Photo Fail

Jake and I spent 4 days in Texas with his family for Thanksgiving and I didn't even take my camera. All we have are a couple of cell phone pictures. Ooops! There was a huge snowstorm in Salt Lake the night we flew to Austin and it put us 3 hours late leaving. But other than that it was a lovely weekend of hanging out and getting to know his family. I have to say though, Texas is like a different world. Everything really is bigger in Texas, from trucks to people to portion sizes! I think I ate more fried food in 4 days than I have the last year, my body felt like it needed to detox when I came home! It was a lot of fun though and I love Jake's family, I'm so excited to get to know them better over the years! Here are the only pictures I have:

This one is from a place near their house called Homestead Heritage. It is a little subsistance community (Think Amish) that opens up for tours of their way of life every Thanksgiving. Very fun!

Jake's mom wanted to get in on some of the Black Friday deals the day after Thanksgiving, so we set out at 5am. This photo is of me, clearly delusional due to lack of sleep, riding a $.50 ice cream truck at the mall.

Since we came home, it's been the craziness of life x 10. I have been cursed with a horrible head cold and hacking cough that I can't get rid of. Jake & I have both been working a ton due to the busy holiday season and I am right in the middle of finals week! YIKES! Last weekend, we did manage to go out on a date though. I took Jake to Ballet West's The Nutcracker, then out to dinner at one of my favorite places in Salt Lake: Market Street grill. It was a fabulous night out that really kicked off the Christmas spirit. I love this time of year!!

Holy Harry Potter!

Last week, with the newest Harry Potter movie pending, Jake and I decided to catch up on the movies we hadn't seen yet and go see the new one sometime in the next few weeks. That was the plan until I got 2 free tickets for a Friday night showing from my boss. So instead of taking our time over a few weeks, we watched #4,#5 & #6 in 5 days to be ready on Friday night. Talk about HP overkill! The movie was good, but what was probably more amusing were the die-hard fans at the movie theaters. We're talking people dressed to the nines like their favorite character. And the popcorn line?...45 minutes long! It really was like mass hysteria. So to act like we were big fans too, we posed with a certain famous wizard and witch...



I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving full of the people the love and a plethora of fattening, delicious food! Jake and I are flying to TEXAS tonight to spend the holiday with his family there. There's a blizzard warning here in UT, so I hope everyone travels safely!!

Viking Cooking School

The other day I was driving to Jake's house, a road that I have traveled hundreds of times over the last year. But for some reason, this trip was different. I was just looking around and noticed this:

(ok, so this picture is one that I found on google and is not the SLC location. I didn't have a camera with me at the moment)

Apparently I am not very observant! I was ecstatic! A Viking Cooking School - in Utah! I am DYING to take some classes here, anyone want to join me?! Check out their calendar online:
http://www.vikingrange.com/consumer/cookingschool/cookingschool.jsp?id=cat13100027

Out on the town

During the scavanger hunt a few weeks ago Jake gave me tickets to two shows for us on date nights. The first set of tickets were for Ballet West's production of Carmina Burana. I took ballet for years growing up, then took 3 semesters of adult ballet classes last year. I love going to BW productions and Jake had never been before. I don't think he's totally sold yet on loving ballet, but I'm super impressed that he took me!


The other tickets were for Desert Star Theater's "Welcome Back Potter". DST is a really fun, small theater here in salt lake that does random, quirky satires. We went on Friday night and here we are after the show with some of the cast members:

Halloween

Because of my death-defying incident on Saturday, I wasn't feeling up to much partying for Halloween. So we had a few friends over on Sunday night for a little dinner/movie party.

Tarzan & Jane. This is the dress that my mom helped me make, I love the way it turned out!



A few friends: Angela, Jane (lame for not dressing up)& me. Janilee (princess Lea) & Jon (a bedbug)
Amy (Rosetta) & Cody (Paul Bunyon)


Disney characters! Tarzan, Jane, Rosetta & Ariel


My little sister Jenny and her husband Matt were able to come down from Logan!

Jenny made this adorable cake for the party


Jake's best friend Curtis & his wife Jenna had a baby 10 days before Halloween. She had to dress up for her first Halloween so Jake & I made her a tutu and headband. Princess Brooklynn!

Redefining Grace

I always wanted my middle name to be Grace. My lovely parents decided to give their 4 sons middle names, but neglected their 4 daughters. Thus, my name is just Heather Coates. I have a great, great aunt Grace that I have adored since I was a little girl, and always thought that if I could give myself a middle name, it would be Grace. Not only is it a beautiful name, but I love what it means. Miriam Webster defines it as: a charming or attractive trait or characteristic; a virtue coming from God; disposition to or an act or instance of kindness, courtesy, or clemency; ease and suppleness of movement or bearing. Well, this weekend I had an experience in which I single-handily redefined it. Let me explain:

From my kitchen, there is a door that leads to the back yard.

To the right of that door is the staircases that goes down to my bedroom

On Saturday morning I was trying to exit the house from that said door and disaster struck. I stepped too far to the right and lost my balance, falling - wait, NO! - flying gracefully head first, down those stairs. I descended in a roaring, tumbling mess, hitting my head on the low-hanging ceiling and landing at the bottom on my face, catapulting my glasses. The result? I now look like a victim of domestic abuse. My head was instantly bleeding into my hair at the point of impact, the right side of my body is littered with random scrapes and bruises, and I'm sporting a lovely sore & scraped up nose:

and the crowning jewel of my grace? This shiner:

This bruise is on the outside of my right thigh and is about 14 inches long, by about 8 inches across. This picture really doesn't do it justice, it looks horrific!
Jake had football games all day and I had planned to spend the day sewing my Halloween costume. My head and neck were hurting so badly, that my sweet mom drove down from Logan (I know, she's the best!) to help me finish it. She was there so late that she just spent the night and went home Sunday morning. I could not have finished it without her and her sewing expertise! I fail at taking pictures, and didn't take a single one of our sewing party - sad, but see my next blog for the finished product! Thanks Mom!

The great pumpkin date

Jake and I both had the evening off of work on Friday, so we planned to have a date night. And in the spirit of the season, we went a little crazy with the pumpkin goodness!

Activity: Pumpkin Carving! I was up to my elbows in pumpkin goo, so I didn't get any pictures of us in the act, but here's the finished product:
Jake's scary pumpkin, eating a little baby pumpkin. Pretty creative!

And my pumpkin. Scared of the big spider crawling on him!

Dinner: Gnocchi with Pumpkin Parmesan sauce, spinach salad & Garlic bread. We sell a jarred PP sauce at Williams Sonoma, but I wanted to try making it from scratch. I found this recipe online:http://heidikinscooks.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/gnocchi-with-pumpkin-parmesan-sauce/ I really like the way it turned out. Yes, it is a bit of a splurge as far as the waist-line goes, but it is really good! We had some fantastic gnocchi on our trip to Italy, so it was fun to have that little reminder too!

After all of the pumpkin-carving fun, we roasted the fresh pumpkin seeds for a healthy snack throughout the week.

And officially declared our love for this orange, gooey stuff!

Ti amo Jake!

So we're back from Italy, and we had a FANTASTIC time! Venice is such a beautiful city! I have a lot of pictures, but I'm going to make you wait for another post to see all of them. This post is more of an announcement........my wonderful Jake asked me to marry him in Venice! I said yes, of course, and now we're giddily planning for a June wedding. This boy that I found is just so romantic, I can hardly stand it! Love him! Here's the story:

The Saturday before we left for Italy, Jake told me to clear the day so he could take me on a date. He picked me up that morning and took me to Thanksgiving point, about 40 minutes south of my house here in SLC. When we got there, I was surprised to see Jake's friend Justin, and his brother Joe. We walked around the gardens for a few hours and took lots of fun, cheesy pictures. After a little while, Jake handed me a piece of paper and told me he was ditching me. Confused, I read the note and realized that it was a clue. Jake was sending me on a scavenger hunt! So for the next 4 hours, I drove over 60 miles and collected 10 different items. Each stop on the hunt had a gift with a note about something we've done together over the last year, along with a clue for the next point. All the while, Jake and his spies were one step ahead of me, hiding and taking photos of me opening each gift. The 11th gift/clue in the hunt came the next day when I took Jake to one of my favorite places in the world - White Pine Lake. I just love that hike from Tony Grove!

Fast forward 6 days..........we're in Italy. Saturday morning he woke me up pretty early and told me to get dressed, we were going on a walk. We walked for about an hour around the city, getting hopelessly lost in the beautiful maze of architecture and canals. He stopped for a moment on a small bridge to take a picture. The scene was idyllic. The sun was just starting to peak above the buildings, the city was starting to wake up, little shopkeepers were opening their stores, and a gondola was meandering it's way under the bridge we were on. When all of a sudden, Jake whips out the 12th note of the scavenger hunt. It was October 16th - exactly one year from our first date! He had written an adorable letter, he said some sweet things, then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. The first thing out of my mouth was: "are you serious?!" after he said yes, I responded: "I said yes a long time ago!" And that was that! I cannot even express how happy I am. My life has changed so much since I met Jake and I am so excited to see the adventures we'll have in the years to come! Venice will always be special to us, and I hope we get to visit again sometime in the future. And since I can't have a post without pictures, here are a few:

Walking around the city in the early morning

We stopped at the rialto market and got breakfast. Pastries and fresh peaches!

The spot where he proposed

So happy!

The bling. Jake picked it out all by himself! He did such a great job, I LOVE it!


Stay tuned for more stories and pictures from the trip!

oh, and COMMENT, COMMENT, COMMENT!! Grazie!

When it rains, it pours

At times, life gives you those moments when you really stop and think about how fragile we are. This weekend my Dad crashed his new airplane on his way home from purchasing it in Atlanta. Miraculously, both he and the other pilot walked away unharmed. With his recent job loss and now this he's pretty down, so send some good vibes his way today!

ksl.com - Small plane crashes into Blanding detention center yard

Sigh of relief

This is how I've been feeling all week....


Overwhelming frustration and terrifying fear for mid-terms. I've been living at the library and studying like crazy. Tuesday was my political science mid-term, and last night was my business philosophy exam. I'm done, HALLELUJAH!! I now have over a week to enjoy my fall break before classes start up again. And what will I be doing with that much needed time off you ask? I'll be spending it here....

Bonus points for anyone who can guess where I'll be! *hint* gondolas and gelato....

The greatest man on earth

Maybe I'm a tad bit of a daddy's girl, but I think my dad is the greatest man on earth. (hmm, maybe that's why my first word was dadda?...) He is such an incredible example to me in so many ways. I just adore and look up to him so much! He has impeccable work ethic and has worked hard to provide for our family, allowing my mom to stay at home with us while we were growing up. He loves the Lord and is more knowledgeable about the gospel than anyone I've ever met. When I was younger he was called to the stake high counsel, serving with the spanish branch. (he learned spanish on his mission to Madrid) He went to graduate school while working full-time and raising 8 kids. He is a quiet, pensive person, but has a flair for adventure. He loves riding his motorcycle and a couple of years ago, he got his private pilot's license. He's crazy smart and has his bachelor's in chemistry, MBA and he's been working on his doctorate in international business. He's been working as a "senior principal scientist" for the ATK Thiokol for the last 37 years. Unfortunately, our country's recent cut-back of the NASA program has really been taking its toll on the Space-Science industry, and my dad lost his job today. My parents have known this was coming for the last 2 years, so they've been financially preparing for it, but it's still a heavy blow. My dad is only a few years away from retirement and I am just so sad for him. he's been working for that company since the early 70's! They're smart, resourceful people and I know they'll be fine, but I just feel for them right now and I want my dad to know that he is my hero in every way that counts. Love you dad!

In 2008 my dad was given a very prestigious award from NASA for his contributions to space exploration. This photo is during the awards banquet they had at Cape Canaveral in Florida


My dad and his motorcycle


Me & my dad at my cousin's wedding last summer


Here's an interesting article about the problems at ATK Thiokol
http://salttvnet.com/articles/20100617/layoffs-loom-thiokol-more-jobs-chopping-block

Reality

I was recently inspired by my dear friend Sarah Shaw. She posted a blog titled "A Good Dose of Reality", in which she talked about her current struggles and frustrations with being a wife and new mom. I found it to be a breath of fresh air to read something so real, and I felt like I was really talking to a good friend about what was going on in her life. I started thinking about my own blog, and realized that all I really do is post about the fun things going on in my life. Yes, I am loving life right now and I do get to do a lot of fun things, but in all reality, there are a lot of un-fun things too. So here's my own little dose of reality.

Life is CRAZY BUSY! I've talked before about the fact that I'm working 2 jobs right now and going to school at UofU. It's great, but some days it's really hard! Some days I doubt myself and it feels like I'm never going to get through school. Then there are the days where I wonder how it is that I'm working 2 jobs, and I still can't afford this, that or the other. This semester I'm taking a Political Science and Business Philosophies class. I'm getting ready for mid-terms next week and I'm terrified. My Business Philosophies class is kicking my trash! I'm having to read these works from philosophers and political economists such as Thoreau, Emmerson, Karl Marx, Mandeville, Aristotle, Plato, etc. It is tough reading!! I find myself having to read through the essays several times to even understand what they're saying. In between all of this working and studying, I'm trying to fit in time to work out and time to be with Jake. It can get hectic! Here's a quick snap-shot of my schedule this week. It's very typical of how things have been for the last 2 semesters. It makes me dizzy just looking at it!

Monday: Work at my office from 7:30-4:30
Work at Williams Sonoma 6pm-10pm
Hit the library for some studying til midnight or so

Tuesday:Work at my office from 7:30-4:30
Political Science class 5:45-8:45
Work out at my gym 9pm-10pm
Homework 10pm-midnight

Wednesday:Work at my office from 7:30-4:30
Business class 6pm-9pm
Work out at my gym 9pm-10pm
Homework 10pm-midnight

Thursday:Work at my office from 7:30-4:30
Night Off! Use the time to work out, be with friends, date with Jake???

Friday:Work at my office from 7:30-4:30
Work at Williams Sonoma 6pm-10pm
Homework, or some other friday night activity

Saturday: my saturdays are more flexible. I usually work a 4 hour shift at Williams Sonoma, but the times vary. So the time when I'm not working is used to work out, study, and play with Jake or friends

Sunday:Yoga class at 9am
Ward choir practice: 12noon
church: 1pm-4pm
then the rest of the day is spent making sunday dinner, sometimes visiting teaching, cleaning house, homework and catching up with things before the week starts.

Geeze, I'm exhausted just typing that! Life is crazy to say the least. Yes, I would like to have more time to work out, yes I'd like to be able to work less and sometimes I do have down days when I feel like I will never get everything done. But overall, life is great and it just keeps plugging along.

Sshh.....

For some odd reason, my family has a fascination with road sings. Or rather, for stealing road signs..... This trend began with my older sister Becky, she really is the one to blame. She "found" her first road sign sometime in college and now several years later, her special ed classroom at Sky View High School is completely adorned with the large, brightly colored signs. Felony? maybe, but for some reason, the trend stuck and there have been several sign-snatching culprits in my family. Even my mom has participated in the illicit acts! Well last week I was on my way to class at UofU and I decided to park in a different lot than usual. I parked in the end stall, gathered my books and much to my surprise, right next to my car was a sad, broken stop sign. Man Down!!


Someone had hit the wooden pole and just left it there. I had to get to class and I didn't really want the evidence sitting in my car for the next 3 hours, so I decided that if it was still there when I got back, I'd take it. Well lo and behold, at 9pm it was still there, sitting sad and lonely in the parking lot. It was a sign (no pun intended!), that stop sign was fair game! It took a lot of finagling to get that thing in my car, as about 6 feet of the post was still attached. If only I took after my dad and kept tools in my car. A socket wrench really would have helped me! Anyway, several minutes of struggling and a few splinters later it was in! The sign was in my trunk, with the pole running over the back seats (they fold down) and all the way up to my gear shift in the front seat. It was still too long for the trunk to shut, so I improvised and just tied it down for the ride home. My roommates probably think I am insane, but I was giddily excited to be among the ranks of the Coates family Capers and bring this baby home! Now, the question is just Where to put it?!

Home

This past weekend was Labor day. I really think we should have three-day weekends more often! Jake is working in LA for 2 weeks and by some miracle I wasn't scheduled at Williams Sonoma, so I left work on Friday and headed straight for Logan. I spent the weekend helping my mom with some things around the house, hanging out with my family, visiting with old friends, and just having a fabulously lazy time!

Making Star Wars sugar cookies with Jenny & Christopher

Having lunch with some of my best friends in high school. Shari, me, Jessica & Jocelyn

This Labor Day was rather significant though....it marked the 5-year anniversary of when I left my beloved Cache Valley and moved to the great Salt Lake City. In the beginning, it was a very rough time in my life, but I am so grateful to live in such a beautiful place. Growing up in such a small town, this really felt like "the big city", but now I feel like I get to call it "my city". I'm officially a local and I have a love affair with this wonderful place, nestled in the Rockies. I've developed new friendships and found my own little world here, but if I ever want to go home, I'm only 90 minutes away. Pure perfection! So, this post is dedicated both to my current home:

and my true heart's home:

I have a girl crush...

...on Zooey Deschanel! (don't judge) She is a fantastic artist who you may have seen in movies such as The Yes Man, Failure to Launch, and 500 Days of Summer

If you haven't seen it, you must. Immediately.


Zooey was even the inspiration for me cutting bangs and dying my hair dark brown. Yes, I am that immature. She is also in an indy band called She & Him. I had the opportunity to see them live as part of the free Twilight Concert series that Salt Lake City puts on every summer. (Have I ever mentioned how much I love my city?) Jake and I went with a few of our friends and enjoyed the warm summer evening, good friends and good music.



She & Him


And because you can't see her all that well, here's a better picture from google.


Oh, and thanks to Jenna for the photos. I stole them off of your blog. Next, I'm going to steal your camera because it takes awesome pictures. ;)

August adventures

Sorry everyone, but I officially suck at blogging. Here's what I've been up to lately:

Date night: I took Jake on a scavenger hunt at the Downtown SLC library. I seriously love that building. The architecture is amazing! If you haven't been there, I highly recommend it!


We saw Jack Johnson in concert at USANA ampitheater with our friends Liz & TJ Connolly. He was awesome live!!


Last Monday (the 16th) marked 10 months of us being together! Jake spent all last week in Texas with his family, so we celebrated on Sunday night before he left. He made me dinner and gave me some gorgeous pearl studs and a matching ring with black diamonds around the center pearl. I've always thought that pearls are so elegant, and I didn't even know black diamonds existed til my beloved Carrie Bradshaw received a black diamond wedding ring from Mr. Big on the 2nd Sex and the City Movie. Jake definitely gets bonus points for that!


pretty flowers from Jakers


grilled asparagus and salmon for dinner. yummy!


He made me cupcakes, from scratch all by himself!


This past weekend my firm held their annual company retreat in Park City. They put us up in the Marriott on Main street and we had a relaxing weekend full of fun and great food. One night they took us to the Earth, Wind & Fire concert at Deer Valley. I have to say, I wasn't super excited about it, but when the music started playing it was a blast! I know the band is a bit before my time, but they were great live and they played some seriously rockin' tunes! Unfortunately, we were not very good at taking pictures all weekend, so this is the only one we have. This is from Friday night after the company awards dinner at ZOOM restaurant on main street. The food was amazing! Thanks for being such a great company to work for Kemp & Associates!


Jake's best friend Curtis and his cute wife Jenna are expecting a baby girl in October. This is Jenna and I at a shower for baby Brooklyn. Please excuse my make-up-less face. It was a Saturday morning.


Fall semester at UofU started this week and I'm taking Political Science and Foundations of business. I really love the start of a new school year/semester. It gives me this crazy itch to go buy a back pack, a pencil box, some colored pencils...etc. Since I don't really need any of those things for college, I guess I will have to settle on buying two ridiculously over-priced text books. I miss the days when books were provided by the school....And with that said, this quote just came to my mind:

"Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address."

Snaps to whomever can tell me where I got that from!