Burning a Hole in Our Pockets

We got our tax return back - and it sure does pay to be poor married students.
We also both also got paid today.
What I'm saying is that we have money that's burning a hole in our pockets.

And we'd like to spend it on . . . .

But no - we are saving. It will be interesting to see how much of this stuff we'll actually end up with. After all, we do egg each other on. And justify like it's hot.

Park City

This past weekend we went to Park City with Curtis and Ashley and had a great time! While driving around trying to find a parking space we started talking about how people from Salt Lake (or maybe it's just us) don't come to Park City as often as we should. It really is so pretty up there and it was such a treat to breathe some fresh (although very cold) air.
We started off with dinner at Red Banjo Pizza Parlour (yes, I spell it the fancy way) on Main Street. It was really fun because the women's downhill and short track events were on the TV and everyone was really into them.

Although I look drunk in this picture, water was the beverage of choice
Then we walked around and stopped at all the little shops and art galleries that were still open. I can't understand why I look so giant in this picture.
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is a tradish, and Curtis and Ashley made the right choice getting a caramel apple
I, on the other hand, just ate the fake samples that they have on display - plastic covered glass cheesecake and rubber cement covered foam ice cream bar - and zero calories, so there you go.

We also went to an amazing gallery that had mind-blowing pictures taken using only natural light and a very huge, very cool camera. Oh, and they had a guitar signed by John Mayer. Tanya was in heaven - for John is her 2nd love.

Love Day

Yes I know, it's terribly cliche and slightly pathetic but I LOVE Valentine's Day.

Luckily I have the best husband in the world who always makes it a fun day.
This year I had fun baking my brains out, I made strawberry V-day cupcakes and red velvet chocolate balls (Rod's been obsessed with them ever since Ashley brought some to us). They are super delicious and really cute because the cake on the inside is a pretty bright red color.

Rod woke up early on Saturday morning and got me some pink tropical flowers - he buys them for me even though he thinks it's a waste . . . is that true love or what?

That night we went to dinner at one of my fave restaurants. He wouldn't tell me where we were going until we were on the way there and as soon as I found out I may or may not have screamed ha ha. We went to Bonsai, it's one of those Japanese steak houses where they cook in front of you and it is sooo delicious.

Then we went to see the movie Valentine's Day - we love movies. Especially movies with lots of famous actors, so we had fun.

It was the traditional Valentine's Day date and it was perfect.

I'm so in love with Rodney. I am so lucky to have him.
Thanks for the fun day loves.

Happy V-day Cupcake

Dear Tanya (Cupcake)

Thanks for being my valentine!
I love you for the following reasons:

• You are my BFF - always have been, always will be
• We love all the same things, which makes life easy
• You are my travel buddy and make every vacay more fun
  
• We dare each other to be more fashionable, with sexy results
• I love your family
• You are Betty Crocker, Martha Stewart, Guy Fieri, Giada de Laurentiis, and Rachel Ray all rolled into one (cooking wise)
• You love the environment - and that's hot
• You are not above letting me use happenings coupons on dates
  
• You shop at Wal-Mart even though it goes against everything you believe in so that we can save for more important things - vacations, pedicures, and swimsuits
• You is smartz
• We want all the same things in life
• You are the cutest primary c0-teacher ever - those kids don't get away with crap!
• You are pretty

Happy Valentine's Day!
Love, Muffin

Life at BYU

BYU is an alternate universe that doesn't make sense. I often tell Tanya about things I see there that I think are normal because I have been there for 4 years and she says "Why do you go to school there?" or "wait, what century is it?"

I have had to start taking pictures of things I see to prove that they're real. Apparently so have a lot of other people - I recently found the Facebook group "Seen @ BYU" and it's just witch-hunted pictures of the strange goings-on that happen on campus or in Provo. This has only been a group for about 2 days, but I already have some favorites (along with their original captions).

I saw this in the HBLL (library), but It was moved before too long.

I think if you did post this anywhere outside our happy little valley, the immediate response would be something like, "Lower kingdoms? What the H*!! does that mean?"

Guy caught brushing his girlfriend's hair on campus. They weren't talking which made it creepier.

I've heard of people renting prom dresses, but seriously? Really, BYU?

I was sitting outside the library one day when I turned my head and saw a couch coming toward me! It was on electric wheels! A couple was sitting nice and relaxed on it and had a remote that was steering them around

Helaman Halls never fails to produce high-caliber hoodlums.

Are You? (I see stuff like this all the time there - guilting the crap out of people with scripture references)

Wilk-Spoonin: Sometimes you gotta be creative, and sometimes you gotta be sick.

This is what happens when a semester at BYU finishes: Bridal Guides disappear into thin air.

Lost

We are still trying to catch up on season 5 of Lost so that we can be with the current season 6. We are addicted.

When we were on Oahu for our wedding we were driving with Dan and Gent and our friend Beana (who was there going to school) and she all of the sudden said "pull over!" I guess she could recognize some trucks on the side of the road that meant that they were filming Lost nearby. We all piled out of the car, crossed through some private property, and ended up at Cabela Bay (pretty secluded beach on the North Shore). There were film trucks everywhere and crews cleaning up for the day. We had just missed the filming, but we saw some props and things. One of them was a tepee and a little camp set up.

Last night as we were watching, that Tepee and camp made its debut and it made us very happy. Here is a picture of it. For those of you that watch, it's where they take Sayid and tie him to the tree and give him the sugar cube. You know.

If we had only been there a few minutes earlier we could have had a Sayid and a Sawyer sighting.

Super Bowl Party

My family always has a huge super bowl party like most of you. Most of us aren't die hard NFL fans, but my mom says "we needed something to look forward to between Christmas and Easter" (she knows Valentine's day just isn't enough) so we started the tradition of having a ridiculously gluttonous super bowl party with my Grandma and Grandpa Freeman, Aunt Candy, my uncle Eric and aunt Robynn and cousin Haley, and this year Tanya's family even came!

The food included salad, fruit, 6-layer dip (missing the olives), baked beans, hummus (is yummus), home made guacamole, taquitos, pizza, baby back ribs, 2 kinds of wings, shrimp cocktail, home made salsa, german chocolate cake, mini strawberry shortcake cupcakes, 2 different kinds of sugar cookies, mini pecan pies, root beer floats, and a drink bar (Italian sodas, and assorted sodas with fresh squeezed limes).

The games of choice (besides Saints VS Colts) were Scum and 100.

Fun was had by all - and our famous last words surfaced again - "The Diet Starts Tomorrow!"

Wings N Things

For those that know me (Rod) well, buffalo wings are my favorite food in the whole world. If there's a restaurant that serves them, I've probably had them. I consider myself a wing connoisseur and am always in search of the perfect buffalo wing. I am also always in search of excellent bleu cheese (yes I spell it the fancy way) dressing to dip them in.

On Friday dreams came true.
We tried a new place that we had heard about called "The Wing Coop" off of Wasatch Blvd and it did not disappoint. They had great wings and 17 different sauce choices and their blue cheese was amaze.

We topped in all off with Diet Coke with fresh limes, decorating sugar cookies, and catching up on season 5 of Lost.

Thass Crazy!

Last Saturday as we pulled into Logan in the early morn for GGMA's funeral, we were surprised to see that every tree in the whole valley was covered in an icy layer of sparkly snow. The only puzzling part is that it hadn't snowed at all! I guess this happens when it's foggy and very cold (which Logan is known for). It was straight out of a dream, and I forced my parents to pull over and let me take pics.

I Do Apologize

I want to take a moment to publicly apologize to anyone I have complained to in the last few weeks and months. I have been upset about my work for a while now – most of you know that I really don’t love my job. Ever since I was promoted, my new job has piled on more responsibility and less satisfaction. I thought that once I graduated from college a big huge door of opportunity would open up and I would find a great career that fits me perfectly . . . so far, not so much. However, with my new decision to apply to grad school I have decided to stay at the job I’m at now until I start school. In an effort to cheer myself up, I am going to list all the POSITIVE things about my job.

1. The hospital I work at is exactly 4 minutes from my house, which is sa-weet.
2. I can come home for lunch and eat with Rodney when he’s not at school.
3. I now have my own office – with totally legit business cards to match.
4. We now have Select Health insurance, which is sooo much better than our crap student insurance plan. This means I no longer have to drive myself to Provo under the influence of cough syrup to see the slightly creepy BYU clinic doctor.
5. I finally know what I’m doing in this new job and I’m making less and less critical mistakes every day!
6. I have learned A LOT – probably more than I ever wanted to know about breast cancer.
7. I have a job. Period. In this economy I know I am very lucky.

So there you have it, I promise to shut my trap from now on . . . or I’ll at least try. I can make it a few more months, but winter really doesn’t help. Summer better hurry it up!