2013

I feel like I should follow everyone else and write a year in review blog post, but I just reread all the blog posts from this year, and between school and work our lives really just weren't that exciting. Here's to hoping 2014 will be a more eventful year.

In January Brandon and I officially started our last year of college. We were both super busy and taking a lot of classes, which really is the story of our lives. At this point in time we were for sure planning to movie to North Carolina for grad school.

February. The most exciting thing this month was Valentines Day when I was spoiled rotten. Safe Haven, Costa, and treats galore!!

March was a fairly great month. I turned 22 (bleh) and we went to Disneyland! I was kind of sick the entire trip, so my blog posts from then made it sound like I didn't enjoy the trip, but looking back on it I sure did!

Nothing exciting happened in April. It came, and it went. We made our own Easter dinner for the first time ever, but that's about it!

In May Brandon turned a quarter of a century old, and received a scholarship all in the same day! We spent our afternoons eating sno cones and laying out in the sun, and started a weekly tradition of going to the Farmer's Market every Saturday. We also planned our vacation to the southeast!

June and July were filled mostly with work, but also a ton of fun. We worked from 7-3 every day, spent the afternoons outside, and spent our nights going on runs. Running with Brandon is one of my favorite things, because we just talk the entire time. Over the summer we talked mostly about the future, and it's fun to think that the future is finally here!

August was a very busy month!  We went on our vacation to Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, and it was one of the greatest things of my entire life. I fell in love with so many different places we visited, and can't wait to go back or even move there someday. On that trip, we decided that moving across the country may not be the best move for us at this point, and that Boise State was the best decision. It broke my heart, but I know it will be a good choice in the end.  We also started our final semester at Utah State. Brandon took on a heavy load with his classes, and I started my internship in the counseling office at Sky View. Seriously, best experience of my life.

September, October, and November were just filled with school, grad school applications, and planning for the future.  We spent Thanksgiving here in Logan and had a great time with Brandon's side of the family!

December was a bittersweet month. We both finished out the semester with a 4.0 gpa, and graduated with a major and two minors each. My internship at Sky View ended, something that still makes me sad every single day. I started a full time position at the library. The first weekend in December we went to Boise for Brandon's interview for the MBA program at Boise State, and five days later he got his acceptance email. We will be moving to Boise sometime within the next eight months!

Quite honestly, the future freaks me out. I'm not sure how ready I am for 2014 and all the changes it will bring, but as Brandon's favorite quote from Meet the Robinsons says: "Keep moving forward."

4 More Weeks

We are down to less than four full weeks of school!! Next week there are no classes Wednesday through Friday due to Thanksgiving, then we have a full week of classes the week after, and the second week in December is finals week. I can't believe that graduation is actually happening for both of us. I felt like college was never going to end! We still haven't heard back from Boise State yet on whether Brandon has been accepted, but they said we should hear back from them before Thanksgiving, so I'm hoping they call today or tomorrow! I plan on wearing blue or orange every single day this week just in case. I have applied for a few jobs at BSU but have yet to hear back from them. I would like to get a full time position on campus so we can get tuition waivers, so I haven't applied for any jobs off campus.  My program, as it turns out, is part time at night and on weekends, so that will allow me to work full time while going to school. Brandon has also applied for a few internships up in Boise, but hasn't heard anything yet. If worst comes to worst and we have to stay here for a few months, I accepted a full time position at the library that I start December 16, so we always have that as a backup plan.

We will be staying in Logan for Thanksgiving, but I'm hoping we go up to Boise sometime soon for an interview. I am really looking forward to getting out of Logan, and I want to start planning for it as soon as possible!! That is all that is new, really. I basically have no more work left to do for school, so I'm just counting down the days until Brandon doesn't have homework anymore so we can hang out!

10 More Weeks!!

When this week ends, we only have 10 more weeks until we are officially graduated. Can you believe it? After four and a half years and buckets of money later, I will finally be able to call myself a college graduate. Here's a cool fact though: Brandon and I will both have three specialties. I'm majoring in Human Development with a minor in Psychology and a minor Spanish, and Brandon is majoring in Business Administration with a minor in Operations Management and a minor in Human Resources. At the beginning of September we discovered that he only needed to take one more class in order to get the second minor, so he decided to add it. Luckily it doesn't start until the middle of this month, but he has another class that will be starting at the same time. He will be going from four classes to six classes. He is going to be a busy busy guy! I know he can handle it though. He has already been super busy this semester, and that has been a huge adjustment for both of us, since we were able to spend so much time together this summer.

I will say this though, our house has never been cleaner. With him doing homework all the time and me not wanting to leave the house after we get home, I mostly just clean, and that's okay. I also have been cooking meals at home (which is another big change from the summer). Last weekend I made a Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole which was delicious, and Monday I made a Sun-Dried Tomato Soup with Tortellini in it. Oh man. It was so good. Whenever I'm hungry I just browse Pinterest and find things that I want to eat right that second, then I just make it for dinner! I'm trying to locate my cooking skills that I'm sure were passed down to me, but it's taking a while to find them.

Brandon is hoping to finish applying to BSU by Fall Break, which is October 18. We should hear back within a month to a month and a half after he applies as to whether or not he gets in. Then he will apply for assistantships. Assistantships and financial aid will be the ultimate determinant of where we end up for grad school. BSU has a pretty sweet assistantship program, so we are hoping that works out. And we aren't sure when we would move if we do end up going to BSU. We talked about moving up there in January and get internships, but we would be able to save a ton of money if we stayed here at our current jobs and in our current apartment. Apartments are more expensive in Boise than they are in Logan, and we are hoping to buy a house before school starts, so we would only be in an apartment for like six months anyways.

We are getting pretty excited to see what the future holds for us. Brandon and I are both big planners, and it's hard to plan anything when nothing concrete is actually happening. So I'll keep you posted.

If anyone has any other questions about grad school or our future, let me know and I'll post the answers on here so everyone can see.

Charlotte

I guess I should probably finish up posting about our trip so I can post about other things, so here goes!

We stayed in Wilmington for the night then got up early the next morning to make the three hour drive to Charlotte. We had a tour scheduled for around 1:30, and wanted to make sure we didn't get lost/had time to actually get lost like we did in Athens.  When we got to the building we were supposed to be in, the people in charge of the tours recognized immediately that we weren't there for freshman orientation. Rather than having us sit through the 45 minute session about dorms, meal plans, and other freshman things, they told us that we could come back in like 30 minutes and they would take us to the starting point of the tour to meet up with the rest of the group. We used this time to talk to people in graduate admissions, and I actually got to talk to some girls that are in the counseling program. The tour was great, and we really really loved the campus. It was huge! It was actually a lot like Utah State (except bigger) in the fact that part of campus was old and historic, and then there was the newer part of campus that was super nice. We really liked all the things they offered to students, service wise and recreation wise.

At UNCC, the MBA program is actually held in downtown Charlotte, so off-campus. Our tour ended at 4:00, so we rushed to downtown so Brandon could talk to someone before 5:00. It was Friday, so no one would be there the next day. The part of Charlotte that the business program was in wasn't the nicest part of town, but I never felt scared. The only reason I felt nervous was because we parked in a lot that you are supposed to have a permit for. I stayed in the car so we wouldn't get a ticket, but the whole time I was nervous that a policeman was going to come and I was going to get in trouble.

After Brandon got done meeting with the MBA people, we drove through downtown Charlotte and made our way to Food Truck Friday. This is exactly what it sounds like. Every Friday night all the food trucks from in and around Charlotte go park in this empty lot and people go there and eat. It was so much fun! We had these deliciously huge burgers, and just sat around and enjoyed the atmosphere. It was warm though, that's for sure. Unlike what everyone assumed, Charlotte really wasn't that humid. We had some days in Logan this summer that I feel were just as humid as it was the few days we were in Charlotte. After Food Truck Friday, we decided to drive around the residential outer areas of Charlotte. One girl at UNCC said that Huntersville is a really nice place for families, so that's the first place we headed.  To be honest, I was kind of disappointed with how the suburbs were laid out. Brandon and I were both hoping that Charlotte would be a lot like Boise with the downtown area and then a big residential area, but it wasn't at all like that. In the south, neighborhoods are super far apart. There will be like one or two neighborhoods next to each other, then you have to drive five to ten minutes to get to the next one. And to get to stores you have to drive at least 30 minutes. The closest WalMart we found was pretty far away from the houses, and once we got there we saw that it was literally the only store around for probably a good 10 miles.

I was pretty sad about the way that worked out. I had an idea of what Charlotte was supposed to be like in my head, and that wasn't how it turned out to be. Brandon, being the smart guy that he is, had the brilliant idea to find the nearest movie theater. We found one on the GPS and headed there, hoping we would find greatness, and we did! Along with the movie theater was a cute little shopping mall with stores and restaurants that are all outside. We're pretty sure the entire town was there eating and hanging out. They had a giant fountain in the middle of the shopping center for kids to play in, and they even had a live band the night we were there! That definitely helped to lift my spirits about Charlotte, and after that I was ready to take on another day.

The next morning we headed downtown immediately to pick up some information about tours and stuff for new residents. The nice people there gave us a 5 pound package with all sorts of booklets inside of it with information about Charlotte and the benefits of living there. There was some Japanese culture festival going on just across the street from the visitors center, so we went over there for a little bit to explore. We had a van tour scheduled for that morning, so after spending some time downtown we headed to the hotel where the van was set to pick us up. The tour was 2 hours long, but I'm really glad we did it! We learned some great stuff about the history of Charlotte, but we also got to see more of the areas of Charlotte I had been looking for. There are some huge houses in Charlotte, some super wealthy people. One guy had his own water pumped in from like 30 miles away just for a fountain in the front of his house. So ridiculous.

After the tour we headed to the Carolina Panthers Stadium (NFL team). They were having their first practice that day, and the place was crowded with so many fans. It was fun to go be a part of the local action. We left after a little while and went and walked all over downtown Charlotte. We had seen most of it during our van tour, but it was fun to walk down all the streets. Every single building in downtown Charlotte is connected by a Skywalk, so we took the opportunity to walk through every single building that way. It was kind of fun even though everything was closed, because we got to see the insides of all the buildings. They had a bunch of little shops and restaurants the were along the Skywalk, so that was cool. They built the Skywalks so all the business people could get from building to building more easily than going all the way down to the street and crossing the road then going all the way back up.

After we did that, we made our way to the EpiCenter, which is a little entertainment district in Charlotte. They have a movie theater, bowling, and tons of restaurants. We walked around there for a little bit, then weren't really sure what else to do, so we went back to the hotel and hung out by the pool for a little bit. It started to get too cool for the pool, so we decided to go back out and look at the residential areas again for a little bit. Around 6:00, we were completely beat, so we snagged some pizza and went back to the hotel and watched movies the rest of the night.

The next morning we slept in, and took our time to get ready for the day.  We didn't really have much else on our list to do, so we decided to just leave and go drive around some more. We ended up out at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and drove all the way around the outside of the stadium. We even parked the car real quick and went all the way up to the fence so we could get a look of the inside! That was pretty fun, actually. Brandon loved it, and so that made me love it too. Brandon had also read online about this giant head, so we went and found that. It was really just this giant statue of a head just randomly in front of some business center. It was pretty cool though. Weird, but giant and cool. I wanted to go back downtown for a little while, because I wasn't quite ready to leave. Even though the first day was a little rough getting used to how different everything was, I had fallen in love with Charlotte in the short time we were there. We went back to the EpiCenter and had some lunch there, then watched a guy do a magic show in the middle of the EpiC. Then we drove some more. We put 1400 miles on our little car, and I'm pretty sure the majority of it was just in Charlotte.

We also decided to go back out to the University and drive around campus once more. We saw their brand new football stadium, and checked out the campus a little bit more since there was no one there. After that, we headed back to the hotel, but first stopped for an ice cream sundae. Our flight left at 8:00 the next morning, so we had to be up around 5:00 (Charlotte time, which meant 3:00 normal time), so we got back to the hotel and packed and went to bed.

I fell in the love with the Southeast so much more when we were on our trip. I already loved it before we went, but that trip just confirmed everything I already knew. I miss it on a daily basis. Mostly Southport. Brandon and I had the brilliant idea to move to Southport and open a little diner. It's going to be called Sophie's. So if anyone needs us after Deember, now you know where to find us.

Okay not really, but just wait. Someday it's going to happen.

More Vacation

Day 6: The Best Day Ever
We woke up early this morning to make our way to Southport, NC. We added Southport and Wilmington on our itinerary a little later in the planning process, and I am so glad we did! Southport is where they filmed the movie Safe Haven, which I love. In the movie, Southport seemed like the perfect little coastal town, and I really wanted to go see it. Let me tell you, it was everything I had hoped it would be and more. It was quaint, quiet, picture perfect, and right on the water. Actually we both fell in love with it so quickly. If we weren't so set on going to grad school we seriously would move there in a heartbeat. The people were friendly, the food was great, and the location is prime. We drove around and looked at houses though, and they are expensive. That doesn't mean we haven't kept looking though. I found the cutest old house with the best porch that was actually in our price range, so now I'm just trying to talk Brandon into it.

We walked around and saw all the sights from Safe Haven, ate at a restaurant that plays a key role in one of our favorite tv shows, and also saw the house from that same show. We only spent a few hours there, because I'm pretty sure if we would have stayed any longer we never would have left. We then had a half hour drive to Wilmington.

When we got there, we checked into our hotel and grabbed some brochures to find stuff to do. We decided to do a carriage tour and tour a mansion there, so we grabbed our stuff and rushed to get to the carriage tour. Well, we got lost. We ended up at their headquarters, not where the carriage actually leaves from. On our way to the right spot, we came across the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. We decided to stop and check out the campus, and we actually really really liked it. They don't have my program, but they have a part-time MBA program, so we grabbed some info, toured the campus for a bit, then went to do our carriage tour. The tour was an hour long and took us all around historic Wilmington. Wilmington is a beautiful area. Brandon and I decided that we could actually see ourselves living there as well. Basically I think any coastal town in North Carolina would suit us well. We didn't have time to tour the mansion after the carriage tour, so we went to Wrightsville Beach, got some pizza, and hung out on the beach for a while. When we were getting ready to leave, I said that I just wished we could see more wildlife than we had seen while parasailing. We then stood there for like thirty more seconds, not wanting to leave, and right before we turned around we saw dolphins! It was the greatest thing ever!

We left Wrightsville Beach to go to Carolina Beach, where they were supposed to have fireworks and live music. They had carnival rides and tons of tourists, but we couldn't find the live music anywhere. We were reading a banner about their summer events and some guy told us the band and the fireworks were cancelled because it had rained at 2:00 that afternoon. It was pretty lame. So we left and went back to the hotel since we were leaving early the next morning. I had a really hard time parting with that area of North Carolina. I still miss it every day, and I would move there in a heartbeat.

More trip stuff

Day 3: To Athens and Charleston
Our third morning we woke up early and made the drive to Athens, GA to check out the first school. It was only an hour and a half to Athens, so the drive wasn't terrible. We pulled into Athens and were pretty surprised by the town, and not in a good way. It was really small, and honestly kind of dumpy, and we were debating whether or not to take the tour of University of Georgia still. In the end, we were there, so we decided to take the tour, and I'm glad we did! Their campus is beautiful, and huge. Half of our tour was by bus so that we could see more of campus than if we were just walking. After the tour we stopped and ate some lunch, and decided quickly that Athens isn't the place for us. It would be great for undergraduate students living on or near campus, but we are looking to grow away from college life, and expand our careers, and Athens just didn't seem to offer that.

We left Athens for the four hour drive to Charleston. We made it to Charleston around 7:00, checked into our hotel, and headed downtown for a few hours. Once we parked, we walked down King Street, which is the main street through downtown Charleston. We walked through Battery Park and went to the ocean for a little bit. It was starting to get dark, and we were pretty far away from where we had parked, plus we were both starving, so we turned around and walked back down King Street to find somewhere to eat. We ate at this place called Joe Pasta and it was (surprise) delicious. But the best part of that meal was how nice people were. Brandon asked our waiter what things we should do when we were in Charleston, since we were only there for a day, and after he told us a few things he went and asked his manager what other things there were to do (because he wasn't originally from Charleston). Then later, the manager came out and talked to us for a little bit and told us how he had recently been up to Utah. The night ended on a good note!

Day 4: Charleston
The next morning we got up bright and early to make our way back to Charleston (we stayed in North Charleston) to take a carriage tour. My grandma suggested that we take one and I am so glad we did! The tour was an hour long, but we got to see so many sites and learn so much about the history of Charleston. The houses there are beautiful, and I seriously cannot stress that enough. I have a serious weakness for houses with big porches, so basically all of Charleston was like Kryptonite to me (we have been watching too much Big Bang Theory, sorry for the nerd reference). But seriously the tour was so great. After the tour we hung out at the city market for a while and walked through a bunch of little shops on the same street. A few hours later we went to the Maritime Center and boarded a ship for a harbor cruise. The cruise took us out past Fort Sumter and out near Mount Pleasant, a little island off of Charleston. Mount Pleasant looked really nice from the boat, so we went over there after our tour and ate some lunch, then went down to the beach for a few hours. The beach was nowhere near as full of tourists as Charleston, so we stayed over there for a few hours, then went to Fort Moultrie and drove around looking at all the pretty beach houses.

That evening we went back into Charleston to meet Jennica and Rusty for dessert. Rusty had an internship with Boeing there, so they were in Charleston for the summer We hadn't seen them for quite a few months, and it was so much fun to not only see them again, but see them in a completely new place. It's so funny when we get together, because we pretty much just pair off and talk the entire time. Jennica and I talk while Rusty and Brandon talk, and our conversations rarely cross, which I think is a good thing. It's funny how similar Rusty and Brandon are, and Jennica and I will always just be us, and I love that. We hung out with them for a few hours, and after seeing a few palmetto bugs (ew) and basically running from the pineapple fountain to the market to get away from the bugs, we called it a night because Rusty had to work early in the morning, and we wanted to leave early in the morning. Our hotel was right down the street from their apartment though, so we still go to see them on the freeway until we had to go separate ways at the light.

Day 5: Myrtle Beach
The next morning we got up and drove to Myrtle Beach. We took the highway that goes right up the coast, but with all the trees we hardly got to see the water. The country we got to see on the drive was beautiful though. We really got down to our roots with the countryside and our country music on the radio. We took our time with the drive, stopping to look at the beach houses and pulling over to take pictures of all the crazy things we saw. Rather than heading right to the beach though, we were making our way to my Aunt Dar's houseboat in North Myrtle beach. We got to go to lunch with her and her long-time boyfriend, and ate at a little place they love right on the water. Dar has been living in South Carolina for quite a few years, so I haven't been able to see her all that often. Luckily she was able to make it to our wedding, and had already met Brandon. It was a fun little reunion, but we only got to see them for about two hours because we had reservations for parasailing that afternoon.

 I called the parasailing company when we were leaving lunch and asked if we could push the reservation back an hour and they said that was no problem, but that it was supposed to storm that afternoon so we needed to get there as soon as possible.  We finally got to the beach, but then couldn't find a place to park. Parking is way difficult in big, touristy areas; we learned that really quick on this trip. After we found a  place to park, then we got lost. Once we finally got to the right spot, they got us out on the water really quick. They used a jet ski to pull us out on a big banana boat raft to the boat. The water was pretty choppy because of the storm that was coming in, and the driver of the jet ski was going really fast, and I thought I was going to have to let Brandon go up and parasail by himself. I am terrified of open water like that, but it was my decision to have us go parasailing, so I couldn't back out. We went out to the boat with two other girls and let them go up first. Halfway through the sail, the driver of the boat let them drop in the water for a second, then pulled them back up. When it was our turn, I asked if we could skip the part in the water, and he said that was fine. So we got up in the air, and it was pretty cool! We couldn't see much because the water was so murky from the storm, but it was neat to just be that high up over the water. We even saw a small shark! They started to slow down so I thought they were going to pull us back onto the boat, but we just kept going lower and lower and weren't getting any closer to the boat. Well, they forgot my request and dropped us in the water anyways. Luckily it wasn't for too long, but I was panicking. Once we got back up in the air, I got over it pretty quick (ya know, since I didn't die and all) and then we saw a sea turtle!! I am definitely glad we ended up going parasailing.

After parasailing we went and laid on the beach for a little bit, but it was kind of raining and it was windy and the sun wasn't out, so we only stayed there for like 45 minutes. At this point though, it was already almost 5:00, so we went to our hotel and got kind of dressed up, then went back down to the beach to hang out on the boardwalk and get some dinner. We ate at Moe Moon's, and each had a tasty burger/sandwich and a pina colada IN A PINEAPPLE. Holy moly it was the most delicious drink I have ever had in my entire life. Brandon promised me endless umbrella drinks on the beach during vacation, and this was my only one and it was amazing. I still can't stop thinking about it. I even bought some V8 juice that is pineapple coconut because that's how much I loved it.

After dinner we walked around the boardwalk for a while, then went and rode the Skywheel. It's a giant Ferris wheel right on the water. When you went over the top and started going toward the ocean it looked like we were going to roll right into it! After that we went in some shops and people-watched. Brandon was going to take me dancing, but we couldn't find a place to go, and by the time we had somewhat figured it out we were both too tired to even worry about it.

I will blog about the next few days tomorrow. Again, you can look at all our pictures here even if you do not have Facebook!

I guess it's about time.

We have been back from vacation for two weeks now, and I guess it's finally time that I come to terms with it. I don't want to though. I'm longing for the warm days on the beach, eating seafood on the water in Southport, and endless days of dreaming what life will be like when we (someday) move over to that side of the country. We're quickly sliding back to school though, and before we know it our days will be filled with the monotony of work, school, and homework. Throw in grad school applications and it sounds like a winning semester to me! We are more than thrilled to be about done with school. In 16.5 weeks we will be officially done with our bachelor's degrees and done with Utah State. Praise all that is holy!

This semester is actually going to be pretty easy for me. I am doing an internship this semester at the high school Brandon went to, and that requires 20 hours a week. I will be in the counseling office! Besides that and working 25 hours a week, I have one class for 2.5 hours once a week, and another class that is all online, but only requires me to attend "artsy" events such as plays, concerts, the ballet, etc., and write an essay on each event. So this semester is going to be pretty easy for me. Brandon is taking five classes, but one of them doesn't start until October. The first 8 weeks of the semester will be pretty kind to him, and then the class that starts later is taught by the professor he is working for and has taken a class from before, and shouldn't be too challenging. We are just ready to be done!

Alright onto the trip. I will try and keep this concise, because I know my posts can get a little wordy (for example, see the two paragraphs above).

Flight to Atlanta:
Our flight departed at 3:05, and we got to Atlanta at about 8:00 their time. We had no layovers, and our flight ended up arriving early, so that was nice! And we just took carry-ons, so we didn't even have to wait for our luggage! We picked up our rental car, a cute little Chevy Spark that is similar in size to a golf cart. It was perfect though! Quite roomy for the two of us, and plenty of room for our luggage.

The hotel we stayed at in Georgia was actually about thirty minutes north of Atlanta in a town called Alpharetta. We drove from the airport, past Atlanta, towards Alpharetta without stopping in the city. I think Brandon and I decided not to tell anyone this, but I am going to tell you anyways. We did not even think about the fact that toll roads exist. Not even once. So there we are, driving along the freeway, and we reach a toll booth. And guess what? We didn't have any change. I think I had like two pennies. The nice lady said she would have paid for us, but she didn't have any change either. Not sure why they don't just catch up with the times and take cards, but whatever. They said they were going to send a bill for $25, but we have yet to receive that bill, and mostly I just think it's funny that they charge so much for not having two quarters.

Anyway, we got to hotel and checked in, and it was super nice. I am still very proud of myself for finding a nice hotel at a good price. Then we left the hotel and went to find some dinner. We ate at a place called Burger-Fi and it was delicious! We actually ate a ton of good food on our trip, but this was a great start.

Day 1 in Atlanta:
We made it a point to sleep in at least some mornings on our trip, and Atlanta was the place we slept in the most. We finally left the hotel at like 10:30 or 11:00, and first things first, went to a bank and got some change for the toll roads. Then we made our way downtown, found a parking garage near all the things we wanted to do, and guess what, they didn't take cards either, and the only cash we had on us was the $5 in quarters we got for the toll roads. The nice man let us in still, and told us just to come back with some cash at some point in the day. We decided that, since we had a lot of time in Atlanta, we would just walk to the nearest Wells Fargo and pull out cash for parking and such. The nearest Wells was about half a mile away, which isn't a terrible distance, but the GPS put us through some sketchy backroad to get there. When we left the bank though, we realized that there was a not-so-sketchy main road right in front of the bank. So we took that road back to the parking garage, and were so close to getting there when we witnessed a minor car accident. The driver of the car that got hit got out of her car so fast and started throwing swear words at the old lady that hit her, and I was scared. Old ladies aren't scary, but they are scary in Atlanta when they are swearing and the hooligans from the sketchy road you walked down previously come out to see what is going on. Luckily, everyone that was there (with the exception of the crazy swearing lady) was really kind and made sure everyone was okay. Brandon was the first person to call 911 so we waited around to make sure they didn't need us for anything.

After all the fiascoes that morning, we finally got to Coke World, our first real destination. We bought a CityPass for Atlanta, which cost about $80 a person, but got us into Coke World, the Aquarium, the Zoo, the CNN Studios, and a few museums. Coke World was neat! We got to learn the history of Coca Cola, see the bottling process, and try different sodas from all over the world. FYI: all the other sodas are gross. After Coke World we got some lunch then went next door to the aquarium. It was Saturday afternoon, and it was so dang busy. Our CityPasses came with a free ticket to the dolphin show, but by the time we got there all the tickets were sold out, so we couldn't redeem ours. The aquarium took about 3 hours to go through, and it was cool too, but there were so many people that it was almost hard to enjoy ourselves. We then walked through Centennial Olympic Park, which was big, but not as cool as I was hoping.

When we got back to our parking garage, a guy in a nice truck three spots down from us had had his truck broken into. Someone broke the window and stole something out of his car. Needless to say, this on top of all the other things so far in Atlanta had put kind of a bad taste in our mouths, so we decided to get out of downtown and go to a park. We found a really nice park about 15 minutes away with some botanical gardens and a lake, so we hung out there for about an hour, then decided we were hungry. We didn't want to drive back into downtown Atlanta for dinner, so we started to make our way back towards Alpharetta when Brandon realized that he didn't pack any swim trunks. So while we were hunting for a place to eat, we also stopped at every Ross, Marshall's, and T.J. Maxx's we could find. We didn't find any that night, but we did find a delicious Mexican restaurant with live (good) music!

Day 2 in Atlanta:
We both woke up feeling a little unsure about Atlanta because of our experience the day before. Because of this, we decided to take our time getting to our destinations. We stopped at a few places to look for trunks for Brandon, and finally found some at Target. Then we went to the zoo! The zoo was just a normal zoo, but it was still fun! It was in historic downtown Atlanta, so it was neat to see all the old houses and such. After the zoo we headed back downtown to take a tour of the CNN studios. The CNN building is huge. Our tour didn't start for a while after we got there, so we had fun just walking on the ground floor and going into the touristy shops. The tour was pretty cool. We took the world's largest free standing escalator up into a huge globe where our tour began. We go to see the different studios they broadcast from, and also the newsrooms where they piece the stories together.

After our tour we walked around the outside of the CNN building, and just behind the building is the Georgia Dome where the NFL Falcons play! Adrian loves the Falcons, so it was fun for me to have a little part of him there with us. There was a drumline competition going on inside, but it was a little pricey, so we just spent a few hours walking around outside, and also seeing the outside of the basketball arena where the Hawks (I think) play.

We had tickets for a Braves baseball game that night, but still had a few hours until the game started. Brandon wanted to go eat at a place called The Varsity, which is apparently super popular, but I was surprised at just how popular it was. We showed up, and I'm pretty sure every other person that was going to the Braves game that night was there too. We waited in line for 45 minutes, and they had probably about 20 registers open, I'm not even kidding. The food was good, but by the time we actually got our food, we had to hurry to make it to the game, so we basically just inhaled it. The roads to the game were busy, but luckily we had prepaid for parking, and had a perfect spot. We only paid $12 dollars a piece for our tickets, and were pretty sure that our seats weren't going to be very good, but they were perfect for the price! And no one even sat on either side of us. It was so much fun! We have grown to love baseball lately, and it was way fun to get to watch a professional team. We stayed up through the seventh inning, then decided to leave so we wouldn't have to deal with traffic getting out of there.

I'm about off work, so I will blog about the next few days tomorrow. You can look at all our pictures here even if you do not have Facebook!

Not a very exciting post.

I honestly wouldn't blame you if you didn't read this entire thing. Mostly I'm just bored and slightly angry at the whole prospect of grad school. I took another practice GRE test today, and I did pretty well. The unfortunate part is that my scores are not really increasing at all. I have spent at least two hours everyday Monday through Friday studying, and my scores are staying the same and I just don't understand why. My verbal score is in the 64th percentile and my math is in the 68th, and to get into UNCC I need a combined score being in the 65th percentile, so I'm doing pretty well. To get into BSU I don't even technically have to take the GRE, so I'm being an overachiever on that front.

The thing is, I actually want to take the GRE, and I want to do really well. I don't want to settle for a school that doesn't require it or that only requires you to be in the 40th percentile (not that BSU isn't an option, but you'll see what I'm saying in a minute). I want to prove to myself and to other people that I am smart enough and good enough to get into schools that are actually recognized for their programs. I couldn't get into Harvard to Stanford or any place like that, and I know that, but what a cool feeling it would be to get accepted into the program at a school where it is actually competitive. I had planned to take the GRE for real on July 18th, but now I'm not so sure. We will see what happens I guess.

In other news, Brandon took a practice GMAT test today and got the highest score he has ever received, so his studying has definitely paid off!

Life is just the same old same around here. Still working forty hours a week, stuck inside instead of eating sno cones hourly and laying poolside. (Still studying for the GRE and not improving my score, not that I'm upset about it). The afternoons have gotten too hot to play outside, so we have started taking naps every day. It sounds way lazy, but we are way more productive at night if we sleep for an hour after work. Getting up at 5:30 am is super hard! After naps we make dinner, hang out and talk, then Brandon has his "GMAT class" which is just study time at home that he set in place himself. He has done a really great job of keeping up with it, surprisingly. He wanted his "class" to go from 7:00-8:30, but even when we have something else going on he always devotes at least 45 minutes to studying before we go to bed. It has been nice for him to use this time, because I just go upstairs and exercise for like an hour and a half, and then we go running when he is done. Much like my studying situation, I have been working out a ton, but am not seeing a change yet. However, the batteries in our scale have been dead for like two weeks and it is actually really nice to not base how I feel off numbers. That being said, we have to go to the store tonight, and will probably be buying batteries, if we don't forget...again...for like the tenth time.

We are pretty excited for this week! Not only is it the Fourth of July, which is probably my second favorite holiday, but we are taking off Wednesday through Friday and going to Idaho Falls to see my family! I love holidays in Idaho Falls. We used to go to I.F. for every Fourth and Thanksgiving, and I don't think we have been there for the Fourth in like five years or something. But mostly, I haven't seen my family in like two and a half months, and that's a really long time when you are used to going to see them once a month! Adrian has his driver's permit now, so that's a little weird, but it will be fun to experience his driving! Anthony has a ladyfriend of sorts, so I will probably spend a majority of our time questioning him about his love life. 

Three weeks after the Fourth is our vacation and I am so excited! We finished booking all our hotel rooms, booked parasailing at Myrtle Beach, bought tickets for the Skywheel at Myrtle Beach, and bought our citypasses for Atlanta! Also I rewatched Safe Haven in preparation for our trip to Southport. I am hoping that the vacation is perfect. I am mostly excited for our days in Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Southport and Wilmington. Something about a road trip up the coast just sounds super great right now. Probably my disappointing GRE scores.

Anyways, that's about it for now. I had to work yesterday and today and it's just about time for me to get off work!

Sweet Summer Time

I've said it before and I'll say it again: this summer has been absolutely wonderful so far! Working from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm is the best schedule I could have asked for, besides working maybe two hours a week. Last summer I worked these same hours but Brandon had summer school in June and July so he always had to work later. It has been so nice to have us both get off at the same time. I leave work at three and he comes and picks me up somewhere below campus around 3:15, then we go get sno cones, do something fun, or just go home and play outside. It is supposed to be 93 degrees today so it is definitely a good day for sno cones!

Brandon's younger brother Austin got home from his mission almost two weeks ago, and it has been so fun having him home! He is just a year younger than me, and we worked together at the movie theater a few years ago. I actually met Austin a few weeks before I met Brandon, which was way before we started dating, so Austin and I had the opportunity to become friends before I started becoming a part of their family. I was really excited for him to come home because, even though I knew him before I left, I hadn't had the opportunity to get to know him as well as I have gotten to know the rest of his family over the past two years. Luckily though, we are making up for that time already! Brandon and I have hung out with Austin a lot, getting sno cones, looking at cars, and watching movies, and it has been a blast! It is nice to have a friend that actually wants to hang out with us, even though we are married. I feel like neither of us feel obligated to hang out because we are family, we just genuinely enjoy spending time together.

Brandon, Austin, Shawn and myself all rode down to the Farmer's Market on Saturday, which is becoming a weekly tradition for Brandon and me. The market is pretty small; you can walk through it in about fifteen minutes, but it is something to do and gets us out of bed before ten on Saturdays, which is nice. We also go to Costa Vida pretty much every Saturday, but I like it because we walk there and then eat outside. We also have been going climbing with James and Candis (Brandon's older brother and girlfriend) lately. Last time we went climbing I couldn't make it all the way up, so when we went this last weekend I had to redeem myself! It still took me two tries to get all the way up, but I finally found a quick burst of courage and just did it! The hardest part is just trusting myself, the rock, and the equipment. Brandon and James tell me and Candis to put our feet on a ledge of rock that sticks out like an eighth of an inch, and I just don't feel comfortable with that sometimes. Before these past few times, I hadn't been climbing since before we got married, and even before then I only went like five or six times. The very last time we went before we got married, I slipped and it scared me so bad that I didn't want to go again. I finally have started wanting to go again, but I am afraid that I am going to slip again and be more afraid, so I don't move up the rock until I feel completely comfortable. I feel like I am wasting everyone's time with how long it takes me sometimes, but I am determined to keep reaching the top!

Last week on Friday I had to get off work earlier than Brandon, so we put my bike in the trunk of the car so I could ride it home after work. On the way up to campus, Brandon was telling me to put the lock through the front tire and the triangle of the bike, then around whatever I was locking it to, because sometimes people will just steal the front tire. I double and triple checked my lock job, and compared it to the bikes next to mine even, just to make sure I was doing it right. I felt pretty confident that I locked it up correctly, and didn't think about it once the rest of the day. I was getting pretty excited to ride my bike home by the end of the day, and after seven and a half hours of work and stopping to grab Brandon a donut in honor of National Donut Day, I headed out the door to ride my bike home! Well bad news. My bike was gone. The front tire was still there, locked up, but the rest of the bike was gone. I couldn't believe it. This is the very first time I have ever brought a bike up to campus, and it got stolen. On top of that, it wasn't even my bike. Brandon's parents are letting us borrow a few of their old bikes, so I felt awful that it got stolen. And it definitely wasn't the nicest bike there. Also,  I didn't have a way to get home. So I called Brandon and told him the bike got stolen and he said "Wait, what?" and I just started bawling. I was so upset. He told me to calm down and tell him what happened, and I told him that I thought I locked it up correctly but I guess I didn't because the bike was just gone. Well guess what, sometimes my husband is rude and likes to play tricks on me. He left work earlier than I got off, came and parked the car, unlocked the bike, took everything but the front tire, and went and put the bike back in the trunk. I was so mad. When he told me he had the bike, I thought maybe he had just moved it, or maybe he had followed me to work in the morning and taken the bike then, in which case I would have been more mad, because I sure as heck was not walking home, but luckily he was in the parking lot just north of the library. Needless to say, he did not get the entire donut to himself. And he did take me to a movie afterwards to make up for it, but I was still mad. It was funny, but rude.

There really isn't much else happening here. We are just loving summer! We have a few more things to do for our vacation, like booking one more hotel room, buying our Citypasses for Atlanta, and booking parasailing at Myrtle Beach, but we are getting pretty excited! I can't wait to get a change of scenery!

Bloggy blog.

I haven't blogged for a while, and I had a request for details about our upcoming vacation, so I figured that was a good enough reason to blog! Summer has been amazing so far. Last week was our first week without classes but let me tell you, it was pure bliss. Brandon and I both worked from 7-3 every day, and had so much time to hang out after work every day. We went and got sno cones, watched movies, played outside, and basically just enjoyed each other's company. Friday we both got off work around 2:00 and went to Lowe's and bought patio chairs. That afternoon we sat outside and read for a while, then had his brother James and his girlfriend Candis over for a barbecue. That night it really felt like summer. They came over around 6:30 but we sat around and chatted while we waited for the burgers to cook, and it really was just a good time. The weather was so perfect, and has been ever since. It has been pretty warm in the mornings, so warm that I just want to play outside at six a.m., and around 9:00 at night it cools off and we go running! Yesterday we both got off work around 1:00 and took some lunch to a park, then went and got sno cones. When we got home we laid outside for two whole hours!

In those two hours (and yes, it took us a whole two hours) we booked our flight for our upcoming vacation! I know what you're thinking (especially you, Alycia) "But Caitlin, you and Brandon take so many vacations. Didn't you just take a vacation to Disneyland?" This trip is mostly academic. We are taking the trip to tour the University of Georgia and University of North Carolina at Charlotte to make sure we like the campus and the university itself. We also are planning to look at the surrounding areas so that when the time comes we can find an apartment in a nice area that we both like.

We will be flying into Atlanta on Friday July 26th, and spending Saturday and Sunday there. We will probably visit the zoo, the aquarium, Coke World, and we bought tickets for a Braves game yesterday! Monday morning we are going to drive to Athens, which is where University of Georgia is. We will spend the day touring the campus and playing around town, then that night we are driving to Charleston, South Carolina. We will spend the following day in Charleston, then drive to Myrtle Beach that night. We are going to spend the entire next day playing on the beach, and will spend the night in Myrtle Beach again. The next few days are my favorite. We will wake up the next morning and drive an hour and a half up the coast to Southport, North Carolina. For those of you who like Nicholas Sparks books/movies, this is where Safe Haven was filmed (and I love Julianne Hough so of course we have to go there). We will spend a few hours exploring the town and seeing the sights, then we are going to continue on to Wilmington, which is where we will spend the that night. Yesterday when I was looking around at vacation stuff I found this beach which is super popular, but since I don't live over there I had never heard of it. I found some pictures of it online though, and I absolutely cannot wait to go to it! It is called Wrightsville Beach and it is just 20 minutes away from Wilmington, so we will probably spend a lot of time there after we go to Southport.

They offer Harbor Cruises at the beach, and we might end up taking one! They have a sunset cruise that I think would be so much fun!

The next morning we will wake up and drive to Charlotte and spend the next two or three days there. I don't really know how many days we will be there because we just added our night in Wilmington yesterday. We will tour UNCC one day while we are there, and mostly just spend time exploring Charlotte to make sure we want to live there. Pretty much I know we will want to, but better safe than sorry right? I wanted to spend a night in Savannah after we toured UGA, but sometimes you just have to have some self control right? Plus we will need some places to explore when we move over there!

There are 72 days left until we leave and I don't think time will go fast enough. I told my mom yesterday that if I don't come back, she shouldn't be offended. It's not anything about my life that I don't like, but looking at those pictures I can bet you wouldn't want to come back either.

Blah Blah Blah

The title of this post pretty much sums up how I feel about school right now. I am so incredibly tired of having to sit through classes to learn material I don't care about  and then having to write papers on other topics I don't care about. My motivation has tanked this past month. I had a 120% in one of my classes so I decided that I could skip class every Thursday, and while that might not have been the best for my grade, it sure kept me sane. Thursdays from about 3:00 to 4:45 have become my "me time" and when I get home I just play with Sophie, bake, clean, read, then go back up to campus to pick up Brandon. I have only skipped one other class twice (not including when we left for vacation), and one other one once. When you think about it the way I do it doesn't really sound so bad. Every week I attend class 16 times. Over the course of the semester, I attend about 230 classes. Skipping 10 classes really doesn't seem too terrible in comparison, right?

My weeks have settled down drastically. I had a busy few weeks for a while, but last week and this week have given me plenty of opportunities to relax. Unfortunately for Brandon, this week is a busy one for him. He had a presentation today, has two papers due this week, and has one final this week. Luckily though, he only has one final next week. I have four, but they won't be too bad. His birthday is next Saturday, so we invited some friends to go up to his parents cabin that Friday night for dinner, cake and ice cream, and to spend the night. So far not many people have responded as to whether or not they can go, but even if no one can, it will be a fun weekend! We will do that and probably go to dinner and a movie on his actual birthday.

Neither of us has heard back from the places we applied for internships, but we are hoping to hear back soon. I actually was just got a second job for the summer last week, so if the internships don't work out (which they probably won't, sadly) I won't be working forty hours a week at the library. Don't get me wrong, I love the library, but forty hours here with not much to do isn't as exhilarating as it might have initially sounded. My second job is at the Center for Persons with Disabilities working with the Up To 3 program. This program offers classes and resources to parents who have a child under the age of three with a developmental disability. My position will be watching siblings of the focus child, and sometimes the focus child, while these parents are in class. It is just ten hours a week, and will be a fun change!

This past weekend wasn't too exciting. We got to do a ton of relaxing, which was super nice. Friday night we went to Costa Vida, visited with some friends, made an appearance at a wedding reception, made air popped popcorn in our air popper that we had never used, watching Chasing Mavericks, and surprisingly stayed awake until about 11:30. Saturday we slept in which was absolutely wonderful. When we finally decided to get out of bed, we went to Sam's Club, went and saw The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, went to Costa Vida again, and then went home for a late, relaxing night. I watched Bride Wars while Brandon did homework, and once my movie was over I read until I fell asleep. Again, we were up until like 11:30! Sunday we went to church, I cleaned like a fiend, baked peanut butter bars, and prepped bbq chicken for dinner tonight.

I am on my fourth book since we bought our tablet a few weeks ago. I probably would have read more by now, but like I said earlier, I had a busy few weeks. I am loving it so much! But like four days after we bought it I started having second thoughts because, get this, I missed smelling the books I read. But I really do love Tabby (yes, we named her) so I went home that night and put my nose in an actual book for a good five minutes. Not to read or anything, just to smell. After I finish the book I am reading now Brandon and I are going to read The Great Gatsby in preparation for the movie. I am trying to talk his little brother into taking me as his date to the preview. Since Shawn still works there they get to watch the movie a few days early. And after The Great Gatsby I am reading Harry Potter again!! I love Harry Potter. I need my cousin Alyssa to come home so I can have someone to talk about it with again.

Sorry I write a novel every time I blog. I wish professors would just let me write about my life for papers. I could seriously fill so many more pages.

Easter Weekend

I have to say, this past weekend was a lot better than I was expecting it to be! This medicine I have been on is killing my mood, so by 5:00 on Friday I was ready for the weekend. I was kind of grumpy, but a quick trip to Costa Vida fixed that right away! Plus we got to walk there because it was so nice outside, so that helped too. After Costa we walked around Shopko, our favorite thing to do, then went home to watch some movies. We had rented two movies that night, but I fell asleep during the first one, and we never got a chance to watch the second one, but that's okay!
Saturday morning I had to work at 9:00, but my friend asked me to model for her that day, so I was up on campus at 8:00 that morning! Nobody should ever have to be on campus at 8 am on a Saturday. Or at any time on a Saturday for that matter. I didn't have time to eat breakfast before modeling, so I asked Brandon if he would bring me some cereal when he came back up at 9:00. Brandon got to the library a little after I did, and I saw him walking up the stairs with a white bag and thought it was just cereal, but as he got closer I realized it was a bag from Burger King! He brought me french toast sticks and hashbrowns for breakfast!! He told me this was my Easter gift and honestly it was way better than any basket of candy would have been! That day at work was kind of long, because it was so nice outside and neither of us wanted to do any homework, so we mostly lounged around and talked all morning.

After work we went up to this parents' house to borrow the big red truck. We got this old treadmill a few months ago and I had only used it twice so we decided to finally take it to the D.I. Well whenever we borrow the truck Brandon always leaves the car keys for his parents just in case they need to move the car, but we always forget to take the keys when we are going to need to get back in our apartment. This time was no exception. We got back to the apartment, realized we had left the keys, and almost went back to get them, but I decided to run around and check the back door first. Well, it was locked, but then we realized that we left the guest bedroom window cracked. There is a little roof covering over the front doors of the apartments, and it just so happens that if one were to stand on the roof covering, they could reach the guest bedroom window. So we backed the big red truck up so the tailgate was practically touching our neighbor's front door, stood in the bed, and I cheerleader-hoisted Brandon up onto the roof. He got up, took out the screen, and after struggling to keep Sophie inside  was able to get inside the apartment. We loaded up the treadmill, grabbed extra keys, and were off! It was a pretty good adventure for the weekend, if I do say so.

We took the treadmill to the D.I., got some Aggie ice cream for lunch, then set up the hammock outside for a nap. Brandon fell asleep for a little bit, but I wasn't very tired so I went inside and cleaned up the apartment. I took down our winter curtains, cleaned the windows, took out the trash and even changed the air filter in Brandon's car! Then I made these peanut butter banana oatmeal bars, but I think I used too much banana because they are pretty mushy. We just kind of hung out the rest of the day until about 8:00, then we went to dinner with Brandon's family at the new Mongolian restaurant in town. It definitely wasn't as good as the Mongolian in Boise, but it was tasty nonetheless! After that we stopped to buy groceries for our Easter dinner, and by the time we got home it was 11:00 and we were tired!

Sunday morning we woke up early and just hung out until I had to go to work. When I went downstairs after I got out of the shower I noticed our Easter gifts were sitting on the table, but all the plastic eggs were gone. I asked Brandon if he hid the eggs, and he had! So I got to go on a little Easter egg hunt of my own that morning and it was so great! He is seriously the best. We got the ham put in the crock pot and hoped that it wouldn't overcook by the time we got home. Luckily my six hour shift that day went much faster than the 4.5 hour shift the day before. I got more homework done, and I think Brandon did too, so that was nice. When we got home we made some potatoes, heated up the green beans and cherries, and sat down to the first Easter dinner either of us have ever cooked by ourselves! It was a lot of fun! Being able to cook the ham in the crockpot was super convenient, because we were all finished cooking, eating, and cleaning up by about 7:15 or so. After dinner I made peach cobbler, and Shawn came over to have some dessert with us. We watched a few episodes of the office, folded the laundry, then went to bed.

The next couple weeks are going to be pretty busy for both of us. We have five total weeks of school left, 3 real weeks, 1 dead week, and finals week. We both have quite a few assignments that are due this week and next week, but we are powering through! We cannot wait for summer, it can't come fast enough!

Seriously.

I have been getting hives off and on ever since we got back from California about two weeks ago. I have no idea what they are from; we haven't switched shampoos, soaps, lotions...nothing. So finally on Monday I went to the doctor and he gave me some sort of steroid that should gradually get whatever is causing the hives out of my system. He told me that the meds could make me sleepy or hyper, and that they will most likely make me moody. I expected them to make me sleepy, because I am mostly sleepy all the time, but my mom told me that when she was on it they made her have more energy. Well mostly she said they interfered with her sleep, but it's basically the same thing.

I had no idea what I was in for. I took my first dose yesterday morning and let me tell you, I am loving these things. After a few hours yesterday morning I was feeling sort of sad, then I felt anxious right before Spanish, but that is a pretty normal emotion before that class. During about the middle of Spanish though I realized that I hadn't really felt as tired as I usually do during the day. After class I talked with a good friend for a bit, then Brandon and I went suit shopping for him, then we went to dinner, came home and watched the voice, and then around 8:30 I went on a cleaning rampage. I had so much energy that I didn't even know what to do with it! I cleaned the living room, our room, the guest room, organized my side of the closet, put away the laundry from the hamper that usually stays in the hamper from Sunday until Thursday (on a good week, most weeks we just live out of the clean clothes hamper), and pretty much was just going nuts. There is a possibility that the two 21 oz diet cokes I had to drink last night played a part in this (okay lesbihonest, they probably played a huge part), but all I know is that finally at 10:30 last night we had to force ourselves to turn off The Office even though we weren't tired. I fell asleep probably just after 11:00, but I woke up at 4:00 and had to go to the bathroom. I pretty much was ready to get out of bed at that point, but I knew that I would hate life today if I did that, plus Sophie wanted to snuggle and I never turn down a snuggle sesh from my kitty. I only slept for like 45 minutes of the next hour and a half until the alarm went off, but as soon as it went off I got out of bed! That never happens! Even better, I actually got to work 2 minutes early and was able to clock in right at 7:00, which rarely happens on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. But I did fall down the stairs this morning, that was bad. Mom says to wait a few days until the moodiness kicks in. I feel bad that Brandon is likely going to have to endure more moodiness from me than he already gets, but we can just say I am teaching him patience.

Disneyland

I seriously can't believe how fast that vacation went. I am already hoping that Brandon will let me plan another one sometime soon, maybe for his birthday or something. Or maybe my parents will plan some extravagant family vacation for this summer and will let us tag along (hint hint). We left Friday afternoon around 2:30 and drove all the way to Vegas that night. Brandon's older brother James and his girlfriend came with us too. We hit quite a bit of weather on the way down there. It was snowing like crazy between Provo and Cedar City and it was a little scary, not gonna lie. We got to Vegas at about 9:00 their time, and stayed at a hotel just south of the strip. It was a pretty nice hotel. Brandon and I had booked it before James and Candis decided to come so the room only had one bed, but they brought sleeping pads and everything was fine. The next morning we left the hotel at 7:00, drove down the strip, then made our way to Anaheim. We got to our hotel around 11:30, but couldn't check in yet so we parked the car and walked over to the park.

We stayed at a Travelodge hotel, and it definitely wasn't the nicest hotel ever, but it worked, and the location was prime. All we had to do was walk across the street, walk through the Disney parking garage, and take the Disney tram to the loading area at Downtown Disney. It was super convenient. So we got to the parks, got our tickets from will call, got a "Happy Birthday" button for me and an "I'm Celebrating" button for Brandon, and made our way into Disneyland! James and Candis went to California Adventure the first day, and I think it was kind of nice for us split up and go to the parks just as couples. Brandon and I have been so busy lately that I feel like we hardly ever get time alone, so it was fun to hang out together for five days straight.

Holding to tradition, the first ride we rode was the Jungle Cruise. It's not our favorite, but it is the first ride you come across when you turn left into Adventureland. We were starving when we got to the park, because we hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning, so we got some barbecue skewers and a mickey pretzel (my fave) for lunch. We made our way around the park, waiting in lines, riding the rides, and people watching (we did lots of that). Unfortunately, the weather in Anaheim was nothing like the weather was in Orlando when we were there in August. It was maybe 65 degrees at noon, and from about 3:00 on it just kept getting colder. We got a mickey shaped ice cream that afternoon, but at about 7:00 we were so cold that we got hot chocolate! Nuts huh? Around 8:30 we were so cold that it just wasn't even fun to be there anymore, so we went and checked into the hotel and fell asleep.

The next morning we woke up early so we could get to California Adventure when it opened. James and Candis didn't go to a park that day, so Brandon and I were on our own again. When we got to California adventure, we hurried to get fast passes for the show World of Color. Then we went to Cars Land so we could do everything over there before it got busy. Cars Land was way neat! We got to walk through Radiator Springs, see Mater, and we even got some Cars buttons! The main ride in Cars Land was great too. You get to drive through the town, then you race another car around a track. It was a long ride, and we were all way impressed with it! I was so happy that we got there when we did though. Later that day the wait time was more than 90 minutes! We got fast passes for it after we rode it the first time so we could go on it again later.

We finished out Cars Land, the Bugs' Life area, Tower of Terror, and by then it was probably about noon and we were starving. We went over to the pier to eat at Cocina Cucamonga, a Mexican place, and let me tell you, it was so dang good. By that time too it had started to get pretty warm. The high that day was 75, but I wore jeans because I had been so cold the day before. I rolled my jeans up into capris though, and had on a t shirt, so I was pretty comfortable the rest of the day. We did all the other rides in the park like California Screaming, Ariel's Undersea Adventure, and tons more. We didn't do Toy Story Mania though, because the line was so long and we pretty much beat the game on the Wii like three months ago. Like the day before, we had a lot of fun just people watching. The pier area was so pretty lit up at night, so we just walked through the shops before World of Color started. World of Color was amazing! It is a water show with lots of, you guessed it, color. I am always amazed at how well Disney does things. Their shows are so magical that it seriously makes me want to cry every time. After World of Color we hurried over to Disneyland so we could watch Fantasmic. I was so happy that we did that, because the show doesn't run during the week, and we hadn't planned on going to Disneyland again until Monday, so we made the right decision! We never got to see Fantasmic in Disney World, so yeah, it was a good thing we raced over there for a good seat Sunday night! After Fantasmic we went on Indiana Jones. I hate that ride. I had only ever been on it once before and I really didn't want to go on it, but Brandon did, so I decided that I would be a good wife and make the sacrifice. I won't go into details, but lets just say the ride didn't work out so well for me.

Monday morning we got to sleep in since the park didn't open until 9:00. I think we all finally got out of bed around 8:30. Brandon and I got to Disneyland around 10:00 and hurried to get in line for the Matterhorn. While we were waiting in line I told him that he should text James and tell him that we were at the park if he and Candis wanted to meet up for lunch later. Brandon said that he would text James after the ride, and as soon as he said that James and Candis walked right past us! They were going to get in line for the Matterhorn too, so we let them hop in line with us. That ride is not as great as I remember. It just made my bum hurt. After that ride Brandon and I went over to Tomorrowland to ride the Finding Nemo submarine ride and Star Tours. The line for Space Mountain was really long, so we got fast passes for that and then rode Pirates again before we had lunch with James and Candis. I got free dessert from the place we ate because of my birthday pin! And at dinner the previous night the cashier lady gave us a discount because it was my birthday. I love those pins, they get you so many great things. Anyways, after lunch Brandon and I went back over to California Adventure. They have an Aladdin show there that we hadn't been able to see the day before so we went and watched that, and just spent more time walking around. We saw two people that we used to work with at the movie theater, so that was fun! We went back to Disneyland around 7:00 and were going to ride some more rides, but there had been a parade, so we had to take roundabout ways to get where we wanted to go and after walking around so much we didn't even care. We didn't even ride Splash Mountain or Space Mountain. I think we are disney'd out. We did watch the fireworks that night though. James and Candis came and sat with us too. After the fireworks we snagged some hot dogs and then went back to the hotel.

Tuesday morning I woke up dead. Not literally, but I had been keeping a cold at bay for about two weeks, and it finally hit. Airborne had been my best friend before the trip, but I forgot to bring it with us, so each morning I could feel myself getting more and more sick. Tuesday it hit in full force. On top of that, we had a 12 hour drive ahead of us, and I always tell myself that if Brandon is driving then I have to stay awake to make sure he is doing okay. Luckily James offered to drive for about half of the trip, so Brandon and I got to nap in the backseat. It was a long drive, but it wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be. We stopped at Del Taco on the way home, and my throat hurt so bad so I got a shake and a small taco. We got back to Logan around 8:30, so we made pretty good time. We dropped off James and Candis then went to go get Sophie from Brandon's parents' house. She was so happy to see me! It made me the happiest cat-mom in the world. She heard the car pull up and was waiting for us by the door when we came in, then she let me pick her up and she just sat on my shoulders for probably a good fifteen minutes.

When we were getting ready to leave to go to our apartment, I noticed that my wrist was itchy. I looked at it and had a few bumps, but I wasn't sure what they were. About five minutes later I looked at it again, and the bumps had turned into hives. We had to stop at the store to get milk, so I bought some benadryl too. When we got home and was getting ready to put on my pj's, and saw that the hives had spread to my stomach, armpits, and legs. My legs felt like they were turning to toad skin, it was gross. Brandon told me that I should go take a shower, just in case they were from something that I had touched, but when I went to turn on the water, nothing came out. They were doing construction out on our street so I guess they had turned the water off. It's a good thing we keep water in the fridge or else we wouldn't have been able to brush our teeth. I went to bed in a miserable state. Coming home from vacation was a lot worse than it usually is, because of my sickness and the hives. Yesterday morning the hives came back, and they have been off and on since then. But I felt so tired yesterday that I only came to work for six hours then went home for the rest of the afternoon and did nothing.

Honestly, the vacation didn't live up to my expectations. I don't even know what to think about it now, because if a Disney Vacation didn't cure my mid semester blues, I don't know what can. But oh well. Below are some happy pictures of things we did/bought on our trip.








 
 

This was the best day ever!!

 

 




 

New Favorite Thing

Tomorrow we leave for DISNEYLAND!!!! I seriously am so excited that I can't even focus on anything else. I think falling asleep tonight and tomorrow night is going to be so difficult. The weather right now in Anaheim is a good 30-40 degrees warmer than it here in Logan, and I cannot wait to break out my short shorts and sandals! Sadly though, my skin is whiter than the dang snow that keeps falling from the sky. So in preparation for our trip, and for my short shorts, I went and got a spray tan.

When I say they are my new favorite thing, that might be sort of an understatement. I am in love with them. I found a $25 gift certificate to Planet Beach, so I only ended up paying $4 for my tan, and let me tell you, I look pretty good. It was way weird to get sprayed with the stuff, plus I had to hold my breath for like 30 seconds, which is hard when you are nervous turns out, and I smelled way gross all night. But let me tell you, it was so worth it. I got to wear my darker, summer shade of foundation this morning, you can't see my veins through my legs, and most importantly, nobody in Disneyland will go blind when they see my legs reflecting the sunlight.

I did learn a few things though: always always always pat dry your feet. My feet turned out kind of orange, but I don't even care. Also, if you are a women and have legs larger than toothpicks, stand with them further apart than you normally would. I have this awkward less-than-tan area on the inside of my legs. And finally, even if you are nervous, don't bend your arms so much that the spray stuff can't get inside the crook of your elbow. White circles are not attractive.

I know this all sounds way superficial, but I am pretty sure that there is some unspoken rule that if you have skin whiter than printer paper you are allowed to be kind of superficial when it comes to this stuff.

Next time I blog it will be about Disneyland!!!!!!!!! I can't wait!

Exciting stuff.

Ha. The title of this entry fooled you into reading the blog didn't it? Well now you have started and can't stop, so sorry if it is disappointing. This week has been happily atrocious. Doesn't really make sense does it? We'll start with the negative things.

1. Brandon is sick
2. Spanish test today
3. Adult development test on Friday
4. We still have 8 days until we leave for Disneyland
5. I haven't had time to read my book at all this week
6. I had a meltdown yesterday about how much I currently dislike my job and want to do something different
7. It is still freezing cold here, and I am more than ready for it to warm up and for the snow to melt.

So all of those things have been super sucky. But good things have come of them all! Okay, mostly all of them.

1. Due to Brandon's sickness we have left the house twice this week in our sweats to go get ice cream. We never leave the house in sweats. And we have been watching lots of t.v., so that's nice!
2. Spanish still sucks, that will never change.
3. My adult development test will be easy, so that is alright.
4. At least we are going to Disneyland
5. Still bad.

6 and 7 are kind of combined. I decided yesterday that there is no way I can handle working 40 hours a week at the library this summer. I decided to maybe look for another part time job. But then I started thinking about an internship somewhere outside of Utah. Brandon isn't really taking initiative to look for an internship for himself, and no one offers internships for Human Development majors, but I decided to branch out and apply for some anyways. I have found quite a few that I am interested in, but I have only applied for one so far. It is a publicity internship with Pixar! I know that I am limited because I am not a business or PR major, but it is something that I feel I would like and would be good at. I would really love to find an internship with a publishing company or with Disney or Universal or something like that, but we will see!

In other news, today I am wearing my Harry Potter shirt for good luck for my test. I can't wait until school ends. I decided that every summer I am going to reread the Harry Potter books, and I seriously can't wait to be able to do that! I might even make a paper chain to count down the days. I love paper chains!

Also my birthday is on Sunday.

Have a great week!

Words.

So yesterday I started this book called Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield. It is a memoir about music and his wife who died. They got married when they were 25 and both knew they were crazy, because who gets married that young right? Wrong, obviously. More and more people are getting married younger lately, even people who aren't from Utah (surprisingly). I haven't had a lot of personal experience with people telling me that getting married so young was a mistake, but I do know that some of my friends have had this problem. I found this little section in my book, when the couple were deciding to get married and kinda just wanted to share it. Mr. Sheffield and his little wifey had a good way of sticking it to the man.

"We were just a couple of fallen angels, rolling the dice of our lives. We'd heard all the horror stories of early marriages and fast divorces and broken hearts. But we knew none of them would happen to us, because as Dexy's Midnight Runners sang to Eileen, we were far too young and clever. What if we just decide not to fall apart? What if we decide not to wait and see what happens, but instead decide what we want to happen and then decide how to make it happen? Like Burt Reynolds says to Jerry Reed in Smokey and the Bandit, 'We ain't never not made it before, have we?'"

It's going to be a long day.

Happy Wednesday!! I can't believe we are already halfway through the week. Not having class on Monday has made for a great week so far. Plus I only had two of my four classes yesterday, so that was really nice. Today though, I have all four classes, and for some reason that really drags out the day. On top of that, I only got about five hours of sleep last night. I didn't fall asleep until midnight, so when the alarm went off at 5:30 it was super hard to get out of bed. Yesterday morning the alarm didn't go off, so we didn't end up getting out of bed until 6:00, and it was a good thing that I woke up when I did. Somehow I still made it to work at 7:00, but today, even though we were up earlier (only by like 15 minutes by the time we actually got out of bed) I was six minutes late to work. Hopefully this isn't a pattern that is starting! Luckily no one in their right mind is at the library at 7 am, and my boss doesn't really mind if I am late anyways.
Also luckily, if this is just meant to be a bad week at least I don't have assignments to do. I had two assignments due this week and I finished them last week and turned them in, so this week a a week for book reading! I am super excited. I read about 12 books last semester and so far this semester I have only read one. I feel like a slacker, so I am trying to make up for that this week.
This last weekend was pretty great! Friday night we stopped at Taco Bell for dinner, watched Robot & Frank, and The Breakup, and went to bed at a pretty decent time. Saturday we spent all day out on the town shopping. We literally shopped until we dropped, because around 4:00 we went home and took a nap for two hours. That night we went to dinner with Brandon's fam. Sunday we cleaned the house then went out to try on running shoes, because I am asking for some for my birthday! That night we went to dinner at Brandon's parents' house and stayed for games and dessert. We played a super fun game that I want to teach my family how to play. It is quick and easy!
Monday Brandon had to work, so I woke up, did the laundry, cleaned up the house a little bit, watched a TON of The Office, and then Brandon's mom took me out to redeem a gift certificate she gave me last year for my birthday. It was to a place called Beadles, where you can go and pick out beads and such to make your own jewelry. I ended up making eight pairs of earrings and a necklace.

 

Sorry, I can't get the pictures to go in the center of the page. Anyways I am pretty excited. I got 5 new shirts and 2 skirts on Saturday, so it is nice to have jewelry to go with it! Brandon told me the other day that he can see that my style is changing, it is becoming more grown up and kinda professional. Except not today, because today I am tired so I'm wearing my fat jeans, mocassins, and a hoodie. Stickin it to the man.

Tonight is pancake night, tomorrow night we have to pack, and then Friday we are heading to Idaho Falls for my cousin Dylan's mission farewell. I can't believe that two of my favorite cousins will be in completely different places soon! Not only that, but my cousin Ethan is taking some crazy road trip soon that is going to take him all over the place! I don't know the details, but it sounds like a ton of fun. I am excited for all of these people that get to go new places and experience new things. I can't wait for when that time comes for me and Brandon! 11 more months.

Have a great day!

Twice in one week? What?

Okay fambam. Here's the deal. I have been sitting in a chair at the library for six hours. SIX WHOLE HOURS. What, might you ask, have I accomplished in these six hours? Welp, besides a quiz that took all of three minutes and filing some papers that took maybe 45 minutes, mostly I have accomplished a whole lot of nothing. Want to know what I have been doing? Of course you do, that's why you are reading my blog. Or maybe, like me, you are bored out of your mind but are so incredibly comfortable where you are sitting that this is the most productive thing you can do without employing any effort.

--I have been shopping for Disney shirts.

My friend Alycia has the cutest Mickey shirt, which she has agreed to let me borrow, but I have been on the hunt for my own cute Mickey shirt and guess how many I have found. One. And guess how much it costs? Too much. My dreams of having my very own cute Mickey shirt hanging in my closet have been shattered.

I have good news though. Today is Valentine's Day!! And I have the best Valentine of all! (Don't let that hurt your feelings, it really is true. Brandon is the best.) I woke up this morning when the alarm went off, which in itself meant it was going to be a good day, and went and hopped in the shower, also a sign of a good day. I kept hearing a bunch of thudding and the first thing that came to mind was that someone was in my house murdering Brandon (give me a break, it was early, I was tired). And I would have been really upset if that was happening, because today is a special day, ya know? Well I get out of the shower and Brandon is alive and well, shaving his handsome face, and Sophie is sitting outside the bathroom door staring at me and meowing her little head off. So I follow her into the bedroom thinking she just needs a drink of water of something, and look what I found on my night stand!!

Best ever right? Roses, a balloon, Twizzlers, brownie bites, Milk Duds, Chocolate Milk, a Mickey card, and a gift card to Costa Vida! You know what this means right? I am getting fat today. Yes I am. I drank my chocolate milk with lunch, we are going to Costa for dinner, then we are going to see Safe Haven where we are getting popcorn and a drink (thanks to Gram and Gramps C. for the Valentine's card and moolah), and will probably end the night with a dozen one or two brownie bites. I hope everyone is having as wonderful of Valentine's Day as I am. But I hope it is not about to get ruined by going to class for three hours, like mine will be. Seriously, how fun is it to sit in a class for 75 minutes where you have to actually think to listen? Don't get me wrong, I like thinking, but I also like thinking in English. Anyways, happy love day!