Weekly fun

After long days at work and school, its nice to hang out as husband and wife. Here’s a few things we did for fun this week: Thursday we had a sleepover on our living room floor. We got out all of our pillows and blankets and watched “The Worlds Fastest Indian,” (yes, we recommend this movie.. it had some pretty funny parts) which we rented off of Netflix, ate some candy from our Christmas stockings, and slept on the floor. Woke up with a few kinks in our necks, but it was worth it. 

Friday night was date night and we went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner, a favorite of ours. Outback has THE best steak in town and we highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t been. Plus, they have really awesome service and we always seem to walk away with tons of extra food. Gabe had our usual: steak, baked potato and salad, and I decided to try something new. I had their new flatbread entrée with spinach, artichokes, parmesan and chicken along with a coconut berry smoothie. It was mmm mmm good! After our stomachs had all the goodness they could take, we laughed at all the people still waiting in line to get a table and we took off to Best Buy to check out all the cool technology.  Im pretty sure we walked on every inch of that stores floor, but hey, we only get dressed up nice once a week, we had to take advantage of our getting out of the house. We came home and snuggled on our comfy couch and watched some episodes of “Arrested Development” until we got super sleepy.

                     (Interesting looking game, right? We thought so. Wouldn't want to be in a room with that teddy bear)

 I love date nights. When we were preparing to get married, our bishop suggested that we always make time to have a date night every week and I think it was excellent advice. I had good examples of it from my parents growing up and am happy to carry on the tradition. It definitely makes the week end on a happy note.

Happy Holidays!!!

So.. Life has been crazy busy these last few months. To say the least. We had lots of fun times with the families during the holidays. Thanksgiving we spent at my Grandmas house for the most part. She makes these a-ma-zing rolls that I look foward to every year. They are actually just frozen rhodes rolls, but somehow she makes them extra super scrumptious. My main dish is always her rolls and the turkey and potatoes are just my side dishes - thats how delicious they are. After going to grandmas, me and Gabe went with my parents and my sister and brother-in-law bowling at All Star Lanes. It was pretty great. The idea of going bowling on Thanksgiving seemed a little odd to me, but it ended up being really fun. And me and Gabe kicked butt :) Just kidding. But really. 

December was filled with lots of tiring work. December is of course the busiest month at The UPS Store so I came home ready for a nap more than once. I swear, I could wake up, go to work then come home and go right back to sleep til the next day. But I didn't. Instead we stayed up late watching seasons of Prison Break until our eyes couldn't take it anymore. Well atleast mine couldn't take it. Gabe can stay up so much later than I can. And he doesn't have the problem of falling asleep everytime the tv gets turned on. Lucky lucky man. 

We went out the day after Thanksgiving and got a good deal on a christmas tree and got started on the decorating. It was fun to have our own christmas tree and to start our own traditions this year. Its interesting to see how different sides of the families celebrate the holidays and deciding what traditions we want to start for our family. On December 22nd we celebrated our one year anniversary! Yay for us! We went out to dinner to PF Changs and at some yummy food and then went home and did some more anniversary celebrating, sparkling cider included.

           CHRISTMAS was really nice this year, I think it may have topped the best Christmases ever list. Christmas Eve we did a little last minute shopping. Yes, we were one of "them." But we only went to Maceys grocery store so it wasn't too bad. Later that night we went up to my parents and had the traditional Christmas Eve dinner, Brocolli cheese soup and candy cane shaped bread sticks. Notice I said shaped, not flavored. :) Gabe thought it sounded gross when I told him we were having candy cane breadsticks. It was mmm mmm good. We watched the 2 minute moview, The Nativity and then opened Christmas Eve presents, had fondue, and played games. 

          We had Christmas morning at our apartment and had sticky buns and candy for breakfast :) That's definately going on the "new traditions" list. I got lots of clothes and some shoes and Gabe got some workout stuff and a few games. The rest of the day was filled with both grandmas delicious food, not enough sweets, lots of game playing and hanging out with the family and cute nephews, with their new nerf guns. 

Gabe has had school off for a couple weeks and has been bored out of his mind. I would take work off to hang out with him, but, that's not really an option unfortunately. I take the car to work so that he can sleep in but then he is stuck inside the house all day and when I get home from work all he wants to do is have people over and all I want to do is take a nap. Its sad. So I think he's pretty happy that school is starting next week and he'll have something to do. Can't wait to see what this new year will bring. Happy holidays to you all!!

Guy Fawkes Celebration

So I realize that last weekend is pretty much long gone, but I wanted to tell you about it anyways.  We have a friend that lives in our complex that is British and she wanted to celebrate a British holiday that occurrs on November 5^th. Its called Guy Fawkes day. For those of you that don’t know the story, I’ll give you the low down. Apparently, sometime in British history, there was a guy who tried to blow up parliament. Unfortunately for him, the plan failed and he was brutally tortured and executed. That’s the story in a teeny tiny nutshell.  So November 5^th became a holiday for the British to have big bonfires and burn a wooden man. (Sorry Heather, I realize that is a really lame explanation of the festivities, but that’s about as detailed as it gets for this non-British girl.) To celebrate we got our group of friends together and went up the canyon to celebrate and it was tons of fun.

Here’s the group before the celebration began:

This is our own Guy Fawkes. Heather sneaked all the free newspapers from the BYU creamery and we stuffed her old pajamas with newspaper and made him a head out of plastic bags. Aint he cute? Quite stylish too I think..

Me and my other half.. 

Us girls. Heather(on left) and Ali(on right): 

We roasted s’mores and starbursts before we burned our man. Mmmm mmmm good! 

Gabe proving that yes, he really can fit 4 of the extra large marshmallows into his mouth. That’s my man! Just another reason I love him. He provides great entertainment.

Burning our Guy Fawkes. He made a great bonfire. 

We have such awesome friends and Im glad we get to see them so often. It will definitely be a night to remember!

I Love...

oh my goodness, I LOVE this quote:

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk's lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someones garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived." -Marjorie Hinckley

I love Marjorie Hinckley. I read this quote today and couldn't stop smiling. She has always been such a huge example to me of what I want to be. What a sweet lady. Her and President Hinckley had such a beautiful marriage and I strive every day to follow their example of a happy marriage.

Time Flies

So I guess I could say that a lot has happened in our life lately, but it’s mostly just because I haven’t blogged in a while. First things first, I got a job. Happy me J I work about 35 hours a week at the UPS Store in American Fork. I didn’t think I’d want to come back to UPS ever again, but I actually enjoy it most of the time. I work with some good co-workers and the customers aren’t quite as crazy as the Orem customers. But I do still get my fair share of crazy people. Some days it’s crazy-people-overdose and I run out of patience quick. Like people that don’t understand that boxes are 3 dimensional, not 2… that I can’t text message them the corporate number through a land line… that I really don’t care to hear about your conversation with the T-mobile lady for 40 minutes… the list goes on and on. I have also seen a lot of people walk into the glass window. It’s pretty entertaining sometimes. We kill flies with a swatter when it gets slow… Caught 19 before 11:00 on Wednesday. Gabe has been a trooper and walks to school every day. I hope we can come up with a good solution for that once the snow starts falling. Also, I wish we had covered parking so I don’t have to wipe the windows off every morning. I’m totally not a winter person.

The most exciting news, at least in my opinion, is that we put an offer in on a new condo. We found out that the place we were waiting on before had a plumbing problem and started to grow mold.. and the bank was just taking their precious time to accept our offer. So we decided to look around some more and I am glad we did. We found a cute place that’s all updated, has an HOA that’s a third of the price as the other place, has its own washer and dryer and has hard wood floors. It seems to fit us quite well I think. A good majority of my day is spent thinking about how I want to decorate the condo. I memorized it perfectly so that I can walk through it in my head and see everything. I walk through it in my mind and imagine where I want the TV, what colors I want to paint the walls and on and on and on and on. I almost have everything planned out completely. We put in an offer on Monday I think and have already heard back from them on a counter offer. So it’s definitely moving a lot quicker than the last place and we are THRILLED!!

Besides being super sick the past 3 days, everything is pretty wonderful. I’m really grateful for our friends. We have both been blessed with really good groups of friends. We’re planning a Harry Potter couples date night with some friends in November and are way excited for it. It’s nice having friends so close to us that we enjoy having over and spending time with.

Lets see…

We might not do installs this next summer so that Gabe can finish school sooner.

I’m trying to decide what to do with my hair next. Might grow it out and go a bit darker.

Had an awesome photo shoot with my sister, check it out here: chelsyannphoto.blogspot.com

Gabe’s hair is getting ginormous. He says he wants to grow it out to Halloween, but I may try to convince him otherwise.

We get our backend check this coming week. **Big grin**

Went shooting for the first time in a long time and loved it.

Yup. That’s probably about it this time. Love you all!

I'd Rather be Skinny

About a month and a half ago, while we were still in Alaska, I was watching Oprah on the television. Yes, I DO like Oprah. There was an author on her show talking about a new book that he just wrote about healthy eating. I was super intrigued because I agreed with everything he was saying. Halfway through the show, my sweet husband noticed how excited I was about it and took me to Barnes and Noble to get a couple of his books, “Food Rules” and “The Omnivores Dilemma.” Really really good books, and I recommend them to anyone interested in health. I LOVED “Food Rules” and am about to the last chapter in “The Omnivores Dilemma.” Once I read the first book, I vowed I would try and follow the rules he gives. The general idea of his books is to eat foods that are as minimally processed as possible. He talks about how the food industry is really tricky about how they advertize and how they make money. They can make sooooo many ingredients out of a kernel of corn it’s insane! It’s what surprised me the most. The food industry can buy corn for super cheap so they’ve been busy figuring out how they can make more and more ingredients out of it so they can make money off of consumers. Michael Pollan, the author of these books, believes it is making Americans sick. So I started researching it and decided once we got back from Alaska I would try and make as much of our food from scratch as I could. Amongst the obvious homemade bread, I wanted to make my own foods like ketchup, and mayo. Yeah, I was pretty ambitious and was determined it would be better for our health. I grew up eating margarine instead of butter because it didn’t contain as much fat, but after reading Pollan’s book I found out butter is actually better for you because its not processed. I know that’s hard for some people to believe, but I believed it. So.. after a couple weeks of trying it out, and eating real butter instead of margarine, this is what I told my husband:

“I know that this new way of eating is supposed to be healthier for me, but I don’t think it’s making me any thinner. Healthy doesn’t always mean skinny. I’d rather be skinny.”

I was just frustrated because I had been involved in a really good exercise regime and I wasn’t getting the results I thought I would get with the “clean eating.” For some reason, we’ve been going through a lot (a lot, a lot!) of butter within the last week or two and that just doesn’t seem to be helping. I went out and bought margarine today. Oh happy day! I agree with a good majority of what Pollan talks about in his books, rules that I will stick to, (like: “The whiter bread, the sooner you’ll be dead” and “Don’t eat breakfast cerals that change the color of milk.”) and I agree whole heartedly that processed foods are horrible for a person, but I’m not about to change some of my ways if it will make me go up a pant size. I don’t think most females would. So back to “regular” healthy eating.. we’ll see if I see the results I want this time around :)

Catch Up Time

Things have been a bit hectic around our little household lately. I apologize ahead of time that this may be a bit of a venting post for me today. Gabe started school this week at BYU and from what I can tell, he is excited to be back. He’s been figuring out when to take certain classes so that he can be on schedule for getting his degree. For those of you that don’t know, he is planning on becoming an oral surgeon (yes, I know, lucky me :) ) and so we are going to be in it for the long haul. We decided that while he is going through dental school, I’ll work to put him through and pay our bills. So right now I feel like I’m going through a tiny mid-mid-life crisis. I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with myself. After I graduated from high school I decided to go to school to become a dietician and I had dreams of opening my own practice and being my own boss. I soon realized how expensive school was and I didn’t want to take out anymore school loans so I decided to put school on hold until I earned a bit more money to pay for more schooling. Well, life happened. I eventually got a full time job and started making some decent money. Didn’t save any, because I liked spending it so much, but I made money nonetheless. Other things happened in my life and school wasn’t that big of a priority for me anymore. But now that we’re back home and Gabe is back in school, it’s time for me to earn us some money so that we don’t have to take from our savings we earned this summer. The last couple weeks I have been trying really hard to find a good job. By good job I mean: full time, morning through afternoon, pays at least $9.00 an hour, busy, and any benefits surely wouldn’t hurt. I don’t think most people understand how rare that is in this fine Provo town. I have already scoured this city at least 4 times before, so I know where everything is, and I know what most places will offer me before I even ask. I applied for a super extremely good job last week and they had over 80 applicants so I didn’t even get an interview. I even took a typing/grammar/basic knowledge/spelling test that I thought I did pretty darn well at. So in the meantime, I wake up early and get ready for the day, sit at the computer and go through 8+ job websites every day to see if anything new pops up. No luck. I stay busy so my husband doesn’t feel like he’s the only one doing anything. I do so many dishes, try and organize anything, clean, cook. But sometimes I just want to work. I want a job where I can go in 9-5, sit at a desk, have a list of to-do items, and stay busy all day working hard. Then I can come home and feel accomplished. But I feel anything less than accomplished right now. I feel like I have to be working my butt off to be acknowledged. I’m consistently on my knees praying something will come up. . .Please keep us in your prayers. Hopefully we’ll have some luck soon. So in the meantime, while sittin at home pondering about what to do I have been thinking a lot about going back to school and wondering what online classes would entail. I love school and learning new things. It would be great if I could go to work and during the slow times I could study. So that is a possible option right now, I just don’t know enough about online class options yet. Among going back to school and finding a good job, we’ve put an offer in for a townhome. Actually, we put the offer in during the summer, but we’ve been more proactive about it since we’ve gotten home. It’s a short sale and so it takes FOREVER to hear back from the bank. Our realtor has been trying for months and months to hear back from them. We went to see the place last week and there were a few problems with the place that we weren’t aware of. We found out they are no biggie, easy problems to fix and we knocked down the price a little, so we’re hopeful that we will hear back from the bank soon. We found out that if we buy a place, our monthly payment will be the same as if we were renting, so it’s a no brainer that we want to put it towards something that we can call “ours.” Pretty exciting stuff, huh? So that’s the basics of what is going on with us right now. Maybe soon I’ll be blogging from OUR house..