Go Grizzlies!

About two weeks ago I was just getting off of work and called Andrew to tell him I was going home for the day.  He said to me, "we are going somewhere at 7, but its a surprise, I'll be home soon."  Suddenly my brain is going wild with ideas of what surprise he has come up with.  He can get some pretty mischevious ideas so I had no idea what to expect!  Once he and his brother Chase walked in to my house he told me that my surprise was season tickets to the Grizzlies hockey games.  I was so surprised and very happy!  A full season of seeing guys beat the crap out of each other?! don't mind if I do! I was even more happy when he told me they were only $50 since we are students.  Finally college paid off for something! Andrew has always been a huge hockey lover and I used to go to games with my best friend growing up and I truly grew a love for the sport and the fighting mostly, lets face it is really entertaining. 

So we picked up Andrew's other brother Tim and headed off to the game.  The awesome lady at the ticket counter gave us front row!  I literally hadn't even sat down yet and a fight happened directly in front of my face.  I have never experienced it so close.  I think I gasped.  After the fight was over, there was a big wet thing running down the glass, I immediately became physically ill because the guy sitting next to me said it was snot.  I'm gagging just thinking about it.  The rest of the game I found myself ducking as the puck would fly and hit the glass in front of us.  I swear its going to break through one day, it is insane to see that thing flying a million miles an hour right at your face.  I also found myself staring in awe and laughing at Andrew as he screamed and banged on the glass non stop at our opponents.  At one point, one of the security guards came up to him and told him there was a report that he was yelling profanities and would he please stop. lol!! If you know Andrew you know he doesn't swear. ever. I've literally only heard him swear once in my life at Target, which made my whole day.

Yes that was just the first game's experience.

During the first intermission of the game they bring out a couple of cars and have a few people shoot the puck from center court.  If you make it through the very small hole in the piece of cardboard covering the goal, then you win the car!  So Andrew and Tim went and signed up at the Nissan dealership the next day so they would have the chance to shoot the puck.  Before the game they went to the Murray ice rink and practiced shooting.  They were very serious about this.   After the first period they trotted out on the ice in helmets and sticks in hand.  I had a very nice image of Andrew and I driving away in a brand new completely free Nissan Altima.  So Andrew waltzed to the center of the rink, tapped his stick on the ice and stared down the target.  He swung back the stick, sent the puck flying................ and missed wide right, by like a mile. haha!  Dream shattered.  

Tim shot next and got really close but missed as well.  They each got a puck as a souvenier afterwards. Maybe next time boys!

I have to thank my husband for the sweet gift.  He always has a surprise up his sleeve and these games will definitely make for fun date nights!

Park City, Parties, Pumpkins and Philly

October was full of fun!  We went up to Park City to celebrate Andrew's dad and step moms birthdays.  We rode the sky coaster down the mountain and did some shopping on main street.

This is Andrew at the top of the hill of the sky coaster.

All of us after riding the coaster down the mountain

We also went to a Halloween party at my cousins house.  The theme was fairytale.  Andrew dressed up as Pinocchio and I dressed up as the Blue Fairy. Yeah you have to use your imagination a little bit to see it but it works right?! 

Steff and Tyler's finished product

Mine and Andrew's finished product

The whole pumpkin family

Round 2 of pumpkin carving.

Halloween weekend Andrew went to Philadelphia with two of his brothers and his best friend Jordan.  They went to see the Eagles kick some Cowboys trash! Here are a few pics of his trip:



1st Year Memories

Andrew and I have been married almost 1 year and 8 months.  I cannot believe how fast time goes!  After reading my friend's blogs, I realized everyone started their blog right after they got married and I didn't start mine until we had been married a whole year.  So since this blog is my life documentary journal I want to post some memories of our first year being married.  Andrew and I both have horrible memories so I better write this ridiculously long post before I completely forget!


*When we were registering for gifts Andrew said that he wanted to have a room in our apartment that he got to decorate.  I never pegged him as an interior decorator, but I thought it sounded like a fun idea.  So we agreed that he could decorate the bathroom (yet somehow all cleaning duties still got put on me.. that was so not part of the agreement). At Target he registered for every monkey themed accessory he could find, and at Bed Bath & Beyond he registered for a surf board-hawaiian theme.  The shower curtain he really wanted was a grass skirt! I was getting kind of worried at this point.  We ended up with all of the monkey decorations and towels, a blue and brown striped shower curtain, and the surf board garbage can.  I was secretly hoping that no one would buy this stuff (thanks Candice!!) but Andrew loved it and yes he did use all of them together including some random pictures we got for our wedding.  It actually ended up being the most decorated room in our one bedroom apartment.  The only other furniture we started out with was our bed and a card table and chairs. 

*Our apartment was right next to a movie theater.  It actually made for the best weekend date night.  We loved the fact that we could walk to the theater with our re-fillable popcorn bucket in hand and enjoy a $5 movie!


*Andrew's dad and step mom gave us their washer and dryer once we moved in to our apartment because they wanted to purchase newer ones.  It was so awesome of them to do that!  But we started to notice after a few months of using them that the dryer would not completely dry the clothes in one cycle.  We had to keep resetting it and it took forever to get through all of the laundry.  One night I noticed that the dryer smelled like it was burning.  I got kind of nervous that it was just totally burnt out and breaking.  Later that night my cousin Jenni and her bf Brett came over to hang out.  I asked them if they could smell the burning aroma coming from the dryer.  Brett took a look at it and a few minutes later he pulled out the lint trap that was full of inches of lint!!  We hadn't cleaned it out once in the five months we had been using it.  It was so embarrassing!! It could have easily caught on fire.  Andrew had no idea what a lint trap even was and I just completely forgot you had to clean it out regularly lol.  We learned our lesson.


*The first summer being married we took a trip to Vermont and Palmyra NY with Andrew's mom and two of his younger brothers.  First of all I have to say that Vermont is quite beautiful and very green.  I have never seen so many trees! Within the first few hours there we stumbled across a stellar radio station that deserves mentioning.  It was called The Radiator and the dj was a hilarious irishman and they played irish and french music.  It was highly entertaining and hilarious.  It was the only thing we listened to every time we got in the car.
While there we went to the teddy bear factory (a lot like build-a-bear) where they take you on a tour of the factory and show you how the bears are made.  We also took the tour of the Ben and Jerry's factory and saw how the ice cream was made and even got a delicious sample at the end. It was a lot of fun!
One night we even drove to New Hampshire and ate at a restaurant called Friendly's, just so that we could say we had been to New Hampshire.  A funny coincidence is when we got back to our hotel in Vermont we noticed there was a Friendly's restaurant right across the street.  ha!
We went to Sharon VT one day and got to see the Joseph Smith monument and the place he was born.  The monument is made of granite and it stands 38 1/2 ft tall, one foot for every year of his life.  It was an amazing spiritual experience to be there and to be watching a video of his life in the very spot that he was born.
The next day we headed to Palmyra NY.  We got to walk through the replicated log home where Joseph Smith and his family lived while he was growing up.  In this home is where angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith.

 The Sacred Grove is not too far from the house.  It was seriously the most powerful and spiritual feeling walking through the sacred grove and imagining our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appearing to Joseph Smith.
We then went to Hill Cumorah where Moroni led Joseph Smith to retrieve the gold plates.
We even went on a tour of the printing press where the first Book of Mormon was printed.  Needless to say it was an incredible experience to see all of these historic sites.  (I will post more pics when I dig them out)

* Our First Pet!
We were hanging out with our friends Shaun and Jenny one night and they had just gotten a chinchilla.  I never knew what a chinchilla was before this day. Andrew and I fell in love with the little hopping fuzz ball! We loved him so much that the next morning we became proud parents of our own chinchilla. We went to the chinchilla farm where our friends had gotten theirs to get our very own.  We chose a cute, small two month old girl.  She was gray and white and absolutely adorable.  We named her Mia.  Once we got her home Andrew went to the pet store to buy a cage.  He came home with a cage, a little pink bed, a pink bathing container, a pink wheel for her to run on and of course some chinchilla food and her favorite treats - hay and raisins.  It melted my heart to see him spoiling our little Mia. 
Looking at this picture you see a cute, oh so cuddly, completely sweet and innocent animal right?

NOT TRUE!! She belongs in the wild!  Let me just tell you all about our crazy, not cuddly little friend.

-Mia had so much energy you would have thought she was on speed!  Chinchillas are nocturnal so she was up all night running on her wheel as fast as her tiny chinchilla legs could carry her.

-She hated being in her cage.  As soon as we would walk in the house she was so excited and she would run up to the door of her cage and stare at you hoping to be let out.  If we didn't let her out she would stand on her back legs and ram the cage with her head!  And she would make the saddest squealing noises.  She did this a lot during the night when her legs were tired of running on the wheel. 

-Most evenings after work we would let her out to play.  We would never get the chance to pick her up and hold her, she was not capable of cuddling!  If you held her too long she would bite! Instead she loved running around the room at lightning speed and loved to hide in very dark places.  I am not even joking when I say lightning speed.  You have no idea how fast these things can run!  It was nearly impossible to catch her. We would literally have to corner her to pick her up.  

-Chinchillas have an incredible ability to jump very high.  We would block off the kitchen with boxes but eventually she was able to get over them.  Or she would somehow manage to jump on top of the stool and then jump on to the countertop and then down onto the kitchen floor.  Her favorite spot to hide was behind the refrigerator or underneath the cupboards.  She would stay holed up under the cupoboards forever!  I can't even tell you how many hours were spent just trying to lure her out with hay and raisins. 

-Mia was a clean freak, I'm convinced!  Chinchillas take dust baths since their fur is so thick it cannot get wet.  They just roll around in a pile of dust in this container.  It is hilarious to watch!  They are only supposed to bathe a few times a week,  but our little Mia would bathe a few times a day if we kept it sitting out and she would go bathe after people had touched her.  She was a complete menice but at least she was clean!

Now doesn't a pet like that sound like loads of good times??? She was the cause of much stress and required a lot of attention.  Chinchillas can get depressed and start losing fur! After a while I just couldn't handle the fact that she was trapped in a cage all day everyday.  We are pretty busy people and she didn't get the attention she needed, so around Christmas we gave her away to a nice family with some kids who would love her.  We hope she is happy and that she hasn't eaten the children alive!

*Just before our first christmas together Andrew's gramdma aka Grams passed away.  She lived in Post Falls, ID.  She was a hoot! She was so sweet and loved her family to pieces.  As we made the ten hour drive to the funeral we talked about how Andrew took me up to her house while we were dating and all of the funny things she would say.  The boys loved to give her a hard time and she dished it out hard.  She had some pretty grusome threats (ovbiously not serious) and they were the funniest things I have ever heard.  Here are a few of our favorite Grams sayings (or at least the ones I had the pleasure of hearing in the short time of knowing her).

"I will cut your ears off!"

"I will hang you by your toes and let you starve!"

"This is the sargeant speaking, you have ten seconds to get to this door!" Of course she was yelling this at the boys because they were running late and she had places to go.

"I will come after you with a rifle." She threatened Andrew with this because when we were dating he told her I was pregnant.

We love and miss Grams but we know she is very happy in heaven!

*Our First Christmas
Yes we are those people who do all of our christmas shopping 1-2 days before christmas.  Its actually really awful and stressful so I hope we get better at that.  Our first Christmas together we bought a small pre lit christams tree and headed to Hobby Lobby (my fav store) to find some ornaments.  I had no idea Andrew was going to impulsively grab one box of every color of ornament!  Finally I had to tell him our tree wasn't nearly that big.  So we decided on a Jazz themed tree.  We had basketball ornaments and the jazz colors - purple, blue, and silver.  It was awesome!!


We made a promise we weren't going to spend much money on each other. Andrew got me the camera I had been wanting and I got him a pedal board for his guitar.  Of course we both secretly went out and bought smaller items for each other.  On Christmas Eve Andrew proved why he should have gotten coal for Christmas.  We came to an agreement that we could open one present from each other.  Andrew opened the two seasons of Flight of The Concords (I know I'm the best wife ever).  He gave me a small wrapped present and when I opened it I found my ipod.. the one I have had for years and had been looking for for days!! I had a good laugh about that, but kindly demanded a real present.  So he gave me another wrapped gift, this time I opened my deodarant... yes once again the deodarant I was currently using. Still laughing I thought to myself, "oh my gosh he totally just wrapped up all of my stuff that I already have!"  And of course Andrew was enjoying every minute of his stealthy schemes.  Finally he gave me a box full of Dr. Pepper! He hit the jackpot and totally redeemed himself. The rest of the day was spent with my family at our annual Christmas Eve bash.  We spent Christmas morning with Andrew's mom and brothers and got to talk to his brother Tim who was still on a mission at the time.  Later that day we had lunch and more gift opening with Andrew's dad and step mom.  And that night we had a big dinner party at his aunt's house.  Even though we end up celebrating every holiday and birthday about three times with all of the families we have, there is never a dull moment and I wouldn't trade it for anything!


*As 2011 rang in and our apt lease ended, we decided to move in with my grandma to save up money for school and maybe a house.  It is here that we spent our one year anniversary!  We went out to a nice dinner at Macaroni Grill.  I don't care who you are you cannot refuse their brownie dessert!  It is kind of hard coming up with a gift for your one year anniversary.  So I decided to get Andrew some personalized guitar pics. On one side it has a picture of us and the other side says "Happy 1 Year I Love You".  They turned out awesome!!  He got me some of my favorite perfume and flowers.  Everyone says the first year is the hardest.. if that was hard then we are going to have an incredibly happy life together.  I love Andrew so so much and I am so grateful he came into my life!  What a great year full of great memories and many many more to come.

Falling Apart!

I just discovered this past week that at age 23 your body starts to fall apart!  For the past little while I have noticed that my jaw will get a really tired feeling at radom times during the day and ache a little bit.  I had no idea why.  I know what some of you are thinking and it is not because of THAT you sickos!!  haha.
Anyway last weekend my jaw on the left side had a constant pain when I would open my mouth or even touch it.  Then I started feeling pain all down my neck and noticed a little bit of swelling.  I got pretty concerned so I went to the dentist to get checked out. What I heard him say was, "You have a dysfunctional face."  I was instantly confused.  But what he really said was that I have a jaw muscle dysfunciton and I am showing signs of TMJ.  I guess my jaw is out of alignment and my bite is off so it is now affecting my jaw muscles and chewing muscles.  I'm frustrated because I have no idea how this happened or when!  He sent me on my way with some muscle relaxers and told me to come back when the swelling went down and he would have to create a bite splint for me to wear so he can figure out where my teeth are off.  I instantly had an image of myself walking around with head gear lol.  Luckily that is not the case.  I might have had a break down. 
Well little did I know I was going to have an allergic reaction to the muscle relaxer.  It was probably the scariest thing that has happened to me.  I was acting like a weirdie on very powerful drugs.  I couldn't stand up without falling over, everything was like slow motion, my heart was racing so fast, I was on the verge of passing out, and my face was starting to swell even more on the left side. This lasted for about a half hour until I could really calm down.  Andrew being the sweet husband that he is gave me a blessing which helped a lot!  The next night I sat down to watch my recording of America's Next Top Model.  A few minutes later Andrew said, "Why are you watching this?  You watched the whole episode last night."  Apparently that drug erased some of my memory!  I have absolutely no recollection of watching it or anything I did for that matter after the reaction stopped.  So weird!
Luckily the reaction didn't do anything serious.  I just look like I gained five pounds in my face and I have a small tumor like feeling bump over my left jaw.  The doctor just said to never take that medicine again and to take an anti inflammatory and keep ice on my face so the swelling goes down.  He also said I would have a sore throat because of the reaction. Not fun!  
Its been a rough few days.  I think the most disappointing part is that I found out today my jaw does not appreciate chocolate marshmallow mateys.  It so hard to chew!! I am restricted to soft foods for now and as little chewing as possible.  Ay yi yi.  I have no idea how long it will take to correct this dysfunction but I am really hoping that none of my other body parts decide to fail me right now.    

Pics of Summer

Just for fun I want to add some pictures from events that happened this summer. Boy were we busy!! Of course we didn't capture a lot of it on camera but here are some fun ones.
 (and ps I just learned how to add a slideshow!  It is a slideshow of our wedding and it is under the 'proposal' post.) 

One of my best friends from high school got married this June.  It was a beautiful wedding!  These are my high school besties!  Love you guys!

My "twin" cousin got married in June as well!  It was so fun to be a part of!  Love you Jen and Brett!

At the end of June Andrew's brother Tim came home from his mission in Switzerland.  Andrew and I made this sign for him.. and we figured out the french is backwards when Tim started laughing. haha!

My sister being the Vegas lover that she is, decided to throw a Vegas themed party.  Everyone dressed up in Vegas attire, we had a nice dinner, and played a lot of poker.  It was really fun! Our King and Queen card costumes were the bomb!  and cost one dollar each!

And in July, you guessed it another wedding!  My oldest sister Melanie got married. I am no longer the only married sibling in my family.  Its so fun to have our family getting bigger.

We hiked up to donut falls.  It was a super fun date complete with a picnic right next to the water. 

Thank you summer for loads of fun!  I will miss you greatly!

New Things

Summer is coming to an end sadly!  Its been full of camping, weddings, and moving.  Hopefully I can have pics up soon.  School is back in session and it's back to a very busy schedule and not being able to see my husband much. It will all be worth it one day! Andrew has about two more years left of school and I probably have about that much left too depending on what I decide to do with my life.  I really just want to be a stay at home mom but also want some type of degree to fall back on and just to feel like I accomplished something and also to be able to go back to once my kids are in school all day.  So since the stay at home mom part isn't quite in progress yet, I will try to love night classes.


We are officially moved into our apartment and really loving it!  We love the area, and our neighbors (minus the smokers).  It is literally about 5 minutes from both of our works so it is lovely to go home for lunch and take a nap or watch tv.  It is also close to trax which is great for Andrew since he has transferred to the U.  I even have some cute decorations up!  I know I previously posted about a great couch find..well listen to this!  Over labor day we decided we were going to try and find the matching love seat for our sofa.  So we went to another location of Knights Furniture and as soon as we walked in we saw it!  I made sure to ask the sales associate if the couch color was mocha because that is the color we currently have, and he said yes it was.  I was so excited it was so easy to find! They were selling the sofa and love seat together for a great deal.  We asked them if we could just buy the love seat and they weren't too keen on splitting up the pair but after Andrew's great negogtiating we walked out with an awesome deal on the love seat.  Once Andrew and his brother got it into our apartment he called me and told me that the new love seat is in fact a whole shade darker than our sofa.  I couldn't believe it!! So we decided to go back to the furniture store and found out the color of the love seat was actually cocoa not mocha!! So we ended up buying the matching cocoa sofa and now we are trying to sell the mocha couch.  Good riddance!  I didn't know furniture shopping could be so stressful. 


We will also be switching wards soon.  I am so sad to leave our little primary class.  The kids absolutely adore Andrew it is really the cutest thing ever.  He handles it all so well and I don't know what I would if I had to be in there without him.  Teaching this class has taught me that I need to be more diligent with my scripture study.  One time while I was teaching a cute little boy made a comment and I had to whisper to Andrew, "is that true?"  haha!  It wasn't a true comment, but I would have believed it!  I am really going to miss them!!

OW!

Its been a busy couple of weeks trying to get everything ready for our new apartment.  Packing has got to be the worst thing on the planet! However I am super excited to get everything in our new place and all set up.  A few weeks ago we stumbled across a furniture store that was closing and we found a really nice couch, (even the perfect color that I wanted) for a really great price! After that find I got really excited and had all these ideas for the living room.  So I went to target and found a bookcase.. an impossibly heavy bookcase I might add.  As I was lifting the box from the cart into my car, I hurt my shoulder.  It was a really bad pain!  The next day I ended up falling on our roller blading adventure (a whole nother story for another time) and hurt it even more.  The past two weeks it has just killed to lift anything at all and simple things like lifting my arm to put on my makup, rolling up the car window and typing are so painful. sleeping is also difficult because it just throbs.  Finally I went to a physical therapist to get it checked out.  It turns out I strained my rotator cuff and will be needing physical therapy for a little bit.  It is feeling slightly better now, but lifting is still out of the question.  Perfect timing since we are moving this weekend! I don't really mind just supervising :) I really need to get myself a better story as to how this injury happened.. haha

Oh Happy Day!

Andrew and I just got called to be primary teachers in our ward.  We have the 7-8 year old class.  The kids are hilarious!  There are about 6 boys and 1 girl.. so naturally its a bit of a rowdy group.  We have only taught once so far, but it is so fun!  During our first class we played a get to know you question game.  Their first question was, "how tall are you?"  and then there was a bunch of giggling because they are nearly as tall as me. 
One little boy asked andrew, "do you have a girlfriend?"  Andrew said, "no, I have a wife."  and the little boy repsonded, "well yeah, but do you have a girlfriend?"  lol!
That same little boy later on asked us how long we have been married.  We told him we've been married for almost a year and a half.  He got this shocked look on his face and said, "and you don't have a baby yet?? You need to have one tomorrow!" Haha I can't even count how many times I have been asked the whole when are you having a baby question, but I never thought I would be reprimanded by an 8 year old! I guess by Utah terms we are a little behind schedule..


So far thats all of the primary fun I have to share.  In other news, Andrew and I just found a nice apartment.  Not sure if we're switching wards or not yet.  I would love to stay since we just became teachers, but our new church would be extremely closer to where we will be living.  We are so excited to have our own place again!  It's not quite a house yet, but we we will get there eventually.  We are just so excited to be on our own! I have a ton of cute ideas on how to decorate and I cannot wait to get started.  Although decorating on a tight budget does take time.. its so fun to dream.  I also promised him that once we got in to our own place, I would be better about cooking dinner.  I like the idea of being a good cook, but when it comes down to actually cooking I just don't love it.  My idea of a great dinner is cereal, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Its both easy and super delicious.  But, I know that practice makes perfect, and I will learn to make things eventually!!

4th of July

For our 4th of July celebration we went to Andrew's family reunion in Blanding.  That Friday the town was hosting a softball tournament which Andrew and Tim had signed up to play. (ps. Tim got home form his mission a few weeks ago.  It has been fun to have him back home.  Andrew is loving it!)  The tournament started at 6 and after five hours of driving we pulled up to the fields at 5:50.  Just in time!  The tournament literally went until 7 am the next morning.  Although our team ending up losing around 4:30 am, they did awesome and it was super fun to watch. 
The next day we headed up to the campground.  I can proudly admit that I learned how to set up a tent!  I am not one who loves camping, but I decided that I wasn't going to be a total girl about the situation and know how to survive in what I call 'the wild.'  I still hate bugs, campfire smoke, and the endless dirt but it went well. 
We spent the rest of the weekend 4 wheeling and bike riding, and some jumped in the swamp like lake that was near. By sheer dumb luck I made it to the final round of the super intense ring toss game that the family plays each year.  It was a close call but I was beat down by Andrew's cousin Craig.  Next year the plaque is mine!
On Monday we went into town to watch the parade.  Molly looked super cute out there in her cheer uniform.  It brought back lots of memories for me!  After the parade Andrew, Tim and Chase were signed up for the big basketball tournament at the park.  It felt like it was 100 degrees outside!  We all proudly cheered them on as they battled the Blanding natives.  A few hours later they lost and we headed home.  It was a fun experience!!

Crazy Moments!

What a week! The last week has been full of crazy moments.  I have experienced a funny embarrassing moment, a blond moment and a sad moment.  Here are the stories in order:


I went to my brother in law Nick's seminary graduation with my mother in law Wendy.  We were sitting on the very back bench in the chapel closest to the door. The outside door that was near us was locked and some people had tried to get in so Wendy ran out and opened the door for them.  About five minutes later, during the opening hymn another couple had come up to the locked door and were knocking on the glass so someone would hear them.  So I tell Wendy Its my turn I'll get up and get the door.  That day I had chosen to wear my super cute hot pink heels that are a size too big.  I wore them at my wedding even and I love them! But everytime I wear them I have to stuff them with loads of toilet paper. So I go to open the door and I try to run so they'll stop knocking, but it turned out to be more of a fast shuffle and my left foot almost slid out of my shoe and totally threw off my balance.  To keep from face planting I start hopping on one foot while trying to keep my shoe on and not trip. I looked ridiculous! Wendy glanced up and saw the last hop and the very embarrassed expression on my face and immediately started laughing which made me laugh and we laughed uncontrollably all the way through the prayer.  Little did I know there was a lady sitting out in the foyer on the chair and she grabbed the door while watching everything I did.  Wendy tried to make me feel better by telling me  no one saw it, but the lady in the foyer saw and a family on the back row were giggling when I walked back in.  It was hilarious! And Nick is glad that I'm not blood related to him.


The blond moment happened yesterday as I was trying to make cupcakes.  Andrew's aunt gave me a cookbook filled with 101 cupcake recipes and I was so excited to test it out.  I pulled them out of the oven and they looked good until the middle caved in and left a big hole in each one. I read over the recipe ten times trying to understand what I did wrong.  Finally we figured out that the recipe called for a brownie mix and I used a cake mix! I was also trying to make some chocolate ganache to top them off and the recipe called for one cup of whipping cream and I used the whole pint!  I should really learn to read and continue taking notes during cake boss and cupcake wars. Although they didn't work out at all they still taste delicious. 


The sad moment is a story I learned this morning at 6:45 am.  My sister text me telling me that she spent the last four hours in the emergency room.  She woke up with a severe pain on her right side.  It hurt to sit, stand, lay down.. everything, so my parents took her to the hospital.  They thought it was appendicitis, but after a cat scan they found out she has a kidney infection and a large kidney stone. ouch!  They drugged her up on morphine and she just has to wait for the blasted thing to pass. I feel so bad for her!  I told her the cause was probably the sky coaster at lagoon that she did on saturday haha. The last time I went to lagoon I walked out of there feeling extremely sick, my sister walked out with a kidney stone. She let me blog about her in hopes of receiving lots of presents and friends jk lets pray for her!!

Puerto Rico!

Very early Thursday:
After a midnight flight to New York, Jenny's birthday celebration in the airport with Dunkin Donuts, another flight to Puerto Rico two hours later, getting on the wrong bus, an hour wait for the right bus, 75 cents later and no sleep.. we finally arrived at the Sandy Beach Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico!  Funny side note: I just found out that Sami and Reagan were staying at a hotel just down the street from us.  And we were even on the same beach but never saw each other!  So funny!
The first day of adventure included snorkeling and boogie boarding.  Although Andrew's board aka wave shield bust in half we had a great time! It was kind of a restful day as we were all suffering from crazy jet lag.  But I will never complain to napping on an amazingly beautiful beach.

 

Friday:
We took a bus to Old San Juan and spent the day walking through the old city and the huge fort that is there.  We somehow all forgot to put on sunscreen and didn't bring any along with us that day so that would definitely explain why we all started looking like lobsters and felt as though all of our skin was frying off.  Anyhow the city was fun to look at.  All of the houses and buildings are yellow, orange, blue, pink and green.  I absolutely loved it!  They have a ridiculous amount of parks everywhere.  And we even found an abandoned/broken kite and repaired it and got it flying.  We also happened to see Santa walking around.  He said he was on vacation, but he still gave us candy canes!

Saturday:
The boys (Andrew and Shaun) got up early to go rent a car for the day while Jenny and I soaked up some sun on the beach.  As if we didn't get enough the day before. The next thing we know Andrew calls and says there has been a change of plans and to grab all of our water toys and meet them at this hotel five minutes down the road.  So we spent the day swimming in their awesome pool complete with a water slide and dominated in water volleyball against some rich folks who actually were guests. Then we snorkeled some more on the beach.  On the way home the boys discovered a casino and it was nearly impossible to drag them away from the roulette table.  Although it was kind of fun to sit there and watch people drop $600 and lose it all, then head to the atm for more.  While here we are playing $20 and feeling rather guilty and knowing we probably won't be eating for the next two days.  

Sunday:
We were able to rent a car and go to a rainforest.  It was beautiful!  We did a 40 min. hike to this big waterfall.  Andrew and I didn't get in because it was freezing.  I love to look at water but not so much play in it.  It turned out to be a nice romantic relaxing spot anyway.  Afterwards we went to a nearby beach.  We walked around that area for probably 45 min. trying to find a place to eat that was a) open and b) not some nasty overpriced sea food.  Luckily we found a pizza shop.  Granted it was sunday, but its not utah and almost everything there was either closed or shut down.  And honestly you couldn't really tell the difference between a place that was shut down and a place that was open.. it was all kind of ghetto.  And you can probably guess that we headed to the casino that night as well.  If any of you know my husband you know that gambling is one of his favorite past times.  And since we had to leave for the aiport at 4:30 am the boys stayed up all night, while Jenny and I packed the bags and slept for maybe an hour.

Monday:
It was time to head home from the amazingly warm, beautiful island. We got back to New York pretty early so we spent the day walking around and ate an amazing much needed meal in Little Italy.  The funniest part about this day is that our flight left at 8:30 pm and we almost missed it! It was the only flight that day from NYC to SLC. So Andrew noticed that the screen said New Orleans.  He asked the lady at the desk where this flight was going.  She responded New Orleans, and the pilot standing there said Houston, and our boarding pass said this gate was going to Salt Lake.  After a few moments of confusion we literally took off running down a few gates and onto the plane.  It was a close call!! And now we're back home feeling rather cold, hoping our burns which have finally stopped peeling and are somewhat tan don't fade, missing the very blue ocean and nice beach, Mike's Pizza, roulette tables two minutes away, a whole lot of spanish I never understood, and crazy bus rides.

25 Fun Facts About Andrew

1. Andrew hates surprises!
2. He is very addicted to addictinggames.com and rollercoaster tycoon.
3. His favorite NBA teams are the Jazz and the Celtics
4. He plays the guitar, drums, piano, harmonica.. basically anything he wants, he's very musically talented.
5. He has a dream to turn our future basement into a recording studio.
6. He took golf lessons when he was younger and loves to golf whenever he can.
7. He absolutely loves playing and watching basketball. He watches every NBA game he can.
8. He speaks spanish fluently.
9. He spent a month in Mexico teaching english.
10. He served his mission in Honduras.
11. He used to be in a band and he was the singer.
12. He is a licensed scuba diver.
13. He loves to read! He particularly loves the Enders Game series and he is trying to start his own library in our house.
14. His favorite type of food is italian, but will eat anything if he can put mayo on it.
15. He has the whole Chris Farley show memorized.
16. He is ridiculously good at Monopoly. He gets lucky but he has mad skills no one understands.
17. He is very shy when meeting new people.
18. He has visited 30 states and 3 countries.
19. He was in a street hockey league when he was younger and is currently in a roller hockey league with some friends.
20. He loves to ice skate.
21. He is the oldest of four boys.
22. He never chews gum for over 20 min.
23. He was born with a small patch of blonde hair on the back of his head.  Its looks like an upside down nike sign.
24. He has revisited his mission area.
25. He loves loves loves ice cream and eats cake in a bowl drenched in milk.

25 Fun facts about Lindsey:

1. I am obsessed with cupcakes and cupcake wars. 
2. Lunch food of choice: pb and j with cheeto puffs. 
3. I am a huge Dr. Pepper lover! its not just a love its a very strong addiction.
4. I will be a subscriber to US Weekly for the rest of my life.
5. Halloween is my favorite holiday. 
6. I haven't seen my natural hair color since the 7th grade.
7. I can't sleep unless I am completely covered by a blanket or two.
8. I live for reality TV.  I am very much addicted!
9. I love the Harry Potter books and movies.  Ron Weasly is my favorite character. 
10. Easter has fallen on my birthday twice in my life.
11. I was once an extra in a disney movie called Going To the Mat. I was a cheerleader.. naturally.
12. When I was a junior I broke my arm doing a back handspring during cheer practice.  Note to self: Even spotters can't help people like me with gymnastics.
13. I will cry if I see someone crying.
14. I still have a dream to work at a sno-shack.  Sno cones are the bomb!
15. I have three sisters and 1 brother.
16. I am guilty of snorting when I laugh really hard.
17. I have been sky diving.
18. I am secrectly a decent artist. I like to draw for fun.
19. Mario Kart and Mario Party will always be my favorite video games.  And I am always DK.
20. I love watching Malcolm in the Middle and Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
21. I love love love to craft!
22. I could live off of Olive Garden breadsticks.. or any bread for that matter.
23. I am extremely indecisive.
24. I hate body hair! ew!
25. I think the best food ever invented is cereal.

The Proposal

It was 8 am November 18.  I was lying in bed just playing around on my phone.  It kept freezing up on me so I turned it off and decided to go back to sleep.  Sleeping was impossible because the house phone kept ringing.  So I finally get up and I walk up stairs to get breakfast and I hear someone pounding on the front door.  I walk over to the door and look through the peep hole.  Andrew was standing on the porch.  I answer it and let him in.  I ask him what he's doing here so early.  He said he wasn't going to work until later and wanted to hang out this morning and that he'd been trying to call my cell phone but it was turned off and so he tried calling the house phone too.  Oh so you're the one who interrupted my sleep??  So we go down to my room and he tells me that he has plans for us and that I have 30 min to get ready.  30 minutes for me to get ready is nearly impossible.  What can I say I like to take my time!  But he said it was very important that we left my house in thirty minutes and that I would want to make sure I look extra cute today.  Ok not a problem at all. While I was in the bathroom getting ready he was in my room grabbing everything I would need for the day and stuffing it in my little travel backpack I always took on vacations.  By this time I am really confused, but he wasn't caving on giving any hints.
We leave my house and he takes me to Macys and says that we should go get a quick breakfast.  So we run in and grab some bagels and juice and then we speed off to his house where he says we need to get in the car with his step dad.  Ok so we have a cheuffeur for the day??
I get in the back seat and I am texting and not paying any attention to the road.  When I finally look up I see that we are taking the exit that will lead us straight to the airport.  I chuckled to myself thinking that we probably took the wrong exit, unless his step dad was going somewhere and we were dropping him off.  We come to a stop at the drop off zone and Andrew gets out of the car, comes around to my door, opens it and says, "ok get out its time to go."
We're going somewhere?? Did you tell my mom?
He assured me that he had told my mom and even called my work and told them I wouldn't be coming in. He wouldn't tell me where we were going until we got our boarding passes and I see that we are going to Long Beach, CA. My mind is racing with a thousand questions!  Andrew is always very surpriseful so I thought that  maybe it was just a spontaneous day trip.
As we get on the plane the thought keeps coming to me that maybe he's going to propose on the beach or something.  Nah he's so not proposing.
We get to Long Beach and flag down a taxi.  Andrew gives him directions to a beach on Ocean Avenue.  Ok the whole proposing on the beach thing is starting to seem real now.
We get to the beach and we start walking along the water and finding sea shells.  Finally we set out a blanket and sit and take in the scene.  I told him thanks for bringing me here because I love California and I love the beach!! I'm just not sure why we're here.  He said we had a fun activity a little bit later so we're just killing time.  So we laid down to take a nap and soak up the sun.  I kept waiting for him to sneak off when he thought I was asleep and then set up his romantic beach proposal, but he never moved!
Finally our activity time had come.  We packed up our things and he said that we needed to head across the street. Across the street was a small harbor with a lot of sail boats.  So naturally I thought we were going on a sail boat ride.  I was excited because I had never been on one but I am extremely afraid of water so I was starting to get nervous.  He leads me down this dock and tells me to sit down on the bench while he went and talked to these people in this little hut.  He finally comes out with this guy dressed in an outfit that a gondolier would wear.  The man looks at me introduces himself as Ignacio and asks me if I'm ready for my gondola ride?  A gondola ride?? Wow Andrew has really out done himself on this date. I can't even believe we're doing this!  A gondola ride has always been on my list of life goals.
We hop in and he leads us in to this canal that is surrounded by three islands.  The islands were full of huge houses and everyone had little boats and water toys tied up along the canal.  It was very picturesque. Every once in while we would see a fish jump out of the water and we even saw a seal!  By this time Andrew is so quiet and just staring straight forward.  I am having the time of my life and just praying that nothing attacks us and makes us sink.
Ignacio informs us that there are four bridges that we will pass under and each time we go under a bridge you have to kiss for good luck.  I am trying to talk to Andrew but he seems very distracted.  Suddenly we stop under the fourth bridge and Ignacio says that this is the spot he always likes to take a break and sing a nice song in Italian.  How romantic!! This has got to be a dream.  Ignacio starts singing and suddenly there is a big splash of water right next to me.  I sort of jump into Andrew and I'm like, what was that??  He tells me to look over the edge and see what landed in the water. I inform him that I am not looking over the edge because some crazy sea creature is probably waiting to attack me.  He kind of nudges me and says, no really please look fast!  I look over and I see a green bottle floating next to me.  I say, oh false alarm don't worry someone just littered.  how rude!  Andrew laughs and he's like no one littered pick it up.  I pick up the glass bottle and I see a paper inside that has my name on it!  What the freak is going on?  I open the bottle and pull out the paper.  I unfold it once and I see that Andrew had written a note.  Basically telling me how much he loves me and wants to spend the rest of his life with me. Awww!  I immediately start tearing up and I unfold the letter once more and there are the words WILL YOU MARRY ME? I look over at Andrew and he is holding the box with the ring inside.  As I'm crying I say YES!!!! I am so shocked and incredibly happy!  He was so relieved.  He was finally breathing again.  He puts the ring on and Ignacio congratulates us, takes some pictures and leads us back to our starting point.  I could not believe how perfect that was!  I swear it could be a movie.
We left the dock and started walking along Ocean Avenue and Andrew is telling me how nervous he was and that he was so afraid he would never get me awake since my phone was off.  And he got even more nervous when I wasn't answering the house phone because we had a plane to catch.  That would explain the numerous amount of calls that annoyed me enough to get out of bed.
His original plan was to go have a nice fancy dinner on the Queen Mary after the gondola ride,  But we got a little lost.  So I informed him that I would be happy with anything for dinner, you know how much I love cheap mexican food like taco bell and del taco!  So straight ahead we found a perfect place called Chronic Tacos.  We sat and ate and announced the news to our family and friends.  I was still in a state of shock.
On the way home Andrew immediately fell asleep on the plane.  Poor guy had been a nervous wreck all day.  And I immediately started watching Say Yes to The Dress and any type of wedding show I could find on my TV.
All in all it was the most romantic perfect proposal ever!!!!  Andrew was already sick of hearing the story after I was on the phone and had told it seven times in a row before we got on the plane, but hey that right there is every girls dream!  He is going to be hearing this story being told for the rest of his life.  I will never forget that amazing day and how I am the luckiest girl in the world to have a guy like Andrew.  And so the count down to our wedding date February 24 had begun!

And here is a slideshow of our wedding day!

After the mission:

Ok so even though I didn't write him during his mission, I still thought about him a lot and I knew about the time that he would be coming home and I was very much single.  It was February 2009 and I was giving my good friend Dayna a baby shower at my house.  Suddenly I got a text message from an unknown number.  I read the text and it said.. "so did you wait for me?"  Right away I knew it was Andrew.  You can all probably imagine my response. I said.. "yeah I did!" 
We texted back and forth for a little while and he invited me to his homecoming talk the next day.  I was extremely nervous!  I hadn't talked to him or seen him in so long. So my friend Danielle was so nice and came with me for support, because girls can't go anywhere by themselves. 
He finished with his talk and I patiently waited in the line of people to see him.  I actually held off on going up to him for a long time because I had no idea what to say!  Um hi so yeah sorry about not writing you but welcome home I still think your incredibly cute.  Luckily I didn't have to say that because when I finally did go up to him he didn't say a word he just gave me a huge hug. And then he invited me over to his house for lunch.  But I had previous plans to do my visiting teaching so I couldn't go.
That night he text me and asked if I would like to join him in a movie night at his friends house.  Of course I said yes. We spent the whole movie cuddling and talking about everything that had happened in the past two years. Yes we were cuddling!  He definitely wasn't in the awkward afraid -of -touching -a- girl -returned -missionary mode.  Totally fine by me.  It came time to leave and we walked out to my car. I had driven over to his friends house and he had his brother drop him off so I offered him a ride home.  I pulled up to his house and we sat in the car and talked for a few minutes.  He asked when he would see me again and I said, well I'm free tomorrow. He leaned over to hug me goodnight and he got extremely close to my lips. My heart was racing! I was not expecting this at all! and then he pulled away and said, "ok I'm sorry, I'm not ready for that." I told him it was alright he would have another chance tomorrow if he hung out with me. 
The next night we hung out and had a poker night at his friends house. And yes he did kiss me! He made the move.  I was still very surprised but not opposed. We spent every single day together that week.  When the weekend came around he asked me if I had plans saturday.  I said no and asked why? He said, "Well its Valentines Day and a bunch of my mission friends are getting together and I want you to be my date."  Whoa! our real first date?? Absolutely!
Saturday night he arrived at my house with a bouquet of pink roses and a heart shaped locket.  I had no idea we were supposed to get each other gifts. I spent the whole day worrying about the perfect outfit and how I should do my hair. And here he was with roses and a necklace. What a sweetheart!  I could definitely get used to going on dates with him. We then went to The Pie downtown.  We drove with a few of his friends and we arrived a little bit earlier than the rest of the group.  We were standing against the wall in The Pie and he looked extremely nervous. I thought maybe the whole first date jitters were getting to him. But that didn't make sense because we had been inseparable the past week and he had kissed me numerous times before his mission and after.  So I couldn't believe that a date would make him nervous.  Finally he looked at me and said that he had something he needed to ask me and that I could think about it if I wanted to.  I said ok, and I was thinking that he was probably going to ask me what kind of pizza I wanted, which would have been a tough choice. But he surprised me once again and asked, "will you be my girlfriend?" Without hesitating I said of course!  This boy is full of surprises!
After The Pie we went dancing at studio 600.  He and his friend Shaun serenaded me and Shaun's girlfriend Jenny to a karaoke number of Ocean Avenue by Yellowcard. And then we danced the night away! It was the perfect Valentines Day and the perfect first date.  That night after he dropped me off I just kept thinking how grateful I was that things were working out so perfectly. I was a little surprised that he even wanted to see me after I disappeared for two years because I was afraid.
Well things continued to work out very well.  We literally saw each other every day unless one of us had plans that we couldn't get out of.  That summer he invited me on a trip to Pasadena, CA with his family.  It was our first trip together and it was a blast! That summer we also took a road trip up to Post Falls, ID where his grandma lived.  We spent about five days with her.  That was probably one of the funnest trips I had been on.  A few months later he invited me to another little family trip to D.C. and New York.  Everything thus far had been perfect! We were crazy about each other and had the summer of our lives!

How We Met:

Andrew and I both grew up in West Jordan.  We both attended West Jordan High School, but didn't meet until we were seniors.  Our senior year had just started and homecoming was right around the corner.  We were both nominated for homecoming royalty. One day after school they announced that all nominees needed to meet at the SBO room.  When we all arrived they explained that we would be put into pairs and had to create a skit for the school homecoming assembly.  They had written down each of the boys names and a theme for the skit and put them in separate jars.  The jars were passed around to each girl.  It came my turn and I drew out the name Andrew Pollock and the theme Star Wars.. two things I knew absolutely nothing about.  I turned to my friend who was standing next to me and asked if she knew who Andrew was.  She replied, "oh my gosh you got a good partner! He has his own band, he sings, plays guitar and has the most amazing eyes!" OK why have I never met him before?? So there he was standing in front of me with black hair and a red streak in his bangs, and girl pants. Not usually the type I go for, but I couldn't deny that I thought he was pretty cute.  His thoughts were something along the lines of.. a cheerleader? great. He wasn't really the peppy school spirit kind of a person. In fact he didn't even want to be a part of these homecoming shenanigans.

Well we introduced ourselves and he says to me, "so you're the one they call Little?"

Yep!

"Ok well I don't like that I'm going to call you Lindsey."  

He's so straight forward! I was slightly shocked at that answer, it wasn't the response I usually got. Everyone knew me by Little. And I mean everyone. But I was fine with it.

So we exchanged numbers and said we would be in touch about our star wars skit plans. I had probably watched one star wars movie in my life, and I think I was awake for like fifteen minutes of it. Boresville! I honestly don't remember much about our skit except that we were fighting each other with light sabers and in the end I destroyed him. Anyway it was enough to have him crowned Prince and me Duchess.

After homecoming was over, we kept in contact.  We hung out a few times throughout the year and even after we graduated, but never went on a single date.  A few months later it was January and he was just about to leave on his mission.  I agreed to go over to his house the night before he left to say my goodbyes. I thought that this was goodbye forever. I walked in to his house and there were about ten other girls there.. not surprising. As I was leaving he said he would walk me out to my car. I didn't really know what to even say to him. I told him good luck and that I would write him.  He said, "so are you going to wait for me?" I just looked at him and laughed.  We both knew he wasn't being serious and I knew he was probably saying that to all of those girls in the house.  I honestly thought that I would never see him again.

He left for the MTC the next day.  I did write him the whole three months he was there. Much to my surprise I woke up one morning to my cell phone ringing loudly.  My eyes wouldn't open enough to read the name of who was calling but I answered anyway. Oh my gosh I could not believe he was calling me from the airport! Why was he calling me from the airport? He said he didn't know why, he just needed to. Ok fine by me but now my crush has started all over again! Crap! He even called me the next night from a hotel in Miami, where they had stopped for one night before going to Honduras. Double crap!  I didn't want to like him. I didn't really think anything would ever happen with us... so I stopped writing.  He wrote me a few times throughout his mission, but I never responded.  Pretty rude I know.  He has never let me live that down.  I was sure thats where our story ended.