bitofwhit2

2011-05-13T22:26:00.002-06:00

Hey- I won't be writing here anymore, but you can find our new blog at: codyandwhitney.com

Remember when...

2011-04-12T11:15:00.002-06:00

Remember when campus was really intimidating and you felt really young? Remember when you were afraid of getting lost? Remember when you had to share a communal bathroom in the dorms? Remember your first day of classes when all you could think was: "How am I gonna keep up with all of this?!" when now you wish you could have it as easy as your freshman year? Remember when all of your guy friends left on missions and you were afraid of dating RMs? Remember your first BYU football game? Remember your first BYU basketball game and they'd do the kissing screen and you were terrified it would land on you. Remember how wierd it was to go to church on campus (in my case- a science lecture hall?) Remember how weird it was to have a huge auditorium class?
Just remembering...after all, tomorrow is my last day of classes of my college career...and yes it is very odd. For the past twenty years, walking into and sitting down in a classroom to take notes has been a regular part of my day to day schedule. you get used to it and come to expect it, but now....the next time I'll walk into a classroom will be either to sub (i'm playing around with the idea) or to go to a parent/teacher conference for my kids-CRAZY!
some of the classes i've taken over the years:

Arts in Western Culture
Human Development
Physical Science
Women's Chorus
American Heritage
Biology
Geography & World Affairs
Marriage Prep
University Writing
Intro to Greek and Roman Lit
Volleyball
2 semesters of Latin
Audio-Basic Principles
Humanities of Asia
Spanish
Music Theory, dictation, sight singing
Music History
American Humanities (colonial-1876) and (1877-present)
Philosophy of Art
Interpretation of Literature and ARts
Cultural History of Russia
Phonetics and Pronunciation of Russia
Intro to Film
Humanities: the Spanish Baroque
Humanities: Theology in lit and film
Art History
piano

Clearly not all of my classes but a sampling...I think that by the end I will have over 150 credit hours and i'm just graduating with a bachelors-what can i say, i like to take classes for fun. You see now why i'm a major like humanities? One subject just isn't enough for me :)

you've had a bday shout hurray

2011-04-09T11:04:00.009-06:00

hmmm...start studying for my music history final or blog....BLOG!

So I have some more pics for ya. Yesterday was Cody's 25th Birthday!!! Now for approximately 33 days I can call him "old man" and "grandpa". 25...wow, quarter of a century-now, no matter how much people may want to, they have to admit that we are "adults" (whatever that word means). Never mind the fact that we've been adults for well over five years now-shrug.

Ya know, I'm going to be excited for my kids when they are getting older. I'm not going to hold on and continue to see them as little kids-I'm going to celebrate their new found "adulthood" or whatever....cause I think it will be a lot more fun to see them as they really are-getting mature...r, becoming their own person etc. And knowing that I'll be that much closer to having some more time for me when they move out :) Plus let me tell you from experience, kids respond positively to those who take them seriously.

Anywho,so I hope yesterday was fun enough for code-despite that 8-9 hour stint of working all day long on projects-ugh! So in the morning I woke him up with some muffins with candles in them. He said it was kind of alarming to wake up with open flame next to his face but he got over it quick :)

His presents!

He got President Monson's new biography from mom and dad-thanks guys!

He got new racketball goggles that he can't WAIT to try out:

And the big gift-amazon's kindle!:

Along with that he got a 25$ gift card to amazon to buy "books" for it from me and his family in georgia-thanks guys! The other gift from the noldens hasn't gotten here yet but he's excited to extend his bday to today :)

He also got the first season of Lie to Me which we're excited to get our family in texas addicted to once we get down there :) and a deck of uno cards (shrug he really wanted this game :) and the German version of Ticket to Ride. Um....I think that was everything....
After our days working (me at the museum and him at home) I picked him up and we went to Shoga Japanese grill and sushi bar up on state and university pkwy. It was really good and a cool atmosphere and pretty cheap for sushi. Then we came back and opened presents and then we had some friends over for some coldstone mmmmmint choc chip icecream cake. The guys of course played some smash and that was our evening.

It was a good bday but I wish we weren't both so busy so I could have planned more/gone all out, but that's ok.
A good time was had by all.

"A little bit of Upper-Manhattan right here in Provo"

2011-04-07T20:05:00.007-06:00

This was a quote from the opening of BYU Museum of Art's new exhibition: "The Matter of Words". Cody and I went by and checked it out real quick. It's contemporary but don't let that scare you away-it's pretty cool. The coolest part was the center piece of the exhibition-an 80,000 lb tower of books. If only it had been ready in time for me to prepare my final tour exam in, but oh well-3 Mormon Towns will be good too.

And to see the scale of this bad boy:

And a close up of the books and magazines that made up the tower:

Check it out-it really does feel like some sort of urban contemporary exhibit-pretty cool and a fun date night :)

The Super 18 State Summer Road Trip of 2011!!!

2011-04-07T18:38:00.006-06:00

I know, catchy right? Now while this sounds like an AWFUL lot of driving it's happening mainly in the East so all the states are really close. In the end we'll drive a total of 1.5-2 days but it will be split up by stopping and staying at friends' and family places-just enough for us not to get burnt out or smelly on the road. In the next 24 hours we should get a call from Allied Vanlines who will be moving us to Houston. We already have our tickets out of here so this is the last step-figure out when they can come out to take a look at how much we have (not much) and schedule the day THEY will come and pack us up and move us out, hopefully we'll only be homeless one night :)

Things I'm looking forward to this summer:

-visiting family in Georgia!!!

also visiting brunswick to meet the Nolden grandparents and biking around Jekyll island-sounds fun huh?

-Visiting my aunt Cheryl and her family in Virginia while we tour D.C for a week! I can't wait to see all of the monuments, museums, and....D.C. Cupcakes!!!! (even if their reality show acting is a little forced)

-going on the metro in D.C and exploring on foot.

-Visiting my best friend Heather and her husband and for the first time her little emily!

-Possibly picking up Eric from his base and driving to Kansas to see my other brother Mike and his family!

-Eating at Braum's

-chillaxing in Houston with Eric and mom and dad until our apartment is ready on June 1st when Allied Vans will come back and move us in again-in the Barker Cypress Area!

(yeah, we totally don't have an apt. near the pool but still :)

the formal qualities of art...

2011-03-31T21:57:00.006-06:00

So tonight in my docent class our teacher wanted us to practice having to talk about formal elements of art without much time to prepare to show us that it can save you if you're not as familiar with the subject matter of a particular exhibit. You can still create interesting discussion based on basic elements such as line, color, shape, space, and texture. Well one girl chose to speak about space in a few pieces and to open she used this question: "In art there are five formal elements: line, color, shape, space,and texture. Now which one of these is expressed in all art forms across the board: music, visual art, dance/theatre etc.?"
There was a pause and then after a few people offered their opinions she said: "space."

le sigh....ok, not that I'm being critical of her opinion cause she only had ten mintues and I don't expect the average person to have an in depth knowledge of music but.....come on! Not that I'm saying space is the wrong answer-sure it's right....of course she tied it to music by saying, "there is space between the notes on a page of music" tho i'm not sure if she was referring to the physical space left to right between notes in a melody line or if she was trying to reference what is called: intervals-distance between two pitches (up and down), but whatever. It works. It's just....

I don't know I was distracted the rest of her presentation cause I was just thinking about HOW incomplete her statement was. To be honest ALL of the formal elements in art run across the board in all artistic mediums-all of them not just one, though, again, I understand that this only matters to music geeks like myself but here we go incase anyone poses this philosophical question to you:
so...

-Line. I'm thinking I don't have to explain any of these elements' connections to art because it's frankly obvious in visual art. Music: ever heard of a melodic line or harmonic line before? whether it's stagnant or flowing due to rhythm/rests/pitches etc. and the chords themselves having certain structures that lead to the next chord and the next until a cadance (resolution) etc. totally applies to music. Dance/theatre- with choreography and physical placement of things this could also totally apply.

-Color. Again, art-duh. Music: there is such a thing as color in music but in music we refer to it as timbre (pronounced "tamber") which basically refers to the type of sound emitted by a voice/instrument-just think of how different a tuba sounds from an oboe-they have different timbres. A lot of times people will say how strings have a warm timbre and the winds have a colder/more sharp timbre-shrug i've heard some warm winds and some cold strings before-whatever, personal taste. but there ya go.
color in theatre/dance etc-duh.

-Shape. Music: there is shape in music...it's called dynamics and tempo as well as playing with personal feeling/playing musically-it's much more than notes on a page but the personal expression you give to it etc. Dance and Theatre-totally applies

-Texture. Now this is a tricky one for those who don't study music cause as opposed to the art world-music seems much more abstract or at least non-physical/hard to touch it etc. but texture is there too. texture in music refers to the simplicity or the complexity of the music. If there is just a simple monophonic line-one melody it's a light texture as opposed to a melody with a harmonized accompaniment-homophonic or fifteen different instruments playing all at once and all different melodies at once-polyphony. Either way, texture is a real part of music. Though I'm not an expert on theatre/dance-texture at least has reference to costumes and could, I think, be argued to be seen in how many people are on stage-one vs. a whole company or one person talking as opposed to a whole crowd shouting different things at once etc...

-Space. ok, space in music is relevent as far as intervals go (again ammount of whole and half steps between two pitches) as well as range or register-like flutes are obviously a high register while tubas are at a low register. space. But referring to physical notes on a page as music technically isn't right...cause that's not music is it? That's notation-a physical representation of music, but not what we hear which is what music actually is-finicky I know, but that's the nature of the beast-you got to be exact with it cause it's so abstract. and then theatre/dance-duh.

so you see? all apply across the board. That's why I love the humanities because we not only specialize in one thing but enable ourselves to see connections across the board that lead us to broader truths and realizations about a society,race,movements of thought/philosphies and humans in general etc. This semester I'm taking an art history class and music history class and they overlap in everything-sure there's different vocab words to describe the techniques but the background philosophies/mental movements/government influences/societal changes are all the same and their effects can be seen in music and art. It's cool.

and basically i'm so glad that I chose to specialize in music cause out of all the rest-no offense I think it's the hardest to grasp. I mean people hear it on the radio, they like it but that's pretty much where it stops for them. How often do people who like a song go buy a score to check out to really learn about it? But art you just look at what's infront of you and that's all you can do-look and think.

Dont get me wrong, the other fields in the arts are deep with rich histories etc. but they're just more tangible and therefore seem to be more accessible if one wants to learn more in depth about it where music is well...a little more abstract/mathematical/etc. you need to be able to do more than just see. You need to see, hear, feel/touch-if playing an instrument while doing critical thinking in your head etc. I dunno....

ok, geek session over now that I got that out of my system.

Last weekend...

2011-03-29T21:54:00.022-06:00

So some things we've been up to lately: I interviewed my Grandpa Adams for a genealogy class and am now in the process of transcribing said interview:

Here's one of all three of us (yes I realize this is a HORRIBLE angle of me but it's the only one that Cody is in and he matters more to me than a bad angle-now that's love!

And of course a trip to Grandpa's wouldn't be complete without the dog:

In other news, we went to the Hogle Zoo this past weekend. It was pretty cold but we still managed to have fun. Of course being at the zoo I couldn't help but remember the last time I was there as a surprise bday activity:

(i was bored so Gavin played rock paper scissors with me while I waited to be able to take off the blind fold.
and this weekend:

It was fun but kind of depressing-I don't recall cement being part of any animals' natural habitat but they had a ton of monkies:

Then it just started getting depressing as we watched these monkies try to escape and pretty much climed themselves into a corner once they hit the glass.

There was also a tiger that was kind of freaky. He would pace back and forth and then all the sudden he hunched down and his eyes were lazored in on this kid that was running around oblivious-just following his every move. It was really freaky and really made you respect these animals-they are not tame by any means. That tiger wanted a kid sandwhich bad and it's amazing how little a fence can make you feel safe.
I learned that animals who are oblivious can be just as annoying as people who are oblivious to all around them:

i wouldn't leave you in suspense on whether or not the poor lil guy got out from under this oblivious tortoise:

2011-03-23T23:07:00.002-06:00

So I am wishing for more time and less time at the same time-make sense? well welcome to my world ;)
I want time to fly by so I can take my last midterm of the semester and be done, but I want more time to have time to get ready for the game and make fun treats etc. (obviously talking about BYU vs. Florida tomorrow) Now I guess I'll be wandering the store to find anything that's blue cause I don't have time to make custom things-cougs you better win so I can make basketball sugar cookies next time!

In other news we were reading one of the talks from the last general conference of the lds church and there was a quote that I loved and felt that-if you could do this you would be a wonderful mother/wife/friend etc.

"When we learn to handle the small and simple daily things in a wise and inspired way, the result is a positive influence that will solidify harmony in our souls and build up and strengthen those around us" -Elder Per G. Malm from:"Rest unto Your Souls"

How amazing would that be? To be able to react and handle everything that comes at us-the little things in every day life with wisdom and inspiration....you would never let gut-reactions take over and cause regrets etc. Pretty cool. Man I love general conference and I can't wait for the next one in April!
Here's a link if you're feeling confused right now-check it out! What's General Conference?

All's well that ends well

2011-03-18T21:37:00.002-06:00

As it turns out that 6th source was no big deal. I picked the first book on industry that popped up in the library search, grabbed a relevant sentence out of it and slapped it in my paper----AND.....done! Nevermind that the book was in the juvenile section full on with illustrations, haha I almost hope she looks up the source and gets a kick out of it.
I also used a micro-film reader for the first time today-that was exciting ;)I also listened to an assignment for piano on monday, practiced my 30 minutes, and wrote a mini paper for my museum class next week (now all I have to do is come up with a tour to go with it) I seriously love this docent class and I LOVE giving tours!
If only I could get paid for it ;)
Um...what else....so we tried a new recipe that we got from our friends the stuarts-it's basically rolls with pizza toppings folded inside them baked with seasonings/oil on top and then you dip them in pizza sauce. They turned out pretty good though I think I need to get better at making my own dough...still it was pretty good. Also I made apple cobbler which I cannot wait to dish up with some vanilla icecream!
off to watch the prestige with cody ;)

not so fast george banks.....or er...whitney nolden

2011-03-17T16:34:00.004-06:00

So you know the scene in father of the bride when he is dialoging to the camera and he's talking about how everything was going good in life and he thought he had it made but then it was like: "not so fast george banks" and something happened that kind of swept the rug from right under him? yeah....

So I am on the eve of turning in my last paper of BYU history-my last paper!!! Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy writing papers for the most part and have really developed my ability to write a good paper-heck I got A's on both of my capstone papers which were hefty papers and as all humanities papers go-dealt with a lot of deep subjects/philosophy etc. Being a humanities major I have written many papers-i would venture to say that only english majors write more than we do-but who knows maybe we're neck and neck. So I printed out my paper after having made adjustments/edited it etc. I was so proud and excited to turn it in-felt so on top of things and then......not so fast whitney nolden.......

So for some reason I started thumbing through my rough draft that we turned in for peer review. I noticed that my reviewer had written on my actual paper plus on the attached review sheet. So I'm looking through her comments-all of them complementary and then at the end she writes that 6 is the minimum source requirement. I have 5 sources.....CRAP. Now, I have two sources on one painting/artist that I have, 2 sources that provide cultural/historical context, and only 1 source for the other painter/artist I have-because it is SOOOO stinking hard to find sources on the painting I chose! I seriously searched for weeks, even the library staff were trying to help me but couldn't find anything. They even gave me the number of a staff member that could help me-I wrote an email and never got a response. Eventually I gave up on finding that second source cause I was so convinced that the source requirement was 5.

I wrote my TA to see what she'll say-ugh. I just want to be done!!!! luckily I think I'll work from home tomorrow rather than going into the museum since Jessica is gone and they have no computers plus what I'm doing can be done anywhere with internet connection. I just hope I won't have to be at the library trying to find some vague yet applicable source to throw in there somewhere. sigh. I'm right at my page limit too.
drats.

oh yeah....happy st. patrick's day!!! let's hope the luck of the irish will be on my side.

So what is it with all the tech??

2011-03-09T18:38:00.003-07:00

So as I was impatiently waiting for my class to roll around at 1:00 so I could take my test I was talking to Code. He was telling me about the "skuttlebug" in the tech world-apparently someone got ahold of the new iphone that's supposed to be coming out soon and found out that it wasn't that cool or different from the last iphone-finally someone who sees things my way!

I swear it seems like every other day I'm hearing about something new that is coming out that everyone is excited for, and I wonder....how can there have been enough time from the last thing for any excitement to build up at all??? Maybe their product would actually be distinguishable from their last product if they would-oh I dunno...wait more than 6 months-then they'll have time to get new ideas and implement them!
I thought of the perfect metaphor for how I see the constant "unveilings" of the tech world:

It's like seeing a bunch of people getting excited for a bunch of sequels of Land Before Time that are coming out in 4-6 month increments...and getting excited about each one because they think that it's somehow different/better than the original. I'm standing here wondering....ok, the original was good....but am I the only one who sees this?! It's Land Before Time 7!!....what's there to be excited about??? but they look at me like I'M the crazy one for not seeing the coolness or uniqueness of it.

But I know it saddens Code's heart to see me harp on techies so...that's all I have to say about that. :)

p.s. the flowers you see below in the pic are still sitting on our table and no, not because we forgot to throw them out. I've been changing the water periodically and, sure, they don't look as good as they did...but they are still living-it's crazy! We have the flowers that would not die-the petals aren't wilting or drooping-even the center yellow part of the daisy is starting to shed but the petals just keep on going. I wonder what the record is for keeping flowers alive in a vase/out of the ground...

March 8th is Women's Day

2011-03-08T15:41:00.005-07:00

Congrats all you girls for being girls! (shrug, I dunno but I don't mind getting presents :) I first learned of this glorious holiday on my mish in Russia-it's very big there and the men take it seriously. You can expect to see guys running all over with flowers, chocolates, etc. for the different women in their life-that's what I like about this holiday-not just for those with girlfriends/wives, but any women in their lives....plus it gives us a better chance to get more than one present :)

In Russia I remember the elders came over and cooked us breakfast and gave us flowers. Well today was no different-I had mentioned to Cody that it was women's day but specifically told him that I wasn't hinting for him to do anything-just remembering the mish etc.

So then I come home from the museum to this:

Does my man know how to make me happy or what?? of course now I'm torn cause it's tuesday and I'm trying to swear off chocolate during the week...humph....maybe I will only have a little bit for my study session tonight ;)

Xmas came a little early with tax returns

2011-03-06T14:43:00.008-07:00

So Cody has been dreaming of the day that he could once again own a mac computer. He has been slumming it with his dell and was patient in his sufferings these past months :) Here he is unwrapping it: It's finally here! Basking in the warm glow of the cool welcome intro once we turned it on-it was kind of cool cause they had Korean and Russian on there. an interview from the excited boy:

Meanwhile I had a good weekend helping Amanda take pics for her cuz up at temple square. It was so fun to just hang out again. Sometimes I worry if I'll ever have as good of friends as I have from before my mish in my future wards etc.
Also I managed to get a 100 and a 98 on two tests this weekend and yet it is still not finished cause i have an art history test on wed. It's hard for me to feel motivated with this one cause I thought I did great-A work on the last one and only got a B, and frankly I don't want to work as hard as I did last time if it's only gonna get me a B. O well I guess we'll see.

Recent Kicks...

2011-02-22T20:40:00.008-07:00

Loving this show: it's funny, it's smart, it has some action, good twists that keep you guessing and a wide variety of scenarios so it never feels old plus good character development....plus he has a british accent so he uses fun lil british slang like: "oy!" and "luv" a lot. The first two seasons are on netflix-we're already on the second season, and I believe the third season is currently airing.

This is what greeted me Valentine's day morning: the bear was promptly named Mr. Hugabug (anyone? anyone?) and the movie was promptly watched (you've got mail). I also got flowers but I can't find a pic of them for some reason...

Then as if that weren't sweet enough I come home today from the museum to find this on the kitchen table:

They are so happy! They make me smile everytime I look at them-sigh, I love daisies...espeically ones that are bright pink/orange and remind me of my wedding bouquet :) I'm always on a cody kick.

So naturally in response I made these (some of code's favs):

so yeah...if anyone has a hankering for chocolate pumpkin cookies please let us know-it always makes way more than we expect

and my final recent kick: "Reflecting Light" by Sam Phillips-check it out it's number one on my playlist on the side :) A great song to dance to with your special someone FYI

Lazy, Rainy, Saturday....

2011-02-19T17:53:00.002-07:00

It is cold and rainy today....and I am feeling so tired/lazy. As it turns out yesterday was a big day for me physically speaking. It was the first day that I went all day without any real breaks/naps like earlier in the week which I could do but I was soooo drained by the end of it. So at the museum we were rushing to get all the labels cut and put up in the downstairs galleries,and I unknowingly created a great new work out. The labels had been placed on the floors infront of the respective paintings that they belonged to. Well I proceeded to go around with the measuring stick and put them up with sticky tack. Since there are rarely surfaces that you can lean on easily, I would just go to a pic, blance the stick on the wall, and squat down and use my leg as a surface to balance the label and put the sticky tack on the labels, then I would pop up and put it on the wall and move on to the next painting. Well I was doing lunges up and down three galleries yesterday and I am FEELING it today!
Also last night after the museum we met up with some old friends at iceberg where we quickly learned that it is a high school hangout when people who came in every five minutes would start cheering (high school basketball....I know, what a joke). But man they had huge shakes. Then afterwards we played munchkin with the Engstroms for the first time-it was pretty fun but we were way tired and didn't finish til after midnight.
After sleeping in today I half did the laundry (Cody carried it back when it was done and folded), practiced piano for an hour, took the piano midterm, and watched the BYU game. I was so tired during and after the game that I took a power nap which, sadly, has not left me feeling powerful. It's cold and rainy and I feel tired and lazy....especially knowing that Monday is off school and I can work on my paper all Monday(it's only a rough draft-not the final thing or anything). Plus tonight Code and I want to watch what lies beneath and have a halloween-like dinner (chili and cornbread). Hmmm....

1.5 rolls of tp later...

2011-02-16T08:16:00.004-07:00

It's hard enough to motivate yourself to be ontop of everything and work ahead/get things done/and be productive when you're perfectly fine...it's nearly impossible to do so when you're feeling sick. Now you have a meriad of excuses-legit excuses at your disposal: if I rest then I can get better faster, if I push myself it will just last longer, etc.
If nothing else I will have two goals today that even if I get nothing else done I will be happy if I get done: one-do my music history reading for tomorrow,two-30 min. of practicing the piano, and three. (crap, ok I have three things)-look through and find useful info in one of my research sources for my paper next week. That is all.
cute pics of what code got me for v-day to come :)

p.s. lie to me-if you have not seen this show, YOU NEED TO!!!! (seriously even you mom and dad-I think you would like it)

Vday

2011-02-15T08:24:00.002-07:00

I hope everyone had a great valentines day! Mine was great inspite of being sick all thanks to my sweetheart. In the morning I came out to the kitchen table covered in fabric rose petals, a cute teddy bear sitting on top of drumroll.....you've got mail!
Now, this wasn't a surprise because the night before I was complaining to Code about how when I'm sick I have to watch you've got mail cause it has healing powers for me etc. and how I don't know why mom couldn't find it etc. Then he put on his shoes and said i'll be right back...."but where are you going?" "I'll be right back" and he was gone...
Five minutes later he came back from the car holding you've got mail. He was going to give me it on Valentines day but he couldn't wait when he heard how bad I wanted to watch it. I was so excited!!! Seriously I love this movie! I just don't feel like you get as much character development in movies anymore...

Then code picked me up from campus when i was done with my classes so i wouldn't have to walk home, and we got home there was also a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for me.

Oh but it didn't stop there-then he cooked an AMAZING dinner! we had steak marinated with this new steak sauce we found that is to die for,and twice-baked potatoes, and caeser salad---my mouth is seriously watering just thinking about it now. Then (after forcing him to work on some homework and letting me do the dishes) we went to coldstone for some icecream where we tried to guess where the different couples were in their relationship-first date, just friends, dating, etc.

then watched some episodes of lie to me-seriously addicting! Oh yeah, but we had FHE of course and I basically spent the whole time talking about how amazing he is and read some choice memories from my journal from when we were dating, and then I gave him his present. I made a desk calendar for his work-it stands up on its own, and it is full of pictures of us.

Honestly sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky, but I know I'll never figure it out so I should prolly just stop trying.

curious and curiouser

2011-02-12T19:30:00.006-07:00

So this is attempt two after last night blogger ate my amazing post.

So yesterday I had two tests to take-lame I know- so I was cramming all day and when I was starting to get ready to go and gather my things I went into the bedroom and noticed a huge brown stain on the sheets-high up near the headboard, and not just a stain-it was clumped on there whatever it was. So without thinking I smelled it: "it's chocolate! it's chocolate!" (any IT fans out there?) So yeah...there was a huge melted mound of chocolate on our sheets. Now, I know what you're thinking-you must have been eating sweets in bed or something...wrong!

I've been on this new health kick where I'm trying to break my addiction to sweets so all throughout the weekdays I can't have any kind of chocolate/candy/dessert/etc. The closest I've come to breaking my goal when I'm dying for some chocolate is those puffed rice snack things that come in certain flavors. Anywho, Then on the weekends if I've been good I can have dessert for date night on Friday nights and game nights on Sunday etc. It's been going great so you can imagine how surprised I was to find chocolate smeared on my side of the bed.

So I clean it up the best I can but it still left a stain. When Cody noticed and I told him about it he was just as surprised and confused as I was. I mean, I'm not a sleep walker, I'm a sleep talker, but not a walker....I couldn't have gotten up in the middle of the night and cheated in my sleep could I??? Sure Cody sleep walks, but it was on my side of the bed-it just didn't make any sense....

So last night as we were getting ready for bed I was saying my prayers and I asked that I might understand the origin of the chocolate-shrug, it was bugging me and I feel like I can receive inspiration about anything. So I get done with my prayer go to plug in my cell. We have a power strip cause we have so many things to plug in-cells, lamp, and internet router. So I grab one wire and see if it's my cell charger-nope but as I pull my hand away I notice I have a bit of chocolate on my fingers....Cody was right there and we instantly started investigating, and it was the chord to the internet router. As I picked it up and turned it over there on the back was a little more chocolate melted on the back of it....so weird! I feel all over the floor (we keep it on the floor under our bed) and came up with nothing, it wasn't even sticky under there.

So we clean it off and then I remembered....earlier that day while I was studying the internet died and I went in to unplug and plug the router back in and sat it on our bed hoping it would magically work better out in the open. As it turns out I had just accidentaly switched off the internet switch on my laptop and nothing was wrong with the router. But that would explain how chocolate got onto our sheets right there if there was melted chocolate underneath the router-it does get pretty warm.
But now I have to figure out how chocolate got on the floor underneath our bed cause I honestly can't even remember when we've ever ate chocolate in bed....
isn't that crazy?? But all I gotta say is God answers prayers, it's just funny sometimes how fast he answers them.

In other mysterious news, also the other night Cody's phone-which is plugged in and sitting on our keyboard across the room from our bed, called aunt sandy in Georgia at five in the morning....yeah still wondering about that one cause Cody said he was in the shower at that time getting ready for work, and I dont get up for anything-luckily with the time difference it wasn't so bad on her end but still...sorry Sandy! haha

So much has happened in the past few days that is blog worthy so I will have to do highlights:

-I got great grades on all of my tests yesterday-whoohoo!

-We went to Carrabbas last night for dinner and got dessert called the sueno or something-so chocolatey and so good!

-also, president samuelson and his wife were a table over from us :)

-We went to BYU Ballet's rendition of Cinderella Friday night as well-so good! all the lil girls were dressed up in disney princess dresses, so cute!

-We beat Utah today! I could blog forever about how frustrating their dragging every posession out was, how their coach WOULD NOT GET OFF THE COURT, and how their cheerleaders showed 0 class (which I expect from their fans, but as official representatives of the school-you're going to scream your heads off just as our guys are shooting free throws when you're down on the floor right in their faces???? and it wasn't a lil scream they were screaming like they scream in horror films.)

and that's all :)

oh and a quick funny story-last night as I was trying to write this post, Cody was sleep talking a lot but one time he was talking for awhile and it was all jibberish-didn't make any sense, so I said very sweetly: babe you're not speaking english to which apparently his subconscious took offense and next thing I know he's speaking intelligibly-he was reading my blog post (i had my laptop in bed) and then said: "that doesn't make any sense." and then started mumbling something about how if I call him out he's going to call me out. I tried to silently laugh so I wouldn't wake him up. I think it's so cute when he gets defensive in his sleep :) Two seconds later I coughed and he opened his eyes smiled and said: "I love you."
shrug

time warp

2011-02-06T16:15:00.003-07:00

So incase you were wondering how cold it is here in Utah....one of the sprinklerheads in the ceiling of our ward building froze and burst leaking about 2 inches of water every where on the floor of the chapel/gym areas (I guess the surrounding classrooms were unharmed.) Though today it's actually really beautiful :) So since our building is in the process of being dried out and smells, we went to a local singles ward. It was good for us to go back because it really makes us soooo appreciative to be married and out of that world :)
Some interesting observations that I hadn't noticed before:

-It takes awhile for people to find a seat and sit down in a singles ward during the prelude music. They're all socializing and stuff and the marrieds walk in, find their seat, and then proceed to talk with whoever is in the immediate vacinity. I guess that extra desire to talk to that special someone drives them to socialize even more, but we already got our special someone to talk to so we get to relax.

-Also there is a LOT of neck craning going on in a singles ward. hahaha it is so funny. Here's a typical group of guys: one is looking at one side of the chapel, one is looking at the other, and one keeps turning around and looking over his back at who is coming in. I swear I thought they were going to give themselves whiplash :)

-So today was fast and testimony meeting (that means that basically there are no scheduled sermons but people can just come up and share their beliefs/faith promoting experiences etc.) I never realized how there's always a line in a singles ward....If you wanna go you have to get up right away and then sit in a line up in front of everyone until you go....I guess I just forgot about that cause in our ward if you wanna bare your testimony you get up and do it and no one else gets up while you're doing it until you're done and then it's more a matter of standing up before anyone else and walking up rather than spending half of the meeting up on the stands. Interesting...but helpful, so that the whiplash gang doesn't have to fight to see you :)

Don't get me wrong-some of my best memories and friends are from my singles wards...I'm just so glad that I'm done with that. I don't have to deal with FHE groups who aren't your family, ward prayer in the middle of your night, and break the fasts. Life is much simpler and far more enjoyable now being married-it's up to you to do those things how you want to: f.h.e, family prayer,...eating...haha.

For any who are still sufferi...i mean enjoying singles wards-that's great, have fun! but know that it gets sooooo much better, and it's prolly good that you don't realize how good it'll be or it'd drive you crazy ;)

Today's activities included: starting a baby documentary-ya know, the one where it follows four different babies in different cultures/places around the world from africa to america? yeah...it was gross, haha, maybe we were just weak from fasting but I didn't feel like watching a baby poop on its mother's leg and then watch as she took an old corn husk and wiped it off...I'm sure it gets cuter when they're older though...so we watched UP instead :)
Then it was Cody's german dish: beef goulash,rolls,strawberries,and cookies for dessert (sorry for the anal report but I'm still revelling in the whole eating thing).
And since it's such a nice day we may just go for a walk in a bit and then it's game night with the engstroms and brownings.
life is good.

Crime doesn't pay kitties...

2011-02-03T12:21:00.001-07:00

Our little air-duct bandit got caught:
"A federal fugitive who escaped police by climbing up into a Provo hospital rest room ceiling and fleeing on a catwalk Wednesday night was recaptured several hours later at a North Salt Lake home.

Wade Leon Willis, 31, was arrested without further incident when members of the Utah County Joint Criminal Apprehension Team, acting on an anonymous tip, raided the apartment near 1139 Ouray Ave., about 1 a.m. Thursday.

Willis, reportedly nabbed as he tried to climb out a window, was booked into the Davis County Jail in Farmington without bail on a U.S. Marshals hold order."

If any of you remember someone robbed the ballagio taking 25,000 chips adding up to over a million and the casino was going to discontinue the chip so they couldn't cash in. Here's what happened:

"Cops in Las Vegas made a bust in the brazen casino robbery in which a motorcycle helmet-wearing thief swiped $1.5 million worth of chips from the posh Bellagio hotel in December.

Anthony Michael Carleo, the 29-year-old son of a Las Vegas municipal court judge, was arrested late Wednesday after he tried to sell some of the high value chips to undercover cops, police said.

In an odd twist, the suspected thief was a staying at the Bellagio when police picked him up, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Vegas cops said Carleo was the gunman who garnered national attention after pulling off one of the most bizarre chip heists in the recent history of Sin City.

In the robbery, which occurred at 3:50 a.m. on Dec. 14 and was captured on surveillance video, a pistol-wielding bandit wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet strode calmly up to a craps table and demanded cash.

After the dealer turned over fat stack of chips ranging in value from $100 to $25,000, the gunman jogged back to his motorcycle, which was idling outside, and sped away.

Security guards at the casino said they didn't try to stop the thief because they wanted to avoid a shootout.

Shortly after the robbery, the Bellagio announced plans to discontinue the $25,000 chip in April, setting a deadline for the thief to try to use them.

After the robbery, experts pointed out that stealing casino chips wasn't the same as stealing cash because each casino's chips are unique and generally not interchangeable.

Cops also said that the thief would have a hard time cashing in his booty due industry safeguards."

Is it just me or are there no smart villains anymore?

Where's Sam Gerard when you need him?

2011-02-02T22:30:00.004-07:00

So Heidi came over after volunteering at the hospital just down the road and was late getting home because they had a lock down for thirty minutes when this happened:

Here's the official story:
"PROVO — A fugitive from North Carolina escaped Wednesday from the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center after being picked up by Springville police.

As officers arrested Wade Leon Willis, 31, on a U.S. Marshals Service warrant, he "began to act as if he were having some type of seizure," police said. He was taken to UVRMC emergency room, where doctors started to perform tests.

At some point, Willis was allowed to go into a restroom. There, he removed ceiling tiles and accessed a catwalk system to escape from the hospital, police said.

He is 5 feet 9 inches tall and 140 pounds, with hazel eyes with very short brown hair.

Willis was armed when arrested and had been listed "armed and dangerous" by federal authorities, police said.

Anyone with information should call local law enforcement."

Isn't that crazy?! All I know is if it were me-I would say you have a choice of a bedpan or a catheter-you choose. But I wouldn't let him be alone for a second-I mean come on! the sick prisoner routine is cliche for a reason!
click here to see a pic of the guy:
deseret article

I hope he's in for a cold night and won't bother anyone or give any trouble. And don't worry mom-our doors are locked :)

bonus points to whoever can guess the reference in my title without googling it-you're on your honor now...

What a couple of days...

2011-01-31T19:30:00.002-07:00

I have some how managed to be extremely productive the past four days and yet managed to not give myself a headache or stress as a result of my efforts. I really wish I could understand what I did exactly...I think it's because the things that I'm accomplishing are numerous and yet easy at the same time-that is the key, and luckily my semster allows me to accomplish this.
This weekend was full and productive yet still fun (well, more so for me-code had a lot more heavy duty stuff).
Besides getting all of my homework done before Monday morning-i know- we attended the temple, prepared and delivered a sunday school lesson,watched the oh-so-sad basketball game, had game night with friends, had date night with just us-went out to eat, watched a movie, and even went for a walk. I don't know how we fit it all in but it was great.

Today I got a lot of my "new house" in order:
-I finally went to the administration building and officially changed my name so that on all of the rolls in my classes my name will now be whitney richards nolden-as well as my diploma
-got a new student i.d. that has my new name on it.
-I asked about my graduation application and learned that I had to set up an exiting interview.
-Went to the JFSB and got the exit interview and necessary signatures thus getting my application approved-yay!
-went to Chase bank to close out my old account and deposited the money in our joint account and got quarters for laundry
-started the laundry-about to go fold
-made dinner
-read for tomorrow's class
-practiced the piano.
-finished code's v-day gift

I'm now sitting here at 7:38 pm pretty much ready to relax with Code whenever he gets done with his homework and do FHE. Life is good. I'll admit my energy isn't always this high but when it is I revel in it.

I'm so proud of Code lately. He's doing great things at work and people are noticing his skills and work ethic. Apparently they call him "super cody" at work cause when they need help getting something done and getting it done right they ask for him. Just today he got changed to a new team who is struggling to finish their project on time and they're looking to code to throw the hail mary pass and get it done for them. He's the Jimmer of the programming world-carrying everyone on his back :) (ok, I totally know that he is going to blush and feel uncomfortable when he reads this, but that's ok). I also love teaching sunday school with Code-he brought the spirit so strong this past Sunday and made it easy for me to keep it going even with two different interruptions from a ward clerk guy-seriously, it was kind of annoying, haha.

11:11

2011-01-25T23:12:00.003-07:00

Make a wish!
I personally have a wish but I can't say otherwise it won't come true.

Today was a good day besides the snow fall. To be honest it's kind of sad how disenchanted I've become with snow. I used to love it. Thought it was magical and beautiful. I would just sit in front of the window watching it and sighing like a sap. Anyone seen that Gilmore Girls episode when Lorelai gets disenchanted with the snow? yeah...it's kind of like that. Now my heart sinks when I come out of class and I have to walk home in a blizzard...I think Russia may have had something to do with this....don't get me wrong tho, if I don't have to go anywhere and I'm properly dressed and it's the slow floaty kind of snow-as opposed to the hard driving stingy snow- I think I could still like it. Not gonna lie tho, it's something I could visit but not live with for the rest of my life.

In other news tho, classes were fine today, the museum was good, and getting to spend some quality time with my code was priceless: frozen yogurt and how to tame your dragon-love this one!!! I hope it wins an oscar.

Can't wait for tomorrow's game! we're watching it at my cousin's house, and before you think: what??? she's not going???? I'm boycotting the system baby! Forgive me if I don't want to wait 2.5 hours in a blizzard to get a wrist band that doesn't actually get me in to the game unless I get to the game FOUR hours ahead of time for a "wristband check" what?! what the heck is that all about?! I am SO done with the system and the crappy way that they treat sports-pass holders. So I'm going to sit infront of a comfortable big tv and not crane my neck to see over people in front of me and not waste my ENTIRE day just to get into the game.

sigh, it's gonna be great!

social network

2011-01-15T11:56:00.004-07:00

I love my life but I am constantly in a bi-polar relationship with technology. I see the good that comes from it but it makes me nervous when no one seems to realize how dependent we are all getting on it. For example Cody thinks that eventually all of our home phones etc. will all be through the internet etc. Tv is pretty much already going that way with netflix, apple tv, hulu, etc. Pretty soon you'll by tv packages online rather than sattelite or cable providers.

I of course hate this idea. Of course most people can't get over the fact of how cool the innovation of it would be and all, but I don't really care-the tv is not broken so don't fix it (I will still watch the same shows I watch now-then so why does it somehow need to be provided in a diff way?) Plus, I don't like putting all of my eggs into one basket technologically speaking. I don't want my phones and my tv and everything hooked up through the internet.

Why? Well what if it crashes-something goes wrong, like with all of these internet protestors who are crashing sites cause they don't agree with what's happening to the wikileaks guy. Next thing ya know you're out of internet for awhile and therefore can't use your phones, watch tv, etc. It's just annoying. I'd rather have all of my means for entertainment and communication set up in different things so that if one breaks down I can go to the other, but hey, that's just me.

Last night we watched the social network movie on how facebook got started. I had also bought code a book on it that he's been reading since christmas and letting me know about it a bit. I'm glad he did cause I would have been so confused in the movie-awful editing in that they don't really ever explain to you what's going on while jumping forward in time and then backward in time only you don't know that at first cause it's not THAT forward in time and Mark looks the same-it's not like we can recognize oh ok, this is in the future cause he's older...he looks the same! kinda poor quality but whatever.

It just made me depressed and weary of the whole entrepeneur tech world which is what code loves. I of course know that it would be different if he ever came up with something cause he'd never surround himself with losers or immoral people like that but still-it's enough to make one nervous.

plus it made me mad at how dependent I am on facebook. Sure I could not use it but how would I keep up with everything in my friends' lives-can't call every hour of the day. it just goes to show once you have a product that everyone needs/uses/loves it doesn't really matter what you do/did as a person morally to get there, nothing could make facebook fail at this point-cause you couldn't get all of those people to stop using it...it's like an internet drug, and yet at the same time people are making friends, staying in touch, etc. how is it a bad thing? Well...it's not it's just....disconcerting when you realize how dependent you are on something....moderation in all things right?

2011-01-08T18:34:00.004-07:00

moments that I treasure:

waking up slow with Code. You see, so many people think: eyes open, ok, time to get up, but that is not how I roll. I fully enjoy the being awake yet not physically moving whatsoever and not feeling rushed. Sure I can get up and go go go if I have to but def not my preferred method of waking up.

actually getting into a basketball game at BYU! yay! It was a good game, we won, and I think my favorite part is between the praying person accidently almost saying baseball when she meant basketball and the lil' mini cheerleaders' routine-they were so cute! I seriously can't wait to have kids just to see them do things like that whether it's dance, sports, band, etc. it's just so much fun to watch!

Looking at art with Code. The MoA on campus has a Carl Bloch exhibit and a Tissot exhibit downstairs-both on the life of Christ but both different in interesting ways-check it out if you haven't already cause the Tissot won't be around for long!

Going to "Chocolate" in Orem yeah, I don't think explination is needed on this one.

feeling dumb while doing "punch!" in the living room...I dunno..I just don't think I'm believable throwing punches and doing the boxer shuffle but at least it's a work out, haha.

Life is Good.

2011-01-06T11:24:00.002-07:00

Here are ten reasons why life is good right now (in no particular order).

-Had a wonderful and relaxing xmas break in Houston where it was nice and warm, and we had the opportunity to find some apartments that we liked for the future move in April.
-My schedule is WAY easier than last semester-13 credit hours and the hardest class that I have is equal to one of the mid-level hard classes of last semester.
-starting yoga and am sore in strange places but I still like it.
-I found deer tracks outside our bedroom window in the snow-I dunno, just something about deer frollicking outside our window while we're warm in our beds seems nice to me.
-It's my last semester at BYU
-I have time to read for fun/watch some Gilmore Girls every now and then
-I have the sweetest and most caring husband in the world and am so glad that I have a lil more free time to help lift some of his burdens during an especially hard semester for him.
-I'm excited to get back in touch with friends and am excited for friends who are pregnant, friends who are engaged, and friends who are an amazing example of motherhood.
-BYU beat UNLV on their own turf last night!!!
-I love thinking of ways to surprise/show my love to Code :)

hogwarts cont.

2010-12-20T21:24:00.002-07:00

hogsmead cont.

2010-12-18T22:44:00.003-07:00

in the three broomsticks

mmm butterbeer...

we enjoyed fish and chips, cornish pasties, and chicken platters

rainy slushy saturday

2010-12-18T11:33:00.007-07:00

Today started off a lil more brutal than I was prepared for but it is shaping up quickly :)
So the brutal part(you're going to laugh at me) but I had to get up at eight to go with Cody to get the car's oil changed cause there were guys coming to clean our carpets at 8:30 and I couldn't stay in bed with them working around me and I didn't want to be left alone with a bunch of random workers stuck in the kitchen so I grudgingly got up at 8 (on a saturday this is considerably horrible-during the week fine, but saturday morning is a sacred time-a time of rest and relaxation).
So after I got over that lil bump in my schedule I read some more from three cups of tea-i started it back over the summer and only have enough time to get back to it now-really good though, highly recommend it.
I just put in an order for 5 swedish limpa loaves of bread (and if you speak swedish, yes i know that is repetitive-limpa means loaf in swedish). Anywho, I can't wait!!! Tuesday morning baby, tuesday morning.
I'm pretty much done with Cody's gift and just have to order it-so excited about that too!
and byu's bowl game is at noon.
so today is shaping up quickly.

Last night was awesome too. Our friends the Engstroms treated us to a nice dinner at PF Chang's and then we came back and watched the extended fellowship of the rings (i think all of us dozed off at one point, but it was still fun).

and now for some pics of harry potter world:

the three broomsticks where we had lunch :) more on that later...

More to come later...

I'm DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-12-16T18:58:00.002-07:00

Oh my gosh, this is ridiculous how amazing I feel! The best that I can describe it is walking off of the plane and stepping foot on american soil after living 1.5 years over in Russia. You feel just overwhelmed with color and life and smiling people. And it's not that I was miserable over in Russia-I loved it, but you just get used to your environment and forget what any other reality is like until you are removed from it. The past two months have been RIDICULOUS for me. All of my assignments/tests/papers/projects all were spaced out just enough so that it was just a constant feeling of an elephant sitting on your chest and working with no feeling of end in sight. I definitely got better at dealing with the stress though and learned to not think but just do-work,work,work and don't think about how tired you are. Today I finally realized that I didn't have to do that anymore and now finally the feeling of how drained I am is sinking in and the delicious thought I'm done. Other than working on my present for Code I have nothing to worry about nothing to feel guilty about not doing. done. Oh man, I feel like when you get off a sweet roller coaster and you feel all weak and dizzy and your head can't believe you're on regular ground again.

And speaking of sweet roller coasters-stay tuned for the next installment of our universal studios trip :)

spreading a lil holiday cheer :)

2010-12-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

first installment of our weekend get away to Universal Studio's the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

2010-12-14T16:08:00.008-07:00

walking to the park:

we made it!

Entering adventure island (aka: where all the cool rides/parks are)

Suess Land was all decked out for the holidays...

the best is yet to come...

2010-12-07T08:35:00.002-07:00

I forgot to mention one of Cody's funnier sleep walking incidents from the other night :)
So we moved our keyboard into our bedroom because we got a desk and there was no where to put it but where the keyboard was previously. (ironic how we get a desk once we're pretty much done with the semester and studying-i've gotten so used to the couch it's weird to have so much structure). anywho, so I wake up in the middle of the night and cody is unplugging and moving the piano over to the other side of our room in pieces-I asked him what he was doing but couldn't understand him cause he was half asleep and so was i. Apparently later the next morning when I woke up and looked at the wall and saw the piano gone I realized it wasn't a dream. I rolled over and asked cody why he moved it-he said "the queen was coming and we had to make room." ......apparently she's a robust woman....

true beauty

2010-12-06T21:21:00.002-07:00

dove evolution

if you haven't seen this you should check it out. I was reminded of it today during a presentation in my museum class.
stuff like this always reminds me of this thing Jean Applonie (sp?) director of the byu women's choir said once...we were stretching or doing breathing excercises or something and she said something to the affect of: love your tummy. love it because it is round. and then she pointed out how it's natural and it just struck me because I had never even thought of that concept before...I mean whether I like to admit it or not, I always just assumed that an acceptable stomach is a flat one, but I never considered that the stomach is supposed to be round (granted not unhealthily so) but still...that's when I realized that my idea of reality/beauty was distorted.

anywho,
today was good-got lots of good things done and can't wait to get even more done tomorrow :)

we had FHE tonight with our sunday school class and we did a white elephant. since we had extras of the HP movies since we both owned them we gave away as one of our gifts the order of the pheonix and the half-blood prince. People were fighting over it like crazy-it was great, haha. We got a cool kicking toy from cambodia and a glass cinderalla carriage looking thing.

Dear Life...I'm still alive.

2010-12-03T19:36:00.003-07:00

Whew....crazy crazy week. Started off kind of shaky but it's ok-I'll live (my mantra at the moment, haha). So I just have to survive the next week. The major sources of stress at this point are: a paper for my capstone class, a presentation on that paper (this is the real kicker for me), and finishing my final education proposal for my museum class and the presentation. Not to mention my actual finals but whatever-one disaster at a time ;)
Tomorrow is booked solid which is NOT normal for me on a Saturday. At ten I have a group meeting at the library, then it's over to the museum to help them with the opening of the Christmas Lamb It's the first show where I actually decided what went into it and nailed it up on the walls (with the help of crystal and kristal-have to distinguish the spellings there)so it's pretty exciting ;) It's a show for K-10th grade and they have to do something based on the spirit of christmas/giving. It's pretty cute so you should stop by the Springville Museum of Art sometime this month and look at all the kids' work :)
Anywho...after that there's baby shower planning at 4:00 tomorrow and then I'm technically free but I have the paper/museum proposal to work on so sadly my Saturday will not be that relaxing...oh well, I guess that's what Sunday is for!

This upcoming weekend we will be at Harry Potter World in Florida-yeah don't even worry-there will be plenty of pics- I can't wait!

p.s. Relient K's new cd (well it came out in 2009) is awesome!!!! check it out-my favorites: savannah, candlelight, baby, (if you want it), Forget and not slow down,

some thanksgiving fun

2010-11-23T09:31:00.009-07:00

I've been making these way cute turkies/pilgrim hats/ out of candy and cookies. It's way easy and they turn out sooo cute! Hopefully they will survive the trip up to ogden when the time comes ;)

pilgrim hat: (the marshmallow(sp?) was hard to dip perfectly in chocolate)

cody's turkey that he made for fhe:

If you'd like instructions of how to do them let me know and i'll email you instructions with a picture guide too. :)

2010-11-20T23:26:00.002-07:00

well this weekend was kind of a wash for me-Friday was good-went out to eat,lost and found my ring, and watched harry potter. Today started pretty good. I slept in and Cody made an amazing breakfast. I went out to print out the tickets to the football game and buy Cody a beanie cause it was going to be a cold and windy one.

Somewhere between the course of leaving and coming back and doing some errands with code my energy/health kind of spiraled. The typical things- weak, achey, chilled. I don't think it's that big a deal and after some serious sleep I think I'll be brand new-shrug, just weird how fast it came on...must have been the weather change. Code went to the game and I dutifully watched on the couch glad that I decided not to subject myself to that-I would have been a mess if I had.

We watched Meet Joe Black-code had never seen it. I love this movie. I love the messages. I love the soundtrack-thomas newman (highly recommend him). My favorite line from this movie is when Joe (Pitt's charater) asks Quincey (George Sr. from arrested development, haha) how you know someone loves you and Quincey replies: because they know the worst thing about you and it's ok.

It got me thinking about love and how come everyone (well most) seem to desire it, seek it, and sacrifice for it.
I think it's cause we realize that it is an eternal and unwavering thing in a very temporary and always-shifting world. Man whether consciously or not seeks the eternal. We sense that there is something beyond this frail existence. We're just lucky to get to experience a piece of it-love- in this life, but it existed before we entered the scene and it will exist after we leave here-just like we do. I'm sure it reminds us of that place where we were before we were here and reminds us that there is more to this life than what we simply see.

I dunno...I'm just greatful for code. Greatful that, even though we are at the beginning of our lives together, our love will have so much opportunity to grow. Sure there will be ups and down, times when our short-comings and frailities will sometimes cloud our judgement, but through those times our love can grow stronger, deeper. Every day I wonder how I got so lucky, what I did to deserve him. I don't think I'll ever find an answer, just that there is a wonderful, loving, and merciful Heavenly Father who wants me to be happy, even when i don't always deserve it. As beautiful as the depictions of love in film are, they really pale in comparison.

accio ring!

2010-11-19T22:03:00.003-07:00

It was a close call. Almost started freaking out a bit. So the engstroms and ourselves got together for a quick bite and then we were off to see the 7th installment of Harry Potter (it was really good btw, prolly one of the most loyal to the books). When suddenly I realized that I wasn't wearing my ring (no, not my engagement ring) but my ring from ireland that I bought myself...oh i dunno years and years ago-I think 5-6 years ago actually). I had that horrible sinking feeling cause I could not remember when it was first not there.

Something you have to realize with me-I get attached to things. I name my car and talk to it like it has a personality. Our car is Henry (he's a hyundai)-he had to warm up to me-had to deal wih jealousies surrounding my car before I got married. Her name is Frida. She's a ford fusion (I say is cause she's still frida and I still think she's feeling mad at me for giving her up and sending her off to Texas). My laptop's name is Toshi (short for Toshiba) though cody may have come up with that....I can't remember, but you get the idea.

I NEVER take off my jewelry. I only wear three things. My necklace that I inherited from my maternal grandmother-the charm is from Ireland too, my ring that I bought from ireland on my right hand, and now my engagement ring. That's it. Those items never come off. Not to be tmi about it, but we're talking: sleeping/showers/etc.-doesn't matter I always wear them. I don't care if it's not good for them etc I won't take them off. With how scatter-brained I can be, they wouldn't last a few months with me taking them on and off all the time.

So I'm sitting there feeling very naked without my ring and also being reminded about how I'm not wearing my necklace because the chain broke and it's sitting at home. I'm beginning to think that something will soon happen to my wedding ring too the way things are going for me and my jewelry.

So we get home from the movie and we start looking though I have no idea where or when it could have fallen off cause I didn't take it off. I said a prayer that if it was possible to find, that I could find it at the same time feeling the unlikeliness of it.

So we searched around pretty good and Cody even went to look out in the car even though I hadn't been in it since yesterday. I was beginning to accept its fate, and was surprised at how sad I felt (it's just a ring...) but what can I say-I get attached to things. I started to cross the room to get my journal to write some last words about this cool ring that had been with me through a lot when I kicked/stepped on something on the floor. I looked down and there was my ring on the floor. It was such a crazy feeling and having just seen Harry Potter-it felt a little like magic. I'm so greatful for tender mercies.

Even now I'm trying to shake my hand or do something to have it slip off but it won't-it's loose sure, but it won't slide over the knuckle on its own...shrug.

phew.

p.s. Harry Potter was way good-though dark enough to where I think I'd not have younger kids go to it.

Looks like tomorrow we'll have a cold snap and lots of cheering to do at a football and a basketball game (that is if we can get in-sorry, still bitter.)

Shutterfly!!!

2010-11-17T13:31:00.003-07:00

Now I know that I'm normally slow in getting on the band wagon and using new websites etc, but I canNOT believe that I've never even looked at shutterfly! I mean, sure I had heard it mentioned but I never gave it a second thought until now. I read about it on a friend's blog and heard that they had great options for christmas cards. Just having been recently married and having grown up in a family that doesn't really do the whole christmas card thing, I had never thought about it before. I'll admit I was curious. When I looked through all of their designs, which first-there were so many, and second-they ranged from fun and cute to fancy and sophisticated, whatever style I wanted this Christmas I could find right there. I found a card-it's horizontal, with a deep red and brown design-perfectly formal to match the wedding picture we'll put on it since no one has seen our wedding pictures yet + it will be nice for those who weren't able to come to the wedding. I can tell it's better quality + variety than other websites that I've looked at to compare prices (I won't say which ones cause I don't want to disparage a company ;)

So yeah, if you don't have any ideas for a christmas card this year or want something that will be headache free-check out shutterfly (plus for any order over $30 you can get free-shipping!)

check it out:
shutterfly's christmas cards
christmasphotocards

mormon.org

2010-11-15T22:24:00.005-07:00

So we went to an FHE on campus tonight put on by the missionaries who are in a mission that specifically is online. I had no idea that there was a specific mission dedicated to this but there is. They are on mormon.org ready to chat with anyone who has questions or is interested in learning more about the church as well as on facebook, twitter, and have their own personal blogs. You might wonder how affective this could really be, but they said they've been an actual mission for just over two years and have already had over 200 baptisms and we're talking only 12 companionships! The baptisms have been from all over the world and we talked about how important it is for members to go on and create a profile. This is where people who are curious or have questions/misconceptions can come and meet/learn about real mormons-our beliefs, our lives, what's important to us etc. Hopefully they'll be able to see just how normal we really are....well....some of us ;)

anywho, I thought it was way cool to see how connected everyone can be on the internet and how accessible information is to those who are curious and want to learn more about the lds church/mormons in general.

so if you are a mormon-go online and create a profile-it doesn't take long, just go to mormon.org, click create profile, and register/sign-in depending (I think if you have accounts with the new family search website etc it's the same username/password?) and just share about yourself.

If you're not mormon and have any questions/interests/etc you can talk to real mormon missionaries whose job it is to be there and answer them all day long through chat, email, skype, phone, or even can set up a meeting in person with missionaries near you-whatever you are comfortable with.
(though, if you're reading this-you could just ask me if you want).

It just makes me really happy to think of how far the gospel of Christ can reach and change/ help people through even the internet now-pretty cool stuff.
mormon.org

Stress. Isn't it about....time?

2010-11-11T22:20:00.002-07:00

Have you ever thought about the concept of time? I'm sitting in the library attempting to write out a research paper that is due Monday in one fell swoop....well I got it half done anyway, and I started thinking about time. What an unnecessary concept. Think about it. It is the source of your stress, your rising blood pressure, and headaches. Just think of how many things that have gone wrong that you chalked up to "bad timing". I mean, time is really a man-made concept anyway and yet we are always complaining that we don't have enough of it....well, you made it up so make up some more of it-shrug, what's the difference.

Time came about in order to make man feel better because man just can't seem to accept chaos. It helps man find meaning. I have two weeks to do this assignment, I can sleep for 5 hours before I need to get up and do something else etc. Well ya know what? there can be meaning in the chaos and rather than focusing on how many things we can cram into an alotted time frame, we can actually focus on what we're DOING and find meaning in that. Embrace the chaos baby-you don't need fluffy time. The only problem is that I have to convince the rest of the world of this otherwise I'll just seem apathetic and late all the time and will most likely flunk out of college.
Whoops...it's late, better get going. (see?!)

San Antonio(USAA) or Houston(Exxon)?

2010-11-08T13:37:00.009-07:00

Some hints....

Where we're going there's some real weather like this:

some things to do in this city....

Some sports teams:

some famous quotes:

"Houston...we have a problem"

um...and incase that didn't give it away:

Ok, so who had it by the first pic-kudos my friend, kudos :)
We're pretty excited and can't wait to start our new life outside of the bubble! Code starts in early June so we'll have a nice long break in between school and work- hello vacation/visiting family :)

Texas it is...

2010-11-05T21:19:00.003-06:00

So a couple of weeks ago Code went to San Antonio and Houston to interview with USAA and Exxon. This week we heard back from both of them-Exxon contacted him pretty quickly afterwards-said that they would contact him by Nov 12th and they contacted him on the 2nd. USAA contacted him yesterday and.....

BOTH want him!!!!! Both gave really good offers though the difference in the salaries are pretty substantial-though that will happen whenever you pit a company up against what Exxon does. So we still haven't 100% for sure decided but we're definitely leanin'. It's crazy to think I'll be back in Texas-I don't mind it though, I love Texas. Good schools, cheap living, lots of major metropolitan areas a few hours away either way, nice suburbs, and....big things? The only thing I will miss is 4 seasons- I like snow...maybe not as much as we get here in Utah, but a lil so that I can wear cute winter clothes....when everyone looks cute and modest (NOT the case 8 months out of the year in texas-I could tell you some horror stories believe you me).
Anywho, we're both really excited and feeling VERY greatful for these great opportunities and know that we are luckier than most :)

more to come on which city we choose ;)

My Life Savers:

2010-11-02T15:41:00.003-06:00

.....oh yeah, and of course this too:

I swear this past week or so has been ridiculous and it's just getting started. I know that I would have had a melt down already if it wasn't for Code and some divine intervention :)

So to sum up this week...I studied pretty much non-stop whenever I wasn't in classes and went to bed early (10:30) and got up early (between 5-6) for the past few days....um...all I gotta say is, I was told I would wake up feeling refreshed.....yeah, still waiting on that one. anywho, but yeah, yesterday I took the first part of the test for Music History (92 baby!) and today was the listening/identifying portion (we'll see but felt pretty good about it) then tomorrow is my Art History test-I'll get back to studying for that one right after this post, and then there's the library assignment due that I have to do tomorrow for music history and then I have to do this major project for my museum class due monday, and then the research paper for art history, and then the MEGA research paper (ok, proposal-but still)for my capstone class.....all in the next two weeks. No wonder I have a headache...

In other news I went to sunflower market today to look for bearcreek soup-it wasn't there, but I'll tell you what was: the MOST annoying sales person in the world! I didn't hear him when I first walked up (of course they were at a table right by the only entrance and exit of the store). I thought he was just trying to give me a free newspaper and so I said sure, next thing I know he's pushing a paper into my hand to fill out all my credit card info etc. um...don't think so! but you know how they are- it's really hard to let go when you were teased with an almost sale so he kept trying. When I told him I couldn't fill anything out without talking to my husband first he gives the reply: you're married?! how old are you?! (ok buddy your chance of making his sale went RIGHT out the window). So he tells me to me call my husband while i'm in the store. Whatever, I called my dad and talked with him so I could keep talking to him as I left the store and ignore the shouts of: "hey come on! you're not really on the phone with someone!"

officially not going back to the store just because of that sales guy-they should think twice before they let people stand out front and heckle their customers.

anywho, I've also decided that I shouldn't read labels of pain killers. I swear they make something as innocent as an advil seem like a poison that's going to kill you. I can't wait til the ibprophen wears off and I can try the excedrin :)

Grand Unveiling!

2010-10-30T10:12:00.012-06:00

Before:

before we put the legs on our table and had food other than cereal ;)

After:

BEFORE!

AFTER!

the couch-hands down my fav piece of furniture!

our keyboard that cody bought when I started my piano class this semester 8)

tv stand

bookshelf

a cool shell and painting we got in the bahamas

random decor

A souveneer (sp?)that cody brought back from Houston-I want to get a magnet everytime we go somewhere so we can look at our fridge and see where we've been. Also, we got the cute baby announcement from carrie and bret (hopefully you guys don't mind that there's an armadillo seemingly attacking your baby's cute face ;)

Ladies and Gentleman what you haven't necessarily been waiting for...

2010-10-30T09:41:00.010-06:00

The bedroom's transformation:
BEFORE:

AFTER:

cody's cool scroll that he got while in korea and it randomly perfectly matched our bedspread so there ya go.

our dresser

random decor

our night stand

-notice the book mom? I get a kick out of these stories...I'm still not sure if Cody finds them as entertaining but he humors me ;)

and this is the bathroom but...who wants to see that?

oh...and there's closets to the left of the main pic of the bedroom-nice big ones that are connected in the middle, but again-boring 8)

Inception

2010-10-24T17:48:00.006-06:00

glorious...

simply glorious...

I would see this movie again and again. Pretty much an original idea (only the hooking up/falling "asleep" kind of hailed back to the matrix but the concept COMPLETELY different and AWESOME not to mention a GREAT cast (I LOVED Joseph Gordon-Levitt!!!! so sweet). And there was nothing really bad...I mean...your typical sylized fighting but even then...not bloody except for the very first scene, though it happens so fast you may not even notice and that's it. I can only think of two times they cussed....yea, I think that's it. SO GOOD. If you haven't seen it, just get over the fact that everyone was raving about it-it doesn't make you a sheep, just go see and decide for yourself 8)
I think there was only one...no two actors in it that I didn't recognize from another recent movie. anywho...that's about it-I just wanted to geek out about it.
It kept me and code enthralled(sp?)the entire time and has your heart pounding to the very last second-in a good way. The technology/visual of course is amAzing and so fun to just look at, and it's one of those movies you could see again and again and still catch new things that you didn't notice before. Seriously, if anyone wants to go see it in th dollar theatre we are up for another showing ;)

can you say oscars anyone?

Beautiful Fall Day

2010-10-17T19:02:00.003-06:00

Fall in Provo is the best. It's weird cause I used to live with my apartment facing the mountains really close, but now I forget to notice sometimes. We went on a walk today and the mountain was just lit on fire with fall colors-so cool! We went and collected cool looking leaves to make bookmarks out of (just put them in between two pieces of packing tape and then you can write with sharpie things like Fall 2010, botany pond etc. I have bookmarks that I made in Russia with cool flowers, bookmarks made out of flowers from me and codes fav spot etc. It's just nice to keep lil pieces with you of your past.
Church was great today. We taught the sunday school lesson today on 41-49 chapters of Isaiah talking about babylon and the incomparable qualities of Christ. We had a really sweet huge framed photograph from our friend that we used to start off with the lesson. It won some award a few years back. It's 100% real-no photo-shop, the guy really is standing there and the photographer was just taking the picture from ontop of a cliff on the shores of england somewhere. It's an amazing picture and everyone was blown away by it.

Well, Cody flies out tomorrow morning to San Antonio for his call-back interview with USAA. I'm excited to hear how it goes and his impressions of the company etc, but am kind of dreading it too....it'll be the first time we're apart since the wedding. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of stuff to do to keep me busy and when that fails I have gilmore girls/girly movies that he normally doesn't like to watch....but still....it'll be weird to fall asleep without his lil sleep-talking self-too quiet, haha.

Oh well, he gets back late Tuesday night-it's nothing right? right.

Diaries of a Sleep Walk/Talker

2010-10-11T13:22:00.002-06:00

So I just realized that I have a miriad of amusing anecdotes from Cody's nocturnal habits and I can't remember if I've ever shared them. So, cody is a sleepwalker, though compared to the CRAZY stories I heard from his roommates, it seems that marriage has had a calming influence on his nightly antics.

So the most active he's been was probably when we first got back from the honeymoon. We were staying in our friends' apartment cause we couldn't move in yet. He woke up freaking out thrashing his arms and legs around saying that the boat was sinking. It took me a minute to calm him down and convince him that we weren't on the boat anymore. Another time he woke up saying that we needed to rename the boat and rattled off some long crazy name. Before I realized it I found myself agreeing with him saying, "that's a horrible name for a boat" (if you're not careful you can get sucked into his lil world when you're tired).

Once he got up and went over to our nightstand (our bed is up against a wall and he is near the wall so it's not as easy as it sounds) and started shaking and moving it around. I woke up and said: Cody, stop it-go back to bed, in an exasperated tone and I'll never forget his face-it looked so sad and cowed and he slumped off to bed, haha.

A few nights ago I discovered that if I stay up and watch an episode of GG in bed while he falls asleep he will most likely wake up or start talking in his sleep and will respond to my questions. Once we woke up saying something weird and I said, "what?" and he said: "I prefer a larger selection when it comes to my weapon choice" (yeah, it was hard not laughing loud but I didn't want to wake him). There were other random things he said but now I can't remember them.
Never a dull moment.

oh yeah, I have a blog...

2010-10-11T12:53:00.003-06:00

Life is good. It's just good. On the way to school today Cody made a good point: time goes by a lot faster when you're married cause you're happy. I concur with that statement. I mean, sure time flies by when you're single, but there's more count-downs to things like: ....shrug, three weeks til thanksgiving break/xmas break etc. I mean, we countdown to the big stuff, but we're just happy with the every day ins and outs of life and bask in those-which, at least when I was single I LIVED for the weekends. Sure weekends are nice now cause we get even more time together, but it's like every night is a lil weekend when you're married.

Anywho, things that have happened recently: Cody has been invited out to San Antonio to interview with USAA a second time as well as to Houston to interview with Exxon a second time. Both trips all expenses paid and after a few days of each we should learn whether we will get an offer from them. Pretty exciting stuff I think. We like both companies for different reasons so it should be interesting how it shakes out/how cody feels after having gone out there and interacted more with them. I'm totally fine with Texas-like it and living is cheap + really good schools-competitive etc. We shall see...

In other news, we saw Dracula at the springville playhouse. I think my favorite part was when they started with a prayer and gave thanks for wholesome entertainment and that the audience would take away a message from the evening....um...the message I got- dont' wear white when you plan on killing vampires cause they tend to squirt...haha but it was fun-an adventure.
BYU finally won a game! They aren't quite up to their usual par but they looked a LOT better than the past few games-especially the defense and we had GREAT seats-sixth row in the south end zone 8) Afterwards we had some spicy chick-fil-a sandwiches (to die for!) and watched signs (I needed to for a theology in film and lit class). Sunday was nice and relaxing and ended with fun games over at Brian and Amanda's.
Today I started doing this beginning yoga dvd that I got at BB&B. I can't wait to get really good and literate in all the diff poses so I can get a more advanced one that will actually work me out-not just stretch me out, but it was fun. A really good stress reliever.
FYI: if you want to re-fall-in-love with your wedding ring, I found the BEST lighting on campus: the MoA. I don't know about in the actual exhibits but I have two classes in their and they dim the lights just slightly to talk on things and just generally have softer lights in their rooms and nicely painted walls and your ring just SPARKLES. i have to be careful otherwise I get distracted ;)

99

2010-09-28T21:26:00.002-06:00

What a crazy couple of days. Basically the past four days we were WAY busy. Friday we went up to see Cody's cousin: Amy's fiance go through the temple which was way cool. The rest of the weekend was spent either studying for the test I had today or preparing our talks for Sunday (as in this past sunday). I didn't even have time to go to the game 8( Though....I think it was better that I did not get emotionally invested in the outcome of said game. sheesh....i swear, my last year here and they fall apart like this-I hope basketball won't dissapoint.

So anywho, The test today went ok so we'll see. It's nice to have that particular one not hanging over my head though.
Tonight we were invited to this meet and greet thing for stockamp/huron who is based in Portland. EH...I dunno, Portland sounds cool and all but...I dunno, just never thought of the west coast really. It didn't help that when I introduced myself and said I was from Houston so I could handle the humidity the recruiter guy made some comment about how that would be the last place he wanted to go (all in good fun/joking-I mean, yeah it sucks in the summer) but I love Houston/Texas in general so you're not gonna win points with me by saying that with your lil 2 mil town-psh.

It was cool though-they fed us costa vida and we bowled at fat cats-which i had never gone to before. The second game I got a 99...it was heartbreaking cause I got a strike on the last turn so I got the extra frame and then somehow managed to get a gutterball-I just had to get one pin and I couldn't even do that-argh! I don't know when I last bowled over a hundred (you can see why I don't bowl much).
So yeah, it was fun. Tomorrow we have a sit down dinner and further info session with exxon so we'll see how we feel after that and we're still waiting to hear from USAA which I think is our first pick if we're given the option...

Exciting times-weird to think of a life beyond school and living within walking distance to a lot of things etc. Our lives are going to change so much in the next year it'll be crazy. It's kinda fun though, now that we're looking at certain places I can start looking into the museum scene and what they have to offer there. I'll have to research but I wonder if San Antonio or Portland have more museums than Houston...I'm thinking no, cause I know we have a TON.
but anywho, I also wanna get out and see different parts of the country and have a life of our own-we dont' have to be right where I grew up.

We also got callings-we're sunday school teachers together which will be fun I think. We've both had experience with that sort of calling/not to mention missions that kind of gives you a big crash course in teaching and preparing thoughts so we'll be good to go I think.
Well, I am off to finish an episode of GG from earlier-my reward to myself for being done with that test-sigh, i forgot how much i love it.

On Broadway

2010-09-19T23:39:00.002-06:00

WOW, I've just re-awakened my love for musicals. All I have to say is that it's entirely too easy to buy music on itunes-just a click and you don't think of how much the .99's are racking up, haha. So I got favorites from guys and dolls, jekyll and hyde, and the original phantom.
If you haven't had the pleasure of discovering jekyll and hyde (the 90s version if I remember...) then I HIGHLY recommend the following songs:

Take me as I am
Someone Like You
No One Knows who I am
Symphathy, Tenderness
In His Eyes
A New Life

There's also a sweet duet between Jekyll and Hyde but I can't remember the name of it/find it based on the samples on itunes. but yeah...anywho, beautiful songs especially no one knows who I am and sympathy,tenderness.

It was a fun Sunday-everyone is way cool and nice in our RS (the first time I was there). Dinner was great and game night with the Engstroms was, as always, fun. The weekends go soooo fast 8( haha, but oh well.

so that's what happens when your offense struggles and your defense is non-existant...

2010-09-18T17:01:00.004-06:00

What a crazy week and it's STILL not over. I'm all "functioned" out. Wednesday I started my internship at the Springville MOA which is way cool and I love the people I work with. That night they had college night with food and entertainment trying to get the college crowd out. We had around 200 which I think is pretty good and it was a cool atmosphere-seriously a way cool place, esp. with the gardens out back-you should check it out if you haven't before. Anywho, and then Thursday Cody had a marketing club social thing he had to help out at, so I went and got some free pizza and waited for that to wrap up.
Then it was off to the BYU MOA's opening social thing for the new freshman that I had to write about for my curatorial studies class-again, food and entertainment....don't get me wrong, it's great and all but like i said-I'm all functioned out. Oh yeah, and then last night we had our bridal night at BB&B where they give you 20% off of EVERYTHING you buy and since we still had a lot of store credit/gift cards we hit it up for the remaining things we needed-ya know, like a panini maker....yes, that's a need. So we get there and yet again it's a function-free food, raffle etc...shrug, I'm just so over the function-I'm only interested if I happen to be hungry. Though it was sweet to pay 6 cents for 400$ worth of stuff and have gift cards left over :)
Other highlights of the week:
Friday morning I successfully traveled by bus to the museum-it was actually way easy. I've definitely come a long way from freshman year getting lost with andrea on the way to walmart and calling her sister who asked us: where's the mountains? (trying to get a feel for where we were) we responded: all around us, we're in a VALLEY....yeah, I've made a lot of headway with that too-I can now use cardinal directions in my direction giving like a real grown-up. (in our defense R.C. Wiley's does kind of look like walmart from the side and at night.) That's ok though, I've always wanted to wander down University Parkway at night.
ANYWHO, so yes I made it to the museum and all was well. We watched The Great Debators with Denzel Washington-a way good movie-for Cody's class. Tonight we have to watch Babette's Feast for my theology class (I've already seen it but it's a good one).
Notice how I glossed over how we spent our afternoon? yeah...let's not go there. I just feel worse for my parents and older brother who took time out of their lives to drive all the way there from texas and sit in the hot humid stands. ouch.

In other news our apartment is looking really good-all that's left is getting our wedding pics from our photographer and then we can print and put up pictures and it will be complete-i can't wait.

Honeymoon part II

2010-09-15T11:52:00.002-06:00

Here's a video of after the nature hike once we got to the other side of the island and a very sweet beach.

The Honeymoon part I

2010-09-08T12:45:00.004-06:00

so all of the pics from it are on facebook but i'll put some cool videos here and some amusing anecdotes....ok let's face it I can't remember what they were but just be aware that they were amusing.

Activities:

-first order of business was washing the car after the reception and then it was off to the lil america in salt lake-a way nice hotel. (there will be pics of the car once i get the pics from brandee.)

-Sunday morning bright and early we flew to orlando florida where we checked into the hotel and went swimming in the pool, ate out at tgif's, and the next day we got onto the ship.

-monday evening was just sailing and then tuesday we arrive at coco key (pronounced: "kay") a small island that the cruise line privately owns. There are 70 odd people/native employees that live on the island which is just an hour by speed boat from florida. there we went on a cool nature hike led by a nice laid back local with the coolest accent and saw some flora and fauna of the island and learned all the different cures that could be found by using the plants there.

this video just proves how windy it was at the front of the boat.

here's the tour guide talking about black beard and the history of the key.

more to come next time current news: we are settling in quite nicely. Cody is working hard between clases and his job and trying not to get sick at the moment. and as for me- tonight i go in for my orientation/training and will figure out when I will officially start my internship at the SMOA! I'll prolly stop posting here and use the website that we made for our wedding as our blog but i'll let ya'll know

Adventures and Lessons of a new wife

2010-08-31T20:17:00.005-06:00

WOW what a crazy couple of weeks!! Of course, crazy in a good way :)
So the wedding was AMAZING and everything just went so smoothly and on time-no complaints. I'm DYING to see the pics though-we should have those by next week-I'm basically chomping at the bit because it's such a whirlwind day that it's hard to keep it concrete in your mind and I know Brandee got some cool pics of things that we didn't get much of a chance to see being in an area greeting people for most of the night. I definitely decided that going to someone else's reception is SO much more fun than having one-you can look at everything, wander around, do what you want etc. But it was still way fun and we're looking forward to our open house in sugar land this weekend since it'll just be fun already being married and all-just show up and chat with people and get loads of presents 8)

So I will write an entry all on the honeymoon with pics and fun stories but I don't have the camera on me at the moment (currently in the library). So as far as our new apartment goes we are 75% there. We have all the furniture set up except the bedside table and a few things left to unpack or organize better, but we're soo close. Now's the fun stuff where we will start hanging up clocks and pictures and paintings that we have. Ok, so that makes us sound all ritzy when we only really have two paintings-one a beautiful print of the savior in a pretty frame from my mission president and the other a beautiful comissioned painting of fallen monarchs by william bliss baker that cody did for my birthday. It's still in the tube and we just need to get a nice frame but I'm SOOOO excited to have my own space and fill it with great books and art and just....sigh....anywho.

So some fun lessons that I've learned since becoming a married woman:

1. Don't forget that you put oven mits in what seems like an oven drawer when you're not sure it's really an oven drawer....yeah...it was a broiler tray...."Wow...our oven smells really smokey..like a campfire..." cody runs over and opens the "drawer" revealing the blackened smoking oven mits....."so I guess that wasn't a real drawer then..."
2. When you're told to call and put the utilities in your name before you move in-do it right away! I came home today and went to turn on the lights-nope, the fridge was dark-no dice, but not to worry-they'll have the lights back on before 7 p.m. at the latest (oh, that's 7 p.m. tomorrow) at least we still have gas so we can have a hot shower, haha. (thus we're in the library where there's internet and...light...) I guess it's time to invest in some candles 8)

I told Cody it's important that we make all these dumb mistakes now before we have kids so that when we have our kids they'll think we are all knowing and powerful and not realize what goofballs we really are, haha

p.s. we just went crazy at target and got every boardgame that we wanted to-I'm so excited!!!!

homeless

2010-08-15T23:13:00.002-06:00

It's finally here, my final night in singles' housing. Now before I gush over the fact that I'll only have one roommate the rest of my life, let me say-I was VERY lucky and had great roommates all the way through. I mean, honestly if I didn't go ona mish and they hadn't gotten married I could have lived with them like that for a long time so it's prolly good for everyone that we had different things force us to progress. But I just can't wait to be able to have a home to my own-to know that when I come home no one is going to be there. We can plan what we want to do whenever we want to do it and not worry about if our apartments will be free, or have to do dishes when you know you only contributed a lil bit, or wonder who owns what and labeling things. I swear we prolly only ate half of the stuff we bought because it would be in the fridge forever and we would not remember what was ours or forget about it cause it was so filled/buried under stuff and then we find it all gross weeks later. Now we will know EXACTLY what food we have!!! That is so exciting to me 8)
and if something is in the bedroom I don't have to go get it for Cody, he can go get it etc. Anywho, all exciting things...and we'll have COMPLETE control over what our apartment looks like, smells like, etc. good, good stuff.

One Week Away...

2010-08-13T23:46:00.002-06:00

I can hardly believe that one week from now I will be, well...hopefully sleeping since I'll have to get up SUPER early to get all ready before we head up to Salt Lake for the sealing.
Mom and Dad get in tommorrow and this weekend is just a matter of packing and moving out of Centennial on Monday. I'm so so excited. Really, everything is pretty much taken care of. Sure there are little things, but the actual sealing and luncheon is pretty much locked in.
We got our sign-in book today in the mail. It looks soooo good!
We went to Walmart and got an entertainment table...thing...for the tv, a bookcase, and a nightstand for a pretty good deal. Cody goes to pick up the mattresses and couch tomorrow with the help of his aunt sam and uncle corey-thanks guys! So now, all that is left is a dresser and a kitchen table and we are completely furnished. It's slowly coming together piece by piece and I'm so so excited for our future. As much as I love new transitions, I can't wait til we are in our routine and a well-adjusted married couple and used to the whole married life routine. It'll be an adventure with tons of laughs along the way-cody will gaurantee that ;) We were passing out programs at church and our high councilor came up to us and just said to me: you will never be bored...or something to that affect. I just smiled and said, I know.
It's crazy how you get used to not being around family, but then when they come around it's so exciting and familiar.
This will be an eventful week 8)

Where Love Resides

2010-08-11T15:52:00.002-06:00

"Young lovers seek perfection.

Old lovers learn the art
of sewing shreds together
and of seeing beauty
in a multiplicity of patches."

I was thinking about love today, particularly love as depicted in movies. Some of my favorite love stories in movies are actually not romantic comedies. Sure they are cute and funny but not real enough for me...it seems if you only have the bright and happy scenes of life it cheapens the love story. Love, to me, isn't about everything being wonderful and rose-colored (though more often than not it is), but Love is about constancy throughout a huge variety of emotions and experiences, the ups and downs, and I think that it is most beautiful when felt and shown in the middle of your deepest lows.

When I was young, I used to watch movies longing to experience love like the characters portrayed. Now, i'm reminded of a scene from sleepless in seattle where rosie o'donnel's character is telling Meg Ryan that she doesn't want to be in love, but that she wants to be in love in a movie. I have come to learn that those are two very distinctly different things.

It's funny, but now I watch these same movies that used to make me wish for that kind of love, but now...now, I feel how hollow the love in movies is cause I have found the love of my life. He's not some cookie cutter actor spitting out perfectly edited lines to woo me. He's real, I'm real, and our love is real. Neither of us is perfect but both are willing to forgive each other of our weaknesses and to not only start out on this adventure together, but to finish it as well.

Now when I watch these movies it only makes me all the more excited for my own real love story. It's more magical than any hollywood execs can come up with- cause it's mine.

p.s. watch: How To Make an American Quilt 8)

Fun at the Senaquin Rodeo

2010-08-08T23:04:00.005-06:00

So I didn't realize that they did something to make the broncos and the bulls buck like that. I just figured they didn't like to be ridden- they were untamed etc., but I was NOT aware that they put a belt really tightly around their unmentionables to get them to react that way. Instantly I found myself rooting for the horse: "yeah! buck him off! you tell him-he has no right to do that to you!"
...poor horsies...

Today's subject: muffins

2010-08-07T17:43:00.003-06:00

Today's subject: muffins. Now, most likely many of you will have different reactions to his subject-most of them positive...unless you don't like muffins. Now earlier today it was ten and both me and cody were working on various things and hungry. Blamo-inspiration: I'll go get some muffins and milk. It sounded so good and I remembered those HUGE otis spunkmeyer muffins my mom would get-ya know the ones to which I'm referring-the big chocolate ones with chocolate chips in it...basically eating cake for breakfast and I've always loved them. So instantly my desire is set-have to get these muffins. So I offer to go and get them cause it will be real quick right? I'll just pop into smith's and get em', be back in 5......

Well, first of all can I just say-if you want anything that is not typical staple grocery store food: bread, milk, eggs, do NOT go to Smith's cause they will not have it. At least this has been my experience-I always go there cause it's closer secretly hoping they'll have what I need but am ALWAYS dissapointed and have to make the one minute longer trip to Macey's anyways-you'd think I would just learn already.

So anywho, I'm in Smith's and yet again-no dice. Oh they have muffins-bakery baked muffins but not the glory that is otis spunkmeyer muffins. No biggie, I'm used to Smith's dissapointing me so I'm off to Macey's. I can't find them there either...odd...so I ask someone and they point me in the direction of the bakery-instantly I know they don't know what i'm talking about cause these would not be in the store bakery. So I figure I'll cut my losses and just go to walmart cause that's where my mom always went for groceries growing up anyway-so they had to be there......I know, I need to just learn to let things go-it's hard for me, like i'm admitting defeat or something...darn my pride/stubbornness.

So I get to walmart and yet again....nowhere.....not in the bakery section, not in the bread area, not in the breakfast area.....not even in the snack area...nowhere.....so at this point i'm pretty livid-it's been building up for an hour now, I could actually feel my blood pressure rising. So I go and ask the first helper I can see and she gives me this blank stare......"have we always carried that?"......"well, all throughout my childhood...." She turns to a coworker and asks: "do you know where some otis muffins would be...." she didn't even know the name of them/hadn't even heard of them before (i thought they were a well known brand-apparently not).
Again they give me vague direction towards the bakery section-absolutely clueless.

So by this point I go back to the bread and debbie cake isle and there were muffins there...debbie cake muffins....off brand muffins.....gag me. So I got them, cause I couldn't come home empty handed-not after my hour of driving around looking for them. I was upset.
like I said, I really need to learn to be more flexible and move on when something I have my hopes set on doesn't work out....or....at least become more graceful at it. I'm going to have a new policy-I'll always just go to Macey's and if they don't have it, fine, I'll forget my desire and just go home-it is not worth all the gas I waste.

elder richards I hardly knew thee...

2010-08-04T13:40:00.004-06:00

So it finally happened! the last of the Richards' clan to serve a mission, steve, entered the mtc today. He came intown Monday and stayed with our Richards' grandparents and then I woke up at the crack of dawn Tues morning and went up to Salt Lake to meet them for a session in the SLC temple. It was cool to be there and to hear grandma's different stories and to do some sealings for the dead which was especially cool to listen to the words etc. hopefully it will help me be able to pay attention/appreciate it all the more on my wedding day since it wont' be the first time I've heard it. Then after that we went over to murray to see our grandpa adams and mandy the crazy dog who sounds like a pig. Then it was on to buy some last minute supplies for steve. MAN did I get a headache from this day! We went out to a chinese buffet for dinner with code and then played some games with eric,heidi, nate, and andrea and got some frozen yogurt at spoon-it-up. It was a way fun night, but yeah-I just wasn't feeling very good.
After a good night's sleep I woke up feeling way better and after eating lunch at brick oven and a lot of nervous waiting around I took Steve to the mtc around one. I got a pic of him standing by his bags on the curb as seen below and watched him walk off with some elders to go learn the lay of the land. I won't lie, watching him walking away in the rear view mirror made my eyes misty for 2.5 seconds but I blame it on the dosage of hormones I'm taking every day.
I really am excited for him though-it'll be a great experience for him and I can't wait to hear about his different wacky adventures up in Washington.

All the Best Elder!

p.s. the old man directing us in said-wow, what a tall elder you've got..must be an older brother? ...no...(i didn't bother to tell him i'm 5 years older)
"oh, well he must not have let you get to the food, and that's why he's so big"

The Countdown continues...

2010-08-02T16:28:00.002-06:00

19 days til I am an official married woman. The other day Cody was saying how he has to keep reminding himself that we're not married cause he'll forget and it just feels like we already are which I guess is a good sign 8)

I went and got 7 black photo frames to put on the tables at our reception today from the dollarstore-gotta love it. The only main things I have to check on at this point I guess is whether or not the Petersons have a way of playing music outside-like speakers or anything, if not I'll have to start researching other ways...would plugging in a boombox and sliding it under the treats table and blasting it be too tacky? haha, I don't really care as long as the music can be ever so slightly heard. That plus no rain and finding dishes/trays to use for the refreshment table and we will be good to go 8)

In other great and AMAZING news-we got our all-sports passes today and I'm sOOOOOOOO excited!!!! I mean, yeah classes are great and staying up studying in the library at all hours is fantastic, but nothing says college like the start of football season-the packed stadium, eventually-the nice weather and the start of fall....a great time of year-Rise and Shout!

2010-07-29T22:32:00.002-06:00

Gumption. Courage, also known as bravery, fortitude, will, and intrepidity, is the ability to confront fear, pain, risk/danger, uncertainty, or intimidation...

Having this and knowing when to use it is a tricky thing. In all matters concerning myself I can use it pretty good because I know me, my abilities, limits, etc. but when dealing with other people and their personal decisions, and when trying to change their outcome/course how far do you go? How forward should you be. I mean, I may give a vague option/opportunity for them to choose something different, but I don't have the gumption to come out and say: please don't do this or that etc. I catch myself chickening out easier when it involves someone else's decisions. I mean, it is their decision in the end, I can't change that, but do I try hard enough to let my opinion be known/to give wise counsel, to help them see an option that they are blind to at the moment?

That has to be the worst feeling when you know you should do or say something but don't know how and it passes you by and you think-is what they did/decided on my head now, because I didn't give them the opportunity to turn back/away? Because I didn't speak up even though it would be really forward and nosy of me?

I don't know, but I hate feeling helpless, not knowing my boundaries. Because I care, I really do...maybe I care too much most of the time, am somehow too emotionally attached to those around me, really care even though our relationship is pretty surface level-i still care deep. People may think I'm being nosy or butting in where I don't belong, but it's not out of any personal pleasure in being in "the know" it's cause I honestly care, and I don't want anyone to experience unnecessary pain...I would want someone to do the same for me if I were teetering on a bad decision.
Sorry, I know I'm speaking in code, just musing for myself really.

I'll say yes to the dress but no thank you on the service...

2010-07-28T01:09:00.003-06:00

So today I went for my final fitting of the wedding dress-technically i already went in for the "final" fitting but the owner thought they should press it again cause the seams were folding weird etc. So after two plus weeks the alterator lady calls. She's nice, don't get me wrong, and she has a cute accent but on the phone-not so cute...
so she calls and wants to set up a time for me to come in. the only problem is, i have to pick a time i think someone can come with me to help. So after some back and forth I settle on Tues at 5:30 (at least, i think it's tuesday-i'll feel bad if i made the mistake, shrug). So anywho, we show up to the shop on center street and no one is there-it's dark and there's a notice on the door notifying them that the water and electricity is turned off. I'm guessing they moved stores, but I wasn't informed that the move would have taken place. Luckily drea knew where the new store was. So we go to the new one up on state street-it's not open yet but it will be great once they get it up and running. The doors are locked so we stand around waiting for someone to happen to walk by and waved. Then we got taken in through a side door through some unfinished rooms and upstairs to the seamstress' area.
" you have a final fitting at 5:30?"
"i don't have anythin today."
She claims i said monday, whatever-you didn't tell me about the location change so we're even.
So she gives me this way complicated belt she made to go over the white one-it's bright pink for a lil splash of color at the reception. Luckily andrea understood it cause I was lost. I realized that I forgot to put on the slip. They had given me a used one for cheaper and i had kept it with the dress, but apparently in the move they couldn't find the exact one-why you wouldn't keep it with the dress is beyond me, but whatever, they're in transition. So a worker went and found a one size fits all slip. Then the seamstress starts ringing me up. I knew the total from the last invoice should have been around 170ish, but noticed that this one was over 200. Before I knew it, I was opening my mouth and questioning the new price. This is crazy for me-I hate being annoying or picky when it comes to these things. I would get sooo embarassed when mom would start arguing with the check-out lady in stores over a matter of cents. Granted, this wasn't just cents difference, but there I was opening my mouth and said-I think the belts were cheaper on the last invoice (noticing that they were now listed as sixty.) She gave this lil' scoff laugh and said yeah, they were put down as twelve dollars which doesn't make sense, that wouldn't even pay for an hour of seamstress work. Again I surprised myself- yes, but the owner gave us a special deal, I dunno...but you should ask him about it cause he did that. (i know, still not the strongest, most assertive way, but it's a lot for me.
So I can't remember what she said after that (it never got heated) but again I pointed out that the owner had done this for us, and there was another worker that had been there for every one of my visits said: if the owner put it down then just keep it how it was. She shrugged and said ok.
YES!
thank you one and all. So after she rang me up I was expecting her to show me how to do the other belt (there's two different options) on the dress while it was off me since it would be easier, but she just put it in the bag and that was that. Whatever, Andrea already knows how to do the other one. After she got the dress in the bag she just went back to her table-didn't say: ok, well you're all set to go, or something like that so we said thank you to which she said something like- have a fun wedding and we just left.
I know it sounds worse than it was, i mean, there wasn't any animosity or tone, just a general lack of taking care of the customer or guiding them through. So we found our way out of that unfinished labrynth by ourselves. I'm sure they'll have great service once they're up and running and not in the middle of transition, but seriously....not impressed.
oh well, I have the dress now-it's hanging up in my room now, it doesn't feel real. But now all of the absolute pieces of the puzzle are in place-the dress, the place, the rings (i ordered cody's yesterday and it should get here next week!)and...the guy! the most important piece of course 8)

tonight's moon-CRAZY bright!

2010-07-25T23:16:00.001-06:00

Monticello pics

2010-07-25T23:11:00.010-06:00

Ok, so you really can't tell how amazing it looked-the colors are so washed out in these pics but everything was rosy pink and orange-even the sky too. It's so crazy how southern Utah feels like Mars.

You know you're in Monticello when....

2010-07-24T23:51:00.003-06:00

I have just had a great mini trip with code down to see his grandparents in Monticello and man was it fun!
It was so refreshing to go to a town with quite the different pace. A place where everyone waves and smiles. A Place where people driving in opposite directions stop to chat even though there are cars waiting behind each and they don't honk!
You know you're in Monticello when you look up at the mountain and see a horse's head.
You know you're in Monticello when you drive up to chat with the local law enforcement and no one is wearing seatbelts in the car...in fact...they make fun of you if you wear them, but don't worry you rarely go over 30 anyway.
You know you're in Monticello when you don't lock your car and you keep the windows rolled down too.
You know you're in Monticello when everyone knows everyone and they can tell you exactly where the two gay men live, or as they refer to them as: the broke-back mountains.
You know you're in Monticello when you see 20 deer or so in an hour and you're apologized to for not seeing enough deer.
You know you're in Monticello when you go to the pioneer day parade which is an AMAZING parade with some homemade floats, horses, tractors, police cars, and firetrucks (who spray the kids in the audience with their hoses), and free candy, balloons, and popsycles are given out like it's no tomorrow.

It was a great trip spent with some GREAT people 8) Grandpa and Grandma Slade are a hoot and a holler and are always good for a laugh. We played zion's check more which is quickly starting to grow on me (i won twice in a row ;)

In other news, we got back around 6ish. I think it was a combination of things but I wasn't feeling too great. (prolly a combo of: fatigue, dehydration, and all the junk we ate all the way there and back-my system was hard up for some real healthy food.) I took a lil nap and then we got some dinner-i got a salad and proceeded to scarf it once I wasn't feeling so queezy and then we watched fried green tomatoes. It was the first time I ever saw it, but it was sooo good! There was a sad part though so that, plus my being tired, plus me not feeling 100%, plus me newly being on birth control...well...I finally had my first irrational cry. Granted it wasn't bawling or anything, but it was really weird...I mean, normally if I'm crying I at least know why whether I want to admit it or not, but this was just a billion little things that aligned just right. Cody was great about it of course-as always he's my loving rock-solid and compassionate. I'm not too worried though-I mean, if it starts happening a lot then maybe I'll switch to something else, but I really just think it was cause I was so tired from the trip AND that it's so flippin' HOT in this apartment-sheesh... I hope I can sleep tonight-it's hard for me to sleep when it's hot.
I'll post the few pictures sometime that I got of the landscape on the way to Monticello before my camera died (i know-what a bummer!)

Here comes the bride all dressed in....pink?

2010-07-21T15:36:00.004-06:00

Traditional? maybe not....but comfortable? ...oh yeah....plus, you can't even see the shoes 98% of the time.

better be prepared to be surprised

2010-07-19T22:25:00.003-06:00

I love this closing monologue from dan in real life (he is a columnist):

"Dear Readers, for most of you this is my first column in your paper. In the future, I will be answering your questions, but today I want to break from my usual format and talk to you about the subject of plans. Not so much my plan for this column, more like life plans. How we all make them. And how we hope that our kids make good, smart, safe plans of their own. But if we're really honest with ourselves, most of the time our plans don't work out as we'd hoped. So instead of asking our young people, "What are your plans? What do you plan to do with your life?" maybe we should tell them this:

Plan to be surprised."

Also, youtube sondre lechre (or however you spell it) and the song: be surprised-I love this one!!!

My hands are shaking by Sondre Lerche

2010-07-18T23:16:00.001-06:00

I love this song and the overall style of this guy-largely featured throughout Dan In Real Life. I'm going to try to add it to my playlist down below so check the last song on the playlist to hear it.

My hand are shakin
From carryin this torch
From carryin this torch for you

My lips are bleeding
From kissin you goodbye
From kissin you goodbye every night

My sheets are tearin
From sleepin in too long
From sleepin in too long with you

My hands are shakin
From carryin this torch
From carryin this torch for you

My head is where
It's always been
If only I knew where

My feet can't stand
their ground no more
It seems that I don't care

My hands are shakin
From carryin this torch
From carryin this torch for you

My lips are bleedin
From kissin you goodbye
From kissin you goodbye every night

My heart is poundin
yes yes yes
My mind just second guess
My love is so
articulate
But I am such a mess

My hands are shakin
From carryin this torch
From carryin this torch for you.

a cool video from my friends from Russia

2010-07-18T00:10:00.000-06:00

the song is called the road home.

kudos whoever did this-KUDOS!

2010-07-17T02:26:00.000-06:00

stole it from Chelsea who stole it from Council Bluffs

2010-07-16T10:49:00.002-06:00

it's tough being a girl...

2010-07-14T12:23:00.008-06:00

I'd like to think that I'm a well-balanced person. I'm not easily peggable, you can't put me in any one peg and have that be more true than another peg. I'm not really a girly girl in that I'm not really high maintenance...in fact it's weird when I get too much attention. I'm also not exactly a tom boy-I enjoy wearing make-up or doing my hair and I'm not exactly a great athlete, but I enjoy messing around with different sports and love watching them on tv (if they're college).

For example we had a girls' night last night as our future/husbands played smash together. We watched sleepless in seattle and did facials. 8 hours later: I'm doing yard work at my president's and am absolutely filthy

.......

ok, or maybe I just like to put gross things all over me....

(btw, the ingredients for the facial mask: an egg yolk, a tablespoon of honey, and a teaspoon of olive oil...not sure if it did anything but my face was soft after i washed it off, shrug AND you boil green tea and cool it in the fridge and soak cucumbers in it for a bit.) and yes, i felt weird buying green tea after spending my entire mission trying to avoid it.

What's been up lately

2010-07-11T16:20:00.005-06:00

Let's start with the 4th shall we? So there was a wonderful parade down university avenue that we went to. We showed up about ten minutes after it had started and easily found a spot where we could see the street, whereas there were people who actually decided to sleep out on the street all night to make sure they got a good spot...though, I did hear that most of them ended up eventually in bed and actually slept through the parade-but I'm sure it was fun just sleeping out on the street and giggling with the hobos ;)

Um, but yeah the parade was good-there were a few good floats, some llamas that decided to releave themselves just as they passed us-surprisingly like bunny's..well...ya know. My absolute favorite was prolly the float that had three people dressed up as moses, nephi, and joseph smith. Nephi was holding the plates singing some patriotic song-priceless, and of course the missionaries are always a favorite.
Then after the parade we hopped over to Micky D's for breakfast. That evening we got together with all the younger cousins and played some games and did some of our own fireworks. On the actual fourth me and Code had our first 4th of July BBQ extraveganza! We grilled some steaks on a table top grill/griddle/thing, had corn on the cob-which actually turned out good!, twice baked potatoes and a red/white/and blue fruit salad (strawberries, blueberries, and bananas). It was SO good-especially since it was fast sunday 8)
here's a pic of our spoils:

In more recent news, we had a wonderful themed date by code where we first went to pick up eric and heidi where we put on the following:

Then we went to Skipper's seafood for dinner followed by a live community production of Pirates of Penzance in an outdoor pavilion! It was sooo much fun, and they had pretty strong singers for the main parts: frederick, pirate king, major general,and mabel were all excellent...oh yeah, and ruth was good too. the only downer was the sergeant-policeman...too quiet a voice and not enough comical energy. Still, it's a hard musical and it was pretty good for a community play with more people on stage than in the audience.
Then it was back to eric and heidi's to play that dice game that is played on pirates of the carribean-where they shake the dice in a cup and you only look at your dice and then start guessing how many are out there like: 2 fours, and each person has to up it whether it's 3 fours or 3 fives etc.
It was a way fun night 8)

Blindside

2010-07-07T23:03:00.004-06:00

So we finally saw this movie. I had heard from everyone and their mother, including mine, that this was a way good movie and of course I had heard of Sandra Bullock's performance. They were all right. It was a way good movie and just felt like real life-they didn't over-dramatize some sort of conflict...I mean, don't get me wrong, there were conflicts to overcome but at the same time it wasn't this huge dramatic thing-it's like it would be in real life. I loved Bullock's character-what a spitfire....so many times me and code were just like: "oh snap, it's going down, she's gonna kill someone" haha. I highly recommend it. As for me I'm ready for my muscles to stop being stiff-that hike really kicked my butt, but for now I'll just happily lay around enjoying not moving 8)

oh yeah, the only thing-would have liked to see more football, but I get that it's not exactly a remember the titans kind of movie, but more focused on bullock's character and Michael.

oh yeah, HAPPY CHOCOLATE DAY!

thank you related press

2010-07-06T22:53:00.002-06:00

"A NEW Zealand man was found dead in his seat at a movie theatre.

Police said they were treating the death as unexplained, but not suspicious, The New Zealand Herald reported.

The man's body was found at a theatre in the capital Wellington about 8.30pm (local time) last night at the conclusion of the vampire film, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

The man, who was described by police as a "transient" who travelled throughout the country, appeared to have attended the 6pm screening alone.

An autopsy will be carried out tomorrow to determine the cause of death."

.....come on,is it not obvious? is the autopsy even necessary-the man's been through enough as it is. we all know what he died of.

When I look at the Stars...

2010-07-03T10:01:00.018-06:00

Last night my planned date was a hit-no surprises there, I have to admit when there's a theme I normally excel ;)
So our theme was: stargazing. We had been wanting to go forever but it always rained or snowed or was at least cloudy everytime we tried to plan ahead for it. So by not saying out loud what we were going to do and keepin it a secret I tricked the weather gods. Our night was a 3 phase evening:

1st phase:

I made Cody drive and I just told him where or when to turn because his car has a link to hook my ipod up to and, of course, I had made a star-themed playlist. The playlist included hits like: constellations by jack johnson, yellow by coldplay, and selections from october sky. So I took us to our restaurant of choice: Apollo Burger...ya know....like...Apollo 13! (i know it's a stretch) I was thrilled when I remembered there was a restaurant like this cause there is a surprisingly low ammount of space-themed restaurants here in Provo....I know....a travisty.
The burgers were good and the fries were GREAT-perfect ammount of crispy and potatoe-i-goodness. In short, a good choice.
(disclaimer: I don't really like any of these photos of myself but my desire to share and blog is stronger than my desire to keep a certain image of myself ;)

Phase 2:
So phase two, I had Cody drive us to the Provo city Library-yeah, he wasn't expecting this curve ball, where we saw Chels and Dan! What can I say, great minds think a like. So I signed up for a library card. I feel very legit and a strange increase urge to read and gain knowledge...or atleast rent some of their movie selection. Anywho, so we got some books from the library to help us stargaze later. It's amazing how heavy astronomy books can be, but whatever...I gues they were good for the pics/charts. Then we had some fun reading some kids books like goodnight moon etc. (still on topic). Then we stopped by our apartment so Cody could change into pants to avoid the bugs (which didn't happen) and a flashlight and for me to get a blanket and our treats.

one of the books were filled with gems like this:

my favorite part: "The Fox: It's not a large constellation, and it has no very bright stars. It doesn't look much like a fox, either."

Phase 3:
So the main part of the evening. We drove up Provo Canyon and up Squaw Peak Trail-I know...how scandelous of us ;) So we stopped at the typical squaw peak look out just to see the view-it was pretty pretty I have to admit....and SUPER windy, and to prove it-the following:

BTW: my hair was staticky the rest of the freakin' evening!

So then we continued on up the trail for a ways and then we found a convenient spot to park off to the side of the trail and a beautiful green field over the rail-fence. So we set up camp in the field-picturesque, private and enough off the beaten trail to avoid cops coming and telling us to leave etc., but we paid for it in bug bites-the mosquitos were VERY excited that we were there. I didn't get bit too bad cause Cody is just SO tasty to mosquitos that they all swarmed to him. It also doesn't help that his bites instantly swell the second he gets bit- I dont know, it seems that nature doesn't want him to survive: tasty blood, yet allergic to bites, shrug. Ooo, wait, let me ask how they are doing....they're doing fine...he said he got 8/9 bites to which I replied..."that's it?" "ok, make it sensational, say 100's, say I was running through the woods screaming and slapping myself". Thank you. That's all I wanted-a good story for my blog 8)

so I'd say the first stars we saw were around 9:20ish and by 10:00 we could see a good ammount. The ones that we could recognize what they were would be: one of the dippers. If it was the lil' dipper than we also found the north star, but if it was the big dipper than we could have seen ursa major but it was hard cause the east part of the sky was really light from the city so we only could see the dipper part of it. OO! oh yeah, I saw a shooting star. It was SO cool! It lasted for like two and half seconds, so pretty long, and it was so bright-the tail turned white but the ball of rock going through the atmosphere was actually orangey-yellow, could tell it was burning up....it was so cool, it kind of took my breath away. Sadly Cody missed it. We also saw some satelites, planes, and tons of beautiful stars-seriously. It would get pretty windy so we were kind of cold even though it wasn't that cold. We lasted til about 11 and then we headed back. O yeah! I forgot the best part: our treats-also themed:

a 360 view of our spot:

hmm...i don't want to end on that pic cause frankly it's the least favorite of myself...oh yeah, so we watched My sister's keeper thursday night-talk about a DOWNER. I mean I have some sad/realistic movies that I love, that are life-affirming, but this was just...depressing....and we were both sufficiently bummed after it-don't go see it, the preview is very tempting, make it seem like it will be this warm fuzzy movie but it's really not...anywho......bce! (means 'everything' in Russian, pronounced: "fsyoe")

The lucky winner

2010-06-24T13:15:00.004-06:00

so here is the picture that we decided to use for the invitation:

It was way hard cause there were so many good ones, but don't worry we'll use a lot of the ones you see on facebook at the different receptions etc cause they are too good to not use 8) It was so funny, picking this one- First we each went through all the pictures seperately and wrote down all the ones we liked. Then we went through that list and fine-tuned it and picked only the ones that REALLY made us excited. Then we compared our lists and only wrote down ones that we both selected. Then we went through and selected ones we thought would work for an invitation-since we're most likely doing an invitation with a single photo now and not the costoco/collage technique. We got it down to 6 photos. Then we each had to pick 3 favorites of the 6 and wrote them down on seperate pieces of paper without letting the other see- we picked the same 3, so then it was down to 3. Then we picked our favorite 2-again, the same ones. Then we picked our favorite and walla! we picked the same picture. Thanks to being naturally unified in our opinion it was easy and we're both happy with it 8)

Summer Splash

2010-06-23T15:35:00.003-06:00

it's amazing how much easier it is to get over swimsuit shyness when you have new cute swimsuits ;)

My goal is to be tan...ner....by the wedding...ok my goal is to have people be able to look at me directly without blinding themselves with my translucent skin.

In other news we picked the picture we'll use for the invitations! I'll post some engagement pictures on facebook. 8)

Gary Sholund Richards

2010-06-20T13:52:00.002-06:00

Where to start, where to start...if any of you know my dad,you know that there are layers there. So sit back and relax as we peel back the layers that make my dad the man who can easily scare any young men and then turn around and coo at babies...ok, he doesn't coo...but kids love him.

So the initial layer-the visible layer....scary I know, haha jk. So while growing up my dad had quite the reputation for sternness. I think it's a combination of things. He is a go-getter. He likes to take charge and get the job done and can be incredibly focused-skills he has acquired over the years by providing for us I'm sure. Also, he isn't the type of person to wear every emotion on his sleeve. Don't get me wrong, the better you know him you can read his expressions-they're just more subtle than other peoples'. It's like....ya know how there are some people who are very animated, will laugh at things that aren't funny? well...dad will give an appreciative smile but he's sincere. He's not going to act a certain way if he's not feeling it.
While growing up I prolly felt that dad was too strict/had too many rules etc...but looking back I see that everytime he gave me the choice while still letting me know how he felt about it, and I did what I wanted-it ALWAYS backfired. It was actually pretty annoying (ya know how kids hate it when their parents are right.)

Some things that you may not have realized about him:
-he's an AVID BYU sports fan. ok...so this is an obvious one. (football, basketball, volleyball being the 3 biggies, but also watches rugby and enjoys challenging members of the racquetball team to play when he's in town).
-he is athletic having played golf earlier in his life and now has moved on to racquetball going 3 times a week and playing all guys way younger than him and beating them for the most part.
-he is a lover of musicals. Every sunday since I can remember was game night (which brings me to my next point: he loves card games) we would play games and listen to musicals. I grew up on: Les Meserables, Pirates of Penzance, Guys and Dolls, 1776, and others.
-He will at times walk through the house and sing along quite loudly and sill..ily? to the songs
- he is a lil OCD-and REALLY likes cleanliness. Once my parents were out of town for a few weeks one summer and I had some friends over for 4th of July and as they were leaving I mentioned how I had to start cleaning up and they all stood and stared at me in shock. "but...your house is so clean!" yeah...I cleaned for a few hours and then dad got home, looked around and said..."Whitney, will you sweep the kitchen-it's a wreck" 8)
-on that same note he is a germaphobe-won't touch hand rails in public, use public restrooms, and doesn't exactly love shaking hands. (he's kind of like Monk...only not so bad as that)
- My dad has that dad ability to just know where he is or where to go or how to get somewhere. I don't know what it is...maybe it's a guy thing, but honestly if we are on a roadtrip dad just magically knows/has a sense of where to go-even if he's never been there before, and he's not checking the map every ten minutes and just has the confidence that everything will work out...which..is prolly why it does.
- my dad was always very supportive/protective of mom. I remember once one of my brothers said something or was disrespectful in some way and let's just say we learned really quick that that would not be tolerated.
-he was always an example to me of quietly doing what was expected of you in regards to church. He isn't one to toot his own horn and frankly he doesn't like being overly praised, but will always fulfill his callings and I was really impressed by that. I know he doesn't love small-talking with people, whenever a meeting is out we are out the door-we don't mingle, but as a bishop he would smile and talk with everyone around him. That taught me that it doesn' matter if you feel shy or socially unmotivated, that's no excuse.

I could go on and on but mainly I'm just greatful for a dad that lived all of the convictions that he believed in and was a great example to me and my brothers. Sure he has his quirks and that's what I love most about him. I always know I can go to him with any problems and that he will help me/it will all work out.
Happy Father's Day dad! I love you.

for whenever I begin to take life too seriously

2010-06-15T23:13:00.000-06:00

Baby Laughs And Falls Over

Mr. Happy | MySpace Video

roll 'em

2010-06-14T17:15:00.003-06:00

I love movies. Always have...and most likely always will-though I wonder if they'll be able to come out with just as good ones as my childhood. I realized today one of the probably many reasons why I love movies. The ones that I love are always associated with memories and moments from my life.

There's Little Women- I would always watch this with mom-it was our time to cuddle and just for 2 hours feel like we were in a house of girls and not all boys. I also connected with this movie cause I always wanted a sister and felt like this was as close as I could get.

Twister...well...I grew up in Oklahoma and always LOVED storms/tornadoes and the feeling I would get when I saw one blowing in. (mom also shares this passion with me-once there was a tornado coming. we were all in our "safe room" and dad had to go outside and get mom to come in who was just standing and looking at the sky)

the Indiana Jones/old Star Wars series. These we ALWAYS watched when we would go visit Grandpa Richards on their big screen tv which always seemed cool. Plus all my brothers loved these movies which meant I instantly loved them as well. I even had a phase where I wanted to be an archeologist.

Father of the Bride (I & II). This movie always reminded me of dad. Very loving and protective of his family and very aware of finances ;) Being the only daughter I always knew we had a special connection/bond from father-daughter dances to now being the father of the bride.

Family Stone. This movie me and mom discovered-I can't remember now, who found out about it, but we both just LOVE to watch this movie. I love the feeling of family in this movie-it's very accurate. There are parts that make you cry, laugh, and it just reminds me of our family. Like in this family, teasing/joking is the main love language of my family. We obviously love each other but we're not afraid to call each other out on our stuff...and when ever we get together we just seem to fall back into our different roles as kids.

Though I don't have special connections to ALL movies...well...I have connections with most. I don't know why, it's just how my brain works...or at least I remember where I was in life/what I was doing when I saw a movie-so watching them again feels like when you look through an old photo album.

I know most people watch movies for entertainment and that's cool, but there is so much more to be gained by actively watching/thinking/applying things to your own life.

shrug, I dunno...I just watched family stone and it's like taking a quick trip back home again or seeing an old friend.
alright, alright, enough of the warm mushy stuff- go watch any of the above movies if you have not seen them-that's an order!

Everything is Illuminated

2010-06-13T00:21:00.009-06:00

This movie always puts me in a nastolgic mood for my mission. This movie really nails the over-all mentality/personality that is so common over in eastern europe and the funny situations that arise when west meets east. A line that I like from the movie: Everything is illuminated in light of the past. It's our past experiences that give us understanding and that we are always connected with our past-carry it with us whereever we go to some degree. You want to see proof of this-just look at all the psychiatrists and how busy they are 8)

It really is another world over there, but a world that I slowly began to understand-maybe not in a concrete way, but I at least began to feel it/get it. Here are some pictures that I never get tired of looking at that seem to capture the essence of the land/people I met over there:

Hilarious-thanks Council Bluffs!

2010-06-07T23:45:00.000-06:00

under-used yet over appreciated?

2010-06-07T16:57:00.004-06:00

I've been thinking lately about how I don't really blog much anymore..and the little blogging I do do is more pictures than words. I'm sure no one is complaining about pictures-I personally love when people post pics on their blogs, but I was just trying to figure out why I haven't had that urge to blog like I have had in the past. It's probably just a phase, but also I think that as of late I have been both overwhelmed and...uh....underwhelmed all at the same time-if that makes any sense.

The wedding is getting closer and closer-AUG 21st!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and things are really starting to come together-we just did our engagements last week-I think they went well (cody's worried about his smile-haha isn't that cute?) and I can't wait to get them back this week sometime to look through. Of course I'll post them up here so people can help us decide which look better etc. The receptions are coming together-thanks A TON to Joy and Mom!!! they're finding/making a lot of the stuff for the houston reception and mom will just bring it out with her for the reception out here- translation: a lot of it is taken care of. The luncheon is less of a mystery now since we know the place and just have to pick the menu/decide on decorations for the table etc. So as you can see things are really going well all things considered. Invitations are a lil more of a mystery but I just got a tip from chels that you can do the greeting card/postcard style invitations with pictures at Costco for pretty cheap- I wasnt' sure if I wanted to do this style but the price seems right and it's WAY easy-less assembly and when you have 500+ invites to send out that is a must.

Now to my underwhelmedness....I still don't have a job. Granted, Andrea's boss said he'd contact me this week and Andrea has talked me up and I KNOW they are in need of a few more hires, still...nothing is for certain...
Also, I manage to spend the first half of my day over at my old mission president's house working in the yard so there's an ever-so-slight influx of cash which helps.

It's just so funny how when you're swamped with school etc. you sit around day dreaming about having free time and doing absolutely nothing/being lazy, but then if you have no structured time...well....after awhile it really starts to put you in a slump. And over-all "blah" useless feeling-even if everything else in your life is going great. I need to be busy-I thrive under having tons to do and the more I have the more productive/efficient I am...I'm being under-used.
It seems that we as humans need structure/some sort of organization or order to our lives. I mean, it makes sense since we come from a pretty organized being...(yes, that was a reference to God).
So anywho...I'm thinking of doing an experiment...super-hyper structuring my day. Making a lil chart where every hour is accounted for whether it's: job hunting, cleaning my room, cleaning the living/kitchen area, specific wedding planning, reading a book, starting a work out routine-this whole p90x intrigues me-that or yoga, buy and start working on my gifts to my bridesmaids (soon to be sister in-laws!!),etc.
I'm just so used to being a slave to my shedule that I never got good at self directing/controlling my own schedule. Cody works all day from 5 AM to 5 PM and is so productive/accompishes so much-I'm really proud of him, and seeing him do so much makes me even more aware of the stark difference in my own schedule. I want to have just as full of a day/accomplishments to talk about too-then at the end of the day I won't feel restless/blah, cause I've accomplished a day's work and can then play without feeling "blah". Cody's so great and supportive/patient/positive about the whole thing, but I think we'd all feel a lil better knowing that we're BOTH saving up for the future. I don't know what I'd do without Cody in the evenings though-I'd prolly be found rocking back and forth reciting the entire 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls to myself.
I just feel like being insanely productive! I mean, I guess not having a job yet has been some kind of blessing cause we've managed to get a majority of the planning done and we still have 70+ days so we definitely won't be as stressed towards the end, but let's face it, there isn't enough planning to keep me busy the whole summer....i'm too efficient for my own good....

hmm...I think I want to buy and paint a flower pot and plant some gerber daisies and hopefully they'll bloom in time for the wedding-like a count down or something....

any other good ideas I could do/learn to do?

p.s. I've decided I want to be a little girl (was at the mall looking for dresses for the neices and all of their clothes are so cheap! 10$ jeans, 15$ dresses etc.)

phew

2010-06-02T14:40:00.006-06:00

man, it has been crazy lately. but crazy in a good way.

I think planning a wedding and trying to make 8+ different people all on the same page and happy is why most people tend to stress/freak out and wish for elopement. Though there have been stressful moments or times when I longingly wished to not have to have an opinion or make a decision, it's really not as bad as some say. The trick is keeping the proper perspective and to really enjoy the fun and novelty of all these steps because you're only going to live through them once and let's face it, at the end of the day (that day being August 21st) it'll all be a blur and we can begin the rest of our lives.
One thing that I can't wait for is to really save and not have any HUGE payments all at once like with this wedding (yes, my parents are paying for pretty much everything, but still that doesn't make it any less stressful).

Another good tip:
do nice relaxing activities in your spare time-if you don't have spare time, then make spare time otherwise you're going to have a melt-down. Some of our favorite activities of late have been hiking. We've done battle creek canyon-previous post and recently stuart falls (pics below)-waaaay pretty and waaaay easy (unless you have to carry a 180 pound guy with a broken foot down the mountain-don't ask 8)

Battle Creek Falls

2010-05-23T14:53:00.015-06:00

Some pics of our hike yesterday-we're gonna try and hike a lot this summer-it's so much fun and I love being out in nature + hikers are very happy/friendly people...very rarely do you meet a grumpy hiker so it's always a pleasant time.

Hmmmm

2010-05-23T00:23:00.002-06:00

So today was AWESOME!
After sleeping in (whoopsie) and quickly doing my jobs for cleaning checks I went to the bank to deposit some checks, got gas in frida, and then tried unsuccessfully to find my fav kind of microwave popcorn. Neither smith's, macey's, nor walmart carried it.....did I just use neither/nor in the correct way?

shrug, anywho. Then the great part of the day started-me and Cody went on a hike-i can't remember what it's called now, but it was way easy with some nice waterfalls (and no, it wasn't bridal veil falls). Pics to come on that. Then it was dinner at applebee's then home where I read a lil of crime and punishment/took a short nap. I'm really liking this book so far-can tell that I might be able to really get into it.

So the reason for my title tonight- we watched avatar tonight. And really that's all I have to say...hmmm......I dunno, I just don't feel strongly either way- I didn't LOVE it, but I didn't HATE it. Obviously this movie got the press and attention it did because of the technology put in to it. The story just...didn't really do it for me-it was predictable and cliche (as many people have pointed out to me, it really was just fern gully mixed with pocahontas (sp?) I mean, yes there is blatant propaganda in it, and yes there was some obvious manipulation of the audience's feelings with camera angles/effects etc....but that's just it, I STILL didn't really feel anything. During the battle, sure I knew who I was supposed to want to win-the natives but I just wasn't emotionally invested in them. Maybe I'm heartless, shrug, but it was more like watching a national geographic special. Sure it's sad when the lion catches the gazelle-and you kinda want to see it evade the lion just to be different, but either way...it's nature, whatever happens is the circle of life and you move on.
Strangely I really don't feel a desire to see it again either. I think what bugs me when it boils down to it is the extreme depiction of both sides. Yes I realize it's easier to make a clearer point when you deal in absolutes (man=evil, nature=good) but it's just not realistic and we don't walk away from this movie knowing how to apply the principles in the real world cause we're not crazy gun slinging macho guys who want to cut down trees. We're normal people who most likekly enjoy nature. I'd appreciate a more balanced and realistic view of things because our world is not in absolutes-thus the solutions to environmental problems are not easy. I mean, if we went with this movie's philosophy we'd stop any further development, abandon our society, and go live on berries in the jungle-sure a nice sentiment but not realistic or helpful.

whatever, i can see the merit in it but will prolly not watch it again.

yay for impulse shopping

2010-05-22T11:43:00.003-06:00

I have discovered a new and amazing type of M&M-they are really catering to women's cravings now. So this totally fulfills your desire for chocolate/salty...yeah...it's pretty much amazing-and i think these are even better than the crispy M&Ms that they had in the blue bag before.

in other news-last night we actually kinda had a cool storm-lightening, a lil thunder-just a lil, and freezing rain (there is snow up around the Y) crazy crazy summer...

Weekend activities

2010-05-16T17:37:00.006-06:00

Well other than Cody falling deathly ill Friday it was a pretty fun weekend. I knew it was bad when he had me come and get him from his internship-i guess we went to tucano's one too many times. After an enormous ammount of sleep and of course my nusing abilities, cody was back on his feet Saturday for our friend eric and heidi's wedding 8) They got married in the Provo temple and had a beautiful luncheon and reception afterwards. We lovingly decorated their car which turned out being more complicated than you'd think. Me and code went to get balloons and got helium ones cause-come on...those are just funner. So as we tried to muscle them into the backseat a bunch of them popped-our money dissolving into thin air literally cause the car was so hot. That was tense drive home let me tell you-just waiting for that loud pop in your ear. So with our balloons and an offical car decorating kit, some white shoe polish and a six pack of full rootbeer cans-yes, that's right, FULL root beer cans we set them up with a car to wisk them off to their new future.

ladies and gentleman the ring!

2010-05-14T16:41:00.012-06:00

It came!

2010-05-13T23:25:00.003-06:00

So we were pleasantly surprised when my ring came in today-a whole 5 days before they said it would. It's absolutely beautiful and I'm so proud of it-everyone loves it and oooo's and aaahh's accordingly, but they are sincere ooo's and aaa's not the pity ooo's and aaa's. 8)
The funny thing is, is that I suck at taking pics of a ring on my hand-i can never get a good focused shot that really shows how cool it is....soo....sorry? haha more motivation to come to the reception 8) (don't worry mom i'll get on skype with you so you can see it tomorrow 8)
We had tucanos tonight-soooo good and yet I am always sooo bloated after that place-i don't think my system knows how to break down that much protein.

anywho, i can NOT wait to find a job-getting a lil stir crazy here and I can't do tons of wedding stuff during the day like dress shopping cause the few friends i have here are functioning members of society with 8-5 type jobs and I can't go alone to do that stuff cause than it becomes a chore and it's not fun anymore...it's like being alone on your birthday (i wouldn't know, but I'm sure it sucks).

Here's to the phone ringing off the hook...ya know....if it had a hook....

Amazing 24!

2010-05-12T23:44:00.005-06:00

What a great birthday!

It started out pretty low key. I got some errands done, watched some Gilmore Girls, and did my hair. Sadly my package from mom didn't get here in time but that's ok-it'll just be a lil extension of my bday tomorrow I guess 8)
Then Cody got home from work and we went to eat at Zuppa's (yes it's a chick place but it's still good food + i knew we would be going to the manliest of manly restaurants-tacanos tomorrow with nate and drea so I thought this would be a good balance.
It was good as usual and after we drove up to Rock Canyon Park where he gave me a card that was good for one free nice picture frame for our future home which I thought was nice yet random and especially when it specifically said: a picture frame, a really big one, like 24x36 or something.....yeah, interesting detail. So I thanked him and then he said: now, what should we put in the frame? Maybe we could put whatever is in the car.
By this point I was kinda lost i won't lie but we went back to the car and in the trunk was a tube. We took it back to the bench and I opened and unrolled it wondering if it could actually be what I was beginning to think it was. Believe it or not it was one of my favorite paintings of all time and by far favorite painting in the MoA on campus:
Fallen Monarchs by William Bliss Baker

That's right, Cody hired an artist in Salt Lake City to recreate this painting and it looks awesome! I can't wait to get it mounted in a nice frame. I'm just so blown away...I mean I'd sit forever just looking at this painting in the MoA thinkin of how cool it would be to own something like that and now I do. I can't wait to put it up in our home, to continue to collect and learn about art throughout my life and make my home a place of culture where my kids can be exposed to different styles and ways of expressing yourself-it's just really cool. Anywho, I was completely blown away and still can't believe it. Here's a pic of ours but it has a protective plastic sheet over the canvas until we get it mounted so you can't tell as well from the pic, but it looks great!

After that we came back to our apartment and were greeted by my best friends- f6 and r22 that were in the area, natasha malinina and her husband jordan (my trainer from the mish), and nate and drea. We had some cake and ice cream (i blew out the candles in one breath thank you very much) and then played some werewolves. I also got an itunes gift card,a chinese finger trap, a jumpy frog, a kazoo, and my favorite- the parachute man.
It was a great day and I'm so grateful for loving friends and a fiance who loves and supports me in my interests and passions!
more pics to come on a later date
thanks everyone!!!

stages

2010-05-11T23:25:00.002-06:00

It's been so interesting interacting with all the different people I have around me lately. I'm suddenly noticing more the different stages we are all at. I have some friends who are younger-just starting college, a brother who is just starting a mission, a brother who is married with 4 kids, current friends who are engaged-soon to be married (this sat), friends who are recently married, friends who have been married a year or two, newly expecting for the first time friends, friends who are retired and empty nesters, all at different stages and what's the constant over-lapping theme? Their best friend/companion/spouse/however you wanna say it.

It's just real cool to see where I've been and a sneak peek at what's coming down the road knowing that I'll have a constant too. It's hard to think of any situation or problem that would REALLY make me panic as long as I knew code would be with me. Whatever happens we'll cope and deal with it together and it's just really....cool for lack of a better word. Also, it just reinforces to me the need to truly enjoy every step of every stage-all stages have difficulties, it's just a given cause otherwise we'd get bored and lazy, but there's ALWAYS joy to be derived even if it's just from the fact that we're together.

so many people have mentioned that they wished they had just eloped or not cared so much about little details when it came to their wedding and I am grateful for the reminder. I really want to enjoy every part of this wedding process and feel confident that I will-sure there will be stressful times but as long as I keep focused on what's REALLY important than I won't care about the little stuff and everything that works out will just be an added perk.

8)

2010-05-08T00:30:00.002-06:00

today was a good day. Had an interview that resulted in me getting an internship at the springville museum of art for the fall/winter semesters which I'm pretty excited about-can finally get some experience and learn what skills i need etc 8)
then it was off to pull weeds at President's. Still no job yet but i've managed to start working for President again until I do find something. Went walking around center street with the Louders and ran into some friends and ended up talking on a street corner for awhile-fun stuff. (i know i sound sarcastic but it was fun). Tomorrow is the temple in Ogden for one of Cody's cousins and then wedding planning with drea and dinner with the louders/and games. Sunday we're gonna go have dinner with Kris' family-can't wait! haven't seen them FOREVER 8)
....hmmm.....I've just now remembered why I should not write blog posts when I'm tired-it turns into an itenerary....oh well, i started well enough.
g'night

It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that....ring!

2010-05-02T12:54:00.003-06:00

Yes, it is now officially official! and yes, I was COMPLETELY blown away-not that he asked, after all I knew that the Texas trip was so he could talk to dad and we had been ring shopping and even had scheduled the temple already (August 21st), but I knew that my ring wouldn't be here for awhile. Because of the design of the ring, they couldn't size it down + apparently someone came in and bought the ring we loved an hour before Cody came to buy it (yes people, I am a trend setter). So since I have a miniscule size 4 ring finger they had to make a fresh brand new one in my size which is great since I know no one else has ever worn it but it takes 3 weeks to get back. Because of all this I figured I had some time before the question was popped-apparently not!
So I got back Thursday evening from texas-had dinner with Cody and his good friend Wayne who told us the incredible story of his engagement/meeting his wife etc. Friday night we watched our cousin Jeff and Sally's kids with Nate and Drea which was way fun and then came yesterday.
I had thought of a fun secret activity we could do in the afternoon- (we had always talked about going to IKEA and looking around and playing house.) In Hind sight I guess I sort of noticed that Cody seemed nervous about it and kept asking when we would be back etc. and emphasized that we needed to be back here at 4 for something he was planning. Though this wasn't very suspect to me cause we always will plan secret somethings for each other and so it wasn't really anything out of the ordinary.
We had fun at IKEA (according to Cody he was acting squirrely and nervous all day but I didn't notice it). Then we came back and had a few minutes until 4 so he drove to our favorite spot that we have to go and talk. Again, not totally out of the ordinary though normally we tend to go there in the evening than the middle of the day but whatever, i was still clueless.
We sat and talked about our favorite memories that we had at this spot-for me one was one particular night when we walked up there (a hill up near the base of the Y where there's a church) and just talked for hours and it was really fun to learn about each other, another was when it was my year anniversary of being home from the mission and we went out there with hot cocoa and sweet potatoes ( it's an inside thing) and he just sat and listened to me talk about my mission.
After we had talked about that for awhile I unknowingly gave him the perfect opportunity when I said: I can't wait for all of this wedding stuff to feel real and then he asked: when do you think that'll be? I unknowingly said: oh, probably when there's a ring on my finger.
As he reached for his pocket he said: I can help with that. My eyes got huge, my heart started pounding and the following romantic conversation took place: You do not have a ring! Yes I do. No you don't!Yes I do... haha
warning me that it was a substitute until my ring would get in he opened the box and the above ring was there and he asked me. As a girl you never know how you're going to react in this moment-you see in movies all sorts of reactions:
the huge smile and huge eyes
the crying reaction
the screaming and jumping up and down reaction
there are many, and I always wondered how it would feel and how I would react. My reaction was completely dazed with some tears thrown in. It's just hard to describe the touching feeling when someone you love declares their love for you and wants you-all of you, the good,bad, and the ugly for all of eternity. I feel so lucky and oh yeah, of course I said yes, though I had to repeat myself cause I think Cody was so nervous/dazed himself that he didn't hear me the first time, haha.

After that we changed and went to dinner at The Roof-a way nice restaurant at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building that overlooks the Salt Lake temple which is where we'll be sealed for time and all eternity August 21st, at 9:00 am by my grandpa Richards. We are sooo excited and can't wait to now officially start planning (even though we have the date saved, locations and dates for both receptions, the colors, and an overall look/style for the wedding-pictures to be posted on that subject at another time. AFter dinner we walked around the temple took some pics (as seen below) and then stopped by Grandpa and Grandma Richards' to tell them the good news. It was so fun and sitting and talking with them, seeing where they are in life and how their family has grown and seeing where we're starting out and all that we have to look forward to.
I feel so lucky to be marrying the love of my life and best friend-it's gonna be awesome! and I canNOT get used to the sparkle coming from my left hand-I must have ADD cause I keep getting distracted and thinking: ooo! shiny!

Transitions: Turbulent or Thrilling?

2010-04-30T17:37:00.003-06:00

I've been thinking a lot about transitions lately and how I have dealt with them over the years...ok or rather, avoided them.

As a dear friend once said: I truly am a walking contradiction. On one hand I love having a set schedule/routine, something that creates stability in your life. At the same time every now and then I will get stir-crazy and restless, and will want to just go do something random and unique. Point in case: one night my friends and I were all in this bored/restless mood and so we bought oatmeal, and rootbeer and drove around provo mixing the two in our mouths and one of us would be somewhat near someone else on a sidewalk or a park/somewhere and would procede to pretend to throw-up while the rest watched the reactions laughing in the bushes. Crazy?! absolutely, prolly the craziest thing I have done to date. Don't worry, when I get this spontaneous mood I am more likely to catch a movie on the fly or go for a walk, or a road trip or something- a lil less gross. So though I love spontaneous things and events just naturally unfolding on the fly, I don't handle transitions as well.

Having said all that, I think I'm getting better. For example, when I started school out at BYU I was on the verge of stressing out and panic attacks for the first couple of weeks until I got into the groove. Ya know, the usual symptoms: throat in a constantly clenched state, feels hard to breathe, rapid pulse, loss of appetite, and tears never seem too far away. Yeah....basically a wreck.

Though like I said, I think I'm getting better. I think the mission helped a lot too-the constant need for rolling with the punches and not knowing if you're moving to a new area/getting a new companion helps you to just relax and go with it cause otherwise you'd always be a wreck.

A lil mini transition that I'm going through at the moment is coming back here to Provo for summer. Now this is a mini mini mini transition. Transition one: my roommate is gone- all graduated and off saving the world and my room is incredibly EMPTY and CLEAN both of which freak me out a lil bit. Transition two: no school....no structure until I find a full time job-I hate feeling like I'm not a contributing member of society so believe me, i'm trying. Transition three: thinking about how I only have two more semesters and then I'm done...off in the real world which somehow doesn't appear remotely as fun to me, but that's just me (of course I'm lucky enough to love my major, clases, etc).

I know it's just a matter of time, pretty soon this will feel normal and I'll get a job which will help GREATLY and until then I just have to remind myself to be open to change and what learning will come from it. I mean, I always love the transitions after the fact and see how it's helped shape who I am, it's just hard to remember that on this side of the transition.
I wanna learn to embrace and enjoy the transitional moments of my life though-I guess they're kind of the most exciting part of my life- the catalyst that sparks change and development right? ....right.

2010-04-28T23:26:00.003-06:00

it's a very cool feeling when you rant and rave in a blog post about a problem and then sit down ten seconds later to prepare a sunday school lesson all about the children of israel and how they always complained and their difficulties caused them to complain about God rather than turn to Him to help them through their trials....
humbled much?