Rexburg Schmexburg

SO. its been a while. part, in fact, was because I forgot the password to this thing and I didnt have the time or know how to go through the whole process of remembering. Also, we have been packing up, traveling, and enjoying our time since leaving rexburg for two weeks to spend it in CA [or home as they call it] to be with our wonderful families.

We finished the semester strong-it was definetly a balancing act between finals, projects, callings, traveling and trying to maintain a social life; but in the end both of us finished with straight A's, 4.0's and friends to come back to! So it was a success.

That friday, we packed it up, deep cleaned the apartment so we'd have a nice fresh home to come back to, and piled in the car with giddy to head to utah. The roads were pretty bad-we even saw a semi turned over which made the drive a little longer-but while Lester slept, Giddy and I just enjoyed the wonderful talks we have, and laughed alot. She is such and incredible friend. We arrived at her family's house, where they fed us really well, and just had alot of fun-i LOVE her family. They made us feel so at home and welcome-it reminded me alot of like the mexican version of my family haha, and I missed Chio alot as a result. But it was good.

The next day we checked into our motel, and spent time with the Pineda's who had come to pick us up. We went to the David Archuleta Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert which was AMAZING-although for me Micheal York [aka Captain Crane for all you Avonlea fans] stole the show. Then we went to the Roof for dinner/dessert. For church the next day, we went to what is allegedly the Prophet's ward in the joseph smith memorial building. It was their Christmas program, and it was great. Then we started the long drive home-again the roads were bad, but we made it in fine at 2:00 in the morning.

Now we are here, enjoying this time to remember our Savior's birth, and the blessings we get as a result of that. We are happy to be home with the people we love and miss throughout the years. I have lots more to blog about, but I will do so later...I must get back to baking and christmas movies for one last night before the blessed day is here! MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL! We love you.

Us w/ good old Santa himself at our ward party!

Lester, Eric & Erica & I made the temple in our gingerbread house contest!

We had an FHE where we called up some of our friends-we brought the sugar cookies and frosting and our friend Steph came up w/ some fun games! This is us frosting!

In one of the games the boys vs girls had to blow up and stuff balloons in the stockings, then stick it on the head first-this ensued afterwards haha!

more FHE!

Our wonderful family friends the Villaromen's came over for dinner the night Lauren graduated-it was SO fun to see them!

My cute hubby and I!

New Calling!

Today Brother Blakely [a counselor in our bishopric] called at about 7:45. I heard it ring. I even watched it vibrate. Aaaand I ignored it. I remember thinking to myself, who in the world would call me this early in the morning when we don't meet for church until 9:30? Don't they know who we are?

I turned over and tried to go back to sleep-but I couldn't. So I listened to the voicemail where they asked if we could meet them today, as soon as possible. I assumed it was a calling, but I had just gotten one in compassionate service a few weeks ago. But Lester and I decided that even though we wanted to sleep, it must be important so we went.

and guess what? I WAS RIGHT! I am now the 1st counselor in the Primary Presidency! I cant even begin to describe how excited I am about this! They sustained me in sacrament meeting today, and set me apart after church. My friend Catherine is the president and I can't wait to be serving under her and with the kids! Its almost like an early Christmas present-hopefully I'll do good. I'm a little nervous, bc I've never done this before, but again mostly just excited. So that's whats up right now!

[guess I'd better brush up on my primary songs haha!]

I Dont Know Why You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello!

One of the many reasons I love this time of year is because with each ending comes an exciting new beginning; like with halloweens end, comes thanksgiving; with thanksgivings end comes the best-Christmas.

Our thanksgiving was not how we expected it-but i think it was perfect. We had originally thought that we were going to go home, but the cards didnt fall there. We enjoyed Hillary's visit, but even after she left we still enjoyed it. It was like a little second honeymoon. We just enjoyed our time to be us, watching movies, reading books, going on walks and talking. On thanksgiving day we made our very own feast; Lester did the turkey and I did well-everything else, with his help of course. Then our friends Catherine and Josh called us and they said that the roads were to bad and they were wondering if they could join us. It was great! She helped me finish the apple pie and also brought a delicious chocolate walnut tart. After dinner, our husbands vegged on the floor in food comas, while Catherine and I just talked, laughed and watched elf.

So overall, this break was a dream come true. It reminds us to stop and be grateful for the love we have in our lives, and the many blessing we have in life. So goodbye thanksgiving, hello christmas!

lester 'preparing' the turkey

making a practice chocolate pie haha!

my man carving the turkey!
our christmas tree
josh and catherine
beautiful rexburg sunset..this our complex before it got TO snowy.

the finished product!
apple pie
about to sit down to feast [i didnt have time to put makeup on so dont judge me!]
our meal...haha we are still eating leftovers, since there were only 4 of us!

BIG NEWS FLASH

um WHAT THE HECK? I have just discovered something insane. I think we have all seen the wonderful christmas movie Elf. One of my favorite parts is when buddy is leaving the north pole for the first time, and the arctic creatures are saying goodbye. Then Mr. Narwhal joins them; remember, he says 'bye buddy...i hope you find your daaaddd.' WELL GUESS WHAT?

NARWHAL's ARE REAL!

We were sitting here watching it with josh and catherine having a grand old time and then he drops that bomb on me that they are real creatures, not just will ferrell movie ones. At first I didn't believe him. And then, just to prove I was right, I googled it...and there is all this information! National Geographic even did a spot on them!

I think this just proves that God is perfect in EVERY way-he has perfect love, kindness, compassion, mercy, justice, forgiveness, and even a perfect sense of humor! He would have to in order to create such a hilarious animal that brings joy and laughter to so many people-well. at least to me! HAHAHAHAHA! MERRY ALMOST BEGINNING OF THE CHRISTMAS SEASON!

Breaky Break

It has been a little while, but I suppose that is the result of school and what not. These last few weeks have been CRAZY. We have just been so bombarded with stress, tests, life and everything that by the time break was here we were so burnt out. BUT. with hard work and endurance comes blessings. We are now just enjoying our time to recharge, go on walks, hang out with our friends josh and catherine, watch movies and other good stuff. and even better-hillary is here to visit for a few days! she got here yesterday, and after she helped me study, we immediately went to main street to look at porters crafts and get her a bridesmaid dress for our cousin natalie's wedding next weekend. then we went to great harvest which was delicious and i took my LAST juvenile deliquency test. then lester and i showed her the school and met up with lauren, and then we all came home for chimichurri for dinner. Then catherine and josh joined us and we played phase ten, watched modern family and ended the night with pizookies and bed.

This morning we woke up to an absolute winter wonderland. It had snowed here a few weeks ago, but this was insane. Beautiful, but intimidating bc we dont have a car. After listening to some christmas music and eating some french toast Lester made, we walked up to the temple. I dont think my feet have ever been more soaked! this was the slushy kinda snow, not the dry packable kind. It was a great experience and we all felt the spirit so strong. When we left the nice temple worker actually gave us some new socks bc she was worried about us getting frostbite since our socks were still soaked! After that, we went to five buck pizza, porters again for decorations and then cocoa bean. We sang as loud as we could and danced on the black ice while walking back-it was great. Theres nothing like having my two best friends here to bring out the good times! When we got back we decorated and danced some more, then made dinner and now were watching madagascar 2.

So basically. Life is just good. We miss home, and wish we are there but we are making the best of things and enjoying our first holiday together. Wonderful.

Grateful

I love my husband. He is sweet, strong, supportive, helpful, spiritual and funny. Since late high school, where our relationship began becoming somewhat serious we have always said that we were good balance for each other, just like my parents. I am loud, and crazy and fun loving and I say everything and hold back hardly anything-which is good and bad at times. Lester is more on the reserved, organized and responsible side-he doesn’t say much because he doesn’t feel like he articulates himself well, but when he does it is well thought out and important. He brings out the more reflective, thoughtful and kind side in me, and I bring out the more outgoing, spontaneous fun in him.

So that’s why this Sunday when he got up to bear his testimony I was slightly surprised. It was a simple testimony, but a beautiful one-he didn’t share a story or make any funny jokes like most of the people before him. He just stated what he believed-what he knew and what he was grateful for. As I sat in the congregation, I thought to myself how blessed I am to call this man my husband and to spend my life with him loving, living and learning with him-sure, there were difficulties in getting their and cynics-and there are still now, but we are living out our happily ever after and it is wonderful. Shortly after Lester sat down, our good friend Tyler got up and bore his testimony. He referred back to Lester’s testimony for a moment, and I felt grateful that others get to see him the way I do, and also that we have such great, fun and spiritual friends. His testimony was also very heartfelt and inspiring.
We are so blessed. So even though our Christmas decorations are already up and we are more excited for that season then the rest, I am grateful for thanksgiving which give me another excuse to just stop and marvel at how blessed I am and give thanks to my Heavenly Father for my wonderful husband, family, friends, religion and of course food!

PS: I should mention that when Lester got up to bear his testimony, our friends Josh & Catherine who are Philly’s fans passed us this note:

Hard Water

Question: What is hard water? And why is it even called hard water? b/c I'm sure that no matter what it is, it cannot be ACTUALLY hard...b/c water cant be hard or soft can it? I just don't understand...

The reason I ask is Lester keeps telling me not to use hard water on certain things, and lately I've been teasing him alot about things he doesn't know or understand..so rather then asking him, and getting a huge load of payback coming my way, I thought I'd just ask you guys!

Let me know [if any of you do know...] Other then this burning question, everything here is just fine and dandy! Thanks!

Halloween Madness

BOO! Yes, I am still alive and kicking, even after our hectic life, with school and the occasion bouts of sickness and snow. Yet still, we MUST get the most we can out of this Halloween season, even if it is, just an exciting prep for the wonder that is Christmas. But still...

Apart from the obvious holiday baking [haha of course..] we got together with a group of our friends a few nights back for fhe and did some pumpkin carving. It was a lot of fun! Many of you may not know this, but because Lester didn’t move to America until about age 10, and apparently they don’t celebrate Halloween in Australia [his native country]. So he was excited when talking to our friends Saritha and Ignacio who are from India to find out that this was their first time carving pumpkins, meaning that he wasn’t the most inexperienced haha! Ironically though, in carving them, their pumpkin turned out way better then ours of course. But still it was a lot of fun, and it definetly went a long way in giving us a much needed break, a feeling of comradery and friendship with out neighbors and also a much needed holiday charge!


our front door with some fun decorations

black bottom cupcakes with halloween liners againSaritha & Ignacio
Lester carving our pumpkin

Beau & Lindi

Tyler & Steph

all of us together!

Another thing you may or may not know is that a few years back, I took a stage makeup class here at BYU-Idaho. It was so much fun, and I learned a lot. Now, today apparently many ppl are celebrating their Halloweens [since said holiday falls on Sunday] and while Lester and I don’t have any fun and exciting plans other then just cuddling, I am going to use the things I learned to do my friend Giddy’s makeup! I am really excited about it since surprisingly, I don’t really get the opportunity to use these skills that often haha. Im posting some of the pictures of my work in class, but other techniques we learned was ‘glamour’ stage makeup, inanimate objects, false hair application, animal makeup and so on and so forth. So this is something I’m looking forward to!

Brittany after i did her makeup!

in the application process!

clown makeup

Kibuki makeup

practicing blood and gore makeup

more blood and gore makeup
old age makeup

We have also been decking out selves and our apartment out in orange, in respect to our WORLD SERIES Giants players! Woot woot! Lester loves it because out of all the sports he tries to get away with, this is the one that I will actually watch gladly with him, and also not interrupt him every few minutes to wonder whats going on...we are running out a black and orange clothing to wear..thank goodness for cheap laundry, right? haha!

Overall, it has been a good halloween season, and we are excited for the rest of the holidays!

oh no.

crap. i think i may have strep throat.

i think it would be awesome if all the females in my family could be the next case on House so that way when we ambush him, he'll have no escape and he'll HAVE to figure out why we get strep throat each a few times a year...and also prevent it from happening.

cross your fingers that i'm just being paranoid. its still midterm time, and i dont want to have to miss classes.




[this would be his face upon our arrival]

Making the Grade!

People always told us that

1. our social life would die once we got married.

2. we would get the better grades then we ever had.

3. that the honeymoon and good feelings would be over once things got busy and crazy and life started happening.

Here is my assessment.

1. FALSE. Our social life has not died..in fact if anything it has improved. I think we've mentioned this in other blog posts, but its true. There was this poem I heard when I was in elementary school that said, "Make new friends, but keep the old. Some are silver and some are gold." We have done just this, and we feel rich because of it! The kids from home are close and its alot of fun..were thinking of having a holiday party with them. But we have also made a TON of new friends, especially in our ward. This week alone, we had a fun ward temple trip, complete with dinner and everything, then enrichment, and we just finished dinner with some friends and phase 10. So that one is false.

2. TRUE. Suprisingly, this one has proven to be correct! After our first round of tests, Lester got a 100% on his human anat & phys test, and I got a 96, 97 and 107% [in race and ethnic relations, juvenile deliquency, and music and LDS hymns]! Here are the pictures to prove it..

Im not really sure why he's making this face..

and this isnt a whole lot better..but honestly this was the best we were gonna get..and lets face it, biology makes me feel this way to haha...

This is an example of my excellent note taking skills, and the test review I made to get that A grade I like! Notice how it is neat and there is even diagrams...YA!

This is the test I scored the highest on..it may sound easy, but everyone in the class is music majors, and I can't even read music, let alone conduct a 4 part choir [which, if you could see the rest of the test, I am required to know..but some how I pulled it out!]

3. FALSE. So far, this has been a complete myth. If anything, we feel like everything just gets better and better, and while I realize its only been two months and we have an eternity to go, they have been the best days of our lives....my Mom and I have both talked the assumptions people make when they hear how early our relationships started...they think it must be perfect, and so much easier this way. But, in our experience, while high school relationships that grow into marriage have their many perks, they also have their many heartbreaks and trials on that road there. Lester and I have been waiting for this time of our lives since we were 16, and while it may not be all flowers and candy all the time, this every day life is literally our dreams come true. No. Its better then that.

Thus ends our assessment of the myths and truths of married life so far! Now..back to making the grade I suppose!

My Addiction

Is there a support group for Kitchen Aide addicts? If so, I think I would need to enroll in a 12 step program...and honestly who knows if I would even make it through that. Seriously though, while Lester and I both LOVE and utilize every single one of our wedding gifts thus far, this is my favorite one..the one that i use daily. I don't even take it off the counter anymore.. bc really, what would be the point? It sits in the same place of honor in our home now that it does in my families back in California. I really am living the dream life...and despite the fact that Lester has gained what, 12 lbs since we've been married...he really doesnt mind either ;). Here are some of the things that we have been using it for:

 *chewy cocoa brownies

guacamole [to go with our fajitas and/or enchiladas]

chocolate chip cookies

 *key lime tarts [one of my new favorites..thank you ourbestbites!]

*molten lava fudge cakes [again, ourbestbites]

*lemon tarts

black bottom cupcakes

cookies n cream cupcakes [thank you carly and gabby!]

potatoe salad

cinnamon rolls

chicken alfredo pizza [we used it for the dough here...this is one of lester's faves!]

 *white bread

and many, many more. Its so fun to be able to use recipes that are tried and true from my Mom and family and friends, but also try new things. So yes. I am an addict. But then again, who said all addictions are bad right? ;)

*the pictures with stars next to them are things we've made but forgot to take pictures of, so we got them from where we got the recipes or from google! haha ghetto, but effective in making you a little jealous, right?!