A good cook

I must preface this by saying that Bexar is awesome. A year ago, she sent me the recipe for the best stir fry EVER. I make it all the time now. But tonight I was especially proud of myself because I made it into a wrap! I put chicken, lettuce, and chow mein noodles on a tortilla and drizzled the stir fry sauce on top (made of soy sauce, peanut butter, and honey). It was delicious. I am slowly getting better!

Vote on my future!

I have been at BYU for two and a half short years now. I am going to graduate in August or December (August if we can find cheap health insurance, otherwise I need to stay in school for another semester to keep milking the cheap insurance). I am at the point where people ask me what I want to do with Spanish. And my answer is this: I have no idea. And they usually respond with "Well, you could teach Spanish." And I say, "Thanks, that's really original." (Sorry, but going through 2 years of being supervised and critiqued on my teaching skills is the last thing I want to do. I have real issues with being supervised.) So, I am letting everyone suggest things that I can do once I graduate. If it's not a real job, (i.e. volunteer work, or something I do at home to make myself feel productive) that is perfectly acceptable. Please, give me a future. Or at least something to tell people so they stop asking.

Ghetto booty

Everyone knows that Ashley loves to remind me that I have a "ghetto booty." But apparently, she forgot over Christmas and sent me some tiny jeans. The only problem is that I LOVE the jeans. They were not something I was about to take back/exchange. So, for a few days I tried sucking in and pretending I didn't have a butt to get them on. It worked, but after walking around in them for a few hours, my legs started hurting because they pinched the nerves in my hips. Then Brandon came up with a great solution-- he unstitched the button (which was off to the side like on most trouser jeans) and put it back on in the middle, giving me an extra inch. Now my zipper won't close all the way, but I have enough room to squeeze in my "ghetto booty." I just wear long shirts so I don't flash people. It works so well. Thanks, Brandon and Ashley.

Good news!

Valentine's day is on a Saturday this year, meaning Brandon and I actually get to celebrate it on Valentine's day. I'm so excited, I even made my blog festive. Yaaaaaay!

Things my teachers said that made me like them

My spanish teacher:
"Nothing I teach is offensive to normal people. Unfortunately, this is BYU, and we don't have normal people."
"I don't believe in censoring, so if there are any crazy nut-jobs in here who are going to get offended and complain about what I have them read, they should leave now."
"If you come across a four-letter word when reading, just move on. It's probably nothing you won't hear me say in class."
My religion teacher:
"Theologians are a bunch of religious prostitutes."
"I'm an equal-opportunity offender."
"Does BYU still have it written in their handbook that women must wear bras?"
"I speak fluent Catholic."

Picutres

I really wanted to post pictures from Mexico on my blog. Brandon and I got some good ones. However, our computer is really slow. So everyone will have to wait until I go back to school and use the computers there.

Bargain shoppers

Since we had some Christmas money, Brandon and I decided to splurge today. We spent a whole $100. We went to Lowes, Target, and DI and got:
2 huge picture frames (one is 2'x4')
a golf bag
4 pillows for the couches
new sweat pants for Brandon (thank goodness)
WARM gloves for me
a coat rack
superglue (to fix one of the frames)

I think we got a pretty good deal.

Then he gave to his siblings...

Lots of things. Brandon's sister wanted him to paint her snowboard for Christmas, so we spent the morning doing that. He actually got the design from our bedspread and made it very purple.

On the first day of Christmas, my Brandon gave to me

Snow boots that are warm for my feet. I got the black ones. He said he didn't want to carry them all the way to Mexico so that I could open them on Christmas. And it was snowing like crazy this morning.

Another reason I love Brandon

We were watching a home improvement show on Saturday (I think those shows are pretty cool) and Brandon already knew how to do everything they did on the show. He even made fun of them for using fancy tools for easy work. Wow, I am going to have a cool house when I grow up.

There goes my incentive

It is no longer beneficial for me to work a closing shift at work. The Cougareat changed their policies and employees are no longer allowed to take home leftover food after closing. This officially sucks.

pictures from Thanksgiving

Opening presents-- Brandon tried on the hat his mom made for him, but she realized it made him look like a girl.

Mia had fun decorating the little castle I made for her.

And here is the house Brandon and I made.

Hauling in the enormous Christmas tree--that thing barely fit on the Suburban.

And here I wanted to show Mom how my would-be wedding dress turned out.

6 whole months

I had a startling realization while I was at church today: Brandon and I have been married for 6 months. Then I realized that this time had gone by so fast that soon I would be graduating, having kids, getting old, and wishing I was once again a newlywed. So now I am going to list all the reasons I am glad to be married to Brandon.
- He lets me take naps whenever I want to.
- He doesn't make me make dinner every night, he loves to help me.
- He doesn't care that I'm not a very good cook.
- He cuddles with me every morning when he wakes up.
- He makes me take calcium pills every day because he doesn't want me to break myself when I'm old.
- He takes me on dates.
- He gets me to tell him what's bothering me when I'm grumpy.
- He doesn't care that I have a useless major.
- He encourages me and tells me that I can finish things, even if it takes me a long time. Like the 10-mile hike that took me all day-- he was so proud of me just for making it to the top.
- He is good at everything that I'm not.
- He is thrifty to a degree that I never thought possible.
- He helps me through my frequent attacks of self-doubt.
- He loves me even when I'm weird.

Things I learned in Idaho (in no particular order)

1. Brandon is exactly like the rest of his family--none of Brandon's family can make decisions. It's starting to worry me, because eventually someone will have to wear the pants in this relationship, and neither of us want to.
2. One of my pet peeves is being woken up in the morning. I haven't realized this because I have gotten up on my own since I was about 10 years old and I know exactly how long it takes me to get ready. Somehow, even though I'm 20 and married now, Brandon's siblings still think they need to be my personal alarm clock.
3. Brandon and I make awesome graham cracker houses.
4. Brandon was Elvis in his 6th grade school play. He sang and danced and combed his hair for all the world to see.
5. Nature is not very good at growing Christmas trees. I never knew how hard it was to find a full, teardrop shaped pine tree in the wild. It takes hours.
6. No one should ever eat anything that Brandon's dad and brother cook. They made jalapeno poppers for me and gave one to me last night. However, they hadn't taken the seeds out, they made it with an extra-hot red one, and I'm convinced they dipped it in hydrochloric acid. I took one bite and had to drink about a gallon of water and run to the bathroom because I thought I was going to throw up. It was by far the hottest thing I had ever tasted. Bryce and McKay thought it was really funny.

More like Bethy, less like a wimp

Today before work I was heading to the dressing room to change into my work clothes. When I got there, I noticed that it had been closed off and there were three maintenance workers standing around. I stopped and read the sign posted on the door which said "Closed for repairs" and walked away a little irritated.
When I got to my locker, I heard one of the workers say, "Did you see her just standing there staring at the sign? How long does it take to figure out it's closed?"
So, I stood up and said, "I can hear you. You know, if you're going to say things about people behind their back, you should at least wait until they're out of earshot, otherwise people might think you're a big jerk."

The only problem with this story is that it is a lie. Yes, the maintenance guy was a jerk and yes, I heard him, but I didn't say anything. I just walked to another bathroom to change. Then I thought about the time when we were in the Newark airport and the flight attendant was yelling at everyone, so Bethany told her that she didn't have to be so rude. And I decided that I need to be more like Bethany and less like a wimp.

Back

Brandon and I had a delightful time in Midway this weekend. We got in on Friday and went out to a Mexican restaurant that served at least 12 different types of salsa. Sadly, every one we tried was completely flavorless. Of course, there are only 2 restaurants in Midway, so it was either that or some expensive-looking one.The next morning we went on a drive and I found this little stream that I fell in love with. Something about green moss and yellow grass is really exciting for me. So here's a picture for those who haven't seen me in awhile and another of just the stream.

We tried driving the alpine loop but it was closed for the winter. Instead, we walked around the back of Timpanogos for about 5 minutes until I got too cold. Anyways, here is little Brandon.

After that we had a picnic. We made sandwiches and I was excited to have spicy brown mustard on mine. Anyone who knows how much I love mustard will understand. I have to thank Bexar for force-feeding me mustard when I was little-- it has grown into quite a love affair.

For the rest of the day, we watched movies in the condo. Even though we didn't do much it was way better than being stuck in our little apartment. I had tons of fun with Brandon.

Question...

Who wants to see Brandon in a skirt? If you said yes, go here.

Exercise

Lately Brandon has been encouraging me to exercise. No, he doesn't think I'm fat, he just knows that I feel much better about myself when I do, and he is all about self-esteem. Last night he was coming up with suggestions of things I could do (he even offered to work out with me), but nothing seemed to work. It gets dark at no later than 5:00 this time of year and rains all the time, so that eliminates anything outdoors. And our apartment is too small for just about anything-- I was going to have him teach me ju jitsu (he took a class last semester) but we don't have any open floor space. In fact, we hardly have enough space for me to lie down to do crunches. And anything involving running or jumping would make our neighbors downstairs really hate us. I told Brandon that if he got me a dog, I would happily take it on walks for hours a day, rain or shine. But that's out of the question, too. So I'm going to ask Bexar, since she seems to be the queen of working out, how do you do it? Because I can't seem to do anything.

Thanks, mommy, I fixed my spelling errors.

Okay...

Can you see it now?

Halloween, and the previous weekend

Here is a picture of little Brandon working hard on our false wall. It was supposed to be gold but turned out to be about the color of the couch. Bummer. We can at least re-paint it.

I decided that I couldn't go the entire day without wearing a costume, so I dressed up as a "shady lady" before going to a friend's house for soup.

Last week I got to stay in Salt Lake while Brandon took his FE test. Since it started at 7:45 AM and I had nowhere to go, I went and took pictures of the temple because it's generally pretty in the fall. Can anyone spot the big dipper in the vertical picture of the temple? The people who built the Salt Lake temple actually put the big dipper on the west side and the stars align and point directly to the north star. It's very faint, but it's there, in the blank space on the center pillar.

And here it is with the pretty fall colors. I actually wan't too bored in Salt Lake- I went to the gateway and got a skirt for $2, visited a friend, and visited grandma and grandpa. After the test Brandon and I went out to Cheesecake factory to celebrate. Brandon got the crunchy cashew chicken and it turned out being one of the best things I've had there. Yum.