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!

Summer sits outside, while I sit at a desk.

If you couldn't tell from the title, I am already extremely tired of sitting in the library 40 hours a week while I could be outside playing in the sunshine. Or swimming. I really would love to go swimming right now. This summer is going to be sucky for a while.
I recovered from my oral surgery so much faster and with much less pain than I expected. I didn't swell up a lot surprisingly, and the side of my face that did swell up a bit wasn't even the side that hurt! All of my stitches have fallen out as of yesterday, and my graft is looking pretty good! The doctor said it has taken very well! Unfortunately I am still restricted on what I can and cannot bite into with my front teeth. But I have been quite content cutting up my food for the past three weeks, and am getting a lot quicker at it, so its okay.
Brandon started school today, and the fun of summer ended for me. I loved having him get off work early in the afternoons with me, and now I won't get to see him until six every night. I am already not looking forward to it. Luckily we only have about 25 more days of it, but still.
On a happier note, a MUCH happier note actually, Brandon and I booked a vacation for the middle of August to FLORIDA!!! We will be there for eight days; we are going to spend six days at Disney World and two at Universal Studios, which includes Harry Potter World! We are excited to put our ears back on and get back to the Florida heat!! Okay, so maybe I am the only one excited about that last part, but who cares! We are counting this as our Honeymoon/Anniversary celebration. Can you believe that we have been married for almost a year? I sure can't!

Doomsday is coming quickly...

So Thursday I have to get my wisdom teeth out and get a tissue graft. All at the same time. Super sucky huh? I am staying pretty well composed but I can't lie, I am freaking out. Not excited. Send positive thoughts my way please. Thanks!

Nothing is new here. It's summer, it's warm outside, but I am stuck inside from seven to three every day and then am alone and bored from three to six. Normally Brandon would only need to be working until four, but he is taking time off to take care of me after my oral surgery and is trying to cram all his hours in before then. I don't know what I am going to do with myself once he starts school again. He will be working until six every single day for eight weeks. EIGHT WEEKS PEOPLE. I need a swimming pool or something to occupy my time. You would think that after being married for almost nine months I would get tired of him or something, but I don't. It seems like I can never get enough quality time with my man. I wish we could not work or go to school and just vacation all the time and eat exotic foods and explore the world. (Don't we all, though, right?)

We are planning to go to Boise for Memorial weekend. My brothers will have just finished school so it will be a weekend to party! We are hoping it will be warm enough to go boating, but I mostly am just excited to check out the progress on my parent's house! Brandon and I have to lay claim to our bedroom quick before anyone else does! 

This weekend we are planning on laying around and watching movies. My friend Stephanie from high school is coming to Logan for a wedding so she is going to stay at our little apartment Saturday night. I suppose I should probably clean the house tomorrow, given that I won't want to do it this weekend...

Hope everyone is doing well!!

Birthday Day!!

Today is a good day to celebrate guys. Not only is it Star Wars day, but today marks the 24th anniversary of my sweet husband's birth; a day that I am grateful for with every bone in my body. Brandon Keith Robbins was and is a great little gift to the world! We started off birthday day by me going to school at 7:00 to take a final. Not the greatest way to start the day, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.After that, I came home and woke Brandon up so he could open his present! I got him The Muppets movie. I made him chocolate chip mickey waffles for breakfast, and we ate them while we watched the movie. He let me take a little nap during the movie, then afterwards it was work time. Happy birthday to him though, he only could work for five hours today! So he will get off work at four, and I am off work at five! We are going out to dinner with his family, then having a fire with some friends later tonight. It has already been a great day, and I am sure tonight will be even more fun!

Happy birthday to this handsome man.

Sorry for the delay!

It has been about a million years since I have posted anything..sorry!! I guess nothing worth blogging about has happened! We are rolling into our final week of classes, then next week is finals week and we are done! Brandon and I have been in serious slack mode since about, let's be honest, spring break. However, we are still working hard and keeping our grades up! This weekend, we had finally decided to do something exciting and a little out of the ordinary for us. First, we made home made Costa Vida Friday night. Costa Vida is definitely not anything new, but making it ourselves was a good experience! It took a lot of work and time, but it was so tasty! It was fitting that we had it on Friday night, because that was also our eight month anniversary! It is crazy how fast time goes by. After dinner on Friday, we just walked around outside for a while, then came home and started watching the first Harry Potter movie. Of course, we both fell asleep not too far into it.

Home made tortillas, Garlic Black Beans, Sweet Pork, and Cilantro-Lime Rice!

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to get ready for our day of adventuring! It turned into a much bigger adventure than either of us expected. We left our apartment around 10:30 to head down to the new City Creek mall in Salt Lake. It was about 80 degrees outside and I was so excited to wear my new shorts. Side note: I tried on these shorts about a month ago and they didn't fit at all. Since then, I have lost four pounds, so I bought the shorts and they are my favorite ever! Anyways, City Creek was fun, but kind of a disappointment. It is a very upscale mall and the stores are appealing only if you have $10,000 burning a hole in your pocket. We did go into to Tiffany's, even though we definitely cannot afford anything there, but it's all about the experience right? They have a Disney store, H&M, Forever 21, Nordstrom, and tons of other stores I had never even heard of. We were there for about two hours and boy was it busy. We stopped at the food court to get lunch and had a hard time finding a place to sit!

In front of Tiffany & Co.!

After getting burned out at City Creek, we decided to go to Hogle Zoo! Finding our way to the zoo was probably the most adventurous part of the day. University of Utah must have had an offense-defense scrimmage that day because there were tons of people leaving the stadium as we were driving to the zoo. Like the mall and the roads to the zoo, the zoo itself was packed. We had to park about a half-mile away and trek our way down to the front gates. It was really fun though! Hogle Zoo is a huge change from the Willow Creek zoo here in Logan that asks for a small donation to enter, and mostly has ducks and birds to look at. At the Hogle Zoo, we saw giraffes, elephants, tigers, crocodiles, monkies, and the ugliest orangatang I have ever seen. There was a baby monkey that was only about two months old and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen!! It was super warm at the zoo, and there were a lot of people, so after about an hour and a half we decided we had had enough.
Then it was time to go to Target! The Target we found on the gps was only eight miles away, but it was in a part of Salt Lake that is completely unknown to both of us. We found it, after worrying that we were going to the wrong direction (okay, only I was worrying), and spent about half an hour there.

Brandon in front of a huge elephant! In Africa.

Real Elephants!

Rhino.

I wish I knew how to rotate pictures...sorry.

Brandon thought this would be such a funny picture. Apparently he wants a lion to bite my head off...

The other camel had arthritis so his humps were awkward and falling over. I felt sad for him.

One time when Brandon worked at the movie theater, he had to go to one of the theaters in Salt Lake to help fix it up. As we were leaving Target, he realized that we were close to the theater, and he wanted to show me. So we stopped at the Holladay Center to look at the theater. It was neat inside, but we ended up seeing on of the employees that used to work with us in Logan! It was good to see him. After the theater, we went to Dairy Queen and got blizzards!
As most of you know/could assume, I love High School Musical. The first and third movies were actually filmed at a high school in Salt Lake, and this trip I finally talked Brandon into going to the school. He really is the best husband ever. We stopped at East High and took pictures, and Brandon allowed me to act like a thirteen year old girl living out my dream. It was so nice of him! I stood where Zac Efron once stood; that is a big deal people!

This is the cafeteria where one of my favorite scenes was shot!

Me and the school!! Ps...look at my cute shorts!

After visiting East High we stopped at REI and looked around for a little bit. We left Salt Lake around seven, and pulled into the valley around eight last night. We stopped to see his aunt and uncle and cousins, then came home and made some sweet pork nachos and watched Harry Potter! Except guess what, we fell asleep. Again. So hopefully today we can actually finish it! We are going to see The Lucky One in about two hours with none other than Zac Efron, and I am entirely prepared to bawl my eyes out. Nicholas Sparks has a way of doing that to me every time. It is supposed to be another beautiful day today, so after the movie I am hoping we can spend the rest of the day outside! Hope everyone had a good weekend!!

Here are some other random pictures!

My Valentine's Day Roses

What I came home to on Valentine's Day

Brandon let me have a Justin Bieber birthday party. This is me and Caroline with a cut-out of JBiebs that Austin and Brandon brought home for us one time.

One time we made grilled pineapple burgers!

Driving to Salt Lake to get my ring cleaned a few months ago.

A picture of the Eiffel Tower that Brandon drew on an Ipad.

Sophie loves boxes...

...and pretending that she is Asian.

Looking at cards in Boise.

Bought a car in Boise!!!

Sophie sleeping

This is actually not Sophie, but that dang Tigger climbed the smal tree!!

Sophie on her ribbon leash.

This is the fullest our fridge has ever been.

Sohpie's new favorite thing is to climb inside plastic bags and sit in them.

Here is another example

Orange chicken we made in our crock pot!

 

Daylight Savings is killing me.

Well it is almost 11:30 at night and I am not even tired. The worst part is that we are getting up at 6:30 in the morning!!! Hopefully we will be able to get to sleep soon. Today was a fun filled day though, so the not-tiredness is extending our exciting day! We had Mickey waffles in bed, then took Sophie to the park! I know you are probably thinking that we are crazy, but it was so much fun. The only bad part is that it was so windy and it scared her, and she got so scared that she slunked over to me and crawled up my leg all the way up to my shoulder. It makes me happy when she does that even though she is scared, because it makes me feel like she loves me so much! Ahh. I love cats. Okay. Good  night!

Let's talk about something.

I am so happy to not be an active member of Kappa Delta. It was so hard to promote the Greek system for two years saying that it would give you all these things when I hadn't even experienced those things for myself. To all of those enjoying Greek life, I am seriously so happy for you. I know that unbreakable bonds can be made through joining a sorority or fraternity, and I definitely made some of those bonds, but I made stronger bonds that those by working at the movie theater for half the time I was active in Kappa Delta.

I was told that Kappa Delta would bring about lifetime friendships. It probably does for some people, but it didn't for me. This was made apparent when I walked into the room at Ritual, was hugged by five girls, then not spoken to the rest of the time I was there. Whenever I see any of my "sisters" they always tell me I need to come visit or that we need to go to lunch, but I honestly am afraid it would be just like Ritual was, and what's the fun in that? I can't say that I am surprised that this is how things are, because that is how things were living in the KD house. I felt very alone for the eight long months I lived there. I took extra shifts at the movie theater so I could get out of going to meetings and activities. By second semester last year, I just flat out stopped caring, and didn't go to anything anymore. I had more fun being other places with people who I felt comfortable around.

I am definitely NOT saying that I did not meet some fantastic girls by joining Kappa Delta. If I said that, it would be the biggest lie I have ever told, probably bigger than all the lies I have ever told combined. There are some wonderful girls in that organization, and not only is Kappa Delta lucky to have them, but the whole world is lucky to have them. Many of them are going to make a difference in the world, and make a positive impact on someone's life, just like they did to mine. Though I hated it at the time, moving into the Kappa Delta house when I did was a blessing in disguise. I constantly had 25 girls around at all times, which meant always having someone to talk to. That year was a hard one for me, and it made it easier knowing that I had girls that would help me get through anything. As much as I hated living there, I was good for me in the end, and it is kind of sad that it has taken me this long to realize that.

I guess up to this point I haven't made it clear why I even wrote the very first sentence of this post. Kappa Delta was supposed to make me a better person and teach me about all these things I was supposed to be. That isn't what happened for me though; I learned all the things I was not:

• I am not a girl who loves wearing heels every chance I get
• nor am I a girl who loves being told that I have to dress up every single Monday of the school year.
• I am not comfortable shaking hands with every single person I meet at parties; come on people, its not a business
• My hair is not flawless like all the girls I lived with
• I am not 5'3" and definitely do not weigh 115 pounds
• I am not a public relations, business, or marketing major, nor will I ever be
• I am not a leader, 
• but I am a dang good follower
• I do not feel comfortable talking in front of other people
• I don't always love hugging people
• I don't love the gym like I should
• I still can't justify spending over $100 on a pair of jeans
• I am not ever going to attend a lingere party; get a boyfriend.
• I don't love devoting 37 hours a week to an organization I don't really care about

But reading through that list, I have realized that none of those things even matter. I am

• kind
• loving
• considerate
• organized
• pretty-like real, average pretty, not fake tanned and cake faced
• funny
• real
• studious
• in a constant state of excitement
• very emotional, but in a healthy way
• passionate
• going to make a difference in peoples' lives someday in my own way 
• reliable
• prompt
• helpful
• not a person who should be made to feel like they aren't good enough.
• a constant learner
• a good sister
• a good daughter
• a great wife
• a great mother of one...to a cat
• a good friend when given the chance
• a dreamer
• hopeful
• strong
• still healing
• stable
• smart
• an avid reader
• open to new adventures

Most importantly

• I am happy.

It is hard to be happy when you are constantly surrounded by people that don't make you feel great about yourself, and that is what Kappa Delta did, and still sometimes does, to me.I thought that more girls would show up to my wedding, but the important ones were there and that was all that matters. I thought that ritual would be a better reunion, but the girls that cared then are still the ones that yell "hi" to me from halfway across campus. Kappa Delta was just a stepping stone on my path to finding out who I am. It taught me a lot of things that I am not, and a lot of things that I never will be, but being away from it I have learned what is most important in life. And I can honestly say for the first time in long, long time, that I am so so happy, and I don't think that will change any time soon.