over the years and realized that she is number 39!

I've lived with a lot of people, and even the same people for multiple years, yet I've still had almost 40 roommates! Wow!!

Busy

I am in the midst of writing a 20 page research paper and finishing a group project.

Life is busy, but I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel for this semester. Only 2 1/2 more weeks until I get a 2 week break. Then I start summer classes.

At least I had a nice relaxing weekend!

Thought Provoking

Last night in institute my teacher shared this quote by Neal A. Maxwell from his book "All these things shall give thee experience" I really like what it is about and the way Elder Maxwell phrased this concept.

Life is a school in which we enrolled not only voluntarily but rejoicingly; and if the school's Headmaster employs a curriculum-proven, again and again on other planets, to bring happiness to participants-and if we agreed that once we were enrolled there would be no withdrawals, and also to undergo examinations that would truly test our ability and perceptivity, what would an experienced Headmaster do if, later on, there were complaints? Especially if, in His seeming absence, many of the school children tore up their guiding notebooks, and demanded that He stop the examinations since these produced some pain? There is, to use jargon from American higher education, no way to "CLEP" the examination of the second estate; one learns by taking the full course!

What's wrong with this picture?

Oh yeah, IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE SPRING!!!!!

Seattle!

I went to Seattle last weekend to meet my new nephew Cruz! He is really cute! It was fun to spend the weekend with my brother, sister-in-law and parents. My brother and sister who live here in Provo and I drove up on Friday afternoon. It was a long drive, but we made it!
On Saturday we went to the Seattle Flight Museum and to Ivers to get fish and chips (except I got chicken and chips because I hate fish!).
Sunday was Cruz's baby blessing and dinner with my brothers in-laws.
Then we drove back on Monday. It was a quick trip, but was a lot of fun!

Here are some pictures from my weekend travels...

This is my cute nephew Cruz


Here is my mom and sister and I posing at the airplane museum


Here I am with a big statue head


Here are my brothers feeding the seagulls at Ivers


And finally, here is my mom playing the Wii. She was bowling!

Remember the Alamo

I went to San Antonio last week for 4 days. Two of my co-workers and I just went to escape the cold and our everyday responsibilities! We had so much fun and it was so warm the entire time we were there. I would recommend anyone to go visit the Alamo in February!

Now it's back to doing school and work. Blah!

Villa Memories

I was going through some of my love notes from the Villa tonight and ran across some hilarious ones! I was also thinking about the time that Caroline and I stole the garden gnome from Chris and David and they thought that it was Em and Kat! We held the gnome ransom and made them take us to dinner. Hilarious I tell you!

Here is a sampling of the love notes for your viewing pleasure:

Ann-Marie,
I will never forget you threatening to take out that over weight girl. It was so hilarious. I love you, Angela
I don't recall this incident, but apparently it was funny!

Ann-Marie...Why are we such HOT salsa dancers? Are you part Latino? Cause you are SPICE! Love ya! Chris (Bailey)

Ann-Marie
Love you
I do
It's true
Yahoo!
Love, Kat

Ann-Marie, Thanks for the cookies. They were almost as sweet as you. A cheesy line, yes. But true nonetheless! MOYDIE!

Oh how I like Ann-Marie
I think about her down by the sea
I think about her when I drink herbal tea
And that's because she's as cool as can be!
Justus

Ann-Marie
MMM...MMM... You are lookin' good enough to deserve a cardboard love note :) Sorry you got booted, don't hate booters, they have a soul too. I hope you have a fun week! Play in the sun (while it lasts!)
Love! Jake

Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
I'm really Hot
and so are YOU!
this one isn't signed, but I love it!

Ann-Marie
My library buddy-ette! Wassup? Well, you know, say 'hi' to me sometime when you're in periodicals. You could 'check me out' but I got tattle tape and security would stop you. Umm...
Love, Lewis

Ann-Marie...This is just a little reminder that you're cute as a bug's ear! -Jon

AneMary-I like you better NOT at the Villa! -Matt (Harrison)

Ann-Marie, You have really pretty toes. -your secret admirer (This was from Steve)

and one of my most favorite drawing-type love notes:


Click to make it bigger!

Yummy New Restaurant

So tonight some of my co-workers and I tried out a new Restaurant in Orem. Pizzeria 712 was awesome! I had the Margarita pizza (mozzarella, basil and tomato) and then my favorite part of the night....homemade S'mores!! I would recommend this place for sure! It had a great atmosphere and was a fun place to eat!

Of Wigwams and Sunshine: Have You Slept in a Wigwam Lately?

So this past weekend Kat and I went on our annual "we must get out of town and feel some sunshine or else we will freeze to death in the tundra that is Utah". This year we went to Mesa, AZ to see Ritz and Leah and stopped in Holbrook, AZ on the way down to stay in a Wigwam Motel!

Let me tell you I loved the wigwams! It was so fun to sleep in a motel that looks like a wigwam and I would recommend it to anyone! Here is the wikipedia site that will tell you some more about the wigwams. The other great part about staying in Holbrook was that it is right on Route 66 and the people in that town are very proud of that fact!

We had a blast visiting with Ritz and Leah and enjoying the sunshine and lack of snow that was in Arizona!!!

Here are some pictures from our trip! You can see more pictures on my facebook page...

You may now call me Aunt!

My nephew Cruz Evan Marchant was born yesterday afternoon! I'm excited to be an aunt!

This video made me laugh!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

All I want for Christmas is You!

So I've been looking on the internet for some gift ideas for various people. I have come across some great suggestions, some interesting/humorous*ones, and some that are just wrong!

I hadn't used either of these two sites before (gifts.com, uncommongoods.com) but they do have some good stuff on them.

What's on your Christmas gift list?

***************************************************************************************
In other news, if you want to see your favorite elf (aka me) in the Provo Christmas parade...get yourself down to Center Street this Saturday (like tomorrow) at 10am! It's always a good time at the Christmas parade!



*okay let's just talk about this one specific gift for a moment. i just think it's hilarious that you can buy a "CSI"-like evidence kit and use it to determine your dating status. i don't know for sure, but i think this could be the wave of the future in dating! :)

Surrogate Nieces and Nephews

These are my cute surrogate nieces and nephews. My brother and sister-in-law are expecting a baby in January so then I will have my first nephew, but I love these kids just the same. It is so fun to see them and watch them grow! I especially love it when Lincoln gets so excited to see me! He's the one that I get to see the most and he just loves to hang out with "Aunt" Ann-Marie!

Before and After: A true story in Ann-Marie's Life

Once upon a time Ann-Marie lived in a house. She like this house and even though her landlords decided to sell the house in the middle of her contract, she decided to live there again the next year.
One day in the middle of October the old landlords decided that it would be a good idea to come get their furniture out of the house. This was a grand plan...EXCEPT they didn't tell Ann-Marie or her roommate or her CURRENT landlord that they were coming. Since Ann-Marie didn't know they old landlords were coming so soon, she had not yet ordered any replacement furniture to go in the house.
So she and her roommate scrambled all that week to find at least beds, and then other furniture to fill the house. They tried hard to stay in their landlords budget (and only went a little bit over!). It was a busy, stressful week. They eventually did find all of the furniture that they wanted and had it all shipped to their house later in the week. The next week Ann-Marie spent hours putting all of the furniture together. She didn't want to build anything for a long, long, long, long time after that. In the end her house did get put back together and looked very pretty. The End!

(But don't take my word for it! Come visit and see my new digs!)










Our empty living room before we got the carpets cleaned! Yuck!









Our kitchen became our temporary storage unit!










Look at our new, pretty entertainment center










New couch and coffee table









I love our new kitchen set!

Thoughts after cruising the Mediterranean

Our Ship the Voyager of the Seas

I have now been back for over a week, but am just now taking the time to write about my travels to the Mediterranean. I had a great time on the cruise seeing the different sites and spending time with my family! I took a ton of pictures and will only put a few up here, but if you want to see all of my pictures just ask!

We left for the cruise on Friday Sept. 28th. I flew with my Grandma and my aunt and uncle that live in Payson.
Here is a picture of Grandma on the way to the airport

We had a lay over in Atlanta and then on to Barcelona. Grandma "lost" her passport twice (I found it in her carry-on both times, but it sure did make me nervous that she couldn't find it for a few minutes. On the flight back home, I held onto her passport and just gave it to her when we needed to show it :) That worked out much better!)
I didn't sleep much on the flight to Spain, but wasn't too tired. I sure did sleep well that first night on the ship though!

So we got in to Barcelona around 11 am on Saturday the 29th and just explored the ship and got settled in our stateroom. Here's a picture of me in my room and a picture of part of the ship.









The next day we went to Nice, France which is along the French Riviera. It was so beautiful there. We rode the city bus up to a little town called Menton where we walked around the city market, played a little in the Mediterranean and just sort of took in the sites.

On October 1st we went to Pisa and Florence. In Pisa I climbed all 294 steps to the top of the tower. It was really fun!
That afternoon we went to Florence. The first picture is one the church in the middle of Florence and then a replica of the "David" statue. The real statue is in a museum that was closed the day we were there. Grandma and I spent hours looking for this statue and that's pretty much all we did in Florence. Florence wasn't my favorite stop since all we did was walk in circles and we were separated from the rest of our group!
On Tuesday we went to Rome. We had the best tour guide that day! She was just awesome!
We saw the Forum, the Colosseum, the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. That day was probably the fullest, we didn't even eat lunch that day. Here's a picture of the Colosseum and a statue with marble eyes inside the Vatican.
The next day we went to Naples. We went on a drive along the Amalfi Coast which was just gorgeous! We ate an authentic Italian meal at a restaurant in the mountains and then went to Pompeii. It was another incredible day!









Thursday October 4th we went to Palermo Sicily. We went to some catacombs there in Palermo (we couldn't take pictures, but click on the link to see what I saw. It was cool and weird at the same time!) and then went up to a town called Monreal. It had the coolest church! The church had all of these cool mosaic's and I was surprised how many Bible stories we could recognize decorating the walls of this church.









Our last day on the ship was at sea as we sailed from Sicily back to Spain. We slept in, ice skated, played mini golf and watched the Ice Show. Each night our stateroom attendant would make us a little towel animal, so here's a picture of my mom with their towel monkey!












Here's Ashley's parents playing mini-golf on the top deck of the ship. It was pretty windy up there, but still fun to play!

This trip was a lot of fun! I'm glad that I got to go and that Grandma invited me and paid for part of the trip. I will always remember my first time to Europe. And it is only the 1st trip, because now that I've been I have to go back again!!

Grad School

So about a month a go I submitted my application to graduate school and on Monday I found out that I was accepted!

It is a Master's in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University. All of the classes are online so I will be able to continue working here in Provo while I obtain my degree. I start in January and am really excited.

After I get back from my Mediterranean Cruise I will need to look into scholarships and financial aid.

Yipee!!

Sheepdog Championships at Soldier Hollow

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It's the little things...

I tend to overlook the small luxuries in my life until they aren't there anymore.

Case in point: my car (on the whole) is awesome. I haven't had to do many major repairs and it is ready and willing to take me most everywhere I want to go. Last week, however, it began fighting with me. It is an automatic, but every time it shifted gears the entire car would jerk.
I was able to get it fixed and back for me to drive yesterday. All day today I have been marveling on how wonderful it is that when the car shifts gears I don't get whiplash! Before this incident I can't really remember every noticing or caring what the car did when it shifted, but now I have definitely been paying attention.

My car currently smells like mechanic, but I'll take that any day over a broken car!

Ann-Marie Needs

According to Google... these are my needs!

Ann Marie needs a family who can provide a great deal of structure and individual attention, and who will not take the fluctuations in her moods personally.

Ann Marie needs more exposure like Survivor needs more rats.

Annmarie’s friend is Jewish and Annmarie needs to pretend that Ellen is a part of her family in order to keep her safe from the Nazi’s.

Ann Marie needs to check it out.

Ann Marie needs some of the following items in her environment:. __ (a) A lot of interaction with people. ...

Ann Marie needs to give us the information for rebates, though she won't be with us for the rest of the week.

Ann-Marie needs to get her J.Lo-booty in gear and post a pic of herself.

Ann Marie needs to find a home with a tender hearted person as she's a little bit shy until she gets used to her surroundings. She's not a demanding cat ...

Ann-Marie needs a testimonial!

Ann-Marie needs to know whether or not she should get rid of her cat.

Ann Marie needs pop rocks

Ann Marie needs a strong role model.

Ann Marie needs to be validated and wants Stephanie to like her.

Ann marie needs to start making efforts.

Ann Marie needs newsletter articles.

Ann-Marie needs backing of our group—no objections ...

Ann Marie needs to take a Self-Defense class in conjunction with her exercise routine.

Ann Marie needs support and doesn't need to be picked on.

Ann Marie needs more comment love.

Crazy Cool!

I ran across this article tonight and thought I would share. There are some other videos of him and his art on YouTube. You should also check out his sight. philinthecircle.com

Interesting Article

I ran across this article the other day and thought it was pretty interesting. What do you think?

Shopping Expedition

I had my first "IKEA Experience" today with Em, Caroline and Lincoln. We had a great time and the store is really cool. Now I just wish I had the money to buy all of the stuff I liked in there!

(I still don't understand people camping out to be the first ones in the store, but I do think that it's a cool place to shop!)

Harry Potter is taking over my life! (and for the most part I love it!)

So it all began back in March...We decided to have a Harry Potter Party at the Provo Library and I volunteered to represent the Teen and Adult Services Department in planning this library wide event.

It is going to be really cool! (However we have already given out all of the tickets, but if you want to volunteer to help you can come!!!) We are going to show the first 4 movies all throughout the day. They are going to run from 9:30 am until 7 or 8pm. You don't need a ticket to come watch the movies so if any of your are interested you should come.

Then from 6:30-8:30 we are going to have a carnival-style party in the ballroom. We are going to have face painting and a fortune teller, a costume contest and play Harry Potter Scene it. And we are going to have some of the classes as well. Potions, and Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures (the Bean Museum is coming to do a bird and reptile show), and Charms. There will be crafts and such. It has been quite a bit of work to plan, but is going to be a lot of fun.

I have been working on getting together the owl paper bag craft, and the trivia quizzes, word searches and the movie marathon. (This doesn't seem like a lot when I have it written down, but it seems like I spend all my time at work working on the Harry Potter stuff)

I will be running the Charms booth where we will make chopstick wands and then I will give a lesson in Wands. I am just going to make stuff up. You know the old "swish and flick" It makes me feel like Professer Flitwick.
I also recently finished reading "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and "Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince".
Tonight I went to see the new Harry Potter party.

Harry and I have been spending quite a bit of time together. I think that things are getting pretty serious!

I'm Proud to be an American

Happy 4th of July!!!

Ann-Marie's a Fatty!

I got fat today.

Well actually just the left side of my face got fat. I went to the dentist to get 3 fillings (which, by the way, if you don't have dental insurance is not cheap!). It feel so weird to have half of my face numb and the other half feel normal. But I think the worst is my nose, I currently have one fat nostril and one skinny one! Weird!

Summer Reading Program

The Summer Reading Program at the Provo City Library begins TODAY! You can sign up all day today (June 1st) in the ballroom and anytime today or until June 30th at the 1st floor reference desk.

Come see Ann-Marie at the library, read books, and win prizes...that sounds pretty good to me!

Professional

So I presented at the Utah Library Association Conference this past Thursday and Friday.
On Thursday 2 other librarians and I presented about Teen Summer Reading Programs. And on Friday 7 of us talked about Reader's Advisory (basically giving book suggestions when someone wants to know a good book to read).

They both went well and it will look good on my resume!

I'm quite the career woman these days, what can I say! :)

Grrrr....

Is anyone else annoyed by the fact that when you leave on comment on Blogger you can't tab between the log-in boxes? It frustrates me EVERY time!!

I'm COLD!!!

What I've been up to lately

• I hiked the Y last night and finally got to see how they light it for graduation and homecoming. I've always wondered....
• I've been working at my 2 jobs just like regular, and also being the temporary supervisor for the position at BYU that I turned down. Yep it's been fabulous...all the work and none of the pay or benefits!
• I helped my sister and cousins get their stuff moved down to my grandma's house for the summer.
  
• My sister and I went to the Living Planet Aquarium, Clark Planetarium, Gateway Mall and the SLC Library the day before she went home. That was a lot of fun!

Yep just like usual my life is a roller coaster of a ride!

And most days I wouldn't have it any other way!!

Easter Egg Hunt

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A few weeks before Easter my students at BYU asked me if they could have an Easter Egg hunt in the library. I told them that they could NOT have an Easter Egg hunt in the library, but that maybe we could have it at my house. So I invited the kids to my house and we had the hunt and pizza. My students had a lot of fun together!

Let me tell you a little bit about how March went for me...

I interviewed for a full-time position at the Provo Library. I didn't get the job, but I was 1 of only 2 that they did 2nd interviews for. They had 40 applicants and interviewed 9 people. I feel really good about getting that far and am happy with the person that they did hire. (She has been working at the Provo library for about 3 years and has her Masters in Library Science)

I interviewed for a full-time position in Interlibrary Loan at the BYU Library. I was offered the position, but I decided not to take it.

My life has been a real roller coaster this past month with lots of stress and decision making. So even though I went through a lot in March I am back where I started at the end of February.

I'm just glad for March to be over and for April to be here!

Whew!

A walk down memory lane...

I saw something online that reminded me of this childhood memory.

You know those cafeteria trays that you would use in school growing up?

Well we had some of those at my house and even though we would use them all week at school...it was fun to sometimes use them at home.

Do you have any random childhood memories like this one?

Lyrics

This song was my "senior song" nearly 7 years ago. It came on my computer tonight and just sort of made me smile. The line about being 25 caught my attention. I don't think that I even knew what I would be doing at 25 when I was still in high school!
Click on the link below to see the fabulous music video courtesy of YouTube!

"Graduation (Friends Forever)"

And so we talked all night about the rest of our lives
Where we're gonna be when we turn 25
I keep thinking times will never change
Keep on thinking things will always be the same
But when we leave this year we won't be coming back
No more hanging out cause we're on a different track
And if you got something that you need to say
You better say it right now cause you don't have another day
Cause we're moving on and we can't slow down
These memories are playing like a film without sound
And I keep thinking of that night in June
I didn't know much of love
But it came too soon
And there was me and you
And then we got real blue
Stay at home talking on the telephone
We would get so excited and we'd get so scared
Laughing at ourselves thinking life's not fair
And this is how it feels

[1] - As we go on
We remember
All the times we
Had together
And as our lives change
Come Whatever
We will still be
Friends Forever

So if we get the big jobs
And we make the big money
When we look back now
Will our jokes still be funny?
Will we still remember everything we learned in school?
Still be trying to break every single rule
Will little brainy Bobby be the stockbroker man?
Can Heather find a job that won't interfere with her tan?
I keep, I keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly
And this is how it feels

[Repeat 1]

La, la, la, la:
Yeah, yeah, yeah
La, la, la, la:
We will still be friends forever

Will we think about tomorrow like we think about now?
Can we survive it out there?
Can we make it somehow?
I guess I thought that this would never end
And suddenly it's like we're women and men
Will the past be a shadow that will follow us 'round?
Will these memories fade when I leave this town
I keep, I keep thinking that it's not goodbye
Keep on thinking it's a time to fly

[Repeat 1 (3x)]

What's your favorite color?

I scanned through this article this morning and thought it was pretty interesting. What's your favorite color? Do you agree with the author's personality description of you based on that color?

How does he do that?

Do you think Jimmy could do that if he learned how to play the flute? :)

Ch..Ch..Ch..Changes

I re-arranged my blog a little bit today. I tried to get a new template, but the one I wanted wasn't working for me. Maybe in the near future.

I hung out with my friend Sariah and her husband and baby a little bit this weekend. Grace is so cute and she just loves me! She kept checking to make sure I was still there and we had a fun time playing together. I also had a play date with Caroline and Lincoln on Friday. That kid loves me too! I have a fun time with my friends kids! (and the best part...they don't even make me change diapers!)

I worked for a long time at my Provo job on Saturday on a blog we are going to use for the summer reading program this summer. The theme is Get a Clue @ your Library. If you want to see what I have so far (and it's not much-but just getting the template to work just about killed me...) go to www.getacluesrp2007.blogspot.com If any one can tell me how to move the header down a little bit, I would appreciate it. Also...the template wasn't working on Firefox at work, but did work on Internet Explorer. But today it's working fine on Firefox from my house. Let me know if it looks right to you on which ever internet browser you are using. Thanks :)

Well that's all for now...

Cheesy Valentine Messages

What would you get if you crossed a dog with a valentine card?
A card that says, "I love you drool-ly!"

What did the painter say to her boyfriend?
"I love you with all my art!"

What does a man who loves his car do on February 14?
He gives it a valenshine!

What did the man with the broken leg say to his nurse?
"I've got a crutch on you!"

Did you hear about the romance in the tropical fish tank?
It was a case of guppy love.

What do you call two birds in love?
Tweethearts!

What do you call a very small valentine?
A valentiny!

What did Frankenstein say to his girlfriend?
"Be my valenstein!"

What do farmers give their wives on Valentine's Day?
Hogs and kisses!

Why did the pig give his girlfriend a box of candy?
It was Valenswine's Day!

Do skunks celebrate Valentine's Day?
Sure, they're very scent-imental!

What did the paper clip say to the magnet on Valentine's Day?
"I find you very attractive."

What did the French chef give his wife for Valentine's Day?
A hug and a quiche!

What did one pickle say to the other?
"You mean a great dill to me."

What did one light bulb say to the other?
"I love you a whole watt!"

What did the caveman give his wife on Valentine's Day?
Ughs and kisses!

I've got nothing. Sorry.