camping gear

chris and i were so excited when we got home from boise yesterday because we found a big suprise in our living room-- CAMPING GEAR! my dad had put together a little care package for chris and me and sent it up to provo with my grandparents. we were so happy to find two sleeping bags that can zip together, two matching sleeping pads, a lantern, a knife set, a tent, and a cooler! now we can head out for the weekend and go camping. it is the perfect get away and we can't wait until chris takes his MCAT so we can hit the road and explore some neat camping sites. thanks so much dad we really love all of it!

boise temple

the temple in boise idaho is so pretty. the grounds are fairly small but they were beautiful with tulips and blossoming trees everywhere. chris and i along with some of our friends from provo {brandon, becca, craig, angelie} had a fun time taking pictures of the temple and grounds while we waited for quinn and lex {BROWN!} to come out of the temple on saturday afternoon.

hawaiian wedding

april 28, 2006: quinn brown and lex smith were married for time and all eternity in the boise idaho LDS temple. CONGRATS GUYS~ the ceremony was very nice {performed by the temple president} and they looked so happy and lex was absolutely stunning in her dress complete with pink sash. the reception was a luau and we were able to eat lots of good hawaiian food {think roasted pig, teriyaki beef, salads, pineapple, rice, yummy punch and cake} and watch several dances from the different island cultures. lex learned a dance for quinn and performed it. she did a great job. they took a few days to go to midway for their honeymoon. we're so happy for them and wish them all the best of luck!

forcast: sunny skies, freezing water

we went to boise, id this weekend for chris' best friend quinn's wedding. we drove up thursday and the wedding wasn't until saturday. a bunch of our friends from provo came up friday morning and we were able to take chris' parents boat out to lucky peak friday afternoon. it was a nice hot day--perfect for boating. we figured the water would be cold but when we got the boat in and turned the fishfinder on to see we were shocked {50 degrees!} with a couple of wetsuits and a lot of courage we {chris, angelie, becca and i} braved the cold temperatures to embark on the first ski of the season. the water was glassy and it felt divine to get out on the water. i skied and wakeboarded while chris becca and ang stuck with the wakeboard and kneeboard. at the end of the afternoon chris and i had a contest to see who could last in the water the longest without a wetsuit. had it not been for chris and his "extrenuating" circumstances he claims he would have won. but i took the title for that contest. we had a great time laughing and cheering each other on and it was a perfect thing to do on a sunny day.

more celebrity look-alikes

celebrity look-alikes

busy little worker bee

sorry for the lack of posts people. i'm busy studying for finals {yuck}. i'll be back and catch everyone up on things by wednesday at the latest. {cheers}

running buddy

i was planning on going to the gym tonight after i finished my patho test, but when i got done chris said if we went running he would come with me. COME AGAIN? chris wants to go run? he offers that pretty much never so i jumped on it. i took him on my new favorite running route in orem. it's a little over 4 miles with a pretty good incline after the 2 mile mark. we finished it in just under 40 minutes and chris even sprinted the last block and a half home. since i moved away from liberty square more than a year ago i have spent my running time alone and tonight made me realize how much i love to have someone to go running with. more than listening to tunes on my ipod {although that can be good sometimes}. i feel like i push myself harder when i'm running with someone else and the time just flies by. so if you're ever in orem and looking for something to do, i'd be more than happy to go running.

patho test

whoo hoo. i just finished my last pathophysiology test before the final and it turned out great a 91/100! i'm so glad because we get to drop our lowest test score out of the 5 tests we took and i got a 77 earlier in the semester. hopefully this will boost my grade from and 88 up into the A, A- range. i'm so happy to have gotten that one out of the way. now i have to focus on my nutrition final...i wish that one were going to be easy.

no-bake cookies

when i was single, girls were always whipping these bad boys up for everything {FHE, mix-n-mingle, firesides, for their visiting teachers, home teachers, sunday school treats} we are having a end of semester party along with our in-class assingment tonight in pathophysiology so we were asked to bring a treat to share. i went to bake cookies last night and realized i had less than a 1/2 cup of flour. shoot. then i remembered the no-bake cookie recipe from singlehood. i looked through a couple of my cookbooks and never found it so i googled "no-bake cookies" and found this one on allrecipes.com. this recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies and it's super fast if you're in a bind for something sweet.

NO BAKE COOKIES

1 3/4 cups white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
4 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
3 cups quick cooking oats
1 tsp vanilla

melt sugar, butter, milk and cocoa in a saucepan over medium heat. bring to a boil and cook for 1 1/2 minutes {i know right? who watches time for 1 1/2 minutes??} remove from heat and add peanut butter, oats and vanilla. drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper {i didn't have wax paper so foil works fine} cool until hardened.

NOTE: i've also had these with crushed graham cracker and oatmeal and they're super yummy.

emptying the trunk

chris and i had a hard time with wedding gifts. while we were able to get pretty much everything we wanted, we ended up with a huge variety of the "not-so-favorite" gifts. i spent many saturday evenings, when chris worked at the BYU issue department, going to stores like KMART, wal-mart, target, ShopKo, JCPenny, etc to get rid of the items we didn't want and exchange them for cash and gift cards. however, my trunk is still full of gifts i was unable to return anywhere...we have no idea still where these gifts belong {hence they are occupying my trunk} but we are seeing a light on the horizon. it's springtime and here in provo that means wedding season. we don't go a week without receiving at least one announcement in th mail. we love it because it's allowing us to finally empty the trunk.

RB ALLSTARS

i'm so bummed. tonight chris and his intramural basketball team are playing in the division I tournament championship game. they played the team they are playing tonight on saturday and beat them by 30 points {the RB Allstars were in the losing bracket and worked their way back to the top!} so they should win tonight. but, i won't get to be there because we have a stupid in-class assignment in pathophysiology that you only get credit for if you are in class {get it? in-class assignment?} chris got out of it by calling our professor and telling her about the game. but what am i supposed to say? "sorry i can't be in class either cuz i gotta watch the RB Allstars play?" yeah i'm pretty sure she wouldn't buy that one. so while all the wives/girlfriends/fiancees of the players are chit-chatting on the sidelines and getting stressed out by the score, i'll be in-class doing my assignment for pahtophysiology. but even though i can't be there tonight-- GO RB ALLSTARS!

settlers of catan

i've blogged about settlers before, but we brought the game out again the other night and i had to retail my victory. i began playing settlers last may when chris was in mexico for the month of may and i was in provo lacking a social life. every day after work, not kidding every day, i would go to the gym and then meet up with quinn to play settlers. the game is set up to have 3 or more players so we would usually call one or two of our unsuspecting friends and drag them along a 2 or 3 game round of settlers. by the middle or end of may all our friends had caught onto our little trick and conveniently found other things to do. so alas, quinn and i resorted to playing 2-man settlers and we would go for 15 points instead of the traditional 10. when chris got home at the beginning of june our settlers continued, but chris wasn't nearly as excited about it as we were. we played occasionally. then summer came to an end and chris and i got engaged. we honestly didn't play settlers for months. but sunday night i was over at quinn's and we found ourselves with nothing to do so he, lex and i broke out the board and battled it out catan style. i was sitting on a brick and wood gold mine and to make things better i had both the brick and wood ports...there was no stopping me. the longest road card and a victory point sealed the deal and i was crowned king--er queen--of catan. the taste of victory is sweet.

rain and snow

so it was supposed to rain/snow all day today. looking out at the sunshine from my reception desk at gold tip, i wish all snowstorms could be like this. and i was thinking also, if weathermen get some type of misdemeanor for being wrong about the weather and causing people to pull out their green turtlenecks and wool socks to brace for the winterly storms.

3:30 am

that's what time chris' alarm clock goes off every tuesday and thursday morning. some days i don't even hear it go off and when i wake up at 6:30 and realize he's gone i freak out that he's not there. today wasn't one of those days. instead, i heard it go off and found myself wide awake after he left...on days like today i have a split second where i think about how much i could get done if i got out of bed--i could be ultra productive. but in the moment where i either rip the covers off and pop out of bed {chris will do a demonstration for you if you like} i pull the covers over my head and roll onto the empty side where the bed is still warm from chris laying there and sleep until my alarm goes off 3 and a half hours later.

as i mentioned in the last post, i was able to get a new pair of summer sandals on saturday. for as long as i can remember i have been against anything remotely girly well at least until i started dating chris. for some reason which i am still trying to figure out, he makes me want to be more feminine and girly, so before i even realized what was happening i was looking for lace, fancy jewelry and sweats were no longer the main staple of my wardrobe. as the warm weather has been approaching every sunday i go to put on a cute pair of shoes to show off my pink toenails but alas, all that i can find in my closet are a few pairs of "i've definitely seen better days" flip-flops and a clunky pair of doc martins. i've been really wanting a pair of cute sandals but i was so afraid of pulling it off. i remember having to practice walking around in the heels i was going to wear to school dances so i didn't look like a complete idiot. well, here i was at target, and i found the perfect pair of sandals. black leather and strappy with a buckle on the side and a cork bottom. the heel was platform type that narrows out in the back...really very cute and the best thing about it? chris loved them. he even told me i look sexy in them {he also said something about it makes me have better posture and not walk like such a man--also a plus!}

spring cleaning

i finally got around to really deep cleaning our apartment. we keep the place pretty clean because neither one of us are there very often. but dust and other unpleasantries tend to build up around so i spent the majority of my saturday scrubbing and polishing. i guess the only reason i can think of to post about cleaning is that my mom and other domestic people who might read this will appreciate it...because let's face it my husband was glad it was clean but he wouldn't notice if i scrubbed the tub or not. i learned a few other things about cleaning this weekend too:

1. the minute i finished scrubbing down the entire kitchen and sink, chris was hungry so we made macaroni and cheese

2. cleaning is totally something you do for yourself. before i was married i would keep my place "clean" and only really clean clean when i had cleaning checks but even then i would do the absolute minimum required to pass inspection

3. the combination of ajax, spic-n-span, scrubby bubbles, pledge and pine sol is probably not good {it was on my hands and they got pretty red and swollen, but no worries i'm ok}

4. no matter how hard i scrubbed i couldn't tell you if the tub really got clean or not {the bottom of our tub has been gray since we moved in}

5. it's 100% worth it to invest in a good mop so you don't have to do it on your hands and knees

6. jack johnson is a great cleaning buddy

7. last on my list today, certainly not least though : spending all day cleaning gives your some serious leverage {new summer sandals? i think so!}

easter

being newly married and sans-children, chris and i had a pretty uneventful easter. we felt there were probably better ways to spend our money than on bags of easter candy and stuff we didn't need so we put a kaibosh on that. the easter bunny didn't hide a single egg! it's pretty quiet and dark in our little basement so we weren't too upset when we discovered that it had rained all morning because we can never tell if it's snowing or 70 outside until we go out. otherwise it was just a nice relaxing sunday for us. we had waffles with strawberries for breakfast {even though the strawberries tasted like onions--stupid wood cutting boards}. for easter dinner we had shake-n-bake chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, roasted asparagus, rolls and a green salad. i'm still trying to get the hang of cooking for two {we always end up with way more than we could ever eat} oh well. after dinner we watched cast away on tv and then went to bed. not too eventful, what about you?

provo half, here we come

i'm so excited because i now have something to put my exercise efforts towards--the provo river 1/2 marathon. i go through phases where i get burned out with my workout routine and i need a little change, a little something to look forward to. i got an email from becca, who is married to one of chris friends/bball buddies/old roommates, asking me about training, stretching etc. for a half marathon since i ran the st. george marathon 2 years ago. she also asked me if i would want to run the race with her. i hopped onto the race website and found some great things that i just couldn't pass up. not only was the race reasonable priced {$30}, it was also held on saturday and you get a t-shirt and pancake breakfast {that was the winning factor of course} once you cross the finish line. plus the starting line is within walking distance of my house so chris won't have to wake up at 5 am to drop me off. half marathon is the perfect distance because after 13 miles you're not so completely dead that you can't walk but you still feel like you worked hard. i'm excited to get myself back into the groove where i can say with confidence that i'm a runner. i say that and it sounds like i'm out of shape, i'm not, i've just been waiting for the perfect opportunity to get myself back into running but haven't really had the desire since i ran st. george in 2005 and then dropped out of the 2006 race. i've also been toying around with a triathalon since i really love to cycle and swim, but the training is so time-intensive. so it's time to strap on those running shoes {speaking of which, maybe chris will let me get some new ones?} and let the training begin!

no class today

every monday, wednesday and friday i check my email first thing in the morning in hopes of one thing. an email from sir nate jackson. he's my english 316 teacher. the class is pretty much the biggest waste of time ever and he's probably the worst professor to walk the earth {unless you count chenworth as a professor} for the first month of class, he was only present twice. and to fill the university requirement of writing 50 pages during the semester, he has us write all of these pointless assignments and sit in class while he talks about google clipboard and USB flash drives. well today is my lucky day, because he not only canceled class for today but for friday as well. YIPEE! i might actually get to enjoy my wednesday and friday afternoons this week instead of dreading spending some not-so-quality time with nate.

friends & NCAA basketball

i fell so lucky to have such great friends. last night was the championship game for college basketball and even though no one really cared about either of the teams playing, it was an excuse for us all to get together. with the help and idea from chris' mission companion eric, we decided to invite a few of our friends over for some snacks and to watch the game. {it actually happened that eric and chris' old roommate darron were talking about the game and decided they were gonna watch it at our house--nice.} there ended up being like 12 people crammed into our tiny living room. we feasted on cinnamon chocolate chip cookies {i made}, chips and seven layer bean dip {i made}, easter candy {courtesy of my mom and trace}, sodas {courtesy of eric}, and homemade buffalo wings {courtesy of darron}. and i'm pretty sure that none of us spent too much time being into the game because we were too busy quoting will ferrel and talking and laughing about things that had nothing to do with basketball.

car troubles

we had a crazy conference weekend to say the least. it started friday afternoon. i left work early so that we could make up to chris' cousins {second} wedding up in bountiful, ut. we made it in time to enjoy some mediocre wedding dinner food {the chicken courdon bleu, mashed potatoes, steamed frozen veggies...etc. bleh} and watch the wedding video--with songs like justin timberlake's sexy back included. afterward we went to the hotel where chris' family was staying and were planning on going swimming with the kids before heading to grandma brinkerhoffs to stay the night. chris went down to the car to get our bags and came up empty handed. i of course was not fooled by this. he plays jokes all the time on me and so i wasn't falling for this one. "uh, i forgot to grab the suitcase with our clothes in it." from the look in his eye i could tell he was serious. GREAT. now what? i was still wearing my dress from the wedding. i really didn't want to hand out with his family in my church clothes. i really didn't want to stay up without my clothes, so we decided to drive home. the next morning we drove back to bountiful. i dropped chris off at the salt lake library for an MCAT study session with his tutor. back at the hotel, we waited until it was time to pick chris up at noon. after that we met up with the rest of the thacker clan for lunch and then to a park for a game of baseball. we had two teams of five and my team {brittney, damen, mckaye, myself, davis and a little neighborhood kid} won! chris and bruce had tickets to the priesthood session of conference so we had to rush back to the hotel so they could head over to the conference center. the females and boys too young to go hung out at the hotel. the kids went swimming and LeeAnn and i {i would have gone swimming but chris took the car that had our suits in it} watched the final four NCAA basketball games. when they got back around 8:30, we ordered pizza for the younger kids and the adults went to red lobster for dinner. it was really good and it makes me wish that crab wasn't so dang expensive! on the way back to the hotel the alternator in the green saturn went out. his car wouldn't start and we had no way home. we couldn't really stay with his family in the hotel room because there were already nine of them with only three beds and we didn't really want to rent a room because the only ones left were $99! chris told me to call my grandparents. but it was almost midnight and i knew they were long asleep. so to alleviate the cramped hotel room we took damen with us and drove one of the thacker's cars back to provo--again--and had to drive back to bountiful the next morning so we could fix the saturn. the next morning around noon and $200 later we had a running saturn and were on our way back to provo to listen to our first and last session of april conference. looks like we're gonna have to find some time this week to hear the rest!