the halloween post

Halloween was a little bit different this year than others... "less spooky" I guess you could say. Dave had to work until about 7:30 pm. I went to pick him up and pretended I hadn't started dinner yet because I didn't know what he wanted. He was clearly disappointed and hungry. I was quite pleased at that - my great acting skills were in play AND better yet, waiting at home was DINNER IN A PUMPKIN!


Boy was he surprised! Just look at that expression!

I masterfully wielding an extremely large and sharp knife into the smaller "squaty" [that's what the recipe called for] pumpkin, surprising myself at how good it looked in the end! I added a little decoration to the outside and popped it in the oven for the "1-2 hours" the recipe called for. As we found out later, it takes about 4 1/2 - 5 hours instead.

We had a few hours of down time so we decided now was a good time to carve our other pumpkin! Dave chose slightly smaller knives than I did and began his work on "the big one."

I contributed the eyes while Dave finished up the nose and mouth! We were pretty pleased with our little pumpkin and set him out for all to enjoy around 10:30 pm Halloween night.

Finally, the pumpkin was done and we pulled it out to enjoy the insides!

And we found that it was goooood!

For dessert, we treated ourselves the spider cupcakes we made courtesy of Melynie's genius!

And what is Halloween without a movie?! Actually, all the scary movies were checked out so we settled on "He's Just Not That Into You." Not our favorite movie but I had pulled our mattress into the living room which was a bonus! [not to mention warmth element there - the living room is the warmest room in the house and since we don't use the heater... well you see my point.]

the college life...

Well I’ve been neglecting this blog for some time and we thought it was time you had an update/reminder about what college is like!! We are loving school! Our Ultimate Frisbee and Soccer team are done but unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures. Next time…

Dave is working at Broulim’s in the meat department, a local grocery store, so that is my next goal to get pictures at. I have a feeling I will have to be very sneaky about it though. Taking pictures at school has been a little embarrassing for Dave but inside he knows it’s really worth it :)

We made some delicious sugar cookies shaped like ghosts, pumpkins, cats, and moons a few weeks before Halloween and somehow didn't get to it again... we made spider cupcakes instead!

Dave diligently studies his bones and now has moved onto his muscles. He asked me to be his study buddy once. He has since found other "buddies" since it takes at least twice as long with me... (no fault of my own).

Perhaps this has something to do with the "additional study time" with me... :)

I've begun reading a book I've long had on my "to read" list and so far it explains a lot. I often read Dave excerpts from it and he just smiles and then says, "Why can't women be more like men? How can you get so many meanings and emotions out of one sentence?!"


Dave likes people to know that we are married :)

One day, I asked Dave to drop my violin off in my locker for me because I was late for class. When I went to go get it later that day, I found the new "name tag." :)

And so, that is a taste of what life is like for us and we love it!

our most wonderful weekend!

We had the best weekend ever!!! Friday night was our hot date night. Since we like to start out every date with a service project (you know soup kitchens, hospital volunteering, etc. :) we made cupcakes for a lady who is sick. Dave knows their family. We used our ultra cute cupcake tree we got for our wedding!!

Just one pictures didn't do the tower justice!



Then we borrowed THEIR ROLLAR BLADES!!! This was just the beginning of an ultra awesome weekend!

We rollared (that's slang for rollar bladed) to the movie theatre and into it! We watched The Time Travelers Wife. We laughed, we cried. It was really an emotional rollar coaster but we liked it and felt so much closer after it. If you've seen it, you know what i'm talking about.


After we headed to Snoasis, a yummy snowcone place here. We used to go there when we were dating. That's where Dave introduced me to icecream in your snowcone and I've been hooked ever since.

On our way back we took a tour of Rexburg and saw some of the sites.

On Saturday, we went to our ward activity. It was apple picking!


We made our own apple juice. Strong man Dave was often at the wheel.

Then I helped out when all his strength was gone.

And muscled us to the end product of delicious, homemade apple juice!!

We finished the apple adventures on Sunday when we made two delicious apple pies!

On Monday, the rollar blading adventures continued! We had to make a run to the store so we used our resources and bladed there. To respect Broulim's we took them off and pushed them in the shopping cart.

Proof.

Dave thought we had taken a few too many pictures.

But our posterity will appreciate this :)

School started once again on the 10th! It was a great day of fun, new friends, and MATCHING OUTFITS! Dave and I unintentionally matched in our yellow shirts and jeans. We are taking an Eternal Marriage class and were running a tiny bit late to it. We burst into the room, totally winded (obviously because we have yet to adjust to the high altitude) and are standing in front of a bunch of other married students but the ONLY ones that match. I was quite proud of us distinguishing our relationship for the whole campus to see.

Dave and I have been lucky enough to find a couple classes we can take together, our marriage class being one and INTRO TO LATIN DANCING is the other! We are both so extremely excited! Dave has got hips like jello and moves like you've NEVER seen so obviously the class is a little intimidated. But, I think soon they'll come to see we really are just two people who love dancing.

Among our schooling adventures, we took on canning!! The day after school started, we thought we would make rhubarb jam using an ancient family recipe. Having never attempted this in either of our lives we are extremely proud of our tasty results.

Other than those little adventures (and the occassional frisbee throwing session) our lives have been seeing a lot of the library and the everyday activites you would expect from college students. (However, yesterday we somehow spent our life savings on a salad at the school cafeteria. You had to pay per ounce so I think they must have lead in the dressing or something. And it's not like we eat on campus ever but we were starving and waiting for a service activites meeting to start... GIVE US A BREAK!)

We live at 277 1/2.

I’m not sure where I’ve been all my life, but apparently you can live at “a half.” Where in Vegas we lived at names and whole numbers, now in Rexburg, Idaho we live at halves of numbers and single letters (i.e. E., S., etc.). A little less unique, yes, but still we LOVE IT! Dave and I officially moved in to our quaint little basement apartment of a red brick home.

The ceiling is a whole 6 ½ feet tall. I’ve never been able to touch a ceiling before so this is an exciting first for me. Luckily, Dave is only 5’ 11 ¾ “so he has plenty of growing room in this place. For some reason, you step up into the shower a good 6” which creates a weird problem for Dave whose hair grazes the ceiling.

There are five lovely windows on one side of the house which lets in light to the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. Our living room on the other hand is tucked in the back of the house with no windows and has an oddly placed light switch on the far end of the room. A little bit of a different set up but we are very grateful for the large storage closet on one wall of the living room. It doubles as Dave’s clothing closet since the one in our room is much too tiny for the both of us. :) (The tiny closet is pictured below.)

This is the tiny closet. Notice that you can see both sides of it (the beginning AND end at the same time). But optimistic Dave says, "Hey, at least it's a walk in closet."

Apart from than the lack of light in the living room and the oh so “petitely” sized ceiling, our apartment is the loveliest first apartment a newly married couple could ever ask for and we are so thrilled with it!

Bring Your Wife to Work Day!

Although not an official holiday (yet), my sweet husband decided to take me up on my “Bring Your Wife to Work” suggestion! I think this has been one of my best suggestions yet. Dave and I got to hang out, work together, work on our teambuilding skills, and he motivated his workers to work hard and try to move up to his job one day and get a babe like me :)

Dave has been working with his brother this summer building custom homes. They have been working on one particular house quite a bit to finish it before we leave (because Dave is the big head honcho supervisor!!). We left at 6:30 am and drove to this house. Upon arriving I met Pedro and Miguel who only speak Spanish. They conversed with Dave for a few minutes, some of the time being about me. It was pretty obvious because they would be talking, then look at me and laugh. Actually that happened a few more times during the day because almost all of the workers spoke only Spanish with Dave. However, for the most part I was very discrete. The only thing that really threw them off was that I was a girl on the site. If we had been in Mexico I think I would have blended right in. One man told Dave I looked Latino and I’m sure he wasn’t the only one thinking that. I’ve been blessed with an extremely versatile ethnic look.

I spent most of my day just kind of shadowing Dave but I did do the very important job of putting tape where touch ups were needed and putting screws in places. Dave offered me to the pool guy to help him put some valve things in, but I think the offer was forgotten when the man saw me and started asking if it Dave had brought his girlfriend to work. He was flabbergasted when he found out we were married but adjusted quickly to the idea and started asking us if we had any children. He gave his blessing “in that regard” and said they would be really beautiful.

It was a fun day of laughter, learning, and a lot of sweatiness but we loved it! I now know how to build a house and I'd say that makes the day a success.

A 3-Month Anniversary Honeymoon!

Sunday marked our 3 month Anniversary! Our first was marked with “Anniversary Brownies”. The second was a family dinner combo. But for the third, Dave surprised me with a trip to a friend’s cabin near Cedar City, UT where we grilled chicken, fished for rainbow trout, biked through the mountains, and explored an ice cave.

Here are the highlights of the trip:

During the half hour drive up the mountain to the cabin at 11 p.m. at night, we saw at least 13 deer. Kind of scary! Good things Dave’s very sporty Malibu Max has great brights.

Saturday morning, we thought we could take on the mountains and hopped on bikes to find the nearest trail. Four-wheelers flew by us as we trekked up and down the hills. We ended up parking the bikes in some bushes and took a leisurely walk. We blame it on the altitude and lack of oxygen in Utah.

My romantic husband lovingly and illegally carved our names into a beautiful Aspen tree near the ice cave the visitor center told us about. (Note: All the ice in the cave was melted, mostly mud.)

We went fishing in a beautiful pond that was unfortunately jam packed with competitive fellow fisherman. Dave and I fought our way to the prime fishing spot (where some men were pulling fish out every couple minutes) and attempted to take over. They must have taken all the hungry fish because we didn’t get any bites. However, for posterity’s sake we snagged a couple dead fish on our hooks and took pictures.

Dave and I took a nature walk, exploring nature’s oldest living thing; the bristlecone pine tree. It gave a breathtaking view of Zion’s and… some other places. Dave also led us in a “new trail” where we scaled the side of the mountain doing risky moves and taking pictures on cliff edges.

Might I add, all this was documented with our new and improved camera!!! (A lake in the Ozarks is currently enjoying our other one) For only $6.99 we were able to purchase a beautiful green, disposable camera that was “Fun and Easy to use!” We are really enjoying our time with it and it’s 28 explosures.