Tuesday, March 24, 2009

I miss the SUN!!

Here is our 10 day forecast! I am really craving some WARM UV rays but they are nowhere in sight. Mostly I am tired of running on a t.r.e.a.d.m.i.l.l. and want to go outside without getting wet. Good thing we are headed to Cancun in less than 2 months! (I know that is still pretty far away but something to look forward to, right?)

I don't have too much to report. Brandon is through with busy season. Hurray!! Now he comes home around 6 or 7pm. I am still working per diem at Overlake Hospital on the cardiac unit. Some weeks I work over full time and other weeks I barely work part time. It is nice to have the variety and I definitely like this job better than my old job in the radiology department.

This weekend one of my old roommates from BYU was in town so I got to go out to lunch with her and catch up. We live in her home ward so it is fun to know we will stay in touch whenever she comes back to visit. She and her husband are living in Texas and just bought a house. We are super jealous!!

Brandon also spoke in church on Sunday. He did an amazing job and didn't even write anything down (I could never do that because I would lose my train of thought too easily)! He talked about preparing for General Conference which is coming up in just 2 weeks--I can't wait.

One year ago on March 22 Brandon asked me to marry him. It is crazy to think about all that has happened in one year! I remember the first time he ever mentioned the "M" word. It was a Sunday evening in my apartment. We were sitting on my roommates love sac watching a CES fireside. Of course the fireside was about eternal marriage which I'm sure helped encourage him to start a converstaion we both had been avoiding for some time. Brandon had accepted his job with Ernst and Young and needed to make a decision about when to start---either in August or October. He had told me he needed to make a decision on his start date about a week earlier. He had mentioned it casually like he was telling me what he ate for lunch that day but obviously it was a big deal because it meant we had decide what was going to happen to us at the end of the summer. I knew he was thinking about it and I DEFINTELY was thinking about it but I was NOT going to be the first one to bring it up. So for over a week I skirted around the issue by changing the subject every time he mentioned his job with E&Y. I'm not exactly sure how the converstaion started that night but before I knew it we were talking about our options for when he needed to move up to Seattle. First he started talking about doing the long distance thing...I immediately vetoed that idea. We are both not good phone talkers and there was no way our relationship would last through that...so honestly what would be the point. Then he suggested I move up to Seattle and we could continue dating. Yeah right!!...my life was way too great in Utah (family, friends, job) to move and then have Brandon and I not work out. I guess he realized at that point if he was going to keep me around he would have to make a bigger committment. So then he pulled out the big guns and mentioned the "M" word. As they say...the rest is history. I'll have to post about when he actually proposed to me another time.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Blue and Gold Banquet

So my calling right now is with the Cub Scouts. I am the Wolf den mother so I get to hangout with about a dozen 8-9 year old boys each week. It has been a great calling for me to learn about little boys. I have no brothers and had no clue what they do in scouts so I have had to learn quick. Thankfully I am not totally alone. We combine with the Bear den and their leader, Molly, has been at this for about 2 years now so I would consider her a pro at it and I definitely learn a lot from her.

Little boys are so funny. There have been a few instances I couldn't help but laugh my head off at what they said. One little boy was acting up and his father is in the bishopric. We asked him to settle down and called him "Brother Smith" (names have been changed to protect the innocent). He kept acting up and we finally got him to look at us. We said again, "Brother Smith, can you hear what we are saying?" He said, "What?!? Brother Smith is my dad." He really had no idea we were talking to him. To him Brother Smith was only his dad and not him. It was hilarious...maybe you had to be there to grasp how funny it was. Then around Thanksgiving we were playing a Bingo game I had made up where we put different things we were thankful for in each of the squares: family, friends, house, food, school, games...etc. We were pretty far into the game and it was getting close to someone winning. One of the kids just kept saying over and over again "I need friends! I need friends!!!" I don't know why but it just sounded so funny because he was so excited to announce it to the entire den!
This past week we had the big Blue and Gold Banquet. I was lucky enough to be in charge of the food. It was a little stressful but it turned out to be a big success. We combined with another troop and had all their families come. We ended up serving about 90 people...it was a lot of food. All the boys had a great time. Here are some pictures of the evening. I forgot my camera so these were emailed out to us by our Cub Master.
The theme was ABC Across America but we kind of changed it to Celebrating the State of Washington. The decorations were amazing. They made Mt. Rainier out of butcher paper and had trees all over the gym. It looked great and the boys loved it.

We made these fish the week before for decorations. They are salmon and orca. Do you remeber the art project in elementary school where you get little squares of tissue paper and put them on the end of a pencil. You then dip the end into some glue and put it on you project. The boys did a great job as you can see.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Mormon Messages on YouTube

Today I found the coolest thing. I was searching on lds.org for something uplifting to read because I was just feeling down about a few things. As I was scrolling through the homepage I noticed at the bottom there was a link to Mormon Messages on YouTube. You all probably have seen these before but it was brand new to me. Mormon Messages is an official channel of the church on YouTube (who would have thought). Each week they post messages about basic gospel beliefs and other inspiring stories and uplifting messages. I clicked on the link and began watching a clip of Pres. Uchtdorf talking about creativity. I spent the next half hour watching all the other short clips. Each had beautiful pictures, scenery, music and of course inspired words from modern day prophets that made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I just wanted to share my discovery with everyone because it made my day and I hope it makes yours!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

a GREAT weekend

This weekend Brandon and I went up to Arlington to stay with Grandma Beth. It was a fun weekend. On Friday Grandma Beth and I went out to lunch at Arby's and then shopping at Target while Brandon was at work. That evening we had a great surprise from Brandon when he got home. He bought us both some beautiful flowers for Valentine's Day. Grandma kept saying how beautiful her lilies were. I absolutely loved my roses...this is the first time since we got engaged that Brandon has given me flowers and being the huge Bachelor fan that I am I told him I felt like I had been to a dozen rose ceremonies and that he must really love me. Saturday night we all went out to dinner at the Eaglecrest Restaurant. Sunday we got up early and went to our ward in Redmond and then drove around to look at a few condos for sale in Issaquah. I had a great time this weekend talking and getting to know Grandma Beth better! Thanks for hanging out with us!

Grandma's calla lily

My roses

Brandon and Grandma at dinner on Valentine's Day

Friday, February 13, 2009

Just for Valentine's Day

I thought for Valentine's Day it would be fun to reminisce about when Brandon and I were dating. Here are a few fun memories...

...Staying up most the night watching shooting stars...Burning CDs for the Music Fireside...Light sabers in the courtyard...Becca's Cuddle Bag...Viva Las Vegas!...Speed Scrabble...Surprise--meet my parents...Nerf gun wars...Cursed Thanksgiving basketball game...Throwing throw-up on you...Road trip to Boise...Debating Utah vs. Washington as best state in the continental US--I think you won since we're here...Talking on the couch in the 5th floor break room at 2am...Costco hot dog anyone?...'Hey brother! (Buster's voice)...'It is sweltering in here!'...Grill Master...Jericho--why did we waste our time on that show?...Meeting Little Red...Snowshoeing to Stewart Falls...Sudoku and Crossword puzzles...Making smores over the stove...'What white patch?'...Bocce by Helaman Halls...Bird poop and cheesecake...Early morning runs after work...Spinach mushroom ravioli--your favorite!...Rock Band featuring Johnny Got A Haircut...Waterproof Uno in the hot tub...Tennis (real and on the Wii)...Gorilla Glue and a half empty Propel bottle...


These plus HUNDREDS more little moments like these added up to one thing...me falling in love with the man of my dreams.

Happy Valentine's Day Brandon!
I love you!
(and thanks for not having surgery this Valentine's Day!)

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

I have the best husband ever!

This is where he is taking me at the end of May... sunny CANCUN!!!! And I am soooo excited!

A couple weekends ago Brandon asked me if I wanted to go on a vacation with him. I told him I would if it was somewhere warm and sunny. I have never been so pasty white in my life and I just need to look forward to some time in the sun! He suggested Cancun and I was thrilled. I've never been there before and it met my two requirements perfectly. We will have more than 4 months to plan this trip which is longer than we had to plan our entire wedding but I've discovered you should always have a vacation or something to look forward to...especially during busy season.

After looking through dozens of different hotel options we finally decided on the Dreams all-inclusive resort in Cancun. The pictures make it look amazing and I catch myself looking at the online brochure a little too often thinking of the day I will be lying on the beach soaking up all that sun. There is tons of stuff to do...snorkeling, scuba lessons, kayaking, yoga, spanish cooking classes, tennis, biking, ocean trampoline, euro-bungee, golfing, laying on the beach, swimming with the dolphins, shows, live music, big screen outdoor movies, pool volleyball, dining...you name it. It all sound like so much fun. We are super excited!!

We just got our 'tickets' (really just a pamphlet about the resort and our reservation numbers) in the mail yesterday so it is official. Mexico here we come!!

Friday, January 30, 2009

earthquake

This post is mostly to get that ugly picture of Hot Topic off the top of my blog. But also to let you know that we had an earthquake this morning. Around 5:25 am the Puget Sound area was shaken by a 4.5 earthquake. I know...that's not big at all. They say it lasted for 15-20 seconds and that people as far north as Victoria, British Columbia could feel the tremors. I slept right through it...I had worked a crazy 12 hour shift yesterday and was exhausted. Brandon claims it woke him up but he didn't know what woke him up until after he heard the news report. I'm bummed I slept through it. I guess I will have to take everyone's word for it that it really happened.