Lately

Here's what we've been up to lately...

We went ice skating for the first time. Can you believe we've never been together? Pretty sad if you ask me. It was really fun to see how good Sean is, he did speed skating in middle school.

Sean and his brother Bruce took me snowboarding for my first time ever! Another sad fact: I've been skiing, but never snowboarding. Sean and Bruce were really good teachers. I was dreading it because everyone said "You'll hate your first time" but I honestly loved it. I can't wait to go again.

I started an internship last month. My best friend, Bryn, was able to get me an awesome internship at her work- Early Head Start in Salt Lake. They are a program that help low-income families with children ages 0-3. I am loving it, my boss is my best friend so it's basically the best internship ever!

I went with my sister and Sean's sisters to see Hunger Games! We were lucky enough to see it the night before it came out at 7:00pm, thanks to my awesome sister-in-law, Ashley. I absolutely loved it and can't wait to see it again.
Here's my sister and I waiting for the movie to start. Trying to appear somewhat normal, then showing our true excitement...

The pictures get worse, so I'll stop there.

Sean and I read the Hunger Games together. He always made fun of me for being obsessed, but now he's hooked and read all three books in five days (he was even reading on his lunch breaks), then we went and saw the movie together. He loved the books, but hated the movie. I, on the other hand, am weirdly obsessed with both.

My laptop has been giving me a lot of trouble lately. There's nothing more frustrating than a computer that is slow and freezes constantly, especially when you're doing school work. My incredible husband came home one day with a gorgeous brand new laptop! Happy early birthday to me! It's so pretty and nice, I'm almost too scared to touch it.

I registered for classes for the last time ever (unless I go to graduate school-decision pending). I graduate with my Bachelor's this December. I can't believe it! Registering at BYU is the worst. I'm so glad I'm done.

Sean has made a huge decision to quit his job, and finish school. Recently he has had strong feelings that he needs to have a degree. It's been a hard decision because his current job is amazing and almost everyone he works with has their Bachelor's degree anyways and he's already on that level of employment. But we both believe that education should be a priority, so he's taking the leap of faith and doing it. He doesn't have that much longer until he gets his Bachelor's in finance, then he may go to Law school or get an MBA. I'm so proud of him.

I have recently become obsessed with wanting a puppy. Okay, it's not recent, but whatever. I want a Papillon. Is this not the cutest thing ever? Is it sad I already have a name picked out for our non-existent dog? I ask Sean daily to buy me one.

My best friend of 15 years got her mission call to Rochester, New York. So happy and excited for her!

For April Fools Day, I tried convincing Sean I was pregnant, but I didn't have it planned out well enough, so it was a complete fail. Next year I will get him. He, on the other hand, played an incredibly mean trick: ice cold water while I was in the shower and ran away yelling "April Fools!!" He was so hilarious trying to play tricks on me all day, I couldn't even get mad.

We discovered our new favorite restaurant: La Jolla Groves. After our first time there, Sean kept saying "Remember how good that food was?" over and over again. We've been back three times in the past two months.

Finals are kicking my butt. 6 finals in 4 days. Why do professors feel a need to give final projects AND a final exam? And why am I blogging when I should be studying?

Sean and I are trying to survive all this craziness just to get to the first week of May. My dad's Christmas present to all his kids was a Mexican Riviera Cruise! It's basically all we can think about.

Two Years

Exactly two years ago today I met Sean at Zupas. He came to Utah to attend one of his best friends weddings (by the way, this couple has now become our closest friends-Congrats to Nick and Briana for being married two years!) and that evening is when I met him. I wish I could say that it was love at first sight, but I'm not sure if that exists. There was nothing monumental about the day I met him. To me, he was my friends friend. But I will say that it's one of the most important days of my life. He has made me so unbelievably happy these past two years. A few days ago I discovered that my sweet puppy needs to be put down. She's not a puppy anymore, I got her for Christmas when I was 8 years old, but to me she'll always be my puppy. It has been some of the hardest days I've ever experienced, because she's so much more than a dog to me. Sean has been the most supportive sweet husband, I know for a fact I could not go through this without him. Just another reason why I'm so lucky to have him.

I'll do a few more days of this challenge thing-y...

Day 8: A place you’ve traveled to and where else you want to travel.

I've been so blessed to grow up in a family that loves to travel and makes it a priority. In school when we are asked to tell an interesting fact about ourselves, I love saying I have been to 15 countries. I am so blessed, I think traveling teaches you something you can't learn any other way. My favorite place is Florence, Italy. Sean and I want to travel everywhere and anywhere, but we really want to go to Hawaii together!

Day 9: A favorite picture of your best friend.

This is my handsome best friend:

Day 10: Something you’re afraid of.

Me: sharks

Sean: needles

One time, we had a texting war. We'd send each other pictures of bloody needles and attacking sharks until we both were so traumatized, we couldn't text each other for a while.

Day 11: A quote you love.

If you know me at all, you know I am obsessed with quotes. I have a never-ending list of quotes organized by topic. I didn't think I could pick just one, but I forced myself:

“The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen, but if one will, are to be lived.” -Soren Kierkegaard

Day 12: Something you don’t leave the house without.

Dumb question. Our phones?

Day 13: Goals.

Don't feel like typing them all up. We have them. I must be getting lazy, guess I should stop.

Challenge

I came across this 30 day blog challenge, and thought I'd give it a shot. I've never been the kind of person to do these survey/challenge things, but I just finished my "oh so wonderful five-midterms-in-five-days" week, so I'm allowing myself to do some random blogging to relax.

There's no way I'll blog 30 days in a row (I have a hard time making myself blog weekly) so we'll see how this turns out...

Day 1: Introduce, recent picture of yourself, 15 interesting facts.

 Look all over this blog, you'll see pictures of Sean and I. And you probably know who we are so we'll skip those parts.
I'm not interesting enough (or creative enough) to think of 15 facts, so you'll have to deal with 8.

1. There are a few foods you will always find in our kitchen. Even at the end of the week when we desperately need groceries, we'll always have garlic, chips and salsa, popcorn, cereal and milk (for me, Sean won't drink milk), and fruit snacks (preferably gushers). Wow, aren't we healthy?
2. Going along with the above, I always cook with garlic and onion. Maybe I should try to branch out a little bit? The flavors are just so good.
3. Lately, Sean has been trying to be extra healthy. I've really tried to support him by cooking healthier, but sometimes I'll come home with bags of unhealthy snacks (for example: gushers were 79 cents last week, so I bought 4 boxes!) then he gets upset because I'm "tempting" him with yummy fatty foods. I totally don't meant to, but I'm a huge junk food eater. That's gonna catch up to me someday (by the way, Sean had only 1 or 2 of the gushers, so that left me to take care of the rest).  
4. We attend an arcade at least every other week, if not weekly. It's our stress relief.
5. We can't wait to move out of the traffic-jammed, jogger/biker-infested city of Provo. Moving this summer. Yay!
6. We watched the Malcom in the Middle TV show series (all 151 episodes/7 seasons) in a period of two months. We'd watch 2 or 3 episodes every night before we went to bed. Watching the last episode was a sad night for us. I hate to see fun things end.
7. We are currently deciding whether or not to buy a house, car, or just keep saving our money. (Or go to Hawaii-that's my vote.)
8. Running out of interesting facts... (let's face it, none of these are interesting. sorry) Last fact: I have the sweetest husband in the world. Remember one of my recent posts about him being superman? Well he did that again last Tuesday. What a man.

Day 2 - Meaning behind your blog name

Yes I know, my blog name is not nearly as creative as I'd like it to be. I’m not the biggest fan of it; several times I have wanted to change it, but I don’t have anything else to call it (maybe when we have kids I can make it cuter). I almost titled it with our wedding song, but “The Way You Look Tonight” doesn’t really work as a blog title. I actually really love the song “You Make Feel So Young.” (and I love Elf.) Yes, Sean and I are very young so you probably think it’s immature for me to say he makes me feel young, but listen to the rest of the song. It’s a classic. Classic oldies always have reminded me of Sean. I saw this picture on facebook the other day and found it completely hilarious. It also made me proud to call "The Way You Look Tonight" our wedding song.

Day 3: Your first love.

Truthfully… Sean. Don’t believe me? You don’t have to. He is.

Day 4: Picture of your family

Day 5: What song inspires you.

Hmm... It's not inspiring, more cheesy, but I love this song (stupid music video, sorry). Maybe I love it so much because Sean calls me Honeybee. (Melissa means "honeybee" in Greek)

Day 6: Pet peeves.

Mine: Stupid parents

Sean's: Bad drivers

Day 7: Picture of something that makes you happy.
These pictures make me incredibly happy. I can't wait to have little boys who look just like this.

Well, 7 days is enough for today. I'm out.

Six Months & Love Day

About two weeks ago Sean and I had our six month anniversary. I think this has been the easiest six months of my life. This may sound like a contradiction... I definitely wouldn't say that marriage is easy-breezy, but at the same time it has been so natural for us. We've had to adjust and compromise for each other, but we both feel like marriage (when done correctly) is simple. We fit perfectly together. I'm so glad I married the right man. We decided we wouldn't celebrate every month anniversary, that would be crazy, so for our six month anniversary we did what we do best. Ate a yummy dinner and relaxed on the couch to fun movies and TV shows. That is my kind of anniversary.

Valentines Day (Love Day) is my favorite holiday. Why does everyone hate it so much? I'm constantly hearing so much negative about Valentine's Day and it makes me really sad. I know what your thinking, "Of course she loves it, she's a newlywed." Well, I have loved this holiday my entire life. If you would have asked me years ago what my favorite holiday was, I'd say Valentine's Day. Even when I was little, I loved this day. Growing up, it was quite a holiday in my household. My parents made it a second Christmas (ok... maybe not that big, but to us kids we always felt like it was). My mom had an annual tradition to put on a big treasure hunt all over our house, and at the end we'd each have a pile of candy, toys, and stuffed animals. It always was a such fun day. My family sees it as a celebration of not just romantic love, but of love in general. Who doesn't like to celebrate love? I just don't understand people that hate Valentine's Day. Why not make it a happy day and celebrate those in your life that you love?
This is also a really special time of year for me because about one year ago is when I knew I was going to marry Sean. I had been praying for months to know if he was the man I should marry. It was the Friday before Valentine's Day 2011 and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was alone in my car driving home from being with him, and it just smacked me in the face. Sean made me happier than anyone or anything ever had in my entire life. It's simple, but if you've ever truly felt that way, it's huge. Other guys made me happy, but not the way he did. He showed me true happiness, and since that day, I haven't had a single doubt in my mind that he is the man for me. (I think it's important to say that this isn't the only reason I knew Sean was right for me. Everything was right. Literally, everything. But, realizing he made me happier than I have ever been was just the biggest reason I knew I could marry him. It was the turning point. Make sense?)
This Valentine's Day was wonderful. I got to spend it with the man who will be my Valentine forever. He took me to dinner and a movie. While everyone went and saw the Vow (typical) we went and saw This Means War. I really enjoyed it. It was less chick flick-y than I thought it would be-we were laughing through the entire thing. It was a perfect Valentine's Day!

Superman

Yesterday wasn't my best day, and it was Sean's day off. I came home feeling pretty low, and I walked in the door to my husband aka: Superman and a spotless apartment. (Batman is by far the best Superhero, but that's not what I'm getting at, he really is a Super Man). He cleaned everything, organized places I've been meaning to organize for weeks, vacuumed, did the dishes, got groceries, and made each of us healthy lunches for the next week. Not to mention he went to the gym for a couple hours. That night he took me to dinner and a movie. Wow. I sure can't do that all in one day. So how did he? Well... He's Superman.

Birthday Boy

We have had a lot going on this past week. Yesterday was Sean's birthday, so we have been doing a lot of fun things to celebrate. It started with Sean calling me up randomly on his day off saying "What if I bought an iPhone?" We talked about it a little and decided it would probably be okay, and could be a birthday present. Next thing I know, he's calling me from his new iPhone. He got the 4s, which means he has Siri. We like to call Siri his 2nd wife, haha. He sure loves her. Sean will tease me that I can't set appointments for him, or alarms, or give him directions, or do math problems as quickly as she can. But she can't cook or clean for him like I do, so we agree I'm a better wife. Last Wednesday, my dad took my family out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse for my sister and Sean's birthday (their birthday's are a few days apart). Jen lucked out, Sean was forced to ride the saddle this time.

Last Friday, Sean's awesome brother in law, Karl, and I planned a little surprise birthday party for him at Boondocks. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures but we had a good time. The next day, we woke up early and drove to San Diego! Such a long drive...

I love palm trees.

When we got to California, we walked along the beach for a mile and a half to eat at a fancy restaurant called The Green Flash. On the walk there, we kept smelling marijuana, haha, and we couldn't figure out how no matter how far we walked, we kept smelling it. After about a mile, we realized it was the guys walking right in front of us. Oh boy. Sean and I joked that we could have gotten a contact high, but we both got real hungry... maybe we did. Just kidding, we probably didn't. 

Eating dinner on the beach!

The next morning we went to Sea World. My favorite place in the world! I was so excited to go with Sean. They had a deal that day, where season passes cost the same as a day pass, so we got season passes to Sea World! I was so excited.

We went to the awesome dolphin show. Sean was already tired of pictures.

I wanted to be him. Growing up, being a dolphin trainer was my dream job.

We both agreed that the dolphin show was the best one.

Then we went to the sea lion and sea otter show. Pretty cute.

Next, we went and saw Shamu. 

Then, of course, Sean made me go through the shark encounter. If you know me at all, you know I have a phobia of sharks. Not a fear. Phobia.

You may not be able to see my mouth, but you can see the fear in my eyes.

Inside the shark encounter, forcing a smile.

My baby loves sharks. What a pair we are.

Looking at penguins. They were cute, I wanted one.

Polar Bears

Sean liked the big ugly fish.

The Bayside Skyride. Poor kid was so done with pictures. I'm not even posting half the ones I took.

After Sea World, we went to La Jolla cove, one of Sean's favorite places to go while he lived here. I had never been. It was beautiful!

Sea Lions sunbathing.

The guy we asked to take our picture was hilarious.

The next day we went to Old Town. It's a super cool place with tons of stuff to see (still tired of pictures).

Signs like these are just begging for people like Sean to touch.

We headed to Mission Beach afterwards. It was overcast and windy but it was still beautiful.

At this point, he wouldn't smile for the camera, so I managed to get a picture like this out of him. Ugly pictures are more fun anyways.

We drove to downtown San Diego to look around. We saw some really cool ships. 

It was pretty windy. 

Dinner at an incredible Mexican food restaurant.

The next morning was the big drive home. I woke up feeling extremely sick, so the 11 hour drive was miserable. In Vegas we stopped by the Pawn Stars pawn shop (one of our favorite TV shows). It was pretty awesome. I'm retarded, I can't figure out how to rotate this picture. Sorry.

The next day was Seani's birthday! The poor birthday boy's wife was sick, so I couldn't spoil him as much as I wanted to. I managed to make him breakfast and give him his presents. He went to the gym, because nothing makes him happier than spending a couple hours at the gym (he also got to try out his new fat gripz I bought him) and in my sick, drugged state, I lamely attempted to decorate our apartment with birthday decorations. When he got home from the gym, we went with his sister Ashley, brother in law Karl, nephew Trey, and best friend Zach to do indoor surfing. 

Isn't he sooo good?

Lunch at Happy Sumo

That night Ashley and Karl had a fun group over for a little dinner party for Sean. We played games and had yummy chili. I'm so grateful to them for making Sean's birthday special. I was so sick I felt like I couldn't do anything special for him.

This past week has been quite a party. And this Sunday his mom is having us over for another birthday dinner.  Sean and I are so blessed with wonderful friends and family who made his day so special.

Surprises

Growing up, I promised myself I would never marry a man I didn't know through and through. I'd heard horror story after horror story. I didn't want my marriage to be one of those stories and have surprises pop up after the honeymoon. This is why Sean and I dated for over a year before we married, and we knew each other a lot longer than that (Can you believe I met him when I was 18?). I can honestly say with him, there are surprises. But as for any bad surprises, there are none. None. I am so lucky to have a man who treats me perfectly. But I have to say, he does have little things that definitely surprised me, and most of them are so funny I have to write them down so I will never forget the adjustments we have had to make. For one, he's a hoarder. Too harsh of a word? Maybe. He's nothing like those sick people on the TV show Hoarders, but he won't throw anything away. I was going through our closet, trying to organize and get rid of old junk. I didn't throw any of Sean's stuff away, but I made a pile of things for him to go through that I figured he'd probably want to get rid of. He came home and we kept 99% of that pile. Everything had a memory associated with it. I guess it's his own way of keeping a journal? I think that is so cute of him. Other things, he wouldn't throw away because let's face it, he's just plain weird (I love him and his weirdness). He wouldn't throw away arcade tickets from before his mission because "you never know when you might need them".

Another surprise, (I don't know how I missed this while we were dating) he has bat hearing. And I'm quite the opposite. I blast our TV all the time, I think I may have some hearing loss (I blame my brother who, growing up, would blast our surround sound whenever we'd watch a movie; guaranteed our neighbors down the street could hear every movie we watched). Sean, on the other hand, hears the tiniest thing, so when he has the TV remote, I'm always asking "What did she say?" or "Did they say 'this' or 'this'." Then Sean will tease me by putting on the captions like I'm an old, deaf person. Get this: his hearing actually improves while he's asleep. In the middle of the night if I need to get up for something, I hold my breath and tip-toe around, but without fail, every time: "I'm trying to sleep, quit being so loud!" Yeah, this is a dumb one, but it's taken a lot of adjusting for the both of us.

Another big surprise, he can't EVER be late. Whenever we go to any family/friend gathering we are always the first ones there. I used to be the kind of person who was "fashionably late" but that changed when I married Sean. He won't commit to a lot of events because he doesn't like to over schedule himself (even with is own wife. I'll ask him if he wants to go to a movie Tuesday, he always answers 'maybe' because he doesn't like to commit to something then have to break that commitment later if something else comes up). I'm the kind of person who just says yes to everything and finds herself stressed out trying to make it to every event. Sean has changed that about me. He's very organized with his time, and like I said, is never late. He'll tell me what time we're leaving (which is at least half an hour before I would have left if I were going alone) and if I'm not ready at that time, he's forcing me out the door. I gotta say, now that I'm used to it I really like it about him. He thinks it's rude and puts everyone out if someone shows up late. He's such a courteous person and I really love that about him.

Another surprise--he sleep talks. This is my favorite one. It is probably the most hilarious thing in the world. I can have conversations with him in his sleep. One time, I woke up to him saying, “It’s nothing to die for, but its nice to have something to die for.” Another time, he was asleep and I was doing homework. I leaned over him to grab something off his night stand, and my chest slightly rubbed his face and he said, “Mmmm boobies. Big, big-ity boobies.” He'll kill me for posting that, but it's just too funny to not write down. Another night, I woke up to him saying, “It’s like a stroller, just put 'em up there and tie the strings together.” I think he was talking about our nieces and nephew. It's really fun to have conversations with him, because he responds to every question I ask. I can't get too far into a conversation because I always end up laughing so hard, he wakes up while he's talking and becomes confused and delirious. Then he'll say "Don't laugh at me!" and roll over. It's the funniest thing in the world.
This feels like a very unfair post. I know Sean has had to adjust to a whole lot of things I do that are much worse (like the way I get midnight hunger and rummage through the fridge at 3 am making him think someone's in our apartment, or my long showers that steal all the hot water, or my obsession with organization and cleanliness that forces him to put certain things in certain places or his wife will lose it-I blame my job as a secretary, I wasn't like that before). I'd say I'm super blessed to have a man that is exactly how he was while we dated. No surprises (except the good ones).