Thankful

I can't let Thanksgiving pass without doing a cheesey thankful post.
I'm thankful for:

The wonderful marriage of peanut butter and chocolate. Best invention ever.

The opportunity I have to get an education. I love BYU and I'm so sad to be leaving. (But a little more excited than sad)

My perfect kitten. I cannot express in words the happiness my little guy brings me. Most people think I'm a crazy animal lady (and I am), but I really don't care. He's my little baby.

 

The Gospel, and the knowledge that I have that families are forever. Pretty sure I'd be a little different today without that. I love knowing that Sean and I will never be apart.

My wonderful families. The family I grew up with, the family my dad married into, and the family who welcomed me as one of their own when I married Sean. They all make me feel so loved.

My husband who quite honestly is my reason for living. I didn't know real happiness before him. Yeah, that's a little dramatic (ok, really dramatic), but it's true. He is not only my husband, but my best friend. He is the goofiest person I know, always making me laugh even when it seems impossible. Being married to him is just plain fun.

I'm one blessed girl.

Calculus

Calculus. A swear word in my vocabulary. 

I am on track to graduate on December 14. All I have to do is pass my last two on campus classes before that lovely date. Easy as pie. Oh, and I also have to complete my calculus independent study course by November 5th. Why did I take calculus through independent study? And why did I sign up for it only 8 weeks ago? Because I'm a cocky little girl who thinks calculus will come as easily to her as other math subjects. I've been pretty good at math my whole life. Except calculus isn't math. It's a jumbled mess someone invented to torture students who are trying so desperately to graduate.

Here I am: 10 weeks to complete a calculus course of 40 assignments and 5 exams at my own pace without a professor. I really can be a little dumb... Why didn't I just sign up for the class on campus?

Each day, I find my panic attacks becoming stronger and stronger. Poor Sean has to hear me cry about how calculus is going to ruin my life. Each day, I count down the days until I have to be finished. There isn't enough time to do it all and keep myself sane.

Today, I thought to myself, "What if I slowed down a bit, and finished by the end of December? I 'technically' wouldn't graduate until April 2013, but it wouldn't cost anymore tuition, and I wouldn't have to do anything after December. I'd be done with school, it just wouldn't process through BYU as me graduating until next April. I'd get my diploma a few months later than planned. Big deal." I felt the biggest sense of relief I've experienced in a while.

I feel the ulcers in my stomach going away, and my head suddenly doesn't feel what I call a "calculus headache". 

The only problem: instead of being done with that terrible class on November 5th, I'm going to have it in my life for 2 extra months....

I don't know what's worse. 2 more weeks of calculus taking over my life (6 hours a day-including weekends), or 2 more months of not so intense calculus. What would you choose?

On the upside, I found this quote on another fellow blogger's blog. It gave me a little slap in the face and made me feel grateful for my life. I should be happy that I have an opportunity to learn calculus. I should be grateful that when I feel things starting to fall apart, I have a husband who makes me laugh and reminds me how incredibly wonderful my life is.

Summer

I can't believe summer is over. This may have been the best (and busiest) summer of my life. Here's a little of what we've been up to.

We bought tennis rackets and played lots and lots of tennis.

I went to the Melting Pot for the first time. Girls night for Chloe's birthday.

We went to Color Me Mine with Bryndee and Kyle.
Sean and I made a vase and painted ourselves on it.

I had lunch with my sister and niece at Zupa's a lot. Leila loves chocolate dipped strawberries so much, Jen and I have to hide ours if we want any hope of eating it.

My best friend, Bryn, got married! Sean and I were able to attend her sealing in the Salt Lake Temple.

My sister was her photographer, and she did an amazing job.

The next day Sean's step sister got married. We went to her sealing in the Bountiful Temple. It was a weekend full of weddings. We had a lot of fun, and we were exhausted by the end.

We went to the driving range.

We planted our vegetable garden (my awesome birthday present). Sean planted his super plant (the yellow cup). He put every type of seed we bought and planted them together as one. Then he put a scoop of his protein on top. He called it his Super Plant. Turns out, it wasn't too "super", it made our entire porch smell horrible and attracted flies. We finally had to get rid of Sean's little experiment before we could see what happened.

Our little garden struggled (as you can see), but currently we have jalapeno and tomato plants that should be blooming any day now!

We played lacrosse a few times at the park next to our apartment.

 We babysat our perfect niece (more like those two played with their iPad's, while I entertained myself)

Sean, Bryn and I went to the Logan Temple for Sean's step-sister's endowment session.

We spent a few Sunday afternoons at Sundance.

We went to a comedy show by Tim Hawkins with my family.

I got a new job! For the past few months I've been interning at Early Head Start in Murray. A position opened for the Health Services Specialist and they hired me! It has been an incredible opportunity. It's only part time (but I can probably work full time when I graduate). For now I'm still working at my old job at BYU too.

We used our pass of all passes and went to 7 Peaks a few times.

We went back to "our bridge" several times where we had our first kiss and got engaged. It's really pretty there, we like walking around Rock Canyon to watch the sunset.

I read a lot. I'm one of those dorks who spends her lunch break at the library. These books were some of the better ones that I read this summer.

We ate the yummiest snow cones in the world. Hawaiian flavors with ice cream and heavy cream all over it.

We went to my family condo in Bear Lake and rode jet skis.

Some of our good friends got married! Sean and Kyle were each others very first mission companions in the MTC. Sean was a groomsmen and he looked pretty spiffy in his suit.

In August, we moved a few blocks away to a duplex apartment. Two weeks after moving in, we received a phone call from our landlord saying we have to move. The duplex we moved into was zoned improperly according to Provo city laws. They had an exception for a few years, but that exception was up, so we got a notice saying we had to be gone within 30 days. We were lucky enough to find an incredible townhouse in American Fork that we actually like more than the first place. We are finally all moved in, unpacked and organized. We're determined we won't be moving for at least 2 years. It's been quite a fiasco, but in the end it brought us closer together and will give us a great story to look back on and laugh about. 
Sean and Titan tuckered out from two moves in one month.

We celebrated our one year anniversary! It was a perfect day. We ate dinner at our favorite restaurant, La Jolla Groves and went to a movie. That weekend, we took a trip to California to celebrate. 
We drove through the night, and our first stop was Newport Beach.

Dinner at Fire and Ice (coolest restaurant ever)

Sea World

After we took this picture, Sean goes "That penguin got fresh with me!"

In the shark tunnel, I kept my eyes open this time.

We're too cheap to buy these pictures, so we take pictures of the picture.

Dave and Busters

Everyone says the first year of marriage is the hardest. I sure hope that's true, because then the rest of our life will be a breeze. 

The highlight of our summer was when we adopted a perfect little Russian Blue kitten. His name is Titan, and he's 3 months old.