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).

He Never Loses

Last night, Sean and I were bored out of our minds, my books and his iPad games weren't entertaining us as well as we'd hoped, so we pulled out our electronic Monopoly game (the cool one with credit cards-not paper money) and played a loooong game of Monopoly. I think it lasted 4 hours. Ever since I met Sean, he's bragged about how he never loses a game of Monopoly. We've played 3 times together with friends and he really doesn't lose. Last night, I was determined to beat him just so he'd stop bragging. Well, guess what... He won. Again. I have to say I put up a good fight and kept the game going a really long time, but he really never loses at Monopoly, I'll just accept that fact. He has some secret strategy, I cannot figure out. Or maybe he's just lucky...

Done!

I have just finished my last final! It was all essays, none of that easy multiple choice/true false stuff. Did I mention I'm fairly confident I got 100% on it? Yeah. Awesome. Now, what to do with all my free time? Reading reading reading! I'm looking forward to Matched by Ally Condie, The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, and for the 4th time, Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, my all time favorite book that I never get sick of and am anxiously awaiting the movie in March (my sister and I are proudly going to the midnight showing, maybe we'll be one of those geeky people that dress up... okay just kidding). If you haven't read it, do. It's incredible. I commonly hear it being compared to Twilight, and I must say frankly, that is currently my biggest pet peeve. People don't know what they are talking about. Twilight doesn't hold a candle to these books. And if the movie turns into another teenage-girl-craze of "Team Gale" and "Team Peeta" I just might die. Nothing would bother me more...

I may or may not have this trailer memorized. So excited.

Anyways, back to my topic... school. I just finished finals and I am taking a step back to realize that I am unbelievably excited that I will be graduating in a year! December of 2012, a semester earlier than I am scheduled to graduate. Woo! It's going to be one heck of a busy year, but I have the best major ever: Public Health-Epidemiology. Why do you ask? Because it is fascinating-classes are never boring, applicable to not just my future career but my life- signs of diseases & other health related problems... seriously I could list the things it teaches me all day. It's teaching me how to keep Sean & my future kids healthy, and nothing is more important to me than a healthy husband & kids. It also challenges me intellectually, my classes are hard! Lots and lots of statistics/math, memorization, getting down to the nitty gritty details of each type of cancer, etc. In spite of this, it's do-able. Definitely not even close to the hardest major at BYU, but I still feel like I'm being challenged. Another reason my major rocks, there is an extremely high demand for epidemiologists and it's only going to get higher, it hopefully won't be too hard finding a job! Now, I am considering getting a masters in epidemiology. There are a lot of pro's and con's, but it's definitely a possibility. I never thought I'd want to do more school, but it's coming to the time when a Bachelor's degree isn't worth what it used to be. Do I want to delay having kids? I've wanted a baby since we got married (actually, let's face it, I've been baby hungry since high school). But Sean & I agreed to wait 3-5 years. (I say 3, Sean says 5. It will probably be 3, haha). I have time to get a Master Degree. But (this is terrible to say) is it a waste of time and tuition money if I won't be the money maker of the family? No education is a waste of time, but I need to be practical here. Thoughts?

Random side note: I'm doing the 12 Days of Christmas for Sean. I started last night, and I am sooo excited for the next 11 days! Probably more excited than him... I've been doing a lot of creative thinking and I have found 12 extremely cute ideas for each 12 days. Maybe I will post about it when it's over.

Well, enough of my ramblings about school, Hunger Games, and Christmas. I'm off to enjoy my break and start my first book!

Kristy

Exactly four years ago, my best friend of 5 years passed away from a sledding accident. Technically, she passed away early in the morning on December 2, but the accident happened today, and to me, Kristy died today. I lost her today. I don't really care to talk about her death, but I would like to share a few memories I have from the time I knew her because she is so special and I know that through her example she can make an impact on your life and inspire you, even if you never knew her. I want to celebrate her life by sharing a few memories.

• I'll never forget the day we met. First day of Junior High, gym class. In the locker room, all the girls were too scared and embarrassed to shower, but Kristy and I stripped down to our underwear and ran around the showers like crazy people.
• She loved to dance more than anything in the world. Whether it was a school dance or a stake dance, she attended every single one and danced her heart out. 
• She had these jeans with a couple holes in the bum area, but she wouldn't stop wearing them because they were her favorite jeans and she always said they made her butt look cute. So she'd just wear cute underwear and hope no one would notice.
• Our birthday's are one week apart, so we'd always celebrate together. One year we went to the Taylor Swift concert with a few other friends.

• Whenever she got a fortune cookie, she'd put the fortune in the back of her phone by the battery. She believed it would come true if she put it there.
• She wore flip flops year round, even in the snow.
• She had the best taste in music, and she loved singing it as loudly as possible. 
• She always put family first. One time, her mom took us and other friends to the Festival of Trees. We got a little rambunctious, and Kristy's mom told us we needed to calm down. Instead of admitting that we were wrong, we got defensive and left (we were stupid teenagers). But Kristy stayed with her mom. She always put family above friends. Some weekends, I'd call her and want to hang out, but she'd say she wanted to stay home to watch chick flicks and make treats with her mom. She's such an example of priorities.
• She was the epitome of a true friend. On the one year anniversary of my mother's death, I went to school and none of my friends remembered, how could I expect them to? I went through my day, but I didn't tell anyone. I came home from school and found a letter on my porch. It was from Kristy. She remembered. It was the sweetest note. I still don't know how she remembered that day, but she did and it meant the entire world to me. I'll never throw that note away.
• Another time, we went with a few other girls to the mall. We went into a prom dress/wedding dress store and all the girls tried on these gorgeous, fancy dresses. Kristy was definitely one who liked to have fun more than she liked to be serious and get all pretty. She found these matching ugly, fluffy dresses and we tried them on together. They made us laugh so hard.

•  Her favorite movie was Sleepless in Seattle. Her favorite color was purple.
• In 8th grade, we had to do a science project. After spending hours on the project, we got distracted, and took "Charlie's Angels pictures".

• She had a lot of school spirit (even though we were just in high school). She was on Viewmont's swimming team and kicked butt at the 500 meter race. I also have so many memories with her at football games. I'm pretty sure she attended every single football game, even the Junior Varsity ones. (I think she may have just liked the football players, haha.)
• Her favorite food was fruit, mainly watermelon.
• She had a run down old car she named Eddie. We had a weird, close bond with that car. I have countless memories riding around Centerville with the windows rolled down, blasting music, singing at the top of our lungs.

 

• Her favorite song was "Here (in your arms)" by Hellogoodbye, probably because it is a great dancing song. Our song was "Toxic" by Brittney Spears because we found out we were the only two losers left in the world who liked it. 
• She was a camera-obsessed kind of person. She cherished every memory by constantly taking pictures.
• She wore her pearl earrings all the time.
• When we were 15, she made me and a few other friends go trick or treating with her, because she believed you are never too old to trick or treat.
• She was never anyone but herself; no matter who was around. And she was extremely honest and blunt. If she thought you did something stupid, she'd straight up tell you. I loved having a friend like that, it's so refreshing.
• Of all the people I know, she is probably the most spontaneous person I've ever met. If you've ever seen the old TV show "I Love Lucy", she reminds me of Lucy because of her crazy, spontaneous ideas.

Kristy is the kind of person who is impossible to forget. She lived her life to the fullest. In her short, 16 years of life, she experienced more than most people do in an entire lifetime. She held strong to her beliefs, and never let a day go by without doing something unforgettable. There is so much more I could say about her, but this quote from her tells you exactly who she is.

"here's the thing about my high school: you're cool if you sing & are in the musical. I'm neither of those. I can't sing, I can't dance, I have no hand-eye coordination, I just swim. and I don't die my hair, fake bake, rat my hair, wear 10 lbs of make up, obsess over country, or like fry sauce. it just isn't my thing."-Kristy Lee Findley

I love you Kris.