Wednesday, February 22, 2012

"No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it." James A. Baldwin

Okay guys.
 So this weekend was spent with lots of tissues, NyQuil, and Vitamin C..
Therefore we didn't have as many adventures as could have been hoped for.
But fear not.

Today I thought I would share a fun memory that I haven't yet..


So Idaho has definitely opened my eyes up to many things that I definitely had not experienced 
[or ever dreamed I would experience]
before moving here..



There has been a lot more ice..


& Significantly More Potatoes..

 

& Lots more Wind...
Which to tell you the truth I'm grateful for because..


It has helped me develop skills, talents, and hobbies that I definitely didn't have before..


And it's really not that I've never flown kites.. 
My family gave me the New Mexico kite flying experience nobody fret..
These guys are just good up here.
Pretty much every "Idaho Day" is a good kite flying day.

& my sweet roommate/friend Shelby has gone out of her way to make sure that I have the best 
"Idaho Experience"
possible..
Shelb I hope you know how much I love you. & how grateful I am that I've been able to share all of the fun we have together.
:)

So one Sunday [after our kite flying experience]
Shelby took me and our other dear friend Chantal to play with her neighbors 
new baby goats..

None of my neighbors have ever had baby goats before..
& they are so dang cute to watch prance and to cuddle with and hold..


But here's the thing..
They are also extremely loving and friendly.


Maybe even a little too loving and friendly..
:)
It was definitely my most up close and personal experience with a sweet little goat.


& then the best thing ever happened..
We got to milk them!


And that might sound not as exciting to anyone else..
But it's something that i always wanted to do and can I just tell you that I thought it was SO exciting.


I am so grateful for the things that I have been able to see and to learn and the different culture that I have grown to love. 
It's funny how different places in the same country..
[Even the same side of the country]
can be..
& I know that if we will take the time to appreciate the culture of these different places we ourselves will become more cultured and we will make life long friends who will enrich our lives.

Thanks everyone for the sweet messages you send me and the good friends that you are,
I love you very much.

I hope you all had a wonderful President's Day Weekend & are enjoying the short week.
:)

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

"Whoso loves, believes the impossible." -Elizabeth Barrett Browning


Happy Valentines Day

Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.
Zelda Fitzgerald



Happy Over-sized Cards & Presents That Make You Smile.


Happy Loved Ones to Share Surprises With..



Happy Love Letters and Scavenger Hunts..


Happy Messages That Warm Your Heart..
  
Happy Just Being Happy..


& Most of All Happy Love Day.

I wish you all all the love in the world.. 
because boy does it feel good.

Monday, February 13, 2012

"Some of the secret joys of living are not found by rushing from point A to point B, but by inventing some imaginary letters along the way." -Douglas Pagels

So Blake informed me this week that we were 
"taking the weekend off"

 

& even though I argued.. and told him we had too much to do.. and made lists of things that NEEDED to be done..
I eventually gave in and decided that it would be really nice to have a couple of days to rest and relax.


Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.  ~J. Lubbock

I think that in life we 
[and by we I definitely mean I.. and assume I'm not alone in this]
need to remember to give ourselves a break.


So for our "weekend off" I had [what I thought was..]  
an ingenuous idea..
& If I remember correctly I am pretty sure it came to me right while Blake was in the middle of a quiz or something weird and unimportant he was distracted with..
That didn't stop me obviously [poor guy..]
And I proceeded to ask what his favorite kind of cereal was as a child..
& what him and his siblings used to do Saturday mornings..
& I also [casually of course] brought up cartoons we used to watch..
Then when he started saying Dark Wing Duck and boy cartoons..
 I knew I had to improvise..


SO Saturday morning I made my sweet good sported fiance attend breakfast at 8 o'clock A.M,
and I surprised him with a full blown 
Cereal and Cartoons Breakfast Morning.
Complete with Fruity Pebbles and Despicable Me
[substituting in for boy cartoons]..


Then I spread out a blanket like my mom used to do for me and my brother and sister when we were younger,
& we started out our "morning off"  with Saturday Morning "cartoons" and some cuddling and relaxing in our pajamas.
:) 


& then Blake even agreed to go with me on a walk in downtown Rexburg 
[yes.. still in our pajamas..
and enjoy the nice day and stop for some [free] delicious  
Great Harvest Cinnamon Bread.
Someday I will probably stop mooching and buy some.
Someday.


&
[Once we had decided we had had enough of our pajama party]
  Saturday was also someone specials SWEET SIXTEEN..
& so we definitely wanted to make a special visit.


My cute future sister in law Madisyn turned 16! 
& She is just the sweetest girl you will ever meet..
so of course we had the best time celebrating with her..


Happy Birthday Maddy I sure love you cute girl!


& As you can see we also took the weekend off from our professional picture taking as well.
:)
[taking one good thing off.. deserves another..]

I hope you guys had a relaxing weekend too.
Happy Monday.. & start of a new week.
I hope you all have a great one!

Thursday, February 9, 2012

"I have recently taken up two new sports: roller skating and ankle spraining, in that order. I am getting quite good at both." -Miles Kington

So good news..
My laptop battery is just dead [which is much better than my WHOLE laptop dying on me]
& I can use it for small amounts of time now until it stops charging 
[yes, it is weird and probably more than just a battery problem.. but we are going to focus on the fact my computer is ON and working right now and deal with that later :) ]

& that means that I get to share with you my beautiful [cell phone] pictures from this weekend!
[There was a slight concern that even as coordinated as I am I could have put our camera in danger during our festivities]

SO
probably due to my joking around about how once winter comes along our lives consist of dessert, games, and movies
Blake has been quite the little date idea pool lately..


 & this last weekend we went roller skating with our cute friends
and it was such a fun, nostalgic, full of laughter night.
If you're wondering if anything has changed since the 90's.. 
oh it hasn't, so worry no more.

 

& here we have some more of our dear friends.
:)
Oh wait you can't see them? They are right there.. Those blurry squiggly smudges.
Yeah you're probably right.. my phone camera is not the BEST camera when you are moving..


But look it captures the essence of what people look like really well..
We are just REALLY fast skaters.
Those 8 years olds were sorry they went skating the same night as us.



[I was only slightly concerned that a little girl that came up to my hip was potentially going to school Blake at limbo and it was totally going to ruin his whole skating experience! But luckily for everyone.. games were put into age groups. phew. dodged that bullet]


& here is mister energy himself.
Can I tell you guys the funniest story.. please?

So Blake and I are driving back to Rexburg the next morning for church and I am trying to be quiet so that he can think about the lesson he has to teach in less than an hour.
& finally I can't take it anymore so I say something along the lines of so how are your lessons plans going..
[I can't even exactly remember what I said because his response trumped all my other thoughts]
& Blake is like "oh dangit,
I wasn't even thinking about it I was thinking about last night and all the SWEET tricks I was doing!"

What?! I let him have quiet time for 5 minutes and he is thinking about spinning off of the benches and skating in between peoples legs.
  Men.

Now other good news..
I have discovered the  most awesome BBQ sandwich recipe taken directly from 


Pulled Pork (Crock Pot)

 


 Blake declared this to be the best BBQ sandwich he had ever had!
Now he is just very nice about my cooking
BUT
This IS a five star 483 person rated recipe..
So I'm sharing it with you.

I hope you love it like we did.
& I hope you guys are having a great week.
Good Night.
:)

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

“Lift up your eyes upon. This day breaking for you. Give birth again. To the dream.” -Maya Angelou

So most devastatingly my laptop is broken.
My zipper on my backpack is broken.
The button on my coat even decided today was a good day to become broken off.
Everything is broken...
Why does life decide to break all at once? Could it not see that I am trying to fix the other broken things right now and am a little busy..
And this is adding slight inconvenience in my life actually.. believe it or not

 I am in the library on the school computers writing this to you..
Which means.. I can't download my pictures to my blog.

So I decided today would be a perfect day to announce that in May,
It's I think as official as it can be.
Blake and I will be MOVING about 50 miles outside of this beautiful sight..




Yes the BIG APPLE.
:)
And dang I'm nervous excited.
Blake got a job there for the summer..
[yes just the summer and then west coast we will be coming back because we would miss all of you loved ones way too much]

So right now I am needing to find an internship in the Princeton New Jersey area..
If anyone knows anyone or has any ideas I would be forever indebted  and grateful to you.
really.
[I haven't had a lot of extra time or sanity to be looking as much as I would like to so anything would help]


I hope that all of your Tuesdays and weeks.. and lives have been a little less full of broken..
:)
I love you guys.
Have a good night.

Monday, February 6, 2012

" I collect antiques. Why? Because they're beautiful." -Broderick Crawford

Want to see the most fun Friday afternoon Adventure?
 Because I sure want to show you..  
so it would work out perfectly if you did.


We have been driving past the cutest antique store forever and  
I have been really wanting to go for quite sometime now..

So Friday we finished our homework early & decided [after a much needed nap]
To go on a cute little adventure to start the weekend off right.


& One Good Antique Store..


Deserves Another I always say.. 
[during my lots of experience with antique stores of course]


It was so much fun browsing through these old antiques and imagining what they were used for back in their prime.


We found quite the collection of treasures.
[Some that I may be having to go back for when Blake and I have our own home]


& There was the cutest old man who joined us on our date and was convincing us that these things 
 weren't antiques,
They were things that he had owned growing up and they couldn't be "old"
& ya know.. when I saw those Beanie Babies I had to agree..
I did not grow up in the era of antiques and let me tell you about my Beanie Baby collection.
:)

Its funny how fast time goes.. and sad that things get old.


& this little beauty..


Was something I thought my Momma would appreciate. 
:)
& definitely inspired my desire for a bird.. 
[we may or may not have been on Craig's List that night looking up bird prices... :)]

 
And I spent the weekend bonding with my cute little future Brother in Law's bird 
Sir Kiwi.
I am turning in to my Mom.


But the next time I have a few extra hundred dollars laying around [ha] you know where that will be going..

I hope you guys had a fun weekend..
I have more stories that I want to tell you..
But today unfortunately,
I have a test. And a project. And homework. And class.
& life that gets in the way of things that I enjoy..
:)

So check back soon.
Happy Monday My Friends.

Friday, February 3, 2012

"A charming woman is a busy woman". -Loretta Young

SO yes. Yes I know..
I have gone from blogging hero..
[super awesome at keeping my Resolutions]
To blogging zero.

So what could I possibly be doing more important than documenting my life?
I know I know the answer should be that there is absolutely nothing.
But let me tell you.

Taking a full load of classes, trying to plan a wedding, and desperately looking for an internship in New Jersey is definitely taking its toll.

sometimes life is too busy for me.

So once again this is where I have spent much of my time since we have last spoken..



Just studying studying studying.
& making Blake's library experience awesome.. as usual.


Then in my spare time [ha.. ha. do people actually have that?]
I've been working on these little beauties.
 I will say though I've been so happy with how they've been coming out.
I've finished almost all of my bridesmaid bouquets and all of the groomsmen & grooms boutonnieres.
[I'll post more pictures of my hard work if  when they all get finished]


Then I'm pretty sure my sweetheart was inspired as we took our little Jazz trip a couple of weeks ago..


Because this has become a regular part of my routine lately..


  

  




These guys are seriously the funniest though. 
[This chair broke and you would never even know that anything had ever happened the way they acted.. or didn't react at all!]
Their team gets a long really well so they are fun to watch..
& they are completely undefeated so far!
[yes they may have only had two games.. who keeps track really]

& Through the stress there are always the sweet things in life that keep you going..

 So if you didn't grow up in the LDS church this might not look familiar to you.. So here is my enlightenment..
This cute little thing here is called heart attacking.
It's where you cut out lots of hearts and write nice things on them and stick them all over someones door to tell them that you love them and then you ring the door bell and run away.
:)
SO sweet right?
Well I probably haven't seen it for a solid five years or so..
& this last week this is what we found on our apartment door.
I love this.

This also.. is beautiful. 

  

 I won't go as far as to say that I want to live in the wintery weather for longer than I have too..
But it is really pretty sometimes & this particular day really took my breath away walking home.
I am really blessed to be here.

& finally
[I know everyone is probably like okay okay we get it.. you're in love.. stop now]
I can't explain how awesome it is to have a best friend helping you enjoy life and to remind me of the blessings I have when things get stressful.



He always is there to pick me up when I'm down.. & I think that people like that in life make all the difference. 
 I hope you guys had an awesome week and are as excited as I am that it's.. Friday!
 Enjoy your night off and take time to relax,
I know that's what I'll be doing.
:)