Do You Remember

Can I bask some more in my 'newlywededness'? Remember how fun that day was?

So, this guy I work with went to Hawaii yesterday. His wife found a killer deal on round trip tickets to Hawaii for just over $300.00 which actually happens to be a KILLER deal because I actually am a geek and I made this spreadsheet where I watch and follow the pattern of flight prices each day to various parts of the world that I dream about visiting (of which Hawaii will ALWAYS be #1 on my list). Anyhow, they have been about $550.00 for a long time now and then this huge sale pops up! Where have I been?!? I ALMOST bought two tickets for an extended honeymoon but quickly let reality set in when I realized, "Oh yea, WHERE WOULD WE STAY? How would we get around? Maybe this trip could still cost more than a pair of cheap plane tickets for $600.00" Not to mention "When could we REALLY even go?" So, I continue to watch, hoping that the fabulous deal may come again and this time I'll totally be ready for it! Hawaii here I come!!!



The weather has been blah for the past couple of days. It's got me thinking and I realized that I'm starting to "itch" for some major changes in my life. As if marriage wasn't big enough? WHO AM I?!? I mean, changes like: moving to another state, looking for another job possibly with another company even, starting the business that I've always wanted to start (and hopefully will someday), taking a serious trip (Hawaii?), buying the sweet new scooter I've been begging Gary for. Any one of those things might satisfy this itch, or maybe I'll just get over it (I think I'll opt for the second option and get over it).



Speaking of trips, my parents are actually trying to gather all the children for a family trip to California/Disneyland at the end of this month. The reservations for the condo have already been made, whether or not everyone makes it down there is another story! I hope to go but realize that I have a husband who is still in school. DRAT! I'm sure grateful that he is a responsible student...do you think he'll let me go by myself? :)

Every couple of months, I teach a class at this local health clinic. They have "Diabetes Awareness Days" or "Healthy Heart Days" and provide classes on things they can do to be healthier and prevent the onset of Cardiovascular Disease. So, I'm teaching the class in a week and need some good suggestions. How can I make this interesting? The information I share with them is no brainer information. They already know they need to exercise and that a diet consisting of McDonald's and Carl's Junior is NOT ideal for the poor little circular system (I know! Isn't that CRAZY? ;). I don't want to get into my theories on why people don't just be healthier. BUT, I hope to say or do something that will help them to feel more motivation to become physically active and to be more aware of what they eat. There are just too many benefits to healthy habits to ignore principles of good health. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME TO TAKE MY OWN ADVICE?!?



Did I tell you that last weekend Gary and I went up to Sandy for his mission reunion? Well, one of them. We actually had a softball game that very night at 9:00pm and KNEW that traffic would be horrendous. SO, we made this clever plan and decided to only go to ONE of the possible THREE reunions we had between the two of us. We left Provo at 3:45pm in efforts to dodge the rush hour traffic that usually becomes unbearable by about 4:15 on Fridays. The runion didn't even start until 6:00. Needless to say, we had PLEANTY of time to spare once we got to Sandy, UT at 4:30! No worries, I say! I had JUST had two different conversations with two different co-workers that VERY day where they mentioned this sweet store that I NEEDED to go visit on off of 90th south in Sandy. The VERY exit we had just gotten off at! It's called Tai Pan Trading Company and YES, it was a plan I connived all along and works FABULOUS! I quickly made a few phone calls and found out exactly where this FAB Home Decor Monster Store is located and we spent an hour and a half there! If it was up to me, I would have moved the location of Gary's mission reunion to Tai Pan Trading Company! I was NOT EVEN DONE by the time we had to leave and begged Gary to go to his reunion alone and just pick me up on his way back! No Deal! THAT part of the plan didn't work so hot. But I'm already excited for Christmas now that I've been to Tai Pan!



Wow, I got distacted by Tai Pan! I was telling a story about the mission reunion sitch. Our plan was to also attempt at beating the 'coming home from Mission Reunion' traffic as well. In order to do that, we decided that we'd need to leave Gary's reunion by 7:00pm in order to make it to our Softball Game on time. Well, we successfully dodged that bullet as well and made it to the softball game only to be annihilated by the other team. Don't even get me started on that one!

We're Going to Be Friends

I'm going to work my way backwards here ok? Yesterday evening was Monday Night...most of you might also refer to it as F.H.E. (Family Home Evening) or if you ask Sara Salmon she'd call it F.F.F. (FORCED Family Fun)either way, Gary and I participated. First I made this scrumptious meal thanks to my all time most favorite website: www.kraftfoods.com (ONLY telling you my secret recipe site for selfish reasons so that you all visit it and it doesn't ever go belly up due to a lack of vistiting members) and a posted a picture and brought left overs for lunch today. It may not look all that delish to you guys, but let me assure you, IT WAS! Just take my word for it, ok? We had to hurry because Gary was on activity last night and he decided that we were going to hike the "Y" and watch the Sunset.

We made it to the parking lot at the bottom of "Y" hill just in time to notice that the sun had already gone down. Ha! BUT, we decided to hike up anyhow. It was fun to be outdoors and spend time with my husband. Once to the top, Gary asked me if I'd ever laid down on the "Y" upside down. Um, NO? Have YOU? - Yes, he had. So I had to try it. Have any of YOU tried that before? I didn't even know you were ALLOWED to do that up there? For sure you'd slide out of control and end up 5 minutes later on the hood of your car 1200 feet below! Gary held my feet and with my eyes CLOSED, I laid down head facing DOWN the mountain on the Y. Finally, I opened my eyes...CRAZY site! Seriously! It was scary and got even MORE scarier when Gary let go of my FEET! But he just wanted to join me! I'm sure in the picture it doesn't look steep, but I promise, it really is!

And last but not least, BYU Football! I know it's been rough BYU Fans, but things are going to turn around. They HAVE to! We went to the pregame tailgate party a couple weeks ago before the game and Gary won a t-shirt for throwing the football through this small hole. Hmmm, maybe BYU could use Gary Fears #51 on their team!

Banana Pancakes

We finally got our wedding pictures from our photographer! I just love looking at them because it brings back wonderful memories of such a magical day! I posted an earlier post about our wedding bands that we were in the process of making out of a quarter (mine) and a half dollar (Gary's) and they turned out so cute! I put a picture up so you can all see them!


We finally moved into our place a few weeks ago but have somehow managed to ditch out of going to our new ward until now (tomorrow will be our first day). Gary started another semester of school earlier this month and is doing great! He's such a good, hard working student. I try not to be a distraction for him but appreciate the willingness he is to make sure we spend time together each day. Now that I'm finished with school, I really want to learn new skills. Earlier this year I made my first attempt at making a quilt. It is SO cute!!! I'll have to post a picture of it! Have you heard of rag quilts? That's what I made! I'm excited to make another one and even have a really cute idea for my next one, but think I might take a break from the eternal quilting hours to develop another new skill...any suggestions? I'm hoping to make the attempt at some canning in the near future as well so that will be fun.


Recently it's been raining quite a bit. In fact, yesterday Gary noticed that we have snow on our mountains again! The weather has sure cooled down in the last week. I'm not sure I'm ready to give up summer just yet. I hope it warms up for a few Saturday afternoon football games. Speaking of football games, did anyone happen to watch the BYU/Boston College Football game this morning? It was a bit of a let down, but a GREAT game! We had a big party over at Jason and Shannon's house this morning and made Belgium waffles and watched the game. Last night Aaron and Stacey, Jason and Shannon, Brandon and Stephanie, and Gary and I all went bowling. It was lots of fun. We would have loved to play another game but someone had rented out the ENTIRE bowling alley and so they kicked us off at 7:45. LAME! I can't figure out why any bowling alley (especially the one at BYU) would rent the entire thing out on a Friday night. It must be some rediculous price so that they actually make MORE money renting the whole thing out than they would if they had a packed house all night long. So, I suppose the person who rented it out is the fool eh? I'm sure you're wondering who won the game? Well, don't worry about it! :)




Anyhow, I had this HUGE long list of things to do today and watching football all day while blogging and looking at wedding pictures was NOT on the list! I think I'll run to the grocery so that we have food to eat this week!

The News

Hey! Remember me? I have SO much to tell you! But I only have like five minutes! Life is wonderful with Gary. Our wedding day was perfect. I can honestly say that there is not one thing I would have changed about that day. I loved and enjoyed every minute of it! I still don't have wedding pictures or video, but I'll be sure to post some when I get them. I just heard this morning that the photographer got engaged recently, which is probably why she hasn't dropped anything off yet. If that's her excuse, I totally understand. Our honeymoon was spent down in Las Vegas. We splurged and stayed a couple nights at the Bellagio. HELLO! It's pretty much amazing. We even got room service twice and that was fabulous as well! Pretty much, it's an experience that everyone should have at least once in their lives. Highly Reccomend it!

The day after we got back from our honeymoon we actually went up to Salt Lake to attend the sealing of a really good friend of mine from High School. She and her husband have been living in China for the past year so it was a really neat experience to see her and be at her sealing. It was also really fun for Gary and I to be there so shortly after our own sealing. It sure caused a lot of reflection on our special day a week previous.

The next weekend Gary and I drove to California to attend the Sacramento Temple open house. We went with a family that Gary taught and baptized while on his mission. We also went with another family that Gary taught. They still are not baptized, but we're working on them. Mitch sure seems to look up to Gary and they've kept in touch all this time, so he must recognize SOMETHING special about Gary.

Last weekend was Labor Day weekend. We took off early Friday morning and drove down to Lake Powell. Ahhh, what a FABULOUS way to spend the last long weekend of the Summer. It was Gary's first time down. The weather was fabulous and Gary even learned how to knee board. Can't wait to go back...very very soon hopefully.

I know this is totally rude but I have a nagging husband who is SO excited for the BYU football game that starts in an hour and a half. He REALLY wants to go get a new BYU shirt so he can represent well at these football games. I'll get some pictures of my HOT husband in his new shirt at the game! GO COUGARS!