A few things I've been able to do since not being at work...



That hill by the Marriott Center is a beast. I rode my bike to the temple, then went on a long walk with Brittany Thiess St. Claire and Benson.




Lunch at Sleepy Ridge with Cosgraves, Garrett and our new son, Ethan. Exploring Garrett's new panoramic iPhone App.





Kate Lowe Turner was in town this weekend with her husband for a wedding. We stayed up at Monica's grandparent's house and played some fun games and watched a movie. We of course made the most delicious chocolate chip cookies and had a great barbeque. I'm so blessed to have such great friends from college. It was also nice to stay with them since Garrett was in California with soccer.



Since we moved, we've been slowly getting furniture. We got rid of our last bed friend and were in need of a box spring. Cory and Ethan kindly walked the one I purchased at RC Willy 3 blocks to our apartment.



Lunches with my sweetie, Garrett.

I quit my job at 1 on 1 Marketing about 3 weeks ago. It was a really hard decision, but I felt it was the right thing to do. I really loved what I did and LOVED who I worked with, but felt that I should help Garrett with his stuff and it was a good time to pursue some of the sites I've been wanting to do.

I've spent the majority of my time partnering up with my mom on her site, www.decoratingideakidrooms.com. I'm working with an ad agency to get the site put on a CMS and give it much bigger, newer and more professional look. I'm REALLY excited for it. She has some amazing traffic, but such low conversion rate. She's basically done the WHOLE site herself for the last 6 years and does pretty well. I'm confident that with the revamp and some good marketing, it could turn into something really great. Stay tuned for an update in about a month.

I'm also taking over Capital G Design for Garrett. He's had a hard time lately giving clients the attention they need now that he is so busy with SCAN and BYU Soccer. So, I'm taking over the clients, project management, finances, etc., but Garrett still of course will be designing everything. It's been working well, so far.

It's been a really big adjustment not working full time. It is a huge lifestyle change. I've realized a few things since the switch.

1. Working 40 hours a week is useless. We work 40 hours a week because we are told to. I often found myself super busy at work, but the majority of the time it was doing useless emails, meetings and projects. We work 40 hours because we are told that's what we should do. We can often finish what we need to in a few hours... leaving us more time to do thing that we want. Thanks @CariStewart for introducing me to 4 Hour Work Week.

Last Wednesday I had what I thought was a good 4-5 hours of work, but I was in a crunch because I wanted to go play soccer at lunch time. I sat down at a computer, gave myself 1 hour and I busted out what I thought would've taken me the majority of my day. You can be very efficient if you want to.

So... I have much more free time. Which has gotten me doing some major self-reflecting. In 4 Hour Work Week, Tim Ferris talks about how we should work not to make money and sit on it, but to make money and spend it doing what we love. He spends the majority of his time traveling or developing a new hobby. He wins awards in ballroom dancing, kung-fu or something and other crazy activities. For me, I don't really have hobbies like that. I'm not super good at anything. The thing that makes me happiest in my life is spending time with friends and family. Its been interesting the past few weeks spending time during the day with friends and family and not feeling like I'm wasting time because I'm with them during work hours. I've been trained to think that if I'm not physically working on something from 8-5, I'm wasting time.

Since quitting my job, I've been able to play soccer twice a week at noon for 2 hours. Have a quality scripture study daily. Go on long runs with friends. Meet up with friends at 7 Peaks. Spend time with family and friends that are in town. Go to the temple. Go work to class after class at 24 Hour Fitness. Meet up with friends for lunch. I'm still productive and get the few things crucial things that I need to get done during the day. But I can now take the time that I need to do what makes me happiest in life. It is still a huge adjustment and I feel like I need to be somewhere or am still going back to work.

Hopefully things will start going well and the things I am working on will be fruitful.

Last week Lyndsey and I went to participate in the audience at Good Things Utah. They gave us free tickets for us and our husbands to attend the Strawberry Days Rodeo. I was really excited. But I quickly realized that rodeos aren't that great for a few reasons. 1.) Allergies. Pretty much all of us were dying of allergies from the animals. 2.) They totally torture the animals. I didn't know they tie up the horses testicles to make them buck. Of course they freak out. And then, one of the other games is the cowboys jumping on a baby cow and tackling them to the ground.

The best part of the night was a milking contest when they let 4 grown cows loose and teams of cowboys had to then catch them and milk them. The tables turn on the cowboys when they are being drug 40 yards in the dirt by a cow or being pummeled by one. It was awesome.

Anyway, rodeos are fine if you enjoy that kind of stuff. I'm not really into it. But it was still a good night, especially because after the rodeo we met up with some friends to have a private party at 7 Peaks from 10-12 pm at night. We had the whole park to ourselves.

Lyndsey had a fun trip up to Salt Lake today to attend the Good Things Utah show. I wasn't super familiar with the show, but it was a fun experience. They had some unique people on the show and we were in the audience with the the top 7 participants of Miss Pleasant Grove. But we did get free tickets to the PG Strawberry Days next week. :) They let us stay after and take pictures with the hostesses of the show. We're hoping to go back another time when there are a little bit more interesting guests on the show.

Garrett left last Wednesday for a few days in California. He spent 1 day up in San Francisco where his QR Code City team went to Google IO and met with investors. Garrett had one meeting with a large investor company there. They had had a ton of success with finding people who are interested in potentially investing in their start-up. So now it’s on to choosing who they want to go with and how to proceed.

They had 2 games in Cali that weekend. They lost 2-0 to Fresno and tied the other in Orange County. I’m sad I missed them.

I was back in Utah moving. We moved across the street into a little nicer apt, but a little smaller. We were looking for a change and a fresh start. We are redoing a bunch of things and getting rid of some of the crappier furniture we got when we first got started.

I’ve had fun shopping and planning out some new decorations. But Garrett is actually really involved in what is done. He likes to have a say in things. Its interesting trying to get our styles to blend. He’s a little more modern, I’m a little more country. But we are coming up with a good mix. I’ll post pics when it’s done.

Anyway… Saturday, I left for Florida with my family. We had been planning a trip for a while. I planned the whole thing. The thought was, if Garrett makes the soccer team, he wouldn’t go. But if he did make the team, he wouldn’t go. And, he made the team… so we spent a long 11 days apart. L

We flew in to Ft. Lauderdale with intentions to spend the first two days in the Keys. We got to our hotel in Key Largo. It seemed to be a pretty nice condo. I went to bed at 11:00. Jim came in to the bedroom to say good night and said, “mom, there is a bug on the wall… it’s a tick.” He then moved her pillows and found another. Then lifted up her sheets and found her bed to be infested with ticks. I jumped out of bed and there was a HUGE tick on my pillow (right where I was just sleeping). Turns out there were ticks in every bed. We called the front desk and left about 30 mins later with a refund. We found a hotel in Florida City, about 30 mins away. The front desk said the only way that ticks could have gotten in was from a dog or something from another guest. Either way… we will be writing a long post online destroying that hotel’s reputation. They messed with the wrong people.

Sunday it rained really hard in the morning. But by the afternoon it cleared up and we went on a GREAT boat ride out to a beautiful reef. They took us to a Jesus statue that was placed under water like 80 years ago. But there was tons of fish and great coral there. We went to a delicious seafood dinner… except I don’t really like seafood. Everyone else enjoyed it.

Monday we went to the Everglades. It’s the Maughan Family destination of choice. We took a fun boat tour where we saw lots of alligators. Not too many mosquitos like in years past. We stopped for a short walk around a spot where there were dozens of alligators. They were HUGE. And so close. That place is amazing. It will always hold a place in my heart.

We drove up to Orlando on Monday night which was about a 4 hour drive. Our hotel up here is great. We have a really fun hotel room with 3 rooms and a nice kitchen. We come back every day for either lunch or dinner. It saves so much money.

We’ve spent the last 3 days at Disney World. I've loved every second of it.

We did go one day to Universal Studios so that we could check out Harry Potter World. It was A-Mazing. Loved it! That ride is probably my all-time favorite now.

I had been debating for a while whether or not I should go to Puerto Rico with Garrett and the BYU Men’s Soccer team. I HATE beingalone. Let alone, be alone while I know my husband is in a tropical climate. Then I realized that he’d be there over our 2 year anniversary. So, with that, I booked my flight.We left early, early Thursday morning for the airport. I traveled with Lyndsey Cosgrave and Cory’s parents. I was so happy that I didn’t have to travel by myself. It was a LONG day, but we got into PR about 6:00pm. I decided to rent a car since I absolutely hate being dependent on people and being stuck places. It’s a Maughan thing.

The team came in on a different airline and got in about an hour after us. By the time we got the rental car and ended up at the hotel, we were there about the same time. The hotel was… not bad. Lynds and I got to be in the same room as Cory and Garrett.

We quickly realized that boys aren’t the best planners. You have to be VERY flexible. Plans constantly changed. Meals were never on time… if they were even there. Next time, they need to put some girls in charge.

Friday morning the boys had early morning practice. It was great when the

team picked them up on the “bus” which turned up to be a bright blue trolley car. It’s a good thing we got the rental car because there wasn’t room on the bus for family.

We got to spend some time at the beach that day. We had fun playing in the waves and playing football on the beach. That night we went for a luxurious dinner at Denny’s. It took some over 2 hours to get some food.

Saturday the boys had a quick morning practice and then we followed them on the bus across the island to Mayaguez. We stayed in hotel out there, which may have been the shiestiest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. I can’t even explain how it was. We spent forever looking for our room, but didn’t see it when it was literally right next to the front desk. Garrett and I got to go upstairs and have our own room for our anniversary. We both dressed up in our sweats and tried not to touch anything. I took the blanket from the plane and used that. One of the players broke out in a bad rash from that place. Who knows what was creeping around those beds.

The game in Mayaguez was great. They were the biggest of all 3 teams. We won 3-1. I think all 3 goals were from Garrett Losse. The stands were full of members from around the area cheering for BYU. I don’t think the other team had fans there at all. But the stadium was awesome, right next to the beach.

Sunday we went to a local ward with some of the players. Probably half of the team speaks Spanish from their mission. It was fun to see the guys come alive there and pull into missionary mode and talking with the members.

For lunch, we went to the Stake Center and the members prepared lunch for everyone. It was really fun to be there and just relax. That night was probably my favorite. They held a fireside for the members where 6 of them gave short talks. I was actually super excited that my Spanish wasn’t bad. I probably understood 70% of what they said… the players that is. I can’t understand the locals. But it wasn’t bad. When I tried to speak it, usually some mix of Spanish/Russian/English came out. It was fun to see them in a different setting. That night, we drove the 2 hours back to Bayamon.

Monday we took off in the morning with the Cosgraves to Old San Juan. We checked out the old fortresses. Very cool. Nothing I’d want to see again, but it was really interesting. The team met up with us afterwards and Garrett and I were able to have a lunch together on the water… until Lance and Ethan came to join, but it cool to have them join.

Garrett gets really goofy on vacation. He is usually such a hard worker and a really focused back home, but on vacation he lets everything lose. He can’t really focus on anything. He is super spacey.

That night there was a game in Bayamon. They played a local team. They won 8-1. Garrett played the whole second half. But it was POURING rain. But lots of members still showed up to support.

Tuesday was the day off. We went to the beach all day. It was a blast! The team swam out to a sand bar/coral reef. Garrett freaked out when we had to walk through a bunch of seaweed. It was fun, but creepy to have lots of creepy crawlies beneath us. We took a long walk on the beach around the corner to the best waves ever. The weather was perfect. The waves were huge, but not too big that I was scared and beach was perfectly sandy. I loved it. We went home that evening and went to a semi professional soccer game in Bayamon. They gave us great seats. We stopped for some ice cream on the way home.

Wednesday morning the boys had practice, so we took off and went to the rainforest. The rainforest was beautiful. We took about a 20 minute walk into the rainforest to some huge waterfalls. It had just rained, so we weren’t able to get in the water like we had planned. I was surprised how there were no bugs or creepy crawlies. But VERY beautiful, lots of green and it smelled so fresh. I started feeling sick during the day. I came back to the hotel and took a long nap. That night, they had their last game. It was postponed until later that night. There was a little bit of rain. This team was supposed to be the best team they would play, but I’m not sure where the confusion was, but we killed them. 10-0. Garrett had some great playing time and had 4 AMAZING assists. It was a great end to the trip.

That night, after the game we had a late-night talent show. It was SO funny. We along with Cory and Lyndsey did our little stunt where our husbands throw us over their shoulder and we crawl through the legs and up to the front without touching the floor. Sounds complicated. It’s “what married people do in their free time.”

Thursday morning the team took off early. We didn’t leave until 2pm. I was still feeling really sick. We just hung around the hotel until our flight. It was crappy traveling while I was really sick. Especially knowing that I have to go to work the next day.

All in all, great trip. Got a tan. I’m still oddly allergic to the sun. I get a bad rash on the back of my arms. Not sure what’s going on. It happened in Tahiti too. I need to get that fixed.