Wreaths of Laurel

Christmas Adventures: Part II

2012-01-10T15:55:00.002-07:00

I thought that I should finally sit down write about the rest of our Christmas adventures. Let's see....

First off, we listened to Brandon Sanderson's new book The Alloy of Law on audiobook on the way down. Soooo good, but I seriously thought it was supposed to be a stand alone novel, only to find out at the end of the story that it is obviously going to be a series. That's great because that means we get more, but it also means that I have to wait for each book to come out--that's the hard part. I highly recommend that everyone jump of the bandwagon and read everything by Brandon Sanderson and I suggest starting the the Mistborn trilogy.

The first couple of days in Henderson were pretty quiet. We just lazed around, did a little shopping and met up with some of Bryan's old friends. Can I just mention that furniture in Vegas is much cheaper than in Utah? We also spent some time going to see the newest films, a la Sherlock Holmes and Mission Impossible. Both really great entertaining movies. In no way disappointed. We also spent some time practicing the music to the cantata that the whole family sung in on Christmas Sunday. Literally, the whole family--even the in-laws. Dad Stiles was the conductor so you can see why we all joined. It was really amazing, probably one the best ward choir I've ever sung in.

On Wednesday we began our adventure inside an adventure. We went to California!! Bryan had this itch the week, or two or three, before Christmas to go to the beach and with only a 4 hour drive being the distance, we hoped back into the car and sped off. The day we got there we went straight to the beach, 1) because that was the whole point and 2) because we couldn't check into the hotel yet. Which, a little side note, we always wait to book until the day of on Priceline so that we get a 4-star hotel for $60--which is exactly what we did for this trip. Yee-haw! The ocean is so beautiful and settling in a way. Sadly the water was really cold (obviously being December and the west coast) so we didn't get in it.

It obviously did nothing for my hair either (which was perfectly straight that morning).

Some nice stranger offered to take our picture for us.

Notice that we rolled up our pants to walk in the sand and water.

It was wonderful! That night, after making it to the hotel where we had valet parking, we went for sushi. Yum!! I love sushi. I don't really get how people don't like it, but that's coming from the girl who won't eat oatmeal, so I'm going to start right there. But it is one thing that Bryan and I can always agree on. We also spent some time in the hot tub. Sadly it wasn't as warm as I thought it would be.....at least for a hot tub. Still, we had fun until all the band nerds (which I feel perfectly justified in saying because I was one) came down. Apparently the Parade of Roses was going on.

The next day was probably the funnest of all (and I know that funnest isn't technically correct). We went to the happiest place on earth. Literally. The flier told me.

That's right people--Disneyland!!! It was so much fun even if it was crazy busy. And look at that street--spotless! Everything is so cool! And the animatronics were amazing!!! I almost thought they were real people acting. Plus everything is so kid-friendly--you don't have to worry about mean people.

Our parking receipt.

The shows and parade were great. And I love how their fast-pass system is really fair so that everyone gets to have some without paying more money. We were able to ride almost everything we wanted even with all the crowds.

The one "roller coaster" they have. It's all about the other rides here.

Their haunted mansion was in a Nightmare Before Christmas theme for the holidays.

I just LOVED this picture of Bryan! He looks like he's having so much fun. I just look weird.

There was one of me and I just looked terrified. It was the Hollywood Tower Hotel/Twilight Zone ride. It's the kind that drops you a gazillion feet straight down. I really hate those rides. I basically just scream my head off. You can ask Bryan just how well I take those type of rides. Funny side note--I was wearing my stretch "Y" shirt (as pictured above) and Bryan was wearing his Woot shirt (their icon is a big exclamation point) so that when we stood next to one another it looked like....Y! Everyone kept saying Yahoo around us.

That was a fun, long day. So worth it. Next time--Magic Mountain.

That night we dragged ourselves into bed and immediately fell asleep. We woke up late the next day and packed everything up. We were going to go get breakfast, but couldn't find the location (stupid GPS with non-existent Corner Bakery). We were going to give up until we remembered that the guy who parked our car mentioned a Cuban restaurant that everyone loves. Neither of us had ever had Cuban before....who has? Bryan and I know that we love food. But not just any food--good food. Good, exotic, usually expensive food. We'd rather spend $100 on a dinner than buying clothes or other random things. So we had to hit up this Habana place. It was in the craziest little shopping area. It was like a hipster, new age, grunge, storage units type of place. But don't get me wrong though. It was really cool and I felt very chic and Californian. I mean, we saw a woman selling hats for $200, but the art/water feature was of old oil drum (type things) pouring into a concrete pool with an old 50's trailer next to it. I hope you get the vibe I'm trying to describe here. I only store I recognized was an Urban Outfitters. We had about 10 minutes before the restaurant opened for lunch so we went window shopping. I wanted to get a hobo style maxi dress that everyone is wearing, but couldn't find one. However, Bryan let me get a shirt that was on clearance just so I could have something from Cali. Luckily it was actually 50% off all clearance so it was only $10--worth it to me. Anyway.....back to the food. It was AMAZING!! I will always thank that valet parking guy for suggesting it. I had a roast over beans and rice and it was so succulent and the flavor was wonderful! Bryan had some type of streak with pickled onions I think. It was all delicious and of course we forgot to take a picture until it was all eaten. However, we remembered with dessert. Behold.....

My chocolate cake surrounded in chocolate with chocolate mousse and chocolate syrup.

Bryan's fried bananas with ice cream and a glaze that I can't remember.

I cannot tell you how great it was and I would love to go back just to eat here and now how I want to find all the little places like this so that I can always eat amazing food. After eating we hopped into the car and proceeded to drive back to Henderson. Sadly everyone and their dog was going to Vegas for the New Years celebrations so a normally 4 hour trip took 7 hours, but we had more audiobooks to keep us occupied.

I'm sure we did other things along the trip as well, but this is WAY too long anyway, so I will end the adventure here. Thanks for coming along.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-04T17:06:00.003-07:00

Oh, where to begin. I guess I'll start with a song. "On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me....." That was my theme this year. I got the idea from--Pinterest, of course. I actually did the 12 days leading up to Christmas instead of the days after, but you get the idea. So here we are:

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...1 custom T-shirt.

If you don't understand the shirt I will direct you to Bryan's blog.

Day 2...2 cherry chapsticks.

Bryan loves his chapstick. And only the cherry kind.

Day 3...3 skinny ties.

I'm really proud of these. I "skinny-ed" them myself. They are just some DI ties that I cut, ironed and hand-sewed to make them skinny.

Day 4...4 kit kat fingers.

Under that in tiny print it says "literally 'fingers'--I looked it up." Weird, but it's one of Bryan's favorite candies and it's perfect that it comes in fours.

Day 5...$5 Movie.

I was lucky on this one, because I was just going to get a DVD, but then Bryan and I were talking about movies and he made the comment about "what-would-be-the-point-of-ever-buying-a-DVD-again-when-there-is-Blu-ray." Well, crap for me since Blu-rays aren't exactly as cheap as DVDs, but low and behold Wal-mart had a Blu-ray sale. Thank you Wal-mart for your cheapness.

Day 6...6 pack of rootbeer.

Yes I know that the tag says IBC and that was what it was supposed to be, but I went to 3 groceries stores and they were all out, so I was left with Henry Weinhard's. It's not too bad.

Day 7...$7 Messy Look Hair.

I was going to do 7 ounces, but that's a lot of hair product and I didn't know if he'd like it. This is a hair wax type product and since Bryan is growing out his hair I thought what would be better than that sexy/messy hair look.

Day 8...8 cups of Chocolate milk.

And not just any chocolate milk--BYU Creamery chocolate milk. Yum. We both love chocolate milk. A testament is our wedding where we served it.

Day 9...$9.99 cheese plane.

Bryan kinda picked this one out himself because he is picky about his cheese slicers--his words, not mine.

Day 10...$10 water bottle.

He had one just like this and then lost it at a frisbee tournament. He liked it so much I had to replace it.

Day 11...11 point Scrabble word.

I think this is by far my most ingenious one.

I knew we both wanted to see Sherlock Holmes, but I didn't know how to fit is into 1 through 12. Hence I was playing Larissa in Words with Friends and I thought, I wonder if I can work a Scrabble word. Holmes fit perfectly--11 points. I'm a genius.

Day 12...12 reasons I love him.

No picture, but it was a letter and way to personal to let ya'll read it.

Yep. That's what I did for Christmas.....well, actually, leading up to Christmas. On Christmas day Bryan only got one gift from me. A Galaxy Tab 10.1. Yeah, I love that man. (And my parents who were so gracious to help me out since I couldn't afford a $500 tablet myself.) Let's just say that he was pretty darn excited. I don't think he actually registered it when he opened it.

As for me, Bryan loves me too. He bought me some euro pillow for our bed. We've had the pillow cases forever and he finally bought to pillows to fill them. I love it. We now have 11 pillows on our bed. I think he thinks it's a bit much, but I think it looks like a big, comfy, cozy bed now.

He also got me my OWN UnderArmor so that I don't have to steal his all the time when I'm cold and I know we are going some place where I know it will be ever colder. I got jean needles for my sewing machine so now I can turn all my ugly, frumpy jeans into skinny ones. We got a picture frame with STILES in it. I'll have to take a picture so that everyone can see it. We got it from Craig and Sarah (Bryan's brother and sister-in-law for those who don't know.) I love that I was about to make one of them, but now I got it for free and didn't have to any of the work. :) We also got a journal book from Uncle Ken and Aunt Becky. It is really funny--it's a graph/statistical journal. Like a pie chart of what type of movies we watch and stuff like that, how much time we spend cooking, etc. We got a marble statue of Christ from Mom and Dad Stiles along with Amazing (a movie about Jimmer I think) and a Brian Regan CD. Man that guy is funny. And Jamie and Aaron (really just Jamie, I think) got us a Christmas quilt. It is beautiful!! She must have worked really hard on it. Other than that my big gift from Bryan was a Kindle!! Yay!!! Now I can read everywhere with a tiny, little, skinny electronic thing. I love it. I love him. I love Christmas. A lot more happened over Christmas, but I will have to post that later.

My New "Hobby"

2011-12-05T10:53:00.001-07:00

I don't know if I'm at the point right now where I'd call it a hobby, especially since I never thought that I would be doing it. I had even been talking about how much I don't like doing it, but something in me just clicked. I blame Pinterest. I saw a "how-to" on something I've kinda been wanting for a while and I finally thought....."Well, I can do that." So I asked Bryan and found one I thought would be good for me--being a beginner and not really planning on doing too many crazy hard things. Plus it was on sale for a pretty good price. And a day later, I came home with this:

TA-DA!!!

That's right. I'm sewing. Literally, I had been talking 2 days earlier about how I would never do this. But I really want this pillow (which I haven't gotten to yet) and again, I keep seeing these cute, simple ideas on Pinterest and I know I have to be at least as talented as some of the people on there. Plus, there is just so many things to do with fabrics. Like make curtains--which I have some ideas on. Anyway, I had seen another pillow on Pinterest (not the above mentioned one) and it was a "no-sew" pillow and I was like "why not?" It didn't turn out the way I thought it would. So I had a yard of fabric on a pillow that didn't look so hot. But now I had a sewing machine. I found another pillow (guess where) and it was simple and cute--just what I needed to start my sewing adventures. And this was the finished product:

And it only took me like 2 hours--which includes ironing, cutting with some pretty crappy scissors and using safety pins in place of sewing pins because I forgot I needed them when buying everything at the store. Don't worry, all of them are now on a list to pick up sooner rather than later. Can I just mention I proud of myself I am? Bryan thinks it's a little weird, I'm sure. I can't stop telling myself how cute it is! Anyway, I will now move on to the first pillow I wanted--and maybe some curtains and a few skirts as well. Who knows what will come of this!!

On a further note we also found some AWESOME chairs this weekend for our dining table. I've been looking around for a while, but haven't ever found any that were what I (and Bryan--because sometimes he really has an opinion on things) wanted. Or they were, but they were a hundred bucks a pop. Anyway, great little place called the Liquidation Team in Orem. They post their stuff on KSL and have a huge storage place where they keep it all. These chairs were on there for $75 for a set of two. Brand new. We went with the notion that they only had one set. I thought if we had 2 or 3 sets of paired chairs it wouldn't look too weird. We went. When we got there I thought they didn't have them anymore. But when asked, they were in the back. I loved them at first glance. They are a "cosmopolitan creme" chair and really comfy. Plus, SURPRISE, they happened to have 2 sets, aka 4 chairs, if we wanted them. HECK YES!!

Voila! Our new and improved dining table. I think it looks amazing! And now every time Bryan and I walk into the kitchen we are shocked by how classy it looks. It really changed the fill of the room. So really this weekend has been great! Full of stuff just for me. And a little for Bryan. I even told him the chairs could be my Christmas. But not the sewing machine. I told him it was my new hobby and since we have already spent LOTS of money on his hobby of Frisbee that it was only fair. Yep, I love my logic.

Matthew's Wedding

2011-11-29T10:03:00.005-07:00

So.....the day that everyone has been waiting for!! Well, at least on my side of the family. Lots of you know that I was doing the wedding decorations for Bryan's brother's wedding and I'm sure you are all twitterpated to find out about it. Well.....here it is!!

I had "music" and "lights" to go on, not much input from the bride and groom, and a small budget. Still, I think it came out pretty darn good.

This is the sign in table and the first thing you pretty much see. Bryan was able to get old sheet music from the Music & Dance part of the library since he used to work there and has it in good with the bosses still. Since I got it for free you will see it everywhere. Also their colors were a navy blue and ivory. The apothecary jars are mine, but why not borrow for a good cause. The lights are IKEA from me also. I painted the frame and it has a piece of sheet music called Fantasia Dramatica. I thought it fit. Also, funny thing with the sign in book(s) as you can see. I had an idea of using this old book of music and having people write in it like they did for mine, but then Mom Stiles had a normal one she brought and Sarah had a picture book with their engagements in it and spaces to write why they are perfect for one another or date ideas. Since we already had two, I didn't put out mine, but funny how out of everything, this is the one thing that we had multiples of.

You'll notice a big canvas print in the back of the picture. I absolutely loved the one at my wedding, so Bryan and I thought we would pass it on, so that was our gift because those things are not cheap. Luckily I got a deal on it. Seriously, this wedding has made me one savvy, saving girl!!

Then you walk in and it looks like this. Again, sorry for the fuzziness, but my phone camera really doesn't focus that well. Luckily the photographer will have much better pictures. I publicly thank my husband, his brothers and Dad Stiles for putting this up. It was MUCH more difficult than previously imagined. But after hours and hours, they made it work. The muslin and tulle was the most expensive items I got. BUT, Joann's was having a 60% off on any one item, so heck yes I bought over 60 yards! All together I think the fabric was around $70. Thank you Joann's!! And the awesome lights were from Uncle Ken and Aunt Becky from Alex's wedding this past summer. So the whole false ceiling was just the fabric (and some hard work).

Next we come to the centerpieces. I think they turned out really well. We didn't have the funds to get flowers so I found this idea. I would take it for myself, but that would be lying. I found it while googling. But don't let that fool you. It was kinda hard to find and I would saw one picture this it, but rolled sheet music. Pretty ingenious, right? The big vases came from Mom Stiles along with the gold ribbon, which was actually used as Bryan and my's open house. I got the little vases at DI of course and painted them a metallic blue so that they sparkled. The yellowish flower was actually 90% off at Hobby Lobby the week of Thanksgiving because they were bringing in their Christmas stuff so I got a whole bouquet bunch for $1.20. I just cut it apart and viola! Then Bryan has been making and eating salsa out the wazoo so that we had lots of tin cans and I just bought some blue ribbon to make them cute. Of course using a 40% off coupon. The books were all hard back that we got for a buck a piece (which is a great deal because they are at least $4 at DI, but we found a second-hand store that was selling them for $1 a piece!) and obviously I spray painted them white. Lastly the white table clothes came from BYU (thank you Leone for getting me the MTC price so they were on $2 to rent), the blue ones Mom Stiles had again from another wedding and the gold ones were once again from my open house. Look at that! A whole table for about $5.50!! Woot!!!! Times that by 8 tables, about $45.

You may notice the chairs are not covered. Totally not in the budget, but lucky this stake center had the nicer plastic chairs (not the ugly folding ones) and the color matched the wedding, so I left them.

The gift table it next. Again, you have my IKEA lights, a wreath I made from blue tulle for $3.50 and a old torn up violin case that I found at that same second-hand store. How perfect! I was doing a music theme anyways right? $5. The little banner was make from sheet music, painted doilies and some cool old letters I printed off. It says Mr. & Mrs. Stiles. Total price, $2. Also notice the reusing of the tin can and some flowers I'll get to later. Table = $10.50.
The cake table. We used the glasses from my wedding and that is the trifle bowl we got as a gift from our wedding also. We used it to chill the Sparkling Cider. The mirror was a pack of 6 so it was $9, but they got to keep the rest and they were SUPPOSED to go on the doors that I was going to put up (again like my wedding) but the ceiling took SOOO long that we just didn't have time to transport them, so they were sacrificed. I still think it turned out okay though.
The food table. They had some little Hispanic woman make the tamales. I'm not sure about the beans, but it was all delicious!!! I found the two large jars at DI for $4. They just matched so well that I couldn't pass them up. And Larissa will notice the "S". Yep, that's mine too. Gosh I have a ton of stuff. I don't know if that is a good thing or not.

Instead of a large cake they had the little one they cut. That was because they had these babies. Homemade cream puffs. I don't even like cream puffs, but even I will say these were pretty darn good.

Now back to the flowers I had mentioned. I folded all of these little suckers! They are a five piece origami flower. I think I did over 20 of them. Mostly at work. Oops. Everyone loved them. Actually I don't even know what happened to them. They disappeared because people wanted them. And that was fine by me. I was just going to throw them away anyway. I just needed filler stuff, you know. That little embellishment. And these were perfect. And the cost.....free!!!

There were big ones, little ones and medium ones. It just depends on the sheet music size.
Well, there you have it. We were just a little bit over our budget, but Rachael's mother was generous and overpaid us. I'd like to think it was because it was more than anyone expected. Maybe I can make a business out of thrift weddings? Oh, and of course the sealing was beautiful. Don't worry, I didn't forget the important part of this whole thing.

Birthday

2011-11-09T15:33:00.005-07:00

Well, now that it is the 9th I feel it is about time for me to sit down and write about my birthday.....which was 4 days ago. Work has just been so busy that I haven't had time to catch my breath. And, yes, I write my blog at work. I rarely, if ever, get on the computer when I'm at home and writing my blog gives me a little mental break while I'm here. Anyway, back to my birthday.....

I'm 24. Twenty-four. Vingt-quatre. Veinticuatro. Translation: I'm ANCIENT! Just kidding!! But I will admit that going on 25--a quarter of a century--does freak me out just a little. Not that I mind aging. Getting old doesn't scare me, but wondering where the last year went does. I feel that the older I get the quicker time flies by. High school felt like forever, college felt like a dream, and now I've been working at my job for a year and a half and I really can't believe it. Wait, I did it again, back to my birthday.....

I have an amazing husband. But anyone reading this already knows that. I slept in because it was my birthday and I could. And sleeping in was like 8:45. Ugh, what happen to sleeping in until 10:00 or 11:00? I miss those days. Well, I get up, brush my hair and teeth, wash my face, put in my contacts and expect to see Bryan on the couch with his computer or something, but I don't. I walk into the living room and he has lit a fire and some candles and has my presents all piled up. It was so romantical. (That's a quote from a movie--I do not speak that way.) A few minutes later he walks in with a bouquet of orange-red roses (because they look like Fall and he knows I love those colors) and breakfast from Kneaders.

After we ate I unwrapped my presents. He got me "Inception" on Blu-ray, which is one of the most awesome movies ever. He also got me the book, Fablehaven. He knows I have this thing for young adult fiction. I think it's usually more fun and so much cleaner than adult (especially chick-lit) fiction! Plus it is one of his favorite books and he has been trying to get me to read it for a pretty long time. No better way than to buy it for me. And I'll admit--so far it's pretty good. He got me a pair of gloves, but not just ANY gloves. They look normal, but on the pointer finger and thumb it has a special magnet something-or-another in it so that my touch phone registers it!! If that doesn't make sense, basically it allows me to work my phone without taking off my gloves and freezing my hands. This is ingenious!!! I've frozen my hands so many times because I can't get my phone to work through gloves. And it has some gripper stuff on the palm of the glove so that I won't drop my phone. I think this must be one of the most thoughtful gifts! He knows I'm basically freezing at all times and bought me something to fix it. Let's see.....he also got me a set of ramekins. This will save our poor little mugs from being cooked once a week when I make us Molten Chocolate Cake. Yum! I'm so excited to use them. Plus they make me feel like a real baker. He got me a multi-use cake plate too. It is a stand with cover, a veggie tray with dip holder. A drink and/or soup tureen and many other things. I've actually wanted a cake plate, although I don't think I've ever told Bryan. I guess he may be able to read my mind. Creepy. He also got me chocolates. What can I say? I'm a chocolaholic. Finally he got me a watch. And I mean a nice one! Anne Klein. I love it. It's modern with a little of old-world charm. Plus it has a diamond. He certainly knows me.

Bryan also got me a card. It was so cute and sweet. He wrote me a note and I cried. I'm such a baby. But I love him, so that's excuse enough for me.

After that he went to the MTC to volunteer French speaking with senior missionaries and I watched an episode of Vampire Diaries. I REALLY hate to admit I watch that show. But I was bored one day and there is all this hype about it and I had to see what was going on. Now I'm addicted. Plus, how bad does it sound that my husband was volunteering and I was watching a teenage drama? Oh well, it was my birthday and I reserve the right to do what I want.

Later I made a cake for myself. Not that Bryan wouldn't have done it, but I wasn't doing anything. It was a pumpkin chocolate cake with orange (in color and flavor) cream cheese

frosting with a semisweet chocolate glaze. Emily used to make it for me for my birthday before. Plus I had a brand new cake plate. It was delicious! I have it on good authority. My own. Just kidding, Uncle Ken and Aunt Becky and everyone else said it was good. And I trust that they weren't just being nice.....kind of.

This also lets you see my cake plate!

Well, for dinner we went to Communal. Oh my goodness!!!! AMAZING!!!! Chef's own it so all the food is really good and stuff that you wouldn't think goes together, well, goes together. And you can't understand half the menu because you don't know all the terms--so you KNOW it has to be good. It is such a chic place. I love it!! You just feel sophisticated. I was meant to eat in places like this.

After dinner we went to the dollar theater (after spending that much on dinner--although completely worth it--the dollar theater seemed about right). We saw Cowboys & Aliens. It was pretty entertaining.

So anyway, I had an amazing birthday and Bryan made everything wonderful!!

What have I learned? I love GREAT food and it is worth the cost. I eat too much chocolate, but I can't stop myself. My job seems to get better and better. My husband is the best (not that I learned that, but I believe it deserves being stated anyway). I miss my family, but I know I'll see them sooner rather than later hopefully. I'm kind of a terrible teacher, but getting better. And I give the best parties. Yeah, deep stuff, I know. Anyway, Happy Birthday to me!! Love you all!!!

Trick or Treat!

2011-10-31T09:58:00.006-06:00

Happy Halloween!!

I love Halloween. It is one of my favorite holidays. I love dressing up and throwing parties and eating candy and it is what I consider to be the beginning of the "holiday season." Hence, it has a lot of good things going for it. This year, much like last year, I decided to through a Halloween movie night. I was debating it for a while since there is always that worry that people won't show up and the process of actually getting everything together, but Korina convinced me that I should and I knew that at least her and Nathan would be there.

So, I'm big into the decorating thing. I love having that "feel" to a place when it is decorated for a holiday. And I kept seeing all these cute ideas in Country Living, Home and Garden and Martha Stewart magazines. Anyway, here was my attempt at chic Halloween with an Edgar Allen Poe feel.

Notice the skull, apothecary jars, tattered book, candles.....yeah, I'm good.

And the raven.

We covered the chairs in black satin and the couch in white with only dreary pillows to brighten the place up. Haha. Pun intended.

Then our fireplace with black candles and stacks of books, shredded cheese cloth and leaves to finish it off.

I think the overall affect is quite good. What do you think?

Everyone looked so good for the party! I truly thought that Bryan and I would be the only ones dressed up, but everyone showed up in mourning! I loved it!! We watched Hocus Pocus and everyone had a really great time. I know....they told me. And we even had butternut squash soup from a pumpkin and rootbeer from a dry ice cauldron.

Can you guess WHO Bryan is? And that is totally a hint.

Does this help?

Okay, does THIS help? No....Well, he is totally Doctor Who. If you don't watch it. Start. Enough said.

This is not the costume I wore for the party, but to our ward party the next night. I call it Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. You can't really see the deadly makeup. At the party it was similar because of the hat, but I was a dead horseback rider with my khaki pants, riding boots, frilly collared shirt with a black riding jacket and crazy eyes.

Here, I wore it to work today too. This is what I was for the party.

Once again, Martha was my inspiration.

Anyways, it was a great weekend. We had a blast. Maybe I will get the energy to do a Thanksgiving party, but with Matt's wedding, I doubt I'll get to it. Plus Bryan and I need to recuperate. My parties always take a lot out of you. Just ask Emily.

1st Anniversary

2011-10-11T14:31:00.003-06:00

So this past Sunday was our first anniversary!! Can you believe? Me neither. I must say that I have married one of the best men in the world! He is so wonderful, funny, caring, and handsome. I am so blessed to be sealed to him forever!!

For our anniversary this year we obviously celebrated on Saturday. I "made" us cinnamon rolls in the morning (thank you Rhodes Rolls!) and we spent the morning going to DI and stuff to see what old frames and books we could find for Bryan's brother's upcoming wedding---which I will be doing the decorations for!! Exciting!! I have some simple, crafty ideas that I think will look great. Anyway, then we got all ready and headed up to Salt Lake. We had reservations at The Roof (which Mom has always told me I HAD to go to one day---well, Saturday was that day). It was delicious!! And all the views are great, but our's was super-great! And they have a live pianist and she happened to play all the songs I would want her to play like Somewhere in Time, Rachmaninoff, and Claire de Lune. What are the chances? It's like she knew it was my anniversary.

I know that we are just so cute. And I had to take a picture because it seems like we never do it nowadays. And then we had tickets for the Utah Opera. The opera was Beethoven's only, Fidelio. It is a story about a wife who basically saves her husband from prison and death. It was very women-empowered which I didn't really expect from an opera from 1805. It was amazing and our seats were really pretty good. And we got to walk around Salt Lake which is really cool although it may not seem like it all the time.
After the opera was over it was past 10:00pm and all the Church Buildings were closed. Sadly, our car was parking under the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. I was so worried that we couldn't get our car and would have to stay in a really chic hotel in Salt Lake. That would have just been the end of the world! But a side door was open and we safely got to our car. We even got to exit the VIP side and didn't have to pay the 5 hours for parking. It was pretty cool. Overall a wonderful night!! Thank you, my love, for everything!!!!

BYU Football

2011-09-27T09:31:00.002-06:00

I just had to blog about how my job can be pretty cool sometimes. We have been doing some advertising with BYUtv and so they gave Dean 2 tickets to the game last Saturday. Since Dean already has season tickets, he gave the tickets to me if I wanted them. They were pretty good seats and they had set up those cushy seat things with the back rests for us. We were also fortunate to sit next to some really cool people--they were so much better than students--and they were all families. It was probably some of the best fun I have ever had at a game.

Then Dean told me to get in contact with Aaron, our Concessions Manager (who I know really well), and ask him for some vouchers. It took a little while to find him in the stadium, but we did and he was awesome enough to give us all the yellowy-orange and red vouchers. The red ones are for the subcontractors (things like Costa Vida) and are redeemed for $10.00, while the yellowy-orange ones are for BYU Concessions for $3.50. We had somewhere around $60 to spend all for free! We had so much food it was ridiculous and we shared some of our fries with the kids from the family we sat next to. And we WON!!!! It was so great! And all because I have a pretty darn good job!

Utah State Fair

2011-09-23T16:38:00.004-06:00

Last Saturday, Bryan and I went to the Utah State Fair. I have to admit that it has nothing on the Texas State Fair. I sometime miss Big Tex. But still, it gives us something to do on a Saturday and we had fun anyway walking around and seeing the exhibits. This year they had sea lions who would take pictures with you. They were pretty darn cool.

Next we went to the photography exhibit and looked through hundreds of pictures. Some of them were really amazing. We had to take a picture of this so that we could brag about our sister in law.
That's right! Sarah got second place in her category. Great job Sarah!!
We, of course, had to eat our once-in-a-year greasy, deep-fried food and so we stopped and watched a show at the same time. The show at the time was called Tagaloa and it was Pacific Island dancing. Yay!!
A picture of us at the fair. I really wish my front camera took better pictures, but it works I guess.
We walked through all the cows, sheep, goats, pigs, bunnies, birds, 4-H clubs, garden, anything else you can think of areas and lasted end with Aussie Kingdom. We got to see kangaroos. I find it kinda sad that they are put in cages and on display when they usually hop around everywhere, but it was cool seeing them.
Later that night we had the privilege of watching BYU majorly loss to the Utes, but so is life. At least we were able to spend time with one of Bryan's old mission buddies and his family. So in the end, it was a great weekend!

Newest Addition

2011-08-22T12:37:00.003-06:00

So, Bryan and I have really been wanting this fluffy pillow from Pier 1. It is the softest, most fluffy, bestest pillow ever. (see below) Anyway, it FINALLY went on sale and I told Bryan that he had to go and pick it up after work. So, being the good husband he is, he did. But being the BEST husband ever, he saw this chair and proceeded to hurry home with pictures of it to tell me about it so that I could decide if I wanted it. We've been looking for a chair for a while now, but just haven't found a good deal for one we like. I LOVE that Bryan 1) knows what I like 2) now knows a good deal on furniture when he sees one and 3) lets me buy things. So I saw the pictures and we scurried on back up to Pier 1 (all while having tickets to a movie at the dollar theater in less than half an hour) and bought it on the spot. Yeah, we thought it was that good of a deal. Plus I love the color and shape!!

So now I have a green and red chair next to one another and I love it!! Now I am in the works of getting a fat, squatty red pillow for the green chair to counteract the wonderfully large white one and tie everything together. Which, come by and cuddle with the white one. You'll love it.

Us

2011-08-16T15:41:00.002-06:00

Just some pictures of us. This was at Alex's wedding. Sorry they are a little fuzzy.

Rockin' Chair

2011-08-10T15:22:00.002-06:00

I finally remembered to take a picture of the finished rocking chair (which has been done for like 2 or 3 months now) so now I can post about it. I guess there isn't much to say. It was old and rickety, the paint was coming off and it was brown. Like old 70's brown. So we changed it. We were debating between white and red, but decided on red since we needed color somewhere and we'll just paint it again if we want to change it in the future. So after many hours of working on it.....here is our "new" rocking chair.

Yes, we took it apart and sanded the whole thing.....by hand.

In pieces.

All sanded and back together again---much more sturdy too with new glue.

Primer. So this is what it would look like white.

RED!! Please don't look at it and think it looks really bright. It doesn't in person, it was just late at night with terrible overheard lighting. It looks great in person. Everyone compliments it.

So yep, Bryan and I can do things if we put our mind to it.

Date Night

2011-08-02T11:24:00.002-06:00

I don't know if I would consider this our first official date night since we got married, because we do activities together all the time and Bryan treats me AMAZINGLY (especially when I want chocolate). But I decided that we needed a real date night. How does the saying go? Planned, paid for, pair off. Well, we are always paired off and we are always paying, so I emphasized on the planned part.

I "chatted" Bryan (through Gmail on our Androids---could you get more tech-y?) and asked him if he was busy that night. Of course he said no, so I asked if he would like to go on a date with me. Luckily he said yes.

Whew! That could have been a close call.

I wanted to make dinner instead of going out because we are hopefully starting a new, extra- better savings plan to pay off some debt. Could a house be in the future? Who knows? So instead of spending our typical $50-$65, I spent $6 for asparagus and Swiss cheese. We had everything else. I decided on my classic Chicken Cordon Bleu. Behold, our dinner date....

For those who would like to know, I locked Bryan in our bedroom so he wouldn't know what has going on. PLUS, I used the skills I learned in my Cooking Class at BYU to make it so that everything would be finished at the same time. And it WORKED!! Plus, I love Chicken Cordon Bleu because it is delicious AND so simple. Also notice from the picture below that I used some skills from the same class to make a meal that is pleasing to the eye and taste buds. What I mean is that there is an array of color (orange, green, yellow and redish purple) and flavors (sweet, buttery, brown sugar carrots; savory chicken, ham and cheese; salty balsamic---with a little soy sauce---asparagus with a wonderful tender crunch; and tart grape juice). Seriously, isn't your mouth watering?
Bryan was very proud of me and he loved it. Or at least I'm saying he did. After finishing dinner I had gotten us tickets to ComedySportz. I have never been although everyone talks about it and Bryan hadn't been in a pretty long while. I thought it was a perfect idea, just like the meal. A romantic meal followed by comedy. A perfect opposite balance. Man, I'm good.

Anyway it was hilarious. These guys are so good at improv. And yes, they are all guys. Bryan and I had a discussion before it started that guys are just generally more naturally funny than girls. Seriously, how many good women comedians are there? Tiny Fey, Bonnie Hunt, Ellen, Rosie O'Donald back in the day? Yeah, that's about as far as we got too. Well, that was a sidetrack, but they are so funny! And the 'sports' come into play (like the pun?) in a Whose Line is it Anyway type of way. They are on teams and get point depending on who the audience cheers louder for. I was for the Blue Team. They were hilarious!!
As seen below. He was trying to get the other guy, Trevor, I think, (in the bottom right corner) to guess what he was trying to "buy" by giving Trevor clues. This picture he was trying to buy Kryptonite Jello. I know, random, but that's what makes it funny. And so he came out as a typical Mormon mom. You get it---green jello. It was so funny that I was laughing so hard my throat started to hurt. Plus Trevor has some type of degenerative problem I think so he uses his hands to pull himself around, but despite his problems, he was one of the funniest! Congrats to him for laughing his way through life.
Overall, a successful date I would say. If you need tips on how you too may have a wonderful, perfectly balanced date, feel free to call or email. I'm available most days of the week.

The Fourth

2011-07-12T08:50:00.002-06:00

Well, it's been a while since the Fourth, but I thought I would give a shout out to my ward and the awesomeness of it. The Fourth is a big deal to them. They have a block party (10th year running) where they block off all traffic, paint the sidewalks with stars, and we have a huge party. And the whole neighborhood is invited!! This year it took place on Friday the 1st. Here are just a couple pictures that show you the coolness, especially for an event that individuals--not the ward--pay for. By the way, sorry for the blurry images, but my phone has a slow shutter speed and there were just too many people that kept moving.

They had a rock wall and a bouncy house.

This is where we all grilled up out food. Bryan and I had steak and we brought Bryan's awesome salsa to share.

Don't ask me what this picture is. But we were dancing. Us and another couple were the only adults dancing at the beginning, but by the end everyone had joined us. That's right, we are the trend-setters!!

"Train" ride for the kiddies.

It was awesome!! Plus with the new Utah Fireworks Law we were allowed to shoot off aerials. People were buying them left and right and for 5 days straight you could look over the valley and see fireworks everywhere!!! They also had a outdoor movie night the next night after this and on the actual Fourth we had a crepe breakfast before the parade---which goes right through our ward, I literally only had to walk a block. Later that night we went to Uncle Ken's and Aunt Becky's house to see more fireworks. Overall, a great holiday!!!

Simple Dinners?

2011-07-01T15:19:00.002-06:00

Bryan and I crack me up sometimes. I just had to take a picture of our "simple dinner." You may look at it and think that it's just a grilled cheese with tomato soup. However, don't let the picture fool you. Nothing is ever that simple in our house. It's almost weird how we can't make anything "normal." Let me explain. The grilled cheese---actually a grilled basil pesto spread, ham and cheese sandwich. That's right, we buy pesto. The tomato soup---actually tomato soup (with milk, not water), basil, sauteed onions, and cheese with a dollop of sour cream. Everyone tries to give me simple casserole recipes or I might look up "simple" meals, but anything that makes you just pour cans together.......I can't do it. Call us (or me) a food snob, but if I'm going to eat something, it better be as good as I can make it. So yeah, I just thought I'd share.

Thanks Sis!

2011-06-27T16:47:00.003-06:00

I just wanted to thank my sister, Larissa, for letting me play around with what her office could look like. I had fun, and although she may never actually use the idea, I'm glad that she asked me anyway. So behold, her could-be office with a light and airy, relaxing Hawaiian theme. (For a larger image, just click on it. I know it's hard to see, but I only had a pencil to work with.)

And the mood board.

If I keep this up, maybe one day I will actually be able to design something for real.

Work

2011-06-13T12:24:00.002-06:00

Sometimes it's nice you use my degree at work. They aren't the best drawings, but I didn't have much time. The idea is an international market/cafe. The first picture is of a mood board. I hand drew the center picture. It has a huge island in the middle with a Mongolian grill, fryers, a shwarma, open-fire grills and steamers. The employees would be able to walk around that (on the black and white checkered floor) and then they would be surrounded by glass cases of gelato, salads, basically anything international.

They didn't go for that idea. It was too large and they (meaning the big BYU head-honchos) don't want food to be the main focus--although Dining has to pay for the whole remodel....ridiculous if you ask me. The only way to pay for the stupid building is to sell food somehow, but yeah, they want like a hot dog stand. Don't get me started on how stupid these people can be. So this was our next idea. Against a wall, circular so it has lots of room for us, but doesn't take up that much space. I don't know what they thought of the idea, but I thought I did well none the less.
So yeah, who knew that I'd be working at Dining Services and using my interior design?

Birthday Boy!

2011-06-07T10:09:00.003-06:00

This past Friday was Bryan's birthday!! I've been waiting forever for it to finally come. I really wanted him to open his presents the Monday before. It was such a long wait! Bryan didn't even seem to notice. Well, let's see.....

I "made" Bryan cinnamon rolls for breakfast because they are one of his favorites. And when I say "made," I mean "baked-Rhodes-rolls." It's too difficult to make cinnamon rolls without premeditation and preparedness. And Rhodes are so good, so why bother. Then we opened presents! Note the beautiful wrapping!

I had no idea what to get him. It's that always the story? And I'm sure none of it was very exciting, but I thought that he needed everything I got him. Except maybe the jacket. Let me explain. Bryan loves his brown corduroy blazer. And he's probably the only person who can pull it off. So my idea was to get him a black blazer.....for obvious reasons. So I went everywhere and of course no one had anything and it's probably because it's summer and who needs a jacket? But still, no one, really? Until I went to Macy's. I usually don't because they are more expensive than other places, but I thought it couldn't hurt. And what did I find.....a smokin' hot leather jacket. On sale. For like 75% off. It was only $10 more than the ONE black blazer I found. It is dark brown, which kinda sucks because he could really use a nice black jacket (let me note that I think he should get a men's peacoat, but he refuses. I'm sure he would look amazing. And I'm always right), but it was such a good deal and so good looking and I liked it (which is the most important thing), so I bought it. Bryan likes it too and it looks great on him. Now I wish I had a picture, but sadly not. It is getting hot around here, so we'll have to wait until Fall. Whew, that was long. So quickly, I also got him a new leather wallet (which he REALLY needed), some skinny ties, because he likes them and he could really use some new ties, a new casual reversal belt, because he lost his other one on his business trip, and a new enlarged hymnal for his organ playing at church, seems the other one was held together with duct tape and even then it was falling about. Plus I had the Distribution Center emboss his name on it so he doesn't have to write it on the sides with Sharpie. Basically none of it was fun, but necessary.

Bryan then had a phone interview with Toyota. It would be nice if he got that job, if nothing more than for a change of scenery. We'll see how it turns out.

For his birthday, Bryan wanted to go for a hike. Which is good. We needed to do something active. So we stopped by Quizno's (which is so much better than Subway--why didn't I know this?) for our "picnic lunch" and headed up to Alpine Loop and the Uinta National Park to chose a hiking route. We chose Pine Hallow. And here are our cheesy pictures.

It was such a beautiful hike!

And we had to cross 3 streams. Or maybe the same stream 3 different times. I'm not for sure.

Me being "scared" to cross the stream. Those waters were moving pretty fast.

And lastly, at the top there is still snow. Yep, it's June and still snow. Crazy.

It was a great hike and we had lots of fun. We came back, got cleaned up and went to dinner at P.F. Chang's (yum) and went to get Bryan some new running shoes. And guess what, he really needed new ones of those too. It was an awesome day. It least I think so. And as Bryan will tell you....I'm always right. Happy Birthday my love!!!

Museum of Ancient Life

2011-05-31T10:23:00.002-06:00

Well, it was Memorial Day and once again, for the 5th straight year in a row, it was raining. Utah is soooooo not that fun when it's raining, especially when you want to go outside because you've been stuck inside for the past two and a half weeks because of rain. I am SO over it.

Bryan and I didn't exactly know what to do, but we've been meaning to go to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point for a while now, so in we went. If you remember anything about my Honeymoon post, you'll remember that Bryan kinda has this thing for dinosaurs. His favorite place was the Jurassic Park area of Islands of Adventure. So this is right up his alley, and it's his birthday week, so we needed to do things he likes anyway. So behold, my little picture gallery. I would put the names of the dinosaurs with the pictures, but to be honest, I can't remember most of them anymore.

This one is a baby Stegosaurus!

This one is called a Supersaurus. Really.

Apatosaurus. I think. You know, like Little Foot from Land Before Time.

T. Rex. At least this one's easy to remember.

I had to include this one because it was the weirdest looking Pterosaur. (Which is the real word for flying dinosaurs, because if they fly, they technically aren't dinosaurs.)

It flies, but also "walks" on it's wing arms and tiny hind legs. Creepy.

This is the Loch Ness Monster. It's a weird angle, but I wanted to get the length of the neck. It was huge! It was like 2 times longer than the rest of it's body.

Lastly, the ginormous turtle. Everything was huge. Even a 7 foot long millipede which was as wide as me. Yuck. All I could think of was that scene in the new King Kong. You know which one.

This was just cool. It's a tornado in a can. A large can, but still, I remember making water tornadoes with 2-liter bottles, but this was way more cool.

So yes, a rainy day came out to be much more interesting and enlightening than I would have originally thought it. And there were so many things for kids! If you have a museum for ancient life near you, I would suggest you go.

Mrs. Stiles

2011-05-16T14:53:00.005-06:00

So I already said it on Facebook, but I am officially Laurel Elizabeth Stiles. I guess I have been for a couple of weeks, but I finally got my driver's license in the mail which was the last piece that I was waiting for to be complete. So say hello to the new......Mrs. Stiles.

American Idol 2

2011-04-29T09:40:00.002-06:00

I may stand corrected. The more I recap, the more I like James Durbin. He's got some major talent and diversity. I think he'll win. Hopefully followed by Scotty and Lauren. I would be happy with that. Just saying.

Weddings!

2011-04-26T16:30:00.002-06:00

It's the end of the semester and you know what that means! Weddings!! Two of Bryan's friends got married this weekend, well, one was this Monday, which isn't technically a weekend, but it felt like one to me because I didn't have to go to work.

I love weddings. I love seeing the happy couples, the beautiful decorations, the interesting ideas and above all, the cake (most of the time, fondant=gross, no matter the kind or what people say). If you ask Bryan, I'm sure he'd tell you how I like comparing the weddings to my own and how they never measure up.....which I can't argue with. They never do. Seriously, mine was classic and timeless. But enough of that. I will complain that I "dislike" walking through the reception line, especially when I barely know one person from the couple, but that's life. Oh, and I dislike it when they don't have food. That's another way most of these Utah weddings will never measure up. In my family, we know how to feed people, and thank goodness. That being said, both of these weddings were beautiful and yes, they had food.

First we went to Peety's. That's short for Peterson, which is short for Anthony Douglas Peterson. The only two people in the world who still call him Peety is Bryan and me. Everyone else calls him Andy, which isn't Tony short for Anthony? They had their reception in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Their colors were pink and green, very springy. Sorry, no pictures and I even had my phone.

Next was Mark's. They had their reception at Le Jardin in Sandy. That place is beautiful. Plus, you don't really have to decorate, there's flowers everywhere! I think Mark's reception line has been the easiest to go through. Number one, his family is SOOO nice. Number two, they think I'm beautiful and that Bryan's lucky. How could I not like them? I told Bryan that we had to take a picture, because we never remember to and how are we supposed to document our life if we don't? So this is what turned out.

Then we had to take some of the happy couple. Yeah, they actually got to eat some of their cake too. I got the one little bite and I never saw it again. Thank you family.

So yeah. We had a great time! Plus Bryan danced with me, and you know how I love to dance. We were actually the only people slow dancing and then a few minutes later the dance floor was full. Oh yeah, we're cool. I'm pretty sure the photographer thought we were so cute too and took some pictures. Plus we stopped for some sushi afterward and it was delish!! So anyway, that was what has been going on the last little bit of our lives.

Portobello!

2011-04-05T11:26:00.003-06:00

I was so proud of this meal that I had to share it! Well, proud of the way it looked at least. Plus it makes me look really health and gourmet.

BEHOLD the pasta!!

The pasta is in a tomato and oregano-based olive oil sauce with grilled tomatoes, Parmesan and basil on top. Isn't it beautiful!! And yes, it is in a portobello mushroom "bowl." I eat mushrooms! It's amazing I know. So yeah, just thought I'd share.

American Idol

2011-04-01T11:42:00.007-06:00

I don't like American Idol. I have never watched it. I couldn't tell you any winners except Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson and David Cook (and that's only because David Archuleta was on that season and I live in Utah). However, this season Bryan and I were in Vegas and Bryan's parents are avid watchers. Needless to say after watching one episode (without commercials, thank goodness) I was at least a little interested in the outcome of this season. And I usually have some time at work to watch some recaps on Youtube. That being said, these are my feelings:

Ashthon. Attitude. Hated it. Enough said. Glad she was voted off first.

Karen. I know she is Hispanic, but that doesn't mean every dang song should be both in Spanish and English just because the judges said they liked in on ONE song. Good thing she's already off too.

Naima should never have gotten into the top 12, let alone 13. The judges kept saying she's "pitchy" and I would add just out of tune generally. Thank goodness she went home this week.

Thia. I didn't really have an opinion. She was cute and good, but I can't remember a single one of her performances, so obviously forgettable.

Jacob. I know everyone loves him, but I can't see it. I think he sounds like a low-pitched woman instead of a man with all that vibrato. Really? And to me it sounds a little airy and nasally. When he opens up and really gets some power going, than I can see why people like him, and he is in general a good singer (in tune, etc), but seriously, I can barely stand to sit through one song of his. Number one, something just rubs me wrong about his voice, number two, stop with the fake crying. No one really cares.

Paul. I find him interesting. I can't decided if I love his voice or the fact that he looks like Bradley Cooper. Still, I love the suit and if I voted, I would vote for him--at least some of the time.

Stefano. See Thia's description. Plus we already have Bruno Mars, we don't need another.

Pia. PLEASE sing something other than a ballad. Celine Dion can beat you any day anyway.

Haley. Egh. Don't hate her, don't love her. But she should probably go home next week--if it were up to me.

James. People have compared him to Adam Lambert. Well, if I knew what he sounded like I could give my opinion. I don't personally love James' style, but he puts on a good show, despite his crooked teeth, and that matters I guess. I think he should probably make it to the top 4.

Casey. Should they have saved him? I don't know. Well, yes I do. He definitely should beat Naima and some other people, but I wouldn't say that I like him for the next American Idol.

Scotty. He makes me melt!! I love country, so that probably already makes my opinion void to most people, but seriously, when he hits those low notes I'm like butter on a hot skillet in Texas. How can you not love it? And yes he only sings country, but I would say it's a lot harder to sing like that than most people want to let on. I tried it once and it wasn't good. Everyone can sing like Pia or Casey, but not like Scotty. Yeah. I would have him win, but I don't think he'll make it. Hopefully top 2. He better get a dang contract from a country producer though.

Lauren. I think I want her to win. She always does well and she seems genuine, which I like. Plus did you hear her and Scotty's duet yesterday. WOW! Yeah, they are my two favorites. I never thought I would like two 16 year olds, but hey, they rock it.

So yeah, I usually don't care, but I guess I disliked so many contestants this year that I have stronger opinions than normal. But basically I blame this all on Mom and Dad Stiles. Thank you for ruining my perfect record of apathy towards American Idol.

Trouble in Vegas

2011-03-15T12:54:00.005-06:00

That's the name of the game. Literally. Trouble in Vegas. This year was the 6th and final year. And their slogan....."The 6th and last year. Try not to die."

Let's start at the beginning:

Sitting on the beach in Hawaii after Kaimana Klassic 18, sipping rum drinks, staring at the surf…

Skip: “You know where a cool place to host a tournament would be?
pause. sips rum drink
Skip: “Vegas…there should be a tournament in Vegas”
Josh:“That’s the worst idea ever.”
Ben:“Or the best.”
Skip:“It’s true, someone would die, but can you imagine….”

Now 6 years, some arrests, but no deaths later, it is a huge success. Like 70 teams come to this thing. But apparently the company that sponsored it is splitting up and therefore can no longer run it. I'm sure that the Killjoys (and many others) are sad at the news.

It was a perfect weekend. It was in the 70's, sunny, with a slight wind. Well, let's say is was perfect for everyone else. I was still a little chilly and ended up wearing Bryan's pants and hoodie. Still, the guys did a great job. They won 3 out of 4 games. The one team they lost to was Wisconsin, who happen to win Nationals and have a few World players on their team. And they lost 14-15. Wisconsin ended up winning the tournament. So, basically, I'm proud of my boys.

The Killjoys.

Don't ask how they got their name, it's a long story.

RubberBand & Wings

2011-01-24T09:45:00.004-07:00

Well, it has been an eventful weekend! One Friday Nathan, Korina, Bryan and I went to the WSC to see Ryan Shupe & the RubberBand. This is one of Bryan's favorite bands. They started in Utah but have become relatively famous. If anything they are AMAZING musicians!! They are technically a bluegrass group, but they have influence from a few other genres too. They play so many crazy instruments. I would suggest looking them up on Youtube by clicking here. They are really funny. We all really enjoyed ourselves. And you probably can't see, but his 2 year old son is up there too playing his tiny fiddle. Man, if he starting now, he'll probably outshine his dad.

On Saturday I spent all morning cleaning after my run. And sadly the bathroom really needed it. But it's all better now. :) After that Bryan and I just rested I guess you could say. He took a nap and I read my book. But we knew we had to get ready for the basketball game later that night. We invited Nathan over, unluckily Korina had to work, and had wings, lil smokies, chips, queso, salsa and oreos. Perfect for a game day!! Everything turned out great, especially since we won!!

Look, we're a family. And we actually hang out together!! YAY!!

Haircut

2011-01-19T09:30:00.002-07:00

Well......I did it. I cut my hair. For those of you who don't know me so well, this is a hard decision......for my mother. Luckily, she does not live in the same state as me and hence has no control over my actions. Still, some part of me always feels some dread in going against my mother's wishes. I don't know why she like long hair, but it's been that way since I was a kid....for all my siblings. Just ask my brothers. Anyway, here's the new me. Sorry that pictures aren't so great. I took them with the front camera on my phone which isn't as good as my awesome 8 megapixel camera on the underside of my phone. But still, you get the picture. (Hehe, no pun intended.) Everyone keeps telling me it makes me look more mature. And I'll put up some pictures of it straight as well. I REALLY like it. Its so much easier to do and I think Bryan likes running his fingers through it. Or maybe he just notices that I do it to myself a lot more. Anyway....it totally happened on a whim. I was in the shower and I decided that there was no reason not to do it and I was ready for a change, so yep, I called the salon, made an appointment and told her to chop it off. Funny, I got the same girl who cut my hair for my engagement pictures and she still remembered me. Well, I'm going back to her from now on. So, thank you Kassi!

Christmas, Baby Aaron, and New Years

2011-01-03T10:10:00.003-07:00

It is probably pathetically sad that I didn't take any pictures of Christmas. To be honest, most of the time I just don't think of it. I'd like to think that's because I'm having such a good time and I don't want to stop everything to take a picture. Although looking back I wish I had anyway. And there's really no excuse anymore because I always have my phone with me and it has an 8 megapixel camera on it - with a flash. Yeah, no excuse. But, like I said, I didn't take any pictures, but I can still blog about what Bryan and I did.

With terrible weather around here, we didn't leave until the late morning of Thursday, the 23rd. We meant to leave after work on the 22nd, but it was icy in Northern Utah and flooding in Southern, so we waited it out a bit. Around 10 or something we started our journey to Henderson. It was filled with an audio book (Seventh Son from the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card), sandwiches (of rolls, ham and cheese provided by my work - thank you Dining), candy and clementines (from our stockings). Yum! Other than that it was pretty uneventful.

We made it to Henderson in good time and warmer weather, thank goodness! Funny thing was we got down there and only Dad and Jonathan were there - and with Jonathan being 16, he wasn't really there either. We had a great time though just talking to Dad and going to dinner. It's nice to get some one-on-one time....and watch some ridiculous Youtube videos.

Christmas Eve was pretty relaxed. Mom was coming home that day with Chris and Mattie and we would all be going over to Grandma and Grandpa Twitchell's house later that evening. It's tradition. Anyway, so we watched Hoosiers with Dad - it was his new Blu-Ray movie and then Bryan and I went to the Strip. I always love looking at the Bellagio fountain, but I think that Bryan and I both agree that the Strip gives us more of a headache than anything. It's fun to see once, but it loses it's luster pretty quick. We made it to Grandma and Grandpa's, have dinner with the whole family (as in aunts, uncles and cousins) and sing Christmas carols. They then all proceeded to tell me how beautiful my voice is and joked that I probably had to try-out to get into the family. Luckily, they all agree I pass with flying colors.

Christmas morning! I think I may have been the only one to wear my pajamas to Christmas morning, but I've been doing it for as long as I can remember, and I don't plan on stopping now! It was so fun to go around the circle and open gifts. Mom and Dad were so nice. We didn't expect anything, but that doesn't mean they weren't going to get us stuff anyway. We got our comforter set (yay!) with matching pillows, a bookshelf, picture frames, and other things. I think one of my favorites was a cookbook Mom got me. It's for picky eaters. And although Bryan is by no means a picky eater and we don't have kids yet, we still like a lot of the recipes. They taste good and are simple - which is just the way I like it. We then went back to Grandma and Grandpa's for the omelet breakfast - another tradition - where I proceeded to refuse to flip my own. Bryan did it for me and Grandpa called me a chicken. Oh well. I'm pretty good at holding to my guns - just ask Mom and Dad about my oatmeal breakfasts. We opened more gifts, sang more songs, and heard the very talented Stiles' children improv their own music which is AMAZING! Even with my voice I feel very talentless after hearing them. We played, ate and talked our way through the rest of the night and watched Elf and The Sound of Music. Later we went to bed, woke up, went to Church and made our trek back home to Utah. Overall, a wonderful Christmas.

Later that week we got to see our new nephew, Aaron, for the first time. He is so cute! And much to his mother's chagrin, slept the entire night away. We also played with Aubrey and Austin who are so full of life. It was so fun to have them over. And luckily Bryan remembered to take some pictures this time.

New Years wasn't that exciting, but then again, it never really has been for me. I'm pretty sure I fall asleep most years anyway. I pretty sure Troy just happened to be on TV so we watched that then went over to Nathan and Korina's for dinner. We then all went back to our place and watched the end of 300, had 15 minutes until the countdown, watched that, drank Martinelli's in champagne flutes and promptly fell asleep. I needed my sleep, we finally were able to go snowboarding the next day (3rd time is a charm) and I needed all the strength I could muster. It was pretty fun. I don't know if I have enough fun to warrant paying $25 every time, but it's only with practice that you get better. And I need to get better - at least my toe side does. Anyway, I know this is long, but it's been a wonderful year. And Happy New Year to everyone!!

Harold Ned Snowman...yes that is his name!

2010-12-21T11:54:00.004-07:00

Well, it started snowing two nights ago and it hasn't stopped. Literally. I think the snow around our house was at least 12 inches high this morning. It certainly will be a white Christmas. That being said, what a better activity than to build a snowman!! (Well, if you're talking to Bryan, he would say snowboarding, but some things are just not meant to be.) So to tell the story....

Bryan loves snowboarding. Me. Well, it kind of scares me. But I am willing to try again! I refuse to be scared of something that 5 year olds can do. So we got all decked out in our winter snowboarding attire. Got our passes to Sundance. Was driving up the road. And.....!! We weren't allowed up the Sundance road without 4x4 or chains. Which we had neither. And by the time we would have gotten back down the mountain, to a store, back up the mountain, put the chains on, parked, shuttled to the actual slopes.....we would have had no time. We go night boarding. Number 1 - because we work all day. Number 2 - it's cheaper.

So with a bummed husband and both of us sweating in all our gear, I had to come up with another idea! Apparently "playing" in the snow wasn't good enough, so I called Nathan and Korina and asked them if they wanted to go sledding. (We have some tubes that we "inherited" from Bryan's old apartment.) They both seemed really excited, especially Korina who has been wanting to play in the snow. We ate dinner together, got them dressed and headed to Rock Canyon Park. We had such a blast!! A few topples, but so worth it. Might I suggest trying riding down on a one-man tube (that's only supposed to hold 120 lbs.) laying on top of your husband (or spouse) almost completely by accident. You'll be in for a big laugh and a big tumble. The only problem....walking back up that ridiculous hill.

After that we decided that we just had to build a snowman. We didn't exactly know how it would turn out, but when you kinda start it out as a competition to see who can make the biggest ball, you get a pretty tall one. So I present to you....Mr. Harold Ned Snowman!!!!

We named him Harold because he just had to have one of those slightly awkward names. No offense to anyone named Harold. Then we added Ned because he kind of looks like Daddy, don't you think? Yep, he has pine eyebrows, pine cone eyes, a twig mouth and nose and stick arms. The baseball cap was provided by Nathan and the scarf by me. Isn't he amazing?!?!? And I swear, he almost did come to life!
When we were about to leave we were all so sad. All that hard work. So what does Bryan do....he gives Harold Ned a hug. Seriously how could I not take a picture of my hilarious husband?
So here we all are taking pictures with Harold Ned to prove that we are master snowman builders....and so that we always remember this day. And look at him! He must be at least 6 feet tall!
So, thank you Harold Ned for a wonderful time and the magic that you provided 2 couples on a snowy day when snowboarding didn't work out.

I really hope he's still there.

Burns

2010-12-17T08:10:00.004-07:00

For those of you who have lived or visited Provo, this may come as sad or shocking news. This morning at 2:45am, the Provo Tabernacle was reported to be burning down. Perhaps burned down isn't the correct words for the four walls still stand, but the roof, inside and beautiful stain glass windows are all gone - perhaps also a turret by the end of this. And smoke billows from the top even now as I type this, as firefighters continue to try to put out the flames. It is yet unknown what started the fire, but it is believed it started in the attic.

I'm so glad that Bryan, Nathan, me and especially Korina, who had never seen the Tabernacle before, were able to go to our Stake's Musical Fireside in the Tabernacle last Sunday. The Tabernacle has been my favorite building in Provo since I moved here and I am truly sorry to see it in such a state. I hope they rebuild it, seems saving it seems more and more impossible as the fire continues to burn.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T16:11:00.005-07:00

I love Thanksgiving and Christmas. Actually, I love Halloween because that's where it all begins. I swear, they have so many of the best holidays in Fall and Winter because they know there is nothing else to do. And that's just how I like it! Anyway, I signed up to make a pie for our Ward's Pie and Game night. Sadly I didn't start it until I got home from work at 5 and so it wasn't ready in time. Oh well, I don't think Bryan minded. I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com and apparently everyone loves it and its won all these awards, so I had to try it. My conclusion...it's really good---or I just make one really great apple pie. I'm leaning towards the latter. Anyway, it tasted great and looks even better, if I say so myself, which of course I do. I mean look at it, it's picture perfect!!

Bryan and I spent Thanksgiving at his brother's house (Craig and Sarah) in Layton. His two younger brothers were there with us too. Sarah made almost the entire dinner herself (props to her) and it was delicious. We had so much fun. We even played Balderdash and your's truly won. Apparently I'm really good at making up things that sound real (which I believe is a useful tool) or, as Bryan pointed out, I've been watching too much Lie To Me and have been using my lying detection skills to figure out who was lying. Maybe it was a little of both. Or I'm just a genius. I'll take either.

That Friday Bryan had to go back to work (sadly) and I got to stay home, so what did I do...I put up the Christmas Tree!! I love decorating. Especially Christmas. And in our little apartment it looks like a Christmas card it's so perfectly traditional. I love it!! I did silver and gold again this year. It's just so classic.

And even though these pictures are fuzzy I wanted to get the feel of the room with the lights softly glowing. YAY!!

Plus we have that huge window so this year everyone else can really appreciate my beautiful tree like they haven't been able to the last couple of years. I think that Bryan is figuring out that I am the Jones' that everyone else is trying to keep up with. I can't help that I like showing off. I'm just too good at what I do!!

Later that night we rented Toy Story 3, I know, I know, we're a little slow when it comes to watching the must-sees. Bryan built us a fort because our living room is huge with no furniture in it other than a tree and piano. It was so simply perfect. I commented how it is nice to know that if we are ever stuck out somewhere my husband can build me a fort with some safety pins. We had so much fun. I would suggest that everyone should make a fort now and again. It brings back so many memories and can be the beginning of a great adventure!

The Apartment

2010-11-15T15:50:00.005-07:00

So I know that everyone has wanted to see the apartment, but up until now it hasn't been anything special. Only now is it starting to take on personality.

It's hard to explain but when you walk into the front door you see this huge wall with built-in bookshelves, a fireplace, two large windows and a huge mantel. It's one of the reasons that I loved this place. So this is one side of the mantel. It's full of our pictures, family pictures, The Proclamation, The Living Christ and a digital picture frame that Bryan got me for my birthday. In the bookshelves are our movies and all those binders and books on the second shelf are Bryan's piano music.

Yes we hung up our ginormous picture of us above the fireplace. It's the perfect place! And everyone comments on it when they come over. And on the other side is our sign in book, our engagement photos book and my crystal bowl with my bouquet in it. What I love is that everything from the wedding works so well in our house too. AND, I'm just not willing to give it up yet.
This is on the opposite wall where our couch will hopefully go when we finally buy one. Our diplomas are on the left, our marriage certificates on the right and we are in the middle. Almost everything on this wall was a wedding gift, so thank you everyone for making our house more like a home.
I had to take a picture of this because this is a 21" clock that I wanted so much. I don't know what is with me a really big clocks, but I like them, I feel like they can be artwork in themselves. And yep, Bryan got we that for my birthday too. (He knew I really wanted it, plus he got me my own Reader's Digest Christmas music book which is very nostalgic in the family, and a bathrobe that I kept complaining I wish I had and he took me to P.F. Chang's which I love!! Obviously forgot to blog about the birthday.) Anyway, I love the clock. Plus I don't have to go all the way into the kitchen to see the time.
Our kitchen. For married college housing we think we hit the jackpot. Look at all that space! Plus there's more on the other side with the oven and microwave! And it's all new with granite counter tops. What I love most about the kitchen now is that everything MATCHES!! The plate, bowls, cups, silverware, measuring utensils, pots, pans.....everything!! It has been my dream since I first came to college and it's mine!!! (And yes, that is my love cooking dinner in the background! He was making stuffed mushrooms. Yum!)
And this was our latest addition. We had so many pots from Mom that they didn't really fit. I mean, we could make them fit, but then getting them in and out was a huge hassle. So we decided to hang them on the wall because we don't have one of those cool island light/pot hanger things like Larissa. But we thought we'd use the same concept. We had to make it up because they didn't sell anything what would work at Target (and we still had some gift card money, so we thought we might as well use it) so we used a window curtain rod, some wall hanger hooks and shower curtain hook. I think we are pretty ingenious and that it looks pretty good. And please, some one mention to Mom how good the copper-bottom pans look! Yes, I keep them that clean all the time!

So anyway, that's a little glimpse into our apartment. I couldn't get a good angle on the bathroom, but well, it's a bathroom and it all matches too. (And Heidi and Larissa, we have all new towels so feel free to come and shower in our clean bathroom and have a nice fluffy towel to dry off with. I think you'll be proud.) And the bedroom....well it's the least seen, so although it is picked-up and clean, it looks funny because it's a mattress on the ground and there are no dressers. But one day it too will look like the rest of the house. So yep, there you have it my friends (and family). Casa de Stiles.

One Month

2010-11-10T10:45:00.007-07:00

Yesterday was our one month.....anniversary, I guess you could say. Don't worry, I'm not the type of crazy person that is going to celebrate each month, but I thought that the first month was kinda special. Especially since we haven't killed each other yet. :)

I didn't even really plan it out until about an hour before I got off work and realized what day it was. I knew I was going to cook dinner anyway, so I decided that I would just liven it up a bit to make it special--plus I knew that Bryan had Frisbee so he wouldn't be there to ruin the surprise.

I ran to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients we didn't have and then I went to Kmart. Okay, I know this is weird, but I'm starting to really like that store. I wanted placemats and they were the only ones that had nice, simple ones. Target and Walmart looked like a college magazine. I defiantly did NOT want bright pink and white polka-dotted placemats and Kmart had the nicest light gold ones. Plus we got our table (yes, for now it is a card table) with chairs there for cheaper than anywhere else and it looked like it at least tried to have some design to it. Anyway, basically I feel that I should rethink my perception of Kmart.

So I made dinner and set the table - I think even Ms. Manners would be proud.

I even looked up how to fold napkins. This one is called "Lily."

We needed two cups so that we could have a drink with our meal and for our toast. Yep, I got Martinelli's. It's tradition. We couldn't celebrate without it.

So even though it was simple, I'm proud. And I think Bryan liked it too.

So it wasn't completely a surprise. Bryan's brother had asked for help moving his stuff and Bryan asked me if we should invite him to dinner. I normally would love to have his brother come over, but I thought that would be a little awkward, so I had to tell Bryan that I wanted to make a special dinner. Of course, he caught on immediately. (He was wondering why I was pushing him out the door.) Sadly, he thought he needed to take his time, so he didn't come home until 8:00. I thought I needed to rush, so I had everything ready at 7:15. The food got a little cold and I had to make more sauce because it all cooked away, but it turned out okay in the end. Other than that, it was just how I planned it. We ate, we toasted, we smiled, we love. Basically......I love my husband!!

Honeymoon!!

2010-11-02T10:59:00.017-06:00

Oh......where to begin. I'm only buckling down and do this because Daddy told me I had to. Just kidding! Well, sorta. He did call and tell me to update my blog, and I have wanted to, I just wanted to do the wedding first, but I almost don't know what to say about that either. I'll sit down another day and write it I think. Simply - it was wonderful...everything I could have hoped for...and I was and am so happy to be married to Bryan. THIS, however, is not about the wedding, it's about the Honeymoon.

We went to Florida for our Honeymoon. We started in Ft. Lauderdale and worked our way up. We did miss our flight from DFW (we mixed up the return time with the departing time) but luckily US Airways was really nice and got us out on the next flight. Thank goodness! For the first 3 days we just lounged around in the resort, eating lots of food and enjoying our time together. It was nice to not have to worry about any plans.

I guess the exciting stuff didn't start happening until our cruise to the Bahamas. I have never been out of the country, let alone on the East coast, so this was all a new experience for me. Bryan had gotten us a berth on the top floor with a big window and comparatively a lot of space. It was interesting to see what people can fit into if they try. We had a queen bed and there was only the 2 of us sharing everything. Some berths had 4 people and one bathroom. I don't know how they did it.

The first picture we took. We finally remembered that we needed to document this!

This was the view from one of the decks. That island is called Peanut Island and apparently the Kennedy's had a vacation home there. I don't even think you can stay there. It's now used for the Coast Guard.This cruise ship was smaller, but it still had all the fun stuff with it. It had the casino and pub, the nicer restaurants, the night club, the lounge, the pool and bar area. It was so much fun. Bryan took me dancing one night. It was 50s and 60s hour and we were the only ones up there dancing! I'm so glad that Bryan was willing to dance with me although we were all alone. Everyone else seemed to enjoy watching us though. We had dinner at the nicer restaurant where there were 5 courses and the presentation was beautiful! I almost felt like I was on the Titanic. Then we laid on lounge chairs outside, listened to our audiobook, and watched the ocean.
When we actually got to the Bahamas, Bryan had us signed up to go snorkeling. I have never done it and I've always wanted to! I got to swim with the fishies!! There was corral all over the place and Bryan dived down and got us some shells.

We totally found this starfish!! Just kidding. It was the boat's owners.

After snorkeling we had lunch at the resort and decided to be lazy. We went into the water for a little while, but it was rainy and kinda cold (at least for me who is perpetually cold). Luckily they had a hot tub so I could warm up.

Yes that was the color of the sky.

We decided to listen to more of our audiobook and rest. It was tiring swimming around for over an hour.

After that we went shopping of their little boardwalk where Bryan bought me a manu, or lava-lava. I wore it to dinner. That night we got fun little non-alcoholic drinks and listened to a jazz singer. We listened to more of our book and had a marvelous time!!

After we returned the next day we had to drive back down to Ft. Lauderdale (the port was in Palm Beach--about an hour away) to pick up a shirt that Bryan forgot in the resort. We then drove up to Orlando to begin the next stage of our journey......Universal Studios!!!!!!!

I think this was the funnest part for both of us. Don't get me wrong, we loved everything, but seriously, who don't love a great theme park?
Oh where to start? This is on the Universal side. There is Universal and Islands of Adventure. Everything is so clean and well done. They REALLY know the meaning of THEME park. This is the New York area where they played Frank Sinatra and had the Blues Brothers.
It also had The Mummy ride! Seriously, at Universal (every part of it) it was almost FUN to stand in line just so you could look at everything. This was such a cool ride, it was one of those that's in the dark so you don't know what's coming. They really like their pyrotechnics too!!! Every ride had some sort of bursting flame in it. I'm almost surprised that I still have my eyebrows! This ride had a napalm ceiling at one point.
This goes into the San Fransisco district. Bryan danced me down the alley. I love him!
Then there is the Jaws area. This ride was pretty fun. Lots of explosions and again, more fire. These poor little kids got scared on the ride and had to hide behind their mom. I really can't complain. I've never even seem Jaws--I've been too scared.
Men In Black - a shooter ride. I still don't know how you know when you shot the aliens, but Bryan kicked my trash like 150,000 to 65,000. Oh well, I know I'll always be safe with him.
The Simpson's Ride - It's one of those virtual rides with the smells and stuff. Not too gross, but after awhile all the virtual things were make us a little queasy.
We have no idea what this used to be. It doesn't look like it's been open in awhile, but yes, that is my name on the sign......I'm so cool!
Then the adventure REALLY begins!! The Universal side is really fun, but the Islands of Adventure is ten times better!! Probably because it's newer too.
Everything here makes you feel like you stepped into a different world. And it's all so well done!

This is the best ride in the entire park. I find it funny that the movies haven't done as well as the ride - or why they named a ride after the Hulk anyway, it's not like he is that well known.
This ride is the bomb. You slowly start to tick up as it counts down, then you realize that the counting will be over before you make it to the top. Suddenly...........WHOOSH!!! You are shot out the top and start spinning and dropping. It's such as interesting combination. And the best part is that you actually feel like the ride is worth your time. Yes we had to stand in line for an hour the first time, but the ride actually felt long. I kept expecting it to end, but like I said, it's so worth it.
The Hulk is part of the Superhero Comic area. They had a 3-D Spiderman virtual/moving ride. You almost couldn't tell what was screen and what was a set in front of you.
Then you move to the Comicstrip area. And yes, I hadn't had that much fun in a long time.
This is the best log ride ever!! It has such a big drop! Islands has every ride that other parks have, but they are done bigger and better.
This was Bryan's favorite part! He really liked dinosaurs as a kid. They had John Williams' music playing all over the place.
This is the fossilized sidewalks that were over the entire Jurassic Park area.
These dinos looked legit! I told Bryan to look scared and all he said was that he's too amazing to be scared of a dinosaur. And it's sadly true.
This is almost like a log ride again, but you're in a large boat. The ride takes you through the building and has the biggest drop ever!!! And the biggest splash too! I almost am scared of this drop.

This is the Jurassic Park Island.

This is the ride. They have life size animatronic dinosaurs.

I don't know the names of the dinosaurs, but just call Bryan, he can tell you them all.

The end of the ride has a HUGE T-Rex coming at you like he is going to bite your head off and then you fall the big drop I was telling you about. It looked so real!

Then you move on to MY favorite part. HARRY POTTER WORLD!!!!! I don't even know how much I need to explain. It's like walking into the movie, expect with a lot more people. Actually it's just like Diagon Alley in the first movie when Harry sees it for the first time. It is cram packed!

That's so right. It's Hogsmeade!

Everything around here moves. The reflection is bad, but Sirius Black moves just like in the movies. I understand that it's just a screen, but it soooo doesn't look like it.

The Three Broomsticks. We had lunch here. It is so cool.
Like I said, just like the movie. And yes you can buy chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans, chocolate wands, lemon drops. You name it from the books, it's there.
These are the cards from the Chocolate Frogs, and yes, their pictures move too.

The Hogwart's Express. They had a conductor and everything!

This was the most interesting ride. I don't even know how to explain it. It was similar to other ones where it was virtual and motion, but the motion wasn't just from the bottom of your seat. It turned you almost upside down and spun and ups and downs, some in front of a screen (when flying through Quidditch) or with big sets when Dementors or gigantic spiders were after you. It throws you for a loop. Literally.

Standing in line. Yes--that is Butterbeer. Delicious!!!

Since Harry Potter World is so new and everyone wants to go, they have pretty long lines, but this was the coolest line to wait in. You walk through the castle dungeons a little bit, then through the greenhouses.
You zigzag through that and then make it to the front doors!!

First thing you see. Big statue.

The House Cup counters.

Dumbledore's eagle in front of his office.

The hallway with the moving stairs. It was so tall, they have lots of pictures and yes, some of them move too!

Dumbledore's office where they have all his little contraptions. There is a screen in the back with him talking to you. You know it's a screen, but it's still pretty cool.

Defense Against the Dark Arts class room.

Here you meet Harry, Ron and Hermione. There is a screen of them too.

The Fat Lady. I know you can't see her, but you can see that they even texture the screens to look like oil paintings, but yes, she moved too.

Lastly, the Great Hall where you actually get onto the ride.

Everything about Harry Potter was cool. You could go to Ollivanders and get a wand (too bad that line was longer then any ride in the entire Universal Resort park). They also had a Dragon Challenge ride with the Triwizard Cup and they send two coasters out at the same time. Really cool if you're in the front seat.

Lastly we come to The Lost Continent. It's like Persia and Greece combined. This is called Poseidon's Fury. It's more of a show than a ride.

They have a little actor and this is another one of those fire-burst shows with water explosions. Bryan's favorite part was walking through this tunnel of water. The water is rushed up so fast on one side that it makes it clear across the top and other side without getting you wet. Pretty amazing!

There was also Dr. Seuss land. It was really kiddie though. Still, we had 2 day, park-to-park access tickets, so we made sure to get into everything we wanted. It was so fun!!!

That night we made it to the Hyatt (in the airport--which was so cool), luckily made it to our flight. (There was hundred of people and we were running a little late.) And flew back to Texas for our 2 day drive home. It was amazing!!! We had a blast with everything and now all of you want to go to Universal too. Don't worry, it's okay, you can admit it!!

Phase 3 Launch

2010-09-15T10:23:00.002-06:00

Everything is in phases.

Phase 1 - Move out of old apartment - completed August 25, 2010

Phase 2 - Stay at Douma's for 3 weeks - completed September 15, 2010

Phase 3 - Move into our apartment - commencing now

Phase 4 - Drive to Texas to get married - pending October 2, 2010

Phase 5 - Live happily ever after - 1pm October 9, 2010

It may seem pathetic that everything has a countdown and is so meticulously divided, but looking at 2 months stretched ahead of me.....let's just say I had to make little check points so that it didn't seem so ridiculously long and so I wouldn't go crazy. 2 weeks I can deal with, 2 months equaling 60 days - that gets a little harder. But as of today, I'm halfway through those stupid phases!

Everyone keeps telling me enjoy this time and to make all these memories. All I can say is....seriously? I'm dying here!! I'm sure I'll look back and realize just how very short of a wait it is, but for now I'm wishing it away. I'm going to take Anna's advice though, and start taking a lot of pictures, so that I can relive everything that I'm determined NOT to remember right now. Who wants to remember pain and agony? (Just ask Bryan.)

But, I want to thank the Douma's for being a wonderful family to let me stay with them for 3 weeks and never complaining. I have worked with Samantha, her mother, Leone, and her father, Hans, for the past 2 years. It's been interesting getting to know them better. And for the Ken Stiles' family who are going to let Bryan stay with them for the next 2 and a half weeks until we get to leave. You guys are lifesavers!!

We Have A Home!!

2010-08-05T14:59:00.003-06:00

I swear, Provo must be the worst place to try to find housing in the world! I think that Bryan and I have looked at hundreds of ads and it's almost pathetic how bad some of them are for the price they want to charge.....but that's the market I guess. We've looked at basement apartments, condos, townhouses, places without air conditioning, places without washers and dryers, places with everything and places with nothing. Some of them seemed like they could work, but nothing felt right. Nothing felt like home.

It was so funny when Bryan found the apartment we are going to live in. His first statement about it: "Whoa....I like that kitchen....a lot." Now seriously, how many guys do you hear that from? I love that Bryan can cook, and that he enjoys it---I think. I think my favorite part about the apartment is that it is a house built in 1912, but it's not a basement! It's hard to explain. It's not a townhouse or anything like that, but the house has been split in two. Basically the landlords bolted one door and the house is separated. They totally renovated the kitchen (ceramic tile, granite counters, new appliances---probably why Bryan liked it so much). The living room has a fireplace with built-in shelves around it and a big casement window. It has so much character. I wish I had pictures, but they already took the ad down and obviously we don't live there yet. It's one bed, one bath, but it has so much storage space. I can't wait to move in!

I think one of the best parts is that the landlords are so fun and nice. We were the first people to take a look at it and apparently we made a good impression. I had talked to Shelley on the phone and she seemed so nice and I was excited to see her in person, sadly she wasn't there, but her husband was so he showed us around. They are really laid-back people and I think they'll be great landlords. After we went through it and fell in love with it I told Bryan we had to get it! So we chatted up Shaun for a bit. (Nothing like talking to make yourself look better, right?) Shelley called me today to say that out of all the people who came (and apparently there were quite a few) we were the lucky ones getting it. She said that Shaun had really liked us and after every other couple came to see it he would say, nope, not as good as us!! Bryan and I are so COOL!!! They are even willing to hold Bryan's stuff until we can officially move in on the 16th--his contract ends on the 13th. And I'm sure that it we want, they'll let us plant a garden. They'll be great neighbors!

So what has this taught me? I hate looking for housing. I hate ads without pictures. And no matter how much you think you know what you want, God always steps in and gives you what you need. I am so excited to start this new journey in my life. And I'm so grateful that Bryan is going to be right there next to me.

Very Long Engagement Story

2010-07-20T13:28:00.003-06:00

The Engagement Story

By Bryan Stiles

Once I figured out that I wanted to marry Laurel I found myself in a precarious position. I was the one who was lagging in the relationship. Or at least I was almost positive that I was the one we were waiting on and that Laurel was just hoping I would want to marry her and was just biding her time. So I decided that it was a perfect set up for me to propose old school. Meaning that we wouldn’t have the pre-marriage discussion where we decided to get married and then go ring shopping and then after everyone already knows you propose. So I decided that I would buy a ring myself, and do it all without her having any clue. This turned out to be slightly difficult and somewhat stressful even. But I managed it like a champ.

So first I had to go ring shopping which means I had to find some times where I wasn’t with her to get away and check out some rings. Melanie had also called me the week before to tell me that she knew a jeweler that could get me a pretty good deal on a ring and diamonds. She sent me the website for the guy and it only took me a minute of looking at the pictures to find a ring that I really liked. Still I decided it would be wise to look around a bit to see what the market was like. The first thing I did was talk to Mena and have her come with me to a jewelry store. She knows two things really well. Me and diamonds. So it was probably a good thing to have her come with me. We went to Schubach’s and looked at all there rings. I learned all the diamond lingo at this visit. I had to make sure to not let my newfound knowledge of diamonds come out in front of Laurel. I almost slipped once when Laurel was looking at one of her rings and she mentioned that it was dirty. I told her that a jeweler could clean it up real quick and that I could get it done for her on the way home from work one day. Then I realized that I might have just given away the fact that I had been going to jewelry stores. But she didn’t really suspect anything. I think she just liked the idea of me going to a ring store.

I found a ring I kind of liked at Schubach’s but I had a huge headache by the end of it. So I put it on hold and waited for another day. The next day I stopped by Wilson’s diamonds and checked out all the rings there. They had the biggest selection of rings. In fact that’s all they sell there. Which I find kind of funny, I mean, people only buy their engagement rings once. Not much return business. I guess they can profit from specialization and give cheaper prices that way. Referrals are probably decent too. Anyway, they had a few styles I thought were alright, but nothing didn’t really jump out at me. I found a men’s ring that I like though. Around then I started to realize that I didn’t like the one from Schubach’s. In fact now in retrospect, I don’t really like it at all, it is kind of hideous. But after looking at a billion different rings I guess I was a little sparkle overloaded.

During this time I got Laurel’s roommate Emily to be my mole. She did some spy work for me to see if Laurel really was ready to get married and any other inside information that I needed. This was helpful because Laurel was really starting to freak out about where she was going to live in the fall. I was dragging my feet because I didn’t want her to get a year contract. I didn’t have an apartment either, but all this I was trying to postpone until we were engaged. This also led me to freak out a ton because I was trying to orchestrate everything and hold her off from doing anything final. It was rather stressful and I was a basket case while at work. Luckily I held it all in while I was around Laurel.

This all started to come to a head the week before I had the ring ready. She found a house that she really liked and really wanted to get it. She kept trying to ask me if it she should get it or what she should do. I couldn’t really give her a straight answer. Along our discussions she asked me if I was going to break up with her and she would be locked in with a yearlong contract. I told her that she was stuck with me. That made her start thinking about where our relationship was going. So it was on her mind all day at work and the next day too. That Friday we went to Costco with Emily and I could tell that there was something on her mind. I was pretty sure that it was about marriage. When we were at the store she finally brought it up. She asked “So are you kinda thinking about marrying me?” I freaked out in my head at that time, but I think my face was just blank at the time. So after all pistons were firing and a full tank of mental NOS was used up I came up with an answer. It was “kinda?” Her spirit just dropped there. It was sooo sad. It was like all happiness had left her.

The next day I drove up to Bountiful to see the jeweler, pick a diamond and have it set. I made a down payment and he told me it would be ready on Tuesday. On the way home I called her dad to ask if I could marry her. It turned out to be a rather short conversation. In fact he didn’t answer when I first called him so I left a message. He called me back when I was in the middle of the drive through at Wendy’s. That was kind of funny. The conversation didn’t last much longer than it took to get through the drive through either. He just told me that they had been waiting for this phone call for a while. After that I headed up to Rock Canyon and met Mark Stewart there. I asked him to take photos for me so we headed up the canyon to scout out the spot. We found a good spot and headed back down. I called Laurel and she asked me if I had been playing Frisbee, I said I had (Straight up lie!) and it was fun.

We went tubing down Provo river that afternoon and I started hinting that we should go on some mini hikes during the week. She said, “Ok!” and I thought, “Well that was simple.” Later that night I texted her roommate Emily while we were all hanging out in her living room and said “I need you to get a ride home from work on Tuesday and then come up with an excuse as to why while I am around.” So she waited a little while and then told Laurel that on Tuesday she was heading over to campus to work on some registration stuff for this fall. Laurel just said “Ok!” and I thought, “Well that was simple.” So everything was set.

Tuesday came around and I was excited. It was a good excitement though. I wasn’t really nervous because everything was set and I wasn’t going to ruin the surprise. Or at least the chances were small due to my impeccable planning skills, which was a nice change from the freakouts a week before. So anyway, I got off work early and drove up to Bountiful to pick up the ring. My check book took a hard hit that afternoon… I got back at about 4:50 and awaited her text saying that she was back from work. 5:00 rolled around and… nothing. 5:10 came along and still nothing so I sent her a text “Are you home yet?” Still no reply. So at 5:20 I was royally impatient. I called her and she finally answered, it turns out she was on the phone with her younger brother. Of all the times!!! She was almost done so I put the ring in my cargo shorts and headed over.

I actually got to talk to her brother on the phone a bit. He’s a funny guy. During our conversation he asked “So you guys are going on a hike huh?” I replied “yeeess?” detecting a little bit of insinuation in his voice. It turns out he knew, and he knew exactly what was going to happen in the next 20 mins. Also about that time I got a text from my friend Mark saying “We should double on Saturday. That was code for “I’ve arrived at the parking lot”. So I replied “Yeah how about 5:35” Which was code for we should get to the parking lot at 5:35.” The code was a good thing because Laurel asked who I was texting and I was able to tell her Mark called to see if we wanted to double on Saturday. She said “tell him sure” and I thought “Well that was easy.” She really had no idea whatsoever on what was going on. We got to the parking lot and I had the ring in my right pocket, so naturally I wanted her to be on my left side just in case she bumped into me or something. It didn’t work out that way. So I had to kind of make sure she didn’t get too close. This meant I had somewhat of a death grip on her hand and was keeping her at a distance. She didn’t really think much of it though since I used to do that when we first started dating. Apparently I was rather nervous at the beginning of our relationship too.

We started up the canyon and apparently I was booking it. I thought we were going the speed of a snail, but I suppose my senses were somewhat heightened at the moment. And yet she still didn’t think much of it because I had mentioned on Saturday that it would be a good way to cross train instead of going running every day. She just assumed that I wanted to keep her heart rate up. Just another bit of universal luck that I used up that night. It was kind of awkward on the way up because since I only had one thing on my mind that I couldn’t talk about, I couldn’t think of anything else to say. But luckily she didn’t really notice anything yet again. As we got close to the spot where I was going to propose and Mark was hiding our code word to signal to Mark that we were there was “Woot!” I worked it into the conversation rather well and it actually turned into both of us saying “Woot woot!” “Woooot.” She still suspected nothing. Then the moment came. We were almost to the turn in where I was going to take her down to the creek alongside the trail and propose on a rather large boulder that the water was flowing around. I summed up my courage to bring her down and then the two guys in front of me turned left to go down there too. My heart skipped not one, not two but probably SEVEN beats and I summoned all my mental force to will them away from the area. A bit more of my universal luck was used up and they turned away. It was like magic. I had stuttered in my steps when they turned in, and Laurel asked “What’s wrong” I just told her I tripped on some rocks, they were slippery, and she agreed. There went a little more luck.

So down we went to hop on to the large boulder where I would pop the question. I went first and she followed. I hopped up onto the boulder and turned around to look Laurel in the eyes and she hopped up on the boulder too. Then she proceeded to hop onto some other rocks and started jumping away to go explore the area. So close! I said “Wait, come back here.” She looked at me kind of funny and came back. I angled her away from where the cameras were and then said “Do you remember on Friday when you asked me if I was thinking about marrying you.” Puzzled by my sudden serious look on my face and slightly apprehensively she said “Yes?” I told her “ Well I wasn’t quite ready yet at that time because…” At this point I leaned over to grab the ring box out of my cargo pockets and started to get down on my knee, “…I didn’t have a ring yet” I opened it up and she gasped and I asked her if she would marry me. She said yes and then pulled that ring right out of the box and put it on. I thought I was supposed to do that, but she wasn’t going to wait.

We were there for a little bit and my friend Mark came out after I told her that it was all being recorded. She had no clue… which is kind of the theme of this proposal. Hopefully it doesn’t turn out to be the theme of the marriage…

After Mark left I took her back to the trail and proceeded to confess all the lies I had told her over the last 3 weeks. It was rather funny, and I think that wraps up the story of how we got engaged.

Laurel’s Side

Let me start off by saying that I love Bryan and I wanted to marry him. But what he was thinking…I had no idea. Complete darkness. Well, except that he loved me too.

I may freak out just a little bit when it comes to housing, but I had never waited this long to start looking. From the vibes I was getting from him I felt that it would be a while until he was sure he wanted to marry me. For all I knew, I was certain he would wake up one day and realize him didn’t want to be with me at all, let alone forever. That being said, I did NOT want to be stuck in a yearlong contract for housing if he was going to leave me. I was going to pack up and leave if that was the case. No use being depressed and dejected and in the same town as him. So you see my dilemma: I needed someplace to live come Fall, but I wanted to know what he thought. So I asked him. Was he going to leave me anytime in the near future? Nope. Apparently I was stuck with him.

Well at least that was somewhat comforting.

I tried to be patient, but I knew I was bugging him about the housing question. Every time I brought it up I felt like he made it seem like it was nothing to worry about and we could deal with it later. I didn’t feel the same. I didn’t want to be stuck in a hole. And despite the bugging, I felt that I had to talk to him about it. So I started looking. I found the cutest house for a good price with rooms available. I called and looked at it and it was perfect for me. Something was wrong though. I just didn’t feel right about it. I felt like I needed more time. I told Bryan on Sunday that I was apprehensive about it—and I’m pretty sure he was thanking his lucky stars—and I decided that I probably wouldn’t even bother sending in my application because so many girls had looked at it.

To make matters worse, on Friday, I finally broke down after a lot of contemplation to ask him if he was even kind of thinking about marrying me. I was in this for the long haul and I wanted to know where he stood. And my answer….”Kinda?” Deflate. I felt terrible. I felt that I had brought it up too early. He wasn’t ready. I was pushing him and I didn’t want him to feel pressured. I let the topic drop quickly—and I wasn’t going to bring it up any time soon. I’d wait for him.

On Monday, however, I had an email from the owner of the house telling me that she didn’t care that other girls had looked at it, she liked me and it was mine if I wanted it. Crap. So what did I do? I talked to Bryan. I felt like I was just adding logs to the fire of bugging him. I knew he didn’t want to hear about it, but I just felt that I couldn’t do anything without talking to him first. He told me to take some time to really considerate it and ask if I could wait until Wednesday. So I wrote the landlord and said I would get my application to her in a day or two.

Monday was such a funny day. Not only was I worried about housing, but I had to cook dinner for Dinner Group that night—which I hadn’t planned until at work—I was talking to Samantha about her boy problems, Jordan about his girlfriend, Lena about knowing when it’s the right guy and my ex, Trevor, who needed some uplifting words—surprising, I know. I didn’t know what was happening with my own life and I felt like everyone wanted me to be the guru of theirs. So what was my first reaction? I came home and told Bryan about everything. His advice….forget everything, don’t worry, start with getting dinner over with first and we’d worry about housing together later that week. That night Emily asked when I thought I’d marry Bryan. I told her I’d be lucky if he proposed before the end of the year.

On Saturday Emily had told me that she didn’t need a ride home from work on Monday or Tuesday. She had an Owlz baseball game and she was going to campus to work on some stuff for school. I was so proud that she was getting things worked out. Bryan thought it was a perfect time for us to go on one of the hikes we had talked about going on. Agreed. It was perfect cross training for our running. So we planned on 5:30 to go up Rock Canyon—might as well start with someplace we knew.

Tuesday. It was a normal day at work. I wanted it to be Friday, but I definitely wanted to get home to Bryan. He always makes my day better. I did promise my brother that I would call him though to hear about his girlfriend. So at 5:00 I called him. At 5:10 I heard my phone beep telling me I had a text message. I knew it was Bryan, who else would it be? But I knew we were hiking at 5:30 and so I didn’t respond. Our hike could wait until I finished with Jordan. At 5:20 Bryan called. He wanted to know where I was. I told him I was at home and talking to my brother. He sounded a little worried when he asked if it was going to take a long time. I told him no and that he should just come over and I’d be finished quicker if he was next to me. He came over and I had him say hi to Jordan—I had to talk to Jordan’s girlfriend, so I thought it was only fair that he did the same for me. Bryan kept it pretty short and I quickly said bye—Bryan seemed to be in a hurry to get hiking before dinner group started. Or so I thought.

When we got to Rock Canyon Bryan had my hand clinched like he used to when we had just started dating. I thought I was going to have to have another chat with him about relaxing his hand, but I didn’t think much more about it. He was also booking it up the canyon. I just assumed he wanted to get my heart rate up so that it would be a good work out, so he set the pace and I kept it. We chatted about something, I don’t remember what. I do remember mentioning that the water was gone from the stream when before it was overflowing. Finally we get to this big boulder. Bryan starts to slow down because we are catching up to two guys in front of us. They started to go toward the boulder and Bryan kind of shuffled his steps. I’m wondering what’s wrong. Nothing, just some slippery rocks. Agreed. Stupid rocks. Luckily the guys just glanced and turned away. We had been to these rocks before the last time we hiked Rock Canyon. Bryan mentioned how there was still some water trickling around the rocks. He said we should take a closer look. Okay.

He jumped onto the main rock. I was right behind him, but jumped away to another rock. I guess I wanted to explore. He called back to me. “Come back here.” I thought he just wanted to hug me or something so I willingly complied. Suddenly I felt the air become electrified and Bryan had this serious look on his face.

“Remember on Friday when you asked me if I was thinking of marrying you?”

“Yes.” Oh, crap, here it comes, he’s going to be angry and break up with me.

“Well, I wasn’t ready.”

Yep, nothing happening for a while. Hello single life for another year.

(fumbling around in his pocket) “Because…I didn’t have the ring yet.”

Shock.

Confusion.

(down on one knee) “Will you marry me?”

Heck yes!! “Yes.”

Kiss, kiss.(Unceremoniously grab ring and put on self) hug, kiss, kiss, hug, etc. “Emily is going to freak out.”

“Uh…..yeah, she’s known for the past 2 weeks.”

Shock.

Confusion.

Oh well. Kiss, kiss, hug, etc.

“Oh, by the way, we’re being videotaped.”

Shock.

Laugh.

Kiss, kiss, hug, etc Who cares? It’s my proposal.

I'M ENGAGED!!!!!!

2010-07-15T08:24:00.001-06:00

More to come.....we are working on writing down everything that happen so we don't forget. But it's going to take a while. There was a lot of sneakiness going on behind my back. But don't worry, everyone will get the full story soon.

Going Down the Bayou

2010-07-13T09:07:00.004-06:00

Okay, so it's not a real bayou, but Bryan, Em and I recently watched "Princess and the Frog" and the song got stuck in my head. Which, I love that movie by the way. But that's not what's important. What's important is that I braved the freezing cold Provo river!!

Bryan's co-workers invited us to go tubing with them on Saturday. However, when the day came, it looked like a storm was heading our way. His friends decided to bail. We just thought, well, we're going to get wet anyway. So we hopped on some tubes and, low and behold, it rained for 2 minutes and then the sun came out and shined all the rest of the day. It didn't help my poor freezing body though. I think my feet went numb in 5 seconds, literally. Still, we had a blast, trying to get each other wet and not hitting the branches on both sides of the river. Might I add here that Bryan has started to get me to run everyday and we make sure and stretch after, so I'm getting pretty limber and was able to fold myself into a ball inside the tube and not hit the branches. I felt very cool.

The water level was a lot higher than I've seen it in a while, so we got some good "rapids" in there. I thought I had won for getting the most wet, but of course, right at the end, Bryan had to one-up me by flipping himself over! I was genuinely concerned for his safety, but I was cracking up so hard too. Sadly, he lost his sunglasses, but I'm sure we'll get him another pair at some point.

After we went to Heber Lake because we just didn't have enough of the water. Bryan has this thing for water and I agree with him most of the time. It can be so pretty around Utah sometimes. And since we were in Heber already, we went to one of their "ma and pa" restaurants---I've heard they're pretty good. We ended up at "The Spicy Lady." (How could you not want to go to a place called that?) It was a saloon. It was so fun inside. And the food was really good too. Plus they had live music and I swear the guy sounded just like Willie Nelson. Still, it was a great weekend. (I seem to be having a lot of them these days. I wonder what the difference could be.)

Fourth of July

2010-07-06T08:32:00.004-06:00

Oh, where to start! It has been such a great long weekend, and yet so short at the same time. I hate how it always feels that way. But now it is time to make you all extremely jealous of all the fun things Bryan and I do.

Friday night:

Nothing starts a fun-filled, fatty weekend like Five Guys Burger and Fries. (Okay, everyone has to admit that is some darn good alliteration.) We wanted to see a movie, but in the end decided against it. I guess we were forced into it seems all the movies we wanted to see were sold out or didn't start until after 9:30---and we weren't willing to wait. We went star gazing instead.

We went up into the mountains, away from all the lights, and looked up at the endless sky. Now I really wish I knew more about the constellations. I had no idea what I was looking at. But nothing starts a good gospel discussion on man and godhood like looking up.

I think the best part was being stalked by a mountain lion. (At least that's the story we're telling!) When we were getting ready to leave we heard this slow creeping sound coming from the tall grass right in front of us, but it was so dark we couldn't see anything. I was a little freaked and we high-tailed it out of there! I'm sure it was just a skunk or something, but a mountain lion just sounds so much better.

Saturday:

In the morning I did laundry---which sadly really needed to be done. But come the afternoon and it was time to see Eclipse. Poor Bryan! He had no interest in it at all, but nothing says "I love you" like sitting through an entire Twilight movie with your girlfriend and her roommates and not saying a thing. He's so good to me. I know there were lots of times he wanted to make comments, but he kept them in, letting the rest of us enjoy it. I have to say though, I'm starting to agree with him. The more Twilight movies I see, the more ridiculous I find the whole thing. No offense intended.

After that it was time for the big kahuna! (Interestingly kahuna is a Hawaiian word for socerer or magician and I would consider firework displays to be in that category.) It was STADIUM OF FIRE!! I have always wanted to go, so of course Bryan got us tickets. It was a lot of fun and I absolutely love fireworks!

These are the little SoF dancers. I'm sure they were really excited.

The SoF choir (didn't know there was such a thing) and Lou Diamond Philips. He was way more express then I would have thought him to be.

Jenny Oaks Baker fiddling away. I always like listening to her, she's amazing.

The Osmonds Second Generation. They were okay, but I feel like they are living off the coattails of their parents. Yeah, so you're an Osmond, so what?

Entertainer of the Night---Carrie Underwood

Poor girl---they really needed to turn down the instruments. We could barely hear her sing and she was belting it. No wonder she has to keep drink so much water. Plus there was some mic feedback. I feel like that shouldn't happen with Carrie Underwood. Who is she paying to do that?

My favorite part!

I don't think I've ever seen fireworks like this before.

This was the first year that they had fireworks in the crowd too. There were 6 of them around the field that were supposed to look like the fountain ones. Well, the craziest part was that one messed up and flew straight into the crowd and exploded there! Another one flew at an angle and hit the little dancer girls, suprisingly they didn't even move. Only some people had minor burns, but it sure looked crazy! And the smoke made the stadium look like it was in a heavy fog. I don't think they'll do those again next year. Overall though---great experience.

Sunday:

Nap time. After church of course. But the last two days were tiring and church is at 8:30! I need my 8 hours. Before that glorious nap time, however, it was time for me to experience "Man Lunch." Apparently Bryan has been doing this with some old roommates for almost 2 years. Basically, the guys get together and have steak and potatoes and a veggie---a man lunch. I thought the name came from the fact that they are all guys, but I was greatly mistaken, it is only because of what they eat. Therefore, I got to come. One girl, 4 guys, and a really great steak lunch. Let's just say I hope Bryan keeps having these---as long as I'm invited!

Then nap time. :) Dinner at his uncles. And Stardust to finish the night. Luckily that movie isn't too chick flicky.

Monday:

I wanted to see the parade. I always do. I really feel like a part of the community when I go. There are hundreds or thousands of people there. I don't think any other city has this kind of turn out for a parade other than the Macy's or Rose. I'm sure Bryan wanted to sleep in, but he got up to watch it with me. Then we went with my roommates to the Freedom Days festival on Center Street. I actually didn't buy anything. That's a first for me. But then I thought about it and realized there was nothing left for me to buy. I have Native America turquoise, a dream catcher bracelet, a coconut ring, an Indian bag, a toe ring, a shirt, rock jewelry, sunglasses---all from festivals. What else was there to get? (It's almost pathetic.)

After that....more nap time. The sun sure drains it out of you. Later we went on a drive up the canyon. We went up Squaw Peak Road. I know what you're thinking, but we just wanted to see what it was like. But I'm not sure we ever found it. We found the outlook and Rock Canyon campgrounds, but nothing that was actually Squaw Peak. Anyone know what it's supposed to be? I really don't know what all the hype is.

Later Em and I went to see our old roommates new baby. He's so cute! And after that it was back to Bryan with a hot fudge brownie sundae made with custard and Independence Day. It's tradition. I love Fourth of July and 3 day weekends!

Tuesday:

And now here I am. Back at work waiting for the weekend once again.

Utah Summer Games!

2010-06-28T11:22:00.006-06:00

So like I said, my life consisted of a lot of frisbee now---and does it! This weekend I went with Bryan to the Utah Summer Games hosted by SUU in Cedar City. It was so much fun!! Who knew frisbee could be so intense. For most of the games I was on the edge of my seat or standing because I couldn't sit still because the games were so close. This was probably the most competive year yet they say. But I'm getting ahead of myself---let me start from the beginning.

Thursday night we rode in a van with some other people from BYU who were going to be playing. They are some of the coolest guys I've ever met. We played games, watched a movie, and chatted all the way down. I have to admit that I thought it would be a little weird or uncomfortable coming as "the girlfriend," but these guys were great and I never felt like I was unwelcomed or in the way. We got there pretty late in the day since we didn't leave until past 8, so we crashed in our hotel rooms. (And don't worry, I had my own room with some other girls.)

The next day started bright and early. We had to be down to the fields at 8, which may not seem early seems that's when we go to work anyway, but there's just something else about it when you feel like you're supposed to be on vacation. Still, the boys played four games that day until 2 in the afternoon. Let's just say that I now will have a great tan after the burn goes away. It was a windy day so it didn't feel that hot. But the team won 2 games, lost 2. Apparently it didn't matter that much because the first day it just to see where your seed will be in the rankings. The real games start the next day. So after being exhausted after 4 games we all head back to the hotel for some pizza (apparently that's what they always want after a long day). We played some games, watched part of a movie, got a second dinner, but mostly everyone just wanted to sleep.

The next day started even earlier. We had to be to the fields at 7:15! Good thing I don't actually do any of the playing. I thought the team would just be more tired, but apparently they just need a day to warm-up. They ran harder, played better and were more intense than I thought possible. So much so that they won their first 2 games and got a 3 hour break. Some of the SUU players were really nice and let us use a room in their Student Center to watch the USA-Ghana game. Too bad that game didn't end well. After that we had the most intense game of the entire weekend---for any team. It's funny, everyone called Bryan's team the BYU A-Team. I don't know if that's completely true, but I'm biased enough to agree with them. (BYU brought 3 teams with them.) It was against the SUU Alumni team. In a lot of ways I think BYU could have won, but it was a close call of 13-15. That made BYU have to play a Salt Lake team that they lost to, 12-13. In the end we got 3rd place. They played so well and so hard that we are proud of what they did and I'm proud of them too.

Once the medals were given it was past 5 that evening, everyone is even MORE tired and we still had to drive back to Provo. We stopped at the funniest little Chinese restaurant in Beaver. I don't think I seen guys drink so much in my life. But they deserved it. Overall, it was a great weekend and I can't wait for the next tourney!

At the very end. My camera wasn't worth trying to take pictures of the actual game.

On the medal podium! Yay!

Bryan's Team---the KillJoys

Strawberry Days Rodeo

2010-06-21T11:37:00.004-06:00

Howdy ya'll....Welcome to the Pleasant Grove, Strawberry Days Rodeo.

I'm tired. Let me start off with that. But tired for the best reasons. This weekend was full...okay, Saturday was full, but that's basically the weekend anyway, right? So Bryan asked me to come out and help his frisbee team play in a tournament. You have to play with 2 girls on the field at a time, and they were only going to have 2 girls that they were for sure about. So I came. Admittedly a little reluctantly at first. I have no doubts about my skills---they aren't very good. At least not compared to an organized team who have been playing with one another all summer, but I wanted to help out. I was told I didn't do so bad, I was actually doing really well. I still don't know if I believe it, but at least I gave the other girls a break, which was my main job. I have to tell you though, 4 games, 9am-3pm, in sunshine---I was tired. I didn't think I was that out of shape, but apparently I am.

Bryan was a sweetheart and bought me my first pair of cleats. Too bad I didn't wear the right kind of socks the first time I wore them. Now my ankles look like I've been chained to a wall in shackles because the skin has been rubbed off. Eww. I had to bandage and tape them so that I wouldn't hurt them more for this tournament. And they seemed to come out okay.

We won two, lost two. Games that is. I'm happy to know that I made at least one of the point though. I'm finally, kinda, sorta, getting the hang of this frisbee thing. I'm sure I'll have lots more practice though if Bryan has anything to say about it. (And I'll probably do it.)

So after exhausting ourselves, we make it home in time to get ready to go the the Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days Rodeo. I wanted to go and I had promised Emily that we would go this year---I just didn't know that I would be running around all morning first, but I was determined to go, so we went.

Yes, yes, we got some sun that day.

The first event---Bareback Bucking Broncos

That means they're riding that horse without a saddle.
I was actually amazed at how many people COULDN'T stay on for the whole 8 seconds. I know that I couldn't, but I don't do this as a profession or even for fun like these people do. Some of them were in the top 15 in the world and they couldn't even make it. Must be some horse.

One of the cowboys---Look at those chaps.

Sorry it's so blurry. It's hard to capture them with my camera.

Calf Racing (or something like that) - they had to lasso the calf, tie it around the saddle horn, jump off the horse, run over and flip it on it's side, then hog tie it. One guy did it in 7.5 seconds. Make was pretty darn amazing. It makes me want to rethink what I can do with 7 seconds.

This was also Bucking Broncos, but this time with saddles. Those poor horses.

Sorry this one was so dark, the flash ruined the pictures even more. But this was a woman called Amanda with her show called "the One Arm Bandit"---don't ask me, I have no idea why. Basically she herded a pair of buffalo up a ramp on the side of her trailer. I wasn't that impressed, but then again, maybe it's really hard to herd buffalo. I wouldn't know.

Anyway, it was a long day, but lots of fun. They had Bull riding too, but it was just too dark to get a good picture. Still, I feel like a full-fledged Texan now that I've actually seen a rodeo. Plus I got strawberries and cream too. Yum.

Oh Summer!

2010-06-15T10:41:00.004-06:00

Well, to start off, I'd like to show you all what my new life consists of. Frisbee......and lots of it! Bryan is a lover of the game, and despite the fact that he says I don't have to come, I can't but help watch him. He's really quite amazing (and I'm only being a tiny bit biased). He loves it so much he even has me throwing around a frisbee once in a while---and I actually enjoy it! Shocking, I know. He even asked if I wanted to play in a tourney this weekend with his Orem team. (Apparently I'm not too bad at it.) I'm a little nervous because its been a while since I played on a team, and I don't want to disappoint him, but I think I'm up for a challenge right about now.

This is just a practice that he had on Saturday, but they are usually the most interesting because it's the best people on the "unofficial" BYU team.

I thought this was pretty cool. I don't use the sport setting on my camera much, but look at that cut! My man's a machine.

Later that day we decided to go on a hike up Rock Canyon. I have hated that the weather has been so crappy here lately. It's like summer isn't here at all. It rains all the time and is chilly. I thought this was supposed to be a desert? I must admit though, that all of that crappy weather certainly makes Utah green. It's really pretty now.

So Larissa, you can finally see our faces, how do we look?

This was a water fountain they have on the trail. It's just water that is constantly gushing out the tube. I put this picture here because that stupid fountain hated me. Everytime I'd go for a drink it would shoot up with more water pressure and get my face all wet. Argh!
I liked this picture because you can see how much water there is. Last year it was barely a trickle.

And this is us at the end of our hike. We didn't make it all the way to the top---I don't know if there is one---but it was a great hike and I'm certainly feeling it now.

I just wanted everyone to see how pretty Utah can be. I know that it's no Oregon or Washington, but it's way greener than Dallas or Vegas, so we appreciate it.

Bryan's Birthday and Vegas

2010-06-08T10:37:00.009-06:00

So Bryan had his 25th birthday this past Thursday. YAY!! He really likes suprises, and I'm not very good at them, but I wanted it to be special. I really worried about him liking everything. I wanted it to be amazing, so he knew most of what was coming, But at least this little part was a suprise. I know that it's cheesy and kind of lame, but I had to do something! I would have made breakfast, but he goes to work at 7 and he actually makes a better breakfast than me, plus his apartment is locked, what else was I supposed to do? But as he put it himself, it was like a party in his car. I think he kinda liked it. So here it is:

I have to admit, as I put the streamers up all I could think of was Leilani thinking they are called Happy Birthday because that's what Dayne and Larissa kept saying as she walked through them.

This was probably my favorite part. Thanks to Heidi's tutelage and Larissa's wedding where I had to tie hundreds of ballons, I still remember how to tie them together in one easy motion. I added the noise makers because they are more fun than confetti and the kisses because--well I think you know why.

So I hope that it was a big enough suprise. I was up pretty late and I'm certainly not used to it anymore.

Oh, and the paint was causing streaks. Since it was new I would write something and it looked like it came from a scary movie, so I used my hands to wipe it off. Well I didn't want it on my hands since I had other stuff to do, so I was left with no choice but to wipe it on my pants. I will forever remember this day as long as I have those jeans since it didn't all come off and now I have red streaks. It was totally worth it though.

Later that night after Bryan's ultimate games we went to dinner where I paid for the first time. He's so good to me, I don't think I've paid for much in the last couple months. But it was his birthday and he completely deserved it! We went to Macaroni Grill where I swear there was only 4 other people in the restaurant with us. I know it was kind of late at 9:30 and it was a Thursday, but still, I've never seen that before. So we had great service, let me tell you. I got him the Mistborn series (if you haven't read them, you should). I'm pretty sure it was one of the first things we ever talked about. Plus he basically made me read them (just kidding!).

Bryan also has this thing for watches. Most accessories actually. And we had talked about the watches this the black faces and just the diamond at 12 to tell the time, so that's what I wanted to get him. Plus I guess he could have used a dressy silver watch. So I saw this and I wanted to get it for him. I pretty sure this was his favorite part of the day....at least from me.

When we got home I had asked Em to make him a cake seems I'd be gone all day. Bryan really likes the drizzly chocolate kind of frosting or cream cheese. I'm definitely a buttercream kinda gal, but I can enjoy any cake Em makes as much as the next person. So she had this amazing idea to make him a frisbee cake. It's stuck in the dirt and grass. It was so great!

She even made me find out what brand of frisbee he uses and found the logo and replicated it. Apparently Discraft is the best and you should never use anything else--especially Whamo.

After that it was time for my bedtime. I hadn't gotten much sleep and Bryan and I were headed down to Vegas (technically Henderson) the next morning, plus I still had to pack.

Bright and early the next morning, and by that I mean around 8:45, we were headed down I-15. We were going to listen to the 3rd book of Mistborn seems I was only 1 part away from the end. Funny thing was that Bryan had downloaded the entire book except that exact part. Luckily in Payson, Utah the Holiday Inn is nice enough not to make you pay to use their WiFi, we didn't even have to have a room. So we got the last part and happily started our journey once again. Thank you Holiday Inn.

After 5 hours we pulled into his parent's drive. I must have forgotten what heat was like, because man was it HOT! But even his parent's said that 108 was hotter than it had been. I really had forgotten what it was like. Obviously I've been away from Texas for too long. We spent the rest of the day with his family. I pretty sure I talked with his mom for an hour and a half about all different kinds of things. His whole family was so generous.

Since it was his birthday weekend, his family all got together, including his grandparents who I had met before, and shockingly enough they remembered me. Even my name. Crazy! Luckily I remember them just telling me to call them Grandma and Grandpa, so that just what I did. Yeah, we sat around the table talking most of the night. By the way, Bryan's mom makes this amazing stuff called Cherry Yum-Yum. I need to remember to ask for the recipe.

We did stop by and visit with his friends that night too. They call themselves the Trio. And they act like it. It was a lot of fun. We played MarioCart on the Wii. I haven't played that game in forever, but I'm happy to report that I have improved nonetheless. Perhaps real driving helped.

By the time we got home I was once again exhausted, but in that happy, contented type of way.

Still, we had an early start the next morning. We were going to Boulder to see Hoover Dam. I have been before, but the shear size still amazes me.

This is the new bridge that has been at least a year in the making. The last time I came through they had just barely started the edges. Now they are only a few months away from having people drive on it. It's going to be nice having it. Right now you have to wind down the canyon, across the dam, and then wind back up going 15 mph, with it finished, you can stick to 65. Woot!

I didn't realize my hair looked so bad.

Ahhh! Enough said.

Don't we look so happy, despite the heat.

The momument to the great people who risked their lives to build this.

We went on a tour. It's cool inside. It could have been so creepy, too bad hundreds of people go through it a day.

These are the generators. There are 17 that power Arizona, Neveda and California. It produces more than 4 billion kilowatts of power a year. Wow!

We tried to roll a penny down it, you can't see it after like 30 feet and you never hear it drop, but then again, it is 727 feet high.

Later we stopped for some smoothies and did we need it! We also stopped at the mall to get some sunglasses and to find Bryan a fedora style hat. Who would have known that the best one wouldn't be at the mall at all, but at Wal-Mart! I'm now sad I didn't take a picture. He looks pretty dang good in that hat. I made him try on a Kenneth Cole grey suit too. Hot. I'm determined he gets one someday.

We also wanted to stop by the Vegas Temple. It is beautiful. I love how everything seems more peaceful on Temple grounds.

Can you ever have too many pictures of the temple?

Lastly we went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. That was some good food. The carrots were amazing! It was a lemon-herb chicken dinner and the carrots were sauteed in the same sauce. Yum! By that point it was once again the end of a wonderful day. We did make one last trip up a mountain though to look down on the city. It's so pretty, even with the strip that sticks out of the skyline. On Sunday we went to Church in the Single's Ward. I claim it's so he could show me off to all of his old friends. Then we got in the car and began our trip back. We had a little bit of the book to finish, but we just talked for most of the time. Overall, it was one of the best trips of my life yet. I had such a great time. Now don't you all wish you were me.

Graduation!

2010-04-30T16:59:00.004-06:00

Well everyone, can you believe it? I graduated from college. Yeah, I can't either. Still, now it is time for me to jump into the river of the real world, and I'm not sure I'm quite ready for it. I have no clue which way my life it headed and I'll admit---it scares me to death. Still, I know I have lots of family and friends that love me and are willing to help me out. And that's a great comfort. Anyway, I'm so happy that Mom, Dad and Grandma could come out for graduation, even if I didn't follow the "plan" and come home. I always love to have them around, and I always realize how much I miss my family when they leave. I think we had a great time together (and the best of luck when it came to getting into packed restaurants). I could tell you all about what we did, but mostly we chatted, we waited, and we ate. But here are the pictures to prove that I did indeed graduate. YAY!!

Melissa and Me--We sat together during Commencement because we are both FHSS.

We were front center, 3 rows up from Elder Christoffersen.
The typical picture in front of BYU's motto.

Me with my fake diploma and the beautiful lei Larissa got me.

The people who got me through it.

Ahhh, Grandma.

Well, it was supposed to be me in front of our namesake.

Brigham Young's statue.

Grandma and me again. Our pictures together just came out great.

The next day when Mom and Dad had left, Bryan and I went to the zoo. I'm mostly posting this because I'm sure you're all dying to know what he looks like and who he is. Well....here you go. By the way, I like the facial hair, so that it a personal preference. Don't hate him if you don't. Oh, and the Hogle Zoo. We are so spoiled. It is tiny and they are missing some of the best animals like lions, bears, seals, zebra. But we still had fun.

Anyway, missing you all as always!! Love you!!

Murder Mystery #3

2010-04-05T18:09:00.006-06:00

Okay, so I'm finally getting around to posting some of the stuff I've done lately. I just feel like everything is happening all the time and I'm sitting there wondering where all the time has gone. But, Em and I had our last Murder Mystery Dinner. I must say that it was a hit!! Everyone looked amazing and had so much fun. I should totally do this for a living. I think we chose really good people too. I have never seen 8 people work so hard to figure out a game before. But hey, we put our wits together and figured out the murderer in the end. Aren't we so smart? Anyway, these are the invitations that I made. Now I know if it were Anna, it would be a million times better, but hey, I only have Word.

The Players:

Duke Schwazhe B.U. Klare--played by Tad

Khover T. Ageante--played by Alex

Malcolm R. Conntint--played by Bryan

RAF Group Captain Weyland W. Awfcorce--played by Spencer

Belinda Screete--played by Annika

Mary K. Trairie--played by Jenny

Princess Idelle Chattre--played by Emily

Barbra Z. Enhussie--played by me

This is everyone in our typical "angry at the world" faces. So the setting was WWII Paris. We are on the last military train leaving Paris before the Germans invade. Of course we are all ridiculously wealthy and have nothing better to do than try and kill someone. So this next picture is what you see right next to the front door. We bought old looking suitcases, because we are all on a train, what else would you see.

This picture is of the bookcase. Em and I had to move off all the food and junk that was on it and move it into the living room. (It was originally in the kitchen.) We tried to light the candles and instead made some terrible black burns. Oh well. Still, it totally fit the 'rich' atmosphere we were going for.

You know Em and me, we have to change everything around and drape curtains on the walls to hide all the ugly stuff, but it looked so good. This picture really does not do it justice. But still, you also see the silk sheets we used to cover the plaid couches and the pillows. It's all about the maroon, hunter greens and golds!

Here you see the make-shift rug and the other covered couch. We pulled the couches in closer to the fireplace to give it a more cozy feel. It was funny, I measured the dimensions of the room and the furniture and drew it out like I do for my Interior classes and it came out just as I thought it would. It worked out great! So much so the roomies wanted to keep it this way.

This was my made-up chandelier. Considering I thought it was pretty ingeneous, especially since I had to make it up 10 minutes before everyone was supposed to be coming over.

And of course, our classic drinks. We had champagne flukes, wine glasses, and brandy glasses. I think the drinks are my favorite part of this whole thing, other than everyone dressing up. Still, doesn't it look so cool!

And lastly dinner. We had fondu, chicken cordon bleu, croissants, salad and ice cream for dessert. Not counting the Milano cookies and Pirouettes for appetizers. Thankfully, Em and I use plastic plates and silverware, we didn't want to clean up more than we had to.

So we had a great time and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves. I will totally have to do more when I'm back home. I expect all my family to want to join in and go all out just like I do. Anyway, I have more to post about Festival of Colors and a Michael Buble concert, but that will just have to wait a little bit. Love you all!

Salt Lake City

2010-01-20T18:02:00.008-07:00

Well, after returning from all the holidays and spending time with family, I am once again on the educational choo-choo train on my way to graduation. I must admit, I can't wait to have it all over with, although Larissa says not to wish it gone too soon because "one day I'll miss it." You know what, that's probably true, but I think I'd rather have the fond memories than the work load right about now. This semester actually seems like it will be pretty good. Most of my classes are, once again, history classes which I happen to do well in. I'm taking the other half of History of Architecture and Interior Design, History of Apparel and Family History---and that's most of my credits. That's a lot of facts to fit into my little brain. Other than that, I'm taking Residental Landscaping where I hope to transform Larissa's yard into a getaway (if she'll let me) and Polynesian dance and clogging. Who knew those two would be such a workout? Seriously, I squat most of the time in the Polynesian and the clogging is bend-straight-bend-straight all the time!! But I really do enjoy it all. So everyone wish me luck this semester!! (I'm gonna need it.)

But to relax before the school work really gets hard and too time consuming, Em and I went to Salt Lake to just "look." We took a city guide that Anna had email me about and went to all the really cool little shops around town. We first went to a place called Slowtrain---a little record shop with all this stuff we had never heard of. But at the back were all these boxes of $1 CDs so we decided to randomly pick two and see if they were any good. Mine was by Ryan Bingham called Roadhouse Sun. I will probably never listen to it again. It is some kind of old style country but his voice is kind of scratchy, in a bad way. Em got one by The Classic Crime called Albatross. It is suprisingly good! Anyway, it was pretty fun in a Breakfast At Tiffany's-dime-store-scene type of way.

Then we went by all these antique stores and retro stores and just looked and laughed. I found these really old Valentine's cards and now I want some. They are WAY cooler than the stupid ones they make now. We went into some old bookstores too with postcards from 1900 and book that were too old to touch. I always look for Pride and Prejudice, but I have to admit, right now, I'm not willing to pay $300. Maybe one day. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and since we were up there we decided to have dinner. On this guide there was this little restaurant called Em's. I said we had to go because it was the same as Emily's name. It was very cutesy-chic. Apparently you need to make reservations, but we were early enough that they sat us anyway. It was so funny, Em felt uncomfortable because it was a little higher end and she didn't know how to act. Me---I just thought, "this is the way I was meant to live." It was a little pricey, but the food was AMAZING and I felt like I actually received a complete meal. Like, it was healthy and had vegetables and stuff. I had this salad with spinach leaves, pecans, bleu cheese and pears. It was really good. The pears were the best part and they were soft and juicy and just delectable!!! Then I had Ribeye steak with carmelized onions and more bleu cheese I think (it could have been goat cheese) with roasted potatoes and veggies, which were just the right favor. Totally worth it. And Em got some Free range chicken with mashed potatoes and veggies. She said it was the best chicken she ever had. So yeah, we felt really cool. And grown-up.

After that we had some cupcakes that I got from The SweetTooth Fairy. It's this little shop in Provo and they are delicious!!! Yum. Yum.

So yep. I do somewhat have a life.

For older news, this is the Bollywood cake Em made me for my birthday. Isn't it fun!!

The Last Halloween Update

2009-11-03T18:00:00.003-07:00

Okay everyone, it is the moment you have been waiting for!! The reveal of my costume for Halloween!!!!!!

First I had to showcase the shoes!! They are amazing, and I don't need anyone else's opinion on that. I made the little fluffs myself with a boa-thing and the shoes are a lucky find at Ross. Seriously, so comfortable and cute!!

Then my eyes. I worked really hard on them and they looked amazing. I could never get the camera to really capture how cool they were. Let's just say lots of green, gold and glitter.

(Plus how do you like the amazingly cool green contacts.)

LOOK AT THAT HAIR!! Yes my friends, that hair is puffed up to about 6 inches. It's it fun!!

Finally the whole thing. Do I look anything like Tinkerbell? I don't really care, it was so much fun just to dress up and go dancing.

Em and me. She was obviously a Harlequin Clown. I love the holidays!

So there you have it folks!! The most amazing costume in the world!!!! Wah-ha-ha!! Now what did everyone else dress up as?

Happy Halloween!!

2009-10-24T22:10:00.003-06:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!
I absolutely love this time of year! It's just beginning to get cold with all the leaves changing color and falling to the ground. It is so beautiful. I also love the holidays! It starts with Halloween, goes to my birthday, then Thanksgiving and before you know it, it's Christmas!! I actually had to stop myself from buying Christmas decorations today. How sad. But just to you know what's going on, here are some pictures. Last Friday, Em and I woke up and both had the idea to have a movie night. We thought that we knew enough people and so we did it. I went and got Wait Until Dark, which isn't overly scary because it is surprising how many people don't like scary movies, and there are some guys in the category too. So I thought it was Halloweeny enough and just enough suspense to be good. I decorated the apartment and tried to make some toffee, which didn't come out, but everyone loved it anyway. It was soft instead of hard. I really hate making candy, it's so temperamental. So we got it all ready and quite a few people actually showed up (surprising how many people don't have something to do on Friday nights) and we had a blast. Everyone really enjoyed themselves. We are like the cool, new people with the amazing apartment. I love it!!

So this is the apartment.

I think my crowning achievement was the chair. Notice the line of spiders going out the porch.

These are the mirrors. I think I'm pretty good with that stupid web stuff.

And these were our snacks. You just can't have a party without them. It was a good combo of sweet and salty. And it's all so festive!!!

Every detail was taken into consideration.

Basically it was really cool and everyone enjoyed themselves. It was the talk of the weekend and I feel if we have another one, everyone will want to come.

The next day we got invited to Thanksgiving Points Cornmaze. I really wanted to go through the scary one, but once again, apparently a lot of people get scared around here. Still we had a lot of fun going through all the little activities they had.

They had these things all over the place. And these are some of my new friends! Aren't we funny.

I thought these were actual go-carts. They are actually pedalled manually. They were actually really hard to work.

These were some tire swings in the shapes of horses, dragons, motorcycles and other things. Really cool!

Apparently there is actually a Pumpkin Princess every year. I had no idea, but we were allowed in the carriage. My friend is trying to be funny as the driver.

This was pretty funny too. I have no idea why it was there, but still, I was locked away.

It was a fun night. And the maze wasn't really that hard, but still, an experience is what you make it. They also had a hay ride, 100 carved pumpkins (which were amazing), and a mini maze where you had to crawl through bundles of hay. Overall, a very funny, very Halloween weekend.

And then there was tonight. Em and I started with the game, but after the 3rd quarter we stopped. Definitely fair weather fans. So we decided to carve pumpkins and watch Hocus Pocus instead. Much more fun and happy. So I did the first pumpkin. I saw it in a magazine and really liked it. Then I saw the white pumpkins and decided I had to do it. When you light it, it looks like a starry night around an old tree. I think it's cute.
And this one, Em cut out. I found the picture online and enlarged it and brought it home. Too bad I kind of hate carving pumpkins (at least hard ones) and so she said she would. It is Lock, Shock, and Barrel, the trick-or-treaters from Nightmare Before Christmas. It's cool because now we have done Mr. Oogy-Boogy, Jack Skeleton and the Trick-or-Treaters. Now all we need is Sally and Zero and we'll basically have the whole gang.

Anyway, I'm having a blast, especially with the holiday season, and I hope everyone else is too!! I love you all! Happy Halloween!!

Halloween Cruise

2009-10-11T14:23:00.003-06:00

So I do have something of a life nowadays. Some friends and me got together this weekend and went on a Halloween "Cruise." It's only Provo River and it's more of a small ferry, but still. They have over a hundred jack-o-lanterns carved and lit along the river. And the captain tells stories and pirates come and raid the boat! It's actually more of the Sleepy Hallow story and his sons jumping on, but still it's really cute and family friendly. Plus it's just really relaxing and apparently they do it for Christmas too. Overall, I think the best part was hanging out with people from my ward and getting to know them better. We all really had a blast and later went back to one of the girl's apartment and carved pumpkins and ate caramel apple slices. We just talked all night and had so much fun!!

The Enterance

(I tried to make it look more scary looking.)

Our funny picture.

(It's in sepia because everyone's red eyes looked too scary normally.)
My new friends. It's pretty exciting.

Dinner Group!

2009-10-03T17:23:00.002-06:00

I just had to blog about my Dinner Group. It is Monday through Thursday with eight of us that consider ourselves 'gourmet.' Well, on Tuesday it was my turn, and of course, being me I had to make an impression. So, I made Chicken Cordon Bleu, Spinach Salad (spinach, craisin, pecan, apple, mozzarella cheese salad with poppy seed dressing), Orange Glazed Carrots, rolls and a fruit punch drink. Oh, and my amazing brownies for dessert. Everyone enjoyed it to say the least. So, maybe one day I will be able to feed a husband and kids, huh?

I'm BACK!!!

2009-09-30T16:31:00.002-06:00

Yes, folks, I have finally done it. I have sat down at my computer to once again blog about my life. And what better way than with Parent's Weekend! I was so lucky to have Mom and Grandma come out to stay with me. Any chance to spend time with them is a blessing and we had so much fun. (At least I think we did.) They got in on Thursday afternoon right after I got out of class, which means I didn't really have to time clean up and make a good impression. :( Still we got in Grandma's new car (nice ride, by the way) and Mom actually took me to Bombay House. I had been craving that for the past two weeks and even though it's probably neither of their favorites, they let me have my way. I love Bombay House, so no matter what I enjoyed it. We picked up a few things after that but mostly headed off to bed since it was an hour later for them and I had to be to class at 7:25 in the morning. Still after school and work we got back together and started out for the Blue-au (the Cougar luau) where Mom insisted we be there an hour early for good seats. We were second in line. So we chatted and took pictures with our spare time.

(Aren't we darling in our matching shirts!)

We did happen to sit at the center front along with my boss's boss, David Hunt, who has passed me many times and still doesn't remember me. Funny, huh? Anyway, we had good food and conversation and got ready for the show of Living Legends. Too bad that our good seats went to waste as this year they allowed everyone to pull up chairs close to the stage, leaving us in the back once again. Still I think it was fun with the band and the dancing, and they even taught us some, so if you're in need of knowing a Hawaiian dance or the Huka, just let me know.

And after all that you though we would be finished, but nope. We went to go play some free bowling where Mom actually kicked my trash. Okay, it was only 80 to 73 (terrible, we know) but still, I'll let her have her glory.

The next day was Game Day. We had to get ourselves psyched up for the game so we went to the tail-gate party where we ate food, played games, won prizes and listened to Mom's favorite music group on campus, Vocal Point. I have to admit, they are good. It's truly amazing what they can do. And then we went to game in the sweltering heat (I realize now why this place is called a desert) and we watched as the Cougars trampled Colorad0. (Those are the Daily Universe's words, not mine.)

The loyal Cougar fans!!

We did end up going home a little early because of the heat and our tiredness. It had already been a long weekend. And poor Mom probably hasn't walked that far in a long time--especially once you add in the hills. Still, we had a marvelous time including having Laura and her family along with Lisa come visit at 6 in the morning, taking Mom to an Urgent Care place just to make sure she didn't have pneumonia (and I'm sure that's probably spelled wrong but I don't want to take the time to find out the correct spelling, although usually I would), and Mom breaking my blinkers and having to get them fixed. Fun stuff really!! Mom even went to church with me the next day and we had dinner with everyone at Aunt Colleen's. Overall I had a great weekend! I love you Mom and Grandma!! Thanks so much for everything!!!!

Sunday in the Park...

2009-05-07T21:08:00.006-06:00

I know that it has been an extremely long time, but I'm finally back!! Too much has happened recently, but I thought I might upload some picture so that you all could see what was going on. This first picture is some cupcakes I made. I love decorating desserts and so I have been practicing flowers. I think that I need to make a different kind of frosting though, I think it needs to be more stiff so that the flowers stay in shape.

These are the cupcakes I made for Jeff's birthday. I thought they were pretty cute and guyish.

Jordan took me to his Military Ball. It was one of the coolest things I've been to. The did a really amazing toast and all the ROTC guys were such gentlemen. And doesn't he look so good!!

Us together. Aren't we so cute together?!?

This is a license plate. It is significant.

And this is the car. This car is mine!!!!! Yay!!!! Or at least it is Mom and Dad's and they are letting me drive it at school. I love them so much!!!!
On Sunday, Emily, Melissa, Dan, Kevin and I went to Vivian Park to have a picnic. We planned out all the food and brought all kinds of games to play. It was one of the best Sundays I've had in a long time. This first picture is me trying to fly a kite. It just wouldn't get up in the air.

This is me on the blanket near the stream with our amazing food.

I just love this picture of Emily and me. We are just too cute for words.

This was our lunch. Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Almond Craisin Spinach Salad, Carrots and Celery with BYU Ranch, Crystal Light, and Chocolate Chip cookies. YUMMM!

So that's what I've been up to lately. Also I'm taking Dance 380, which is Advanced Social dance and I am loving it!! Also this coming monday I will start private voice lessons. I'm a little nervous, but my teacher seems nice. So yeah, we'll see what happens.

Updates!

2009-03-19T08:38:00.002-06:00

Well, I thought it was about time that I updated everyone on my life. Can I just say that I would have more pictures and posts if I could get my computer back from Jordan. It's the way I managed everything, but being the wonderfully-nice sister that I am, I'm letting him borrow it for school. But that means I can't download my pictures onto anything, so I'm sorry, but everyone's just going to have to go without some. At least until he goes home for the summer and I can get it back. Now let's see...what have I done lately?
Well, I started going on dates again. None that I wanted to go on, but still, I have to get back in the game, right? Still I had fun. The first was with a friend that I used to dance with. He is now in a graduate program at USU, so he came down to visit for his spring break. He took me to P.F. Changs (which I absolutely love) and he told me to pick anything and something preferably that I've never had, seems he was paying for it. So I got the lamb. I've never had lamb before, and I must admit, I like it!! It was really cool--I felt so classy. Then we went bowling, where I kicked his trash (at least the first game) and then we played pool, where he kicked mine. It was lots of fun. I had another date too with a guy from my English class. We went to the last BYU Basketball game. I'm kinda sad that I didn't go to more now. Especially since I have an All-Sports Pass and can go to anything I want. My date thought that I was pretty funny since I would scream and jump up and down. Even he didn't do that. But I think I have realized that guys love sports but don't show the emotion that goes along with it, while girls, who may not love sports as much, show all the emotion. So I think I'd rather go to a game with lots of girls...at least you know it's going to be fun. Yeah, so that's what I started doing again. Yay for me!
For fun, Emily, Melissa, Dan (Melissa's boyfriend, although he was Em and my friend first, it was becuase of us that they even met) and me went to the Nickel-cade. It was great! I haven't gone there since freshman year, but I think we have all decided that we are way to addicted to gambling to ever do it for real. You just can't help putting those nickels in over and over again.
As for school, I'm just trying to make it to the end of the semester. I've been so busy with papers and tests, I'm so tired of it all. I can't wait for summer. Which is, by the way, starting to get warm, thank goodness. Church is going great too, although I'm kinda getting tired of my calling (Ward Prayer Co-Chair) but I think that's more because my co-chair is never there because he works all the time, so basically I have to do it all myself. You know, I don't think I've ever had a calling where I actually had help (although I'm always supposed to) since my first semester freshman year. When I was FHE mom, my "hubby" thought that "24" on Monday nights was more important than helping me. Then I had Ward Music Chair for a whole year although it is supposed to be co-chair with a choir director and everything, but I had to basically do all 3 calling myself. Gosh, I want a calling where I don't have to do everything!! Anyway, enough ranting.
Oh, and Anna and Adam, Emily and I want to go to Festival of Colors soooo badly, but we don't know if we can find a ride up there. But we are determined to keep the tradition! We miss you guys so much!!! You just make everything so much more fun. We miss all the crazy things you think up to do, like New Night (which we still have our sock puppets up for display in out living room).
Love everyone!!

Valentine's Weekend

2009-02-21T12:06:00.004-07:00

Yay for Valentine's Day! Considering I was alone this Valentine's Day, it wasn't too bad. Larissa was wonderful enough to send me a package with some chocolate and a Valentine's apron, towel, and some really cool heart-shaped pancake makers. Mom sent some ladybug stuff too. I think I've decided that I'm just going to have to do a red kitchen (like Larissa) with a ladybug theme. I think it will be cute! Anyway, I spent that Friday night with Brinai. We got pizza and drinks and make cheesecake and rented some chick-flick movies, of course. The best part was just being able to talk to her for hours about everything. I love having Brinai as a friend; she is such a help. So I spent the night and did some shopping with her on Saturday. Actual Valentine's Day wasn't that amazing. After Brinai dropped me off I spent time with the roomies. Basically we ate lots of chocolate. Em and me tried to think what people always do when alone on holidays. The only thing I could think of was that the girl's in movies always get Chinese take-out. So that's exactly what we did. Chinese food and Sleepless in Seattle, because it is our tradition to watch that movie on Valentine's. It was a somewhat pathetic night, but at the same time really fun! The point was that I wasn't whollowing in self-pity about Trevor. Oh, and I also gave myself a pedicure and manicure. I did an amazing job, if I say so myself. Just look at that shine!! Em thought it was crazy, how long I took to do them. but they were perfect.

Then comes President's Day! Em and me had so many great plans for Monday's holiday. But the fact that it was a holiday, ruined our holiday. We wanted to go to Gloria's Little Italy, but since it is family owned, they were closed, which we forgot. Then we wanted to see Confessions of a Shopaholic, but the bus only runs a few times a day and when we wanted to go, the bus didn't show, so all our plans went to not. So, we decided to do a Rock Band night. We dressed up as punk rockers and played all night long. See, we can be fun some of the time. So yeah, it was an interesting weekend.

Then yesterday was a girl's in my ward birthday. She is so great and one of our really great friends, so Em and me made her a birthday cake. Her brother was in our FHE group and asked us to help. So we made her a Secret Garden cake. It's an inside joke, but I hand made all those roses on top. Am I amazing or what!!!

Oh and the last picutre is of a ward activity to Soldier's Hollow. Basically it is huge slides made of snow and you just slide a million times. It was so fun!!

Yeah, that's my life right now. I'm trying to make it fun.

My Beautiful Nails

My Punk Rocker

Look at Em's crazy eye!

Me making the roses in my new Valentine's apron!

The finished cake! Look at those roses!

My ward activity!

25 Things

2009-02-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about me.
Yes, it's from Facebook, but it's fun.

1. As a child I hated my birthstone, which is Topaz, and now it is my favorite color.
2. I have a shoe fetish.
3. My mother almost named me Tamara (said like Tomorrow, but with a soft "a" sound on the end)-EWW!
4. I have a strange attraction to criminal shows-Law and Order, Criminal Minds, NCIS, Psych, etc. (Maybe it's just the "solve the mystery" I'm into because I really like House too.)
5. I hate science and math-I'm pretty good at both-but hate them.
6. I want to travel all over the world, and yet I've never been past the western half of the United States, and never out of the country.
7. I hated my hair all growing up and my mother never would let me cut it. Finally my junior year of high school I did it. Needless to say, I now absolutely love my long hair.
8. I love old movies...okay, all movies, but definitely the old ones.
9. The last three guys I dated were all Aires-the absolute "no-no" for relationships and exact opposite for me-Scorpio. I'm not into Astrology, but it's a fun excuse when they don't work out. 10. The first letter of each of my best friends names spell out my initals. L- (Lena, Laura, Larissa) E- (Emily) M- (Melissa). Laurel Elizabeth Moon. Sorry Brinai-maybe I'll marry someone with a last name that starts with a B.
11. I love long, dangly earrings.
12. My younger brother and I were once able to quote the entire movie of "Hercules."
13. I played the trumpet for 7 years, was pretty good at it, and hated almost every minute of it.
14. I was part of the TBG. Taco Bell Gang. My friends and I went to Taco Bell almost everyday. Great friends. Great times. Not so great food.
15. I hate running and jogging, but I love walking. I'm a great walker.
16. This last summer I must have read 50 books. (Tells you how the summer was, huh?)
17. I love going "all-out" for things: parties, presents, activities, food, everything.
18. I love hosting Murder Mystery Dinners with my roommate Emily.
19. I am a hopeless romantic.
20. My family is one of the most important things in my life.
21. I used to be afraid of rollercoaster, not I can't get enough of them!
22. I was the lead in my high school musical "Aida" where I was supposed to be Nubian-aka very dark skinned-too bad I guess.
23. I'm a jack-of-all-trades. I'm a little good at everything, great at nothing.
24. I think that my sister Larissa and me have the two best voices in the world. Too bad everyone else doesn't agree.
25. At this moment, I am happy.

Yep! That's me in a really weird nutshell.

Amazing Weekend!

2009-01-27T10:21:00.006-07:00

This last weekend was amazingly fun!! I am so disappointed with myself that I didn't take any pictures, but I was so busy having a great time, that I didn't think about it much. Basically it came down to everyone wanting to make me happy and distract me after Trevor and I broke-up. (Which basically means that I was spoiled beyond reason.) Here was the break down:

Friday:

At 4, Jeff came and picked me up so that we could go to Salt Lake to have dinner. He said it was my night and we could do anything I wanted. Too bad that Trevor always made me make the decesions too, so I REALLY didn't want to make any tonight. At least Jeff made it easier by making me only pick one out of two. We planned on going to The Cheesecake Factory, but we got a little lost and ended up on the other side of town. Whoops! So instead we went to this new restaurant called Z'Tejas. How perfect for two Texans? It was Tex-Mex food, but very chic at the same time. For a bit of gossip news, we sat in the exact same booth as Barenaked Ladies, 5 minutes before us. How cool?!? Needless to say I felt a little famous for a second. But the food was delicious and Jeff and me had a good time talking about everything and nothing. Well, we eventually asked for directions to The Cheesecake Factory, because he still wanted to get me some. It was jam-packed, so even if we did get there originally I think it would have been a long wait. Good thing they have a little pastry counter for those who just want dessert, so I randomly pointed my finger and got "Chocolate Oreo Mudslide Cheesecake." Oh my goodness!! That is all I can say, it was delicious, spectacular, amazing, best-cheesecake-in-my-life-ever!!!! Well, Jeff had mentioned lots of things that we could do that night, but it was foggy and cold so we decided on a movie--nice and warm, inside. It was only 8 when we got back to Provo and the movie didn't start until 9:35, so we had lots of time to chat and walk around the mall. He is pretty good at picking out clothes I would like; kind of interesting and weird. Anyway, we saw Defiance, which I really liked, and finally at about 1 in the morning, I got home. Overall, I had a really great time and Jeff was a great distractions.

Saturday:
Saturday morning was uneventful. Just the normal, wake up, clean a little, read, other stuff. Our FHE brother, Dan, did end up taking us all to Wal-Mart, which was really nice of him. But my old roommate, Brinai, called me and asked if I wanted to go out for a girl's night. Basically she wanted all the 411 with me and I think to try and cheer me up--not that I needed it THAT badly. Still, I love Brinai and I hadn't talked to her in forever, so I definitely wanted to go. We decided to go to Inkheart, which has Paul Bettany, who I absolutely love in it, so worth it for no other reason then that. But really, it was a nice family movie, kind of like Stardust. Then we went to Spark, a new restaurant/LDS club. It is so much fun!! It is really contemporary in black, white and a pear green color and interesting light fixtures and stuff. Still we got some dinner and sat at this little black table, big enough for two with some of the coolest silverware!! I like it all!! (If you couldn't tell.) The whole point of Spark is that you can get alcohol-type drinks, like mojitos, martinis and fun stuff like that, just without the alcohol. I felt so classy, like I should have been in New York. I got a drink called Ox-Blood, it just sounded so dirty that I had to get it. It had a peculiar taste to it, but I liked it. So Brinai and I chatted for like 2 or 3 hours over drinks (I've always wanted to say that). Now she knows all my crap and I know hers, but it was so fun and we laughed the entire time. Finally I got home at about 11 and I had to go to bed because we had early church.

Sunday:
Okay so nothing spectacular happened on Sunday, but Emily did make Enchiladas and we had a mini-fiesta. We watch Nacho Libre, a first for me. I thought it was okay, I'm just more of a witty, satire-type of person I guess. Still, I got to hang out with the FHE brothers and, like I said, they keep me distracted.

So yeah, what a weekend, huh? Basically I was spoiled beyond all belief. Maybe I should do this whole break-up thing more often....? Just kidding! Still, I'm really doing well and I've realized how great of friends I have. Love you all!

Updates

2009-01-21T10:50:00.002-07:00

Well, it has been forever since I last posted anything about myself. It seemed somewhat redundant after seeing everyone at Christmas, but I guess it is once again time to tell you what is going on. For starters, my classes are interesting, but I would not consider them to be my favorite. I start with Economics, luckily I am taking it from the easiest teacher, which means it is still really hard, but I'm enjoying it so far-my teacher is pretty funny. Then I have Accounting 200, again really interesting. I think I might actually enjoy this class, mostly because it is all online and I therefore do not need to physically go to class. History of Creavity, taking into consideration the name, it is actually quite boring, but I blame the teacher, not the subject matter. I have an Advanced English class, "Writing in Literature," which seems like it will kill me, but I will learn a lot about writing. Luckily, the book we are writing on is "Persuasion" by Austen, so I'm pretty much set. Lastly I have the second half of Doctrine and Covenants, so basically I love it. Yeah, overall, I don't hate this semester, but I'm not loving it either.
I am still Ward Prayer Co-Chair in my ward and I have no idea what to do for it anymore. I think I have gotten more and more boring with age. All my fun ideas have been used up and nothing is left it would appear.
Now for the crappy part of my life. Trevor and I are no longer together. It's hard to explain, but it basically comes down to the fact that we aren't supposed to be together, no matter how much WE want it. So, I'm not exactly happy right now, but I'm okay. I'm not mad or angry, I'm just sad that it had to end. So, yeah, that's enough of that. Luckily, my roommates and everyone is wonderful and I am on my way to a full recovery. (That is a joke, by the way.) Anyway, that is my life for right now. It all kind of sucks, especially with Obama now being president, but I have hope and faith in the future and I know everything is going to be okay. I love you all!

Lights at Temple Square!

2008-12-09T09:34:00.003-07:00

This was my favorite Nativity--Native American I think.
This year there was a Nativity on the Reflection Pool--very beautiful.

Lanterns with 'Joy' and 'Peace' in every language imaginable.

Em and Me with the big tree!

As a ward, this last week, we went to Temple Square to see all the beautiful lights that they put up. I think that one of my favorite parts is the Nativities though. Like I mentioned, my favorite was the Native American Nativity, I just really love it!! I was so beautiful!! But it was nice to go with friends and have hot chocolate and donuts and see the wonders of the Temple. It's also amazing to see all the people that go and see the lights, crowds upon crowds are there to bask in the glory. Other then that, I am basically done with all of my classes. I finally finished my projects and papers and now only have to look forward to finals. Not fun. But then I will be back with family for Christmas!! Yay!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!!

2008-11-11T10:01:00.003-07:00

Me being kidnapped on my birthday!Red Robin!!
Suprise Party when we got home!!

The amazing cake that Emily made for me!!

As of November 5th, I was officially 21!! I must admit that I had a pretty good day. I had late class, like every Wednesday, but luckily my teacher did let us out 45 minutes early!! Yay!! Emily locked me in my room when I got home so that they could finish the cake and decoration, but told me to get dressed. When they were finally done they kidnapped me and took me to Red Robin. Mmmm!! When we got home they pushed me inside the apartment for a suprise party with all my friends. It was lots of fun, but tiring too. The last person left at 11:30, and I still had a major paper to write due Friday. Still the week was good. I got everything done and I am now pretty much free for the rest of the semester. No big papers that I know of, so life is good!!

What have I learned over 21 years of life? My family is the most important thing to me. I can't wait for every chance for us to get together and you never realize how much you miss them until they're gone. Education is imperative, although shouldn't take over your life; take time to enjoy the small things. Reading a book on the grass in the sun is so much better than watching television. Be nice to everyone, there is no reason to be angry or mad, it doesn't help anyone and only makes you feel worse than you did. Rely on the Lord, He knows so much more than we do and He will never leave us comfortless. Never base your worth on what others say; they just don't know what they are missing. Enjoy life and take opportunities to slow down and really appreciate what you have been given. I know I have learned so much more, but it's a start.

Parent's Week!

2008-10-28T19:16:00.005-06:00

My FHE group and our pumpkins!
I drew the one in the middle. Don't you just love Jack?

Jordan, Mom and Me at the Blue-au!

Us again!!

Em and Me at our Ward Halloween Party!

This last weekend, Mom was able to come and stay with me for Parent's Weekend at BYU. I was so happy that she could come!!! We did so much stuff. We were able to go to Dallin's wedding on Friday (which means I got to skip work and class) and Elder Bednar sealed them, how exciting!! I got to sit near him at the luncheon too, it was pretty cool!! That night Jordan, Mom and me went to the Blue-au and got to see Living Legends perform and eat pretty good food. On Saturday Mom had the graciousness to wake me up absurdly early to run to the store and then to high-tail it up to the Tailgate Party with Vocal Point, donuts and hot chocolate. Then we went to the game and although we won, it was still disappointing! After that, since Mom and Jordan love Italian so much, we went to Gloria's Little Italy and they absolutely loved it!! It is so good!! We played games that night with my roommates, Sister Mitchell and Melissa's finacee, Justin. It was a lot of fun playing Taboo and getting to know everyone. On Sunday we went to my ward and then went to Aunt Colleen's and played with the kids. The next morning Mom had to go, and I was sad to have her leave, although I do love having my bed to myself again. Thanks Mom for coming!!! I love you!!!!

Happy Halloween!!

2008-10-16T08:40:00.004-06:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

My FHE group: Me, Russ, Dan, Abbie, Em, Quin
Me as an Evil Fairy!!
Em as a Gypsy!Trying to be serious (like usual) without it working (like usual).

We knew that it was a little early to start dressing up for Halloween, but we have so many other Halloween ideas, that it was the only time that it worked. So, here we are, all crazy like we normally are, and having a blast!! We played Halloween Bingo, also known as Scary, and we made Halloween sugar cookies and decorated them and watched Hocus Pocus. I forgot how much I LOVE that movie! Anyways, as you can see, life is lots of fun, and I'm trying to make the most of it. I hope that you all like my costume as an Evil Fairy. I was going to go with a Good Fairy, but I have more black then white, so it's just the way it turned out. And don't you just love my hair!! I don't think I have ever had so much hairspray in it in my life, but it worked! I wanted it as poofy and crazy as possible. Man, I love Halloween!!

Finally something!!

2008-10-08T11:02:00.003-06:00

Me at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building
Jefferson, Sean, Me, Alyse, Adam at the Conference Center
Alyse and Me
Craig's Amazing Cupcakes made by your's truly!!
Sean, Me, Alyse, Adam about to hike the Y

Well, I finally have something to write about on my blog!! I was able to go to the Conference Center this last weekend for Conference with my friends from my ward. I had an amazing time and I feel so spiritually uplifted. I absolutely love the gospel and how it changes my life!! It was truly a wonderful Conference, I'll admit I was crying most of the time. Then a few weeks ago was my friend, Craig's, birthday, so Emily and I made him some cupcakes and apparently they were pretty good. We were too full on icing to actually eat one!! Then last night was the second day of Homecoming Week for BYU, so we went and hiked the Y. I hate that hike, but I made it to the top, so that's all that counts and we were able to light the Y. Overall, I've been having a great time at college, and the schooling isn't going too bad either. I'm actually doing really well, so let's hope that it keeps up!!

BYU vs. UCLA!!

2008-09-14T19:46:00.003-06:00

So this last saturday was the first game of the 2008 season that Em and I were able to go to. So what do we do? We go ALL out!!! We are terrifying don't you think? And we dominated the game 59-0!!!! Go Cougars!!!

Scary!!

Left to right, Top to Bottom: Jennifer, Jeff, Craig, Adam, Sean, Nichole, Jacklyn, Me, Emily
Amazing Game!!!

California and Las Vegas!!

2008-09-14T19:14:00.007-06:00

Well, this was The Trip!! The pictures aren't in order because it is way to hard to straighten them up, but we had the best time of our lives!! The trip was a little long and way hot, but we made it!! It's hard to say everything that we did, so I'll try to explain with the pictures. But California was a blast and Vegas was amazing!!

This is all of us at Hoover Dam standing in 2 places at once. (Arizona and Nevada)
The Memorial to the builders. They say it's lucky to touch the feet.
The chandeliere at the Bellagio of blown glass. It is over $1 million!!
All the lights!
The fountain!! I think the best thing about Vegas!!
At the wedding! Aren't we beautiful!
San Deigo Temple. I understand why everyone wants to get married there now.
Us at the luncheon after the wedding.
Kira's parent, Cory and Heidi. They were amazing!!
The reception. It was funny, I had to tie chair ties again.
Magic Mountain. Enough said.

This one is just like the Titan at home.
Best ride ever!! It is literally like flying because you ride it looking at the ground.
All hot and sweaty at the end of the day.
At the pier on the beach!

China Town, so fun!!
Rose garden at USC.
It was cool to see so much stuff that I have only heard about.

Grauman's Chinese Theater. I will say that they had tiny feet and hands back in the day.
It wasn't as dirty as everyone said.
Talk about ridiculous!! Ever car was a Lexus, Audi, BMW or Mercedes.
LA Temple which was closed for renovations.
Em and me at the beach!

Everything was so amazing. I am so glad I was able to go on the trip. But now I can't wait to go on my next one!!

The Last Weeks of Summer!!

2008-09-14T18:59:00.003-06:00

Well, it has been quite a long time, but if you saw everything I was doing, you would understand why I haven't blogged in such a long time. These pictures of our camping trip that we (Adam, Craig, Kyle, Justin, Melissa, Emily and me) took up Alpine Loop. It was the most uncomfortable sleep ever, but at the same time, one of the best nights of the summer!! We had to leave kind of late because everyone had to get off of work so our spot wasn't the best, but we made the best of it. We cooked our food over the fire and played games and talked almost all night long. We froze to death and woke up with frost on our sleeping bags, but still, I don't think I have laughed so much in my life!!

Adam showing that he and I have the same PJs, which are Dr. Pepper ones.
This is Emily and I in the morning, I think we look pretty good considering no one got sleep.
These are the rocks that we tried to sleep on. Now you know why no one really slept.
Our 'funny' picture the next morning.

This is me after we helped our guy friends paint their apartment. They chose the blue, I tried to get them to go lighter, and being the interior designer you'd think they would listen to me, but they didn't and now their apartment looks like it needs rubber duckies, but what can you do??

These are my new friends Sean and his sister Alyse.

Girl's Night!!!

2008-08-08T12:46:00.002-06:00

So, lately Emily and I have come to realize that since we started hanging out with our new friends, all of which happen to be guys, we have turned into one of them! We spend our time playing frisbee, Super Mario Smash Brothers, Rock Band and watching action films all the time. Our meat intake has gone up, I'm sure, and we laugh about the dumbest things now. So, we decided that it was all getting a little out of hand. We had lost our femine side, so we said that we were going to have a Girl's Night! Everything chickie and giggly! So we got our couches together, got our foot bath, facial masks and pedicure/manicure sets and made brownies. We even watched Hairspray and The Princess Bride. I think the best part though...that we got the guys to come over and do it too. Well, some of them. Adam and Jordan stayed the whole night and our friend Craig stayed as long as he could stand it, but it was a lot of fun (as you can tell by the pictures)!! Anyways, now that it's over I am happy to go back to being "one of the guys." In some ways it is a lot more fun!! By the way, the masks worked really well!!

The Watersdown Mansion Murder Mystery Affair

2008-07-28T12:37:00.007-06:00

I don't even know where to begin!! Emily and I had our second Murder Mystery Dinner, and I think it was an even bigger hit then the last! As you can see from the pictures, we always go all out. I would try to explain everything but it would be so long and difficult. Basically it was set in 1936, Yorkshire, England in a Mansion. The owner was found murdered and we, the guests, have to figure out which one of us did it. It only took 8 hours to get it all ready, crazy, I know, but worth it. Everyone had the best of time!!!! I can't wait to do the next one, although I know I need a break first.

Our Entry to Watersdown Mansion

The Cloak Room

The Library

The Dining Room

The Lounge

The Ladies: Randy (Me), Flo (Kelsy), Ali (Emily) and E (Kayleen)

The Gentlemen: Mal (Adam), Donny (Ben), Rog (Jordan) and Pro (Colin)

All of us together. We look great, don't we?Emily and me with our fake cigarettes.

Don't I look amazing?!?! I was an American Actress.

Jordan, thinking he's cool, as always. He was an architect and mountain climbing.

Consequently the killer too. Mother, what kind of family are you raising? Two Murderers, what are the chances?

Other then all of this for Pioneer Day we went tubing down the Provo River! It was so much fun!!

Rexburg???

2008-07-22T08:15:00.003-06:00

This last weekend, I went up to see Emily in her hometown of Rexburg. I thought that I might as well, seems I have never seen it, and since she is the only roommate that I actually do anything with. I left on Wednesday after work on the Salt Lake Shuttle and let me tell you, I slept almost the entire way! Good thing, because college=no sleep. Emily picked me up around 11 that night and immediately we hit the town. (By that I mean Broulim's, which is like the only grocery store.) That night we only got some dinner and luckily went to bed at 1:30, early compared to the other ones. The next day, Emily's older brother can into town, so we spent the day with her family. They have the cutest kids, two little boys! (Although nothing compared to MY nephews and nieces!) Since her brother's family was there we got to rent a motel room seems their house isn't big enough for that many people-think small farm. That was cool so that we could do WHATEVER we wanted!!! We rented some movies at CleanFlicks, so we could watch all those rated 'R' movies that we always wanted to see, but without all the junk in them, but we did not watch them. It was thursday night, and that meant......Batman!!! Oh yes, we already had tickets to the 12 0'clock showing of "The Dark Knight." Of course we had to go sit in line early, and the seats weren't too bad. Three hours later, I was in a trance. It was one of the most amazing movies ever. Props to Heath Ledger for being so completely crazy, I can understand why they say it was possible that he couldn't sleep and accidentally overdosed on sleeping pills now. But the point is, it was spectacular!!! So now, at 4 in the morning we go to bed, only to get up at 8 to say bye to her brother. Once again, sleep deprived, we spent the day getting stuff for our upcoming Murder Mystery Dinner and Craigo's-the best pizza joint in Idaho. Also we watched the 6 movies we rented, each were amazing, although a little choppy sometimes, but what can you expect? On Saturday we went to the Musuem of Idaho which was doing a sequence on the Pharoah's of Egypt and then the zoo they have in Idaho Falls. I found out that the wing span of an eagle is taller then me...talk about depressing! But we also did some shopping and ended up staying up until 5 the next morning working on Emily's dress for said dinner. That Sunday we woke up early to get onto the Shuttle back to Provo at 9. I would like to say that I slept all the way back, but with the Shuttle filled to capacity, there was no lying down. And basically I haven't been able to have a good night's rest yet. You know how it is, you are in college with really amazing friends, and no matter how tired you are, you can't go to bed and miss out on the fun. Well, that is me in a nutshell!! Still, that was my little adventure to Rexburg. It was so much fun and they have beautiful weather right now!! I have come to the conclusion that I would like Idaho in the summer, but I would rather die then spend a winter there. Overall, it was amazing!! I would put up pictures, but we took all of them with Emily's parent's camera and then when we wanted them we couldn't find the cable and so for right now, they are up in Idaho still. Still, onto the next adventure I say!!!!

2008-07-05T09:18:00.005-06:00

4th of July!! Well, I must admit that Emily and I know how to celebrate!! We woke up in the morning and made some red, white and blue french toast to start the day's festivities. But don't think that's all, we had the whole works, the sausage, bacon, eggs and orange juice. Yummm... We did invite Jordan to come along with us because, come on, it is a celebration that should be shared with family and friends. Well, we then decided to head down to Center Street where the Freedom Days Festival is for 3 days. I love being around all the bustling people who are enjoying the holiday just like us. We got ourselves some Texas Twister lemonade drinks, and boy was it good! Jordan decided that he had to get a sword, of course, and Emily wanted a Henna tattoo. We had some Italian Ice as well and just had a blast looking at everything. Oh, and Emily got an Native American Pipe Flute CD. I love it!! Especially since it has The Last of the Mohicans theme song on it. One of my favorites!! But with everyone getting something, I decided (and they both agreed) that I should get something as well. And so I was looking around and I saw this rock necklace. I was like, oh my goodness, I love this, and it is my color!! So, I bought it. Enough said. Well, we can home and got to working on our Independence dinner. We had ribs, corn on the cob, baked beans, deviled eggs, chips and queso, and cookies. We are going to continue that today with some potato salad and Rocky Road brownies....my mouth is already watering. We then plopped ourselves down to watch Independence Day, the movie, I mean, come on, how could we not? And right at the end the fireworks started shooting off. It is pretty cool because from our apartment you can see the Provo City ones, and Stadium of Fire, so two fireworks shows for free. Got to love it. So yes, that was my 4th of July. I enjoyed it immensely!!! I hope that everyone else's went as well. I must admit, I am happy to live in America with all of our freedoms. Thank you to all the men who fought for it, and those who fight now. God Bless America!!!