Summer Nights

     It was pretty busy this month, for me at least! I was able to go up to the cabin for about a week and a half, and spend some awesome quality time with my family at the lake. It is probably one of my favorite places on earth, and I’m sad I don’t get to go there very much anymore so when I do, I gotta enjoy it to the fullest! It was a ton of fun, and I’m grateful to my awesome husband who was kind enough to let me go while he worked all day! Then I came back to Lethbridge for a week (man it’s good to finally be able to come back!), which was filled with doctor’s appointments! But on the weekend it was on to the good stuff – one of my best friends Kylie Orr got married! She waited a long time for that guy so even though I missed my own anniversary, I was happy to be there! I loved spending the day with friends and being there for Kylie (who was GORGEOUS, by the way!), and let’s be honest, who can resist the food at a Mormon wedding?! It was a great day and I’m so happy for her!

 

     Sadly, I had to return to Kansas the day after (my poor husband had been fending for himself for almost 2.5 weeks at this point!), and then it was a couple days filled with packing before heading back to Utah in time for school. So despite that, and a 16-ish hour car ride (way better than last summer's!), it was a really good month!

Barefooting

 

Homemade chocolates for Kylie's wedding! 

The beautiful bride



In the Heat of Summer

     July was mostly a pretty slow month for us, full of work, the gym and the pool (well, for me at least!) For those of you familiar with summer sales, you know a lot of companies do weekly dinner incentives and competitions, which I love when we win! Though the offices are typically made up with a lot of single guys that want to go to places others of us don’t! Oh well. One popular place this summer was Oklahoma Joes (never heard of it? They’re famous!), because they have all this AMAZING barbeque. Well, I guess that would require someone to like barbeque first, because apparently I don’t. And so I hated going there because there was literally nothing on the menu I liked. (And yes mom, I actually tried different things before deciding I hated it! ;) ) Their fries were amazing though, so they sustained me! If you’re a fan of barbeque I definitely suggest checking it out if you’re in the area! Another place we ate at a couple times was a Japanese Steakhouse; I love them in Utah but this one had the best fried rice ever! Seriously, amazing.

     We also won a movie night so while the majority of the office went to Grown Ups 2, I convinced Dan to take me to Despicable Me 2! What can I say, I love those minions. It was actually really good, and I’m definitely glad we chose that over the other one. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s definitely worth a Red Box night!

     We also had a chance to visit some church sites. Dan was out of town for a couple days on an accounting “recruiting” trip, so when I picked him up from the airport he took the rest of the day off which, as a summer sales wife, is probably the best day ever! Our first stop was Liberty Jail – the site where Joseph Smith was held during the 1838-1839 winter. The actual jail has been reconstructed, and is housed in a modern building along with other artifacts, but the Spirit there was amazing. It was incredible to hear the guides talk about the hardships endured, as well as revelations received, and to think of the amazing strength and faith of these men. It is a MUST SEE if you are in the area, seriously. Then it was on to the RLDS temple (the offshoot church started by Emma after Joseph’s death). They had a beautiful temple that we were allowed to walk through, but it is definitely weird seeing all this “mormon” doctrine you’ve grown up with being used by another church! I tried to keep an open mind, and it was so worth it to go into the “bookstore” and see all the incredible artifacts and possessions they have on display! Early pictures, Liberty Jail’s original door, 1^st edition Book of Mormon, etc. It was very interesting. Our last stop was to the LDS visitors center; my favorite part of it was this whole room full of photographs taken of early church sites.

I'm behind!

June was a pretty slow month for us, so this is going to be a short post!

First, I went home to Canada for the very first time since my wedding – almost 2 years! It was very exciting; I was so happy to see everyone and finally be back where my true home is. I was only there for about 5 days and spent a lot of time going to various doctor’s appointments, but it was still great to spend time with my family. The girls and I (you know who you are!) also were reunited for a night and it was so great to see them and catch up on everything that’s going on in all our lives.

Yummy Canadian treats brought home for Dan!

While I was gone, Dan went on a recruiting trip to California for the accounting firm KPMG. He spent 2 days out in San Jose getting a feel for the company and the area, as well as networking and interviewing for an internship next summer. I think the best part for him was being in 75-degree temperatures and getting to miss work for 2 days! It was a good experience for him and we’re hoping the interview went well. It’ll be a while before we hear back from them, so we’re waiting and hoping for good news.

Dan’s parents also came out to visit us for a few days. Each summer they drive up to Montana for a family reunion so they stopped to see us on the way. It was good for Dan, since he doesn’t get to see his family much these days.

About the only "fun" thing we did together was go mini-golfing, along with Dan's brother Ryan, his wife Summer (and their new baby Maddison!), and their cousin Matt. It was pretty fun, despite mine and Summer's devastating loss.

I took hardly any pictures this month, so here's my artsy attempt. Eat your heart out! ;)

The month of May...

Is my favorite month! Cause it’s my birthday on the first! So since we were travelling at the end of April it meant we were still getting all settled in for my birthday, and of course Dan had to work all day. So Dan gave me my gift early, which was a copy of the most recent Les Miserables sheet music! I loved it, but only got a chance to play through it once before packing up. We’ve got every intention of going out to dinner to celebrate my momentous 23 years of life, just haven’t gotten around to it yet with Dan’s limited free time. One of these days!

I also got the chance to visit a new temple this month! My friend Cardin Frei and I spent a Saturday driving up to the Kansas City, Missouri temple, about 45 minutes away to do a session together. It was great to experience the beauty of a new temple as well as enjoy the fact that no matter where you go, the principles and patterns of the Church are always the same. It was a great way to spend the day and feel the Spirit.

(Not my picture.. but still beautiful!)

Saturday’s are the only night (except Sunday) that Dan has off, so we don’t get a lot of time together to do anything, especially time where he is not physically exhausted! We did take one weekend to go see Iron Man 3 – it was pretty good, though to be honest by this point I can’t remember a whole lot of the details! If that’s your kinda movie, and you liked the first 2, I’d say it’s definitely worth a watch. But since we’re new around here, we just went to the first theater we found it in. It ended up being fairly pricey, so we didn’t get popcorn – my favorite part! Needless to say, it is much harder to enjoy a movie without a bag of popcorn in front of you!

We also went out as an office to eat at Oklahoma Joe’s. Kansas is famous for BBQ, so it’s supposed to be this amazing BBQ restaurant; apparently it’s actually on some top ten list of places you must eat at before you die! Sadly, I’m not a big fan of BBQ so I didn’t enjoy it all that much. But the boys went crazy! They absolutely loved it, and it was a ton of food for a good price, so it’s a triple win for them.

Finally, the whole group went as an office to see an MLB game: Kansas City Royals vs. New York Yankees! It was my first time going to a professional game so although I’m not a huge baseball fan I was kind of excited. It got pretty cold, and baseball is a loooong game; I spent most of my time playing with my camera and talking to Dan. But it was a cool experience nonetheless.

Not gonna lie May  was a tough month for me; it’s always so hard to pack up and move to a new place, especially when it means such long work hours for Dan and long, lonely days for me. I try to be supportive, but I’ll be glad when this part of our lives is over!

My newest niece, Maddison, born May 16

APRIL means Spring!

At least, that’s what it’s supposed to mean, in my mind. Seems like these days spring doesn’t come till a lot later, and that April spends a lot of time tricking me! So I realize it is now May 13, which means that I am very behind. The end of April came and went, and I kept forgetting to write up this post. But it’s here now!

I was busy working at the accounting firm in Provo – it’s a small office but you would never guess from how busy the accountants all were this month! The tax deadline in the US is April 15, and with the whole fiscal cliff thing and the IRS delaying the release of some forms, it really put them in a bind to get everything done on time. Thank goodness for extensions or I don’t think anyone would have gotten any sleep at all! I couldn’t help them with any of the actual tax preparation, but I kept pretty busy. Not going to lie, some days were very stressful. I am extremely shy so dealing with a lot of frustrated people every day was definitely a challenge for me. I am hoping it helped me grow in some way! The day of the deadline I ended up staying with them until 11:00 – it was a very long day for all of us! Thankfully it is all over, and I promised myself I would never work in a tax office during April again. At least the guys I worked for were really good to me, so I appreciated that.

Dan (finally!) finished the Junior Core this month. I think we are both very happy and relieved to have that done with – it was a ton of work, which meant that he was constantly doing school stuff and I didn’t get to spend much time with him. He has applied for the Masters of Accountancy program at BYU, so we should be finding out within a few weeks whether or not he was accepted. His grades were very good during these tough 2 semesters, so here’s hoping!

April of course means General Conference, which I love. Not just because I get to watch church in my jammies, but because I love hearing all our leaders speak! There were some really good talks this spring, many of which I felt were directed at me personally so it was good. I also made us some delicious breakfast – yum!

Bacon, Sweatpants, and Conference - can life get better?!

In our free time, we did get to go to a couple movies. I finally saw Les Miserables, which I thought was amazing! Absolutely loved it, and Dan even enjoyed it, which surprised me. For days afterward he would ask me to play some of the songs on YouTube! We also saw Life of Pi; I heard of the book a lot when I was younger but never got around to reading it. It was pretty good, though the ending was a little weird. We also went on a little date night to the BYU Planetarium. It’s pretty cool, and then you get to go up to the roof afterwards and look through the telescopes.

My parents came to visit! Yay! It has currently been almost 21 full months since I have been home, which means I don’t get to see my family much. So I love that my parents take the time and effort to come visit me once or twice a year. And they always take us poor students out for some great food! We went to Gardner’s Village, which is a little village-like shopping area with lots of boutiques… it’s mostly just for girls! Dan was busy studying for finals the next week so he didn’t get to do a lot, but my parents and I went to see the Jackie Robinson movie “42.” It was pretty dang good, and pretty funny I thought. I’d definitely recommend it!

The next weekend we had to move out to Kansas City. Dan is doing sales for a pest control company called Alterra, so we spent the week packing up our house (in between work and finals!) and with our little corolla packed to the roof, we set out! By the time we got everything packed and cleaned it was about 9:00 Friday night so we headed out for the 16-hour trip. BAD DECISION! Turns out if you start a major road trip after a long, exhausting day in a cramped car where you can’t stretch out to sleep, it makes for a couple of cranky people. We had to pull over a couple times just so we could try and get a few hours of decent sleep. Nevertheless, we made it safe & sound and I don’t think we will ever make that mistake again! By Saturday at 6 PM we finally pulled into the apartments. The lady checking us in took FOREVER (bless her heart, she was so nice), so we were very frazzled and worn out by the time we finally dragged all our stuff up to our 3-floor apartment. Then next day we had to drive 8 hours to pick up Dan's cousin so he could start selling. So let’s just say I’m done with road trips for a while!

All in all, it was a very busy, but very good month. Stay tuned for news about Kansas City next month!

Turns out, I didn't take too many decent photos this month and since I can't work photoshop, I can't edit anything! I gotta get that figured out.

Happy Birthday Dan! (March)

Hi All,

As you know I made a resolution to start blogging at least once a month this year! Alas, I have already fallen behind. No worries though, since this post is only 6 days late it doesn’t really count as a failure. March was a decently busy month for us, though for some reason I am drawing a blank! Let’s see what I can remember…

Dan turned 25!! Yep, I’m married to an old geezer these days. He got treated very special during his birthday week, partially thanks to all the birthday clubs we’re signed up for! One weeknight he was craving a big burger so we took our coupon and went to Red Robin – delish! Thank goodness for coupons, or we would never go out! ;) On Friday night (courtesy of another coupon) we got Cold Stone ice cream for dessert. Saturday was a pretty chill day; other than going out for a walk and getting groceries, we didn’t do a whole lot. But in the evening we got to do his favorite thing about his birthday – go out to Texas Roadhouse! Big thanks goes out to my parents for their generous son-in-law birthday gift of treating us to dinner. Otherwise that place is just too expensive; so he looks forward to it all year. On Sunday, his actual birthday, I got up early to make his favorite breakfast – French toast, with scrambled eggs, bacon, and orange juice. Yay me! And that was about it. Other than lots of food, he didn’t really want to make a big deal of his quarter-century milestone. But we had fun, and just enjoyed spending time together (which, with me working and him in school, doesn’t happen as often as we’d like).

I also finally got my new camera this month! After a lot of going back and forth, I finally settled on getting the Canon EOS Rebel T3i. So far I’m liking it a lot, having fun going out and playing with it, but I still have a ton of learning to do on just where everything is on it and how to manipulate all the settings to what I want! I’ll get there. Dan is loving it too; a couple times a week he’ll excitedly ask me if we can go out and take pictures! It’s cute watching him play with MY toy. I’ll admit, I’m definitely no expert yet (and I still desperately need to learn how to work stupid photoshop!) but here’s a couple pictures! If anyone in my area ever wants cheap/free pictures and would be willing to be test subjects for me to practice on, let me know! Cause as of yet I’m not very good at photographing people.

What else? Oh yes, Dan is applying to the MAcc program in April so he has been very busy making sure he gets good grades! He also recently applied for some Summer Leadership programs with the major accounting firms and got accepted for 2 of them! Which, you should know, is awesome. I’m very proud.

We didn’t do anything for Easter, sadly. As much as I love holidays, it’s hard for me to find things to do when it’s just the two of us and no other family. I did make Easter cupcakes, but that’s it. We also got our special Easter eggs from my mom and a huge bag of Cadbury mini eggs! Yum!

(Yes, I'm aware this isn't actually a great picture at all, but!) Dan sure loves this little dog! I'm still completely against a bulldog - maybe one day I'll change my mind! He sure is cute.

February!

Well shoot! I had this post all typed up and almost ready to go yesterday, when things started popping up and then I forgot all about it! Oh well. Just pretend you're reading this yesterday.

 

Happy last day of February! This tends to be a dreary month for me – thank goodness it’s so short! Winter’s ready to be over, but spring hasn’t quite come, so it makes for some yucky weather. And Utah has definitely been guilty – it will be nice and sunshiney and almost warm one day, then it’ll snow and be nasty for the next three days! Not a very nice trick for someone who’s been missing the sun. Oh well, tomorrow is March and we will (hopefully) be on to better and warmer days!

This month was pretty uneventful for Dan and me. I think the only part of February worth actually mentioning was Valentine’s Day! For him, I made a little treat bag of various Hershey Kisses with a little note (thank you Relief Society activity!). My day started off by discovering a little box of my new favorite chocolates (Mrs. Cavanaughs) in my purse, with this note attached to it:

Isn’t he cute with his little heart exclamation points?! And what was in the red binder you ask? Well, for the sake of preserving Dan’s manliness, I won’t share a picture of that. But I can tell you what it was – a sweet little love note expressing how awesome I am. ;) And then I had work, which kinda sucks, because I like to think of holidays as days off! But that was okay, since a couple hours before I got off, Dan surprised me by coming into the office with a vase of pretty flowers! Yay! That night, I made a conscious effort to do NOTHING except have dinner, decorate cookies, and spend time with my awesome husband. It was nice to just chill out. Since we’re poor, and didn’t want to wait 2 hours to get into a restaurant, we just had dinner at home… I can’t even remember what it was now! Probably something super delicious. Anyway, instead of dinner we went out for dessert – that’s my favorite part anyway. We went to the new Cinnabon in the mall, and it was amazing! (The extra frosting we ordered probably didn’t hurt, either.) And that was it! Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

Oh, I guess the one other thing is we went to the last Twilight movie. Yes, as much as I hate to admit it, I have read and watched all of the Twilight series. It wasn't too bad, it was at the dollar theater, and the popcorn is amazing - so all in all, I'd say it was worth it! I mean really, we all know we're going to the movies for the popcorn anyway. Don't deny it.

So other than that, not much happened this month. But at least I kept my monthly posting resolution. Next month is Dan’s birthday, so that’ll be fun. He’s getting kinda old, but more on that later!