Gratitude Day 10

Today I am grateful for snow.

Say what?? Did I really just say that?

But I am! This morning we woke up and it was slightly cloudy, with 9 inches of fresh snow on the ground. We bundled up to let Blaze out and acted like 5 year olds running around in it.

PS. Blaze is hilarious in that much snow. 

Reason 1: he has to pick up his feet A LOT to get around it. And he always does laps when there is that dramatic a difference outside. Hilarious. 

Reason 2: Blaze KNOWS there is a ball buried somewhere under the snow, and he has NO idea how to find it. Me either, buddy. Me either. 

Reason 3: Sean ran around the backyard while Blaze followed so Blaze could burn some energy. So sweet watching those two together :)

this was last night after I got home from work

I am also grateful that at this moment I am sitting in the airport waiting to board a plan to San Fran. I get to escape the snow for a couple days. Perfect timing!

Blaze's Halloween Costume

Now if only I could get him to hold still while wearing it...

Fourth of July fun!

This was my first 4th of July in Provo in like 3 years. Last year I was in King City with my parents, and the year before I was in New York City (awesoooome!). Sean and I live in North Orem, and we decided it would be easier to pack up and stay the night at his parents the night before, rather than try to fight traffic the day of to get to the parade. Greatest idea ever! We even brought Blaze. Spoiled...

We made yummy treats the night before

When I was younger, my Uncle Carl and Aunt Sandi and their kids came up every 4th of July to swim, and Aunt Sandi always made these. So I made them to carry on the tradition.

Eve got to roll around in a wheelchair. To say she loved it is an understatement.

We went to breakfast at Alex's where Sean got whipped cream on him.

Then we went to wait for the parade to start. This was my first Provo parade.

We can't take normal pictures like ever. Sorry.

This bag made me laugh:

Cool stunts

Pipe bands!

Grandma and granddaughter

We ran Blaze in the backyard for a long time and he was in heaven.

After dinner, we went down to Ian and Becca's to swim in the pool where they live.

Then we went to fireworks and met Kelly and Glen and their kids. It's tradition. But of course no picture of this year. Lame.

I love the 4th of July! It's great!

the great lemon cupcake tragedy of 2012

I love to bake. And I don't have oodles of time to do so (which might be a blessing, I'd probably weigh 300 lbs if I did have oodles of time to bake). As a result, anytime I am asked to make a dessert, I tend to go WAY a wee bit overboard.

Thus the beginnings of The Great Lemon Cupcake Tragedy of 2012, or TGLCT-12. My mother-in-law's birthday was yesterday, so we celebrated on Sunday with dinner. She asked me on Saturday to bring a lemon cake for dessert, since she was going to be making a lemon meringue pie, and not everyone (me) likes pie. My head about exploded with ideas! I borrowed a fancy bunt pan from my mother-in-law and some mini cupcake tins from my sister-in-law. These desserts were going to be legen...wait for it... DARY!

I woke up early Sunday morning, hours before I had to be at church, to start the fun, um, baking. Same thing in my book. I made the cake and the mini muffins, and then came home after church and began the cookies. Everything was turning out perfectly! Well, the cake fell apart a little, but once I melted some lemon frosting and drizzled it over the top, you couldn't tell anyone. (Bonus! I got to use my fancy cake stand we got for our wedding for the first time!) The tiny little cupcakes looked so beautiful and fancy and tart-ish once they had been dipped in lemon frosting and topped with half a raspberry. And my lemon cake-mix cookies with a raspberry in the middle? To die for!

Finally, after home and visiting teaching appointments were over, it was time to head down to the in-laws! Sean and I took the first couple of desserts out to the car and then headed back to the house to get the mini cupcakes and the dog, who was also invited to the par-tay. I opened the door, didn't see Blaze waiting like he normally is, and knew instantly what had happened...

Blaze ate them. Every. Last. Cupcake. 

I wanted to cry. Punch him. Scream. Anything to release the anger I felt to this dumb creature who was inevitably going to have a mondo stomachache later. Then the realization came: he's tried that before. Why didn't you just take them out on the first trip? It wouldn't have been that hard. Even in heels...

So I was pretty much a crank the rest of the night. Sorry Collette, I hope the other two desserts sufficed...

Aren't they beautiful?

Okay, so my weekend was not ruined in any way, shape, or form from this tragedy event. Sure felt like it for a while though. We actually had a really great weekend!

 Thursday: went to La Casita in Springville for Alex's birthday. These guys are brothers and climbing buddies.

La Casita? It's okay. Maria Bonita's in North Orem is better.

We went to SmashBurger on Friday, and then went to Bed Bath and Beyond to spend some wedding gift cards. Yay for my new avocado slicer!

We saw Brave on Saturday! So good. The music was really good as well.

Sean often plays guitar, but rarely do I have time to just sit and listen.

P.S. Blaze suffered no side effects from eating the cupcakes. Must have been the lemon-raspberry combo. You can't go wrong with fruit I guess...

3 month-iversary!

P.S. I was going to post this forever ago (or a week and a half ago, whichever is first), but my computer decided to just about died on me. We are taking it up to the Apple store this week to get it fixed. Bummer... Also, can it be a P.S. at the beginning? Oh well. Anyway...

On the 17th, Sean and I had been married for 3 whole months!! It is so interesting to me to think that just 3 months ago we were at the day we had been anticipating for our whole lives, and now it feels like it has been just me and him forever. Being married has been such a blessing for both of us. It is amazing to have my best friend with me all the time, a shoulder to cry on, a permanent Disneyland buddy, a fellow five-year-old goof, and someone to share every moment of every day with. He is the biggest blessing in my life to date and I am so excited for the rest of our lives together. And don't forget eternity...

Enough with the mush. Here is a brief description of what we have been up since my last update post. Sans pictures, of course, because I don't have any of them because they are on my computer that won't wake up:

My birthday: I celebrated my 24th 26th (can I pretend I'm still 24??) birthday with Sean and some of his family, and my sister Jenny came too! Sean got me climbing shoes and a tennis racquet, my family got me the cups and silverware we registered for, and Sean's family got me a holy cow (family joke) and a cake decorating kit! It was a wonderful day, especially since it was Sunday and General Conference.

Climbing outdoors: see my post about this, but we went climbing outside and I am now addicted.

Vacation: We went to Disneyland! And Sea World. And LA. And my parents house. We spent 10 days roaming around (not aimlessly) CA and loved it!

Sean's birthday: Sean turned 24 this month, and he got spoiled. I got him Insanity (ok, I admit, it was a present for me too) and a new french cuff shirt and new cuff links (fancy!). He also got a sno-cone maker, blender ball bottle thing, a book about different diving sites (can't WAIT to try that out) and probably some other stuff. I can't remember.

Insanity: we started Insanity. It's insane. Hence the name. But seriously? We have both come a long way as far as endurance in the last couple of weeks. Yesterday started Week 3. Only 6 more to go!.

Blaze: annoying as ever and does not like to listen. He is stubborn but is a lot of fun and I can't help but love him. His little smile with his tongue hanging out the side is so funny I love it! Any takers for giving him a bath?

Pharmacy: I'm still working externing at Walgreens about 10 hours a week. I wish I was getting paid. And they probably wish I was too, cause I would probably show up more than I do. Sorry guys, but 50 hour work weeks are busy enough!

Physical Therapy and Prosthetics: Sean started working as a physical therapy tech at SOS Physical Therapy in Provo two days a week. About two weeks after he started, he went to a prosthetics office to talk to the prosthetist and see if he could get shadowing hours in. After some deliberation between the prosthetist and his coworkers, they decided it would be more worth their while to hire Sean! He has been shadowing for a few weeks now and loves it! They let him play work on the machines and help make stuff for actually prosthetics for actual patients. Pretty cool for only being there for a couple weeks! He is loving it and is excited for the next year and a half of hands-on training he will be getting.

So, there are a bunch of wedding and Disneyland trip pictures on Facebook. I realized yesterday I have yet to post our Moab trip pictures. Hopefully we get the computer fixed this weekend and I can get those up.

All in all, we love being married and had a fun Memorial Day weekend. Hopefully that post is coming soon. Those pictures are still on my camera. Pray for my computer!!

"S'more what?"

"You're killing me, Smalls!"

I'm pretty sure that was Sean's response last night. Not because I don't know what s'mores are (because I do, oh I do...) but because I really wanted them. I don't know why, but I NEED dessert. It's awful and I hate it, but I need it. Good thing I run (sometimes) right?

Anyway last night I decided we needed s'mores to accompany our dinner (which was delicious, BBQ pulled pork sandwiches).

Before.

After. We realized, "why didn't we use our gas stove to roast these?!" Doh!

Oh well. Next time.

Blaze totally thought they looked amazing.

And on a completely separate note, my husband is so sweet. These are just because flowers :)

 (No, he was not in trouble, I had a bad day yesterday. And no, my bad day was not the result of something he did. He made the bad day better. And even more better with the flowers.)

Gratitude-a-day 23

Yesterday's gratitude: I'm grateful for Blaze. Yes, his tongue is obnoxiously long, especially when he is attacking you with kisses, but he is such a sweetheart. And he did really well on the car ride from Utah to King City. 12 plus hours. Not easy.

Isn't he cute?

Shock, shock me. Shock, shock me.

So let me tell you about my night last night.

It started out like any other night this summer... me getting into bed way later than I had wanted. And then playing Angry Birds for half an hour. 11pm is way too late to go to bed, but unfortunately that has become the norm in my life as of late. And I'm addicted to that game.

The dogs woke me up at around 1:30. So I took them outside and then we went back to bed. This has also been normal for the past couple weeks. Also unfortunate, as I hate getting my sleep interrupted. Good practice for future kids? Probably...

All of a sudden, I hear CRASH CRASH and then feel something slam onto my mattress, right by my head. My eyes fly open and Blaze is sitting on my pillow. I look down, and my broken closet door is on the floor. (Broken a.k.a. unhinged.) I look around the room for Ruby and notice that my very nice tower fan is also on the floor, and Ruby is standing by the bedroom door looking a bit terrified. Like I would look if I had seen a black widow or something.

I think in her sleep, Ruby got too close to the closet door which is just propped up blocking my shoes from being eaten alive, and it fell over, knocked the fan down and scared both dogs. Poor girl.

It took 5 whole minutes to get Blaze off my bed. The top of my mattress is 4 feet off the ground. He was so scared he jumped onto the bed. And then wouldn't come down. I literally, at 3:30AM (did NOT know that existed) had to pick 75 lb. Blaze up off of my 4 foot high bed and put him on the ground. Wish I'd thought to take a picture. I took the dogs outside again and then went back in, picked up the closet door and the fan, and tried to go back to sleep.

Don't worry, I'm not bitter at my dogs for waking me up three times last night. In fact, all sleepiness aside, it's hilarious. Ruby's face... again, I wish I would have taken a picture. But my phone wasn't handy at the moment, and let's be honest. It was 3:30am. Like I'm going to remember to pull out a camera and document this...

But can we talk about the real tragedy here? Blaze now knows that he has the ability to jump onto my purposely high-off-the-ground bed. Can I get a Phoebe Buffet "oh no" from everyone? Because that knowledge to him is going to result in lost sleep for me...