Matthew & Amanda

And Best Husband of the Year Award goes to...

2012-02-14T00:13:00.000-08:00

MATT! I don't mean to brag...well okay I'm bragging! But I just have to say he's been rocking at this hubby business.

1. I have girls night with my friends once a week. Last week Matt and I desperately needed groceries (like I distinctly remember the only thing in our fridge was a container of Betty Crocker's Cream Cheese Frosting and a bottle of ketchup). I didn't get off work til 6:30 on the day of our planned girls night so I didn't have time to go shopping, make dinner, and clean up in time to go out. So what did Matt do? He unloaded all of the groceries (if you've read previous posts you'll remember I apparently buy a lot of groceries), made himself dinner, AND did the dishes. Wowzas. Needless to say I made it to girls night!

2. He bought me a new bed for Valentines Day! So basically we've been sleeping on the floor since May. NO JOKE. I am ecstatic to not "camp out" in the bedroom anymore! Bonus: He cleaned the house before I woke up this morning. :)

3. I've been struggling lately. No no nothing serious, I'm not popping handfuls of Prozac or anything, but when I first started college I had all of these big dreams and goals for myself. Graduate college, gain advanced degrees, travel the world and have a successful career. Well I did earn my Bachelor's degree, have been blessed to be able to travel, I landed a job, and am MORE than okay with my decision to not go on with school right now. And yet, something doesn't feel quite right. It's been eating at me because this is what I planned for myself, wasn't it? Matt has listened to me talk about this every night for the past two. months. straight. Last night he stayed up with me til after midnight (don't laugh that is late for us during the work night! sometimes I'm in bed AT 8!) and gave me some very good advice. He basically told me that this is my life and I need to do what is best for me. I only have one shot at this. He explained that I have no obligation to live up to anyone's expectations and that constantly worrying about what people think is useless. He said to stop trying to please everyone else and that I deserve and owe it to myself to do what feels best for me, even if it's not what I had "planned". It was EXACTLY what I needed to hear. I went to sleep feeling so grateful for such a supportive hubby (even if it means quitting my job to save some baby sea turtles in Costa Rica. Shh... I haven't told him yet. haha JUST KIDDING. But I'm really not kidding at the same time..heheh).

Our life isn't perfect. It isn't always (and hasn't always been) fun dinners at the "strip club", last minute trips to Disneyland, and carefree lounging on the beach. We don't always get along, sometimes he thinks I'm stubborn and sometimes I think he has a temper. I bet he is sick of having to eat cereal for dinner and I sure as heck want to chuck his xbox out the window. But it's the other things that make it all worth it. My list of three about Matt above don't even start to scratch that surface.

Happy Valentines Day Matty! I love you!!

Party Rock Weekend!

2012-01-22T21:35:00.000-08:00

On Friday our friends invited us downtown for dinner. It was restaurant week in San Diego, which means that a select few restaurants run deals for one week. We were stoked! Our friends chose to go to Morton's. An AMAZING BEYOND WORDS OUT OF THIS WORLD steakhouse right near the harbor! It was incredible. It took us three hours to eat because the restaurant is all about the dining experience. They gave us personalized menus, brought out all of the menu options and "presented" them, placed our napkins on our lap, etc. You know, the whole shebang! It was one of those restaurants where I felt like everyone looked like this.

Too bad Matt shaved his mustache in December!

I can honestly say it was the best meal I have ever had. One of the best parts about the night was watching the other diners look at their bill. We stuck strictly to the restaurant week deal, but most people went ALL out and drank themselves silly. When the time came to leave, they'd pick up that little black folder, glance at it, then look around the others at their table like this...

Like I said before, we were as careful about ordering as we could be. Even with all that, when we got the bill we looked more like this....

Let's just say we won't be eating for a month! It was just SUCH a fun night tho, I haven't laughed that hard for a long time. The memories of that experience will definitely be priceless!

On Saturday it was NuVasive's annual sales meeting AKA Cheetah Ball! It was at the Hilton on the bayfront downtown! We got to get all dressed up and be party animals for the night. I've never been to such a fancy event. They had an awesome program and also served appetizers, dinner, desserts, and had an open bar. I marched right up to the bar a few times for a sprite on the rocks. I enjoyed every second of the night with my fancy glass of sprite in tow! Thanks Matt for working at such a sweet company, NuVasive really has changed lives and it was great to feel like we were part of something good!

Can't believe it's already time for Monday. Weekends go by to fast, especially this one!

Family Beach Pictures!

2012-01-07T22:42:00.000-08:00

We had family pictures taken way back in September but I've procrastinated putting them on here since blogger would only let me upload one at a time! I finally tackled it so here ya go. I sort of wish we would've waited a month so Cabo could have been in them, next time! (Ignore the Red Bull no limits music.... or if you enjoy it then don't ignore it! I'm too lazy to figure out how to take it off autoplay.)

Moving to San Diego has been the best thing that ever could have happened to us!

Matt's job is going great! All of his 50 hour work weeks just recently paid off in the form of a promotion! (He's only worked there 9 months!) He loves his work and does such a great job.
My work is a lot more stressful and demanding than I thought it was going to be! But I absolutely love working with the patients and to see the change and improvement in their lives is priceless.
Cabo still eats, plays, goes to the bathroom, sleeps, and gives lots of lovens!

It's just so beautiful here. Every morning when I wake up, I look outside and see the baby palm trees and can't help but smile.

I don't know how we're ever going to leave?? Family and friends, move down here so we don't have to! ;)

Red Bull No Limits Jump!

2012-01-04T20:03:00.000-08:00

For New Years Eve we went with our friends Arbbie and Amber to the harbor downtown to watch this (let me just say the music they chose to accompany the video is superb)...

Pretty cool beans, the music just might be my favorite part. After that we partied in downtown, went out to dinner, watched the ball drop, and made a random late night trip to Ralphs for dessert. It was the best New Years Eve I have ever had! Happy New Year!!

Plane Ride from H.E. Double Hockey Sticks

2011-12-31T08:42:00.000-08:00

We planned to travel to Utah for Christmas and couldn't handle the thought of leaving Cabo at dog boarding that long so we decided to bring her. With my work and inconsistent patient schedule we had to wait for the last minute to book our plane tickets. The tickets leaving out of San Diego were OUTRAGEOUS so we found cheap flights out of Long Beach and decided to drive up there to fly. I was terrified about how Cabo would do on the long drive, plus sitting in an airport, plus plane ride and as it turns out I had every reason to be nervous.

After work on Tuesday I rushed home and put her on the potty. She refused. Fifteen minutes later I gave up, put her in the car, picked up Matt, and we started our journey to Long Beach. We got in terrible traffic but thankfully the whole time she was like this... (I didn't take pictures so my drawings will have to suffice.)

The terrible traffic turned out to be caused by a car dead stopped IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FREEWAY and of course that was the lane we were in. All the cars on either side of us were going normal speed and there we were at a stand still. In that situation it's extremely difficult to change lanes, so, I stuck the top half of my body out the window, and waved frantically at the incoming cars to make them slow down so we could get over. It worked! By golly I had a puppy that hadn't gone potty for hours I was getting her to that airport grass ASAP! Nor was I missing our flight!

We finally got to the airport and tried to give her the "sleepy" medicine her vet prescribed. She refused to take it and dumped all of the sticky liquid over my pants. She also still refused to go potty, but at least she was still content and happy, like this....

We got through security and found out our flight was delayed, an hour. Cabo was still doing great and sat the whole time like this.....

We boarded the plane and started taxiing to the runway. The whole time she sat in her crate like this....

At that point I relaxed. We had made it and she was being an angel so I sat back, snuggled in, and looked out the window. "This is the life," I thought to myself just as the plane was about to take off. Right as the plane lifted off the ground, something changed. She went berserk, like this....

And stayed like that the entire 2 hour plane ride. Her craziness included escaping out of her carrier three times. I'm glad we caught her each time, I can't even imagine the thought of chasing her around a completely full plane. I'm also shocked that at least she didn't go potty in the plane! Guess it could have been worse right?! All in all I was glad when the plane landed, and surprisingly, she was perfect on the plane ride back when it was "Matt's turn" to be on baby duty. Go figure! ;)

We had a nice time in Utah (even though I was sick for some of it) we enjoyed being back with family. Now back to same old- which means going to the beach today. :)

Happy New Years!!

Early Christmas in San Diego!

2011-12-17T10:29:00.000-08:00

We decided to have our own Christmas at our place before heading to UT so we didn't have to load presents back in forth. It was a great idea, I mean who can complain about getting Christmas twice!? Last night we had Christmas Eve. Matt got off work early and we made dinner together while jamming out to Christmas tunes. Cabo even "helped" out by running back and forth between our feet.

We decided that since it was Christmas Eve we needed to sleep in the living room with baby Cabo and watch Christmas movies all night. We set up the air mattress, got comfy, and started watching our first movie pick, "Christmas Vacation." After about ten minutes into the movie I realized I was the only one laughing at it. I thought, "This is weird. How can Matt not think this is funny? It is exactly his type of humor." Then I looked over and saw why he wasn't laughing, him AND Cabo were both passed out asleep.

I watched the rest of the movie by myself, and laughed by myself the whole way through it.

We woke up early this morning, made breakfast together and opened presents. Cabo LOVED playing with the paper. She made quite the mess but it was so cute we couldn't say no.

This afternoon, Cabo had her first day of school! She did great! And I'm starting to sound like one of those moms that always blogs about her kids! And Cabo's a dog! Freak. Oh well. So after school we had to buy her a treat of course, then we all went to the beach to play and watch the sunset. It was the most gorgeous sunset I have ever seen. As we were watching, dolphins started jumping in the water right in front of us. We've been here since May but I still can't get over this place. It's perfection! (Except that many of our friends/family aren't near, and it's a lot more expensive, and, and, and all the yummy restaurants have made me 15 lbs heavier.) Okay so I guess it's close to perfection. But anyways, we had such a great little Christmas and are excited to have the real deal in Utah next week! Merry Christmas Everyone!

Weekend in Disneyland with the Fam!

2011-12-13T08:57:00.000-08:00

My family came to California! We spent the weekend in Disneyland... it was a BLAST! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I have the best family ever!

California Adventure

Candid pic of my family. They're so cute. :)

And my favorite picture in the entire world.....

Yesssss.

Turkey Day in Da Hood!

2011-11-28T21:27:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving with my family in Detroit! It was AWESOME!

We went to the Lions vs Packers game, ate at a million and one restaurants, toured the Ford factories, drove through the hood, all of us kiddies (jason, chelsey, jeffie, matt and I) bought $684 worth of movies for $150 during black Friday shopping (I may or may not have run over a small child fighting for my $2 movie), basically we pretty much just had the best time with my family!!

Detroit is sweet. Cept I froze. Just last week I made fun of So. Californians for wearing coats in 60 degree weather. Well, I thought I was going to DIE in Detroit. Dramatic much? Yes. But I'm not kidding. I thought I was going to die. It was only 50 degrees. I can't believe it, my old built-for-Logan-UT self has gone soft. Pathetic.

It really is a fun city tho, and most of the buildings are torn down/abandoned/burned out which is pretty cool beans.

We love da hood!

Movember

2011-11-17T09:49:00.000-08:00

Before November my husband looked like this....

Halfway through November he is now sporting one of these....

and looks an awful lot like this ........

That stache has got to go. Ladies? Do other husbands participate in Movember?! At least it's for a good cause... right?? Cuz if not, let's get this man a razor!!

What was I thinking?!

2011-11-13T20:27:00.000-08:00

Getting a new job and a new puppy at the same time?! That question flowed through my mind as I stood in the pouring ran, at 3:30 in the morning, wearing nothing but my underwear while I held an umbrella over little Cabo because she wouldn't finish her business while being rained on. Wait, back up. Whaaaaat?! Nothing but my UNDERWEAR?! Between job training, certifications, potty training, new patients, doggy exercise, assessments, feedings, treatment goals, doggie bonding, lesson plans, etc etc life has gotten pretty crazy. So crazy that apparently I now think it is okay to go outside in my undies. I didn't even realize what I had done until 2 days after I had done it and had somewhat caught up on sleep after napping for five hours. Oye. I now have a greater respect for working moms because

A. I only work 20 hrs a week.

B. I have a dog not a child.

and C. Matt has been a phenomenal puppy daddy!!

No, I'm not asking for sympathy because I wanted this dog, I wanted this job, I love this dog, and I love my job. I'm merely just telling you so if you see the MSN headlines, "Mormon woman runs around San Diego in undergarments, neighbors were frightened" well, at least I warned you.

But really, how could you not love this snuggle bug?! She's so fluffy I'm gonna die!

Say cheese!!

Matt's Birthday Celebration at the Strip Club...

2011-11-04T19:54:00.000-07:00

Matty had a birthday! The big two-six. So what do we do?!

We go to a strip club!!

Let me explain...

There's a place just up the street from us in the "city" area of La Jolla. We drive past this particular building all the time, and when passing we always used to turn up our noses in disgust. "This isn't Vegas... Show some class people... that business should not be allowed in our beautiful city..." thoughts like those always bounced around in my head as I tried not to look at the "strip club".

But then my eyes were opened.

It's not that kind of strip club! It's a STEAK HOUSE!! (Nice play on words. Strip.. Steak.. ha) Boy oh boy it is my new FAVORITE steakhouse EVER!!! It even had a DJ... a DJ! In a restaurant on a Thursday! I loved it!

They have large grills set up around the restaurant, and what you do is you order what kind of steak you want (with the sides and everything) and then they bring you your steak and you cook it on the grill! When I first heard that you grill your own I was all, "WTF isn't the whole point of going to a restaurant so you don't have to cook?" But I ended up loving it. The whole experience was just a ton of fun!

And yes I knew it was a steakhouse before we went (it wasn't like we wanted a strip club and then became disappointed that it was steak). Matt was still nervous, he didn't really understand it. On the drive there he kept saying, "Is this going to be inappropriate? Why do I need my ID? Are you sure this is ok?" It was hilarious.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU MATTY!

New Addition to our Family!!!

2011-10-27T16:25:00.000-07:00

Matt and I have been married three years now, so with that we decided to become a family of three!

Let me explain before your imagination runs wild....No I did not just have a baby, and no we're not expecting the stork to drop by anytime soon.

We.....

Got.....

A.......

PUPPY!!!

Meet our new little girl, Cabo!

She likes to:

Eat
Play with her Shamu stuffed animal
Snuggle
Go to the bathroom

We love her!!!

Out with the ducky pajamas and in with the scrubs!

2011-10-26T11:11:00.001-07:00

I got a job!!!

Let me rephrase... I got THE PERFECT job for me! It was a long road. Many different things that could have worked but didn't feel right (and thankfully didn't work out)... debating between what I really wanted to spend my time doing... it was confusing to say the least. I honestly loved being a SAHW (like I really really loved it) and got to the point that I figured I'd be content being a little housewife and working a little bit online on the side. But my ducky pajamas were wearing out (don't know what I'm talking about? Read the last part of this.) and then literally out of the heavens this job landed in front of me. I have to say that the reason it landed in front of me was because of my calling in the Relief Society, so it literally came from heaven haha. If I would've ignored my calling I never would have known about this opportunity so little side note- the LDS church is true!! ;) And I am SOOO happy for this opportunity! I feel like it was designed exactly for me, my work history, and what I spent four hard years in college for.

So what is this job you might ask??

I will be working for a health center doing neuro-motor therapy (using Interactive Metronome) to improve neurological processes of motor planning, sequencing, and processing in adults and children with autism, cerebral palsy, TBI, MS, Sensory Integration Disorder, ADHD, etc.

Why is Interactive Metronome therapy important for these individuals? Click here to learn more.

I'll still be a housewife, continue my book, work online on the side, and surf but now I have a great opportunity to use my education to make a difference in the lives of others. My stress levels have gone from zero to sixty but it's okay, I've loved the work so far and am pretty excited about it.

Also... STAY TUNED!! We might have some big news for you next time! :)

Disneyland Anniversary Trip!!

2011-10-21T07:46:00.000-07:00

Each year for our anniversary we like to go on little trips. It's kind of become a little tradition for us. This year, we spent the weekend in DISNEYLAND! It was sooooooo much fun!

So let me back up...

I've been on this kick that I HAVE to get the best deals out there. And lately I've done pretty well. I got a $350 six month gym membership for $20, we had family pictures on the beach done for 66% off, 50% off surf lessons, I was on a ROLL! So of course when I searched to book our hotel I wanted to get the best possible deal out there, you know, beat the system. I seriously spent three full days looking. Embarrasing? Yes quite possibly. Well I found one of the secret hotels on hotwire that was only$49 a night for a 3.5 star hotel. They told me it would be something like a Hilton, Marriot, Crowne Plaza so naturally I jumped on that. You have to pay before they show you the hotel, so I did and sat smugly starring at my computer screen to see what luxurious hotel we'd be staying at for 1/3 of the price. And then the hotel appeared. It was no Marriot. My jaw dropped. I frantically started clicking buttons and pulling up reviews and pictures of the hotel. A lot of the pictures I found looked horrible. The pics on the wall were slanted, pink wallpaper was ripping off the wall, green plush carpet, a microwave on the floor.... OH MY LANTA WHAT HAVE I DONE?! I freaked I called every number I could find for hotwire, sent emails, basically just flipped out. Our booking was not refundable so quite frankly there was not much we could do. I did find that there was a new tower the hotel had just built, so I called the hotel, got us a room in there and prayed that it'd be better than the pics.

So we went.

I was scared as we pulled into the parking lot, I basically thought that we'd have to spend the weekend in our car.

The lobby looked fine, the hallways looked fine, we got into our room and do you know what? It was great!! And my mood suddenly switched from being furious at hotwire to being proud of myself. All I can say is that hotwire is LUCKY that hotel had a new wing or else they would still be dealing with me hahaha.... ;) Just kidding I'm not that nuts.

We got to Anaheim on Friday night and relaxed, popped popcorn, and watched movies. The next morning I woke up at 4. On my own. I was just too excited for Disneyland to sleep! I waited for as long as I could and pulled Matt out of bed at 6. We had a nice breakfast and were at Disneyland at 7:30. I started to cry, I was just so happy!! From there we partied between Disneyland and California Adventure until midnight, only stopping for a little nap at the hotel and dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It was THE perfect day!!!

(I forgot my camera and had to use my phone so these pics aren't the best quality...)

I wish soooo badly that we would've gotten pictures of us on the rides (you know, like the pics that Disneyland takes of you when you're going down the big hill and stuff...). There were two pictures, one on splash mountain and the other on space mountain, that when I saw them I laughed and laughed and laughed. Like, I was laughing so hard I had to crouch down and cross my legs I was afraid I was going to pee my pants! I've honestly seen tons of those pictures and there has been only one other time that I thought one was funny. Usually it's just people being silly and trying to be funny but they're not. Not these ones! I wish I could explain them, but I could not do them justice. I wish we could do that trip over again just so I could get those pictures! Why Matty, why?!

We stayed over Saturday night and had every intention on waking up early to get to our 9 am ward (it's an hour and fifteen minute drive without traffic, an hour and thirty with traffic) but BOTH of us slept through our alarm. Disneyland is exhausting! So we just kept sleeping, had a nice complimentary hot breakfast at the hotel, and found and went to a church in Anaheim.

It was such a perfect little getaway! HAPPY THREE FREAKING YEARS MATTY!!!!

Crazy Drunkards, Caviar, and Protestors. AKA San Diego at its finest!

2011-10-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

Last night Matt and I went with our friends into downtown to go to a "world renown" haunted house. It was only my second time being in downtown (Matt goes sometimes for work meetings) but it was the first time either of us have been there at night. WOOWEE it is WILD! Seriously, more nutso than Vegas or Time Sqaure at night I kid you not! First of all, the city is GORGEOUS and also huge. It was so alive and energetic I felt so giddy walking around the busy streets. BUT IT WAS ALSO NUTS. I loved it.

We went to eat at Yardhouse and Matt got an appetizer with caviar. Caviar?! What the heck was he thinking! Who HONESTLY wants to eat fish eggs! I put on my brave face and tried some. It was disgusting. Matt ate the whole thing. After dinner we walked over to the haunted house. The line wrapped down one block, across the street, and down the other side. We had all already purchased our tickets so we decided to wait it out (this long of a line must mean the place is good, right?) Naturally, we got stuck in the line between crazy 21-23 year old drunk kids. And naturally, they attached on to us like velcro (they were not the first or the last crazies to gravitate to us... like us? Really? Why would a bunch of crazies gravitate to a group of clean cut mormon kids?!)

They were the funniest people to watch and would not leave us alone. I video recorded some of our interactions but unfortunately, their choice of language really isn't appropriate for my little blog. ;) They decided that we all needed to be in the same group to go through the haunted house and we just couldn't pass that up. One of the kids was so gone he started dancing in the middle of the haunted house and almost smooched a zombie. They were definitely the best part of the haunted house because the house itself stunk. Line Wait.... 1hr 30 mins. Haunted house time..... 12 mins. Price tag.... $34. Crazy kids smooching zombies and party rocking in a dungeon.... priceless.

As we were walking back to our car, we heard drums and shouting coming from behind. We turned around and saw a huge parade of people marching down the street towards us waving signs around and banging on drums. A full fledged protest march was heading our way! They took up the entire street and I waved as they passed. Then, simultaneously, all of us got the idea to hop in and join them. Before I knew it I was marching down the Gaslamp District with a bunch of crazies, shaking my fist in the air while happily smiling at the people watching on the side of the road. I heard Matt's voice chanting at the top of his lungs, "We. Are. The 99 percent!" Annnnd that's when I started laughing uncontrollably. All of the bystanders probably thought I was the craziest one in the group. I can hear them now, "Look at that weird girl laughing like a hyena. Yep, she's lost it." I just kept shaking my fist in the air and continued marching through my hysteria.

Look for us in the news! My parents must be so proud.

Surf's up!

2011-10-03T11:13:00.000-07:00

Is it October? Really? I'm looking at sunny blue skies and palm trees while listening to Bob Marley on the radio. I have all of my doors and windows open and it feels like spring. Let's just say my body is wigging out. Like, my body is SO confused! It's going through a weird psychological/physical struggle . My mind knows it's October but it feels like May! In between conference on Saturday Matt and I hopped over to the beach, laid out in the sun and did a little surfing. But for all of my life (until now) October conference was a time to snuggle in blankets, sip hot cocoa, and look at the changing leaf colors. To add to the problem, this is the first time since I was THREE that I haven't gone to school in the fall. So since I'm not in school I basically feel like it should still be May and every time I see Halloween and fall decorations at the store I have a little freak out. My palms get all sweaty and I shake and I have an asthma attack. Ha just kidding I don't but almost. Should I see a doctor?! I can not put up my fall and Halloween decorations. I just can't. My Scentsy's and wallflowers are still summer scents and I can't change them. I...just...can't....

I LOVE autumn and this is just weird!

But I really can't complain... cuz we still get to do this...

SURF!!!

and it's still pretty nice to hang out here....

It'll do. ;)

To try to have some "fall fun" we're going to The Haunted Hotel in downtown this weekend with our friends and hopefully that will snap me out of my "it should be spring!" dilemma. I hope.

So here's something cool. Apparently every now and again plankton visits San Diego. This isn't your everyday plankton. This stuff is SWEET BEANS. It lights up when it get's agitated! The poor dears get agitated a lot living next to the beach with all the constant waves crashing on them and everything, but I don't feel too bad for them because it results in an awesome show for us! We've been out splashing around and playing on the beach the past few nights and just can't get enough of the cute lil light flashing plankton.

Look at em, just look at em! They're so agitated!

Yes, that's real. If you rub your feet along the sand it will leave glow streaks in the sand, when it get's on the sand crabs it makes the sand crabs glow, and if you splash water on your skin your skin will light up! It's surreal to watch the ocean with the stars, moon, and glowing waves. Too freaking cool.

We'll probably pop some popcorn, grab our beach chairs, and watch the light show again tonight.

Life is great.

Life is short. Stunt it!

2011-09-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

A little while ago Matt and I went out for ice cream for family night. We don't eat very many sweets around here (not because of ME... it's all Matt's fault. He doesn't like desserts so when I make/buy them I eat ALL of them and then feel bad about myself and mope around for days and I get mad at Matt for not eating any treats because then I had to eat all of them and the end result is that both of us are unhappy. Longest sentence ever? Am I a psycho wife or what!? ha. SO I never make or buy sweets to avoid all of the above. There you have it. MOVING ON...)

So we got our big cups of ice cream and loaded it up past the rim with candies. Apparently we couldn't handle that much sugar because when we got home both of us were on a HUGE sugar rush. As the night got later...and later... and later... the worse the sugar high got.

Nerdy idea number 1: Let's make up stunts!

Nerdy idea number 2: Let's do those stunts!

Nerdy idea number 3: Let's video record these stunts!

Nerdy idea number 4: Let's put our video on the web!

Nerdy idea number 5: Let's replace the audio by having youtube randomly select our music!

And this, my friends, is the end result.

Now, wasn't that nice. I know right now you're probably thinking, "That was the stupidest thing I have ever seen." Not gonna lie.... I agree!! It is the stupidest thing I have ever seen! But we loved it. :)

I don't think we should go out for ice cream anymore... apparently we didn't learn our lesson the first time. We went out for ice cream again after episode one and the end result was me being thrown across the room like a torpedo and almost putting a hole in our wall.

Never again!

The pictures are here!

2011-08-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

Here are all of the pics that should have been in the last post....

Cave kayaking!

Surrey cruising with the fam!

Dinner in Old Town. I LOVE Old Town! It feels exactly like Mexico. There are Mexican restaurants everywhere, little shops, and people selling beads and sundresses on the street.

Matt loved Jamie's fancy camera. He didn't stop "modeling" the whole weekend. This is his signature move. Looking great honey! Your modeling career is gonna take you far!

A lil bit of surfing

This is my favorite picture. Ever. When I saw it I laughed, and laughed, and laughed. That stick looking thing coming out of the water... see it? It's an upside down leg and foot. It's not every day that you see an upside down leg shooting out of the water!

Mormon Battalion

I wanted to get a nice picture of us with the surrey and downtown in the background. No big deal right?

Me: "Matt smile let's get a nice picture of us with the surrey and downtown in the background."

Matt: "Hmph. Let's do something awesome."

Me: "You don't want a nice picture of us with the surrey and downtown in the background?"

Matt: "Why don't you wanna do something awesome? Like pose with twinkle toes?"

(Matt grabs my arms and strikes the pose)

Matt: "Get your leg up manda. That's right. Nice form."

Me: "I'm outta here!"

Matt: "Oh no you don't!"

(swoops in for a kiss)

Me: " :) "

I'm so glad we got that whole ordeal on camera.

I love how Tanner looks concerned. He should be. Matt's blind as a bat.

Matt got to participate in the Mormon Battalion tour. He was thrilled!

Last but not least...

Nothing like a lil Sunday brunch.

Things I never thought I would do.

2011-08-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

Not gonna lie... it's been so nice to get away from everything and feel like we have some sort of a life. I feel that the first couple of years that Matt and I were married it was like "go go go" school, work, research, school, clean, school and there was never enough time to just enjoy life. It's not that I didn't enjoy those things, because I did, but it has been pure bliss enjoying something new and exciting yet A LOT less stressful. I feel like I've been able to chill out more here (and I've noticed Matt is a million times more chill!). It's so unbelievably nice to not feel like I'm being judged all the time or that I'm in a constant competition with others. The other day I was running errands and started talking to a girl that was from LA. I asked her if she loved living here and she said, "It's too laid back. I need to be in a driven, competitive, fast pace environment." I laughed and told her it's the "laid back" part that I like most about here, it's true, and it's rubbing off on me.

Some things I never thought I would do until I moved here....

Go out without any makeup on/not fixed hair. I have no problem walking around SD "undone" in fact, I feel more comfortable that way.
Go out to the movies alone. No, Matt and I were NOT in a fight or anything. When we first moved here (and I didn't have any friends haha) he had a work thing and I wanted to see Super 8, so I went. The poor couple sitting next to me were trying to be all lovey dovey during the scary movie and I think I ruined their night with my constant screaming, jumping, gasping, and catapulting my popcorn everywhere. They knew I was alone, I knew I was alone, and I didn't care one bit.
Surf. I kinda have a weird fear of water. I can jump out of an airplane no problem, but almost have an asthma attack when I paddle out to surf. I love swimming, boogie boarding, and surfing, so I'm making myself get over my water fear.
Write a book. Yes, I'm writing a book. I'm too far into it to quit but not far enough into it to feel like it was a good idea. (Don't judge my writing from this blog! I don't even proofread this thing!)
Eat different types of food. I used to never ever branch out of my food comfort zone. Alfredo pasta, steak, fruit, cereal, and toast were my five main food groups. Now I've tried sushi, greek food, different types of mexican... I've become a mean food eating machine!

Life is good.

We had our great friends Tanner and Jamie come stay with us for a few days and we loved every second! We did not stop laughing the entire time. Blogger won't let me upload the pics so I guess I will post them next time. We ate out a lot, went to Sea World, played at the beach, rode a surrey around Coronado, and went cave kayaking! My family also came to visit and it was absolutely wonderful to have them here! We basically did the same things we did with Tanner and Jamie (ate, Sea World, kayaks, surreys, beach day... just can't get enough!). It was sad to see all of them go- but I was happy that Matt and I got to stay here. :)

Matt LOVES his job. I still feel so blessed that this opportunity worked out for him. He'll text me everything that he's doing during the day and it all just sounds so impressive! A little while ago he was at a fancy conference in a nice hotel overlooking the harbor, rubbing elbows with professional athletes and eating gourmet food... and I was sitting at home in my pink ducky pajamas at 1:00 in the afternoon, all alone eating a poptart, while watching the cat lady from my window. Woo-whee! I think it's time I get a job. But really, I am just so proud of him!

I'll post all the pictures next time! (But don't expect to see any of me in my ducky pajama's.)

Newport, Laguna, Weezer, and some horses too.

2011-08-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we were able to hang out at Newport with Mike and Lyndsi. Newport is a darling beach town! We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch (and had a great view of the ocean!) then played on the beach for the rest of the day. Matt and Mike were like little five year old boys together, it was hilarious. It was soooo good to see Mike and Lynds again, we wish you lived here all the time!

The next week Matt's older brother Josh flew into LA with his girlfriend and so we had the opportunity to meet up with them in Laguna Beach! I LOVED it there! We ate at an outdoor restaurant that was literally on the edge of a cliff next to the ocean. After dinner we walked along the beach, looked at the stars, and Josh proposed! It was such a fun night, and a big congrats to the newly engaged couple!!

This past weekend we went to the famous Del Mar horse races! It was a huge deal, I mean people go ALL OUT for these events. I guess I was expecting the races to be somewhat like a rodeo...cowboys, boots, dirt, spit, wranglers, nerdy country music... BOY WAS I WRONG! It was a freaking fancy event! There were even some ladies walking around in NICE dresses and men in WAY NICE suits! SUITS! Those people were obviously the "high rollers" who, we were told, usually bet thousands of dollars on one race alone (there were ten different races that day). It was crazy but we really had such a great time.

We watched the first few races from the stands. This was our view from the front...

and this was our view on the left (I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love California!!)

We then met up with Matt's friend from his mission (who grew up here) and watched the rest of the races right on the fence, front and center!

When race #8 came around (which was the big kahuna of all the races) we decided to place a bet. I picked Zazu, solely based on the fact that I thought she was the prettiest, and Matt picked Ultra Blend because he liked the name (we've got some serious strategy eh?). Well it worked, both of our horses finished how we bet they would! I picked Zazu to place and she got 2nd, and Matt picked Ultra Blend to show and she got first. Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!! I jumped up and down screaming like a maniac waving my ticket around. It was a blast. :) Now, I'd like you to meet our winning ponies...

Zazu

Ultra Blend

Ohhh yeah.

After the races we went to the Weezer concert! I love Weezer and they put on an awesome show. It was so fun to see them live!! (I could have done without all the pot heads and drunk kids though... I wanted to walk up to some and say, "What would you're mother think!"... but I just gave them crusty's instead. ha just kidding... I kept my crusty's to myself.)

This picture isn't the most flattering (hello hat hair!) but I love the kid on the right. He looks like he's enjoying himself a little too much. Lay off the doobies man!

We had fun. :)

I've had some interesting experiences with some Californians here... today I was at the checkout line in the grocery store and the cashier man said, "Wow! You sure did get a lot of food! Didn't I see you here yesterday?" Thoughts of complete confusion started rushing through my head followed by thoughts of embarrassment, "Doesn't everyone buy this much? I didn't think I got too many groceries. I knew I shouldn't have gotten that second box of fruit snacks! Does he think I'm fat and that I have to buy a lot of food to feed my ever large gut? No he did NOT see me here yesterday! Does he think my husband is the 700 lb man featured on that TLC show?" I quickly thought of a comeback, "Oh, yeah, um, our friends are coming to visit and I didn't want them to go hungry." That story is in fact true, but what that man doesn't know is that I buy that much food every time. After paying, I grabbed my cart and literally ran out of the store to prevent others from glancing at the girl that eats too much. Fellow bloggers? Help? How much food do you buy a the store?!

Another story, I run around my neighborhood a few times a week and usually feel pretty safe. Well, on my morning jog I had three different men "cheer me on" as I ran. I spent the day wondering if I should be grateful for their support or a little creeped out so I decided to rate each instance as either "supportive" or "creepy".

#1. 17 year old boy in his ghetto booty truck, "hooting" out the window. ------ creepy.

#2. 35-40 year old man on his driveway clapping his hands as he shouted, "All right let's go! You got this, let's do it!" ------ creepy.

#3. 96 year old man hunched over on the sidewalk telling me, "It's somethin' special to walk up this hill but to run up it? WOO-WEE!"as he slapped his knee and flashed a toothless grin. ------ verrrrryyy creepy.

I will now be changing my route and will have my pepper spray turned to the "on" position.

Lastly, I think I was seriously scammed (along with 30+ 21-30 year old women) by a local chiropractor. I'm ticked. And I've been dedicating most of my time into investigating him. He had no idea who he was dealing with...hehehe. I'll let you know how it goes.

Cat Lady

2011-07-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

Great news! We live by an old crazy cat lady! Like next door to a cat lady (nothing against cats or old ladies- they're both great. In fact they're even greater when you mix them together).

ENCOUNTER #1: A couple of weeks after Matt and I moved in, we were coming in from an evening walk and found a rabbit and a cat playing together outside our condo. A cat and a rabbit together?! It was the strangest combo we've ever seen, so naturally we stopped to watch them. About a minute later, out of nowhere we heard a voice. Not just any voice. Imagine the raspiest, croakiest, most hypernasal voice you've ever heard and times it by ten.

(Hypernasal voice)"CAAATTTTT...."

(Matt and I) ....................

(Hypernasal voice) "CAAAAAAAATTTTTTT..."

(Matt and I) "What the heck is that voice??....."

(Hypernasal voice) "CCCCCAATTT.... oh. The CAAAATTTS with the RRRAAABBITT again."

What the crap?! We both burst out laughing, booked it up our stairs, burst through our door, fell on our living room floor and laughed uncontrollably for ten minutes.

ENCOUNTER #2: A few days after that episode, I was coming in from my morning run and saw an old, plump woman standing in the middle of the road wearing a flowing floral shirt, no pants, and sandals. I could tell she was holding a leash with a furry blob on the end. As I got closer, I realized the blob was the cat. As I passed her she turned to me and said,

"The CAAAT is FAAATTT so I take it on WAAALKS."

I didn't know how to respond to that?! All I could do was choke out, "Oh, that's nice" paired with an extremely awkward smile and then, of course, I booked it up my stairs.

ENCOUNTER #3 (my favorite): The other night Matt and I were all tucked in bed about to fall asleep when we heard a woman ~~yelling~~ no ~~shouting~~ no SHRIEKING at the top of her lungs. We both sat up in bed listening for it to happen again.

We heard it again, but all we could make out was, "KSDFHWOIVNKSskfnldkgSKGH!!!!" So we did what any other human would do, we went to the window and pressed our ears to the screen. We heard a man (her husband? boyfriend? other?) mumbling... more mumbling... and then....

(Shrieking voice) "I come home... to YOUR COAT.... in the CLOSET!!!!!!"

And that's when we lost it. Both of us burst out laughing, ran back to bed, and laughed ourselves to sleep.

We love her.

(I have to say, if a "coat in a closet" is the major issue in their marriage, I'd say their relationship is solid!)

Maybe we'll get a cat.

4th of July Weekend California Style!

2011-07-07T15:52:00.000-07:00

For the 4th of July weekend our good friends Joel and Syna came from UT to stay with us! The entire weekend was a nonstop party. On Saturday we spent the day at the beach surfing and boogie boarding. It was so cute to watch Joel and Matty surf! They both did great, us girls were impressed. :)

Matt surfing

Later that evening we went to the San Diego temple (stunning) and ate dinner at Ki Sushi (yummy).

On Sunday (after church of course!) we went on a drive to Coronado Island.

View of downtown from Coronado bridge

We walked around the beach and explored the famous Hotel Del Coronado. It was such a sweet hotel! I've never seen anything like it. It's over 100 years old and has housed many presidents and actors/actresses.

Coronado

In front of the hotel

Inside the hotel was kinda creepy. It honestly felt like we just walked into the haunted mansion at Disneyland. I didn't get a good picture, but they even had an old elevator with a doorman! The doorman mumbled to himself the whole time. It was cool.

The hotel is supposedly haunted. I love love love haunted things so I told Matt we should stay in one of the haunted rooms in October for Halloween. He said no. I aksed why. Then being 100% serious he replied, "I'd be too scared. I don't think I could handle it." Isn't that the cutest thing ever?! Anyways, he'll handle it. We're going.

We spent the rest of the evening at La Jolla Cove watching the seals. Right as we were about to leave we saw three dolphins jumping out of the water! I freaked! They were so beautiful and it was fun to see them in the ocean!

For the fourth we got up early and spent the morning at the beach. After we got ready and headed to Sea World!! I am ECSTATIC to announce that Matt and I are now season pass holders! I literally danced out of the ticket both after we bought our passes. I'm not exaggerating. I was prancing around like an idiot. Happiness overload!

A $7 funnel cake. Was it worth it? Oh ya.

They had amazing fireworks after the Shamu show to top off the night. Sea World will definitely be our 4th of July tradition here!

Thanks for coming Joel and Syna! We had such a fun time. :)

Other things that have been going on...

We went to the San Diego County Fair! IT WAS AWESOME! They had a hilarious hypnotist show and we ate more junk food than I'd ever had in my entire life. Fried candy bars, bbq beef sandwiches, funnel cakes, french fries, sodas.... ugh .... I was unable to put my pants on the next morning.

After only three weeks on the market, our Blackhawk condo is officially sold. I cried. I still feel like this is a vacation for Matt and I and that we'd pull into 1521 Talon Drive when we were done here. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE it here, but we loved it there too. That was our first home and it's weird to let it go.
I have nightmares about stinky swimsuits (see previous post).
And... That's about it.

Don't let your surf instructor borrow your towel.

2011-06-29T16:08:00.001-07:00

He will use it to cover himself while he removes his swimsuit. Once the suit is off, he will toss the wet swimsuit to you to hold. He will then have a lengthy discussion with you (on the beach in broad daylight in front of a large crowd of people) about his boobs (while wearing nothing but your towel). From there he will ask you to drive his boards and swimsuit back to the surf shop. At the surf shop, he will take his boards but forget the suit. A day later, your car will smell like babies gone bad. After searching high and low in your car for whatever is causing the malodorous stench, you will find his swimsuit. You will then realize that...

1. Surfers never wash their suits, because his smelled something like this.

and 2. They like spending their days wearing nothing but someone else's towel.

Gross.

Our California Home!

2011-06-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

This blogging streak is a record for me! I'm making myself blog more... not because I think people just love reading about my life but because it's a great way for me to keep some kind of "Matt and Manda journal"... so whoever invented this blog thing my thanks go out to you (because I wouldn't have kept record otherwise).

So what's new?! Weeeellll...

We have settled into our new place!

Living room

Kitchen

Dinning room

Laundry room

Part of the bathroom

We have a bedroom too. Yep, we do. But... we currently sleep on a mattress on the floor and that doesn't make for a very pretty picture. We also have a very nice deck that we love to eat dinner on. All in all it's a great place! And I am VERY pleased to say the spider situation is UNDER CONTROL! Those freaking things didn't know who they were up against. Our home has been spider free! YIPEE!

In other news... we ate sushi! Going out for sushi is actually a lot of fun, especially when it's on the 101. ;)

We still hang out here most nights. It's perfect.

We bought a surf board! His name is Endinburgh (Endi for short), and we love him.

I love the radio stations, I love the people, I love the food, I love the beach bum lifestyle, I love the palm trees, I love the weather...

I don't love the drivers, I don't love seeing girls in bikinis, I don't love ... hmm.. that must be it.

SPEAKING OF BIKINIS (This might offend some people.) LADIES! DITCH THE BIKINI AND PUT SOME CLOTHES ON! When I see someone in a tankini or onesuit I think, wow! That's adorable! She looks amazing. When I see girls in bikinis, I cringe. I recently saw a group of girls in tankinis laughing, having fun, and taking pictures of themselves. They looked so confident and beautiful. Later, I saw a group walk by wearing swimsuits that left nothing to the imagination and I felt sorry for them. Respect yourselves, respect your bodies, respect other peoples vision, and leave your nakedness for the shower!

That is all.

Until next time peeps... peace out!

Western Caribbean!

2011-06-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

My family got the itch to travel somewhere exotic but we couldn't decide on where, so we gave my brother Jason and his wife Chelsey the say and boy oh boy they picked a WINNER! We went on a 7 night Western Caribbean cruise and it was incredible!

We had a balcony room and I loved loved loved it! I kept the curtains wide open 24/7 (yikes maybe?! ha!) but I just loved looking out to the ocean all day and night and waking up to each port.

Leaving Tampa from our balcony

When we checked in this was waiting for us in our room from Vacationstogo! If you go on a cruise... booking with them is the ONLY way to go!

The first day was a day at sea. We just chilled on the deck and watched the ocean while drowning ourselves with slushy drinks.

That evening was formal night. Can I just say I have THE BEST family ever?! Well... I do. :)

First stop? COZUMEL MEXICO! It was such a fun and vibrant island! We did a little exploring and shopping then hopped on a little boat to travel to the mainland.

The boat took us to Playa del Carmen. It was such a beautiful place I would love to go back!

From there we took a bus to Tulum to see the Mayan ruins. Our tour guide was AWESOME. He was a genius about his people (he was half Mayan half Spanish) and knew everything about his country. Last year Matt and I explored the other side of Mexico (Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo) and it was very interesting to see the Yucatan part. It felt more peaceful and safe.

Walking to the ruins

We turned the corner and BAM!

I got serious chills. The whole area was full of breathtaking ruins located right next to the ocean. It was incredible.

My parents told us that other ruins they've been to felt creepy and dark. These felt almost spiritual (more on that later....)

The water and beach were gorgeous

Gotta love all the lizards everywhere

After the tour, our guide let everyone run free and that gave us a chance to ask him in private about what he knew about the Mayan history in relation to the LDS religion. He gave us a huge grin, pulled out a Book of Mormon from his bag, and told us he was LDS (we all guessed it). He had to be VERY careful about what he said (because really, no one knows for sure) but he was able to talk to us in a roundabout way. He told us that these ruins were more of a gathering place (they weren't houses) where families came together to be "united". He then continued to say that if a member of the family died before they were able to come, their work could be done by another person. (At around this time my jaw dropped.) He continued talking about many other things found in the Book of Mormon and honestly it all just made sense. As he was walking away he turned around and said one last thing, "This was their temple." (At around this time I started crying.) It was such a spiritual experience.

After that we headed back to Cozumel.

This pic clearly demonstrates why Matt and I ended up together

Shopping back on Cozumel

Next stop?! BELIZE!! We got off the boat and found a nice looking young man holding a sign for zip line tours. We told him we'd like to go and paid him the $. We followed him into the city thinking that we were all set when he turned around and told us he needed to find our driver. What?! We wanted HIM to be our driver! We sat for a half hour waiting for our driver and just when we thought we'd been robbed, we saw the nice looking young man running around frantically. "Where's Sunny?! Where the heck is SUNNY?!" he kept yelling to his fellow Belizians (Belizans? Belizers? Belize people?). And then we saw him. Creeping out of one of the alleys... barely able to walk in a straight line...looking like he hadn't slept in days... Sunny!

I'd like you all to meet Sunny!

(I wish my camera didn't decide to freak out in the humidity and go blurry in all of my pictures, especially this one, because I feel like you're unable to get the full picture of this guy. Let me just tell you- he was awesome.)

Sunny was the man! He had 18 kids with four or so baby mommas (that's right, "four or so"). The van we rode in to get to the mountains was in horrible condition but did that stop Sunny? No! He stopped at a shack that sold toilet paper (like a lemonade stand but instead of lemonade it was toilet paper) and got some garbage bags. He tied them together, tied them around the van, and that my friends was the only thing keeping our vehicle from falling apart.

Oh ya!

It was a miracle we made it to the mountains but I'm glad we did. They were so beautiful and zip lining through them was amazing!

After that we drank tropical sodas and hung out in the jungle

To get to and from ziplining was about an hour drive. I loved seeing the country. Half of our drive was in the country/mountains and half was in Belize City, it was crazy! Sunny almost killed us three times. Like I said, he was the man!

Belize was by far the most adventurous stop! Everything about it was crazy! We loved it.

Next?! ISLA ROATAN! Roatan is an absolutely stunning island off the coast of Honduras. It was my favorite "place" because it was so beautiful. Our stop here was really chill. We took a chair lift over to a private island and hung out on the beach, snorkeled, and floated in the ocean.

You can't see in the picture, but to the left across the ocean we could see the outline of huge jagged mountains on the mainland of Honduras as well as other little islands. It felt so exotic! I am IN LOVE with this place and I'm dying to go back.

Oh ya!

This place was heaven

Then before we knew it, we were in GRAND CAYMAN!!

I loved the water! Grand Cayman was really really really nice. It was more of a developed country (Belize and Grand Cayman were like night and day). We took a 30 minute boat ride out into the ocean and ended up in....

stingray city!!

We got to swim with wild stingrays in the ocean! This wasn't swimming in some man made pool with rays that had their stingers cut off, this was legit and it was such an AWESOME experience! I love stingrays!

The guide gave me a squid to feed the stingrays. You can see from my face I felt sorry for the squid.

Before I knew it, the guides picked me up and threw a sting ray on me! They called it a "stingray massage"

Matt received the same treatment

After the stingrays they took us to do some snorkeling

And that is when my camera died! Which is probably a good thing. I don't think I could blog about any more photos!

We had such an amazing week and it's one I will always remember. I loved it!!

Living it up in San Diego!

2011-05-28T04:11:00.000-07:00

We...LOVE it here. Everyone told me how great it would be living in San Diego and I thought ya ya whatever it will be nice but no big whoop. Ohh I was wrong... it is a BIG WHOOP! The first few days here were spent unpacking and then I got sick for a few days, but the short time we've had to play here has totally got me smitten! I'm in love with this place.

La Jolla= heaven. Shops, restaurants, gorgeous beaches....

It even has seals!! How cute are they?! We sat and watched them for an hour I couldn't get enough of the little blobs!

This is what we do most nights. After dinner we hop in the car and drive less than ten minutes to the beach and hang out there till dark!

This is at Torrey Pines. We usually go to La Jolla Shores cuz it's literally around the corner from our place!

Eating dinner on the beach in La Jolla

(ps I looked at this pic and gasped! This shirt makes me look pregnant! To stop any gossip or speculation I will tell you that I am NOT. That is simply the biggest food baby I have ever had. Moving on...)

We love our condo and will post pictures once we get it all settled. Matt did well! I am sooooo pleased :) it has a gym, beautiful pool, and hot tub. On nights we don't go to the beach we go hot tubbing and I love it!

This is all too good to be true right?! Well....

1. We definitely miss our family and friends. It hurts sometimes :'(

2. My hair as totally freaked. Frizz frenzy baby!

3. I have had my fair share of undesirable encounters with little creatures most people call... spiders. I call them the spawn of satan. Matt knew the first time he saw this place it was where he wanted to live. Apparently he's not the only one who feels that way. Let's just say the dang exterminator better get his butt out here ASAP or I'm gonna lose it! I can handle them to a certain point... if they behave... but they have CROSSED THE LINE. Now let me tell you what they've done...

So matt and I go to crawl in bed and I see a weird shadow. I look closer and there he was. Sprawled out as comfy as can be on our PILLOW! Not okay... seriously not okay. Let's just say things didn't end well on his end. Then a few nights later same scenario... go to get in bed and there it is. All tucked in the sheets happy as a clam to have a king size bed to himself. I mean the thing looked like it was waiting and ready for his bed time story! Needless to say he is now dead.

I freaked. I need sleeping pills. I currently reside on the couch.

Other than that...

WE LOVE SAN DIEGO!!! :)

New York, New Job, New Apartment!

2011-04-27T09:17:00.000-07:00

New York was a blast! It was the craziest, funniest, wildest trip I have EVER been on! The conference was great, our presentation went well, and the rest of our time was spent partying! They say a picture is worth a thousand words... So I'll let my pictures do the talking.

Other good news from the trip.... Delta gave me $400 to use on any of their flights!! Sweet beans sweet beans.

Now as you all know from our previous post, Matty is working in San Diego! He loves it and is doing so well. He's so happy to have a professional job and to be working in the areas he went to school for. We've been wanting him to get that job for MONTHS and are sooooo thrilled that it worked out! I'm stuck in Logan till I graduate (only a few more days till graduation!!) so for now we are doing the long distance thing. Thankfully, Matt's awesome brother Mark and his wonderful family are letting Matt stay with them and I've been living in our condo/ with my parents (BTW anybody want to buy our home?!?). We've been sending lots of texts, emails, and have spent hours on the phone. It's not the ideal situation but it's working. Recently, I went on a snowmobiling trip with my family. We rented a nice cabin in the Uintas and rode our snowmobiles for a couple of hours. We came across a deserted cabin and I sent Matt this picture of it from my phone...

To which he promptly replied with this from his phone....

Not gonna lie... I LOVE snow and LOVE snowmobiling... but I'm getting excited to move to California!

These past few weeks Matt has been house hunting, and I'm proud to say he found us a cute lil condo all by himself! I'm only a little bit nervous. Ha jk I'm not. I trust his judgement and I made him give me ALL of the details of the place (countertops? carpet? paint? fixtures? floor? appliances? cupboards? knobs? door handles? I'm crazy I know... that poor dear!) But I think we got a winner! I can't even think about how much we'll be shelling out each month to pay for the darn thing... it's outrageous... but all of the pluses will HOPEFULLY cancel the pain of paying.

CONS: $$$$ and it's a little bit smaller than our place now.

PROS: It's practically next door to the San Diego temple, a couple of miles from the beach, 15 minutes from Sea World, and only 1 hr and 30 mins from Disneyland!!!

Our soon to be home sweet home :)

Only a couple more weeks!...

BIG NEWS!!!

2011-03-25T18:49:00.000-07:00

Welp, today we found out that we will be ditching this...

for this...

We'll be giving up this....

For this....

We'll be leaving this....

For this...

What does this all mean?!?

It means.... MATT GOT A FREAKIN AMAZING JOB IN SAN DIEGO!!

He will be doing marketing for NuVasive, a nationwide medical device company (Check them out @ www.nuvasive.com).

We're SUPER excited!!!

Valentines Day! err... weekend :)

2011-02-16T21:04:00.000-08:00

I love valentines day. I really do. Matt and I have always had amazing valentines together and this one was just as good! On Saturday we took off to beaver mountain and spent the entire day snowboarding. It was HEAVEN! The snow was perfect, it wasn't crowded, and the weather was wonderful. I love snowboarding. LOVE IT!!

After snowboarding, we hurried home, got ready, and met up with our great friends Joel and Syna for dinner at Hamilton's! ALSO HEAVEN! It was sooooo fun sitting by the fire laughing with our friends while enjoying AMAZING soup, salad, bread, steak and chicken. Do you wanna know what the best part about that dinner was? Do you? You do? OUR BILL WAS $15!! Fifteen freaking bucks for HAMILTONS! HA ahhaah I spend more money at burger king! (Probably shouldn't admit that...) Syna got 2 $25 gift certificates at a bridal fair and she gave Matt and I one of them. Yes, we have amazing friends! After dinner we went to their house for dessert and played the newlywed game and the song game. We also watched Phantom of the Opera. I think we also watched Beauty and the Beast because I remember us all singing to it... I think. I'm really not sure what time we got home. I don't even remember coming home...

After church and dinner Sunday Matt insisted that we should watch Charlie Brown's Valentines episodes. We watched a couple episodes while I made valentines for my classmates. Yes I know I am a 22 year old senior in college but when I saw the Madagascar valentine cards at Macey's I could not help myself! I finally couldn't take anymore Charlie Brown and popped in Sleepless in Seattle while I finished my Valentines.

Monday was such a great day! My amazing parents and wonderful grandma spoiled us rotten. I honestly feel so blessed to have them in our lives. They are wayyy too good to us!!! Matt added to the spoiling... I was expecting some flowers, chocolates, promises he didn't intend to keep.... but he out did himself and came home with a gift card to Valhalla!! Flowers die, chocolates make my pants tight, but a little massage?? Now THAT is something I can enjoy! I handed out my Valentines at school (teehee) and spent the day with my friends. That evening Matt and I were all partied out from the weekend so we stayed home and had homemade bbq chicken pizza in the shape of little hearts...

made chocolate covered strawberries together...

and watched Sleepless in Seattle (again? yes). It was such a nice relaxing day!

Hope you all had a fabulous Valentines too!

In other news:
- I won a huge gift basket from Bath and Body Works at Bunko! I never win anything.. so this was huge! I've been giddy about it all day!
- We are going to Brian Reagan on Saturday!
- My research group is presenting our research at Weber State University tomorrow!
- I don't have school until Wednesday!
- I think my sentences need more exclamation marks!

Ha. Peace out.

Boo ya!

2011-01-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

These last couple of months have been sa-weet! For a little birthday treat we took a trip to Vegas. Vegas, as usual, treated us right. Most of our time was spent riding roller coasters, eating at the all you can eat buffets, and playing on the kiddie games (which resulted in winning more stuffed animals than we could fit on the plane).

We did fit in some time to play on the adult games hehehe. One day we decided to play on the slots for a little bit so we thoroughly searched out our lucky machines and then started pulling the handles. As we were playing, I leaned over and started talking to Matt when I noticed cherry after cherry popping up on his screen. Oh oh! One.. more.. cherry... YES there it is! I started jumping up and down hollering, "We're rich! We're rich! Matty you've done it, look at all those CHERRIES!!" And then I saw the total. $8. Boy did I feel stupid! All the gamblers next to us peered over to see what all the fuss was about. I told Matt to cash out quick and get me outta there so I could hide my red face! We spent that eight bucks about ten minutes later on ice cream. So fun!

One of the highlights was going to Frank Caliendo's comedy show. I LOVED HIM! He was hilarious and super clean. Seriously, if you're in Vegas soon go to his show, it was a blast!

Then before we knew it, Matt was DONE WITH COLLEGE (YIPEE-I-AY!) and it was time for Christmas!

One of my favorite traditions from my family is that we go snowmobiling every Christmas Eve up Monte Cristo. The weather and snow were absolutely perfect! We spent the day cruising the road and exploring off in the play areas. I've been snowmobiling my whole life and it is by far one of my favorite activities. It can, however, be quite dangerous. Matty learned that first hand. As we were playing in an open area, the poor amateur er I mean... dear (jk matt love you!) went sailing off a cliff and nose dived into the other side! THANKFULLY he got off with just a couple bruises and the snowmobile didn't have a scratch! And THAT is why my family ALWAYS prays before we go out for the day. :)

We also had a great little Christmas filled with food and family. It always goes by too fast!

For New Years we went to a Muder Mystery party. It was a lot of fun! I was a maid and Matt was a gentleman. We want to do another one soon so if anyone out there wants to too... tell us and we'll put one together.

I'm getting ready to go back to school on Monday and Matt will continue to enjoy his perma-break from it. Anddd...That's about it. Hope everyone out there is enjoying life and had a great holiday too!

Wow..has it really been that long?!

2010-11-12T13:45:00.000-08:00

SINCE I'VE POSTED SOMETHING! The last one was April... it is now November. Freak! I will now summarize the exciting points in our life that have occurred during these past 6 months...

We got to kick start our summer by going on the Mexican Riviera Cruise and it was AMAZING!!

After that vacation extravaganza we had to tone it down and the rest of our summer was pretty chill.

Then school started.. and this semester has totally been kicking our trash.

We celebrated our two year anniversary! We spent the weekend in Salt Lake and went to dinner at the Gateway, watched the Alternative X laser show LOVED LOVED LOVED IT! (Who wouldn't love getting blasted with alternative rock while sitting in the dark staring at mesmerizing bright lights! oooo ahhhh trippy). We also went to Frightmares at Lagoon which is always a blast if I do say so myself.

For Halloween (my second favorite holiday) we attended the 2nd annual Halloween Party!! It was sooo much fun my checks hurt at the end of the night I laughed so much!

Now for a little bit on what is happening with us as of now. Matt is getting ready to GRADUATE!! I am sooo proud of him! In just a few weeks he is getting his Bachelors degree in Public Relations with a minor in Marketing. He (and by that I mean we) are searching for PR/Marketing jobs for him in hopes to find something soon. Currently we're looking into places in San Diego, Jackson, Salt Lake City, NY, Park City, Logan, .... Hawaii, Virgin Islands, Britain, and Australia (the last few are places I've found and I'm working on getting Matt to apply to. I don't know if he's thrilled with my selections tho). I honestly don't care where we end up.. I'm up for anything! Even if we don't leave Logan I'll be happy because quite frankly I love Cache Valley, LOVE our friends, and love love love our home! But I also wouldn't mind living in St. Croix ;) *wishful thinking* Guess we'll just have to see!

I still love school and am on track to get my Bachelors degree in the spring! It's bitter sweet for me. Matt (like most people) just wants to be done... but I'll probably bawl my eyes out. I have made the greatest friends in my major, had the best experiences, I honestly love learning all about COMD and Psychology, and will be heartbroken when it's all over! I think I'm just weird and not normal.. honestly who gets sad because they will be done with school?!? ANYways, looking on the bright side it will be nice having NO homework. I will also enjoy having time to cook real meals, sleep past 5 am, go grocery shopping so we have more than 1/8 gallon of milk and two grapes in our fridge, and being able to watch TV shows like normal people. Sigh.

One last exciting thing and then I will shut up. For about a year I have been working on a research project with Dr. Gillam at the University. It has been the most rewarding job ever. Not only have they paid me for my work but they've surprised me TWICE with amazing scholarships and.... just last week she pulled me into her office and announced that she was sending me to NEW YORK to present the research! The conference isn't til March but I'm already counting down the days I can't wait!! :)

and that my friends, is what has been going on here in the Land of the Frandsen's!

Typical Friday Night at the Frandini's

2010-04-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

Well hello everyone. I don't really have anything of importance to write about cept that I think our life is funny. 6:1o Matt gets home from work. 6:12 Matt gets on the computer to do homework. 6:15-7:33 I lay on the floor next to his chair debating wether I should start the laundry or not. 7:34-7:35 I decide Im starving and BEG matt to take me to get food. I can count on one hand how many times matt and I have eaten fast food since we've been married. really we never go! The reason? it costs dolla dolla bills yo! BUT i convinced him to drive me to the nearest joint. so continuing on... 7:40 Go pick up a hamburgie, eat the hamburgie, realize eating fast food makes me feel... dirty. dirty?!? yes. dirty. AND NO NOT THAT KIND OF DIRTY, sick-o's! more like... you know.. dirty. I guess that's what I get for being a beggar. I felt so weird after chugging down the patty and fries i went for a walk. 9:00 Matt is still in the chair. 9:00-9:30 I forgot. 9:31 decide it's too late to start the laundry and time for bed.

Par-tee-animals! But seriously, i cant even complain. All of these money saving weekends will(we are 100% sure 80% of the time) pay off in the form of one of these.....

A freaking cruise! Bing bing! I want to go sooooo bad this summer with our friends... I won't even ask for anything else this whole year if we go. Not even if im starving at 7:30 on a Friday night. :)

Recent Happenings

2010-02-24T17:56:00.000-08:00

Well hello fellow bloggers long time no see!

Since this semester started Matt and I came to the conclusion that the only way we are going to survive the pressures of school.. and life.. is if we're gonna work hard, we need to play hard.

One of our new FAVORITES is ROCK CLIMBING!!

Oh. M. Gee. It is absolutely fantastic. I can't believe I've lived in logan all this time without checking out the Rock Haus. It really is just a big playground for adults (though I have seen kiddos shimmy up the rocks faster than I ever could). It's a great workout, and almost..therapeutic. Therapeutic? Yes. It's so chill you don't have to worry about anything, they play great music, you run around in sweats, and achieve the great feeling of personal satisfaction when you send a route!

Another activity we've discovered we're in love with is snow shoeing.

It was a lot harder than I thought it would be... but we walked up a freaking mountain in the SNOW! I first thought that we would take a little stroll around some trees, but when we went it was foggy so we didn't know where we were going we just kept hiking.

And hiking. My legs were burning. But we couldn't stop it was like an addiction, we wanted to go just a little further. And then, before we realized it, the fog had cleared and we were at the TOP!!! It was so beautiful! The atmosphere was silent except for the distant roar of the river and an occasional bird call. We looked around and could just see the tips of the mountains peeking out from a blanket of clouds. We sat at the top and took it all in while sipping hot cocoa and munching on snacks. It was so great to get out of the chaos and distractions of life. Plus it was a good workout, which I always love!

Our new favorite PLACE is our amazing little discovery in BEAR LAKE!! I sat at the computer one day thinking of things to do for Valentines. I figured it would cost us $$ amount to go to dinner, a movie, and get dessert. BUT for $$ amount (just a little bit more than the former $$ amount) we could take off and spend a night elsewhere than L-Town. I did my homework and found the best deal on a beautiful lodge in Bear Lake. We called our friends Joel and Syna and we jumped on the offer! It turned out to be incredible...As we pulled up to the lodge all four of our jaws hit the floor! The owner came outside to greet us and welcomed us in. The lodge was HUGE and absolutely beautiful. He showed us around, took us to the kitchen (where freshly baked cookies, gourmet chocolates, cakes, fruit, and numerous other treats were waiting for us) and told us the place was ours! Another couple was in another part of the place, but other than that we had it to ourselves! So, the four of us, in a 8-9,000 sq ft cabin, just went wild! We ran around, played in the game room, watched movies, drank sparkling cider while hot tubbing, snuggled by the fire places, and ate all the goodies till past 2 am! We were living the life. When we woke up the owner had set up a huge breakfast buffet in the kitchen and made us a hot breakfast!

We were so spoiled! I still can't believe how nice we were treated there, it will definitely become a tradition for us.

And those are just a few of our recent happenings! :)

Birthdays and the Happiest Place on Earth!

2009-11-27T17:17:00.001-08:00

The month of November has been crazy! We kick started it with Matt's birthday on the 3rd, the old man is now 24. For his birthday he got a Mossberg 835 shotgun (but actually got it in September because I couldn't wait and make him miss out on all the good hunting!) I am such a pushover. I felt bad his birthday was on a Tuesday because he had to work and be at school all day. Poor dear. But we did get to go out to dinner at Beehive Grill (Thanks to Grandma's b-day money) and indulged in one slice of pie with not quite 24 candles. What can I say, we go all out.

Check out that blaze of glory!

Next was my birthday. Since we were going to be out of town on my actual birthday, Matt surprised me with an early, "Happy fake Birthday!" He told me this ALLL day long! It was by far the best fake birthday I have ever had. He got me amazing snowboarding gloves, took me out to dinner at Olive Garden (plus our waiter gave us free dessert boo ya), brought me home flowers and a MAX BALLOON (I loved Where the Wild Things Are), and took me to Bath and Body Works to spend my b-day money!

Then to celebrate both of our birthday's and my family's (my brother's the 2oth, mom's 21st, dad's and mine 22nd) my parents took us all to California! This year Disney Land had a great deal where you could get in free on your birthday. Since all of our b-days are right next to each other, we had to take advantage of their offer! It was a blast! We spent two days at Disney and loved every second. The weather was perfect, it wasn't crowded, and the cutest part is the workers gave us buttons to pin on our shirts stating that we were celebrating birthdays. So everytime I passed a Disney worker they would tell me Happy Birthday! I totally ate that up. :)

We also went to Universal Studios and the Conan O'Brien show where Taylor Lautner was the guest (The boys weren't to thrilled about seeing The Twilight Jacob but my mom and I loved it hehe). The trip was topped off with a visit to Knotts Berry Farm. It was the first time I've been there and loved it! Matt called it the "Adult Disney Land" meaning the rides were intense roller coasters instead of singing pirates (I do love those singing pirates though).

Yay for birthday's and family!! and thanks Mom and Dad. :)

Halloween and Rocktober Fest!

2009-11-01T19:31:00.001-08:00

So on Friday night Matt's work party had a ROCKTOBER FEST! "Rocker" outfits were required of course so Matt and I took a last minute (and I mean last minute) trip to the D.I. Speaking of which I have never seen a more crowded store in my life! Business must be good. Anyways, these are the snazzy outfits we pulled together...

Bow chicka wow oww.

I was going for a more punk chick feel and Matt...

Was styling an Irish rebel meets Asia while air guitaring it, naturally, with smashing success.

It was such a fun night. I have NEVER seen so much food in my life! (As you can see, Matt and I were obviously banned to the kiddie table.) We played Beatles and classic rockband till our little fingers were shakin' and the house was quakin'. After the party late that night I wanted to run around Walmart in our costumes, so we did. :)

Then on halloween we spent the whole day working on our home renovation! (Pics WILL be up shortly.) Thanks to Gae and Matt we got a lot done just in time for trick or treaters. We only have a handful of kids wander down our tucked away condo so I decided to really reward the children that made the effort. So, I used the $3 I would have spent on a huge bag of candy that I would've had to eat in the end anyways to buy 6 big sized twix bars.

The kids were sooo sooo soo cute when they got their candy! One little boy just looked at me when I tried handing him is chocolate treat. When he finally took it he stared at it wide eyed and shouted, "Wooah!" He then bounded over to his dad yelling, "It's HUGE! Daddy daddy I got a big one!" Then quickly ran back up to me to say thanks before his little spiderman self bounced happily away.

Then at about 8 it was party time! Our great friends Mike and Beth put together this amazing party at their house. Their home was decorated better than the Haunted Hallow; it was decked out in decor complete with a fog machine, strobe light, black lights, slide show, music,... I could go on forever, it was incredible!

Yes we are lame and wore the same costume... but it was cheap and no worries I cleaned them. I prolly gained 30 lbs Friday and 59 lbs Saturday, there was so much good food! I decided to bring my favorite sugar cookies...

And just overall ate way to much. Halloween is going to give everyone diabetes, starting with a pillow full of candy as a kid to these stuff your face with chip dip and cookies as an adult. Oh well I'm not complaining! yet...til I have no teeth...and can't fit through a doorway...

hmph.

Moving on...

We had so much fun at this party, there was a fashion show costume contest (Jack Sparrow won of course but I think Quasi Moto blew everyone else out of the water), played creepy games, some scary stories, and had a best carved pumpkin contest!

Once it got late and half the crowd left (we had about 20 people in a blackhawk condo not bad!) the rest of us cozied up to watch the horror thriller 1408, but not before taking some shots of course.

We have such great friends and had a kick butt Halloween!!!

Carnival!

2009-10-23T15:04:00.001-07:00

Come out and have some fun at a carnival for the Bastow family!! 3223 S. Main St. Nibley UT on Friday, October 30th @ 6-8:30. You know you want to... so do it! All proceeds will go to Lacie and Jake and their babes.

please help...

2009-09-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

Our cute friends in our ward recently had their twin babies at only 27 weeks. They are currently at Mckay Dee Hospital and will be there until December. Check out Bastowmiraclebabies.blogspot.com to get to know this adorable family. We love them and want the best for them so please keep them in your prayers.

ahh yesss

2009-09-18T12:41:00.000-07:00

Matt and I now have the Internet! We are no longer completely isolated from the outside world. It is fantastic not having to drive ten minutes to simply check my email. A little update.. we had a nice summer. The highlight would definitely have to be our honeymoon trip to JAMAICA!! It was one of the best vacations I have ever been on. I STILL wake up wishing I was there and it has been five months! I loved everything about it, the food, the atmosphere, the country, and most of all the people. Everyone needs to be more Jamaican, we all would have, "No problem(s)!"We had an awesome photographer follow us around and take these cutesie shots.

These next few are simply from our camera.

I LOVE drinks! I would order a virgin daiquiri over anything any day. I probably drank twice my weights worth daily in free-speciality-made-on-the-spot-by-pro-bar-tenders-thirst-quenchers. Nothing is better than sipping on a fruit slush under a palm tree while watching the ocean.

The country was beautiful.

Going to dinner. There were about five restaurants at the resort. Each one was incredible! All you can eat appetizers, main courses, and desserts what more could you ask for?!

(If my hair could talk, it would be saying, "fwing!")

Snorkeling was a blast! We went twice we loved it so much. We saw all types of fish and in one trip we were given fish food that resulted in a feeding frenzy! There were so many fish circled around us I couldn't even see Matt and he was only three feet away. I wanted to catch one and keep it as a pet they were so cool. We also saw a sting ray and followed it around, however I did not want to catch him.

ahh yes more drinks.

Our beautiful beach!

I would recommend this vacay to anyone it was fantastic!

The rest of the summer we camped a bit, went to Vegas, I jumped out of an airplane, and that's pretty much our summer in a nut shell. Now we are fully immersed in school but I can't complain too much. My major absolutely ROCKS and Matty enjoys his classes too so even though the partying is over, life is still good beans.

Finals

2009-04-17T10:27:00.000-07:00

Need I say more? :)

Our blog has been dying!

2009-02-28T19:25:00.001-08:00

So Matt and I currently do not have the internet at our home... as you can see this creates quite a problem for keeping up a blog! But I do have some things on my mind I would like to get out.

1. The first topic on my list is about cereal. Now, I do not know how many of you are avid cereal lovers, but I sure am. I can eat an entire box full in one sitting if I don't physically stop myself. The reason I am talking about this subject is because I have recently noticed that cereal has gone wrong. How you might ask?! They made my Cocoa Crispies, Honeycomb, Applejacks etc. LESS sugary! All you healthy people are probably thrilled about this change. All mothers concerned about their children's weight can now sleep easier feeding their tots from a colorful box every morning. I on the other hand am completely distraught! If I wanted to eat a "healthier" cereal I would turn to Special K and a banana. But most mornings my taste buds crave sweetened crunchy experiences that I used to be able to quench with a variety of selections! Since the sweetness has literally been sucked out of my breakfast fixings, my cravings are, regrettably, never satisfied.

2. Who are the Jones's and why do we have to keep up with them?! I recently did a statistical test on a psychology study that measured a persons happiness level when they compare themselves to others. The results showed that those who compared themselves to others "less" than them reported greater happiness levels. Those that compared themselves to others "greater" than them reported lower happiness levels. Now the terms "less" and "greater" are describing superficial, material, and situational conditions. How sad is this? We are not in a competition, but sadly it often seems that way. Happiness in life should not depend on Mr. and Mrs. Jones.

3. Enough with the random! A quick update on our lives in less than 50 words: Matt is currently walking with the boot and one crutch and has stated that people aren't as sympathetic than with two crutches! I am currently immersed in my school work and loving every second, I am definitely a school geek. And my dog is now deaf.

Another drop in the sea of bloggers

2009-01-16T16:14:00.000-08:00

To whom it may concern,

I (Matt) have entered the blogosphere...Just wanted to put the word out that I have a "professional" blog for my PR classes. It's not going to be entertaining and most of my posts will be assignments, but I just thought I would let everybody know so you guys won't think I'm keeping secrets. It's www.mattfrandsen.blogspot.com, if you want to read it feel free, if not I won't lose sleep over it.

Random catch up!

2009-01-10T12:55:00.001-08:00

allllrrrrighhht! Heres some pics from our lil mini moon! ohh it was fun I love Jackson Hole!

One of the best parts was the drive. That was an adventure in and of itself! I loved passing all the creepy old towns with approx 100 people in their population. I've decided when Matt and I have nothing else to do, when we're 87, we're going to make our own town. Mattamandaville population 2.

and eat at butch cassidy's restaurant & saloon every friday for some home cookin'

Now here's some REAL cooking! It was probably the best (and most expensive!) meal I've ever had... it was so amazing just to look at I had to take a picture.

Yummy. Moving on now to our rustic room nestled right up to the Tetons! I would go back to that lodge in a heart beat the staff treated us like royalty, the room had a full kitchen, bathroom the size of a bedroom, and hot tubs on the roof!

What the?! how did that get in here!?
Anyways...

"The Teton Mystery" Well what is it? That we may never know. So if you were to drive past this sign what would you do? Naturally, turn around and find out the mystery. That is what we did except for the finding out the mystery part. We drove up to this erie dirt road and saw signs pointing down a hill to, "The Teton Mystery" (Note: as you read, "The Teton Mystery," read it as tho a booming announcer voice was saying it). As we got out of the car I swear the temperature dropped 20 degrees and the silence, oh the silence, hurt worse than a bad rock concert sitting next to the sub woofers. We then walked up to a hut to purchase admittance into this phenomena and found no one. The shack's windows were covered in dirt and lined with weird looking bottles, it clearly looked like no one had been there since the 40's if that. I glanced over to the hill where, "The Teton Mystery," was supposedly kept and saw that the gate was left open! So I went. Flying down the hill my heart beat faster and faster, my excitement to see this mystery was greater than Christmas morning! I reached the bottom giddy and tingling with anticipation, looked around , and found nothing but a tilted shack. "Maybe the mystery is held inside that shack!" I thought. So i bounced over and looked inside. What did I find you might ask?! A broom. Now unless it was a flying broom I have no interest in it whatsoever. If I hadn't have been so bummed at this discovery I probably would have tested it out, but instead sulked and drug my feet back up to the car.

annnd that about wrapped up our mini vacay!

Wedding Pictures!

2008-12-31T15:41:00.000-08:00

The day has come! Pictures! These works of art are Jills she seriously is amazing!..

Now you see, these are merely 1/70 of all of our pictures. I have been working on this for quite some time and have become extremely bored with this blogger thing! So I will post more later when I get my energy back. We seriously loved Jill's pics she did an AMAZING job!! Thanks Jill! :)

Oh Matty, what have they done to you?!

2008-12-01T08:26:00.000-08:00

So word has probably gotten around that Matt broke his leg. Poor guy. It all started last Monday night during an innocent game of soccer. Lyndsi and I were chatting away when I heard a POP! I looked at the boys circled around and wondered what they were starring at. Then I realized they were huddled around Matt's curled up body! They carried him to the benches and I ran over to check it out. Matt was laughing so I didn't think it would be too serious. But then I saw it, it was serious, his shin was no mo'! So Lyndsi came over to help with our stuff and drove us to the hospital (if Matt wasn't in tons of pain and if I wasn't a ball of stress it probably would have been the funnest car ride ever, we were cruising!). We got him into the E.R. and did all the hospital shinanagans. After those were done they FINALLY gave him pain killers, which barely touched his pain. :( The doctor came in and said it was broken and showed us the x-rays (we didn' need no x-rays you could tell it was broke a mile away). After that every nurse and doctor that came in were shocked about how bad his leg was, especially from being kicked by a human! The doctor said he would need to stay in the hospital and needed surgery as soon as possible. That's when I started to flip, I thought he would just need a cast but this was worse than we thought! Anyways, we eventually got him all tucked in his squished, stuffy, expensive, hospital room and waited for his surgery.

Still doing good..

Feeling alright..

Still smiling..

and then..

Dohh not doing so good! Poor Matty.

The surgery went well and now he's hopefully on the mend. Thanks to everyone for your calls and prayers. Special thanks to Ron, Gae, Mike, Lyndsi, and my parents. We could not get through this with out you! The good things about this crisis include and are not limited to:

1. Now Matt is always right where I want him.

2. We get a handicap parking sticker.

3. We get to spend way more time together.

4. People bring us yummy food.

5. And all the Prison Break we want!

Hubby Tag!

2008-11-05T15:45:00.000-08:00

1. Where did you meet your husband? In psychology class at USU! Refer to blog 1.

2. How long did you date before you got married? About 9 months!

3. How long have you been married? Almost three weeks teehee :)

4. What does he do that surprises you? He cleans up after himself. I love it I was so worried phew!

5. What is your favorite feature of his? Well I have many favorites but I'd have to say most favorite would be his eyes especially the one thats almost half brown. But a still favorite would be his nose I love that from the side its perfectly straight! And a close favorite would be his dimples. (Sorry to all you that don't know Brian Regan, I couldn't resist).

6. What is your favorite quality about him? How caring he is! He always puts me first he is so selfless it's amazing!

7. Does he have a nick name for you? Not really, if he had to chose one it'd probably be face basher.

8. What is his favorite food? I think this really weird named Samoan fish.

9. What is his favorite sport? I'd have to say soccer.

10. When and where did you first kiss? January 29 just snuggled up at my college apartment. :)

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Dance parties! You're prolly thinking what the strange and TMI but really its great I laugh so hard!

12. Do you have children? Not for a few years!

13. Does he have any hidden talents? Refer to question 11.

14. How old is he? The old man's 23.

15. Who said I love you first? He did it was so cute!

16. What is his favorite music? Hmm easy alternative like Something Corporate, Travis, The Honorary Title, I'm particular about music and he's got pretty good taste so we mesh nicely.

17. What do you admire most about him? Matt is such a hard worker! He is as far away from lazy as you can get he always has to be doing something I admire his willingness to do anything for our new little family. And he is so optimistic about everything even about waking up in the mornings (he sings and whistles his little heart out)!

18. What is favorite color? Okay I want to skip this question for Matt's sake.. but I won't. Now I'm not kidding he told me this not too long ago... GREENISH BROWN. Say wha?! Out of all the colors?? Why would you choose to enjoy a color that resembles the inside of a baby's diaper?

19. Will he read this? I sure do hope so love you Matty! :)

Who doesn't love embarrassing moments?!

2008-10-31T16:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, so much has happened and so much to catch up on! The wedding day came and went and ohh it was perfect! Once we get pictures and such we'll write about all the details and do the wedding blog!

Write now I'm going to shift gears and share an experience that basically sums up my life in a nut shell! I always have embarrassing moments, always. But I've learned to love them and actually sometimes good things come from them!

So this morning as I was looking out the back window watching how beautiful the leaves looked falling from the trees, I saw a bear. No no not a real bear but the fluffiest, biggest, most adorable dog I've ever seen! Naturally I had to go see it! Even though I was not properly dressed to go out in public (just a robe that matt got me, which I LOVE!) It was just the dog and an older woman so I popped my head out and asked what kind of dog it was. The lady told me to come see it he loves new friends, so I did. We had a great little chat the dog was amazing and I was satisfied. I thanked her and walked back to the back door and attempted to open it. It was locked. Uh-oh. Matt was gone.. I didn't have my cell to call him.. I was in a robe.. my hair was dripping wet.. need I say more? So I ran to the front door and tried it, it too was locked. The lady saw my misfortune and told me to run inside her house at the end so I wouldn't catch a cold and let me use her cell phone while she tried to break in. As I booked it to where I thought she lived, I passed numerous doors and windows and who knows who saw me! I got to what door I thought was hers and tried to go in, and it was locked. I seriously felt like how chickens probably feel when they get their heads cut off! Then the lady came around the corner, and I realized I was at the wrong door! Ohh the poor people inside, what a shock it must have been to see this robed creature trying to break in. Anyways, long story short the kind woman directed me to the right door and let me stay in her house til Matt came to my rescue.

The point to this story is not just so you can see into the average life of Amanda, but is about the kind woman. She didn't just help me because she had to, she really cared and wanted to! Not only did she let me use her phone and wait in her house, but she offered me food and drink, talked with me about her/my life, and even turned up the heat in her house so I would be comfortable! (It really wasn't even that cold outside today!) She was geniunly sweet and her kindness made me want to go out and do something great! This experience showed me that kidness is contagious. :)

The Beginning...

2008-08-27T16:15:00.000-07:00

So Matt and I met in January of 08 at Utah State University (YaY Aggies!). It was the second day of class and I remember walking into the rather large classroom looking for a place to sit. As I slowly meandered down the aisle, I scanned the seats (for empty ones of course but preferably with a cute boy next to it), with no avail. Then there he was. So cute. So innocent. Such big puppy dog eyes! I had found my target. Squeezing past the other students in their chairs, our eyes did not leave one another until I plopped into the seat next to him. "Mission accomplished," I giddily thought to myself. We then engaged into a conversation that lasted the entire class. Our poor professor and fellow classmates! Summarizing that day until now we 'hit it off' instantly, he became my best friend, dated the rest of the school year, and became engaged on July 3rd. We're getting married October 17th and then will do the married student working thing and we're so excited!

Now, I somehow found out there was blogging going on in his family. And since he has a rather, large, family I hadn't (and still haven't) met everyone. I did a little research and found the family ties of blogs. It was nice reading the postings and seeing pictures, and made me feel like I at least had my pinky toe in the Frandsen Family. :) So since I am almost all the way in, I decided to make Matty and I bloggers too. Being an amateur blogger and all, it will take me awhile to get in the groove of how this all works. Because I have no idea. So be patient while our page undergoes construction. :)