The Way We Are

Funny Feet

2012-02-13T23:21:00.000-08:00

Jackson is so funny. He loves his pajama onesies that have animals on his feet. He stares at them and tries to grab them. Little does he know that they are actually his feet and that HE'S the one moving them. They make him so happy--especially the dinosaur ones! Cute kid.

3 Months

2012-02-10T21:44:00.000-08:00

Baby is officially 3 months old! I couldn't decide which picture I liked better, so I put both up.

Interesting facts about the little kiddo:

--Jackson is now wearing 6 month clothes.

--He loves his jungle bouncer.

--He is now sleeping in his crib. He wakes up more at night because of it. Hopefully he will adjust soon!

--He reaches after his toys.

--He is sometimes goofy, especially when his daddy is around. I love seeing his little personality emerge!

--Jackson is still a big cuddler.

--The kitty snuggled Jackson for the first time the other day. She put her head on his leg. They are going to be the best of friends, I just know it!

Sleepy

Goofy

I went back to work a couple weeks ago. It's hard because I'm not home to put my little boy to bed. Hopefully in a couple months I'll be able to change my shifts around so I can come home earlier. Ryan is a great dad and takes good care of the baby while I'm gone!

King of the Jungle

2012-02-04T15:39:00.000-08:00

Lions and tigers and giraffes, Oh my!

Jackson had quite the fight this morning. He had to prove to his stuffed tiger that he was, in fact, the king of the jungle. I caught some footage of the (not so) bloody battle.

"Tiger says HE'S the King of the Jungle!"

"I will show him!"

"Roar!"

"Take this!"

"And take that!"

"And then I will bite you." (I had to tell Jackson that was a little too Mike Tyson-ish.)

"Tiger surrendered."

Presenting...the King of the Jungle!

All tuckered out, poor little guy. I didn't have the heart to tell him that he wasn't actually holding his bottle.

Favorite Moments of the Day

2012-01-26T23:23:00.000-08:00

#1: I woke up this morning wondering why Jackson hadn't woken up yet. That's when I heard these little coos coming from his room. I walked in to find him staring up at the ceiling talking to it. I'm not sure how long he had been doing that for, but it was one of the cutest things ever.

#2: We took Jackson to the ER to visit some of my coworkers. The only time we could go was around his naptime, so I was worried he would be tired and grumpy. When we took him out of the car, he was already sleeping, but soon woke up to the bright lights. He did pretty good with the first couple people and even smiled once or twice. However, he was able to draw a crowd. There was probably 5 or 6 people surrounding him. He was a little overwhelmed at all these new faces. One of my coworkers exclaimed, "He is the cutest baby I've ever seen! Can I take him home and keep him?!" Right at that moment he stuck out his bottom lip, scrunched up his face, and started to cry--the saddest baby face I've ever seen! Perfect timing and oh so funny!

#3: We went to Sonic during Happy Hour to get 1/2 priced slushies. 2 slushies for a little over $1 sounds like a good treat to me! We went through the drive-thru and when I went to hand the Sonic lady my debit card, I accidentally dropped it on the ground! Ryan went to go pick it up, but discovered the car was too close to the wall to get out. I had to pull the car forward, stop, have Ryan get out and get the card, hand it to the drive-thru lady, reverse (yes, the person behind me saw...as did the other 3 cars!), and wait to get our drinks. This did not faze the Sonic lady at all. She didn't even say anything. I hope this means that things like this happen often. The best part about the whole thing? It was raining.

#4: Ryan has been doing really good at exercising every day. He usually goes to the clubhouse gym, but today, it got a little too late to go. He decided to pop in one of my pilates cardio videos. While he was doing it, I was feeding the baby and trying to put him to sleep. I know, not the best environment for sleep, but it was fun! During the warm up/stretching portion of the video, Jackson was pretty much sleep eating. His eyes were closed and he was reflexively eating. However, when Ryan got to the cardio part, I looked down and Jackson was wide awake smiling. He was watching his daddy do pilates and thought it was so funny! He watched him for the whole 30 minutes with a huge smile on his face!

(Ryan read this post and said, "What no pictures?!" So here are some pictures as of late)

The little rascal

"Dino Mite!"

Our Growing Boy

2012-01-22T22:32:00.000-08:00

(Warning: Picture and Video overload...because let's be honest. You are all here for Jackson.)

Jackson is growing like a weed! It is amazing to look at pictures from just a couple weeks ago and see how much he has changed. He is a happier baby these days. He cries less and is so aware of the world around him. Last week he discovered his hands. It's funny to see him examining them like they are the coolest things in the world.

I have how many fingers?

He has really been playing with toys too. He grabs and holds onto things. He loves his skinny elephant. It makes a crinkly noise when you touch it. He also likes his bouncer. When you hit the toys, it lights up. Amazing, I know.

His favorite place in the whole house is in his crib. He doesn't actually sleep in it yet, but he loves to play in it.

He always coos at the mobile. However, when we pull the camera out, the little stinker stops and stares. This is the best video we have of it.

--

What's new with Ryan and me? Ryan's been doing really well in school. He is also waiting patiently (well as patient as you can!) for his law school acceptance letters. I go back to work next week...we'll see how that goes. And we have 2 random pheasants in our backyard.

Happy Baby

2012-01-11T20:45:00.003-08:00

2 Months

2012-01-10T20:31:00.000-08:00

Yes, Jackson is now 2 months old! He had his 2 month check up yesterday. He was such a good little boy. He kept smiling at the nurse and student doctor. When he saw his real doctor though (the one that delivered him) he started full blown crying. I guess he remembers him from the day he was born. Tough memories for the poor little guy. :)

The doctor said he was the size of a 4 month old. Jackson also had to get his shots. Those are not fun. The nurse kept saying how surprised and amazed she was that he was so strong. That's my boy!

Later that night, Jackson got really cranky. After screaming for 3 hours straight, we discovered that he had a 104 degree fever. Poor baby. We have been giving him Tylenol which has helped a ton. He still has a fever today, but it's not as high, thank goodness.

Here are his stats from the appointment:

Weight: 14.4 lbs (94th percentile)
Height: 24 in (83rd percentile)
Head circumference: 42 cm (90th percentile)

Some interesting 2 month old facts:

--Jackson HATES being burped. He will fight tooth and nail not to have to be burped. We have resorted to sticking a pacifier in his mouth to make him think he is still eating.

--He has turned into a grabber He grabs fingers, hair, shirts, etc.

--He loves fans. He is content to just sit and coo at them for 20 minutes. They are his best friends.

--He is a good bath taker. He doesn't cry (He doesn't smile either though. He is more concerned). He sleeps really well after he has a bath.

--Got his first cold and stomach bug. No fun for baby and Mommy and Daddy.

--Running water and a low pitch "Oooooh" will always make him stop crying. Fail proof.

No 2 month block picture yet. We will do one after he feels better.

Some other pics:

4 generations picture

Starring Jackson Stephens

2012-01-09T10:36:00.000-08:00

For the first post of the year, I thought I would share some videos of what Jackson has been up to!

Playing with his whale

Learning how to sit in his bumbo

What can we say, he is a talented kid!

Coin Stephens?

2011-12-23T12:44:00.000-08:00

The other day, I went to pick up a prescription at Walgreen's for Jackson. It was almost midnight, and there were lots of sick/injured/prescription picker-uppers waiting "patiently". Everyone and their winter sicknesses. Anyways, there was only two guys working that night, scurrying to fill prescriptions, man the drive-thru, answer phones, and wait on the customers in the pharmacy line. Needless to say, they were a bit frazzled.

When it was finally my turn, things didn't go quite as smoothly as I expected.

J: I'm here to pick up a prescription for my son, Jackson Stephens.

PM (Pharmacy Man): (Looking through some medicine)Hmmm...(couldn't find it, started typing in computer for several LONG seconds, looking confused). What's his date of birth?

J: 11/6/11...and that's Stephens with a P-H.

PM: (Several more awkwardly silent seconds staring at the computer.)

J: My doctor should have called the precription in.

PM: (Calls fellow coworker over to help)

More waiting...finally I see them putting together the prescription. As PM was about to hand over the medicine...

PM: Coin Stephens, right?

J: What?

PM: It's for Coin Stephens?

J: Jackson Stephens...

PM: Oh...is his middle name Coin?

J: No. It's Ryan.

PM: Really?...Are you sure his name isn't Coin?

I found this situation somewhat humorous. I think I know my own child's name. I mean I named him myself.

After about 10 more minutes and several attempts to convince PM that Coin was not my son's name, they straightened everything out, and I left with the correct medicine. That was a close one. I almost got a prescription for a mysterious Coin Stephens with the same birthday as Jackson's.

(And I'm about 99.9% sure I named my son Jackson!)

1 Month

2011-12-09T22:09:00.000-08:00

My little baby, Jackson, is officially one month old! It is amazing how much he has changed since we brought him home from the hospital. Here are some little tidbits about him.

--He grabs onto things now. When we burp him, he'll grab our shirts or my hair and won't let go.

--He really loves his stuffed whale on his play mat. He will lay there for over 20 minutes cooing and smiling at it.

--He still has his nights and days mixed up. Poor Mom and Dad.

--Almost all his outfits have monkies on them. Even his diapers have monkies.

--He has the biggest eyes and loves to stare at you.

--He hates having his arms wrapped up in his blanket. He loves having them be free and even sleeps with them over his head.

--He doesn't mind having his diaper changed (unless he's really hungry.)

He's a pretty good baby. I think Ryan and I lucked out!

(www.tedjamulia.com for more pics!)

2 Weeks

2011-11-22T20:15:00.000-08:00

Jackson had his 2 week check up yesterday. He likes to show off at the doctor's office. This usually involves a diaper change and an outfit change. And one embarrassed mom.

The first time he went to the doctor's, he had a dirty diaper and decided he wanted to "mark his territory" and spray the examination room while we were changing him. He got an outfit change.

Yesterday when we went to the doctor's, he also had a dirty diaper (we really do check before we go). I learned my lesson last time and covered him so he couldn't spray anything. Well, when we were swapping the dirty diaper for the clean one, he urinated all over the examination table and his outfit. Another outfit change.

Little show off.

Luckily, we weren't the ones that had to clean it up. Unluckily, the nurse had to clean it. I bet she's going to cringe every time she sees Jackson's name.

Anyways, here are his 2 week stats:

Weight: 10 lb 4 oz (90th percentile)
Height: 22.5 in (96th percentile)
Head Circumference: 37.25 cm (55th percentile)

Big boy!

Jackson Stephens

2011-11-12T17:28:00.000-08:00

Jackson is finally here!

He arrived early Sunday morning. He was here just in time to welcome the first snow fall of the season. Lucky boy.

He was a whopping 9 lbs 11 oz. 20 inches long. He also has a head full of hair and the cutest dimples. He barely fit into his newborn onesie on the way home from the hospital.

Unfortunetly, he has jaundice, so he is a yellow boy. He has to wear what we like to call his jet pack that gives him UV light 24/7. You can kind of see the blue glow in the picture above. I am excited for his jaundice to go away so he doesn't have to be attached to a machine, and he can stop getting his poor bruised heals pricked.

All in all, we love him even though we are a bit sleep deprived. We are also thankful to have my mom here helping us out and teaching us the ins and outs of parenthood.

Welcome to the family little guy!

9 Months!

2011-11-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

The last of the pregnant belly pictures! Hurray!

Baby Update: I have officially "graduated" from my office visits! The next time I see my doctor it will be when Jackson makes his big debut. I am excited and getting anxious for when he comes. I also feel like an elephant with all this water retention. Maybe that's what I should have been for Halloween....Too late!

The Boppy Story: Part II

2011-11-01T21:12:00.000-07:00

Grandma T felt bad for Baby Jackson and his pink pillow dilemma. Being the nice Grandmas she is, Grandma T got him an early birthday present!

Now you see it:

Now you don't!

I think he approves of his new jungle-themed pillow cover. He has been doing flips and kicks all night long.

Ryan and I were Halloween scrooges this year. No Halloween costumes for us. We didn't go to any Halloween parties, and we didn't even get trick or treaters this year. However, we did continue our pumpkin carving tradition.

I think it turned out pretty good! (I had to convince Ryan that we were NOT going to do this pattern. It's what comes up when you type into Google 'BYU pumpkin pattern'.)

Whoops!

2011-10-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

I had some money I needed to spend on Amazon, so the other day I ordered a Boppy pillow. I heard it's really useful and for some reason, this one pattern was $7 cheaper than the rest. I couldn't find anything wrong with it, so I went ahead and ordered it. I guess I should have paid more attention to the name.

Miss Cherry Boppy pillow.

I received the package yesterday and excitedly opened it. I pulled the packaging out and.... PINK? The pillow was light pink striped with pink cherries. It wouldn't be a big deal if I was having a girl and if I wasn't expecting it to be white with red cherries. Poor Jackson is just going to have to deal with his new pink pillow. Not exactly manly, but that's okay.

At least it was the pillow that turned out girly and not the baby--we would've had to rethink the nursery decoration, clothing selection, and name if Jackson turned out to be a GIRL.

Sunday Drive

2011-10-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

Ryan and I went on a pretty, scenic autumn drive in the canyon today. The mountain air was cool and crisp and perfect for a 37 week pregnant lady. We brought our camera along in case we wanted to take pictures of the pretty view. Ryan made me get out and snapped a couple pictures of me.

Ryan wouldn't let me put any pictures of him on the blog. But here is a picture of our kitty in her new favorite bed.

A big box with lots of brown packing paper.

Nursery and Name Unveiling

2011-10-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

When we found out our baby was a boy, I immediately starting brainstorming what to do with the nursery. It wasn't too hard to figure out I wanted to do a Curious George theme. Ryan loved Curious George as a kid. Here is what we came up with:

We even made the balloon mobile.

From the baby's point of view.

Decal on the wall

Other side of the room.

Mommy and Baby Curious George on the awesome glider my parents bought us.

The closet

Only 4 more weeks till Baby Jackson makes his appearance!

FYI

2011-10-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I made cinnamon rolls for the first time ever. They turned out pretty good. I was proud of myself.

Ryan was pretty happy too.

8 Months
(and sick with the flu!)

Pillow Project

2011-10-06T00:03:00.000-07:00

Warning: This is me attempting to be crafty again.

If anyone knows me, I am artistically challenged. I can't draw, make cute things, or sew. But I can work a hot glue gun (with only a few burnt fingers).

I found this idea on my friend's blog and tried it out during General Conference. It's super easy!

The best part about it was the price:

Pillow: $1.62 at Target
Felt: $0.60 at Michael's
Total cost of pillow: $2.22

Not too shabby!

A New Addition

2011-09-27T22:49:00.000-07:00

Ryan and I purchased a white shag body pillow from Sams last week. It was supposed to help me sleep better at night. Unfortunetly, it was a little too fluffy for my liking. Ryan slept with it and the next morning declared, "It's like sleeping with a polar bear!"

I guess that's a good thing when you are so cold at night you have to wear a hoodie and 2 blankets.

Polar Bear (aka the pillow) is nice to have when I sit on the couch. I just wrap it around me and it adds padding and comfort. I don't think Lily likes our new addition to the family. I woke up one night to her shredding the shag with her teeth. Hopefully she gets it out of her system before the baby comes.

Other news: I have come down with the flu. Body aches, fever, chills, nausea, sore throat....it is awesome. Sometimes I have problems differentiating what is the flu and what is from the pregnancy. And actually, one good think about having the flu is that when I have the chills, I'm not freezing my poor husband out of house and home. I think he kinda likes it. The funny thing is, I was supposed to get the flu shot at work this week. That is what I get for procrastinating!

There's a Baby in There

2011-09-15T00:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight at work I walked into a patient room and sat down on the stool. There was a 3 year old boy in there. When he saw me, his eyes widened and he leaned closer to his mom.

"Mommy!" he said in his exaggerated child whisper. "That lady's got a BIG belly"

His mom looked slightly embarrassed. I could hear her whisper back, "That's because there's a baby in there."

"OH!"

It was pretty funny.

7 Months
And yes there is a baby in there.

You Know You're Pregnant When...

2011-09-05T23:28:00.000-07:00

You know you're pregnant when...

--You make your husband go to the nearest gas station in the middle of the night to buy Tums.

--You sleep in till one and still need a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day.

--You try to squeeze behind big spaces and realize you don't fit or you get stuck.

--You think your ribs will never feel the same again.

--You drop 3 cups in 24 hours. One shattering into many pieces on the floor.

--You wake up in the middle of the night with an excruciating leg cramp, only to be woken up an hour later with another leg cramp...in your other leg.

--Your husband says your gait resembles a duck.

--You sleep with 4+ pillows at night.

--When people say you're huge or you're getting bigger, it is actually a good thing.

--You have what you call "optimum sleep temperature" which involves turning down the air several degrees, cranking the fan, and freezing out your husband.

I may or may not have had personal experience with all of these things.

Weddings and Babies

2011-08-27T23:25:00.000-07:00

This weekend, we had a wedding reception and a baby shower. (Not for the same person though.) The wedding reception was for Ryan's brother, Trevor. They had it at the art musuem! There were a couple...interesting...statues, but once you got past that, it was a really neat place!

The food was great, the decorations were great, Heather and Trevor were in love (and great), and the guests were great. (Hey, Ryan and I were there. What more can you ask for?)

One of my favorite things at the reception was this little table that had a typewriter sitting on it. You were supposed to type advice to the newlyweds. I went to type my advice, but realized I had no clue how to use the thing. How do you capitalize letters? How do you delete typos? In the end, my message read like this:

go onndates. julie

Best advice ever--if you can interpret what I was trying to say. It was amazing though, some people were pros at it! Ryan said typewriting is like texting for old people.

Abraham Lincoln even came to the reception.

--

Today was my baby shower that my sister-in-law Veronica threw for me. Everyone was so nice to come and spoiled the baby with lots of amazing gifts! If you were one of the people who came, THANK YOU!!!

One of the games we played was a fun pictionary game. I had to draw a word that I know oh too well.

Curious George floating away with a bunch of helium balloons.

What a fun weekend.

Fly Guts

2011-08-24T23:53:00.000-07:00

Today at work, I felt something on my arm. I looked down and saw this little critter:

Grossed out, I tried swatting at it to make it fly away...only it didn't fly away like normal flies do. Instead, I successfully smashed it on my arm.

I was thoroughly grossed out. I'm pretty sure I washed my arm about a million times.

Speaking of work...I'm not sure how I'm going to survive my 12 hour shift tomorrow. I am exhausted as a type this. Friday cannot come soon enough.

--

6 Months!

Guess what? I am now officially in my 3rd and final trimester!

What's in a Name?

2011-08-07T22:32:00.000-07:00

As I type this, Ryan is currently putting up the baby's name over the crib. It has been fun...

except for the part where we found an insect in our freshly spray painted letter
or when we discovered how hard it was to hang the letters
or when I caught Ryan misspelling our poor child's name on the wall
or when we figured out one of the letters was smaller than the rest
or when we were charged per letter at the store (this kid does have kind of a long name).

If we had known how complicated this task was going to be, we would've named him something with 2 letters--like Al or Bo or after my great uncle GO. (pronounced G.O.) Too bad we didn't think of it earlier.

Oh well, our project is actually starting to look really good (once you get past the midget letter).

Lazy Summer Days

2011-08-01T00:30:00.000-07:00

Ryan asked me if I updated the blog today. I said no...and then felt like a slacker, and decided to fix that.

So hello blog world!

Ryan and I are babysitting a Wii this weekend.
Lately we have played:

3 games of Mario Party.

Hours of Wii Tennis.

And a healthy amount of Mario Kart.

And just so you don't think we are lazy--Ryan also flew a kite. And I watched. I guess that still makes me lazy. Oh well.

Sir Husband, the Engineer

2011-07-22T22:48:00.000-07:00

Did you know...

My husband is a

(1) Spider killer extraordinare
(2) Trash taker-outer
(3) Litter box cleaner
(4) Jar-opening guru
(5) Baby crib engineer

That's right. What would I do without him?

Today we got our crib! It's funny how excited you can get over baby things when it's actually for your own baby. Ryan, the baby crib engineer, put our crib together tonight. Kitty and I supervised (and helped...a little). It turned out great!

Here are some pictures of the process:

Curious Cat:

Putting it together:

Finished product! I spy kitty paws!:

Close up:

Side View:

We love it! Now we have to figure out what to do with the rest of the nursery.

100!

2011-07-17T00:49:00.000-07:00

Happy 100th blog post Blog!

I never thought we would make it this far! (Okay, I never really thought about 'how far we would make it', but it sounded dramatic!)
We have had fun times. We have had neglectful times where I have forgotten about you.

But to celebrate this momentous occasion, I will tell you about some events this summer that I have not recorded in you.

Well blog,

1. Ryan and I went to San Diego! It was sunny, and I got burnt to a crisp! We had fun touring the San Diego zoo, bicycling, going to the beach, and relaxing.

2. We have gone to tons of wedding receptions in the past 2 months. Free food is always a good thing.

3. I work. A lot. And Ryan studies non-stop.

4. Ryan and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary. He was a sweetheart and bought me the Harry Potter books 1-7 so I don't have to get them from the library anymore. And I gave him headphones. Again. :)

5. And speaking of Harry Potter, we went and saw the last Harry Potter movie. It was awesome...even though they deviate from the book.

6. Sometimes I get nervous when I think about naming our baby. He will have the name from the rest of eternity! What if he doesn't like it! When I asked Ryan if he ever thought about it, he said no. Must be a mommy thing.

Anyways blog, I will update soon. Enjoy your special day!

--

5 Months!
(Tired after an 8 hour day at work.)

PS: I just realized blogger was counting my unpublished blog posts in the 100. Sorry Blog, this day is not as momentous as I once thought. But, um, Happy 94th blog post!

Baby Update

2011-07-08T00:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog World,

I can now officially say, "HALF WAY"! I cannot believe I am over half way done with my pregnancy. My thoughts? I am nervous, happy, scared, feeling great most days, love feeling the baby move. It feels more real now. We are actually going to have a little baby (or maybe a big baby? See post below) in a short time.

We finally ordered a crib, started collecting baby clothes, got a gliding rocking chair (thanks Mom and Dad!), and have a name picked out. And...we finally got our baby bedding! We decided to do a Curious George theme for the nursery. I am pretty excited about it. It came yesterday in the mail. We love it! (except we accidentally ordered the wrong crib skirt. Oops).

We're not the only ones that love it though.

Something tells me we're going to have to close the door to the nursery soon.

Picture Phobia

2011-06-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

62% thought we were having a boy
38% thought we were having a girl.

Well...this little guy

is indeed a boy!

I was so excited I could hardly sleep last night. Ryan and I both thought this little baby was a boy. We had a giftcard we needed to use, and we actually bought a baby boy outfit this past weekend thinking we could return it if we were wrong. Guess we don't have to!

The baby wasn't cooperating too well. He was hiding his head and the ultrasound tech needed the measurements. She had me turn on my right and left side, jump up and down, and go to the bathroom. I never thought an ultrasound hurt before...until now. You can really jab someone with those things! Baby is in the 98th percentile...so he is big! I am measuring 1 week ahead of schedule.

The baby didn't like being photographed. He kept kicking the ultrasound probe. The ultrasound tech said he was also pouting. See:

His chin is against his chest, and you can see his little lips.

Guess he needs a little training on liking his picture being taken--especially since his grandpa's favorite hobby is taking pictures!

Spidey-Man

2011-06-12T22:40:00.000-07:00

For Ecology class, Ryan was given the worst assignment ever given to any BYU college student (in my opinion). He had to catch web-spinning spiders to experiment on. If my teacher made me do this, I think I would be a college drop out.

This assignment was a challenge for most of May because it was so cold and rainy outside. He couldn't find any arachnids. It seems like you always find the little buggers when you DON'T want to, but when you try to, you can't find any. Go figure.

Well, the other day I went with Ryan, and we actually found a couple spiders in some bushes. I ran to the car not wanting to see my husband capture them in jars. I guess it is more difficult then it sounds. They use their spiderman senses to escape cature. Ryan finally got one and when he was closing the jar, the spider sent a web out trying to escape. Ryan, with his cat-like reflexes, was too quick.

He brought the little guy home (well, in the backyard. I wouldn't let him bring it in the house) and built it a nice little home in a cardboard box. An hour later, Ryan came in really upset.

"My spider escaped."

"NOT IN THE HOUSE, RIGHT?" was the first response out of my mouth. The answer was no. *Phew*

Saddened, he went out and looked for more spiders. Later on, he realized that the spider had not escaped, that it simply buried itself in the dirt to hide so when Ryan opened the box, it attempted to scuttle out.

Who knew spiders were so smart? I seriously think the directors of Spiderman examined spiders and their defense techniques while filming the movie.

Anyways, the spider still resides in the backyard, and we speculate whether it is still alive, breathing, and happy. If it dies, I don't think I would be too disappointed--not going to lie. I will be one happy camper when this experiment is over. Even if we have a little superhero in our backyard.

---

4 Month Picture!

Harry Potter 7.2

2011-06-10T23:13:00.000-07:00

Guess who is seeing this movie

on opening night on IMAX 3D?
Super excited.
And guess who was the doof that got work off on the wrong night.
I should probably work on fixing that.
(I suffer from a mild case of pregnancy brain. Ask Ryan. I called him Jennifer and kitty today by accident. Oops.)

The Vacuuming Blues

2011-06-05T00:13:00.000-07:00

Our vacuum cleaner is out of shape. (Not the only thing out of shape in our home. *Cough* me *Cough*.) One day we tried to get it to exercise, and the vacuum belt broke, leaving us in a mess (literally).

When we clean the carpets, we have to resort to this.

It takes twice as long, but at least the user gets a good workout! And poor Ryan has decided he doesn't want me to hunch over like this for extended periods of times, so guess who gets to be the lucky one to exercise the vacuum hose?

At times Ryan will pretend the hose is attacking him, in which case the cat nearly has a heart attack. Makes for some exciting times my friends.

And good news! Today we went and bought a new vacuum belt for a little over $2. We just need to install it, and our vacuum cleaner will be able to resume it's exercise program once more. It might not be too happy about this, but we are.

Barbeque Mishap

2011-05-31T22:59:00.000-07:00

Today Ryan and I were ready to barbecue. We had our chicken marinated, hamburgers ready, barbecue clothes on...but we had one "small" problem. We inherited a small barbecue grill that has been passed around our family. It's a cute little thing, but I had no idea how to use it, so I put Ryan in charge of cooking the meat. He took the grill outside to get 'er ready, but came back in a couple minutes later with some bad news.

"The entire inside of the grill is full of beehives."

I didn't see that one coming. Not wanting to share our food with the bees, we went to our backup plan. Our mini Geoge Foreman grill. This manly grill is able to cook one hamburger at a time. Patience is a virtue.

Our barbecue didn't go quite as planned, but it still was delicious. Especially since there was no sign of bees or hives, just happy tummies.

Finally a picture of Ryan! He usually doesn't approve of me putting pictures up of him, but I told him if I didn't put an occasional picture or two of him that people would start to think I'm narcissistic.

And just because here is a close up of some of the food.

The Dreaded Memorial Day

2011-05-31T01:04:00.000-07:00

Today I had to work 12 hours on Memorial Day. It was a day I dreaded and whined to Ryan about for days...weeks maybe. My thought process when I chose to work this shift was as follows:

1. I get paid time and a half
2. Ryan has the next day off of school as well.
3. I am crazy.

I heard rumors from fellow co-workers about how crazy, busy, and full of ambulances Memorial days usually are. I was not excited. I told Ryan he could not by any means have fun while I was at work. (Just kidding.)

Anyways, working Memorial Day wasn't half bad. I think the rain discouraged people from doing fun, dangerous, bound-to-end-up-in-the-ER type of things. I survived!

After a long day at work, Ryan took me to the grocery store so we could buy food to barbeque tomorrow. We are going to have our own Memorial Day, one day late.

And then when I finally walked through the front door, I saw that he had cleaned the house while I was at work. (Something that needed to be done desperately). What a kind, considerate man I have. It's times like this I realize I am one lucky girl! (Even if I have to work Memorial Day. :P)

Hot and Cold

2011-05-18T00:30:00.000-07:00

Ryan is currently sick with a bad cold. He is stuffy headed, feverish, and can be found hacking up a lung. A sick man combined with a pregnant woman does not make a good combination.

Today when he picked me up from work, I got into the 80 degree car.

"Agh!" I exclaimed, yanking off my jacket, "It's so hot in here!"

I changed the temperature in the car to 70 degrees.

"It's cold in here!" Ryan groaned, grabbing my discarded jacket.

"I guess we can turn on the heat and open the window..." I said compromisingly.

Ryan decided to suffer instead.

When we got home, Ryan went straight to the thermostat. "It's 69 degrees in here. It's freezing!"

Julie: Nooo! It's so HOT! Don't touch that!
Ryan: But it's cold!
Julie: Put on more clothes! And get a blanket!

I'm not a very nice pregnant lady. I did offer to make him soup though. Poor sick Ryan. I am happy to report that he is now nice and toasty with his hoodie and blanket.

Other news: I am officially in my second trimester! Woohoo! Today we saw Baby moving around, and he even covered his face with his arm. We also saw the beating heart, which was a relief. Right when the ultrasound picture showed up, I could tell the baby was a lot bigger than at 9 weeks. It's amazing how fast they grow! He is the size of a lemon.

Oh, and I got bangs. They are fun. And sometimes make my face hot.

3 Months
(My hair looks better in real life)

And just because, here is a pic of my new skirt!

Sleepy Blogging

2011-05-13T22:17:00.000-07:00

Why is it that I can be so tired, but it still takes me hours to go to bed at night? Does that happen to you guys?

For example, I worked a day shift today, and I have been dying of exhaustion. I promised myself I would go to bed early tonight. Got off work at 7...ate dinner, watched tv, browsed facebook/blogs, and before I know it's 11 pm! I can't even use Ryan as an excuse--he pulled an all-nighter last night and has been snoozing in bed since we got home.

This is my go-to-list of excuses why it is not bed time yet:

1. It's hard to fall asleep these days.
2. The couch is way too comfy
3. I have gotten my 5th wind.
4. I have not updated my blog for awhile
5. Just one more chapter in my book (over and over again...those stinkin' cliff hangers get me every time!)
6. I think I am getting hungry.

And so on.

First step to a bad habit is admitting you have a problem.

Okay.

*Ahem*

I, Julie Stephens, will admit that I am falling asleep typing this, and probably won't go to sleep for another hour when I am too tired to get ready for bed...

but...

I think I'm okay with that.

The Elusive Skirt

2011-05-08T23:43:00.000-07:00

About 6 months ago, I had a vision of a skirt. It had pockets, it was bright, and it was summery. I told Ryan about this dream skirt I wanted, and for my birthday, we went in search of it. We could not find the elusive dream skirt anywhere. It was a sad time.

While I was browsing the internet on Friday, I found it! I was ecstatic. I made Ryan go out the next day and buy it with me. I called it my "Mother's Day present". Ironically, the skirt is named "Like a Dream Skirt".

Luckily, the top is elastic and has room to stretch.
Thank you DownEast for making my dreams come true.

Thanks Hubby!

2011-05-03T01:04:00.000-07:00

One thing I have noticed about my pregnancy is that I am clumsy. Plain and simple. Before Baby, I was extremely coordinated and graceful...Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but I was not a clumsy person by any means. Below are lists to help you understand how clumsy I have become.

This past month I have spilled:
Water in the bed x4 (Luckily we have spare beds)
Water on the couch
Water on the floor (I think I am sensing a trend)
Spaghetti
Enchilada sauce
A whole bag of sugar
Pickle juice
Strawberries
Freshly sliced tomatoes

I have dropped:
Clipboards
Soap
Papers
Cell phone

And I trip over my own feet.

I have at least one mishap a day.
I feel like a clown with big feet.

But some good news, I have a husband that will clean up after a bout of clumsiness. And will hand me water cups and say, "Don't spill." Thanks hubby!

2 Month Picture (Please ignore the baggy pants)

Where is My Chocolate Bar?

2011-04-27T00:46:00.000-07:00

For Easter Sunday I made this really scrumptious pie. One of the ingredients for the pie was 1 oz of chocolate to melt and drizzle over the dessert. I figured this was a good excuse to buy my favorite chocolate bar.

Behold the chocolatey goodness!

I took about 1/4 of that deliciousness and used it for dessert, and figured the rest could be saved for later.

The next day I really wanted my chocolate bar. This is when the hunt for the chocolate bar began. It was kind of like our own little version of Easter egg hunting. (Edit: Ryan was actually the one looking. I was sitting on the couch directing him. Yes, I am sometimes lazy.) It was not where I left it. It was not in the cupboard. It was not in the Easter box my parents sent me. It was not in the fridge. It was not in our room. I told Ryan to look in the spice drawer or the junk drawer and he was like, "That's not where it belongs!" It wasn't in either place.

I was really sad. And pouted. And ate a pickle instead.

2 hours later, Ryan saved the day by randomly finding the Symphony chocolate bar. It was in the laundry room, of course!

Chocolate bars don't belong in laundry rooms.

Not sure how it got there, maybe Ryan's subtle hint that I need to do laundry soon?

Not an April Fools Joke

2011-04-21T01:05:00.000-07:00

Ryan and I like to think we are funny on occasion. So when I found out I was pregnant, I told Ryan we should tell our family on April Fool's Day. Great idea, right? I was really excited.

Out of my siblings:

Sibling #1:I got home from work 1 am on April Fool's Day. My brother and sister-in-law live in Washington, so it was exactly midnight for them. I got on facebook and sent him a facebook chat message. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: So guess what??
Brother: What?
Me: Ryan and I are pregnant!
Brother: Haha, I don't believe you.
Me: What! Why not!
Brother: Because if it were real, you would've called.

Then I called him. And spent the next 30 minutes trying to convince them that I was really telling the truth. He then asked why we waited till April Fool's Day to tell everyone. Just thought it would be funny...I even sent him pictures to prove I was telling the truth. He then said that he would only believe me if I called April 2 at 12:01 and told them I was pregnant. He then went on to say if I really was pregnant, they would write a song for the baby about how they didn't believe. I am looking forward to that song.

Sibling #2: My sister believed me right off the bat, until I mentioned it was April Fool's Day. And then she was like, "I'm confused! Oh well! I'll believe you until you tell me it's a joke!"

Sibling #3: My other sister already knew.

Sibling #4: On my other brother I tried a new tactic. I called him on the phone and said, "Guess what! I'm NOT pregnant! April Fool's!

Brother: Haha, very funny
*Pause*
Me: No, I said I'm NOT pregnant.....April Fool's
Brother: Wait, what?
Me: I really am pregnant!

Took a second.

As for Ryan's siblings--his sister didn't even question it at all. His brother on the other hand was not sure what to believe! He had to call Ryan's parents to confirm. His mom pretended not to know anything about it at first, and then took pity and confirmed the non April Fool's joke.

So all in all, I have decided boys are just more suspicious than girls and that telling people you are pregnant on April Fool's Day is just way too much fun.

My "Official" One Month Picture
(Not much to see!)

Surprise!

2011-04-19T15:48:00.000-07:00

Okay. So enough hinting, it is official.

Ryan and I are going to be parents! (and not just to a cat--to a real live human baby!)

We saw our little "peanut" today. He wasn't moving around too much, and I was tempted to poke my belly to wake him up. Doctor said he is a-okay and everything looks good. Wow, there really is a baby in there. I'm glad I'm not sick for nothing.

The baby is due November 16, and I am 10 weeks along. We are really excited and a little nervous to be parents. And for some reason we are already referring to him as a he. I'm not sure, just thinks he's a boy.

Surprise!

Kitty on a Diet

2011-04-17T00:54:00.000-07:00

Someone in this household has been packing on a few pounds lately. That someone can also be found by her empty food bowl day and night begging... Yes, it is our cat Lily. (Who were you thinking??)

We came home from Christmas break to a fat cat. Giving her access to food 24/7 may have been a bad idea. Depression and abandonment may have also contributed to her rapid weight gain.

A cat her size is supposed to eat 1/2-1 cup of cat food a day. If it were up to her, she would eat 5 cups. We have been trying to limit the amount of food we give her, but she has found a way around this.

Why wait for food when you can get it straight from the bag. Yummm!

A Love Story

2011-04-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, Boy Meets Girl.

Boy dates Girl. And falls in love.

Boy proposes to Girl.

Boy marries Girl.

They are now together forever.

The End.

--

Almost 2 years ago, Ryan and I were married in the Atlanta, Georgia LDS temple. We were one of the last ones to get married there before they closed it for over 18 months to remodel it.

Well, guess what! The temple is done, and for a short time it is open for the public to view! I really wish I could go, but Utah is just too far away from Georgia right now. LDS temples are very dear to me because that is where my husband and I were married forever. In the LDS religion, we believe that families can be together forever. How beautiful is that--a chance to be with your loved ones forever.

Anyways, I recommend that you go see it while you can. It is a beautiful place!

Go HERE for more info on how to tour the temple.

Ding Dong Ditch

2011-04-07T01:27:00.000-07:00

Ryan pulled an all-nighter last night. He has done far too many this semester. He stays up all night and goes to his 8 am class bright and early. We have actually dragged a bed out in the living room, so we can be in the same room when I sleep. Sad, huh?

Well, this afternoon he came home from class, crawled into bed, and fell right to sleep. He had his phone next to him. Sometime during his little nap, he received 5 texts in a row (his phone likes to save up texts and then send them all at once). His text sound is a "ding dong!", kinda like a door bell.

After 5 "ding dongs", Ryan got out of bed, grumbling. He started walking out of the room.

"Ryan, where are you going?"

"I'm answering the door!"

"Uh Ryan, that was your phone not the door. Ryan!! Ryan!"

He was pretty groggy and confused, but finally figured it out. He opened his phone and deleted all the texts without reading them. Oops.

It's a good thing I told him, otherwise he would've gotten to the door and thought someone door bell ditched us.

My New Friend Fred

2011-04-05T23:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I noticed a lump directly under my chin. It is a pretty big lump--about the size of a quarter.

Today it started hurting when I move my neck and talk...basically when I do anything at all. Luckily I work with lots of trained doctors and nurses, and a doc told me it is nothing to worry about, just an inflamed lymph node that is caused by an infection/bacteria in my mouth/nose area. Weird! I have not had any problems except for mild congestion.

He did say that if it got bigger, I might need to get it removed. Gross.

Times like this I am grateful I work in an ER!

So I wait. In the meantime, I will name my lump Fred and hope he goes away soon.

Love letters...and more

2011-03-23T23:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Time,

Pretty please go by a teensy bit faster.
Please.
I really want my hubby back from his 18 credit semester. I really don't like these all nighters he pulls that leaves me alone at night.
Also, I really want summer to come faster.

Thank you,
Julie

----

Dear Weather,

Why are you snowing? Do you know it is officially spring now?

Yours truly,
Julie

----

Dear Man Who Stole My Food,

That was really rude. Never steal food from a hungry woman.

~That hungry woman

----

Dear Hubby,

Thank you for the PB&J sandwich you made me tonight. I especially liked how you bit off the crusts for me. And thank you for being the best husband in the world. I appreciate all you do for me. I love you.

Love,
Your Wifey

Any takers?

2011-03-16T00:27:00.000-07:00

Anyone want to clean my house for me?
Please and thank you!

And for all my nerdy friends out there:

Work Poems

2011-03-05T10:16:00.000-08:00

At work yesterday, we played a fun little game to pass the time. It's called the Poem game. Someone gives you a random word, and you have to write a poem about it. Sounds pretty simple, right?

My word: Nails.

I'm going to clarify real fast--in my poem, I am referring to these nails:

Not these nails

Ryan thought I meant the latter and proceeded to tell me my poem doesn't make any sense.

Without further ado:

Nails

Nails, Nails
What a wonderful thing to EAT
That is until you realize...
you can't even reach your feet!

I know, I know. I'm a poet, and I didn't even know it...

(Happy Birthday to my best friend, JENNIFER!)

Stalking

2011-02-28T00:39:00.000-08:00

This weekend, Ryan and I took our stalking to a new level. I am embarrassed to admit (but not too embarrassed to to blog about) we took almost 2 hours of our Saturday to stalk 8 or so individuals...in the snow. Yes. It was the BYU men's basketball team.

There was a really big basketball game on Saturday. Ryan was really excited and couldn't sleep the night before. He said (and I quote), "It's like Christmas! I am so excited!" Luckily we won.

Ryan made 2 big errors that day.

Error #1: Making me watch the basketball game
Error #2: Looking at a Cougar Board entry from a man that calls himself Glemonade.

Thank you Mr. Glemonade for posting when the Cougars were flying into the Provo airport. I got really excited and insisted that we attend this function. Dorky? I think not. Stalkerish? Maybe.

However, I later found out that someone may have been stalking US. (Not really, but look closely at the video. Can you see Ryan and me?)

Heads Up

2011-02-13T20:53:00.000-08:00

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Yes, this really happened at the ER...while I was at work. Once the police realized the guy was gone, you would see everyone occasionally look up at the ceiling wondering if someone was going to crash through. It was a pretty exciting night!

Other news from the life of Ryan and Julie:

We have bought new hair ties and bobby pins for me since the cat has eaten/mutilated/hid/killed every one that I had. Unfortunetly, Ryan does not have the same luxury with his headphones that have met the same fate.

I am excited for Valentine's Day. And I really wish I had red and pink paper to make pretty paper hearts.

Ryan just noticed that my spell check is off, and I don't know how to turn it back on. Please ignore all my misspelled words.

Ryan did the dishes again tonight! Happy day. We have a fun little system going on where Ryan does all the dishes! Just kidding. We switch off doing them. It's pretty awesome.

Did I mention I'm excited for Valentine's Day?

Long Time No Blog!

2011-01-30T19:15:00.000-08:00

I really don't have anything to blog about this month. So...to make it easier, I will make lists.

Things that have made me happy this month:

1. Ryan did the dishes today. Thank you hubby!
2. BYU beat SDSU.
3. Spent $10 to get a $20 giftcard for Amazon. And then used it to order a book that took 4 years to come out!
4. Yummy dessert places
5. Pick up orders at Sam's Club. (Thanks Dad!)

Things that have made me sad this month:

1. Stomach flu, cold, and cough all in the same month
2. A family of lightbulbs burning out
3. Running out of toilet paper on a Sunday
4. BYU losing to UNM
5. Ryan's teacher telling him that tigers will be extinct in 30 years.

Ryan started doing research on endangered plants with his teacher. He gets to count plant abortions and ovaries. I didn't even know plants had ovaries. Or abortions. I learn something new every day!

All in all, I can't believe January is almost over! I am excited for Valentine's Day though. It's going to be fun!

Are You a Bad Guy?

2011-01-06T21:20:00.000-08:00

It's that time again. Another new semester and another set of classes for Ryan. Ryan really likes his classes and teachers this semester. He's also reading his textbooks for fun. That's a good sign, right?

Yesterday Ryan went to the bookstore to buy his new books. He had a nice big stack in his blue BYU basket. While he was checking out, the lady scanning his books looked up at him curiously, "Are you a bad guy?"

That took Ryan by surprise, "Excuse me?"

"Are you a bad guy?"

That's when Ryan noticed the last two books she scanned.

Gang Leader for a Day and Reflections on Violence. Oh. OH!

"No, I'm learning how to help bad guys!" he responded.

Let's hope that's true and I didn't marry a criminal in training. What are they teaching at BYU these days?

Feeling a Little Bit Special

2010-12-22T18:21:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-09T13:35:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-25T14:11:00.001-08:00

Crazy Weather

2010-11-23T12:47:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-16T18:25:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-11-01T00:19:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-10-15T00:27:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-11T01:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-01T19:40:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

Hello blog world!

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

Chauffeur

2010-09-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-21T23:22:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-08T03:07:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-08-03T00:09:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-20T03:04:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-08T00:56:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-07-02T00:45:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-12T23:25:00.000-07:00

$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

2010-05-28T02:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-10T22:06:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-28T21:57:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-27T22:21:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-16T02:07:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-04-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-27T01:09:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-22T23:56:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-03-17T00:28:00.000-07:00

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

C. Barefoot in the Park

Your opinion is much appreciated! :)

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

2010-03-07T00:10:00.001-08:00

Love Was In the Air

2010-03-06T23:49:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-28T23:19:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-11T16:38:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-06T01:30:00.000-08:00

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.

What a Day!

2010-02-03T00:23:00.000-08:00

Well, I admit defeat. Voting ends tomorrow and the person in first place has 184 votes, I have 24. I don't think I even have 184 friends...but thanks for voting for me! It was fun!

This past Sunday Ryan and I had to speak in church. Goody. It actually went well despite the fact that I almost tripped going to the pulpit. Yep. Before the meeting started, I put my purse under the pew so I wouldn't trip over it. Unfortunetly, the strap was caught on my heel, and I didn't know when I stood up. That darn high heel! Lucky for me, I narrowly missed landing on my face...Thanks Ryan! That could have been embarrassing!

Today was a good day.
Why?

A. Because I had a day off from work.
B. Ryan and I went on two dates tonight.
C. I got to eat icecream. Yum.
D. Ryan and I ate artichokes with garlic butter. Yum.
E. We went to Cafe Rio. Yum.
F. My cat followed me around the apartment all day.
G. Tomorrow we are going to the Jazz/Blazer game.
H. All of the above

What's your answer?

Vote for Me!

2010-01-31T23:59:00.000-08:00

Sensiblystyled.com is doing a free giveaway! I had to make an outfit with a certain item in it. Whoever gets the most votes gets a free article of clothing from DownEast Outfitters. You should go here and vote for outfit #10! (It's mine!)

Voting ends Wednesday, February 3rd at 7 am. :)

Flowers and a Chewed-up Ribbon

2010-01-27T21:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Ryan gave me these:

Aren't they pretty? And yes that ribbon has been chewed.

Not by me.

Or Ryan.

Let's see...

who could it be???

Want a Yummy Treat?

2010-01-17T22:25:00.000-08:00

There's a new dessert place in town, and I really like it.

It's called the Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe.

It's a cutsey little cupcake store. I got to try a free one at work the other day and made Ryan and Paige come with me yesterday to get another one. They are a tad bit expensive ($2.75), but they are big enough to share. They also sell by the dozen if you wanted to buy them for a birthday or event.

My favorite is the Madagascar Vanilla Vanilla.
The only downside is they charge 25 cents for water, so my recommendation would be to bring your own!
Yum, yum, yum.

(And no they did not pay me to advertise for them. Although that would be nice. :)

Bit by a Bug

2010-01-17T21:57:00.000-08:00

This weekend Ryan and I were bitten by the decorating bug.

(Well, maybe it was just me, and Ryan was humoring me...)

I have been wanting curtains for a long time, so at 2:30 am we went to Walmart and bought these:

I think they are pretty cute. Ryan thinks they look Asian.

Sometimes these curtains have a tendency to look a little pink, but I still like them. I think Ryan secretly likes them too.

While we were at it, we changed some lightbulbs, hung the clock and our wedding picture.
One day we will put batteries in our clock, but until then it is always 4:35.

We had quite the adventure putting the curtains up. Our window is really long, so our curtain rod didn't extend far enough. We ended up breaking hangers and using electrical tape to create our own faux curtain rod to go in the middle. You can't tell and it works out pretty good! We were proud of ourselves.

We are not done decorating yet, but at least our apartment looks more homey! Now we are trying to train Lily that she's not allowed to jump up the curtains like she does with the shower curtain.
Luckily she hasn't figured it out yet!

Psssst...

2010-01-13T23:31:00.000-08:00

Well, the secret was spoiled because somebody spilled the beans...(RYAN)

But, it's true.

Ryan has started a blog! Yes, this is the same guy that has not once posted on our joint blog. I guess it helps that he has to blog for one of his classes. The better he blogs the better grade he gets. I wish I had a class like that.

I am now going to be a follower, and you should too.

Here are some reasons why:

1. Ryan will get a better grade.
2. You will be updated on today's politics!
3. He is pretty clever.
4. And it gives you something to do when you're bored.

Think about it.

http://considerthispolitics.blogspot.com/

I Am Sad...

2010-01-12T01:20:00.000-08:00

....because my husband told me I couldn't share a secret with you.

Soon though.

But in his defense, he is rather cute.

A Long Neck with Spots

2010-01-10T22:40:00.000-08:00

Giraffes have big hearts. They weigh 24 pounds!

They also have black tongues.

We like giraffes.

Maybe we should get one for Lily...

We might need a bigger house.

(Thanks Mom and Dad Stephens!)

Vegetables: Yum yum!

2010-01-09T23:27:00.000-08:00

A+B=C

A. Ryan used to be a vegetarian.

B. I was a vegetarian for 2 months in 2007 for a school project. (I cheated a little.)

C. Just for fun, Ryan and I decided to be vegetarians this week together. I thought it would help us eat more fruits and vegetables. Here are our thoughts on the whole experience:

[One] Living on a meatless diet is not any cheaper (in our case at least)

[Two] Vegetarian meals do not make very good comfort food.

[Three] Our hearts weren't into it--we really didn't try that hard to stick to it...especially when my dad got us ham pizza. Mmmm.

[Four] We did eat more vegetables. (Hurray!)

and

[5] I really like vegetable curry. And meatless chocolate milkshakes... :)

My Ugly Blog

2009-12-27T10:28:00.000-08:00

I thought I would be more festive and change my background to something more Christmasy.
So I found this one.

When I showed my 5 year old niece, she responded, "You like THAT?! That's UGLY!"

I thanked her for her constructive criticism and told her that even though she thought it was ugly, I didn't.

She responded, "Okay. But it's ugly."

Sticks and stones...Sticks and stones.
So, welcome to my ugly blog!

Ryan and I are heading back to Utah as I type this.
Yes, I have internet at 36,000 ft in the air.
I thought it was pretty cool too.

Georgia was a lot of fun and, of course, went by too fast.
We played games every night, ate yummy food, wrestled with the kiddos, and listened to Christmas music. Oh, and we bravely fought the Christmas crowds to get amazing presents.

Ryan and I also enjoyed our Chick-fil-A, Steak N Shake cheese fries, and Philly cheeseteaks. Yum.

It was nice spending time with my family this holiday season. We had three out of the five siblings home, my parents, and 5 kids running around. It was always fun! I love the spirit and excitement of Christmas with the family time, lights, cookie decorating, paper snowflakes, and remembering the birth of our Savior. No worry in the world except for wrapping presents and broken refrigerators (in our case at least).

We were spoiled with the best Christmas presents this year. Some highlights include Subway and iTunes gift cards, chocolate, a pink snuggie, books, Blokus, and a Wii game. (Thanks everyone!)

Ryan got me black snow boots, pretty headbands, and pink plaid pj pants with a big velvet bow.
I got him a day pass to Brighton ski resort, as well as new Sanuks. It's not a shoe. It's a sandal.
We love each other.

Other sides notes:

1. Ryan and I have officially been married for 6 months. My how time flies!
2. I ended my streak of not throwing up for 14 years on Christmas day. Ryan was a wonderful husband and held my hand as I was bonding with my bathroom floor and toilet, sick as a dog.
3. JENNIFER GOT HER MISSION CALL!!! She is going to the Las Vegas, Nevada West mission. She is leaving March 31st, and I am so excited for her.

My thoughts on heading back to Utah: I am sad to leave Georgia. I'm dreading the cold, but am excited to spend the New Year's with my hubby in a home that is not flooded and has a working heater.

One of our favorite pictures this break:

Jayden loves Christmas!

Drink service is coming.
And Ryan wants to watch Rudolph with me.
So have a happy New Year's, and see you in 2010!