Kevin & Bree

2011-10-26T20:13:00.000-07:00

Kevin is a hot and cold kind of guy. Let me explain. If he believes in something, he is over-the-top, head-over-heels into that thing; on the other hand, if he isn't crazy about something he's like a beached whale: stubborn and unwilling to move. And to be honest I don't blame him because sometimes I get these wild ideas in my head that are unrealistic. He usually grounds me with said beached-whale-ness.

I've had this vision for a piece for our living room that would be a stand for our TV. We had been searching high and low for such a piece since we moved here, but to no avail. However, during ~~mission: get our house in order~~ fall break last week, I coerced Kevin into going to the thrift store with me (his most dreaded errand) and low and behold, there it was! Right in the front of the store waiting for us. But we didn't know it at the time. We looked at it on our way in and went on to scour the rest of the store. It wasn't until after we checked out and were on our way out that we stopped again to look at it. I took out my tape measure to make sure the dimensions were right and pulled up my inspiration board via Pinterest to try and sell it to Kevin (he's a visual learner). To my surprise, he was easily convinced and all for it (sweet). So we bought it. And from that point on it became Kevin's baby. He made several trips to Home Depot to pick up supplies and was hard at work for two days straight.

Another thing about Kevin is that when he does something and does it well he is not ashamed to sing its praises. Even if its just a turkey sandwich. Upon the first bites he can be found saying "Do you taste this? This is awesome! That's right." So you can imagine his reaction to this masterpiece:

He took several iphone pictures and texted it to everyone. He even shared the news with our distant neighbors who were all but enthused. But it didn't even phase him.

All this to say that I am 100% behind his self-aggrandizement because it is pretty spectacular! I love his quirky ways.

Instas: Fall Break

2011-10-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

I can't remember the last time we had a couple of days to spend together without a single plan or commitment, and for that reason alone, fall break was a blast! Not to mention that Kevin slept in until at least 8am everyday which is enough to prove that things were pretty chill around here. These past couple of days have reminded me how much fun we have together.

From R to L:

1. Louie's new do... I hate the way he looks after a fresh cut 2. Louie plays fetch 3. Cinnamon roll pumpkin pancakes for Kevin's birthday 4. A coupon-inspired lunch at Popeyes (never again!) 5. Me and Louie at the airfield at Reagan airport (more on that later) 6. ~~Our~~ Kevin's little painting project 7. airfield again 8. Sushi dinner for Kevin's birthday.

2011-10-19T18:59:00.000-07:00

In just a few days our tree has turned a new leaf and decided to change color

Kevin is on fall break so we are livin' it up at home together this week. I couldn't be more happy to have him around to do my daily routine with me. And by routine I mean watch Ellen as we organize and build furniture on the floor in our living room.

I'm realizing that I don't just move from one place to another, unpack, and be done with it. We have been here for two months and our apartment still isn't completely unpacked. I am one of those people who has to live with bare walls and minimal furniture for a while before I can decide where things should go. This fall break has been dedicated to mission: get our house in order.

Then & Now: Louie

2011-10-17T19:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when I was uploading some photos from our camera I came across a recent photo of Louie that reminded me of a picture we took a few days after we got him. Can you believe how how different he looks? He sure is a cutie.

Autumn Awareness

2011-10-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

The fall color scheme is making its way into town and I find myself being more aware than ever before of the changes going on. Most noticeably, the air is more crisp and breezy and the colors more vibrant. Like in any change in season, I feel like a broken record, commenting every five minutes about how pretty it is outside.

Being the California native that I am (or maybe it comes with age?), I have never really slowed down to notice the beautiful changes that happen around this time of year because, lets be honest, California doesn't experience the drastic changes of the four seasons. But I've heard that the DC falls and springs are to-die-for and I don't want to miss it!

So, in an effort to capture the beautiful changes that are going on outside, I have decided to document the transformations. It should be an incredible sight to see! This is the first (hence the numero uno) of the fall eye candy going on in our neck of the woods.

Thinking of Home

2011-10-13T16:02:00.000-07:00

Before yesterday most people around the country had never heard of our beloved Seal Beach. But today, the tragedy that rocked Seal Beach resonates everywhere. My most sincere thoughts and prayers are with those who are grieving the loss of loved ones. If nothing else, I will more readily cherish the people in my life.

We Miss Our People

2011-10-12T18:44:00.000-07:00

Minus the Millers and Longs

I'm long overdue for some commentary around these parts. I'm back.

We've been in DC for almost two months and things are pretty fantastic, but we miss our friends terribly. More than they probably know. Not to say that we don't love the people we've met here but it's just different. We don't live the care-free, spend-every-night-of-the-week-with-our-friends, Provo lifestyle anymore. There's no more texting my besties every late afternoon with "what are we doing tonight?" "your house or mine?"

And it doesn't help that the local Top 40 radio station plays this song every time I'm in the car.

I get nostalgic thinking of the night we blasted the anthem music video at Drew and Kerri's while we idiotically tried to teach each other the shuffle. Needless to say, none of us had enough swag to really look cool. Dare I say that the only "cool" one was the person who decided to sit on the sideline and watch (he will remain nameless).

I miss the Provo life.

Georgetown Cupcake

2011-09-01T06:38:00.000-07:00

One thing I realized about my dad while my parents were here is that he loves cupcakes-- all week he kept asking for "DC Cupcake" and by that he meant Georgetown Cupcake. Every time we've ever driven by, the line is out the door and at least 50 people long, so we had to try it.

Turns out neither Kevin nor I love cupcakes as much as my dad. He approved 100 percent but we think there was way too much frosting.

Cone of Shame

2011-08-30T08:47:00.000-07:00

Poor Louie got neutered yesterday and has to sport this cone for 10 days.

Talk about robbing him of his manhood.

Home is Wherever I'm With You

2011-08-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

We have yet to receive the truck that has all of our stuff... the moving company has assured us that it is in route and should be here by Wednesday. We're trying to be patient but sleeping on a mattress on the floor with an empty living room is getting old. I'm tired of sitting on the floor and don't even get me started on how frustrating it is to not have a single item to cook with. Actually, I take that back... we bought a pot and a pan to use but you get the idea.

We have officially been here for two weeks, it's crazy how fast the time has gone by. I thought moving here would be a life changer for us-- a new city, 2000+ miles away from home, and husband in law school seemed like enough to make me think that my life would be one hundred percent different. But the truth is things have never felt more normal. I guess what I'm trying to say is that home and my level of comfort is wherever Kevin and Louie are. It sounds funny to include Louie, but he really has made this place feel more like home.

Come on Irene

2011-08-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

This morning we ran all of our last minute errands and are home now anxiously anticipating the storm. We are stocked up on all the necessary essentials like batteries, flashlights, candles, water, non-perishables, etc; not to mention, a whole lot of junk food. I made Kevin stop one more time at the market on our way home to get more food because lets be honest, what else is there to do when you are forced to stay inside for 24hrs.

Even though it's 80 degrees and insanely humid, I will be sipping on hot chocolate by the window all day. Happy Saturday!

3 years + a jolt

2011-08-24T16:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we celebrated our third year of marriage with a night out at what will be our go-to Italian restaurant. We're new around here so we don't really know what places are good, but Tagolio just so happened to be a jackpot. I ordered a pizza with fresh mozzarella cheese, spinach, garlic, sausage, and pepperoni, and Kevin ordered Daniel's Spaghetti with Meatballs.

Everyone sitting on the patio around us was discussing the earthquake that jolted the east coast earlier in the day. It was kind of funny to hear people talk about it. For most, it was their first experience in an earthquake, ever!

At the end of our meal the waiter brought out a little celebratory dessert for us and we indulged! Afterward, we headed home so Kevin could get back to his reading.

It was a simple but sweet. Here's to the first three years of our marriage spent in Provo and to the next three (maybe more) here in DC.

Weekend Instas: Tourists

2011-08-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

My parents are here to help us get settled and to see the Washington DC area for the first time. On Saturday we set out to conquer the National Mall and on Sunday we spent the day at home lounging in our sweats.

1. Lincoln Memorial

2. mile-high escalator at the Dupont Circle Metro stop

3. flags surrounding the Washington Monument

4. Lincoln Memorial Parthenon

5. me

6. homemade pizookies

7. Turkey, bacon, avocado sandwiches and soup after church on a stormy sunday afternoon

8. mom and dad + the Washington Monument

not pictured: Louie's first time to a DC dog park (it was incredible!)

All in a Weeks Time

2011-08-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

A week ago, yesterday, we walked in the BYU graduation exercises with the class of 2011 to round out our undergraduate careers.

And yesterday (one week later) Kevin started his first day of law school at George Washington. Words cannot express how blessed we feel to be here.

Washington DC

2011-08-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

I thought the day would never come when I'd say we're here; Washington DC is officially our home. We flew in late Saturday night with 4 large suitcases, two carry-ons, a dog, and a whole lot of naivety. The past few days have been all but a walk in the park. Washington DC is a convoluted city with little mercy for green drivers like us. The grid system in Utah is heavenly.

Besides spending way too much time lost, we have spent the past couple of days shopping for essentials, assembling IKEA furniture, unpacking our clothes, and site seeing. Our apartment stands completely empty until our truck arrives sometime next week (fingers crossed) so we have yet to completely settle in.

We have, however, been to the Shake Shack twice this week. My friend Lia told me that it was the In N Out of the East coast, better even (if you can believe that). We were not disappointed.

Tomorrow Kevin starts 1L orientation. This is so surreal.

Sessions' Nuptials

2011-08-09T15:57:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we were back in California for the third time in six weeks! This time for Krista (Kevin's sister) and Tallon's wedding. Tallon has quickly become apart of the family because of his incredible ability to make you feel comfortable in a I-feel-like-I've-known-you-forever kind of way. That said, it was such a treat to meet and spend a lot of time with his family. Gwen and Ali if you're reading this, we love you and your peeps!

762 miles in two days

2011-08-08T07:31:00.000-07:00

As if we haven't been all over the place this summer, we headed down to Las Vegas last weekend to meet up with my parents. They were kind enough to meet us there (the halfway point between Provo and Seal Beach) to hand off a few pieces of furniture for us to take with us to DC.

Las Vegas has never been a choice destination for me because, lets be honest, I'm a stone-cold sober sista, with no desire to gamble. Howeverrrr, I do love to be an eyewitness at any good party scene (go figure), so you can imagine my contentment as we walked up and down Las Vegas Blvd.

1. Dad and Kevin wear coordinating blues
2. People say I look like my mom, is it true?
3/4: Mom found this awesome Tapas restaurant where we indulged in some pretty bomb appetizers.
5. The long line and $10 price tag for frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity was enough to deter us. Is it really that good? We just sat outside instead.
6/7: Sunday morning brunch at the hotel was stellar!
8. 10 hrs. in the car was a breeze thanks to this AWESOME (i repeat, AWESOME) audio book.
9. Have I mentioned how much I despise the drive through Southern Utah?

It's Offish

2011-07-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

My diploma arrived in the mail last week! I've been done with classes for several months but being done with school never really felt legitimate. I had been fully prepared to receive a notice saying that I had more classes to take, which, you should know happened twice! But, no...the proof is in the pudding, my diploma is here.

So what's next for me? I'm hoping to join the workforce and become a ~~sugar mamma~~ nine-to-fiver while Kevin is in school. Preferably, a low stress office job at George Washington so we can commute and take our lunch breaks together.

Southern California Never Gets Old

2011-07-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

The ever-so quant and lovely Long Beach Airport / Lounging on the Beach: Kevin / Me / Paddle boating in my parents backyard / paddle boat dock + water / parents patio umbrella / Trader Joe's (can't wait to frequent you again while in DC)

We're back from another long weekend spent at home. Our many trips home this summer have solidified our love for where we grew up-- we want to move back someday. The weather is perfect. 'Nough said.

E.R.

2011-07-20T16:32:00.000-07:00

Monday morning was a doozie.

But I must say that I am more grateful for this boy because of it.

Never Again

2011-07-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

We have a running joke that Louie is part poodle part bear cub. It all started a few weeks ago when we were back home on a walk with Louie on 2nd St. We passed a lady that said to her friend "look there's that bear dog again." He's definitely not comparable to a bear in stature, but more like a cub, so it stuck.

But yesterday after we picked him up from his first visit to the groomer he was void of all things bear-cub. His face was shaved and his hair looked like a wispy, feathered hairdo from the 1970s. And for an animal comparison, think Lemur from Madagascar (the movie).

All-in-all pretty horrific. From now on we will do his grooming ourselves.

Last bit of Colorado: A Video

2011-07-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

And in my opinion the best bit so far! Kevin and I put together a little video using the pictures and video footage we took on our trip. This will definitely go down in the books! Check it out...

Warning: its long.

ps. it may be easier to watch if you click through to youtube... I cant figure out how to make it bigger.

Saturday was a Success

2011-07-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

We strive for a work hard in the morning to play hard in the afternoon schedule for our Saturdays but that's rarely the case. Saturday was one of those days... We set out early in the morning inspired to conquer a handful of major tasks before 2 o'clock but that didn't happen--mostly because we were on a roll.

We gave our house a good deep clean in the morning and tackled our messy garage in the afternoon, with a snow cone run in between. We officially have a huge pile of stuff to sell with plans to have a garage sale on saturday and a long list of furniture to post on craigslist.

Things are under way.

Super Stache

2011-07-07T15:10:00.000-07:00

Remember this post of yore where I documented how Kevin celebrated Cinco de Mayo in style?

Well, things have gotten pretty serious since then because he has decided to sport a real one, only more subtle and firey red:

And you know what? I kind of love it! Every dad needs an old college pic with a stache to show his kids, right?

July Woes

2011-07-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

We're home from another several day trip and I am dreading the month ahead.

I can't believe it, July is already here and to be honest, reality is starting to get the best of me! For the first time ever, our Summer schedule is bursting at the seam; the culminating event being our 2000+ mile move across the country. I can handle friend vacays, spending time in California with family, and attending weddings, but shoving my house into a box(es) gives me anxiety.

Since we started planning our move, July has been the month for sifting, donating, and packing all of our stuff. Unfortunately, both the Colorado trip and the long awaited family wedding have come and gone and it is July 6th. The Movers will be here early the morning of August 8th which gives me about a month to pack this place up.

I don't know what's more daunting... packing our house in a total of 30 boxes or realizing how much stuff we've accumulated.

On a more level-headed note, I snapped this picture from my my phone at the onset of last nights thunderstorm. It truly was the most vibrant rainbow I have ever witnessed and the best way to return home. Life is good!

sift. donate. pack. repeat...

1 Week in CO, 28 photos to prove it.

2011-06-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

On Monday morning we woke up to 6in. of snow! Luckily the snow melted right up and the weather was perfect for the rest of the trip.

The pictures speak for themselves...we had a fabulous time in Breckenridge! Come August we are all going our separate ways, so I guess you could say this was our last hurrah in trip form. The good news is that three out of the four of us couples will be East Coastas for the next couple of years while in grad school so there will most definitely be more big-time reunions (BTR's) to come.

Checking In...

2011-06-26T21:07:00.000-07:00

We're home from a week spent in Colorado with our best friends. We have several memories to document and even more pictures to share. But first we've got to catch up on ~~life~~ episodes of The Bachelorette and So You Think You Can Dance, emails, laundry, homework, etc.

the butthead

2011-06-14T21:52:00.000-07:00

While we're at school or work Louie stays home solo and prepares for his 5p.m. whirlwind. Last night was his most intense yet--he is in full-fledged puppy mode: chewing, humping, and trying to eat everything in site. I'm kind of sad to see his cute puppy phase broaden into hyperactivity.

Because he's so full of energy we're up to three walks per day: one in the morning, one when we get home from school/work, and the last right before we go to bed. And of course there is the usual sit-on-the-ground-and throw-squeaky-toys-across-the-house, which, I assume is similar to the ever-so famous "tummy time" for newborns/toddlers. Case in point: at this very moment, Kevin is laying on the ground playing tug-of-war with Louie and his favorite rope toy... go figure.

Best of Provo: Station 22

2011-06-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

Is there a word for pre-nostalgia? If there is we have a case of it. Our time in Provo (err, Utah) is dwindling down and we are trying to cherish our last couple of weeks here. I never thought I could/would be melancholy about leaving Provo, yet eager to leave.

I'm looking forward to the adventure that Washington DC will be for us, but I will miss our usual small-town spots.

On Friday night we met up with our besties for dinner at Station 22, one of our all-time favorite joints, for what was a pretty perfect summer night. We walked there from our house with Louie in tow and enjoyed a fab dinner on the patio with the music from the Rooftop Concert Series playing in the background. They make a great sandwich but their fries are to-die-for and have officially become our weakness. Sometimes we'll stop by for a basket of fries on our evening walk just because... even after we've already officially eaten dinner at home. They're that good. And for the record: we went there twice last week.

Lost and (Not) Found

2011-06-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like losing something that turns your world upside down. Unfortunately, we are all too familiar with this feeling.

We returned home from St. George safe and sound on Monday evening, but when we got home we realized that our keys were missing. When the Evansons dropped us off we were sure our keys were either inside our house or somewhere amongst our luggage.

After tearing our house apart, calling our hotel and every gas station along the I-15 S. to St. George, we pronounced the keys MIA. Since our only car key was attached to that set of keys, we panicked. Being a one-car-family is hard enough but when you don't have a key to drive that car, life gets hectic. We were not only key-less, we were ~~car-less~~ stranded.

We didn't have very many options so we called the Toyota dealer to get an estimate on a replacement key the next morning. When they told us it would be $307 for a new key, we almost pooped our pants. We were desperate to find an alternative option.

Long story short: Kevin's mom had a random spare key that she overnighted to us. We have since taken it to the local locksmith to get 7 replacement copies at $4.50 a pop.

Moral of the story: Always make sure that I know where the keys are... because there's no guarantee that Kevin will remember where he left them.

Random side note: I never knew that I could be so emotionally attached to a set of keys. The keys to my childhood home and our first apartment were on there and I would do anything to have them back.

Snapshots: St. George

2011-05-31T21:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Memorial Day!

We headed down to St. George for the long weekend with our friends Scott and Heather to soak up the sun and cash in on some much needed R&R. We did a little bit of everything from mountain biking to site seeing the best of St. George's LDS culture to loafing at the pool. I do love a good people watching opportunity through my sunglasses--a day at a public pool never ceases to offer that. And lets get real, there's nothing like a fresh sunburn to kick off the summer right. Crossing my fingers the sun is out for good this time.

Louie

2011-05-29T19:13:00.000-07:00

What kind of new mamma would I be if I didn't post periodic updates on our little man? I don't have stats or percentiles but I do have a few other points of interest (at least to me) that I want to share.

Lets face it... we have a little puppy on our hands and with that means pee and poop on them too. Turns out potty training a puppy is hard. It's definitely easier said than done. I have done a ton of reading on the best ways to potty train and, so far, nothing has worked. Consistency, I've read, is the key. But who has the energy for that? Ha, it's been interesting to see ourselves react to certain situations. Let's just say consistency, cruel and unusual punishment (aka. crate training), and patience are a work in progress for us. Oh well, he'll get the hang of it some day. I hope.

Life with a pup is definitely different. We take evening strolls around the neighborhood, frequent the park, mop and vacuum at least once a day, and say things like: "I have a piece of poop in my hand where should I put it?!" all too often. Not to mention how we freak out when he is out of sight for fear that he is off peeing somewhere. We often joke that this is great "basic training" for when we have a baby.

This weekend has been the challenge of all challenges, though. Traveling with a un-potty-trained puppy is more high maintenance than I anticipated. Lets just hope that housekeeping doesn't notice the yellow pee stains on the bedspread.

Per Kevin's request.

A Forced Spring Outing

2011-05-24T21:25:00.000-07:00

The storm(s) finally subsided this afternoon leaving the sky squeaky clean. When I got in my car after work it was uncomfortably warm but it felt too good to be true so I didn't dare roll down the windows. I knew that we would have to take advantage of the warmth even if it was just for the evening because, lets be honest, there's no telling when this Utah weather will finally decide to turn to Spring. At this point, I'm guessing we'll probably skip Spring altogether and jump into Summer.

Anyway, we made plans to hit up the local snow cone shack while we were on our evening walk with little Louie. By the time we were ready to go the sun was low in the sky and the temperature was rapidly dropping. I second guessed our plans to go to the shack but there was no way I was going to let the cold ruin my idea of a perfect Spring night. I told Kevin that we should bundle up and so we did. We had a short conversation about whether we would allow our little Louie to be one of those dogs who wears dog clothing but Kevin vetoed it. He may be purse-sized but he will not be wearing clothing-- at least not for now.

It was a nice stroll but we most definitely shivered our way through the icy slush(ies). We prematurely threw our snow cones away and ~~headed~~ ran home. I think we're pushing our luck but it was totally worth it! It was a time well spent with my boys (totally cliche, i know!).

*the photos above were taken a few weeks back during the aforementioned "Sunny Saturday" weekend.

a whole lot of jibberish and some exciting news

2011-05-22T20:56:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I started to write a post about the weather and how beautiful the weekend had been. The first sentence went a little something like this:"Some of the items from our "summa time" list are starting to creep into our reality! Following was the list with strikeouts through the things that had happened (ie. 1. ~~snow cone shacks dot every corner~~).

Things were looking up! We got our snow cone fix and rode our bikes all over town for a couple of days. We even did a sweet ride up the canyon to Bridal Veil Falls on Sunday. But as it turns out I would have totally jumped the gun had I posted it. Monday was the first day of the ongoing rain streak and today marks the 7th consecutive day of rain. It has been a pretty wet and dreary week to say the least.

But there was only one thing that could have turned our frowns upside down...and it did.

We have a new addition to our family. Meet little Louie:

It's been a long time coming...we have both been antsy to add a puppy to our mix since we got married and finally decided to do it. He's a 12 week old Aussie-doodle with so much love to give. We love him!

Sunny Saturday

2011-05-10T22:19:00.000-07:00

Say that ten times fast.

This past Saturday was one of the best ones we've had in a while. Not because we ever have bad Saturdays, but because the weather was heavenly (can you tell we operate around the weather?). We woke up earlier than usual to the the sun beating through our window and our duvet on the floor, a rarity considering I usually have to force myself to leave the covers to endure the icebox that has been our home for the past few months.

We did our usual Saturday morning routine (Kevin: study at school; Bree: run errands) and met back at home at noon to spend the day together.

I guess what I'm about to say next comes as no surprise: No sunny Saturday is complete without a trip to our favorite burger joint. When I got home and asked Kevin about going out for lunch he said, without skipping a beat, "Yep, In N Out, lets go!" We sat on the patio and relished in the sun discussing moving options--our newest worn out topic.

Side tangent: We can't decide if we should just sell everything we own and buy new stuff in DC or if we should pay the big bucks to have a moving company haul all of our junk across the country. Any opinions?

We know we have a lot of junk that needs to get the boot, so we spent the rest of the afternoon sorting through our garage. Most of the time was spent reading through old high school journals or arguing about what we do and don't want to keep. Kevin was unusually willing to send things to the "garage sale" pile, which was weird because he is typically a hoarder. Speaking of hoarding, it's kind of ridiculous how much stuff we have accumulated over the past few years. Needless to say, we only go through half of the garage.

And for the icing on our Saturday, we headed down to Spanish Fork canyon with Kevin's sibs for a little night hike to explore the hot springs. Except for the never-ending two hour hike to and from the springs, it was a blast!

Didi (Kasey's Fiance), Kasey, and me

the hot spring was perfectly warm.

Krista and Tallon (Krista's fiance) cross the raging river to get to the other side, ha.

Here's to more sunny saturdays spent enjoying our "lasts" of Provo life.

This Saturday: tackle the rest of the garage/plan for garage sale. Fun, no?

Cinco do Mayo(stache)

2011-05-08T21:39:00.000-07:00

We're always up for an excuse to throw a party, especially when it's Mexican themed. And it's an added bonus when the weather is prime for grilling and outdoor lounging.

So, naturally we invited our besties over to celebrate. We threw some flank stake (err, carne asada) and chicken on the grill and did up a burrito/taco bar chock full of all the right fixings for a create-your-own-(insert favorite mexican food here) a la Cafe Rio.

I tried to be ~~festive~~ an overachiever by offering a non-alcoholic mojito-- there's something about the sound of a mojito that screams PAR-TAY! So I made some. Since I had never actually had one before, I had no idea what it was supposed to taste like... and to be honest, my only experience with "mixed drinks" are the strawberry daiquiris from poolside resorts. I fully expected it to taste like a limeade version of the daiquiris from vacation. Wrong. It was pitiful. Maybe alcohol really does offset the taste of anything that tastes like poison.

Virgin or not, the mojitos must have had an effect because all the boys were hyped and decided to draw Crayola mustaches on their faces.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the night in our front yard, talking on our porch, playing frisbee, and lounging on the grass.

I wasn't thrilled about the mosquito bites I got all over my legs, but that only means one thing: summa time!

Paladar

2011-05-06T09:47:00.000-07:00

I mentioned that we went to my cousins, "underground" restaurant while we were home for Easter, so I'm back with the deets.

Alex (my cousin) is about to graduate from USC in Kinesiology and had full intentions of going to medical school until his knack for cooking lead him to start a "supper club" (apparently that is the proper name for this sort of thing).

The restaurant is called Paladar, after the South American cultural tradition allowing families to run restaurants out of their homes, as long as they cook with locally produced food. Cool huh? That's obviously not the case here in the states; hence, the "underground" connotation.

Anyway, enough mumbo-jumbo. Every Thursday night (at 7pm and 9pm) is Paladar night at Alex's small, college apartment. He and his roommate, Bobby (his business partner) transform their living room into the dining area with dimmed mood lighting, table-clothed banquet tables, tea candles with votives, and soft music.

Every week they put together a unique menu and shop for most of the produce at local farmers markets. For a mere $15, customers receive a gourmet, three-course meal, with fresh baked bread from a local bakery.

Menu from the night we went

Kevin loves his bread

First Course

Second Course

Unfortunately, I was flighty and forgot to take a picture of the last course. Oh well.

You may also notice that they offered a "Wine Pairing" for $30 the night we went. They don't always do that, that was a special they were having, but just in case you are curious and don't know what a wine pairing is (like I didn't) it is a small glass of wine that comes with each course. I don't drink wine so I wouldn't know, but apparently there are different savory flavors that go best with certain foods. My parents, who also joined us for dinner that night, ordered the wine pairing and said it was delish.

It was fun to see how popular the whole supper club/underground restaurant has become. When they started, two years ago, they only had 6 people for their first dinner but it has grown to become reservation only. They also had to add the second dinner at 9pm because so many people were showing interest. And to be honest, I thought it was something that only college students would be interested in, but I was surprised to see USC professors and other adults from the area there to eat.

Kitchen

Chef-man (Alex) and me

Since the semester is ending and they are graduating they wont be doing Paladar from their apartment anymore. Rumor has it that they have plans to open up a real restaurant in the near future.

Check out these videos for some footage of Paladar in action, documentary style: here and here.

Our Rendezvous with the California Sun

2011-05-02T11:05:00.000-07:00

warning: this post is picture intense

This year Easter weekend was conveniently between semesters so we jumped at the chance to relax at home/spend time with family before Kevin was back to the grind (aka. spring classes).

There isn't anything I love more than getting away and going home for a few days. I'm biased when I say this but California really is the best place to call home, especially when erratic Provo winters linger until May.

Highlights from the Weekend include:

Dinner at my cousins "underground" restaurant (more on that later):

Lunch with mamma in Huntington:

This cute little face who came in to lick our faces each morning:

The Easter pancake breakfast with the Ahlstrom clan:

Jacuzzi games:

Easter egg hunt/auction for Easter basket goodies:

This year Char (Kevin's mom) did something a little different...since the family is increasing in number and everyone was home (with their fiances) this easter, she did the traditional easter egg hunt, but instead of filling them with jelly bellies and other small candy, she filled them with coins. After the hunt we counted our coins and bid in an auction for would-be easter basket goodies. It was super fun and a good alternative to making everyone individual Easter baskets.

And of course a good time with our four-legged lovies at the Dog Park:

this big mama isn't ours but she clung to me like she could've been

Welp, the verdict is in.

2011-04-29T10:18:00.000-07:00

First things first.

A little background: Last week George Washington started to review their waitlist, so we knew that we could hear from them any time. They would tell us one of three things: that Kevin was accepted, rejected, or that he still needed to wait a while longer.

We were obviously hoping it would be an acceptance but we were fully prepared for a wait-a-little-longer email too. This has been the news we have been waiting for since Kevin applied back in November so, as you know, we were really anxious. Lets just say Kevin was on high alert-- anytime his phone rang he would say "this is them!" before he pulled it out of his pocket.

Fast forward to Wednesday afternoon: I was busy at work doing my usual secretary duties when all of a sudden a thought popped into my head (spiritual prompting?) to go to toplawschools.com to see if anyone had been accepted from the GW waitlist.

I should stop to explain a couple things:

1) Toplawschools.com (TLS, for short) is a website for nerdy law school potentials, like Kevin, to discuss all things law school. There are several threads with topics that people can post on. 2) Kevin has been addicted to the drama of TLS since we started this whole process and knows it well. I, on the other hand had never actually been on the website by myself before so I had no idea what to do.

Regardless, I decided to figure it out and did a search for all GW forums. Luckily, that did the trick. I found out that three people had received acceptance emails that afternoon, like twenty minutes prior. So, I immediately started freaking out. My heart started pounding and I knew we would find out verrrrry soon. So I texted Kevin.

B: Have you heard anything from GW? I was just on toplawschools and people have heard back via email!!!

K: Aw crap! No I haven’t heard anything yet.

B: Not even email?

K: I haven’t checked in about an hour and a half. I’ll check when I get out of class.

When I realized that he was in class and that my heart was about to pound out of my chest I decided to take matters into my own hands. I tried signing into his email but he had just changed his password a few days before so I couldn’t get in. So I texted him again.

B: what is your password!!!! I can’t sign in.

Apparently he took that as a sign and ran out of class to go check his email. Next thing I know he’s calling me. So I ducked into the storage room to pick up the call.

B: hello?

K: Bree… (dramatic pause) I’m in.

He was all too nonchalant, but it was magical. I immediately started crying and have never felt more grateful. Kevin casually read me the email over the phone as I sobbed. All I could say was: “This is so cool!” We hung up and reverted to gchat so I could get back to work. Everything was perfect except for the fact that I had to contain my excitement for three more hours until 5pm.

It really was the most humbling experience I have had in a really long time. It was the biggest goal we have worked toward as a couple and achieving it was the most gratifying thing we've ever shared together (excluding our temple sealing). For a long time we didn’t know if Kevin could get into GW and to be honest, it was kind of a long shot but it was well worth all the agony.

So...noow it’s on to finding a place to live, finding a job, and moving 2000 miles across the country.

It’s been a whirlwind but I’m happy to end this saga with an acceptance to George Washington.

Law School Saga (Part V)

2011-04-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

Note to the reader: Bree originally wrote this blog post, but as she was adding a final picture to the end, the program reverted to an older, much different version of this story. I told her to try “edit -> undo” but that deleted the entire post—we have no idea why. Then blogger autosaved and she lost everything. Her creative, witty, hilarious writing is gone forever. Does this happen often?? This is infuriating to me. Although Google is a gigantic billion-dollar company, blogger is awful to use. Bree is upset and doesn’t want to rewrite her post. So I’m going to do my best to recreate what blogger (and I) destroyed. You’ll have to bear with my dry and boring writing. Here it goes…

We still had one more school to visit. The weekend after our trip to DC, we took a flight to Indiana to check out Indiana University. To be honest, this trip was mostly out of courtesy because DC had already completely won us over. But because IU offered a scholarship, we felt we should give it a shot. It probably didn’t help that Bree was completely enamored with DC and didn’t have any intentions to relocate to Indiana, but she tried to have an open mind about everything.

We flew in late Thursday night and had meetings with admissions and various law professors for most of the day on Friday. We were actually impressed with the law school’s facilities and faculty, but afterwards we felt a void. It just seemed like Bloomington wasn’t the right place for us. It was a great law school, but we couldn’t see ourselves living in Bloomington, even for three years. We also did not want to run the risk of remaining in Indiana long-term after law school, which could happen.

We spent the rest of the weekend wishing we were back in Provo. Our decision was made; Indiana just wasn’t for us. So Saturday we just hung out at the mall…we have a new found respect for small Midwest towns—going to the mall really is the most exciting thing to do. On Sunday we went to church in Bloomington and flew home that evening.

We forgot about Indiana by Monday, although sometimes I wonder if it was the right thing to let IU go. But that’s just how I am. I always wonder what if.

Even after we nixed Indiana we still needed a lot of thought and discussion until we could decide on a school. Since I still haven’t heard whether GW is going to accept me, we had to tentatively decide on a school by April 15, the day seat deposits were due. We narrowed our choices down to three schools, and spent every available minute discussing the pros and cons of each with regards to lifestyle, job placement, and our life goals. In the end we both felt that the opportunities in DC are simply too good to pass up, so we secured a seat at George Mason University.

The final verdict: we don’t have one yet. Most likely we will be in DC next year because George Washington is our #1 and we have a guarantee at George Mason. But I’m also on the waitlist at UCI (Bree has never mentioned them) and I’m becoming more and more interested. So that story MAY be another post.

Gifts of Spring

2011-04-18T13:13:00.000-07:00

I think its safe to say that spring has sprung around here. At least our flower bed has. Not to mention the pleasant 60 degree temps.

These beauties made their debut this week and we couldn't be more happy. They truly are the best gifts of spring. This weekend it was overcast and ironically, the dark skies seemed to make the reds and yellows more vibrant than usual. We couldn't get enough of them.

Yesterday we spent part of the afternoon sitting on our porch admiring all of the pretty flowers that have popped up around the neighborhood these past few weeks. It was a perfect Sunday afternoon.

It was an added bonus to watch the neighbor boy learn to ride his new, two-wheeler bike, decked out in his Cars (the movie) protective gear. Needless to say he didn't ever get the hang of it but I'm anxious to see his progress throughout the summer.

Speaking of gifts, nice weather is another one. We never coveted warm weather until we moved to Utah and now we truly cherish it. Yesterday it was nice enough to leave our windows and doors open for the whole day while we studied and lounged around.

And when we weren't porch-gazing or lounging, we were picking at these heavenly cinnamon rolls. Try them, you wont regret it.

Mine didn't turn out looking nearly as good as the recipe depicts.

The Law School Saga (part IV)

2011-04-16T09:45:00.000-07:00

The decision was easy.

The rapid thought process went a little something like this: retake the LSAT--do better--BAM!--get accepted to GW--totally worth it!

There were no doubts in our minds; we had nothing to lose. We already had a ton of great options and this could either make things infinitely better or have no effect at all.

So he studied everyday for 3 weeks and re-took the test on February 12th.

When he called me to pick him up from the test up he sounded worried. I was overly anxious and quick to ask questions.

K: "It didn't go well." .

B: "Whhhhhat?!" the let-down tone in my voice was all too obvious. "I mean, at least its over! Never again. For reals this time."

K: "Yeah... we'll just have to wait and see."

Kevin isn't one to sugarcoat things so I knew his reaction was a pretty good indication of what his score would be: worse.

And then just like that we went on with our day and subsequent week like he had never taken it. No talk about best case scenarios, worst case scenarios, what-ifs, or futuristic doubts pertaining to his LSAT score ever crept into our conversations. It was a total 180 difference from our experience post-October test. It was weird.

So we were back to waiting....waiting for more fate-mail and LSAT scores. But at that point the waiting didn't overcome our lives quite like it did before. We were already playing favorites with some of the schools that had already gotten back to us and looking forward to flying out to visit schools.

The weekend after the February LSAT we got on a plane to DC to check out George Mason, Georgetown, and George Washington. You should know that early on this whole law school process I clung to the Washington DC area as our future destination like stink on poop (do people actually use that expression or is it just my dad?). I don't know why or how I got so interested in DC in the first place, but it has stuck and I have been willing to do anything for the George(s) since. Kevin on the other hand, hasn't always been so thrilled about DC. Actually, he has played favorites with every school at least once; on any given day, his "top choice" could be one of a handful of schools from around the country.

Me- so excited to be on the plane to DC; Kevin- Keeping his cool. We had the plane to ourselves.

We were excited about our five day pilgrimage to DC. Kevin set up campus tours, appointments with faculty, and arranged for us to sit in on lectures so that we could have a behind-the-scenes look at each school.

Day 1: Get oriented with the city/George Mason

Our appointment with George Mason wasn't until the late afternoon so we wandered around town for most of the day trying to figure things out. All I could think about was how amazing DC was; I was enamored by the perfect combination of a bustling city AND lush nature, not to mention the perfect weather (I know it's not always perfect).

We did our thing at George Mason, found a cute Italian restaurant for dinner, and headed back to our hotel for the evening. I wish I could say more about George Mason, but to be honest, we weren't impressed. But maybe that is because we were there at 6 in the evening and the law school was dead.

Day 2: George Washington

Our campus tour was scheduled for 9a.m. so we had the privilege of riding the metro with the rush hour crowd. The metro stop was Foggy Bottom (interesting, right?)-- a new stop and new part of the city that we hadn't explored yet. We were giddy. Err, I was at least. George Washington had been the school of our dreams since we started researching law schools back in the summer.

Yes, I am crossing my fingers, as a gesture of desired good luck with GW

via

As we rode the escalator from the underground world of the subway up to the street level we frantically studied the map to figure out how to get to the law building. Luckily we figured out the alphabetized grid system quickly and we were on our way. When we finally arrived we were baffled to realize that we had literally walked through the whole campus without even knowing it. The campus buildings blended in so well with the rest of the city that we hadn't realized that we passed the student union and the library on our way. Maybe it was because the entrance to the library was through a typical-looking Starbucks.

To make a longggg story short, we were smitten. As we left the building after our tour Kevin said: "We have to go here, I'll do whatever it takes!" I agreed. That statement sums it up. We had such a great experience in our short 3 hours there. Heck, I even contemplated going to law school while we were there!

Days 3, 4, and 5: Site seeing with two of our favorite people: Mark and Libby, who joined us from NYC

And now for a few pictures...

We enjoyed reading the newspaper and sipping hot chocolate in the lobby each morning

The day we went out to the mall it was suppppper windy and cold; so naturally, our hair was blowing all over the place.

obligatory pictures with the Washington monument

Kevin and Mark looking suave after they had a foot race from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial reflection pool... don't let this picture fool you, they were totally out of breath.

Good ol' Abe

I love this picture of Lib!

In short: George Washington Admissions board, if you are reading this, please accept Kevin Ahlstrom to your program. Thank you.

Everyone else: feel free to pray for us.

The Law School Saga (part III)

2011-04-11T07:07:00.001-07:00

(Continuation of Since the Last Time we Wrote pt. II)

Kevin vowed "Never again!" to the LSAT and we moved on.

In the beginning, I thought that once the LSAT was over, life would be peachy. Wrong.

The next step was to apply.

Two days after the LSAT Kevin started working on his applications, which mainly consists of writing a personal statement, better known as a brag about yourself essay. So by the time we got his score back he already had his personal statement in the works. He set a goal to have his applications in by Thanksgiving, so for 3 solid weeks he drafted a new version of his personal statement each day. On any given day he had at least 15 different word documents open on his laptop. Each night he would read me his new one and we would discuss pros and cons. Some were really good but others were straight up boring. At the time it seemed trivial to have so many renditions of the same point but in the end it proved to be really beneficial. I truly believe that the final draft really was his best essay. Thanks to help from all of our friends who proofread and critiqued, he was able to get the bulk of his applications off by November 17 (a week before Thanksgiving).

And then it was a waiting game. Easy, right? Wrong.

We didn't realize how nerve-wracking it would be to have our future completely determined by someone else-- an admissions committee who didn't even know us!

Less than a week went by and we received our first piece of fate-mail. Already? It was surreal. An acceptance! Then for each week after that for five weeks we received one acceptance. And of them offered a full-tuition scholarship. The initial law school freak-out was proving to be unnecessary. We were extremely grateful!

Our first rejection came in January after we had returned home from winter break, it was bummer, but we were still on the high from the acceptances we had already received, so it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. And then in mid January we received a wait-list notification from our number one, we'll-be-really-lucky-if-we-get-in-there, school: George Washington. We were thrilled! It was only a wait-list but it wasn't a rejection either!

So we started brainstorming ways to get accepted off the wait-list. Kevin did a ton of research and read about several ways to improve his chances, including sending letters of continued interest and making regular contact with the admissions office. And then there was the unthinkable: retake the LSAT for a better score.

And that is what he decided to do.

Another snowy day in paradise

2011-04-09T17:32:00.000-07:00

I will not waste my energy complaining about how this is the third consecutive day of rain or snow, but instead, mention how I long for the summer days where:

1. Snow cone shacks dot every corner.

2. It gets dark past our bedtime.

3. Bicycling is our usual form of transportation.

4. We grill for dinner every night.

5. Sandals, shants, sunglasses, and short sleeves are a must.

6. Our house is too hot to handle

7. Camping in a tent is preferred over our sauna of a home

8. need I say more?

I can't even tell you how many times Kevin has proclaimed "I HATE Utah!" these past couple of days. Let's be honest, we're from California and cold weather is not in our blood-- we do better when the sun is shining in our faces.

If you are reading this from a warm place, we hate you!

Simple. Guilty. Pleasure

2011-04-06T20:42:00.000-07:00

If you know me you know that I have obsessions. When I find something that I like I talk it up like there's nothing better in the world. Kevin says it's one of the things he loves about me. One of my greatest weaknesses has always been frozen yogurt. In all of it's varieties--low cal, soft serve, fro-yo, creamy and fattening, you name it--I love it. But at any given point in my life I always have *one true, frozen yogurt love.

And I'm here to tell you that one of my small, most pathetic wishes has come true:

My all-time favorite, hometown fro-yo joint has come to Utah! It's called Yogurtland and I am content! It is the one thing I've wished we had here--the only thing Provo was missing and its finally here!

No more trying to hide my yogurt-snob tendencies. We will surely keep them in business (maybe even single-handedly).

*Random side note: In high school it was Golden Spoon (or GS as we called it) that was my frozen yogurt love. It was more than just a place to get soft-serve, it was our hangout. It was like our Denny's. You know how Denny's is the place to go for late-night, post-hang-out shanenigans? Well GS was our go-to place. My group of friends would meet there on friday or Saturday nights (or both) after whatever it was we did that night and stay to eat our soft-serve. We would park our cars together in the back of the parking lot and have a dance party to the Goofy Movie Song (gosh, that song has a special place in my heart) blasting from one of our cars.

Since the Last time we Wrote pt. 2

2011-03-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

We shed a few tears and felt unfulfilled...

We sat in silence staring at the wall on the other side of the room as a bajillion things ran through our heads. Then Kevin broke the silence with "if only's" and "there goes my chance at (insert top 10 school)," completely doubting everything. EV-REE-THING.

His pessimism started to annoy me and brought me to raise my voice and talk way too fast; turning his negatives into positives. It didn't seem fair to throw all of our hope away because of this bump in the road; certainly NOT after all the hard work Kevin had done.

And to be honest his score wasn't even bad. In hindsight this is all sort of comical to us now because we ended up with more options than we know what to do with. Sure, his goal score was pretty lofty but nothing impossible. Although setting goals and expecting the best from himself proved to help while studying, he refused to accept anything but his goal score. And that was the problem; hence the aforementioned dramatic freak-out.

Anyway, two hours had passed and we were still on the couch crunching numbers via lawschoolnumbers.com (they say law school admissions is all about the numbers: LSAT/GPA) and discussing "what ifs." I had a good feeling about our situation but Kevin was still pretty down. Nothing seemed to get his mind off of it all. He gave me the notorious blank-stare-i'm-thinking-about-something-else-while-you-talk-to-me treatment for the rest of the night.

So we decided to called it a night. And to my surprise, Kevin was out in his usual 30 seconds so there was no sleep lost. I was relieved to hear his heavy breathing.

It was over. I knew things could only get better.

And it did! We headed down to Moab for the weekend to camp and hike. There's nothing a warm campfire and stars can't do to make you appreciate life.

Just pretend my eyes are open.

Since the last time we wrote

2011-03-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

Lib this post is dedicated to you!

So its been a while... but I'm back for the long-haul to keep things updated around here.

Life has been busy these past few months--we have made a lot of decisions pertaining to our future so I feel like I should probably document what's been going on in our lives.

Here goes:

Last May Kevin decided to pursue law school and set a date to take the LSAT in October. From June to test day he studied his brains out. I'm not quite sure how he (we) did it but he spent 4 hours a day, six days a week from June to October studying. Since he opted out of paying for and taking a test-prep course he did an incredible amount of research on the best "study-at-home" books and what he should do to prepare. And when I say he studied his brains out I mean it! And I think most of our friends and family who were around to witness it would agree. In those few short months I came to know a whole different Kevin. I know I'm "supposed" to say this because I'm his wife but he really is the most determined, hard-working person I know.

Anyway, after taking 50 3-hour practice tests, and over four months of studying, October 9 came. He felt as prepared as he could be but I was a nervous wreck! When I dropped him off on the morning of the test I remember driving away with tears running down my cheeks. I don't really know how to explain how I was feeling other than proud. Throughout all the time that he spent studying for the test he impressed me more than I ever knew he could.

After the test we celebrated with all-you-can-eat sushi and immediately started counting down the days until we would get his score back. They said it would be 21 days. To be frank, it was the longest 21 days of our lives-- the test, his score, best case scenarios, worst case scenarios, and anything LSAT/Law School was all we could talk about out. I would get frustrated because there was little to no normalcy in our lives. We were frozen in time until his score came back.

But finally the day came. We were on edge all. day. It was 7 pm and we still hadn't heard anything. And then we got desperate. We did what all anxious people looking for an LSAT score to be posted on the internet would do: we sat on our couch and refreshed the page every 45 seconds...it was pathetic. With each click we would alternate saying things like "okay, this is it...ready, set, click!" or "refresh!" And after a longgggg 25 minutes and countless refreshes the score appeared! Just like that. From one refresh to another it was there.

But when we finally saw his score we were mildly devastated.

To be Continued...

Sorry, y'all! When I first started writing this post I didn't realize how much would come pouring out of me. This truly has been a huge part of our lives this past year and I want to make sure I get it completely documented. So I decided to break it up into a few posts. Baby steps...

Ohhhh-six!

2010-06-26T08:14:00.000-07:00

Four years ago I graduated from high school with this amazing group of friends.

And this month (and I guess last month too) all of those friends have graduated from college. College!

I've said it before and i'll say it again; I'm amazed by how fast time flies!

Lately I've been thinking a lot about how much has changed in the past four years and it's funny to think about where I thought I would be and where I actually am. Let's just say being married, living in Utah, and going to BYU were not in the plans.

With that, I've also been thinking about what life would be like if I had carried out my initial plan: be single, live in Westwood, and graduate from UCLA in four years. I can't even imagine what that would be like. That's weird though... being single, living in a college town with an apartment of girls, and graduating from college in four is normal for a girl between 20 and 22.

However weird it may be I have loved every minute of it (minus the first few months I moved to Utah). I often reminisce of the glorious two years in the dorms at UCLA with my Saxon homies (you know who you are) and my best girl friend and roommate, Steph. And the almost two year marriage with my other best friend and eternal boyfriend has been quite glorious as well! I just couldn't live without him (although his messy and bodily tendencies I could).

Anyway, I can't believe it's been four years and we're already old enough to be nine-to-fivers!!

Congratulations to all my "ohhhh-six" besties who graduated!

Most of you probably won't read this except for maybe Caitlin R. Thanks girl!

And this is why...

2010-06-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

I love the World Cup!

I was starting to worry that Kevin was starting to lose interest in the World Cup because nothing note-worthy had happened, but this, this was a fab experience!!

In the 90th minute--after regulation time had ended--the USA's chances of falling out of the tournament was becoming a reality. Kevin and I were on the edge of our seats; every missed shot USA took only added to the tension of this game. When it looked as if the United States would spend the rest of the tournament as spectators, they scored!

World Cup soccer doesn't get any better than that.

Let the games begin!

2010-06-11T09:41:00.000-07:00

The World Cup games start today and I couldn't be more excited! I can't help but think it's been forever since the last one. But its already been four years! Thinking about this whole thing makes me laugh, though because the last World Cup started a week after Kevin left for his mission and I was already counting down the days until he got home. Time flies when your not waiting for a missionary.

Kevin has never really experienced the World Cup so he has a lot of questions and curiosity as to why everyone is so pumped about this whole thing.

This morning we caught a few minutes of the Mexico vs. South Africa game and he asked:

"What is that noise?!" referring to the constant buzzing noise

I laughed. "They are these horns that people blow."

"Oh, weird."

I'm happy to share the World Cup experience with him this time.

May 24, 2010

2010-05-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

We woke up to snow fall this morning.

I'm thoroughly annoyed.

Seriously, Utah?

I admit, sometimes I get over-anxious for warm weather but it's the end of MAY!

It's appropriate to expect high(er) temperatures, right?

No TV

2010-05-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

Since we moved into our new house we have become a "no TV" household. The wholesome principles behind refraining from watching TV partially motivated us, but mostly it's to save money. We never thought we could actually do it; it all started out as a "challenge" to live without TV for a month. We are coming up on three months with no TV, and we are going strong...sort of.

Every once in a while we crave TV, kind of like Bree's cravings for chocolate. It comes to us suddenly, usually right after dinner. When I see the sink full of dirty dishes, there is nothing I want to do more than to sit on the couch and engage in mindless entertainment. We don't care what we watch...we just want to watch. And when that craving is not fulfilled it leaves us feeling empty inside. Internet shows do a good job of filling our needs. (We are huge fans of The Biggest Loser.) We also enjoy freeloading at our friends' houses. The occasional get-together to watch a playoff game has become a regularity (thanks Evansons and Harts).

So, are we doing better? Or have we just replaced our own TV with internet shows, facebook, blog-stalking (Bree), and our friends' DVRs? Well...we read more. The other day I was reading the Economist magazine and learned that the average American watches 37 hours of television per week! We are happy to say that we don't contribute to that statistic. Also, I am more responsive to Bree when she asks me to help her in the kitchen or take out the trash. When we had TV she literally had to stand in front of me and block my view to make me listen to her. I was so annoyed.

One of the biggest benefits of being TV free is that we have more opportunities to share meaningful conversations.

Although we appreciate the benefits of not having TV, we are considering starting up again so we can watch the World Cup. Once we get it, TV will probably stay for good. Should we get it? Bree thinks not.

Only in Provo

2010-05-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

Tonight we hit up Buy Low (the market) for some last minute dairy necessities (milk, eggs, and yogurt) to get us through the rest of the week... Standard, right?

Yes, for milk and eggs.

No, for Buy Low... who goes there?

Anyway, upon walking right up to the check out (take that Smith's) attendant, Jeremy, my husband realizes that he doesn't have his wallet (again) and all I had was a cell phone.

Kevin: (to me as I check out Jessica Simpson on the cover of Marie Claire) where's the money?

Me: what do you mean? don't you have your wallet?

Kevin: Uh, no (with a look of innocence). (to Jeremy) we actually might not have any money... (after we clearly established that we had nothing).

Jeremy: huh? (blank stare)

Kevin: (reaching into his pocket) okay, wait. I have $3.10, how much is it for the milk and eggs?

Jeremy: well let's see, I think I can make this work (reaching for his wallet) I have $2 right here, will that work?

Kevin: uh, yeah?

So with three of Kevin's dollars and two of Jeremy's we were able leave the store with a half gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, and two cups of yogurt.

To Jeremy, if you ever read this, thank-you!

To Buy Low, Jeremy is a keeper. And I think you just found yourself two new loyal customers, especially because we are a bit apprehensive about going back to Smith's after what happened on Saturday.

In defense of Derek Fisher

2010-05-11T15:15:00.000-07:00

I have always thought of Derek Fisher as a disciplined and polished individual who makes clutch shots and provides excellent leadership to his teammates. Yes, he plays hard and often fouls hard and at times loses his temper, but overall he is an admirable example of what an NBA player should be. In my naivety, I assumed that most people thought of Derek Fisher this way.

However, round 2 of the Western Conference Playoffs introduced me to a new way of thinking about the Laker point guard. Almost as publicized as the Lakers' commanding sweep of the Utah Jazz was the controversy over Fisher's decision to return to LA back in 2007. Even though this happened three years ago, Jazz fans are still upset that he left Salt Lake City to join the Lakers, claiming that he deceitfully manipulated Jazz management to be released from his contract and go back to LA. These two girls are perfect examples of what I'm talking about:

Many Jazz fans also chanted "Fisher Sucks!" During warm ups.

I am astonished that so many people think so little of his character. Perhaps this just reinforces my naivety for actually believing that Derek Fisher moved to Los Angeles to help his daughter overcome cancer. Now that Tatum's cancer is in remission, it is obvious that Derek did what was best for his family. He and his wife surrounded themselves with the best combination of doctors available so that their daughter's cancer might not spread to her brain. And it doesn't hurt to win a couple NBA Championships in the process.

Seriously though, when Fisher asked Larry Miller to end his contract, he was considering several cities, not just Los Angeles. Fisher said, "When the decision was made to terminate my contract we had no idea what would be available in terms of teams and opportunities and we had a very short list of cities to work from. It included Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Memphis, San Francisco, Cleveland and Boston. We had several conversations with medical personnel in each of the cities and once we were able to zero in on the city, this being Los Angeles, we felt very solid about the care Tatum would receive."

To accuse Fisher of exploiting his daughter's cancer so that he could return to the Lakers is not only unfair and sort of mean, it is illogical. He definitely did not leave the Jazz for a better team. The Lakers were barely a .500 team in 2007, and they either didn't make the playoffs or lost in the first round for the three previous years. And Kobe was talking about leaving the Lakers during that time. On the other hand, the Jazz were better than ever, finishing 1st in their division and making it all the way to the Western Conference Championship. Everything suggested that the Lakers were degenerating fast and that the Jazz were on the way up. So unless Fisher can tell the future, it is absurd to think that he left the Jazz so that he could win another championship with the Lakers.

And even if Larry Miller was suspicious that he wanted to return to the Lakers, what could he have said? "no, you cant get out of your contract because you're going to the lakers, let your daughter remain blind?" I don't think so.

Maybe he did it for the money. Not so. He opted out of $21 million remaining in his contract when he left SLC for a $14 million deal in Los Angeles. He moved and lost $7 million.

So why didn't he go to New York where the Taum's doctor worked? In a press conference Derek explained that in addition to a treating physician, his daughter needed a pediatrician experienced with retinoblastoma (Tatum's rare eye cancer), a pediatric ophthalmologist, and a pediatric oncologist who specializes in cancers for kids. According to Fisher, LA had this collective group of doctors that they felt the most comfortable with. Click here to read the statement.

I can understand the feeling of betrayal Jazz fans are feeling. The Jazz lost an excellent point guard to a rival team who just ended their season. I guess I would be bitter too. However, to attack Fisher's integrity and his commitment to his family is wrong. I do not oppose booing the Lakers; it's part of competition. But personal attacks and insults are unsportsmanlike and unbecoming of basketball fans.

Writers Block?

2010-05-09T20:50:00.002-07:00

It's been over a month since we've blogged and friends and family have been dying to know what's been going on around here (joke).

No, really since the move and the end of the semester we've just been lazy. It's nice to finally feel somewhat settled and not have to worry about school and I guess that attitude is spilling over into other areas (the blog).

Since the end of the semester I've picked up almost double the hours at work and Kevin is back to the grind, taking another engineering class AND surviving the track season; working hard to qualify for regionals. We're for sure feeling busy.

But don't get me wrong, we definitely get a healthy dose of R and R. Kevin loves to lounge around and spends hours reading while I frolic around the house trying to decorate. And we seem to be watching more TV than usual even though we don't actually have cable (that's a story for another post). We're currently watching: The Amazing Race, The Biggest Loser, and of course our Lakers (in the NBA finals).

In other news, the Spring weather is here and we have been fooled countless times by the ever-so-changing temperatures... I'm definitely not a fan. Needless to say we've managed to get outside and enjoy what sun we've had.

So there you have it. A little disjointed run-down on what we're doing. Things will get better, promise.

Over and out.

2010-04-17T07:58:00.000-07:00

Spring blossoms make my world go round...

Although being cooped up studying all day sucks, there's nothing better than walking outside to the sight of beautiful pink and white blossoms on the trees; not to mention the warm spring breeze.

I love this time of year!

minus final exams.

*photo taken with iPhone ShakeIt app.

The Madness

2010-03-18T14:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'll admit it, I wasn't much of BYU basketball fan this year, or last year, or any year really but there's something about March Madness that totally captivates me.

I'm usually a Bruin fan and nothing can ever sever my love for them but this March my team, the Bruins, aren't in the playoffs so I gotta go with the next best thing, right? I feel kind of bad that BYU athletics has become my "next best team" and that I've never really given BYU a chance (that's a story for a different day) but I'm very happy to say that I was totally on board and very much impressed with the Cougars today. Okay, so who am I to be "impressed" by any team? Nobody. I'm just happy to be cheering for a winning team--does that make me a band-wagoner?

Anyway, this morning our office at work cleared out and had a "department meeting" for three (or so) hours to watch the game in the conference room and it was so much fun! It may be because I work in the athletic department but I'm finally starting to feel a part of and embrace my place in the the Cougar family (sorry Dad). It was so wonderful to sit among such proud and enthusiastic fans! I'm excited to see how far they go in the tournament.

Until next year...

Go Cougars!

Thoughts on the Census

2010-03-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

You know it happens only once every ten years. How many things can you think of that occur only once in ten years? The Olympics aren't even that special.

Today I walked in the door after school and an ecstatic Bree met me with the news that the 2010 Census finally came in the mail. Yess! Well not really, but for some reason Bree was strangely excited to complete our very own census. Perhaps to her it signifies that we are actually real people, and at a future date some government official will have to acknowledge our existence when he or she enters our "census information."

She was almost giddy as she opened the letter and began to read, "This is your official 2010 Census form. We need your help to count everyone in the United States by providing basic information about all the people living in this house or apartment." I had to smile because she was really cute reading so matter-of-factly.

So then we began to fill out the census: "1. How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2010?" Bree looks at me, points at herself and then at me: "One, two...So two." She writes "02" in the blank squares provided. We continued, recording my complete name, that I was not of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin, and that I am, in fact, white.

The trouble came when we were asked to fill out Bree's 1) national origin, and 2) race. The directions on the census said that "For this census, HIspanic origins are not races." Bree has Hispanic origins, so that was fine-we just checked the box indicating that fact. But when went to record her race, there was no box to indicate her Mexican-American race. They had white, black, Japanese, etc., but no box for Hispanic. We didn't know what to do. We didn't want to leave it blank and submit an incomplete census...what if they discard it because it isn't finished? We would ruin our only chance in ten years to go on the government record books. We even googled "difference between national origin and race" to see if we could figure out what to put.

I suggested we just put "white" because she acts like a white person, but she declined. She obviously isn't black or japanese, so there was a box at the bottom we could check that said "Some other race--Print race" with some blank boxes to fill in the unlisted race. So we did the only logical thing there was left to do. We checked that box and recorded "Brown" as her other race.

Was that the right thing to do?

The Breakfast Club

2010-03-13T07:46:00.000-08:00

Kevin isn't much of a cook (I usually do most of the cooking around here) but when it comes to breakfast he's a master chef, err at least I think so. Every morning he cooks up a hot breakfast for us to eat before we go to school; omelets w/ sausage or bacon, oatmeal, breakfast sandwiches, and granola with yogurt are among his specialties.

It gets better though. On weekends he makes amazing pancakes, waffles, or crepes . This morning he whipped up some delish chocolate chip pancakes with eggs and sausage on the side. Oh yeah, and I can't forget, my favorite: pineapple orange juice to drink.

We had a nice breakfast date together here in our almost settled home and talked about our plans for the weekend... Saturday morning doesn't get much better than that.

Happy Weekend!

50 degrees

2010-03-12T17:39:00.000-08:00

Provo has enjoyed two days of 50+ degree weather. The forecast for tomorrow is snow, so Bree and I are glad we could have a couple of warmer days. It's still strange to me that we are actually excited when the temperature goes above 49 degrees; we love utah.

Warmer days definitely mean one good thing: outdoor practice. No more running on the indoor track with its sharp turns and blind corners. Yesterday was the first time the team ran outdoors since October, and we received a warm welcome from our coach in the form of a workout of eighteen 200s! The most 200s I've ever ran before was 10...so this was a killer workout. After number 12 I was sort of regretting the good weather. I wished it would snow so we could end practice early. But we finished it, and it was a good feeling to accomplish the workout.

See that guy passed out in the corner over there? That's me.

Emmy

2010-03-10T13:12:00.000-08:00

So glad she came to visit us!

we had so much fun

'nough said.

The Move...

2010-03-03T09:02:00.000-08:00

Successfull BUT Stressfull.

We're still living in shambles because unpacking more stuff than we have room for is a very tedious process! Thanks to the large shed in the backyard I think we'll be able to make it work though.

Decisions about what to keep and what to toss has been a major dilemma for me. I'm typically a throw-it-away-if-it-creates-clutter kind of girl but this move has totally tested that tendency. We currently have many piles around the house with labels like: "Garage Sale/Craigslist," "Spring/Summer Clothes," "decorations," etc. because all of our stuff clearly isn't going to fit in the house.

Beside sorting out the mess we are loving it here. The pluses definitely outweigh the minuses (square footage) and we couldn't be happier.

Here's hoping that we're completely settled by tomorrow because one of my besties from BREG is flying out to stay with us for the weekend.

ps. any suggestions on how to rid a house of "the old house smell"?

Moving

2010-02-25T08:07:00.001-08:00

We're in the process of packing up our apartment to move this weekend and its crazy around here. There are liquor boxes (that we inherited from the Liquor Store across the street) everywhere!

It's probably the most inopportune time to move because 1)it's the middle of the semester and we're swamped with writing papers and studying for midterms 2)its' February and its freezing outside and 3)well... I guess moving is never really ideal.

Regardless, its kind of amazing (and horrifying) to realize how much stuff we actually have.

We're excited to move though... we will be moving into a house. One of those cute Provo ranchers. Anybody who knows me knows that I have a passion for interior decorating and I am beyond excited to make that rancher our little cottage.

Today

2010-02-23T15:48:00.000-08:00

Today was a gorgeous day in Provo

But it's still cold nonetheless.

I never thought I could appreciate the sun as much as I do now that I live in Utah.

I think i'm in love with the clear mountain air.

New York

2010-02-17T17:34:00.000-08:00

I mentioned that we were headed to the Big Apple for a weekend getaway so I'm here to tell you all about it!

Okay, so it wasn't just a vacation... Kevin and the BYU track team had a meet in New York City and I was lucky enough to hop on a flight and fly out with them.

New York is such an interesting place and so intimidating if you're alone and don't know what you're doing. Fortunately we had our good friends Mark and Libby there to direct us where to go and show us around. I can't thank them enough for their incredible hospitality and for letting me stay with them. Thanks guys!

We were so excited for our trip and had so many expectations for what our trip was going to be like. I guess I should mention that it was Kevin's first time ever in New York and my first time back since sixth grade. Here are our first impressions:

JFK airport: incredibly diverse.

Travel time: forevvvver! Mark and Kevin came to pick me up at the airport thinking it would be a twenty minute drive... two hours later they arrived at the airport and it took us another two hours to get home (that's how i know JFK is diverse--i waited in baggage claim for 2 hours!).

So we knew that traveling by car was out.

Subway: we loved the subway! public transportation all the way! although it was dirty and there were rats and weirrrrd people scurrying about the platforms, I was in people-watchers heaven. There was never a dull sight and we were always entertained. Kevin's favorite subway experience (perhaps the highlight of his trip), was encountering a Beatles cover band (if you will) consisting of seven old men and an asian kid. "They sounded just like the Beatles and they were having so much fun just playing in the subway." He couldn't stop talking about them that night.

Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Natural History Museum: overrated. We never made it there. (can you sense my frustration? there just wasn't enough time or money.)

We did, however, make it to a free exhibit at the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) featuring Tim Burton. It was weird! Tim Burton has a weird imagination and our feet were killing= not interested. Mark and Lib appreciated it way more than us.

(Kevin illegally snapped this shot just as the guard yelled at him)

Time Square: a total hit for the boys and their cameras+tripods. They ventured off taking pictures while Lib and I did a little shopping.

The Armory Indoor Track Facility: so nice, but so not important in the grand scheme of things--in reality it was just an after thought.

Mark and Libby's studio: so cute and cozy! It was so nice to come back after a long day walking around the city. Libby and I enjoyed soaking our feet in the tub.

Chinatown: hectic. I did a substantial amount of research and got a lot of advice on how to work it with the street vendors, but it didn't matter. We were totally out of our element! From the moment we crossed the street on to Canal the sidewalk was flanked with a mix of Asians and African men whispering "handbag?" "Coach, Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton?" in their deep accents. "Uhhhh..." was our only thought/reaction. In the end we figured it out and it was a success.
The weather: freeeeezing. We were totally unprepared. I can handle Utah cold so I thought we would be fine. Turns out New York is way colder.

New York in a Nutshell: amazing! We would love to go back as tourists (did you notice my peace signs?) anyyyytime.

We had an incredible couple of days in New York and are so glad that we could go.

ps. Dunkin Donuts owns New York. There is a store on every corner and we definitely ate there everyday.

1800Flowers.com

2010-02-14T13:34:00.000-08:00

(Interesting name if you ask me-- a phone number and website all in one)

Kevin was away again for the weekend at a track meet but I still got my Valentine's Day flowers (in the mail)--even a little early.

We're not huge celebrators of Valentine's Day but it's the one occasion that I get flowers from Kevin and a great occasion to splurge on dinner, so that's always fun.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Eeeeek!

2010-01-29T12:19:00.000-08:00

Next week we are going to be here:

NYC

and here:

Central Park

and here:Times Square

Annnnd we can't wait!!
(t-minus 5 days)

My Cute Husband

2010-01-26T19:17:00.000-08:00

Last Friday as we were leaving school to go home for the weekend Kevin tells me that he forgot to do a lab and had to stay for at least two more hours to finish it up.

Ugh... seriously? Two hours?

Despite my discontent, I decided to stay with him so I could be with him/hurry him along. So, off to the lab we went.

The Clyde Building is an interesting place... a smelly place, with eerie hallways, no windows, and weird people. Such is life for engineers I guess.

I'm glad I went though... I got to see Kevin in his element, as a lefty lacking fine motor skills, work on this circuit with so much pride and concentration.

He is so driven and willing to do whatever it takes to get things done to excel in school, even late on a Friday afternoon when technology is working against him and I am nagging him. I admire his willingness to forego precious sleep time in the morning to wake up early and study so that he can dedicate himself to me in the evenings.

And even though I whine when he tells me he cant meet me for lunch, I appreciate him when he spends that time studying and says "Don't you want me to get a good job when I graduate?"

Two hours and some serious programming malfunctions later, we left (5:15pm). I was hungry and cranky but Kevin was as calm as a cucumber. He's so much better at seeing the big picture.

I love him!

ps. I'm needy, I know.

Haiti

2010-01-25T06:49:00.001-08:00

Over the weekend Bree and I attended a very exciting men’s volleyball game. After the game we thought about watching a movie, but when we turned on the TV, virtually every channel was showing the special and the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. The images of the rubble and Haitian people captivated us.

I was overwhelmed by how much devastation the earthquake caused. Huge buildings are now just piles of rocks and twisted metal. Paved roads are completely torn apart. The earthquake directly impacted over 3 million people, and the last estimate of the death toll that I heard was close to 100,000.

But I think what touched us the most were the pictures and stories of the survivors. With anguish and despair thousands of them are searching for loved ones who are either lost in collapsed buildings, among the heaps of dead bodies, or surrounded by the disorganized crowds.

Among the few happy endings that we heard was a mother who, after the earthquake demolished her home, spent 50 hours digging through the rocks in search of her infant son. She could hear him crying, but she could not find him. She searched all night and all through the next day, and the whole time her son’s whimpers grew softer and softer. Finally a rescue team came to help her, and after 50 hours of exhausting labor and awful anxiety, this mother was reunited with her baby boy. They both received sufficient medical treatment and will make it through this disaster alive.

However, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Haitians who are not receiving adequate medical treatment. The devastation is so massive that the doctors and EMTs simply cannot provide aid to everyone. They need antibiotics, clean water, food, clothing, and our prayers. 3 million people are in need of emergency aid after the major earthquake.

The First Presidency issued a statement about the disaster; part of it says, “Money is not the only need in Haiti. People are frightened, bewildered, and wholly uncertain about their future. In addition to what people can do in helping with food, water and shelter, there needs to be a calming influence over that troubled nation. We invite our people everywhere to supplicate God for a spirit of calm and peace among the people as urgent aid and reconstruction efforts continue.” You can read the entire statement here.

Bree was telling me that this disaster is an opportunity for America to show its support and help this country that desperately needs our help. We can donate money by visiting hopeforhaiti.com. In addition, we can simply pray for their physical and emotional welfare.

One Word...

2010-01-18T21:03:00.001-08:00

Psycho!

Poor girl needs some major therapy.

So glad she's gone.

Gaga

2010-01-15T16:30:00.000-08:00

I have a new found respect for Lady Gaga and her provocative wardrobe choices. I've always thought that she was an Amy Winehouse, freak of nature kind of musician who was completely strung out on drugs. But I was wrong.

Today Gaga (her prefered name) was on Oprah and completely explained why she dresses the way she does. She calls her wardrobe an "artistic vision." Much like any other artist, be it a musician, painter, sculptor, etc, who has a message to tell in every piece of art that he or she creates, Gaga's music and wardrobe has a message and purpose.

I think that's really neat and I was actually really inspired by her message. She seemed so genuine and passionate about her work as both a musician and artist.

I guess it's never really fare to judge a book by its cover.

Did anyone else see Oprah today?

The Bach is Back and A.I. Too

2010-01-15T15:01:00.000-08:00

And we (I) am so happy to watch both shows this season.

We started watching American Idol together last season and it was great. We love to analyze the performances and discuss and nitpick all the contestants on the show. We're sad that Paula is gone but I (more so than Kevin) am thrilled that Ellen is the new judge. I'm a huge fan of her humor and quirkiness.

On the downside, I gotta admit that I'm not a fan of the pre-Hollywood auditions. Wednesday nights show literally had my blood pressure at an all-time high. I mean, I get that some people aren't cut out for singing (I being one of them) but really, what's the point of completely tearing someone apart? It's not funny anymore, at least in my opinion.

And this week's episode of The Bachelor was incredibly juicy and we (I) am already hooked. The Rozlyn ordeal was crazzzzy and has been getting insane amounts of attention all week. I'm pretty sure she's more well known now than she ever would have been as regular girl on the show. It should be interesting to see who wins Jake's heart. And speaking of Jake, he's going to be on Ellen on Monday... hopefully he gives us the deets about the show.

Happy Holidays

2009-12-23T12:40:00.000-08:00

2009 was our first full year as a married couple and I gotta say, we had a blast! We met some of our best friends and had some amazing adventures that we are so grateful for. We can't wait for what 2010 has in store for us.

We want to wish all of our friends and family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We love you!

We don't have any kids so sending out real Christmas cards was out of the question (Kevin said "absolutely not"). So this is the next best thing, right?

'Tis the Season Pt. 2

2009-12-11T08:14:00.000-08:00

Warning: this post may cause you to think a little less of me.

Every year I go crazy over Christmas music and this year is no different except I've lost my favorite CD. I usually play the same single CD on repeat every year, starting in November. Which makes me think that maybe Kevin is hiding it from me. Regardless, I had been having some serious withdrawals until...

[Enter Pandora...]

A few weeks ago I came across Pandora's "NSync (Holiday)" selection and it has totally woo'd me over this year. It has all the music from my favorite CD and more, I just can't get enough of it. And yes, I realize that the NSync stuff can get pretty cheese-ball, but its the best (at least in my opinion). It's pop zeal brings so much excitement and giddiness out I just can't contain myself (just ask Kevin).

So, without further ado here are two of my favorite pop Christmas songs:

Don't you just love the low-budget production of these totally 90's music videos?

Me too.

Thanks for listening.

The Amazing Race

2009-12-07T20:38:00.000-08:00

Bree and I just finished our first season of our new favorite TV series (and the only one we watch together): The Amazing Race. We initially became hooked on the show because we loved to see all the exciting places the contestants had to race to. On the first episode the contestants raced from Los Angeles to China and we were both amazed and a little jealous that they were going on a race around the world.

But then as the show progressed we found more enjoyment out of watching the contestants interact with each other. People's true characters emerged as they worked together to be the first to finish a leg of the race. We witnessed "the brothers," Sam and Dan, swear and bicker incessantly in every country they raced through. We also watched the Harlem Globetrotters, Flight Time and Big Easy, cooperate very well together to complete the puzzles and detours of the race. But I must say that the most impressive contestant on The Amazing Race was Brian.

This man is a saint--anyone who has seen the show knows what I mean. I can't recall one time that he raised his voice to his wife, Erica, who constantly battered him with demands and nervous breakdowns. He was never negative, never criticized, but always encouraged her when she was having trouble with one of the detours.

Also, he helped the competition when he could. When they were in Dubai one of the detours was to search for water in the desert. Barrels of water were hidden in the sand, and the contestants were looking everywhere for them in the 120 degree heat. Brian quickly found a barrel of water and filled his canteen and started to leave. Most people would have just left and not told anyone where the water was, but Brian told three other contestants where the water was hidden. His wife was upset with him, but his response was, "What goes around comes around."

And it was true. When they faced elimination because they were the last team to finish a leg of the race, the producers (or someone) had mercy on them and made that leg a non-elimination round. Brian and Erica ended up making it all the way to the final round. It shows that nice guys don't always finish last.

'Tis The Season

2009-12-07T13:29:00.000-08:00

Promptly after we got home from our Thanksgiving get-away in Park City we broke out our Christmas goodies. Kevin's family has a tradition of spending the day after Thanksgiving transforming thier house for Christmas and we have adopted that tradition and did just that.

Last year was our first Christmas together as married folk so naturally we bought all the basics to transform our apartment into Christmas: a faux mini tree, garland, ornaments, stockings, a wreath, faux poinsettia's, and of course our own little nativity set (actually given to us by Kevin's mom). I refrained from buying all the typical cutesy (is that a word) snowmen, Santa, snowflake, candy cane, decor because I'm crazy and like to decorate different each year. So what was once our totally current Christmas decor last year is totally dated and boring to me this year. Call me crazy but I just like to keep things interesting around here, especially because we have to look at it every year.

So this year I took to some interesting displays of ornaments in glass jars and bowls, a few silver decorative cones to serve as Christmas trees, and a lot of normal things that we already had to spice up our Christmas decor this year. So here's a glimpse of what I came up with:

Oh, and what's Christmas 2009 without a nutcrackher?!

And speaking of Christmas traditions, we are always looking for new ones. In fact, we just added another one to the list this past weekend. I have always loved the movie Elf but Kevin never really liked it that much. We watched it together the other day and he loved it. And just like that--a new Christmas tradition down in the books.

Now that our apartment has been transformed into Christmas and our tradition-creating minds are in full force we only have one more thing to check off before we can more fully embrace the spirit of Christmas: finals (Uf!).

Then we're home for the holidays! T-minus 9 days. I can't wait for the warmth!

NO-blog-vember

2009-12-02T19:34:00.000-08:00

Somehow November got away from me and our blog went unattended. Thinking back I guess we were busy but when it comes down to it, I was just lazy and time flies when you're having fun.

November sure was fun and we owe it all to mother nature. In the middle of the month we took an early weekend and headed down to Moab for a little camping adventure. Camping in November, crazy right? But, I gotta say, it was the most cold and fun I've ever had.

When we got there Friday afternoon we were starving and desperate for food so we stopped at a little dinner that claimed to have the best green chili in Utah. Turns out it did and it was the best diner food we've EVER had, no joke. So good! Or maybe we were just hungry. Food does always taste better when you're camping.

After the diner we headed out to conquer the trails of Arches National Park. To be honest I didn't know what to expect and wasn't really that excited but when we got there I was floored. My senses were on cloud 9-- the view was unlike anything I had ever seen. It was completely and utterly surreal, like we were in Africa or something. You get my amazement, right? I could go on and on about it.

Arches had so many amazing things to see but we were losing daylight so we had to keep our sight-seeing to a minimum.

Here I am, a happy-camper on cloud 9.

Our first sight was the Window. From the beginning of the trail-head it looked pretty small:

but as we got closer it became huge. I was amazed.

After the Window we headed over to Delicate Arch where the trail was marked with these little rock towers that lead us to our final destination.

I was out of breathe pretty much the whole time but it was totally worth it. The ginormous rock formation at sunset was incredible.

After Arches we drove around to find a place suitable to setup camp. We found a spot and got busy trying to start a fire. Needless to say it took us about an hour in the dark to find wood and start a fire (our two Eagle Scouts were pretty much useless). We were in the middle of nowhere and the only humans for a good 15-mile radius. I say humans because there were definitely other creatures creeping around--we were all terrified.

The night was long. Highlights included waiting four hours for Mark and Libby to come with our sleeping bags, Kerri's bomb potato cheese soup, and Kevin's peach cobbler that he's still talking about.

The next morning we packed up and headed out to mountain bike Slick Rock. I gotta say it was the best four hours of terror and thrill that we've ever had. Of course I looked like a dumb-dumb-twelve year old in my rad skater helmet, but it was so worth it.

Kevin, on the other hand looked legit and professional.

We loved mountain biking we can't wait to go back.

On the way home we stopped at Canyonlands National Park to see the sun set over a gorgeous canyon river.

So there you have it, a single post full of pictures and commentary to make up for the whole month.

ps. did i mention that i HATE blogger when it comes to uploading pictures?

This Just In...

2009-11-19T16:57:00.000-08:00

I just caught word that:

OPRAH IS ENDING HER TALK SHOW

(Whhhhhhhat?)
I'm seriously shocked.

Halloween Part II

2009-11-01T19:52:00.001-08:00

Saturday night was Halloween. Libby Miller and Bree got together and planned a Halloween dance party for our friends. Mark and I helped them transform their living room into a spooky dance floor. I think it turned out pretty amazing.

This is what their house looked like from the outside.

We were so caught up in decorating for the party that we forgot to have candy ready for the trick-or-treaters. To avoid confrontations with hungry six-year olds, Libby made this sign and put in on the front door.

During one of the techno songs we found some lights to rave with...then we spelled BOO with them.

These are just a "few" of the people who came to dance. It was awesome.

And because it wouldn't be Halloween without it, we wrapped up the night watching Hocus Pocus on the projector. As usual, Bree promptly fell asleep, but she was still happy to be there.

Halloween

2009-11-01T19:06:00.000-08:00

During all of October Bree was so excited to dress up for Halloween. At first she wanted to be Dora the Explorer and she said I was going to be Bob the Builder. We even got her a Dora wig. But then she got an even better idea: Woody and Jessie from Toy Story.

So on Friday we got our costumes ready. This entailed sewing on cow fabric to Bree's jeans and my vest, borrowing a cowboy hat and belt buckle from a good friend, and spray painting a cardboard cutout to make a sheriff's star for me. It was fun to make the costumes. I even did my own sewing.

Then we went to our ward Halloween party, which was so fun. Almost our entire ward was there.

This is Bishop and Sister Thompson. If you can't tell, they are Jabbawockeez. Sister Thompson got really into her character...she had some pretty cool dance moves--everyone loved it! I was impressed that they even knew who the Jabbawockeez are.

These are our friends Mark and Libby Miller. They're some kind of bird.

Drew and Kerri Hart. They were Aladdin and his Magic Carpet.

Bryan and Janelle were fishermen.

We have the coolest friends. We love to hang out with them.

This is our mean faces.

There was a pie-eating contest. I thought I would be competitive, but I think I took too big of a first bite, because as soon as I put the pie in my mouth I almost threw-up. The winner finished before I even ate half of my pie. I never liked pumpkin pie anyway.

TGIF!

2009-10-30T10:06:00.001-07:00

All week I've been saying: "I can't wait until Friday," not because I've had the "it'll be better when..." mentality (I strongly believe in living in the moment) but because Friday--today--is the day before Halloween and the day we get to dress up for our Ward Halloween Party. I'm so excited!

Not to mention it's the end of the week and we don't have school tomorrow!

Happy Halloween's Eve!

My Ticker is Off

2009-10-29T08:23:00.000-07:00

I swear our alarm has been tricking us lately. Every morning it goes off and it's STILL totally dark outside!

Okay, I realize it's that time of year--daylight savings time, but its totally throwing me off! As soon as the sun goes down I feel like its really late and time to go to bed; yet, I still want to sleep when its time to wake up at 7:15am because its still dark outside. It's really irritating.

all in all...

I am not a fan of daylight savings!

(at least during the "fall back" part of the year)

Birthday Celebrations

2009-10-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

Kevin's birthday was last Wednesday and we had a subtle celebration, just the two of us.

First stop: Pioneer Books, a cute little local cafe/used bookstore. Kevin's a reader, give him a couple of books for his special day and he's an extremely happy man (there it is again: man). Anyway, he has been wanting to get his hands on some classics so we stopped in to see what we could find. It was a success; he was in heaven, literally. The place was covered floor to ceiling with books, it was amazing. He left with: 1984, Don Quixote, and Moby Dick... exciting, right? It's okay, I ask why too.

After the bookstore we were off to Sammy's-- the best burgers in town and Kevin's absolute favorite place (besides J-Dawgs). He asks to go there at least once a week so it was no surprise that he chose Sammy's over any other place.

After Sammy's we came home and spent the rest of the night reading one of his new books, not something that I would do on my birthday, but what can I say...the man was excited and jumped right into The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn-- another book he got for his birthday. I'm not going to lie...I fell asleep :/

But what about the cake? Ice cream? balloons? Happy Birthday Song? Thhhhhat was for Friday: the birthday bash.

On Friday we we got wild and crazy celebrating Kevin's birthday with a few of our friends at our place. We had the best (if I do say so myself) chocolate cake, ice cream, candles, and even sang a little birthday song.

Oh! and I can't forget the pumpkins. Yes, there were pumpkins. Each couple had their go at carving pumpkins and I gotta say, these people were pro pumpkin carvers.

Pumpkin guts, hence the wild and crazy part.

Kevin designed and carved our pumpkin, it was just your traditional looking pumpkin.

BUT, Drew got really creative and carved our good friend: Dwight

All of the pumpkins turned out amazing and we had such a fun time. Thanks to all of our friends for celebrating with us.

note the Dwight finished product on the right

until next year...

Happy Birthday to the best man in my life!

Twenty Four

2009-10-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

24-years-ago this amazing person came into the world and truly made it a better place for me and so many others. I couldn't think of my life without him and am so grateful for his love and all that he does.

So here's to celebrating a wonderful man* on his special day.

Happy Birthday Kerrrvin!

*I hesitate to say man, but at 24 he most surely is. Weird!

And the next Bachelor is....

2009-10-15T11:46:00.000-07:00

Jake Pavelka

(you know...the pilot who tattle-tailed on Wes from last season of the bachelorette?)

I'm not sure how I feel about this... his supposed "honest guy with an open heart" reputation is a little much for me. Not to mention his "I'm a pilot, did I mention I'm a pilot? I'm looking for a co-pilot for life" persona kills me!

We'll see how it goes... I mean, who am I kidding, I'll def be there to watch it (kevin rolls his eyes here).

Any thoughts?

I'm so relieved its not creeper-Reid, but I'm still wishing it was Michael-break-dancer :/

The Needles are Out

2009-10-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of year and I have officially broken out my knitting and crochet needles!

Call me grandma but I love coming home to a warm house where I can peacefully and therapeutically knit my little hands away. Give me a comfy chair, a foot rest, and a little Oprah and I'm set.

Try it!

After the initial awkward hands (when you first learn) its seriously the best therapy.

Oh! and for the record: my goal is to finish the blanket I started over a year ago by the new year. I trust that this public display of goal setting will help me get 'er done... somebody will hold me to it.

Recent Happenings

2009-09-23T18:48:00.000-07:00

Bree has always had a knack for interior decorating. She loves it so much that she would rather spend money on decorations for our house than clothes for herself (isn’t that weird for a girl?). Her idea of a Friday night date is going to D.I. (similar to Goodwill) to look for candleholders, shelving, or whatever she can find to embellish our home. I’m fine with it—we spend less than $10 and she leaves happy.

So Bree has become slightly obsessed with a website called Young House Love. The site was created by two newlyweds who began documenting all the renovations they did to their new home. They post everything on their blog, from simple "DIY" (do it yourself--Bree's new motto) projects like revamping an old piece of furniture, hence the D.I. escapades, to whole room makeovers. They even documented their DIY wedding that they had in their own backyard.

The website is actually pretty cool. I was skeptical at first, but they post some hilarious videos. The website has inspired Bree to start some of her own DIY projects... and to transform our dining room table into a workbench. We've spent the last few evenings painting picture frames and shelves, hot-gluing things together, and framing wall art.

In other news: we have thoroughly enjoyed going to the Provo Farmer's Market these past few weeks. Last Saturday was a beautiful day and a perfect day at the market.

The colors in the flowers, fruits, and vegetables were amazing.

We also came across some puppy's for sale...pure torture for Bree.

On a not-so-perfect note, we went to the first BYU (football) home game. We had good seats but we played awful...we left early.

On a brighter note, Bree wore a BYU shirt to the game. I know... big deal, right? Well it actually is. When she transferred to BYU she swore that she would never buy or wear any BYU paraphernalia. So she finally gives in just in time for our rankings to crumble.

Regardless, we had a good time--thanks to Dip n' Dots--and are truly enjoying being back into full swing in Provo.

Surprise!

2009-09-13T15:32:00.001-07:00

Emilie and Geena came to visit me!

(my besties from BREG)

Well, they actually came to Utah for a Volleyball Tournament.

But I'll take it!

It was so good to see them and watch them play.

I love you girls!

Thank Goodness It's Friday

2009-09-10T15:49:00.000-07:00

I know this was a short week and to be honest it really hasn't been that bad, but I am so happy that the weekend is here and has officially started.

These first few weeks of school have been pretty hectic: adding and dropping classes, revising and following graduation plans, getting back into reading and homework mode, tending to household chores, and JUST getting back on schedule has been a major adjustment.

Okay, I know that's not all that bad BUT after spending the whole summer living at home with our parents where all meals and grocery shopping was done for us, school work was non- existent (although work was), and the living was verrrry easy... getting back to a regular routine has taken some getting used to. Sigh... (pathetic, I know).

I'm happy to announce, though, that today's add/drop deadline will ensure that next monday we will have a concrete schedule to follow for the rest of the semester.

Complaining aside, I am very grateful that we are still in school. After a whole summer of full-time jobs I can definitely say that we are not ready to be nine-to-fivers. Not yet anyways.

Vegas Vacation

2009-09-06T14:25:00.000-07:00

Last weekend on our way back to Utah from California we made a two-day stop in good ol' Las Vegas... We actually didn't intend to be there for two days buttttt due to a little mix-up we stayed another night.

We got there in the late afternoon on Friday just in time to check into our hotel, freshen up, and get a bite to eat before we could finally celebrate our anniversary at the Mandalay Theatre; home of the broadway play: Lion King. We had been planning on seeing it for a few months and were really excited; howevvvver, on the way to the Mandalay Bay hotel we looked at our tickets and realized that the show time wasn't until Saturday night (the next day).

At first we thought that we would just forego the whole play, pack-up and head for Provo on Saturday morning... Kevin even put the tickets up for sale on craigslist and everything. It wasn't until our parents called to talk us out of it that we considered staying. So late that night, after entertaining ourselves in our hotel room with at-home yoga videos, and left over Olive Garden breadsticks, we decided to stick it out-- another day in Sin City it was. And we sure did make the best of it.

Let's face it... at that point, we didn't exactly have Vegas breakfast buffet money, so on saturday morning we settled for a traditional breakfast at Denny's on the strip.

Next stop: the pool! also known as a meat market, but a great place for people watching nonetheless. We endured the 110 degrees of dry heat for as long we could go without water.

For a late afternoon snake we ate at, our favorite, WING STOP! It was perfect.

Oh yes, and we did opt for a little photo shoot too.

Kevin was in heaven.

Up Next: the M&M factory, literally a store dedicated to M&M parphernalia.

Aaaaand Finally... the moment we had been waiting for:

The show was fantastic, we loved every minute of it and are so glad that we stayed. Las Vegas wasn't so bad after all, I mean we didn't do the typical marriage, tattoo, or alchy things but we had a good time.

First Day

2009-08-31T15:09:00.000-07:00

Today was our first day back at school... a very surreal day to say the least.

As if being back at school wasn't weird enough... the weather and air was absolutely disgusting!

No joke, I felt like I was back home in Southern California--an unpleasant foggy, smoggy, smoky air lingered in the air all day.

Was anyone else completely thrown off by the air today? Or is this typical for utah? We were expecting to come back to the crisp clean air that we're used to in Utah. We often joke about being able to see hikers and mountain lions lingering along the "Y" mountainside. That definitely wasn't happening today.

On another note, there were a bazillion women and men with strollers on campus today... I saw more today than I did all year last year. Just sayin'...

A Whole Year!

2009-08-23T16:34:00.000-07:00

Today marks our 1-year anniversary!

It's so surreal to think that this most

magical day in our lives happened a year ago.

Time sure does fly!

But, to the many of you who have asked or are wondering "how's married life?" Which is obviously a question asked out of courtesy than genuine curiosity (nobody REALLY expects us to tell them anything other than our marriage is going great) it is wonderful and we really couldn't have asked for a better time living and sharing our life together.

I love Kevin so much and look forward to living through the days as the "how's married life?" question develops more fully into "how many weeks are you?" or "how long until your missionary comes home?" You get the idea.

But until then, let's reminisce on our life pre-marriage.

Enjoy!

9.58 - World Record

2009-08-16T20:05:00.000-07:00

This guy is insane.

End of story.

BREG does Spaghettini

2009-08-05T18:16:00.000-07:00

This past week, I got together with these three beauties to celebrate a birthday and our last hurrah of the summer by living out one of our traditions and treating ourselves to fine dining.

*Bree, Rachael, Emilie, Geena*

The four of us--better known as BREG--have been best friends since high school and came up with that Mean Girls type name for ourselves back then.

We definitely did our fair share of eating...the food was amazing

Em had never seen these kind of carrots before and was very amused by them

I had some pasta, and ate some of Rach's sweet potatoes fries (foreground)

And it was gee's birthday so we feasted on some fantastic Creme Brulee

*Rach and Gee*

*Me and Em*

And because our BREG archive of pictures is infinite I couldn't help but include some oldies, so for old-times sake here are a few pictures of the four of us from high school.

*rach's homecoming nomination ceremony*

*A new years party that none of us were thrilled about*

*One of our many trips to the Ivy for dinner*

*an afternoon at a local tea-house where we each received a hat and boa-- this picture is pretty much a perfect depiction of our personalities*

*Dinner at Koi, our favorite restaurant in LA*

*Volleyball pep rally*

Even though we were all pretty busy this summer

(mostly me) and didnt get to spend a lot of time

together I love these girls so much and cant

wait until we can all be together again.

And since they all play NCAA volleyball (for USC and Duke) I wish them all the best of luck as they start training (tomorrow) for their seasons.

Good luck Girls!

The OC Fair

2009-08-02T21:07:00.000-07:00

We recently took our annual trip to the Orange County Fair, a night filled with farm animals, fried food, and a hypnotist show. It's something Kevin's family does every summer.

The fair has a little bit of everything... the classic rides, a sandcastle competition, everything from your typical "as seen on TV" bargains in the shopping section, (Every year Kevin's mom comes home with a new mop), fried food (from fried chicken to fried snickers bars), an art contest, and a giant ox. When we go to the fair, its for three reasons: the food, the animals, and the hypnotist.

*3 of Kevin's younger brothers

We were starving that night and I've had a thing for chicken wings since Kevin introduced me to Wing Stop last summer. We found some delicious lemon pepper and garlic parmesan wings--probably the best wings we've ever had. Despite recommendations from Kevin's brother Kyle to try the fried Oreos, we stayed away from the other fried food. We ate pretty light the rest of the night; just a jalepeno burger and some crepes for dessert.

The farm animals were stinky, noisy, and very friendly! The sheep liked us especially.

Highlight of the night: the hypnotist. He's really popular and seating is limited. Kevin's mom got in a little tussle over some seats. She won and so we all got really good seats for the show. It was hilarious (the hypnotist, that is).

Season Finale

2009-07-28T12:52:00.001-07:00

I’m afraid my wife is going to leave me. For the past few days, Bree has anxiously awaited the final episode of the Bachelorette. She has become quite consumed in Jillian’s relationships with the various men who vie for her affection; all the while I sit quietly on the sidelines eavesdropping—pretending to pay no attention at all but actually following the show closely. Not the show only; I often watch Bree’s reaction to the different scenarios and conversations between Jillian and her would-be boyfriends. Sometimes she’s disgusted by the way some of the men treat Jillian (Wes, for example, is a “sleaze-ball”). My fear is, however, that Bree has become infatuated with some of the other more attractive and charismatic contestants.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard her say “He is so cute!” When the break dancer guy does or says anything—she says it even when they just flash his picture on the screen for a second or two. Apparently he’s really funny… in a way that I will never be. For example, Bree burst into laughter when she saw a clip of this break dancer suddenly interrupting the interview he was in and say, “Excuse me, but I gotta fart.” Then he farted! Bree thought it was hilarious. But when I (who lately happens to be more gaseous than usual) do exactly the same thing, it’s disgusting. My guess is it’s because she can’t smell through the television. So you can see why I should be a little worried, right?

But last night was the worst and most telling of all. Bree was so excited to watch the finale. And I, being the loving husband that I am, watched the entire episode with her. It was a tedious two hours to say the least. If you don’t follow the show, Jillian had narrowed it down to two handsome fellows: Ed and Kiptyn. From our previous post you know Bree’s sentiments were with Kiptyn, and understandably so. From his broad shoulders and chiseled abs to his fun-loving, easy-going attitude, he closely resembles another man who Bree adores: me! Only Kiptyn is about 25 times more perfect…and he’s tan.

So during all of this, my jealous tendencies were faintly brewing down at the bottom of my stomach; it was nothing alarming. I thought it was all kind of a joke. I knew Bree really loved me. But when Jillian told Kiptyn she chose Ed instead of him and Bree started crying…I began to question the strength of our marriage.

When I say crying I don’t want anyone to think she sobbed or wept over Jillian’s decision; Bree’s eyes only watered a little. But all the same, she became emotional because Kiptyn wasn’t “the one.” And now that Kiptyn is single—and resides in San Diego, CA—I should probably be a little more cautious until we go back to Utah together.

I don’t know, maybe I should learn from my first Bachelorette experience. I’ve never been the romantic type. Feeding my wife chocolate drizzled strawberries over a candle lit dinner while floating in a tropical Hawaiian lake seems nice, but it’s too much work for me. I’d probably tip the boat over on accident. When I do something nice it’s usually doing the dishes or folding the laundry, not buying two dozen long stem roses and writing her a song. Personally, I would’ve liked to see the contestants do normal things with Jillian, like go grocery shopping, paint a bedroom, cook a meal together, etc. I mean, what woman wouldn’t fall head over heels for a cute guy when all they do is travel to exotic islands and dine in the moonlight? Nevertheless, I need to make an honest effort to be more romantic if I want to hold on to what I’ve got.

Note: This post was more of a joke than anything else. Bree and I are very much in love, so please don’t refer us to any marriage counselors. Thanks.

For the Record

2009-07-20T22:02:00.000-07:00

My vote is for Kiptyn.

Even though I think that Michael Breakdancer is adorable and should still be on the show.

Aaaaaand, what was that last scene of Reid and the ring that he had all about?!

Any thoughts?

Pioneer Day

2009-07-19T18:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we celebrated Pioneer Day a special day for Latter-Day Saint families. The "holiday" (of sorts) commemorates the first group of Mormon Pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley on June 24, 1847, where early LDS families settled after being forced out of many locations in the eastern United States.

Although Pioneer Day is recognized as a state holiday and is usually celebrated with fireworks and parades in Utah, we enjoyed our Pioneer Day with friends and family from our stake at a local park where we...

enjoyed a nice picnic in the shade

were slightly embarrassed by our pioneer-dressed dad who was one of the five people who dressed up

watched the younger kids...

potato sack race their little hearts out for a a blow-pop

create pioneer entertainment like:

rag dolls

and these whirly-do's (or whatever they're called)

we also wheeled around with handcarts

AND

rode on a three man tandem!

but most of all we remembered the pioneers who made the long trek on foot through the planes to Salt Lake City so that they could worship freely.

June 15-July 12

2009-07-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we last blogged. Bree asked me to write this blog. I'm writing this while she watches the Bachelorette...it's distracting me. Does anyone else watch that show? Do you think it's weird that she kisses four guys on a single date? I don't know why Bree watches it; she just said "This show is so cheese-ball!"

Anyway...Bree asked me to catch "everyone" up on what we've been doing the last couple of weeks. While we were at school I was consumed with preparing for my circuits final and with track. Bree worked in the Pinnacle call center, taking phone calls from sales reps and setting up accounts.

Track season finished really well. We went to the NCAA championship meet at the University of Arkansas for the 4x400 relay. The track team paid for Bree to go, so that was awesome. I enjoyed having her there with me.

The meet was really fun to watch, but I'm not going to lie, I was super nervous all week (we didnt run until Thursday evening). Here's what happened: I ran the lead off leg in lane 6. To my outside was LSU (they hold the NCAA 4x4 record); on my inside was Baylor (who has won like 8 of the last 10 4x400 championships), so that just added to my nervousness. In the end we all ran very well and even pr'd by 2 seconds. Our time was 3:06.60, and it was the third fasted time BYU has ever ran. The best part is that we're all coming back next year.

In other news we came home (to California) at the end of June and have been busy working ever since. I'm working as an intern for Southern California Edison... a public utility company; they provide electricity to most of southern california and Bree is working as a PR intern for one of the supervisors of Los Angeles.

Here we are on our first day dressed in corporate attire... I look like I'm wearing a grade school uniform or something..

Other than that we have been spending a lot of time with our families. Our parents houses are in the same neighborhood so every other night we eat with each other's family. Also, my family has recently added this little guy into the mix.

*Benji*

He's a handful, but we love taking him on evening strolls around the neighborhood.

Annnnd, that's all for now.