Preston and Lindsay

Santa Barbara Half Marathon

2011-11-14T15:21:00.000-08:00

So back in September, Preston's Mom, Karlyn, called us up and asked if we wanted to run a half marathon in Santa Barbara. My first thought was "Uhhh, yeah, right, like that's going to happen." But after thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that this was a good idea and would be good for me. And Preston decided to do it with me, too. So the next day, we went out and bought new running shoes and got training.

On Friday, we flew out to LA to run the half marathon. I was really nervous. I hadn't trained as much as I would have liked and I still didn't think of myself as a runner. But Saturday morning came and there was really no way around it: I was running 13.1 miles that day whether I liked it or not. Thankfully, the rain that had been in the forecast didn't end up happening and it was a beautiful day in Santa Barbara. The scenery probably really doesn't get much better. The last mile or so is right along the coast. The whole area is just heaven. We rain through pretty wooded areas, a strawberry field, and some cute neighborhood streets lined with residents in lawn chairs cheering us on. One way or another, I made it through and crossed the finish line. And all I could think was "I have to sit down." So I sat down right there on the track as we waited for the rest of the runners in our group to finish.

If you would have asked me if I would do it again in the future on Saturday, I probably would have said no. But I think I will try it again. And I think I'll train more this time. :)

Preston and I just after I finished the race. Preston crossed the finish line about a minute before me. We had no idea we were so close at the end.

All the runners after finishing. Preston, Karlyn and I did the half, and Ben ran the FULL marathon. This was right after he came across the finish line.

The three half-ers while we were waiting for Ben to finish.

Preston was the first to finish.

And this picture sums up how my body felt afterwards...:)

Washington DC, Philly, New Jersey, New York....

2011-07-10T23:24:00.000-07:00

I seriously hate rearranging pictures on blogger, and these are all out of order, so I'll just give you a run down of the trip, and then you can look at the pictures, even though they are out of order.

I've spent the last week travelling around the east coast with Preston's family. It was Preston's parents, Karlyn and Vaughn, Preston's sisters, Emma and Camille, Preston's not-even-released-as-a-missionary brother, Ben, and us. We took the trip to pick up Ben and see his mission, but got to visit some other cities along the way. He served his mission in New Jersey.

Saturday-Tuesday - Washington DC. Ben took at train down from New Jersey and met us in DC. We spent a few days seeing all the sites in DC. We went to the White House, the capital, Lincoln Memorial, Smithsonian Museums, Arlington Cemetery, the DC Temple, Washington Monument, WW1 & 2 Monuments....and probably more. We covered a lot of ground. It was HOT and HUMID in DC. We are probably just babies, but when you are walking from site to site, it can be pretty miserable. I swear I spent half of this trip sweating like a pig. We also went to some good restaurants and watched the fireworks from the roof of our hotel!

Tuesday--Thursday Travelled up to Philly (See picture for details) and then ended up in Newark, New Jersey on Tuesday. This was the section of the trip where we toured some of Ben's mission and visited some of the people that he met while on his mission. I was blown away by the humility and kindness of these people. Truly. Every person we met was so kind, and many of them fed us real authentic food from their countries. Ben served as a Spanish Speaking elder so the people we met were mostly from different spanish speaking countries. At one house, we all went in thinking that we were there for a 10-15 minute visit. It was the end of the night and we were all getting really tired. But when we showed up, the father of the family had made us a feast, appetizers, entrees, and dessert included! It was kind of funny, but the food was delicious. I could just tell by the look in his eyes that he lived to serve others. He loved to do something for other people. He is in remission from throat cancer and is not able to speak very much or very clearly, but his spirit was so strong to me. It was the same at every house we visited. It was great seeing the joy that the gospel brings in their life. Even though they are different from me in almost every way, that was the same.

Thursday Night - Saturday Morning - New York City! We ate at cool resturants, had Serendipity's frozen hot chocolate, went to times square, shopped, took the train to see the statue of liberty, went to central park and the Manhattan temple.

This is an awesome view of the New York City skyline from West New York. Ben served here at the very beginning of his mission.

Us in Times Square right after shopping at H&M and Zara!

In Newark, there is miles and miles of graffiti just like this along one of the railroad tracks. Pretty cool. Some of the areas the Ben served in were pretty Ghetto. Definitely got us out of our element I think.

In a sweet cathedral that we visited in Newark. It looked as big as the Salt Lake Temple. I'm not sure if it actually was, but it was massive and beautiful.

Preston in the Ironbound in New Jersey. The Ironbound is an area in Newark that got it's name because it is completely bound by train tracks. It is one of the safer parts of Newark and it is the place where all of the Portuguese people come to live. There are a lot of different cultures here, but it seemed that Portuguese was the dominate ethnicity. So this was pretty cool for Preston. We got to eat at a restaurant that had food just like food he used to eat while he was on his mission. They basically brought out a huge plate with a bunch of fries, rice, and really well-seasoned chicken and ribs. It was a ton a food and fun to try something that Preston was familiar with.

We also got to try out a portuguese bakery and get a bolos, a portuguese pastry that I've heard Preston talk about for 2 years. Ben also served in this area and learned to communicate with the portuguese while he was there.

This was one of the only pictures I took in Philadelphia. We were only here for a couple of hours. One of Preston's best friends lives in Philadephia as he goes to Villanova for law school. He joined us for a tour of the liberty bell and constitution hall. This was in the room where the Constitution was signed and where many important meetings were held. We also went and got Philly cheesesteak sandwiches for lunch. They were delicious.

We got to see our best friends Steve and Jessie in DC. Since they moved to DC in May, we have really missed them. We were so happy to see them a few times while we were there. They will always be in our lives, I just know it. :) This is just us in front of the capitol on the Fourth of July, our last night in DC.

Us at the Licoln Memorial. This was one of my favorite places that we visited in DC.

The DC temple in Maryland. We went to church on sunday at the church building right by the temple, and then went to the visitors center by the DC Temple. It was beautiful.

With Ben at the Temple.

More pictures to come....!

2011-07-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

We went to this famous food truck called Waffels and Dinges. They did delicious Belgium Waffles.

Us in front of the White House. You can't get very close to the front, but we took a tour of the inside. You only get to see a small portion of it, but it was still cool to say we did it.

Preston walking up to the capital. We took the Capital Tour.

This was me on the ferry that we accidentally got on. Haha. We were trying to go to the statue of liberty, but we went to Staten Island instead. It was an adventure. The Statue of Liberty is in the background, but it's pretty small. It was raining that day and very foggy.

Sorry I didn't take many pictures of the whole group, but Preston's mom took care of that. I'll post some if I get the pictures from her.

Cooking and other things.....

2011-05-11T20:04:00.000-07:00

Photo taken at a wedding this past weekend. We matched. :)

You may be seeing a lot more blogging from me in the coming months. I just got my cute little iMac set up and I LOVE it. Seriously, I have a place in our apartment that feels like "my space" and I have somewhere to create and write and blog! Love it.

Tonight's dinner was delicious. Pork tenderloin with Chimichurri and a green salad and butternut squash. ChimiChurri > Candy. But not better than chocolate. No no no. But it is a delicious mixture of parsley, cilantro, oregano, lime, vinegar....and a lot of other deliciousness. Recipe here. I realized today that cooking has become much much much less stressful for me. When we first got married, I swear I would be sweating and stressed by the end of any meal. I never knew if I was doing things right, I measured every little thing, and I hated dishes piling up as I cooked. I'm proud to say that it is actually therapeutic for me now. I love to cook a good meal in a quiet home after a long day at work. It's wonderful.

We aren't the gardening type, or maybe it's the fact that we don't have a yard, but we decided to try our hand in growing fresh spices. We have rosemary, parsley and cilantro. Before you begin to be impressed in the slightest, I should tell you that we bought them already grown, and we just have to not let them die. We will see what happens. For now, they just look cute in our window sill. And its so nice that it's actually WARM enough for these little puppies to get enough sunlight.

Birthday, mavs game, and a few more....

2011-04-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my birthday and it was grand. I really did have a great day.

It started out on sunday night, when Steve and Jessie came over and gave me a birthday/going away present (They are going away, not us.) She has spent the last couple months making this beautiful quilt for me. I saw the process she went through on her first quilt and how much time it took her to complete, so I really can't say how much this gift meant to me. It was the perfect start my birthday, and truly, truly touched me. She even made it to match the decor in our living room (Not to mention that they are my favorite colors to decorate with). At the risk of sounding way over emotional gushy, I must say that Steve and Jessie have just been the greatest friends to us that anyone could ask for. We love them very much, and will miss them when they move this week. I've known Steve since high school, and he couldn't have married a greater girl. She's someone I truly trust and really admire. I'm really excited for them to be moving on from the student life in Provo.

So for good reason, I went to bed feeling very loved and very happy. The next day, my work let me pick what restaurant we have for lunch and what kind of dessert we have for lunch. I picked a thai restaurant called Thai Lotus, and a triple chocolate cake for dessert. It was delicious and nice to have everyone in the office acknowledge my birthday.

After work was done, I came home to an amazing surprise from Preston. I knew that Preston was planning some kind of surprise, but I was wayyyy off on what it was. Preston got me a new iMac! It is a BEAUTIFUL machine. My laptop has been out of commission for months now, and have been wanting some kind of computer for awhile, but kinda just put it on the backburner until a later time. I'm sooo excited to have this computer.

Then we went out to dinner with some friends at Shoots. It's a chinese restaurant that we used to go to and wanted to try it out again. It was great. It was fun to celebrate with friends.

We invited everyone over afterwards for cake and ice cream. It was a great day, and I'm so grateful to all the people that made my day fun.

A few other noteworthy events:

A couple of weeks ago, we got tickets for the MAVS JAZZ game!!!! If you know me well enough, you know that I'm a Mavs fan. I grew up watching Mavs games with my family and I just love basketball. (Which is a really good thing considering who I married...:)) We got to the arena about 5 minutes late. All the scalpers were still trying to get rid of their tickets, so we asked one of them how much they would sell tickets to sit in the lower bowl. We had cheap upper bowl seats, but thought it was worth a shot if he would give them to us for cheap. We negotiated down to 40 bucks for seats on the 12th row. IT WAS AWESOME. Seriously, more awesome than we thought it would be. And we already thought it would be pretty awesome. It kinda felt like a dream come true for me, as silly as that may sound. We were right by the Mavs bench so I got to see Dirk and the rest of the team up close. They look so massively huge when you are sitting up closer. It was close until the 4th quarter and then the mavs pulled away for the win. Now if we can just pull away with this playoff series against the trailblazers, I'll be a happy girl.

Dirk in all his glory....

This is a picture of Preston and I on our Valentine's day dinner a few months ago. Preston has a black eye in this picture, but that's another story. :) Think basketball, an elbow to the face, and a trip to the emergency room.

We also were able to see my family this past weekend. They were in town for my sister's graduation from BYU, so it was nice to spend some time with them and the rest of my family that lives in Provo this past weekend.

I'm grateful.

2011-04-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

I'm grateful for my good job and for my good husband.

I'm grateful that he's sweet to me when I'm sick.

I'm grateful that I end most days exhausted, because it means I'm busy. I like being busy.

I'm so grateful that we don't have to be constantly worried about money.

I'm grateful for the support of families.

I'm grateful to my mom and dad for having so many kids. Being from a big family shapes the way I think and act a lot of the time.

I'm grateful that Preston helps me cook dinner.

I'm grateful that Preston pushes me. He urges me to try new things and makes me less fearful.

He makes me excited for life.

I'm grateful for two amazing sets of parents who teach us in different ways.

I'm grateful for my independence and alone time.

I'm grateful for the knowledge that I can do hard things.

I'm grateful for my testimony and for the spirit.

I'm grateful for temples and bishops and visiting teachers and callings and tithing.

These are the things that keep me on track.

Today I did yoga at work. Thursdays are my favorite work days because of this. Taking 45 minutes in the middle of the day to stretch and focus and breathe {not to mention work out...yoga is hard work!} makes all the difference in my state of mind.

Our teacher's name is Jen. She's everything you think of when you think of a yoga instructor.

I feel like she can tell my mood just by being in my presence.

I have no idea if this is true, but it seems this way.

Tonight, we'll probably make dinner {salmon and steamed squash, or perhaps mongolian beef.} and then go to the gym. Watch our tv shows and make a smoothie. Yum.

Many of our nights consist of these activities.

But big plans for the weekend. Golfing on saturday {weather permitting} and dinner with dear ole' dad whose in town for a church calling training thing. Then off to Keys on Main, a dueling piano bar in Salt Lake, to celebrate the birthday of a dear friend, Jessie.

Then sunday is church and NBA playoffs and Navajo Tacos. Go Mavs. Yep. Should be a good one.

Happiness and Craftiness.

2011-02-01T09:15:00.001-08:00

On a blog that I read, someone said the following.

"Honestly, I think only low-IQ people get to be happy, except in short bursts"

How sad that someone actually thinks that. If you are happy, you must be dumb. WHAT? What a terrible way to live life. I'm so happy to have been raised knowing that we can be truly happy in our every day lives. Yes, we have good and bad days, and yes we have struggles that last weeks, months and years, but we can be happy because of the hope that the gospel brings. We can learn to see the good in our lives and see the many blessings in our lives.

Anyway, I've been in a little bit of a crafty mood lately, and I thought I'd share one of my creations. I've seen this print on a few different blogs, but I modeled mine off of this blog: http://sonotdonnareed.blogspot.com/2011/01/you-look-familiar.html

There is this photographer named Leo Reynolds that allows anyone to use his photos for free, as long as you give him credit! Here is the link to his site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/collections/

So here is my creation:

It's so easy! I just used Word to make it. The hardest part is just getting them all to the right size so they all line up correctly. But once I figured that out, I made the word doc in to a PDF, and went and got it printed at Fedex.

I also made a few pillows for our couch. These pillows aren't completely done yet and I'm probably going to make more, but here is what I have so far.

I seriously hope that one day I'll have a home of my own and the means to decorate it as I wish, but for now, this will have to do.

Welcoming in 2011.

2011-01-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

Our year in review: Two semesters of school, One summer of graveyard shifts and messed up schedules, One job getting moved to part-time, then going away completely. One relaxing month of unemployment, One start of a new great job, and with that the start becoming an "extreme commuter." One hair dye mishap. One summer of fun short trips with friends and family. One anniversary celebrating our first year of marriage. One move to a new apartment. One "go-to" couple friendship made. 3 new callings between the two of us. One snoop dog sighting. Two bowling tournament trophies (A first and a third place). One season of the bachelor. One season of the bachelorette. One season of Bachelor Pad. One game of Fantasy Bachelor Pad. Many trips to 24-hour fitness. One year of no more school for me. A transition of going from broke to not as broke. The marriage of many friends. One family reunion. One college graduation. One first time playing golf. Many nights of spades. One large fiasco involving best buy and verizon (I still hate both of you in case you were wondering). One terrible-turned-not-bad BYU football season. The beginning of the PB&J report.

It has been a good year.

2011 has got some great things too:

1) Preston hopefully and most likely graduates from BYU in December!
2) A trip to the east coast with Preston's family. Mostly DC and New York.
3) Christmas in Texas with my family.
4) Turning 24.
5) Preston's brother Ben coming home from his mission.
6) I'm sure there are more things that I don't remember!
7) Oh yeah, and we are having a baby...............................ok JUST KIDDING about the baby.

My new years resolutions:

1) Keeping our room clean and organized. I'm pretty good about our living area/kitchen...but my clothes kinda take over our bedroom. I blame it on not having enough dresser space, so today we bought some more storage for my clothes.

2) Getting a better scripture reading schedule going.

3) Be generally nicer and show real concern for what people are going through. Show the people that are important to me that they really ARE important to me in direct ways instead of assuming they know.

Christmas was nice. So nice that I didn't want to come back. Oh well, such is life. I didn't take too many pictures, but I did take some pictures of one thing. One thing that Preston's mom, Karlyn did for us for Christmas was buy us a replica of the top of our wedding cake. You see, our wedding cake was so good that the people serving it served up the entire cake to our guests without saving the top for us. Karlyn felt bad that we never got to try our wedding cake and we didn't get to do the whole "save the top and eat it on your one year anniversary." In reality, I think this was the best of both worlds: still get this fun little rite of passage without having to eat year-old cake! So we did the whole cutting the cake ceremony, AND Preston shoved the cake in my face this time, because there is no way in heck I would have let him do this for our actual wedding. haha. While we were doing this, I remarked that maybe this will mark the end of our newlywedness. Preston's dad, Vaughn, responded, " Are you SURE you want to do that??" I think he's right. No need to end the newlywedness. Keep it coming.

Before:

After:

The past month...

2010-08-23T09:08:00.000-07:00

Golf date.

my first par. :)

California

Very sunburnt from the weekend.

Vegas with friends.

Anniversary: We stayed at the Anniversary Inn on Friday and it was so nice! We got the Capital Retreat. We went to Joe's Crab Shack and went to the movie Salt before.

Its been a really fun couple of weeks. School starts soon and our next break won't be until Thanksgiving. I think we've done enough partying to last us a few months. :)

Another Cali Trip

2010-07-20T16:23:00.001-07:00

We go to California quite often. Since we've been married we've gone there 6 different times. It honestly is just such a nice vacation for us. And I always come home feeling more love for my husband and his family than I had before, so there is really nothing keeping us away. I guess there is the 10 hour drive that goes with it, but it does not seem that far when you are with someone who makes you laugh.

This weekend we went for a friend's wedding. Along with the wedding, we also saw Toy Story 3, went out to dinner, went to the Getty Museum. It has been on our to-do list for awhile so I was excited to finally go.

In front of the museum

Me in the antique furniture exhibit

Preston and his Mom, Karlyn in front of the musuem

Lots of beautiful, famous art.

What poor Karlyn had to spend a good chunk of the day doing to solve the many mini-crises of her family

Preston in the pool with Cami. Sweet googles, eh?

Chillin' by the pool

While we were there, we found out that a dear friend and old roommate of Preston's was going to pass away after a 4-year battle with cancer. He passed away on Sunday and will be sorely missed by so many. He truly was an awesome guy with amazing determination. While it is always so sad to see someone at the young age of 23 pass on, we have faith that he is being taken care of and is continuing his service to the Lord. My thoughts have been constantly turned towards his family since we heard. We miss you already, Jeff.

4th of July

2010-07-06T09:36:00.000-07:00

Here's what our 4th of July weekend looked like. Fireworks, time with family, antique car parade, lunch at Tommy's, Eclipse, Spades, Bachelorette, at-home fireworks with Clint and Bobby.

Oh yes, and there was also the negative of having to leave the family reunion early and Preston hurting his back. Poor guy.

Work, Work, Work

2010-07-01T10:35:00.000-07:00

My workload at Entice just multiplied by like 4. So, no more blogging at work. :(

This will be me for the next couple weeks as the dust settles.

the start of firework season

2010-06-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

Cedar Hills Fireworks on Saturday night with Steve & Jessie.

oh....and my hair is still bright red.

I couldn't sleep last night once I got in bed, and I didn't even get in bed until 1:45am. Preston and I talked about some of the adventures we'd like to have in our lives and just big things we'd like to do. And just thinking about all the things that are on the horizon (some things on the very distant horizon) made it hard to sleep. Life is exciting. It is a cool moment when you have even a glimpse of what your life could look like in 5/10 years. Emphasis on the "COULD LOOK LIKE" because obviously plans change. I get butterflies just thinking about it, though.

Recipes:
(Sheri, if you are reading this, I'm stealing some of your recipes this week!)

Pork Souvlaki and a greek salad
Chicken Cacciatore
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Bacon and Potato Quiche
Steak and Potato Kebabs
Artichoke Chicken
Pepper Jack Chicken Pizza

Red hair?

2010-06-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

Well.....

My hair is red. I've dyed my hair a dark Auburn red before and I had been thinking about doing it again. Last night, Preston and I got bored so we decided to just do it. Except, this time....it turned out more FIRE ENGINE red. NOT GOOD. It is so bright. I'm warning you before you see these pictures. It's.....really....really red.

Preston did it for me. haha. I've been told by a few coworkers today that I'm the bravest woman alive for allowing my husband to be in charge of dying my hair. I don't really know why we thought that was a good idea. But he did a good job! It's not the dying job that is bad...its the color of the hair dye I picked.

Here's how it went. Preston pours the first squirt of dye in my hair and says "I don't really know how to handle girl's hair. Why am I doing this?" Five minutes into it, Preston realizes that he really doesn't know what he's doing. I start to freak out and tell him that I'm just going to do it myself. I realize that I don't know what I'm doing either. I start to see what color the dye is on my hair. I start crying. We then realize that we are not going to have enough dye to cover my whole head. At this point I'm yelling. Not really at Preston, just yelling. So Preston goes running to the store to buy another bottle. He returns with a new confidence to make this work and save my hair from complete disaster. He told me he spent his drive to the store thinking about all the things he would tell the cop if he got pulled over for speeding. "Listen...my wife...she's having a hair emergency."

In the end...it could have been alot worse. At least I don't have splotches of brown throughout my hair. It's only a 28-day wash so it will fade quickly...I hope.

Preston says its "edgy" and I just think its a bit too bright.

Haha.....don't laugh at me.

In other less-interesting news, we purchased our first Bountiful Basket this weekend. Bountiful Baskets is basically a fruits and veggies co-op where you pay $15
and you get a WHOLE BUNCH of produce for a seriously discounted price. It is pretty sweet! Here's what we got this week.

Pretty sweet! It will actually end up saving us money, and force us to eat healthy snacks!

And I actually think its really annoying to blog about giveaways, but I'd actually like to win the silhouette that is being given away at southernhospitalityblog.com

New (For us) Car!

2010-06-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

I'm so incredibly exhausted today. Thank goodness it's Friday.

Yesterday we officially purchased our first car as a married couple. We've been using a car that is owned by Preston's dad, and we are eventually going to be giving that car back to them. So when the opportunity came for a good deal on a car, we took it. My sister just bought a new car and gave us a great deal on her old one. It's really nothing special, but it gets us from here to there and should have some good life left in it still. The great part about it is that we already know the car has been kept up well and that it's not a lemon. This isn't it, but it looks just like this:

2001 Ford Focus. Low miles. She's a beauty. Kinda.

Waffles

2010-06-14T14:42:00.001-07:00

We had a waffle party last night to go along with watching game 5 for the NBA Finals. Too bad the Lakers lost.

Can't wait to cook these meals:

Asian Lettuce Wraps
BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Taco Chicken
BLTs
Steak and Mango Salad (With Walnuts instead of macadamia....)
Lemon-Garlic Salmon
Bourbon Chicken Rice Bowl

Curry

2010-06-03T09:30:00.001-07:00

Well, Preston didn't buy the jersey. And he was really excited that I bought it for him. Hooray!

These Indian-spiced pork skewers were delicious last night. However, my house smells really strongly of curry and it kinda makes me wanna throw up. I've even febrezed the room like 3 times and left the door open for an hour!

World Cup

2010-06-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

A week ago, I bought Preston one of these as a suprise for the World Cup that he has been talking about basically since he got home from his mission over a year ago.

It's the Portugal World Cup 2010 Jersey...the away game one.

And last night, he facebooked that he really wanted one and was going to have to buy one of those jerseys for himself. And he was working a graveyard last night. So he probably already bought it online somewhere, and now we are going to have two.

And now its like, he already facebooked about it, so its not as cool that I thought of it and then bought it for him as a suprise.

And I can't ask him if he already bought it because he's sleeping (after the graveyard shift.

Hm.

PS I'm pretty sure he never reads this blog.
PPS I'm bored.

walk with me, suzy lee

2010-06-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

Someone said to us a little while ago that we have an easy life. My first reaction was to say that we didn't. I wanted to say that we didn't have any money, so that was hard. And I wanted to say that we both were just trying to figure out what we want to do with our lives, and that was hard. And that we were trying to learn how to be a family and live the gospel well, and that is hard. But really, we DO have an easy life right now. We get to have as much fun as we want. We work so we can pay for life. We don't have kids, so we just focus on us most the time. We can go out of town for the weekend if we want, when we want. It's like we are kids who are actually adults. Awesome.

Probably won't last long in the grand scheme of things. But hopefully we will always at least make an effort to have as much fun as we are having right now. I don't really think it matters how easy or hard your life is. It's how you choose to carry yourself through the good and the bad. And it's how you choose to spend your time. Sometimes it's ok to struggle and make mistakes. It's how you recover that matters. That's how I see it.

Also, I have great friends. Seriously.

The whole crew. I noticed that if the couple is married, the boys have their hands on the girl's shoulder. If they are engaged, they don't. haha. I'm weird.

The wives club.

The boys.

Thanks for the pics, jessie.

And of course, my MGs.

My love's too big for you, my love

2010-05-28T08:28:00.002-07:00

Every once in awhile, I find a song that is so healing and calming. Just beautiful songs that I could listen to over and over and anxiety goes away. What are your calming songs?

Here's one:

Here's another. Pretty much all songs by Ingrid Michaelson.

And another.

Another....

One more....

In other news, I made this the other day.

It started out as an ugly gold mirror from DI...I think I got it for like $1.00. I painted the rim green and painted a wooden "J" the same color. Then I used the vinyl design that we have in our living room and put it on the mirror. I used super glue to glue the J onto the mirror. I think it turned out pretty cute! I've actually had a few people ask me what the "J" stood for.........

wow.

Mangos

2010-05-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

I've been really happy lately. I can't really put my finger on exactly what it is that has made me feel so great, but I guess I just finally feel like my life is actually my life. I went from being single, in school, working part-time to being married, done with school and working a full-time job within a few months. It was a bigger jump than I thought it would be. Everything change, not really in a bad way, just different

But the last month or two that has all gone away. I feel like my own person. I have friends that I love to be with, hobbies that I enjoy, a church calling that brings me closer to the gospel, a husband who truly still makes me feel very in love and who I find completely adorable, a family support system (in both my family and preston's) that I know will always be with me no matter what, and a job that provides just enough money so we don't have to constantly be stressed about money. I never thought I'd be the type that couldn't go to sleep if the kitchen wasn't clean, but I am. I never thought I'd be the type of girl that has 100 blogs that I must read, but I am. I never thought I'd constantly think about ways I can make my apartment cuter, but I do. We all grow and change, and that is just fine. I'm trying to learn to not judge people, because you honestly never know when you'll be in their situation. You really SHOULD walk a mile in someone's shoes before you criticize them. Things are so different from the inside than it appears from the outside.

Last night I got mad at Preston for trying to tell me how to cut a mango. Haha really? Thinking about it makes me laugh. He just let me be mad about it for about 5 minutes and then we didn't have to speak of it again. Hahaha oh man....I'm ridiculous. I love that boy. I'm lucky. Oh, and in case you are wondering, here's how you cut a mango.

Thoughts...

2010-05-25T17:17:00.000-07:00

-LOVED the LOST finale. We laughed, we cried, we discussed, and we were actually truly uplifted. I'm sincerely going to miss this show and these characters. I've never felt so emotionally connected to characters that aren't real.

-Bed, Bath and Beyond is so utterly and completely overpriced. Why do we let that happen? Seriously that place has a freaking monopoly. I recently went there with Natalie to pick out a present for a friend's bridal shower. We got a few items that were pretty heavy and asked for them to be gift wrapped at the store. So they take about 20 minutes to gift wrap my gift, and come out with a huuuuge and very heavy bag. So I take it by the handle and walk out of the store ready to go along with my day. Halfway across the parking lot, the bag breaks, tissue paper flying everywhere. Some dude in a truck drives by, laughs at my awkward struggle to gather the tissue paper without further damaging the gifts and yells out his window "Thats rough..." One of the gifts inside was glass and broke when it fell. You would think that they would gift wrap something so that it could be carried more than 50 feet without falling out the bottom. So, a new wrapping job and 30 minutes later, I'm finally on my way out the door. I hate going there. Slotted spoons for like 10.99? Seriously, its a spoon. Its used to stir stuff. I think I'll pass. Yet, I find myself there often because I live in a state where marriage is rampid and everyone registers at Bed Bath and Beyond. If I was ever going to get married again, I'd boycott that terrible place.

-I'm going to dye my hair soon. Preston wants red like it was when we first met. I'm thinking either that or blonde again.

-I ordered this ottoman today. Preston's parents have something similar to this at their new house and we wanted one when we saw it. Its got storage to put all my blankets in or DVDs or whatever, and the tops flip around to be TV trays! Cool. Anything else that I've found even remotely close to this one costs around $300. Someday we will get super fancy furniture for our home, but this will be great for now. It is a DEFINITE upgrade from the folding table we've been using as a coffee table for the last 9 months....

Meals for the week:
Pineapple Jerk Chicken
Pepper Jack Chicken Pizza
Indian-Spiced Pork Skewers
Chicken Fajitas
Grillled Cilantro Lime Chicken
Chinese Lemon Chicken
Spicy Honey Chicken Salad

Pineapple Jerk Chicken was yesterday...and it was soooo easy and delicious. Like seriously, done in 20 minutes.

Tuesday/Thursday Boredom

2010-05-14T09:09:00.000-07:00

Every Tuesday and Thursday this summer, Preston works an 18-hour shift, starting at 2:30pm and ending the next morning at 8:30am. The poor guy has to stay up all night. He comes home just in time for me to take the car to work at 9. The nice thing about this job is that he only has to do two shifts per week, plus one rotating (and shorter) Saturday shift.

So one thing I'll be doing with my tuesday/thursdays is improving the decor in our apartment. I'm not like the most crafty person in the world, but I'm trying.

This idea came from dollarstorecrafts.com.
These ugly hooks were from dollar tree:

And mine turned out like this:

I also did a little "Weekly Dinner Menu" memo board made from a picture frame. I'm not completely satisfied with how it turned out. I'll probably take the yellow bow off and do something else with that ribbon. I'm not sure yet. But basically I need to buy a dry erase marker and then I'll write that week's dinners on it.

I have some ideas about other projects I'll be doing this summer. Should be fun!

And...week two of our meal goals...

Monday- No dinner...still traveling home from California.
Tuesday- Jambalaya
Wednesday-Sloppy Joes
Thursday-Leftovers
Friday-Bean, Chicken, and cheese quesadillas
Saturday- Creamy Pesto Pasta and Rosemary Focaccia
Sunday- Eating over at a friends
Monday- Korean Fire Beef Salad (Seriously delicious...hardly counts as a salad. I'll post the recipe later)
Tuesday- Spicy Honey Chicken

California Blues...

2010-05-11T10:05:00.000-07:00

Just returned from a weekend in California. We love being there, so it is always a drag coming back. We figure that we won't always be able to take long weekend trips when we have kids, so we try to take advantage while we can.

This weekend we had a barbeque out by the pool, swam in the pool/hot tub, went shopping, got yummy burritos at Jimmy Deans, saw Iron Man 2, got Pazookies from BJs, frozen bananas from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, made tasty treats, watched the laker game, celebrated Mothers day, got to talk with Preston's brother who is on a mission in New Jersey, and just spent time with family.

It was so great. I wanna go back.

I went to bed last night feeling like the luckiest girl in the world. Which is quite awesome considering we had just spent 10+ hours in a car.

Summer Goals

2010-04-27T13:06:00.001-07:00

Preston and I have a few summer goals. We kinda realized that we are getting...a little chubby, so we are doing a little bit of a lifestyle change in our eating habits and exercise.

1) Cook dinner every night at home. This would be hard if I didn't have a husband who is competent in the kitchen and can help me with meals at night. I also really enjoy trying new recipes, so I'll have fun with it. I'm not an amazing chef by any means, but I can follow a recipe. That's about it.

2) Going to the gym 4 times a week.

3) Cutting out sweets. The biggest part of that for me will be cutting out soda. No more DP for me. :(

So yesterday we went shopping for our first week of meals. Here's a run down of what we will be making this week.

Last Night: Spaghetti and Meatballs with French Bread. Recipe here.

The rest of the week:
Chili Lime Mango Skewers and Cilantro-Lime rice
HERE and HERE

French Dip Sandwiches
Here

Teriyaki Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Here

Burgers
(Recipe in a cookbook)

Spinach and Feta Pasta
here

Chicken Enchiladas
(Recipe in cookbook)

Sides with these meals will most likely be a spinach salad of some kind because we have a bunch of leftover spinach right now.

Of course, these recipes may be spaced out a little more because we will have leftovers that we can eat on nights in between, but we are going to plan for 7 meals at a time, and shop again when we are out of meals.

As you can tell, this week's recipes came from Our Best Bites. This blog has a bunch more recipes that I'm sure we will be trying later.

I about died when we went to the grocery store and bought all the ingredients. Next week I'll work on doing recipes with fewer/cheaper ingredients. We rationalized this by saying that we will never eat out. Eating out one time with the two of us is usually $20+, so in the end, we will be saving money. Should be pretty fun, we will see how long we can keep this up. If you have any recipes that are cheap and tasty...let me know!

Birthday Weekend

2010-04-26T10:04:00.001-07:00

My birthday was GREAT. I have a great husband who made sure that I had a good day. He's so sweet. :) On Saturday, I played my first real game of golf. It was me...and four boys. But it was fun and I did well! I think I want to go again soon. Preston has always said it's one of his favorite sports to play because it is just so relaxing to be out in the nice weather for a few hours and the actual game is just relaxing for some reason. I totally agree with him. It was a great afternoon.

Afterwards, Preston and I tried out a new Thai food restuarant for my birthday dinner. It is a place called Bangkok Grill. If you like Thai food, it is my favorite Thai resturant that we've tried in Provo. Still doesn't beat Siam Rice in California, but still very good. We got the Chicken Coconut Soup, Orange Chicken, a Noodle dish that I don't remember the name of, and a fried squid dish. YUM. That night we had a few people over to watch the Laker game. This weekend was a bad weekend for our teams...the Lakers got killed. And the Mavs also got beat pretty bad on Sunday. Sad day.

On Sunday we slept in and then went to church. After church Preston made me pancakes and bacon while I relaxed. Then we had friends over for a cake/games/mavs night. We had a spades tournament and Natalie and I won our game. It was the longest game of spades...ever. It was like 19 rounds and we were only playing to 300. I had a lot of fun just being with friends on my birthday. We are happy to have such a fun group of friends.

And of course, I have no pictures. But that will all change, because my birthday present is a new camera. YAY! I've been wanting a fully functioning one for quite some time now.

**And the other thing that I didn't blog about is graduation on Friday with my family in town. I DO have pictures of that...so that post will be coming soon.

Now I have 1.5 weeks of work to get through and then it's off to California. Life is good.

We got skillz

2010-04-22T21:40:00.000-07:00

For the past two semesters, Preston and I have participated in BYU bowling leagues. Last semester we did alright, but we didn't get as in to it as we did this semester. Our dedication paid off tonight at the bowling league award ceremony. Going into the tournament, we were the 1 seed out of 16 teams. Pretty sweet! We played our way through the tournament and got to the final 4. We had a bad night and lost and ended up getting third place in the tournament.

3 out of 4 members of our team with our trophies. Sorry it's dark, they had the black lights going. Our other two team members are Preston's friend Jeff and then Ben, a freshman who we met through bowling who is a pretty solid bowler.

Our sweet third place trophy

Me and Preston with our trophies

And a pleasant surprise was that I got the MOST IMPROVED FEMALE award! SWEET. So I got a second trophy.

We are starting up again this semester and are hoping to get 1st this time! It is a fun night every Thursday that we always do no matter how busy the week is.

Summer adventures...

2010-04-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

Lately I've just been loving the weather. I went on a long walk on Saturday around Provo. It got me really excited for a summer of adventures, being outside and just having a good time. While my daytime schedule won't really change, I just love the feel of summertime and I think this one will be a great one.

Here are just a few summer adventures that I am excited for....

End of April/May-

Graduation this Friday!
My Birthday weekend!
Mother's Day weekend trip to California
Grant and Callie get married!
Britt and Kyle get married!
NBA playoffs...

GO MAVS. (oh...and lakers...)

June-
Justin and Holly get married in Idaho
Nikki and James get married in Cali!
Jamie and Nicole get married in....Utah? I think.
Steph and Brad get married in Utah.
Possible Las Vegas trip?

July-
San Francisco trip? I've never been there and the dodgers play the giants at the end of the month...
My family comes to Utah
4th of July fun

August-
One year wedding anniversary. :)

I'm excited for a summer of short weekend trips, family, and weddings, oh and more weddings. My dear friend Jessie and I are hoping to get a couple of girls together once or twice a month for craft/projects days. There are like a million little projects that we've seen on blogs and such that we want to try, and it is so much better when you have other girls to do it with. I'll be posting pictures from our projects all summer I'm sure. The main project that I'm determined to finally do this summer is refinishing a coffee table for our living room. I love this blog, and I'd love to do a transformation finish like this, except not in that color. Just keep checking DI for the right one for cheap enough. We also want to take sewing lessons. I have a sewing machine, and I can KINDA sew, but not really. So I'd really like to start using it more.

Another new adventure is my new calling. Yesterday I got called to be a Relief Society teacher. I've never had to be a teacher, so I'm a little nervous, especially because I feel like there are a lot of women in the ward that could do a better job who have a lot more life experience for me. But I think it will be really good for me. Not sure how often I have to teach..once or twice a month I think.

And LAST, Preston and I are going on a diet this summer. We are waiting until Preston's done with school to officially start. Someone told me about cutting out the three C's: Coke, Candy, Chips. I think that is what it was? So, I'll start there. Plus just lots of exercise and making home-cooked low-fat meals every night. Should be fun...

So basically, it will be a great summer and I can't wait to spend it with good friends, a great husband and wonderful family. :)

15 months later....

2010-02-01T13:10:00.001-08:00

HERE I AM!

Haha. It really does not feel like it has been 15 months since I was blogging. Alot has happened since then.

Preston came home from his mission.

We got engaged.

We got married.

Spent a week doing this.

I finished my time at BYU.
Preston had a successful first semester back from the mish.
I started a new job at Entice Labs.
And now, Preston and I have been married for over 5 months.

We have a severe lack of pictures of our activities the last couple months, but we've done a lot. I'm going to really try to fix the lack of picture thing.

We..........

Moved in to our apartment in Provo, went to California for a Dodger game, spent a week in Texas with my family for Christmas, got our first pets (two micro-sized frogs...yet to be named), gave our first talks in church as married people, joined a bowling league, went on many dates and double dates, went to many BYU football games and basketball games, a laker game, a mission reunion, found a video game we like to play together (Tony Hawk Pro-Skater....I'm getting better...kinda), tried many new meals, spent the night freezing our butts off so we could go to the BYU/TCU ESPN College Gameday, went to California for Thanksgiving, started working out again, attempted to become Preston's hairdresser (kinda failed..), seen a bunch of movies, tried some new resturants...and overall had a really great time.

I feel like we are getting better at this whole marriage thing every week. I've learned a lot about how I want our marriage to be, and for me it has come down to one thing. Always think about the other person first. That really shouldn't be a huge revelation to me, but the hard part is understanding what that really means and translating my actions to reflect that. And I think we are getting the hang of it. Probably will be a life-long venture.

So you might be seeing more frequent posts from me. Maybe not though. Haha. Until next time.

Its cookie day!

2008-11-23T22:59:00.000-08:00

I dunno what it is, but I have had 4 people come bring me cookies/treats this weekend! Haha, yep, 4!!!! First was from my visiting teachers. They left me some chocolates on my doorstep and very nice note...and the chocolates were gone by the next morning. haha. Then, today our home teachers brought us chocolate chip cookies. They were delicious. Theeeennnnn two girls from my relief society brought us some brownies and sugar cookies!! Annnndddddd to top it off, someone just rang our doorbell and ran, and when I opened the door, there was a plate of snickerdoodles with a note for me that just said "You are awesome, have a good break!" Wow. I feel so loved!! I think Heavenly Father knew I would need encouragement to finish this stupid paper.

I guess that means I should probably get out and serve someone tomorrow. :)

Mamma Mia....here we go again...

2008-11-12T23:10:00.000-08:00

Tonight was an awesome night. It was a night where I should have been doing homework. I should have been slaving away in the library or in the Humanities computer lab. I probably should have done some laundry. I should have been responsible and straightened up my room a bit....buttttt I didn't do any of those things. I needed a break from the monotony of school work. So instead I enjoyed an evening of a little shopping, cafe rio, and Mamma Mia with some of my dearest friends in the world.

To my lovely ladies: thanks for a night of betty the bra, 5 for $10 underwear, crazy in-laws, MAMMA MIA, sexy home teachers, zebra print clothing items, and torture devices (you know the one Im referring to....). You girls are absolutely fantastic.

2008-11-11T16:31:00.000-08:00

I got tagged by Miss bonnie. I've never been tagged. We will see how this goes.

Here are the rules:
1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Answer the six "8" items.
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

8 Favorite TV Shows:
1. The Hills
2. Law and Order: SVU
3. America's Next Top Model
4. Desperate Housewives
5. LOST
6. The Office
7. Gillmore Girls
8. Charmed? Ya sure, why not.

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1. Went to Print Publishing
2. Went to work
3. Flaunted around my adorable polka-dot umbrella
4. Wrote a paper
5. Gave my sister a ride to a concert
6. Went to Wendy's with Jessica, Heather and her Roommate, Tiffany.
7. Ordered Wendy's food for two strangers.
8. Read old letters. I know, I'm lame, don't hate.

8 Things I Look Forward To:
1. Being done with the semester
2. Thanksgiving break
3. Going shopping and out to eat with my giiiirrrls tomorrow.
4. CHRISTMAS AND ALL THAT IT ENTAILS!!!!
5. Twilight coming out
6. Rachel And Adrianne getting hitched! (Not to each other)

7. Going home for Christmas
8. Mondays.

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Chilis
2. Cafe Rio
3. Wendys
4. Which Wich
5. Olive Garden
6. Pita Pit
7. J Dawgs
8. Einstein's Bagels

8 Things On My Wish List:
1. A turtleneck that looks good on me.
2. A vacation. Somewhere warmer than here.
3. A new digital camera
4. Something extra chocolatey

5. To play scrabble on a sunday afternoon and followed by perhaps making dinner, a redbox movie, some hot chocolate, and maybe fall asleep on the couch??
6. All my college expenses paid for the rest of my college education
7. A big ol' hug
8. A good ending to this story.

I TAG:

WHO EVER WANTS TO DO THIS!!!

Sorry, Im breaking the rules!!!!!

Perhaps Briann?

Megan?

Ok, ok, FINE, Obama, you can be my momma.

2008-11-04T23:52:00.000-08:00

Haha I thought this was funny. Thank goodness the elections are over because I was getting really tired of hearing this chant. Don't hate on me for saying this, but I have a hard time getting in to politics. I just feel like a lot of the people in politics are not honest, and will say anything and act however they have to in order to convince the American people to vote for them. I have never really figured out how to really figure out what you can trust and what is not true at all. Maybe someday I will get more in to it and figure that out. I'll let you know.

On another note, my week has been fantastic. I got a 92 on my Media Management test, and a 97 on my Grammar of English test. Talk about a good week in the testing center! Woohoo! Now if I could only perform that well in my raquetball class. Raquetball is not my sport. I think I am getting a lot better, but so is everyone else in my class.

AND....the Mavs creamed the Spurs tonight. Awesome.

Welp, I'm tired. Goodnight, blog.

Presh.

2008-11-03T07:04:00.000-08:00

In unison please....."Awwwwwww...."

Haha having a little tooooo much fun teaching his ward in Portugal about some classic american Halloween customs. :)

Pac Man!!!!!!!

2008-10-31T15:28:00.000-07:00

I was walking on campus today, and I saw these two characters walking around like Pacman...pacman sound effects and all. I am pretty sure they made my day. Every once and awhile, the Pacman and the little goblin guy would run in to each other and Pacman would chop down on him with his large mouth.

Thanks Pacman, for making my day.

The Loves of My Teenage Life.

2008-10-15T16:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, as a teeny-bopper, I loved boy bands. But one in particular will always hold a special place in my heart. This band got me through 4 long years of awkwardness. Times of straggly hair, high-water pants, long gangily arms, and bad make-up jobs. When every other boy seemed to shutter at the sight of me, This band stayed by my side, or..... more like stayed taped to my bedroom wall. So Zac, Taylor, and Ike Hanson: this one's to you. This is to nights of my sister and I idolizing them, watching movies of them, jammin' to Mmmbop, voting for them on TRL and pretending to be them.
Thanks Hanson. I made it through my awkward stage.

I think.

Random Facts:
Ever wonder exactly what "Mmmbop" means? It is a frame of time, or an instant.
Ike Hanson Loves Crunchy Peanut butter. But Tay loves creamy. (Who would have thought??)
In Tulsa Oklahoma, May 6th is "HANSON DAY." Ya....celebrate it.
Zac Hanson is a lefty!
All three Hanson brothers are married! Tay has three kids, and Ike has one.

Hanson, I will always love you.

when i should be sleeping.

2008-10-13T22:57:00.000-07:00

Last night, I got 3 hours of sleep.

Now, its midnight, and I have more energy than I've had all day! You know whats awesome about this? My roommates are asleep. And I totally cant resist having a little party for one in my little apartment. Woooo Lindsay in the hizzzzzouseeeee.

Somebody help me.

Please.

Seriously.

SnnoooooooooooooooooooOOOP. SnnoooooooooooooooooooooOOOOP. When the pimps in the crib ma, drop it likes it hawwwwt. Drop it like its haaaaawt.

Oh, excuse me blog, this is so my jam.

Ode to Jelly Beans.

2008-10-13T11:12:00.000-07:00

Jelly Beans. AKA. The story of my life. What wonderful things they are. They come in all colors and flavors, and when put in your mouth, you never know exactly what flavor you are going to get. Some sweet, some unique, some surprising, some downright gross, some pleasant, and some that don't really have much flavor. Some taste good when mixed together, and some ruin the taste in your mouth for the whole day. After sitting in a jar for a year in a half, some start to get stale. Each jelly bean eaten becomes a chore to swallow. But you eat them anyways, because every jelly bean eaten is one less Jelly Bean in the Jar. Then just when you think you've eaten all the good ones, you eat one that takes you by surprise. Then you realize, that even the gross Jelly Beans have thier place in your mouth. And when mixed with the right things, all jelly beans can be good, even if they feel a little bit stale. Sometimes it feels like they'll never be gone. Sometimes the jar just feels too full. Sometimes it feels like you don't know where the jelly beans have gone. Heck, sometimes you forget to even eat the frickin' Jelly bean. Sometimes I'm so sick of jelly beans I wanna throw them all away and pretend I've never eaten Jelly Beans in my life. But, here I sit. Eating Jelly Beans.

I only have 165 Jelly beans left. I guess I better get going on all the things I wanted to do before the jelly beans were gone.

OH how I love my Jelly Bean Jar.

OHHHh

Hey! Little mama, Ooh, you're a stunner

Hot little figure, Yes, you're a winner

And I'm so glad to be yours, You're a class all your own

And... Oh, little cutie

When you talk to me

I swear the whole world stops

You're my sweetheart

And I'm so glad that you are mine

You are one of a kind and...

Contemplation of the prospect of starting a blog.

2008-08-06T08:54:00.000-07:00

Should I start a blog? Hmmmmmmmmmm....