Other Oceans

Our Home Teacher Vince and his wife Rachel invited us over for dinner. We had amazing deep dish pizza that was stuffed to the brim with all kinds of toppings It seriously filled me up with one slice! The meal was perfect and the company couldn't have been better. We are so blessed to have amazing friends and great Home Teachers :)

Say hello to Ryan's infamous jeans. Ryan is a minimalist when it comes to clothing and right now he has two pairs of jeans that he regularly wears. What you see above is a regular display. He usually takes off his pants right in that same spot, goes to bed, wakes up, takes a shower and proceeds to put the pants on only to drop them in the same spot again later that night. It's almost like it is holy ground or something. Occationally we will wash the jeans, but before you know it you will find them on the floor once more.

Say hello to the worlds WORST chick flick ever! I was sick yesterday so I thought a chick flick would cheer me up...except it only made me want to hang onto Ryan and never let him go! These single chicks are freakin crazy and manipulative! Please don't tell me there are real women out there dressing like hookers to get wealthy men to pay for their lavish lifestyles. Yes, it is a movie, and a LIFETIME movie no less. No offense to Lifetime, but they really could have made the movie less than 3 hours and hired actors who had some other expression besides the botox I-have-no-expression-because-I-have-been-shot-up-so-many-times-face. Seriously! This was no bueno for me. Ryan said I shouldn't bad-mouth the movie just in case someone from the movie is reading my blog...well, I guess we will cross that bridge IF we get there :)

Happy late Valentine's Day Ryan! We really have yet to offically celebrate Valentine's Day but we did exchange gifts and this was my gift to Ryan. There are like 15 flat stones in there you can heat up and use for massage. There is also a booklet for retards like me who wouldn't know what to do with a stone during a massage. I'm trying to read it so that poor Ryan, after a long day at school, can come home and relax. I'm starting to think this sounds more like a torture session than a relaxing activity, so I'll have to update you later and let you know how it goes.

Welcome to my sleep position of choice. Curled up, not even recognizable, with my sleep mask. Yep. That's me! Yes and the gatorade and pretzels in the background are pretty much there 24/7 as well. This picture-a-day thing has me totally freaked out because we were almost asleep and I sat up and said, "We forgot to take a picture!". Luckily it wasn't midnight so we still haven't missed, but you get a handy picture of me in bed instead! Enjoy!

Thanks to Emily and Derek we were nicely fed on Sunday night. Emily make lemon chicken and onion potatoes and nothing was flat or burnt! Good job Em! :) We love having Emily and Derek around to hang out with and love exchanging places to do dinner. The more the merrier! We caught up with an episode of Lost and played some Boggle and Scattegories to round out the night. I did find out that our good friends the Broadbents were cheating on us behind our backs by going over to Emily and Derek's place to play games while Ryan's parents were here last weekend. I have to say I was a little jealous about sharing our friends, but I guess I can be a big girl and share. :)

If you could do anything with your one free Saturday what would you do? If you guessed prepare a last minute talk you would be right! We got called Saturday around lunchtime to give a talk about love at home for Sunday morning. Seriously not my idea of fun. I was so looking forward to a night of nothing and getting into my PJs and just watching Glee. Gotcha! The Lord had other plans for Ryan and I. At first I was pretty bitter about it. I feel like all I ever do is Relief Society stuff...not that that is a bad thing, but a girl could use a little break, you know? I started preparing the talk and if came together pretty quickly for me. After speaking I felt like the talk had been truly inspired because I could not have come up with all of that material by myself and I think with the time limit I relied more heavily upon the Spirit than usual. I was grateful for the experience and grateful I was reminded of some valuable truths of which I should be doing a better job. Service is never convenient and I was glad Ryan and I were up for the challenge.

Welcome to the beauty that is the head scratcher. For Christmas I bought Ryan a metal head scratcher because I think at least twice a day I am asked to scratch Ryan's head. This is a miracle worker! As demonstrated above all you need to do is run the head scratcher up and down someone's head and poof! Instant stress relief. It also works as a hair teaser as well. If you really want some "Utah Hair" just try this thing for about a minute and I know you will never go back to your teasing and comb. If you ever need to de-stress just come on over! You might need to take a number though.

Since Monday we have been spending a lot of time at the hospital. Fourth floor ortho is where it is at! We have been spending some unexpected time with Ryan's Mom and Dad but we have been loving having them here. It may be under some bad circumstances but we have enjoyed their company and the extra time we get to spend with them. I have aquainted myself with the hospital more which has been helpful for me with my volunteering and found out how cheap hospital food is! For sure the hospital will be Ryan and I's next date. My plateful of spaghetti was $1.25 and Ryan's salad was .22 cents! Forget shopping we will just eat at the hospital from now on! Anyone willing to join us? :)

Blog, meet the Windmeter 3000. Ryan spent all day with his group to get this crazy device to send a signal into a computer to find the speed of wind. This is not the completed project, but it turned out great but was a lot of work. I'm amazed that college students can make such amazing machines! Great job honey!

Welcome to the house of nerds! No offense Ryan, but seriously! I went up to visit Ryan up at school and brought him dinner because he pretty much wasn't going to be able to sleep with all of the assignments and tests he had this week. I think Wendys and the biggest Dr. Pepper I could find hit the spot, but after looking around I realized I was in the house of nerds! Listening to these people's conversations just cracked me up! I couldn't hardly understand anything they were saying, but the funniest part is that they were all so serious about velocity and wind speed and law of thermodynamics...like if they didn't figure out this problem the world was going to collapes or something. Then I got to thinking...what would the world be like without engineers? The whole world might just fall apart of those nerds weren't worried about everything! So yes my husband my be surrounded by nerds, but I am grateful for my engineer and couldn't be more proud!

Yum yum! After Lara's Cafe Rio creation we had to get some of our own! After quite a crazy day Cafe Rio was just what we needed to fill our tummies with happiness. Normally when I eat somewhere, right after I'm done I want nothing to do with food, but I could seriously have eaten there for breakfast no problem. What, do they put cocaine in their salads or something? Whatever it is, I am definitely going back for more.

While the boys were hitting the slopes all day Kristi, Leslie and I went to lunch at Olive Garden with Emily and Catherine. It was fun having our girl time and to relax with some yummy food. After a mellow day of grocery shopping and Kristi footing the bill (our budget thanks you!) we went to to Shoga, a local sushi place for a family valentine's day dinner. The food was amazing! Highly recommended for sure. I had a steak bowl and it was so flavorful so it's not just for sushi lovers. We enjoyed the evening laughing and of course eating our dessert from Sub Zero. I don't think we have had one night without dessert yet! A good family tradition :)

So here are the remains of a day of snowbaording. The boys and Kristi went for a half day of carving the slopes and with our apartment being so small the coats and gloves and boards all came into the house to dry off. It has been great to have everyone here and to have the fun reminders of Ryan and Mark's adventurous hobbies.

They made it! The Vorwaller's made the long flight from Florida to Utah for some good food, fun and of course snowboarding. We were so excited to see them! Their first meal from Utah was In-N-Out the night they flew in. In-N-Out should really start paying me for all of the advertising I do :) We were so happy to have our family all together to enjoy our weekend of fun.

Happy Surgery Day Mom!

We love you and won't stop praying for you until you voice magically is perfect again. Now rest up with every chick flick you can find and give Comet a good belly rub for me! Dad...don't forget Mom's bell and if you need someone to try to read her mind call Emily...she's your girl for sure. Call me if you want my pre med-school opinion on something I probably know nothing about. :) Thanks for taking good care of her. Love you guys!

Why would I post a picture of my dirty laundry you ask? Well because I'm an idiot. I left a lovely pen in my scrubs and washed AND dried all of our colored clothes! AAAHHHH!! Seriously! How could I be THAT stupid?! Dear Lord, please give me patience. As if I wasn't busy enough I now have scrubs to shop for, more laundry to do and have to mourn the loss of my clothes. Ryan's clothes took the brunt of the ink and I quickly ran out to the Quicksilver store today to replace some of the casualties. Today will forever be the death of our wardrob. A moment of silence please.

You would think that I would love to be chauffeured around, but apprently I have control issues. Ryan is the most patient guy on the planet and the one place I know I annoy him the most is in the car. I am the WORST backseat driver ever and he is so patient while I tell him what to do and who to honk the horn at and where to turn. He is better at directions than me so why would I tell him where to go? Maybe when we make our first million I will have a car made with a secret steering wheel and breaks on the passenger side so that I can have my control and the love of my husband. Or maybe I could try to just be more patient.

So Ryan's parents are coming into town and I am trying to get organized. I am seriously an anal freak when it comes to symmetry about...well anything. After trying to movie the DVD shelf to the other side of the TV stand by myself I managed to puncture a hole in the back while knocking down every DVD from the shelf. No biggie...but then with the DVD shelves on each side I don't know how I should hang my pictures. Then I feel like we can't see the TV as well with the shelves on each side...the crazy thoughts are seriously endless. Then I thought WHO FREAKING CARES!! Probably not my inlaws. I may cringe a little when I notice something out of place, but really when I'm surrounded by my friends and family the placement of the shelves is the last thing on my mind...sort of.

Yummy! If you think you are looking at something from Cafe Rio you would be right! Lara cooked up some mean salad and burritos Cafe Rio style for the Super Bowl. She even did the dressing! Amazing! It was super delicious and I even managed to eat a few tomatoes...no beans yet, but there is always next year :) Thanks Lara for your perfect culinary creation! It was the highlight of my Superbowl night.

This month has been crazy already and it's only going to get more busy. No biggie though because I have amazing friends who truly look out for me! I came home after a long day of work to find a friend had left me dinner...and dessert! And a fancy dessert at that! It couldn't have come at a better time and it made me feel so grateful to know that Heavenly Father is looking out for me and is utilizing my friends to help me out when I need it the most. I would've taken a picture of the whole spred, but Ryan and I devoured it before I could even think about it! Thanks to all those who are a part of our lives. We plan to pay it forward soon.

BEFORE

AFTER

Thanks to my pal Jenni I was able to get a FREE haircut and color by a friend of hers trying to get a job at a local salon. She had to audition by doing someone's cut and color and I was the lucky winner! After a few hours I went from drab to fab! We did the color at her house and will do the cut later at the salon. She did a great job and I am loving that my discretionary money did not have to be used for my vain habits :) Thanks Stephanie!

The world stood still for a moment at 8p on Tuesday thanks to LOST. Megan came over, along with Devon and Whitney to witness an amazing event in television history, the season 6 premier. The episode was truly mind-blowing and of course left me with more questions than I had answers, but that is what I love about this show! It's not mindless drama, it actually has meaning and makes me feel like I'm not totally wasting away my brain in front of the TV. (even though I know I am) The fudgy goodness you are witnessing was courtesy of Megan and her mother's amazing marshmellow brownie goodness. Overall I think Devon and Ryan had the most fun. Hey, I'm not judging. :)

AAAHHHHH! This is my reaction to the month of February. I gave up about half way through the month because I didn't want to keep writing all the stuff I had to do. February is absolutely crazy and I just want to go to bed a wake up in March. I know, I shouldn't have a negative attitude, and I shouldn't complain because I really am so blessed, but sometimes I just need to pretend I don't have anything going on and then my ulcer won't flair up. The calendar is designed to help people remember what to do, but all I want to do is forget! Have you ever seen an extremely relaxed person thumbing through their calendar...no! It's always the uptight people trying to fit more stuff into those tiny boxes they give you. One bright spot is Ryan's parents will be flying in for the long weekend...and I get a four day week at work. The countdown begins now!

Sundays are always my busiest days, but I love cooking and Sundays are great days for a family dinner. Leslie came over and we all enjoyed some yummy soup to help keep us warm. We love to catch up on the week's festivities and hear all about Leslie's fun adventures with all of her friends and it's nice to be able to have her so close. She always compliments the cook, so she always gets an invite back :) We love her and the old married farts are grateful for the company :)

My husband has a lot of things he loves, but I have to say, candy is up there with me and surfing. We actually have to budget money for our candy consumption...yeah you heard right! We are rarely without candy so if you are ever in a bind and have low blood sugar and want it to spike, just knock on our door. While watching a movie at the theatre and watching another one that night at home we consumed three full boxes of candy...and Ryan would have eaten more if he had the chance. Maybe that's what makes him so sweet!