Mare's 20th Birthday!

On June 14th, it was my birthday! Woo-hoo! Finally out of the teenage years and on to the 20's! It was a very nice birthday. I got lots of neat stuff! From Cailin, Granny Carmel, and Kristen I got a new Nikon Cool Pix Camera which I absolutely love and which is thanks to all the pictures and videos you are about to see! I also got the instyler from my mama, money from other family members, and the America's next top model game from Jeff, Kyle, and Melanie. This is "The Annual Birthday Picture". I took it real quick, so that's why it's not so great....

This is the cake that my mom made for me, Melanie, and Kyle for our Linnell Family Birthday party. I wanted ice cream sandwiches, and kyle wanted cake, and melanie only wanted ice cream... So, this was Julie Brown's compromise! I think she did a pretty swell job actually!

Above is me opening my presents :) You should all feel so priveledged that you get to share this moment with me!

All in all it was a pretty great birthday! I also went out to dinner with Kissy to Wingers and we also hit up the Red Robin. Unfortunately, it was also my first birthday that I have ever had to work. Lucky for me though, work remembered it was my birthday and gave me some balloons! I guess this is real life in the working world...

Happy 20th Birthday to Me!

Cybersource/Authorize.net

About a month ago I started a new job at Cybersource. Our family friend Jeff was able to help get me this job because he is the Director of the Customer Support. My job title is Customer Support Representative for Authorize.net. We are a payment gateway for companies and Merchant Service Providers. Basically, we are the middle man between small busniess owners, and the big guys. So far the job has been very good and I like it a lot. I have met a lot of new friends. It is a very nice and laid back enviornment. The company also takes very good care of their employees. Here are some of the benefits I get from working here:

• They have a free catered breakfast every Friday for all of us


• There is all you can drink free soda and juice


• They do fun little Customer Support Parties (The upcoming ones are a trip to Boondocks as a company and Lagoon Day)


• The pay is decent (more than I was making working at 9-1-1)


• They have full benefits

I have caught on to the job fairly fast. Last week I was at the top of my group in doing chats and emails. This week we started phones, but have not been given an update on where we rank. I hope to be a lasting employee for this company as it has so much to offer and seems to be something I like to do. Hooray for a new job!

Court Trial 6/8/2010

The trial for my Fathers court case of Negligent Homicide for the car accident was yesterday. The trail was supposed to last up to 2 days approximately 9am-4pm each day. Fortunately and Unfortunately it only lasted from 9am-about 130pm yesterday. The reason being that the boys Lawyer found a law that states you cannot draw blood on the scene of an accident without actual proof, or probable cause. So, since Jordan (the boy who hit my father) was not acting as if he was impaired or under any form of influence, the law states the officers were not able to take his blood. The judge passed this act, regardless of the fact that Jordan gave consent to have his blood drawn and since it was South Jordan's first death by accident case, the officers were just trying to cover all bases.
Since the judge passed this act, our case and trial was basically shot because all of our evidence came from the metabolite that was found in his blood from the blood test. We were given the option to dismiss court so our attorneys could do more research on this law and find more evidence to win the Negligent Homicide and come back in another 2-3 months for another trial. That was Option 1. Option 2 was to see if Jordan would plead guilty to the DUI and the improper look out charges. If he were to plea guilty, the trial would end, he would be sentenced, and we would be done. If he plead not guilt, another option was to carry on with the trial as planned, just without all of our evidence and winning points about the Negligent Homicide with the results from the drug test.
My mom and all of our family agreed that we all were ready to be done with it. We all were ready to be done with the legal proceedings of the case and were just ready to move on. So our attorneys went and gave Option 2 to Jordan. To all of our amazement, and an answer to our prayers, Jordan plead guilty to the DUI and Improper lookout. In doing so, he was sentenced to 102 hours of Community service, a psych test, and some form of counseling because the Judge was concerned about his safety and his psychological mind from the accident and from his continuation to do drugs. He needs to check up I beileve bik-weekly with his Probation officer for random drug testing and counseling. The Judge allowed him to use half of his community service hours, 52 hours, to be used for these meetings and for the check ups Jordan will have with the judge. The only 52 will have to be done directly to the community.
My grandma Brown, my mom, and I were all able to read our letters to Jordan. Must to my amazement, I found great closure in doing so. From the court case and experience yesterday, I feel like a weight has been lifted and that I am able to finally move on from that hurdle. I am grateful for all of the legal procedeeings to be done with. Now hopefully my family will be able to live our lives without Jordans name and the accident consantly on our minds.

Lagoon

On friday I went to Lagoon with the boys. It was a fun day and I finally got to
go on Wicked, which lives up to the hype. The rides still aren't as exciting as
Six Flags or even Knotts Berry Farm, but when you are here in Utah it is a great way to spend the day.
This is a few pictures of Brenton, Tom, Jesse and Branden playing the 3 point shoot out game. Jesse was the first to beat the high score of 9 by one point. After that Brenton and Tom couldn't let Jesse, who has a dislocated thumb, show them up! Brenton then tied the high score.

Next Shelbey, and the guys went on Sky Coaster which is like bungee jumping and hang gliding at the same time.

The apartment

Maren and I decided we were 20 and it was time to move out and do our own thing.We found a four bedroom apartment that was in the basement in a house. We thought this would be perfect since it was our first time being moved out and it was still close to home. We moved into this apartment on April 15 with Chauntay and Chantell. On our first weekend there the tenat upstairs came down at 3 in the morning and woke us up to tell us we were being too loud! So sunday we were given a notice of warning of eviction because we were in "violation" of our lease. The rule we had supposedly broken was not even in place until after we had recieved this notice. So we went on with our lives and were quiet and respectful to the family upstairs, which is more than I can say for them. We would wake up to Mickey Mouse Club House at 8 in the morning, walking, hear their phone calls on speaker phone, hear their arguments, smell whatever they were cooking and they also enjoyed doing laundry at midnight. I don't know if they thought the washer would drown out the noise they were hearing, but it sure wasn't quiet. We expected to be able to hear the family above us, we did not have any crazy expectaions that they would be silent but that is what was expected from us, to not hear any noise. We were both trying to lead completely different lifestyles under the same roof. Low and behold, this was not successful and when Shane tried to tell us that we not only had to be quiet at 9:30 on weekdays and 10:30 on weekends, that we had to call if we wanted to have someone over and if they drove they had to park a block away where there weren't any houses. Is he crazy?? We didn't have these rules in our own homes and we lived there for free! So when he gave us the option to be out and get our deposit back we jumped at it. I can admit that things probably calmed way down since we moved in, it had been under a month we all needed an adjustment, and we probably could have given it a little bit longer for him to understand that we are adults and we expected to be able to run our own lives. But we not only learned about living outside of our parents houses and how to cook and clean but Maren learned how to effectively poof her hair and to not ask too many questions. Chauntay learned that staying home is okay.

So this is the family room and dining room and my room with everything in it and Maren's bed. Good thing we didn't get it completely decorated before we moved home. But the couches did end up getting covered after these pictures were taken so we could have a more neutral color to work with. We also had a coffee table that had a marble base and two glass tops that could move since one was higher than the other.

This is the bathroom, my room, family room kitchen and a little nook on our night before we moved in.

A year catch up

Wow I hadn't realized it had been a whole year since I have updated the blog! A lot has happened in the year with the passing of Steven after we returned from Disney, new jobs, school, new boys and we moved out and back home within a month. It was a hard year and we are still recovering and will always be mourning.

Maren starts a new job at Cybersource after being at KOPFC for 4 years. She starts on monday and is really excited.

I completed a dental assisting program and have been a temp but haven't been able to find anything long term. I am going to SLCC and actually thinking of going to UVU in the fall to finish my associates. I am going for a degree in business to either run a business or work as a manager somewhere. I have thought about a photography studio, a bakery, or even going into business with Ashley and start a salon with her. Recently I have thought about party planning since we have gotten 3 weddings together without a wedding planner and we are always have some sort of shin-dig that needs planning. I really enjoy all the work of preparing everything, but then seeing how much everyone enjoys themselves when things are complete and the party is going. I have dated Marcus, I will have to get a pic on here or he will be pretty mad that I haven't. But I also dated Brenton, I am sure you all have your own opinions. I am single right now and kinda just seeing what happens.

I have been working on losing weight. In January when I started I weighed 160 and almost out a size 13 pant. I have been running two miles every other day and eating right and really cutting back on ice cream and not getting up for seconds or if I do it is not the same size helping as the first. I am now a size 8 or 7 not real sure on the weight since I think it is more important about my pant size than how much I weigh. I really enjoy running now which i used to hate, probably because I couldn't run very long. I am still trying to lose weight not just keep it off. My goal weight is 135 so we will see if I get there.
Maren has also been working with me to lose weight and has lost a lot. It is very apparent in our pictures ha ha

But I think that catches you up on our past year and where we will be going from here. Hopefully from here on out we will be able to keep you updated on our lives in a timely matter.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

My birthday was super fun. It was me, maren, tom and brenton most of the day. And then others joined us for dinner at chili's. Then the 4 of us were joined by Karinne and Mike for some bowling. I love bowling and hanging out with friends so I think I had a nice day.