Plumber Bummer/Valentine's fun

The date: Last Saturday, roughly 11 p.m.
The place: Our apartment in Rexburg, ID
The problem: Bathroom Plumbing

It was quite a shock when I went to use one of our two sinks in the bathroom and both sinks started filling up with water and leaving these nasty black specks all over. I called my handy dandy fix-it man, David, to fix it and ended up spending all evening trying to figure what was wrong. After staying up till 1 a.m. on Valentine's Day, we decided to call it quits and talk to our managers before church. Either it was the drain-o stuff we put down the drain or the stuff in the pipes, but our bathroom stunk like sulfur all night. I'm starting to wonder if Valentine's Day is more of a cursed day for us, since last year we almost got in a wreck.

Fortunately, the manager came and fixed the pipes in time for us to enjoy our dinner with the windows open to air out the stink. I made David's favorite dinner: marinated pork, stir fry rice and homemade bread. David gave me the roses on the table for Valentine's Day.

I also followed my friend, Leadawn's example and made heart shaped pancakes that morning. I didn't have red food coloring so I tried a raspberry jello mix. It kind of left a weird taste in our mouths afterwords so I don't recommend it.
And, finally, David made me the most amazing Valentine's Day gift ever! He had learned how to sew from watching his sisters do it all the time and, together, we decided to embark on this immense journey of making a red and white polka dot dress. I found a vintage 1940's pattern (that is almost falling apart because it was so old) online and we went to work. When David gets started on a project, he hardly even rests till it's done. So we got this project done really fast, though it was the biggest sewing project either of us had done. Afterwords, we had some extra fabric so we decided to make a tie to match for Valentine's Day. It is cotton fabric so it's not as nice as a regular tie but it was fun to make. And so we had an amazing outfit for church on Valentine's Day -- cheesy, I know, but we're newlyweds! We get to be cheesy for a while. :-)

Happy birthday David!!

Yesterday was David's 23 birthday. It was his first birthday that we got celebrate while married so I wanted to make it really special. Also, because his birthday is a few days before Christmas, it has sometimes been overlooked in the past. But not this time...

The first thing David wanted to do on his birthday was open his birthday presents.

His family got him some really great presents. He got the game Connect Four, a leatherman, lights for when the power goes off – like last weekend, two toy guns – one for him and one for me to make things fair, and the movie The Night At The Museum. I got him a lot of movies: Be Kind, Rewind; Victory; Bourne Identity; Bourne Supremacy; Bourne Ultimatum; Iron Man; and ... STAR TREK!

David loves this movie. His parents were big Star Trek fans when he was growing up so he understood all the inside jokes within the movie and has been really excited for the movie to come out on DVD. So I got him the movie and decided to make his birthday a Star Trek theme.

I found a special edition of the movie in a case that looks like the Star Trek ship, the Enterprise. I think it's really cool.

And then I got him a Star Trek shirt. As you can tell in the picture below, he was really excited. In honor of his birthday theme, I made him wear the shirt all day. It was really funny.Here is a picture of David and his presents. He is holding his toy gun and doing the "Live Long and Prosper" sign that Spock does on the show.
Then we went to David's parents' ward Christmas party. It was a lot of fun. The ward decided to have a Christmas breakfast party instead of a dinner. So we went to that.

After that, I needed to make David's birthday cake. David was great and helped me out with it. Neither of us really like cake (as many of you who went to our wedding reception know. We had cheesecake then instead). So I made a fruit cake that looks like a pizza. I made this cake a few years ago for Kaity Kobayoshi's birthday and it was a hit so I decided to try it again.

After David helped me solve a few almost disasters, we finally got it done. And it looked amazing, if I do say so myself. David really liked it.
We put the pizza in a real pizza box from Craigos – that's our favorite restaurant in Rexburg. The following is what the substitute pizza ingredients were:

Pizza Sauce: Red Cream Cheese Frosting
Cheese: White Chocolate, grated
Pepperoni: Strawberries, sliced
Sausage: Blackberries, divided
Green Onions: Kiwis, sliced
Olives: Grapes, sliced with the middle cut out
Mushrooms: Bananas, cut to look like a mushroom

Combine all those ingredients and you have an amazing pizza cake!
To top it all off, I decided to throw David a surprise party. He's never had a surprise birthday party and so I took on the task of throwing him one. I started planning it during Thanksgiving break where I secretly asked his friends if they'd be up for it. Then I got his family involved in the planning and coordinating. His sister mentioned that it'd be fun to have a theme party like little kids do and I loved the idea, hence the Star Trek theme.

David's mom bought the balloons and a Star Trek cardboard cutout of James T. Kirk (the one from the movie). It was really cool. I bought Star Trek plates and cups but accidentally left them in Rexburg so she bought bowling plates.

David's sister reserved the bowling alley and helped with the planning.

There were many times David's mom would call me while I was with David and I would have to make up some excuse about it being for Christmas or something. Even on the day of, David would leave the room and we would automatically start talking about the party. Then he would come in and we'd change the subject really fast. I really thought he was catching on.

I took him out to dinner. We were going to go to an Italian restaurant but there was a really long waiting line. We went to Subways instead. Due to this, we were done eating before it was time to go to the bowling alley. Luckily there was a movie store nearby and I convinced David to look around for a while. Then I got the OK to go to the bowling alley and headed out.

David didn't even see everyone until he heard them all shouting "Surprise!" And he was. He was so excited to see his friends there.
Here's a picture of David posing like Caption Kirk. The picture is a little blurry but it's still cool.
We bowled for a little while and then we went to David's parents' home to end the night by watching the movie, Star Trek.

David keeps telling me it was the best birthday he's ever had. I'm glad he enjoyed it and that everything worked out. I just don't know how to top this one next year. But I've got a while to plan.

Free Canvas Portrait

My friend, LeaDawn, started a blog to help people find out where some of the best deals are. This has been a great site. I've already ordered a free photo album for my parents and just ordered a free canvas portrait. She also has many other wonderful deals on her site. You should check it out.

The canvas portrait is from canvas people. The 8x10 is free to first-time users or you can put $55 towards a bigger portrait.

It's a perfect Christmas present that you only have to pay for shipping and handling (which is about 14.95). But if you want to find out how you can save more on the canvas (making it only cost $2.95-$8.95, go to The Coupon Basics Web site for more information on how to do that. I'm really excited to get mine in the mail soon!

Bride's Guide

I am officially done working on the BYU-Idaho's Bride's Guide magazine!! My job this semester is the editor in chief for the Bride's Guide magazine and the Winter Outdoor magazine. When I received this position, I have to admit, it was a little intimidating. I have never written for a real magazine or designed a layout for one. And to add to the stress, none of the editors who worked on the magazine in the past were on Scroll to help me along the way. I am grateful to Bre for coming in and giving me advice though.

I assigned a few classes to write some articles for the magazine, expecting to receive at least 20 articles... I got about 10. I enlisted in the help of many Scroll editors and friends and family. It's funny to see all the familiar faces within the magazine. Thanks to Kimberly, Bre, Brian Johnson and Carol Rhees for stepping up and writing their personal stories. And thanks to LeaDawn for sending me pictures in the last minute.

But, after working on the magazine for 70 hours in the past week, I am pleased to announce that we sent the 48 page magazine to the printers yesterday. It doesn't come out until November 12, so we'll all have to wait to see the final product but here is a sneak peek of what the front and back cover look like. I hope you like it.

Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile

Autumn is David's favorite season. He loves the feeling of the leaves crackling under his feet and the wonderful colors all around. Unfortunately, we had our first snowfall last night and soon the whole world will be under a blanket of snow. But before the snow came, David and I were able to get a few pictures of Rexburg in the fall.

Can you find David?

We set the timer on the camera so that we could both be in the pictures. We were both ready to take our last picture and when the timer went off I threw the leaves in the air, like we were supposed to, and David threw his in my face. I was not very pleased.

This is not from the leaves David threw in my face. But I did get hit in the head with a soccer ball during one of our tournament games. I couldn't really see out of my eye for a while but I finished the game and we won. Below is a closer look at my eye.

It's been way too long

It has been so long since I posted. I could say that things have been really busy, but in reality, I just haven't gotten around to posting. But we have been doing some fun things. David took me fishing for the first time in my life. We went with his family during Labor Day Weekend to Teapot Lake. That is where David's dad took David's mom on their first date. So they have a tradition of going fishing at Teapot Lake every Labor Day Weekend. It was a lot of fun.

David's parents own a canoe so we took it out in the lake. We didn't catch any fish out there but it was still fun.
And... I caught my first fish!! I was so excited! It was pretty small but it was mine. David's mom says I'm a natural at casting my line. However, I still refuse to gut the little fishies. Afterwards, we took the fish home and cooked them on the grill. I didn't care much for the bones I kept finding in my teeth. It'll take a while to become an expert fish eater.
Also this summer, David's sisters came to Rexburg for a visit. It was so fun to have them come and be able to show them the sites. David misses his family a lot. We took them to Mesa Falls. They really enjoyed this beautiful site.
We also took them to the sand dunes to play soccer and throw frisbees. In this picture, they buried us in the sand up to our waists (we are standing straight up). Then they gave us mermaid fins. It was fun.
Last night, I went to my first BYU football game with David and his family. They are avid BYU football fans so it was fun to watch it with them. David is trying to convert me to BYU football. So far I've watched all of the games except the Florida State game - which I'm OK with since they lost that game.

So that's what we've been up to lately. We're both going to school right now. David has a job helping build the new chapel by the temple and I'm still working for the Scroll. We're taking really hard classes this semester. We're taking archery and racquetball together. It's tough, but we enjoy it.

Summer Fun

We had a lot of fun this summer... so much fun that you may wonder if we had time to do schoolwork. We were gone at least every other weekend for family get-togethers. But we did really good with school. David is actually getting a scholarship because of his amazing grades! I'm so proud of him.



One of our many parties included a family reunion. All of my siblings got together for the first time in a year and a half.


This is a picture of my parents and all my siblings - in order from oldest to youngest.

This is my niece, Ellie. She loved Spencer and Becca's dog.

We were in charge of the slip n' slide kickball. The kids had to slide on the slip n' slide to home plate. It was a lot of fun.

These pictures aren't from the actual game. The kids played on the slip n' slide long after the game was over.

We also went to my cousin's to play on their waterslide. It was a lot of fun. They built a real waterslide in their backyard. I had to show David this amazing place. Needless to say, he loved it. He went nearly non-stop from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. David refused to leave until they turned off the water. David and Hayden were the last ones to go down the slide.

We saw a lot of this throughout the day. The uphill climb was a killer but it was fun.

David and Hayden lost their mat halfway down the slide and David scraped his knees really bad.

We went one after the other one time and I totally caught up to David. Here I am about to run him over.

I went down with Kami and it was fun. So we went down again and completely wiped out. Not cool. But all in all, it was a really fun summer. We had a great time and are excited to see what the rest of the year has in store for us.