Resolve Stuff

Every year I make New Years resolutions. Every year they are the same. "Become a better person" is usually the desired outcome. That encompasses the usual goals- starve myself into a size 6, spend 16 hours a day scrubbing my house with a toothbrush, become an expert on all things gospel related, I think you get my point. This year is no different, except I've resolved to use the gym membership I pay for every month along with my starving method. We'll see if that works.

Along with starving myself I have a few other things I want to work on. The biggest one is learning to forgive people in my life who have hurt me. I'm so serious about this one that I went and bought a book on it... I even read the first chapter. Then because I felt so forgiving I stopped so I wouldn't automatically be translated. Too many people would miss me. I'm not feeling so forgiving as of late though, I should probably start that book again. So beware all you wrong doers.... if all goes according to plan you'll be forgiven completely by the end of the year. Take THAT!

Another of my resolutions came from being completely inspired by this. I would never say this to her face but she's a wonderful person and a gifted blogger. (I like to think that because I blog stalk her daily that we are somehow friends and she wouldn't mind that I linked to her blog) This is a girl from my ward that I have never spoken to and randomly stumbled upon her blog. I've been completely sucked in by her open-ness and honesty. I'm addicted to reading her rants and raves. And my heart completely goes out to her. I've resolved to be more open about my life. If I can help someone by going through my life trials then it will be worth it. It's doing me no good to keep everything bottled inside. It's not healthy for my heart- and it's not helping me help you either. Like, did you know I can't have kids either? (have you been helped?)

So there you have it. Quite a bit different than hearing about my home decorating- but this is my first step to becoming "open" Dayna. I hope you like her. No worries though, you'll still get to read about my daily activities and home decorating attempts. I just have the "New Year- your life is going to change completely in the next 12 months" feeling that I get every January. Luckily I want you guys to be along for the whole ride.

Change Stuff

So here's another post made mostly for my mom. It sucks living so far away. Now when I need her to see something I have to go through the hassle of taking pictures and then sending them along- plus it never looks the same in pictures. Oh well.

So every year after Christmas I always get the decorating bug. Which basically means that I hate everything that I decorate with and want to start over from scratch. Since I'm not made entirely of money I have to make do with changing the furniture around. Lame replacement if you ask me.

So this weekend we recruited by brother in law Sam to come help us. I don't think he knew he was going to help us change furniture when he came over but he was a trooper. Plus he's a genius when it comes to TV stuff and he helped Jack hook up our surround sound. So see... he really was needed.

This was the final product of all our hard work. My mom gave us this super cute coffee table for Christmas. I absolutely love it! And I feel like it bumps my living room up a step in sophistication (as sophisticated as two college students can get at least).

Christmas Day Stuff

We had such a great Christmas Day. I told Jack weeks ago that I refused to have the ugly Christmas morning pictures that I have every year. You know the ones- my hair is sticking up in places I didn't even know hair could stick up, my mascara has formed dark black circles under my eyes, I have a huge red mark on the side of my face from sleeping on my hand.... you get the picture. It's awful. So this year I got up and showered and did my hair and makeup before we opened presents. Honestly- I'm glad I did. And I'm sure you, the viewers of these pictures, are glad I did as well.

Jack and I were so spoiled this year. We had so many presents under the tree. I guess that's one of the bad things about me starting my shopping well before Halloween- even when my money is spent well before Christmas I still feel like buying stuff. That's when "To Jack, From Dayna" turns into "To Ady's, From Santa" It's quite effective.

We got some great stuff this year. Some Highlights included a super cute red apron (which you can kind of see me wearing in one other pictures) and an adorable brown leather purse from Jack's mom. A sweet coffee table (black), a grill, and a pancake griddle from my Mama. Plus she gave me THE most amazing watch ever. She's so talented and crafty- she made it herself. Don't be jealous. Just ask her how much she would charge to do one for you. Jack gave me the greatest Cell Phone known to all mankind. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen and I'm still in shock that I actually get to talk on a cute phone instead of the cheap black piece of crap I own now. He also spoiled me with an amazing mustard yellow bag. SO cute! I love it. I got tons of movies, books, socks, and games. He really spoiled me this year. Jack got new basketball shoes, Calvin and Hobbes books, slippers, leather driving gloves, wii games, ps3 games and tickets to a Cleveland basketball game. Santa really spoiled us as well. He left a PS3 . Surround Sound System and a ton of movies.

After opening presents my family always has their big Christmas Breakfast with all my aunts, uncles and grandparents on my Dad's side. They eat Pancakes with Strawberries and whipped cream, hash browns, eggs, bacon, sausage, juice. Practically anything you could ever want in a breakfast. So this year we kept with that tradition and made the huge Wilkerson breakfast for just the two of us. So good! And we got to use our amazing new pancake griddle to cook it. Jack was like a little kid playing with his Christmas toy! For those of you who don't know- Jack is our official breakfast cook. I just help. No one can make breakfast like he can.

Our friend Higgs came over that afternoon because he was unable to go to Washington to be with his family due to work. So he came over for Christmas dinner. I made turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, yams, rolls, jello, corn, pie, and cheesecake. It was so amazing. The yams were by far my favorite part. I hate yams but my friend Margo made the best ones last week when we went to eat at her house and I HAD to make them for my dinner. They are so amazing. Luckily Jack hates yams too so I get the leftovers all to myself! Plus I got to use all the sweet table decor I bought weeks ago.

It was one of the best Christmases ever. Hope yours was equally amazing. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Stuff

Here it is December 26th and I get to recap for all of you the amazing Christmas we had yesterday. Luckily I took the day off work so I could sit around in my pajama's and blog about said amazing Christmas.

We'll start with Christmas Eve.

This is Jack and I's 4th Christmas together. We love being with our families on the holidays, but this year we decided to have Christmas together at our home. We wanted to start our own traditions and be able to enjoy this special time together.

Christmas eve we made a Gingerbread house. It's probably the ugliest one I've ever seen but it has character. Oh well, I'm big on tradition and this is one tradition Jack wanted to start. After making our house we opened the wicked sweet pajama's that Bernard left for us (Our Christmas Brownie is the one who leaves us our Christmas pajama's) Then we made nachos's with guacamole (a favorite around here) and snuggled up on the couch to watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. This is an Ady family favorite and I have grown to love it throughout the years. It just doesn't feel like Christmas until we get our Griswold fix. After the movie we read the Christmas story and tried to get some sleep. We were in bed well before 9pm. I was in bed because I had a nasty head cold and just wanted to sleep. Jack was in bed because he knew the sooner he fell asleep the sooner Christmas would come. 5 hours later he finally dozed off and we woke up promptly at 6am to open presents.

Christmas morning was great... so great in fact that I believe it deserves a blog post of it's own!

Winning Stuff

And the winner is.... US! Jack and I kicked trash (I can totally trash talk AFTER I win right...) at our family Biggest Loser challenge. Jack had a whopping 24 pound loss and I trailed slightly behind him with a 17 pound loss. For all of you non-math-whizzes- that's 41 pounds for our team. We're pretty stoked. And for those of you wondering, yes, we are practically skin and bones. Now we have two weeks off and then we're starting another competition with the Tryon's. America's Next Top Sexy Skinny Utah Models here we come!

Party Stuff

This last weekend we headed back to Duchesne for the Wilkerson family Christmas party. Of course it's been like 76 degrees for the past 2 weeks and then the one weekend we want to drive back home it decides to dump snow on us. Lovely. Jack says the roads "weren't too bad" but unfortunately I have my mama's random fear of driving in any road condition and so I was freaked out the entire way home. But we made it. Alive. Safe. Etc.

It was so much fun to get together with everyone. It was my parents, all the kids and their spouses (there are two Wilkerson spouses now... they even have their own designated seating at family events). We ate stuffed potatoes, played hilarious Christmas games, and exchanged sibling gifts. It was SO much fun.

Jack and I got a sweet Scene It game from Todd and Dana and a magazine subscription. I even beat Jack for the FIRST time when we played Scene It. He's a little upset.

We gave my parents their presents too. This year the boys are taking Dad to a Jazz game the first part of January and the girls got my mom a Gift Certificate for Hollow Moon so we can all go eat together and have craft day! We're pretty stoked. It rocks giving your parents presents that you get to enjoy too!

It was a perfect addition to our annual Holiday festivities and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Lights Stuff

This weekend we met up with Jack's family in Salt Lake to see the lights on Temple Square and have dinner. Doug and Karen were already there Christmas shopping so Adam and Angeline drove down from Logan and Jack and I and Sam and Tiffany drove up from Orem. It was fun for all of us to get together and do something Christmasy before the holidays.

Ironically my brother Todd was also there with his in-laws so I got to see and talk to him for a bit.

After we walked around Temple Square for a while we stopped in Midvale at Buca di Beppo for dinner. It was so much fun. Their Chicken Parmigiana is SO good! It's always fun to get together with family.

Brownie Stuff

One of my favorite family traditions came to live with us a few days ago. His name is Bernard. He's the special "Christmas Brownie" (tiny elf like creature) who lives with us from Thanksgiving until Christmas. He leaves all sorts of goodies while we are sleeping- but only if we're good. Then he reports back to Santa on our behavior.

Bernard came to live with us the year Jack and I got married. Jack mocks me for carrying on a tradition totally intended for children while we are currently childless... but tradition is important. (isn't it Tryon?) So here he lives. Take a peak at these sweet Christmas Mugs he left us the other day. Isn't he a sweetheart!

*The Christmas Brownie is a tradition that the Wilkerson's have had for years. My parent's currently house a Brownie name Darby O'Dee. My Dad grew up with a brownie and all his brothers families house Brownies as well. Don't you think YOUR family needs a Brownie too?

Friend Stuff

There are few things better than good food, the movie PS I Love You, and a best friend. Combine all three and you get December's edition of girls night with Dayna and Margo.

I love having a married friend so close. It's one of my favorite things in the world. We have the occasional Sunday Dinner together, Holiday Parties, Girls Nights, "I need to use Margo's sewing machine" days. It's great. I just wish she lived a little closer so she could be my "I need sugar" go to girl!

I love so much about this girl. I love that no matter how long it's been since we've talked or seen each other we still know we're friends. She's so low maintenance. It's wonderful. I love that we know so much about each other. We already know how the other feels about things before they even say it. She's so supportive of everything I do. She was the first one I called the night Jack proposed. I woke her up in the middle of the night and then drove directly to her house. (I was on my way home from Jacks house- 20 minutes away from mine) She met me in her driveway wearing pajamas and sexy slipper and we hugged and jumped up and down and then she went back to bed and I drove home. That's the type of friends we are.

So Margo and I have this monthly traditional Girls Night. We eat food, catch up, watch movies, etc. It's great. Yesterday was my turn to host Girls Night. We ate chicken pita's, oriental salad, and fresh fruit and then watched PS I Love You and bawled. It was great. Haven't seen PS I Love You? Go watch it. Now. Turn off the computer. Buy the movie (cuz you'll want it for future "I need a good cry" days as well). And get ready to laugh, cry, smile, cringe- this movie is a hardcore mixture of emotions. It's great!

Better yet, get together with your married friend down the street and treat yourselves to your own Girls Night.

Christmas Stuff

I've been waiting for this time of the year for months now (literally). The time when I could pull out the 4 boxes of Christmas Decor that I have accumulated over the years. The time when I could try and fit said 4 boxes of Decor into my tiny living room. The time when I could start buying presents without hearing Jack tell me it's too early. The time when I could start playing Christmas music without hearing Jack complain. The time when I could drive home from work and check out the christmas lights of all the little families that live in my neighborhood. The time when I could buy egg nog and hot chocolate. The time when I could watch Christmas movies and snuggle with my hubby while the lights blink on the tree. Ah! Bliss.

Camera Stuff

A few days ago I said goodbye to my camera. It's edges that were being held together by cheap duct tape. The scratches that adorned it's 4 inch circumference. It really was a piece of crap. I hate it. Then I welcomed my new shiny red camera into my home with open arms. I loved it so much from the very begining that I even bought it a handy little camera case. Now it's snuggled nicely into it's home that I call my purse. Ready to snap pictures of smiling faces whenever I call upon it. Of course I can only take two at a time. It's still learning you know. But once I buy it a snazzy memory stick it will be up and working. Now I just have to decide what to take picture of first.

Walking Stuff

So this weekend Jack and I headed back to the basin for some quality family time. We split up for the day so Jack could go visit his family and I could visit mine. Me and my mom and sisters spent all day making jewelry and laughing and talking... by the way did anyone realize that Halle is 11? I didn't.

I went and saw Kimberly and Cameron perform in Guys and Dolls. How adorable. They are by far the cutest most adorable actors in all of Duchesne. yay for them!

Todd and Dana gave me a tour of their house they are buying. It's adorable and I'm so jealous they get to have a home. But I'm super happy for them.

It was a quick trip. It made me miss my family and wish I lived closer. Luckily we get to go back in a couple days for Thanksgiving.

Here's an adorable picture of Jack and I. We went for a walk on the Provo River trail. It was such a gorgeous day- probably one of the last snowless days we'll have for a few months. We took it with Jacks phone so don't judge the quality.

So here's a couple Good News moments... Jack and I fully intend to buy a camera this weekend. YAY! I can finally take pictures of useless crap and post them on my blog again. Sweet! Just in time for the holidays. I also hung my Christmas wreath on the front door. It's adorable. I get to go home for Thanksgiving and eat my mom's food. Jack and I are going to see the Christmas Lights on Temple square in a few weeks. We are spending Christmas in Orem with just the two of us. See all the fun posts you get to look forward to in the coming weeks. Lucky readers!

Christmas Stuff

Just a quick FYI this blog is mainly for my mom. Everyone is welcome to read it but I basically just need my mom to see all my loot and give me the stamp of approval. Ignore this post if it becomes too boring.

It is physically impossible for me to be any more excited for Christmas than I already am. Jack and I have been slowly gathering all the things we need to make this Christmas perfect, new dinnerware for our formal Christmas dinner, Christmas decorations, the perfect wrapping paper, I think you get the drift.

So yesterday we spent the day shopping for cloth napkins and napkin rings, tree decorations, gift wrapping, and cups. Jack actually has immaculate taste when it comes to these kinds of things. Of course he is manly and would much rather have been looking at guitars or video games but he was a good sport and let me have the entire day to shop for girly things. He actually did pick out most of the goods we found (plates, tree decorations, napkin rings, wrapping paper).

I just barely finished wrapping Christmas presents. We have 3 already wrapped and ready to deliver. For those of you still wondering.. yep I am my mama's daughter. (she obsessed with Christmas as well)

Ya'll better get on the ball. There's only 46 shopping days left till Christmas.

Gym Stuff

Jack and I are the proud new owners of a 24 hour Gym Membership. So far we have walked a whole 25 minutes on their treadmills and swam 10 laps in their Olympic size pool. I can feel the pounds dripping off of me.

A few weeks ago we started a "Biggest Loser" contest with Jacks family. We weigh in every Thursday and everyone sends the numbers to me and I have a handy dandy blog that keeps track of everyone's weight loss. So far Jack and I are in second place with 21 pounds lost. I'm pretty proud actually. We've done pretty well with portion sizing and we've been running on the outside track at the Jr. High near our house. Unfortunately it's getting too cold to run outside so we resorted to the gym. Hopefully that will be the boost we need to kick it into 1st place. Wish us luck!

Halloween Stuff

Halloween is not a big holiday in our family. Jack usually sits around and watches basketball and I play on the computer and hand out candy. It's worked in the past. But this year our adorable friends the Abbotts (how cute is that?!?) threw a party- so we threw caution to the wind and partied it up like rock stars (very mellow rock stars mind you) Margo out did herself with the food and decorations and was the cutest bestest hostess ever. We had so much fun. It was nice to get together with a bunch of people we didn't know and just be able to laugh and have fun. Thanks Margo and Tim for a great night! We love you guys! We took some pictures when we got home. My camera is still suffering and won't stay on for long so we had to snap these pictures fast, but we did dress up and we have pictures to prove it. Jack was a "used car salesman" (I like to think of him working at a KIA (random plug) dealership) and I was his knocked up housewife- think the parents off Matilda, except the mom wasn't preggers. And neither am I... but I want to be after lugging around a pillow for the last 3 hours. Is that weird. Okay I'm off topic....

Joan Stuff

NBA season started tonight. Which means I've lost my husband until next June. Bummer. He promised me a Jamba Juice if I leave him alone tonight though- and who can pass that up. So I'm blogging.

I've really been missing Joan lately (my friend whose husband got into George Washing Law School *YAY* but then decided to move her across the entire country and leave me stranded all alone and friendless and sad). So I decided to do a little reminiscing about our friendship and good times.

This is Joan (and her hubby Tryon (aka Stephen) but ignore him for the post's sake- if you can, I know he is dashingly handsome.) We met through our husbands- they were companions on their mission. I remember our first double date together was a picnic up at Bridal Veil falls. It was casual and fun. We got along well enough. She seemed nice.

A couple weeks later they asked us if we wanted to go camping for the weekend with them. It was awful! Everything that could suck did (food, sleeping, driving, etc) Later Joan admitted to me she wasn't excited to go camping with us at all. She didn't think we had anything in common and we could only listen to mission talk for so long before we all ran out of things to say. Somehow we survived the trip and weirdly enough we actually hung out again. I honestly don't remember why.

The first time I knew Joan and I would be friends we were in my car driving back from Salt Lake. Jack and I had gone up there to hang out with the Tryons for the morning. We ran out of things to do so we all decided to go to Provo and make dinner together. Jack quickly volunteered the girls to ride in one car and the boys in another. I remember being SO mad at him. How could he force me to drive 30 minutes with a girl I hardly knew. I hate awkward silence and I had nothing of interest to say. Ironically enough we talked the whole way home. I don't even remember what we talked about, but it was like talking with an old friend. At one point she turned to me and said "you are so easy to talk to" not a very significant phrase I know but I knew from then on we would be close.

And we were. It was common knowledge between the 4 of us that we would hang out every weekend. We were not allowed to make other plans. (My family can attest to this... they often heard the phrase "I can't, we're hanging out with the Tryons) It didn't matter what we did or even if we had a plan, but we knew we would do it together. We saw movies together, went on road trips to Vegas and Wendover, went to Lagoon, had parties, sleepovers, played dungeons and dragons, had BBQs, played video games, sometimes we would just sit at home and talk.

I love Joan for so many reasons. One of the big reasons is because she always knew what to say without saying anything. I remember one time in particular I was out of town for the day and she was at my house when I got home. I had been having a really rough day and had cried the whole way home. When I walked through the door she stood up and gave me a hug. I don't think we ever really talked about what had happened that day. We didn't have to. She didn't want to know all the nitty gritty details. She just knew that I needed her. And she was there.

Joan had a way of making me feel like I was on top of the world. I had forgotten how important friends were before I met her. She made me feel like I was more than just a wife. I felt fun again. I felt like I was worth knowing again. She'll never know how much her friendship changed me. I truly feel like I am a better person for knowing her.

I love you Joan. I hope you know. Don't forget you still have to be friends with me for 3 more years. I have your washer.

Concert Stuff

Because of Jacks horribly amazing job (horrible because it drains the life out of Jack and amazing because it allows me to take advantage of all sorts of free stuff) we were able to go to a Goo Goo Dolls concert in Salt Lake last night.


It was SO incredibly amazing. I can't even begin to blog about it's awesomeness. It was held as the final shebang for the Nuskin Convention. So the Salt Palace was full of old people who didn't appreciate the music and young people (employees like us) who couldn't get enough of it. It was a small concert which gave us the opportunity to be right up close to the stage. We started in the very back but because all the old people kept leaving we ended up incredibly close. And that is how we got such amazing pictures....

Obama Stuff

For the past few weeks I've been reading and hearing a lot from the anti-LDS Obama Supporters. People who are offended that an actual member of the LDS church could be an Obama Supporter. I've heard it from family members, during testimony meeting, blogs etc. I felt like it was time I stood up and defended myself and my decision to vote for Obama during this election. I asked Jack to guest post on my blog for this sole purpose.

First of all, the Church has deliberately never endorsed a party and it never will. It is a blatant mistake to think that the church sides with the republicans based on only two issues that Presidents have little to no influence over.

Abortion. President Bush has been "pro-life" as it's called, but because the US constitution is about protecting people's freedoms, he hasn't reduced abortion rates at all. In fact, abortion rates are the highest they've ever been, since the Republicans in power are against sexual education for high school students, which is the number one deterrent of unplanned pregnancies.

As for Senator Obama's thoughts on abortion, here's what he said in the last presidential debate:"The last point I want to make on the issue of abortion. This is an issue that -- look, it divides us. And in some ways, it may be difficult to reconcile the two views. But there surely is some common ground when both those who believe in choice and those who are opposed to abortion can come together and say, we should try to prevent unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth, communicating that sexuality is sacred and that they should not be engaged in cavalier activity, and providing options for adoption, and helping single mothers if they want to choose to keep the baby.Those are all things that we put in the Democratic platform for the first time this year, and I think that's where we can find some common ground, because nobody's pro-abortion. I think it's always a tragic situation."

The other reason why many LDS members struggle with the idea of electing a Democratic president is the party's view on gay marriage. They voted for Bush 8 and 4 years ago under his promise to define marriage in the constitution as between a man and a woman. He didn't. In fact, there are more gay marriages taking place in the US than ever before. Here's the problem. The real reason that we think gay marriage is wrong is because our loving, perfect, and all knowing Father in heaven told us so. If you've come up with another reason, it's not God's reason, it's yours, and it's probably crap. That's why the US Supreme court will never outlaw gay marriage.

The premise that many citizens have this faith and so they want their religious beliefs to become the law will never pass in a nation that has separation of church and state. It would be unconstitutional as well as in opposition to the 12th article of faith, in which we are subject to the law. In essence, we can fight against it, but I promise that gay marriage will become more and more prevalent. The responsibility lies with parents to teach their children the values that they believe in.

As Senator Obama said, "But there's one last ingredient that I just want to mention, and that's parents. We can't do it just in the schools. Parents are going to have to show more responsibility. They've got to turn off the TV set, put away the video games, and, finally, start instilling that thirst for knowledge that our children need."

I'm sure it's a surprise to many of you that Barack Obama, a Christian man, has opposed gay marriage. I think you would be hard pressed to convince someone from another country that the Republican party, who favors free markets and large corporations, and ignores the poor, needy and the sick, that they have anything to do with any Christian group.

The reason Jesus made an impact on the whole world during his time on earth is not only because of the atonement. It was because He said things that no one had ever said before. He said that we are our brothers keeper, that we should love our enemies. He said the new commandment was to LOVE ONE ANOTHER! How have we become pro-war and still think of ourselves as Christians? The Republican base has racists and hateful tendencies towards Muslims, yet Jesus Himself was from the middle east.

I'm not saying that the Democrats are innocent by any means. In fact, I think that political parties serve only to divide America. I am saying that to vote Republican based solely on the premise that your are LDS is an opinion formed without thinking. On a side note, I am very disappointed in the LDS people I know who actually endorsed Mitt Romney. This guy was a slime ball. He had the most dishonest campaign of anyone in either party during the primaries. He has no convictions that he'll stick to. For all the complaining that I heard from people about how some Americans wouldn't vote for Romney because he was a Mormon, there is equal hypocrisy in voting for someone merely because he is a Mormon.

I know lot's of LDS people who are dishonest, immoral jerks, and you probably do too. Romney is not excused from that list because of his religion, and I hope that none of you would make that hypocritical mistake.

I'm not telling you that you need to vote for Barack Obama. I'm telling you that God sent us to earth to make choices, and if you vote without thinking and choosing, you're wasting that chance. - Jack Ady October 2008

And there you have it. I am extremely grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who gave me the right to choose. I plan on using that right on November 4th. I hope you will too.

Love Stuff

Three years ago the man of my dreams held my hand as we walked out of the Salt Lake Temple. Tonight that same man peeked out the front door waiting for me to come home from work, he stood in the middle of the living room with a dozen roses and welcomed me home with a kiss that took my breath away, he waited patiently as I freshened up and then he took my hand again and I knew I couldn't have picked a greater guy to hold hands with for the rest of eternity.
I love you Jack.
Happy Anniversary.