Happy Birthday Steve

Happy Birthday Steve !

Yesterday was Steve's birthday, and I was so glad that I got to celebrate with him. We both had to work during the day, and then we met my family for dinner at Chinese Kitchen Express (Steve's choice). When we got home, we had a slice of cake that I had picked up earlier from Nordstrom's. Since I am not sure how to make carrot cake it just seemed simpler to buy one slice so we didn't overdo. I am so lucky to be married to such an incredible man, and I hope that he had a great day! We're getting together with Steve's family on Superbowl Sunday to do a combined Superbowl Party / Birthday Party. I'm guessing Steve won't mind stretching the celebrating out for several days.

Happy Birthday Evan

Happy Birthday Evan - 5 years old

Yesterday our nephew Evan turned 5 years old, we all celebrated at his house with mini-turkey burgers (they were excellent) and then presents and cake.
The best part was after finishing unwrapping all of his presents, Evan was sitting with his cake and turned to the adults and said, "Can I open the real presents" after thinking it over we figure he meant he wanted to open the actual packages to the presents. One of the great parts of the evening was watching how excited he was by the whole experience if only all of us adults were as excited by our own birthdays.

Evan and Steve - Steve's birthday is next week, I hope that he shows as much excitement at his party.

Goals & Wii Fit

So right after Christmas I decided that for the rest of December and the entire month of January I needed to work out every day, in an effort to get back in the habit. Steve and I purchased a Wii Fit last summer and mostly I am a big fan, you can do aerobics, strength training and yoga, I don't think that the balance games included count as exercise. Anyway the wii really focuses on your form while doing exercises as shown above. The other useful tool especially in my efforts this month is you can check in and be weighed every day and you get a stamp on your calendar etc, even though it reminds you every day that you are "overweight" I usually rave about the Wii Fit to anyone I can.

But, tonight it just made me mad, I have been so proud of myself every night since I set the goal I have worked out, sometimes on the wii fit, sometimes on the elliptical or sometimes elsewhere. Last night though I got home late from book club and so I decided I would do some push-ups, crunches, planks etc. and then just head to bed rather than checking in on the wii fit. So today when I stepped on the first thing it did was say "so too busy to work out yesterday eh Jill!" It was so irritating, how does it know I didn't work out, just because I didn't check in!

So I guess the lesson of this story is 1) I am pretty excited and suprised I have continued with my goal, 2) Most of the time I think the Wii Fit is a great tool, but 3) Sometimes it is just an irritating little machine.

R.I.P Ricardo Montalban

It's a sad day for movie fans. Ricardo Montalban passed away on Wednesday, 1/14/09. Here's a link to the story: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/15/MNBR15ADEC.DTL . Perhaps my favorite role of his was that of Khan, the villain from Star Trek II. You can view a clip of his performance, along with perhaps William Shatner's best performance in any Star Trek film yet, by clicking on the video clip below.

Toolin' around the house on the day off.

Currenlty, my days off of work are Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. So, Wednesday is usually my day to kick around and do whatever I want while Jill's at work. Today I decided to tackle a couple of home projects that I've been wanting to get done.

1st up: Moving our DSL router from the upstairs guest room to the downstairs master bedroom, and then drilling a hole through the floor and running an ethernet cable down into the crawlspace (which I hate going into and, ashamedly, usually make Jill go down into) and then taking it back up through the floor and into the family room so that I could hook our new HD-DVR from Direct TV up to the internet for the purpose of being able to get Direct TV's On-Demand programing. Now, I used to have Comcast Cable back in the days before I met Jill, and with Comcast On-Demand programing they have a library of movies you can watch for free. That's right. FREE!!! So, I was so excited to get the Direct TV On-Demand up and running only to find out that there are almost no free movies. Just a few crappy tv shows, etc.

2nd: I wanted to move the majority of our DVD collection into some shelving in the master bedroom. You know, I wanted to try to get most of the stuff in one place, in addition to having only "kid friendly" DVDs out in the family room. Don't get the wrong idea, it's not like we have a huge porn collection or anything, but I have always been a fan of horror and suspense movies, and a few years ago when one of Jill's friends were in town, their little boy looked at one of the DVD covers and said "There's bad people on there". I think he may have seen the side profile of Michael Myers from Halloween, but either way I decided it'd be good to get them away from the kids. So, I got that mostly done as well.

The other thing I was hoping to get done before Jill came home was to get dinner made so that she wouldn't have to do it. However, some of these projects ended up taking more time that I thought they would so I just decided to take Jill to the Sizzler for dinner.

I can't wait for my next day off.

Over and out!

Bowl for Kids' Sake

http://bbbsu.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=298361

So most you reading this blog probably already know that I work for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah, and some of you may also know that I have worked there 8 years. What you may not know is that this will be my 9th year of participating in Bowl for Kids' Sake.

This is our agency's largest fundraiser every year, and most of the staff (myself included) create their own team of bowlers, and then fundraise at least $500 per team so that they can bowl with others in the Community that are supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters. While Bowling sometimes comes around too quickly each year, I must admit that I still kind of enjoy it, and while many of the staff complain that it takes over the agency and that is all anyone talks about, I kind of enjoy the urgent atmosphere it brings. Each year it is our chance to 1) talk about all the good BBBSU is doing in the community to 1,000 + participants, and 2) as the first fundraiser of the year it provides us the opportunity to set a good tone for the rest of the year. In 2009 we need to raise 1.3 million dollars. If we can raise $150,000 of it at Bowling then we know we are on track.

So while at work I will probably complain like everyone else that bowling is here again, secretly I will probably enjoy it, even the Saturdays that it requires me to work - but shhh don't tell.

If you feel like contributing to a fantastic cause, you can donate to my "Bowl For Kids Sake" team by clicking on the following link: http://tinyurl.com/JillSundstromBBBS2008Bowling

Thanks!

So Much Good

There really is so much good in this world, and Steve and I are so blessed and lucky to experience much of it, and to get to experience it together.

At the beginning of this week there were two large snow storms, during the past winters that we have lived in our house Steve has worked nights so one of our neighbors across the street, would always try to get our driveway shoveled prior to me being home, so that I didn't have to do it. Well Tuesday night Steve was at work a little later than I was so I pulled in the garage and by the time I was able to change my coat and put on my gloves this same neighbor was across the street telling me "I got it don't worry about it", I told him that he didn't need to I had a snow blower and he said well then I will get the walks and the driveway dip. By the time I finished with the driveway he had shoveled all the walks all the snow plow snow in front of the driveway and had even created a little walkway through the grass to the mailbox. Wow it was such a kind gesture, it makes me get teary eyed just thinking about it, Thank You!

And yesterday I got the opportunity to meet my new little sister through the Big Brothers Big Sisters School-based program, for privacy reasons on her end I won't share too much here, but her name is Melissa and she is 11 and in 5th grade. She was so excited to meet me yesterday, and we spent about an hour talking about her life. She lives a pretty simple life but it is so obvious to see that she is full of love, excitement and adventure. As we finished up the conversation we were talking about how we were both a little bit shy and I said we will both have to try hard not to be shy around one another so that we can be good friends. She leaned over and said "pinky promise" and so we did we made our first pinky promise, it was so sweet, and I am so excited to get to know her better each Wednesday afternoon.

I know that 2008 was a tough year for so many, and 2009 may be as well, but I feel so grateful to have these little moments in life to let me know that there really is So Much Good in this world.

Go Utes!

Yahoo.com - Dominating win a perfect ending for Utah

SLtrib.com - Sweet Sugar Bowl - Utes stun Alabama 31-17

KSL.com - No.6 Utes beats No.4 Alabama 31-17 in Sugar Bowl

KUTV.com - Utes crush the Crimson Tide

Espn.com- Utah stuns Alabama in Sugar Bowl

If you didn't have the chance to watch the Sugar Bowl last night, you missed out, Utah is officially the only Division one team that is Undefeated. Will they be National Champions? No. Should they be National Champions, yes, I believe so. And just to make sure you all know that I am not a fair weather fan jumping on the band wagon because of success I became a Ute fan during the 80's attending games with my grandfather during their 28 year stretch of not going to a bowl game that ended in 1992. I am still a Ute fan now, when they have the longest winning streak in the Country and the longest bowl winning streak in the country.

Needless to say I love college football, I love the intensity of the game, and yes sometimes I may get a little loud, but I especially love my Utes, and today I love them more for making the announcers have to eat a little crow. Some of the quotes I heard as the game began were 1) "Anyone living outside the State of Utah that isn't a University of Utah Alum, knows that Alabama is going to win this game." or 2) "Alabama would not recruit a single player on Utah's team"

I won't go on with my soapbox for too much longer all I have to say is Great Job Utes, not only did you win, you made Alabama who for their entire season prior to last night only trailed in games for 45 mintues combined, trail for the entire game. Good Job and thanks for a great Season!

Happy New Year

Happy New Years Everyone - I hope that you all had a great 2008, and celebrated by ringing in the New Year last night.

We were lucky enough to celebrate with Dave, Kim and the boys and an excellent feast that Kim prepared including:

Chicken Tortilla Soup

7 Layer Dip

Chicken Taquitos

Broschetta

Guacamole

It was awesome, we followed dinner up with some games, Apples to Apples and then if you know the Sundstrom game of choice is always Pinnochle (which by the way Steve and I whooped Dave and Kim for the second time in a row).

And then for the treat of the night - homemade donuts and a movie.

Happy New Year to all!

As Steve and I drove home last night we reflected on our great year in 2008 some of the highlights included:

1) Celebrating Steve's Birthday in Boston

2) Steve and I celebrated our 2nd Wedding Anniversary

3) Steve and I were sealed in the Bountiful Temple

4) We went to China !!!

5) My Grandma Johnson came home from Australia

6) We celebrated two weddings, Matt & Jen / Jenni & Ray and one birth with Carson May and unfortunately one death with the passing of my aunt Pam

7) We remodeled our Kitchen

8) We went to Santa Barbara - and saw Duran Duran

9) Steve bought a Scooter

10) We went to South Dakota with both sets of parents

Trip to Durango, Colorado

Anyone who knows Jill is probably well aware that one of her greatest passions in life is to travel. Short road trips are just barely enough to quench the travel bug between what she calls a "real trip". So, as we're sitting at Jill's parents house on Christmas day, she mentions to her dad (Kent) that we were thinking about a short road trip somewhere as we both had about 11 days off of work. The next thing I know, Jill and Kent have started brainstorming a trip to Durango, CO to ride the Durango and Silverton train. This was probably Jill's fifth trip to Durango, as the Silver family loves to plan their trips around trains and train shows. I had rode on this train once in my youth on a trip with my
Order of the Arrow group, however I really didn't remember that trip too much. so, on the morning of December 27th, 2008, we picked up Jill's parents and started out on the road. As it had been snowing quite a bit over the Christmas holiday, the road conditions worsened the closer we got to our destination, so the drive took quite a bit longer than it normally would have. As we decended into Durango, the tempature gauge on our Jeep continued to decline until it bottomed out at about -3 degrees. I really didn't think it would register anything below zero and was a bit surprised to see it continue to fall. On Sunday we rode the train, although because of the weather conditions and there being too much ice on the rails, the train didn't quite make it to it's planned destination of Cascase Springs and instead stopped at Tacoma before heading back down the mountain. We spent the 2nd night in Moab and the next morning we wandered through Arches National Park for a while before heading home. Here's a slide show of some of the pictures from that trip.