Just Another Night In Mesa

Last night we were entertained by our crazy neighbor next door who was arguing with her son. Since her front door is about 5 feet from our own, we always get to enjoy their family drama. Last night they spent several hours going up and down the stairs yelling and slamming doors. But just when we thought the drama was over, it got a little more interesting.

Soon after we woke up this morning, we got a knock on our door. When we answered it, we were greeted by several officers from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. Apparently, our neighbor was heard to be harboring a guy who has a warrant out for his arrest (The sad thing is that this wasn't the first time the cops have come to our door at this apartment). After asking us a couple questions, the officers went across the hall and proceeded to knock on the neighbors door. After our neighbor wouldn't answer, they and several more cops surrounded the apartment and threatened to break down the door. After a while, she finally came to the door and they searched her apartment. We don't think they found the guy, but it was pretty crazy watching the drama through our peep hole. Who needs to go to the movies when we've got free entertainment right here at home?! I think it's probably time to get out of Mesa!

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My New FAVORITE Song

I can't help it, I LOVE this song!

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Wii Night

One thing that we've noticed about living back in Arizona, is that it seems like everything is EXPENSIVE! After going on several expensive dates, we decided to do an old fashioned group date night with some of our friends. On Saturday night, we went to the store and bought ingredients and toppings for homemade pizzas. We came back to our apartment and each couple made their own pizza and we played Nintendo Wii. We rented a new Wii game which we totally love and had some amazing homemade ice cream. Altogether, the night turned out great. I guess it just goes to show that you really don't have to spend a lot to have a fun time!

After accidentally hitting his date during a game of tennis, Rob was banished to his own corner for the remainder of the game.

For the record, I'm actually pretty good at Wii Tennis. I blame it on the fact that I had to play with Rob's Mii character instead of my own.

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D-Backs Game

On Friday night we went to the Diamondbacks game with Mark and Rob. (Yup, that's right, just me and 3 boys.) I'm sure the boys were disappointed that I was there when I turned down an offer from a scalper for better seats, but I just have this weird thing where I'd rather spend $25 bucks on dinner than seats closer to the field. In the end, the Diamondbacks won and it was great getting to watch the game in the perfect AZ weather!

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Happy Mother's Day!

Using our newly acquired skills, Ryan and I decided that this Mother's Day would be a great opportunity to put our cake decorating skills to use and make a Mother's Day cake.

We also made some special Mother's Day videos for our moms!

Barb:

Mary:

We just want to let both of our moms know how much we love and appreciate them! We're so thankful for EVERYTHING they do for us! We couldn't ask for greater moms!

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Little Stud

This last week was a total blast getting to hang out with my sister Adrienne and nephew Brooklen! All I can say about the little guy is that he is...SPOILED!!! One of the highlights of the week was getting to go to Last Chance. For those of you who don't know, we are HUGE Last Chance fans. But if you've ever been there, you'll know that the people there can be a little rude. After going on Tuesday morning, Adrienne decided that the line for the dressing rooms just wasn't moving quick enough. Being the problem solver she is, we went back on Thursday and she wore leggings. Since the leggings were so tight, she was able to try things on right over her clothes without every having to go into the dressing room. I'm super mad that I didn't take a picture, but just picture her little stick legs in leggings and one of Hunter's t-shirts! She looked totally hot!

Somehow, I don't seem to have any pictures of Adrienne from this last week. But here are some pics of her little stud!

(Already a money grubber at a young age)

On Monday we went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch. When the waitress brought us bread, she also brought a separate plate of bread and bananas for Brooklen. You can imagine how much he loved that!


I'm pretty sure that Brooklen had someone playing with him almost every second of every day. Whether he was looking at the horses with my dad or chillin' outside with my mom, he always had someone entertaining him!


Brooklen absolutely LOVED Ryan. He went to Ryan before he went to anyone else in my family. They became best buds. I'm pretty sure Ryan was ready to trade me in for Brooklen!



All in all, we had a blast getting to hang out with Adrienne and Brooklen! We're so sad they're gone but we're already counting down to the next time we get to see them!

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Starting Real Life

Since graduating, it seems like everyone wants to know what's next for us. So here's the rundown... For those who don't know, Ryan majored in Construction Management and I majored in Business Management. As of next Monday, Ryan will begin his new job with Intel Corporation as a Project Manager. In the position, he will be managing a wide variety of construction projects within the company. We're pretty excited as it's tough to find a job in construction management with normal work hours. Ryan's pretty excited to start, especially since he can wear jeans and a t-shirt to work, work from home every once in a while, and Intel allows him to have a flexible work schedule.

On that same note, I will soon start my new job working for SubmitAWebsite.com as a PPC Manager. (I'm sure most of you are wondering what the heck a PPC Manager does.) Since my background is in online marketing, I decided to go that route for a career. Let's just say that it deals with online marketing and the management of search engine accounts with Google and Yahoo. Since online marketing is such a difficult field to get into, this is definitely a great opportunity with a lot of potential for growth in the future.

Luckily, we have 2 weeks to relax before we begin the new jobs. We've definitely been cherishing these weeks of vacation before it's officially time for us to start real life.

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Little Surprises

After 3 years of freezing in Idaho, we are officially warm again! On Thursday we made the long drive from Rexburg to AZ and on Friday we got moved into our new apartment. We absolutely love being able to go outside without having to bundle up!

Before moving back to AZ, we seriously searched for months for a good deal on an apartment. It was tough to find a place that would work for us since we want to get into a house in the next 6 months. Apparently, apartments expect you to pay a lot more if you want a short lease. So when a friend (thanks Celeste) told us that her old apartment was available, we jumped on it as it's a super smokin' deal. Although the apartment is older, it'll save us a lot of money as most of the utilities are included. However, since moving in, we continue to find more and more surprises. Here are a few of the surprises we've found SO FAR:

1. No baseboards in any of the carpeted rooms (only in the kitchen and bathrooms)
2. No lights (Yep, that's right, there's only lights in the kitchen and bathrooms)
3. No microwave (I went to heat up some food yesterday, only to realize that we don't have a microwave. It's sad that it took us almost 2 days to realize this one)

Don't get me wrong, overall, we like the apartment and it should work out well. Hopefully we just won't have too many more surprises. But it's a fun adventure living in a new place and we're excited to see what new surprises each day will bring. So stay tuned, you never know what new surprises will pop up next!

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Star Struck

When writing the previous blog entry, I totally forgot to mention one of the best stories from graduation. One of the cool things about the BYU schools' graduations, is that they have general authorities come and speak. This year at our graduation, we had Elder Ballard as the main speaker. Now Ryan's uncle is a member of the 70 so he's met quite a few apostles, while I, on the other hand...have not. So there we were, walking out to the main floor at the beginning of commencement, and all of the faculty were lined up on the sides of the hallways clapping for us. As we walked through the hall, we were saying hi to all the teachers we had taken classes from in the past. At the end of the line, right before entering the auditorium, I saw the President of the university standing at my right, so I looked to my left to see who was standing there. As I walk past this man, I realized that it was Elder Ballard. Being totally shocked, I just stood there staring at him in total awe. More than anything, I was just surprised. I had never even been in the same room as an apostle, and "poof," there was one right next to me. After staring at him and not saying anything, he finally broke the awkwardness and said "Hi there." The moral of the story is that I will always be known as the creepy girl who just stood there totally star struck by an apostle. Let's just say that since it happened, Ryan hasn't let me forget what a total goober I looked like.

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Graduation

Well, that day has finally come and gone... On Friday, Ryan and I officially graduated from college. I'm not gonna lie, it's a little weird. Here we are, sitting at our apartment on a Sunday night, not knowing what to do with ourselves without homework. I'll admit, the thought of starting real life and working 8 hour days without a summer vacation, really doesn't sound too exciting. But altogether, we're excited to be moving back to the warmth and starting something new!

It was a fun weekend as we were able to spend the weekend hanging out with our parents. We definitely want to say thank you to our parents as they made the trip here to Rexburg to support us. We also want to give a special thanks to my dad for making the drive up here the day after tax season ends to help us move!

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Fondue Night

One of our favorite wedding presents has been our amazing fondue pot. When we first picked it out, we were a little skeptical as to whether we'd actually use it or not, but this weekend we had our second fondue night since getting married. Since our time in Rexburg is coming to an end, we decided to have one last rockin' night of fondue to say goodbye. Although we were too distracted by all the food to whip out the camera and take pics, we had a great time getting to hang out with all of our friends one last time before making our big move. A special thanks to Ansley & TJ for hosting the night at their place! (And thanks to everyone else for the thousands of calories I consumed while piggin' out on fondue!)

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Ace of Cakes (Part II)

I'm a little hesitant to post these pictures simply because they make my cake look bad, but here are the pics for Ryan's final cake. The entire semester, Ryan's been embarrassed to tell people he's taking the class because the it's most commonly taken by girls. For the final project, Ryan decided to make a graduation cake. Check out Ryan's attempt at making a more "manly" cake!

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Ace of Cakes

For our final in cake decorating class, we had to create a 2-tier cake using some of the techniques we learned throughout the semester. For this particular cake, everything had to be made from scratch. And I mean EVERYTHING, from the cake to the frosting to the actual fondant. Yesterday I finished my cake so my teacher suggested that I display it in the bridal expo. So today we dropped the cake off at the show and got to showcase my first tiered caked. Check it out! (Pics of Ryan's cake will be coming soon.)

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Top Chefs

One of our favorite shows is "Top Chef." So you can imagine our excitement when we found out that we had to purchase chef coats for our cake decorating class. The last two weeks we've spent quite a bit of time in the school kitchen as we've been working on our big final project. I'll post the pictures of our final cakes when they're done, but in the meantime, check us out in our cool chef's coats. Can anyone say "Top Chef's?"

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2nd Attempt

This last weekend was a ton of fun as we were able to hang out with Ryan's friends and family. Continuing with our Spokane tradition, we went to Cour d'Alene to gorge out on ice cream. Being the trooper that I am, I decided to make a second attempt at the magnificent "Gooey." Once again, I failed the challenge, but I did get a lot closer this time around. As always, Ryan finished his "Gooey" without any problems and I got about 3 bites away from my goal. I know, I know, 3 bites seems like nothing, but after eating all of that ice cream let's see how easy it is for you to eat those last three bites!

Ryan's:
Mine: (I never thought the day would come that I would look at ice cream and want to puke)

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Weekend Fun

This last weekend was our last weekend visiting Spokane before our big move. The weekend was a ton of fun since Ryan's sister also went home so we could spend the weekend with her kids. As always, Ryan's nephew and niece were the highlight of the weekend. Yesterday alone, Ryan's niece put glitter all over the house, cut her hair, and said the dinner prayer in her own made-up language. Let's just say that life's always interesting with the kids are around!

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BYU-I Roomates

On Friday night we went to dinner with some of my old roommates. All I can say is that it's amazing how things change. When I first came to BYU-Idaho, my roommates and I were all 18 and 19 enjoying single life. Back then, we could care less about boys, we were much more concerned with junk food and what our weekend plans were going to be. The nice thing about living at BYU-I are that almost all of the apartment complexes have 6 people per an apartment. Since BYU-I is on the three-track system, I usually had different roommates each semester. Although each semester was remarkably different, it was always fun getting to live with new people and make new friends. Here are some stats on my past roommates:

Total roommates at BYU-I: 11
Roommates who are now married or will be this year: 7
Roommates w/ a baby: 1
Where roommates are from: Idaho, Washington, Colorado, Texas, California, Utah, and Kansas

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Countdown to Graduation

The countdown to graduation is ON!!!

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Winter Wonderland?

I know I've already complained about the snow this winter, but due to the large amount of snow we've received, I think I'm pretty justified in my complaints. As you can see in the pictures below, it's snowed pretty much every day this winter. And just when we think the worst is over, we jinx ourselves and another 2 feet of snow drops from the sky. We've learned that the biggest mistake we can make around here is to not drive our cars every day. Experience has taught us that if we don't move our cars every day, the snow begins to build up and our cars ends up looking like this: (By the way, these aren't our cars, luckily, our cars haven't gotten covered this bad)

And once a car gets to this point, it might as well be broken down for the rest of the winter. All I know is that whoever put the word "winter" and "wonderland" in the same sentence is absolutely out of there mind!

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Bbq Wings

Ryan was raised in a home where the Superbowl was a pretty big deal. (I, on the other hand, am a bigger fan of the food than the actual game.) Growing up, one of the main highlights of the game was his moms amazing bbq wings. In order to carry on the tradition, Ryan had his mom teach him how to make the wings over Christmas break. Being the little chef that he is, Ryan spent all Saturday afternoon basting away. On Sunday we went over to a friend's house for the big game and the wings were a hit. Although I probably ate half of them myself, I think it's pretty safe to say that he's going to be cooking them a lot more often from here on out.

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