30 August 2014

Missionary brother


So my brother left for his mission this week.  We weren't able to go out and see him before he left, which made me really sad.  But it is ok. I will see him in two years.  In the meantime I am running a blog for him.  Which I haven't mentioned to him yet... I think he said I could.... Anyway.  He is in the Mexico MTC right now and will be serving in the Kennewick, Washington Mission.  I am way proud of him.  Incredibly proud.  This is the brother that was more like my best friend for half my life.  He would do anything with me.  Go see movies (even if they were little kid animated movies), rock climb, drive me around and hug me when I was crying, watch weird SciFi shows with me, debate whatever either of us was learning about in class.  I texted him on a regular basis.  He's also a computer genius so he would help me out with that since I am technologically retarded.  It will be strange to only be able to talk to him through letters. 
Anyway.  I am still tweaking the blog so that the links work and such. I am not the best at html (reading it or otherwise) but I am trying.  Here is the link-----> Elder Jon Myers


So in other news.  I went to a farmers market today and got way too much.  It was so good though... and pretty dang cheap.  The market was so tiny compared to others I have been to.  I got so many peaches! I love peaches almost as much as i love bees.  I love peaches enough that I have this romantic idea of what Georgia is like and I feel like I need to live there.  For the peaches and the bees and the trees. This farmers market had both peaches and bees.  Heaven.  So I bought a basket of peaches and some new honey.  Local honey is the way to go.  I also bought a zucchini the size of a small child for a dollar.  Awesome.  Local food is the way to go apparently. 

10 August 2014

Temple Date

 Yesterday was very busy.  But what else is new.  Dennis worked for forever and then he had a soccer game and then we went out to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  It was super fun.  We went with friends and then played games.





03 August 2014

Never know what temporal days may bring...

Laugh, love, live free and sing.
When life is in discord, 
praise ye the Lord.
So this week has progressively gotten more crazy.  I picked up another two hours a day for work with a new kid.  Also, Dennis and I went to Warped Tour.
Totally my scene right?  Wrong.  Booty shorts, ill fitting lace sports bras, and beer bellies are not my scene.  But Dennis favorite band since childhood has decided to retire.  This was supposed to be their last show near us.  Ever. However, they announced at the show that they would be playing one more that they hadn't announced yet.  So we were at Warped Tour from 1 to 7.  The band played for a half hour at 5.  We were super close to the front.  Dennis got a poster and a Polaroid signed. We made creepy friends in the insanely long ATM line and slushie line.  We ran into his cousin and his wife there too.  So even though we were there forever, it was still fun. Oh so the band?  Its Anberlin.  Dennis has been die hard since he was about 12. They've been going since 2002.





So.  That was our Satuday.  Dennis may have almost died from happiness that day. 




26 July 2014

Forever and Always

Today is our anniversary!  We were married 365 days ago.  Since then we have moved across the country twice, lived in 3 different states, been somewhat homeless, had two apartments, went on countless mini-adventures, seen the whole California coast, been to two universities, and fallen more in love every day.  
With my best friend, forever doesn't seem long enough.


22 July 2014

Happy Valley

So hell week has finally (sort of) come to an end.  I did a bridal shower last week and attended the wedding this week and now we are finally home after driving through the night.  I am so glad it is all over.
So let's go in order of events.  First off we went to an endowment in Manti.  The temple was beautiful but it was an hour and a half one way and we got stuck in dead stop traffic for another hour on the way home.  Which made me late to the bridal shower I was supposed to be throwing...  So the theme was Milk&Cookies: Udderly in Love.   Dennis and I bought one of those Fujifilm insta cameras and we thought it would be cool to do a photo-booth sort of deal.  I bought 50 sheets of film and we used all of them.  It was fun. Basically all the decor was made by me.  I made the flower crowns, the backdrop, the watercolor table labels, the props, the love banner, the canvases, and some of the cookies. I had help with the cookies as well.  We had a lot of cookies.



This is one corner of a large, full table.



Of course I made Den take one with me.
Ok so thats done.  Next event.  We found a flight and went to California for the wedding 4 days later. We got to hang out with my family a lot which was awesome.  My little sister is almost as tall as me and she is 7... I am going to be the shortest one in my family.  It is ok though. These are my little brother's sunflowers and he is crazy proud of them. Their stalk is bigger than my wrist. On a side note, you can dry sunflower stalk and use it as really awesome kindling. 
 So we helped set up for the wedding as well.  Most days we spent several hours helping.  I did all the table center pieces.  Which of course I don't have a picture of.  This is the only picture I have from the wedding. It's blury but I love that Polariod's are such a one time deal. You know what? It is perfect every time. I am not a big fan of retaking.  The moment is whats perfect or memorable. So why take it 8 times just because you think your smile is off or your hair is ever so slightly out of place? I actually ended up really liking my dress. I am not a huge fan of pink but I looked hard for one I actually liked.
So.  That was that.
We had a lot of other stress.  Including a maintenance emergency in our apartment while we were out.  But its hopefully over. 
We also left late yesterday because we got to drive Dennis truck back but the window was cracked so we had to get that fixed and then I got us lost an hour out of our way and so we've had about 3 hours of sleep since yesterday.  Yay!


(^Clearly obsessed)

07 July 2014

Independence Day and all that Jazz

So we have not had a single weekend that is not packed.  This last weekend was no exception.  I had Independence Day off but Dennis had to work. I went on a hike with my friend and her mom to Stewart Falls in the early(ish) morning.  It was so pretty.  Very worth it.


Then Dennis and I went to his grandparents for a BBQ and got to see all that side of them family and catch a bit of the World Cup game.  Then we met his other side of the family at the pool and then had dinner and fireworks with them.  It was my first experience in a firework tent.  Fireworks are illegal in California in the area I grew up in.  We got to see his cousins and aunt and all the babies.

Saturday we hung out with Dennis work friend and his wife.  Dennis also took a massively long nap. 
Sunday we went out to his uncle's for another BBQ. We got to see more cousins and kids again.
This weekend begins what I am calling hell week. I am throwing a bridal shower this weekend and next we go to the wedding.  That's all I will say.  But if either of it turns out less than a train wreck maybe I'll write a post about it. Maybe. I'll think about it.

21 June 2014

Strawberry Days

So one of the families I work for gave me two free rodeo tickets!  I of course wanted to go as I am into expereinces and I have never been to a rodeo.  It was a carnival too. Their thing is strawberries.  Their main food item is strawberries in cream. It was delicious!  I had two.  Dennis and I went with his work friend and his wife.  We watched some of the rodeo, but had to leave early because Dennis got a nasty migraine. 



Also.  Last weekend we went with our friends (aka Brat Pack) out to the canyon for a bonfire.  It was awesome even though we forgot a spatula for our bbq... We survived.

18 June 2014

Thankful Again

So sometimes I get really worried.  If you ask Dennis, sometimes is closer to all the time.  I worry about all sorts of things.  From little things like if I put too much garlic in the soup to big things like not having enough money.  If you ask most anyone who knows me you will also learn that I cannot do anything right in my own eyes.  Which is true.  I can't see past the flaws of something I have done. This post is brought to you by my cousin. I was sad because I felt like some things weren't fair and weren't working out the way I thought they aught to.  She said, "how can you say that?  You are married to your best friend."  It's true. I am.  I am so blessed in that regard.  Many people get married only to find out maybe their prince isn't so charming or maybe he's a little too charming and not enough prince.  Dennis is 100% through and through Prince Charming.  There is not a single moment that I am not grateful for him.  Cheesy as it is.  It is true.  With that in mind, here is another thankful list.

I am thankful for...
*Dennis
*Working in the nursery
* All the babies in nursery that make us proud and happy
*Both of us having jobs
*My mom and dad
*Dennis mom and dad
*Libraries
*Camping
*The sound, smell, and feel of a fire
*Pictures of memories
*Root beer (our weakness...)
*School
* Air conditioning
*The kids in my job. They make me proud.

03 June 2014

The Curse

I think I've mentioned my curse before.  I don't remember. So here's the gist.  When we go to places of service, particularly restaurants, if I order or ask for something I simply won't get it.  It happens all the time.  It happened last night when we went to get ice cream cones.  I have no idea why.  I need to find a way to break the spell...
On a different note, here are more art pieces from my husband.  


29 May 2014

Weekend Getaway

So last week we took our much anticipated trip to California to see our families and to go to Disneyland's 24 hour day.  It was a blast.  The kids in my family didn't know we were coming so we got to surprise them again. My oldest brother and his girlfriend chose to go to Disneyland's 24 hour day instead of prom so we got to see them there a lot too.  Dennis mom's birthday was also this weekend.  So we got to celebrate that.  To top it off I chopped off my hair again. Dennis says its like a Maggie from Walking Dead or Tangled at the end hair cut.  We were only there for 3 days.  So we barely got any sleep.... Not the most relaxing vacation.  Very fun though.
To pictures.

Me, Prince Charming, his sister, my cousin, my brother and his girl

 So this is my cousin.  She's like. My Bestie.  Our story runs very similarly to that of the opening song for Swan Princess.  We were thrown together.  Didn't like each other.  After awhile we became super good friends.  She also almost cried when she got to see Captain America

Took us less than 2 minutes to pose and get off.  Pros.
Fireworks.  Love their faces.



So this one is our first time picture.  It only says 10:30 I think.  We were pretty proud.  We'd been there since 10 in the morning.  There is another time picture after midnight but the silly cast member put his finger on the lens.  We stayed till 4 for World of Color.  We may have also fallen asleep on the warf in California Adventure...  As you can see in this picture, club Disney is going on in the background.  Not a fan. Made me kinda sad actually that they used the castle for a club.  We joked that Walt was facing away from the castle because he didn't want to know.  California Adventure was a total wreck come nightfall.  They should not have allowed alcohol in the park.  Overall the day was super fun. The night was weird.  But we love Disneyland. 

Unrelated to Disneyland, but this is my brother in his home made camouflage. He taped plants all over himself. I hope our kids are as creative and fun as he is.
Also.  I don't have any pictures yet of my new hair... Maybe next time.

17 May 2014

Summertime...

So.  I have this love/hate relationship with summer.  By which I mean I do not necessarily enjoy summer. Right about now Olaf is just crying with shock.  I'm much more made for fall or winter.  I don't own a single piece of clothing that is summer appropriate.  I don't even have a proper swimsuit this year yet.  I dislike shorts.  I prefer to be cold because how can you fix being hot?  You can't.  Cold is simple.  You get a blanket or a coat. However, there are a few redeeming things about summer and all things hot.
* Dresses. I love dresses.  Unfortunately, my job isn't exactly dress friendly.
* Sun drying my hair.  It just feels so nice.
* Sleeping in the sun.  Basically I'm a cat.
* Camping/hiking.
* We got married in the summer.
Aaaannndddd that's all I got.  Sad but true. 

Summer hike 2013

16 May 2014

T-Minus 5 Days

These last two weeks have just been rough.  (see: last post)  But really.  They have been just annoying.  I'm ready for Disneyland.
Yes.  You read right.  DISNEYLAND.  The land of hope and dreams.  The place Dennis and I spent most of our date nights.  Basically my favorite place to be.  I just have to survive this week.  Then happiness.  Hopefully... I worry that because I am so stressed that one thing might just completely set me off.  Then that would be sad.  So!  Let's hope we survive. 
Dennis had a whole week off last week through an accident in scheduling at work.  He's been working this week.  I've missed hanging out with him all morning. 
So.  It's kind of nice when one or both of us doesn't have work.  We get to hang out. 





Our last trip to Disneyland. 

05 May 2014

I might have puke for brains

Our weekend was so fun. I ran for the first time in months (more walk than run but I'm proud of it).  We got called to the nursery in our ward.  Which apparently is the most hated job in our ward for some reason?  Some of the women in our ward are child haters.... So now I work with kids 6 days a week. But I love nursery. So its ok.
Today though.
Today has been rough for us.
I work with kids with autism.  Most days are not a walk in the park. Some days are more rewarding than others.  Today was an extreme mixture of both. Mostly rough. With some good.
I can't go into detail.  But.  Basically.  I cleaned up a massive amount of puke with no thanks. Not only that I was told that the child was not sick and they were offended that I was not over enthused about staying.  I don't mind puke. But really...?  I was so incredible frustrated by how inconsiderate the family was.
It was just an abnormally bad day. There was a bunch of really weird little things as well.  But. Blah.
So here's a video of the temple. We went two weeks ago for our friends' endowments and it was so pretty.  So. Yeah. Today has been bad and here's a temple.


 

25 April 2014

Easter and Mellow Days

This was our second Easter in Utah.  Our second Easter together as well.  This year we didn't do much.  We dyed eggs and got to hang out with both sides of Dennis' family.  Which is awesome.  I was originally uncertain how I felt about living so close to family.  We lived in Virginia our first few months of marriage where the only person we knew was his sister. Before that we had both of our immediate families and it was a little stressful at times.  So I was nervous about all the family we have out here. We really like it. Not only do we have both sides of Dennis' family, we have my dad's side up here as well.  We get to see all of them on a regular basis.  It's fun. We spent Easter morning with his aunt and all his cousins and their babies.  That evening we spent with his grandpa and all sorts of related or somewhat related cousins.


We tried the whipped cream dying method for some of our eggs and it was super fun!  They looked like chalk or water color eggs. It was neat. I was really proud of my bunny.  I drew him all by myself. 
Dennis has been playing a lot of soccer lately.  Mostly indoor but he has recently joined an outdoor team.  Or maybe two... I'm not entirely sure.  I just go when I'm told there's a game.
Oh!  The other night we came home kind of late.  I was really tired. I am still waking up with the sun (around 7:40 now). Dennis got out of the car before me and then disappeared. I opened my door to find him pointing to two kittens.  I have a really bad weakness for babies and things that are alone. So of course I needed to take care of them. I sat in the dirt at 1 am in the morning holding tiny kittens. Then I realized one was missing a leg.  First they were babies then alone and now one was hurt.  All things I can't handle put together. I was so sad. Our neighbors took the cats in the morning since we couldn't have them but all night I was heartbroken because I didn't think they would survive.
So that is my sad story for the week. 



09 April 2014

Where were you when...

So lately I've been thinking.  Which is a dangerous thing to do. (-- Gaston song). Anyway.  I have been sort of doing a time line comparason between family and friends about where we were or what we were doing or had done by a certain age.  It's interesting to think about. Dennis and I have both had birthdays in the last month, so we were comparing mostly to our age. 

My grandpa: Was serving in the Navy.  Had not yet met my grandma.  Was not yet a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  May have started college. Had lived through 3 wars by that point. 

My grandma: Was attending college to become a teacher.  It was terribly important to her parents for her to do so.  She may have met my grandpa by this point and he may have been seeing the missionaries.
 
His grandma: Had married her childhood sweetheart two years earlier. She had just had her first baby.  They hadn't been sealed as a family yet. 

His grandpa (paternal): he had eloped with his high school sweetheart years before and kept it a secret and still continued to live with their families to maintain the secret.  By this point they had told everyone and were living together.


My parents: Had been married about a year.  They were attending college together.  My dad had been home from his mission for almost two years. My mom was graduating college and working as a chemist.

His parents: They'd been married over a year about and had just had their first baby.   His dad had been playing baseball at college and had been training with the Red Sox. He had blown out both his knees already. 

Something that is even crazier to do is to think about where we were at younger people's ages.  My brother is getting ready to leave on his mission.  His sister wants to get married.  It's crazy to think either how different or how similar our lives were then compared to theirs now.

03 April 2014

Birthday Everything

Yesterday it was Dennis' birthday.  We both had work, so we didn't have any birthday adventures.  Yet.  We may still have one or two on Saturday in honor of his birthday.  So yesterday I made him a lemon meringue pie from scratch.  It is one of the few things I make that I don't worry constantly that someone will hate.  I only worry most of the time. Just not constantly. Anyway he really likes lemon meringue pie and he really likes when I make it.  He thinks I do amazingly.  He's so sweet. We went to Apollo burger again for his birthday dinner and he got a bunch of super awesome birthday presents.  He is one lucky dude.  New beats boombox, indoor soccer cleats, new shirts, paints... and hopefully more to come in the mail. Even though it was his birthday, I got a surprise package in the mail.  He bought me earrings.  He is so sweet.  He makes my heart melt. 

He also got punched in the face at a soccer game the night before his birthday. So he still has a fat lip.  His team is the new team of the league so they are the underdogs.  But look how adorable he is.

22 March 2014

Apollo, God of Hamburger

I thoroughly enjoy trying new things and going new places.  Tonight, we went and tried Apollo Burger.  I love local (non-chain) food places.  Back in Virgina we used to go to this place called T-n-T Ta Go.  It was heavenly.  It was all home made food run by these awesome ladies.  They were so nice.  They had a potato soup to die for.  I've been trying in vain to replicate the soup.  They also had this amazing chicken salad sandwich.  Honestly, there wasn't a single thing we could find that wasn't good.
I digress.  So we go to this burger place.  I pass it every day on the way to work and we finally decided to try it.  It was as good as I thought.  I have this theory on how to tell a good restaurant before even eating there.  If you see (classy) old people coupled with other generations of people in a hole in the wall restaurant, it is probably good.  They've probably been going there for years and they usually know what's good as far as older food joints.  I created this theory based on where my grandpa goes to eat or why he says somewhere is good and through observation.  Apollo did not fail us today.  It looks run down but it has got some good burgers.  The Apollo burger has pastrami on it with the hamburger and it is surprisingly really good.



On a totally different subject, a year ago Dennis and I started a notebook together.  Originally we wrote to each other and took turns with who had it.  Once we got married, we used it to document our travels.  Since it has been a year, I am going to show off a few of my favorite pages.





Plants from Illinois

The leaf on the right was written on while drying and has words engraved on it.  We think its awesome.


There are so many pages.  I chose my favorites.  Which happened to be all plant pages. There are so many pages filled with writing and postcards and packets and maps.  We started it a week before we got engaged.  So our wedding, honeymoon, trips across the country, life in Virginia, and any other adventures can be found in its cover.  We have to hold it closed with thick rubber bands.  We also have a postcard from every place we stop with a short description on the back.  At the end of our first year we're going to bind them together to make a book.  So!  A sneak peak at our book.