Dear Blog...

It's been a while since I've seen you. It isn't because I've been neglecting you. I just haven't had much free time to talk to you. But now I can tell you what I've been up to the past few weeks! So here goes...
On the 28th of May, my sister was going into the hospital to have her baby, so I took the day off from work to watch Nathan. After my parents left Kristina's to go to the hospital and Nathan had his nap, he and I went to see everyone I work with. Everybody thought that he was the cutest little guy, which he is, of course. He even had some fun playing with the lighted buttons outside of the rooms in the clinic. I had the hardest time pulling him away. We then went over to the hospital and had hot dogs, then we went to the hospital where my sister was because I had gotten a text message telling me that the baby was here and what room they were in.
She didn't have a name at that point, but I'll tell you what, my new little niece was possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen. She had a head full of dark hair that had been put into a cute little faux-hawk. Everyone had been slightly nervous about how Nathan would react to the new baby, and it wasn't too long before we found out. With his dad's help, he held his new little sister but quickly got tired of having her on his lap so he tried to push her away so he could get up. Then later, he raised his arm and smacked her in the head. What a great start.
The next evening, she was given a name: Audrey Aline. I didn't go to the hospital that day because I had a few things that I needed to do that evening, but after I made an appearance at the YSA council activity and got dinner with the roommates, I headed over to my sister's house and spent a little time with Nathan and my parents.
On Saturday, my sister had been told that she and my niece were cleared to be discharged from the hospital, so she and my brother-in-law had gotten her and Audrey ready to go. Then they found out that Kristina had an infection and the doctor was afraid that it might be something serious. They were told that my sister might need to stay in the hospital for a few more days. They were also told that Audrey could only stay under the hospital's care until the following day and then she would need to be discharged. Audrey would be able to stay there, but she would need to have someone there 24/7 to take care of her.
I missed church on Sunday in case I needed to help with Nathan. Luckily, shortly after I arrived, Kristina called and said that they were both getting ready to come home and would be there in a little while. Turns out that the infection she had was only on the skin and could be treated with oral antibiotics instead of an I.V.
Nothing too exciting happened the next few days, but then my birthday was on June 4th. My roommates took me to Cafe Rio for dinner where a few other friends soon joined us, and then we came home and had apple pie from Marie Callendar's. Yum! My Haley roommate has pictures, so those may be coming soon. It was a pretty low-key evening, just the way I would prefer it. I've never been one for a massive amount of attention.
The next evening I went to dinner with a few coworkers and their kids. We went to Mathilda's at the Jordan Commons. It was Australian food. I thought it was pretty good, but one coworker said she wouldn't go back, partly because they don't do anything for birthdays. I was okay with not having a big birthday hoopla, but they all thought the restaurant should do something.
The next night was something I had been anticipating for at least a month: my fourth Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand concert! Yay! Before the concert, I went to Applebee's for dinner with my friend Nora, her friends Gretchen and Misty, and her sister Megan. It had been a while since I had gone to Applebee's. I was quite pleased with my options and had a difficult time choosing what I wanted. Finally, I decided on this chicken dish that also had garlic mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. It was delicious and I ate every bite! At that point, I was stuffed to the gills but decided that although I usually decide against dessert, I ordered a dessert shooter. Good stuff! We were going to pay and leave, but we soon discovered that our waiter had messed up three of our checks, so we were there for an extra ten minutes or so.
Finally we were able to make it to the Sandy Amphitheater, where the concert was taking place. The guy that opened for the band, Cary Judd, was alright...the only thing that entertained me about him was the fact that he was essentially a one-man band. He would record drums and loop it, then he would do that with all of his other instruments. While he played, my friend Jay finally came. Then the concert started! I've been to quite a few concerts, and they were all entertaining to different points, but Ryan Shupe and the RubberBand are by far the most entertaining bad I've ever seen. They were slightly subdued due to the fact that Ryan Shupe had just had his appendix taken out less than a week earlier, but they still managed to get into quite a few antics.
The next evening was a Black and White Birthday Bash in Lehi, and everyone was supposed to dress in semi-formal black and white. No, it wasn't for me, it was for the two people hosting it, although one of them told me that the party would be for me as well. Interesting that I wasn't told that the birthday people got to wear colors and that I wasn't one of the people sung to. I didn't really care that they forgot that it had been my birthday too because I was kind-of expecting that they would, but I didn't really want to stay for too long because the whole party wasn't really my kind of thing. I was pretty glad when the opportunity to leave presented itself. Our friend Ryan showed up and we found out that his friend Luke and some other people were planning on going on a night hike up Provo Canyon. Haley and I followed Ryan to Provo and met up with the group. They lent Haley and me some pajama bottoms for the hike and we were on our way...in the dark, with only a few flashlights. It was fun, but it was quite cold.
The next few days were pretty uneventful except for visiting my buddy Nathan and my cutie Audrey. Then on Wednesday afternoon I found out that I was to start training to do some data entry with the new system we're going to be billing through, so that's what I have been learning the past few days at work. Friday evening was my ward's Relief Society social, and it was held in our backyard. We had a delicious meal and good company.
This morning I went to the Gateway with Haley because she was manning the Utah Food Bank and selling Creamies at the Chalk Art Festival and I thought it sounded quite entertaining. Some of the art was quite abstract and odd, but there were a few amazing ones, including an Indiana Jones drawing. And then we came home and I took a long nap then did a bit of grocery shopping and then came home to eat my Ab's chicken sandwich, and here we are!
So now that I've updated you, hopefully it won't be too long until my next post!