Year Marks

Oh my goodness, I have been a slacker at updating my blog! So much has happened since my last post! I don't even know where to start!

In the last couple of months we have hit a few year marks. The first, and least exciting, is that it has been a year since my mom left. I only mention this because I want everyone to know that my family is doing SOOO much better. Things are finally feeling 'normal.' I don't know what I would have done without my amazing husband. He has been there through some of my worst moments and no one could have comforted me more than him. When I found out what was happening at home it was less than two weeks before my wedding and I was going to school at BYU-I. I was devastated. I locked myself in my room and cried for days. I quit going to class, I stopped studying, I didn't talk to my roommates... I didn't do anything. I was a mess. On the Sunday before my wedding I couldn't get up for church. I just sat in bed sobbing. (Greg and I were in different wards at the time or I would have gone for him.) But that morning there was a constant knocking at my door. I refused to answer it. When I finally got the guts to open it with my swollen eyes and red face I saw Greg standing there, with tear filled eyes. He walked in and held me as we both cried together. I don't know how he knew I didn't go to church that day, but I was and am so greatful that he was there for me. At that moment I knew I could overcome anything with my almost husband beside me. The last year has been filled with many more moments like this. Thank you babe, for always making me stronger.

A much happier year mark we hit was our 1st wedding anniversary. Greg took me on a weekend getaway to Seattle. We had a blast! We did all of the touristy stuff, including a romantic dinner at the top of the Space Needle.

Here are some pics of the things we did while we were there:

We visited the Seattle Aquarium. This was Greg's favorite part, he loves sea life! We got to pet different creatures and saw many unique animals.

I really liked the sea urchins, they were so bright and colorful!

This huge Octopus was one of my favorites!

Greg and the sea lion. He would only come out for us. :) We thought this fish was rad.

We hit up Pikes Market. Which was pretty exciting. They had tons of beautiful flowers and I love flowers! Greg let me pick out a bouquet and it took me almost 45 minutes, I had to look at all of them and find the best one. :)

When I walked by this fish in the market, it jumped up and had its mouth opened wide. It scared the crap out of me.

We took an underground tour of Seattle as well. We learned that in the 1800's there was a fire that burned down a lot of the city. When they rebuilt the city they built the main level and streets at the second floor of buildings. We got to go down and explore the old first levels of buildings. While we were getting ready to start, our tour guide's speech started to slur and he suddenly collapsed on the floor. We had to wait for an ambulance. It was pretty crazy and as far as we know, he was OK.

This was in an old bank that they said was haunted. They have had a lot of weird things happen there and even Ghost Hunters did an episode on it. One thing that they said would happen is that any pictures that were taken past that door would be blury. We thought we'd test it out and took a few. Creepy enough, they were all blury.

Here is one of the pictures we took. Coincidence? Maybe.

The Space Needle was a favorite for both of us. Greg surprised me with our anniversary dinner at the restaurant on top of the SN.

Overall we had a blast. Seattle was beautiful. The weather good. And the company couldn't have been better!!

Another exciting mark is Myles' 1 Year Mark! In fact, as of yesterday, he only has 11 months left! He is doing so good! I will have to post some pics of him on here soon.

I have many more exciting events to blog about... Our Cali trip, my car wreck, moving and more but they will have to wait until a later time.

Jokes for the Republican

I recently asked my friend's little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats,were standing there, so I asked her,'If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?' She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.' Her parents beamed.

'Wow! What a worthy goal.' I told her, 'But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house.'

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, 'Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?' I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.' Her parents still aren't speaking to me.

Do you know what happened this week back in 1850, 159 years ago?

California became a state. The State had no electricity. The State had no money. Almost everyone spoke Spanish. There were gunfights in the streets.

So basically, it was just like California today; except the women had real breasts and the men didn't hold hands.

An Israeli doctor said to me at a medical conference, "Medicine in my country is so advanced, we can take a kidney out of one person, put it into another and have him looking for work in six weeks!" The German doctor stood up and said, "Well, medicine in my county is so advanced, we can take a lung out of one person and put it into another and have him looking for work in 4 weeks" The Russian doctor got up and said "My country is even more advanced, we can remove half a heart from one person, put it into another and have them both looking for work in just 2 weeks!" Not to be outdone, the American doctor stood up and addressed the conference, "Well", he said, "My country is so far advanced in medicine, we can take an Asshole out of Chicago , put him in the White House, and have half the country looking for work in 24 hours!"

Enjoy!

Education, WHY!!??!?!

This semester I decided to just leap into chemistry. I have never in my life taken a chem class, which, by the way, I now regret. I didn't think it could be that hard and I didn't want to waste my time taking a class that wouldn't count toward my major, so I enrolled in a class much higher than most would recommend for someone with my experience. As a result I have to put in double the work than I ever have had to put into a class, but it is worth it when I finally catch on. I actually love chemistry! As a kid I always wanted to be a 'scientist' (along with a million other things), so.. check. One goal down.

"I Have Before Me...

A Remarkable Document Given to Me By a Young Lady from Rwanda." (The extraordinarily long title of the play that we went to.) I am taking a theatre class to cover one of my area courses for school and we have to go see a couple of plays, which Greg and I both enjoy. So Friday night we headed out to the Boise Contemporary theatre and watched this fabulous play about a girl who survived the genocide. We then went to the adorable Goody's shop in Hyde Park for some
of their amazing ice cream. It is in the historic part of Boise so the shop is old school. I love it!! It was an awesome night to start off our Valentines weekend.

We spent most of Saturday with my family. Greg made me a yummy breakfast and gave me these gorgeous flowers! I have to brag about him because he picked the flowers out himself (he wanted me to make it clear that he did not arrange them, a nice lady did that for him) Didn't he do a marvelous job? Lilies are my favorite too! I'm proud of him. They are just starting to bloom so they will be around for a while. Im excited.

My dad took us out for a Valentines lunch at one of our favorite Restaraunts, Red Robin and we then hung out at the house with them. It was a great weekend with some pretty fantastic people!

It's been a while.

We have started another semester at Boise State and are loving it. Besides the crazy liberal slobs, we like it much better than Rexburg. Although it is keeping us both super busy, we have found some time to play.

We live right next to Camelsback and love to go hiking in the foothills. It has been pretty warm these last few days so we took a stroll.


On Saturday Greg and I spent the night in Meridian and hung out with our families. Taylor and Greg and I wanted to have a video game night. So we set up camp in my dads living room with a blow up mattress, some snacks, a couple of Tvs, and our PS3 and an old N64 (my favorite). We had a blast as we usually do. Tay and I were up until almost 5 playing and laughing.

I LOVE Donkey Kong!!!

Tays new favorite game is Call of Duty.

This is what happens when you drink too much.

What We Did For Christmas. . .

I can't believe how fast the holidays came and went! We had a fabulously busy time! For those who are interested... We spent Christmas Eve with my family. Grandma and Grandpa cooked their traditional dinner and Tay, Greg and I all shared the same bed, as tradition. We stayed up late playing games and being silly. Taylor tried to get everyone up at 7 to open presents. Since no one can say no to her, we did. It was a lot different this year not having everyone there, but we all had a blast. After we finished opening gifts, we went to the Jensen's. (they still have young kids and Taylor beat them up by almost 2 hours!!) After some more exciting gifts we went back to my dad's for brunch, a 4 hour phone call with Myles... who is doing awesome by the way, and a nap. And finally we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner at Greg's parents.

Here are our random pictures from Christmas time!

This last picture is in Utah. There was a good foot of snow. It was so pretty!

A few days before Christmas we went to Utah to attend my Grandma's funeral. It was the first time I had been to a funeral and it was awful, but at the same time so beautiful! The cemetery was so peaceful. It was up on a hill and was white and snowing. I couldn't have imagined anything more heavenly. I miss my grandma and am so greatful for her example and influence in my life.

SnoW DaY!!!

It snowed! I wasn't particularly excited when I heard we were going to have a storm. For those who may not know me that well, I have two fears: spiders and snowy roads! When we lived in Rexburg I had a job in Idaho Falls. I would seriously cry to and from work on snow days. Those drives made me sick! Luckily Greg grew up in eastern Idaho where it snows all year round and has taught me some pointers. But hey, the snow is beautiful and it really makes it feel like Christmas. We live in the foothills so it dumped a ton of snow on us. Everyone came out to play! Simplots Hill was packed with sledders. Of course I had to go play in it too. Greg was sick so he just watched from our window. I did make him come out to take pictures with me. He's a good sport. :)

Our Creek. It's so pretty! And there is an adorable bridge that crosses it. It's the reason we baught this apartment.

How Romantic!

Bella wasn't too sure about the snow.

My cheesey pose for Greg.

The Beginnings of Winter

Our First Christmas!!!!

We are getting excited for Chirstmas this year! We have had a lot of fun decorating and getting ready for this holiday season! It is our first Christmas together since we have been married and a year since we were engaged, so it is pretty freaking exciting! We have purchased all of our presents and are pretty much just waiting for the big day to come around. Whitney and I are going to continue on a Clifford tradition with Taylor this year (because she is pretty much the only one around) of sleeping in the same room on Christmas eve so that we can wake up together on Christmas morning. It will be fun! We are also excited that we are so close to both of our families. Spending the holidays with them will be so much easier because we can simply go from one to the other.

Whitney and I in front of our Christmas Tree!

Our first Christmas tree! We even have presents under it! How exciting!

We got hungry while decorating.
The pretty garland thing Whitney put up. She is quite the homemaker (whether she likes it or not). I guess the whole Young Womens program works! Call the Prophet!

My Hero!

My father is my hero! He is my example and has taught me everything good. This past year has been hard for my family, but especially for my dad. Through it all, he has been the ultimate teacher. He has shown nothing but love, forgiveness and compassion. Thank you dad for all that you do! I love YOU!!

Random

As I'm sure the few of you who read our blog have figured out, we are not very consistant with our blogging. I found a couple of unpublished posts just sitting here. So... here are some pictures of what we have been up to since our last post.

I love Halloween time, and I love looking in all the shops! This is what we found....

There was a huge rainstorm one day that flooded the creek right outside our apartment, so we went and splashed around.

I made Asian food and we had a "Chinese Night" I was so excited to finally use my dishes from China, and the food was of course fabulous!