Two years ago Feb 24 I made the best decision of my life. I married the most amazing person I've ever known!
I have never laughed so hard, cared for someone so much, or felt so much happiness than I have the past two years. Every day is an adventure and I wouldn't trade a single one.
I love Andrew because...
he is my rock when I am breaking down
he is almost always the first to apologize
he always makes sure I'm taken care of and happy before he thinks of himself
I love him because...
he has stood by me through every good and bad day
He has a way of knowing just the right thing to say and a way of finding humor in everything
I love him because...
He always has a surprise up his sleeve
He listens to me
He appreciates me
I love his musical talent
His passionate and caring heart
and his spirituality
I fall in love with him again every day
Happy two years and eternity to go!!!!
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
A Christmas in Hawaii
You may now call us Linake and Analu. Those are our Hawaiian names.
Thanks to Andrew's dad and step mom we got to go to Hawaii the day after Christmas! Can I just say it is the best feeling to pack summer clothes and swimsuits in the middle of winter! Luckily I slept just about the entire way there. I woke up just in time to see the lava rock filled ground below. And much to our surprise Berta from Two and a Half Men was on our flight! The airport in Kona is literally surrounded by nothing but black lava rock and weeds. Not exactly how I pictured Hawaii. But as we drove further into town it got greener, more tropical, and absolutely beautiful. Our first night there we went out to dinner and then the exhaustion took over and we headed back to our hotel for some sleep. Kona is three hours behind Utah. I didn't think that only 3 hours would make that big of a difference, but it did! We got so tired around 9 every night and kept waking up at 5.
I was in love with this little hut at the luau.
We decided to take a road trip to the other side of the island, Hilo, which is where the waterfalls and volcanoes are. It took about three hours to get there. It really is the exact opposite of Kona. Hilo is very wet, muggy, and rainforesty. We hiked through the rainforest and saw the huge waterfall. It was really neat! There are some crazy cool plants there that I have never ever seen anywhere else. It was beautiful!
Thanks to Andrew's dad and step mom we got to go to Hawaii the day after Christmas! Can I just say it is the best feeling to pack summer clothes and swimsuits in the middle of winter! Luckily I slept just about the entire way there. I woke up just in time to see the lava rock filled ground below. And much to our surprise Berta from Two and a Half Men was on our flight! The airport in Kona is literally surrounded by nothing but black lava rock and weeds. Not exactly how I pictured Hawaii. But as we drove further into town it got greener, more tropical, and absolutely beautiful. Our first night there we went out to dinner and then the exhaustion took over and we headed back to our hotel for some sleep. Kona is three hours behind Utah. I didn't think that only 3 hours would make that big of a difference, but it did! We got so tired around 9 every night and kept waking up at 5.
Goodnight Hawaii!
The next day was Andrew's Birthday. Happy Birthday Andrew!!! Who gets to spend their 24th birthday in Hawaii?? This spoiled kid and his eternal plus one. During the day we hung out at the beach and Andrew and his dad did some snorkeling. I'm not much of a water person.. ok lets be honest, big bodies of water terrify me so I spent most of my time relaxing on the beach and loved every second. But by end of the beach trip I got brave and walked waist deep into the water, with Andrew holding my hand and I saw a huge sea turtle! It was so cute and just floating along with the waves. That night we went to a luau for Andrew's birthday celebration. We watched as they dug the pig out of the pit. It was nasty looking, but really tasted very good. As we ate we watched the hula girls dance away and the fire throwers do some amazing tricks. It was a really fun experience.
Happy Birthday to my best friend and the most amazing person I know!
We decided to take a road trip to the other side of the island, Hilo, which is where the waterfalls and volcanoes are. It took about three hours to get there. It really is the exact opposite of Kona. Hilo is very wet, muggy, and rainforesty. We hiked through the rainforest and saw the huge waterfall. It was really neat! There are some crazy cool plants there that I have never ever seen anywhere else. It was beautiful!
We had made an appointment to do a session at the temple. We could see the tip of it from our hotel so we decided we would walk there. The walk was literally up hill for 20 minutes straight! A very steep hill. At nine in the morning it was already bloody hot and here we are trying to run up this hill, because (a) we didn't really know where we were going and (b) we were running late... as usual. But we finally made it! The temple is absolutley beautiful, and very small. There were a total of 9 people in our session. Much different than what we're used to here in SLC. But it was still very powerful and spiritual and I am so glad we had the opportunity to go.
I went and got a massage one morning, and it was just what I needed! Andrew got to lay in bed for one whole hour watching basketball and football without any interruptions, which is just what he needed! Then we headed back out to the beach. You can never have enough naps on the beach.
We went out for a romantic oceanside burger dinner. With the ocean and tiki torches in the background it was magical.
After dinner we drove to a spot where there are often mantarays hanging out. They shine light into the ocean at night which brings up the mantarays. Some crazy people even snorkel out there with them. Let me tell you they were enourmous! Their wing span was like 6 feet. It was pretty neat.
Saturday was our last day in paradise. We went out with one last bang. We kayaked about a mile or more across the ocean to this little bay where we snorkeled. Let me rephrase that: as we were kayaking I was trying very hard not to have a panic attack. I was trying not to think about shark attacks and being tipped over and eaten to death. I wanted to enjoy the fun excursion. It was exhausting! At one point I was feeling sorry for myself because my arms were about to fall off and I hear Andrew behind me say, "You're doing great, we're almost there keep going." I thought, hmm how nice of him to support me because I am on the verge of freaking out here. And I look back and he has his ore on his lap, his hands behind his head, his eyes are closed and he's enjoying the ride!!! lol. Such a terd! Who knows how long I paddled all by myself. Other times our oars would collide, or he would lift his so high he would hit me on the back of the head (purposely). Yeah.. we should probably never consider any type of water sports competitively. Its a miracle we ever made it to the bay. Andrew and his dad went out for more snorkeling and I was told myself I had to do it! I was in Hawaii and I had to snorkel. So I put on my life jacket and mask and flopped in to the water. I was doggy paddling in there for about 15 seconds before I panicked. I saw a bunch of bright blue and bright yellow fish and the coral was awesome, until I smacked my knee on a piece and it hurt so bad! I then turned around and was surround my big black sea urchins bigger than my face! I freaked out and yelled at Andrew, please get me out of here!!!! That was enough for me. I saw what I needed to see. It really and truly is a whole new world under there. We immediately jumped in to the kayak and I have never paddled so fast in my life. I broke down in the middle of the ocean out of fear. Not a proud moment, but I think I paddled us back to our starting point in record time. I'm glad I at least tried to conquer my fear. The rest of the day we lounged until we had to head to the airport for the long journey home.
Watching this sunset was the perfect way to end our trip. It was so pretty!
Here are a few random pics of the trip. We hope to see Hawaii again some day. It was so relaxing and amazingly fun to spend 24/7 with Andrew and not have to worry about work and school. That is my paradise.
Every night we would take a stroll around town and enjoy the scenery.
I had to snag a Christmas pic.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
RESTroom... what an oxymoron
When you have to visit a public bathroom, you usually find a line of women, so you smile politely and take your place. Once it's your turn, you check for feet under the stall doors. Every stall is occupied. Finally, a door opens and you dash in, nearly knocking down the woman leaving the stall.
You get in to find the door won't latch. It doesn’t matter, the wait has been so long you are about to wet your pants! The dispenser for the modern ‘seat covers' (invented by someone's Mom, no doubt) is handy, but empty. You would hang your purse on the door hook, if there was one, but there isn't - so you carefully, but quickly drape it around your neck, (Your Mom would turn over in her grave if you put it on the FLOOR! ), yank down your pants, and assume ' The Stance.'
In this position your aging, toneless thigh muscles begin to shake.. You'd love to sit down, but you certainly hadn't taken time to wipe the seat or lay toilet paper on it, so you hold ‘The Stance.'
To take your mind off your trembling thighs, you reach for what you discover to be the empty toilet paper dispenser. In your mind, you can hear your mother's voice saying, 'Honey, if you had tried to clean the seat, you would have KNOWN there was no toilet paper!' Your thighs shake more.
You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose on yesterday - the one that's still in your purse. (Oh yeah, the purse around your neck, that now, you have to hold up trying not to strangle yourself at the same time). That would have to do. You crumple it in the puffiest way possible. It's still smaller than your thumbnail
Someone pushes your door open because the latch doesn’t work. The door hits your purse, which is hanging around your neck in front of your chest, and you and your purse topple backward against the tank of the toilet 'Occupied!' you scream, as you reach for the door, dropping your precious,tiny, crumpled tissue in a puddle on the floor, lose your footing
altogether, and slide down directly onto the TOILET SEAT ..
It is wet of course. You bolt up, knowing all too well that it's too late.Your bare bottom has made contact with every imaginable germ and life form on the uncovered seat because YOU never laid down toilet paper - not that there was any, even if you had taken time to try. You know that your mother would be utterly appalled if she knew, because, you're certain her bare bottom never touched a public toilet seat because, frankly, dear, 'You just don't KNOW what kind of diseases you could get.'
By this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so confused that it flushes, propelling a stream of water like a fire hose against the inside of the bowl that sprays a fine mist of water that covers your butt and runs down your legs and into your shoes. The flush somehow sucks everything down with such force that you grab onto the empty toilet paper
dispenser for fear of being dragged in too.
At this point, you give up. You're soaked by the spewing water and the wet toilet seat. You’re exhausted. You try to wipe with a gum wrapper you found in your pocket and then slink out inconspicuously to the sinks..
You can’t figure out how to operate the faucets with the automatic sensors, so you wipe your hands with spit and a dry paper towel and walk past the line of women still waiting.
You are no longer able to smile politely to them.. A kind soul at the very end of the line points out a piece of toilet paper trailing from your shoe. (Where was that when you NEEDED it??)
You yank the paper from your shoe, plunk it in the woman's hand and tell her warmly, 'Here, you just might need this.'
As you exit, you spot your hubby, who has long since entered, used, and left the men’s restroom. Annoyed, he asks, 'What took you so long and why is your purse hanging around your neck?'
This is dedicated to women everywhere who deal with public restrooms (rest??? You've GOT to be kidding!!). It finally explains to the men whatreally does take us so long. It also answers their other commonly asked questions about why women go to the restroom in pairs. It's so the other gal can hold the door, hang onto your purse and hand you Kleenex under the
door!
You get in to find the door won't latch. It doesn’t matter, the wait has been so long you are about to wet your pants! The dispenser for the modern ‘seat covers' (invented by someone's Mom, no doubt) is handy, but empty. You would hang your purse on the door hook, if there was one, but there isn't - so you carefully, but quickly drape it around your neck, (Your Mom would turn over in her grave if you put it on the FLOOR! ), yank down your pants, and assume ' The Stance.'
In this position your aging, toneless thigh muscles begin to shake.. You'd love to sit down, but you certainly hadn't taken time to wipe the seat or lay toilet paper on it, so you hold ‘The Stance.'
To take your mind off your trembling thighs, you reach for what you discover to be the empty toilet paper dispenser. In your mind, you can hear your mother's voice saying, 'Honey, if you had tried to clean the seat, you would have KNOWN there was no toilet paper!' Your thighs shake more.
You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose on yesterday - the one that's still in your purse. (Oh yeah, the purse around your neck, that now, you have to hold up trying not to strangle yourself at the same time). That would have to do. You crumple it in the puffiest way possible. It's still smaller than your thumbnail
Someone pushes your door open because the latch doesn’t work. The door hits your purse, which is hanging around your neck in front of your chest, and you and your purse topple backward against the tank of the toilet 'Occupied!' you scream, as you reach for the door, dropping your precious,tiny, crumpled tissue in a puddle on the floor, lose your footing
altogether, and slide down directly onto the TOILET SEAT ..
It is wet of course. You bolt up, knowing all too well that it's too late.Your bare bottom has made contact with every imaginable germ and life form on the uncovered seat because YOU never laid down toilet paper - not that there was any, even if you had taken time to try. You know that your mother would be utterly appalled if she knew, because, you're certain her bare bottom never touched a public toilet seat because, frankly, dear, 'You just don't KNOW what kind of diseases you could get.'
By this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so confused that it flushes, propelling a stream of water like a fire hose against the inside of the bowl that sprays a fine mist of water that covers your butt and runs down your legs and into your shoes. The flush somehow sucks everything down with such force that you grab onto the empty toilet paper
dispenser for fear of being dragged in too.
At this point, you give up. You're soaked by the spewing water and the wet toilet seat. You’re exhausted. You try to wipe with a gum wrapper you found in your pocket and then slink out inconspicuously to the sinks..
You can’t figure out how to operate the faucets with the automatic sensors, so you wipe your hands with spit and a dry paper towel and walk past the line of women still waiting.
You are no longer able to smile politely to them.. A kind soul at the very end of the line points out a piece of toilet paper trailing from your shoe. (Where was that when you NEEDED it??)
You yank the paper from your shoe, plunk it in the woman's hand and tell her warmly, 'Here, you just might need this.'
As you exit, you spot your hubby, who has long since entered, used, and left the men’s restroom. Annoyed, he asks, 'What took you so long and why is your purse hanging around your neck?'
This is dedicated to women everywhere who deal with public restrooms (rest??? You've GOT to be kidding!!). It finally explains to the men whatreally does take us so long. It also answers their other commonly asked questions about why women go to the restroom in pairs. It's so the other gal can hold the door, hang onto your purse and hand you Kleenex under the
door!
Sunday, December 4, 2011
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!
Sunday, November 20, 2011
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:
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
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?
*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.
*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.
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.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
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.
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.
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