Utah weather is the worst thing ever

So, this week has been beautiful, sunny and warm with a nice breeze. Even the evenings have been perfect for walks. It seemed like Spring was here, and everyone was happy. And then it snowed. Twice. Yesterday morning and this morning. It's really depressing to have wonderful weather and wake up to snow, even if it does all melt away during the day. Hopefully Spring will come for real sometime soon.

On other news, I got the happy news that my best friend Sara is going to be very close to me the week after our birthday, so I'm very excited! She lives way up in Idaho but will be down in Rexburg for her Spring Break (don't get me started on BYU's lack of one) and so we'll hopefully get to see her! I haven't seen her in two years, and Mike hasn't even met her, so it's really very exciting.

Mike and I are also going to Las Vegas the last weekend in March to see my parents and some of my extended family. One of my cousins is getting married, and he lived with my family and I for a little while, so my parents (luckily) are flying all the way out to Vegas for his wedding! We'll drive down on Saturday and drive back up Sunday night so we'll have about a day and a half with my parents, and they're booking our room for my birthday present! Yay!

On the same note, almost all of Mike's family is coming down to Utah for a week or so to spend time in Southern Utah. That'll be a lot of fun to see them and be close enough to home that we won't have to miss a lot of classes. They might even get to see our apartment! That's really exciting because Jeremy is the only member of either of our families to see our apartment. Although, Mark, Shauna and Jackson will be here for Easter, so they'll get to see it, too. We know it's Wymount, but we like it and want to show it off!

I think that's all the exciting news for now, sorry for the lack of pictures!

This week...

On Saturday I worked from 2-6:30, but to my surprise, Mike and our brother-in-law Jeremy showed up at around 5:30 with heart shaped pizzas! Here's a picture of a heart shaped pizza I found online (because I'm terrible at taking pictures):

Ours looked very similar, except it wasn't Papa Johns. Then we played games all night. First we played Settlers of Catan, which Jeremy won. We love that game and were glad that he wanted to play with us! Then we played Whoonu, a game that my best friend Sara gave me for my birthday a couple years ago. We had a lot of fun with this one and got to know each other a lot better because of it! We played it several times, changing the categories to make it more interesting. I think I won most of the rounds, but what can I say? I got good cards!

Monday Mike was home all day and I was at work all day! I had to switch days with another girl because BYU decided to make Tuesday a Monday, which is all fine and dandy for people like Mike who work on campus, but makes it difficult for people who have other jobs. That night we went to Outback to use our gift card, and it was delicious! We stopped at the Verizon store on our way home to get a converter for me, but we ended up getting Mike a new phone. He was up for one and he fell in love with the new chocolate, so he got it, and is loving it now.

Almost a month ago, Mike ordered a few edited movies from a place that was going out of business. He finally got them on Tuesday, so Wednesday night we had a couple over to watch Kingdom of Heaven, and Mike and I watched Rambo (whatever the newest one is) last night. He's ecstatic, me- not so much... but at least it makes him happy!

Besides that, it's just work and school for both of us! We're also looking forward (and hoping) to seeing our families relatively soon in March and April/Mayish!

Valentine's Day

Mike and I celebrated Valentine's Day on Friday night because I worked Saturday night. When he came home from work he came home to this (minus the flowers, he brought those for me :))

I had a lot of fun making the decorations and surprising him with them. I made his favorite macaroons, and my mom sent us some yummy cookies from this place she discovered my freshman year. I love that place :)! Mom Bevans sent us Little Mermaid!!!! That was a very happy surprise, because we were (well, I was) really sad when we found out it was going back in the vault and we missed getting it.

After he came home, we were going to go to dinner but neither of us were hungry, so we went to a playground instead. It was really nice. We talked a lot and played on the slide and swings. I love swings, which is why he took me there.

After that we went to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Mike has been wanting to see that movie for a long time, but we never go to the real theatre. It was our Valentine's day splurge. Plus we got popcorn and candy and a drink! Things we really never do! It was a great night though, a perfect Valentine's Day!

Ridiculousness

So, Mike has to work one Sunday a month, and this past Sunday was the one for this month. I went with him, being the nice wife that I am, and helped him out. On Sundays there is only one person on patrol at a time, and so they have to take pictures to prove that the tickets are valid. So, Mike was writing the tickets and I would take the pictures for him. It really is ridiculous how people think they can do whatever they want and not suffer any consequences. They park in motorcycle spaces, handicap spaces, buffer zones, service vehicle spaces (that clearly say that they are ALWAYS for service vehicles), and they make up their own spaces. And then get mad when they get a ticket. I mean, these are things that are obvioulsy wrong all the time, even on Sunday when you're going to church.

Mike has to put up with so many rude and angry people that are just crazy! One guy totally made up a space in one lot, and Mike wrote him a ticket. This car was blocking half a road, and the guy comes out while Mike is walking away and gets an attitude and everything. And he had been parked there for hours, because we had been there and left and come back before he came out. Another car actually took someone else's ticket off and put it on their own car to try not to get a ticket. Luckily it was in a tiny lot, so Mike saw the ticket when we were driving by and didn't remember giving it. Since he was the only one writing tickets, it was obvious that something wasn't quite right. We went in and Mike looked at the ticket and couldn't figure out at first why the descriptiion of the car was so off, then looked over to a car he had ticketed earlier and saw their ticket was gone! We were both shocked at how self-centered and mean that was. The first car could have gotten two tickets and not even known about the first one! It is amazing what some people will come up with to get out of something though.

I'll admit, I think it's fun going to work with him. I am always amazed to see what people will do, and honestly I think they do deserve to get punished. Anyone who parks in a disability stall and is not supposed to should get their car towed, not just get a ticket. What if someone with a disability comes and then doesn't have anywhere to park? It's just not fair. Anyways.... The awkward thing, though, is when someone comes out while we're writing the ticket. Especially for me since I don't even really work there. It also surprises me that even though there are only two people giving tickets out at all on Sunday, and only from 6am-2pm, they get tons and tons of tickets. And really expensive ones, too, since they only ticket the really bad things. Really, isn't it rather hypocritical to park illegally to go to church? Well, that's my rant on Mike's job! :)

P.S. Sorry if anyone does the things I ranted about.... :)

Obsessions

So, a couple of my little obsessions are decorating and organizing. Mike can vouch for me on that :) In the past couple of weeks we've made a few changes in our house to make it a little more home-ish. As some of you know, we live in the married student housing, which is not the most attractive place on Earth. Cinderblock walls are the bane of my existence, especially since we can only have 3 nails in each room and all the nails were already in place when we moved in, and in very odd locations. We love those little sticky hooks you can buy, though.

My project over the long weekend was making a couple of french memo boards. It was surprisingly easy, although a little time consuming, but I think they turned out pretty well for making it up as I went along.

This one was the real reason I wanted to make them. Our bedroom has had no decorations in it except one dream catcher sine we moved in. I thought it was time to change that.

Then I took a couple of pictures that were in the office on a book case and moved them in the bedroom as well. Notice the slightly odd placement. That's because I used the nails instead of putting hooks up.

Mike and I also decided that our balcony door was going to be our monthly project! Last month we had our Christmas tree up, and this month is snowflakes! I also made us as snow men :)

For Christmas my parents got us a visa gift card and one of the ways we used it was to get another DVD shelf because our old one was way too small to hold all of our movies. After we finally figured out how to get both to fit in the room, it worked out quite well. Mike uses the old one for his video games:

And the big one hold all our DVDs, VHSs, and a few decorations.

Slowly, this cinderblock box is turning into a real home! It'll probably be done around August when we have to move again!!

Drum Roll Please!!!!

WE GOT A BED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think most of you knew that we haven't had a real bed... just a mattress that we got for free that has been on the floor. In July we got a bed frame too, but we still didn't have a boxspring. I look on craigslist everyday watching for people to put boxsprings up. Basically, I was obsessed, but really, we've been married for just over a year and we didn't have a bed yet! About a month ago there was a posting for a boxspring, so we called the guy and he said we could have it. Mike was at work and told the guy he would be there at seven to pick it up. At six thirty the guy TEXTED Mike that he gave the boxspring to someone else. We were very mad. First of all because he promised it to us, secondly because it was only half an hour before we were going to go get it, and thirdly because he texted Mike when he didn't even know if Mike got texts! Anyways, my boxspring dreams were dashed and I was very sad. Buuuuut, last week, one of our friends saw a listing for a boxspring and when Mike called, they still had it! So Mike went over right away and with his friends help, tied the boxspring to the roof of our car. That was a very long story just to explain that we have a bed, but I thought it might help people understand why it makes me so happy. :)

Other than that, nothing really exciting is happening. Mike and I are changing our class schedules around a little bit, but nothing major. I went to work with him today (he has to work one Sunday afternoon a month) and I took pictures for him as he wrote tickets, and boy did he write a lot of tickets! He absolutely loves his job. I love mine too, except the fact that I have a job. :)

Mike also has been happy because he's gotten to play his favorite boardgame, Kingsburg, several times this week, along with his favorite video game, Dokapon Kingdom. He's also been happily buying new songs for Guitar Hero on the Wii. So, he doesn't hide what his favorite Christmas presents were, but at least we all know he likes them!

VA, Christmas, Anniversary and everything else

So, Mike and I are in our last "real" semester of school. For me, ever. For him, it'll be another several years. I don't envy him at all. So far this semester looks like it will be very busy, but pretty good. On my first day I already had two papers due the next class plus a bunch of readings. That's not really a good sign, but at least I won't be bored!

We got back from VA on Saturday and came back to a very cold and white Utah. On Monday it started snowing around noon and didn't stop until sometime last night. It was pretty bad, but the roads are finally being cleared, so at least it isn't as scary as it was for awhile there.

In Va we had a pretty relaxing time. All of my brothers were there with their families for at least a little while, so we spent a lot of time with them. Christmas was really nice, our main gift being the tickets out there. We got some clothes and books and gift cards, too. We celebrated our anniversary on the 28th with my family (just had the cake and some sparkling cider) and then on the 29th we went out to Outback and to a movie. We had gift cards for both, but ended up getting dinner for free because they took so long getting it out, so we still have the full gift card!

The last day we were there we finally went into DC and saw a few things Mike's really been wanting to go to. We went to the Spy Museum which Mike loved. He looked at every single thing and took his sweet time in there :) Then we walked around to see some other things he was looking forward to seeing. First was the National Christmas Tree:

Then the White House:

We went with my parents, so here they are with the White House:

And here we are!

I thought I'd throw this picture in for good measure. This is Mike skipping as he takes the trash out. I wonder how long it will take him to notice I put it up?

We have one other really exciting announcement, but this is pretty long so I'll post about it later!