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!

My dear faithful followers,

I am so sorry to have kept BOTH of you waiting so long for another update! ;) I’d like to say that it’s because I’ve been so busy with awesome adventures, but alas, it has just been life. And as I’ve said before, I’m a terrible blogger. But! I made a halfsie “resolution” this year to be better at blogging, and try for once a month, so here goes.

                Last summer was a rough one – I was in a completely new place with people who I mostly did not know. And if you know me, you know just how painfully shy I can be. But I made a couple friends, and as hard as it was having Dan gone for upwards of 12 hours a day, we did get to do some fun stuff. In Alabama, we had AMAZING apartments (it was so hard to come back and live in our crappy Provo apartment!), and, most notably, we took a weekend to go down to New Orleans. That place really has been destroyed by all the hurricanes, especially in the French quarter where most of the touristy stuff is. FYI: Bourbon Street smells awful! It was so stinky, but it was cool to see all the shops and hear the artists playing jazz on the street. We also went to the Audubon aquarium, which was pretty awesome. But probably our favorite part was Café du Monde! It’s this tiny little café that’s insanely popular and they only have one food item on the menu: beignets. Basically scones/donuts drowning in powdered sugar. It was probably the best part of the summer.

Guess what? Sometimes Piranha's are pretty!

 

                For Thanksgiving, we decided to spend it just the 2 of us and went to Vegas. It was crazy to me how many casinos and bars they have just in that little part of the strip we saw! And it smelled so badly of smoke, however I will admit it was cool to see all the popular hotels and whatnot. It will definitely not be on my “family vacation” list, as it seemed to be for many others there (same holds true for Nawlins’)! Too much smoking, drinking, and prostitution for my sheltered little eyes! But we had a lot of fun and, of course, our favorite part was the eating. For our Thanksgiving meal we went to one of the many buffets (how many buffets do you need on one street?!). Though pricey, it was totally worth it. The food was amazing and we ate so much! Definitely made ourselves sick that night.

 

 

 

                For Christmas we went up to Montana again to see my family. Which was nice since I still did not have my green card. It was a ton of fun – have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE hanging out with them?! We had some amazing snow up at Big Mountain, despite the freezing cold temperatures. And I loved getting to meet the newest addition to our family – my adorable niece Tatum Gray! She was so precious and probably the most well-behaved newborn I’ve ever seen. To top it all off, I finally got a onesie like I’ve been asking for for months – with a hood and everything! It’s pretty sweet. After Christmas I graciously allowed Dan to go see his family (aren’t I a good wife??) in Arkansas for a week. It was probably the worst week of my life! I was so lonely; I’d get home from work and basically mope around watching tv all night. So I was one happy camper when he finally came back!

Isn't she the cutest?!

                Good news: on January 1^st my green card finally came in the mail! Which means…. I can go home!! I’m so excited – now all I need is some time to actually go up there. I’m so excited to finally go back to Lethbridge and to see everyone. It’s been way too long. But for now, I am working at an accounting firm as an office assistant. It’s pretty good so far, but things are about to get crazy! Pray that I make it through the next 3 months. And Dan? Well, he’s working on the Junior Core at the Accounting Program. And loving every minute of it. Which is good, because it sure keeps him busy; hopefully the long hours will all pay off in the end! (I was gonna put a picture to show you, but Dan says that would be bad... probably a good idea!)

                And that is our life for now! I know, it’s kind of a crappy post, I whipped it out in like 15 minutes. But otherwise it would have had to have been like a full on novel. I didn’t want to write that, and I know you don’t want to read that. So now we’re both happy. I promise I’ll try to write a better one next time!

Florida!

If I have learned anything in the past month or so, it is this: I am a horrible blogger. But fear not, loyal readers! For I have a brand new, all-inclusive post with all the juicy details you’ve been waiting for. So read on, while I take you through the joys and heartbreaks of life in the Sunshine state!

For months I had been wanting to chop my hair off – I was getting sick of dealing with it, and I wanted a change. A real change, not just some new layers. So about a week after we got here, on my birthday, I went and cut it all off. I was really nervous at first but now I love it! It is so easy to deal with and doesn’t get all in my face like before, and I think it’s pretty dang cute! It’s not styled, but here is the before and after!

Dan also got a haircut – courtesy of me! It was my first time ever cutting someone’s hair (other than my own bangs…) so I was pretty proud of how I did.

We found another beach that we love to go to, called St. George Island. The sand is gorgeous and soft on your toes, and the water’s pretty good. We’ve gone there a couple times now because the boys just love it and it’s a great way for them to relax!

 Our new Pirate friend!

Awesome little lighthouse. Maybe one day it will be open when we come.

Beachfront condos. How awesome would it be to stay there?!

The beach is really beautiful, looks amazing at sunset!

We found sand dollars! Okay, Matt found them – right in the ocean. But I stole a couple for myself.

Dan and mine’s new beachfront home. It’s all we could afford J

I love my husband so much! We have a ton of fun together.

Last week we went to Wakulla Springs. It was this awesome place, where you take a tourboat through the spring/river thing and you get to see turtles, birds, manatees, and alligators! It was so much fun, and afterwards we got to swim, the water felt so good and was so clear.

 Do we look like tourists? Haha. So there you have it – that’s all I’m gonna show you for now! The boys are working hard, it’s hot out, and life is good.

We Made It!

Okay guys, this is gonna be a bit of a long one. But it's got lots of good stuff, so bear with me and read on! As many of you know, Dan and I have moved down south for the summer! A couple months ago, Dan, along with many co-workers from Linx, decided to switch over to Vivint. The company was much more professional, a better fit for us, and the potential for earnings was much higher. So after much consideration and prayer, we made the switch. Now we are living in Tallahassee, FL and in two months we'll relocate to Mobile, AL. It's going to be quite an adventure over the next four months!

My green card isn't in, so I can't leave the States. And my work authorization isn't in, so I can't work in the States. Sooo that's leaves me with... not a whole lot to do! Dan and the boys drive up to area in Georgia every day (about 2 hours) because their Tallahassee license isn't in yet, which means he's gone from about 11am to 11:30 pm every day! So I sleep in a lot, then I usually go to the gym. I'll go to the pool for a while, do a bit more organizing/cleaning the apartment, watch TV, and at the end of the day, make dinner! Hopefully soon I will be able to get a job, or at least find something to keep me occupied for the summer. Or else it's going to be a loooooong four months. I brought my scrapbooking stuff, so once we get some dressers and have things finally put away, I'll pull that out!

Now, you're probably all thinking: "Wow, you live in Florida?! It must be so awesome! I would love to move there, it'd be awesome and I'd never be bored." Lies. See, here is what movies and everything make it seem like life is, living in Florida:

White, Sandy Beaches

Beautiful, Resort-Style Apartments surrounded by Palm Trees

Disney World!!

Friendly, Tropical Birds

And here's a little look into what it's really like living here:

Nasty Bugs. Everywhere.

Crazy Intense, Misery-Inducing, Heat & Humidity

Ravens. Enough Said.

So there you have it folks! It's not all just fun and games down here. But really, it actually is quite beautiful here. And it's nice that you can wear a T-shirt and shorts at midnight! Our first day here, the boys thought they'd take a day off to settle in, instead of heading straight to work (after all, we pulled in about 5am!!) So we went to the beach! About an hour away, we drove to Alligator Point, right on the Gulf of Mexico. It was kinda windy and cloudy, but we didn't care! We were so excited to just be at the beach. We played in the water, buried a couple people in the sand, and found a bunch of shells. Take a look!

 Beautiful little Coast

 Dan got buried!

 Walkway to the beach. Beautiful :)

 I found a snake crossing our path. Lucky one of us saw it!

 My first (baby) garden!

And the seashells I found!

Possibly even more exciting was the fact that I just graduated from BYU! I did it - a Bachelor of Science degree in Family Life/Human Development, so basically I'm really smart now. :) It was the best weekend ever - not only because of that, but because my parents came down to visit and celebrate! I sure miss those guys. We spent the weekend catching up, going to various ceremonies, going out to eat, packing, going to the Tulip Festival, and sewing a baby quilt for my friend Nicole Maclean. It was so much fun. Here's a look into our weekend!



 Special Musical Number!

 Dr. Coyne ran away, so here's our picture together!

 Oh Daddy...

 I graduated! With some of my favorite people

With my mommy at the Tulip Festival

A Letter

As instructed, I am putting up this assignment for my blog post! I don't know if we still need to keep up our blogs, since we've done all the checks, but I figure I will for the next week.

Dear Miss Lawrence,
First off, I would like to commend you for a fantastic performance as Katniss in the Hunger Games. I loved the books and thought you did such a fabulous job in your role; I love forward to
the next film! Having said this, I am currently in a media class and have an
assignment to write someone about an issue in the media. I have seen some of
your interviews and noted how down-to-earth you are, and how you actually had a
different “plan” for your career.
As a young actress who has recently come onto the Hollywood “scene”, I feel like
you can have a great influence for the better in the media industry. I thought
you would be a great person to write, and hope you share some of my own
sentiments. I loved that you chose to do a film with very minimal profanity and
no sexual content. Too often today I believe filmmakers put this sort of material
in, simply for a shock factor or because that seems to be what the public
wants. But this sort of content does not really ever constitute an important
element of the film, or even add to the overall storyline. Not only that, but
this sort of thing is becoming ever more prevalent in movies meant for younger
and younger audiences. I think this is irresponsible of the film industry to
put such material in children’s films, as they are so impressionable and today
learn so much of what they know from the media. It is also inappropriate to be
showing crude, unnecessary profanity and sexual material to children and young
adolescents. Characters portrayed this way are poor role models for the children
who will soon be adults and making independent decisions.
I think producers, screenwriters, actors, directors – anyone in the film
industry, should make an effort to remove the excess of this material from mainstream
media. Profanity and sexual scenes do not add to the quality of a movie, and
can greatly influence the attitudes and behaviors of viewers. Over time, this
could mean an overall increase in promiscuity in society – resulting in
sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies, and broken homes.
I urge you to consider the importance of this issue, and to keep it in mind when
thinking about future roles to accept. I think you have the power to make a
positive impact in our world; that your voice and your behaviors will be a good
role model for others to follow. You have the opportunity to make a big
difference, and to make choices that so many others will see. I hope you will
use this chance for good! Again, congratulations on a fantastic job in the
Hunger Games, I am a big fan.
Sincerely,

Maggie Brumwell

Overload

... and no I was not talking about media in the title of this post. Although that could very well apply too. But what I meant was a brain overload. This past week, I wrote 2 papers, gave an oral presentation, wrote 2 final exams, complete some ridiculous finance assignments that I don't understand (cause I don't have time to go to that class, or when I do I'm doing something else) and had to cook full-on meals for 5 people multiple times. Among other things. I can't remember what else. Because my brain is fried. From overload. So I have no idea what to even write about the media right now!! I think it can be addicting. My husband, his brother, and their cousin started playing League of Legends yesterday and have been at it almost constantly! So it can be good or bad, decide how you will use it! My choice of "media poison" this weekend? (Aside from Conference of course). Listening to country on Pandora radio - while scrapbooking! I'd say that's definitely a good use! :)

General Conference

Of course, it's General Conference weekend, so what else am I going to post about?! I know we ALL listened to ALL the talks this weekend, so I'm not going to talk about any of that! ;) I just want to mention a little about how awesome it is that the Church keeps up with modern technology and uses it to our advantage. It's so great that we can now have conference broadcast in church buildings, watched on TV, and even streamed online. It is available to such a wider audience - and that can mean reaching out to non-members, investigators, and members far away! Using the media like this can be so uplifting, and can really bring the Gospel to the world. When we use the power of media and technology, it can have a great influence. I especially love seeing those mormon commercials on TV - what a great use of the media!