A Weekend with Mariah on Fiah

This weekend, we talked my sister Mariah into coming to Idaho for a last minute visit and it was so much fun! She got here Friday afternoon, and after giving her the tour of our place, we immediately went out on the town to get her some food [aka 5 buck pizza our beloved cocoa bean] and to look for a dress for a dance she's going to next weekend. Lester then dropped us off at the school-they were having a 'swap and shop' event, and so I finally took the plunge and got rid of all those clothes that I love but never wear, and got some new stuff! In fact I gave so much stuff, that Mariah was able to get some clothes to! It was like free! And I love free stuff!

Then we came home, made some dinner, played some phase 10 and watches some TV till that night, when we went to something Mariah and I had never seen the likes of in our lives. We went to watch the much acclaimed 'pond skimming' event. It was to insane to explain but in essence, its a bunch of fools dressed up, skiing, sledding, snowboarding, or whatever down a steep icy slope and trying to skim across a pool of ice cold water using that momentum without falling or sinking in. I'm posting a video of it so you can see..but after that, we came home and ate some cookies and hung till bed time. Saturday, we woke up and played for a bit, till the three of us all went to the Paul Mitchell school and got our hair cut and styled. It was a lot of fun-they are required to give you a head massage while there washing your hair in the lather lounge, or its free. Lester was nervous, this being his first haircut without a razor, but overall it went great-just the pampering we needed!

Then we went to G's dairy which my friend Lindee has been raving about and BOY was she right! Their homemade ice cream had some ridikulus combos but they were all delish. Then we came home, made some delicious pizza for dinner and hit up the I-center and did some fun working out and played BB and stuff. We finished up the night eating junk food and watching Diary of A Mad Black Women-one of my favorite movies. The next day after sleeping in super late, we went to church. We have finally got a new primary room, with our own cabinet and everything and the girls and I were all loving life! Primary is so fun! When we got home, Alexis and Cami came for a visit and after some good laughs and fun, Mariah left. Then we hit up a friends for dinner and games, then came home to visit with our home teachers, clean and are now going to bed.

It was so fun to see Mariah and spend time with her-hopefully we will be able to do it again soon. With a sister, you can laugh unabashed about stupid, embarrassing things to your hearts desire and you won't be alone. Overall, It was a great, busy, fun filled weekend and were sad it had to end!

PS: Lame sauce, we didn't take hardly any pictures from this weekend, but rest assured it was lots of fun and if there were pictures they would be phenomenal since we all have new cuts and styles haha! So here's some old ones of us, and the aformentioned video.

Whats Goin On

I think a few weeks ago, I blogged about Valentine's Day and how we weren't doing anything. Well. A few hours after I did that, Lester surprised me and said 'Anything you want to do, anywhere you want to go, anything you want to eat we are doing it!' And as lame as this sounds, all I wanted to do was spend some actual time with him, rather then him with his homework. He was sweet, and said OK if you want, but really we can go out on the town and see a movie-but instead we just got to be us in our home together-it was wonderful. So we rented a movie, I made some delicious Chicken Caccitorie and we ate by candlelight and just talked and laughed. We danced and talked the rest of the night away, and there are no words to say how perfect it was!! To top it off, we finished the night watching a movie and drinking the pina colada's Lester made!

The next day a squirrel was waiting outside our door, just waiting for some crumbs since our friends Steph and Tyler were out somewhere, and they are usually the ones to feed him. So we fed our new buddy, and he was off.

Lastly, my old roomie and friend Brittany was in town, so some of my other old roomies invited Lester and I over for dinner; again, there was a lot of delicious food and laughing and it was such a fun little break from the humdrum that school can sometimes be.

So this is what has been going on with us this last little bit-in case anyone was wondering!

Learned That One The Hard Way...

Life Lessons: NEVER leave a spoon in the ice cream when you put it away. Today, I learned this one the hard way; knowing that I would be back again for another spoonful later, I thought I would avoid dirtying another spoon and just leave this one in there. That is until I needed another spoonful later. I opened it, thought again how smart I was, and put the frozen spoon in my mouth.

And it stuck.

And so, I freaked out, forgetting that part in a Christmas Story that used to give me nightmares, and ripped it off hard and fast without thinking. And of course, the spoon took a layer of my tongue with it. Ouuuuch Charlie.

You Threw Off My Groove!

Once upon a time there was a chick named Julia. She was outgoing, crazy and for the most part, she was pretty motivated and had a lots of good times. She already had her handsome Prince Charming though, so this is not what that story is about. This story is about the tragedy that befell her mid-semester in an enchanted winter wonderland where happiness rarely reigned free.

One day, as Julia was off on her usual errand of trying to conquer the snow and ice before it conquered her, she lost. And although she grasped desperately at the air, trying to clutch something to anchor her, she hit the treacherous ground. Hard. The ground, happy at having already taken her dignity from her, also took something that Julia relied on daily-her motivation.

From this day forward, Julia has been without motivation to do anything productive-be it homework, classes, cooking, cleaning, even going out. Although she hoped this was a temporary thing at first, she hoped in vain. For to this day she still sits on her couch avoiding any site of productivity, taking solace in dark chocolate velvet ice cream and shows like The Nanny, which feature people who accomplish things in life rather then staying fshmeckled forever, as she seems destined to do.

I am hoping that this is only the MIDDLE of the story as opposed to the end. Because while Julia and her Prince do live pretty happily still, it is nothing compared to how happily they COULD live if Julia got her motivation back. So here's hoping.

THE [temporary] END

[that is until we can get to the happily ever after..]

Before the incident

After The Incident

Our Exciting New Addition!!!!!

And no, its not a kid HAHA! Lester and I have been looking for a used car for quite a while now. We spent all of last semester, without one, and though we have survived, it has been pretty difficult-whether we needed to go grocery shopping or run to the doctor for an emergency, we had to either walk, which was often impossible in the snow, ice and distance, or because of how much stuff we had to carry [well, my macho husband probably could've done it but not me haha!]. OR we would just hope that one of our awesome friends would run us over there. I just felt bad like I was putting them out [even though they were all so great about it!], and it was inconvenient for us to always have to depend on others for these basic things. So after ALOT of research, penny pinching, test drives and other stuff we finally found one!

It is not fancy, or cutting edge-but it is practical and reliable which is just right for our first car. It only has 48,000 miles on it, a bed in the back which we will need for our eventual move to Oklahoma and road trips to Utah and home, towing capacity, snow tired and summer tires, and a new CD player and speakers, all at a really good price! The only thing that we have found it is lacking is extra room for passengers or kids-but we still got some time before that happens haha!

Over all, it is just what we wanted and more importantly needed. So welcome to our family you sweet little ride you! We are looking forward to many good times with you!

Everybody's Got a Laughing Place!

OK, before I say this I would just like to preface it really quickly. When my Mom would tell my Dad that he didn't have a filter, I would roll my eyes in confirmation of her statement. He always seemed to say everything and hold back nothing-and as a teenager this mortified me. But bad news for me I am just like him! And the worst part is I think he DOES have a filter...because whether or not you believe this, I know for a fact that I have one and I don't say HALF the things I think, and yet somehow people still think I say to much! BUT I CAN'T HELP IT! If I keep all these hilarious things in my head I will just explode!

So here is what I have been trying not to say for the last 15 hours or so, debating whether or not it was appropriate, or not as funny as I think it is, but Lester told me I am at liberty to speak. When we first moved in to our apt, we were impressed with almost all the furniture they provided, except the bed. It looked a little unstable, and there was already a dent in the middle of the mattress, which didn't bode well. But we just laughed and decided we would compete to see who could endure the back pain the longest.

So last night, we'd had a pretty busy, productive day and at about midnight, we finally got in bed. We were just sitting there, about to say our prayers, not really moving at all and then BOOM guess what happened?

OUR BED BROKE!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAHAH!! I don't know why I think this is so funny-probably bc it was late, and because we weren't even doing anything! It just..broke! For no good reason! And lets face it..we have both gained a little bit of weight but not THAT much! haha! So instead of getting stressed out, we decided to move the mattress in the living room and have a sleepover in there so maitenence could fix it or give us a new one, and so it wouldn't break even more. And you know what? I think it was the most fun we've had in a long time-a sleepover in our living room with my best friend in the whole world! Again, I don't know why I think its so funny, I just can't stop laughing as I lay here in the living room/current bedroom typing this! Oh well! Guess I will just have to add this memory to my laughing place for the times that aren't so funny!

My Lifelong Valentine

When I look back in time, it is hard for me to remember a time when Lester was NOT an important part of my life. It has been about 7 years now, and although we have only been married for a few months of that, he has always been there whether i liked to admit it or not. For this reason, I assumed that now that we are FINALLY married, this Valentine’s day was going to be the best one ever.

However, between Lester’s dedication to school, his callings and everything else, and even despite my constant reminders haha, it quickly became apparent that this day was going to be like any other day-which means me with the TV in the living room, cleaning, cooking and chilling all by myself. Although I know that he has his reasons, I’m not gonna lie, I was feeling a little sorry for myself. I found it ironic that after all these years, wishing and hoping that things would work out, that now we were here and this was the most uneventful Valentine’s that we were ever going to have! And then I realized something.

Looking through all the pictures that we have taken throughout the years, I realized how lucky and unique it is to have had so many incredible and perfect valentine’s days with him already in life! He has set the bar so high, that as the years go on it gets more and more impossible to top it. Our whole romance, he has spoiled me with flowers, chocolates, dates, shopping, attention, love and all other good things. But that is nothing compared to the love and life that he is giving me now. So even though this DAY might not be as fancy as our last seven or so have been, this YEAR and this life will be, and already is far times more wonderful, exciting and fulfilling.

Here are some fun old pictures of our life so far:

Jonah Days

some days are good. on those days, i feel like lester is so lucky to have a wife like me. i am organized, on top of everything, look good, am sweet and everything is done on time and well. and some days are bad. my mom and anne call these jonah days. on these days, i feel like a failure and like people who don't know me are lucky. i lose things [important or not] constantly, can't seem to get anything done on time, and the things i do get done are done completely wrong. b/c of that, i am so busy trying to get my life together that i look like a mess, am impatient and easily hurt, and just over all ridiculous. the worst part is that it is not as if these things are circumstances that are out of my control-everything in actuality IS my fault, so i can take no comfort or solace in things being unavoidable, like with other unpleasant things. i am convince that when people say the first year of marriage is the hardest, it is not because of the person you are living with-it is because you have to adjust to being wonder women, in school, the home, church and everywhere. and when you aren't feeling up to the challenge, you can't just tell yourself that the only person its affecting is you. cuz its not anymore. now you also have a husband, calling and whoever else to hold it together for.

well. today is one of those days. i just hope that what anne says is true-that tomorrow is fresh with no mistakes in it. because really, today is chalk full of them and i just feel like crawling into a ball, closing my eyes and not waking up till i have gone from an ugly, grumpy and hateful caterpillar to a beautiful, perfect and admired butterfly, for my sake and everybody else's.

When did THIS happen?

Do you remember all those kids shows that used to be on? Is it just me or have the quality of new shows gone down in the last few years? I mean c'mon..remember Doug and his favorite band The Beets singing Killer Tofu? So Weird? Even Stevens before Shia was famous? Alex Mac? the OLD version of rugrats when the lines were thin and there were less words? There were so many good ones! And now all we've got are weird shows, like Adventure Time [which makes no sense] and I Carly..Bleh! I miss when things were good!

Annnyways, my point is I was just thinking about that when I noticed that the main character guy from Jett Jackson [who I always thought was so good looking PS] is on a new show on TNT! Its called Rizzoli & Isles I think. Honestly, its not that great, just another lame crime show that will never be up to quality of Jack MCoy and all the Law & Orders. But its not quite as bad as the latest overflow of reality shows we have sunk to. But hey, at least we know he's got work haha! That is all.

Blast from the Past

When I was in elementary school, a teacher made us learn this poem:

Make new friends,

But keep the old.

One is silver.

And the other is gold.

When I think back on all my college experiences, there are so many good memories and good people, many of whom I am lucky to have kept in touch with, thus bringing that poem to mind. Among them is my good friend Remmik; in fact she was the first person I ever met as I moved into my dorm at LDSBC way back when. With our love of black and white, humphrey bogart movies, elf, forensic files and molten lava fudge cakes, we were meant to be friends for a long time. For this reason, I was so excited when she said she would be able to visit us for this weekend before she heads off for an adventure in Africa! My sister Hillary hitched a ride with her in the hopes of getting invitations [which will have to wait to till next time since it was closed] so come friday afternoon, they arrived. I haven't had so much fun in ages! Now that I am married I don't have many sleepovers, but Lester was such a good sport, and I would even say he enjoyed himself just as much! Both nights that they were here, we stayed up till 2 which for an old women like me is quite the accomplishment. It was really nice reliving my past while still enjoying what has come of our futures thus far. We played tons of cards, baked and cooked liked crazy, went for some fun walks and trips around rexburg, watched some classic mysteries [And Then There Were None, The Man Who Knew To Much] and fun shows [like the office, etc], and talked and laughed like there wasn't a care in the world. By the time Sunday rolled around, we were all extremely sorry to see them go. They headed out after a quick meal after church, with plans for next time. I have loved all my friends throughout the years, and value their places in my life. But one of my favorite things about Remmik is we can laugh so hard about the most random things, and she doesnt make me feel bad for wanting to be good-do you know what I mean? Its just nice when you can be your true self around someone and they still enjoy you as much as you enjoy them-theres no pressure to be hard core or cool-because even the good is cool. This is Remmik. So, this weekend was fun, and I loved seeing my sister and my friend. Here are some fun pictures of our weekend [keep in mind that I am just finishing being sick, hence how I look in some of these haha]: