Happy Fall Y'all

This is my favorite time of year. I love seeing the mountains change colors. On Saturday Mitch and I went running on this trail up by the Layton Castle. Mitch took off like a speeding bullet (he's a pretty fast runner) and I stayed behind, taking my grand time, and collected pretty fall leaves along the way. I put them in a clear glass jar when we got home. Harvey likes to pull them out and destroy them, but there's still some pretty ones left.

On Friday night we played mini golf with Kevin and Nicole. It was fun. The boys (Mitch and Kevin) like to play mini golf at the "Family Fun Center" in Roy. Nicole and I refuse to go there because it's full of junior high kids and stinks like it too. Nasty. So, we went to Cherry Hill. Only right now it's called "Scary Hill". Ooooh, spooky. Funny thing is, they didn't have any Halloween decorations up except the Scary Hill sign. ha,ha.

On Saturday night I went to the General Relief Society Broadcast with my friend from the ward, Kassi. President Uchtdorf gave an amazing talk that was not aimed specifically at women in the church, but rather towards women in general. I think every woman should take 10 minutes and read it when it is available online (or in the Ensign). It was a great talk and got me excited for General Conference.

After the broadcast, Mitch was hanging out with Kevin and Dave, so I did homework. No lie, I worked on this document design project from 8 p.m. until 12 p.m. that night. I didn't even stop or leave the computer. It was ridiculous. And I didn't finish either. I can't wait to be done with school; I totally have senioritis.

Mitch wants to get Rock Band 2. I told him I thought it would be cool since it probably has more songs on it I know, instead of the old rock songs Mitch loves. At the same time, I know we won't play it as often as we think we would. So why buy it? Maybe we'll flip a coin. Personally, I'd rather spend my time hiking or having campfires while the weather is still cooperating and the leaves are changing colors ... I love the fall!

Book Report

I just finished God Wants a Powerful People by Sheri Dew. It was great; a good review of the basic Gospel principles. I learned a lot of interesting facts about Church history. Overall, I felt like she was saying "God gives us all of the tools necessary to return to him: prayer, scripture, prophets, the priesthood, covenants, the restoration, etc. These tools endow us with power. This power is especially useful against Satan, who's power is very real and everywhere in our world today (via the media, Hollywood, man's opinion, man's expectations, etc.). We can use this power to help others and thus return to live with God." Of course Sheri said it in a much more compelling and entertaining way than I just did. When I was in the MTC for 3 months, which is WAY too long to eat only MTC food, I heard Sheri Dew speak at least 3 times. I don't think she realized it, but she shared the same stories all 3 times. I was expecting this book to have those same stories, but was pleasantly surprised to find new, witty and spiritual analogies, stories, and examples. I highly recommend this book. A great reminder of our purpose here on earth and all of the help we can recieve, if we seek it, to return to live with God again.

WiCkEd!!

No, I have not had the blessed opportunity to see Wicked yet. I heard that the amazingness will be in Salt Lake in April. Does anyone know anything about this? I absolutely must attend. I was just telling Mitch the other day how badly I want to go to New York, see the sites, and most of all, see Wicked. Then I heard last night that it will be here and Mitch said, "Great! Now we won't have to go all the way to New York." Little does he know that I still have every intention of going to New York someday. Ha,ha. Anyways, please let me know if anyone has more details.

This past week Mitch did travel, though not to New York. He had to go to a few meetings for work out of state. He went to Chicago on Monday and came home Tuesday, then he went to California on Thursday and came home Friday night. He was tired after all of the traveling. I'm usually fine staying home by myself, but this time I woke up both nights after a crazy nightmare. I have to watch these Sherlock Holmes videos for one of my classes and I watched one each night Mitch was gone. I know this is lame seeing as how the films were made in 1984, but they totally freaked me out and I had nightmares because of them. How lame is that! They're from '84, it's not like they were graphic or anything! Ha,ha I'm such a baby. I was really glad when Mitch came home. (I always miss him so much when he's gone anyways.)

Last night we hung out with my mission companion and her husband, Natalie and Mike. They're so funny. Natalie is from Canada so she pronounces things funny. We went and saw Get Smart with Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. It was HiLaRioUs! We laughed so hard. I totally recommend it. We saw it in the dollar theater (yes, we're cheap), so you may have to wait and rent it if you don't like crappy theaters with broken seats and nasty bathrooms. It's one of those movies I would actually buy. I gave Mitch a hard time because after our delicious dinner at Pier 49, we all went to Smith's to buy candy for the movie. We go to the candy aisle, full of delicious goodies, and what does Mitch select? Those nasty, old lady, gum drop candies! I laughed so hard when he picked them up.
I said, "You want those?"
Mitch: "Yeah, I love these!"
Lacey: "That's old grandma candy!"
Ha,ha, it was so funny. Anyways, after the movie Mitch and I were driving home and we were both still laughing about how funny the movie was. We were stopped at an intersection, laughing, when Mitch STALLED the car. Keep in mind we were both laughing while the following dialogue took place:
I said, "You did not just do that. That's so funny!"
Mitch: "Lacey! Don't make fun of me! Lacey, you shouldn't make fun of your husband!"
Lacey: "Who stalls their car at an intersection when there's people behind you?"
Mitch: "Lots of people!"
Lacey: "Yeah, 16 year olds!"
Mitch: "Lacey, stop it!"
Ha,ha,ha it was sooo funny. We laughed so hard about that. Poor Mitch, I had my share of laughs at his expense last night. We really love each other, we just enjoy teasing one another sometimes. Okay, I probably tease him way more than he teases me, but it's all good.
I was glad we could hang out with Natalie and Mike, they're really fun. Natalie and I realized last night that we both love attending symphonies despite our friends' lack of interest, so we're going to go together. Mitch is not refined enough to appreciate the fine arts, so he refuses to go with me. Such a guy. :) Now I can go with Natalie. Wahoo!

Mitch is at a church meeting right now, we have church at 11:00, Mitch has another meeting tonight, and then we're off to my parents to enjoy my mom's amazing cooking talent. I feel bad that Mitch is always so busy on Sundays (he's the ward mission leader). Hopefully his meetings will get out early ...

Mission "Find Internship" Completed!

Today I officially started my internship for school. I am an intern for Telford Financial (TF). They are a subunit of the company I work for. One day I was talking to the president of TF and I told him I'm graduating in technical writing. He said he had some proposals he needs help writing and I told him how I was looking for an internship. Batta bing batta boom-I have an internship! Yeah! I submitted my proposal for the internship to my professor last week. I was worried about it all weekend, thinking, "Oh no, what if she doesn't approve it? How will I find another internship in such a short time period? What will I do? Maybe I should have been more specific in my proposal. Oh no!" Well not only did it get approved, but I got full credit on my proposal. Oh yeah! (I think I worry about school and grades WAY too much. I stress myself out about it constantly. I think the stress and worry drives me to do well though.) I am so excited to do some "real" technical writing and so happy I could find a great internship. I don't have to commute anywhere, I'm still getting paid for being at my regular job, and my boss is totally cool.

Also: today my sis-in-law, Katie, invited me to eat lunch at Coldstone. Yes, Mitch, you can eat ice cream for lunch. :) It was amazing. Katie had the new marshmallow flavored ice cream and I had the new nutter butter flavor. How does Coldstone do it? How do they make the ice cream taste exactly like whatever flavor it is they're mimicking? Cake batter, marshmallow, banana, nutter butter, peppermint patty, they all taste exactly like they sound. That's amazing. Thank you, Coldstone, for making me so happy. And thanks, Katie, for inviting me! So fun!

The Botts' Weekend

This weekend was great. My cousin Lesley got married to a cool guy named Parker. Lesley looked beautiful on their wedding day and I am really happy for her. It was fun to see most of our cousins at her reception; we have so many cousins spread out over the country that it's nice when we can see some of them. Mitch and I enjoyed being back at the Salt Lake temple where we were sealed, it brought back memories of our recent wedding.
Lesley and I have a funny bond: her maiden name is Lesley Miles, my maiden name is Lacey Miles. This often created confusion as my sweet Grandma Miles would call Lesley my name and me Lesley's name. Also, we both served missions at the same time: Lesley was Sister Miles in New York and I was Sister Miles in Latvia.
Here's the bride and groom, me and my hubby, and me and my Grandma Miles.

On Saturday I was able to attend the Layton Utah Music Workshop that is put on by the LDS church. The workshops were amazing. The whole thing was very organized and time efficient. I was free to choose which workshops I wanted to attend. I went to two workshops about the organ and one about the importance of hymns.
One course was an introduction to the organ. I went with the intention of learning to play and left with the feeling that I'm not that talented. Ha,ha. I have a life-long goal to learn how to play all of the instruments. Growing up, I took piano lessons off and on and still enjoy playing for fun a few times a week. In 5th grade I started playing the clarinet in school and played until the 10th grade when I thought I was too cool for that (big mistake!). I also took violin lessons one summer after highschool and was able to play in a recital and I was so proud (then my violin teacher moved and I started at Weber and never took up lessons again). Recently, I got a drum set and want to learn to play, but have not had time for lessons. And sadly, I realized after purchasing the drum set that they don't interest me that much anymore. I'll probably still learn how to play them though. The organ just seems much more interesting.
SO, I wanted to see if I could teach myself the organ. My hopes were quickly shattered. I would definitely need an instructor and a lot of guts to play in sacrament meeting. I'm thinking about it for now. It would take a lot of time to practice.
At the end of this workshop they had a fireside where Alex Boye, Jon Schmidt, and some opera singer lady came and spoke/performed. I'm a HUGE Jon Schmidt fan and loved hearing him play and speak. I am very glad I went to the workshop and I learned a lot about the importance of hymns and the things they can teach me. I love music and playing instruments. On Saturday night I went to the fair with my friend Nicole. I love the fair and was glad we could go. Our poorsport husbands stayed home and watched the blowout U of U game. We all met up later and hung out. It was fun.
Today at church I had to teach my class of crazy 15 year old girls AND a class of 13 year olds.There were 14 teenagers total. Needless to say it was incredibly loud and unorganized in our classroom. One girl got another girl's bracelet stuck on her arm, above the elbow, and couldn't get it off, which led to a room full of loud giggles. She had to go to the bathroom and get it off with running water. I was flustered by the end and thankful I didn't become a highschool English teacher, but I did have a good laugh about it all. I just hope they learned something about Samuel the Lamanite ...
Sunday evenings always make me a tiny bit sad because it means the next day is Monday. Blah. But every Monday back to work and school brings me one week closer to graduation! Yeah!

I'm mad at Disney!

I know everyone else in the world saw Pirates 3 ages ago. Mitch and I saw it for the first time last night. I don't know why we waited so long; we both loved the first two Pirates. We don't watch a lot of movies I guess. When we do watch a movie it seems like there's always one we want to see more than Pirates 3. Well, last winter I won a blue-ray player from my work and this week Hollywood Video was offering free rentals on blue-ray movies, so we rented Pirates 3. There was a preview for Disneyland and I sang along, " ... your dreams come true!" I told Mitch how much I love Disneyland and that I think we should go. The movie started and while it looked amazing on the blue-ray, we were both sorely disappointed with the ending. (If you haven't seen it yet, don't continue reading this.) I can't believe that anorexic Keira Knightley ends up on that island by herself, cute Orlando Bloom sails off for the next 10 years, and the seemingly perma-buzzed Johnny Depp looses the Black Pearl. What the heck? And I'm sorry, but how lame was the "wedding" that occurred in the middle of the fight? After it ended the only thing I could say was, "I don't want to go to Disneyland anymore!" So Disney, your horrible ending to the Pirates trilogy just lost you 2 customers! (Yeah right, I know I'd go in a heartbeat if the chance arose. Hint,hint to Mitch!) But in all seriousness, I do hate to think that Disney will let a great story end in such tragedy. There just has to be a 4th one, complete with a beautiful wedding for Elizabeth and Will!

Sleep and Play

This weekend I was the lucky one who had a cold. It seemed to be off and on; I felt great one day and horrible the next. It was weird. I left work early on Friday because I didn't feel well. I slept most of the day and felt okay Friday night while we spent the night with our friends Kevin and Nicole at Wolf Creek. We had a good time playing Monopoly (Mitch won) and watching the Office. I'm glad they invited us to go; it was nice and relaxing. On Saturday I felt immensely better and we were able to go to the car show in Brigham with Mitch's family. This was the first time I've been to a car show and I must admit ... I was bored. After the first three rows of cars I was bored. It was fun to see how excited Mitch and his dad were though. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I felt 100% better. The one thing I did really love was the peach pie Kevin and Kathy bought for us all from Maddox. I had never eaten there and it was amazing. Highly recommended. After all of that, Mitch went to a friend's house to watch the U of U game. His friend (no name mentioned) made a lame rule: "no girls allowed." I actually like watching football games and I was totally annoyed when I found out I couldn't go. Lame! So, I did what any normal girl would do in that situation; I went shopping for new shoes. :) I found some great deals! On Sunday I felt horrible again and missed church. I don't often miss church. Mitch was so great and taught my Sunday School class. He takes good care of me when I'm sick. I'm so lucky to have such a sweet husband! Well, I slept all day on Sunday. I feel like I slept all weekend actually. We went to dinner at Mitch's parents' house Sunday evening. It was delicious as usual. Chase brought his gun with a scope on it so we could look at the mountain goats on Ben Lomond. Mitch thought that was cool. I slept for 10 hours last night and felt pretty good when I woke up this morning. I ran 2 miles at my normal race pace and felt good about that. I'm feeling okay today, so hopefully I'm on the mend! I hope Mitch doesn't get sick. He's a lot busier at work than I am and can't afford to miss any meetings. If he does get sick, I'll take good care of him like he has of me.

A Labor Free Labor Day Weekend

This weekend was super relaxing. Here's what we did:

• Mitch had his guy friends over for a Halo night. This included pizza, 4 TVs, and a group of not-grown-up men. They had a blast.
• We went swimming at the Clearfield Aquatic Center. The waterslide was awesome. Us trying to be like Michael Phelps, not so awesome.
• We celebrated my Grandma Ruth's birthday and my Uncle Kent came from Cali to join the festivities. *Happy Birthday Grandma! We love you!!* We played Rock Band. My dad and brother, Brock, found out they can't sing.
• We went to church. It was normal; Lacey teaches Sunday School to a group of incredibly hyper 15 year old girls. Learned about the Perpetual Education Fund (PEF). Interesting. Overall, spiritually uplifting.
• Watched The Hot Chic (one of my favs) and Finding Forrester.
• Had FHE with our friends Jimmy and Karen. We BBQed and played a game. Good times.

We had a great weekend. Very relaxing and action-packed!
Today I turned in my graduation application. *sigh of relief!* I'm super stoked to be done. I met with the head of the English Department today; she said I'm good to go. How exciting! Only three months of class and I'm a grad-u-ate!
Well, scroll down to see some pics of our weekend.

Cliff Jumpin'

Here's a video of Mitch jumping off the rope swing at Flaming Gorge. (We just barely got this from my mom's camera.) I didn't dare do this ...