Things to Update Upon

So I'm sitting here at about 11:30 pm on Sunday night waiting for laundry to finish. Yes. Laundry. Sigh. But it's a necessity so I just have to do it. I won't be to bed until well after midnight and I need to be up at 6:30 to get ready for work at 8... blah. So, I thought I'd kill time by updating my life since our anniversary at the beginning of the month. Here are some things that have happened:

1. I have started working full-time at the Buckle as a Team Lead. I am in the workings to become Assistant Manager and hopefully that will happen here in the next couple weeks. We just need to work on improving our store's sales (compared to other Buckles in the area) before it can happen. So come shop from me! :)

2. Trevor and I completed a 700 piece landscape/painting puzzle together in a matter of a few days. Piece here, piece there, and it was finished! :) It took up pretty much our entire tiny kitchen table. Here's the finished product:3. We both began reading Angels and Demons after I picked it up from the bookstore. The goal was to finish it by this weekend so we could see the movie. Well, since I have quite a bit more time, I finished it and Trevor was only about halfway through so we were going to wait to see the movie until next weekend. But, we were out at Chili's last night and he decided we should just go see it because he needed to save the 6 more hours of reading that lay ahead of him for more important things (like homework... which, by the way, he has a project due tomorrow morning and he just started it about an hour ago... uh oh). Long story short, we went to see the movie last night. It was a good movie, but I couldn't help but find myself cringing or grimacing as the director chose to completely change some important details about the book, add things in, and leave out details I thought were very interesting and pertinent to the story. One character in the book dies, but in the movie he is rescued and LIVES! Whaaa? Oh well, I've been lamenting for a while now and need to learn to get over it (or just not see movies that are based on books when I liked the book so much). Regardless, it was an ok movie and Trevor found it entertaining. I would have liked for him to finish the book and I told him he still should because it's a completely different story, but he says he probably won't. Oh well.

Now I've got to find my next summer read - Any Suggestions?

4. We are going on a CRUISE to Mexico on Royal Carribbean near the end of July! We're going with 3 other couples (YAY!) and I am so excited I've already started buying "cruise clothes" and I've made plans to get a bit tanner before then so I don't turn into a lobster. Pure white sand and crystal blue water? HERE I COME! Wahoo! :)

5. We've planted a veggie garden again this year - this time bigger and earlier so we'll get veggies before winter hits! I'm so excited and will be posting pictures soon. I would post them now, but I realized the ones I took are already outdated because the plants are growing so fast! So I'm hoping to do a "progressive" post to show the life of some of them from seedling to where they are now. That'll be fun, huh?

Well, the laundry is done. Gotta go grab it and fold it so I can get some shut-eye! ;)

Our First Anniversary!

Trevor and I celebrated our ONE YEAR anniversary on Sunday May 3rd! We are so happy to have made it to this big first milestone in our marriage! :)

To celebrate, we decided to buy lower bowl tickets to the Jazz-Lakers Playoff Game #4. The game was a blast even though the Jazz lost by over 20 points! :( But it was still fun to be there together, cheer, take pictures, and eat yummy ice cream! Here are a couple pics I took:
Also to celebrate, we got an hour long couples' massage. Andrea, the lady who usually does my massages, was so sweet to grab a friend and help us celebrate. They decorated our room with rose petals and candles to set a romantic mood! It was a wonderful, relaxing experience.

Trevor and I also decided to attend the temple the day before our anniversary. It was wonderful to go back to the place where we were married a year ago (although we got married in Salt Lake and went to Provo this time, it was still a great remembrance of that beautiful day a year ago).

Finally, we went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Shoga, and spent the rest of the night cuddling on the couch watching TV. I really couldn't have asked for a better celebration. I look forward to being married for the infinite years to come :)

My Graduation from BYU!

For your viewing enjoyment, here are some pictures from the two big days (April 23rd and 24th), as well as a photo shoot I did at a later date in front of the BYU sign with my mom and brother as photographers! :) Enjoy!
This is the best picture EVER:
My parents gave me an electric keyboard for graduation! I love it!:
Me and Melanie:
This WAS my school!:

Right after I walked, my two favorite men (my dad and my hubby) gave me these beautiful flowers! :)
Melanie and I had hot red shoes!:
It was very windy:
Me and Jenny:
My whole family!:
Me and my sweet hubby:
And, I had to show off my cute dress I got for graduation! I wore those red shoes with it as well as red earrings! :)
Hope you enjoyed some of the pics. There are soo many good ones it was hard to choose. Maybe I'll post more later if I'm feeling the urge. It feels wonderful to be graduated. It's quite liberating if I do say so myself! :)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's birthday! And for courtesy reasons, I won't disclose how old he is today :) But in order to give tribute, I want to talk about how great he is!

To start, I want to show my appreciation for my dad's talent of being an expert cook! He's the one who always made delicious recipes for our family when I was growing up. He's the one who helps me learn to cook better every day!

When he was here visiting in Provo, I asked him if we could make sweet-'n-sour chicken. I had the sauce, the chicken, and some flour and I figured that's all I needed. But then he said, "Well, we're going to need some garlic, ginger, onions, green peppers, etc. This is when you know someone can cook! So I went to the store to make a delectable meal!

He taught me how to fry things better! The trick is to add corn starch and baking powder! Also, to put the meat in an egg bath before the powder! :) Then the batter gets fluffy and amazing!
This is how the chicken turned out! YUM!
And of course, we had some steamed edamame on the side!!
And a plateful of rice to put the chicken on. It truly was an amazing meal made by an amazing dad!
But other than being a great chef, my dad has been wonderful in so many other ways! He's a sweet, loving guy, he loves music, he has supported me through every walk of life and taught me a million things! I couldn't have asked for a better father! I love you Dad! Happy Birthday!

Mike Got His Mission Call! :)

This past Wednesday, April 15th (aka tax day to most of the world), my brother Mike's mission call came in the mail! I was so excited when I saw it in the mailbox I was shaking for the next hour! :)

Here are a couple pictures for your enjoyment. This was when he was waiting in anticipation for my parents to be able to get on the phone! He had to wait about 30 minutes. Poor thing :) So we'll make you wait to scroll through the pics to get to the big answer - WHERE IS HE GOING?
Where???
AHHH Where?!!?!?
And the answer IS... He's going to Boise, Idaho! English speaking!!!
And no, Mom, he's not kidding! :)

I wish you could see the video. It won't upload to anything probably because it is too big. So, until I can figure out how to make it work, you'll have to enjoy these pictures!

I'm so proud of my little brother for choosing to serve an honorable mission! He's going to make one fantastic missionary!

Ashlie's Baby Shower

Last Thursday, April 9th, I went to my friend Ashlie (Jensen) Heiner's baby shower! I know Ashlie from DT during our first year here at BYU. Her shower was put on by Burgundy (Flammer) Heiner, also a friend I met on the same floor at DT, and Shea Heiner (Ashlie's sister-in-law)! Ashlie and Burgundy married Ryan and Trevor Heiner who are brothers! Small world huh? And I hope that wasn't too confusing haha.Anyway, Ashlie's shower was so much fun and was so cute thanks to Burgundy and Shea! Since Ashlie is having a little girl, I bought her a cute little pink BYU blanket and pink onesie that says "You're lookin' at one CUTE Cougar!". You cant tell that they are pink in the picture, but they are! :) This next picture was the "cake" made of diapers! SUCH a cute idea!
The party had a delicious soup bar (I think I had three bowls of soup!) and it also had a guessing game where there were items in brown paper bags labeled with one letter. All the bags spelled out "B A B Y S H O W E R". So the object was to guess what was in each of the bags and the only hint you got was that the letter on the bag was the letter that the object started with (AND the fact that it could fit in a lunch-sized paper bag). Then Ashlie got to open all the bags and whoever guessed the most correctly won! And guess who won!? ME :) I guess I'm lucky- or a good guesser! Anyway, I got a cute little flowerpot with lotions and sprays of my favorite scent (Coconut Lime Verbena). Since I never win anything, I was pretty excited!!
This last picture is Ashlie with a couple other shower guests. We had such a fun time chatting. In fact, I got there a little after 7 and didn't leave until 11!!! Whoops! Everyone else was gone around 9, but Ashlie and her friend Nikki and I just kept talking forever and it was wonderful! I'm sure our husbands were wondering where we were! Oh well... sometimes girls just need to talk their heads off. It's nice, you know? :)

Thanks for such a fun time Ashlie! I love you girl!

Hiking the Y!

This was my second time ever hiking the Y. Last time was 3 years ago, during the first semester of my freshman year at BYU. I remember not really enjoying the experience because I had a bit of a cold. So, when my brother Mike was in town and he proposed hiking it, I was somewhat wary but decided to challenge myself. Besides, Monday was a gorgeous day and the tennis courts were full. We needed to do something fun and I was up for hiking the Y! So we did! And here are some pictures we took:

Taken at about turn 3 or 4 (of 12)... I was dying by this point so we took a breather:
Mike got a candid of me hiking:
This is probably turn 7 or 8... cheering that I was going to make it!!:
And we DID make it! To the top top! We decided to go big or go home and hike a couple more turns to the very top of the Y. A nice lady took this picture for us:
Then we wanted to go back down to the trail that goes to the bottom of the Y. About 10 steps in, we changed our mind and took pictures instead. Here's Mike posing:
We made it all the way up and all the way down!:Mike posing again on top of some sort of informational monument about the Y:Jumping off.... action shot of course!:
Showing off my 10x zoom. You can see all the little people WAAAY up at the top:
Hiking the Y was fun, hard, and rewarding. I couldn't believe how steep it was! My heart was pounding and I was trying to catch my breath almost the whole way. We met a lady on the trail who said she was 52 years old and hiked the Y 3 times a WEEK to keep looking young. And I guess it works because she didn't look anywhere near 52! Anyway, I'll have to make a point to do it again sometime! Thanks for a fun adventure, Mike!