Feeling a Little Bit Special

Ryan and I are in the wonderful state of Washington. Washington = no snow = a happy Julie. I am incredibly grateful to be missing out on the winter wonderland Utah is currently having. Just saying.

Here in Washington, we got to go to a Portland Trailblazer basketball game. We were pretty excited. We found the cheapest parking garage, found a station to make free signs, and when we went up to our seats we found free Burger King crowns and coupons on our chairs. Ryan was a bit nervous we were in the wrong seats because only our row got Burger King. I guess we were lucky!

A couple minutes later a big group came and sat next to us. That's when Ryan really started wondering if we had the right tickets. The reason why? From Ryan's brother Trevor's own mouth, this group could have been the cast from The Ringer. Could we have gotten a "special discount" on our seats? Although our row was from a special needs facility, we had the best seats in the house. They cheered every second of the game, talked to us like we were their best friends, and even offered to share their drinks and popcorn with us! They made us feel special. We even got on the big screen!

It was probably the best Blazers game I have ever been to.  

Couch Presents

Ryan was studying on the couch next to me when I heard a clunk and a "That was my last pen!" Confused I looked over at him.

"Do you have another pen?" he asked.

"No, you stole the last one out of my purse on Sunday."

"Oh."

A couple hours later, I was doing my makeup on the couch. I accidentally dropped my mascara into the crack. Aw man! I made the foot rest come out thinking it sunk to the very bottom. Instead of my mascara, I saw 3 pens! I pulled them out and put them on the couch next to Ryan.

"My pens!" he exclaimed happily.

I then dug on the side of the couch trying to find my makeup. Instead I encountered something big and hard. "What in the world?" I thought to myself as I yanked it out. Behold, a calculator!

"Yes! My calculator! Are the batteries down there too?"

"How do you lose a calculator in a couch?" All I got was a shrug.

I finally found my mascara and promised myself I would investigate the couch soon. You never know what kind of potential Christmas presents could be down there.

A Family of Elves

Crazy Weather

I got 4 texts in a row today. It was for a severe weather warning about a blizzard that will "far surpass anything we have had in the past couple years". Stores are closing early and classes are cancelled. Did I mention this was for UTAH? Wow, this storm must be pretty bad.

KSL said the last time they issued a blizzard warning like this was in 2001.

(Weather outside our window: 1:59 pm--Currently the temperature is 45 degrees outside, with rare patches of snow on the ground. Mysterious disappearance of animals except for the mouse in our garage.)

(Weather outside our window update: 6:31 pm--It is pitch black outside. Still no sign of anything white.)

(Weather outside our window update: 1:25 am--It snowed. Finally. But only for an hour and it barely stuck. What a scary blizzard!)

Fat Mouse in a Little Garage

I was doing a graveyard at work one night, and at 4 in the morning, I received this email:

We have a mouse in the garage

10 minutes later, this little gem also appeared in my inbox:

Me and kitty are going to go mouse hunting in the garage.

Wooowie. A mouse? Really? What is a furry little rodent doing in my garage? When I arrived home, the mouse was still hiding and yet to be caught.  Ryan described it for me. "It was about the size of my fist! And it's really fast!" That's when I switched my mindset. Instead of picturing 

Jerry (from Tom and Jerry)



I started picturing

Mousezilla


This thing has got to die! At first, we tried to send Lily out there to eat it, but when she was little we trained her to be afraid of the garage so she wouldn't escape. When she set one foot out there, she sniffed the air and immediately scratched at the door to get back in. No good. So Ryan bought two different kinds of mouse traps. I felt a little bad about killing the poor thing....but not really. Ryan bravely set up the traps and filled them with peanut butter and waited. And waited...aaand waited. A week later (after we finally gave up and decided the mouse escaped), we noticed something peculiar. The mouse trap was still set, but the peanut butter was gone!

"I don't understand," Ryan would say scratching his head. "Where did it go?"

We tried again...with the same result. Disappearing peanut butter. What would be able to eat the peanut butter, without tripping the trap? We considered the possibilty of bugs...but we'd never seen any signs of them.

The third time we tried cheese. Third times a charm, right? Wrong! Within 24 hours, the cheese was gone and there was no sign of Mousezilla. Ryan was not a happy camper.

"This has got to be either the luckiet or smartest mouse in the world! SUPER MOUSE!"





Okay, so I know what you are thinking. Our mouse has had 3 different identities and is now having a complete identity crisis, but at least it is well-fed and has evaded death 3 times.

We will be sure to keep you updated on our future mousecapades. And hopefully the next time I update, it will have evacuated the premises.

Boo!

No trick or treaters this year. But that didn't stop us from celebrating the spookiest holiday of the year!

This year Ryan and I had not one, but two Halloween costumes. (It may have been due to the fact that Ryan was a little embarrassed about our first costume choice.) Our Halloween costumes must fit two different criteria... they have to be homemade, and we have to have thought of it and put it together in under an hour.

As difficult as that sounds, here is what we came up with.

We went to our ward trunk or treat party and we decided to be....*drum roll please*

 Feeling a little nostalgic for Christmas

Robot Box

We also went to a family Halloween party. To spare Ryan from having to go in a red sparkly box with a bow (which he got stuck in), we decided on something a little more manly.

 Zombies! This was after the party so our zombie-ness kind of wore off.

What was kitty you ask?

Catzilla!

Also, Halloween wouldn't be complete without some pumpkin carvings!! Ryan taught me how to use pumpkin stencils. It takes quite a bit of hand muscles let me tell you what. It was quite the work out. Next time you see me, remind me to show you my buff hand muscles.

Ryan did the 2 on the left. One without a stencil and one with. Mine is on the right.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

 

DIY Project...Who Me?

During General Conference this month, I made my own fall wreath. Kind of. I bought a plain wreath at Walmart and made felt flowers for it with my handy dandy $3 mini hot glue gun. The best part about it? It was really easy and inexpensive difficult and took a lot of skill. Really...*cough cough*

I know...me being crafty. Who am I?

I have to admit--it was fun.

Without further ado...

(Here is the tutorial.)

Fall-ing

It is Fall-ing outside.
Ryan and I turned on our heater briefly yesterday. It was cold.
Plus it hailed and rained like crazy last week,
I had to bring a sweater to work.
Brrrr...

Did you know that Smith's is selling pumpkins outside? And I really want to buy one...


So I guess what I'm trying to say is:
Goodbye Summer. (It was fun while you lasted.)
And Hello Fall!!

(Ryan and me after a fun FALL date...where I bowled in a skirt. Yes, it takes talent. And I may or may not have bought socks from a vending machine.)

I Bleed Blue

I have never been a football fan. I never watched it growing up. The only sport that ever graced the family tv was soccer during the World Cup. (This might've been due to the fact that my dad is from Brazil). To put into perspective how much I love football, I can count on one hand how many high school and college football games I have gone to...combined.

So WHY in my right mind have I chosen now to follow BYU football? I blame this on my husband.

I don't know what happened, but I now find myself surfing the football page, reading KSL reviews, and even one morning listening to talk show radio about BYU football. What has come over me? Perhaps it's the fact that we are now underdogs. We have lost every game I have watched and our quarterback is 3 years younger than me.

It also helps that there are yummy snacks at the games. Yum.

However, it doesn't fix the fact that I get sooo aggravated when we can't score a touchdown.

1-4. That ain't to bad....right?

*Cricket Cricket*

Hello blog world!

We are still alive!
Just thought we would let you know.

Chauffeur

Summer is waning away, and Ryan is back in school. I am still working at the hospital. And our cat is still alive.

During the summer, Ryan got into the habit of dropping me off and picking me up every day from work. This includes the 5 am drives. Now that school is back in session, and he has 8 am classes, I convinced him to form a new habit--Go to sleep when it is dark outside. What a novel idea! This means I get to drive home at 5 am by myself.

I really didn't think it was that big of deal....but the first day I did it was pretty traumatizing. I got in the car and as I was driving, I saw something out of the corner of my eye moving. Never a good sign. When I took a closer look, this is what I saw.

Just like that...except the spider was real and crawling down from the ceiling right next to me. 

Anyone who has followed my blog knows I have bad luck with spiders. I quickly tried to swat the arachnid away while still driving. Bad idea. I hit the spider web instead of the spider, so it swung towards the window and back at my face! Who wants a spider coming straight at them? I started freaking out. I batted at it again, trying to keep both eyes on the road. I didn't want to go back to work as a patient! (I work in the ER.)

I couldn't see where the spider went and tried reeeally hard not to think about it. Every 5 seconds I would bat at my arms, hair, and clothes thinking I could feel it crawling on me.

When I finally made it home (which felt like an eternity) I ran inside and did a little boogey dance trying to get anything with 8 legs off of me.

I hate spiders. I really do. They creep me out. Ryan had to clear the car for me before I would drive it to work the next day. Even though they're small, I refuse to be a spider chauffeur!

The Power of Cotton Candy

Ryan and I took our little 3 year old niece, Makelle, to Target. We told her we would buy her ONE item of her choice since she was being so good as we purposely steered her to the dollar section of the store.

"Oooh!" she exclaimed, eyeballing the Princess lunchbox and plate set.

She was especially excited about the glow in the dark bracelets, sparkly sunglasses, and froofy hair ties.

But what she was most excited about was a delectable bag of cotton candy.

She clung onto it as we went around the whole store. Occasionally she would find something else she wanted ,and we would have to remind her, "You can only get one thing. Do you want cotton candy or < insert pink, sparkly item here >;." A few times I thought she might abandon the colorful bag, but she would think about her choice long and hard, ultimately choosing the irresistible treat.

It surprised me a couple times. I thought for sure she would go for the Cinderella figurine or lip gloss she was drooling over.

But it was the cotton candy that won that little girl's heart.

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. A couple times I would turn around and see Ryan, one of her favorite uncles, shaking his head emphatically at anything pink in a resolute no. If there is one thing in common between the two of them, it would be their sweet tooth.

In the end, I left the parking lot with a happy 3 year old, a happy husband, and a bag of half eaten cotton candy.

(And twenty sticky fingers.)

How to Cook A Frozen Burrito

Step 1: Put burrito in microwave
Step 2: Cook burrito for 1 minute 30 seconds
Step 3: Eat burrito

I got step 1 right. Never got to step 3.

And just so you know, it's never a good thing to accidentally cook a burrito for 10 minutes and 30 seconds.

Yikes.

What Do You Attract?

Isn't it interesting how people attract different things.

You may be wondering what I mean by that.

Well, my dad always complains that he attracts mosquitoes. His sweet blood must be quite delectable. (I bet Bella Swan could relate.) And my old roommate Rachelle was always good at attracting weird guys.

Ryan, on the other hand, has a knack for attracting cops. Really. He is a cop magnet. For instance, he once got pulled over for going 23 mph in a 15 mph zone. I thought that you couldn't be pulled over unless you are going 10 over!

He then got a parking ticket for an expired registration (15 days expired!). When we brought in the ticket to the court house, the woman exclaims, "Wow! This must have been written by a real officer, not a parking officer! Very rare!" Her exclamation and envious tone made Ryan quite proud of his "rare" mint condition parking ticket, which he displayed so lovingly on the dusty, car floor.

One of my favorite cop encounters was one when Ryan was driving home. We live on a big hill. On the way up, he noticed fire trucks, cops, and a very burnt mountain terrain. At the time Ryan was dialing in his home number when he noticed the commotion. He slowed down a little to see the damage with the phone in hand. A cop then pulled out and followed Ryan home. 

The officer got out of the car. "Let me see your phone young man."

Confused, Ryan handed his phone over. Ryan's phone was pretty broken. The screen didn't work.

The officer continued, "You see, when there is fire, the arsonist will usually come back and take pictures of his work. I need to see your pictures."

Unfortunately, Ryan's screen would not display.

"Very convenient," the officer muttered. "Well, give me your name and number. You are now a suspect for arson."

Nothing ever came of this, but it is quite bizarre how Ryan seems to attract cops all the time.

Most recently yesterday we were driving to Ryan's cousin's wedding open house. Ryan had barely stopped at a orange light, you know that awkward time when you can't decide if you should stop or go. It was lucky that he stopped because to our left was a police car. I guess the cop saw Ryan and I looking at him because the officer pulled forward until he was directly next to us.

Julie: He's pulling up next to you....he's looking at you! He's rolling down his window! HE WANTS TO TALK TO YOU!

Ryan: (muttering) oh no, oh no, oh no.

Ryan then rolled down his window and frighteningly glanced over. The police officer was beaming when he said, "Where is my green left arrow! It's your fault buddy."

Ryan: Uhhh, what?

Scary officer: It's your fault my arrow didn't show up!

Ryan: Oh! Um, sorry....

Scary officer: That's okay! Have a great day!

I could see the officer laughing with his partner, delighted for scaring us I'm sure.

As you can see, Ryan is extremely good at catching the attention of police officers. Luckily, Ryan is a law abiding guy.

Me, on the other hand, all I attract is Ryan.

To Run or Not to Run

I can't decide if I am a glutton for punishment or not.

My work is going to participate in the Dirty Dash on September 25. It sounds like a fun run. You basically run...in mud and through obstacle courses.

Here's the catch though. It's a 10k aka a 6.2 mile run. What! A 10k...who me? The girl who thinks running is a form of torture and whose husband can run in circles around her? I dunno though, it sounds a lot more fun then running a normal 10k. And it gives me an excuse to get into shape.

Plus I can have 4 teammates...we just have to all cross the finish line. I'll probably be the one to cause my team to get a DNF...aka Do Not Finish. Yikes! Anyways, what do you guys think...

To run or not to run?
That is the question.

Dirty Go Karting

Today Ryan and I went go karting. I love go karting. I am very competitive when it comes to go karting. I will happily beat any 7, 8, or 98 year old out there. Well, today wasn't any different. Ryan has learned that although go karting is fun, it is even more fun to sit as my passenger (or maybe safer.)

We were second in line. In front of us was our competitor. A double kart with a mom and her 5 year old daughter. Yes, they had the advantage with a lighter load, but they did not have the skill. We ended up getting right next to them, passing them, and as I turned the corner to fully defeat them, it happened.

The dirtiest thing in go karting.

The mom with a FIVE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER in the kart next to her slammed into the side of our kart on purpose. We ended up spinning out and getting stuck against the railing. I was fuming as the employee unwedged our cart. Directly smashing into competition goes against all go kart etiquette and rules of go karting! If this was any other sort of game like putt-putting or Twister, I wouldn't have minded, but go kart!

No one else passed us after that, and I made sure to glare at the mom after the race. I mean the only time it is acceptable to ram each other in go karting is battle mode on MarioKart.

Everyone knows that.

You Can Hava This or You Can Hava That.

Have you ever seen hamsters rap before?



I hadn't either.
This was Ryan's favorite part of Eclipse. The ads.
Actually, we both liked the Vampire movie. It was a lot better this time around.
And if you think about it, this rap could totally apply to Bella.  "You can hava this or you can hava that."

The Many Lessons of Life

Reasons why most people post pictures of their hands:

1. "I'm engaged!"

2. "Isn't my manicure pretty?"

3. "Look! Over there!"

Reason why I'm posting a picture of my hand:

1. "Never play hot potato with a 400 degree oven rack. Ouch."

Lesson Learned.

$130

$130 is a lot of money. With that much money, you can order everything on the McDonald's menu, get a whole new outfit, purchase 130 slushies (well, probably 125 if you include tax), or watch 86 movies at the Dollar theater (which now costs $1.50 per movie). That's why it's hard for me to justify spending that much money on a hair straightener.

I have always been pretty curious about the Chi hair straightener. I kept hearing people at work talk about it, and I really wanted one, especially since my $20 hair straightener bit the dust. I am embarrassed to say I did extensive research on the Chi (not to be confused with a chia pet), probably enough research to write a 20 page research paper on it with diagrams.
 

                                          This              not             This                               

Anyways, Ryan and I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond the other day to sit on the massage chairs and make fun of bridal registry couples when I noticed that that particular store sold the Chi. I showed Ryan, and I'm pretty sure the only reason why Ryan said what he said next was because he was tired of me yearning for this particular hair straightener.

"You should buy it."

What convincing words. The next day I used a bunch of coupons and gift cards and instead of $130, I bought it for $50. I was pretty proud of myself.

That's still more money than I'm used to spending, but I've considered it an investment. I straightened my hair with it yesterday for the first time and I don't think I've ever seen my hair behave quite so nicely or lay quite so straight. I've gotten a lot of compliments on it.  And I keep telling myself,

At least it's a hair straightener and not the entire McDonald's menu.

Rollerskates and a Dollar

Ryan and I have found a new love

Really. We have become obsessed with this place. I'm not sure how our obsession started--maybe it was the old style drive-in vintage feel. Could it have been the roller skates that the employees are required to wear? Or maybe it's the dollar menu...All I know is that we love the $1 slushies. Ryan has tried an assortment of flavors: lime, cherry, watermelon, strawberry. And who can forget the strawberry cream slushes? Yum. It's a great cheap treat that may have replaced our gourmet cupcake addiction.

And today for my break from work, I branched out and got real food. Chicken tenders and fries, and it came with country gravy. Delicious.

But really, who can knock watching employees in skates balance trays of food and slushes, dodging kids, while you're making bets if anything is going to fall or not?

"That fry is definetly a goner."

Who needs TV these days?

ALSO

 Sonic isn't the only restaurant I've fallen in love with lately.

I have been complaining to Ryan lately about how Utah doesn't really have good Mexican food.

And then I made a new discovery.

Joe Vera's

My new favorite Mexican restaurant in Utah.

I wish I could go there again, but unfortunetly it doesn't have a dollar menu (or skates)

A Simple Solution

Summer is lost. I don't know where it went, but I think I am going to find it.

This morning I woke up to Ryan screaming, "What the HECK!" quite loudly. I sat straight up, my mind racing with all the possibilities that could warrant such a reaction. Maybe Lily got into the food cabinet, and there was strewn chips all over the place...or did he see a giant spider. Maybe all the lightbulbs exploded simultaneously. That's a good guess. But no. It was worse. He came running in and said two words that made me burrow deeper into my mass of warm, toasty blankets.

"It snowed!"

Really? On May 24th? Really?

He then proceeded to pull the blinds to show me. Really.
Sure enough there was white fluffy stuff stuck on cars, sidewalks, grass.

Where is my warm summer? The one where I can go to the pool, take a walk outside without a coat, eat snow cones and otter pops? I think I am going to find it.

A simple summer solution: Crank up the heat to 80 degrees, fill the tub with water, get out my dusty swimsuit, lather on the sun tan lotion, and read a good book as I sip on a smoothie and pet my cat in my makeshift paradise. Oh, and the sand? I should probably leave the kitty litter out of this.

Wow

I have been a blacker (blog slacker) for the month of May. Really.
To make up for it, here is a list of things I have been up to lately.

1. Moving: Yes. We have successfully moved into our new home. With the help of my mom, it only took 2 days, a Uhaul, and a very sore back for Ryan. And it has reminded me of my hate for moving.

2. Working: Everyday...weird hours, as usual!

3. Becoming friends with my dentist: I saw my dentist 3 times in one week. I think that is a new record. My dentist and I are now on a first name basis. He calls me Julie, and I call him...Doctor. He successfully filled in 3 of my cavities, made my whole face completely numb, has given me at least 2 nightmares about having a huge, puffy, toothless face, and told me that although it will be hard, not to come back the next day, but in 6 months.

4. Cleaning: Somehow my house is a mess. It must be the cat. She loves to put empty cans of coke or empty pizza boxes next to my husband in order to frame him for the mess.What a mean cat. And cleaning with all the cleaning supplies still packed is quite the adventure.

5. Watching Ryan study Organic Chemistry: This is an everyday, 24/7 occurrence. Ryan has been spending more time with his OChem book than he has with me. I try not to get jealous, but it's hard when he is having so much fun without me.

One thing's for sure, I am excited for summer weather! Not this rainy, cold stuff we've been getting lately. Sitting by the pool, vacationing, and more. Maybe I'll dream about that tonight instead of dental instruments.

Note to Self

The next time we move, put phone chargers in a safe place, so both of our phones won't die.
Oh, and Ryan's iPod touch too.


This is very important...

Fun with Photoshop

I installed Photoshop Elements on my computer tonight. I then started tinkering around with it, trying to learn the basics.

Just for fun, Ryan gave me a challenge.

The challenge: Turn him green and give him antennas like an alien.

Me being the overachiever I am, took it one step further.

Yes, that is Ryan's eyes on my face. I think it is safe to say that with our features combined, our children will look lovely.

Contrary to popular belief, this is not an Infomercial

Tonight Ryan and I decided to try out the One-ingredient icecream: Bananas. We were a bit skeptical, magically turn bananas into icecream? We should turn straw into gold while we're at it!

So we bravely froze our sliced, nearly brown bananas, stuck them in the food processor,


and whirrrrrrr!

And...it actually worked!



My creation



Ryan's masterpiece

To tell you the truth, it really did taste like icecream, the consistency and all! I was surprised!

Okay, I know what all of you are thinking, banana icecream? Blech! But actually, this icecream is different than the sickly sweet, sugary store bought icecream. It is just like...well, a banana. No extra sugar, nothing. I liked it. And the chocolate syrup helped too.

Ryan even liked it. He said and I quote, "Besides the chocolate syrup, this icecream probably isn't that bad for you. It's pretty good!"

That's the thing, it's not bad, its just banana! Yum. So if you are looking for a healthy, sweet snack, this one works great!

I dare all you skeptics out there to try this out.
(And if you don't have a food processor, I heard you can use a blender.)

One-Ingredient Ice Cream

I was skeptical too. Until I saw this:

  Ice cream




I am going to try this recipe out...with chocolate syrup. I'll let you know how it goes!

And for those of you who don't like bananas. I found THIS, just for you.
Enjoy.

A Bad Case of Insomnia

I am sitting on my bed with a sleeping Ryan next to me and a sleeping kitty on the floor. I am exhausted, but I can't seem to fall asleep!

Maybe it's because I have invited 5 strangers to my home today. Before you start thinking about how hospitable I am, I will tell you that it is for my own benefit. Yesterday I posted a KSL and Craigslist ad to sell our housing contract. Not even 5 minutes after I posted the first one, I got a call from a girl asking if she could see it. I never knew I had such good persuasive ad-writing skills! She asked if she could come see the apartment right at that moment. I had worked a graveyard the night before and my husband had stayed up two days straight. I looked down at my pajamas and messed up hair. I then looked around at my pretty messy house.

"Umm...how about in an hour?"

Ryan, who had just walked into the front door and didn't know I was posting ads for our home, raised one eyebrow.

I hung up and went into a frenzy! "Pick up everything you can and throw it in white trash bags. We'll hide them in the car!"

Ryan then very intelligently stated, "Even if we lit a match and burned everything, it would take longer than an hour."

That's when I knew he was right. We called and rescheduled for the next day. After that, we got a call or text every hour for the next 7 hours.

All I have to say is hopefully one of these 5 visitors will work out. If not, at least we have a very clean house and a very tired Julie.

The True Easter Egg Hunt

Easter has come and gone, but our candy remains. Taunting me actually. It's quite hard to cook a nutritious meal when you have candy to eat instead. (Especially since Ryan bought a chocolate bunny about the size of my head.)

Easter weekend was fun! I worked a lot, but got to spend some time with both mine and Ryan's family. And it was conference weekend!

Well, I learned an important Easter lesson this year. I have been eyeballing the Easter candy for a good month. I kept telling myself that I shouldn't buy any Easter candy yet because I knew it would be gone before Easter, especially the Cadbury Mini Eggs. Yum! My favorite. I ran into them at multiple stores (Smiths, Walmart, Buy Low, etc) and I had to use self control not to buy it just yet.

Well, the day before Easter came and Ryan and I buckled up to go buy our cherished Easter candy. We even braved the nasty snowstorm that made it hard to see the lines on the road. We decided to go to Smiths. Have you ever seen the Easter aisle the day before Easter? Well, we hadn't either before then. It wasn't pretty. Empty boxes thrown every which way. Crazed Easter shoppers trying to get the last good candy. We found ourselves trying to make the decision between Smoothie flavored jolly ranchers and chocolate malt peeps. There wasn't much left. I even heard one guy say, "I give up on the cadbury eggs!"

No! Not my little yummy mini eggs! I looked everywhere. Even little crevices that people could've hidden some. None. I wasn't discouraged though. It wasn't until after we went to Macey's, Walgreen's, Walmart, Shopko, and Buy Low, that we finally gave up. I tried not to think about my Cadburys. Poor Ryan didn't even know what I was talking about. "What's the difference between Cadbury eggs and regular chocolate eggs?" The poor boy.

I was pretty sad. All those previous opportunities turned down and now this! I should've just bought them weeks ago. In my sadness, I googled Cadbury mini eggs and read countless sites where sad shoppers could not locate their Easter yumminess.

That was when I learned a valuable Easter lesson. Do not procrastinate the day you buy your Easter candy. Or you will be stuck with the Chocolate Malt flavored peeps.

The next day, we went over to Ryan's Aunt Debbie's house for Easter lunch. And lo and behold, in a small bowl, sat some Cadbury Mini Eggs. I think I teared up a little.

Bored? Want to write a Sister Missionary?

My best friend, Jennifer Mack, went into the MTC yesterday. She arrived Tuesday morning, so we got to spend a little over 24 hours together before she reported. We had a lot of fun running around getting her last minute sister missionary things, hanging out, and dancing to the Spirit of God, one of the catchiest hymns out there.

Well, the day she went into the MTC, the weather decided to play a cruel joke on us. It snowed...the day before April. Isn't it supposed to be springtime? Sister Mack was not happy. She didn't think to bring anything warm in April. Being the good friend that I am, I took her to the mall. We headed to Macy's and found her a nice, sister missionary approved sweater jacket. It was difficult to find since just about everything was short sleeved and spring-y. Luckily, I have eagle eyes.

When Jennifer purchased her jacket, the lady, like every other sales woman, asked if we were interested in a Macys reward card.

Jennifer responded, "Actually, I am reporting to the MTC in a couple hours, so I probably wouldn't put it to good use."

Sales lady: "How nice. Are you a missionary?" (This is when Jennifer and I looked at eachother, both thinking the same thing. Maybe this lady was a bit slow...)

Jennifer: Yes actually I am.

Sales lady: "Well you get the missionary discount!"

**Jennifer does her happy missionary dance**

Jennifer: Wow, I should have bought all my clothes here in Utah instead of Georgia!"

Sales lady (astonished): "You mean...they don't have discounts for missionaries in Georgia?"

No. We probably would have been charged more. LDS missionaries are not the most loved people where we're from. We had a good laugh about that.

All in all, it was fun to have the opportunity to spend a little time with Sister Mack before she left. I know she'll be a good missionary!

Isn't that jacket snazzy?

If you're interested in writing Sister Mack while she's gone, her addresses are as follows:

MTC address for 3 weeks:
Sister Jennifer Marene Mack
MTC Mailbox # 168
NV-LVW 0419
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793


Mission home address in Nevada:

Sister Jennifer M. Mack
Nevada Las Vegas West Mission
4455 Allen Ln Ste 140
North Las Vegas, NV 89021-2229

Candy, cookies, letters, and pictures are much appreciated.
As is missionary discounts.

Organic Cheese Pizza and Science Papers

Right now I am sitting on the bean bag, relaxing, eating organic cheese pizza with my husband. Finally. After 10 days straight of working morning, evening, or graveyard, or all of the above in one day,  I have come to the end of my very long streak.

Tomorrow is my day off...just in time for the Relief Society activity I am partly in charge of. Oi!  Life is busy.

Ryan would agree I think. After all, he did pull an all nighter last night writing an 8 page science paper for 16 hours in a row. Needless to say, we are looking forward to those lazy summer days!

Also,

Remember the poll we took a couple days ago? With the Shabby Apple dresses? Well, like I said, The first Shabby Apple dress (shown left) was not the best on me. It just didn't fit right. Well the results are in and



The winner is....(drum roll please)

Dress B! Thanks for your help everyone! I really like it!

Ryan likes it too. And so does Kitty.

Wordle

Ryan came home today pretty excited about his new discovery--Wordle. It's a place where you can copy and paste any website or text and it will show you which words are used most frequently. It takes out all the little words like a, an, it, etc. It then puts the words into a collage. The bigger the word, the more times it is used.

Ryan wordled my blog and was extremely happy about the results. I wonder why...

    title="Wordle: blog">
    src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/1817388/blog"
    alt="Wordle: blog"
    style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

You can do any website. It's fun!

I Need Your Help!

For my birthday, I got a Shabby Apple dress. However, the one I got didn't fit me right. They let you exchange your dress for free. I need help! Which dress do you like the best?

A. Bethesda Fountain

B. Ingrid

or

C. Barefoot in the Park

Your opinion is much appreciated!  :)

You Know You're Having a Bad Day When...

Love Was In the Air

I realized that I never wrote about our Valentine's Day! It was "love"ly.

Ryan and I celebrated by going to a BYU basketball game! Ryan bought me Dippin Dots, (yummm) and he got a cougar tail. We won (of course), and it took us a half hour to get home due to game traffic (which is always fun). (Do you like my side comments?)

We exchanged gifts and my wonderful husband got me a headband and flowers. I got Ryan shoes. (Ryan likes his shoes).

For dinner we went to Chef's Table, which is a really nice, romantic restaurant. The food was delicious and the fake piano player's music (the piano played by itself, but someone was pretending to play, what a job!) was nice. Our seat overlooked Provo. It was funny because despite the romantic atmosphere, the couples around us were extremely weird. This girl beside us kept kicking her date and we decided that she was going to break up with him that night, the guy behind us was MIA half the date (probably had a 2nd date on the other side of the restaurant), and the couple on the other side of us was talking about kidneys the size of oranges and ordering made up drinks. Really we were the only normal ones...maybe.

One thing I did learn that night was that pink lemonade is the same thing as strawberry lemonade.

Ryan had ordered "pink" lemonade. When the waiter asked if we wanted a refill, he asked if we wanted to try a new flavor. He started listing them off, "Kiwi, lime, pineapple, raspberry, strawberry..."

Mmmm...strawberry. That sounds good.

Me (mouthing to Ryan): Strawberry!

Ryan: I think we'll stick with strawberry.

What!! Stick with??

What a surprise! Makes sense I guess. Strawberry...pink...

We then ended the date by sharing a cupcake at the cupcake shop, where the worker complimented my headband and asked me where I got it. Ryan was beaming!

I love Valentine's Day!

Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires

This weekend, we put out a fire. Not just any fire, but one with 6 feet high flames!

Ryan, David, Veronica, Will and I were going in the apartment to eat cupcakes, Jamba, and watch the Olympics. We parked the car and noticed smoke behind our neighbor's fence. I remember thinking that someone must be barbecuing. Yummy.

But then we noticed it was a little too close to the fence and way too orange...

Sure enough, a plastic green garbage can was on fire. Next to it was a very scorched white fence.

We started banging on the door of the house and David tried to turn on a nearby hose. It was broken. Ryan ended up calling the police. The owners of the house came out after a bit and figured out how to turn on the hose.With our powers combined, we ended up putting out the fire. Smokey the Bear would sure be proud.

It was actually quite exhilerating even though we inhaled a ton of smoke.

30 minutes later, the fire department called. I guess the dispatcher had given them the wrong address...

I sure do feel safe here in Provo.

The Good and the Bad

Bad News: I lost my schedule book a week and a half ago.

This is bad because when I don't have it to look at, I feel quite lost and paranoid that I'm going to forget about something. Ryan can attest that I usually check my schedule at least 3 times a day. Without it, I fret and scrounge my brain, wondering what I have the next day, making me lose sleep at night.

Good News: Well, I found it the other day...in my purse...where it belongs.

I swear I've looked there a million times! I was really happy to find it though. No more worrying and calling work to double check when I work!

Bad News: Unfortunately, a day later, I have lost it again.

I don't even remember taking it out! And for the record, I have looked in my purse four times now.

And Some Good News: I've come to the conclusion that a little elf is sneaking off with it while I am sleeping.

That has to be the only rational explanation.
Maybe tonight he will return it, the little bugger.

Chuck

I like the TV show Chuck.

It's funny.

And it doesn't hurt that I think Chuck is a not-quite-as-handsome version of my husband.

Can you see a slight resemblance?

I can.