Winter Semester So Far

This semester, I am only taking 6 credits (2 classes - Aural Rehabilitation & Speech Science) and working some more hours at my new job. Blaine is taking 13 credits , working part-time with Devin and also doing an internship with Atlantic Trust through BYU. He's pretty busy while I'm taking it slow. With this extra time, I've been reading like crazy (6 books so far in 2013!) and running. This is going to sound bad, but since I'm only taking 2 classes, I've gotten lazier with school. I procrastinate assignments or studying since "hey, I've only got 2 classes to worry about!". It's a very very dangerous thing. But so far, I've done well on my tests and have midterms coming up again on my birthday week (joy). The semester seems to be going by pretty fast. By the end of this month, we'll be halfway done! My mom and sister already bought their flights to see us graduate. We're so excited!

We attended our last CES Fireside in person at the beginning of the semester. Having these CES Firesides on campus have been such a nice experience. President Utchdorf spoke about truth and how we should seek it. It was a very thought-provoking talk. Even though it was freezing cold and finding parking was nearly impossible, we were grateful that we attended this fireside!

We also went to watch the Heat play the Jazz. Erik and Whitney Snow (Erik is one of Blaine's really good friends and study buddies) came with us. The Heat were playing horribly in the first half and finally decided that they wanted to play the 2nd half, but we lost nonetheless. I think Blaine and I are bad luck. Each time we've gone to a game against the Jazz, the Heat have lost! Regardless, it was still a ton of fun to watch.

Blaine and I went to our first ever BYU womens basketball game. It was free for all students and there was going to be free pizza, too! How could we pass that up? When we arrived at the stadium, Blaine thought I had the dates mixed up because it was seriously empty. But I was right. Poor women basketball players don't get much attention! We had a good time and even took a picture with Cosmo! And BYU won...

One random thing about this semester is that we've been eating at the creamery... a little bit too much. The ice cream is so good and so cheap! Their grille is pretty good, too. If you ask Blaine where he wants to eat on a night out, he'll choose the creamery hands down. I think I've been to the creamery more this semester than I have in all the years I've been at BYU. Yah.

We've also tried to find cheap dates on campus...hence the womens basketball game. The Varsity Theater shows movies for a $1 every once in a while. We watched Here Comes the Boom not too long ago. We had a ton of fun. It is such a cheesy movie (I can't emphasize that enough), but it was funny, uplifting and had a good message. Of course, that date followed with a trip to the creamery...

Matt and Nina came over to watch the Super Bowl with us last weekend. Usually, I like to invite a ton of people over. But this year we weren't feeling up to it. I made our favorite peanut butter cheese ball and had some pizza. Matt and Nina brought Apple Beer! Love that stuff. I'm sad that they only sell it in Utah. We'll miss it for sure! Blaine and I rooted for the Ravens, so we're happy that they won :)

So that's what we've been up to! I'm glad that I've finally caught up on blogging. I hope my most faithful readers (Grandma & Poppy) can forgive me for leaving them post-less for so long!

Our Trip to Miami Part I

Our trip to Miami was great. It was pretty long since BYU didn't start winter semester the first week of January how they usually do. The temperatures were in the 80s the entire time. Yup. We were in heaven. I was wearing sandals as much as I could and Blaine refused to wear anything other than shorts. 

Here are some of the things we did while we were in Miami: 

Mami greeted us at the airport with a box full of pastelitos de queso, carne, y guayaba y queso, croquetas, and rollitos de queso (Blaine's favorite)... and Iron Beer, too!

We went shopping at my favorite mall - Aventura mall. 

Blaine and Papo played 2k13 quite a bit...

We ate at Cuban Guys, Blaine's favorite little Cuban restaurant. 

Hmmm...mariquitas

We dropped Papo off at the airport :( I was sad that I only had a couple of days with him, but he had to go back to Houston to start off his first semester of college.

We ate at El Palacio de los Jugos (The Palace of Juices) several times. Blaine couldn't get enough of their juice! 

And we had Tio Colo's ice cream sandwiches for dessert... 

Blaine played with Monster and Ini more than usual. I think he was missing Rue a lot :) 

I loved seeing my Mom's Christmas tree. She did a sweet "Candyland" theme this year. Isn't it gorgeous? She is so good at decorating, especially for the holidays. She made half of the ornaments herself. 

My mom did whatever I wanted to my hair almost everyday. I am not good at styling my hair at all. So I took full advantage of my mom's talent and of all the cool hairstyles on my hair board on Pinterest :) I asked her to do a waterfall braid the first day I was there and she got out of hand and ended up doing this crazy thing on my head (pictured below). I asked her to do a french braid, high buns, up-dos, all kinds of braids, etc. I know that I'm 22 (almost 23) and should probably learn how to do this on myself, but come on, it's so much better when Mami does it! 

Thanksgiving Break

So I feel like ever since Thanksgiving break, time has gone by super fast! I've been slacking on keeping up with the blog. Being super sick hasn't helped and neither has the fact that I've had a ton of homework to do. But today was the last day of classes and I'm FINALLY feeling better. So, it's time to get back on track. 

It was SO nice to have a break from school and work. Idaho is perfect for relaxing since Declo is so tiny. We only have a limited number of things that we can do so it's definitely a stress-reliever. I was determined to go running while on vacation and took Rue with me. She did great! I'm sure it helped that there was nobody on the road when we ran. That way, she wasn't distracted. She gave me consistent 9-minute miles! I need to run with her again now that I feel better. 

One night, Mekhi was able to sleepover. We played Monopoly Deal and Hangman. Mekhi actually beat me at Hangman several times. One of the words he chose was "Cuban" and I couldn't guess for the life of me! Mekhi is one funny and smart kid. We loved having him around. He and Blaine also played tons of video games together. 

On Thanksgiving morning, Blaine FaceTimed with Keith, Brian, Kim, Aston, Chase, and Tucker so that Grandmom could see them. It was so neat to watch. You can tell Grandmom really enjoyed it. Technology is seriously awesome. 

Thanksgiving dinner this year was smaller than other years in Idaho. It was just us, Aunt Jan, Uncle Lynn, Grandmom and PopPop. But Aunt Jan didn't scale the food down. There was enough food to feed dozens of people. We cooked for 2 days for all the food to be ready. I learned how to do almost everything since it might be the last Thanksgiving we spend with the Idaho fam. My favorite dish that Aunt Jan makes is her sweet potatoes. They are so good! I also made my first pumpkin pie, along with 2 coconut creme pies and a pumpkin cream cheese roll. It was all so delicious. We had leftovers for days on end. 

After our Thanksgiving lunch, PopPop and Blaine sat in front of the TV for the rest of the day. When football is on, these two can't seem to do anything else. The Redskins beat Dallas and Blaine was ecstatic for the rest of the day. 

During the rest of our stay, we did what we usually do. We help everybody with whatever they need around the house and listened to Grandmom and PopPop tell stories. I love listening to them. These moments with them are cherished and very precious to Blaine and I. 

After Thanksgiving, Aunt Jan and I got into Christmas-decorating mode. We made several wreaths and decorated the entire house. Uncle Lynn and Blaine helped us with the tree. I love her tree! It's gorgeous.

Rue had a great time in Idaho as well. She got to play (almost non-stop) with Rusty. We also had Chester (Janae's dog) with us for a couple of days. She was in doggie-heaven. One day, Uncle Lynn took her to the farm and she rode in the tractor with him all day. He said she loved it. 

She also got to cuddle with Grandmom. They really like each other :) 

On Friday night, I started learning how to knit. Aunt Jan bought this yarn for us to make scarves for our big family picture in December when the whole family is going to be together. I was intimidated at first and made several mistakes that required me to start over. But after a couple of tries, I really got the hang of it. I didn't want to stop till I was done. Blaine had to take it away from me so that I could go to bed one night. But I woke up the next morning and finished it before it was time to go. I love it! I'm asking for knitting needles and yarn in my stocking for Christmas this year :) 

We had a great time in Idaho, except for the fact that Blaine started getting really really sick towards the end of our break. We decided to leave a little bit early because it was going to snow and Blaine didn't want to drive sick in bad weather. I can't wait till everybody gets here in December. Grandmom & PopPop are going to be so excited. It's going to be great! 

BYU vs Oregon State

Thanks to Jocelyn, my awesome friend from work, we were able to go to BYU's homecoming game! She was taking her engagement pictures that Saturday and wasn't going to use her tickets. The seats were pretty sweet, too! We were way close to the end zone, but not directly behind it. It was a "blackout" so the entire stadium, players, cheerleaders, and even Cosmo, were dressed in black. It was a lot of fun.

Walking to the game.

Awesome view! 

The game was a good one to watch. The score was tied for most of it. We left right before the Beavers killed us in the remaining of the 4th quarter because it started to drizzle. Even though we lost, we had a great time cheering the Cougars on (and screaming at Riley Nelson for his ridiculously bad throws). I'm really happy that we got to go to one more football game in the stadium before we graduated! Thanks Jocelyn! (and Alec, too, for proposing to her :]).

Trip to Urgent Care

Yesterday, Blaine decided to take a break from studying and play some basketball. Well 30 minutes into his break, he hurt himself (of course). This is so Blaine of him. He rolled his ankle pretty bad. He thought he broke it at first because it was much more painful than all the other bazillion times he has rolled his ankle. So I had to leave my class early to pick him up and make sure he was OK. Immediately, I thought we should go to urgent care to just make sure that it wasn't broken. He was in a lot of pain and was shaking a little. But my dear husband hates going to hospitals or anything close to them, so he resisted. I iced it, elevated it, and gave him some medicine. 

Accident-prone Blaine

After 3 hours of icing, it still wasn't looking too good. So I convinced him to go to urgent care. His argument was that they aren't going to tell him anything he doesn't already know - ice it, elevate it, put it in an ace wrap and don't play sports for a while. And that's exactly what they told us. But I just wanted/needed the confirmation that it wasn't anything worse!

Waiting...

I had very different plans for my Thursday night. I had finished 2 big papers and just wanted to relax. I had plans to go to the temple, eat some comfort food, watch some TV, and just do nothing! But I guess that's not what I was supposed to do be doing! Now I have to make sure Blaine doesn't try to do anything crazy or play any sports whatsoever. I think I want to ban him from playing any sports other than golf. The sad part is that he's so good and athletic, but he's so competitive that he pushes himself way too hard. And that's how he always gets hurt. If our kids turn out anything like him and somehow get the crazy gene of my brother (he always gets hurt too), I will need to be a full-time nurse!

Our temple date night turned into an urgent care and McDonald's date! I really shouldn't be complaining. Blaine has to hobble around campus, study, and take a test today! Poor guy!

Golf Intramural Champion

Intramurals are a pretty big deal at BYU. Everybody wants a shirt saying that they're an intramural champion. Blaine played on intramural soccer, basketball, and flag football teams in the past, but he'd always get hurt. So he has sticked to golf for the last 3 years. Blaine has won the golf intramural twice before with his friend, Brad Pendleton. This year, they really wanted to win the whole thing. Blaine said that they played really well but it just wasn't meant to be for them this year. But luckily, Blaine won the individual competition for getting closest to the pin. So he still won a shirt (apparently, the most important thing) and a 9-hole gift card for Sleepy Ridge Golf Course! This kid has skills. I'm so glad that he was able to get one more shirt his last year at BYU!

My champion <3

Phillies Game

On August 5th, we went to a Phillies game with Keith, Eileen, Kim, Brian and Tucker to celebrate Brian's birthday. They played against the Arizona Diamondbacks. I hadn't been to a Phillies game before. We tried going to one last year against the then Florida Marlins. But the game was cancelled due to the hurricane. 

The game was a lot of fun. I like baseball, but I'm not crazy about it. Growing up I would go to a lot of Marlins games, but once I got older I didn't follow up with baseball that much. So I guess I'm a Phillies/Marlins fan :)

Love my in-laws!

I love their mascot, Phanatic! I have no idea what he is and I think that's what makes him so much fun. He kind of reminds me of the Heat's Burnie. 

The Phillie Fanatic

With my love

Once we were in the stadium, everybody (and I mean everybody) had a bucket of crabfries. We decided we had to have some. I love fries. The line to get these fries was like a line for a ride in Disney World. No joke. I also realized that the people who sell these only sell crabfries. That's it. There's nothing else on their menu. They stay in business by selling these fries. So I was pretty excited to taste them. They're basically fries with Old Bay seasoning. I didn't think it was anything amazing. They were also probably the most expensive fries I've ever eaten. Was it worth it? I'm not sure. But it was part of the experience.

The Phillies won the game, which was pretty exciting since they've been struggling this year. They've lost a lot of home games, too. So it was great! Go Phillies!