The One with Justin's Big Birthday!!

Justin is now 25(+5)!!  Knowing he was not too excited about this birthday I wanted to make it extra special for him.  Birthdays are another odd difference that Justin and I have.  He really doesn't care and I care a lot.  I love birthdays!!  I mean, schools shut down for a week when my birthday rolls around!  Or that's just when they schedule Spring Break, whatever.  Anyway, I had plans to make him an amazing Gator cake and all of his uncles came out to celebrate with him (or ski, again whatever).

After a good afternoon of skiing, Justin, Wes, Mitch, Kelly, Jeremy and I went to Settebello's for dinner.  They make authentic Napoletano pizza.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  It is good!  (Well, don't ask Steve.  We took him once too and he was disappointed it didn't taste like Pizza Hut.  No culture for that one!)  Then we came back to our apartment for cake and ice cream.  This beast took me all night but I think it turned out well- thanks to Wendy and her cake decorating tips because this is my first attempt at anything beyond butter knife smeared frosting.

 Before

After

These pictures didn't turn out very well (I think I still had the camera in "snow" mode).

We didn't want to burn down the house so I just put in one candle :)

 

Opening presents:

My parents gave Justin a Star Trek Enterprise pizza cutter.  Which meant we had to have pizza for dinner on Sunday.  Just so he could use it :)

 They also gave him another Carcassonne expansion that I've already played with and love!

We are looking for a new jacket for Justin (for his birthday) but I still wanted him to have something to open and these potato guns were obviously a good choice.

His mom sent him some much needed new dress shirts and, of course, reinforcements for the Florida stash.

30 was a hard year to get Justin thinking birthdays are awesome but I think I might have succeeded.  Just a little bit.

Happy Birthday Hubby!!

The One with all the Skiing

Justin's uncles all came out to Utah for a long ski vacation.  Justin and I went out with them a few times and got some pretty good skiing in ourselves.  It's official- I'm nowhere near professional but I have a need for speed.  If I were to compete in a Winter Olympic event it would be the downhill because that is fun!!

Jeremy saw these "floating trees" so we stopped to take a few pictures.  Crazy to think we had just skied down through that cloud!

 Left to right: Justin, Wes, Kelly, Jeremy & Mitch

Right to left: Justin, Wes, Kelly, Jeremy & Mitch

I took a few videos of everyone else jumping in the terrain park at Snowbird.  I myself have never ventured into the area and probably won't for another long while.  It does look fun though :)

They're in chronological order.  Justin went first but apparently didn't have enough speed.  I think his outbursts are hilarious!!

Then somehow I caught this guy falling.  I love when people fall!!  It's too funny.  Although it is definitely not funny when I fall myself.

Then Wes had a umm, let's say "impressive" run.

I'd have to say Jeremy had the cleanest run though.

Watching these videos I realize it sounds like an 8 year old little girl narrating.  Rest assured, it's me.  And I'm definitely not 8 :(

The One on Valentine's Day

Justin and I have now celebrated 4 (that's right 4!!)

Valentine's Days 

together!  Crazy, considering I think I've only celebrated it with a true Valentine one other time.  And it's not like we cheated and started dating on Valentine's Day.  We were together for over 4 months when we celebrated our first.  That day was also the first time we talked about getting married.  Of course it took another 7 months for the proposal to happen but that's a story for another day :)

The hard thing about Valentine's Day for me is that it is only 4 days before Justin's birthday so I have to be creative twice in one week and think of 2 gifts for the man who buys himself everything.  Not to mention Christmas just happened.  You can imagine that with this being the 4th occurrence I might be getting better at it, but you'd be wrong.  Last year I gave him these:

Very romantic.  Plus, Justin doesn't need anything right now.  What to do?!  Pinspiration :)

 http://www.somewhatsimple.com/quick-and-easy-valentines-gift/

Being married I have found that it is very tricky to surprise someone when you live with them.  Meaning, in order to pull this off I had to sneak off in the afternoon and purchase/set up everything in less than an hour.  Hello pressure!  I think it turned out well though and Justin liked it, which is the most important part :)

Justin looks forward to Valentine's Day because he actually loves those little candy hearts.

Justin surprised me too.  Funny enough, when I left school around 2 I thought "what if Justin has the same idea I do and tries to use the truck, right now?"  We ride to school together in the morning so this was a definite possibility.  Luckily, Justin knew I had a pilates class later and worked his sneakiness in during that time.  Look how cute!

I think these baseball chocolates are probably meant for women to give their men but sometimes it works better the other way around :)

We also went to dinner at The Wildflower, a restaurant at the Snowbird Ski Resort and it was delicious!!  Oh my word, that was the best (and probably most fattening but who cares) chicken I've ever had.  And bread.  I have a HUGE weakness for bread.

Happy (belated) Valentine's!!

The One with the Johnson Visit

Wow!  This month is flying by!  Lisa, Travis and Anistyn came up to visit us almost 2 weeks ago already!  Justin and I were able to drive down a few times during the week and hang out.  The first time we went just to drop off some warm clothes that they didn't even need!  I was grateful the Johnsons brought some AZ heat with them; it got above 40 every day they were here!!

Friday night Justin went night skiing with a friend so I drove down to Lehi by myself.  It was totally worth it!  Travis's mom taught Lisa how to make real Italian lasagna, from scratch.  Can I just say YUM!!

 

 Anistyn helped out too- by being cute :)

Travis' sister's sister-in-law (how crazy of a relation does that sound?!) was having a birthday party for her son at the house so we bundled up to watch some fireworks.  I guess borrowing some warm winter clothes for Anistyn wasn't for naught.  Look how sweet!

 

She liked the fountain at first but then I think it got a little too cold.  Even with the parka.  Not to mention Travis' feet were probably freezing!

Saturday night we went on our now annual Texas Roadhouse outing.  Anistyn was a little more wiggly and noisy than last time when she just slept through everything.  Still, good food, good friends, good times :)  We were sorry to see family leave.  And even sorrier that they took the warm weather with them!!  It's snowed on us the past 2 nights now.  Come back!!

The One with the Lost & Found

I hate losing things.  I mean, I really really hate when I lose things.  I have no patience for myself when it comes to that.  So this past weekend was especially hard because I lost my UCard (my student ID).  It probably wouldn't be that big of a deal except, as a grad student, my UCard is my key to get in to all the facilities on campus where I fabricate/characterize my samples.  This makes getting a new card quite a hassle.  I was especially mad because this semester I splurged on the Fitpass at the rec center (a $60 sticker that lets you in to all of the classes they offer) and they informed me that even though they have a record of me buying a Fitpass, I would have to purchase a new one to continue attending classes.  Not fair!  I didn't understand that and definitely didn't want to pay again.

All weekend I kept retracing my steps and searching every place I could think I'd been before losing my card.  Finally I decided to really search our hungry couch.  I call it hungry because it literally eats anything.  If you have something in your pocket you want to keep, don't sit on the couch because I guarantee it will fall between the cushions.

 I had already looked underneath with a flashlight and stuck my hand in every place it would fit to no avail so as a last resort I flipped the couch over.  This is where the story gets good.  No I didn't find my card but I did find my long lost bluetooth!

 The one Steve gave me for Christmas and I thought I'd accidentally donated to DI a few weeks after.  The one Steve gave me for Christmas 2010!!  Yep, it's been resting in the belly of our couch for over a year.  I've missed wireless cell phone usage!

And now to answer the burning question, yes I did find my card.  I needed to return a book to the library and thought "it wouldn't hurt to ask."  Lo and behold, someone found it and actually turned it in!!  I definitely felt a disproportionately large sense of relief and excitement to see it again.  Yay for honest people!  And yay for pilates!  I'm so excited to be able to go to class again!

The One with the Olympic Flame

When the Olympics were in Salt Lake in 2002 they added the "Olympic Park" to Rice Eccles Stadium (the football stadium at the U).  Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the opening ceremonies and the city had a relighting of the Olympic Cauldron in the Park.  Justin and I walked over right after school (the football stadium is right across the street from the Chem building).  Unfortunately, the morning news anchor was not very accurately informed because we waited over an hour and a half before the ceremony actually started!

 

Olympic Park.

Hoberman Arch; this was behind the stage where the athletes

received their medals and is now part of the Park.

These are just some cool shots I took before they let us in.

Powder and Coal; two of the Games' mascots.

The Cauldron.

The Salt Lake Games are well known for the amazing opening ceremony that went off without a hitch.  (Hello, it was MoTab singing John Williams!!!!)  Unfortunately the relighting didn't go off so well...

You can imagine this was quite the disappointment for Justin and me after waiting for so long but we were supposed to drive down to Lehi that night to see Lisa, Travis and Anistyn so we decided to leave.  As we reached our car however we saw this!!  And ran back.

Pretty, no?  It didn't burn very long (probably because they let so much gas out trying to ignite the flame in the first place) but a very nice couple nearby took this picture for us.

Salt Lake is trying to host the Winter Games again.  Yay for 2022!

*Hopefully we'll be done by then and (sadly) will miss the Games.  Again.

The One with the Call

That's right folks, I am now officially the primary pianist for our family ward!  Yay!!  This is my favorite calling ever!  Not just because there is little to no preparation on my part (well, 5 years of piano lessons) but because the kids are just so darn funny!  I am also amazed at how much they really do learn from sharing and singing times.

I served as the primary pianist for a little over a year when I moved back home prior to starting grad school and absolutely loved it.  I was a little sad to give it up and go back to the singles ward where it wasn't even an option.  After Justin and I got married I will admit I tried to lobby for it but was called as a ward missionary instead.  That was enjoyable because Justin is the ward mission leader so at least we worked together.  At the beginning of January we had a meeting with the bishop and he accidentally let slip that I was going to be called as the pianist.  I was currently filling in for the calling anyway but it wasn't until this past weekend that it became official.  The funniest thing is that I went to my weekly step aerobics class (yes, it is very 80's but no one wears leotards.  Maybe we should...) on Saturday morning with my friend Ashley, who just happens to be the primary president.  She said she had such a hard time keeping it a secret (too bad I'd already known for 3 weeks) and was really excited I'll be in primary every Sunday now.

And this is why I love the calling so much.  During sharing time (when my job is pretty much done) I was helping pass some papers out.  After I sat back down one of the 3 year old Sunbeam girls came up, pointed to the sequins on my shirt and said "Your shirt is bee-yoo-ti-ful!"  So cute!!

The One with the Craft (my first How-To)

I've mentioned multiple times now that Justin thinks I've been crocheting up a storm.  Well it's not just crochet- I've been crafting up a storm.  Mostly because I made most of the Christmas presents I gave last year and also thanks to the always inspiring Pinterest (if you haven't heard of it/aren't a member let me know and I'll send you an invite. It's awesome!!).

This is my latest project inspired by Pinterest:

I usually put my makeup on in the morning while sitting on the couch and watching the news.  Sound familiar?  This is what Mom does every morning!  Never really thought about it but maybe that's why I do it.  I will admit that I have dropped containers of powder, eyeshadow, my mascara brush, what have you on the couch.  Please don't look closely, then people will start noticing the pretty shimmery spots on our couch!  This is definitely a problem; not to mention that I really don't like makeup bags.  They get dirty so quickly and unless you only have 5 things in it to begin with you basically have to empty them completely to find your tweezers.  So when I saw the makeup magnet board online I thought "I can totally do that."  Like all projects it took a lot longer than expected but I like the end results.  And the best part is I already had most of the supplies or was able to find them at DI.  Woo hoo- I love saving money!!

First I covered 2 (clean) Campbell's soup cans with pretty paper using Mod Podge (love that stuff!) and then hot-glued ribbon around the top to finish it off and protect my fingers.

I know, we need a can opener that cuts smooth like Pampered Chef.  Guess what- my birthday is coming up :)  Oh, you hear crickets chirping.  Ok, moving on.  I used some dome alphabet stickers to label the cans, just for fun.  Ironically I have too many shadow brushes so my mascara is in the "face" can.  Whatever, I still use it on my face!  I poured a little bit of uncooked rice in the bottom to keep the brushes in some kind of order.


Then I took apart 2 frames I found at DI for (drum roll please) $1 each!  That's right, one dollar!  They did start out pretty ugly...

until I painted them with this awesome bright green (88 cents at Michaels) and then a coat of silver glitter spray paint I had left over from what else, Christmas present crafting :)

Finally (and most important), the magnetism.  I bought a big sheet of steel at Ace Hardware for $8.50.  Yep, the most expensive part.  I'm a chemist and can't remember what metals are magnetic (mostly because they're usually alloys, I knew aluminum wouldn't work!) so I took a magnet with me to the store to make sure I bought the right one.  I cut it into two 8"x10" pieces

 and hot glued the piece de resistance, this awesome retro paper, on the backside.

 
I love this paper- totally makes the frame no?  I hot glued some disc magnets (you can get these at office supply stores, Wal-Mart or pick some up at Ace while you're there) to my makeup and my brush holders and organized it all on the frames.  (**I recommend using the disc magnets.  I tried some magnetic tape because I already had some but it's not strong enough.)

The final result:

I actually like doing my makeup in the bathroom.  The lighting is infinitely better and I don't get distracted by ESPN's top plays and hit my nose with the mascara brush.  Seriously, that is at least a weekly occurrence.  Hopefully not any longer.  I love that I can see all my eyeshadow colors and now realize that 7 out of 10 are brown.  If it ain't broke don't fix it right?  And best of all I love that it's organized and cost less than $15.  Yay for crafts!