Thanks...

It has been nearly a month since my last post! (sooo sorry, blogie)

Life's been grand around here, but the reason for my long absence is not grandness, but rather excessive busy-ness. For the weeks following Thanksgiving, Matt and I were busy preparing for finals and our last days in this past semester. It was awful - A-W-F-U-L!

My days for about 2 1/2 weeks went like this:

Days without work:
-wake up early
-quick shower
-quick breakfast
-oodles of homework, papers, and art projects
-night class

Days with work:
-wake up at 6am
-work from 7-3:30
-come home
-change (sometimes I didn't even have time to change until minutes before heading out the door to class!)
-quick dinner (that had usually been prepared by the time I got home by my sweet hubs)
-last minutes touches to homework
-night class

In case you're wondering, it was exhausting. This semester has definitely taught me my limits and boundaries. Never again will I take 18 credits/6 classes the first semester I am married while working a full time job 5-6 days a week. I'm not saying all of this for pity or for your approval, but I am proud of what I managed to accomplish between several mental breakdowns that left me wanting to give up on my education. Thank the Lord for a good, comforting man. And chocolate. Lots of chocolate.

But these days, we're busy recouping. And THAT is glorious. Yesterday AND today have been spent doing a whole lot of cuddling, movie watching, and Christmas-ing our apartment. Give me a "woot" for days off!

Since the semester has ended, I have re-dedicated myself to documenting our lives through the lens of my camera. Here are a few special things I am especially thankful for (since I did not have the chance to post on the things I am thankful for):

Snow! Just enough to silence footsteps and make evening walks extra romantic.

A Thanksgiving Dinner. - Our very first as a married couple!

Marie Calendar's Apple Pie Deliciousness.

Matts first attempt at what will become his "specialty" - Honey Mustard Chicken!

Our baby, Mochi, experiencing her first Christmas tree for her first Christmas.

(We bought this [pre-lit] tree on sale! - 5 days before Christmas in search of some Christmas Spirit)

Homemade garland made out of popcorn and fresh cranberries.

And my handsome.

The beaut. 

The gifts Matt has been dying to open. :}

Tonight: a walk down Temple Square to see the awesome lights we pass every day up-close, while facing the crazies (pedestrians) that have been causing so much traffic downtown. We will brave the cold and become part of the group that we vehemently dislike on simple trips across town.  

Tomorrow: the ZOO! Hogle Zoo makes this time extra special for the animals and the people who visit with Christmas lights everywhere! So naturally, we need to go pay those animals and lights a little visit. 

I stinkin' love this time of year!

A day (or two) of thanks.

Our Thanksgiving was simple and lovely. How was yours?

I slightly over estimated how long it would take to make our little feast, which I blame my mother for. Just kidding!... but really. At home she spends alllll day cooking so I figured that's just the way the cookie crumbles. And then I realized she cooks for six mouths. I was cooking for 2... and a half. I don't know how Matt is able to consume so much food and still manage to be so skinny.

Everything was going wonderfully - the food smelled delicious, everything was getting cooked and heated up - until I shorted our power causing us to try to keep things hot (didn't work) and finish cooking the rest of the food on the stove. We rushed to get everything on the table and into our mouths before it got cold (again, it didn't really work aside from the stuffing which quickly came out of the pot and into our stomachs at rapid speed). But a cold Thanksgiving dinner is still a Thanksgiving dinner and is better than no Thanksgiving dinner, no?

Needless to say, I was rather disappointed about how the first Thanksgiving dinner I ever prepared didn't turn out how I had hoped. After lots of grumping during dinner I finally realized that this holiday is not about the dinner. It's not even about pie.(!) It's about being thankful for what you have and who you are and where you have come from and where you are going. It's about knowing that the person sitting across from your on a tiny dining table is everything you could have hoped for and being thankful for everything they do and have done and will do.

I looked at Matt and apologized for being so bummed and unreasonable when he was trying to comfort me.  He apologized for trying to comfort me a little too firmly. We kissed and made up, took a few pictures with Mochi, and lounged around for a bit between flipping on and of the switches for the breaker in our apartment wondering when our power would turn back on. THEN my genius of a husband remembered about the breaker box two flights of stairs down from our apartment! He turned our power back on and we made pie and watched a movie. It was glorious. (He's exceptionally dreamy when he fixes things).

Thanksgiving Eve!

It's the eve of our very first Thanksgiving as a married couple and the first year we will not be celebrating with our families in California. It's bittersweet, really. We're happy to be doing this on our own - a sort of symbol of our new independence and a new chapter of our lives, but being away from family during the holidays.. I don't highly recommend it.

I've always loved Thanksgiving - sleeping in, moseying down the stairs to be greeted by a waft of great smelling food as my mom slaves away in the kitchen, and (aside from eating) my favorite part - making the cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries. And the past two Thanksgivings, I've been fortunate enough to be able to celebrate twice; once with Matt's family and once with mine. (Helloooo holiday l.b.s.!)

This year we're having to compromise a little with our Thanksgiving meal. Our oven is out of commission so we're using the toaster oven my parents bought us on their most recent trip to Utah (Thank you!). And since toaster ovens aren't traditionally used to cook Thanksgiving meals - especially turkeys - we're making due with cornish hens. But to balance out our lack in the turkey department, we bought a teeny little ham. Other traditions are still going to go on as planned. I have all the ingredients needed for my favorite Thanksgiving side dishes: green bean casserole, butternut squash, yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, and honey-butter carrots. I opted out on making my own cranberry sauce. Matt's not a fan and there's no way I could finish or let a family-size portion of cranberry sauce go to waste. I'm still not entirely sure how I'm going to get everything cooked in time with the very limited space and resources I have to cook in, but I am excited (and a little bit nervous). If it doesn't turn out well, I'm hoping Wal-Mart will still have some of those ready-to-eat chickens on hand.

Happy Thanksgiving, all.
May your hearts be warm and full this holiday season.

xo.

Lately...

I've been too busy reading other people's blogs to post on my own..
That and I've somehow been juggling a full time job and a full time student schedule.

We've been getting showered with little snow flurries. Fall never lasts long enough in Utah. I figure there are two things that I like and dislike about the cold white stuff of the ground: 1) it looks fabulous on our view of downtown [like], 2) our heaters in our apartment haven't quite gotten the message that it's time to turn on and stay on [dislike].

Mmmmagic.

Matt's off on another whirl-wind adventure (I just got word that he has safely landed in Memphis for his lay-over to San Antonio), and I'm stuck at home with my homework, a long to-do list, and an energizer bunny.

But guess what!?

I found the slightest bit of free wireless internet in one area of our apartment - a Christmas miracle! It's slow, but it works! I felt like a kid on Christmas discovering that smidgen of internet to use in the walls of my own home. Life is wonderful, no?

That is all.

Today...

Matt told me two things.

1) He is going to San Antonio, Texas in just over two weeks. Wha!? Well he told me he was, then asked permission to go. Well, duh! Yes, you can! Pack me in your suit case please!? My first reaction was not sadness, but jealousy! I'm so excited for him. He gets to go check out the hospital on base in San Antonio for three days to get a feel for what he will be doing once he graduates and gets shipped off. FUUUUN! Luckily, I'll be bus-ayyy with my new job and getting ready for my family to come visit. Maybe I'll even get a little homework done, and with any luck I'll be able to teach Mochi some tricks and hopefully figure out a way to keep him from eating the baseboards that he has suddenly found a liking to.

2) ...... it's a secret. A very exciting secret. A secret that warms my heart, makes me feel giddy, and makes me smile randomly in class because my happiness and excitement are uncontrollable. Don't worry. You'll figure it out someday, and maaaaybe you'll be as excited as I am.

Anyway, I've never been to Texas, and I don't really know what the hype in San Antonio is so I looked up pictures. Now I'm way more jelly than I was before. Here are some of my favorites. Hopefully he is able to do a little sight seeing for me while he's there.

The "Riverwalk". Ooooh. 

Downtown. Standard, but still pretty. 

Life's good, yes? 

A weekend.

This weekend was our first weekend apart since being married. It was strange, but it felt normal - good almost. It gave us an opportunity to reflect on how much we love and cherish each other's company. Matt was off on an "adventure" with the ROTC. I like to refer to everything that the ROTC does as an adventure because it all sounds so fun! He got to ride in a helicopter, sleep outside under the beautiful sky, sleep in the barracks (like in the movies!), and shower with other men. An adventure, indeed. It was incredible listening to his stories and seeing how happy he was. He makes me so proud. He snapped this picture just before his squad was picked up to go to "battle."

I got to have a couple of my girlfriends over on Saturday night. It was so good getting to catch up with them and have our much needed and missed "girl time" (and pizza!). I also got to work on decorating our little apartment, although I didn't get nearly as much done as I had hoped. It was still successful and so fun to get some things up on the walls. I couldn't wait to get Matt home to show him my work. He loved it.

Us at The Original Pancake House. 

After picking Matt up from his adventure, we went to Chili's for some more grub.

 Before.

After.

Friday night I spent almost 2 hours walking around IKEA trying to decide what to buy. Making decisions is already hard for me, but not knowing what Matt would think made it harder. I picked up and placed so many things into my shopping cart that I didn't end up getting, but I am very pleased with the things I did walk away with. (Not pictured is a darling little ironing board that I found for only $5!)

Now that Matt's home, we're back into the swing of things. School has been a horror show for the both of us the past few weeks. Midterms and homework assignments are relentless and don't allow us to have much of a social life. But this weekend is Halloween! We're hoping to do something, although I haven't gotten our costumes yet. If time does what it normally does, I won't get around to finding our costumes and we'll end up having a scary movie marathon with lots of unhealthy things to eat, which doesn't sound like too bad of a plan. I am thoroughly excited about what I have planned as costumes (I've been planning since last year!), but the holiday snuck up on me. If it doesn't work out in time, I'll have a whole year to gather our costume pieces for next year. 

In other news: 

I got a second job! 

... at Target. Last Monday I walked into the store for an interview, and walked out with a job. Being hired on the spot is definitely a self-esteem booster. Things are looking up for us. We are excited for everything in our bright little future.