Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Holy cow. These past 3 or 4 months have been insane. New job, end of summer, family vacations, Ben's school starting, and a billion other things! Just letting everyone know that we're still alive. I would say that I'll do lots of posts soon about all of the fun stuff we've been up to, but lets be realistic here. History would suggest that I won't write another post for 6 months... ;) Just know that we are super happy and doing well. :)

P.S. I love Fall. By far my favorite season!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Garden

One thing that I really really like about the apartment that we're living in right now is that the woman who's basement we're living in, has a large garden area that she doesn't use and said that we were free to use it if we would like.

So last Saturday while Ben was at a study group, I went to town on getting all of the weeds and gunk out of the way. It's not even ready to be planted yet, but getting all of the layers of leaves and stuff moved off was a huge check off the list for getting the garden ready. Here are a couple of before and after pictures. Doesn't look like a lot, but it was packed pretty heavy!

This is what it looked like to begin with


After about two and a half hours of raking pulling, I finally got all of the gross stuff pushed aside


Then I started on getting the "grass" pulled out and switched to making the edge.

I was completely worn out by the end. I was only out there for like three and a half hours, but I was so tired! And I'm still sore! I guess that's what I get for not working out regularly... Anyway, I'm excited to finish up the prep this week, especially since my parents are taking us to J&J's tomato sale on Saturday.

I'm getting really excited about this whole garden business. I grew up in a home where we always had plenty of fresh vegetables all summer long, and I think it will be really fun to get my own little garden growing :)

Cooking Adventures - update

In January I wrote a post about how I was getting excited about cooking. That didn't last very long. I love being a wife, I really do. This may sound bizarre but I love cleaning, doing laundry, straightening the house, etc. - but cooking is really not my favorite thing to do.

Anyway, I thought I'd share a couple of photos showing my awesome cooking-skills:

This, my friends, is a piece of very burnt bacon. I kept saying to myself "I don't think it's done yet, maybe I should leave it in a little bit longer..." It practically turned to dust in my mouth ;)

This is chicken that I pulled out of the freezer to thaw, and forgot about. I found it like three weeks later.

I've cooked a little here and there and as I cook more it becomes less of a drag. It will take more time, but it is going better, and it's easier now that I've started to meal plan.

Actually, I signed up for e-mealz.com today and holy cow it is perfect for me. It plans a week's worth of cooking and even makes a menu for you! So cool. Hopefully it helps push me to cook more. :)

"Fires"

During the first summer of our marriage, Ben did "fires." I'm pretty sure anyone who reads this already knows what "going on fire" means, except maybe a few of my friends... sorry, I tried explaining it but after I typed it and read it over, it made me confused as to what he did so I erased it haha.

Anyway, so last summer was really wet (compared to other years) so lucky for me, Ben didn't get called out too much. But one fire he did get called onto was one in Grantsville, Utah. That's right. Like 45 minutes away... So I tagged along! Kind of... I went to work during the day and a few of the evenings, I drove out there and had him show me what it was like.

Here are some pictures (keep in mind that this fire camp was set up in a high school parking lot - there was grass and cement and it was all very CLEAN. Ben said that camps are usually really hot, dusty, dirty and are miles off of any main roads. But I'm glad it was so close and clean because I got to take picture of what he did :)

This is the trailer that he worked and slept in


Those boxes that he's kneeling by are all full of phones that he can set up if they need him to.
Ben by the satellite dish that he set up
Ben said that this was called the "rack" or electronics case.
Looks easy enough, right?
I took this picture one of the first days so there weren't that many people there yet. But this is a couple of rows of trailers that were set up (i.e. the communications trailer, the logistics trailer, etc)
Gross... I actually didn't use these. At all. I drove to the gas station down the street. Haha I know I'm a wimp but these really gross me out. (I hope I didn't creep that guy out by taking this picture...)
Mobile showers
Backside of the mobile showers. It's really cool how these are set up.
Hand-washing station
Food line. I'm surprise how well they fed them - they served a ton of food!
This is actually not a very good picture of the tents that the firemen slept in. In the park across the street, there were TONS of tents set up everywhere.


So this might not have been interesting for anyone else to read, but I loved seeing all of the stuff he did and it was really cool to see this little "community" pop up in the middle of nowhere.

First Apartment memories


Just documenting here. We took more pictures than this, but this is what I remember most about our first apartment:


Outside (second level)

Looking out that same window. Yes, those are our dying tomato plants and flowers. The patio got really really hot during the day and cooked our plants, making it hard to keep them alive. At least, that's what I tell myself - part of me thinks it might be the accidental plant-killer in me. Who knows.
I never decorated our bedroom. I figure why decorate if we're going to move in 6 months (which we did) Sweet red blanket thought, right? Who else thinks Ben should be a fan model?
I took this picture because I wanted to remind myself (when we buy a house) how important storage space is. We crammed all our stuff into one closet haha.
And yet the Ramen got it's very own cupboard...


We enjoyed out first apartment, but really really like the one we live in now. But we're glad we moved into that one because it helped us find the one we're in.

Cruise 2009

Right after Ben and I got married, we were invited on a Caribbean cruise with all of his family and some of their extended family (minus the little kids). It was so fun to spend time with his family and get to know them and I thought the Princess cruise line was fantastic!!


Here are some pictures from the trip:
(oops, no picture of the whole group... there were lots of us though!)

We spent a night in Florida before we sailed off. Here are a few of us playing some card game or other waiting to leave the hotel (notice the swe-ot matching shirts)


I'm so excited
Goodbye Florida...
Hello cruise!!

Us at one of the ports

This day was so fun. Mark and Amy, Brett and Carrie, Daniel and Riki, and Ben and I all rented these fun scooters and rode around the island



I thought it would be really cool to get a "riding" picture so I whirled around and took this. Well when I whirled around we nearly got in an accident and I wasn't allowed to turn around anymore... Haha

Ben snorkeling on the prettiest beach I have ever seen
This picture really doesn't do it justice... the water looks dark, but it was the prettiest blue and when you stood in it, it was clear you could see your foot perfectly!


Check out the color of that water



"Whoa... that's a really big butt!" (Finding Nemo)

This trip was so fun for us. Looking back at my pictures I am realizing that we only took our camera out one, maybe two days... We were too busy, soaking up the sun, snorkeling, playing card games every night, eating until we felt like we were going to explode, exploring the islands, "whale-rolling" into the hot tub, eating pineapple at EVERY meal, winning Family Feud, being beach bums, and hanging out with a really fun group.

Since I don't have any pictures of any of that, I guess you'll just have to imagine us. Especially the "whale-rolling" into the hot tub. :)

Monday, March 8, 2010

1. Spring 2. Anniversary

One of my absolute favorite things about living in Utah is the 4 distinct seasons. Every time it changes to a new season, I get really excited. I'm stoked for Spring!

ALSO....

Ben and I celebrated our one year anniversary last weekend. Woot! We were going to go to The Roof but decided it just costs too much and my stomach had been acting funny the few days before that and we didn't want risk not feeling good when we got there and then wasting all that money. So, where did we go? Cafe Rio of course :)

Friday night we went and got dinner, checked into the Marriot in Downtown Salt Lake, and went straight to the hot tub. We came back and Ben surprised me with a bottle of Welch's Grape Something (don't remember, but it was fizzy and delicious) and we just relaxed the rest of the night by watching TV (this is kind of a luxury for us since we don't have TV) after a couple of hours of nothing, we realized why we don't have a TV. There's nothing on worth watching. Anyway, the nexy day we went hot tubbing again (of course) and spent a long day just relaxing at home. And, naturally, we had to go to Cafe Rio that night too. Bad news though: I'm still bad at taking pictures of us so nothing but our memories to remember it by.

In my opinion, best anniversary ever! It was perfect: simple and very relaxing :)

I could write a long tribute to Ben but, as we all know, I'm not very good at writing. Anytime I write anything, it alway comes out way too long, really cheesy, and it always feels fake to me. So, short and sweet: Ben, I love you! This last year has been absolutely wonderful and I wouldn't trade it for anything :)

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Any Suggestions?

Ben - and actually my boss too - suggested I bring a book to work to pass the time. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm not sure what kind of book I like but I do know that if it starts off too slow I lose interest fast...

I can't really think of any favorites. Oh except I absolutely loved Count of Monte Cristo. Could not put it down... Actually it was one of the only books in High School that I didn't use SparkNotes to finish before the test ;)

Anyway, anyone have any ideas? I will consider any and all suggestions :)


P.S. LONG post with plenty of pictures coming soon. Like tonight or tomorrow, just can't put pictures on my computer at work.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Meal Adventures

I did it! I made a plan for all of the meals this month!

I kind of combined everyone's advice (thank you again). My swe-ot mom made a little cookbook of a bunch of easy recipes that she knew I would like, then I made a document in Excel that says what we're having, what ingredients are in it, and at the bottom there's a grocery shopping list letting me know what to get, how much to get, when to get it, etc. Exciting, huh?? Haha

Anyway, I think I'm going to post the exciting/funny/interesting meals and/or attempts at a meal on my blog. Pictures and stories to come :)

Friday, January 8, 2010

I might just explode with crafty excitement

I'm going crazy...

with excitement!!!

I've been reading these women's blogs lately (I can't even remember how I got to them, but I'm happy I have found them!) and they have inspired me.

I've mostly been looking at treyandlucy.blogspot.com and makeitandloveit.blogspot.com. Both amazing blogs! They make crafts so cute and easy and the first one is especially fun to read.

Anyway

I'm getting really excited all kinds of crafts and projects such as:
Sewing projects
Framed projects
Clothes
Jewelry
Holiday crafts
Super cute clothes for little girls haha
Etc.

BUT mostly I cannot wait to try out Mod Podge.
I smiled just typing the word!! Haha

Here are some picture of some of the projects I want to try (I know all of you pros out there will think these are silly but I'm just a beginner)


Cute "Woodland Fairy" costume that would actually be really easy to make.

Mod Podge Star


These are just normal shoes and the lady Mod Podged cuter fabric on. Oh my gosh. So cool.



This really caught my eye. Think of all the possibilities! (It's fabric, not a painting)

Love it. All of it.


These (above and below) are really cute little girls' dresses that I just thought were absolutely adorable. - The top one is made out of a bandana and the bottom one is made out of a dish towel :)





I just hope Ben doesn't see this post. He won't let me go to the store by myself!! Haha