A Weekend with Friends

Two weekends ago, we were visited by Kristin and Kathy Andrade. The Andrade sisters have been my friends ever since I can remember. They are now both attending BYU-Idaho and are only 4 hours away! I was so excited to spend a weekend with them.

We picked them up in Salt Lake City and immediately headed to the new mall, City Creek Center. Oh. My. Gorgeousness. I felt like I wasn't in Utah. It's Utah's first high-end shopping center. It's so beautiful and HUGE (700,000 sq ft)! There is a creek running along the entire center. There were also numerous fountains that made me feel like I was in a theme park. There were musicians and live bands playing in every little corner. It reminded me of Miami's Bayside - just nicer! It's an outdoor mall with a retractable roof! How cool is that! Now when it rains or snows, it doesn't matter! They had every store I could possibly think of. I was most excited for Nordstrom, the Pandora store, Tiffany & Co. , Michael Kors, and Steven Madden. All but Nordstrom are the first stores in Utah. It's about time! We tried going to as many stores as possible with the time we had. We had to stop our window-shopping to eat. The food court has so many choices! Blaine was super excited when he saw Suki Hana. It's one of those typical Asian food court restaurants but it's the only one in Utah and Blaine loves it! We're going back this weekend :)

After the mall, we went to watch The Hunger Games. Unfortunately, we arrived pretty late and had to sit in the second row. I liked the movie a lot, but I felt that it left out a lot of things from the book that were pretty important! The scenes and characters were well done. Everything looked exactly as I pictured it. But books are always so much better.

The next day we attended the Holi Festival of Colors. It was crazy. I had been twice before, but it had never been this packed. It took us an hour to drive from Provo to Spanish Fork and we had to park far away and walk quite a bit to the entrance. The line to get in was huge (and we missed the 3 pm throwing). But we still went inside and threw some colors on each other and random people walking by :) The traffic going back to Provo was even worse - it took us 2 hours! That night, we ate dinner at Zupas and watched Hugo at home. I heard that some people didn't like the movie, but I loved it! It was different and had a nice message. I highly recommend it. It was a great day.

Saturday night Blaine started feeling really sick. He had a really high fever and the rough nights began. We didn't go to church and just hung out with Kris and Kathy at home. Blaine was watching the golf channel and Kathy showed a lot of interest in learning about golf! I thought it was hilarious. I tried making baleadas (a typical Honduran meal) from scratch for dinner. The tortillas weren't coming out as great as I planned and Kris helped me in the kitchen. We got lucky and the end result wasn't too bad! Unfortunately, the time came where I had to drop off Kris and Kathy at SLC so that they could meet their ride back to BYU-I. It was sad to see them go, but I'm grateful for the time I had with them and for their friendship!

What I Do When I'm Sick

I became really really really tired Wednesday night - like at 9pm. That never happens to me and I couldn't figure out what was going on. Then, in the middle of the night, I started going to the bathroom a lot. I had a stomach virus all through Friday. No fun at all. I felt miserable and really weak!

Tuesday, I took my last midterm of the semester. I was exhausted from all the studying and went to Hobby Lobby as soon as I left the testing center. I haven't been reading for fun or doing anything for fun in a while. So I just wanted to do something that wasn't related to school.

I've been wanting to make a beaded applique headband for a while now. I found some pretty good instructions here. So while I was in bed all Thursday and Friday, I worked on one. I decided to make a mockingjay design to wear when we go watch The Hunger Games this Friday!

What you need.

1. First you have to draw the design you want on broadcloth. I drew a preliminary sketch on paper as practice. You can also just print whatever design you want and trace it. Our printer is broken so I had no choice but to draw it. Then you put it in your embroidery loom.

2. Then you just start sewing the sequins/beads on. 

3. Once you're done, you put a thin layer of white school glue on the back of the applique to seal the thread. It took a couple of hours to dry. 

4. Once the glue is completely dry, you cut out your design. This was the most annoying part.  I had to use my tiny pair of sewing scissors and it took a while. I would suggest getting broadcloth in brown or black so that it doesn't show much against your hair. 

5. Finally, you sew (or glue) your applique to your headband. And that's it! 

It was so much fun to make. There is something so relaxing about embroidery. There isn't much to think about while you're doing it. They're pretty easy and you can make any design you want. I'm so excited to make some more!

Pi Day

I've never made a pie before. I learned how to make my favorite pie ever (coconut cream) this past Thanksgiving with Aunt Jan. I'm petrified of making certain things, one of them being pie. They're pretty foreign to me. In Spanish, there isn't a word for pie. It's just "pie." There aren't any Hispanic pies or anything like them. So I didn't grow up eating much pie, other than McD's dollar apple pie. 

So I gathered the courage to make a pie on Pi Day. So corny, but love that kinda stuff. Blaine loves pies and he's always asking me to make one. He had a rough week this week, with a midterm every other day. So I figured it'd make him happy to come home to a pie. 

I found the easiest recipe possible for chocolate mousse pie and whipped it up in the break I had between class and zumba. It turned out OK. I didn't whip the heavy cream really well and the texture of the pie wasn't mousse-like as it was supposed to be :(  But the flavor was delicious anyway :) I liked this recipe because you use Hershey's chocolate with almonds. While you're eating the pie, you have almond pieces in it. So yummy! I love nuts. So the pie was supposed to be all fluffy...

Not fluffy at all! 

I'll be trying this recipe again for sure. And maybe I'll try making another pie for Easter. If I don't retry something that I failed at quickly, I tend to not try it again for a while. I'm such a brat. I hate failure. Here's to trying new things and yummy pies! 

RG3 to the Redskins!

So a lot of exciting things have been happening in sports lately. The Heat are doing well (can't wait for the playoffs). BYU actually made it to "the big dance" and surprisingly beat Iona, making the biggest comeback in NCAA history. But, above all, I am seriously excited to have this guy as the Redskins QB this upcoming season.

I didn't grow up watching football, so I became a Redskins fan after meeting Blaine. It has been fun learning more about football, the players, the rules, etc. but it has NOT been fun watching the Skins lose... a lot. So maybe this well change things up a little. He's young, fast, humble, and a serious athlete. He holds several records in college football and he was the 2011 Heisman Trophy winner. Basically, he gives us Redskins fans hope. We're so excited for football season this year!  

Heat Game

A couple of weeks ago, Blaine and I went to the Energy Solutions Arena to watch the Heat play the Utah Jazz. The Heat were currently on a 9-game winning streak. We were so excited to watch them play and thought that we'd win for sure. Well, we lost... BY ONE POINT. We were pretty bummed out. We were surrounded by Heat fans and didn't have any mean Jazz fans sitting close by (miracle). We were really looking forward to watching the Big 3 play, but to our serious disappointment, Chris Bosh was out of the game due to a death in his family. Regardless of the loss, we had a great time. It was our first NBA and Heat game together - the first of many, many more :) 

Lebron and Wade doing their pre-game handshake. 

Things I've Made (So Far in 2012)

I have a Cricut, but have barely used it (due to my lack of cartridges). It was my friend, Stephanie's, birthday in January and decided to give her a vinyl to put up on her wall. This was my first one and I was very nervous. But it turned out fine and she really seemed to like it! 

Earlier in January, my stake had a Super Saturday Relief Society Activity. It's a morning full of classes about everything. They had craft classes, cooking classes, home enrichment classes - that type of stuff. It was pretty cool. I went with my friend, Kailyn (thank goodness she's in the ward!) and we ended up going to a felt pillow class. It's a tiny pillow but it was fun to make. It doesn't really match with my apartment, but I do love the color purple! It was fun learning how to make the flower. It was pretty therapeutic. 

Like I mentioned earlier, Nina's birthday was on the day of our anniversary. I didn't know what to get her and finally decided to give her some decorations for her apartment. She had mentioned that she liked The Family: A Proclamation to the World that I had, so I made her one too. I've lost count of how many of these I've made. They're so nice, cheap and easy. I love them so much! 

Aren't they cute? 

So since I practiced my vinyl lettering with Stephanie's gift in January, I gathered up the courage to try making a sign. It really wasn't that hard at all. I'm just a chicken. I'm scared of dimensions, proportions, and having everything centered. I'm not good at measuring things. But it turned out better than I expected.

Now that I feel more confident with the Cricut, I might start investing in more cartridges. I want to make a sign for our apartment about family. Hopefully, I'll get to that soon! 

One Year Anniversary

Last Sunday, we made one year of being married. I cannot believe that it has been an entire year! It has been a wonderful year - one of the best yet. Every day, I have fallen more in love with Blaine. I am so happy that we decided to be sealed forever. I couldn't have picked a better eternal companion!

This is a picture taken the day before we got married. I loved him so much then,
 I didn't think I could love him any more. Little did I know that it was possible!

We started the day by going to church, as usual. Afterwards, we went over to Matt and Nina's to celebrate Nina's birthday. I will never forget her birthday! We cut a cake and sang her happy birthday. I'm so glad that I came out to BYU and roomed with Nina. She has become one of my best friends and a big support to me. I love you, Nina!

Once we were done, we were on our way to The Castle Creek Inn - the same bed and breakfast that we went to for our honeymoon. We even booked the same, exact room! When we arrived, I was surprised with rose petals and candles all over the room and with some sparkling apple cider. Blaine called in advance and had it all set up for me! It was so sweet. We spent the night writing down 100 memories of our first year together. We included important events that occurred in our families, in the world, and in our personal lives. I want to make this a tradition so that when our minds fail us, we can remember how blessed we've been. We also watched Sleepless in Seattle (I had never seen it!) and ate Pei Wei. We had a wonderful night together.

In the morning, we slept in and had a yummy breakfast. The time had come to check out and we were pretty bummed. Even though we were only 40 minutes away from Provo, it's nice to go away for a little bit and not worry about school and work. Before leaving, we checked the guest book to find what we wrote a year ago...

The first time I signed as Mrs. Dawson :)

I gave my fruit to Blaine, but the pumpkin bread was uh-mazing. 

Everything was so good!

We then headed to Fashion Place mall to do some shopping with gift cards that I got for my birthday. For lunch, we ate at The Cheesecake Factory (thanks to Damaris - she gave us a gift card for our anniversary). We also ate at The Cheesecake Factory the day after we go married, so it was fun to do it all over again. We shared an entree and each had our own cheesecake! Blaine had the Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake and I had the White Chocolate Caramel Macadamia Nut Cheesecake. They were both oh-so-good. It's one of our goals to try every cheesecake on the menu! We were so stuffed.

As our anniversary gift, we decided to buy tickets to the Heat vs. Jazz game. It's this coming Friday. We are so excited to see our favorite basketball team live! It has been a while for me and Blaine has never seen the Heat play.

We've learned a lot in this one year. Even though I feel that we knew each other very well before getting married, there are still so many things to discover and learn together. I love Blaine very much and I'm so happy that I get to spend many more years with him by my side. Thank you, Blaine,  for all that you've done for me, for our little family, and for being an amazing husband. You put a smile on my face everyday! Marrying you has been one of the greatest moments in my life and the most important decision I've made!

I saw this on Pinterest. Every anniversary, you take a picture together holding a picture of your anniversary on the previous year. I thought it was pretty cool!