Counting

Today I was watching some TV and Mike came in and sat on the bed. I asked what he had been doing and he said he was looking at potential Christmas presents for me. I told him that he had already said previously that he knew what he was getting me. He then told me that what I would get for Christmas could be "up to $1,000.00" Haha. Right. Anyway, I argued with him a little bit and he told me it would be based "on good behavior". I laughed, and then he told me that he would count to 1,000 for me so I would know how much it was. So he started counting. He held me in bed, and wouldn't let me leave until he was done. Cracked me up. He'd also take a small pause between each number, and pronounce each number, so instead of "one thirty-seven" he would say "One hundred thirTy seven. It took a while. He finally got to one thousand and then he kept going. I thought we were going to be stuck counting all night!!

Cahoots Duo Challenge

Here are the pics I was talking about in the last blog post. So fun!

Fun in the Sun

First of all, I just want to say I made it through my summer semester. I thought I was going to die there at the end. But I did it! I was a little disappointed with my grades. My business class was graded on a curve and I had no idea what my grade was the whole semester. I ended up with a B, which is good but I was really trying for a 3.8 again. I ended up with a 3.62 GPA. Not bad for 15 credits and some hard classes. I'm debating on doing 15 credits again this coming semester. It's horrible and not fun but then I'll be done with school sooner!

Mike and I had a lot of fun this weekend. We did an obstacle course down in Midway, UT. It was a lot of fun. We are finally not sore.. 4 days later. Let me get my complaints out of the way and then I'll list all the fun we had. 1- They did not have my shirt size. They had even asked what my shirt size was, but of course they didn't have it and only had mediums left. Good for Mike because he now gets 2 really nice dry-fit shirts. 2- They only had 1 table up for check-in. There were over 1,000 people doing the course throughout the day I heard. You'd think they would have a few more tables for check in. Whatever. 3- We missed our heat because the lines were so long, and we got there 45 minutes early. And then when we started with the next heat the guy said "This is the 11:30 heat! If you are the 11:30 heat or from an earlier heat because you were LATE, it's almost time for you to race" or something like that. Excuse me? LATE? No no. I got there 45 minutes early, like the instructions said. I wasn't late. Thank you very much. 4- Half the obstacles had lines at them. We had to wait a good 45 minutes to an hour for the zip line. Ridiculous. Put up more zip lines. Geez. Another obstacle we waited probably around a half hour. Those were the only problems I could think of. The rest of it we had a blast. As soon as they post pictures I'll put them up. It was so fun. We had to jump in waist high mud water, run up a mud hill, climb over a 10 foot wall, go through huge construction type tubes that were half submersed in mud water, go over a cargo net, army crawl and duck under boards in mud water, hold hands and avoid touching an electric line (don't worry it didn't shock too much, but it definitely shocked my arm and traveled to my leg), ride a zip line, go down a tube slide headfirst into a big mud water pit, do a three legged walk through a lot of tires and over a bale of way and do a wheelbarrow through pretty deep mud. We had a blast. It was so fun. We were soooo dirty by the end of it. It was great. They had a little shower type thing that was like a PVC pipe with holes in it, so we got to wash off a bit. I was so glad I brought us a change of clothes. We got back to the car and got out the wipes I had brought. It was a pretty decent sized bag and we went through like 3/4 of it. After we wiped off and changed we were off! We headed to Park City for a little shopping. Mike spoiled me. I love him. He got me a really nice purse with a matching little wallet, a really nice winter coat, a jacket, a pair of jeans, two pairs of shorts, and a cute purple skirt! Mike got a few nice jackets and some sun glasses. He also got a long sleeve light weight shirt, a polo, and 2 pairs of slacks. He looks so good in all of them. I made him give me a fashion show.

Funny story. A few weeks ago Mike came into our room or something and said, "Hey." And I said, "wait a minute. I don't get a hey honey, or hey sweetie or even a hey hot baby?" I was joking about the hot baby thing. So now ever since then he calls me hot baby. In fact, we were at Winco about a week and a half ago and I was in the produce section. Mike wandered off and when I was done I was looking for him. He spotted me first, so he kindly said in a very loud voice.. "HEY! HOT BABY! I'M OVER HERE!" I just about died on the spot. Silly boy. I love him.

The End is Near!

I am getting so excited.

This semester is almost over. Sooo close... I only have this next week that is coming up and the one after that. It will be so nice to be done with this semester. This has by far been the hardest semester I've had. Knock on wood.

I've also learned a lot about myself, surprisingly. I learned that I can juggle a lot of things at the same time and I'm really good at writing lists of what needs to get done. I also learned I am excellent at not procrastinating when I don't have time to. I haven't procrastinated ONCE this semester! ONCE! I never thought I could ever say that. Ever. I've also learned that I like to be busy, and I feel better about myself when I accomplish something every day. (I partly learned this at work when I took a Strength Finders test, I will talk about that in a minute). I also learned how much I can miss Mike even when we are in the same house. I miss spending time with him. Sigh. I don't get to spend much time with Mike because I'm spending it with homework instead.

Last month I took the Cliftons StregthsFinder test. It was interesting. It asked me all these questions, and then at the end it gave me my strengths. It was funny to read about myself and have things click like "oh. And that is why I do this or feel that way." My top strength is "Achiever". On their site that is described as "People strong in the Achiever theme have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive." It goes into a little more depth on the paper I got after I finished it, but I can't remember much of it. It says something like these people feel like they need to achieve something each day. Which is totally true! Now I know why I HATE having just lazy days. I don't mind having like a half lazy day with Mike, but I always have the feeling when I haven't accomplished anything at all during the day. It bugs Mike sometimes that I can't just have an occasional lazy day with him. Haha. I can't remember them all in order, but another in my top 5 is Harmony. Harmony says "People strong in the Harmony theme look for consensus. They don't enjoy conflict; rather, they seek areas of agreement."Another one is Developer. "People strong in the Developer theme recognize and cultivate the potential in others. They spot the signs of each small improvement and derive satisfaction from these improvements." I wish I could remember the other two, but I can't at this moment. It was really cool to figure these out so I can work at making these strengths better.


The other week, we went to the zoo. It was so fun! The new exhibit is very, very cool. I loved the polar bear. It was pretty big! And the seals were playing in the water which was fun to watch.

Good News and the 4th of July

This past month has been a good one. Mike found out that he nailed his interviews at Fidelity and got a job offer. He will be starting on the 23rd of this month. I will miss having lunch with him almost everyday but I am very excited for his opportunity to move into a job where he will be paid more and enjoy it more. Hopefully he will also have more opportunity to move up and utilize his degree more. And I also hope he will want to pursue a Masters degree once he gets into this job.

 To celebrate his new job, I took him to a Real game against the L.A. Galaxy. We had a great time! Besides, of course, the retarded people in front of us that would not sit down. It was a fun game to go to, and we had a good time.

This past week some of Mike's family was out. Mike's great aunt Eva passed away, and her funeral was on the 3rd. It was a very nice service. On the night of the viewing (July 2) we had Mike's brother Brandon, dad, aunt Elva and Mike's dad's cousin Kathleen over for dinner. Mike made a wonderful dinner! He made Cafe Rio pork burritos and made smoothies for the drink. Very yummy!

On Tuesday (July 3) after the funeral we went to the Jordan River temple as a family and did baptisms for the dead. Steve had a lot of family names to get done. We had a good time and stopped by Winder Dairy on the way home. I don't ever complain about going there. Yum!

I love the 4th of July. It is my favorite holiday. I love the breakfasts, I love the BBQ's, I love the fireworks, I love the Patriotism floating around in the air, and I love the warm weather. This year was mine and Mike's first 4th of July in Utah since we've been married. In the morning Kathleen, Elva and Steve came over to our house. Brandon made crepes and I made french toast for breakfast. After that we all headed up to Ogden to hang out with my family. Once we got there, a group was leaving to go to Kirt's for lunch. I had Brandon come along, and we all went to Kirt's. There was me, Brandon, Syd, Aimee, Cody (Syd's friend), Jasi, Doug, and Jade. Sorry if I forgot anyone. I ended up getting a grasshopper cookie shake. It was really good! I really liked it, I might even get it next time.

We headed back to the house and hung out for a bit. We played bolo toss/ladder ball and we ended up getting one of the golf ball things stuck in a tree. Mike threw one of his shoes at it, and his shoe then got stuck in a tree. We ended up having to get a ladder and a long stick to get his shoe out. We also got the golf ball thing down. We then moved the game to a different part of the yard.

After the game we went inside to cool down. It was really hot out! Brandon played a few songs on the piano for us, and Jasi even sang for us. She has such a beautiful voice. I love when she sings. I always end up crying though. Every time.

Later in the afternoon Mike and I made some homemade ice cream. We also had a BBQ. It was pretty good. It was even late enough in the afternoon we had some shade to sit in and everything. After that Mike and I took a little mini hike up at the Nature Center place by the mountain above my parent's house.

After we got back we broke out the ice cream. Talk about refreshing. And cold. And delish. Mmm. After a bit we headed to Barker Park for the fireworks. I really liked them at Barker Park this year! After the fireworks we headed home where we played with sparklers and the boys put on a great firework show. They even did some aerial fireworks which did not disappoint!

It was a really good 4th of July. The worst part was going to work the next day. I was exhausted.

Yesterday, the 7th, Brandon and I went rock climbing at Momentum. It was pretty fun. I'm not as good as I used to be, but it felt good to be climbing. I ended on a 5.11a. Not bad I guess. We also went to a Real soccer game last night. Me, Mike, Steve, Brandon, Ryan and one of my friends and his wife all went. It was against Portland and real won 3-0. The goals were all pretty sweet.

I only have about 4 weeks of school left. Thank goodness! I'm starting to go crazy from all of my homework. Then I get to start back later in August. It is crazy how fast the year has gone this year!

Love you all!

Summer

As I sit in my house of 80 degrees, I wish for AC. Or I wish I has a sprinkler head for my hose so  I could run through the sprinklers like I used to when I was little. I should probably do some homework, but I don't feel like it. And it's Sunday. I don't feel like doing homework right now on Sunday. I could go make some cookies.. but that will heat the house up even more. So I sit.

This semester I am taking 15 credits. It is going to kill me I think. They are all online classes though, so I can go to Mike's softball games and go to Young Womens on Wednesdays. And I got a tuition waiver, so the classes are free for me this semester.

I feel like an old married lady. We are coming up on our third anniversary. And when you are a young and naive 22 year old, that seems like a long time. It's still a few months away, but I'm stressing out because I don't know what to get Mike. I like to have a plan at least 5 months ahead so I can start saving up if I need to.

Today Mike made something delicious. I had been teasing him the last few days because he couldn't stop talking about how good it sounded. He made cheese filled jalapenos wrapped in bacon. They were amazing. It was really good, and the jalapenos weren't too hot. Maybe the cheese helped cool them down.

Yesterday while we were driving we passed a street called "Ticklegrass Road". I said, "Wow! Ticklegrass Road! What a delightful place to live! I would live on the street." I looked at Mike. He glanced at me and back at the road. I said, "it's times like these that I wish my mom was here. Because she would think that was funny." And she would think it was funny. In fact, I just got off the phone with her, and she did that it was funny. Take that Mr. Grumpy Gills.

My big thing lately is to say "HULK SMASH!" a lot. Why? I'm not sure. It started after I watched the Avengers. Great movie.

Well, I have really nothing else to say. Until next time.. may the force be with you.

Hilarious

Mike and I went to the eye doctor probably about two weeks ago. I totally forgot to post about this.

We set up an appointment together, cuz that's what married people do so they don't have to waste gas with each going to the place separately. Haha. Anyway, the eye doctor called us back at the same time and I went first. Not too bad. I'm getting some lenses put in my sunglasses to see a little better while driving. My lenses I have for work still work really well and I don't get headaches so I'm just keeping those till next year when I get frames and lenses.

Mike is getting some lenses in another pair of frames he has and they will be transition lenses so he can see better playing sports. He didn't want to wear his really nice glasses playing, and plus sometimes it gets really bright in the evening when he is playing softball so he went with the transitions.

So after me, Mike gets in the chair and the eye doctor asks if he can read anything on the bottom two lines. Mike said, "I can't read those, but I can read the line above it, and it says F C". So then the eye doctor asked Mike a question and he said F C again and then had to read the whole chart, and he did fine until the F C.. and he said F C again.

Funny thing is that it was an F O. Hahahaha!

I was dying laughing on the inside! I just kept thinking, "it's not an F C, it's an F O.. you can't read it fine like you are claiming." Haha.

Also we have a birds nest in the backyard under our porch over hang cover thing. I'm going to sneak up there today with a ladder to see what I see. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll be able to get some pics with my camera.

Spring.

I love spring. I love the flowers and that I can finally wear flip flops. Here is a list of things that I am going to try to remember until next year.

- Even if it LOOKS warm, you still want to take a jacket.
- If you get new sandals, don't wear them on a really long walk, or you will get blisters.
- Don't start cleaning a room unless you are positive you have enough energy to finish it.
- Don't try to pull up thistles even with gardening gloves on.
- If you pull up all the dandelions in your yard, you will feel accomplished for 2 days. Then they grow back.
- Whatever you do, after you are done drinking a smoothie, RINSE out the glass! It will smell if you don't. And if it doesn't smell, it will dry up and you have to put it in the dishwasher 2 times.
- Praise your dog even if it pees in the middle of the road, because hey, at least it's not in your house.
- Do your homework even though being outside or spring cleaning all of a sudden sounds so much more fun.
- Keep the heat on at night or your house will be at 60 degrees when you wake up.
- Just because it looks nice in the morning doesn't mean it will be nice all day.
- Take your allergy pill EVERYDAY, because your allergies will act up as soon as you leave the house.
- Take a shower after you weed the lawn or you will have hives all over your arms and legs during class and itch like mad.
- Just because September is still a few months away, doesn't mean you can't start thinking about what pics to turn into the State Fair.
- All baby animals are cute. So play with them.
-However, not all adult animals are cute or fun, so do not take them home.


I think that is about it. I hope I remember this stuff for next year!

Calling It.

I'm horrible. I know it. Tell me. I'm horrible at blogging. This one is going to LOOONG. So beware.

When was the last time I blogged? Like October? Blah.

November- I don't think anything significant happened. I turned 22 though. 11/11/11! Coolest birthday numbers ever. My birthday is 11/11.. Add those together, it is 22! I was also born at 11:49 at night.. so only for realsies 11 minutes of my birthday! So cool. Mike and I stayed up to celebrate my REAL birthday minutes. He also took me out to dinner. Such an awesome hubby.

December- Mike's birthday on 12/7. He is like a bazillion years old now. Even has some white hairs. I loved his birthday this year. I love his birthday every year. I'm especially going to love his 30th. I just loooove spoiling and surprising him and his birthday is the few occasions when I can. I got to make him 2 cakes this year. I made him a Thundercats cake, and I made him a Link cake. On Mike's birthday, we went over to Amber and Ryan's house to celebrate! We had a surprise for him.. dinner and going to the Blue Man Group Concert. (thanks Amber and Ryan! That was so fun!) Anyway, we went over there and they had pizza for the kids, and Amber said the prayer. In the prayer she said "please bless that we will have fun out on uncle Mike's birthday going out for Chinese food and for the Blue Man Group Concert". After she ended the prayer, Mike said "oh that's cool, I hope you guys have fun!" He didn't get it was for his birthday. So we told him it was for his birthday, and he was excited and surprised! It was a fun night! The concert was really cool. I would definitely see them again.
I also set up a surprise dinner for Mike with some of his friends. I snuck his friend's numbers from his phone and texted them and we all met up for dinner at Red Robin. He had no idea! I think he had a good night seeing some of his buddies again.
Christmas was great like it is every year. We woke up early, and we went over to Amber and Ryan's to watch their kids open their presents. It was really fun to watch them. Kids are so fun at Christmas time! We got a dutch oven (thanks Grandma and Grandpa!), and we also got a sweet camp stove (thanks Mom and Dad!) And my grandma got me a mini food chopper that I wanted (Thanks Grandma!). This year was special because it was the Christmas right before my grandparents left on their mission. They are in San Diego, CA. My grandma called the other day and told me how she ate an orange that was fresh off a tree. I was so jealous! She lived my dream! She said it was delicious.

January- School started back up. UGH! One day I will be done! Until then.. I will keep plugging along slowly. This semester I took some more general classes to try to get them knocked out. I took Anthropology, English, Zumba and Career Development. I've really liked my Zumba class. The others are fine. I will be done with this semester the first week of May. Let's hope it comes fast.

February- VALENTINE'S DAY!!! As you all know, Mike is my Valentine. And I couldn't ask for anyone better. He is the best. I'm so happy I'm with him for forever. He is so handsome, sexy, funny, smart, kind, loving and everything I've ever wanted and more. He gives up sports games to spend time with me or to go out, helps me with my homework,  rock climbs and hikes with me,  shovels the driveway, makes dinners, helps clean, cuddles me, and plays video card and board games with me. Best. EVER.

March- Ohhhhh March Madness how I hate thee. Actually, this year wasn't as bad as I anticipated. We went to Oregon for some of the Madness. We went to some of the games. I never knew my butt could be so sore from sitting in a stadium seat for like 10 hours. I eliminated Dave (take that Dave! :D)! We went to a lot of places, too. We went to the zoo where we played with a lion. We went to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, I think) and my hair stood on end while touching a huge metal ball. We pretended like we were in chemistry together, and wore goggles while doing science projects. We built a huge bridge and made it fall and we looked at cool Lego statues. We went to Voodoo Donuts again, and they were yummy! We went to Mt St Helens and took some pictures there. I almost got car sick. So did Mike. The front driver side window got stuck down, and Mike was sitting right behind the driver seat. He was cold! Poor Mikey. We made it back okay though. We went on some hikes, and saw tons of waterfalls! We also got to go to the Oregon Temple! It was gorgeous.We'll definitely go back to that one next time we are out.
At the end of March Mike started a job at Discover. I get to have lunch with him sometimes and I love it. He is doing credit card servicing right now, but hopefully he can move to something else soon. I appreciate him doing a job he doesn't enjoy.

April-I recently applied for a different position at my work, and I got it! I'm really excited and a little nervous for the change. I'll be doing Policy and Procedures for the bank. Hopefully it will be a nice raise ;). I'm really excited, and I start May 1. I've been totally bogged down with work, homework and other things so I'm excited for the semester to end. I'll be going to school this summer too, so I can get done faster. I should have my generals done in the fall semester. I hope I finish one day.
I had another bad outer ear infection this month too. It's gone now, but it definitely wasn't pleasant. I keep hoping my ears will magically get better and never bug me again, but so far it hasn't happened yet. Sigh.. maybe one day.
We went up to my parents for Easter. It was really fun. I got some Easter Lilies from my dad (thanks Dad!) and we both got some candy! WE had a delicious dinner, and we had a nerf sword fight in the backyard.

My Random thoughts:
- The other day Mike told me we will be married for 3 years in August. I can't believe it! Time flies so fast!!
- My flowers are out now. I love flowers. I have tulips and daffodils. I can't wait for my strawberries to start coming up too. We have a lot of yard work to do this year. Hopefully we can get it done.
- I love wearing flip flops.
- The other day I had my running test in Zumba to see if we've improved. I improved my 1.5 mile time by 3 minutes and 3 seconds! Even though my new times isn't super great, I am still ecstatic I cut that much off my 1.5 mile. I've been trying to run and walk and eat more healthy, so it's nice to know that it is paying off.
- We got another dog. She is a 6 week old Labradoodle puppy and she is super cute. She's black and we named her Banshee. Perfect name for her cuz she howls and cries just like one.We weren't planning on getting another dog till later this year or even next year, but she was a really low price, and was adorable. Waffles loves her. They get along great. She is on a trial right now though, because she isn't hypoallergenic. So far my allergies have been pretty good.

That's all I can think of. Love you all!

Passed.

I did it. I got through my first semester back at school. With a 3.8 GPA! Hooray! I was pretty pleased with how I did this semester, especially because I didn't like 2 of my classes at all. I'm really glad its over, but I'm sad that the net semester is coming so fast. Slow down December!