WOW...

So I just walked out of the bathroom and all the way to my desk with my skirt tucked up into my underwear!! Yeah. Thank goodness I'm going on vacation in 2 hours...

The best BBQ sauce in the world

I just wanted to say something. Rudy's is the best BBQ sauce ever. I had my friend Kim from San Antonio grab me some the last time she was there (I think you can only buy it in Texas or online) and I savor it every time i eat it. Its the perfect blend between spicy-ness and sweetness. Every time I let someone try it they also love it but then I dont give them any more. So if you guys can get your hands on your own bottle of this delicious sauce, please do so. Here is a picture of me holding a bottle. Also, this is Jed, not Ali.

Thankful Thursday!

This week I am thankful that Jed and I get to go to CALIFORNIA
tomorrow(!) and visit my sister Laurel and her family. I love
California, and even more so, I love Laurel. Jed and I will be driving out tomorrow afternoon and getting there late tomorrow night. Saturday (our ONE MONTH anniversary) will be spent at the beach and playing with Eli. Sunday is anybody's guess, and then we'll leave Monday afternoon to come back and get ready for school (and work) the next day. I couldn't be more excited!! I wish Emily lived closer so that she could come play with us, or so that we could visit her too. But I'm still jealous of her because she's in the great state of TEXAS!

What Ali's All About

i am: a newly-married wife!

i think: i want a baby sometimes, but then i remember that once you have them, you can't "give them back" to anyone. you're the anyone.

i know: i live in a small, crappy basement, but it's MY small, crappy basement and it's the first "our place". :)

i want: to go to the classes i want, not the classes i have to take. and i want them to be free.

i dislike: the spiders who don't pay rent but secretly live with us.

i miss: my family. :(

i fear: losing loved ones, for whatever reason.

i feel: like the luckiest woman alive to have such a wonderful counterpart.

i hear: good things about the "all-you-can-eat french toast" at Kneaders and i want to try it

i smell: good, usually, or so i'm told by Jed.

i crave: the end of Jed being in school. and my Baja Chicken sandwich from Quiznos - you gotta try it if you like cilantro (i love cilantro).

i cry: more often the older i get. i used to be a rock, and now i'm getting mushier.

i usually: forget to go to the gym... :\

i search: for silver charms for my bracelet when i visit places

i wonder: what's in a Wonder Ball? and i wonder who will be our next president

i regret: pursuing past relationships for so long when i knew i wouldn't end up marrying them anyway

i love: my husband. and traveling.

i care: about trying to avoid germs.

i always: have the radio on in the car. no matter what.

i try: not to take the many blessings i have for granted.

i worry: that we'll never get out of debt

i am not: as foolish as i used to be.

i remember: one time when i stole a piece of candy from the store when i was little and my mom caught me and made me return it and apologize to the cashier. i was mortified and i learned a very valuable lesson: don't get caught! ;)

i believe: that there is *always* someone worse off than you. be happy.

i dance: in the kitchen, with Jed.

i sing: purposefully off-tune to Jed. he thinks it's cute.

i don’t always: appreciate everything that i have, but i try.

i argue: to the death, or until someone can *prove* that i'm wrong.

i write: emails back and forth to Jed all day long when i'm at work.

i lose: my patience very quickly, and quite often. it's a bad flaw of mine. sorry.

i wish: i didn't have to take this pill every day. it messes with you, man.

i listen: to a San Antonio radio station online while i'm at work. Utah stations blow. :(

i don't understand: why some people think the word "yield" is synonymous with the word "stop".

i can usually be found: at work or with Jed. but almost always with my cell phone.

i am scared: of port-o-potties. no lie. i'd rather go in the bushes.

i need: something to do all the time - i like being busy, or else i get bored and tired.

i forget: what it's like to not have responsibilities.

i am happy: that i decided to move back to Provo this year.

Thankful Thursday - Thursday Edition ;)

I am (We are) so thankful for all of the amazing people in our lives. I was reflecting on our wedding and it blows my mind how many people went out of their way to help us with things we needed and made sure everything went smoothly for us so that we were as un-stressed as possible. Unless you've gotten married (and didn't elope), you can't imagine how much goes into preparation and execution of a wedding. It's unreal, and it's detailed. Regardless, I was completely at ease and not the leat bit stressed because Jed and I had an amazing 'support staff' who took care of any worries we may have had.

I am so thankful for all of the time, energy, talents, and gifts that were offered to us during this special time. We are truly blessed with an emormous amount of love and support from friends and family.

PS~ Without all the help, this might have been us on our wedding day:

Wanna See Pictures of An AWESOME Wedding??

Click HERE!!
If you happen to want any of the pictures, let me know! :D
Thanks for being patient with us.
We love you all!

Wedding Pictures

Will be up just as soon as possible. Thanks for being patient with me. :)

Thankful Thursday - Late Again

I am thankful (and proud) that I am an American. Watching the Olympics gives me a sense of pride and makes me realize how glad I am that I don't live in another country. Yeah gas prices are high and the housing market isn't very good right now, but life in the good ol US of A is really not shabby when compared to life in some other countries...

SURPRISE! It's a ...HONEYMOON!!

I love good surprises! Jed was in charge of the honeymoon and I wanted it to be a surprise, so my loving husband took care of everything and once the deal was sealed, so were his lips. He did not tell another soul (except his dad because he helped Jed book it) where we were going. He was a vault. There aren't very many people who know, so here it is: We went on a 4-night Carnival cruise out of Miami and we stopped at Key West and Cozumel!! It was fantastic! Jed did a great job.

The longest and hardest part of the trip was flying to and from Florida. Seriously we were travelling for about 10 hours. Nightmare. But once we got to Fort Lauderdale, everything was great. We stayed at the Hyatt right by the airport, which was really nice, and we didn't set sail until the following afternoon, so we went out to dinner at this really nice restaurant and then lounged around the hotel. We had to take the Carnival shuttle from Fort Lauderdale to Miami, where the ship was, and then when we got there, the Carnival guy who took our bags for us when we signed in tried to take a $10 tip from me (we only had a $20 and he gave me $10 back at first until I called him out on it) just for walking our bags to the back and putting them on the conveyor belt.

SHIP: Once on the ship, we had a great time! Carnival is geared more towards families, not honeymooners, so Jed and I spent a lot of our time in our room, just enjoying each others' company and soaking up as much one-on-one time as we could. We did a lot of talking and played games and watched movies. I'm so grateful that we got the chance to do that, because heaven knows that it's pretty much impossible to get very much continuous alone time without anything else distracting you in the "real world".

Some other tidbits about the ship:

-There are two types of plugs on the ship, Americans and Asians.

-We sat with some *interesting* people at dinner. For example, they got married, by themselves, the second day of the cruise, 8-8-08, at the courthouse in Key West. They had been together for 10 years and "engaged" for two. She would say something tasted really good and then if she asked her husband and he said it wasn't good, she'd be like "Oh yeah, it was kind of dry. It was alright, I guess." I wish we had gotten a private table...

-There was a big water slide on the boat. Like one you'd see at a water park. It was great. I only went down once, but Jed did it a few times and loved it.

-I love the towel animals they put in your room.

-If you run down the hallway imitating the little boy you saw while swimming at the pool who thought he was a flying ninja, you look like an awkward creeper who can't control their bowel movements.

KEY WEST: was just a tourist spot with a bunch of shops up and down this one road. Nothing really exciting since we didn't opt for an onshore excursion or anything special besides shopping, but we still had a good time. There was a 'Key West museum' with this enormous statue in front of it

And this crazy flute-playing couple

We thought this church was cool-looking so Jed wanted to get a picture of it

And I turned in to a pig...

COZUMEL: Jed had signed us up for private snorkeling on the reef and that's what we did first. It was an amazing experience! We saw some gorgeous, vibrant fish and we saw stingrays (black ones and yellow ones) and a lion fish (my favorite). Our guide was really cool and very knowledgeable. Jed was in heaven-he loves fish, and these guys were incredibly beautiful.

After our snorkeling adventure, we went SHOPPING!! I had been to Cozumel before on a cruise with my family, so I knew where some good places (and some not-so-good places) were. I got charm number two (I collect charms for my bracelet whenever I go on vacation and I had already gotten one in Key West) and Mexican vanilla and a thumb ring. We both got t-shirts at Ron Jon and Jed got a turtle carved out of stone. We wanted to get something sentimental for both of us, so we got one of those painted tiles where they paint whatever you want right in front of you. It's a Carnival ship sitting on the water and then the scene below the water, with two big tropical fish and some smaller ones and some coral. I love it! ...and then I got eaten by a shark. And all Jed did was pull out the camera... ;)

VIVA MEXICO!

This is my interpretation of Mexican Pipi Longstocking gone bad. Yikes!

I got sick with what I think was a cold on the cruise. I was down for the count on the day after Cozumel. Luckily we were just at sea and didn't stop at a port that day because I slept almost the whole day. After buying me a $13 bottle of medicine (which by the way didn't work and they wouldn't take it back because it was open... Yeah, I have some not-kind thoughts about that), my dear sweet husband just sat on the bed next to me and watched back-to-back movies and TV while I was passed out. He's so sweet and patient. I am blessed and loved.

We docked at 8:00 the next morning and headed back to Fort Lauderdale because that's where our hotel was, and where we'd be flying out of the next day. We rode the train back from Miami. That was fun. We took five different types of transportation on our honeymoon: car, airplane, ship, train, and fins. Fins count, right? :) We pretty much all day to lounge around in the hotel, so we did, and it was great. We left to try and find some grub for lunch (on foot, of course) and it started *pouring* down on us! We ran to this small walk-up-to-the-window, outdoor-seating place and luckily they had covered seating because we had nowhere to go until the rain let up. The food was delicious! We really lucked out on that one. These are pictures of us at the place, after the rain stopped (yes, I was wearing a white shirt...):

We flew out the next day, but not until we taxied for an hour and a half because of a storm. It's good to be home. :D

Mrs. Goodell

Mrs. Goodell is Jed's mom. I am still Ali.

So hey guess what? Jed and I are married!! I became a Goodell on July 31, 2008 and have been one ever since. I have this strange feeling I will be a Goodell for the rest of my life...

I spent an entire day driving around to various offices changing my name and getting new documents. It was such a pain- hardest part of being married so far. ;) The worst is the fact that I hadn't really practiced signing my name (I think I thought if I didn't practice, I'd never have to do it) so on my government documents, I signed my old name and then had to cram this little Goodell at the end. It looks dooey. Oh well.

Jed and I had a wonderful wedding. Overall everything went really smoothly and it was a great experience. It was really touching to see how many family members and friends we have who love and support us. The reception went by way too fast! It felt like it had been 15 minutes when I was told we only had a half hour left to cut the cake, toss the bouquet, etc. But it was so nice to see our friends and family and visit with everyone. Not to mention my cake was rad! :)

The day after our wedding, before the reception, Jed and I went to Snowbird with my family because they have a bunch of fun things to do like the Alpine Slide, a zipline, rock climbing, hiking, the trampoline-harness thing, etc. Jed had never been on an Alpine Slide and, being the cautious person he is, went like a mile an hour down our first run and I had to keep putting on the brakes and slowing down so we could be next to each other. It wasn't very fun for me because I'm a girl who likes the thrills! So I went down the next time with my 11 year-old brother Jeff, who is a speed demon, and of course we were planning on racing. We were speeding down the track and and coming up on the place where the guy is sitting on the side of the track taking everyone's picture as they come down the mountain. Well I guess I subconsciuosly wanted to get his attention because right as I turned the corner in front of him, I flipped my cart and flew out onto the track and slid down, feet first on my stomach, still going as fast as I had been in the cart, for a minute or two. Apparently my left elbow and knee had contact with the track as I was sliding because I had fatty chunks of skin missing in both places. It just got clean shaved off. Pretty gross and *painful*. So I kinda felt like I was a corpse bride for Halloween at my reception, with my big open wounds. :( But it's all good. The skin's growing back now and I've got a scar story from my wedding weekend! :)

Thank you to everyone who had any part in helping make our wedding as spectacular and memorable as it was. Jed and I are truly blessed with wonderful people in our lives and we love and appreciate all of you.

**The link to my bridal portraits is RIGHT HERE and you should continue to go back to it because that's where the wedding pictures will be posted.**