New Place

We got a new place to live!

It's a cute old house near the library. We'll be renting the main floor (yay for no more basement!!!) which also includes the 2nd story as well. It's technically a 2 bedroom 1 ¾ bathroom place, but the shower upstairs doesn't work, so we'll say 1 ½, although I wouldn't use the toilet in that one either. It's got a living room with a wood burning fireplace, a dining room with a built in china cabinet, a kitchen with a dishwasher, and two bedrooms and a bathroom on the main floor. Upstairs there is a little hallway/room at the top of the stairs, and then the ½ bath and then another bedroom with a red ceiling. There's also tons of storage and a washer and dryer in a storage cellar. We will have to do a thorough cleaning, especially of the kitchen floor and cobwebs on ceilings, and then spray the whole place for spiders. Luckily we signed the lease for the 15th, which hurt a bit since we just paid rent on our current place last week. At least this way we can move in gradually instead of one giant exodus (I had to look that word up in the Bible for the spelling, how sad is that!?).

More awesomeness about the new place: Dave knows the landlord; it's right around the corner from Quinn and Brianne!; I can start walking to work to get my exercise and save gas; we can shop at Smith's and get the 5% student discount again.

Backwards tiny pictures

So today is "Black Friday" and Dave finally let me put up the Christmas tree, since Thanksgiving has come and gone. (Why, do you ask, is this post called "Backwards..."? Because I'm posting about Christmas decorating before I post about Thanksgiving, duh.)

We bought a 6.5' pre-lit fake Christmas tree and some tinsel garlands from Wal-Mart and a big box of non-shatter ornaments from Costco. All in all we have a whole Christmas tree and trimmings for about $70. We're missing the star for the top though, any ideas about what to do for a star? Since my usb cord for my camera, I took a couple pictures with my cell phone camera (hence, "...tiny pictures"):

Don't tell, but the top half has gold tinsel garland and the bottom half has red. I also only put the ornaments on the front half that actually shows, so it looks oh so pretty.

I love how christmas trees look at night. So sparkly and pretty.

Yoinked

I saw this on a blog, and so I stole it. I won't tell you whose though, so you won't know I'm creepily reading your blog. Muahahaha!

Fun Facts From High School

1. Did you date someone from your school? Yeah, and I kept it secret from my parents...but apparently they knew the whole time. Weird how that happens.
2. What kind of car did you drive? Big White Oldsmobile Ninetyeight (It was a boat mafia car) - Raoul.
3. Were you a party animal? Nah, I was always too busy. But sometimes I wished I was.
4. Were you considered a flirt? Depends on the year, I think. Mostly my senior year I had enough confidence to be a flirt, but I wasn't a huge one.
5. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Band! Go Clarinets! and Color Guard!
6. What was your most embarrassing moment of high school? I don't think I ever had one huge embarrassing moment, but I had a lot of little ones that I can never think of unless I'm lying asleep at night trying to sleep.
7. Were you a nerd? Yeah in my way. We didn't really have "classifications" in our school.
8. Were you on any varsity teams? No, but I made JV XC! :)
9. Did you get suspended/expelled? No way, I was a good girl, and/or never got caught.
10. Can you still sing the fight song? Sure, as long as I'm not listening to other music, which I am right now. I even know the hand movement things (not the cheerleader type).
11. Who were your favorite teachers? Herr K., Mrs. Schick, Mr. Reid, Mr. Thurston
12. What was your school's full name? Los Alamos High School
13. School mascot? HILLTOPPERS! GO TOPPERS! Yeah, I don't think anyone was really clear as to what the actual mascot was...some big hairy mountain man?
14. Did you go to homecoming, and with who? Freshman year: not old enough to go, Sophmore year: Stephen Dey, who I had a huge crush on, but I got the flu the day before, so I wasn't 100% and he was a quiet guy, so, it was kinda awkward, Junior year: David Parsons, Senior Year: Brett Dahlenburg.
15. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Knowing what I know now, sure I would. I'd take more AP classes and do XC all four years. But then again, I like having the freedom of not living at home
16. What do you remember most about graduation? I sat between Isaiah Ciscneros and Jenny Christensen, and that's about all.
17. Where did you go senior skip day? We didn't really have one. We did have a big BBQ party at Ashley Pond though, I went to that
18. Were you in a club? German Club, we went on an exchange to Germany for 3 weeks. :) it was a lot of fun.
19. Have you gained some weight since then? Not really. Maybe like 5 lbs. I'm definitely less in shape though. No sports to keep me tip top condition.
20. Who was your prom date? Junior Year: I asked 6 different guys at least, and finally Alex Perez said yes. I think it was his first date. Senior Year: Will Forsyth, and I was on the Court! First and last time ever!
21. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Yeah, who plans those anyway? I've still got 5 more years though.
22. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself? Relax, you don't have to do everything.

Goo

A week or two ago, I made pumpkin bars. This was quite an involved process.

First I took a pumpkin from my garden (really the only one that didn't rot and was mostly orange). I cut it into wedges and scraped out the seeds to save for next years' pumpkin patch. Then I cut those wedges into three smaller pieces, and put them in baking pans sealed off w/ aluminum foil and baked them for an hour at 350. Then, when they were cooled a bit, I peeled off the skins (came off as easy as wrapping paper on Christmas morning!). Then, I put the chunks in the blender, but they didn't blend too well, so I got out our food processor and put them in a few pieces at a time from the blender. Once I had a bowl of pumpkin mush, I tried pushing the water out in a strainer, but the pumpkin liked going through the holes too. So I dug around for the cheese cloth and put the goo into the cheese cloth and sqwoze until it was sufficiently water-less. Then I put it in a measuring cup to see how much pumpkin I had (about 1 cup). Note the dishes dirty at this point: Blender, food processor, at least 2 bowls, strainer, a scraper and a few spoons, 2 baking pans, and a measuring cup.

By that time I was kinda sick of dealing with pumpkin, so those dishes stayed dirty for a few days. A few days later, I made delicious pumpkin bars w/ chocolate chips. Then a few days later I made cream cheese frosting to go on top. Then I brought them to Kevin and Chelsea's house and forgot them there for a few days. Today I have some of those delicious bars in my lunch. Who knew pumpkin could go so far? It's been like 2 weeks, and there are still some left.

Food

As some of you are aware, Food = Love. I have also found that food also = energy. And I got the great advice that fruit helps especially. So yesterday after work (did I mention I'm going to work again? I'll tell more in following paragraphs) I went to the sunflower market and bought 6 apples, 6 pears, 5 bananas, and a bag of grapes all for about $7. After that I went to Macey's and bought 2 boxes of Wheat Chex and 1 of Rice Chex, and a big bag of Rice Crispy's knock offs, and lots and lots of marshmallows. The idea was to make rice crispy treats, which I have been really wanting lately, but by the time I got home from work and grocery shopping I was exhausted.

So today for lunch I packed 2 pb&j sandwiches, a bunch of grapes, a banana, and some rosemary bread and olive oil and balsalmic vinegar. I feel fine when I'm eating, so I try to eat almost constantly. It's great fun.

Monday I worked 4 hours, I worked 5 yesterday, and the plan was to work 6 hours today, but I only got 4 in. Maybe by next week or so I'll be back up to full time.

Progress

Today I slept in til 12:30pm. Ok, so I oriiginally woke up around 7:30 or 8 like I usually do, kicked Dave out of bed, then slept on and off until 12:30. Today I also used up my last 4 hours of vacation time...but I made it in to work at 1:30 and stayed until 5:30. That's 4 whole hours at work! Good thing I have a desk job and all I really have to do is sit there. My task list is HUGE which is awesome, because I won't run out of things to do. Turns out though that the network was having problems, so I didn't have access to the drives I needed for a lot of my tasks. Figures. Time passed rather quickly though, and I even had two visitors: Dave brought me taco bell, and Chelsea brought me back my pirate chest and pumpkin bars (which I will post about).

I got home and I feel as though I had a full day at the office rather than a half day. Maybe tomorrow I can last longer with a nap in the middle. Too bad the couches from our previous office didn't make it over to our new place. Oh, and I've also developed a cough, so now I'm sharing my germs with the world. Anyone want some? ;)

Ps: I'm not bitter, I'm actually trying to make jokes...are they funny at all, or do they sound bitter? I'm trying out that philosophy of laughter's the best medicine.

Sarah FORCED me!

8 TV shows I've watched before

We don't have TV, Cable, or Dish, because neither of us are home often enough to make it worth it, and when we are home, we don't want to get distracted by the television, however, I do like several shows that you can watch online the day after it airs, or whenever:

1- Smallville

Sarah did kind of get me addicted to it. I can quit anytime I want to though!

2- Top Gear

Undeniably the BEST car TV show ever to be aired. (See Sarah's post for more details)

3- House

It has some humor mixed in there somewhere...I'm sure of it.

4- CSI

I could do without the potty language. (Do they have clearplay for TV shows?)

5- Law & Order

(See the above comment)

6- S.W.A.T.

1970's TV show about...well the creation and operation of the old school S.W.A.T. team.

That's all I can think of...sorry for yer luck.

8 Favorite Restaurants

Anyone who really knows me knows that I don't make these discisions very well. Hence I have very few favorites.

1- Asian Buffet

I really like eating. They have pretty good food that fills you.

2- Tucanos

Did I mention I really like food in great quanitities? Besides...meat is my all time favorite vegetable.

3- Carl's Jr.

Their Six Dollar burgers taste really good and actually fill me without having to spend a million dollars.

4- Brick Oven

Pasta, soup, salad...yeah...all you can eat baby!

5- Nicholitaia

Have you ever tried their large deepdish challenge? It's pretty gnarly! You have to eat this HUGE 9LB PIZZA in less than an hour. The pizzas cost around $15 but could feed a family of 4 for at least a week. IF you can do it, they'll let you have the pizza for free PLUS they'll give you a $32 gift certificate too.

6- Taco Bell

You know their $10 family meal? The one with any mix of 10 tacos or burritos? Yeah...that what I like...and all for 1 meal too.

7- Papa Murphey's

The Chicago Stuffed pizza goes for $13 in the family size. WOW!

8- Sarah's Kitchen

She doesn't cook for me very often big sob because she claims to be so busy, but when she cooks...OH MAN!!

So by reading this one would think I'm some big fat guy or something. Well...maybe... To all the fat people in the world...know that I could eat you under the table any day or night of the week.

8 Things that Happened Yesterday

1- I went to a training meeting
2- I went to another training meeting (potty training is kicking my butt...still working on it though)
3- Borrowed a friends Palm Pilot
4- Bought a few groceries for my sick wife
5- Took care of my sick wife
6- Cleaned up a bit
7- Had a hot date with my hot wife
8- Watched an episode of Smallville S2

8 Things I’m looking forward to

1- The day my wife can quit her job (June-ish)
2- When I have enough time to get my 1984 Jeep CJ7 street legal again
3- My Regional Vice President promotion (June-ish too)
4- Graduating (2033ish)
5- Buying a house
6- Getting a Husky/Malamute puppy
7- 2003 BMW M5 with the Dinan Signature 3 package (621HP, 502 ftlbs Trq, 0-60 in 3.3 sec etc)
8- Serving a senior couple mission

8 Things on my Wish List

1- 2003 BMW M5 with the Dinan Signature 3 package (See above for more details or visithere)
2- 5.1 Surround Sound Clear Play DVD player
3- Furniture Traditions 13 piece pier group bedroom set
4- Trek Session 10 Mtn Bike
5- Honest, ambitious, self motivated people with leadership skills who want to come work for me


8 Things I Love

1- Sarah
2- BMWs
3- Sarah
4- Old Jeeps
5- Mtn Biking
6- Street...errr....Racing
7- The great outdoors
8- Guns

8 Things I Can’t Stand

1- Know it alls
2- Condescending pieces of poop
3- Negative people
4- Stupid people
5- Dishonesty
6- Control freaks
7- 24hrs that feel more like 14hrs
8- Vegetables

8 People I’m Tagging
You MUST do this!

1- Dawn Freeland
2- Logan Tanner
3- Yeah...I don't really know many people who blog...

Blogging

Since I'm confining myself to bed this weekend in order to hopefully feel well enough for work on Monday, I may be blogging more often than usual. That means you may get to hear random thoughts from me more often.

Today for breakfast I had honey nut cheerios. But for lunch, I've discovered something delicious. Rummaging through the fridge I found string cheese. Then, my all time favorite for sore throats is popsicles. Voila! Cheese and grape popsicles (the real fruit kind) are delicious together!

More thoughts about Mono

I had so many more things to write about mono, but somehow, I got tired or something and forgot. I think it's rather ironic that my freshman year in high school all my friends got mono because we'd buy a 3 liter mountain dew and share it at lunch time or topper time or whatever time it was. Of course freshman year of high school is the optimal time to miss a month of school because at that age THAT'S AWESOME! However, now, I'm done with school, and I have to work to pay bills, and this week I used up all my sick hours, so if I am to miss any more work, it'll cut into my vacation hours, and after that, they go to unpaid hours. Now that would not be "AWESOME". See the irony?

Anyway, I think it's also making me loopy. Or that could be the anti-inflamitories and extra strength tylenol I'm taking. Either way, here's Dave's philosophy on the disease: "If two people have mono, do they call it stereo?"

Sickness

Wednesday I got a sore throat at night, and it worsened Thursday, so I stayed home from work Thursday and Friday (today). I went to the doctor today because usually when a sore throat doesn't get better after a day or so, it usually turns into tonsilitis or something. So I went and told them my sypmtoms.

First they tested for strep. Negative, then they tested for mono...guess what. I have mono. Joy of all joys. So I can't do anything strenuous for the next 8 weeks.

Recipe

Ranch Dressing
Goldfish crackers
Chicken (strips, fingers, nugget size, or cut into strips or nuggets)

Preheat oven to 425. Line a baking pan (size depends on amount cooked) w/ aluminum foil and spray with no-stick cooking spray.
Put Ranch Dressing and crushed Goldfish crackers into two seperate bowls. Coat pieces of chicken in ranch, then goldfish crumbs.
Bake at 425 for 10-15 min or until cooked through.

Chelsea Made Me Do It...

1. 8 TV shows I watch

We don't have TV, Cable, or Dish, because neither of us are home often enough to make it worth it, and when we are home, we don't want to get distracted by the television, however, I do like several shows that you can watch online the day after it airs, or whenever:

1. Chuck
• About a nerd that has all the government secrets in his head, and so has two agents in his life to protect him, and go after any bad guys he sees. Quite hillarious
2. Pushing Daisies
• About a guy who can raise the dead for a minute, and does so to solve murders. Very artistic cinemetography and is narrated by the guy who reads Harry Potter for Book on Tape.
3. Life on Mars
• About a police detective that gets hit by a car and gets sent back to 1973. Just started watching it, but so far so good. Some liberal hippy stuff in it.
4. The Office
• Classic funny awesome
5. House
• I love the mystery of each disease, but they lose me when they use medical terms.
6. Smallville
• I got Dave addicted to it, so we're watching Season 1, which I have on DVD, and then Netflix will be our best friend for the following Seasons.
7. Friends
• Have you seen the one where...
8. Top Gear
• Funny British car show. Don't have to know anything about cars for it to still be funny, especially when they have special challenges. Seeing how I have Erik for a brother and Dave for a husband, I know a bit about cars. Top gear just enhances that
9. Scrubs
• Oh whoops, I was supposed to just do 8.


2. 8 Favorite Restaurants

My favorites are fad-like in nature, as are my food choices for home eating.

1. Cafe Rio - Pork burrito, black beans, hot sauce, enchilada style
2. Taco Bell - nachos, steak gordita supreme, tostada, carmel apple empenada, steak quesadilla
3. Carl's Jr. - Fish Sandwich w/ Mayo instead of Tartar Sauce
4. Olive Garden - Their salad is amazing, as well as their breadsticks, not economically worth it w/o an entree though
5. Asian Buffet - cheap sushi and a selection of ok chinese dishes
6. Applebees - their appetizers are half off after 9
7. Tucanos - The garlic steak or whatever is delicious, as well as those little cheese bread dots
8. Chili Works - does that count as a restaurant? Sausage red cheese


3. 8 Things that Happened Yesterday

Happened implies that they autonomously did it on their own, but not much of that nature occured yesterday; most of it I facilitated.

1. I went to work, almost on time yay for DST
2. Staff Meeting at 11, gets me through my Monday
3. I drove home after work, and it was dark! darn DST and rain clouds
4. I cooked dinner!!!, not an regular occurance (see next post for easy recipe)
5. I did two loads of laundry, lights and darks
6. I did a load of dishes, loaded and pushed the start button, I heart dishwashers
7. We watched an episode of Smallville
8. We went to bed early, but kept awake late by the upstairs dog jumping on and off their bed: "squeek, thump thump thump, squeek, etc."


4. 8 Things I’m looking forward to

Some near future, some more distant

1. Finding out who is president
2. Thanksgiving - esp. food (only 23 more days!)
3. YW tonight, we're having an ettiquete night, I get to show off my awesome dishes
4. Living somewhere cheaper and closer
5. Not having to work all day every day
6. Taking clogging again next semester
7. Living outside of Utah
8. 2 words: Pink Cadillac


5. 8 Things on my Wish List

n.b: My birthday is in September, and Christmas is approaching quickly ;)

• A dog
• More cute shoes: Black boots, Galoshes, brown church shoes, more pumas, etc.
• More Time/Day
• Klimt paintings (prints would do, I'm not sure the actual paintings are for sale, preferably sans nudity)
• Next year's wall calendar
• Books: The next Fabelhaven book (#3, paperback), the Eragon trilogy box set (hard cover), Harry Potter Box set (hard cover)
• Tongs
• A 3 week trip to Vienna


6. 8 Things I Love
1. Dave
2. Summer
3. Vienna
4. German
5. Blue
6. My Cinnamint lip gloss from B&BWorks
7. Shoes
8. Down comforters


7. 8 Things I Can’t Stand
1. Clutter/Junk
2. SPIDERS
3. un glazed ceramic (must be glossy or hibijibis ensue)
4. A dirty kitchen
5. Hardwood floors upstairs
6. Licorice
7. Slow people in the fast lane, esp if I'm in the BMW. In the honda I don't notice that much, cuz I stay in the slow lane because I'm slow, imagine that!
8. Slow days at work


8. 8 People I’m Tagging

You MUST do this!

• Dave (yes you, Dave, you never post anything!)
• Tess
• Melisa (when you get time, no pressure)
• Danielle
• Candace
• Lisa (maybe you'll actually post something for a change) ;)
• Carrie
• Brianne
• Anyone else who made it to the bottom of this long list of 8's

Update

We withdrew our offer on the house. Although it was a cute little house with an amazing yard, we changed our minds. Dave knows more of the specifics, but the inspector we had look at it told us that it would be a lot more work than we had originally thought. We also found out that the basement wouldn't ever be able to be legally rented out. The ceilings were too short.

Our ward is really happy that we're not leaving yet, though. Everyone was much more excited when we told them we weren't moving than when we told them that we were moving. Imagine that?! They actually like us! My beehives were all really excited. They're so cute. Honestly, I was really not looking forward to leaving them. They're my little buddies in the ward.

Our rental contract is up at the end of the year, so we will be moving then, if we can't sell our contract earlier. Two months is a lot more doable than two days when it comes to packing. We've started packing things we don't use very often, like books, and random stuff.

One of these days I hope to find the cord to my camera. I have so many fun pictures to share! Until then, I suppose I will just have to describe all the cool things that happen.

In October we found two huge black widows in our house. I think they were just trying to celebrate Halloween, so we threw a stompin' party for them! Actually, one of them Dave tried to kill with a stick of some sort, but it didn't die, so he picked it up w/ pliars, and dunked it in the toilet. It curled up like it was dead, but I knew better, so we poured some bleach in the water, and then it really was dead. Dave's mom is collecting bugs for a bug collection at her elementary school, so we put it in an empty prescription bottle to take to her. I looked at it a few days later and noticed that the bleach was kinda dissolving it, so I told Dave. A few days later, I was packing up the books in the bookshelf that the pill bottle was stored in. I happened to knock the bottle over, and to my surprise, the bottle was inverted and cap-less, so I was staring nose to nose with a giant black widow! I may or may not have jumped a tiny bit.

For Halloween I dressed up as a lady bug and Dave dressed up as the 7 dwarves' long lost brother "Boring". Aka: he didn't have a costume, but claimed he did. It was a fun weekend. We watched Hokus Pokus on Halloween at Nate and Jodee's house, and I got to hold little baby savage. Chelsea made delicious carrot cookies, for which I think she should make the recipe public knowledge. On Saturday I read Fabelhaven basically the whole day (the second half of the first book and the whole second book). It's a cute fantasy book, definitely a good easy read. I would have read the second book faster, but I was listening to the game while reading, so I got a little distracted every once in a while.

News

No, I'm not pregnant.

About a month ago, we decided we were going to move closer to campus because a) I work there, and b) Dave goes to school and works there. Living in north Orem hasn't been the best on our gas budget. We tried doing the bus thing for a while, but taking two hours to get to work wasn't the most ideal. Moral of the story: we were looking for a place to move.

Dave couldn't sleep on Monday, so he was surfing the web for a place to live. He found an apartment in a house, drove by the next day, saw the house was for sale, and started looking into THAT option.

To make this week's long story short. We decided Monday to buy and rent out the basement. We looked at multiple houses throughout the week. We found a house in west Provo, looked at it, got pre qualified, and made an offer. Today our offer was accepted. If all goes well with the financing, we will shortly be home owners!

Photo Tag from Rachel

Here is a fun & easy photo tag. Here are the rules: just go to your picture file, open the 6th folder, and the 6th picture! Then post it and tag 5 friends.

I'm on my work computer and my laptop has issues currently, so I just went to my facebook and picked the 6th album and 6th picture. (I wasn't sure if I was supposed to go from the oldest to newest or vice versa, so I did the more current one, the other direction wasn't anything interesting)

This one, however, is quite funny. This is us after cutting cake at the WR reception. I was observing all the frosting and crumbs that accumilated in my awesome acrylic nails. Who knows what Dave is thinking. "Wow, it's quite tastey!" is probably close.

Tag: Chelsea, Brianne, Danielle, Tess, Melisa

Visiting Family

Last weekend was my Aunt R's recital. My Uncle K and Aunt E came into town for the recital. At the post recital get-together we discussed doing something as a whole extended family for the weekend. So I got ahold of all the extended family in the area I could think of and thus ensued a large Sunday dinner. Uncle K and Aunt E came over and cooked delicious Chinese food and Dave and I got to give our beautiful table its maiden voyage. We got this beautiful 4'x4' round solid oak table w/ two 2' leaves for one of our wedding gifts. It just needed to be re-finished. (I'd post before and after pictures of the table, but I haven't found my cord to my camera yet...beware, when I do, there will be lots of photos posted.) So we put the leaves in the table, covered it with our one table cloth, and I got out the beautiful dishes that Aleza made for us (THANK YOU ALEZA!). What I failed to consider was that the large table also came with large chairs which wouldn't allow for 13 people to sit around the table. It wasn't as big of a deal as I'm making it sound, but I just wanted to accentuate that there were 13 people at our house on Sunday for dinner. It was a fun dinner, not to mention DELICOUS. Yes, be jealous.

This weekend my parents are coming in town. I will be going to Park City Friday and Saturday for a Mary Kay national area conference. I'm hoping to be back in Provo for the BYU vs. UNM Homecoming football game, which my parents have bought us tickets for! FOOTBALL! Besides that, I'm not sure what the 'rents have planned for their trip, but I'm sure some fun fam adventures are on their way.

I brake for red lights

The other day I had to run an errand on campus. I believe I was buying sticky notes and pens. I was driving along 9th East when the light at 9th North turned red. Being a law abiding citizen, I stopped for the red light. Being a complete ditz, I looked both ways, and continued on my way. Halfway through the intersection I realized in horror that the light was still red! I looked around and everyone at the light had a "what is she doing" look on their faces which probably matched my own "What am I doing" face. I figured I was halfway through, I might as well finish it off. So I just kept on going. I later told Dave about it after which he threatened to take my car keys away.

On Friday we had an interview for a "position" in an apartment complex. If we get it we will manage (collect rent, fix small maintenance stuff, advertize openings, etc) the 39 units in the complex. It will only be $100/month in rent plus utilities. It is in Provo so we would save money on gas too. On the way to our interview we stopped at a car place so Dave could ask intelligent questions about cars. As we pulled out onto State Street again we hit a red light at D.I. Dave stopped, and when the pedestrians were done crossing, he went, as I exclaimed "Dave...Dave...red...Dave...it's still red." He made the exact same mistake that I did. He kindly pointed out that he would have gotten 2 tickets if caught because he was on his phone: one for distracted driving. I wondered aloud if the cop would have been able to tell that I was mentally distracted without the cell phone prop.

Name Game

So you know how if you say a word often enough it starts sounding odd? Well on Tuesday, as I walked to the church for YW, I did this with my name. No I didn't walk down the street saying my name over and over and over and over, it was in my head. It is a very common name, and I've always thought of it as such, as well as plain and tall, and not as princess-y as it should. As I was saying it over and over to myself, I began to notice how odd it sounded (as is what happens) and started to wonder what it sounds like to other people, whether they've known me for a very long time, or as I introduce myself to them. Just a few thoughts I had walking down the street.

September - The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love September. It is probably my favorite month of the year. Here's why:

1. It's Birthday Month! Mine, of course, and it seems like a lot of other people have birthdays in September as well. I can think of 10 off the top of my head.
2. The weather is just right. (In the Rockies at least...poor Texas.) "It's not too hot, and not too cold, all you need is a light jacket." (name that movie?) It also isn't super windy like Spring time.
3. BYU FOOTBALL! Ok, so football season only starts in September, and goes til November and sometimes December, but it's still there! I listened to the game against UCLA today on the radio, and did my costco run at halftime. It was great! (59-0) I even wore my $5 football shirt: "The Quest"
4. Food. For me at least this year, my little garden is finally beginning to produce. I will have cucumbers galore, hopefully some tomatoes will turn red before it freezes, I found a pumpkin about the size of my head hidden in the middle of the patch, the lettuce is almost ready to be picked, I picked a whole 3 pods of peas from the plants that survived, and my carrots are starting to get bigger. Not to mention the random assortment of gourds that are growing.
5. School starts. Ok, so I'm not in school this semester, which is exciting, but when I was in school, I enjoyed the first month of a class a lot before I got bogged down with procrastinated homework.
6. The colors. The fall colors start to show in September all over the mountains. Bright red, orange, greens and golds (go toppers!).

What is your favorite thing about September?

Labor Day/1st Day of School

Yesterday was officially my first paid holiday. Granted, I got off early for graduation in August, but that was only 2 1/2 hours of paid time off. Yesterday I got to spend the whole day doing whatever I wanted, and I got paid for it! I started off by sleeping in until 10. Well, I slept until 8 or so, then just laid in bed until 10. Then I got up, poured myself some grape nuts, and watched Notting Hill until 12:30. After my oh-so-productive morning, I washed 4 loads of laundry, cleaned the bathroom counter/sinks and mirror, changed the fish water, moved the fish to the kitchen window sill (nestled among the leaves of a plant, so it's like it has its own jungle river niche!), and changed the bedsheets.

Today, however, I had to go to work again. Wo is me. Today was also the first day of school for Dave...but not for me. Usually at this time of the year I start having anxiety dreams about starting school. Not that I'm scared, it's just an exciting/stressful event. This is the first September since I was 4 years old that I haven't had school. One would think that the dreams would cease. Alas, they still come. I dream constantly that I actually DID sign up for a class, and I go and various odd things happen, as they tend to do in dreams. This morning, I woke up at 5:00am and couldn't go back to sleep until 6:00am. My alarm was set for 6:30am. In that half-hour early morning nap I had yet another dream. It wasn't about me starting school, but school starting was still present in that dream. Maybe I'm just nervous for Dave to be starting school. Best of luck to him and everyone else beginning the Fall 2008 semester.

Books from Chelsea

Chelsea put this in her blog, and I realized I had read quite a few of the books on the list, and so I decided to do this fun little thing about me:

The rules:

1. Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2. Italicize those you intend to read.
3. Star the books you LOVE.
4. Underline books you claimed to have read, but really just listened to your class discussions/oral reports
5. Books you started but didn't love and didn't finish = ^
6. "I've only seen the movie" = #

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen #
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling *
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien *
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald *
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams *
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky *
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens *
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (why is this separate from #33?)
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
45. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
46. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
47. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
48. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
49. Atonement - Ian McEwan
50. Dune - Frank Herbert
51. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
52. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen #
53. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
54. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
55. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
56. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
57. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
58. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
59. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
60. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
61. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
62. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
63. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas #
64. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
65. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
66. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding #
67. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
68. Moby Dick - Herman Melville #
69. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
70. Dracula - Bram Stoker
71. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett #
72. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
73. Ulysses - James Joyce
74. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
75. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
76. Germinal - Emile Zola
77. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray #
78. Possession - AS Byatt
79. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens #
80. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
81. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
82. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
83. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
84. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
85. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
86. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
87. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle *# (not all of them...)
88. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
89. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
90. The Little Prince- Antoine De Saint-Exupery
91. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
92. Watership Down - Richard Adams
93. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
94. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
95. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
96. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
97. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl #
98. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Turns out I'm the opposite of Chelsea, when I start a book, I finish it. Even Charles Dickens!!! I can only think of two books that I've started but not finished, and they're not even on this list. Anyway, this was fun, I hope it wasn't too boring for readers.

New Job!

I applied for a new position at BYU I.S. and starting Monday I am the Course Maintenance and Product Testing Supervisor. I'm pretty excited about it. For one thing I was getting a little bit burned out about my current job. For another thing, I only had until mid-October to find a new job, or my "temporary staff" status would expire. Probably the best thing is instead of making $xx.xx/hr, I'll be making $xx,xxx/year, plus benefits!

I start on Monday, and Becky, the current C.M.&P.T. Supervisor will be training me. I also have to go to the employment office to get paperwork filled out and set up a time to talk about how the benefits work and everything. I've never had a "real" job, so I'm nervous and excited all at the same time! I'm excited to learn more about how I.S. works, and to be doing something different than what I have been doing for 2 years. It's something new.

Lazy bum whoopla

I've been in a funk lately where I don't feel like doing anything, and I'm always tired. I decided to fix that.

First of all, I decided that a constant bedtime would be logical, as well as a constant wake up time. So this month, it's my goal to go to bed at 10:00pm every night and get up at 6:00am every morning. Yes, that means Saturdays and Sundays too. Although I might allow myself 7:00am on those mornings. Hopefully this will help my productivity level. It is also said that people that have a regular sleeping pattern are less tired throughout the day. I could definitely use that.

Last night I think we made it to bed at 10:30. So close... But I couldn't go to sleep until about midnight. Amongst the crickets having a hay day outside the window, the dog running around upstairs, the TV on upstairs, and not being used to going to bed earlier, I couldn't sleep.

Another thing missing in my life is exercise. Every day I walk to either the car or the bus, and then from the car or bus to work, where I sit on my tush all day at a computer. I thought about my options:

• get up at 5:00am to run
• run in the evening after getting home from work
• go to the gym on the way to or from work
• ride my bike the 11.2 miles to work

I picked the last option. Well, sort of. I decided that I could ride the 7 miles 90% downhill to BYU, and I would catch the bus from there. So we left the house at 7:05. It was pretty windy because of the impending thunderstorms, and only when it was uphill ironically. Dave would push me slightly up the hills to lift the burden a little bit. My favorite part was going down the diagonal hill. When we got to the intersection of Avenue and Parkway some girl had just hit a pedestrian girl with her car! The girl wasn't severely hurt, just limping a little bit, and the other girl drove her to the medical center. It added a little bit of excitement to the ride. By the time we got to campus, my bus had for sure already come and gone and it only comes once an hour. So I decided to keep riding until the next bus came, if it took that long. Turns out it didn't take that long. Dave came with me all the way out to work. It was a fun bike ride, but I am definitely going to be sore after an hour and ten minutes of bike riding. 11.2 miles in an hour and 10 minutes turns out to be about average of about 9.65 miles per hour (so my coworker informed me).

A post...

So this is me officially posting something on our blog. Isn't it gweat?

So I hereby officially declare before one and all that I usurp the authority to edit what Sarah writes if I don't like it. :)

Oh yeah...I even posted a picture! :-D (Just incase you didn't know...this is a 2007 BMW M5. It's even has very efficient gas mileage for having a 500 bhp engine).

Gas Rumors

I've heard the rumor that semi trucks are skimping on the refridgeration in their trucks in order to save on gas. In connection, I've also heard that people are having food go bad before the expiration date. ("I came back as a bag of groceries Accidently taken off the shelf Before the date stamped on myself..."?)

I don't know if these rumors are true, but yesterday I made macaroni and cheese in our gourmet kitchen with tools all over the floor. I cooked the noodles and drained them. I added the margerine and the cheese and stirred. I took the milk out of the fridge, and yes, it had gone bad. After I dumped it down the drain, I found out that our upstairs neighbors didn't have any milk either. Time to compromise. I added my secret ingredient and enjoyed half of the box of mac-ee-moni-and-cees. Dave came home and ate the rest not knowing about the lack of milk and the secret ingredient and agreed that it tasted...like macaroni and cheese.

I bet everyone is dying to find out what my secret ingredient is. I put in some whipped cream from a can in instead of milk! But now that I've told you, I'll have to kill you

My Turn

As you can see, Dave is officially one of the "contributers" to this blog, but he never writes. Therefore I reserve the right to write whatever I want. Every once in a while, when I get tagged for something and I want to do it, I will. :) Of course I'll try to keep the majority of posts about our life together.

The rules:

1. List three items in each category
2. Tag three other people you would like to hear from
3. Get to know your friends and family

Joys

1. Coming home and seeing Dave at the end of the day
2. Having a working kitchen sink (the water comes out the faucet and goes down the drain!)
3. Playing with my Mary Kay makeup

Fears

1. Death of someone close to me (hasn't happened yet, and I know it's bound to, so I always get terrified when people do stupid reckless stuff)
2. Spiders, Spiders, Spiders, and more Spiders. Even the dead ones. Thank goodness for spider spray from Home Depot, and a good vacuum!
3. Cops - they give me the hibijibis

Goals

1. Near Future: Get a better job, build my Mary Kay business, and get a mutt puppy from the pound
2. Future: Get a house, get Dave through school, move out of Utah, have kids and speak German to them, and live in a German-speaking country for a year or more
3. Distant Future: Travel the world

Collections/Obsessions

1. I buy a porcelain doll every time I go to Germany/Austria (So far I have two...)
2. The color blue. I am almost ALWAYS wearing something blue, and if I were to pick between two of the same thing and one was blue in color, I'd pick that one.
3. I have a very small collection of books that I'm working on enlarging. Whenever I would fly to Lake Tahoe, I'd buy one in the airport, read it on the plane, and on the beach.

Facts

1. I use my upper lip to plug my nose as I swim.
2. I'm allergic to avocados and cantaloupe.
3. I can whistle two notes at the same time

Tags

1. Brianne
2. Julie
3. Tracy

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

As mentioned in previous blogs, when we moved into our basement apartment in mid-May, we got rent off in order to put in a kitchen. Good news! It's almost done!

Dave is finishing up laying the tile currently, which will be grout-ed, sealed, and then all that needs to be done is putting the appliances in! Yes, it sounds like a lot, but just imagine a room without correct wiring, plumbing, and half the drywall off, and you'll see it in our perspective.

This near-completion means several things:

1. We'll have a kitchen!
2. No more simple microwave/skillet/toaster meals. (significantly fewer of them at least...)
3. We can finally finish unpacking, and get our house in order.
4. The sink will be hooked up, so we can use our washing mashine without it flooding the kitchen when it drains.
5. Before and after pictures are almost ready
6. PARTY TIME!

Yep, we're having a party on Friday to celebrate. So if you want to come, let me know, and I'll tell you where we live.

I also applied for another full time position at I.S. So we're both hoping that I get that. It's called Course Maintenance and Product Testing Supervisor. It doesn't pay as well as the one that I applied for before and...didn't get. But, it definitely pays better than my "temporary staff" position, even though I got a $1 raise the other week. Another good thing, is that it would have benifits. BYU takes good care of its employees. Which, I hope includes dental, because I'm pretty sure I have more cavities. :(

Budgeting

The other week, I looked over our expenses. I went through all our accounts and added everything up in categories. #1 most expensive was rent, of course. #2 most expensive, I'm sure will not come as a surprise in this economy, was gas. We spent more than $400 on gas in the month of June. That equal about a tank a week or more. I work out near Springville and Dave works at BYU in the RB as well as all over the place for his other two jobs. Seeing how we live in North Orem (WAY north), we knew we would be spending a little more on commuting. Last month, Dave would ride his bike to work, and I would drive the car to work (I think I'd die if I tried to ride my bike that far...). After work, I would pick up Dave from the RB and we'd put the bike on the bike rack on the car. Apparently, this was a lot more driving than we expected.

In order to be more frugal, I bought a bus pass for $30 that is good until September 15 through BYU, even though I graduated already. :) Dave rides his bike every day to and from work. It takes me a little over an hour to get from North Orem to Springville, which used to take me 15-20 min via freeway. It takes Dave about 25 minutes to ride to work, and 35-40 to ride home. He also got a bus pass in case he can't ride his bike for some reason.

This morning, I had flashbacks of seminary days as I dazedly showered as fast as possible at 5:45ish and cooked breakfast in the toaster as I ran from room to room getting ready. Two thoughts ran through my head: "How on Earth did I do this every morning throughout high school even earlier than this!?" and "Well, if I survived seminary, I can do this too...if I get to bed earlier..." Dave was also up to turn on the sprinklers and help me. Hopefully we'll save $400 or so this month by not driving unless necessary. We'll see.

Husband Tag Stolen

So I wasn't technically tagged for this, but I've wanted to fill it out since I saw it in January...but I didn't have a husband then... so here goes.

• What is his name? Dave
• How long have you been married? 2 1/2 months!
• How long did you date? a little less than 11 months, including 5 months of engagement
• How old is he? 25
• Who eats more? if it were a competition, he'd blow me out of the water. Just daily eating he eats about 3x as much as me.
• Who said "I love you" first? me, I think. we talked about the possibility for like a week, and then I finally said it.
• Who is taller? Dave, by 6", we're going to have really tall kids...
• Who sings better? I like singing better, but we both are probably the same level of competency.
• Who is smarter? depends on the subject.
• Whose temper is worse? I think we're probably about the same, but I can get pretty grumpy sometimes.
• Who does the laundry? Usually me, but if I don't do it in time, he'll throw a load or two in if necessary.
• Who does the dishes? We're technically taking turns week for week or so. But we have to currently wash them in the bathroom, so we both hate it equally. We'll see what it's like when the kitchen is finished (with a dishwasher!!!)
• Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I sleep on the right side if you're standing at the foot looking at it.
• Who pays the bills? We both work and whoever has money in their account pays the bills. One of these days we'll become more organized...
• Who mows the lawn? The neighbor girl that wants to do service.
• Who cooks dinner? Me when I feel like it. Otherwise it's kinda "fend for yourself" for now. When the kitchen is done, we'll possibly take turns...don't know for sure yet.
• Who drives when you are together? Me when I'm picking Dave up, otherwise Dave.
• Who is more stubborn? We're both VERY stubborn. It's kinda like the pot and kettle. We're both black.
• Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Neither of us are ever wrong, and nothing is ever our fault either.
• Whose parents do you see the most? Dave's. They live here. We eat Sunday dinner at their house.
• Who proposed? Dave, duh.
• Who has more friends? As evidenced on Facebook...me, but I count all my acquaintances too.
• Who has more siblings? Same. I have one sister and three brothers. Dave has one brother and three sisters.
• Who wears the pants in the family? Dave. He's very manly. Oh but I wish we could both be "forever in blue jeans"

I tag Brianne, Carrie, and Tess (when y'all get married...)

Goings on

Whoops, I got caught up in reading others' posts, and haven't gotten a chance to update ours.
Since our honeymoon (see latest post) we began real life:
First of all, the place we were planning on living this summer fell through because Kevin and Chelsea were not able to go to China as they planned because of Visa problems. (not credit card Visa, the passport kind of visa). So our first week back we spent most evenings house hunting. We wanted a place with a yard, a pet tolerance, and hopefully one that we could work off rent by improving the property. We found such a place. It is a lot further away than we were hoping, a bit more expensive than we should afford, and a bit larger than we need. We are living in a basement of a house. There are TONS of improvements to be made, and a rather large yard. The first major improvement that is underway is the installment of the kitchen. We got our first month's rent free in order to put in the kitchen. That was May. In one of these posts, I will put up before and after pictures of the place, but I have to wait until there is an "after." So for the past two months we have been living off of a fridge, a microwave, and a skillet. We have graduated a little bit when we bought a toaster, and plugged in the stove in the unfinished kitchen. Now when I say unfinished, I mean, we moved in and there was a room with some plumbing, and some wiring (which all had to be redone) finished. It now has dry wall up and it has been mudded, textured, and as of yesterday, a layer of primer. Now all that needs to be done is paint, install cupboards, counters, and tile.
Yesterday I (Sarah) spent several hot and sweaty hours out in the yard attacking the weeds that have set up camp in our yard. This property has been a rental for many many many years and looks like it. I spent two hours digging out Rhubarb type weeds out of the middle of the lawn. Then I attacked the rose bush that looked like it belonged around sleeping beauty's castle (I hope it doesn't die, I hacked it down quite a bit), and then I pruned the large tree in the front yard so that the house is more visible from the street. Dave has been trying to get the lawn watered daily. There is a sprinkler system in, but it's not automated, and baboons must have set it up (yet another project).
We put in a 9'x13' vegetable garden in the back yard, and I planted gourds, pumpkins, cucumbers, and two types of peas. Now I need to plant the carrots and lettuce. A few days ago the gourds, pumpkins, and cucumbers popped their little leaves out of the ground. Now I need to build a fence to keep the upstairs neighbors' dog out. Does anyone have any ideas of how to train a dog to poop in a different part of the yard?
As far as work goes, I am still working at BYU Independent Study as a web editor. I applied for a different position, which would have been the supervisor of the web editors, and an assistant to my current supervisor. Alas, it was given to a co-worker instead of me. Now I am just waiting for other full time people to leave, so I can apply for their positions. (There are two more leaving this summer for grad school, and one in November because she's having a baby). So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm currently on "temporary staff" status because I graduated, and am no longer a student. Therefore, I can only work in a "student" position for 6 months, or 910 hours, whichever comes first.
Dave is still working for BYU as well as a computer support person. He also got a promotion to Director of Client Relations in another tech support business he works for. He will get his current wage for the current companies using this particular tech support business, but he will also get paid to promote the business, and will get a higher wage at those companies that he brings to the tech support business. We're both excited about that. Meanwhile he also plugs along with Primerica. He got a good recruit the other day that looks to be one that will stick around, work, and do well.
Besides getting by without a kitchen and without much money, not too much exciting is happening. We are going to Lake Tahoe next week, for the annual family trip to Lake Tahoe. It'll be a week of water skiing, hiking, playing on the beach, hanging out with extended family, and eating good food for free! Plus, it's the 4th of July weekend, which means patriotic as well as birthday celebrations. We're pretty excited!

Honeymoon - Mexico

So Dave planned the honeymoon all on his own and kept it a secret until after graduation. We went to a resort on the beach in Rosarito, Mexico, just south of Tijuana. It was quite the experience. We flew from Albuquerque to San Diego, where we rented a car and drove to Rosarito. If you have never experienced the driving in Mexico, I wouldn't recommend it. Shoot, I wouldn't recommend it even if you HAVE already experienced it. We almost got side swiped 3 times, the road signs are impossible to follow, and it's basically terrifying.

We have a time share with Worldmark by Wyndham that allots us 6000 points a year to use throughout North America or to exchange for anywhere in the world through RCI. Basically it's a really cool timeshare. So we used some of our points for this year for our honeymoon. We stayed in a 2 bedroom condo at a resort on the beach. Most of the time we were there it was overcast and a little chilly, so we spent half the day watching TV. It was so relaxing! After all the stress of planning a wedding and graduation, it was the perfect week. The one day that it was sunny, we went out and enjoyed the sun, maybe a little too much. We were both sunburned to the gills. I was still peeling a month later.

We did all sorts of fun things on the beach. Our first day we rode horses for $10 each for half an hour. The horses even galloped! We were well prepared with our shorts and flip flops. We both had scrapes on the insides of our legs and dave's flip flops fell out of the saddle where he had tucked them, and we had to go searching for one. But it was well worth it.

We would also look at the tide pools in the rocks every day, hoping for new creatures. We saw plenty of sea anenomes, and even a tennis shoe! No hermit crabs or starfish though. There was an abandoned, beached boat on the beach that was pretty interesting. Every time we passed it, one of us had to say, "Here I am!" and the other had to reply, "There you are!" Hillarious, right?

Here I am!

There you are!

We found a rock on the beach, and thought it was an excellent perch, so we decided to do the karate kid pose on it.

Ironically, I don't think either of us has seen that movie. That just tells how much it is engrained into our culture. "Ahhh, yes, young grasshopper. Wax on, Wax off."

Wedding

• Who: Dave and Sarah
• When: May 2, 2008
• Where: Albuquerque, NM
• Why: Twuuue Love

coming out of the temple

classic fountain pose

bouquets by Sarah

bride with bridesmaids

groom with groomsmen

the happy couple

Background

Dave:

Dave was born in Germany and lived there until he was 9. He then moved to the Salt Lake area until he was 16, and then to Provo with a 2 year mission to Denmark. He is studying Electrical Engineering at BYU and has about 3 years left. Meanwhile he works as a technical support/IT services/system administration person at several places.

Sarah:

Sarah was born and raised in Los Alamos, New Mexico. She came out to Provo to attend BYU and graduated recently with a degree in German Linguistics (see post about graduation, to appear, for a few pictures). She works currently for BYU Independent Study Production as a Web Editor, but is applying for a more permanent position there this summer. I'm sure you'll hear about it if she gets the job! She also just began her own Mary Kay business (shameless plug: If anyone needs product or wants to host a party or pampering session, please let her know: sarah.franz@marykay.com)

Our Story:

We met, believe it or not, at the eggs section in Smith's. Dave's incredible pickup line: "gettin' eggs, eh?" After that fateful evening, we were pretty much inseparable as far as BYU Honor Code would allow. That was June 11, 2007. We dated for about 6 1/2 months and Dave proposed on Christmas eve morning after we watched the sunrise in 11 degree Fahrenheit weather at Overlook park in White Rock, New Mexico. It was very romantic. The local sewage plant was even kind enough to have the waterfall turned on.

We were married on May 2, 2008 in the Albuquerque, New Mexico temple with a reception in White Rock on the 3rd and one in Provo on the 10th. We've made it a month and a day quite happily.

Stay tuned for more fun stories

Blog Time!

Welcome to Dave & Sarah; Life of. Weird title, huh? We'll see if it sticks. We hope that our blog will be entertaining to all that read it. I (Sarah, who will be doing most of the blogging most likely) intend to include the funny, scary, sad, happy, and mediocre stories, so be officially warned.

Apparently blogging is the "married people" thing to do. Yes, we are going with the flow, taking the more traveled path, jumping off the bridge with everyone else, riding the band wagon, and blogging. Unfortunately we were terribly busy during the whole engagement and wedding time, so the subsequent posts are belated. Also, I would love to include images, videos, etc.

Enjoy! :)