Selling Headbands!!

So, I want to travel a lot this summer. As much as we like to live off the government, I don't want to dip entirely into our grants to do it. Also, Brandon wants to go on a 4 day trip with the Pre-PA Society (yes that's real) to Los Angeles to look at schools there. Anything that helps Brandon want to move to Southern California helps. So if you want headbands, contact me! I've got:
This
This (With and without flower)
This

Prices may very, depending on the type of flower you want, buttons, etc. I can put hearts on the headbands, and make it various sizes. They'll be cute for baby girls. Let me know if you want one!

Happy Birthday Cole!!

 Thanksgiving 2008

 Chinese New Year 2009

 Three peas in a pod.

 Hawaii 2011

 San Francisco August 2010

 Coley's Wizard of Oz Play June 2010

 At Alyse's wedding August 2009

 With his BFF Murphy

Halloween 2011
(Just some highlights from my computer)
I haven't quite come to terms with the fact that Cole is 11. He's going to be a Boy Scout tomorrow, and in a year he will be 12 and a deacon! Heaven help us. He's such a cute boy with a personality as unique as they come. I can't wait to see what he decides to do with his life when he's grown up... ahhhh when Austin gets home from his mission Cole will be 13!! I can't believe it. So sad. We love you Coley!

From the Mouths of Babes

I'm working in the preschool for one of my classes. And as a teacher, I hear so many funny things that children say every day. I just thought I would share a few: (I can't put the children's names on here for confidentiality reasons, but you'll get the point)
Teacher: There are types of dogs that have jobs.
Girl: Doggies don't have JOBS!
Boy: I never even knew that before.

Me: Squirrels don't have blankets when they sleep, so they use their tails as a blanket to keep themselves warm.
Boy: Teacher, teacher!
Me: Yes?
Boy: I'm going to make blankets for all the squirrels and bring them to their homes so they can have blankets while they sleep.

Me: The animal I'm talking about has a BIG tail. Everyone pat their tails!
Girl: We don't have tails, we have butts.
Other children (almost in unison): Bums! Bums! We have BUMS!

Me: Do you need help going to the bathroom?
Girl: No, it's a yittle potty. And I can do it because I'm THREE!

(Looking at the tarantula)
Boy: It has a big bump on its bottom!!

(Playing with the guinea pigs)
Girl: I want to hold the kitty piggies!

More coming later. Enjoy!

Work work

Poor Brandon has had it rough.
He has worked the 12 hour night shift at the nursing home for almost a year, and has only taken off 10 days in the last 10 months. He's worked so hard, and hasn't had a proper sleep schedule since he started. He loves (most of) the residents there, and is a hard enough worker that he can somehow do it. Mondays are especially hard on him. This semester he works from 1 AM to 6 AM, comes home and sleeps for a few hours before going to class for 7 hours. Oddly enough, this has taken a toll on him lately.
Well, a miracle happened. His manager called and said she wanted to offer him the 8 AM to 8 PM, Saturday and Sunday shift. He accepted it, and tomorrow will be his (hopefully) last night shift for a long time! Nobody deserves this break like he does. I love you Brandon!! Keep up the good work I'm proud of you!

Lent

So Lent starts tomorrow... I'm giving up soda. For those who know me, I have a problem with drinking soda. I'm not quite sure what about it I like, because it's not a caffeine thing. Brandon doesn't think I can go 40 days without soda... so I'm proving him wrong!!! It starts at midnight, let's go!

President's Day Weekend 2012

President's Day weekend was fun, but far too short. We were just reminiscing about how it was a year ago that Brandon asked my dad if he could marry me (I'll post about that later).
My last class ended at about 4:30 PM on Friday, and I took off as soon as I could. I only had Mikey Edwards in the car with me, as Brandon had to work Friday night. I wanted to get there as soon as possible, in order to go to Tanner Coleman's wedding reception. I'm so excited for Tanner, he really is one of the nicest people I have ever met, and deserves only the best. His new wife, Alyse, is super sweet. It was great to see so many cousins there, and see my family again. I should have brought my camera in, but I forgot because I just wanted to be at the reception for as long as possible.
Brandon came down on Saturday, and we went to the temple to be with Austin when he went in for the first time. It was great, the Mount Timpanogos temple is GORGEOUS! I'm proud of Austin and all the great decisions he is making. He leaves in 3 months and a week, and I am so excited for him! Going to the temple with the people that I love the most is great.

I wasn't smart enough to realize that if we stepped away from the temple, we could get more of the temple in the picture. Oh well, it went in my photo album!
We had dinner at IHOP, as seems to be the tradition in my family. Someone told them that someone was going on a mission, and they brought a free sundae over. To Bennett. The married one, who was sitting with his wife. It was pretty funny, especially when Bennett went along with it. Poor Austin got ignored. But we had a good time, and got to see Klane and Llilli with most of their boys!

Afterwards, we spent the night with Brandon's cousins Stuart and Heidi. I fell asleep on the couch, so I didn't take any pictures.
Sunday we went to Church with Austin, and went to Temple Square to see the scale model of the Salt Lake temple. I recommend it to everyone! It's amazing, and I can't wait to go inside someday when we are able to.
Afterwards we went to both of my grandparent's house, and it was great to see everyone! I got a few pictures:

 The other newly married couple in the family... Bennett and Jazz!

The lovely Gracie Coleman, she is going to be such a great missionary in Ventura California when she goes in May!
The weekend was much too short, but it was great too. I can't wait to see everyone again!

6 Months

So Brandon and I have been married for 6 months today. I know it's not that long in the scheme of things, but we've had a pretty good run thus far.
Since we've been married, we have been to 8 states (California, New Hampshire, Maine, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Hawaii). We have had a semester and a half of school. We have only lived in one apartment, which I love and will be sad to leave. We have read our scriptures and said our prayers together as a couple every day (184 days, if my calculations are correct). Brandon and I have had our ups and downs, but a lot more of the ups. We have made decisions on our lives, and have many more to make. We can both agree that the best day of our lives so far has been our wedding day, August 20, 2011. I love Brandon more than anything in the world, and can't wait to see where our adventures take us! Here's to the best 6 months ever.

Valentine's Day 2012

Yay we finally did something that was worth blogging about!! Our semester has been very much the same routine, so it's nice that we took the chance to celebrate something.
So first off, I have never liked Valentine's Day. Mainly because I didn't have someone to celebrate it with... but for the past 3 years I've had the same Valentine. Our first Valentine's Day together he won me a T-shirt by eating a 2 foot sub sandwich... which was pretty sweet of him. Last year, he gave me a card and a box of Snickers ice cream bars, because the REAL present was coming soon (see here). But this year was our first married Valentine's Day together, and I definitely wanted something cool this time. I got Brandon a few presents too:

This is Wayne. Today when I woke up I found him lying in between Brandon in I, so we apparently have a keeper. I also got Brandon some chocolate mint chip cookies, and they were freaking good.

Brandon had been hearing hints from me for weeks about what I wanted, and in the typical Brandon fashion he did not do what I said I wanted, but did some things that I really did want.

Brandon did not let me get up in the morning until he was ready for me to get up. I had no complaints there. When he did let me come out of our room, he had this waiting for me:

The cherries were because one time I was drinking a Shamrock Shake from McDonald's (amazing!) and I thought he had eaten my cherry and I pretended to get sad. I really do like those cherries though, so he bought a whole jar for me.

While I was eating, he came out with a candy poster for me:

It has 7 reasons why he loves me. My favorite one was "You have a cousin named Heath".

Afterwards it was time to go to school. On Tuesdays I get out of school at 6:30, which was perfect for him. He said he wouldn't come to get me until he was ready. When I got home, this was what greeted me at the door:

(if you can't tell, it's chicken fettuccine Alfredo with French bread and sparkling cider... by candlelight.)

I knowwwwwwww so much cheesiness. But it was our first married Valentine's day, and probably one of the last ones when we can have something like that without work or student teaching (NEXT YEAR) or babies (not an announcement) interfering.

What I did this weekend.

As I wasn't feeling well this weekend, I didn't do too much homework. However, I completed a headband for myself. Let me know if you want one and I'll shoot you a price! (I'm not expecting to actually make too many sales, but I've got a plan to make money soon)

I'm also still in my fluffy bathrobe... my uniform for this weekend.

Little Miracles

So I was going to share the story of our first kiss, as per keeping with the "nostalgic" theme, but I decided not to. It was very personal (obviously), and definitely changed it. I wrote it down in my journal, so we d have it forever. But, you can just wait to read the next story I put up about Brandon and I!

Tender mercy for the week:
I woke up Thursday morning with a cold. It was pretty bad, especially because I am in the busiest semester of my life. On top of that, I was in the middle of an 8-test period, where I had 8 chances to get 90% of better on a test or fail the class. On Thursday, I got a 76%. So on Friday I wanted to go and pass, so that I could worry about just the normal homework load this weekend. I didn't get out of bed until 3 PM, because my joints were so stiff I could hardly sit up. When I was about to go take my test, I realized something. I could ask Brandon for a blessing! I did, and went to go take the test. I finished it in 20 minutes (the limit was 2 hours), and submitted it online. When I saw my score, I almost screamed. I had passed!! It was a miracle, I was so happy. I truly think it was because I looked for help from the only person who could really help me at that time. It made me so grateful to have this Church in my life, because I really wouldn't have passed yesterday if I hadn't asked Brandon for a blessing. I'm also grateful that Brandon lives his life in such a way that he could help me on such short notice. Thank you Brandon!!

That awkward moment when...

So here is another part of our history... 2 years ago.
So I was interviewing someone for a paper I had to write, and I got a text from my cute home teacher Brandon saying "Hey want to go to a karaoke bar?" So I got one of my roommates, and we went with Brandon and one of his roommates. And I have to say, it was pretttty sketchy. Brandon and his roommate Lehi sang "Angel" by Shaggy. That was the first time I had really seen his personality (which I now see all day ever day), and it was pretty funny. Then, my roommate and I got up and sang "Wannabe" by Spice Girls. They didn't have the best selection. On our way home, I decided the night was not going to end there (forget the paper I had to write). So as soon as he dropped off his roommate at some girl's apartment, I hopped in the front seat and said, "So what are we doing next?" So we decided to go grab "the Dark Knight" from my apartment and watch it at his apartment. Which, by the way, was one of my favorite movies AND one of his favorite movies. Wow, could this get better? (Yes.)
During the movie, I was super nervous. Brandon and I were doing the whole "We're too nervous to do anything about this" thing, so we were sitting super closely but not quite touching. And, naturally, Brandon's roommate was sitting on the arm of the couch so that kind of killed the mood a little. My legs were starting to hurt from being tensed up the whole time, so I shifted my weight. Right then, Brandon put his arm around my waist. Super tightly. I panicked for a second, but in that good way you do when a cute guy makes the first move. However, the arm behind the waist thing was not that comfortable, so I let him hold my hand instead.
On the way out to the parking lot, I was wondering what was going to happen. Remember, two nights prior he had given me a high five goodnight. But as we had just held hands, I figured it was probably safe to assume it was a hug type of night. When he hugged me, however, he pulled back for just a second, and kissed me on the cheek so so lightly that I hardly felt it. But my cheek burned where he had kissed me, probably because my face was turning red as a tomato. Brandon probably want to smooth things over, so he said what first popped into his head... "There's a little goodnight kiss for you. Goodnight!" I replied something along the lines of "Ummmmmmmmmm..." and stumbled home.

Brandon's going to be embarrassed when he knows I told that story, but it's funny! And it did keep me interested... I mean it was the first day he had really let me know that he was interested. And so I kept thinking about it.

(I'm just posting random pictures so that there's at least something to look at with the stories.)

2 Years

So as I am a typical girl, I remember pretty much every date in our relationship. Well, the important ones. As of midnight, today is 2 years since our first date. Sooooo, I thought I would talk a little bit about it!
So, when I met Brandon I was not looking for a boyfriend. I had just been going on dates with the wrong guys, and was skeptical of any guy who talked to me. Brandon was my home teacher and in my Family Home Evening group, which meant I saw him at least once a week. I had tried to flirt with him a few times, but he never really seemed to respond. However, he did have my number as he was a good Home Teacher and made sure we knew we could talk to him if we needed help. He had also brought us homemade Oreos, which are still a staple in our dessert cuisine.
So the first weekend of February, we decided to throw a bonfire and wanted to invite guys. I texted that cute home teacher, and asked him if he wanted to go with us. He called me back, and asked what day it was. I said we weren't sure, and asked if he could go on Friday. He said, "Umm, I have plans". I thought "Date", and figured he had a girlfriend or something. Especially when he said Saturday he was going to be with his friends. I still invited him over to the Super Bowl on Sunday (another post).
Ok ok, now to the first date. It was a Monday night, and we had a dating fireside. Yes, a DATING fireside. I didn't go to the first half, but made it to the second. I sat next to some guys I knew, including Brandon. While getting refreshments, I talked to this cute guy. He told me a little bit about his life, and then he said the one sentence that changed our lives forever. "Man, nobody ever does anything fun on Monday nights." I looked at him, and said "Let's go do something then!"
What was our first hot date like? Grocery shopping. I did not have a car, and asked him if we could go shopping first. When we got home from the store, he looked like he was about to leave and I said, quoting one of our friends from the fireside, "if you leave me now, I'm going to be really mad!" He asked if I wanted to go ice skating, which made me melt a little inside. However, the rink was closed, so we watched "Red Eye" in his apartment. It was funny, because Brandon's roommate sat on the edge of the couch the whole time, so it was prettttty awkward. (Love you Ethan!)
We stayed up talking for a while afterwards, and he walked me halfway to my apartment (aka halfway across the parking lot). He tried to high-five me goodnight, which was lame. So I hugged him.



It doesn't sound that great, I know, but this is our history. The first date was good enough to keep me interested, at least. I will keep updating this relationship as the dates come around. It was not all love and roses and unicorns after this. In fact, it was quite turbulent and unsure for about a month after this. But I love Brandon, and love how we started after a dating fireside. I knew after the first date that Brandon was someone special, and one of the nicest guys I really have ever met.