Good Old Granny Hill

My brothers and I went sledding this weekend. As illustration of how fun this hill is, I've included a picture of the pile of broken sleds at the bottom of it.

Back to Bethlehem

For our ward Christmas party, the activities committee asked Greg and I to play the parts of Mary and Joseph. I had two thoughts: 1. I'm blonde. 2. We don't have a baby Jesus. Well, before I could even finish those thoughts, Greg was being a great example and already accepted the challenge. It was a fun opportunity for us and we had so much fun practicing our solos (When Joseph Went to Bethlehem & Mary's Lullaby) and making our costumes together.

Family Christmas Party

We hosted my mom's family's annual Christmas party this year and it was so much fun! We had a pinata for the kids and lots of yummy food. It was really neat to see everyone, and even my cousin who we all thought was on a secret mission in Afghanistan showed up to surprise everyone!

Birthday Boy

We celebrated Greg's birthday on December 5th. On our first date, he told me how much he likes sports (which I totally believed)....and how much he likes music and theatre (which I was a bit skeptical about at the time,) but I am so glad that he enjoys culture! Per his request, we went to Christmas Around the World, an international folkdance concert at BYU on Friday night and to the BYU vs. San Francisco basketball game at the Energy Solutions Arena on Saturday night. We also went to Carver's for his birthday dinner. It was a bit ritzy, but absolutely delicious! Greg loves lemon poppyseed bundt birthday cake so I made it and I didn't even burn it this year (even though it kinda looks like it's on fire in the picture)!

Festival of Trees

For the past few months our Young Women have been working on putting a tree together for the Festival of Trees. The lady we made the tree for was named Julie and just loved Shakespeare so we used that theme and called it "Romeo & Julie." Thanks to our professional interior designer/Mia Maid Advisor, it turned out beautifully! The girls raised $800 to make it and someone donated the tree and at auction it sold for $1050 and all of the money goes to Primary Children's Medical Center. It was such a great experience for the girls. I've been to the fesitval before, but it was so neat watching all of the trees be set up. I loved seeing the love friends and relatives had for the person they were making the tree in honor of and I loved seeing the personalities and stories of people through the trees.

Our Tree

Greg and I have totally different ideas when it comes to Christmas tree decorating... he loves tons and tons of color and tons and tons of tinsel. I like that too, but it's just not my favorite...I would rather have a coordinating, simple, glamorous tree. Last year we did it Greg's way and this year we did it my way...maybe one of these years we'll figure out how to combine the two! And personally, I think the pictures don't do it justice. :)

Holy War...

We were there!

Just Thought You Should Know That This is the Best Movie Ever...

Savior of the World

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Greg took me to see the play that the Church puts on at the conference center at Christmas and Easter. The music was absolutely beautiful and the whole production was very thought provoking.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Greg took the day off on Friday and we went to get our Christmas tree in Wyoming. Well... 1/2 a tree... but that's what we wanted since it's going against a wall and it's a ton easier to decorate than a whole tree. Ha! Ha!

So Maybe We Don't Get Out Much...

Last weekend we saw this sign. And then we kept driving down the street and saw like a hundred cars in our neighborhood and put it together that... "Oh my heck! It's a free house! They're showing a free house!" I mean, we already have a house, but if we had a free house that would be even better! So we parked and went up to the house to see what we had to do to see this free house. Well, the guy at the door told us that unfortunately they weren't showing a free house, but there were a bunch of bands giving a free show at the house...which still sounded cool, but he said we probably wouldn't like it and it was just for teenagers. Bummer.

Disney on Ice

What a lucky girl I am! For my birthday, Greg got us tickets to Disney on Ice. I loved it!

Decisions, Decisions.

So a couple of days ago we went to the store for ice cream... and this is what we came home with.

The Great Walls of China

So I thought I'd give ya'll a little Halloween preview. Greg is going to be Shang-Li and I'm going to be Mulan and together we'll be... you got it! The Great "Walls" of China! Oh, and if you're still trying to figure out what to be, I posted a picture of one of the best costumes I've ever seen... a bag of Jelly Bellys! Loved it!

Temple Square

I just love going to Temple Square and the weather was perfect to on Sunday! I love that there's always something to see and do. In the spring & summer you can see the prettiest flowers and in the winter you can see the prettiest lights and in the fall you can see the prettiest leaves!

Zoo Time

During the October Wall Family Weekend, among a variety of other activities, we went to the zoo and saw all the baby animals! They had a baby giraffe, tiger cubs, and my favorite...Zuri the Elephant!

Ta Da!

Before

After

The Big 22

So to be completely honest, I wasn't too thrilled about turning 22. Being 21 is so much cooler and 23 sounds so much more sophisticated and poor 22 is just kinda stuck in the middle. Anyway, I just have to say that turning 22 was actually a lot cooler than it sounds.

Greg and I stayed up until midnight on the 13th so that we could celebrate as early as possible on the 14th! What a sweetie!


When I got to work my cube looked like the party tornado had just been through! The girls had gone all out in the decorating department and even crepe-paperified the kleenex box! I loved it! They also made me a plate of cookies for breakfast! Perfect! Later we celebrated by going out to lunch...Chinese of course!

It was a pretty late night after Greg and I got done with mutual but we still had fun! Greg walked in the door with a beautiful bouquet of roses and we ordered a pizza and did birthday presents and cake!!

He knows that I don't like orange and the roses were wrapped in orange paper (who ruins a perfectly good bunch of roses by wrapping them in orange?!)...so he rewrapped them with clear paper and in the process made a cute little hair flower for me!

Duck, Duck, Goose!

So we went for a Sunday walk at the Layton Park and fed the duckies. It was so funny how there were hundreds of ducks fighting for our bread...and one random goose.
After our little adventure feeding the ducks we found this cute little amphitheater where I sat in the back row and Greg did some improv comedy for me. He is so hilariously witty! Sorry the pictures stink...it was dark...but it made for a fun memory!

I Just Had to Show You...

...The beautiful view I see out my window every morning. This tree is so gorgeous and just gets brighter every day!...Except for today of course, when a windstorm blew off all the leaves. Figures. Lol.

BYU Babe

So yesterday we went to the BYU/Utah State Game. Before the game, we needed to pick up Greg's hot new glasses, so we decided to leave at 3:15 so that we could get to the optometrist in Provo by 4:15. (Greg really really likes his Provo optemetrist which is why even though we could go to one five minutes away, we go to one an hour away.) We ended up pulling out at 3:30. No big deal, I knew this would happen, which is why I voted for 3:15. Had I voted for 3:30, we would have been leaving at a quarter to 4 which would have only given Greg 15 minutes to get all of the fitting adjustments made. Anyway, we started driving and Greg was cruising! When we got to Salt Lake, Greg asked me to call and make sure the optometrist closed at 5 because if they were actually open later he didn't want to risk speeding. So I called and found out that they were open til 6. Sweet! We even had time to go purse shopping now!

Ok so you can skip the next two paragraphs because they're really totally irrelevant. I just need a moment to vent.

Not two minutes later, we hit a TON of traffic... rush hour, weekenders, BYU fans, Aggie fans, reckless drivers... you name it. Plus, of course, construction and it was like everyone in the entire state decided that they had to go south right at that moment. So we drove and drove and drove...one hour went by. Another half hour went by. And another. Yeah, so we finally get to Provo and I had to call the optometrist office and tell them my whole sob story of how we had driven 2 1/2 hours just to get my hubby's new hot glasses and don't you dare leave now because it's practically impossible to get him down here during your business hours. I'm not kidding... we pulled into the parking lot at 5:59. What?! Yeah, it took us 2 1/2 hours to get from Farmington to Provo. Sheesh! Well, then I realized why Greg has stuck with that particular optometrist. The service there is wonderful. Not only did they wait for us, they made all the adjustments Greg needed.

So we got out of there about fifteen minutes later and decided to grab a bite to eat. Knowing that basically anywhere we went would be packed, we went across the street to Cafe Rio. After waiting in line for a few minutes, Greg decided it would be faster to go to Taco Time because it was less crowded. And then we found out why it was less crowded. We got there at 6:30 and didn't get our food until 6:50...so much for fast food. And on top of that poor Greg ended up getting food poisoning.

Moral of the story--we made it to the game and it was great. After the game we met Greg's parents at the cougar. (I have decided, bytheway, that saying "Meet us at the cougar" is the equivalent of saying "Meet us in the stadium.") We also met Greg's Uncle Gary's "lady friend" who is absolutely adorable. When she met me she said, "Well, don't you look like a typical BYU girl!" Not sure what that means, but I told Greg later that it meant that I have the image of BYU in my countenance and so he can therefore know that I am truly converted. (FYI, I was raised an avid Ute.)

Memorization Motivation

Our stake recently challenged the Young Women to memorize the Living Christ. Our goal is to be able to recite it at our Evening of Excellence in November when the girls present their personal progress projects. Well, we've been chipping away at it taking one paragraph a week and tonight we reached our halfway mark!

Forget one paragraph a week! With the motivation we used tonight, even our brand new beehive memorized the first half in just an hour!

The secret?...a chocolate fountain of course! We set up stations for each paragraph where the girls could learn, practice, and pass off each paragraph. For every paragraph a girl memorized, she earned the privelege of a dipping food at the end. So if she passed off paragraph 1, she could dip pretzels, two was bananas, three was pineapple, and so on until paragraph 6 which included donuts & rice crispies! In one hour all the girls had passed off all the paragraphs!

Alpine Loop

We went for our first autumn drive of the season on Sunday! I always dread fall because it means summer's over, but now that it's here I am thoroughly enjoying it!

Salsa

We made our first batch of salsa last night all thanks to our fantastic neighbors who used to rent our basement! They planted tomatoes in the backyard before they moved and I just thought that was such a great example of one of my favorite quotes:

The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
Nelson Henderson

Work, work, work...

So basically it's felt like work has been the story of our lives...which is why I haven't posted a lot lately... because I'm either at work or we're working around the house...and I'm sure you don't really want to read about us working.

But it's all good because "Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."--The Family: A Proclamation to the World--

So even though we go to work all day and come home and work all night and it really doesn't sound that fun, we've found ways to make work and wholesome recreational activities the same thing! For example, last night after the drudgery of grocery shopping Greg and I went Cart Curling. The goal is to stand as far away from the cart rack as possible and still get the cart into the rack. You should try it sometime!

State Fair

So we went to the State Fair this weekend. The sign next to this sculpture said that you could butter 19,200 pieces of toast with it, but I'm thinking Greg could take care of it all with half that much bread...or with a spoon! Just kidding!

Oh and I think it would be cool to compete in the tractor pull next year...mostly 'cause it kinda looks like monster truck driving!

If Caitlin Jumped Into the Lake, Would You?

Let me start out by saying that growing up whenever we would go to the rope swing at Burraston's I was absolutely terrified to let go of the rope. I seriously could not do it. (Funny how I was so afraid of that but not of swimming through its disgustingly infested water!) Anyway, I would swing out over the water and everyone would yell "Jump!" and somehow I would end up back at the edge still hanging onto that rope.

Tonight for Young Women's we took the girls on a bike ride up to Farmington Pond. We were planning to feed the ducks, but the ducks weren't interested in being fed so one of the girls suggested that we go swing on the rope. No one wanted to be the first one, but Chantelle, the other leader showed the girls how it was done! And then all the girls did it like pros. It was my turn. I grabbed the rope and swung across the water holding on for dear life. And then all of a sudden I wasn't holding onto the rope anymore.

So yeah. As I was careening through the air, I somehow thought that I would land on my feet. Yeah right. I totally biffed it. All the girls thought it was the coolest thing ever and looked so fun so they all decided to jump into the lake with all their clothes on, too. TWICE! I thought it was kind of ironic that our lesson was on choice & accountability. This whole experience could be turned into a great analogy in several directions. Ha! Ha! It made for a pretty chilly ride home, but it also made for some pretty awesome memories!

Home Sweet Home

Sheesh! I think I've been away from home more than I've been there for the past month and we're sure looking forward to staying home this weekend!

Fourth of July Weekend

We sure had a jam-packed 4th! We headed up to Rigby, Idaho Thursday night and stayed with Greg's brother Ryan and his wife Courteney. The next morning we went on an adventure to Island Park, Bear World, Yellowstone, and Mesa Falls. We spent Saturday at Granite Creek, a dude ranch that Courteney's family owns and then we went to Idaho Falls for the fireworks show. Sorry to keep it so short and sweet, but I'll let you just fill in the details with your imagination. Yes... it is July and I am bundled up. And no...we didn't get to keep the kitten, baby cows, or even the butterfly.

Grace's Wedding

I LOVE weddings! My best friend from high school got married last week and hers was so neat! I just loved how at the dinner they did a little presentation about each other and what they love about each other. It was adorable.

Manti Pageant

Yay! Another checkmark on our Summer of Funness 3 List!

Girls Camp!

And so I continued on... with the most consecutive camping days of my life. The pioneers probably are looking down on us wondering, "What's going on?! You have running water and air conditioning and you leave it just for fun?!" Ha! Ha! Just kidding. I really do love being in the outdoors, I would just rather go home every night.

Day 1: We loaded up and went to North Fork, a campground near Huntsville. As soon as we had set up camp we went for our five mile hike to get it done and out of the way. It was great motivation for the girls to know that when they got back it was spa day! We did facials, a foot bath, and super cute manicures!...At camp! Can you believe it?! That night was Mexican night and we had yummy Costa Vida style food.

Day 2: We went to Pineview Resevoir and spent the day at the beach! Well...what little of a beach there was because the water was so high. Man, these are some lucky girls... I never got to go boating at girls camp!

That night was Hawaiian night and we sure had some fun trying to make Hawaiian Haystacks without can openers!

Day 3: We worked on certification, etc. and had our testimony meeting after Cowgirl Night and some yummy dutch oven dinner. As much as girls camp testimony gets made fun of, I really enjoyed it. I got to know more about those girls in their short little testimonies than I probably did during the whole 3 1/2 days! Really...besides a few wind gusts on this day, everything went so smoothlyduring the whole camp up until this point. After testimony meeting, the potty-mobile left for its destination of the "nicer" bathroom facilities. (Our bathroom gave everyone claustrophobia because it was so little and had no stall doors so we found a more decent one a few campsites away.)

After a little dance party and after everyone had done their business we headed back to camp. All of a sudden.... I heard SSSSSSSssssssssss........ and ta da!

There was a big gash in my tire and all the air was leaking...I mean gushing...out.

Yay for priesthood leaders! These guys were out there at midnight in the rain changing my tire!

The culprit... a sharp pointy rock. As you can see, it got the worse end of the deal. At least our truck didn't break in half!

Family Reunion

What a great kickoff to my straight week of camping! We stayed at a youth camp at the base of the Uintas in Wyoming. It was kind of like Klondike camping...even with parkas and snow pants over 4 layers of clothes and two denim quilts and two down comforters it was still chilly! Fortunately we had cabins! It was so much fun and so great to get to know Greg's extended family better! What a lucky girl I am. We drove up on Saturday and left Monday night and packed as much fun as possible...like 4-wheeling, games, stargazing, hiking, canoeing, etc. into those three days.

Look how prepared Greg was! He brought 2 1/2 pairs of shoes for each day!

Who's driving?

Look at us so cheerfully facing the gaping jaws of death! Pretty sure if we'd fallen in we would have gotten hypothermia!

And as if canoeing over frigid waters wasn't enough, we had to add another challenge to the situation! That's my hubby....always up for an adventure!

In just 20 minutes we saw 3 shooting stars!

WalMart...Live Better!

Hanging out at WalMart always leads to good things. One night we were just standing in the checkout line and I heard someone calling my name and I turned to see who it was and ta da! Our friends Megan & Glen from Cedar City! Yay! It was so nice to see familiar faces! And it gets even better! They just moved up here and live like less than 10 minutes away and we had no idea!

Cart Art

Greggie is so creative. He makes me laugh. I love him.

We Love Mutual!

So every Wednesday Greg & I get to go hang out with the 12-18 year-olds (Greg's with the priests and I'm with the beehives) and we have so much fun! This week we went to the Bountiful Temple to plant flowers.

Summer Kickoff!

We kicked off our summer with a little roadtrip! Saturday morning we left for beautiful St. George to celebrate with our friends Renee and Grant who received their endowments and were sealed to their precious little baby!

I'd been texting my friend Mandy earlier that day and Greg kept telling me to just call her, but I just knew if I did I would end up telling her I was on my way to her neck of the woods and have to explain that it was just a quick trip and we didn't have time to stop and say hi. Well, guess who we ran into in the temple! So we went to dinner together and had a blast! We tried the Applebee's game again, but I guess it just doesn't get any better than 2 for $20. If we keep going though we're sure to get 2 for $10 one of these days!

Well...we left St. George around 8 and figured we'd hit Nephi around 11:30. Greg volunteered to pick up a work truck in Cedar City so we started caravanning. Less than an hour after Cedar I was done driving so we stopped at a cute little hotel in Beaver.

I really hate Burger King, but their French Toast Sticks aren't too bad.

Sunday we spent the day with my family in Nephi. Oh, and we watched the Memorial Day Concert and guess who was singing?! BRIAN STOKES MITCHELL! Ah... glorious! I really love his "Impossible Dream" but this time he sang "I Can Go the Distance" from Hercules. I am definitely a fan!

Monday morning my stud of a husband took me to visit his grandpa's grave.

That afternoon the rain held off so we could go canoeing at the Palisades! I just love Sanpete County!

Look how easy Greg makes it look!

He's a pro at maneuvering the obstacles...anyone up for an challenge course canoe race at the reunion?

To top it all off we went back to my parents for an awesome BBQ. This is how cool my family is. My 10 year-old brother wanted to play Red Light Green Light and none of my teenage brothers wanted to play with him so somehow he recruited all the grownups into playing Red Light Green Light!

Summer of Funness III

It's hard to believe that it's our 3rd summer together! A few weeks after we started dating, Greg & I wrote a list of a bunch of things we wanted to do together and called it the Summer of Funness. Little did I know that we'd be counting Summer of Funnesses into the eternities...
Anyway, we put together our list for this year and I thought I'd just share a preview of what you can look forward to (plus or minus) in our blog during the next three months.

Lagoon Season Passes--This is going to be so cool! Greg will get home from work and I can just say, "Hey...let's go for a whirl on Turn of the Century!" And we will! We could ride the White Roller Coaster like a hundred times this summer!
Bradford Family Reunion-- We sure are stoked about this one!
Secondhand Serenade Concert!--This group is definitely worth checking out...plus Parachute is opening for them!
Manti Pageant-- Can't miss this!
Girls Camp-- I am so lucky! Sometimes I really just feel like an honorary Laurel.
Bountiful Summerfest International-- This sounds cool.
Antelope Island-- Just to say we saw it.
Air Force Week-- Being an employee has its perks.
July 11th 5k/10k-- This may or may not happen.
Freedom Festival Devotional-- I went to this once and now I want to go every year!
S&S Shortline Railroad-- Trains are always fun!
Farmers Markets-- I want to find as many as I can!
Drive-In Movie-- I hear there's pretty tough competition for spots, but we're excited about this one! If you can stay up late enough, you get a double feature!
Bees Game-- I cannot stand baseball on tv, but it is one of my favorite sports to watch in person!
Hogle Zoo-- YES!
Park City-- Because I've never been there on purpose.
Oquirrh Mountain Temple Openhouse-- I'm so excited.
Mormon Tabernacle Choir Pioneer Day Concert-- Love MoTab!
Strawberry Days-- I've always wanted to go to this.
Rexburg/Jackson Hole-- Because we can.
Ute Stampede-- TRADITION! TRADITION!
Bear Lake/Raspberry Festival-- I've always wanted to go to this too! Plus Greg is hoping it will encourage me to begin making raspberry jam...even though my mom never made it, my grandma never made it, her mom never made it and her mom never made it.
Explore all 55 Trails in Farmington-- We've got our work cut out for us!
Go geode hunting-- We might be hunting for a while...
Farmington Festival Days-- I guess we won't be roadtripping it EVERY weekend.
Golden Spike Monument-- Can't believe I haven't seen it yet!
Alpine Slide/Zipline-- This is what I'll be doing while Greg's shopping the outlets.
Dinosaur Monument-- I've loved this place ever since I was little.
Utah Museum of Fine Arts-- We like to be cultural.
Discovery Gateway-- It just sounds so cool!
Go Stargazing a Million Times

Spa Night!

Monday morning Greg told me we were going on a date and he couldn't tell me what we were going to do, but he told me to take a change of clothes to work with me as well as gym shorts and running shoes, high heels, and an umbrella. I met him after work and he took me to a Day Spa in Ogden for a Cupid's Retreat! Sigh...forget the chocolate strawberries and raspberry lemonade! We should make this our anniversary tradition!

What He Won't Do For A Good Deal...

There we were sitting at Applebee's enjoying our 2 for $20 ever so innocently...or so our server thought, when all of a sudden Greg notices the little card on our table that said, "Get $10 off your meal if a manager does not stop at your table tonight!" The challenge was on!

He immediately pinpointed which employee was the manager and whispered to me, "Do not make eye contact with the lady in the green shirt." We kept our little game going for quite a while and then the lady in the green shirt started walking toward our table. Suddenly, Greg struck up a conversation with an imaginary person on his phone. Luckily, the lady in the green shirt decided not to interrupt.

We were almost done eating when the lady in the green shirt started coming over to us again...and what do you know? Greg's imaginary friend called back!

We were on our last two bites when we hear "How is everything for you tonight?" We looked up and there was the lady in the green shirt...yes...a manager. Greg gave me a look like, "Do you think if we ignore her question it won't count?"

The lady in the green shirt caught his look and said, "Oh... you were hoping for the $10 off, weren't you?" Greg busted up laughing and the lady in the green shirt said, "I bet that's why you were always on your phone, huh?" So we lost our little game, but boy, we sure did have fun playing it! Maybe next time we'll win!

May 10th

So Sunday was our real anniversary and to celebrate we had my family over for dinner because it was also Mother’s Day and the next day was my awesome Mom’s birthday.

I’d asked my mom to bring the top of our wedding cake so we could “officially and traditionally” celebrate. I reminded her every time I talked to her for like a week. And then somehow it was forgotten. Luckily, I had made a supplemental cake for dessert. Near the end of dinner, my thirteen year-old brother Sam says to my mom, “Can I talk to you in private?” So they went out on the deck to talk. Sam came back in with this really guilty look and my Mom looked like she was trying so hard not to laugh. Well, Sam had eaten our wedding cake about two weeks earlier! Lucky kid! Ha! Ha! We all had a good laugh about it.

Greg and I finally intentionally started a couple of traditions! Yay! We served chocolate dipped strawberries at our reception so we decided that we’ll always make chocolate strawberries on our anniversary…even when we’ve got twelve little kiddos running around! We had so much fun making them and it was fun to imagine us doing for the next eighty years…even when Greg’s 111 and I’m 101 (I’m absolutely convinced that with the advances in medical technology we are both going to be around then.) And we’re always going to have frozen raspberries in lemonade with dinner.

So anyway, my Mom gave us an anniversary card that said : “He looked at her. She looked at him. And everyone who saw that look wanted to throw up a little.” So that’s the end of the mushfest…for now.

My Everything

Sunday, May 10th was our first anniversary and we had planned on doing something super awesome on Saturday so a few days before Saturday I was asking Greg what the plan was and he said, “Honey, that’s the day the Smiths are moving.” And selfish little me could not understand. Any other day, sure we’d help them move, but not on Saturday! What was he thinking?! “I really think we should help them move…I’m not sure how many people are going to show up, you’re the one who suggested that we need to be their friends, and they’re really downsizing because their house value has gone down so much.” So grumpily and reluctantly I agreed.

A few days later while I was sorting through some boxes, I found a “My Future Husband” list that I’d written when I was in high school. At the top of the list was something about “Will care about others and enjoy serving with me.”

I realized how ungrateful I had been. No super awesome plans could even remotely come close to what I’d already been blessed with. What a man.

So, bright and early Saturday morning we showed up to help the Smiths move. Next we went shopping at the Nordstrom Rack which is Greg’s favorite store besides Cabella’s. Then we went to our temple—the Mt. Timpanogas temple—to do sealings, but they were so packed that they couldn’t even fit us in and we were just barely too late to make the last session so we did inititories.

After that we went to Tucano’s! Ah…glorious. (I know all you girls doing Healthy Hotties and the Biggest Loser with me are especially excited about this part! Ha! Ha!) Greg just loves Brazilian grills so I was really excited to try one and now I am a huge fan!

Confessions of A NON-Shopaholic

I hate shopping and I don't know why, but I seriously avoid it at all costs, unless I'm really, really, really in the mood for it...which pretty much means a couple of days of talking myself into even going. Greg had to practically bribe me to go get some new clothes for my new job.
Aargh. I seriously just wanted to weed, mow the lawn, vacuum, sweep, mop, catch up on the blog, etc. No joke. Just a little something you probably never knew about me.

White Dresses

We've been talking about temple marriage in Young Women's lately and so this week for our Beehive activity they tried on wedding dresses. What a success! They just absolutely LOVED it! It was good, too because we showed them how beautiful modesty is and we had a mini lesson on preparing for a temple marriage. It seems kind of far off for them, but I really think the most important thing they can do now is stay close to Heavenly Father and do everything they can to have the Spirit in their lives because these choices now will become a pattern for how they live their lives so when the time comes, they'll marry the right person at the right time in the right place. Sometimes I feel like we totally glorify and glamorize the actual wedding day, so when things get rough after that, then what? If they are close to Heavenly Father and have the Spirit in their lives and keep that pattern of prayer, scripture study, tithing, etc...all the primary answers...then the marriage part will be so much smoother.

Anyway, they had so much fun and they all decided that we should just do this for our activity every week!

Graduation!

One of the best words to describe how I felt is blessed...it really was humbling to realize how relatively few people in the world get to experience higher education. I also feel so blessed because it seems like SUU was tailor-made for me and every experience there and person I associated with has made me the person you know today.

My Trendy Granny

So about once a week I go hang out with my awesome Grandma. She really is so cool and she always makes me laugh. My cousin Nick usually takes her grocery shopping and does fix-it things around the house, but whenever my Grandma wants to go on more girly errands like finding a wreath for her front door or decorations for her kitchen table she calls me up.

Usually when we go places where there's a lot of walking, we use her "transport chair." No, it is not a wheel chair. It is a "transport chair." There's not a huge difference in the basic structure of the device. It's just that she can handle using a transport chair just for the mere fact that it sounds cooler. Anyway, today she decided she wanted to use her walker instead. Holy cow! She was cruising in that thing and she didn't even run out of breath!

Well we went shopping for some fabric today so I could make some nice spring skirts for her. She told me that she just loves the skirt I made for myself in high school and wants one in that exact pattern. So there we are looking around at Jo-Ann's for a multi-colored fabric so she has the choice of wearing a blue, pink, or lavender blouse with it and I pick this fabric because it totally reminds me of her and she looks at me and says, "Well, that's nice, but it's a little old-fashioned, isn't it?!" Ha! Ha! That totally cracked me up!

Sparkles!

Wow! I just found my new favorite thing! Today a very nice lady at Roberts introduced me to glitter spray! Ah! I just love it! I'm seriously having to restrain myself. I am so tempted to just go around the whole house and glitterify EVERYTHING!

Cookies for Dinner

So last weekend we had a funny conversation at Greg's brother's wedding reception. This is how it went.

Me: That fruit pizza is looking really good. Let's go get some.

Greg: I'm not hungry.

Me: So? You don't eat fruit pizza because you're hungry. You eat it because it tastes good.

Greg: No, honey...fruit pizza is like a meal. We just ate dinner.

Me: ...And so we need some dessert. Come on.

Greg: Honey, I'm serious. Fruit pizza is like dinner...in fact, my Mom used to give it to us for dinner.

Me: The Bev Wall I know would never serve her children cookies for dinner. That might be something I would do, but definitely not your mom.

Greg: It's not cookies...it's all of the food groups.

Anyway...I'm kinda thinking maybe we should have fruit pizza for dinner tonight.

Our Life as a Blog

So when I started this blogging thing, Greg always told me to make sure that we lived our life more than blogged about it. And then the other day he saw our blog. All weekend long he would say, "Oh, we need to take a picture of this for our blog," or "Ooo....this would be good for our blog," and "Make sure that you put this on our blog!" By Sunday night he realized how into the blog he was and he was like, "Hey, are we living our life just so we can blog about it?!"

Friday I spent the day in Manti and Nephi for my friend Mandy's wedding. It was so exciting because we've been friends since like 2nd grade! It was pretty cool too because I actually know her husband and approve. Usually when your high school friends get married you have no idea what their fiances are even like at all. Sadly, this exciting event was photographically undocumented by me so you'll just have to imagine it. It was pretty fabulous!

Saturday night we went to Disney on Ice! Unfortunately for me my parents took me to it when I was too little to remember how cool it was so I just had to see it again! Oh it was fun! All the little girls were wearing princess dresses and next time Greg and I are going to dress up, too! (He makes a great Prince Charming, by the way!)

Then we hit Texas Roadhouse, which is totally worth the hype! Ahhh... if you ever get the chance, Greg and I highly recommend it! We even ran into some Aussies who went there instead of Outback Steakhouse!

Sunday afternoon we went exploring up Farmington Canyon. Yikes! There's nothing to do up there! No turnoffs or anything! It's just a long, windy, narrow dirt road! We did take this cool picture, though!

Eldste Holladay

We took my brother to the MTC yesterday. More than missing him though, I think I was mostly crying because I wanted to go too. He's serving in the Denmark Copenhagen mission. We've heard that when he comes home in a couple of years the adjustment to American food will be like coming to a third world country. Ha! Ha!

I am so excited for him! He gets to leave everything behind and focus on the most important thing in his life. While Denmark has only about two baptisms a month, I think he will affect many lives simply through service. Who knows, maybe their numbers will actually double or triple when Aaron gets there! Just to give you a glimpse of the kind of guy he is...he bore his testimony in Danish during his farewell talk. Okay, so maybe he was just kidding and none of us would ever know the difference, but I thought it was pretty cool. I'm so proud of what a great example he's being for the next four brothers.

As we watched the video, I was suddenly so grateful for the circumstances of my life which are a result of the gospel. My life is the way it is because of the missionaries who brought the gospel to my ancestors and I am so grateful that Aaron has the opportunity to help other peoples' lives be as happy as mine is.

Oh and a sweet tender mercy: We happened to end up in the same room as my friend Jenni who is going to France! I was so happy that I got the chance to say hi and wish her luck too!

Lead Kindly Headlight

So last night we were driving home from my Grandma's house in separate cars. I was in the lead where I usually like to be. The million other times I've driven home from Grandma's I've been going south and I figured that to go north to Farmington I'd just have to take the opposite turn when I got to the on ramps.

But whoa, that definitely wasn't the case because when I came to the interchange I had like five choices instead of the two I had expected. Even though there were signs, I realized that I really didn't know where I was going and that many choices really overwhelmed me. I really wanted Greg to pass me because he knew the way, but there wasn't any room so I went ahead and picked the one that looked best.

I slowed down to make sure that Greg was right behind me and kept my eyes on the rearview mirror more than the road. Fortunately he turned his blinker on and I realized that I needed to shift to the other lane. The whole drive home I tried to make room for Greg to pass because I just wanted to follow him, but he never did pass me and I just had to watch his blinkers the whole way! When we finally made it home I asked him why he didn't just pass me because he knew that I didn't know where we were going and it would have helped so much to have him be in the lead. He told me that if he had been right in front of me the whole time I probably wouldn't have paid much attention to the route, but because I was in front, I would be able to go that way again if I was alone. (I've noticed that Greg is really good at the whole "teach a man how to fish" thing even though it really frustrates me sometimes.)

I think this experience makes a great analogy for how the Lord works through the Spirit in our lives sometimes.
1. First of all, it wasn't as easy as I wanted it to be. I wanted two choices, but often we have more than that.
2. I just wanted Greg to be in front and I wanted to be the follower. Sometimes, the way really isn't that clear and we have to look at things from a different angle, for example, the rearview mirror.
3. I had to make sure that it was Greg's lights I was focused on. If I had been watching the wrong car, I could have really been deceived. We need to have an eye single to the glory of God.
4. The Lord has confidence in our agency and if we're trying to do what we should, He'll turn his blinker on if we're about to make the wrong choice, and if we're really headed down the wrong path, He'll honk for our attention.

One of my favorite principles in the gospel is the concept of reliance on the Lord and this was such a great reminder to me of how important this is. When we trust in Him, He can trust in us.

fAmiLy pIcTuReS

Oh man...family pictures are always so much fun! Thought I'd share a few of my faves!

My Traumatic Experience of the Day

So my phone drowned this morning. So that story first: I was cleaning the tub and it slipped out of my hoodie pocket into the soapy suds below. But wait, it gets worse! The first thing I did was call Greg. He didn't answer so I left him a very calm message even though I was freaking out about losing contact with the outside world. I said, "Honey, I just wanted to let you know that my phone is broken and I don't know how long it will even be semi-functional so I just wanted to let you know that I'm okay and if you need to get ahold of me, call our neighbor Emily (and fortunately I had her number written down somewhere so I gave him that number). Love you!" Then I went to jump in the shower. Little did I know that he never heard any of that and it ended up sounding like wind.

After I was done blow drying my hair the doorbell rang. I was expecting my mom and a couple of my brothers so I threw a robe on and went to the door. As I got closer I realized it wasn't my brother standing outside...but shoot, I couldn't exactly decide not to answer it and pretend I wasn't home because our door is half glass!

So I opened the door and this guy looks at me and says, "Are you alright? Your husband called because he's worried about you. He said you left a wierd message." I said, "Yeah, I'm fine my phone's just broken and we don't have a land line...do mind if I use yours to call him real quick?" So I called my dear sweet husband who was so concerned about me to let him know that my phone was broken and that I was fine. Meanwhile, my old neighbor across the street hobbled out on his porch and called out, "Is she okay? Her husband just called me!" So there I was with all the neighbors in my front yard and I was still in my bathrobe with no makeup. Well, after I called Greg our awesome neighbor kept asking me if I was okay and I told him yep, everything's good. And then I went back to the bathroom and realized why he kept asking if I was alright! I looked really scary! Let's just say that I am definitely a fan of eyebrow pencil and mascara...my face is practically invisible without it!

Anyway, despite all of the embarrassment this put me through and all of the trouble it has caused everyone else, I am so grateful for such a wonderful husband who was so concerned about me and for such great neighbors!

Mmm...Mmm... Good!

Well, speaking of homemaking, I've been trying new things in that arena lately myself with all my spare time during the job hunt! My Grandma is kind of funny about her blouses and wanted them all hemmed so they had a square bottom instead of the regular swoopy bottom that most button up shirts have and so she asked me to hem them and I said sure... how hard could it be? Then I got pretty nervous when I was trimming some fabric off them and realized that they still have the Dillards and Nordstroms tags on them! Luckily, they turned out awesome! So that was pretty cool.

The next pretty cool thing I did was make homemade chicken noodle soup for Greg when he was sick. I'm pretty sure if it hadn't been a Sunday, I would have made this much easier on myself by going to the store, but I kid you not I even made the noodles from scratch. And all of this without a recipe! Well... I did have a recipe for the noodles, but I even figured out what spices and seasonings to put in and it tasted absolutely gourmet...which in and of itself is pretty cool because it always drives Greg crazy when I don't use a recipe and he's always pleasantly surprised at how wonderful my recipeless creations are. That time I definitely would have used a recipe if I could have found one but I just tried really hard to remember what my Grandma and Mom had taught me. And in my defense, in fact, I usually do use recipes...as guidelines.

Super Moms in Training

Last night at Young Women's the girls did the "Amazing Homemaking Race!" It was a relay and they had to do things like iron a shirt, fold laundry, make a sack lunch, count lunch money out of a change jar, and sew on a button. After the game we went to each station and taught them tips and tricks for each chore...like sewing a button on with a sewing machine (I had no idea you could do that!), ironing on the wide side of the board is faster and easier, you need to put the heavy stuff on the bottom of the lunch sack, etc.

I have to say that I just love working with the Young Women's leaders our ward has because they are so wholesome and down to earth which is exactly what these girls need right now. After mutual the girls from another ward came in with their hair all in sparkly updos (which of course, have a time and a place) and our girls felt like they'd kinda missed out, but I just kept thinking how pretty they are on the inside and that's really what Divine Nature (the value for the month) is all about. Sure, it's nice to feel pretty, but these girls need to realize that they are already so pretty without all the glamour.

It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Margaret Nadauld:

"Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity."

This Could Be Me Next Summer!

I hope I don't age that quickly, but I sure hope my watermelons turn out like that! Some people raise puppies before they have kids, but I think I'll try a garden. Last year I tried flowers and they didn't turn out so great so I ended up putting fake flowers in the pots, but I'm pretty sure this year will be better because I can eat vegetables so there's more motivation to keep them alive.

So I learned this cool trick the other day. If you want to buy something online, you can just google whatever it is and "coupon" and you can totally find legitimate discounts! So I found a discount for Gurneys and ordered a little of everything...peas, carrots, corn, squash, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, and strawberries. I did get kind of a lot of strawberries because they were buy one get one free but it's all good because the strawberries are perennials. So after all that, I even had some of the budget leftover to order some flower seed. It's a wildflower mix, so hopefully they'll be low maintenance or else they might not be so pretty.

So while all of this might sound great and wonderful, I'm going to really have to think about where to put this magificent garden because right now we've got this magnificent lake in our backyard. Maybe we'll raise ducks and fishies instead.

So Funny Story...

Ha! Ha! So here I was thinking that no one was reading our blog anymore because I hadn't gotten any comments for like a month and a half so I got kinda bitter and I was like fine, if no one is even going to read it, I just won't write on it. And then today I happened to see this message that said "You have 13 Comments to Moderate!" Oops! I totally forgot that I turned the moderator thingy on! Sorry guys! I'm glad you're still reading!

No...We Have Not Fallen Off the Planet

My friend Kathy made this adorable card for us and so it gave me a great excuse to post!



That is all. Okay, okay...just kidding. I'll give you an update! So I have some good news for you all to look forward to! The internet should be hooked up at home soon so you guys won't have to read the same entry again and again every time you check our page! We are living happily ever after in Farmington and except for a few more pictures to hang and some rearranging we're practically all moved in! So maybe we can't park our cars in the garage yet, but at least we can see the carpet in our living room! I'll be sure to post pics later of our cute little house, but until then you'll just have to visit! Greg is loving his job in Roy at the District Office and I'll be looking for a job in the next couple of weeks.

So the first Sunday that we went to church up here the ward went all the way to the back of the cultural hall...and then we realized, what...this isn't Stake Conference?! Yeah... our ward was huge! Fortunately they split it that Sunday so now we have a more realistic chance of getting to know everyone. I just got called as the Beehive Advisor and I am so super excited! Oh... and how cool is this? I teach on the 2nd and 4th Sundays and, drumroll please, that means I get to teach on May 10th...which just happens to be on our first anniversary...and guess what the lesson happens to be on? Temple Marriage! Yay! Anyway, I thought that was exciting. Ha! Ha! The way I remember it EVERY lesson was about temple marriage when I was in Young Women's.

And just because I know that you are all just dying to know what we are doing for Valentine's, I'll tell you. No worries...Greg never checks this so if you can keep a secret then keep reading. If not, wait a couple of days. We're actually going to celebrate today and tomorrow! Tomorrow we'll go to Manti Temple with my brother Aaron who's receiving his endowments and tonight we'll have a fabulous dinner with sparkling cider, shrimp, chocolate dipped strawberries...and beautiful steak! (So funny story about the steak... a month or two ago, Greg really wanted steak for dinner so he asked me to go to the grocery store and check out the manager's specials on meat and get whatever was the best deal. Well, I'm still learning in the food shopping department so I saw a sign that said, "60% Off" and I thought, wow...that's pretty good. So I stocked up on that steak. And I mean stocked up. Well I got home and made it for Greg and he was like, "What kind of steak did you get?" And I said "New York." And he said, "Caitlin, that's the most expensive kind of steak there is." And I told him that it was a good deal and of course whenever I mention "good deal," he's usually okay with it and really excited. So while I'm still working on the food storage, I'm sure we have a year's supply of "special occasion steak" in the freezer.)

Anyway, back to Valentine's... kinda cheesey, but Greg is really corny too, so he'll appreciate this. Ha! Ha! I went to Toys R Us and got a globe and just wrote silly love notes in the ocean part that said stuff like, "You make my world go round," and "You mean the world to me." Okay..okay..sorry about the mush fest, but Happy Valentine's Day!

Highlights From Our Cool December

1. The week after Greg’s birthday was finals week…pretty much the longest week ever! Believe it or not we had so much fun pulling all nighters together! What made it even more awesome was that he didn’t even have school…he was just helping me with mine!
2. To celebrate my graduation we went to Temple Square to see the lights!

3. The next morning we went to Music and the Spoken Word at the last minute and it was fabulous! Brian Stokes Mitchell was there! Aaah…it was so beautiful! So somehow we were oblivious to the fact that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concerts were going on that weekend and we missed it, but they did a mini-concert right after the Music and the Spoken Word broadcast! It was so so so neat!
4. We went to Wyoming for Christmas with Greg’s family and had a blast! Tons of fun!

One day the guys decided that they were going to have a great day playing with power tools so we girls decided that we were going to have a great day shopping.
5. We went sledding in Nephi!

6. We spent New Year’s Day driving to Idaho for our adorable new nephew’s blessing (I know that’s January, but it just seems to fit in this post). While we were there we went ice skating and to the zoo.


7. Oh… and we found out we’re moving to Farmington in the middle of January!

Greg's Birthday

Greg is the most amazing guy I know so to celebrate his birthday I knew we had to to something special. So I just pulled some strings and ta da!


Fireworks! I kid you not! How cool is that? Good old Cedar City put on a half-hour long fireworks show just for Greg's birthday! Okay, okay... so really Cedar City is nicknamed Fesitval City USA and has a party, parade, or celebration almost every weekend and I'm not quite sure what the fireworks were for, some Christmas kickoff or something, but I almost had Greg convinced they really were for him! In my mind they really were in celebration of him because he's just the kind of guy that the world should celebrate.

A Burnt Bundt

Mmmm.... Looks tasty huh? So funny story. Yesterday was Greg's birthday and to be perfectly honest, it's a really inconvenient time to celebrate with finals, portfolios, and term papers next week and everything. Well, I'm a usually a pretty good multi-tasker and I'm always trying to think of ways to stretch my time so that more things fit into it. Anyway, the night before I had a brilliant idea. I didn't know when I was going to be home long enough yesterday to make a cake so I decided to just get it the night before so I wouldn't even have to worry about it at all yesterday. Well, I put it in at 11:00 and set the timer then went to bed. Later when I got up to check the cake it didn't look quite done. I've never made a bundt cake before, and the lame box didn't tell me a time for a bundt pan and by this time it was almost midnight so I didn't think my mom would appreciate me calling and asking her how long it should take to bake. So I went back to bed and set the alarm for 15 minutes. At 4:00 in the morning I jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen because I thought our house was burning down. Fortunately it wasn't, but so much for saving myself some time! Maybe if it were a chocolate cake I could have pretended that nothing happened...but it's an almond poppyseed cake and it's supposed to be white! Ha! Ha!

We Are So In Love...

...that we just can't wait for our first married Christmas together! Our tree is all up and decorated! Ha! Ha! We decided that it's a lot cheaper to just decorate one side of the tree!


...that we went to the formal dance even though we thought we'd be the only married people there! (We weren't by the way.) And we actually stayed for practically the whole thing!... (minus forty-five minutes.)

O Tannenbaum!

I usually like to consider Thanksgiving as the kickoff for the Christmas season, but Thanksgiving is so late this year! It's like a week of our Christmas celebration time is stolen!

So... we chopped down a tree on Saturday! It was so fun! The weather was absolutely beautiful and we didn't even need coats! You'd think it would be a little easier to find a tree, but they were pretty far and few between. Maybe we just weren't looking in the right places, but we drove around for almost two hours before we found one! Alright, that might be an exaggeration. But... it was perfect! So anyway...the weather was great and there was no snow anywhere...except for on one magical road Greg happened to notice. That seemed to be a sign, so we followed that road. Then, all of a sudden, we saw this log, no, entire hundred year old tree, in the middle of the road. So we stopped.



Then we got out and started wandering around until a few minutes later, we stumbled upon this! Our very first Christmas tree! It was like it had been waiting there since it was just a little seedling just for us and it was so pretty I almost didn't want to cut it down!







How cool is that?! It fits perfectly in our house!

Living Life

Alrightee.... so as you can see, we've been living our life instead of blogging about it lately. It seems like all I've been doing is homework, but I guess that can be expected in the last 5 weeks of my college career! So anyway, Greg is absolutely adorable and just can't stand to be away from me every night, so he comes with me to the library for five hours almost every night! How cute is that?! I suggested that since our blog was falling behind he could update it while I wrote my literature review, but he wanted to read the Cougar Sportsline... or whatever. Hmmm. Go figure.

Well... besides homework, we have definitely done some fun stuff. Like clean the house. Just kidding. Really, we have. My birthday was a couple of weeks ago and Greg came home from work with a dozen beautiful red roses! We went to Rusty's, the steakhouse up the canyon for dinner and it was delish! Then he surprised me with this cute little cake he made all by himself. Ha! Ha! Just kidding. He didn't make it, but he designed it and I thought it was so funny how he said it had been too plain before and asked them to add some sprinkles because the plain cake just didn't fit me.



My favorite gift from Greg was this cute little rocking chair that we found at the DI and he repainted for me. And no, I'm not pregnant (for some reason as soon as I mention rocking chair that's the first thing people think.) I just think every girl needs a good old rocking chair! And it's old! Greg said it had so many layers of paint!



A week after my birthday my friend Megan had her wedding open house at our place. Our house probably was so excited to get all dressed up! It was so pretty and she had a ton of people come so it was lots of fun!



The next week was Halloween and one of my new favorite things to do is handing out candy to little kids! I might even start doing it every other day, too! We live in a really popular neighborhood for trick-or-treating and we probably had close to 300 kids come! Seriously the doorbell did not stop ringing! I should have just left the door open! Greg and I were milk models. I'll have to post a picture later, but trust me that it was super cute. We just put on our "got milk" t-shirts and painted a white mustache on! It was super cheap and super quick!

I think the next big news was that my brother got his mission call..... to Denmark! He'll be leaving in March and it's pretty exciting 'cause he's the first of 5 missionaries in the family!



In other news... we are so excited for Christmas! Usually I'm the type of person who will not even listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving, but it's been blasting in our home since the first day of November! I think part of this oddity comes from the fact that Thanksgiving is so late this year and so I feel like if I don't celebrate early, a week of my Christmas celebrating is being stolen from me. I'm restraining from decorating the house... at least until Saturday.

GW+CW

Before we got married Greg carved our initials on a tree and this weekend we went to find the tree so we could change the "H" to a "W"!








I warned Greg that every time I've been on a picnic it rains and the clouds looked threatening, but we went anyway...and of course, it rained! We actually had to move our picnic into the truck, but we had so much fun! If you look really close at picture of the windshield you can see a little ant trying to follow the picnic inside!





Then we went to Cedar Breaks. It was freezing but so beautiful! It's like a mini Bryce Canyon. And to top off our outdoorsy weekend we went to Kolob Canyon which is absolutely breathtaking!

The Gift of Music

So this weekend we went on a double date with my parents to the O.C. Tanner Gift of Music Concert at the conference center and it was so neat! For me, it was probably as cool as Greg thought last week’s BYU game was! This year they had the Utah Symphony, Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the guest stars were Denyce Graves and Brian Stokes Mitchell, who is my new favorite voice. Imagine a mix between Michael Buble, Josh Groban, and James Earl Jones. Oh my goodness…it was heavenly.

The theme was “American Songbook,” so they sang a bunch of patriotic songs, Broadway, and jazz. And Brian Stokes Mitchell made the love songs from the ‘20s and ‘30s absolutely captivating.

So the next coolest part besides listening to Brian Stokes Mitchell was sitting on the 12th row! That was pretty amazing. Our tickets were for the balcony, but when we got there, they were filling in the floor as much as they could. So we sat 11 rows away from President Monson and President Eyring! I loved how President Monson was always the first to give a standing ovation after almost all the songs! I always get emotional during the Salute to the Armed Forces, but it was especially moving to see President Monson stand up for the Navy.

Our Latest Adventures

Okay, so maybe this is old news, but last week’s game was awesome! I mean, how often do you see 59-0?! And what made it better was that we were there! We went on a double date with Greg’s cool parents and it was super fun. Before the game we had brunch at Mimi’s Café and I had the best muffin of my entire life…well, actually it was Greg’s muffin, but he’s pretty cool to share with me like that. Anyway, I think everyone should experience a Mimi’s Café blueberry muffin at least once in their life.



Besides work and school, we’ve been staying pretty busy with weddings this week. Just tonight we have 3 to deliver. Right after we got married I was looking for a second job and answered an ad that simply said, “Wanted: A couple with a truck. Must be able to stand on an 8-foot ladder.” So I called the number and ever since then our lives (especially the weekends) have been filled with sappy love songs, tons of fake flowers, and lots of linens! We love it though, and we have so much fun working together! We work for Wedding Décor and More and rent out tables, cute chairs, linens, backdrops, and well…lots of wedding decorations. A lot of times we’ll just deliver everything and the families will set it up, but the best ones are when we get to decorate. This is the first one we did alone a few months ago and I think we’ve gotten a lot better since then, but we still need to get better at taking pictures before we take them down. ☺



We've been deocrating our house some more, too and I'm so excited because it's becoming more like a home instead of a house! A few of days ago we finally put the TV up in the living room and Greg was way excited about the sound system but he said the speakers couldn't go on the floor so the next day I went to the DI and found some potentially cute little tables. Okay, actually they were really ugly, but now they're cute! Greg was pretty proud of my bargain skills. Including the spray paint together they were only $15!

And When Ye are Converted

So...I've been praying really hard about it and I feel that it is finally time for me to leave my roots as a Ute and start cheering for the Cougars.

Saturday was the first BYU football game of our married life and I figured that the whole rival team thing makes marriage a lot harder than it has to be. And BYU football makes Greg really happy and I make him ecstatically happy if I cheer for them and I like it when Greg is happy. Especially when it's because of me.

So, to prove my loyalties, I sat through a 3 1/2 hour game. Not even at the stadium. Nope, not even on TV. On the radio. You heard me right. This girl who only goes to football games for the social aspect and fun face painting demonstrated her love by trying to figure out all the complexities of a football game with players she didn't even know on the radio! I mean I guess we could have watched it at Applebee's and ordered two dozen lemonades so they didn't think we were crazy...or maybe they would have anyway.

I was so excited that BYU was won, but it looks like I've got a long way to go! Greg was disappointed because they could have done better. And I wasn't nearly as excited as he was about the pre-game, post-game, or all of the articles about it the next day. But I'm getting there. Maybe after this season I'll be "dyed in the wool...true blue through and through."

Three 1/2 Months!

So I started my classes this week and my counselor is probably getting sick of me asking if my schedule is still going to work. I'm so paranoid that I'm going to totally going to get to December 13th and they're going to be like...Um, actually you can't graduate. You need one more credit. But, I guess even after rearranging my classes about a hundred and eight times I'm still on track!

I'm taking some really cool advertising strategy and layout classes, a freshman English class, (which I somehow missed a few years ago and is probably the source of my paranoia), a human resource development class, and Comm Theory. If anyone has any ideas for my capstone research paper, let me know!

It's not even been a week yet and it feels like mid-October. Man. It's going to be a long semester. Yay for Labor Day Weekend!

I'm starting to wonder if I really want my advertising/interpersonal degree because I really like the school arena. It's been two weeks and none of the kids are getting in super big trouble yet, so I just work in the office for now, which I like. And I do lunch patrol, which is quite the ordeal. No, actually it's all pretty fun.

Yep. That pretty much describes our lives right now. Pretty fun!

Okay, so I just realized that all I do is talk about me. Greg is doing awesome as well! He's really likes hanging pictures perfectly straight. Yep, we're still trying to move in after three months. He could probably tell you everything about the Olympics if you missed any of it. They pretty much consumed our lives for the past 3 weeks. He's playing Mr. Fixit right now trying to figure out why our grass is the brownest on the block. And he's halfway there! He discovered the electricity to the sprinkler system doesn't work. Now if he could just figure out the second half and make it work. :) Any electricians out there?

I Survived

So...when kids are really bad at school, like so bad that they should be sent home...they send them to me instead. I'm a Skills Building Coach at the middle school. That's my exciting new job and I made it through day number one.

Okay... so I had an empty classroom today.

Living Life!

So...Greg said that people should be living their lives instead of blogging about them.

And after how much of my life it took just to set this thing up, I agree!

So if this is the only post that ever appears on this page, don't be disappointed...we're just out doing something crazy and fun and we'll fill you in on it later!