Chubby?

So, I'm 9 weeks along now and my pants are definitely getting tighter! I don't think anyone can notice still, but I sure can! It's almost like I have to turn to liquid and slither into my pants and then hop several times to get them up. Buttoning them up is also a trial after I've taken them out of the dryer. Maybe I'll have to get a belly band so that my pants are more comfortable to wear. I also just feel chubby. Besides the fact that I feel completely lazy...that I'm eating all the time...and that I'm so tired all the time, I am getting a tiny little bump. I know that I'm not just getting fatter because it's super hard and I feel like my belly has growing pains a lot of the time. Such a weird feeling.

Also, I can't even express how sick and tired I am of eating all the time!!!! I always thought I would love the 6 meals a day thing, but I don't. I don't think food smells good, and rarely tastes good. I get hungry more than Brian now....which is kind of depressing because he is like a human disposal! I also thought I was doing pretty well because I wasn't waking up at night to go the bathroom, but that joy has ended and I'm up going to the bathroom and eating in the middle of the night. I'm a morning person and all, but I don't like to see 2, 3, and 4 am very often. Oh...and getting tired at 7PM is soooo strange. I kind of like that though because I sure love to sleep!!!! :)

Well, I just got our very first toy for our little buddy in the mail today from Brian's best friend and wife. They are so darling and I'm so excited about it. :) It playes music and lights up and I think it's darling. I love baby stuff!

Merry Thanksgiving

It's about time to do a real update on how we are doing! I love the Holidays and I can't wait until Christmas....again. Brian, who also can't wait until Christmas, keeps wanting to open presents early, but I say no. It seems like I went through the same thing last year. I think we will put our tree up later in the year next time so I can avoid the "Let's open presents, Honey, and spread Christmas cheer throughout all the year" nonsense. However, like a little boy, we woke up on Thanksgiving and he just kept telling me "Merry Thanksgiving" and pleading to open a present. He followed me around....begging....for about 30 minutes until I caved. He gave me Star Trek (LOVE IT) and I gave him a board game he didn't ask for. :) It was pretty fun. So now I've been working away on getting gifts made and finished up and I love it. I love making gifts. :)

If you can't tell, Brian wrote 'Merry Thanksgiving' on there so I would open it.

I also had my first doctor appointment today! I know that it wasn't monumental at all since we didn't get to hear the heartbeat, find out the gender, or have a baby, but I was excited because it is a first step! I really am an insanely impatient person and I just want to have a really big baby bump already, but I guess I'll just have to wait. However, after this appointment, I'm worried that it will take forever to get a bump because the doctor said my uterus is abnormal (thanks doc) and tilts directly toward my back instead of my belly where it should be. Hm.... I'll just keep hoping. He said it won't cause any problems, so that's good.

What else is new...? It's Christmas time!!! Did I mention that already? :)

Chocolate Thanksgiving

I just have to say that I'm deeply and utterly in love with Chocolate...and I miss it. It's creamy goodness is always a wonderful and constant companion in the midst of happiness, tears, heartbreaks, movies, parties, good news and bad, and just for your everyday treat. However as wonderful as this little treasure is, I can't really eat very much anymore since I've had little bouts of morning sickness. I haven't had very bad morning sickness, but it makes me a little sick to even think of food at all. So, this Thanksgivng I'm thankful for stuffing my face with chocolate in days past. Chocolate, I will miss eating you in large quantities, but I guess it's better for my health. *sigh*

Debt Be Gone

One thing is for sure- I hate being in debt. I hate monthly payments and not being able to use our money where it really needs to go or where we want it. We paid off my student loans at the very beginning of the year, which was a beautiful thing, but then we kind of slacked off and didn't pay off our car as fast as we wanted to. We played a lot and kind of did what we wanted for a few months. Then, one day when I was driving home from work, I was thinking about how much we make as a couple and I was suddenly infuriated that we still didn't have our car paid off nor that much money in savings. We should have everything paid off and a least a few thousand in savings....but no. I was upset. So, we started putting my entire check on our car and today.....WE PAID IT OFF!!!!! YAY!!!!!! Now we are completely debt free and it feels SOOOOO good. It's almost like we're 15 again and we actually have control over any money that we get. We can spend it or save it....whatever we want, but it's ours and not someone else's!!! YAY! Of course now we will be saving every penny for our bouncing July baby, but it's nice to not worry about other things as well.

I feel like I've learned a very valuable lesson though, obviously. (If I hadn't then I would be in big trouble). It takes a lot of time and discipline to get out of debt and more than just living in your means to do so. We've had to re-budget so many times and try not to budget down to the very quarter, nickel, or dime. We've tried to leave room for unexpected things like hitting your car into a pole (thanks Brian), and it has helped so much. We're so excited and relieved!

Friday the 13th in a POSITIVE Light

Whoever said that Friday the 13th was a bad day? Hm? I don't know. I've always had some pretty good luck on these superstitious dates. I was married on Friday the 13th and that was a pretty darn good day if you ask me. Now, as I was contemplating Thanksgiving DINNER on Friday, it kind of made the day go a little bit happier. So, just think of being HUNGRY and full of FOOD on the dreadful day, and you'll feel better. EATING until your super FULL and ALMOST FAT feels just so good....almost to the point where you POP and might even need to see a DOCTOR. Just be POSITIVE and it will be a great day. If you put all of these words together, you have gotten then hint! Yes, we do love Thanksgiving and we're excited for it, but we're even more excited now that we're PREGNANT!!!!! YAY!!! We found out on Friday and I think it's becoming a favorite date. :)

Now, lots of people are asking why we have posted/telling people so soon, but really, we're just too excited to keep it a secret! If something goes wrong then I will feel happy about having at least a few weeks of being incredibly excited, but I am just hoping for the best and will keep praying for a healthy baby and pregnancy! I'm due July 23rd and the summer couldn't feel more far away than it does to me right now. Good thing we have Thanksgiving and Christmas to keep me occupied. The other good news is that I will be able to quit my job (hopefully) within the next year or so. That will be a VERY VERY VERY VERY happy day for me!!!

Oh Christmas Tree!

I just want to let everyone know that we made it! We waiting until after Halloween to put up our tree, which was extremely difficult for us, but it was up on Nov. 1st. We LOVE it!!!

Widowed by Compounds

If anyone has a husband that is doing his Ph.D. program, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about when I say that I feel like a widow at times. For some it may be that their spouse has to study all day-every day, but for me it's compound week. Brian has 3 compounds he has to turn in this week. Every time I tell someone that he has to turn in a compound I get asked what a compound is. I'll tell you what a compound is. It's 3am-5am work nights. It's going to bed by myself. It's stress and more stress. It's delayed due dates, lost product, and failed reactions. It's quite possibly the longest weeks of the year. That's what a compound is to me. Now, if you ask Brian what a compound is he would give you a much more complex, scientifical answer that I don't want to explain nor could I do it justice. Just think Chemistry and you'll have an idea. I told him that Friday night is date night. I don't want to go anywhere or do anything. I just want to snuggle. That's it. Thanks compound week....I dislike you very much!

On a happier note, I am grateful for his education. I know that it will pay off in the end. :)

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

I am teaching my friend's Sunbeam class while they are galavanting around Europe (not a fair trade, I know.) Well, the kids were drawing at the end of class and there are two of the cutest boys in the class. Lincoln wanted to draw Lightning McQueen as one of his favorite things. Well, of course Ethan likes Lightning McQueen also, so he had to draw it too. This was their conversation while drawing their pictures side by side:

Lincoln: My Lightning McQueen is like a rocket, he's so fast.

Ethan: Well, my Lightning McQueen is WAY faster than yours.

Lincoln: My Lightning McQueen is going to blow up your Lightning McQueen.

Ethan: Well, MY Lightning McQueen is going to grow hands and arrest your Lightning McQueen and put him in jail.

I laughed so hard. I love kids. Where do they get these things? Haha. Ethan had also previously told me that the vent in sharing time blew fire out of the vents if you turn it on. Then the fire would start to burn all of us up and we would have to run outside while the church burns to the ground. I told him that the fire just stayed inside the unit and we wouldn't all get burned. Ethan then told me that he would inform his mom. I came to find out that his mother had told Ethan that if he played with the heater, then fire would come out and burn us. Hilarious that our lesson was on how to be honest. Classic! I love Sunbeams.

What Not to Wear

Wearing pajamas in public: Guilty. Ugly shoes: Guilty. Oversized pants: Guilty.

I can't even begin to describe how much I LOVE this show. I can't seem to get enough of it and I wish I could just live in their fashion wonderland! All I did on Friday was sit on my bottom and watch hours of this show. It makes me so happy. I love their clothes! However, it makes me want to go shopping soooo badly to the point where I can't resist it anymore. Since this show is costing me so much money, I think they should buy me a new wardrobe. :)

'Tis the Season

Has anyone been noticing the weather lately? It's cooler. Fall leaves. Dying grass. Things are getting just a little uglier. One day we'll all wake up and all this ugliness will be covered in SNOW. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE Autumn. It's actually my favorite season. I love wearing a jacket and snuggling up on the couch with hot chocolate. I love the holidays and the traditions (although Halloween has kind of lost it's favoritism since my 20th b-day marked the end of trick-or-treating for me. Now it's just a boring holiday since no one comes to our door. I miss trick-or-treating!) I also love the smell and looking at the gorgeous leaves that cover the mountains. Anyway, snow! With snow comes happiness. Happiness means singing, treats, family, stories, Bing Crosby, memories, and service. I couldn't be more excited for this happiness. Of course I'm talking about CHRISTMAS!!!! I know it's only September, but my bones are already beginning to burst with Christmas excitement! You may think I'm insane, but I actually believed in Santy Clause until I was 14 years old! No, not 4, that's not a typo. FOURTEEN! I mean, I suspected, but that little Christmas bug inside of me kept telling me to keep believing, so I did. I was a faithful Santy Clause infant, toddler, child, and teenager.

Brian and I like to start early on our Christmas lists. We made lists in August last year, so technically we're getting a late start this year. We were lying in bed on Sunday night and Brian started listing things that he would like for Christmas. I started to get tired between "new shorts, a new church shirt, and...." I told him that we could do lists for FHE the following night. Well, that was it. I was so excited that day. I lit the pine scent candle at 3pm to fill the house with Christmas tree wonderfulness. I got the music playlist on the ipod, made home-made cream of broccoli soup-yum!, rode my bike to the library to pick up the grinch book, and hung our red and green christmas lists above the fireplace like stockings. Listening to Christmas music was so....great. Just great! Brian came home at 7:30 and just started laughing when he walked through the door. We had a great dinner and I couldn't have been more excited to read How the Grinch Stole Christmas to a 26 year old man. Poor guy! I really enjoyed myself though! I even asked him if I could go get more Dr. Suess books and read them to him and he politely said no. Darn! (If you want me to read to your kids, sign me up. I babysit for free!!) Then I read parts from Elder Faust's talk "A Christmas with No Presents", which is wonderful! So, we decided that are going to try to do some service projects for the holiday season. I, personally, would love to take goodies to the old folks homes! We always did that when I was younger and I LOVE their happy faces when you go to visit! After our lesson we made Christmas lists. Oh boy was it fun; however, I don't want anything other than a baby, so my list is kind of small. I just want children's books, a crib, baby clothes.....and I'm not even pregnant! Santa, just let me have a baby when we plan for it, k!

Tonight my mom also started talking about planning the family Christmas party. She was all worried about the gift exchange due to the economy. I told her to throw it out the window and we'll just do activities! Singing, stories, gingerbread houses, games, cookies. She loved it, so I hope it flies with the Party Planning Aunts. Now I wish I were planning this party!

I hope everyone gets as excited as I am right now! MERRY CHRISTMAS just a few months early!! Hopefully Brian and I won't put up our tree on October 31st again this year. :) We'll try. No promises!

Puffy Love

I know I said that I would NEVER make another one of these again, but they're just so darn cute! Plus, I was trying to have the first quilt I made be genderless, but it is definitely fit for a girl and who knows what I will be having first....whenever that may be. :) With this blanket I wanted to take pictures of all the steps. I was pretty good at taking pictures at the beginning and then slacked off, but I think it still gives a good feel for how much work you actually have to do for these puppies.

1. 338 squares 2. Side view (it's not quite all of them)

3. All puffs sewn together 4. Lindsey and me sewing our cute blankets

5. Sewn in strips and then you sew the

strips together. 6. Finished front view

Now, like I said, I should have taken pictures at the end, because it's actually the hardest part. Getting the silk edge in was annoying since it was slipping out all over the place, then sewing the silk, the batting and the backing all together. It's hard because you have to squish each puff down to get it through your machine so your hands get so tired. I had to unstitch some of the edges about 5 times and try again. Here are better views of the front and back:

Front and Back

Since I now have a blanket for each gender, I think it's safe to say that I won't make another one ever again....unless I go crazy and get the idea that they're oodles of fun. Hm....maybe when I'm 80. However, I LOVE these blankets and they are so cute and they really are pretty fun to make when you take your time. :)

A Telephone Line to God

To start the week off, we had a lovely Relief Society lesson about gratitude yesterday. I shared a story about how laughing at life's trials makes those trials easier to bear, which then helps you to be more grateful for the things in your life. Funny how things bite you right in the left cheek the very next day.

Great Labor Day, Monday morning. Up at 7:15 am and ready for a jog. Nice, crisp, cool September air to prepare me for a full 11 hour day of work....but that's ok since it was time and a half. Things looked lovely. Simply lovely. I came home, hopped in the shower, turned on the computer to start working. The clock turns 7:57 am, Brian calls to inform me that he hit a light pole. A light pole in the middle of the parking lot that he couldn't see because the early morning sunlight was shining right in his face. So....our car has a lovely bent bumper and a very smashed in hood. Bite in the left cheek! What do I do? Do I get upset (after making sure he was ok, of course)? Do I rant and rave about he should have been watching for this pole, since he's been there before? Do I cry? Yes. I cry. Just for a few minutes though. It's okay, really. Things happen and of course you have to pay for little accidents, but I'm glad it wasn't worse and I'm glad he's ok. Then, at 8:03, a lovely little reminder of my relief society lesson came to humble me very quickly. All I want to do is sit and cry and bask in the horrible events of the morning. With my headset in one ear and hands on the keyboard, I hear a beep in my ear signaling that someone is calling to order contacts. A normal and appropriate response would be, "Thank you for calling 1-800 Contacts, this is Stacy, how can I help you today?" However, I respond differently since I have been groaning over my bent car all morning. Instead, I answer the phone, "Our dear Heavenly Father, thank...." pause...... (oh crap!! I just answered a company call in a prayer!) The man on the other end starts to say, " Is this 1-800 Con..."

I hung up immediately!

Oh man! What was I supposed to say? "Oh yeah, this is 1-800 Contacts. Sorry, my husband just wrecked the car and I've been talking to God ever since." Oh brother. I bet he called back and asked the next person where we were located and I bet it all made sense to him when he found out that we're based in Utah. Thanks Mormon heritage, I now have a telephone line direct to Heavenly Father. Needless to say I burst out laughing and couldn't control it.

To top off my morning, I ran outside to turn off our flooding sprinklers (all while being in a not ready status at work (meaning I don't receive calls at that time)). Anyway, I turn off the sprinklers, go back to my door, and turn the knob to go inside. GREAT! Brian always locks the door when he leaves, but you can't tell if it's locked or not from the inside. Thanks honey. Again, I was not very happy. Good thing our bedroom window was cracked, so I had to break into our house and hurry back to work. I got inside after a few minutes, washed all the mud and dirt of my legs and sat back to work again. Thanks to my morning phone prayer, I just started to laugh again.

All in a days work.

Birthday Weekend

So, I don't really know why I get so emotional at little things, but I just do now-a-days. Friday afternoon Brian informed me that his friend, wife, and baby were going to stay the weekend with us. I was NOT a happy camper. I cried all day since I was going to have to play hostess on my birthday and we weren't going to be able to spend any time together. I guess I've been kind of a Brian hog lately because I haven't seen him at all the last couple weeks. He just started doing a scuba diving class, and he has to be gone from 6-11:30 pm two nights a week. I've really missed him. Needless to say, I was really excited for the weekend just to spend time with him. I started to feel really bad though since his friend and his little family are driving and moving all the way to Texas and here I am complaining that I have to play hostess. So, I tried not to say anything for the rest of the day and just take it as it comes. I tend to blow things out of proportion anyway.

Saturday was tons of fun! Brian surprised me with some birthday roses from him and them another white rose from my sweet in-laws, which were absolutely beautiful! I love flowers! I also got these awesome beauties for my birthday...

I LOVE these shoes!! They are so cute...and very tall! However, I had nothing to wear them with other than one pair of jeans, so Brian took me shopping to get a new Sunday outfit to match. We spent all day trying to find a cute outfit and finally found one. I got a new navy pencil skirt and a normal button up shirt to go with. Since I had just been standing on my toes all day in these puppies, my feet were killing me. I was happy to take them off when I got home for sure! Anyway, after shopping we went to Red Lobster since Brian was craving sea food and I really wanted some crab. Yum! I love crab!! We also tried to catch Star Trek, but since all the college kids are back in town, it was all sold out. Stupid dollar theater. Sometimes I really hate the dollar theater, but I really wanted Brian to see it. Darn! We had to go home to welcome our company and then we just stayed at home the entire night.

Sunday, my actual b-day, was pretty nice and relaxing. We just lounged around the house and my parents came down that night and brought ice cream and brownies. YUM! Funniest thing was that Brian's friend, Jared, was the first one to wish me a happy birthday. Brian forgot that it was Sunday instead of Saturday I guess. Jared and his wife have the CUTEST baby girl. I soaked up holding her the whole weekend and now I dearly miss her now that she's gone. We had a lot of fun having them over for the weekend since we don't have babies over here very often. We would also stay up late and tell stupid stories that were only funny in the early morning hours. We haven't done that since the single life ended. Good times.

Well, now I'm 23 and I think this year will be super fun (even though I detest odd numbers...23. YUCK!). We wants kids to be coming sometime soon and I couldn't be more impatient waiting for that day to come. No, we're not pregnant yet. Just hopefuls for the coming months. Thanks to my wonderful husband, I had another great birthday. He is way too good to me!

Fun While Melting in Florida

Brian and I started our month off by flying to Florida to visit his parents and surprise his mom by coming! Since we were in the middle of a surprise, we didn't have anyone to pick us up from the airport and instead of paying $50.00 for a 20 minute taxi drive, we paid $4.00 for a 2 hour bus ride. Wonderful public transportation. I think school and public transportation are the only things that you would like to buy in hopes that they have the least amount of time/work associated with them. Everything else you buy in hopes of having hours worth of fun. Public transporation was interesting. I guess we got to see all the "sights" (meaning the industrial areas of Florida) on our lovely ride. When we finally got to the restaurant where Brian's parents were eating, I walked up to their booth and asked Diane if the seat was taken. She looked up at me like I was an idiot and with the expression, "Of course it's......" and then she recognized us. She just laughed and gently shoved Brian several times while asking what we were doing there. It was pretty funny!

Saturday we spent going to timeshare meetings in the morning while the parentals were trying to convince us to never get one. Well, we bought one! Just kidding. (That was so my in-laws s could have a panic attack). :) Although it would be fun and they look pretty nice, I'd rather not have one and save my pennies. The rest of the day we spent at Sea World! Boy oh boy was Sea World fun! We had never been, so we went to all the shows, all the galleries, and saw almost all of the animals. It was pretty cool for me to pet a stingray since I've only ever seen them while snorkeling and scuba diving. After being at Sea World, I've decided that I want a pet whale. Good thing Brian is an animal person because he could go for it if we had a bajillion dollars and if we owned an ocean. :)

Monday and Tuesday we spent at DISNEYWORLD!!! I love Disney! When I go there I become the most giddy little girl and I feel like I'm about 5 years old again. However, Disneyworld has one thing that Disneyland doesn't have.....sweat! I think I sweat more than I ever have in my entire life and it was absolutely miserable at times! It rained everyday we were in Florida, so everyday was muggy and overbearingly humid. Anyway, Monday was mostly spent at Animal Kingdom. The greatest thing at Animal Kingdom was the Everest rollercoaster! It was such fun and I love thrill rides for sure! It was nice there because everything is like a jungle and it's where we had the most shade and I'm not a happy person if I get too hot. We also rode some of the rides at Epcot that night. To be honest, I was not a huge fan of Epcot at first. It has some pretty ghetto rides, but we didn't go to the country portion until the next day. We also went to Magic Kingdom on Monday night and there were too many people there. We just went on a couple rides and then made our way back home, exhausted.

Tuesday was our Hollywood Studios day. I can't even begin to describe how much more fun the Tower of Terror is while sitting by Brian, who is afraid of heights. Not only was it hilarious to hear him scream like a little girl, but his face in the picture at the end still has me laughing. It is my favorite ride still, but I love being married to someone who hates the scary rides! Awesome! Now, Tuesday was so freakin' hot and there was no shade. Remember how I'm not a happy person when I get hot? Well, I was not being the happiest camper in the woods that day and I was pretty miserable to be around. My poor family (sorry guys)! I thought my skin was going to melt off and boil in the asphalt before I would have a chance to run to the nearest air conditioned building. Luckily I didn't end up fainting or anything and it did start raining later on so I was able to cool off. We also went to Epcot again and went to the circle of countries, which is definitely super cool. I can imagine it being the farthest thing away from happiness if I were a little kid, but now that I'm older I really enjoyed it.

Something else of note is that my fear of flying has increased. Goodness! Has anyone watched the news lately. Plane crash in New York, plane crash in Brazil, plane crash here and there. I'm freaking scared of another plane crashing...while I'm on it, not to mention we had the WORST turbulence I've ever had while flying. Brian and I really thought we weren't going to make it this time, so we're both very grateful we made it home in one peice.

Well, I hope you enjoyed our vacation report and our pictures :)

Moving

Cinder block: the ugliest thing that apartment buildings have ever been constructed with. I loathed the ugly cinder block walls that covered my dorm room my freshman year and I was so happy to get out of that prison! Our neighbors below just got evicted, thus opening up a spot on the bottom floor. This apartment is nice, has new appliances, an outside patio just for our apartment only. We won't have to carry groceries or strollers (when the time comes) up stairs to get to our apartment, which would be so great! We could get a grill and have yummy kabobs just because we would have our own patio! The only thing that I hate about the apartment is that it has ugly, cold, prison-like cinder block walls. I hate them. Now, I know you must be thinking that the good things far outweigh the bad, but in my mind......it's just the cinder block. Like it's my worst nightmare. Arg! I hate them. Needless to say, we will probably be moving down stairs sometime next month. Does anyone have ANY ideas on how to cute-ify an ugly cinder block wall? I just can't paint it a different color and that seems to be the first recommendation. I know this is pretty darn ridiculous, but it makes me sad that we'll be moving out of our first apartment and having a project would make things.....happier. :)

Camping with "Bears"

Brian and I are now the proud owners of a new 2 person REI backpacking tent. It's very small for two people (according to me), but it's only 5 lbs. and we love that it's so light. We haven't gotten much use out of it yet, which is really sad to me. We've only set it up in our living room while I watched Brian sit in it to play video games. Yeah. So, we wanted to get out of the house and actually use it this summer, even if it was a very short one day camping trip. So we planned to go last weekend on Friday night up Squaw Peak. Now, for a little preface:

Do any of you watch the news? Well, I watch it religiously everyday. There's the morning news, the noons at noon, news at 4, the nightly new with Brian Williams, and the 6 o'clock news that I watch. I don't know why, but I LOVE knowing about all the horrible things that are happening in the world. I guess it makes me feel more involved and informed. Well, last week was bear week. It seemed like there were bears popping out all over the place around Utah. Some went away, but most of them just got shot and died. Scary! Well, I guess the news can make you a bit paranoid...

Anway, we couldn't get up to the camping spot we were looking for until about 10 pm since Brian had a softball game that night. We got to our spot, but it was taken! EVERYONE in Utah County was camping! There were no open spots. None. Darn! I was so excited! Well, we started to drive home, much to my dismay, but then we saw an open spot on the side of the road. Yes! We got out of the car to see if the spot was camp-able, and Brian heard "something big" in the bushes next to us. It sounded like a deer to me, but he kept saying "whatever it is, it's big" and then he ran back to the car. Come on, be a man! Well, he started throwing rocks in the bushes and all the noises stopped so we started down this little trail to find a spot, but we got "nervous" and jumpy by every cracking twig beneath our feet. I finally got freaked out enough that I turned around and told Brian we were going home. It was already past 11 and I was tired. As I was doing up my seatbelt, Brian thought it would be hilarious to scream at the NOTHING that was outside just to freak me out some more. Well, he screamed, and I looked up in terror, just knowing that we were about to be eaten by bears that I heard about on the news. When I looked up, I screamed, then I saw that nothing was there, so I buried my head in my hands and started to sob. Yup, that's right. I sobbed. It was as if my heightened emotions had no wear else to go but through my eyes. Brian just started laughing at my crying until I eventually started laughing at myself. We ended up going home and playing ticket to ride instead. Much more safe! :) Just don't watch the news if you're going camping. You'll have a much more enjoyable time that way!

Life's Not That Bad

For three and a half years I have worked at 1-800-Contacts and for two and a half years I have loathe my job more and more at times. Summer is the WORST time to work because it gets sooo busy. Anyway....I have a really hard time being kept inside talking to people on the phone all day long and I get really really irritated. So, today I have been super annoyed because I'm almost done with the work week -one day left- and I'm so sick of talking to people that I can't handle. I heard Brian come through the door, and I get up to go make some dramatic scene of how horrible the day has been, but then he walks around the corner with glasses in one hand and roses in the other, gave me a kiss, and then said he had to go back to work. :) How sweet! Now, I'm not really into mushy posts or anything, but my point is (other than the fact that Brian's the greatest) is that life isn't that bad. All we need is a little reminder from time to time to stop complaining and enjoy what we're doing. The more positive the attitude, the more happiness you'll find along the way. I really am grateful to have my job, and I'm so grateful that I can work at home and I do slightly enjoy it when I make the effort to have a good attitude about it. :)

Happy Anniversary!

It's so crazy that we've already been married for one year! My oh my, how the time flies! I'd have to say that the first year of marriage wasn't as hard as I thought everyone said it would be, women more emotional than Brian thought, and it was just so much fun! Anyway, here are some fun pictures from last year. I'm glad it was more sunny for our wedding than it is today! Happy Anniversary to us! :)

Park City Wonderfulness

Vacation: the most wonderful word in the English language!

Brian's wonderful parents let us have a week at Park City while using their time share. We stayed at the Marriott Summit Watch and it was AWESOME.  I didn't take any pictures of our hotel room since Brian didn't remind me, but it was enormous. We had a huge living/dining area, a kitchen, a HUGE tub in our room, and then a wonderful washer and dryer. I miss having a washer and dryer in my house. I was so excited when we checked in and couldn't stop smiling. I think working at 1-800-Contacts for 3+ years has made me crazy. I am soooo thankful to get away from working and go on vacation!

Alright, here is a run down on our vacation:

Day 1: Outlet Shopping. Brian and I LOVE the outlets. We have so much fun shopping together and spent pretty much ALL day at the outlets. We got a ton more than what I thought we would, but we were there at the perfect time for the memorial day sale. I thought we came out pretty even, but I got way more stuff...oops. :) I love getting new stuff though. We also ate at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.....YUM! We didn't really know that it was going to be super expensive, but it was. Ha! It was soooooo yummy! Brian really loved that they kept calling him, "Mr. Anderson" for everything.

Day 2: I went real mountain biking for the first time and had a blast. Park City is so beautiful and the trail was so much fun. Our trail was pretty easy (good thing) until we got a little lost. We got to a point where the trail directions were kind of confusing and we accidentally went down the trail called 'S.O.S'- very fitting. 

I walked half of the way down and was scared the other half. Everything was super super downhill with lots of switchbacks. Not very fitting for a beginner. Brian had so much fun leaving me behind as he cruised down the trail. When we got to the bottom, we realized that we were WAY off the trail, so we hiked back up the winding path in search for the right trail. I was pretty puckered out by this time.....so here is me dying.

Brian thinks it's funny to document how out of shape I am I guess. He's sweet.  :) After we finally found the right trail, we finished up and had a blast! The rest of the day we spent by the pool and watching Lord of the Rings (we watched the whole trilogy-one each day). 

Day 3: Brian's cousin's Kari and Kenny came up for the weekend. We walked down main street, ate Thai food, went swimming, and ate yummy chocolate from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Oh my goodness! SOOOO GOOD! I had never eaten their apples before and now I'm hooked. Brian made me stay up and watch a movie called Rumble in the Bronx since he loves Jackie Chan. It was pretty darn funny actually. Staying up so late made us kind of loopy, so we had a pretty funny pillow fight and then I couldn't stop laughing. I laughed and snorted all through praying for no good reason at all. It was fun though. 

Day 4: We did the Alpine slide and coaster on Saturday morning, which was a BLAST. I love the coaster. The slide was way fun too, until a couple in front of us ruined our race. They were going so slow down the slide trying to take pictures of each other. We caught up to them twice and had to stop. Thanks. It was still fun nonetheless , but that was pretty annoying. Brian's other cousins Jenny and Diane came up and wanted to go shopping.....just what we needed. :) It, again, was a lot of fun.  Again, the rest of the day was really relaxed with pizza, swimming and movies, and getting ready to leave the next day.

                                                        

                         

I had SOOOOO much fun! I didn't really want to leave the big tub behind and go back to cooking, cleaning, and listening to video game facts, but I guess that's life, right? I am so grateful that we got to go just to have fun and relax for almost a whole week!! It was fantastic. HUGE thanks again to Brian's parents for letting us go on this AWESOME and very needed vacation!!! 

Miss Saigon

My love for this play started way back during my freshman year at BYU. My roommate, Rachel, and I listened to the CD, bought the music book and sang our guts out nearly everyday for weeks. The music is so powerful and just incredible. However, we could never get the story line quite right by just listening to the music, so we just guessed what was going on. So, after 5 years of waiting for it to be playing in Utah, we finally got our chance.  We just saw Miss Saigon at the Pioneer Theater Company last night and it was INCREDIBLE!!!!!!! I can't get over it! I would watch it for the closing three nights if I could. Most of the actors in the play have done multiple Broadway productions and I was extremely impressed with the entire cast. The main character, Kim.....WOW!!!! Talk about amazing here! She had the most incredible voice. (Gasp) I just loved it.....can you tell? :) Well, through all his racy moments and it's heart-wrenching twists and turns, I bawled my eyes out at the end! I was almost in a full blown sob! Even the guy next to me kept looking over and giving me weird looks like he was thinking, "Good grief, it's only a play. Pull yourself together, woman!"  I could just keep going on and on about how wonderful it was, and I would recommend it to anyone...above the age of....16 . :) LOVE!

Provo....BLECK!

Don't you love it when you see wonderful pictures of beautiful places around the world? I do too....when I'm in them.  So, today I woke up, got ready for work, got on facebook and there they were: pictures from Bangkok and Thailand from my dear friend Bethany Matheson Moore. They are gorgeous and beautiful. They're full of beaches and bungalows, snorkeling, hiking, fish, and hostels. Perfect. Then I opened my window and had to look at the ugliest elementary school known to man: Farrer Elementary School. Yuck. I swear that I have the worst luck in the world with having that school out my window. I would LOVE to go to Asia....actually anywhere for that matter away from Provo and away from Utah. Somewhere where the water is actually blue and not brown and murky. Somewhere with sand, beaches and fish. Somewhere I can hike and be dirty for however long I want to. Somewhere with a jungle and monkeys and tigers. Somewhere fun. Just somewhere away from here- just for a few days.  Instead I choose to work at lame 1-800-Contacts and look at the ugliest elementary school. Someday.....maybe someday I will be able to convince Brian that we need to be in some awesome pictures for a happy vacation!  :) 

The Latest in April

Things have been pretty much.....the same around our neck of the woods. As usual, Brian and I are both working like crazy everyday and he is still going to school; however, the semester is almost over and we can kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are both super excited for summer just to have some warm weather (if it ever decides to stay). The most exciting news that we have right now is pretty dang good, at least for us. We just finished paying off my STUDENT LOANS and I'm so happy that they are out of my life FOREVER! YES! It was a really big accomplishment for us and we've been working hard to get that done so it is really wonderful to be finished! Afterwards, Brian decided that he wanted to buy a new car so we started looking at new cars, which was sooo much fun for us. After listening to Elder Hales' talk during conference, we've decided that we may not buy one any time soon, but just save up our money like crazy instead. Thinking that we were going to buy a car was/is good motivation for us to save every penny. :)

Conference was delightful! It was really nice to have Brian home for once on a Saturday. :) His dad flew in for conference and we also got a surprise visit from his mom, who unexpectedly had a 9 hour layover in Salt Lake. Super awesome since we never get to see his family.  

That's about all for now. Not much news, but I thought I should update the blog since people, meaning Lindsey, are asking me to post more. I really do try, but when life is all working and school.....there isn't much to say a lot of the times. We are happy and wonderful and still enjoying the first year of being married. Love you all!

Hobbies

Brian just got called to be a Provo temple worker. He loves it and it is such a wonderful opportunity for him. He works every Saturday from 10:30-4 so he is gone most of the time and I hardly ever see him. At first I told him that we should have a baby so I'm not always home alone; however, we're not quite ready for that big of an adventure yet so I decided to make a baby blanket instead. :) It has been so much fun and so much WORK! I saw a puff quilt once when I was a little kid walking through a boutique with my mom and I wondered why they were so dang expensive. Now I know why. I would have charged a million dollars if I would have made a blanket that big. 

So, it's little, but I had to add more and more because sewing all the squares together made it pretty darn small. I put about 75 hours into it and finished it in just under a week. It did go fast, but I would work on it every second I had so I could:

A- finish it 

B- get feeling back in my fingers (pins hurt!)

C- get over my love/hate relationship with it and be done!

D- vow to never make another one ever again!

Well, here it is. :) I'm pretty fond of it!

It was Brian's Birthday on December 14th and he turned the grand old age of 26! I tried to convince him that his birthday is totally separate from Christmas; however, it was totally useless since he talked me into having him open 3 Christmas presents on his birthday and the December birthday party was mixed in with the family Christmas party. Blast! Maybe next year? 

Our Christmas at home was super awesome! We had our 'Anderson Christmas' on December 20th. I woke Brian up at 5:30 only because I couldn't wait anymore. It was like I was 5 years old again! We had a really great Christmas! We were both so excited and played with our new toys all morning! My parents also got me a sewing machine that I was super psyched about! 

We went to Ohio for Christmas and had a blast! Jeff and Mary were there with our cute nephew and niece. We had so much fun playing with their kids since we don't have kids yet (and we like that.) We need to have fun being aunts and uncles first, right! :) We also had the Anderson family annual relay race and Brian and I won the race! It was pretty surprising that Brian and Jeff made it since they both have bad knees. We were pretty excited though. We had another race the next week and we came in second place. Our cousins beat us....but only by a little bit. 

We had a great time shopping and walking through Cincinnati. I had never been to the city, but it was pretty neat. We just walked through the skywalk and went to the top of the Carew Tower to look over the city. 

We really had a wonderful vacation during Christmas! It was so nice to get out of Provo without work and school and spend time with the family. We played more games than I ever have in a lifetime and watched more movies in one week than I usually do in a month. It was really nice and relaxing! 

Well, now we're home and getting settled in the daily routine of work and school. I haven't had a ton of fun going back to work, but I guess it's nice to be back to normal life. It is good to be home though. We hope everyone had a really great holiday season!!