Cheers to the freaking weekend

Three day weekend was just what the doctor ordered!! Let's just go with a brief overview.

FRIDAY: Clinical, buddy day. Enough said. It was so freaking legit and made me so excited that I'm going to be a nurse soon!! However, not the point of the post. I suppose that will wait for another day. Friday night we FINALLY had our clinical group date that we'd been planning since last semester!! Robin was in town for a few days, and it's early enough in the semester that we all had a free evening. It also happened to be Clark's birthday! So we ordered pizza, made some cupcakes, sang happy birthday, and just hung out for the night. Cami and Matt, Robin, Jordan, Kaci, and Ashley and Clark were all over and we had a blast. It was a much needed comedic relief from the stress that we're all already feeling with this semester.

So each of the married couples told the story of how they met/proposal. It was pretty funny to say the least and all of us were practically rolling on the floor with laughter. The highlight for me of Cami and Matt's story was that in high school, Matt was a wrestler. And the way Cami puts it, he had black hair (dyed for wrestling) and was anorexic (to stay in his weight class). Haha. The highlight for me of Ashley and Clark's story was that Clark used SO MANY ONE LINERS on Ashley! Haha major cheese ball but hilarious at the same time! It was great and so nice to feel like we have friends that all of us actually get along with each other. After everyone had left, Cami and Matt were stayed for a bit talking to us, and between Cami and I we have quite a bit of "funds" starting. First we have the "pedicure fund" and then there's the "sushi fund" and I'm sure there are a few more we came up with!

Truth: making married friends is HARD!! Fact: all of us that night got along so well! All the girls of course, but the guys totally did too and that made me so happy! I love having couple friends!

SATURDAY: We had the Bunker's over! We were quite the party animals this last weekend. A rare occasion for us! We talked for quite a bit and played some Monopoly. I thought it would be pretty boring, but it actually ended up being super fun with only 4 people playing. Dan ended up completely bankrupt because he landed on Ed's "Boardwalk" property. $1400 in rent...can't really see why he went broke, haha. It was pretty funny, and the game ended after that. It was nice to have them over though because I feel like they were some of our first real friends that we made since being married. I love that we can go a few months without hanging out and things are still the same when we do get together again! Like I said, I love having couple friends! I just wish I had more time to hang out with them!

SUNDAY: Church. The sacrament. Spending the day with Dan. I just love Sundays. We made kalua and rice for dinner...I could go to heaven just thinking about it! Caitlin and Tyler came over for dinner too, and that was nice to see them again! I haven't seen Caitlin since she left for Christmas break. And she lives in the same state! It's just a testament to how busy I really am. Dan also made sweet bread after Caitlin and Tyler left. It's so so yummy! I didn't take any pictures of these loaves though...next time!! Next time!!

MONDAY: I decided it was time to lose my bread making virginity. I was so inspired by Dan's bread making skills the night before, and about a week ago, I came across my mom's bread recipe. So, I decided What the heck! I'll make bread today, and put this KitchenAid to good use! It was quite an experience to say the least! First of all, I really did not think all the required flour was going to fit into the mixing bowl. It barely did. Second, the dough was practically pouring over the sides by the time it was finished mixing. Third, it was so MESSY! Flour was in every which direction from the KitchenAid out and I had so much dough all over my fingers, I probably could have made another loaf. Okay, slight over exaggeration, but I really did have a ton of dough on my fingers.

Another reason it got so messy...well we're like kids some days, and we started putting flour all over each other. And since Dan has such a cute butt...I couldn't resist!

Then I let it rise for an hour, and it got HUGE!

I separated it into the bread pans, and after it baked, I had to have a slice, fresh and hot out of the oven. It did not disappoint. Our bread making ventures this weekend were quite the success. I, for one, was extremely proud of my bread!

Monday afternoon, Dan wanted to go fishing. I was pretty excited about it and excited to maybe get to use my fly fishing pole that Dan had bought me for Christmas. We went up Spanish Fork Canyon to Diamond Fork River. We drove into a campsite and found a spot pretty close to the river. We went to pull off the road a little ways (there were other track marks from multiple tires), and we had just barely pulled off when the front left tire sank straight down into the snow. Suck. It was pretty interesting, and we were seriously stuck, and stuck good. Like we rocked the car, shoved brush under the tires to get better traction, and the car would not move! The tires just kept spinning. Even more frustrating though, the tires would start to go forward, roll just enough, and then slip back into the hole. Luckily for us, there were other people stuck right around the corner. We walked over to ask for help, and helped them push their car out, and they came over to help us.

I was really afraid at this point that we would have to get pulled out. We didn't have a tow rope. Neither did they. Crap. I got back into the car, and we tried to push it out. It worked!!!! First time too. It was such a blessing! We made it out just fine, and even found Pitch Perfect at Redbox to watch!! The evening ended with eating chili with Caitlin and Tyler, and watching the movie.

It has been a great weekend. Now back to the grind. LOTS of homework to catch up on.

Adventures in the Pumpkin Patch

This weekend, we went with our friends, the Bunkers, down to Santaquin to a pumpkin patch! It was quite the fun adventure. We were pulled in a trailer by a tractor to the patch and had so much fun sliding down the big slides, going through the box maze, and taking pictures in the cut outs of American Gothic. Yes, we were like a bunch of little kids let loose. It was great, and the perfect little relief for the weekend. I might go down there again just for the slides and maze after this week of hellishness is over (3 tests...boo).

Back to the happy part, it's best to tell in pictures:

Walking to the trailer...we're both pretty excited. (And conveniently matching in jeans and white v-necks...it's love I tell ya!)

Yes, that's the slide!! So fun!!

Dan and I went down the big one in a "train" and then he went down the small one again. It doesn't look like it, but he really was having a blast!

The pumpkin patch

So proud of our pumpkin :]

I just can't get enough of him! Especially w/ that smile.

Isn't that the prettiest pumpkin you've ever seen?!

You'd think with as many pictures that we took of it, the pumpkin was our kid or something

Just before we left..the clouds were rolling in

So funny story, the pumpkin had a dirt spot on it and I accidentally rubbed it all across my shirt. Hence, the sad face. Thankfully, it rubbed right off.

I definitely take it for granted, but I love holding his hand on car rides home.

My life in pictures

Our good friend Trent decided it would be funny to fill in our "grateful" board for us a couple of Sunday's ago. Let's just say he thought he was pretty funny, and when I noticed it two days later I though it was pretty funny too.

My momma made this for us for our one year anniversary! The "H" was the cake topper on our wedding cake! I love shadow boxes, and this was just perfect. A nice little memory of our wedding. I love it!! Thanks Momma!!

Colorado has spiders. Lots of spiders. This nasty little guy made his way into my house. Not okay. Not okay at all. It sucked too (and I think this is the way it goes with all spiders) that you don't really notice it until you walk by, and then it scares the crap out of you! I jumped pretty high, and Dan was laughing. Thank goodness he was home though, so I didn't have to kill it! I was pretty determined to figure out which kind of spider it was too (weird I know) and after consulting his bug sheet, I think it was a wolf spider. Yuck!

Don't mind a picture of the bottom of my foot. I have this pretty legit Red Sox hat that my dad got me at Fenway, and it has an adjustable strap in the back. This particular strap is metal. I stepped on it. It busted my heel open. No joke. I was honestly shocked because number 1: I step on things all the time and pretty much never cut my foot; and number 2: the metal piece is so dull it wouldn't even stick in the wall if I chucked it at the wall. So I was pretty shocked. But luckily it closed up wicked fast and it hasn't gotten infected at all! Woot woot!

Poor Dan! He works so hard all week and every Sunday, without fail, we come home from Church, eat lunch, pick a movie to watch, and he passes out right about 2 pm until at least 4. Me on the other hand, I can't nap. I couldn't resist taking a picture because he just looks so cute, all tired and exhausted (don't mind my doting wife comment just now!).

 This is my fridge. It's flooded with wedding announcements. Well not really flooded, I guess it could be worse, but seriously 8 announcements is a little crazy! I texted this picture to Abbie and just laughed because there are so so many!! We had a good laugh about it. I'm sure there will be a few more added by the end of the summer, but I'm not holding my breath for it.

 I've come to the conclusion that our car rarely has problems during the school year because it only has problems during the summer when we're beating up on it and racking up the miles on it. Last summer, it was an engine mount and the A/C. This summer, it's the alternator. Luckily we have some good friends that had all the tools and after a couple of hours, we had the alternator fixed. Then the car wouldn't start. Great. Really freaking great. At this point I was pretty pissed and just wishing we would've paid the couple hundred bucks to take it in and have it fixed. Well my husband is nothing short of a genius! Thanks to his physics class at EA, he was able to figure out the problem! When they were taking out the old alternator, they hadn't taken off the positive side of the battery so the alternator was sparking. Turns out that that sparking blew out the battery fuse. 3 hrs and $3 later, the car was working again!! Yay for physics classes and for $3 battery fuses.

This is more from the hail storm last week. This was the hail that had gathered on our porch. Dime size. It was crazy!!

Photo Dump

I made Dan breakfast this morning. It was supposed to be an omelet. It's pitiful. But Dan said it tasted pretty delicious, minus the bacon bits that I forgot to add in. Oops!

Saturday mornings are a little rough, especially when I have to work. Instead of going to work at 2 in the afternoon, I have to be there at 9 am, which also means I have to be out the door by 830. Rough. So this last Saturday, I was dying before I even headed out the door. I stopped at the Circle K to get a 32 oz Dew. I had that downed by 10. And I was dying even more. So Greg King had to go out and do a bee service and got me another 44 oz Dew. I had so much caffeine in my system that I wasn't hungry, and that night my stomach was killin!! Ugh, let's just say I swore off the dew for the next couple of weeks, and I'll stick to 44 oz at the max!

Speaking of trying new dinner recipes, I found this on pinterest and decided to try it. It was AMAZING!! I really am looking forward to the next time I can make it. It was that good, and had so many vegetables that I don't normally eat, but they were delicious!

Remember 2 posts ago, the epic hail storm...yeah this was it. It was insane. This wasn't even halfway through the hail palooza! It seriously looked like the ground was covered in snow.

More photo dump-age to come soon.

Baseball caps and t-shirts

I've been meaning to blog for quite some time now. There's all kinds of things to blog about here in Denver, but let's just chalk it all up to the fact that I work too much...especially right now.

Denver has been great so far, but definitely not what we had expected out of the summer. I guess you win some and you lose some. Honestly it's just a little frustrating when you plan things and then it just doesn't work out that way. It's okay, don't get me wrong, we're happy, but it's just a little frustrating. The frustration comes to a culminating point every so often and I just break down. Two nights ago this happened. I just couldn't take it anymore...I'm working on a coping mechanism, but haven't quite managed to find one that works for me.

Basically it just came down to the fact that I miss Dan. We've been so go go go ever since we got married. We left for Texas, I left for school, Dan was working 3 jobs (I still can't believe he did that!), and then I got into the nursing program, Dan left on recruiting trips to Idaho frequently, and then we came to Denver. I started working...50+ hrs a week. It's just been so so busy and honestly I feel like we lost each other a little bit. We're happy, don't get me wrong, but I just miss being friends and having time to just hang out with each other.

As much as it sucks, I think this has been good for us though to really decide what we want to do. We made some life directional decisions and have a rough outline of what we're doing after this summer.

Dan got accepted to UVU! So he's going back to school in the fall...maybe. He hasn't quite decided because originally he was going to have to take placement tests and stuff by the 15 of June to be accepted, and obviously that one wasn't going to happen. At that point, we had pretty much decided he'd take a class or two just to get back into the groove of school, work some and then start during the winter semester. So being accepted was definitely a blessing, but now it's the toss up...what do we do? Dan wants to get a full time job, take a class or two and get us settled back into a home that we'll be in for the next year or two. Let's face it, I'll be doing clinicals, and I pretty much will not have a life so any settling in will not get done by me.

Life has been good to us though. We just celebrated our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!! (well...it was almost a month ago) I'm still not sure how I feel about that though. It went way too fast. Lucky for me I have forever with that man and I'm so so excited for all of it. We're happy, we're healthy, and I really don't have too much to complain about. I wish I blogged more, but I'm working on it. We've had some seriously funny things happen to us lately but for the life of me I can't remember a single one of them. So as they come to my head I'll jot them on this post. It's my catch all right now, so if you read all the way through...props my friend, props.

One that I do remember though is on Wednesday there was a killer storm moving in through Denver and according to the weather lady all it was supposed to be was 50 mph winds from about 5-9 pm. No big deal. Well high speed winds is a HUGE deal apparently when it's combined with rain and hail! Luckily at work it just rained so I didn't have to worry about the hail aspect when driving home, but the boys had basketball that night. It was sprinkling when I got home around 10 and Dan and I left for the Church at 1015 at the latest and it was pouring already! After 3 games (they only go to 9 pts) I was ready for bed (it's 11 mind you and 730 just always seems to creep up on me earlier than the day before). Being the good husband that he is, Dan said okay and we left, only this time the rain was coming down in buckets. There are no words to describe the amount of rain that was falling from the sky. We made it home just fine, after all a little rain never killed anyone. After about 10 minutes of being home, believe it or not the rain came down even harder and was much much louder. I went outside on our balcony to check it out and then noticed it actually look like it was hailing. Sure enough dime size hail was cascading down the roof of the apts and it actually looked like snow on the ground. Quite a bit made it onto our porch. I was honestly shocked and worried about our car (there's no covered parking anywhere in the complex unless you have a garage). It was super crazy and cool at the same time. Luckily it stopped hailing after 20 or so minutes and went back to rain, but it was nuts!

I've been pretty lucky that I haven't seen too much wildlife activity in my apt, and by wildlife I mean spiders. Well I was thinking to myself it's been so great and wonderful that I've really only seen one cricket (which seriously scared me to death--pathetic). I picked up Dan's lunch box and set in on the counter and a huge wolf spider crawled up the side! I dropped it and just screamed! It scared the poop outta me! Dan killed it of course and that was the end of it. Later that day I was washing the sheets and we had a little spider crawling in our bed!! I flipped...again...and killed it by myself but at that point I was like this is not okay! Not okay! I texted Jed (the branch manager in Denver) and told him I NEEDED my apt sprayed asap because spiders are not okay, at all! Especially not in my bed!

It's been a pretty busy summer so far. I can't believe it's already June! I just want things to slow down a little bit, but at the same time I want to get back into school. It's a little pathetic but I kind of miss studying a ton for tests because I just love learning about the body. It's probably a good thing I chose nursing to go into.

As for the rest of the summer, I've decided I'm going to be Happy. I know that seems like a silly thing to decide but I've just been miserable lately. Dan and I both have. I try to stay positive but I'm just miserable and frustrated with life in general. We were watching a clip on youtube about a guy who has no arms and no legs. I don't remember his last name, but his first name is Nick, and he's from Australia. He has the best attitude and watching that video just helped me to realize happiness is a state of mind and a choice. It's choosing to be happy when everything around you tells you otherwise. It choosing to be happy amidst the struggles, and choosing to be happy when at the end of the day you'd rather cry than smile. It's okay to get down, but don't get stuck in a rut. Just be happy. This life is the greatest blessing and I for one want to be happy and enjoy it.

It's a baseball cap and t shirt kind of day and I'm happy about that. :]

Dumpage

So don't mind my absentee blog writerness. Let's just say school has been slightly challenging, I started a new job that I really do enjoy, and life is just peachy keen. But...here's some picture's that have just been itching to get off my phone. Enjoy. 

Dan went on a manager's retreat a couple of month's ago that was in Heber. They stayed at this legit cabin and the company had rented the cabin through Saturday night, so Dan came home, picked me up, and we stayed Saturday night at the cabin with Allister and Maria and their boys and Nate and Brayden. It was pretty entertaining and a nice little getaway from Provo for the night. We drove around a little bit on Sunday morning and saw these deer up on the hill! It was pretty exciting!!

Arizona trip President's day weekend. Finally home again, to the place where I belong. I've missed this place and getting to see it all the time. Never thought I'd miss that one horse town, but all it took was to see that temple rolling into town and I was home again.

Two favorite boys on their birthday with yellow cake cupcakes and chocolate frosting per Dan's request. Love them both. (PS. just in case anyone is confused...this is  my nephew)

We watch Kason every Wednesday night, and a couple of weeks ago it was just he and I. Dan was in Idaho. So Kason took my phone and was taking pictures of everything in his house. Then I started taking pictures of him making faces. This one is a personal fav of mine. Definitely going to miss this little spit fire when they move to Germany.

AZ trip: Ben and Tassy's wedding reception. They lit off Chinese lanterns! Just like in Tangled!! It looked so cool. Camera's just can't quite capture what the human eye can see.

December ish...our floor was leaking water. When the toilet would flush. SICK!!! It took almost a week to fix. Thankfully, it's fixed...and has been for quite some time. It was super weird when we figured it out and then to try and explain it to any plumber we called...yeah that was fun too.

More toilet water disgustingness. PS. This was leaking into our kitchen. SICK!!!! I think I went through a whole thing of bleach cleaning the kitchen.

I think this is the perfect shampoo for me! Straightener...you have met your match!

Valentine's Day Dinner. Love my honey. He was so sweet and surprised me with a bear at work and then had this romantic dinner all prepared when I got home from work. <3

He's so cute!

I got this note today when I came home from work. I absolutely love him a lot a lot a lot.

Buffalo Wild Wings for Dan's birthday. We waited an hour and a half before we even sat down! The line was RIDICULOUS!! I can't even believe we honestly waited that long...for WINGS!!!!!

I still can't decide if this was a good decision or not. Haha the color is growing on me more and more.

Mid-hole pulling through. Dan was so good to pull my hairs through.

The blonde mess....I looked like white trash. Ghettooooo fabulous. I think it's toned down a lot from then. But then again, maybe I'm just getting used to it. Oh dear.

One thing I WISH I could have gotten a picture of...so my birth control prescription jumped from $25 a month to $85, and let's be real, who can afford that? Certainly not me. So I did the only thing a BYU college student with ghetto fabulous hair trying not to get pregnant can do...I went to planned parenthood and got me a new prescription...and for $18 a month!! Woot woot. But there was this awkward clear uterus that was in the exam room to advertise/display/I'm not really sure for nuva ring. I wish I could have taken a picture of that. But...alas some things are just not meant for photographs.

It's been an interesting...and fun couple of months. 6 weeks left of school and then off to Denver!!! I'm so so excited for the summer. I'll have time for the gym, time to lay out poolside, oh...and time to blog. That's always a good thing to write my life out, at least somewhat.

A Penny For My Thoughts

So I'm not a Lil Wayne fan at all, but this song is awesome. I won't post the Lil Wayne version, but if you feel so inclined, you can look it up on youtube.

Don't mind the random Spanish in the middle, but it sounds legit.

Today, Dan picked me up from class, we went to Smiths to get hamburger buns, and out of nowhere, I just decided I really really wanted to take Dan up Provo Canyon. There's a really pretty spot up the canyon a few miles called Bridal Veil Falls. I'd gone with my mom and a few of my cousins last summer and it was absolutely gorgeous then, so why wouldn't it be now? Nevermind the fact it's nearly the end of November, snow is imminent, and the wind decided to blow horrifically through the canyon.

It didn't take much to convince Dan to go, because he is king of everything outdoors. It turns out that the park-place where it's at closes November 1st. So we had to walk a little ways in to get to the falls. We passed a creepy house across the creek from which I swear Linkin Park music was emminating. Dan wanted to go check it out. Heck to the freaking no!! It's already creepy enough that the wind's blowing and we're by ourselves.

So we finally made it to the falls, stood there for a few minutes, took this picture:

We're cute right? I think so :]

Dan made dinner tonight. Homemade hamburgers in themselves are absolutely delicious! But Dan put in onion soup mix....holy cahmoly DE-FREAKIN-LICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!! Like I seriously considered eating a second third and fourth hamburger. Yeah.....that good! Good thing I stuck with one, because my tummy is STILL full.

So I'd say today has been entirely successful. Jennifer, Shelyse and I laugh entirely too much when finishing our homework. We probably have a few conversations too many with too many people around to hear. Oh...and I end up snorting because I was laughing so hard. Yeah...embarrassing.

Oh and I'm pretty sure I saw Riley Nelson on campus today...not that I care because everyone I've ever talked to said he's a stuck up rude-head (in maybe not so nice of words). Well if it was him, definite reality. The guy waltzed right in with a swagger like he owned the place. Yeah...you're just a football player FYI.

Long story short: Life is good. Outdoor adventures are the best end to a LONG LONG week. I've got some good friends, that I'm lucky enough to have class with every day. Andddd my husband is the best cook ever. Word.

An update

So I've got a million and a half pictures on my phone, and rather than blog about each and every single one and the experience associated with it, I'll just post the pictures with a brief description.

Pretty self explanatory...but clearly someone's cutting corners.

First day of school! First day of school!

The atrocious 102 steps that I walk up and down pretty regularly.

I definitely stopped wearing flip flops for awhile after how dirty they make my feet during the day!

Gotta love the mac n cheese (ps...I nearly cried when I realized how tan I was at the start of the school year, and how pathetically white I am now...boo!)

Welcome to Utah County...EVERYTHING is under construction.

Mmm....frosties :]

You can't really tell, but there's a moose! You can see it right through the screen of the trailor.

Psh...I thought this was cold. I was such a pansy. Now 42 feels good!

My awesome nephew practicing his cart-wheels. For the life of me, I could not get a picture of him mid-cartwheel. I was a little sad about that.

View outside the Provo Temple!

Oh no big deal...Just showing the hydrogen bonding that goes on with nucleotide bases in DNA.

The first big rain storm. I've checked the weather every day since then, because believe it or not, two hours earlier it was clear skies and sunshine.

The awesome dinner my awesome husband made (thanks for the recipe Abbie!)

Ice cream date after priesthood session of conference!

The first cold cold cold cold cold day of the year...yeah it sucked. I was really quite concerned that winter was upon us. Have no fear...it let up for a few weeks, and the sun came back out.

It was very pretty though if I do admit though.

CAKE BALLS!!!

Provo Temple!

Okay, so this is a pretty funny story. Dan was popping my back, well trying to pop it anyway. It's pretty stubborn when it comes to popping it. Anyway, he was standing behind me trying to pop it, and out of no where there's a huge RIP. Yeah...my bra had busted open. Only a part of it though, so it still is wearable. But I was laughing so hard because i just couldn't believe that it had actually ripped.

HOMEMADE lasagna!!! Heck yeah!!!

National Chemistry Week: Magic Show!

My sister in law and my nephew and I hiked the Y a few weeks ago and Kason was a champ!! He hiked the whole thing by himself, without Jami or I having to carry him. It was so awesome!

Homemade famous bowls. Why buy them at KFC when you can make them at home yourself!

My mumu and I on Halloween!

My cousin Britton! He was a scarecrow and was scaring people in the cornmaze!

My seester!! She was a sister-wife with a couple of her other roommates, and she had balloons in her dress so her boobs would be saggy! The funny part was that she had no idea I was grabbing her fake boobies until I'd said something about it...then she started freaking out!

Cute pose :]

Tanner the grim reaper!!

My aunt and uncles house! Halloween is their holiday!! No joke, they go all out for it and have a haunted maze in their backyard.

The first snow was this last Sunday!! It didn't last too long. All of it had melted by 11 that morning.

Isn't he the cutest?!!

That's some of the crazy happenings of our lives these days.