At the beginning of fall semester last year, we caved and purchased the "Starving Student Card," which is a card full of discounts that BYU sells in the Bookstore every year. It has different sections of coupons and most of them are BOGO (buy one get one), or buy and entree and two drinks and get a second entree free (which is a rip off because drinks are so expensive and we'd rather just have water). BUT, there is a section on there of stuff that is actually FREE. (Well, not really when you consider you actually paid $30 for the card in the first place haha, but we'll just pretend like they're free so I can feel good about how much we "saved" ;)) A while ago we talked about how we should try to do all of the free things in one night to get our money's worth, so for my "birthday date" that's exactly what we did! Well..tried. haha

First stop: A FREE 7" pizza from Blackjack Pizza

^^The pizza was actually delicious. But, even if it hadn't been, you seriously can't beat the price tag of $0.00 ;) 

Next: A FREE 6" sandwich from Gandolfo's.

^^The food did NOT disappoint. 

Next we headed to Creativity Art Studio, (which is the same idea as Color Me Mine) where we got one "free studio fee." I've never been to Color Me Mine, and I've always wanted to go because I secretly think it would be cool to feel like an artist. It was!!! We painted a little mug and both really enjoyed it :) we were soooo slow, but luckily we weren't in a rush and just had fun chatting and painting all the way up until they closed (in a totally empty studio - we were the only people there the whole time, along with the one worker haha).

By this point, we were pretty tired! We considered using another BOGO to get some dessert, but we were so full from dinner, we just went home and watched a movie instead.

Over the next few days we tried to take advantage of as many of the other free things on the card as possible (since it expired Sept 1st), like a free rock-chip windshield repair, and a free game of bowling in the Wilk (we won't talk about the scores, haha). To be totally honest I don't know if the Starving Student Card was really worth it in the end...but it definitely made for a fun date night!

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han.

(PS HD is always better. ;)

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han.

For President's Day weekend we decided to go down to St. George with some friends. I was excited to go on a little adventure and visit my Grandparents who live down there part-time, but I was also a little worried, because I don't really know what there is to do around St. George other than hiking. I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned on this blog how I am DEFINITELY POSITIVELY ABSOLUTELY NOT a hiker, and this fact is still true. Sophia ASSURED me before we went that we definitely wouldn't be doing any intense hiking because she's not all too crazy about it either (THE LIES!!!). We drove down to St. George on Friday night and we were chatting with my grandparents, when Gram asked what our plans for Saturday were. We said we weren't really sure but we would probably head over to Zion National Park. That's when this idea of hiking Devil's Angel's Landing came up. I was very adamantly against it from the start, but unfortunately I was outvoted 3 to 1 so there was really nothing I could do.

matching shirts^^ / when I asked one of my students what book she was reading and she said, "it's kind of old...it's from 2009..." / hazelnut hot chocolate in the vitamix / a freeeezing new years day photoshoot with Tuva and Had / my new toothbrush / gold nailpolish / my saturday shopping spree at target with leftover wedding giftcard money (I might actually cry when I use the last giftcard.) / letting my students play trivia crack as a class reward / the presidency meeting that made me laugh almost to tears while trying not to spit out the NASTY mystery chocolate from the chocolate box / watching Parks and Rec with Stephen / homemade broccoli cheese soup + paninis / when my students were so obsessed with Stephen's toe touch at 1:23 of this video that they had me replay it 4 times / Baby Lewis' baby blessing / costco's fresh uncooked tortillas / watching a first grader chew on his shoelace during reading buddies / angie's kettle corn / pillow-talking with Stephen for 1.5 hours on Sunday night

As embarrassing as this might be to admit... I started mentally composing a "one year anniversary" post WEEKS before our one year anniversary...but unfortunately the time to write it came and went while every nook and cranny of my brain was (and is) filled with "the 6th grade thoughts" and all previously meditated drafts of this post are nowhere to be found.

However, I would STILL like to share just a few reasons why this past year (+ ~1 month) has been THE BEST YEAR OF MY LIFE -- all thanks to that guy who I met one fateful morning five (!!!) years ago.

Here are some of my favorite memories from this past year: (SIDE NOTE: Some/many of these will probably be "you had to be there" moments I am posting more for our future benefit than anyone else's. Feel free to read about them, but by no means feel obligated to think they are as funny as we do ;))

+ One day I was talking to Stephen about macaroons. I asked him if he'd ever had one and I showed him this picture because he wasn't sure what I was talking about. He glanced at the picture and exclaimed, "Those look like tiny hamburgers!" 

+One night we were laughing so hard and we couldn't fall asleep. Finally I said, "We REALLY need to go to sleep!" After a few minutes I said, "Are you sleepy?" and Stephen said faintly, "nooo...buut if I talk in my sleeeeepy voice I miiiight be able to convince myself that I'm sleeeeepy...." 

+I honestly can't remember how it started, but at some point I started saying, "I love yo' mind and yo' body and yo' souuul." Now Stephen says it too and I think it's hilarious.

+When we ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory the waiter came over THREE different times to ask if we had chosen what cheesecake we wanted for dessert. After he left each time we would start talking and forget we were supposed to be choosing a cheesecake. I loved that we would rather continue our conversation than choose (and consequently EAT) cheesecake. ;) (But don't worry, we eventually decided on a cheesecake, and eat cheesecake we DID!)

+One day I was scratching Stephen's head when he said, "Ya...I'll DEFINITELY pay our future children to do this." (This is particularly funny if you realize that my dad used to pay us kids a quarter for every hour we would scratch his head. hahhaa. I don't remember if that was exactly the ratio but it was something equally as ridiculous ;))

+Stephen and I are somewhat infamous in our family for our extremely memorable (and highly skilled ;)) renditions of Happy Birthday that we often film and send to people. Hopefully those videos are promptly deleted and not kept for future blackmail purposes...

+A few weeks after we got married, we were getting ready to go to sleep and Stephen said, "We need to say prayers." Almost instinctively we both called out, "PRAYERS!" at exactly the same time. We were laughing so hard we silently agreed to make this a tradition. We probably do this 2-3 times a week now and even though we've done it well over 100 times, we still think it's hilarious. 

+When Stephen walked into my classroom to meet my class a couple of weeks ago, all of the boys exclaimed excitedly (almost in unison), "WOAH!!! He IS buff!!!!" HAHAH. It was seriously the best. One of the students in my class asked him, "How many times a day do you work out?" (Nothin' like 6th graders to boost your ego, huh? I'm pretty sure Stephen is rethinking his career path ;)) Having Stephen in my classroom for just that couple of minutes was SO much fun. I wish he could come to school with me everyday. :)

I know there are MANY MANY more instances that illustrate how much fun we've had this past year, but I'm afraid if I try to write them all...I'll never finish this post! 

Stephen is without a doubt one of the funniest, kindest, most intelligent, patient and caring men I've ever met and I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER at the notion of spending not only "til death do we part" but wayyy after that, too! 

Here's to forever with my best friend by my side! 

I'm so glad I married happy ;)

The reason we had to leave the Olson Family Reunion in such a hurry was because we were actually supposed to be back in Provo by 2:00 pm to leave for Lake Powell with Grandma and Grandpa Rasband! With a little bit of luck and a lot of speeding we were able to make it back JUST in time. :) Within minutes of getting back, we were again on the road, this time for a week long adventure at Lake Powell. And we had no idea just how much of an adventure was in store ;)

We got to Page, AZ that evening and then waited anxiously for the Jensen family to arrive. We stayed on the houseboat at the company that stores it when it isn't being used. Stephen and I opted to sleep on the top deck of the houseboat since Anna assured us that there was not even a chance of rain. ;) It started sprinkling sometime in the middle of the night, so we moved our sleeping pads underneath the awning and went back to sleep. A few hours later, however, it started raining much harder and the canvas awning became fully saturated and started to drip (almost consistently into Stephen's ear). Rather than admit defeat and go inside, we decided to instead move everything underneath the picnic table. It actually worked out quite nicely, and surprisingly we both had quite restful sleep despite the rain. :)

(Just in case you don't speak emoji...I've provided the translation below: 

The sun was shining, we were boating and having a great time. Stephen had a bit of a tumble off of the wake board. We all said “Ouch. That probably hurt….” and then went on enjoying the day. A little bit later Stephen commented on being light headed and next thing we knew he had a little seizure. It kinda freaked me out, but he insisted he was fine…until a few minutes later when he had a SECOND seizure. At this point, my uncle decided it would be wise to call 911. After answering a series of questions, they determined that a helicopter should be sent to pick him up. And so…within 20 minutes the helicopter had arrived and they carted Stephen off on a stretcher. We waved goodbye (a little tearfully on my part) and Stephen was flown to the Flaggstaff Medical center to have CT scan. Within an hour they determined that he had likely suffered a small concussion, but that he was fine, and released him from the hospital. Miraculously, the helicopter pilot got permission to allow Stephen to return by helicopter to Page, AZ so that we wouldn't have to drive 3.5 hours (each way) to pick him up. He got back, we were happy, and within 24 hours Stephen was again wake-boarding. wake-surfing, and rock climbing as if nothing had happened.)

The rest of the week, was SO much fun, and thankfully paled in comparison to the adventure of Monday afternoon. We loved spending time with the Jensens and Rasbands, boating, exploring, talking, reading, relaxing, and playing games. We are SO beyond thankful to them for letting us join in on their family party and for everyone's generosity and calmness with Stephen's little "episode." :)

We love Lake Powell and hope to go back someday soon!!

After the lunch break he went back to work and I went back to the park. I made some headway in reading the book The First Days of School  by Harry Wong, but unfortunately made very little headway in actually figuring out what I will do for them. [worried face emoji] It's almost crunch time!

On our way back from SLC we stopped at Nordstrom Rack -- which could be detrimental if you're trying to use money sparingly -- luckily all we ended up with was a sweater for less than $10! (Steal!!!) [Also, have I mentioned on this blog that Stephen loooooooves to shop?! I'm the luckiest girl in the world! ;)]

Oh how I love this man of mine!