Our life as of late

Holy cow, apparently John and I like to keep ourselves super busy. So get excited, because it’s time for a catch-up post! (And yet another bulleted list! You know you love them…) In the past couple of weeks, we have:

• Been spending lots of time in our yard (when it finally decides to stop raining and being ridiculously cold) planting annuals, perennials and rosebushes. And in so doing, I have discovered that I have now mastered a whole new rose lingo, as evidenced by the fact that I threw out the phrase “this is a good companion rose” like it was nothing a couple of weeks ago. Also, are these not the cutest, most adorable roses you've ever seen if your whole entire life?? They're called "Betty Boop." I kind of love them.

• Built a flagstone patio. And by “we,” I really mean John. Seriously, is there anything he can’t do?
  

He also made this little walkway to the faucet at the back of our garden with some of the extra flagstone. Aren’t we just so fancy schmancy?

• Decided to build an ark. And if the world isn’t going to be flooded over as it was in days of yore, than apparently we moved to Seattle without realizing it. SHEESH.

• Impressed John with my expansive vocabulary, using words like “traipse.” As in, “Please don’t wear your shoes inside after you have been traipsing around in the backyard, which is full of freshly-mowed lawn and mud.”

• Planted two new trees. We have been wanting a Japanese Maple forever and finally got one and we LOVE it. (Who in the world thought I would ever get excited about trees?? Alternate universe, here we are.)

And this one?

This one we got for free (hooray!) to replace the other Flowering Pear we had in the same spot that sadly, did not survive the winter. Am seriously wondering if we will ever be qualified to have children, what with our propensity to kill plants. Sigh.

• Went to half of a soccer game before leaving early due to freezing temperatures and torrential rain. On May 28^th. Does anyone else see something wrong with that statement? (See previous bullet about building an ark.)

• Reaffirmed my belief that Parks and Rec is the funniest show on T.V. Don’t believe me? Watch these. I dare you not to laugh.

"You are my kind of mom."

When I'm a mom, I can't wait to get cards like these (actual cards my mom received from me and my brother Tyler back in the day):

Wasn't my mom just the luckiest? :)

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there.

(Photos by Lindsey Briggs Photography)

Easter

We spent Easter weekend up in Logan with John’s family and I can think of no other word to more adequately describe it than lovely. The loveliness included:

1. Going to my very first True Aggie Night.

Yes, it’s true—I graduated from USU almost six and a half years ago (EEEK!!!!) and had never participated in or even witnessed a true Aggie night. John is such a good sport and always plays along with my crazy schemes. In a nutshell, it was freezing and way past our bedtime, we felt really, really old hanging out with a bunch of college kids, and it really wasn’t as exciting as I was expecting. Also, apparently they have changed it up a little bit since the last time John went, so we're not entirely sure that I'm an actual True Aggie…but perhaps I will still claim it. :) When John became one, everyone just kind of gathered around the A and kissed at midnight (which is what we did) and were good to go. On Friday, there was a humongo line of couples waiting their turn to actually stand on the A and kiss. Oh well...at least now I can say I’ve been there, done that.

2. Eating lunch on Saturday at La Beau’s, which has for some reason become tradition every time we venture up north. Their fries are to die for.

3. Getting “seduced” by roses, as John's mom would say. She has a gorgeous garden full of rosebushes, so we’ve been planning on buying some ourselves to add into our landscaping. We looked through her rose books and went to a nursery to scope out the selection, and HOLY COW I am in love. I had no idea there were so many different varieties. And with such fun names! Dainty Bess! Marmalade Skies! Abraham Darby! They all sound like characters out of a Jane Austen novel, so how fun is that? We may be in trouble, as I see no way of getting around buying less than 20 kinds.

4. Finally seeing The King’s Speech. We went as a family on Saturday night (to the PG-13 version, mind you…one F word is more than enough for me, thank you very much) and it was amazing. And going back to my Jane Austen comment, I’ve kind of had a thing for Colin Firth since his days as Mr. Darcy, but his talent does not only consist of looking good as he trudges through English countrysides. I tell you what, the man can act. LOVED it. (As a sidenote, I am now mildly excited for the upcoming Royal Wedding. And may have watched one or three documentaries about the Royal Family last night while John was at a band practice. Did you even know that it's Royal Wedding Week on TLC? You have been informed. Yikes.)

5. Eating brownies and ice cream at midnight on Saturday. And then staying up till 2 watching a documentary about PIXAR. For some reason we like to pretend we’re still in college when we go up to Logan…which included sleeping in till almost 11 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. Yep.

6. A wonderful Easter Sunday that included church, an afternoon walk, a delicious and entertaining dinner, and even a piano/cello recital. And also some awkward snuggling.

And to top off a fabulous weekend, I came home to find that these beauties have FINALLY made their springtime debut.

And then it snowed and got wicked cold. Awesome.

One time, I won a clock.

I am happy to announce that my basically 28-year losing streak is over. I won myself this gorgeous, gigantic, somewhat-expensive clock over the weekend:

I NEVER win anything (well, rarely win anything, I guess I should say—I did win a gift card to Market Street at my company Christmas party last year), so a few thank you’s are in order. Thank you, men in my family for attending the Priesthood session of General Conference every six months without fail. Thank you, Mom, for always having a standing date with me during Priesthood and for your eagerness to go the Quilted Bear with me to shop for girlie things. Thank you, Quilted Bear, for having a ladies’ night out sale (that my mom and I were not even aware of, funnily enough) and for having a drawing for a beautiful, beautiful clock. And thank you, Carolyn from the Quilted Bear, for pulling my name out of the 400 or so entries that were in the running for said clock. It is gorgeous and will be a lovely addition to our bedroom décor. I am mightily excited. And happy that I’m not a loser all of the time.

Also, my daffodils are out!!!

And on a sadder note, this, my friends, is what cute little crocuses look like after a weekend snowstorm. Stupid Utah springs.

New arrivals

Say hello to the newest arrivals in our neck of the woods:

I just may have screamed/shrieked/shouted in sheer joy when John told me earlier this week that our little crocus, tulip, hyacinth and daffodil bulbs were sprouting. And I also just may have been outside to check on their progress quite a few times since. (And also to make sure none of those pesky deer have had themselves a little snack.) Love this time of year!

Yeah. We bought this badboy with an unexpected profit-sharing check. I thought I’d have buyer’s remorse since I am the Scrooge McDuck of our relationship and think all extra money we ever receive should go straight to our savings account…but no. It is THAT comfortable and amazing. Regrets, schmegrets. And besides, if worse comes to worst we can sell our house and live on the streets on our beautiful sectional and be just fine. (And as a side note, did anyone ever find it odd that on Ducktales, only Scrooge McDuck could actually swim through all of the money in his money bin? Every time the Beagle Boys broke in, they just landed on top of it. Deep thoughts, I know.)

OK, so this isn’t really new per se since John’s been working on it since Thanksgiving, but I have yet to blog about it so it’s new to most of you. John’s latest painting. He works on it whenever he has some spare time and is hoping to enter it in some contests this year. Pretty groovy, huh? I seriously don’t know how he lucked out in the talent department and got basically everything available. He is amazing. One of the things I routinely say to him as I gaze, awe-struck at his painting? “How do you make a painting look shiny? Seriously? The headlights/metal parts look shiny!” Mind = blown.

P.S. Can somebody please tell the spiders that have already started crashing our house party that it’s still a bit early for them to think they are invited inside? And seriously, why they would even think that they have an invitation to come inside my house is beyond me. I mean, unless they are talking about an invitation to being squished and thrown in the garbage, because I’ll send out those invitations all. day. long.

P.P.S. I loooooove March Madness. I am heartbroken that my Aggies lost. But it is still one of my most favorite times of the year and you better believe that I am switching between three games as we speak.

A meeting of happenstance.

Three years ago today, I met a boy. It was a Sunday night at a stake dinner activity. He was wearing red shoes and a button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. (And pants, obviously...geesh.) We talked about how we were both Aggies and what we did for work. We made tentative plans to go to the last USU basketball game of the season together. He got my number before I left.

And we lived happily ever after. :)

V Day

For Valentine's Day this year, I was the lucky recipient of these beauties:

Aww yeah. Brand new inner tie rods for my car. Jealous, much?

OK, so truth be told, John and I are not the biggest fans of Valentine's Day. But lest you be alarmed that my husband is not a romantic, let it be known that he emailed me yesterday and said that we had dinner reservations but wouldn't tell me where because it was a surprise. And indeed it was. I came home from work to this:

Roses, candles and the most amazing homemade lasagna I've ever had. See, those tie rods were just a bonus.