Speechless...

I have so much to say, I don't know where to begin. As Fraulein Maria would say (sing) "Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start."

Kade and I are doing pretty well! In April we had our 5 year anniversary, and to celebrate, we went to see Brian Regan at Tuachan (St. George) and spent the rest of the weekend in Las Vegas. Kade has about 970 hours out of the 1000 needed before he can start putting out his application. SO CLOSE!!! I have been moved up to the Murray office to be the HR rep for all HR needs there. It's pretty exciting most of the time, while sometimes I think to myself "Did you really just do that?!?", and the other times I'm thinking "what the crap did I get myself into???" Life has been pretty good!

I titled this entry "Speechless" because I have found myself to be so when it comes to blogging. I'm asked a lot if I'm ever going to update our blog, but I find myself struggling to do so for a few reasons. I read a lot of people's blogs and for the most part enjoy reading what they are up to, and what they are thinking and feeling. I have not been of the mindset that this is something I can share all that on. I have been of the mindset that this is more for updating readers on what Kade and I are doing with our lives. Since our lives have been primarily plugging along, there's not too much to say that most people don't know. We go to work, come home, go to bed and get up and start all over. That has a negative connotation to it, but I don't mean it that way. That's just basically what we do. We have had some adventures in there, but I'm usually too busy having the adventure to worry about blogging about it. I was actually talking to someone about this very thing, and she agreed with me, that there really isn't much to talk about, unless you have kids! She has two adorable little girls and is constantly updating with funny things. I however do not have kids, and it would be weird if I posted pictures of Kade in the tub... ;) But I think the biggest reason I haven't been one to share what's on my mind is for fear of offending people. I don't think I am an offensive person, or I try not to be anyway, but somehow I manage to offend. Honestly though, I think if you hang out with anyone long enough, they will find a way of being offensive to you, or to someone around you. It's part of being human. The whole point of sharing this is that I have recently been given a new perspective. It's information I've known for years, but I've had an experience that just really drove it home for me. I'm not responsible for ANYONE'S feelings but my own. We cannot control they way others perceive us, our words or our actions. All we can do is our best and keep going from there. If others choose to be offended, that is their choice, and they have that right. My dad likes to say that they best way to get revenge is to live a good life. As harsh as that sounds, I know what he's saying. Basically it doesn't do me any good to fret about it, so go on and live my life. So that's what I'm working on. Doing and saying things (or not doing and saying things) because I want to do or say them, or because it's the right thing to do or say. If you found this offensive, TOO BAD!!! :D

On a totally different subject, tomorrow is Memorial Day. My heart is full of gratitude to those selfless men and women that risk everything to protect our freedom and way of life. There are no words that can properly thank you for all you do. You are all true hero's in my eyes and will always be a shining example of selfless sacrifice. Thank you. God Bless You.

I'm finally elaborating!! 4 months later... ;)

So I figured I should just get the elaboration done and then hopefully I will be better at this. In order to move this along, I'm just going to show pictures. So here we go!

Mountain Biking Adventures

This is what happens when Kade flies over the handle bars of his mountain bike!

(Notice the smile on his face...)

And this is what happens to Megan when she attempts anything of the athletic nature!

I'm so pathetic...

Salmon River

The whole gang

Kade sporting the bird hat!

The 3 generations of important men in my life.

Kade, my Grandpa and my dad way off in the distance.

(the guy in the shorts is my sister's father in law)

Kade didn't catch any fish, but he finally caught a crawdad!

What a beautiful place to try out fly fishing

Sadie

I'm still not very good at getting current pics of this beautiful little girl. She's even more cute now that she is 6 months old. :)

Our fall drive

So there is a visual tour of our summer/fall activities minus our FANTASTIC trip to Mexico. That will have to be a post all by itself. There are just too many great pics.

A quick catch up of the other things I wrote about. Kade's location has picked up over the last little while. He is now around the 900 hour mark! YAY!!! So close! My company recovered and we are all back to "normal" now. I finished my PHR class in November and took the certification test in January which I PASSED!!! What that means now is that I'm certified in Human Resources. Basically I have a piece of paper that says I know what I'm talking about, and I'll hopefully be able to get good HR jobs where ever we end up.

Well there you have it! We're just pluggin' away. Hopefully now that I've done that, I'll be better at blogging more frequently. Wish me luck!

We're not dead!

Sorry for the long delay. It has been an interesting summer, full of highs and lows and different kinds of adventures. I'll do a quick run through, and then elaborate.
Kade moved home and has taken over as the Director of Operations in the West Jordan location. It's still a hard move because they aren't as busy in this location as they were when he was in Idaho, so it's taking longer to get his 1000 hours. It is, however, REALLY nice being a married couple again.
Shortly after he moved home we received an offer on our condo that was actually more than we were selling for! We sold and actually made money on it!! So we have been condo-less since mid May, and have been really fortunate to be staying with my parents while paying down other debt.
Kade began mountain biking with his brothers this summer. They have had some pretty fun adventures, but unfortunately we don't have many pictures. I actually only have one of Kade, but that will come later when I elaborate. We also decided to get a bike for me this summer so I could attempt to keep up. We have pictures to show how that didn't work out so well for me. Never-the-less I have continued to try, and will keep trying for some bizarre reason called love.... :)
Over the 4th of July weekend we went to the Salmon River. As always, we had a FANTASTIC time! We had some extra people there that only added to the fun, and in some cases, created more of an adventure than planned.
In August we were fortunate enough to go to Akumal, Mexico with Adrienne, Travis and some of Travis' family. What an amazing and much needed vacation! Thank you Adrienne and Travis for putting that together for all of us!!! We have a TON of pictures, so the hard part of telling that story is going to be picking out which ones to post.
On August 29th my baby sister gave birth to the most beautiful baby girl! This is the only picture I'm posting this go round because she's so cute!! That, and it's easier to just post the one pic and keep this post shorter.

Welcome Sadie Renee Ostler! This is an old picture, but it's a good one!!
After vacation and Sadie's birth, things got stressful for us! Kade has had ups and downs at work thinking he's going to get more students, then finding out they aren't able to get all the funding required. He is, luckily, busy enough that he is getting hours and moving toward that all important 1000. My company had an accident that almost cost us our jobs, but instead required us to work insanely long hours. Given the situation, I was happy to work those hours! I also started a PHR (Professional of Human Resources) class so I've been pretty busy with that.
With all the insanity we have had this fall, we have also been able to take some time to enjoy this BEAUTIFUL fall weather! I have been amazed at what a great season autumn has been this year. I try to make sure that Kade and I take a drive through the mountains in the fall to see the leaves, and to just get out of the city for a few hours. We were able to get about half way then had to turn around, but I have some pretty pictures from that.
Well, there is the quick run through. Surprisingly it took me longer to get that all put together than I thought, so I'm going to have to elaborate at another time. I hope this gave you an idea of the few adventures we've had this summer. I have to admit, I'm not quite ready for the holidays to be just around the corner!

The Excuse........

I've been resting.... ;)

Home Again Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Surprise, Surprise!!!! Kade has moved home! We found out a week ago today that the school Kade instructs for needed him in the Salt Lake #2 location as the new Director of Operations. Not only did they need him, but they needed him there today! So Friday night I went back up to Idaho to pack up the room he has been staying in and brought everything back down. Needless to say last week was an interesting one. Kade has been torn about this move. He is, of course, happy to be back with me, our dog and all of his friends and family. However, there has been a lot more work in Idaho Falls then there has been at this location, and the most important thing for a pilot is to get that first 1000 hours. Plus Kade has made it through the coldest winter he has ever experienced, and now that it's warming up he was looking forward to all the outdoor activities he had been hearing about. We are sure that in the end this will be a blessing in disguise, we are just anxious to see what that will be. I tease him that this has happened so that we can learn how to be married again. Ha ha!


Before I go any further, I need to say a HUGE thank you to my dad and Ramona. They have been so willing to help both Kade and I throughout this whole situation. Because Kade and I are still trying to get rid of our condo they have been kind enough to allow Kade to move in to their house as well. That way our condo will remain in pristine condition whenever someone wants to walk through. So THANK YOU! We love you!

Anyway, before we packed Kade up and made the move to Utah we got to do one of the activities he has been looking forward to...rockclimbing. Of all things for Kade to want to do. He's terrified of heights! It made for some pretty funny pictures.

Kade starting out on his journey

Not so sure about this choice of activities...

Being rescued by Dave whose not roped up!

A few more encouraging words from his friend Dave

Look at my brave man swinging on a rope while his friend climbs the treacherous way down... The good thing is that Kade knows he deserves to be teased about this little episode!

Kolton tests out the waters... looks comfortable, huh?!

Kolton passing Kade's courageous mark

And true to Gourley tradition, a challenge has been issued... Which brother will prevail?

Uh oh, here comes Kade!

That's right! Passing up Kolton! Go Baby!

This looks like a good place to stop.

But Kolton doesn't give up that easily. He beats Kade by only a few feet. Good job Kolt!

You couldn't tell by the climbing pictures, but it was INCREDIBLY WINDY!!

Our hike back down. You see that little red van? That's where we have to go. Good thing we're hard core adventure seeking individuals....... right!

We finished up our thrill seeking for this trip up to Idaho, so it was time to pack up and say goodbye. I have to admit, we fit a lot more stuff in that one room than either one of us thought possible. But one of the hardest parts of this weekend was Kade saying "see ya" to his wonderful roommates. Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa Wheeler! We love you so much and are so grateful for the continuing love and support you have given to us, and especially Kade. He got a little teary eyed saying farewell. Thank you for being so willing to take him in for so long, and for letting him know that he is welcome back at any time. That his room will be waiting. Thank you for being such a wonderful example of kindness and generosity. And thank you for being so inspiring to everyone who knows you. We love you!

So that is our new adventure. Thoughts and prayers on Kade's behalf would be very appreciated! He is nervous about this new job and what it holds for us. It is going to be a trial in and of itself getting used to this new situation. As always, thank you for reading!

Love, Kade and Megan

Precious Merceydez

For those of you that may or may not have heard, our sweet little niece passed away on Sunday March 15, 2009.

Please click here for information regarding funeral arrangements

Any and all that were touched by this sweet little spirit are invited to attend a celebration of her life.

Thank you!

Has it been 2 months???

So how much of a slacker am I? I'm sorry I'm so bad at keeping up with this. I have to admit though, it's been a pretty slow 2 months. As I said before, I moved in with my parents while we are trying to sell our condo. It's actually pretty nice living with them. It's nice to have people there when I come home at night. They are pretty great roommates too. Kade is still with my grandparents who are ever so kind and patient with us and our situation. We actually had someone interested in our condo about a week ago, but later found out that they were thinking they would be able to get a condo in this area for $100,000. I had to chuckle to myself when I found that out. Even though we are in a bad sellers market, it's not THAT bad!

January was a fairly slow month, except for a couple events. My company party was on the 9th and was a total blast! I was pretty excited about it because I'm the one that planned it. My boss told me about this company called Casino Parties of Utah that comes in a creates a casino style party for your event. So I made all the arrangements and planned the evening and from what everyone told me, it was "the best company party they had ever been to!" That opinion was even shared by people that were the guests of our employees! I was pretty excited about the outcome. It's a great feeling to know that people enjoyed something that you worked so hard to put together. The best part was that Kade was able to come down for the party. He loves to gamble and this was a fantastic way for him to do it that didn't cost me any money. ;)

The last weekend of January was pretty fun. Kody was able to come to Idaho and visit Kade with me. Kade was able to take Kody up in a helicopter and give Kody the chance to take controls. Here are some pics of their adventure:

Pre-flight stuff

Kody gets hands on!

Two big boys, One small chopper!

This 44 looks a little more cozy for men of this size.

How hot is Kody in these foggles???

Kody said going up was AWESOME!! Hopefully we'll be able to take the rest of Kade's family up soon.

Two weeks later was Valentines Day. I decided to get a hotel room for the night. We have discovered that while we love and are so appreciative of what my grandparents and parents are doing to help us out, it's nice to have our own little space every once in a while. It was a pretty nice weekend! Kade worked for a while during the day, which is good because it gave me time to run errands and visit with my grandparents. Kade and I actually went to Schlotzsky's for dinner instead of fighting huge crowds and horrendously long wait times. It was great because we walked into an empty restaurant and were alone pretty much the whole time. It was a nice relaxing weekend!

This weekend Kade came home. He had a dentist appointment and his family had tickets to the Draper Temple open house. Kade "got to" help my dad change one of the front axles on the jeep on Friday before his appointment and then "got to" clean up the dog poop in the backyard. How lucky is he?!?! Kade was really good about it though. He wants to help when he's able to, and this weekend was the perfect time. Unfortunately we have learned that Jeep actually does stand for "Just Empty Every Pocket"! On our way up to the open house the drive shaft broke again. We took a chance on a used part because it's about $200 to $300 cheaper than a new "refurbished" part and lost. We'll be able to fix it, it's just more annoying than anything. I was actually laughing about it when I was talking to my family, so it's not the worst thing. My dad was very nice and brought us our other car so we could make it to the open house. We went to dinner at the Bombay House later that night and Kade convinced them to make his food nuclear hot. Believe me, I tried it.... Don't ask why, I'm still trying to figure that out. I think I'm still trying to impress him.

That's the news for the Gourley's. Not too much going on. Just making it through the time apart, looking forward to the time together. I will try to update this more often! Until then, enjoy yourself!