Pictures From Our Week Doctoring Mat's Leg. It's Pretty Nasty!

^Saturday morning. It's looking so much better! The doctors will be excited when we go in on Monday.

<--Thursday at the doctors office. Looking better!

^ Ewwwww! It was pretty nasty! It oozed and kinda smelled bad. Wednesday was by far the worst day.

<---Wednesday night at home, a few hours after the first anti-biotic shot. Looking a little better

<--Tuesday night after the first doctor visit. The redness was still growing

<--Tuesday

^Monday

Update on Matt

Update on Matt's leg. It is a Staph Infection, but the doctor has him on a vigorous anti-biotic regimen and it's looking so so so much better today than it did even yesterday. Wednesday they gave him a shot of Rocephin (a really strong anti-biotic) and then again yesterday they gave him some more, but this time through an IV because he almost passed out with the shot. Today it looks so so so much better! He's still taking two different kinds of anti-biotics, but we're hopeful that this will pass and not get any worse while we're at home.

I'm learning all kinds of things about infections and anti-biotics. I think it's kinda cool to see how all of them are working to fight the infection. The people I work with think I sound pretty smart when I start talking about it. Honestly I wish I hadn't learned anything about any of it...

Last day of Finals

So today has already been interesting and it's not even noon yet. First off I had a final at 7 am this morning, and I know for most of you you're thinking, that's not that bad, but I don't like getting up in the morning, especially when I see any time before 6 am. It's even worse when I have to do so to take a test, Yuck! Bright side of this final was that I thought it would take me all 3 hours, but it didn't! It only took me 2 hours and 15 minutes! My thought as I walked out of my final was "Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty, we're free at last!"-Martin Luther King Jr.'s immortal words.

This next part of my day actually stared on Sunday when Matt had this red bump on the middle of his calf. It looked kinda like a big red zit, or an ingrown hair, kinda gross I know, but that's what it looked like. I didn't really see him all day on Monday, but by that night it was the size of a quarter and deep red. It looked really gross. We kinda thought it was a spider bite or something like that. Grossed me out, the thought of there being a spider in my bed! He made an appointment with the doctor for yesterday and I guess the first thing the doctor said was "Well, we're kinda worried." AHHH!! Never a good thing to hear! So it wasn't a zit or ingrown hair or bite, no, he's got an infection in his leg! So we got the antibiotic and the doctor told us that if it looked worse when we got up in the morning to come into the Urgent Care Center. Well we woke up this morning and it did look worse. The redness had spread a lot and the part that had been deep red was now almost purple. So we went in. The nurses there were kinda intrigued by it and all wanted to know what he'd done. (Near as we can tell he must have scraped his leg while playing laser tag on Friday with the Elders Quorum.) The doctor came and made more pen marks on his leg marking the extent of the redness, now it's almost down to his ankle. The doctor gave him a shot to numb the area. Then he CUT OUT part of it! No joke! He pulled out his little switchblade scalpel thing and cut into him! He's such a brave guy though! He just held onto my hand and didn't look so he wouldn't get squimish. He made an incision that was like a centimeter deep and a centimeter wide and was like digging these cotton swab things into him! And then they gave him a shot in his hip! That was the worst part of the whole thing for him, because after they gave it too him he kinda went into shock and was nauseous and really really pale. It kinda scared me because we knew he'd been unresponsive to that drug when he was younger and didn't know if he was having an allergic reaction to it. But after 20 minutes of laying down with his feet up he was fine, if i can call walking with a limp and being extremely sore fine. Let me just tell you how brave he is. I would have been in tears if it was me. Like full on crying like a baby. I have a really low pain tolerance. He didn't even shed one tear, not one!

So because he's not supposed to walk on his leg, I had to drop him off at the Wilk, and then park the car and go to work. I was positive I was going to be late, but figured that they wouldn't care when I explained what was going on. BUT as I was going to turn down to park at the Marriott Center, and there was someone leaving the spot RIGHT in front of the bell tower! Happy Day! So I actually made it to work on time. I think Heavenly Father was watching out for me because I'd been doing my job as a wife. Then when I got to work my friend Meagan Adams had made the most delicious guacamole using avocados grown in her backyard in California! SO SO YUMMY! It kinda made my day.

Hoarders

ok. Most of you know that I am not a 'neat' person (aka not clean, organized, etc.). Mostly I just don't like to fold laundry or put it away. However Matt and I have a room in our house that resembles those that are seen on the show Hoarders. Yeah it's bad. The problem started when we got our kitchen table and we all of the sudden had an extra table, 2 extra chairs, (table has 4 chairs but we only use 2 most of the time) and then the ironing board broke and now won't collapse. So we have this extra room, which is supposed to function as an office/extra kitchen storage, but we can't even walk in there without stepping on something or jumping from place to place. It's kinda embarrassing. The reason for this post on this is that the other day our camera battery died so I was looking for the charger. It's somewhere in this room. It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It's Christmas time, and I want to take pictures of all the fun things we are doing and the only functioning cameras we have are the ones on our phones, but those aren't good pictures. I guess I know what I'll be doing once finals are over, cleaning out that room!

My Sweet Husband

So on Friday I came home from work and found a sign on our front door that read, "Riley's Italian Restaurant (Please Knock)", so I knocked on the door and Matt answered, dressed in his nice khaki's and black button up shirt (one of my favorite outfits on him, he's so handsome), and he told me I couldn't look in the kitchen and had to stay in our room until he was done. So I closed my eyes and got ready for our date night, which I thought was just going to be going to see Christmas Around the World with his Aunt Polly. He's so sweet! He had made me manicotti and had cleaned the living room and the kitchen! And be bought me flowers:) I'm so lucky!

Then on Saturday we went and got a Christmas Tree and I decorated it on Sunday after church. I love Christmas! It's such a happy time of year. I love the songs. I love the smells. I love hunting to find the perfect gifts for the people that I love. I love the spirit of charity that is so abundant. I love the focus on Christ. I love that I get to spend time with my family. I love getting to help my mom shop for and cook all the yummy food. I love the excitement that comes on Christmas morning. ( I'm still like a little kid, Austin and Collin and I would always be the first ones up on Christmas morning, and we would hold "The Annual Big Kids Meeting in the Basement" ...yes we named our meeting... and we'd play games and talk while waiting for 7 am to come around...yes I was up that early. Half the time we had to wake the little kids up.) Pretty much I just love everything about Christmas!

Our Pretty Christmas Tree

it's like the annoying little brother that just won't go away!

So it seems like all of this semester, ever since it started getting cold outside, I've been battling the cold virus. I'll have it for a week or so, and then it will go away and I think 'Great! it's gone! Now I can breathe and sleep and maybe get other things done!' but then a few weeks later, it hits me again. I'm so tired of this. I swear it's like an annoying little brother that just won't quit picking on you. It leaves me asking "WHY ME?" I'm almost positive it's brought on by stress. Because it always seems to resurface during the weeks when I've got papers or tests in all my classes. I think I want one of these:



















hehehe. JK...kinda. Seriously I feel like I need a big ole box of Kleenex and about 50 DayQuil tablets. I just hope it's gone before we leave for Disneyland on Tuesday!

I really am Thankful for things!

Ok. I fail at being consistent at writing my thankful posts. BUT in my defense, I try to only work on homework when I'm at school, so that I can have a chance to relax when I get home, and Matt's computer, the only one that actually connects to the internet, has been having issues. (half the time when we turn it on the keyboard won't work or the mouse pad won't work.) This makes it very hard to want to blog, typing with a mouse and the on screen keyboard is way harder than it sounds. If you don't believe me, try it! It takes forever!

I'm just going to list off some things that I have realized I am grateful for:
- I am grateful for my hoodies! I wear them all the time. I can't wear them to work, so I don't usually wear them to campus, but as soon as I get home, I put it on. I have a few of them, but it's almost always one of two, either the one from Yellowstone, or the one that my grandma gave me for Christmas last year that says Riley University. I love them!

-I'm grateful for Hymns. Yesterday at church we sang some of my favorite hymns. I loved it. I love how some days there are things that I want to say, and I can't find the words to express my feelings, and then suddenly a hymn will pop into my head that manages to convey my feelings so perfectly. Half the time I end up in tears by the end of the song. I love that when I'm having a bad day, I can think of a hymn and suddenly my day isn't so bad, or there's hope that it will get better. I can't think of the name of they hymn that we sang at the beginning of Sacrament Meeting yesterday, but I remember listening to the words and thinking that it was exactly what I needed at that moment.

-I'm grateful for Raid. Ya know, the stuff that you spray in your house to get rid of bugs, what, you don't have that problem. Well I do. I HATE spiders. Yet because we live in a basement, they seem to love our house. Yuck! Friday night I got up to go to the bathroom and while I was sitting on the potty, I felt something on my leg, and when I looked down there was a big, nasty, hairy spider crawling on my thigh. (shudder just thinking about this) Any of you who have seen me when there is a spider around know exactly what happened next. Yup, I screamed bloody murder and Matt came rushing in to save me from the evil spider. Needless to say, he killed the spider and sprayed the whole house with Raid so that I could settle down. My knight in shining armor!

- I'm grateful for my phone calls home at 5pm. I love talking to my mom and the little kids on my walk home from work. My mom always tells me that it's the worst time to call, and it probably is for her, but I love to hear the kids in the background and listen to her tell them how to do their homework. If I close my eyes while I'm listening to all of this, I can almost pretend that I'm right there with them. It keeps me from getting too homesick.

I'm Thankful for... 2 & 3

Ok. So I didn't post a thankful note yesterday...guess I'm not off to a good start. Today I'll just have to come up with two.

2. I'm thankful for my warm socks. Most of you are laughing while reading this, thinking that I don't even wear socks. I'll let you know that I have seen the error in my ways and that I now LOVE getting home from work and putting on my wool winter socks and my slippers. I'm pretty sure that this comes from the fact that we have a tile floor in our little basement apartment and it is always freezing cold! When Matt and I got into bed last night, my feet were nice and warm, and his were cold, which is the opposite of how it normally is, and I kinda liked it! Until he put his cold toes on me!

3. I'm thankful for the Internet and e-mails today! We got our first e-mail from Austin today! He's doing well and loving being a missionary! Here's the letter he sent home, Mom said she felt like she'd won the lottery jackpot when she opened her e-mail this morning:

Hey Family!

Its goin great here! i honestly love it so much! when i got outta the
car i went through a bunch of paperwork verifacation to make sure i
was who i said a was then dropped my stuff off in the class room and
met up with the other guys in my district. then it was right into
class. all spanish all day everyday haha its the best way to learn it
i guess!! my companion is Elder Summers, he's from Parker CO! so you
all could meet his family i bet sometime! and we just got a new
companion yesterday Elder Leigh from Ogden. i love them both so much!
they're great examples and we have a great time together! The
cafeteria is alright but i miss the sizzle and scent of mama's cookin
in the kitchen! collin, eat thirds for me tonight please! haha I gave
Elder Summers a blessing last night because he was feelin a cold
coming on. that was so so amazing to feel words be put into my mouth.
wow! Lessons are fantastic here, i understand them more than i
expected. we only speak spanish in the class room and try to speak as
much spanish outside the class as we can! its pretty fun! Im learning
so much... SO much! the spirit is so strong with all these sisters and
elders floatin around bearing their testimonies right and left! The
days here are very long. but i enjoy almost every minute of it. the
ones i dont enjoy are the 20 minutes after dinner when i eat too
much!! not very enjoyable physically! but i love the learning. We're
learning the first lesson of PMG and starting to practice teach it to
eachother and get taught! we're also learning about the love that
Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father have for everyone on this Earth.
Sometimes i think we forget that even those who rub us the wrong way
are children of God. that was great to learn about! so all of you
remember that the people on this earth are our friends and we should
be treating them with respect. tonight is the General Authority
Devotional and im so so excited for that! Today our district went to
the temple! that was incredible! The second time was MUCH better. i
was way more calm and could pay attention much better. i wish we
could've just ast in the celestial room all day. i know i could have!
I read the last chapter of Moroni in there and loved every word! its a
very good chapter! You all should read it one night before bed! Oh and
thank you for the letters! i love getting those! they are such a treat
at the end of a long day! so im scheduled to get outta here dec. 27 so
i cant call on christmas but in the airport i shouldbe able to! I
miss you all a lot really. but its the kind of "miss" tha that i know
i should be having in my life right not :) just like you all should
too! Theres a website called dearelder.com that is for emailing
letters and packages and stuff to us missionaries! check it out! its
pretty self explanatory i imagine, and its a bit faster than snail
mail! Well my time is winding down, :( tell the Larsens Hi from Elder
Page!

i miss you all a bunch! but always love you even more!
LOVE
Elder Page

Yay for e-mails, they are so much faster than snail mail! But I can't wait to get a real letter from him, hopefully soon!

I'm Grateful For...

I'm going to try to post one thing I am grateful for everyday from now until Thanksgiving. These are not in order, simply one thing I am glad to have in my life. Today, as weird as it may sound, I am grateful for healthy food. With all the junk that we have had in the last few days, and by we I really mean me, I was so excited to come home today and eat a bowl of grapes. Now that Halloween is over I'm sending all the candy to Austin so he can share it with his companions, he needs some fattening up, right? And I need some "unfattening" aka I need to eat fruits and veggies and really go to zumba twice a week.

October 29, 2010

Ok. I'm not going to write a whole post about dropping Austin off at the MTC, simply because I'm sick of crying and it would make me cry, again. I've spent way too much time the last couple of days in tears.

SO...On to more exciting and happy news! I got accepted into the History Teaching Major! It's official! I'm super excited and now I just have to wait for my background check to clear (shouldn't be an issue, right) and I can finish registering for classes. When I turned in my application, they said I should get a decision by early to mid October, the end of October at the latest. Well then my registration date came and I still hadn't heard anything about my application, so I assumed I hadn't gotten in and registered for classes thinking I'd just go the History Major route. I decided to send them an e-mail just asking when decisions would be going out, because I needed to know what classes to register for. And then I got this email in reply:

Greetings History Teaching Applicant,

We are pleased to inform you of your entrance into the Social Sciences/History Major Entrance History Teaching Major. However, we have been having difficulty sending your official acceptance letter via snail mail. You can expect that letter early next week. But to help facilitate your registration we are sending this ‘official/unofficial email’.

Again congratulations!

HAPPY DAY!!!!!!!!! And you all know me, what did I do when I read this? I started crying, while at work. Oh well.

I'm so grateful to get to do what I want to do with my life. I have really been blessed. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with just a history degree, especially since I don't want to get a masters degree any time soon.

Mission Farewell

Last weekend we went home for Austin's mission farewell. It was a great weekend. We watched Lance play soccer, they won 7-0. We ate LOTS of yummy food with our friends and family. I cried LOTS on Sunday at the Farewell. Stupid Brynn moment, I forgot tissues, and didn't realize until sacrament meeting had already started. Lucky for me, Grandma had some extras. Needless to say, by the time Austin spoke, he was last, I was down to using my jacket sleeve because I'd used all my tissues. Let me tell you, that boy is going to be one great missionary. Dang it! I'm gonna start crying while I'm writing this! I think that him going will not only bless the people of Argentina, but also our family. For those of you who don't know, my mom was the first member of the church in her family. She joined the church when she was 19, after coming to BYU. Her brother, my Uncle Dirk, joined the church about 10 years ago. All of the cousins in the two families that are over the age of 8 have been baptized and we all go to church regularly. We all love the gospel and sometimes we wish there was an easy way to share it with the rest of our family. We have been given such a fantastic gift and we want to share it. But we don't want to offend them or have them think that we are trying to push our religion on them. What we can do is live our lives the way that we know is right and hope that by our example, they will be able to come to see the greatness of the gospel. In the last year and a half, the family has gotten a pretty good idea of how important the gospel is in our lives. Last summer when Matt and I got married, there was a chance to get to explain why we were getting married in the temple, and not in a civil service at a church. And you know what...I feel like my family, even those who aren't members would have been disappointed in me if i had not been married in the temple. Someday they will all understand the wonderful blessing that it is to have an eternal family and to know that I am sealed to Matt for eternity, not just till death do you part.
Anyways...Back to the weekend. After church we all got together to take family pictures. It can be kinda interesting to get that many smiling faces at once.

Cousins with Grandma and Pap (we're missing 2, Recil and Riley)



Family Picture (Emily wouldn't change out of her PJ pants...)



Sibling Love, I'm gonna miss him!




















































And then there's Me and Syd... Yeah, we kinda rock that double chin look..





And we don't do serious very well either!

obsession

Ok. I've officially become obsessed with a pair of shoes....not an exact "pair", more a type of shoe. I want some so badly! You all should be proud of me, they aren't sky high heels or flip flops, they are practical shoes that I'd probably wear every day, would keep my feet warm and dry in the winter, and wouldn't cause me to fall flat on my face. I know, I know...you're shocked. I am too. It all started when my mom got a pair of Dansko clogs that are Zebra print! I fell in love with them! I don't think that the zebra would be a good choice for me, simply because it wouldn't match much in my closet. I think I want a pair of black ones.

My favorites are:Black Patent leather (classic, will match almost anything, dressy enough to wear to church)Brown Leather (again, classic will match lots, especially my khakis)
and if I could just have a pair to wear just because and not worry about their practicality, I'd get these ones:I love the red! It's probably my favorite color ever! But, it wouldn't match...

Brain Dump

Ok. I'm at work again, and it's been a few weeks since my last post, so lets see what I can do to catch up on everything that's been going on!

1. Matt and I were sitting in bed watching a movie, I think it was Clash of the Titans, when we noticed that there was water dripping from the ceiling onto our bed. uggg... It took us a couple of days to get the repair guy over and have him fix it. Turns out that this had been a problem before we moved in, and the last person who fixed it, didn't do it right. Joy. But it's fixed now and we don't have to worry about that anymore.

2. General Conference! I LOVE getting to listen to the Prophet speak. He's such an amazing man. Actually I love all the General Authorities, I don't think there was a talk that I didn't like. I loved President Monson's talk about being grateful. This is something that I need to work on. I have been so blessed, and I need to focus on the many good things that I have in my life. I also really liked Elder Holland's talk in the Saturday morning session. I think that all too often we aspire to have great callings in the church, and we don't realize that the church is a pyramid. The Prophet is at the top and it goes down to the "small" callings that are at the very base. With out those, the church wouldn't function. There is no such thing as a small calling, some may take more time than others, but each calling furthers the work of the Lord. I once heard a story about a woman that everyone thought was going to be the next Relief Society President, but someone else was called and she was called to be in charge of the sacrament bread. Everyone was shocked that such a talented lady would get such a "small" calling. Yet week after week, the ward had the most wonderful, home-made bread. This woman didn't complain, she simply magnified the calling she was given. I hope that I can be able to do this for all my life.

3. On September 27, 2010, Matt's Grandpa Larry Piffer passed away. As sad as the whole family was to have him leave us, we all know that he is in a better place and that he is no longer in pain. Last weekend we went to Glenwood for the funeral. It was a beautiful service. As we were at lunch after the funeral, we were watching a slide show of pictures from Larry's life, and I realized how much Matt looks just like his Grandpa Piffer! Matt says he doesn't see it, but everyone else does! He looks so much like his Grandpa and his Uncle David. It was nice to get to see all of Matt's family not in the chaos that was the wedding. I can't wait to get to go visit Nate and Mindy in North Carolina some time! Their kids are all so cute! Mindy and the twins (3 years old), Katie and Jake, and I played tea party in the basement, it was so much fun! I had forgotten how much I enjoy playing with little kids. None of the kids on my side of the family are that little anymore. Matt's cousin Ashley came with me to Collin's football game, we had so much fun. I guess her school's football team isn't very good, so she was excited to be able to cheer for a team that won! We had a great time.

4. Austin's Mission Farewell is this weekend! AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe that he's leaving in a week and a half! I'm not sure if I'm ready for that! And I'm pretty sure that if I'm not ready, my mom's not ready either. I', gonna miss that kid so darn much. We were talking last weekend and we realized that Christmas this year is going to weird in that we won't be able to have our "Annual Big Kids Meeting in the Basement" because the room won't be a big kids room anymore. Austin, Collin, and I have been having this meeting for as long as Eli's been alive (That's 8 years! and that's when I moved from my upstairs room to the basement). Because we're crazy about Christmas, we all wake up super early, but can't go upstairs until mom and dad come get us. We usually play card games or something like that. But with Austin leaving, it's likely that mom will move the little boys into that room, and we can't have a Big Kids Meeting in the Little Boy's room...that just wouldn't be right.

Don't kiss the one with the germs!

This week I've been battling a cold. The same cold Matt had all weekend. This is what I get for kissing him while he's sick. I feel bad because I'm such a horrible sick person. I'm way too much like my dad! DayQuil and NyQuil have become my best friends this week. Sad I know.

On a much happier note, I've gotten the urge to be crafty lately. I've been looking through some of my friends blogs and I really just want to make something! I want to take the big gaudy gold mirror that my mom used to have in her bedroom until she couldn't stand the look of it any more, and paint the gold part black, and use it in my bedroom. I know she won't mind if i take it, now I just have to remember to get it when we go up there for Austin's farewell. (Matt's not too thrilled with the idea I don't think, but he said I could do whatever I wanted. I don't think he knows how scary that could be for him.)If you haven't noticed the new colors for the blog, they are my newest color obsession. I have all these ideas floating around in my head for how I want to decorate our bedroom. I doubt it will happen, but i can dream. Since I can't change the color of our white walls, I want to make a black padded headboard, and a new duvet cover out of a patterned fabric with all three,or even two of the three, colors. I'm kinda liking this one for the bed:


Could be kinda fun, right? With some black binding and some black buttons maybe? I feel like I need to do something to make my apartment,especially the bedroom, feel like a home instead of like my dorm room and I think the best way to do that would be to make it look good and have some kind of theme. I love having all of these ideas and getting to try to come up with a way to make them fit together! I just wish I had a sewing machine so that I could actually do half the crafts that I want too. Maybe I'll get one for Christmas. (hint hint)

The other craft I'm dying to try are the fabric flowers that are all the rage right now. I think I could have a lot of fun doing those, and I'm pretty sure all I'd need would be a glue gun, which I already have, and the fabric for them...Hmmm I'm thinking there's a trip to the fabric store in my future:D Love it!I know what Emily and all the girl cousins are getting for Christmas! I don't think that Madison will wear one, or she'd get one too.

OH! I have to tell you all that I got a steam mop for all the tile that we have in our apartment. (The living room, kitchen, and bathroom are all tiled) I don't mind mopping the floor, and I'm still convinced that it gets done better when I do it on my hands and knees, but with school and homework and everything I don't have time. I've used my mom's before and it worked pretty good,so I got one too. I used it last night and now my floors are all clean, and it only took me 5 minutes! How wonderful is that?! Love it!

I think it's a good thing that I write these posts on Friday afternoons, I'm always in a better mood. Especially this week because we got to wear jeans to work for spirit day! Go Cougars!

Spiritual Note for the week:
Last night as Matt and I were talking about when and how we're going to go to Russia, I got to thinking about the Lord's will, and I can't help but remember that he knows better than we do what we need. Right now we have quite a few things that we recognize as being in His hands. Applications for my program, scholarships, and study abroad programs are all things that once they have been turned in, we have no control over the outcome. It scares me to death, but I just have to have faith that if we have done everything in our power to make sure it's our best, he'll take care of us. I always wonder if my best is good enough, or if I really put in my best effort. I realize that He knows my heart, and that He wants to bless my little family, so I have to give it over to Him and not worry so much.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

It was the best of times...

On Saturday Matt and I went to Vernal, Utah to go to the temple since it was Austin's first time through. (we brought Sydney and Ashley too.) It was so wonderful to be in the temple with so much family, my mom and dad, Austin, Matt, Ward, Heather,and I were all there, along with the Larsen's and the Green's. I'd never been inside the Vernal Temple except for the Baptistery. It is absolutely beautiful. The craftsmanship of the wood work is exceptional, as well as the stained glass. I cannot even begin to describe the wonderful feeling that it was to be in the celestial room of the temple with my family. As we were standing there I had a thought come to me that that was exactly what it would be like when I die. I'll cross over and go through the veil and have all my family waiting there for me. I've always been afraid to die, it's just such an unknown. But after that realization, I'm not so afraid any more. It's not a time to be sad, it's a time to acknowledge a life well lived and think of how happy that person must be to be reunited with their loved ones. Alas, I'm getting off topic.

We went to Cafe Rio after we were done at the temple, since it's the only good place to eat in Vernal. (And no Matt, Golden Coral does not have good food. Ever. End of story.) While we were there Mom and Austin informed us that they had bought steaks and salmon, and if we came home with them, they would feed us. Plus, they argued, we were already half way home. Of course I was all on board, I'm never one to turn down good food, especially if I don't have to cook it, and I'm even more unlikely to turn down a trip home! Syd and Ash were pretty easy to convince. Now Austin only had to convince Matt. The hardest part of that was the fact that Matt had left his Russian homework back in Provo, and really needed to get it done. But when we presented the idea of not telling his mom and dad that we were coming home and just walking into the house on them, he was game for going home too.

It was the worst of times...

As we were leaving Vernal, we went on a road that had some kind of repaving project going on. We hit a bump, apparently not going slow enough, and after that we heard a strange clicking sound coming from the front driver's side wheel, we looked at it when we stopped for gas, but didn't see anything wrong, so we started on our way home. Some where between Vernal and Rangely, our car started shaking like we had a flat tire. So we stopped to fix it, thinking this was really a pain. But when we got out, the tire was fine. So we kept going a little ways further and it was still shaking and something was obviously wrong. Matt started looking at the tire closer and we realized that there were 2 lugnuts missing on the tire! Matt could see in the tire where the bolts that hold the tire on to the car had been sheared off. Lucky for us, we still had cell service and could call my mom and dad to come back and help us. The boys got the car to the point that it was driveable. (Turns out the remaining 3 lugnuts were only hand tight! YIKES!) Matt and Austin drove in the car and I rode in the car with my mom and dad. We made it home, but much too late for the promised steaks and salmon. BUT we did get them on Sunday before we went home, no worries on that part! We also did end up scaring Lorna pretty bad when we walked into the house and said "Hi Mom!" She was not expecting us at all! Poor Matt spent all Sunday afternoon fixing the car so that we could make it back to Provo for our classes on Monday. He and Dad saved the day though by getting the car fixed! I'm so proud of my boy! I wish I'd gotten a picture of him working on the car, he was so cute covered in grease and break fluid :) We eventualy made it back to Provo after having an adventure filled weekend, all ready to start out the week with a map quiz we had forgotten until we got home at 11:30 Sunday night. Oh well, it wasn't too bad.

A lilttle bit of everything

Matt and I have known each other since I was 8 and he was 10. This was when I moved to Glenwood Springs. We were friends all through high school and he would take me to seminary every morning. He was my first date and I was his first kiss. We got engaged on my 20th birthday, and we were married on July 24, 2009.


Right now we are both going to school at Brigham Young University. We love it here! I am studying to be a High School History Teacher with a minor in geography teaching. Matt is studying International Relations with a minor in Russian. We should both be graduating in April of 2012. Right now we're trying to get our acts together enough to go on a study abroad to Russia either this spring/summer or next fall. We're really excited about getting to spend time in another country learning the language and the culture. Right now we're just waiting to see what kinds of scholarships we can get so we can decide when we can go.

This semester we are taking 2 classes together, World History of WWII and European Geography, we love having these classes together! Not only do we get to spend the first class of the day together, but we also only had to buy one set of books! Woohoo for saving money on books!

We both work on campus, which is great. Matt works in one of the coolest places on campus, Special Collections in the library. He gets to work with all the really old and rare books that BYU has. He sees some pretty cool things. Oscars, Original copies of the Book of Mormon, Jimmy Stewart's accordion, Gutenberg Bibles, etc. It's all so cool! My job isn't as cool, but I know almost everything about BYU admissions, financial aid, and scholarships. I answer phone calls or work at the window helping people with their questions and taking payments for tuition. The best part of my job is that I get to work with some seriously awesome people!


In our spare time, when we have some, we like to spend time with our friends playing games or watching movies. Our all time favorite game to play with other couples is called BANG!. It's an Italian game about the American Old West. It's great fun, and always sure to have people saying awkward things to each other. Recently our friends Sean and Heidi McQuay have introduced us to a game called Pandemic, it's quite unlike any board game in that you aren't competing against each other, you're competing against the board and the cards. We have yet to win the game.

Sorry this post is so incredibly long, I'm at work and I don't have a lot to do today.