Yet Another Monday

     Is anyone as tired of Mondays as I am? I swear, every Monday when the alarm goes off I want to throw it out the window and just sleep all day. This weekend was a good one though, and I am getting pretty anxious for these next few weeks to speed by! Friday night Brandon and I went and saw the new Batman movie with his family. It was really good, but super long. I wanted to go to the show at 6:30, but his brother put up a fight so they could watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics, so against my better judgement we went at 8:15. Okay, I am an old woman alright? No offense, grandmas, I think you party harder than I do anyways. But it hit about 10:30 during the movie and I could hardly keep my eyes open. Its pathetic really. But Brandon loved it and already wants to see it again; he was telling me that as soon as we got home from the movie actually, so it was a success!
     Saturday morning we woke up around nine and went for a run. We came home and Brandon cut his hair while I worked out some more, then we had eggs and asparagus for breakfast! Mmmm...it was such a good way to start the day. Last week I borrowed all seven seasons of Boy Meets World from the library, so we watched that for probably about an hour Saturday morning during and after breakfast. Finally around 1:00 we decided we should actually go do something, so we went to the zoo! The Logan Zoo isn't too terribly exciting, but it was fun to get out and see the animals anyways. Afterwards we got sno cones and went and walked around the mall. Nobody punch me for this, but I bought a new pair of shorts and they are size 3. I am pretty sure they are a bit mis-sized, because I haven't been a size 3 since I was like 5, but I am pretty excited about it regardless. Brandon's friend and his wife from Salt Lake were driving home from Bear Lake, so on their way they stopped at our apartment. We were going to go to dinner, but they weren't ever hungry. We sat around and talked for about two hours and it was a lot of fun! Brandon and I stayed with them when we went to St. George for spring break last March before we were married. They are both from Idaho Falls actually, and the wife is just a year older than I am. The best part of the whole time we talked was that she loves cats just as much as I do, and her husband is like Brandon in the fact that he loves their cat, but doesn't like to admit it. So we seriously probably spent a good 45 minutes total talking about our cats. After they left, we met Brandon's dad to look at some tires for Brandon's car. Since we didn't go to dinner with Nate and Casey, we were both starving after we met with his dad. It was like 9:00 by this time. I never like to eat this late, but I was so starving and pizza sounded amazing, so we went to Pizza Pie Cafe. It is like Primo's, but definitely not as good. For those of you who know how much my dad loves Primo's, I am sure you can understand why going to Pizza Pie Cafe made me excited to see my family this weekend! After pizza, we went home to watch more Boy Meets World, but I fell into a food coma like 45 minutes into the shows. WHY AM I SO PATHETIC? I miss the days when I could stay up until 3:00 in the morning and be ready to go the next day.
     Sunday we watched a lot of Boy Meets World. We had more eggs and asparagus, and then watched more Boy Meets World. I think we have finished like 20 of the 22 episodes of the first season. Its really not that bad though, because they are only 20 minutes episodes. We went to dinner at Brandon's parents' house, then went home to finish the laundry. We have a hole in our bathroom wall currently because the towel rod anchors had come loose in the drywall (even before we moved in) and we basically got tired of it and pulled the anchors out. So last night we ran to Walmart, like, we literally ran there, bought some stuff to fix it up, and did what we could last night. So that is our fun little project for this week! We need to finish spackling, then sand it, paint it, and more than likely just buy a whole new towel rod.
     People, I only have one more month until school starts. It seems like a long time, but I realized last night how much I have to do before then. Brandon and I found a new apartment. It is one that his mom manages, and I had only ever seen it in the dark until last night and I absolutely fell in love with it. The living room is smaller, the kitchen is bigger, there is a half bath downstairs, the bedrooms are about the same size, there is a coat closet, a sink outside the bathroom as well as in which is weird but whatever, and there is a closet just outside the bathroom. Oh and did I mention that there is a CHAIR RAIL throughout the entire living room and kitchen??? TWO TONE PAINT IN BOTH ROOMS PEOPLE. I love it so much because its not just the blah blah boring white or brown that every apartment seems to be. Plus, because his mom manages them, she will let us upgrade little things, like sink fixtures and curtain rods. And we are getting a killer deal. We are hoping that the utilities at this apartment will be less expensive than what we are currently paying, but we are mostly excited that our hot water probably won't run out after showering for five minutes.
     Anyways, the point I was trying to make with that, is that now I have a lot of packing to do. It would be way hard to start packing stuff now, because we use a lot of things that we own; most of them actually. But here is the rundown of our lives. Thursday night this week we are going to Salt Lake to watch The Odd Life of Timothy Green for free, which means we have to pack Wednesday night for our trip to Boise that takes place Friday-Sunday. Then we work full time next week, then the following Tuesday we leave for Florida until the Thursday before school starts. Seriously, we get back on Thursday, then have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to buy school supplies and mentally prepare ourselves for school. We will go to school that first week and then the first weekend in September is when we are planning to move. When on Earth am I going to have time to pack????? The answer is: I have no freaking idea. I guess I will just have to do a little here and a little there, and then when that weekend comes we will be moving our stuff all in one day from sun up to sundown. Luckily its a three day weekend so we will have that extra day to get every set up the way we like it.
     So that is our life currently, and I love it. We all love it. Have I mentioned that I have the best little family ever? And I am so so SO excited to go see my family this weekend. It has only been like three weeks since I have seen them but that is long enough! Good luck with Monday everyone. Do something exciting!

I am feeling pretty proud....

...so I want to share with you my pride. It's of myself, so sorry. But back in April I started trying to lose weight, and I have done a pretty good job if I say so myself. I lost four pounds in April, 2 in May, 1 in June, and 1 in July. It was so easy to lose the weight at first: I monitored what I ate, and started running a ton. May was a bit harder with finals and getting my wisdom teeth out. I lost three pounds in two days after my oral surgery because I couldn't eat, but quickly gained two back after I started eating again which is good. Because that was unhealthy. And then ever since I have been working forty hours a week this summer my weight loss abilities have quickly decreased. I think that maybe I haven't been eating enough food, given how much I have been exercising. I also don't exercise very regularly, because let's face it: when you live in an apartment with no air conditioning and its 94 degrees outside it's pretty hard to want to exercise.

One thing that has made me so happy and persistent through all of this has been Brandon. He has been so supportive and even accepting of all the healthy things I have been doing/pushing on him. I finally got him to start running with me after school got out and that has been so motivating for me. If I ever am not in the mood to run, he says "Well I'm going to go alone then." And what kind of wife would I be if I made my poor hubby go running alone? A bad one, that's what kind.

 He also has been accepting of the health food I am trying to make and the junk food I won't let us buy. We haven't bought ice cream in ages, hardly ever buy soda, and haven't made brownies or cookies in a while. Going out for ice cream is a bit more costly, but I would rather splurge on tastier ice cream once a month than keep it in our house all the time, because let me tell you, I love ice cream.

We have worked harder at incorporating more color into our meals. More veggies, more fruits, whatever it takes. My new love is asparagus; I will put asparagus in anything. Same goes for broccoli, it's not much, but it is something right? We both grew up having muffins and rolls at most every meal, and I loved that. Rolls are seriously so good, but not so good for you. I still want to have my bread, so we have whole wheat bread with melted cheese on top and that works for me!

We also love eggs: boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, whatever! Recently we have taken to making breakfast burritos with eggs, veggies, and salsa. So good! And my new favorite love is almonds. I bring one serving of those bad boys with me to work and eat half in the morning and half in the afternoon and I am full all day long!

Everyone has already said it to me: "You don't need to lose weight." I know. Trust me, I know because I have come to a standstill with losing weight and losing more is going to be hard. But it has made me feel so much better about myself. Except for the fact that now all my clothes are too big; that part sucks. Whenever I talk to Brandon about how excited I am about how I have lost weight he always, seriously most every single time says, "You aren't doing this for me right? Because if you are, you should stop." There is never a reason to lose weight for anyone but yourself, but guess what everyone: you are beautiful no matter what. I like eating, and if I wanted to eat all I could and not exercise, I would.

It has been hard sometimes, I will say that. I love milk duds and haven't had any since The Hunger Games came out. I  have had to do a lot of math in my head when I count calories; and math is hard too. But it has been worth it. And because I came back from vacation weighing less than I did before I left, I'm going to go celebrate at Costa Vida with my girlfriends.

Ps. If I can lose two more pounds by the time school starts, I will let one of you take me shopping. If you don't want that to happen....well I would probably accept treats.

San Francisco!

Brandon and I left Wednesday night last week for the wonderful city of San Francisco! We took the train from Salt Lake to Emeryville, and lets just say it was a long ride. The train left at 11:30 at night, so we got on and crashed for a majority of the night. We stopped in Elko about three hours after we had left Salt Lake, so we both woke up for that stop, and just slept on and off the rest of the night until about 8:00 in the morning. The train really wasn't so bad until about noon. Sleeping wasn't awesome, but when we woke up we got to get off in Reno and stretch our legs. Then we made our way to the lounge car, had some breakfast, and checked out the scenery for a while. After breakfast, we started to get a little antsy. We went back to our seats and read for a little bit, which led to a nice nap, then we watched a movie, which led to another nap! It was a pretty boring ride, and I don't know if I would do it again, but it wasn't as awful as I had expected it to be.

about to board the train!

The seats were like airplane seats with more legroom and more reclining capabilities

 

We were so tired still. If you couldn't tell by my eyes.

This is the lounge car that we sat in!

 That evening, Brandon's parents and brothers picked us up from the train station. We stopped for some dinner, and then made our way to The Coliseum to see the A's play against the Yankees! The game was honestly probably my favorite part of the entire trip. It was so fun! The A's won, we got to sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game, had some peanuts and hot dogs, and I got to eat a ginormous bag of cotton candy. So yeah...I'd say it was a good night!

hot dog!

HAPPY DAY!!! Don't worry, I shared.

So much happiness.

 The next morning we were up bright and early for a hot day at Six Flags. San Francisco wasn't supposed to be super warm, so I didn't pack any shorts. Needless to say I was dying at Six Flags, but we did have a lot of fun!

These are their roller coaster faces.

 We saw a lot of water shows with dolphins, whale, seal lions, and otters, and they were great! I went on the first two rides and they made me feel a bit sick, so I had to sit out on a few of the rides that day, but I was pretty proud of myself for even going on as many as I did!

This was one I did not go on. It was towards the end of the day and I finally felt 100% and didn't want to mess that up!

 Saturday morning we made our way straight to the Piers and Fisherman's Wharf! I was in heaven being around so many tall buildings and so few mountains!

This picture is through a window, sorry.

 First thing on our agenda was to visit the Aquarium of the Bay. It was neat! We got to see and touch a lot of creatures that live right in the bay. There were even sharks, which don't live in the bay.

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I loved all the boats at the pier!

 Next we took a double decker bus tour around the city. That was really neat too because we were able to see a lot of the city in a small amount of time, and it allowed us to find places we wanted to go back to later!

I learned that there are no painting restrictions on houses in California. I think it is so neat and allows for a ton of creativity!

I realized on this trip how much I love fire escapes.  So many great things happen on fire escapes in movies!

 Sadly at this point our camera died, so I will have to post more pictures from that day when I get them from Brandon's parents. After the tour, we went and explored an old war time ship from World War II. It was huge! We learned that it was built in 56 days, and one of the veterans had served on a ship of the same size that was built in 43 days! The ship we toured was actually used in filming some of the scenes from Titantic, and sounds from the boat were also used in the movie. After the boat, we grabbed some lunch. I had fish! It was so tasty. Then we headed to a wax museum. I think they are weird, but it was fun! Afterwards we went back to the piers and took a bay cruise around the Golden Gate Bridge. There was an audio tour included, and that was fun because we got to more about San Fran and the surrounding area. That night we made our way into China Town for some authentic Chinese food! It was sooooooo good, and I ate with chopsticks 99% of the time! I was proud. Then we went back to the hotel for a good nights rest.

Sunday morning we headed to Union Square (their shopping center) to catch a ride on the old fashion cable car! The line was huge; we probably waited for about thirty minutes, but it was worth it! Besides the fact that everyone in line for it was a tourist, I felt like a local! Those things can move, and the streets are so narrow with cars parked all along the side that if you aren't careful, you could get your arm clipped off by a mirror! They have wood blocks that they use to help brake the car, so the whole time we were going downhill it smelled like burnt wood. The whole experience sure made Brandon very happy though!!

It gave us some pretty good views! This is at the top of the Crooked Street!

After the cable car ride we went to Ghiradelli Square and had an ice cream sundae! They turned the old factory into some luxury condos, and there were some cool stores surrounding the area. Mostly it was just neat. And I love chocolate.

Ice cream makes us so happy!

And then, to immerse ourselves even more into the life of a San Franciscan, we used the bus system to get to our next destination! Buses are hard. I don't even take the buses in Logan. But we took them to get to an old house once occupied by the Haas' and the Lilienthal families. They were important somehow, but the house was just neat. After the house we went to a place called the Exploratorium. It is a science place but it was way cool! Unfortunately we only could stay there for an hour before it closed :(

Toilet drinking fountain

We then drove to the house from Full House!

Then to the Painted Ladies! These houses are also shown in the opening credits of Full House, and are probably better known from the Cingular commercials.

Monday we got up really early to make sure we made our boat time for Alcatraz. I had really high hopes for Alcatraz, and honestly think I was a little let down, but it was still very neat!

This one was also an audio tour that told you where to go; there were so many people everywhere!

We left Alcatraz and hopped in the car to go to the Muirwoods. Trees are trees, I didn't take any pictures, sorry! That was our last stop on our vacation to San Francisco. On the way to Reno we drove through wine country, but weren't able to stop at all :(

It was a fun vacation, but I am happy to be home! I only have to work three days this week, and I can't believe that tomorrow is already Friday. Next week we will work all week, but Thursday night we are going to a special showing of the new movie The Odd Life of Timothy Green that I scored free tickets to. Friday we are getting off work around noon and going to Boise! This will be my last time sleeping in the house I grew up in, so that is kind of sad, but I am excited to see my parents new house! After that weekend we will have one work week, one weekend, and one day until we leave for Florida! It can't come soon enough!

I kind of missed something important.

Make sure you read the long post, but I forgot to mention something.

After seeing Rock of Ages, I completely fell in love with Julianne Hough. It lit something inside me, and I decided I want to be an actress/singer/dancer. I don't know if it will happen, but it's worth a shot right? I had a good friend of mine take some headshots for me, because I planned on going to Salt Lake for a casting call at a talent agency. We didn't end up going because of the long drive to Twin Falls on Saturday, but at least I have the pictures now just in case. I was also going to audition for a play here in town tonight, but Brandon's Grandpa, who is driving us to the train station tonight, wants to leave at 7:30 instead of 9:00 as we had originally discussed, so between that and auditioning I would have no time to mentally and physically prepare. I don't know if my new found dreams will ever come true, but oh well.

All photo credit to Callee Christensen.

The moment you all have been waiting for...

I guess it's about time I update the blog huh? Who even knows why I haven't posted anything in the past month. Oh wait, I know why. It's because nothing exciting ever really happens in our lives. Or so I thought; because I realized this morning that there has actually been a lot going on that I have not blogged about! I'll start from last month.

Def Leppard.
Anthony loves Def Leppard. He loves any kind of music that makes you feel like you are living during the times when your parents were the age you are now. I don't think that is necessarily why he likes the music, but all I know is that he likes it loud. Anthony, Adrian, and Anthony's friend Jared came down to Utah on June 19 to go to the Def Leppard concert in Salt Lake. Brandon and I met my mom and the boys in Burley, stopped for lunch, then we took the boys back home with us to Logan. That night started off with bang: swimming at Brandon's grandparents pool. Brandon and I had to work the next day, so it was an early night for the two of us. The next day, Wednesday/ the day of the concert, I worked for a few hours in the morning, then went home and made Mickey waffles for the boys. It wasn't quite warm enough to go swimming, so I took them to go see Madagascar 3. After the movie, we picked up Brandon and headed to Salt Lake! We stopped at In-n-Out on the way to drop off Anthony and Jared, and it was quite tasty! We dropped them off just outside Salt Lake and headed into the city with Adrian.

We three decided to hit up the nickel arcade. I am sad to report that it was not everything we dreamed of. We may have spent a lot of money and only gotten candy and slime with our tickets, but who cares! Arcade games are always fun, right? After the nickelcade, we weren't really sure what else to do. With Adrian though, when in doubt, feed him. So we drove to the Gateway Mall and got a blizzard from Dairy Queen! At this point it was only 9:00 but all of the stores were closing, so we drove back to the concert and listened to the rest of it. The concert was outside so we just parked in the parking lot and could hear it really well!

Anthony and Jared had an awesome time! I'm not positive because I fell asleep, but I am pretty sure they talked about it the entire way home. We got home around 1:00 in the morning, so needless to say Thursday morning was rough! Brandon and I both went to work, and I came home around noon to hang out with the boys. We went swimming for a few hours that day, went to Arctic Circle, played monopoly, went and cleaned the sink at Angie's, and then saw Rock of Ages that night!

"The Sink" is just a huge sink full of ice cream! All five of us took part, but Adrian didn't want to be in the picture.

These handsome guys are my brothers playing Monopoly Deal. This was pre-real monopoly screamfeset.

I forgot to mention something. So we got into Rock of Ages that night for free by one of our good friends, and I had planned on taking him a treat as a thank you. Well, Adrian woke up earlier than the other two and I told him he could make brownies if he wanted, but he never really said whether or not he was going to. This is what I came home to:

He is usually a really good cook, but using the wrong pan can throw anyone off.

 They were mostly burnt, considering they were made on a cookie sheet, but lucky for us, Adrian is brilliant. To soften up the hard brownies, he took them into the bathroom while he showered and the steam softened them up. Haha I will admit that I ate some, but he is still crazy!

Friday Brandon and I worked almost a full day. We left Logan around 3:00 to go to Boise! We got there, dropped Jared off, checked out my parents new house, then went home and just hung out all night. Saturday we got to go boating and it was absolute bliss. The weather was perfect; it didn't even storm on us! That night we went to the movies! Brandon had promised to go see Prometheus with Adrian, so the guys went to that and my mom and I went and saw Brave! So good! Sunday we said a hard good-bye and came back to Logan.

Okay mostly so far that is the most exciting thing that has happened all summer.  We spent the fourth of July in Logan watching fireworks and barbecuing. We have both been working tons, and are still very excited for Disney World next month! Brandon just finished his summer class up today and is like a giddy school girl about it. He feels confident on his final, and I am so proud of him for his hard work during what is supposed to be a break from all the stress! Tonight we leave for the not-so-sunny San Fran. We are taking a seventeen-hour train ride from Salt Lake to San Francisco; it leaves at 11:30 tonight and we are scheduled to arrive there at 4:30 tomorrow afternoon. I will be sure to update the blog with some pictures when we get back!

My great-grandma Quast passed away last week, so Sunday of this past weekend Brandon and I drove to Twin Falls to be with the fam. The circumstances were not so fun, but I had a great day with my family. I sure do wish we all lived closer together.

Happy for a Sunday drive!

Dang Brandon. He never smiles.

Just watch out for the many faces of Anthony this day..

Happy brother.

Awkward brother. And me. and Brandon.

He really adds to the view, don't ya think?

We got a new camera that takes panoramics!

We set up Brandon's hammock wherever we could and Adrian fell in love. He kept saying he was in a cacoon.

He hates pictures.

I don't think this picture actually happened. The two of us are never smiling at the same time!

Nice view, right? ;)

Here are just some other random pictures, mostly food. Whenever we make real meals Brandon feels the need to document it. I don't really know why.

Teriyaki Pineapple Chicken Ricebowls! I was so proud.

pardon the morning hair. I love my cat.

This was our 11:00 am breakfast of biscuits and gravy. It sure made a nice pre-nap meal...

Our cat is a psycho mostly.

In other news, Brandon and I paid for a movie (in Logan) for the first time in a really long time. The company we used to work for got bought out so we no longer get free drinks or popcorn. It really has been so depressing.

Also, shoutout to one of my best friends, Stephanie Dahle, on her marriage this last Saturday! I am so happy for her, and can't wait to meet her husband!

Oh, and Brandon and I have been thinking about cat names for our next cat. Any ideas? We like Chloe or Lucy. And feel free to judge, I know you all are anyways!